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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/9778-8.txt b/9778-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..49eef03 --- /dev/null +++ b/9778-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12055 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Vane of the Timberlands, by Harold Bindloss + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Vane of the Timberlands + +Author: Harold Bindloss + +Posting Date: November 12, 2011 [EBook #9778] +Release Date: January, 2006 +First Posted: October 15, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VANE OF THE TIMBERLANDS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + + + + Vane of The Timberlands + + BY HAROLD BINDLOSS + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + +I. A FRIEND IN NEED +II. A BREEZE OF WIND +III. AN AFTERNOON ASHORE +IV. A CHANGE OF ENVIRONMENT +V. THE OLD COUNTRY +VI. UPON THE HEIGHTS +VII. STORM-STAYED +VIII. LUCY VANE +IX. CHISHOLM PROVES AMENABLE +X. WITH THE OTTER HOUNDS +XI. VANE WITHDRAWS +XII. IN VANCOUVER +XIII. A NEW PROJECT +XIV. VANE SAILS NORTH +XV. THE FIRST MISADVENTURE +XVI. THE BUSH +XVII. VANE POSTPONES THE SEARCH +XVIII. JESSY CONFERS A FAVOR +XIX. VANE FORESEES TROUBLE +XX. THE FLOOD +XXI. VANE YIELDS A POINT +XXII. EVELYN GOES FOR A SAIL +XXIII. VANE PROVES OBDURATE +XXIV. JESSY STRIKES +XXV. THE INTERCEPTED LETTER +XXVI. ON THE TRAIL +XXVII. THE END OF THE SEARCH +XXVIII. CARROLL SEEKS HELP +XXIX. JESSY'S CONTRITION +XXX. CONVINCING TESTIMONY +XXXI. VANE IS REINSTATED + + + + +VANE OF THE TIMBERLANDS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A FRIEND IN NEED + + +A light breeze, scented with the smell of the firs, was blowing down the +inlet, and the tiny ripples it chased across the water splashed musically +against the bows of the canoe. They met her end-on, sparkling in the warm +sunset light, gurgled about her sides, and trailed away astern in two +divergent lines as the paddles flashed and fell. There was a thud as the +blades struck the water, and the long, light hull forged onward with +slightly lifted, bird's-head prow, while the two men swung forward for +the next stroke with a rhythmic grace of motion. They knelt, facing +forward, in the bottom of the craft, and, dissimilar as they were in +features and, to some extent, in character, the likeness between them was +stronger than the difference. Both bore the unmistakable stamp of a +wholesome life spent in vigorous labor in the open. Their eyes were clear +and, like those of most bushmen, singularly steady; their skin was clean +and weather-darkened; and they were leanly muscular. + +On either side of the lane of green water giant firs, cedars and balsams +crept down the rocky hills to the whitened driftwood fringe. They formed +part of the great coniferous forest which rolls west from the wet Coast +Range of Canada's Pacific Province and, overleaping the straits, spreads +across the rugged and beautiful wilderness of Vancouver Island. Ahead, +clusters of little frame houses showed up here and there in openings +among the trees, and a small sloop, toward which the canoe was heading, +lay anchored near the wharf. + +The men had plied the paddle during most of that day, from inclination +rather than necessity, for they could have hired Siwash Indians to +undertake the labor for them, had they been so minded. They were, +though their appearance did not suggest it, moderately prosperous; but +their prosperity was of recent date; they had been accustomed to doing +everything for themselves, as are most of the men who dwell among the +woods and ranges of British Columbia. + +Vane, who knelt nearest the bow, was twenty-seven years of age. Nine of +those years he had spent chopping trees, driving cattle, poling canoes +and assisting in the search for useful minerals among the snow-clad +ranges. He wore a wide, gray felt hat, which had lost its shape from +frequent wettings, an old shirt of the same color, and blue duck +trousers, rent in places; but the light attire revealed a fine muscular +symmetry. He had brown hair and brown eyes; and a certain warmth of +coloring which showed through the deep bronze of his skin hinted at a +sanguine and somewhat impatient temperament. As a matter of fact, the +man was resolute and usually shrewd; but there was a vein of +impulsiveness in him, and, while he possessed considerable powers of +endurance, he was on occasion troubled by a shortness of temper. + +His companion, Carroll, had lighter hair and gray eyes, and his +appearance was a little less vigorous and a little more refined; though +he, too, had toiled hard and borne many privations in the wilderness. His +dress resembled Vane's, but, dilapidated as it was, it suggested a +greater fastidiousness. + +The two had located a valuable mineral property some months earlier and, +though this does not invariably follow, had held their own against city +financiers during the negotiations that preceded the floating of a +company to work the mine. That they had succeeded in securing a good deal +of the stock was largely due to Vane's pertinacity and said something for +his acumen; but both had been trained in a very hard school. + +As the wooden houses ahead rose higher and the sloop's gray hull grew +into sharper shape upon the clear green shining of the brine, Vane broke +into a snatch of song: + +"Had I the wings of a dove, I would fly +Just for to-night to the Old Country." + +He stopped and laughed. + +"It's nine years since I've seen it, but I can't get those lines out of +my head. Perhaps it's because of the girl who sang them. Somehow, I felt +sorry for her. She had remarkably fine eyes." + +"Sea-blue," suggested his companion. "I don't grasp the connection +between the last two remarks." + +"Neither do I," admitted Vane. "I suppose there isn't one. But they +weren't sea-blue; unless you mean the depth of indigo when you are out of +soundings. They're Irish eyes." + +"You're not Irish. There's not a trace of the Celt in you, except, +perhaps, your habit of getting indignant with the people who don't share +your views." + +"No, sir! By birth, I'm North Country--England, I mean. Over there we're +descendants of the Saxons, Scandinavians, Danes--Teutonic stock at +bottom, anyhow; and we've inherited their unromantic virtues. We're +solid, and cautious, respectable before everything, and smart at getting +hold of anything worth having. As a matter of fact, you Ontario Scotsmen +are mighty like us." + +"You certainly came out well ahead of those city men who put up the +money," agreed Carroll. "I guess it's in the blood; though I fancied once +or twice that they would take the mine from you." + +Vane brought his paddle down with a thud. + +"Just for to-night to the Old Country,--" + +He hummed, and added: + +"It sticks to one." + +"What made you leave the Old Country? I don't think you ever told me." + +Vane laughed. + +"That's a blamed injudicious question to ask anybody, as you ought to +know; but in this particular instance you shall have an answer. There was +a row at home--I was a sentimentalist then, and just eighteen--and as a +result of it I came out to Canada." His voice changed and grew softer. "I +hadn't many relatives, and, except one sister, they're all gone now. That +reminds me--she's not going to lecture for the county education +authorities any longer." + +The sloop was close ahead, and slackening the paddling they ran +alongside. Vane glanced at his watch when they had climbed on board. + +"Supper will be finished at the hotel," he remarked. "You had better get +the stove lighted. It's your turn, and that rascally Siwash seems to +have gone off again. If he's not back when we're ready, we'll sail +without him." + +Supper is served at the hotels in the western settlements as soon as work +ceases for the day, and the man who arrives after it is over must wait +until the next day's breakfast is ready. Carroll, accordingly, prepared +the meal; and when they had finished it they lay on deck smoking with a +content not altogether accounted for by a satisfied appetite. They had +spent several anxious months, during which they had come very near the +end of their slender resources, arranging for the exploitation of the +mine, and now at last the work was over. Vane had that day made his final +plans for the construction of a road and a wharf by which the ore could +be economically shipped for reduction, or, as an alternative to this, for +the erection of a small smelting plant. They had bought the sloop as a +convenient means of conveyance and shelter, as they could live in some +comfort on board; and now they could take their ease for a while, which +was a very unusual thing to both of them. + +"I suppose you're bent on sailing this craft back?" Carroll remarked at +length. "We could hire a couple of Siwash to take her home while we rode +across the island and got the train to Victoria. Besides, there's that +steamboat coming down the coast to-night." + +"Either way would cost a good deal extra." + +"That's true," Carroll agreed with an amused expression; "but you could +charge it to the company." + +Vane laughed. + +"You and I have a big stake in the concern; and I haven't got used to +spending money unnecessarily yet, I've been mighty glad to earn a couple +dollars by working from sunup until dark, though I didn't always get it +afterward. So have you." + +"How are you going to dispose of your money, then? You have a nice little +balance in cash, besides the shares." + +"It has occurred to me that I might spend a few months in the Old +Country. Have you ever been over there?" + +"I was across some time ago; but, if you like, I'll go along with you. We +could start as soon as we've arranged the few matters left open in +Vancouver." + +Vane was glad to hear it. He knew little about Carroll's antecedents, but +his companion was obviously a man of education, and they had been staunch +comrades for the last three years. They had plodded through leagues of +rain-swept bush, had forded icy rivers, had slept in wet fern and +sometimes slushy snow, and had toiled together with pick and drill. +During that time they had learned to know and trust each other and to +bear with each other's idiosyncrasies. + +Filling his pipe again as he lay in the fading sunlight, Vane looked back +on the nine years he had passed in Canada, and, allowing for the periods +of exposure to cold and wet and the almost ceaseless toil, he admitted +that he might have spent them more unpleasantly. He had a stout heart and +a muscular body, and the physical hardships had not troubled him. What +was more, he had a quick, almost instinctive, judgment and the faculty +for seizing an opportunity. + +Having quarreled with his relatives and declined any favors from them, he +had come to Canada with only a few pounds and had promptly set about +earning a living with his hands. When he had been in the country several +years, a friend of the family had, however, sent him a small sum, and the +young man had made judicious use of the money. The lot he bought outside +a wooden town doubled in value, and the share he took in a new orchard +paid him well; but he had held aloof from the cities, and his only +recklessness had been his prospecting journeys into the wilderness. +Prospecting for minerals is at once an art and a gamble. Skill, acquired +by long experience or instinctive--and there are men who seem to possess +the latter--counts for much, but chance plays a leading part. Provisions, +tents and packhorses are expensive, and though a placer mine may be +worked by two partners, a reef or lode can be disposed of only to men +with means sufficient to develop it. Even in this delicate matter, in +which he had had keen wits against him, Vane had held his own; but there +was one side of life with which he was practically unacquainted. + +There are no social amenities on the rangeside or in the bush, where +women are scarce. Vane had lived in Spartan simplicity, practising the +ascetic virtues, as a matter of course. He had had no time for sentiment, +his passions had remained unstirred; and now he was seven and twenty, +sound and vigorous of body, and, as a rule, level of head. At length, +however, there was to be a change. He had earned an interlude of +leisure, and he meant to enjoy it without, so he prudently determined, +making a fool of himself. + +Presently Carroll took his pipe from his mouth. + +"Are you going ashore again to the show to-night?" + +"Yes," Vane answered. "It's a long while since I've struck an +entertainment of any kind, and that yellow-haired mite's dancing is one +of the prettiest things I've seen." + +"You've been twice already," Carroll hinted. "The girl with the blue eyes +sings her first song rather well." + +"I think so," Vane agreed with a significant absence of embarrassment. +"In this case a good deal depends on the singing--the interpretation, +isn't it? The thing's on the border, and I've struck places where they'd +have made it gross; but the girl only brought out the mischief. Strikes +me she didn't see there was anything else in it" + +"That's curious, considering the crowd she goes about with. Aren't you +cultivating a critical faculty?" + +Vane disregarded the ironical question. + +"She's Irish; that accounts for a good deal." + +He paused and looked thoughtful. + +"If I knew how to do it, I'd like to give five or ten dollars to the +child who dances. It must be a tough life, and her mother--the woman +at the piano--looks ill. I wonder whatever brought them to a place +like this?" + +"Struck a cold streak at Nanaimo, the storekeeper told me. Anyway, since +we're to start at sunup, I'm staying here." Then he smiled. "Has it +struck you that your attendance in the front seats is liable to +misconception?" + +Vane rose without answering and dropped into the canoe. Thrusting her +off, he drove the light craft toward the wharf with vigorous strokes of +the paddle, and Carroll shook his head whimsically as he watched him. + +"Anybody except myself would conclude that he's waking up at last," he +commented. + +A minute or two later Vane swung himself up onto the wharf and strode +into the wooden settlement. There were one or two hydraulic mines and a +pulp mill in the vicinity, and, though the place was by no means +populous, a company of third-rate entertainers had arrived there a few +days earlier. On reaching the rude wooden building in which they had +given their performance and finding it closed, he accosted a lounger. + +"What's become of the show?" he asked. + +"Busted. Didn't take the boys' fancy. The crowd went out with the stage +this afternoon; though I heard that two of the women stayed behind. +Somebody said the hotel-keeper had trouble about his bill." + +Vane turned away with a slight sense of compassion. More than once during +his first year or two in Canada he had limped footsore and weary into a +wooden town where nobody seemed willing to employ him. An experience of +the kind was unpleasant to a vigorous man, but he reflected that it must +be much more so in the case of a woman, who probably had nothing to fall +back upon. However, he dismissed the matter from his mind. Having been +kneeling in a cramped position in the canoe most of the day, he decided +to stroll along the waterside before going back to the sloop. + +Great firs stretched out their somber branches over the smooth shingle, +and now that the sun had gone their clean resinous smell was heavy in the +dew-cooled air. Here and there brushwood grew among outcropping rock and +moss-grown logs lay fallen among the brambles. + +Catching sight of what looked like a strip of woven fabric beneath a +brake, Vane strode toward it. Then he stopped with a start, for a young +girl lay with her face hidden from him, in an attitude of dejected +abandonment. He was about to turn away softly, when she started and +looked up at him. Her long dark lashes glistened and her eyes were wet, +but they were of the deep blue he had described to Carroll, and he +stood still. + +"You really shouldn't give way like that," he said. + +It was all he could think of, but he spoke without obtrusive assurance or +pronounced embarrassment; and the girl, shaking out her crumpled skirt +over one little foot, with a swift sinuous movement, choked back a sob +and favored him with a glance of keen scrutiny as she rose to a sitting +posture. She was quick at reading character--the life she led had made +that necessary--and his manner and appearance were reassuring. He was on +the whole a well-favored man--good-looking seemed the best word for +it--though what impressed her most was his expression. It indicated that +he regarded her with some pity, not as an attractive young woman, which +she knew she was, but merely as a human being. The girl, however, said +nothing; and, sitting down on a neighboring boulder, Vane took out his +pipe from force of habit. + +"Well," he added, in much the same tone he would have used to a +distressed child, "what's the trouble?" + +She told him, speaking on impulse. + +"They've gone off and left me! The takings didn't meet expenses; there +was no treasury." + +"That's bad," responded Vane gravely. "Do you mean they've left +you alone?" + +"No; it's worse than that. I suppose I could go--somewhere--but there's +Mrs. Marvin and Elsie." + +"The child who dances?" + +The girl assented, and Vane looked thoughtful. He had already noticed +that Mrs. Marvin, whom he supposed to be the child's mother, was worn and +frail, and he did not think there was anything she could turn her hand to +in a vigorous mining community. The same applied to his companion, though +he was not greatly astonished that she had taken him into her confidence. +The reserve that characterizes the insular English is less common in the +West, where the stranger is more readily taken on trust. + +"The three of you stick together?" he suggested. + +"Of course! Mrs. Marvin's the only friend I have." + +"Then I suppose you've no idea what to do?" + +"No," she confessed, and then explained, not very clearly, that it was +the cause of her distress and that they had had bad luck of late. Vane +could understand that as he looked at her. Her dress was shabby, and he +fancied that she had not been bountifully fed. + +"If you stayed here a few days you could go out with the next stage and +take the train to Victoria." He paused and continued diffidently: "It +could be arranged with the hotel-keeper." + +She laughed in a half-hysterical manner, and he remembered what she had +said about the treasury, and that fares are high in that country. + +"I suppose you have no money," he added with blunt directness. "I want +you to tell Mrs. Marvin that I'll lend her enough to take you all to +Victoria." + +Her face crimsoned. He had not quite expected that, and he suddenly felt +embarrassed. It was a relief when she broke the brief silence. + +"No," she replied; "I can't do that. For one thing, it would be too late +when we got to Victoria, I think we could get an engagement if we reached +Vancouver in time to get to Kamloops by--" + +Vane knit his brows when he heard the date, and it was a moment or two +before he spoke. + +"There's only one way you can do it. There's a little steamboat coming +down the coast to-night. I had half thought of intercepting her, anyway, +and handing the skipper some letters to post in Victoria. He knows +me--I'm likely to have dealings with his employers. That's my sloop +yonder, and if I put you on board the steamer, you'd reach Vancouver in +good time. We should have sailed at sunup, anyhow." + +The girl hesitated and turned partly from him. He surmised that she did +not know what to make of his offer, though her need was urgent. In the +meanwhile he stood up. + +"Come along and talk it over with Mrs. Marvin," he urged. "I'd better +tell you that I'm Wallace Vane, of the Clermont Mine. Of course, I know +your name, from the program." + +She rose and they walked back to the hotel. Once more it struck him that +the girl was pretty and graceful, though he had already deduced from +several things that she had not been regularly trained as a singer nor +well educated. On reaching the hotel, he sat down on the veranda while +she went in, and a few minutes later Mrs. Marvin came out and looked at +him much as the girl had done. He grew hot under her gaze and repeated +his offer in the curtest terms. + +"If this breeze holds, we'll put you on board the steamer soon after +daybreak," he explained. + +The woman's face softened, and he recognized now that there had been +strong suspicion in it. + +"Thank you," she said simply; "we'll come." + +There was a moment's silence and then she added with an eloquent gesture: + +"You don't know what it means to us!" + +Vane merely took off his hat and turned away; but a minute or two later +he met the hotel-keeper. + +"Do these people owe you anything?" he asked. + +"Five dollars; they paid up part of the time. I was wondering what to do +with them. Guess they've no money. They didn't come in to supper, though +we would have stood them that. Made me think they were straight folks; +the other kind wouldn't have been bashful." + +Vane handed him a bill. + +"Take it out of this, and make any excuse you like. I'm going to put them +on board the steamboat." + +The man made no comment, and Vane, striding down to the beach, sent a +hail ringing across the water. Carroll appeared on the sloop's deck and +answered him. + +"Hallo!" he cried. "What's the trouble?" + +"Get ready the best supper you can manage, for three people, as quick +as you can!" + +"Supper for three people!" + +Vane caught the astonished exclamation and came near losing his temper. + +"For three people!" he shouted. "Don't ask any fool questions! You'll see +later on!" + +Then he turned away in a hurry, wondering somewhat uneasily what Carroll +would say when he grasped the situation. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A BREEZE OF WIND + + +There were signs of a change in the weather when Vane walked down to the +wharf with his passengers, for a cold wind which had sprung up struck an +eerie sighing from the somber firs and sent the white mists streaming +along the hillside. There was a watery moon in the sky, and when they +reached the water's edge Vane fancied that the singer hesitated; but Mrs. +Marvin laid her hand on the girl's arm reassuringly, and she got into the +canoe. A few minutes later Vane ran the craft alongside the sloop and saw +the amazement in Carroll's face by the glow from the cabin skylight. He +fancied, however, that his comrade would rise to the occasion, and he +helped his guests up. + +"My partner, Carroll. Mrs. Marvin and her daughter; Miss Kitty +Blake. You have seen them already. They're coming down with us to +catch the steamer." + +Carroll bowed, and Vane thrust back the cabin slide and motioned the +others below. The place was brightly lighted by a nickeled lamp, though +it was scarcely four feet high and the centerboard trunk occupied the +middle of it. A wide cushioned locker ran along either side a foot above +the floor, and a swing-table, fixed above the trunk, filled up most of +the space between. There was no cloth on the table, but it was +invitingly laid out with canned fruit, coffee, hot flapjacks and a big +lake trout, for in the western bush most men can cook. + +"You must help yourselves while we get sail upon the boat," said Vane +cheerily. "The saloon's at your disposal--my partner and I have the +forecastle. You will notice that there are blankets yonder, and as we'll +have smooth water most of the way you should get some sleep. Perhaps +you'd better keep the stove burning; and if you should like some coffee +in the early morning you'll find it in the top locker." + +He withdrew, closing the slide, and went forward with Carroll to shorten +in the cable; but when they stopped beside the bitts his companion broke +into a laugh. + +"Is there anything amusing you?" Vane asked curtly. + +"Well," drawled Carroll, "this country, of course, isn't England; but, +for all that, it's desirable that a man who expects to make his mark in +it should exercise a certain amount of caution. It strikes me that you're +making a rather unconventional use of your new prosperity, and it might +be prudent to consider how some of your friends in Vancouver may regard +the adventure." + +Vane sat down upon the bitts and took out his pipe. + +"One trouble in talking to you is that I never know whether you're in +earnest or not. You trot out your cold-blooded worldly wisdom--I suppose +it is wisdom--and then you grin at it." + +"It seems to me that's the only philosophic attitude," Carroll replied. +"It's possible to grow furiously indignant with the restraints +stereotyped people lay on one, but on the whole it's wiser to bow to them +and chuckle. After all, they've some foundation." + +Vane looked up at him sharply. + +"You've been right in the advice you have given me more than once. You +seem to know how prosperous, and what you call stereotyped, people look +at things. But you've never explained where you acquired the knowledge." + +"Oh, that's quite another matter," laughed Carroll. + +"Anyway, there's one remark of yours I'd like to answer. You would, no +doubt, consider that I made a legitimate use of my money when I +entertained that crowd of city people--some of whom would have plundered +me if they could have managed it--in Vancouver. I didn't grudge it, of +course, but I was a little astonished when I saw the wine and cigar bill. +It struck me that the best of them scarcely noticed what they got--I +think they'd been up against it at one time, as we have; and it would +have done the rest of the guzzlers good if they'd had to work with the +shovel all day on pork and flapjacks. But we'll let that go. What have +you and I done that we should swill in champagne, while a girl with a +face like that one below and a child who dances like a fairy haven't +enough to eat? You know what I paid for the last cigars. What confounded +hogs we are!" + +Carroll laughed outright. There was not an ounce of superfluous flesh +upon his comrade, who was hardened and toughened by determined labor. +With rare exceptions, which included the occasions when he had +entertained or had been entertained in Vancouver, his greatest indulgence +had been a draught of strong green tea from a blackened pannikin, though +he had at times drunk nothing but river water. The term hog appeared +singularly inappropriate as applied to him. + +"Well," replied Carroll, "you'll no doubt get used to the new conditions +by and by; and in regard to your latest exploit, there's a motto on your +insignia of the Garter which might meet the case. But hadn't we better +heave her over her anchor?" + +They seized the chain, and a sharp, musical rattle rang out as it ran +below, for the hollow hull flung back the metallic clinking like a +sounding-board. When the cable was short-up, they grasped the halyards +and the big gaff-mainsail rose flapping up the mast. They set it and +turned to the head-sails, for though, strictly speaking, a sloop carries +only one, the term is loosely applied in places, and as Vane had changed +her rig, there were two of them to be hoisted. + +"It's a fair wind, and I dare say we'll find more weight in it lower +down," commented Carroll. "We'll let the staysail lie and run her +with the jib." + +When they set the jib and broke out the anchor, Vane took the helm, and +the sloop, slanting over until her deck on one side dipped close to the +frothing brine, drove away into the darkness. The lights of the +settlement faded among the trees, and the black hills and the climbing +firs on either side slipped by, streaked by sliding vapors. A crisp, +splashing sound made by the curling ripples followed the vessel; the +canoe surged along noisily astern; and the frothing and gurgling grew +louder at the bows. They were running down one of the deep, +forest-shrouded inlets which, resembling the Norwegian fiords, pierce the +Pacific littoral of Canada; though there are no Scandinavian pines to +compare with the tremendous conifers which fill all the valleys and climb +high to the snow-line in that wild and rugged land. + +There was no sound from the cabin, and Vane decided that his guests had +gone to sleep. The sloop was driving along steadily, with neither lift +nor roll, but when, increasing her speed, she piled the foam up on her +lee side and the canoe rode on a great white wave, he glanced toward his +companion. + +"I wonder how the wind is outside?" he questioned. + +Carroll looked around and saw the white mists stream athwart the pines on +a promontory they were skirting. + +"That's more than I can tell. In these troughs among the hills, it either +blows straight up or directly down, and I dare say we'll find it +different when we reach the sound. One thing's certain--there's some +weight in it now." + +Vane nodded agreement, though an idea that troubled him crept into his +mind. + +"I understand that the steamboat skipper will run in to land some Siwash +he's bringing down. It will be awkward in the dark if the wind's +on-shore." + +Carroll made no comment, and they drove on. As they swept around the +point, the sloop, slanting sharply, dipped her lee rail in the froth. +Ahead of them the inlet was flecked with white, and the wail of the +swaying firs came off from the shadowy beach and mingled with the +gurgling of the water. + +"We'll have to tie down a reef and get the canoe on board," +suggested Carroll. + +"Here, take the tiller a minute!" + +Scrambling forward Vane rapped on the cabin slide and then flung it back. +Mrs. Marvin lay upon the leeward locker with a blanket thrown over her +and with the little girl at her feet; Miss Blake sat on the weather side +with a book in her hand. + +"We're going to take some sail off the boat," he explained. "You needn't +be disturbed by the noise." + +"When do you expect to meet the steamer?" Miss Blake inquired. + +"Not for two or three hours, anyway." + +Vane fancied that the girl noticed the hint of uncertainty in his voice, +and he banged the slide to as he disappeared. + +"Down helm!" he shouted to Carroll. + +There was a banging and thrashing of canvas as the sloop came up into the +wind. They held her there with the jib aback while they hauled the canoe +on board, which was not an easy task; and then with difficulty they hove +down a reef in the mainsail. It was heavy work, because there was nobody +at the helm; and the craft, falling off once or twice while they leaned +out upon the boom with toes on her depressed lee rail, threatened to hurl +them into the frothing water. Neither of them was a trained sailor; but +on that coast, with its inlets and sounds and rivers, the wanderer learns +readily to handle sail and paddle and canoe-pole. + +They finished their task; and when Vane seized the helm Carroll sat down +under the shelter of the coaming, out of the flying spray. + +"We'll probably have some trouble putting your friends on board the +steamer, even if she runs in," he remarked. "What are you going to do if +there's no sign of her?" + +"It's a question I've been shirking for the last half-hour," Vane +confessed. + +"It would be very slow work beating back up this inlet; and even if we +did so there isn't a stage across the island for several days. No doubt, +you remember that you have to see that contractor on Thursday; and +there's the directors' meeting, too." + +"It's uncommonly awkward," Vane answered dubiously. + +Carroll laughed. + +"It strikes me that your guests will have to stay where they are, whether +they like it or not; but there's one consolation--if this wind is from +the northwest, which is most likely, it will be a fast run to Victoria. +Guess I'll try to get some sleep." + +He disappeared down a scuttle forward, leaving Vane somewhat disturbed in +mind. He had contemplated taking his guests for merely a few hours' run, +but to have them on board for, perhaps, several days was a very different +thing. Besides, he was far from sure that they would understand the +necessity for keeping them, and in that case the situation might become +difficult. In the meanwhile, the sloop drove on, until at last, toward +morning, the beach fell back on either hand and she met the long swell +tumbling in from the Pacific. The wind was from the northwest and blowing +moderately hard; there was no light as yet in the sky above the black +heights to the east; and the onrushing swell grew higher and steeper, +breaking white here and there. The sloop plunged over it wildly, hurling +the spray aloft; and it cost Vane a determined effort to haul in his +sheets as the wind drew ahead. Shortly afterward, the beach faded +altogether on one hand, and the sea piled up madly into foaming ridges. +It seemed most improbable that the steamer would run in to land her +Indian passengers, but Vane drove the sloop on, with showers of stinging +brine beating into her wet canvas and whirling about him. + +As the Pacific opened up, he found it necessary to watch the seas that +came charging down upon her. They were long and high, and most of them +were ridged with seething foam. With a quick pull on the tiller, he edged +her over them, and a cascade swept her forward as she plunged across +their crests. Though there were driving clouds above him, it was not very +dark and he could see for some distance. The long ranks of tumbling +combers did not look encouraging, and when the plunges grew sharper and +the brine began to splash across the coaming that protected the well he +wished that they had hauled down a second reef. He could not shorten sail +unassisted, however; nor could he leave the helm to summon Carroll, who +was evidently sleeping soundly in the forecastle, without rousing his +passengers, which he did not desire to do. + +A little while later he noticed that a stream of smoke was pouring from +the short funnel of the stove and soon afterward the cabin slide opened. +Miss Blake crept out and stood in the well, gazing forward while she +clutched the coaming. + +Day was now breaking, and Vane could see that the girl's thin dress was +blown flat against her. There was something graceful in her pose, and it +struck him again that her figure was daintily slender. She wore no hat, +and it was evident that the wild plunging had no effect on her. He waited +uneasily until she turned and faced him. + +"We are going out to sea," she said. "Where's the steamer?" + +It was a question Vane had dreaded; but he answered it honestly. + +"I can't tell you. It's very likely that she has gone straight on to +Victoria." + +He saw the suspicion in her suddenly hardening face, but the quick anger +in it pleased him. He had not expected her to be prudish, but it was +clear that the situation did not appeal to her. + +"You expected this when you asked us to come on board!" she cried. + +"No," Vane replied quietly; "on my honor, I did nothing of the kind. +There was only a moderate breeze when we left, and when it freshened +enough to make it unlikely that the steamer would run in, I was as vexed +as you seem to be. As it happened, I couldn't go back; I must get on to +Victoria as soon as possible." + +She looked at him searchingly, but he fancied that she was slightly +comforted. + +"Can't you put us ashore?" + +"It might be possible if I could find a sheltered beach farther on, but +it wouldn't be wise. You would find yourselves twenty or thirty miles +from the nearest settlement, and you could never walk so far through +the bush." + +"Then what are we to do?" + +There was distress in the cry, and Vane answered it in his most +matter-of-fact tone. + +"So far as I can see, you can only reconcile yourselves to staying on +board. We'll have a fresh, fair wind for Victoria, once we're round the +next head, and with moderate luck we ought to get there late to-night" + +"You're sure?" + +Vane felt sorry for her. + +"I'm afraid I can't even promise that; it depends upon the weather," +he replied. "But you mustn't stand there in the spray. You're getting +wet through." + +She still clung to the coaming, but he fancied that her misgivings were +vanishing, and he spoke again. + +"How are Mrs. Marvin and the little girl? I see you have lighted +the stove." + +The girl sat down, shivering, in the partial shelter of the coaming, and +at last a gleam of amusement, which he felt was partly compassionate, +shone in her eyes. + +"I'm afraid they're--not well. That was why I kept the stove burning; I +wanted to make them some tea. There is some in the locker--I thought you +wouldn't mind." + +"Everything's at your service, as I told you. You must make the best +breakfast you can. The nicest things are at the back of the locker." + +She stood up, looking around again. The light was growing, and the +crests of the combers gleamed a livid white. Their steep breasts were +losing their grayness and changing to dusky blue and slatey green, but +their blurred coloring was atoned for by their grandeur of form. They +came on, ridge on ridge, in regularly ordered, tumbling phalanxes. + +"It's glorious!" she exclaimed, to his astonishment. "Aren't you carrying +a good deal of sail?" + +"We'll ease the peak down when we bring the wind farther aft. In the +meanwhile, you'd better get your breakfast, and if you come out again, +put on one of the coats you'll find below." + +She disappeared, and Vane felt relieved. Though the explanation had +proved less difficult than he had anticipated, he was glad that it was +over, and the way in which she had changed the subject implied that she +was satisfied with it. Half an hour later, she appeared again, carrying a +loaded tray, and he wondered at the ease of her movements, for the sloop +was plunging viciously. + +"I've brought you some breakfast. You have been up all night." + +Vane laughed. + +"As I can take only one hand from the helm, you will have to cut up the +bread and canned stuff for me. Draw out that box and sit down beneath the +coaming, if you mean to stay." + +She did as he told her. The well was about four feet long, and the bottom +of it about half that distance below the level of the deck. As a result +of this, she sat close at his feet, while he balanced himself on the +coaming, gripping the tiller. He noticed that she had brought out an +oilskin jacket with her. + +"Hadn't you better put this on first? There's a good deal of +spray," she said. + +Vane struggled into the jacket with some difficulty, and she smiled as +she handed him up a slice of bread and canned meat. + +"I suppose you can manage only one piece at a time," she laughed. + +"Thank you. That's about as much as you could expect one to be capable +of, even allowing for the bushman's appetite. I'm a little surprised to +see you looking so fresh." + +"Oh, I used to go out with the mackerel boats at home--we lived at the +ferry. It was a mile across the lough, and with the wind westerly the sea +worked in." + +"The lough? I told Carroll that you were from the Green Isle." + +It struck him that this was, perhaps, imprudent, as it implied that they +had been discussing her; but, on the other hand, he fancied that the +candor of the statement was in his favor. + +"Have you been long out here?" he added. + +The girl's face grew wistful. + +"Four years. I came out with Larry--he's my brother. He was a forester at +home, and he took small contracts for clearing land. Then he married--and +_I_ left him." + +Vane made a sign of comprehension. + +"I see. Where's Larry now?" + +"He went to Oregon. There was no answer to my last letter; I've lost +sight of him." + +"And you go about with Mrs. Marvin? Is her husband living?" + +Sudden anger flared up in the girl's blue eyes, though he knew that it +was not directed against him. + +"Yes! It's a pity he is! Men of his kind always seem to live!" + +It occurred to Vane that Miss Blake, who evidently had a spice of temper, +could be a staunch partizan, and he also noticed that now that he had +inspired her with some degree of trust in himself her conversation was +marked by an ingenuous candor. + +"Another piece, or some tea?" she asked. + +"Tea first, please." + +They both laughed when she handed him a second slice of bread. + +"These sandwiches strike me as unusually nice," he informed her. "It's +exceptionally good tea, too. I don't remember ever getting anything to +equal them at a hotel." + +The blue eyes gleamed with amusement. + +"You have been in the cold all night--but I was once in a restaurant." +She watched the effect of this statement on him. "You know I really can't +sing--I was never taught, anyway--though there were some of the +settlements where we did rather well." + +Vane hummed a few bars of a song. + +"I don't suppose you realize what one ballad of yours has done. I'd +almost forgotten the Old Country, but the night I heard you I felt I must +go back and see it again. What's more, Carroll and I are going +shortly--it's your doing." + +This was a matter of fact; but Kitty Blake had produced a deeper effect +on him, although he was not yet aware of it. + +"It's a shame to keep you handing me things to eat," he added +disconnectedly. "Still, I'd like another piece." + +She smiled delightfully as she passed the food to him. + +"You can't help yourself and steer the boat. Besides--after the +restaurant--I don't mind waiting on you." + +Vane made no comment, but he watched her with satisfaction while he ate. +There was no sign of the others; they were alone on the waste of tumbling +water in the early dawn. The girl was pretty, and there was a pleasing +daintiness about her. What was more, she was a guest of his, dependent +for her safety upon his skill with the tiller. So far as he could +remember, it was a year or two since he had breakfasted in a woman's +company; it was certain that no woman had waited on him so prettily. Then +as he remembered many a lonely camp in the dark pine forest or high on +the bare rangeside, it occurred to him for the first time that he had +missed a good deal of what life had to offer. He wondered what it would +have been like if when he had dragged himself back to his tent at night, +worn with heavy toil, as he had often done, there had been somebody with +blue eyes and a delightful smile to welcome him. + +Kitty Blake belonged to the people--there was no doubt of that; but then +he had a strong faith in the people, native-born and adopted, of the +Pacific Slope. It was from them that he had received the greatest +kindnesses he could remember. They were cheerful optimists; indomitable +grapplers with forest and flood, who did almost incredible things with ax +and saw and giant-powder. They lived in lonely ranch houses, tents and +rudely flung-up shacks; driving the new roads along the rangeside or +risking life and limb in wild-cat adits. They were quick to laughter, and +reckless in hospitality. + +Then with an effort he brushed the hazy thoughts away. Kitty Blake was +merely a guest of his; in another day he would land her in Victoria, and +that would be the end of it. He was assuring himself of this when Carroll +crawled up through the scuttle forward and came aft to join them. In +spite of his prudent reflections, Vane was by no means certain that he +was pleased to see him. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +AN AFTERNOON ASHORE + + +Half the day had slipped by. The breeze freshened further and the sun +broke through. The sloop was then rolling wildly as she drove along with +the peak of her mainsail lowered down before a big following sea. The +combers came up behind her, foaming and glistening blue and green, with +seamy white streaks on their hollow breasts, and broke about her with a +roar. Then they surged ahead while she sank down into the hollow with +sluicing deck and tilted stern. Vane's face was intent as he gripped the +helm; three or four miles away a head ran out from the beach he was +following, and he would have to haul the boat up to windward to get +around it. This would bring the combers upon her quarter, or, worse +still, abeam. Kitty Blake was below; and Mrs. Marvin had made no +appearance yet. Vane looked at Carroll, who was standing in the well. + +"The sea's breaking more sharply, and we'd get uncommonly wet before we +hammered round yonder head. There's an inlet on this side of it where we +ought to find good shelter." + +"The trouble is that if you stay there long you'll be too late for the +directors' meeting. Besides, I'm under the impression that I've seen you +run an open sea-canoe before as hard a breeze as this." + +"They can't have the meeting without me, and if it's necessary they can +wait," Vane answered impatiently. "I've had to. Many an hour I've spent +cooling my heels in corridors and outer offices before the head of the +concern could find time to attend to me. No doubt it was part of the +game, done to impress me with a due sense of my unimportance." + +"It's possible," Carroll laughed. + +"Besides, you can drive one of those big Siwash craft as hard as you can +this sloop; that is, so long as you keep the sea astern of her." + +"Yes; I dare say you can. After all, you hadn't any passengers on +the occasion I was referring to. I suppose you feel you have to +consider them?" + +Vane colored slightly. + +"Naturally, I'd prefer not to land Mrs. Marvin and the child in a +helpless condition; and I understand they're feeling the motion +pretty badly." + +Kitty Blake made her appearance in the cabin entrance, and Vane +smiled at her. + +"We're going to give you a rest," he announced. "There's an inlet close +ahead where we should find smooth water, and we'll put you all ashore for +a few hours until the wind drops." + +There was no suspicion in the girl's face now. She gave him a grateful +glance before she disappeared below with the consoling news. + +A quarter of an hour later Vane closed with the beach, and a break in the +hillside, which was dotted with wind-stunted pines, opened up. While the +two men struggled with the mainsheet, the big boom and the sail above it +lurched madly over. The sloop rolled down until half her deck on one side +was in the sea, but she hove herself up again and shot forward, wet and +gleaming, into a space of smooth green water behind a head. Soon +afterward, Vane luffed into a tiny bay, where she rode upright in the +sunshine, with loose canvas flapping softly in a faint breeze while the +cable rattled down. They got the canoe over, and when they had helped +Mrs. Marvin and her little girl, both of whom looked very wobegone and +the worse for the voyage, into her, Vane glanced around. + +"Isn't Miss Blake coming?" he asked. + +"She's changing her dress," explained Mrs. Marvin, with a smile. She +glanced at her own crumpled attire as she added: "I'm past thinking of +such things as that!" + +They waited some minutes, and then Kitty appeared in the entrance to the +cabin. Vane called to her. + +"Won't you look in the locker, and bring along anything you think would +be nice? We'll make a fire and have supper on the beach--if it isn't +first-rate, you'll be responsible!" + +A few minutes later they paddled ashore, and Vane landed them on a +strip of shingle. Beyond it a wall of rock arose, with dark firs +clinging in the rifts and crannies. The sunshine streamed into the +hollow; the wind was cut off; and not far away a crystal stream came +splashing down a ravine. + +"There's a creek at the top of the inlet," Vane told them, as he and +Carroll thrust out the canoe, "and we're going to look for a trout. You +can stroll about or rest in the sun for a couple of hours, and if the +wind drops after supper we'll make a start again." + +They paddled away, with a fishing-rod and a gun in the canoe, and it +was toward six o'clock in the evening when they came back with a few +trout. Vane made a fire of resinous wood, and Carroll and Kitty +prepared a bountiful supper. When it was finished, Carroll carried the +plates away to the stream; Mrs. Marvin and the little girl followed +him; and Vane and Kitty were left beside the fire. She sat on a log of +driftwood, and he lay on the warm shingle with his pipe in his hand. +The clear green water splashed and tinkled upon the pebbles close at +his feet, and a faint, elfin sighing fell from the firs above them. It +was very old music: the song of the primeval wilderness; and though he +had heard it often, it had a strange, unsettling effect on him as he +languidly watched his companion. There was no doubt that she was +pleasant to look upon; but, although he did not clearly recognize this, +it was to a large extent an impersonal interest that he took in her. +She was not so much an attractive young woman with qualities that +pleased him as a type of something that had so far not come into his +life; something which he vaguely felt that he had missed. One could +have fancied that by some deep-sunk intuition she recognized this fact, +and felt the security of it. + +"So you believe you can get an engagement if you reach Vancouver in +time?" he asked at length. + +"Yes." + +"How long will it last?" + +"I can't tell. Perhaps a week or two. It depends upon how the boys are +pleased with the show." + +Vane frowned. He felt very compassionate toward her and toward all +friendless women compelled to wander here and there, as she was forced +to do. It seemed intolerable that she should depend for daily bread +upon the manner in which a crowd of rude miners and choppers received +her song; though there was, as he knew, a vein of primitive chivalry in +most of them. + +"Suppose it only lasts a fortnight, what will you do then?" + +"I don't know," said Kitty simply. + +"It must be a hard life," Vane broke out. "You must make very +little--scarcely enough, I suppose, to carry you on from one engagement +to another. After all, weren't you as well off at the restaurant? Didn't +they treat you properly?" + +She colored a little at the question. + +"Oh, yes. At least, I had no fault to find with the man who kept it or +with his wife." + +Vane made a hasty sign of comprehension. He supposed that the difficulty +had arisen from the conduct of one or more of the regular customers. He +felt that he would very much like to meet the man whose undesired +attentions had driven his companion from her occupation. + +"Did you never try to learn keeping accounts or typewriting?" he asked. + +"I tried it once. I could manage the figures, but the mill shut down." + +Vane made his next suggestion casually, though he was troubled by an +inward diffidence. + +"I've an idea that I could find you a post. It looks as if I'm going to +be a person of some little influence in the future, which"--he +laughed--"is a very new thing to me." + +He saw a tinge of warmer color creep into the girl's cheeks. She had, as +he had already noticed a beautifully clear skin. + +"No," she said decidedly; "it wouldn't do." + +Vane knit his brows, though he fancied that she was right. + +"Well," he replied, "I don't want to be officious--but how can I help?" + +"You can't help at all." + +Vane saw that she meant it, and he broke out with quick impatience: + +"I've spent nine years in this country, in the hardest kind of work; but +all the while I fancied that money meant power, that if I ever got +enough of it I could do what I liked! Now I find that I can't do the +first simple thing that would please me! What a cramped, hide-bound +world it is!" + +Kitty smiled in a curious manner. + +"Yes; it's a very cramped world to some of us; but complaining won't do +any good," She paused with a faint sigh. "Don't spoil this evening. You +and Mr. Carroll have been very kind. It's so quiet and calm +here--though it was pleasant on board the yacht--and soon we'll have to +go to work again." + +Vane once more was stirred by a sense of pity which almost drove him to +rash and impulsive speech; but her manner restrained him. + +"Then you must be fond of the sea," he suggested. + +"I love it! I was born beside it--where the big, green hills drop to the +head of the water and you can hear the Atlantic rumble on the rocks all +night long." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Vane; "don't you long for another sight of it now +and then?" + +The girl smiled in a way that troubled him. + +"I'm wearying for it always; and some day, perhaps, I'll win back for +another glimpse at the old place." + +"You wouldn't go to stay?" + +"That would be impossible! What would I do yonder, after this other life? +Once you leave the old land, you can never quite get back again." + +Vane lay smoking in silence for a minute or two. On another occasion he +had felt the thrill of the exile's longing that spoke through the girl's +song, and now he recognized the truth of what she said. One changed in +the West, acquiring a new outlook which diverged more and more from that +held by those at home. Only a wistful tenderness for the motherland +remained. Still, alien in thought and feeling as he had become, he was +going back there for a time; and she, as she had said, must resume her +work. A feeling of anger at his impotence to alter this came upon him. + +Then Carroll came up with Mrs. Marvin and Elsie, and he felt strongly +stirred when the little girl walked up to him shyly with a basket filled +with shells and bright fir-cones. He drew her down beside him with an arm +about her waist while he examined her treasures. Glancing up he met +Kitty's eyes and felt his face grow hot with an emotion he failed to +analyze. The little mite was frail and delicate; life, he surmised, had +scanty pleasure to offer her; but now she was happy. + +"They're so pretty, and there are such lots of them!" she exclaimed. +"Can't we stay here just a little longer and gather some more?" + +"Yes," answered Vane, conscious that Carroll, who had heard the question, +was watching him. "You shall stay and get as many as you want. I'm afraid +you don't like the sloop." + +"No; I don't like it when it jumps. After I woke up, it jumped all +the time." + +"Never mind, little girl. The boat will keep still to-night, and I don't +think there'll be any waves to roll her about to-morrow. We'll have you +ashore the first thing in the morning." + +He talked to her for a few minutes, and then strolled along the beach +with Carroll until they could look out upon the Pacific. The breeze was +falling, though the sea still ran high. + +"Why did you promise that child to stay here?" Carroll asked. + +"Because I felt like doing so." + +"I needn't remind you that you've an appointment with Horsfield about +the smelter; and there's a meeting of the board next day. If we +started now and caught the first steamer across, you wouldn't have +much time to spare." + +"That's correct. I shall have to wire from Victoria that I've been +detained." + +Carroll laughed expressively. + +"Do you mean to put off the meeting and keep your directors waiting, to +please a child?" + +"I suppose that's one reason. Anyway, I don't propose to hustle the +little girl and her mother on board the steamer while they're helpless +with seasickness." A gleam of humor crept into his eyes. "As I think I +told you, I've no great objections to letting the gentlemen you mentioned +await my pleasure." + +"But they found you the shareholders, and set the concern on its feet." + +"Just so. On the other hand, they got excellent value for their +services--and I found the mine. What's more, during the preliminary +negotiations most of them treated me very casually." + +"Well?" + +"There's going to be a difference now. I've a board of directors--one way +or another, I've had to pay for the privilege pretty dearly; but it's not +my intention that they should run the Clermont Mine." + +Carroll glanced at him with open amusement. There had been a marked +change in Vane since he had located the mine, though it was one that did +not astonish his comrade. Carroll had long suspected him of latent +capabilities, which had suddenly sprung to life. + +"You ought to see Horsfield before you meet the board," he advised him. + +"I'm not sure," Vane answered. "In fact, I'm uncertain whether I'll give +Horsfield the contract, even if we decide about the smelter. He was +offensively patronizing once upon a time and tried to bluff me. Besides, +he has already a stake in the concern. I don't want a man with too firm a +hold-up against me." + +"But if he put his money in partly with the idea of getting certain +pickings?" + +"He didn't explain his intentions; and I made no promises. He'll get his +dividends, or he can sell his stock at a premium, and that ought to +satisfy him." + +"If you submitted the whole case to a business man, he'd probably tell +you that you were going to make a hash of things." + +"That's your own idea?" + +Carroll grinned. + +"Oh, I'll reserve my opinion. It's possible you may be right. Time +will show." + +They rejoined the others, and when the white mists crept lower down from +the heights above and the chill of the dew was in the air, Vane launched +the canoe. + +"It's getting late and there's a long run in front of us to-morrow," he +informed his passengers. "The sloop will lie as still as if moored in a +pond; and you'll have her all to yourselves. Carroll and I are going to +camp ashore." + +He paddled them off to the boat. Coming back with some blankets, he cut a +few armfuls of spruce twigs in a ravine and spread them out beside the +fire. Then sitting down just clear of the scented smoke he lighted his +pipe and asked an abrupt question. + +"What do you think of Kitty Blake?" + +"She's attractive, in person and manners." + +"Anybody could see that at a glance!" + +"Well," Carroll added cautiously, "I must confess that I've taken some +interest in the girl--partly because you were obviously doing so. In a +general way, what I noticed rather surprised me. It wasn't what I +expected." + +"You smart folks are as often wrong as the rest of us. I suppose you +looked for cold-blooded assurance, tempered by what one might call +experienced coquetry?" + +"Something of the kind," Carroll agreed. "As you say, I was wrong. There +are only two ways of explaining Miss Blake, and the first's the one that +would strike most people. That is, she's acting a part, possibly with an +object; holding her natural self in check, and doing it cleverly." + +Vane laughed scornfully. + +"I've lived in the woods for nine years, but I wouldn't have entertained +that idea for five seconds!" + +"Then, there's the other explanation. It's simply that the girl's life +hasn't affected her. Somehow, she has kept fresh and wholesome. I think +that's the correct view." + +"There's no doubt of it!" declared Vane. + +"You offered to help her in some way?" + +"I did; I don't know how you guessed it. I said I'd find her a situation. +She wouldn't hear of it." + +"She was wise. Vancouver isn't a very big place yet, and the girl has +more sense than you have. What did you say?" + +"I'm afraid I lost my temper because there was nothing I could do." + +Carroll grinned. + +"There are limitations--even to the power of the dollar. You'll probably +run up against more of them later on." + +"I suppose so," yawned Vane. "Well, I'm going to sleep." + +He rolled himself up in his blanket and lay down among the soft spruce +twigs, but Carroll sat still in the darkness and smoked out his pipe. +Then he glanced at his comrade, who lay still, breathing evenly. + +"No doubt you'd be considered fortunate," he said, apostrophizing him +half aloud. "You've had power and responsibility thrust upon you. What +will you make of it?" + +Then he, too, lay down, and only the soft splash of the tiny ripples +broke the silence while the fire sank lower. + +They sailed the next morning, and when they arrived in Victoria the boat +which crossed the straits had gone, but the breeze was fair from the +westward, and, after despatching a telegram, Vane sailed again. The sloop +made a quick passage, and most of the time her passengers lounged in the +sunshine on her gently slanted deck. It was evening when they ran through +the Narrows into Vancouver's land-locked harbor and saw the roofs of the +city rise tier on tier from the water-front. Somber forest crept down to +the skirts of it, and across the glistening water black hills ran up into +the evening sky, with the blink of towering snow to the north of them. + +Half an hour later Vane landed his passengers, and it was not until he +had left them that they discovered he had thrust a roll of paper currency +into the little girl's hand. Then he and Carroll set off for the C.P.R. +hotel, although they were not accustomed to a hostelry of that sort. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A CHANGE OF ENVIRONMENT + + +On the evening after his arrival in Vancouver, Vane paid a visit to one +of his directors; and, in accordance with the invitation, he and Carroll +reached the latter's dwelling some little time before the arrival of +several other guests, whose acquaintance it was considered advisable he +should make. In the business parts of most western cities iron and stone +have now replaced the native lumber, but on their outskirts wood is still +employed with admirable effect as a building material, and Nairn's house +was an example of the judicious use of the latter. It stood on a rise +above the inlet; picturesque in outline, with its artistic scroll-work, +Its wooden pillars, its lattice shutters and its balustraded verandas. +Virgin forest crept up close about it, and there was no fence to the +sweep of garden which divided it from the road. + +Vane and his companion were ushered into a small room, with an uncovered +floor and simple, hardwood furniture. It was obviously a working room, +for, as a rule, the work of the western business man goes on continuously +except when he is asleep; but a somewhat portly lady with a good-humored +face reclined in a rocking chair. A gaunt, elderly man of rugged +appearance rose from his seat at a writing-table as his guests entered. + +"So ye have come at last," he said. "I had ye shown in here, because this +room is mine, and I can smoke when I like. The rest of the house is Mrs. +Nairn's, and it seems that her friends do not appreciate the smell of my +cigars. I'm no sure that I can blame them." + +Mrs. Nairn smiled placidly. + +"Alic," she explained, "leaves them lying everywhere, and I do not +like the stubs of them on the stairs. But sit ye down and he will +give ye one." + +Vane felt at home with both of them. He had met people of their kind +before, and, allowing for certain idiosyncrasies, considered them the +salt of the Dominion. Nairn had done good service to his adopted country, +developing her industries--with some profit to himself, for he was of +Scottish extraction; but, while close at a bargain, he could be generous +afterward. In the beginning, he had fought sternly for his own hand, and +it was supposed that Mrs. Nairn had helped him, not only by sound advice, +but by such practical economies as the making of his working clothes. +Those he wore on the evening in question did not fit him well, though +they were no longer the work of her capable fingers. When his guests were +seated he laid two cigar boxes on the table. + +"Those," he said, pointing to one of them, "are mine. I think ye had +better try the others; they're for visitors." + +Vane had already noticed the aroma of the cigar that was smoldering on a +tray and he decided that Nairn was right; so he dipped his hand into the +second box, which he passed to Carroll. + +"Now," declared Nairn, "we can talk comfortably. Clara will listen. +Afterwards, it's possible she will favor me with her opinion." + +Mrs. Nairn smiled at them encouragingly, and her husband proceeded. + +"One or two of my colleagues were no pleased at ye for putting off +the meeting." + +"The sloop was small, and it was blowing rather hard," Vane explained. + +"Maybe. For all that, the tone of your message was no altogether what one +would call conciliatory. It informed us that ye would arrange for the +postponed meeting at your earliest convenience. Ye did not mention ours." + +"I pointed that out to him, and he said it didn't matter," Carroll +interrupted with a laugh. + +Nairn spread out his hands in expostulation, but there was dry +appreciation in his eyes. + +"Young blood must have its way." He paused and looked thoughtful. "Ye +will no have said anything definite to Horsfield yet about the smelter?" + +"No. So far, I'm not sure that it would pay us to put up the plant; and +the other man's terms are lower." + +"Maybe," Nairn answered, and he made the single word very expressive. "Ye +have had the handling of the thing; but henceforward it will be necessary +to get the sanction of the board. However, ye will meet Horsfield +to-night. We expect him and his sister." + +Vane thought he had been favored with a hint, but he fancied also that +his host was not inimical and was merely reserving his judgment with +Caledonian caution. Nairn changed the subject. + +"So ye're going to England for a holiday. Ye will have friends who'll be +glad to see ye yonder?" + +"I've one sister, but no other near relatives. But I expect to spend some +time with people you know. The Chisholms are old family friends, and, as +you will remember, it was through them that I first approached you." + +Then, obeying one of the impulses which occasionally swayed him, he +turned to Mrs. Nairn. + +"I'm grateful to them for sending me the letter of introduction to your +husband, because in many ways I'm in his debt. He didn't treat me as the +others did when I first went round this city with a few mineral +specimens." + +He had expected nothing when he spoke, but there was a responsive look in +the lady's face which hinted that he had made a friend. As a matter of +fact, he owed a good deal to his host. There is a vein of human kindness +in the Scot, and he is often endowed with a keen, half-instinctive +judgment of his fellows which renders him less likely to be impressed by +outward appearances and the accidental advantages of polished speech or +tasteful dress than his southern neighbors. Vane would have had even more +trouble in floating his company had not Nairn been satisfied with him. + +"So ye are meaning to stay with Chisholm!" the latter exclaimed. "We +had Evelyn here two years ago, and Clara said something about her +coming out again." + +"It's nine years since I saw Evelyn." + +"Then there's a surprise in store for ye. I believe they've a bonny +place--and there's no doubt Chisholm will make ye welcome." + +The slight pause was expressive. It implied that Nairn, who had a +somewhat biting humor, could furnish a reason for Chisholm's hospitality +if he desired, and Vane was confirmed in this supposition when he saw the +warning look which his hostess cast at her husband. + +"It's likely that we'll have Evelyn again in the fall," she said hastily. +"It's a very small world, Mr. Vane." + +"It's a far cry from Vancouver to England," Vane replied. "How did you +first come to know Chisholm?" + +Nairn answered him. + +"Our acquaintance began with business. A concern that he was chairman of +had invested in British Columbian mining stock; and he's some kind of +connection of Colquhoun's." + +Colquhoun was a man of some importance, who held a Crown appointment, and +Vane felt inclined to wonder why Chisholm had not sent him a letter to +him. Afterward, he guessed at the reason, which was not flattering to +himself or his host. Nairn and he chatted a while on business topics, +until there was a sound of voices below, and going down in company with +Mrs. Nairn they found two or three new arrivals in the entrance hall. +More came in; and when they sat down to supper, Vane was given a place +beside a young lady whom he had already met. + +Jessy Horsfield was about his own age; tall and slight in figure, with +regular features, a rather colorless face, and eyes of a cold, light +blue. There was, however, something striking in her appearance, and Vane +was gratified by her graciousness to him. Her brother sat almost opposite +them: a tall, spare man, with a somewhat expressionless countenance, +except for the aggressive hardness in his eyes. Vane had noticed this +look, and it had aroused his dislike, but he had not observed it in the +eyes of Miss Horsfield, though it was present now and then. Nor did he +realize that while she chatted she was unobtrusively studying him. She +had not favored him with much notice when she was in his company on a +previous occasion; he had been a man of no importance then. + +He was now dressed in ordinary attire, and the well-cut garments +displayed his lean, athletic figure. His face, Miss Horsfield decided, +was a good one: not exactly handsome, but attractive in its frankness; +and she liked the way he had of looking steadily at the person he +addressed. Though he had been, as she knew, a wandering chopper, a survey +packer, and, for a time, an unsuccessful prospector, there was no +coarsening stamp of toil on him. Indeed, the latter is not common in the +West, where as yet the division of employments is not practised to the +extent it is in older countries. Specialization has its advantages; but +it brands a man's profession upon him and renders it difficult for him to +change it. Except for the clear bronze of his skin, Vane might just have +left a Government office, or have come out from London or Montreal. He +was, moreover, a man whose acquaintance might be worth cultivating. + +"I suppose you are glad you have finished your work in the bush," she +remarked presently. "It must be nice to get back to civilization." + +Vane smiled as he glanced round the room. It ran right across the house, +and through the open windows came the clank of a locomotive bell down by +the wharf and the rattle of a steamer's winch. The sounds appealed to +him. They suggested organized activity, the stir of busy life; and it was +pleasant to hear them after the silence of the bush. The gleam of snowy +linen, dainty glass and silver caught his eye; and the hum of careless +voices and the light laughter were soothing. + +"Yes; it's remarkably nice after living for nine years in the wilderness, +with only an occasional visit to some little wooden town." + +A fresh dish was laid before him, and his companion smiled. + +"You didn't get things of this kind among the pines." + +"No," laughed Vane. "In fact, cookery is one of the bushman's trials; +anyway, when he's working for himself. You come back dead tired, and +often very wet, to your lonely tent, and then there's a fire to make and +supper to get before you can rest. It happens now and then that you're +too played out to trouble, and you go to sleep instead." + +"Dreadful!" sympathized the girl. "But you have been in Vancouver +before?" + +"Except on the last occasion, I stayed down near the water-front. We were +not provided with luxurious quarters or with suppers of this kind there." + +"It's romantic; and, though you're glad it's over, there must be some +satisfaction in feeling that you owe the change to your own efforts. I +mean it must be nice to think one has captured a fair share of the good +things of life, instead of having them accidentally thrust upon one. +Doesn't it give you a feeling that in some degree you're master of your +fate? I should like that" + +It was subtle flattery, and there were reasons why it appealed to the +man. He had worked for others, sometimes for inadequate wages, and had +wandered about the Province, dusty and footsore, in search of employment, +besides being beaten down at many a small bargain by richer or more +fortunately situated men. Now, however, he had resolved that there should +be a difference; instead of begging favors, he would dictate terms. + +"I should have imagined it," he laughed, in answer to her last remark; +and he was right, for Jessy Horsfield was a clever woman who loved power +and influence. + +Vane dropped his napkin, and was stooping to pick it up when an attendant +handed it back to him. He noticed and responded to the glimmer of +amusement in his companion's eyes. + +"We are not accustomed to being waited on in the bush," he explained. "It +takes some time to get used to the change. When we wanted anything there +we got it for ourselves." + +"Is that, in its wider sense, a characteristic of most bushmen?" + +"I don't quite follow." + +The girl laughed. + +"I suppose one could divide men into two classes: those who are able to +get the things they desire for themselves--which implies the possession +of certain eminently useful qualities--and those who have them given to +them. In Canada the former are the more numerous." + +"There's a third division," Vane corrected her, with a trace of grimness. +"I mean those who want a good many things and have to learn to do +without. It strikes me they're the most numerous of all." + +"It's no doubt excellent discipline," retorted his companion. + +She looked at him boldly, for she was interested in the man and was not +afraid of personalities. + +"In any case, you have now passed out of that division." + +Vane sat silent for the next few moments. Up to the age of eighteen most +of his reasonable wishes had been gratified. Then had come a startling +change, and he had discovered in the Dominion that he must lead a life of +Spartan self-denial. He had had the strength to do so, and for nine years +he had resolutely banished most natural longings. Amusements, in some of +which he excelled, the society of women, all the small amenities of life, +were things which must be foregone, and he had forced himself to be +content with food and, as a rule, very indifferent shelter. This, as his +companion suggested, had proved a wholesome discipline, since it had not +soured him. Now, though he did not overvalue them, he rejoiced in his new +surroundings, and the girl's comeliness and quickness of comprehension +had their full effect. + +"It was you who located the Clermont Mine, wasn't it?" she went on. +"I read something about it in the papers--I think they said it was +copper ore." + +This vagueness was misleading, for her brother had given her a good deal +of definite information about the mine. + +"Yes," replied Vane, willing to take up any subject she suggested; "it's +copper ore, but there's some silver combined with it. Of course, the +value of any ore depends upon two things--the percentage of the metal, +and the cost of extracting it." + +Her interest was flattering, and he added: + +"In both respects, the Clermont product is promising." + +After that he did not remember what they talked about; but the time +passed rapidly and he was surprised when Mrs. Nairn rose and the company +drifted away by twos and threes toward the veranda. Left by himself a +moment, he came upon Carroll sauntering down a corridor. + +"I've had a chat with Horsfield," Carroll remarked. + +"Well?" + +"He may merely have meant to make himself agreeable, and he may have +wished to extract information about you: If the latter was his object, he +was not successful." + +"Ah! Nairn's straight, anyway, and to be relied on. I like him and +his wife." + +"So do I, though they differ from some of the others. There's not much +gilding on either of them." + +"It's not needed; they're sterling metal." + +"That's my own idea." + +Carroll moved away and Vane strolled out onto the veranda, where +Horsfield joined him a few minutes later. + +"I don't know whether it's a very suitable time to mention it; but may I +ask whether you are any nearer a decision about that smelter? Candidly, +I'd like the contract." + +"I am not," Vane answered. "I can't make up my mind, and I may postpone +the matter indefinitely. It might prove more profitable to ship the ore +out for reduction." + +Horsfield examined his cigar. + +"Of course, I can't press you; but I may, perhaps, suggest that, as we'll +have to work together in other matters, I might be able to give you a +quid pro quo." + +"That occurred to me. On the other hand, I don't know how much importance +I ought to attach to the consideration." + +His companion laughed with apparent good-humor. + +"Oh, well; I must wait until you're ready." + +He strolled away, and presently joined his sister. + +"How does Vane strike you?" he asked. "You seem to get on with him." + +"I've an idea that you won't find him easy to influence," answered the +girl, looking at her brother pointedly. + +"I'm inclined to agree with you. In spite of that, he's a man whose +acquaintance is worth cultivating." + +He passed on to speak to Nairn; and shortly afterward Vane sat down +beside Jessy in a corner of a big room. Looking out across the veranda, +he could see far-off snowy heights tower in cold silver tracery against +the green of the evening sky. Voices and laughter reached him, and now +and then some of the guests strolled through the room. It was pleasant to +lounge there and feel that Miss Horsfield had taken him under her wing, +which seemed to describe her attitude toward him. She was handsome, and +he noticed how finely the soft, neutral tinting of her attire, which was +neither blue nor altogether gray, matched the azure of her eyes and +emphasized the dead-gold coloring of her hair. + +"As Mrs. Nairn tells me you are going to England, I suppose we shall not +see you in Vancouver for some months," she said presently. "This city +really isn't a bad place to live in." + +Vane felt gratified. She had implied that he would be an acquisition and +had included him among the number of her acquaintances. + +"I fancy that I shall find it a particularly pleasant place," he +responded. "Indeed, I'm inclined to be sorry that I've made arrangements +to leave it very shortly." + +"That is pure good-nature," laughed his companion. + +"No; it's what I really feel." + +Jessy let this pass. + +"Mrs. Nairn mentioned that you know the Chisholms." + +"I'd better say that I used to do so. They have probably changed out of +my knowledge, and they can scarcely remember me except by name." + +"But you are going to see them?" + +"I expect to spend some time with them." + +Jessy changed the subject, and Vane found her conversation entertaining. +She appealed to his artistic perceptions and his intelligence, and it +must be admitted that she laid herself out to do so. She said nothing of +any consequence, but she knew how to make a glance or a changed +inflection expressive. He was sorry when she left him, but she smiled at +him before she moved away. + +"If you and Mr. Carroll care to call, I am generally at home in the +afternoon," she said. + +She crossed the room, and Vane joined Nairn and remained near him until +he took his departure. + +Late the next afternoon, an hour or two after an Empress liner from China +and Japan had arrived, he and Carroll reached the C.P.R. station. The +Atlantic train was waiting and an unusual number of passengers were +hurrying about the cars. They were, for the most part, prosperous people: +business men, and tourists from England going home that way; and when +Vane found Mrs. Marvin and Kitty, he once more was conscious of a +stirring of compassion. The girl's dress, which had struck him as +becoming on the afternoon they spent on the beach, now looked shabby. In +Mrs. Marvin's case, the impression was more marked, and standing amid the +bustling throng with the child clinging to her hand she looked curiously +forlorn. Kitty smiled at him diffidently. + +"You have been so kind," she began, and, pausing, added with a tremor in +her voice: "But the tickets--" + +"Pshaw!" interrupted Vane. "If it will ease your mind, you can send me +what they cost after the first full house you draw." + +"How shall we address you?" + +"Clermont Mineral Exploitation. I don't want to think I'm going to lose +sight of you." + +Kitty looked away from him a moment, and then looked back. + +"I'm afraid you must make up your mind to that," she said. + +Vane could not remember his answer, though he afterward tried; but just +then an official strode along beside the cars, calling to the passengers, +and when a bell began tolling Vane hurried the girl and her companions +onto a platform. Mrs. Marvin entered the car, Elsie held up her face to +kiss him before she disappeared, and he and Kitty were left alone. She +held out her hand, and a liquid gleam crept into her eyes. + +"We can't thank you properly," she murmured, "Good-by!" + +"No," Vane protested. "You mustn't say that." + +"Yes," answered Kitty firmly, but with signs of effort. "It's good-by. +You'll be carried on in a moment!" + +Vane gazed down at her, and afterward wondered at what he did, but she +looked so forlorn and desolate, and the pretty face was so close to his. +Stooping swiftly, he kissed her, and had a thrilling fancy that she did +not recoil; then the cars lurched forward and he swung himself down. They +slid past him, clanking, while he stood and gazed after them. Turning +around, he was by no means pleased to see that Nairn was regarding him +with quiet amusement. + +"Been seeing the train away?" the latter suggested. "It's a popular +diversion with idle folk." + +"I was saying good-by to somebody I met on the west coast," Vane +explained. + +"Weel," chuckled Nairn, "she has bonny een." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE OLD COUNTRY + + +A month after Vane said good-by to Kitty he and Carroll alighted one +evening at a little station in northern England. Brown moors stretched +about it, for the heather had not bloomed yet, rolling back in long +slopes to the high ridge which cut against leaden thunder-clouds in the +eastern sky. To the westward, they fell away; and across a wide, green +valley smooth-backed heights gave place in turn to splintered crags and +ragged pinnacles etched in gray and purple on a vivid saffron glow. The +road outside the station gleamed with water, and a few big drops of +rain came splashing down, but there was a bracing freshness in the +mountain air. + +The train went on, and Vane stood still, looking about him with a +poignant recollection of how he had last waited on that platform, sick at +heart, but gathering his youthful courage for the effort that he must +make. It all came back to him--the dejection, the sense of +loneliness--for he was then going out to the Western Dominion in which he +had not a friend. Now he was returning, moderately prosperous and +successful; but once again the feeling of loneliness was with him--most +of those whom he had left behind had made a longer journey than he had +done. Then he noticed an elderly man, in rather shabby livery, +approaching, and he held out his hand with a smile of pleasure. + +"You haven't changed a bit, Jim!" he exclaimed. "Have you got the young +gray in the new cart outside?" + +"T' owd gray was shot twelve months since," the man replied. "Broke his +leg comin' down Hartop Bank. New car was sold off, done, two or t'ree +years ago." + +"That's bad news. Anyway, you're the same." + +"A bit stiffer in the joints, and maybe a bit sourer," was the answer. +Then the man's wrinkled face relaxed. "I'm main glad to see thee, Mr. +Wallace. Master wad have come, only he'd t' gan t' Manchester suddenly." + +Vane helped him to place their baggage into the trap and then bade him +sit behind; and as he gathered up the reins, he glanced at the horse and +harness. The one did not show the breeding of the gray he remembered, +and there was no doubt that the other was rather the worse for wear. +They set off down the descending road, which wound, unconfined, through +the heather, where the raindrops sparkled like diamonds. Farther down, +they ran in between rough limestone walls with gleaming spar in them, +smothered here and there in trailing brambles and clumps of fern, while +the streams that poured out from black gaps in the peat and flowed +beside the road flashed with coppery gold in the evening light. It was +growing brighter ahead of them, though inky clouds still clung to the +moors behind. + +By and by, ragged hedges, rent and twisted by the winds, climbed up to +meet them, and, clattering down between the straggling greenery, they +crossed a river sparkling over banks of gravel. After that, there was a +climb, for the country rolled in ridge and valley, and the crags ahead, +growing nearer, rose in more rugged grandeur against the paling glow. +Carroll gazed about him in open appreciation as they drove. + +"This little compact country is really wonderful, in its way!" he +exclaimed. "There's so much squeezed into it, even leaving out your +towns. Parts of it are like Ontario---the southern strip I mean--with the +plow-land, orchards and homesteads sprinkled among the woods and rolling +ground. Then your Midlands are like the prairie, only that they're +greener--there's the same sweep of grass and the same sweep of sky, and +this"--he gazed at the rugged hills rent by winding dales--"is British +Columbia on a miniature scale." + +"Yes," agreed Vane; "it isn't monotonous." + +"Now you have hit it! That's the precise difference. We've three belts of +country, beginning at Labrador and running west--rock and pine scrub, +level prairie, and ranges piled on ranges beyond the Rockies. Hundreds of +leagues of each of them, and, within their limits, all the same. But this +country's mixed. You can get what you like--woods, smooth grass-land, +mountains--in a few hours' ride." + +Vane smiled. + +"Our people and their speech and habits are mixed, too. There's more +difference between county and county in thirty miles than there is right +across your whole continent. You're cast in the one mold." + +"I'm inclined to think it's a good one," laughed Carroll. "What's more, +it has set its stamp on you. The very way your clothes hang proclaims +that you're a Westerner." + +Vane laughed good-humoredly; but as they clattered through a sleepy +hamlet with its little, square-towered church overhanging a brawling +river, his face grew grave. Pulling up the horse, he handed the reins +to Carroll. + +"This is the first stage of my pilgrimage. I won't keep you five +minutes." + +He swung himself down, and the groom motioned to him. + +"West of the tower, Mr. Wallace; just before you reach the porch." + +Vane passed through the wicket in the lichened limestone wall, and +there was a troubled look in his eyes when he came back and took the +reins again. + +"I went away in bitterness--and I'm sorry now," he said. "The real +trouble was unimportant; I think it was forgotten. Every now and then the +letters came; but the written word is cold. There are things that can +never be set quite right in this world." + +Carroll made no comment, though he knew that if it had not been for the +bond between them his comrade would not have spoken so. They drove on in +silence for a while, and then, as they entered a deep, wooded dale, Vane +turned to him again. + +"I've been taken right back into the old days to-night; days in +England, and afterward those when we worked on the branch road beneath +the range. There's not a boy among the crowd in the sleeping-shack I +can't recall--first, wild Larry, who taught me how to drill and hid my +rawness from the Construction Boss." + +"He lent me his gum-boots when the muskeg stiffened into half-frozen +slush," Carroll interrupted him. + +"And was smashed by the snowslide," Vane went on. "Then there was Tom, +from the boundary country. He packed me back a league to camp the day I +chopped my right foot; and went down in the lumber schooner off Flattery. +Black Pete, too, who held on to you in the rapid when we were running the +bridge-logs through. It was in firing a short fuse that he got his +discharge," He raised his free hand, with a wry smile. "Gone on--with +more of their kind after them; a goodly company. Why are we left +prosperous? What have we done?" + +Carroll made no response. The question was unanswerable, and after a +while Vane abruptly began to talk about their business in British +Columbia. It passed the time; and he had resumed his usual manner when he +pulled up where a stile path led across a strip of meadow. + +"You can drive round; we'll be there before you," he said to the groom as +he got down. + +Carroll and he crossed the meadow. Passing around a clump of larches they +came suddenly into sight of an old gray house with a fir wood rolling +down the hillside close behind it. The building was long and low, +weather-worn and stained with lichens where the creepers and climbing +roses left the stone exposed. The bottom row of mullioned windows opened +upon a terrace, and in front of the terrace ran a low wall with a broad +coping on which were placed urns bright with geraniums. It was pierced by +an opening approached by shallow stairs on which an iridescent peacock +stood, and in front of all that stretched a sweep of lawn. + +A couple of minutes later, a lady met them in the wide hall, and held out +her hand to Vane. She was middle-aged, and had once been handsome, but +now there were wrinkles about her eyes, which had a hint of hardness in +them, and her lips were thin. Carroll noticed that they closed tightly +when she was not speaking. + +"Welcome home, Wallace," she said effusively. "It should not be difficult +to look upon the Dene as that--you were here so often once upon a time." + +"Thank you," was the response. "I felt tempted to ask Jim to drive me +round by Low Wood; I wanted to see the place again." + +"I'm glad you didn't. The house is shut up and going to pieces. It would +have been depressing to-night." + +Vane presented Carroll. Mrs. Chisholm's manner was gracious, but for no +particular reason Carroll wondered whether she would have extended the +same welcome to his comrade had the latter not come back the discoverer +of a profitable mine. + +"Tom was sorry he couldn't wait to meet you, but he had to leave for +Manchester on some urgent business," she apologized. + +Just then a girl with disordered hair and an unusual length of stocking +displayed beneath her scanty skirt came up to them. + +"This is Mabel," said Mrs. Chisholm. "I hardly think you will +remember her." + +"I've carried her across the meadow." + +The girl greeted the strangers demurely, and favored Vane with a +critical gaze. + +"So you're Wallace Vane--who floated the Clermont Mine! Though I don't +remember you, I've heard a good deal about you lately. Very pleased to +make your acquaintance!" + +Vane's eyes twinkled as he shook hands with her. Her manner was quaintly +formal, but he fancied that there was a spice of mischief hidden behind +it. Carroll, watching his hostess, surmised that her daughter's remarks +had not altogether pleased her. She chatted with them, however, until the +man who had driven them appeared with their baggage, when they were shown +their respective rooms. + +Vane was the first to go down. Reaching the hall, he found nobody +there, though a clatter of dishes and a clink of silver suggested that +a meal was being laid out in an adjoining room. Sitting down near the +hearth, he looked about him. The house was old; a wide stairway with a +quaintly carved balustrade of dark oak ran up one side and led to a +landing, also fronted with ponderous oak rails. The place was shadowy, +but a stream of light from a high window struck athwart one part of it +and fell upon the stairs. + +Vane's eyes rested on many objects that he recognized, but as his glance +traveled to and fro it occurred to him that much of what he saw conveyed +a hint that economy was needful. Part of the rich molding of the Jacobean +mantel had fallen away, and patches of the key pattern bordering the +panels beneath it had broken off, though he decided that a clever +cabinet-maker could have repaired the damage in a day. There were one or +two choice rugs on the floor, but they were threadbare; the heavy +hangings about the inner doors were dingy and moth-eaten; and, though all +this was in harmony with the drowsy quietness and the faint smell of +decay, it had its significance. + +Presently he heard footsteps, and looking up he saw a girl descending the +stairs in the fading stream of light. She was clad in trailing white, +which gleamed against the dark oak and rustled softly as it flowed about +a tall, finely outlined and finely poised figure. She had hair of dark +brown with paler lights in its curling tendrils, gathered back from a +neck that showed a faintly warmer whiteness than the snowy fabric below +it. It was her face, though, that seized Vane's attention: the level +brows; the quiet, deep brown eyes; the straight, cleanly-cut nose; and +the subtle suggestion of steadfastness and pride which they all conveyed. +He rose with a cry that had pleasure and eagerness in it. + +"Evelyn!" + +She came down, moving lightly but with a rhythmic grace, and laid a firm, +cool hand in his. + +"I'm glad to see you back, Wallace," she said. "How you have changed!" + +"I'm not sure that's kind," smiled Vane. "In some ways, you haven't +changed at all; I would have known you anywhere!" + +"Nine years is a long time to remember any one." + +Vane had seen few women during that period; but he was not a fool, and he +recognized that this was no occasion for an attempt at gallantry. There +was nothing coquettish in Evelyn's words, nor was there any irony. She +had answered in the tranquil, matter-of-fact manner which, as he +remembered, usually characterized her. + +"It's a little while since you landed, isn't it?" she added. + +"A week. I had some business in London, and then I went on to look up +Lucy. She had just gone up to town--to a congress, I believe--and so +I missed her. I shall go up again to see her as soon as she answers +my letter." + +"It won't be necessary. She's coming here for a fortnight." + +"That's very kind. Whom have I to thank for suggesting it?" + +"Does it matter? It was a natural thing to ask your only sister--who is a +friend of mine. There is plenty of room, and the place is quiet." + +"It didn't used to be. If I remember, your mother generally had it full +part of the year." + +"Things have changed," said Evelyn quietly. + +Vane was baffled by something in her manner. Evelyn had never been +effusive--that was not her way---but now, while she was cordial, she did +not seem disposed to resume their acquaintance where it had been broken +off. After all, he could hardly have expected this. + +"Mabel is like you, as you used to be," he observed. "It struck me as +soon as I saw her; but when she began to talk there was a difference." + +Evelyn laughed softly. + +"Yes; I think you're right in both respects. Mopsy has the courage of her +convictions. She's an open rebel." + +There was no bitterness in her laugh. Evelyn's manner was never +pointed; but Vane fancied that she had said a meaning thing--one that +might explain what he found puzzling in her attitude, when he held the +key to it. + +"Mopsy was dubious about you before you arrived, but I'm pleased to say +she seems reassured," she laughed. + +Carroll came down, and a few moments later Mrs. Chisholm appeared and +they went in to dinner in a low-ceilinged room. During the general +conversation, Mabel suddenly turned to Vane. + +"I suppose you have brought your pistols with you?" + +"I haven't owned one since I was sixteen," Vane laughed. + +The girl looked at him with an excellent assumption of incredulity. + +"Then you have never shot anybody in British Columbia!" + +Carroll laughed, as if this greatly pleased him, but Vane's face was +rather grave as he answered her. + +"No; I'm thankful to say that I haven't. In fact, I've never seen a shot +fired, except at a grouse or a deer." + +"Then the West must be getting what the Archdeacon--he's Flora's husband, +you know--calls decadent," the girl sighed. + +"She's incorrigible," Mrs. Chisholm interposed with a smile. + +Carroll leaned toward Mabel confidentially. + +"In case you feel very badly disappointed, I'll let you into a secret. +When we feel real, real savage, we take the ax instead." + +Evelyn fancied that Vane winced at this, but Mabel looked openly +regretful. + +"Can either of you pick up a handkerchief going at full gallop on +horseback?" she inquired. + +"I'm sorry to say that I can't; and I've never seen Wallace do so," +Carroll laughed. + +Mrs. Chisholm shook her head at her daughter. + +"Miss Clifford complained of your inattention to the study of English +last quarter," she reproved severely. + +Mabel made no answer, though Vane thought it would have relieved her +to grimace. + +Presently the meal came to an end, and an hour afterward, Mrs. Chisholm +rose from her seat in the lamplit drawing-room. + +"We keep early hours at the Dene, but you will retire when you like," she +said. "As Tom is away, I had better tell you that you will find syphons +and whisky in the smoking-room. I have had the lamp lighted." + +"Thank you," Vane replied with a smile. "I'm afraid you have taken more +trouble on our account than you need have done. Except on special +occasions, we generally confine ourselves to strong green tea." + +Mabel looked at him in amazement. + +"Oh!" she cried. "The West is certainly decadent! You should be here when +the otter hounds are out. Why, it was only--" + +She broke off abruptly beneath her mother's withering glance. + +When Vane and Carroll were left alone, they strolled out, pipe in hand, +upon the terrace. They could see the fells tower darkly against the soft +sky, and a tarn that lay in the blackness of the valley beneath them was +revealed by its pale gleam. A wonderful mingling of odors stole out of +the still summer night. + +"I suppose you could put in a few weeks here?" Vane remarked. + +"I could," Carroll replied. "There's an atmosphere about these old houses +that appeals to me, perhaps because we have nothing like it in Canada. +The tranquillity of age is in it--it's restful, as a change. Besides, I +think your friends mean to make things pleasant." + +"I'm glad you like them." + +Carroll knew that his comrade would not resent a candid expression +of opinion. + +"I do; the girls in particular. They interest me. The younger one's of a +type that's common in our country, though it's generally given room for +free development into something useful there. Mabel's chafing at the +curb. It remains to be seen whether she'll kick, presently, and hurt +herself in doing so." + +Vane remembered that Evelyn had said something to the same effect; but +he had already discovered that Carroll possessed a keen insight in +certain matters. + +"And her sister?" he suggested. + +"You won't mind my saying that I'm inclined to be sorry for her? She has +learned repression--been driven into line. That girl has character, but +it's being cramped and stunted. You live in walled-in compartments in +this country." + +"Doesn't the same thing apply to New York, Montreal, or Toronto?" + +"Not to the same extent. We haven't had time yet to number off all the +little subdivisions and make rules for them, nor to elaborate the +niceties of an immutable system. No doubt, we'll come to it." + +He paused with a deprecatory laugh. + +"Mrs. Chisholm believes in the system. She has been modeled on it--it's +got into her blood; and that's why she's at variance with her daughters. +No doubt, the thing's necessary; I'm finding no fault with it. You must +remember that we're outsiders, with a different outlook; we've lived in +the new West." + +Vane strolled on along the terrace thoughtfully. He was not offended; he +understood his companion's attitude. Like other men of education and good +upbringing driven by unrest or disaster to the untrammeled life of the +bush, Carroll had gained sympathy as well as knowledge. Facing facts +candidly, he seldom indulged in decided protest against any of them. On +the other hand, Vane was on occasion liable to outbreaks of indignation. + +"Well," said Vane at length, "I guess it's time to go to bed." