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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/31728-8.txt b/31728-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aef3506 --- /dev/null +++ b/31728-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10614 @@ +Project Gutenberg's My Brave and Gallant Gentleman, by Robert Watson + +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: My Brave and Gallant Gentleman + A Romance of British Columbia + +Author: Robert Watson + +Release Date: March 21, 2010 [EBook #31728] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY BRAVE AND GALLANT GENTLEMAN *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Cover art] + + + + +MY BRAVE and GALLANT GENTLEMAN + + +A Romance of British Columbia + + +BY + +ROBERT WATSON + + + + +McCLELLAND, GOODCHILD & STEWART + +PUBLISHERS :: :: :: :: TORONTO + + + + +_Copyright, 1918,_ + +_By George H. Doran Company_ + + +_Printed in the United States of America_ + + + + +TO A LADY CALLED NAN + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I THE SECOND SON + II ANOTHER SECOND SON + III JIM THE BLACKSMITH + IV VISCOUNT HARRY, CAPTAIN OF THE GUARDS + V TOMMY FLYNN, THE HARLFORD BRUISER + VI ABOARD THE COASTER + VII K. B. HORSFAL, MILLIONAIRE + VIII GOLDEN CRESCENT + IX THE BOOZE ARTIST + X RITA OF THE SPANISH SONG + XI AN INFORMATIVE VISITOR + XII JOE CLARK, BULLY + XIII A VISIT, A DISCOVERY AND A KISS + XIV THE COMING OF MARY GRANT + XV "MUSIC HATH CHARMS--" + XVI THE DEVIL OF THE SEA + XVII GOOD MEDICINE + XVIII A MAID, A MOOD AND A SONG + XIX THE "GREEN-EYED MONSTER" AWAKES + XX FISHING! + XXI THE BEACHCOMBERS + XXII JAKE STOPS THE DRINK FOR GOOD + XXIII THE FIGHT IN THE WOODS + XXIV TWO MAIDS AND A MAN + XXV THE GHOUL + XXVI "HER KNIGHT PROVED TRUE" + + + + +MY BRAVE AND GALLANT GENTLEMAN + + +CHAPTER I + +The Second Son + +Lady Rosemary Granton! Strange how pleasant memories arise, how +disagreeable nightmares loom up before the mental vision at the sound +of a name! + +Lady Rosemary Granton! As far back as I could remember, that name had +sounded familiar in my ears. As I grew from babyhood to boyhood, from +boyhood to youth, it was drummed into me by my father that Lady +Rosemary Granton, some day, would wed the future Earl of Brammerton and +Hazelmere. This apparently awful calamity did not cause me any mental +agony or loss of sleep, for the reason that I was merely The Honourable +George, second son of my noble parent. + +I was rather happy that morning, as I sat in an easy chair by the +library window, perusing a work by my favourite author,--after a +glorious twenty-mile gallop along the hedgerows and across country. I +was rather happy, I say, as I pondered over the thought that something +in the way of a just retribution was at last about to be meted out to +my elder, haughty, arrogant and extremely aristocratic rake of a +brother, Harry. + +My mind flashed back again to the source of my vagrant thoughts. Lady +Rosemary Granton! To lose the guiding hand of her mother in her +infancy; to spend her childhood in the luxurious lap of New York's +pampered three hundred; to live six years more among the ranchers, the +cowboys and, no doubt, the cattle thieves of Wyoming, in the care of an +old friend of her father, to wit, Colonel Sol Dorry; then to be +transferred for refining and general educational purposes for another +spell of six years to the strict discipline of a French Convent; to +flit from city to city, from country to country, for three years with +her father, in the stress of diplomatic service--what a life! what an +upbringing for the future Countess of Brammerton! Finally, by way of +culmination, to lose her father and to be introduced into London +society, with a fortune that made the roués of every capital in Europe +gasp and order a complete new wardrobe! + +As I thought what the finish might be, I threw up my hands, for it was +a most interesting and puzzling speculation. + +Lady Rosemary Granton! Who had not heard the stories of her conquests +and her daring? They were the talk of the clubs and the gossip of the +drawing-rooms. Masculine London was in ecstasies over them and voted +Lady Rosemary a trump. The ladies were scandalised, as only jealous +minded ladies can be at lavishly endowed and favoured members of their +own sex. + +Personally, I preferred to sit on the fence. Being a lover of the open +air, of the agile body, the strong arm and the quick eye, I could not +but admire some of this extraordinary young lady's exploits. But,--the +woman who was conceded the face of an angel, the form of a Venus de +Milo; who was reported to have dressed as a jockey and ridden a horse +to victory in the Grand National Steeplechase; who, for a wager, had +flicked a coin from the fingers of a cavalry officer with a revolver at +twenty paces; lassooed a cigar from between the teeth of the Duke of +Kaslo and argued on the Budget with a Cabinet Minister, all in one +week; who could pray with the piety of a fasting monk; weep at will and +look bewitching in the process; faint to order with the grace, the +elegance and all the stage effect of an early Victorian Duchess: the +woman who was styled a golden-haired goddess by those on whom she +smiled and dubbed a saucy, red-haired minx by those whom she +spurned;--was too, too much of a conglomeration for such a humdrum +individual, such an ordinary, country-loving fellow as I,--George +Brammerton. + +And now, poor old Hazelmere was undergoing a process of renovation such +as it had not experienced since the occasion of a Royal visit some +twenty years before: not a room in the house where one could feel +perfectly safe, save the library: washing, scrubbing, polishing and +oiling in anticipation of a rousing week-end House Party in honour of +this wonderful, chameleon-like, Lady Rosemary's first visit; when her +engagement with Harry would be formally announced to the inquisitive, +fashionable world of which she was a spoiled child. + +Why all this fuss over a matter which concerned only two individuals, I +could not understand. Had I been going to marry the Lady +Rosemary,--which, Heaven forbid,--I should have whipped her quietly +away to some little, country parsonage, to the registrar of a small +country town; or to some village blacksmith, and so got the business +over, out of hand. But, of course, I had neither the inclination, nor +the intention, let alone the opportunity, of putting to the test what I +should do in regard to marrying her, nor were my tastes in any way akin +to those of my most elegant, elder brother, Viscount Harry, Captain of +the Guards,--egad,--for which two blessings I was indeed truly thankful. + +As I was thus ruminating, the library door opened and my noble sire +came in, spick and span as he always was, and happier looking than +usual. + +"'Morning, George," he greeted. + +"Good morning, dad." + +He rubbed his hands together. + +"Gad, youngster! (I was twenty-four) everything is going like +clockwork. The house is all in order; supplies on hand to stock an +hotel; all London falling over itself in its eagerness to get here. +Harry will arrive this afternoon and Lady Rosemary to-morrow." + +I raised my eyebrows, nodded disinterestedly and started in again to my +reading. Father walked the carpet excitedly, then he stopped and +looked down at me. + +"You don't seem particularly enthusiastic over it, George. Nothing +ever does interest you but boxing bouts, wrestling matches, golf and +books. Why don't you brace up and get into the swim? Why don't you +take the place that belongs to you among the young fellows of your own +station?" + +"God forbid!" I answered fervently. + +"Not jealous of Harry, are you? Not smitten at the very sound of the +lady's name,--like the young bloods, and the old ones, too, in the +city?" + +"God forbid!" I replied again. + +"Hang it all, can't you say anything more than that?" he asked testily. + +"Oh, yes! dad,--lots," I answered, closing my book and keeping my +finger at the place. "For one thing--I have never met this Lady +Rosemary Granton; never even seen her picture--and, to tell you the +truth, from what I have heard of her, I have no immediate desire to +make the lady's acquaintance." + +There was silence for a moment, and from my father's heavy breathing I +could gather that his temper was ruffling. + +"Look here, you young barbarian, you revolutionary,--what do you mean? +What makes you talk in that way of one of the best and sweetest young +ladies in the country? I won't have it from you, sir, _this_ Lady +Rosemary Granton, _this_ Lady indeed." + +"Oh! you know quite well, dad, what I mean," I continued, a little +bored. "Harry is no angel, and I doubt not but Lady Rosemary is by far +too good for him. But,--you know,--you cannot fail to have heard the +stories that are flying over the country of her cantrips;--some of +them, well, not exactly pleasant. And, allowing fifty percent for +exaggeration, there is still a lot that would be none the worse of +considerable discounting to her advantage." + +"Tuts, tush and nonsense! Foolish talk most of it! The kind of stuff +that is garbled and gossiped about every popular woman. The girl is +up-to-date, modern, none of your drawing-room dolls. I admit that she +has go in her, vim, animal spirits, youthful exuberance and all that. +She may love sport and athletics, but, but,--you, yourself, spend most +of your time in pursuit of these same amusements. Why not she?" + +"Why! father, these are the points I admire in her,--the only ones, I +may say. But, oh! what's the good of going over it all? I know, you +know,--everybody knows;--her flirtations, her affairs; every rake in +London tries to boast of his acquaintance with her and bandies her name +over his brandy and soda, and winks." + +"Look here, George," put in my father angrily, "you forget yourself. +These stories are lies, every one of them! Lady Rosemary is the +daughter of my dearest, my dead friend. Very soon, she will be your +sister." + +"Yes! I know,--so let us not say any more about it. It is Harry and +she for it, and, if they are pleased and an old whim of yours +satisfied,--what matters it to an ordinary, easy-going, pipe-loving, +cold-blooded fellow like me?" + +"Whim, did you say? Whim?" cried my father, flaring up and clenching +his hands excitedly. "Do you call the vow of a Brammerton a whim? The +pledged word of a Granton a whim? Whim, be damned." + +For want of words to express himself, my father dropped into a chair +and drummed his agitated fingers on the arms of it. + +I rose and went over to him, laying my hand lightly on his shoulder. + +Poor old dad! I had not meant to hurt his feelings. After all, he was +the dearest of old-fashioned fellows and I loved his haughty, +mid-Victorian ways. + +"There, there, father,--I did not mean to say anything that would give +offence. I take it all back. I am sorry,--indeed I am." + +He looked up at me and his face brightened once more. + +"'Gad, boy,--I'm glad to hear you say it. I know you did not mean +anything by your bruskness. You are an impetuous, headstrong young +devil though,--with a touch of your mother in you,--and, 'gad, if I +don't like you the more for it. + +"But, but," he went on, looking in front of him, "you must remember +that although Granton and I were mere boys at the time our vow was +made,--he was a Granton and I a Brammerton, whose vows are made to +keep. It seems like yesterday, George; it was a few hours after he +saved my life in the fighting before Sevastopol. We were sitting by +the camp-fire. The chain-shot was still flying around. The cries of +the wounded were in our ears. The sentries were challenging +continually and drums were rolling in the distance. + +"I clasped Fred's hand and I thanked him for what he had done for me +that day, right in the teeth of the Russian guns. + +"'Freddy, old chap, you're a trump,' I said, 'and, if ever I be blessed +with an heir to Brammerton and Hazelmere, I would wish nothing better +than that he should marry a Granton.' + +"'And nothing would please me so much, Harry, old boy,--as that a maid +of Granton should wed a Brammerton,' he answered earnestly. + +"'Then it's a go,' said I, full of enthusiasm. + +"'It's a go, Harry.' + +"And we raised our winecups, such as they were. + +"'Your daughter, Fred!' + +"'Your heir, Harry!' + +"'The future Earl and Countess of Brammerton and Hazelmere,' we chimed +together. + +"Our winecups clinked and the bond was made;--made for all time, +George." + +My father's eyes lit up and he seemed to be back in the Crimea. He +shook his head sadly. + +"And now, poor old Fred is gone. Ah, well! our dream is coming true. +In a month, the maid of Granton weds the future Earl of Brammerton. + +"'Gad, George, my boy,--Rosemary may be skittish and lively, but were +she the most mercurial woman in Christendom, she has never forgotten +that she is first of all a Granton, and, as a Granton, she has kept a +Granton's pledge." + +For a moment I caught the contagion of my father's earnestness. My +eyes felt damp as I thought how important, after all, this union was to +him. But, even then, I could not resist a little more questioning. + +"Does Harry love her, dad?" + +"Love her!" He smiled. "Why! my boy, he's madly in love with her." + +"Then, why doesn't he mend a bit? give over his mad chasing after,--to +put it mildly,--continual excitement; and demonstrate that he is +thoroughly in earnest. You know, falling madly in love is a habit of +Harry's." + +"Don't you worry your serious head about that, George. You talk of +Harry as if he were a baby. You talk as if you were his grandfather, +instead of his younger brother and a mere boy." + +"Does Lady Rosemary love Harry?" I asked, ignoring his admonition. + +"Of course, she loves him. Why shouldn't she? He's a good fellow; +well bred and well made; he is a soldier; he is in the swim; he has +plenty to spend; he is the heir to Brammerton;--why shouldn't she love +him? She is going to marry him, isn't she? She may not be of the +gushing type, George, but she'll come to it all in good time. She will +grow to love him, as every good wife does her husband. So, don't let +that foolish head of yours give you any more trouble." + +I turned to leave. + +"George!" + +"Yes, dad!" + +"You will be on hand this week-end. I want you at home. I need you to +keep things going. No skipping off to sporting gatherings or athletic +conventions. I wish you to meet your future sister." + +"Well,--I had not thought of that, dad. Big Jim Darrol, Tom Tanner and +I have entered for a number of events at the Gartnockan Games on +Saturday. I am also on the lists as a competitor for the Northern +Counties Golf Championship on Monday." + +My father looked up at me in a strange way. + +"However," I went on quickly, "much as I dislike the rush, the gush and +the clatter of house parties, I shall be on hand." + +"Good! I knew you would, my boy," replied my father quietly. "Where +away now, lad?" + +"Oh! down to the village to tell Jim and Tom not to count on me for +their week-end jaunt." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +Another Second Son + +I strolled down the avenue, between the tall trees and on to the broad, +sun-baked roadway leading to the sleepy little village of Brammerton, +which lay so snugly down in the hollow. Swinging my stout stick and +whistling as I went, I felt at peace with the good old world. My head +was clear, my arm was strong; rich, fresh blood was dancing in my +veins; I was young, single, free;--so what cared I? + +As I walked along, I saw ahead of me a thin line of blue-grey smoke +curling up from the roadside. As I drew nearer, I made out the back of +a ragged man, leaning over a fire. His voice, lusty and clear as a +bell, was ringing out a strange melody. I went over to him. + +I was looking over his shoulder, yet he seemed not to have heard me, so +intent was he on his song and in his work. + +He was toasting the carcass of a poached rabbit, the wet skin of which +lay at his side. He was a dirty, ragged rascal, but he seemed happy +and his voice was good. The sentiment of his song was not altogether +out of harmony with my own feelings. + + "A carter swore he'd love always + A skirt, some rouge, a pair of stays. + After his vow, for days and days, + He thought himself the smarter." + + +The singer bit a piece of flesh from the leg of his rabbit, to test its +tenderness, then he resumed his toasting and his song. + + "But, underneath the stays and paint + He found the usual male complaint: + A woman's tongue, with Satan's taint; + A squalling, brawling tartar. + + "She scratches, bites and blacks his eye. + His head hangs low; he heaves a sigh; + He longs for single days, gone by. + He's doomed to die a martyr." + + +The peculiar fellow stopped, opened a red-coloured handkerchief, took +out a hunk of bread and set it down by his side with slow deliberation. +It was quite two minutes ere he started off again. + + "Now, friends, beware, take my advice; + When eating sugar, think of spice; + Before you marry, ponder twice: + Remember Ned the carter." + + +From the words, it seemed to me that he had finished the song, but, +judging from the tune, it was never-ending. + +"A fine song, my good fellow," I remarked from behind. + +The rascal did not turn round. + +"Oh!--it's no' so bad. It's got the endurin' quality o' carrying a +moral," he answered. + +"You seem to be clear in the conscience yourself," said I. + +"It'll be clearer when I get outside o' this rabbit," he returned, +still not deigning to look at me. + +"But you did not seem to be startled when I spoke to you," I remarked +in surprise. + +"What way should I? I never saw the man yet that I was feart o'. +Forby,--I kent you were there." + +"But, how could you know? I did not make a noise or display my +presence in any way." + +"No!--but the wind was blawin' from the back, ye see; and when ye came +up behind the smoke curled up a bit further and straighter than it did +before; then there was just the ghost o' a shadow." + +I laughed. "You are an observant customer." + +"Oh, ay! I'm a' that. Come round and let me see ye." + +I obeyed, and he seemed satisfied with his inspection. + +"Sit doon,--oot o' the smoke," he said. + +I did so. + +"You are Scotch?" I ventured. + +"Ay! From Perth, awa'. + +"A Scotch tinker?" + +"Just that; a tinker from Perth, and my name's Robertson. I'm a +Struan, ye ken. The Struans,--the real Struans,--are a' tinkers or +pipers. In oor family, my elder brother fell heir to my father's +pipes, so I had just to take to the tinkering. But we're joint heirs +to my father's fondness for a dram. Ye havena a wee drop on ye?" + +"Not a drop," I remarked. + +"That's a disappointment. I was kind o' feart ye wouldna, when I asked +ye." + +"How so?" + +"Oh! ye don't look like a man that wasted your substance. More like a +seller o' Bibles, or maybe a horse doctor." + +I laughed at the queer comparison, and he looked out at me from under +his shaggy, red eyebrows. + +"Have a bite o' breakfast wi' me. I like to crack to somebody when I'm +eatin'. It helps the digestion." + +"No, thank you," I said. "I have breakfasted already." + +"It's good meat, man. The rabbit's fresh. I can guarantee it, for it +was runnin' half an hour ago. Try a leg." + +I refused, but, as he seemed crestfallen, I took the drumstick in my +hand and ate the meat slowly from it; and never did rabbit taste so +good. + +"What makes ye smile?" asked my tattered companion. "Do ye no' like +the taste o' it?" + +"Oh! the rabbit is all right," I said, "but I was just thinking that +had it lived its children might have belonged to a brother of mine some +day." + +"How's that? Is he a keeper? Od sake!" he went on, scratching his +head, as it seemed to dawn on him, "ye don't happen to belong to the +big hoose up there?" + +"I live there," said I. + +He leaned over to me quickly. "Have another leg, man,--have it;--dod! +it's your ain, anyway." + +"I haven't finished the first yet. Go ahead yourself." + +He ate slowly, eying me now and again through the smoke. + +"So you're a second son, eh?" he pondered. "Man, ye have my sympathy. +I had the same ill-luck. That's how my brother Angus got the pipes and +I'm a tinker. Although, I wouldna mind being the second son o' a Laird +or a Duke." + +"Well, my friend," said I; "that's just where our opinions differ. +Now, I'd sooner be the second son of a rag-and-bone man; a--Perthshire +piper of the name of Robertson; ay! of the devil himself,--than the +second son of an Earl." + +"Do ye tell me that now!" he put in, with a cock of his towsled head, +picking up another piece of rabbit. + +"You see,--you and these other fellows can do as you like; go where you +like when you like. An Earl's second son has to serve his House. He +has to pave the way and make things smooth for the son and heir. He is +supposed to work the limelight that shines on his elder brother. He is +tolerated, sometimes spoiled and petted, because,--well, because he has +an elder brother who, some day, will be an Earl; but he counts for +little or nothing in the world's affairs. + +"Be thankful, sir, you are only the second son of a highland piper." + +The tramp reflected for a while. + +"Ay, ay!" he philosophised at last, "no doot,--maybe,--just that. I +can see you have your ain troubles and I'm thinkin', maybe, I'm just as +weel the way I am. But it's a queer thing; we aye think the other man +is gettin' the best o' what's goin'. It's the way o' the world." + +He was quiet a while. He negotiated the rabbit's head and I watched +him with interest as he extracted every bit of meat from the maze of +bone. + +"And you would be the Earl when your father dies, if it wasna for your +brother?" he added. + +"Yes!" I answered. + +"Man, it must be a dreadful temptation." + +"What must be?" + +"Och! to keep from puttin' something in his whisky; to keep from +flinging him ower the window or droppin' a flower pot on his heid, +maybe. If my ain father had been an Earl, Angus Robertson would never +have lived to blow the pipes. As it was, it was touch and go wi' +Angus;--for they were the bonny pipes,--the grand, bonny pipes." + +"Do you mean to tell me, you would have murdered your brother for a +skirling, screeching bagpipes?" I asked in horror. + +"Och! hardly that, man. Murder is no' a bonny name for it. I would +just kind o' quietly have done awa' wi' him. It's maybe a pity my +conscience was so keen, for he's no' much good, is Angus; he's a +through-other customer: no' steady and law-abidin' like mysel'." + +"Well, my friend," I said finally---- + +"Donald! that's my name." + +"Well, Donald, I must be on my way." + +"What's a' the hurry, man?" + +"Business." + +"Oh! weel; give me your hand on it. You've a fine face. The face o' a +man that, if he had a dram on him, he would give me a drop o' it." + +"That I would, Donald." + +"It's a pity. But ye don't happen to have the price o' the dram on ye?" + +"Maybe I have, Donald." + +I handed him a sixpence. + +"Thank ye. I'm never wrong in the readin' o' face character." + +As I made to go from him, he started off again. + +"You don't happen to be a married man, wi' a wife and bairns?" he asked. + +"No, Donald. Thank goodness! What made you ask that?" + +"Oh! I thought maybe you were and that was the way you liked the words +o' my bit song." + +I left the tinker finishing his belated breakfast and hurried down the +road toward the village. + +The sun was getting high in the heavens, birds were singing and the +spring workers were busy in the fields. I took the side track down the +rough pathway leading to Modley Farm. + +My good friend, big, brawny, bluff Tom Tanner,--who was standing under +the porch,--hailed me from a distance, with his usual merry shout. + +"Where away, George? Feeling fit for our trip?" he asked as I got up +to him. + +"I am sorry, old boy, but, so far as I am concerned, the trip is off. +I just hurried down to tell you and Jim. + +"You see, Tom, there is going to be a House Party up there this +week-end and my dad's mighty anxious to have me at home; so much so, +that I would offend him if I went off. Being merely George Brammerton, +I must bow to the paternal commands, although I would rather, a hundred +times, be at the games." + +Tom's face fell, and I could see he was disappointed. I knew how much +he enjoyed those week-end excursions of ours. + +"The fact is," I explained, "there is going to be a marriage up there +pretty soon, and, naturally, I am wanted to meet the lady." + +"Great Scott! George,--you are not trying to break it gently to me? +You are not going to get married, are you?" he asked in consternation. + +I laughed loudly. "Lord, no! Not for a kingdom. It is my big brother +Harry." + +Tom seemed relieved. He even sighed. + +"I'm glad to hear you say it, George, for there's a lot of fine +athletic meetings coming on during the next three or four months and it +would be a pity to miss them for, for,---- Oh! hang it all! you know +what I mean. You're such a queer, serious, determined sort of +customer, that it's hard to say what you will do next." + +He looked so solemn over the matter that I laughed again. + +His kind-hearted old mother, who had been at work in the kitchen and +had overheard our conversation, came to the doorway and placed her arms +lovingly around our broad shoulders. + +"Lots of time yet to think about getting married. And, let me whisper +something into your ears. It's an old woman's advice, and it's +good:--when you do think of marrying, be sure you get a wife with a +pleasant face and a good figure; a wife that other wives' men will turn +round and admire; for, you know, you can never foretell what kind of +temper a woman has until you have lived with her. A maid is always on +her best behaviour before her lover. And, just think what it would +mean if you married a plain, shapeless lass and she proved to have a +temper like a termagant! Now, a handsome lass, even if she has a +temper, is always--a handsome lass and something to rouse envy of you +in other men. And, after all, we measure and treasure what we have in +proportion as other people long for it. So, whatever you do, young +men, make sure she is handsome!" + +"Good, sensible advice, Mrs. Tanner; and I mean to take it," said I. +"But I would be even more exacting. In addition to being sweet +tempered and fair of face and form, she must have curly, golden hair +and golden brown eyes to match." + +"And freckles?" put in Mrs. Tanner with a wry face. + +"No! freckles are barred," I added. + +"But, golden hair and brown eyes are mighty rare to find in one +person," said Tom innocently. + +"Of course they are; and the combination such as I require is so +extremely rare that my quest will be a long one. I am likely therefore +to enjoy my bachelorhood for many days to come." + +"Good-bye, Mrs. Tanner. Good-bye, Tom; I am going down to the smithy +to see Jim." + +I strolled away from my happy, contented friends, on to the main road +again and down the hill to the village, little dreaming how long it +would be ere I should have an opportunity of talking with them again. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +Jim the Blacksmith + +The village of Brammerton seemed only half awake. A rumbling cart was +slowly wending its way up the hill, three or four old men were standing +yarning at the inn corner; now and again, a busy housewife would appear +at her door and take a glimpse of what little was going on and +disappear inside just as quickly as she had shown herself. The sound +of the droning voices of children conning their lessons came through +the open window of the old schoolhouse. + +These were the only signs and sounds of life that forenoon in +Brammerton. Stay!--there was yet another. Breaking in on the general +quiet of the place, I could hear distinctly the regular thud of hard +steel on soft, followed by the clear double-ring of a small hammer on a +mellow-toned anvil. + +One man, at any rate, was hard at work,--Jim Darrol,--big, honest, +serious giant that he was. + +Light of heart and buoyant in body, I turned down toward the smithy. I +looked in through the grimy, broken window and admired the brawny giant +he looked there in the glare of the furnace, with his broad back to me, +his huge arms bared to the shoulders. Little wonder, thought I, Jim +Darrol can whirl the hammer and put the shot farther than any man in +the Northern Counties. + +How the muscles bulged, and wriggled, and crawled under his dark, hairy +skin! What a picture of manliness he portrayed! And, best of all,--I +knew his heart was as good and clean as his body was sound. + +I tiptoed cautiously inside and slapped him between the shoulders. He +wheeled about quickly. He always was a solemn-looking owl, but this +morning his face was clouded and grim. As he recognised me, a terrible +anger seemed to blaze up in his black eyes. I could see the muscles +tighten in his arms and his fingers close firmly over the shaft of the +hammer he held. I could see a new-born, but fierce hatred burning in +every inch of his enormous frame. + +"Hello, Jim, old man! Who has been rubbing you the wrong way?" I cried. + +His jaws set. He raised his left hand and pointed with his finger to +the open doorway. + +"Get out!" he growled, in a deep, hoarse voice. + +I stood dumbfounded for a brief moment, then I replied roughly and +familiarly: "Oh, you go to the devil! Keep your anger for those who +have caused it." + +"Get out, will you!" he cried again, taking a step nearer to me, his +brows lowered, his lips drawn to a thin line. + +I had seen these danger signals in Jim before, but never with any ill +intent toward me. I was so astounded I could scarcely think aright. +What could he mean? What was the matter? + +"Jim, Jim," I soothed, "don't talk that way to old friends." + +"You're no friend of mine," he shouted. "Will you get out of here?" + +In some respects, I was like Jim Darrol: I did not like to be ordered +about. + +"No! I will not get out," I snapped back at him. "I mean to remain +here until you grow sensible." + +I went over to his anvil, set my leg across it and looked straight at +him. + +He raised his hammer high, as if to strike me; and I felt then that if +I had taken my eyes from Jim's for the briefest flash of time, my last +minute on earth would have arrived. + +With an oath,--the first I ever heard him utter,--he cast the hammer +from him, sending it clattering into a corner among the old horse shoes. + +"Damn you,--I hate you and all your cursed aristocratic breed," he +snarled. And, with the spring of a tiger, he had me by the throat, +with those great, grabbing hands of his, his fingers closing cruelly on +my windpipe as he tried to shake the life out of me. + +I had always been able to account for Jim when it came to fisticuffs, +but never at close quarters. This time, his attack was violent as it +was unexpected. I did not have the ghost of a chance. I staggered +back against the furnace wall, still in his devilish clutch. Not a +gasp of air entered or left my body from the moment he clutched me. + +He shook me as a terrier does a rat. + +Soon my strength began to go; my eyes bulged; my head felt as if it +were bursting; dancing lights and awful darknesses flashed and loomed +alternately before and around me. Then the lights became scarcer and +the darknesses longer and more intense. As the last glimmer of +consciousness was leaving me, when black gloom had won and there was no +more light, I felt a sudden release, painful and almost unwelcome to +the oblivion to which I had been hurling. The lights came flashing +back to me again and out of the whirling chaos I began to grasp the +tangible once more. As I leaned against the side of the furnace, +pulling at my throat where those terrible fingers had +been,--gasping,--gasping,--for glorious life-giving, life-sustaining +air, I gradually began to see as through a haze. Before long, I was +almost myself again. + +Jim was standing a few paces away, his chest heaving, his shaggy head +bent and his great hands clenched against his thighs. + +I gazed at him, and as I gazed something wet glistened in his eyes, +rolled down his cheeks and splashed on the back of his hand, where it +dried up as if it had fallen on a red-hot plate. + +I took an unsteady step toward him and held out my hand. + +"Jim," I murmured, "my poor old Jim!" + +His head remained lowered. + +"Strike me," he groaned huskily. "For God's sake strike me, for the +coward I am!" + +"I want your hand, Jim," I answered. "Tell me what is wrong? What is +all this about?" + +At last he looked into my eyes. I could see a hundred conflicting +emotions working in his expressive face. + +"You would be friends after what I have done?" he asked. + +"I want your hand, Jim," I said again. + +In a moment, both his were clasped over mine, in his vicelike grip. + +"George,--George!" he cried. "We've always been friends,--chums. I +have always known you were not like the rest of them." + +He drew his forearm across his brow. "I am not myself, George. You'll +forgive me for what I did, won't you?" + +"Man, Jim,--there is nothing done that requires forgiving;--only, you +have the devil's own grip. I don't suppose I shall be able to swallow +decently for a week. + +"But you are in trouble: what is it, Jim? Tell me; maybe I can help." + +"Ay,--it's trouble enough,--God forbid. It's Peggy, George,--my dear +little sister, Peggy, that has neither mother nor father to guide +her;--only me, and I'm a blind fool. Oh!--I can't speak about it. +Come over with me and see for yourself." + +I followed him slowly and silently out of the smithy, down the lane and +across the road to his little, rose-covered cottage. We went round to +the back of the house. Jim held up his hand for caution, as he peeped +in at the kitchen window. He turned to me again, and beckoned, his big +eyes blind with tears. + +"Look in there," he gulped. "That's my little sister, my little Peggy; +she who never has had a sorrow since mother left us. She's been like +that for four hours and she gets worse when I try to comfort her." + +I peered in. + +Peggy was sitting on the edge of a chair and bending across the table. +Her arms were spread out in front of her and her face was buried in +them. Her brown, curly hair rippled over her neck and shoulders like a +mountain stream. Great sobs seemed to be shaking her supple body. I +listened, and my ears caught the sound of a breaking heart. There was +a fearful agony in her whole attitude. + +I turned away without speaking and followed Jim back to the smithy. +When we got there, something pierced me like a knife, although all was +not quite clear to my understanding. + +"Jim,--Jim," I cried, "surely you never fancied I--I was in any way to +blame for this. Why! Jim,--I don't even know yet what it is all +about." + +He laughed unpleasantly. "No, George, no!--Oh! I can't tell you. +Here----" + +He went to his coat which hung from a hook in the wall. He pulled a +letter from his inside pocket. "Read that," he said. + +I unfolded the paper, as he stood watching me keenly. + +The note was in handwriting with which I was well familiar. + + +"My DEAR LITTLE PEGGY, + +I am very, very sorry,--but surely you know that what you ask is +impossible. I shall try to find time to run out and see you at the +usual place, Friday night at nine o'clock. Do not be afraid, little +woman; everything will come out all right. You know I shall see that +you are well looked after; that you do not want for anything. + +Burn this after you read it. Keep our secret, and bear up, like the +good little girl you are. Yours affectionately, + +H----" + + +As I read, my blood chilled in my veins, was,--there could be no +mistaking it. + +"My God! Jim," I cried, "this is terrible. Surely,--surely----" + +"Yes! George," he said, in a tensely subdued voice, "your brother did +that. Your brother,--with his glib tongue and his masterful way. +Oh!--well I know the breed. They are to be found in high and low +places; they are generally not much for a man to look at, but they are +the kind no woman is safe beside; the kind that gets their soft side +whether they be angels or she-devils. Why couldn't he leave her alone? +Why couldn't he stay among his own kind? + +"And now, he has the gall to think that his accursed money can smooth +it over. Damn and curse him for what he is." + +I had little or nothing to say. My heart was too full for words and a +great anger was surging within me against my own flesh and blood. + +"Jim,--does this make any difference between you and me?" I asked, +crossing over to him on the spongy floor of hoof parings and steel +filings. "Does it, Jim?" + +He caught me by the shoulders, in his old, rough way, and looked into +my face. Then he smiled sadly and shook his head. + +"No, George, no! You're different: you always were different; you are +the same straight, honest George Brammerton to me;--still the same." + +"Then, Jim, you will let me try to do something here? You will promise +me not to get into personal contact with Harry,--at least until I have +seen him and spoken with him. Not that he does not deserve a dog's +hiding, but I should like to see him and talk with him first." + +"Why should I promise that?" he asked sharply. + +"For one thing,--because, doubtless, Harry is home now. And again, +there is going to be a week-end House Party at our place. Harry's +engagement of marriage with Lady Rosemary Granton is to be announced; +and Lady Rosemary will be there. + +"It would only mean trouble for you, Jim;--and, God knows, this is +trouble enough." + +"What do I care for trouble?" he cried defiantly. "What trouble can +make me more unhappy than I now am?" + +"You must avoid further trouble for Peggy's sake," I interposed. +"Jim,--let me see Harry first. Do what you like afterwards. Promise +me, Jim." + +He swallowed his anger. + +"God!--it will be a hard promise to keep if ever I come across him. +But I do promise, just because I like you, George, as I hate him." + +"May I keep this meantime?" I asked, holding up Harry's letter to Peggy. + +"No! Give it to me. I might need it." + +"But I might find greater use for it, Jim. Won't you let me have it, +for a time at least?" + +"Oh! all right, all right," he answered, spreading his hands over his +leather apron. + +I left him there amid the roar of the fire and the odour of sizzling +hoofs, and wended my way slowly up the dust-laden hill, back home, +having forgotten entirely, in the great sorrow that had fallen, to tell +Jim my object in calling on him that day. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +Viscount Harry, Captain of the Guards + +On nearing home, I noticed the "Flying Dandy," Harry's favourite horse, +standing at the front entrance in charge of a groom. + +"Hello, Wally," I shouted in response to the groom's salute and broad +grin. "Is Captain Harry home?" + +"Yes, sir! Three hours agone, sir. 'E's just agoing for a canter, +sir, for the good of 'is 'ealth." + +I went inside. + +"Hi! William," I cried to the retreating figure of our portly and +aristocratic butler. "Where's Harry?" + +"Captain Harry, sir, is in the armoury. Any message, sir?" + +"No! it is all right, William. I shall go along in and see him." + +I went down the corridor, to the most ancient part of Hazelmere House; +the old armoury, with its iron-studded oaken doors and its suggestion +of spooks and goblins. I pushed in to that sombre-looking place, which +held so many grim secrets of feudal times. How many drinking orgies +and all-night card parties had been held within its portals, I dared +not endeavour to surmise. As to how many plots had been hatched behind +its studded doors, how many affairs of honour had been settled for all +time under its high-panelled roof,--there was only a meagre record; but +those we knew of had been bloody and not a few. + +Figures, in suits of armour, stood in every corner; two-edged swords, +shields of brass and cowhide, blunderbusses and breech-loading pistols +hung from the walls, while the more modern rifles and fowling pieces +were ranged in orderly fashion along the far side. + +The light was none too good in there, and I failed, at first, to +discover the object of my quest. + +"How do, farmer Giles?" came that slow, drawling, sarcastic voice which +I knew so well. + +I turned suddenly, and,--there he was, seated on a brass-studded oak +chest almost behind the heavy door, swinging one leg and toying with a +seventeenth century rapier. Through his narrow-slitted eyes, he was +examining me from top to toe in apparent disgust: tall, thin, perfectly +groomed, handsome, cynical, devil-may-care. + +I tried to speak calmly, but my anger was greater than I could properly +control. Poor little Peggy Darrol was uppermost in my thoughts. + +"'Gad, George,--you look like a tramp. Why don't you spruce up a bit? +Hobnailed boots, home-spun breeches; ugh! it's enough to make your +noble ancestors turn in their coffins and groan. + +"Don't you know the Brammerton motto is, 'Clean,--within and without.'" + +He bent the blade of his rapier until it formed a half hoop, then he +let it fly back with a twang. + +"And some of us have degenerated so," I answered, "that we apply the +motto only in so far as it affects the outside." + +"While some of us, of course, are so busy scrubbing and polishing at +our inwards," he put in, "that we have no time to devote to the parts +that are seen. But that seems to me deuced like cant; and a cheap +variety of it at that. + +"So you have taken to preaching, as well as farming. Fine combination, +little brother! However, George,--dear boy,--we shall let it go at +that. There is something you are anxious to unload. Get it out of +your system, man." + +"I have just been hearing that you are going to marry Lady Rosemary +Granton soon." + +"Why, yes! of course. You may congratulate me, for I have that +distinguished honour," he drawled. + +"And you _do_ consider it an honour?" I asked, pushing my hands deep +into my pockets and spreading my legs. + +He leaned back and surveyed me tolerantly. + +"'Gad!--that's a beastly impertinent question, George. Why shouldn't +it be an honour, when every gentleman in London will be biting his +finger-tips with envy?" + +I nodded and went on. + +"You consider also that she will be honoured in marrying a Brammerton?" + +"Look here," he answered, a little irritated, "what's all this damned +catechising for?" + +"I am simply asking questions, Harry; taking liberties seeing I am a +Brammerton and your little brother," I retorted calmly. + +"And nasty questions they are, too;--but, by Jove! since you ask, and, +as I am a Brammerton, and it is I she is going to marry,--why! I +consider she _is_ honoured. The honour will be,--ah! on both sides, +George. Now,--dear fellow,--don't worry about my feelings. If you +have anything more to ask, why! shoot it over, now that I am in the +mood for answering," he continued dryly. "I have a hide like a rhino'." + +I looked him over coldly. + +"Yes, Harry,--Lady Rosemary _will_ come to you as a Granton, fulfilling +the pledge made by her father. She will come to you with her honour +bright and unsullied." + +He bent forward and frowned at me. + +"Do you doubt it?" he shot across. + +I shook my head. "No!" + +He resumed his old position. + +"Glad to hear you say so. Now,--what else? Blest if this doesn't make +me feel quite a devil, to be lectured and questioned by my young +brother,--my own, dear, little, preaching, farmer, kid of a brother." + +"You will go to her a Brammerton, fulfilling the vow made by a +Brammerton, with a Brammerton's honour, unstained, +unblemished,--'Clean,--within and without'?" + +He rose slowly from the chest and faced me squarely. + +There was nothing of the coward in Harry. + +His eye glistened with a cruel light. "Have a care, little brother," +he said between his regular, white teeth. "Have a care." + +"Why, Harry," I remonstrated in feigned surprise, "what's the matter? +What have I said amiss?" + +He had always played the big, patronising, bossing brother with me and +I had suffered it from him, although, from a physical standpoint, the +suffering of late had been one of good-natured tolerance. To-day, +there was something in my manner that told him he had reached the end +of it. + +"Tell me what you mean?" he snarled. + +"If you do not know what I mean, brother mine, sit down and I will tell +you." + +"No!" he answered. + +"Oh, well!--I'll tell you anyway." + +I went up close to him. "What are you going to do about Peggy Darrol?" +I demanded. + +The shot hit hard; but he was almost equal to it. He sat down on the +chest again and toyed once more with the point of the rapier. Then, +without looking up, he answered: + +"Peggy Darrol,--eh, George! Peggy Darrol, did you say? Who the devil +is she? Oh,--ah,--eh,--oh, yes! the blacksmith's sister,--um,--nice +little wench, Peggy:--attractive, fresh, clinging, strawberries and +cream and all that sort of thing. Bit of a dreamer, though!" + +"Who set her dreaming?" I asked, pushing my anger back. + +"Hanged if I know; born in her I suppose. It is part of every woman's +make-up. Pretty little thing, though; by Gad! she is." + +"Yes! she is pretty; and she was good as she is pretty until she got +tangled up with you." + +Harry sprang up and menaced me. + +"What do you mean, you,--you?---- What are you driving at? What's +your game?" + +"Oh! give over this rotten hypocrisy," I shouted, pushing him back. +"Hit you on the raw, did it?" + +He drew himself up. + +"No! it didn't. But I have had more than enough of your impertinences. +I would box your ears for the unlicked pup you are, if I could do it +without soiling my palms." + +I smiled. + +"Those days are gone, Harry,--and you know it, too. Let us cut this +evasion and tom-foolery. You have got that poor girl into a scrape. +What are you going to do about getting her out of it?" + +"_I_ have got her into trouble? How do you know _I_ have? Her word +for it, I suppose? A fine state of affairs it has come to, when any +girl who gets into trouble with her clod-hopper sweetheart, has simply +to accuse some one in a higher station than she, to have all her +troubles ended." + +He flicked some dust from his coat-sleeve. "'Gad,--we fellows would +never be out of the soup." + +"No! not her word," I retorted. "Little Peggy Darrol is not that sort +of girl and well you know it. I have your own word for it,--in +writing." + +His face underwent a change in expression; his cheeks paled slightly. + +I drew his letter from my pocket. + +"Damn her for a little fool," he growled. He held out his hand for it. + +"Oh, no! Harry,--I am keeping this meantime." And I replaced it. +"Tell me now,--what are you going to do about Peggy?" I asked +relentlessly. + +"Oh!" he replied easily, "don't worry. I shall have her properly +looked after. She needn't fear. Probably I shall make a settlement on +her; although the little idiot hardly deserves that much after giving +the show away as she has done." + +"Of course, you will tell Lady Rosemary of this before any announcement +is made of your marriage, Harry? A Brammerton must, in all things, be +honourable, 'Clean,--within and without.'" + +He looked at me incredulously, and smiled almost in pity for me and my +strange ideas. + +"Certainly not! What do you take me for? What do you think Lady +Rosemary is that I should trouble her with these petty matters?" + +"Petty matters," I cried. "You call this petty? God forgive you, +Harry. Petty! and that poor girl crying her heart out; her whole +innocent life blasted; her future a disgrace! Petty!--my God!;--and +you a Brammerton! + +"But I tell you," I blazed, "you shall let Lady Rosemary know." + +"And I tell you,--I shall not," he replied. + +"Then, by God!--I'll do it myself," I retorted. "I give you two hours +to decide which of us it is to be." + +I made toward the door. But Harry sprang for his rapier, picked it up +and stood with his back against my exit, the point of his weapon to my +breast. + +There was a wicked gleam in his narrow eyes. + +"Damn you! George Brammerton, for a sneaking, prying, tale-bearing +lout;--you dare not do it!" + +He took a step forward. + +"Now, sir,--I will trouble you for that letter." + +I looked at him in astonishment. There was a strange something in his +eyes I had never seen there before; a mad, irresponsible something that +cared not for consequences; a something that makes heroes of some men +and murderers of others. I stood motionless. + +Slowly he pushed the point of his rapier through my coat-sleeve. It +pricked into my arm and I felt a few drops of warm blood trickle. I +did not wince. + +"Stop this infernal fooling," I cried angrily. + +He bent forward, in the attitude of fence with which he was so familiar. + +"Fooling, did you say? 'Gad! then, is this fooling?" + +He turned the rapier against my breast, ripping my shirt and lancing my +flesh to the bone. I staggered back with a gasp. + +It was the act of a madman; and I knew in that moment that I was face +to face with death by violence for the second time in a few hours. I +slowly backed from him, but he followed me, step for step, + +As I came up against and sought the wall behind me for support, my hand +came in contact with something hard. I closed my fingers over it. It +was the handle of an old highland broadsword and the feel of it was not +unpleasant. It lent a fresh flow to my blood. I tore the sword from +its fastenings, and, in a second, I was standing facing my brother on a +more equal, on a more satisfactory footing, determined to defend +myself, blow for blow, against his inhuman, insane conduct. + +"Ho! ho!" he yelled. "A duel in the twentieth century. 'Gad! wouldn't +this set London by the ears? The Corsican Brothers over again! + +"Come on, with your battle-axe, farmer Giles, Let's see what stuff +you're made of--blood or sawdust." + +Twice he thrust at me and twice I barely avoided his dextrous +onslaughts. I parried as he thrust, not daring to venture a return. +Our strange weapons rang out and re-echoed, time and again, in the +dread stillness of the isolated armoury. + +My left arm was smarting from the first wound I had received, and a few +drops of blood trickled down over the back of my hand, splashing on the +floor. + +"You bleed!--just like a human being, George. Who would have thought +it?" gloated Harry with a taunt. + +He came at me again. + +My broadsword was heavy and, to me, unwieldy, while Harry's rapier was +light and pliable. I could tell that there could be only one ending, +if the unequal contest were prolonged,--I would be wounded badly, or +killed outright. At that moment, I had no very special desire for +either happening. + +Harry turned and twisted his weapon with the clever wrist movement for +which he was famous in every fencing club in Britain; and every time I +wielded my heavy weapon to meet his light one I thought I should never +be in time to meet his counter-stroke, his recovery was so very much +quicker than mine. + +He played with me thus for a time which seemed an eternity. My breath +began to come in great gasps. Suddenly he lunged at me with all his +strength, throwing the full weight of his body recklessly behind his +stroke, so sure was he, evidently, that it would find its mark. I +sprang aside just in time, bringing my broadsword down on his rapier +and sending six inches of the point of it clattering to the floor. + +"Damn the thing!" he blustered, taking a firmer grip of what steel +remained in his hand. + +"Aren't you satisfied? Won't you stop this madness?" I panted, my +voice sounding loud and hollow in the stillness around us. + +For answer he grazed my cheek with his jagged steel, letting a little +more blood and hurting sufficiently to cause me to wince. + +"Got you again, you see," he chuckled, pushing up his sleeves and +pulling his tie straight. "George, dear boy, I'll have you in +mincemeat before I get at any of your well-covered vitals." + +A blind fury seized me. I drove in on him. He turned me aside with a +grin and thrust heavily at me in return. I darted to the left, making +no endeavour to push aside his weapon with my own but relying only on +the agility of my body. With an oath, he floundered forward, and +before he could recover I brought the flat of my heavy broadsword +crashing down on the top of his head. His arm went up with a nervous +jerk and his rapier flew from his hand, shattering against a high +window and sending the broken glass rattling on to the cement walk +below. + +Harry sagged to the floor like a sack of flour and lay motionless on +his face, his arms and legs spread out like a spider's. + +I was bending down to turn him over, when I heard my father's voice on +the other side of the door. + +"Stand back! I'll see to this," he cried, evidently addressing the +frightened servants. + +I turned round. The door swung on its immense hinges and my father +stood there, with staring eyes and pallid face, taking in the situation +deliberately, looking from me to Harry's inert body beside which I +knelt. Slowly he came into the centre of the room. + +Full of anxiety, I looked at him. But there was no opening in that +stern, old face for any explanations. He did not assail me with a +torrent of words nor did he burst into a paroxysm of grief and anger. +His every action was calculated, methodical, remorseless. + +He turned to the open door. + +"Go!" he commanded sternly. "Leave us,--leave Brammerton. I never +wish to see you again. You are no son of mine." + +His words seared into me. I held out my hands. + +"Go!" he repeated quietly, but, if anything, more firmly. + +"Good God! father,--won't you hear what I have to say in explanation?" +I cried in vexatious desperation. + +He did not answer me except with his eyes--those eyes which could say +so much. + +My anger was still hot within me. My inborn sense of fairness deeply +resented this conviction on less than even circumstantial evidence; +and, at the back of all that, I,--as well as he, as well as Harry,--was +a Brammerton, with a Brammerton's temperament. + +"Do you mean this, father?" I asked. + +"Go!" he reiterated. "I have nothing more to say to such an unnatural +son, such an unnatural brother as you are." + +I bowed, pulled my jacket together with a shrug and buttoned it up. +After all,--what mattered it? I was in the right and I knew it. + +"All right, father! Some day, I know you will be sorry." + +I turned on my heel and left the armoury. + +The servants were clustering at the end of the corridor, with +frightened eyes and pale faces. They opened up and shuffled uneasily +as I passed through. + +"William," I said to the butler, "you had better go in there. You may +be needed." + +"Yes, sir! yes, sir!" he answered, and hurried to obey. + +Upstairs, in my own room, my knapsack was lying in a corner, ready for +my proposed week-end tour. Beside it, stood my golf clubs. These will +do, I found myself thinking: a knapsack with a change of linen and a +bag of golf clubs,--not a bad outfit to start life with. + +I opened my purse:--fifty pounds and a few shillings. Not much, but +enough! In fact, nothing would have been plenty. + +Suddenly I remembered that, before I went, I had a duty to perform. +From my inside pocket, I took the letter which Harry had written to +little, forlorn Peggy Darrol. I went to my writing desk and addressed +an envelope to Lady Rosemary Granton. I inserted Harry's letter and +sealed the envelope. As to the bearer of my message, that was easy. I +pushed the button at my bedside and, in a second, sweet little Maisie +Brant came to the door. + +Maisie always had been my special favourite, and, on account of my +having pulled her out of the river when she was only seven years old, I +was hers. She had never forgotten. I cried to her in an easy, +bantering way in order to reassure her. + + "Neat little Maisie, sweet little Maisie; + Only fifteen and as fresh as a Daisy." + + +She smiled, but behind her smile was a look of concern. + +"I am going away, Maisie," I said. + +"Going away, sir?" she repeated anxiously, as she came bashfully +forward. + +"I won't be back again, Maisie. I am going for good." + +She looked up at me in dumb disquiet. + +"Maisie, Lady Rosemary Granton will be here this week-end." + +"Yes, sir!" she answered. "I am to have the honour of looking after +her rooms." + +I laid my hand gently on her shoulder. + +"I want you to do something for me, Maisie. I want you to give her +this letter,--see that she gets it when she is alone. It is more +important to her than you can ever dream of. She must have it within a +few hours of her arrival. No one else must set eyes on it between now +and then. Do you understand, Maisie?" + +"Oh, yes, sir! You can trust me for that." + +"I know I can, Maisie. You are a good girl." + +I gave her the letter and she placed it in the safest, the most secret, +place she knew,--her bosom. Then her eyes scanned me over. + +"Oh! sir," she cried, in sudden alarm, "you are hurt. You are +bleeding." + +I put my hand to my cheek, but then I remembered I had already wiped +away the few drops of blood from there with my handkerchief. + +"Your arm, sir," she pointed. + +"Oh!--just a scratch, Maisie." + +"Won't you let me bind it for you, sir, before you go?" she pleaded. + +"It isn't worth the trouble, Maisie." + +Tears came to those pretty eyes of hers; so, to please her, I consented. + +"All right," I cried, "but hurry, for I have no more business in here +now than a thief would have." + +She did not understand my meaning, but she left me and was back in a +moment with a basin of hot water, a sponge, balsam and bandages. + +I slipped off my coat and rolled up my sleeve, then, as Maisie's gentle +fingers sponged away the congealed blood and soothed the throb, I began +to discover, from the intense relief, how painful had been the hurt, +mere superficial thing as it was. + +She poured on some balsam and bound up the cut; all gentleness, all +tenderness, like a mother over her babe. + +"There is a little jag here, Maisie, that aches outrageously now that +the other has been lulled to sleep." I pointed to my breast. + +She undid my shirt, and, as she surveyed the damage, she cried out in +anxiety. + +It was a raw, jagged, angry-looking wound, but nothing to occasion +concern. + +She dealt with it as she had done the other, then she drew the edges of +the cut together, binding them in place with strips of sticking +plaster. When it was all over, I slipped into my jacket, swung my +knapsack across my shoulders, took my golf-bag under my left arm,--and +I was ready. + +Maisie wiped her eyes with the corner of her apron. + +"Never mind, little woman," I sympathised. + +"Must you really go away, sir?" she sobbed. + +"Yes!--I must. Good-bye, little girl." + +I kissed her on the trembling curve of her red, pouting lips, then I +went down the stairs, leaving her weeping quietly on the landing. + +As I turned at the front door for one last look at the inside of the +old home, which I might never see again, I saw the servants carrying +Harry from the armoury. I could hear his voice swearing and +complaining in almost healthy vigour, so I was pleasantly confirmed in +what I already had surmised,--his hurt was as temporary as the flat of +a good, trusty, highland broad-sword could make it. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +Tommy Flynn, The Harlford Bruiser + +I hurried down the avenue to where it joined the dusty roadway. + +I stood for a few moments in indecision. To my left, down in the +hollow, the way led through the village. To my right, it stretched far +on the level until it narrowed to a grey point piercing a semi-circle +of green; but I knew that miles beyond, at the end of that grey line, +was the busy town of Grangeborough, with its thronging people, its +railways and its steamships. That was the direction for me. + +I waved my hand to sleepy little Brammerton and I swung to the right, +for Grangeborough and the sea. + +Soon the internal tumult, caused by what I had just gone through, began +to subside, and my spirits rose attune to the glories of the afternoon. + +Little I cared what my lot was destined to be--a prince in a palace or +a tramp under a hedge. Although, to say truth, the tramp's existence +held for me the greater fascination. + +I was young, my lungs were sound and my heart beat well. I was big and +endowed with greater strength than is allotted the average man. + +Glad to be done with pomp, show and convention, my life was now my very +own to plan and make, or to warp and spoil, as fancy, fortune and fate +decreed. + +I hankered for the undisturbed quiet of some small village by the sea, +with work enough,--but no more,--to keep body nourished and covered; +with books in plenty and my pipe well filled; with an open door to +welcome the sunshine, the scented breeze, the salted spray from the +ocean and my congenial fellow-man. + +But, if I should be led in the paths of grubbing men, 'mid bustle, +strife and quarrel, where the strong and the crafty alone survived, +where the weaklings were thrust aside, I was ready and willing to take +my place, to take my chance, to pit brawn against brawn, brain against +brain, to strike blow for blow, to fail or to succeed, to live or die, +as the gods might decree. + +As I filled my lungs, I felt as if I had relieved myself of some great +burden in cutting myself adrift from Brammerton,--dear old spot as it +was. And I whistled and hummed as I trudged along, trying to reach the +point of grey at the rim of the semi-circle of green. On, on I went, +on my seemingly unending endeavour. But I knew that ultimately the +road would end, although merely to open up another and yet another path +over which I would have to travel in the long journey of life which lay +before me. + +As I kept on, I saw the sun go down in a display of blood-red +pyrotechnics. I heard the chatter of the birds in the hedgerows as +they settled to rest. Now and again, I passed a tired toiler, with +bent head and dragging feet,--his drudgery over for the day, but +weighted with the knowledge that it must begin all over again on the +morrow and on each succeeding morrow till the crash of his doom. + +The night breeze came up and darkness gathered round me. A few hours +more, and the twinkling lights of Grangeborough came into view. They +were welcome lights to me, for the pangs of a healthy hunger were +clamouring to be appeased. + +As it had been with the country some hours before, so was it now with +Grangeborough. The town was settling down for the night. It was late. +Most of the shops were closing, or already closed. Business was over +for the day. People hurried homeward like shadows. + +I looked about me for a place to dine, but failed, at first, in my +quest. Down toward the docks there were brighter lights and +correspondingly deeper darknesses. I went along a broad thoroughfare, +turned down a narrower one until I found myself among lanes and alleys, +jostled by drunken sailors and accosted by wanton women, as they +staggered, blinking, from the brightly lighted saloons. + +My finer sensibilities rose and protested within me, but I had no +choice. If I wished to quell my craving for food, there was nothing +left for me to do but to brave the foul air and the rough element of +one of these sawdust-floored, glass-ornamented whisky palaces, where a +snack and a glass of ale, at least, could be purchased. + +I looked about me and pushed into what seemed the least disreputable +one of its kind. I made through the haze of foul air and tobacco smoke +to the counter, and stood idly by until the bar-tender should find it +convenient to wait upon me. + +The place was crowded with sea-faring men and the human sediment that +is found in and around the docks of all shipping cities; it resounded +with a babel of coarse, discordant voices. + +The greater part of this coterie was gathered round a huge individual, +with enormous hands and feet, a stubbly, blue chin,--set, round and +aggressive; a nose with a broken bridge spoiled the balance of his +podgy face. He had beady eyes and a big, ugly mouth with stained, +irregular teeth. From time to time, he laughed boisterously, and his +laugh had an echo of hell in it. + +He and his followers appeared to be enjoying some good joke. But +whenever he spoke every one else became silent. Each coarse jest he +mouthed was laughed at long and uproariously. He had a hold on his +fellows. Even I was fascinated; but it was by the great similarity of +some of the mannerisms of this uncouth man to those I had observed in +the lower brute creation. + +My attention was withdrawn from him, however, by the sound of the +rattling of tin cans in another corner which was partly partitioned +from the main bar-room. I followed the new sound. + +A tattered individual was seated there, his feet among a cluster of +pots and pans all strung together. His head was in his hands and his +red-bearded face was a study of dejection and misery. + +There was something strangely familiar in the appearance of the man. + +Suddenly I remembered, and I laughed. + +I went over and sat down opposite him, setting my golf clubs by my +side. He ignored my arriving. That same old trick of his! + +"Donald,--Donald Robertson!" I exclaimed, laughing again. + +Still he did not look across. + +Suddenly he spoke, and in a voice that knew neither hope nor gladness. + +"Ye laugh,--ye name me by my Christian name,--but ye don't say, +'Donald, will ye taste?'" + +I leaned over and pulled his hands away from his head. He flopped +forward, then glared at me. His eyes opened wide. + +"It's,--it's you,--is it? The second son come to me in my hour o' +trial." + +"Why! Donald,--what's the trouble?" I asked. + +"Trouble,--ye may well say trouble. Have ye mind o' the sixpence ye +gied me on the roadside this mornin'." + +"Yes!" + +"For thirteen long, unlucky hours I saved that six-pence against my +time o' need. I tied it in the tail o' my sark for safety. I came in +here an hour ago. I ordered a glass o' whisky and a tumbler o' beer. +I sat doon here for a while wi' them both before me, enjoying the sight +o' them and indulgin' in the heavenly joy o' anteecipation. Then I +drank the speerits and was just settlin' doon to the beer,--tryin' to +make it spin oot as long as I could; for, ye ken, it's comfortable in +here,--when an emissary o' the deevil, wi' hands like shovels and a +leer in his e'e, came in and picked up the tumbler frae under my very +nose and swallowed the balance o' your six-pence before I could say +squeak." + +I laughed at Donald's rueful countenance and his more than rueful tale. + +"Did the man have a broken nose and a heavy jaw?" I asked. + +"Ay, ay!" said Donald, lowering his voice. "Do ye happen to ken him?" + +"No!--but he is still out there and he thinks it a fine joke that he +played on you." + +"So would I," said Donald, "if I had drunk his beer." + +"What did you do when he swallowed off your drink?" I asked. + +"Do!--what do ye think I did? I remonstrated wi' a' the vehemence that +a Struan Robertson in anger is capable o'. But the vehemence o' the +Lord himsel' couldna bring the beer back." + +"Why didn't you fight, man? Why didn't you knock the bully down?" I +asked, pitying his wobegone appearance. + +"Mister,--whatever your name is,--I'm a man o' peace; and, forby I'm +auld enough to ken it's no' wise to fight on an empty stomach. I +havena had a bite since I saw ye last." + +"Never mind, Donald,--cheer up. I am going to have some bread and +cheese, and a glass of ale, so you can have some with me, at my +expense." + +His face lit up like a Roman candle. + +"Man,--I'm wi' ye. You're a man o' substance, and I'm fonder o' +substantial bread and cheese and beer than I am o' the metapheesical +drinks I was indulgin' in for ten minutes before ye so providentially +came." + +I could not help wondering at some of the remarks of this wise, yet +good-for-little, old customer; but I did not press him for more +enlightenment. + +I thumped the hand-bell on the table, and was successful in obtaining +more prompt attention from the bar-tender than I had been able to do +across the counter. + +When the food and drink were placed between us and paid for, Donald +stuffed all but one slice of his bread and cheese inside his waistcoat, +and he sighed contentedly as he contemplated the sparkling ale. + +But, all at once, he startled me by springing to his feet, seizing his +tumbler in his hand and emptying the contents down his gullet at two +monstrous gulps. + +"No, no!--ye thievin' deevil," he shouted, as he regained his breath, +"ye canna do that twice wi' Donald Robertson." + +I looked toward the opening in the partition. Donald's recent +enemy,--the man whom I had been studying at the other end of the +bar-room,--was shouldering himself into our company. Behind him, in a +semi-circle, a dozen faces grinned in anticipation of some more fun at +Donald's expense. + +The big bully glared down at me as I sat. + +"That there is uncommon good beer, young un," he growled, "and that +there is most uncommon good bread and cheese." + +I glanced at him with half-shut eyelids, then I broke off another piece +of bread. + +"Maybe you didn't 'ear me?" he shouted again, "I said that was uncommon +good beer." + +"I shall be better able to judge of that, my man, after I have tasted +it," I replied. + +"Not that beer, little boy,--you ain't going to taste that," he +thundered, "because I 'appens to want it,--see! I 'appens to 'ave a +most aggrawating thirst in my gargler." + +A burst of laughter followed this ponderous attempt at humour. + +"'And it over, sonny,--I wants it." + +I merely raised my head and ran my eyes over him. + +He was an ugly brute, and no mistake. A man of tremendous girth. + +Although I had no real fear of him,--for, already I had been schooled +to the knowledge that fear and its twin brother worry are man's worst +opponents.--I was a little uncertain as to what the outcome would be if +I got him thoroughly angered. However, I was in no mind to be +interfered with. + +He thumped his heavy fist on the table. + +"'And that over,--quick," he roared. + +His great jaws clamped together and his thick, discoloured lips became +compressed. + +"Why!--certainly, my friend," I remarked easily, rising with slow +deliberation. "Which will you have first:--the bread and cheese, or +the ale?" + +"'Twere the ale I arst and it's th' ale I wants,--and blamed quick +about it or I'll know the reason w'y." + +"Stupid of me!" I remarked. "I should have known you wanted the ale +first. Here you are, my good, genial, handsome fellow." + +I picked up the foaming tumbler and offered it to him. When he +stretched out his great, grimy paw to take it, I tossed the stuff smack +into his face, sending showers of the liquid into the gaping +countenances of his supporters. + +He staggered back among them, momentarily blinded, and, as he +staggered, I sent the tumbler on the same errand as the ale. It +smashed in a hundred pieces on the side of his broken nose, opening up +an old gash there and sending a stream of blood oozing down over his +mouth. + +There was no more laughter, nor grinning. The place was as quiet as a +church during prayer. I pushed into the open saloon, with the +remonstrating Donald at my heels. Then the bull began to roar. He +pulled off his coat, while half a dozen of his own kind endeavoured +with dirty handkerchiefs and rags to mop the blood from his face. + +"Shut the door. Don't let 'im away from 'ere," he shouted. "I'll push +his windpipe into his boots, I will. Watch me!" + +As I stood with my back against the partition, the bar-tender slipped +round the end of the counter. + +"Look here, guv'nor," he whispered with good intent, "the back door's +open,--run like the devil." + +I turned to him in mild surprise. + +"Don't be an ijit," he went on. "Git. Why! he's Tommy Flynn, the +champion rib cracker and face pusher of Harlford, here on his holidays." + +"Tommy Flynn," I answered, "Tommy Rot fits him better." + +"You ain't a-going to stand up and get hit, are you?" + +"What else is there for me to do?" I asked. + +He threw up his arms despairingly. + +"Lor' lumme!--then I bids you good-bye and washes my hands clean of +you." And he went round behind the counter in disgust, spitting among +the sawdust. + +By this time, Tommy Flynn, the champion rib cracker and face pusher, +was rolling up his sleeves businesslike and thrusting off his numerous +seconds in his anxiety to get at me. + +"'Ere, Splotch," he cried to a one-eyed bosom friend of his, "'old my +watch, while I joggles the puddins out of this kid with a left 'ander. +My heye!--'e won't be no blooming golfing swell in another 'alf minute." + +He grinned at me a few times in order to hypnotise me with his beauty +and to instil in me the necessary amount of frightfulness, before he +got to work in earnest. Then, by way of invitation, he thrust forward +his jaw almost into my face. I took advantage of his offer somewhat +more quickly than he anticipated. I struck him on the chin with my +left and drew my right to his body. But his chin was hard as flint and +it bruised my knuckles; while his great body was podgy and of an +india-rubberlike flexibility. + +For my pains, he brushed my ear and drew a little blood, with the grin +of an ape on his brutish face. + +He threw up his arms to guard, feinted at me, and rushed in. + +I parried his blows successfully, much to his surprise, for I could see +his eyes widening and a wrinkle in his brow. + +"Careful, Tommy!--careful," cautioned Splotch of the one eye. "He's a +likely looking young bloke." + +"Likely be blowed," said Tommy shortly, as he toyed with me. "Watch +this!" + +I saw that it would be for my own good, the less I let my antagonist +know of my ability at his own game, and I knew also I would have to +play caution with my strength all the way, owing to the trying ordeals +I had already gone through that day. + +Once, my antagonist tried to draw me as he would draw a novice. I +ignored the body bait he opened up for me and, instead, I swung in +quickly with my right on to his bruised nose, with all the energy I +could muster. He staggered and reeled like a drunken man. In fact, +had he not been half-besotted by dear-only-knows how many days of +debauchery, it might have gone hard with me, but now he positively +howled with pain. + +I had hit on his most vulnerable part, right at the beginning. + +Something inside of me chuckled, for, if there was one special place in +any man's anatomy that I always had been able to reach, it was his nose. + +Flynn rushed on me again and again. I was lucky indeed in beating back +his onslaughts. + +Once, a spent blow got me on the cheek; yet, spent as it was, it made +me numb and dizzy for the moment. Once, he caught me squarely on the +chest right over the wound my brother had given me. The pain of that +was like the cut of a red-hot knife, but it passed quickly. I +staggered and reeled several times, as flashes of weakness seemed to +pass over me. I began to fear that my strength would give out. + +I pulled myself together with an effort. Then, +once,--twice,--thrice,--in a succession bewildering to myself, I +smashed that broken nose of Flynn's, sending him sick and wobbling +among his following. + +He became maddened with rage. His companions commenced to voice +cautions and instructions. He swore back at them in a muddy torrent of +abuse. + +Already, the fight was over;--I could feel it in my bones;--over, far +sooner and more satisfactory to me than I had expected. And, more by +good luck than by ability, I was, to all intents and purposes, +unscathed. + +Tommy Flynn could fight. But he was not the fighter he would have been +had he been away from drink and in strict training, as I was. It was +my good fortune to meet him when he was out of condition. He spat out +a mouthful of blood and returned to the conflict, defending his nose +with all the ferocity of a lioness defending her whelps. + +"Look out! Take care!" a timely voice whispered on my left. + +Something flashed in my opponent's hands in the gaslight. I backed to +the partition. We had a terrible mix-up just then. Blow and +counterblow rained. He broke down my guard once and drove with fierce +force for my face. I ducked, just in time, for he missed me by a mere +hair's-breadth. His fist smashed into a metal bolt in the woodwork. +Sparks flew and there was a loud ring of metal against metal. + +"You cowardly brute!" I shouted, breaking away as it dawned on me that +he had attacked me with heavy knuckle-dusters. My blood fairly danced +with madness. I sprang in on him in a positive frenzy. He became a +child in my hands. Never had I been roused as I was then. I struck +and struck again at his hideous face until it sagged away from me. + +He was blind with his own blood. I followed up, raining punch upon +punch,--pitilessly,--relentlessly. His feet slipped in the slither of +bloody sawdust. I struck again and he crashed to the floor, striking +his head against the iron pedestal of a round table in the corner. + +He lay all limp and senseless, with his mouth wide open and his breath +coming roaring and gurgling from his clotted throat. + +As his friends endeavoured to raise him, as I stood back against the +counter, panting, I heard a battering at the main door of the saloon +which had been closed at the commencement of the scuffle. + +"Here, sir,--quick!" cried the sympathetic bartender to me. "The cops! +Out the back door like hell!" + +I had no desire to be mixed up in a police affair, especially in the +company of such scum as I was then among. I picked up my golf bag and +swung my knapsack on to my back once more. Then I remembered about +Donald. I could not leave him. I searched in corners and under the +tables. He was nowhere in sight. + +"Is it the tinker?" asked the bar-tender excitedly. + +"Yes, yes!" + +"He's gone. He slunk out with his tin cans, through the back way, as +soon as you got started in this scrap." + +I did not wait for anything more, for some one was unlocking the front +door. I darted out the back exit and into the lane. Down the lane, in +the darkness, I tore like a hurricane, then along the waterfront until +there was a mile between me and the scene of my late encounter. + +I slowed up at a convenient horse-trough, splashed my hands and face in +the cooling water and adjusted my clothing as best I could, then I +strolled into the shipping shed, where stevedores and dock labourers +were busy, by electric light, completing the loading of a smart-looking +little cargo boat. + +A notion seized me. It was a coaster, so I knew I could not be going +very far away. + +I walked up the gang-plank, and aboard. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +Aboard the Coaster + +An ordinary seaman, then the second officer of the little steamer +passed me on the deck, but both were busy and paid no more attention to +my presence than if I had been one of themselves. + +I strolled down the narrow companionway, into a cosy, but somewhat +cramped, saloon. + +After standing for a time in the hope of seeing some signs of life, I +pushed open the door of a stateroom on the starboard side. The room +had two berths. I tossed my knapsack and clubs into the lower one. As +I turned to the door again, I espied a diminutive individual, no more +than four and a half feet tall,--or, as I should say, small,--in the +full, gold-braided uniform of a ship's chief steward. + +He was a queer-looking little customer, grizzled, weather-beaten and, +apparently, as hard as nails. He was absolutely self-possessed and, +despite his stature, there was "nothing small about him," as an +American friend of mine used to put it. + +He touched his cap, and smiled. His smile told me at once that he was +an Irishman, for only an Irishman could smile as he did. It was a +smile with a joke, a drink, a kiss and a touch of the devil himself in +it. + +"I saw ye come down, sor. Ye'll be makin' for Glasgow?" + +Glasgow! I cogitated, yes!--Glasgow as a starting point would suit me +as well as anywhere else. + +"Correct first guess," I answered. "But, tell me,--how did you know +that that was my destination?" + +He showed his teeth. + +"Och! because it's the only port we're callin' at, sor. Looks like a +fine trip north," he went on. "The weather's warm and there's just +enough breeze to make it lively. Nothin' like the sea, sor, for +keepin' the stomach swate and the mind up to the knocker." + +I yawned, for I was dog-weary. + +"When ye get to Glasgow, if ye are on the lookout for a place to +slape,--try Barney O'Toole's in Argyle Street. The place is nothin' to +look at, but it's a hummer inside, sor." + +I yawned drowsily once more, but the hint did not stop him. + +"If you'll excuse my inquisitiveness, sor,--or rather, what ye might +call my natural insight,--I judge you're on either a moighty short +tour, or a devil av a long one got up in a hurry." + +The little clatterbag's uncanny guessing harried me. + +"How do you arrive at your conclusions?" I asked, taking off my jacket +and hanging it up. + +"Och! shure it's by the size av your wardrobe. No man goes on a +well-planned, long trip with a knapsack and a bag av golfsticks." + +"Well,--it is likely to be long enough," I laughed ruefully. + +"Had a row with the old man and clearin' out?" he sympathised. "Well, +good luck to yer enterprise. I did the same meself when I was +thirteen; after gettin' a hidin' with a bit av harness for doin' +somethin' I never did at all. I've never seen the old man since and +never want to. Bad cess to him. + +"Would ye like a bite before ye turn in, sor? It's past supper-time, +but I can find ye a scrapin' av something." + +"A bite and a bath,--if I may?" I put in. "I'm sticky all over." + +"A bath! Right ye are. I knew ye was a toff the minute I clapped my +blinkers on ye." + +In ten minutes my talkative friend announced that my bath was in +readiness. For ten minutes more he rattled on to me at intervals, +through the bathroom door, poking into my past and arranging my future +like a clairvoyant. + +Notwithstanding, he had a nice, steaming-hot supper waiting for me when +I returned to my stateroom. + +As I fell-to, he stood by, enjoying the relish I displayed in the +appeasing of my hunger. + +"If I was a young fellow av your age, strong build and qualities, do ye +know where I would make for?" he ventured. + +"Where?" I asked, uninterestedly. + +He lowered his eyebrows. "Out West,--Canada," he said, with a decided +nod of his head. "And, the farther west the better. The Pacific Coast +has a climate like home, only better. For the main part, ye're away +from the long winters;--it's a new country;--a young man's +country:--it's wild and free:--and,--it's about as far away as ye can +get from--from,--the trouble ye're leavin' behind." + +I looked across at him. + +"Oh! bhoy,--I've been there. I know what I'm talkin' about." + +He sighed. "But I'm gettin' old and I've been too long on the sea to +give it up." + +He pulled himself together suddenly. Owing to his stature, that was +not a very difficult task. + +"Man!--ye're tired. I'll be talkin' no more to you. Tumble in and +sleep till we get to Glasgow." + +As he cleared away the dishes, I approached him regarding my fare. + +"Look here, steward,--I had not time to book my berth or pay my +passage. What's the damage?" + +"Ten and six, sor, exclusive av meals," he answered, taking out his +ticket book in a business-like way. + +"What name, sor?" + +"Name!--oh, yes! name!" I stammered. "Why!--George Bremner." + +He looked at me and his face fell. I am sure his estimation of me fell +with it. I was almost sorry I had not obliged him by calling myself +Algernon something-or-other. + +I paid him. + +"When do you expect to arrive in Glasgow?" I asked. + +"Eight o'clock to-morrow morning, sor. And," he added, "there's a boat +leaves for Canada to-morrow night." + +"The devil it does," I grunted. + +He gave me another of his infectious smiles. + +"Would ye like another bath in the mornin', sor, before breakfast?" he +inquired, as he was leaving. + +I could not bear to disappoint the little fellow any more. + +"Yes," I replied. + +Quarter of an hour later, I was lying on my back in the upper berth, +gazing drowsily into the white-enamelled ceiling two feet overhead; +happy in the reborn sensations of cleanliness, relaxation and +satisfaction; loving my enemies as well, or almost as well, as I loved +my friends. I could not get the little steward's advice out of my +head. In a jumbled medley, "Out West,--out West,--out West," kept +floating before my brain. "The Pacific Coast.--Home climate, only +better.--A new country.--A young man's country.--Wild and free.--It's +about as far away as ye can get,--as ye can get,--can get,--can get." + +The rumbling of the cargo trucks, the hoarse "lower away" of the +quartermaster, the whirr of the steam winch and the lapping of the +water against the boat,--all intermingled, then died away and still +farther away, until only the quietest of these sounds remained,--the +lapping of the sea and "Canada,--Canada,--Canada." They kept up their +communications with me, sighing and singing, the merest murmurings of +the wind in a sea shell:--soothing accompaniments to my unremembered +dreams. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +K. B. Horsfal, Millionaire + +When I awoke, the sun was streaming through the porthole upon my face. +It was early morning,--Saturday morning I remembered. + +From the thud, thud, of the engines and the steady rise and fall, I +knew we were still at sea. I stretched my limbs, feeling as a god must +feel balancing on the topmost point of a star; so refreshed, so +invigorated, so buoyant, so much in harmony with the rising sun and the +freshness of the early day, that, to be exact, I really had no feeling. + +I sprang to the floor of my cabin and dressed hurriedly in my anxiety +to be on deck; but, at the door, I encountered my little Irish steward. +He eyed me suspiciously, as if I had had intentions of evading my +morning ablution,--so I swallowed my impatience, grabbed a towel and +made leisurely for the bathroom, where I laved my face and hands in the +cold water, remained inside for a sufficiently respectable time, then +ran off the water and, finally, made my exit and clambered on deck. + +As I paced up and down, enjoying the beauties of the fast narrowing +firth, I no longer felt in doubt as to my ultimate destination. My +subconscious self, aided and abetted by the Irish steward, had already +decided that for me:--it was Canada, the West, the Pacific. + +Soon after I had breakfasted, we reached the Tail of the Bank, and so +impatient was I to be on my long journey that I bade good-bye to my +little Irishman at Greenock, leaving him grinning and happy in the +knowledge that I was taking his advice and was bound for the Pacific +Coast. + +In forty minutes more, I left the train at Glasgow and started in to a +hurried and moderate replenishing of my wardrobe, finishing up with the +purchase of a travelling bag, a good second-hand rifle and a little +ammunition. + +I dispensed with my knapsack by presenting it to a newsboy, who held it +up in disgust as if it had been a dead cat. Despite the fact that I +was now on my own resources and would have to work, nothing could +induce me to part with my golf clubs. They were old and valued +friends. Little did I imagine then how useful they would ultimately +prove. + +At the head office of the steamship company, I inquired as to the best +class of travelling when the traveller wished to combine cheapness with +rough comfort; and I was treated to the cheering news that there was a +rate war on between the rival Trans-Atlantic Steamship Companies and I +could purchase a second-cabin steamboat ticket for six pounds, while a +further eight pounds, thirteen shillings and four-pence would carry me +by Colonist, or third class, three thousand miles, from the East to the +Far West of Canada. + +I paid for my ticket and booked my berth then and there, counted out my +remaining wealth,--ten pounds and a few coppers,--and my destiny was +settled. + +With so much to tell of what befell me later, I have neither the time +nor the inclination to detail the pleasures and the discomforts of a +twelve days' trip by slow steamer across a storm-swept Atlantic, +battened down for days on end, like cattle in the hold of a +cross-channel tramp; of a six days' journey across prairie lands, in a +railway car with its dreadful monotony of unupholstered wooden seats +and sleeping boards, its stuffiness, its hourly disturbances in the +night-time in the shape of noisy conductors demanding tickets, incoming +and outgoing travellers and shrieking engines; its dollar meals in the +dining car, which I envied but could not afford; its well-nigh +unlightable cooking stoves and the canned beef and pork and beans with +which I had to regale myself en route. + +Jaded, travel-weary and grimy, I reached the end of my journey. It was +late in the evening. I tumbled out of the train and into the first +hotel bus that yawned for me, and not once did I look out of the window +to see what kind of a city I had arrived at. + +I came to myself at the entrance to a magnificent and palatial hotel; +too much so, by far, I fancied, for my scantily-filled purse. But I +was past the minding stage, and I knew I could always make a change on +the morrow, if so be it a change were necessary. + +And then I began to think,--what mattered it anyway? What were a few +paltry sovereigns between one and poverty? Comforting thought,--a man +could not have anything less than nothing. + +I registered, ordered a bath, a shave, a haircut, a jolly good supper +and a bed; and, oh! how I enjoyed them all! Surely this was the most +wonderful city in the world, for never did bath, or shave, or supper, +or bed feel so delicious as these did. + +I swooned away at last from sheer pleasure. + +The recuperative powers of youth are marvellously quick. I was up and +out to view the city almost as soon as the sun was touching the +snow-tipped tops of the magnificent mountain peaks which were miles +away yet seemed to stand sentinels at the end of the street down which +I walked. I was up and out long ere the sun had gilded the waters of +the broad inlet which separated Vancouver from its baby sister to the +north of it. + +The prospect pleased me; there was freedom in the air, expanse, +vastness, but,--it was still a city with a city's artifices and, +consequently, not what I was seeking. I desired the natural life; not +the roughness, the struggle, the matching of crafty wits, the throbbing +blood and the straining sinews,--but the solitude, the quiet, the +chance for thought and observation, the wilds, the woods and the sea. + +As I returned to breakfast, I wondered if I should find them,--and +where. + +In the dining-room, during the course of my breakfast,--the first real +breakfast I had partaken of in Canada,--my attention was diverted to a +tall, well-groomed, muscular-looking man, who sat at a table nearby. +He looked a considerable bit on the sunny side of fifty. He was clean +shaven, his hair was black tinged with grey, and his eyes were keen and +kindly. + +Every time I glanced in his direction, I found him looking over at me +in an amused sort of way. I began to wonder if I were making some +breach of Canadian etiquette of which I was ignorant. True, I had +eaten my porridge and cream without sprinkling the dish with a surface +of sugar as he had done; I had set aside the fried potatoes which had +been served to me with my bacon and eggs;--but these, surely, were +trivial things and of no interest to any one but myself. + +At last, he rose and walked out, sucking a wooden toothpick. With his +departure, I forgot his existence. + +After I had breakfasted, I sought the lounge room in order to have a +look at the morning paper and, if possible, determine what I was going +to do for a living and how I was going to get what I wanted to do. + +I was buried in the advertisements, when a genial voice with a nasal +intonation, at my elbow, unearthed me. + +It was my observer of the dining-room. He had seated himself in the +chair next to mine. + +"Say! young man,--you'll excuse me; but was it you I saw come in last +night with the bag of golf clubs?" + +I acknowledged the crime. + +He laughed good-naturedly. + +"Well,--you had courage anyway. To sport a golfing outfit here in the +West is like venturing out with breeches, a walking cane and a monocle. +Nobody but an Englishman would dare do it. Here, they think golf and +cricket should be bracketed along with hopscotch, dominoes and +tiddly-winks; just as I used to fancy baseball was a glorified kids' +game. I know better now." + +I looked at him rather darkly. + +"Oh!--it's all right, friend,--it takes a man to play baseball, same as +it takes a man to play golf and cricket. Golfing is about the only +vice I have left. Why, now I come to think of it, my wife clipped a +lot of my vices off years ago, and since that my daughter has succeeded +in knocking off all the others,--all but my cigars, my cocktails and my +golf. I'm just plumb crazy on the game and I play it whenever I can. +Maybe it's because I used to play it when I was a little chap, away +back in England years and years ago." + +"I am glad you like the game," I put in. "It is a favourite of mine." + +"I play quite a bit back home in Baltimore," he continued, "that's when +I'm there. My clubs arrived here by express yesterday. You see, it's +like this;--I'm off to Australia at the end of the week, on a business +trip,--that is, if I get things settled up here by that time. I am +crossing over from there to England, where I shall be for several +months. England is some place for golf, so I'm going to golf some, you +bet. + +"I'm not boring you, young friend?" he asked suddenly. + +"Not a bit," I laughed. "Go on,--I am as interested as can be." + +"I believe there's a kind of a lay-out they call a golf course, in one +of the outlying districts round here. What do you say to making the +day of it? You aren't busy, are you?" he added. + +"No! no!--not particularly," I answered. I did not tell him that in a +few days, if I did not get busy at something or other, I should starve. + +"Good!" he cried. "Go to your room and get your sticks. I'll find out +all about the course and how to get to it." + +The brusk good-nature of the man hit me somehow; besides, I had not had +a game for over three weeks. Think of it--three weeks! And goodness +only knew when I should have the chance of another after this one. As +for looking for work;--work was never to be compared with golf. Surely +work could wait for one day! + +"All right!--I'm game," I said, jumping up and entering into the spirit +of gaiety that lay so easily on my new acquaintance. + +"Good boy!" he cried, getting up and holding out his hand. "My name's +Horsfal,--K. B. Horsfal,--lumberman, meat-packer, and the man whose +name is on every trouser-suspender worth wearing. What's yours?" + +"George Bremner," I answered simply. + +"All right, George, my boy,--see you in ten minutes. But, remember, I +called this tune, so I pay the piper." + +That was music in my ears and I readily agreed. + +"Make it twenty minutes," I suggested. "I have a short letter to +write." + +I wrote my letter, gave it to the boy to deliver for me and presented +myself before my new friend right up to time. + +In the half hour's run we had in the electric tram, I learned a great +deal about Mr. K. B. Horsfal. + +He had migrated from the Midlands of England at the age of seventeen. +He had kicked,--or had been kicked,--about the United States for some +fifteen years, more or less up against it all the time, as he +expressively put it; when, by a lucky chance, in a poverty-stricken +endeavour to repair his broken braces, he hit upon a scheme that +revolutionised the brace business: was quick enough to see its +possibilities, patented his idea and became famous. + +Not content to rest on his laurels,--or his braces,--he tackled the +lumbering industry in the West and the meat-packing industry in the +East, both with considerable success. Now he had to sit down and do +some figuring when he wished to find out how many millions of dollars +he was worth. + +His wife had died years ago and his only daughter was at home in +Baltimore. + +Altogether, he was a new and delightful type to one like me,--a young +man fresh from his ancestral roof in the north of staid and +conventional old England. + +He was healthy, vigorous, and as keen as the edge of a razor. + +On and on he talked, telling me of himself, his work and his projects. + +I got to wondering if he were merely setting the proverbial sprat; but +the sprat in his case proved the whale. Every moment I expected him to +ask me for some confidences in return, but on this point Mr. K. B. +Horsfal was silent. + +We discovered our golfing ground, which proved to be a fairly good, +little, nine-holed country course, rough and full of natural hazards. + +K. B. Horsfal could play golf, that I soon found out. He entered into +his game with the enthusiasm and grim determination which I imagined he +displayed in everything he took a hand in. + +He seldom spoke, so intent was he on the proper placing of his feet and +the proper adjustment of his hands and his clubs. + +Three times we went round that course and three times I had the +pleasure of beating him by a margin. He envied me my full swing and my +powerful and accurate driving; he studied me every time I approached a +green and he scratched his head at some of my long putts; but, most of +all, he rhapsodised on my manner of getting out of a hole. + +"Man,--if I only had that trick of yours in handling the mashie and the +niblick, I could do the round a stroke a hole better, for there isn't a +rut, or a tuft, or a bunker in any course that I seem to be able to +keep out of." + +I showed him the knack of it as it had been taught me by an old +professional at Saint Andrews. K. B. Horsfal was in ecstasies, if a +two-hundred-pound, keen, brusk, American business man ever allows +himself such liberties. + +Nothing would please him but that we should go another round, just to +test out his new acquisition and give him the hang of the thing. + +To his supreme satisfaction,--although I again beat him by the same +small margin,--he reduced his score for the round by eight strokes. + +On our journey back to the city, he began to talk again, but on a +different tack this time. + +"George,--you'll excuse me,--but, if I were you I would put that signet +ring you are wearing in your pocket." + +I looked down at it and reddened, for my ring was manifestly old, as it +was manifestly strange in design and workmanship, and apt to betray an +identity. + +I slipped it off my little finger and placed it in my vest pocket. + +My companion laughed. + +"'No sooner said than done,'" he quoted. "You see, George,--any one +who saw you come in to the hotel last night could tell you had not been +travelling for pleasure. The marks of an uncomfortable train journey, +in a colonist car, were sticking out all over you. Now, golf clubs and +a signet ring like that which you were sporting are enough to tell any +man that you have been in the habit of travelling luxuriously and for +the love of it." + +I could not help admiring my new friend's method of deduction, and I +thanked him for his kindly interest. + +"Not a bit," he continued, "so long as you don't mind. For, it's like +this,--I take it you have left home for some personal reason,--no +concern of mine,--you have come out here to start over, or rather, to +make a start. Good! You are right to start at the bottom of the hill. +But, from the look of you, I fancy you won't stick at anything that +doesn't suit you. You are the kind of a fellow who, if you felt like +it, would tell a man to go to the devil, then walk off his premises. +You see, I don't tab you as a milksop kind of Englishman exactly. + +"Well,--out here they don't like Britishers who receive remittances +every month from their mas or pas at home, for they have found that +that kind is generally not much good. Hope you're not one, George?" + +"No!" I laughed, rather ruefully, almost wishing I were. "With me, it +is sink or swim. And, I do not mind telling you, Mr. Horsfal, that it +will be necessary for me to leave the hotel to-morrow for less +pretentious apartments and to start swimming for all I am worth." + +"Good!" he cried, as if it were a good joke. "How do you propose +starting in?" + +"I have already commenced keeping an eye on the advertisements, which +seem to be chiefly for real estate salesmen and partners with a little +capital," I said. + +"But, the fact is, I have made an application this morning for +something I thought might suit me. But, even if I am lucky enough to +be considered, the chances are there will be some flies in the +ointment:--there always are." + +My friend looked at me, as I thought, curiously. + +"To-morrow morning," I went on, "it is my intention to begin with the +near end of the business district and call on every business house, one +after another, until I happen upon something that will provide a start. + +"I have no love for the grinding in an office, nor yet for the grubbing +in a warehouse, but, for a bit, it will be a case of 'needs must when +the devil drives,'--so I mean to take anything that I can get, to begin +with, and leave the matter of choice to a more opportune time." + +"And what would be your choice, George?" he inquired. + +"Choice! Well, if you asked me what I thought I was adapted for, I +would say, green-keeper and professional golfer; gymnastic instructor; +athletic coach; policeman; or, with training and dieting, pugilist. At +a pinch, I could teach school." + +K. B. Horsfal grinned and looked out of the car window at the +apparently never-ending sea of charred tree stumps through which we +were passing. + +"Not very ambitious, sonny!--eh!" + +"No,--that is the worst of it," I answered. "I do not seem to have +been planned for anything ambitious. Besides, I have no desire to +amass millions at the sacrifice of my peace of mind. Why!--a +millionaire cannot call his life his own. He is at the beck and call +of everybody. He is consulted here and harassed there. He is dunned, +solicited and blackmailed; he is badgered and pestered until, I should +fancy, he wished his millions were at the bottom of the deep, blue sea." + +"Lord, man!" exclaimed Mr. Horsfal, "but you have hit it right. One +would almost think you had been through it yourself." + +"I have not," I answered, "but I know most of the diseases that attack +the man of wealth." + +"Now, you have given me an idea of what you might _have_ to do. But to +get back to desire or choice;--what would it be then?" he inquired, as +the electric tram passed at last from the tree stumps and began to +draw, through signs of habitation, toward the city. + +"If I had my desire and my choice, Mr. Horsfal, they would be: in such +a climate as we have here but away somewhere up the coast, with the sea +in front of me and the trees and the hills behind me; the open air, the +sunlight; contending with the natural,--not the artificial,--obstacles +of life; work, with a sufficiency of leisure; quiet, when quiet were +desired; and, in the evening as the sun went down into the sea or +behind the hills, a cosy fire, a good book and my pipe going good." + +K. B. Horsfal, millionaire, patentee, lumberman and meat-packer, looked +at me, sighed and nodded his head. + +"After all, my boy," he said, almost sadly, "I shouldn't wonder if that +isn't better than all the hellish wealth-hunting that ever was or ever +shall be. Stick to your ideals. Try them out if you can. As for +me,--it's too late. I am saturated with the money-getting mania; I am +in the maelstrom and I couldn't get out if I tried. I'm in it for +good." + +Our conversation was brought to an abrupt ending, as Mr. Horsfal had to +make a short call at one of the newspaper offices, on some business +matter. We got out of the tram together. I waited for him while he +made his call, then we walked back leisurely to the hotel; happy, +pleasantly tired and hungry as hunters. + +I was regaled in the dining-room as the guest of my American friend. + +"Are you going to be in for the balance of the evening?" he asked, as I +rose to leave him at the conclusion of our after-dinner smoke. + +"Yes!" + +"Good!" he ejaculated, rather abruptly. + +And why he should have thought it "good," puzzled me not a little as I +went up in the elevator. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +Golden Crescent + +I had been sitting in my room for two hours, reading, and once in a +while, thinking over the strange adventures that had befallen me since +I had started out from home some three short weeks before. I was +trying to picture to myself how it had all gone in the old home; I was +wondering if my father's heart had softened any to his absent son. + +I reasoned whether, after all, I had done right in interfering between +my brother Harry and his fiancee; but, when I thought of poor little +Peggy Darrol and the righteous indignation and anger of her brother +Jim, I felt, that if I had to go through all of it again, I would do as +I had done already. + +My telephone bell rang. I answered. + +It was the hotel exchange operator. + +"Hello!--is that room 280?" + +"Yes!" I answered. + +"Mr. George Bremner?" + +"Yes!" + +"A gentleman in room 16 wishes to see you. Right away, if you can, +sir!" + +"What name?" I asked. + +"No name given, sir." + +"All right! I'll go down at once. Thank you!" + +I laid aside my pipe and threw on my coat. On reaching the right +landing, I made my way along an almost interminable corridor, until I +stood before the mysterious room 16. + +As I entered, a respectably dressed, middle-aged man was coming out, +hat in hand. Two others were sitting inside, apparently waiting an +interview, while a smart-looking young lady,--evidently a +stenographer,--was showing a fourth into the room adjoining. + +It dawned on me that this request to call must be the outcome of the +letter I had written that morning in answer to the newspaper +advertisement. + +I immediately assumed what I thought to be the correct, meek expression +of a man looking for work; with, I hope, becoming timidity and +nervousness, I whispered my name to the young lady. Then I took a seat +alongside one of my fellow applicants, who eyed me askance and with +what I took to be amused tolerance. + +Five minutes, and the young lady ushered out the man who had been on +the point of being interviewed as I had come in. + +"Mr. Monaghan?" queried the lady. + +Mr. Monaghan rose and followed her. + +An interval of ten minutes, and Mr. Monaghan went after his predecessor. + +"Mr. Rubenstein?" asked the lady. + +Mr. Rubenstein, who, every inch of him, looked the part, went through +the routine of Mr. Monaghan, leaving me alone in the waiting room. + +At last my turn came and I was ushered into the "sanctum." I had put +my head only inside the door, when the bluff voice I had learned that +day to know shouted merrily: + +"Hello! George. What do you know? Come on in and sit down." + +And there was Mr. Horsfal, as large as life, sitting behind a desk with +a pile of letters in front of him. + +I was keenly disappointed and I fear I showed it. Only this,--after +all my rising hopes,--the genial Mr. Horsfal wished to chat with me now +that he had got his business worries over. + +"Why!--what's the matter, son? You look crestfallen." + +"I am, too," I answered. "I was not aware which rooms you occupied +and, when I received the telephone message to come here and saw those +men waiting, I felt sure I had received an answer to my application for +a position I saw in the papers this morning." + +Mr. Horsfal leaned back in his chair and surveyed me. + +"Well,--no need to get crestfallen, George. When you had that thought, +your thinking apparatus was in perfect working order." + +My eyes showed surprise. "You don't mean----" + +"Yes! George." + +"What?--'wanted,--alert, strong, handy man, to supervise up-coast +property. One who can run country store preferred. Must be sober,'" I +quoted. + +"The very same. I've been interviewing men for a week now and I'm sick +of it. I got your letter this evening. But all day I have had it in +my mind that you were the very man I wanted, sent from the clouds right +to me." + +"But,--but," I exclaimed. "I am afraid I have not the experience a man +requires for such a job." + +K. B. Horsfal thumped his desk. + +"Lord sakes! man,--don't start running yourself down. Boost,--boost +yourself for all you're worth." + +"Oh, yes! I know," I said. "But this is different. I have become +acquainted with you. I cannot sail under false colours. I have no +experience. I am a simple baby when it comes to business." + +He banged his desk again. + +"George,--I'm the boss of this affair. You must just sit back quiet +and listen, while I tell you about it; then you can talk as much as you +want. + +"There's a thousand acres of property that I, or I should say, my +daughter Eileen owns some hundred miles up the coast from here. The +place is called Golden Crescent Bay. My wife took a fancy to it in the +early days, when she came with me on a trip one time I was looking over +a timber proposition. I bought it for her for an old song and she grew +so fond of the place that she spent three months of every year, as long +as she lived, right on that very land. She left it all to Eileen when +she died. + +"As a business man, I should sell it, for its value has gone away up; +but, as a husband, as a father and as a sentimentalist, I just can't do +it. It would be like desecration. + +"There's two miles of water frontage to it; there's the house we put +up, also a little cabin where the present caretaker lives. The only +other place within a couple of miles by water and four miles round by +land through the bush, is a cottage that stands on the property +abutting Eileen's, and close to her bungalow. It has been boarded up +and unoccupied for quite a while. Of course, up behind, over the +hills, there are ranches here and there, while, across the bay and all +up the coast, there are squatters, settlers, fishermen and ranchers for +a fare-you-well." + +"You say there is a caretaker there already?" I put in. + +"Yes!--I was just getting to that. He's an old Klondike miner; came +out with a fortune. Spent the most of it before he got sober. Came +to, just in time. Now he hoards what's left like an old skinflint. +Won't spend a nickel, unless it's on booze. Drinks like a drowning man +and it never fizzes on him. A good enough man for what he's been +doing, but no good for what I want now." + +"You don't want me to do him out of his place, Mr. Horsfal?" I asked. + +"I was coming to that, too,--only you're so darned speedy. + +"He's all right as a caretaker with little or nothing to do, and he +will prove useful to you for odd jobs,--but, I have a salmon cannery +some miles north of this place and I am going to have half a dozen +lumber camps operating south, and further up, for the next few years. +Some of them are going full steam ahead now. + +"They require a convenient store, where they can get supplies; grub, +oil, gasoline, hardware and such like. I need a man who could look +after a proposition of that kind,--good. The settlers would find a +store up there a perfect god-send. + +"The property at Golden Crescent is easily got at and is the most +central to all my places. Now, having an eye to business, and with +Eileen's consent, I have decided to convert the large front living-room +of her bungalow into a store. It is plain, and can't be hurt. It's +just suited for the purpose. I have had some carpenters up there this +past week, putting in a counter and shelves and shutting the new store +off completely from the rest of the house. + +"A stock of groceries, hardware, etc., has already been ordered from +the wholesalers and should be up there in a few days. + +"Steamers pass Golden Crescent twice a week. When they have anything +for you, they whistle and stand by out in the bay; when you want them, +you hoist a white flag on the pole, on the rock, at the end of the +little wharf; then you row out and meet them. + +"These are the main features, George. Oh, yes! I'm paying one hundred +dollars a month and all-found to the right man." + +He stopped and looked over at me a little anxiously. + +"George!--will you take the job?" + +"What about those other poor beggars who have applied?" I asked. + +"There you are again," he exclaimed impatiently. "They had the same +chance as you had. Didn't I even keep you waiting out there till I had +seen them in turn. Not one of them has the qualifications you have. I +want a man with a brain as well as a body." + +"But you don't know me, Mr. Horsfal. I have no friends, no +testimonials; and I might be,--why! I might be the biggest criminal +unhung." + +"Testimonials be blowed! Who wants testimonials? Any dub can get +them. As for the other part,--do you think K. B. Horsfal of Baltimore, +U. S. A., by this time, doesn't know a man after he has been a whole +day in his company? + +"Sonny, take it from me,--there are mighty few American business men, +who have topped a million dollars, who don't know a man through and +through in less time than that, and without asking very many questions, +either. Why, man!--that's their business; that's what makes their +millions." + +There was no resisting K. B. Horsfal. + +"Thanks! I'll take the job," I said. "And I'm mighty grateful to you." + +"Good boy! You're all right. Leave it there!" His two hands clasped +over mine. + +"Gee! but I'm glad that's over at last." + +"When do I start in?" I asked. + +"Right now. I'll phone for a launch to be ready to start up with us +to-morrow morning. I'll show you over the proposition and leave you +there. Phone for any little personal articles you may want. I'll +attend to the bedding and all that sort of thing. Have the boy call +you at six a. m. sharp." + +Nothing was overlooked by the masterly mind of my new, my first +employer. + +We breakfasted early. An automobile was standing waiting for us at the +hotel entrance; while, at a down-town slip, a trig little launch, +already loaded up with our immediate necessities, was in readiness to +shoot out through the Narrows as soon as we got aboard. + +This launch was named the _Edgar Allan Poe_, and, in consequence, I +felt as if she were an old friend. + +As soon as the ropes were cast from the wharf, a glorious feeling of +exhilaration started to run through me; for it seemed that I was being +loosed from the old life and plunged into a new; a life I had been for +so long hungering; the life of the woods, the hills and the sea, the +quiet and freedom; the life of my dreams as well as of my waking +fancies. Whether or not it would come up to my expectations was a +question of conjecture, but I was not in a mood to trouble conjecturing. + +The swift little boat fought the tide rip in the Narrows like a lonely +explorer defending his life against a horde of surging savages; and, +gradually, she nosed her way through, past Prospect Point, then, +inclining to the north shore, but heading forward all the time, past +the lighthouse which stands sentinel on the rock at Point Atkinson; and +away up the coast, leaving the city, with its dizzying and +light-blotting sky-scrapers far and still farther behind, until nothing +of that busy terminal remained to the observer but a distant haze. + +The _Edgar Allan Poe_ threaded her way rapidly and confidently among +the rocks and fertile little islands, up, up northward, ever northward, +amid lessening signs of life and habitation; through the beautiful +Strait of Georgia. + +From eight o'clock in the morning till three o'clock in the afternoon +we sailed on, amid a prodigality of scenic beauty,--sea, mountains and +islands; islands, mountains and sea,--enjoying every mile of that +beautiful trip. We conversed seldom, although there was much to +discuss and our time was short. + +At last, we sped past a great looming rock, which stood almost sheer +out of the sea, then we ran into a glorious bay, where the sea danced +and glanced in a fairy ecstasy. + +"Golden Crescent Bay," broke in Mr. Horsfal. "How do you like it?" + +"It is Paradise," I exclaimed, in breathless admiration. And never +have I had reason to change that first impression and opinion. + +We ran alongside a rocky headland close to the shore, on which stood +two little wooden sheds bearing the numbers one and two. We clambered +up. + +"Number one is for gasoline; two for oil," volunteered my ever +informing employer. + +The rock was connected to the shore by a well-built, wooden wharf on +piles, which ran directly into what I rightly guessed had been the +summer home of Mrs. Horsfal. It was a plainly built cottage and trim +as a warship. It bore signs of having been recently painted, while, +all around, the grass was trim and tidy. + +On the right of this, about fifty yards across, on the same cleared +area, but out on a separate rocky headland, stood another well-built +cottage, the windows of which were boarded up. + +"My property starts ten yards to the south of the wharf here, George, +and runs around the bay as far, almost, as it goes, and back to the +hills quite a bit. That over there is the other house I spoke to you +about. It, and the property to the south, is owned by some one in the +Western States. + +"But I wonder where the devil old Jake Meaghan is. Folks could land +here and walk away with the whole shebang and he would never know of +it." + +As he spoke, however, a small boat crept out from some little cove +about three hundred yards round the bay. It contained a man, who rowed +it leisurely toward the wharf. We leaned over the wooden rail and +waited. + +The man ran the boat into the shingly beach, pulled in his oars, +climbed out and made toward us. An Airedale dog, which had evidently +been curled up in the bottom of the boat, sprang out after him, keeping +close to him and eyeing us suspiciously and angrily. + +In appearance the man reminded me of one of R. L. Stevenson's pirates, +or one of Jack London's 'longshoremen. + +He wore heavy logging boots, brown canvas trousers kept up by a belt, +and a brown shirt, showing hairy brown arms and a bared, scraggy +throat. A battered, sun-cast, felt hat lay on his head. His face was +wrinkled and weather-beaten to the equivalent of tanned hide. He wore +great, long, drooping moustaches snow white in colour. His eyes were +limpid blue. + +"It's you, Mr. Horsfal," he mumbled rather thickly, in a voice that +seemed to come from somewhere underground; "didn't know you in the +distance." + +"Jake,--shake with Mr. George Bremner;--he's going to supervise the +place and the new store, same as I explained to you two weeks ago. +Hope you make friends. He's to be head boss man, and his word goes; +but you'll find him twenty-four carat gold." + +"That's darned fine gold, boss," grunted Jake. + +He held out his horny hand and grasped mine, exclaiming heartily enough: + +"Glad to meet you, George." + +He pulled out a plug of tobacco from his hip pocket, brushed some of +the most conspicuous dirt and grime from it, bit off what appeared to +me to be a mouthful and began to look me over. + +"He's new," he grunted, as if to himself; "but he's young and big. He +looks tough; he's got the right kind of jaw." + +Then he turned to Mr. Horsfal. "Guess, when he gets the edges rubbed +off, he'll more than make it, boss," he said. + +K. B. Horsfal laughed loudly. + +"That's just what I thought myself, Jake. Now, give us the keys to the +oil barns and the new store. Go and help unload that baggage and truck +from the launch. You can follow your usual bent after that, for I'll +be showing George over the place myself." + +I found the prospective store just as it had been described: a large, +plain, front room, now fitted with shelves and a counter, and all +freshly painted. Everything was in readiness to accommodate the stock, +most of which was due to arrive the next afternoon. Where a door had +been, leading into the other parts of the house, it was now solidly +partitioned up, leaving only front and back entrances to the store. + +We spent the afternoon in the open air, inspecting the property, which +was perfectly situated for scenic beauty, with plenty of cleared, +fertile land near the shore and rich in giant timber behind. + +In the early part of the evening, after a cold lunch aboard the launch, +we went back to the house and, for the first time, Mr. Horsfal inserted +a key into the front door of the dwelling proper. + +I had been not a little curious regarding this place and I was still +wondering where it was intended that I should take up my quarters. + +Jake Meaghan seemed all right in his own Klondikish, +pork-and-beans-and-a-blanket way, but I hardly fancied him as a rooming +partner and a possible bedfellow. To be candid, I never had had a +bedfellow in all my life and I had already made up my mind that, rather +than suffer one now, I would fix up one of the several empty barns +which were scattered here and there over the property, and thus retain +my beloved privacy. + +My employer pushed his way into the house and invited me to follow him. + +I found myself in a small, front room, neatly but plainly furnished. +The floor was varnished and two bearskin rugs supplied the only +carpeting. It had a mahogany centre table, on which a large +oil-burning reading lamp was set. Three wicker chairs, designed solely +for comfort, and a stove with an open front helped to complete its +comfortable appearance. A number of framed photographs of Golden +Crescent and some water colour paintings decorated the plain, wooden +walls. In the far corner, beside a small side window, there stood a +writing desk; while, all along that side of the wall, on a long curtain +pole, there was hung, from brass rings, a heavy green curtain. + +I took in what I could in a cursory glance and I marvelled that there +could be so much apparent concentrated comfort so far away from city +civilisation; but, when my guide pulled aside the curtain on the wall +and disclosed rows and rows of books behind a glass front, books +ancient and modern, books of religion, philosophy, medicine, history, +fiction and poetry,--at least a thousand of them,--I gave up trying any +more to fathom what manner of a man he was. + +My eyes sparkled and explained to K. B. Horsfal what my voice failed to +utter. + +"Well,--what d'ye think of it all?" he asked at last. + +"It is a delight,--a positive delight," I replied simply. + +As I walked over to the front window, I wondered little that Mrs. +Horsfal should have loved the place; and, when I looked away out over +the dancing waters, upon the beauties of the bay in the changing light +of the lowering sun, upon the rocky, fir-dotted island a mile to sea, +and upon the lonely-looking homes of the settlers over there two miles +away on the far horn of Golden Crescent, with the great background of +mountains in purple velvet,--I wondered less. + +"Yes! George,--it's pretty near what heaven should be to look at. But +I guess it's the same old story that the poet once sang: + +"'Where every prospect pleases and only man is vile.' + +"That poet kind of forgot that, if what he said was true, it was only +the vile man that the prospect could please, eh! + +"You notice the house has been cleaned from top to toe. I had that +done last week. I see to that every time I come west." + +He put his hand on my shoulder. "George, boy,--no one but myself and +Eileen has slept under this roof since my wife died, but I want you to +make it your home." + +I turned to remonstrate. + +"Now,--don't say a word," he hurried on. "You can't bluff me with your +self-defamatory remarks. You are not a Jake Meaghan, or one of his +stamp. You are of the kind that appreciates a home like this to the +extent of taking care of it. + +"Come and have a look at the other apartments. + +"This is the kitchen. It has a pantry and a good cooking-stove. There +are four bedrooms in the house. This can be yours;--it's the one I +used to occupy. This is a spare one. This is Eileen's. You won't +require it; and one never knows when Eileen might take it into her head +to come up here and live. + +"This is my Helen's room,--my wife's. It has not been changed since +she died." + +He went in. I remained respectfully in the adjoining apartment. I +waited for five minutes. + +When he returned, there were tears in his eyes. He locked the door +with a sigh. + +"George,--here are the keys to the whole she-bang. There isn't much +more to keep me here. You have signed the necessary papers in +connection with the trust account for $5,000 in the Commercial Bank of +Canada in Vancouver. Draw your wages regularly. Pay Jake his fifty a +month at the same time. We find his grub for him. + +"Run things at a profit if you can, for that's business. Stand +strictly to the instructions I have given you regarding orders for +supplies from the various camps and from the cannery. Use your own +judgment as to credit with the settlers. I leave you a free hand up +here. + +"Send your monthly reports, addressed to me care of my lawyers, Dow, +Cross & Sneddon of Vancouver. They will forward them. + +"If any question should arise regarding the property itself, get in +touch with the lawyers." + +I walked with him down to the launch as he talked. + +"Thanks to you, George,--I'll get to Vancouver in the small hours of +the morning and I will be able to pull out for Sydney in the afternoon +of to-morrow. + +"Good-bye, boy. All being well, I'll be back within a year." + +In parting with him, as he shook me by the hand, I experienced a +tightening in my throat such as I had never felt when parting from any +other man either before or since. Yet, I had only known him for two +days. I could see that he, also, was similarly affected. It was as if +something above and beyond us were making our farewell singularly +solemn. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +The Booze Artist + +I stood watching until the tiny launch rounded the point; then, as the +light was still fairly good,--it being the end of the month of +May,--and as I had no inclination for sleep as yet, I got into the +smallest of the rowing boats that were tied up alongside the wharf, +loosed it and pulled leisurely up the bay, with the intention of making +myself a little better acquainted with the only living soul with whom I +was within hail,--Jake Meaghan. + +As I ran the boat into his cove, I could hear his dog bark warningly. + +The door of his barn,--for it was nothing else,--was closed, and it was +some time before I heard Meaghan's deep voice in answer to my knock, +inviting me to come in and bidding his dog to lie down. + +Meaghan was sitting, presumably reading a newspaper, which was the only +kind of "literature" I ever saw him read. His attitude appeared to me +to be assumed and I had a notion that, when the dog first barked at my +approach, he had been busy with the contents of a brass-bound, wooden +chest which now lay half under his bunk, in a recess in the far corner. + +"Hello! Thought you might come over. Sit down," he greeted. "Saw the +boss pull out half an hour ago. I'm just sittin' down for my turn at +the newspaper. They leave me a bundle off the steamer once in a while. +This one's from the old country;--the _Liverpool Monitor_. It's two +months old, but what's the dif,--the news is just as good as if it was +yesterday's or to-morrow's." + +I looked round Jake's shanty. Considering it was a single-roomed place +and used for cooking, washing, sleeping and everything else, it was +wonderfully tidy, although, to say truth, there was little in it after +all to occasion untidiness: a stove, a pot, a frying-pan, an enamelled +tin teapot, some crockery, a table, an oil lamp, three chairs, the +brass-bound trunk, two wheat-flake boxes and Jake's bed,--with one +other addition,--a fifteen-gallon keg with a stopcock in it and set on +a wooden stand close to his bunk. + +An odour of shell-fish pervaded the atmosphere, coming from some kind +of soup made from clams and milk, on which Jake had evidently been +dining. The residue of it still sat in a pot on the stove. This, I +discovered, was Jake's favourite dish. + +He rose, took two breakfast cups from a shelf and went over to the keg +in the corner. He filled up both of them to the brim. + +"Have a drink, George?" he invited, offering me one of the cups. + +"What is it?" I asked, thinking it might be a cider of some kind. + +"What d'ye suppose, man?--ginger beer? It's good rye whiskey." + +From the odour, I had ascertained this for myself before he spoke. + +"No, thanks, Jake, I don't drink." + +"Holy mackinaw!" he exclaimed, almost dropping the cups in his +astonishment. "If you don't drink, how in the Sam Hill are you going +to make it stick up here? Why, man, you'll go batty in the winter +time, for it's lonely as hell." + +"From all accounts, Jake, hell is not a very lonely place," I laughed. + +"Aw!--you know what I mean," he put in. + +"I'll have plenty of work to do in the store; enough to keep me from +feeling lonely." + +"Not you. Once it's goin', it'll be easy's rollin' off'n a log. +What'll you do o' nights, 'specially winter nights,--if you don't +drink?" + +He sat down and began to empty his cup of liquor by the gulp. + +His dog, which had been lying sullenly on the floor near the stove, got +up and ambled leisurely to Jake's feet. It looked up at him as he +drank, then it put its two front paws on Jake's knees, as if to attract +his attention. + +Meaghan stopped his imbibing and stroked the dog's head. + +"Well,--well--Mike; and did I forget you?" + +He poured a little liquor in a saucer and set it down on the floor +before the dog, who lapped it up with all the relish of a seasoned +toper. Then it put its paws back on Jake's knees, as if asking for +more. + +"No! Mike. Nothin' doin'. You've had your whack. Too much ain't +good for your complexion, old man." + +In a sort of dreamy, contemplative mood the dog sat down on its +haunches between us. + +"What'll you do o' nights if you don't drink? You ain't told me that, +George," reiterated Jake, sucking some of the liquor from his drooping +moustaches. + +"Oh!" I replied, "I'll read, and sometimes I'll sit out and watch the +stars and listen to the sea and the wind." + +"And what after that?" he queried. + +"I can always think, when I have nothing else to do." + +"And what after that?" he asked again. + +"Nothing, Jake,--nothing. That's all." + +"No it ain't. No it ain't, I tell you;--after that,--it's the bughouse +for yours. It's the thinking,--it's the thinking that does it every +time. It's the last stage, George. You'll be clean, plumb batty +inside o' six months." + +The dog got up, after two unsuccessful attempts. + +Never did I see such a strange sight in any animal. He put out one paw +and staggered to the right. He put out another and staggered to the +left. All the time, his eyes were half closed. He was quite +insensible of our presence, for he was as drunk as any waterfront +loafer. Staggering, stumbling and balancing, he made his way back to +his place beside the stove, where, in a moment more, he was in a deep +sleep and snoring,--as a Westerner would put it,--to beat the cars. + +Meaghan noticed my interest in the phenomenon. + +"That's nothin'," he volunteered. "Mike has his drink with me every +night, for the sake o' company. Why not? He doesn't see any fun in +lookin' at the stars and watching the tide come up o' nights. Worst +is, he can't stand up to liquor. It kind o' gets his goat; yet he's +been tipplin' for three years now." + +Jake finished off his cup of whisky. + +"Good Heavens, man!" I exclaimed in disgust and dismay, "don't you know +you will kill yourself drinking that stuff in that way?" + +"Guess nit," he growled, but quite good-naturedly. "I ain't started. +I've been drinkin' more'n that every night for ten years and I ain't +dead yet,--not by a damn sight. No! nor I ain't never been drunk, +neither." + +He took up the other cupful of whisky as he spoke and slowly drained it +off before my eyes. He laid the empty cup on the table with a grunt of +satisfaction, pulling at his long moustaches in lazy pleasure. + +"That's my nightcap, George. Better'n seein' stars, too." + +I could see his end. + +"I'd much rather see stars than snakes," I remarked. But Jake merely +laughed it off. + +I rose in a kind of cold perspiration. To me, this was +horrible;--drinking for no apparent reason. + +He came with me to the door. His voice was as steady as could be; so +were his legs. The effects of the liquor he had consumed did not show +on him except maybe for a bloodshot appearance in the whites of his +baby-blue eyes. + +I was worried. I had known such another as Jake in the little village +of Brammerton; and I knew what the inevitable end had been and what +Jake's would be also. + +"Don't be sore at me, George," he pleaded. "It's the only friend I got +now." + +"It is not any friend of yours, Jake." + +"Well,--maybe it ain't, but I think it is and that's about the only way +we can reckon our friends. + +"When you find I ain't doin' my share o' the work because o' the booze +or when you catch me drunk,--I'll quit it. Good-night, George." + +I wished him good-night gruffly, hurried over the beach, scrambled into +the boat and rowed quickly for my new home. + +And, as I stood on the veranda for a long time before turning in, I +watched the moon rise and skim her way behind and above the clouds, +throwing, as she did so, great dark shadows and eerie lights on the sea. + +In the vast, awesome stillness of the forest behind and the swishing +and shuffling of the incoming tide on the shingles on the beach, I +thought of what my good friend, K. B. Horsfal, had quoted: + +"Where every prospect pleases and only man is vile." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +Rita of the Spanish Song + +Next morning I was awakened bright and early by the singing of birds. +For a few moments I imagined myself back in England; but the ceaseless +beat of the sea and the sustained, woody-toned, chattering, chirruping +squeak of an angry squirrel on my roof gave me my proper location. + +I had heard once, in a London drawing-room, that there were no singing +birds in British Columbia; that the songsters of the East were unable +to get across the high, eternal cold and snow of the Rockies. What a +fallacy! They were everywhere around me, and in thousands. How they +got there was of little moment to me. They were there, much to my joy; +and the forests at my back door were alive with the sweetness of their +melodies. + +Early as I was, I could see a thin column of smoke rising from the cove +where Jake was. When I went to the woodpile at the rear of my +bungalow, I found more evidence of his early morning diligence. A heap +of dry, freshly cut kindling was set out, while the chickens had +already been fed and let out to wander at their own sweet wills. + +For the first time in my very ordinary life, I investigated the +eccentricities of a cook stove, overcame them and cooked myself a +rousing breakfast of porridge and bacon and eggs with toast. How proud +I felt of my achievement and how delicious the food tasted! Never had +woman cooked porridge and bacon and eggs to such a delightful turn. + +I laughed joyously, for I felt sure I had stumbled across an important +truth that woman had religiously kept from the average man throughout +all the bygone ages: the truth that any man, if he only sets his mind +to it, can cook a meal perfectly satisfactory to himself. + +After washing up the breakfast dishes without smashing any, sweeping +the kitchen floor and shovelling up--nothing; there was nothing left +for me to do, for the north-going steamer was not due until early in +the afternoon. When she should arrive and give me delivery of the +freight which she was bringing, I knew I should have enough to occupy +my attention for some days to come, getting the cases opened up and the +goods checked over, priced and set out in the store; but, meantime, my +time was my own. + +It was a glorious morning. The sun was shining and the air was balmy +as a midsummer's day at home. I opened the front door and gazed on the +loveliness; I stretched my arms and felt vigour running to my +finger-tips. Then I longed, how I longed, for a swim! + +And why not! I slipped out of my shirt and trousers and got into my +bathing suit. I ran down to the end of the wharf and out on to the +rocks. + +The water was calm, and deep, and of a pale green hue. I could see the +rock cod and little shiners down there, darting about on a breakfast +hunt. + +Filling my lungs, I took a header in, coming up fifteen yards out and +shaking my head with a gurgling cry of pleasure. I struck out, +overhand, growing stronger and more vigorous each succeeding moment, as +the refreshing sea played over my body. On, on I went, turning upon my +breast sometimes, sometimes on my back, lashing the water into foam +with my feet and blowing it far into the air from my mouth. + +Half a mile out and I was as near to the island, in the middle of the +Bay, as I was to the wharf. I knew I could make it, although I had not +been in the water for several weeks. I had an abundance of time, the +sea was warm, the island looked pretty,--so on I went. + +I reached it at last, a trifle blown, but in good condition. + +It had not been by any means a record swim for me. I had not intended +that it should. All the way, it had been a pleasure trip. + +I made for a sandy beach, between two rocky headlands. Soon, I got my +footing and waded ashore. After a short rest, I set out to survey the +island. + +All the childhood visions I had stored in my memory of "Coral Island," +"Crusoe's Island," and "Treasure Island" became visualised and merged +into one,--the island I was exploring. + +It was of fairy concept; only some four hundred yards long and about a +hundred yards in breadth, with rugged rocks and sandy beaches; secret +caves and strange caverns; fertile over all with small fir and arbutus +trees, shrubs, ferns and turfy patches of grass of the softest velvet +pile. In the most unlikely places, I stumbled across bubbling springs +of fresh water forcing its way through the rocks. How they originated, +was a mystery to me, for the island was separated from the mainland by +a mile, at least, of salt water. + +What an ideal spot, I thought, for a picnic! Would not some of my +eccentric acquaintances at home,--the Duke of Athlane, for +instance,--dearly love to take the whole thing up by the roots and +transplant it in the centre of some of the artificial lakes they had +schemed and contrived, in wild attempts to make more beautiful the +natural beauties of their estates? + +By this time, the warm air had dried my body. I climbed to the highest +point of the island,--a small plateau, covered with short turf; a +glorious place for the enjoyment of a sun bath. I lay down and +stretched myself. + +My only regret then was that I did not have a book with me to complete +my Paradise. + +Pillowed on a slight incline, I dreamily watched the scudding clouds, +then my eyes travelled across to the mainland. I could see the smoke +curl upward from my kitchen fire. I saw old Jake get into his boat, +followed by the drunken rascal of a dog, Mike. All was still and quiet +but for the seethe and shuffle of the sea. + +Suddenly, on the other side of the water somewhere, but evidently far +away, a voice, untrained, but of peculiar sweetness, broke into my +drowsing. I listened for a time, trying to catch the refrain. As it +grew clearer, I tried to pick up the words, but they were in a tongue +foreign to me. They were not French, nor were they Italian. At last, +it struck me that they were Spanish words; the words of a Spanish +dancing song, which, when I was a gadding-about college boy, had been +popular among us. I recalled having heard that it was sung by the +chorus of a famous Spanish dancer, who, at one time, had been the rage +of London and the Provinces, but who had mysteriously vanished from the +footlights with the same suddenness as she had appeared there. + +It was a haunting little melody, catchy and childishly simple; and it +had remained in my memory all these years, as is so often the case with +choruses that we hear in our babyhood. + +Naturally, I was more than curious to see the singer, so I crept to the +top of the grassy knoll and peered over, searching the far side of the +island and over the water. + +Away out, I discerned a small boat making in the direction of the +island. The oars were being plied by a woman, or a girl,--I could not +tell which, as her back was toward me and she was still a good way off. +She handled her oars as if she were a part of the boat itself and the +boat were a living thing. + +She stopped every now and then, rose from her seat and busied herself +with something. I wondered what she was doing. I saw her haul +something into the boat. As she examined it in her hand, the sun +flashed upon it. I could hear her laugh happily as she tossed it into +the bottom of the boat. + +She was trolling for fish and, evidently, getting a plentiful supply. + +She rowed in as if intent upon fishing round the island. But, all at +once, she changed her mind, turned the boat, pulled in her fishing line +and shot into a sandy beach, springing out and pulling the boat clear +of the tide. + +She straightened herself as she turned and faced the plateau on the far +incline of which I lay hidden. I saw at a glance that, though a mere +girl in years,--somewhere between sixteen and eighteen,--yet she was a +woman, maturing as a June rose, as a butterfly stretching its pretty +wings for the first time in the ecstasy of its new birth. Of medium +height; her hair was the darkest shade of brown and hung in two long, +thick braids down to her neat waist. She seemed not at all of the +countrified type I might have expected to encounter so far in the wilds. + +She was dressed in a spotless white blouse, the sleeves of which were +rolled back almost to her shoulders; with a dark-coloured, serviceable +skirt, the hem of which hung high above a pair of small, bare feet and +neat, supple-looking ankles. I could see her shoes and stockings, +brown in colour, lying in the bow of the boat. She reached over, +picked them up, then sat on a rock by the water's edge and pulled them +on her feet. + +But, after all, it was not her dress that held my attention; although +in the main this was pleasing to the eye, nor yet was it the girl's +features, for she was still rather far off for me to observe these +distinctly. What riveted me was the light, agile rapidity of her every +action; and her evident abandonment of everything else for what, for +the moment, absorbed her. + +As I watched, I became filled with conflicting thoughts. Should I +remain where I was, or should I at once betray my presence? + +I decided that the island was large enough for both of us. She was not +interested in me, so why should I interrupt her in her lonely enjoyment? + +I was perplexed more than a little in trying to place where she +rightfully belonged. Naturally, I took her to be the daughter of one +of the settlers on the far side of Golden Crescent. But there was a +something in her entire appearance that seemed to place her on a +different plane from that, a plane all by herself; while, again, there +was the Spanish song which I had heard her lilt out on the water. + +She brought my conjecturing to rather an abrupt conclusion, for, +without any warning, she darted up over the rocks and through the ferns +to where I lay, and she had almost trodden upon me before I had time to +get out of her way. + +She stepped back with an exclamation of surprise, but gave no sign to +indicate that she was afraid. + +I sprang to my feet. + +"I am very sorry,--miss," I said sincerely. + +"Oh!--there ain't much to be sorry over. This ain't my island. +Still,--girls don't much care about men watching them from behind +places," she replied, with a tone of displeasure. + +"And I am sorry,--again," I answered. "Please forgive me, for I could +hardly help it. I was lying here when I heard you sing. I became +curious. When you landed, I intended making my presence known, but I +said to myself just what you have said now:--'It is not my island.' +However, I shall go now and leave you in possession." + +"Where is your boat?" + +"Didn't bring one with me." + +"How did you get here then?" + +Her blunt questioning was rather disconcerting. + +"Oh! I walked it," I answered lightly, with a grin. + +Her voice changed. "You're trying to be smart," she reprimanded. + +"Sorry," I said, in a tone of contrition, "for I am not a bit smart in +spite of my trying. Well,--I swam across from the wharf over there." + +She looked up. "Being smart some more." + +"No!--it is true." + +She measured the distance from the island to the wharf with her eye. + +I remarked, some time ago, that her hair was of the darkest shade of +brown. I was wrong;--there was a darker hue still, and that was in her +eyes; while her skin was of that attractive combination, olive and pink. + +"Gee!--that was some swim. + +"How are you going to get back?" she continued, in open friendliness. + +"Swim!" + +"Ain't you tired?" + +"I was winded a bit when I got here, but I am all right again," I +answered. + +"You're an Englishman?" + +"How did you guess it?" I asked, as if I were giving her credit for +unearthing a great mystery. + +Before answering, she sat down on the grass, clasping her hands over +her knees. I squatted a short distance from her. + +"Only Englishmen go swimming hereabouts in the morning." + +"Do you often stumble across stray, swimming Englishmen?" I asked in +banter. + +"No!--but three summers ago there were some English people staying in +that house at the wharf that's now closed up:--the one next Horsfal's, +and they were in the water so much, they hardly gave the fish a chance. +It was the worst year we ever had for fishing." + +I laughed, and she looked up in surprise. + +"Then we had an English surveyor staying with us for a month last year. +He was crazy for the water. He went in for half an hour every morning +and before his breakfast, too. You don't find the loggers or any of +the settlers doing silly stunts like that. No, siree. + +"Guess you're a surveyor?" + +"No!" + +"Or maybe a gentleman up for shooting and fishing? Can't be though, +for there ain't any launches in the Bay. Yes, you are, too, for I saw +a launch in yesterday." + +"I hope I am always a gentleman," I said, "but I am not the kind of +gentleman you mean. I have no launch and no money but what I can earn. +I am the new man who is to look after Mr. Horsfal's Golden Crescent +property. I shall be more or less of a common country storekeeper +after to-day." + +"Heard about that store from old Jake. Granddad over home was talking +about it, too. It'll be convenient for the Camps and a fine thing for +the settlers up here." + +She jumped up. "Well,--I guess I got to beat it, Mister----" + +"George Bremner," I put in. + +"My name's Rita;--Rita Clark. I stay over at the ranch there, the one +with the red-roofed houses. This island's named Rita, too." + +"After you?" + +"Ya!--guess so!" + +She did not venture any more. + +"Been here long?" I asked. + +"Long's I can remember," she answered. + +"Like it?" + +"I love it. It's all I got. Never been away from it more'n three +times in my life." + +There was something akin to longing in her voice. + +"I love it all the same,--all but that over there." + +As she spoke, she shivered and pointed away out to the great +perpendicular rock, with its jagged, devilish, shark-like teeth, which +rose sheer out of the water and stood black, forbidding and snarling, +even in the sunshine, to the right, at the entrance to the Bay, a +quarter of a mile or so from the far horn of Golden Crescent. + +"You don't like rocks?" + +"Some rocks," she whispered, "but not 'The Ghoul.'" + +"The Ghoul," I repeated with a shudder. "Ugh!--what a name. Who on +earth saddled it with such a horrible name?" + +"Nobody on earth. Guess it must have been the devil in hell, for it's +a friend of his." + +Her face grew pale and a nameless horror crept into her eyes. + +"It ain't nice to look on now,--is it?" + +"No!" I granted. + +"You want to see it in the winter, when there's a storm tearing in, +with the sea crashing over it in a white foam and,--and,--people trying +to hang on to it. Oh!--I tell you what it is,--it's hellish, that's +all. It's well named The Ghoul,--it's a robber of the dead." + +"Robber of the dead!--what do you mean?" + +"Everybody but a stranger knows:--it robs them of a decent burial. +Heaps of men, and women too, have been wrecked out there, but only one +was ever known to come off alive. Never a body has ever been found +afterwards." She shivered and turned her head away. + +For a while, I gazed at the horrible rock in fascination. What a +reminder it was to the poor human that there is storm as well as calm; +evil as well as good; that turmoil follows in the wake of quiet; that +sorrow tumbles over joy; and savagery and death run riot among life and +happiness and love! + +At last, I also turned my eyes away from The Ghoul, with a strong +feeling of anger and resentment toward it. Already I loathed and hated +the thing as I hated nothing else. + +I stood alongside the girl and we remained silent until the mood passed. + +Then she raised her eyes to mine and smiled. In an endeavour to +forget,--which, after all, was easy amid so much sunshine and +beauty,--I reverted to our former conversation. + +"You said you were seldom away from here. Don't you ever take a trip +to Vancouver?" + +"Been twice. We're not strong on trips up here. Grand-dad goes to +Vancouver and Victoria once in a while. Grandmother's been here twenty +years and never been five miles from the ranch, 'cept once, and she's +sorry now for that once. + +"Joe's the one that gets all the trips. You ain't met Joe. Guess when +you do you and him won't hit it. He always fights with men of your +size and build." + +"Who is this Joe?" I asked. "He must be quite a man-eater." + +"I ain't going to tell you any more. You'll know him when you see him. + +"I'm going now. Would you like some fish? The trout were biting good +this morning. I've got more'n we need." + +We went down to the shore together. There were between thirty and +forty beauties of sea-trout in the bottom of her boat. She handed me +out a dozen. + +"Guess that'll make a square meal for you and Jake." + +Then she looked at me and laughed, showing her teeth. "Clean forgot," +she said. "A swimming man ain't no good at carrying fish." + +"Why not?" I asked. + +I picked up some loose cord from her boat, strung the trout by the +gills and tied them securely round my waist. + +She watched me archly and a thought went flashing through my mind that +it did not need the education of the city to school a woman in the art +of using her eyes. + +"Guess I'll see you off the premises first, before I go." + +"All right!" said I. + +We crossed the Island once more, and I got on to a rock which dipped +sheer and deep into the sea. + +She held out her hand and smiled in such a bewitching way that, had I +not been a well-seasoned bachelor of almost twenty-five years' +standing, I should have lost my heart to her completely. + +"Good-bye! Mister,--Mister Bremner. Safe home." + +"Good-bye! Miss--Rita." + +"Sure you can make it?" she asked earnestly. + +"Yes!" I cried, and plunged in. + +As I came up, I turned and waved my hand. She waved in answer, and +when I looked again she was gone. + +I struck swiftly for the wharf, allowing for the incoming tide. + +When I was half-way across, I heard the sound of oars and, on taking a +backward glance, I saw Rita making toward me. + +"Hello!" I cried, when she drew near. "What's the matter?" + +A little shame-faced, she bent over. "I got scared," she said timidly, +"scared you mightn't make it. Sure you don't want me to row you in?" + +The boat was alluring, but my pride was touched. + +"Quite sure," I answered. "I'm as fresh as the trout round my waist. +Thanks all the same." + +"All right! Guess I was foolish. You ain't a man; you're a porpoise." + +With this half-annoyed sally, she swung the bow of the boat and rowed +away. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +An Informative Visitor + +That afternoon, prompt at two o'clock, a whistle sounded beyond the +point and, shortly afterwards, the steamboat _Siwash_, north bound, +entered the Bay. + +Jake and I were waiting at the end of the wharf, seated in a large, +wide-beamed, four-oared boat, with Mike, the dog,--still eyeing me +suspiciously,--crouching between his master's feet. + +We had a raft and half a dozen small rowing boats of all shapes and +conditions, strung out, Indian file, from our stern. Every available +thing in Golden Crescent Bay that could float, down to a canoe and an +old Indian dug-out, we borrowed or requisitioned for our work. And, +with this long procession in tow, we pulled out and made for the +steamer, which came to a standby in the deep water, three hundred yards +from the shore. + +The merchandise was let down by slings from the lower deck, and we had +to handle the freight as best we could, keeping closely alongside all +the while. + +A dozen times, I thought one or another of the boats would be +overturned and its contents emptied into the Bay. But luck was with +us. Jake spat tobacco juice on his hands every few minutes and sailed +in like a nigger. Our clothes were soon moist through and through, and +the perspiration was running over our noses long before our task was +completed. But finally the last package was lowered and checked off by +the mate and myself, a clear receipt given; and we (Jake and I) pushed +for the shore, landing exhausted in body but without mishap to the +freight. + +Jake fetched some fresh clams to my kitchen for convenience and, after +slapping half a plug of tobacco in his cheek, he started in and cooked +us a savoury concoction which he called "chowder," made with baked +clams mixed in hot milk, with butter and crumbled toast; all duly +seasoned:--while I smoked my pipe and washed enough dishes to hold our +food, and set the table for our meal. + +Already, I had discovered that dish-washing was the bugbear of a +kitchen drudge's existence, be the kitchen drudge female or male. I +had only done the job three or four times, but I had got to loathe and +abhor the operation. Not that I felt too proud to wash dishes, but it +seemed such a useless, such an endless, task. However, I suppose +everything in this old world carries with it more or less of these same +annoyingly bad features. + +At any rate, I never could make up my mind to wash a dish until I +required it for my next and immediate meal. + +We dined ravenously, and throughout the proceeding, Mike sat in the +doorway, keeping close watch that I did not interfere with the sacred +person of his lord and master, Jake Meaghan. + +Rested and reinvigorated, we set-to with box-openers, hammers and +chisels, unpacking and unpacking until the thing became a boring +monotony. + +Canned milk, canned beef, canned beans, canned salmon, canned crabs, +canned well-nigh-everything; bottled fruits, bottled pickles, bottled +jams and jellies, everything bottled that was not canned; bags of +sugar, flour, meal, potatoes, oats and chicken feed; hardware galore, +axes, hammers, wedges, peevies, cant hoops, picks, shovels, nails, +paints, brooms, brushes and a thousand other commodities and +contrivances the like of which I never saw before and hope never to see +again. + +Never, in all my humble existence, did I feel so clerky as I did then. + +I checked the beastly stuff off as well as I could, taking the +Vancouver wholesalers' word for the names of half the things, for I was +quite sure they knew better than I did about them. + +With the assistance of Jake, as "hander-up," I set the goods in a +semblance of order on the shelves and about the store. + +We worked and slaved as if it were the last day and our eternal +happiness depended on our finishing the job before the last trump +sounded its blast of dissolution. + +By the last stroke of twelve, midnight, we had the front veranda swept +clean of straw, paper and excelsior, and all empty boxes cleared away; +just in time to welcome the advent of my first Sabbath day in the +Canadian West. + +Throughout our arduous afternoon and evening, what a surprise old Jake +was to me! Well I knew that he was hard and tough from years of +strenuous battling with the northern elements; but that he, at his age +and with his record for hard drinking, should be able to keep up the +sustained effort against a young man in his prime and that he should do +so cheerfully and without a word of complaint,--save an occasional +grunt when the steel bands around some of the boxes proved +recalcitrant, and an explosive, picturesque oath when the end of a +large case dropped over on his toes,--was, to me, little short of +marvellous. + +Already, I was beginning to think that Mr. K. B. Horsfal had erred in +regard to his man and that it was Jake Meaghan who was twenty-four +carat gold. + +If any man ever did deserve two breakfast cups brimful of whisky, neat, +before turning in, it was old, walrus-moustached, weather-battered, +baby-eyed, sour-dough Jake, in the small, early hours of that Sabbath +morning. + +I slept that night like a dead thing, and the sun was high in the +heavens before I opened my eyes and became conscious again of my +surroundings. + +I looked over at the clock. Fifteen minutes past ten! I threw my legs +over the side of the bed, ashamed of my sluggardliness. + +Then I remembered,--it was Sunday morning. + +Oh! glorious remembering! Sunday,---with nothing to do but attend to +my own bodily comforts. + +I pulled my legs back into the bed in order to start the day correctly. +I lay and stretched myself, then, very leisurely,--always remembering +that it was the Sabbath,--I put one foot out and then the other, until, +at last, I stood on the floor, really and truly up and awake. + +Jake had been around. I could see traces of him in the yard, though he +was nowhere visible in the flesh. + +After I had breakfasted and made my bed (I know little Maisie Brant, +who used to make my bed away back over in the old home--little Maisie +who had wept at my departure, would have laughed till she wept again, +had she seen my woful endeavours to straighten out my sheets and smooth +my pillow. But then, she was not there to see and laugh and--I was +quite satisfied with my handiwork and satisfied that I would be able to +sleep soundly in the bed when the night should come again)--I hunted +the shelves for a book. + +Stevenson, Poe, Scott, Hugo, Wells, Barrie, Dumas, Twain, Emerson, +Byron, Longfellow, Burns,--which should it be? + +Back along the line I went, and chose--oh, well!--an old favourite I +had read many times before. + +I hunted out a hammock and slung it comfortably from the posts on the +front veranda, where I could lie and smoke and read; also where I could +look away across the Bay and rest my eyes on the quiet scene when they +should grow weary. + +Late in the afternoon, when I was beginning to grow tired of my +indolence, I heard the thud, thud of a gasoline launch as it came up +the Bay. It passed between Rita's Isle and the wharf, and held on, +turning in to Jake Meaghan's cove. + +I wondered who the visitor could be, then I went back to my reading. + +Not long after, a shadow fell across my book and I jumped up. + +"Pray, don't let me disturb you, my son," said a soft, well-modulated, +masculine voice. "Stay where you are. Enjoy your well-earned rest." + +A little, frail-looking, pale-faced, elderly gentleman was at my elbow. + +He smiled at me with the smile of an angel, and my heart went out to +him at once, so much so that I could have hugged him in my arms. + +"My name is William Auld," he continued. "I am the medical missionary. +What is yours, my son?" + +He held out his hand to me. + +"George Bremner," I replied, gripping his. "Let me bring you a chair." + +I went inside, and when I returned he was turning over the leaves of my +book. + +"So you are a book lover?" he mused. "Well, I would to God more men +were book lovers, for then the world would be a better place to live +in, or rather, the men in it would be better to live among. + +"Victor Hugo,--'Les Miserables'!--" he went on. "To my mind, the +greatest of all novelists and the greatest of all novels." + +He laid the book aside, and sought my confidences, not as a preacher, +not as a pedagog, but as a friend; making no effort to probe my past, +seeking no secrets; but all anxiety for my welfare; keen to know my +ambitions, my aspirations, my pastimes and my habits of living; open +and frank in telling me of himself. He was a man's man, with the +experience of men that one gets only by years of close contact. + +"For twenty years it has been God's will to allow me to travel up and +down this beloved coast and minister to those who need me." + +"You must like the work, sir," I ventured. + +"Like it!--oh! yes, yes,---I would not exchange my post for the City +Temple of London, England." + +"But such toil must be arduous, Mr. Auld, for you are not a young man +and you do not look altogether a robust one." + +He paused in meditation. "It is arduous, sometimes;--to-day I have +talked to the men at eight camps and I have visited fourteen families +at different points on my journey. But, if I were to stop, who would +look after my beloved people in the ranches all up the coast; who would +care for my easily-led, simple-hearted brethren in the logging camps, +every one of whom knows me, confides in me and looks forward to my +coming; not one of whom but would part with his coat for me, not one +who would harm a hair of my head. I shall not stop, Mr. Bremner,--I +have no desire to stop, not till God calls me. + +"I see you have been making changes even in your short time here," he +said, pointing to the store. + +"Yes! I think Jake and I did fairly well yesterday," I answered, not a +little proudly. + +"Splendidly, my boy! And, do you know,--your coming here means a great +deal. It is the commencement of a new departure, for your store is +going to prove a great boon to the settlers. They have been talking +about it and looking forward to it ever since it was first mooted. + +"But it will not be altogether smooth sailing for you, for you must +keep a close rein on your credit." + +It struck me, as he spoke, that he was the very man I was desirous of +meeting regarding what I considered would prove my stumbling block. + +"Can you spare me half an hour, sir, and have tea with me?" I asked. + +"Yes! gladly, for my day's service is over,--all but one call, and a +cup of tea is always refreshing." + +I showed him inside and set him in my cosiest chair. While I busied +with the table things,--washing some dishes as a usual preliminary,--I +approached the subject. + +"Mr. Auld,--I wished to ask your advice, for I am sure you can assist +me. My employer, Mr. Horsfal, has given me a free hand regarding +credit to the settlers. I know none of them and I am afraid that, +without guidance, I may offend some or land the business in trouble +with others. Will you help me, sir?" + +"Why--of course, I'll help." + +He took a sheet of paper from his pocket and commenced to write, +talking to me as he did so. + +"You know, if times are at all good, you can trust the average man who +owns the ranch he lives on to pay his grocery bills sooner or later. +Still, if I were you, I wouldn't let any of them get into debt more +than sixty or seventy dollars, for they do not require to, and, once +they get in arrears, they have difficulty in getting out. + +"It is the floating population,--the here-to-day-and-away-to-morrow +people who should not be given credit. And,--Mr. Bremner, if you +desire to act in kindness to the men themselves, do not allow the +loggers, who come in here, to run up bills for themselves personally. +Not that they are more dishonest than other people,--far from it. I +find it generally the other way round,--but they are notoriously +improvident; inclined,--God bless them,--to live for the fleeting +moment. + +"In many ways they are like children in their simplicity and their +waywardness,--and their lot is not one of roses and honeysuckle. They +make good money and can afford to pay as they go. If they cannot pay, +they can easily wait for what they want until they can, for they are +well fed and well housed while in the camps." + +We sat down at the table together. + +"There is a list, George. May I call you George? It is so much more +friendly." + +I nodded in hearty approval. + +"It is not by any means complete, but it contains the principal people +among your near-hand neighbours. You can trust them to pay their last +cent: Neil Andrews, Semple, Smith, Johannson, Doolan, MacAllister and +Gourlay. + +"Any others who may call,--make them pay; and I shall be glad to inform +you about them when I am this way again." + +"How often do you come in here, Mr. Auld?" + +"I try to make it, at least, once in two weeks, but I am not always +successful. I like to visit Jake Meaghan. Poor, old, faithful, +plodding Jake,--how I tried, at first, to extract the thorn from his +flesh--the accursed drink! I talked to him, I scolded him, I +threatened him, but,--poor Jake,--he and his whisky are one, and +nothing but death will ever separate them." + +Suddenly his face lit up and his eyes seemed to catch fire. + +"And who are we to judge?" he said, as if denying some inward question. +"What right have we to think for a moment that this inherent weakness +shall deprive Jake Meaghan of eternal happiness? He is honest; he does +good in his own little sphere; he harms no one but himself, for he +hasn't a dependent in the world. He fills a niche in God's plan; he is +still God's child, no matter how erring he may be. He is some mother's +son. George,--I am fully persuaded that my God, and your God, will not +be hard on old Jake when his time comes; and, do you know, sometimes I +think that time is not very far off." + +We sat silent for a while, then the minister spoke again: + +"Tell me, George,--have you met any of your neighbours yet?" + +"Only two," I said, "Jake, and Rita Clark." + +He raised his white, bushy eyebrows. + +"So you have met Rita! She's a strange child; harboured in a strange +home." + +He sighed at some passing thought. + +"It's a queer world,--or rather, it's a good world with queer people in +it. One would expect to find love and harmony in the home every time +away up here, but it does not always follow. Old Margaret Clark is the +gentlest, dearest, most patient soul living. Andrew Clark is a good +man in every way but one,--but in that one he is the Rock of Gibraltar +itself, or, to go nearer the place of his birth, Ailsa Craig, that old +milestone that stands defiantly between Scotland and Ireland. Andrew +Clark is immovable. He is hard, relentless, fanatical in his ideas of +right and wrong; cruel to himself and to the woman he vowed to love and +cherish. Oh!--he sears my heart every time I think of him. Yet, he is +living up to his idea of what is right." + +The white-haired old gentleman,--bearer of the burdens of his +fellows,--did not confide in me as to the nature of Andrew Clark's +trouble, and it was not for me to probe. + +"As for Rita," he pursued, "poor, little Rita!--she is no relative of +either Margaret or Andrew Clark. She is a child of the sea. Hers is a +pitiful story, and I betray no confidences in telling you of it, for it +is common property. + +"Fourteen years ago a launch put into the Bay and anchored at the +entrance to Jake's cove. There were several ladies and gentlemen in +her, and one little girl. They picnicked on the beach and, in the +evening, they dined aboard, singing and laughing until after midnight. +Jake was the only one who saw or heard them, and he swears they were +not English-spoken. Though they were gay and pleasure-loving, yet they +seemed to be of a superior class of people. + +"He awoke before daylight, fancying he heard screams in the location of +The Ghoul Rock. He got up and, so certain was he that he had not been +mistaken, he got into his boat and rowed out and round The Ghoul,--for +the night was calm,--but everything was quiet and peaceful out there. + +"Next morning, while Joe Clark was scampering along the shore, he came +across the unconscious form of a little girl about four years old, clad +only in a nightdress and roped roughly to an unmarked life-belt. Joe +carried her in to his grandfather, old Andrew, who worked over her for +more than an hour; and at last succeeded in bringing her round. + +"All she could say then was, "Rita, Rita, Rita," although, about a year +afterwards, she started to hum and sing a little Spanish dancing song. +A peculiar reversion of memory, for she certainly never heard such a +song in Golden Crescent. + +"Jake swears to this day that she belonged to the launch party, who +must have run sheer into The Ghoul Rock and gone down. + +"Little boy Joe pleaded with his grandfather and grandmother to keep +the tiny girl the sea had given them, and they did not need much +coaxing, for she was pretty and attractive from the first. + +"Inquiries were set afoot, but, from that day to this, not a clue has +been found as to her identity; so, Rita Clark she is and Rita Clark she +will remain until some fellow, worthy of her I hope, wins her and +changes her name. + +"I thought at one time, Joe Clark would claim her and her name would +not be changed after all, but since Joe has seen some of the outside +world and has been meeting with all kinds of people, he has grown +patronising and changeable with women, as he is domineering and +bullying with men. + +"He treats Rita as if he expected her to be continually at his call +should he desire her, and yet he were at liberty to choose when and +where he please." + +"But, does Rita care for him?" I asked. + +"Seems so at times," he answered, "but of late I have noticed a +coldness in her at the mention of his name; just as if she resented his +airs of one-sided proprietorship and were trying to decide with herself +to tolerate no more of it. + +"I tried to veer round to the subject with Joe once, but he swore an +oath and told me to mind my own affairs. What Joe Clark needs is +opposition. Yet Joe is a good fellow, strong and daring as a lion and +aggressive to a degree." + +I was deeply interested as the old minister told the story, and it was +like bringing me up suddenly when he stopped. I had no idea how fast +the time had been passing. + +Well I could understand now why this Rita Clark intuitively hated The +Ghoul Rock. Who, in her place, would feel otherwise? + +The Rev. William Auld rose from the table. + +"I must go now, my son, for the way is long. Thanks so much for the +rest and for your hospitality. My only exhortation to you is, stand +firm by all the principles you know to be true; never lose hold of the +vital things because you are here in the wilds, for it is here the +vital things count, more than in the whirr of civilisation." + +"Thank you, sir. I'll try," I said. "You will come again, I hope." + +"Certainly I shall. Even if you did not ask me, for that is my duty. + +"If you accompany me as far as Jake's cove, where my launch is, I think +I can furnish you with a paper from your countryside. I have friends +in the city, in the States and in England, who supply me, every week, +with American and Old Country papers. There are so many men from both +lands in the camps and settled along the coast and they all so dearly +love a newspaper. I generally try to give them what has been issued +nearest their own home towns." + +I rowed Mr. Auld over to his launch and wished him good-bye, receiving +from his kindly old hands a copy of _The Northern Examiner_, dated +three days after I had left Brammerton. + +It was like meeting with an old friend, whom I had expected never to +meet again. I put it in my inside pocket for consideration when I +should get back to my bungalow with plenty of time to enjoy it. + +I dropped in to Jake's shack, for I had not seen him all the sleepy +day. I found him sitting in perfect content, buried up over the eyes +in a current issue of _The Northern Lights_,--a Dawson newspaper, which +had been in existence since the old Klondike days and was much relished +by old-timers. + +The dog was curled up near the stove, sleeping off certain effects; +Jake was at his second cup of whisky. I left them to the peace and +sanctity of their Sabbath evening and rowed back to "Paradise +Regained," as I had already christened my bungalow. + +I sat down on the steps of the veranda, to peruse the home paper which +the minister had left with me, and it was not long before I was +startled by a flaring headline. The blood rushed from my face to my +heart and seemed as if it would burst that great, throbbing organ:-- + + +"SUDDEN DEATH OF THE EARL OF BRAMMERTON AND HAZELMERE." + + +My eyes scanned the notice. + +"News has been telegraphed that the Earl of Brammerton and Hazelmere +died suddenly of heart failure at his country residence, Hazelmere. +His demise has caused a profound sensation, as it occurred on the eve +of a House Party, arranged in celebration of the engagement of his son, +Viscount Harry Brammerton, Captain of the Coldstream Guards, to the +beautiful Lady Rosemary Granton, daughter of the late General Frederick +Granton, who was the companion and dearest friend of the late Earl of +Brammerton in the early days of their campaigning in the Crimea and +India." + +A long obituary notice followed, concluding with the following +paragraph: + + +"It is given out that the marriage of the present Earl with Lady +Granton has been postponed and that, after the necessary business +formalities have been attended to, Captain Harry will join his regiment +in Egypt for a short term. + +"Lady Rosemary Granton has gone to New York, at the cabled invitation +of some old family friends." + +"It is understood that the Hon. George Brammerton, second and only +other son of the late Earl, is presently on a long walking tour in +Europe. His whereabouts are unknown and he is still in ignorance of +his father's death." + + +The pain of that sudden announcement, so soon after I had left home and +right on the eve of my new endeavours, no one shall ever know. + +My dear old father! Angry at my alleged eccentricities sometimes, but +ever ready to forgive,--was gone: doubtless, passing away with a +message of forgiveness to me on his lips. + +And,--after the pain of it, came the conflict. + +Had what I had done caused or in any way hastened my father's death? +Admitting that Harry's fault was great and unforgiveable, would it not +have been better had I allowed it to remain in obscurity, at least for +a time? Was the keeping of the family name unsullied, was the +untarnished honour of our ancient family motto, "Clean,--within and +without," of greater importance than my father's life? Was it my duty +to be an unintentional and silent partner to the keeping of vital +intelligence from the fair Lady Rosemary? + +Over all,--had I done right or wrong? + +What did duty now demand of me? Should I hurry home and face the fresh +problems there which were sure to arise now that Harry had succeeded to +the titles and estates? Should I remain by the post I had accepted +from the hands of Mr. K. B. Horsfal and test thoroughly this new and +exhilarating life which, so far, I had merely tasted? + +I had no doubts as to what my inclinations and desires were. But it +was not a question of inclinations and desires:--it was simply one of +duty. + +All night long, I sat on the veranda steps with my elbows on my knees +and my head in my upturned hands, fighting my battle; until, at last, +when the grey was creeping up over the hills behind me and touching the +dark surface of the sea in front here and there with mellow lights, I +rose and went in to the house,--my conscience clear as the breaking +day, my mind at rest like the rose-coloured tops of the mountains. + +I had no regrets. I had done as a true Brammerton should. I had done +the right. + +I would not go back;--not yet. I would remain here for a while in my +obscurity, testing out the new life and executing as faithfully as I +knew how the new duties I had voluntarily assumed. + +Further,--for my peace of mind,--so long as I remained in Golden +Crescent, I decided I would not cast my eyes over the columns of any +newspaper coming from the British Isles. If I were to be done with the +old life, I must be done with it in every way. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +Joe Clark, Bully + +With the advent of Monday morning, the Golden Crescent Trading Company, +in charge of George Bremner, handyman, store-clerk, bookkeeper, buyer +and general superintendent,--opened its doors for business. + +I was not overburdened with customers, for which I was not sorry, as I +had lots to do fixing the prices of my stock and setting it to rights. + +But the arrival of the mail by the Tuesday steamer brought Neil +Andrews, Doolan, Gourlay and the stern, but honest-faced old Scot, +Andrew Clark, all at different times during the afternoon. Not one of +them could resist the temptation and go away without making some +substantial purchases. + +I held religiously to the Rev. William Auld's list, but I found, in +most cases, that my customers were prepared to pay for their first +orders, at any rate, in cash; and, of course, I did not discourage them. + +On Wednesday, a launch, with three men in her, put in from No. 1 camp +at Susquahamma, bearing an order as long as my arm, duly endorsed in a +business-like way and all according to requirements. + +It took me most of the afternoon to put that order up. The men did not +seem to mind, as they reckoned the going and returning to camp a +well-nigh all-day job for them. They made Jake's shack their +headquarters, spending all of the last two hours of their time in his +cabin. + +Thursday brought another launch, this time from Camp No. 3, and the +same process was gone through as with No. 1, including the visit of the +visitors to Jake's shack. + +In an ordinary case, I would have been beginning to fear that that +shack had become a common shebeen, but I knew Jake was not the man to +accept money from any of his fellow creatures in exchange for any +hospitality it might be in his power to offer. A few days later came a +repeat order from No. 1 Camp, then a request from the Cannery, which I +was able to fill only in part, as many things required by them had not +been included in the original orders given to the Vancouver wholesalers. + +I was beginning to wonder where Camp No. 2 was getting its supplies +from, when, one day, about two weeks after my opening, they showed up. + +Two men came over in a fast-moving launch of a much better type than +those in use by the other camps. The men were big and burly fellows. +One of them was unmistakably Irish; the other looked of Swedish +extraction. + +"You the man that looks after this joint?" asked the Swede. + +"I am," I answered. + +He looked me up and down, for I was on the same side of the counter as +they. Then he turned to his Irish companion with a grin. + +"Say, mister,--where's your hoss?" he asked, addressing me. + +Both laughed loudly. + +At first I failed to see the point of hilarity. + +"What is the joke?" I asked. + +"Guess you are!" said the Swede. And the two men laughed louder than +ever. + +"Look here!" I cried, my blood getting up, "I want you two to +understand, first go off, that I am not in the habit of standing up to +be grinned at. What do you want? Speak out your business or get out +of here and tumble back into your boat." + +"Ach!--it's all right, matey," put in the Irishman. "Just a bit av fun +out av yer breeches and leggings. We Canucks don't wear breeches and +leggings in grocery stores. Do we, Jan?" + +"Guess nit," said Jan. And they both laughed again. + +I cooled down, thinking if that were all their joke they were welcome +to it, for I had already found my breeches and leggings mighty handy +for getting through the bush with and for tumbling in and out of leaky +rowing boats. + +I grinned. "All right, fellows," I cried, "laugh all you want and I'll +leave you a legging each as a legacy when I die." + +"Say, sonny,--you're all right!" he exclaimed. + +Good humour returned all round. + +"We're from No. 2 Camp at Cromer Bay and we want a bunch of stuff." + +"Where is your list and I'll try to fill it?" I inquired. + +The Swede handed over a long order, badly scrawled on the back of a +paper bag. The order was unstamped and unsigned, and not on the +company's order form. + +"This is not any good," I said. "Where is the company's order?" + +The Swede looked blankly at the Irishman, and the Irishman gazed +dreamily at the Swede. + +"Guess that's good enough. Ain't it, Dan?" + +"Shure!" seconded Dan. + +"It can't be done, boys," I said. "Sorry,--but I have my instructions +and they must be followed out." + +I handed back the list. + +The Swede stared at it and then over at me. + +"Ain't you goin' to fill this?" + +"No!" + +"Well, I'll be gosh-dinged! Say! sonny,--there'll be a hearse here for +you to-morrow. The boss wrote this." + +"How am I to know that?" I retorted. + +"Damned if I know," he returned, scratching his forelock. "But it'll +be merry hell to pay if we go back without this bunch of dope." + +"And it might be the devil to pay, if I gave you the goods without a +proper order," I followed up. + +"Some of this stuff's for to-morrow's grubstake," put in the Swede, +"and most of the hardware's wanted for a job first crack out of the box +in the morning." + +"Sorry to disoblige you, fellows," I said sincerely, "but your boss +should not have run so close to the wind. Further, I am going to work +this store right and that from the very beginning." + +"And you're not goin' to fill the boss's own caligeography, or whatever +you call it?" reiterated the Irishman. + +"No!" + +"Wouldn't that rattle ye?" exclaimed Dan to his friend. + +"It do," conceded the Swede, who put his hand into his pocket and +tossed fifteen cents on to the counter. + +"Well,--give us ten cents chewing tobacco, and a packet of gum." + +I filled this cash order and immediately thereafter the two walked out +of the store and sailed away without another word or even a look behind +them. + +I was worried over the incident, for I did not like to think myself in +any way instrumental in depriving the men of anything they might +require for their supper, and it was farthest from my desires to stop +or even hamper the work at Camp No. 2. But I had been warned that +there was only one way to operate a business and that was on business +lines, according to plan, so my conscience would not permit of any +other course than the one I had taken. + +Had the store been my own, I might have acted differently, but it was +merely held by me in trust, which was quite another matter. + +Next forenoon, a tug blew her whistle and put into the Bay, coming-to +on the far side of Rita's Isle. A little later, as I stood behind the +counter writing up some fresh orders to the wholesalers, to replenish +my dwindling stock, a dinghy, with one man at the oars and another +sitting in the stern, appeared round the Island and pointed straight +for the wharf. + +The oarsman ran the nose of the boat on the beach and remained where he +was. The man who had been sitting in the stern sprang out and came +striding in the direction of the store. + +He stopped at the door and looked around him, ignoring my presence the +while. + +What a magnificent specimen of a man he was! Never in my life had I +seen such a man, and, with all the sight-seeing I have done since, I +have never met such another. + +I fancied, with my five feet eleven inches, that I was of a good +height; but this giant stood six feet four inches, if he stood an inch. +He looked quite boyish; not a day older than twenty-two. His hair was +very fair and wavy, and he had plenty of it. + +He was cleanly shaven and cleanly and neatly dressed. His eyes were +big and sky blue in colour. They were eyes that could be warm or cold +at will. Just then, they were passively cold. + +His was a good face, reflecting strength and determination, while +honesty, straight-forwardness and absolute fearlessness lent a charm to +it that it otherwise would have lacked. + +After all, it was the glory of his stature that attracted me, as he +stood, framed by the door, dressed in his high logging boots, with +khaki-coloured trousers and a shirt to match; a soft felt hat on the +back of his head set a little sportily to one side. + +Myself an admirer of the human form, a lover of muscle and sinew, +strength, agility and virility, it always was the physique of a person +that arrested my attention. + +What a man this was for a woman to love! flashed the thought through my +mind. Gazing at him, I could not help feeling my own insignificance in +comparison, although, far down inside of me, there was a hungry kind of +longing to match my agility and science against his tremendous brute +strength, a wondering what the outcome would be. It was, however, +merely a feeling of friendly antagonism. + +But this was the fancy of a passing moment, for I was waiting for the +big fellow to speak. + +He did speak, and rather spoiled the impression. + +"What'n the hell kind of a dump is this anyway?" he exploded. + +I was hit as with a brickbat, but I tried not to show it. + +"This is the Golden Crescent Trading Company," I answered quietly and, +if anything, with an assumption of meekness which I was far from +feeling;--just to see how much rope this big fellow would take to hang +himself with. + +I suppose my tone made him think that his verbal onslaught had been as +effective as it had been short. + +He turned his eyes on me for the first time. They fixed on mine, and +never once flickered. + +"You--don't--say!" he returned, in measured words. + +Then he flared up again. + +"Say!--who's the boss here?" + +"I am," I retorted, getting warm. + +He came over to the middle of the floor. + +"And where'n the hell do I come in?" he asked. + +"Don't know, I'm sure, mister; and I don't care very much either. But +I have an idea that you or I will go out, quick, if you don't cool +down." + +"Here!--you cut that stuff out." He came up to the counter, clenching +his huge hands. "I'm Joe Clark,--see." + +"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Clark. I'm George Bremner." + +"Who'n the hell's George Bremner?" he burst out. + +"That's just what I was wondering in regard to Joe Clark," I retorted, +returning glare for glare. "But look you here,--whoever you may be, +you may get off with this sort of language elsewhere, but it doesn't +have any effect on the man who is running the Golden Crescent Trading +Company." + +He tried hard to hold himself together. + +"Guess you're one of them new-broom-sweep-clean smart Alicks," he said. + +"About as smart as you are civil, Mr. Clark." + +"Well, Mister Man, supposin' you and me gets down to brass tacks, right +now. I'm the Superintendent of No. 2 Camp, with a say in the +management of Camps No. 1 and No. 3. I own three tugs operatin' on the +coast here." + +He thumped his fist on the counter,--"and anything I have a hand in, my +word goes,--understand." + +"You are a lucky man," I answered. "But your word won't go here unless +it coincides with mine, Mister Clark. + +"Now," I added briskly, "tell me your business, or get out. I have +other work to do." + +He raised his hand and leaned across the counter, as if to clutch me by +the throat, and a terrible paw of a hand it was, too. But, evidently, +he thought better of it. + +Not that I fancied for a moment that he was afraid of me at all, +because I knew quite well that he was not. + +He sat down on a box and watched me closely, sizing me up at every +angle as I busied myself adjusting some tins on the shelves that were +in no way in need of adjustment. + +"Guess you think I pay men to take picnics for the good of their health +down to this one-horse outfit." + +"I have not wasted any thoughts on you at all, so far, Mr. Clark," I +replied. + +"Why'n the hell didn't you fill my order yesterday?" + +"Was it your order?" + +"'Course it was. Wrote it out myself, every bit of it." + +"Well,--you're a rotten writer, Mr. Clark." + +"Oh!--can it. What kind of a tin-pot way of doin' business was that? +What was this damned place started for anyway, if not for the +convenience of the Camps?" + +"I suppose you think I ought to know your writing?" I asked. +"Well,--Mr. Clark, even if I had known it, I would not have accepted +the order as it was. My positive instructions are that all camp orders +have to be filled only on receipt of a stamped and signed document on +the Company's business form for that purpose. And that's the only way +goods will go out from here, whether for Joe Clark or for any one else." + +"And what if I ain't got an order with me now? Guess you'll turn me +down same as you did the others yesterday?" + +"That is just what I would have to do." + +"The hell you would!" He put his hand into his pocket and brought out +some papers, one of which he threw on the counter. "There's your +blasted order. Get a wiggle on, for I ain't here on a pleasure +jaunt,--not by a damn sight. I'll be back in an hour for them goods." + +"Better make it an hour and a half. It's a big order and it will not +be ready a minute sooner." + +"Gosh!" he growled, as he strode out, "some store-clerk,---I don't +think." + +I filled the requirements of Camp No. 2 to the best of my ability, +packing up the goods and making everything as secure as necessary for +the boat trip. I had the stuff all piled nicely on the veranda and was +sitting on the steps contemplating and admiring the job, when the +dinghy came back with Joe Clark in the stern as before. + +"Hi, there!--you with the breeches and the leggings,--ain't you got +that order of mine ready yet?" + +"It is all here waiting for you," I shouted back, striking a match on +my much maligned breeches and lighting my briar pipe leisurely. + +"Well,--why'n the devil don't you bring it aboard?" + +"Why don't you come and fetch it?" I cried. "I'm a store-keeper, +Mister Joe Clark,--not a delivery wagon. I sell f.o.b. the veranda." +And I smoked on. + +He jumped out of the boat and rushed up the beach like a madman. I sat +still, smoking away dreamily, but with a weather eye on him. + +He stood over me, rolled up his sleeves and contemplated me, then he +turned and shouted to his man: + +"Hi, Plumbago! Come on and lend a hand with this cargo. No use +wasting any time on this tom-fool injun." + +To say I was surprised, was to put it mildly, for I was sure a quarrel +was about to be precipitated. + +Joe Clark and his man set to, carrying the boxes, and bundles, and +packages piecemeal from the veranda to the boat, while I smoked and +smoked as if in complete ignorance of their presence. + +I knew I was acting aggravatingly, but then, I had been very much +aggravated. + +In an ordinary circumstance I would have been only too pleased to lend +a hand if asked and, possibly, without being asked,--although there was +nothing calling for me to do so,--but when ordered,--well,--how would +any other fellow with a little pride in him have acted? Still, I must +give Joe Clark his due. He made two trips to that dinghy against his +helper's one and he always tackled the heaviest and the most unwieldy +packages. + +When he came for the last box, I rose to go into the house. As I +turned, he caught me by the arm. + +"Here!" he shouted. + +I whipped round. + +"Take your hands off me," I cried angrily, jerking my arm in an old +wrestling trick and throwing my weight on him at an unbalanced angle, +freeing myself and sending him back against the partition. + +He recovered himself and we stood facing each other defiantly. + +"God!" he growled, "but I'd like to kill you. You think you've won +this time. Maybe you have, but, by God! you won't be in this store a +month from now. I'll hound you out, or kick you out,--take it from me." + +"And I'll stand by," I replied, "and take it all quietly like the +simple little lamb I'm not." + +I went into the house and closed the door, and the last I saw of Joe +Clark that day was through the window as he packed his last box and +pushed off in the dinghy. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A Visit, A Discovery and a Kiss + +In the cool of the evening, I came to the conclusion that I had earned +for myself the privilege of the enjoyment of a swim, so I threw my +clothes on my bed, got into my costume, ran out on to the rocks, dived +in and away. + +I did not go out into the Bay this time, but kept leisurely along the +beach fronting the neighbouring property, keeping at a safe distance +from the tangle of seaweed, which, somehow, seemed to gather at that +particular part of the Crescent. + +I amused myself for half an hour, then I returned dripping and in +splendid humour with myself, with my friends and even with Joe Clark. + +I did not notice an extra boat moored alongside the miscellaneous small +craft at the wharf, so, when I stepped noiselessly into my front room, +I was more than surprised to find Rita Clark standing there, in the +fading light, looking over my book shelves. + +She turned with an exclamation, and her face lit up with a smile which +was bewitching, although I fancied it just a little bit forced. + +"Oh!--it's you," she cried. "I knew you wouldn't be very long away. +Been having another try to see whether you're a man or a fish? Guess +the fish will win out if you're not careful." + +She became solemn suddenly. + +"Say!--you go in there and get dressed. I just got to talk to you +about something." + +"Gracious goodness! Is it as serious as all that, Miss Clark?" I +quizzed. + +"Serious enough. You go in and hurry, anyway." + +"I won't be two minutes," I cried, going into my bedroom and dressing +as quickly as possible, puzzling all the while as to what the girl had +on her mind. Something connected with Joe,--I hadn't a doubt. + +"Well,--what's the trouble?" I asked, as I returned and sat down in a +wicker chair opposite her. + +She seemed more glum than ever. + +"What did you want to go and scrap with Joe for?" she asked in a +worried way. + +"I'm very sorry, Miss Clark----" + +"Oh!--call me Rita," she put in impatiently. + +"Well,--I'm very sorry,--Rita,--but I did not quarrel with Joe. He +quarrelled with me." + +"It's all the same," she replied. "Takes two to do it. Couldn't you +find another way than that?" + +Her eyes were bright and her bosom was disturbed. + +"I thought, maybe, you and him might be friends; but I might have +known," she went on bitterly. "He only makes friends with the men who +lay down to him. You ain't that sort." + +I threw out my hands helplessly. + +"Well, Rita, don't you worry your little head over it. It is all +right." + +"Oh, no, it ain't! Don't fool yourself. You don't know Joe." + +"I reckoned him a man who could keep his own counsel. How did you come +to hear there had been any words?" + +"He was over home. He only comes once in a while now. He didn't do +anything but talk about you. Called you all kinds of things. Says +he'll fix you good;--and he will, too, or he ain't the Joe Clark +everybody knows around here." + +Her eyes became tender and moist as she held out her hands to me with +an involuntary movement. "Oh! what did you want to quarrel with him +for, before you knew anything about him?" + +I rose and laid my hand lightly on her shoulder, as I would with a +little sister,--had I had one,--for she seemed only a slip of a girl +and it hurt me to see her so upset. + +"Look here! little maid," I said, "you forget all about it. Joe came +in here and asked me to do what the man who employed me particularly +instructed me against doing. I declined, and Joe became foolish, +losing his temper completely. This Joe likes to trample on men. He +grew angry because I would not let him do any trampling on me. No! +Rita, I am not a teeny-weeny little bit afraid of Joe Clark." + +She looked up at me in astonishment, then she sort of despaired again. + +"Oh! that's 'cause you don't know him. Everybody's got to do as Joe +says,--here and in the Camps and pretty near all along the coast." + +I laughed easily; for what did I care? Joe's worst, whatever it might +be, could not hurt me very badly. I was not so deeply into anything +yet for that. + +"He's a big man, and can hurt,--and he hurts everybody that runs up +against him." + +I leaned over against the window ledge and surveyed Rita. + +"Well,--" I said, "I'm not as big as Joe is, but I have been schooled +to hold my own. Joe shall have a good run for his money when he +starts." + +"Oh!--I know you're strong, and big, though not as big as him, and that +you ain't afraid. Maybe that's why I like Joe sometimes,--he's never +afraid. + +"Still,--I don't like him half as much as I used to," she sighed. "But +I didn't mean fighting when I talked of him being big and strong. +Joe's got influence, Joe's got money, he's got tugs and he's +superintendent of the Camps. He says he's boss of the whole shootin' +match, and you'll find it out soon." + +"He may be nearly all you say, but he has nothing to do with George +Bremner running this little Trading Company any more than being under +the necessity of buying his supplies here. I was put in by Mr. Horsfal +himself, to be under no one, and with the appointment of superintendent +of his Golden Crescent property. So, here I am like to stay as long as +I want to, or until Mr. Horsfal says differently." + +Rita glanced up at me and her eyes brightened with a ray of hope. + +"And Joe ain't got nothing to say about it?" + +"Not a particle. If he had had, I would not be here now. He would +have sacked me on the spot." + +"Really and truly, he ain't?" she cried, with fresh anxiety. + +"Really and truly," I repeated. + +"Oh! goody, goody,--" + +Poor little Rita;--all sunshine and shower. She was as merry as a +kitten for a time, then she dropped back into her serious mood. + +"What!--haven't all your worries gone yet?" I asked. + +"Some," she said, "but not them all. Do you know what Joe is, George? +He's a bully." + +"He is, undoubtedly," I agreed. + +"Ya!--he is, all right. Still,--it ain't all his fault either. He's +handling rough men, and men that are bullies same as he is. He's got +to get the work done and done quick. + +"Joe ain't bad. No, siree. Ask Josh Doogan, who was down and out with +something in his inside last year. When the doctor told him an +operation by a specialist in Philadelphia was the only thing that would +save him, and he hadn't a cent, Joe fixed him up and Josh is back +working in the Camps to-day. Yes!--ask Jem Sullivan, who got into +trouble with the police in Vancouver. He's working for Joe and he's +making good, too. Ask Jenny Daykin who it was that took care of her +for a year, after her Sam was drowned out at The Ghoul there, until her +young Sam finished for a school teacher. Ask,--Oh! ask most anybody; +grand-dad even, though he won't take a nickel from Joe or anybody else +except what he works for,--ask him. He's queer, is Joe, and I ain't a +bit struck on him,--not now,--I 'most hate him. But he ain't got a bad +heart, all the same." + +"Rita," I put in, "I believe every word of it, and, what is more, I am +mighty glad to hear you say it, for the first impression I had of him +was, 'Here's a man with a good, open, honest face, and his body is a +perfect working machine,--a real man after my own heart.' But he +jumped on me with both hands and feet, as I might say;--I jumped +back,--and, there we are. + +"I know what's wrong with him, Rita. As far as I can see, he has been +lucky,--luckier than most men. He has not had a single set-back. He +has been what they call a success. He is younger than I am by a year +or two, and he owns tugs and superintends camps, while I,--well, I am +just starting in. But he has got to putting down all this progress to +his own superior ability absolutely. He does not think that, maybe, +circumstances have been kind to him." + +Rita looked guardedly at me. + +"Don't misunderstand me,--I'm not saying that he has not been clever +and has not grasped every opportunity that came his way, worked hard +and all that;--Oh! you know what I mean. But he has got to thinking +that Joe Clark is everything and no one else is anything. It is bad +for any man when he gets that way. Give Joe Clark a set-back or two +and he will come out a bigger and a better man. + +"He is glutted and bloated with too much of his own way,--that's his +trouble." + +Rita sighed. + +"I guess you're right,--Joe used to be good friends with me. When we +were kids, Joe said he was going to marry me when he got big. He don't +say that any more though. Guess he's got too big. Tells me all about +the fine ladies he meets in Vancouver and Victoria and up the coast. +Wouldn't ever give me a chance, though, to get to know how to talk +good, and all that. Oh!--I know I ain't good at grammar. I wanted to +be. Joe said schooling just spoiled girls, and I was best at home. +Still, he talks about the ones that has the schooling. + +"He started in telling me about his lady friends again, to-day. I +didn't want to know about them, so I just told him. I was mad, +anyway;--about him and you, I guess. He was mad, too. Said I was +fresh. Grand-dad took your part against Joe. Said he liked you +anyway. Then he took my part. He knows Joe,--you bet. + +"He says, 'That'll do, Joe. You leave Rita be. She's a good lass and +you ain't playin' the game fair.' + +"I didn't hear any more, for I ran out. Didn't go back either, till +Joe cleared out." + +"What relation is Joe to the others, Rita?" I asked in puzzlement. + +"Joe's an orphan, same as me. His dad was grand-dad's only son, who +got killed in a blasting accident up the coast. Joe's mother was a +Swede. She died two months after Joe was born. Since Joe got moving +for himself, he don't stay around home very much. Sleeps mostly at the +Camps or on the tugs. Says grandmother and grand-dad make him tired; +says they're silly fools,--because,--because,----" + +Tears gathered in Rita's eyes and she did not finish. + +I let her pent-up emotion have free run for a while; probably because I +was ill at ease and knew I should look an idiot and talk like an +imbecile if I tried to console her, although I recalled having heard +somewhere that it is generally best to let a woman have her cry out +once she gets started. + +At last Rita wiped her eyes and looked over at me. + +"Guess you think me a baby,--guess I am, too," she said. "Never cried +before that I have mind. Never had anybody to cry to." + +I smiled. And Rita smiled,--a moist and trembling sort of smile in +return. + +"Joe Clark has been taking me, same as he takes most things, too much +for granted. Thinks I don't know nothing, because I'm up here at the +Crescent and not been educated any more'n grandmother and grand-dad +could teach me. But I've got feelings and I ain't going to have +anything more to do with him. Well,--not till he knows how to treat +me, same as I should be treated. Guess not then either. I don't care +now. I might not want him later,--might hate him. I believe I shall, +too." + +There was nothing of the soft, weepy baby about this young lady, and I +could see from the flash in her dark eyes and the set of her mouth that +she meant every word of what she said. + +She was a dainty, pretty, and alluring little piece of femininity; and +I could have taken her in my arms and hugged her, only I did not dare, +for like as not she would have boxed my ears. All I could say was: + +"Good for you, little girl. That's the way to talk." + +She smiled, and in little more than no time at all she was back into +her merry mood. + +We chatted and laughed together at the window until the dusk had crept +into darkness and Rita's Isle had become merely a heavy shadow among +the mists. + +"I got to be getting back," she said at last. "Can you fix up my +groceries for me, if you please?" + +I went into the store and packed together the few humble necessities +which had been Rita's excuse for coming over, although, I discovered +later, that Rita was pretty much of a free agent and did not require an +excuse to satisfy either her grandmother or her grandfather, both of +whom trusted her implicitly. + +Time went past quickly in there. + +"Rita, it is almost dark. Will you let me accompany you across the +Bay? I can fix a tow line behind for your little boat." + +"That would be nice," she answered simply. "But I can see in the dark +near as well as in the day time. I could row across there blindfold." + +As I paddled her over, I thought what a pity it was she could not talk +more correctly than she did. It was the one, the only jarring, note in +her entire make-up. But for that, she was as perfect a little lady as +I had ever met. + +Why not offer to teach her English? came the question to me;--and I +decided I would some day, but not just then. I would wait until I knew +her a little better; I would wait until I had become better acquainted +with her people; until the edge of my quarrel with Joe had worn off. + +As we grounded on the shore, in front of Rita's home, old Andrew +Clark,--short and sturdy in appearance and dour as any Scot could ever +be,--was on the beach. He came down to meet us and invited me up for a +cup of tea. + +I accepted the invitation, as I had a business project to discuss with +the old man, something that should prove a benefit to the store and a +financial benefit to him. + +He led me into the kitchen, where his wife,--a quiet, white-haired old +lady with a loving face and great sad eyes,--was sitting in an armchair +darning. + +She looked up as we entered. + +Andrew Clark did not seek to introduce me, which I thought unmannerly. +I turned round for Rita, but Rita had not followed us in; so I went +forward and held out my hand. The dear old woman took it and smiled as +if to say, "How sensible of you." + +"Sit down and make yourself at home," she said kindly. + +She spoke with the accent of an Eastern Canadian, although it was +evident she had spent many years in the West. + +Andrew Clark still held to his mother tongue,--Lowland Scots. But his +speech was also punctuated with Western slang and dialect. + +Every article of furniture in that kitchen was home-made:--chairs, +table, picture frames, washstands,--everything, and good solid +furniture it was too. + +The table was already set for tea. Mrs. Clark busied herself infusing +the refreshment, then Rita came in and we all sat down together. + +Andrew Clark's grace was quite an event,--as long as the ten +commandments, sonorous, impressive and flowery. + +I found he could talk, and talk well; and of many out-of-the-common +subjects he displayed considerably more than a passing knowledge. + +Margaret Clark,--for that was the lady's name,--was quiet and seemed +docile and careworn. She impressed me as being the patient bearer of a +hidden burden. + +There was something in the manner in which our conversation was +conducted that I could not fathom. And I was set wondering wherein its +strangeness lay. But, try as I liked, I could not reason it out. +Everybody was agreeable and pleasant; Rita was almost gay. But at the +back of it all, time and again it recurred to me,--what is wrong here? + +Not until the tea was over and I was seated between Andrew Clark and +Margaret before the fire, did the mystery solve itself. + +I approached the business part of my visit. + +"Mr. Clark, you have two or three hundred chickens on the ranch here." + +"Ay," he nodded reflectively, puffing at his pipe. + +"You send all your eggs to Vancouver?" + +"Ay!" + +"How many do you send per week, on an average?" + +"Ask Margaret,--she'll tell you." + +I turned and addressed Mrs. Clark, who looked over at her husband sadly. + +"When the season is good, maybe fifty dozen a week; sometimes more, +sometimes not so many, Mr. Bremner. Of course, in the winter, there's +a falling off." + +"I understand, Mrs. Clark. + +"I have a big demand from the Camps for eggs," I explained. "What I +get, I have to order from Vancouver. Now, it costs you money to send +your eggs to the market there, and it costs me money to bring mine from +the market. Why cannot we create a home exchange? I could afford to +pay you at least five cents a dozen more than you are getting from the +city dealers, save you and myself the freight charges, and still I +could be money ahead and I would always be sure of having absolutely +fresh stock. Besides, I would pay cash for what I got." + +Andrew Clark nodded his head. "A capital plan, my boy,--a capital +plan. Man," he exclaimed testily, "Joe, wi' all his smartness, would +never have thought o' that in a thousand years." + +I laughed. "Why!--there is no thinking to it, Andrew. It is simply +the A.B.C. of arithmetic. + +"What do you say to the arrangement then?" I asked. + +"Better ask Margaret,--she looks after the chickens. That's her +affair." + +I turned to the quiet old woman, and she heartily agreed with the plan. + +"Would you ask Andrew, Mr. Bremner, if we had better not take supplies +from your store in part payment for the eggs?" she inquired. + +I put the question to Andrew as things began to dawn in my mind. + +"Tell her it'll suit me all right," he agreed. + +And so--I acting as spokesman and go-between,--the arrangement was made +that I should use all the output of the chicken-farm and pay a price of +five cents per dozen in advance of the Vancouver market price on the +day of each delivery. + +I rose to go, bidding good-night to the old people. Rita came down to +the boat. Her face was anxious and she was searching mine for +something she feared to find. + +"Poor little girl," I exclaimed, as I laid my hand on her head. "How +long has this been going on between your grandmother and grand-dad?" + +Her eyes filled. + +"Oh! George,--it ain't grandmother's fault. She'd give her soul if +grand-dad would only speak to her. It's killing her gradual, like a +dry rot." + +"How long has it been going on?" I asked again. + +"Oh!--long's I can remember; near about ten years. There was a quarrel +about something. Grandmother wanted to visit some one in Vancouver. +Grand-dad didn't want her to go. At last he swore by the Word of God +if she went he'd never speak to her again. Grandmother cried all +night, and next day she went. When she came back, grand-dad wouldn't +speak to her; and he ain't ever spoken to her since." + +"My God!" I exclaimed with a shudder. + +"That's why Joe ain't struck on staying at the ranch. Says it's like a +deaf and dumb asylum." + +I didn't blame Joe. + +Good God! I thought. What a life! What an existence for this poor +woman! What a hell on earth! + +I became madly enraged at that dour old rascal, who would dare to sour +a home for ten years because of a vow made in a moment of temper. + +If any one deserved to be stricken dumb forever, surely he was that +one! And saying a grace at the tea-table that would put a bishop to +scorn,--all on top of this: oh! the devilish hypocrisy of it! + +Rita came close to me and laid her head lightly on my shoulder. + +"Don't be cross at grand-dad, George. He's a mighty good grand-dad. +There ain't a better anywhere. In everything, but speaking to +grandmother, he's a good grand-dad." + +I could not trust myself to say much. I climbed into the boat and made +to push off. + +"A good grand-dad," I exclaimed bitterly; "good mule, you mean. + +"Rita,--I know what would cure him." + +"No!--you don't, George,--for you don't know grand-dad." + +"Yes!--I know what would cure him, Rita." + +"What?" + +"A rope-end, well applied." And I pushed off. + +She ran into the water up to her knees and caught hold of the stern of +my boat. + +"You ain't mad with me, George," she cried anxiously. + +"No, no! Rita. Poor little woman,--why should I be?" + +She pouted. + +"Thought maybe you was. + +"Well,--if you ain't, won't you kiss me before you go, George?" + +I leaned forward. She held up her face innocently and I kissed her +lightly on the lips. + +And to me, the kiss was as sweet and fresh as a mountain dew-drop. + +She sighed as if satisfied that our friendship had held good, then she +ran out of the water, up the beach and into the house. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +The Coming of Mary Grant + +When first I arrived at Golden Crescent, I was not a little worried as +to whether or not there would be sufficient work in the store and on +the property to keep two men busy. It did not take me long to discover +that there really was not; but then, few people in and around that +easy-going little settlement cared about being very busy. Still, when +Jake and I wished for work, there was always enough of it at hand; just +as, when we felt inclined to be idle, there was no very special reason +why we should not, for there seldom was anything calling for immediate +accomplishment unless it were the transporting of goods from the +up-going steamers to the store and the putting up of camp orders. I +did not have to concern myself much over the fixing of leaky boats, the +building and repairing of fences, the erection of any small sheds or +buildings required, the felling of trees, the sawing and splitting up +of our winter supply of fuel, the raising and feeding of our very small +poultry family and the tending of the garden. These had been Jake's +departments before my coming, and, as he looked after them as no other +man I knew could have done, they remained his especial cares. + +Jake was never tremendously occupied, yet he always was doing something +during the day time,--something worth while, something that showed. + +However, when there was a particularly big wash-up on the beach of +stray timber logs from some of the booms travelling along the coast, +both Jake and I had to knuckle down with a will and an energy in order +to push them off with the next out-going tide so as to prevent them +jamming and piling on our tidy, clear and well-kept foreshore. + +Outside of an almost unnecessary supervision, the store was my only +care; consequently, once things were running properly, I had lots of +time on my hands to fish over by Rita's Isle if I so desired, to shoot +in the woods behind when the inclination seized me, to swim, to smoke, +or read and daydream as fancy dictated. + +I thrived on the life. Maybe, I grew lazy. Anyway, I enjoyed every +minute of it, working or idling, waking or sleeping. + +I soon got to know the men from the Camps, and they me. With the +knowledge of them came an ever-increasing regard and admiration for +those simple, uncomplaining, hard-working, easily led world-wanderers, +who, most of them, were ever ready to gamble all they had on the toss +of a coin or the throw of a die and, if they lost, laugh, and start off +afresh. + +That there were evilly disposed men among them,--men who would stop at +nothing,--men who, already, had stopped at nothing,--I knew, but with +most of them, their hearts were good. + +Joe Clark did not honour me with a visit for many a day after our first +encounter. Almost I had begun to congratulate myself that he had +decided to let slumbering dogs lie, when, one afternoon, as I was +sorting the newly arrived and scanty mail, I was surprised to find a +letter bearing the name of Dow, Cross & Sneddon of Vancouver and +addressed:-- + + +Mr. George Bremner, + Superintendent, Golden Crescent Trading Co., + Golden Crescent Bay, B. C. + + +Hello! I thought; Joe Clark at last has been putting some of his +threats into execution. Now for the fireworks! + +I opened the envelope and found that my conjecture was a wrong one and +that Joe Clark's knife for me,--if he had one,--was not yet sharpened. + + +"Dear Sir," the letter ran, + +"We have received a letter from Messrs. Eldergrove & Price, Solicitors +for the property adjoining that of the Golden Crescent Co.'s, informing +us that some friends of the owner have permission from him to occupy +his house at Golden Crescent. This refers to the house in proximity to +the wharf and the store. It is at present boarded up. + +"Two Japanese women will arrive by the steamer _Cloochman_ at the end +of the week to open up, air, clean out the house and put it in order. +These cleaners will return to Vancouver by the same steamer on her +southward journey the following week. + +"This letter is written simply to inform you of the facts, so that you +may know that nothing illegal is going on. + +"Of course, we are in no way interested in this property. + +"Yours truly, + "DOW, CROSS & SNEDDON." + + +I showed the letter to Jake, who expressed a fear that the Bay was +becoming "a damned pleasure resort," as this would make the second time +in five years that visitors had been staying in that house. On the +strength of the news, he drank an extra half-cup of whisky, then said, +for decency's sake he would row out and bring the Japs ashore when the +_Cloochman_ came in. + +Two shy, pretty, little women they proved, who thanked Jake with smiles +and profuse bows, much to that old rascal's confusion. They were all +bustle and work. They had the boards down from the windows and had the +doors and windows wide open five minutes after they got ashore. +Morning, noon and night, they were scrubbing, washing, beating, +dusting, polishing and airing, until I was more inquisitive than an old +maid's cat to view the results of their labours. But my sense of +propriety overcame my curiosity, and, for the time being, I remained in +ignorance. + +One night, after the little workers had gone back to Vancouver, I was +lying in my bed enjoying Robert Louis Stevenson's "Virginibus +Puerisque," when I fancied I heard the throbbing of a gasoline launch. +I rose and looked out at the open window; but it was one of those +inky-black nights, without either moon or stars, a night when even the +sea became invisible,--so I saw nothing. + +When the throbbing ceased, I heard the sound of oars and, as a small +boat evidently neared the shore, there came a sound of voices, both +male and female. + +Two trips were made from the launch, one bearing the people, I +presumed, the other conveying their baggage. I had no doubt in my mind +that my new neighbours were arriving, although I might have been +stone-blind so far as anything being visible was concerned. + +It was chilly standing there at the window, in the night air, in my +pyjamas. The nights were always chilly at Golden Crescent. So I went +back to bed, determined to wait and see what the morrow would disclose. + +My first glance out of doors, early next morning, materialised what I +had a vague notion might have been a dream. There was no sign of any +stir in the house across the little, wooden, rustic bridge that +connected it, over a narrow creek, with the roadway leading to the +store. That was only natural, as, in all probability, the travellers +were journey-weary. But a freshly painted rowing boat, with light +oars, was made fast to the off side of the wharf, while several leather +travelling bags and other packages were piled on the veranda of that +house over the way. + +I had shaved, parted my hair at its most becoming angle and dressed +myself with particular care that morning, going to the extent of sewing +a burst seam in my breeches and polishing my leggings; all in +anticipation of a visit from the new arrivals, thinking they would be +almost certain to call at the store that forenoon to arrange for their +supplies. + +I dusted the shelves, polished the scales, put the sacks of potatoes +where they belonged, mopped up some molasses that had escaped to the +floor from a leaky can and swept out the store; then I waited in +blissful anticipation for my new customers. + +I caught a glimpse of Jake in the distance. In some strange, +wireless-telepathic manner, he must have got wind of what had occurred +during the night, for I noticed that he had been suddenly attacked by +the same fever for cleanliness and smartness as I had been. He had +turned his neckcloth, and the clean side of it was now trying to delude +the innocent outside world that it (the neckcloth) had been freshly +washed. Mike,--bad luck to his drunken carcass,--looked sick and +appeared to be slowly recovering from the evil effects of a bath. + +As the morning wore on I saw an elderly, rotund lady come out to the +veranda and take the baggage inside. That was the only bit of +excitement that happened, after all my preparations. + +Later, a launch called from Camp No. 1, with an order for a thousand +and one different commodities, and all required right away. That put +idle, inquisitive thoughts out of my head for the remainder of the +forenoon. + +I got out of my best clothes, donned a half-dirty shirt, a suit of +overalls and a pair of old boots, then got busy selecting, sorting and +packing until my brow was moist and my hair was awry. + +I had just got rid of the men and was standing surveying my topsy-turvy +store, with everything lying around in tremendous confusion and all +requiring to be set to rights again before I would know where to lay my +hands on a single article; when a melodious, but rather measured, +feminine voice, in the vicinity of my left shoulder, startled me into +consternation. + +A young lady, almost of a height with me, was standing by my side, +while a stout, elderly lady,--the same lady I had seen on the veranda +over the way,--was filling the doorway. + +I was messy all over with flour dust, brown earth from the potato +sacks, grease and grime. I had slipped at the water edge while +assisting the loggers to load their goods, and this did not contribute +to the improvement of my personal appearance. I wiped my hands on my +damp overalls, and my hands came out of the contact worse than before. + +"I wish to see the manager," demanded the melodious voice, its owner +raising her skirts and displaying,--ah, well!--and stepping over some +excelsior packing which lay in her way. + +"Your wish is granted, lady," I answered. + +"Are you the manager?" she asked, raising her eyebrows in unfeigned +astonishment. + +"I have that honour, madam," I responded with a bow, but not daring to +look at her face in my then dishevelled state. + +"I am Miss Grant," she said. + +"Miss Grant! Pleased to meet you." + +I shoved out a grimy paw, like the fool I was. When it was too late, I +remembered my position and brought the paw back to my side. + +The young lady had already drawn herself up with an undefinable dignity. + +It was a decided snub, and well merited, so I could hardly blame her. + +I saw, in the hurried glimpse I got of her then, that she was hatless +and that her hair was a great crown of wavy, burnished gold, radiating +in the sunlight that streamed through the doorway despite the +obstruction of the young lady's companion. + +"It is our intention to live at Golden Crescent for some time, sir. I +understand we may purchase our supplies here?" + +"Yes! madam,--miss." + +I backed, in order to get round to my proper side of the counter. But, +unfortunately, I backed without looking; I stumbled over an empty box +and sprawled like a clown into the corner, landing incontinently among +bundles of brooms and axe handles. + +Never in all my life did I feel so insignificant or so foolish as then. +The very devil himself seemed to have set his picked imps after me; for +it was my habit, ordinarily, to be neither dirty as I was then, nor +clownish as I must have appeared. + +To put it mildly, I was deeply embarrassed, and at a woman, too. Oh! +the degradation of it. + +As I rose, I fancied that my ears caught the faintest tinkle of a +laugh. I turned my frowning eyes on the young lady, but she was a very +owl for inscrutable solemnity. I looked over at the elderly person in +the doorway; she was smiling upon me with a most exasperating benignity. + +"What kind of business do you run here?" asked the self-possessed young +lady. + +"Strictly cash, miss,--excepting the Camps and the better class of +settlers." + +"I did not inquire _how_ you ran your business, but what kind of +business you ran," she retorted icily. "Of course,--we shall pay as we +purchase." + +I was hastening from bad to worse. I could have bitten my tongue out +or kicked myself. With a tremendous effort, I pulled myself together +and assumed as much dignity as was possible in my badly ruffled +internal and external condition. + +"Are there any men about the place?" she asked, changing the subject +with disconcerting suddenness. + +I flushed slightly at the taunt. + +"N-no! miss," I replied, in my best shop-keeper tone, "sorry,--but we +are completely out of them." + +She must have detected the flavour of sarcasm, for her lips relaxed for +the briefest moment, and a smile was born which showed two rows of even +white teeth. I ventured a smile in return, but it proved a sorry and +an unfortunate one, for it killed hers ruthlessly and right at the +second of its birth, too. + +I almost waited for her to tell me I was "too fresh," but she did not +do so. She had a more telling way. She simply wilted me with a silent +reserve that there was no combating. + +Only on one or two occasions had I encountered that particular shade of +reserve that adjusts everything around to its proper sphere and level +without hurting, and it was always in elderly, aristocratic, British +Duchesses; never in a young lady with golden hair and eyes,--well! at +that time, I could not tell the colour of her eyes, but there was +something in them that completed a combination that I seemed to have +been hunting for all my life and had never been able to find. + +"Mr. Store-keeper," she commenced again. + +I felt like tearing my hair and crying aloud. "Mr. Store-keeper," +forsooth. + +"You appear anxious to misconstrue me. Let me explain,--please." + +I bowed contritely. What else could I do? + +"This afternoon, I have a piano,--boxed,--coming by the steamer +_Siwash_. I would like if you could find me some assistance to get it +ashore and placed in my house." + +She said it so easily and it sounded so simple. But what a poser it +was! Bring a full-fledged piano from a steamer three hundred yards out +in the Bay, land it and place it in a house on the top of a rock. +Heaven help the piano! I thought, as I gaped at her in bewilderment. + +"Oh!--of course," she put in hurriedly, toying with the chain of her +silver purse,--"if you are afraid to tackle it, why!--I'll--we shall do +it ourselves." + +She turned on her heel. + +She looked so determined that I had not the least doubt but that she +would have a go at it anyway. + +"Not at all,--not at all. It will be a pleasure,--I am sure," I said +quickly, as if I had been reared all my life on piano-moving. + +She turned and smiled; a real, full-grown, able-bodied, entrancing, +mischievous smile, and all of it full on the dirty, grimy +individual,--me. + +"It does not happen to be the kind of piano one can take to pieces, +Miss Grant, is it?" I asked. + +"It is," she answered, "but that one might not be able to put it +together again." + +It was another bull's eye for the lady. + +She went on. "I have never received a piano,--knocked down." + +Something inside of me sniggered at the phrase, for it was purely a +business one. But I was too busy just then figuring the ins and outs +of the matter to give way to any hilarity. + +"Thanks so much! What a relief!" she sighed, with a nod to her silent +companion, who nodded in return. + +"Oh!--may I have five cents' worth of pins,--Mister, Mister----" + +"Mr. Bremner," I added. + +"Thank you!" + +"Hair pins, hat pins, safety pins or clothes pins?" I queried. + +"Just pins,--with points and heads on them,--if you don't mind." + +I bowed ceremoniously. + +"We shall be over this afternoon, when we have made a list of the +supplies we require," she went on. + +As I hunted for the pins, she began to look in her purse for a five +cent piece. + +"Oh!--never mind," I said; "I can charge these to your bill in the +afternoon." + +"No! thank you," she replied, airily and lightly;--oh! so very, very +airily that I would not have been surprised had she flown away. + +"Your terms are strictly cash;--I would not disturb your business +routine for worlds." + +As I held out the package to her, I stopped and, for the first time, I +felt really at ease and equal to her. + +"Possibly you would prefer that I send this package round by the +delivery wagon?" I said. + +She picked the paper package from between my fingers and her chin went +into the air at a most dangerous elevation, while her eyelids closed +over her eyes, allowing long, golden-brown lashes to brush her cheeks. +Then, without a word, she turned her back on me and passed through the +doorway with her companion, or chaperon, or aunt, or whatever relation +to her the elderly lady might be. + +"So foolish!" I heard her exclaim, under her breath, then she went over +something on her fingers to the elderly lady, who laughed and started +in to talk volubly. + +The mystery of that madam's benign smile solved itself: she was +evidently talkative enough, but she was as deaf as a wooden block and +used her smile to cover her deficiency. + +Had I only known, how I could have defended myself against, and lashed +out in return at, that tantalising, self-possessed, wit-battling, and, +despite it all, extremely feminine young lady! + +They left my place and went over to their own bungalow. Soon they +reappeared with large sun-hats on their heads, for the sun was +beautifully bright and exceedingly warm. They went down to the beach +together. The elderly lady got into the rowing boat, while my late +antagonist pushed it into the water and sprang into it with a most +astounding agility. In a few moments, they were out on the Bay. + +Miss Grant,--as I remembered her name was,--handled the oars like an +Oxford stroke and with that amazing ease, attained only after long +practice, which makes the onlooker, viewing the finished article in +operation, imagine that he can do it as well himself, if not a shade or +so better,--yes! and standing on his head at that. + +For an hour, I worked in the store righting the wrongs that were +visible everywhere, vowing to myself that never again would it be found +in such a disgraceful condition; not even if the three Camps should +come down together and insist on immediate service. + +At high noon, I went over to Jake's shack and found him preparing his +usual clammy concoction. + +I broached the subject of the piano to him, putting it in such a way +that I left him open to refuse to do the job if he felt so inclined. + +He did not speak for a minute or two, but I knew he was thinking hard. + +"Well,--I'll be gol-darned," he said at last. "They'll be transporting +skating rinks and picture shows up here next. It'll be me for the tall +timbers then, you bet." + +A little later, he went on, + +"Guess, George,--we got to do it, though. Young ladies is young ladies +these days, and we might as well be civil and give in right at the +start, for we got to do it in the finish." + +I agreed. + +As we were in a hurry, I helped Jake to eat his clam chowder. We went +down to the beach to review the situation and inspect the apparatus we +had to work with. + +I told Jake the piano would probably weigh about five hundred pounds +and that we would require to bolster up the raft sufficiently to carry +some three hundred pounds more in order to be safe. + +As it stood, the raft was capable of carrying some four hundred pounds, +so we had just to double its capacity. + +Jake knew his business. He rowed along the beach, and picked out short +logs to suit his needs. He lashed them together and completed a raft +that looked formidable enough to carry the good ship _Siwash_ herself +across the Bay to the shore. + +We put off with a rowing boat fore and aft, long before the _Siwash_ +whistle announced her coming. + +Had the sea been otherwise than calm as a duck pond, we would have +experienced all kinds of trouble, for our raft was nothing more or less +than an unwieldy floating pier. + +When the steamer ran into the Bay, I noticed Miss Grant put out alone +and row toward us. + +"Jake," I exclaimed somewhat hotly, "if that young lady interferes with +the way we handle this job, by as much as a single word, we'll steer +straight for the shore and leave the piano to sink or swim." + +"You bet!" agreed Jake. + +"Skirts is all right, but they ain't any good movin' pianners off'n +steamers. Guess we ain't proved ourselves much good neither, so far, +George," he added with a grin. + +The _Siwash_ came to a standstill and we threw our ropes aboard and +were soon made fast alongside. + +Everything there went like clockwork. The piano was on the lower deck +and slings were already round it, so that all that was necessary to do +was to get the steamer's winch going, hoist the instrument overboard +and lower it on to the raft. The piano was set on a low truck with +runners, contrived for the purpose of moving. I arranged that this +truck be left with us and I would see to its return on the steamer's +south-bound journey. + +Our chiefest fear was that the piano might get badly placed or that the +balance of the raft might prove untrue, the whole business would topple +over and the piano would be dispensing nautical airs to the mermaids at +the bottom of Golden Crescent Bay. + +Jake's work stood the test valiantly, and, with the hooks and rings he +had fixed into the logs at convenient distances, we lashed the +instrument so firmly and securely that nothing short of a hurricane or +a collision could possibly have dislodged it. + +Miss Grant stood by some fifteen yards away, watching the proceedings +interestedly, and anxiously as I thought; but not a word did she utter +to show that she had anything but absolute confidence in our ability. + +Finally, they cast our ropes off, and Jake and I, with our four oars, +manned our larger rowing boat and headed for shore. It was hard +pulling, but we ran in on the off side of the wharf, directly in line +with the rocks at the back of which Miss Grant's bungalow was +built,--all without mishap. + +Despite the great help of the piano-truck, Jake and I, strive as we +liked, were unable to move the heavy piece of furniture from the raft. +We tugged, and pulled, and hoisted, but to no purpose, for the wheels +of the truck got set continually between the logs. + +Once, I went head over heels backward into the water; and once Jake +tripped over a cleat and did likewise. + +"All we need, Jake," I remarked, "is about one hundred and fifty pounds +more leverage." + +Miss Grant heard and jumped out of her boat. + +"Mr.--Mr. Bremner,--could I lend you that extra hundred and fifty +pounds or so?" + +I looked at her. She was all willingness and meekness; the latter a +mood which I, even with my scant knowledge of her, did not altogether +believe in. + +"Sure, miss," put in Jake. "Come on, if you ain't skeered o' soilin' +your glad rags." + +She waited for my word. + +"I am sure your help would be valuable, Miss Grant," I said. "It might +just turn the trick in our favour." + +She scrambled up the rock and returned in half a minute with a pair of +stout leather gloves on her hands. She jumped up on to the raft and +lent her leverage, as Jake and I got our shoulders under the lift. + +Bravo! It lifted as easily as if it had been a toy. All it had +required was that little extra aid. + +We three ran it clear of the raft, down on to the beach, over the +pebbles and right under the rocks. + +I knew, in the ordinary course, that our troubles would only be +beginning, but I had figured out that the only possible way to get over +this difficulty of the rocks was to erect a block and tackle to the +solid branch of a tree which, fortunately, overhung the face of the +cliffs. + +In half an hour, we had all secure and ready for the attempt. + +I worked the gear, while Jake did the guiding from below. + +When we had the piano safely swung, it took our combined strength and +weight to bring it in on top of the rocks. After that, it was simply a +matter of hard work. + +So, in three hours after receiving it from the steamer _Siwash_, the +piano was out of its casing and set safely, without a scratch on it, in +a corner of Miss Grant's parlour. + +Jake and I never could have done it ourselves. Both of us knew that. +It was Miss Grant's untiring assistance that pulled the matter to a +successful conclusion. + +She thanked us without ostentation, as she would have thanked a +piano-mover or the woodman in the city. + +It nettled me not a little, for, to say truth, I was half dead from the +need of a cup of good strong tea and my appetite gnawed over the odour +of home-made scones that the elderly, rotund lady was baking on Miss +Grant's kitchen stove. All day I had been picturing visions of being +invited to remain for tea, of my making witty remarks under Jake's +mono-syllabic applause, looking over the photo albums and listening in +raptures to Miss Grant's playing and singing. And I was sour as old +cider as I descended the veranda steps, soaking, as I was, with brine +and perspiration. + +Jake was perfectly happy, however, and all admiration over Miss Grant's +physical demonstration. + +"Gee! Miss," he exclaimed, in a sort of Klondike ecstasy, "but you're +some class at heavin' cargo. Guess, if you put on overalls and cut off +your hair, you could get a fifty-cents-an-hour job at pretty near any +wharf on the Pacific seaboard." + +I could see that Jake's doubtful compliment was not exactly relished by +the lady. Nevertheless, she smiled on him so sweetly that he stood +grinning at her, and might still have been so standing had not I pulled +him to earth by the sleeve, three steps at a time. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +"Music Hath Charms--" + +He left me at the wharf without a word. I went into the house, threw +off my dirty overalls and indulged in the luxury of a bath. Not a +salt-water apology for one,--a real, live, remove-the-dirt, soapy, +hot-water bath;--and it did me a world of good both mentally and bodily. + +I dressed myself in clean, fresh linen, donned my breeches, a pair of +hand-knitted, old-country, heather hose and a pair of white canvas +shoes. I shaved and brushed my hair to what, in my college days, I had +considered its most elegant angle. + +The remainder of the afternoon and evening was my own. I was just at +that agreeable stage of body-weariness where a book and a smoke seemed +angels from heaven. I had the books,--lots of them,--I had tobacco and +my pipe, I had a hammock to sling from the hooks on the front +veranda,--so, what care had I? + +I chose a volume of "Macaulay's Essays" and, with a sigh,--the only +articulate sign of an unutterable content,--I stretched myself in the +hammock, blew clouds of smoke in the air and resigned myself to the +soothing influences. + +I had lain thus for perhaps an hour, when a shadow intervened between +the page I was reading and the glare of the sun. + +It was Miss Grant. + +She had come by the back path and, in her noiseless rubber shoes, I had +not heard her. + +I sprang out of the hammock, loosed the ring from the hook and threw +the canvas aside to make way for her. + +She appeared a perfect picture of glorious loveliness and contagious +health. She did not speak for a moment, but her eyes took me in from +head to heel. + +I felt confident in the knowledge that the figure I presented was +decidedly more pleasing than when last she had seen me. + +I was glad, for I knew, even with my small acquaintance with the +opposite sex, that the woman is not alive who does not prefer to see a +man clean, tidy and neat. + +I pushed the store doors open and followed her in. + +Again, that bewitching little uplifting of the eyebrows; again the +alluring relaxation of her full lips; silent ways, apparently, of +expressing her pleasure. The appearance of my store, on this occasion, +met with her approval. + +She laid aside her sunshade and handed me a long, neatly written list +of groceries which she required; not all, but most of which, I was able +to fill. + +"Make up the bill,--please. I wish to pay it now. I shall not wait +until you make up the goods. If not too much trouble, would you----" + +I was listening to the soft cadences of her voice, when she stopped. + +She was leaning lightly with her elbow on the counter. I was on the +inner side, bending over my order book. + +When her voice stopped, I felt that she was looking at the top of my +head. I raised my face suddenly and, to her, unexpectedly. For the +first time, I saw clearly into her eyes. My breath caught, as, like a +flash, I saw myself standing in the doorway of Modley Farm, along with +my old chum, Tom Tanner; his mother beside us, with her arms round our +shoulders; and I remembered the flippant conversation we had at that +time. + +The young lady before me had eyes of a liquid, golden-brown, lighter in +colour than her hair, yet of wondrous depth and very attractive; +inexpressibly attractive. + +I averted my gaze quickly, but not quickly enough for her to miss the +admiration I had so openly shown. + +She picked up a tin from the counter and scanned the label. + +"The delivery wagon is at your service, my lady," I put in lightly. + +"Thank you!" she answered in relief. + +I totted up the bill and handed it to her. "Eight dollars and +thirty-five cents," I said. + +"Now, Mr. Bremner,--please add your charge for the conveying of my +piano, so that I may pay my debts altogether." + +I gasped in amazement. I straightened myself indignantly, for the idea +of making a charge for that work had never entered my head. And I knew +Jake had never thought of such a thing either. It had been simply a +little neighbourly assistance. + +The mention of payment annoyed me. + +"There is no charge, Miss Grant," was all I could trust myself to say. + +"What do you mean?" she asked. "Surely you must understand that it is +not my habit to engage men to work for me without payment!" + +"We did not look upon it in the nature of ordinary work," I put in. +"It was a pleasure, and we did it as any neighbours would do a favour." + +Her eyes closed a little angrily. + +"I do not accept favours from men I am unacquainted with," she retorted +unreasonably. "How much do I owe,--please?" + +"And I do not hire myself out, like a dock labourer or a mule, to any +one who cares to demand my services," I replied, in equally cold tones. + +She stood in hesitation, then she stamped her rubber-soled foot +petulantly. "But I will not have it. I insist on paying for that +work." + +I shook my head. + +"If you wish to insult me, Miss Grant,--insist." + +I could see that she was suffering from conflicting lines of reasoning. +Her haughtiness changed and her eyes softened. + +"Mr. Bremner,--what do I owe for the work,--please?" she pleaded. "You +are a gentleman,--you cannot hide that from me." + +Discovered! I said to myself. + +"Surely you understand my position? Surely you do not wish to +embarrass me?" + +Ah, well! I thought. If it will please her, so be it. And I'll make +it a stiff charge for spite. + +"Thirty dollars!" I exclaimed, as if it had been three. "Our labour +was worth that much." I looked straight at her in a businesslike way. + +It was her turn to gasp, but she recovered herself quickly. + +"The cost of labour is, I presume, high, up here?" she commented. + +"Yes!--very high,--sky-high! You see, I shall have to pay that old +Jew-rascal assistant of mine at least two and a half dollars for his +share, so that it will not leave very much for the master-mind that +engineered the project." + +She turned her eyes on me to ascertain if I were funning or in earnest, +but my face betrayed nothing but the greatest seriousness. + +She counted out her grocery money and I gave her a receipt. Then she +laid three ten dollar bills on the counter to pay for the piano moving. + +"Thank you!" I said, as I walked round the counter to a little box +which was nailed on the wall near the door; a box which the Rev. +William Auld had put up with my permission on the occasion of his last +visit, a box which I never saw a logger pass without patronising if he +noticed it. On the outside, it bore the words:--"Sick Children's Aid." +I folded the notes and inserted them in the aperture on top. + +Miss Grant watched me closely all the while. + +When I got back behind the counter, she went over to the box and read +the label. She opened her purse, with calm deliberation, and poured +all it contained into her hand. She then inserted the coins, one by +one, in the opening of the box and, with honours still even, if not in +her favour, she sailed out of the store. + +I was annoyed and chagrined at the turn of events, yet, when I came to +consider her side of the argument, I could not blame her altogether for +the stand she had taken. + +I put up her order in no very pleasant frame of mind. + +When I saw her and her chaperon row out from the wharf into the Bay, I +carried over the groceries, piecemeal, and placed them in a shady place +on their veranda. I then turned back to the house and prepared my +evening meal. + +When the sun had gone down and darkness had crept over Golden Crescent, +I returned to my hammock and my reading, setting a small oil lamp on +the window ledge behind me. It was agreeably cool then and all was +peace and harmony. + +From where I lay, I could cast my eyes over the land and seascapes now +and again. I commanded a good view of the house across the creek. The +kitchen lamp was alight there and I could see figures passing backward +and forward. + +Suddenly an extra light travelled from the kitchen to the front parlour +and, soon after, a ripple of music floated on the evening air. + +I listened. How I listened!--like a famished cougar at the sound of a +deer. + +The music was sweet, delicious, full of fantastic melody. It was the +light, airy music of Sullivan; and not a halt, not even a falter did +the player make as she tripped and waltzed through the opera. One +picture after another rose before me and dissolved into still others, +as the old, haunting tunes caught my ears, floating from that open +window. + +I could see the lady under the soft glow of the lamp, sitting at the +piano, smiling and all absorbed,--the light gleaming gold on her coils +of luxuriant hair. + +After a time the mood of the pianist changed. She drifted into the +deeper, the more sombre, more impressive "Kamennoi-Ostrow" of +Rubinstein. She played it softly, so softly, yet so expressively +sadly, that I was drawn by its alluring to leave my veranda and cross +over the wooden bridge, in order to be nearer and to hear better. + +Quietly, but quite openly, I took the path by the house, on to the edge +of the cliffs, where I could hear every note, every shade of +expression; where I could follow the story:--the Russian setting, the +summer evening, the beautiful lady, the pealing of the bells calling +the worshippers to the chapel for midnight mass; the whispered +conversations, the organ in solemn chant, the priests intoning the +service, the farewell, and, lastly, the lingering chords of the organ +fading into the deep silence of slumber. + +Just as I was about to sit down, I descried the solitary, shadowy +outline of a figure seated a few yards away. + +It was Jake,--poor, old, lonely, battle-scarred Jake. His head was in +his hands and he was gazing out to sea as if he were dreaming. + +I walked over to him and sat by his side. His blue eyes were filled +with tears, tears that had not dimmed his eyes for years and years; +tears in the eyes of that old Klondike tough, calloused by privation +and leather-hided by hard drinking; tears, and at music which he did +not understand any more than that it was something outside of his body +altogether, outside of the material world, something that spoke only to +the soul of him. + +I did not speak,--I dared not speak, for the moment was too sacred. + +So we two sat thus, knowing of each other's presence, yet ignoring it, +and listening, all absorbed, entranced, almost hypnotised by the +subtleties of the most charming of all gifts, the perfect +interpretation of a work of art. + +We listened on and on,--after the chilly night wind had come up from +the sea, for we did not know of its coming until the music ceased and +the light faded away from the parlour of the house behind us. + +"Gee!" exclaimed Jake at last, spitting his mouthful of tobacco over +into the water and wiping his eyes with his coat sleeve, "but that dope +pulls a gink's socks off,--you bet. + +"Guess, if a no-gooder like me had of heard that stuff oftener when he +was a kid, he wouldn't be such a no-gooder;--eh! George." + +I followed Jake to his boat and, somewhere out of the darkness, Mike +the dog appeared and tailed off behind us. + +I accompanied the old fellow to his shack, for this love of music in +him was a new phase of his temperament to me and somehow my heart went +out to him in his loneliness, in his apparent heart-hunger for +something he could hardly hope to find. + +We talked together for a long time, and as we talked I noticed that +Jake made no effort to start his usual drinking bout, although Mike the +dog reminded him of his neglect as plainly as dog could, by tugging at +his trousers and going over to the whisky keg and whimpering. + +This sudden temperance in Jake surprised me more than a little. + +I noticed also that the brass-bound chest still lay under Jake's bunk. +Several times I had been going to speak to him about that trunk and its +contents, and the questionable security of a shack like his, but I had +always evaded the subject at the last minute as being one in which I +was not concerned. + +But that night everything was different somehow. + +"Look here, Jake," I said, in one of the quiet spells, "don't you think +this old shack of yours isn't a very safe place to keep your money in?" + +"How do you mean?" he asked suspiciously. + +"There are lots of strange boats put in here of a night; some of them +containing beach-combers who do not care who they rob or what they do +so long as they get a haul. Besides, the loggers are not all angels +and they generally pay you a visit every time they come in. Some of +the worst of them might get wind that you keep all your savings here +and might take a fancy to some of it." + +"Guess all I got wouldn't pay the cost of panning," grunted Jake. +"They ain't goin' to butt in on me. Anyway,--I got a pair of good mits +left yet." + +"Yes!--that is all right, Jake, but nowadays a man does not require to +run the risk. The banks are ready and willing to take that +responsibility, and to pay for the privilege, too. The few dollars I +have are safely banked in Vancouver." + +"Banks be damned!" growled Jake. "I ain't got no faith in banks,--no +siree. First stake I made went into a bank, Goodall-Towser Trust Co. +of 'Frisco. 'Four per cent interest guaranteed,' it said on the front +of the bank book they gave me. That book was all they ever gave me; +all I ever saw of my five thousand bucks. I thought because it said +'Trust' on the window, it was right as rain. I ain't trustin' 'Trust' +any more. + +"I raised Cain in that Trust outfit. Started shootin' up. Didn't kill +anything, but got three months in the coop. Lost my five thousand +plunks and got three months in the pen, all because I put my dough in +the bank. + +"Banks be damned, George. Not for mine,--no siree." + +Jake puffed his pipe reflectively, after his long tirade. + +"That's all very well, but there are good banks nowadays and good Trust +Companies, too, although I prefer regular chartered banks every time. +Those banks are practically guaranteed by the country and the +wealthiest men in Canada use them. Why!--Mr. Horsfal has thousands in +the Commercial Bank of Canada now. Here is the bank book,--see for +yourself! I send in a deposit every week for him." + +Jake was impressed, but not unduly. He suddenly switched. + +"Say, George,--who told you I had any dough?" + +"Oh! I knew you had, Jake. Everybody in Golden Crescent knows. But, +to be honest, the minister told me,--in the hope that I would be able +to induce you to place it in safety somewhere." + +Jake became confident, a most unusual condition for him. + +"Well, George,--I can trust you,--you're straight. I got something +near ten thousand bucks in that brass chest. I don't need it, but +still I ain't givin' it away. I had to grub damned hard to get it. +It's kind o' good to know you ain't ever likely to be a candidate for +some Old Men's Home." + +"It is indeed," I replied, "and I admire you for having saved so much. +But won't you put it into the bank, where it is absolutely safe for +you? It is a positive temptation to some men, lying around here. + +"The bank will give you a receipt for the money; you can draw on it +when you wish and it will be earning three per cent or three hundred +dollars a year for you all the time it is there." + +He pondered for a while, then he dismissed the subject. + +"No! Guess I'll keep it by me. No more banks for mine. I ain't so +strong as I used to be and I guess three months in the coop would just +about make me cash in. I ain't takin' no more chances." + +Jake's method of reasoning was amusing. After all, it was no affair of +mine and, now that I had unburdened myself, I felt conscience clear. + +As I rose to leave, he started to talk again. + +"George,--guess you'll think I'm batty,--but I'm goin' to cut out the +booze." + +"You are!" I exclaimed in astonishment. + +"Ya! Guess maybe you think I'll make a hell of a saint, but I ain't +goin' to try to be no saint; just goin' to cut out the booze, that's +all." + +"What has given you this notion?" I could not help inquiring. + +"Oh! maybe one thing, maybe another. Anyhow, I ain't had a lick +to-night. My stomach's on fire and my head's givin' me Hail Columbia, +but--I ain't had a drink to-night." + +"Go easy with it, Jake," I cautioned. "You know a hard drinker like +you have been can't stop all at once without hurting himself." + +"I can. You just watch me," he said with determination. + +"Well, then,--I think the best thing you can do in these circumstances +is to take that keg in the corner there, roll it outside, pull out the +stop-cock and pour the contents on to the beach." + +"No! I ain't spoilin' any booze,--George. If I can't stop it because +a keg of whisky is sittin' under my nose, then I can't stop boozin' +nohow. And, if I can't stop boozin' nohow, what's the good of throwin' +away the good booze I already got, when I'd just have to order another +keg and maybe have to go thirsty waitin' for it to come up." + +"All right, old man," I laughed, slapping him between the shoulders, +"please yourself and good luck to your attempt, anyway." + +"Say!--George." + +"Yes!" + +"You won't say anything about this to the young lady that plays the +pianner? Because, you see, I might fall down." + +"I won't say a word, Jake." + +"And--not to Rita, neither?" he asked plaintively, "because Rita's +about the only gal cares two straws for me. She comes often when +nobody knows about it. She brings cake and pie, and swell cooked meat +sometimes. When I find anything on the table,--I know Rita's been. +I've knowed Rita since she was a baby and I've always knowed her for a +good gal." + +"Well, Jake;--I will keep your secret as if I had never heard it. But +don't allow that drunken chum of yours, Mike, to lead you astray." + +"Guess nit! Mike's got to sign the pledge same's me," he laughed in +his guttural way. + +I stood at the door. "And you are not going to put that money of yours +in the bank, Jake?" + +He spat on the ground. + +"To hell with banks," he grunted and turned inside. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +The Devil of the Sea + +It was Sunday morning, the first Sunday morning after the arrival of +the American ladies at the house over the way,--for I took them to be +such, and, later, my conjecture proved not a very long way out. + +It had been a week of hard work, petty annoyances and unsatisfying +little pleasures. + +When I got up that morning, I felt jaded. As I ate my breakfast, I +became more so; but, as I went out on to the veranda to look upon the +beauties of Golden Crescent,--as I did every morning,--I came to myself. + +This will never do, George Bremner! What you need is a swim! + +I had hit it. Why had not I thought of it sooner? I undressed, and in +less time than it takes to retell it, I was in the water and striking +straight for Rita's Isle. + +When I got there, I sunned myself on the rocks, as was my wont. I +looked across towards Clarks' farm, in the hope that I might espy Rita +somewhere between,--yet half hoping that I would not, for I was +browsing in the changing delights and sensations of the thoughts which +my solitariness engendered. + +For one thing;--I had made the discovery the night before that Miss +Grant's Christian name was Mary. + +I had found a torn label on the beach; one, evidently, from a +travelling bag. It read: + + +Miss Mary Grant, + Passenger + to Golden Crescent Bay, B. C. Canada. + +ex San Francisco, per P. C. S. S. Co. to Vancouver. + + +That was all. + +I lay on my back on the rocks, turning the name over in my mind. + +Mary.... It did not sound very musical. It was a +plain-Jane-and-no-nonsense kind of name. + +I started in to make excuses to myself for it. Why I did so, I have no +idea, but I discovered myself at it. + +Mary was a Bible name. Yes!--it had that in its favour. + +Famous queens had been called Mary. Yes! + +The lady who owned the world-famous "little lamb" was called Mary. + +And there was "Mary, Mary, quite contrary." + +Why, of course! there were plenty of wonderful Marys. Notwithstanding, +I could not altogether shake off the feeling of regret that came to me +with the discovery that the young lady over the way was called Mary. + +Had her name been Marguerite, or Dorothea, Millicent or even Rosemary, +I would have been contented and would have considered the name a +fitting one,--but to be common-or-garden Mary! + +Oh, well!--what mattered it anyway? The name did not detract from the +attractiveness of her long, wavy, golden hair, nor did it change the +colour or lessen the transparency of her eyes. It did not interfere +with her deft fingers as they travelled so artistically over the +keyboard of her piano; although I kept wishing, in a half-wishful way, +that it could have changed her tantalising and exasperating demeanour +toward me. + +From the beginning, we had played antagonists, and from the beginning +this playing antagonists had been distasteful to me. + +What was it in me? I wondered,--what was it in her that caused the +mental ferment? I had not the slightest notion, unless it were a +resentfulness in me at being taken only for what I, myself, had chosen +to become,--store-clerk in an out-of-the-way settlement; or an +annoyance in her because one of my station should place himself on +terms of social equality with every person he happened to meet. + +I was George Bremner to her. True! Then,--she was merely Mary Grant +to me. Mary Grant she was and Mary Grant she would doubtless remain, +until,--until somebody changed it to probably--Mary-something-worse. + +As I day-dreamed, I felt the air about me more chilly than usual. + +All the previous night, the sea had been running into the Bay choppy +and white-tipped, but now it was as level as the face of a mirror, +although everywhere on the surface of the water loose driftwood floated. + +I let myself go, down the smooth shelving rock upon which I had been +lying. I dropped noiselessly far down into the deep water. I came up +and struck out for home,--all my previous lassitude gone from me. + +I was swimming along leisurely, interested only in my thoughts and the +water immediately around me, when something a bit ahead attracted my +attention. + +I was half-way between Rita's Isle and the shore at the time. The +object in front kept bobbing,--bobbing. At first, I took it to be part +of a semi-submerged log, but as I drew nearer I was quite surprised to +find that it was an early morning swimmer like myself. Nearer still, +and I discovered that the swimmer was a woman whose hair was bound +securely by a multi-coloured, heavy, silk muffler, such as certain +types of London Johnnies affected for a time. + +Whoever the swimmer was, she had already gone at least half a mile, for +that was the distance to the nearest point of land and there was no +boat of any kind in her tracks. + +Half a mile!--and another half-mile to go! Quite a swim for a lady! + +Afraid lest it should prove more than enough for a member of what I had +always been taught to recognise as the more delicately constituted of +the sexes, I drew closer to the swimmer. + +When only a few yards behind, she turned round with a startled +exclamation. + +It was Mary Grant. + +A chill ran along my spine. I became unreasonable immediately. What +right had she to run risks of this nature? Was there not plenty of +water for her to swim in near the shore where she would be within easy +hail of the land should she become exhausted? + +Almost angrily, I narrowed the space between us. + +She had recognised me at her first glimpse. + +"Are you not rather far from the shore, Miss Grant?" I inquired bruskly. + +"Thank you! Not a bit too far," she exclaimed, keeping up a steady +progress through the water. + +She moved easily and did not betray any signs of weariness, except it +were in a catching of her voice, which almost every one has who talks +in the water after a long swim. + +I could not but admire the power of her swimming, despite the evident +fact that she was not at all speedy. + +"But you have no right to risk your life out here, when you do not know +the coast," I retorted. + +"What right have you to question my rights, sir?" she answered +haughtily. "Please go away." + +"I spoke for your own good," I continued. "There may be currents in +the Bay that you know nothing of. Besides, the driftwood itself is +dangerous this morning." + +She did not reply for a bit, but kept steadily on. + +When I took up my position a few yards to the left and on a level with +her, she turned on me indignantly. + +"Excuse me, Sir Impertinence,--but do you take me for a child or a +fool? Are you one of those inflated individuals who imagines that +masculine man is the only animal that can do anything?" + +"Far from it," I answered, "but as it so happens I am slightly better +acquainted with the Bay than you are and I merely wished you to benefit +from my knowledge." + +"I am obliged to you for your interest, Mr. Bremner. However, I know +my own capabilities in the water, just as you know yours. Now,--if you +do not desire to spoil what to me has been a pleasure so far, you will +leave me." + +I fell back a few yards, feeling that it would have given me extreme +pleasure to have had the pulling of her ears. And, more out of +cussedness,--as Jake would put it,--than anything else, I kept plodding +along slowly, neither increasing nor diminishing the distance between +us. + +She was well aware of my proximity, and, at last, when we were little +more than a hundred yards from the point of the rock at the farthest +out end of the wharf, she wheeled on me like the exasperated sea-nymph +she was. + +"I told you the other day, Mr. Bremner, that you could not hide the +fact that you were a gentleman. If you do not wish me to regret having +said that,--you will go away. I am perfectly capable of looking after +myself." + +That was the last straw for me. I could see that she was a splendid +swimmer and that she was likely to make the shore without mishap, +although I could also tell that she was tiring. + +"All right!--I'll go," I shouted. "But please be sensible,--there was +a heavy drift of wood and seaweed last night. The seaweed always +gathers in at your side of the wharf, and it is treacherous. Come this +way and land ashore from my side." + +"Thank you! Mr. Bremner," she called back quite pleasantly, "but I came +this way and saw very little seaweed, so I fancy I shall be able to get +back." + +Maddened at her for being so headstrong, I veered to the left of the +rocks, while she held on to the right. + +I did not look in her direction again, but, with a fast, powerful +side-stroke, I shot ahead and soon the rocks divided us. + +I was barely a hundred yards from the beach, when I heard, or fancied I +heard, just the faintest of inarticulate cries. + +I listened, but it was not repeated. In the ordinary course, I would +have paid no heed, but something above and beyond me prompted me to +satisfy myself that all was right. + +I swung round and started quickly for the point of the rocks again. In +a few seconds, I reached it and swam round to the other side. I +scanned the water between me and the shore,--it was as smooth as glass, +with only bobbing brown bulbs everywhere denoting the presence of the +seaweed. + +I looked at the beach, and across to Miss Grant's house,--there was no +one in sight. + +A feeling of horror crept over me. It was +improbable,--impossible,--that she could have reached the shore and got +inside the house so quickly. + +I glanced over the surface of the water again. + +Good God!--what was that? + +Not fifty yards from the beach, and just at the point where the bobbing +brown bulbs were thickest, a small hand and an arm broke the surface of +the water. The fingers of the hand closed convulsively and a ring +glittered in the sunlight. Then the hand vanished. + +With a vigorous crawl stroke,--keeping well on the surface for +safety,--I tore through that intervening space. + +Oh!--how I thanked God for my exceptional ability in diving and +swimming under water. + +As I got over the spot where I reckoned the hand had appeared, I became +cautious, for I knew the danger and I had no desire to get entangled +and thus end the chances of both of us. I sank down, slowly and +perpendicularly, keeping my knees bent and my feet together, feeling +carefully with my hands the while. The water was clear, but I could +see only a little way because of the seaweed. + +How thickly it had gathered! Long, curling, tangling stuff! + +Several times, I had to change my position quickly in order to avoid +being caught among the great, waving tendrils which, lower down, +interweaved like the meshes of a gigantic net. + +I stayed under water as long as I dared, then with lungs afire I had to +come to the surface for air. + +Desperately, I started again. + +I swam several yards nearer to the rocks and sank once more. This +time, my groping hands found what they were seeking. Far down, almost +at the bottom of the sea, the body of Miss Grant lay. + +I passed my hands over her. Her head and arms were clear of the awful +tangle, but both her legs were enmeshed. + +Fighting warily and working like one possessed, I tore at the +slithering ropes and bands that bound her. I got one foot and leg +clear, then, with bursting lungs I attacked the other. + +It seemed as if I should never get her free. How I fought and +struggled with that damnable sea-growth! fearing and fearing afresh +that I would have to make to the surface for air, or drown where I was. + +As I worked frantically, I grew defiant, and decided to drown rather +than leave the girl who had already been far too long under water. + +My head throbbed and hammered. My senses reeled and rallied, and +reeled again as I tore and struggled. Then, when hope was leaving me, +I felt something snap. I caught at the body beside me and I drifted +upward, and upward;--I did not know how or where. + +The thought flashed through me;--this is the last. It is all over. + +I opened my throat to allow the useless carbonised air to escape. I +was conscious of the act and knew its consequences:--a flood of salt +water in my lungs, then suffocation and death. But I did not care now. + +My lungs deflated, then--oh! delicious ecstasy!--instead of water, I +drew to my dying body,--air; reviving, life-giving, life-sustaining +oxygen. + +I panted and gasped, as life ran through my veins. Blood danced in my +thumping heart. I caught at my reeling senses. I clutched, like a +miser, at the body I held. + +I struggled, and opened my eyes. + +I was on the surface of the water,--afloat. In my arms, I held the +lady I had wrested from the deadly seaweed. + +How well I knew, even in those awful moments, that I was not the cause +of that wonderful rescue. I was present,--true,--but it was the +decreeing of the great, living, but Unseen Power, who had further use +for both of us in the bright old world, who had more work for us to +perform ere he called us to our last accounting. + +Well I knew then that every moment of time was more precious than +ordinary hours of reckoning, yet I dared not hurry with my burden +across that short strip of water, lest we should again become entangled. + +Foot by foot, I worked my way, until I was clear of the seaweed, then I +kicked forcefully for the shore, and with my unconscious, perhaps dead, +burden in my arms, I scrambled up the face of the rocks and into the +house. + +"Quick! For God's sake! Hot water,--blankets!" I cried to Miss +Grant's semi-petrified companion. + +She stood and looked at me in horror and bewilderment. Then I +remembered that my shouting was in vain, for she was stone-deaf. + +But this good old lady's helplessness was short-lived. + +"Lay her down," she cried; "I know how to handle this. If there's a +spark of life in her I can bring her round." + +I laid the limp form on the bed, on top of the spotless linen. + +As I did so, I looked upon the pale face, with its eyes closed and the +brine rolling in drops over those long, golden eyelashes; then upon the +glorious sun-kissed hair now water-soaked and tangled. + +I cried in my soul, "Oh, God!--is this the end and she so beautiful." + +Already the elderly lady had commenced first aid, in a businesslike +way. It was something I knew only a little about, so I went into the +kitchen in a perspiring terror of suspense,--and I stood there by the +stove, ready to be of assistance at any moment, should I be called. + +After what seemed hours of waiting, I heard a moan, and through the +moaning came a voice, sweet but pitiful, and breathing of agony. + +"Oh! why did you bring me back? Why did you not let me die?" + +Again followed a long waiting, with the soothing voice of Miss Grant's +able companion talking to her patient as she wrought with her. + +There was a spell of dreadful nausea, but when it came I knew the worst +was over. + +The elderly lady came to the door, with a request for a hot-water +bottle, which I got for her with alacrity. + +At last she came out to me, and her kindly face was beaming. + +"My dear, good boy," she said, as tears trickled down her cheeks, "she +is lying peacefully and much better. In an hour or two, she will be up +and around. Would you care to see her, just to put your mind at ease?" + +"Indeed I would," I responded. + +She led the way into the room, and there on the bed lay Miss +Grant,--breathing easily,--alive,--life athrob in her veins. + +A joyful reaction overwhelmed me, for, no matter how humble had been my +part, I had been chosen to help to save her. + +As I stood by her, her eyes opened;--great, light-brown eyes, bright +and agleam as of molten gold. They roved the room, then they rested on +me. + +"What!" she groaned, "you still here? Oh!--go away,--go away." + +My heart sank within me and my face flushed with confusion. + +I might have understood that what she said was merely the outpouring of +an overpowering weakness which was mingling the mental pictures +focussed on the young lady's mind;--but I failed to think anything but +that she had a natural distaste for my presence and was not, even now, +grateful for the assistance I had rendered. + +With my head bowed, I walked to the door. + +Mrs. Malmsbury,--for that was the elderly lady's name,--came to me. +She had not heard, but she had surmised. + +"Oh! Mr. Bremner,--if my dear Mary has said anything amiss to you, do +not be offended, for she is hardly herself yet. Why!--she is only +newly back from the dead." + +She held out her hand to me and I took it gratefully. But as I walked +over to my quarters and dressed myself, the feeling of resentment in my +heart did not abate; and I vowed then to myself that I would think of +Mary Grant no more; that I would avoid her when I could and keep +strictly to my own, beloved, masculine, bachelor pursuits and to the +pathway I had mapped out for myself. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +Good Medicine + +The Rev. William Auld was due to visit Golden Crescent that afternoon. +I almost wearied for his coming, for he was entertaining and uplifting. +He, somehow, had the happy knack of instilling fresh energy, fresh +ambition, fresh hope, into every one with whom he came in contact. + +His noisy launch at last came chug-chugging up the Bay. He started +with the far point of the Crescent and called at every creek, cove and +landing at which there was a home. Then he crept along the shore-line +to Jake's place. + +My turn next,--I soliloquised. But, no!--he held out, waving his hand +in salutation. + +It was evidently his intention to make a call on Miss Grant before +finishing his Sabbath labours at my bungalow. + +He stayed there a long time: so long, that I was beginning to give up +hope of his ever getting my length; but, finally, his cheery voice +hailed me from my doorway and roused my drooping spirits. + +His pale, gentle face was wreathed in smiles. + +"Good boy! Good boy!" he commented. "God bless you! He is blessing +you,--eh, George!" + +"How is the lady?" I inquired. + +"Almost as well as ever," he replied. "She has had a severe shake-up +though. It must have been touch and go. + +"She was up, George, and talked to me. She told me everything she +could remember; how she refused to take your well-intentioned advice, +and suffered the consequences of her folly. She gave me this note for +you." + +He held out an envelope and I took it and put it in my pocket. + +He raised his eyebrows, "Read it, man;--read it." + +"It will do later, Mr. Auld;--there is no hurry." + +He shook his old, grey head in surprise. + +"Well,--well,--well," he exclaimed. + +"Have you visited the Clarks yet, George?" he asked after a pause. + +"Yes!" + +"And what did you find there?" + +"Discord," I answered. + +"So you know all about it, eh!" + +"You are a minister of God, Mr. Auld; you have influence with such a +man as Andrew Clark. Surely you can move him from the damnable +position he has taken up?" + +"I would to God I could," he said fervently. "For ten years, I have +preached to him, scolded him, cajoled him, threatened him with +hell-fire and ever-lasting torment; yes! I have even refused to +dispense the sacrament to him unless he relented, but I might as well +have expended my energies on The Ghoul Rock out there at the opening to +the Bay." + +"But he professes to be a good Christian, Mr. Auld," I put in. + +"Yes! and no man on the coast tries to live a good life more than he +does. I am sure, every moment of his life he deeply regrets the rash +vow he made, but he believes, in the sight of God, he is doing right in +keeping to it. He is obsessed. + +"Now, George,--what is there left for me to try?" + +"Physical force," I exclaimed angrily. + +"George,--" he said, almost horrified, "it is not for a minister of the +gospel to think of violence." + +"Why not?" I went on. "Andrew Clark is slowly torturing his wife to +death. Surely, if there ever was an occasion,--this is it! A few +days' violence may save years of torture to both and, maybe, save his +eternal soul besides." + +He sat in silence for a while, then he startled me. + +"Come, boy! You have a scheme in your head. Tell me what it is, +and,--may God forgive me if I do wrong,--but, if it appeals to me as +likely to move that old, living block of Aberdeen granite, or even to +cause a few hours' joy to his dear, patient wife, Margaret, I'll carry +it through if I can." + +I unfolded what had been in my mind. + +"What do you think of it?" I asked. + +He shook his head dubiously. + +"It is dangerous; it is violent; it is not what a minister is expected +to do to any of his flock;--and it is only a chance that it will effect +its purpose." + +"Where would you put him?" I asked, as if he had agreed. + +He smiled. + +"Oh!--there is the log cabin at the back of the farm, where he keeps +nothing but an incubator. It has a heavy door and only a small window. + +"Man,--if we could inveigle him in there!" + +The Rev. William Auld positively chuckled as he thought of it. + +I knew then that he was not so very far away from his schoolboy days, +despite his age and experiences. + +"When can we start in?" + +He thought a little. + +"The sooner the better," he said. "Joe is busy towing booms this week +and there is no possible chance of his coming home. I am not too busy +and can spare the part of three or four consecutive days for the job. + +"If we can only get Margaret and Rita to agree." + +"I can guarantee Rita," I said. + +"And I can coerce Margaret," he put in. + +"We'll arrange with the women folks to-morrow sometime, and we'll +tackle poor old Andrew the following afternoon." + +The minister waited and had tea with me. It was late when he took his +departure. + +Just as I was tumbling into bed, I remembered Mary Grant's letter. I +took it out of my coat pocket and opened it. It was not a letter, +after all; merely a note. + + +"Please,--please forgive me," it read. "You are a brave and very +gallant gentleman. + +"MARY GRANT." + + +"George, my boy!" I soliloquised, "that ought to satisfy you." + +But it did not. In the frame of mind I then was in, nothing could +possibly have propitiated me. + +As I dropped to sleep, the phrase recurred again and again: "You are a +brave and very gallant gentleman." That,--maybe,--but after all a poor +and humble gentleman working for wages in a country store;--so, why +worry? + +Next morning, although it was not the day any steamer was due, I ran +the white flag to the top of the pole at the point of the rocks, in the +hope that Rita would see it and take it as a signal that I wished to +speak with her; and so save me a trip across, for I expected some of +the men from the Camps and I never liked to be absent or to keep them +waiting. + +Just before noon, Rita presented herself. + +"Say, George!--what's the rag up for? Did you forget what day of the +week it was, or is it your birthday? + +"I brought you a pie, in case it might be your anniversary. Made it +this morning." + +I laughed to the bright little lass who stood before me with eyes +dancing mischievously, white teeth showing and the pink of her cheeks +glowing through the olive tint of her skin. + +The more I saw of Rita, the prettier she seemed in my eyes, for she was +lively and agile, trim, neat and beautifully rounded, breathing always +of fragrant and exuberant health. + +"Sit down beside me on the steps here, Rita," I said. "I want to talk +to you. That is why I put the flag up. + +"Rita,--what would you give to have your grand-dad renounce his vow +some day and begin speaking to your grandmother as if nothing had ever +been amiss?" + +She looked at me and her lips trembled. + +"Say, George! Don't fool me. I ain't myself on that subject." + +"What would you give, Rita?" + +"I'd give anything. I'd pretty near give my life, George; for +grandmother would be happier'n an angel." + +"Would you help, if some one knew a way?" + +"George,--sure you ain't foolin'? True,--you ain't foolin'?" + +For answer, I plunged into the scheme. + +"Now,--all we require of you and your grandmother is to sit tight and +neither to say nor do anything that would interfere. Leave it +to--leave it to the minister. He is doing this, and he believes that +it is the only way to bring your grand-dad to his senses. Mr. Auld has +already tried everything else he can think of." + +"It won't kill grand-dad, though?" she inquired. + +"Kill him,--no! Why! it won't even hurt him, unless, maybe, his pride. + +"Do you agree, Rita?" + +"Sure!" she said. "But--if you or Mr. Auld hurt my grand-dad, I guess +I'll kill you both,--see." + +Her eyes flashed for a second and I could tell she was in deadly +earnest over it. But she soon laughed and became happy once more. + +"Rita,--would you like to be able to talk English,--proper +English,--just as it should be talked? Would you care to learn English +Grammar?" I asked, changing the subject partly. + +She came close to me on the veranda steps with a jump. + +"Say that over again, George. I want to get it right," she said +plaintively. + +"Would you like me to teach you English Grammar, Rita?" I repeated. + +"Would I? Oh! wouldn't I just!" + +She looked away quickly. "You wouldn't waste your time teachin' the +likes of me." + +"I have been through college. I know something of English Grammar and +English Literature. It would be the pleasure of my life to be +permitted to impart some of what I know to you." + +"Oh!--but it would take years, and years, and--then some," she put in. + +"Not a bit of it! It would take an hour or two of an evening, maybe +twice a week. That is all,--provided you went over and learned in +between times all that was given you to master." + +"Gee! I could do that. You just try me." + +"Well, Rita. Here is your first lesson. + +"Never say 'gee.' It is not good English." + +And I never heard Rita use the expression again. + +I had expected to see her smile with happiness, but she was too +tremendously in earnest about it. Determination was written all over +her sweet little face. + +"George,--I'll learn anything you tell me. I'll work hard and I'll +learn terrible fast, for I know I ain't no good now at talking slick." + +"Here is another for you, Rita. Never say 'ain't no good.' Say, 'I am +not any good.' 'Ain't' is not a word; it does not appear in any +standard dictionary of English. + +"Well, little girl,--if your grand-dad is agreeable and will permit you +to come over now and again of an evening, we can make a start as soon +as I get the book I require from Vancouver. + +"I would come over to your place, but it is quite a distance from the +store and I do not like to be too long away, especially in the +evenings; for I have seen Chinese in their fishing boats around, and +strange launches keep coming into the Bay to anchor overnights. It +does not do, you know, to neglect another man's property and goods when +the other man pays me for looking after them." + +"Oh! grand-dad won't mind me coming. He lets me do pretty near +anything. Besides, somebody's got to come over to the store now we're +getting our groceries from you instead of ordering them from Vancouver." + +I was not so sanguine as Rita was, especially after what Joe had +probably said to Andrew Clark regarding me. + +"Well!" I concluded, "that will be my excuse when I come over with the +medicine for your grand-dad's chronic complaint,--dumbness. So, don't +say a word about it until I get over." + +The Rev. William Auld ran in early that afternoon. He was all +excitement. + +"George,--I saw Margaret and I have fixed her. Poor woman,--she is as +nervous as a kitten and as worried as a mother cat, fearing we may hurt +Andrew. The old rascal;--he's not so easily hurt, eh, George? + +"You saw Rita?" + +"Yes! And she is like Mrs. Clark, but the prize looks too alluring for +her to refrain from entering the gamble." + +"George! Why should we leave this till to-morrow?" + +"I don't know why." + +"We could start in to-night, just as easily as to-morrow, and it will +be over a day sooner. What do you say?" + +"I am ready when you are, Mr. Auld." + +"Right! Now, I am going to leave the conversation to you. You must +work it round to fit in. I shall do the rest,--the dirty work, as the +villain says in the dime novel." + +"What do you know about dime novels?" I laughed. + +"I am a minister of the gospel now, but ... I was a boy once." + +The Rev. William Auld had dinner with me, then he started out in his +launch for Clark's ranch. It was arranged that I follow immediately in +a rowing boat, which would take me longer to get there and would thus +disarm any suspicion of complicity. + +When I arrived at Clark's, I could hear the minister talking and Andrew +Clark laughing heartily. Mr. Auld was telling some interesting story +and he had the old man in the best of humours. + +I was welcomed with cheerfulness, and the minister shook hands with me +as if he had not seen me for a month of Sundays. + +Rita was a-missing. Mrs. Clark seemed nervous and ill-at-ease. +Andrew, however, was in his happiest of moods. + +"What special brought ye over, George?" he asked. + +I told him of Rita's anxiety to be able to talk English properly and of +my willingness to teach her if it could be arranged conveniently. The +minister backed up the project with all his ministerial fluency, but +Andrew Clark was not the man to agree to a thing immediately, no matter +how well it appealed to him. + +"Rita's a good lassie," he said, "and she hasna had schoolin' except +what Marget and me taught her, and that's little more than being able +to read and add up a few lines o' figures. + +"George Bremner,--you're an honest man and I like ye fine. You'll ha'e +my answer by the end o' the week." + +"Right you are!" I exclaimed. + +Andrew then started in to tell Mr. Auld of the method he had adopted in +regard to the disposition of his output of eggs, and that gave me just +the opportunity I wanted. + +"How do you raise your chicks, Mr. Clark?" I asked. "Do you use an +incubator?" + +"Sure thing! And a grand little incubator I ha'e too," he answered. +"She takes two hundred and fifty eggs at a time and gives an average of +eighty per cent chicks." + +I had lit on Andrew Clark's one and only hobby. + +He got up. "Come and ha'e a look at it. It's called 'The +Every-Egg-A-Chick' Incubator, and it nearly lives up to its name. + +"But it's a pity I ha'e nothin' in her at the minute. + +"Come on, too, Mr. Auld. It'll do ye good to learn something aboot +chickens, even if you are busy enough lookin' after the sheep." + +Andrew took a huge key from a nail in the wall and we followed him out +to the log cabin, both of us full of forced interest and bubbling over +with pent-up excitement. + +Old man Clark talked all the way on his favourite topic; he talked +while he inserted the key in the door and he kept on talking as he +walked in, all intent on his wonderful egg-hatcher. + +He left the key in the door. + +Just as I was due to enter, I stepped back. With a quick movement, the +minister pulled the door to and turned the key, taking it out of the +lock and putting it in his trouser pocket. + +"Hey!--what's the matter?" came a voice from the inside. + +We did not answer. + +Andrew Clark battered on the door with his fists. + +"Hey there! The door has snappit to. Open it and come awa' in." + +The minister put his lips to the keyhole. + +"Andrew Clark,--that door is not going to be opened for some time to +come." + +"Toots! What are ye bletherin' aboot? What kind o' a schoolboy trick +is this you're up to? Open the door and none o' your nonsense." + +I chuckled with delight, as I ran off for some boards and nails which I +hammered up against the small window for extra security. + +When I finished the job, the Rev. William Auld was getting through his +lecture to Andrew. + +"--And you won't step a foot out of this place, neither shall you eat, +till you renounce your devilish vow and speak to the wife of your +bosom, as a God-fearing man should." + +Sonorously from behind the door came Clark's voice. + +"Willum Auld!--are ye a meenister o' the gospel?" + +"Yes!" + +"And ye would try to force a man to break a vow made before the Lord?" + +"Yes! Andrew." + +"Ye would starve a man to death,--murder him?" + +"No!--but I would make him very uncomfortable. I would make him so +hungry that he would almost hear the gnawing in his internals for meat, +if I thought good would come of it." + +The man behind the door became furious. + +"Willum Auld!" + +"Yes! Andrew." + +"If ye don't open that door at once, I'll write a complaint to the +Presbytery. I'll ha'e ye shorn o' your releegious orders and hunted +frae the kirk o' God." + +"Be silent! you blasphemer," commanded the frail but plucky old +minister. "How dare you talk in that way? Do you wish to bring down a +judgment on yourself? Good-night! Andrew,--I'll be back to-morrow; +and I would strongly recommend you, in the interval, to get down on +your knees and pray to your Maker." + +This proved almost too much for Andrew. + +"Willum!--Willum!--Come back," he cried through the door. + +"What is it?" asked the minister, returning. + +"There's neither light nor bed here, and I'm an ageing man." + +"Darkness is better light and earthen floors are softer bedding than +you will have in the place you are hastening to if you do not repent +and talk to Margaret." + +There was a spell of silence again. + +"Willum!--Willum! Are ye there?" + +"Yes! Andrew." + +"Could I ha'e my pipe and tobacco and a puckle matches? They're on the +kitchen mantel-piece." + +"Unless it is a drink of water, not a thing shall pass through this +doorway to you till you pledge me that you will speak to Margaret, as +you did before you took your devil's vow." + +The dour old man, in his erstwhile prison, had the last word: + +"Gang awa' wi' ye,--for it'll be a long time, Willum Auld. The snaw +will be fallin' blue frae the Heavens." + +We went back to the cottage and gave implicit instructions to Margaret +and Rita how they were to handle the prisoner. Neither of them was in +an easy frame of mind, and I feared considerably for their ability to +stand the test and keep away from the log hut. But the minister +retained the key, so that nothing short of tearing the place down would +let Andrew Clark out. + +Next day, late in the afternoon, the minister called in for me and we +sailed over to the ranch. + +Margaret, though sorely tempted, had kept religiously away from her +husband; but, already, she had a variety of foodstuffs cooked and +waiting his anticipated release. + +We went over to the barn and the minister rapped on the door. + +"Are you there, Andrew?" + +No answer. + +"Andrew Clark,--are you there?" + +Still no response. + +I looked though the boarded window. The old Scot was standing with his +back to us in a studied attitude. + +Once more the minister spoke, but still he received no answer. + +The women folks were waiting anxiously, and keen was their +disappointment when they heard that another day would have to pass ere +the head of their house could be released. + +"God forgive me if I am doing wrong," exclaimed William Auld to me, +"but I am determined, now that I have put my hand to the plough, I +shall not turn back." + +Wednesday came, and we called again. + +"Andrew," called the minister through the door, "will you relent and +talk to Margaret?" + +"Give me a drink of water," came a husky voice from behind the door. + +A saucer of cold water was passed under the door to him and he seized +it and drank of it eagerly. + +"Will you talk to Margaret, Andrew?" + +"No!" snapped the old fellow. And back again he dropped into silence. + +Still another day and the performance was repeated. Still Andrew Clark +remained adamant; still Margaret Clark begged and prayed on her knees +for his release. + +"We will give him one more day," said the minister, "and then, if it is +God's will, we will release him and take the consequences of our acts." + +On the Friday afternoon, we made what we considered would be our last +trip. + +Dour, stubborn, old man! It looked as if he were about to beat us +after all, for we could not afford to injure his health, no matter what +the reason for it. As it was, we had broken the law of the land and we +were liable to punishment at the hands of the law. + +The Rev. William Auld, suffering far more than the prisoner could have +suffered during that trying time, knocked at the solid door once more. + +"Andrew! Andrew!" he cried, "for God's sake, be a man." + +He had the key to the door in his hand, ready to open it. + +Suddenly, a broken voice came in answer: + +"Bring me Marget! Bring me Marget!" + +"Do you wish to speak to her, Andrew?" + +"Bring me Marget, won't you," came again the wavering voice. + +I brought the dear old woman from her kitchen. She was trembling with +anxiety and suspense. + +William Auld threw the door open. + +Andrew Clark was standing in the middle of the floor, with a look on +his face that I had never seen there before,--a look of holy +tenderness. He held out his arms to the white-haired old lady, who +tottered forward to meet him. + +"Marget! Marget! My own lass, Marget!" he cried huskily, as tears +blinded his sight. He caught her and crushed her to him. + +Margaret tried to speak, but her voice caught brokenly. + +"Andrew! Andrew!--don't, lad,--oh! don't." + +She laid her head on his breast and sobbed in utter content, as he +stroked her hair. + +"It's been ten year o' hell for me, Marget: ten year o' hell for us +both," he went on, "but God has spoken to me in the darkness, in the +quietness; through hunger and thirst. My lass, my lass;--my own, dear, +patient lass." + +He was holding her tightly to him and did not seem to know of our +presence. Our hearts were too full to remain. We turned and left them +in the joy of their reborn love. + +The minister, with face aglow, got into his launch, while I jumped into +my rowing boat. + +When I was quite a long way from the shore, I looked back across the +water to the cottage; and there, kneeling together on their veranda +steps, their arms around each other, their heads bent in prayer, I saw +Andrew Clark and Margaret. + +The next afternoon, Andrew called on me. He was waiting for me at the +store, as Jake and I returned with two boat-loads of fresh stock which +we were out receiving from the _Cloochman_. + +The old fellow took me by the hand and surprised me by his smile of +open friendship. + +"I would ha'e come over sooner, George, but I couldna get away frae the +ranch these last few days." His eyes turned humorously as he said it. + +"I might ha'e run over this mornin', but Marget and me ha'e a lot o' +leaway to make up. + +"Say! man,--I'll be glad if you will do what ye can to help Rita. Make +your ain arrangements;--for, what suits you, suits me and Marget." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +A Maid, a Mood and a Song + +In Golden Crescent Bay things moved quietly, almost drowsily. There +were the routine of hurried work and the long spells of comparative +idleness. + +As for the people over the way, I saw little of them outside of +business. + +I had not spoken to Mary Grant since the peremptory dismissal I had +received from her during her recovery from the drowning accident. + +I had not acknowledged her note by a visit, as probably I should have +done; but, then,--how was I to know but that the note had been sent +merely as a matter of form and common courtesy? She had no reason to +think me other than what I showed myself to be,--an ordinary +store-clerk; and this being so she might have considered it +presumptuous had I endeavoured in any way to avail myself of the +advantage I had secured in being of service to her, for, despite her +endeavours, she could not disguise from me,--who was in a position to +judge in a moment,--that her upbringing and her education had been such +as only the richest could afford and only the best families in America +and Europe could command. Yet she had a dash and wayward individualism +that were all her own;--savouring of the prairies and the wilder life +of the West. + +To me, she was still an enigma. + +Mrs. Malmsbury had been making all the purchases at the store; and, +naturally, conversation with her was of a strictly business order. She +seldom had a word to say that was not absolutely necessary, because, +from long experience, she had gathered wisdom and knew that talking +begot answering and questioning, and when these answers and questions +were unheard conversation was apt to become a monologue. + +She had no information to impart, no reminiscences to recount, no pet +theories to voice on evolution or female suffrage, no confessions or +professions to make, no prophecies to advance even regarding the +weather. + +As for Mary Grant,--she was seldom idle. I had seen her make her own +clothes, I had seen her over the washtub with her sleeves rolled up to +her fair, white shoulders, I had seen her bake and houseclean; sharing +the daily duties with her elderly companion. + +Yet she enjoyed to the full the delights that Golden Crescent afforded. +In her spare time, she rowed on the water, bathed, roved the forests +behind for wild flowers and game, read in her hammock and revelled in +her music. + +And she was not the only one who revelled in that glorious music, for, +unknown to her, Jake and I listened with delight to her uplifting +entertainment; I from the confines of my front veranda and Jake, night +after night, from his favourite position on the cliffs. + +He confessed to me that it was a wonderful set-off to the cravings that +often beset him for the liquor which he was still fighting so nobly and +victoriously. + +Poor old Jake! More than once I had almost been tempted to coax him to +go back to his nightly libations, for, since he had begun his fight for +abstinence, he seemed to be gradually going down the hill; losing +weight, losing strength, losing interest in his daily pursuits, and, +with it all, ageing. + +The minister had noticed the change and had expressed his concern. +Rita also had talked of it to me; and her visits to the old man had +become more frequent, her little attentions had grown in number and her +solicitude for his bodily comfort had become almost motherly. + +Rita always could manipulate Jake round her little finger. He was clay +in her hands, and obeyed her even to the putting of a stocking full of +hot salt round his neck one night he had a hoarseness in his throat. + +"If she ever insists on me puttin' my feet in hot-water and mustard," +he confessed to me once, "God knows how I shall muster up the courage +to refuse." + +I had sent to Vancouver for the grammar-book with which I intended +starting Rita's tuition, but it had only arrived,--its coming having +been delayed on account of the book-sellers not having it in stock and +having to fill my requirement from the East,--but I had promised Rita, +much to her pleasure, that we should start in in earnest the following +evening. + +I had been reading in my hammock until the daylight had failed me. And +now I was lying, resting and hoping that any moment Miss Grant would +commence her nightly musicale. + +Jake, and his dog Mike, I presumed, were already in their accustomed +places, Jake smoking his pipe and Mike biting at mosquitoes and other +pestiferous insects which lodged and boarded about his warm, hairy +person. + +The cottage door opened and our fair entertainer stepped out. + +She came across the rustic bridge and made straight for my place, +humming softly to herself as she sauntered along. She was hatless as +usual and her hair was done up in great, wavy coils on her well-poised +head. Her hands were jammed deep into the pockets of her pale-green, +silk sweater-coat. She impressed me then as being at peace with the +world and perfectly at ease; much more at ease than I was, for I was +puzzling myself as to what her wish with me could be, unless it were +regarding some groceries that she might have overlooked during the day. + +She smiled as she came forward. + +I rose from the hammock. + +"Now, don't let me disturb you," she said. "Lie where you are. + +"I shall do splendidly right here." + +She sat down on the top step of the veranda and turned half round to me. + +"Do you ever feel lonely, Mr. Bremner?" + +"Yes!--sometimes," I answered. + +"What do you do with yourself on such occasions?" + +"Oh!--smoke and read chiefly." + +"But,--do you ever feel as if you had to speak to a member of the +opposite sex near your own age,--or die?" + +She was quite solemn about this, and seemed to wait anxiously as if the +whole world's welfare depended on my answer. + +"Sometimes!" I replied again, with a laugh. + +"What do you do then?" + +"I lie down and try to die." + +"--and find you can't," she put in. + +"Yes!" + +"Just the same as I do. Well!--" she sighed, "I have explored all the +beauties of Golden Crescent; I have fished--and caught nothing. I have +hunted,--and shot nothing. I have read,--and learned nothing, or next +to it, until I have nothing left to read. So now,--I have come over to +you. I want to be friends." + +"Are we not friends already?" I asked, sitting on the side of my +hammock and filling my vision with the charming picture she presented. + +She sighed and raised her eyebrows. + +"Oh!--I don't know. You never let me know that you had forgiven me for +my rudeness to you." + +"There was nothing to forgive, Miss Grant." + +"No! How kind of you to say so! And you are not angry with me any +more?" + +"Not a bit," I answered, wondering at the change which had come over +this pretty but elusive young lady. + +"Well, Mr. Bremner,--I see you reading very often. I came across to +inquire if you could favour me with something in the book line to wile +away an hour or so." + +"With pleasure," I answered. + +"Mr. Horsfal, my employer, has a well-stocked little library here and +you are very welcome to read anything in it you may fancy. Will you +come inside?" + +She looked up shyly, then her curiosity got the mastery. + +"Why, yes!" she cried, jumping up. "I shall be delighted." + +I led the way into the front room, fixing the lamp and causing a flood +of mellow light to suffuse the darkness in there. I went over and +threw aside the curtains that hid the book-shelves. + +"You have a lovely place here," she exclaimed, looking round in +admiration. "I had no idea ... no idea----" + +"--That a bachelor could make himself so comfortable," I put in. + +"Exactly! Do you mind if I take a peek around?" she asked, laughing. + +"Not a bit!" + +She "peeked around" and satisfied her curiosity to the full. + +"I am convinced," she said at last, "that in all this domestic artistry +there is the touch of a feminine hand. Who was, or who is,--the lady?" + +"I understand Mrs. Horsfal furnished and arranged this home. She lived +here every summer before she died. That made it very easy for me. All +I had to do was to keep everything in its place as she had left it." + +Miss Grant was enraptured with the library. I thought she would never +finish scanning the titles and the authors. + +"This is a positive book-wormery," she exclaimed. + +She chose a volume which revealed her very masculine taste in +literature, although, after all, it did not astonish me greatly but +merely confirmed what I already had known to be so;--that, while boys +and men scorn to read girls' and women's books, yet girls and women +seem to prefer the books that are written more especially for boys and +men and the more those books revel and riot in sword play, impossible +adventure and intrigue, the more they like them. + +"Might I ask if you would be so good as to return my visit?" said my +visitor at last. "You saved my life, you know, and you have some right +to take a small friendly interest in me. + +"If you could spare the time, I should be pleased to have you over for +tea to-morrow evening and to spend a sociable hour with us +afterwards;--that is, if you care for tea, sociability and--music." + +I looked across at her,--so straight, so ladylike, so beautiful; almost +as tall as I and so full of bubbling mischief and virile charm. + +"I am a veritable drunkard with tea, and as for music--ask Jake, out +there sitting on the cliffs in the darkness, if I like music. He +knows. Ask me, as I lie in my hammock here, night after night, waiting +for you to begin,--if Jake likes music, and the answer will satisfy you +just how much both of us appreciate it. + +"But, I am very sorry I shall be unable to avail myself of your kind +invitation to come to-morrow evening." + +My new friend could not disguise her surprise. I almost fancied I +traced a flush of embarrassment on her cheeks. + +"No!" was all she said, and she said it ever so quietly. + +"I have a pupil coming to-morrow evening for her first real lesson in +English Grammar. She has waited long for it. The book I desired to +start her in with has only arrived. She would be terribly disappointed +if I were now to postpone that lesson." + +"Your pupil is a lady?" + +"Yes!--a sweet little girl called Rita Clark, who lives at the ranch at +the other side of the Crescent. She comes here often. You must have +noticed her." + +"What!--that pretty, olive-skinned girl, with the dark hair and dark +eyes? + +"Yes! I have noticed her and I have never since ceased to envy her +complexion and her woodland beauty. I would give all I have to look as +she does. + +"You are most fortunate in your choice of a pupil?" + +"Yes! Rita is a good-hearted little girl," I lauded unthinkingly. + +"I spoke to her once out on the Island," said Miss Grant, "but she +seemed shy. She looked me over from head to heel, then ran off without +a word. + +"Well,--Mr. Bremner, days and evenings are much alike to some of us in +Golden Crescent. Shall we say Wednesday evening?" + +"I shall be more than pleased, Miss Grant," I exclaimed, betraying the +boyish eagerness I felt, "if----?" + +"If?" she inquired. + +"If you will return the compliment by allowing me to take you out some +evening in the boat to the end of Rita's Isle there, where the sea +trout are,--or away out to the passage by The Ghoul where the salmon +are now running. I have seen you fishing very often and with the +patience of Job, yet not once have I seen you bring home a fish. Now, +Rita Clark can bring in twenty or thirty trout in less than an hour, +any time she has a fancy to. + +"I should like to break your bad luck, for I think the trouble can only +be with the tackle you use." + +Mary Grant's brown eyes danced with pleasure, and in the lamplight, I +noticed for the first time, how very fair her skin was,--cream and pink +roses,--tanned slightly where the sun had got at it, but without a +blemish, without even a freckle, and this despite the fact that she +seldom took any precautions against the depredations of Old Sol. + +"I shall be glad indeed. You are very kind; for what you propose will +be a treat of treats, especially if we catch some fish." + +She held out her hand to me. Mine touched hers and a thrill ran and +sang through my fingers, through my body to my brain; the thrill of a +strange sensation I had never before experienced. I gazed at her +without speaking. + +She raised her eyes and mine held hers for the briefest of moments. + +To me it seemed as if a world of doubt and uncertainty were being swept +away and I were looking into eyes I had known through all the ages. + +Then her golden lashes dropped and hid those wonderful eyes from me. + +Impulsively, yet fully knowing what I did, I raised her hand and +touched the back of her fingers with my lips. + +She did not draw her hand away. She smiled across to me ever so +sweetly and turned from me into the darkness. + +Not for an hour did I wake from my reveries. The spell of new +influences was upon me; the moon, climbing up among the scudding +night-clouds, never seemed so bright before and the phosphorescent glow +and silver streaks on the water never so beautiful. + +A light travelled across the parlour over the way. I saw Miss Grant +seat herself by the piano, and soon the whole air became charged with +the softest, sweetest cadences,--elusive, faint and fairylike. + +How I enjoyed them! How old Jake on the cliffs must have enjoyed them! +What an artist the lady was, and how she excelled herself that evening! + +I lay in a transport of pleasure, hoping that the music might never +cease; but, alas for such vain hoping,--it whispered and died away, +leaving behind it only the stillness of the night, the sighing of the +wind in the tops of the tall creaking firs, the chirping of the +crickets under the stones and the call of the night bird to her mate. + +I raised my eyes across to the cottage. + +In the lamplight, I could discern the figure of the musician. She was +seated on the piano stool, with her hands clasped in front of her and +gazing out through the window into the darkness of the night. + +Surely it was a night when hypnotising influences were at work with all +of us, for I had not yet seen Jake return; he was evidently still +somewhere out on the cliffs communing with the spirits that were in the +air. + +Suddenly I observed a movement in the room over the way. + +Miss Grant had roused herself from her dreaming. She raised her hand +and put the fingers I had kissed to her own lips. Then she kissed both +her hands to the outside world. She lowered the light of the lamp +until only the faintest glow was visible. + +She ran her fingers over the piano keys in a ripple of simple +harmonies. Sweet and clear came her voice in singing. I caught the +lilt of the music and I caught the words of the song:-- + + A maid there was in the North Coun-tree, + A shy lit-tle, sweet lit-tle maid was she. + She wished and she sighed for she knew-not-who, + So long as he loved her ten-der-lee; + And day by day as the long-ing grow, + Her spin-ning-wheel whirred and the threads wove through. + It whirred, It whirred, It whirred and the threads wove through. + +[Illustration: Song fragment] + + A maid there was in the North Countree; + A gay little, blythe little maid was she. + Her dream of a gallant knight came true. + He wooed her long and so tenderlee. + And, day by day, as their fond love grew, + Her spinning wheel stood with its threads askew; + It stood.--It stood.--It stood with its threads askew. + + A maid there was in the North Countree; + A sad little, lone little maid was she. + Her knight seemed fickle and all untrue + As he rode to war at the drummer's dree. + And, day by day, as her sorrow grew, + Her spinning wheel groaned and the threads wove through. + It groaned.--It groaned.--It groaned and the threads wove through. + + A maid there is in the North Countree; + A coy little, glad little maid is she. + Her cheeks are aglow with a rosy hue, + For her knight proved true, as good knights should be. + And, day by day, as their vows renew, + Her spinning wheel purrs and the threads weave through; + It purrs.--It purrs.--It purrs and the threads weave through. + + +Why she had not sung before, I could not understand, for a voice such +as she had was a gift from heaven, and it was sinful to keep it hidden +away. It betrayed training, but only in a slight degree; not +sufficient to have spoiled the bewitching, vagrant plaintiveness which +it possessed; an inexpressible allurement of tone which a few untrained +singers have, trained singers never, for the rigours of the training +steal away that peculiar charm as the great city does the bloom from +the cheek of a country maiden. + +I listened for the verses of the song which I knew should follow, but +the singer's voice was still and the faint glow of the lamp was +extinguished. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +The "Green-eyed Monster" Awakes + +Rita had just had her first real lesson in English. Already,--but +without giving her the reason why, except that it was incorrect,--I had +taught her never to say "ain't" and "I seen"; also that "Gee," "Gosh" +and "you bet your life" were hardly ladylike expressions. She now +understood that two negatives made a positive and that she should +govern her speech accordingly. + +She was an apt pupil; so anxious to improve her way of talking that +mine was not a task, it was merely the setting of two little feet on a +road and saying, "This is your way home," and those two little feet +never deviated from that road for a single moment, never side-stepped, +never turned back to pick up the useless but attractive words she had +cast from her as she travelled. + +How I marvelled at the great difference the elimination of a few of the +most common of her slangy and incorrect expressions and the +substitution of plain phrases in their places made in her diction! +Already, it seemed to me as if she understood her English and had been +studying it for years. + +How easy it was, after all, I fancied, as I followed my train of +thought, for one, simply by elimination, to become almost learned in +the sight of his fellow men! + +But now Rita had been introduced to the whys and wherefores in their +simplest forms, so that she should be able, finally, to construct her +thoughts for herself, word by word and phrase by phrase, into rounded +and completed sentences. + +At the outset, I had told her how the greatest writers in English were +not above reading and re-reading plain little Grammars such as she was +then studying, also that the favourite book of some of the most famous +men the world ever knew, a book which they perused from cover to cover, +year in and year out, as they would their family Bible,--was an +ordinary standard dictionary. + +I gave Rita her thin little Grammar and a note book in which to copy +her lessons, and she slipped these into her bosom, hugging them to her +heart and laughing with pleasure. + +She put out her hands and grasped mine, then, in her sweet, +unpremeditated way, she threw her arms round my neck and drew my lips +to hers. + +Dear little girl! How very like a child she was! A creature of +impulse, a toy in the hands of her own fleeting emotions! + +"Say! George,--I just got to hug you sometimes," she cried, "you are +so good to me." + +She stood back and surveyed me as if she were trying to gauge my weight +and strength. + +As it so happened, that was exactly what she was doing. + +"You aren't scared of our Joe,--are you?" she asked. + +"No!" I laughed. "What put that funny question into your head?" + +She became serious. + +"Well,--if I thought you were, I wouldn't come back for any more +Grammar." + +"Why?" I asked. + +"Joe's not very well pleased about it. Guess he thinks nobody should +be able to speak better'n he can." + +"Oh!--never mind Joe," I exclaimed. "He'll come round, and your +grand-dad's consent is all you need anyway." + +"Sure! But I know, all the same, that Joe's got it in for you. He +hasn't forgot the words you and he had." + +"When did you see him last, Rita?" + +"He was in to-day. Wanted to know where I was going. Grand-dad told +him, then Joe got mad. Says you're 'too damned interfering.' Yes! +Joe said it. He said to Grand-dad, 'You ain't got no right lettin' +that kid go over there. Girls ain't got any business learnin' lessons +off'n men.' + +"Grand-dad said, 'Aw! forget it, Joe. She's got my permission, so let +that end it. George Bremner's all right.' + +"The settlers are arranging for a teacher up here next summer. Why +can't she wait till then and get her lessons from a reg'lar +professional, and no gol-durned amatoor,' said Joe. + +"'See here, Mister man!' I said, 'you're sore,--that's your trouble. +But I'm not going to be bullied by you,--so there. I'm through with +you, Joe Clark;--and, what's more, you needn't take any interest in me +any more. I can look after myself.' + +"He gripped my arm. It's black and blue yet. See! + +"'You ain't goin',' said he, madder'n ever. + +"'Yes! I am,' I said. + +"'If you go, by God, I'll kill that son-of-a-gun. Watch me! I ain't +forgot him, though maybe he's fool enough to think I have.' + +"Then he got kind of soft. + +"'Don't you go, Rita.' + +"'Why?' I asked. + +"'Because I don't want you to.' + +"'That's no reason,' I said. + +"I'll send you to a school in Vancouver this winter, if you'll wait,' +he coaxed. + +"You see, George,--Joe ain't half bad sometimes. But I was scared he +might think I was givin' in. + +"'Don't want your schooling. It's too late,' said I. 'I've arranged +for myself, Joe Clark,--so there.' + +"I ran out and left him. + +"He's pretty mad, but I don't care any more, now you're goin' to help +me with this grammar. + +"You're sure you're not scared of Joe?" she repeated. + +"I have a strong right arm," I declared, "and I have been taught to +look after myself." + +I went down to the boat with her, and as she was stepping in she caught +me by the shirt sleeve. + +"You and Joe aren't goin' to fight, George? Promise me you won't +fight." + +"I could not promise that, little girl, for I cannot control the +future. But I promise you that I shall not seek any quarrel with Joe. +But, if he insulted you, for instance, or tried to commit a bodily +violence on me, I would fight him without any hesitation. Wouldn't +that be the right thing to do, Rita?" + +Her head nodded wistfully. "Yes! Guess it would," she whispered, as I +pushed her boat out into the water where the darkness swallowed it up. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +Fishing! + +In the fulfilling of a promise, I called the following evening on Miss +Grant. + +It was the first of a number of such visits, for I found that the old +feeling of antagonism between us had entirely disappeared and, +consequently, I enjoyed the sociability refreshingly. + +Our meetings, while not by any means of the 'friendly admiration' kind, +were of a nature beneficial to both of us. + +She learned that I was an Englishman of good family. I gathered, her +mother had been a Virginian and her father an Englishman; that she +loved the American Continent and always considered the United States +her country as her mother had done before her. But further than this +we did not get, for we were both diffident in talking of our lives +prior to our coming to Golden Crescent. Still, we had many +never-failing topics of conversation, many subjects to discuss in +literature, music, philosophy and economics. + +We travelled along in our acquaintance easily,--leisurely,--as if time +were eternal and the world were standing still awaiting our good +pleasure. + +Late one afternoon, when I was sitting out on the rocks, near the oil +barns at the end of the wharf, enjoying the cooling breezes after the +trying heat of that midsummer's day, I saw Miss Grant come down the +path with her fishing lines in her hand and her sweater-coat over her +arm. She went to her boat and started to pull it toward the water. + +I scrambled over and down the rocks, to lend a hand. + +"Any room for me, Miss Grant?" I asked boldly. + +"Why, yes!" she smiled eagerly, "if only you would come. You promised +once, you know, but, somehow, that promise is still unfulfilled." + +I handed her into the boat, pushed off and leaped in beside her. She +took the oars and, with the swift easy strokes, full of power and +artistic grace, which I had noticed the first time I saw her on the +water, she pulled out to the west of Rita's Isle. + +Her hair was hanging negligently, in loose, wavy curls, over her +shoulders. Her dimpled arms and her neck were bared to the sunshine. +Her mouth was parted slightly and her teeth shone ivory-like, as she +plied her oars. + +"Let me take a turn now," I asked, "and run out your line." + +She did so, and I took her slowly round the Island without her feeling +so much as a tiny nibble. + +"How stupid!" I exclaimed. "What's the good of me coming out here, if +I do not try to discover the cause of your continual non-success as a +fisher? Pull in your line and let me have a look at the spoon." + +I examined the sinker and found it of the proper weight and properly +adjusted, fixed at the correct length from the bait. Next, I took the +spoon in my hand. It was a small nickel spinner,--the right thing for +catching sea-trout round Rita's Isle. I was puzzled for a little, +until I laid the spoon and the hook flat on the palm of my hand, then I +knew where the trouble was. + +The barb of the hook hung fully an inch and a half too far from the +spoon. + +I adjusted it and handed it back to my lady-companion. + +"Try that," I said with a smile. + +In dropped the line and out it ran to its full length. + +Miss Grant held it taut. Suddenly she gave it a jerk. She stopped in +breathless excitement. Then she jerked again. + +"Oh, dear me!" she cried anxiously, "there's something on." + +"Pull it in," I shouted, "steady,--not too quickly." + +Immediately thereafter, a fine, two-pound trout lay flopping in the +bottom of the boat. + +"Just think of that," cried my fair troller, "my first fish! And all +by moving up a foolish little hook an inch or so." + +Her eyes were agleam. She chatted on and on almost without ceasing, +almost without thinking, so excited and absorbed did she become in the +sport. + +Back went the line, and in it came again with another wriggling, +shining trout. + +For an hour I rowed round the Island, and, in that hour, Mary Grant had +equalled Rita's best that I knew of, for between thirty and forty fish +fell a prey to the deadly bait and hook. + +"How would you like to try for a salmon?" I asked at last. "They are +running better now than they have done all the year so far." + +"All right!" she agreed, with a sigh of pent-up excitement, pulling in +her trout line and running out a thicker one with a large salmon spoon +and a fairly heavy sinker. + +I rowed out to the mouth of the Bay, keeping inside the Ghoul Rock; +then I started crossways over to the far point. + +We were half-way across, when Mary Grant screamed. The line she was +holding ran with tremendous rapidity through her fingers. I jammed my +foot on the wooden frame lying in the bottom of the boat and to which +the line was attached. I was just in time to save it from following +the rest of the line overboard. + +I pulled in my oars and caught up the line. + +Away, thirty yards off, a great salmon sprang out of the water high +into the air, performing a half-circle and flopping back with a splash +from its lashing tail. + +"She is yours," I cried. "Come! play her for all you can." + +But, as I turned, I saw that Miss Grant's fingers were bleeding from +the sudden running-out of the line when the salmon had struck; so I +settled down to fight the fish myself. + +All at once, the line slacked. I hauled it in, feeling almost certain +that I had lost my prize. But no! Off she went again like a fury, +rising out of the water in her wild endeavours to free herself. + +For a long time I played her. My companion took the oars quietly and +was now doing all she could to assist me. + +Next, the salmon sank sheer down and sulked far under the water. +Gradually, gradually I drew her in and not a struggle did she make. +She simply lay, a dead thing at the end of my line. + +"She's played out, Miss Grant. She's ours," I cried gleefully, as I +got a glint of her under the water as she came up at the end of my line. + +But, alas! for the luck of a fisherman. When the salmon was fifteen +feet from the boat, she jerked and somersaulted most unexpectedly, with +all the despair of a gambler making his last throw. She shot sheer out +of the water and splashed in again almost under the boat. My line, +minus the spoon and the hook, ran through my fingers. + +"Damn!" I exclaimed, in the keenest disappointment. + +"And--that's--just--what--I--say--too," came my fair oars-woman's +voice. "If that isn't the hardest kind of luck!" + +Away out, we could see our salmon jump, and jump, and jump again, out +of the water ten feet in the air, darting and plunging in wide circles, +like the mad thing she probably was. + +"It serves me rightly, Miss Grant. I professed to be able to fix your +tackle and yet I did not examine that spoon before putting it into use. +It has probably been lying in a rusty condition for a year or so. + +"Well,--we cannot try again to-night, unless we row in for a fresh +spoon-hook." + +"Oh!