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +UPON THE HEIGHTS + + +Vane rose early the next morning, as he had been accustomed to do, and +taking a towel he made his way across dewy meadows and between tall +hedgerows to the tarn. Stripping where the rabbit-cropped sward met the +mossy boulders, he swam out, joyously breasting the little ripples which +splashed and sparkled beneath the breeze that had got up with the sun. +Coming back, where the water lay in shadow beneath a larchwood which as +yet had not wholly lost its vivid vernal green, he disturbed the paddling +moor-hens and put up a mallard from a clump of swaying reeds. Then he +dressed and turned homeward, glowing, beside a sluggish stream which +wound through a waste of heather where the curlew were whistling eerily. +He had no cares to trouble him, and it was delightful to feel that he had +nothing to do except to enjoy himself in what he considered the fairest +country in the world, at least in summertime. + +Scrambling over a limestone wall tufted thick with parsley fern, he +noticed Mabel stooping over an object which lay among the heather where a +rough cartroad approached a wooden bridge. On joining her he saw that she +was examining a finely-built canoe with a hole in one bilge. She looked +up at him ruefully. + +"It's sad, isn't it? That stupid Little did it with his clumsy cart." + +"I think it could be mended," Vane replied. + +"Old Beavan--he's the wheelwright--said it couldn't; and Dad said I could +hardly expect him to send the canoe back to Kingston. He bought it for me +at an exhibition." + +Then a thought seemed to strike her and her eyes grew eager. + +"Perhaps you had something to do with light canoes in Canada?" + +"Yes; I used to pole one loaded with provisions up a river and carry the +lot round several falls. If I remember, I made eight shillings a day at +it, and I think I earned it. You're fond of paddling?" + +"I love it! I used to row the fishing-punt, but it's too old to be safe; +and now that the canoe's smashed I can't go out at all." + +"Well, we'll walk across and see what we can find in Beavan's shop." + +He took a few measurements, making them on a stick, and they crossed the +heath to a tiny hamlet nestling in a hollow of a limestone crag. There +Vane made friends with the wheelwright, who regarded him dubiously at +first, and obtained a piece of larch board from him. The grizzled North +Countryman watched him closely as he set a plane, which is a delicate +operation, and he raised no objections when Vane made use of his +work-bench. When the board had been sawed up, Vane borrowed a few tools +and copper nails, and he and Mabel went back to the canoe. On the way she +glanced at him curiously. + +"I wasn't sure old Beavan would let you have the things," she remarked. +"It isn't often he'll even lend a hammer, but he seemed to take to you; I +think it was the way you handled his plane." + +"It's strange what little things win some people's good opinion, +isn't it?" + +"Oh, don't!" exclaimed Mabel. "That's the way the Archdeacon talks. I +thought you were different!" + +The man acquiesced in the rebuke; and after an hour's labor at the canoe, +he scraped the red lead he had used off his hands and sat down beside the +craft. The sun was warm now, the dew was drying, and a lark sang +riotously overhead. Vane became conscious that his companion was +regarding him with what seemed to be approval. + +"I really think you'll do, and we'll get on," she informed him. "If +you had been the wrong kind, you would have worried about your red +hands. Still, you could have rubbed them on the heather, instead of on +your socks." + +"I might have thought of that," Vane laughed. "But, you see, I've been +accustomed to wearing old clothes. Anyway, you'll be able to launch the +canoe as soon as the joint's dry." + +"There's one thing I should have told you," the girl replied. "Dad would +have sent the canoe away to be mended if it hadn't been so far. He's very +good when things don't ruffle him; but he hasn't been fortunate lately. +The lead mine takes a good deal of money." + +Vane admired her loyalty, and he refrained from taking advantage of her +candor, though there were one or two questions he would have liked to +ask. When he was last in England, Chisholm had been generally regarded as +a man of means, though it was rumored that he was addicted to hazardous +speculations. Mabel, without noticing his silence, went on: + +"I heard Stevens--he's the gamekeeper--tell Beavan that Dad should have +been a rabbit because he's so fond of burrowing. No doubt, that meant +that he couldn't keep out of mines." + +Vane made no comment; and Mabel, breaking off for a moment, looked up at +the rugged fells to the west and then around at the moors which cut +against the blue of the morning sky. + +"It's all very pretty, but it shuts one in!" she cried. "You feel you +want to get out and can't! I suppose you really couldn't take me back +with you to Canada?" + +"I'm afraid not. If you were about ten years older, it might be +possible." + +Mabel grimaced. + +"Oh, don't! That's the kind of thing some of Gerald's smart friends say, +and it makes one want to slap them! Besides," she added naively, glancing +down at her curtailed skirt, "I'm by no means so young as I appear to be. +The fact is, I'm not allowed to grow up yet." + +"Why?" + +The girl laughed at him. + +"Oh, you've lived in the woods. If you had stayed in England, you would +understand." + +"I'm afraid I've been injudicious," Vane answered with a show of +humility. "But don't you think it's getting on toward breakfast time?" + +"Breakfast won't be for a good while yet. We don't get up early. Evelyn +used to, but it's different now. We used to go out on the tarn every +morning, even in the wind and rain; but I suppose that's not good for +one's complexion, though bothering about such things doesn't seem to me +to be worth while. Aunt Julia couldn't do anything for Evelyn, though she +had her in London for some time. Flora is our shining light." + +"What did she do?" + +"She married the Archdeacon; and he isn't so very dried up. I've seen him +smile when I talked to him." + +"I'm not astonished at that, Mabel," laughed Vane. + +His companion looked up at him. + +"My name's not Mabel--to you. I'm Mopsy to the family, but my special +friends call me Mops. You're one of the few people one can be natural +with, and I'm getting sick--you won't be shocked--of having to be the +opposite. If you'll come along, I'll show you the setter puppies." + +It was half an hour later when Vane, who had seldom had to wait so long +for breakfast, sat down with an excellent appetite. The spacious room +pleased him after the cramped quarters to which he had been accustomed. +The sunlight that streamed in sparkled on choice old silver and glowed on +freshly gathered flowers; and through the open windows mingled fragrances +flowed in from the gardens. All that his gaze rested on spoke of ease and +taste and leisure. Evelyn, sitting opposite him, looked wonderfully fresh +in her white dress; Mopsy was as amusing as she dared to be; but Vane +felt drawn back to the restless world again as he glanced at his hostess +and saw the wrinkles round her eyes and a hint of cleverly hidden strain +in her expression. He fancied that a good deal could be deduced from the +fragments of information her younger daughter had given him. + +It was Mabel who suggested that they should picnic upon the summit of a +lofty hill, from which there was a striking view; and as this met with +the approval of Mrs. Chisholm, who excused herself from accompanying +them, they set out an hour later. The day was bright, with glaring +sunshine, and a moderate breeze drove up wisps of ragged cloud that +dappled the hills with flitting shadow. Towering crag and shingly scree +showed blue and purple through it and then flashed again into brilliancy, +while the long, grassy slopes gleamed with silvery gray and ocher. + +On leaving the head of the valley they climbed leisurely up easy slopes, +slipping on the crisp hill grass now and then. By and by they plunged +into tangled heather on a bolder ridge, rent by black gullies, down +which at times wild torrents poured. This did not trouble either of the +men, who were used to forcing a passage over more rugged hillsides and +through leagues of matted brush, but Vane was surprised at the ease with +which Evelyn threaded her way across the heath. She wore a short skirt +and stout laced boots, and he noticed the supple grace of her movements +and the delicate color the wind had brought into her face. It struck him +that she had somehow changed since they had left the valley. She seemed +to have flung off something, and her laugh had a gay ring; but, while she +smiled and chatted with him, he was still conscious of a subtle reserve +in her manner. + +Climbing still, they reached the haunts of the cloudberries and brushed +through broad patches of the snowy blossoms that open their gleaming +cups among the moss and heather. Vane gathered a handful and gave them +to Evelyn. + +"You should wear these. They grow only far up on the heights." + +She flashed a swift glance at him, but she smiled as she drew the fragile +stalks through her belt, and he felt that had it been permissible he +could have elaborated the idea in his mind. They are stainless flowers, +passionlessly white, that grow beyond the general reach of man, where the +air is keen and pure; and, in spite of her graciousness, there was a +coldness and a calm, which instead of repelling appealed to him strongly, +about this girl. Mabel laughed mischievously. + +"If you want to give me flowers, it had better be marsh-marigolds," she +said. "They grow low down where it's slushy--but they blaze." + +Carroll laughed. + +"Mabel," he remarked a few moments later to Vane, "is unguarded in what +she says, but she now and then shows signs of being considerably older +than her years." + +They left the black peat-soil behind them, and the heather gave place to +thin and more fragile ling, beaded with its unopened buds, while fangs of +rock cropped out here and there. Then turning the flank of a steep +ascent, they reached the foot of a shingly scree, and sat down to lunch +in the warm sunshine where the wind was cut off by the peak above. +Beneath them, a great rift opened up among the rocks, and far beyond the +blue lake in the depths of it they could catch the silver gleam of the +distant sea. + +The fishing creel in which the provisions had been carried was promptly +emptied; and when Mabel afterward took Carroll away to climb some +neighboring crags, Vane lay resting on one elbow not far from Evelyn. She +was looking down the long hollow, with the sunshine, which lighted a +golden sparkle in her brown eyes, falling upon her face. + +"You didn't seem to mind the climb." + +"I enjoyed it;" Evelyn declared, glancing at the cloudberry blossom in +her belt. "I really am fond of the mountains, and I have to thank you for +a day among them." + +On the surface the words offered an opening for a complimentary +rejoinder; but Vane was too shrewd to seize it. He had made one venture, +and he surmised that a second one would not please her. + +"They're almost at your door. One would imagine that you could indulge in +a scramble among them whenever it pleased you." + +"There are a good many things that look so close and still are out of +reach," Evelyn answered with a smile that somehow troubled him. Then her +manner changed. "You are content with this?" + +Vane gazed about him. Purple crags lay in shadow; glistening threads of +water fell among the rocks; and long slopes lay steeped in softest color +under the cloud-flecked summer sky. + +"Content is scarcely the right word for it," he assured her, "If it +weren't so still and serene up here, I'd be riotously happy. There are +reasons for this quite apart from the scenery; for one, it's remarkably +pleasant to feel that I need do nothing but what I like during the next +few months." + +"The sensation must be unusual. I wonder if, even in your case, it will +last so long?" + +Vane laughed and stretched out one of his hands. It was lean and brown, +and she could see the marks of old scars on the knuckles. + +"In my case," he answered, "it has come only once in a lifetime, and, if +it isn't too presumptuous, I think I've earned it." He indicated his +battered fingers. "That's the result of holding a wet and slippery drill; +and those aren't the only marks I carry about with me--though I've been +more fortunate than many fine comrades." + +Evelyn noticed something that pleased her in his voice as he concluded. + +"I suppose one must get hurt now and then," she responded. "After all, a +bruise that's only skin-deep doesn't trouble one long, and no doubt some +scars are honorable. It's slow corrosion that's the deadliest." + +She broke off with a laugh. + +"Moralizing's out of place on a day like this," she added; "and such days +are not frequent in the North. That's their greatest charm." + +Vane nodded. He knew the sad gray skies of his native land, when its +lonely heights are blurred by driving snow-cloud or scourged by bitter +rain for weeks together, though now and then they tower serenely into the +blue heavens, steeped in ethereal splendor. Once more it struck him that +in their latter aspect his companion resembled them. Made finely, of warm +flesh and blood, she was yet ethereal too. There was something aloof and +intangible about her that seemed in harmony with the hills among which +she was born. + +"Yes," he agreed. "On the face of it, the North is fickle; though to +those who know it that's a misleading term. To some of us it's always the +same, and its dark grimness makes one feel the radiance of its smile. For +all that, I think we're going to see a sudden change in the weather." + +Long wisps of leaden cloud began to stream across the crags above, +intensifying, until it seemed unnatural, the glow of light and color +on the rest. + +"I wonder if Mopsy is leading Mr. Carroll into any mischief? They have +been gone some time," said Evelyn. "She has a trick of getting herself +and other people into difficulties. I suppose he is an old friend of +yours, as you brought him over; unless, perhaps, he's acting as your +secretary." + +Vane's eyes twinkled. + +"If he came in any particular capacity, it's as bear-leader. You see, +there are a good many things I've forgotten in the bush, and, as I left +this country young, there are no doubt some that I never learned." + +"And so you make Mr. Carroll your confidential adviser. How did he gain +the necessary experience?" + +"That is more than I can tell you; but I'm inclined to believe he has +been at one of the universities--Toronto, most likely. Anyhow, on the +whole he acts as a judicious restraint." + +"But don't you really know anything about him?" + +"Only what some years of close companionship have taught me, though I +think that's enough. For the rest, I took him on trust." + +Evelyn looked surprised, and he spread out his hands in a humorous +manner. + +"A good many people have had to take me in that way, and they seemed +willing to do so--the thing's not uncommon in the West. Why should I be +more particular than they were?" + +Just then Mabel and Carroll appeared. The latter's garments were stained +in places, as if he had been scrambling over mossy rocks, and his pockets +bulged. Mabel's skirt was torn, while a patch of white skin showed +through her stocking. + +"We've found some sun-dew and two ferns I don't know, as well as all +sorts of other things," she announced. + +"That's correct," vouched Carroll dryly; "I've got them. I guess they're +going to fill up most of the creel." + +Mabel superintended their transfer, and then addressed the others +generally. + +"I think we ought to go up the Pike now, when we have the chance. It +isn't much of a climb from here: and we'll have rain before to-morrow. +Besides, the quickest way back to the road is across the top and down the +other side." + +Evelyn agreed, and they set out, following a sheep path which skirted the +screes, until they left the bank of sharp stones behind and faced a steep +ascent. Parts of it necessitated a breathless scramble, and the sunlight +faded from the hills as they climbed, while thicker wisps of cloud drove +across the ragged summit. They reached the top at length and stopped, +bracing themselves against a rush of chilly breeze, while they looked +down upon a wilderness of leaden-colored rock. Long trails of mist were +creeping in and out among the crags, and here and there masses of it +gathered round the higher slopes. + +"I think the Pike's grandest in this weather," Mabel declared. "Look +below, Mr. Carroll, and you'll see the mountain's like a starfish. It has +prongs running out from it." + +Carroll did as she directed him, and noticed three diverging ridges +springing off from the shoulders of the peak. Their crests, which were +narrow, led down toward the valley, but their sides fell in rent and +fissured crags to great black hollows. + +"You can get down two of them," Mabel went on. "The first is the nearest +to the road, but the third's the easiest. It takes you to the +Hause--that's the gap between it and the next big hill. You must be a +climber to try the middle one." + +A few big drops began to fall, and Evelyn cut her sister's +explanations short. + +"It strikes me that we'd better make a start at once," she said. + +They set out, Mabel and Carroll leading, and drawing farther away from +the two behind. The rain began in earnest as they descended. Rock slope +and scattered stones were slippery, and Vane found it difficult to keep +his footing on some of their lichened surfaces. He was relieved, however, +to see that his companion seldom hesitated, and they made their way +downward cautiously, until near the spot where the three ridges diverged +they walked into a belt of drifting mist. The peak above them was +suddenly blotted out, and Evelyn bade Vane hail Carroll and Mabel, who +had disappeared. He sent a shout ringing through the vapor, and caught a +faint and unintelligible answer. A flock of sheep fled past and dislodged +a rush of sliding stones. Vane heard the stones rattle far down the +hillside, and when he called again a blast of chilly wind whirled his +voice away. There was a faint echo above him and then silence. + +"It looks as if they were out of hearing; and the slope ahead of us seems +uncommonly steep by the way those stones went down. Do you think Mabel +has taken Carroll down the Stanghyll ridge?" + +"I can't tell," answered Evelyn. "It's comforting to remember that she +knows it better than I do. I think we ought to make for the Hause; +there's only one place that's really steep. Keep up to the left a little; +the Scale Crags must be close beneath us." + +They moved on circumspectly, skirting what seemed to be a pit of profound +depth in which dim vapors whirled, while the rain, growing thicker, beat +into their faces. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +STORM-STAYED + + +The weather was not the only thing that troubled Vane as he stumbled on +through the mist. Any unathletic tourist from the cities could have gone +up without much difficulty by the way they had ascended, but it was +different coming down on the opposite side of the mountain. There, their +route led across banks of sharp-pointed stones that rested lightly on the +steep slope, interspersed with outcropping rocks which were growing +dangerously slippery, and a wilderness of crags pierced by three great +radiating chasms lay beneath. + +After half an hour's arduous scramble, he decided that they must be close +upon the top of the last rift, and he stood still for a minute looking +about him. The mist was now so thick that he could see scarcely thirty +yards ahead, but the way it drove past him indicated that it was blowing +up a hollow. On one hand a rampart of hillside loomed dimly out of it; in +front there was a dark patch that looked like the face of a dripping +rock; and between that and the hill a boggy stretch of grass ran back +into the vapor. Vane glanced at his companion with some concern. Her +skirt was heavy with moisture and the rain dripped from the brim of her +hat, but she smiled at him reassuringly. + +"It's not the first time I've got wet," she said cheeringly; "and you're +not responsible--it's Mopsy's fault." + +Vane felt relieved on one account He had imagined that a woman hated to +feel draggled and untidy, and he was willing to own that in his case +fatigue usually tended toward shortness of temper. Though the scramble +had scarcely taxed his powers, he fancied that Evelyn had already done as +much as one could expect of her. + +"I must prospect about a bit. Scardale's somewhere below us; but, if I +remember, it's an awkward descent to the head of it; and I'm not sure of +the right entrance to the Hause." + +"I've only once been down this way, and that was a long while ago," +Evelyn replied. + +Vane left her and plodded away across the grass, sinking ankle-deep in +the spongy moss among the roots of it When he had grown scarcely +distinguishable in the haze he turned and waved his hand. + +"I know where we are--almost to the head of the beck!" he called. + +Evelyn joined him at the edge of a trickle of water splashing in a peaty +hollow, and they followed it down, seeing only odd strips of hillside +amid the vapor. At length the ground grew softer, and Vane, going first, +sank among the long green moss almost to his knees. It made a bubbling, +sucking sound as he drew out his feet. + +"That won't do! Stand still, please! I'll try a little to the right." + +He tried in one or two directions; but wherever he went he sank over his +boots. Coming back he informed his companion that they would better go +straight ahead. + +"I know there's no bog worth speaking of--the Hause is a regular +tourist track." + +He stopped and stripped off his jacket. + +"First of all, you must put this on; I'm sorry I didn't think of +it before." + +Evelyn demurred, and Vane rolled up the jacket. + +"You have to choose between doing what I ask and watching me pitch +it into the beck. I'm a rather determined person. It would be a +pity to throw the thing away, particularly as the rain hasn't got +through it yet." + +She yielded, and he held the jacket while she put it on. + +"There's another thing," he added. "I'm going to carry you for the next +hundred yards, or possibly farther." + +"No," replied Evelyn firmly. "On that point, my determination is as +strong as yours." + +Vane made a sign of acquiescence. + +"You may have your way for a minute; I expect that will be long enough." + +He was correct. Evelyn moved forward a pace or two, and then stopped with +the skirt she had gathered up brushing the quivering emerald moss, and +her boots, which were high ones, hidden in the mire. She had some +difficulty in pulling them out. Then Vane coolly picked her up. + +"All you have to do is to keep still for the next few minutes," he +informed her in a most matter-of-fact voice. + +Evelyn did not move, though she recognized that had he shown any sign of +self-conscious hesitation she would at once have shaken herself loose. As +it was, the fact that he appeared perfectly at ease and unaware that he +was doing anything unusual was reassuring. Then as he plodded forward she +wondered at his steadiness, for she remembered that when she had once +fallen heavily when nailing up a clematis her father, who was a vigorous +man, had found it difficult to carry her upstairs. Vane had never carried +any woman in his arms before, but he had occasionally had to pack--as it +is termed in the West--hundred-and-forty-pound flour bags over a rocky +portage, and, though the comparison did not strike him as a happy one, he +thought the girl was not quite so heavy as that. He was conscious of a +curious thrill and a certain stirring of his blood, but this, he decided, +must be sternly ignored. His task was not an easy one, and he stumbled +once or twice, but he accomplished it and set the girl down safely on +firmer ground. + +"Now," he said, "there's only the drop to the dale, but we must endeavor +to keep out of the beck." + +His voice and air were unembarrassed, though he was breathless, and +Evelyn fancied that in this and the incident of the jacket he had at last +revealed the forceful, natural manners of the West. It was the first +glimpse she had had of them, and she was not displeased. The man had +merely done what was most advisable, with practical sense. + +A little farther on, a shoot of falling water swept out of the mist above +and came splashing down a crag, spread out in frothing threads. It flowed +across their path, reunited in a deep gully, and then fell tumultuously +into the beck, which was now ten or twelve feet below them. They clung to +the rock as they traced it downward, stepping cautiously from ledge to +ledge and from slippery stone to stone. At times a stone plunged into the +mist beneath them, and Vane grasped the girl's arm and held out a +steadying hand, but he was never fussy nor needlessly concerned. When she +wanted help, it was offered at the right moment; but that was all. Had +she been alarmed, her companion's manner would have been more comforting +than persistent solicitude. He was, she decided, one who could be relied +upon in an emergency. + +"You are sure-footed," she remarked, when they stopped a minute or two +for breath. + +Vane laughed as he glanced into the vapor-rilled depths beneath. They +stood on a ledge, two or three yards in width, with a tall crag behind +them and the beck, which had rapidly grown larger, leaping half seen from +rock to rock in the rift in front. + +"I was born among these fells; and I have helped to pack various kinds of +mining truck over much rougher mountains." + +"Have you ever gone up as steep a place as this with a load?" + +"If I remember rightly, the top of the Hause drops about three hundred +feet, and we'll probably spend half an hour in reaching the valley. There +was one western divide that it took us several days to cross, dragging a +tent, camp gear and provisions in relays. Its foot was wrapped in tangled +brush that tore most of our clothes to rags, and the last pitch was two +thousand feet of rock where the snow lay waist-deep in the hollows." + +"Two thousand feet! That dwarfs our little drop to the Hause. What were +you doing so far up in the ranges?" + +"Looking for a copper mine." + +"And you found one?" + +"No; not that time. As a rule, the mineral trail leads poor men to +greater poverty, and sometimes to a grave; but once you have set your +feet on it you follow it again. The thing becomes an obsession; you feel +forced to go." + +"Even if you bring nothing back?" + +Vane laughed. + +"One always brings back something--frost-bite, bruises, a bag of +specimens that assayers and mineral development men smile at. They're +the palpable results, but in most cases you pick up an intangible +something else." + +"And that is?" + +"A thing beyond definition. A germ that lies in wait in the lonely places +and breeds fantasies when it gets into your blood. Anyway, you can never +quite get rid of it." + +Evelyn was interested. The man was endowed with a trick of quaint and +almost poetical imagination, which she had not suspected him of +possessing. + +"It conduces to unrest?" she suggested. + +"Yes. One feels that there's a rich claim waiting beyond the thick timber +through which one can hardly scramble, across the icy rivers, or over the +snow-line." + +"But you found one." + +"At last I found it easily. After ranging the wildest solitudes, we +struck it in a sheltered valley near the warm west coast. Curious, +isn't it?" + +"But didn't that banish the unrest and leave you satisfied?" + +The man looked at her with a flicker of grim amusement in his eyes. + +"As I explained, it can't be banished. There's always a richer claim +somewhere that you haven't found. Our prospectors dream of it as the +Mother Lode, and some spend half their lives in search of it; it was +called El Dorado three hundred years ago. After all, the idea's a +deeper thing than a miner's fantasy: in one shape or another it's +inherent in optimistic human nature. Are you sure the microbe hasn't +bitten you and Mopsy?" + +He was too shrewd. Turning from him, she looked down at the eddying mist. +For several years she had chafed at her surroundings and the restraints +they laid upon her, with a restless longing for something wider and +better: a freer, sunnier atmosphere where her nature could expand. At +times she fancied there was only one sun which could warm it to a perfect +growth, but that sun had not risen and scarcely seemed likely to do so. + +Vane broke the silence deprecatingly. + +"Now that you're rested, we'd better get on. I'm sorry I've kept +you so long." + +Though caution was still necessary, the rest of the descent was easier, +and after a while they reached a winding dale. They followed it +downward, splashing through water part of the time, and at length came +into sight of a cluster of little houses standing between a river and a +big fir wood. + +"It must be getting on toward evening. Mopsy and Carroll probably went +down the ridge, and as it runs out lower down the valley, they'll be +almost at home." + +"It's six o'clock," replied Vane, glancing at his watch. "You can't walk +home in the rain, and it's a long while since lunch. If Adam Bell and his +wife are still at the Golden Fleece, we'll get something to eat there and +borrow you some dry clothes. I've no doubt he'll drive us back +afterward." + +Evelyn made no objections. She was very wet and was beginning to feel +weary, and they were some distance from home. She returned his jacket, +and a few minutes later they entered an old hostelry which, like many +others among those hills, was a farm as well as an inn. The landlady +recognized Vane with pleased surprise. When she had attended to Evelyn +she provided Vane with some of her husband's clothes. Then she lighted a +fire; and when she had laid out a meal in the guest-room, Evelyn came in, +attired in a dress of lilac print. + +"It's Maggie Bell's," she explained demurely. "Her mother's things were +rather large. Adam is away at a sheep auction, and they have only the +trap he went in; but they expect him back in an hour or so." + +"Then we must wait," smiled Vane. "Worse misfortunes have befallen me." + +They made an excellent meal, and then Vane drew up a wicker chair to the +fire for Evelyn and sat down opposite her. The room was low and shadowy, +and partly paneled. Against one wall stood a black oak sideboard, with a +plate-rack above it, and a great chest of the same material with +ponderous hand-forged hinge-straps stood opposite it. A clock with an +engraved metal dial and a six-foot case, polished to a wonderful luster +by the hands of several generations, ticked in one corner; and here and +there the firelight flickered upon utensils of burnished copper. There +was little in the place that looked less than a century old, for there +are nooks in the North that have still escaped the ravages of the +collector. Outside, the rain dripped from the massy flagstone eaves, and +the song of the river stole in monotonous cadence into the room. + +Evelyn was silent and Vane said nothing for a while. He had been in the +air all day, and though this was nothing new to him he was content to sit +lazily still and leave the opening of conversation to his companion. In +the meanwhile it was pleasant to glance toward her now and then. The +pale-tinted dress became her, and he felt that the room would have looked +less cheerful had she been away; though this by no means comprised the +whole of his sensations. After living almost entirely among men, he had +of late met three women who had impressed him in different ways, and they +had all been pleasant to look upon. + +First, there was Kitty Blake, little, graceful and, in a way, alluring; +and it was she who had first roused in him a vague desire for a companion +who could be more to him than a man could be. Beyond that, pretty as she +was, she had only moved him to chivalrous pity and a wider sympathy. + +Then he had met Jessy Horsfield, whom he admired. She was a clever woman +and a handsome one, but she had scarcely stirred him at all. + +Last, he had met Evelyn, as well endowed with physical charm as either; +and there was no doubt that the effect she had on him was different +again. It was one that was difficult to analyze, though he lazily tried. +She appealed to him by the grace of her carriage, the poise of her head, +her delicate coloring, and the changing lights in her eyes; but behind +these points there was something stronger and deeper expressed through +them. He fancied that she possessed qualities he had not hitherto +encountered, which would become more precious when they were fully +understood. He thought of her as steadfast and wholesome in mind; one who +sought for the best; but beyond this there was an ethereal something that +could not be defined. Then a simile struck him: she was like the snow +that towered high into the empyrean in British Columbia. In this, +however, he was wrong, for there was warm human passion in the girl, +though as yet it was sleeping. + +He realized suddenly that he was getting absurdly sentimental, and +instinctively he fumbled for his pipe, then stopped. Evelyn noticed this +and smiled. + +"You needn't hesitate. The Dene is redolent of cigars, and Gerald smokes +everywhere when he is at home." + +"Is he likely to turn up?" Vane asked. "It's ever so long since I've +seen him." + +"I'm afraid not. In fact, Gerald's rather under a cloud just now. I +may as well tell you this, because you are sure to hear of it sooner +or later. He has been extravagant and, so he assures us, +extraordinarily unlucky." + +"Stocks?" suggested Vane. He was acquainted with some of the family +tendencies. + +Evelyn hesitated a moment. + +"That would more readily have been forgiven him. I believe he has +speculated on the turf as well." + +Vane was surprised. He understood that Gerald Chisholm was a barrister, +and betting on the turf was not an amusement he would have associated +with that profession. + +"I must run up and see him by and by," he said thoughtfully. + +Evelyn felt sorry she had spoken. Gerald needed help, which his father +was not in a position to offer. Evelyn was not censorious of other +people's faults, but it was impossible to be blind to some aspects of her +brother's character, and she would have preferred that Vane should not +meet Gerald while the latter was embarrassed by financial difficulties. +She abruptly changed the subject. + +"Several of the things you have told me about your life in Canada +interest me. It must have been bracing to feel that you depended upon +your own efforts and stood on your own feet, free from the hampering +customs that are common here." + +"The position has its disadvantages. You have no family influence behind +you--nothing to fall back on. If you can't make good your footing, you +must go down. It's curious that just before I came over here, a lady I +met in Vancouver expressed an opinion very much like yours. She said it +must be pleasant to feel that one is, to some extent at least, master of +one's fate." + +"Then she merely explained my meaning more clearly than I have done." + +"One could have imagined that she had everything she could reasonably +wish for. If I'm not transgressing, so have you. It's strange you should +both harbor the same idea." + +Evelyn smiled. + +"I don't think it's uncommon among young women nowadays. There's a +grandeur in the thought that one's fate lies in the hands of the high +unseen Powers; but to allow one's life to be molded by the prejudices and +preconceptions of one's--neighbors is a different matter. Besides, if +unrest and human striving were sent, was it only that they should be +repressed?" + +Vane sat silent a moment or two. He had noticed the brief pause and +fancied that she had changed one of the words that followed it. He did +not think that it was the opinions of her neighbors against which she +chafed most. + +"It's something that I've never experienced," he replied at length. "In a +general way, I've done what I wanted." + +"Which is a privilege that is denied us." + +Evelyn spoke without bitterness. + +"What do women who are left to their own resources do in western Canada?" +she asked presently. + +"Some of them marry; I suppose that's the most natural thing," answered +Vane, with an air of reflection that amused her. "Anyway, they have +plenty of opportunities. There's a preponderating number of unattached +young men in the newly opened parts of the Dominion." + +"Things are different here; or perhaps we require more than they do +across the Atlantic. What becomes of the others?" + +"They are waitresses in the hotels; they learn stenography and +typewriting, and go into offices and stores." + +"And earn just enough to live upon meagerly? If their wages are high, +they must pay out more. That follows, doesn't it?" + +"To some extent." + +"Is there nothing better open to them?" + +"No; not unless they're trained for it and become specialized. That +implies peculiar abilities and a systematic education with one end in +view. You can't enter the arena to fight for the higher prizes unless +you're properly armed. The easiest way for a woman to acquire power and +influence is by a judicious marriage. No doubt, it's the same here." + +"It is," laughed Evelyn. "A man is more fortunately situated." + +"Probably; but if he's poor, he's rather walled in, too. He breaks +through now and then; and in the newer countries he gets an opportunity." + +Vane abstractedly examined his pipe, which he had not lighted yet. It was +clear that the girl was dissatisfied with her surroundings, and had for +some reason temporarily relaxed the restraint she generally laid upon +herself; but he felt that, if she were wise, she would force herself to +be content. She was of too fine a fiber to plunge into the struggle that +many women had to wage. Though he did not doubt her courage, she had not +been trained for it. He had noticed that among men it was the cruder and +less developed organizations that proved hardiest in adverse situations; +one needed a strain of primitive vigor. There was, it seemed, only one +means of release for Evelyn, and that was a happy marriage. But a +marriage could not be happy unless the suitor should be all that she +desired; and Evelyn would be fastidious, though her family would, no +doubt, look only for wealth and station. Vane imagined that this was +where the trouble lay, and he felt a protective pity for her. He would +wait and keep his eyes open. + +Presently there was a rattle of wheels outside and the landlord came in +and greeted them with rude cordiality. Shortly afterward Vane helped +Evelyn into the rig, and Bell drove them home through the rain. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +LUCY VANE + + +Bright sunshine streamed down out of a cloudless sky one afternoon +shortly after the ascent of the Pike. Vane stood talking with his sister +upon the terrace in front of the Dene. He leaned against the low wall, +frowning, for Lucy hitherto had avoided a discussion of the subject which +occupied their attention, and now, as he would have said, he could not +make her listen to reason. + +She stood in front of him, with the point of her parasol pressed firmly +into the gravel and her lips set, though in her eyes there was a smile +which suggested forbearance. Lucy was tall and spare of figure; a year +younger than her brother; and of somewhat determined and essentially +practical character. She earned her living in a northern manufacturing +town by lecturing on domestic economy, for the public authorities. Vane +understood that she also received a small stipend as secretary to some +women's organization and that she took a part in suffrage propaganda. She +had a thin, forceful face, seldom characterized by repose. + +"After all," Vane broke out, "what I'm urging is a very natural thing. I +don't like to think of your being forced to work as you are doing, and +I've tried to show you that it wouldn't cost me any self-denial to make +you an allowance. There's no reason why you should be at the beck and +call of those committees any longer." + +Lucy's smile grew plainer. + +"I don't think that quite describes my position." + +"It's possible," Vane agreed with a trace of dryness. "No doubt, you +insist that the chairman or lady president give way to you; but this +doesn't affect the question. You have to work, anyway." + +"But I like it; and it keeps me in some degree of comfort." + +The man turned impatiently and glanced about him. The front of the old +gray house was flooded with light, and the mossy sward below the terrace +glowed luminously green. The shadows of the hollies and cypresses were +thin and unsubstantial, but where a beech overarched the grass, Evelyn +and Mrs. Chisholm. attired in light draperies, reclined in basket chairs. +Carroll, in thin gray tweed, stood near them, talking to Mabel, and +Chisholm sat on a bench with a newspaper in his hand. He looked half +asleep, and a languorous stillness pervaded the whole scene. Beyond it, +the tarn shone dazzlingly, and in the distance ranks of rugged fells +towered, dim and faintly blue. All that the eye rested on spoke of an +unbroken tranquillity. + +"Wouldn't you like this kind of thing, as well?" Vane asked. "Of course, +I mean what it implies--the power to take life easy and get as much +enjoyment as possible out of it. It wouldn't be difficult, if you'd only +take what I'd be glad to give you." He indicated the languid figures in +the foreground. "You could, for instance, spend your time among people of +this sort. After all, it's what you were meant to do." + +"Would that appeal to you?" + +"Oh, I like it in the meantime," he evaded. + +"Well," Lucy returned curtly, "I believe I'm more at home with the other +kind of people--those in poverty, squalor and ignorance. I've an idea +that they have a stronger claim on me; but that's not a point I can urge. +The fact is, I've chosen my career, and there are practical reasons why I +shouldn't abandon it. I had a good deal of trouble in getting a footing, +and if I fell out now, it would be harder still to take my place in the +ranks again." + +"But you wouldn't require to do so." + +"I can't be sure. I don't want to hurt you; but, after all, your success +was sudden, and one understands that it isn't wise to depend on an income +derived from mining properties." + +Vane frowned. + +"None of you ever did believe in me!" + +"I suppose there's some truth in that. You really did give us trouble, +you know. Somehow, you were different--you wouldn't fit in; though I +believe the same thing applied to me, for that matter." + +"And now you don't expect my prosperity to last?" + +The girl hesitated, but she was candid by nature. + +"Perhaps I'd better answer. You have it in you to work determinedly and, +when it's necessary, to do things that men with less courage would shrink +from; but I'm doubtful whether yours is the temperament that leads to +success. You haven't the huckster's instincts; you're not cold-blooded +enough; you wouldn't cajole your friends nor truckle to your enemies." + +"If I adopted the latter course, it would certainly be against the +grain," Vane confessed. + +Lucy laughed. + +"Well, I mean to go on earning my living; but you may take me up to +London for a few days, if you want to, and buy me some hats and things. +Then I don't mind your giving something to the Emancipation Society." + +"I am not sure that I believe in emancipation; but you may have +ten guineas." + +"Thank you." + +Lucy glanced around toward Carroll, who was approaching them with Mabel. + +"I'll give you a piece of advice," she added. "Stick to that man. He's +cooler and less headstrong than you are; he'll prove a useful friend." + +"What are you two talking about?" asked Carroll. "You look animated." + +"Wallace has just promised me ten guineas to assist the movement for the +emancipation of women." Lucy answered pointedly. "Our society's efforts +are sadly restricted by the lack of funds." + +"Vane is now and then a little inconsequential in his generosity," +Carroll rejoined. "I didn't know he was interested in that kind of thing; +but as I don't like to be outdone by my partner, I'll subscribe the same. +By the way, why do you people reckon these things in guineas?" + +"Thanks," smiled Lucy, making an entry in a notebook in a businesslike +manner. "As you said it was a subscription, you'll hear from us next +year. In answer to your question, it's an ancient custom, and it has the +advantage that you get in the extra shillings." + +They strolled along the terrace together, and as they went down the steps +to the lawn Carroll turned to her with a smile. + +"Have you tackled Chisholm yet?" + +"I never waste powder and shot," Lucy replied tersely. "A man of his +restricted views would sooner subscribe handsomely to a movement to +put us down." + +"Are you regretting the ten guineas, Vane?" Carroll questioned +laughingly. "You don't look pleased." + +"The fact is, I wanted to do something that wasn't allowed. I've met with +the same disillusionment here as I did in British Columbia." + +Lucy looked up at her brother. + +"Did you attempt to give somebody money there?" + +"I did. It's not worth discussing; and, anyway, she wouldn't +listen to me." + +They strolled on, Vane frowning, while Carroll, noticing signs of +suppressed interest in Lucy's face, smiled unobserved. Neither he nor the +others thought of Mabel, who was following them. + +Some time after they joined the others, Carroll lay back in a deep chair, +with his half-closed eyes turned in Lucy's direction. + +"Are you asleep, or thinking hard?" Mrs. Chisholm asked him. + +"Not more than half asleep," he laughed. "I was trying to remember _A +Dream of Fair Women_. It's a suitable occupation for a drowsy summer +afternoon in a place like this, but I must confess that it was Miss Vane +who put it into my head. She reminded me of one or two of the heroines +when she was championing the cause of the suffragist." + +"You mustn't imagine that Englishwomen in general sympathize with her, +or that such ideas are popular at the Dene." + +Carroll smiled reassuringly. + +"I shouldn't have imagined the latter for a moment. But, as I said, on an +afternoon of this kind one may be excused for indulging in romantic +fancies. Don't you see what brought those old-time heroines into my mind? +I mean the elusive resemblance to their latter-day prototype?" + +Mrs. Chisholm looked puzzled. + +"No," she declared. "One of them was Greek, another early English, and +the finest of all was the Hebrew maid. As they couldn't have been like +one another, how could they, collectively, have borne a resemblance to +anybody else?" + +"That's logical, on the surface. To digress, why do you most admire +Jephthah's daughter, the gentle Gileadite?" + +His hostess affected surprise. + +"Isn't it evident, when one remembers her patient sacrifice; her fine +sense of family honor?" + +Carroll felt that this was much the kind of sentiment one could have +expected from her; and he did her the justice to believe that it was +genuine and that she was capable of living up to her convictions. His +glance rested on Vane for a moment, and the latter was startled as he +guessed Carroll's thought. + +Evelyn sat near him, reclining languidly in a wicker chair. She had been +silent, and now that her face was in repose the signs of reserve and +repression were plainer than ever. There was, however, pride in it, and +Vane felt that she was endowed with a keener and finer sense of family +honor than her thin-lipped mother. Her brother's career was threatened +by the results of his own imprudence, and though her father could hardly +be compared with the Gileadite warrior, there was, Vane fancied, a +disturbing similarity between the two cases. It was unpleasant to +contemplate the possibility of this girl's being called upon to bear the +cost of her relatives' misfortunes or follies. + +Carroll looked across at Lucy with a smile. + +"You won't agree with Mrs. Chisholm?" he suggested. + +"No," answered Lucy firmly. "Leaving out the instance in question, there +are too many people who transgress and then expect somebody else--a +woman, generally--to serve as a sacrifice." + +"I don't agree, either," Mabel broke in. "I'd sooner have been Cleopatra, +or Joan of Arc--only she was burned, poor thing." + +"That was only what she might have expected. An unpleasant fate +generally overtakes people who go about disturbing things," Mrs. +Chisholm said severely. + +The speech was characteristic, and the others smiled. It would have +astonished them had Mrs. Chisholm