--let us stop now. We have more fish already than we really +require." + +"Shall I row you in?" I asked. + +"Do you wish to go in?" + +"Oh, dear, no! I could remain here forever,--at least until I get +hungry and sleepy," I laughed. + +"All right!" she cried, "let us row up into the Bay and watch the sun +go down." + +I pulled along leisurely, facing my fair companion, who was now +reclining in the stern, with the sinking sun shining in all its golden +glory upon the golden glory of her. + +Moment by moment, the changing colours in the sky were altering the +colours on the smooth waters to harmonise: a lake of bright yellow +gold, then the gold turned to red, a sea of blood; from red to purple, +from purple to the palest shade of heliotrope; and, as the sun at last +dipped in the far west, the distant mountains threw back that same +attractive shade of colour. + +It was an evening for kind thoughts. + +We glided up the Bay, past Jake Meaghan's little home; still further +up, then into the lagoon, where not a ripple disturbed that placid +sheet of water: where the trees and rocks smiled down upon their own +mirrored reflections. + +We grew silent as the nature around us, awed by the splendours of the +hushing universe upon which we had been gazing. + +"It is beautiful! oh, so beautiful!" said my companion at last, awaking +from her dreaming. "Let us stay here awhile. I cannot think to go +home yet." + +She threw her sweater-coat round her shoulders, for, even in the height +of summer, the air grows chilly on the west coast as the sun goes down. + +"You may smoke, Mr. Bremner. I know you are aching to do so." + +I thanked her, pulled in my oars and lighted my pipe. + +Mary Grant sat there, watching me in friendly interest, smiling in +amusement in the charming way only she could smile. + +"Do you know, I sometimes wonder," she said reflectively, "why it is +that a man of your education, your prospective attainments, your +ability, your physical strength and mental powers should keep to the +bypaths of life, such as we find up here, when your fellows, with less +intellect than you have, are in the cities, in the mining fields and on +the prairies, battling with the world for power and fortune and +getting, some of them, what they are battling for. + +"I am not trying to probe into your privacy, but what I have put into +words has often recurred to me regarding you. Somehow, you seem to +have all the qualities that go to the making of a really successful +business man." + +"Do you really wonder why?" I smiled. "--And yet you profess to know +me--a little." + +It was an evening for closer friendships. + +"If you promise for the future to call me George and permit me the +privilege, when we are alone, of calling you Mary, I shall answer your +query." + +"All right,--George,--it's a bargain," she said. "Go ahead." + +"Well! in the first place, I know what money is; what it can bring and +what it can cause. I never cared for money any more than what could +provide the plain necessities of life. As for ambition to make and +accumulate money;--God forbid that I should ever have it. I leave such +ambitions to the grubs and leeches." + +Mary listened in undisguised interest. + +"Oh! I have had opportunities galore, but I always preferred the +simpler way,--the open air, the sea and the quiet, the adventure of the +day and the rest after a day well spent. + +"No man can eat more than three square meals a day and be happy; no man +can lie upon more than one bed at a time;--so, what right have I, or +any other man for the matter of that, to steal some other fellow's food +and bedding?" + +"But some day you may wish to marry," she put in. + +"Some day,--yes! maybe. And the lady I marry must also love the open +air, away from the city turmoil; she must hanker after the glories of a +place such as this; otherwise, we should not agree for long. + +"And,--Mary,--" I continued, "the man you would marry,--what would you +demand of him?" + +"The man I would marry may be a Merchant Prince or a humble tiller of +the soil. A few things only I would demand of him, and these +are:--that he love me with all his great loving heart; that he be +honourable in all things and that his right arm be strong to protect +his own and ever ready to assist his weaker brother. + +"Marriages may be made in heaven, George, but they have to be lived on +earth, and the one essential thing in every marriage is love." + +She sat for a while in thought, then she threw out her hands as if to +ward off a danger. + +"Of what use me talking in this way," she cried. "Marriage, for me, +with my foolish ideas, is impossible. I am destined to remain as I am." + +My pulse quickened as she spoke. + +"And why?" I asked;--for this evening of evenings was one for open +hearts and tender feelings. + +"It was arranged for me that by this time I should be the wife of a +man; and,--God knows,--though I did not love him, I meant to be a true +and dutiful wife to him, even when I knew my eternal soul would be +bruised in the effort. + +"This man was taller than you are, George. Sometimes, in your +devil-may-care moods, I seem to see him again in you. I am glad to +say, though, the similarity ends there. + +"For all his protestations of love for me, for all his boasted ideals, +his anxiety for the preservation of his honour as a gentleman, he +proved himself not even faithful in that which every woman has a right +to demand of the man she is about to marry, as he demands it of her. + +"I would not marry him then. I could not. I would sooner have died. + +"That was my reward for trying to do my duty." + +Her voice broke. "Sometimes, I wonder if any man is really true and +honourable." + +She covered her face with her hands; she, who had always been so +self-possessed. + +"The shame of it! The shame of it!" she sobbed. + +In my heart, I cursed the dishonour of men. Would the dreadful +procession of it never cease? Deceit and dishonour! Dishonour and +deceit! Here, there, everywhere,--and always the woman suffering while +the man goes free! + +I moved over beside her in the stern of the boat. I laid my hand upon +her shoulder. In my rough, untutored way, without breaking into the +agony of her thoughts, I tried to comfort her with the knowledge of my +sympathetic presence. + +For long we sat thus; but at last she turned to me and her hair brushed +my cheek. She looked into my eyes and I know she read what was in my +heart, for it was brimming over with a love for her that I had never +known before, a love that overwhelmed me and left me dumb. + +"George!" she whispered softly, laying her hand upon mine, "you must +not, you must not." + +Then she became imperious and haughty once more. + +"Back to your oars, sailorman," she cried, with an astonishing effort +at gaiety. "The dark is closing in and Mrs. Malmsbury will be thinking +all kinds of things she would not dare say, even if she were able." + +Late that night, I heard the second verse of Mary's little song. It +was hardly sung; it was whispered, as if she feared that even the +fairies and sprites might be eavesdropping; but, had she lilted it in +her heart only, still, I think, I should have heard it. + + A maid there was in the North Countree; + A gay little, blythe little maid was she. + Her dream of a gallant knight came true. + He wooed her long and so tenderlee. + And, day by day, as their fond love grew, + Her spinning wheel stood with its threads askew; + It stood.--It stood.--It stood with its threads askew. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +The Beachcombers + +The Autumn, with its shortening days and lengthening nights, was upon +Golden Crescent, but still the charm and beauty of its surroundings +were unimpaired. + +I never tired of the scenes, for they were kaleidoscopic in their +changing. Even in the night, when sleep was unable to bind me, I have +risen and stood by my open window, in reverie and peaceful +contemplation, and the dark has grown to dawn ere I turned back to bed. + +It was on such an occasion as I speak of. I was leaning on the window +ledge, looking far across the Bay. The sea was a mirror of oily calm. +A crescent moon was shining fairly high in the south, laying a streak +of silver along the face of the water near the far shore. It was a +night when every dip of an oar would threaten to bring up the reflected +moon from the liquid deep; a night of quiet when the winging of a +sea-fowl, or the plop of a fish, could be heard a mile away. In the +stillness could be heard the occasional tinkle, tinkle of a cow-bell +from the grazing lands across the Bay. + +As I listened to the night noises, I heard the distant throb of a +launch out in the vicinity of the Ghoul Rock. Suddenly, the throbbing +stopped and I fancied I caught the sound of deep voices. All went +still again, but, soon after, my ear detected the splashing of oars and +the rattle of a badly fitting rowlock. + +I watched, peering out into the darkness. The moon shot swiftly from +under a cloud and threw its white illuminant like a searchlight sheer +upon a large rowing boat as it crept up past the wharf, some fifty +yards out from the point. + +I counted five figures in the boat, which was heading up the Bay. + +A cloud passed over the moon again and the picture of the boat and its +occupants vanished from my sight. + +Strange, I thought, why these men should arrive in a launch, leave it +so far out and come in with a rowing boat of such dimensions, when +there was good, safe and convenient anchorage almost anywhere close in! + +I listened again. The sound of the rattling row-lock ceased and I +heard the grinding of a boat's bottom on the gravel somewhere in the +vicinity of Jake's cove. + +I stood in indecision for some minutes, then I decided that I would +find out what these men were up to. I put on my clothes without haste, +picked up a broken axe-handle that lay near the doorway and started +noiselessly down the back path in the direction of Meaghan's shack, +reaching there about half an hour after I had first detected the boat. +When I came to the clearing, I saw a light in the cabin. As I drew +closer, I heard the sound of hoarse voices. Stepping cautiously, I +went up to the window and peered through. + +I saw four strange men there. The lower parts of their faces were +masked by handkerchiefs in real highwaymen fashion. + +With a dirty neckcloth stuffed into his mouth, old Jake was sitting on +a chair and tied securely to it by ropes. Mike, his faithful old dog, +was lying at his feet in a puddle of blood. + +The liquor keg in the corner had been broached, and I could see that, +already, the men had been drinking. Jake's brass-bound chest had been +dragged to the middle of the floor and the man who appeared to be the +leader of the gang was sitting astride of it, with a cup of liquor in +his hand, laughing boisterously. + +My anger rose furiously. + +"The low skunks," I growled, gripping my improvised club as I tip-toed +quietly to the door, hoping to rush in, injure some of them and +stampede the others before they would know by how many they were being +attacked. + +I was gently turning the handle, when something crashed down on my +head. I stumbled into the shack, sprawled upon the floor, strange +voices sang in my ears and everything became blurred. + +It could have been only a few minutes later when I revived. I was in +Jake's cabin, and was trussed with ropes, hands and feet, to one of the +wooden uprights of the old Klondiker's home-made bed. I could feel +something warm, oozy and clammy, making its way from my hair, down the +back of my neck. + +I opened my eyes wide, and reason enough came to me to close them +quickly again. Then I opened them once more, cautiously and narrowly. + +Five strange men were now in the cabin, which was cloudy with tobacco +smoke. The carousal had increased rather than otherwise. The men were +gathered round Jake, laughing and cursing in wild derision. They were +not interested in me at the moment, so I stayed quiet, making pretence +that the unconsciousness was still upon me, whenever any of them turned +in my direction. + +Through my half-opened eyelids, I fancied I recognised the leader of +the crowd as a black-haired, beady-eyed, surly dog of a logger who had +come in several times from Camp No. 2 to help with the taking up of +their supplies,--but of his identity I was not quite certain. + +As my scattered senses began to collect, I hoped against hope that +these men would keep up their drinking bout until not one of them would +be able to stand. But, while they drank long and drank deeply, they +were too wise by far to overdo it. + +Then I got to wondering what they were badgering old Jake about, for I +could hear him growl and curse, his gag having fallen to the floor. + +"Go to hell and take the trunk, the booze and the whole caboose with +you, if you want to. I don't want none of it. I ain't hoggin' booze +any more." + +"Ho, ho! Hear that," yelled the big, black-haired individual, "he +ain't boozin'! The old swiller ain't boozin' and him keeps a keg o' +whisky under his nose. + +"Ain't boozin' with common ginks like us,--that's what he means. + +"Come on! We'll show him whether he ain't boozin' or not." + +He got a cupful of the raw spirits and stuck it to Jake's mouth. But +Jake shook his head. + +"Come on! Drink it up or I'll sling it down your gullet." + +Still Jake refused. + +Then my blood ran cold, and boiled again. The veins stood out on my +forehead with rage. + +The foul-mouthed creature hit my old helper full across the mouth and a +trickle of blood immediately began to flow down over Jake's chin. + +I struggled silently with my ropes, but they were taut and merely cut +into my flesh. But I made the discovery then, that my captors had +failed to take into account that the bed to which they had tied me had +been put up by Jake and, at that, not any too securely. + +I felt that if I threw all my weight away from the stanchion to which I +was bound, I might be able to pull the whole thing out bodily. But I +knew that this was not the moment for such an attempt. + +They were five men to one; they had sticks and clubs, maybe revolvers, +so what chance would I have? + +I decided to bear with the goading of Jake as long as it were possible. + +"Guess you'll drink it now,--you old, white-livered miser," cried the +dark man. + +He dashed some of the liquor in Jake's face. Jake opened his mouth and +gasped. The big bully then threw the remainder of the spirits, with a +splash, sheer into Jake's mouth. + +"He boozed that time, boys. You bet your socks!" he laughed +uproariously. The others joined in the hilarity. + +The Jake I looked upon after that was not the Jake I had known for the +past few months. + +He sat staring in front of him for a little while, then he exclaimed +huskily, almost hungrily: + +"Say, fellows! Give us some more. It tastes pretty good to me." + +"Thought he would come to it," shouted the black-haired man +triumphantly. "We ain't refusin' no booze to-night. Fetch a cup o' +rye for Jake." + +One of the others brought it, and it was held to the old man's lips. +He let it over his throat almost at a single gulp. + +"More,--more!" + +More was brought, and again he drank. + +Three times Jake emptied that brimming cup of raw spirits. + +I shivered with abhorrence at the sight. + +"More?" queried the big man. + +"Yep! More," craved Jake. + +"Nothin' doin'! You've had enough, you old booze-fighter. + +"Say! How's that top-notcher swell Bremner comin' on?" + +He turned to me. + +"Let's fill him up, too." + +They came over to me, but I pretended still to be unconscious. My head +was limply bent over my chest. + +They jerked it up by my forelock and looked into my face. + +The foulness of their breath almost nauseated me, but I stood the test, +keeping my eyes tightly closed and allowing my head to flop forward the +moment it was released from their clutch. + +"What in the hell did you hit him so hard for?" cried the leader, +turning savagely to the man at his left elbow. "We ain't lookin' for +any rope-collars over this. Guess we'd better beat it. Get busy with +that chest some of you. Come on!" + +They raised their masks from their mouths and had another drink all +round, then two of them, under the big man's directions, caught up the +chest, and they all crowded out and down toward their boat. + +The moment after they were gone I threw my weight and growing strength +away from the upright to which I was bound. It creaked and groaned. I +tried again, and still again. At the third attempt, the entire +fixtures fell on top of me to the floor. + +I struggled clear of the débris, and the rest was easy. I slipped the +ropes from the wooden post and, in their now loosened condition, I +wriggled free. + +I did not wait to do anything for Jake, nor yet to consider any plan of +operation. My blood was up and that was all I knew. + +I picked my axe-handle from the floor and dashed out after the robbers. + +The five men were with the boat at the water's edge. Two were sitting +at the oars in readiness, two were on the beach raising Jake's trunk to +the fifth man who was standing in the stern of the boat. + +I sprang upon them. I hit one, with a sickening crash, over the head. +He let go his hold of the trunk and toppled limply against the side of +the boat, as the trunk splashed into the shallow water. + +I staggered with the impetus, and from the impact of my blow let my +club drop from my jarred hand. Before I could recover, the big +man,--who had been helping to raise the trunk,--bore down on me. He +caught me by the throat in a horrible grip, and tried to press me +backward; but, with a short-arm blow, I smashed him over the mouth with +telling force, cutting my knuckles in a splutter of blood and broken +teeth. + +His grip loosened. He shouted to his fellows for assistance as he +sprang at me once more. + +But, somewhere in the darkness behind me, a pistol-shot rang out and +the big man staggered, letting out a howl of pain, as his arm dropped +limp to his side. + +He darted for the boat and threw himself into it, seized a spare oar +and pushed off frantically. + +"Pull,--pull like hell," he yelled. + +They needed no second bidding, for they shot out into the Bay as if a +thousand devils were after them. + +I turned to ascertain who my deliverer could be; and there, on the +beach, only a few yards away, stood Mary Grant with a +serviceable-looking revolver held firmly in her right hand. + +"What? You! Mary,--Mary," I cried in an agony of thought at the awful +risk she had run. + +"Are you all right, George?" she inquired anxiously. + +"Right as rain," I answered, hurrying to her side. + +"Did they get Jake's trunk away?" + +"No! The low thieves! It is lying there in the water. Do you think +you could help me up with it?" + +She caught up the trunk at one end, while I took the other. And we +carried it back between us to Jake's cabin. + +Poor old Jake! I could hardly smother a smile as I saw the dejected +figure he presented. His grey hair was drooping over his forehead, +every line in his face showed a droop, and his long, white moustache +drooped like the tusks of a walrus, or like the American comic +journals' representations of the whiskers of ancient and fossilised +members of the British peerage. + +He was sitting bound, as the robbers had left him. + +I cut him free and he staggered to his feet. + +He was sober as a jail bird, and, excepting for his broken lip and +chafed wrists, he was, to all appearances, none the worse for his +experiences. It surprised me to notice how little he seemed interested +in the recovery of his money. All his attention and sympathy were +centred on the wretched dog, Mike, who was slowly getting over the +clubbing he had received and was whimpering like a discontented baby. + +Mike had a long gash in his neck, evidently made by one of the robbers +with Jake's bread-knife. Mary washed out the wound and I stitched it +up with a needle and thread, so that, all things considered, Mike was +lucky in getting out of his encounter as easily as he did. + +As for the crack I had received over the head, it had made me bloody +enough, but it was superficial and not worth worrying about. + +I decided I would not leave Jake alone that night and that, as soon as +I had seen Mary safely home, I would return and sleep in his cabin till +morning. + +"When you come back," said Jake gruffly, "bring ink and paper with you. +I want you to do some writin' for me, George." + +I laughed, for I knew what was in his mind. + +As Mary and I wended our way back through the narrow path, in the dead +of that moonlight night, the daring and bravery of her action caught me +afresh. How I admired her! I could scarcely refrain from telling her +of it, and of how I loved her. But it was neither the time nor the +place for protestations of affection. + +"How in the world did you happen to get down there at the right +moment?" I asked. + +She gave a quiet ripple of laughter. + +"I couldn't sleep and I was up and standing at the window----" + +"Just as I was doing," I put in. + +"I saw that boat come up,--as you must have seen it, George,--I went to +the door, and, in the moonlight, I saw you come out and take the back +path. Later still, I heard noises and the cursing of these men. + +"I became afraid that something was wrong, so I dressed, took up my +little revolver and followed you. + +"I was at the window of Jake's cabin all the time he was being forced +to drink and while you were tied up. I had to get out of the way when +they came out." + +At the door of Mary's house I took her hand in mine. + +"We are quits now, Mary. Those blackguards certainly would have +finished me off but for you. + +"Where did you learn to shoot, you wild and woolly Westerner?" I asked. + +"Why! Didn't I ever tell you? For quite a while, when I was a +youngster, I lived on a ranch in the Western States. Everybody could +shoot down there." + +"But, what would you have said had you killed that big black robber or +winged me?" I asked. "We were all in a higgledy-piggledy mix-up when +you fired." + +She smiled. + +"I can generally hit what I aim at." + +I nodded my head. "Ay! And I think you can hit sometimes even when +you don't aim." + +"George!" she admonished, "we were referring simply to shooting with a +gun,--not with a bow and arrows." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +Jake Stops the Drink for Good + +By the time I got back to Jake, he had his bed hammered up into +position again. + +He insisted that I, as his guest, should occupy it, while he would +enjoy nothing so well as being allowed to curl himself up in a blanket +on the floor, in the company of the convalescing Mike. + +"Say, George!--before we turn in, I want you to write two letters for +me. I ain't goin' to have no more hold-ups round this joint. Them ten +thousand bucks is goin' to your bank;--what do you call it?" + +"The Commercial Bank of Canada," I answered. + +"Write a letter to them and ask them to send somebody up to take this +darned chest away. A receipt looks good enough to me after this scrap." + +He smoked his pipe reflectively as I wrote out the letter to the Bank +Manager, asking him to send up two men to count over Jake's hoard and +take it back with them, giving him a receipt to cover. + +"Know any good lawyers, George? Most of them ginks are grafters from +away back,--so I've heard,--but I guess maybe there's one or two could +do a job on the level." + +"Of course there are, Jake. Dow, Cross & Sneddon for instance. They +are Mr. Horsfal's lawyers and solicitors. They are straight, honest +business men, too." + +"Guess they'll fill the bill, all right." + +"What is on your mind, Jake?" I asked. + +"Write them as well, George. Tell them to send up a man who can draw +up a will. I ain't dead yet,--not by a damn' sight,--but some day I'll +be as dead as a smelt, and what's the good o' havin' dough if you ain't +got nobody to leave it to?" + +"Good boy!" I cried, and I wrote out letter number two, asking the +lawyers, if possible, to send their representative along with the +Commercial Bank men, so that we could get the whole business fixed up +and off-hand at the one time. + +Next morning when I awoke, although it was still early, I found Jake +already dressed. Not only that, but he was at the whisky-keg in the +corner, filling up a cup. + +"My God! Jake,--you don't mean to tell me you are back to that stuff?" + +"Yep! I ain't preachin' tee-total any more after this." + +My heart sank within me. This,--after all his fighting. + +I remonstrated with him all I could. + +"But, man alive!" I said, "this is the early morning. Are you crazy? +You never drank in the mornings before. Wait till night time. Give +yourself a chance to get pulled together. You'll be feeling different +after a while. + +"Think! What will Rita say? What will Miss Grant think? How will you +be able to face Mr. Auld? They all know of the good fight you have +been putting up. + +"Jake,--Jake,--for shame! Throw the stuff out at the door." + +Jake only shook his head more firmly. + +"It ain't no good preachin', George, or gettin' sore,--for I've quit +tryin'. + +"What'n the hell's the good, anyway. The more you fight, the rawer a +deal you get in the finish. Forget it! I'm drinkin' now whenever I'm +good and ready; any old time at all and as much as I want,--and more." + +I could do no more for him. It was Jake for it. + +I stopped the southbound _Cloochman_ that afternoon and put Jake's +letters aboard. Two days later, two clerks from the Commercial Bank +and a young lawyer from Dow, Cross & Sneddon's came into Golden +Crescent in a launch. I took them over to Jake Meaghan's. I +introduced them, then busied myself outside while the necessary +formalities were gone through, for I did not wish to be in any way +connected with Jake's settlements. At last, however, the old fellow +came to the door. + +"George,--I guess you'd better take care o' them for me. That's my +bank receipt. That's my death warrant," he grinned, "I mean my will. +You're better'n me at lookin' after papers." + +We carried the brass-bound trunk to the launch and waved it a fond +farewell, without tears or regrets. + +For two weeks, morning, noon and night, Jake indulged in a horror of a +drinking bout. + +The very thought of that orgy still sets my blood running cold. + +We pleaded, we threatened; but of no avail. The minister even closeted +himself with Jake for a whole afternoon without making the slightest +impression on him. + +It was always the same old remark: + +"I've boozed for ten years and it ain't hurt me, so I guess I can booze +some more." + +And the strange feature of it was that the more he drank the more sober +he seemed to become. He did his work as well as ever. His eyes +retained their same innocent, baby-blue expression and his brain was as +clear as a summer sky. + +One Sunday forenoon, I was busy in the yard taking down my Saturday's +washing from the clothes line, when Jake's dog, Mike, came tearing +along the back path, making straight for me. That, in itself, was an +unusual thing, for Mike never showed any violent affection for any one +but Jake and he was more or less inclined to shun me altogether. + +Now, he stood in front of me and barked. I kept on with my work. He +followed every step I took and kept on barking and yelping excitedly, +looking up into my face. + +"What the dickens is the matter, old man?" I asked. + +When he saw me interested in him, he turned and ran down toward the +beach. I did not follow. + +He came back and went through the same performance. Then he got angry +and caught me by the foot of the overalls, trying to pull me in the +direction he wanted. + +It struck me then that an old stager, like Mike was, would not +misbehave himself as he was doing for the mere fun of it. I left my +newly dried clothes and followed him. He ran on ahead and into my +boat, getting up on the side and barking toward Jake's place. + +I became anxious. I pushed off hurriedly and rowed as hard as I could +up the Bay in the direction of the cove. + +As I was turning in at Jake's landing, Mike grew excited again, running +to the right side of the stern and whining. + +"What on earth can the dog mean?" I soliloquised, making up my mind to +call in at the shack first, at any rate, and investigate. + +But Mike jumped out of the boat and swam off further up, turning back +to me every few yards and yelping. + +The dog evidently knew more than I did, so I followed him. + +He led me to Jake's favourite clam-hunting ground. + +As soon as I turned into that little cove, I saw my old helper lying on +his back on the beach. I pulled in and hurried over to him. + +The dog was there before me, his tongue out and his tail wagging as if +to say: + +"It is all right now." + +The old man's eyes were wide open and glazed. He was blowing +stentoriously through his closed mouth and a white ooze was on the +corners of his lips. His body was tense and rigid, as if it had been +frozen solid in the Arctic snows. + +Poor old Jake! I knew what had seized him. I had seen something of +the trouble before. + +I lifted him gently and carried him into the boat, pushing off and +rowing as quickly as possible for his home. + +I got him into bed, but it was an hour before he showed any signs of +consciousness, for I could do nothing for him,--only sit and watch. + +At last he recognised me and tried to talk, but his speech was thick +and nothing but a jabber of sounds. + +He cast his eyes down his right side as if to draw my attention to +something. His eyes, somehow, seemed the only real live part of him. +I examined him carefully and saw what he meant. + +Poor fellow! Tears ran down my cheeks in pity for him. + +His right side was numb and paralysed. + +I hurried over to Mary's. She and Mrs. Malmsbury returned with me and +attended him, hand and foot, until the minister came in late that +afternoon. + +Mr. Auld was a medical missionary, and he confirmed what I had feared. +Jake had had a stroke. + +The only articulate words Meaghan uttered in his mumblings were, "Rita, +Rita, Rita." Again and again he came over the name. At last I +promised him I would run over and bring her to him. + +That seemed to content him, but his eyes still kept roving round +restlessly. + +Mr. Auld injected some morphine through Jake's arm in order to give his +brain the rest that it evidently sorely needed. + +"There is little we can do, George," said the minister. "He may be all +right to-morrow, but for his physical helplessness;--and, even that may +abate. Between you and me, I pray to God he may not live." + +"But what can have caused it, Mr. Auld?" + +"If Jake only could have been able to drink as other men do,--drink, +get drunk and leave off,--he never would have come to this. His +constitution was never made for such drinking as he has indulged in. +No man's constitution is." + +"Are you going to send him down to the city?" I asked. + +"Not if you will bear with him here. It would do no good to move him. +I would advise his remaining here. He will be happier, poor fellow. I +shall run in early to-morrow." + +I fetched Rita over that night and she remained with the old miner +right along. + +Her cheery presence brightened up the stricken man wonderfully. + +Next day, he could talk more intelligibly and, with help, he got up and +sat on a chair. + +The Rev. William Auld called and left a jar containing some hideous +little leeches in water. He gave me instructions that, if Jake took +any sudden attack and the blood pressure in his head appeared great, I +was to place two of these blood-sucking creatures on each of his +temples, to relieve him. + +He showed me how to fix them to the flesh. + +"Once they are on, do not endeavour to pull them off," he explained. +"When they have gorged themselves, they will drop off. After that, +they will die unless you place them upon a dish of salt, when they will +sicken and disgorge the blood they have taken. Then, if you put them +back into a jar of fresh water, they will become lively as ever and +will soon be ready for further use." + +"I hope to God I may not have to use them," I exclaimed fervently, +shuddering at the gruesome thoughts the sight of the hideous little +reptiles conjured up in me. + +And I was saved from having to participate in the disgusting operation, +for, at the end of the week, Jake was seized through the night for the +second time. Toward morning, he revived and spoke to Rita and me like +the dear old Jake we used to know. + +"Guess I got to pass in my checks, folks. I ain't been very good +neither. But I ain't done nobody no harm as I can mind;--nobody, but +maybe Jake Meaghan. + +"Say, George! You like me,--don't you?" + +"I like you for the real gentleman you are, Jake," I answered, laying +my hand on his brow. + +"You like me too, Rita,--don't you?" + +"You bet I do!" she replied, dropping back into the slang that Jake +best understood. + +He was happy after that and smiled crookedly. But, in the early +morning, a violent fit of convulsions, in all its contorting agonies, +caught hold of him. His head at last dropped back on Rita's arm and +Jake Meaghan was no more. + +I covered up his face with a sheet, and we closed the door, leaving the +faithful Mike alone by the bedside. + +I led the little, sorrowing Rita down to her boat and kissed her as I +sent her across the Bay, home. Then, with a leaden heart, I went back, +to sit disconsolately in my own cottage, feeling as if I had lost a +part of myself in losing my old, eccentric, simple-minded friend. + +I opened up the papers Jake had left in my care and, as I read his +will, it made me feel how little I knew of him after all and what a +strange way he had of working out his ideas to what he considered their +logical conclusion. + +His will was a short document, and quite clear. + +He wished to be buried in Vancouver. All he possessed, he left to Rita +'because Rita was always a good girl.' If Rita married George Bremner, +the ten thousand dollars lying in the bank was to become her own, under +her immediate and full control; but, should she marry any other man, or +should she remain unmarried for a period of three years from Jake's +death, this money was to be invested for her in the form of an annuity, +in a reliable insurance company whose name was mentioned. + +He left Mike, the dog, to the care of George Bremner. + +The more I thought over that will, the more I cogitated over what was +really at the back of Jake's mind. + +Did he think, in some way, that there was an understanding between Rita +and me? or, as probably was more likely, was it an unexpressed desire +of his that Rita,--my little, mercurial pupil, Rita,--and I should +marry and settle down somewhere at Golden Crescent? + +Alas! for old Jake. Who knows what was in that big, wayward heart of +his? + +Mike kept faithful watch over Jake's body, until they came to take it +away. He neither ate nor slept. He just lay on the floor, with his +head resting on his front paws and his eyes riveted on the bed where +Jake was. + +We had to throw a blanket over Mike and hold him down bodily before the +undertakers could remove his dead master. + +All the way out to the steamer, we could hear Mike's dismal howling. +Never did such cries come from any dog. They did not seem the howls of +a brute, but the wailings of a human soul that was slowly being torn to +shreds. + +My heart ached more for that poor creature than it did even for Jake. + +All afternoon, all through that first night and still in the early +hours of the next morning, the dog sobbed and wailed as if its +more-than-human heart were breaking. + +At last, I could stand the strain no longer. I went down with some +food and drink for him and in the hope that I would be able to pacify +him and comfort him in his loss. But the moment I opened the door, he +tore out, as if possessed, down on to the beach and into the water. +Out, out he went, in the direction the steamer had gone the day before. + +I got into Jake's boat and followed him as quickly as I could, but we +were a long way out before I got up with him,--swimming strongly, +gamely, almost viciously; on,--on,--heading for the Ghoul Rock and for +the cross-currents at the open sea. + +I reached alongside him, but always he sheered away. + +I spoke to him kindly and coaxingly, but all I got from him in reply +was a whimpering sob, as if to say:-- + +"Oh! you are only a human: how can you understand?" + +I succeeded in catching hold of him and I lifted him into the boat. He +struggled out of my grasp back into the water. Three times I brought +him in and three times he broke from me and plunged into the sea, +swimming always out and out. + +I had not the heart to trouble him any more. + +After all, what right had I to interfere? What right had I to try to +go between the soul of a man and the soul of a dog? + +"God speed!--you brave, old, lion-hearted Mike. God speed!" I cried. +"Go to him. You were two of a kind. May you soon catch up with him, +and may both of you be happy." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +The Fight in the Woods + +I did not engage any one to fill Jake's place, for I felt that no man +really could fill it. In any case, with the approach of the wet, +wintry weather, the work at Golden Crescent diminished. I did not have +the continuous supplies to make ready for the Camps, such as they +demanded in the summer months. When they called, they generally took +away enough to last them over several weeks. Again, Jake had cut, sawn +and stacked all my winter supply of firewood long before he took sick. + +Taking all these things into consideration, I decided I would go +through the winter, at least, without fresh help. + +Mary Grant and Mrs. Malmsbury still remained at the cottage over the +way. + +Often I asked Mary,--almost in dread,--if she were going away during +the stormier months, but she always said she had not made any +arrangements so far. + +Not once, but many times, I tried to break through the reserve which +she had hedged round herself ever since our evening in the lagoon after +our first fishing experience when we had drawn so near in sympathy to +each other. I felt afraid lest I should forget myself some time and +tell her all that was in my heart craving to be told, for something +kept whispering to me that, if I did, I might lose her altogether. + +Rita's lessons went on apace. Twice a week she came over in the +evenings for instruction. She was quickly nearing the point where I +would be of no further service, for I had imparted to her almost all I +was capable of imparting in the way of actual grammar. + +I hoped to be able to complete her course before Christmas came round. +Then it would be merely a question of selection of reading matter. + +Rita's manner of speaking had undergone a wonderful change. There were +no slangy expressions now; no "ain'ts" or "I guess"; no plural nouns +with singular verbs; no past participles for the past tense; no split +infinitives. To all intents and purposes, Rita Clark had taken a +course of instruction at a good grammar school. + +And what a difference it made in her, generally! Even her dress and +her deportment seemed to have changed with her new manner of speaking. + +It is always so. The forward progress in any one direction means +forward progress in almost every other. + +Rita was a sweet, though still impetuous, little maiden that any +cultured man might have been proud to have for a wife. + +One rainy night, she and I were sitting by the stove in my front room. +I was in an easy chair, with a book in my hand, while Rita was sitting +in front of me on a small, carpet-covered stool, leaning sideways +against my legs and supposedly doing some paraphrasing. A movement on +her part caused me to glance at her. + +She had turned and was staring toward the window and her eyes were +growing larger and larger every moment. Her face grew pale, while her +lips parted and an expression, akin to fear, began to creep into her +eyes. + +I turned my head hurriedly to the window, but all was dark over there +and the rain was pattering and splashing against the glass. + +Still, Rita sat staring, although the look of fear had gone. + +I laid my hand on her shoulder. + +"Rita, Rita!--what in the world is wrong?" + +"Oh, George,--I,--I saw Joe's face at the window. I never saw him look +so angry before," she whispered nervously. + +I laughed. + +"Why!--you foolish little woman, I looked over there almost as soon as +you did, but I saw no one." + +"But he was there, I tell you," she repeated. + +I rose to go to the door. + +"No, no!" she cried. "Don't go." + +But I went, nevertheless, throwing the door wide open and getting a +gust of wind and rain in my face as I peered out into the night. + +I closed the door again and came back to Rita. + +"Why! silly little girl, you must have dreamed it. There is no one +there." + +I tapped her on the cheek. + +"I did not know Rita Clark was nervous," I bandied. + +She looked dreamily into the fire for a while, then she turned round to +me and laid her cheek against my knee. + +"George!--Joe's been coming home more and more of late. He's been lots +nicer to me than he used to be. He brought me a gold brooch with +pearls in it, from Vancouver, to-day." + +"Good for him!" I remarked. + +"It was a lovely brooch," she went on. "I put it in my dress, it +looked so pretty. Then Joe asked me to go with him along the beach. +Said he wanted to talk to me. I went with him, and he asked me if I +would marry him. + +"Marry him, mind you!--and I have known him all my life. + +"He said he didn't know he loved me till just a little while ago. Said +it was all a yarn about the other girls he met. + +"He was quiet, and soft as could be. I never saw Joe just the way he +was to-day. But I don't feel to Joe as I used to. He has sort of +killed the liking I once had for him. + +"I got angry about the brooch then. I took it off and handed it back +to him. + +"'Here's your brooch, Joe,' I said. 'I didn't know you gave it to me +just to make me marry you. I don't love you, Joe, and I won't marry a +man I don't love. You mustn't ask me again. You get somebody else.' + +"Big Joe was just like a baby. His face turned white. + +"'You're in love with Bremner,' he said, catching me by the wrist. I +drew myself away. + +"'I'm not,' I said. 'I like him better than I like any other man,--you +included,--but I don't love him any more than he loves me.'" + +Rita looked up at me and her eyes filled with tears. + +"'Ain't Bremner in love with you?' Joe asked. + +"'No!' I said. + +"Then Joe got terribly mad. + +"'By God in Heaven!' he cried, 'I'll kill that son-of-a-gun, if I hang +for it!' + +"He meant you, George. He went off into the wood, leaving me standing +like a silly. + +"Say! George,--the way Joe said that, makes me afraid that some day he +will kill you." + +"Don't you worry your little head about that, Rita," I said. + +"Oh!--that's all very well,--but Joe Clark's a big man. He's the +strongest man on the coast. He's always in some mix-up and he always +comes out on top. And I'm more afraid for you, because you are not +afraid of him." + +I rowed Rita across home that evening in order to reassure her, and, on +our journey, neither sound nor sign did we experience of Joe Clark. + +When the time came again for her next lesson, Rita seemed to have +forgotten her former fears. + +I had fixed up a blind over the window and had drawn it down, so that +no more imaginary peering faces would disturb the harmony of our lesson +and our conversation. + +How long we sat there by the stove, I could not say; but Rita was soft, +and gentle, and tender that night,--sweet, suppliant and loving. She +was all woman. + +When our lesson was over, she sat at my feet as usual. She crossed her +fingers over my knee and rested her cheek there, with a sigh of +contentment. + +I stroked her hair and passed my fingers through the long strands of +its black, glossy darkness, and I watched the pretty curves of her red, +sensitive lips. + +"Rita! Rita!" I questioned in my heart, as her big eyes searched mine, +"I wonder, little maid, what this big world has in store for you? God +grant that it be nothing but good." + +I bent down and kissed her once,--twice,--on those soft and yielding +upturned lips. + +With terrifying suddenness, something crashed against my front window +and broken glass clattered on the floor. + +A great hand and arm shot through the opening and tore my window blind +in strips from its roller. And then the hand and arm were withdrawn. + +In the visual illusion caused by the strong light inside and the deep +darkness without, we saw nothing but that great hand and arm. + +I sprang up and rushed to the door, followed by Rita. + +There was no sign of any one about. I ran round the house, and scanned +the bushes; I went down on to the beach, then across the bridge over +the creek, but I failed to detect the presence of any man. + +I came back to Rita to ease her mind, and found her anxious yet +wonderfully calm. + +"George!--you need not tell me,--it was Joe. I know his hand and arm +when I see them. He is up to something. + +"Oh! You must be careful. Promise me you will be careful?" + +I gave her my word, then I set her in her boat for home, asking her to +wait for a moment until I should return. + +Before setting her out on her journey, I wished to make perfectly sure +that there was no one about. I again crossed the creek, past Mary's +house, which was in complete darkness, and down on to her beach. +There, hiding in the shelter of the rocks, was a launch, moored to one +of the rings which Jake had set in at convenient places just for the +purpose it was now being used. + +I ran out and examined it. It was Joe Clark's. + +So!--I thought,--he is still on this side. + +I returned to Rita, wished her good-night and pushed her out on the +water. + +I came leisurely up the beach, keeping my eyes well skinned. But, +after a bit, I began to laugh, chiding myself for my childish +precautions. + +I went into the kitchen, took an empty bucket in each hand and set out +along the back path for a fresh supply of water for my morning +requirements, to the stream, fifty yards in the wood, where I had +hollowed out a well and boarded it over. + +It was dark, gloomy and ghostly in the woods there, for the moon was +stealing fitfully under the clouds and through the tall firs, throwing +strange shadows about. + +I had almost reached the well, when I heard a crackling of dead wood to +my right. + +A huge, agile-looking figure pushed its way through, and Joe Clark +stood before me, blocking my path. + +He held two, roughly cut clubs, one in each hand. His sleeves were +rolled up over his tremendous arms; his shirt was open at the neck, +displaying, even in the uncertain moonlight, a great, hairy, massive +chest over which muscles and sinews crawled. + +I scanned his face. His jaw was set, his lips were a thin line, his +eyes were gleaming savagely and a mane of fair hair was falling in a +clump over his brow. He looked dishevelled and was evidently labouring +under badly suppressed excitement. + +"Where's Rita?" he growled. + +I put my buckets aside and took my pipe from between my teeth. + +"Half-way home by this time, I hope," I said. + +"She is,--eh!" he cut in sarcastically. "Guess so! Look here, +Bremner,--what'n the hell's your game with Rita, anyway?" + +I went straight up to him. + +I did not want to quarrel. Not that I was afraid of him, even knowing, +as I did, that I would be likely to get much the worse of any possible +encounter;--but, for Rita's sake, I preferred peace. + +"My good fellow," I said, "why in heaven's name can't you talk sense? +I have no game, as you call it, with Rita. + +"If you would only play straight with her, you might get her yourself. +But I'll tell you this,--skulking around other people's property, after +the skirts of a woman, never yet brought a man anything but rebuffs." + +"Aw!--cut out your damned yapping, Bremner," he yelled furiously. "Who +the hell wants any of your jaw? Play straight the devil! You're some +yellow cuss to talk to anybody about playin' straight." + +It was all I could do to keep my temper in check. + +"What d'ye bring her over to your place at night for, if you're playin' +straight?" he continued. + +"To teach her grammar;--that's all," I exclaimed. + +"Grammar be damned," he thundered. "What d'ye put up blinds for if +you're playin' straight?" + +"To keep skulkers from seeing how respectable people spend their +evenings," I shot at him. + +"You're a confounded liar," he yelled, beside himself. "I know what +you're up to, with your oily tongue and your Jim Dandy style. + +"Rita was mine before you ever set your damned dial in Golden Crescent. +She'd 've been mine for keeps by this time, but you got her goin'. Now +you're usin' her to pass the time, keepin' men who want to from +marryin' her." + +With a black madness inside me, I sprang in on him. He stepped aside. + +"No, you don't!" he cried. "Take that." + +He threw one of his clubs at my feet. + +"Fists ain't no good this trip, Mister Man. I was goin' to kill you, +but I thought maybe it'd look better if we fight and let the best man +win." + +I stood undecided, looking first at this great mountain of infuriated +humanity and then at the club he had tossed to me;--while around us +were the great trees, the streams of ghostly moonlight and the looming +blacknesses. + +"Come on!--damn you for a yellow-gut. Take that up before I open your +skull with this." + +He prodded me full in the chest with the end of his weapon. I needed +no second bidding. Evidently, it was he or I for it. + +In fact, since the moment we first met at Golden Crescent that had been +the issue with which I had always been confronted. Joe Clark or George +Bremner!--one of us had to go down under the heel of the other. + +I grabbed up the club and stood on guard for the terrific onslaught Joe +immediately made on me. + +He threw his arm in the air and came in on me like a mad buffalo. Had +the blow he aimed ever fallen with all its original force, these lines +never would have been written; but its strength was partly shorn by the +club coming in contact with the overhanging branch of a tree. + +I parried that blow, but still it beat down my guard and the club +grazed my head. + +I gave ground before Clark, as I tried to find an opening. I soon +discovered, however, that this was not a fight where one could wait for +openings. Openings had to be made, and made quickly. I threw caution +to the winds. I drew myself together and rushed at him as he had +rushed at me. His blow slanted off my left shoulder, numbing my arm to +the finger-tips. Mine got home on a more vital place: it caught him +sheer on the top of the head. + +I thought, for sure, I had smashed his skull. But no such luck; Joe +Clark's bones were too stoutly made and knit. + +He gasped and staggered back against a tree for a second, looking dazed +as he wiped a flow of blood from his face. + +"For God's sake, man," I shouted, "let us quit this." + +He laughed derisively. + +"The hell you say! Quit,--nothin'; not till one of us quits for keeps." + +He rallied and came at me once more, but with greater wariness than +previously. He poked at me and jabbed at me. I warded him off, +keeping on the move all the time. He swung sideways on me, but I +parried easily; then, with a fierce oath, he caught his club with both +hands, raised it high in the air and brought it down with all his +sledge-hammer strength. + +This time, I was ready for Joe Clark. I was strong. Oh!--I knew just +how strong I was, and I gloried in my possession. + +I had a firmer grip of my cudgel than before. There was going to be no +breaking through as he had done last time; not if George Bremner's +right arm was as good as he thought it was. + +I met that terrific crash at the place I knew would tell. With the +crack of a gun-shot, his club shivered into a dozen splinters against +mine, leaving him with nothing but a few inches of wood in his torn +hands. + +He stood irresolute. + +"Will you quit now?" I cried. + +But he was game. "Not on your life," he shouted back. "We ain't +started yet. Try your damnedest." + +He tossed aside the remainder of his club and jumped at me with his +great hands groping. I stepped back and threw my stick deliberately +far into the forest, then I stopped and met him with his own weapons. +After all, I was now on a more equal footing with him than I had been +when both of us were armed. + +We clinched, and locked together. We turned, and twisted, and +struggled. He had the advantage over me in weight and sheer brute +strength, but I had him shaded when it came to knowing how to use the +strength I possessed. + +We smashed at each other with our fists wherever and whenever we found +an opening. Our clothes were soon in ribbons. Blood spurted from us +as it would from stuck pigs. + +Gasping for breath with roaring sounds,--choking,--half-blind, we +staggered and swayed, smashing into trees and over bushes. + +At last I missed my footing and stumbled over a protruding log, falling +backward. Still riveted together,--Joe Clark came with me. The back +of my head struck, with a sickening crash, into a tree and I knew no +more. + +When consciousness came back to me, I groaned for a return of the +blessed sleep from which I had awakened, for every inch of my poor body +was a racking agony. + +A thousand noises drummed, and thumped, and roared in my head and the +weight of the entire universe seemed to be lying across my chest. + +I struggled weakly to free myself, and, as I recollected gradually what +had happened to me, I put out my hands. They came in contact with +something cold and clammy. + +It was the bloody face of Joe Clark, who was lying on top of me. + +I wriggled and struggled with the cumbersome burden that had been +strangling the flickering life in me. Every effort, every turn was a +new pain, but all my hope was in getting free. + +At last, I got from under him and staggered to my knees. I was a very +babe for weakness then. I clutched at the tree-trunk for support and +raised myself to my feet. I looked down on the pale face of Joe Clark, +as he lay there, the moon on his face disclosing a great open gash on +his forehead. + +Evidently, he had struck the tree, face on, with the same impact as I +had done backward. + +"Oh, God!" I groaned. "He is dead, ... Joe Clark is..." + +Then the blissful mists and darknesses came over me again and I +crumpled to the earth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +Two Maids and a Man + +When next I awoke, it was amid conflicting sensations of pains and +pleasantnesses. My eyes gradually took in my surroundings. Instead of +being in Heaven, or the other place of future abode as I fully expected +to be, I was lying on my own bed, in my own room, in a semi-darkness. + +A quiet, shadowlike form was flitting about. I followed it with my +eyes for a while, enjoying the fact that it did not know that I was +watching it. Then it tip-toed toward me and bent over me. + +All my doubts and fears departed. After all, I was in Heaven; for +Mary,--the Mary I so loved,--was bending over me, crooning to me, with +her face so near, and placing her cooling, soothing hand on my hot brow. + +I must have tried to speak, for, as if far away, I could hear her +enjoining me not to talk, but just lie quiet and I would soon be well. + +She put a spoon to my mouth and, sup by sup, something warm, good and +reviving slowly found its way down my throat. + +What hard work it was opening my lips! What a dreadful task it was to +swallow and how heavy my feet and hands seemed!--so heavy, I could not +lift them. + +As the singing voice crooned and hushed me, I grew, oh! so weary of the +labour of swallowing and breathing that I dropped away again into +glorious slumberland. + +When again I opened my eyes, it was evening. My reading lamp was +burning dimly on a table, near by. The air was warm from a crackling +fire in the stove. Some one was kneeling at my bedside. + +I looked along the sheets that covered me. + +It was Mary. + +All I could see of her head were the coils of her golden hair, for she +had my hand in both her own and her face was hidden on the bed-spread. +I could hear her voice whispering softly. She was praying. She +repeated my name ever so often. She was praying that I might be +allowed to live. + +From that moment I lived and grew stronger. But I dared not move in +case I might disturb her. + +She rose at last and bent over my bandaged head. She scrutinised my +face. As she leaned closer, I caught the fragrance of her breath and +the perfume of her hair. And then,--God forgive me for my deceit! +although, for such an ecstasy I would go on being deceitful to the end +of time,--she stooped lower and her full, soft, warm lips touched mine. + +I raised my eyelids to her blushing loveliness. I tried to smile, but +she put her finger up demanding silence. She fed me again and new +strength flowed through my veins. + +What questions I asked her then! How did I get here? What day of the +week was it? Was Joe Clark dead? + +"Hush, hush!" she chided. "You must go on sleeping." + +"But I can't sleep forever. Already I have been asleep for years," I +complained feebly. + +"Hush, then, and I will tell you." + +She sat down by my bedside and I lay still and quiet as she went over +what she knew. + +"This is Saturday evening. I found you, lying unconscious,--dead as I +thought,--out on the path, as I went for fresh water yesterday morning. + +"I brought you here. I did not know what had befallen you. I was +afraid you had been set upon by the thieves who tried to rob Jake +Meaghan; but from what you have just said, it was Superintendent Clark +who attacked you." + +I nodded. + +"Was he not lying there beside me,--dead?" I asked. + +"Hush! There was no one near you; but the place looked as if a herd of +buffalo had thundered over it." + +I was puzzled, but I tried to laugh and the attempt hurt me. + +"How did you get me here?" I interrupted. + +"Now!" she said, "if you speak again, I will tell you nothing. + +"I ran home for blankets. I got two poles and fixed the blankets to +these. I rolled you over on to my improvised stretcher and trailed you +here, Indian fashion. It was easy as easy. Mrs. Malmsbury was abed +and I did not wish to disturb her just then. Later, when I got you +here, she helped me to put you to bed. + +"Oh! I am so glad that man did not murder you." + +"But it would not have been murder, Mary," I put in. "It was a fair +fight." + +"But why should two, strong, clean-living young men want to fight? +Don't answer me, George," she added quickly, "for I am merely +cogitating. Men seem such strange animals to us women." + +I smiled. + +Other questions I asked, but Mary declined to answer and I had, +perforce, to lie still, with nothing to do but follow her with my eyes +wherever she went. + +For one more day, she kept me on my back, bullying me and tyrannising +over me, when I felt strong enough to be up and about my business. + +Sometimes, when she came near enough, I would lay my hand over hers. +She would permit the caress as if she were indulging a spoiled baby. +Sometimes, I would lie with my eyes closed in the hope that she might +be tempted to kiss me, as she had done before; but Mary Grant saw +through the pretence and declined to become a party to it. + +The Rev. Mr. Auld came during the early afternoon of that Sunday. He +examined my bruises and contusions with professional brutality. He +winked, and ordered me up, dressed and into a wicker chair,--for the +lazy, good-for-nothing rascal that I was. And,--God bless his kindly +old heart!--he told Mary I might smoke, in moderation. + +He did not remain long, for he said he had been called to attend +another and a very urgent case of a malady similar to mine, at Camp No. +2. + +"Why!--that's Joe Clark's Camp," I said. + +"I am well aware of the fact," said he. "If you ask any more questions +or venture any more information, I shall order you back to bed and I +shall cancel your smoking permit." + +As he was going off, he came over to me and whispered in my ear:-- + +"Man!--I would give something for the power of your right arm." + +All the remainder of that afternoon, Mary read to me, as I browsed +[Transcriber's note: drowsed?] in an easy chair among cushions and +rugs, stretching first one leg and then the other, testing my arms, +trying every joint, every finger and toe, to satisfy myself that I was +still George Bremner, complete in every detail. + +Just as Mary was preparing to say good-bye to my little place, late +that same day,--for her vigils over me were no longer necessary,--Rita +Clark ran in, flushed with hurried rowing and labouring under a strong +excitement. She flashed defiance at Mary, then she threw herself at my +feet and sobbed as if her little heart would break. + +I put my hand on her head and tried to comfort her, and, when I looked +up again, she and I were alone. + +"Rita, Rita!" I admonished. + +"Oh!--no one told me," she wailed. "And it was all my fault. I know I +should not have come when Joe was that way about it. + +"If he had killed you! Oh! George,--if he had killed you!" + +Her eyes were red from weeping and dread still showed in her expressive +face. + +"There, there," I comforted. "He did not kill me, Rita, so why worry? + +"I shall be back at work in the store to-morrow, same as before. Cheer +up, little girl!" + +"But nobody at the Camp can understand it," she went on with more +composure. "They all knew there had been a fight. They were sure you +had been killed, for nobody ever stands up against Joe without coming +down harder than he does, and they say Joe was pretty nearly done for." + +"How is he now?" I inquired, inquisitive to know if he were suffering +at least some of what I had suffered. + +"Mr. Auld just came in as I left. Joe's been unconscious for two days." + +"Good!" I exclaimed, almost in delight. + +Rita's face expressed a chiding her tongue refused to give. + +"He only came to, when the minister got there this afternoon. Joe's +arm is broken. Two of his ribs are stove in. He's bruised and +battered all over. Mr. Auld says the hole in his forehead is the +serious one. Thinks you must have uprooted a tree and hit him with it." + +I laughed. But Rita was still all seriousness. + +"He'll pull through all right. Minister says he'll be out in two or +three weeks. Says it's a miracle how Joe ever got back to Camp. Must +have crawled to the launch, looked after the engine and steered all the +way himself, and him smashed up as he was. Funny he didn't come over +home. Guess he didn't want any of us to know about it. + +"They found his boat run up on the beach at Camp and him lying in the +bottom of it, unconscious; engine of his boat still going full speed. + +"Joe was delirious and muttering all the time: + +"'I killed that son-of-a-gun, Bremner. I killed Bremner.' + +"You know, George,--most of the men like Joe; for he's good to them +when they're down and out. But none of them has much sympathy for him +this time. Mr. Auld says they have heard him talk about doing you up +ever since you came to Golden Crescent. And now, Joe's the man that's +done up. + +"Better for him if he had let you be. + +"But, maybe after all, it is the best thing that ever happened,--for +Joe, I mean. It will let him see that brute force isn't everything; +that there never was a strong man but there was a stronger one still. +Eh! George." + +Rita's mood changed. + +"But, if you and Joe quarrel again, I'm going to run away. So there. + +"I'm not beholden to any one now,--thanks to dear old Jake Meaghan. I +can get money,--all I want. Then maybe Joe'll be sorry. + +"You won't fight any more, George? Say you won't!" + +She put her arm round my shoulder and her cheek against mine, in her +old coaxing way. + +Dear little woman! It was a shame to have worried her as Joe and I had +done. + +"Well, Rita," I laughed, "I promise you I won't fight if Joe won't. +And, anyway,--Joe is not likely to seek another encounter till his arm +and ribs are well; and that will take six weeks all told. So don't +worry yourself any more about what is going to happen six weeks hence." + +As Rita started out for home, I rose to accompany her to the boat. + +"No, no!" she cried. "Why!--you are under doctor's orders." + +"I have to work to-morrow, Rita, so I might as well try myself out now, +as later." + +I was shaky at the knees, but, with Rita's arm round my waist, I +managed to make the journey with little trouble. + +As we got to her boat, Rita pouted. + +"What's the matter now, little maid?" I asked. + +"I don't think you like me any more, George,--after bringing this on +you. And we've been pretty good pals too, you and I." + +Her eyes commenced to fill. + +"Why, foolish! Of course, we have been good pals and we are going to +stay good pals right to the end; no matter what happens." + +"Sure?" she asked, taking an upward, sidelong glance at me. + +"Sure as that," I exclaimed. I put my hands round her trim waist, and, +weak as I was, I lifted her up from the ground and kissed her laughing +mouth. + +She struggled free, jumped into the boat and rowed away, with a laugh +and a blown kiss to me from her finger tips. + +As I turned, I cast my eyes up along the wharf. + +A figure was standing there, motionless, as if hewn in stone. + +It was Mary Grant. + +Her hands were pressed flat against her bosom as if she were trying to +stifle something that should not have been there. Her face wore a +strange coldness that I had never seen in it before. + +I could not understand why it should be so,--unless,--unless she had +misconstrued the good-bye of Rita and me. But, surely,--surely not! + +Slowly and laboriously, I made in her direction, but she sped away +swiftly down the wharf, across the rustic bridge and into her cottage, +closing the door behind her quickly. + +As I sat by the fireside, thinking over what possibly could have caused +Mary to behave so, something spoke to me again and again, saying:-- + +"Go over and find out. Go over and find out." + +But I did not obey. My conscience felt clear of all wrong intent and I +decided it would be better to wait till morning, when I would be more +fit for the ordeal and Mary would have had time for second thoughts. + +Had I only known what the decision meant to me; the hours of mental +torment, the suspense, the dread loneliness, I would have obeyed the +inner voice and hastened to Mary's side that very moment, stripping all +wrong ideas and wrong impressions of their deceitful garments, leaving +them bare and cold and harmless. + +I did not know, and, for my lack of knowledge or intuition, I had to +suffer the consequences. + +Later in the evening, a yacht put into the Bay. It carried some ladies +and gentlemen who had been on a trip to Alaska and were now returning +south. + +They called in for a few supplies, the getting of which I merely +supervised. They asked and obtained permission from me to tie up at +the wharf for the night. + +After they had returned aboard and just as I was laboriously +undressing, I heard music floating across from Mary's. It was the same +sweet, entrancing, will-o'-the wisp music that her touch always created. + +But to-night, she played the shadowy, mysterious, light and elusive +Ballade No. 3 of Chopin. How well I knew the story and how +sympathetically Mary followed it in her playing! till I could picture +the scenes and the characters as if they were appearing before me on a +cinema screen:--the palace, the forest and the beautiful lake; the +knight and the strange, ethereal lady; the bewitchment; the promise; +the new enchantress, the lure of the dance, the lady's flight and the +knight's pursuit over the marshes and out on to the lake; the drowning +of the unfaithful gallant and the mocking laugh of the triumphant siren. + +The music swelled and whispered, sobbed and laughed, thundered and +sighed at the call of the wonderful musician who translated it. + +I was bewitched by the playing, almost as the knight had been by the +ethereal lady of the music-story. + +Suddenly the music ceased. I thought Mary had retired to rest. But +again, on the night air, came the introduction to the little ballad I +had already heard her sing in part. Her voice, with its plaintive +sweetness, broke into melody. + +She lilted softly the first verse,--and I waited. + +She sang the second verse. Again I waited, wondering, then hoping and +longing that she would continue. + +The third verse came at last and--I regretted its coming. + + + A maid there was in the North Countree; + A sad little, lone little maid was she. + Her knight seemed fickle and all untrue + As he rode to war at the drummer's dree. + And, day by day, as her sorrow grew, + Her spinning wheel groaned and the threads wove through; + It groaned.--It groaned.--It groaned and the threads wove through. + + +"What a stupid little song, after all!" I exclaimed. "Surely there +must be another verse to it? Where does the happy ending come in?" + +But, though I listened eagerly, no further sounds broke the stillness +of the night save the sobbing and moaning of the sea and the hooting of +a friendly owl in the forest behind. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +The Ghoul + +Next morning, I looked out upon a wet mist that hung over Golden +Crescent like a spider's gigantic web all a-drip with dew. + +My visitors of the previous night had gone three hours ago. I had +heard them getting up steam, but I was still too weak and stiff to +think of getting out of bed so early to see them off. + +I turned, as usual, to watch the upward, curling smoke from Mary's +kitchen fire. Strange to say, this morning there _was_ no smoke. + +"Taking a rest," I thought, "after her long watching and nursing over a +good-for-nought like me! Ah, well!--I shall breakfast first then I +shall pay my respects and ask forgiveness of the lady for 'the things I +have done that I ought not to have done,' and all will be well." + +I hurried over that porridge, and bacon and eggs. I dressed with +scrupulous care, even to the donning of a soft, white, linen collar +with a flowing tie. + +"Surely," I reasoned, "she can never be cruel to me in this make-up." + +When I started out, all seemed quiet and still over there at Mary +Grant's. + +With a feeling of disrupting foreboding, which dashed all my merriment +aside, I quickened my footsteps. + +The windows were closed; the door was shut tight. I knocked, but no +answer came. I tried the door:--it was locked. + +"Why! What can it be?" I asked myself. + +My roving eyes lit on a piece of white paper pinned to the far post of +the veranda. It was in pencil, in Mary's handwriting. + + +"George, + +"There is yet another battle for you to fight. I am going away. +Please do not try to find out where, either by word or by deed. + +"Golden Crescent will always be in my thoughts. Some day, maybe, I +will come back. + +"God bless you and keep you, and may you ever be my brave and very +gallant gentleman. + +"Mary Grant." + + +I read it over, and over again, but it seemed as if the words would +never link themselves together in my brain and form anything tangible. + +Gone away! Oh, God! Meaghan gone;--Mary gone;--every one to whom my +heart goes out leaves me the same way. What is it in me? Oh, my God! +my God! + +I staggered against the veranda rail for support, then, like a blind +man groping for a path in a forest, I made my journey across the rustic +bridge, and home. + +I am not ashamed to own it: in my anguish and my physical weakness, I +threw myself upon my bed and sobbed; sobbed until my sorrow had spent +itself, until my spirit had become numbed and well-nigh impervious to +all feeling. + +In desperation, I threw myself into my work. + +Never was store kept so clean nor in such a well-stocked condition as +mine was; never was home so tidy. + +I sawed timber, when there were stacks of it cut, piled and dry in my +wood sheds. I built rafts. I repaired the wharf. I added barns to my +outhouses, when, already, I had barns lying empty. + +I insisted on delivering the requirements of every family in Golden +Crescent, instead of having them take their goods from the store. + +With no object in view, other than the doing of it, I tackled the +wintry winds and the white-tipped breakers, in my little rowing boat, +when none other dared venture from the confines of his beach. + +When the sea came roaring into the Bay, tumbling and foaming, boiling +and crawling mountains high, breaking with all its elemental fury, I +would dash recklessly into it and swim to Rita's Isle and back, with +the carelessness and abandon of one who had nothing to live for. + +As I look back on it all now, I feel that death was really what I +courted. + +Remonstrances fell on deaf ears. My life was my own,--at least, I +thought it was,--my own to do with as I chose. What mattered it to any +one if the tiny spark went out? + +My books had little attraction for me during those wild, mad days. +Work, work, work and absorption were all my tireless body and wearied +brain craved for; and work was the fuel with which I fed them. + +I was aware that the minister knew more of Mary's going and her present +whereabouts than I did, and, sometimes, I fancied he would gladly have +told me what he knew. But he could find no opening in the armour of +George Bremner for the lodgment of such information. + +Rita and he got to know, after a while, that the name of Mary Grant was +a locked book and that Mary Grant alone held the key to it. + +Christmas,--my first Christmas from home;--Christmas that might have +been any other time of the year for all the difference it made to me, +came and went; and the wild, blustering weather of January, with its +bursts and blinks of sunshine, its high winds and angry seas, was well +upon us. + +There had been little to do in and around the store, so I was taking +the excuse to row over to Clarks' with their supplies, intending to +bring back any eggs they might have for my camp requirements. + +It was a cold, blustery morning, with a high, whistling wind coming in +from the Gulf. The sky was clear and blue as a mid-summer's day and +the sun was shining as if it had never had a chance to shine before. + +It was with difficulty that I got into my boat without suffering a +wetting, but I was soon bobbing on the crest of the waves or lying in +the troughs of the pale-green, almost transparent sea, making my way +across the Bay, as the waves climbed higher and still higher, with +white-maned horses racing in on top of the flowing tide. + +It was hard pulling, but I was strong and reckless, fearing neither man +nor elements. + +Every minute of that forenoon brought with it an increasing fury of the +storm; every minute greater volumes of water lashed and dashed into the +Bay, until, away out, The Ghoul looked more like a waterspout than a +black, forbidding rock. + +Rita was surprised and angry at my daring in crossing, yet she could +not disguise her pleasure now I was with her, for she chafed with the +restrictions of a stormy winter and craved, as all healthy people do, +for the society of those of her own age. + +"Seems as if it's goin' to be a hurricane," remarked old Andrew Clark, +looking out across the upheaving waters. "Never saw it so bad;--yet +it's only comin' on. + +"Guess you'll ha'e to stop wi' us the night, George." + +"--And welcome," put in his good lady. "There's always a spare bed for +George Bremner in this house. Eh! Andrew." + +"Ay,--ay!" remarked the old man, reflectively. "We're no' havin' ye +drooned goin' away frae this place,--that I'm tellin' ye." + +Like me, Rita was a child of stress and storm. She loved to feel the +strong wind in her face and hair. She gloried in the taste of the salt +spray. She thrived in the open and sported in the free play of her +agile limbs. Unafraid, and daring to recklessness, nothing seemed to +daunt her; nothing, unless, maybe, it were the great, cruel, sharks' +teeth of The Ghoul over which the sea was now breaking, away out there +at the entrance to the Bay: that rock upon which she had been wrecked +in her childhood; that relentless, devilish thing that had robbed her +of her mother and of her birthright. + +Even then, as she and I scampered and scrambled along the shore line, +over the rocks and headlands,--whenever she gazed out there I fancied I +detected a shudder passing over her. + +For an hour, with nothing to do but pass the time, we kept on and on, +along the shore, until we reached Neil Andrews' little house on the far +horn of the Crescent, standing out on the cliffs. + +We stood on the highest rock, in front of the old fisherman's dwelling, +watching the huge waves rolling in and breaking on the headlands with +deafening thundering, showering us with rainbow sprays and swallowing +up the sounds of our voices. + +Rita kept her eyes away from the horrible rock, which seemed so much +nearer to us now than when we were in the far back shelter of the Bay. +And, indeed, it was nearer, for barely a quarter of a mile divided it +from Neil's foreshore. But such a quarter of a mile of fury, I had +never before seen. + +Different from Rita, I could hardly take my eyes away from that rock. +To me, it seemed alive in its awful ferocity. It was the point of +meeting of three different currents and it gave the impression to the +onlooker that it was drawing and sucking everything to its own +rapacious maw. + +Old Man Andrews saw us from his window and came out to us, clad in +oilskins and waders. + +"Guess it's making for a hum-dinger, George," he roared into my ears. +"Ain't seen its like for a long time. God help anything in the shape +of craft that gets caught in this. She's sprung up mighty quick, too. + +"Got a nice cup of tea ready, Rita. Come on inside, both of you. It +ain't often I see you up here. Come on in!" + +But Rita was standing apart, straining her eyes away far out into the +Gulf. + +"What is it, lass?" shouted the old fellow. "See something out there?" + +"It is a boat," she cried back anxiously. "Yes!--it is a boat." + +Old Neil scanned the sea. "Can't see nothing, lass. Can you, George?" + +I followed the direction of Rita's pointing. + +"I'm not quite sure," I answered at last, "but it looks to me as if +there was something rising and falling away there to the right." + +Neil ran into the house for his telescope. + +"By God!" he cried, "it's a tug. She's floundering like a duck on ice. +Steering gear gone, or something! Hope they can keep heading out for +the open, or it's all up with them," he said. + +We watched the boat for a while, then we turned into the house and +partook of the old fellow's tea and hot rolls. + +In half an hour, we went out again. + +"George, George!" cried Rita, with a voice of terror, looking back to +us from her position on the high rock. "Quick!--they are driving +straight in shore." + +We ran up beside her and looked out. + +The tug,--for such it was,--was coming in at a great rate on the crest +of the storm, beam on. Water was breaking over her continuously as she +drove, and drove,--a battered, beaten object,--straight for The Ghoul. + +We could see three men clinging to the rails. + +Rita was standing, transfixed with horror at the coming calamity which +nothing on earth could avert. + +Old man Andrews closed his telescope with a snap. + +"Guess you'd better go inside, Rita," he spoke tenderly. + +"No, no!" she cried furiously, her lips white and her eyes dilated. +"You can't fool me. That's Joe's tug. Give me that glass. Let me +see." + +"Better not, Rita. 'Tain't for gals." + +"Give it to me," she cried savagely. "Give it to me." + +She snatched the instrument from him and fixed it on the vessel. Then, +with that awful pent-up emotion, which neither speaks nor weeps, she +handed back the telescope to the fisherman. + +We stood there against the wind, as doomed and helpless Joe Clark's tug +crashed on to the fatal Ghoul. It clung there, as if trying to live. +Five,--ten,--fifteen minutes it clung, being beaten and ripped against +the teeth of the rock; then suddenly it split and dissolved from view. + +Neil had the telescope at his eye again. He handed it to me quickly. +"George!--look and tell me. D'ye see anybody clinging there to the far +tooth of The Ghoul? My eyes ain't too good. But, if yon's a man, God +rest his soul." + +I riveted my gaze on the point. + +There I could see as clearly as if it were only a few yards off. Even +the features of the man who clung there so tenaciously I could make out. + +"My God! It is Joe Clark," I exclaimed in excitement. + +With the cry of a mother robbed of her young, Rita dashed down the +rocks to the cove where Neil Andrews' boat lay. She pushed it into the +water and sprang into it, pulling against the tide-rip like one +possessed. I darted after her, but she was already ten yards out when +the boat swamped and was thrown back on the beach. + +Just as the undertow was sucking Rita away, I grabbed at her and +dragged her to safety. + +"Let me go! Let me go!" she screamed, battering my chest. "It's Joe. +It's my Joe. He's drowning." + +I held her fast. + +She looked up at me suddenly with a strange quietness, as if she did +not understand me and what I did. As she spoke, she forgot her King's +English. + +"Ain't you goin' to help him? It's Joe. You ain't scared o' the sea. +You can do it. Get him to me, George. Oh!--get me Joe. I want him. +I want him. He's mine." + +I grasped her by the arm and shook her, as I shouted in her ear: + +"Do you love Joe,--Rita;--love him enough to marry him if I go out for +him?" + +"Oh, yes, yes! Get him, George. I love Joe. I always loved him." + +In that moment, I made up my mind. + +"If we come back, little woman," I cried, "it will be down there at the +end of the Island. Run home;--get grand-dad and the others in some +boats. It isn't so bad down there. Watch out for us. + +"If I don't come back, Rita,--dear, little Rita----" + +I took her face in my hands and pressed my lips on hers. + +I ran from her, up over the cliffs, away to the far side of the horn, +where the eddy made the sea quieter. I threw off my boots and +superfluous clothing and sprang into the water. Out, out I plunged, +and plunged again, keeping under water most of the time, until at last +I got caught in the terrible rush three hundred yards straight out from +the point. + +I well knew the dreadful odds I was facing, yet I was unafraid. The +sea was my home, almost as much as the land. I laughed at its +buffeting. I defied it. What cared I? What had I to lose?--nothing! +And,--I might win Joe for Rita, and make her happy. + +In the very spirit of my defiance, I was calling up forces to work and +fight for me, forces that faint-heartedness and fear could never have +conjured to their aid. + +On,--on I battled,--going with the rush,--holding back a little,--and +easing out, and out, all the time toward the Rock. + +Half an hour passed;--perhaps an hour,--for I lost count of time and +distance in my struggling. But, at last, battered and half-smothered, +yet still crying defiance to everything, I found myself rising with a +mountainous sea and bearing straight upon The Ghoul. As I was lifted +up, I strained my eyes toward the teeth of the rock. + +Joe Clark,--that Hercules of men,--was still hanging on +desperately:--no hope in his heart, but loth as ever to admit defeat, +even to the elements. + +With tremendous force, I was thrown forward. As the wave broke, I +flashed past Joe in the mad rush of water. I grabbed blindly, feeling +sure I should miss,--for it was a thousand chances to one,--but I was +stopped up violently. I tightened my clutch in desperation. I pulled +myself up, and clasped both hands round the ledge of the rock, clinging +to it precariously, my nails torn almost from my fingers. My hands +were touching Joe's. My face came up close to his. Almost he lost his +hold at the suddenness of my uncanny appearing. + +He shouted to me in defiance, and it surprised me how easily I could +hear him, despite the hiss and roar of the waters. I could hear him +more easily than I had heard Rita on the beach at Neil Andrews', so +long, long ago. + +"My God! Bremner,--where did you come from? What d'ye want?" he +shouted. + +"I want you, Joe," I cried, right into his ear. "Rita sent me for +you,--will you come?" + +"It ain't no good," he replied despairingly;--"nobody gets off'n this +hell alive." + +"But we shall," I yelled. "Rita wants you. She loves you, Joe. Isn't +that worth a try, anyway?" + +"You bet!" he cried, as the water dashed over his face, "but how?" + +I screamed into his ear again. + +"Let go when I shout. Drop on your back. After that, don't move for +your life. Leave the rest to me. Don't mind if you go under. It's +our only chance." + +He nodded his head. + +I waited for an abatement of the surge. + +"Now!" I yelled, as a great, unbroken swell came along. + +Away we whirled on top of it; past the side of The Ghoul like bobbing +corks,--into the rip and race of the tide,--sometimes above the water, +most of the time under it,--gasping,--choking,--fighting,--then +away,--in great heaving throws, from that churning death. + +How brave Joe was! and how trusting! Not a struggle did he make in +that awful ordeal. He lay pliable and lightly upon me, as I floated up +the Bay,--or wherever the current might be taking us. But there was +only one direction with that flowing tide, after we had passed The +Ghoul, and I knew it was into the Bay. So quiet did Joe lie, that I +began to think the life had gone out of him. But I could do nothing +for him; nothing but try, whenever possible, to keep his head and my +own out of the sea. + +How long I struggled, I cannot tell. My arms and legs moved +mechanically. I took the battering and the submerging as a matter of +course. A pleasing lethargy settled over my brain and the terror of it +all went from me. + +When twenty minutes, or twenty years, might have flown, my head crashed +against something hard. I turned quickly. I seized at the +obstruction. It was a log from some broken boom. I threw my arm +around it for support, then I caught Joe up and pulled his hand over +it. In a second, he was all life. He clutched the log tightly, and +hung on. + +Thus, he and I together,--enemies till then, but friends against our +mutual foe, the storm,--floated to safety and life. + +I remember hearing voices on the waters and seeing, in a blur, Joe's +giant body being raised into a boat. But, of myself, I remember not a +thing. + +Later on, they told me that, as soon as they hoisted Joe, I let go my +hold on the log, as if I had no further interest in anything, no more +use for life. + +But old Andrew Clark was too quick for me. He caught me by the arm and +clung on, just as I was going down. + +And it was Joe Clark,--despite all he had gone through,--who carried me +in his great strong arms from the beach to his grand-dad's cottage, +crooning over me like a mother. It was Joe who fed me with warm +liquids. It was Joe I saw when I opened my eyes once more to the +material world. + +"Shake hands, old man," he said brokenly, "if mine ain't too black. +Used to think I hated you, George. I ain't hatin' anything or anybody +no more. You're the whitest man I know, Bremner, and you got me beat +six days for Sunday." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +"Her Knight Proved True" + +I was leaning idly against a post on my front veranda, watching the sun +dancing and scintillating on the sea; listening the while to the birds +in the woods behind me as they quarrelled and fought over the choosing +of their lady-loves for the coming spring. + +I was thinking of how the time had flown and of the many things that +had happened since first I set foot in Golden Crescent, not so much as +a short year ago. + +Already a month had slipped by since I had wished good-bye to little +Rita,--happy, merry, little, laughing Rita,--and her great, handsome +giant of a husband, Joe; holding the end of the rope ladder for them, +from my rowing boat, as they clambered aboard the _Siwash_, at the +start of their six months' honeymoon trip of pleasure and sight-seeing. + +What an itinerary that big, boyish fellow had arranged for the sweet, +little woman he had won!--Vancouver, Victoria, Seattle, San Francisco, +Los Angeles, all the big cities in the States right through to New +York, then back again over the Great Lakes, across the Western +Prairies, up over the Rockies and home:--home to the pretty bungalow +that was already well on the way toward completion, out there on the +promontory just below their grand-dad's place. + +A warning toot from the _Cloochman_ awoke me from my reveries. I ran +to my small boat and pulled out as she came speeding into the Bay. + +There was little cargo, and less mail--one single letter. But what a +wonder of wonders that letter was! It was for me, and, oh! how my +heart beat! It was in the handwriting I had seen only a few months +before but had learned to know so well. + +I tore the envelope into pieces in my haste to be at the contents. + + +Dear George, it ran, + +Reta and Joe (Mr. & Mrs. Clark) called to see me. If you only could +see the happiness of them, how you would rejoice! knowing that you had +brought it all about. + +Every day from now, look for me at the little cottage across the rustic +bridge; for, some day, I shall be there. Golden Crescent is ever in my +thoughts. + +Good-bye for the present, my brave and very gallant gentleman. + +Mary. + + +In my little rowing boat, out there in the Bay, I cried to God in +thankfulness for all his goodness. + +Every day I looked across to Mary's bungalow, wondering if this would +be the day. + +I was loth to sleep, lest she should arrive without my knowing of it. +I could hardly bear to leave home for even an hour in case she should +come when I was away. And yet,--so it happened. + +Late one afternoon, I was standing on Clark's veranda, chatting with +Margaret over a letter that had arrived from Rita; when I noticed a +fast-moving launch dart into the Bay full speed, straight for my +landing, lower a dinghy, land some people, then turn and speed out +again almost before my brain could grasp the full purport. + +I dashed suddenly away from my old lady friend, without so much as a +word of explanation. I tumbled into my boat and rowed furiously for +home. How I railed at that long half-hour! To think of it,--Mary in +Golden Crescent half-an-hour and I had not yet spoken to her! + +I jumped ashore at last, ran up the rocks and into her house without +ceremony. + +"Mary, Mary!" I called. "Where are you?" + +And all I heard in answer, was a sigh. + +I pushed in to the front parlour, where Mary,--my Mary,--was. She was +standing by the window and had been gazing dreamily out into the Bay. +She turned to me in all the charm of her golden loveliness, holding out +her hands to me in silent welcome. + +I took her hands in mine and we looked into each other's eyes for just +a moment, then I caught her to me and crushed her in my embrace. + +"Mary,--Mary,--Mary!" I cried brokenly. "Mary,--Mary!" + +Gently and shyly, but smiling in her gladness, she freed herself from +my enfolding arms. + +"George,--sit down, dear. I have much to tell you before--before----" + +A blush spread over her cheeks and she turned away in embarrassment. + +"--Before what, Mary?" I craved. + +"Before--I can listen to you. + +"George!--I love you with all my heart. I have always loved you,--I +could not help myself. That, I think, is why I quarrelled with you +so,--at first. But I was afraid that my loving would avail me little +and would probably cause you pain, for I was pledged to marry a man I +did not love; and, because of that pledge, I was not free to give my +love to any other man. + +"George!--that man is dead now. He died a month ago in a street riot +with some natives in Cairo. + +"All his sins are covered up with him," she sighed. "And, after all, +maybe Harry Brammerton was not----" + +"Harry Brammerton!--" I cried, springing up in a tremble of excitement. +"My God! Oh, my God! I thought,--I,--I understood,--I--I--oh, God!" + +I clutched at the table for support as the awful truth began to dawn on +me. + +Mary rose in alarm. + +"Why! What is it? What have I said? George,--didn't you know? +Didn't I tell you before? You have heard of him?--you are acquainted +with him,--Viscount Harry Brammerton--" + +"Oh! Mary, Mary," I cried huskily, "please,--please do not go on. It +is more than I can bear now. + +"I didn't know. I,--I am that man's brother. I am George Brammerton." + +She stood ever so quietly. + +"You!--You!" she whispered. And that was all. + +Thus we stood,--stricken,--speechless,--under the cloud of the +unexpected, the almost impossible that had come upon us. + +Yet Mary, or rather Rosemary, was the first to regain her composure. +Kindly, sweetly, she came over to me and placed her hands on my +shoulders. Her brown eyes were wells of sympathy and tenderness. + +"George,--we each must fight this out alone. Come back to me in the +morning. I shall be waiting for you then." + +And I left her. + +But it seemed to me as if the morning would never come. + +Unable to bear the burden of my thoughts longer amid the confines of my +rooms, I went out at last into the moonlight, to wait the coming of the +dawn. + +As I stood out on the cliffs,--where old Jake Meaghan so often used to +sit listening to Mary's music,--she came to me; fairylike, white-robed, +all tenderness, all softness and palpitating womanliness. + +"George,--my George," she whispered, "I could not wait till morning +either.--And why should we wait, when my father's and your father's +pledge, the vow they made for you and for me,--although we have not +known it till now,--need not be broken after all." + +I caught her up and kissed her lips, her eyes, her hair,--again and +again,--until she gasped, thinking I should never cease. + +With our arms around each other, we waited on the cliffs for the +sunrise. We watched it come up in all its rosy loveliness, paling the +dying moon and setting the waters of the Bay ablaze. + +"And we must leave all this, my Lady Rosemary?" I said, with a sigh of +regret. + +"For a time,--yes! But not altogether, George; not always; for the +little bungalow behind us is mine now,--ours; a gift last Christmas to +me from my father's dear American friend, my friend, Colonel Sol Dorry, +with whom, in Wyoming, I spent the happiest of all my girlhood days." + +"Mary,--Rosemary," I exclaimed, as an unsatisfied little thought kept +recurring to me, refusing to be set aside even in the midst of our +great happiness,--"there is a little maid 'in the North Countree' in +whom I am deeply interested. The last I heard of her, she had been +jilted by her lover. Didn't he ever come back to her?" + +Rosemary laughed. + +"It is getting near to breakfast-time; so, if George, Earl of +Brammerton and Hazelmere, Storekeeper at Golden Crescent, runs over +home and listens very attentively while he is burning his porridge and +_boiling_ his tea,--he may hear of what happened to that sweet, little +maid." + +And, sure enough, as I stood, with my sleeves rolled up, stirring +oatmeal and water that threatened every minute to stick to the bottom +of the pot; there came through my open window the sounds of the +bewitching voice of Rosemary,--my own, my charming Lady Rosemary:-- + + A maid there is in the North Countree; + A coy little, glad little maid is she. + Her cheeks are aglow with a rosy hue, + For her knight proved true, as good knights should be. + And, day by day, as their vows renew, + Her spinning wheel purrs and the threads weave through; + It purrs. It purrs. It purrs and the threads weave through. + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's My Brave and Gallant Gentleman, by Robert Watson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY BRAVE AND GALLANT GENTLEMAN *** + +***** This file should be named 31728-8.txt or 31728-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/7/2/31728/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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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: My Brave and Gallant Gentleman + A Romance of British Columbia + +Author: Robert Watson + +Release Date: March 21, 2010 [EBook #31728] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY BRAVE AND GALLANT GENTLEMAN *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<A NAME="img-cover"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-cover.jpg" ALT="Cover art" BORDER="2" WIDTH="366" HEIGHT="558"> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +MY BRAVE and GALLANT GENTLEMAN +</H1> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +A Romance of British Columbia +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +BY +</H4> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +ROBERT WATSON +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +McCLELLAND, GOODCHILD & STEWART +<BR> +PUBLISHERS :: :: :: :: TORONTO +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +<I>Copyright, 1918,</I> +<BR> +<I>By George H. Doran Company</I> +<BR><BR> +<I>Printed in the United States of America</I> +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TO A LADY CALLED NAN +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">THE SECOND SON</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">ANOTHER SECOND SON</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">JIM THE BLACKSMITH</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">VISCOUNT HARRY, CAPTAIN OF THE GUARDS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">TOMMY FLYNN, THE HARLFORD BRUISER</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">ABOARD THE COASTER</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">K. B. HORSFAL, MILLIONAIRE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">GOLDEN CRESCENT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">THE BOOZE ARTIST</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">RITA OF THE SPANISH SONG</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">AN INFORMATIVE VISITOR</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">JOE CLARK, BULLY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">A VISIT, A DISCOVERY AND A KISS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">THE COMING OF MARY GRANT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">"MUSIC HATH CHARMS—"</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">THE DEVIL OF THE SEA</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">GOOD MEDICINE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap18">A MAID, A MOOD AND A SONG</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap19">THE "GREEN-EYED MONSTER" AWAKES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap20">FISHING!</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap21">THE BEACHCOMBERS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap22">JAKE STOPS THE DRINK FOR GOOD</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap23">THE FIGHT IN THE WOODS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap24">TWO MAIDS AND A MAN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap25">THE GHOUL</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap26">"HER KNIGHT PROVED TRUE"</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +MY BRAVE AND GALLANT GENTLEMAN +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +The Second Son +</H4> + +<P> +Lady Rosemary Granton! Strange how pleasant memories arise, how +disagreeable nightmares loom up before the mental vision at the sound +of a name! +</P> + +<P> +Lady Rosemary Granton! As far back as I could remember, that name had +sounded familiar in my ears. As I grew from babyhood to boyhood, from +boyhood to youth, it was drummed into me by my father that Lady +Rosemary Granton, some day, would wed the future Earl of Brammerton and +Hazelmere. This apparently awful calamity did not cause me any mental +agony or loss of sleep, for the reason that I was merely The Honourable +George, second son of my noble parent. +</P> + +<P> +I was rather happy that morning, as I sat in an easy chair by the +library window, perusing a work by my favourite author,—after a +glorious twenty-mile gallop along the hedgerows and across country. I +was rather happy, I say, as I pondered over the thought that something +in the way of a just retribution was at last about to be meted out to +my elder, haughty, arrogant and extremely aristocratic rake of a +brother, Harry. +</P> + +<P> +My mind flashed back again to the source of my vagrant thoughts. Lady +Rosemary Granton! To lose the guiding hand of her mother in her +infancy; to spend her childhood in the luxurious lap of New York's +pampered three hundred; to live six years more among the ranchers, the +cowboys and, no doubt, the cattle thieves of Wyoming, in the care of an +old friend of her father, to wit, Colonel Sol Dorry; then to be +transferred for refining and general educational purposes for another +spell of six years to the strict discipline of a French Convent; to +flit from city to city, from country to country, for three years with +her father, in the stress of diplomatic service—what a life! what an +upbringing for the future Countess of Brammerton! Finally, by way of +culmination, to lose her father and to be introduced into London +society, with a fortune that made the roués of every capital in Europe +gasp and order a complete new wardrobe! +</P> + +<P> +As I thought what the finish might be, I threw up my hands, for it was +a most interesting and puzzling speculation. +</P> + +<P> +Lady Rosemary Granton! Who had not heard the stories of her conquests +and her daring? They were the talk of the clubs and the gossip of the +drawing-rooms. Masculine London was in ecstasies over them and voted +Lady Rosemary a trump. The ladies were scandalised, as only jealous +minded ladies can be at lavishly endowed and favoured members of their +own sex. +</P> + +<P> +Personally, I preferred to sit on the fence. Being a lover of the open +air, of the agile body, the strong arm and the quick eye, I could not +but admire some of this extraordinary young lady's exploits. But,—the +woman who was conceded the face of an angel, the form of a Venus de +Milo; who was reported to have dressed as a jockey and ridden a horse +to victory in the Grand National Steeplechase; who, for a wager, had +flicked a coin from the fingers of a cavalry officer with a revolver at +twenty paces; lassooed a cigar from between the teeth of the Duke of +Kaslo and argued on the Budget with a Cabinet Minister, all in one +week; who could pray with the piety of a fasting monk; weep at will and +look bewitching in the process; faint to order with the grace, the +elegance and all the stage effect of an early Victorian Duchess: the +woman who was styled a golden-haired goddess by those on whom she +smiled and dubbed a saucy, red-haired minx by those whom she +spurned;—was too, too much of a conglomeration for such a humdrum +individual, such an ordinary, country-loving fellow as I,—George +Brammerton. +</P> + +<P> +And now, poor old Hazelmere was undergoing a process of renovation such +as it had not experienced since the occasion of a Royal visit some +twenty years before: not a room in the house where one could feel +perfectly safe, save the library: washing, scrubbing, polishing and +oiling in anticipation of a rousing week-end House Party in honour of +this wonderful, chameleon-like, Lady Rosemary's first visit; when her +engagement with Harry would be formally announced to the inquisitive, +fashionable world of which she was a spoiled child. +</P> + +<P> +Why all this fuss over a matter which concerned only two individuals, I +could not understand. Had I been going to marry the Lady +Rosemary,—which, Heaven forbid,—I should have whipped her quietly +away to some little, country parsonage, to the registrar of a small +country town; or to some village blacksmith, and so got the business +over, out of hand. But, of course, I had neither the inclination, nor +the intention, let alone the opportunity, of putting to the test what I +should do in regard to marrying her, nor were my tastes in any way akin +to those of my most elegant, elder brother, Viscount Harry, Captain of +the Guards,—egad,—for which two blessings I was indeed truly thankful. +</P> + +<P> +As I was thus ruminating, the library door opened and my noble sire +came in, spick and span as he always was, and happier looking than +usual. +</P> + +<P> +"'Morning, George," he greeted. +</P> + +<P> +"Good morning, dad." +</P> + +<P> +He rubbed his hands together. +</P> + +<P> +"Gad, youngster! (I was twenty-four) everything is going like +clockwork. The house is all in order; supplies on hand to stock an +hotel; all London falling over itself in its eagerness to get here. +Harry will arrive this afternoon and Lady Rosemary to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +I raised my eyebrows, nodded disinterestedly and started in again to my +reading. Father walked the carpet excitedly, then he stopped and +looked down at me. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't seem particularly enthusiastic over it, George. Nothing +ever does interest you but boxing bouts, wrestling matches, golf and +books. Why don't you brace up and get into the swim? Why don't you +take the place that belongs to you among the young fellows of your own +station?" +</P> + +<P> +"God forbid!" I answered fervently. +</P> + +<P> +"Not jealous of Harry, are you? Not smitten at the very sound of the +lady's name,—like the young bloods, and the old ones, too, in the +city?" +</P> + +<P> +"God forbid!" I replied again. +</P> + +<P> +"Hang it all, can't you say anything more than that?" he asked testily. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes! dad,—lots," I answered, closing my book and keeping my +finger at the place. "For one thing—I have never met this Lady +Rosemary Granton; never even seen her picture—and, to tell you the +truth, from what I have heard of her, I have no immediate desire to +make the lady's acquaintance." +</P> + +<P> +There was silence for a moment, and from my father's heavy breathing I +could gather that his temper was ruffling. +</P> + +<P> +"Look here, you young barbarian, you revolutionary,—what do you mean? +What makes you talk in that way of one of the best and sweetest young +ladies in the country? I won't have it from you, sir, <I>this</I> Lady +Rosemary Granton, <I>this</I> Lady indeed." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! you know quite well, dad, what I mean," I continued, a little +bored. "Harry is no angel, and I doubt not but Lady Rosemary is by far +too good for him. But,—you know,—you cannot fail to have heard the +stories that are flying over the country of her cantrips;—some of +them, well, not exactly pleasant. And, allowing fifty percent for +exaggeration, there is still a lot that would be none the worse of +considerable discounting to her advantage." +</P> + +<P> +"Tuts, tush and nonsense! Foolish talk most of it! The kind of stuff +that is garbled and gossiped about every popular woman. The girl is +up-to-date, modern, none of your drawing-room dolls. I admit that she +has go in her, vim, animal spirits, youthful exuberance and all that. +She may love sport and athletics, but, but,—you, yourself, spend most +of your time in pursuit of these same amusements. Why not she?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why! father, these are the points I admire in her,—the only ones, I +may say. But, oh! what's the good of going over it all? I know, you +know,—everybody knows;—her flirtations, her affairs; every rake in +London tries to boast of his acquaintance with her and bandies her name +over his brandy and soda, and winks." +</P> + +<P> +"Look here, George," put in my father angrily, "you forget yourself. +These stories are lies, every one of them! Lady Rosemary is the +daughter of my dearest, my dead friend. Very soon, she will be your +sister." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! I know,—so let us not say any more about it. It is Harry and +she for it, and, if they are pleased and an old whim of yours +satisfied,—what matters it to an ordinary, easy-going, pipe-loving, +cold-blooded fellow like me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Whim, did you say? Whim?" cried my father, flaring up and clenching +his hands excitedly. "Do you call the vow of a Brammerton a whim? The +pledged word of a Granton a whim? Whim, be damned." +</P> + +<P> +For want of words to express himself, my father dropped into a chair +and drummed his agitated fingers on the arms of it. +</P> + +<P> +I rose and went over to him, laying my hand lightly on his shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +Poor old dad! I had not meant to hurt his feelings. After all, he was +the dearest of old-fashioned fellows and I loved his haughty, +mid-Victorian ways. +</P> + +<P> +"There, there, father,—I did not mean to say anything that would give +offence. I take it all back. I am sorry,—indeed I am." +</P> + +<P> +He looked up at me and his face brightened once more. +</P> + +<P> +"'Gad, boy,—I'm glad to hear you say it. I know you did not mean +anything by your bruskness. You are an impetuous, headstrong young +devil though,—with a touch of your mother in you,—and, 'gad, if I +don't like you the more for it. +</P> + +<P> +"But, but," he went on, looking in front of him, "you must remember +that although Granton and I were mere boys at the time our vow was +made,—he was a Granton and I a Brammerton, whose vows are made to +keep. It seems like yesterday, George; it was a few hours after he +saved my life in the fighting before Sevastopol. We were sitting by +the camp-fire. The chain-shot was still flying around. The cries of +the wounded were in our ears. The sentries were challenging +continually and drums were rolling in the distance. +</P> + +<P> +"I clasped Fred's hand and I thanked him for what he had done for me +that day, right in the teeth of the Russian guns. +</P> + +<P> +"'Freddy, old chap, you're a trump,' I said, 'and, if ever I be blessed +with an heir to Brammerton and Hazelmere, I would wish nothing better +than that he should marry a Granton.' +</P> + +<P> +"'And nothing would please me so much, Harry, old boy,—as that a maid +of Granton should wed a Brammerton,' he answered earnestly. +</P> + +<P> +"'Then it's a go,' said I, full of enthusiasm. +</P> + +<P> +"'It's a go, Harry.' +</P> + +<P> +"And we raised our winecups, such as they were. +</P> + +<P> +"'Your daughter, Fred!' +</P> + +<P> +"'Your heir, Harry!' +</P> + +<P> +"'The future Earl and Countess of Brammerton and Hazelmere,' we chimed +together. +</P> + +<P> +"Our winecups clinked and the bond was made;—made for all time, +George." +</P> + +<P> +My father's eyes lit up and he seemed to be back in the Crimea. He +shook his head sadly. +</P> + +<P> +"And now, poor old Fred is gone. Ah, well! our dream is coming true. +In a month, the maid of Granton weds the future Earl of Brammerton. +</P> + +<P> +"'Gad, George, my boy,—Rosemary may be skittish and lively, but were +she the most mercurial woman in Christendom, she has never forgotten +that she is first of all a Granton, and, as a Granton, she has kept a +Granton's pledge." +</P> + +<P> +For a moment I caught the contagion of my father's earnestness. My +eyes felt damp as I thought how important, after all, this union was to +him. But, even then, I could not resist a little more questioning. +</P> + +<P> +"Does Harry love her, dad?" +</P> + +<P> +"Love her!" He smiled. "Why! my boy, he's madly in love with her." +</P> + +<P> +"Then, why doesn't he mend a bit? give over his mad chasing after,—to +put it mildly,—continual excitement; and demonstrate that he is +thoroughly in earnest. You know, falling madly in love is a habit of +Harry's." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you worry your serious head about that, George. You talk of +Harry as if he were a baby. You talk as if you were his grandfather, +instead of his younger brother and a mere boy." +</P> + +<P> +"Does Lady Rosemary love Harry?" I asked, ignoring his admonition. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course, she loves him. Why shouldn't she? He's a good fellow; +well bred and well made; he is a soldier; he is in the swim; he has +plenty to spend; he is the heir to Brammerton;—why shouldn't she love +him? She is going to marry him, isn't she? She may not be of the +gushing type, George, but she'll come to it all in good time. She will +grow to love him, as every good wife does her husband. So, don't let +that foolish head of yours give you any more trouble." +</P> + +<P> +I turned to leave. +</P> + +<P> +"George!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, dad!" +</P> + +<P> +"You will be on hand this week-end. I want you at home. I need you to +keep things going. No skipping off to sporting gatherings or athletic +conventions. I wish you to meet your future sister." +</P> + +<P> +"Well,—I had not thought of that, dad. Big Jim Darrol, Tom Tanner and +I have entered for a number of events at the Gartnockan Games on +Saturday. I am also on the lists as a competitor for the Northern +Counties Golf Championship on Monday." +</P> + +<P> +My father looked up at me in a strange way. +</P> + +<P> +"However," I went on quickly, "much as I dislike the rush, the gush and +the clatter of house parties, I shall be on hand." +</P> + +<P> +"Good! I knew you would, my boy," replied my father quietly. "Where +away now, lad?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! down to the village to tell Jim and Tom not to count on me for +their week-end jaunt." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Another Second Son +</H4> + +<P> +I strolled down the avenue, between the tall trees and on to the broad, +sun-baked roadway leading to the sleepy little village of Brammerton, +which lay so snugly down in the hollow. Swinging my stout stick and +whistling as I went, I felt at peace with the good old world. My head +was clear, my arm was strong; rich, fresh blood was dancing in my +veins; I was young, single, free;—so what cared I? +</P> + +<P> +As I walked along, I saw ahead of me a thin line of blue-grey smoke +curling up from the roadside. As I drew nearer, I made out the back of +a ragged man, leaning over a fire. His voice, lusty and clear as a +bell, was ringing out a strange melody. I went over to him. +</P> + +<P> +I was looking over his shoulder, yet he seemed not to have heard me, so +intent was he on his song and in his work. +</P> + +<P> +He was toasting the carcass of a poached rabbit, the wet skin of which +lay at his side. He was a dirty, ragged rascal, but he seemed happy +and his voice was good. The sentiment of his song was not altogether +out of harmony with my own feelings. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"A carter swore he'd love always<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">A skirt, some rouge, a pair of stays.</SPAN><BR> +After his vow, for days and days,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">He thought himself the smarter."</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +The singer bit a piece of flesh from the leg of his rabbit, to test its +tenderness, then he resumed his toasting and his song. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"But, underneath the stays and paint<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">He found the usual male complaint:</SPAN><BR> +A woman's tongue, with Satan's taint;<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">A squalling, brawling tartar.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"She scratches, bites and blacks his eye.<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">His head hangs low; he heaves a sigh;</SPAN><BR> +He longs for single days, gone by.<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">He's doomed to die a martyr."</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +The peculiar fellow stopped, opened a red-coloured handkerchief, took +out a hunk of bread and set it down by his side with slow deliberation. +It was quite two minutes ere he started off again. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Now, friends, beware, take my advice;<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">When eating sugar, think of spice;</SPAN><BR> +Before you marry, ponder twice:<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Remember Ned the carter."</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +From the words, it seemed to me that he had finished the song, but, +judging from the tune, it was never-ending. +</P> + +<P> +"A fine song, my good fellow," I remarked from behind. +</P> + +<P> +The rascal did not turn round. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!—it's no' so bad. It's got the endurin' quality o' carrying a +moral," he answered. +</P> + +<P> +"You seem to be clear in the conscience yourself," said I. +</P> + +<P> +"It'll be clearer when I get outside o' this rabbit," he returned, +still not deigning to look at me. +</P> + +<P> +"But you did not seem to be startled when I spoke to you," I remarked +in surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"What way should I? I never saw the man yet that I was feart o'. +Forby,—I kent you were there." +</P> + +<P> +"But, how could you know? I did not make a noise or display my +presence in any way." +</P> + +<P> +"No!—but the wind was blawin' from the back, ye see; and when ye came +up behind the smoke curled up a bit further and straighter than it did +before; then there was just the ghost o' a shadow." +</P> + +<P> +I laughed. "You are an observant customer." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, ay! I'm a' that. Come round and let me see ye." +</P> + +<P> +I obeyed, and he seemed satisfied with his inspection. +</P> + +<P> +"Sit doon,—oot o' the smoke," he said. +</P> + +<P> +I did so. +</P> + +<P> +"You are Scotch?" I ventured. +</P> + +<P> +"Ay! From Perth, awa'. +</P> + +<P> +"A Scotch tinker?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just that; a tinker from Perth, and my name's Robertson. I'm a +Struan, ye ken. The Struans,—the real Struans,—are a' tinkers or +pipers. In oor family, my elder brother fell heir to my father's +pipes, so I had just to take to the tinkering. But we're joint heirs +to my father's fondness for a dram. Ye havena a wee drop on ye?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not a drop," I remarked. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a disappointment. I was kind o' feart ye wouldna, when I asked +ye." +</P> + +<P> +"How so?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! ye don't look like a man that wasted your substance. More like a +seller o' Bibles, or maybe a horse doctor." +</P> + +<P> +I laughed at the queer comparison, and he looked out at me from under +his shaggy, red eyebrows. +</P> + +<P> +"Have a bite o' breakfast wi' me. I like to crack to somebody when I'm +eatin'. It helps the digestion." +</P> + +<P> +"No, thank you," I said. "I have breakfasted already." +</P> + +<P> +"It's good meat, man. The rabbit's fresh. I can guarantee it, for it +was runnin' half an hour ago. Try a leg." +</P> + +<P> +I refused, but, as he seemed crestfallen, I took the drumstick in my +hand and ate the meat slowly from it; and never did rabbit taste so +good. +</P> + +<P> +"What makes ye smile?" asked my tattered companion. "Do ye no' like +the taste o' it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! the rabbit is all right," I said, "but I was just thinking that +had it lived its children might have belonged to a brother of mine some +day." +</P> + +<P> +"How's that? Is he a keeper? Od sake!" he went on, scratching his +head, as it seemed to dawn on him, "ye don't happen to belong to the +big hoose up there?" +</P> + +<P> +"I live there," said I. +</P> + +<P> +He leaned over to me quickly. "Have another leg, man,—have it;—dod! +it's your ain, anyway." +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't finished the first yet. Go ahead yourself." +</P> + +<P> +He ate slowly, eying me now and again through the smoke. +</P> + +<P> +"So you're a second son, eh?" he pondered. "Man, ye have my sympathy. +I had the same ill-luck. That's how my brother Angus got the pipes and +I'm a tinker. Although, I wouldna mind being the second son o' a Laird +or a Duke." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, my friend," said I; "that's just where our opinions differ. +Now, I'd sooner be the second son of a rag-and-bone man; a—Perthshire +piper of the name of Robertson; ay! of the devil himself,—than the +second son of an Earl." +</P> + +<P> +"Do ye tell me that now!" he put in, with a cock of his towsled head, +picking up another piece of rabbit. +</P> + +<P> +"You see,—you and these other fellows can do as you like; go where you +like when you like. An Earl's second son has to serve his House. He +has to pave the way and make things smooth for the son and heir. He is +supposed to work the limelight that shines on his elder brother. He is +tolerated, sometimes spoiled and petted, because,—well, because he has +an elder brother who, some day, will be an Earl; but he counts for +little or nothing in the world's affairs. +</P> + +<P> +"Be thankful, sir, you are only the second son of a highland piper." +</P> + +<P> +The tramp reflected for a while. +</P> + +<P> +"Ay, ay!" he philosophised at last, "no doot,—maybe,—just that. I +can see you have your ain troubles and I'm thinkin', maybe, I'm just as +weel the way I am. But it's a queer thing; we aye think the other man +is gettin' the best o' what's goin'. It's the way o' the world." +</P> + +<P> +He was quiet a while. He negotiated the rabbit's head and I watched +him with interest as he extracted every bit of meat from the maze of +bone. +</P> + +<P> +"And you would be the Earl when your father dies, if it wasna for your +brother?" he added. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!" I answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Man, it must be a dreadful temptation." +</P> + +<P> +"What must be?" +</P> + +<P> +"Och! to keep from puttin' something in his whisky; to keep from +flinging him ower the window or droppin' a flower pot on his heid, +maybe. If my ain father had been an Earl, Angus Robertson would never +have lived to blow the pipes. As it was, it was touch and go wi' +Angus;—for they were the bonny pipes,—the grand, bonny pipes." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean to tell me, you would have murdered your brother for a +skirling, screeching bagpipes?" I asked in horror. +</P> + +<P> +"Och! hardly that, man. Murder is no' a bonny name for it. I would +just kind o' quietly have done awa' wi' him. It's maybe a pity my +conscience was so keen, for he's no' much good, is Angus; he's a +through-other customer: no' steady and law-abidin' like mysel'." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, my friend," I said finally—— +</P> + +<P> +"Donald! that's my name." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Donald, I must be on my way." +</P> + +<P> +"What's a' the hurry, man?" +</P> + +<P> +"Business." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! weel; give me your hand on it. You've a fine face. The face o' a +man that, if he had a dram on him, he would give me a drop o' it." +</P> + +<P> +"That I would, Donald." +</P> + +<P> +"It's a pity. But ye don't happen to have the price o' the dram on ye?" +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe I have, Donald." +</P> + +<P> +I handed him a sixpence. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank ye. I'm never wrong in the readin' o' face character." +</P> + +<P> +As I made to go from him, he started off again. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't happen to be a married man, wi' a wife and bairns?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"No, Donald. Thank goodness! What made you ask that?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! I thought maybe you were and that was the way you liked the words +o' my bit song." +</P> + +<P> +I left the tinker finishing his belated breakfast and hurried down the +road toward the village. +</P> + +<P> +The sun was getting high in the heavens, birds were singing and the +spring workers were busy in the fields. I took the side track down the +rough pathway leading to Modley Farm. +</P> + +<P> +My good friend, big, brawny, bluff Tom Tanner,—who was standing under +the porch,—hailed me from a distance, with his usual merry shout. +</P> + +<P> +"Where away, George? Feeling fit for our trip?" he asked as I got up +to him. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry, old boy, but, so far as I am concerned, the trip is off. +I just hurried down to tell you and Jim. +</P> + +<P> +"You see, Tom, there is going to be a House Party up there this +week-end and my dad's mighty anxious to have me at home; so much so, +that I would offend him if I went off. Being merely George Brammerton, +I must bow to the paternal commands, although I would rather, a hundred +times, be at the games." +</P> + +<P> +Tom's face fell, and I could see he was disappointed. I knew how much +he enjoyed those week-end excursions of ours. +</P> + +<P> +"The fact is," I explained, "there is going to be a marriage up there +pretty soon, and, naturally, I am wanted to meet the lady." +</P> + +<P> +"Great Scott! George,—you are not trying to break it gently to me? +You are not going to get married, are you?" he asked in consternation. +</P> + +<P> +I laughed loudly. "Lord, no! Not for a kingdom. It is my big brother +Harry." +</P> + +<P> +Tom seemed relieved. He even sighed. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad to hear you say it, George, for there's a lot of fine +athletic meetings coming on during the next three or four months and it +would be a pity to miss them for, for,—— Oh! hang it all! you know +what I mean. You're such a queer, serious, determined sort of +customer, that it's hard to say what you will do next." +</P> + +<P> +He looked so solemn over the matter that I laughed again. +</P> + +<P> +His kind-hearted old mother, who had been at work in the kitchen and +had overheard our conversation, came to the doorway and placed her arms +lovingly around our broad shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"Lots of time yet to think about getting married. And, let me whisper +something into your ears. It's an old woman's advice, and it's +good:—when you do think of marrying, be sure you get a wife with a +pleasant face and a good figure; a wife that other wives' men will turn +round and admire; for, you know, you can never foretell what kind of +temper a woman has until you have lived with her. A maid is always on +her best behaviour before her lover. And, just think what it would +mean if you married a plain, shapeless lass and she proved to have a +temper like a termagant! Now, a handsome lass, even if she has a +temper, is always—a handsome lass and something to rouse envy of you +in other men. And, after all, we measure and treasure what we have in +proportion as other people long for it. So, whatever you do, young +men, make sure she is handsome!" +</P> + +<P> +"Good, sensible advice, Mrs. Tanner; and I mean to take it," said I. +"But I would be even more exacting. In addition to being sweet +tempered and fair of face and form, she must have curly, golden hair +and golden brown eyes to match." +</P> + +<P> +"And freckles?" put in Mrs. Tanner with a wry face. +</P> + +<P> +"No! freckles are barred," I added. +</P> + +<P> +"But, golden hair and brown eyes are mighty rare to find in one +person," said Tom innocently. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course they are; and the combination such as I require is so +extremely rare that my quest will be a long one. I am likely therefore +to enjoy my bachelorhood for many days to come." +</P> + +<P> +"Good-bye, Mrs. Tanner. Good-bye, Tom; I am going down to the smithy +to see Jim." +</P> + +<P> +I strolled away from my happy, contented friends, on to the main road +again and down the hill to the village, little dreaming how long it +would be ere I should have an opportunity of talking with them again. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Jim the Blacksmith +</H4> + +<P> +The village of Brammerton seemed only half awake. A rumbling cart was +slowly wending its way up the hill, three or four old men were standing +yarning at the inn corner; now and again, a busy housewife would appear +at her door and take a glimpse of what little was going on and +disappear inside just as quickly as she had shown herself. The sound +of the droning voices of children conning their lessons came through +the open window of the old schoolhouse. +</P> + +<P> +These were the only signs and sounds of life that forenoon in +Brammerton. Stay!—there was yet another. Breaking in on the general +quiet of the place, I could hear distinctly the regular thud of hard +steel on soft, followed by the clear double-ring of a small hammer on a +mellow-toned anvil. +</P> + +<P> +One man, at any rate, was hard at work,—Jim Darrol,—big, honest, +serious giant that he was. +</P> + +<P> +Light of heart and buoyant in body, I turned down toward the smithy. I +looked in through the grimy, broken window and admired the brawny giant +he looked there in the glare of the furnace, with his broad back to me, +his huge arms bared to the shoulders. Little wonder, thought I, Jim +Darrol can whirl the hammer and put the shot farther than any man in +the Northern Counties. +</P> + +<P> +How the muscles bulged, and wriggled, and crawled under his dark, hairy +skin! What a picture of manliness he portrayed! And, best of all,—I +knew his heart was as good and clean as his body was sound. +</P> + +<P> +I tiptoed cautiously inside and slapped him between the shoulders. He +wheeled about quickly. He always was a solemn-looking owl, but this +morning his face was clouded and grim. As he recognised me, a terrible +anger seemed to blaze up in his black eyes. I could see the muscles +tighten in his arms and his fingers close firmly over the shaft of the +hammer he held. I could see a new-born, but fierce hatred burning in +every inch of his enormous frame. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Jim, old man! Who has been rubbing you the wrong way?" I cried. +</P> + +<P> +His jaws set. He raised his left hand and pointed with his finger to +the open doorway. +</P> + +<P> +"Get out!" he growled, in a deep, hoarse voice. +</P> + +<P> +I stood dumbfounded for a brief moment, then I replied roughly and +familiarly: "Oh, you go to the devil! Keep your anger for those who +have caused it." +</P> + +<P> +"Get out, will you!" he cried again, taking a step nearer to me, his +brows lowered, his lips drawn to a thin line. +</P> + +<P> +I had seen these danger signals in Jim before, but never with any ill +intent toward me. I was so astounded I could scarcely think aright. +What could he mean? What was the matter? +</P> + +<P> +"Jim, Jim," I soothed, "don't talk that way to old friends." +</P> + +<P> +"You're no friend of mine," he shouted. "Will you get out of here?" +</P> + +<P> +In some respects, I was like Jim Darrol: I did not like to be ordered +about. +</P> + +<P> +"No! I will not get out," I snapped back at him. "I mean to remain +here until you grow sensible." +</P> + +<P> +I went over to his anvil, set my leg across it and looked straight at +him. +</P> + +<P> +He raised his hammer high, as if to strike me; and I felt then that if +I had taken my eyes from Jim's for the briefest flash of time, my last +minute on earth would have arrived. +</P> + +<P> +With an oath,—the first I ever heard him utter,—he cast the hammer +from him, sending it clattering into a corner among the old horse shoes. +</P> + +<P> +"Damn you,—I hate you and all your cursed aristocratic breed," he +snarled. And, with the spring of a tiger, he had me by the throat, +with those great, grabbing hands of his, his fingers closing cruelly on +my windpipe as he tried to shake the life out of me. +</P> + +<P> +I had always been able to account for Jim when it came to fisticuffs, +but never at close quarters. This time, his attack was violent as it +was unexpected. I did not have the ghost of a chance. I staggered +back against the furnace wall, still in his devilish clutch. Not a +gasp of air entered or left my body from the moment he clutched me. +</P> + +<P> +He shook me as a terrier does a rat. +</P> + +<P> +Soon my strength began to go; my eyes bulged; my head felt as if it +were bursting; dancing lights and awful darknesses flashed and loomed +alternately before and around me. Then the lights became scarcer and +the darknesses longer and more intense. As the last glimmer of +consciousness was leaving me, when black gloom had won and there was no +more light, I felt a sudden release, painful and almost unwelcome to +the oblivion to which I had been hurling. The lights came flashing +back to me again and out of the whirling chaos I began to grasp the +tangible once more. As I leaned against the side of the furnace, +pulling at my throat where those terrible fingers had +been,—gasping,—gasping,—for glorious life-giving, life-sustaining +air, I gradually began to see as through a haze. Before long, I was +almost myself again. +</P> + +<P> +Jim was standing a few paces away, his chest heaving, his shaggy head +bent and his great hands clenched against his thighs. +</P> + +<P> +I gazed at him, and as I gazed something wet glistened in his eyes, +rolled down his cheeks and splashed on the back of his hand, where it +dried up as if it had fallen on a red-hot plate. +</P> + +<P> +I took an unsteady step toward him and held out my hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Jim," I murmured, "my poor old Jim!" +</P> + +<P> +His head remained lowered. +</P> + +<P> +"Strike me," he groaned huskily. "For God's sake strike me, for the +coward I am!" +</P> + +<P> +"I want your hand, Jim," I answered. "Tell me what is wrong? What is +all this about?" +</P> + +<P> +At last he looked into my eyes. I could see a hundred conflicting +emotions working in his expressive face. +</P> + +<P> +"You would be friends after what I have done?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"I want your hand, Jim," I said again. +</P> + +<P> +In a moment, both his were clasped over mine, in his vicelike grip. +</P> + +<P> +"George,—George!" he cried. "We've always been friends,—chums. I +have always known you were not like the rest of them." +</P> + +<P> +He drew his forearm across his brow. "I am not myself, George. You'll +forgive me for what I did, won't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Man, Jim,—there is nothing done that requires forgiving;—only, you +have the devil's own grip. I don't suppose I shall be able to swallow +decently for a week. +</P> + +<P> +"But you are in trouble: what is it, Jim? Tell me; maybe I can help." +</P> + +<P> +"Ay,—it's trouble enough,—God forbid. It's Peggy, George,—my dear +little sister, Peggy, that has neither mother nor father to guide +her;—only me, and I'm a blind fool. Oh!—I can't speak about it. +Come over with me and see for yourself." +</P> + +<P> +I followed him slowly and silently out of the smithy, down the lane and +across the road to his little, rose-covered cottage. We went round to +the back of the house. Jim held up his hand for caution, as he peeped +in at the kitchen window. He turned to me again, and beckoned, his big +eyes blind with tears. +</P> + +<P> +"Look in there," he gulped. "That's my little sister, my little Peggy; +she who never has had a sorrow since mother left us. She's been like +that for four hours and she gets worse when I try to comfort her." +</P> + +<P> +I peered in. +</P> + +<P> +Peggy was sitting on the edge of a chair and bending across the table. +Her arms were spread out in front of her and her face was buried in +them. Her brown, curly hair rippled over her neck and shoulders like a +mountain stream. Great sobs seemed to be shaking her supple body. I +listened, and my ears caught the sound of a breaking heart. There was +a fearful agony in her whole attitude. +</P> + +<P> +I turned away without speaking and followed Jim back to the smithy. +When we got there, something pierced me like a knife, although all was +not quite clear to my understanding. +</P> + +<P> +"Jim,—Jim," I cried, "surely you never fancied I—I was in any way to +blame for this. Why! Jim,—I don't even know yet what it is all +about." +</P> + +<P> +He laughed unpleasantly. "No, George, no!—Oh! I can't tell you. +Here——" +</P> + +<P> +He went to his coat which hung from a hook in the wall. He pulled a +letter from his inside pocket. "Read that," he said. +</P> + +<P> +I unfolded the paper, as he stood watching me keenly. +</P> + +<P> +The note was in handwriting with which I was well familiar. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"My DEAR LITTLE PEGGY, +</P> + +<P> +I am very, very sorry,—but surely you know that what you ask is +impossible. I shall try to find time to run out and see you at the +usual place, Friday night at nine o'clock. Do not be afraid, little +woman; everything will come out all right. You know I shall see that +you are well looked after; that you do not want for anything. +</P> + +<P> +Burn this after you read it. Keep our secret, and bear up, like the +good little girl you are. Yours affectionately, +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +H——" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +As I read, my blood chilled in my veins, was,—there could be no +mistaking it. +</P> + +<P> +"My God! Jim," I cried, "this is terrible. Surely,—surely——" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! George," he said, in a tensely subdued voice, "your brother did +that. Your brother,—with his glib tongue and his masterful way. +Oh!—well I know the breed. They are to be found in high and low +places; they are generally not much for a man to look at, but they are +the kind no woman is safe beside; the kind that gets their soft side +whether they be angels or she-devils. Why couldn't he leave her alone? +Why couldn't he stay among his own kind? +</P> + +<P> +"And now, he has the gall to think that his accursed money can smooth +it over. Damn and curse him for what he is." +</P> + +<P> +I had little or nothing to say. My heart was too full for words and a +great anger was surging within me against my own flesh and blood. +</P> + +<P> +"Jim,—does this make any difference between you and me?" I asked, +crossing over to him on the spongy floor of hoof parings and steel +filings. "Does it, Jim?" +</P> + +<P> +He caught me by the shoulders, in his old, rough way, and looked into +my face. Then he smiled sadly and shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"No, George, no! You're different: you always were different; you are +the same straight, honest George Brammerton to me;—still the same." +</P> + +<P> +"Then, Jim, you will let me try to do something here? You will promise +me not to get into personal contact with Harry,—at least until I have +seen him and spoken with him. Not that he does not deserve a dog's +hiding, but I should like to see him and talk with him first." +</P> + +<P> +"Why should I promise that?" he asked sharply. +</P> + +<P> +"For one thing,—because, doubtless, Harry is home now. And again, +there is going to be a week-end House Party at our place. Harry's +engagement of marriage with Lady Rosemary Granton is to be announced; +and Lady Rosemary will be there. +</P> + +<P> +"It would only mean trouble for you, Jim;—and, God knows, this is +trouble enough." +</P> + +<P> +"What do I care for trouble?" he cried defiantly. "What trouble can +make me more unhappy than I now am?" +</P> + +<P> +"You must avoid further trouble for Peggy's sake," I interposed. +"Jim,—let me see Harry first. Do what you like afterwards. Promise +me, Jim." +</P> + +<P> +He swallowed his anger. +</P> + +<P> +"God!—it will be a hard promise to keep if ever I come across him. +But I do promise, just because I like you, George, as I hate him." +</P> + +<P> +"May I keep this meantime?" I asked, holding up Harry's letter to Peggy. +</P> + +<P> +"No! Give it to me. I might need it." +</P> + +<P> +"But I might find greater use for it, Jim. Won't you let me have it, +for a time at least?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! all right, all right," he answered, spreading his hands over his +leather apron. +</P> + +<P> +I left him there amid the roar of the fire and the odour of sizzling +hoofs, and wended my way slowly up the dust-laden hill, back home, +having forgotten entirely, in the great sorrow that had fallen, to tell +Jim my object in calling on him that day. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Viscount Harry, Captain of the Guards +</H4> + +<P> +On nearing home, I noticed the "Flying Dandy," Harry's favourite horse, +standing at the front entrance in charge of a groom. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Wally," I shouted in response to the groom's salute and broad +grin. "Is Captain Harry home?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir! Three hours agone, sir. 'E's just agoing for a canter, +sir, for the good of 'is 'ealth." +</P> + +<P> +I went inside. +</P> + +<P> +"Hi! William," I cried to the retreating figure of our portly and +aristocratic butler. "Where's Harry?" +</P> + +<P> +"Captain Harry, sir, is in the armoury. Any message, sir?" +</P> + +<P> +"No! it is all right, William. I shall go along in and see him." +</P> + +<P> +I went down the corridor, to the most ancient part of Hazelmere House; +the old armoury, with its iron-studded oaken doors and its suggestion +of spooks and goblins. I pushed in to that sombre-looking place, which +held so many grim secrets of feudal times. How many drinking orgies +and all-night card parties had been held within its portals, I dared +not endeavour to surmise. As to how many plots had been hatched behind +its studded doors, how many affairs of honour had been settled for all +time under its high-panelled roof,—there was only a meagre record; but +those we knew of had been bloody and not a few. +</P> + +<P> +Figures, in suits of armour, stood in every corner; two-edged swords, +shields of brass and cowhide, blunderbusses and breech-loading pistols +hung from the walls, while the more modern rifles and fowling pieces +were ranged in orderly fashion along the far side. +</P> + +<P> +The light was none too good in there, and I failed, at first, to +discover the object of my quest. +</P> + +<P> +"How do, farmer Giles?" came that slow, drawling, sarcastic voice which +I knew so well. +</P> + +<P> +I turned suddenly, and,—there he was, seated on a brass-studded oak +chest almost behind the heavy door, swinging one leg and toying with a +seventeenth century rapier. Through his narrow-slitted eyes, he was +examining me from top to toe in apparent disgust: tall, thin, perfectly +groomed, handsome, cynical, devil-may-care. +</P> + +<P> +I tried to speak calmly, but my anger was greater than I could properly +control. Poor little Peggy Darrol was uppermost in my thoughts. +</P> + +<P> +"'Gad, George,—you look like a tramp. Why don't you spruce up a bit? +Hobnailed boots, home-spun breeches; ugh! it's enough to make your +noble ancestors turn in their coffins and groan. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you know the Brammerton motto is, 'Clean,—within and without.'" +</P> + +<P> +He bent the blade of his rapier until it formed a half hoop, then he +let it fly back with a twang. +</P> + +<P> +"And some of us have degenerated so," I answered, "that we apply the +motto only in so far as it affects the outside." +</P> + +<P> +"While some of us, of course, are so busy scrubbing and polishing at +our inwards," he put in, "that we have no time to devote to the parts +that are seen. But that seems to me deuced like cant; and a cheap +variety of it at that. +</P> + +<P> +"So you have taken to preaching, as well as farming. Fine combination, +little brother! However, George,—dear boy,—we shall let it go at +that. There is something you are anxious to unload. Get it out of +your system, man." +</P> + +<P> +"I have just been hearing that you are going to marry Lady Rosemary +Granton soon." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, yes! of course. You may congratulate me, for I have that +distinguished honour," he drawled. +</P> + +<P> +"And you <I>do</I> consider it an honour?" I asked, pushing my hands deep +into my pockets and spreading my legs. +</P> + +<P> +He leaned back and surveyed me tolerantly. +</P> + +<P> +"'Gad!—that's a beastly impertinent question, George. Why shouldn't +it be an honour, when every gentleman in London will be biting his +finger-tips with envy?" +</P> + +<P> +I nodded and went on. +</P> + +<P> +"You consider also that she will be honoured in marrying a Brammerton?" +</P> + +<P> +"Look here," he answered, a little irritated, "what's all this damned +catechising for?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am simply asking questions, Harry; taking liberties seeing I am a +Brammerton and your little brother," I retorted calmly. +</P> + +<P> +"And nasty questions they are, too;—but, by Jove! since you ask, and, +as I am a Brammerton, and it is I she is going to marry,—why! I +consider she <I>is</I> honoured. The honour will be,—ah! on both sides, +George. Now,—dear fellow,—don't worry about my feelings. If you +have anything more to ask, why! shoot it over, now that I am in the +mood for answering," he continued dryly. "I have a hide like a rhino'." +</P> + +<P> +I looked him over coldly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Harry,—Lady Rosemary <I>will</I> come to you as a Granton, fulfilling +the pledge made by her father. She will come to you with her honour +bright and unsullied." +</P> + +<P> +He bent forward and frowned at me. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you doubt it?" he shot across. +</P> + +<P> +I shook my head. "No!" +</P> + +<P> +He resumed his old position. +</P> + +<P> +"Glad to hear you say so. Now,—what else? Blest if this doesn't make +me feel quite a devil, to be lectured and questioned by my young +brother,—my own, dear, little, preaching, farmer, kid of a brother." +</P> + +<P> +"You will go to her a Brammerton, fulfilling the vow made by a +Brammerton, with a Brammerton's honour, unstained, +unblemished,—'Clean,—within and without'?" +</P> + +<P> +He rose slowly from the chest and faced me squarely. +</P> + +<P> +There was nothing of the coward in Harry. +</P> + +<P> +His eye glistened with a cruel light. "Have a care, little brother," +he said between his regular, white teeth. "Have a care." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Harry," I remonstrated in feigned surprise, "what's the matter? +What have I said amiss?" +</P> + +<P> +He had always played the big, patronising, bossing brother with me and +I had suffered it from him, although, from a physical standpoint, the +suffering of late had been one of good-natured tolerance. To-day, +there was something in my manner that told him he had reached the end +of it. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me what you mean?" he snarled. +</P> + +<P> +"If you do not know what I mean, brother mine, sit down and I will tell +you." +</P> + +<P> +"No!" he answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well!—I'll tell you anyway." +</P> + +<P> +I went up close to him. "What are you going to do about Peggy Darrol?" +I demanded. +</P> + +<P> +The shot hit hard; but he was almost equal to it. He sat down on the +chest again and toyed once more with the point of the rapier. Then, +without looking up, he answered: +</P> + +<P> +"Peggy Darrol,—eh, George! Peggy Darrol, did you say? Who the devil +is she? Oh,—ah,—eh,—oh, yes! the blacksmith's sister,—um,—nice +little wench, Peggy:—attractive, fresh, clinging, strawberries and +cream and all that sort of thing. Bit of a dreamer, though!" +</P> + +<P> +"Who set her dreaming?" I asked, pushing my anger back. +</P> + +<P> +"Hanged if I know; born in her I suppose. It is part of every woman's +make-up. Pretty little thing, though; by Gad! she is." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! she is pretty; and she was good as she is pretty until she got +tangled up with you." +</P> + +<P> +Harry sprang up and menaced me. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean, you,—you?—— What are you driving at? What's +your game?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! give over this rotten hypocrisy," I shouted, pushing him back. +"Hit you on the raw, did it?" +</P> + +<P> +He drew himself up. +</P> + +<P> +"No! it didn't. But I have had more than enough of your impertinences. +I would box your ears for the unlicked pup you are, if I could do it +without soiling my palms." +</P> + +<P> +I smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"Those days are gone, Harry,—and you know it, too. Let us cut this +evasion and tom-foolery. You have got that poor girl into a scrape. +What are you going to do about getting her out of it?" +</P> + +<P> +"<I>I</I> have got her into trouble? How do you know <I>I</I> have? Her word +for it, I suppose? A fine state of affairs it has come to, when any +girl who gets into trouble with her clod-hopper sweetheart, has simply +to accuse some one in a higher station than she, to have all her +troubles ended." +</P> + +<P> +He flicked some dust from his coat-sleeve. "'Gad,—we fellows would +never be out of the soup." +</P> + +<P> +"No! not her word," I retorted. "Little Peggy Darrol is not that sort +of girl and well you know it. I have your own word for it,—in +writing." +</P> + +<P> +His face underwent a change in expression; his cheeks paled slightly. +</P> + +<P> +I drew his letter from my pocket. +</P> + +<P> +"Damn her for a little fool," he growled. He held out his hand for it. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no! Harry,—I am keeping this meantime." And I replaced it. +"Tell me now,—what are you going to do about Peggy?" I asked +relentlessly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" he replied easily, "don't worry. I shall have her properly +looked after. She needn't fear. Probably I shall make a settlement on +her; although the little idiot hardly deserves that much after giving +the show away as she has done." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course, you will tell Lady Rosemary of this before any announcement +is made of your marriage, Harry? A Brammerton must, in all things, be +honourable, 'Clean,—within and without.'" +</P> + +<P> +He looked at me incredulously, and smiled almost in pity for me and my +strange ideas. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly not! What do you take me for? What do you think Lady +Rosemary is that I should trouble her with these petty matters?" +</P> + +<P> +"Petty matters," I cried. "You call this petty? God forgive you, +Harry. Petty! and that poor girl crying her heart out; her whole +innocent life blasted; her future a disgrace! Petty!—my God!;—and +you a Brammerton! +</P> + +<P> +"But I tell you," I blazed, "you shall let Lady Rosemary know." +</P> + +<P> +"And I tell you,—I shall not," he replied. +</P> + +<P> +"Then, by God!—I'll do it myself," I retorted. "I give you two hours +to decide which of us it is to be." +</P> + +<P> +I made toward the door. But Harry sprang for his rapier, picked it up +and stood with his back against my exit, the point of his weapon to my +breast. +</P> + +<P> +There was a wicked gleam in his narrow eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Damn you! George Brammerton, for a sneaking, prying, tale-bearing +lout;—you dare not do it!" +</P> + +<P> +He took a step forward. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, sir,—I will trouble you for that letter." +</P> + +<P> +I looked at him in astonishment. There was a strange something in his +eyes I had never seen there before; a mad, irresponsible something that +cared not for consequences; a something that makes heroes of some men +and murderers of others. I stood motionless. +</P> + +<P> +Slowly he pushed the point of his rapier through my coat-sleeve. It +pricked into my arm and I felt a few drops of warm blood trickle. I +did not wince. +</P> + +<P> +"Stop this infernal fooling," I cried angrily. +</P> + +<P> +He bent forward, in the attitude of fence with which he was so familiar. +</P> + +<P> +"Fooling, did you say? 'Gad! then, is this fooling?" +</P> + +<P> +He turned the rapier against my breast, ripping my shirt and lancing my +flesh to the bone. I staggered back with a gasp. +</P> + +<P> +It was the act of a madman; and I knew in that moment that I was face +to face with death by violence for the second time in a few hours. I +slowly backed from him, but he followed me, step for step, +</P> + +<P> +As I came up against and sought the wall behind me for support, my hand +came in contact with something hard. I closed my fingers over it. It +was the handle of an old highland broadsword and the feel of it was not +unpleasant. It lent a fresh flow to my blood. I tore the sword from +its fastenings, and, in a second, I was standing facing my brother on a +more equal, on a more satisfactory footing, determined to defend +myself, blow for blow, against his inhuman, insane conduct. +</P> + +<P> +"Ho! ho!" he yelled. "A duel in the twentieth century. 'Gad! wouldn't +this set London by the ears? The Corsican Brothers over again! +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, with your battle-axe, farmer Giles, Let's see what stuff +you're made of—blood or sawdust." +</P> + +<P> +Twice he thrust at me and twice I barely avoided his dextrous +onslaughts. I parried as he thrust, not daring to venture a return. +Our strange weapons rang out and re-echoed, time and again, in the +dread stillness of the isolated armoury. +</P> + +<P> +My left arm was smarting from the first wound I had received, and a few +drops of blood trickled down over the back of my hand, splashing on the +floor. +</P> + +<P> +"You bleed!—just like a human being, George. Who would have thought +it?" gloated Harry with a taunt. +</P> + +<P> +He came at me again. +</P> + +<P> +My broadsword was heavy and, to me, unwieldy, while Harry's rapier was +light and pliable. I could tell that there could be only one ending, +if the unequal contest were prolonged,—I would be wounded badly, or +killed outright. At that moment, I had no very special desire for +either happening. +</P> + +<P> +Harry turned and twisted his weapon with the clever wrist movement for +which he was famous in every fencing club in Britain; and every time I +wielded my heavy weapon to meet his light one I thought I should never +be in time to meet his counter-stroke, his recovery was so very much +quicker than mine. +</P> + +<P> +He played with me thus for a time which seemed an eternity. My breath +began to come in great gasps. Suddenly he lunged at me with all his +strength, throwing the full weight of his body recklessly behind his +stroke, so sure was he, evidently, that it would find its mark. I +sprang aside just in time, bringing my broadsword down on his rapier +and sending six inches of the point of it clattering to the floor. +</P> + +<P> +"Damn the thing!" he blustered, taking a firmer grip of what steel +remained in his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Aren't you satisfied? Won't you stop this madness?" I panted, my +voice sounding loud and hollow in the stillness around us. +</P> + +<P> +For answer he grazed my cheek with his jagged steel, letting a little +more blood and hurting sufficiently to cause me to wince. +</P> + +<P> +"Got you again, you see," he chuckled, pushing up his sleeves and +pulling his tie straight. "George, dear boy, I'll have you in +mincemeat before I get at any of your well-covered vitals." +</P> + +<P> +A blind fury seized me. I drove in on him. He turned me aside with a +grin and thrust heavily at me in return. I darted to the left, making +no endeavour to push aside his weapon with my own but relying only on +the agility of my body. With an oath, he floundered forward, and +before he could recover I brought the flat of my heavy broadsword +crashing down on the top of his head. His arm went up with a nervous +jerk and his rapier flew from his hand, shattering against a high +window and sending the broken glass rattling on to the cement walk +below. +</P> + +<P> +Harry sagged to the floor like a sack of flour and lay motionless on +his face, his arms and legs spread out like a spider's. +</P> + +<P> +I was bending down to turn him over, when I heard my father's voice on +the other side of the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Stand back! I'll see to this," he cried, evidently addressing the +frightened servants. +</P> + +<P> +I turned round. The door swung on its immense hinges and my father +stood there, with staring eyes and pallid face, taking in the situation +deliberately, looking from me to Harry's inert body beside which I +knelt. Slowly he came into the centre of the room. +</P> + +<P> +Full of anxiety, I looked at him. But there was no opening in that +stern, old face for any explanations. He did not assail me with a +torrent of words nor did he burst into a paroxysm of grief and anger. +His every action was calculated, methodical, remorseless. +</P> + +<P> +He turned to the open door. +</P> + +<P> +"Go!" he commanded sternly. "Leave us,—leave Brammerton. I never +wish to see you again. You are no son of mine." +</P> + +<P> +His words seared into me. I held out my hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Go!" he repeated quietly, but, if anything, more firmly. +</P> + +<P> +"Good God! father,—won't you hear what I have to say in explanation?" +I cried in vexatious desperation. +</P> + +<P> +He did not answer me except with his eyes—those eyes which could say +so much. +</P> + +<P> +My anger was still hot within me. My inborn sense of fairness deeply +resented this conviction on less than even circumstantial evidence; +and, at the back of all that, I,—as well as he, as well as Harry,—was +a Brammerton, with a Brammerton's temperament. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean this, father?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Go!" he reiterated. "I have nothing more to say to such an unnatural +son, such an unnatural brother as you are." +</P> + +<P> +I bowed, pulled my jacket together with a shrug and buttoned it up. +After all,—what mattered it? I was in the right and I knew it. +</P> + +<P> +"All right, father! Some day, I know you will be sorry." +</P> + +<P> +I turned on my heel and left the armoury. +</P> + +<P> +The servants were clustering at the end of the corridor, with +frightened eyes and pale faces. They opened up and shuffled uneasily +as I passed through. +</P> + +<P> +"William," I said to the butler, "you had better go in there. You may +be needed." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir! yes, sir!" he answered, and hurried to obey. +</P> + +<P> +Upstairs, in my own room, my knapsack was lying in a corner, ready for +my proposed week-end tour. Beside it, stood my golf clubs. These will +do, I found myself thinking: a knapsack with a change of linen and a +bag of golf clubs,—not a bad outfit to start life with. +</P> + +<P> +I opened my purse:—fifty pounds and a few shillings. Not much, but +enough! In fact, nothing would have been plenty. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly I remembered that, before I went, I had a duty to perform. +From my inside pocket, I took the letter which Harry had written to +little, forlorn Peggy Darrol. I went to my writing desk and addressed +an envelope to Lady Rosemary Granton. I inserted Harry's letter and +sealed the envelope. As to the bearer of my message, that was easy. I +pushed the button at my bedside and, in a second, sweet little Maisie +Brant came to the door. +</P> + +<P> +Maisie always had been my special favourite, and, on account of my +having pulled her out of the river when she was only seven years old, I +was hers. She had never forgotten. I cried to her in an easy, +bantering way in order to reassure her. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Neat little Maisie, sweet little Maisie;<BR> +Only fifteen and as fresh as a Daisy."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +She smiled, but behind her smile was a look of concern. +</P> + +<P> +"I am going away, Maisie," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"Going away, sir?" she repeated anxiously, as she came bashfully +forward. +</P> + +<P> +"I won't be back again, Maisie. I am going for good." +</P> + +<P> +She looked up at me in dumb disquiet. +</P> + +<P> +"Maisie, Lady Rosemary Granton will be here this week-end." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir!" she answered. "I am to have the honour of looking after +her rooms." +</P> + +<P> +I laid my hand gently on her shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"I want you to do something for me, Maisie. I want you to give her +this letter,—see that she gets it when she is alone. It is more +important to her than you can ever dream of. She must have it within a +few hours of her arrival. No one else must set eyes on it between now +and then. Do you understand, Maisie?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, sir! You can trust me for that." +</P> + +<P> +"I know I can, Maisie. You are a good girl." +</P> + +<P> +I gave her the letter and she placed it in the safest, the most secret, +place she knew,—her bosom. Then her eyes scanned me over. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! sir," she cried, in sudden alarm, "you are hurt. You are +bleeding." +</P> + +<P> +I put my hand to my cheek, but then I remembered I had already wiped +away the few drops of blood from there with my handkerchief. +</P> + +<P> +"Your arm, sir," she pointed. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!—just a scratch, Maisie." +</P> + +<P> +"Won't you let me bind it for you, sir, before you go?" she pleaded. +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't worth the trouble, Maisie." +</P> + +<P> +Tears came to those pretty eyes of hers; so, to please her, I consented. +</P> + +<P> +"All right," I cried, "but hurry, for I have no more business in here +now than a thief would have." +</P> + +<P> +She did not understand my meaning, but she left me and was back in a +moment with a basin of hot water, a sponge, balsam and bandages. +</P> + +<P> +I slipped off my coat and rolled up my sleeve, then, as Maisie's gentle +fingers sponged away the congealed blood and soothed the throb, I began +to discover, from the intense relief, how painful had been the hurt, +mere superficial thing as it was. +</P> + +<P> +She poured on some balsam and bound up the cut; all gentleness, all +tenderness, like a mother over her babe. +</P> + +<P> +"There is a little jag here, Maisie, that aches outrageously now that +the other has been lulled to sleep." I pointed to my breast. +</P> + +<P> +She undid my shirt, and, as she surveyed the damage, she cried out in +anxiety. +</P> + +<P> +It was a raw, jagged, angry-looking wound, but nothing to occasion +concern. +</P> + +<P> +She dealt with it as she had done the other, then she drew the edges of +the cut together, binding them in place with strips of sticking +plaster. When it was all over, I slipped into my jacket, swung my +knapsack across my shoulders, took my golf-bag under my left arm,—and +I was ready. +</P> + +<P> +Maisie wiped her eyes with the corner of her apron. +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind, little woman," I sympathised. +</P> + +<P> +"Must you really go away, sir?" she sobbed. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!—I must. Good-bye, little girl." +</P> + +<P> +I kissed her on the trembling curve of her red, pouting lips, then I +went down the stairs, leaving her weeping quietly on the landing. +</P> + +<P> +As I turned at the front door for one last look at the inside of the +old home, which I might never see again, I saw the servants carrying +Harry from the armoury. I could hear his voice swearing and +complaining in almost healthy vigour, so I was pleasantly confirmed in +what I already had surmised,—his hurt was as temporary as the flat of +a good, trusty, highland broad-sword could make it. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Tommy Flynn, The Harlford Bruiser +</H4> + +<P> +I hurried down the avenue to where it joined the dusty roadway. +</P> + +<P> +I stood for a few moments in indecision. To my left, down in the +hollow, the way led through the village. To my right, it stretched far +on the level until it narrowed to a grey point piercing a semi-circle +of green; but I knew that miles beyond, at the end of that grey line, +was the busy town of Grangeborough, with its thronging people, its +railways and its steamships. That was the direction for me. +</P> + +<P> +I waved my hand to sleepy little Brammerton and I swung to the right, +for Grangeborough and the sea. +</P> + +<P> +Soon the internal tumult, caused by what I had just gone through, began +to subside, and my spirits rose attune to the glories of the afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +Little I cared what my lot was destined to be—a prince in a palace or +a tramp under a hedge. Although, to say truth, the tramp's existence +held for me the greater fascination. +</P> + +<P> +I was young, my lungs were sound and my heart beat well. I was big and +endowed with greater strength than is allotted the average man. +</P> + +<P> +Glad to be done with pomp, show and convention, my life was now my very +own to plan and make, or to warp and spoil, as fancy, fortune and fate +decreed. +</P> + +<P> +I hankered for the undisturbed quiet of some small village by the sea, +with work enough,—but no more,—to keep body nourished and covered; +with books in plenty and my pipe well filled; with an open door to +welcome the sunshine, the scented breeze, the salted spray from the +ocean and my congenial fellow-man. +</P> + +<P> +But, if I should be led in the paths of grubbing men, 'mid bustle, +strife and quarrel, where the strong and the crafty alone survived, +where the weaklings were thrust aside, I was ready and willing to take +my place, to take my chance, to pit brawn against brawn, brain against +brain, to strike blow for blow, to fail or to succeed, to live or die, +as the gods might decree. +</P> + +<P> +As I filled my lungs, I felt as if I had relieved myself of some great +burden in cutting myself adrift from Brammerton,—dear old spot as it +was. And I whistled and hummed as I trudged along, trying to reach the +point of grey at the rim of the semi-circle of green. On, on I went, +on my seemingly unending endeavour. But I knew that ultimately the +road would end, although merely to open up another and yet another path +over which I would have to travel in the long journey of life which lay +before me. +</P> + +<P> +As I kept on, I saw the sun go down in a display of blood-red +pyrotechnics. I heard the chatter of the birds in the hedgerows as +they settled to rest. Now and again, I passed a tired toiler, with +bent head and dragging feet,—his drudgery over for the day, but +weighted with the knowledge that it must begin all over again on the +morrow and on each succeeding morrow till the crash of his doom. +</P> + +<P> +The night breeze came up and darkness gathered round me. A few hours +more, and the twinkling lights of Grangeborough came into view. They +were welcome lights to me, for the pangs of a healthy hunger were +clamouring to be appeased. +</P> + +<P> +As it had been with the country some hours before, so was it now with +Grangeborough. The town was settling down for the night. It was late. +Most of the shops were closing, or already closed. Business was over +for the day. People hurried homeward like shadows. +</P> + +<P> +I looked about me for a place to dine, but failed, at first, in my +quest. Down toward the docks there were brighter lights and +correspondingly deeper darknesses. I went along a broad thoroughfare, +turned down a narrower one until I found myself among lanes and alleys, +jostled by drunken sailors and accosted by wanton women, as they +staggered, blinking, from the brightly lighted saloons. +</P> + +<P> +My finer sensibilities rose and protested within me, but I had no +choice. If I wished to quell my craving for food, there was nothing +left for me to do but to brave the foul air and the rough element of +one of these sawdust-floored, glass-ornamented whisky palaces, where a +snack and a glass of ale, at least, could be purchased. +</P> + +<P> +I looked about me and pushed into what seemed the least disreputable +one of its kind. I made through the haze of foul air and tobacco smoke +to the counter, and stood idly by until the bar-tender should find it +convenient to wait upon me. +</P> + +<P> +The place was crowded with sea-faring men and the human sediment that +is found in and around the docks of all shipping cities; it resounded +with a babel of coarse, discordant voices. +</P> + +<P> +The greater part of this coterie was gathered round a huge individual, +with enormous hands and feet, a stubbly, blue chin,—set, round and +aggressive; a nose with a broken bridge spoiled the balance of his +podgy face. He had beady eyes and a big, ugly mouth with stained, +irregular teeth. From time to time, he laughed boisterously, and his +laugh had an echo of hell in it. +</P> + +<P> +He and his followers appeared to be enjoying some good joke. But +whenever he spoke every one else became silent. Each coarse jest he +mouthed was laughed at long and uproariously. He had a hold on his +fellows. Even I was fascinated; but it was by the great similarity of +some of the mannerisms of this uncouth man to those I had observed in +the lower brute creation. +</P> + +<P> +My attention was withdrawn from him, however, by the sound of the +rattling of tin cans in another corner which was partly partitioned +from the main bar-room. I followed the new sound. +</P> + +<P> +A tattered individual was seated there, his feet among a cluster of +pots and pans all strung together. His head was in his hands and his +red-bearded face was a study of dejection and misery. +</P> + +<P> +There was something strangely familiar in the appearance of the man. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly I remembered, and I laughed. +</P> + +<P> +I went over and sat down opposite him, setting my golf clubs by my +side. He ignored my arriving. That same old trick of his! +</P> + +<P> +"Donald,—Donald Robertson!" I exclaimed, laughing again. +</P> + +<P> +Still he did not look across. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly he spoke, and in a voice that knew neither hope nor gladness. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye laugh,—ye name me by my Christian name,—but ye don't say, +'Donald, will ye taste?'" +</P> + +<P> +I leaned over and pulled his hands away from his head. He flopped +forward, then glared at me. His eyes opened wide. +</P> + +<P> +"It's,—it's you,—is it? The second son come to me in my hour o' +trial." +</P> + +<P> +"Why! Donald,—what's the trouble?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Trouble,—ye may well say trouble. Have ye mind o' the sixpence ye +gied me on the roadside this mornin'." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!" +</P> + +<P> +"For thirteen long, unlucky hours I saved that six-pence against my +time o' need. I tied it in the tail o' my sark for safety. I came in +here an hour ago. I ordered a glass o' whisky and a tumbler o' beer. +I sat doon here for a while wi' them both before me, enjoying the sight +o' them and indulgin' in the heavenly joy o' anteecipation. Then I +drank the speerits and was just settlin' doon to the beer,—tryin' to +make it spin oot as long as I could; for, ye ken, it's comfortable in +here,—when an emissary o' the deevil, wi' hands like shovels and a +leer in his e'e, came in and picked up the tumbler frae under my very +nose and swallowed the balance o' your six-pence before I could say +squeak." +</P> + +<P> +I laughed at Donald's rueful countenance and his more than rueful tale. +</P> + +<P> +"Did the man have a broken nose and a heavy jaw?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Ay, ay!" said Donald, lowering his voice. "Do ye happen to ken him?" +</P> + +<P> +"No!—but he is still out there and he thinks it a fine joke that he +played on you." +</P> + +<P> +"So would I," said Donald, "if I had drunk his beer." +</P> + +<P> +"What did you do when he swallowed off your drink?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Do!—what do ye think I did? I remonstrated wi' a' the vehemence that +a Struan Robertson in anger is capable o'. But the vehemence o' the +Lord himsel' couldna bring the beer back." +</P> + +<P> +"Why didn't you fight, man? Why didn't you knock the bully down?" I +asked, pitying his wobegone appearance. +</P> + +<P> +"Mister,—whatever your name is,—I'm a man o' peace; and, forby I'm +auld enough to ken it's no' wise to fight on an empty stomach. I +havena had a bite since I saw ye last." +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind, Donald,—cheer up. I am going to have some bread and +cheese, and a glass of ale, so you can have some with me, at my +expense." +</P> + +<P> +His face lit up like a Roman candle. +</P> + +<P> +"Man,—I'm wi' ye. You're a man o' substance, and I'm fonder o' +substantial bread and cheese and beer than I am o' the metapheesical +drinks I was indulgin' in for ten minutes before ye so providentially +came." +</P> + +<P> +I could not help wondering at some of the remarks of this wise, yet +good-for-little, old customer; but I did not press him for more +enlightenment. +</P> + +<P> +I thumped the hand-bell on the table, and was successful in obtaining +more prompt attention from the bar-tender than I had been able to do +across the counter. +</P> + +<P> +When the food and drink were placed between us and paid for, Donald +stuffed all but one slice of his bread and cheese inside his waistcoat, +and he sighed contentedly as he contemplated the sparkling ale. +</P> + +<P> +But, all at once, he startled me by springing to his feet, seizing his +tumbler in his hand and emptying the contents down his gullet at two +monstrous gulps. +</P> + +<P> +"No, no!—ye thievin' deevil," he shouted, as he regained his breath, +"ye canna do that twice wi' Donald Robertson." +</P> + +<P> +I looked toward the opening in the partition. Donald's recent +enemy,—the man whom I had been studying at the other end of the +bar-room,—was shouldering himself into our company. Behind him, in a +semi-circle, a dozen faces grinned in anticipation of some more fun at +Donald's expense. +</P> + +<P> +The big bully glared down at me as I sat. +</P> + +<P> +"That there is uncommon good beer, young un," he growled, "and that +there is most uncommon good bread and cheese." +</P> + +<P> +I glanced at him with half-shut eyelids, then I broke off another piece +of bread. +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe you didn't 'ear me?" he shouted again, "I said that was uncommon +good beer." +</P> + +<P> +"I shall be better able to judge of that, my man, after I have tasted +it," I replied. +</P> + +<P> +"Not that beer, little boy,—you ain't going to taste that," he +thundered, "because I 'appens to want it,—see! I 'appens to 'ave a +most aggrawating thirst in my gargler." +</P> + +<P> +A burst of laughter followed this ponderous attempt at humour. +</P> + +<P> +"'And it over, sonny,—I wants it." +</P> + +<P> +I merely raised my head and ran my eyes over him. +</P> + +<P> +He was an ugly brute, and no mistake. A man of tremendous girth. +</P> + +<P> +Although I had no real fear of him,—for, already I had been schooled +to the knowledge that fear and its twin brother worry are man's worst +opponents.—I was a little uncertain as to what the outcome would be if +I got him thoroughly angered. However, I was in no mind to be +interfered with. +</P> + +<P> +He thumped his heavy fist on the table. +</P> + +<P> +"'And that over,—quick," he roared. +</P> + +<P> +His great jaws clamped together and his thick, discoloured lips became +compressed. +</P> + +<P> +"Why!—certainly, my friend," I remarked easily, rising with slow +deliberation. "Which will you have first:—the bread and cheese, or +the ale?" +</P> + +<P> +"'Twere the ale I arst and it's th' ale I wants,—and blamed quick +about it or I'll know the reason w'y." +</P> + +<P> +"Stupid of me!" I remarked. "I should have known you wanted the ale +first. Here you are, my good, genial, handsome fellow." +</P> + +<P> +I picked up the foaming tumbler and offered it to him. When he +stretched out his great, grimy paw to take it, I tossed the stuff smack +into his face, sending showers of the liquid into the gaping +countenances of his supporters. +</P> + +<P> +He staggered back among them, momentarily blinded, and, as he +staggered, I sent the tumbler on the same errand as the ale. It +smashed in a hundred pieces on the side of his broken nose, opening up +an old gash there and sending a stream of blood oozing down over his +mouth. +</P> + +<P> +There was no more laughter, nor grinning. The place was as quiet as a +church during prayer. I pushed into the open saloon, with the +remonstrating Donald at my heels. Then the bull began to roar. He +pulled off his coat, while half a dozen of his own kind endeavoured +with dirty handkerchiefs and rags to mop the blood from his face. +</P> + +<P> +"Shut the door. Don't let 'im away from 'ere," he shouted. "I'll push +his windpipe into his boots, I will. Watch me!" +</P> + +<P> +As I stood with my back against the partition, the bar-tender slipped +round the end of the counter. +</P> + +<P> +"Look here, guv'nor," he whispered with good intent, "the back door's +open,—run like the devil." +</P> + +<P> +I turned to him in mild surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be an ijit," he went on. "Git. Why! he's Tommy Flynn, the +champion rib cracker and face pusher of Harlford, here on his holidays." +</P> + +<P> +"Tommy Flynn," I answered, "Tommy Rot fits him better." +</P> + +<P> +"You ain't a-going to stand up and get hit, are you?" +</P> + +<P> +"What else is there for me to do?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +He threw up his arms despairingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Lor' lumme!—then I bids you good-bye and washes my hands clean of +you." And he went round behind the counter in disgust, spitting among +the sawdust. +</P> + +<P> +By this time, Tommy Flynn, the champion rib cracker and face pusher, +was rolling up his sleeves businesslike and thrusting off his numerous +seconds in his anxiety to get at me. +</P> + +<P> +"'Ere, Splotch," he cried to a one-eyed bosom friend of his, "'old my +watch, while I joggles the puddins out of this kid with a left 'ander. +My heye!—'e won't be no blooming golfing swell in another 'alf minute." +</P> + +<P> +He grinned at me a few times in order to hypnotise me with his beauty +and to instil in me the necessary amount of frightfulness, before he +got to work in earnest. Then, by way of invitation, he thrust forward +his jaw almost into my face. I took advantage of his offer somewhat +more quickly than he anticipated. I struck him on the chin with my +left and drew my right to his body. But his chin was hard as flint and +it bruised my knuckles; while his great body was podgy and of an +india-rubberlike flexibility. +</P> + +<P> +For my pains, he brushed my ear and drew a little blood, with the grin +of an ape on his brutish face. +</P> + +<P> +He threw up his arms to guard, feinted at me, and rushed in. +</P> + +<P> +I parried his blows successfully, much to his surprise, for I could see +his eyes widening and a wrinkle in his brow. +</P> + +<P> +"Careful, Tommy!—careful," cautioned Splotch of the one eye. "He's a +likely looking young bloke." +</P> + +<P> +"Likely be blowed," said Tommy shortly, as he toyed with me. "Watch +this!" +</P> + +<P> +I saw that it would be for my own good, the less I let my antagonist +know of my ability at his own game, and I knew also I would have to +play caution with my strength all the way, owing to the trying ordeals +I had already gone through that day. +</P> + +<P> +Once, my antagonist tried to draw me as he would draw a novice. I +ignored the body bait he opened up for me and, instead, I swung in +quickly with my right on to his bruised nose, with all the energy I +could muster. He staggered and reeled like a drunken man. In fact, +had he not been half-besotted by dear-only-knows how many days of +debauchery, it might have gone hard with me, but now he positively +howled with pain. +</P> + +<P> +I had hit on his most vulnerable part, right at the beginning. +</P> + +<P> +Something inside of me chuckled, for, if there was one special place in +any man's anatomy that I always had been able to reach, it was his nose. +</P> + +<P> +Flynn rushed on me again and again. I was lucky indeed in beating back +his onslaughts. +</P> + +<P> +Once, a spent blow got me on the cheek; yet, spent as it was, it made +me numb and dizzy for the moment. Once, he caught me squarely on the +chest right over the wound my brother had given me. The pain of that +was like the cut of a red-hot knife, but it passed quickly. I +staggered and reeled several times, as flashes of weakness seemed to +pass over me. I began to fear that my strength would give out. +</P> + +<P> +I pulled myself together with an effort. Then, +once,—twice,—thrice,—in a succession bewildering to myself, I +smashed that broken nose of Flynn's, sending him sick and wobbling +among his following. +</P> + +<P> +He became maddened with rage. His companions commenced to voice +cautions and instructions. He swore back at them in a muddy torrent of +abuse. +</P> + +<P> +Already, the fight was over;—I could feel it in my bones;—over, far +sooner and more satisfactory to me than I had expected. And, more by +good luck than by ability, I was, to all intents and purposes, +unscathed. +</P> + +<P> +Tommy Flynn could fight. But he was not the fighter he would have been +had he been away from drink and in strict training, as I was. It was +my good fortune to meet him when he was out of condition. He spat out +a mouthful of blood and returned to the conflict, defending his nose +with all the ferocity of a lioness defending her whelps. +</P> + +<P> +"Look out! Take care!" a timely voice whispered on my left. +</P> + +<P> +Something flashed in my opponent's hands in the gaslight. I backed to +the partition. We had a terrible mix-up just then. Blow and +counterblow rained. He broke down my guard once and drove with fierce +force for my face. I ducked, just in time, for he missed me by a mere +hair's-breadth. His fist smashed into a metal bolt in the woodwork. +Sparks flew and there was a loud ring of metal against metal. +</P> + +<P> +"You cowardly brute!" I shouted, breaking away as it dawned on me that +he had attacked me with heavy knuckle-dusters. My blood fairly danced +with madness. I sprang in on him in a positive frenzy. He became a +child in my hands. Never had I been roused as I was then. I struck +and struck again at his hideous face until it sagged away from me. +</P> + +<P> +He was blind with his own blood. I followed up, raining punch upon +punch,—pitilessly,—relentlessly. His feet slipped in the slither of +bloody sawdust. I struck again and he crashed to the floor, striking +his head against the iron pedestal of a round table in the corner. +</P> + +<P> +He lay all limp and senseless, with his mouth wide open and his breath +coming roaring and gurgling from his clotted throat. +</P> + +<P> +As his friends endeavoured to raise him, as I stood back against the +counter, panting, I heard a battering at the main door of the saloon +which had been closed at the commencement of the scuffle. +</P> + +<P> +"Here, sir,—quick!" cried the sympathetic bartender to me. "The cops! +Out the back door like hell!" +</P> + +<P> +I had no desire to be mixed up in a police affair, especially in the +company of such scum as I was then among. I picked up my golf bag and +swung my knapsack on to my back once more. Then I remembered about +Donald. I could not leave him. I searched in corners and under the +tables. He was nowhere in sight. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it the tinker?" asked the bar-tender excitedly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, yes!" +</P> + +<P> +"He's gone. He slunk out with his tin cans, through the back way, as +soon as you got started in this scrap." +</P> + +<P> +I did not wait for anything more, for some one was unlocking the front +door. I darted out the back exit and into the lane. Down the lane, in +the darkness, I tore like a hurricane, then along the waterfront until +there was a mile between me and the scene of my late encounter. +</P> + +<P> +I slowed up at a convenient horse-trough, splashed my hands and face in +the cooling water and adjusted my clothing as best I could, then I +strolled into the shipping shed, where stevedores and dock labourers +were busy, by electric light, completing the loading of a smart-looking +little cargo boat. +</P> + +<P> +A notion seized me. It was a coaster, so I knew I could not be going +very far away. +</P> + +<P> +I walked up the gang-plank, and aboard. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Aboard the Coaster +</H4> + +<P> +An ordinary seaman, then the second officer of the little steamer +passed me on the deck, but both were busy and paid no more attention to +my presence than if I had been one of themselves. +</P> + +<P> +I strolled down the narrow companionway, into a cosy, but somewhat +cramped, saloon. +</P> + +<P> +After standing for a time in the hope of seeing some signs of life, I +pushed open the door of a stateroom on the starboard side. The room +had two berths. I tossed my knapsack and clubs into the lower one. As +I turned to the door again, I espied a diminutive individual, no more +than four and a half feet tall,—or, as I should say, small,—in the +full, gold-braided uniform of a ship's chief steward. +</P> + +<P> +He was a queer-looking little customer, grizzled, weather-beaten and, +apparently, as hard as nails. He was absolutely self-possessed and, +despite his stature, there was "nothing small about him," as an +American friend of mine used to put it. +</P> + +<P> +He touched his cap, and smiled. His smile told me at once that he was +an Irishman, for only an Irishman could smile as he did. It was a +smile with a joke, a drink, a kiss and a touch of the devil himself in +it. +</P> + +<P> +"I saw ye come down, sor. Ye'll be makin' for Glasgow?" +</P> + +<P> +Glasgow! I cogitated, yes!—Glasgow as a starting point would suit me +as well as anywhere else. +</P> + +<P> +"Correct first guess," I answered. "But, tell me,—how did you know +that that was my destination?" +</P> + +<P> +He showed his teeth. +</P> + +<P> +"Och! because it's the only port we're callin' at, sor. Looks like a +fine trip north," he went on. "The weather's warm and there's just +enough breeze to make it lively. Nothin' like the sea, sor, for +keepin' the stomach swate and the mind up to the knocker." +</P> + +<P> +I yawned, for I was dog-weary. +</P> + +<P> +"When ye get to Glasgow, if ye are on the lookout for a place to +slape,—try Barney O'Toole's in Argyle Street. The place is nothin' to +look at, but it's a hummer inside, sor." +</P> + +<P> +I yawned drowsily once more, but the hint did not stop him. +</P> + +<P> +"If you'll excuse my inquisitiveness, sor,—or rather, what ye might +call my natural insight,—I judge you're on either a moighty short +tour, or a devil av a long one got up in a hurry." +</P> + +<P> +The little clatterbag's uncanny guessing harried me. +</P> + +<P> +"How do you arrive at your conclusions?" I asked, taking off my jacket +and hanging it up. +</P> + +<P> +"Och! shure it's by the size av your wardrobe. No man goes on a +well-planned, long trip with a knapsack and a bag av golfsticks." +</P> + +<P> +"Well,—it is likely to be long enough," I laughed ruefully. +</P> + +<P> +"Had a row with the old man and clearin' out?" he sympathised. "Well, +good luck to yer enterprise. I did the same meself when I was +thirteen; after gettin' a hidin' with a bit av harness for doin' +somethin' I never did at all. I've never seen the old man since and +never want to. Bad cess to him. +</P> + +<P> +"Would ye like a bite before ye turn in, sor? It's past supper-time, +but I can find ye a scrapin' av something." +</P> + +<P> +"A bite and a bath,—if I may?" I put in. "I'm sticky all over." +</P> + +<P> +"A bath! Right ye are. I knew ye was a toff the minute I clapped my +blinkers on ye." +</P> + +<P> +In ten minutes my talkative friend announced that my bath was in +readiness. For ten minutes more he rattled on to me at intervals, +through the bathroom door, poking into my past and arranging my future +like a clairvoyant. +</P> + +<P> +Notwithstanding, he had a nice, steaming-hot supper waiting for me when +I returned to my stateroom. +</P> + +<P> +As I fell-to, he stood by, enjoying the relish I displayed in the +appeasing of my hunger. +</P> + +<P> +"If I was a young fellow av your age, strong build and qualities, do ye +know where I would make for?" he ventured. +</P> + +<P> +"Where?" I asked, uninterestedly. +</P> + +<P> +He lowered his eyebrows. "Out West,—Canada," he said, with a decided +nod of his head. "And, the farther west the better. The Pacific Coast +has a climate like home, only better. For the main part, ye're away +from the long winters;—it's a new country;—a young man's +country:—it's wild and free:—and,—it's about as far away as ye can +get from—from,—the trouble ye're leavin' behind." +</P> + +<P> +I looked across at him. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! bhoy,—I've been there. I know what I'm talkin' about." +</P> + +<P> +He sighed. "But I'm gettin' old and I've been too long on the sea to +give it up." +</P> + +<P> +He pulled himself together suddenly. Owing to his stature, that was +not a very difficult task. +</P> + +<P> +"Man!—ye're tired. I'll be talkin' no more to you. Tumble in and +sleep till we get to Glasgow." +</P> + +<P> +As he cleared away the dishes, I approached him regarding my fare. +</P> + +<P> +"Look here, steward,—I had not time to book my berth or pay my +passage. What's the damage?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ten and six, sor, exclusive av meals," he answered, taking out his +ticket book in a business-like way. +</P> + +<P> +"What name, sor?" +</P> + +<P> +"Name!—oh, yes! name!" I stammered. "Why!—George Bremner." +</P> + +<P> +He looked at me and his face fell. I am sure his estimation of me fell +with it. I was almost sorry I had not obliged him by calling myself +Algernon something-or-other. +</P> + +<P> +I paid him. +</P> + +<P> +"When do you expect to arrive in Glasgow?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Eight o'clock to-morrow morning, sor. And," he added, "there's a boat +leaves for Canada to-morrow night." +</P> + +<P> +"The devil it does," I grunted. +</P> + +<P> +He gave me another of his infectious smiles. +</P> + +<P> +"Would ye like another bath in the mornin', sor, before breakfast?" he +inquired, as he was leaving. +</P> + +<P> +I could not bear to disappoint the little fellow any more. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," I replied. +</P> + +<P> +Quarter of an hour later, I was lying on my back in the upper berth, +gazing drowsily into the white-enamelled ceiling two feet overhead; +happy in the reborn sensations of cleanliness, relaxation and +satisfaction; loving my enemies as well, or almost as well, as I loved +my friends. I could not get the little steward's advice out of my +head. In a jumbled medley, "Out West,—out West,—out West," kept +floating before my brain. "The Pacific Coast.—Home climate, only +better.—A new country.—A young man's country.—Wild and free.—It's +about as far away as ye can get,—as ye can get,—can get,—can get." +</P> + +<P> +The rumbling of the cargo trucks, the hoarse "lower away" of the +quartermaster, the whirr of the steam winch and the lapping of the +water against the boat,—all intermingled, then died away and still +farther away, until only the quietest of these sounds remained,—the +lapping of the sea and "Canada,—Canada,—Canada." They kept up their +communications with me, sighing and singing, the merest murmurings of +the wind in a sea shell:—soothing accompaniments to my unremembered +dreams. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +K. B. Horsfal, Millionaire +</H4> + +<P> +When I awoke, the sun was streaming through the porthole upon my face. +It was early morning,—Saturday morning I remembered. +</P> + +<P> +From the thud, thud, of the engines and the steady rise and fall, I +knew we were still at sea. I stretched my limbs, feeling as a god must +feel balancing on the topmost point of a star; so refreshed, so +invigorated, so buoyant, so much in harmony with the rising sun and the +freshness of the early day, that, to be exact, I really had no feeling. +</P> + +<P> +I sprang to the floor of my cabin and dressed hurriedly in my anxiety +to be on deck; but, at the door, I encountered my little Irish steward. +He eyed me suspiciously, as if I had had intentions of evading my +morning ablution,—so I swallowed my impatience, grabbed a towel and +made leisurely for the bathroom, where I laved my face and hands in the +cold water, remained inside for a sufficiently respectable time, then +ran off the water and, finally, made my exit and clambered on deck. +</P> + +<P> +As I paced up and down, enjoying the beauties of the fast narrowing +firth, I no longer felt in doubt as to my ultimate destination. My +subconscious self, aided and abetted by the Irish steward, had already +decided that for me:—it was Canada, the West, the Pacific. +</P> + +<P> +Soon after I had breakfasted, we reached the Tail of the Bank, and so +impatient was I to be on my long journey that I bade good-bye to my +little Irishman at Greenock, leaving him grinning and happy in the +knowledge that I was taking his advice and was bound for the Pacific +Coast. +</P> + +<P> +In forty minutes more, I left the train at Glasgow and started in to a +hurried and moderate replenishing of my wardrobe, finishing up with the +purchase of a travelling bag, a good second-hand rifle and a little +ammunition. +</P> + +<P> +I dispensed with my knapsack by presenting it to a newsboy, who held it +up in disgust as if it had been a dead cat. Despite the fact that I +was now on my own resources and would have to work, nothing could +induce me to part with my golf clubs. They were old and valued +friends. Little did I imagine then how useful they would ultimately +prove. +</P> + +<P> +At the head office of the steamship company, I inquired as to the best +class of travelling when the traveller wished to combine cheapness with +rough comfort; and I was treated to the cheering news that there was a +rate war on between the rival Trans-Atlantic Steamship Companies and I +could purchase a second-cabin steamboat ticket for six pounds, while a +further eight pounds, thirteen shillings and four-pence would carry me +by Colonist, or third class, three thousand miles, from the East to the +Far West of Canada. +</P> + +<P> +I paid for my ticket and booked my berth then and there, counted out my +remaining wealth,—ten pounds and a few coppers,—and my destiny was +settled. +</P> + +<P> +With so much to tell of what befell me later, I have neither the time +nor the inclination to detail the pleasures and the discomforts of a +twelve days' trip by slow steamer across a storm-swept Atlantic, +battened down for days on end, like cattle in the hold of a +cross-channel tramp; of a six days' journey across prairie lands, in a +railway car with its dreadful monotony of unupholstered wooden seats +and sleeping boards, its stuffiness, its hourly disturbances in the +night-time in the shape of noisy conductors demanding tickets, incoming +and outgoing travellers and shrieking engines; its dollar meals in the +dining car, which I envied but could not afford; its well-nigh +unlightable cooking stoves and the canned beef and pork and beans with +which I had to regale myself en route. +</P> + +<P> +Jaded, travel-weary and grimy, I reached the end of my journey. It was +late in the evening. I tumbled out of the train and into the first +hotel bus that yawned for me, and not once did I look out of the window +to see what kind of a city I had arrived at. +</P> + +<P> +I came to myself at the entrance to a magnificent and palatial hotel; +too much so, by far, I fancied, for my scantily-filled purse. But I +was past the minding stage, and I knew I could always make a change on +the morrow, if so be it a change were necessary. +</P> + +<P> +And then I began to think,—what mattered it anyway? What were a few +paltry sovereigns between one and poverty? Comforting thought,—a man +could not have anything less than nothing. +</P> + +<P> +I registered, ordered a bath, a shave, a haircut, a jolly good supper +and a bed; and, oh! how I enjoyed them all! Surely this was the most +wonderful city in the world, for never did bath, or shave, or supper, +or bed feel so delicious as these did. +</P> + +<P> +I swooned away at last from sheer pleasure. +</P> + +<P> +The recuperative powers of youth are marvellously quick. I was up and +out to view the city almost as soon as the sun was touching the +snow-tipped tops of the magnificent mountain peaks which were miles +away yet seemed to stand sentinels at the end of the street down which +I walked. I was up and out long ere the sun had gilded the waters of +the broad inlet which separated Vancouver from its baby sister to the +north of it. +</P> + +<P> +The prospect pleased me; there was freedom in the air, expanse, +vastness, but,—it was still a city with a city's artifices and, +consequently, not what I was seeking. I desired the natural life; not +the roughness, the struggle, the matching of crafty wits, the throbbing +blood and the straining sinews,—but the solitude, the quiet, the +chance for thought and observation, the wilds, the woods and the sea. +</P> + +<P> +As I returned to breakfast, I wondered if I should find them,—and +where. +</P> + +<P> +In the dining-room, during the course of my breakfast,—the first real +breakfast I had partaken of in Canada,—my attention was diverted to a +tall, well-groomed, muscular-looking man, who sat at a table nearby. +He looked a considerable bit on the sunny side of fifty. He was clean +shaven, his hair was black tinged with grey, and his eyes were keen and +kindly. +</P> + +<P> +Every time I glanced in his direction, I found him looking over at me +in an amused sort of way. I began to wonder if I were making some +breach of Canadian etiquette of which I was ignorant. True, I had +eaten my porridge and cream without sprinkling the dish with a surface +of sugar as he had done; I had set aside the fried potatoes which had +been served to me with my bacon and eggs;—but these, surely, were +trivial things and of no interest to any one but myself. +</P> + +<P> +At last, he rose and walked out, sucking a wooden toothpick. With his +departure, I forgot his existence. +</P> + +<P> +After I had breakfasted, I sought the lounge room in order to have a +look at the morning paper and, if possible, determine what I was going +to do for a living and how I was going to get what I wanted to do. +</P> + +<P> +I was buried in the advertisements, when a genial voice with a nasal +intonation, at my elbow, unearthed me. +</P> + +<P> +It was my observer of the dining-room. He had seated himself in the +chair next to mine. +</P> + +<P> +"Say! young man,—you'll excuse me; but was it you I saw come in last +night with the bag of golf clubs?" +</P> + +<P> +I acknowledged the crime. +</P> + +<P> +He laughed good-naturedly. +</P> + +<P> +"Well,—you had courage anyway. To sport a golfing outfit here in the +West is like venturing out with breeches, a walking cane and a monocle. +Nobody but an Englishman would dare do it. Here, they think golf and +cricket should be bracketed along with hopscotch, dominoes and +tiddly-winks; just as I used to fancy baseball was a glorified kids' +game. I know better now." +</P> + +<P> +I looked at him rather darkly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!—it's all right, friend,—it takes a man to play baseball, same as +it takes a man to play golf and cricket. Golfing is about the only +vice I have left. Why, now I come to think of it, my wife clipped a +lot of my vices off years ago, and since that my daughter has succeeded +in knocking off all the others,—all but my cigars, my cocktails and my +golf. I'm just plumb crazy on the game and I play it whenever I can. +Maybe it's because I used to play it when I was a little chap, away +back in England years and years ago." +</P> + +<P> +"I am glad you like the game," I put in. "It is a favourite of mine." +</P> + +<P> +"I play quite a bit back home in Baltimore," he continued, "that's when +I'm there. My clubs arrived here by express yesterday. You see, it's +like this;—I'm off to Australia at the end of the week, on a business +trip,—that is, if I get things settled up here by that time. I am +crossing over from there to England, where I shall be for several +months. England is some place for golf, so I'm going to golf some, you +bet. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not boring you, young friend?" he asked suddenly. +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit," I laughed. "Go on,—I am as interested as can be." +</P> + +<P> +"I believe there's a kind of a lay-out they call a golf course, in one +of the outlying districts round here. What do you say to making the +day of it? You aren't busy, are you?" he added. +</P> + +<P> +"No! no!—not particularly," I answered. I did not tell him that in a +few days, if I did not get busy at something or other, I should starve. +</P> + +<P> +"Good!" he cried. "Go to your room and get your sticks. I'll find out +all about the course and how to get to it." +</P> + +<P> +The brusk good-nature of the man hit me somehow; besides, I had not had +a game for over three weeks. Think of it—three weeks! And goodness +only knew when I should have the chance of another after this one. As +for looking for work;—work was never to be compared with golf. Surely +work could wait for one day! +</P> + +<P> +"All right!—I'm game," I said, jumping up and entering into the spirit +of gaiety that lay so easily on my new acquaintance. +</P> + +<P> +"Good boy!" he cried, getting up and holding out his hand. "My name's +Horsfal,—K. B. Horsfal,—lumberman, meat-packer, and the man whose +name is on every trouser-suspender worth wearing. What's yours?" +</P> + +<P> +"George Bremner," I answered simply. +</P> + +<P> +"All right, George, my boy,—see you in ten minutes. But, remember, I +called this tune, so I pay the piper." +</P> + +<P> +That was music in my ears and I readily agreed. +</P> + +<P> +"Make it twenty minutes," I suggested. "I have a short letter to +write." +</P> + +<P> +I wrote my letter, gave it to the boy to deliver for me and presented +myself before my new friend right up to time. +</P> + +<P> +In the half hour's run we had in the electric tram, I learned a great +deal about Mr. K. B. Horsfal. +</P> + +<P> +He had migrated from the Midlands of England at the age of seventeen. +He had kicked,—or had been kicked,—about the United States for some +fifteen years, more or less up against it all the time, as he +expressively put it; when, by a lucky chance, in a poverty-stricken +endeavour to repair his broken braces, he hit upon a scheme that +revolutionised the brace business: was quick enough to see its +possibilities, patented his idea and became famous. +</P> + +<P> +Not content to rest on his laurels,—or his braces,—he tackled the +lumbering industry in the West and the meat-packing industry in the +East, both with considerable success. Now he had to sit down and do +some figuring when he wished to find out how many millions of dollars +he was worth. +</P> + +<P> +His wife had died years ago and his only daughter was at home in +Baltimore. +</P> + +<P> +Altogether, he was a new and delightful type to one like me,—a young +man fresh from his ancestral roof in the north of staid and +conventional old England. +</P> + +<P> +He was healthy, vigorous, and as keen as the edge of a razor. +</P> + +<P> +On and on he talked, telling me of himself, his work and his projects. +</P> + +<P> +I got to wondering if he were merely setting the proverbial sprat; but +the sprat in his case proved the whale. Every moment I expected him to +ask me for some confidences in return, but on this point Mr. K. B. +Horsfal was silent. +</P> + +<P> +We discovered our golfing ground, which proved to be a fairly good, +little, nine-holed country course, rough and full of natural hazards. +</P> + +<P> +K. B. Horsfal could play golf, that I soon found out. He entered into +his game with the enthusiasm and grim determination which I imagined he +displayed in everything he took a hand in. +</P> + +<P> +He seldom spoke, so intent was he on the proper placing of his feet and +the proper adjustment of his hands and his clubs. +</P> + +<P> +Three times we went round that course and three times I had the +pleasure of beating him by a margin. He envied me my full swing and my +powerful and accurate driving; he studied me every time I approached a +green and he scratched his head at some of my long putts; but, most of +all, he rhapsodised on my manner of getting out of a hole. +</P> + +<P> +"Man,—if I only had that trick of yours in handling the mashie and the +niblick, I could do the round a stroke a hole better, for there isn't a +rut, or a tuft, or a bunker in any course that I seem to be able to +keep out of." +</P> + +<P> +I showed him the knack of it as it had been taught me by an old +professional at Saint Andrews. K. B. Horsfal was in ecstasies, if a +two-hundred-pound, keen, brusk, American business man ever allows +himself such liberties. +</P> + +<P> +Nothing would please him but that we should go another round, just to +test out his new acquisition and give him the hang of the thing. +</P> + +<P> +To his supreme satisfaction,—although I again beat him by the same +small margin,—he reduced his score for the round by eight strokes. +</P> + +<P> +On our journey back to the city, he began to talk again, but on a +different tack this time. +</P> + +<P> +"George,—you'll excuse me,—but, if I were you I would put that signet +ring you are wearing in your pocket." +</P> + +<P> +I looked down at it and reddened, for my ring was manifestly old, as it +was manifestly strange in design and workmanship, and apt to betray an +identity. +</P> + +<P> +I slipped it off my little finger and placed it in my vest pocket. +</P> + +<P> +My companion laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"'No sooner said than done,'" he quoted. "You see, George,—any one +who saw you come in to the hotel last night could tell you had not been +travelling for pleasure. The marks of an uncomfortable train journey, +in a colonist car, were sticking out all over you. Now, golf clubs and +a signet ring like that which you were sporting are enough to tell any +man that you have been in the habit of travelling luxuriously and for +the love of it." +</P> + +<P> +I could not help admiring my new friend's method of deduction, and I +thanked him for his kindly interest. +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit," he continued, "so long as you don't mind. For, it's like +this,—I take it you have left home for some personal reason,—no +concern of mine,—you have come out here to start over, or rather, to +make a start. Good! You are right to start at the bottom of the hill. +But, from the look of you, I fancy you won't stick at anything that +doesn't suit you. You are the kind of a fellow who, if you felt like +it, would tell a man to go to the devil, then walk off his premises. +You see, I don't tab you as a milksop kind of Englishman exactly. +</P> + +<P> +"Well,—out here they don't like Britishers who receive remittances +every month from their mas or pas at home, for they have found that +that kind is generally not much good. Hope you're not one, George?" +</P> + +<P> +"No!" I laughed, rather ruefully, almost wishing I were. "With me, it +is sink or swim. And, I do not mind telling you, Mr. Horsfal, that it +will be necessary for me to leave the hotel to-morrow for less +pretentious apartments and to start swimming for all I am worth." +</P> + +<P> +"Good!" he cried, as if it were a good joke. "How do you propose +starting in?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have already commenced keeping an eye on the advertisements, which +seem to be chiefly for real estate salesmen and partners with a little +capital," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"But, the fact is, I have made an application this morning for +something I thought might suit me. But, even if I am lucky enough to +be considered, the chances are there will be some flies in the +ointment:—there always are." +</P> + +<P> +My friend looked at me, as I thought, curiously. +</P> + +<P> +"To-morrow morning," I went on, "it is my intention to begin with the +near end of the business district and call on every business house, one +after another, until I happen upon something that will provide a start. +</P> + +<P> +"I have no love for the grinding in an office, nor yet for the grubbing +in a warehouse, but, for a bit, it will be a case of 'needs must when +the devil drives,'—so I mean to take anything that I can get, to begin +with, and leave the matter of choice to a more opportune time." +</P> + +<P> +"And what would be your choice, George?" he inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"Choice! Well, if you asked me what I thought I was adapted for, I +would say, green-keeper and professional golfer; gymnastic instructor; +athletic coach; policeman; or, with training and dieting, pugilist. At +a pinch, I could teach school." +</P> + +<P> +K. B. Horsfal grinned and looked out of the car window at the +apparently never-ending sea of charred tree stumps through which we +were passing. +</P> + +<P> +"Not very ambitious, sonny!—eh!" +</P> + +<P> +"No,—that is the worst of it," I answered. "I do not seem to have +been planned for anything ambitious. Besides, I have no desire to +amass millions at the sacrifice of my peace of mind. Why!—a +millionaire cannot call his life his own. He is at the beck and call +of everybody. He is consulted here and harassed there. He is dunned, +solicited and blackmailed; he is badgered and pestered until, I should +fancy, he wished his millions were at the bottom of the deep, blue sea." +</P> + +<P> +"Lord, man!" exclaimed Mr. Horsfal, "but you have hit it right. One +would almost think you had been through it yourself." +</P> + +<P> +"I have not," I answered, "but I know most of the diseases that attack +the man of wealth." +</P> + +<P> +"Now, you have given me an idea of what you might <I>have</I> to do. But to +get back to desire or choice;—what would it be then?" he inquired, as +the electric tram passed at last from the tree stumps and began to +draw, through signs of habitation, toward the city. +</P> + +<P> +"If I had my desire and my choice, Mr. Horsfal, they would be: in such +a climate as we have here but away somewhere up the coast, with the sea +in front of me and the trees and the hills behind me; the open air, the +sunlight; contending with the natural,—not the artificial,—obstacles +of life; work, with a sufficiency of leisure; quiet, when quiet were +desired; and, in the evening as the sun went down into the sea or +behind the hills, a cosy fire, a good book and my pipe going good." +</P> + +<P> +K. B. Horsfal, millionaire, patentee, lumberman and meat-packer, looked +at me, sighed and nodded his head. +</P> + +<P> +"After all, my boy," he said, almost sadly, "I shouldn't wonder if that +isn't better than all the hellish wealth-hunting that ever was or ever +shall be. Stick to your ideals. Try them out if you can. As for +me,—it's too late. I am saturated with the money-getting mania; I am +in the maelstrom and I couldn't get out if I tried. I'm in it for +good." +</P> + +<P> +Our conversation was brought to an abrupt ending, as Mr. Horsfal had to +make a short call at one of the newspaper offices, on some business +matter. We got out of the tram together. I waited for him while he +made his call, then we walked back leisurely to the hotel; happy, +pleasantly tired and hungry as hunters. +</P> + +<P> +I was regaled in the dining-room as the guest of my American friend. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you going to be in for the balance of the evening?" he asked, as I +rose to leave him at the conclusion of our after-dinner smoke. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!" +</P> + +<P> +"Good!" he ejaculated, rather abruptly. +</P> + +<P> +And why he should have thought it "good," puzzled me not a little as I +went up in the elevator. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Golden Crescent +</H4> + +<P> +I had been sitting in my room for two hours, reading, and once in a +while, thinking over the strange adventures that had befallen me since +I had started out from home some three short weeks before. I was +trying to picture to myself how it had all gone in the old home; I was +wondering if my father's heart had softened any to his absent son. +</P> + +<P> +I reasoned whether, after all, I had done right in interfering between +my brother Harry and his fiancee; but, when I thought of poor little +Peggy Darrol and the righteous indignation and anger of her brother +Jim, I felt, that if I had to go through all of it again, I would do as +I had done already. +</P> + +<P> +My telephone bell rang. I answered. +</P> + +<P> +It was the hotel exchange operator. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello!—is that room 280?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!" I answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. George Bremner?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!" +</P> + +<P> +"A gentleman in room 16 wishes to see you. Right away, if you can, +sir!" +</P> + +<P> +"What name?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"No name given, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"All right! I'll go down at once. Thank you!" +</P> + +<P> +I laid aside my pipe and threw on my coat. On reaching the right +landing, I made my way along an almost interminable corridor, until I +stood before the mysterious room 16. +</P> + +<P> +As I entered, a respectably dressed, middle-aged man was coming out, +hat in hand. Two others were sitting inside, apparently waiting an +interview, while a smart-looking young lady,—evidently a +stenographer,—was showing a fourth into the room adjoining. +</P> + +<P> +It dawned on me that this request to call must be the outcome of the +letter I had written that morning in answer to the newspaper +advertisement. +</P> + +<P> +I immediately assumed what I thought to be the correct, meek expression +of a man looking for work; with, I hope, becoming timidity and +nervousness, I whispered my name to the young lady. Then I took a seat +alongside one of my fellow applicants, who eyed me askance and with +what I took to be amused tolerance. +</P> + +<P> +Five minutes, and the young lady ushered out the man who had been on +the point of being interviewed as I had come in. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Monaghan?" queried the lady. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Monaghan rose and followed her. +</P> + +<P> +An interval of ten minutes, and Mr. Monaghan went after his predecessor. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Rubenstein?" asked the lady. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Rubenstein, who, every inch of him, looked the part, went through +the routine of Mr. Monaghan, leaving me alone in the waiting room. +</P> + +<P> +At last my turn came and I was ushered into the "sanctum." I had put +my head only inside the door, when the bluff voice I had learned that +day to know shouted merrily: +</P> + +<P> +"Hello! George. What do you know? Come on in and sit down." +</P> + +<P> +And there was Mr. Horsfal, as large as life, sitting behind a desk with +a pile of letters in front of him. +</P> + +<P> +I was keenly disappointed and I fear I showed it. Only this,—after +all my rising hopes,—the genial Mr. Horsfal wished to chat with me now +that he had got his business worries over. +</P> + +<P> +"Why!—what's the matter, son? You look crestfallen." +</P> + +<P> +"I am, too," I answered. "I was not aware which rooms you occupied +and, when I received the telephone message to come here and saw those +men waiting, I felt sure I had received an answer to my application for +a position I saw in the papers this morning." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Horsfal leaned back in his chair and surveyed me. +</P> + +<P> +"Well,—no need to get crestfallen, George. When you had that thought, +your thinking apparatus was in perfect working order." +</P> + +<P> +My eyes showed surprise. "You don't mean——" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! George." +</P> + +<P> +"What?—'wanted,—alert, strong, handy man, to supervise up-coast +property. One who can run country store preferred. Must be sober,'" I +quoted. +</P> + +<P> +"The very same. I've been interviewing men for a week now and I'm sick +of it. I got your letter this evening. But all day I have had it in +my mind that you were the very man I wanted, sent from the clouds right +to me." +</P> + +<P> +"But,—but," I exclaimed. "I am afraid I have not the experience a man +requires for such a job." +</P> + +<P> +K. B. Horsfal thumped his desk. +</P> + +<P> +"Lord sakes! man,—don't start running yourself down. Boost,—boost +yourself for all you're worth." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes! I know," I said. "But this is different. I have become +acquainted with you. I cannot sail under false colours. I have no +experience. I am a simple baby when it comes to business." +</P> + +<P> +He banged his desk again. +</P> + +<P> +"George,—I'm the boss of this affair. You must just sit back quiet +and listen, while I tell you about it; then you can talk as much as you +want. +</P> + +<P> +"There's a thousand acres of property that I, or I should say, my +daughter Eileen owns some hundred miles up the coast from here. The +place is called Golden Crescent Bay. My wife took a fancy to it in the +early days, when she came with me on a trip one time I was looking over +a timber proposition. I bought it for her for an old song and she grew +so fond of the place that she spent three months of every year, as long +as she lived, right on that very land. She left it all to Eileen when +she died. +</P> + +<P> +"As a business man, I should sell it, for its value has gone away up; +but, as a husband, as a father and as a sentimentalist, I just can't do +it. It would be like desecration. +</P> + +<P> +"There's two miles of water frontage to it; there's the house we put +up, also a little cabin where the present caretaker lives. The only +other place within a couple of miles by water and four miles round by +land through the bush, is a cottage that stands on the property +abutting Eileen's, and close to her bungalow. It has been boarded up +and unoccupied for quite a while. Of course, up behind, over the +hills, there are ranches here and there, while, across the bay and all +up the coast, there are squatters, settlers, fishermen and ranchers for +a fare-you-well." +</P> + +<P> +"You say there is a caretaker there already?" I put in. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!—I was just getting to that. He's an old Klondike miner; came +out with a fortune. Spent the most of it before he got sober. Came +to, just in time. Now he hoards what's left like an old skinflint. +Won't spend a nickel, unless it's on booze. Drinks like a drowning man +and it never fizzes on him. A good enough man for what he's been +doing, but no good for what I want now." +</P> + +<P> +"You don't want me to do him out of his place, Mr. Horsfal?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"I was coming to that, too,—only you're so darned speedy. +</P> + +<P> +"He's all right as a caretaker with little or nothing to do, and he +will prove useful to you for odd jobs,—but, I have a salmon cannery +some miles north of this place and I am going to have half a dozen +lumber camps operating south, and further up, for the next few years. +Some of them are going full steam ahead now. +</P> + +<P> +"They require a convenient store, where they can get supplies; grub, +oil, gasoline, hardware and such like. I need a man who could look +after a proposition of that kind,—good. The settlers would find a +store up there a perfect god-send. +</P> + +<P> +"The property at Golden Crescent is easily got at and is the most +central to all my places. Now, having an eye to business, and with +Eileen's consent, I have decided to convert the large front living-room +of her bungalow into a store. It is plain, and can't be hurt. It's +just suited for the purpose. I have had some carpenters up there this +past week, putting in a counter and shelves and shutting the new store +off completely from the rest of the house. +</P> + +<P> +"A stock of groceries, hardware, etc., has already been ordered from +the wholesalers and should be up there in a few days. +</P> + +<P> +"Steamers pass Golden Crescent twice a week. When they have anything +for you, they whistle and stand by out in the bay; when you want them, +you hoist a white flag on the pole, on the rock, at the end of the +little wharf; then you row out and meet them. +</P> + +<P> +"These are the main features, George. Oh, yes! I'm paying one hundred +dollars a month and all-found to the right man." +</P> + +<P> +He stopped and looked over at me a little anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"George!—will you take the job?" +</P> + +<P> +"What about those other poor beggars who have applied?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"There you are again," he exclaimed impatiently. "They had the same +chance as you had. Didn't I even keep you waiting out there till I had +seen them in turn. Not one of them has the qualifications you have. I +want a man with a brain as well as a body." +</P> + +<P> +"But you don't know me, Mr. Horsfal. I have no friends, no +testimonials; and I might be,—why! I might be the biggest criminal +unhung." +</P> + +<P> +"Testimonials be blowed! Who wants testimonials? Any dub can get +them. As for the other part,—do you think K. B. Horsfal of Baltimore, +U. S. A., by this time, doesn't know a man after he has been a whole +day in his company? +</P> + +<P> +"Sonny, take it from me,—there are mighty few American business men, +who have topped a million dollars, who don't know a man through and +through in less time than that, and without asking very many questions, +either. Why, man!—that's their business; that's what makes their +millions." +</P> + +<P> +There was no resisting K. B. Horsfal. +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks! I'll take the job," I said. "And I'm mighty grateful to you." +</P> + +<P> +"Good boy! You're all right. Leave it there!" His two hands clasped +over mine. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee! but I'm glad that's over at last." +</P> + +<P> +"When do I start in?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Right now. I'll phone for a launch to be ready to start up with us +to-morrow morning. I'll show you over the proposition and leave you +there. Phone for any little personal articles you may want. I'll +attend to the bedding and all that sort of thing. Have the boy call +you at six a. m. sharp." +</P> + +<P> +Nothing was overlooked by the masterly mind of my new, my first +employer. +</P> + +<P> +We breakfasted early. An automobile was standing waiting for us at the +hotel entrance; while, at a down-town slip, a trig little launch, +already loaded up with our immediate necessities, was in readiness to +shoot out through the Narrows as soon as we got aboard. +</P> + +<P> +This launch was named the <I>Edgar Allan Poe</I>, and, in consequence, I +felt as if she were an old friend. +</P> + +<P> +As soon as the ropes were cast from the wharf, a glorious feeling of +exhilaration started to run through me; for it seemed that I was being +loosed from the old life and plunged into a new; a life I had been for +so long hungering; the life of the woods, the hills and the sea, the +quiet and freedom; the life of my dreams as well as of my waking +fancies. Whether or not it would come up to my expectations was a +question of conjecture, but I was not in a mood to trouble conjecturing. +</P> + +<P> +The swift little boat fought the tide rip in the Narrows like a lonely +explorer defending his life against a horde of surging savages; and, +gradually, she nosed her way through, past Prospect Point, then, +inclining to the north shore, but heading forward all the time, past +the lighthouse which stands sentinel on the rock at Point Atkinson; and +away up the coast, leaving the city, with its dizzying and +light-blotting sky-scrapers far and still farther behind, until nothing +of that busy terminal remained to the observer but a distant haze. +</P> + +<P> +The <I>Edgar Allan Poe</I> threaded her way rapidly and confidently among +the rocks and fertile little islands, up, up northward, ever northward, +amid lessening signs of life and habitation; through the beautiful +Strait of Georgia. +</P> + +<P> +From eight o'clock in the morning till three o'clock in the afternoon +we sailed on, amid a prodigality of scenic beauty,—sea, mountains and +islands; islands, mountains and sea,—enjoying every mile of that +beautiful trip. We conversed seldom, although there was much to +discuss and our time was short. +</P> + +<P> +At last, we sped past a great looming rock, which stood almost sheer +out of the sea, then we ran into a glorious bay, where the sea danced +and glanced in a fairy ecstasy. +</P> + +<P> +"Golden Crescent Bay," broke in Mr. Horsfal. "How do you like it?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is Paradise," I exclaimed, in breathless admiration. And never +have I had reason to change that first impression and opinion. +</P> + +<P> +We ran alongside a rocky headland close to the shore, on which stood +two little wooden sheds bearing the numbers one and two. We clambered +up. +</P> + +<P> +"Number one is for gasoline; two for oil," volunteered my ever +informing employer. +</P> + +<P> +The rock was connected to the shore by a well-built, wooden wharf on +piles, which ran directly into what I rightly guessed had been the +summer home of Mrs. Horsfal. It was a plainly built cottage and trim +as a warship. It bore signs of having been recently painted, while, +all around, the grass was trim and tidy. +</P> + +<P> +On the right of this, about fifty yards across, on the same cleared +area, but out on a separate rocky headland, stood another well-built +cottage, the windows of which were boarded up. +</P> + +<P> +"My property starts ten yards to the south of the wharf here, George, +and runs around the bay as far, almost, as it goes, and back to the +hills quite a bit. That over there is the other house I spoke to you +about. It, and the property to the south, is owned by some one in the +Western States. +</P> + +<P> +"But I wonder where the devil old Jake Meaghan is. Folks could land +here and walk away with the whole shebang and he would never know of +it." +</P> + +<P> +As he spoke, however, a small boat crept out from some little cove +about three hundred yards round the bay. It contained a man, who rowed +it leisurely toward the wharf. We leaned over the wooden rail and +waited. +</P> + +<P> +The man ran the boat into the shingly beach, pulled in his oars, +climbed out and made toward us. An Airedale dog, which had evidently +been curled up in the bottom of the boat, sprang out after him, keeping +close to him and eyeing us suspiciously and angrily. +</P> + +<P> +In appearance the man reminded me of one of R. L. Stevenson's pirates, +or one of Jack London's 'longshoremen. +</P> + +<P> +He wore heavy logging boots, brown canvas trousers kept up by a belt, +and a brown shirt, showing hairy brown arms and a bared, scraggy +throat. A battered, sun-cast, felt hat lay on his head. His face was +wrinkled and weather-beaten to the equivalent of tanned hide. He wore +great, long, drooping moustaches snow white in colour. His eyes were +limpid blue. +</P> + +<P> +"It's you, Mr. Horsfal," he mumbled rather thickly, in a voice that +seemed to come from somewhere underground; "didn't know you in the +distance." +</P> + +<P> +"Jake,—shake with Mr. George Bremner;—he's going to supervise the +place and the new store, same as I explained to you two weeks ago. +Hope you make friends. He's to be head boss man, and his word goes; +but you'll find him twenty-four carat gold." +</P> + +<P> +"That's darned fine gold, boss," grunted Jake. +</P> + +<P> +He held out his horny hand and grasped mine, exclaiming heartily enough: +</P> + +<P> +"Glad to meet you, George." +</P> + +<P> +He pulled out a plug of tobacco from his hip pocket, brushed some of +the most conspicuous dirt and grime from it, bit off what appeared to +me to be a mouthful and began to look me over. +</P> + +<P> +"He's new," he grunted, as if to himself; "but he's young and big. He +looks tough; he's got the right kind of jaw." +</P> + +<P> +Then he turned to Mr. Horsfal. "Guess, when he gets the edges rubbed +off, he'll more than make it, boss," he said. +</P> + +<P> +K. B. Horsfal laughed loudly. +</P> + +<P> +"That's just what I thought myself, Jake. Now, give us the keys to the +oil barns and the new store. Go and help unload that baggage and truck +from the launch. You can follow your usual bent after that, for I'll +be showing George over the place myself." +</P> + +<P> +I found the prospective store just as it had been described: a large, +plain, front room, now fitted with shelves and a counter, and all +freshly painted. Everything was in readiness to accommodate the stock, +most of which was due to arrive the next afternoon. Where a door had +been, leading into the other parts of the house, it was now solidly +partitioned up, leaving only front and back entrances to the store. +</P> + +<P> +We spent the afternoon in the open air, inspecting the property, which +was perfectly situated for scenic beauty, with plenty of cleared, +fertile land near the shore and rich in giant timber behind. +</P> + +<P> +In the early part of the evening, after a cold lunch aboard the launch, +we went back to the house and, for the first time, Mr. Horsfal inserted +a key into the front door of the dwelling proper. +</P> + +<P> +I had been not a little curious regarding this place and I was still +wondering where it was intended that I should take up my quarters. +</P> + +<P> +Jake Meaghan seemed all right in his own Klondikish, +pork-and-beans-and-a-blanket way, but I hardly fancied him as a rooming +partner and a possible bedfellow. To be candid, I never had had a +bedfellow in all my life and I had already made up my mind that, rather +than suffer one now, I would fix up one of the several empty barns +which were scattered here and there over the property, and thus retain +my beloved privacy. +</P> + +<P> +My employer pushed his way into the house and invited me to follow him. +</P> + +<P> +I found myself in a small, front room, neatly but plainly furnished. +The floor was varnished and two bearskin rugs supplied the only +carpeting. It had a mahogany centre table, on which a large +oil-burning reading lamp was set. Three wicker chairs, designed solely +for comfort, and a stove with an open front helped to complete its +comfortable appearance. A number of framed photographs of Golden +Crescent and some water colour paintings decorated the plain, wooden +walls. In the far corner, beside a small side window, there stood a +writing desk; while, all along that side of the wall, on a long curtain +pole, there was hung, from brass rings, a heavy green curtain. +</P> + +<P> +I took in what I could in a cursory glance and I marvelled that there +could be so much apparent concentrated comfort so far away from city +civilisation; but, when my guide pulled aside the curtain on the wall +and disclosed rows and rows of books behind a glass front, books +ancient and modern, books of religion, philosophy, medicine, history, +fiction and poetry,—at least a thousand of them,—I gave up trying any +more to fathom what manner of a man he was. +</P> + +<P> +My eyes sparkled and explained to K. B. Horsfal what my voice failed to +utter. +</P> + +<P> +"Well,—what d'ye think of it all?" he asked at last. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a delight,—a positive delight," I replied simply. +</P> + +<P> +As I walked over to the front window, I wondered little that Mrs. +Horsfal should have loved the place; and, when I looked away out over +the dancing waters, upon the beauties of the bay in the changing light +of the lowering sun, upon the rocky, fir-dotted island a mile to sea, +and upon the lonely-looking homes of the settlers over there two miles +away on the far horn of Golden Crescent, with the great background of +mountains in purple velvet,—I wondered less. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! George,—it's pretty near what heaven should be to look at. But +I guess it's the same old story that the poet once sang: +</P> + +<P> +"'Where every prospect pleases and only man is vile.' +</P> + +<P> +"That poet kind of forgot that, if what he said was true, it was only +the vile man that the prospect could please, eh! +</P> + +<P> +"You notice the house has been cleaned from top to toe. I had that +done last week. I see to that every time I come west." +</P> + +<P> +He put his hand on my shoulder. "George, boy,—no one but myself and +Eileen has slept under this roof since my wife died, but I want you to +make it your home." +</P> + +<P> +I turned to remonstrate. +</P> + +<P> +"Now,—don't say a word," he hurried on. "You can't bluff me with your +self-defamatory remarks. You are not a Jake Meaghan, or one of his +stamp. You are of the kind that appreciates a home like this to the +extent of taking care of it. +</P> + +<P> +"Come and have a look at the other apartments. +</P> + +<P> +"This is the kitchen. It has a pantry and a good cooking-stove. There +are four bedrooms in the house. This can be yours;—it's the one I +used to occupy. This is a spare one. This is Eileen's. You won't +require it; and one never knows when Eileen might take it into her head +to come up here and live. +</P> + +<P> +"This is my Helen's room,—my wife's. It has not been changed since +she died." +</P> + +<P> +He went in. I remained respectfully in the adjoining apartment. I +waited for five minutes. +</P> + +<P> +When he returned, there were tears in his eyes. He locked the door +with a sigh. +</P> + +<P> +"George,—here are the keys to the whole she-bang. There isn't much +more to keep me here. You have signed the necessary papers in +connection with the trust account for $5,000 in the Commercial Bank of +Canada in Vancouver. Draw your wages regularly. Pay Jake his fifty a +month at the same time. We find his grub for him. +</P> + +<P> +"Run things at a profit if you can, for that's business. Stand +strictly to the instructions I have given you regarding orders for +supplies from the various camps and from the cannery. Use your own +judgment as to credit with the settlers. I leave you a free hand up +here. +</P> + +<P> +"Send your monthly reports, addressed to me care of my lawyers, Dow, +Cross & Sneddon of Vancouver. They will forward them. +</P> + +<P> +"If any question should arise regarding the property itself, get in +touch with the lawyers." +</P> + +<P> +I walked with him down to the launch as he talked. +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks to you, George,—I'll get to Vancouver in the small hours of +the morning and I will be able to pull out for Sydney in the afternoon +of to-morrow. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-bye, boy. All being well, I'll be back within a year." +</P> + +<P> +In parting with him, as he shook me by the hand, I experienced a +tightening in my throat such as I had never felt when parting from any +other man either before or since. Yet, I had only known him for two +days. I could see that he, also, was similarly affected. It was as if +something above and beyond us were making our farewell singularly +solemn. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +The Booze Artist +</H4> + +<P> +I stood watching until the tiny launch rounded the point; then, as the +light was still fairly good,—it being the end of the month of +May,—and as I had no inclination for sleep as yet, I got into the +smallest of the rowing boats that were tied up alongside the wharf, +loosed it and pulled leisurely up the bay, with the intention of making +myself a little better acquainted with the only living soul with whom I +was within hail,—Jake Meaghan. +</P> + +<P> +As I ran the boat into his cove, I could hear his dog bark warningly. +</P> + +<P> +The door of his barn,—for it was nothing else,—was closed, and it was +some time before I heard Meaghan's deep voice in answer to my knock, +inviting me to come in and bidding his dog to lie down. +</P> + +<P> +Meaghan was sitting, presumably reading a newspaper, which was the only +kind of "literature" I ever saw him read. His attitude appeared to me +to be assumed and I had a notion that, when the dog first barked at my +approach, he had been busy with the contents of a brass-bound, wooden +chest which now lay half under his bunk, in a recess in the far corner. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello! Thought you might come over. Sit down," he greeted. "Saw the +boss pull out half an hour ago. I'm just sittin' down for my turn at +the newspaper. They leave me a bundle off the steamer once in a while. +This one's from the old country;—the <I>Liverpool Monitor</I>. It's two +months old, but what's the dif,—the news is just as good as if it was +yesterday's or to-morrow's." +</P> + +<P> +I looked round Jake's shanty. Considering it was a single-roomed place +and used for cooking, washing, sleeping and everything else, it was +wonderfully tidy, although, to say truth, there was little in it after +all to occasion untidiness: a stove, a pot, a frying-pan, an enamelled +tin teapot, some crockery, a table, an oil lamp, three chairs, the +brass-bound trunk, two wheat-flake boxes and Jake's bed,—with one +other addition,—a fifteen-gallon keg with a stopcock in it and set on +a wooden stand close to his bunk. +</P> + +<P> +An odour of shell-fish pervaded the atmosphere, coming from some kind +of soup made from clams and milk, on which Jake had evidently been +dining. The residue of it still sat in a pot on the stove. This, I +discovered, was Jake's favourite dish. +</P> + +<P> +He rose, took two breakfast cups from a shelf and went over to the keg +in the corner. He filled up both of them to the brim. +</P> + +<P> +"Have a drink, George?" he invited, offering me one of the cups. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it?" I asked, thinking it might be a cider of some kind. +</P> + +<P> +"What d'ye suppose, man?—ginger beer? It's good rye whiskey." +</P> + +<P> +From the odour, I had ascertained this for myself before he spoke. +</P> + +<P> +"No, thanks, Jake, I don't drink." +</P> + +<P> +"Holy mackinaw!" he exclaimed, almost dropping the cups in his +astonishment. "If you don't drink, how in the Sam Hill are you going +to make it stick up here? Why, man, you'll go batty in the winter +time, for it's lonely as hell." +</P> + +<P> +"From all accounts, Jake, hell is not a very lonely place," I laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Aw!—you know what I mean," he put in. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll have plenty of work to do in the store; enough to keep me from +feeling lonely." +</P> + +<P> +"Not you. Once it's goin', it'll be easy's rollin' off'n a log. +What'll you do o' nights, 'specially winter nights,—if you don't +drink?" +</P> + +<P> +He sat down and began to empty his cup of liquor by the gulp. +</P> + +<P> +His dog, which had been lying sullenly on the floor near the stove, got +up and ambled leisurely to Jake's feet. It looked up at him as he +drank, then it put its two front paws on Jake's knees, as if to attract +his attention. +</P> + +<P> +Meaghan stopped his imbibing and stroked the dog's head. +</P> + +<P> +"Well,—well—Mike; and did I forget you?" +</P> + +<P> +He poured a little liquor in a saucer and set it down on the floor +before the dog, who lapped it up with all the relish of a seasoned +toper. Then it put its paws back on Jake's knees, as if asking for +more. +</P> + +<P> +"No! Mike. Nothin' doin'. You've had your whack. Too much ain't +good for your complexion, old man." +</P> + +<P> +In a sort of dreamy, contemplative mood the dog sat down on its +haunches between us. +</P> + +<P> +"What'll you do o' nights if you don't drink? You ain't told me that, +George," reiterated Jake, sucking some of the liquor from his drooping +moustaches. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" I replied, "I'll read, and sometimes I'll sit out and watch the +stars and listen to the sea and the wind." +</P> + +<P> +"And what after that?" he queried. +</P> + +<P> +"I can always think, when I have nothing else to do." +</P> + +<P> +"And what after that?" he asked again. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing, Jake,—nothing. That's all." +</P> + +<P> +"No it ain't. No it ain't, I tell you;—after that,—it's the bughouse +for yours. It's the thinking,—it's the thinking that does it every +time. It's the last stage, George. You'll be clean, plumb batty +inside o' six months." +</P> + +<P> +The dog got up, after two unsuccessful attempts. +</P> + +<P> +Never did I see such a strange sight in any animal. He put out one paw +and staggered to the right. He put out another and staggered to the +left. All the time, his eyes were half closed. He was quite +insensible of our presence, for he was as drunk as any waterfront +loafer. Staggering, stumbling and balancing, he made his way back to +his place beside the stove, where, in a moment more, he was in a deep +sleep and snoring,—as a Westerner would put it,—to beat the cars. +</P> + +<P> +Meaghan noticed my interest in the phenomenon. +</P> + +<P> +"That's nothin'," he volunteered. "Mike has his drink with me every +night, for the sake o' company. Why not? He doesn't see any fun in +lookin' at the stars and watching the tide come up o' nights. Worst +is, he can't stand up to liquor. It kind o' gets his goat; yet he's +been tipplin' for three years now." +</P> + +<P> +Jake finished off his cup of whisky. +</P> + +<P> +"Good Heavens, man!" I exclaimed in disgust and dismay, "don't you know +you will kill yourself drinking that stuff in that way?" +</P> + +<P> +"Guess nit," he growled, but quite good-naturedly. "I ain't started. +I've been drinkin' more'n that every night for ten years and I ain't +dead yet,—not by a damn sight. No! nor I ain't never been drunk, +neither." +</P> + +<P> +He took up the other cupful of whisky as he spoke and slowly drained it +off before my eyes. He laid the empty cup on the table with a grunt of +satisfaction, pulling at his long moustaches in lazy pleasure. +</P> + +<P> +"That's my nightcap, George. Better'n seein' stars, too." +</P> + +<P> +I could see his end. +</P> + +<P> +"I'd much rather see stars than snakes," I remarked. But Jake merely +laughed it off. +</P> + +<P> +I rose in a kind of cold perspiration. To me, this was +horrible;—drinking for no apparent reason. +</P> + +<P> +He came with me to the door. His voice was as steady as could be; so +were his legs. The effects of the liquor he had consumed did not show +on him except maybe for a bloodshot appearance in the whites of his +baby-blue eyes. +</P> + +<P> +I was worried. I had known such another as Jake in the little village +of Brammerton; and I knew what the inevitable end had been and what +Jake's would be also. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be sore at me, George," he pleaded. "It's the only friend I got +now." +</P> + +<P> +"It is not any friend of yours, Jake." +</P> + +<P> +"Well,—maybe it ain't, but I think it is and that's about the only way +we can reckon our friends. +</P> + +<P> +"When you find I ain't doin' my share o' the work because o' the booze +or when you catch me drunk,—I'll quit it. Good-night, George." +</P> + +<P> +I wished him good-night gruffly, hurried over the beach, scrambled into +the boat and rowed quickly for my new home. +</P> + +<P> +And, as I stood on the veranda for a long time before turning in, I +watched the moon rise and skim her way behind and above the clouds, +throwing, as she did so, great dark shadows and eerie lights on the sea. +</P> + +<P> +In the vast, awesome stillness of the forest behind and the swishing +and shuffling of the incoming tide on the shingles on the beach, I +thought of what my good friend, K. B. Horsfal, had quoted: +</P> + +<P> +"Where every prospect pleases and only man is vile." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Rita of the Spanish Song +</H4> + +<P> +Next morning I was awakened bright and early by the singing of birds. +For a few moments I imagined myself back in England; but the ceaseless +beat of the sea and the sustained, woody-toned, chattering, chirruping +squeak of an angry squirrel on my roof gave me my proper location. +</P> + +<P> +I had heard once, in a London drawing-room, that there were no singing +birds in British Columbia; that the songsters of the East were unable +to get across the high, eternal cold and snow of the Rockies. What a +fallacy! They were everywhere around me, and in thousands. How they +got there was of little moment to me. They were there, much to my joy; +and the forests at my back door were alive with the sweetness of their +melodies. +</P> + +<P> +Early as I was, I could see a thin column of smoke rising from the cove +where Jake was. When I went to the woodpile at the rear of my +bungalow, I found more evidence of his early morning diligence. A heap +of dry, freshly cut kindling was set out, while the chickens had +already been fed and let out to wander at their own sweet wills. +</P> + +<P> +For the first time in my very ordinary life, I investigated the +eccentricities of a cook stove, overcame them and cooked myself a +rousing breakfast of porridge and bacon and eggs with toast. How proud +I felt of my achievement and how delicious the food tasted! Never had +woman cooked porridge and bacon and eggs to such a delightful turn. +</P> + +<P> +I laughed joyously, for I felt sure I had stumbled across an important +truth that woman had religiously kept from the average man throughout +all the bygone ages: the truth that any man, if he only sets his mind +to it, can cook a meal perfectly satisfactory to himself. +</P> + +<P> +After washing up the breakfast dishes without smashing any, sweeping +the kitchen floor and shovelling up—nothing; there was nothing left +for me to do, for the north-going steamer was not due until early in +the afternoon. When she should arrive and give me delivery of the +freight which she was bringing, I knew I should have enough to occupy +my attention for some days to come, getting the cases opened up and the +goods checked over, priced and set out in the store; but, meantime, my +time was my own. +</P> + +<P> +It was a glorious morning. The sun was shining and the air was balmy +as a midsummer's day at home. I opened the front door and gazed on the +loveliness; I stretched my arms and felt vigour running to my +finger-tips. Then I longed, how I longed, for a swim! +</P> + +<P> +And why not! I slipped out of my shirt and trousers and got into my +bathing suit. I ran down to the end of the wharf and out on to the +rocks. +</P> + +<P> +The water was calm, and deep, and of a pale green hue. I could see the +rock cod and little shiners down there, darting about on a breakfast +hunt. +</P> + +<P> +Filling my lungs, I took a header in, coming up fifteen yards out and +shaking my head with a gurgling cry of pleasure. I struck out, +overhand, growing stronger and more vigorous each succeeding moment, as +the refreshing sea played over my body. On, on I went, turning upon my +breast sometimes, sometimes on my back, lashing the water into foam +with my feet and blowing it far into the air from my mouth. +</P> + +<P> +Half a mile out and I was as near to the island, in the middle of the +Bay, as I was to the wharf. I knew I could make it, although I had not +been in the water for several weeks. I had an abundance of time, the +sea was warm, the island looked pretty,—so on I went. +</P> + +<P> +I reached it at last, a trifle blown, but in good condition. +</P> + +<P> +It had not been by any means a record swim for me. I had not intended +that it should. All the way, it had been a pleasure trip. +</P> + +<P> +I made for a sandy beach, between two rocky headlands. Soon, I got my +footing and waded ashore. After a short rest, I set out to survey the +island. +</P> + +<P> +All the childhood visions I had stored in my memory of "Coral Island," +"Crusoe's Island," and "Treasure Island" became visualised and merged +into one,—the island I was exploring. +</P> + +<P> +It was of fairy concept; only some four hundred yards long and about a +hundred yards in breadth, with rugged rocks and sandy beaches; secret +caves and strange caverns; fertile over all with small fir and arbutus +trees, shrubs, ferns and turfy patches of grass of the softest velvet +pile. In the most unlikely places, I stumbled across bubbling springs +of fresh water forcing its way through the rocks. How they originated, +was a mystery to me, for the island was separated from the mainland by +a mile, at least, of salt water. +</P> + +<P> +What an ideal spot, I thought, for a picnic! Would not some of my +eccentric acquaintances at home,—the Duke of Athlane, for +instance,—dearly love to take the whole thing up by the roots and +transplant it in the centre of some of the artificial lakes they had +schemed and contrived, in wild attempts to make more beautiful the +natural beauties of their estates? +</P> + +<P> +By this time, the warm air had dried my body. I climbed to the highest +point of the island,—a small plateau, covered with short turf; a +glorious place for the enjoyment of a sun bath. I lay down and +stretched myself. +</P> + +<P> +My only regret then was that I did not have a book with me to complete +my Paradise. +</P> + +<P> +Pillowed on a slight incline, I dreamily watched the scudding clouds, +then my eyes travelled across to the mainland. I could see the smoke +curl upward from my kitchen fire. I saw old Jake get into his boat, +followed by the drunken rascal of a dog, Mike. All was still and quiet +but for the seethe and shuffle of the sea. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly, on the other side of the water somewhere, but evidently far +away, a voice, untrained, but of peculiar sweetness, broke into my +drowsing. I listened for a time, trying to catch the refrain. As it +grew clearer, I tried to pick up the words, but they were in a tongue +foreign to me. They were not French, nor were they Italian. At last, +it struck me that they were Spanish words; the words of a Spanish +dancing song, which, when I was a gadding-about college boy, had been +popular among us. I recalled having heard that it was sung by the +chorus of a famous Spanish dancer, who, at one time, had been the rage +of London and the Provinces, but who had mysteriously vanished from the +footlights with the same suddenness as she had appeared there. +</P> + +<P> +It was a haunting little melody, catchy and childishly simple; and it +had remained in my memory all these years, as is so often the case with +choruses that we hear in our babyhood. +</P> + +<P> +Naturally, I was more than curious to see the singer, so I crept to the +top of the grassy knoll and peered over, searching the far side of the +island and over the water. +</P> + +<P> +Away out, I discerned a small boat making in the direction of the +island. The oars were being plied by a woman, or a girl,—I could not +tell which, as her back was toward me and she was still a good way off. +She handled her oars as if she were a part of the boat itself and the +boat were a living thing. +</P> + +<P> +She stopped every now and then, rose from her seat and busied herself +with something. I wondered what she was doing. I saw her haul +something into the boat. As she examined it in her hand, the sun +flashed upon it. I could hear her laugh happily as she tossed it into +the bottom of the boat. +</P> + +<P> +She was trolling for fish and, evidently, getting a plentiful supply. +</P> + +<P> +She rowed in as if intent upon fishing round the island. But, all at +once, she changed her mind, turned the boat, pulled in her fishing line +and shot into a sandy beach, springing out and pulling the boat clear +of the tide. +</P> + +<P> +She straightened herself as she turned and faced the plateau on the far +incline of which I lay hidden. I saw at a glance that, though a mere +girl in years,—somewhere between sixteen and eighteen,—yet she was a +woman, maturing as a June rose, as a butterfly stretching its pretty +wings for the first time in the ecstasy of its new birth. Of medium +height; her hair was the darkest shade of brown and hung in two long, +thick braids down to her neat waist. She seemed not at all of the +countrified type I might have expected to encounter so far in the wilds. +</P> + +<P> +She was dressed in a spotless white blouse, the sleeves of which were +rolled back almost to her shoulders; with a dark-coloured, serviceable +skirt, the hem of which hung high above a pair of small, bare feet and +neat, supple-looking ankles. I could see her shoes and stockings, +brown in colour, lying in the bow of the boat. She reached over, +picked them up, then sat on a rock by the water's edge and pulled them +on her feet. +</P> + +<P> +But, after all, it was not her dress that held my attention; although +in the main this was pleasing to the eye, nor yet was it the girl's +features, for she was still rather far off for me to observe these +distinctly. What riveted me was the light, agile rapidity of her every +action; and her evident abandonment of everything else for what, for +the moment, absorbed her. +</P> + +<P> +As I watched, I became filled with conflicting thoughts. Should I +remain where I was, or should I at once betray my presence? +</P> + +<P> +I decided that the island was large enough for both of us. She was not +interested in me, so why should I interrupt her in her lonely enjoyment? +</P> + +<P> +I was perplexed more than a little in trying to place where she +rightfully belonged. Naturally, I took her to be the daughter of one +of the settlers on the far side of Golden Crescent. But there was a +something in her entire appearance that seemed to place her on a +different plane from that, a plane all by herself; while, again, there +was the Spanish song which I had heard her lilt out on the water. +</P> + +<P> +She brought my conjecturing to rather an abrupt conclusion, for, +without any warning, she darted up over the rocks and through the ferns +to where I lay, and she had almost trodden upon me before I had time to +get out of her way. +</P> + +<P> +She stepped back with an exclamation of surprise, but gave no sign to +indicate that she was afraid. +</P> + +<P> +I sprang to my feet. +</P> + +<P> +"I am very sorry,—miss," I said sincerely. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!—there ain't much to be sorry over. This ain't my island. +Still,—girls don't much care about men watching them from behind +places," she replied, with a tone of displeasure. +</P> + +<P> +"And I am sorry,—again," I answered. "Please forgive me, for I could +hardly help it. I was lying here when I heard you sing. I became +curious. When you landed, I intended making my presence known, but I +said to myself just what you have said now:—'It is not my island.' +However, I shall go now and leave you in possession." +</P> + +<P> +"Where is your boat?" +</P> + +<P> +"Didn't bring one with me." +</P> + +<P> +"How did you get here then?" +</P> + +<P> +Her blunt questioning was rather disconcerting. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! I walked it," I answered lightly, with a grin. +</P> + +<P> +Her voice changed. "You're trying to be smart," she reprimanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Sorry," I said, in a tone of contrition, "for I am not a bit smart in +spite of my trying. Well,—I swam across from the wharf over there." +</P> + +<P> +She looked up. "Being smart some more." +</P> + +<P> +"No!—it is true." +</P> + +<P> +She measured the distance from the island to the wharf with her eye. +</P> + +<P> +I remarked, some time ago, that her hair was of the darkest shade of +brown. I was wrong;—there was a darker hue still, and that was in her +eyes; while her skin was of that attractive combination, olive and pink. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee!—that was some swim. +</P> + +<P> +"How are you going to get back?" she continued, in open friendliness. +</P> + +<P> +"Swim!" +</P> + +<P> +"Ain't you tired?" +</P> + +<P> +"I was winded a bit when I got here, but I am all right again," I +answered. +</P> + +<P> +"You're an Englishman?" +</P> + +<P> +"How did you guess it?" I asked, as if I were giving her credit for +unearthing a great mystery. +</P> + +<P> +Before answering, she sat down on the grass, clasping her hands over +her knees. I squatted a short distance from her. +</P> + +<P> +"Only Englishmen go swimming hereabouts in the morning." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you often stumble across stray, swimming Englishmen?" I asked in +banter. +</P> + +<P> +"No!—but three summers ago there were some English people staying in +that house at the wharf that's now closed up:—the one next Horsfal's, +and they were in the water so much, they hardly gave the fish a chance. +It was the worst year we ever had for fishing." +</P> + +<P> +I laughed, and she looked up in surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"Then we had an English surveyor staying with us for a month last year. +He was crazy for the water. He went in for half an hour every morning +and before his breakfast, too. You don't find the loggers or any of +the settlers doing silly stunts like that. No, siree. +</P> + +<P> +"Guess you're a surveyor?" +</P> + +<P> +"No!" +</P> + +<P> +"Or maybe a gentleman up for shooting and fishing? Can't be though, +for there ain't any launches in the Bay. Yes, you are, too, for I saw +a launch in yesterday." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope I am always a gentleman," I said, "but I am not the kind of +gentleman you mean. I have no launch and no money but what I can earn. +I am the new man who is to look after Mr. Horsfal's Golden Crescent +property. I shall be more or less of a common country storekeeper +after to-day." +</P> + +<P> +"Heard about that store from old Jake. Granddad over home was talking +about it, too. It'll be convenient for the Camps and a fine thing for +the settlers up here." +</P> + +<P> +She jumped up. "Well,—I guess I got to beat it, Mister——" +</P> + +<P> +"George Bremner," I put in. +</P> + +<P> +"My name's Rita;—Rita Clark. I stay over at the ranch there, the one +with the red-roofed houses. This island's named Rita, too." +</P> + +<P> +"After you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ya!—guess so!" +</P> + +<P> +She did not venture any more. +</P> + +<P> +"Been here long?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Long's I can remember," she answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Like it?" +</P> + +<P> +"I love it. It's all I got. Never been away from it more'n three +times in my life." +</P> + +<P> +There was something akin to longing in her voice. +</P> + +<P> +"I love it all the same,—all but that over there." +</P> + +<P> +As she spoke, she shivered and pointed away out to the great +perpendicular rock, with its jagged, devilish, shark-like teeth, which +rose sheer out of the water and stood black, forbidding and snarling, +even in the sunshine, to the right, at the entrance to the Bay, a +quarter of a mile or so from the far horn of Golden Crescent. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't like rocks?" +</P> + +<P> +"Some rocks," she whispered, "but not 'The Ghoul.'" +</P> + +<P> +"The Ghoul," I repeated with a shudder. "Ugh!—what a name. Who on +earth saddled it with such a horrible name?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nobody on earth. Guess it must have been the devil in hell, for it's +a friend of his." +</P> + +<P> +Her face grew pale and a nameless horror crept into her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"It ain't nice to look on now,—is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"No!" I granted. +</P> + +<P> +"You want to see it in the winter, when there's a storm tearing in, +with the sea crashing over it in a white foam and,—and,—people trying +to hang on to it. Oh!—I tell you what it is,—it's hellish, that's +all. It's well named The Ghoul,—it's a robber of the dead." +</P> + +<P> +"Robber of the dead!—what do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"Everybody but a stranger knows:—it robs them of a decent burial. +Heaps of men, and women too, have been wrecked out there, but only one +was ever known to come off alive. Never a body has ever been found +afterwards." She shivered and turned her head away. +</P> + +<P> +For a while, I gazed at the horrible rock in fascination. What a +reminder it was to the poor human that there is storm as well as calm; +evil as well as good; that turmoil follows in the wake of quiet; that +sorrow tumbles over joy; and savagery and death run riot among life and +happiness and love! +</P> + +<P> +At last, I also turned my eyes away from The Ghoul, with a strong +feeling of anger and resentment toward it. Already I loathed and hated +the thing as I hated nothing else. +</P> + +<P> +I stood alongside the girl and we remained silent until the mood passed. +</P> + +<P> +Then she raised her eyes to mine and smiled. In an endeavour to +forget,—which, after all, was easy amid so much sunshine and +beauty,—I reverted to our former conversation. +</P> + +<P> +"You said you were seldom away from here. Don't you ever take a trip +to Vancouver?" +</P> + +<P> +"Been twice. We're not strong on trips up here. Grand-dad goes to +Vancouver and Victoria once in a while. Grandmother's been here twenty +years and never been five miles from the ranch, 'cept once, and she's +sorry now for that once. +</P> + +<P> +"Joe's the one that gets all the trips. You ain't met Joe. Guess when +you do you and him won't hit it. He always fights with men of your +size and build." +</P> + +<P> +"Who is this Joe?" I asked. "He must be quite a man-eater." +</P> + +<P> +"I ain't going to tell you any more. You'll know him when you see him. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going now. Would you like some fish? The trout were biting good +this morning. I've got more'n we need." +</P> + +<P> +We went down to the shore together. There were between thirty and +forty beauties of sea-trout in the bottom of her boat. She handed me +out a dozen. +</P> + +<P> +"Guess that'll make a square meal for you and Jake." +</P> + +<P> +Then she looked at me and laughed, showing her teeth. "Clean forgot," +she said. "A swimming man ain't no good at carrying fish." +</P> + +<P> +"Why not?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +I picked up some loose cord from her boat, strung the trout by the +gills and tied them securely round my waist. +</P> + +<P> +She watched me archly and a thought went flashing through my mind that +it did not need the education of the city to school a woman in the art +of using her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Guess I'll see you off the premises first, before I go." +</P> + +<P> +"All right!" said I. +</P> + +<P> +We crossed the Island once more, and I got on to a rock which dipped +sheer and deep into the sea. +</P> + +<P> +She held out her hand and smiled in such a bewitching way that, had I +not been a well-seasoned bachelor of almost twenty-five years' +standing, I should have lost my heart to her completely. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-bye! Mister,—Mister Bremner. Safe home." +</P> + +<P> +"Good-bye! Miss—Rita." +</P> + +<P> +"Sure you can make it?" she asked earnestly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!" I cried, and plunged in. +</P> + +<P> +As I came up, I turned and waved my hand. She waved in answer, and +when I looked again she was gone. +</P> + +<P> +I struck swiftly for the wharf, allowing for the incoming tide. +</P> + +<P> +When I was half-way across, I heard the sound of oars and, on taking a +backward glance, I saw Rita making toward me. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello!" I cried, when she drew near. "What's the matter?" +</P> + +<P> +A little shame-faced, she bent over. "I got scared," she said timidly, +"scared you mightn't make it. Sure you don't want me to row you in?" +</P> + +<P> +The boat was alluring, but my pride was touched. +</P> + +<P> +"Quite sure," I answered. "I'm as fresh as the trout round my waist. +Thanks all the same." +</P> + +<P> +"All right! Guess I was foolish. You ain't a man; you're a porpoise." +</P> + +<P> +With this half-annoyed sally, she swung the bow of the boat and rowed +away. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +An Informative Visitor +</H4> + +<P> +That afternoon, prompt at two o'clock, a whistle sounded beyond the +point and, shortly afterwards, the steamboat <I>Siwash</I>, north bound, +entered the Bay. +</P> + +<P> +Jake and I were waiting at the end of the wharf, seated in a large, +wide-beamed, four-oared boat, with Mike, the dog,—still eyeing me +suspiciously,—crouching between his master's feet. +</P> + +<P> +We had a raft and half a dozen small rowing boats of all shapes and +conditions, strung out, Indian file, from our stern. Every available +thing in Golden Crescent Bay that could float, down to a canoe and an +old Indian dug-out, we borrowed or requisitioned for our work. And, +with this long procession in tow, we pulled out and made for the +steamer, which came to a standby in the deep water, three hundred yards +from the shore. +</P> + +<P> +The merchandise was let down by slings from the lower deck, and we had +to handle the freight as best we could, keeping closely alongside all +the while. +</P> + +<P> +A dozen times, I thought one or another of the boats would be +overturned and its contents emptied into the Bay. But luck was with +us. Jake spat tobacco juice on his hands every few minutes and sailed +in like a nigger. Our clothes were soon moist through and through, and +the perspiration was running over our noses long before our task was +completed. But finally the last package was lowered and checked off by +the mate and myself, a clear receipt given; and we (Jake and I) pushed +for the shore, landing exhausted in body but without mishap to the +freight. +</P> + +<P> +Jake fetched some fresh clams to my kitchen for convenience and, after +slapping half a plug of tobacco in his cheek, he started in and cooked +us a savoury concoction which he called "chowder," made with baked +clams mixed in hot milk, with butter and crumbled toast; all duly +seasoned:—while I smoked my pipe and washed enough dishes to hold our +food, and set the table for our meal. +</P> + +<P> +Already, I had discovered that dish-washing was the bugbear of a +kitchen drudge's existence, be the kitchen drudge female or male. I +had only done the job three or four times, but I had got to loathe and +abhor the operation. Not that I felt too proud to wash dishes, but it +seemed such a useless, such an endless, task. However, I suppose +everything in this old world carries with it more or less of these same +annoyingly bad features. +</P> + +<P> +At any rate, I never could make up my mind to wash a dish until I +required it for my next and immediate meal. +</P> + +<P> +We dined ravenously, and throughout the proceeding, Mike sat in the +doorway, keeping close watch that I did not interfere with the sacred +person of his lord and master, Jake Meaghan. +</P> + +<P> +Rested and reinvigorated, we set-to with box-openers, hammers and +chisels, unpacking and unpacking until the thing became a boring +monotony. +</P> + +<P> +Canned milk, canned beef, canned beans, canned salmon, canned crabs, +canned well-nigh-everything; bottled fruits, bottled pickles, bottled +jams and jellies, everything bottled that was not canned; bags of +sugar, flour, meal, potatoes, oats and chicken feed; hardware galore, +axes, hammers, wedges, peevies, cant hoops, picks, shovels, nails, +paints, brooms, brushes and a thousand other commodities and +contrivances the like of which I never saw before and hope never to see +again. +</P> + +<P> +Never, in all my humble existence, did I feel so clerky as I did then. +</P> + +<P> +I checked the beastly stuff off as well as I could, taking the +Vancouver wholesalers' word for the names of half the things, for I was +quite sure they knew better than I did about them. +</P> + +<P> +With the assistance of Jake, as "hander-up," I set the goods in a +semblance of order on the shelves and about the store. +</P> + +<P> +We worked and slaved as if it were the last day and our eternal +happiness depended on our finishing the job before the last trump +sounded its blast of dissolution. +</P> + +<P> +By the last stroke of twelve, midnight, we had the front veranda swept +clean of straw, paper and excelsior, and all empty boxes cleared away; +just in time to welcome the advent of my first Sabbath day in the +Canadian West. +</P> + +<P> +Throughout our arduous afternoon and evening, what a surprise old Jake +was to me! Well I knew that he was hard and tough from years of +strenuous battling with the northern elements; but that he, at his age +and with his record for hard drinking, should be able to keep up the +sustained effort against a young man in his prime and that he should do +so cheerfully and without a word of complaint,—save an occasional +grunt when the steel bands around some of the boxes proved +recalcitrant, and an explosive, picturesque oath when the end of a +large case dropped over on his toes,—was, to me, little short of +marvellous. +</P> + +<P> +Already, I was beginning to think that Mr. K. B. Horsfal had erred in +regard to his man and that it was Jake Meaghan who was twenty-four +carat gold. +</P> + +<P> +If any man ever did deserve two breakfast cups brimful of whisky, neat, +before turning in, it was old, walrus-moustached, weather-battered, +baby-eyed, sour-dough Jake, in the small, early hours of that Sabbath +morning. +</P> + +<P> +I slept that night like a dead thing, and the sun was high in the +heavens before I opened my eyes and became conscious again of my +surroundings. +</P> + +<P> +I looked over at the clock. Fifteen minutes past ten! I threw my legs +over the side of the bed, ashamed of my sluggardliness. +</P> + +<P> +Then I remembered,—it was Sunday morning. +</P> + +<P> +Oh! glorious remembering! Sunday,—-with nothing to do but attend to +my own bodily comforts. +</P> + +<P> +I pulled my legs back into the bed in order to start the day correctly. +I lay and stretched myself, then, very leisurely,—always remembering +that it was the Sabbath,—I put one foot out and then the other, until, +at last, I stood on the floor, really and truly up and awake. +</P> + +<P> +Jake had been around. I could see traces of him in the yard, though he +was nowhere visible in the flesh. +</P> + +<P> +After I had breakfasted and made my bed (I know little Maisie Brant, +who used to make my bed away back over in the old home—little Maisie +who had wept at my departure, would have laughed till she wept again, +had she seen my woful endeavours to straighten out my sheets and smooth +my pillow. But then, she was not there to see and laugh and—I was +quite satisfied with my handiwork and satisfied that I would be able to +sleep soundly in the bed when the night should come again)—I hunted +the shelves for a book. +</P> + +<P> +Stevenson, Poe, Scott, Hugo, Wells, Barrie, Dumas, Twain, Emerson, +Byron, Longfellow, Burns,—which should it be? +</P> + +<P> +Back along the line I went, and chose—oh, well!—an old favourite I +had read many times before. +</P> + +<P> +I hunted out a hammock and slung it comfortably from the posts on the +front veranda, where I could lie and smoke and read; also where I could +look away across the Bay and rest my eyes on the quiet scene when they +should grow weary. +</P> + +<P> +Late in the afternoon, when I was beginning to grow tired of my +indolence, I heard the thud, thud of a gasoline launch as it came up +the Bay. It passed between Rita's Isle and the wharf, and held on, +turning in to Jake Meaghan's cove. +</P> + +<P> +I wondered who the visitor could be, then I went back to my reading. +</P> + +<P> +Not long after, a shadow fell across my book and I jumped up. +</P> + +<P> +"Pray, don't let me disturb you, my son," said a soft, well-modulated, +masculine voice. "Stay where you are. Enjoy your well-earned rest." +</P> + +<P> +A little, frail-looking, pale-faced, elderly gentleman was at my elbow. +</P> + +<P> +He smiled at me with the smile of an angel, and my heart went out to +him at once, so much so that I could have hugged him in my arms. +</P> + +<P> +"My name is William Auld," he continued. "I am the medical missionary. +What is yours, my son?" +</P> + +<P> +He held out his hand to me. +</P> + +<P> +"George Bremner," I replied, gripping his. "Let me bring you a chair." +</P> + +<P> +I went inside, and when I returned he was turning over the leaves of my +book. +</P> + +<P> +"So you are a book lover?" he mused. "Well, I would to God more men +were book lovers, for then the world would be a better place to live +in, or rather, the men in it would be better to live among. +</P> + +<P> +"Victor Hugo,—'Les Miserables'!—" he went on. "To my mind, the +greatest of all novelists and the greatest of all novels." +</P> + +<P> +He laid the book aside, and sought my confidences, not as a preacher, +not as a pedagog, but as a friend; making no effort to probe my past, +seeking no secrets; but all anxiety for my welfare; keen to know my +ambitions, my aspirations, my pastimes and my habits of living; open +and frank in telling me of himself. He was a man's man, with the +experience of men that one gets only by years of close contact. +</P> + +<P> +"For twenty years it has been God's will to allow me to travel up and +down this beloved coast and minister to those who need me." +</P> + +<P> +"You must like the work, sir," I ventured. +</P> + +<P> +"Like it!—oh! yes, yes,—-I would not exchange my post for the City +Temple of London, England." +</P> + +<P> +"But such toil must be arduous, Mr. Auld, for you are not a young man +and you do not look altogether a robust one." +</P> + +<P> +He paused in meditation. "It is arduous, sometimes;—to-day I have +talked to the men at eight camps and I have visited fourteen families +at different points on my journey. But, if I were to stop, who would +look after my beloved people in the ranches all up the coast; who would +care for my easily-led, simple-hearted brethren in the logging camps, +every one of whom knows me, confides in me and looks forward to my +coming; not one of whom but would part with his coat for me, not one +who would harm a hair of my head. I shall not stop, Mr. Bremner,—I +have no desire to stop, not till God calls me. +</P> + +<P> +"I see you have been making changes even in your short time here," he +said, pointing to the store. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! I think Jake and I did fairly well yesterday," I answered, not a +little proudly. +</P> + +<P> +"Splendidly, my boy! And, do you know,—your coming here means a great +deal. It is the commencement of a new departure, for your store is +going to prove a great boon to the settlers. They have been talking +about it and looking forward to it ever since it was first mooted. +</P> + +<P> +"But it will not be altogether smooth sailing for you, for you must +keep a close rein on your credit." +</P> + +<P> +It struck me, as he spoke, that he was the very man I was desirous of +meeting regarding what I considered would prove my stumbling block. +</P> + +<P> +"Can you spare me half an hour, sir, and have tea with me?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! gladly, for my day's service is over,—all but one call, and a +cup of tea is always refreshing." +</P> + +<P> +I showed him inside and set him in my cosiest chair. While I busied +with the table things,—washing some dishes as a usual preliminary,—I +approached the subject. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Auld,—I wished to ask your advice, for I am sure you can assist +me. My employer, Mr. Horsfal, has given me a free hand regarding +credit to the settlers. I know none of them and I am afraid that, +without guidance, I may offend some or land the business in trouble +with others. Will you help me, sir?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why—of course, I'll help." +</P> + +<P> +He took a sheet of paper from his pocket and commenced to write, +talking to me as he did so. +</P> + +<P> +"You know, if times are at all good, you can trust the average man who +owns the ranch he lives on to pay his grocery bills sooner or later. +Still, if I were you, I wouldn't let any of them get into debt more +than sixty or seventy dollars, for they do not require to, and, once +they get in arrears, they have difficulty in getting out. +</P> + +<P> +"It is the floating population,—the here-to-day-and-away-to-morrow +people who should not be given credit. And,—Mr. Bremner, if you +desire to act in kindness to the men themselves, do not allow the +loggers, who come in here, to run up bills for themselves personally. +Not that they are more dishonest than other people,—far from it. I +find it generally the other way round,—but they are notoriously +improvident; inclined,—God bless them,—to live for the fleeting +moment. +</P> + +<P> +"In many ways they are like children in their simplicity and their +waywardness,—and their lot is not one of roses and honeysuckle. They +make good money and can afford to pay as they go. If they cannot pay, +they can easily wait for what they want until they can, for they are +well fed and well housed while in the camps." +</P> + +<P> +We sat down at the table together. +</P> + +<P> +"There is a list, George. May I call you George? It is so much more +friendly." +</P> + +<P> +I nodded in hearty approval. +</P> + +<P> +"It is not by any means complete, but it contains the principal people +among your near-hand neighbours. You can trust them to pay their last +cent: Neil Andrews, Semple, Smith, Johannson, Doolan, MacAllister and +Gourlay. +</P> + +<P> +"Any others who may call,—make them pay; and I shall be glad to inform +you about them when I am this way again." +</P> + +<P> +"How often do you come in here, Mr. Auld?" +</P> + +<P> +"I try to make it, at least, once in two weeks, but I am not always +successful. I like to visit Jake Meaghan. Poor, old, faithful, +plodding Jake,—how I tried, at first, to extract the thorn from his +flesh—the accursed drink! I talked to him, I scolded him, I +threatened him, but,—poor Jake,—he and his whisky are one, and +nothing but death will ever separate them." +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly his face lit up and his eyes seemed to catch fire. +</P> + +<P> +"And who are we to judge?" he said, as if denying some inward question. +"What right have we to think for a moment that this inherent weakness +shall deprive Jake Meaghan of eternal happiness? He is honest; he does +good in his own little sphere; he harms no one but himself, for he +hasn't a dependent in the world. He fills a niche in God's plan; he is +still God's child, no matter how erring he may be. He is some mother's +son. George,—I am fully persuaded that my God, and your God, will not +be hard on old Jake when his time comes; and, do you know, sometimes I +think that time is not very far off." +</P> + +<P> +We sat silent for a while, then the minister spoke again: +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me, George,—have you met any of your neighbours yet?" +</P> + +<P> +"Only two," I said, "Jake, and Rita Clark." +</P> + +<P> +He raised his white, bushy eyebrows. +</P> + +<P> +"So you have met Rita! She's a strange child; harboured in a strange +home." +</P> + +<P> +He sighed at some passing thought. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a queer world,—or rather, it's a good world with queer people in +it. One would expect to find love and harmony in the home every time +away up here, but it does not always follow. Old Margaret Clark is the +gentlest, dearest, most patient soul living. Andrew Clark is a good +man in every way but one,—but in that one he is the Rock of Gibraltar +itself, or, to go nearer the place of his birth, Ailsa Craig, that old +milestone that stands defiantly between Scotland and Ireland. Andrew +Clark is immovable. He is hard, relentless, fanatical in his ideas of +right and wrong; cruel to himself and to the woman he vowed to love and +cherish. Oh!—he sears my heart every time I think of him. Yet, he is +living up to his idea of what is right." +</P> + +<P> +The white-haired old gentleman,—bearer of the burdens of his +fellows,—did not confide in me as to the nature of Andrew Clark's +trouble, and it was not for me to probe. +</P> + +<P> +"As for Rita," he pursued, "poor, little Rita!—she is no relative of +either Margaret or Andrew Clark. She is a child of the sea. Hers is a +pitiful story, and I betray no confidences in telling you of it, for it +is common property. +</P> + +<P> +"Fourteen years ago a launch put into the Bay and anchored at the +entrance to Jake's cove. There were several ladies and gentlemen in +her, and one little girl. They picnicked on the beach and, in the +evening, they dined aboard, singing and laughing until after midnight. +Jake was the only one who saw or heard them, and he swears they were +not English-spoken. Though they were gay and pleasure-loving, yet they +seemed to be of a superior class of people. +</P> + +<P> +"He awoke before daylight, fancying he heard screams in the location of +The Ghoul Rock. He got up and, so certain was he that he had not been +mistaken, he got into his boat and rowed out and round The Ghoul,—for +the night was calm,—but everything was quiet and peaceful out there. +</P> + +<P> +"Next morning, while Joe Clark was scampering along the shore, he came +across the unconscious form of a little girl about four years old, clad +only in a nightdress and roped roughly to an unmarked life-belt. Joe +carried her in to his grandfather, old Andrew, who worked over her for +more than an hour; and at last succeeded in bringing her round. +</P> + +<P> +"All she could say then was, "Rita, Rita, Rita," although, about a year +afterwards, she started to hum and sing a little Spanish dancing song. +A peculiar reversion of memory, for she certainly never heard such a +song in Golden Crescent. +</P> + +<P> +"Jake swears to this day that she belonged to the launch party, who +must have run sheer into The Ghoul Rock and gone down. +</P> + +<P> +"Little boy Joe pleaded with his grandfather and grandmother to keep +the tiny girl the sea had given them, and they did not need much +coaxing, for she was pretty and attractive from the first. +</P> + +<P> +"Inquiries were set afoot, but, from that day to this, not a clue has +been found as to her identity; so, Rita Clark she is and Rita Clark she +will remain until some fellow, worthy of her I hope, wins her and +changes her name. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought at one time, Joe Clark would claim her and her name would +not be changed after all, but since Joe has seen some of the outside +world and has been meeting with all kinds of people, he has grown +patronising and changeable with women, as he is domineering and +bullying with men. +</P> + +<P> +"He treats Rita as if he expected her to be continually at his call +should he desire her, and yet he were at liberty to choose when and +where he please." +</P> + +<P> +"But, does Rita care for him?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Seems so at times," he answered, "but of late I have noticed a +coldness in her at the mention of his name; just as if she resented his +airs of one-sided proprietorship and were trying to decide with herself +to tolerate no more of it. +</P> + +<P> +"I tried to veer round to the subject with Joe once, but he swore an +oath and told me to mind my own affairs. What Joe Clark needs is +opposition. Yet Joe is a good fellow, strong and daring as a lion and +aggressive to a degree." +</P> + +<P> +I was deeply interested as the old minister told the story, and it was +like bringing me up suddenly when he stopped. I had no idea how fast +the time had been passing. +</P> + +<P> +Well I could understand now why this Rita Clark intuitively hated The +Ghoul Rock. Who, in her place, would feel otherwise? +</P> + +<P> +The Rev. William Auld rose from the table. +</P> + +<P> +"I must go now, my son, for the way is long. Thanks so much for the +rest and for your hospitality. My only exhortation to you is, stand +firm by all the principles you know to be true; never lose hold of the +vital things because you are here in the wilds, for it is here the +vital things count, more than in the whirr of civilisation." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, sir. I'll try," I said. "You will come again, I hope." +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly I shall. Even if you did not ask me, for that is my duty. +</P> + +<P> +"If you accompany me as far as Jake's cove, where my launch is, I think +I can furnish you with a paper from your countryside. I have friends +in the city, in the States and in England, who supply me, every week, +with American and Old Country papers. There are so many men from both +lands in the camps and settled along the coast and they all so dearly +love a newspaper. I generally try to give them what has been issued +nearest their own home towns." +</P> + +<P> +I rowed Mr. Auld over to his launch and wished him good-bye, receiving +from his kindly old hands a copy of <I>The Northern Examiner</I>, dated +three days after I had left Brammerton. +</P> + +<P> +It was like meeting with an old friend, whom I had expected never to +meet again. I put it in my inside pocket for consideration when I +should get back to my bungalow with plenty of time to enjoy it. +</P> + +<P> +I dropped in to Jake's shack, for I had not seen him all the sleepy +day. I found him sitting in perfect content, buried up over the eyes +in a current issue of <I>The Northern Lights</I>,—a Dawson newspaper, which +had been in existence since the old Klondike days and was much relished +by old-timers. +</P> + +<P> +The dog was curled up near the stove, sleeping off certain effects; +Jake was at his second cup of whisky. I left them to the peace and +sanctity of their Sabbath evening and rowed back to "Paradise +Regained," as I had already christened my bungalow. +</P> + +<P> +I sat down on the steps of the veranda, to peruse the home paper which +the minister had left with me, and it was not long before I was +startled by a flaring headline. The blood rushed from my face to my +heart and seemed as if it would burst that great, throbbing organ:— +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +"SUDDEN DEATH OF THE EARL OF BRAMMERTON AND HAZELMERE." +</H4> + +<BR> + +<P> +My eyes scanned the notice. +</P> + +<P> +"News has been telegraphed that the Earl of Brammerton and Hazelmere +died suddenly of heart failure at his country residence, Hazelmere. +His demise has caused a profound sensation, as it occurred on the eve +of a House Party, arranged in celebration of the engagement of his son, +Viscount Harry Brammerton, Captain of the Coldstream Guards, to the +beautiful Lady Rosemary Granton, daughter of the late General Frederick +Granton, who was the companion and dearest friend of the late Earl of +Brammerton in the early days of their campaigning in the Crimea and +India." +</P> + +<P> +A long obituary notice followed, concluding with the following +paragraph: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"It is given out that the marriage of the present Earl with Lady +Granton has been postponed and that, after the necessary business +formalities have been attended to, Captain Harry will join his regiment +in Egypt for a short term. +</P> + +<P> +"Lady Rosemary Granton has gone to New York, at the cabled invitation +of some old family friends." +</P> + +<P> +"It is understood that the Hon. George Brammerton, second and only +other son of the late Earl, is presently on a long walking tour in +Europe. His whereabouts are unknown and he is still in ignorance of +his father's death." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The pain of that sudden announcement, so soon after I had left home and +right on the eve of my new endeavours, no one shall ever know. +</P> + +<P> +My dear old father! Angry at my alleged eccentricities sometimes, but +ever ready to forgive,—was gone: doubtless, passing away with a +message of forgiveness to me on his lips. +</P> + +<P> +And,—after the pain of it, came the conflict. +</P> + +<P> +Had what I had done caused or in any way hastened my father's death? +Admitting that Harry's fault was great and unforgiveable, would it not +have been better had I allowed it to remain in obscurity, at least for +a time? Was the keeping of the family name unsullied, was the +untarnished honour of our ancient family motto, "Clean,—within and +without," of greater importance than my father's life? Was it my duty +to be an unintentional and silent partner to the keeping of vital +intelligence from the fair Lady Rosemary? +</P> + +<P> +Over all,—had I done right or wrong? +</P> + +<P> +What did duty now demand of me? Should I hurry home and face the fresh +problems there which were sure to arise now that Harry had succeeded to +the titles and estates? Should I remain by the post I had accepted +from the hands of Mr. K. B. Horsfal and test thoroughly this new and +exhilarating life which, so far, I had merely tasted? +</P> + +<P> +I had no doubts as to what my inclinations and desires were. But it +was not a question of inclinations and desires:—it was simply one of +duty. +</P> + +<P> +All night long, I sat on the veranda steps with my elbows on my knees +and my head in my upturned hands, fighting my battle; until, at last, +when the grey was creeping up over the hills behind me and touching the +dark surface of the sea in front here and there with mellow lights, I +rose and went in to the house,—my conscience clear as the breaking +day, my mind at rest like the rose-coloured tops of the mountains. +</P> + +<P> +I had no regrets. I had done as a true Brammerton should. I had done +the right. +</P> + +<P> +I would not go back;—not yet. I would remain here for a while in my +obscurity, testing out the new life and executing as faithfully as I +knew how the new duties I had voluntarily assumed. +</P> + +<P> +Further,—for my peace of mind,—so long as I remained in Golden +Crescent, I decided I would not cast my eyes over the columns of any +newspaper coming from the British Isles. If I were to be done with the +old life, I must be done with it in every way. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Joe Clark, Bully +</H4> + +<P> +With the advent of Monday morning, the Golden Crescent Trading Company, +in charge of George Bremner, handyman, store-clerk, bookkeeper, buyer +and general superintendent,—opened its doors for business. +</P> + +<P> +I was not overburdened with customers, for which I was not sorry, as I +had lots to do fixing the prices of my stock and setting it to rights. +</P> + +<P> +But the arrival of the mail by the Tuesday steamer brought Neil +Andrews, Doolan, Gourlay and the stern, but honest-faced old Scot, +Andrew Clark, all at different times during the afternoon. Not one of +them could resist the temptation and go away without making some +substantial purchases. +</P> + +<P> +I held religiously to the Rev. William Auld's list, but I found, in +most cases, that my customers were prepared to pay for their first +orders, at any rate, in cash; and, of course, I did not discourage them. +</P> + +<P> +On Wednesday, a launch, with three men in her, put in from No. 1 camp +at Susquahamma, bearing an order as long as my arm, duly endorsed in a +business-like way and all according to requirements. +</P> + +<P> +It took me most of the afternoon to put that order up. The men did not +seem to mind, as they reckoned the going and returning to camp a +well-nigh all-day job for them. They made Jake's shack their +headquarters, spending all of the last two hours of their time in his +cabin. +</P> + +<P> +Thursday brought another launch, this time from Camp No. 3, and the +same process was gone through as with No. 1, including the visit of the +visitors to Jake's shack. +</P> + +<P> +In an ordinary case, I would have been beginning to fear that that +shack had become a common shebeen, but I knew Jake was not the man to +accept money from any of his fellow creatures in exchange for any +hospitality it might be in his power to offer. A few days later came a +repeat order from No. 1 Camp, then a request from the Cannery, which I +was able to fill only in part, as many things required by them had not +been included in the original orders given to the Vancouver wholesalers. +</P> + +<P> +I was beginning to wonder where Camp No. 2 was getting its supplies +from, when, one day, about two weeks after my opening, they showed up. +</P> + +<P> +Two men came over in a fast-moving launch of a much better type than +those in use by the other camps. The men were big and burly fellows. +One of them was unmistakably Irish; the other looked of Swedish +extraction. +</P> + +<P> +"You the man that looks after this joint?" asked the Swede. +</P> + +<P> +"I am," I answered. +</P> + +<P> +He looked me up and down, for I was on the same side of the counter as +they. Then he turned to his Irish companion with a grin. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, mister,—where's your hoss?" he asked, addressing me. +</P> + +<P> +Both laughed loudly. +</P> + +<P> +At first I failed to see the point of hilarity. +</P> + +<P> +"What is the joke?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Guess you are!" said the Swede. And the two men laughed louder than +ever. +</P> + +<P> +"Look here!" I cried, my blood getting up, "I want you two to +understand, first go off, that I am not in the habit of standing up to +be grinned at. What do you want? Speak out your business or get out +of here and tumble back into your boat." +</P> + +<P> +"Ach!—it's all right, matey," put in the Irishman. "Just a bit av fun +out av yer breeches and leggings. We Canucks don't wear breeches and +leggings in grocery stores. Do we, Jan?" +</P> + +<P> +"Guess nit," said Jan. And they both laughed again. +</P> + +<P> +I cooled down, thinking if that were all their joke they were welcome +to it, for I had already found my breeches and leggings mighty handy +for getting through the bush with and for tumbling in and out of leaky +rowing boats. +</P> + +<P> +I grinned. "All right, fellows," I cried, "laugh all you want and I'll +leave you a legging each as a legacy when I die." +</P> + +<P> +"Say, sonny,—you're all right!" he exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +Good humour returned all round. +</P> + +<P> +"We're from No. 2 Camp at Cromer Bay and we want a bunch of stuff." +</P> + +<P> +"Where is your list and I'll try to fill it?" I inquired. +</P> + +<P> +The Swede handed over a long order, badly scrawled on the back of a +paper bag. The order was unstamped and unsigned, and not on the +company's order form. +</P> + +<P> +"This is not any good," I said. "Where is the company's order?" +</P> + +<P> +The Swede looked blankly at the Irishman, and the Irishman gazed +dreamily at the Swede. +</P> + +<P> +"Guess that's good enough. Ain't it, Dan?" +</P> + +<P> +"Shure!" seconded Dan. +</P> + +<P> +"It can't be done, boys," I said. "Sorry,—but I have my instructions +and they must be followed out." +</P> + +<P> +I handed back the list. +</P> + +<P> +The Swede stared at it and then over at me. +</P> + +<P> +"Ain't you goin' to fill this?" +</P> + +<P> +"No!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'll be gosh-dinged! Say! sonny,—there'll be a hearse here for +you to-morrow. The boss wrote this." +</P> + +<P> +"How am I to know that?" I retorted. +</P> + +<P> +"Damned if I know," he returned, scratching his forelock. "But it'll +be merry hell to pay if we go back without this bunch of dope." +</P> + +<P> +"And it might be the devil to pay, if I gave you the goods without a +proper order," I followed up. +</P> + +<P> +"Some of this stuff's for to-morrow's grubstake," put in the Swede, +"and most of the hardware's wanted for a job first crack out of the box +in the morning." +</P> + +<P> +"Sorry to disoblige you, fellows," I said sincerely, "but your boss +should not have run so close to the wind. Further, I am going to work +this store right and that from the very beginning." +</P> + +<P> +"And you're not goin' to fill the boss's own caligeography, or whatever +you call it?" reiterated the Irishman. +</P> + +<P> +"No!" +</P> + +<P> +"Wouldn't that rattle ye?" exclaimed Dan to his friend. +</P> + +<P> +"It do," conceded the Swede, who put his hand into his pocket and +tossed fifteen cents on to the counter. +</P> + +<P> +"Well,—give us ten cents chewing tobacco, and a packet of gum." +</P> + +<P> +I filled this cash order and immediately thereafter the two walked out +of the store and sailed away without another word or even a look behind +them. +</P> + +<P> +I was worried over the incident, for I did not like to think myself in +any way instrumental in depriving the men of anything they might +require for their supper, and it was farthest from my desires to stop +or even hamper the work at Camp No. 2. But I had been warned that +there was only one way to operate a business and that was on business +lines, according to plan, so my conscience would not permit of any +other course than the one I had taken. +</P> + +<P> +Had the store been my own, I might have acted differently, but it was +merely held by me in trust, which was quite another matter. +</P> + +<P> +Next forenoon, a tug blew her whistle and put into the Bay, coming-to +on the far side of Rita's Isle. A little later, as I stood behind the +counter writing up some fresh orders to the wholesalers, to replenish +my dwindling stock, a dinghy, with one man at the oars and another +sitting in the stern, appeared round the Island and pointed straight +for the wharf. +</P> + +<P> +The oarsman ran the nose of the boat on the beach and remained where he +was. The man who had been sitting in the stern sprang out and came +striding in the direction of the store. +</P> + +<P> +He stopped at the door and looked around him, ignoring my presence the +while. +</P> + +<P> +What a magnificent specimen of a man he was! Never in my life had I +seen such a man, and, with all the sight-seeing I have done since, I +have never met such another. +</P> + +<P> +I fancied, with my five feet eleven inches, that I was of a good +height; but this giant stood six feet four inches, if he stood an inch. +He looked quite boyish; not a day older than twenty-two. His hair was +very fair and wavy, and he had plenty of it. +</P> + +<P> +He was cleanly shaven and cleanly and neatly dressed. His eyes were +big and sky blue in colour. They were eyes that could be warm or cold +at will. Just then, they were passively cold. +</P> + +<P> +His was a good face, reflecting strength and determination, while +honesty, straight-forwardness and absolute fearlessness lent a charm to +it that it otherwise would have lacked. +</P> + +<P> +After all, it was the glory of his stature that attracted me, as he +stood, framed by the door, dressed in his high logging boots, with +khaki-coloured trousers and a shirt to match; a soft felt hat on the +back of his head set a little sportily to one side. +</P> + +<P> +Myself an admirer of the human form, a lover of muscle and sinew, +strength, agility and virility, it always was the physique of a person +that arrested my attention. +</P> + +<P> +What a man this was for a woman to love! flashed the thought through my +mind. Gazing at him, I could not help feeling my own insignificance in +comparison, although, far down inside of me, there was a hungry kind of +longing to match my agility and science against his tremendous brute +strength, a wondering what the outcome would be. It was, however, +merely a feeling of friendly antagonism. +</P> + +<P> +But this was the fancy of a passing moment, for I was waiting for the +big fellow to speak. +</P> + +<P> +He did speak, and rather spoiled the impression. +</P> + +<P> +"What'n the hell kind of a dump is this anyway?" he exploded. +</P> + +<P> +I was hit as with a brickbat, but I tried not to show it. +</P> + +<P> +"This is the Golden Crescent Trading Company," I answered quietly and, +if anything, with an assumption of meekness which I was far from +feeling;—just to see how much rope this big fellow would take to hang +himself with. +</P> + +<P> +I suppose my tone made him think that his verbal onslaught had been as +effective as it had been short. +</P> + +<P> +He turned his eyes on me for the first time. They fixed on mine, and +never once flickered. +</P> + +<P> +"You—don't—say!" he returned, in measured words. +</P> + +<P> +Then he flared up again. +</P> + +<P> +"Say!—who's the boss here?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am," I retorted, getting warm. +</P> + +<P> +He came over to the middle of the floor. +</P> + +<P> +"And where'n the hell do I come in?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't know, I'm sure, mister; and I don't care very much either. But +I have an idea that you or I will go out, quick, if you don't cool +down." +</P> + +<P> +"Here!—you cut that stuff out." He came up to the counter, clenching +his huge hands. "I'm Joe Clark,—see." +</P> + +<P> +"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Clark. I'm George Bremner." +</P> + +<P> +"Who'n the hell's George Bremner?" he burst out. +</P> + +<P> +"That's just what I was wondering in regard to Joe Clark," I retorted, +returning glare for glare. "But look you here,—whoever you may be, +you may get off with this sort of language elsewhere, but it doesn't +have any effect on the man who is running the Golden Crescent Trading +Company." +</P> + +<P> +He tried hard to hold himself together. +</P> + +<P> +"Guess you're one of them new-broom-sweep-clean smart Alicks," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"About as smart as you are civil, Mr. Clark." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Mister Man, supposin' you and me gets down to brass tacks, right +now. I'm the Superintendent of No. 2 Camp, with a say in the +management of Camps No. 1 and No. 3. I own three tugs operatin' on the +coast here." +</P> + +<P> +He thumped his fist on the counter,—"and anything I have a hand in, my +word goes,—understand." +</P> + +<P> +"You are a lucky man," I answered. "But your word won't go here unless +it coincides with mine, Mister Clark. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," I added briskly, "tell me your business, or get out. I have +other work to do." +</P> + +<P> +He raised his hand and leaned across the counter, as if to clutch me by +the throat, and a terrible paw of a hand it was, too. But, evidently, +he thought better of it. +</P> + +<P> +Not that I fancied for a moment that he was afraid of me at all, +because I knew quite well that he was not. +</P> + +<P> +He sat down on a box and watched me closely, sizing me up at every +angle as I busied myself adjusting some tins on the shelves that were +in no way in need of adjustment. +</P> + +<P> +"Guess you think I pay men to take picnics for the good of their health +down to this one-horse outfit." +</P> + +<P> +"I have not wasted any thoughts on you at all, so far, Mr. Clark," I +replied. +</P> + +<P> +"Why'n the hell didn't you fill my order yesterday?" +</P> + +<P> +"Was it your order?" +</P> + +<P> +"'Course it was. Wrote it out myself, every bit of it." +</P> + +<P> +"Well,—you're a rotten writer, Mr. Clark." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!—can it. What kind of a tin-pot way of doin' business was that? +What was this damned place started for anyway, if not for the +convenience of the Camps?" +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose you think I ought to know your writing?" I asked. +"Well,—Mr. Clark, even if I had known it, I would not have accepted +the order as it was. My positive instructions are that all camp orders +have to be filled only on receipt of a stamped and signed document on +the Company's business form for that purpose. And that's the only way +goods will go out from here, whether for Joe Clark or for any one else." +</P> + +<P> +"And what if I ain't got an order with me now? Guess you'll turn me +down same as you did the others yesterday?" +</P> + +<P> +"That is just what I would have to do." +</P> + +<P> +"The hell you would!" He put his hand into his pocket and brought out +some papers, one of which he threw on the counter. "There's your +blasted order. Get a wiggle on, for I ain't here on a pleasure +jaunt,—not by a damn sight. I'll be back in an hour for them goods." +</P> + +<P> +"Better make it an hour and a half. It's a big order and it will not +be ready a minute sooner." +</P> + +<P> +"Gosh!" he growled, as he strode out, "some store-clerk,—-I don't +think." +</P> + +<P> +I filled the requirements of Camp No. 2 to the best of my ability, +packing up the goods and making everything as secure as necessary for +the boat trip. I had the stuff all piled nicely on the veranda and was +sitting on the steps contemplating and admiring the job, when the +dinghy came back with Joe Clark in the stern as before. +</P> + +<P> +"Hi, there!—you with the breeches and the leggings,—ain't you got +that order of mine ready yet?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is all here waiting for you," I shouted back, striking a match on +my much maligned breeches and lighting my briar pipe leisurely. +</P> + +<P> +"Well,—why'n the devil don't you bring it aboard?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't you come and fetch it?" I cried. "I'm a store-keeper, +Mister Joe Clark,—not a delivery wagon. I sell f.o.b. the veranda." +And I smoked on. +</P> + +<P> +He jumped out of the boat and rushed up the beach like a madman. I sat +still, smoking away dreamily, but with a weather eye on him. +</P> + +<P> +He stood over me, rolled up his sleeves and contemplated me, then he +turned and shouted to his man: +</P> + +<P> +"Hi, Plumbago! Come on and lend a hand with this cargo. No use +wasting any time on this tom-fool injun." +</P> + +<P> +To say I was surprised, was to put it mildly, for I was sure a quarrel +was about to be precipitated. +</P> + +<P> +Joe Clark and his man set to, carrying the boxes, and bundles, and +packages piecemeal from the veranda to the boat, while I smoked and +smoked as if in complete ignorance of their presence. +</P> + +<P> +I knew I was acting aggravatingly, but then, I had been very much +aggravated. +</P> + +<P> +In an ordinary circumstance I would have been only too pleased to lend +a hand if asked and, possibly, without being asked,—although there was +nothing calling for me to do so,—but when ordered,—well,—how would +any other fellow with a little pride in him have acted? Still, I must +give Joe Clark his due. He made two trips to that dinghy against his +helper's one and he always tackled the heaviest and the most unwieldy +packages. +</P> + +<P> +When he came for the last box, I rose to go into the house. As I +turned, he caught me by the arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Here!" he shouted. +</P> + +<P> +I whipped round. +</P> + +<P> +"Take your hands off me," I cried angrily, jerking my arm in an old +wrestling trick and throwing my weight on him at an unbalanced angle, +freeing myself and sending him back against the partition. +</P> + +<P> +He recovered himself and we stood facing each other defiantly. +</P> + +<P> +"God!" he growled, "but I'd like to kill you. You think you've won +this time. Maybe you have, but, by God! you won't be in this store a +month from now. I'll hound you out, or kick you out,—take it from me." +</P> + +<P> +"And I'll stand by," I replied, "and take it all quietly like the +simple little lamb I'm not." +</P> + +<P> +I went into the house and closed the door, and the last I saw of Joe +Clark that day was through the window as he packed his last box and +pushed off in the dinghy. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A Visit, A Discovery and a Kiss +</H4> + +<P> +In the cool of the evening, I came to the conclusion that I had earned +for myself the privilege of the enjoyment of a swim, so I threw my +clothes on my bed, got into my costume, ran out on to the rocks, dived +in and away. +</P> + +<P> +I did not go out into the Bay this time, but kept leisurely along the +beach fronting the neighbouring property, keeping at a safe distance +from the tangle of seaweed, which, somehow, seemed to gather at that +particular part of the Crescent. +</P> + +<P> +I amused myself for half an hour, then I returned dripping and in +splendid humour with myself, with my friends and even with Joe Clark. +</P> + +<P> +I did not notice an extra boat moored alongside the miscellaneous small +craft at the wharf, so, when I stepped noiselessly into my front room, +I was more than surprised to find Rita Clark standing there, in the +fading light, looking over my book shelves. +</P> + +<P> +She turned with an exclamation, and her face lit up with a smile which +was bewitching, although I fancied it just a little bit forced. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!—it's you," she cried. "I knew you wouldn't be very long away. +Been having another try to see whether you're a man or a fish? Guess +the fish will win out if you're not careful." +</P> + +<P> +She became solemn suddenly. +</P> + +<P> +"Say!—you go in there and get dressed. I just got to talk to you +about something." +</P> + +<P> +"Gracious goodness! Is it as serious as all that, Miss Clark?" I +quizzed. +</P> + +<P> +"Serious enough. You go in and hurry, anyway." +</P> + +<P> +"I won't be two minutes," I cried, going into my bedroom and dressing +as quickly as possible, puzzling all the while as to what the girl had +on her mind. Something connected with Joe,—I hadn't a doubt. +</P> + +<P> +"Well,—what's the trouble?" I asked, as I returned and sat down in a +wicker chair opposite her. +</P> + +<P> +She seemed more glum than ever. +</P> + +<P> +"What did you want to go and scrap with Joe for?" she asked in a +worried way. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm very sorry, Miss Clark——" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!—call me Rita," she put in impatiently. +</P> + +<P> +"Well,—I'm very sorry,—Rita,—but I did not quarrel with Joe. He +quarrelled with me." +</P> + +<P> +"It's all the same," she replied. "Takes two to do it. Couldn't you +find another way than that?" +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes were bright and her bosom was disturbed. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought, maybe, you and him might be friends; but I might have +known," she went on bitterly. "He only makes friends with the men who +lay down to him. You ain't that sort." +</P> + +<P> +I threw out my hands helplessly. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Rita, don't you worry your little head over it. It is all +right." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no, it ain't! Don't fool yourself. You don't know Joe." +</P> + +<P> +"I reckoned him a man who could keep his own counsel. How did you come +to hear there had been any words?" +</P> + +<P> +"He was over home. He only comes once in a while now. He didn't do +anything but talk about you. Called you all kinds of things. Says +he'll fix you good;—and he will, too, or he ain't the Joe Clark +everybody knows around here." +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes became tender and moist as she held out her hands to me with +an involuntary movement. "Oh! what did you want to quarrel with him +for, before you knew anything about him?" +</P> + +<P> +I rose and laid my hand lightly on her shoulder, as I would with a +little sister,—had I had one,—for she seemed only a slip of a girl +and it hurt me to see her so upset. +</P> + +<P> +"Look here! little maid," I said, "you forget all about it. Joe came +in here and asked me to do what the man who employed me particularly +instructed me against doing. I declined, and Joe became foolish, +losing his temper completely. This Joe likes to trample on men. He +grew angry because I would not let him do any trampling on me. No! +Rita, I am not a teeny-weeny little bit afraid of Joe Clark." +</P> + +<P> +She looked up at me in astonishment, then she sort of despaired again. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! that's 'cause you don't know him. Everybody's got to do as Joe +says,—here and in the Camps and pretty near all along the coast." +</P> + +<P> +I laughed easily; for what did I care? Joe's worst, whatever it might +be, could not hurt me very badly. I was not so deeply into anything +yet for that. +</P> + +<P> +"He's a big man, and can hurt,—and he hurts everybody that runs up +against him." +</P> + +<P> +I leaned over against the window ledge and surveyed Rita. +</P> + +<P> +"Well,—" I said, "I'm not as big as Joe is, but I have been schooled +to hold my own. Joe shall have a good run for his money when he +starts." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!—I know you're strong, and big, though not as big as him, and that +you ain't afraid. Maybe that's why I like Joe sometimes,—he's never +afraid. +</P> + +<P> +"Still,—I don't like him half as much as I used to," she sighed. "But +I didn't mean fighting when I talked of him being big and strong. +Joe's got influence, Joe's got money, he's got tugs and he's +superintendent of the Camps. He says he's boss of the whole shootin' +match, and you'll find it out soon." +</P> + +<P> +"He may be nearly all you say, but he has nothing to do with George +Bremner running this little Trading Company any more than being under +the necessity of buying his supplies here. I was put in by Mr. Horsfal +himself, to be under no one, and with the appointment of superintendent +of his Golden Crescent property. So, here I am like to stay as long as +I want to, or until Mr. Horsfal says differently." +</P> + +<P> +Rita glanced up at me and her eyes brightened with a ray of hope. +</P> + +<P> +"And Joe ain't got nothing to say about it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not a particle. If he had had, I would not be here now. He would +have sacked me on the spot." +</P> + +<P> +"Really and truly, he ain't?" she cried, with fresh anxiety. +</P> + +<P> +"Really and truly," I repeated. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! goody, goody,—" +</P> + +<P> +Poor little Rita;—all sunshine and shower. She was as merry as a +kitten for a time, then she dropped back into her serious mood. +</P> + +<P> +"What!—haven't all your worries gone yet?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Some," she said, "but not them all. Do you know what Joe is, George? +He's a bully." +</P> + +<P> +"He is, undoubtedly," I agreed. +</P> + +<P> +"Ya!—he is, all right. Still,—it ain't all his fault either. He's +handling rough men, and men that are bullies same as he is. He's got +to get the work done and done quick. +</P> + +<P> +"Joe ain't bad. No, siree. Ask Josh Doogan, who was down and out with +something in his inside last year. When the doctor told him an +operation by a specialist in Philadelphia was the only thing that would +save him, and he hadn't a cent, Joe fixed him up and Josh is back +working in the Camps to-day. Yes!—ask Jem Sullivan, who got into +trouble with the police in Vancouver. He's working for Joe and he's +making good, too. Ask Jenny Daykin who it was that took care of her +for a year, after her Sam was drowned out at The Ghoul there, until her +young Sam finished for a school teacher. Ask,—Oh! ask most anybody; +grand-dad even, though he won't take a nickel from Joe or anybody else +except what he works for,—ask him. He's queer, is Joe, and I ain't a +bit struck on him,—not now,—I 'most hate him. But he ain't got a bad +heart, all the same." +</P> + +<P> +"Rita," I put in, "I believe every word of it, and, what is more, I am +mighty glad to hear you say it, for the first impression I had of him +was, 'Here's a man with a good, open, honest face, and his body is a +perfect working machine,—a real man after my own heart.' But he +jumped on me with both hands and feet, as I might say;—I jumped +back,—and, there we are. +</P> + +<P> +"I know what's wrong with him, Rita. As far as I can see, he has been +lucky,—luckier than most men. He has not had a single set-back. He +has been what they call a success. He is younger than I am by a year +or two, and he owns tugs and superintends camps, while I,—well, I am +just starting in. But he has got to putting down all this progress to +his own superior ability absolutely. He does not think that, maybe, +circumstances have been kind to him." +</P> + +<P> +Rita looked guardedly at me. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't misunderstand me,—I'm not saying that he has not been clever +and has not grasped every opportunity that came his way, worked hard +and all that;—Oh! you know what I mean. But he has got to thinking +that Joe Clark is everything and no one else is anything. It is bad +for any man when he gets that way. Give Joe Clark a set-back or two +and he will come out a bigger and a better man. +</P> + +<P> +"He is glutted and bloated with too much of his own way,—that's his +trouble." +</P> + +<P> +Rita sighed. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess you're right,—Joe used to be good friends with me. When we +were kids, Joe said he was going to marry me when he got big. He don't +say that any more though. Guess he's got too big. Tells me all about +the fine ladies he meets in Vancouver and Victoria and up the coast. +Wouldn't ever give me a chance, though, to get to know how to talk +good, and all that. Oh!—I know I ain't good at grammar. I wanted to +be. Joe said schooling just spoiled girls, and I was best at home. +Still, he talks about the ones that has the schooling. +</P> + +<P> +"He started in telling me about his lady friends again, to-day. I +didn't want to know about them, so I just told him. I was mad, +anyway;—about him and you, I guess. He was mad, too. Said I was +fresh. Grand-dad took your part against Joe. Said he liked you +anyway. Then he took my part. He knows Joe,—you bet. +</P> + +<P> +"He says, 'That'll do, Joe. You leave Rita be. She's a good lass and +you ain't playin' the game fair.' +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't hear any more, for I ran out. Didn't go back either, till +Joe cleared out." +</P> + +<P> +"What relation is Joe to the others, Rita?" I asked in puzzlement. +</P> + +<P> +"Joe's an orphan, same as me. His dad was grand-dad's only son, who +got killed in a blasting accident up the coast. Joe's mother was a +Swede. She died two months after Joe was born. Since Joe got moving +for himself, he don't stay around home very much. Sleeps mostly at the +Camps or on the tugs. Says grandmother and grand-dad make him tired; +says they're silly fools,—because,—because,——" +</P> + +<P> +Tears gathered in Rita's eyes and she did not finish. +</P> + +<P> +I let her pent-up emotion have free run for a while; probably because I +was ill at ease and knew I should look an idiot and talk like an +imbecile if I tried to console her, although I recalled having heard +somewhere that it is generally best to let a woman have her cry out +once she gets started. +</P> + +<P> +At last Rita wiped her eyes and looked over at me. +</P> + +<P> +"Guess you think me a baby,—guess I am, too," she said. "Never cried +before that I have mind. Never had anybody to cry to." +</P> + +<P> +I smiled. And Rita smiled,—a moist and trembling sort of smile in +return. +</P> + +<P> +"Joe Clark has been taking me, same as he takes most things, too much +for granted. Thinks I don't know nothing, because I'm up here at the +Crescent and not been educated any more'n grandmother and grand-dad +could teach me. But I've got feelings and I ain't going to have +anything more to do with him. Well,—not till he knows how to treat +me, same as I should be treated. Guess not then either. I don't care +now. I might not want him later,—might hate him. I believe I shall, +too." +</P> + +<P> +There was nothing of the soft, weepy baby about this young lady, and I +could see from the flash in her dark eyes and the set of her mouth that +she meant every word of what she said. +</P> + +<P> +She was a dainty, pretty, and alluring little piece of femininity; and +I could have taken her in my arms and hugged her, only I did not dare, +for like as not she would have boxed my ears. All I could say was: +</P> + +<P> +"Good for you, little girl. That's the way to talk." +</P> + +<P> +She smiled, and in little more than no time at all she was back into +her merry mood. +</P> + +<P> +We chatted and laughed together at the window until the dusk had crept +into darkness and Rita's Isle had become merely a heavy shadow among +the mists. +</P> + +<P> +"I got to be getting back," she said at last. "Can you fix up my +groceries for me, if you please?" +</P> + +<P> +I went into the store and packed together the few humble necessities +which had been Rita's excuse for coming over, although, I discovered +later, that Rita was pretty much of a free agent and did not require an +excuse to satisfy either her grandmother or her grandfather, both of +whom trusted her implicitly. +</P> + +<P> +Time went past quickly in there. +</P> + +<P> +"Rita, it is almost dark. Will you let me accompany you across the +Bay? I can fix a tow line behind for your little boat." +</P> + +<P> +"That would be nice," she answered simply. "But I can see in the dark +near as well as in the day time. I could row across there blindfold." +</P> + +<P> +As I paddled her over, I thought what a pity it was she could not talk +more correctly than she did. It was the one, the only jarring, note in +her entire make-up. But for that, she was as perfect a little lady as +I had ever met. +</P> + +<P> +Why not offer to teach her English? came the question to me;—and I +decided I would some day, but not just then. I would wait until I knew +her a little better; I would wait until I had become better acquainted +with her people; until the edge of my quarrel with Joe had worn off. +</P> + +<P> +As we grounded on the shore, in front of Rita's home, old Andrew +Clark,—short and sturdy in appearance and dour as any Scot could ever +be,—was on the beach. He came down to meet us and invited me up for a +cup of tea. +</P> + +<P> +I accepted the invitation, as I had a business project to discuss with +the old man, something that should prove a benefit to the store and a +financial benefit to him. +</P> + +<P> +He led me into the kitchen, where his wife,—a quiet, white-haired old +lady with a loving face and great sad eyes,—was sitting in an armchair +darning. +</P> + +<P> +She looked up as we entered. +</P> + +<P> +Andrew Clark did not seek to introduce me, which I thought unmannerly. +I turned round for Rita, but Rita had not followed us in; so I went +forward and held out my hand. The dear old woman took it and smiled as +if to say, "How sensible of you." +</P> + +<P> +"Sit down and make yourself at home," she said kindly. +</P> + +<P> +She spoke with the accent of an Eastern Canadian, although it was +evident she had spent many years in the West. +</P> + +<P> +Andrew Clark still held to his mother tongue,—Lowland Scots. But his +speech was also punctuated with Western slang and dialect. +</P> + +<P> +Every article of furniture in that kitchen was home-made:—chairs, +table, picture frames, washstands,—everything, and good solid +furniture it was too. +</P> + +<P> +The table was already set for tea. Mrs. Clark busied herself infusing +the refreshment, then Rita came in and we all sat down together. +</P> + +<P> +Andrew Clark's grace was quite an event,—as long as the ten +commandments, sonorous, impressive and flowery. +</P> + +<P> +I found he could talk, and talk well; and of many out-of-the-common +subjects he displayed considerably more than a passing knowledge. +</P> + +<P> +Margaret Clark,—for that was the lady's name,—was quiet and seemed +docile and careworn. She impressed me as being the patient bearer of a +hidden burden. +</P> + +<P> +There was something in the manner in which our conversation was +conducted that I could not fathom. And I was set wondering wherein its +strangeness lay. But, try as I liked, I could not reason it out. +Everybody was agreeable and pleasant; Rita was almost gay. But at the +back of it all, time and again it recurred to me,—what is wrong here? +</P> + +<P> +Not until the tea was over and I was seated between Andrew Clark and +Margaret before the fire, did the mystery solve itself. +</P> + +<P> +I approached the business part of my visit. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Clark, you have two or three hundred chickens on the ranch here." +</P> + +<P> +"Ay," he nodded reflectively, puffing at his pipe. +</P> + +<P> +"You send all your eggs to Vancouver?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ay!" +</P> + +<P> +"How many do you send per week, on an average?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ask Margaret,—she'll tell you." +</P> + +<P> +I turned and addressed Mrs. Clark, who looked over at her husband sadly. +</P> + +<P> +"When the season is good, maybe fifty dozen a week; sometimes more, +sometimes not so many, Mr. Bremner. Of course, in the winter, there's +a falling off." +</P> + +<P> +"I understand, Mrs. Clark. +</P> + +<P> +"I have a big demand from the Camps for eggs," I explained. "What I +get, I have to order from Vancouver. Now, it costs you money to send +your eggs to the market there, and it costs me money to bring mine from +the market. Why cannot we create a home exchange? I could afford to +pay you at least five cents a dozen more than you are getting from the +city dealers, save you and myself the freight charges, and still I +could be money ahead and I would always be sure of having absolutely +fresh stock. Besides, I would pay cash for what I got." +</P> + +<P> +Andrew Clark nodded his head. "A capital plan, my boy,—a capital +plan. Man," he exclaimed testily, "Joe, wi' all his smartness, would +never have thought o' that in a thousand years." +</P> + +<P> +I laughed. "Why!—there is no thinking to it, Andrew. It is simply +the A.B.C. of arithmetic. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you say to the arrangement then?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Better ask Margaret,—she looks after the chickens. That's her +affair." +</P> + +<P> +I turned to the quiet old woman, and she heartily agreed with the plan. +</P> + +<P> +"Would you ask Andrew, Mr. Bremner, if we had better not take supplies +from your store in part payment for the eggs?" she inquired. +</P> + +<P> +I put the question to Andrew as things began to dawn in my mind. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell her it'll suit me all right," he agreed. +</P> + +<P> +And so—I acting as spokesman and go-between,—the arrangement was made +that I should use all the output of the chicken-farm and pay a price of +five cents per dozen in advance of the Vancouver market price on the +day of each delivery. +</P> + +<P> +I rose to go, bidding good-night to the old people. Rita came down to +the boat. Her face was anxious and she was searching mine for +something she feared to find. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor little girl," I exclaimed, as I laid my hand on her head. "How +long has this been going on between your grandmother and grand-dad?" +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes filled. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! George,—it ain't grandmother's fault. She'd give her soul if +grand-dad would only speak to her. It's killing her gradual, like a +dry rot." +</P> + +<P> +"How long has it been going on?" I asked again. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!—long's I can remember; near about ten years. There was a quarrel +about something. Grandmother wanted to visit some one in Vancouver. +Grand-dad didn't want her to go. At last he swore by the Word of God +if she went he'd never speak to her again. Grandmother cried all +night, and next day she went. When she came back, grand-dad wouldn't +speak to her; and he ain't ever spoken to her since." +</P> + +<P> +"My God!" I exclaimed with a shudder. +</P> + +<P> +"That's why Joe ain't struck on staying at the ranch. Says it's like a +deaf and dumb asylum." +</P> + +<P> +I didn't blame Joe. +</P> + +<P> +Good God! I thought. What a life! What an existence for this poor +woman! What a hell on earth! +</P> + +<P> +I became madly enraged at that dour old rascal, who would dare to sour +a home for ten years because of a vow made in a moment of temper. +</P> + +<P> +If any one deserved to be stricken dumb forever, surely he was that +one! And saying a grace at the tea-table that would put a bishop to +scorn,—all on top of this: oh! the devilish hypocrisy of it! +</P> + +<P> +Rita came close to me and laid her head lightly on my shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be cross at grand-dad, George. He's a mighty good grand-dad. +There ain't a better anywhere. In everything, but speaking to +grandmother, he's a good grand-dad." +</P> + +<P> +I could not trust myself to say much. I climbed into the boat and made +to push off. +</P> + +<P> +"A good grand-dad," I exclaimed bitterly; "good mule, you mean. +</P> + +<P> +"Rita,—I know what would cure him." +</P> + +<P> +"No!—you don't, George,—for you don't know grand-dad." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!—I know what would cure him, Rita." +</P> + +<P> +"What?" +</P> + +<P> +"A rope-end, well applied." And I pushed off. +</P> + +<P> +She ran into the water up to her knees and caught hold of the stern of +my boat. +</P> + +<P> +"You ain't mad with me, George," she cried anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"No, no! Rita. Poor little woman,—why should I be?" +</P> + +<P> +She pouted. +</P> + +<P> +"Thought maybe you was. +</P> + +<P> +"Well,—if you ain't, won't you kiss me before you go, George?" +</P> + +<P> +I leaned forward. She held up her face innocently and I kissed her +lightly on the lips. +</P> + +<P> +And to me, the kiss was as sweet and fresh as a mountain dew-drop. +</P> + +<P> +She sighed as if satisfied that our friendship had held good, then she +ran out of the water, up the beach and into the house. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +The Coming of Mary Grant +</H4> + +<P> +When first I arrived at Golden Crescent, I was not a little worried as +to whether or not there would be sufficient work in the store and on +the property to keep two men busy. It did not take me long to discover +that there really was not; but then, few people in and around that +easy-going little settlement cared about being very busy. Still, when +Jake and I wished for work, there was always enough of it at hand; just +as, when we felt inclined to be idle, there was no very special reason +why we should not, for there seldom was anything calling for immediate +accomplishment unless it were the transporting of goods from the +up-going steamers to the store and the putting up of camp orders. I +did not have to concern myself much over the fixing of leaky boats, the +building and repairing of fences, the erection of any small sheds or +buildings required, the felling of trees, the sawing and splitting up +of our winter supply of fuel, the raising and feeding of our very small +poultry family and the tending of the garden. These had been Jake's +departments before my coming, and, as he looked after them as no other +man I knew could have done, they remained his especial cares. +</P> + +<P> +Jake was never tremendously occupied, yet he always was doing something +during the day time,—something worth while, something that showed. +</P> + +<P> +However, when there was a particularly big wash-up on the beach of +stray timber logs from some of the booms travelling along the coast, +both Jake and I had to knuckle down with a will and an energy in order +to push them off with the next out-going tide so as to prevent them +jamming and piling on our tidy, clear and well-kept foreshore. +</P> + +<P> +Outside of an almost unnecessary supervision, the store was my only +care; consequently, once things were running properly, I had lots of +time on my hands to fish over by Rita's Isle if I so desired, to shoot +in the woods behind when the inclination seized me, to swim, to smoke, +or read and daydream as fancy dictated. +</P> + +<P> +I thrived on the life. Maybe, I grew lazy. Anyway, I enjoyed every +minute of it, working or idling, waking or sleeping. +</P> + +<P> +I soon got to know the men from the Camps, and they me. With the +knowledge of them came an ever-increasing regard and admiration for +those simple, uncomplaining, hard-working, easily led world-wanderers, +who, most of them, were ever ready to gamble all they had on the toss +of a coin or the throw of a die and, if they lost, laugh, and start off +afresh. +</P> + +<P> +That there were evilly disposed men among them,—men who would stop at +nothing,—men who, already, had stopped at nothing,—I knew, but with +most of them, their hearts were good. +</P> + +<P> +Joe Clark did not honour me with a visit for many a day after our first +encounter. Almost I had begun to congratulate myself that he had +decided to let slumbering dogs lie, when, one afternoon, as I was +sorting the newly arrived and scanty mail, I was surprised to find a +letter bearing the name of Dow, Cross & Sneddon of Vancouver and +addressed:— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Mr. George Bremner,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Superintendent, Golden Crescent Trading Co.,</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">Golden Crescent Bay, B. C.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Hello! I thought; Joe Clark at last has been putting some of his +threats into execution. Now for the fireworks! +</P> + +<P> +I opened the envelope and found that my conjecture was a wrong one and +that Joe Clark's knife for me,—if he had one,—was not yet sharpened. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Dear Sir," the letter ran, +</P> + +<P> +"We have received a letter from Messrs. Eldergrove & Price, Solicitors +for the property adjoining that of the Golden Crescent Co.'s, informing +us that some friends of the owner have permission from him to occupy +his house at Golden Crescent. This refers to the house in proximity to +the wharf and the store. It is at present boarded up. +</P> + +<P> +"Two Japanese women will arrive by the steamer <I>Cloochman</I> at the end +of the week to open up, air, clean out the house and put it in order. +These cleaners will return to Vancouver by the same steamer on her +southward journey the following week. +</P> + +<P> +"This letter is written simply to inform you of the facts, so that you +may know that nothing illegal is going on. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course, we are in no way interested in this property. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Yours truly,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">"DOW, CROSS & SNEDDON."</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +I showed the letter to Jake, who expressed a fear that the Bay was +becoming "a damned pleasure resort," as this would make the second time +in five years that visitors had been staying in that house. On the +strength of the news, he drank an extra half-cup of whisky, then said, +for decency's sake he would row out and bring the Japs ashore when the +<I>Cloochman</I> came in. +</P> + +<P> +Two shy, pretty, little women they proved, who thanked Jake with smiles +and profuse bows, much to that old rascal's confusion. They were all +bustle and work. They had the boards down from the windows and had the +doors and windows wide open five minutes after they got ashore. +Morning, noon and night, they were scrubbing, washing, beating, +dusting, polishing and airing, until I was more inquisitive than an old +maid's cat to view the results of their labours. But my sense of +propriety overcame my curiosity, and, for the time being, I remained in +ignorance. +</P> + +<P> +One night, after the little workers had gone back to Vancouver, I was +lying in my bed enjoying Robert Louis Stevenson's "Virginibus +Puerisque," when I fancied I heard the throbbing of a gasoline launch. +I rose and looked out at the open window; but it was one of those +inky-black nights, without either moon or stars, a night when even the +sea became invisible,—so I saw nothing. +</P> + +<P> +When the throbbing ceased, I heard the sound of oars and, as a small +boat evidently neared the shore, there came a sound of voices, both +male and female. +</P> + +<P> +Two trips were made from the launch, one bearing the people, I +presumed, the other conveying their baggage. I had no doubt in my mind +that my new neighbours were arriving, although I might have been +stone-blind so far as anything being visible was concerned. +</P> + +<P> +It was chilly standing there at the window, in the night air, in my +pyjamas. The nights were always chilly at Golden Crescent. So I went +back to bed, determined to wait and see what the morrow would disclose. +</P> + +<P> +My first glance out of doors, early next morning, materialised what I +had a vague notion might have been a dream. There was no sign of any +stir in the house across the little, wooden, rustic bridge that +connected it, over a narrow creek, with the roadway leading to the +store. That was only natural, as, in all probability, the travellers +were journey-weary. But a freshly painted rowing boat, with light +oars, was made fast to the off side of the wharf, while several leather +travelling bags and other packages were piled on the veranda of that +house over the way. +</P> + +<P> +I had shaved, parted my hair at its most becoming angle and dressed +myself with particular care that morning, going to the extent of sewing +a burst seam in my breeches and polishing my leggings; all in +anticipation of a visit from the new arrivals, thinking they would be +almost certain to call at the store that forenoon to arrange for their +supplies. +</P> + +<P> +I dusted the shelves, polished the scales, put the sacks of potatoes +where they belonged, mopped up some molasses that had escaped to the +floor from a leaky can and swept out the store; then I waited in +blissful anticipation for my new customers. +</P> + +<P> +I caught a glimpse of Jake in the distance. In some strange, +wireless-telepathic manner, he must have got wind of what had occurred +during the night, for I noticed that he had been suddenly attacked by +the same fever for cleanliness and smartness as I had been. He had +turned his neckcloth, and the clean side of it was now trying to delude +the innocent outside world that it (the neckcloth) had been freshly +washed. Mike,—bad luck to his drunken carcass,—looked sick and +appeared to be slowly recovering from the evil effects of a bath. +</P> + +<P> +As the morning wore on I saw an elderly, rotund lady come out to the +veranda and take the baggage inside. That was the only bit of +excitement that happened, after all my preparations. +</P> + +<P> +Later, a launch called from Camp No. 1, with an order for a thousand +and one different commodities, and all required right away. That put +idle, inquisitive thoughts out of my head for the remainder of the +forenoon. +</P> + +<P> +I got out of my best clothes, donned a half-dirty shirt, a suit of +overalls and a pair of old boots, then got busy selecting, sorting and +packing until my brow was moist and my hair was awry. +</P> + +<P> +I had just got rid of the men and was standing surveying my topsy-turvy +store, with everything lying around in tremendous confusion and all +requiring to be set to rights again before I would know where to lay my +hands on a single article; when a melodious, but rather measured, +feminine voice, in the vicinity of my left shoulder, startled me into +consternation. +</P> + +<P> +A young lady, almost of a height with me, was standing by my side, +while a stout, elderly lady,—the same lady I had seen on the veranda +over the way,—was filling the doorway. +</P> + +<P> +I was messy all over with flour dust, brown earth from the potato +sacks, grease and grime. I had slipped at the water edge while +assisting the loggers to load their goods, and this did not contribute +to the improvement of my personal appearance. I wiped my hands on my +damp overalls, and my hands came out of the contact worse than before. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish to see the manager," demanded the melodious voice, its owner +raising her skirts and displaying,—ah, well!—and stepping over some +excelsior packing which lay in her way. +</P> + +<P> +"Your wish is granted, lady," I answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you the manager?" she asked, raising her eyebrows in unfeigned +astonishment. +</P> + +<P> +"I have that honour, madam," I responded with a bow, but not daring to +look at her face in my then dishevelled state. +</P> + +<P> +"I am Miss Grant," she said. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Grant! Pleased to meet you." +</P> + +<P> +I shoved out a grimy paw, like the fool I was. When it was too late, I +remembered my position and brought the paw back to my side. +</P> + +<P> +The young lady had already drawn herself up with an undefinable dignity. +</P> + +<P> +It was a decided snub, and well merited, so I could hardly blame her. +</P> + +<P> +I saw, in the hurried glimpse I got of her then, that she was hatless +and that her hair was a great crown of wavy, burnished gold, radiating +in the sunlight that streamed through the doorway despite the +obstruction of the young lady's companion. +</P> + +<P> +"It is our intention to live at Golden Crescent for some time, sir. I +understand we may purchase our supplies here?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! madam,—miss." +</P> + +<P> +I backed, in order to get round to my proper side of the counter. But, +unfortunately, I backed without looking; I stumbled over an empty box +and sprawled like a clown into the corner, landing incontinently among +bundles of brooms and axe handles. +</P> + +<P> +Never in all my life did I feel so insignificant or so foolish as then. +The very devil himself seemed to have set his picked imps after me; for +it was my habit, ordinarily, to be neither dirty as I was then, nor +clownish as I must have appeared. +</P> + +<P> +To put it mildly, I was deeply embarrassed, and at a woman, too. Oh! +the degradation of it. +</P> + +<P> +As I rose, I fancied that my ears caught the faintest tinkle of a +laugh. I turned my frowning eyes on the young lady, but she was a very +owl for inscrutable solemnity. I looked over at the elderly person in +the doorway; she was smiling upon me with a most exasperating benignity. +</P> + +<P> +"What kind of business do you run here?" asked the self-possessed young +lady. +</P> + +<P> +"Strictly cash, miss,—excepting the Camps and the better class of +settlers." +</P> + +<P> +"I did not inquire <I>how</I> you ran your business, but what kind of +business you ran," she retorted icily. "Of course,—we shall pay as we +purchase." +</P> + +<P> +I was hastening from bad to worse. I could have bitten my tongue out +or kicked myself. With a tremendous effort, I pulled myself together +and assumed as much dignity as was possible in my badly ruffled +internal and external condition. +</P> + +<P> +"Are there any men about the place?" she asked, changing the subject +with disconcerting suddenness. +</P> + +<P> +I flushed slightly at the taunt. +</P> + +<P> +"N-no! miss," I replied, in my best shop-keeper tone, "sorry,—but we +are completely out of them." +</P> + +<P> +She must have detected the flavour of sarcasm, for her lips relaxed for +the briefest moment, and a smile was born which showed two rows of even +white teeth. I ventured a smile in return, but it proved a sorry and +an unfortunate one, for it killed hers ruthlessly and right at the +second of its birth, too. +</P> + +<P> +I almost waited for her to tell me I was "too fresh," but she did not +do so. She had a more telling way. She simply wilted me with a silent +reserve that there was no combating. +</P> + +<P> +Only on one or two occasions had I encountered that particular shade of +reserve that adjusts everything around to its proper sphere and level +without hurting, and it was always in elderly, aristocratic, British +Duchesses; never in a young lady with golden hair and eyes,—well! at +that time, I could not tell the colour of her eyes, but there was +something in them that completed a combination that I seemed to have +been hunting for all my life and had never been able to find. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Store-keeper," she commenced again. +</P> + +<P> +I felt like tearing my hair and crying aloud. "Mr. Store-keeper," +forsooth. +</P> + +<P> +"You appear anxious to misconstrue me. Let me explain,—please." +</P> + +<P> +I bowed contritely. What else could I do? +</P> + +<P> +"This afternoon, I have a piano,—boxed,—coming by the steamer +<I>Siwash</I>. I would like if you could find me some assistance to get it +ashore and placed in my house." +</P> + +<P> +She said it so easily and it sounded so simple. But what a poser it +was! Bring a full-fledged piano from a steamer three hundred yards out +in the Bay, land it and place it in a house on the top of a rock. +Heaven help the piano! I thought, as I gaped at her in bewilderment. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!—of course," she put in hurriedly, toying with the chain of her +silver purse,—"if you are afraid to tackle it, why!—I'll—we shall do +it ourselves." +</P> + +<P> +She turned on her heel. +</P> + +<P> +She looked so determined that I had not the least doubt but that she +would have a go at it anyway. +</P> + +<P> +"Not at all,—not at all. It will be a pleasure,—I am sure," I said +quickly, as if I had been reared all my life on piano-moving. +</P> + +<P> +She turned and smiled; a real, full-grown, able-bodied, entrancing, +mischievous smile, and all of it full on the dirty, grimy +individual,—me. +</P> + +<P> +"It does not happen to be the kind of piano one can take to pieces, +Miss Grant, is it?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"It is," she answered, "but that one might not be able to put it +together again." +</P> + +<P> +It was another bull's eye for the lady. +</P> + +<P> +She went on. "I have never received a piano,—knocked down." +</P> + +<P> +Something inside of me sniggered at the phrase, for it was purely a +business one. But I was too busy just then figuring the ins and outs +of the matter to give way to any hilarity. +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks so much! What a relief!" she sighed, with a nod to her silent +companion, who nodded in return. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!—may I have five cents' worth of pins,—Mister, Mister——" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Bremner," I added. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you!" +</P> + +<P> +"Hair pins, hat pins, safety pins or clothes pins?" I queried. +</P> + +<P> +"Just pins,—with points and heads on them,—if you don't mind." +</P> + +<P> +I bowed ceremoniously. +</P> + +<P> +"We shall be over this afternoon, when we have made a list of the +supplies we require," she went on. +</P> + +<P> +As I hunted for the pins, she began to look in her purse for a five +cent piece. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!—never mind," I said; "I can charge these to your bill in the +afternoon." +</P> + +<P> +"No! thank you," she replied, airily and lightly;—oh! so very, very +airily that I would not have been surprised had she flown away. +</P> + +<P> +"Your terms are strictly cash;—I would not disturb your business +routine for worlds." +</P> + +<P> +As I held out the package to her, I stopped and, for the first time, I +felt really at ease and equal to her. +</P> + +<P> +"Possibly you would prefer that I send this package round by the +delivery wagon?" I said. +</P> + +<P> +She picked the paper package from between my fingers and her chin went +into the air at a most dangerous elevation, while her eyelids closed +over her eyes, allowing long, golden-brown lashes to brush her cheeks. +Then, without a word, she turned her back on me and passed through the +doorway with her companion, or chaperon, or aunt, or whatever relation +to her the elderly lady might be. +</P> + +<P> +"So foolish!" I heard her exclaim, under her breath, then she went over +something on her fingers to the elderly lady, who laughed and started +in to talk volubly. +</P> + +<P> +The mystery of that madam's benign smile solved itself: she was +evidently talkative enough, but she was as deaf as a wooden block and +used her smile to cover her deficiency. +</P> + +<P> +Had I only known, how I could have defended myself against, and lashed +out in return at, that tantalising, self-possessed, wit-battling, and, +despite it all, extremely feminine young lady! +</P> + +<P> +They left my place and went over to their own bungalow. Soon they +reappeared with large sun-hats on their heads, for the sun was +beautifully bright and exceedingly warm. They went down to the beach +together. The elderly lady got into the rowing boat, while my late +antagonist pushed it into the water and sprang into it with a most +astounding agility. In a few moments, they were out on the Bay. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Grant,—as I remembered her name was,—handled the oars like an +Oxford stroke and with that amazing ease, attained only after long +practice, which makes the onlooker, viewing the finished article in +operation, imagine that he can do it as well himself, if not a shade or +so better,—yes! and standing on his head at that. +</P> + +<P> +For an hour, I worked in the store righting the wrongs that were +visible everywhere, vowing to myself that never again would it be found +in such a disgraceful condition; not even if the three Camps should +come down together and insist on immediate service. +</P> + +<P> +At high noon, I went over to Jake's shack and found him preparing his +usual clammy concoction. +</P> + +<P> +I broached the subject of the piano to him, putting it in such a way +that I left him open to refuse to do the job if he felt so inclined. +</P> + +<P> +He did not speak for a minute or two, but I knew he was thinking hard. +</P> + +<P> +"Well,—I'll be gol-darned," he said at last. "They'll be transporting +skating rinks and picture shows up here next. It'll be me for the tall +timbers then, you bet." +</P> + +<P> +A little later, he went on, +</P> + +<P> +"Guess, George,—we got to do it, though. Young ladies is young ladies +these days, and we might as well be civil and give in right at the +start, for we got to do it in the finish." +</P> + +<P> +I agreed. +</P> + +<P> +As we were in a hurry, I helped Jake to eat his clam chowder. We went +down to the beach to review the situation and inspect the apparatus we +had to work with. +</P> + +<P> +I told Jake the piano would probably weigh about five hundred pounds +and that we would require to bolster up the raft sufficiently to carry +some three hundred pounds more in order to be safe. +</P> + +<P> +As it stood, the raft was capable of carrying some four hundred pounds, +so we had just to double its capacity. +</P> + +<P> +Jake knew his business. He rowed along the beach, and picked out short +logs to suit his needs. He lashed them together and completed a raft +that looked formidable enough to carry the good ship <I>Siwash</I> herself +across the Bay to the shore. +</P> + +<P> +We put off with a rowing boat fore and aft, long before the <I>Siwash</I> +whistle announced her coming. +</P> + +<P> +Had the sea been otherwise than calm as a duck pond, we would have +experienced all kinds of trouble, for our raft was nothing more or less +than an unwieldy floating pier. +</P> + +<P> +When the steamer ran into the Bay, I noticed Miss Grant put out alone +and row toward us. +</P> + +<P> +"Jake," I exclaimed somewhat hotly, "if that young lady interferes with +the way we handle this job, by as much as a single word, we'll steer +straight for the shore and leave the piano to sink or swim." +</P> + +<P> +"You bet!" agreed Jake. +</P> + +<P> +"Skirts is all right, but they ain't any good movin' pianners off'n +steamers. Guess we ain't proved ourselves much good neither, so far, +George," he added with a grin. +</P> + +<P> +The <I>Siwash</I> came to a standstill and we threw our ropes aboard and +were soon made fast alongside. +</P> + +<P> +Everything there went like clockwork. The piano was on the lower deck +and slings were already round it, so that all that was necessary to do +was to get the steamer's winch going, hoist the instrument overboard +and lower it on to the raft. The piano was set on a low truck with +runners, contrived for the purpose of moving. I arranged that this +truck be left with us and I would see to its return on the steamer's +south-bound journey. +</P> + +<P> +Our chiefest fear was that the piano might get badly placed or that the +balance of the raft might prove untrue, the whole business would topple +over and the piano would be dispensing nautical airs to the mermaids at +the bottom of Golden Crescent Bay. +</P> + +<P> +Jake's work stood the test valiantly, and, with the hooks and rings he +had fixed into the logs at convenient distances, we lashed the +instrument so firmly and securely that nothing short of a hurricane or +a collision could possibly have dislodged it. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Grant stood by some fifteen yards away, watching the proceedings +interestedly, and anxiously as I thought; but not a word did she utter +to show that she had anything but absolute confidence in our ability. +</P> + +<P> +Finally, they cast our ropes off, and Jake and I, with our four oars, +manned our larger rowing boat and headed for shore. It was hard +pulling, but we ran in on the off side of the wharf, directly in line +with the rocks at the back of which Miss Grant's bungalow was +built,—all without mishap. +</P> + +<P> +Despite the great help of the piano-truck, Jake and I, strive as we +liked, were unable to move the heavy piece of furniture from the raft. +We tugged, and pulled, and hoisted, but to no purpose, for the wheels +of the truck got set continually between the logs. +</P> + +<P> +Once, I went head over heels backward into the water; and once Jake +tripped over a cleat and did likewise. +</P> + +<P> +"All we need, Jake," I remarked, "is about one hundred and fifty pounds +more leverage." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Grant heard and jumped out of her boat. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr.—Mr. Bremner,—could I lend you that extra hundred and fifty +pounds or so?" +</P> + +<P> +I looked at her. She was all willingness and meekness; the latter a +mood which I, even with my scant knowledge of her, did not altogether +believe in. +</P> + +<P> +"Sure, miss," put in Jake. "Come on, if you ain't skeered o' soilin' +your glad rags." +</P> + +<P> +She waited for my word. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sure your help would be valuable, Miss Grant," I said. "It might +just turn the trick in our favour." +</P> + +<P> +She scrambled up the rock and returned in half a minute with a pair of +stout leather gloves on her hands. She jumped up on to the raft and +lent her leverage, as Jake and I got our shoulders under the lift. +</P> + +<P> +Bravo! It lifted as easily as if it had been a toy. All it had +required was that little extra aid. +</P> + +<P> +We three ran it clear of the raft, down on to the beach, over the +pebbles and right under the rocks. +</P> + +<P> +I knew, in the ordinary course, that our troubles would only be +beginning, but I had figured out that the only possible way to get over +this difficulty of the rocks was to erect a block and tackle to the +solid branch of a tree which, fortunately, overhung the face of the +cliffs. +</P> + +<P> +In half an hour, we had all secure and ready for the attempt. +</P> + +<P> +I worked the gear, while Jake did the guiding from below. +</P> + +<P> +When we had the piano safely swung, it took our combined strength and +weight to bring it in on top of the rocks. After that, it was simply a +matter of hard work. +</P> + +<P> +So, in three hours after receiving it from the steamer <I>Siwash</I>, the +piano was out of its casing and set safely, without a scratch on it, in +a corner of Miss Grant's parlour. +</P> + +<P> +Jake and I never could have done it ourselves. Both of us knew that. +It was Miss Grant's untiring assistance that pulled the matter to a +successful conclusion. +</P> + +<P> +She thanked us without ostentation, as she would have thanked a +piano-mover or the woodman in the city. +</P> + +<P> +It nettled me not a little, for, to say truth, I was half dead from the +need of a cup of good strong tea and my appetite gnawed over the odour +of home-made scones that the elderly, rotund lady was baking on Miss +Grant's kitchen stove. All day I had been picturing visions of being +invited to remain for tea, of my making witty remarks under Jake's +mono-syllabic applause, looking over the photo albums and listening in +raptures to Miss Grant's playing and singing. And I was sour as old +cider as I descended the veranda steps, soaking, as I was, with brine +and perspiration. +</P> + +<P> +Jake was perfectly happy, however, and all admiration over Miss Grant's +physical demonstration. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee! Miss," he exclaimed, in a sort of Klondike ecstasy, "but you're +some class at heavin' cargo. Guess, if you put on overalls and cut off +your hair, you could get a fifty-cents-an-hour job at pretty near any +wharf on the Pacific seaboard." +</P> + +<P> +I could see that Jake's doubtful compliment was not exactly relished by +the lady. Nevertheless, she smiled on him so sweetly that he stood +grinning at her, and might still have been so standing had not I pulled +him to earth by the sleeve, three steps at a time. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +"Music Hath Charms—" +</H4> + +<P> +He left me at the wharf without a word. I went into the house, threw +off my dirty overalls and indulged in the luxury of a bath. Not a +salt-water apology for one,—a real, live, remove-the-dirt, soapy, +hot-water bath;—and it did me a world of good both mentally and bodily. +</P> + +<P> +I dressed myself in clean, fresh linen, donned my breeches, a pair of +hand-knitted, old-country, heather hose and a pair of white canvas +shoes. I shaved and brushed my hair to what, in my college days, I had +considered its most elegant angle. +</P> + +<P> +The remainder of the afternoon and evening was my own. I was just at +that agreeable stage of body-weariness where a book and a smoke seemed +angels from heaven. I had the books,—lots of them,—I had tobacco and +my pipe, I had a hammock to sling from the hooks on the front +veranda,—so, what care had I? +</P> + +<P> +I chose a volume of "Macaulay's Essays" and, with a sigh,—the only +articulate sign of an unutterable content,—I stretched myself in the +hammock, blew clouds of smoke in the air and resigned myself to the +soothing influences. +</P> + +<P> +I had lain thus for perhaps an hour, when a shadow intervened between +the page I was reading and the glare of the sun. +</P> + +<P> +It was Miss Grant. +</P> + +<P> +She had come by the back path and, in her noiseless rubber shoes, I had +not heard her. +</P> + +<P> +I sprang out of the hammock, loosed the ring from the hook and threw +the canvas aside to make way for her. +</P> + +<P> +She appeared a perfect picture of glorious loveliness and contagious +health. She did not speak for a moment, but her eyes took me in from +head to heel. +</P> + +<P> +I felt confident in the knowledge that the figure I presented was +decidedly more pleasing than when last she had seen me. +</P> + +<P> +I was glad, for I knew, even with my small acquaintance with the +opposite sex, that the woman is not alive who does not prefer to see a +man clean, tidy and neat. +</P> + +<P> +I pushed the store doors open and followed her in. +</P> + +<P> +Again, that bewitching little uplifting of the eyebrows; again the +alluring relaxation of her full lips; silent ways, apparently, of +expressing her pleasure. The appearance of my store, on this occasion, +met with her approval. +</P> + +<P> +She laid aside her sunshade and handed me a long, neatly written list +of groceries which she required; not all, but most of which, I was able +to fill. +</P> + +<P> +"Make up the bill,—please. I wish to pay it now. I shall not wait +until you make up the goods. If not too much trouble, would you——" +</P> + +<P> +I was listening to the soft cadences of her voice, when she stopped. +</P> + +<P> +She was leaning lightly with her elbow on the counter. I was on the +inner side, bending over my order book. +</P> + +<P> +When her voice stopped, I felt that she was looking at the top of my +head. I raised my face suddenly and, to her, unexpectedly. For the +first time, I saw clearly into her eyes. My breath caught, as, like a +flash, I saw myself standing in the doorway of Modley Farm, along with +my old chum, Tom Tanner; his mother beside us, with her arms round our +shoulders; and I remembered the flippant conversation we had at that +time. +</P> + +<P> +The young lady before me had eyes of a liquid, golden-brown, lighter in +colour than her hair, yet of wondrous depth and very attractive; +inexpressibly attractive. +</P> + +<P> +I averted my gaze quickly, but not quickly enough for her to miss the +admiration I had so openly shown. +</P> + +<P> +She picked up a tin from the counter and scanned the label. +</P> + +<P> +"The delivery wagon is at your service, my lady," I put in lightly. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you!" she answered in relief. +</P> + +<P> +I totted up the bill and handed it to her. "Eight dollars and +thirty-five cents," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Mr. Bremner,—please add your charge for the conveying of my +piano, so that I may pay my debts altogether." +</P> + +<P> +I gasped in amazement. I straightened myself indignantly, for the idea +of making a charge for that work had never entered my head. And I knew +Jake had never thought of such a thing either. It had been simply a +little neighbourly assistance. +</P> + +<P> +The mention of payment annoyed me. +</P> + +<P> +"There is no charge, Miss Grant," was all I could trust myself to say. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" she asked. "Surely you must understand that it is +not my habit to engage men to work for me without payment!" +</P> + +<P> +"We did not look upon it in the nature of ordinary work," I put in. +"It was a pleasure, and we did it as any neighbours would do a favour." +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes closed a little angrily. +</P> + +<P> +"I do not accept favours from men I am unacquainted with," she retorted +unreasonably. "How much do I owe,—please?" +</P> + +<P> +"And I do not hire myself out, like a dock labourer or a mule, to any +one who cares to demand my services," I replied, in equally cold tones. +</P> + +<P> +She stood in hesitation, then she stamped her rubber-soled foot +petulantly. "But I will not have it. I insist on paying for that +work." +</P> + +<P> +I shook my head. +</P> + +<P> +"If you wish to insult me, Miss Grant,—insist." +</P> + +<P> +I could see that she was suffering from conflicting lines of reasoning. +Her haughtiness changed and her eyes softened. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Bremner,—what do I owe for the work,—please?" she pleaded. "You +are a gentleman,—you cannot hide that from me." +</P> + +<P> +Discovered! I said to myself. +</P> + +<P> +"Surely you understand my position? Surely you do not wish to +embarrass me?" +</P> + +<P> +Ah, well! I thought. If it will please her, so be it. And I'll make +it a stiff charge for spite. +</P> + +<P> +"Thirty dollars!" I exclaimed, as if it had been three. "Our labour +was worth that much." I looked straight at her in a businesslike way. +</P> + +<P> +It was her turn to gasp, but she recovered herself quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"The cost of labour is, I presume, high, up here?" she commented. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!—very high,—sky-high! You see, I shall have to pay that old +Jew-rascal assistant of mine at least two and a half dollars for his +share, so that it will not leave very much for the master-mind that +engineered the project." +</P> + +<P> +She turned her eyes on me to ascertain if I were funning or in earnest, +but my face betrayed nothing but the greatest seriousness. +</P> + +<P> +She counted out her grocery money and I gave her a receipt. Then she +laid three ten dollar bills on the counter to pay for the piano moving. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you!" I said, as I walked round the counter to a little box +which was nailed on the wall near the door; a box which the Rev. +William Auld had put up with my permission on the occasion of his last +visit, a box which I never saw a logger pass without patronising if he +noticed it. On the outside, it bore the words:—"Sick Children's Aid." +I folded the notes and inserted them in the aperture on top. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Grant watched me closely all the while. +</P> + +<P> +When I got back behind the counter, she went over to the box and read +the label. She opened her purse, with calm deliberation, and poured +all it contained into her hand. She then inserted the coins, one by +one, in the opening of the box and, with honours still even, if not in +her favour, she sailed out of the store. +</P> + +<P> +I was annoyed and chagrined at the turn of events, yet, when I came to +consider her side of the argument, I could not blame her altogether for +the stand she had taken. +</P> + +<P> +I put up her order in no very pleasant frame of mind. +</P> + +<P> +When I saw her and her chaperon row out from the wharf into the Bay, I +carried over the groceries, piecemeal, and placed them in a shady place +on their veranda. I then turned back to the house and prepared my +evening meal. +</P> + +<P> +When the sun had gone down and darkness had crept over Golden Crescent, +I returned to my hammock and my reading, setting a small oil lamp on +the window ledge behind me. It was agreeably cool then and all was +peace and harmony. +</P> + +<P> +From where I lay, I could cast my eyes over the land and seascapes now +and again. I commanded a good view of the house across the creek. The +kitchen lamp was alight there and I could see figures passing backward +and forward. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly an extra light travelled from the kitchen to the front parlour +and, soon after, a ripple of music floated on the evening air. +</P> + +<P> +I listened. How I listened!—like a famished cougar at the sound of a +deer. +</P> + +<P> +The music was sweet, delicious, full of fantastic melody. It was the +light, airy music of Sullivan; and not a halt, not even a falter did +the player make as she tripped and waltzed through the opera. One +picture after another rose before me and dissolved into still others, +as the old, haunting tunes caught my ears, floating from that open +window. +</P> + +<P> +I could see the lady under the soft glow of the lamp, sitting at the +piano, smiling and all absorbed,—the light gleaming gold on her coils +of luxuriant hair. +</P> + +<P> +After a time the mood of the pianist changed. She drifted into the +deeper, the more sombre, more impressive "Kamennoi-Ostrow" of +Rubinstein. She played it softly, so softly, yet so expressively +sadly, that I was drawn by its alluring to leave my veranda and cross +over the wooden bridge, in order to be nearer and to hear better. +</P> + +<P> +Quietly, but quite openly, I took the path by the house, on to the edge +of the cliffs, where I could hear every note, every shade of +expression; where I could follow the story:—the Russian setting, the +summer evening, the beautiful lady, the pealing of the bells calling +the worshippers to the chapel for midnight mass; the whispered +conversations, the organ in solemn chant, the priests intoning the +service, the farewell, and, lastly, the lingering chords of the organ +fading into the deep silence of slumber. +</P> + +<P> +Just as I was about to sit down, I descried the solitary, shadowy +outline of a figure seated a few yards away. +</P> + +<P> +It was Jake,—poor, old, lonely, battle-scarred Jake. His head was in +his hands and he was gazing out to sea as if he were dreaming. +</P> + +<P> +I walked over to him and sat by his side. His blue eyes were filled +with tears, tears that had not dimmed his eyes for years and years; +tears in the eyes of that old Klondike tough, calloused by privation +and leather-hided by hard drinking; tears, and at music which he did +not understand any more than that it was something outside of his body +altogether, outside of the material world, something that spoke only to +the soul of him. +</P> + +<P> +I did not speak,—I dared not speak, for the moment was too sacred. +</P> + +<P> +So we two sat thus, knowing of each other's presence, yet ignoring it, +and listening, all absorbed, entranced, almost hypnotised by the +subtleties of the most charming of all gifts, the perfect +interpretation of a work of art. +</P> + +<P> +We listened on and on,—after the chilly night wind had come up from +the sea, for we did not know of its coming until the music ceased and +the light faded away from the parlour of the house behind us. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee!" exclaimed Jake at last, spitting his mouthful of tobacco over +into the water and wiping his eyes with his coat sleeve, "but that dope +pulls a gink's socks off,—you bet. +</P> + +<P> +"Guess, if a no-gooder like me had of heard that stuff oftener when he +was a kid, he wouldn't be such a no-gooder;—eh! George." +</P> + +<P> +I followed Jake to his boat and, somewhere out of the darkness, Mike +the dog appeared and tailed off behind us. +</P> + +<P> +I accompanied the old fellow to his shack, for this love of music in +him was a new phase of his temperament to me and somehow my heart went +out to him in his loneliness, in his apparent heart-hunger for +something he could hardly hope to find. +</P> + +<P> +We talked together for a long time, and as we talked I noticed that +Jake made no effort to start his usual drinking bout, although Mike the +dog reminded him of his neglect as plainly as dog could, by tugging at +his trousers and going over to the whisky keg and whimpering. +</P> + +<P> +This sudden temperance in Jake surprised me more than a little. +</P> + +<P> +I noticed also that the brass-bound chest still lay under Jake's bunk. +Several times I had been going to speak to him about that trunk and its +contents, and the questionable security of a shack like his, but I had +always evaded the subject at the last minute as being one in which I +was not concerned. +</P> + +<P> +But that night everything was different somehow. +</P> + +<P> +"Look here, Jake," I said, in one of the quiet spells, "don't you think +this old shack of yours isn't a very safe place to keep your money in?" +</P> + +<P> +"How do you mean?" he asked suspiciously. +</P> + +<P> +"There are lots of strange boats put in here of a night; some of them +containing beach-combers who do not care who they rob or what they do +so long as they get a haul. Besides, the loggers are not all angels +and they generally pay you a visit every time they come in. Some of +the worst of them might get wind that you keep all your savings here +and might take a fancy to some of it." +</P> + +<P> +"Guess all I got wouldn't pay the cost of panning," grunted Jake. +"They ain't goin' to butt in on me. Anyway,—I got a pair of good mits +left yet." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!—that is all right, Jake, but nowadays a man does not require to +run the risk. The banks are ready and willing to take that +responsibility, and to pay for the privilege, too. The few dollars I +have are safely banked in Vancouver." +</P> + +<P> +"Banks be damned!" growled Jake. "I ain't got no faith in banks,—no +siree. First stake I made went into a bank, Goodall-Towser Trust Co. +of 'Frisco. 'Four per cent interest guaranteed,' it said on the front +of the bank book they gave me. That book was all they ever gave me; +all I ever saw of my five thousand bucks. I thought because it said +'Trust' on the window, it was right as rain. I ain't trustin' 'Trust' +any more. +</P> + +<P> +"I raised Cain in that Trust outfit. Started shootin' up. Didn't kill +anything, but got three months in the coop. Lost my five thousand +plunks and got three months in the pen, all because I put my dough in +the bank. +</P> + +<P> +"Banks be damned, George. Not for mine,—no siree." +</P> + +<P> +Jake puffed his pipe reflectively, after his long tirade. +</P> + +<P> +"That's all very well, but there are good banks nowadays and good Trust +Companies, too, although I prefer regular chartered banks every time. +Those banks are practically guaranteed by the country and the +wealthiest men in Canada use them. Why!—Mr. Horsfal has thousands in +the Commercial Bank of Canada now. Here is the bank book,—see for +yourself! I send in a deposit every week for him." +</P> + +<P> +Jake was impressed, but not unduly. He suddenly switched. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, George,—who told you I had any dough?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! I knew you had, Jake. Everybody in Golden Crescent knows. But, +to be honest, the minister told me,—in the hope that I would be able +to induce you to place it in safety somewhere." +</P> + +<P> +Jake became confident, a most unusual condition for him. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, George,—I can trust you,—you're straight. I got something +near ten thousand bucks in that brass chest. I don't need it, but +still I ain't givin' it away. I had to grub damned hard to get it. +It's kind o' good to know you ain't ever likely to be a candidate for +some Old Men's Home." +</P> + +<P> +"It is indeed," I replied, "and I admire you for having saved so much. +But won't you put it into the bank, where it is absolutely safe for +you? It is a positive temptation to some men, lying around here. +</P> + +<P> +"The bank will give you a receipt for the money; you can draw on it +when you wish and it will be earning three per cent or three hundred +dollars a year for you all the time it is there." +</P> + +<P> +He pondered for a while, then he dismissed the subject. +</P> + +<P> +"No! Guess I'll keep it by me. No more banks for mine. I ain't so +strong as I used to be and I guess three months in the coop would just +about make me cash in. I ain't takin' no more chances." +</P> + +<P> +Jake's method of reasoning was amusing. After all, it was no affair of +mine and, now that I had unburdened myself, I felt conscience clear. +</P> + +<P> +As I rose to leave, he started to talk again. +</P> + +<P> +"George,—guess you'll think I'm batty,—but I'm goin' to cut out the +booze." +</P> + +<P> +"You are!" I exclaimed in astonishment. +</P> + +<P> +"Ya! Guess maybe you think I'll make a hell of a saint, but I ain't +goin' to try to be no saint; just goin' to cut out the booze, that's +all." +</P> + +<P> +"What has given you this notion?" I could not help inquiring. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! maybe one thing, maybe another. Anyhow, I ain't had a lick +to-night. My stomach's on fire and my head's givin' me Hail Columbia, +but—I ain't had a drink to-night." +</P> + +<P> +"Go easy with it, Jake," I cautioned. "You know a hard drinker like +you have been can't stop all at once without hurting himself." +</P> + +<P> +"I can. You just watch me," he said with determination. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, then,—I think the best thing you can do in these circumstances +is to take that keg in the corner there, roll it outside, pull out the +stop-cock and pour the contents on to the beach." +</P> + +<P> +"No! I ain't spoilin' any booze,—George. If I can't stop it because +a keg of whisky is sittin' under my nose, then I can't stop boozin' +nohow. And, if I can't stop boozin' nohow, what's the good of throwin' +away the good booze I already got, when I'd just have to order another +keg and maybe have to go thirsty waitin' for it to come up." +</P> + +<P> +"All right, old man," I laughed, slapping him between the shoulders, +"please yourself and good luck to your attempt, anyway." +</P> + +<P> +"Say!—George." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!" +</P> + +<P> +"You won't say anything about this to the young lady that plays the +pianner? Because, you see, I might fall down." +</P> + +<P> +"I won't say a word, Jake." +</P> + +<P> +"And—not to Rita, neither?" he asked plaintively, "because Rita's +about the only gal cares two straws for me. She comes often when +nobody knows about it. She brings cake and pie, and swell cooked meat +sometimes. When I find anything on the table,—I know Rita's been. +I've knowed Rita since she was a baby and I've always knowed her for a +good gal." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Jake;—I will keep your secret as if I had never heard it. But +don't allow that drunken chum of yours, Mike, to lead you astray." +</P> + +<P> +"Guess nit! Mike's got to sign the pledge same's me," he laughed in +his guttural way. +</P> + +<P> +I stood at the door. "And you are not going to put that money of yours +in the bank, Jake?" +</P> + +<P> +He spat on the ground. +</P> + +<P> +"To hell with banks," he grunted and turned inside. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +The Devil of the Sea +</H4> + +<P> +It was Sunday morning, the first Sunday morning after the arrival of +the American ladies at the house over the way,—for I took them to be +such, and, later, my conjecture proved not a very long way out. +</P> + +<P> +It had been a week of hard work, petty annoyances and unsatisfying +little pleasures. +</P> + +<P> +When I got up that morning, I felt jaded. As I ate my breakfast, I +became more so; but, as I went out on to the veranda to look upon the +beauties of Golden Crescent,—as I did every morning,—I came to myself. +</P> + +<P> +This will never do, George Bremner! What you need is a swim! +</P> + +<P> +I had hit it. Why had not I thought of it sooner? I undressed, and in +less time than it takes to retell it, I was in the water and striking +straight for Rita's Isle. +</P> + +<P> +When I got there, I sunned myself on the rocks, as was my wont. I +looked across towards Clarks' farm, in the hope that I might espy Rita +somewhere between,—yet half hoping that I would not, for I was +browsing in the changing delights and sensations of the thoughts which +my solitariness engendered. +</P> + +<P> +For one thing;—I had made the discovery the night before that Miss +Grant's Christian name was Mary. +</P> + +<P> +I had found a torn label on the beach; one, evidently, from a +travelling bag. It read: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Miss Mary Grant,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Passenger</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">to Golden Crescent Bay, B. C. Canada.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +ex San Francisco, per P. C. S. S. Co. to Vancouver. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +That was all. +</P> + +<P> +I lay on my back on the rocks, turning the name over in my mind. +</P> + +<P> +Mary.... It did not sound very musical. It was a +plain-Jane-and-no-nonsense kind of name. +</P> + +<P> +I started in to make excuses to myself for it. Why I did so, I have no +idea, but I discovered myself at it. +</P> + +<P> +Mary was a Bible name. Yes!—it had that in its favour. +</P> + +<P> +Famous queens had been called Mary. Yes! +</P> + +<P> +The lady who owned the world-famous "little lamb" was called Mary. +</P> + +<P> +And there was "Mary, Mary, quite contrary." +</P> + +<P> +Why, of course! there were plenty of wonderful Marys. Notwithstanding, +I could not altogether shake off the feeling of regret that came to me +with the discovery that the young lady over the way was called Mary. +</P> + +<P> +Had her name been Marguerite, or Dorothea, Millicent or even Rosemary, +I would have been contented and would have considered the name a +fitting one,—but to be common-or-garden Mary! +</P> + +<P> +Oh, well!—what mattered it anyway? The name did not detract from the +attractiveness of her long, wavy, golden hair, nor did it change the +colour or lessen the transparency of her eyes. It did not interfere +with her deft fingers as they travelled so artistically over the +keyboard of her piano; although I kept wishing, in a half-wishful way, +that it could have changed her tantalising and exasperating demeanour +toward me. +</P> + +<P> +From the beginning, we had played antagonists, and from the beginning +this playing antagonists had been distasteful to me. +</P> + +<P> +What was it in me? I wondered,—what was it in her that caused the +mental ferment? I had not the slightest notion, unless it were a +resentfulness in me at being taken only for what I, myself, had chosen +to become,—store-clerk in an out-of-the-way settlement; or an +annoyance in her because one of my station should place himself on +terms of social equality with every person he happened to meet. +</P> + +<P> +I was George Bremner to her. True! Then,—she was merely Mary Grant +to me. Mary Grant she was and Mary Grant she would doubtless remain, +until,—until somebody changed it to probably—Mary-something-worse. +</P> + +<P> +As I day-dreamed, I felt the air about me more chilly than usual. +</P> + +<P> +All the previous night, the sea had been running into the Bay choppy +and white-tipped, but now it was as level as the face of a mirror, +although everywhere on the surface of the water loose driftwood floated. +</P> + +<P> +I let myself go, down the smooth shelving rock upon which I had been +lying. I dropped noiselessly far down into the deep water. I came up +and struck out for home,—all my previous lassitude gone from me. +</P> + +<P> +I was swimming along leisurely, interested only in my thoughts and the +water immediately around me, when something a bit ahead attracted my +attention. +</P> + +<P> +I was half-way between Rita's Isle and the shore at the time. The +object in front kept bobbing,—bobbing. At first, I took it to be part +of a semi-submerged log, but as I drew nearer I was quite surprised to +find that it was an early morning swimmer like myself. Nearer still, +and I discovered that the swimmer was a woman whose hair was bound +securely by a multi-coloured, heavy, silk muffler, such as certain +types of London Johnnies affected for a time. +</P> + +<P> +Whoever the swimmer was, she had already gone at least half a mile, for +that was the distance to the nearest point of land and there was no +boat of any kind in her tracks. +</P> + +<P> +Half a mile!—and another half-mile to go! Quite a swim for a lady! +</P> + +<P> +Afraid lest it should prove more than enough for a member of what I had +always been taught to recognise as the more delicately constituted of +the sexes, I drew closer to the swimmer. +</P> + +<P> +When only a few yards behind, she turned round with a startled +exclamation. +</P> + +<P> +It was Mary Grant. +</P> + +<P> +A chill ran along my spine. I became unreasonable immediately. What +right had she to run risks of this nature? Was there not plenty of +water for her to swim in near the shore where she would be within easy +hail of the land should she become exhausted? +</P> + +<P> +Almost angrily, I narrowed the space between us. +</P> + +<P> +She had recognised me at her first glimpse. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you not rather far from the shore, Miss Grant?" I inquired bruskly. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you! Not a bit too far," she exclaimed, keeping up a steady +progress through the water. +</P> + +<P> +She moved easily and did not betray any signs of weariness, except it +were in a catching of her voice, which almost every one has who talks +in the water after a long swim. +</P> + +<P> +I could not but admire the power of her swimming, despite the evident +fact that she was not at all speedy. +</P> + +<P> +"But you have no right to risk your life out here, when you do not know +the coast," I retorted. +</P> + +<P> +"What right have you to question my rights, sir?" she answered +haughtily. "Please go away." +</P> + +<P> +"I spoke for your own good," I continued. "There may be currents in +the Bay that you know nothing of. Besides, the driftwood itself is +dangerous this morning." +</P> + +<P> +She did not reply for a bit, but kept steadily on. +</P> + +<P> +When I took up my position a few yards to the left and on a level with +her, she turned on me indignantly. +</P> + +<P> +"Excuse me, Sir Impertinence,—but do you take me for a child or a +fool? Are you one of those inflated individuals who imagines that +masculine man is the only animal that can do anything?" +</P> + +<P> +"Far from it," I answered, "but as it so happens I am slightly better +acquainted with the Bay than you are and I merely wished you to benefit +from my knowledge." +</P> + +<P> +"I am obliged to you for your interest, Mr. Bremner. However, I know +my own capabilities in the water, just as you know yours. Now,—if you +do not desire to spoil what to me has been a pleasure so far, you will +leave me." +</P> + +<P> +I fell back a few yards, feeling that it would have given me extreme +pleasure to have had the pulling of her ears. And, more out of +cussedness,—as Jake would put it,—than anything else, I kept plodding +along slowly, neither increasing nor diminishing the distance between +us. +</P> + +<P> +She was well aware of my proximity, and, at last, when we were little +more than a hundred yards from the point of the rock at the farthest +out end of the wharf, she wheeled on me like the exasperated sea-nymph +she was. +</P> + +<P> +"I told you the other day, Mr. Bremner, that you could not hide the +fact that you were a gentleman. If you do not wish me to regret having +said that,—you will go away. I am perfectly capable of looking after +myself." +</P> + +<P> +That was the last straw for me. I could see that she was a splendid +swimmer and that she was likely to make the shore without mishap, +although I could also tell that she was tiring. +</P> + +<P> +"All right!—I'll go," I shouted. "But please be sensible,—there was +a heavy drift of wood and seaweed last night. The seaweed always +gathers in at your side of the wharf, and it is treacherous. Come this +way and land ashore from my side." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you! Mr. Bremner," she called back quite pleasantly, "but I came +this way and saw very little seaweed, so I fancy I shall be able to get +back." +</P> + +<P> +Maddened at her for being so headstrong, I veered to the left of the +rocks, while she held on to the right. +</P> + +<P> +I did not look in her direction again, but, with a fast, powerful +side-stroke, I shot ahead and soon the rocks divided us. +</P> + +<P> +I was barely a hundred yards from the beach, when I heard, or fancied I +heard, just the faintest of inarticulate cries. +</P> + +<P> +I listened, but it was not repeated. In the ordinary course, I would +have paid no heed, but something above and beyond me prompted me to +satisfy myself that all was right. +</P> + +<P> +I swung round and started quickly for the point of the rocks again. In +a few seconds, I reached it and swam round to the other side. I +scanned the water between me and the shore,—it was as smooth as glass, +with only bobbing brown bulbs everywhere denoting the presence of the +seaweed. +</P> + +<P> +I looked at the beach, and across to Miss Grant's house,—there was no +one in sight. +</P> + +<P> +A feeling of horror crept over me. It was +improbable,—impossible,—that she could have reached the shore and got +inside the house so quickly. +</P> + +<P> +I glanced over the surface of the water again. +</P> + +<P> +Good God!—what was that? +</P> + +<P> +Not fifty yards from the beach, and just at the point where the bobbing +brown bulbs were thickest, a small hand and an arm broke the surface of +the water. The fingers of the hand closed convulsively and a ring +glittered in the sunlight. Then the hand vanished. +</P> + +<P> +With a vigorous crawl stroke,—keeping well on the surface for +safety,—I tore through that intervening space. +</P> + +<P> +Oh!—how I thanked God for my exceptional ability in diving and +swimming under water. +</P> + +<P> +As I got over the spot where I reckoned the hand had appeared, I became +cautious, for I knew the danger and I had no desire to get entangled +and thus end the chances of both of us. I sank down, slowly and +perpendicularly, keeping my knees bent and my feet together, feeling +carefully with my hands the while. The water was clear, but I could +see only a little way because of the seaweed. +</P> + +<P> +How thickly it had gathered! Long, curling, tangling stuff! +</P> + +<P> +Several times, I had to change my position quickly in order to avoid +being caught among the great, waving tendrils which, lower down, +interweaved like the meshes of a gigantic net. +</P> + +<P> +I stayed under water as long as I dared, then with lungs afire I had to +come to the surface for air. +</P> + +<P> +Desperately, I started again. +</P> + +<P> +I swam several yards nearer to the rocks and sank once more. This +time, my groping hands found what they were seeking. Far down, almost +at the bottom of the sea, the body of Miss Grant lay. +</P> + +<P> +I passed my hands over her. Her head and arms were clear of the awful +tangle, but both her legs were enmeshed. +</P> + +<P> +Fighting warily and working like one possessed, I tore at the +slithering ropes and bands that bound her. I got one foot and leg +clear, then, with bursting lungs I attacked the other. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed as if I should never get her free. How I fought and +struggled with that damnable sea-growth! fearing and fearing afresh +that I would have to make to the surface for air, or drown where I was. +</P> + +<P> +As I worked frantically, I grew defiant, and decided to drown rather +than leave the girl who had already been far too long under water. +</P> + +<P> +My head throbbed and hammered. My senses reeled and rallied, and +reeled again as I tore and struggled. Then, when hope was leaving me, +I felt something snap. I caught at the body beside me and I drifted +upward, and upward;—I did not know how or where. +</P> + +<P> +The thought flashed through me;—this is the last. It is all over. +</P> + +<P> +I opened my throat to allow the useless carbonised air to escape. I +was conscious of the act and knew its consequences:—a flood of salt +water in my lungs, then suffocation and death. But I did not care now. +</P> + +<P> +My lungs deflated, then—oh! delicious ecstasy!—instead of water, I +drew to my dying body,—air; reviving, life-giving, life-sustaining +oxygen. +</P> + +<P> +I panted and gasped, as life ran through my veins. Blood danced in my +thumping heart. I caught at my reeling senses. I clutched, like a +miser, at the body I held. +</P> + +<P> +I struggled, and opened my eyes. +</P> + +<P> +I was on the surface of the water,—afloat. In my arms, I held the +lady I had wrested from the deadly seaweed. +</P> + +<P> +How well I knew, even in those awful moments, that I was not the cause +of that wonderful rescue. I was present,—true,—but it was the +decreeing of the great, living, but Unseen Power, who had further use +for both of us in the bright old world, who had more work for us to +perform ere he called us to our last accounting. +</P> + +<P> +Well I knew then that every moment of time was more precious than +ordinary hours of reckoning, yet I dared not hurry with my burden +across that short strip of water, lest we should again become entangled. +</P> + +<P> +Foot by foot, I worked my way, until I was clear of the seaweed, then I +kicked forcefully for the shore, and with my unconscious, perhaps dead, +burden in my arms, I scrambled up the face of the rocks and into the +house. +</P> + +<P> +"Quick! For God's sake! Hot water,—blankets!" I cried to Miss +Grant's semi-petrified companion. +</P> + +<P> +She stood and looked at me in horror and bewilderment. Then I +remembered that my shouting was in vain, for she was stone-deaf. +</P> + +<P> +But this good old lady's helplessness was short-lived. +</P> + +<P> +"Lay her down," she cried; "I know how to handle this. If there's a +spark of life in her I can bring her round." +</P> + +<P> +I laid the limp form on the bed, on top of the spotless linen. +</P> + +<P> +As I did so, I looked upon the pale face, with its eyes closed and the +brine rolling in drops over those long, golden eyelashes; then upon the +glorious sun-kissed hair now water-soaked and tangled. +</P> + +<P> +I cried in my soul, "Oh, God!—is this the end and she so beautiful." +</P> + +<P> +Already the elderly lady had commenced first aid, in a businesslike +way. It was something I knew only a little about, so I went into the +kitchen in a perspiring terror of suspense,—and I stood there by the +stove, ready to be of assistance at any moment, should I be called. +</P> + +<P> +After what seemed hours of waiting, I heard a moan, and through the +moaning came a voice, sweet but pitiful, and breathing of agony. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! why did you bring me back? Why did you not let me die?" +</P> + +<P> +Again followed a long waiting, with the soothing voice of Miss Grant's +able companion talking to her patient as she wrought with her. +</P> + +<P> +There was a spell of dreadful nausea, but when it came I knew the worst +was over. +</P> + +<P> +The elderly lady came to the door, with a request for a hot-water +bottle, which I got for her with alacrity. +</P> + +<P> +At last she came out to me, and her kindly face was beaming. +</P> + +<P> +"My dear, good boy," she said, as tears trickled down her cheeks, "she +is lying peacefully and much better. In an hour or two, she will be up +and around. Would you care to see her, just to put your mind at ease?" +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed I would," I responded. +</P> + +<P> +She led the way into the room, and there on the bed lay Miss +Grant,—breathing easily,—alive,—life athrob in her veins. +</P> + +<P> +A joyful reaction overwhelmed me, for, no matter how humble had been my +part, I had been chosen to help to save her. +</P> + +<P> +As I stood by her, her eyes opened;—great, light-brown eyes, bright +and agleam as of molten gold. They roved the room, then they rested on +me. +</P> + +<P> +"What!" she groaned, "you still here? Oh!—go away,—go away." +</P> + +<P> +My heart sank within me and my face flushed with confusion. +</P> + +<P> +I might have understood that what she said was merely the outpouring of +an overpowering weakness which was mingling the mental pictures +focussed on the young lady's mind;—but I failed to think anything but +that she had a natural distaste for my presence and was not, even now, +grateful for the assistance I had rendered. +</P> + +<P> +With my head bowed, I walked to the door. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Malmsbury,—for that was the elderly lady's name,—came to me. +She had not heard, but she had surmised. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! Mr. Bremner,—if my dear Mary has said anything amiss to you, do +not be offended, for she is hardly herself yet. Why!—she is only +newly back from the dead." +</P> + +<P> +She held out her hand to me and I took it gratefully. But as I walked +over to my quarters and dressed myself, the feeling of resentment in my +heart did not abate; and I vowed then to myself that I would think of +Mary Grant no more; that I would avoid her when I could and keep +strictly to my own, beloved, masculine, bachelor pursuits and to the +pathway I had mapped out for myself. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Good Medicine +</H4> + +<P> +The Rev. William Auld was due to visit Golden Crescent that afternoon. +I almost wearied for his coming, for he was entertaining and uplifting. +He, somehow, had the happy knack of instilling fresh energy, fresh +ambition, fresh hope, into every one with whom he came in contact. +</P> + +<P> +His noisy launch at last came chug-chugging up the Bay. He started +with the far point of the Crescent and called at every creek, cove and +landing at which there was a home. Then he crept along the shore-line +to Jake's place. +</P> + +<P> +My turn next,—I soliloquised. But, no!—he held out, waving his hand +in salutation. +</P> + +<P> +It was evidently his intention to make a call on Miss Grant before +finishing his Sabbath labours at my bungalow. +</P> + +<P> +He stayed there a long time: so long, that I was beginning to give up +hope of his ever getting my length; but, finally, his cheery voice +hailed me from my doorway and roused my drooping spirits. +</P> + +<P> +His pale, gentle face was wreathed in smiles. +</P> + +<P> +"Good boy! Good boy!" he commented. "God bless you! He is blessing +you,—eh, George!" +</P> + +<P> +"How is the lady?" I inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"Almost as well as ever," he replied. "She has had a severe shake-up +though. It must have been touch and go. +</P> + +<P> +"She was up, George, and talked to me. She told me everything she +could remember; how she refused to take your well-intentioned advice, +and suffered the consequences of her folly. She gave me this note for +you." +</P> + +<P> +He held out an envelope and I took it and put it in my pocket. +</P> + +<P> +He raised his eyebrows, "Read it, man;—read it." +</P> + +<P> +"It will do later, Mr. Auld;—there is no hurry." +</P> + +<P> +He shook his old, grey head in surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"Well,—well,—well," he exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you visited the Clarks yet, George?" he asked after a pause. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!" +</P> + +<P> +"And what did you find there?" +</P> + +<P> +"Discord," I answered. +</P> + +<P> +"So you know all about it, eh!" +</P> + +<P> +"You are a minister of God, Mr. Auld; you have influence with such a +man as Andrew Clark. Surely you can move him from the damnable +position he has taken up?" +</P> + +<P> +"I would to God I could," he said fervently. "For ten years, I have +preached to him, scolded him, cajoled him, threatened him with +hell-fire and ever-lasting torment; yes! I have even refused to +dispense the sacrament to him unless he relented, but I might as well +have expended my energies on The Ghoul Rock out there at the opening to +the Bay." +</P> + +<P> +"But he professes to be a good Christian, Mr. Auld," I put in. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! and no man on the coast tries to live a good life more than he +does. I am sure, every moment of his life he deeply regrets the rash +vow he made, but he believes, in the sight of God, he is doing right in +keeping to it. He is obsessed. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, George,—what is there left for me to try?" +</P> + +<P> +"Physical force," I exclaimed angrily. +</P> + +<P> +"George,—" he said, almost horrified, "it is not for a minister of the +gospel to think of violence." +</P> + +<P> +"Why not?" I went on. "Andrew Clark is slowly torturing his wife to +death. Surely, if there ever was an occasion,—this is it! A few +days' violence may save years of torture to both and, maybe, save his +eternal soul besides." +</P> + +<P> +He sat in silence for a while, then he startled me. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, boy! You have a scheme in your head. Tell me what it is, +and,—may God forgive me if I do wrong,—but, if it appeals to me as +likely to move that old, living block of Aberdeen granite, or even to +cause a few hours' joy to his dear, patient wife, Margaret, I'll carry +it through if I can." +</P> + +<P> +I unfolded what had been in my mind. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you think of it?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +He shook his head dubiously. +</P> + +<P> +"It is dangerous; it is violent; it is not what a minister is expected +to do to any of his flock;—and it is only a chance that it will effect +its purpose." +</P> + +<P> +"Where would you put him?" I asked, as if he had agreed. +</P> + +<P> +He smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!—there is the log cabin at the back of the farm, where he keeps +nothing but an incubator. It has a heavy door and only a small window. +</P> + +<P> +"Man,—if we could inveigle him in there!" +</P> + +<P> +The Rev. William Auld positively chuckled as he thought of it. +</P> + +<P> +I knew then that he was not so very far away from his schoolboy days, +despite his age and experiences. +</P> + +<P> +"When can we start in?" +</P> + +<P> +He thought a little. +</P> + +<P> +"The sooner the better," he said. "Joe is busy towing booms this week +and there is no possible chance of his coming home. I am not too busy +and can spare the part of three or four consecutive days for the job. +</P> + +<P> +"If we can only get Margaret and Rita to agree." +</P> + +<P> +"I can guarantee Rita," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"And I can coerce Margaret," he put in. +</P> + +<P> +"We'll arrange with the women folks to-morrow sometime, and we'll +tackle poor old Andrew the following afternoon." +</P> + +<P> +The minister waited and had tea with me. It was late when he took his +departure. +</P> + +<P> +Just as I was tumbling into bed, I remembered Mary Grant's letter. I +took it out of my coat pocket and opened it. It was not a letter, +after all; merely a note. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Please,—please forgive me," it read. "You are a brave and very +gallant gentleman. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"MARY GRANT." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"George, my boy!" I soliloquised, "that ought to satisfy you." +</P> + +<P> +But it did not. In the frame of mind I then was in, nothing could +possibly have propitiated me. +</P> + +<P> +As I dropped to sleep, the phrase recurred again and again: "You are a +brave and very gallant gentleman." That,—maybe,—but after all a poor +and humble gentleman working for wages in a country store;—so, why +worry? +</P> + +<P> +Next morning, although it was not the day any steamer was due, I ran +the white flag to the top of the pole at the point of the rocks, in the +hope that Rita would see it and take it as a signal that I wished to +speak with her; and so save me a trip across, for I expected some of +the men from the Camps and I never liked to be absent or to keep them +waiting. +</P> + +<P> +Just before noon, Rita presented herself. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, George!—what's the rag up for? Did you forget what day of the +week it was, or is it your birthday? +</P> + +<P> +"I brought you a pie, in case it might be your anniversary. Made it +this morning." +</P> + +<P> +I laughed to the bright little lass who stood before me with eyes +dancing mischievously, white teeth showing and the pink of her cheeks +glowing through the olive tint of her skin. +</P> + +<P> +The more I saw of Rita, the prettier she seemed in my eyes, for she was +lively and agile, trim, neat and beautifully rounded, breathing always +of fragrant and exuberant health. +</P> + +<P> +"Sit down beside me on the steps here, Rita," I said. "I want to talk +to you. That is why I put the flag up. +</P> + +<P> +"Rita,—what would you give to have your grand-dad renounce his vow +some day and begin speaking to your grandmother as if nothing had ever +been amiss?" +</P> + +<P> +She looked at me and her lips trembled. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, George! Don't fool me. I ain't myself on that subject." +</P> + +<P> +"What would you give, Rita?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'd give anything. I'd pretty near give my life, George; for +grandmother would be happier'n an angel." +</P> + +<P> +"Would you help, if some one knew a way?" +</P> + +<P> +"George,—sure you ain't foolin'? True,—you ain't foolin'?" +</P> + +<P> +For answer, I plunged into the scheme. +</P> + +<P> +"Now,—all we require of you and your grandmother is to sit tight and +neither to say nor do anything that would interfere. Leave it +to—leave it to the minister. He is doing this, and he believes that +it is the only way to bring your grand-dad to his senses. Mr. Auld has +already tried everything else he can think of." +</P> + +<P> +"It won't kill grand-dad, though?" she inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"Kill him,—no! Why! it won't even hurt him, unless, maybe, his pride. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you agree, Rita?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sure!" she said. "But—if you or Mr. Auld hurt my grand-dad, I guess +I'll kill you both,—see." +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes flashed for a second and I could tell she was in deadly +earnest over it. But she soon laughed and became happy once more. +</P> + +<P> +"Rita,—would you like to be able to talk English,—proper +English,—just as it should be talked? Would you care to learn English +Grammar?" I asked, changing the subject partly. +</P> + +<P> +She came close to me on the veranda steps with a jump. +</P> + +<P> +"Say that over again, George. I want to get it right," she said +plaintively. +</P> + +<P> +"Would you like me to teach you English Grammar, Rita?" I repeated. +</P> + +<P> +"Would I? Oh! wouldn't I just!" +</P> + +<P> +She looked away quickly. "You wouldn't waste your time teachin' the +likes of me." +</P> + +<P> +"I have been through college. I know something of English Grammar and +English Literature. It would be the pleasure of my life to be +permitted to impart some of what I know to you." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!—but it would take years, and years, and—then some," she put in. +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit of it! It would take an hour or two of an evening, maybe +twice a week. That is all,—provided you went over and learned in +between times all that was given you to master." +</P> + +<P> +"Gee! I could do that. You just try me." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Rita. Here is your first lesson. +</P> + +<P> +"Never say 'gee.' It is not good English." +</P> + +<P> +And I never heard Rita use the expression again. +</P> + +<P> +I had expected to see her smile with happiness, but she was too +tremendously in earnest about it. Determination was written all over +her sweet little face. +</P> + +<P> +"George,—I'll learn anything you tell me. I'll work hard and I'll +learn terrible fast, for I know I ain't no good now at talking slick." +</P> + +<P> +"Here is another for you, Rita. Never say 'ain't no good.' Say, 'I am +not any good.' 'Ain't' is not a word; it does not appear in any +standard dictionary of English. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, little girl,—if your grand-dad is agreeable and will permit you +to come over now and again of an evening, we can make a start as soon +as I get the book I require from Vancouver. +</P> + +<P> +"I would come over to your place, but it is quite a distance from the +store and I do not like to be too long away, especially in the +evenings; for I have seen Chinese in their fishing boats around, and +strange launches keep coming into the Bay to anchor overnights. It +does not do, you know, to neglect another man's property and goods when +the other man pays me for looking after them." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! grand-dad won't mind me coming. He lets me do pretty near +anything. Besides, somebody's got to come over to the store now we're +getting our groceries from you instead of ordering them from Vancouver." +</P> + +<P> +I was not so sanguine as Rita was, especially after what Joe had +probably said to Andrew Clark regarding me. +</P> + +<P> +"Well!" I concluded, "that will be my excuse when I come over with the +medicine for your grand-dad's chronic complaint,—dumbness. So, don't +say a word about it until I get over." +</P> + +<P> +The Rev. William Auld ran in early that afternoon. He was all +excitement. +</P> + +<P> +"George,—I saw Margaret and I have fixed her. Poor woman,—she is as +nervous as a kitten and as worried as a mother cat, fearing we may hurt +Andrew. The old rascal;—he's not so easily hurt, eh, George? +</P> + +<P> +"You saw Rita?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! And she is like Mrs. Clark, but the prize looks too alluring for +her to refrain from entering the gamble." +</P> + +<P> +"George! Why should we leave this till to-morrow?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know why." +</P> + +<P> +"We could start in to-night, just as easily as to-morrow, and it will +be over a day sooner. What do you say?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am ready when you are, Mr. Auld." +</P> + +<P> +"Right! Now, I am going to leave the conversation to you. You must +work it round to fit in. I shall do the rest,—the dirty work, as the +villain says in the dime novel." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you know about dime novels?" I laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"I am a minister of the gospel now, but ... I was a boy once." +</P> + +<P> +The Rev. William Auld had dinner with me, then he started out in his +launch for Clark's ranch. It was arranged that I follow immediately in +a rowing boat, which would take me longer to get there and would thus +disarm any suspicion of complicity. +</P> + +<P> +When I arrived at Clark's, I could hear the minister talking and Andrew +Clark laughing heartily. Mr. Auld was telling some interesting story +and he had the old man in the best of humours. +</P> + +<P> +I was welcomed with cheerfulness, and the minister shook hands with me +as if he had not seen me for a month of Sundays. +</P> + +<P> +Rita was a-missing. Mrs. Clark seemed nervous and ill-at-ease. +Andrew, however, was in his happiest of moods. +</P> + +<P> +"What special brought ye over, George?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +I told him of Rita's anxiety to be able to talk English properly and of +my willingness to teach her if it could be arranged conveniently. The +minister backed up the project with all his ministerial fluency, but +Andrew Clark was not the man to agree to a thing immediately, no matter +how well it appealed to him. +</P> + +<P> +"Rita's a good lassie," he said, "and she hasna had schoolin' except +what Marget and me taught her, and that's little more than being able +to read and add up a few lines o' figures. +</P> + +<P> +"George Bremner,—you're an honest man and I like ye fine. You'll ha'e +my answer by the end o' the week." +</P> + +<P> +"Right you are!" I exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +Andrew then started in to tell Mr. Auld of the method he had adopted in +regard to the disposition of his output of eggs, and that gave me just +the opportunity I wanted. +</P> + +<P> +"How do you raise your chicks, Mr. Clark?" I asked. "Do you use an +incubator?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sure thing! And a grand little incubator I ha'e too," he answered. +"She takes two hundred and fifty eggs at a time and gives an average of +eighty per cent chicks." +</P> + +<P> +I had lit on Andrew Clark's one and only hobby. +</P> + +<P> +He got up. "Come and ha'e a look at it. It's called 'The +Every-Egg-A-Chick' Incubator, and it nearly lives up to its name. +</P> + +<P> +"But it's a pity I ha'e nothin' in her at the minute. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, too, Mr. Auld. It'll do ye good to learn something aboot +chickens, even if you are busy enough lookin' after the sheep." +</P> + +<P> +Andrew took a huge key from a nail in the wall and we followed him out +to the log cabin, both of us full of forced interest and bubbling over +with pent-up excitement. +</P> + +<P> +Old man Clark talked all the way on his favourite topic; he talked +while he inserted the key in the door and he kept on talking as he +walked in, all intent on his wonderful egg-hatcher. +</P> + +<P> +He left the key in the door. +</P> + +<P> +Just as I was due to enter, I stepped back. With a quick movement, the +minister pulled the door to and turned the key, taking it out of the +lock and putting it in his trouser pocket. +</P> + +<P> +"Hey!—what's the matter?" came a voice from the inside. +</P> + +<P> +We did not answer. +</P> + +<P> +Andrew Clark battered on the door with his fists. +</P> + +<P> +"Hey there! The door has snappit to. Open it and come awa' in." +</P> + +<P> +The minister put his lips to the keyhole. +</P> + +<P> +"Andrew Clark,—that door is not going to be opened for some time to +come." +</P> + +<P> +"Toots! What are ye bletherin' aboot? What kind o' a schoolboy trick +is this you're up to? Open the door and none o' your nonsense." +</P> + +<P> +I chuckled with delight, as I ran off for some boards and nails which I +hammered up against the small window for extra security. +</P> + +<P> +When I finished the job, the Rev. William Auld was getting through his +lecture to Andrew. +</P> + +<P> +"—And you won't step a foot out of this place, neither shall you eat, +till you renounce your devilish vow and speak to the wife of your +bosom, as a God-fearing man should." +</P> + +<P> +Sonorously from behind the door came Clark's voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Willum Auld!—are ye a meenister o' the gospel?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!" +</P> + +<P> +"And ye would try to force a man to break a vow made before the Lord?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! Andrew." +</P> + +<P> +"Ye would starve a man to death,—murder him?" +</P> + +<P> +"No!—but I would make him very uncomfortable. I would make him so +hungry that he would almost hear the gnawing in his internals for meat, +if I thought good would come of it." +</P> + +<P> +The man behind the door became furious. +</P> + +<P> +"Willum Auld!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! Andrew." +</P> + +<P> +"If ye don't open that door at once, I'll write a complaint to the +Presbytery. I'll ha'e ye shorn o' your releegious orders and hunted +frae the kirk o' God." +</P> + +<P> +"Be silent! you blasphemer," commanded the frail but plucky old +minister. "How dare you talk in that way? Do you wish to bring down a +judgment on yourself? Good-night! Andrew,—I'll be back to-morrow; +and I would strongly recommend you, in the interval, to get down on +your knees and pray to your Maker." +</P> + +<P> +This proved almost too much for Andrew. +</P> + +<P> +"Willum!—Willum!—Come back," he cried through the door. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it?" asked the minister, returning. +</P> + +<P> +"There's neither light nor bed here, and I'm an ageing man." +</P> + +<P> +"Darkness is better light and earthen floors are softer bedding than +you will have in the place you are hastening to if you do not repent +and talk to Margaret." +</P> + +<P> +There was a spell of silence again. +</P> + +<P> +"Willum!—Willum! Are ye there?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! Andrew." +</P> + +<P> +"Could I ha'e my pipe and tobacco and a puckle matches? They're on the +kitchen mantel-piece." +</P> + +<P> +"Unless it is a drink of water, not a thing shall pass through this +doorway to you till you pledge me that you will speak to Margaret, as +you did before you took your devil's vow." +</P> + +<P> +The dour old man, in his erstwhile prison, had the last word: +</P> + +<P> +"Gang awa' wi' ye,—for it'll be a long time, Willum Auld. The snaw +will be fallin' blue frae the Heavens." +</P> + +<P> +We went back to the cottage and gave implicit instructions to Margaret +and Rita how they were to handle the prisoner. Neither of them was in +an easy frame of mind, and I feared considerably for their ability to +stand the test and keep away from the log hut. But the minister +retained the key, so that nothing short of tearing the place down would +let Andrew Clark out. +</P> + +<P> +Next day, late in the afternoon, the minister called in for me and we +sailed over to the ranch. +</P> + +<P> +Margaret, though sorely tempted, had kept religiously away from her +husband; but, already, she had a variety of foodstuffs cooked and +waiting his anticipated release. +</P> + +<P> +We went over to the barn and the minister rapped on the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you there, Andrew?" +</P> + +<P> +No answer. +</P> + +<P> +"Andrew Clark,—are you there?" +</P> + +<P> +Still no response. +</P> + +<P> +I looked though the boarded window. The old Scot was standing with his +back to us in a studied attitude. +</P> + +<P> +Once more the minister spoke, but still he received no answer. +</P> + +<P> +The women folks were waiting anxiously, and keen was their +disappointment when they heard that another day would have to pass ere +the head of their house could be released. +</P> + +<P> +"God forgive me if I am doing wrong," exclaimed William Auld to me, +"but I am determined, now that I have put my hand to the plough, I +shall not turn back." +</P> + +<P> +Wednesday came, and we called again. +</P> + +<P> +"Andrew," called the minister through the door, "will you relent and +talk to Margaret?" +</P> + +<P> +"Give me a drink of water," came a husky voice from behind the door. +</P> + +<P> +A saucer of cold water was passed under the door to him and he seized +it and drank of it eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you talk to Margaret, Andrew?" +</P> + +<P> +"No!" snapped the old fellow. And back again he dropped into silence. +</P> + +<P> +Still another day and the performance was repeated. Still Andrew Clark +remained adamant; still Margaret Clark begged and prayed on her knees +for his release. +</P> + +<P> +"We will give him one more day," said the minister, "and then, if it is +God's will, we will release him and take the consequences of our acts." +</P> + +<P> +On the Friday afternoon, we made what we considered would be our last +trip. +</P> + +<P> +Dour, stubborn, old man! It looked as if he were about to beat us +after all, for we could not afford to injure his health, no matter what +the reason for it. As it was, we had broken the law of the land and we +were liable to punishment at the hands of the law. +</P> + +<P> +The Rev. William Auld, suffering far more than the prisoner could have +suffered during that trying time, knocked at the solid door once more. +</P> + +<P> +"Andrew! Andrew!" he cried, "for God's sake, be a man." +</P> + +<P> +He had the key to the door in his hand, ready to open it. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly, a broken voice came in answer: +</P> + +<P> +"Bring me Marget! Bring me Marget!" +</P> + +<P> +"Do you wish to speak to her, Andrew?" +</P> + +<P> +"Bring me Marget, won't you," came again the wavering voice. +</P> + +<P> +I brought the dear old woman from her kitchen. She was trembling with +anxiety and suspense. +</P> + +<P> +William Auld threw the door open. +</P> + +<P> +Andrew Clark was standing in the middle of the floor, with a look on +his face that I had never seen there before,—a look of holy +tenderness. He held out his arms to the white-haired old lady, who +tottered forward to meet him. +</P> + +<P> +"Marget! Marget! My own lass, Marget!" he cried huskily, as tears +blinded his sight. He caught her and crushed her to him. +</P> + +<P> +Margaret tried to speak, but her voice caught brokenly. +</P> + +<P> +"Andrew! Andrew!—don't, lad,—oh! don't." +</P> + +<P> +She laid her head on his breast and sobbed in utter content, as he +stroked her hair. +</P> + +<P> +"It's been ten year o' hell for me, Marget: ten year o' hell for us +both," he went on, "but God has spoken to me in the darkness, in the +quietness; through hunger and thirst. My lass, my lass;—my own, dear, +patient lass." +</P> + +<P> +He was holding her tightly to him and did not seem to know of our +presence. Our hearts were too full to remain. We turned and left them +in the joy of their reborn love. +</P> + +<P> +The minister, with face aglow, got into his launch, while I jumped into +my rowing boat. +</P> + +<P> +When I was quite a long way from the shore, I looked back across the +water to the cottage; and there, kneeling together on their veranda +steps, their arms around each other, their heads bent in prayer, I saw +Andrew Clark and Margaret. +</P> + +<P> +The next afternoon, Andrew called on me. He was waiting for me at the +store, as Jake and I returned with two boat-loads of fresh stock which +we were out receiving from the <I>Cloochman</I>. +</P> + +<P> +The old fellow took me by the hand and surprised me by his smile of +open friendship. +</P> + +<P> +"I would ha'e come over sooner, George, but I couldna get away frae the +ranch these last few days." His eyes turned humorously as he said it. +</P> + +<P> +"I might ha'e run over this mornin', but Marget and me ha'e a lot o' +leaway to make up. +</P> + +<P> +"Say! man,—I'll be glad if you will do what ye can to help Rita. Make +your ain arrangements;—for, what suits you, suits me and Marget." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A Maid, a Mood and a Song +</H4> + +<P> +In Golden Crescent Bay things moved quietly, almost drowsily. There +were the routine of hurried work and the long spells of comparative +idleness. +</P> + +<P> +As for the people over the way, I saw little of them outside of +business. +</P> + +<P> +I had not spoken to Mary Grant since the peremptory dismissal I had +received from her during her recovery from the drowning accident. +</P> + +<P> +I had not acknowledged her note by a visit, as probably I should have +done; but, then,—how was I to know but that the note had been sent +merely as a matter of form and common courtesy? She had no reason to +think me other than what I showed myself to be,—an ordinary +store-clerk; and this being so she might have considered it +presumptuous had I endeavoured in any way to avail myself of the +advantage I had secured in being of service to her, for, despite her +endeavours, she could not disguise from me,—who was in a position to +judge in a moment,—that her upbringing and her education had been such +as only the richest could afford and only the best families in America +and Europe could command. Yet she had a dash and wayward individualism +that were all her own;—savouring of the prairies and the wilder life +of the West. +</P> + +<P> +To me, she was still an enigma. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Malmsbury had been making all the purchases at the store; and, +naturally, conversation with her was of a strictly business order. She +seldom had a word to say that was not absolutely necessary, because, +from long experience, she had gathered wisdom and knew that talking +begot answering and questioning, and when these answers and questions +were unheard conversation was apt to become a monologue. +</P> + +<P> +She had no information to impart, no reminiscences to recount, no pet +theories to voice on evolution or female suffrage, no confessions or +professions to make, no prophecies to advance even regarding the +weather. +</P> + +<P> +As for Mary Grant,—she was seldom idle. I had seen her make her own +clothes, I had seen her over the washtub with her sleeves rolled up to +her fair, white shoulders, I had seen her bake and houseclean; sharing +the daily duties with her elderly companion. +</P> + +<P> +Yet she enjoyed to the full the delights that Golden Crescent afforded. +In her spare time, she rowed on the water, bathed, roved the forests +behind for wild flowers and game, read in her hammock and revelled in +her music. +</P> + +<P> +And she was not the only one who revelled in that glorious music, for, +unknown to her, Jake and I listened with delight to her uplifting +entertainment; I from the confines of my front veranda and Jake, night +after night, from his favourite position on the cliffs. +</P> + +<P> +He confessed to me that it was a wonderful set-off to the cravings that +often beset him for the liquor which he was still fighting so nobly and +victoriously. +</P> + +<P> +Poor old Jake! More than once I had almost been tempted to coax him to +go back to his nightly libations, for, since he had begun his fight for +abstinence, he seemed to be gradually going down the hill; losing +weight, losing strength, losing interest in his daily pursuits, and, +with it all, ageing. +</P> + +<P> +The minister had noticed the change and had expressed his concern. +Rita also had talked of it to me; and her visits to the old man had +become more frequent, her little attentions had grown in number and her +solicitude for his bodily comfort had become almost motherly. +</P> + +<P> +Rita always could manipulate Jake round her little finger. He was clay +in her hands, and obeyed her even to the putting of a stocking full of +hot salt round his neck one night he had a hoarseness in his throat. +</P> + +<P> +"If she ever insists on me puttin' my feet in hot-water and mustard," +he confessed to me once, "God knows how I shall muster up the courage +to refuse." +</P> + +<P> +I had sent to Vancouver for the grammar-book with which I intended +starting Rita's tuition, but it had only arrived,—its coming having +been delayed on account of the book-sellers not having it in stock and +having to fill my requirement from the East,—but I had promised Rita, +much to her pleasure, that we should start in in earnest the following +evening. +</P> + +<P> +I had been reading in my hammock until the daylight had failed me. And +now I was lying, resting and hoping that any moment Miss Grant would +commence her nightly musicale. +</P> + +<P> +Jake, and his dog Mike, I presumed, were already in their accustomed +places, Jake smoking his pipe and Mike biting at mosquitoes and other +pestiferous insects which lodged and boarded about his warm, hairy +person. +</P> + +<P> +The cottage door opened and our fair entertainer stepped out. +</P> + +<P> +She came across the rustic bridge and made straight for my place, +humming softly to herself as she sauntered along. She was hatless as +usual and her hair was done up in great, wavy coils on her well-poised +head. Her hands were jammed deep into the pockets of her pale-green, +silk sweater-coat. She impressed me then as being at peace with the +world and perfectly at ease; much more at ease than I was, for I was +puzzling myself as to what her wish with me could be, unless it were +regarding some groceries that she might have overlooked during the day. +</P> + +<P> +She smiled as she came forward. +</P> + +<P> +I rose from the hammock. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, don't let me disturb you," she said. "Lie where you are. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall do splendidly right here." +</P> + +<P> +She sat down on the top step of the veranda and turned half round to me. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you ever feel lonely, Mr. Bremner?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!—sometimes," I answered. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you do with yourself on such occasions?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!—smoke and read chiefly." +</P> + +<P> +"But,—do you ever feel as if you had to speak to a member of the +opposite sex near your own age,—or die?" +</P> + +<P> +She was quite solemn about this, and seemed to wait anxiously as if the +whole world's welfare depended on my answer. +</P> + +<P> +"Sometimes!" I replied again, with a laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you do then?" +</P> + +<P> +"I lie down and try to die." +</P> + +<P> +"—and find you can't," she put in. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!" +</P> + +<P> +"Just the same as I do. Well!—" she sighed, "I have explored all the +beauties of Golden Crescent; I have fished—and caught nothing. I have +hunted,—and shot nothing. I have read,—and learned nothing, or next +to it, until I have nothing left to read. So now,—I have come over to +you. I want to be friends." +</P> + +<P> +"Are we not friends already?" I asked, sitting on the side of my +hammock and filling my vision with the charming picture she presented. +</P> + +<P> +She sighed and raised her eyebrows. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!—I don't know. You never let me know that you had forgiven me for +my rudeness to you." +</P> + +<P> +"There was nothing to forgive, Miss Grant." +</P> + +<P> +"No! How kind of you to say so! And you are not angry with me any +more?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit," I answered, wondering at the change which had come over +this pretty but elusive young lady. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Mr. Bremner,—I see you reading very often. I came across to +inquire if you could favour me with something in the book line to wile +away an hour or so." +</P> + +<P> +"With pleasure," I answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Horsfal, my employer, has a well-stocked little library here and +you are very welcome to read anything in it you may fancy. Will you +come inside?" +</P> + +<P> +She looked up shyly, then her curiosity got the mastery. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, yes!" she cried, jumping up. "I shall be delighted." +</P> + +<P> +I led the way into the front room, fixing the lamp and causing a flood +of mellow light to suffuse the darkness in there. I went over and +threw aside the curtains that hid the book-shelves. +</P> + +<P> +"You have a lovely place here," she exclaimed, looking round in +admiration. "I had no idea ... no idea——" +</P> + +<P> +"—That a bachelor could make himself so comfortable," I put in. +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly! Do you mind if I take a peek around?" she asked, laughing. +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit!" +</P> + +<P> +She "peeked around" and satisfied her curiosity to the full. +</P> + +<P> +"I am convinced," she said at last, "that in all this domestic artistry +there is the touch of a feminine hand. Who was, or who is,—the lady?" +</P> + +<P> +"I understand Mrs. Horsfal furnished and arranged this home. She lived +here every summer before she died. That made it very easy for me. All +I had to do was to keep everything in its place as she had left it." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Grant was enraptured with the library. I thought she would never +finish scanning the titles and the authors. +</P> + +<P> +"This is a positive book-wormery," she exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +She chose a volume which revealed her very masculine taste in +literature, although, after all, it did not astonish me greatly but +merely confirmed what I already had known to be so;—that, while boys +and men scorn to read girls' and women's books, yet girls and women +seem to prefer the books that are written more especially for boys and +men and the more those books revel and riot in sword play, impossible +adventure and intrigue, the more they like them. +</P> + +<P> +"Might I ask if you would be so good as to return my visit?" said my +visitor at last. "You saved my life, you know, and you have some right +to take a small friendly interest in me. +</P> + +<P> +"If you could spare the time, I should be pleased to have you over for +tea to-morrow evening and to spend a sociable hour with us +afterwards;—that is, if you care for tea, sociability and—music." +</P> + +<P> +I looked across at her,—so straight, so ladylike, so beautiful; almost +as tall as I and so full of bubbling mischief and virile charm. +</P> + +<P> +"I am a veritable drunkard with tea, and as for music—ask Jake, out +there sitting on the cliffs in the darkness, if I like music. He +knows. Ask me, as I lie in my hammock here, night after night, waiting +for you to begin,—if Jake likes music, and the answer will satisfy you +just how much both of us appreciate it. +</P> + +<P> +"But, I am very sorry I shall be unable to avail myself of your kind +invitation to come to-morrow evening." +</P> + +<P> +My new friend could not disguise her surprise. I almost fancied I +traced a flush of embarrassment on her cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +"No!" was all she said, and she said it ever so quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"I have a pupil coming to-morrow evening for her first real lesson in +English Grammar. She has waited long for it. The book I desired to +start her in with has only arrived. She would be terribly disappointed +if I were now to postpone that lesson." +</P> + +<P> +"Your pupil is a lady?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!—a sweet little girl called Rita Clark, who lives at the ranch at +the other side of the Crescent. She comes here often. You must have +noticed her." +</P> + +<P> +"What!—that pretty, olive-skinned girl, with the dark hair and dark +eyes? +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! I have noticed her and I have never since ceased to envy her +complexion and her woodland beauty. I would give all I have to look as +she does. +</P> + +<P> +"You are most fortunate in your choice of a pupil?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! Rita is a good-hearted little girl," I lauded unthinkingly. +</P> + +<P> +"I spoke to her once out on the Island," said Miss Grant, "but she +seemed shy. She looked me over from head to heel, then ran off without +a word. +</P> + +<P> +"Well,—Mr. Bremner, days and evenings are much alike to some of us in +Golden Crescent. Shall we say Wednesday evening?" +</P> + +<P> +"I shall be more than pleased, Miss Grant," I exclaimed, betraying the +boyish eagerness I felt, "if——?" +</P> + +<P> +"If?" she inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"If you will return the compliment by allowing me to take you out some +evening in the boat to the end of Rita's Isle there, where the sea +trout are,—or away out to the passage by The Ghoul where the salmon +are now running. I have seen you fishing very often and with the +patience of Job, yet not once have I seen you bring home a fish. Now, +Rita Clark can bring in twenty or thirty trout in less than an hour, +any time she has a fancy to. +</P> + +<P> +"I should like to break your bad luck, for I think the trouble can only +be with the tackle you use." +</P> + +<P> +Mary Grant's brown eyes danced with pleasure, and in the lamplight, I +noticed for the first time, how very fair her skin was,—cream and pink +roses,—tanned slightly where the sun had got at it, but without a +blemish, without even a freckle, and this despite the fact that she +seldom took any precautions against the depredations of Old Sol. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall be glad indeed. You are very kind; for what you propose will +be a treat of treats, especially if we catch some fish." +</P> + +<P> +She held out her hand to me. Mine touched hers and a thrill ran and +sang through my fingers, through my body to my brain; the thrill of a +strange sensation I had never before experienced. I gazed at her +without speaking. +</P> + +<P> +She raised her eyes and mine held hers for the briefest of moments. +</P> + +<P> +To me it seemed as if a world of doubt and uncertainty were being swept +away and I were looking into eyes I had known through all the ages. +</P> + +<P> +Then her golden lashes dropped and hid those wonderful eyes from me. +</P> + +<P> +Impulsively, yet fully knowing what I did, I raised her hand and +touched the back of her fingers with my lips. +</P> + +<P> +She did not draw her hand away. She smiled across to me ever so +sweetly and turned from me into the darkness. +</P> + +<P> +Not for an hour did I wake from my reveries. The spell of new +influences was upon me; the moon, climbing up among the scudding +night-clouds, never seemed so bright before and the phosphorescent glow +and silver streaks on the water never so beautiful. +</P> + +<P> +A light travelled across the parlour over the way. I saw Miss Grant +seat herself by the piano, and soon the whole air became charged with +the softest, sweetest cadences,—elusive, faint and fairylike. +</P> + +<P> +How I enjoyed them! How old Jake on the cliffs must have enjoyed them! +What an artist the lady was, and how she excelled herself that evening! +</P> + +<P> +I lay in a transport of pleasure, hoping that the music might never +cease; but, alas for such vain hoping,—it whispered and died away, +leaving behind it only the stillness of the night, the sighing of the +wind in the tops of the tall creaking firs, the chirping of the +crickets under the stones and the call of the night bird to her mate. +</P> + +<P> +I raised my eyes across to the cottage. +</P> + +<P> +In the lamplight, I could discern the figure of the musician. She was +seated on the piano stool, with her hands clasped in front of her and +gazing out through the window into the darkness of the night. +</P> + +<P> +Surely it was a night when hypnotising influences were at work with all +of us, for I had not yet seen Jake return; he was evidently still +somewhere out on the cliffs communing with the spirits that were in the +air. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly I observed a movement in the room over the way. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Grant had roused herself from her dreaming. She raised her hand +and put the fingers I had kissed to her own lips. Then she kissed both +her hands to the outside world. She lowered the light of the lamp +until only the faintest glow was visible. +</P> + +<P> +She ran her fingers over the piano keys in a ripple of simple +harmonies. Sweet and clear came her voice in singing. I caught the +lilt of the music and I caught the words of the song:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +A maid there was in the North Coun-tree,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">A shy lit-tle, sweet lit-tle maid was she.</SPAN><BR> +She wished and she sighed for she knew-not-who,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">So long as he loved her ten-der-lee;</SPAN><BR> +And day by day as the long-ing grow,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Her spin-ning-wheel whirred and the threads wove through.</SPAN><BR> +It whirred, It whirred, It whirred and the threads wove through.<BR> +</P> + +<A NAME="img-251"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-251.jpg" ALT="Song fragment" BORDER="2" WIDTH="480" HEIGHT="302"> +</CENTER> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +A maid there was in the North Countree;<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">A gay little, blythe little maid was she.</SPAN><BR> +Her dream of a gallant knight came true.<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">He wooed her long and so tenderlee.</SPAN><BR> +And, day by day, as their fond love grew,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Her spinning wheel stood with its threads askew;</SPAN><BR> +It stood.—It stood.—It stood with its threads askew.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +A maid there was in the North Countree;<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">A sad little, lone little maid was she.</SPAN><BR> +Her knight seemed fickle and all untrue<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">As he rode to war at the drummer's dree.</SPAN><BR> +And, day by day, as her sorrow grew,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Her spinning wheel groaned and the threads wove through.</SPAN><BR> +It groaned.—It groaned.—It groaned and the threads wove through.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +A maid there is in the North Countree;<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">A coy little, glad little maid is she.</SPAN><BR> +Her cheeks are aglow with a rosy hue,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">For her knight proved true, as good knights should be.</SPAN><BR> +And, day by day, as their vows renew,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Her spinning wheel purrs and the threads weave through;</SPAN><BR> +It purrs.—It purrs.—It purrs and the threads weave through.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Why she had not sung before, I could not understand, for a voice such +as she had was a gift from heaven, and it was sinful to keep it hidden +away. It betrayed training, but only in a slight degree; not +sufficient to have spoiled the bewitching, vagrant plaintiveness which +it possessed; an inexpressible allurement of tone which a few untrained +singers have, trained singers never, for the rigours of the training +steal away that peculiar charm as the great city does the bloom from +the cheek of a country maiden. +</P> + +<P> +I listened for the verses of the song which I knew should follow, but +the singer's voice was still and the faint glow of the lamp was +extinguished. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIX +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +The "Green-eyed Monster" Awakes +</H4> + +<P> +Rita had just had her first real lesson in English. Already,—but +without giving her the reason why, except that it was incorrect,—I had +taught her never to say "ain't" and "I seen"; also that "Gee," "Gosh" +and "you bet your life" were hardly ladylike expressions. She now +understood that two negatives made a positive and that she should +govern her speech accordingly. +</P> + +<P> +She was an apt pupil; so anxious to improve her way of talking that +mine was not a task, it was merely the setting of two little feet on a +road and saying, "This is your way home," and those two little feet +never deviated from that road for a single moment, never side-stepped, +never turned back to pick up the useless but attractive words she had +cast from her as she travelled. +</P> + +<P> +How I marvelled at the great difference the elimination of a few of the +most common of her slangy and incorrect expressions and the +substitution of plain phrases in their places made in her diction! +Already, it seemed to me as if she understood her English and had been +studying it for years. +</P> + +<P> +How easy it was, after all, I fancied, as I followed my train of +thought, for one, simply by elimination, to become almost learned in +the sight of his fellow men! +</P> + +<P> +But now Rita had been introduced to the whys and wherefores in their +simplest forms, so that she should be able, finally, to construct her +thoughts for herself, word by word and phrase by phrase, into rounded +and completed sentences. +</P> + +<P> +At the outset, I had told her how the greatest writers in English were +not above reading and re-reading plain little Grammars such as she was +then studying, also that the favourite book of some of the most famous +men the world ever knew, a book which they perused from cover to cover, +year in and year out, as they would their family Bible,—was an +ordinary standard dictionary. +</P> + +<P> +I gave Rita her thin little Grammar and a note book in which to copy +her lessons, and she slipped these into her bosom, hugging them to her +heart and laughing with pleasure. +</P> + +<P> +She put out her hands and grasped mine, then, in her sweet, +unpremeditated way, she threw her arms round my neck and drew my lips +to hers. +</P> + +<P> +Dear little girl! How very like a child she was! A creature of +impulse, a toy in the hands of her own fleeting emotions! +</P> + +<P> +"Say! George,—I just got to hug you sometimes," she cried, "you are +so good to me." +</P> + +<P> +She stood back and surveyed me as if she were trying to gauge my weight +and strength. +</P> + +<P> +As it so happened, that was exactly what she was doing. +</P> + +<P> +"You aren't scared of our Joe,—are you?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"No!" I laughed. "What put that funny question into your head?" +</P> + +<P> +She became serious. +</P> + +<P> +"Well,—if I thought you were, I wouldn't come back for any more +Grammar." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Joe's not very well pleased about it. Guess he thinks nobody should +be able to speak better'n he can." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!—never mind Joe," I exclaimed. "He'll come round, and your +grand-dad's consent is all you need anyway." +</P> + +<P> +"Sure! But I know, all the same, that Joe's got it in for you. He +hasn't forgot the words you and he had." +</P> + +<P> +"When did you see him last, Rita?" +</P> + +<P> +"He was in to-day. Wanted to know where I was going. Grand-dad told +him, then Joe got mad. Says you're 'too damned interfering.' Yes! +Joe said it. He said to Grand-dad, 'You ain't got no right lettin' +that kid go over there. Girls ain't got any business learnin' lessons +off'n men.' +</P> + +<P> +"Grand-dad said, 'Aw! forget it, Joe. She's got my permission, so let +that end it. George Bremner's all right.' +</P> + +<P> +"The settlers are arranging for a teacher up here next summer. Why +can't she wait till then and get her lessons from a reg'lar +professional, and no gol-durned amatoor,' said Joe. +</P> + +<P> +"'See here, Mister man!' I said, 'you're sore,—that's your trouble. +But I'm not going to be bullied by you,—so there. I'm through with +you, Joe Clark;—and, what's more, you needn't take any interest in me +any more. I can look after myself.' +</P> + +<P> +"He gripped my arm. It's black and blue yet. See! +</P> + +<P> +"'You ain't goin',' said he, madder'n ever. +</P> + +<P> +"'Yes! I am,' I said. +</P> + +<P> +"'If you go, by God, I'll kill that son-of-a-gun. Watch me! I ain't +forgot him, though maybe he's fool enough to think I have.' +</P> + +<P> +"Then he got kind of soft. +</P> + +<P> +"'Don't you go, Rita.' +</P> + +<P> +"'Why?' I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"'Because I don't want you to.' +</P> + +<P> +"'That's no reason,' I said. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll send you to a school in Vancouver this winter, if you'll wait,' +he coaxed. +</P> + +<P> +"You see, George,—Joe ain't half bad sometimes. But I was scared he +might think I was givin' in. +</P> + +<P> +"'Don't want your schooling. It's too late,' said I. 'I've arranged +for myself, Joe Clark,—so there.' +</P> + +<P> +"I ran out and left him. +</P> + +<P> +"He's pretty mad, but I don't care any more, now you're goin' to help +me with this grammar. +</P> + +<P> +"You're sure you're not scared of Joe?" she repeated. +</P> + +<P> +"I have a strong right arm," I declared, "and I have been taught to +look after myself." +</P> + +<P> +I went down to the boat with her, and as she was stepping in she caught +me by the shirt sleeve. +</P> + +<P> +"You and Joe aren't goin' to fight, George? Promise me you won't +fight." +</P> + +<P> +"I could not promise that, little girl, for I cannot control the +future. But I promise you that I shall not seek any quarrel with Joe. +But, if he insulted you, for instance, or tried to commit a bodily +violence on me, I would fight him without any hesitation. Wouldn't +that be the right thing to do, Rita?" +</P> + +<P> +Her head nodded wistfully. "Yes! Guess it would," she whispered, as I +pushed her boat out into the water where the darkness swallowed it up. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XX +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Fishing! +</H4> + +<P> +In the fulfilling of a promise, I called the following evening on Miss +Grant. +</P> + +<P> +It was the first of a number of such visits, for I found that the old +feeling of antagonism between us had entirely disappeared and, +consequently, I enjoyed the sociability refreshingly. +</P> + +<P> +Our meetings, while not by any means of the 'friendly admiration' kind, +were of a nature beneficial to both of us. +</P> + +<P> +She learned that I was an Englishman of good family. I gathered, her +mother had been a Virginian and her father an Englishman; that she +loved the American Continent and always considered the United States +her country as her mother had done before her. But further than this +we did not get, for we were both diffident in talking of our lives +prior to our coming to Golden Crescent. Still, we had many +never-failing topics of conversation, many subjects to discuss in +literature, music, philosophy and economics. +</P> + +<P> +We travelled along in our acquaintance easily,—leisurely,—as if time +were eternal and the world were standing still awaiting our good +pleasure. +</P> + +<P> +Late one afternoon, when I was sitting out on the rocks, near the oil +barns at the end of the wharf, enjoying the cooling breezes after the +trying heat of that midsummer's day, I saw Miss Grant come down the +path with her fishing lines in her hand and her sweater-coat over her +arm. She went to her boat and started to pull it toward the water. +</P> + +<P> +I scrambled over and down the rocks, to lend a hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Any room for me, Miss Grant?" I asked boldly. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, yes!" she smiled eagerly, "if only you would come. You promised +once, you know, but, somehow, that promise is still unfulfilled." +</P> + +<P> +I handed her into the boat, pushed off and leaped in beside her. She +took the oars and, with the swift easy strokes, full of power and +artistic grace, which I had noticed the first time I saw her on the +water, she pulled out to the west of Rita's Isle. +</P> + +<P> +Her hair was hanging negligently, in loose, wavy curls, over her +shoulders. Her dimpled arms and her neck were bared to the sunshine. +Her mouth was parted slightly and her teeth shone ivory-like, as she +plied her oars. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me take a turn now," I asked, "and run out your line." +</P> + +<P> +She did so, and I took her slowly round the Island without her feeling +so much as a tiny nibble. +</P> + +<P> +"How stupid!" I exclaimed. "What's the good of me coming out here, if +I do not try to discover the cause of your continual non-success as a +fisher? Pull in your line and let me have a look at the spoon." +</P> + +<P> +I examined the sinker and found it of the proper weight and properly +adjusted, fixed at the correct length from the bait. Next, I took the +spoon in my hand. It was a small nickel spinner,—the right thing for +catching sea-trout round Rita's Isle. I was puzzled for a little, +until I laid the spoon and the hook flat on the palm of my hand, then I +knew where the trouble was. +</P> + +<P> +The barb of the hook hung fully an inch and a half too far from the +spoon. +</P> + +<P> +I adjusted it and handed it back to my lady-companion. +</P> + +<P> +"Try that," I said with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +In dropped the line and out it ran to its full length. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Grant held it taut. Suddenly she gave it a jerk. She stopped in +breathless excitement. Then she jerked again. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, dear me!" she cried anxiously, "there's something on." +</P> + +<P> +"Pull it in," I shouted, "steady,—not too quickly." +</P> + +<P> +Immediately thereafter, a fine, two-pound trout lay flopping in the +bottom of the boat. +</P> + +<P> +"Just think of that," cried my fair troller, "my first fish! And all +by moving up a foolish little hook an inch or so." +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes were agleam. She chatted on and on almost without ceasing, +almost without thinking, so excited and absorbed did she become in the +sport. +</P> + +<P> +Back went the line, and in it came again with another wriggling, +shining trout. +</P> + +<P> +For an hour I rowed round the Island, and, in that hour, Mary Grant had +equalled Rita's best that I knew of, for between thirty and forty fish +fell a prey to the deadly bait and hook. +</P> + +<P> +"How would you like to try for a salmon?" I asked at last. "They are +running better now than they have done all the year so far." +</P> + +<P> +"All right!" she agreed, with a sigh of pent-up excitement, pulling in +her trout line and running out a thicker one with a large salmon spoon +and a fairly heavy sinker. +</P> + +<P> +I rowed out to the mouth of the Bay, keeping inside the Ghoul Rock; +then I started crossways over to the far point. +</P> + +<P> +We were half-way across, when Mary Grant screamed. The line she was +holding ran with tremendous rapidity through her fingers. I jammed my +foot on the wooden frame lying in the bottom of the boat and to which +the line was attached. I was just in time to save it from following +the rest of the line overboard. +</P> + +<P> +I pulled in my oars and caught up the line. +</P> + +<P> +Away, thirty yards off, a great salmon sprang out of the water high +into the air, performing a half-circle and flopping back with a splash +from its lashing tail. +</P> + +<P> +"She is yours," I cried. "Come! play her for all you can." +</P> + +<P> +But, as I turned, I saw that Miss Grant's fingers were bleeding from +the sudden running-out of the line when the salmon had struck; so I +settled down to fight the fish myself. +</P> + +<P> +All at once, the line slacked. I hauled it in, feeling almost certain +that I had lost my prize. But no! Off she went again like a fury, +rising out of the water in her wild endeavours to free herself. +</P> + +<P> +For a long time I played her. My companion took the oars quietly and +was now doing all she could to assist me. +</P> + +<P> +Next, the salmon sank sheer down and sulked far under the water. +Gradually, gradually I drew her in and not a struggle did she make. +She simply lay, a dead thing at the end of my line. +</P> + +<P> +"She's played out, Miss Grant. She's ours," I cried gleefully, as I +got a glint of her under the water as she came up at the end of my line. +</P> + +<P> +But, alas! for the luck of a fisherman. When the salmon was fifteen +feet from the boat, she jerked and somersaulted most unexpectedly, with +all the despair of a gambler making his last throw. She shot sheer out +of the water and splashed in again almost under the boat. My line, +minus the spoon and the hook, ran through my fingers. +</P> + +<P> +"Damn!" I exclaimed, in the keenest disappointment. +</P> + +<P> +"And—that's—just—what—I—say—too," came my fair oars-woman's +voice. "If that isn't the hardest kind of luck!" +</P> + +<P> +Away out, we could see our salmon jump, and jump, and jump again, out +of the water ten feet in the air, darting and plunging in wide circles, +like the mad thing she probably was. +</P> + +<P> +"It serves me rightly, Miss Grant. I professed to be able to fix your +tackle and yet I did not examine that spoon before putting it into use. +It has probably been lying in a rusty condition for a year or so. +</P> + +<P> +"Well,—we cannot try again to-night, unless we row in for a fresh +spoon-hook." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!—let us stop now. We have more fish already than we really +require." +</P> + +<P> +"Shall I row you in?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you wish to go in?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, dear, no! I could remain here forever,—at least until I get +hungry and sleepy," I laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"All right!" she cried, "let us row up into the Bay and watch the sun +go down." +</P> + +<P> +I pulled along leisurely, facing my fair companion, who was now +reclining in the stern, with the sinking sun shining in all its golden +glory upon the golden glory of her. +</P> + +<P> +Moment by moment, the changing colours in the sky were altering the +colours on the smooth waters to harmonise: a lake of bright yellow +gold, then the gold turned to red, a sea of blood; from red to purple, +from purple to the palest shade of heliotrope; and, as the sun at last +dipped in the far west, the distant mountains threw back that same +attractive shade of colour. +</P> + +<P> +It was an evening for kind thoughts. +</P> + +<P> +We glided up the Bay, past Jake Meaghan's little home; still further +up, then into the lagoon, where not a ripple disturbed that placid +sheet of water: where the trees and rocks smiled down upon their own +mirrored reflections. +</P> + +<P> +We grew silent as the nature around us, awed by the splendours of the +hushing universe upon which we had been gazing. +</P> + +<P> +"It is beautiful! oh, so beautiful!" said my companion at last, awaking +from her dreaming. "Let us stay here awhile. I cannot think to go +home yet." +</P> + +<P> +She threw her sweater-coat round her shoulders, for, even in the height +of summer, the air grows chilly on the west coast as the sun goes down. +</P> + +<P> +"You may smoke, Mr. Bremner. I know you are aching to do so." +</P> + +<P> +I thanked her, pulled in my oars and lighted my pipe. +</P> + +<P> +Mary Grant sat there, watching me in friendly interest, smiling in +amusement in the charming way only she could smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know, I sometimes wonder," she said reflectively, "why it is +that a man of your education, your prospective attainments, your +ability, your physical strength and mental powers should keep to the +bypaths of life, such as we find up here, when your fellows, with less +intellect than you have, are in the cities, in the mining fields and on +the prairies, battling with the world for power and fortune and +getting, some of them, what they are battling for. +</P> + +<P> +"I am not trying to probe into your privacy, but what I have put into +words has often recurred to me regarding you. Somehow, you seem to +have all the qualities that go to the making of a really successful +business man." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you really wonder why?" I smiled. "—And yet you profess to know +me—a little." +</P> + +<P> +It was an evening for closer friendships. +</P> + +<P> +"If you promise for the future to call me George and permit me the +privilege, when we are alone, of calling you Mary, I shall answer your +query." +</P> + +<P> +"All right,—George,—it's a bargain," she said. "Go ahead." +</P> + +<P> +"Well! in the first place, I know what money is; what it can bring and +what it can cause. I never cared for money any more than what could +provide the plain necessities of life. As for ambition to make and +accumulate money;—God forbid that I should ever have it. I leave such +ambitions to the grubs and leeches." +</P> + +<P> +Mary listened in undisguised interest. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! I have had opportunities galore, but I always preferred the +simpler way,—the open air, the sea and the quiet, the adventure of the +day and the rest after a day well spent. +</P> + +<P> +"No man can eat more than three square meals a day and be happy; no man +can lie upon more than one bed at a time;—so, what right have I, or +any other man for the matter of that, to steal some other fellow's food +and bedding?" +</P> + +<P> +"But some day you may wish to marry," she put in. +</P> + +<P> +"Some day,—yes! maybe. And the lady I marry must also love the open +air, away from the city turmoil; she must hanker after the glories of a +place such as this; otherwise, we should not agree for long. +</P> + +<P> +"And,—Mary,—" I continued, "the man you would marry,—what would you +demand of him?" +</P> + +<P> +"The man I would marry may be a Merchant Prince or a humble tiller of +the soil. A few things only I would demand of him, and these +are:—that he love me with all his great loving heart; that he be +honourable in all things and that his right arm be strong to protect +his own and ever ready to assist his weaker brother. +</P> + +<P> +"Marriages may be made in heaven, George, but they have to be lived on +earth, and the one essential thing in every marriage is love." +</P> + +<P> +She sat for a while in thought, then she threw out her hands as if to +ward off a danger. +</P> + +<P> +"Of what use me talking in this way," she cried. "Marriage, for me, +with my foolish ideas, is impossible. I am destined to remain as I am." +</P> + +<P> +My pulse quickened as she spoke. +</P> + +<P> +"And why?" I asked;—for this evening of evenings was one for open +hearts and tender feelings. +</P> + +<P> +"It was arranged for me that by this time I should be the wife of a +man; and,—God knows,—though I did not love him, I meant to be a true +and dutiful wife to him, even when I knew my eternal soul would be +bruised in the effort. +</P> + +<P> +"This man was taller than you are, George. Sometimes, in your +devil-may-care moods, I seem to see him again in you. I am glad to +say, though, the similarity ends there. +</P> + +<P> +"For all his protestations of love for me, for all his boasted ideals, +his anxiety for the preservation of his honour as a gentleman, he +proved himself not even faithful in that which every woman has a right +to demand of the man she is about to marry, as he demands it of her. +</P> + +<P> +"I would not marry him then. I could not. I would sooner have died. +</P> + +<P> +"That was my reward for trying to do my duty." +</P> + +<P> +Her voice broke. "Sometimes, I wonder if any man is really true and +honourable." +</P> + +<P> +She covered her face with her hands; she, who had always been so +self-possessed. +</P> + +<P> +"The shame of it! The shame of it!" she sobbed. +</P> + +<P> +In my heart, I cursed the dishonour of men. Would the dreadful +procession of it never cease? Deceit and dishonour! Dishonour and +deceit! Here, there, everywhere,—and always the woman suffering while +the man goes free! +</P> + +<P> +I moved over beside her in the stern of the boat. I laid my hand upon +her shoulder. In my rough, untutored way, without breaking into the +agony of her thoughts, I tried to comfort her with the knowledge of my +sympathetic presence. +</P> + +<P> +For long we sat thus; but at last she turned to me and her hair brushed +my cheek. She looked into my eyes and I know she read what was in my +heart, for it was brimming over with a love for her that I had never +known before, a love that overwhelmed me and left me dumb. +</P> + +<P> +"George!" she whispered softly, laying her hand upon mine, "you must +not, you must not." +</P> + +<P> +Then she became imperious and haughty once more. +</P> + +<P> +"Back to your oars, sailorman," she cried, with an astonishing effort +at gaiety. "The dark is closing in and Mrs. Malmsbury will be thinking +all kinds of things she would not dare say, even if she were able." +</P> + +<P> +Late that night, I heard the second verse of Mary's little song. It +was hardly sung; it was whispered, as if she feared that even the +fairies and sprites might be eavesdropping; but, had she lilted it in +her heart only, still, I think, I should have heard it. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +A maid there was in the North Countree;<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">A gay little, blythe little maid was she.</SPAN><BR> +Her dream of a gallant knight came true.<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">He wooed her long and so tenderlee.</SPAN><BR> +And, day by day, as their fond love grew,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Her spinning wheel stood with its threads askew;</SPAN><BR> +It stood.—It stood.—It stood with its threads askew.<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +The Beachcombers +</H4> + +<P> +The Autumn, with its shortening days and lengthening nights, was upon +Golden Crescent, but still the charm and beauty of its surroundings +were unimpaired. +</P> + +<P> +I never tired of the scenes, for they were kaleidoscopic in their +changing. Even in the night, when sleep was unable to bind me, I have +risen and stood by my open window, in reverie and peaceful +contemplation, and the dark has grown to dawn ere I turned back to bed. +</P> + +<P> +It was on such an occasion as I speak of. I was leaning on the window +ledge, looking far across the Bay. The sea was a mirror of oily calm. +A crescent moon was shining fairly high in the south, laying a streak +of silver along the face of the water near the far shore. It was a +night when every dip of an oar would threaten to bring up the reflected +moon from the liquid deep; a night of quiet when the winging of a +sea-fowl, or the plop of a fish, could be heard a mile away. In the +stillness could be heard the occasional tinkle, tinkle of a cow-bell +from the grazing lands across the Bay. +</P> + +<P> +As I listened to the night noises, I heard the distant throb of a +launch out in the vicinity of the Ghoul Rock. Suddenly, the throbbing +stopped and I fancied I caught the sound of deep voices. All went +still again, but, soon after, my ear detected the splashing of oars and +the rattle of a badly fitting rowlock. +</P> + +<P> +I watched, peering out into the darkness. The moon shot swiftly from +under a cloud and threw its white illuminant like a searchlight sheer +upon a large rowing boat as it crept up past the wharf, some fifty +yards out from the point. +</P> + +<P> +I counted five figures in the boat, which was heading up the Bay. +</P> + +<P> +A cloud passed over the moon again and the picture of the boat and its +occupants vanished from my sight. +</P> + +<P> +Strange, I thought, why these men should arrive in a launch, leave it +so far out and come in with a rowing boat of such dimensions, when +there was good, safe and convenient anchorage almost anywhere close in! +</P> + +<P> +I listened again. The sound of the rattling row-lock ceased and I +heard the grinding of a boat's bottom on the gravel somewhere in the +vicinity of Jake's cove. +</P> + +<P> +I stood in indecision for some minutes, then I decided that I would +find out what these men were up to. I put on my clothes without haste, +picked up a broken axe-handle that lay near the doorway and started +noiselessly down the back path in the direction of Meaghan's shack, +reaching there about half an hour after I had first detected the boat. +When I came to the clearing, I saw a light in the cabin. As I drew +closer, I heard the sound of hoarse voices. Stepping cautiously, I +went up to the window and peered through. +</P> + +<P> +I saw four strange men there. The lower parts of their faces were +masked by handkerchiefs in real highwaymen fashion. +</P> + +<P> +With a dirty neckcloth stuffed into his mouth, old Jake was sitting on +a chair and tied securely to it by ropes. Mike, his faithful old dog, +was lying at his feet in a puddle of blood. +</P> + +<P> +The liquor keg in the corner had been broached, and I could see that, +already, the men had been drinking. Jake's brass-bound chest had been +dragged to the middle of the floor and the man who appeared to be the +leader of the gang was sitting astride of it, with a cup of liquor in +his hand, laughing boisterously. +</P> + +<P> +My anger rose furiously. +</P> + +<P> +"The low skunks," I growled, gripping my improvised club as I tip-toed +quietly to the door, hoping to rush in, injure some of them and +stampede the others before they would know by how many they were being +attacked. +</P> + +<P> +I was gently turning the handle, when something crashed down on my +head. I stumbled into the shack, sprawled upon the floor, strange +voices sang in my ears and everything became blurred. +</P> + +<P> +It could have been only a few minutes later when I revived. I was in +Jake's cabin, and was trussed with ropes, hands and feet, to one of the +wooden uprights of the old Klondiker's home-made bed. I could feel +something warm, oozy and clammy, making its way from my hair, down the +back of my neck. +</P> + +<P> +I opened my eyes wide, and reason enough came to me to close them +quickly again. Then I opened them once more, cautiously and narrowly. +</P> + +<P> +Five strange men were now in the cabin, which was cloudy with tobacco +smoke. The carousal had increased rather than otherwise. The men were +gathered round Jake, laughing and cursing in wild derision. They were +not interested in me at the moment, so I stayed quiet, making pretence +that the unconsciousness was still upon me, whenever any of them turned +in my direction. +</P> + +<P> +Through my half-opened eyelids, I fancied I recognised the leader of +the crowd as a black-haired, beady-eyed, surly dog of a logger who had +come in several times from Camp No. 2 to help with the taking up of +their supplies,—but of his identity I was not quite certain. +</P> + +<P> +As my scattered senses began to collect, I hoped against hope that +these men would keep up their drinking bout until not one of them would +be able to stand. But, while they drank long and drank deeply, they +were too wise by far to overdo it. +</P> + +<P> +Then I got to wondering what they were badgering old Jake about, for I +could hear him growl and curse, his gag having fallen to the floor. +</P> + +<P> +"Go to hell and take the trunk, the booze and the whole caboose with +you, if you want to. I don't want none of it. I ain't hoggin' booze +any more." +</P> + +<P> +"Ho, ho! Hear that," yelled the big, black-haired individual, "he +ain't boozin'! The old swiller ain't boozin' and him keeps a keg o' +whisky under his nose. +</P> + +<P> +"Ain't boozin' with common ginks like us,—that's what he means. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on! We'll show him whether he ain't boozin' or not." +</P> + +<P> +He got a cupful of the raw spirits and stuck it to Jake's mouth. But +Jake shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on! Drink it up or I'll sling it down your gullet." +</P> + +<P> +Still Jake refused. +</P> + +<P> +Then my blood ran cold, and boiled again. The veins stood out on my +forehead with rage. +</P> + +<P> +The foul-mouthed creature hit my old helper full across the mouth and a +trickle of blood immediately began to flow down over Jake's chin. +</P> + +<P> +I struggled silently with my ropes, but they were taut and merely cut +into my flesh. But I made the discovery then, that my captors had +failed to take into account that the bed to which they had tied me had +been put up by Jake and, at that, not any too securely. +</P> + +<P> +I felt that if I threw all my weight away from the stanchion to which I +was bound, I might be able to pull the whole thing out bodily. But I +knew that this was not the moment for such an attempt. +</P> + +<P> +They were five men to one; they had sticks and clubs, maybe revolvers, +so what chance would I have? +</P> + +<P> +I decided to bear with the goading of Jake as long as it were possible. +</P> + +<P> +"Guess you'll drink it now,—you old, white-livered miser," cried the +dark man. +</P> + +<P> +He dashed some of the liquor in Jake's face. Jake opened his mouth and +gasped. The big bully then threw the remainder of the spirits, with a +splash, sheer into Jake's mouth. +</P> + +<P> +"He boozed that time, boys. You bet your socks!" he laughed +uproariously. The others joined in the hilarity. +</P> + +<P> +The Jake I looked upon after that was not the Jake I had known for the +past few months. +</P> + +<P> +He sat staring in front of him for a little while, then he exclaimed +huskily, almost hungrily: +</P> + +<P> +"Say, fellows! Give us some more. It tastes pretty good to me." +</P> + +<P> +"Thought he would come to it," shouted the black-haired man +triumphantly. "We ain't refusin' no booze to-night. Fetch a cup o' +rye for Jake." +</P> + +<P> +One of the others brought it, and it was held to the old man's lips. +He let it over his throat almost at a single gulp. +</P> + +<P> +"More,—more!" +</P> + +<P> +More was brought, and again he drank. +</P> + +<P> +Three times Jake emptied that brimming cup of raw spirits. +</P> + +<P> +I shivered with abhorrence at the sight. +</P> + +<P> +"More?" queried the big man. +</P> + +<P> +"Yep! More," craved Jake. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothin' doin'! You've had enough, you old booze-fighter. +</P> + +<P> +"Say! How's that top-notcher swell Bremner comin' on?" +</P> + +<P> +He turned to me. +</P> + +<P> +"Let's fill him up, too." +</P> + +<P> +They came over to me, but I pretended still to be unconscious. My head +was limply bent over my chest. +</P> + +<P> +They jerked it up by my forelock and looked into my face. +</P> + +<P> +The foulness of their breath almost nauseated me, but I stood the test, +keeping my eyes tightly closed and allowing my head to flop forward the +moment it was released from their clutch. +</P> + +<P> +"What in the hell did you hit him so hard for?" cried the leader, +turning savagely to the man at his left elbow. "We ain't lookin' for +any rope-collars over this. Guess we'd better beat it. Get busy with +that chest some of you. Come on!" +</P> + +<P> +They raised their masks from their mouths and had another drink all +round, then two of them, under the big man's directions, caught up the +chest, and they all crowded out and down toward their boat. +</P> + +<P> +The moment after they were gone I threw my weight and growing strength +away from the upright to which I was bound. It creaked and groaned. I +tried again, and still again. At the third attempt, the entire +fixtures fell on top of me to the floor. +</P> + +<P> +I struggled clear of the débris, and the rest was easy. I slipped the +ropes from the wooden post and, in their now loosened condition, I +wriggled free. +</P> + +<P> +I did not wait to do anything for Jake, nor yet to consider any plan of +operation. My blood was up and that was all I knew. +</P> + +<P> +I picked my axe-handle from the floor and dashed out after the robbers. +</P> + +<P> +The five men were with the boat at the water's edge. Two were sitting +at the oars in readiness, two were on the beach raising Jake's trunk to +the fifth man who was standing in the stern of the boat. +</P> + +<P> +I sprang upon them. I hit one, with a sickening crash, over the head. +He let go his hold of the trunk and toppled limply against the side of +the boat, as the trunk splashed into the shallow water. +</P> + +<P> +I staggered with the impetus, and from the impact of my blow let my +club drop from my jarred hand. Before I could recover, the big +man,—who had been helping to raise the trunk,—bore down on me. He +caught me by the throat in a horrible grip, and tried to press me +backward; but, with a short-arm blow, I smashed him over the mouth with +telling force, cutting my knuckles in a splutter of blood and broken +teeth. +</P> + +<P> +His grip loosened. He shouted to his fellows for assistance as he +sprang at me once more. +</P> + +<P> +But, somewhere in the darkness behind me, a pistol-shot rang out and +the big man staggered, letting out a howl of pain, as his arm dropped +limp to his side. +</P> + +<P> +He darted for the boat and threw himself into it, seized a spare oar +and pushed off frantically. +</P> + +<P> +"Pull,—pull like hell," he yelled. +</P> + +<P> +They needed no second bidding, for they shot out into the Bay as if a +thousand devils were after them. +</P> + +<P> +I turned to ascertain who my deliverer could be; and there, on the +beach, only a few yards away, stood Mary Grant with a +serviceable-looking revolver held firmly in her right hand. +</P> + +<P> +"What? You! Mary,—Mary," I cried in an agony of thought at the awful +risk she had run. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you all right, George?" she inquired anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Right as rain," I answered, hurrying to her side. +</P> + +<P> +"Did they get Jake's trunk away?" +</P> + +<P> +"No! The low thieves! It is lying there in the water. Do you think +you could help me up with it?" +</P> + +<P> +She caught up the trunk at one end, while I took the other. And we +carried it back between us to Jake's cabin. +</P> + +<P> +Poor old Jake! I could hardly smother a smile as I saw the dejected +figure he presented. His grey hair was drooping over his forehead, +every line in his face showed a droop, and his long, white moustache +drooped like the tusks of a walrus, or like the American comic +journals' representations of the whiskers of ancient and fossilised +members of the British peerage. +</P> + +<P> +He was sitting bound, as the robbers had left him. +</P> + +<P> +I cut him free and he staggered to his feet. +</P> + +<P> +He was sober as a jail bird, and, excepting for his broken lip and +chafed wrists, he was, to all appearances, none the worse for his +experiences. It surprised me to notice how little he seemed interested +in the recovery of his money. All his attention and sympathy were +centred on the wretched dog, Mike, who was slowly getting over the +clubbing he had received and was whimpering like a discontented baby. +</P> + +<P> +Mike had a long gash in his neck, evidently made by one of the robbers +with Jake's bread-knife. Mary washed out the wound and I stitched it +up with a needle and thread, so that, all things considered, Mike was +lucky in getting out of his encounter as easily as he did. +</P> + +<P> +As for the crack I had received over the head, it had made me bloody +enough, but it was superficial and not worth worrying about. +</P> + +<P> +I decided I would not leave Jake alone that night and that, as soon as +I had seen Mary safely home, I would return and sleep in his cabin till +morning. +</P> + +<P> +"When you come back," said Jake gruffly, "bring ink and paper with you. +I want you to do some writin' for me, George." +</P> + +<P> +I laughed, for I knew what was in his mind. +</P> + +<P> +As Mary and I wended our way back through the narrow path, in the dead +of that moonlight night, the daring and bravery of her action caught me +afresh. How I admired her! I could scarcely refrain from telling her +of it, and of how I loved her. But it was neither the time nor the +place for protestations of affection. +</P> + +<P> +"How in the world did you happen to get down there at the right +moment?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +She gave a quiet ripple of laughter. +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't sleep and I was up and standing at the window——" +</P> + +<P> +"Just as I was doing," I put in. +</P> + +<P> +"I saw that boat come up,—as you must have seen it, George,—I went to +the door, and, in the moonlight, I saw you come out and take the back +path. Later still, I heard noises and the cursing of these men. +</P> + +<P> +"I became afraid that something was wrong, so I dressed, took up my +little revolver and followed you. +</P> + +<P> +"I was at the window of Jake's cabin all the time he was being forced +to drink and while you were tied up. I had to get out of the way when +they came out." +</P> + +<P> +At the door of Mary's house I took her hand in mine. +</P> + +<P> +"We are quits now, Mary. Those blackguards certainly would have +finished me off but for you. +</P> + +<P> +"Where did you learn to shoot, you wild and woolly Westerner?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Why! Didn't I ever tell you? For quite a while, when I was a +youngster, I lived on a ranch in the Western States. Everybody could +shoot down there." +</P> + +<P> +"But, what would you have said had you killed that big black robber or +winged me?" I asked. "We were all in a higgledy-piggledy mix-up when +you fired." +</P> + +<P> +She smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"I can generally hit what I aim at." +</P> + +<P> +I nodded my head. "Ay! And I think you can hit sometimes even when +you don't aim." +</P> + +<P> +"George!" she admonished, "we were referring simply to shooting with a +gun,—not with a bow and arrows." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap22"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Jake Stops the Drink for Good +</H4> + +<P> +By the time I got back to Jake, he had his bed hammered up into +position again. +</P> + +<P> +He insisted that I, as his guest, should occupy it, while he would +enjoy nothing so well as being allowed to curl himself up in a blanket +on the floor, in the company of the convalescing Mike. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, George!—before we turn in, I want you to write two letters for +me. I ain't goin' to have no more hold-ups round this joint. Them ten +thousand bucks is goin' to your bank;—what do you call it?" +</P> + +<P> +"The Commercial Bank of Canada," I answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Write a letter to them and ask them to send somebody up to take this +darned chest away. A receipt looks good enough to me after this scrap." +</P> + +<P> +He smoked his pipe reflectively as I wrote out the letter to the Bank +Manager, asking him to send up two men to count over Jake's hoard and +take it back with them, giving him a receipt to cover. +</P> + +<P> +"Know any good lawyers, George? Most of them ginks are grafters from +away back,—so I've heard,—but I guess maybe there's one or two could +do a job on the level." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course there are, Jake. Dow, Cross & Sneddon for instance. They +are Mr. Horsfal's lawyers and solicitors. They are straight, honest +business men, too." +</P> + +<P> +"Guess they'll fill the bill, all right." +</P> + +<P> +"What is on your mind, Jake?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Write them as well, George. Tell them to send up a man who can draw +up a will. I ain't dead yet,—not by a damn' sight,—but some day I'll +be as dead as a smelt, and what's the good o' havin' dough if you ain't +got nobody to leave it to?" +</P> + +<P> +"Good boy!" I cried, and I wrote out letter number two, asking the +lawyers, if possible, to send their representative along with the +Commercial Bank men, so that we could get the whole business fixed up +and off-hand at the one time. +</P> + +<P> +Next morning when I awoke, although it was still early, I found Jake +already dressed. Not only that, but he was at the whisky-keg in the +corner, filling up a cup. +</P> + +<P> +"My God! Jake,—you don't mean to tell me you are back to that stuff?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yep! I ain't preachin' tee-total any more after this." +</P> + +<P> +My heart sank within me. This,—after all his fighting. +</P> + +<P> +I remonstrated with him all I could. +</P> + +<P> +"But, man alive!" I said, "this is the early morning. Are you crazy? +You never drank in the mornings before. Wait till night time. Give +yourself a chance to get pulled together. You'll be feeling different +after a while. +</P> + +<P> +"Think! What will Rita say? What will Miss Grant think? How will you +be able to face Mr. Auld? They all know of the good fight you have +been putting up. +</P> + +<P> +"Jake,—Jake,—for shame! Throw the stuff out at the door." +</P> + +<P> +Jake only shook his head more firmly. +</P> + +<P> +"It ain't no good preachin', George, or gettin' sore,—for I've quit +tryin'. +</P> + +<P> +"What'n the hell's the good, anyway. The more you fight, the rawer a +deal you get in the finish. Forget it! I'm drinkin' now whenever I'm +good and ready; any old time at all and as much as I want,—and more." +</P> + +<P> +I could do no more for him. It was Jake for it. +</P> + +<P> +I stopped the southbound <I>Cloochman</I> that afternoon and put Jake's +letters aboard. Two days later, two clerks from the Commercial Bank +and a young lawyer from Dow, Cross & Sneddon's came into Golden +Crescent in a launch. I took them over to Jake Meaghan's. I +introduced them, then busied myself outside while the necessary +formalities were gone through, for I did not wish to be in any way +connected with Jake's settlements. At last, however, the old fellow +came to the door. +</P> + +<P> +"George,—I guess you'd better take care o' them for me. That's my +bank receipt. That's my death warrant," he grinned, "I mean my will. +You're better'n me at lookin' after papers." +</P> + +<P> +We carried the brass-bound trunk to the launch and waved it a fond +farewell, without tears or regrets. +</P> + +<P> +For two weeks, morning, noon and night, Jake indulged in a horror of a +drinking bout. +</P> + +<P> +The very thought of that orgy still sets my blood running cold. +</P> + +<P> +We pleaded, we threatened; but of no avail. The minister even closeted +himself with Jake for a whole afternoon without making the slightest +impression on him. +</P> + +<P> +It was always the same old remark: +</P> + +<P> +"I've boozed for ten years and it ain't hurt me, so I guess I can booze +some more." +</P> + +<P> +And the strange feature of it was that the more he drank the more sober +he seemed to become. He did his work as well as ever. His eyes +retained their same innocent, baby-blue expression and his brain was as +clear as a summer sky. +</P> + +<P> +One Sunday forenoon, I was busy in the yard taking down my Saturday's +washing from the clothes line, when Jake's dog, Mike, came tearing +along the back path, making straight for me. That, in itself, was an +unusual thing, for Mike never showed any violent affection for any one +but Jake and he was more or less inclined to shun me altogether. +</P> + +<P> +Now, he stood in front of me and barked. I kept on with my work. He +followed every step I took and kept on barking and yelping excitedly, +looking up into my face. +</P> + +<P> +"What the dickens is the matter, old man?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +When he saw me interested in him, he turned and ran down toward the +beach. I did not follow. +</P> + +<P> +He came back and went through the same performance. Then he got angry +and caught me by the foot of the overalls, trying to pull me in the +direction he wanted. +</P> + +<P> +It struck me then that an old stager, like Mike was, would not +misbehave himself as he was doing for the mere fun of it. I left my +newly dried clothes and followed him. He ran on ahead and into my +boat, getting up on the side and barking toward Jake's place. +</P> + +<P> +I became anxious. I pushed off hurriedly and rowed as hard as I could +up the Bay in the direction of the cove. +</P> + +<P> +As I was turning in at Jake's landing, Mike grew excited again, running +to the right side of the stern and whining. +</P> + +<P> +"What on earth can the dog mean?" I soliloquised, making up my mind to +call in at the shack first, at any rate, and investigate. +</P> + +<P> +But Mike jumped out of the boat and swam off further up, turning back +to me every few yards and yelping. +</P> + +<P> +The dog evidently knew more than I did, so I followed him. +</P> + +<P> +He led me to Jake's favourite clam-hunting ground. +</P> + +<P> +As soon as I turned into that little cove, I saw my old helper lying on +his back on the beach. I pulled in and hurried over to him. +</P> + +<P> +The dog was there before me, his tongue out and his tail wagging as if +to say: +</P> + +<P> +"It is all right now." +</P> + +<P> +The old man's eyes were wide open and glazed. He was blowing +stentoriously through his closed mouth and a white ooze was on the +corners of his lips. His body was tense and rigid, as if it had been +frozen solid in the Arctic snows. +</P> + +<P> +Poor old Jake! I knew what had seized him. I had seen something of +the trouble before. +</P> + +<P> +I lifted him gently and carried him into the boat, pushing off and +rowing as quickly as possible for his home. +</P> + +<P> +I got him into bed, but it was an hour before he showed any signs of +consciousness, for I could do nothing for him,—only sit and watch. +</P> + +<P> +At last he recognised me and tried to talk, but his speech was thick +and nothing but a jabber of sounds. +</P> + +<P> +He cast his eyes down his right side as if to draw my attention to +something. His eyes, somehow, seemed the only real live part of him. +I examined him carefully and saw what he meant. +</P> + +<P> +Poor fellow! Tears ran down my cheeks in pity for him. +</P> + +<P> +His right side was numb and paralysed. +</P> + +<P> +I hurried over to Mary's. She and Mrs. Malmsbury returned with me and +attended him, hand and foot, until the minister came in late that +afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Auld was a medical missionary, and he confirmed what I had feared. +Jake had had a stroke. +</P> + +<P> +The only articulate words Meaghan uttered in his mumblings were, "Rita, +Rita, Rita." Again and again he came over the name. At last I +promised him I would run over and bring her to him. +</P> + +<P> +That seemed to content him, but his eyes still kept roving round +restlessly. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Auld injected some morphine through Jake's arm in order to give his +brain the rest that it evidently sorely needed. +</P> + +<P> +"There is little we can do, George," said the minister. "He may be all +right to-morrow, but for his physical helplessness;—and, even that may +abate. Between you and me, I pray to God he may not live." +</P> + +<P> +"But what can have caused it, Mr. Auld?" +</P> + +<P> +"If Jake only could have been able to drink as other men do,—drink, +get drunk and leave off,—he never would have come to this. His +constitution was never made for such drinking as he has indulged in. +No man's constitution is." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you going to send him down to the city?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Not if you will bear with him here. It would do no good to move him. +I would advise his remaining here. He will be happier, poor fellow. I +shall run in early to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +I fetched Rita over that night and she remained with the old miner +right along. +</P> + +<P> +Her cheery presence brightened up the stricken man wonderfully. +</P> + +<P> +Next day, he could talk more intelligibly and, with help, he got up and +sat on a chair. +</P> + +<P> +The Rev. William Auld called and left a jar containing some hideous +little leeches in water. He gave me instructions that, if Jake took +any sudden attack and the blood pressure in his head appeared great, I +was to place two of these blood-sucking creatures on each of his +temples, to relieve him. +</P> + +<P> +He showed me how to fix them to the flesh. +</P> + +<P> +"Once they are on, do not endeavour to pull them off," he explained. +"When they have gorged themselves, they will drop off. After that, +they will die unless you place them upon a dish of salt, when they will +sicken and disgorge the blood they have taken. Then, if you put them +back into a jar of fresh water, they will become lively as ever and +will soon be ready for further use." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope to God I may not have to use them," I exclaimed fervently, +shuddering at the gruesome thoughts the sight of the hideous little +reptiles conjured up in me. +</P> + +<P> +And I was saved from having to participate in the disgusting operation, +for, at the end of the week, Jake was seized through the night for the +second time. Toward morning, he revived and spoke to Rita and me like +the dear old Jake we used to know. +</P> + +<P> +"Guess I got to pass in my checks, folks. I ain't been very good +neither. But I ain't done nobody no harm as I can mind;—nobody, but +maybe Jake Meaghan. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, George! You like me,—don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I like you for the real gentleman you are, Jake," I answered, laying +my hand on his brow. +</P> + +<P> +"You like me too, Rita,—don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"You bet I do!" she replied, dropping back into the slang that Jake +best understood. +</P> + +<P> +He was happy after that and smiled crookedly. But, in the early +morning, a violent fit of convulsions, in all its contorting agonies, +caught hold of him. His head at last dropped back on Rita's arm and +Jake Meaghan was no more. +</P> + +<P> +I covered up his face with a sheet, and we closed the door, leaving the +faithful Mike alone by the bedside. +</P> + +<P> +I led the little, sorrowing Rita down to her boat and kissed her as I +sent her across the Bay, home. Then, with a leaden heart, I went back, +to sit disconsolately in my own cottage, feeling as if I had lost a +part of myself in losing my old, eccentric, simple-minded friend. +</P> + +<P> +I opened up the papers Jake had left in my care and, as I read his +will, it made me feel how little I knew of him after all and what a +strange way he had of working out his ideas to what he considered their +logical conclusion. +</P> + +<P> +His will was a short document, and quite clear. +</P> + +<P> +He wished to be buried in Vancouver. All he possessed, he left to Rita +'because Rita was always a good girl.' If Rita married George Bremner, +the ten thousand dollars lying in the bank was to become her own, under +her immediate and full control; but, should she marry any other man, or +should she remain unmarried for a period of three years from Jake's +death, this money was to be invested for her in the form of an annuity, +in a reliable insurance company whose name was mentioned. +</P> + +<P> +He left Mike, the dog, to the care of George Bremner. +</P> + +<P> +The more I thought over that will, the more I cogitated over what was +really at the back of Jake's mind. +</P> + +<P> +Did he think, in some way, that there was an understanding between Rita +and me? or, as probably was more likely, was it an unexpressed desire +of his that Rita,—my little, mercurial pupil, Rita,—and I should +marry and settle down somewhere at Golden Crescent? +</P> + +<P> +Alas! for old Jake. Who knows what was in that big, wayward heart of +his? +</P> + +<P> +Mike kept faithful watch over Jake's body, until they came to take it +away. He neither ate nor slept. He just lay on the floor, with his +head resting on his front paws and his eyes riveted on the bed where +Jake was. +</P> + +<P> +We had to throw a blanket over Mike and hold him down bodily before the +undertakers could remove his dead master. +</P> + +<P> +All the way out to the steamer, we could hear Mike's dismal howling. +Never did such cries come from any dog. They did not seem the howls of +a brute, but the wailings of a human soul that was slowly being torn to +shreds. +</P> + +<P> +My heart ached more for that poor creature than it did even for Jake. +</P> + +<P> +All afternoon, all through that first night and still in the early +hours of the next morning, the dog sobbed and wailed as if its +more-than-human heart were breaking. +</P> + +<P> +At last, I could stand the strain no longer. I went down with some +food and drink for him and in the hope that I would be able to pacify +him and comfort him in his loss. But the moment I opened the door, he +tore out, as if possessed, down on to the beach and into the water. +Out, out he went, in the direction the steamer had gone the day before. +</P> + +<P> +I got into Jake's boat and followed him as quickly as I could, but we +were a long way out before I got up with him,—swimming strongly, +gamely, almost viciously; on,—on,—heading for the Ghoul Rock and for +the cross-currents at the open sea. +</P> + +<P> +I reached alongside him, but always he sheered away. +</P> + +<P> +I spoke to him kindly and coaxingly, but all I got from him in reply +was a whimpering sob, as if to say:— +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! you are only a human: how can you understand?" +</P> + +<P> +I succeeded in catching hold of him and I lifted him into the boat. He +struggled out of my grasp back into the water. Three times I brought +him in and three times he broke from me and plunged into the sea, +swimming always out and out. +</P> + +<P> +I had not the heart to trouble him any more. +</P> + +<P> +After all, what right had I to interfere? What right had I to try to +go between the soul of a man and the soul of a dog? +</P> + +<P> +"God speed!—you brave, old, lion-hearted Mike. God speed!" I cried. +"Go to him. You were two of a kind. May you soon catch up with him, +and may both of you be happy." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap23"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +The Fight in the Woods +</H4> + +<P> +I did not engage any one to fill Jake's place, for I felt that no man +really could fill it. In any case, with the approach of the wet, +wintry weather, the work at Golden Crescent diminished. I did not have +the continuous supplies to make ready for the Camps, such as they +demanded in the summer months. When they called, they generally took +away enough to last them over several weeks. Again, Jake had cut, sawn +and stacked all my winter supply of firewood long before he took sick. +</P> + +<P> +Taking all these things into consideration, I decided I would go +through the winter, at least, without fresh help. +</P> + +<P> +Mary Grant and Mrs. Malmsbury still remained at the cottage over the +way. +</P> + +<P> +Often I asked Mary,—almost in dread,—if she were going away during +the stormier months, but she always said she had not made any +arrangements so far. +</P> + +<P> +Not once, but many times, I tried to break through the reserve which +she had hedged round herself ever since our evening in the lagoon after +our first fishing experience when we had drawn so near in sympathy to +each other. I felt afraid lest I should forget myself some time and +tell her all that was in my heart craving to be told, for something +kept whispering to me that, if I did, I might lose her altogether. +</P> + +<P> +Rita's lessons went on apace. Twice a week she came over in the +evenings for instruction. She was quickly nearing the point where I +would be of no further service, for I had imparted to her almost all I +was capable of imparting in the way of actual grammar. +</P> + +<P> +I hoped to be able to complete her course before Christmas came round. +Then it would be merely a question of selection of reading matter. +</P> + +<P> +Rita's manner of speaking had undergone a wonderful change. There were +no slangy expressions now; no "ain'ts" or "I guess"; no plural nouns +with singular verbs; no past participles for the past tense; no split +infinitives. To all intents and purposes, Rita Clark had taken a +course of instruction at a good grammar school. +</P> + +<P> +And what a difference it made in her, generally! Even her dress and +her deportment seemed to have changed with her new manner of speaking. +</P> + +<P> +It is always so. The forward progress in any one direction means +forward progress in almost every other. +</P> + +<P> +Rita was a sweet, though still impetuous, little maiden that any +cultured man might have been proud to have for a wife. +</P> + +<P> +One rainy night, she and I were sitting by the stove in my front room. +I was in an easy chair, with a book in my hand, while Rita was sitting +in front of me on a small, carpet-covered stool, leaning sideways +against my legs and supposedly doing some paraphrasing. A movement on +her part caused me to glance at her. +</P> + +<P> +She had turned and was staring toward the window and her eyes were +growing larger and larger every moment. Her face grew pale, while her +lips parted and an expression, akin to fear, began to creep into her +eyes. +</P> + +<P> +I turned my head hurriedly to the window, but all was dark over there +and the rain was pattering and splashing against the glass. +</P> + +<P> +Still, Rita sat staring, although the look of fear had gone. +</P> + +<P> +I laid my hand on her shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Rita, Rita!—what in the world is wrong?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, George,—I,—I saw Joe's face at the window. I never saw him look +so angry before," she whispered nervously. +</P> + +<P> +I laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Why!—you foolish little woman, I looked over there almost as soon as +you did, but I saw no one." +</P> + +<P> +"But he was there, I tell you," she repeated. +</P> + +<P> +I rose to go to the door. +</P> + +<P> +"No, no!" she cried. "Don't go." +</P> + +<P> +But I went, nevertheless, throwing the door wide open and getting a +gust of wind and rain in my face as I peered out into the night. +</P> + +<P> +I closed the door again and came back to Rita. +</P> + +<P> +"Why! silly little girl, you must have dreamed it. There is no one +there." +</P> + +<P> +I tapped her on the cheek. +</P> + +<P> +"I did not know Rita Clark was nervous," I bandied. +</P> + +<P> +She looked dreamily into the fire for a while, then she turned round to +me and laid her cheek against my knee. +</P> + +<P> +"George!—Joe's been coming home more and more of late. He's been lots +nicer to me than he used to be. He brought me a gold brooch with +pearls in it, from Vancouver, to-day." +</P> + +<P> +"Good for him!" I remarked. +</P> + +<P> +"It was a lovely brooch," she went on. "I put it in my dress, it +looked so pretty. Then Joe asked me to go with him along the beach. +Said he wanted to talk to me. I went with him, and he asked me if I +would marry him. +</P> + +<P> +"Marry him, mind you!—and I have known him all my life. +</P> + +<P> +"He said he didn't know he loved me till just a little while ago. Said +it was all a yarn about the other girls he met. +</P> + +<P> +"He was quiet, and soft as could be. I never saw Joe just the way he +was to-day. But I don't feel to Joe as I used to. He has sort of +killed the liking I once had for him. +</P> + +<P> +"I got angry about the brooch then. I took it off and handed it back +to him. +</P> + +<P> +"'Here's your brooch, Joe,' I said. 'I didn't know you gave it to me +just to make me marry you. I don't love you, Joe, and I won't marry a +man I don't love. You mustn't ask me again. You get somebody else.' +</P> + +<P> +"Big Joe was just like a baby. His face turned white. +</P> + +<P> +"'You're in love with Bremner,' he said, catching me by the wrist. I +drew myself away. +</P> + +<P> +"'I'm not,' I said. 'I like him better than I like any other man,—you +included,—but I don't love him any more than he loves me.'" +</P> + +<P> +Rita looked up at me and her eyes filled with tears. +</P> + +<P> +"'Ain't Bremner in love with you?' Joe asked. +</P> + +<P> +"'No!' I said. +</P> + +<P> +"Then Joe got terribly mad. +</P> + +<P> +"'By God in Heaven!' he cried, 'I'll kill that son-of-a-gun, if I hang +for it!' +</P> + +<P> +"He meant you, George. He went off into the wood, leaving me standing +like a silly. +</P> + +<P> +"Say! George,—the way Joe said that, makes me afraid that some day he +will kill you." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you worry your little head about that, Rita," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!—that's all very well,—but Joe Clark's a big man. He's the +strongest man on the coast. He's always in some mix-up and he always +comes out on top. And I'm more afraid for you, because you are not +afraid of him." +</P> + +<P> +I rowed Rita across home that evening in order to reassure her, and, on +our journey, neither sound nor sign did we experience of Joe Clark. +</P> + +<P> +When the time came again for her next lesson, Rita seemed to have +forgotten her former fears. +</P> + +<P> +I had fixed up a blind over the window and had drawn it down, so that +no more imaginary peering faces would disturb the harmony of our lesson +and our conversation. +</P> + +<P> +How long we sat there by the stove, I could not say; but Rita was soft, +and gentle, and tender that night,—sweet, suppliant and loving. She +was all woman. +</P> + +<P> +When our lesson was over, she sat at my feet as usual. She crossed her +fingers over my knee and rested her cheek there, with a sigh of +contentment. +</P> + +<P> +I stroked her hair and passed my fingers through the long strands of +its black, glossy darkness, and I watched the pretty curves of her red, +sensitive lips. +</P> + +<P> +"Rita! Rita!" I questioned in my heart, as her big eyes searched mine, +"I wonder, little maid, what this big world has in store for you? God +grant that it be nothing but good." +</P> + +<P> +I bent down and kissed her once,—twice,—on those soft and yielding +upturned lips. +</P> + +<P> +With terrifying suddenness, something crashed against my front window +and broken glass clattered on the floor. +</P> + +<P> +A great hand and arm shot through the opening and tore my window blind +in strips from its roller. And then the hand and arm were withdrawn. +</P> + +<P> +In the visual illusion caused by the strong light inside and the deep +darkness without, we saw nothing but that great hand and arm. +</P> + +<P> +I sprang up and rushed to the door, followed by Rita. +</P> + +<P> +There was no sign of any one about. I ran round the house, and scanned +the bushes; I went down on to the beach, then across the bridge over +the creek, but I failed to detect the presence of any man. +</P> + +<P> +I came back to Rita to ease her mind, and found her anxious yet +wonderfully calm. +</P> + +<P> +"George!—you need not tell me,—it was Joe. I know his hand and arm +when I see them. He is up to something. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! You must be careful. Promise me you will be careful?" +</P> + +<P> +I gave her my word, then I set her in her boat for home, asking her to +wait for a moment until I should return. +</P> + +<P> +Before setting her out on her journey, I wished to make perfectly sure +that there was no one about. I again crossed the creek, past Mary's +house, which was in complete darkness, and down on to her beach. +There, hiding in the shelter of the rocks, was a launch, moored to one +of the rings which Jake had set in at convenient places just for the +purpose it was now being used. +</P> + +<P> +I ran out and examined it. It was Joe Clark's. +</P> + +<P> +So!—I thought,—he is still on this side. +</P> + +<P> +I returned to Rita, wished her good-night and pushed her out on the +water. +</P> + +<P> +I came leisurely up the beach, keeping my eyes well skinned. But, +after a bit, I began to laugh, chiding myself for my childish +precautions. +</P> + +<P> +I went into the kitchen, took an empty bucket in each hand and set out +along the back path for a fresh supply of water for my morning +requirements, to the stream, fifty yards in the wood, where I had +hollowed out a well and boarded it over. +</P> + +<P> +It was dark, gloomy and ghostly in the woods there, for the moon was +stealing fitfully under the clouds and through the tall firs, throwing +strange shadows about. +</P> + +<P> +I had almost reached the well, when I heard a crackling of dead wood to +my right. +</P> + +<P> +A huge, agile-looking figure pushed its way through, and Joe Clark +stood before me, blocking my path. +</P> + +<P> +He held two, roughly cut clubs, one in each hand. His sleeves were +rolled up over his tremendous arms; his shirt was open at the neck, +displaying, even in the uncertain moonlight, a great, hairy, massive +chest over which muscles and sinews crawled. +</P> + +<P> +I scanned his face. His jaw was set, his lips were a thin line, his +eyes were gleaming savagely and a mane of fair hair was falling in a +clump over his brow. He looked dishevelled and was evidently labouring +under badly suppressed excitement. +</P> + +<P> +"Where's Rita?" he growled. +</P> + +<P> +I put my buckets aside and took my pipe from between my teeth. +</P> + +<P> +"Half-way home by this time, I hope," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"She is,—eh!" he cut in sarcastically. "Guess so! Look here, +Bremner,—what'n the hell's your game with Rita, anyway?" +</P> + +<P> +I went straight up to him. +</P> + +<P> +I did not want to quarrel. Not that I was afraid of him, even knowing, +as I did, that I would be likely to get much the worse of any possible +encounter;—but, for Rita's sake, I preferred peace. +</P> + +<P> +"My good fellow," I said, "why in heaven's name can't you talk sense? +I have no game, as you call it, with Rita. +</P> + +<P> +"If you would only play straight with her, you might get her yourself. +But I'll tell you this,—skulking around other people's property, after +the skirts of a woman, never yet brought a man anything but rebuffs." +</P> + +<P> +"Aw!—cut out your damned yapping, Bremner," he yelled furiously. "Who +the hell wants any of your jaw? Play straight the devil! You're some +yellow cuss to talk to anybody about playin' straight." +</P> + +<P> +It was all I could do to keep my temper in check. +</P> + +<P> +"What d'ye bring her over to your place at night for, if you're playin' +straight?" he continued. +</P> + +<P> +"To teach her grammar;—that's all," I exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"Grammar be damned," he thundered. "What d'ye put up blinds for if +you're playin' straight?" +</P> + +<P> +"To keep skulkers from seeing how respectable people spend their +evenings," I shot at him. +</P> + +<P> +"You're a confounded liar," he yelled, beside himself. "I know what +you're up to, with your oily tongue and your Jim Dandy style. +</P> + +<P> +"Rita was mine before you ever set your damned dial in Golden Crescent. +She'd 've been mine for keeps by this time, but you got her goin'. Now +you're usin' her to pass the time, keepin' men who want to from +marryin' her." +</P> + +<P> +With a black madness inside me, I sprang in on him. He stepped aside. +</P> + +<P> +"No, you don't!" he cried. "Take that." +</P> + +<P> +He threw one of his clubs at my feet. +</P> + +<P> +"Fists ain't no good this trip, Mister Man. I was goin' to kill you, +but I thought maybe it'd look better if we fight and let the best man +win." +</P> + +<P> +I stood undecided, looking first at this great mountain of infuriated +humanity and then at the club he had tossed to me;—while around us +were the great trees, the streams of ghostly moonlight and the looming +blacknesses. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on!—damn you for a yellow-gut. Take that up before I open your +skull with this." +</P> + +<P> +He prodded me full in the chest with the end of his weapon. I needed +no second bidding. Evidently, it was he or I for it. +</P> + +<P> +In fact, since the moment we first met at Golden Crescent that had been +the issue with which I had always been confronted. Joe Clark or George +Bremner!—one of us had to go down under the heel of the other. +</P> + +<P> +I grabbed up the club and stood on guard for the terrific onslaught Joe +immediately made on me. +</P> + +<P> +He threw his arm in the air and came in on me like a mad buffalo. Had +the blow he aimed ever fallen with all its original force, these lines +never would have been written; but its strength was partly shorn by the +club coming in contact with the overhanging branch of a tree. +</P> + +<P> +I parried that blow, but still it beat down my guard and the club +grazed my head. +</P> + +<P> +I gave ground before Clark, as I tried to find an opening. I soon +discovered, however, that this was not a fight where one could wait for +openings. Openings had to be made, and made quickly. I threw caution +to the winds. I drew myself together and rushed at him as he had +rushed at me. His blow slanted off my left shoulder, numbing my arm to +the finger-tips. Mine got home on a more vital place: it caught him +sheer on the top of the head. +</P> + +<P> +I thought, for sure, I had smashed his skull. But no such luck; Joe +Clark's bones were too stoutly made and knit. +</P> + +<P> +He gasped and staggered back against a tree for a second, looking dazed +as he wiped a flow of blood from his face. +</P> + +<P> +"For God's sake, man," I shouted, "let us quit this." +</P> + +<P> +He laughed derisively. +</P> + +<P> +"The hell you say! Quit,—nothin'; not till one of us quits for keeps." +</P> + +<P> +He rallied and came at me once more, but with greater wariness than +previously. He poked at me and jabbed at me. I warded him off, +keeping on the move all the time. He swung sideways on me, but I +parried easily; then, with a fierce oath, he caught his club with both +hands, raised it high in the air and brought it down with all his +sledge-hammer strength. +</P> + +<P> +This time, I was ready for Joe Clark. I was strong. Oh!—I knew just +how strong I was, and I gloried in my possession. +</P> + +<P> +I had a firmer grip of my cudgel than before. There was going to be no +breaking through as he had done last time; not if George Bremner's +right arm was as good as he thought it was. +</P> + +<P> +I met that terrific crash at the place I knew would tell. With the +crack of a gun-shot, his club shivered into a dozen splinters against +mine, leaving him with nothing but a few inches of wood in his torn +hands. +</P> + +<P> +He stood irresolute. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you quit now?" I cried. +</P> + +<P> +But he was game. "Not on your life," he shouted back. "We ain't +started yet. Try your damnedest." +</P> + +<P> +He tossed aside the remainder of his club and jumped at me with his +great hands groping. I stepped back and threw my stick deliberately +far into the forest, then I stopped and met him with his own weapons. +After all, I was now on a more equal footing with him than I had been +when both of us were armed. +</P> + +<P> +We clinched, and locked together. We turned, and twisted, and +struggled. He had the advantage over me in weight and sheer brute +strength, but I had him shaded when it came to knowing how to use the +strength I possessed. +</P> + +<P> +We smashed at each other with our fists wherever and whenever we found +an opening. Our clothes were soon in ribbons. Blood spurted from us +as it would from stuck pigs. +</P> + +<P> +Gasping for breath with roaring sounds,—choking,—half-blind, we +staggered and swayed, smashing into trees and over bushes. +</P> + +<P> +At last I missed my footing and stumbled over a protruding log, falling +backward. Still riveted together,—Joe Clark came with me. The back +of my head struck, with a sickening crash, into a tree and I knew no +more. +</P> + +<P> +When consciousness came back to me, I groaned for a return of the +blessed sleep from which I had awakened, for every inch of my poor body +was a racking agony. +</P> + +<P> +A thousand noises drummed, and thumped, and roared in my head and the +weight of the entire universe seemed to be lying across my chest. +</P> + +<P> +I struggled weakly to free myself, and, as I recollected gradually what +had happened to me, I put out my hands. They came in contact with +something cold and clammy. +</P> + +<P> +It was the bloody face of Joe Clark, who was lying on top of me. +</P> + +<P> +I wriggled and struggled with the cumbersome burden that had been +strangling the flickering life in me. Every effort, every turn was a +new pain, but all my hope was in getting free. +</P> + +<P> +At last, I got from under him and staggered to my knees. I was a very +babe for weakness then. I clutched at the tree-trunk for support and +raised myself to my feet. I looked down on the pale face of Joe Clark, +as he lay there, the moon on his face disclosing a great open gash on +his forehead. +</P> + +<P> +Evidently, he had struck the tree, face on, with the same impact as I +had done backward. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, God!" I groaned. "He is dead, ... Joe Clark is..." +</P> + +<P> +Then the blissful mists and darknesses came over me again and I +crumpled to the earth. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap24"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Two Maids and a Man +</H4> + +<P> +When next I awoke, it was amid conflicting sensations of pains and +pleasantnesses. My eyes gradually took in my surroundings. Instead of +being in Heaven, or the other place of future abode as I fully expected +to be, I was lying on my own bed, in my own room, in a semi-darkness. +</P> + +<P> +A quiet, shadowlike form was flitting about. I followed it with my +eyes for a while, enjoying the fact that it did not know that I was +watching it. Then it tip-toed toward me and bent over me. +</P> + +<P> +All my doubts and fears departed. After all, I was in Heaven; for +Mary,—the Mary I so loved,—was bending over me, crooning to me, with +her face so near, and placing her cooling, soothing hand on my hot brow. +</P> + +<P> +I must have tried to speak, for, as if far away, I could hear her +enjoining me not to talk, but just lie quiet and I would soon be well. +</P> + +<P> +She put a spoon to my mouth and, sup by sup, something warm, good and +reviving slowly found its way down my throat. +</P> + +<P> +What hard work it was opening my lips! What a dreadful task it was to +swallow and how heavy my feet and hands seemed!—so heavy, I could not +lift them. +</P> + +<P> +As the singing voice crooned and hushed me, I grew, oh! so weary of the +labour of swallowing and breathing that I dropped away again into +glorious slumberland. +</P> + +<P> +When again I opened my eyes, it was evening. My reading lamp was +burning dimly on a table, near by. The air was warm from a crackling +fire in the stove. Some one was kneeling at my bedside. +</P> + +<P> +I looked along the sheets that covered me. +</P> + +<P> +It was Mary. +</P> + +<P> +All I could see of her head were the coils of her golden hair, for she +had my hand in both her own and her face was hidden on the bed-spread. +I could hear her voice whispering softly. She was praying. She +repeated my name ever so often. She was praying that I might be +allowed to live. +</P> + +<P> +From that moment I lived and grew stronger. But I dared not move in +case I might disturb her. +</P> + +<P> +She rose at last and bent over my bandaged head. She scrutinised my +face. As she leaned closer, I caught the fragrance of her breath and +the perfume of her hair. And then,—God forgive me for my deceit! +although, for such an ecstasy I would go on being deceitful to the end +of time,—she stooped lower and her full, soft, warm lips touched mine. +</P> + +<P> +I raised my eyelids to her blushing loveliness. I tried to smile, but +she put her finger up demanding silence. She fed me again and new +strength flowed through my veins. +</P> + +<P> +What questions I asked her then! How did I get here? What day of the +week was it? Was Joe Clark dead? +</P> + +<P> +"Hush, hush!" she chided. "You must go on sleeping." +</P> + +<P> +"But I can't sleep forever. Already I have been asleep for years," I +complained feebly. +</P> + +<P> +"Hush, then, and I will tell you." +</P> + +<P> +She sat down by my bedside and I lay still and quiet as she went over +what she knew. +</P> + +<P> +"This is Saturday evening. I found you, lying unconscious,—dead as I +thought,—out on the path, as I went for fresh water yesterday morning. +</P> + +<P> +"I brought you here. I did not know what had befallen you. I was +afraid you had been set upon by the thieves who tried to rob Jake +Meaghan; but from what you have just said, it was Superintendent Clark +who attacked you." +</P> + +<P> +I nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"Was he not lying there beside me,—dead?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Hush! There was no one near you; but the place looked as if a herd of +buffalo had thundered over it." +</P> + +<P> +I was puzzled, but I tried to laugh and the attempt hurt me. +</P> + +<P> +"How did you get me here?" I interrupted. +</P> + +<P> +"Now!" she said, "if you speak again, I will tell you nothing. +</P> + +<P> +"I ran home for blankets. I got two poles and fixed the blankets to +these. I rolled you over on to my improvised stretcher and trailed you +here, Indian fashion. It was easy as easy. Mrs. Malmsbury was abed +and I did not wish to disturb her just then. Later, when I got you +here, she helped me to put you to bed. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! I am so glad that man did not murder you." +</P> + +<P> +"But it would not have been murder, Mary," I put in. "It was a fair +fight." +</P> + +<P> +"But why should two, strong, clean-living young men want to fight? +Don't answer me, George," she added quickly, "for I am merely +cogitating. Men seem such strange animals to us women." +</P> + +<P> +I smiled. +</P> + +<P> +Other questions I asked, but Mary declined to answer and I had, +perforce, to lie still, with nothing to do but follow her with my eyes +wherever she went. +</P> + +<P> +For one more day, she kept me on my back, bullying me and tyrannising +over me, when I felt strong enough to be up and about my business. +</P> + +<P> +Sometimes, when she came near enough, I would lay my hand over hers. +She would permit the caress as if she were indulging a spoiled baby. +Sometimes, I would lie with my eyes closed in the hope that she might +be tempted to kiss me, as she had done before; but Mary Grant saw +through the pretence and declined to become a party to it. +</P> + +<P> +The Rev. Mr. Auld came during the early afternoon of that Sunday. He +examined my bruises and contusions with professional brutality. He +winked, and ordered me up, dressed and into a wicker chair,—for the +lazy, good-for-nothing rascal that I was. And,—God bless his kindly +old heart!—he told Mary I might smoke, in moderation. +</P> + +<P> +He did not remain long, for he said he had been called to attend +another and a very urgent case of a malady similar to mine, at Camp No. +2. +</P> + +<P> +"Why!—that's Joe Clark's Camp," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"I am well aware of the fact," said he. "If you ask any more questions +or venture any more information, I shall order you back to bed and I +shall cancel your smoking permit." +</P> + +<P> +As he was going off, he came over to me and whispered in my ear:— +</P> + +<P> +"Man!—I would give something for the power of your right arm." +</P> + +<P> +All the remainder of that afternoon, Mary read to me, as I browsed +[Transcriber's note: drowsed?] in an easy chair among cushions and +rugs, stretching first one leg and then the other, testing my arms, +trying every joint, every finger and toe, to satisfy myself that I was +still George Bremner, complete in every detail. +</P> + +<P> +Just as Mary was preparing to say good-bye to my little place, late +that same day,—for her vigils over me were no longer necessary,—Rita +Clark ran in, flushed with hurried rowing and labouring under a strong +excitement. She flashed defiance at Mary, then she threw herself at my +feet and sobbed as if her little heart would break. +</P> + +<P> +I put my hand on her head and tried to comfort her, and, when I looked +up again, she and I were alone. +</P> + +<P> +"Rita, Rita!" I admonished. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!—no one told me," she wailed. "And it was all my fault. I know I +should not have come when Joe was that way about it. +</P> + +<P> +"If he had killed you! Oh! George,—if he had killed you!" +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes were red from weeping and dread still showed in her expressive +face. +</P> + +<P> +"There, there," I comforted. "He did not kill me, Rita, so why worry? +</P> + +<P> +"I shall be back at work in the store to-morrow, same as before. Cheer +up, little girl!" +</P> + +<P> +"But nobody at the Camp can understand it," she went on with more +composure. "They all knew there had been a fight. They were sure you +had been killed, for nobody ever stands up against Joe without coming +down harder than he does, and they say Joe was pretty nearly done for." +</P> + +<P> +"How is he now?" I inquired, inquisitive to know if he were suffering +at least some of what I had suffered. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Auld just came in as I left. Joe's been unconscious for two days." +</P> + +<P> +"Good!" I exclaimed, almost in delight. +</P> + +<P> +Rita's face expressed a chiding her tongue refused to give. +</P> + +<P> +"He only came to, when the minister got there this afternoon. Joe's +arm is broken. Two of his ribs are stove in. He's bruised and +battered all over. Mr. Auld says the hole in his forehead is the +serious one. Thinks you must have uprooted a tree and hit him with it." +</P> + +<P> +I laughed. But Rita was still all seriousness. +</P> + +<P> +"He'll pull through all right. Minister says he'll be out in two or +three weeks. Says it's a miracle how Joe ever got back to Camp. Must +have crawled to the launch, looked after the engine and steered all the +way himself, and him smashed up as he was. Funny he didn't come over +home. Guess he didn't want any of us to know about it. +</P> + +<P> +"They found his boat run up on the beach at Camp and him lying in the +bottom of it, unconscious; engine of his boat still going full speed. +</P> + +<P> +"Joe was delirious and muttering all the time: +</P> + +<P> +"'I killed that son-of-a-gun, Bremner. I killed Bremner.' +</P> + +<P> +"You know, George,—most of the men like Joe; for he's good to them +when they're down and out. But none of them has much sympathy for him +this time. Mr. Auld says they have heard him talk about doing you up +ever since you came to Golden Crescent. And now, Joe's the man that's +done up. +</P> + +<P> +"Better for him if he had let you be. +</P> + +<P> +"But, maybe after all, it is the best thing that ever happened,—for +Joe, I mean. It will let him see that brute force isn't everything; +that there never was a strong man but there was a stronger one still. +Eh! George." +</P> + +<P> +Rita's mood changed. +</P> + +<P> +"But, if you and Joe quarrel again, I'm going to run away. So there. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not beholden to any one now,—thanks to dear old Jake Meaghan. I +can get money,—all I want. Then maybe Joe'll be sorry. +</P> + +<P> +"You won't fight any more, George? Say you won't!" +</P> + +<P> +She put her arm round my shoulder and her cheek against mine, in her +old coaxing way. +</P> + +<P> +Dear little woman! It was a shame to have worried her as Joe and I had +done. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Rita," I laughed, "I promise you I won't fight if Joe won't. +And, anyway,—Joe is not likely to seek another encounter till his arm +and ribs are well; and that will take six weeks all told. So don't +worry yourself any more about what is going to happen six weeks hence." +</P> + +<P> +As Rita started out for home, I rose to accompany her to the boat. +</P> + +<P> +"No, no!" she cried. "Why!—you are under doctor's orders." +</P> + +<P> +"I have to work to-morrow, Rita, so I might as well try myself out now, +as later." +</P> + +<P> +I was shaky at the knees, but, with Rita's arm round my waist, I +managed to make the journey with little trouble. +</P> + +<P> +As we got to her boat, Rita pouted. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter now, little maid?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think you like me any more, George,—after bringing this on +you. And we've been pretty good pals too, you and I." +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes commenced to fill. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, foolish! Of course, we have been good pals and we are going to +stay good pals right to the end; no matter what happens." +</P> + +<P> +"Sure?" she asked, taking an upward, sidelong glance at me. +</P> + +<P> +"Sure as that," I exclaimed. I put my hands round her trim waist, and, +weak as I was, I lifted her up from the ground and kissed her laughing +mouth. +</P> + +<P> +She struggled free, jumped into the boat and rowed away, with a laugh +and a blown kiss to me from her finger tips. +</P> + +<P> +As I turned, I cast my eyes up along the wharf. +</P> + +<P> +A figure was standing there, motionless, as if hewn in stone. +</P> + +<P> +It was Mary Grant. +</P> + +<P> +Her hands were pressed flat against her bosom as if she were trying to +stifle something that should not have been there. Her face wore a +strange coldness that I had never seen in it before. +</P> + +<P> +I could not understand why it should be so,—unless,—unless she had +misconstrued the good-bye of Rita and me. But, surely,—surely not! +</P> + +<P> +Slowly and laboriously, I made in her direction, but she sped away +swiftly down the wharf, across the rustic bridge and into her cottage, +closing the door behind her quickly. +</P> + +<P> +As I sat by the fireside, thinking over what possibly could have caused +Mary to behave so, something spoke to me again and again, saying:— +</P> + +<P> +"Go over and find out. Go over and find out." +</P> + +<P> +But I did not obey. My conscience felt clear of all wrong intent and I +decided it would be better to wait till morning, when I would be more +fit for the ordeal and Mary would have had time for second thoughts. +</P> + +<P> +Had I only known what the decision meant to me; the hours of mental +torment, the suspense, the dread loneliness, I would have obeyed the +inner voice and hastened to Mary's side that very moment, stripping all +wrong ideas and wrong impressions of their deceitful garments, leaving +them bare and cold and harmless. +</P> + +<P> +I did not know, and, for my lack of knowledge or intuition, I had to +suffer the consequences. +</P> + +<P> +Later in the evening, a yacht put into the Bay. It carried some ladies +and gentlemen who had been on a trip to Alaska and were now returning +south. +</P> + +<P> +They called in for a few supplies, the getting of which I merely +supervised. They asked and obtained permission from me to tie up at +the wharf for the night. +</P> + +<P> +After they had returned aboard and just as I was laboriously +undressing, I heard music floating across from Mary's. It was the same +sweet, entrancing, will-o'-the wisp music that her touch always created. +</P> + +<P> +But to-night, she played the shadowy, mysterious, light and elusive +Ballade No. 3 of Chopin. How well I knew the story and how +sympathetically Mary followed it in her playing! till I could picture +the scenes and the characters as if they were appearing before me on a +cinema screen:—the palace, the forest and the beautiful lake; the +knight and the strange, ethereal lady; the bewitchment; the promise; +the new enchantress, the lure of the dance, the lady's flight and the +knight's pursuit over the marshes and out on to the lake; the drowning +of the unfaithful gallant and the mocking laugh of the triumphant siren. +</P> + +<P> +The music swelled and whispered, sobbed and laughed, thundered and +sighed at the call of the wonderful musician who translated it. +</P> + +<P> +I was bewitched by the playing, almost as the knight had been by the +ethereal lady of the music-story. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly the music ceased. I thought Mary had retired to rest. But +again, on the night air, came the introduction to the little ballad I +had already heard her sing in part. Her voice, with its plaintive +sweetness, broke into melody. +</P> + +<P> +She lilted softly the first verse,—and I waited. +</P> + +<P> +She sang the second verse. Again I waited, wondering, then hoping and +longing that she would continue. +</P> + +<P> +The third verse came at last and—I regretted its coming. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +A maid there was in the North Countree;<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">A sad little, lone little maid was she.</SPAN><BR> +Her knight seemed fickle and all untrue<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">As he rode to war at the drummer's dree.</SPAN><BR> +And, day by day, as her sorrow grew,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Her spinning wheel groaned and the threads wove through;</SPAN><BR> +It groaned.—It groaned.—It groaned and the threads wove through.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"What a stupid little song, after all!" I exclaimed. "Surely there +must be another verse to it? Where does the happy ending come in?" +</P> + +<P> +But, though I listened eagerly, no further sounds broke the stillness +of the night save the sobbing and moaning of the sea and the hooting of +a friendly owl in the forest behind. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap25"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +The Ghoul +</H4> + +<P> +Next morning, I looked out upon a wet mist that hung over Golden +Crescent like a spider's gigantic web all a-drip with dew. +</P> + +<P> +My visitors of the previous night had gone three hours ago. I had +heard them getting up steam, but I was still too weak and stiff to +think of getting out of bed so early to see them off. +</P> + +<P> +I turned, as usual, to watch the upward, curling smoke from Mary's +kitchen fire. Strange to say, this morning there <I>was</I> no smoke. +</P> + +<P> +"Taking a rest," I thought, "after her long watching and nursing over a +good-for-nought like me! Ah, well!—I shall breakfast first then I +shall pay my respects and ask forgiveness of the lady for 'the things I +have done that I ought not to have done,' and all will be well." +</P> + +<P> +I hurried over that porridge, and bacon and eggs. I dressed with +scrupulous care, even to the donning of a soft, white, linen collar +with a flowing tie. +</P> + +<P> +"Surely," I reasoned, "she can never be cruel to me in this make-up." +</P> + +<P> +When I started out, all seemed quiet and still over there at Mary +Grant's. +</P> + +<P> +With a feeling of disrupting foreboding, which dashed all my merriment +aside, I quickened my footsteps. +</P> + +<P> +The windows were closed; the door was shut tight. I knocked, but no +answer came. I tried the door:—it was locked. +</P> + +<P> +"Why! What can it be?" I asked myself. +</P> + +<P> +My roving eyes lit on a piece of white paper pinned to the far post of +the veranda. It was in pencil, in Mary's handwriting. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"George, +</P> + +<P> +"There is yet another battle for you to fight. I am going away. +Please do not try to find out where, either by word or by deed. +</P> + +<P> +"Golden Crescent will always be in my thoughts. Some day, maybe, I +will come back. +</P> + +<P> +"God bless you and keep you, and may you ever be my brave and very +gallant gentleman. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Mary Grant." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +I read it over, and over again, but it seemed as if the words would +never link themselves together in my brain and form anything tangible. +</P> + +<P> +Gone away! Oh, God! Meaghan gone;—Mary gone;—every one to whom my +heart goes out leaves me the same way. What is it in me? Oh, my God! +my God! +</P> + +<P> +I staggered against the veranda rail for support, then, like a blind +man groping for a path in a forest, I made my journey across the rustic +bridge, and home. +</P> + +<P> +I am not ashamed to own it: in my anguish and my physical weakness, I +threw myself upon my bed and sobbed; sobbed until my sorrow had spent +itself, until my spirit had become numbed and well-nigh impervious to +all feeling. +</P> + +<P> +In desperation, I threw myself into my work. +</P> + +<P> +Never was store kept so clean nor in such a well-stocked condition as +mine was; never was home so tidy. +</P> + +<P> +I sawed timber, when there were stacks of it cut, piled and dry in my +wood sheds. I built rafts. I repaired the wharf. I added barns to my +outhouses, when, already, I had barns lying empty. +</P> + +<P> +I insisted on delivering the requirements of every family in Golden +Crescent, instead of having them take their goods from the store. +</P> + +<P> +With no object in view, other than the doing of it, I tackled the +wintry winds and the white-tipped breakers, in my little rowing boat, +when none other dared venture from the confines of his beach. +</P> + +<P> +When the sea came roaring into the Bay, tumbling and foaming, boiling +and crawling mountains high, breaking with all its elemental fury, I +would dash recklessly into it and swim to Rita's Isle and back, with +the carelessness and abandon of one who had nothing to live for. +</P> + +<P> +As I look back on it all now, I feel that death was really what I +courted. +</P> + +<P> +Remonstrances fell on deaf ears. My life was my own,—at least, I +thought it was,—my own to do with as I chose. What mattered it to any +one if the tiny spark went out? +</P> + +<P> +My books had little attraction for me during those wild, mad days. +Work, work, work and absorption were all my tireless body and wearied +brain craved for; and work was the fuel with which I fed them. +</P> + +<P> +I was aware that the minister knew more of Mary's going and her present +whereabouts than I did, and, sometimes, I fancied he would gladly have +told me what he knew. But he could find no opening in the armour of +George Bremner for the lodgment of such information. +</P> + +<P> +Rita and he got to know, after a while, that the name of Mary Grant was +a locked book and that Mary Grant alone held the key to it. +</P> + +<P> +Christmas,—my first Christmas from home;—Christmas that might have +been any other time of the year for all the difference it made to me, +came and went; and the wild, blustering weather of January, with its +bursts and blinks of sunshine, its high winds and angry seas, was well +upon us. +</P> + +<P> +There had been little to do in and around the store, so I was taking +the excuse to row over to Clarks' with their supplies, intending to +bring back any eggs they might have for my camp requirements. +</P> + +<P> +It was a cold, blustery morning, with a high, whistling wind coming in +from the Gulf. The sky was clear and blue as a mid-summer's day and +the sun was shining as if it had never had a chance to shine before. +</P> + +<P> +It was with difficulty that I got into my boat without suffering a +wetting, but I was soon bobbing on the crest of the waves or lying in +the troughs of the pale-green, almost transparent sea, making my way +across the Bay, as the waves climbed higher and still higher, with +white-maned horses racing in on top of the flowing tide. +</P> + +<P> +It was hard pulling, but I was strong and reckless, fearing neither man +nor elements. +</P> + +<P> +Every minute of that forenoon brought with it an increasing fury of the +storm; every minute greater volumes of water lashed and dashed into the +Bay, until, away out, The Ghoul looked more like a waterspout than a +black, forbidding rock. +</P> + +<P> +Rita was surprised and angry at my daring in crossing, yet she could +not disguise her pleasure now I was with her, for she chafed with the +restrictions of a stormy winter and craved, as all healthy people do, +for the society of those of her own age. +</P> + +<P> +"Seems as if it's goin' to be a hurricane," remarked old Andrew Clark, +looking out across the upheaving waters. "Never saw it so bad;—yet +it's only comin' on. +</P> + +<P> +"Guess you'll ha'e to stop wi' us the night, George." +</P> + +<P> +"—And welcome," put in his good lady. "There's always a spare bed for +George Bremner in this house. Eh! Andrew." +</P> + +<P> +"Ay,—ay!" remarked the old man, reflectively. "We're no' havin' ye +drooned goin' away frae this place,—that I'm tellin' ye." +</P> + +<P> +Like me, Rita was a child of stress and storm. She loved to feel the +strong wind in her face and hair. She gloried in the taste of the salt +spray. She thrived in the open and sported in the free play of her +agile limbs. Unafraid, and daring to recklessness, nothing seemed to +daunt her; nothing, unless, maybe, it were the great, cruel, sharks' +teeth of The Ghoul over which the sea was now breaking, away out there +at the entrance to the Bay: that rock upon which she had been wrecked +in her childhood; that relentless, devilish thing that had robbed her +of her mother and of her birthright. +</P> + +<P> +Even then, as she and I scampered and scrambled along the shore line, +over the rocks and headlands,—whenever she gazed out there I fancied I +detected a shudder passing over her. +</P> + +<P> +For an hour, with nothing to do but pass the time, we kept on and on, +along the shore, until we reached Neil Andrews' little house on the far +horn of the Crescent, standing out on the cliffs. +</P> + +<P> +We stood on the highest rock, in front of the old fisherman's dwelling, +watching the huge waves rolling in and breaking on the headlands with +deafening thundering, showering us with rainbow sprays and swallowing +up the sounds of our voices. +</P> + +<P> +Rita kept her eyes away from the horrible rock, which seemed so much +nearer to us now than when we were in the far back shelter of the Bay. +And, indeed, it was nearer, for barely a quarter of a mile divided it +from Neil's foreshore. But such a quarter of a mile of fury, I had +never before seen. +</P> + +<P> +Different from Rita, I could hardly take my eyes away from that rock. +To me, it seemed alive in its awful ferocity. It was the point of +meeting of three different currents and it gave the impression to the +onlooker that it was drawing and sucking everything to its own +rapacious maw. +</P> + +<P> +Old Man Andrews saw us from his window and came out to us, clad in +oilskins and waders. +</P> + +<P> +"Guess it's making for a hum-dinger, George," he roared into my ears. +"Ain't seen its like for a long time. God help anything in the shape +of craft that gets caught in this. She's sprung up mighty quick, too. +</P> + +<P> +"Got a nice cup of tea ready, Rita. Come on inside, both of you. It +ain't often I see you up here. Come on in!" +</P> + +<P> +But Rita was standing apart, straining her eyes away far out into the +Gulf. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it, lass?" shouted the old fellow. "See something out there?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is a boat," she cried back anxiously. "Yes!—it is a boat." +</P> + +<P> +Old Neil scanned the sea. "Can't see nothing, lass. Can you, George?" +</P> + +<P> +I followed the direction of Rita's pointing. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not quite sure," I answered at last, "but it looks to me as if +there was something rising and falling away there to the right." +</P> + +<P> +Neil ran into the house for his telescope. +</P> + +<P> +"By God!" he cried, "it's a tug. She's floundering like a duck on ice. +Steering gear gone, or something! Hope they can keep heading out for +the open, or it's all up with them," he said. +</P> + +<P> +We watched the boat for a while, then we turned into the house and +partook of the old fellow's tea and hot rolls. +</P> + +<P> +In half an hour, we went out again. +</P> + +<P> +"George, George!" cried Rita, with a voice of terror, looking back to +us from her position on the high rock. "Quick!—they are driving +straight in shore." +</P> + +<P> +We ran up beside her and looked out. +</P> + +<P> +The tug,—for such it was,—was coming in at a great rate on the crest +of the storm, beam on. Water was breaking over her continuously as she +drove, and drove,—a battered, beaten object,—straight for The Ghoul. +</P> + +<P> +We could see three men clinging to the rails. +</P> + +<P> +Rita was standing, transfixed with horror at the coming calamity which +nothing on earth could avert. +</P> + +<P> +Old man Andrews closed his telescope with a snap. +</P> + +<P> +"Guess you'd better go inside, Rita," he spoke tenderly. +</P> + +<P> +"No, no!" she cried furiously, her lips white and her eyes dilated. +"You can't fool me. That's Joe's tug. Give me that glass. Let me +see." +</P> + +<P> +"Better not, Rita. 'Tain't for gals." +</P> + +<P> +"Give it to me," she cried savagely. "Give it to me." +</P> + +<P> +She snatched the instrument from him and fixed it on the vessel. Then, +with that awful pent-up emotion, which neither speaks nor weeps, she +handed back the telescope to the fisherman. +</P> + +<P> +We stood there against the wind, as doomed and helpless Joe Clark's tug +crashed on to the fatal Ghoul. It clung there, as if trying to live. +Five,—ten,—fifteen minutes it clung, being beaten and ripped against +the teeth of the rock; then suddenly it split and dissolved from view. +</P> + +<P> +Neil had the telescope at his eye again. He handed it to me quickly. +"George!—look and tell me. D'ye see anybody clinging there to the far +tooth of The Ghoul? My eyes ain't too good. But, if yon's a man, God +rest his soul." +</P> + +<P> +I riveted my gaze on the point. +</P> + +<P> +There I could see as clearly as if it were only a few yards off. Even +the features of the man who clung there so tenaciously I could make out. +</P> + +<P> +"My God! It is Joe Clark," I exclaimed in excitement. +</P> + +<P> +With the cry of a mother robbed of her young, Rita dashed down the +rocks to the cove where Neil Andrews' boat lay. She pushed it into the +water and sprang into it, pulling against the tide-rip like one +possessed. I darted after her, but she was already ten yards out when +the boat swamped and was thrown back on the beach. +</P> + +<P> +Just as the undertow was sucking Rita away, I grabbed at her and +dragged her to safety. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me go! Let me go!" she screamed, battering my chest. "It's Joe. +It's my Joe. He's drowning." +</P> + +<P> +I held her fast. +</P> + +<P> +She looked up at me suddenly with a strange quietness, as if she did +not understand me and what I did. As she spoke, she forgot her King's +English. +</P> + +<P> +"Ain't you goin' to help him? It's Joe. You ain't scared o' the sea. +You can do it. Get him to me, George. Oh!—get me Joe. I want him. +I want him. He's mine." +</P> + +<P> +I grasped her by the arm and shook her, as I shouted in her ear: +</P> + +<P> +"Do you love Joe,—Rita;—love him enough to marry him if I go out for +him?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, yes! Get him, George. I love Joe. I always loved him." +</P> + +<P> +In that moment, I made up my mind. +</P> + +<P> +"If we come back, little woman," I cried, "it will be down there at the +end of the Island. Run home;—get grand-dad and the others in some +boats. It isn't so bad down there. Watch out for us. +</P> + +<P> +"If I don't come back, Rita,—dear, little Rita——" +</P> + +<P> +I took her face in my hands and pressed my lips on hers. +</P> + +<P> +I ran from her, up over the cliffs, away to the far side of the horn, +where the eddy made the sea quieter. I threw off my boots and +superfluous clothing and sprang into the water. Out, out I plunged, +and plunged again, keeping under water most of the time, until at last +I got caught in the terrible rush three hundred yards straight out from +the point. +</P> + +<P> +I well knew the dreadful odds I was facing, yet I was unafraid. The +sea was my home, almost as much as the land. I laughed at its +buffeting. I defied it. What cared I? What had I to lose?—nothing! +And,—I might win Joe for Rita, and make her happy. +</P> + +<P> +In the very spirit of my defiance, I was calling up forces to work and +fight for me, forces that faint-heartedness and fear could never have +conjured to their aid. +</P> + +<P> +On,—on I battled,—going with the rush,—holding back a little,—and +easing out, and out, all the time toward the Rock. +</P> + +<P> +Half an hour passed;—perhaps an hour,—for I lost count of time and +distance in my struggling. But, at last, battered and half-smothered, +yet still crying defiance to everything, I found myself rising with a +mountainous sea and bearing straight upon The Ghoul. As I was lifted +up, I strained my eyes toward the teeth of the rock. +</P> + +<P> +Joe Clark,—that Hercules of men,—was still hanging on +desperately:—no hope in his heart, but loth as ever to admit defeat, +even to the elements. +</P> + +<P> +With tremendous force, I was thrown forward. As the wave broke, I +flashed past Joe in the mad rush of water. I grabbed blindly, feeling +sure I should miss,—for it was a thousand chances to one,—but I was +stopped up violently. I tightened my clutch in desperation. I pulled +myself up, and clasped both hands round the ledge of the rock, clinging +to it precariously, my nails torn almost from my fingers. My hands +were touching Joe's. My face came up close to his. Almost he lost his +hold at the suddenness of my uncanny appearing. +</P> + +<P> +He shouted to me in defiance, and it surprised me how easily I could +hear him, despite the hiss and roar of the waters. I could hear him +more easily than I had heard Rita on the beach at Neil Andrews', so +long, long ago. +</P> + +<P> +"My God! Bremner,—where did you come from? What d'ye want?" he +shouted. +</P> + +<P> +"I want you, Joe," I cried, right into his ear. "Rita sent me for +you,—will you come?" +</P> + +<P> +"It ain't no good," he replied despairingly;—"nobody gets off'n this +hell alive." +</P> + +<P> +"But we shall," I yelled. "Rita wants you. She loves you, Joe. Isn't +that worth a try, anyway?" +</P> + +<P> +"You bet!" he cried, as the water dashed over his face, "but how?" +</P> + +<P> +I screamed into his ear again. +</P> + +<P> +"Let go when I shout. Drop on your back. After that, don't move for +your life. Leave the rest to me. Don't mind if you go under. It's +our only chance." +</P> + +<P> +He nodded his head. +</P> + +<P> +I waited for an abatement of the surge. +</P> + +<P> +"Now!" I yelled, as a great, unbroken swell came along. +</P> + +<P> +Away we whirled on top of it; past the side of The Ghoul like bobbing +corks,—into the rip and race of the tide,—sometimes above the water, +most of the time under it,—gasping,—choking,—fighting,—then +away,—in great heaving throws, from that churning death. +</P> + +<P> +How brave Joe was! and how trusting! Not a struggle did he make in +that awful ordeal. He lay pliable and lightly upon me, as I floated up +the Bay,—or wherever the current might be taking us. But there was +only one direction with that flowing tide, after we had passed The +Ghoul, and I knew it was into the Bay. So quiet did Joe lie, that I +began to think the life had gone out of him. But I could do nothing +for him; nothing but try, whenever possible, to keep his head and my +own out of the sea. +</P> + +<P> +How long I struggled, I cannot tell. My arms and legs moved +mechanically. I took the battering and the submerging as a matter of +course. A pleasing lethargy settled over my brain and the terror of it +all went from me. +</P> + +<P> +When twenty minutes, or twenty years, might have flown, my head crashed +against something hard. I turned quickly. I seized at the +obstruction. It was a log from some broken boom. I threw my arm +around it for support, then I caught Joe up and pulled his hand over +it. In a second, he was all life. He clutched the log tightly, and +hung on. +</P> + +<P> +Thus, he and I together,—enemies till then, but friends against our +mutual foe, the storm,—floated to safety and life. +</P> + +<P> +I remember hearing voices on the waters and seeing, in a blur, Joe's +giant body being raised into a boat. But, of myself, I remember not a +thing. +</P> + +<P> +Later on, they told me that, as soon as they hoisted Joe, I let go my +hold on the log, as if I had no further interest in anything, no more +use for life. +</P> + +<P> +But old Andrew Clark was too quick for me. He caught me by the arm and +clung on, just as I was going down. +</P> + +<P> +And it was Joe Clark,—despite all he had gone through,—who carried me +in his great strong arms from the beach to his grand-dad's cottage, +crooning over me like a mother. It was Joe who fed me with warm +liquids. It was Joe I saw when I opened my eyes once more to the +material world. +</P> + +<P> +"Shake hands, old man," he said brokenly, "if mine ain't too black. +Used to think I hated you, George. I ain't hatin' anything or anybody +no more. You're the whitest man I know, Bremner, and you got me beat +six days for Sunday." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap26"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXVI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +"Her Knight Proved True" +</H4> + +<P> +I was leaning idly against a post on my front veranda, watching the sun +dancing and scintillating on the sea; listening the while to the birds +in the woods behind me as they quarrelled and fought over the choosing +of their lady-loves for the coming spring. +</P> + +<P> +I was thinking of how the time had flown and of the many things that +had happened since first I set foot in Golden Crescent, not so much as +a short year ago. +</P> + +<P> +Already a month had slipped by since I had wished good-bye to little +Rita,—happy, merry, little, laughing Rita,—and her great, handsome +giant of a husband, Joe; holding the end of the rope ladder for them, +from my rowing boat, as they clambered aboard the <I>Siwash</I>, at the +start of their six months' honeymoon trip of pleasure and sight-seeing. +</P> + +<P> +What an itinerary that big, boyish fellow had arranged for the sweet, +little woman he had won!—Vancouver, Victoria, Seattle, San Francisco, +Los Angeles, all the big cities in the States right through to New +York, then back again over the Great Lakes, across the Western +Prairies, up over the Rockies and home:—home to the pretty bungalow +that was already well on the way toward completion, out there on the +promontory just below their grand-dad's place. +</P> + +<P> +A warning toot from the <I>Cloochman</I> awoke me from my reveries. I ran +to my small boat and pulled out as she came speeding into the Bay. +</P> + +<P> +There was little cargo, and less mail—one single letter. But what a +wonder of wonders that letter was! It was for me, and, oh! how my +heart beat! It was in the handwriting I had seen only a few months +before but had learned to know so well. +</P> + +<P> +I tore the envelope into pieces in my haste to be at the contents. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Dear George, it ran, +</P> + +<P> +Reta and Joe (Mr. & Mrs. Clark) called to see me. If you only could +see the happiness of them, how you would rejoice! knowing that you had +brought it all about. +</P> + +<P> +Every day from now, look for me at the little cottage across the rustic +bridge; for, some day, I shall be there. Golden Crescent is ever in my +thoughts. +</P> + +<P> +Good-bye for the present, my brave and very gallant gentleman. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Mary. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +In my little rowing boat, out there in the Bay, I cried to God in +thankfulness for all his goodness. +</P> + +<P> +Every day I looked across to Mary's bungalow, wondering if this would +be the day. +</P> + +<P> +I was loth to sleep, lest she should arrive without my knowing of it. +I could hardly bear to leave home for even an hour in case she should +come when I was away. And yet,—so it happened. +</P> + +<P> +Late one afternoon, I was standing on Clark's veranda, chatting with +Margaret over a letter that had arrived from Rita; when I noticed a +fast-moving launch dart into the Bay full speed, straight for my +landing, lower a dinghy, land some people, then turn and speed out +again almost before my brain could grasp the full purport. +</P> + +<P> +I dashed suddenly away from my old lady friend, without so much as a +word of explanation. I tumbled into my boat and rowed furiously for +home. How I railed at that long half-hour! To think of it,—Mary in +Golden Crescent half-an-hour and I had not yet spoken to her! +</P> + +<P> +I jumped ashore at last, ran up the rocks and into her house without +ceremony. +</P> + +<P> +"Mary, Mary!" I called. "Where are you?" +</P> + +<P> +And all I heard in answer, was a sigh. +</P> + +<P> +I pushed in to the front parlour, where Mary,—my Mary,—was. She was +standing by the window and had been gazing dreamily out into the Bay. +She turned to me in all the charm of her golden loveliness, holding out +her hands to me in silent welcome. +</P> + +<P> +I took her hands in mine and we looked into each other's eyes for just +a moment, then I caught her to me and crushed her in my embrace. +</P> + +<P> +"Mary,—Mary,—Mary!" I cried brokenly. "Mary,—Mary!" +</P> + +<P> +Gently and shyly, but smiling in her gladness, she freed herself from +my enfolding arms. +</P> + +<P> +"George,—sit down, dear. I have much to tell you before—before——" +</P> + +<P> +A blush spread over her cheeks and she turned away in embarrassment. +</P> + +<P> +"—Before what, Mary?" I craved. +</P> + +<P> +"Before—I can listen to you. +</P> + +<P> +"George!—I love you with all my heart. I have always loved you,—I +could not help myself. That, I think, is why I quarrelled with you +so,—at first. But I was afraid that my loving would avail me little +and would probably cause you pain, for I was pledged to marry a man I +did not love; and, because of that pledge, I was not free to give my +love to any other man. +</P> + +<P> +"George!—that man is dead now. He died a month ago in a street riot +with some natives in Cairo. +</P> + +<P> +"All his sins are covered up with him," she sighed. "And, after all, +maybe Harry Brammerton was not——" +</P> + +<P> +"Harry Brammerton!—" I cried, springing up in a tremble of excitement. +"My God! Oh, my God! I thought,—I,—I understood,—I—I—oh, God!" +</P> + +<P> +I clutched at the table for support as the awful truth began to dawn on +me. +</P> + +<P> +Mary rose in alarm. +</P> + +<P> +"Why! What is it? What have I said? George,—didn't you know? +Didn't I tell you before? You have heard of him?—you are acquainted +with him,—Viscount Harry Brammerton—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! Mary, Mary," I cried huskily, "please,—please do not go on. It +is more than I can bear now. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't know. I,—I am that man's brother. I am George Brammerton." +</P> + +<P> +She stood ever so quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"You!—You!" she whispered. And that was all. +</P> + +<P> +Thus we stood,—stricken,—speechless,—under the cloud of the +unexpected, the almost impossible that had come upon us. +</P> + +<P> +Yet Mary, or rather Rosemary, was the first to regain her composure. +Kindly, sweetly, she came over to me and placed her hands on my +shoulders. Her brown eyes were wells of sympathy and tenderness. +</P> + +<P> +"George,—we each must fight this out alone. Come back to me in the +morning. I shall be waiting for you then." +</P> + +<P> +And I left her. +</P> + +<P> +But it seemed to me as if the morning would never come. +</P> + +<P> +Unable to bear the burden of my thoughts longer amid the confines of my +rooms, I went out at last into the moonlight, to wait the coming of the +dawn. +</P> + +<P> +As I stood out on the cliffs,—where old Jake Meaghan so often used to +sit listening to Mary's music,—she came to me; fairylike, white-robed, +all tenderness, all softness and palpitating womanliness. +</P> + +<P> +"George,—my George," she whispered, "I could not wait till morning +either.—And why should we wait, when my father's and your father's +pledge, the vow they made for you and for me,—although we have not +known it till now,—need not be broken after all." +</P> + +<P> +I caught her up and kissed her lips, her eyes, her hair,—again and +again,—until she gasped, thinking I should never cease. +</P> + +<P> +With our arms around each other, we waited on the cliffs for the +sunrise. We watched it come up in all its rosy loveliness, paling the +dying moon and setting the waters of the Bay ablaze. +</P> + +<P> +"And we must leave all this, my Lady Rosemary?" I said, with a sigh of +regret. +</P> + +<P> +"For a time,—yes! But not altogether, George; not always; for the +little bungalow behind us is mine now,—ours; a gift last Christmas to +me from my father's dear American friend, my friend, Colonel Sol Dorry, +with whom, in Wyoming, I spent the happiest of all my girlhood days." +</P> + +<P> +"Mary,—Rosemary," I exclaimed, as an unsatisfied little thought kept +recurring to me, refusing to be set aside even in the midst of our +great happiness,—"there is a little maid 'in the North Countree' in +whom I am deeply interested. The last I heard of her, she had been +jilted by her lover. Didn't he ever come back to her?" +</P> + +<P> +Rosemary laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"It is getting near to breakfast-time; so, if George, Earl of +Brammerton and Hazelmere, Storekeeper at Golden Crescent, runs over +home and listens very attentively while he is burning his porridge and +<I>boiling</I> his tea,—he may hear of what happened to that sweet, little +maid." +</P> + +<P> +And, sure enough, as I stood, with my sleeves rolled up, stirring +oatmeal and water that threatened every minute to stick to the bottom +of the pot; there came through my open window the sounds of the +bewitching voice of Rosemary,—my own, my charming Lady Rosemary:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +A maid there is in the North Countree;<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">A coy little, glad little maid is she.</SPAN><BR> +Her cheeks are aglow with a rosy hue,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">For her knight proved true, as good knights should be.</SPAN><BR> +And, day by day, as their vows renew,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Her spinning wheel purrs and the threads weave through;</SPAN><BR> +It purrs. It purrs. It purrs and the threads weave through.<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="finis"> +THE END +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's My Brave and Gallant Gentleman, by Robert Watson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY BRAVE AND GALLANT GENTLEMAN *** + +***** This file should be named 31728-h.htm or 31728-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/7/2/31728/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +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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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: My Brave and Gallant Gentleman + A Romance of British Columbia + +Author: Robert Watson + +Release Date: March 21, 2010 [EBook #31728] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY BRAVE AND GALLANT GENTLEMAN *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Cover art] + + + + +MY BRAVE and GALLANT GENTLEMAN + + +A Romance of British Columbia + + +BY + +ROBERT WATSON + + + + +McCLELLAND, GOODCHILD & STEWART + +PUBLISHERS :: :: :: :: TORONTO + + + + +_Copyright, 1918,_ + +_By George H. Doran Company_ + + +_Printed in the United States of America_ + + + + +TO A LADY CALLED NAN + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I THE SECOND SON + II ANOTHER SECOND SON + III JIM THE BLACKSMITH + IV VISCOUNT HARRY, CAPTAIN OF THE GUARDS + V TOMMY FLYNN, THE HARLFORD BRUISER + VI ABOARD THE COASTER + VII K. B. HORSFAL, MILLIONAIRE + VIII GOLDEN CRESCENT + IX THE BOOZE ARTIST + X RITA OF THE SPANISH SONG + XI AN INFORMATIVE VISITOR + XII JOE CLARK, BULLY + XIII A VISIT, A DISCOVERY AND A KISS + XIV THE COMING OF MARY GRANT + XV "MUSIC HATH CHARMS--" + XVI THE DEVIL OF THE SEA + XVII GOOD MEDICINE + XVIII A MAID, A MOOD AND A SONG + XIX THE "GREEN-EYED MONSTER" AWAKES + XX FISHING! + XXI THE BEACHCOMBERS + XXII JAKE STOPS THE DRINK FOR GOOD + XXIII THE FIGHT IN THE WOODS + XXIV TWO MAIDS AND A MAN + XXV THE GHOUL + XXVI "HER KNIGHT PROVED TRUE" + + + + +MY BRAVE AND GALLANT GENTLEMAN + + +CHAPTER I + +The Second Son + +Lady Rosemary Granton! Strange how pleasant memories arise, how +disagreeable nightmares loom up before the mental vision at the sound +of a name! + +Lady Rosemary Granton! As far back as I could remember, that name had +sounded familiar in my ears. As I grew from babyhood to boyhood, from +boyhood to youth, it was drummed into me by my father that Lady +Rosemary Granton, some day, would wed the future Earl of Brammerton and +Hazelmere. This apparently awful calamity did not cause me any mental +agony or loss of sleep, for the reason that I was merely The Honourable +George, second son of my noble parent. + +I was rather happy that morning, as I sat in an easy chair by the +library window, perusing a work by my favourite author,--after a +glorious twenty-mile gallop along the hedgerows and across country. I +was rather happy, I say, as I pondered over the thought that something +in the way of a just retribution was at last about to be meted out to +my elder, haughty, arrogant and extremely aristocratic rake of a +brother, Harry. + +My mind flashed back again to the source of my vagrant thoughts. Lady +Rosemary Granton! To lose the guiding hand of her mother in her +infancy; to spend her childhood in the luxurious lap of New York's +pampered three hundred; to live six years more among the ranchers, the +cowboys and, no doubt, the cattle thieves of Wyoming, in the care of an +old friend of her father, to wit, Colonel Sol Dorry; then to be +transferred for refining and general educational purposes for another +spell of six years to the strict discipline of a French Convent; to +flit from city to city, from country to country, for three years with +her father, in the stress of diplomatic service--what a life! what an +upbringing for the future Countess of Brammerton! Finally, by way of +culmination, to lose her father and to be introduced into London +society, with a fortune that made the roues of every capital in Europe +gasp and order a complete new wardrobe! + +As I thought what the finish might be, I threw up my hands, for it was +a most interesting and puzzling speculation. + +Lady Rosemary Granton! Who had not heard the stories of her conquests +and her daring? They were the talk of the clubs and the gossip of the +drawing-rooms. Masculine London was in ecstasies over them and voted +Lady Rosemary a trump. The ladies were scandalised, as only jealous +minded ladies can be at lavishly endowed and favoured members of their +own sex. + +Personally, I preferred to sit on the fence. Being a lover of the open +air, of the agile body, the strong arm and the quick eye, I could not +but admire some of this extraordinary young lady's exploits. But,--the +woman who was conceded the face of an angel, the form of a Venus de +Milo; who was reported to have dressed as a jockey and ridden a horse +to victory in the Grand National Steeplechase; who, for a wager, had +flicked a coin from the fingers of a cavalry officer with a revolver at +twenty paces; lassooed a cigar from between the teeth of the Duke of +Kaslo and argued on the Budget with a Cabinet Minister, all in one +week; who could pray with the piety of a fasting monk; weep at will and +look bewitching in the process; faint to order with the grace, the +elegance and all the stage effect of an early Victorian Duchess: the +woman who was styled a golden-haired goddess by those on whom she +smiled and dubbed a saucy, red-haired minx by those whom she +spurned;--was too, too much of a conglomeration for such a humdrum +individual, such an ordinary, country-loving fellow as I,--George +Brammerton. + +And now, poor old Hazelmere was undergoing a process of renovation such +as it had not experienced since the occasion of a Royal visit some +twenty years before: not a room in the house where one could feel +perfectly safe, save the library: washing, scrubbing, polishing and +oiling in anticipation of a rousing week-end House Party in honour of +this wonderful, chameleon-like, Lady Rosemary's first visit; when her +engagement with Harry would be formally announced to the inquisitive, +fashionable world of which she was a spoiled child. + +Why all this fuss over a matter which concerned only two individuals, I +could not understand. Had I been going to marry the Lady +Rosemary,--which, Heaven forbid,--I should have whipped her quietly +away to some little, country parsonage, to the registrar of a small +country town; or to some village blacksmith, and so got the business +over, out of hand. But, of course, I had neither the inclination, nor +the intention, let alone the opportunity, of putting to the test what I +should do in regard to marrying her, nor were my tastes in any way akin +to those of my most elegant, elder brother, Viscount Harry, Captain of +the Guards,--egad,--for which two blessings I was indeed truly thankful. + +As I was thus ruminating, the library door opened and my noble sire +came in, spick and span as he always was, and happier looking than +usual. + +"'Morning, George," he greeted. + +"Good morning, dad." + +He rubbed his hands together. + +"Gad, youngster! (I was twenty-four) everything is going like +clockwork. The house is all in order; supplies on hand to stock an +hotel; all London falling over itself in its eagerness to get here. +Harry will arrive this afternoon and Lady Rosemary to-morrow." + +I raised my eyebrows, nodded disinterestedly and started in again to my +reading. Father walked the carpet excitedly, then he stopped and +looked down at me. + +"You don't seem particularly enthusiastic over it, George. Nothing +ever does interest you but boxing bouts, wrestling matches, golf and +books. Why don't you brace up and get into the swim? Why don't you +take the place that belongs to you among the young fellows of your own +station?" + +"God forbid!" I answered fervently. + +"Not jealous of Harry, are you? Not smitten at the very sound of the +lady's name,--like the young bloods, and the old ones, too, in the +city?" + +"God forbid!" I replied again. + +"Hang it all, can't you say anything more than that?" he asked testily. + +"Oh, yes! dad,--lots," I answered, closing my book and keeping my +finger at the place. "For one thing--I have never met this Lady +Rosemary Granton; never even seen her picture--and, to tell you the +truth, from what I have heard of her, I have no immediate desire to +make the lady's acquaintance." + +There was silence for a moment, and from my father's heavy breathing I +could gather that his temper was ruffling. + +"Look here, you young barbarian, you revolutionary,--what do you mean? +What makes you talk in that way of one of the best and sweetest young +ladies in the country? I won't have it from you, sir, _this_ Lady +Rosemary Granton, _this_ Lady indeed." + +"Oh! you know quite well, dad, what I mean," I continued, a little +bored. "Harry is no angel, and I doubt not but Lady Rosemary is by far +too good for him. But,--you know,--you cannot fail to have heard the +stories that are flying over the country of her cantrips;--some of +them, well, not exactly pleasant. And, allowing fifty percent for +exaggeration, there is still a lot that would be none the worse of +considerable discounting to her advantage." + +"Tuts, tush and nonsense! Foolish talk most of it! The kind of stuff +that is garbled and gossiped about every popular woman. The girl is +up-to-date, modern, none of your drawing-room dolls. I admit that she +has go in her, vim, animal spirits, youthful exuberance and all that. +She may love sport and athletics, but, but,--you, yourself, spend most +of your time in pursuit of these same amusements. Why not she?" + +"Why! father, these are the points I admire in her,--the only ones, I +may say. But, oh! what's the good of going over it all? I know, you +know,--everybody knows;--her flirtations, her affairs; every rake in +London tries to boast of his acquaintance with her and bandies her name +over his brandy and soda, and winks." + +"Look here, George," put in my father angrily, "you forget yourself. +These stories are lies, every one of them! Lady Rosemary is the +daughter of my dearest, my dead friend. Very soon, she will be your +sister." + +"Yes! I know,--so let us not say any more about it. It is Harry and +she for it, and, if they are pleased and an old whim of yours +satisfied,--what matters it to an ordinary, easy-going, pipe-loving, +cold-blooded fellow like me?" + +"Whim, did you say? Whim?" cried my father, flaring up and clenching +his hands excitedly. "Do you call the vow of a Brammerton a whim? The +pledged word of a Granton a whim? Whim, be damned." + +For want of words to express himself, my father dropped into a chair +and drummed his agitated fingers on the arms of it. + +I rose and went over to him, laying my hand lightly on his shoulder. + +Poor old dad! I had not meant to hurt his feelings. After all, he was +the dearest of old-fashioned fellows and I loved his haughty, +mid-Victorian ways. + +"There, there, father,--I did not mean to say anything that would give +offence. I take it all back. I am sorry,--indeed I am." + +He looked up at me and his face brightened once more. + +"'Gad, boy,--I'm glad to hear you say it. I know you did not mean +anything by your bruskness. You are an impetuous, headstrong young +devil though,--with a touch of your mother in you,--and, 'gad, if I +don't like you the more for it. + +"But, but," he went on, looking in front of him, "you must remember +that although Granton and I were mere boys at the time our vow was +made,--he was a Granton and I a Brammerton, whose vows are made to +keep. It seems like yesterday, George; it was a few hours after he +saved my life in the fighting before Sevastopol. We were sitting by +the camp-fire. The chain-shot was still flying around. The cries of +the wounded were in our ears. The sentries were challenging +continually and drums were rolling in the distance. + +"I clasped Fred's hand and I thanked him for what he had done for me +that day, right in the teeth of the Russian guns. + +"'Freddy, old chap, you're a trump,' I said, 'and, if ever I be blessed +with an heir to Brammerton and Hazelmere, I would wish nothing better +than that he should marry a Granton.' + +"'And nothing would please me so much, Harry, old boy,--as that a maid +of Granton should wed a Brammerton,' he answered earnestly. + +"'Then it's a go,' said I, full of enthusiasm. + +"'It's a go, Harry.' + +"And we raised our winecups, such as they were. + +"'Your daughter, Fred!' + +"'Your heir, Harry!' + +"'The future Earl and Countess of Brammerton and Hazelmere,' we chimed +together. + +"Our winecups clinked and the bond was made;--made for all time, +George." + +My father's eyes lit up and he seemed to be back in the Crimea. He +shook his head sadly. + +"And now, poor old Fred is gone. Ah, well! our dream is coming true. +In a month, the maid of Granton weds the future Earl of Brammerton. + +"'Gad, George, my boy,--Rosemary may be skittish and lively, but were +she the most mercurial woman in Christendom, she has never forgotten +that she is first of all a Granton, and, as a Granton, she has kept a +Granton's pledge." + +For a moment I caught the contagion of my father's earnestness. My +eyes felt damp as I thought how important, after all, this union was to +him. But, even then, I could not resist a little more questioning. + +"Does Harry love her, dad?" + +"Love her!" He smiled. "Why! my boy, he's madly in love with her." + +"Then, why doesn't he mend a bit? give over his mad chasing after,--to +put it mildly,--continual excitement; and demonstrate that he is +thoroughly in earnest. You know, falling madly in love is a habit of +Harry's." + +"Don't you worry your serious head about that, George. You talk of +Harry as if he were a baby. You talk as if you were his grandfather, +instead of his younger brother and a mere boy." + +"Does Lady Rosemary love Harry?" I asked, ignoring his admonition. + +"Of course, she loves him. Why shouldn't she? He's a good fellow; +well bred and well made; he is a soldier; he is in the swim; he has +plenty to spend; he is the heir to Brammerton;--why shouldn't she love +him? She is going to marry him, isn't she? She may not be of the +gushing type, George, but she'll come to it all in good time. She will +grow to love him, as every good wife does her husband. So, don't let +that foolish head of yours give you any more trouble." + +I turned to leave. + +"George!" + +"Yes, dad!" + +"You will be on hand this week-end. I want you at home. I need you to +keep things going. No skipping off to sporting gatherings or athletic +conventions. I wish you to meet your future sister." + +"Well,--I had not thought of that, dad. Big Jim Darrol, Tom Tanner and +I have entered for a number of events at the Gartnockan Games on +Saturday. I am also on the lists as a competitor for the Northern +Counties Golf Championship on Monday." + +My father looked up at me in a strange way. + +"However," I went on quickly, "much as I dislike the rush, the gush and +the clatter of house parties, I shall be on hand." + +"Good! I knew you would, my boy," replied my father quietly. "Where +away now, lad?" + +"Oh! down to the village to tell Jim and Tom not to count on me for +their week-end jaunt." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +Another Second Son + +I strolled down the avenue, between the tall trees and on to the broad, +sun-baked roadway leading to the sleepy little village of Brammerton, +which lay so snugly down in the hollow. Swinging my stout stick and +whistling as I went, I felt at peace with the good old world. My head +was clear, my arm was strong; rich, fresh blood was dancing in my +veins; I was young, single, free;--so what cared I? + +As I walked along, I saw ahead of me a thin line of blue-grey smoke +curling up from the roadside. As I drew nearer, I made out the back of +a ragged man, leaning over a fire. His voice, lusty and clear as a +bell, was ringing out a strange melody. I went over to him. + +I was looking over his shoulder, yet he seemed not to have heard me, so +intent was he on his song and in his work. + +He was toasting the carcass of a poached rabbit, the wet skin of which +lay at his side. He was a dirty, ragged rascal, but he seemed happy +and his voice was good. The sentiment of his song was not altogether +out of harmony with my own feelings. + + "A carter swore he'd love always + A skirt, some rouge, a pair of stays. + After his vow, for days and days, + He thought himself the smarter." + + +The singer bit a piece of flesh from the leg of his rabbit, to test its +tenderness, then he resumed his toasting and his song. + + "But, underneath the stays and paint + He found the usual male complaint: + A woman's tongue, with Satan's taint; + A squalling, brawling tartar. + + "She scratches, bites and blacks his eye. + His head hangs low; he heaves a sigh; + He longs for single days, gone by. + He's doomed to die a martyr." + + +The peculiar fellow stopped, opened a red-coloured handkerchief, took +out a hunk of bread and set it down by his side with slow deliberation. +It was quite two minutes ere he started off again. + + "Now, friends, beware, take my advice; + When eating sugar, think of spice; + Before you marry, ponder twice: + Remember Ned the carter." + + +From the words, it seemed to me that he had finished the song, but, +judging from the tune, it was never-ending. + +"A fine song, my good fellow," I remarked from behind. + +The rascal did not turn round. + +"Oh!--it's no' so bad. It's got the endurin' quality o' carrying a +moral," he answered. + +"You seem to be clear in the conscience yourself," said I. + +"It'll be clearer when I get outside o' this rabbit," he returned, +still not deigning to look at me. + +"But you did not seem to be startled when I spoke to you," I remarked +in surprise. + +"What way should I? I never saw the man yet that I was feart o'. +Forby,--I kent you were there." + +"But, how could you know? I did not make a noise or display my +presence in any way." + +"No!--but the wind was blawin' from the back, ye see; and when ye came +up behind the smoke curled up a bit further and straighter than it did +before; then there was just the ghost o' a shadow." + +I laughed. "You are an observant customer." + +"Oh, ay! I'm a' that. Come round and let me see ye." + +I obeyed, and he seemed satisfied with his inspection. + +"Sit doon,--oot o' the smoke," he said. + +I did so. + +"You are Scotch?" I ventured. + +"Ay! From Perth, awa'. + +"A Scotch tinker?" + +"Just that; a tinker from Perth, and my name's Robertson. I'm a +Struan, ye ken. The Struans,--the real Struans,--are a' tinkers or +pipers. In oor family, my elder brother fell heir to my father's +pipes, so I had just to take to the tinkering. But we're joint heirs +to my father's fondness for a dram. Ye havena a wee drop on ye?" + +"Not a drop," I remarked. + +"That's a disappointment. I was kind o' feart ye wouldna, when I asked +ye." + +"How so?" + +"Oh! ye don't look like a man that wasted your substance. More like a +seller o' Bibles, or maybe a horse doctor." + +I laughed at the queer comparison, and he looked out at me from under +his shaggy, red eyebrows. + +"Have a bite o' breakfast wi' me. I like to crack to somebody when I'm +eatin'. It helps the digestion." + +"No, thank you," I said. "I have breakfasted already." + +"It's good meat, man. The rabbit's fresh. I can guarantee it, for it +was runnin' half an hour ago. Try a leg." + +I refused, but, as he seemed crestfallen, I took the drumstick in my +hand and ate the meat slowly from it; and never did rabbit taste so +good. + +"What makes ye smile?" asked my tattered companion. "Do ye no' like +the taste o' it?" + +"Oh! the rabbit is all right," I said, "but I was just thinking that +had it lived its children might have belonged to a brother of mine some +day." + +"How's that? Is he a keeper? Od sake!" he went on, scratching his +head, as it seemed to dawn on him, "ye don't happen to belong to the +big hoose up there?" + +"I live there," said I. + +He leaned over to me quickly. "Have another leg, man,--have it;--dod! +it's your ain, anyway." + +"I haven't finished the first yet. Go ahead yourself." + +He ate slowly, eying me now and again through the smoke. + +"So you're a second son, eh?" he pondered. "Man, ye have my sympathy. +I had the same ill-luck. That's how my brother Angus got the pipes and +I'm a tinker. Although, I wouldna mind being the second son o' a Laird +or a Duke." + +"Well, my friend," said I; "that's just where our opinions differ. +Now, I'd sooner be the second son of a rag-and-bone man; a--Perthshire +piper of the name of Robertson; ay! of the devil himself,--than the +second son of an Earl." + +"Do ye tell me that now!" he put in, with a cock of his towsled head, +picking up another piece of rabbit. + +"You see,--you and these other fellows can do as you like; go where you +like when you like. An Earl's second son has to serve his House. He +has to pave the way and make things smooth for the son and heir. He is +supposed to work the limelight that shines on his elder brother. He is +tolerated, sometimes spoiled and petted, because,--well, because he has +an elder brother who, some day, will be an Earl; but he counts for +little or nothing in the world's affairs. + +"Be thankful, sir, you are only the second son of a highland piper." + +The tramp reflected for a while. + +"Ay, ay!" he philosophised at last, "no doot,--maybe,--just that. I +can see you have your ain troubles and I'm thinkin', maybe, I'm just as +weel the way I am. But it's a queer thing; we aye think the other man +is gettin' the best o' what's goin'. It's the way o' the world." + +He was quiet a while. He negotiated the rabbit's head and I watched +him with interest as he extracted every bit of meat from the maze of +bone. + +"And you would be the Earl when your father dies, if it wasna for your +brother?" he added. + +"Yes!" I answered. + +"Man, it must be a dreadful temptation." + +"What must be?" + +"Och! to keep from puttin' something in his whisky; to keep from +flinging him ower the window or droppin' a flower pot on his heid, +maybe. If my ain father had been an Earl, Angus Robertson would never +have lived to blow the pipes. As it was, it was touch and go wi' +Angus;--for they were the bonny pipes,--the grand, bonny pipes." + +"Do you mean to tell me, you would have murdered your brother for a +skirling, screeching bagpipes?" I asked in horror. + +"Och! hardly that, man. Murder is no' a bonny name for it. I would +just kind o' quietly have done awa' wi' him. It's maybe a pity my +conscience was so keen, for he's no' much good, is Angus; he's a +through-other customer: no' steady and law-abidin' like mysel'." + +"Well, my friend," I said finally---- + +"Donald! that's my name." + +"Well, Donald, I must be on my way." + +"What's a' the hurry, man?" + +"Business." + +"Oh! weel; give me your hand on it. You've a fine face. The face o' a +man that, if he had a dram on him, he would give me a drop o' it." + +"That I would, Donald." + +"It's a pity. But ye don't happen to have the price o' the dram on ye?" + +"Maybe I have, Donald." + +I handed him a sixpence. + +"Thank ye. I'm never wrong in the readin' o' face character." + +As I made to go from him, he started off again. + +"You don't happen to be a married man, wi' a wife and bairns?" he asked. + +"No, Donald. Thank goodness! What made you ask that?" + +"Oh! I thought maybe you were and that was the way you liked the words +o' my bit song." + +I left the tinker finishing his belated breakfast and hurried down the +road toward the village. + +The sun was getting high in the heavens, birds were singing and the +spring workers were busy in the fields. I took the side track down the +rough pathway leading to Modley Farm. + +My good friend, big, brawny, bluff Tom Tanner,--who was standing under +the porch,--hailed me from a distance, with his usual merry shout. + +"Where away, George? Feeling fit for our trip?" he asked as I got up +to him. + +"I am sorry, old boy, but, so far as I am concerned, the trip is off. +I just hurried down to tell you and Jim. + +"You see, Tom, there is going to be a House Party up there this +week-end and my dad's mighty anxious to have me at home; so much so, +that I would offend him if I went off. Being merely George Brammerton, +I must bow to the paternal commands, although I would rather, a hundred +times, be at the games." + +Tom's face fell, and I could see he was disappointed. I knew how much +he enjoyed those week-end excursions of ours. + +"The fact is," I explained, "there is going to be a marriage up there +pretty soon, and, naturally, I am wanted to meet the lady." + +"Great Scott! George,--you are not trying to break it gently to me? +You are not going to get married, are you?" he asked in consternation. + +I laughed loudly. "Lord, no! Not for a kingdom. It is my big brother +Harry." + +Tom seemed relieved. He even sighed. + +"I'm glad to hear you say it, George, for there's a lot of fine +athletic meetings coming on during the next three or four months and it +would be a pity to miss them for, for,---- Oh! hang it all! you know +what I mean. You're such a queer, serious, determined sort of +customer, that it's hard to say what you will do next." + +He looked so solemn over the matter that I laughed again. + +His kind-hearted old mother, who had been at work in the kitchen and +had overheard our conversation, came to the doorway and placed her arms +lovingly around our broad shoulders. + +"Lots of time yet to think about getting married. And, let me whisper +something into your ears. It's an old woman's advice, and it's +good:--when you do think of marrying, be sure you get a wife with a +pleasant face and a good figure; a wife that other wives' men will turn +round and admire; for, you know, you can never foretell what kind of +temper a woman has until you have lived with her. A maid is always on +her best behaviour before her lover. And, just think what it would +mean if you married a plain, shapeless lass and she proved to have a +temper like a termagant! Now, a handsome lass, even if she has a +temper, is always--a handsome lass and something to rouse envy of you +in other men. And, after all, we measure and treasure what we have in +proportion as other people long for it. So, whatever you do, young +men, make sure she is handsome!" + +"Good, sensible advice, Mrs. Tanner; and I mean to take it," said I. +"But I would be even more exacting. In addition to being sweet +tempered and fair of face and form, she must have curly, golden hair +and golden brown eyes to match." + +"And freckles?" put in Mrs. Tanner with a wry face. + +"No! freckles are barred," I added. + +"But, golden hair and brown eyes are mighty rare to find in one +person," said Tom innocently. + +"Of course they are; and the combination such as I require is so +extremely rare that my quest will be a long one. I am likely therefore +to enjoy my bachelorhood for many days to come." + +"Good-bye, Mrs. Tanner. Good-bye, Tom; I am going down to the smithy +to see Jim." + +I strolled away from my happy, contented friends, on to the main road +again and down the hill to the village, little dreaming how long it +would be ere I should have an opportunity of talking with them again. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +Jim the Blacksmith + +The village of Brammerton seemed only half awake. A rumbling cart was +slowly wending its way up the hill, three or four old men were standing +yarning at the inn corner; now and again, a busy housewife would appear +at her door and take a glimpse of what little was going on and +disappear inside just as quickly as she had shown herself. The sound +of the droning voices of children conning their lessons came through +the open window of the old schoolhouse. + +These were the only signs and sounds of life that forenoon in +Brammerton. Stay!--there was yet another. Breaking in on the general +quiet of the place, I could hear distinctly the regular thud of hard +steel on soft, followed by the clear double-ring of a small hammer on a +mellow-toned anvil. + +One man, at any rate, was hard at work,--Jim Darrol,--big, honest, +serious giant that he was. + +Light of heart and buoyant in body, I turned down toward the smithy. I +looked in through the grimy, broken window and admired the brawny giant +he looked there in the glare of the furnace, with his broad back to me, +his huge arms bared to the shoulders. Little wonder, thought I, Jim +Darrol can whirl the hammer and put the shot farther than any man in +the Northern Counties. + +How the muscles bulged, and wriggled, and crawled under his dark, hairy +skin! What a picture of manliness he portrayed! And, best of all,--I +knew his heart was as good and clean as his body was sound. + +I tiptoed cautiously inside and slapped him between the shoulders. He +wheeled about quickly. He always was a solemn-looking owl, but this +morning his face was clouded and grim. As he recognised me, a terrible +anger seemed to blaze up in his black eyes. I could see the muscles +tighten in his arms and his fingers close firmly over the shaft of the +hammer he held. I could see a new-born, but fierce hatred burning in +every inch of his enormous frame. + +"Hello, Jim, old man! Who has been rubbing you the wrong way?" I cried. + +His jaws set. He raised his left hand and pointed with his finger to +the open doorway. + +"Get out!" he growled, in a deep, hoarse voice. + +I stood dumbfounded for a brief moment, then I replied roughly and +familiarly: "Oh, you go to the devil! Keep your anger for those who +have caused it." + +"Get out, will you!" he cried again, taking a step nearer to me, his +brows lowered, his lips drawn to a thin line. + +I had seen these danger signals in Jim before, but never with any ill +intent toward me. I was so astounded I could scarcely think aright. +What could he mean? What was the matter? + +"Jim, Jim," I soothed, "don't talk that way to old friends." + +"You're no friend of mine," he shouted. "Will you get out of here?" + +In some respects, I was like Jim Darrol: I did not like to be ordered +about. + +"No! I will not get out," I snapped back at him. "I mean to remain +here until you grow sensible." + +I went over to his anvil, set my leg across it and looked straight at +him. + +He raised his hammer high, as if to strike me; and I felt then that if +I had taken my eyes from Jim's for the briefest flash of time, my last +minute on earth would have arrived. + +With an oath,--the first I ever heard him utter,--he cast the hammer +from him, sending it clattering into a corner among the old horse shoes. + +"Damn you,--I hate you and all your cursed aristocratic breed," he +snarled. And, with the spring of a tiger, he had me by the throat, +with those great, grabbing hands of his, his fingers closing cruelly on +my windpipe as he tried to shake the life out of me. + +I had always been able to account for Jim when it came to fisticuffs, +but never at close quarters. This time, his attack was violent as it +was unexpected. I did not have the ghost of a chance. I staggered +back against the furnace wall, still in his devilish clutch. Not a +gasp of air entered or left my body from the moment he clutched me. + +He shook me as a terrier does a rat. + +Soon my strength began to go; my eyes bulged; my head felt as if it +were bursting; dancing lights and awful darknesses flashed and loomed +alternately before and around me. Then the lights became scarcer and +the darknesses longer and more intense. As the last glimmer of +consciousness was leaving me, when black gloom had won and there was no +more light, I felt a sudden release, painful and almost unwelcome to +the oblivion to which I had been hurling. The lights came flashing +back to me again and out of the whirling chaos I began to grasp the +tangible once more. As I leaned against the side of the furnace, +pulling at my throat where those terrible fingers had +been,--gasping,--gasping,--for glorious life-giving, life-sustaining +air, I gradually began to see as through a haze. Before long, I was +almost myself again. + +Jim was standing a few paces away, his chest heaving, his shaggy head +bent and his great hands clenched against his thighs. + +I gazed at him, and as I gazed something wet glistened in his eyes, +rolled down his cheeks and splashed on the back of his hand, where it +dried up as if it had fallen on a red-hot plate. + +I took an unsteady step toward him and held out my hand. + +"Jim," I murmured, "my poor old Jim!" + +His head remained lowered. + +"Strike me," he groaned huskily. "For God's sake strike me, for the +coward I am!" + +"I want your hand, Jim," I answered. "Tell me what is wrong? What is +all this about?" + +At last he looked into my eyes. I could see a hundred conflicting +emotions working in his expressive face. + +"You would be friends after what I have done?" he asked. + +"I want your hand, Jim," I said again. + +In a moment, both his were clasped over mine, in his vicelike grip. + +"George,--George!" he cried. "We've always been friends,--chums. I +have always known you were not like the rest of them." + +He drew his forearm across his brow. "I am not myself, George. You'll +forgive me for what I did, won't you?" + +"Man, Jim,--there is nothing done that requires forgiving;--only, you +have the devil's own grip. I don't suppose I shall be able to swallow +decently for a week. + +"But you are in trouble: what is it, Jim? Tell me; maybe I can help." + +"Ay,--it's trouble enough,--God forbid. It's Peggy, George,--my dear +little sister, Peggy, that has neither mother nor father to guide +her;--only me, and I'm a blind fool. Oh!--I can't speak about it. +Come over with me and see for yourself." + +I followed him slowly and silently out of the smithy, down the lane and +across the road to his little, rose-covered cottage. We went round to +the back of the house. Jim held up his hand for caution, as he peeped +in at the kitchen window. He turned to me again, and beckoned, his big +eyes blind with tears. + +"Look in there," he gulped. "That's my little sister, my little Peggy; +she who never has had a sorrow since mother left us. She's been like +that for four hours and she gets worse when I try to comfort her." + +I peered in. + +Peggy was sitting on the edge of a chair and bending across the table. +Her arms were spread out in front of her and her face was buried in +them. Her brown, curly hair rippled over her neck and shoulders like a +mountain stream. Great sobs seemed to be shaking her supple body. I +listened, and my ears caught the sound of a breaking heart. There was +a fearful agony in her whole attitude. + +I turned away without speaking and followed Jim back to the smithy. +When we got there, something pierced me like a knife, although all was +not quite clear to my understanding. + +"Jim,--Jim," I cried, "surely you never fancied I--I was in any way to +blame for this. Why! Jim,--I don't even know yet what it is all +about." + +He laughed unpleasantly. "No, George, no!--Oh! I can't tell you. +Here----" + +He went to his coat which hung from a hook in the wall. He pulled a +letter from his inside pocket. "Read that," he said. + +I unfolded the paper, as he stood watching me keenly. + +The note was in handwriting with which I was well familiar. + + +"My DEAR LITTLE PEGGY, + +I am very, very sorry,--but surely you know that what you ask is +impossible. I shall try to find time to run out and see you at the +usual place, Friday night at nine o'clock. Do not be afraid, little +woman; everything will come out all right. You know I shall see that +you are well looked after; that you do not want for anything. + +Burn this after you read it. Keep our secret, and bear up, like the +good little girl you are. Yours affectionately, + +H----" + + +As I read, my blood chilled in my veins, was,--there could be no +mistaking it. + +"My God! Jim," I cried, "this is terrible. Surely,--surely----" + +"Yes! George," he said, in a tensely subdued voice, "your brother did +that. Your brother,--with his glib tongue and his masterful way. +Oh!--well I know the breed. They are to be found in high and low +places; they are generally not much for a man to look at, but they are +the kind no woman is safe beside; the kind that gets their soft side +whether they be angels or she-devils. Why couldn't he leave her alone? +Why couldn't he stay among his own kind? + +"And now, he has the gall to think that his accursed money can smooth +it over. Damn and curse him for what he is." + +I had little or nothing to say. My heart was too full for words and a +great anger was surging within me against my own flesh and blood. + +"Jim,--does this make any difference between you and me?" I asked, +crossing over to him on the spongy floor of hoof parings and steel +filings. "Does it, Jim?" + +He caught me by the shoulders, in his old, rough way, and looked into +my face. Then he smiled sadly and shook his head. + +"No, George, no! You're different: you always were different; you are +the same straight, honest George Brammerton to me;--still the same." + +"Then, Jim, you will let me try to do something here? You will promise +me not to get into personal contact with Harry,--at least until I have +seen him and spoken with him. Not that he does not deserve a dog's +hiding, but I should like to see him and talk with him first." + +"Why should I promise that?" he asked sharply. + +"For one thing,--because, doubtless, Harry is home now. And again, +there is going to be a week-end House Party at our place. Harry's +engagement of marriage with Lady Rosemary Granton is to be announced; +and Lady Rosemary will be there. + +"It would only mean trouble for you, Jim;--and, God knows, this is +trouble enough." + +"What do I care for trouble?" he cried defiantly. "What trouble can +make me more unhappy than I now am?" + +"You must avoid further trouble for Peggy's sake," I interposed. +"Jim,--let me see Harry first. Do what you like afterwards. Promise +me, Jim." + +He swallowed his anger. + +"God!--it will be a hard promise to keep if ever I come across him. +But I do promise, just because I like you, George, as I hate him." + +"May I keep this meantime?" I asked, holding up Harry's letter to Peggy. + +"No! Give it to me. I might need it." + +"But I might find greater use for it, Jim. Won't you let me have it, +for a time at least?" + +"Oh! all right, all right," he answered, spreading his hands over his +leather apron. + +I left him there amid the roar of the fire and the odour of sizzling +hoofs, and wended my way slowly up the dust-laden hill, back home, +having forgotten entirely, in the great sorrow that had fallen, to tell +Jim my object in calling on him that day. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +Viscount Harry, Captain of the Guards + +On nearing home, I noticed the "Flying Dandy," Harry's favourite horse, +standing at the front entrance in charge of a groom. + +"Hello, Wally," I shouted in response to the groom's salute and broad +grin. "Is Captain Harry home?" + +"Yes, sir! Three hours agone, sir. 'E's just agoing for a canter, +sir, for the good of 'is 'ealth." + +I went inside. + +"Hi! William," I cried to the retreating figure of our portly and +aristocratic butler. "Where's Harry?" + +"Captain Harry, sir, is in the armoury. Any message, sir?" + +"No! it is all right, William. I shall go along in and see him." + +I went down the corridor, to the most ancient part of Hazelmere House; +the old armoury, with its iron-studded oaken doors and its suggestion +of spooks and goblins. I pushed in to that sombre-looking place, which +held so many grim secrets of feudal times. How many drinking orgies +and all-night card parties had been held within its portals, I dared +not endeavour to surmise. As to how many plots had been hatched behind +its studded doors, how many affairs of honour had been settled for all +time under its high-panelled roof,--there was only a meagre record; but +those we knew of had been bloody and not a few. + +Figures, in suits of armour, stood in every corner; two-edged swords, +shields of brass and cowhide, blunderbusses and breech-loading pistols +hung from the walls, while the more modern rifles and fowling pieces +were ranged in orderly fashion along the far side. + +The light was none too good in there, and I failed, at first, to +discover the object of my quest. + +"How do, farmer Giles?" came that slow, drawling, sarcastic voice which +I knew so well. + +I turned suddenly, and,--there he was, seated on a brass-studded oak +chest almost behind the heavy door, swinging one leg and toying with a +seventeenth century rapier. Through his narrow-slitted eyes, he was +examining me from top to toe in apparent disgust: tall, thin, perfectly +groomed, handsome, cynical, devil-may-care. + +I tried to speak calmly, but my anger was greater than I could properly +control. Poor little Peggy Darrol was uppermost in my thoughts. + +"'Gad, George,--you look like a tramp. Why don't you spruce up a bit? +Hobnailed boots, home-spun breeches; ugh! it's enough to make your +noble ancestors turn in their coffins and groan. + +"Don't you know the Brammerton motto is, 'Clean,--within and without.'" + +He bent the blade of his rapier until it formed a half hoop, then he +let it fly back with a twang. + +"And some of us have degenerated so," I answered, "that we apply the +motto only in so far as it affects the outside." + +"While some of us, of course, are so busy scrubbing and polishing at +our inwards," he put in, "that we have no time to devote to the parts +that are seen. But that seems to me deuced like cant; and a cheap +variety of it at that. + +"So you have taken to preaching, as well as farming. Fine combination, +little brother! However, George,--dear boy,--we shall let it go at +that. There is something you are anxious to unload. Get it out of +your system, man." + +"I have just been hearing that you are going to marry Lady Rosemary +Granton soon." + +"Why, yes! of course. You may congratulate me, for I have that +distinguished honour," he drawled. + +"And you _do_ consider it an honour?" I asked, pushing my hands deep +into my pockets and spreading my legs. + +He leaned back and surveyed me tolerantly. + +"'Gad!--that's a beastly impertinent question, George. Why shouldn't +it be an honour, when every gentleman in London will be biting his +finger-tips with envy?" + +I nodded and went on. + +"You consider also that she will be honoured in marrying a Brammerton?" + +"Look here," he answered, a little irritated, "what's all this damned +catechising for?" + +"I am simply asking questions, Harry; taking liberties seeing I am a +Brammerton and your little brother," I retorted calmly. + +"And nasty questions they are, too;--but, by Jove! since you ask, and, +as I am a Brammerton, and it is I she is going to marry,--why! I +consider she _is_ honoured. The honour will be,--ah! on both sides, +George. Now,--dear fellow,--don't worry about my feelings. If you +have anything more to ask, why! shoot it over, now that I am in the +mood for answering," he continued dryly. "I have a hide like a rhino'." + +I looked him over coldly. + +"Yes, Harry,--Lady Rosemary _will_ come to you as a Granton, fulfilling +the pledge made by her father. She will come to you with her honour +bright and unsullied." + +He bent forward and frowned at me. + +"Do you doubt it?" he shot across. + +I shook my head. "No!" + +He resumed his old position. + +"Glad to hear you say so. Now,--what else? Blest if this doesn't make +me feel quite a devil, to be lectured and questioned by my young +brother,--my own, dear, little, preaching, farmer, kid of a brother." + +"You will go to her a Brammerton, fulfilling the vow made by a +Brammerton, with a Brammerton's honour, unstained, +unblemished,--'Clean,--within and without'?" + +He rose slowly from the chest and faced me squarely. + +There was nothing of the coward in Harry. + +His eye glistened with a cruel light. "Have a care, little brother," +he said between his regular, white teeth. "Have a care." + +"Why, Harry," I remonstrated in feigned surprise, "what's the matter? +What have I said amiss?" + +He had always played the big, patronising, bossing brother with me and +I had suffered it from him, although, from a physical standpoint, the +suffering of late had been one of good-natured tolerance. To-day, +there was something in my manner that told him he had reached the end +of it. + +"Tell me what you mean?" he snarled. + +"If you do not know what I mean, brother mine, sit down and I will tell +you." + +"No!" he answered. + +"Oh, well!--I'll tell you anyway." + +I went up close to him. "What are you going to do about Peggy Darrol?" +I demanded. + +The shot hit hard; but he was almost equal to it. He sat down on the +chest again and toyed once more with the point of the rapier. Then, +without looking up, he answered: + +"Peggy Darrol,--eh, George! Peggy Darrol, did you say? Who the devil +is she? Oh,--ah,--eh,--oh, yes! the blacksmith's sister,--um,--nice +little wench, Peggy:--attractive, fresh, clinging, strawberries and +cream and all that sort of thing. Bit of a dreamer, though!" + +"Who set her dreaming?" I asked, pushing my anger back. + +"Hanged if I know; born in her I suppose. It is part of every woman's +make-up. Pretty little thing, though; by Gad! she is." + +"Yes! she is pretty; and she was good as she is pretty until she got +tangled up with you." + +Harry sprang up and menaced me. + +"What do you mean, you,--you?---- What are you driving at? What's +your game?" + +"Oh! give over this rotten hypocrisy," I shouted, pushing him back. +"Hit you on the raw, did it?" + +He drew himself up. + +"No! it didn't. But I have had more than enough of your impertinences. +I would box your ears for the unlicked pup you are, if I could do it +without soiling my palms." + +I smiled. + +"Those days are gone, Harry,--and you know it, too. Let us cut this +evasion and tom-foolery. You have got that poor girl into a scrape. +What are you going to do about getting her out of it?" + +"_I_ have got her into trouble? How do you know _I_ have? Her word +for it, I suppose? A fine state of affairs it has come to, when any +girl who gets into trouble with her clod-hopper sweetheart, has simply +to accuse some one in a higher station than she, to have all her +troubles ended." + +He flicked some dust from his coat-sleeve. "'Gad,--we fellows would +never be out of the soup." + +"No! not her word," I retorted. "Little Peggy Darrol is not that sort +of girl and well you know it. I have your own word for it,--in +writing." + +His face underwent a change in expression; his cheeks paled slightly. + +I drew his letter from my pocket. + +"Damn her for a little fool," he growled. He held out his hand for it. + +"Oh, no! Harry,--I am keeping this meantime." And I replaced it. +"Tell me now,--what are you going to do about Peggy?" I asked +relentlessly. + +"Oh!" he replied easily, "don't worry. I shall have her properly +looked after. She needn't fear. Probably I shall make a settlement on +her; although the little idiot hardly deserves that much after giving +the show away as she has done." + +"Of course, you will tell Lady Rosemary of this before any announcement +is made of your marriage, Harry? A Brammerton must, in all things, be +honourable, 'Clean,--within and without.'" + +He looked at me incredulously, and smiled almost in pity for me and my +strange ideas. + +"Certainly not! What do you take me for? What do you think Lady +Rosemary is that I should trouble her with these petty matters?" + +"Petty matters," I cried. "You call this petty? God forgive you, +Harry. Petty! and that poor girl crying her heart out; her whole +innocent life blasted; her future a disgrace! Petty!--my God!;--and +you a Brammerton! + +"But I tell you," I blazed, "you shall let Lady Rosemary know." + +"And I tell you,--I shall not," he replied. + +"Then, by God!--I'll do it myself," I retorted. "I give you two hours +to decide which of us it is to be." + +I made toward the door. But Harry sprang for his rapier, picked it up +and stood with his back against my exit, the point of his weapon to my +breast. + +There was a wicked gleam in his narrow eyes. + +"Damn you! George Brammerton, for a sneaking, prying, tale-bearing +lout;--you dare not do it!" + +He took a step forward. + +"Now, sir,--I will trouble you for that letter." + +I looked at him in astonishment. There was a strange something in his +eyes I had never seen there before; a mad, irresponsible something that +cared not for consequences; a something that makes heroes of some men +and murderers of others. I stood motionless. + +Slowly he pushed the point of his rapier through my coat-sleeve. It +pricked into my arm and I felt a few drops of warm blood trickle. I +did not wince. + +"Stop this infernal fooling," I cried angrily. + +He bent forward, in the attitude of fence with which he was so familiar. + +"Fooling, did you say? 'Gad! then, is this fooling?" + +He turned the rapier against my breast, ripping my shirt and lancing my +flesh to the bone. I staggered back with a gasp. + +It was the act of a madman; and I knew in that moment that I was face +to face with death by violence for the second time in a few hours. I +slowly backed from him, but he followed me, step for step, + +As I came up against and sought the wall behind me for support, my hand +came in contact with something hard. I closed my fingers over it. It +was the handle of an old highland broadsword and the feel of it was not +unpleasant. It lent a fresh flow to my blood. I tore the sword from +its fastenings, and, in a second, I was standing facing my brother on a +more equal, on a more satisfactory footing, determined to defend +myself, blow for blow, against his inhuman, insane conduct. + +"Ho! ho!" he yelled. "A duel in the twentieth century. 'Gad! wouldn't +this set London by the ears? The Corsican Brothers over again! + +"Come on, with your battle-axe, farmer Giles, Let's see what stuff +you're made of--blood or sawdust." + +Twice he thrust at me and twice I barely avoided his dextrous +onslaughts. I parried as he thrust, not daring to venture a return. +Our strange weapons rang out and re-echoed, time and again, in the +dread stillness of the isolated armoury. + +My left arm was smarting from the first wound I had received, and a few +drops of blood trickled down over the back of my hand, splashing on the +floor. + +"You bleed!--just like a human being, George. Who would have thought +it?" gloated Harry with a taunt. + +He came at me again. + +My broadsword was heavy and, to me, unwieldy, while Harry's rapier was +light and pliable. I could tell that there could be only one ending, +if the unequal contest were prolonged,--I would be wounded badly, or +killed outright. At that moment, I had no very special desire for +either happening. + +Harry turned and twisted his weapon with the clever wrist movement for +which he was famous in every fencing club in Britain; and every time I +wielded my heavy weapon to meet his light one I thought I should never +be in time to meet his counter-stroke, his recovery was so very much +quicker than mine. + +He played with me thus for a time which seemed an eternity. My breath +began to come in great gasps. Suddenly he lunged at me with all his +strength, throwing the full weight of his body recklessly behind his +stroke, so sure was he, evidently, that it would find its mark. I +sprang aside just in time, bringing my broadsword down on his rapier +and sending six inches of the point of it clattering to the floor. + +"Damn the thing!" he blustered, taking a firmer grip of what steel +remained in his hand. + +"Aren't you satisfied? Won't you stop this madness?" I panted, my +voice sounding loud and hollow in the stillness around us. + +For answer he grazed my cheek with his jagged steel, letting a little +more blood and hurting sufficiently to cause me to wince. + +"Got you again, you see," he chuckled, pushing up his sleeves and +pulling his tie straight. "George, dear boy, I'll have you in +mincemeat before I get at any of your well-covered vitals." + +A blind fury seized me. I drove in on him. He turned me aside with a +grin and thrust heavily at me in return. I darted to the left, making +no endeavour to push aside his weapon with my own but relying only on +the agility of my body. With an oath, he floundered forward, and +before he could recover I brought the flat of my heavy broadsword +crashing down on the top of his head. His arm went up with a nervous +jerk and his rapier flew from his hand, shattering against a high +window and sending the broken glass rattling on to the cement walk +below. + +Harry sagged to the floor like a sack of flour and lay motionless on +his face, his arms and legs spread out like a spider's. + +I was bending down to turn him over, when I heard my father's voice on +the other side of the door. + +"Stand back! I'll see to this," he cried, evidently addressing the +frightened servants. + +I turned round. The door swung on its immense hinges and my father +stood there, with staring eyes and pallid face, taking in the situation +deliberately, looking from me to Harry's inert body beside which I +knelt. Slowly he came into the centre of the room. + +Full of anxiety, I looked at him. But there was no opening in that +stern, old face for any explanations. He did not assail me with a +torrent of words nor did he burst into a paroxysm of grief and anger. +His every action was calculated, methodical, remorseless. + +He turned to the open door. + +"Go!" he commanded sternly. "Leave us,--leave Brammerton. I never +wish to see you again. You are no son of mine." + +His words seared into me. I held out my hands. + +"Go!" he repeated quietly, but, if anything, more firmly. + +"Good God! father,--won't you hear what I have to say in explanation?" +I cried in vexatious desperation. + +He did not answer me except with his eyes--those eyes which could say +so much. + +My anger was still hot within me. My inborn sense of fairness deeply +resented this conviction on less than even circumstantial evidence; +and, at the back of all that, I,--as well as he, as well as Harry,--was +a Brammerton, with a Brammerton's temperament. + +"Do you mean this, father?" I asked. + +"Go!" he reiterated. "I have nothing more to say to such an unnatural +son, such an unnatural brother as you are." + +I bowed, pulled my jacket together with a shrug and buttoned it up. +After all,--what mattered it? I was in the right and I knew it. + +"All right, father! Some day, I know you will be sorry." + +I turned on my heel and left the armoury. + +The servants were clustering at the end of the corridor, with +frightened eyes and pale faces. They opened up and shuffled uneasily +as I passed through. + +"William," I said to the butler, "you had better go in there. You may +be needed." + +"Yes, sir! yes, sir!" he answered, and hurried to obey. + +Upstairs, in my own room, my knapsack was lying in a corner, ready for +my proposed week-end tour. Beside it, stood my golf clubs. These will +do, I found myself thinking: a knapsack with a change of linen and a +bag of golf clubs,--not a bad outfit to start life with. + +I opened my purse:--fifty pounds and a few shillings. Not much, but +enough! In fact, nothing would have been plenty. + +Suddenly I remembered that, before I went, I had a duty to perform. +From my inside pocket, I took the letter which Harry had written to +little, forlorn Peggy Darrol. I went to my writing desk and addressed +an envelope to Lady Rosemary Granton. I inserted Harry's letter and +sealed the envelope. As to the bearer of my message, that was easy. I +pushed the button at my bedside and, in a second, sweet little Maisie +Brant came to the door. + +Maisie always had been my special favourite, and, on account of my +having pulled her out of the river when she was only seven years old, I +was hers. She had never forgotten. I cried to her in an easy, +bantering way in order to reassure her. + + "Neat little Maisie, sweet little Maisie; + Only fifteen and as fresh as a Daisy." + + +She smiled, but behind her smile was a look of concern. + +"I am going away, Maisie," I said. + +"Going away, sir?" she repeated anxiously, as she came bashfully +forward. + +"I won't be back again, Maisie. I am going for good." + +She looked up at me in dumb disquiet. + +"Maisie, Lady Rosemary Granton will be here this week-end." + +"Yes, sir!" she answered. "I am to have the honour of looking after +her rooms." + +I laid my hand gently on her shoulder. + +"I want you to do something for me, Maisie. I want you to give her +this letter,--see that she gets it when she is alone. It is more +important to her than you can ever dream of. She must have it within a +few hours of her arrival. No one else must set eyes on it between now +and then. Do you understand, Maisie?" + +"Oh, yes, sir! You can trust me for that." + +"I know I can, Maisie. You are a good girl." + +I gave her the letter and she placed it in the safest, the most secret, +place she knew,--her bosom. Then her eyes scanned me over. + +"Oh! sir," she cried, in sudden alarm, "you are hurt. You are +bleeding." + +I put my hand to my cheek, but then I remembered I had already wiped +away the few drops of blood from there with my handkerchief. + +"Your arm, sir," she pointed. + +"Oh!--just a scratch, Maisie." + +"Won't you let me bind it for you, sir, before you go?" she pleaded. + +"It isn't worth the trouble, Maisie." + +Tears came to those pretty eyes of hers; so, to please her, I consented. + +"All right," I cried, "but hurry, for I have no more business in here +now than a thief would have." + +She did not understand my meaning, but she left me and was back in a +moment with a basin of hot water, a sponge, balsam and bandages. + +I slipped off my coat and rolled up my sleeve, then, as Maisie's gentle +fingers sponged away the congealed blood and soothed the throb, I began +to discover, from the intense relief, how painful had been the hurt, +mere superficial thing as it was. + +She poured on some balsam and bound up the cut; all gentleness, all +tenderness, like a mother over her babe. + +"There is a little jag here, Maisie, that aches outrageously now that +the other has been lulled to sleep." I pointed to my breast. + +She undid my shirt, and, as she surveyed the damage, she cried out in +anxiety. + +It was a raw, jagged, angry-looking wound, but nothing to occasion +concern. + +She dealt with it as she had done the other, then she drew the edges of +the cut together, binding them in place with strips of sticking +plaster. When it was all over, I slipped into my jacket, swung my +knapsack across my shoulders, took my golf-bag under my left arm,--and +I was ready. + +Maisie wiped her eyes with the corner of her apron. + +"Never mind, little woman," I sympathised. + +"Must you really go away, sir?" she sobbed. + +"Yes!--I must. Good-bye, little girl." + +I kissed her on the trembling curve of her red, pouting lips, then I +went down the stairs, leaving her weeping quietly on the landing. + +As I turned at the front door for one last look at the inside of the +old home, which I might never see again, I saw the servants carrying +Harry from the armoury. I could hear his voice swearing and +complaining in almost healthy vigour, so I was pleasantly confirmed in +what I already had surmised,--his hurt was as temporary as the flat of +a good, trusty, highland broad-sword could make it. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +Tommy Flynn, The Harlford Bruiser + +I hurried down the avenue to where it joined the dusty roadway. + +I stood for a few moments in indecision. To my left, down in the +hollow, the way led through the village. To my right, it stretched far +on the level until it narrowed to a grey point piercing a semi-circle +of green; but I knew that miles beyond, at the end of that grey line, +was the busy town of Grangeborough, with its thronging people, its +railways and its steamships. That was the direction for me. + +I waved my hand to sleepy little Brammerton and I swung to the right, +for Grangeborough and the sea. + +Soon the internal tumult, caused by what I had just gone through, began +to subside, and my spirits rose attune to the glories of the afternoon. + +Little I cared what my lot was destined to be--a prince in a palace or +a tramp under a hedge. Although, to say truth, the tramp's existence +held for me the greater fascination. + +I was young, my lungs were sound and my heart beat well. I was big and +endowed with greater strength than is allotted the average man. + +Glad to be done with pomp, show and convention, my life was now my very +own to plan and make, or to warp and spoil, as fancy, fortune and fate +decreed. + +I hankered for the undisturbed quiet of some small village by the sea, +with work enough,--but no more,--to keep body nourished and covered; +with books in plenty and my pipe well filled; with an open door to +welcome the sunshine, the scented breeze, the salted spray from the +ocean and my congenial fellow-man. + +But, if I should be led in the paths of grubbing men, 'mid bustle, +strife and quarrel, where the strong and the crafty alone survived, +where the weaklings were thrust aside, I was ready and willing to take +my place, to take my chance, to pit brawn against brawn, brain against +brain, to strike blow for blow, to fail or to succeed, to live or die, +as the gods might decree. + +As I filled my lungs, I felt as if I had relieved myself of some great +burden in cutting myself adrift from Brammerton,--dear old spot as it +was. And I whistled and hummed as I trudged along, trying to reach the +point of grey at the rim of the semi-circle of green. On, on I went, +on my seemingly unending endeavour. But I knew that ultimately the +road would end, although merely to open up another and yet another path +over which I would have to travel in the long journey of life which lay +before me. + +As I kept on, I saw the sun go down in a display of blood-red +pyrotechnics. I heard the chatter of the birds in the hedgerows as +they settled to rest. Now and again, I passed a tired toiler, with +bent head and dragging feet,--his drudgery over for the day, but +weighted with the knowledge that it must begin all over again on the +morrow and on each succeeding morrow till the crash of his doom. + +The night breeze came up and darkness gathered round me. A few hours +more, and the twinkling lights of Grangeborough came into view. They +were welcome lights to me, for the pangs of a healthy hunger were +clamouring to be appeased. + +As it had been with the country some hours before, so was it now with +Grangeborough. The town was settling down for the night. It was late. +Most of the shops were closing, or already closed. Business was over +for the day. People hurried homeward like shadows. + +I looked about me for a place to dine, but failed, at first, in my +quest. Down toward the docks there were brighter lights and +correspondingly deeper darknesses. I went along a broad thoroughfare, +turned down a narrower one until I found myself among lanes and alleys, +jostled by drunken sailors and accosted by wanton women, as they +staggered, blinking, from the brightly lighted saloons. + +My finer sensibilities rose and protested within me, but I had no +choice. If I wished to quell my craving for food, there was nothing +left for me to do but to brave the foul air and the rough element of +one of these sawdust-floored, glass-ornamented whisky palaces, where a +snack and a glass of ale, at least, could be purchased. + +I looked about me and pushed into what seemed the least disreputable +one of its kind. I made through the haze of foul air and tobacco smoke +to the counter, and stood idly by until the bar-tender should find it +convenient to wait upon me. + +The place was crowded with sea-faring men and the human sediment that +is found in and around the docks of all shipping cities; it resounded +with a babel of coarse, discordant voices. + +The greater part of this coterie was gathered round a huge individual, +with enormous hands and feet, a stubbly, blue chin,--set, round and +aggressive; a nose with a broken bridge spoiled the balance of his +podgy face. He had beady eyes and a big, ugly mouth with stained, +irregular teeth. From time to time, he laughed boisterously, and his +laugh had an echo of hell in it. + +He and his followers appeared to be enjoying some good joke. But +whenever he spoke every one else became silent. Each coarse jest he +mouthed was laughed at long and uproariously. He had a hold on his +fellows. Even I was fascinated; but it was by the great similarity of +some of the mannerisms of this uncouth man to those I had observed in +the lower brute creation. + +My attention was withdrawn from him, however, by the sound of the +rattling of tin cans in another corner which was partly partitioned +from the main bar-room. I followed the new sound. + +A tattered individual was seated there, his feet among a cluster of +pots and pans all strung together. His head was in his hands and his +red-bearded face was a study of dejection and misery. + +There was something strangely familiar in the appearance of the man. + +Suddenly I remembered, and I laughed. + +I went over and sat down opposite him, setting my golf clubs by my +side. He ignored my arriving. That same old trick of his! + +"Donald,--Donald Robertson!" I exclaimed, laughing again. + +Still he did not look across. + +Suddenly he spoke, and in a voice that knew neither hope nor gladness. + +"Ye laugh,--ye name me by my Christian name,--but ye don't say, +'Donald, will ye taste?'" + +I leaned over and pulled his hands away from his head. He flopped +forward, then glared at me. His eyes opened wide. + +"It's,--it's you,--is it? The second son come to me in my hour o' +trial." + +"Why! Donald,--what's the trouble?" I asked. + +"Trouble,--ye may well say trouble. Have ye mind o' the sixpence ye +gied me on the roadside this mornin'." + +"Yes!" + +"For thirteen long, unlucky hours I saved that six-pence against my +time o' need. I tied it in the tail o' my sark for safety. I came in +here an hour ago. I ordered a glass o' whisky and a tumbler o' beer. +I sat doon here for a while wi' them both before me, enjoying the sight +o' them and indulgin' in the heavenly joy o' anteecipation. Then I +drank the speerits and was just settlin' doon to the beer,--tryin' to +make it spin oot as long as I could; for, ye ken, it's comfortable in +here,--when an emissary o' the deevil, wi' hands like shovels and a +leer in his e'e, came in and picked up the tumbler frae under my very +nose and swallowed the balance o' your six-pence before I could say +squeak." + +I laughed at Donald's rueful countenance and his more than rueful tale. + +"Did the man have a broken nose and a heavy jaw?" I asked. + +"Ay, ay!" said Donald, lowering his voice. "Do ye happen to ken him?" + +"No!--but he is still out there and he thinks it a fine joke that he +played on you." + +"So would I," said Donald, "if I had drunk his beer." + +"What did you do when he swallowed off your drink?" I asked. + +"Do!--what do ye think I did? I remonstrated wi' a' the vehemence that +a Struan Robertson in anger is capable o'. But the vehemence o' the +Lord himsel' couldna bring the beer back." + +"Why didn't you fight, man? Why didn't you knock the bully down?" I +asked, pitying his wobegone appearance. + +"Mister,--whatever your name is,--I'm a man o' peace; and, forby I'm +auld enough to ken it's no' wise to fight on an empty stomach. I +havena had a bite since I saw ye last." + +"Never mind, Donald,--cheer up. I am going to have some bread and +cheese, and a glass of ale, so you can have some with me, at my +expense." + +His face lit up like a Roman candle. + +"Man,--I'm wi' ye. You're a man o' substance, and I'm fonder o' +substantial bread and cheese and beer than I am o' the metapheesical +drinks I was indulgin' in for ten minutes before ye so providentially +came." + +I could not help wondering at some of the remarks of this wise, yet +good-for-little, old customer; but I did not press him for more +enlightenment. + +I thumped the hand-bell on the table, and was successful in obtaining +more prompt attention from the bar-tender than I had been able to do +across the counter. + +When the food and drink were placed between us and paid for, Donald +stuffed all but one slice of his bread and cheese inside his waistcoat, +and he sighed contentedly as he contemplated the sparkling ale. + +But, all at once, he startled me by springing to his feet, seizing his +tumbler in his hand and emptying the contents down his gullet at two +monstrous gulps. + +"No, no!--ye thievin' deevil," he shouted, as he regained his breath, +"ye canna do that twice wi' Donald Robertson." + +I looked toward the opening in the partition. Donald's recent +enemy,--the man whom I had been studying at the other end of the +bar-room,--was shouldering himself into our company. Behind him, in a +semi-circle, a dozen faces grinned in anticipation of some more fun at +Donald's expense. + +The big bully glared down at me as I sat. + +"That there is uncommon good beer, young un," he growled, "and that +there is most uncommon good bread and cheese." + +I glanced at him with half-shut eyelids, then I broke off another piece +of bread. + +"Maybe you didn't 'ear me?" he shouted again, "I said that was uncommon +good beer." + +"I shall be better able to judge of that, my man, after I have tasted +it," I replied. + +"Not that beer, little boy,--you ain't going to taste that," he +thundered, "because I 'appens to want it,--see! I 'appens to 'ave a +most aggrawating thirst in my gargler." + +A burst of laughter followed this ponderous attempt at humour. + +"'And it over, sonny,--I wants it." + +I merely raised my head and ran my eyes over him. + +He was an ugly brute, and no mistake. A man of tremendous girth. + +Although I had no real fear of him,--for, already I had been schooled +to the knowledge that fear and its twin brother worry are man's worst +opponents.--I was a little uncertain as to what the outcome would be if +I got him thoroughly angered. However, I was in no mind to be +interfered with. + +He thumped his heavy fist on the table. + +"'And that over,--quick," he roared. + +His great jaws clamped together and his thick, discoloured lips became +compressed. + +"Why!--certainly, my friend," I remarked easily, rising with slow +deliberation. "Which will you have first:--the bread and cheese, or +the ale?" + +"'Twere the ale I arst and it's th' ale I wants,--and blamed quick +about it or I'll know the reason w'y." + +"Stupid of me!" I remarked. "I should have known you wanted the ale +first. Here you are, my good, genial, handsome fellow." + +I picked up the foaming tumbler and offered it to him. When he +stretched out his great, grimy paw to take it, I tossed the stuff smack +into his face, sending showers of the liquid into the gaping +countenances of his supporters. + +He staggered back among them, momentarily blinded, and, as he +staggered, I sent the tumbler on the same errand as the ale. It +smashed in a hundred pieces on the side of his broken nose, opening up +an old gash there and sending a stream of blood oozing down over his +mouth. + +There was no more laughter, nor grinning. The place was as quiet as a +church during prayer. I pushed into the open saloon, with the +remonstrating Donald at my heels. Then the bull began to roar. He +pulled off his coat, while half a dozen of his own kind endeavoured +with dirty handkerchiefs and rags to mop the blood from his face. + +"Shut the door. Don't let 'im away from 'ere," he shouted. "I'll push +his windpipe into his boots, I will. Watch me!" + +As I stood with my back against the partition, the bar-tender slipped +round the end of the counter. + +"Look here, guv'nor," he whispered with good intent, "the back door's +open,--run like the devil." + +I turned to him in mild surprise. + +"Don't be an ijit," he went on. "Git. Why! he's Tommy Flynn, the +champion rib cracker and face pusher of Harlford, here on his holidays." + +"Tommy Flynn," I answered, "Tommy Rot fits him better." + +"You ain't a-going to stand up and get hit, are you?" + +"What else is there for me to do?" I asked. + +He threw up his arms despairingly. + +"Lor' lumme!--then I bids you good-bye and washes my hands clean of +you." And he went round behind the counter in disgust, spitting among +the sawdust. + +By this time, Tommy Flynn, the champion rib cracker and face pusher, +was rolling up his sleeves businesslike and thrusting off his numerous +seconds in his anxiety to get at me. + +"'Ere, Splotch," he cried to a one-eyed bosom friend of his, "'old my +watch, while I joggles the puddins out of this kid with a left 'ander. +My heye!--'e won't be no blooming golfing swell in another 'alf minute." + +He grinned at me a few times in order to hypnotise me with his beauty +and to instil in me the necessary amount of frightfulness, before he +got to work in earnest. Then, by way of invitation, he thrust forward +his jaw almost into my face. I took advantage of his offer somewhat +more quickly than he anticipated. I struck him on the chin with my +left and drew my right to his body. But his chin was hard as flint and +it bruised my knuckles; while his great body was podgy and of an +india-rubberlike flexibility. + +For my pains, he brushed my ear and drew a little blood, with the grin +of an ape on his brutish face. + +He threw up his arms to guard, feinted at me, and rushed in. + +I parried his blows successfully, much to his surprise, for I could see +his eyes widening and a wrinkle in his brow. + +"Careful, Tommy!--careful," cautioned Splotch of the one eye. "He's a +likely looking young bloke." + +"Likely be blowed," said Tommy shortly, as he toyed with me. "Watch +this!" + +I saw that it would be for my own good, the less I let my antagonist +know of my ability at his own game, and I knew also I would have to +play caution with my strength all the way, owing to the trying ordeals +I had already gone through that day. + +Once, my antagonist tried to draw me as he would draw a novice. I +ignored the body bait he opened up for me and, instead, I swung in +quickly with my right on to his bruised nose, with all the energy I +could muster. He staggered and reeled like a drunken man. In fact, +had he not been half-besotted by dear-only-knows how many days of +debauchery, it might have gone hard with me, but now he positively +howled with pain. + +I had hit on his most vulnerable part, right at the beginning. + +Something inside of me chuckled, for, if there was one special place in +any man's anatomy that I always had been able to reach, it was his nose. + +Flynn rushed on me again and again. I was lucky indeed in beating back +his onslaughts. + +Once, a spent blow got me on the cheek; yet, spent as it was, it made +me numb and dizzy for the moment. Once, he caught me squarely on the +chest right over the wound my brother had given me. The pain of that +was like the cut of a red-hot knife, but it passed quickly. I +staggered and reeled several times, as flashes of weakness seemed to +pass over me. I began to fear that my strength would give out. + +I pulled myself together with an effort. Then, +once,--twice,--thrice,--in a succession bewildering to myself, I +smashed that broken nose of Flynn's, sending him sick and wobbling +among his following. + +He became maddened with rage. His companions commenced to voice +cautions and instructions. He swore back at them in a muddy torrent of +abuse. + +Already, the fight was over;--I could feel it in my bones;--over, far +sooner and more satisfactory to me than I had expected. And, more by +good luck than by ability, I was, to all intents and purposes, +unscathed. + +Tommy Flynn could fight. But he was not the fighter he would have been +had he been away from drink and in strict training, as I was. It was +my good fortune to meet him when he was out of condition. He spat out +a mouthful of blood and returned to the conflict, defending his nose +with all the ferocity of a lioness defending her whelps. + +"Look out! Take care!" a timely voice whispered on my left. + +Something flashed in my opponent's hands in the gaslight. I backed to +the partition. We had a terrible mix-up just then. Blow and +counterblow rained. He broke down my guard once and drove with fierce +force for my face. I ducked, just in time, for he missed me by a mere +hair's-breadth. His fist smashed into a metal bolt in the woodwork. +Sparks flew and there was a loud ring of metal against metal. + +"You cowardly brute!" I shouted, breaking away as it dawned on me that +he had attacked me with heavy knuckle-dusters. My blood fairly danced +with madness. I sprang in on him in a positive frenzy. He became a +child in my hands. Never had I been roused as I was then. I struck +and struck again at his hideous face until it sagged away from me. + +He was blind with his own blood. I followed up, raining punch upon +punch,--pitilessly,--relentlessly. His feet slipped in the slither of +bloody sawdust. I struck again and he crashed to the floor, striking +his head against the iron pedestal of a round table in the corner. + +He lay all limp and senseless, with his mouth wide open and his breath +coming roaring and gurgling from his clotted throat. + +As his friends endeavoured to raise him, as I stood back against the +counter, panting, I heard a battering at the main door of the saloon +which had been closed at the commencement of the scuffle. + +"Here, sir,--quick!" cried the sympathetic bartender to me. "The cops! +Out the back door like hell!" + +I had no desire to be mixed up in a police affair, especially in the +company of such scum as I was then among. I picked up my golf bag and +swung my knapsack on to my back once more. Then I remembered about +Donald. I could not leave him. I searched in corners and under the +tables. He was nowhere in sight. + +"Is it the tinker?" asked the bar-tender excitedly. + +"Yes, yes!" + +"He's gone. He slunk out with his tin cans, through the back way, as +soon as you got started in this scrap." + +I did not wait for anything more, for some one was unlocking the front +door. I darted out the back exit and into the lane. Down the lane, in +the darkness, I tore like a hurricane, then along the waterfront until +there was a mile between me and the scene of my late encounter. + +I slowed up at a convenient horse-trough, splashed my hands and face in +the cooling water and adjusted my clothing as best I could, then I +strolled into the shipping shed, where stevedores and dock labourers +were busy, by electric light, completing the loading of a smart-looking +little cargo boat. + +A notion seized me. It was a coaster, so I knew I could not be going +very far away. + +I walked up the gang-plank, and aboard. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +Aboard the Coaster + +An ordinary seaman, then the second officer of the little steamer +passed me on the deck, but both were busy and paid no more attention to +my presence than if I had been one of themselves. + +I strolled down the narrow companionway, into a cosy, but somewhat +cramped, saloon. + +After standing for a time in the hope of seeing some signs of life, I +pushed open the door of a stateroom on the starboard side. The room +had two berths. I tossed my knapsack and clubs into the lower one. As +I turned to the door again, I espied a diminutive individual, no more +than four and a half feet tall,--or, as I should say, small,--in the +full, gold-braided uniform of a ship's chief steward. + +He was a queer-looking little customer, grizzled, weather-beaten and, +apparently, as hard as nails. He was absolutely self-possessed and, +despite his stature, there was "nothing small about him," as an +American friend of mine used to put it. + +He touched his cap, and smiled. His smile told me at once that he was +an Irishman, for only an Irishman could smile as he did. It was a +smile with a joke, a drink, a kiss and a touch of the devil himself in +it. + +"I saw ye come down, sor. Ye'll be makin' for Glasgow?" + +Glasgow! I cogitated, yes!--Glasgow as a starting point would suit me +as well as anywhere else. + +"Correct first guess," I answered. "But, tell me,--how did you know +that that was my destination?" + +He showed his teeth. + +"Och! because it's the only port we're callin' at, sor. Looks like a +fine trip north," he went on. "The weather's warm and there's just +enough breeze to make it lively. Nothin' like the sea, sor, for +keepin' the stomach swate and the mind up to the knocker." + +I yawned, for I was dog-weary. + +"When ye get to Glasgow, if ye are on the lookout for a place to +slape,--try Barney O'Toole's in Argyle Street. The place is nothin' to +look at, but it's a hummer inside, sor." + +I yawned drowsily once more, but the hint did not stop him. + +"If you'll excuse my inquisitiveness, sor,--or rather, what ye might +call my natural insight,--I judge you're on either a moighty short +tour, or a devil av a long one got up in a hurry." + +The little clatterbag's uncanny guessing harried me. + +"How do you arrive at your conclusions?" I asked, taking off my jacket +and hanging it up. + +"Och! shure it's by the size av your wardrobe. No man goes on a +well-planned, long trip with a knapsack and a bag av golfsticks." + +"Well,--it is likely to be long enough," I laughed ruefully. + +"Had a row with the old man and clearin' out?" he sympathised. "Well, +good luck to yer enterprise. I did the same meself when I was +thirteen; after gettin' a hidin' with a bit av harness for doin' +somethin' I never did at all. I've never seen the old man since and +never want to. Bad cess to him. + +"Would ye like a bite before ye turn in, sor? It's past supper-time, +but I can find ye a scrapin' av something." + +"A bite and a bath,--if I may?" I put in. "I'm sticky all over." + +"A bath! Right ye are. I knew ye was a toff the minute I clapped my +blinkers on ye." + +In ten minutes my talkative friend announced that my bath was in +readiness. For ten minutes more he rattled on to me at intervals, +through the bathroom door, poking into my past and arranging my future +like a clairvoyant. + +Notwithstanding, he had a nice, steaming-hot supper waiting for me when +I returned to my stateroom. + +As I fell-to, he stood by, enjoying the relish I displayed in the +appeasing of my hunger. + +"If I was a young fellow av your age, strong build and qualities, do ye +know where I would make for?" he ventured. + +"Where?" I asked, uninterestedly. + +He lowered his eyebrows. "Out West,--Canada," he said, with a decided +nod of his head. "And, the farther west the better. The Pacific Coast +has a climate like home, only better. For the main part, ye're away +from the long winters;--it's a new country;--a young man's +country:--it's wild and free:--and,--it's about as far away as ye can +get from--from,--the trouble ye're leavin' behind." + +I looked across at him. + +"Oh! bhoy,--I've been there. I know what I'm talkin' about." + +He sighed. "But I'm gettin' old and I've been too long on the sea to +give it up." + +He pulled himself together suddenly. Owing to his stature, that was +not a very difficult task. + +"Man!--ye're tired. I'll be talkin' no more to you. Tumble in and +sleep till we get to Glasgow." + +As he cleared away the dishes, I approached him regarding my fare. + +"Look here, steward,--I had not time to book my berth or pay my +passage. What's the damage?" + +"Ten and six, sor, exclusive av meals," he answered, taking out his +ticket book in a business-like way. + +"What name, sor?" + +"Name!--oh, yes! name!" I stammered. "Why!--George Bremner." + +He looked at me and his face fell. I am sure his estimation of me fell +with it. I was almost sorry I had not obliged him by calling myself +Algernon something-or-other. + +I paid him. + +"When do you expect to arrive in Glasgow?" I asked. + +"Eight o'clock to-morrow morning, sor. And," he added, "there's a boat +leaves for Canada to-morrow night." + +"The devil it does," I grunted. + +He gave me another of his infectious smiles. + +"Would ye like another bath in the mornin', sor, before breakfast?" he +inquired, as he was leaving. + +I could not bear to disappoint the little fellow any more. + +"Yes," I replied. + +Quarter of an hour later, I was lying on my back in the upper berth, +gazing drowsily into the white-enamelled ceiling two feet overhead; +happy in the reborn sensations of cleanliness, relaxation and +satisfaction; loving my enemies as well, or almost as well, as I loved +my friends. I could not get the little steward's advice out of my +head. In a jumbled medley, "Out West,--out West,--out West," kept +floating before my brain. "The Pacific Coast.--Home climate, only +better.--A new country.--A young man's country.--Wild and free.--It's +about as far away as ye can get,--as ye can get,--can get,--can get." + +The rumbling of the cargo trucks, the hoarse "lower away" of the +quartermaster, the whirr of the steam winch and the lapping of the +water against the boat,--all intermingled, then died away and still +farther away, until only the quietest of these sounds remained,--the +lapping of the sea and "Canada,--Canada,--Canada." They kept up their +communications with me, sighing and singing, the merest murmurings of +the wind in a sea shell:--soothing accompaniments to my unremembered +dreams. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +K. B. Horsfal, Millionaire + +When I awoke, the sun was streaming through the porthole upon my face. +It was early morning,--Saturday morning I remembered. + +From the thud, thud, of the engines and the steady rise and fall, I +knew we were still at sea. I stretched my limbs, feeling as a god must +feel balancing on the topmost point of a star; so refreshed, so +invigorated, so buoyant, so much in harmony with the rising sun and the +freshness of the early day, that, to be exact, I really had no feeling. + +I sprang to the floor of my cabin and dressed hurriedly in my anxiety +to be on deck; but, at the door, I encountered my little Irish steward. +He eyed me suspiciously, as if I had had intentions of evading my +morning ablution,--so I swallowed my impatience, grabbed a towel and +made leisurely for the bathroom, where I laved my face and hands in the +cold water, remained inside for a sufficiently respectable time, then +ran off the water and, finally, made my exit and clambered on deck. + +As I paced up and down, enjoying the beauties of the fast narrowing +firth, I no longer felt in doubt as to my ultimate destination. My +subconscious self, aided and abetted by the Irish steward, had already +decided that for me:--it was Canada, the West, the Pacific. + +Soon after I had breakfasted, we reached the Tail of the Bank, and so +impatient was I to be on my long journey that I bade good-bye to my +little Irishman at Greenock, leaving him grinning and happy in the +knowledge that I was taking his advice and was bound for the Pacific +Coast. + +In forty minutes more, I left the train at Glasgow and started in to a +hurried and moderate replenishing of my wardrobe, finishing up with the +purchase of a travelling bag, a good second-hand rifle and a little +ammunition. + +I dispensed with my knapsack by presenting it to a newsboy, who held it +up in disgust as if it had been a dead cat. Despite the fact that I +was now on my own resources and would have to work, nothing could +induce me to part with my golf clubs. They were old and valued +friends. Little did I imagine then how useful they would ultimately +prove. + +At the head office of the steamship company, I inquired as to the best +class of travelling when the traveller wished to combine cheapness with +rough comfort; and I was treated to the cheering news that there was a +rate war on between the rival Trans-Atlantic Steamship Companies and I +could purchase a second-cabin steamboat ticket for six pounds, while a +further eight pounds, thirteen shillings and four-pence would carry me +by Colonist, or third class, three thousand miles, from the East to the +Far West of Canada. + +I paid for my ticket and booked my berth then and there, counted out my +remaining wealth,--ten pounds and a few coppers,--and my destiny was +settled. + +With so much to tell of what befell me later, I have neither the time +nor the inclination to detail the pleasures and the discomforts of a +twelve days' trip by slow steamer across a storm-swept Atlantic, +battened down for days on end, like cattle in the hold of a +cross-channel tramp; of a six days' journey across prairie lands, in a +railway car with its dreadful monotony of unupholstered wooden seats +and sleeping boards, its stuffiness, its hourly disturbances in the +night-time in the shape of noisy conductors demanding tickets, incoming +and outgoing travellers and shrieking engines; its dollar meals in the +dining car, which I envied but could not afford; its well-nigh +unlightable cooking stoves and the canned beef and pork and beans with +which I had to regale myself en route. + +Jaded, travel-weary and grimy, I reached the end of my journey. It was +late in the evening. I tumbled out of the train and into the first +hotel bus that yawned for me, and not once did I look out of the window +to see what kind of a city I had arrived at. + +I came to myself at the entrance to a magnificent and palatial hotel; +too much so, by far, I fancied, for my scantily-filled purse. But I +was past the minding stage, and I knew I could always make a change on +the morrow, if so be it a change were necessary. + +And then I began to think,--what mattered it anyway? What were a few +paltry sovereigns between one and poverty? Comforting thought,--a man +could not have anything less than nothing. + +I registered, ordered a bath, a shave, a haircut, a jolly good supper +and a bed; and, oh! how I enjoyed them all! Surely this was the most +wonderful city in the world, for never did bath, or shave, or supper, +or bed feel so delicious as these did. + +I swooned away at last from sheer pleasure. + +The recuperative powers of youth are marvellously quick. I was up and +out to view the city almost as soon as the sun was touching the +snow-tipped tops of the magnificent mountain peaks which were miles +away yet seemed to stand sentinels at the end of the street down which +I walked. I was up and out long ere the sun had gilded the waters of +the broad inlet which separated Vancouver from its baby sister to the +north of it. + +The prospect pleased me; there was freedom in the air, expanse, +vastness, but,--it was still a city with a city's artifices and, +consequently, not what I was seeking. I desired the natural life; not +the roughness, the struggle, the matching of crafty wits, the throbbing +blood and the straining sinews,--but the solitude, the quiet, the +chance for thought and observation, the wilds, the woods and the sea. + +As I returned to breakfast, I wondered if I should find them,--and +where. + +In the dining-room, during the course of my breakfast,--the first real +breakfast I had partaken of in Canada,--my attention was diverted to a +tall, well-groomed, muscular-looking man, who sat at a table nearby. +He looked a considerable bit on the sunny side of fifty. He was clean +shaven, his hair was black tinged with grey, and his eyes were keen and +kindly. + +Every time I glanced in his direction, I found him looking over at me +in an amused sort of way. I began to wonder if I were making some +breach of Canadian etiquette of which I was ignorant. True, I had +eaten my porridge and cream without sprinkling the dish with a surface +of sugar as he had done; I had set aside the fried potatoes which had +been served to me with my bacon and eggs;--but these, surely, were +trivial things and of no interest to any one but myself. + +At last, he rose and walked out, sucking a wooden toothpick. With his +departure, I forgot his existence. + +After I had breakfasted, I sought the lounge room in order to have a +look at the morning paper and, if possible, determine what I was going +to do for a living and how I was going to get what I wanted to do. + +I was buried in the advertisements, when a genial voice with a nasal +intonation, at my elbow, unearthed me. + +It was my observer of the dining-room. He had seated himself in the +chair next to mine. + +"Say! young man,--you'll excuse me; but was it you I saw come in last +night with the bag of golf clubs?" + +I acknowledged the crime. + +He laughed good-naturedly. + +"Well,--you had courage anyway. To sport a golfing outfit here in the +West is like venturing out with breeches, a walking cane and a monocle. +Nobody but an Englishman would dare do it. Here, they think golf and +cricket should be bracketed along with hopscotch, dominoes and +tiddly-winks; just as I used to fancy baseball was a glorified kids' +game. I know better now." + +I looked at him rather darkly. + +"Oh!--it's all right, friend,--it takes a man to play baseball, same as +it takes a man to play golf and cricket. Golfing is about the only +vice I have left. Why, now I come to think of it, my wife clipped a +lot of my vices off years ago, and since that my daughter has succeeded +in knocking off all the others,--all but my cigars, my cocktails and my +golf. I'm just plumb crazy on the game and I play it whenever I can. +Maybe it's because I used to play it when I was a little chap, away +back in England years and years ago." + +"I am glad you like the game," I put in. "It is a favourite of mine." + +"I play quite a bit back home in Baltimore," he continued, "that's when +I'm there. My clubs arrived here by express yesterday. You see, it's +like this;--I'm off to Australia at the end of the week, on a business +trip,--that is, if I get things settled up here by that time. I am +crossing over from there to England, where I shall be for several +months. England is some place for golf, so I'm going to golf some, you +bet. + +"I'm not boring you, young friend?" he asked suddenly. + +"Not a bit," I laughed. "Go on,--I am as interested as can be." + +"I believe there's a kind of a lay-out they call a golf course, in one +of the outlying districts round here. What do you say to making the +day of it? You aren't busy, are you?" he added. + +"No! no!--not particularly," I answered. I did not tell him that in a +few days, if I did not get busy at something or other, I should starve. + +"Good!" he cried. "Go to your room and get your sticks. I'll find out +all about the course and how to get to it." + +The brusk good-nature of the man hit me somehow; besides, I had not had +a game for over three weeks. Think of it--three weeks! And goodness +only knew when I should have the chance of another after this one. As +for looking for work;--work was never to be compared with golf. Surely +work could wait for one day! + +"All right!--I'm game," I said, jumping up and entering into the spirit +of gaiety that lay so easily on my new acquaintance. + +"Good boy!" he cried, getting up and holding out his hand. "My name's +Horsfal,--K. B. Horsfal,--lumberman, meat-packer, and the man whose +name is on every trouser-suspender worth wearing. What's yours?" + +"George Bremner," I answered simply. + +"All right, George, my boy,--see you in ten minutes. But, remember, I +called this tune, so I pay the piper." + +That was music in my ears and I readily agreed. + +"Make it twenty minutes," I suggested. "I have a short letter to +write." + +I wrote my letter, gave it to the boy to deliver for me and presented +myself before my new friend right up to time. + +In the half hour's run we had in the electric tram, I learned a great +deal about Mr. K. B. Horsfal. + +He had migrated from the Midlands of England at the age of seventeen. +He had kicked,--or had been kicked,--about the United States for some +fifteen years, more or less up against it all the time, as he +expressively put it; when, by a lucky chance, in a poverty-stricken +endeavour to repair his broken braces, he hit upon a scheme that +revolutionised the brace business: was quick enough to see its +possibilities, patented his idea and became famous. + +Not content to rest on his laurels,--or his braces,--he tackled the +lumbering industry in the West and the meat-packing industry in the +East, both with considerable success. Now he had to sit down and do +some figuring when he wished to find out how many millions of dollars +he was worth. + +His wife had died years ago and his only daughter was at home in +Baltimore. + +Altogether, he was a new and delightful type to one like me,--a young +man fresh from his ancestral roof in the north of staid and +conventional old England. + +He was healthy, vigorous, and as keen as the edge of a razor. + +On and on he talked, telling me of himself, his work and his projects. + +I got to wondering if he were merely setting the proverbial sprat; but +the sprat in his case proved the whale. Every moment I expected him to +ask me for some confidences in return, but on this point Mr. K. B. +Horsfal was silent. + +We discovered our golfing ground, which proved to be a fairly good, +little, nine-holed country course, rough and full of natural hazards. + +K. B. Horsfal could play golf, that I soon found out. He entered into +his game with the enthusiasm and grim determination which I imagined he +displayed in everything he took a hand in. + +He seldom spoke, so intent was he on the proper placing of his feet and +the proper adjustment of his hands and his clubs. + +Three times we went round that course and three times I had the +pleasure of beating him by a margin. He envied me my full swing and my +powerful and accurate driving; he studied me every time I approached a +green and he scratched his head at some of my long putts; but, most of +all, he rhapsodised on my manner of getting out of a hole. + +"Man,--if I only had that trick of yours in handling the mashie and the +niblick, I could do the round a stroke a hole better, for there isn't a +rut, or a tuft, or a bunker in any course that I seem to be able to +keep out of." + +I showed him the knack of it as it had been taught me by an old +professional at Saint Andrews. K. B. Horsfal was in ecstasies, if a +two-hundred-pound, keen, brusk, American business man ever allows +himself such liberties. + +Nothing would please him but that we should go another round, just to +test out his new acquisition and give him the hang of the thing. + +To his supreme satisfaction,--although I again beat him by the same +small margin,--he reduced his score for the round by eight strokes. + +On our journey back to the city, he began to talk again, but on a +different tack this time. + +"George,--you'll excuse me,--but, if I were you I would put that signet +ring you are wearing in your pocket." + +I looked down at it and reddened, for my ring was manifestly old, as it +was manifestly strange in design and workmanship, and apt to betray an +identity. + +I slipped it off my little finger and placed it in my vest pocket. + +My companion laughed. + +"'No sooner said than done,'" he quoted. "You see, George,--any one +who saw you come in to the hotel last night could tell you had not been +travelling for pleasure. The marks of an uncomfortable train journey, +in a colonist car, were sticking out all over you. Now, golf clubs and +a signet ring like that which you were sporting are enough to tell any +man that you have been in the habit of travelling luxuriously and for +the love of it." + +I could not help admiring my new friend's method of deduction, and I +thanked him for his kindly interest. + +"Not a bit," he continued, "so long as you don't mind. For, it's like +this,--I take it you have left home for some personal reason,--no +concern of mine,--you have come out here to start over, or rather, to +make a start. Good! You are right to start at the bottom of the hill. +But, from the look of you, I fancy you won't stick at anything that +doesn't suit you. You are the kind of a fellow who, if you felt like +it, would tell a man to go to the devil, then walk off his premises. +You see, I don't tab you as a milksop kind of Englishman exactly. + +"Well,--out here they don't like Britishers who receive remittances +every month from their mas or pas at home, for they have found that +that kind is generally not much good. Hope you're not one, George?" + +"No!" I laughed, rather ruefully, almost wishing I were. "With me, it +is sink or swim. And, I do not mind telling you, Mr. Horsfal, that it +will be necessary for me to leave the hotel to-morrow for less +pretentious apartments and to start swimming for all I am worth." + +"Good!" he cried, as if it were a good joke. "How do you propose +starting in?" + +"I have already commenced keeping an eye on the advertisements, which +seem to be chiefly for real estate salesmen and partners with a little +capital," I said. + +"But, the fact is, I have made an application this morning for +something I thought might suit me. But, even if I am lucky enough to +be considered, the chances are there will be some flies in the +ointment:--there always are." + +My friend looked at me, as I thought, curiously. + +"To-morrow morning," I went on, "it is my intention to begin with the +near end of the business district and call on every business house, one +after another, until I happen upon something that will provide a start. + +"I have no love for the grinding in an office, nor yet for the grubbing +in a warehouse, but, for a bit, it will be a case of 'needs must when +the devil drives,'--so I mean to take anything that I can get, to begin +with, and leave the matter of choice to a more opportune time." + +"And what would be your choice, George?" he inquired. + +"Choice! Well, if you asked me what I thought I was adapted for, I +would say, green-keeper and professional golfer; gymnastic instructor; +athletic coach; policeman; or, with training and dieting, pugilist. At +a pinch, I could teach school." + +K. B. Horsfal grinned and looked out of the car window at the +apparently never-ending sea of charred tree stumps through which we +were passing. + +"Not very ambitious, sonny!--eh!" + +"No,--that is the worst of it," I answered. "I do not seem to have +been planned for anything ambitious. Besides, I have no desire to +amass millions at the sacrifice of my peace of mind. Why!--a +millionaire cannot call his life his own. He is at the beck and call +of everybody. He is consulted here and harassed there. He is dunned, +solicited and blackmailed; he is badgered and pestered until, I should +fancy, he wished his millions were at the bottom of the deep, blue sea." + +"Lord, man!" exclaimed Mr. Horsfal, "but you have hit it right. One +would almost think you had been through it yourself." + +"I have not," I answered, "but I know most of the diseases that attack +the man of wealth." + +"Now, you have given me an idea of what you might _have_ to do. But to +get back to desire or choice;--what would it be then?" he inquired, as +the electric tram passed at last from the tree stumps and began to +draw, through signs of habitation, toward the city. + +"If I had my desire and my choice, Mr. Horsfal, they would be: in such +a climate as we have here but away somewhere up the coast, with the sea +in front of me and the trees and the hills behind me; the open air, the +sunlight; contending with the natural,--not the artificial,--obstacles +of life; work, with a sufficiency of leisure; quiet, when quiet were +desired; and, in the evening as the sun went down into the sea or +behind the hills, a cosy fire, a good book and my pipe going good." + +K. B. Horsfal, millionaire, patentee, lumberman and meat-packer, looked +at me, sighed and nodded his head. + +"After all, my boy," he said, almost sadly, "I shouldn't wonder if that +isn't better than all the hellish wealth-hunting that ever was or ever +shall be. Stick to your ideals. Try them out if you can. As for +me,--it's too late. I am saturated with the money-getting mania; I am +in the maelstrom and I couldn't get out if I tried. I'm in it for +good." + +Our conversation was brought to an abrupt ending, as Mr. Horsfal had to +make a short call at one of the newspaper offices, on some business +matter. We got out of the tram together. I waited for him while he +made his call, then we walked back leisurely to the hotel; happy, +pleasantly tired and hungry as hunters. + +I was regaled in the dining-room as the guest of my American friend. + +"Are you going to be in for the balance of the evening?" he asked, as I +rose to leave him at the conclusion of our after-dinner smoke. + +"Yes!" + +"Good!" he ejaculated, rather abruptly. + +And why he should have thought it "good," puzzled me not a little as I +went up in the elevator. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +Golden Crescent + +I had been sitting in my room for two hours, reading, and once in a +while, thinking over the strange adventures that had befallen me since +I had started out from home some three short weeks before. I was +trying to picture to myself how it had all gone in the old home; I was +wondering if my father's heart had softened any to his absent son. + +I reasoned whether, after all, I had done right in interfering between +my brother Harry and his fiancee; but, when I thought of poor little +Peggy Darrol and the righteous indignation and anger of her brother +Jim, I felt, that if I had to go through all of it again, I would do as +I had done already. + +My telephone bell rang. I answered. + +It was the hotel exchange operator. + +"Hello!--is that room 280?" + +"Yes!" I answered. + +"Mr. George Bremner?" + +"Yes!" + +"A gentleman in room 16 wishes to see you. Right away, if you can, +sir!" + +"What name?" I asked. + +"No name given, sir." + +"All right! I'll go down at once. Thank you!" + +I laid aside my pipe and threw on my coat. On reaching the right +landing, I made my way along an almost interminable corridor, until I +stood before the mysterious room 16. + +As I entered, a respectably dressed, middle-aged man was coming out, +hat in hand. Two others were sitting inside, apparently waiting an +interview, while a smart-looking young lady,--evidently a +stenographer,--was showing a fourth into the room adjoining. + +It dawned on me that this request to call must be the outcome of the +letter I had written that morning in answer to the newspaper +advertisement. + +I immediately assumed what I thought to be the correct, meek expression +of a man looking for work; with, I hope, becoming timidity and +nervousness, I whispered my name to the young lady. Then I took a seat +alongside one of my fellow applicants, who eyed me askance and with +what I took to be amused tolerance. + +Five minutes, and the young lady ushered out the man who had been on +the point of being interviewed as I had come in. + +"Mr. Monaghan?" queried the lady. + +Mr. Monaghan rose and followed her. + +An interval of ten minutes, and Mr. Monaghan went after his predecessor. + +"Mr. Rubenstein?" asked the lady. + +Mr. Rubenstein, who, every inch of him, looked the part, went through +the routine of Mr. Monaghan, leaving me alone in the waiting room. + +At last my turn came and I was ushered into the "sanctum." I had put +my head only inside the door, when the bluff voice I had learned that +day to know shouted merrily: + +"Hello! George. What do you know? Come on in and sit down." + +And there was Mr. Horsfal, as large as life, sitting behind a desk with +a pile of letters in front of him. + +I was keenly disappointed and I fear I showed it. Only this,--after +all my rising hopes,--the genial Mr. Horsfal wished to chat with me now +that he had got his business worries over. + +"Why!--what's the matter, son? You look crestfallen." + +"I am, too," I answered. "I was not aware which rooms you occupied +and, when I received the telephone message to come here and saw those +men waiting, I felt sure I had received an answer to my application for +a position I saw in the papers this morning." + +Mr. Horsfal leaned back in his chair and surveyed me. + +"Well,--no need to get crestfallen, George. When you had that thought, +your thinking apparatus was in perfect working order." + +My eyes showed surprise. "You don't mean----" + +"Yes! George." + +"What?--'wanted,--alert, strong, handy man, to supervise up-coast +property. One who can run country store preferred. Must be sober,'" I +quoted. + +"The very same. I've been interviewing men for a week now and I'm sick +of it. I got your letter this evening. But all day I have had it in +my mind that you were the very man I wanted, sent from the clouds right +to me." + +"But,--but," I exclaimed. "I am afraid I have not the experience a man +requires for such a job." + +K. B. Horsfal thumped his desk. + +"Lord sakes! man,--don't start running yourself down. Boost,--boost +yourself for all you're worth." + +"Oh, yes! I know," I said. "But this is different. I have become +acquainted with you. I cannot sail under false colours. I have no +experience. I am a simple baby when it comes to business." + +He banged his desk again. + +"George,--I'm the boss of this affair. You must just sit back quiet +and listen, while I tell you about it; then you can talk as much as you +want. + +"There's a thousand acres of property that I, or I should say, my +daughter Eileen owns some hundred miles up the coast from here. The +place is called Golden Crescent Bay. My wife took a fancy to it in the +early days, when she came with me on a trip one time I was looking over +a timber proposition. I bought it for her for an old song and she grew +so fond of the place that she spent three months of every year, as long +as she lived, right on that very land. She left it all to Eileen when +she died. + +"As a business man, I should sell it, for its value has gone away up; +but, as a husband, as a father and as a sentimentalist, I just can't do +it. It would be like desecration. + +"There's two miles of water frontage to it; there's the house we put +up, also a little cabin where the present caretaker lives. The only +other place within a couple of miles by water and four miles round by +land through the bush, is a cottage that stands on the property +abutting Eileen's, and close to her bungalow. It has been boarded up +and unoccupied for quite a while. Of course, up behind, over the +hills, there are ranches here and there, while, across the bay and all +up the coast, there are squatters, settlers, fishermen and ranchers for +a fare-you-well." + +"You say there is a caretaker there already?" I put in. + +"Yes!--I was just getting to that. He's an old Klondike miner; came +out with a fortune. Spent the most of it before he got sober. Came +to, just in time. Now he hoards what's left like an old skinflint. +Won't spend a nickel, unless it's on booze. Drinks like a drowning man +and it never fizzes on him. A good enough man for what he's been +doing, but no good for what I want now." + +"You don't want me to do him out of his place, Mr. Horsfal?" I asked. + +"I was coming to that, too,--only you're so darned speedy. + +"He's all right as a caretaker with little or nothing to do, and he +will prove useful to you for odd jobs,--but, I have a salmon cannery +some miles north of this place and I am going to have half a dozen +lumber camps operating south, and further up, for the next few years. +Some of them are going full steam ahead now. + +"They require a convenient store, where they can get supplies; grub, +oil, gasoline, hardware and such like. I need a man who could look +after a proposition of that kind,--good. The settlers would find a +store up there a perfect god-send. + +"The property at Golden Crescent is easily got at and is the most +central to all my places. Now, having an eye to business, and with +Eileen's consent, I have decided to convert the large front living-room +of her bungalow into a store. It is plain, and can't be hurt. It's +just suited for the purpose. I have had some carpenters up there this +past week, putting in a counter and shelves and shutting the new store +off completely from the rest of the house. + +"A stock of groceries, hardware, etc., has already been ordered from +the wholesalers and should be up there in a few days. + +"Steamers pass Golden Crescent twice a week. When they have anything +for you, they whistle and stand by out in the bay; when you want them, +you hoist a white flag on the pole, on the rock, at the end of the +little wharf; then you row out and meet them. + +"These are the main features, George. Oh, yes! I'm paying one hundred +dollars a month and all-found to the right man." + +He stopped and looked over at me a little anxiously. + +"George!--will you take the job?" + +"What about those other poor beggars who have applied?" I asked. + +"There you are again," he exclaimed impatiently. "They had the same +chance as you had. Didn't I even keep you waiting out there till I had +seen them in turn. Not one of them has the qualifications you have. I +want a man with a brain as well as a body." + +"But you don't know me, Mr. Horsfal. I have no friends, no +testimonials; and I might be,--why! I might be the biggest criminal +unhung." + +"Testimonials be blowed! Who wants testimonials? Any dub can get +them. As for the other part,--do you think K. B. Horsfal of Baltimore, +U. S. A., by this time, doesn't know a man after he has been a whole +day in his company? + +"Sonny, take it from me,--there are mighty few American business men, +who have topped a million dollars, who don't know a man through and +through in less time than that, and without asking very many questions, +either. Why, man!--that's their business; that's what makes their +millions." + +There was no resisting K. B. Horsfal. + +"Thanks! I'll take the job," I said. "And I'm mighty grateful to you." + +"Good boy! You're all right. Leave it there!" His two hands clasped +over mine. + +"Gee! but I'm glad that's over at last." + +"When do I start in?" I asked. + +"Right now. I'll phone for a launch to be ready to start up with us +to-morrow morning. I'll show you over the proposition and leave you +there. Phone for any little personal articles you may want. I'll +attend to the bedding and all that sort of thing. Have the boy call +you at six a. m. sharp." + +Nothing was overlooked by the masterly mind of my new, my first +employer. + +We breakfasted early. An automobile was standing waiting for us at the +hotel entrance; while, at a down-town slip, a trig little launch, +already loaded up with our immediate necessities, was in readiness to +shoot out through the Narrows as soon as we got aboard. + +This launch was named the _Edgar Allan Poe_, and, in consequence, I +felt as if she were an old friend. + +As soon as the ropes were cast from the wharf, a glorious feeling of +exhilaration started to run through me; for it seemed that I was being +loosed from the old life and plunged into a new; a life I had been for +so long hungering; the life of the woods, the hills and the sea, the +quiet and freedom; the life of my dreams as well as of my waking +fancies. Whether or not it would come up to my expectations was a +question of conjecture, but I was not in a mood to trouble conjecturing. + +The swift little boat fought the tide rip in the Narrows like a lonely +explorer defending his life against a horde of surging savages; and, +gradually, she nosed her way through, past Prospect Point, then, +inclining to the north shore, but heading forward all the time, past +the lighthouse which stands sentinel on the rock at Point Atkinson; and +away up the coast, leaving the city, with its dizzying and +light-blotting sky-scrapers far and still farther behind, until nothing +of that busy terminal remained to the observer but a distant haze. + +The _Edgar Allan Poe_ threaded her way rapidly and confidently among +the rocks and fertile little islands, up, up northward, ever northward, +amid lessening signs of life and habitation; through the beautiful +Strait of Georgia. + +From eight o'clock in the morning till three o'clock in the afternoon +we sailed on, amid a prodigality of scenic beauty,--sea, mountains and +islands; islands, mountains and sea,--enjoying every mile of that +beautiful trip. We conversed seldom, although there was much to +discuss and our time was short. + +At last, we sped past a great looming rock, which stood almost sheer +out of the sea, then we ran into a glorious bay, where the sea danced +and glanced in a fairy ecstasy. + +"Golden Crescent Bay," broke in Mr. Horsfal. "How do you like it?" + +"It is Paradise," I exclaimed, in breathless admiration. And never +have I had reason to change that first impression and opinion. + +We ran alongside a rocky headland close to the shore, on which stood +two little wooden sheds bearing the numbers one and two. We clambered +up. + +"Number one is for gasoline; two for oil," volunteered my ever +informing employer. + +The rock was connected to the shore by a well-built, wooden wharf on +piles, which ran directly into what I rightly guessed had been the +summer home of Mrs. Horsfal. It was a plainly built cottage and trim +as a warship. It bore signs of having been recently painted, while, +all around, the grass was trim and tidy. + +On the right of this, about fifty yards across, on the same cleared +area, but out on a separate rocky headland, stood another well-built +cottage, the windows of which were boarded up. + +"My property starts ten yards to the south of the wharf here, George, +and runs around the bay as far, almost, as it goes, and back to the +hills quite a bit. That over there is the other house I spoke to you +about. It, and the property to the south, is owned by some one in the +Western States. + +"But I wonder where the devil old Jake Meaghan is. Folks could land +here and walk away with the whole shebang and he would never know of +it." + +As he spoke, however, a small boat crept out from some little cove +about three hundred yards round the bay. It contained a man, who rowed +it leisurely toward the wharf. We leaned over the wooden rail and +waited. + +The man ran the boat into the shingly beach, pulled in his oars, +climbed out and made toward us. An Airedale dog, which had evidently +been curled up in the bottom of the boat, sprang out after him, keeping +close to him and eyeing us suspiciously and angrily. + +In appearance the man reminded me of one of R. L. Stevenson's pirates, +or one of Jack London's 'longshoremen. + +He wore heavy logging boots, brown canvas trousers kept up by a belt, +and a brown shirt, showing hairy brown arms and a bared, scraggy +throat. A battered, sun-cast, felt hat lay on his head. His face was +wrinkled and weather-beaten to the equivalent of tanned hide. He wore +great, long, drooping moustaches snow white in colour. His eyes were +limpid blue. + +"It's you, Mr. Horsfal," he mumbled rather thickly, in a voice that +seemed to come from somewhere underground; "didn't know you in the +distance." + +"Jake,--shake with Mr. George Bremner;--he's going to supervise the +place and the new store, same as I explained to you two weeks ago. +Hope you make friends. He's to be head boss man, and his word goes; +but you'll find him twenty-four carat gold." + +"That's darned fine gold, boss," grunted Jake. + +He held out his horny hand and grasped mine, exclaiming heartily enough: + +"Glad to meet you, George." + +He pulled out a plug of tobacco from his hip pocket, brushed some of +the most conspicuous dirt and grime from it, bit off what appeared to +me to be a mouthful and began to look me over. + +"He's new," he grunted, as if to himself; "but he's young and big. He +looks tough; he's got the right kind of jaw." + +Then he turned to Mr. Horsfal. "Guess, when he gets the edges rubbed +off, he'll more than make it, boss," he said. + +K. B. Horsfal laughed loudly. + +"That's just what I thought myself, Jake. Now, give us the keys to the +oil barns and the new store. Go and help unload that baggage and truck +from the launch. You can follow your usual bent after that, for I'll +be showing George over the place myself." + +I found the prospective store just as it had been described: a large, +plain, front room, now fitted with shelves and a counter, and all +freshly painted. Everything was in readiness to accommodate the stock, +most of which was due to arrive the next afternoon. Where a door had +been, leading into the other parts of the house, it was now solidly +partitioned up, leaving only front and back entrances to the store. + +We spent the afternoon in the open air, inspecting the property, which +was perfectly situated for scenic beauty, with plenty of cleared, +fertile land near the shore and rich in giant timber behind. + +In the early part of the evening, after a cold lunch aboard the launch, +we went back to the house and, for the first time, Mr. Horsfal inserted +a key into the front door of the dwelling proper. + +I had been not a little curious regarding this place and I was still +wondering where it was intended that I should take up my quarters. + +Jake Meaghan seemed all right in his own Klondikish, +pork-and-beans-and-a-blanket way, but I hardly fancied him as a rooming +partner and a possible bedfellow. To be candid, I never had had a +bedfellow in all my life and I had already made up my mind that, rather +than suffer one now, I would fix up one of the several empty barns +which were scattered here and there over the property, and thus retain +my beloved privacy. + +My employer pushed his way into the house and invited me to follow him. + +I found myself in a small, front room, neatly but plainly furnished. +The floor was varnished and two bearskin rugs supplied the only +carpeting. It had a mahogany centre table, on which a large +oil-burning reading lamp was set. Three wicker chairs, designed solely +for comfort, and a stove with an open front helped to complete its +comfortable appearance. A number of framed photographs of Golden +Crescent and some water colour paintings decorated the plain, wooden +walls. In the far corner, beside a small side window, there stood a +writing desk; while, all along that side of the wall, on a long curtain +pole, there was hung, from brass rings, a heavy green curtain. + +I took in what I could in a cursory glance and I marvelled that there +could be so much apparent concentrated comfort so far away from city +civilisation; but, when my guide pulled aside the curtain on the wall +and disclosed rows and rows of books behind a glass front, books +ancient and modern, books of religion, philosophy, medicine, history, +fiction and poetry,--at least a thousand of them,--I gave up trying any +more to fathom what manner of a man he was. + +My eyes sparkled and explained to K. B. Horsfal what my voice failed to +utter. + +"Well,--what d'ye think of it all?" he asked at last. + +"It is a delight,--a positive delight," I replied simply. + +As I walked over to the front window, I wondered little that Mrs. +Horsfal should have loved the place; and, when I looked away out over +the dancing waters, upon the beauties of the bay in the changing light +of the lowering sun, upon the rocky, fir-dotted island a mile to sea, +and upon the lonely-looking homes of the settlers over there two miles +away on the far horn of Golden Crescent, with the great background of +mountains in purple velvet,--I wondered less. + +"Yes! George,--it's pretty near what heaven should be to look at. But +I guess it's the same old story that the poet once sang: + +"'Where every prospect pleases and only man is vile.' + +"That poet kind of forgot that, if what he said was true, it was only +the vile man that the prospect could please, eh! + +"You notice the house has been cleaned from top to toe. I had that +done last week. I see to that every time I come west." + +He put his hand on my shoulder. "George, boy,--no one but myself and +Eileen has slept under this roof since my wife died, but I want you to +make it your home." + +I turned to remonstrate. + +"Now,--don't say a word," he hurried on. "You can't bluff me with your +self-defamatory remarks. You are not a Jake Meaghan, or one of his +stamp. You are of the kind that appreciates a home like this to the +extent of taking care of it. + +"Come and have a look at the other apartments. + +"This is the kitchen. It has a pantry and a good cooking-stove. There +are four bedrooms in the house. This can be yours;--it's the one I +used to occupy. This is a spare one. This is Eileen's. You won't +require it; and one never knows when Eileen might take it into her head +to come up here and live. + +"This is my Helen's room,--my wife's. It has not been changed since +she died." + +He went in. I remained respectfully in the adjoining apartment. I +waited for five minutes. + +When he returned, there were tears in his eyes. He locked the door +with a sigh. + +"George,--here are the keys to the whole she-bang. There isn't much +more to keep me here. You have signed the necessary papers in +connection with the trust account for $5,000 in the Commercial Bank of +Canada in Vancouver. Draw your wages regularly. Pay Jake his fifty a +month at the same time. We find his grub for him. + +"Run things at a profit if you can, for that's business. Stand +strictly to the instructions I have given you regarding orders for +supplies from the various camps and from the cannery. Use your own +judgment as to credit with the settlers. I leave you a free hand up +here. + +"Send your monthly reports, addressed to me care of my lawyers, Dow, +Cross & Sneddon of Vancouver. They will forward them. + +"If any question should arise regarding the property itself, get in +touch with the lawyers." + +I walked with him down to the launch as he talked. + +"Thanks to you, George,--I'll get to Vancouver in the small hours of +the morning and I will be able to pull out for Sydney in the afternoon +of to-morrow. + +"Good-bye, boy. All being well, I'll be back within a year." + +In parting with him, as he shook me by the hand, I experienced a +tightening in my throat such as I had never felt when parting from any +other man either before or since. Yet, I had only known him for two +days. I could see that he, also, was similarly affected. It was as if +something above and beyond us were making our farewell singularly +solemn. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +The Booze Artist + +I stood watching until the tiny launch rounded the point; then, as the +light was still fairly good,--it being the end of the month of +May,--and as I had no inclination for sleep as yet, I got into the +smallest of the rowing boats that were tied up alongside the wharf, +loosed it and pulled leisurely up the bay, with the intention of making +myself a little better acquainted with the only living soul with whom I +was within hail,--Jake Meaghan. + +As I ran the boat into his cove, I could hear his dog bark warningly. + +The door of his barn,--for it was nothing else,--was closed, and it was +some time before I heard Meaghan's deep voice in answer to my knock, +inviting me to come in and bidding his dog to lie down. + +Meaghan was sitting, presumably reading a newspaper, which was the only +kind of "literature" I ever saw him read. His attitude appeared to me +to be assumed and I had a notion that, when the dog first barked at my +approach, he had been busy with the contents of a brass-bound, wooden +chest which now lay half under his bunk, in a recess in the far corner. + +"Hello! Thought you might come over. Sit down," he greeted. "Saw the +boss pull out half an hour ago. I'm just sittin' down for my turn at +the newspaper. They leave me a bundle off the steamer once in a while. +This one's from the old country;--the _Liverpool Monitor_. It's two +months old, but what's the dif,--the news is just as good as if it was +yesterday's or to-morrow's." + +I looked round Jake's shanty. Considering it was a single-roomed place +and used for cooking, washing, sleeping and everything else, it was +wonderfully tidy, although, to say truth, there was little in it after +all to occasion untidiness: a stove, a pot, a frying-pan, an enamelled +tin teapot, some crockery, a table, an oil lamp, three chairs, the +brass-bound trunk, two wheat-flake boxes and Jake's bed,--with one +other addition,--a fifteen-gallon keg with a stopcock in it and set on +a wooden stand close to his bunk. + +An odour of shell-fish pervaded the atmosphere, coming from some kind +of soup made from clams and milk, on which Jake had evidently been +dining. The residue of it still sat in a pot on the stove. This, I +discovered, was Jake's favourite dish. + +He rose, took two breakfast cups from a shelf and went over to the keg +in the corner. He filled up both of them to the brim. + +"Have a drink, George?" he invited, offering me one of the cups. + +"What is it?" I asked, thinking it might be a cider of some kind. + +"What d'ye suppose, man?--ginger beer? It's good rye whiskey." + +From the odour, I had ascertained this for myself before he spoke. + +"No, thanks, Jake, I don't drink." + +"Holy mackinaw!" he exclaimed, almost dropping the cups in his +astonishment. "If you don't drink, how in the Sam Hill are you going +to make it stick up here? Why, man, you'll go batty in the winter +time, for it's lonely as hell." + +"From all accounts, Jake, hell is not a very lonely place," I laughed. + +"Aw!--you know what I mean," he put in. + +"I'll have plenty of work to do in the store; enough to keep me from +feeling lonely." + +"Not you. Once it's goin', it'll be easy's rollin' off'n a log. +What'll you do o' nights, 'specially winter nights,--if you don't +drink?" + +He sat down and began to empty his cup of liquor by the gulp. + +His dog, which had been lying sullenly on the floor near the stove, got +up and ambled leisurely to Jake's feet. It looked up at him as he +drank, then it put its two front paws on Jake's knees, as if to attract +his attention. + +Meaghan stopped his imbibing and stroked the dog's head. + +"Well,--well--Mike; and did I forget you?" + +He poured a little liquor in a saucer and set it down on the floor +before the dog, who lapped it up with all the relish of a seasoned +toper. Then it put its paws back on Jake's knees, as if asking for +more. + +"No! Mike. Nothin' doin'. You've had your whack. Too much ain't +good for your complexion, old man." + +In a sort of dreamy, contemplative mood the dog sat down on its +haunches between us. + +"What'll you do o' nights if you don't drink? You ain't told me that, +George," reiterated Jake, sucking some of the liquor from his drooping +moustaches. + +"Oh!" I replied, "I'll read, and sometimes I'll sit out and watch the +stars and listen to the sea and the wind." + +"And what after that?" he queried. + +"I can always think, when I have nothing else to do." + +"And what after that?" he asked again. + +"Nothing, Jake,--nothing. That's all." + +"No it ain't. No it ain't, I tell you;--after that,--it's the bughouse +for yours. It's the thinking,--it's the thinking that does it every +time. It's the last stage, George. You'll be clean, plumb batty +inside o' six months." + +The dog got up, after two unsuccessful attempts. + +Never did I see such a strange sight in any animal. He put out one paw +and staggered to the right. He put out another and staggered to the +left. All the time, his eyes were half closed. He was quite +insensible of our presence, for he was as drunk as any waterfront +loafer. Staggering, stumbling and balancing, he made his way back to +his place beside the stove, where, in a moment more, he was in a deep +sleep and snoring,--as a Westerner would put it,--to beat the cars. + +Meaghan noticed my interest in the phenomenon. + +"That's nothin'," he volunteered. "Mike has his drink with me every +night, for the sake o' company. Why not? He doesn't see any fun in +lookin' at the stars and watching the tide come up o' nights. Worst +is, he can't stand up to liquor. It kind o' gets his goat; yet he's +been tipplin' for three years now." + +Jake finished off his cup of whisky. + +"Good Heavens, man!" I exclaimed in disgust and dismay, "don't you know +you will kill yourself drinking that stuff in that way?" + +"Guess nit," he growled, but quite good-naturedly. "I ain't started. +I've been drinkin' more'n that every night for ten years and I ain't +dead yet,--not by a damn sight. No! nor I ain't never been drunk, +neither." + +He took up the other cupful of whisky as he spoke and slowly drained it +off before my eyes. He laid the empty cup on the table with a grunt of +satisfaction, pulling at his long moustaches in lazy pleasure. + +"That's my nightcap, George. Better'n seein' stars, too." + +I could see his end. + +"I'd much rather see stars than snakes," I remarked. But Jake merely +laughed it off. + +I rose in a kind of cold perspiration. To me, this was +horrible;--drinking for no apparent reason. + +He came with me to the door. His voice was as steady as could be; so +were his legs. The effects of the liquor he had consumed did not show +on him except maybe for a bloodshot appearance in the whites of his +baby-blue eyes. + +I was worried. I had known such another as Jake in the little village +of Brammerton; and I knew what the inevitable end had been and what +Jake's would be also. + +"Don't be sore at me, George," he pleaded. "It's the only friend I got +now." + +"It is not any friend of yours, Jake." + +"Well,--maybe it ain't, but I think it is and that's about the only way +we can reckon our friends. + +"When you find I ain't doin' my share o' the work because o' the booze +or when you catch me drunk,--I'll quit it. Good-night, George." + +I wished him good-night gruffly, hurried over the beach, scrambled into +the boat and rowed quickly for my new home. + +And, as I stood on the veranda for a long time before turning in, I +watched the moon rise and skim her way behind and above the clouds, +throwing, as she did so, great dark shadows and eerie lights on the sea. + +In the vast, awesome stillness of the forest behind and the swishing +and shuffling of the incoming tide on the shingles on the beach, I +thought of what my good friend, K. B. Horsfal, had quoted: + +"Where every prospect pleases and only man is vile." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +Rita of the Spanish Song + +Next morning I was awakened bright and early by the singing of birds. +For a few moments I imagined myself back in England; but the ceaseless +beat of the sea and the sustained, woody-toned, chattering, chirruping +squeak of an angry squirrel on my roof gave me my proper location. + +I had heard once, in a London drawing-room, that there were no singing +birds in British Columbia; that the songsters of the East were unable +to get across the high, eternal cold and snow of the Rockies. What a +fallacy! They were everywhere around me, and in thousands. How they +got there was of little moment to me. They were there, much to my joy; +and the forests at my back door were alive with the sweetness of their +melodies. + +Early as I was, I could see a thin column of smoke rising from the cove +where Jake was. When I went to the woodpile at the rear of my +bungalow, I found more evidence of his early morning diligence. A heap +of dry, freshly cut kindling was set out, while the chickens had +already been fed and let out to wander at their own sweet wills. + +For the first time in my very ordinary life, I investigated the +eccentricities of a cook stove, overcame them and cooked myself a +rousing breakfast of porridge and bacon and eggs with toast. How proud +I felt of my achievement and how delicious the food tasted! Never had +woman cooked porridge and bacon and eggs to such a delightful turn. + +I laughed joyously, for I felt sure I had stumbled across an important +truth that woman had religiously kept from the average man throughout +all the bygone ages: the truth that any man, if he only sets his mind +to it, can cook a meal perfectly satisfactory to himself. + +After washing up the breakfast dishes without smashing any, sweeping +the kitchen floor and shovelling up--nothing; there was nothing left +for me to do, for the north-going steamer was not due until early in +the afternoon. When she should arrive and give me delivery of the +freight which she was bringing, I knew I should have enough to occupy +my attention for some days to come, getting the cases opened up and the +goods checked over, priced and set out in the store; but, meantime, my +time was my own. + +It was a glorious morning. The sun was shining and the air was balmy +as a midsummer's day at home. I opened the front door and gazed on the +loveliness; I stretched my arms and felt vigour running to my +finger-tips. Then I longed, how I longed, for a swim! + +And why not! I slipped out of my shirt and trousers and got into my +bathing suit. I ran down to the end of the wharf and out on to the +rocks. + +The water was calm, and deep, and of a pale green hue. I could see the +rock cod and little shiners down there, darting about on a breakfast +hunt. + +Filling my lungs, I took a header in, coming up fifteen yards out and +shaking my head with a gurgling cry of pleasure. I struck out, +overhand, growing stronger and more vigorous each succeeding moment, as +the refreshing sea played over my body. On, on I went, turning upon my +breast sometimes, sometimes on my back, lashing the water into foam +with my feet and blowing it far into the air from my mouth. + +Half a mile out and I was as near to the island, in the middle of the +Bay, as I was to the wharf. I knew I could make it, although I had not +been in the water for several weeks. I had an abundance of time, the +sea was warm, the island looked pretty,--so on I went. + +I reached it at last, a trifle blown, but in good condition. + +It had not been by any means a record swim for me. I had not intended +that it should. All the way, it had been a pleasure trip. + +I made for a sandy beach, between two rocky headlands. Soon, I got my +footing and waded ashore. After a short rest, I set out to survey the +island. + +All the childhood visions I had stored in my memory of "Coral Island," +"Crusoe's Island," and "Treasure Island" became visualised and merged +into one,--the island I was exploring. + +It was of fairy concept; only some four hundred yards long and about a +hundred yards in breadth, with rugged rocks and sandy beaches; secret +caves and strange caverns; fertile over all with small fir and arbutus +trees, shrubs, ferns and turfy patches of grass of the softest velvet +pile. In the most unlikely places, I stumbled across bubbling springs +of fresh water forcing its way through the rocks. How they originated, +was a mystery to me, for the island was separated from the mainland by +a mile, at least, of salt water. + +What an ideal spot, I thought, for a picnic! Would not some of my +eccentric acquaintances at home,--the Duke of Athlane, for +instance,--dearly love to take the whole thing up by the roots and +transplant it in the centre of some of the artificial lakes they had +schemed and contrived, in wild attempts to make more beautiful the +natural beauties of their estates? + +By this time, the warm air had dried my body. I climbed to the highest +point of the island,--a small plateau, covered with short turf; a +glorious place for the enjoyment of a sun bath. I lay down and +stretched myself. + +My only regret then was that I did not have a book with me to complete +my Paradise. + +Pillowed on a slight incline, I dreamily watched the scudding clouds, +then my eyes travelled across to the mainland. I could see the smoke +curl upward from my kitchen fire. I saw old Jake get into his boat, +followed by the drunken rascal of a dog, Mike. All was still and quiet +but for the seethe and shuffle of the sea. + +Suddenly, on the other side of the water somewhere, but evidently far +away, a voice, untrained, but of peculiar sweetness, broke into my +drowsing. I listened for a time, trying to catch the refrain. As it +grew clearer, I tried to pick up the words, but they were in a tongue +foreign to me. They were not French, nor were they Italian. At last, +it struck me that they were Spanish words; the words of a Spanish +dancing song, which, when I was a gadding-about college boy, had been +popular among us. I recalled having heard that it was sung by the +chorus of a famous Spanish dancer, who, at one time, had been the rage +of London and the Provinces, but who had mysteriously vanished from the +footlights with the same suddenness as she had appeared there. + +It was a haunting little melody, catchy and childishly simple; and it +had remained in my memory all these years, as is so often the case with +choruses that we hear in our babyhood. + +Naturally, I was more than curious to see the singer, so I crept to the +top of the grassy knoll and peered over, searching the far side of the +island and over the water. + +Away out, I discerned a small boat making in the direction of the +island. The oars were being plied by a woman, or a girl,--I could not +tell which, as her back was toward me and she was still a good way off. +She handled her oars as if she were a part of the boat itself and the +boat were a living thing. + +She stopped every now and then, rose from her seat and busied herself +with something. I wondered what she was doing. I saw her haul +something into the boat. As she examined it in her hand, the sun +flashed upon it. I could hear her laugh happily as she tossed it into +the bottom of the boat. + +She was trolling for fish and, evidently, getting a plentiful supply. + +She rowed in as if intent upon fishing round the island. But, all at +once, she changed her mind, turned the boat, pulled in her fishing line +and shot into a sandy beach, springing out and pulling the boat clear +of the tide. + +She straightened herself as she turned and faced the plateau on the far +incline of which I lay hidden. I saw at a glance that, though a mere +girl in years,--somewhere between sixteen and eighteen,--yet she was a +woman, maturing as a June rose, as a butterfly stretching its pretty +wings for the first time in the ecstasy of its new birth. Of medium +height; her hair was the darkest shade of brown and hung in two long, +thick braids down to her neat waist. She seemed not at all of the +countrified type I might have expected to encounter so far in the wilds. + +She was dressed in a spotless white blouse, the sleeves of which were +rolled back almost to her shoulders; with a dark-coloured, serviceable +skirt, the hem of which hung high above a pair of small, bare feet and +neat, supple-looking ankles. I could see her shoes and stockings, +brown in colour, lying in the bow of the boat. She reached over, +picked them up, then sat on a rock by the water's edge and pulled them +on her feet. + +But, after all, it was not her dress that held my attention; although +in the main this was pleasing to the eye, nor yet was it the girl's +features, for she was still rather far off for me to observe these +distinctly. What riveted me was the light, agile rapidity of her every +action; and her evident abandonment of everything else for what, for +the moment, absorbed her. + +As I watched, I became filled with conflicting thoughts. Should I +remain where I was, or should I at once betray my presence? + +I decided that the island was large enough for both of us. She was not +interested in me, so why should I interrupt her in her lonely enjoyment? + +I was perplexed more than a little in trying to place where she +rightfully belonged. Naturally, I took her to be the daughter of one +of the settlers on the far side of Golden Crescent. But there was a +something in her entire appearance that seemed to place her on a +different plane from that, a plane all by herself; while, again, there +was the Spanish song which I had heard her lilt out on the water. + +She brought my conjecturing to rather an abrupt conclusion, for, +without any warning, she darted up over the rocks and through the ferns +to where I lay, and she had almost trodden upon me before I had time to +get out of her way. + +She stepped back with an exclamation of surprise, but gave no sign to +indicate that she was afraid. + +I sprang to my feet. + +"I am very sorry,--miss," I said sincerely. + +"Oh!--there ain't much to be sorry over. This ain't my island. +Still,--girls don't much care about men watching them from behind +places," she replied, with a tone of displeasure. + +"And I am sorry,--again," I answered. "Please forgive me, for I could +hardly help it. I was lying here when I heard you sing. I became +curious. When you landed, I intended making my presence known, but I +said to myself just what you have said now:--'It is not my island.' +However, I shall go now and leave you in possession." + +"Where is your boat?" + +"Didn't bring one with me." + +"How did you get here then?" + +Her blunt questioning was rather disconcerting. + +"Oh! I walked it," I answered lightly, with a grin. + +Her voice changed. "You're trying to be smart," she reprimanded. + +"Sorry," I said, in a tone of contrition, "for I am not a bit smart in +spite of my trying. Well,--I swam across from the wharf over there." + +She looked up. "Being smart some more." + +"No!--it is true." + +She measured the distance from the island to the wharf with her eye. + +I remarked, some time ago, that her hair was of the darkest shade of +brown. I was wrong;--there was a darker hue still, and that was in her +eyes; while her skin was of that attractive combination, olive and pink. + +"Gee!--that was some swim. + +"How are you going to get back?" she continued, in open friendliness. + +"Swim!" + +"Ain't you tired?" + +"I was winded a bit when I got here, but I am all right again," I +answered. + +"You're an Englishman?" + +"How did you guess it?" I asked, as if I were giving her credit for +unearthing a great mystery. + +Before answering, she sat down on the grass, clasping her hands over +her knees. I squatted a short distance from her. + +"Only Englishmen go swimming hereabouts in the morning." + +"Do you often stumble across stray, swimming Englishmen?" I asked in +banter. + +"No!--but three summers ago there were some English people staying in +that house at the wharf that's now closed up:--the one next Horsfal's, +and they were in the water so much, they hardly gave the fish a chance. +It was the worst year we ever had for fishing." + +I laughed, and she looked up in surprise. + +"Then we had an English surveyor staying with us for a month last year. +He was crazy for the water. He went in for half an hour every morning +and before his breakfast, too. You don't find the loggers or any of +the settlers doing silly stunts like that. No, siree. + +"Guess you're a surveyor?" + +"No!" + +"Or maybe a gentleman up for shooting and fishing? Can't be though, +for there ain't any launches in the Bay. Yes, you are, too, for I saw +a launch in yesterday." + +"I hope I am always a gentleman," I said, "but I am not the kind of +gentleman you mean. I have no launch and no money but what I can earn. +I am the new man who is to look after Mr. Horsfal's Golden Crescent +property. I shall be more or less of a common country storekeeper +after to-day." + +"Heard about that store from old Jake. Granddad over home was talking +about it, too. It'll be convenient for the Camps and a fine thing for +the settlers up here." + +She jumped up. "Well,--I guess I got to beat it, Mister----" + +"George Bremner," I put in. + +"My name's Rita;--Rita Clark. I stay over at the ranch there, the one +with the red-roofed houses. This island's named Rita, too." + +"After you?" + +"Ya!--guess so!" + +She did not venture any more. + +"Been here long?" I asked. + +"Long's I can remember," she answered. + +"Like it?" + +"I love it. It's all I got. Never been away from it more'n three +times in my life." + +There was something akin to longing in her voice. + +"I love it all the same,--all but that over there." + +As she spoke, she shivered and pointed away out to the great +perpendicular rock, with its jagged, devilish, shark-like teeth, which +rose sheer out of the water and stood black, forbidding and snarling, +even in the sunshine, to the right, at the entrance to the Bay, a +quarter of a mile or so from the far horn of Golden Crescent. + +"You don't like rocks?" + +"Some rocks," she whispered, "but not 'The Ghoul.'" + +"The Ghoul," I repeated with a shudder. "Ugh!--what a name. Who on +earth saddled it with such a horrible name?" + +"Nobody on earth. Guess it must have been the devil in hell, for it's +a friend of his." + +Her face grew pale and a nameless horror crept into her eyes. + +"It ain't nice to look on now,--is it?" + +"No!" I granted. + +"You want to see it in the winter, when there's a storm tearing in, +with the sea crashing over it in a white foam and,--and,--people trying +to hang on to it. Oh!--I tell you what it is,--it's hellish, that's +all. It's well named The Ghoul,--it's a robber of the dead." + +"Robber of the dead!--what do you mean?" + +"Everybody but a stranger knows:--it robs them of a decent burial. +Heaps of men, and women too, have been wrecked out there, but only one +was ever known to come off alive. Never a body has ever been found +afterwards." She shivered and turned her head away. + +For a while, I gazed at the horrible rock in fascination. What a +reminder it was to the poor human that there is storm as well as calm; +evil as well as good; that turmoil follows in the wake of quiet; that +sorrow tumbles over joy; and savagery and death run riot among life and +happiness and love! + +At last, I also turned my eyes away from The Ghoul, with a strong +feeling of anger and resentment toward it. Already I loathed and hated +the thing as I hated nothing else. + +I stood alongside the girl and we remained silent until the mood passed. + +Then she raised her eyes to mine and smiled. In an endeavour to +forget,--which, after all, was easy amid so much sunshine and +beauty,--I reverted to our former conversation. + +"You said you were seldom away from here. Don't you ever take a trip +to Vancouver?" + +"Been twice. We're not strong on trips up here. Grand-dad goes to +Vancouver and Victoria once in a while. Grandmother's been here twenty +years and never been five miles from the ranch, 'cept once, and she's +sorry now for that once. + +"Joe's the one that gets all the trips. You ain't met Joe. Guess when +you do you and him won't hit it. He always fights with men of your +size and build." + +"Who is this Joe?" I asked. "He must be quite a man-eater." + +"I ain't going to tell you any more. You'll know him when you see him. + +"I'm going now. Would you like some fish? The trout were biting good +this morning. I've got more'n we need." + +We went down to the shore together. There were between thirty and +forty beauties of sea-trout in the bottom of her boat. She handed me +out a dozen. + +"Guess that'll make a square meal for you and Jake." + +Then she looked at me and laughed, showing her teeth. "Clean forgot," +she said. "A swimming man ain't no good at carrying fish." + +"Why not?" I asked. + +I picked up some loose cord from her boat, strung the trout by the +gills and tied them securely round my waist. + +She watched me archly and a thought went flashing through my mind that +it did not need the education of the city to school a woman in the art +of using her eyes. + +"Guess I'll see you off the premises first, before I go." + +"All right!" said I. + +We crossed the Island once more, and I got on to a rock which dipped +sheer and deep into the sea. + +She held out her hand and smiled in such a bewitching way that, had I +not been a well-seasoned bachelor of almost twenty-five years' +standing, I should have lost my heart to her completely. + +"Good-bye! Mister,--Mister Bremner. Safe home." + +"Good-bye! Miss--Rita." + +"Sure you can make it?" she asked earnestly. + +"Yes!" I cried, and plunged in. + +As I came up, I turned and waved my hand. She waved in answer, and +when I looked again she was gone. + +I struck swiftly for the wharf, allowing for the incoming tide. + +When I was half-way across, I heard the sound of oars and, on taking a +backward glance, I saw Rita making toward me. + +"Hello!" I cried, when she drew near. "What's the matter?" + +A little shame-faced, she bent over. "I got scared," she said timidly, +"scared you mightn't make it. Sure you don't want me to row you in?" + +The boat was alluring, but my pride was touched. + +"Quite sure," I answered. "I'm as fresh as the trout round my waist. +Thanks all the same." + +"All right! Guess I was foolish. You ain't a man; you're a porpoise." + +With this half-annoyed sally, she swung the bow of the boat and rowed +away. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +An Informative Visitor + +That afternoon, prompt at two o'clock, a whistle sounded beyond the +point and, shortly afterwards, the steamboat _Siwash_, north bound, +entered the Bay. + +Jake and I were waiting at the end of the wharf, seated in a large, +wide-beamed, four-oared boat, with Mike, the dog,--still eyeing me +suspiciously,--crouching between his master's feet. + +We had a raft and half a dozen small rowing boats of all shapes and +conditions, strung out, Indian file, from our stern. Every available +thing in Golden Crescent Bay that could float, down to a canoe and an +old Indian dug-out, we borrowed or requisitioned for our work. And, +with this long procession in tow, we pulled out and made for the +steamer, which came to a standby in the deep water, three hundred yards +from the shore. + +The merchandise was let down by slings from the lower deck, and we had +to handle the freight as best we could, keeping closely alongside all +the while. + +A dozen times, I thought one or another of the boats would be +overturned and its contents emptied into the Bay. But luck was with +us. Jake spat tobacco juice on his hands every few minutes and sailed +in like a nigger. Our clothes were soon moist through and through, and +the perspiration was running over our noses long before our task was +completed. But finally the last package was lowered and checked off by +the mate and myself, a clear receipt given; and we (Jake and I) pushed +for the shore, landing exhausted in body but without mishap to the +freight. + +Jake fetched some fresh clams to my kitchen for convenience and, after +slapping half a plug of tobacco in his cheek, he started in and cooked +us a savoury concoction which he called "chowder," made with baked +clams mixed in hot milk, with butter and crumbled toast; all duly +seasoned:--while I smoked my pipe and washed enough dishes to hold our +food, and set the table for our meal. + +Already, I had discovered that dish-washing was the bugbear of a +kitchen drudge's existence, be the kitchen drudge female or male. I +had only done the job three or four times, but I had got to loathe and +abhor the operation. Not that I felt too proud to wash dishes, but it +seemed such a useless, such an endless, task. However, I suppose +everything in this old world carries with it more or less of these same +annoyingly bad features. + +At any rate, I never could make up my mind to wash a dish until I +required it for my next and immediate meal. + +We dined ravenously, and throughout the proceeding, Mike sat in the +doorway, keeping close watch that I did not interfere with the sacred +person of his lord and master, Jake Meaghan. + +Rested and reinvigorated, we set-to with box-openers, hammers and +chisels, unpacking and unpacking until the thing became a boring +monotony. + +Canned milk, canned beef, canned beans, canned salmon, canned crabs, +canned well-nigh-everything; bottled fruits, bottled pickles, bottled +jams and jellies, everything bottled that was not canned; bags of +sugar, flour, meal, potatoes, oats and chicken feed; hardware galore, +axes, hammers, wedges, peevies, cant hoops, picks, shovels, nails, +paints, brooms, brushes and a thousand other commodities and +contrivances the like of which I never saw before and hope never to see +again. + +Never, in all my humble existence, did I feel so clerky as I did then. + +I checked the beastly stuff off as well as I could, taking the +Vancouver wholesalers' word for the names of half the things, for I was +quite sure they knew better than I did about them. + +With the assistance of Jake, as "hander-up," I set the goods in a +semblance of order on the shelves and about the store. + +We worked and slaved as if it were the last day and our eternal +happiness depended on our finishing the job before the last trump +sounded its blast of dissolution. + +By the last stroke of twelve, midnight, we had the front veranda swept +clean of straw, paper and excelsior, and all empty boxes cleared away; +just in time to welcome the advent of my first Sabbath day in the +Canadian West. + +Throughout our arduous afternoon and evening, what a surprise old Jake +was to me! Well I knew that he was hard and tough from years of +strenuous battling with the northern elements; but that he, at his age +and with his record for hard drinking, should be able to keep up the +sustained effort against a young man in his prime and that he should do +so cheerfully and without a word of complaint,--save an occasional +grunt when the steel bands around some of the boxes proved +recalcitrant, and an explosive, picturesque oath when the end of a +large case dropped over on his toes,--was, to me, little short of +marvellous. + +Already, I was beginning to think that Mr. K. B. Horsfal had erred in +regard to his man and that it was Jake Meaghan who was twenty-four +carat gold. + +If any man ever did deserve two breakfast cups brimful of whisky, neat, +before turning in, it was old, walrus-moustached, weather-battered, +baby-eyed, sour-dough Jake, in the small, early hours of that Sabbath +morning. + +I slept that night like a dead thing, and the sun was high in the +heavens before I opened my eyes and became conscious again of my +surroundings. + +I looked over at the clock. Fifteen minutes past ten! I threw my legs +over the side of the bed, ashamed of my sluggardliness. + +Then I remembered,--it was Sunday morning. + +Oh! glorious remembering! Sunday,---with nothing to do but attend to +my own bodily comforts. + +I pulled my legs back into the bed in order to start the day correctly. +I lay and stretched myself, then, very leisurely,--always remembering +that it was the Sabbath,--I put one foot out and then the other, until, +at last, I stood on the floor, really and truly up and awake. + +Jake had been around. I could see traces of him in the yard, though he +was nowhere visible in the flesh. + +After I had breakfasted and made my bed (I know little Maisie Brant, +who used to make my bed away back over in the old home--little Maisie +who had wept at my departure, would have laughed till she wept again, +had she seen my woful endeavours to straighten out my sheets and smooth +my pillow. But then, she was not there to see and laugh and--I was +quite satisfied with my handiwork and satisfied that I would be able to +sleep soundly in the bed when the night should come again)--I hunted +the shelves for a book. + +Stevenson, Poe, Scott, Hugo, Wells, Barrie, Dumas, Twain, Emerson, +Byron, Longfellow, Burns,--which should it be? + +Back along the line I went, and chose--oh, well!--an old favourite I +had read many times before. + +I hunted out a hammock and slung it comfortably from the posts on the +front veranda, where I could lie and smoke and read; also where I could +look away across the Bay and rest my eyes on the quiet scene when they +should grow weary. + +Late in the afternoon, when I was beginning to grow tired of my +indolence, I heard the thud, thud of a gasoline launch as it came up +the Bay. It passed between Rita's Isle and the wharf, and held on, +turning in to Jake Meaghan's cove. + +I wondered who the visitor could be, then I went back to my reading. + +Not long after, a shadow fell across my book and I jumped up. + +"Pray, don't let me disturb you, my son," said a soft, well-modulated, +masculine voice. "Stay where you are. Enjoy your well-earned rest." + +A little, frail-looking, pale-faced, elderly gentleman was at my elbow. + +He smiled at me with the smile of an angel, and my heart went out to +him at once, so much so that I could have hugged him in my arms. + +"My name is William Auld," he continued. "I am the medical missionary. +What is yours, my son?" + +He held out his hand to me. + +"George Bremner," I replied, gripping his. "Let me bring you a chair." + +I went inside, and when I returned he was turning over the leaves of my +book. + +"So you are a book lover?" he mused. "Well, I would to God more men +were book lovers, for then the world would be a better place to live +in, or rather, the men in it would be better to live among. + +"Victor Hugo,--'Les Miserables'!--" he went on. "To my mind, the +greatest of all novelists and the greatest of all novels." + +He laid the book aside, and sought my confidences, not as a preacher, +not as a pedagog, but as a friend; making no effort to probe my past, +seeking no secrets; but all anxiety for my welfare; keen to know my +ambitions, my aspirations, my pastimes and my habits of living; open +and frank in telling me of himself. He was a man's man, with the +experience of men that one gets only by years of close contact. + +"For twenty years it has been God's will to allow me to travel up and +down this beloved coast and minister to those who need me." + +"You must like the work, sir," I ventured. + +"Like it!--oh! yes, yes,---I would not exchange my post for the City +Temple of London, England." + +"But such toil must be arduous, Mr. Auld, for you are not a young man +and you do not look altogether a robust one." + +He paused in meditation. "It is arduous, sometimes;--to-day I have +talked to the men at eight camps and I have visited fourteen families +at different points on my journey. But, if I were to stop, who would +look after my beloved people in the ranches all up the coast; who would +care for my easily-led, simple-hearted brethren in the logging camps, +every one of whom knows me, confides in me and looks forward to my +coming; not one of whom but would part with his coat for me, not one +who would harm a hair of my head. I shall not stop, Mr. Bremner,--I +have no desire to stop, not till God calls me. + +"I see you have been making changes even in your short time here," he +said, pointing to the store. + +"Yes! I think Jake and I did fairly well yesterday," I answered, not a +little proudly. + +"Splendidly, my boy! And, do you know,--your coming here means a great +deal. It is the commencement of a new departure, for your store is +going to prove a great boon to the settlers. They have been talking +about it and looking forward to it ever since it was first mooted. + +"But it will not be altogether smooth sailing for you, for you must +keep a close rein on your credit." + +It struck me, as he spoke, that he was the very man I was desirous of +meeting regarding what I considered would prove my stumbling block. + +"Can you spare me half an hour, sir, and have tea with me?" I asked. + +"Yes! gladly, for my day's service is over,--all but one call, and a +cup of tea is always refreshing." + +I showed him inside and set him in my cosiest chair. While I busied +with the table things,--washing some dishes as a usual preliminary,--I +approached the subject. + +"Mr. Auld,--I wished to ask your advice, for I am sure you can assist +me. My employer, Mr. Horsfal, has given me a free hand regarding +credit to the settlers. I know none of them and I am afraid that, +without guidance, I may offend some or land the business in trouble +with others. Will you help me, sir?" + +"Why--of course, I'll help." + +He took a sheet of paper from his pocket and commenced to write, +talking to me as he did so. + +"You know, if times are at all good, you can trust the average man who +owns the ranch he lives on to pay his grocery bills sooner or later. +Still, if I were you, I wouldn't let any of them get into debt more +than sixty or seventy dollars, for they do not require to, and, once +they get in arrears, they have difficulty in getting out. + +"It is the floating population,--the here-to-day-and-away-to-morrow +people who should not be given credit. And,--Mr. Bremner, if you +desire to act in kindness to the men themselves, do not allow the +loggers, who come in here, to run up bills for themselves personally. +Not that they are more dishonest than other people,--far from it. I +find it generally the other way round,--but they are notoriously +improvident; inclined,--God bless them,--to live for the fleeting +moment. + +"In many ways they are like children in their simplicity and their +waywardness,--and their lot is not one of roses and honeysuckle. They +make good money and can afford to pay as they go. If they cannot pay, +they can easily wait for what they want until they can, for they are +well fed and well housed while in the camps." + +We sat down at the table together. + +"There is a list, George. May I call you George? It is so much more +friendly." + +I nodded in hearty approval. + +"It is not by any means complete, but it contains the principal people +among your near-hand neighbours. You can trust them to pay their last +cent: Neil Andrews, Semple, Smith, Johannson, Doolan, MacAllister and +Gourlay. + +"Any others who may call,--make them pay; and I shall be glad to inform +you about them when I am this way again." + +"How often do you come in here, Mr. Auld?" + +"I try to make it, at least, once in two weeks, but I am not always +successful. I like to visit Jake Meaghan. Poor, old, faithful, +plodding Jake,--how I tried, at first, to extract the thorn from his +flesh--the accursed drink! I talked to him, I scolded him, I +threatened him, but,--poor Jake,--he and his whisky are one, and +nothing but death will ever separate them." + +Suddenly his face lit up and his eyes seemed to catch fire. + +"And who are we to judge?" he said, as if denying some inward question. +"What right have we to think for a moment that this inherent weakness +shall deprive Jake Meaghan of eternal happiness? He is honest; he does +good in his own little sphere; he harms no one but himself, for he +hasn't a dependent in the world. He fills a niche in God's plan; he is +still God's child, no matter how erring he may be. He is some mother's +son. George,--I am fully persuaded that my God, and your God, will not +be hard on old Jake when his time comes; and, do you know, sometimes I +think that time is not very far off." + +We sat silent for a while, then the minister spoke again: + +"Tell me, George,--have you met any of your neighbours yet?" + +"Only two," I said, "Jake, and Rita Clark." + +He raised his white, bushy eyebrows. + +"So you have met Rita! She's a strange child; harboured in a strange +home." + +He sighed at some passing thought. + +"It's a queer world,--or rather, it's a good world with queer people in +it. One would expect to find love and harmony in the home every time +away up here, but it does not always follow. Old Margaret Clark is the +gentlest, dearest, most patient soul living. Andrew Clark is a good +man in every way but one,--but in that one he is the Rock of Gibraltar +itself, or, to go nearer the place of his birth, Ailsa Craig, that old +milestone that stands defiantly between Scotland and Ireland. Andrew +Clark is immovable. He is hard, relentless, fanatical in his ideas of +right and wrong; cruel to himself and to the woman he vowed to love and +cherish. Oh!--he sears my heart every time I think of him. Yet, he is +living up to his idea of what is right." + +The white-haired old gentleman,--bearer of the burdens of his +fellows,--did not confide in me as to the nature of Andrew Clark's +trouble, and it was not for me to probe. + +"As for Rita," he pursued, "poor, little Rita!--she is no relative of +either Margaret or Andrew Clark. She is a child of the sea. Hers is a +pitiful story, and I betray no confidences in telling you of it, for it +is common property. + +"Fourteen years ago a launch put into the Bay and anchored at the +entrance to Jake's cove. There were several ladies and gentlemen in +her, and one little girl. They picnicked on the beach and, in the +evening, they dined aboard, singing and laughing until after midnight. +Jake was the only one who saw or heard them, and he swears they were +not English-spoken. Though they were gay and pleasure-loving, yet they +seemed to be of a superior class of people. + +"He awoke before daylight, fancying he heard screams in the location of +The Ghoul Rock. He got up and, so certain was he that he had not been +mistaken, he got into his boat and rowed out and round The Ghoul,--for +the night was calm,--but everything was quiet and peaceful out there. + +"Next morning, while Joe Clark was scampering along the shore, he came +across the unconscious form of a little girl about four years old, clad +only in a nightdress and roped roughly to an unmarked life-belt. Joe +carried her in to his grandfather, old Andrew, who worked over her for +more than an hour; and at last succeeded in bringing her round. + +"All she could say then was, "Rita, Rita, Rita," although, about a year +afterwards, she started to hum and sing a little Spanish dancing song. +A peculiar reversion of memory, for she certainly never heard such a +song in Golden Crescent. + +"Jake swears to this day that she belonged to the launch party, who +must have run sheer into The Ghoul Rock and gone down. + +"Little boy Joe pleaded with his grandfather and grandmother to keep +the tiny girl the sea had given them, and they did not need much +coaxing, for she was pretty and attractive from the first. + +"Inquiries were set afoot, but, from that day to this, not a clue has +been found as to her identity; so, Rita Clark she is and Rita Clark she +will remain until some fellow, worthy of her I hope, wins her and +changes her name. + +"I thought at one time, Joe Clark would claim her and her name would +not be changed after all, but since Joe has seen some of the outside +world and has been meeting with all kinds of people, he has grown +patronising and changeable with women, as he is domineering and +bullying with men. + +"He treats Rita as if he expected her to be continually at his call +should he desire her, and yet he were at liberty to choose when and +where he please." + +"But, does Rita care for him?" I asked. + +"Seems so at times," he answered, "but of late I have noticed a +coldness in her at the mention of his name; just as if she resented his +airs of one-sided proprietorship and were trying to decide with herself +to tolerate no more of it. + +"I tried to veer round to the subject with Joe once, but he swore an +oath and told me to mind my own affairs. What Joe Clark needs is +opposition. Yet Joe is a good fellow, strong and daring as a lion and +aggressive to a degree." + +I was deeply interested as the old minister told the story, and it was +like bringing me up suddenly when he stopped. I had no idea how fast +the time had been passing. + +Well I could understand now why this Rita Clark intuitively hated The +Ghoul Rock. Who, in her place, would feel otherwise? + +The Rev. William Auld rose from the table. + +"I must go now, my son, for the way is long. Thanks so much for the +rest and for your hospitality. My only exhortation to you is, stand +firm by all the principles you know to be true; never lose hold of the +vital things because you are here in the wilds, for it is here the +vital things count, more than in the whirr of civilisation." + +"Thank you, sir. I'll try," I said. "You will come again, I hope." + +"Certainly I shall. Even if you did not ask me, for that is my duty. + +"If you accompany me as far as Jake's cove, where my launch is, I think +I can furnish you with a paper from your countryside. I have friends +in the city, in the States and in England, who supply me, every week, +with American and Old Country papers. There are so many men from both +lands in the camps and settled along the coast and they all so dearly +love a newspaper. I generally try to give them what has been issued +nearest their own home towns." + +I rowed Mr. Auld over to his launch and wished him good-bye, receiving +from his kindly old hands a copy of _The Northern Examiner_, dated +three days after I had left Brammerton. + +It was like meeting with an old friend, whom I had expected never to +meet again. I put it in my inside pocket for consideration when I +should get back to my bungalow with plenty of time to enjoy it. + +I dropped in to Jake's shack, for I had not seen him all the sleepy +day. I found him sitting in perfect content, buried up over the eyes +in a current issue of _The Northern Lights_,--a Dawson newspaper, which +had been in existence since the old Klondike days and was much relished +by old-timers. + +The dog was curled up near the stove, sleeping off certain effects; +Jake was at his second cup of whisky. I left them to the peace and +sanctity of their Sabbath evening and rowed back to "Paradise +Regained," as I had already christened my bungalow. + +I sat down on the steps of the veranda, to peruse the home paper which +the minister had left with me, and it was not long before I was +startled by a flaring headline. The blood rushed from my face to my +heart and seemed as if it would burst that great, throbbing organ:-- + + +"SUDDEN DEATH OF THE EARL OF BRAMMERTON AND HAZELMERE." + + +My eyes scanned the notice. + +"News has been telegraphed that the Earl of Brammerton and Hazelmere +died suddenly of heart failure at his country residence, Hazelmere. +His demise has caused a profound sensation, as it occurred on the eve +of a House Party, arranged in celebration of the engagement of his son, +Viscount Harry Brammerton, Captain of the Coldstream Guards, to the +beautiful Lady Rosemary Granton, daughter of the late General Frederick +Granton, who was the companion and dearest friend of the late Earl of +Brammerton in the early days of their campaigning in the Crimea and +India." + +A long obituary notice followed, concluding with the following +paragraph: + + +"It is given out that the marriage of the present Earl with Lady +Granton has been postponed and that, after the necessary business +formalities have been attended to, Captain Harry will join his regiment +in Egypt for a short term. + +"Lady Rosemary Granton has gone to New York, at the cabled invitation +of some old family friends." + +"It is understood that the Hon. George Brammerton, second and only +other son of the late Earl, is presently on a long walking tour in +Europe. His whereabouts are unknown and he is still in ignorance of +his father's death." + + +The pain of that sudden announcement, so soon after I had left home and +right on the eve of my new endeavours, no one shall ever know. + +My dear old father! Angry at my alleged eccentricities sometimes, but +ever ready to forgive,--was gone: doubtless, passing away with a +message of forgiveness to me on his lips. + +And,--after the pain of it, came the conflict. + +Had what I had done caused or in any way hastened my father's death? +Admitting that Harry's fault was great and unforgiveable, would it not +have been better had I allowed it to remain in obscurity, at least for +a time? Was the keeping of the family name unsullied, was the +untarnished honour of our ancient family motto, "Clean,--within and +without," of greater importance than my father's life? Was it my duty +to be an unintentional and silent partner to the keeping of vital +intelligence from the fair Lady Rosemary? + +Over all,--had I done right or wrong? + +What did duty now demand of me? Should I hurry home and face the fresh +problems there which were sure to arise now that Harry had succeeded to +the titles and estates? Should I remain by the post I had accepted +from the hands of Mr. K. B. Horsfal and test thoroughly this new and +exhilarating life which, so far, I had merely tasted? + +I had no doubts as to what my inclinations and desires were. But it +was not a question of inclinations and desires:--it was simply one of +duty. + +All night long, I sat on the veranda steps with my elbows on my knees +and my head in my upturned hands, fighting my battle; until, at last, +when the grey was creeping up over the hills behind me and touching the +dark surface of the sea in front here and there with mellow lights, I +rose and went in to the house,--my conscience clear as the breaking +day, my mind at rest like the rose-coloured tops of the mountains. + +I had no regrets. I had done as a true Brammerton should. I had done +the right. + +I would not go back;--not yet. I would remain here for a while in my +obscurity, testing out the new life and executing as faithfully as I +knew how the new duties I had voluntarily assumed. + +Further,--for my peace of mind,--so long as I remained in Golden +Crescent, I decided I would not cast my eyes over the columns of any +newspaper coming from the British Isles. If I were to be done with the +old life, I must be done with it in every way. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +Joe Clark, Bully + +With the advent of Monday morning, the Golden Crescent Trading Company, +in charge of George Bremner, handyman, store-clerk, bookkeeper, buyer +and general superintendent,--opened its doors for business. + +I was not overburdened with customers, for which I was not sorry, as I +had lots to do fixing the prices of my stock and setting it to rights. + +But the arrival of the mail by the Tuesday steamer brought Neil +Andrews, Doolan, Gourlay and the stern, but honest-faced old Scot, +Andrew Clark, all at different times during the afternoon. Not one of +them could resist the temptation and go away without making some +substantial purchases. + +I held religiously to the Rev. William Auld's list, but I found, in +most cases, that my customers were prepared to pay for their first +orders, at any rate, in cash; and, of course, I did not discourage them. + +On Wednesday, a launch, with three men in her, put in from No. 1 camp +at Susquahamma, bearing an order as long as my arm, duly endorsed in a +business-like way and all according to requirements. + +It took me most of the afternoon to put that order up. The men did not +seem to mind, as they reckoned the going and returning to camp a +well-nigh all-day job for them. They made Jake's shack their +headquarters, spending all of the last two hours of their time in his +cabin. + +Thursday brought another launch, this time from Camp No. 3, and the +same process was gone through as with No. 1, including the visit of the +visitors to Jake's shack. + +In an ordinary case, I would have been beginning to fear that that +shack had become a common shebeen, but I knew Jake was not the man to +accept money from any of his fellow creatures in exchange for any +hospitality it might be in his power to offer. A few days later came a +repeat order from No. 1 Camp, then a request from the Cannery, which I +was able to fill only in part, as many things required by them had not +been included in the original orders given to the Vancouver wholesalers. + +I was beginning to wonder where Camp No. 2 was getting its supplies +from, when, one day, about two weeks after my opening, they showed up. + +Two men came over in a fast-moving launch of a much better type than +those in use by the other camps. The men were big and burly fellows. +One of them was unmistakably Irish; the other looked of Swedish +extraction. + +"You the man that looks after this joint?" asked the Swede. + +"I am," I answered. + +He looked me up and down, for I was on the same side of the counter as +they. Then he turned to his Irish companion with a grin. + +"Say, mister,--where's your hoss?" he asked, addressing me. + +Both laughed loudly. + +At first I failed to see the point of hilarity. + +"What is the joke?" I asked. + +"Guess you are!" said the Swede. And the two men laughed louder than +ever. + +"Look here!" I cried, my blood getting up, "I want you two to +understand, first go off, that I am not in the habit of standing up to +be grinned at. What do you want? Speak out your business or get out +of here and tumble back into your boat." + +"Ach!--it's all right, matey," put in the Irishman. "Just a bit av fun +out av yer breeches and leggings. We Canucks don't wear breeches and +leggings in grocery stores. Do we, Jan?" + +"Guess nit," said Jan. And they both laughed again. + +I cooled down, thinking if that were all their joke they were welcome +to it, for I had already found my breeches and leggings mighty handy +for getting through the bush with and for tumbling in and out of leaky +rowing boats. + +I grinned. "All right, fellows," I cried, "laugh all you want and I'll +leave you a legging each as a legacy when I die." + +"Say, sonny,--you're all right!" he exclaimed. + +Good humour returned all round. + +"We're from No. 2 Camp at Cromer Bay and we want a bunch of stuff." + +"Where is your list and I'll try to fill it?" I inquired. + +The Swede handed over a long order, badly scrawled on the back of a +paper bag. The order was unstamped and unsigned, and not on the +company's order form. + +"This is not any good," I said. "Where is the company's order?" + +The Swede looked blankly at the Irishman, and the Irishman gazed +dreamily at the Swede. + +"Guess that's good enough. Ain't it, Dan?" + +"Shure!" seconded Dan. + +"It can't be done, boys," I said. "Sorry,--but I have my instructions +and they must be followed out." + +I handed back the list. + +The Swede stared at it and then over at me. + +"Ain't you goin' to fill this?" + +"No!" + +"Well, I'll be gosh-dinged! Say! sonny,--there'll be a hearse here for +you to-morrow. The boss wrote this." + +"How am I to know that?" I retorted. + +"Damned if I know," he returned, scratching his forelock. "But it'll +be merry hell to pay if we go back without this bunch of dope." + +"And it might be the devil to pay, if I gave you the goods without a +proper order," I followed up. + +"Some of this stuff's for to-morrow's grubstake," put in the Swede, +"and most of the hardware's wanted for a job first crack out of the box +in the morning." + +"Sorry to disoblige you, fellows," I said sincerely, "but your boss +should not have run so close to the wind. Further, I am going to work +this store right and that from the very beginning." + +"And you're not goin' to fill the boss's own caligeography, or whatever +you call it?" reiterated the Irishman. + +"No!" + +"Wouldn't that rattle ye?" exclaimed Dan to his friend. + +"It do," conceded the Swede, who put his hand into his pocket and +tossed fifteen cents on to the counter. + +"Well,--give us ten cents chewing tobacco, and a packet of gum." + +I filled this cash order and immediately thereafter the two walked out +of the store and sailed away without another word or even a look behind +them. + +I was worried over the incident, for I did not like to think myself in +any way instrumental in depriving the men of anything they might +require for their supper, and it was farthest from my desires to stop +or even hamper the work at Camp No. 2. But I had been warned that +there was only one way to operate a business and that was on business +lines, according to plan, so my conscience would not permit of any +other course than the one I had taken. + +Had the store been my own, I might have acted differently, but it was +merely held by me in trust, which was quite another matter. + +Next forenoon, a tug blew her whistle and put into the Bay, coming-to +on the far side of Rita's Isle. A little later, as I stood behind the +counter writing up some fresh orders to the wholesalers, to replenish +my dwindling stock, a dinghy, with one man at the oars and another +sitting in the stern, appeared round the Island and pointed straight +for the wharf. + +The oarsman ran the nose of the boat on the beach and remained where he +was. The man who had been sitting in the stern sprang out and came +striding in the direction of the store. + +He stopped at the door and looked around him, ignoring my presence the +while. + +What a magnificent specimen of a man he was! Never in my life had I +seen such a man, and, with all the sight-seeing I have done since, I +have never met such another. + +I fancied, with my five feet eleven inches, that I was of a good +height; but this giant stood six feet four inches, if he stood an inch. +He looked quite boyish; not a day older than twenty-two. His hair was +very fair and wavy, and he had plenty of it. + +He was cleanly shaven and cleanly and neatly dressed. His eyes were +big and sky blue in colour. They were eyes that could be warm or cold +at will. Just then, they were passively cold. + +His was a good face, reflecting strength and determination, while +honesty, straight-forwardness and absolute fearlessness lent a charm to +it that it otherwise would have lacked. + +After all, it was the glory of his stature that attracted me, as he +stood, framed by the door, dressed in his high logging boots, with +khaki-coloured trousers and a shirt to match; a soft felt hat on the +back of his head set a little sportily to one side. + +Myself an admirer of the human form, a lover of muscle and sinew, +strength, agility and virility, it always was the physique of a person +that arrested my attention. + +What a man this was for a woman to love! flashed the thought through my +mind. Gazing at him, I could not help feeling my own insignificance in +comparison, although, far down inside of me, there was a hungry kind of +longing to match my agility and science against his tremendous brute +strength, a wondering what the outcome would be. It was, however, +merely a feeling of friendly antagonism. + +But this was the fancy of a passing moment, for I was waiting for the +big fellow to speak. + +He did speak, and rather spoiled the impression. + +"What'n the hell kind of a dump is this anyway?" he exploded. + +I was hit as with a brickbat, but I tried not to show it. + +"This is the Golden Crescent Trading Company," I answered quietly and, +if anything, with an assumption of meekness which I was far from +feeling;--just to see how much rope this big fellow would take to hang +himself with. + +I suppose my tone made him think that his verbal onslaught had been as +effective as it had been short. + +He turned his eyes on me for the first time. They fixed on mine, and +never once flickered. + +"You--don't--say!" he returned, in measured words. + +Then he flared up again. + +"Say!--who's the boss here?" + +"I am," I retorted, getting warm. + +He came over to the middle of the floor. + +"And where'n the hell do I come in?" he asked. + +"Don't know, I'm sure, mister; and I don't care very much either. But +I have an idea that you or I will go out, quick, if you don't cool +down." + +"Here!--you cut that stuff out." He came up to the counter, clenching +his huge hands. "I'm Joe Clark,--see." + +"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Clark. I'm George Bremner." + +"Who'n the hell's George Bremner?" he burst out. + +"That's just what I was wondering in regard to Joe Clark," I retorted, +returning glare for glare. "But look you here,--whoever you may be, +you may get off with this sort of language elsewhere, but it doesn't +have any effect on the man who is running the Golden Crescent Trading +Company." + +He tried hard to hold himself together. + +"Guess you're one of them new-broom-sweep-clean smart Alicks," he said. + +"About as smart as you are civil, Mr. Clark." + +"Well, Mister Man, supposin' you and me gets down to brass tacks, right +now. I'm the Superintendent of No. 2 Camp, with a say in the +management of Camps No. 1 and No. 3. I own three tugs operatin' on the +coast here." + +He thumped his fist on the counter,--"and anything I have a hand in, my +word goes,--understand." + +"You are a lucky man," I answered. "But your word won't go here unless +it coincides with mine, Mister Clark. + +"Now," I added briskly, "tell me your business, or get out. I have +other work to do." + +He raised his hand and leaned across the counter, as if to clutch me by +the throat, and a terrible paw of a hand it was, too. But, evidently, +he thought better of it. + +Not that I fancied for a moment that he was afraid of me at all, +because I knew quite well that he was not. + +He sat down on a box and watched me closely, sizing me up at every +angle as I busied myself adjusting some tins on the shelves that were +in no way in need of adjustment. + +"Guess you think I pay men to take picnics for the good of their health +down to this one-horse outfit." + +"I have not wasted any thoughts on you at all, so far, Mr. Clark," I +replied. + +"Why'n the hell didn't you fill my order yesterday?" + +"Was it your order?" + +"'Course it was. Wrote it out myself, every bit of it." + +"Well,--you're a rotten writer, Mr. Clark." + +"Oh!--can it. What kind of a tin-pot way of doin' business was that? +What was this damned place started for anyway, if not for the +convenience of the Camps?" + +"I suppose you think I ought to know your writing?" I asked. +"Well,--Mr. Clark, even if I had known it, I would not have accepted +the order as it was. My positive instructions are that all camp orders +have to be filled only on receipt of a stamped and signed document on +the Company's business form for that purpose. And that's the only way +goods will go out from here, whether for Joe Clark or for any one else." + +"And what if I ain't got an order with me now? Guess you'll turn me +down same as you did the others yesterday?" + +"That is just what I would have to do." + +"The hell you would!" He put his hand into his pocket and brought out +some papers, one of which he threw on the counter. "There's your +blasted order. Get a wiggle on, for I ain't here on a pleasure +jaunt,--not by a damn sight. I'll be back in an hour for them goods." + +"Better make it an hour and a half. It's a big order and it will not +be ready a minute sooner." + +"Gosh!" he growled, as he strode out, "some store-clerk,---I don't +think." + +I filled the requirements of Camp No. 2 to the best of my ability, +packing up the goods and making everything as secure as necessary for +the boat trip. I had the stuff all piled nicely on the veranda and was +sitting on the steps contemplating and admiring the job, when the +dinghy came back with Joe Clark in the stern as before. + +"Hi, there!--you with the breeches and the leggings,--ain't you got +that order of mine ready yet?" + +"It is all here waiting for you," I shouted back, striking a match on +my much maligned breeches and lighting my briar pipe leisurely. + +"Well,--why'n the devil don't you bring it aboard?" + +"Why don't you come and fetch it?" I cried. "I'm a store-keeper, +Mister Joe Clark,--not a delivery wagon. I sell f.o.b. the veranda." +And I smoked on. + +He jumped out of the boat and rushed up the beach like a madman. I sat +still, smoking away dreamily, but with a weather eye on him. + +He stood over me, rolled up his sleeves and contemplated me, then he +turned and shouted to his man: + +"Hi, Plumbago! Come on and lend a hand with this cargo. No use +wasting any time on this tom-fool injun." + +To say I was surprised, was to put it mildly, for I was sure a quarrel +was about to be precipitated. + +Joe Clark and his man set to, carrying the boxes, and bundles, and +packages piecemeal from the veranda to the boat, while I smoked and +smoked as if in complete ignorance of their presence. + +I knew I was acting aggravatingly, but then, I had been very much +aggravated. + +In an ordinary circumstance I would have been only too pleased to lend +a hand if asked and, possibly, without being asked,--although there was +nothing calling for me to do so,--but when ordered,--well,--how would +any other fellow with a little pride in him have acted? Still, I must +give Joe Clark his due. He made two trips to that dinghy against his +helper's one and he always tackled the heaviest and the most unwieldy +packages. + +When he came for the last box, I rose to go into the house. As I +turned, he caught me by the arm. + +"Here!" he shouted. + +I whipped round. + +"Take your hands off me," I cried angrily, jerking my arm in an old +wrestling trick and throwing my weight on him at an unbalanced angle, +freeing myself and sending him back against the partition. + +He recovered himself and we stood facing each other defiantly. + +"God!" he growled, "but I'd like to kill you. You think you've won +this time. Maybe you have, but, by God! you won't be in this store a +month from now. I'll hound you out, or kick you out,--take it from me." + +"And I'll stand by," I replied, "and take it all quietly like the +simple little lamb I'm not." + +I went into the house and closed the door, and the last I saw of Joe +Clark that day was through the window as he packed his last box and +pushed off in the dinghy. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A Visit, A Discovery and a Kiss + +In the cool of the evening, I came to the conclusion that I had earned +for myself the privilege of the enjoyment of a swim, so I threw my +clothes on my bed, got into my costume, ran out on to the rocks, dived +in and away. + +I did not go out into the Bay this time, but kept leisurely along the +beach fronting the neighbouring property, keeping at a safe distance +from the tangle of seaweed, which, somehow, seemed to gather at that +particular part of the Crescent. + +I amused myself for half an hour, then I returned dripping and in +splendid humour with myself, with my friends and even with Joe Clark. + +I did not notice an extra boat moored alongside the miscellaneous small +craft at the wharf, so, when I stepped noiselessly into my front room, +I was more than surprised to find Rita Clark standing there, in the +fading light, looking over my book shelves. + +She turned with an exclamation, and her face lit up with a smile which +was bewitching, although I fancied it just a little bit forced. + +"Oh!--it's you," she cried. "I knew you wouldn't be very long away. +Been having another try to see whether you're a man or a fish? Guess +the fish will win out if you're not careful." + +She became solemn suddenly. + +"Say!--you go in there and get dressed. I just got to talk to you +about something." + +"Gracious goodness! Is it as serious as all that, Miss Clark?" I +quizzed. + +"Serious enough. You go in and hurry, anyway." + +"I won't be two minutes," I cried, going into my bedroom and dressing +as quickly as possible, puzzling all the while as to what the girl had +on her mind. Something connected with Joe,--I hadn't a doubt. + +"Well,--what's the trouble?" I asked, as I returned and sat down in a +wicker chair opposite her. + +She seemed more glum than ever. + +"What did you want to go and scrap with Joe for?" she asked in a +worried way. + +"I'm very sorry, Miss Clark----" + +"Oh!--call me Rita," she put in impatiently. + +"Well,--I'm very sorry,--Rita,--but I did not quarrel with Joe. He +quarrelled with me." + +"It's all the same," she replied. "Takes two to do it. Couldn't you +find another way than that?" + +Her eyes were bright and her bosom was disturbed. + +"I thought, maybe, you and him might be friends; but I might have +known," she went on bitterly. "He only makes friends with the men who +lay down to him. You ain't that sort." + +I threw out my hands helplessly. + +"Well, Rita, don't you worry your little head over it. It is all +right." + +"Oh, no, it ain't! Don't fool yourself. You don't know Joe." + +"I reckoned him a man who could keep his own counsel. How did you come +to hear there had been any words?" + +"He was over home. He only comes once in a while now. He didn't do +anything but talk about you. Called you all kinds of things. Says +he'll fix you good;--and he will, too, or he ain't the Joe Clark +everybody knows around here." + +Her eyes became tender and moist as she held out her hands to me with +an involuntary movement. "Oh! what did you want to quarrel with him +for, before you knew anything about him?" + +I rose and laid my hand lightly on her shoulder, as I would with a +little sister,--had I had one,--for she seemed only a slip of a girl +and it hurt me to see her so upset. + +"Look here! little maid," I said, "you forget all about it. Joe came +in here and asked me to do what the man who employed me particularly +instructed me against doing. I declined, and Joe became foolish, +losing his temper completely. This Joe likes to trample on men. He +grew angry because I would not let him do any trampling on me. No! +Rita, I am not a teeny-weeny little bit afraid of Joe Clark." + +She looked up at me in astonishment, then she sort of despaired again. + +"Oh! that's 'cause you don't know him. Everybody's got to do as Joe +says,--here and in the Camps and pretty near all along the coast." + +I laughed easily; for what did I care? Joe's worst, whatever it might +be, could not hurt me very badly. I was not so deeply into anything +yet for that. + +"He's a big man, and can hurt,--and he hurts everybody that runs up +against him." + +I leaned over against the window ledge and surveyed Rita. + +"Well,--" I said, "I'm not as big as Joe is, but I have been schooled +to hold my own. Joe shall have a good run for his money when he +starts." + +"Oh!--I know you're strong, and big, though not as big as him, and that +you ain't afraid. Maybe that's why I like Joe sometimes,--he's never +afraid. + +"Still,--I don't like him half as much as I used to," she sighed. "But +I didn't mean fighting when I talked of him being big and strong. +Joe's got influence, Joe's got money, he's got tugs and he's +superintendent of the Camps. He says he's boss of the whole shootin' +match, and you'll find it out soon." + +"He may be nearly all you say, but he has nothing to do with George +Bremner running this little Trading Company any more than being under +the necessity of buying his supplies here. I was put in by Mr. Horsfal +himself, to be under no one, and with the appointment of superintendent +of his Golden Crescent property. So, here I am like to stay as long as +I want to, or until Mr. Horsfal says differently." + +Rita glanced up at me and her eyes brightened with a ray of hope. + +"And Joe ain't got nothing to say about it?" + +"Not a particle. If he had had, I would not be here now. He would +have sacked me on the spot." + +"Really and truly, he ain't?" she cried, with fresh anxiety. + +"Really and truly," I repeated. + +"Oh! goody, goody,--" + +Poor little Rita;--all sunshine and shower. She was as merry as a +kitten for a time, then she dropped back into her serious mood. + +"What!--haven't all your worries gone yet?" I asked. + +"Some," she said, "but not them all. Do you know what Joe is, George? +He's a bully." + +"He is, undoubtedly," I agreed. + +"Ya!--he is, all right. Still,--it ain't all his fault either. He's +handling rough men, and men that are bullies same as he is. He's got +to get the work done and done quick. + +"Joe ain't bad. No, siree. Ask Josh Doogan, who was down and out with +something in his inside last year. When the doctor told him an +operation by a specialist in Philadelphia was the only thing that would +save him, and he hadn't a cent, Joe fixed him up and Josh is back +working in the Camps to-day. Yes!--ask Jem Sullivan, who got into +trouble with the police in Vancouver. He's working for Joe and he's +making good, too. Ask Jenny Daykin who it was that took care of her +for a year, after her Sam was drowned out at The Ghoul there, until her +young Sam finished for a school teacher. Ask,--Oh! ask most anybody; +grand-dad even, though he won't take a nickel from Joe or anybody else +except what he works for,--ask him. He's queer, is Joe, and I ain't a +bit struck on him,--not now,--I 'most hate him. But he ain't got a bad +heart, all the same." + +"Rita," I put in, "I believe every word of it, and, what is more, I am +mighty glad to hear you say it, for the first impression I had of him +was, 'Here's a man with a good, open, honest face, and his body is a +perfect working machine,--a real man after my own heart.' But he +jumped on me with both hands and feet, as I might say;--I jumped +back,--and, there we are. + +"I know what's wrong with him, Rita. As far as I can see, he has been +lucky,--luckier than most men. He has not had a single set-back. He +has been what they call a success. He is younger than I am by a year +or two, and he owns tugs and superintends camps, while I,--well, I am +just starting in. But he has got to putting down all this progress to +his own superior ability absolutely. He does not think that, maybe, +circumstances have been kind to him." + +Rita looked guardedly at me. + +"Don't misunderstand me,--I'm not saying that he has not been clever +and has not grasped every opportunity that came his way, worked hard +and all that;--Oh! you know what I mean. But he has got to thinking +that Joe Clark is everything and no one else is anything. It is bad +for any man when he gets that way. Give Joe Clark a set-back or two +and he will come out a bigger and a better man. + +"He is glutted and bloated with too much of his own way,--that's his +trouble." + +Rita sighed. + +"I guess you're right,--Joe used to be good friends with me. When we +were kids, Joe said he was going to marry me when he got big. He don't +say that any more though. Guess he's got too big. Tells me all about +the fine ladies he meets in Vancouver and Victoria and up the coast. +Wouldn't ever give me a chance, though, to get to know how to talk +good, and all that. Oh!--I know I ain't good at grammar. I wanted to +be. Joe said schooling just spoiled girls, and I was best at home. +Still, he talks about the ones that has the schooling. + +"He started in telling me about his lady friends again, to-day. I +didn't want to know about them, so I just told him. I was mad, +anyway;--about him and you, I guess. He was mad, too. Said I was +fresh. Grand-dad took your part against Joe. Said he liked you +anyway. Then he took my part. He knows Joe,--you bet. + +"He says, 'That'll do, Joe. You leave Rita be. She's a good lass and +you ain't playin' the game fair.' + +"I didn't hear any more, for I ran out. Didn't go back either, till +Joe cleared out." + +"What relation is Joe to the others, Rita?" I asked in puzzlement. + +"Joe's an orphan, same as me. His dad was grand-dad's only son, who +got killed in a blasting accident up the coast. Joe's mother was a +Swede. She died two months after Joe was born. Since Joe got moving +for himself, he don't stay around home very much. Sleeps mostly at the +Camps or on the tugs. Says grandmother and grand-dad make him tired; +says they're silly fools,--because,--because,----" + +Tears gathered in Rita's eyes and she did not finish. + +I let her pent-up emotion have free run for a while; probably because I +was ill at ease and knew I should look an idiot and talk like an +imbecile if I tried to console her, although I recalled having heard +somewhere that it is generally best to let a woman have her cry out +once she gets started. + +At last Rita wiped her eyes and looked over at me. + +"Guess you think me a baby,--guess I am, too," she said. "Never cried +before that I have mind. Never had anybody to cry to." + +I smiled. And Rita smiled,--a moist and trembling sort of smile in +return. + +"Joe Clark has been taking me, same as he takes most things, too much +for granted. Thinks I don't know nothing, because I'm up here at the +Crescent and not been educated any more'n grandmother and grand-dad +could teach me. But I've got feelings and I ain't going to have +anything more to do with him. Well,--not till he knows how to treat +me, same as I should be treated. Guess not then either. I don't care +now. I might not want him later,--might hate him. I believe I shall, +too." + +There was nothing of the soft, weepy baby about this young lady, and I +could see from the flash in her dark eyes and the set of her mouth that +she meant every word of what she said. + +She was a dainty, pretty, and alluring little piece of femininity; and +I could have taken her in my arms and hugged her, only I did not dare, +for like as not she would have boxed my ears. All I could say was: + +"Good for you, little girl. That's the way to talk." + +She smiled, and in little more than no time at all she was back into +her merry mood. + +We chatted and laughed together at the window until the dusk had crept +into darkness and Rita's Isle had become merely a heavy shadow among +the mists. + +"I got to be getting back," she said at last. "Can you fix up my +groceries for me, if you please?" + +I went into the store and packed together the few humble necessities +which had been Rita's excuse for coming over, although, I discovered +later, that Rita was pretty much of a free agent and did not require an +excuse to satisfy either her grandmother or her grandfather, both of +whom trusted her implicitly. + +Time went past quickly in there. + +"Rita, it is almost dark. Will you let me accompany you across the +Bay? I can fix a tow line behind for your little boat." + +"That would be nice," she answered simply. "But I can see in the dark +near as well as in the day time. I could row across there blindfold." + +As I paddled her over, I thought what a pity it was she could not talk +more correctly than she did. It was the one, the only jarring, note in +her entire make-up. But for that, she was as perfect a little lady as +I had ever met. + +Why not offer to teach her English? came the question to me;--and I +decided I would some day, but not just then. I would wait until I knew +her a little better; I would wait until I had become better acquainted +with her people; until the edge of my quarrel with Joe had worn off. + +As we grounded on the shore, in front of Rita's home, old Andrew +Clark,--short and sturdy in appearance and dour as any Scot could ever +be,--was on the beach. He came down to meet us and invited me up for a +cup of tea. + +I accepted the invitation, as I had a business project to discuss with +the old man, something that should prove a benefit to the store and a +financial benefit to him. + +He led me into the kitchen, where his wife,--a quiet, white-haired old +lady with a loving face and great sad eyes,--was sitting in an armchair +darning. + +She looked up as we entered. + +Andrew Clark did not seek to introduce me, which I thought unmannerly. +I turned round for Rita, but Rita had not followed us in; so I went +forward and held out my hand. The dear old woman took it and smiled as +if to say, "How sensible of you." + +"Sit down and make yourself at home," she said kindly. + +She spoke with the accent of an Eastern Canadian, although it was +evident she had spent many years in the West. + +Andrew Clark still held to his mother tongue,--Lowland Scots. But his +speech was also punctuated with Western slang and dialect. + +Every article of furniture in that kitchen was home-made:--chairs, +table, picture frames, washstands,--everything, and good solid +furniture it was too. + +The table was already set for tea. Mrs. Clark busied herself infusing +the refreshment, then Rita came in and we all sat down together. + +Andrew Clark's grace was quite an event,--as long as the ten +commandments, sonorous, impressive and flowery. + +I found he could talk, and talk well; and of many out-of-the-common +subjects he displayed considerably more than a passing knowledge. + +Margaret Clark,--for that was the lady's name,--was quiet and seemed +docile and careworn. She impressed me as being the patient bearer of a +hidden burden. + +There was something in the manner in which our conversation was +conducted that I could not fathom. And I was set wondering wherein its +strangeness lay. But, try as I liked, I could not reason it out. +Everybody was agreeable and pleasant; Rita was almost gay. But at the +back of it all, time and again it recurred to me,--what is wrong here? + +Not until the tea was over and I was seated between Andrew Clark and +Margaret before the fire, did the mystery solve itself. + +I approached the business part of my visit. + +"Mr. Clark, you have two or three hundred chickens on the ranch here." + +"Ay," he nodded reflectively, puffing at his pipe. + +"You send all your eggs to Vancouver?" + +"Ay!" + +"How many do you send per week, on an average?" + +"Ask Margaret,--she'll tell you." + +I turned and addressed Mrs. Clark, who looked over at her husband sadly. + +"When the season is good, maybe fifty dozen a week; sometimes more, +sometimes not so many, Mr. Bremner. Of course, in the winter, there's +a falling off." + +"I understand, Mrs. Clark. + +"I have a big demand from the Camps for eggs," I explained. "What I +get, I have to order from Vancouver. Now, it costs you money to send +your eggs to the market there, and it costs me money to bring mine from +the market. Why cannot we create a home exchange? I could afford to +pay you at least five cents a dozen more than you are getting from the +city dealers, save you and myself the freight charges, and still I +could be money ahead and I would always be sure of having absolutely +fresh stock. Besides, I would pay cash for what I got." + +Andrew Clark nodded his head. "A capital plan, my boy,--a capital +plan. Man," he exclaimed testily, "Joe, wi' all his smartness, would +never have thought o' that in a thousand years." + +I laughed. "Why!--there is no thinking to it, Andrew. It is simply +the A.B.C. of arithmetic. + +"What do you say to the arrangement then?" I asked. + +"Better ask Margaret,--she looks after the chickens. That's her +affair." + +I turned to the quiet old woman, and she heartily agreed with the plan. + +"Would you ask Andrew, Mr. Bremner, if we had better not take supplies +from your store in part payment for the eggs?" she inquired. + +I put the question to Andrew as things began to dawn in my mind. + +"Tell her it'll suit me all right," he agreed. + +And so--I acting as spokesman and go-between,--the arrangement was made +that I should use all the output of the chicken-farm and pay a price of +five cents per dozen in advance of the Vancouver market price on the +day of each delivery. + +I rose to go, bidding good-night to the old people. Rita came down to +the boat. Her face was anxious and she was searching mine for +something she feared to find. + +"Poor little girl," I exclaimed, as I laid my hand on her head. "How +long has this been going on between your grandmother and grand-dad?" + +Her eyes filled. + +"Oh! George,--it ain't grandmother's fault. She'd give her soul if +grand-dad would only speak to her. It's killing her gradual, like a +dry rot." + +"How long has it been going on?" I asked again. + +"Oh!--long's I can remember; near about ten years. There was a quarrel +about something. Grandmother wanted to visit some one in Vancouver. +Grand-dad didn't want her to go. At last he swore by the Word of God +if she went he'd never speak to her again. Grandmother cried all +night, and next day she went. When she came back, grand-dad wouldn't +speak to her; and he ain't ever spoken to her since." + +"My God!" I exclaimed with a shudder. + +"That's why Joe ain't struck on staying at the ranch. Says it's like a +deaf and dumb asylum." + +I didn't blame Joe. + +Good God! I thought. What a life! What an existence for this poor +woman! What a hell on earth! + +I became madly enraged at that dour old rascal, who would dare to sour +a home for ten years because of a vow made in a moment of temper. + +If any one deserved to be stricken dumb forever, surely he was that +one! And saying a grace at the tea-table that would put a bishop to +scorn,--all on top of this: oh! the devilish hypocrisy of it! + +Rita came close to me and laid her head lightly on my shoulder. + +"Don't be cross at grand-dad, George. He's a mighty good grand-dad. +There ain't a better anywhere. In everything, but speaking to +grandmother, he's a good grand-dad." + +I could not trust myself to say much. I climbed into the boat and made +to push off. + +"A good grand-dad," I exclaimed bitterly; "good mule, you mean. + +"Rita,--I know what would cure him." + +"No!--you don't, George,--for you don't know grand-dad." + +"Yes!--I know what would cure him, Rita." + +"What?" + +"A rope-end, well applied." And I pushed off. + +She ran into the water up to her knees and caught hold of the stern of +my boat. + +"You ain't mad with me, George," she cried anxiously. + +"No, no! Rita. Poor little woman,--why should I be?" + +She pouted. + +"Thought maybe you was. + +"Well,--if you ain't, won't you kiss me before you go, George?" + +I leaned forward. She held up her face innocently and I kissed her +lightly on the lips. + +And to me, the kiss was as sweet and fresh as a mountain dew-drop. + +She sighed as if satisfied that our friendship had held good, then she +ran out of the water, up the beach and into the house. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +The Coming of Mary Grant + +When first I arrived at Golden Crescent, I was not a little worried as +to whether or not there would be sufficient work in the store and on +the property to keep two men busy. It did not take me long to discover +that there really was not; but then, few people in and around that +easy-going little settlement cared about being very busy. Still, when +Jake and I wished for work, there was always enough of it at hand; just +as, when we felt inclined to be idle, there was no very special reason +why we should not, for there seldom was anything calling for immediate +accomplishment unless it were the transporting of goods from the +up-going steamers to the store and the putting up of camp orders. I +did not have to concern myself much over the fixing of leaky boats, the +building and repairing of fences, the erection of any small sheds or +buildings required, the felling of trees, the sawing and splitting up +of our winter supply of fuel, the raising and feeding of our very small +poultry family and the tending of the garden. These had been Jake's +departments before my coming, and, as he looked after them as no other +man I knew could have done, they remained his especial cares. + +Jake was never tremendously occupied, yet he always was doing something +during the day time,--something worth while, something that showed. + +However, when there was a particularly big wash-up on the beach of +stray timber logs from some of the booms travelling along the coast, +both Jake and I had to knuckle down with a will and an energy in order +to push them off with the next out-going tide so as to prevent them +jamming and piling on our tidy, clear and well-kept foreshore. + +Outside of an almost unnecessary supervision, the store was my only +care; consequently, once things were running properly, I had lots of +time on my hands to fish over by Rita's Isle if I so desired, to shoot +in the woods behind when the inclination seized me, to swim, to smoke, +or read and daydream as fancy dictated. + +I thrived on the life. Maybe, I grew lazy. Anyway, I enjoyed every +minute of it, working or idling, waking or sleeping. + +I soon got to know the men from the Camps, and they me. With the +knowledge of them came an ever-increasing regard and admiration for +those simple, uncomplaining, hard-working, easily led world-wanderers, +who, most of them, were ever ready to gamble all they had on the toss +of a coin or the throw of a die and, if they lost, laugh, and start off +afresh. + +That there were evilly disposed men among them,--men who would stop at +nothing,--men who, already, had stopped at nothing,--I knew, but with +most of them, their hearts were good. + +Joe Clark did not honour me with a visit for many a day after our first +encounter. Almost I had begun to congratulate myself that he had +decided to let slumbering dogs lie, when, one afternoon, as I was +sorting the newly arrived and scanty mail, I was surprised to find a +letter bearing the name of Dow, Cross & Sneddon of Vancouver and +addressed:-- + + +Mr. George Bremner, + Superintendent, Golden Crescent Trading Co., + Golden Crescent Bay, B. C. + + +Hello! I thought; Joe Clark at last has been putting some of his +threats into execution. Now for the fireworks! + +I opened the envelope and found that my conjecture was a wrong one and +that Joe Clark's knife for me,--if he had one,--was not yet sharpened. + + +"Dear Sir," the letter ran, + +"We have received a letter from Messrs. Eldergrove & Price, Solicitors +for the property adjoining that of the Golden Crescent Co.'s, informing +us that some friends of the owner have permission from him to occupy +his house at Golden Crescent. This refers to the house in proximity to +the wharf and the store. It is at present boarded up. + +"Two Japanese women will arrive by the steamer _Cloochman_ at the end +of the week to open up, air, clean out the house and put it in order. +These cleaners will return to Vancouver by the same steamer on her +southward journey the following week. + +"This letter is written simply to inform you of the facts, so that you +may know that nothing illegal is going on. + +"Of course, we are in no way interested in this property. + +"Yours truly, + "DOW, CROSS & SNEDDON." + + +I showed the letter to Jake, who expressed a fear that the Bay was +becoming "a damned pleasure resort," as this would make the second time +in five years that visitors had been staying in that house. On the +strength of the news, he drank an extra half-cup of whisky, then said, +for decency's sake he would row out and bring the Japs ashore when the +_Cloochman_ came in. + +Two shy, pretty, little women they proved, who thanked Jake with smiles +and profuse bows, much to that old rascal's confusion. They were all +bustle and work. They had the boards down from the windows and had the +doors and windows wide open five minutes after they got ashore. +Morning, noon and night, they were scrubbing, washing, beating, +dusting, polishing and airing, until I was more inquisitive than an old +maid's cat to view the results of their labours. But my sense of +propriety overcame my curiosity, and, for the time being, I remained in +ignorance. + +One night, after the little workers had gone back to Vancouver, I was +lying in my bed enjoying Robert Louis Stevenson's "Virginibus +Puerisque," when I fancied I heard the throbbing of a gasoline launch. +I rose and looked out at the open window; but it was one of those +inky-black nights, without either moon or stars, a night when even the +sea became invisible,--so I saw nothing. + +When the throbbing ceased, I heard the sound of oars and, as a small +boat evidently neared the shore, there came a sound of voices, both +male and female. + +Two trips were made from the launch, one bearing the people, I +presumed, the other conveying their baggage. I had no doubt in my mind +that my new neighbours were arriving, although I might have been +stone-blind so far as anything being visible was concerned. + +It was chilly standing there at the window, in the night air, in my +pyjamas. The nights were always chilly at Golden Crescent. So I went +back to bed, determined to wait and see what the morrow would disclose. + +My first glance out of doors, early next morning, materialised what I +had a vague notion might have been a dream. There was no sign of any +stir in the house across the little, wooden, rustic bridge that +connected it, over a narrow creek, with the roadway leading to the +store. That was only natural, as, in all probability, the travellers +were journey-weary. But a freshly painted rowing boat, with light +oars, was made fast to the off side of the wharf, while several leather +travelling bags and other packages were piled on the veranda of that +house over the way. + +I had shaved, parted my hair at its most becoming angle and dressed +myself with particular care that morning, going to the extent of sewing +a burst seam in my breeches and polishing my leggings; all in +anticipation of a visit from the new arrivals, thinking they would be +almost certain to call at the store that forenoon to arrange for their +supplies. + +I dusted the shelves, polished the scales, put the sacks of potatoes +where they belonged, mopped up some molasses that had escaped to the +floor from a leaky can and swept out the store; then I waited in +blissful anticipation for my new customers. + +I caught a glimpse of Jake in the distance. In some strange, +wireless-telepathic manner, he must have got wind of what had occurred +during the night, for I noticed that he had been suddenly attacked by +the same fever for cleanliness and smartness as I had been. He had +turned his neckcloth, and the clean side of it was now trying to delude +the innocent outside world that it (the neckcloth) had been freshly +washed. Mike,--bad luck to his drunken carcass,--looked sick and +appeared to be slowly recovering from the evil effects of a bath. + +As the morning wore on I saw an elderly, rotund lady come out to the +veranda and take the baggage inside. That was the only bit of +excitement that happened, after all my preparations. + +Later, a launch called from Camp No. 1, with an order for a thousand +and one different commodities, and all required right away. That put +idle, inquisitive thoughts out of my head for the remainder of the +forenoon. + +I got out of my best clothes, donned a half-dirty shirt, a suit of +overalls and a pair of old boots, then got busy selecting, sorting and +packing until my brow was moist and my hair was awry. + +I had just got rid of the men and was standing surveying my topsy-turvy +store, with everything lying around in tremendous confusion and all +requiring to be set to rights again before I would know where to lay my +hands on a single article; when a melodious, but rather measured, +feminine voice, in the vicinity of my left shoulder, startled me into +consternation. + +A young lady, almost of a height with me, was standing by my side, +while a stout, elderly lady,--the same lady I had seen on the veranda +over the way,--was filling the doorway. + +I was messy all over with flour dust, brown earth from the potato +sacks, grease and grime. I had slipped at the water edge while +assisting the loggers to load their goods, and this did not contribute +to the improvement of my personal appearance. I wiped my hands on my +damp overalls, and my hands came out of the contact worse than before. + +"I wish to see the manager," demanded the melodious voice, its owner +raising her skirts and displaying,--ah, well!--and stepping over some +excelsior packing which lay in her way. + +"Your wish is granted, lady," I answered. + +"Are you the manager?" she asked, raising her eyebrows in unfeigned +astonishment. + +"I have that honour, madam," I responded with a bow, but not daring to +look at her face in my then dishevelled state. + +"I am Miss Grant," she said. + +"Miss Grant! Pleased to meet you." + +I shoved out a grimy paw, like the fool I was. When it was too late, I +remembered my position and brought the paw back to my side. + +The young lady had already drawn herself up with an undefinable dignity. + +It was a decided snub, and well merited, so I could hardly blame her. + +I saw, in the hurried glimpse I got of her then, that she was hatless +and that her hair was a great crown of wavy, burnished gold, radiating +in the sunlight that streamed through the doorway despite the +obstruction of the young lady's companion. + +"It is our intention to live at Golden Crescent for some time, sir. I +understand we may purchase our supplies here?" + +"Yes! madam,--miss." + +I backed, in order to get round to my proper side of the counter. But, +unfortunately, I backed without looking; I stumbled over an empty box +and sprawled like a clown into the corner, landing incontinently among +bundles of brooms and axe handles. + +Never in all my life did I feel so insignificant or so foolish as then. +The very devil himself seemed to have set his picked imps after me; for +it was my habit, ordinarily, to be neither dirty as I was then, nor +clownish as I must have appeared. + +To put it mildly, I was deeply embarrassed, and at a woman, too. Oh! +the degradation of it. + +As I rose, I fancied that my ears caught the faintest tinkle of a +laugh. I turned my frowning eyes on the young lady, but she was a very +owl for inscrutable solemnity. I looked over at the elderly person in +the doorway; she was smiling upon me with a most exasperating benignity. + +"What kind of business do you run here?" asked the self-possessed young +lady. + +"Strictly cash, miss,--excepting the Camps and the better class of +settlers." + +"I did not inquire _how_ you ran your business, but what kind of +business you ran," she retorted icily. "Of course,--we shall pay as we +purchase." + +I was hastening from bad to worse. I could have bitten my tongue out +or kicked myself. With a tremendous effort, I pulled myself together +and assumed as much dignity as was possible in my badly ruffled +internal and external condition. + +"Are there any men about the place?" she asked, changing the subject +with disconcerting suddenness. + +I flushed slightly at the taunt. + +"N-no! miss," I replied, in my best shop-keeper tone, "sorry,--but we +are completely out of them." + +She must have detected the flavour of sarcasm, for her lips relaxed for +the briefest moment, and a smile was born which showed two rows of even +white teeth. I ventured a smile in return, but it proved a sorry and +an unfortunate one, for it killed hers ruthlessly and right at the +second of its birth, too. + +I almost waited for her to tell me I was "too fresh," but she did not +do so. She had a more telling way. She simply wilted me with a silent +reserve that there was no combating. + +Only on one or two occasions had I encountered that particular shade of +reserve that adjusts everything around to its proper sphere and level +without hurting, and it was always in elderly, aristocratic, British +Duchesses; never in a young lady with golden hair and eyes,--well! at +that time, I could not tell the colour of her eyes, but there was +something in them that completed a combination that I seemed to have +been hunting for all my life and had never been able to find. + +"Mr. Store-keeper," she commenced again. + +I felt like tearing my hair and crying aloud. "Mr. Store-keeper," +forsooth. + +"You appear anxious to misconstrue me. Let me explain,--please." + +I bowed contritely. What else could I do? + +"This afternoon, I have a piano,--boxed,--coming by the steamer +_Siwash_. I would like if you could find me some assistance to get it +ashore and placed in my house." + +She said it so easily and it sounded so simple. But what a poser it +was! Bring a full-fledged piano from a steamer three hundred yards out +in the Bay, land it and place it in a house on the top of a rock. +Heaven help the piano! I thought, as I gaped at her in bewilderment. + +"Oh!--of course," she put in hurriedly, toying with the chain of her +silver purse,--"if you are afraid to tackle it, why!--I'll--we shall do +it ourselves." + +She turned on her heel. + +She looked so determined that I had not the least doubt but that she +would have a go at it anyway. + +"Not at all,--not at all. It will be a pleasure,--I am sure," I said +quickly, as if I had been reared all my life on piano-moving. + +She turned and smiled; a real, full-grown, able-bodied, entrancing, +mischievous smile, and all of it full on the dirty, grimy +individual,--me. + +"It does not happen to be the kind of piano one can take to pieces, +Miss Grant, is it?" I asked. + +"It is," she answered, "but that one might not be able to put it +together again." + +It was another bull's eye for the lady. + +She went on. "I have never received a piano,--knocked down." + +Something inside of me sniggered at the phrase, for it was purely a +business one. But I was too busy just then figuring the ins and outs +of the matter to give way to any hilarity. + +"Thanks so much! What a relief!" she sighed, with a nod to her silent +companion, who nodded in return. + +"Oh!--may I have five cents' worth of pins,--Mister, Mister----" + +"Mr. Bremner," I added. + +"Thank you!" + +"Hair pins, hat pins, safety pins or clothes pins?" I queried. + +"Just pins,--with points and heads on them,--if you don't mind." + +I bowed ceremoniously. + +"We shall be over this afternoon, when we have made a list of the +supplies we require," she went on. + +As I hunted for the pins, she began to look in her purse for a five +cent piece. + +"Oh!--never mind," I said; "I can charge these to your bill in the +afternoon." + +"No! thank you," she replied, airily and lightly;--oh! so very, very +airily that I would not have been surprised had she flown away. + +"Your terms are strictly cash;--I would not disturb your business +routine for worlds." + +As I held out the package to her, I stopped and, for the first time, I +felt really at ease and equal to her. + +"Possibly you would prefer that I send this package round by the +delivery wagon?" I said. + +She picked the paper package from between my fingers and her chin went +into the air at a most dangerous elevation, while her eyelids closed +over her eyes, allowing long, golden-brown lashes to brush her cheeks. +Then, without a word, she turned her back on me and passed through the +doorway with her companion, or chaperon, or aunt, or whatever relation +to her the elderly lady might be. + +"So foolish!" I heard her exclaim, under her breath, then she went over +something on her fingers to the elderly lady, who laughed and started +in to talk volubly. + +The mystery of that madam's benign smile solved itself: she was +evidently talkative enough, but she was as deaf as a wooden block and +used her smile to cover her deficiency. + +Had I only known, how I could have defended myself against, and lashed +out in return at, that tantalising, self-possessed, wit-battling, and, +despite it all, extremely feminine young lady! + +They left my place and went over to their own bungalow. Soon they +reappeared with large sun-hats on their heads, for the sun was +beautifully bright and exceedingly warm. They went down to the beach +together. The elderly lady got into the rowing boat, while my late +antagonist pushed it into the water and sprang into it with a most +astounding agility. In a few moments, they were out on the Bay. + +Miss Grant,--as I remembered her name was,--handled the oars like an +Oxford stroke and with that amazing ease, attained only after long +practice, which makes the onlooker, viewing the finished article in +operation, imagine that he can do it as well himself, if not a shade or +so better,--yes! and standing on his head at that. + +For an hour, I worked in the store righting the wrongs that were +visible everywhere, vowing to myself that never again would it be found +in such a disgraceful condition; not even if the three Camps should +come down together and insist on immediate service. + +At high noon, I went over to Jake's shack and found him preparing his +usual clammy concoction. + +I broached the subject of the piano to him, putting it in such a way +that I left him open to refuse to do the job if he felt so inclined. + +He did not speak for a minute or two, but I knew he was thinking hard. + +"Well,--I'll be gol-darned," he said at last. "They'll be transporting +skating rinks and picture shows up here next. It'll be me for the tall +timbers then, you bet." + +A little later, he went on, + +"Guess, George,--we got to do it, though. Young ladies is young ladies +these days, and we might as well be civil and give in right at the +start, for we got to do it in the finish." + +I agreed. + +As we were in a hurry, I helped Jake to eat his clam chowder. We went +down to the beach to review the situation and inspect the apparatus we +had to work with. + +I told Jake the piano would probably weigh about five hundred pounds +and that we would require to bolster up the raft sufficiently to carry +some three hundred pounds more in order to be safe. + +As it stood, the raft was capable of carrying some four hundred pounds, +so we had just to double its capacity. + +Jake knew his business. He rowed along the beach, and picked out short +logs to suit his needs. He lashed them together and completed a raft +that looked formidable enough to carry the good ship _Siwash_ herself +across the Bay to the shore. + +We put off with a rowing boat fore and aft, long before the _Siwash_ +whistle announced her coming. + +Had the sea been otherwise than calm as a duck pond, we would have +experienced all kinds of trouble, for our raft was nothing more or less +than an unwieldy floating pier. + +When the steamer ran into the Bay, I noticed Miss Grant put out alone +and row toward us. + +"Jake," I exclaimed somewhat hotly, "if that young lady interferes with +the way we handle this job, by as much as a single word, we'll steer +straight for the shore and leave the piano to sink or swim." + +"You bet!" agreed Jake. + +"Skirts is all right, but they ain't any good movin' pianners off'n +steamers. Guess we ain't proved ourselves much good neither, so far, +George," he added with a grin. + +The _Siwash_ came to a standstill and we threw our ropes aboard and +were soon made fast alongside. + +Everything there went like clockwork. The piano was on the lower deck +and slings were already round it, so that all that was necessary to do +was to get the steamer's winch going, hoist the instrument overboard +and lower it on to the raft. The piano was set on a low truck with +runners, contrived for the purpose of moving. I arranged that this +truck be left with us and I would see to its return on the steamer's +south-bound journey. + +Our chiefest fear was that the piano might get badly placed or that the +balance of the raft might prove untrue, the whole business would topple +over and the piano would be dispensing nautical airs to the mermaids at +the bottom of Golden Crescent Bay. + +Jake's work stood the test valiantly, and, with the hooks and rings he +had fixed into the logs at convenient distances, we lashed the +instrument so firmly and securely that nothing short of a hurricane or +a collision could possibly have dislodged it. + +Miss Grant stood by some fifteen yards away, watching the proceedings +interestedly, and anxiously as I thought; but not a word did she utter +to show that she had anything but absolute confidence in our ability. + +Finally, they cast our ropes off, and Jake and I, with our four oars, +manned our larger rowing boat and headed for shore. It was hard +pulling, but we ran in on the off side of the wharf, directly in line +with the rocks at the back of which Miss Grant's bungalow was +built,--all without mishap. + +Despite the great help of the piano-truck, Jake and I, strive as we +liked, were unable to move the heavy piece of furniture from the raft. +We tugged, and pulled, and hoisted, but to no purpose, for the wheels +of the truck got set continually between the logs. + +Once, I went head over heels backward into the water; and once Jake +tripped over a cleat and did likewise. + +"All we need, Jake," I remarked, "is about one hundred and fifty pounds +more leverage." + +Miss Grant heard and jumped out of her boat. + +"Mr.--Mr. Bremner,--could I lend you that extra hundred and fifty +pounds or so?" + +I looked at her. She was all willingness and meekness; the latter a +mood which I, even with my scant knowledge of her, did not altogether +believe in. + +"Sure, miss," put in Jake. "Come on, if you ain't skeered o' soilin' +your glad rags." + +She waited for my word. + +"I am sure your help would be valuable, Miss Grant," I said. "It might +just turn the trick in our favour." + +She scrambled up the rock and returned in half a minute with a pair of +stout leather gloves on her hands. She jumped up on to the raft and +lent her leverage, as Jake and I got our shoulders under the lift. + +Bravo! It lifted as easily as if it had been a toy. All it had +required was that little extra aid. + +We three ran it clear of the raft, down on to the beach, over the +pebbles and right under the rocks. + +I knew, in the ordinary course, that our troubles would only be +beginning, but I had figured out that the only possible way to get over +this difficulty of the rocks was to erect a block and tackle to the +solid branch of a tree which, fortunately, overhung the face of the +cliffs. + +In half an hour, we had all secure and ready for the attempt. + +I worked the gear, while Jake did the guiding from below. + +When we had the piano safely swung, it took our combined strength and +weight to bring it in on top of the rocks. After that, it was simply a +matter of hard work. + +So, in three hours after receiving it from the steamer _Siwash_, the +piano was out of its casing and set safely, without a scratch on it, in +a corner of Miss Grant's parlour. + +Jake and I never could have done it ourselves. Both of us knew that. +It was Miss Grant's untiring assistance that pulled the matter to a +successful conclusion. + +She thanked us without ostentation, as she would have thanked a +piano-mover or the woodman in the city. + +It nettled me not a little, for, to say truth, I was half dead from the +need of a cup of good strong tea and my appetite gnawed over the odour +of home-made scones that the elderly, rotund lady was baking on Miss +Grant's kitchen stove. All day I had been picturing visions of being +invited to remain for tea, of my making witty remarks under Jake's +mono-syllabic applause, looking over the photo albums and listening in +raptures to Miss Grant's playing and singing. And I was sour as old +cider as I descended the veranda steps, soaking, as I was, with brine +and perspiration. + +Jake was perfectly happy, however, and all admiration over Miss Grant's +physical demonstration. + +"Gee! Miss," he exclaimed, in a sort of Klondike ecstasy, "but you're +some class at heavin' cargo. Guess, if you put on overalls and cut off +your hair, you could get a fifty-cents-an-hour job at pretty near any +wharf on the Pacific seaboard." + +I could see that Jake's doubtful compliment was not exactly relished by +the lady. Nevertheless, she smiled on him so sweetly that he stood +grinning at her, and might still have been so standing had not I pulled +him to earth by the sleeve, three steps at a time. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +"Music Hath Charms--" + +He left me at the wharf without a word. I went into the house, threw +off my dirty overalls and indulged in the luxury of a bath. Not a +salt-water apology for one,--a real, live, remove-the-dirt, soapy, +hot-water bath;--and it did me a world of good both mentally and bodily. + +I dressed myself in clean, fresh linen, donned my breeches, a pair of +hand-knitted, old-country, heather hose and a pair of white canvas +shoes. I shaved and brushed my hair to what, in my college days, I had +considered its most elegant angle. + +The remainder of the afternoon and evening was my own. I was just at +that agreeable stage of body-weariness where a book and a smoke seemed +angels from heaven. I had the books,--lots of them,--I had tobacco and +my pipe, I had a hammock to sling from the hooks on the front +veranda,--so, what care had I? + +I chose a volume of "Macaulay's Essays" and, with a sigh,--the only +articulate sign of an unutterable content,--I stretched myself in the +hammock, blew clouds of smoke in the air and resigned myself to the +soothing influences. + +I had lain thus for perhaps an hour, when a shadow intervened between +the page I was reading and the glare of the sun. + +It was Miss Grant. + +She had come by the back path and, in her noiseless rubber shoes, I had +not heard her. + +I sprang out of the hammock, loosed the ring from the hook and threw +the canvas aside to make way for her. + +She appeared a perfect picture of glorious loveliness and contagious +health. She did not speak for a moment, but her eyes took me in from +head to heel. + +I felt confident in the knowledge that the figure I presented was +decidedly more pleasing than when last she had seen me. + +I was glad, for I knew, even with my small acquaintance with the +opposite sex, that the woman is not alive who does not prefer to see a +man clean, tidy and neat. + +I pushed the store doors open and followed her in. + +Again, that bewitching little uplifting of the eyebrows; again the +alluring relaxation of her full lips; silent ways, apparently, of +expressing her pleasure. The appearance of my store, on this occasion, +met with her approval. + +She laid aside her sunshade and handed me a long, neatly written list +of groceries which she required; not all, but most of which, I was able +to fill. + +"Make up the bill,--please. I wish to pay it now. I shall not wait +until you make up the goods. If not too much trouble, would you----" + +I was listening to the soft cadences of her voice, when she stopped. + +She was leaning lightly with her elbow on the counter. I was on the +inner side, bending over my order book. + +When her voice stopped, I felt that she was looking at the top of my +head. I raised my face suddenly and, to her, unexpectedly. For the +first time, I saw clearly into her eyes. My breath caught, as, like a +flash, I saw myself standing in the doorway of Modley Farm, along with +my old chum, Tom Tanner; his mother beside us, with her arms round our +shoulders; and I remembered the flippant conversation we had at that +time. + +The young lady before me had eyes of a liquid, golden-brown, lighter in +colour than her hair, yet of wondrous depth and very attractive; +inexpressibly attractive. + +I averted my gaze quickly, but not quickly enough for her to miss the +admiration I had so openly shown. + +She picked up a tin from the counter and scanned the label. + +"The delivery wagon is at your service, my lady," I put in lightly. + +"Thank you!" she answered in relief. + +I totted up the bill and handed it to her. "Eight dollars and +thirty-five cents," I said. + +"Now, Mr. Bremner,--please add your charge for the conveying of my +piano, so that I may pay my debts altogether." + +I gasped in amazement. I straightened myself indignantly, for the idea +of making a charge for that work had never entered my head. And I knew +Jake had never thought of such a thing either. It had been simply a +little neighbourly assistance. + +The mention of payment annoyed me. + +"There is no charge, Miss Grant," was all I could trust myself to say. + +"What do you mean?" she asked. "Surely you must understand that it is +not my habit to engage men to work for me without payment!" + +"We did not look upon it in the nature of ordinary work," I put in. +"It was a pleasure, and we did it as any neighbours would do a favour." + +Her eyes closed a little angrily. + +"I do not accept favours from men I am unacquainted with," she retorted +unreasonably. "How much do I owe,--please?" + +"And I do not hire myself out, like a dock labourer or a mule, to any +one who cares to demand my services," I replied, in equally cold tones. + +She stood in hesitation, then she stamped her rubber-soled foot +petulantly. "But I will not have it. I insist on paying for that +work." + +I shook my head. + +"If you wish to insult me, Miss Grant,--insist." + +I could see that she was suffering from conflicting lines of reasoning. +Her haughtiness changed and her eyes softened. + +"Mr. Bremner,--what do I owe for the work,--please?" she pleaded. "You +are a gentleman,--you cannot hide that from me." + +Discovered! I said to myself. + +"Surely you understand my position? Surely you do not wish to +embarrass me?" + +Ah, well! I thought. If it will please her, so be it. And I'll make +it a stiff charge for spite. + +"Thirty dollars!" I exclaimed, as if it had been three. "Our labour +was worth that much." I looked straight at her in a businesslike way. + +It was her turn to gasp, but she recovered herself quickly. + +"The cost of labour is, I presume, high, up here?" she commented. + +"Yes!--very high,--sky-high! You see, I shall have to pay that old +Jew-rascal assistant of mine at least two and a half dollars for his +share, so that it will not leave very much for the master-mind that +engineered the project." + +She turned her eyes on me to ascertain if I were funning or in earnest, +but my face betrayed nothing but the greatest seriousness. + +She counted out her grocery money and I gave her a receipt. Then she +laid three ten dollar bills on the counter to pay for the piano moving. + +"Thank you!" I said, as I walked round the counter to a little box +which was nailed on the wall near the door; a box which the Rev. +William Auld had put up with my permission on the occasion of his last +visit, a box which I never saw a logger pass without patronising if he +noticed it. On the outside, it bore the words:--"Sick Children's Aid." +I folded the notes and inserted them in the aperture on top. + +Miss Grant watched me closely all the while. + +When I got back behind the counter, she went over to the box and read +the label. She opened her purse, with calm deliberation, and poured +all it contained into her hand. She then inserted the coins, one by +one, in the opening of the box and, with honours still even, if not in +her favour, she sailed out of the store. + +I was annoyed and chagrined at the turn of events, yet, when I came to +consider her side of the argument, I could not blame her altogether for +the stand she had taken. + +I put up her order in no very pleasant frame of mind. + +When I saw her and her chaperon row out from the wharf into the Bay, I +carried over the groceries, piecemeal, and placed them in a shady place +on their veranda. I then turned back to the house and prepared my +evening meal. + +When the sun had gone down and darkness had crept over Golden Crescent, +I returned to my hammock and my reading, setting a small oil lamp on +the window ledge behind me. It was agreeably cool then and all was +peace and harmony. + +From where I lay, I could cast my eyes over the land and seascapes now +and again. I commanded a good view of the house across the creek. The +kitchen lamp was alight there and I could see figures passing backward +and forward. + +Suddenly an extra light travelled from the kitchen to the front parlour +and, soon after, a ripple of music floated on the evening air. + +I listened. How I listened!--like a famished cougar at the sound of a +deer. + +The music was sweet, delicious, full of fantastic melody. It was the +light, airy music of Sullivan; and not a halt, not even a falter did +the player make as she tripped and waltzed through the opera. One +picture after another rose before me and dissolved into still others, +as the old, haunting tunes caught my ears, floating from that open +window. + +I could see the lady under the soft glow of the lamp, sitting at the +piano, smiling and all absorbed,--the light gleaming gold on her coils +of luxuriant hair. + +After a time the mood of the pianist changed. She drifted into the +deeper, the more sombre, more impressive "Kamennoi-Ostrow" of +Rubinstein. She played it softly, so softly, yet so expressively +sadly, that I was drawn by its alluring to leave my veranda and cross +over the wooden bridge, in order to be nearer and to hear better. + +Quietly, but quite openly, I took the path by the house, on to the edge +of the cliffs, where I could hear every note, every shade of +expression; where I could follow the story:--the Russian setting, the +summer evening, the beautiful lady, the pealing of the bells calling +the worshippers to the chapel for midnight mass; the whispered +conversations, the organ in solemn chant, the priests intoning the +service, the farewell, and, lastly, the lingering chords of the organ +fading into the deep silence of slumber. + +Just as I was about to sit down, I descried the solitary, shadowy +outline of a figure seated a few yards away. + +It was Jake,--poor, old, lonely, battle-scarred Jake. His head was in +his hands and he was gazing out to sea as if he were dreaming. + +I walked over to him and sat by his side. His blue eyes were filled +with tears, tears that had not dimmed his eyes for years and years; +tears in the eyes of that old Klondike tough, calloused by privation +and leather-hided by hard drinking; tears, and at music which he did +not understand any more than that it was something outside of his body +altogether, outside of the material world, something that spoke only to +the soul of him. + +I did not speak,--I dared not speak, for the moment was too sacred. + +So we two sat thus, knowing of each other's presence, yet ignoring it, +and listening, all absorbed, entranced, almost hypnotised by the +subtleties of the most charming of all gifts, the perfect +interpretation of a work of art. + +We listened on and on,--after the chilly night wind had come up from +the sea, for we did not know of its coming until the music ceased and +the light faded away from the parlour of the house behind us. + +"Gee!" exclaimed Jake at last, spitting his mouthful of tobacco over +into the water and wiping his eyes with his coat sleeve, "but that dope +pulls a gink's socks off,--you bet. + +"Guess, if a no-gooder like me had of heard that stuff oftener when he +was a kid, he wouldn't be such a no-gooder;--eh! George." + +I followed Jake to his boat and, somewhere out of the darkness, Mike +the dog appeared and tailed off behind us. + +I accompanied the old fellow to his shack, for this love of music in +him was a new phase of his temperament to me and somehow my heart went +out to him in his loneliness, in his apparent heart-hunger for +something he could hardly hope to find. + +We talked together for a long time, and as we talked I noticed that +Jake made no effort to start his usual drinking bout, although Mike the +dog reminded him of his neglect as plainly as dog could, by tugging at +his trousers and going over to the whisky keg and whimpering. + +This sudden temperance in Jake surprised me more than a little. + +I noticed also that the brass-bound chest still lay under Jake's bunk. +Several times I had been going to speak to him about that trunk and its +contents, and the questionable security of a shack like his, but I had +always evaded the subject at the last minute as being one in which I +was not concerned. + +But that night everything was different somehow. + +"Look here, Jake," I said, in one of the quiet spells, "don't you think +this old shack of yours isn't a very safe place to keep your money in?" + +"How do you mean?" he asked suspiciously. + +"There are lots of strange boats put in here of a night; some of them +containing beach-combers who do not care who they rob or what they do +so long as they get a haul. Besides, the loggers are not all angels +and they generally pay you a visit every time they come in. Some of +the worst of them might get wind that you keep all your savings here +and might take a fancy to some of it." + +"Guess all I got wouldn't pay the cost of panning," grunted Jake. +"They ain't goin' to butt in on me. Anyway,--I got a pair of good mits +left yet." + +"Yes!--that is all right, Jake, but nowadays a man does not require to +run the risk. The banks are ready and willing to take that +responsibility, and to pay for the privilege, too. The few dollars I +have are safely banked in Vancouver." + +"Banks be damned!" growled Jake. "I ain't got no faith in banks,--no +siree. First stake I made went into a bank, Goodall-Towser Trust Co. +of 'Frisco. 'Four per cent interest guaranteed,' it said on the front +of the bank book they gave me. That book was all they ever gave me; +all I ever saw of my five thousand bucks. I thought because it said +'Trust' on the window, it was right as rain. I ain't trustin' 'Trust' +any more. + +"I raised Cain in that Trust outfit. Started shootin' up. Didn't kill +anything, but got three months in the coop. Lost my five thousand +plunks and got three months in the pen, all because I put my dough in +the bank. + +"Banks be damned, George. Not for mine,--no siree." + +Jake puffed his pipe reflectively, after his long tirade. + +"That's all very well, but there are good banks nowadays and good Trust +Companies, too, although I prefer regular chartered banks every time. +Those banks are practically guaranteed by the country and the +wealthiest men in Canada use them. Why!--Mr. Horsfal has thousands in +the Commercial Bank of Canada now. Here is the bank book,--see for +yourself! I send in a deposit every week for him." + +Jake was impressed, but not unduly. He suddenly switched. + +"Say, George,--who told you I had any dough?" + +"Oh! I knew you had, Jake. Everybody in Golden Crescent knows. But, +to be honest, the minister told me,--in the hope that I would be able +to induce you to place it in safety somewhere." + +Jake became confident, a most unusual condition for him. + +"Well, George,--I can trust you,--you're straight. I got something +near ten thousand bucks in that brass chest. I don't need it, but +still I ain't givin' it away. I had to grub damned hard to get it. +It's kind o' good to know you ain't ever likely to be a candidate for +some Old Men's Home." + +"It is indeed," I replied, "and I admire you for having saved so much. +But won't you put it into the bank, where it is absolutely safe for +you? It is a positive temptation to some men, lying around here. + +"The bank will give you a receipt for the money; you can draw on it +when you wish and it will be earning three per cent or three hundred +dollars a year for you all the time it is there." + +He pondered for a while, then he dismissed the subject. + +"No! Guess I'll keep it by me. No more banks for mine. I ain't so +strong as I used to be and I guess three months in the coop would just +about make me cash in. I ain't takin' no more chances." + +Jake's method of reasoning was amusing. After all, it was no affair of +mine and, now that I had unburdened myself, I felt conscience clear. + +As I rose to leave, he started to talk again. + +"George,--guess you'll think I'm batty,--but I'm goin' to cut out the +booze." + +"You are!" I exclaimed in astonishment. + +"Ya! Guess maybe you think I'll make a hell of a saint, but I ain't +goin' to try to be no saint; just goin' to cut out the booze, that's +all." + +"What has given you this notion?" I could not help inquiring. + +"Oh! maybe one thing, maybe another. Anyhow, I ain't had a lick +to-night. My stomach's on fire and my head's givin' me Hail Columbia, +but--I ain't had a drink to-night." + +"Go easy with it, Jake," I cautioned. "You know a hard drinker like +you have been can't stop all at once without hurting himself." + +"I can. You just watch me," he said with determination. + +"Well, then,--I think the best thing you can do in these circumstances +is to take that keg in the corner there, roll it outside, pull out the +stop-cock and pour the contents on to the beach." + +"No! I ain't spoilin' any booze,--George. If I can't stop it because +a keg of whisky is sittin' under my nose, then I can't stop boozin' +nohow. And, if I can't stop boozin' nohow, what's the good of throwin' +away the good booze I already got, when I'd just have to order another +keg and maybe have to go thirsty waitin' for it to come up." + +"All right, old man," I laughed, slapping him between the shoulders, +"please yourself and good luck to your attempt, anyway." + +"Say!--George." + +"Yes!" + +"You won't say anything about this to the young lady that plays the +pianner? Because, you see, I might fall down." + +"I won't say a word, Jake." + +"And--not to Rita, neither?" he asked plaintively, "because Rita's +about the only gal cares two straws for me. She comes often when +nobody knows about it. She brings cake and pie, and swell cooked meat +sometimes. When I find anything on the table,--I know Rita's been. +I've knowed Rita since she was a baby and I've always knowed her for a +good gal." + +"Well, Jake;--I will keep your secret as if I had never heard it. But +don't allow that drunken chum of yours, Mike, to lead you astray." + +"Guess nit! Mike's got to sign the pledge same's me," he laughed in +his guttural way. + +I stood at the door. "And you are not going to put that money of yours +in the bank, Jake?" + +He spat on the ground. + +"To hell with banks," he grunted and turned inside. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +The Devil of the Sea + +It was Sunday morning, the first Sunday morning after the arrival of +the American ladies at the house over the way,--for I took them to be +such, and, later, my conjecture proved not a very long way out. + +It had been a week of hard work, petty annoyances and unsatisfying +little pleasures. + +When I got up that morning, I felt jaded. As I ate my breakfast, I +became more so; but, as I went out on to the veranda to look upon the +beauties of Golden Crescent,--as I did every morning,--I came to myself. + +This will never do, George Bremner! What you need is a swim! + +I had hit it. Why had not I thought of it sooner? I undressed, and in +less time than it takes to retell it, I was in the water and striking +straight for Rita's Isle. + +When I got there, I sunned myself on the rocks, as was my wont. I +looked across towards Clarks' farm, in the hope that I might espy Rita +somewhere between,--yet half hoping that I would not, for I was +browsing in the changing delights and sensations of the thoughts which +my solitariness engendered. + +For one thing;--I had made the discovery the night before that Miss +Grant's Christian name was Mary. + +I had found a torn label on the beach; one, evidently, from a +travelling bag. It read: + + +Miss Mary Grant, + Passenger + to Golden Crescent Bay, B. C. Canada. + +ex San Francisco, per P. C. S. S. Co. to Vancouver. + + +That was all. + +I lay on my back on the rocks, turning the name over in my mind. + +Mary.... It did not sound very musical. It was a +plain-Jane-and-no-nonsense kind of name. + +I started in to make excuses to myself for it. Why I did so, I have no +idea, but I discovered myself at it. + +Mary was a Bible name. Yes!--it had that in its favour. + +Famous queens had been called Mary. Yes! + +The lady who owned the world-famous "little lamb" was called Mary. + +And there was "Mary, Mary, quite contrary." + +Why, of course! there were plenty of wonderful Marys. Notwithstanding, +I could not altogether shake off the feeling of regret that came to me +with the discovery that the young lady over the way was called Mary. + +Had her name been Marguerite, or Dorothea, Millicent or even Rosemary, +I would have been contented and would have considered the name a +fitting one,--but to be common-or-garden Mary! + +Oh, well!--what mattered it anyway? The name did not detract from the +attractiveness of her long, wavy, golden hair, nor did it change the +colour or lessen the transparency of her eyes. It did not interfere +with her deft fingers as they travelled so artistically over the +keyboard of her piano; although I kept wishing, in a half-wishful way, +that it could have changed her tantalising and exasperating demeanour +toward me. + +From the beginning, we had played antagonists, and from the beginning +this playing antagonists had been distasteful to me. + +What was it in me? I wondered,--what was it in her that caused the +mental ferment? I had not the slightest notion, unless it were a +resentfulness in me at being taken only for what I, myself, had chosen +to become,--store-clerk in an out-of-the-way settlement; or an +annoyance in her because one of my station should place himself on +terms of social equality with every person he happened to meet. + +I was George Bremner to her. True! Then,--she was merely Mary Grant +to me. Mary Grant she was and Mary Grant she would doubtless remain, +until,--until somebody changed it to probably--Mary-something-worse. + +As I day-dreamed, I felt the air about me more chilly than usual. + +All the previous night, the sea had been running into the Bay choppy +and white-tipped, but now it was as level as the face of a mirror, +although everywhere on the surface of the water loose driftwood floated. + +I let myself go, down the smooth shelving rock upon which I had been +lying. I dropped noiselessly far down into the deep water. I came up +and struck out for home,--all my previous lassitude gone from me. + +I was swimming along leisurely, interested only in my thoughts and the +water immediately around me, when something a bit ahead attracted my +attention. + +I was half-way between Rita's Isle and the shore at the time. The +object in front kept bobbing,--bobbing. At first, I took it to be part +of a semi-submerged log, but as I drew nearer I was quite surprised to +find that it was an early morning swimmer like myself. Nearer still, +and I discovered that the swimmer was a woman whose hair was bound +securely by a multi-coloured, heavy, silk muffler, such as certain +types of London Johnnies affected for a time. + +Whoever the swimmer was, she had already gone at least half a mile, for +that was the distance to the nearest point of land and there was no +boat of any kind in her tracks. + +Half a mile!--and another half-mile to go! Quite a swim for a lady! + +Afraid lest it should prove more than enough for a member of what I had +always been taught to recognise as the more delicately constituted of +the sexes, I drew closer to the swimmer. + +When only a few yards behind, she turned round with a startled +exclamation. + +It was Mary Grant. + +A chill ran along my spine. I became unreasonable immediately. What +right had she to run risks of this nature? Was there not plenty of +water for her to swim in near the shore where she would be within easy +hail of the land should she become exhausted? + +Almost angrily, I narrowed the space between us. + +She had recognised me at her first glimpse. + +"Are you not rather far from the shore, Miss Grant?" I inquired bruskly. + +"Thank you! Not a bit too far," she exclaimed, keeping up a steady +progress through the water. + +She moved easily and did not betray any signs of weariness, except it +were in a catching of her voice, which almost every one has who talks +in the water after a long swim. + +I could not but admire the power of her swimming, despite the evident +fact that she was not at all speedy. + +"But you have no right to risk your life out here, when you do not know +the coast," I retorted. + +"What right have you to question my rights, sir?" she answered +haughtily. "Please go away." + +"I spoke for your own good," I continued. "There may be currents in +the Bay that you know nothing of. Besides, the driftwood itself is +dangerous this morning." + +She did not reply for a bit, but kept steadily on. + +When I took up my position a few yards to the left and on a level with +her, she turned on me indignantly. + +"Excuse me, Sir Impertinence,--but do you take me for a child or a +fool? Are you one of those inflated individuals who imagines that +masculine man is the only animal that can do anything?" + +"Far from it," I answered, "but as it so happens I am slightly better +acquainted with the Bay than you are and I merely wished you to benefit +from my knowledge." + +"I am obliged to you for your interest, Mr. Bremner. However, I know +my own capabilities in the water, just as you know yours. Now,--if you +do not desire to spoil what to me has been a pleasure so far, you will +leave me." + +I fell back a few yards, feeling that it would have given me extreme +pleasure to have had the pulling of her ears. And, more out of +cussedness,--as Jake would put it,--than anything else, I kept plodding +along slowly, neither increasing nor diminishing the distance between +us. + +She was well aware of my proximity, and, at last, when we were little +more than a hundred yards from the point of the rock at the farthest +out end of the wharf, she wheeled on me like the exasperated sea-nymph +she was. + +"I told you the other day, Mr. Bremner, that you could not hide the +fact that you were a gentleman. If you do not wish me to regret having +said that,--you will go away. I am perfectly capable of looking after +myself." + +That was the last straw for me. I could see that she was a splendid +swimmer and that she was likely to make the shore without mishap, +although I could also tell that she was tiring. + +"All right!--I'll go," I shouted. "But please be sensible,--there was +a heavy drift of wood and seaweed last night. The seaweed always +gathers in at your side of the wharf, and it is treacherous. Come this +way and land ashore from my side." + +"Thank you! Mr. Bremner," she called back quite pleasantly, "but I came +this way and saw very little seaweed, so I fancy I shall be able to get +back." + +Maddened at her for being so headstrong, I veered to the left of the +rocks, while she held on to the right. + +I did not look in her direction again, but, with a fast, powerful +side-stroke, I shot ahead and soon the rocks divided us. + +I was barely a hundred yards from the beach, when I heard, or fancied I +heard, just the faintest of inarticulate cries. + +I listened, but it was not repeated. In the ordinary course, I would +have paid no heed, but something above and beyond me prompted me to +satisfy myself that all was right. + +I swung round and started quickly for the point of the rocks again. In +a few seconds, I reached it and swam round to the other side. I +scanned the water between me and the shore,--it was as smooth as glass, +with only bobbing brown bulbs everywhere denoting the presence of the +seaweed. + +I looked at the beach, and across to Miss Grant's house,--there was no +one in sight. + +A feeling of horror crept over me. It was +improbable,--impossible,--that she could have reached the shore and got +inside the house so quickly. + +I glanced over the surface of the water again. + +Good God!--what was that? + +Not fifty yards from the beach, and just at the point where the bobbing +brown bulbs were thickest, a small hand and an arm broke the surface of +the water. The fingers of the hand closed convulsively and a ring +glittered in the sunlight. Then the hand vanished. + +With a vigorous crawl stroke,--keeping well on the surface for +safety,--I tore through that intervening space. + +Oh!--how I thanked God for my exceptional ability in diving and +swimming under water. + +As I got over the spot where I reckoned the hand had appeared, I became +cautious, for I knew the danger and I had no desire to get entangled +and thus end the chances of both of us. I sank down, slowly and +perpendicularly, keeping my knees bent and my feet together, feeling +carefully with my hands the while. The water was clear, but I could +see only a little way because of the seaweed. + +How thickly it had gathered! Long, curling, tangling stuff! + +Several times, I had to change my position quickly in order to avoid +being caught among the great, waving tendrils which, lower down, +interweaved like the meshes of a gigantic net. + +I stayed under water as long as I dared, then with lungs afire I had to +come to the surface for air. + +Desperately, I started again. + +I swam several yards nearer to the rocks and sank once more. This +time, my groping hands found what they were seeking. Far down, almost +at the bottom of the sea, the body of Miss Grant lay. + +I passed my hands over her. Her head and arms were clear of the awful +tangle, but both her legs were enmeshed. + +Fighting warily and working like one possessed, I tore at the +slithering ropes and bands that bound her. I got one foot and leg +clear, then, with bursting lungs I attacked the other. + +It seemed as if I should never get her free. How I fought and +struggled with that damnable sea-growth! fearing and fearing afresh +that I would have to make to the surface for air, or drown where I was. + +As I worked frantically, I grew defiant, and decided to drown rather +than leave the girl who had already been far too long under water. + +My head throbbed and hammered. My senses reeled and rallied, and +reeled again as I tore and struggled. Then, when hope was leaving me, +I felt something snap. I caught at the body beside me and I drifted +upward, and upward;--I did not know how or where. + +The thought flashed through me;--this is the last. It is all over. + +I opened my throat to allow the useless carbonised air to escape. I +was conscious of the act and knew its consequences:--a flood of salt +water in my lungs, then suffocation and death. But I did not care now. + +My lungs deflated, then--oh! delicious ecstasy!--instead of water, I +drew to my dying body,--air; reviving, life-giving, life-sustaining +oxygen. + +I panted and gasped, as life ran through my veins. Blood danced in my +thumping heart. I caught at my reeling senses. I clutched, like a +miser, at the body I held. + +I struggled, and opened my eyes. + +I was on the surface of the water,--afloat. In my arms, I held the +lady I had wrested from the deadly seaweed. + +How well I knew, even in those awful moments, that I was not the cause +of that wonderful rescue. I was present,--true,--but it was the +decreeing of the great, living, but Unseen Power, who had further use +for both of us in the bright old world, who had more work for us to +perform ere he called us to our last accounting. + +Well I knew then that every moment of time was more precious than +ordinary hours of reckoning, yet I dared not hurry with my burden +across that short strip of water, lest we should again become entangled. + +Foot by foot, I worked my way, until I was clear of the seaweed, then I +kicked forcefully for the shore, and with my unconscious, perhaps dead, +burden in my arms, I scrambled up the face of the rocks and into the +house. + +"Quick! For God's sake! Hot water,--blankets!" I cried to Miss +Grant's semi-petrified companion. + +She stood and looked at me in horror and bewilderment. Then I +remembered that my shouting was in vain, for she was stone-deaf. + +But this good old lady's helplessness was short-lived. + +"Lay her down," she cried; "I know how to handle this. If there's a +spark of life in her I can bring her round." + +I laid the limp form on the bed, on top of the spotless linen. + +As I did so, I looked upon the pale face, with its eyes closed and the +brine rolling in drops over those long, golden eyelashes; then upon the +glorious sun-kissed hair now water-soaked and tangled. + +I cried in my soul, "Oh, God!--is this the end and she so beautiful." + +Already the elderly lady had commenced first aid, in a businesslike +way. It was something I knew only a little about, so I went into the +kitchen in a perspiring terror of suspense,--and I stood there by the +stove, ready to be of assistance at any moment, should I be called. + +After what seemed hours of waiting, I heard a moan, and through the +moaning came a voice, sweet but pitiful, and breathing of agony. + +"Oh! why did you bring me back? Why did you not let me die?" + +Again followed a long waiting, with the soothing voice of Miss Grant's +able companion talking to her patient as she wrought with her. + +There was a spell of dreadful nausea, but when it came I knew the worst +was over. + +The elderly lady came to the door, with a request for a hot-water +bottle, which I got for her with alacrity. + +At last she came out to me, and her kindly face was beaming. + +"My dear, good boy," she said, as tears trickled down her cheeks, "she +is lying peacefully and much better. In an hour or two, she will be up +and around. Would you care to see her, just to put your mind at ease?" + +"Indeed I would," I responded. + +She led the way into the room, and there on the bed lay Miss +Grant,--breathing easily,--alive,--life athrob in her veins. + +A joyful reaction overwhelmed me, for, no matter how humble had been my +part, I had been chosen to help to save her. + +As I stood by her, her eyes opened;--great, light-brown eyes, bright +and agleam as of molten gold. They roved the room, then they rested on +me. + +"What!" she groaned, "you still here? Oh!--go away,--go away." + +My heart sank within me and my face flushed with confusion. + +I might have understood that what she said was merely the outpouring of +an overpowering weakness which was mingling the mental pictures +focussed on the young lady's mind;--but I failed to think anything but +that she had a natural distaste for my presence and was not, even now, +grateful for the assistance I had rendered. + +With my head bowed, I walked to the door. + +Mrs. Malmsbury,--for that was the elderly lady's name,--came to me. +She had not heard, but she had surmised. + +"Oh! Mr. Bremner,--if my dear Mary has said anything amiss to you, do +not be offended, for she is hardly herself yet. Why!--she is only +newly back from the dead." + +She held out her hand to me and I took it gratefully. But as I walked +over to my quarters and dressed myself, the feeling of resentment in my +heart did not abate; and I vowed then to myself that I would think of +Mary Grant no more; that I would avoid her when I could and keep +strictly to my own, beloved, masculine, bachelor pursuits and to the +pathway I had mapped out for myself. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +Good Medicine + +The Rev. William Auld was due to visit Golden Crescent that afternoon. +I almost wearied for his coming, for he was entertaining and uplifting. +He, somehow, had the happy knack of instilling fresh energy, fresh +ambition, fresh hope, into every one with whom he came in contact. + +His noisy launch at last came chug-chugging up the Bay. He started +with the far point of the Crescent and called at every creek, cove and +landing at which there was a home. Then he crept along the shore-line +to Jake's place. + +My turn next,--I soliloquised. But, no!--he held out, waving his hand +in salutation. + +It was evidently his intention to make a call on Miss Grant before +finishing his Sabbath labours at my bungalow. + +He stayed there a long time: so long, that I was beginning to give up +hope of his ever getting my length; but, finally, his cheery voice +hailed me from my doorway and roused my drooping spirits. + +His pale, gentle face was wreathed in smiles. + +"Good boy! Good boy!" he commented. "God bless you! He is blessing +you,--eh, George!" + +"How is the lady?" I inquired. + +"Almost as well as ever," he replied. "She has had a severe shake-up +though. It must have been touch and go. + +"She was up, George, and talked to me. She told me everything she +could remember; how she refused to take your well-intentioned advice, +and suffered the consequences of her folly. She gave me this note for +you." + +He held out an envelope and I took it and put it in my pocket. + +He raised his eyebrows, "Read it, man;--read it." + +"It will do later, Mr. Auld;--there is no hurry." + +He shook his old, grey head in surprise. + +"Well,--well,--well," he exclaimed. + +"Have you visited the Clarks yet, George?" he asked after a pause. + +"Yes!" + +"And what did you find there?" + +"Discord," I answered. + +"So you know all about it, eh!" + +"You are a minister of God, Mr. Auld; you have influence with such a +man as Andrew Clark. Surely you can move him from the damnable +position he has taken up?" + +"I would to God I could," he said fervently. "For ten years, I have +preached to him, scolded him, cajoled him, threatened him with +hell-fire and ever-lasting torment; yes! I have even refused to +dispense the sacrament to him unless he relented, but I might as well +have expended my energies on The Ghoul Rock out there at the opening to +the Bay." + +"But he professes to be a good Christian, Mr. Auld," I put in. + +"Yes! and no man on the coast tries to live a good life more than he +does. I am sure, every moment of his life he deeply regrets the rash +vow he made, but he believes, in the sight of God, he is doing right in +keeping to it. He is obsessed. + +"Now, George,--what is there left for me to try?" + +"Physical force," I exclaimed angrily. + +"George,--" he said, almost horrified, "it is not for a minister of the +gospel to think of violence." + +"Why not?" I went on. "Andrew Clark is slowly torturing his wife to +death. Surely, if there ever was an occasion,--this is it! A few +days' violence may save years of torture to both and, maybe, save his +eternal soul besides." + +He sat in silence for a while, then he startled me. + +"Come, boy! You have a scheme in your head. Tell me what it is, +and,--may God forgive me if I do wrong,--but, if it appeals to me as +likely to move that old, living block of Aberdeen granite, or even to +cause a few hours' joy to his dear, patient wife, Margaret, I'll carry +it through if I can." + +I unfolded what had been in my mind. + +"What do you think of it?" I asked. + +He shook his head dubiously. + +"It is dangerous; it is violent; it is not what a minister is expected +to do to any of his flock;--and it is only a chance that it will effect +its purpose." + +"Where would you put him?" I asked, as if he had agreed. + +He smiled. + +"Oh!--there is the log cabin at the back of the farm, where he keeps +nothing but an incubator. It has a heavy door and only a small window. + +"Man,--if we could inveigle him in there!" + +The Rev. William Auld positively chuckled as he thought of it. + +I knew then that he was not so very far away from his schoolboy days, +despite his age and experiences. + +"When can we start in?" + +He thought a little. + +"The sooner the better," he said. "Joe is busy towing booms this week +and there is no possible chance of his coming home. I am not too busy +and can spare the part of three or four consecutive days for the job. + +"If we can only get Margaret and Rita to agree." + +"I can guarantee Rita," I said. + +"And I can coerce Margaret," he put in. + +"We'll arrange with the women folks to-morrow sometime, and we'll +tackle poor old Andrew the following afternoon." + +The minister waited and had tea with me. It was late when he took his +departure. + +Just as I was tumbling into bed, I remembered Mary Grant's letter. I +took it out of my coat pocket and opened it. It was not a letter, +after all; merely a note. + + +"Please,--please forgive me," it read. "You are a brave and very +gallant gentleman. + +"MARY GRANT." + + +"George, my boy!" I soliloquised, "that ought to satisfy you." + +But it did not. In the frame of mind I then was in, nothing could +possibly have propitiated me. + +As I dropped to sleep, the phrase recurred again and again: "You are a +brave and very gallant gentleman." That,--maybe,--but after all a poor +and humble gentleman working for wages in a country store;--so, why +worry? + +Next morning, although it was not the day any steamer was due, I ran +the white flag to the top of the pole at the point of the rocks, in the +hope that Rita would see it and take it as a signal that I wished to +speak with her; and so save me a trip across, for I expected some of +the men from the Camps and I never liked to be absent or to keep them +waiting. + +Just before noon, Rita presented herself. + +"Say, George!--what's the rag up for? Did you forget what day of the +week it was, or is it your birthday? + +"I brought you a pie, in case it might be your anniversary. Made it +this morning." + +I laughed to the bright little lass who stood before me with eyes +dancing mischievously, white teeth showing and the pink of her cheeks +glowing through the olive tint of her skin. + +The more I saw of Rita, the prettier she seemed in my eyes, for she was +lively and agile, trim, neat and beautifully rounded, breathing always +of fragrant and exuberant health. + +"Sit down beside me on the steps here, Rita," I said. "I want to talk +to you. That is why I put the flag up. + +"Rita,--what would you give to have your grand-dad renounce his vow +some day and begin speaking to your grandmother as if nothing had ever +been amiss?" + +She looked at me and her lips trembled. + +"Say, George! Don't fool me. I ain't myself on that subject." + +"What would you give, Rita?" + +"I'd give anything. I'd pretty near give my life, George; for +grandmother would be happier'n an angel." + +"Would you help, if some one knew a way?" + +"George,--sure you ain't foolin'? True,--you ain't foolin'?" + +For answer, I plunged into the scheme. + +"Now,--all we require of you and your grandmother is to sit tight and +neither to say nor do anything that would interfere. Leave it +to--leave it to the minister. He is doing this, and he believes that +it is the only way to bring your grand-dad to his senses. Mr. Auld has +already tried everything else he can think of." + +"It won't kill grand-dad, though?" she inquired. + +"Kill him,--no! Why! it won't even hurt him, unless, maybe, his pride. + +"Do you agree, Rita?" + +"Sure!" she said. "But--if you or Mr. Auld hurt my grand-dad, I guess +I'll kill you both,--see." + +Her eyes flashed for a second and I could tell she was in deadly +earnest over it. But she soon laughed and became happy once more. + +"Rita,--would you like to be able to talk English,--proper +English,--just as it should be talked? Would you care to learn English +Grammar?" I asked, changing the subject partly. + +She came close to me on the veranda steps with a jump. + +"Say that over again, George. I want to get it right," she said +plaintively. + +"Would you like me to teach you English Grammar, Rita?" I repeated. + +"Would I? Oh! wouldn't I just!" + +She looked away quickly. "You wouldn't waste your time teachin' the +likes of me." + +"I have been through college. I know something of English Grammar and +English Literature. It would be the pleasure of my life to be +permitted to impart some of what I know to you." + +"Oh!--but it would take years, and years, and--then some," she put in. + +"Not a bit of it! It would take an hour or two of an evening, maybe +twice a week. That is all,--provided you went over and learned in +between times all that was given you to master." + +"Gee! I could do that. You just try me." + +"Well, Rita. Here is your first lesson. + +"Never say 'gee.' It is not good English." + +And I never heard Rita use the expression again. + +I had expected to see her smile with happiness, but she was too +tremendously in earnest about it. Determination was written all over +her sweet little face. + +"George,--I'll learn anything you tell me. I'll work hard and I'll +learn terrible fast, for I know I ain't no good now at talking slick." + +"Here is another for you, Rita. Never say 'ain't no good.' Say, 'I am +not any good.' 'Ain't' is not a word; it does not appear in any +standard dictionary of English. + +"Well, little girl,--if your grand-dad is agreeable and will permit you +to come over now and again of an evening, we can make a start as soon +as I get the book I require from Vancouver. + +"I would come over to your place, but it is quite a distance from the +store and I do not like to be too long away, especially in the +evenings; for I have seen Chinese in their fishing boats around, and +strange launches keep coming into the Bay to anchor overnights. It +does not do, you know, to neglect another man's property and goods when +the other man pays me for looking after them." + +"Oh! grand-dad won't mind me coming. He lets me do pretty near +anything. Besides, somebody's got to come over to the store now we're +getting our groceries from you instead of ordering them from Vancouver." + +I was not so sanguine as Rita was, especially after what Joe had +probably said to Andrew Clark regarding me. + +"Well!" I concluded, "that will be my excuse when I come over with the +medicine for your grand-dad's chronic complaint,--dumbness. So, don't +say a word about it until I get over." + +The Rev. William Auld ran in early that afternoon. He was all +excitement. + +"George,--I saw Margaret and I have fixed her. Poor woman,--she is as +nervous as a kitten and as worried as a mother cat, fearing we may hurt +Andrew. The old rascal;--he's not so easily hurt, eh, George? + +"You saw Rita?" + +"Yes! And she is like Mrs. Clark, but the prize looks too alluring for +her to refrain from entering the gamble." + +"George! Why should we leave this till to-morrow?" + +"I don't know why." + +"We could start in to-night, just as easily as to-morrow, and it will +be over a day sooner. What do you say?" + +"I am ready when you are, Mr. Auld." + +"Right! Now, I am going to leave the conversation to you. You must +work it round to fit in. I shall do the rest,--the dirty work, as the +villain says in the dime novel." + +"What do you know about dime novels?" I laughed. + +"I am a minister of the gospel now, but ... I was a boy once." + +The Rev. William Auld had dinner with me, then he started out in his +launch for Clark's ranch. It was arranged that I follow immediately in +a rowing boat, which would take me longer to get there and would thus +disarm any suspicion of complicity. + +When I arrived at Clark's, I could hear the minister talking and Andrew +Clark laughing heartily. Mr. Auld was telling some interesting story +and he had the old man in the best of humours. + +I was welcomed with cheerfulness, and the minister shook hands with me +as if he had not seen me for a month of Sundays. + +Rita was a-missing. Mrs. Clark seemed nervous and ill-at-ease. +Andrew, however, was in his happiest of moods. + +"What special brought ye over, George?" he asked. + +I told him of Rita's anxiety to be able to talk English properly and of +my willingness to teach her if it could be arranged conveniently. The +minister backed up the project with all his ministerial fluency, but +Andrew Clark was not the man to agree to a thing immediately, no matter +how well it appealed to him. + +"Rita's a good lassie," he said, "and she hasna had schoolin' except +what Marget and me taught her, and that's little more than being able +to read and add up a few lines o' figures. + +"George Bremner,--you're an honest man and I like ye fine. You'll ha'e +my answer by the end o' the week." + +"Right you are!" I exclaimed. + +Andrew then started in to tell Mr. Auld of the method he had adopted in +regard to the disposition of his output of eggs, and that gave me just +the opportunity I wanted. + +"How do you raise your chicks, Mr. Clark?" I asked. "Do you use an +incubator?" + +"Sure thing! And a grand little incubator I ha'e too," he answered. +"She takes two hundred and fifty eggs at a time and gives an average of +eighty per cent chicks." + +I had lit on Andrew Clark's one and only hobby. + +He got up. "Come and ha'e a look at it. It's called 'The +Every-Egg-A-Chick' Incubator, and it nearly lives up to its name. + +"But it's a pity I ha'e nothin' in her at the minute. + +"Come on, too, Mr. Auld. It'll do ye good to learn something aboot +chickens, even if you are busy enough lookin' after the sheep." + +Andrew took a huge key from a nail in the wall and we followed him out +to the log cabin, both of us full of forced interest and bubbling over +with pent-up excitement. + +Old man Clark talked all the way on his favourite topic; he talked +while he inserted the key in the door and he kept on talking as he +walked in, all intent on his wonderful egg-hatcher. + +He left the key in the door. + +Just as I was due to enter, I stepped back. With a quick movement, the +minister pulled the door to and turned the key, taking it out of the +lock and putting it in his trouser pocket. + +"Hey!--what's the matter?" came a voice from the inside. + +We did not answer. + +Andrew Clark battered on the door with his fists. + +"Hey there! The door has snappit to. Open it and come awa' in." + +The minister put his lips to the keyhole. + +"Andrew Clark,--that door is not going to be opened for some time to +come." + +"Toots! What are ye bletherin' aboot? What kind o' a schoolboy trick +is this you're up to? Open the door and none o' your nonsense." + +I chuckled with delight, as I ran off for some boards and nails which I +hammered up against the small window for extra security. + +When I finished the job, the Rev. William Auld was getting through his +lecture to Andrew. + +"--And you won't step a foot out of this place, neither shall you eat, +till you renounce your devilish vow and speak to the wife of your +bosom, as a God-fearing man should." + +Sonorously from behind the door came Clark's voice. + +"Willum Auld!--are ye a meenister o' the gospel?" + +"Yes!" + +"And ye would try to force a man to break a vow made before the Lord?" + +"Yes! Andrew." + +"Ye would starve a man to death,--murder him?" + +"No!--but I would make him very uncomfortable. I would make him so +hungry that he would almost hear the gnawing in his internals for meat, +if I thought good would come of it." + +The man behind the door became furious. + +"Willum Auld!" + +"Yes! Andrew." + +"If ye don't open that door at once, I'll write a complaint to the +Presbytery. I'll ha'e ye shorn o' your releegious orders and hunted +frae the kirk o' God." + +"Be silent! you blasphemer," commanded the frail but plucky old +minister. "How dare you talk in that way? Do you wish to bring down a +judgment on yourself? Good-night! Andrew,--I'll be back to-morrow; +and I would strongly recommend you, in the interval, to get down on +your knees and pray to your Maker." + +This proved almost too much for Andrew. + +"Willum!--Willum!--Come back," he cried through the door. + +"What is it?" asked the minister, returning. + +"There's neither light nor bed here, and I'm an ageing man." + +"Darkness is better light and earthen floors are softer bedding than +you will have in the place you are hastening to if you do not repent +and talk to Margaret." + +There was a spell of silence again. + +"Willum!--Willum! Are ye there?" + +"Yes! Andrew." + +"Could I ha'e my pipe and tobacco and a puckle matches? They're on the +kitchen mantel-piece." + +"Unless it is a drink of water, not a thing shall pass through this +doorway to you till you pledge me that you will speak to Margaret, as +you did before you took your devil's vow." + +The dour old man, in his erstwhile prison, had the last word: + +"Gang awa' wi' ye,--for it'll be a long time, Willum Auld. The snaw +will be fallin' blue frae the Heavens." + +We went back to the cottage and gave implicit instructions to Margaret +and Rita how they were to handle the prisoner. Neither of them was in +an easy frame of mind, and I feared considerably for their ability to +stand the test and keep away from the log hut. But the minister +retained the key, so that nothing short of tearing the place down would +let Andrew Clark out. + +Next day, late in the afternoon, the minister called in for me and we +sailed over to the ranch. + +Margaret, though sorely tempted, had kept religiously away from her +husband; but, already, she had a variety of foodstuffs cooked and +waiting his anticipated release. + +We went over to the barn and the minister rapped on the door. + +"Are you there, Andrew?" + +No answer. + +"Andrew Clark,--are you there?" + +Still no response. + +I looked though the boarded window. The old Scot was standing with his +back to us in a studied attitude. + +Once more the minister spoke, but still he received no answer. + +The women folks were waiting anxiously, and keen was their +disappointment when they heard that another day would have to pass ere +the head of their house could be released. + +"God forgive me if I am doing wrong," exclaimed William Auld to me, +"but I am determined, now that I have put my hand to the plough, I +shall not turn back." + +Wednesday came, and we called again. + +"Andrew," called the minister through the door, "will you relent and +talk to Margaret?" + +"Give me a drink of water," came a husky voice from behind the door. + +A saucer of cold water was passed under the door to him and he seized +it and drank of it eagerly. + +"Will you talk to Margaret, Andrew?" + +"No!" snapped the old fellow. And back again he dropped into silence. + +Still another day and the performance was repeated. Still Andrew Clark +remained adamant; still Margaret Clark begged and prayed on her knees +for his release. + +"We will give him one more day," said the minister, "and then, if it is +God's will, we will release him and take the consequences of our acts." + +On the Friday afternoon, we made what we considered would be our last +trip. + +Dour, stubborn, old man! It looked as if he were about to beat us +after all, for we could not afford to injure his health, no matter what +the reason for it. As it was, we had broken the law of the land and we +were liable to punishment at the hands of the law. + +The Rev. William Auld, suffering far more than the prisoner could have +suffered during that trying time, knocked at the solid door once more. + +"Andrew! Andrew!" he cried, "for God's sake, be a man." + +He had the key to the door in his hand, ready to open it. + +Suddenly, a broken voice came in answer: + +"Bring me Marget! Bring me Marget!" + +"Do you wish to speak to her, Andrew?" + +"Bring me Marget, won't you," came again the wavering voice. + +I brought the dear old woman from her kitchen. She was trembling with +anxiety and suspense. + +William Auld threw the door open. + +Andrew Clark was standing in the middle of the floor, with a look on +his face that I had never seen there before,--a look of holy +tenderness. He held out his arms to the white-haired old lady, who +tottered forward to meet him. + +"Marget! Marget! My own lass, Marget!" he cried huskily, as tears +blinded his sight. He caught her and crushed her to him. + +Margaret tried to speak, but her voice caught brokenly. + +"Andrew! Andrew!--don't, lad,--oh! don't." + +She laid her head on his breast and sobbed in utter content, as he +stroked her hair. + +"It's been ten year o' hell for me, Marget: ten year o' hell for us +both," he went on, "but God has spoken to me in the darkness, in the +quietness; through hunger and thirst. My lass, my lass;--my own, dear, +patient lass." + +He was holding her tightly to him and did not seem to know of our +presence. Our hearts were too full to remain. We turned and left them +in the joy of their reborn love. + +The minister, with face aglow, got into his launch, while I jumped into +my rowing boat. + +When I was quite a long way from the shore, I looked back across the +water to the cottage; and there, kneeling together on their veranda +steps, their arms around each other, their heads bent in prayer, I saw +Andrew Clark and Margaret. + +The next afternoon, Andrew called on me. He was waiting for me at the +store, as Jake and I returned with two boat-loads of fresh stock which +we were out receiving from the _Cloochman_. + +The old fellow took me by the hand and surprised me by his smile of +open friendship. + +"I would ha'e come over sooner, George, but I couldna get away frae the +ranch these last few days." His eyes turned humorously as he said it. + +"I might ha'e run over this mornin', but Marget and me ha'e a lot o' +leaway to make up. + +"Say! man,--I'll be glad if you will do what ye can to help Rita. Make +your ain arrangements;--for, what suits you, suits me and Marget." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +A Maid, a Mood and a Song + +In Golden Crescent Bay things moved quietly, almost drowsily. There +were the routine of hurried work and the long spells of comparative +idleness. + +As for the people over the way, I saw little of them outside of +business. + +I had not spoken to Mary Grant since the peremptory dismissal I had +received from her during her recovery from the drowning accident. + +I had not acknowledged her note by a visit, as probably I should have +done; but, then,--how was I to know but that the note had been sent +merely as a matter of form and common courtesy? She had no reason to +think me other than what I showed myself to be,--an ordinary +store-clerk; and this being so she might have considered it +presumptuous had I endeavoured in any way to avail myself of the +advantage I had secured in being of service to her, for, despite her +endeavours, she could not disguise from me,--who was in a position to +judge in a moment,--that her upbringing and her education had been such +as only the richest could afford and only the best families in America +and Europe could command. Yet she had a dash and wayward individualism +that were all her own;--savouring of the prairies and the wilder life +of the West. + +To me, she was still an enigma. + +Mrs. Malmsbury had been making all the purchases at the store; and, +naturally, conversation with her was of a strictly business order. She +seldom had a word to say that was not absolutely necessary, because, +from long experience, she had gathered wisdom and knew that talking +begot answering and questioning, and when these answers and questions +were unheard conversation was apt to become a monologue. + +She had no information to impart, no reminiscences to recount, no pet +theories to voice on evolution or female suffrage, no confessions or +professions to make, no prophecies to advance even regarding the +weather. + +As for Mary Grant,--she was seldom idle. I had seen her make her own +clothes, I had seen her over the washtub with her sleeves rolled up to +her fair, white shoulders, I had seen her bake and houseclean; sharing +the daily duties with her elderly companion. + +Yet she enjoyed to the full the delights that Golden Crescent afforded. +In her spare time, she rowed on the water, bathed, roved the forests +behind for wild flowers and game, read in her hammock and revelled in +her music. + +And she was not the only one who revelled in that glorious music, for, +unknown to her, Jake and I listened with delight to her uplifting +entertainment; I from the confines of my front veranda and Jake, night +after night, from his favourite position on the cliffs. + +He confessed to me that it was a wonderful set-off to the cravings that +often beset him for the liquor which he was still fighting so nobly and +victoriously. + +Poor old Jake! More than once I had almost been tempted to coax him to +go back to his nightly libations, for, since he had begun his fight for +abstinence, he seemed to be gradually going down the hill; losing +weight, losing strength, losing interest in his daily pursuits, and, +with it all, ageing. + +The minister had noticed the change and had expressed his concern. +Rita also had talked of it to me; and her visits to the old man had +become more frequent, her little attentions had grown in number and her +solicitude for his bodily comfort had become almost motherly. + +Rita always could manipulate Jake round her little finger. He was clay +in her hands, and obeyed her even to the putting of a stocking full of +hot salt round his neck one night he had a hoarseness in his throat. + +"If she ever insists on me puttin' my feet in hot-water and mustard," +he confessed to me once, "God knows how I shall muster up the courage +to refuse." + +I had sent to Vancouver for the grammar-book with which I intended +starting Rita's tuition, but it had only arrived,--its coming having +been delayed on account of the book-sellers not having it in stock and +having to fill my requirement from the East,--but I had promised Rita, +much to her pleasure, that we should start in in earnest the following +evening. + +I had been reading in my hammock until the daylight had failed me. And +now I was lying, resting and hoping that any moment Miss Grant would +commence her nightly musicale. + +Jake, and his dog Mike, I presumed, were already in their accustomed +places, Jake smoking his pipe and Mike biting at mosquitoes and other +pestiferous insects which lodged and boarded about his warm, hairy +person. + +The cottage door opened and our fair entertainer stepped out. + +She came across the rustic bridge and made straight for my place, +humming softly to herself as she sauntered along. She was hatless as +usual and her hair was done up in great, wavy coils on her well-poised +head. Her hands were jammed deep into the pockets of her pale-green, +silk sweater-coat. She impressed me then as being at peace with the +world and perfectly at ease; much more at ease than I was, for I was +puzzling myself as to what her wish with me could be, unless it were +regarding some groceries that she might have overlooked during the day. + +She smiled as she came forward. + +I rose from the hammock. + +"Now, don't let me disturb you," she said. "Lie where you are. + +"I shall do splendidly right here." + +She sat down on the top step of the veranda and turned half round to me. + +"Do you ever feel lonely, Mr. Bremner?" + +"Yes!--sometimes," I answered. + +"What do you do with yourself on such occasions?" + +"Oh!--smoke and read chiefly." + +"But,--do you ever feel as if you had to speak to a member of the +opposite sex near your own age,--or die?" + +She was quite solemn about this, and seemed to wait anxiously as if the +whole world's welfare depended on my answer. + +"Sometimes!" I replied again, with a laugh. + +"What do you do then?" + +"I lie down and try to die." + +"--and find you can't," she put in. + +"Yes!" + +"Just the same as I do. Well!--" she sighed, "I have explored all the +beauties of Golden Crescent; I have fished--and caught nothing. I have +hunted,--and shot nothing. I have read,--and learned nothing, or next +to it, until I have nothing left to read. So now,--I have come over to +you. I want to be friends." + +"Are we not friends already?" I asked, sitting on the side of my +hammock and filling my vision with the charming picture she presented. + +She sighed and raised her eyebrows. + +"Oh!--I don't know. You never let me know that you had forgiven me for +my rudeness to you." + +"There was nothing to forgive, Miss Grant." + +"No! How kind of you to say so! And you are not angry with me any +more?" + +"Not a bit," I answered, wondering at the change which had come over +this pretty but elusive young lady. + +"Well, Mr. Bremner,--I see you reading very often. I came across to +inquire if you could favour me with something in the book line to wile +away an hour or so." + +"With pleasure," I answered. + +"Mr. Horsfal, my employer, has a well-stocked little library here and +you are very welcome to read anything in it you may fancy. Will you +come inside?" + +She looked up shyly, then her curiosity got the mastery. + +"Why, yes!" she cried, jumping up. "I shall be delighted." + +I led the way into the front room, fixing the lamp and causing a flood +of mellow light to suffuse the darkness in there. I went over and +threw aside the curtains that hid the book-shelves. + +"You have a lovely place here," she exclaimed, looking round in +admiration. "I had no idea ... no idea----" + +"--That a bachelor could make himself so comfortable," I put in. + +"Exactly! Do you mind if I take a peek around?" she asked, laughing. + +"Not a bit!" + +She "peeked around" and satisfied her curiosity to the full. + +"I am convinced," she said at last, "that in all this domestic artistry +there is the touch of a feminine hand. Who was, or who is,--the lady?" + +"I understand Mrs. Horsfal furnished and arranged this home. She lived +here every summer before she died. That made it very easy for me. All +I had to do was to keep everything in its place as she had left it." + +Miss Grant was enraptured with the library. I thought she would never +finish scanning the titles and the authors. + +"This is a positive book-wormery," she exclaimed. + +She chose a volume which revealed her very masculine taste in +literature, although, after all, it did not astonish me greatly but +merely confirmed what I already had known to be so;--that, while boys +and men scorn to read girls' and women's books, yet girls and women +seem to prefer the books that are written more especially for boys and +men and the more those books revel and riot in sword play, impossible +adventure and intrigue, the more they like them. + +"Might I ask if you would be so good as to return my visit?" said my +visitor at last. "You saved my life, you know, and you have some right +to take a small friendly interest in me. + +"If you could spare the time, I should be pleased to have you over for +tea to-morrow evening and to spend a sociable hour with us +afterwards;--that is, if you care for tea, sociability and--music." + +I looked across at her,--so straight, so ladylike, so beautiful; almost +as tall as I and so full of bubbling mischief and virile charm. + +"I am a veritable drunkard with tea, and as for music--ask Jake, out +there sitting on the cliffs in the darkness, if I like music. He +knows. Ask me, as I lie in my hammock here, night after night, waiting +for you to begin,--if Jake likes music, and the answer will satisfy you +just how much both of us appreciate it. + +"But, I am very sorry I shall be unable to avail myself of your kind +invitation to come to-morrow evening." + +My new friend could not disguise her surprise. I almost fancied I +traced a flush of embarrassment on her cheeks. + +"No!" was all she said, and she said it ever so quietly. + +"I have a pupil coming to-morrow evening for her first real lesson in +English Grammar. She has waited long for it. The book I desired to +start her in with has only arrived. She would be terribly disappointed +if I were now to postpone that lesson." + +"Your pupil is a lady?" + +"Yes!--a sweet little girl called Rita Clark, who lives at the ranch at +the other side of the Crescent. She comes here often. You must have +noticed her." + +"What!--that pretty, olive-skinned girl, with the dark hair and dark +eyes? + +"Yes! I have noticed her and I have never since ceased to envy her +complexion and her woodland beauty. I would give all I have to look as +she does. + +"You are most fortunate in your choice of a pupil?" + +"Yes! Rita is a good-hearted little girl," I lauded unthinkingly. + +"I spoke to her once out on the Island," said Miss Grant, "but she +seemed shy. She looked me over from head to heel, then ran off without +a word. + +"Well,--Mr. Bremner, days and evenings are much alike to some of us in +Golden Crescent. Shall we say Wednesday evening?" + +"I shall be more than pleased, Miss Grant," I exclaimed, betraying the +boyish eagerness I felt, "if----?" + +"If?" she inquired. + +"If you will return the compliment by allowing me to take you out some +evening in the boat to the end of Rita's Isle there, where the sea +trout are,--or away out to the passage by The Ghoul where the salmon +are now running. I have seen you fishing very often and with the +patience of Job, yet not once have I seen you bring home a fish. Now, +Rita Clark can bring in twenty or thirty trout in less than an hour, +any time she has a fancy to. + +"I should like to break your bad luck, for I think the trouble can only +be with the tackle you use." + +Mary Grant's brown eyes danced with pleasure, and in the lamplight, I +noticed for the first time, how very fair her skin was,--cream and pink +roses,--tanned slightly where the sun had got at it, but without a +blemish, without even a freckle, and this despite the fact that she +seldom took any precautions against the depredations of Old Sol. + +"I shall be glad indeed. You are very kind; for what you propose will +be a treat of treats, especially if we catch some fish." + +She held out her hand to me. Mine touched hers and a thrill ran and +sang through my fingers, through my body to my brain; the thrill of a +strange sensation I had never before experienced. I gazed at her +without speaking. + +She raised her eyes and mine held hers for the briefest of moments. + +To me it seemed as if a world of doubt and uncertainty were being swept +away and I were looking into eyes I had known through all the ages. + +Then her golden lashes dropped and hid those wonderful eyes from me. + +Impulsively, yet fully knowing what I did, I raised her hand and +touched the back of her fingers with my lips. + +She did not draw her hand away. She smiled across to me ever so +sweetly and turned from me into the darkness. + +Not for an hour did I wake from my reveries. The spell of new +influences was upon me; the moon, climbing up among the scudding +night-clouds, never seemed so bright before and the phosphorescent glow +and silver streaks on the water never so beautiful. + +A light travelled across the parlour over the way. I saw Miss Grant +seat herself by the piano, and soon the whole air became charged with +the softest, sweetest cadences,--elusive, faint and fairylike. + +How I enjoyed them! How old Jake on the cliffs must have enjoyed them! +What an artist the lady was, and how she excelled herself that evening! + +I lay in a transport of pleasure, hoping that the music might never +cease; but, alas for such vain hoping,--it whispered and died away, +leaving behind it only the stillness of the night, the sighing of the +wind in the tops of the tall creaking firs, the chirping of the +crickets under the stones and the call of the night bird to her mate. + +I raised my eyes across to the cottage. + +In the lamplight, I could discern the figure of the musician. She was +seated on the piano stool, with her hands clasped in front of her and +gazing out through the window into the darkness of the night. + +Surely it was a night when hypnotising influences were at work with all +of us, for I had not yet seen Jake return; he was evidently still +somewhere out on the cliffs communing with the spirits that were in the +air. + +Suddenly I observed a movement in the room over the way. + +Miss Grant had roused herself from her dreaming. She raised her hand +and put the fingers I had kissed to her own lips. Then she kissed both +her hands to the outside world. She lowered the light of the lamp +until only the faintest glow was visible. + +She ran her fingers over the piano keys in a ripple of simple +harmonies. Sweet and clear came her voice in singing. I caught the +lilt of the music and I caught the words of the song:-- + + A maid there was in the North Coun-tree, + A shy lit-tle, sweet lit-tle maid was she. + She wished and she sighed for she knew-not-who, + So long as he loved her ten-der-lee; + And day by day as the long-ing grow, + Her spin-ning-wheel whirred and the threads wove through. + It whirred, It whirred, It whirred and the threads wove through. + +[Illustration: Song fragment] + + A maid there was in the North Countree; + A gay little, blythe little maid was she. + Her dream of a gallant knight came true. + He wooed her long and so tenderlee. + And, day by day, as their fond love grew, + Her spinning wheel stood with its threads askew; + It stood.--It stood.--It stood with its threads askew. + + A maid there was in the North Countree; + A sad little, lone little maid was she. + Her knight seemed fickle and all untrue + As he rode to war at the drummer's dree. + And, day by day, as her sorrow grew, + Her spinning wheel groaned and the threads wove through. + It groaned.--It groaned.--It groaned and the threads wove through. + + A maid there is in the North Countree; + A coy little, glad little maid is she. + Her cheeks are aglow with a rosy hue, + For her knight proved true, as good knights should be. + And, day by day, as their vows renew, + Her spinning wheel purrs and the threads weave through; + It purrs.--It purrs.--It purrs and the threads weave through. + + +Why she had not sung before, I could not understand, for a voice such +as she had was a gift from heaven, and it was sinful to keep it hidden +away. It betrayed training, but only in a slight degree; not +sufficient to have spoiled the bewitching, vagrant plaintiveness which +it possessed; an inexpressible allurement of tone which a few untrained +singers have, trained singers never, for the rigours of the training +steal away that peculiar charm as the great city does the bloom from +the cheek of a country maiden. + +I listened for the verses of the song which I knew should follow, but +the singer's voice was still and the faint glow of the lamp was +extinguished. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +The "Green-eyed Monster" Awakes + +Rita had just had her first real lesson in English. Already,--but +without giving her the reason why, except that it was incorrect,--I had +taught her never to say "ain't" and "I seen"; also that "Gee," "Gosh" +and "you bet your life" were hardly ladylike expressions. She now +understood that two negatives made a positive and that she should +govern her speech accordingly. + +She was an apt pupil; so anxious to improve her way of talking that +mine was not a task, it was merely the setting of two little feet on a +road and saying, "This is your way home," and those two little feet +never deviated from that road for a single moment, never side-stepped, +never turned back to pick up the useless but attractive words she had +cast from her as she travelled. + +How I marvelled at the great difference the elimination of a few of the +most common of her slangy and incorrect expressions and the +substitution of plain phrases in their places made in her diction! +Already, it seemed to me as if she understood her English and had been +studying it for years. + +How easy it was, after all, I fancied, as I followed my train of +thought, for one, simply by elimination, to become almost learned in +the sight of his fellow men! + +But now Rita had been introduced to the whys and wherefores in their +simplest forms, so that she should be able, finally, to construct her +thoughts for herself, word by word and phrase by phrase, into rounded +and completed sentences. + +At the outset, I had told her how the greatest writers in English were +not above reading and re-reading plain little Grammars such as she was +then studying, also that the favourite book of some of the most famous +men the world ever knew, a book which they perused from cover to cover, +year in and year out, as they would their family Bible,--was an +ordinary standard dictionary. + +I gave Rita her thin little Grammar and a note book in which to copy +her lessons, and she slipped these into her bosom, hugging them to her +heart and laughing with pleasure. + +She put out her hands and grasped mine, then, in her sweet, +unpremeditated way, she threw her arms round my neck and drew my lips +to hers. + +Dear little girl! How very like a child she was! A creature of +impulse, a toy in the hands of her own fleeting emotions! + +"Say! George,--I just got to hug you sometimes," she cried, "you are +so good to me." + +She stood back and surveyed me as if she were trying to gauge my weight +and strength. + +As it so happened, that was exactly what she was doing. + +"You aren't scared of our Joe,--are you?" she asked. + +"No!" I laughed. "What put that funny question into your head?" + +She became serious. + +"Well,--if I thought you were, I wouldn't come back for any more +Grammar." + +"Why?" I asked. + +"Joe's not very well pleased about it. Guess he thinks nobody should +be able to speak better'n he can." + +"Oh!--never mind Joe," I exclaimed. "He'll come round, and your +grand-dad's consent is all you need anyway." + +"Sure! But I know, all the same, that Joe's got it in for you. He +hasn't forgot the words you and he had." + +"When did you see him last, Rita?" + +"He was in to-day. Wanted to know where I was going. Grand-dad told +him, then Joe got mad. Says you're 'too damned interfering.' Yes! +Joe said it. He said to Grand-dad, 'You ain't got no right lettin' +that kid go over there. Girls ain't got any business learnin' lessons +off'n men.' + +"Grand-dad said, 'Aw! forget it, Joe. She's got my permission, so let +that end it. George Bremner's all right.' + +"The settlers are arranging for a teacher up here next summer. Why +can't she wait till then and get her lessons from a reg'lar +professional, and no gol-durned amatoor,' said Joe. + +"'See here, Mister man!' I said, 'you're sore,--that's your trouble. +But I'm not going to be bullied by you,--so there. I'm through with +you, Joe Clark;--and, what's more, you needn't take any interest in me +any more. I can look after myself.' + +"He gripped my arm. It's black and blue yet. See! + +"'You ain't goin',' said he, madder'n ever. + +"'Yes! I am,' I said. + +"'If you go, by God, I'll kill that son-of-a-gun. Watch me! I ain't +forgot him, though maybe he's fool enough to think I have.' + +"Then he got kind of soft. + +"'Don't you go, Rita.' + +"'Why?' I asked. + +"'Because I don't want you to.' + +"'That's no reason,' I said. + +"I'll send you to a school in Vancouver this winter, if you'll wait,' +he coaxed. + +"You see, George,--Joe ain't half bad sometimes. But I was scared he +might think I was givin' in. + +"'Don't want your schooling. It's too late,' said I. 'I've arranged +for myself, Joe Clark,--so there.' + +"I ran out and left him. + +"He's pretty mad, but I don't care any more, now you're goin' to help +me with this grammar. + +"You're sure you're not scared of Joe?" she repeated. + +"I have a strong right arm," I declared, "and I have been taught to +look after myself." + +I went down to the boat with her, and as she was stepping in she caught +me by the shirt sleeve. + +"You and Joe aren't goin' to fight, George? Promise me you won't +fight." + +"I could not promise that, little girl, for I cannot control the +future. But I promise you that I shall not seek any quarrel with Joe. +But, if he insulted you, for instance, or tried to commit a bodily +violence on me, I would fight him without any hesitation. Wouldn't +that be the right thing to do, Rita?" + +Her head nodded wistfully. "Yes! Guess it would," she whispered, as I +pushed her boat out into the water where the darkness swallowed it up. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +Fishing! + +In the fulfilling of a promise, I called the following evening on Miss +Grant. + +It was the first of a number of such visits, for I found that the old +feeling of antagonism between us had entirely disappeared and, +consequently, I enjoyed the sociability refreshingly. + +Our meetings, while not by any means of the 'friendly admiration' kind, +were of a nature beneficial to both of us. + +She learned that I was an Englishman of good family. I gathered, her +mother had been a Virginian and her father an Englishman; that she +loved the American Continent and always considered the United States +her country as her mother had done before her. But further than this +we did not get, for we were both diffident in talking of our lives +prior to our coming to Golden Crescent. Still, we had many +never-failing topics of conversation, many subjects to discuss in +literature, music, philosophy and economics. + +We travelled along in our acquaintance easily,--leisurely,--as if time +were eternal and the world were standing still awaiting our good +pleasure. + +Late one afternoon, when I was sitting out on the rocks, near the oil +barns at the end of the wharf, enjoying the cooling breezes after the +trying heat of that midsummer's day, I saw Miss Grant come down the +path with her fishing lines in her hand and her sweater-coat over her +arm. She went to her boat and started to pull it toward the water. + +I scrambled over and down the rocks, to lend a hand. + +"Any room for me, Miss Grant?" I asked boldly. + +"Why, yes!" she smiled eagerly, "if only you would come. You promised +once, you know, but, somehow, that promise is still unfulfilled." + +I handed her into the boat, pushed off and leaped in beside her. She +took the oars and, with the swift easy strokes, full of power and +artistic grace, which I had noticed the first time I saw her on the +water, she pulled out to the west of Rita's Isle. + +Her hair was hanging negligently, in loose, wavy curls, over her +shoulders. Her dimpled arms and her neck were bared to the sunshine. +Her mouth was parted slightly and her teeth shone ivory-like, as she +plied her oars. + +"Let me take a turn now," I asked, "and run out your line." + +She did so, and I took her slowly round the Island without her feeling +so much as a tiny nibble. + +"How stupid!" I exclaimed. "What's the good of me coming out here, if +I do not try to discover the cause of your continual non-success as a +fisher? Pull in your line and let me have a look at the spoon." + +I examined the sinker and found it of the proper weight and properly +adjusted, fixed at the correct length from the bait. Next, I took the +spoon in my hand. It was a small nickel spinner,--the right thing for +catching sea-trout round Rita's Isle. I was puzzled for a little, +until I laid the spoon and the hook flat on the palm of my hand, then I +knew where the trouble was. + +The barb of the hook hung fully an inch and a half too far from the +spoon. + +I adjusted it and handed it back to my lady-companion. + +"Try that," I said with a smile. + +In dropped the line and out it ran to its full length. + +Miss Grant held it taut. Suddenly she gave it a jerk. She stopped in +breathless excitement. Then she jerked again. + +"Oh, dear me!" she cried anxiously, "there's something on." + +"Pull it in," I shouted, "steady,--not too quickly." + +Immediately thereafter, a fine, two-pound trout lay flopping in the +bottom of the boat. + +"Just think of that," cried my fair troller, "my first fish! And all +by moving up a foolish little hook an inch or so." + +Her eyes were agleam. She chatted on and on almost without ceasing, +almost without thinking, so excited and absorbed did she become in the +sport. + +Back went the line, and in it came again with another wriggling, +shining trout. + +For an hour I rowed round the Island, and, in that hour, Mary Grant had +equalled Rita's best that I knew of, for between thirty and forty fish +fell a prey to the deadly bait and hook. + +"How would you like to try for a salmon?" I asked at last. "They are +running better now than they have done all the year so far." + +"All right!" she agreed, with a sigh of pent-up excitement, pulling in +her trout line and running out a thicker one with a large salmon spoon +and a fairly heavy sinker. + +I rowed out to the mouth of the Bay, keeping inside the Ghoul Rock; +then I started crossways over to the far point. + +We were half-way across, when Mary Grant screamed. The line she was +holding ran with tremendous rapidity through her fingers. I jammed my +foot on the wooden frame lying in the bottom of the boat and to which +the line was attached. I was just in time to save it from following +the rest of the line overboard. + +I pulled in my oars and caught up the line. + +Away, thirty yards off, a great salmon sprang out of the water high +into the air, performing a half-circle and flopping back with a splash +from its lashing tail. + +"She is yours," I cried. "Come! play her for all you can." + +But, as I turned, I saw that Miss Grant's fingers were bleeding from +the sudden running-out of the line when the salmon had struck; so I +settled down to fight the fish myself. + +All at once, the line slacked. I hauled it in, feeling almost certain +that I had lost my prize. But no! Off she went again like a fury, +rising out of the water in her wild endeavours to free herself. + +For a long time I played her. My companion took the oars quietly and +was now doing all she could to assist me. + +Next, the salmon sank sheer down and sulked far under the water. +Gradually, gradually I drew her in and not a struggle did she make. +She simply lay, a dead thing at the end of my line. + +"She's played out, Miss Grant. She's ours," I cried gleefully, as I +got a glint of her under the water as she came up at the end of my line. + +But, alas! for the luck of a fisherman. When the salmon was fifteen +feet from the boat, she jerked and somersaulted most unexpectedly, with +all the despair of a gambler making his last throw. She shot sheer out +of the water and splashed in again almost under the boat. My line, +minus the spoon and the hook, ran through my fingers. + +"Damn!" I exclaimed, in the keenest disappointment. + +"And--that's--just--what--I--say--too," came my fair oars-woman's +voice. "If that isn't the hardest kind of luck!" + +Away out, we could see our salmon jump, and jump, and jump again, out +of the water ten feet in the air, darting and plunging in wide circles, +like the mad thing she probably was. + +"It serves me rightly, Miss Grant. I professed to be able to fix your +tackle and yet I did not examine that spoon before putting it into use. +It has probably been lying in a rusty condition for a year or so. + +"Well,--we cannot try again to-night, unless we row in for a fresh +spoon-hook." + +"Oh!--let us stop now. We have more fish already than we really +require." + +"Shall I row you in?" I asked. + +"Do you wish to go in?" + +"Oh, dear, no! I could remain here forever,--at least until I get +hungry and sleepy," I laughed. + +"All right!" she cried, "let us row up into the Bay and watch the sun +go down." + +I pulled along leisurely, facing my fair companion, who was now +reclining in the stern, with the sinking sun shining in all its golden +glory upon the golden glory of her. + +Moment by moment, the changing colours in the sky were altering the +colours on the smooth waters to harmonise: a lake of bright yellow +gold, then the gold turned to red, a sea of blood; from red to purple, +from purple to the palest shade of heliotrope; and, as the sun at last +dipped in the far west, the distant mountains threw back that same +attractive shade of colour. + +It was an evening for kind thoughts. + +We glided up the Bay, past Jake Meaghan's little home; still further +up, then into the lagoon, where not a ripple disturbed that placid +sheet of water: where the trees and rocks smiled down upon their own +mirrored reflections. + +We grew silent as the nature around us, awed by the splendours of the +hushing universe upon which we had been gazing. + +"It is beautiful! oh, so beautiful!" said my companion at last, awaking +from her dreaming. "Let us stay here awhile. I cannot think to go +home yet." + +She threw her sweater-coat round her shoulders, for, even in the height +of summer, the air grows chilly on the west coast as the sun goes down. + +"You may smoke, Mr. Bremner. I know you are aching to do so." + +I thanked her, pulled in my oars and lighted my pipe. + +Mary Grant sat there, watching me in friendly interest, smiling in +amusement in the charming way only she could smile. + +"Do you know, I sometimes wonder," she said reflectively, "why it is +that a man of your education, your prospective attainments, your +ability, your physical strength and mental powers should keep to the +bypaths of life, such as we find up here, when your fellows, with less +intellect than you have, are in the cities, in the mining fields and on +the prairies, battling with the world for power and fortune and +getting, some of them, what they are battling for. + +"I am not trying to probe into your privacy, but what I have put into +words has often recurred to me regarding you. Somehow, you seem to +have all the qualities that go to the making of a really successful +business man." + +"Do you really wonder why?" I smiled. "--And yet you profess to know +me--a little." + +It was an evening for closer friendships. + +"If you promise for the future to call me George and permit me the +privilege, when we are alone, of calling you Mary, I shall answer your +query." + +"All right,--George,--it's a bargain," she said. "Go ahead." + +"Well! in the first place, I know what money is; what it can bring and +what it can cause. I never cared for money any more than what could +provide the plain necessities of life. As for ambition to make and +accumulate money;--God forbid that I should ever have it. I leave such +ambitions to the grubs and leeches." + +Mary listened in undisguised interest. + +"Oh! I have had opportunities galore, but I always preferred the +simpler way,--the open air, the sea and the quiet, the adventure of the +day and the rest after a day well spent. + +"No man can eat more than three square meals a day and be happy; no man +can lie upon more than one bed at a time;--so, what right have I, or +any other man for the matter of that, to steal some other fellow's food +and bedding?" + +"But some day you may wish to marry," she put in. + +"Some day,--yes! maybe. And the lady I marry must also love the open +air, away from the city turmoil; she must hanker after the glories of a +place such as this; otherwise, we should not agree for long. + +"And,--Mary,--" I continued, "the man you would marry,--what would you +demand of him?" + +"The man I would marry may be a Merchant Prince or a humble tiller of +the soil. A few things only I would demand of him, and these +are:--that he love me with all his great loving heart; that he be +honourable in all things and that his right arm be strong to protect +his own and ever ready to assist his weaker brother. + +"Marriages may be made in heaven, George, but they have to be lived on +earth, and the one essential thing in every marriage is love." + +She sat for a while in thought, then she threw out her hands as if to +ward off a danger. + +"Of what use me talking in this way," she cried. "Marriage, for me, +with my foolish ideas, is impossible. I am destined to remain as I am." + +My pulse quickened as she spoke. + +"And why?" I asked;--for this evening of evenings was one for open +hearts and tender feelings. + +"It was arranged for me that by this time I should be the wife of a +man; and,--God knows,--though I did not love him, I meant to be a true +and dutiful wife to him, even when I knew my eternal soul would be +bruised in the effort. + +"This man was taller than you are, George. Sometimes, in your +devil-may-care moods, I seem to see him again in you. I am glad to +say, though, the similarity ends there. + +"For all his protestations of love for me, for all his boasted ideals, +his anxiety for the preservation of his honour as a gentleman, he +proved himself not even faithful in that which every woman has a right +to demand of the man she is about to marry, as he demands it of her. + +"I would not marry him then. I could not. I would sooner have died. + +"That was my reward for trying to do my duty." + +Her voice broke. "Sometimes, I wonder if any man is really true and +honourable." + +She covered her face with her hands; she, who had always been so +self-possessed. + +"The shame of it! The shame of it!" she sobbed. + +In my heart, I cursed the dishonour of men. Would the dreadful +procession of it never cease? Deceit and dishonour! Dishonour and +deceit! Here, there, everywhere,--and always the woman suffering while +the man goes free! + +I moved over beside her in the stern of the boat. I laid my hand upon +her shoulder. In my rough, untutored way, without breaking into the +agony of her thoughts, I tried to comfort her with the knowledge of my +sympathetic presence. + +For long we sat thus; but at last she turned to me and her hair brushed +my cheek. She looked into my eyes and I know she read what was in my +heart, for it was brimming over with a love for her that I had never +known before, a love that overwhelmed me and left me dumb. + +"George!" she whispered softly, laying her hand upon mine, "you must +not, you must not." + +Then she became imperious and haughty once more. + +"Back to your oars, sailorman," she cried, with an astonishing effort +at gaiety. "The dark is closing in and Mrs. Malmsbury will be thinking +all kinds of things she would not dare say, even if she were able." + +Late that night, I heard the second verse of Mary's little song. It +was hardly sung; it was whispered, as if she feared that even the +fairies and sprites might be eavesdropping; but, had she lilted it in +her heart only, still, I think, I should have heard it. + + A maid there was in the North Countree; + A gay little, blythe little maid was she. + Her dream of a gallant knight came true. + He wooed her long and so tenderlee. + And, day by day, as their fond love grew, + Her spinning wheel stood with its threads askew; + It stood.--It stood.--It stood with its threads askew. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +The Beachcombers + +The Autumn, with its shortening days and lengthening nights, was upon +Golden Crescent, but still the charm and beauty of its surroundings +were unimpaired. + +I never tired of the scenes, for they were kaleidoscopic in their +changing. Even in the night, when sleep was unable to bind me, I have +risen and stood by my open window, in reverie and peaceful +contemplation, and the dark has grown to dawn ere I turned back to bed. + +It was on such an occasion as I speak of. I was leaning on the window +ledge, looking far across the Bay. The sea was a mirror of oily calm. +A crescent moon was shining fairly high in the south, laying a streak +of silver along the face of the water near the far shore. It was a +night when every dip of an oar would threaten to bring up the reflected +moon from the liquid deep; a night of quiet when the winging of a +sea-fowl, or the plop of a fish, could be heard a mile away. In the +stillness could be heard the occasional tinkle, tinkle of a cow-bell +from the grazing lands across the Bay. + +As I listened to the night noises, I heard the distant throb of a +launch out in the vicinity of the Ghoul Rock. Suddenly, the throbbing +stopped and I fancied I caught the sound of deep voices. All went +still again, but, soon after, my ear detected the splashing of oars and +the rattle of a badly fitting rowlock. + +I watched, peering out into the darkness. The moon shot swiftly from +under a cloud and threw its white illuminant like a searchlight sheer +upon a large rowing boat as it crept up past the wharf, some fifty +yards out from the point. + +I counted five figures in the boat, which was heading up the Bay. + +A cloud passed over the moon again and the picture of the boat and its +occupants vanished from my sight. + +Strange, I thought, why these men should arrive in a launch, leave it +so far out and come in with a rowing boat of such dimensions, when +there was good, safe and convenient anchorage almost anywhere close in! + +I listened again. The sound of the rattling row-lock ceased and I +heard the grinding of a boat's bottom on the gravel somewhere in the +vicinity of Jake's cove. + +I stood in indecision for some minutes, then I decided that I would +find out what these men were up to. I put on my clothes without haste, +picked up a broken axe-handle that lay near the doorway and started +noiselessly down the back path in the direction of Meaghan's shack, +reaching there about half an hour after I had first detected the boat. +When I came to the clearing, I saw a light in the cabin. As I drew +closer, I heard the sound of hoarse voices. Stepping cautiously, I +went up to the window and peered through. + +I saw four strange men there. The lower parts of their faces were +masked by handkerchiefs in real highwaymen fashion. + +With a dirty neckcloth stuffed into his mouth, old Jake was sitting on +a chair and tied securely to it by ropes. Mike, his faithful old dog, +was lying at his feet in a puddle of blood. + +The liquor keg in the corner had been broached, and I could see that, +already, the men had been drinking. Jake's brass-bound chest had been +dragged to the middle of the floor and the man who appeared to be the +leader of the gang was sitting astride of it, with a cup of liquor in +his hand, laughing boisterously. + +My anger rose furiously. + +"The low skunks," I growled, gripping my improvised club as I tip-toed +quietly to the door, hoping to rush in, injure some of them and +stampede the others before they would know by how many they were being +attacked. + +I was gently turning the handle, when something crashed down on my +head. I stumbled into the shack, sprawled upon the floor, strange +voices sang in my ears and everything became blurred. + +It could have been only a few minutes later when I revived. I was in +Jake's cabin, and was trussed with ropes, hands and feet, to one of the +wooden uprights of the old Klondiker's home-made bed. I could feel +something warm, oozy and clammy, making its way from my hair, down the +back of my neck. + +I opened my eyes wide, and reason enough came to me to close them +quickly again. Then I opened them once more, cautiously and narrowly. + +Five strange men were now in the cabin, which was cloudy with tobacco +smoke. The carousal had increased rather than otherwise. The men were +gathered round Jake, laughing and cursing in wild derision. They were +not interested in me at the moment, so I stayed quiet, making pretence +that the unconsciousness was still upon me, whenever any of them turned +in my direction. + +Through my half-opened eyelids, I fancied I recognised the leader of +the crowd as a black-haired, beady-eyed, surly dog of a logger who had +come in several times from Camp No. 2 to help with the taking up of +their supplies,--but of his identity I was not quite certain. + +As my scattered senses began to collect, I hoped against hope that +these men would keep up their drinking bout until not one of them would +be able to stand. But, while they drank long and drank deeply, they +were too wise by far to overdo it. + +Then I got to wondering what they were badgering old Jake about, for I +could hear him growl and curse, his gag having fallen to the floor. + +"Go to hell and take the trunk, the booze and the whole caboose with +you, if you want to. I don't want none of it. I ain't hoggin' booze +any more." + +"Ho, ho! Hear that," yelled the big, black-haired individual, "he +ain't boozin'! The old swiller ain't boozin' and him keeps a keg o' +whisky under his nose. + +"Ain't boozin' with common ginks like us,--that's what he means. + +"Come on! We'll show him whether he ain't boozin' or not." + +He got a cupful of the raw spirits and stuck it to Jake's mouth. But +Jake shook his head. + +"Come on! Drink it up or I'll sling it down your gullet." + +Still Jake refused. + +Then my blood ran cold, and boiled again. The veins stood out on my +forehead with rage. + +The foul-mouthed creature hit my old helper full across the mouth and a +trickle of blood immediately began to flow down over Jake's chin. + +I struggled silently with my ropes, but they were taut and merely cut +into my flesh. But I made the discovery then, that my captors had +failed to take into account that the bed to which they had tied me had +been put up by Jake and, at that, not any too securely. + +I felt that if I threw all my weight away from the stanchion to which I +was bound, I might be able to pull the whole thing out bodily. But I +knew that this was not the moment for such an attempt. + +They were five men to one; they had sticks and clubs, maybe revolvers, +so what chance would I have? + +I decided to bear with the goading of Jake as long as it were possible. + +"Guess you'll drink it now,--you old, white-livered miser," cried the +dark man. + +He dashed some of the liquor in Jake's face. Jake opened his mouth and +gasped. The big bully then threw the remainder of the spirits, with a +splash, sheer into Jake's mouth. + +"He boozed that time, boys. You bet your socks!" he laughed +uproariously. The others joined in the hilarity. + +The Jake I looked upon after that was not the Jake I had known for the +past few months. + +He sat staring in front of him for a little while, then he exclaimed +huskily, almost hungrily: + +"Say, fellows! Give us some more. It tastes pretty good to me." + +"Thought he would come to it," shouted the black-haired man +triumphantly. "We ain't refusin' no booze to-night. Fetch a cup o' +rye for Jake." + +One of the others brought it, and it was held to the old man's lips. +He let it over his throat almost at a single gulp. + +"More,--more!" + +More was brought, and again he drank. + +Three times Jake emptied that brimming cup of raw spirits. + +I shivered with abhorrence at the sight. + +"More?" queried the big man. + +"Yep! More," craved Jake. + +"Nothin' doin'! You've had enough, you old booze-fighter. + +"Say! How's that top-notcher swell Bremner comin' on?" + +He turned to me. + +"Let's fill him up, too." + +They came over to me, but I pretended still to be unconscious. My head +was limply bent over my chest. + +They jerked it up by my forelock and looked into my face. + +The foulness of their breath almost nauseated me, but I stood the test, +keeping my eyes tightly closed and allowing my head to flop forward the +moment it was released from their clutch. + +"What in the hell did you hit him so hard for?" cried the leader, +turning savagely to the man at his left elbow. "We ain't lookin' for +any rope-collars over this. Guess we'd better beat it. Get busy with +that chest some of you. Come on!" + +They raised their masks from their mouths and had another drink all +round, then two of them, under the big man's directions, caught up the +chest, and they all crowded out and down toward their boat. + +The moment after they were gone I threw my weight and growing strength +away from the upright to which I was bound. It creaked and groaned. I +tried again, and still again. At the third attempt, the entire +fixtures fell on top of me to the floor. + +I struggled clear of the debris, and the rest was easy. I slipped the +ropes from the wooden post and, in their now loosened condition, I +wriggled free. + +I did not wait to do anything for Jake, nor yet to consider any plan of +operation. My blood was up and that was all I knew. + +I picked my axe-handle from the floor and dashed out after the robbers. + +The five men were with the boat at the water's edge. Two were sitting +at the oars in readiness, two were on the beach raising Jake's trunk to +the fifth man who was standing in the stern of the boat. + +I sprang upon them. I hit one, with a sickening crash, over the head. +He let go his hold of the trunk and toppled limply against the side of +the boat, as the trunk splashed into the shallow water. + +I staggered with the impetus, and from the impact of my blow let my +club drop from my jarred hand. Before I could recover, the big +man,--who had been helping to raise the trunk,--bore down on me. He +caught me by the throat in a horrible grip, and tried to press me +backward; but, with a short-arm blow, I smashed him over the mouth with +telling force, cutting my knuckles in a splutter of blood and broken +teeth. + +His grip loosened. He shouted to his fellows for assistance as he +sprang at me once more. + +But, somewhere in the darkness behind me, a pistol-shot rang out and +the big man staggered, letting out a howl of pain, as his arm dropped +limp to his side. + +He darted for the boat and threw himself into it, seized a spare oar +and pushed off frantically. + +"Pull,--pull like hell," he yelled. + +They needed no second bidding, for they shot out into the Bay as if a +thousand devils were after them. + +I turned to ascertain who my deliverer could be; and there, on the +beach, only a few yards away, stood Mary Grant with a +serviceable-looking revolver held firmly in her right hand. + +"What? You! Mary,--Mary," I cried in an agony of thought at the awful +risk she had run. + +"Are you all right, George?" she inquired anxiously. + +"Right as rain," I answered, hurrying to her side. + +"Did they get Jake's trunk away?" + +"No! The low thieves! It is lying there in the water. Do you think +you could help me up with it?" + +She caught up the trunk at one end, while I took the other. And we +carried it back between us to Jake's cabin. + +Poor old Jake! I could hardly smother a smile as I saw the dejected +figure he presented. His grey hair was drooping over his forehead, +every line in his face showed a droop, and his long, white moustache +drooped like the tusks of a walrus, or like the American comic +journals' representations of the whiskers of ancient and fossilised +members of the British peerage. + +He was sitting bound, as the robbers had left him. + +I cut him free and he staggered to his feet. + +He was sober as a jail bird, and, excepting for his broken lip and +chafed wrists, he was, to all appearances, none the worse for his +experiences. It surprised me to notice how little he seemed interested +in the recovery of his money. All his attention and sympathy were +centred on the wretched dog, Mike, who was slowly getting over the +clubbing he had received and was whimpering like a discontented baby. + +Mike had a long gash in his neck, evidently made by one of the robbers +with Jake's bread-knife. Mary washed out the wound and I stitched it +up with a needle and thread, so that, all things considered, Mike was +lucky in getting out of his encounter as easily as he did. + +As for the crack I had received over the head, it had made me bloody +enough, but it was superficial and not worth worrying about. + +I decided I would not leave Jake alone that night and that, as soon as +I had seen Mary safely home, I would return and sleep in his cabin till +morning. + +"When you come back," said Jake gruffly, "bring ink and paper with you. +I want you to do some writin' for me, George." + +I laughed, for I knew what was in his mind. + +As Mary and I wended our way back through the narrow path, in the dead +of that moonlight night, the daring and bravery of her action caught me +afresh. How I admired her! I could scarcely refrain from telling her +of it, and of how I loved her. But it was neither the time nor the +place for protestations of affection. + +"How in the world did you happen to get down there at the right +moment?" I asked. + +She gave a quiet ripple of laughter. + +"I couldn't sleep and I was up and standing at the window----" + +"Just as I was doing," I put in. + +"I saw that boat come up,--as you must have seen it, George,--I went to +the door, and, in the moonlight, I saw you come out and take the back +path. Later still, I heard noises and the cursing of these men. + +"I became afraid that something was wrong, so I dressed, took up my +little revolver and followed you. + +"I was at the window of Jake's cabin all the time he was being forced +to drink and while you were tied up. I had to get out of the way when +they came out." + +At the door of Mary's house I took her hand in mine. + +"We are quits now, Mary. Those blackguards certainly would have +finished me off but for you. + +"Where did you learn to shoot, you wild and woolly Westerner?" I asked. + +"Why! Didn't I ever tell you? For quite a while, when I was a +youngster, I lived on a ranch in the Western States. Everybody could +shoot down there." + +"But, what would you have said had you killed that big black robber or +winged me?" I asked. "We were all in a higgledy-piggledy mix-up when +you fired." + +She smiled. + +"I can generally hit what I aim at." + +I nodded my head. "Ay! And I think you can hit sometimes even when +you don't aim." + +"George!" she admonished, "we were referring simply to shooting with a +gun,--not with a bow and arrows." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +Jake Stops the Drink for Good + +By the time I got back to Jake, he had his bed hammered up into +position again. + +He insisted that I, as his guest, should occupy it, while he would +enjoy nothing so well as being allowed to curl himself up in a blanket +on the floor, in the company of the convalescing Mike. + +"Say, George!--before we turn in, I want you to write two letters for +me. I ain't goin' to have no more hold-ups round this joint. Them ten +thousand bucks is goin' to your bank;--what do you call it?" + +"The Commercial Bank of Canada," I answered. + +"Write a letter to them and ask them to send somebody up to take this +darned chest away. A receipt looks good enough to me after this scrap." + +He smoked his pipe reflectively as I wrote out the letter to the Bank +Manager, asking him to send up two men to count over Jake's hoard and +take it back with them, giving him a receipt to cover. + +"Know any good lawyers, George? Most of them ginks are grafters from +away back,--so I've heard,--but I guess maybe there's one or two could +do a job on the level." + +"Of course there are, Jake. Dow, Cross & Sneddon for instance. They +are Mr. Horsfal's lawyers and solicitors. They are straight, honest +business men, too." + +"Guess they'll fill the bill, all right." + +"What is on your mind, Jake?" I asked. + +"Write them as well, George. Tell them to send up a man who can draw +up a will. I ain't dead yet,--not by a damn' sight,--but some day I'll +be as dead as a smelt, and what's the good o' havin' dough if you ain't +got nobody to leave it to?" + +"Good boy!" I cried, and I wrote out letter number two, asking the +lawyers, if possible, to send their representative along with the +Commercial Bank men, so that we could get the whole business fixed up +and off-hand at the one time. + +Next morning when I awoke, although it was still early, I found Jake +already dressed. Not only that, but he was at the whisky-keg in the +corner, filling up a cup. + +"My God! Jake,--you don't mean to tell me you are back to that stuff?" + +"Yep! I ain't preachin' tee-total any more after this." + +My heart sank within me. This,--after all his fighting. + +I remonstrated with him all I could. + +"But, man alive!" I said, "this is the early morning. Are you crazy? +You never drank in the mornings before. Wait till night time. Give +yourself a chance to get pulled together. You'll be feeling different +after a while. + +"Think! What will Rita say? What will Miss Grant think? How will you +be able to face Mr. Auld? They all know of the good fight you have +been putting up. + +"Jake,--Jake,--for shame! Throw the stuff out at the door." + +Jake only shook his head more firmly. + +"It ain't no good preachin', George, or gettin' sore,--for I've quit +tryin'. + +"What'n the hell's the good, anyway. The more you fight, the rawer a +deal you get in the finish. Forget it! I'm drinkin' now whenever I'm +good and ready; any old time at all and as much as I want,--and more." + +I could do no more for him. It was Jake for it. + +I stopped the southbound _Cloochman_ that afternoon and put Jake's +letters aboard. Two days later, two clerks from the Commercial Bank +and a young lawyer from Dow, Cross & Sneddon's came into Golden +Crescent in a launch. I took them over to Jake Meaghan's. I +introduced them, then busied myself outside while the necessary +formalities were gone through, for I did not wish to be in any way +connected with Jake's settlements. At last, however, the old fellow +came to the door. + +"George,--I guess you'd better take care o' them for me. That's my +bank receipt. That's my death warrant," he grinned, "I mean my will. +You're better'n me at lookin' after papers." + +We carried the brass-bound trunk to the launch and waved it a fond +farewell, without tears or regrets. + +For two weeks, morning, noon and night, Jake indulged in a horror of a +drinking bout. + +The very thought of that orgy still sets my blood running cold. + +We pleaded, we threatened; but of no avail. The minister even closeted +himself with Jake for a whole afternoon without making the slightest +impression on him. + +It was always the same old remark: + +"I've boozed for ten years and it ain't hurt me, so I guess I can booze +some more." + +And the strange feature of it was that the more he drank the more sober +he seemed to become. He did his work as well as ever. His eyes +retained their same innocent, baby-blue expression and his brain was as +clear as a summer sky. + +One Sunday forenoon, I was busy in the yard taking down my Saturday's +washing from the clothes line, when Jake's dog, Mike, came tearing +along the back path, making straight for me. That, in itself, was an +unusual thing, for Mike never showed any violent affection for any one +but Jake and he was more or less inclined to shun me altogether. + +Now, he stood in front of me and barked. I kept on with my work. He +followed every step I took and kept on barking and yelping excitedly, +looking up into my face. + +"What the dickens is the matter, old man?" I asked. + +When he saw me interested in him, he turned and ran down toward the +beach. I did not follow. + +He came back and went through the same performance. Then he got angry +and caught me by the foot of the overalls, trying to pull me in the +direction he wanted. + +It struck me then that an old stager, like Mike was, would not +misbehave himself as he was doing for the mere fun of it. I left my +newly dried clothes and followed him. He ran on ahead and into my +boat, getting up on the side and barking toward Jake's place. + +I became anxious. I pushed off hurriedly and rowed as hard as I could +up the Bay in the direction of the cove. + +As I was turning in at Jake's landing, Mike grew excited again, running +to the right side of the stern and whining. + +"What on earth can the dog mean?" I soliloquised, making up my mind to +call in at the shack first, at any rate, and investigate. + +But Mike jumped out of the boat and swam off further up, turning back +to me every few yards and yelping. + +The dog evidently knew more than I did, so I followed him. + +He led me to Jake's favourite clam-hunting ground. + +As soon as I turned into that little cove, I saw my old helper lying on +his back on the beach. I pulled in and hurried over to him. + +The dog was there before me, his tongue out and his tail wagging as if +to say: + +"It is all right now." + +The old man's eyes were wide open and glazed. He was blowing +stentoriously through his closed mouth and a white ooze was on the +corners of his lips. His body was tense and rigid, as if it had been +frozen solid in the Arctic snows. + +Poor old Jake! I knew what had seized him. I had seen something of +the trouble before. + +I lifted him gently and carried him into the boat, pushing off and +rowing as quickly as possible for his home. + +I got him into bed, but it was an hour before he showed any signs of +consciousness, for I could do nothing for him,--only sit and watch. + +At last he recognised me and tried to talk, but his speech was thick +and nothing but a jabber of sounds. + +He cast his eyes down his right side as if to draw my attention to +something. His eyes, somehow, seemed the only real live part of him. +I examined him carefully and saw what he meant. + +Poor fellow! Tears ran down my cheeks in pity for him. + +His right side was numb and paralysed. + +I hurried over to Mary's. She and Mrs. Malmsbury returned with me and +attended him, hand and foot, until the minister came in late that +afternoon. + +Mr. Auld was a medical missionary, and he confirmed what I had feared. +Jake had had a stroke. + +The only articulate words Meaghan uttered in his mumblings were, "Rita, +Rita, Rita." Again and again he came over the name. At last I +promised him I would run over and bring her to him. + +That seemed to content him, but his eyes still kept roving round +restlessly. + +Mr. Auld injected some morphine through Jake's arm in order to give his +brain the rest that it evidently sorely needed. + +"There is little we can do, George," said the minister. "He may be all +right to-morrow, but for his physical helplessness;--and, even that may +abate. Between you and me, I pray to God he may not live." + +"But what can have caused it, Mr. Auld?" + +"If Jake only could have been able to drink as other men do,--drink, +get drunk and leave off,--he never would have come to this. His +constitution was never made for such drinking as he has indulged in. +No man's constitution is." + +"Are you going to send him down to the city?" I asked. + +"Not if you will bear with him here. It would do no good to move him. +I would advise his remaining here. He will be happier, poor fellow. I +shall run in early to-morrow." + +I fetched Rita over that night and she remained with the old miner +right along. + +Her cheery presence brightened up the stricken man wonderfully. + +Next day, he could talk more intelligibly and, with help, he got up and +sat on a chair. + +The Rev. William Auld called and left a jar containing some hideous +little leeches in water. He gave me instructions that, if Jake took +any sudden attack and the blood pressure in his head appeared great, I +was to place two of these blood-sucking creatures on each of his +temples, to relieve him. + +He showed me how to fix them to the flesh. + +"Once they are on, do not endeavour to pull them off," he explained. +"When they have gorged themselves, they will drop off. After that, +they will die unless you place them upon a dish of salt, when they will +sicken and disgorge the blood they have taken. Then, if you put them +back into a jar of fresh water, they will become lively as ever and +will soon be ready for further use." + +"I hope to God I may not have to use them," I exclaimed fervently, +shuddering at the gruesome thoughts the sight of the hideous little +reptiles conjured up in me. + +And I was saved from having to participate in the disgusting operation, +for, at the end of the week, Jake was seized through the night for the +second time. Toward morning, he revived and spoke to Rita and me like +the dear old Jake we used to know. + +"Guess I got to pass in my checks, folks. I ain't been very good +neither. But I ain't done nobody no harm as I can mind;--nobody, but +maybe Jake Meaghan. + +"Say, George! You like me,--don't you?" + +"I like you for the real gentleman you are, Jake," I answered, laying +my hand on his brow. + +"You like me too, Rita,--don't you?" + +"You bet I do!" she replied, dropping back into the slang that Jake +best understood. + +He was happy after that and smiled crookedly. But, in the early +morning, a violent fit of convulsions, in all its contorting agonies, +caught hold of him. His head at last dropped back on Rita's arm and +Jake Meaghan was no more. + +I covered up his face with a sheet, and we closed the door, leaving the +faithful Mike alone by the bedside. + +I led the little, sorrowing Rita down to her boat and kissed her as I +sent her across the Bay, home. Then, with a leaden heart, I went back, +to sit disconsolately in my own cottage, feeling as if I had lost a +part of myself in losing my old, eccentric, simple-minded friend. + +I opened up the papers Jake had left in my care and, as I read his +will, it made me feel how little I knew of him after all and what a +strange way he had of working out his ideas to what he considered their +logical conclusion. + +His will was a short document, and quite clear. + +He wished to be buried in Vancouver. All he possessed, he left to Rita +'because Rita was always a good girl.' If Rita married George Bremner, +the ten thousand dollars lying in the bank was to become her own, under +her immediate and full control; but, should she marry any other man, or +should she remain unmarried for a period of three years from Jake's +death, this money was to be invested for her in the form of an annuity, +in a reliable insurance company whose name was mentioned. + +He left Mike, the dog, to the care of George Bremner. + +The more I thought over that will, the more I cogitated over what was +really at the back of Jake's mind. + +Did he think, in some way, that there was an understanding between Rita +and me? or, as probably was more likely, was it an unexpressed desire +of his that Rita,--my little, mercurial pupil, Rita,--and I should +marry and settle down somewhere at Golden Crescent? + +Alas! for old Jake. Who knows what was in that big, wayward heart of +his? + +Mike kept faithful watch over Jake's body, until they came to take it +away. He neither ate nor slept. He just lay on the floor, with his +head resting on his front paws and his eyes riveted on the bed where +Jake was. + +We had to throw a blanket over Mike and hold him down bodily before the +undertakers could remove his dead master. + +All the way out to the steamer, we could hear Mike's dismal howling. +Never did such cries come from any dog. They did not seem the howls of +a brute, but the wailings of a human soul that was slowly being torn to +shreds. + +My heart ached more for that poor creature than it did even for Jake. + +All afternoon, all through that first night and still in the early +hours of the next morning, the dog sobbed and wailed as if its +more-than-human heart were breaking. + +At last, I could stand the strain no longer. I went down with some +food and drink for him and in the hope that I would be able to pacify +him and comfort him in his loss. But the moment I opened the door, he +tore out, as if possessed, down on to the beach and into the water. +Out, out he went, in the direction the steamer had gone the day before. + +I got into Jake's boat and followed him as quickly as I could, but we +were a long way out before I got up with him,--swimming strongly, +gamely, almost viciously; on,--on,--heading for the Ghoul Rock and for +the cross-currents at the open sea. + +I reached alongside him, but always he sheered away. + +I spoke to him kindly and coaxingly, but all I got from him in reply +was a whimpering sob, as if to say:-- + +"Oh! you are only a human: how can you understand?" + +I succeeded in catching hold of him and I lifted him into the boat. He +struggled out of my grasp back into the water. Three times I brought +him in and three times he broke from me and plunged into the sea, +swimming always out and out. + +I had not the heart to trouble him any more. + +After all, what right had I to interfere? What right had I to try to +go between the soul of a man and the soul of a dog? + +"God speed!--you brave, old, lion-hearted Mike. God speed!" I cried. +"Go to him. You were two of a kind. May you soon catch up with him, +and may both of you be happy." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +The Fight in the Woods + +I did not engage any one to fill Jake's place, for I felt that no man +really could fill it. In any case, with the approach of the wet, +wintry weather, the work at Golden Crescent diminished. I did not have +the continuous supplies to make ready for the Camps, such as they +demanded in the summer months. When they called, they generally took +away enough to last them over several weeks. Again, Jake had cut, sawn +and stacked all my winter supply of firewood long before he took sick. + +Taking all these things into consideration, I decided I would go +through the winter, at least, without fresh help. + +Mary Grant and Mrs. Malmsbury still remained at the cottage over the +way. + +Often I asked Mary,--almost in dread,--if she were going away during +the stormier months, but she always said she had not made any +arrangements so far. + +Not once, but many times, I tried to break through the reserve which +she had hedged round herself ever since our evening in the lagoon after +our first fishing experience when we had drawn so near in sympathy to +each other. I felt afraid lest I should forget myself some time and +tell her all that was in my heart craving to be told, for something +kept whispering to me that, if I did, I might lose her altogether. + +Rita's lessons went on apace. Twice a week she came over in the +evenings for instruction. She was quickly nearing the point where I +would be of no further service, for I had imparted to her almost all I +was capable of imparting in the way of actual grammar. + +I hoped to be able to complete her course before Christmas came round. +Then it would be merely a question of selection of reading matter. + +Rita's manner of speaking had undergone a wonderful change. There were +no slangy expressions now; no "ain'ts" or "I guess"; no plural nouns +with singular verbs; no past participles for the past tense; no split +infinitives. To all intents and purposes, Rita Clark had taken a +course of instruction at a good grammar school. + +And what a difference it made in her, generally! Even her dress and +her deportment seemed to have changed with her new manner of speaking. + +It is always so. The forward progress in any one direction means +forward progress in almost every other. + +Rita was a sweet, though still impetuous, little maiden that any +cultured man might have been proud to have for a wife. + +One rainy night, she and I were sitting by the stove in my front room. +I was in an easy chair, with a book in my hand, while Rita was sitting +in front of me on a small, carpet-covered stool, leaning sideways +against my legs and supposedly doing some paraphrasing. A movement on +her part caused me to glance at her. + +She had turned and was staring toward the window and her eyes were +growing larger and larger every moment. Her face grew pale, while her +lips parted and an expression, akin to fear, began to creep into her +eyes. + +I turned my head hurriedly to the window, but all was dark over there +and the rain was pattering and splashing against the glass. + +Still, Rita sat staring, although the look of fear had gone. + +I laid my hand on her shoulder. + +"Rita, Rita!--what in the world is wrong?" + +"Oh, George,--I,--I saw Joe's face at the window. I never saw him look +so angry before," she whispered nervously. + +I laughed. + +"Why!--you foolish little woman, I looked over there almost as soon as +you did, but I saw no one." + +"But he was there, I tell you," she repeated. + +I rose to go to the door. + +"No, no!" she cried. "Don't go." + +But I went, nevertheless, throwing the door wide open and getting a +gust of wind and rain in my face as I peered out into the night. + +I closed the door again and came back to Rita. + +"Why! silly little girl, you must have dreamed it. There is no one +there." + +I tapped her on the cheek. + +"I did not know Rita Clark was nervous," I bandied. + +She looked dreamily into the fire for a while, then she turned round to +me and laid her cheek against my knee. + +"George!--Joe's been coming home more and more of late. He's been lots +nicer to me than he used to be. He brought me a gold brooch with +pearls in it, from Vancouver, to-day." + +"Good for him!" I remarked. + +"It was a lovely brooch," she went on. "I put it in my dress, it +looked so pretty. Then Joe asked me to go with him along the beach. +Said he wanted to talk to me. I went with him, and he asked me if I +would marry him. + +"Marry him, mind you!--and I have known him all my life. + +"He said he didn't know he loved me till just a little while ago. Said +it was all a yarn about the other girls he met. + +"He was quiet, and soft as could be. I never saw Joe just the way he +was to-day. But I don't feel to Joe as I used to. He has sort of +killed the liking I once had for him. + +"I got angry about the brooch then. I took it off and handed it back +to him. + +"'Here's your brooch, Joe,' I said. 'I didn't know you gave it to me +just to make me marry you. I don't love you, Joe, and I won't marry a +man I don't love. You mustn't ask me again. You get somebody else.' + +"Big Joe was just like a baby. His face turned white. + +"'You're in love with Bremner,' he said, catching me by the wrist. I +drew myself away. + +"'I'm not,' I said. 'I like him better than I like any other man,--you +included,--but I don't love him any more than he loves me.'" + +Rita looked up at me and her eyes filled with tears. + +"'Ain't Bremner in love with you?' Joe asked. + +"'No!' I said. + +"Then Joe got terribly mad. + +"'By God in Heaven!' he cried, 'I'll kill that son-of-a-gun, if I hang +for it!' + +"He meant you, George. He went off into the wood, leaving me standing +like a silly. + +"Say! George,--the way Joe said that, makes me afraid that some day he +will kill you." + +"Don't you worry your little head about that, Rita," I said. + +"Oh!--that's all very well,--but Joe Clark's a big man. He's the +strongest man on the coast. He's always in some mix-up and he always +comes out on top. And I'm more afraid for you, because you are not +afraid of him." + +I rowed Rita across home that evening in order to reassure her, and, on +our journey, neither sound nor sign did we experience of Joe Clark. + +When the time came again for her next lesson, Rita seemed to have +forgotten her former fears. + +I had fixed up a blind over the window and had drawn it down, so that +no more imaginary peering faces would disturb the harmony of our lesson +and our conversation. + +How long we sat there by the stove, I could not say; but Rita was soft, +and gentle, and tender that night,--sweet, suppliant and loving. She +was all woman. + +When our lesson was over, she sat at my feet as usual. She crossed her +fingers over my knee and rested her cheek there, with a sigh of +contentment. + +I stroked her hair and passed my fingers through the long strands of +its black, glossy darkness, and I watched the pretty curves of her red, +sensitive lips. + +"Rita! Rita!" I questioned in my heart, as her big eyes searched mine, +"I wonder, little maid, what this big world has in store for you? God +grant that it be nothing but good." + +I bent down and kissed her once,--twice,--on those soft and yielding +upturned lips. + +With terrifying suddenness, something crashed against my front window +and broken glass clattered on the floor. + +A great hand and arm shot through the opening and tore my window blind +in strips from its roller. And then the hand and arm were withdrawn. + +In the visual illusion caused by the strong light inside and the deep +darkness without, we saw nothing but that great hand and arm. + +I sprang up and rushed to the door, followed by Rita. + +There was no sign of any one about. I ran round the house, and scanned +the bushes; I went down on to the beach, then across the bridge over +the creek, but I failed to detect the presence of any man. + +I came back to Rita to ease her mind, and found her anxious yet +wonderfully calm. + +"George!--you need not tell me,--it was Joe. I know his hand and arm +when I see them. He is up to something. + +"Oh! You must be careful. Promise me you will be careful?" + +I gave her my word, then I set her in her boat for home, asking her to +wait for a moment until I should return. + +Before setting her out on her journey, I wished to make perfectly sure +that there was no one about. I again crossed the creek, past Mary's +house, which was in complete darkness, and down on to her beach. +There, hiding in the shelter of the rocks, was a launch, moored to one +of the rings which Jake had set in at convenient places just for the +purpose it was now being used. + +I ran out and examined it. It was Joe Clark's. + +So!--I thought,--he is still on this side. + +I returned to Rita, wished her good-night and pushed her out on the +water. + +I came leisurely up the beach, keeping my eyes well skinned. But, +after a bit, I began to laugh, chiding myself for my childish +precautions. + +I went into the kitchen, took an empty bucket in each hand and set out +along the back path for a fresh supply of water for my morning +requirements, to the stream, fifty yards in the wood, where I had +hollowed out a well and boarded it over. + +It was dark, gloomy and ghostly in the woods there, for the moon was +stealing fitfully under the clouds and through the tall firs, throwing +strange shadows about. + +I had almost reached the well, when I heard a crackling of dead wood to +my right. + +A huge, agile-looking figure pushed its way through, and Joe Clark +stood before me, blocking my path. + +He held two, roughly cut clubs, one in each hand. His sleeves were +rolled up over his tremendous arms; his shirt was open at the neck, +displaying, even in the uncertain moonlight, a great, hairy, massive +chest over which muscles and sinews crawled. + +I scanned his face. His jaw was set, his lips were a thin line, his +eyes were gleaming savagely and a mane of fair hair was falling in a +clump over his brow. He looked dishevelled and was evidently labouring +under badly suppressed excitement. + +"Where's Rita?" he growled. + +I put my buckets aside and took my pipe from between my teeth. + +"Half-way home by this time, I hope," I said. + +"She is,--eh!" he cut in sarcastically. "Guess so! Look here, +Bremner,--what'n the hell's your game with Rita, anyway?" + +I went straight up to him. + +I did not want to quarrel. Not that I was afraid of him, even knowing, +as I did, that I would be likely to get much the worse of any possible +encounter;--but, for Rita's sake, I preferred peace. + +"My good fellow," I said, "why in heaven's name can't you talk sense? +I have no game, as you call it, with Rita. + +"If you would only play straight with her, you might get her yourself. +But I'll tell you this,--skulking around other people's property, after +the skirts of a woman, never yet brought a man anything but rebuffs." + +"Aw!--cut out your damned yapping, Bremner," he yelled furiously. "Who +the hell wants any of your jaw? Play straight the devil! You're some +yellow cuss to talk to anybody about playin' straight." + +It was all I could do to keep my temper in check. + +"What d'ye bring her over to your place at night for, if you're playin' +straight?" he continued. + +"To teach her grammar;--that's all," I exclaimed. + +"Grammar be damned," he thundered. "What d'ye put up blinds for if +you're playin' straight?" + +"To keep skulkers from seeing how respectable people spend their +evenings," I shot at him. + +"You're a confounded liar," he yelled, beside himself. "I know what +you're up to, with your oily tongue and your Jim Dandy style. + +"Rita was mine before you ever set your damned dial in Golden Crescent. +She'd 've been mine for keeps by this time, but you got her goin'. Now +you're usin' her to pass the time, keepin' men who want to from +marryin' her." + +With a black madness inside me, I sprang in on him. He stepped aside. + +"No, you don't!" he cried. "Take that." + +He threw one of his clubs at my feet. + +"Fists ain't no good this trip, Mister Man. I was goin' to kill you, +but I thought maybe it'd look better if we fight and let the best man +win." + +I stood undecided, looking first at this great mountain of infuriated +humanity and then at the club he had tossed to me;--while around us +were the great trees, the streams of ghostly moonlight and the looming +blacknesses. + +"Come on!--damn you for a yellow-gut. Take that up before I open your +skull with this." + +He prodded me full in the chest with the end of his weapon. I needed +no second bidding. Evidently, it was he or I for it. + +In fact, since the moment we first met at Golden Crescent that had been +the issue with which I had always been confronted. Joe Clark or George +Bremner!--one of us had to go down under the heel of the other. + +I grabbed up the club and stood on guard for the terrific onslaught Joe +immediately made on me. + +He threw his arm in the air and came in on me like a mad buffalo. Had +the blow he aimed ever fallen with all its original force, these lines +never would have been written; but its strength was partly shorn by the +club coming in contact with the overhanging branch of a tree. + +I parried that blow, but still it beat down my guard and the club +grazed my head. + +I gave ground before Clark, as I tried to find an opening. I soon +discovered, however, that this was not a fight where one could wait for +openings. Openings had to be made, and made quickly. I threw caution +to the winds. I drew myself together and rushed at him as he had +rushed at me. His blow slanted off my left shoulder, numbing my arm to +the finger-tips. Mine got home on a more vital place: it caught him +sheer on the top of the head. + +I thought, for sure, I had smashed his skull. But no such luck; Joe +Clark's bones were too stoutly made and knit. + +He gasped and staggered back against a tree for a second, looking dazed +as he wiped a flow of blood from his face. + +"For God's sake, man," I shouted, "let us quit this." + +He laughed derisively. + +"The hell you say! Quit,--nothin'; not till one of us quits for keeps." + +He rallied and came at me once more, but with greater wariness than +previously. He poked at me and jabbed at me. I warded him off, +keeping on the move all the time. He swung sideways on me, but I +parried easily; then, with a fierce oath, he caught his club with both +hands, raised it high in the air and brought it down with all his +sledge-hammer strength. + +This time, I was ready for Joe Clark. I was strong. Oh!--I knew just +how strong I was, and I gloried in my possession. + +I had a firmer grip of my cudgel than before. There was going to be no +breaking through as he had done last time; not if George Bremner's +right arm was as good as he thought it was. + +I met that terrific crash at the place I knew would tell. With the +crack of a gun-shot, his club shivered into a dozen splinters against +mine, leaving him with nothing but a few inches of wood in his torn +hands. + +He stood irresolute. + +"Will you quit now?" I cried. + +But he was game. "Not on your life," he shouted back. "We ain't +started yet. Try your damnedest." + +He tossed aside the remainder of his club and jumped at me with his +great hands groping. I stepped back and threw my stick deliberately +far into the forest, then I stopped and met him with his own weapons. +After all, I was now on a more equal footing with him than I had been +when both of us were armed. + +We clinched, and locked together. We turned, and twisted, and +struggled. He had the advantage over me in weight and sheer brute +strength, but I had him shaded when it came to knowing how to use the +strength I possessed. + +We smashed at each other with our fists wherever and whenever we found +an opening. Our clothes were soon in ribbons. Blood spurted from us +as it would from stuck pigs. + +Gasping for breath with roaring sounds,--choking,--half-blind, we +staggered and swayed, smashing into trees and over bushes. + +At last I missed my footing and stumbled over a protruding log, falling +backward. Still riveted together,--Joe Clark came with me. The back +of my head struck, with a sickening crash, into a tree and I knew no +more. + +When consciousness came back to me, I groaned for a return of the +blessed sleep from which I had awakened, for every inch of my poor body +was a racking agony. + +A thousand noises drummed, and thumped, and roared in my head and the +weight of the entire universe seemed to be lying across my chest. + +I struggled weakly to free myself, and, as I recollected gradually what +had happened to me, I put out my hands. They came in contact with +something cold and clammy. + +It was the bloody face of Joe Clark, who was lying on top of me. + +I wriggled and struggled with the cumbersome burden that had been +strangling the flickering life in me. Every effort, every turn was a +new pain, but all my hope was in getting free. + +At last, I got from under him and staggered to my knees. I was a very +babe for weakness then. I clutched at the tree-trunk for support and +raised myself to my feet. I looked down on the pale face of Joe Clark, +as he lay there, the moon on his face disclosing a great open gash on +his forehead. + +Evidently, he had struck the tree, face on, with the same impact as I +had done backward. + +"Oh, God!" I groaned. "He is dead, ... Joe Clark is..." + +Then the blissful mists and darknesses came over me again and I +crumpled to the earth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +Two Maids and a Man + +When next I awoke, it was amid conflicting sensations of pains and +pleasantnesses. My eyes gradually took in my surroundings. Instead of +being in Heaven, or the other place of future abode as I fully expected +to be, I was lying on my own bed, in my own room, in a semi-darkness. + +A quiet, shadowlike form was flitting about. I followed it with my +eyes for a while, enjoying the fact that it did not know that I was +watching it. Then it tip-toed toward me and bent over me. + +All my doubts and fears departed. After all, I was in Heaven; for +Mary,--the Mary I so loved,--was bending over me, crooning to me, with +her face so near, and placing her cooling, soothing hand on my hot brow. + +I must have tried to speak, for, as if far away, I could hear her +enjoining me not to talk, but just lie quiet and I would soon be well. + +She put a spoon to my mouth and, sup by sup, something warm, good and +reviving slowly found its way down my throat. + +What hard work it was opening my lips! What a dreadful task it was to +swallow and how heavy my feet and hands seemed!--so heavy, I could not +lift them. + +As the singing voice crooned and hushed me, I grew, oh! so weary of the +labour of swallowing and breathing that I dropped away again into +glorious slumberland. + +When again I opened my eyes, it was evening. My reading lamp was +burning dimly on a table, near by. The air was warm from a crackling +fire in the stove. Some one was kneeling at my bedside. + +I looked along the sheets that covered me. + +It was Mary. + +All I could see of her head were the coils of her golden hair, for she +had my hand in both her own and her face was hidden on the bed-spread. +I could hear her voice whispering softly. She was praying. She +repeated my name ever so often. She was praying that I might be +allowed to live. + +From that moment I lived and grew stronger. But I dared not move in +case I might disturb her. + +She rose at last and bent over my bandaged head. She scrutinised my +face. As she leaned closer, I caught the fragrance of her breath and +the perfume of her hair. And then,--God forgive me for my deceit! +although, for such an ecstasy I would go on being deceitful to the end +of time,--she stooped lower and her full, soft, warm lips touched mine. + +I raised my eyelids to her blushing loveliness. I tried to smile, but +she put her finger up demanding silence. She fed me again and new +strength flowed through my veins. + +What questions I asked her then! How did I get here? What day of the +week was it? Was Joe Clark dead? + +"Hush, hush!" she chided. "You must go on sleeping." + +"But I can't sleep forever. Already I have been asleep for years," I +complained feebly. + +"Hush, then, and I will tell you." + +She sat down by my bedside and I lay still and quiet as she went over +what she knew. + +"This is Saturday evening. I found you, lying unconscious,--dead as I +thought,--out on the path, as I went for fresh water yesterday morning. + +"I brought you here. I did not know what had befallen you. I was +afraid you had been set upon by the thieves who tried to rob Jake +Meaghan; but from what you have just said, it was Superintendent Clark +who attacked you." + +I nodded. + +"Was he not lying there beside me,--dead?" I asked. + +"Hush! There was no one near you; but the place looked as if a herd of +buffalo had thundered over it." + +I was puzzled, but I tried to laugh and the attempt hurt me. + +"How did you get me here?" I interrupted. + +"Now!" she said, "if you speak again, I will tell you nothing. + +"I ran home for blankets. I got two poles and fixed the blankets to +these. I rolled you over on to my improvised stretcher and trailed you +here, Indian fashion. It was easy as easy. Mrs. Malmsbury was abed +and I did not wish to disturb her just then. Later, when I got you +here, she helped me to put you to bed. + +"Oh! I am so glad that man did not murder you." + +"But it would not have been murder, Mary," I put in. "It was a fair +fight." + +"But why should two, strong, clean-living young men want to fight? +Don't answer me, George," she added quickly, "for I am merely +cogitating. Men seem such strange animals to us women." + +I smiled. + +Other questions I asked, but Mary declined to answer and I had, +perforce, to lie still, with nothing to do but follow her with my eyes +wherever she went. + +For one more day, she kept me on my back, bullying me and tyrannising +over me, when I felt strong enough to be up and about my business. + +Sometimes, when she came near enough, I would lay my hand over hers. +She would permit the caress as if she were indulging a spoiled baby. +Sometimes, I would lie with my eyes closed in the hope that she might +be tempted to kiss me, as she had done before; but Mary Grant saw +through the pretence and declined to become a party to it. + +The Rev. Mr. Auld came during the early afternoon of that Sunday. He +examined my bruises and contusions with professional brutality. He +winked, and ordered me up, dressed and into a wicker chair,--for the +lazy, good-for-nothing rascal that I was. And,--God bless his kindly +old heart!--he told Mary I might smoke, in moderation. + +He did not remain long, for he said he had been called to attend +another and a very urgent case of a malady similar to mine, at Camp No. +2. + +"Why!--that's Joe Clark's Camp," I said. + +"I am well aware of the fact," said he. "If you ask any more questions +or venture any more information, I shall order you back to bed and I +shall cancel your smoking permit." + +As he was going off, he came over to me and whispered in my ear:-- + +"Man!--I would give something for the power of your right arm." + +All the remainder of that afternoon, Mary read to me, as I browsed +[Transcriber's note: drowsed?] in an easy chair among cushions and +rugs, stretching first one leg and then the other, testing my arms, +trying every joint, every finger and toe, to satisfy myself that I was +still George Bremner, complete in every detail. + +Just as Mary was preparing to say good-bye to my little place, late +that same day,--for her vigils over me were no longer necessary,--Rita +Clark ran in, flushed with hurried rowing and labouring under a strong +excitement. She flashed defiance at Mary, then she threw herself at my +feet and sobbed as if her little heart would break. + +I put my hand on her head and tried to comfort her, and, when I looked +up again, she and I were alone. + +"Rita, Rita!" I admonished. + +"Oh!--no one told me," she wailed. "And it was all my fault. I know I +should not have come when Joe was that way about it. + +"If he had killed you! Oh! George,--if he had killed you!" + +Her eyes were red from weeping and dread still showed in her expressive +face. + +"There, there," I comforted. "He did not kill me, Rita, so why worry? + +"I shall be back at work in the store to-morrow, same as before. Cheer +up, little girl!" + +"But nobody at the Camp can understand it," she went on with more +composure. "They all knew there had been a fight. They were sure you +had been killed, for nobody ever stands up against Joe without coming +down harder than he does, and they say Joe was pretty nearly done for." + +"How is he now?" I inquired, inquisitive to know if he were suffering +at least some of what I had suffered. + +"Mr. Auld just came in as I left. Joe's been unconscious for two days." + +"Good!" I exclaimed, almost in delight. + +Rita's face expressed a chiding her tongue refused to give. + +"He only came to, when the minister got there this afternoon. Joe's +arm is broken. Two of his ribs are stove in. He's bruised and +battered all over. Mr. Auld says the hole in his forehead is the +serious one. Thinks you must have uprooted a tree and hit him with it." + +I laughed. But Rita was still all seriousness. + +"He'll pull through all right. Minister says he'll be out in two or +three weeks. Says it's a miracle how Joe ever got back to Camp. Must +have crawled to the launch, looked after the engine and steered all the +way himself, and him smashed up as he was. Funny he didn't come over +home. Guess he didn't want any of us to know about it. + +"They found his boat run up on the beach at Camp and him lying in the +bottom of it, unconscious; engine of his boat still going full speed. + +"Joe was delirious and muttering all the time: + +"'I killed that son-of-a-gun, Bremner. I killed Bremner.' + +"You know, George,--most of the men like Joe; for he's good to them +when they're down and out. But none of them has much sympathy for him +this time. Mr. Auld says they have heard him talk about doing you up +ever since you came to Golden Crescent. And now, Joe's the man that's +done up. + +"Better for him if he had let you be. + +"But, maybe after all, it is the best thing that ever happened,--for +Joe, I mean. It will let him see that brute force isn't everything; +that there never was a strong man but there was a stronger one still. +Eh! George." + +Rita's mood changed. + +"But, if you and Joe quarrel again, I'm going to run away. So there. + +"I'm not beholden to any one now,--thanks to dear old Jake Meaghan. I +can get money,--all I want. Then maybe Joe'll be sorry. + +"You won't fight any more, George? Say you won't!" + +She put her arm round my shoulder and her cheek against mine, in her +old coaxing way. + +Dear little woman! It was a shame to have worried her as Joe and I had +done. + +"Well, Rita," I laughed, "I promise you I won't fight if Joe won't. +And, anyway,--Joe is not likely to seek another encounter till his arm +and ribs are well; and that will take six weeks all told. So don't +worry yourself any more about what is going to happen six weeks hence." + +As Rita started out for home, I rose to accompany her to the boat. + +"No, no!" she cried. "Why!--you are under doctor's orders." + +"I have to work to-morrow, Rita, so I might as well try myself out now, +as later." + +I was shaky at the knees, but, with Rita's arm round my waist, I +managed to make the journey with little trouble. + +As we got to her boat, Rita pouted. + +"What's the matter now, little maid?" I asked. + +"I don't think you like me any more, George,--after bringing this on +you. And we've been pretty good pals too, you and I." + +Her eyes commenced to fill. + +"Why, foolish! Of course, we have been good pals and we are going to +stay good pals right to the end; no matter what happens." + +"Sure?" she asked, taking an upward, sidelong glance at me. + +"Sure as that," I exclaimed. I put my hands round her trim waist, and, +weak as I was, I lifted her up from the ground and kissed her laughing +mouth. + +She struggled free, jumped into the boat and rowed away, with a laugh +and a blown kiss to me from her finger tips. + +As I turned, I cast my eyes up along the wharf. + +A figure was standing there, motionless, as if hewn in stone. + +It was Mary Grant. + +Her hands were pressed flat against her bosom as if she were trying to +stifle something that should not have been there. Her face wore a +strange coldness that I had never seen in it before. + +I could not understand why it should be so,--unless,--unless she had +misconstrued the good-bye of Rita and me. But, surely,--surely not! + +Slowly and laboriously, I made in her direction, but she sped away +swiftly down the wharf, across the rustic bridge and into her cottage, +closing the door behind her quickly. + +As I sat by the fireside, thinking over what possibly could have caused +Mary to behave so, something spoke to me again and again, saying:-- + +"Go over and find out. Go over and find out." + +But I did not obey. My conscience felt clear of all wrong intent and I +decided it would be better to wait till morning, when I would be more +fit for the ordeal and Mary would have had time for second thoughts. + +Had I only known what the decision meant to me; the hours of mental +torment, the suspense, the dread loneliness, I would have obeyed the +inner voice and hastened to Mary's side that very moment, stripping all +wrong ideas and wrong impressions of their deceitful garments, leaving +them bare and cold and harmless. + +I did not know, and, for my lack of knowledge or intuition, I had to +suffer the consequences. + +Later in the evening, a yacht put into the Bay. It carried some ladies +and gentlemen who had been on a trip to Alaska and were now returning +south. + +They called in for a few supplies, the getting of which I merely +supervised. They asked and obtained permission from me to tie up at +the wharf for the night. + +After they had returned aboard and just as I was laboriously +undressing, I heard music floating across from Mary's. It was the same +sweet, entrancing, will-o'-the wisp music that her touch always created. + +But to-night, she played the shadowy, mysterious, light and elusive +Ballade No. 3 of Chopin. How well I knew the story and how +sympathetically Mary followed it in her playing! till I could picture +the scenes and the characters as if they were appearing before me on a +cinema screen:--the palace, the forest and the beautiful lake; the +knight and the strange, ethereal lady; the bewitchment; the promise; +the new enchantress, the lure of the dance, the lady's flight and the +knight's pursuit over the marshes and out on to the lake; the drowning +of the unfaithful gallant and the mocking laugh of the triumphant siren. + +The music swelled and whispered, sobbed and laughed, thundered and +sighed at the call of the wonderful musician who translated it. + +I was bewitched by the playing, almost as the knight had been by the +ethereal lady of the music-story. + +Suddenly the music ceased. I thought Mary had retired to rest. But +again, on the night air, came the introduction to the little ballad I +had already heard her sing in part. Her voice, with its plaintive +sweetness, broke into melody. + +She lilted softly the first verse,--and I waited. + +She sang the second verse. Again I waited, wondering, then hoping and +longing that she would continue. + +The third verse came at last and--I regretted its coming. + + + A maid there was in the North Countree; + A sad little, lone little maid was she. + Her knight seemed fickle and all untrue + As he rode to war at the drummer's dree. + And, day by day, as her sorrow grew, + Her spinning wheel groaned and the threads wove through; + It groaned.--It groaned.--It groaned and the threads wove through. + + +"What a stupid little song, after all!" I exclaimed. "Surely there +must be another verse to it? Where does the happy ending come in?" + +But, though I listened eagerly, no further sounds broke the stillness +of the night save the sobbing and moaning of the sea and the hooting of +a friendly owl in the forest behind. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +The Ghoul + +Next morning, I looked out upon a wet mist that hung over Golden +Crescent like a spider's gigantic web all a-drip with dew. + +My visitors of the previous night had gone three hours ago. I had +heard them getting up steam, but I was still too weak and stiff to +think of getting out of bed so early to see them off. + +I turned, as usual, to watch the upward, curling smoke from Mary's +kitchen fire. Strange to say, this morning there _was_ no smoke. + +"Taking a rest," I thought, "after her long watching and nursing over a +good-for-nought like me! Ah, well!--I shall breakfast first then I +shall pay my respects and ask forgiveness of the lady for 'the things I +have done that I ought not to have done,' and all will be well." + +I hurried over that porridge, and bacon and eggs. I dressed with +scrupulous care, even to the donning of a soft, white, linen collar +with a flowing tie. + +"Surely," I reasoned, "she can never be cruel to me in this make-up." + +When I started out, all seemed quiet and still over there at Mary +Grant's. + +With a feeling of disrupting foreboding, which dashed all my merriment +aside, I quickened my footsteps. + +The windows were closed; the door was shut tight. I knocked, but no +answer came. I tried the door:--it was locked. + +"Why! What can it be?" I asked myself. + +My roving eyes lit on a piece of white paper pinned to the far post of +the veranda. It was in pencil, in Mary's handwriting. + + +"George, + +"There is yet another battle for you to fight. I am going away. +Please do not try to find out where, either by word or by deed. + +"Golden Crescent will always be in my thoughts. Some day, maybe, I +will come back. + +"God bless you and keep you, and may you ever be my brave and very +gallant gentleman. + +"Mary Grant." + + +I read it over, and over again, but it seemed as if the words would +never link themselves together in my brain and form anything tangible. + +Gone away! Oh, God! Meaghan gone;--Mary gone;--every one to whom my +heart goes out leaves me the same way. What is it in me? Oh, my God! +my God! + +I staggered against the veranda rail for support, then, like a blind +man groping for a path in a forest, I made my journey across the rustic +bridge, and home. + +I am not ashamed to own it: in my anguish and my physical weakness, I +threw myself upon my bed and sobbed; sobbed until my sorrow had spent +itself, until my spirit had become numbed and well-nigh impervious to +all feeling. + +In desperation, I threw myself into my work. + +Never was store kept so clean nor in such a well-stocked condition as +mine was; never was home so tidy. + +I sawed timber, when there were stacks of it cut, piled and dry in my +wood sheds. I built rafts. I repaired the wharf. I added barns to my +outhouses, when, already, I had barns lying empty. + +I insisted on delivering the requirements of every family in Golden +Crescent, instead of having them take their goods from the store. + +With no object in view, other than the doing of it, I tackled the +wintry winds and the white-tipped breakers, in my little rowing boat, +when none other dared venture from the confines of his beach. + +When the sea came roaring into the Bay, tumbling and foaming, boiling +and crawling mountains high, breaking with all its elemental fury, I +would dash recklessly into it and swim to Rita's Isle and back, with +the carelessness and abandon of one who had nothing to live for. + +As I look back on it all now, I feel that death was really what I +courted. + +Remonstrances fell on deaf ears. My life was my own,--at least, I +thought it was,--my own to do with as I chose. What mattered it to any +one if the tiny spark went out? + +My books had little attraction for me during those wild, mad days. +Work, work, work and absorption were all my tireless body and wearied +brain craved for; and work was the fuel with which I fed them. + +I was aware that the minister knew more of Mary's going and her present +whereabouts than I did, and, sometimes, I fancied he would gladly have +told me what he knew. But he could find no opening in the armour of +George Bremner for the lodgment of such information. + +Rita and he got to know, after a while, that the name of Mary Grant was +a locked book and that Mary Grant alone held the key to it. + +Christmas,--my first Christmas from home;--Christmas that might have +been any other time of the year for all the difference it made to me, +came and went; and the wild, blustering weather of January, with its +bursts and blinks of sunshine, its high winds and angry seas, was well +upon us. + +There had been little to do in and around the store, so I was taking +the excuse to row over to Clarks' with their supplies, intending to +bring back any eggs they might have for my camp requirements. + +It was a cold, blustery morning, with a high, whistling wind coming in +from the Gulf. The sky was clear and blue as a mid-summer's day and +the sun was shining as if it had never had a chance to shine before. + +It was with difficulty that I got into my boat without suffering a +wetting, but I was soon bobbing on the crest of the waves or lying in +the troughs of the pale-green, almost transparent sea, making my way +across the Bay, as the waves climbed higher and still higher, with +white-maned horses racing in on top of the flowing tide. + +It was hard pulling, but I was strong and reckless, fearing neither man +nor elements. + +Every minute of that forenoon brought with it an increasing fury of the +storm; every minute greater volumes of water lashed and dashed into the +Bay, until, away out, The Ghoul looked more like a waterspout than a +black, forbidding rock. + +Rita was surprised and angry at my daring in crossing, yet she could +not disguise her pleasure now I was with her, for she chafed with the +restrictions of a stormy winter and craved, as all healthy people do, +for the society of those of her own age. + +"Seems as if it's goin' to be a hurricane," remarked old Andrew Clark, +looking out across the upheaving waters. "Never saw it so bad;--yet +it's only comin' on. + +"Guess you'll ha'e to stop wi' us the night, George." + +"--And welcome," put in his good lady. "There's always a spare bed for +George Bremner in this house. Eh! Andrew." + +"Ay,--ay!" remarked the old man, reflectively. "We're no' havin' ye +drooned goin' away frae this place,--that I'm tellin' ye." + +Like me, Rita was a child of stress and storm. She loved to feel the +strong wind in her face and hair. She gloried in the taste of the salt +spray. She thrived in the open and sported in the free play of her +agile limbs. Unafraid, and daring to recklessness, nothing seemed to +daunt her; nothing, unless, maybe, it were the great, cruel, sharks' +teeth of The Ghoul over which the sea was now breaking, away out there +at the entrance to the Bay: that rock upon which she had been wrecked +in her childhood; that relentless, devilish thing that had robbed her +of her mother and of her birthright. + +Even then, as she and I scampered and scrambled along the shore line, +over the rocks and headlands,--whenever she gazed out there I fancied I +detected a shudder passing over her. + +For an hour, with nothing to do but pass the time, we kept on and on, +along the shore, until we reached Neil Andrews' little house on the far +horn of the Crescent, standing out on the cliffs. + +We stood on the highest rock, in front of the old fisherman's dwelling, +watching the huge waves rolling in and breaking on the headlands with +deafening thundering, showering us with rainbow sprays and swallowing +up the sounds of our voices. + +Rita kept her eyes away from the horrible rock, which seemed so much +nearer to us now than when we were in the far back shelter of the Bay. +And, indeed, it was nearer, for barely a quarter of a mile divided it +from Neil's foreshore. But such a quarter of a mile of fury, I had +never before seen. + +Different from Rita, I could hardly take my eyes away from that rock. +To me, it seemed alive in its awful ferocity. It was the point of +meeting of three different currents and it gave the impression to the +onlooker that it was drawing and sucking everything to its own +rapacious maw. + +Old Man Andrews saw us from his window and came out to us, clad in +oilskins and waders. + +"Guess it's making for a hum-dinger, George," he roared into my ears. +"Ain't seen its like for a long time. God help anything in the shape +of craft that gets caught in this. She's sprung up mighty quick, too. + +"Got a nice cup of tea ready, Rita. Come on inside, both of you. It +ain't often I see you up here. Come on in!" + +But Rita was standing apart, straining her eyes away far out into the +Gulf. + +"What is it, lass?" shouted the old fellow. "See something out there?" + +"It is a boat," she cried back anxiously. "Yes!--it is a boat." + +Old Neil scanned the sea. "Can't see nothing, lass. Can you, George?" + +I followed the direction of Rita's pointing. + +"I'm not quite sure," I answered at last, "but it looks to me as if +there was something rising and falling away there to the right." + +Neil ran into the house for his telescope. + +"By God!" he cried, "it's a tug. She's floundering like a duck on ice. +Steering gear gone, or something! Hope they can keep heading out for +the open, or it's all up with them," he said. + +We watched the boat for a while, then we turned into the house and +partook of the old fellow's tea and hot rolls. + +In half an hour, we went out again. + +"George, George!" cried Rita, with a voice of terror, looking back to +us from her position on the high rock. "Quick!--they are driving +straight in shore." + +We ran up beside her and looked out. + +The tug,--for such it was,--was coming in at a great rate on the crest +of the storm, beam on. Water was breaking over her continuously as she +drove, and drove,--a battered, beaten object,--straight for The Ghoul. + +We could see three men clinging to the rails. + +Rita was standing, transfixed with horror at the coming calamity which +nothing on earth could avert. + +Old man Andrews closed his telescope with a snap. + +"Guess you'd better go inside, Rita," he spoke tenderly. + +"No, no!" she cried furiously, her lips white and her eyes dilated. +"You can't fool me. That's Joe's tug. Give me that glass. Let me +see." + +"Better not, Rita. 'Tain't for gals." + +"Give it to me," she cried savagely. "Give it to me." + +She snatched the instrument from him and fixed it on the vessel. Then, +with that awful pent-up emotion, which neither speaks nor weeps, she +handed back the telescope to the fisherman. + +We stood there against the wind, as doomed and helpless Joe Clark's tug +crashed on to the fatal Ghoul. It clung there, as if trying to live. +Five,--ten,--fifteen minutes it clung, being beaten and ripped against +the teeth of the rock; then suddenly it split and dissolved from view. + +Neil had the telescope at his eye again. He handed it to me quickly. +"George!--look and tell me. D'ye see anybody clinging there to the far +tooth of The Ghoul? My eyes ain't too good. But, if yon's a man, God +rest his soul." + +I riveted my gaze on the point. + +There I could see as clearly as if it were only a few yards off. Even +the features of the man who clung there so tenaciously I could make out. + +"My God! It is Joe Clark," I exclaimed in excitement. + +With the cry of a mother robbed of her young, Rita dashed down the +rocks to the cove where Neil Andrews' boat lay. She pushed it into the +water and sprang into it, pulling against the tide-rip like one +possessed. I darted after her, but she was already ten yards out when +the boat swamped and was thrown back on the beach. + +Just as the undertow was sucking Rita away, I grabbed at her and +dragged her to safety. + +"Let me go! Let me go!" she screamed, battering my chest. "It's Joe. +It's my Joe. He's drowning." + +I held her fast. + +She looked up at me suddenly with a strange quietness, as if she did +not understand me and what I did. As she spoke, she forgot her King's +English. + +"Ain't you goin' to help him? It's Joe. You ain't scared o' the sea. +You can do it. Get him to me, George. Oh!--get me Joe. I want him. +I want him. He's mine." + +I grasped her by the arm and shook her, as I shouted in her ear: + +"Do you love Joe,--Rita;--love him enough to marry him if I go out for +him?" + +"Oh, yes, yes! Get him, George. I love Joe. I always loved him." + +In that moment, I made up my mind. + +"If we come back, little woman," I cried, "it will be down there at the +end of the Island. Run home;--get grand-dad and the others in some +boats. It isn't so bad down there. Watch out for us. + +"If I don't come back, Rita,--dear, little Rita----" + +I took her face in my hands and pressed my lips on hers. + +I ran from her, up over the cliffs, away to the far side of the horn, +where the eddy made the sea quieter. I threw off my boots and +superfluous clothing and sprang into the water. Out, out I plunged, +and plunged again, keeping under water most of the time, until at last +I got caught in the terrible rush three hundred yards straight out from +the point. + +I well knew the dreadful odds I was facing, yet I was unafraid. The +sea was my home, almost as much as the land. I laughed at its +buffeting. I defied it. What cared I? What had I to lose?--nothing! +And,--I might win Joe for Rita, and make her happy. + +In the very spirit of my defiance, I was calling up forces to work and +fight for me, forces that faint-heartedness and fear could never have +conjured to their aid. + +On,--on I battled,--going with the rush,--holding back a little,--and +easing out, and out, all the time toward the Rock. + +Half an hour passed;--perhaps an hour,--for I lost count of time and +distance in my struggling. But, at last, battered and half-smothered, +yet still crying defiance to everything, I found myself rising with a +mountainous sea and bearing straight upon The Ghoul. As I was lifted +up, I strained my eyes toward the teeth of the rock. + +Joe Clark,--that Hercules of men,--was still hanging on +desperately:--no hope in his heart, but loth as ever to admit defeat, +even to the elements. + +With tremendous force, I was thrown forward. As the wave broke, I +flashed past Joe in the mad rush of water. I grabbed blindly, feeling +sure I should miss,--for it was a thousand chances to one,--but I was +stopped up violently. I tightened my clutch in desperation. I pulled +myself up, and clasped both hands round the ledge of the rock, clinging +to it precariously, my nails torn almost from my fingers. My hands +were touching Joe's. My face came up close to his. Almost he lost his +hold at the suddenness of my uncanny appearing. + +He shouted to me in defiance, and it surprised me how easily I could +hear him, despite the hiss and roar of the waters. I could hear him +more easily than I had heard Rita on the beach at Neil Andrews', so +long, long ago. + +"My God! Bremner,--where did you come from? What d'ye want?" he +shouted. + +"I want you, Joe," I cried, right into his ear. "Rita sent me for +you,--will you come?" + +"It ain't no good," he replied despairingly;--"nobody gets off'n this +hell alive." + +"But we shall," I yelled. "Rita wants you. She loves you, Joe. Isn't +that worth a try, anyway?" + +"You bet!" he cried, as the water dashed over his face, "but how?" + +I screamed into his ear again. + +"Let go when I shout. Drop on your back. After that, don't move for +your life. Leave the rest to me. Don't mind if you go under. It's +our only chance." + +He nodded his head. + +I waited for an abatement of the surge. + +"Now!" I yelled, as a great, unbroken swell came along. + +Away we whirled on top of it; past the side of The Ghoul like bobbing +corks,--into the rip and race of the tide,--sometimes above the water, +most of the time under it,--gasping,--choking,--fighting,--then +away,--in great heaving throws, from that churning death. + +How brave Joe was! and how trusting! Not a struggle did he make in +that awful ordeal. He lay pliable and lightly upon me, as I floated up +the Bay,--or wherever the current might be taking us. But there was +only one direction with that flowing tide, after we had passed The +Ghoul, and I knew it was into the Bay. So quiet did Joe lie, that I +began to think the life had gone out of him. But I could do nothing +for him; nothing but try, whenever possible, to keep his head and my +own out of the sea. + +How long I struggled, I cannot tell. My arms and legs moved +mechanically. I took the battering and the submerging as a matter of +course. A pleasing lethargy settled over my brain and the terror of it +all went from me. + +When twenty minutes, or twenty years, might have flown, my head crashed +against something hard. I turned quickly. I seized at the +obstruction. It was a log from some broken boom. I threw my arm +around it for support, then I caught Joe up and pulled his hand over +it. In a second, he was all life. He clutched the log tightly, and +hung on. + +Thus, he and I together,--enemies till then, but friends against our +mutual foe, the storm,--floated to safety and life. + +I remember hearing voices on the waters and seeing, in a blur, Joe's +giant body being raised into a boat. But, of myself, I remember not a +thing. + +Later on, they told me that, as soon as they hoisted Joe, I let go my +hold on the log, as if I had no further interest in anything, no more +use for life. + +But old Andrew Clark was too quick for me. He caught me by the arm and +clung on, just as I was going down. + +And it was Joe Clark,--despite all he had gone through,--who carried me +in his great strong arms from the beach to his grand-dad's cottage, +crooning over me like a mother. It was Joe who fed me with warm +liquids. It was Joe I saw when I opened my eyes once more to the +material world. + +"Shake hands, old man," he said brokenly, "if mine ain't too black. +Used to think I hated you, George. I ain't hatin' anything or anybody +no more. You're the whitest man I know, Bremner, and you got me beat +six days for Sunday." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +"Her Knight Proved True" + +I was leaning idly against a post on my front veranda, watching the sun +dancing and scintillating on the sea; listening the while to the birds +in the woods behind me as they quarrelled and fought over the choosing +of their lady-loves for the coming spring. + +I was thinking of how the time had flown and of the many things that +had happened since first I set foot in Golden Crescent, not so much as +a short year ago. + +Already a month had slipped by since I had wished good-bye to little +Rita,--happy, merry, little, laughing Rita,--and her great, handsome +giant of a husband, Joe; holding the end of the rope ladder for them, +from my rowing boat, as they clambered aboard the _Siwash_, at the +start of their six months' honeymoon trip of pleasure and sight-seeing. + +What an itinerary that big, boyish fellow had arranged for the sweet, +little woman he had won!--Vancouver, Victoria, Seattle, San Francisco, +Los Angeles, all the big cities in the States right through to New +York, then back again over the Great Lakes, across the Western +Prairies, up over the Rockies and home:--home to the pretty bungalow +that was already well on the way toward completion, out there on the +promontory just below their grand-dad's place. + +A warning toot from the _Cloochman_ awoke me from my reveries. I ran +to my small boat and pulled out as she came speeding into the Bay. + +There was little cargo, and less mail--one single letter. But what a +wonder of wonders that letter was! It was for me, and, oh! how my +heart beat! It was in the handwriting I had seen only a few months +before but had learned to know so well. + +I tore the envelope into pieces in my haste to be at the contents. + + +Dear George, it ran, + +Reta and Joe (Mr. & Mrs. Clark) called to see me. If you only could +see the happiness of them, how you would rejoice! knowing that you had +brought it all about. + +Every day from now, look for me at the little cottage across the rustic +bridge; for, some day, I shall be there. Golden Crescent is ever in my +thoughts. + +Good-bye for the present, my brave and very gallant gentleman. + +Mary. + + +In my little rowing boat, out there in the Bay, I cried to God in +thankfulness for all his goodness. + +Every day I looked across to Mary's bungalow, wondering if this would +be the day. + +I was loth to sleep, lest she should arrive without my knowing of it. +I could hardly bear to leave home for even an hour in case she should +come when I was away. And yet,--so it happened. + +Late one afternoon, I was standing on Clark's veranda, chatting with +Margaret over a letter that had arrived from Rita; when I noticed a +fast-moving launch dart into the Bay full speed, straight for my +landing, lower a dinghy, land some people, then turn and speed out +again almost before my brain could grasp the full purport. + +I dashed suddenly away from my old lady friend, without so much as a +word of explanation. I tumbled into my boat and rowed furiously for +home. How I railed at that long half-hour! To think of it,--Mary in +Golden Crescent half-an-hour and I had not yet spoken to her! + +I jumped ashore at last, ran up the rocks and into her house without +ceremony. + +"Mary, Mary!" I called. "Where are you?" + +And all I heard in answer, was a sigh. + +I pushed in to the front parlour, where Mary,--my Mary,--was. She was +standing by the window and had been gazing dreamily out into the Bay. +She turned to me in all the charm of her golden loveliness, holding out +her hands to me in silent welcome. + +I took her hands in mine and we looked into each other's eyes for just +a moment, then I caught her to me and crushed her in my embrace. + +"Mary,--Mary,--Mary!" I cried brokenly. "Mary,--Mary!" + +Gently and shyly, but smiling in her gladness, she freed herself from +my enfolding arms. + +"George,--sit down, dear. I have much to tell you before--before----" + +A blush spread over her cheeks and she turned away in embarrassment. + +"--Before what, Mary?" I craved. + +"Before--I can listen to you. + +"George!--I love you with all my heart. I have always loved you,--I +could not help myself. That, I think, is why I quarrelled with you +so,--at first. But I was afraid that my loving would avail me little +and would probably cause you pain, for I was pledged to marry a man I +did not love; and, because of that pledge, I was not free to give my +love to any other man. + +"George!--that man is dead now. He died a month ago in a street riot +with some natives in Cairo. + +"All his sins are covered up with him," she sighed. "And, after all, +maybe Harry Brammerton was not----" + +"Harry Brammerton!--" I cried, springing up in a tremble of excitement. +"My God! Oh, my God! I thought,--I,--I understood,--I--I--oh, God!" + +I clutched at the table for support as the awful truth began to dawn on +me. + +Mary rose in alarm. + +"Why! What is it? What have I said? George,--didn't you know? +Didn't I tell you before? You have heard of him?--you are acquainted +with him,--Viscount Harry Brammerton--" + +"Oh! Mary, Mary," I cried huskily, "please,--please do not go on. It +is more than I can bear now. + +"I didn't know. I,--I am that man's brother. I am George Brammerton." + +She stood ever so quietly. + +"You!--You!" she whispered. And that was all. + +Thus we stood,--stricken,--speechless,--under the cloud of the +unexpected, the almost impossible that had come upon us. + +Yet Mary, or rather Rosemary, was the first to regain her composure. +Kindly, sweetly, she came over to me and placed her hands on my +shoulders. Her brown eyes were wells of sympathy and tenderness. + +"George,--we each must fight this out alone. Come back to me in the +morning. I shall be waiting for you then." + +And I left her. + +But it seemed to me as if the morning would never come. + +Unable to bear the burden of my thoughts longer amid the confines of my +rooms, I went out at last into the moonlight, to wait the coming of the +dawn. + +As I stood out on the cliffs,--where old Jake Meaghan so often used to +sit listening to Mary's music,--she came to me; fairylike, white-robed, +all tenderness, all softness and palpitating womanliness. + +"George,--my George," she whispered, "I could not wait till morning +either.--And why should we wait, when my father's and your father's +pledge, the vow they made for you and for me,--although we have not +known it till now,--need not be broken after all." + +I caught her up and kissed her lips, her eyes, her hair,--again and +again,--until she gasped, thinking I should never cease. + +With our arms around each other, we waited on the cliffs for the +sunrise. We watched it come up in all its rosy loveliness, paling the +dying moon and setting the waters of the Bay ablaze. + +"And we must leave all this, my Lady Rosemary?" I said, with a sigh of +regret. + +"For a time,--yes! But not altogether, George; not always; for the +little bungalow behind us is mine now,--ours; a gift last Christmas to +me from my father's dear American friend, my friend, Colonel Sol Dorry, +with whom, in Wyoming, I spent the happiest of all my girlhood days." + +"Mary,--Rosemary," I exclaimed, as an unsatisfied little thought kept +recurring to me, refusing to be set aside even in the midst of our +great happiness,--"there is a little maid 'in the North Countree' in +whom I am deeply interested. The last I heard of her, she had been +jilted by her lover. Didn't he ever come back to her?" + +Rosemary laughed. + +"It is getting near to breakfast-time; so, if George, Earl of +Brammerton and Hazelmere, Storekeeper at Golden Crescent, runs over +home and listens very attentively while he is burning his porridge and +_boiling_ his tea,--he may hear of what happened to that sweet, little +maid." + +And, sure enough, as I stood, with my sleeves rolled up, stirring +oatmeal and water that threatened every minute to stick to the bottom +of the pot; there came through my open window the sounds of the +bewitching voice of Rosemary,--my own, my charming Lady Rosemary:-- + + A maid there is in the North Countree; + A coy little, glad little maid is she. + Her cheeks are aglow with a rosy hue, + For her knight proved true, as good knights should be. + And, day by day, as their vows renew, + Her spinning wheel purrs and the threads weave through; + It purrs. It purrs. It purrs and the threads weave through. + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's My Brave and Gallant Gentleman, by Robert Watson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY BRAVE AND GALLANT GENTLEMAN *** + +***** This file should be named 31728.txt or 31728.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/7/2/31728/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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