sympathized with the rebel idealist +whose beckoning visions led to the clash of arms. + +"Aren't you getting off the track," Vane asked Carroll. "I don't see the +drift of your previous remarks." + +"Well," drawled Carroll, "there must be, I think, a certain distinctive +stamp upon those who belong to the leader type--I mean the people who are +capable of doing striking and heroic things. Apart from this, I've been +studying you English--I've been over here before--and it has struck me +that there's occasionally something imperious, or rather imperial, in +the faces of your women in the most northern counties. I can't define the +thing, but it's there--in the line of nose, in the mouth, and, I think, +most marked in the brows. It's not Saxon, nor Norse, nor Danish; I'd +sooner call it Roman." + +Vane was slightly astonished. He had seen that look in Evelyn's face, and +now, for the first time, he recognized it in his sister's. + +"Perhaps you have hit it," he said with a laugh. "You can reach the Wall +from here in a day's ride." + +"The Wall?" + +"The Roman Wall; Hadrian's Wall. I believe one authority states that they +had a garrison of one hundred thousand men to keep it." + +Chisholm joined the group. He was a tall, rather florid-faced man, with a +formal manner, and was dressed immaculately in creaseless clothes. + +"The point Wallace raises is interesting," he remarked. "While I don't +know how long it takes for a strain to die out, there must have been a +large civil population living near the Wall, and we know that the +characteristics of the Teutonic peoples who followed the Romans still +remain. On the other hand, some of the followers were vexillaries, from +the bounds of the Empire; Gauls, for example, or Iberians." + +When, later on, the group broke up, Evelyn was left alone for a few +minutes with Mabel. + +"Gerald should have been sent to Canada instead of to Oxford," the +younger girl declared. "Then he might have got as rich as Wallace Vane +and Mr. Carroll." + +"What makes you think they're rich?" Evelyn asked with reproof in her +tone. + +Mabel grimaced. + +"Oh, we all knew they were rich before they came. They were giving Lucy +guineas for the suffragists an hour ago. They must have a good deal of +money to waste it like that. Besides, I think Wallace wanted her to take +some more; and he seemed quite vexed when he said he'd tried to give +money to somebody else in Canada who wouldn't have it. As he said 'she,' +it must have been a woman, but I don't think he meant to mention that. It +slipped out." + +"You had no right to listen," Evelyn retorted severely; but the +information sank into her mind, and she afterward remembered it. + +She rose when the sunshine, creeping farther across the grass, fell upon +her, and Vane carried her chair, as well as those of the others, who were +strolling back toward them, into the shadow. This she thought was typical +of the man. He seemed happiest when he was doing something. By and by a +chance remark of her mother's once more set Carroll to discoursing +humorously. + +"After all," he contended, "it's difficult to obey a purely arbitrary +rule of conduct. Several of the philosophers seem to have decided that +the origin of virtue is utility." + +"Utility?" Chisholm queried. + +"Yes; utility to one's neighbors or the community at large. For +instance, I desire an apple growing on somebody else's tree--one of the +big red apples that hang over the roadside in Ontario. Now the longing +for the fruit is natural, and innocent in itself; the trouble is that +if it were indulged in and gratified by every person who passed along +the road, the farmer would abandon the cultivation of his orchard. He +would neither plant nor prune his trees, except for the expectation of +enjoying what they yield. The offense, accordingly, concerns everybody +who enjoys apples." + +Mrs. Chisholm smiled assent. + +"I believe that idea is the basis of our minor social and domestic +codes. Even when they're illogical in particular cases, they're +necessary in general." + +Evelyn looked across at Vane, as if to invite his opinion, and he knit +his brows. + +"I don't think Carroll's correct. The traditional view, which, as I +understand it, is that the sense of right is innate, ingrained in man's +nature, seems more reasonable. I'll give you two instances. There was a +man in charge of a little mine. He had had the crudest education, and no +moral training, but he was an excellent miner. Well, he was given a hint +that it was not desirable the mine should turn out much paying ore." + +"But why wasn't it required to produce as much as possible?" +Evelyn asked. + +"I believe that somebody wanted to break down the value of the shares and +afterward quietly buy them up. Anyway, though he knew it would result in +his dismissal, the man I mentioned drove the boys his hardest. He worked +savagely, taking risks he could have avoided by spending a little more +time in precautions, in a badly timbered tunnel. He didn't reason--he was +hardly capable of it--but he got the most out of the mine." + +"It was fine of him!" Evelyn exclaimed. + +"The engineer of a collier figures in the next case." Vane went on. "The +engines were clumsy and badly finished, but the man spent his care and +labor on them until I think he loved them. His only trouble was that he +was sent to sea with second-rate oils and stores. After a while they grew +so bad that he could hardly use them; and he had reasons for believing +that a person who could dismiss or promote him was getting a big +commission on the goods. He was a plain, unreasoning man; but he would +not cripple his engines; and at last he condemned the stores and made the +skipper purchase supplies he could use, at double the usual prices, in a +foreign port. There could be only one result; he was driving a pump in a +mine when I last met him." + +He paused, and added quietly: + +"It wasn't logic, it wasn't even conventional morality, that impelled +these men. It was something that was part of them. What's more, men of +their type are more common than the cynics believe." + +Carroll smiled good-humoredly; and when the party sauntered toward the +house, he walked beside Evelyn. + +"There's one point that Wallace omitted to mention in connection with his +tales," he remarked. "The things he narrated are precisely those which, +on being given the opportunity, he would have pleasure in doing himself." + +"Why pleasure? I could understand his doing them, but I'd expect him to +feel some reluctance." + +Carroll's eyes twinkled. + +"He gets indignant now and then. Virtuous people are generally content to +resist temptation, but Wallace is apt to attack the tempter. I dare say +it isn't wise, but that's the kind of man he is." + +"Ah! One couldn't find fault with the type. But I wonder why you have +taken the trouble to tell me this?" + +"Really, I don't know. Somehow, I have an impression that I ought to say +what I can in Wallace's favor, if only because he brought me here, and I +feel like talking when I can get a sympathetic listener." + +"I shouldn't have imagined the latter was indispensable," laughed Evelyn. +"Is this visit all you owe Wallace?" + +"No, indeed. In many ways, I owe him a good deal more. He has no idea of +this, but it doesn't lessen my obligation. By the way, it struck me that +in many respects Miss Vane is rather like her brother." + +"Lucy is opinionative, and now and then embarrassingly candid, but she +leads a life that most of us would shrink from. It isn't necessary that +she should do so--family friends would have arranged things +differently--and the tasks she's paid for are less than half her labors. +I believe she generally gets abuse as a reward for the rest." + +Then Mabel joined them and took possession of Carroll, and Evelyn +strolled on alone, thinking of what he had told her. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +CHISHOLM PROVES AMENABLE + + +Vane spent a month at the Dene, with quiet satisfaction, and when at last +he left for London and Paris he gladly promised to come back for another +few weeks before he sailed for Canada. He stayed some time in Paris, +because Carroll insisted on it, but it was with eagerness that he went +north again late in the autumn. For one reason--and he laid some stress +upon this--he longed for the moorland air and the rugged fells, though he +admitted that Evelyn's society enhanced their charm for him. + +At last, shortly before he set out on the journey, he took himself to +task and endeavored to determine precisely the nature of his feelings +toward her; but he signally failed to elucidate the point. It was clear +only that he was more contented in her presence, and that, apart from her +physical comeliness, she had a stimulating effect upon his mental +faculties. Then he wondered how she regarded him; and to this question he +could find no answer. She had treated him with a quiet friendliness, and +had to some extent taken him into her confidence. For the most part, +however, there was a reserve about her that he found more piquant than +deterrent, and he was conscious that, while willing to talk with him +freely, she was still holding him off at arm's length. + +On the whole, he could not be absolutely sure that he desired to get +much nearer. Though he failed to recognize this clearly, his attitude +was largely one of respectful admiration, tinged with a vein of +compassion. Evelyn was unhappy, and out of harmony with her relatives; +and he could understand this more readily because their ideas +occasionally jarred on him. + +One morning, about a fortnight after they returned to the Dene, Vane +and Carroll walked out of the hamlet where the wheelwright's shop +was. Sitting down on the wall of a bridge, Vane opened the telegram +in his hand. + +"I think you have Nairn's code in your wallet," he said. "We'll decipher +the thing." + +Carroll laid the message on a smooth stone and set to work with a pencil. + +"_Situation highly satisfactory_." + +He broke off, to chuckle a comment. + +"It must be, if Nairn paid for an extra word--highly's not in the code." + +Then he went on with the deciphering: + +"_Result of reduction exceeds anticipations. Stock thirty premium. Your +presence not immediately required_." + +"That's distinctly encouraging," declared Vane. "Now that they are +getting farther in, the ore must be carrying more silver." + +"It strikes me as fortunate. I ran through the bank account last night, +and there's no doubt that you have spent a good deal of money. It +confirms my opinion that you have mighty expensive friends." + +Vane frowned, but Carroll continued undeterred. + +"You want pulling up, after the way you have been indulging in a reckless +extravagance which, I feel compelled to point out, is new to you. The +check drawn in favor of Gerald Chisholm rather astonished me. Have you +said anything about it to his relatives?" + +"I haven't." + +"Then, judging by the little I saw of him, I should consider it most +unlikely that he has made any allusion to the matter. The next check was +even more surprising--I mean the one you gave his father." + +"They were both loans. Chisholm offered me security." + +"Unsalable stock, or a mortgage on property that carries another charge! +Have you any idea of getting the money back?" + +"What has that to do with you?" + +Carroll spread out his hands. + +"Only this: It strikes me that you need looking after. We can't stay here +indefinitely. Hadn't you better get back to Vancouver before your English +friends ruin you?" + +"I'll go in three or four weeks; not before." + +Carroll sat silent a minute or two, and then looked his companion +squarely in the face. + +"Is it your intention to marry Evelyn Chisholm?" + +"I don't know what has put that into your mind." + +"I should be a good deal astonished if it hadn't suggested itself to her +family," Carroll retorted. + +Vane looked thoughtful. + +"I'm far from sure that it's an idea they would entertain with any great +favor. For one thing, I can't live here." + +Carroll laughed. + +"Try them, and see. Show them Nairn's telegram when you mention +the matter." + +Vane swung himself down from the wall. During the past two weeks he had +seen a good deal of Evelyn, and his regard for her had rapidly grown +stronger. Now that news that his affairs were prospering had reached him, +he suddenly made up his mind. + +"It's very possible that I may do so," he informed his comrade. "We'll +get along." + +His heart beat a little more rapidly than usual as they turned back +toward the house, but he was perfectly composed when some time later he +sat down beside Chisholm, who was lounging away the morning on the lawn. + +"I've been across to the village for a telegram I expected," he said, +handing Chisholm the deciphered message. "It occurred to me that you +might be interested. The news is encouraging." + +Chisholm read it with inward satisfaction. When he laid it down he had +determined on the line he meant to follow. + +"You're a fortunate man. There's probably no reasonable wish that you +can't gratify." + +"There are things one can't buy with money," Vane replied. + +"That is very true. They're often the most valuable. On the other hand, +some of them may now and then be had for the asking. Besides, when one +has a sanguine temperament and a determination, it's difficult to believe +that anything one sets one's heart on is quite unattainable." + +Vane wondered whether he had been given a hint. Chisholm's manner was +suggestive, and Carroll's remarks had had an effect on him. He sat +silent, and Chisholm continued: + +"If I were in your place, I should feel that I had all that I could +desire within my reach." + +Vane was becoming sure that his comrade had been right. Chisholm would +not have harped on the same idea unless he had intended to convey some +particular meaning; but the man's methods roused Vane's dislike. He could +face opposition, and he would rather have been discouraged than +judiciously prompted. + +"Then if I offered myself as a suitor for Evelyn, you would not think me +presumptuous?" + +Chisholm was somewhat astonished at his abruptness, but he smiled +reassuringly. + +"No; I can't see why I should do so. You are in a position to maintain a +wife in comfort, and I don't think anybody could take exception to your +character." He paused a moment. "I suppose you have some idea of how +Evelyn regards you?" + +"Not the faintest. That's the trouble." + +"Would you like Mrs. Chisholm or myself to mention the matter?" + +"No," answered Vane decidedly. "In fact, I must ask you not to do +anything of the kind. I only wished to make sure of your good will, and +now that I'm satisfied on that point, I'd rather wait and speak--when it +seems judicious." + +Chisholm nodded. + +"I dare say that would be wisest. There is nothing to be gained by being +precipitate." + +Vane thanked him, and waited. He fancied that the transaction--that +seemed the best name for it--was not completed yet; but he meant to +leave the matter to his companion; he would not help the man. + +"There's something that had better be mentioned now, distasteful as it +is," Chisholm said at length. "I can settle nothing upon Evelyn. As you +must have guessed, my affairs are in a far from promising state. Indeed, +I'm afraid I may have to ask your indulgence when the loan falls due; and +I don't mind confessing that the prospect of Evelyn's making what I think +is a suitable marriage is a relief to me." + +Vane's feelings were somewhat mixed, but contempt figured prominently +among them. He could find no fault with Chisholm's desire to safeguard +his daughter's future, but he was convinced that the man looked for more +than this. He felt that he had been favored with a delicate hint to which +his companion expected an answer. He was sorry for Evelyn, and was +ashamed of the position he was forced to take. + +"Well," he replied curtly, "you need not be concerned about the loan; I'm +not likely to prove a pressing creditor. To go a little farther, I should +naturally take an interest in the welfare of my wife's relatives. I don't +think I can say anything more in the meanwhile." + +When he saw Chisholm's smile, he felt that he might have spoken more +plainly without offense; but the elder man looked satisfied. + +"Those are the views I expected you to hold," he declared. "I believe +that Mrs. Chisholm will share my gratification if you find Evelyn +disposed to listen to you." + +Vane left him shortly afterward with a sense of shame. He felt that he +had bought the girl, and that, if she ever heard of it, she would find it +hard to forgive him for the course he had taken. When he met Carroll he +was frowning. + +"I've had a talk with Chisholm," he said. "It has upset my temper--I feel +mean! There's no doubt that you were right." + +Carroll's smile showed that he could guess what was in his +comrade's mind. + +"I shouldn't worry too much about the thing. The girl probably +understands the situation. It's not altogether pleasant, but I dare say +she's more or less resigned to it. She can't help herself." + +Vane gazed at him with anger. + +"Does that make it any better? Is it any comfort to me?" + +"Take her out of it. If she has any liking for you, she'll thank you for +doing so." + +Vane strode away, and nobody saw him again for an hour or two. In the +afternoon, however, at Mrs. Chisholm's suggestion, he and Carroll set out +with the girls for a hill beyond the tarn. + +It was a perfect day of late autumn. A pale golden haze softened the +rugged outlines of crag and fell, which towered in purple masses against +a sky of stainless azure. Warm sunshine flooded the valley, glowing on +the gold and crimson that flecked the lower beech sprays and turning the +leaves of the brambles to points of ruby flame. Here and there white +limestone ridges flung back the light, and the tarn gleamed like molten +silver when a faint puff of wind traced a dark blue smear athwart its +surface. The winding road was thick with dust, and a deep stillness +brooded over everything. + +By and by, however, a couple of whip-cracks rose from beyond a dip of the +road and were followed by a shout in a woman's voice and a sharp clatter +of iron on stone. + +"Oh!" cried Mabel, when they reached the brow of the descent, "the poor +thing can't get up! What a shame to give it such a load!" + +The road fell sharply between ragged hedgerows, and near the foot of the +hill a pony was struggling vainly to move a cart. The vehicle was heavily +loaded, and while the animal strained and floundered, a woman struck it +with a whip. + +"Its Mrs. Hoggarth; her husband's the carrier," Mabel explained. "Come +on! We must stop her! She mustn't beat the pony like that!" + +Vane strode down the hill, and when they approached the cart Mabel called +indignantly to the woman. + +"Stop! You oughtn't to do that! The load's too heavy! Where's Hoggarth?" + +Vane seized one rein close up to the bit and turned the pony until +the cart was across the road. When he had done so, the woman looked +around at Mabel. + +"Wheel went over his foot last night. He canna get on his boot. I'm none +fond of beating pony, but bank's steep and we mun gan up. The folks mun +have their things." + +Vane glanced at the pony, which stood with lowered head and heaving +flank. It was evident that the animal could do no more. + +"There's only one way out of the trouble," he said. "We must pack some of +this truck to the top. What's in those bags?" + +"One's oats," answered the woman. "It's four bushel. Other one's linseed +cake. Those slates for Bell's new stable are the heaviest." + +Carroll came up with Evelyn just then, and Vane spoke to him. + +"Come here and help me with this bag!" + +They had it ready at the back of the cart in a few moments, and Evelyn, +who knew that a four-bushel bag of oats is difficult to move, was +astonished at the ease with which they handled it. Vane got the bag upon +his back and walked up the hill with it. The veins stood out on his +forehead and his face grew red, but he plodded steadily on and came back +for another load. + +"I'll take an armful of the slates this time, Carroll. You can tackle +the cake." + +The cake was heavy, though the bag was not full, and when they returned, +Carroll was breathing hard and there were smears of blood on one of +Vane's hands. The old woman gazed at him in amazed admiration. + +"Thank you, sir," she said. "There's not many men wad carry four bushel +up a bank like that." + +Vane laughed. + +"I'm used to it. Now I think that we can face the hill." + +He seized the rein, and after a flounder or two the pony started the load +and struggled up the ascent. Leaving the woman at the top, voluble with +thanks, Vane came down and sauntered on again with Mabel. + +"I made sure you would drop that bag until I saw how you got hold of it, +and then I knew you would manage," she informed him. "You see, I've +watched the men at Scarside mill. I didn't want you to drop it." + +"I wonder why?" laughed Vane. + +"If you do, you must be stupid. We're friends, aren't we? I like my +friends to be able to do anything that other folks can. That's partly why +I took to you." + +Vane made her a ceremonious bow and they went on, chatting lightly. When +they came to a sweep of climbing moor, they changed companions, for Mabel +led Carroll off in search of plants and ferns. Farther on, Evelyn sat +down upon a heathy bank, and Vane found a place on a stone beside a +trickling rill. + +"It's pleasant here, and I like the sun," she explained. "Besides, it's +still a good way to the top, and I generally feel discontented when I get +there. There are other peaks much higher--one wants to go on." + +Vane smiled in comprehension. + +"Yes," he agreed. "On and always on! It's the feeling that drives the +prospector. We seem to have the same thoughts on a good many points." + +Evelyn did not answer this. + +"I was glad you got that cart up the hill. What made you think of it?" + +"The pony was played out, though it was a plucky beast. I suppose I felt +sorry for it. I've been driven hard myself." + +The girl's eyes softened. She had seen him use his strength, though it +was, she imagined, the strength of determined will and disciplined body +rather than bulk of muscle, for the man was hard and lean. The strength +also was associated with a gentleness and a sympathy with the lower +creation that appealed to her. + +"How hard were you driven?" she asked. + +"Sometimes, until I could scarcely crawl back to my tent or the +sleeping-shack at night. Out yonder, construction bosses and contractors' +foremen are skilled in getting the utmost value of every dollar out of a +man. I've had my hands worn to raw wounds and half my knuckles bruised +until it was almost impossible to bend them." + +"Were you compelled to work like that?" + +"I thought so. It seemed to be the custom of the country; one had to get +used to it." + +Evelyn hesitated a moment; though she was interested. + +"But was there nothing easier? Had you no money?" + +"Very little, as a rule; and what I had I tried to keep. It was to give +me a start in life. It was hard to resist the temptation to use some of +it now and then, but I held out." He laughed grimly. "After all, I +suppose it was excellent discipline." + +The girl made a sign of comprehending sympathy. There was a romance in +the man's career which had its effect on her, and she could recognize the +strength of will which had held him to the laborious tasks he might have +shirked while the money lasted. Then a stain on the sleeve of his jacket +caught her eye. + +"You have hurt your hand!" she exclaimed. + +Vane glanced down at his hand, which was reddened all over. + +"It looks like it; those slates must have cut it." + +"Hadn't you better wash it and tie it up? It seems a nasty cut." + +He dipped his hand into the rill, and was fumbling awkwardly with his +handkerchief when she stopped him. + +"That won't do! Let me fix it for you." + +Rolling up her own handkerchief, she wet it and laid it on his palm, +across which a red gash ran. He had moved close to her, stooping down, +and a disturbing thrill ran through him as she held his hand. Once more, +however, he was troubled by a sense of compunction as he recalled his +interview with Chisholm. + +"Thank you," he said abruptly when she finished. + +There were signs of tension in his face, and she drew a little away from +him when he sat down again. For a few moments he struggled with himself. +They were alone; he had her father's consent; and he knew that what he +had done half an hour ago had appealed to her. But he felt that he could +not plead his cause just then. With her parents on his side, she was at a +disadvantage; and he shrank from the thought that she might be forced +upon him against her will. This was not what he desired; and she might +hate him for it afterward. She was very alluring, there had been signs of +an unusual gentleness in her manner, and the light touch of her cool +fingers had stirred his blood; but he wanted time to win her favor, aided +only by such gifts as he had been endowed with. It cost him a determined +effort, but he made up his mind to wait; and it was a relief to him when +the approach of Mabel and Carroll rendered any confidential conversation +out of the question. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +WITH THE OTTER HOUNDS + + +A week or two had slipped away since Vane cut his hand. He lounged one +morning upon the terrace, chatting with Carroll. It was a heavy, black +morning; the hills were hidden by wrappings of leaden mist, and the still +air was charged with moisture. + +Suddenly a long, faint howl came up the valley and was answered by +another in a deeper note. Then a confused swelling clamor broke out, +softened by the distance, and slightly resembling the sound of chiming +bells. Carroll stopped and listened. + +"What in the name of wonder is that?" he asked. "The first of it reminded +me of a coyote howling, but the rest's more like the noise the timber +wolves make in the bush at night." + +"You haven't made a bad shot," Vane laughed. "It's a pack of otter hounds +hot upon the scent." + +The sound ceased as suddenly as it had begun; and a few moments later +Mabel came running toward the men. + +"I knew the hounds met at Patten Brig, but Jim was sure they'd go +down-stream!" she cried breathlessly. "They're coming up! I think they're +at the pool below the village! Get two poles--you'll find some in the +tool-shed--and come along at once!" + +She climbed into the house through a window, calling for Evelyn, and +Carroll smiled. + +"We have our orders. I suppose we'd better go." + +"It's one of the popular sports up here," Vane replied. "You may as +well see it." + +They set out a few minutes later, accompanied by Evelyn, while Mabel +hurried on in front and reproached them for their tardiness. Sometimes +they heard the hounds, sometimes a hoarse shouting that traveled far +through the still air, and then sometimes there was only the tremulous +song of running water. At length, after crossing several wet fields, they +came to a rushy meadow on the edge of the river, which spread out into a +wide pool, fringed with alders which had not yet lost their leaves and +the barer withes of osiers. There was a swift stream at the head of it, +and a long rippling shallow at the tail; and scattered along the bank and +in the water was a curiously mixed company. + +A red-coated man with whip and horn stood in the tail outflow, and three +or four more with poles in their hands were spread out across the stream +behind him. These, and one or two in the head stream, appeared by their +dress to belong to the hunt; but the rest, among whom were a few women, +were attired in every-day garments and were of different walks in life: +artisans, laborers, people of leisure, and a late tourist or two. + +Three or four big hounds were swimming aimlessly up and down the pool; a +dozen more trotted to and fro along the water's edge, stopping to sniff +and give tongue in an uncertain manner now and then; but there was no +sign of an otter. + +Carroll looked round with a smile when his companions stopped. + +"It strikes me there'll be very little work done in this neighborhood +to-day," he remarked. "I'd no idea there were so many people in the +valley with time to spare. The only thing that's missing is the beast +they're after." + +"An otter is an almost invisible creature," Evelyn explained. "You very +seldom see one, unless it's hard pressed by the dogs. There are a good +many in the river, but even the trout fishers, who are about at sunrise +in the hot weather and wade in the dusk, rarely come across them. Are you +going to take a share in the hunt?" + +"No," replied Carroll, glancing humorously at his pole. "I don't know +why I brought this thing, unless it was because Mopsy sent me for it. +I'd rather stay and watch with you. Splashing through a river after a +little beast that I don't suppose they'd let an outsider kill doesn't +interest me. I don't see why I should want to kill it, anyway. Some of +you English people have sporting ideas I can't understand. I struck a +young man the other day--a well-educated man by the looks of him--who +was spending the afternoon happily with a ferret by a corn stack, +killing rats with a club. He seemed uncommonly pleased with himself +because he'd got four of them." + +"Oh," chided Mabel, "you're as bad as the silly people who call killing +things cruel! I wouldn't have thought it of you!" + +Vane laughed. + +"I've seen him drop a deer with a single-shot rifle when it was going +through thick brush almost as fast as a locomotive; and I believe that he +once assisted in killing a panther in a thicket where you couldn't see +two yards ahead. The point is that he meant to eat the deer--and the +panther had been taking a rancher's hogs." + +"I'm sorry I brought him," Mabel pouted. "He's not a sportsman." + +"I really think there's some excuse for the more vigorous sports," Evelyn +maintained. "Of course, you can't eliminate a certain amount of cruelty; +but, admitting that, isn't it just as well that men who live in a +luxurious civilization should be willing to plod through miles of heather +after grouse, risk their limbs on horseback, or spend hours in cold +water? These are bracing things; they imply some moral discipline. It +really can't be nice to ride at a dangerous fence, or to flounder down a +rapid after an otter when you're stiff with cold. The effort to do so +must be wholesome." + +"A sure thing," Carroll agreed. "The only trouble is that when you've got +your fox or otter, it isn't worth anything. A good many of the people in +the newer lands, every day, have to make something of the kind of effort +you describe. In their case, the results are wagon trails, valleys +cleared for orchards, or new branch railroads. I suppose it's a matter of +opinion, but if I'd put in a season's risky work, I'd rather have a piece +of land to grow fruit on or a share in a mineral claim--you get plenty of +excitement in prospecting for that--than a fox's tail." + +He strolled along the bank with Evelyn, following the hunt up-stream. +Suddenly he looked around. + +"Mopsy's gone; and I don't see Vane." + +"After all, he's one of us," Evelyn laughed. "If you're born in the +North Country, it's hard to keep out of the river when you hear the +otter hounds." + +"But Mopsy's not going in!" + +"I'm afraid I can't answer for her." + +They took up their station behind a growth of alders, and for a while +the dogs went trotting by in twos and threes or swam about the pool, +but nothing else broke the surface of the leaden-colored water. Then +there was a cry, an outbreak of shouting, a confused baying, and half a +dozen hounds dashed past. More followed, heading up-stream along the +bank, with a tiny brown terrier panting behind them. Evelyn stretched +out her hand. + +"Look!" + +Carroll saw a small gray spot--the top of the otter's head--moving across +the slacker part of the pool, with a very slight, wedge-shaped ripple +trailing away from it. It sank the next moment; a bubble or two rose; and +then there was nothing but the smooth flow of water. + +A horn called shrilly; a few whip-cracks rang out like pistol-shots; and +the dogs took the water, swimming slowly here and there. Men scrambled +along the bank. Some, entering the river, reinforced the line spread out +across the head rapid while others joined the second row wading steadily +up-stream and splashing about as they advanced with iron-tipped poles. +Nothing rewarded their efforts. The dogs suddenly turned and went +down-stream; and then everybody ran or waded toward the tail outflow. A +clamor of shouting and baying broke out; and floundering men and swimming +dogs went down the stream together in a confused mass. There was a brief +silence. The hounds came out and trotted to and fro along the bank; and +dripping men clambered after them. + +Evelyn laughed as she pointed to Vane among the leading group. He looked +even wetter than the others. + +"I don't suppose he meant to go in. It's in the blood." + +"There's no reason why he shouldn't, if it amuses him," Carroll replied. +"When I first met him, he'd have been more careful of his clothes." + +A little later the dogs were driven in again, and this time the whole of +the otter's head was visible as it swam up-stream. The animal was +flagging, and on reaching shoaler water it sprang out altogether now and +then, rising and falling in the stronger stream with a curious +serpentine motion. In fact, as head and body bent in the same sinuous +curves, it looked less like an animal than a plunging fish. The men +guarding the rapid stood ready with their poles, and more were wading +and splashing up both sides of the pool. The otter's pace was getting +slower; sometimes it seemed to stop; and now and then it vanished among +the ripples. Carroll saw that Evelyn's face was intent, though there +were signs of shrinking in it. + +"I'll tell you what you are thinking," he said. "You want that poor +little beast to get away." + +"I believe I do," Evelyn confessed. "And you?" + +"I'm afraid I'm not much of a sportsman, in this sense." + +They watched with strained attention. The girl could not help it, though +she dreaded the climax. Her sympathies were now with the hard-pressed, +exhausted creature that was making a desperate fight for its life. The +pursuers were close upon it, the swimming dogs leading them; and ahead +lay a foaming rush of water which seemed less than a foot deep, with men +spread out across it. The shouting from the bank had ceased, and +everybody waited in tense expectancy when the otter disappeared. The dogs +reached the rapid, where they were washed back a few yards before they +could make headway up-stream. Men who came splashing close upon them left +the water to scramble along the bank; and then they stopped abruptly, +while the dogs swam in an uncertain manner about the still reach beyond. +They came out in a few minutes and scampered up and down among the +stones, evidently at fault, for there was no sign of the otter anywhere. +Incredible as it seemed, the hunted creature, an animal that would +probably weigh about twenty-four pounds, had crept up the rush of water +among the feet of those who watched for it and vanished unseen into the +sheltering depths beyond. + +Evelyn sighed with relief. + +"I think it will escape," she said. "The river's rather full after the +rain, which is against the dogs, and there isn't another shallow for some +distance. Shall we go on?" + +They strolled forward behind the dogs, which were again moving up-stream; +but they turned aside to avoid a bit of woods, and it was some time later +when they came out upon a rocky promontory dropping steeply to the river. +Just there, the water flowed through a deep gorge, down the sides of +which great oaks and ashes straggled. In front of Carroll and his +companion a ragged face of rock fell about twenty feet; but there was a +little soil among the stones below, and a dense growth of alders +interspersed with willows, fringed the water's edge. The stream swirled +in deep black eddies beneath their drooping branches, though a little +farther on it poured tumultuously between scattered boulders into the +slacker pool. The rock sloped on one side, and there was a bank of +underbrush near the foot of the descent. + +The hunt was now widely scattered about the reach. Men crept along +slippery ledges above the water and moved over dangerously slanting +slopes, half hidden among the trees; a few were in the river. Three or +four of the dogs were swimming; the others, spread out in twos and +threes, trotted in and out among the undergrowth. + +Presently, a figure creeping along the foot of the rock not far away +seized Carroll's attention. + +"It's Mopsy!" he exclaimed. "The foothold doesn't look very safe among +those stones, and there seems to be deep water below." + +He called out in warning, but the girl did not heed. The willows were +thinner at the spot she had reached, and, squeezing herself through them, +she leaned down, clinging to an alder branch. + +"He's gone to holt among the roots!" she cried. + +Three or four men running along the opposite bank apparently decided that +she was right, for the horn was sounded and here and there a dog broke +through the underbrush. Just as the first-comers reached the rapid, there +was a splash. It was a moment or two before Evelyn or Carroll, who had +been watching the dogs, realized what had happened; then the blood ebbed +from the girl's face. Mabel had disappeared. + +Running a few paces forward, Carroll saw what looked like a bundle of +outspread garments swing round in an eddy. It washed in among the +willows, and he heard a faint cry. + +"Help!--Quick! I've caught a branch!" + +He could not see the girl now, but an alder branch was bending sharply, +and he flung a rapid glance around him. The summit of the rock on which +he stood rose above the trees. Had there been a better landing, he would +have faced the risky fall, but it seemed impossible to alight among the +stones without a broken leg. Even if he came down uninjured, there was a +barrier of tangled branches and densely growing withes between him and +the river, and the opening through which Mabel had fallen was some +distance away. Farther down-stream, he might reach the water by a +reckless jump, as the promontory sloped toward it there, but he would not +be able to swim back against the current. His position was a painful one; +there was nothing that he could do. + +The next moment, men and dogs went scrambling and swimming down the +rapid. They were in hot pursuit of the otter, which had left its +hiding place, and it was evident that the girl, clinging to a branch +beneath the willows, had escaped their attention. Carroll shouted +savagely as his comrade appeared among the tail of the hunt below. The +others were too much occupied to heed; or perhaps they concluded that +he was urging them on. + +"Help! Mabel!" Carroll shouted again and again, gesticulating wildly in +his desperation. + +Vane, waist-deep in the water, seemed to catch the girl's name and +understand. In a few moments he was swimming down the pool along the edge +of the alders. Then Carroll saw that Evelyn expected him to take some +part in the rescue. + +"Get down before it's too late!" she cried. + +Carroll spread out his hands, as if to beg her forbearance. While every +impulse urged him to the leap, he endeavored to keep his head. He fancied +that he would be wanted later, and it was obvious that he would not be +available if he lay upon the rocks below with broken bones. + +"I can't do any good just now," he tried to explain, knowing that he was +right and yet feeling horribly ashamed. "She's holding on, and Wallace +will reach her in a moment or two." + +Evelyn broke out at him in an agony of fear and anger. + +"You coward! Will you let her drown?" + +She turned and ran forward, but Carroll, dreading that she meant to +attempt the descent, seized her shoulder and held her fast. While he +grappled with her, Vane's voice rose from below, and he let his +hands drop. + +"Wallace has her. There's no more danger," he said quietly. + +Evelyn suddenly recovered a small degree of calm. Even amid the stress of +her terror, she recognized the assurance in the man's tone. He had blind +confidence in his comrade's prowess, and his next words made this +impression clearer. + +"Don't be afraid. He'll never let go until he brings her out." + +Standing, breathless, a pace or two apart, they saw Vane and the girl +appear from beneath the willows and wash away down-stream. The man was +swimming, but he was hampered by his burden, and once he and Mabel sank +almost from sight in a whirling eddy. Carroll said nothing. Turning, he +ran along the sloping ridge until the fall was less and the trees were +thinner; then he leaped out into the air. He broke through the alders +amid a rustle of bending boughs, and disappeared; but a moment or two +later his shoulders shot out of the water close beside Vane, and the two +men went down the stream with Mabel between them. + +Evelyn scrambled wildly along the ridge, and when she reached the foot of +it, Vane was helping Mabel up the sloping bank of gravel. The girl's +drenched garments clung about her, and her wet hair was streaked across +her face, but she seemed able to stand. The hunt had swept on through +shoaler water, but there was a cheer from the stragglers across the +river. Evelyn clutched her sister, half laughing, half sobbing, and +incoherently upbraided her. Mabel shook herself free, and her first +remark was characteristic. + +"Oh, don't make a silly fuss! I'm only wet through. Wallace, take me +home." + +She tried to shake out her dripping skirt, and Vane picked her up, as she +seemed to expect it. The others followed when he pushed through the +underbrush toward a neighboring meadow. Evelyn, however, was still a +little unnerved, and when they reached a gap in a wall she stopped and +leaned heavily against the stones. + +"I think I'm more disturbed than Mopsy is," she said to Carroll. "What I +felt must be some excuse for me. You were right, of course. I'm sorry +for what I said; it was unjustifiable." + +Carroll laughed lightly. + +"Anyway, it was perfectly natural; but I must confess that I felt some +temptation to make a spectacular fool of myself. I might have jumped into +those alders, but it's most unlikely that I could have got out of them." + +Evelyn looked at him with a new respect. He had not troubled to point +out that he had not flinched from the jump when it seemed likely to be +of service. + +"How could you have the sense to think of that?" she asked. + +"I suppose it's a matter of practise. One can't work among the ranges and +rivers without learning to make the right decision rapidly. When you +don't, you get badly hurt. With most of us, the thing has to be +cultivated; it's not instinctive." + +Evelyn was struck by the explanation. This acquired coolness was a finer +thing, and undoubtedly more useful, than hot-headed gallantry, though she +admired the latter. She was young, and physical prowess appealed to her; +besides, it had been displayed in saving her sister's life. Carroll and +his comrade were men of varied and romantic experience; and they +possessed, she fancied, qualities not shared by all their fellows. + +"Wallace was splendid in the water!" she exclaimed, uttering part of her +thoughts aloud. + +"I thought rather more of him in the city," Carroll replied. "That kind +of thing was new to him, and I'm inclined to believe that I'd have let +the people he had to negotiate with have the mine for a good deal less +than he eventually got for it. But I've said something about that before; +and, after all, I'm not here to play Boswell." + +The girl was surprised at the apt allusion; it was not what she would +have expected from the man. As she had not wholly recovered her +composure, she forgot what Vane had told her about him, and her comment +was an incautious one: + +"How did you hear of him?" + +Carroll parried this with a smile. + +"You don't suppose you can keep those old fellows to yourselves--they're +international. But hadn't we better be getting on? Let me help you +through the gap." + +They reached the Dene some time later, and Mabel, very much against her +wishes, was sent to bed. Shortly afterward Carroll came across Vane, who +had changed his clothes and was strolling up and down among the +shrubberies. + +"What are you doing here?" he asked. + +Vane looked embarrassed. + +"For one thing, I'm keeping out of Mrs. Chisholm's way; she's inclined to +be effusive. For another, I'm trying to think out what I ought to do. +We'll have to pull out very shortly; and I had meant to have an interview +with Evelyn to-day. That's why I feel uncommonly annoyed with Mopsy for +falling in." + +Carroll made a grimace. + +"If that's how it strikes you, any advice I could offer would be wasted. +A sensible man would consider it a promising opportunity." + +"And trade upon it? As you know, there wasn't the slightest risk, +with branches that one could get hold of, and a shelving bank almost +within reach." + +"Do you really want the girl?" + +"That impression's firmly in my mind," Vane said curtly. + +"Then you'd better pitch your Quixotic notions overboard and tell her +so." + +Vane frowned but made no answer; and Carroll, recognizing that his +comrade was not inclined to be communicative, left him pacing up and +down. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +VANE WITHDRAWS + + +Dusk was drawing on, but there was still a little light in the western +sky, when Vane strolled along the terrace in front of the Dene. In the +distance the ranks of fells rose black and solemn out of filmy trails of +mist, but the valley had faded to a trough of shadow. A faint breeze was +stirring, and the silence was broken by the soft patter of withered +leaves which fluttered down across the lawn. Vane noticed it all by some +involuntary action of his senses, for although, at the time, he was +oblivious to his surroundings, he afterward found that he could recall +each detail of the scene with vivid distinctness. He was preoccupied and +eager, but fully aware of the need for coolness, for it was quite +possible that he might fail in the task he had in hand. + +Presently he saw Evelyn, for whom he had been waiting, cross the opposite +end of the terrace. Moving forward he joined her at the entrance to a +shrubbery walk. A big, clipped yew with a recess in which a seat had been +placed stood close by. + +"I have been sitting with Mopsy," said Evelyn. "She seems very little the +worse for her adventure--thanks to you." She hesitated and her voice grew +softer. "I owe you a heavy debt--I am very fond of Mopsy." + +"It's a great pity she fell in," Vane declared curtly. + +Evelyn looked at him in surprise. She scarcely thought he could regret +the efforts he had made on her sister's behalf, but that was what his +words implied. He noticed her change of expression. + +"The trouble is that the thing might seem to give me some claim on you; +and I don't want that," he explained. "It cost me no more than a wetting; +I hadn't the least difficulty in getting her out." + +His companion was still puzzled. She could find no fault with him for +being modest about his exploit, but that he should make it clear that he +did not require her gratitude struck her as unnecessary. + +"For all that, you did bring her out," she persisted. "Even if it causes +you no satisfaction, the fact is of some importance to us." + +"I don't seem to be beginning very fortunately. What I mean is that I +don't want to urge my claim, if I have one. I'd rather be taken on my +merits." He paused a moment with a smile. "That's not much better, is it? +But it partly expresses what I feel. Leaving Mopsy out altogether, let me +try to explain--I don't wish you to be influenced by anything except your +own idea of me. I'm saying this because one or two points that seem in my +favor may have a contrary effect." + +Evelyn made no answer, and he indicated the seat. + +"Won't you sit down? I have something to say." + +The girl did as he suggested, and his smile died away. + +"Would you be astonished if I were to ask you to marry me?" + +He leaned against the smooth wall of yew, looking down at her with an +impressive steadiness of gaze. She could imagine him facing the city men +from whom he had extorted the full value of his mine in the same fashion, +and, in a later instance, so surveying the eddies beneath the osiers, +when he had gone to Mabel's rescue. It was borne in upon her that they +would better understand each other. + +"No," she answered. "If I must be candid, I am not astonished." Then the +color crept into her cheeks as she met his gaze. "I suppose it is an +honor; and it is undoubtedly a--temptation." + +"A temptation?" + +"Yes," said Evelyn, mustering her courage to face a crisis she had +dreaded. "It is only due you that you should hear the truth--though I +think you suspect it. Besides--I have some liking for you." + +"That is what I wanted you to own!" Vane broke in. + +She checked him with a gesture. Her manner was cold, and yet there was +something in it that stirred him more than her beauty. + +"After all," she explained, "it does not go very far, and you must try to +understand. I want to be quite honest, and what I have to say +is--difficult. In the first place, things are far from pleasant for me +here; I was expected to make a good marriage, and I had my chance in +London. I refused to profit by it, and now I'm a failure. I wonder +whether you can realize what a temptation it is to get away?" + +Vane frowned. + +"Yes," he responded. "It makes me savage to think of it! I can, at least, +take you out of all this. If you hadn't had a very fine courage, you +wouldn't have told me." + +Evelyn smiled, a curious wry smile. + +"It has only prompted me to behave, as most people would consider, +shamelessly; but there are times when one must get above that point of +view. Besides, there's a reason for my candor--had you been a man of +different stamp, it's possible that I might have been driven into taking +the risk. We should both have suffered for a time, but we might have +reached an understanding--not to intrude on each other--through open +variance. As it is, I could not do you that injustice, and I should +shrink from marrying you with only a little cold liking." + +The man held himself firmly in hand. Her calmness had infected him, and +he felt that this was not an occasion for romantic protestations, even +had he felt capable of making them, which was not the case. As a matter +of fact, such things were singularly foreign to his nature. + +"Even that would go a long way with me, if I could get nothing better," +he declared. "Besides, you might change. I could surround you with some +comfort; I think I could promise not to force my company upon you; I +believe I could be kind." + +"Yes," assented Evelyn. "I shouldn't be afraid of harshness from you; but +it seems impossible that I should change. You must see that you started +handicapped from the beginning. Had I been free to choose, it might have +been different, but I have lived for some time in shame and fear, hating +the thought that some one would be forced on me." + +He said nothing and she went on. + +"Must I tell you? You are the man!" + +His face grew hard and for a moment he set his lips tight. It would have +been a relief to express his feelings concerning his host just then. + +"If you don't hate me for it now, I'm willing to take the risk," he said +at length. "It will be my fault if you hate me in the future; I'll try +not to deserve it." + +He fancied that she was yielding, but she roused herself with an effort. + +"No. Love on one side may go a long way, if it is strong enough--but it +must be strong to overcome the many clashes of thought and will. +Yours"--she looked at him steadily--"would not stand the strain." + +Vane started. + +"You are the only woman I ever wished to marry," he declared vehemently. + +He paused and spread out his hands. + +"What can I say to convince you?" + +"I'm afraid it's impossible. If you had wanted me greatly, you would have +pressed the claim you had in saving Mopsy, and I should have forgiven you +that; you would have urged any and every claim. As it is, I suppose I am +pretty"--her lips curled scornfully--"and you find that some of your +ideas and mine agree. It isn't half enough! Shall I tell you that you are +scarcely moved as yet?" + +It flashed upon Vane that he was confronted with the reality. Her beauty +had appealed to him, and her other qualities--her reserved graciousness +with its tinge of dignity, her insight and her comprehension--had also +had their effect; but they had only awakened admiration and respect. He +desired her as one desires an object for its rarity and preciousness; but +this, as she had told him, was not enough. Behind her physical and mental +attributes, and half revealed by them, there was something deeper: the +real personality of the girl. It was elusive, mystic, with a spark of +immaterial radiance which might brighten human love with its transcendent +glow; but, as he dimly realized, if he won her by force, it might recede +and vanish altogether. He could not, with strong ardor, compel its +clearer manifestation. + +"I think I am moved as much as it is possible for me to be." + +Evelyn shook her head. + +"No; you will discover the difference some day, and then you will +thank me for leaving you your liberty. Now I beg you to leave me mine +and let me go." + +Vane stood silent a minute or two, for the last appeal had stirred him to +chivalrous pity. He was shrewd enough to realize that if he persisted he +could force her to come to him. Her father and mother were with him; she +had nothing--no commonplace usefulness nor trained abilities--to fall +back on if she defied them. But it was unthinkable that he should +brutally compel her. + +"Well," he yielded at length, "I must try to face the situation; I want +to assure you that it is not a pleasant one to me. But there's another +point--I'm afraid I've made things worse for you. Your people will +probably blame you for sending me away." + +Evelyn did not answer this, and he broke into a grim smile. + +"Well," he added, "I think I can save you any trouble on that +score--though the course I'm going to take isn't flattering, if you look +at it in one way, I want you to leave me to deal with your father." + +He took her consent for granted, and leaning down laid a hand lightly on +her shoulder. + +"You will try to forgive me for the anxiety I have caused you? The time +I've spent here has been very pleasant, but I'm going back to Canada in a +day or two. Perhaps you'll think of me without bitterness now and then." + +He turned away; and Evelyn sat still, glad that the strain was over, +thinking earnestly. The man was gentle and considerate as well as +forceful, and to some extent she liked him. Indeed, she admitted that she +had not met any man she liked as much; but that was not going very far. +Then she began to wonder at her candor, and to consider if it had been +necessary. It was curious that this was the only man she had ever taken +into her confidence. It struck her that her next suitor would probably be +a much less promising specimen. On the other hand, since her views on the +subject differed from those her parents held, it was consoling to +remember that eligible suitors for the daughter of an impoverished +gentleman were likely to be scarce. + +It had grown dark when she rose and entering the house went up to Mabel's +room. The girl looked at her sharply as she came in. + +"So you have got rid of him!" she said. "I think you're very silly." + +"How did you know?" Evelyn asked with a start. + +"I heard him walking up and down the terrace, and I heard you go out. You +can't walk over raked gravel without making a noise. He went along to +join you, and it was a good while before you came back at different +times. I've been waiting for this the last day or two." + +Evelyn sat down with a rather strained smile. + +"Well, I have sent him away." + +Mabel regarded her indignantly. + +"You'll never get another chance like this one. If I'd been in your +place, I'd have had Wallace if it had cost me no end of trouble to get +him. He said something about its being a pity I wasn't older, one day, +and I told him that I wasn't by any means as young as I looked. If you +had only taken him, I could have worn decent frocks. Nobody could call +the last one that!" + +This was a favorite grievance, and Evelyn ignored it; but Mabel had +more to say. + +"I suppose," she went on, "you don't know that Wallace has been getting +Gerald out of trouble?" + +"Are you sure of that?" + +"Yes. I'll tell you what I know. Wallace saw Gerald in London--he told us +that--and we all know that Gerald couldn't pay his debts a little while +ago. You remember he came down to Kendall and went on and stayed the next +night with the Claytons. It isn't astonishing that he didn't come here, +after the row there was on the last occasion." + +"Go on," prompted Evelyn impatiently. "What has his visit to the +Clayton's to do with it?" + +"Well, you don't know that I saw Gerald in the afternoon. After all, he's +the only brother I've got; and as Jim was going to the station with the +trap I made him take me. The Claytons were in the garden; we were +scattered about, and I heard Frank and Gerald, who had strolled off from +the others, talking. Gerald was telling him about some things he'd +bought--they must have been expensive, because Frank asked him where he +got the money. Gerald laughed and said he'd had an unexpected stroke of +luck that had set him straight again. Now, of course Gerald got no money +from home, and if he'd won it he would have told Frank how he did so. +Gerald always would tell a thing like that." + +Evelyn was filled with confusion and hot indignation. She had little +doubt that Mabel's surmise was correct. + +"I wonder whether he has told anybody; though it's scarcely likely." + +Mabel laughed. + +"Of course he hasn't. We all know what Gerald is. Before I came home, I +asked him what he thought of Wallace. He said he was a good sort, or +something like that, and I saw that he had a reason for saying it; but +he must go on in his patronizing style that Wallace was rather +Colonial, though he hadn't drifted too far--not beyond reclamation. +After all, Wallace was one of--us--before he went out; and if Carroll's +Colonial he's the kind of man I like. I was so angry with Gerald I +wanted to slap him!" + +There was no doubt that Mabel was a staunch partizan, and Evelyn +sympathized with her. She was, of course, acquainted with her brother's +character, and she was filled with indignant contempt for him. It was +intolerable that he should have allowed Vane to discharge his debts and +then have alluded to him in terms of indulgent condescension. + +"It strikes me Wallace ought to get his money back, now that you have +sent him away," Mabel added. "But of course that's most unlikely. It +wouldn't take Gerald long to waste it." + +Evelyn rose and, making some excuse, left the room. She could feel her +face growing hot, and Mabel had unusually keen eyes and precocious powers +of deduction. A suspicion which had troubled her more than Gerald's +conduct had lately crept into her mind, and it now thrust itself upon her +attention; several things pointed to the fact that her father had taken +the same course her brother had done. She felt that had she heard Mabel's +information before the interview with Vane, she might have yielded to him +in an agony of humiliation. Mabel had summed up the situation with +stinging candor and crudity--Vane, who had been defrauded, was entitled +to recover his money. For a few moments Evelyn was furiously angry with +him, and then, growing calmer, she recognized that this was unreasonable. +She could not imagine any idea of a compact originating with the man, and +he had quietly acquiesced in her decision. + +Soon after she left her sister, Vane walked into the room which Chisholm +reserved for his own use. It was handsomely furnished, and the big, +light-oak writing-table and glass-fronted cabinets were examples of +artistic handicraft. The sight of them jarred on Vane, who had already +surmised that it was the women of the Chisholm family who were expected +to practise self-denial. Chisholm was sitting at the table with some +papers in front of him and a cigar in his hand, and Vane drew out a chair +and lighted his pipe before he addressed him. + +"I've made up my mind to sail on Saturday, instead of next week," he +said abruptly. + +"You have decided rather suddenly, haven't you?" Chisholm suggested. + +Vane knew that what his host wished to know was the cause of the +decision, and he meant to come to the point. He was troubled by no +consideration for the man. + +"The last news I had indicated that I was wanted," he replied. "After +all, there is only one reason why I have abused Mrs. Chisholm's +hospitality so long." + +"Well?" + +"You will remember what I asked you some time ago. I had better say that +I retire from the position--abandon the idea." + +Chisholm started and his florid face grew redder, while Vane, in place of +embarrassment, was conscious of a somewhat grim amusement. It seemed +curious that a man of Chisholm's stamp should have any pride. + +"What am I to understand by that?" Chisholm asked with some asperity. + +"I think that what I said explained it. Bearing in mind your and Mrs. +Chisholm's influence, I've an idea that Evelyn might have yielded, if I'd +strongly urged my suit; but that was not by any means what I wanted. I'd +naturally prefer a wife who married me because she wished to do so. +That's why, after thinking the thing over, I've decided to--withdraw." + +Chisholm straightened himself in his chair in fiery indignation, which he +made no attempt to conceal. + +"You mean that after asking my consent, and seeing more of Evelyn, you +have changed your mind! Can't you understand that it's an unpardonable +confession--one which I never fancied a man born and brought up in your +station could have brought himself to make?" + +Vane looked at him with an impassive face. + +"It strikes me as largely a question of terms--I may not have used the +right one. Now that you know how the matter stands, you can describe it +in any way that sounds nicest. In regard to your other remark, I've been +in a good many stations, and I must admit that until lately none of them +were likely to promote much delicacy of sentiment." + +"So it seems!" Chisholm was almost too hot to sneer. "But can't you +realize how your action reflects upon my daughter?" + +Vane held himself in hand. He had only one object: to divert Chisholm's +wrath from Evelyn to himself, and he fancied that he was succeeding in +this. For the rest, he was conscious of a strong resentment against the +man. Evelyn had told him that he had started handicapped. + +"It can't reflect upon her unless you talk about it, and both you and +Mrs. Chisholm have sense enough to refrain from doing that," he answered +dryly. "I can't flatter myself that Evelyn will grieve over me." Then his +manner changed. "Now we'll get down to business. I don't purpose to call +in that loan, which will, no doubt, be a relief to you." + +He rose leisurely and strolled out of the room. + +Shortly afterward he met Carroll in the hall, and the latter glanced at +him sharply. + +"What have you been doing?" he inquired. "There's a look in your eyes I +seem to remember." + +Vane laughed. + +"I suppose I've been outraging the rules of decency; but I don't feel +ashamed. I've been acting the uncivilized Westerner, though it's possible +that I rather strained the part. To come to the point, however, we pull +out for the Dominion first thing to-morrow." + +Carroll asked no further questions; he did not think it would serve any +purpose. He contented himself with making arrangements for their +departure, which they took early on the morrow. Vane had a brief +interview with Mabel, and then by her contrivance he secured a word or +two with Evelyn alone. + +"It is possible," he told her, "that you may hear some hard things of +me--and I count upon your not contradicting them. After all, I think you +owe me that favor. There's just another matter--now that I won't be here +to trouble you, won't you try to think of me leniently?" + +He held her hand for a moment and then turned away, and a few minutes +later he and Carroll left the Dene. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +IN VANCOUVER + + +About a fortnight after Vane's return to Vancouver, he sat one evening on +the veranda of Nairn's house, in company with his host and Carroll, +lazily looking down upon the inlet. The days were growing shorter; the +air was clear and cool; and the snow upon the heights across the still, +blue water was creeping lower down. The clatter of a steamer's winches +rose sharply from the wharf, and the sails of two schooners gleamed +against the dark pines that overhang the Narrows. + +In some respects, Vane was glad to be back in the western city. At first, +the ease and leisure at the Dene had their charm for him, but by degrees +he came to chafe at them. The green English valley, hemmed in by its +sheltering hills, was steeped in too profound a tranquillity; the stream +of busy life passed it by with scarcely an entering ripple to break its +drowsy calm. One found its atmosphere enervating, dulling to the +faculties. In the new West, however, one was forcibly thrust into contact +with a strenuous activity. Life was free and untrammeled there; it flowed +with a fierce joyousness in natural channels, and one could feel the +eager throb of it. + +Yet the man was not content. He had been to the mine, and in going and +coming he had ridden far over a very rough trail, but the physical effort +had not afforded a sufficient outlet for his pent-up energies. He had +afterward lounged about the city for nearly a week, and he found this +becoming monotonous. + +Nairn presently referred to one of the papers in his hand. + +"Horsfield has been bringing up that smelter project again, and there's +something to be said in favor of his views," he remarked. "We're paying a +good deal for reduction." + +"We couldn't keep a smelter going, at present," Vane objected. + +"There are two or three low-grade mineral properties in the neighborhood +of the Clermont that have had very little development work done on them. +They can't pay freight on their raw product, but I'm thinking that we'd +encourage their owners to open up the mines, and we'd get their business, +if we had a smelter handy." + +"It wouldn't amount to much," Vane replied. "Besides, there's another +objection--we haven't the money to put up a thoroughly efficient plant." + +"Horsfield's ready to find part of it and to do the work." + +"I know he is." Vane frowned. "It strikes me he's suspiciously anxious. +The arrangement he has in view would give him a pretty strong hold upon +the company; and there are ways in which he could squeeze us." + +"It's possible. But, looking at it as a purely personal matter, there are +inducements he could offer ye. Horsfield's a man who has the handling of +other folks' money, if he has no that much of his own. It might be wise +to stand in with him." + +"So he hinted," Vane answered dryly. + +"Your argument was about the worst you could have used, Mr. Nairn," +Carroll laughed. + +"Weel," drawled Nairn good-humoredly, "I'm no urging it. I would not see +your partner make enemies for the want of a warning." + +"He'd probably do so, in any case; it's a gift of his. On the other hand, +it's fortunate that he has a way of making friends. The two things +sometimes go together." + +Vane turned to Nairn with signs of impatience. + +"It might save trouble if I state that while I'm a director of the +Clermont I expect to be content with a fair profit on my stock in +the company." + +"He's modest," Carroll commented. "What he means is that he doesn't +propose to augment that profit by taking advantage of his position." + +"It's a creditable idea, though I'm no sure it's as common as might be +desired. While I have to thank ye for it, I would not consider the +explanation altogether necessary." Nairn's eyes twinkled for a moment, +and then he turned seriously to Vane. "Now we come to another point--the +company's a small one, the mine is doing satisfactorily, and the moment's +favorable for the floating of mineral properties. If we got an option on +the half-developed claims near the Clermont and went into the market, +it's likely that an issue of new stock would meet with the favor of +investors." + +"I suppose so," Vane responded. "I'll support such a scheme when I can +see how an increased capital could be used to advantage and am convinced +about the need for a smelter. At present that's not the case." + +"I mentioned it as a duty---ye'll hear more of it. For the rest, I'm +inclined to agree with ye." + +A few minutes later, Nairn went into the house with Carroll, and as they +entered he glanced at his companion. + +"In the present instance, Mr. Vane's views are sound," he said. "But I +see difficulties before him in his business career." + +"So do I," smiled Carroll. "When he grapples with them it will be by a +frontal attack." + +"A bit of compromise is judicious now and then." + +"In a general way, it's not likely to appeal to Vane. When he can't get +through by direct means, there'll be something wrecked. You'd better +understand what kind of man he is." + +Nairn made a sign of concurrence. + +"It's no the first time I've been enlightened upon the point." + +Shortly after they had disappeared, Miss Horsfield came out of another +door, and Vane rose when she approached him. He had always found her a +pleasant companion. + +"Mrs. Nairn told me I would find you and the others on the veranda," she +informed him. "She said she would join you presently. It is too fine an +evening to stay in." + +"I'm alone, as you see. Nairn and Carroll have just deserted me: but I +can't complain. What pleases me most about this house is that you can +do what you like in it, and--within limits--the same thing applies to +this city." + +Jessy laughed as she sank gracefully into the chair he drew forward. She +was, as a rule, deliberate in her movements, and her pose was usually an +effective one. + +"Yes," she replied; "I think that would please you. But how long have you +been back?" + +"A fortnight, yesterday." + +There was a hint of reproach in Jessy's glance. + +"Then I think Mrs. Nairn might have brought you over to see us." + +Vane wondered whether she meant that she was surprised that he had not +come of his own accord. He felt mildly flattered. She was interesting, +and knew how to listen sympathetically, as well as how to talk, and she +was also a lady of station in the western city. + +"I was away at the mine a good deal of the time," he explained. + +"I wonder if you are sorry to get back?" + +Turning a little, Vane indicated the climbing city, rising tier on tier +above its water-front; and then the broad expanse of blue inlet and the +faint white line of towering snow. + +"Wouldn't anything I could say in praise of Vancouver be a trifle +superfluous?" he asked. + +Jessy recognized that he had parried her question neatly, but this did +not deter her. She was anxious to learn whether he had felt any regret at +leaving England, or, to be more concise, if there was anybody in that +country from whom he had reluctantly parted. She admitted that the man +attracted her. There was a breezy freshness about him which he had +brought from the rocks and woods, and though she was acquainted with a +number of young men whose conversation was characterized by snap and +sparkle, they needed toning down. This miner was set apart from them by +something which he had doubtless acquired in youth in the older land. + +"That wasn't quite what I meant," she returned. "We don't always want to +be flattered. I'm in search of information. You told me that you had +been eight or nine years in this country, and life must be rather +different yonder. How did it and the people you belong to strike you +after the absence?" + +"It's difficult to explain," Vane replied with an air of amused +reflection which hinted that he meant to get away from the point. "On +the whole, I think I'm more interested in the question as to how I +struck them. It's curious that whereas some people here insist on +considering me English, I've a suspicion that they looked upon me as a +typical Colonial there." + +"One wouldn't like to think you resented it." + +"How could I? This land sheltered me when I was an outcast; it provided +me with a living, widened my views, and set me on my feet." + +"Ah!" murmured Jessy, "you are the kind we don't mind taking in. The +others go back and try to forget us, or abuse us. But you haven't given +me very much information yet." + +"Well," drawled Vane, "the best comparison is supplied by my first +remark--that in this city you can do what you like. You're rather fenced +in yonder. If you're of a placid disposition, that, no doubt, is +comforting, because it shuts out unpleasant things. On the other hand, if +you happen to be restless and active, the fences are inconvenient, for +you can't always climb over--and it is not considered proper to break +them down. Still, having admitted that, I'm proud of the old land. If one +has means and will conform, it's the finest country in the world! It's +only the fences that irritate me." + +"Fences would naturally be obnoxious to you. But we have some here." + +"They're generally built loose, of split-rails, and not nailed. An +energetic man can pull off a bar or two and stride over. If it's +necessary, he can afterward put them up again, and there's no harm done." + +"Would you do the latter?" + +Vane's expression changed. + +"No. I think if there were anything good on the other side, I'd widen the +gap so that the less agile and the needy could crawl through." He smiled +at her. "You see, I owe some of them a good deal. They were the only +friends I had when I first tramped, jaded and footsore, about the +Province." + +Jessy was pleased with his answer. She had heard of the free hospitality +of the bush choppers, and she thought it was a graceful thing that he +should acknowledge his debt to them. She was also pleased that she could +lead him on to talk unreservedly. + +"Now at last you'll be content to rest a while," she suggested. "I dare +say you deserve it." + +"It's strange that you should say that, because just before you came out +of the house I was thinking that I'd sat still long enough. It's a thing +that gets monotonous. One must keep going on." + +"Take care that you don't walk over a precipice some day when you have +left all the fences behind. But I've kept you from your meditations, and +I had better see if Mrs. Nairn is coming." + +He was sitting alone, lighting a cigar, when he noticed a girl whose +appearance seemed familiar in the road below. Moving along the veranda, +he recognized her as Kitty, and hastily crossed the lawn toward her. She +was accompanied by a young man whom Vane had once or twice seen in the +city, and she greeted him with evident pleasure. + +"Tom," she introduced, when they had exchanged a few words, "this is Mr. +Vane." Turning to Vane she added: "Mr. Drayton." + +Vane liked the man's face and manner. He shook hands with him, and then +looked back at Kitty. + +"What are you doing now; and how are little Elsie and her mother?" + +Kitty's face clouded. + +"Mrs. Marvin's dead. Elsie's with some friends at Spokane, and I think +she's well looked after. I've given up the stage. Tom"--she explained +shyly--"didn't like it. Now I'm with some people at a ranch near the +Fraser, on the Westminster road. There are two or three children, and I'm +very fond of them." + +"She won't be there long," Drayton interposed. "I've wanted to meet you +for some time, Mr. Vane. They told me at the office that you were away." + +Vane smiled comprehendingly. + +"I suppose my congratulations will not be out of place? Won't you ask me +to the wedding?" + +Kitty blushed. + +"Will you come?" + +"Try!" + +"There's nobody we would rather see," declared Drayton. "I'm heavily in +your debt, Mr. Vane." + +"Pshaw!" rejoined Vane. "Come to see me any time--to-morrow, if you can +manage it." + +Drayton said that he would do so, and shortly afterward he and Kitty +moved away. Vane turned back across the lawn; but he was not aware that +Jessy Horsfield had watched the meeting from the veranda and had +recognized Kitty, whom she had once seen at the station. She had already +ascertained that the girl had arrived in Vancouver in Vane's company, +and, in view of the opinion she had formed of him, this somewhat puzzled +her; but she decided that one must endeavor to be charitable. Besides, +having closely watched the little group, she was inclined to believe from +the way Vane shook hands with the man that there was no danger to be +apprehended from Kitty. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A NEW PROJECT + + +Vane was sitting alone in the room set apart for the Clermont Company in +Nairn's office when Drayton was shown in. He took the chair Vane +indicated and lighted a cigar the latter gave him. + +"Now," he began with some diffidence, "you cut me off short when I met +you the other day, and one of my reasons for coming over was to get +through with what I was saying then. It's just this--I owe you a good +deal for taking care of Kitty; she's very grateful and thinks no end of +you. I want to say I'll always feel that you have a claim on me." + +Vane smiled at him. It was evident that Kitty had taken her lover into +her confidence with regard to her trip aboard the sloop, and that she had +done so said a good deal for her. He thought one might have expected a +certain amount of half-jealous resentment, or even faint suspicion, on +the man's part; but there was no sign of this. Drayton believed in Kitty, +and that was strongly in his favor. + +"It didn't cost me any trouble," Vane replied. "We were coming to +Vancouver, anyway." + +Drayton's embarrassment became more obvious. + +"It cost you some money--there were the tickets. Now I feel that I +have to--" + +"Nonsense! When you are married to Miss Blake, you can pay me back, if +it will be a relief to you. When's the wedding to be?" + +"In a couple of months," answered Drayton. He saw that it would be +useless to protest. "I'm a clerk in the Winstanley mills, and as one of +the staff is going, I'll get a move up then. We are to be married as +soon as I do." + +He said a little more on the same subject, and then after a few moments' +silence he added: + +"I wonder if the Clermont business keeps your hands full, Mr. Vane?" + +"It doesn't. It's a fact I'm beginning to regret." + +Drayton appeared to consider. + +"Well," he said, "people seem to regard you as a rising man with snap in +him, and there's a matter I might, perhaps, bring before you. Let me +explain. I'm a clerk on small pay, but I've taken an interest outside my +routine work in the lumber trade of this Province and its subsidiary +branches. I figured any knowledge I could pick up might stand me in some +money some day. So far"--he smiled ruefully--"it hasn't done so." + +"Go on," prompted Vane. His curiosity was aroused. + +"It has struck me that pulping spruce--paper spruce--is likely to be +scarce presently. The supply's not unlimited and the world's consumption +is going up by jumps." + +"There's a good deal of timber you could use for pulp, in British +Columbia alone," Vane interposed. + +"Sure. But there's not a very great deal that could be milled into +high-grade paper pulp; and it's getting rapidly worked out in most other +countries. Then, as a rule, it's mixed up with firs, cedars and +cypresses; and that means the cutting of logging roads to each cluster of +milling trees. There's another point--a good deal of the spruce lies back +from water or a railroad, and in some cases it would be costly to bring +in a milling plant or to pack the pulp out." + +"That's obvious; anyway, where you would have to haul every pound of +freight over a breakneck divide." + +Drayton leaned forward confidentially. + +"Then if one struck high-grade paper spruce--a whole valley full of +it--with water power and easy access to the sea, there ought to be money +in the thing?" + +"Yes," Vane answered with growing interest; "that strikes me as very +probable." + +"I believe I could put you on the track of such a valley." + +Vane looked at him thoughtfully. + +"We'd better understand each other. Do you want to sell me your +knowledge? And have you offered it to anybody else?" + +His companion answered with the candor he expected. + +"Kitty and I aren't going to find it easy to get along--rents are high in +this city. I want to give her as much as I can; but I'm willing to leave +you to do the square thing. The Winstanley people have their hands full +and won't look at any outside matter, and the one or two people I've +spoken to don't seem anxious to consider it. It's mighty hard for a +little man to launch a project." + +"It is," Vane agreed sympathetically. + +"Then," Drayton continued, "the idea's not my own. It was a mineral +prospector--a relative of mine--who struck the valley on his last trip. +He's an old man, and he came down played out and sick. Now I guess he's +slowly dying." He paused a moment. "Would you like to see him?" + +"I'll go with you now, if it's convenient," Vane replied. + +Drayton said that he might spare another half-hour without getting into +trouble, and they crossed the city to where a row of squalid frame +shacks stood on its outskirts. In the one they entered, a gaunt man +with grizzled hair lay upon a rickety bed. A glance showed Vane that +the man was very frail, and the harsh cough that he broke into as the +colder air from outside flowed in made the fact clearer. Drayton, +hastily shutting the door and explaining the cause of the visit, +motioned Vane to sit down. + +"I've heard of you," said the prospector, fixing his eyes on Vane. +"You're the man who located the Clermont--and put the project through. +You had the luck. I've been among the ranges half my life--and you can +see how much I've made of it! When I struck a claim that was worth +anything somebody else got the money." + +Vane had reasons for believing that this was not an uncommon experience. + +"Well," the man continued, "you look straight--and I've got to take some +chances. It's my last stake. We'll get down to business. I'll tell you +about that spruce." + +He spoke for a few minutes, and then asked abruptly: + +"What are you going to offer?" + +Vane had not been certain that he would make any offer at all; but, as +had befallen him once or twice before, the swift decision flashed +instinctively into his mind. + +"If I find that the timber and its location come up to your account of +it, I'll pay you so many dollars down--whatever we can agree on--when I +get my lease from the land office. Then I'll make another equal payment +the day we start the mill. But I don't bind myself to record the timber +or to put up a mill, unless I'm convinced that it's worth while." + +"I'd rather take less money and have a small share in the concern; and +Drayton must stand in." + +"It's a question of terms," Vane replied. "I'll consider your views." + +They discussed it for a while, and when they had at length arrived at a +provisional understanding, the prospector made a sign of acquiescence. + +"We'll let it go at that; but the thing will take time, and I'll +never get the money. If you exercise your option, you'll sure pay it +down to Seely?" + +"Celia's his daughter," Drayton explained. "He has no one else. She's a +waitress at the ---- House." He named a hotel of no great standing in the +city. "Comes home at nights, and looks after him as best she can." + +Vane glanced round the room. It was evident that Celia's earnings were +small; but he noticed several things which suggested that she had +lavished loving care upon the sick man, probably at the cost of severe +self-denial. This was what he would have expected, for he had spent most +of his nine years in Canada among the people who toil the hardest for +the least reward. + +"Yes," he answered; "I'll promise that. But, as I pointed out, while we +have agreed on the two payments, I reserve the right of deciding what +share your daughter and Drayton are to have, within the limits sketched +out. I can't fix it definitely until I've seen the timber--you'll have to +trust me." + +The prospector once more looked at him steadily, and then implied by a +gesture that he was satisfied. He was not in a position to dictate terms, +but his confidence had its effect on the man in whom he reposed it. + +"There's another thing. You'll do all you can to find that spruce?" + +"Yes," Vane promised. + +The man fumbled under his pillow and produced a piece cut out from a map +of the Province, with rough pencil notes on the back of it. + +"It was on my last prospecting trip I found the spruce," he said. "I'd +been looking round, and I figured I'd strike down to the coast over the +range. The creeks were full up with snow-water, and as I was held up here +and there before I could get across, provisions began to run short. Then +I fell down a gulch and hurt my knee, and as I had to leave my tent and +it rained most of the while, I lay in the wet at nights, half-fed, with +my knee getting worse. By and by I fell sick; but I had to get out of the +mountains, and I was pushing on for the straits when I struck the valley +where the spruce is. After that, I got kind of muddled in the head, but I +went down a long valley on an easy grade and struck some Siwash curing +the last of the salmon. The trouble is, I was too sick to figure exactly +where the small inlet they were camped by lies. They took me back with +them to their rancherie--you could find that--and sailed me across to +Comox. I came down on a steamboat, and the doctor told me I'd made my +last journey." + +Vane could sympathize. The narrative had been crudely matter-of-fact, but +he had been out on the prospecting trail often enough to fill in the +details the sick man omitted. He had slept in the rain, very scantily +fed, and he could picture the starving man limping along in an agony of +pain and exhaustion, with an injured knee, over boulders and broken rock +and through dense tangles of underbrush strewed with mighty fallen logs. + +"How far was the valley from the inlet?" he asked. + +"I can't tell you. I think I was three days on the trail; but it might +have been more. I was too sick to remember. Anyway, there was a creek you +could run the logs down." + +"Well, how far was the inlet from the rancherie?" + +"I was in the canoe part of one night and some of the next day. I can't +get it any clearer. We had a fair breeze. Guess thirty miles wouldn't +be far out." + +"That's something to go upon. How much does your daughter earn?" + +It was an abrupt change of subject, but the man answered as Vane had +expected. The girl's wages might maintain her economically, but it was +difficult to see how she could provide for her sick father. The latter +seemed to guess Vane's thoughts, for he spoke again. + +"If I'd known I was done for when I was up in the bush, I wouldn't have +pushed on quite so fast," he said with expressive simplicity. + +Vane rose. + +"If Drayton will come along with me, I'll send him back with a hundred +dollars. It's part of the first payment. Your getting it now should make +things a little easier for Celia." + +"But you haven't located the spruce yet!" + +"I'm going to locate it, if the thing's anyway possible." Vane shook +hands with the man. "I expect to get off up the straits very shortly." + +The prospector looked at him with relief and gratitude in his eyes. + +"You're white--and I guess you'd be mighty hard to beat!" + +When they reached the rutted street, which was bordered on one side by +great fir stumps, Drayton glanced at Vane with open admiration. + +"I'm glad I brought you across. You have a way of getting hold of +people--making them believe in you. Hartley hasn't a word in writing, but +he knows you mean to act square with him. Kitty felt the same thing--it +was why she came down in the sloop with you." + +Vane smiled, though there was a trace of embarrassment in his manner. + +"Now that you mention it, I don't think Hartley was wise; and you were +equally confiding. We have only arrived at a rather indefinite +understanding about your share." + +"We'll leave it at that. I haven't struck anybody else in this city who +would hear about the thing. Anyway, I'd prefer a few shares in the +concern, as mentioned, instead of money. If you get the thing on foot, I +guess it will go." + +"Won't they raise trouble at the mill about your staying out?" Vane +inquired. "We have still to go for that hundred dollars." + +Drayton owned that it might be advisable to hurry, and they set off for +the business quarter of the city. + +During the remainder of the day Vane was busy on board the sloop, but in +the evening he walked over to Horsfield's house with Mrs. Nairn and found +Jessy and her brother at home. Horsfield presently took Vane to his +smoking-room. + +"About that smelter," he began. "Haven't you made up your mind yet? The +thing's been hanging fire a long while." + +"Isn't it a matter for the board?" Vane asked suggestively. "There are +several directors." + +Horsfield laughed. + +"We'll face the fact: they'll do what you decide on." + +Vane did not reply to this. + +"Well," he said, "at present we couldn't keep a smelter big enough to be +economical going, and I'm doubtful whether we would get much ore from the +other properties you were talking about to Nairn." + +"Did he say it was my idea?" + +"He didn't; I'd reasons for assuming it. Those properties, however, are +of no account." + +Horsfield made no comment but waited expectantly, and Vane went on: + +"If it seems possible that we can profitably increase our output later +on, by means of further capital, we'll put up a smelter. But in that +case it might be economical to do the work ourselves." + +"Who would superintend it?" + +"I would, if necessary, with the assistance of an engineer used to +such plant." + +Horsfield smiled in a significant manner. + +"Aren't you inclined to take hold of too much? When you have plenty in +your hands, it's good policy to leave a little for somebody else. +Sometimes the person who benefits is willing to reciprocate." + +The hint was plain, and Nairn had said sufficient on another occasion to +make it clearer; but Vane did not respond. + +"If we gave the work out, it would be on an open tender," he declared. +"There would be no reason why you shouldn't make a bid." + +Horsfield found it difficult to conceal his disgust. He had no desire to +bid on an open tender, which would prevent his obtaining anything beyond +the market price. + +"The question must stand over until I come back," Vane went on. "I'm +going up the west coast shortly and may be away some time." + +They left the smoking-room shortly afterward, and when they strolled back +to the others, Vane sat down near Jessy. + +"I hear you are going away," she began. + +"Yes. I'm going to look for pulping timber." + +"But what do you want with pulping timber?" + +"It can sometimes be converted into money." + +"Isn't there every prospect of your obtaining a good deal already? Are +you never satisfied?" + +"I suppose I'm open to take as much as I can get." + +Vane answered with an air of humorous reflection. "The reason probably is +that I've had very little until lately. Still, I don't think it's +altogether the money that is driving me." + +"If it's the restlessness you once spoke of, you ought to put a check on +it and try to be content. There's danger in the longing to be always +going on." + +"It's a common idea that a small hazard gives a thing a spice." + +Jessy shot a swift glance at him, and she had, as he noticed, +expressive eyes. + +"Be careful," she advised. "After all, it's wiser to keep within safe +limits and not climb over too many fences." She paused and her voice grew +softer. "You have friends who would be sorry if you got hurt." + +The man was stirred. She was alluring, physically, while something in her +voice had its effect on him. Evelyn, however, still occupied his thoughts +and he smiled at his companion. + +"Thank you. I like to believe it." + +Then Mrs. Nairn and Horsfield crossed the room toward them and the +conversation became general. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +VANE SAILS NORTH + + +On the evening of Vane's departure he walked out of Nairn's room just as +dusk was falling. His host was with him, and when they entered an +adjacent room the elder man's face relaxed into a smile as he saw Jessy +Horsfield talking to his wife. Vane stopped a few minutes to speak to +them, and it was Jessy who gave the signal for the group to break up. + +"I must go," she said to Mrs. Nairn. "I've already stayed longer than I +intended. I'll let you have those patterns back in a day or two." + +"Mair patterns!" Nairn exclaimed with dry amusement. "It's the second lot +this week! Ye're surely industrious, Jessy. Women"--he addressed +Vane--"have curious notions of economy. They will spend a month knitting +a thing to give to somebody who does no want it, when they could buy it +for half a dollar, done better by machinery. I'm no saying, however, that +it does no keep them out of mischief." + +Jessy laughed. + +"I don't think many of us are industrious in that way now. After all, +isn't it a pity that so many of the beautiful old handicrafts are dying +out? No loom, for instance, could turn out some of the things your wife +makes. They're matchless." + +"She has an aumrie--ye can translate it bureaufull of them. It's no +longer customary to scatter them over the house. If ye mean to copy the +lot, ye have a task that will take ye most a lifetime." + +Mrs. Nairn's smile was half a sigh. + +"There were no books and no many amusements when I was young. We sat +through the long winter forenights, counting stitches, in the old gray +house at Burnfoot, under the Scottish moors. That, my dear, was thirty +years ago." + +She shook hands with Vane as he left the house with Jessy, and standing +on the stoop she watched them cross the lawn. + +"I'm thinking ye'll no see so much of Jessy for the next few weeks," +Nairn remarked dryly. "Has she shown ye any of yon knickknacks when she +has finished them?" + +His wife shook her head at him reproachfully. + +"Alic," she admonished, "ye're now and then hasty in jumping at +conclusions." + +"Maybe. I'm no infallible, but the fault ye mention is no common in the +land where we were born. I'm no denying that Jessy has enterprise, but +how far it will carry her in this case is mair than I can tell." + +He smiled as he recalled a scene at the station some time ago, and Mrs. +Nairn looked up at him. + +"What is amusing you, Alic?" + +"It was just a bit idea no worth the mentioning. I think it would no +count." He paused, and added with an air of reflection: "A young man's +heart is whiles inconstant and susceptible." + +Mrs. Nairn, ignoring the last remark, went into the house. In the +meanwhile Jessy and Vane walked down the road, until they stopped at a +gate. Jessy held out her hand. + +"I'm glad I met you to-night," she said. "You will allow me to wish you +every success?" + +There was a softness in her voice which Vane wholly failed to notice, +though he was aware that she was pretty and artistically dressed. This +was possibly why she made him think of Evelyn. + +"Thank you," he replied. "It's nice to feel that one has the sympathy of +one's friends." + +He turned away, and Jessy stood watching him as he strode down the road, +noticing, though it was getting dark, the free vigor of his movements. +There was, she thought, something in his fine poise and swing that set +him apart from other men she knew. None of them walked or carried himself +as Vane did. She was, however, forced to recognize that although he had +answered her courteously, there had been no warmth in his words. As a +matter of fact, Vane just then was conscious of a slight relief. He +admired Jessy, and he liked Nairn and his wife; but they belonged to the +city; and he was glad, on the whole, to leave it behind. He was going +back to the shadowy woods, where men lived naturally. The lust of fresh +adventure was strong in him. + +On reaching the wharf he found Kitty, with Celia Hartley, whom he had not +met hitherto, awaiting him with Carroll and Drayton. A boat lay at the +steps, and he and Carroll rowed the others off to the sloop. The moon was +just rising from behind the black firs at the inner end of the inlet, and +a little cold wind that blew down across them, faintly scented with +resinous fragrance, stirred the water into tiny ripples that flashed into +silvery radiance here and there. Lights gleamed on the forestays of +vessels whose tall spars were etched in high, black tracery against the +dusky blue of the sky, athwart which there streamed the long smoke trail +of a steamer passing out through the Narrows. + +Kitty, urged by Drayton, broke into a little song with a smooth, swinging +cadence that went harmoniously with the measured splash of oars; and Vane +enjoyed it all. The city was dropping behind him; he felt himself at +liberty. Carroll was a tried comrade; the others were simple people whose +views were more or less his own. Besides, it was a glorious night and +Kitty sang charmingly. + +A soft glow shone out from the skylights to welcome them as they +approached the sloop. When, laughing gaily, they clambered on board, +Carroll led the way to the tiny saloon, which just held them all. It was +brightly lighted by two nickeled lamps; flowers were fastened against the +paneling, and clusters of them stood upon the table, which was covered +with a spotless cloth. What was even more unusual, it was daintily set +out with good china and silver. Vane took the head of it, and Carroll +modestly explained that only part of the supper had been prepared by +himself. The rest he had obtained in the city, out of regard for the +guests, who, he added, had not lived in the bush. Presently Vane, who had +been busy talking to the others, turned to Celia. + +"Now that we can see each other better, I think you ought to recognize +me, Miss Hartley." + +The girl was young and attractive, and she blushed prettily. + +"I do, of course; but I thought I'd wait until I saw whether you +remembered me." + +"Why should you wait?" + +Celia looked confused. + +"It's two or three years since I've seen you; and I've left that place." + +Vane laughed. He had made her acquaintance at a workman's hotel where she +was engaged, when he was differently situated, and he fancied that she +was diffident about recalling the fact, now that he was obviously +prosperous. + +"Well," he responded, "it's only fair that I should give you supper, for +once. I've always had an idea that you brought me more dessert than I was +really entitled to." + +"It was because you were--civil," Celia explained, though her expression +suggested that the word did not convey all she meant. "Still, I can't +complain of the rest of the boys." + +"I wonder if you remember how astonished you were the first time you +brought me supper?" + +Celia smiled and Vane turned to the others. + +"I'd just come in on a schooner. We'd had wild weather, during which the +galley fire was generally washed out and the cook had some difficulty in +getting us anything to eat. Miss Hartley brought me a double supply. She +must have thought I needed it." + +"There was mighty little left," the girl retorted. + +The others laughed, but Vane went on, in a reminiscent manner: + +"I was wearing a pair of old gum-boots with one toe torn off, and my +jacket was split right up the back. When I went up-town the next day, +people looked at me suspiciously. The trade of the Province is pretty +bad when you see men in Vancouver dressed as I was. The fact that sticks +in my mind most clearly, however, is that on the following morning, when +I'd arranged to see a man who might give me a job, Miss Hartley offered +to sew up the tear for me. I was uncommonly glad to let her." + +Celia colored again, but it was evident that she was not displeased. +Kitty smiled at him, and there was appreciation in Drayton's eyes. + +"Were you surprised when she offered to sew it?" Kitty inquired. + +"Now, you have helped me on to what I wanted to say. I wasn't +surprised--how could I be? The kind of people I'd met out here had seldom +much money, or much of anything; but I had generally less, and they held +out a hand when I needed it and gave me what they had. It stirs me in a +way that almost hurts to think of it." + +Then Carroll started the general chatter, which went on after the meal +was finished, and nobody appeared to notice that Kitty sat with her hand +in Drayton's amid the happy laughter. Even Celia, who had her grief to +grapple with, smiled bravely. Vane had given them champagne, the best in +the city, though they drank sparingly; and at last, when Celia made a +move to rise, Drayton stood up with his glass in his hand. + +"We must go, but there's something to be done," he announced. "It's to +thank our host and wish him success. It's a little boat he's sailing in, +but she's carrying a big freight, if our good wishes count for anything." + +They emptied the glasses, and Vane replied: + +"My success is yours. You have all a stake in the venture, and that +piles up my responsibility. If the spruce is still in existence, I've +got to find it." + +"And you're going to find it!" declared Drayton. "It's a sure thing!" + +Vane divided the flowers between Celia and Kitty, but when they went up +on deck Kitty raised one bunch and kissed it. + +"Tom won't mind," she laughed. "Take that one back from Celia and +me--for luck." + +They got down into the boat, and Carroll handed them a basket of crockery +and table linen which Drayton promised to have delivered at the hotel. +Then, while the girls called back to Vane, Drayton rowed away, and the +boat was fading out of sight when Kitty's voice once more reached the men +on board. She was singing a well-known Jacobite ballad. + +Carroll laughed softly. + +"It strikes me as appropriate," he said. "Considering what his Highland +followers suffered on his account and what the women thought of him, some +of the virtues they credited the Young Chevalier with must have been +real." He raised his hand. "You may as well listen!" + +Vane stood still a moment, with the blood hot in his face, as the refrain +rang more clearly across the sparkling water: + +"Better lo'ed ye cannot be-- +Will ye no come back to me?" + +"I don't know whether you feel flattered, but I've an idea that Kitty and +Celia would go through fire for you; and Drayton seems to share their +confidence," Carroll went on in his most matter-of-fact tone. + +"Celia mended my jacket," Vane replied. "I got a month's work as a +result of it." Then he began to shake the mainsail loose. "I believe +we both went rather far in our talk to-night; but we have got to find +the spruce!" + +"So you have said already. Hadn't you better heave the boom up with the +topping lift?" + +They got the mainsail onto her, broke out the anchor and set the jib; and +as the boat slipped away before a freshening breeze Vane sat at the helm +while Carroll stood on the foredeck, coiling up the gear. The moon was +higher now; the broad sail gleamed a silvery gray; the ripples, which +were getting bigger, flashed and sparkled as they streamed back from the +bows; and the lights of the city dropped fast astern. Vane was conscious +of a keen exhilaration. He had started on a new adventure. He was going +back to the bush; and he knew that, no matter how his life might change, +the wilderness would always call to him. In spite of this, however, he +was, as he had said, conscious of an unusual responsibility. Hitherto he +had fought for what he could get, for himself; but now Kitty's future +partly depended on his efforts, and his success would be of vast +importance to Celia. + +He had a very friendly feeling toward both the girls. Indeed, all the +women he had met of late had attracted him, in different ways. It was +hard to believe that any of them possessed unlovable qualities, though +there was not one among them to compare with Evelyn. Whatever he liked +most in the others--intelligence, beauty, tenderness, courage--reminded +him of her. Kitty, he thought, belonged to the hearth; she personified +gentleness and solace; it would be her part to diffuse cheerful comfort +in the home. Jessy would make an ambitious man's companion; a clever +counselor, who would urge him forward if he lagged. Celia he had not +placed yet; but Evelyn stood apart from all. + +She appealed less to his senses and intellect than she did to a +sublimated something in the depths of his nature; and it somehow seemed +fitting that her image should materialize before his mental vision as the +sloop drove along under the cloudless night sky while the moonlight +poured down glamour on the shining water. Evelyn harmonized with such +things as these. + +It was true that she had repulsed him; but that, he felt, was what he +deserved for entering into an alliance against her with her venial +father. He was glad now that he had acquiesced in her dismissal of him, +since to have stood firm and broken her to his will would have brought +disaster upon both of them. He felt that she had not wholly escaped him, +after all; by and by he would go back and seek her favor by different +means. Then she might, perhaps, forgive him and listen. + +The breeze came down fresher as they drove out through the Narrows. +Carroll had gone below; and, brushing his thoughts aside, Vane busied +himself hauling in some of the mainsheet, while the water splashed more +loudly beneath the bows. The great black firs rolled by in somber +masses over his port hand, and presently the last of the lights were +blotted out. He was alone, flitting swiftly and smoothly across the +glittering sea. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE FIRST MISADVENTURE + + +The breeze freshened fiercely with the red and fiery dawn. Vane, who had +gone below, was advised of it by being flung off the locker in the +saloon, where he sat with coffee and crackers before him. The jug, +overturning, spilled its contents upon him, and the crackers were +scattered, but he picked himself up in haste and scrambled out into the +well. He found the sloop slanted over with a good deal of her lee deck +submerged in rushing foam, and Carroll bracing himself against the strain +upon the tiller. To windward, the sea looked as if it had been strewed +with feathers, for there were flecks and blurs of white everywhere. + +"I'll let her come up when you're ready!" Carroll shouted. "We'd better +get some sail off her, if we mean to hold on to the mast!" + +He thrust down his helm; and the sloop, forging round to windward, rose +upright, with her heavy main-boom banging to and fro. After that, they +were desperately busy for a few minutes. Vane wished that they had +engaged a hand in Vancouver, instead of waiting to hire a Siwash +somewhere up the coast. There was the headsail to haul to windward, which +was difficult, and the mainsheet to get in; then the two men, standing on +the slippery, inclined deck, struggled hard to haul the canvas down to +the boom. The jerking spar smote them in the ribs; once or twice the +reefing tackle beneath it was torn from their hands; but they mastered +the sail, tying two reefs in it, to reduce its size; and the craft drove +away with her lee rail just awash. + +"You'd better go down and get some crackers," Vane advised his comrade. +"You'll find them rolling up and down the floor. I spilled the coffee, +but perhaps the kettle's still on the stove. Anyhow, you may not have an +opportunity later." + +"It looks like that," Carroll agreed. "The wind's backing northward, and +that means more of it before long. You can call, if you want me." + +He disappeared below, and Vane sat at the helm with a frown on his face. +An angry coppery glare streamed down upon the white-flecked water which +gleamed in the lurid light. It was very cold, but there was a wonderful +quality that set the blood tingling in the nipping air. Even upon the +high peaks and in the trackless bush, one fails to find the bracing +freshness that comes with the dawn at sea. + +Vane, however, knew that the breeze would increase and draw ahead, which +was unfortunate, because they would have to beat, fighting for every +fathom they slowly made. There was no help for it, and he buttoned his +jacket against the spray. By the time Carroll came up the sloop was +plunging sharply, pitching showers of stinging brine all over her when +the bows went down. They drove her at it stubbornly most of the day, +making but little to windward, while the seas got bigger and whiter, +until they had some trouble to keep the light boat they carried upon the +deluged deck. At last, when she came bodily aft amid a frothing cascade +which poured into the well, Vane brought the sloop round, and they +stretched away to eastward, until they could let go the anchor in smooth +water beneath a wall of rock. They were very wet, and were stiff with +cold, for winter was drawing near. + +"We'll get supper," said Vane. "If the breeze drops a little at dusk, +which is likely, we'll go on again." + +Having eaten little since dawn, they enjoyed the meal; and Carroll would +have been content to remain at anchor afterward. The tiny saloon was +comfortably warm, and he thought it would be pleasanter to lounge away +the evening on a locker, with his pipe, than to sit amid the bitter spray +at the helm. The breeze had fallen a little, but the firs in a valley +ashore were still wailing loudly. Vane, however, was proof against his +companion's hints. + +"With a head wind, we'll be some time working up to the rancherie, and +then we have thirty miles of coast to search for the inlet Hartley +reached. After that, there's the valley to locate; he was uncertain how +far it lay from the beach." + +"It couldn't be very far. You wouldn't expect a man who was sick and +badly lame to make any great pace." + +"I can imagine a man, who knew he must reach the coast before he starved, +making a pretty vigorous effort. If he were worked-up and desperate, the +pain might turn him savage and drive him on, instead of stopping him. Do +you remember the time we crossed the divide in the snow?" + +"I could remember it, if I wanted to," Carroll answered with a shiver. +"As it happens, that's about the last thing I'm anxious to do." + +"The trouble is that there are a good many valleys in this strip of +country, and we may have to try a number before we strike the right one. +Winter's not far off, and I can't spend very much time over this search. +As soon as the man we put in charge of the mine has tried his present +system long enough to give us something to figure on, I want to see what +can be done to increase our output. We haven't marketed very much refined +metal yet." + +"There's no doubt that it would be advisable," Carroll answered +thoughtfully. "As I've pointed out, you have spent a good deal of the +cash you got when you turned the Clermont over to the company. In fact, +that's one reason why I didn't try to head off this timber-hunting +scheme. You can't spend much over the search, and if the spruce comes up +to expectations, you ought to get it back. It would be a fortunate +change, after your extravagance in England." + +Vane frowned. + +"That's a subject I don't want to talk about. We'll go up and see what +the weather's like." + +Carroll shivered when they stood in the well. It was falling dusk, and +the sky was a curious cold, shadowy blue. A nipping wind came down across +the darkening firs ashore, but there was no doubt that it had fallen +somewhat, and Carroll resigned himself when Vane began to pull the tiers +off the mainsail. + +In a few minutes they were under way, the sloop heading out toward open +water with two reefs down in her mainsail, a gray and ghostly shape of +slanted canvas that swept across the dim, furrowed plain of sea. By +midnight the breeze was as strong as ever, but they had clear moonlight +and they held on; the craft plunging with flooded decks through the +white combers, while Carroll sat at the helm, battered by spray and +stung with cold. + +When Vane came up, an hour or two later, the sea was breaking viciously. +Carroll would have put up his helm and run for shelter, had the decision +been left to him; but he saw his comrade's face in the moonlight and +refrained from any suggestion of that nature. There was a spice of +dogged obstinacy in Vane, which, although on the whole it made for +success, occasionally drove him into needless difficulties. They held +on; and soon after day broke, with its first red flush ominously high in +the eastern sky, they stretched in toward the land, with a somewhat +sheltered bay opening up beyond a foam-fringed point ahead of them. +Carroll glanced dubiously at the white turmoil in the midst of which +black fangs of rock appeared. + +"Will she weather the point on this tack?" he asked. + +"She'll have to! We'll have smoother water to work through, once we're +round, and the tide's helping her." + +They drove on, though it occurred to Carroll that they were not opening +up the bay very rapidly. The light was growing, and he could now discern +the orderly phalanxes of white-topped combers that crumbled into a +chaotic spouting on the point's outer end. It struck him that the sloop +would not last long if she touched bottom there; but once more, after a +glance at Vane's face, he kept silent. After all, Vane was leader; and +when he looked as he did then, he usually resented advice. The mouth of +the bay grew wider, until Carroll could see most of the forest-girt shore +on one side of it; but the surf upon the point was growing unpleasantly +near. Wisps of spray whirled away from it and vanished among the scrubby +firs clinging to the fissured crags behind. The sloop, however, was going +to windward, for Vane was handling her with nerve and skill. She had +almost cleared the point when there was a rattle and a bang inside of +her. Carroll started. + +"It's the centerboard coming up! It must have touched a boulder!" + +"Then jump down and lift it before it strikes another and bends!" cried +Vane. "She's far enough to windward to keep off the beach without it." + +Carroll went below and hove up the centerboard, which projected several +feet beneath the bottom of the craft; but he was not satisfied that the +sloop was far enough off the beach, as Vane seemed to be, and he got out +into the well as soon as possible. + +The worst of the surf was abreast of their quarter now, and less-troubled +water stretched away ahead. Carroll had hardly noticed this, however, +when there was a second heavy crash and the sloop stopped suddenly. The +comber to windward that should have lifted her up, broke all over her, +flinging the boat on deck upon the saloon skylight and pouring inches +deep over the coaming into the well. Vane was hurled from the tiller. His +wet face was smeared with blood, from a cut on his forehead, but he +seized a big oar to shove the sloop off, when she swung upright, moved, +and struck again. The following sea hove her up; there was a third, less +violent, crash; and as Vane dropped the oar and grasped the helm, she +suddenly shot ahead. + +"She'll go clear!" he shouted. "Jump below and see if she's damaged!" + +Carroll got no farther than the scuttle, for the saloon floorings on the +depressed side were already awash, and he could hear an ominous splashing +and gurgling. + +"It's pouring into her!" he cried. + +"Then, you'll have to pump!" + +"We passed an opening some miles to lee. Wouldn't it be better if you ran +back there?" Carroll suggested. + +"No! I won't run a yard! There's another inlet not far ahead and we'll +stand on until we reach it. I'd put her on the beach here, only that +she'd go to pieces with the first shift of the wind to westward." + +Carroll agreed with this opinion; but there is a great difference between +running to leeward with the sea behind the vessel and thrashing to +windward when it is ahead, and he hesitated. + +"Get the pump started! We're going on!" Vane said impatiently. + +Fortunately the pump was a powerful one, of the semi-rotary type, and +they had nearly two miles of smoother water before they stretched out of +the bay upon the other tack. When they did so, Carroll, glancing down +again through the scuttle, could not flatter himself that he had reduced +the water. It was comforting, however, to see that it had not increased, +though he did not expect that state of affairs to last. When they drove +out into broken water, he found it difficult to work the crank. The +plunges threw him against the coaming, and the sea poured in over it +continually. There are not many men who feel equal to determined toil +before their morning meal, and the physical slackness is generally more +pronounced if they have been up most of the preceding night; but Carroll +recognized that he had no choice. There was too much sea for the boat, +even if they could have launched her, and he could make out no spot on +the beach where it seemed possible to effect a landing if they ran the +sloop ashore. As a result of this, it behooved him to pump. + +After half an hour of it, he was breathless and exhausted, and Vane took +his place. The sea was higher; the sloop wetter than she had been; and +there was no doubt that the water was rising fast inside of her. Carroll +wondered how far ahead the inlet lay; and the next two hours were anxious +ones to both of them. Turn about, they pumped with savage determination +and went back, gasping, to the helm to thrash the boat on. They drove her +remorselessly; and she swept through the combers, tilted and streaming, +while the spray scourged the helmsman's face as he gazed to weather. The +men's arms and shoulders ached from working in a cramped position; but +there was no help for it. They toiled on furiously, until at last the +crest of a crag for which they were heading sloped away in front of them. + +A few minutes later they drove past the end of it into a broad lane of +water. The wind was suddenly cut off; the combers fell away; and the +sloop crept slowly up the inlet, which wound, green and placid, among the +hills, with long ranks of firs dropping steeply to the edge of the water. +Vane loosed the pump handle, and striding to the scuttle looked down at +the flood which splashed languidly to and fro below. + +"It strikes me as fortunate that we're in," he commented. "Another +half-hour would have seen the end of her. Let her come up a little! +There's a smooth beach to yonder cove." + +She slid in quietly, scarcely rippling the smooth surface of the tiny +basin, and Carroll laid her on the beach. + +"Now," advised Vane, "we'll drop the boom on the shore side to keep her +from canting over; and then we'll get breakfast. We'll see where she's +damaged when the tide ebbs." + +As most of their stores had lain in the flooded lockers, from which there +had been no time to extricate them, the meal was not an appetizing one. +They were, however, glad to have it; and rowing ashore afterward, they +lay on the shingle in the sunshine while the sloop was festooned with +their drying clothes. There was no wind in that deep hollow, and they +were thankful, for the weather was already getting cold. + +"If she has only split a plank or two, we can patch her up," Vane +remarked. "There are all the tools we'll want in the locker." + +"Where will you get new planks?" Carroll inquired. "I don't think we +have any spikes that would go through the frames." + +"That is the trouble. I expect I'll have to make a trip across to Comox +for them in a sea canoe. We're sure to come across a few Siwash somewhere +in the neighborhood." Then he knit his brows. "I can't say that this +expedition is beginning fortunately." + +"There's no doubt on that point," Carroll agreed. + +"Well, the sloop has to be patched up; and until I find that spruce I'm +going on--anyway, as long as the provisions hold out. If we're not +through with the business then, we'll come back again." + +Carroll made no comment. It was not worth while to object, when Vane was +obviously determined. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE BUSH + + +It was a quiet evening, nearly a fortnight after the arrival of the +sloop. Pale sunshine streamed into the cove, and little glittering +ripples lapped lazily along the shingle. The placid surface of the inlet +was streaked with faint blue lines where wandering airs came down from +the heights above, and now and then an elfin sighing fell from the ragged +summits of the firs. When it died away, the silence was broken only by +the pounding of a heavy hammer and the crackle of a fire. + +Carroll sat beside the latter, alternately holding a stout plank up to +the blaze and dabbling its hot surface with a dripping mop. His face was +scorched, and he coughed as the resinous-scented smoke drifted about his +head and floated in heavy, blue wisps half-way up the giant trunks behind +him. A big sea canoe lay drawn up not far away, and one of its +copper-skinned Siwash owners lounged on the shingle, stolidly watching +the white men. His comrade was then inside the sloop, holding a big stone +against one of her frames, while Vane crouched outside, swinging a +hammer. Her empty hull flung back the thud of the blows, which rang far +across the trees. + +Vane was bare-armed and stripped to shirt and trousers. He had arrived +from Comox across the straits at dawn that morning. It was a long trip +and they had had wild weather on the journey, but he had set to work with +characteristic energy as soon as he landed. Now, though the sun was low, +he was working harder than ever, with the flood tide, which would shortly +compel him to desist, creeping up to his feet. + +It is a difficult matter to fit a new plank into the rounded bilge of a +boat, particularly when one is provided with inadequate appliances. One +requires a good eye for curves, for the planks need much shaping. They +must also be driven into position by force. Two or three stout shores +were firmly wedged against the side of the boat, and these encumbered +Vane in the free use of his arms. His face was darkly flushed and he +panted heavily and now and then flung vitriolic instructions to the +Siwash inside the craft. Carroll, watching him with quiet amusement, was +on the whole content that the tide was rising, for his comrade had firmly +declined to stop for dinner, and he was conscious of a sharpened +appetite. It was comforting to reflect that Vane would be unable to get +the plank into place before the evening meal, for if there had been any +prospect of his doing so, he would certainly have postponed his dinner. + +Presently he stopped a moment and turned to Carroll. + +"If you were any use in an emergency, you'd be holding up for me, instead +of that wooden image inside! He will back the stone against any frame +except the one I'm nailing." + +"The difficulty is that I can't be in two places at the same time," +Carroll retorted good-naturedly. "Shall I leave this plank? You can't +get it in to-night." + +"I'm going to try," Vane answered grimly. + +He turned around to direct the Siwash and then cautiously hammered in one +of the wedges a little farther. Swinging back the hammer, he struck a +heavy blow. The result was disastrous, for there was a crash and one of +the shores shot backward, striking him on the knee. He jumped with a +savage cry, and the next moment there was a sharp snapping, and the end +of the plank sprang out. Then another shore gave way; and when the plank +fell clattering at his feet, Vane whirled the hammer round his head and +hurled it violently into the bush. This appeared to afford him some +satisfaction, and he strode up the beach, with the blood dripping from +the knuckles of one hand. + +"That's the blamed Siwash's fault!" he muttered. "I couldn't get him to +back up when I put the last spike in." + +"Hadn't you better tell him to come out?" Carroll suggested. + +"No!" thundered Vane. "If he hasn't sense enough to see that he isn't +wanted, he can stay where he is all night! Are you going to get supper, +or must I do that, too?" + +Carroll merely smiled and set about preparing the meal, which the two +Siwash partook of and afterward departed with some paper currency. Then +Vane, walking down the beach, came back with the plank. Lighting his +pipe, he pointed to one or two broken nails in it. The water was now +rippling softly about the sloop, and the splash of canoe paddles came up +out of the distance in rhythmic cadence. + +"That's the cause of the trouble," he explained. "It cost me a week's +journey to get the package of galvanized spikes--I could have managed to +split a plank or two out of one of these firs. The storekeeper fellow +assured me they were specially annealed for heading up. If I knew who the +manufacturers were, I'd have pleasure in telling them what I think of +them. If they set up to make spikes, they ought to make them, and empty +every keg that won't stand the test out on to the scrap-heap." + +Carroll smiled. The course his partner had indicated was the one he would +have adopted. He was characterized by a somewhat grim idea of efficiency, +and never spared his labor to attain it, though the latter fact now and +then had its inconveniences for those who cooperated with him, as Carroll +had discovered. The latter had no doubt that Vane would put the planks +in, if he spent a month over the operation. + +"I wouldn't have had this trouble if you'd been handier with tools," +Vane went on. "I can't see why you never took the trouble to learn how +to use them." + +"My abilities aren't as varied as yours; and the thing strikes me as bad +economy," Carroll replied. "Skill of the kind you mention is worth about +three dollars a day." + +"You were getting two dollars for shoveling in a mining ditch when I +first met you." + +"I was," Carroll assented good-humoredly. "I believe another month or +two of it would have worn me out. It's considerably pleasanter and more +profitable to act as your understudy; but a fairly proficient carpenter +might have bungled the matter." + +Vane looked embarrassed. + +"Let it pass. I've a pernicious habit of expressing myself unfortunately. +Anyhow, we'll start again on those planks the first thing to-morrow." + +He stretched out his aching limbs beside the fire, and languidly watched +the firs grow dimmer and the mists creep in ghostly trails down the +steep hillside. Presently Carroll broke the silence. + +"Wallace," he advised, "wouldn't it be wiser if you met that fellow +Horsfield to some extent?" + +"No," Vane answered decidedly. "I have no intention of giving way an +inch. It would only encourage the man to press me on another point, if I +did. I'm going to have trouble with him, and it seems to me that the +sooner it comes the better. There's room for only one controlling +influence in the Clermont Mine." + +Carroll smoked in silence for a while. His comrade had successfully +carried out most of the small projects he had undertaken in the bush, and +though fortune had, perhaps, favored him, he had every reason to be +satisfied with the result of his efforts as a prospector. He had +afterward held his own in the city, mainly by simple unwavering +determination. Carroll, however, realized that to guard against the wiles +of a clever man like Horsfield, who was unhampered by any scruples, might +prove a very different thing. + +"In that case, it might be as well to stay in Vancouver as much as +possible and keep your eye on him," he suggested. + +"The same idea has struck me since we sailed. The trouble is that until +I've decided about the pulp mill he'll have to go unwatched--for the same +reason that prevented you from holding up for me and steaming the plank." + +"If any unforeseen action of Horsfield's made it necessary, you could let +this pulp project drop." + +"You ought to understand why that's impossible. Drayton, Kitty and +Hartley count on my exertions; the matter was put into my hands only on +the condition that I did all that I could. They're poor people and I +can't go back on them. If we can't locate the spruce, or it doesn't seem +likely to pay for working up, there's nothing to prevent my abandoning +the undertaking; but I'm not at liberty to do so just because it would be +a convenience to myself. Hartley got my promise before he told me where +to search." + +Carroll changed the subject. + +"It might have been better if you had made the directors' qualification +higher. You would have been more sure of Horsfield then, because he would +have been less likely to do anything that might depreciate the value of +his stock." + +"I had to get a few good names to make it easier for men of standing to +join me. They wouldn't have been willing to subscribe for too many shares +until they saw how the thing would go. Anyhow, so long as he's a +director, Horsfield must hold a stipulated amount of stock. He's actually +holding a good deal." + +"The limit's rather a low one. Suppose he sold out down to it; he +wouldn't mind having the value of the rest knocked down, if he could make +more than the difference by some jobbery. Of course, we're only a small +concern, and we'll have to raise more capital sooner or later. I've an +idea that Horsfield might find his opportunity then." + +"If he does, we must try to be ready for him," Vane replied. "I sat up +most of last night with the spritsail sheet in my hand, and I'm going +to sleep." + +He strolled away to the tent they had pitched on the edge of the bush, +but Carroll sat a while smoking beside the fire with a thoughtful face. +He was suspicious of Horsfield and foresaw trouble; more particularly now +that his comrade had undertaken a project which seemed likely to occupy a +good deal of his attention. Hitherto, Vane had owed part of his success +to his faculty of concentrating all his powers upon one object. + +They rose at dawn the next morning, and by sunset had fitted the new +planks. Two days later, they sailed northward, and eventually they found +the rancherie Hartley mentioned. They had expected to hire a guide there, +but the rickety wooden building was empty. Vane decided that its Siwash +owners, who made long trips in search of fish and furs, had left it for a +time, and he pushed on again. + +He had now to face an unforeseen difficulty; there were a number of +openings in that strip of coast, and Hartley's description was of no +great service in deciding which was the right one. During the next day or +two, they looked into several bights, and seeing no valleys opening out +of them, went on again. One evening, however, they ran into an inlet with +a forest-shrouded hollow at the head of it. Here they moored the sloop +close in with a sheltered beach and after a night's rest got ready their +packs for the march inland. Carroll regretted they had not hired the +Indians with whom his comrade had crossed the straits. + +"We would have traveled a good deal more comfortably if you had brought +those Siwash along to pack for us," he observed. + +"If you had been with them on the canoe trip, you might think +differently," Vane answered with a laugh. "Besides, they're in the +habit of going to Cornox and might put some enterprising lumber men on +our trail." + +"There's one thing I'm going to insist on," Carroll declared. "We'll +leave enough provisions on board to last us until we get back to +civilization, even if we have a head wind. I've made one or two journeys +on short rations." + +Vane agreed to this, and after rowing ashore and hiding the boat among +the undergrowth, they proceeded to strap their packs about them. There is +an art in this, for the weight must be carried where it will be felt and +retard one's movements least. They had a light tent without poles--which +could be cut when wanted--two blankets, an ax, and one or two cooking +utensils, besides their provisions. A new-comer from the cities would +probably not have carried his share for half a day, but in that rugged +land mineral prospector and survey packer are accustomed to travel +heavily burdened, and the men had followed both these vocations. + +In front of them a deep trough opened up in the hills, but it was filled +with giant forest, through which no track led, and only those who have +traversed the dim recesses of the primeval bush can fully understand what +this implies. The west winds swept through that gateway, reaping as they +went, and here and there tremendous trees lay strewed athwart one another +with their branches spread abroad in impenetrable tangles. Some had +fallen amid the wreckage left by previous gales, which the forest had +partly made good, and there was scarcely a rod of the way that was not +obstructed by half-rotted trunks. Then there were thick bushes, and an +undergrowth of willows where the soil was damp, with thorny brakes and +matted fern in between. In places the growth was almost like a wall, and +the men, skirting the inlet, were glad to scramble forward among the +rough boulders and ragged driftwood at the water's edge for some minutes +at a time, until it was necessary to leave the beach behind. + +After the first few minutes there was no sign of the gleaming water. They +had entered a region of dim green shade, where the moist air was heavy +with resinous smells. The trunks rose about them in tremendous columns, +thorns clutched their garments, and twigs and brittle branches snapped +beneath their feet. The day was cool, but the sweat of tense effort +dripped from them, and when they stopped for breath at the end of an +hour, Vane estimated that they had gone a mile. + +"I'll be content if we can keep this up," he said. + +"It isn't likely," Carroll replied with a trace of dryness, glancing down +at a big rent in his jacket. + +A little farther on, they waded with difficulty through a large stream, +and Carroll stopped and glanced round at a deep rift in a crag on one +side of them. + +"I don't know whether that could be considered a valley; but we may as +well look at it." + +They scrambled forward, and reaching gravelly soil where the trees were +thinner, Vane surveyed the opening. It was very narrow and appeared to +lose itself among the rocks. The size of the creek which flowed out of it +was no guide, for those ranges are scored by running water. + +"We won't waste time over that ravine," Vane concluded. "I noticed a +wider one farther on. We'll see what it's like; though Hartley led me to +understand that he came down a straight and gently sloping valley. The +one we're in answers the description." + +It was two hours before they reached the second opening, and then Vane, +unstrapping his pack, clambered up the steep face of a crag. When he came +back, his face was thoughtful. He sat down and lighted his pipe. + +"This search seems likely to take us longer than I expected," he said. +"To begin with, there are a number of inlets, all of them pretty much +alike, along this part of the coast, but I needn't go into the reasons +for supposing that this is the one Hartley visited. Taking it for granted +that we're right, we're up against another difficulty. So far as I could +make out from the top of that rock, there's a regular series of ravines +running back into the hills." + +"Hartley told you he came straight down to tidewater, didn't he?" + +"That's not much of a guide. The slope of every fissure seems to run +naturally from the inland watershed to this basin. Hartley was sick and +it was raining all the time, and coming out of any of these ravines he'd +only have to make a slight turn to reach the water. What's more, he +could only tell me that he was heading roughly west. Allowing that there +was no sun visible, that might have meant either northwest or southwest, +which gives us the choice of searching the hollows on either side of the +main valley. Now, it strikes me as most probable that he came right down +the main valley itself; but we have to face the question as to whether +we should push straight on, or search every opening that might be called +a valley?" + +"What's your idea?" Carroll rejoined. + +"That we ought to go into the thing systematically, and look at every +ravine we come to." + +Carroll nodded agreement. + +"I guess you're right." + +They strapped their packs about them and struggled on again. Stopping +half an hour for dinner, they plodded all the afternoon up a long hollow, +which rose steadily in front of them. It was narrow, and in places the +bottom of it was so choked with fallen trunks that they were forced for +the sake of a clearer passage to take to the creek, where they +alternately stumbled among big boulders and splashed through shallow +pools. The water, which was mostly melted snow, was very cold. + +The light was fading down in the deep rift when, winding round a spur +through a tangle of clinging underbrush, they saw the timber thin off +ahead. In a few minutes Vane stopped with an exclamation, and Carroll, +overtaking him, loosened his pack. They stood upon the edge of the +timber, but in front of them a mass of soil and stones ran up almost +vertically to a great outcrop of rock high above. + +"If Hartley had come down that, he'd have remembered it," Vane +remarked grimly. + +"It's obvious," Carroll agreed, sitting down with a sigh of weariness. +"We'll try the next one to-morrow; I don't move another step to-night." + +Vane laughed. + +"I've no wish to urge you. There's hardly a joint in my body that doesn't +ache." He flung down his pack and stretched himself with an air of +relief. "That's what comes of civilization and soft living. It would be +nice to sit still now while somebody brought me my supper." + +As there was nobody to do so, he took up the ax and set about hewing +chips off a fallen trunk while Carroll made a fire. Then he cut the tent +poles and a few armfuls of twigs for a bed, and in half an hour the camp +was pitched and a meal prepared. Darkness closed down on them while they +ate, and they afterward lay a while, smoking and saying little, beside +the sinking fire, while the red light flickered upon the massy trunks and +fell away again. Then they crawled into the tent and wrapped their +blankets round them. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +VANE POSTPONES THE SEARCH + + +When Vane rose early the next morning, there was frost in the air. The +firs glistened with delicate silver filigree, and thin spears of ice +stretched out from behind the boulders in the stream. The smoke of the +fire thickened the light haze that filled the hollow, and when breakfast +was ready the men ate hastily, eager for the exertion that would put a +little warmth into them. + +"We've had it a good deal colder on other trips. I suppose I've been +getting luxurious, for I seem to resent it now," observed Vane. "There's +no doubt that winter's beginning earlier that I expected up here. As soon +as you can strike the tent, we'll get a move on." + +Carroll made no comment He had a vivid recollection of one or two of +those other journeys, during which they had spent arduous days +floundering through slushy snow and had slept in saturated blankets, and +sometimes shelterless in bitter frost. Carroll had endured these things +without complaint, though he had never attained to the cheerfulness his +comrade usually displayed. He was willing to face hardship, when it +promised to lead to a tangible result, but he failed to understand the +curious satisfaction Vane assumed to feel in ascertaining exactly how +much weariness and discomfort he could force his flesh to bear. + +Vane, however, was not singular in this respect; there are men in the +newer lands who, if they do not actually seek it, will seldom make an +effort to avoid the strain of overtaxed muscles and exposure to wild and +bitter weather. They have imbibed the pristine vigor of the wilderness, +and conflict with the natural forces braces instead of daunting them. One +recognizes them by their fixed and steady gaze, their direct and +deliberate speech, and the proficiency that most display with ax and saw +and rifle. But the effect of this Spartan training is not merely +physical; the men who leave the bush and the ranges, as a rule, come to +the forefront in commerce and industry. Endurance, swiftness of action +and stubborn tenacity are apt to carry their possessor far anywhere. + +Vane and his comrade needed these qualities during the following week. +The valley grew more wild and rugged as they proceeded. In places, its +bottom was filled with muskegs, cumbered with half-submerged, decaying +trunks of fallen trees; and when they could not spring from one crumbling +log to another they sank in slime and water to the knee. Then there were +effluents of the main river to be waded through, and every now and then +they were forced back by impenetrable thickets to the hillside, where +they scrambled along a talus of frost-shattered rock. They entered +transverse valleys, and after hours of exhausting labor abandoned the +search of each in turn and plodded back to the one they had been +following. Their boots and clothing suffered; their packs were rent upon +their backs; and their provisions diminished rapidly. + +At length, one lowering afternoon, they were brought to a standstill by +the river which forked into two branches, one of which came foaming out +of a cleft in the rocks. This would have mattered less, had it flowed +across the level; but just there it had scored itself out a deep hollow, +from which the roar of its turmoil rose in long reverberations. Carroll, +aching all over, stood upon the brink and gazed ahead. He surmised from +the steady ascent and the contours of the hills that the valley was dying +out and that they should reach the head of it in another day's journey. +The higher summits, however, were veiled in leaden mist, and there was a +sting in the cold breeze that blew down the hollow and set the ragged +firs to wailing. Then Carroll glanced dubiously at the dim, green water +which swirled in deep eddies and boiled in white confusion among the +fangs of rock sixty or seventy feet below. Not far away, the stream was +wider and, he supposed, in consequence, shallower, though it ran +furiously. + +"It doesn't look encouraging, and we have no more food left than will +take us back to the sloop if we're economical. Do you think it's worth +while going on?" + +"I haven't a doubt about it," Vane declared. "We ought to reach the head +of the valley and get back here in two or three days." + +Carroll fancied they could have walked the distance in a few hours on a +graded road; but the roughness of the ground was not the chief +difficulty. + +"Three days will make a big hole in the provisions," he pointed out. + +"Then we'll have to put up with short rations." + +Carroll nodded in rueful acquiescence. + +"If you're determined, we may as well get on." + +He stepped cautiously over the edge of the descent, and went down a few +yards with a run, while loosened soil and stones slipped away under him. +Then he clutched a slender tree, and proceeded as far as the next on his +hands and knees. After that it was necessary to swing himself over a +ledge, and he alighted safely on one below, from which he could scramble +down to the narrow strip of gravel between rock and water. He was +standing, breathless, looking at the latter, when Vane joined him. The +stones dipped sharply, and two or three large boulders, ringed about with +froth, rose near the middle of the stream, which seemed to be running +slacker on the other side of them. + +There was nothing to show how deep it was, and Carroll did not relish the +idea of being compelled to swim burdened with his pack. No trees grew +immediately upon the brink of the chasm, and to chop a good-sized log and +get it down to the water, in order to ferry themselves across on it, +would cost more time than Vane was likely to spare for the purpose. +Seeing no other way out of it, Carroll braced himself for an effort and +sturdily plunged in. + +Two steps took him up to the waist, and he had trouble in finding solid +bottom at the next, for the gravel rolled and slipped away beneath his +feet in the strong stream. The current dragged hard at his limbs, and he +set his lips tight when it crept up to his ribs. Then he lost his +footing, and was washed away, plunging and floundering, with now and then +one toe resting momentarily upon the bottom. Sweeping rapidly down the +stream he was hurled against the first of the boulders with a crash that +almost drove the little remaining breath out of his body. He clung to it +desperately, gasping hard; then, with a determined struggle, he contrived +to reach the second stone, but the stream pressed him violently against +this and he was unable to find any support for his feet. A moment later +Vane was washed down toward him and, grabbing at the boulder, held on by +it. They said nothing to each other, but they looked at the sliding water +between them and the opposite bank. Carroll was getting dangerously cold, +and he felt the power ebbing out of him. He realized that if he must swim +across he would better do it at once. + +Launching himself forward, he felt the flood lap his breast, but as his +arms went in he struck something with his knee and found that he could +stand on a submerged ledge. This carried him a yard or two, but the next +moment he had stepped suddenly over the end of the ledge into deeper +water. Floundering forward, he staggered up a strip of shelving shingle +and lay there, breathless, waiting for Vane; then together they +scrambled up the slope ahead. The work warmed them slightly, and they +needed it; but as they strode on again, keeping to the foot of the +hillside, where the timber was less dense, a cold rain drove into their +faces. It grew steadily thicker; the straps began to gall their wet +shoulders, and their saturated clothing clung heavily about their limbs. +In spite of this, they struggled on until nightfall, when with +difficulty they made a fire and, after a reduced supper, found a little +humid warmth in their wet blankets. + +The next day's work was much the same, only that they crossed no rivers. +It rained harder, however, and when evening came Carroll, who had burst +one boot, was limping badly. They made camp among the dripping firs which +partly sheltered them from the bitter wind, and shortly after their +meager supper Carroll fell asleep. Vane, to his annoyance, found that he +could not follow his friend's example. He was overstrung, and the +knowledge that the morrow would show whether the spruce he sought grew in +that valley made him restless. The flap of the tent was flung back and +resting on one elbow he looked out upon shadowy ranks of trunks, which +rose out of the gloom and vanished again as the firelight grew and sank. +He could smell the acrid smoke and could hear the splash of heavy drops +upon the saturated soil, while the hoarse roar of the river came up in +fitful cadence from the depths of the valley. + +In place of being deadened by fatigue, his imagination seemed quickened +and set free. It carried him back to the lonely heights and the rugged +dales of his own land, and once more in vivid memory he roamed the upland +heath with Evelyn. She had attracted him strongly when he was in her +visible presence; but now he thought he understood her better than he had +ever done then. He had, he felt, not grasped the inner meaning of much +that she said. Words might convey but little in their literal sense and +yet give to a sympathetic listener an insight into the depths of the +speaker's nature, or hint at a thought too finely spun and delicate for +formal expression. + +The same thing applied to her physical personality. Contours, coloring, +features, were things that could be defined and appraised; but there was +besides, in Evelyn's case, an aura that only now and then could dimly be +perceived by senses attuned to it. It enveloped her in a mystic light. +Again he remembered how he had sought her with crude longing and cold +appreciation. He had failed to comprehend her; the one creditable thing +he had done was the renouncing of his claim. Then the half-formed idea +grew plainer that she would understand and sympathize with what he was +doing now. It was to keep faith with those who trusted him that he meant +stubbornly to prosecute his search and, if the present journey failed, to +come back again. That Evelyn would ever hear of his undertaking, appeared +most improbable; but this did not matter. He knew now that it was the +remembrance of her that had largely animated him to make the venture; and +to go on in the face of all opposing difficulties was something he could +do in her honor. Then by degrees his eyes grew heavy, and when he sank +down in his wet blankets sleep came to him. Perhaps he had been +fanciful--he was undoubtedly overstrung--but, through such dreams as he +indulged in, passing glimpses of strange and splendid visions that +transfigure the toil and clamor of a material world are now and then +granted to wayfaring men. + +At noon the next day they reached the head of the valley. It was still +raining, and heavy mists obscured the summits of the hills, but above the +lower slopes of rock glimmering snow ran up into the woolly vapor. There +were firs, a few balsams and hemlocks, but no sign of a spruce. + +"Now," Carroll commented dryly, "perhaps you'll be satisfied." + +Vane smiled. He was no nearer to owning himself defeated than he had been +when they first set out. + +"We know there's no spruce in this valley--and that's something," he +replied. "When we come back again we'll try the next one." + +"It has cost us a good deal to make sure of the fact" + +Vane's expression changed. + +"We haven't ascertained the cost just yet. As a rule, you don't make up +the bill until you're through with the undertaking; and it may be a +longer one than either of us think. Well, we might as well turn upon +our tracks." + +Carroll recalled this speech afterward. Just then, however, he hitched +his burden a little higher on his aching shoulders as he plodded after +his comrade down the rain-swept hollow. They had good cause to remember +the march to the inlet. It rained most of the while and their clothes +were never dry; parts of them, indeed, flowed in tatters about their +aching limbs, and before they had covered half the distance, their boots +were dropping to pieces. What was more important, their provisions were +rapidly running out, and they marched on a few handfuls of food, +carefully apportioned, twice daily. At last they lay down hungry, with +empty bags, one night, to sleep shelterless in the rain, for they had +thrown their tent away. Carroll had some difficulty in getting on his +feet the next morning. + +"I believe I can hold out until sundown, though I'm far from sure of +it," he said. "You'll have to leave me behind if we don't strike the +inlet then." + +"We'll strike it in the afternoon," Vane assured him. + +They reslung their packs and set out wearily. Carroll, limping and +stumbling along, was soon troubled by a distressful stitch in his side. +He managed to keep pace with Vane, however, and some time after noon a +twinkling gleam among the trees caught their eye. Then the shuffling +pace grew faster, and they were breathless when at last they stopped and +dropped their burdens beside the boat. It was only at the third or +fourth attempt that they got her down to the water, and the veins were +swollen high on Vane's flushed forehead when he sat down, panting +heavily, on her gunwale. + +"We ran her up quite easily, though we had the slope to face then," +he remarked. + +"You could scarcely expect to carry boats about without trouble after a +march like the one we've made!" + +They ran her in and pulled off to the sloop. When at last they sat down +in the little saloon, Vane got a glimpse of himself in the mirror. + +"I knew you looked a deadbeat," he laughed, "but I'd no idea I was quite +so bad. Anyhow, we'll get the stove lighted and some dry things on. The +next question is--what shall we have for supper?" + +"That's easy. Everything that's most tempting, and the whole of it." + +Shortly afterward they flung their boots and rent garments overboard and +sat down to a feast. The plates were empty when they rose, and in another +hour both of them were wrapped in heavy slumber. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +JESSY CONFERS A FAVOR + + +The next morning it was blowing fresh from the southeast, which was right +ahead, and Vane's face was hard when he and Carroll got the boat on deck +and set about tying down two reefs in the mainsail. + +"Bad luck seems to follow us," he grumbled. + +Carroll smiled. + +"There's no doubt of that; but I suppose the fact won't have much +effect on you." + +"No," returned Vane decidedly, "We had our troubles in other ventures, +and somehow we got over them--I don't see why we shouldn't do the same +again. Now that we've seen the country, we ought to get some useful +information out of Hartley--we'll know what to ask him." + +"I shouldn't count too much on his help," Carroll answered with a +thoughtful air. + +They got sail upon the sloop and drove her out into a confused head sea, +through which she labored with flooded decks, making very little to +windward. When night came, a deluge killed the breeze, and the next day +she lay rolling wildly in a heavy calm while light mist narrowed in the +horizon and a persistent drizzle poured down upon the smoothly heaving +sea. Then they had light variable winds, and their provisions were once +more running out when they drew abreast of a little coaling port. Carroll +suggested running in and going on to Victoria by train, but they had +hardly decided to do so when the fickle breeze died away and the +tide-stream bore them past to the south. They had no longer a stitch of +dry clothing and they were again upon reduced rations. + +Still bad fortune dogged them, for that night a fresh head wind sprang up +and held steadily while they thrashed her south, swept by stinging spray. +Their tempers grew shorter under the strain, and their bodies ached from +the chill of their sodden garments and from sitting hour by hour at the +helm. At last the breeze fell, and shortly afterward a trail of smoke and +a half-seen strip of hull emerged from the creeping haze astern of them. + +"A lumber tug," observed Vane. "She seems to have a raft in tow, and it +will probably be for Drayton's people. If you'll edge in toward her I'll +send him word that we're on the way." + +There was very little wind just then and presently the tug was close +alongside, pitching her bows out of the slow swell, while a great mass of +timber wonderfully chained together surged along astern, the dim, +slate-green sea washing over it. A shapeless oil-skinned figure stood +outside her pilot-house, balancing itself against the heave of the +bridge, which slanted and straightened. + +"Winstanley?" Vane shouted. + +The figure waved an arm, as if in assent, and Vane raised his +voice again. + +"Report us to Mr. Drayton. We'll come along as fast as we can." + +The man turned and pointed to the misty horizon astern. + +"You'll get it from the north before to-morrow!"' he called. + +Then the straining tug and the long wet line of working raft drew ahead +while the sloop crawled on, close-hauled toward the south. Late that +night, however, the mist melted away, and a keen rushing breeze that came +out of the north crisped the water. The vessel sprang forward when the +ripples reached her; the flapping canvas went to sleep; and while each +slack rope tightened a musical tinkle broke out at the bows. It grew +steadily louder, and when the sun swung up red above the eastern hills, +she had piled the white froth to her channels and was driving forward +merrily with little sparkling seas tumbling, foam-tipped, after her. The +wind fell light as the sun rose higher, but the swinging sloop ran on all +day, with blurred hills and forests sliding past; and the western sky was +still blazing with a wondrous green when she stole into Vancouver harbor. + +Carroll gazed at the city with open appreciation. It rose, girded with +many wires and giant telegraph poles, roof above roof, up a low rise, on +the crest of which towering pines still lifted their ragged spires +against the evening sky. Lower down, big white lights were beginning to +blink, and the forests up the inlet beyond the smoke of the mills had +already faded to a belt of shadow. + +"Quebec," he remarked, "looks fine from the river, clustering round +and perched upon its heights; and Montreal at the foot of its +mountain strikes your eye from most points of view; but I can't +remember ever entering either with the pleasure I've experienced in +reaching this city." + +"You probably arrived at the others traveling in a Pullman or in a +luxurious side-wheel steamboat. It wouldn't be any great change from them +to a smart hotel." + +"That may explain the thing," Carroll agreed with an air of humorous +reflection. "I guess the way you regard a city depends largely on the +condition you're in when you reach it and on what you expect to get out +of it. In the present case, Vancouver stands for rest and comfort and +enough to eat." + +Vane laughed. + +"I'm as glad to be back as you are; but you'd better make the most of any +leisure that you can get. As soon as I've arranged things here we'll go +north again." + +The light faded as they crept across the inlet before a faint breeze, but +when they got the anchor over and the boat into the water, Carroll made +out two dim figures standing on the wharf. + +"It's Drayton, I think," he said, waving a hand to them. "Kitty's +with him." + +They pulled ashore, and Drayton and Kitty greeted them. + +"I've been looking out for you since noon," Drayton told them. "What +about the spruce?" + +There was eagerness in his voice, and Vane's face clouded. + +"We couldn't find a trace of it." + +Drayton's disappointment was obvious, though he tried to hide it. + +"Well," he said resignedly, "I've no doubt you did all you could." + +"Of course!" Kitty broke in. "We're quite sure of that!" + +Vane thanked her with a glance. He felt sorry for her and Drayton. +They were strongly attached to each other, and he had reasons for +believing that even with the advanced salary the man expected to get +they would find it needful to study strict economy. It was easy to +understand that a small share in a prosperous enterprise would have +made things easier for them. + +"I'm going to make another attempt. I expect some of our difficulties +will vanish after I've had a talk with Hartley." + +"That's impossible," Kitty explained softly. "Hartley died a week ago." + +Vane started. The prospector had given him very little definite +information, and it was disconcerting to recognize that he must now rely +entirely upon his own devices. + +"I'm sorry", he said "How's Celia?" + +"She's very ill." There was concern in Kitty's voice. "Hartley got worse +soon after you left, and she sat up all night with him, after her work +for the last few weeks. Now she's broken down, and she seems to worry for +fear they will not take her back again at the hotel." + +"I must go to see her," declared Vane. "But won't you and Drayton come +with us and have dinner?" + +Drayton explained that this was out of the question; Kitty's employer, +who had driven in that afternoon, was waiting with his team. They left +the wharf together, and a few minutes later Vane shook hands with the +girl and her companion. + +"Don't lose heart," he said encouragingly. "We're far from beaten yet." + +Some time afterward Vane, rejoicing in the unusual luxury of clean, dry +clothes, walked across to call on Nairn. The house struck him as +larger, more commodious and better lighted than it had been when he +left it, although he supposed that was only the result of his having +lived on board the sloop and in the bush. He was shown into a room +where Jessy Horsfield was sitting, and she rose with a slight start +when he came in; but her manner was reposeful and quietly friendly when +she held out her hand. + +"So you have come back! Have you succeeded in your search?" + +Vane was gratified. It was pleasant to feel that she was interested in +his undertaking. + +"No," he confessed. "For the time being, I'm afraid I have failed." + +There was reproach in Jessy's voice when she answered. + +"Then you have disappointed me!" + +It was delicate flattery, as she had conveyed the impression that she had +expected him to succeed, which implied that she held a high opinion of +his abilities. Still, she did not mean him to think that he had forfeited +the latter. + +"After all, you must have had a good deal against you," she added +consolingly. "Won't you sit down and tell me about it? Mr. Nairn, I +understand, is writing some letters, and he sent for Mrs. Nairn just +before you came in. I don't suppose she will be back for a few minutes." + +She indicated a chair beside the open hearth and Vane sat down opposite +her, where a low screen cut them off from the rest of the room. A shaded +lamp above their heads cast down a soft radiance which lighted a sparkle +in the girl's hair, and a red, wood fire glowed cheerfully in front of +them. Vane, still stiff and aching from exposure to the cold and rain, +reveled in the unusual sense of comfort. In addition to this, his +companion's pose was singularly graceful, and the ease of it and the +friendly smile with which she regarded him somehow implied that they were +on excellent terms. + +"It's very nice to be here again," he said languidly. + +Jessy looked up at him. He had, as she recognized, spoken as he felt, on +impulse, and this was more gratifying than an obvious desire to pay her a +compliment would have been. + +"I suppose you didn't get many comforts in the bush," she suggested. + +"No. Comforts of any kind are remarkably scarce up yonder. As a matter +of fact, I can't imagine a country where the contrasts between the +luxuries of civilization and--the other thing--are sharper. You can step +off a first-class car into the wilderness, where no amount of money can +buy you better fare than pork, potatoes and dried apples; and if you +want to travel you must shoulder your pack and walk. But that wasn't +exactly what I meant." + +"Then what did you mean?" + +"I don't know that it's worth explaining. We have rather luxurious +quarters at the hotel, but this room is somehow different. It's +restful--I think it's homely--in fact, as I said, it's nice to be here." + +Jessy made no comment. She understood that he had been attempting to +analyze his feelings, and had failed clearly to recognize that her +presence contributed to the satisfaction of which he was conscious. She +had no doubt that if he were a man of average susceptibility, which +seemed to be the case, the company of a well-dressed and attractive woman +would have some effect on him after his sojourn in the wilds; but whether +she had produced any deeper effect than that or not she could not +determine. Though she was curious upon the point, it did not appear +judicious to prompt him unduly. + +"But won't you tell me your adventures?" she begged. + +It required a few leading questions to start him but at length he told +the story in a manner that compelled her interest. + +"You see," he concluded, "it was the lack of definite knowledge as much +as the natural obstacles that brought us back--and I've been troubled +about the thing since we landed." + +Jessy's manner invited his confidence. + +"I wonder," she said softly, "if you would care to tell me why?" + +Vane knit his brows. + +"Hartley's dead, and I understand that his daughter has broken down after +nursing him. It's doubtful whether her situation can be kept open, and it +may be some time before she's strong enough to look for another." He +hesitated. "In a way, I feel responsible for her." + +"You really aren't responsible in the least," Jessy declared. "Still, I +can understand the idea's troubling you." + +"She's left without a cent and unable to work--and I don't know what to +do. In an affair of this kind I'm handicapped by being a man." + +"Would you like me to help you?" + +"I can hardly ask it, but it would be a relief to me," Vane answered with +obvious eagerness. + +"Then if you'll tell me her address, I'll go to see her, and we'll +consider what can be done." + +Vane leaned forward impulsively. + +"You have taken a weight off my mind. It's difficult to thank you +properly." + +"Oh, I don't suppose it will give me any trouble. Of course, it must be +embarrassing to you to feel that you have a helpless young woman on +your hands." + +Then a thought flashed into her mind, as she remembered what she had seen +at the station some months ago. + +"I wonder whether the situation is an altogether unusual one to you?" +she queried. "Have you never let your pity run away with your +judgment before?" + +"You wouldn't expect me to proclaim my charities," Vane parried +with a laugh. + +"I think you are trying to put me off. You haven't given me an answer." + +"Well, perhaps I was able to make things easier for somebody else not +very long ago," Vane confessed reluctantly but without embarrassment. "I +now see that I might have done harm without meaning to do so. It's +sometimes extraordinarily difficult to help people--and that makes me +especially grateful for your offer." + +For the next few moments Jessy sat silent. It was clear that she had +misjudged him, for although she was not one who demanded too much from +human nature, the fact that Kitty Blake had arrived in Vancouver in his +company had undoubtedly rankled in her mind. Now she acquitted him of any +blame, and it was a relief to do so. She changed the subject abruptly. + +"I suppose you will make another attempt to find the timber?" + +"Yes. In a week or two." + +He had hardly spoken when Mrs. Nairn came in and welcomed him with her +usual friendliness. + +"I'm glad to see ye, though ye're looking thin," she said. "What's the +way ye did not come straight to us, instead of going to the hotel. Ye +would have got as good a supper as they would give ye there." + +"I haven't a doubt of it," Vane declared. "On the other hand, I hardly +think that even one of your suppers would quite have put right the defect +in my appearance you mentioned. You see, the cause of it has been at work +for some time." + +Mrs. Nairn regarded him with half-amused compassion. + +"If ye'll come over every evening, we'll soon cure that. I would have +been down sooner if Alic had not kept me. He's writing letters, and there +was a matter or two he wanted to ask my opinion on." + +"I think that was very wise of him," Vane commented. + +His hostess smiled. + +"For one thing, we had a letter from Evelyn Chisholm this afternoon. +She'll be out to spend some time with us in about a month." + +"Evelyn's coming here?" Vane exclaimed, with a sudden stirring of +his heart. + +"Why should she no? I told ye some time ago that we partly expected her. +Ye were no astonished then." + +She appeared to expect an explanation of the change in his attitude, and +as he volunteered none she drew him a few paces aside. + +"If I'm no betraying a confidence, Evelyn writes--I'm no sure of the +exact words--that she'll be glad to get away a while. Now, I've been +wondering why she should be anxious to leave home?" + +She looked at him fixedly, and, to his annoyance, he felt his face grow +hot. Mrs. Nairn had quick perceptions, and now and then she was +painfully direct. + +"It struck me that Evelyn was not very comfortable there," he replied. +"She seemed out of harmony with her people--she didn't belong. The same +thing," he went on lamely, "applies to Mopsy." + +Mrs. Nairn glanced at him with a twinkle in her eyes. + +"It's no unlikely. The reason may serve--for the want of a better." Then +she changed her tone. "Ye'll away up to Alic; he told me to send ye." + +Vane went out of the room, but he left Jessy in a thoughtful mood. She +had seen his start at the mention of Evelyn, and it struck her as +significant, for she had heard that he had spent some time with the +Chisholms. On the other hand, there was the obvious fact that he had been +astonished to hear that Evelyn was coming out, which implied that their +acquaintance had not progressed far enough to warrant the girl's +informing him. Besides, Evelyn would not arrive for a month; and Jessy +reflected that she would probably see a good deal of Vane in the +meanwhile. She now felt glad that she had promised to look after Celia +Hartley, for that, no doubt, would necessitate her consulting with him +every now and then. She endeavored to dismiss the matter from her mind, +however, and exerted herself to interest Mrs. Nairn in a description of a +function she had lately attended. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +VANE FORESEES TROUBLE + + +Nairn was sitting at a writing-table when Vane entered his room, and +after a few questions about his journey he handed the younger man one of +the papers that lay in front of him. + +"It's a report from the mine. Ye can read and think it over while I +finish this letter." + +Vane carefully studied the document, and then waited until Nairn laid +down his pen. + +"It only brings us back to our last conversation on the subject," he said +when his host glanced at him inquiringly. "We have the choice of going on +as we are doing, or extending our operations by an increase of capital. +In the latter case, our total earnings might be larger, but I hardly +believe there would be as good a return on the money actually sunk. +Taking it all round, I don't know what to think. Of course, if it +appeared that there was a moral certainty of making a satisfactory profit +on the new stock, I should consent." + +Nairn chuckled. + +"A moral certainty is no a very common thing in mining." + +"Horsfield's in favor of the scheme. How far would you trust that man?" + +"About as far as I could fling a bull by the tail. The same thing applies +to both of them." + +"He has some influence. No doubt he'd find supporters." + +Nairn saw that the meaning of his last remark, which implied that he had +no more confidence in Jessy than he had in her brother, had not been +grasped by his companion, but he did not consider it judicious to make it +plainer. Instead, he gave Vane another piece of information. + +"He and Winter work into each other's hands." + +"But Winter has no interest in the Clermont!" + +Nairn smiled sourly. + +"He holds no shares in the mine; but there's no much in the shape of +mineral developments yon man has no an interest in. Since ye do no seem +inclined to yield Horsfield a point or two, it might pay ye to watch the +pair of them." + +Vane was aware that Winter was a person of some importance in financial +circles, and he sat thoughtfully silent for a couple of minutes. + +"Now," he explained at length, "every dollar we have in the Clermont is +usefully employed and earning a satisfactory profit. Of course, if we put +the concern on the market, we might get more than it is worth from +investors; but that doesn't greatly appeal to me." + +"It's unnecessary to point out that a director's interest is no +invariably the same as that of his shareholders," Nairn rejoined. + +"It's an unfortunate fact. Yet I'd be no better off if I got only the +same actual return on a larger amount of what would be watered stock." + +"There's sense in that. I'm no urging the scheme--there are other points +against it." + +"Well, I'll go up and look round the mine, and then we'll have another +talk about the matter." + +Vane walked back to his hotel in a thoughtful frame of mind. Finding +Carroll in the smoking-room, he related his conversation with Nairn. + +"I'm a little troubled about the situation," he confessed. "The Clermont +finances are now on a sound basis, but it might after all prove +advantageous to raise further capital; although in such a case we would, +perhaps, lie open to attack. Nairn's inclined to be cryptic in his +remarks; but he seems to hint that it would be advisable to make +Horsfield some concession--in other words, to buy him off." + +"Which is a course you have objections to?" + +"Very decided ones." + +"In a general way, Nairn's advice strikes me as quite sensible. Wherever +mining and other schemes are floated, there are men who make a good +living out of the operations. They're trained to the business; they've +control of the money; and when a new thing's put on the market, they +consider they've the first claim on the pickings. As a rule, that notion +seems to be justified." + +"You needn't elaborate the point," Vane broke in impatiently. + +"You made your appearance in this city as a poor and unknown man with a +mine to sell," Carroll went on. "Disregarding tactful hints, you laid +down your terms and stuck to them. Launching your venture without +considering their views, you did the gentlemen I've mentioned out of +their accustomed toll, and I've no doubt that some of them were +indignant. It's a thing you couldn't expect them to sanction. Now, +however, one who probably has others behind him is making overtures to +you. You ought to consider it a compliment; a recognition of ability. +The question is--do you mean to slight these advances and go on as you +have begun?" + +"That's my present intention," Vane answered. + +"Then you needn't be astonished if you find yourself up against a +determined opposition." + +"I think my friends will stand by me." + +Vane looked at him steadily, and Carroll laughed. + +"Thanks. I've merely been pointing out what you may expect, and hinting +at the most judicious course--though the latter's rather against my +natural inclinations. I'd better add that I've never been particularly +prudent, and the opposite policy appeals to me. If we're forced to clear +for action, we'll nail the flag to the mast." + +It was spoken lightly, because the man was serious, but Vane knew that he +had an ally who would support him with unflinching staunchness. + +"I'm far from sure that it will be needful," he replied. + +They talked about other matters until they strolled off to their rooms. +The next week Vane was kept occupied in the city; and then once more they +sailed for the North. They pushed inland until they were stopped by snow +among the ranges, without finding the spruce. The journey proved as +toilsome as the previous one, and both men were worn out when they +reached the coast. Vane was determined on making a third attempt, but he +decided to visit the mine before proceeding to Vancouver. They had heavy +rain during the voyage down the straits, and when, on the day after +reaching port, the jaded horses they had hired plodded up the sloppy +trail to the mine a pitiless deluge poured down on them. The light was +growing dim among the dripping firs, and a deep-toned roar came throbbing +across their shadowy ranks. Vane turned and glanced back at Carroll. + +"I've never heard the river so plainly before," he said. "It must be +unusually swollen." + +The mine was situated on a narrow level flat between the hillside and the +river, and Carroll understood the anxiety in his comrade's voice. Urging +the wearied horses they pressed on a little faster. It was almost dark, +however, when they reached the edge of an opening in the firs and saw a +cluster of iron-roofed, wooden buildings and a tall chimney-stack, in +front of which the unsightly ore-dump extended. Wet, chilled and worn out +as the men were, there was comfort in the sight; but Vane frowned as he +noticed that a shallow lake stretched between him and the buildings. On +one side of it there was a broad strip of tumbling foam, which rose and +fell in confused upheavals and filled the forest with the roar it made. +Vane drove his horse into the water; and dismounting among the stumps +before the ore-dump, he found a wet and soil-stained man awaiting him. A +long trail of smoke floated away from the iron stack behind him, and +through the sound of the river there broke the clank and thud of +hard-driven pumps. + +"You have got a big head of steam up, Salter," he remarked. + +The man nodded. + +"We want it. It's a taking me all my time to keep the water out of the +workings; and the boys are over their ankles in the new drift. Leave +your horses--I'll send along for them--and I'll show you what we've been +doing, after supper." + +"I'd rather go now, while I'm wet," Vane answered. "We came straight on +as soon as we landed, and I probably shouldn't feel like turning out +again when I'd had a meal." + +Salter made a sign of assent, and a few minutes later they went down into +the mine. The approach to it looked like a canal, and they descended the +shallow shaft amid a thin cascade. The tunnel slanted, for the lode +dipped, and the pale lights that twinkled here and there among the +timbering showed shadowy, half-naked figures toiling in water which rose +well up their boots. Further streams of it ran in from fissures; and +Vane's face grew grave as he plodded through the flood with a lamp in his +hand. He spent an hour in the workings, asking Salter a question now and +then, and afterward went back with him to one of the iron-roofed sheds, +where he put on dry clothes and sat down to a meal. + +When it was over and the table had been cleared, he lay in a canvas chair +beside the stove, listening to the resinous billets snapping and +crackling cheerfully. The little, brightly lighted room was pleasantly +warm, and Vane was filled with a languid sense of physical comfort after +long exposure to rain and bitter wind. The deluge roared upon the iron +roof; the song of the river rose and fell, filling the place with sound; +and now and then the pounding and clanking of the pumps broke in. + +Vane examined the sheet of figures Salter handed him, and lighted a fresh +cigar when he had laid it down. Then he carefully turned over some of +the pieces of stone which partly covered the table. + +"There's no doubt that those specimens aren't quite so promising," he +said at length; "and the cost of extraction is going up. I'll have a talk +with Nairn when I get back; but in the meanwhile it looks as if we were +going to have trouble with the water." + +"It's a thing I've been afraid of for some time," Salter answered. "We +can keep down any leakage that comes in through the rock, though it +means driving the pumps hard, but an inrush from the river would beat +us. A rise of a foot or so would turn the flood into the workings." He +paused and added significantly: "Drowning out a mine's a costly matter. +My idea is that you ought to double our pumping power and cut down the +rock in the river-bed near the rapid. That would take off three or four +feet of water." + +"It would mean a mighty big wages bill." + +Salter nodded gravely. + +"To do the thing properly would cost a pile of money; but it's an outlay +that you'll surely have to face." + +Vane let the matter drop, and an hour later retired to his wooden berth. +The roar of the rain upon the vibrating roof was like the roll of a great +drum, and the sound of the river's turmoil throbbed through the frail +wooden shack; but the man had lain down at night near many a rapid and +thundering fall, and in a few minutes he was fast asleep. He was awakened +by a new shrill note, which he recognized as the whistle of the pumping +engine. It was sounding the alarm. The next moment Vane was struggling +into his clothing; then the door swung open and Salter stood in the +entrance, lantern in hand, with water trickling from him. There was keen +anxiety in his expression. + +"Flood's lapping the bank top now!" he gasped. "There's a jam in the +narrow place at the head of the rapid and the water's backing up! I'm +going along with the boys." + +He vanished as suddenly as he had appeared and Vane savagely jerked on +his jacket. If the mine were drowned, it would entail a heavy +expenditure in pumping plant to clear out the water, and even then +operations might be stopped for a considerable time. What was more, it +would precipitate a crisis in the affairs of the company and necessitate +an increase of its capital. + +Vane was outside in less than a minute and stood still, looking about +him, while the deluge lashed his face and beat his clothing against his +limbs. He could make out only a blurred mass of climbing trees on one +side and a strip of foam cutting through the black level, which he +supposed was water, in front of him. His trained ears, however, gave him +a little information, for the clamor of the flood was broken by a sharp +snapping and crashing which he knew was made by a mass of driftwood +driving furiously against the boulders. In that region, the river banks +are encumbered here and there with great logs, partly burned by forest +fires, reaped by gales or brought down from the hillsides by falls of +frost-loosened soil. A flood higher than usual sets them floating, and on +subsiding sometimes leaves them packed in a gorge or stranded in a +shallow to wait for the next big rise. Now they were driving down and, +as Salter had said, jamming at the head of the rapid. + +Suddenly a column of fierce white radiance leaped up, lower down-stream, +and Vane knew that a big compressed air-lamp had been carried to the spot +where the driftwood was gathering. Even at a distance, the brightness of +the blaze dazzled him, and he could see nothing else when he headed +toward it. He stumbled against a fir stump, and the next minute the +splashing about his feet warned him that he was entering the water. +Having no wish to walk into the main stream, he floundered to one side. +Getting nearer to the blaze, he soon made out a swarm of shadowy figures +scurrying about beneath it. Some of them had saws or axes, for he caught +the gleam of steel. He broke into a splashing run; and presently Carroll, +whom he had forgotten, came up calling to him. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE FLOOD + + +When he reached the blast-lamp, which was raised on a tall tripod, Vane +stood with his back to the pulsating gaze while he grasped the details of +a somewhat impressive scene. A little upstream of him, the river leaped +out of the darkness, breaking into foaming waves, and a wall of dripping +firs flung back the roar it made, the first rows of serried trunks +standing out hard and sharp in the fierce white light. Nearer the spot +where he stood, a projecting spur of rock narrowed in the river, which +boiled tumultuously against its foot, while about halfway across, the top +of a giant boulder rose above the flood. + +Vane could just see it, because a mass of driftwood, which was +momentarily growing, stretched from bank to bank. A big log, drifting +down sidewise, had brought up against the boulder and once fixed had +seized and held fast each succeeding trunk. Some had been driven partly +out upon those that had preceded them; some had been drawn beneath and +catching the bottom had jammed; then the rest had been wedged by the +current into the gathering mass, trunks, branches and brushwood all +finding a place. When the stream is strong, a jam usually extends +downward, as well as rises, as the water it pens back increases in +depth, until it forms an almost solid barrier from surface to bed. If it +occurs during a log-drive the river is choked with valuable lumber. + +Bent figures were at work with handspikes and axes at the shoreward end +of the mass; others had crawled out along the logs in search of another +point where they could advantageously be attacked; but Vane, watching +them with practised eye, decided that they were largely throwing their +toil away. Then he glanced down-stream; but, powerful as the light was, +it did not pierce far into the darkness and the rain, and the mad white +rush of the rapid vanished abruptly into the surrounding gloom. He caught +the clink of a hammer on a drill, and seeing Salter not far away, he +strode toward him. + +"How are you getting to work?" he asked. + +Salter pointed to the foot of the rock on which they stood. + +"I reckoned that if we could put a shot in yonder we might cut out stone +enough to clear the butts of the larger logs that are keying up the jam." + +"You're wasting time--starting at the wrong place." + +"It's possible; but what am I to do? I'd rather split that boulder or +chop down to the king log there--but the boys can't get across." + +"Have they tried?" Vane demanded. "I will, if it's necessary." + +Salter expostulated. + +"I want to point out that you're the boss director of this company. I +don't know what you're making out of it; but you can hire men to do that +kind of work for three dollars a day." + +"We'll let the boys try it, if they're willing." + +Vane raised his voice. + +"Are any of you open to earn twenty dollars? I'll pay that to the man +who'll put a stick of giant-powder in yonder boulder, and another twenty +to any one who can find the king log and chop it through." + +Three or four of them crept cautiously along the driftwood bridge. It +heaved and worked beneath them; the foam sluiced across it and the +stream forced the thinner tops of shattered trees above the barrier. It +was obvious that the men were risking life and limb, and there was a +cry from the others when one of them went down and momentarily +disappeared. He scrambled to his feet again, but those behind him +stopped, bracing themselves against the stream, nearly waist-deep in +rushing froth. Most of them had followed rough and dangerous +occupations in the bush; but they were not professional river-Jacks +trained to high proficiency in log-driving, and one of them, turning, +shouted to the watchers on the bank. + +"This jam's not solid!" he explained above the roar of the water. "She's +working open and shutting; and you can't tell where the breaks are." + +He stooped and rubbed his leg, and Vane understood him to add: + +"Figured I had it smashed." + +Vane swung round toward Carroll. + +"We'll give them a lead!" + +Salter ventured another expostulation: + +"Stay where you are! How are you going to manage, if the boys can't +tackle the thing?" + +"They haven't as much at stake as I have," was Vane's reply. "I'm a +director of the company, as you pointed out. Give me two sticks of +giant-powder, some fuse, and detonators!" + +Salter yielded when he saw that Vane meant to be obeyed; and cramming the +blasting material into his pocket, Vane turned to Carroll. + +"Are you coming with me?" + +"Since I can't stop you, I suppose I'd better go." + +As they sprang down the bank, Salter addressed one of the miners at +work near him. + +"I've seen a few company bosses in my time, but this one's different from +the rest. I can't imagine any of the others wanting to cross that jam." + +Vane crawled out on the groaning timber, with Carroll a few feet behind +him. The perilous bridge they traversed rolled beneath their feet; but +they had joined the other men before they came to any particularly +troublesome opening. Then the clustering wet figures were brought up by a +gap filled with leaping foam, in the midst of which brushwood swung to +and fro and projecting branches ground on one another. Whether there was +solid timber a foot or two beneath, or only the entrance to some cavity +by which the stream swept through the barrier, there was nothing to show; +but Vane set his lips and leaped. He alighted on something that bore him, +and when the others followed, floundering and splashing, the deliberation +which hitherto had characterized their movements suddenly deserted them. +They had reached the limit beyond which it was no longer needful. + +There is courage which springs from knowledge, often painfully acquired, +of the threatened dangers and the best means of avoiding them; but it +carries its possessor only so far. Beyond that point he must face the +risk he cannot estimate and blindly trust to chance. At sea, when canvas +is still the propelling power, and in the wilderness, man at grips with +the elemental forces must now and then rise above bodily shrinking and +disregard the warnings of reason. There are tasks which cannot be +undertaken in cold blood; and when they had crossed the gap, Vane and +those behind him blundered on in hot Berserker fury. They had risen to +the demand on them, and the curious psychic change had come; now they +must achieve success or face annihilation. But in this there was nothing +unusual; it is the alternative offered many a log-driver, miner and +sailorman. + +Neither Vane nor Carroll, nor any of those who assisted them, had a clear +recollection of what they did. Somehow they reached the boulder; somehow +they plied ax or iron-hooked peevy, while the unstable, foam-lapped +platform rocked beneath their feet. Every movement entailed a peril no +one could calculate; but they toiled savagely on. When Vane began to +swing a hammer above a drill, or from whom he got it, he did not know, +any more than he remembered when he had torn off and thrown away his +jacket although the sticks of giant-powder which had been in his pocket +lay near him upon the stone. Sparks leaped from the drill which Carroll +held and fell among the coils of snaky fuse; but that did not trouble +them; and it was only when Vane was breathless that he changed places +with his companion. They heard neither the turmoil of the flood nor the +crashing of the timber, and the foam that lapped their long boots whirled +unheeded by. + +About them, bowed figures that breathed in stertorous gasps grappled +desperately with the grinding, smashing timber. Sometimes they were +forced up in harsh distinctness by a dazzling glare; sometimes they faded +into blurred shadows as the pulsating flame upon the bank sank a little +or was momentarily blown aside; but all the while gorged veins rose on +bronzed foreheads and toil-hardened muscles were taxed to the utmost. At +last, when a trunk rolled beneath him, Carroll missed a stroke and +realized with a shock of dismay that it was not the drill he had struck +with his hammer. + +"I couldn't help it!" he gasped. "Where did I hit you?" + +"Get on!" Vane cried hoarsely; "I can hold the drill." + +Carroll struck for a few more minutes, and then flung down the hammer and +inserted the giant-powder into the holes sunk in the stone. He lighted +the fuse and, warning the others, they hastily recrossed the dangerous +bridge. They had reached the edge of the forest when, a flash leaped up +amid the foam and a sharp crash was followed by a deafening, drawn-out +uproar. Rending, grinding, smashing, the jam broke up. It hammered upon +the partly shattered boulder, and, carrying it away or driving over it, +washed in tremendous ruin down the rapid. When the wild clamor had +subsided, Salter gave the men some instructions; and then, as they +approached the lamp, he noticed Vane's reddened hand. + +"That looks a nasty smash; you want to get it seen to," he advised. + +"I'll get it dressed at the settlement; we'll make an early start +to-morrow. We were lucky in breaking the jam; but you'll have the same +trouble over again any time a heavy flood brings down an unusual quantity +of driftwood." + +"It's what I'd expect." + +"Then something will have to be done to prevent it. I'll go into the +matter when I reach the city." + +Carroll and Vane walked back to the shack, where the latter bound up his +comrade's injured hand. When he had done so, Vane managed to light a +cigar, and lying back, still very wet, he looked thoughtful. + +"We can't risk having the workings drowned; but I'm afraid the cost of +the remedy will force me into sanctioning some scheme for increasing +our capital." + +"Its a very common procedure," Carroll rejoined. "I've wondered why +you had so strong an objection to it. Of course, I've heard your +business reasons." + +Vane smiled. + +"I have some of a different kind--we'll call them sentimental +ones--though I don't think I quite realized it until lately." + +"You're not given to introspection. Go on; I think I know what's coming." + +"To put the thing into words may help me to formulate my ideas; they're +rather hazy. Well, ostensibly, I left England as the result of a +difference of opinion--which I've regretted ever since--though I know now +that really it was from another cause. I wanted room, I wanted freedom; +and I got them both--freedom either to do work that nearly broke my heart +and wore the flesh off me or to starve." + +"The experience is not an unusual one." + +"Eventually," Vane proceeded, "I managed to get on my feet. I suppose I +got rather proud of myself when I beat the city men over the floating of +the mine, and I began to think of going back to the sphere of life in +which I was born--excuse the phrase." + +"It looked nice, from a distance," Carroll suggested. + +"It was tolerable in Vancouver; anyway, while I could go straight ahead +and interest myself in the development of the mine. I began to expect a +good deal from my English visit." + +Carroll laughed softly before he helped him out. + +"And you were bitterly disappointed. It's a very old tale. You had cut +loose--and you couldn't get back when you wanted to." + +"I suppose I'd changed: the bush had got hold of me. The ways and views +of the people over yonder didn't seem to be those I remembered. They +couldn't look at things from my standpoint; I wouldn't adopt theirs. You +and I have had to face--realities." + +"Hunger," corrected Carroll softly; "wet snow to sleep in; bodily +exhaustion. They probably teach one something, or, at any rate, they +alter one's point of view. When you've marched for days on half rations, +some things don't seem so important--how you put on your clothes, for +instance, or how your dinner's served. But I don't see yet what bearing +this has on your reluctance to extend the Clermont operations." + +"I could act as director, with such men as Nairn, when it was a question +of running a mine; but it's doubtful if I'd make a successful financial +juggler. It's hard to keep one's hands off some of the professional +tricksters. Bluff, assumption, make-believe--Pshaw! I've had enough of +them. Better stick to the ax and cross-cut; that's what I feel to-night." + +"Now that you've relieved your mind, I'll show you where you were wrong. +You said that you had changed in the wilderness--you haven't; your kind +are fore-loopers born. Your place is with the vedettes, ahead of the +massed columns. But there's a point that strikes one--is your objection +to financial scheming due to honesty or pride?" + +Vane laughed. + +"I suspect a good deal of it's bad temper. Anyhow, I've felt that rather +than truckle with that fellow Horsfield I'd like to pitch him down the +stairs. But all this is pretty random talk." + +"It is," Carroll agreed. "You haven't said whether you intend to +authorize that extension of capital?" + +"I suppose it will have to be done. And now it's very late and I'm going +to sleep." + +They retired to the wooden bunks Salter had placed at their disposal; and +early the next morning they left the mine. Vane got his hand dressed when +they reached the little mining town at the head of the railroad, and on +the following day they arrived in Vancouver. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +VANE YIELDS A POINT + + +The short afternoon was drawing toward its close when Vane came out +of a large building in the city. Glancing at his watch, he stopped on +the steps. + +"The meeting went pretty satisfactorily, taking it all round," he +remarked to Carroll. + +"I think so," agreed his companion. "But I'm far from sure that Horsfield +was pleased with the stockholders' decision." + +Vane smiled in a thoughtful manner. After returning from the mine, he had +gone inland to examine a new irrigation property in which he had been +asked to take an interest, and had got back only in time for a meeting of +the Clermont shareholders, which Nairn had arranged in his absence. The +meeting, of the kind that is sometimes correctly described as +extraordinary, was just over, and though Vane had been forced to yield to +a majority on some points, he had secured the abandonment of a +proposition he considered dangerous. + +"Though I don't see what the man could have gained by it, I'm inclined to +believe that if Nairn and I had been absent he'd have carried his total +reconstruction scheme. That wouldn't have pleased me." + +"I thought it injudicious." + +"It was only because we must raise more money that I agreed to the issue +of the new block of shares," Vane went on. "We ought to pay a fair +dividend on the moderate sum in question." + +"You think you'll get it?" + +"I've not much doubt." + +Carroll made no reply to this. Vane was capable and forceful; but his +abilities were of a practical rather than a diplomatic order, and he was +occasionally addicted to somewhat headstrong action. Knowing that he had +a very cunning antagonist intriguing against him, his companion had +misgivings. + +"Shall we walk back to the hotel?" he suggested. + +"No," answered Vane; "I'll go across and see how Celia Hartley's getting +on. I'm afraid I've been forgetting her." + +"Then I'll come too. You may need me; there are matters which you're not +to be trusted to deal with alone." + +Just then Nairn came down the steps and waved his hand to them. + +"Ye will no forget that Mrs. Nairn is expecting both of ye this evening." + +He passed on, and they set off together across the city toward the +district where Celia lived. Though the quarter in question may have been +improved out of existence since, a few years ago rows of low-rented +shacks stood upon mounds of sweating sawdust which had been dumped into a +swampy hollow. Leaky, frail and fissured, they were not the kind of +places anyone who could help it would choose to live in; but Vane found +the sick girl still installed in one of the worst of them. She looked +pale and haggard; but she was busily at work upon some millinery; and the +light of a tin lamp showed Drayton and Kitty Blake sitting near her. +There were cracks in the thin, boarded walls, from which a faint resinous +odor exuded, but it failed to hide the sour smell of the wet sawdust upon +which the shack was built. The room, which was almost bare of furniture, +felt damp and unwholesome. + +"You oughtn't to be at work; you don't look fit," Vane said to Celia. He +paused a moment, hesitating, before he added: "I'm sorry we couldn't find +that spruce; but, as I told Drayton, we're going back to try again." + +The girl smiled bravely. + +"Then you'll find it the next time. I'm glad I'm able to do a little; it +brings in a few dollars." + +"But what are you doing?" + +"Making hats. I did one for Miss Horsfield, and afterward some friends of +hers sent me two or three more to trim. She said she'd try to get me work +from one of the big stores." + +"But you're not a milliner, are you?" asked Vane, feeling grateful to +Jessy for the practical way in which she had kept her promise to assist. + +"Celia's something better," Kitty broke in. "She's a genius." + +"Isn't that a slight on the profession?" Vane laughed. + +He was anxious to lead the conversation away from Miss Horsfield's +action; he shrank from figuring as the benefactor who had prompted her. + +"I'm not quite sure," he continued, "what genius really is." + +"I don't altogether agree with the definition of it as the capacity for +taking infinite pains," Carroll, guessing his companion's thoughts, +remarked with mock sententiousness. "In Miss Hartley's case, it strikes +me as the instinctive ability to evolve a finished work of art from a few +fripperies, without the aid of technical training. Give her two or three +feathers, a yard of ribbon and a handful of mixed sundries, and she'll +magically transmute them into--this." + +He took up a hat from the table and surveyed it with an air of critical +intelligence. + +"It was innate genius that set this plume at the one artistic angle. Had +it been done by less capable hands, the thing would have looked like a +decorated beehive." + +The others laughed, and he led them on to general chatter, under cover of +which Vane presently drew Drayton to the door. + +"The girl looks far from fit," he said. "Has the doctor been over +lately?" + +"Two or three days ago," answered Drayton. "We've been worried about +Celia. It's out of the question that she should go back to the hotel, and +she can only manage to work a few hours daily. There's another thing--the +clerk of the fellow who owns these shacks has just been along for his +rent. It's overdue." + +"Where's he now?" + +Drayton laughed, for the sounds of a vigorous altercation rose from +farther up the unlighted street. + +"I guess he's yonder, having some more trouble with his collecting." + +"I'll fix that matter, anyway." + +Vane disappeared into the darkness, and it was some time later when +he re-entered the shack. He waited until a remark of Celia's gave +him a lead. + +"You're really a partner in the lumber scheme," he told her; "I can't +see why you shouldn't draw part of your share in the proceeds +beforehand." + +"The first payment isn't to be made until you find the spruce and get +your lease," the girl reminded him. "You've already paid a hundred +dollars that we had no claim on." + +"That doesn't matter; I'm going to find it." + +"Yes," agreed Celia, with a look of confidence, "I think you will. +But"--a flicker of color crept into her thin face--"I can't take any more +money until it is found." + +Vane, failing in another attempt to shake her resolution, dropped the +subject, and soon afterward he and Carroll took their departure. They +were sitting in their hotel, waiting for dinner, when Carroll looked up +lazily from his luxurious chair. + +"What are you thinking about so hard?" he inquired. + +Vane glanced meaningly round the elaborately furnished room. + +"There's a contrast between all this and that rotten shack. Did you +notice that Celia never stopped sewing while we were there, though she +once or twice leaned back rather heavily in her chair?" + +"I did. I suppose you're going to propound another conundrum of a kind +I've heard before--why you should have so many things you don't +particularly need, while Miss Hartley must go on sewing when she's hardly +able for it in her most unpleasant shack? I don't know whether the fact +that you found a mine answers the question; but if it doesn't the thing's +beyond your philosophy." + +"Come off!" Vane bade him with signs of impatience. "There are times +when your moralizing gets on one's nerves. Anyhow, I straightened out one +difficulty--I found the rent man, who'd been round worrying her, and got +rid of him." + +Carroll groaned in mock dismay, which covered some genuine annoyance with +himself; but Vane frowned. + +"What's the matter?" he inquired. "Do you want a drink?" + +"I'll get over it," Carroll informed him. "It isn't the first time I've +suffered from the same complaint. But I'd like to point out that your +chivalrous impulses may be the ruin of you some day. Why didn't you let +Drayton settle with the man? You gave him a check, I suppose?" + +"Sure. I'd only a few loose dollars with me." Vane frowned again. "Now I +see what you're driving at; and I want to say that any little reputation +I possess can pretty well take care of itself." + +"Just so. No doubt it will be necessary; but it doesn't seem to have +struck you that you're not the only person concerned." + +"It didn't," Vane confessed with a further show of irritation. "But who's +likely to hear or take any notice of the thing?" + +"I can't tell; but you make enemies as well as friends, and you're +walking in slippery places which you're not altogether accustomed to. You +can't meet your difficulties with the ax here." + +"That's true," assented Vane. "It's rather a pity. Anyhow, I'm not to be +scared out of my interest in Celia Hartley." + +"What is your interest in her? It's a question that may be asked." + +"As you pretend that you don't know, I'll have pleasure in telling you +again. When I first struck this city, played out and ragged, she was +waitress at a little hotel, and she brought me a double portion of the +nicest things at supper. What's more, she sewed up some of my clothes, +and I struck a job on the strength of looking comparatively decent. It's +the kind of thing you're apt to remember. One doesn't meet with too much +kindness in this blamed censorious world." + +"I'd expect you to remember," Carroll smiled. + +They went in to dinner and when the meal was over they walked across to +Nairn's. They were ushered into a room in which several other guests were +assembled, and Vane sat down beside Jessy Horsfield. A place on the sofa +she occupied was invitingly empty; he did not know, of course, that she +had adroitly got rid of her previous companion as soon as he came in. + +"I want to thank you; I was over at Miss Hartley's this +afternoon," he began. + +"I understood that you were at the mining meeting." + +"So I was, your brother would tell you that--" + +Vane broke off, remembering that he had defeated Horsfield; but Jessy +laughed encouragingly. + +"He did so--you were opposed to him; but it doesn't follow that I share +all his views. Perhaps I ought to be a stauncher partizan." + +"If you'll be just to both of us, I'll be satisfied." + +Jessy reflected that while this was, no doubt, a commendable sentiment, +he might have made a better use of the opening she had given him by at +least hinting that he would value her sympathy. + +"I suppose that means that you're convinced of the equity of your cause?" +she suggested. + +"I dare say I deserve the rebuke; but aren't you trying to switch me off +the subject?" Vane retorted with a laugh. "It's Celia Hartley that I want +to talk about." + +He did her an injustice. Jessy felt that she had earned his gratitude, +and she had no objection to his expressing it. + +"It was a happy thought of yours to give her hats and things to make; I'm +ever so much obliged to you," he went on. "I felt that you could be +trusted to think of the right thing. An ingenious idea of that kind would +never have occurred to me." + +Jessy smiled up at him. + +"It was very simple," she said sweetly. "I noticed a hat and dress of +hers, which she admitted she had made. The girl has some talent; I'm only +sorry I can't keep her busy." + +"Couldn't you give her an order for a dozen hats? I'd be glad to be +responsible." + +Jessy laughed. + +"The difficulty would be the disposal of them. They would be of no use to +you; and I couldn't allow you to present them to me." + +"I wish I could," Vane declared. "You certainly deserve them." + +This was satisfactory, so far as it went, though Jessy would have +preferred that his desire to bestow the favor should have sprung from +some other motive than a recognition of her services to Celia Hartley. +She was, however, convinced that his only feeling toward the girl was +one of compassion. Then she saw that he was looking at her with +half-humorous annoyance in his face. + +"Are you really grieved because I won't take those hats?" she +asked lightly. + +"I am," Vane confessed, and then proceeded to explain with rather +unnecessary ingenuousness: "I'm still more vexed with the state of things +that it's typical of--I suppose I mean the restrictedness of this +civilized life. When you want to do anything in the bush, you take the ax +and set about it; but here you're continually running up against some +quite unnecessary barrier." + +"One understands that it's worse in England," Jessy returned dryly. +"But in regard to Miss Hartley, I'll recommend her to my friends, as +far as I can." + +Vane made an abrupt movement, and Jessy realized by his expression that +he had suddenly become oblivious of her presence. She had no doubt about +the reason, for just then Evelyn Chisholm had entered the room. The +lamplight fell upon her as she crossed the threshold, and Jessy +recognized unwillingly that she looked surprisingly handsome. Handsome, +however, was not the word Vane would have used. He thought Evelyn looked +exotic: highly cultivated, strangely refined, as though she had grown up +in a rarefied atmosphere in which nothing rank could thrive. Exactly what +suggested this it was difficult to define; but the man felt that she had +brought along with her the clean, chill air of the heights where the +cloud-berries bloom. She was a flower of the dim and misty North, which +has nevertheless its flashes of radiant, ethereal beauty. Though Evelyn +had her faults, the impression she made on Vane was, perhaps, more or +less justifiable. + +Then he remembered that the girl had been offered to him and he had +refused the gift. He wondered how he had exerted the necessary strength +of will, for he was conscious that admiration, respect, pity, had now, +changed and melted into sudden passion. His blood tingled, and he felt +strangely happy. + +Laying a check upon his thoughts, he resumed a desultory conversation +with Jessy, but he betrayed himself several times during it, for no +change of his expression was lost upon the girl. At length she let him +go. It was some time, however, before he secured a place beside Evelyn, a +little apart from the others. He was now unusually quiet and +self-contained. + +"Nairn promised me an astonishment this evening, but it exceeds all my +expectations," he said. "How are your people?" + +Evelyn informed him that their health was satisfactory and added, +watching him the while: + +"Gerald sent his best remembrances." + +"Thank you," Vane responded in a casual manner; "I am glad to have them." + +Evelyn was now convinced that Mabel had been correct in concluding that +he had assisted Gerald financially, though she was aware that nothing +would induce either of the men to acquaint her with the fact. + +"And Mopsy?" he inquired. + +"I left her in tears because she could not come. She sent you so many +confused messages that I'm afraid I've forgotten them." + +Vane's face grew gentle. + +"Dear little girl! It's a pity you couldn't have brought her. Mopsy and +I are great friends." + +Evelyn smiled at him. The tenderness of the man appealed to her; and she +knew that to be the friend of anyone meant a good deal to him. + +"You are her hero," she told him. "I don't think it is because you pulled +her out of the water, either; in fact, I think you won her regard when +you mended her canoe. You have a reputation to keep up with Mopsy." + +There was no answering smile in Vane's eyes. + +"Well, I shouldn't like to disappoint her; but isn't it curious what +effect some things have? A patch on Mopsy's canoe, for instance--and I've +known a piece of cold pie carry with it a big obligation." + +The last was somewhat cryptic, and Evelyn looked at him with surprise, +until it dawned on her that he had merely been half-consciously +expressing a wandering thought aloud. + +"I understood from Mrs. Nairn that you were away in the bush," she said. + +"That was the case; and I'm shortly going off again. Perhaps it's +fortunate that I may be away some time. It will leave you more at ease." + +The last remark was more of a question than an assertion. Evelyn knew +that the man could be direct; and she esteemed candor. + +"No," she answered; "I shouldn't wish you to think that--and I shouldn't +like to believe that I had anything to do with driving you away." + +Vane saw a faintly warmer tone show through the clear pallor of her skin, +but while his heart beat faster than usual he recognized that she meant +just what she said and nothing more. He must proceed with caution, and +this, on the whole, was foreign to him. Shortly afterward he left her. + +When he had gone, Evelyn sat thinking about him. She had shrunk from the +man in rebellious alarm when her parents would have bestowed her hand on +him; but even then, and undoubtedly afterward, she had felt that there +was something in his nature which would have attracted her had she been +willing to allow it to do so. Now, though he had said nothing to rouse +it, the feeling had grown stronger. Then she remembered with a curious +smile her father's indignation when Vane had withdrawn from the field. He +had done this because she had appealed to his generosity, and she had +been grateful to him; but, unreasonable as she admitted the faint +resentment she was conscious of to be, the recollection of the fact that +he had yielded to her wishes was somehow bitter. + +In the meanwhile Carroll had taken his place by Jessy's side. + +"I understand that you steered your comrade satisfactorily through the +meeting to-day," she began. + +"No," objected Carrol; "I can't claim any credit for doing so. In matters +of that kind Vane takes full control; and I'm willing to own that he +drove us all, including your brother, on the course he chose." + +Jessy laughed good-humoredly. + +"Then it's in other matters you exercise a little judicious pressure on +the helm?" + +The man looked at her in well-assumed admiration of her keenness. + +"I don't know how you guessed it, but I suppose it's a fact. It's an open +secret, however, that Vane's now and then unguardedly ingenuous; indeed, +there are respects in which he's a babe by comparison with, we'll say, +either of us." + +"That's rather a dubious compliment. By the way, what do you think of +Miss Chisholm? I suppose you saw a good deal of her in England?" + +Carroll's eyes twinkled. + +"I spent a month or two in her company; so did Vane. I fancy she's rather +like him in several ways; and there are reasons for believing that he +thinks a good deal of her." + +Having watched Vane carefully when Evelyn came in, Jessy was inclined to +agree with him. She glanced round the room. One or two people were moving +about and the others were talking in little groups; but there was nobody +very near, and she fancied that she and her companion were safe from +interruption. + +"What are some of the reasons?" she asked boldly. + +Carroll had expected some question of this description, and had decided +to answer it plainly. It seemed probable that Jessy would get the +information out of him in one way or another, anyway; and he had also +another reason, which he thought a commendable one. Jessy had obviously +taken a certain interest in Vane, but it could not have gone very far as +yet, and Vane did not reciprocate it. His comrade, however, was +impulsive, while Jessy was calculating and clever; and Carroll foresaw +that complications might follow any increase of friendliness between her +and Vane. He thought it might be wise to warn her to leave Vane alone. + +"Well," he answered, "since you have asked, I'll try to tell you." + +He proceeded to recount what had passed at the Dene and Jessy listened, +sitting perfectly still, with an expressionless face. + +"So he gave her up--because he admired her?" she said at length. + +"That's my view of it. Of course, it sounds unlikely, but I don't think +it is so in my partner's case." + +Jessy made no comment, but he felt that she was hit hard, and that was +not what he had anticipated. He began to wonder whether he had acted +judiciously. He glanced about the room, as it did not seem considerate to +study her expression just then. A few moments later she turned to him +with a smile in which there was the faintest hint of strain. + +"I dare say you are right; but there are one or two people to whom I +haven't spoken." + +She moved away from him, and a little while afterward Mrs. Nairn came +upon Carroll standing for the moment alone. + +"It's no often one sees ye looking moody," she said. "Was Jessy no +gracious?" + +"That," replied Carroll, smiling, "is not the difficulty. I'm an +unsusceptible and a somewhat inconspicuous person--not worth powder and +shot, so to speak; for which I'm sometimes thankful. I believe it saves +me a good deal of trouble." + +"Then is it something Vane has done that is on your mind? Doubtless, ye +feel him a responsibility." + +"He's what you'd call all that," Carroll declared. "Still, you see, I've +constituted myself his guardian. I don't know why; he'd probably be very +vexed if he suspected it." + +"The gods give ye a good conceit of yourself," Mrs. Nairn laughed. + +"I need it. This afternoon I let him do a most injudicious thing; and now +I've done another which I fear is worse. On the whole, I think I'd better +take him away to the bush. He'd be safer there." + +"Ye will no; no just now," declared his hostess firmly. + +Carroll made a sign of resignation. + +"Oh, well," he agreed, "if you say so. I'm quite willing to stand out and +let things alone. Too many cooks are apt to spoil the kale." + +Mrs. Nairn left him, but she afterward glanced thoughtfully once or twice +at Vane and Evelyn, who had again drawn together. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +EVELYN GOES FOR A SAIL + + +Vane sat in Nairn's office with a frown on his face. Specimens of ore +lately received from the mine were scattered about a table and Nairn had +some papers in his hand. + +"Weel?" inquired the Scotchman when Vane, after examining two or three of +the stones, abruptly flung them down. + +"The ore's running poorer. On the other hand, I partly expected this. +There's better stuff in the reef. We're a little too high, for one thing; +I look for more encouraging results when we start the lower heading." + +He went into details of the new operations, and when he finished Nairn +looked up from the figures he had been jotting down. + +"Yon workings will cost a good deal," he pointed out "Ye will no be able +to make a start until we're sure of the money." + +"We ought to get it." + +Nairn looked thoughtful. + +"A month or two ago, I would have agreed with ye; but general investors +are kittle folk, and the applications for the new stock are no numerous." + +"Howitson promised to subscribe largely; and Bendle pledged himself to +take a considerable block." + +"I'm no denying it. But we have no been favored with their formal +applications yet." + +"You had better tell me if you have anything particular in your mind," +Vane said bluntly. + +An unqualified affirmation is not strictly in accordance with the +Scottish character, and Nairn was seldom rash. + +"I would have ye remember what I told ye about the average investor," he +replied. "He has no often the boldness to trust his judgment nor the +sense to ken a good thing when he sees it--he waits for a lead, and then +joins the rush when other folk are going in. What makes a mineral or +other stock a favorite for a time is now and then no easy to determine; +but we'll allow that it becomes so--ye will see men who should have mair +sense thronging to buy and running the price up. Like sheep they come in, +each following the other; and like sheep they run out, if anything scares +them. It's no difficult to start a panic." + +"The plain English of it is that the mine is not so popular as it was," +retorted Vane impatiently. + +"I'm thinking something of the kind," Nairn agreed. Then he proceeded +with a cautious explanation: "The result of the first reduction and the +way ye forced the concern on the market secured ye notice. Folk put their +money on ye, looking for sensational developments, and when the latter +are no forthcoming they feel a bit sore and disappointed." + +"There's nothing discouraging in our accounts. Even if the ore all ran as +poor as that,"--Vane pointed to the specimens on the table--"the mine +could be worked on a reasonably satisfactory paying basis. We have +issued no statements that could spread alarm." + +"Just so. What was looked for was more than reasonable satisfaction--ye +have no come up to expectations. Forby, it's my opinion that damaging +reports have somehow leaked out from the mine. Just now I see clouds on +the horizon." + +"Bendle pledged himself to take up a big block of the shares," repeated +Vane. "If Howitson does the same, as he said he would, our position would +be secure. As soon as it was known that they were largely interested, +others would follow them." + +"Now ye have it in a nutshell--it would put a wet blanket on the project +if they both backed down. In the meanwhile we canna hurry them. Ye will +have to give them time." + +Vane rose. + +"We'll leave it at that. I've promised to take Mrs. Nairn and Miss +Chisholm for a sail." + +By the time he reached the water-front he had got rid of the slight +uneasiness the interview had occasioned him. He found Mrs. Nairn and +Evelyn awaiting him with Carroll in attendance, and in a few minutes they +were rowing off to the sloop. As they approached her, the elder lady +glanced with evident approval at the craft, which swam, a gleaming ivory +shape, upon the shining green brine. + +"Ye have surely been painting the boat," she exclaimed. "Was that for +us?" + +Vane disregarded the question. + +"She wanted it, and paint's comparatively cheap. It has been good drying +weather the last few days." + +It was a little thing, but Evelyn was pleased. The girls had not been +greatly considered at the Dene, and it was flattering to recognize that +the man had thought it worth while to decorate his craft in her honor; +she supposed it had entailed a certain amount of work. She did not ask +herself if he had wished to please her; he had invited her for a sail +some days ago, and he was thorough in everything he did. He helped her +and Mrs. Nairn on board and when they sat down in the well he and Carroll +proceeded to hoist the mainsail. It looked exceedingly large as it +thrashed and fluttered above their heads, and there seemed to be a +bewildering quantity of ropes, but Evelyn was interested chiefly in +watching Vane. + +He was wonderfully quick, but no movement was wasted. His face was +intent, his glances sharp, and she liked the crisp, curt way in which he +spoke to Carroll. The man's task was, in one sense, not important, but he +was absorbed in it. Then while Carroll slipped the moorings, Vane ran up +the headsails and springing aft seized the tiller as the boat, slanting +over, commenced to forge through the water. It was the first time Evelyn +had ever traveled under sail and, receptive as she was of all new +impressions she sat silent a few minutes rejoicing in the sense of swift +and easy motion. The inlet was crisped by small white ripples, and the +boat with her boom broad off on her quarter drove through them, with a +wedge of foam on her lee bow and a stream of froth sluicing past her +sides. Overhead, the great inclined sail cut, sharply white, against the +dazzling blue of the mid-morning sky. + +Evelyn glanced farther around. Wharves stacked with lumber, railroad +track, clustering roofs, smoking mills, were flitting fast astern. Ahead, +a big side-wheel steamer was forging, foam-ringed, toward her, with the +tall spars of a four-master towering behind, and stately pines, that +apparently walled in the harbor, a little to one side. To starboard, +beyond the wide stretch of white-flecked water, mountains ran back in +ranks, with the chilly gleam of snow, which had crept lower since her +arrival, upon their shoulders. It was a sharp contrast: the noisy, +raw-new city and, so close at hand, the fringe of the wilderness. + +They swept out through the gate of the Narrows, and Vane luffed the boat +up to a moderately fresh breeze. + +"It's off the land, and we'll have fairly smooth water," he explained. +"How do you like sailing?" + +Evelyn watched the white ridges, which were larger than the ripples in +the inlet, smash in swift succession upon the weather bow and hurl the +glittering spray into the straining mainsail. There was something +fascinating in the way the gently-swaying boat clove through them. + +"It's glorious!" she cried, looking first ahead then back toward the +distant snow. "If anything more were wanted, there are the +mountains, too." + +Vane smiled, but there was a suggestive sparkle in his eyes. + +"Yes; we have them both, and that's something to be thankful for. The sea +and the mountains--the two grandest things in this world!" + +"If you think that, how did you reconcile yourself to the city?" + +"I'm not sure that I've done so." He indicated the gleaming heights. +"Anyway, I'm going back up yonder very soon." + +Mrs. Nairn glanced at Carroll, who affected to be busy with a rope; then +she turned to Vane. + +"It will no be possible with winter coming on." + +"It's not really so bad then," Vane declared. "Besides, I expect to get +my work done before the hardest weather's due." + +"But ye canna leave Vancouver until ye have settled about the mine!" + +"I don't want to," Vane admitted. "That's not quite the same thing." + +"It is with a good many people," Carroll interposed with a smile. + +Evelyn fancied that there was something behind all this, but it did not +directly concern her and she made no inquiry. In the meanwhile they were +driving on to the southward, opening up the straits, with the forests to +port growing smaller and the short seas increasing in size. The breeze +was cold, but the girl was warmly clad and the easy motion in no way +troubled her. The rush of keen salt air stirred her blood, and all round +her were spread wonderful harmonies of silver-laced blue and green, +through which the straining fabric that carried her swept on. The +mountains were majestic, but except when tempests lashed their crags or +torrents swept their lower slopes they were wrapped in eternal repose; +the sea was filled with ecstatic motion. + +"The hills have their fascination; it's a thing I know," she said, to +draw the helmsman out. "I think I should like the sea, too; but at first +sight it's charm isn't quite so plain." + +"You have started him," interposed Carroll. "He won't refuse that +challenge." + +Vane accepted it with a smile which meant more than good-humored +indulgence. + +"Well," he declared, "the sea's the same everywhere, unbridled, +unchanging; a force that remains as it was in the beginning. Once you're +out of harbor, under sail, you have done with civilization. It has +possibly provided you with excellent gear, but it can do no more; you +stand alone, stripped for the struggle with the elements." + +"Is it always a struggle?" + +"Always. The sea's as treacherous as the winds that vex it, pitiless, +murderous. When you have only sail to trust to, you can never relax your +vigilance; you must watch the varying drift of clouds and the swing of +the certain tides. There's nothing and nobody to fall back upon when the +breeze pipes its challenge; you have sloughed off civilization and must +stand or fall by the raw natural powers with which man is born, and chief +among them is the capacity for brutal labor. The thrashing sail must be +mastered; the tackle creaking with the strain must be hauled in. Perhaps, +that's the charm of it for some of us whose lives are pretty smooth--it +takes one back, as I said, to the beginning." + +"But haven't human progress and machines made life more smooth for +everybody?" + +Vane laughed somewhat grimly. + +"Oh, no; I think that can never be done. So far, somebody pays for the +others' ease. At sea, in the mine and in the bush man still grapples with +a rugged, naked world." + +The girl was pleased. She had drawn him out, and she thought that in +speaking he had kept a fair balance between too crude a mode of +colloquial expression and poetic elaboration. There was, she knew, a vein +of poetic conception in him, and the struggle he had hinted at could be +described fittingly only in heroic language. It was in one sense a pity +that those who had the gift of it and cultivated imagination had, for the +most part, never been forced into the fight; but that was, perhaps, not a +matter of much importance. There were plenty of men, such as her +companion, endowed with steadfast endurance who, if they seldom gave +their thoughts free rein, rejoiced in the struggle; and by them the +world's sternest work was clone. + +"After all," she went on, "we have the mountains in civilized England." + +Vane did not respond with the same freedom this time. He was inclined to +think he had spoken too unrestrainedly. + +"Yes," he agreed, smiling; "you can walk about them--where you won't +disturb the grouse--and they're grand enough; but if you look down you +can see the motor dust trails and the tourist coaches in the valleys." + +"But why shouldn't people enjoy themselves in that way?" + +"I can't think of any reason. No doubt most of them have earned the right +to do so. But you can't rip up those hills with giant-powder where you +feel inclined, or set to work to root out some miles of forest. The +Government encourages that kind of thing here." + +"And that's the charm?" + +"Yes; I suppose it is." + +"I'd better explain," Carroll interposed. "Men of a certain temperament +are apt to fall a prey to fantasies in the newer lands; any common sense +they once possessed seems to desert them. After that, they're never happy +except when they're ripping things--such as big rocks and trees--to +pieces, and though they'll tell you it's only to get out minerals or to +clear a ranch, they're wrong. Once they get the mine or ranch, they don't +care about it; they set to work wrecking things again. Isn't that true, +Mrs. Nairn?" + +"There are such crazy bodies," agreed the lady. "I know one or two; +but if I had my way with them, they should find one mine, or build +one sawmill." + +"And then," supplied Carroll, "you would chain them up for good by +marrying them." + +"I would like to try, but I'm no sure it would act in every case. I have +come across some women as bad as the men; they would drive their +husbands on." + +She smiled in a half wistful manner. + +"Maybe," she added, "it's as well to do something worth the remembering +when ye are young. There's a long while to sit still in afterward." + +Half in banter and half in earnest, they had given Evelyn a hint of the +master passion of the true colonist, whose pride is in his burden. +Afterward, Mrs. Nairn led the conversation until Carroll laid out in the +saloon a somewhat elaborate lunch which he had brought from the hotel. +Then the others went below, leaving Vane at the helm. When they came up +again, Carroll looked at his comrade ruefully. + +"I'm afraid Miss Chisholm's disappointed," he said. + +"No," declared Evelyn; "that would be most ungrateful. I only expected a +more characteristic example of sea cookery. After what Mr. Vane told us, +a lunch like the one you provided, with glass and silver, struck me as +rather an anachronism." + +"It's better to be broken in to sea cookery gently," Vane interposed with +some dryness. + +Evelyn laughed. + +"It's a poor compliment to take it for granted that we're afraid of a +little hardship. Besides, I don't think you're right." + +Vane left the helm to Carroll and went below. + +"He won't be long," Carroll informed the girl, with a smile. "He hasn't +got rid of all his primitive habits yet. I'll give him ten minutes." + +When Vane came up, he glanced about him before he resumed the helm and +noticed that it was blowing fresher. They were also drawing out from the +land and the short seas were getting bigger; but he held on to the whole +sail, and an hour or so afterward a white iron bark, light in ballast, +with her rusty load-line high above the water, came driving up to meet +them. She made a striking picture, Evelyn thought, with the great curve +of her forecourse, which was still set, stretching high above the foam +that spouted about her bows and tier upon tier of gray canvas diminishing +aloft. With the wind upon her quarter, she rode on an even keel, and the +long iron hull, gleaming snowily in the sunshine, drove on, majestic, +through a field of white-flecked green and azure. Abreast of one +quarter, a propeller tug that barely kept pace with her belched out a +cloud of smoke. + +"Her skipper's been up here before--he's no doubt coming for +salmon," Vane explained. Then he turned to Carroll. "We'd better +pass to lee of her." + +Carroll let a foot or two of a rope run out and the sloop's bows swung +round a little. Her rail was just awash, and she was sailing very fast. +Then her deck slanted more sharply and the low rail became submerged in +rushing foam. + +"We'll heave down a reef when we're clear of the bark," Vane said. + +The vessel was now to windward and coming up rapidly; to shorten sail +they must first round up the boat, for which they no longer had room. A +few moments later a fiercer blast swept suddenly down and the water +boiled white between the bark and the sloop. The latter's deck dipped +deeper until the lower part of it was lost in streaming froth. Carroll +made an abrupt movement. + +"Shall I drop the peak?" + +"No. There's the propeller close to lee." + +The tug was hidden by the inclined sail, but Evelyn, clinging tightly to +the coaming, understood that they were running into the gap between the +two vessels and in order to avoid collision with one or the other, must +hold on as they were through the stress of the squall. How much more the +boat would stand she did not know, but it looked as if it were going over +bodily. Then a glance at the helmsman's face reassured her. It was fixed +and expressionless, but she somehow felt that whatever was necessary +would be promptly done. He was not one to lose his nerve or vacillate in +a crisis, and his immobility appealed to her, because she knew that if +occasion arose it would be replaced by prompt decisive action. + +In the meanwhile the slant of sail and deck increased. One side of the +sloop was hove high out of the sea. It was all the girl could do to hold +herself upright, and Mrs. Nairn had fallen against and was only supported +by the coaming to leeward. Then the wind was suddenly cut off and the +sloop rose with a bewildering lurch, as the tall iron hull to weather +forged by, hurling off the sea. She passed, and while Vane called out +something and Carroll scrambled forward, the sloop swayed violently down +again. Everything in her creaked; the floorings sloped away beneath +Evelyn's feet, and now the madly-whirling froth poured in across the +coaming. The veins stood out on the helmsman's forehead, his pose +betrayed the tension on his arms; but the sloop was swinging round, and +she fell off before the wind when the upper half of the great sail +collapsed. + +Rising more upright, she flung the water off her deck, and for some +moments drove on at a bewildering speed; then there was a mad thrashing +as Vane brought her on the wind again. The two men, desperately busy, +mastered the fluttering sail, and in a few more minutes they were running +homeward, with the white seas splashing harmlessly astern. It was now +difficult to believe they had been in any danger, but Evelyn felt that +she had had an instance of the sea's treachery; what was more, she had +witnessed an exhibition of human nerve and skill. Vane, with his +half-formulated thoughts which yet had depth to them and his flashes of +imagination, had interested her; but now he had been revealed in his +finer capacity, as a man of action. + +"I'd have kept to weather of the bark, where we'd have had room to luff, +if I'd expected that burst of wind," he explained. "Did you hurt yourself +against the coaming, Mrs. Nairn?" + +The lady smiled reassuringly. + +"It's no worth mentioning, and I'm no altogether unused to it. Alic once +kept a boat and would have me out with him." + +The remainder of the trip proved uneventful, and as they ran homeward the +breeze gradually died away. The broad inlet lay still in the moonlight +when they crept across it with the water lapping very faintly about the +bows, and it was over a mirror-like surface they rowed ashore. Nairn was +waiting at the foot of the steps and Evelyn walked back with him, +feeling, she could not tell exactly why, that she had been drawn closer +to the sloop's helmsman. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +VANE PROVES OBDURATE + + +Vane spent two or three weeks very pleasantly in Vancouver, for Evelyn, +of whom he saw a good deal, was gracious to him. The embarrassment both +had felt on their first meeting in the western city had speedily +vanished; they had resumed their acquaintance on what was ostensibly a +purely friendly footing, and since both avoided any reference to what had +taken place in England, it had ripened into a mutual confidence and +appreciation. + +This would have been less probable in the older country, where they would +have been continually reminded of what the Chisholm family expected of +them; but the past seldom counts for much in the new and changeful West, +where men look forward to the future. Indeed, there is something in its +atmosphere which banishes regret and retrospection; and when Evelyn +looked back at all, she felt inclined to wonder why she had once been so +troubled by the man's satisfaction with her company. She decided that +this could not have been the result of any aversion for him, and that it +was merely an instinctive revolt against the part her parents had wished +to force upon her. Chisholm and his wife had blundered, as such people +often do, for it is possible that had they adopted a perfectly neutral +attitude everything would have gone as they desired. Their mistake was +nevertheless a natural one. Somewhat exaggerated reports of Vane's +prosperity had reached them; but while they coveted the advantages his +wealth might offer their daughter, in their secret hearts they looked +upon him as a raw Colonial and something of a barbarian, and the opinions +he occasionally expressed in their hearing did not dispel this idea. Both +feared that Evelyn regarded him in the same light, and it accordingly +became evident that a little pressure might be required. In spite of +their prejudices, they did not shrink from applying it. + +In the meanwhile, several people in Vancouver watched the increase of +friendliness between the girl and Vane. Mrs. Nairn and her husband did so +with benevolent interest, and it was by Mrs. Nairn's adroit management, +which even Evelyn did not often suspect, that they were thrown more and +more into each other's company. Jessy Horsfield, however, looked on with +bitterness. She was a strong-willed young woman who hitherto had +generally contrived to obtain whatever she had set her heart on; and she +had set it on this man. Indeed, she had fancied that he returned the +feeling, but disillusionment had come on the evening when he had +unexpectedly met Evelyn. Her smoldering resentment against the girl grew +steadily stronger, until it threatened to prove dangerous on opportunity. + +There were, however, days when Vane was disturbed in mind. Winter was +coming on, and although it is rarely severe on the southern seaboard, it +is by no means the season one would choose for an adventure among the +ranges of the northern wilderness. Unless he made his search for the +spruce very shortly he might be compelled to postpone it until the +spring, at the risk of some hardy prospector's forestalling him; but +there were two reasons which detained him. He thought that he was gaining +ground in Evelyn's esteem and he feared the effect of absence, and there +was no doubt that the new issue of the Clermont shares was in very slack +demand. To leave the city might cost him a good deal in several ways, but +he had pledged himself to go. + +That fact was uppermost in his mind one evening when he set off to call +on Celia Hartley. As it happened, Evelyn and Mrs. Nairn were driving past +as he turned off from a busy street toward the quarter in which she +lived. It had been dark for some time, but the street was well lighted +and Evelyn had no difficulty in recognizing him. Indeed, she watched him +for a few moments while he passed on into a more shadowy region, where +the gloom and dilapidation of the first small frame houses were +noticeable. Beyond them there was scarcely a light at all; the +neighborhood looked mysterious, and she wondered what kind of people +inhabited it. She did not think that Mrs. Nairn had noticed Vane. + +"You have never taken me into the district on our left," she said. + +"I'm no likely to. We're no proud of it." + +Evelyn was a little astonished. She had seen no signs of squalor or +dissipation since she entered Canada, and had almost fancied that they +did not exist. + +"I suppose the Chinese and other aliens live there?" + +"They do," was the dry answer. "I'm no sure, however, that they're +the worst." + +"But one understands that you haven't a criminal population." + +"We have folk who're on the fringe of it, only we see that they live all +together. Folk who would be respectable live somewhere else, except, +maybe, a few who have to consider cheapness. There's no great difference +in human nature wherever ye find it, and I do no suppose we're very much +better than the rest of the world; but it's no a recommendation to be +seen going into yon quarter after dark." + +This left Evelyn thoughtful, for she had undoubtedly seen Vane going +there. She considered herself a judge of character and generally trusted +her intuitions, and she believed that the man's visit to the neighborhood +in question admitted of some satisfactory explanation. On the other hand, +she felt that her friends should be beyond suspicion. Taking it all +round, she was rather vexed with Vane, and it cost her some trouble to +drive the matter out of her mind. + +She did not see Vane the next day, but the latter called upon Nairn at +his office during the afternoon. + +"Have you had any more applications for the new stock?" he asked. + +"I have no. Neither Bendle nor Howitson has paid up yet, though I've seen +them about it once or twice." + +"Investors are shy; that's a fact," Vane confessed. "It's unfortunate. +I've already put off my trip north as long as possible. I wanted to see +things arranged on a satisfactory basis before I went." + +"A very prudent wish. I should advise ye to carry it out." + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"Something like this--if the money's no forthcoming, we may be compelled +to fall back upon a different plan, and unless ye're to the fore, the +decision of a shareholders' meeting might no suit ye. Considering the +position and the stock ye hold, any views ye might express would carry +more weight than mine would do in your absence." + +Vane drummed with his fingers on the table. + +"I suppose that's the case; but I've got to make the journey. With +moderately good fortune it shouldn't take me long." + +"Ye would be running some risk if anything delayed ye and we had to call +a meeting before ye got back." + +Vane frowned. + +"I see that; but it can't be helped. I expect to be back before I'm +wanted. Anyway, I could leave you authority to act on my behalf." + +After a further attempt to dissuade him, Nairn spread out one hand +resignedly. + +"He who will to Cupar maun be left to gang," he said. "Whiles, I have +wondered why any one should be so keen on getting there, but doubtless a +douce Scottish town has mair attractions for a sensible person than the +rugged Northwest in the winter-time." + +Vane smiled and shortly afterward went out and left him; and when Nairn +reached home he briefly recounted the interview to his wife over his +evening meal. Evelyn listened attentively. + +"Yon man will no hear reason," Nairn concluded. "He's thrawn." + +Evelyn had already noticed that her host, for whom she had a strong +liking, spoke broader Scotch when he was either amused or angry, and she +supposed that Vane's determination disturbed him. + +"But why should he persist in leaving the city, when it's to his +disadvantage to do so, as you lead one to believe it is?" she asked. + +"If the latter's no absolutely certain, it's very likely." + +"You have answered only half my question." + +Mrs. Nairn smiled. + +"Alic," she explained, "is reserved by nature; but if ye're anxious for +an answer, I might tell ye." + +"Anxious hardly describes it." + +"Then we'll say curious. The fact is that Vane made a bargain with a sick +prospector, in which he undertook to locate some timber the man had +discovered away among the mountains. He was to pay the other a share of +its value when he got his Government license." + +"Is the timber very valuable?" + +"No," broke in Nairn. "One might make a fair business profit out of +pulping it, though the thing's far from certain." + +"Then why is Mr. Vane so determined on finding it?" + +The question gave Mrs. Nairn a lead, but she decided to say no more than +was necessary. + +"The prospector died, but that bound the bargain tighter, in Vane's +opinion. The man died without a dollar, leaving a daughter worn out and +ill with nursing him. According to the arrangement, his share will go to +the girl." + +"Then," said Evelyn, "Mr. Vane is really undertaking the search, which +may involve him in difficulties, in order to keep his promise to a man +who is dead? And he will not even postpone it, because if he did so +this penniless girl might, perhaps, lose her share? Isn't that rather +fine of him?" + +"On the whole, ye understand the position," Nairn agreed. "If ye +desire my view of the matter, I would merely say that yon's the kind +of man he is." + +Evelyn made no further comment, though the last common phrase struck her +as a most eloquent tribute. She had heard Vane confess that he did not +want to go north at present, and she now understood that to do so might +jeopardize his interests in the mine; but he was undoubtedly going. He +meant to keep his promise in its fullest and widest meaning--that was +what one would expect of him. + +One mild afternoon, a few days later, he took her for a drive among the +Stanley pines, and, though she knew that she would regret his departure, +she was unusually friendly. Vane rejoiced at it, but he had already +decided that he must endeavor to proceed with caution and to content +himself in the meanwhile with the part of trusted companion. For this +reason, he chatted lightly, which he felt was safer, during most of the +drive; but once or twice, when by chance or design she asked a leading +question, he responded without reserve. He did so when they were +approaching a group of giant conifers. + +"I wonder whether you ever feel any regret at having left England for +this country?" she asked. + +"I did so pretty often when I first came out," he answered with a +smile. "In those days I had to work in icy water and carry massive +lumps of rock." + +"I dare say regret was a natural feeling then; but that wasn't quite +what I meant." + +"So I supposed," Vane confessed. "Well, I'd better own that when I'd +spent a week or two in England--at the Dene--I began to think I'd missed +a good deal by not staying at home. It struck me that the life you led +had a singular charm. Everything went so smoothly there, among the +sheltering hills. One felt that care and anxiety could not creep in. +Somehow, the place reminded me of Avalon." + +"The impression was by no means correct," smiled Evelyn, "But I don't +think you have finished. Won't you go on?" + +"Then if I get out of my depth, you mustn't blame me. By and by I +discovered that charm wasn't the right word--the place was permeated with +a narcotic spell." + +"Narcotic? Do you think the term's more appropriate?" + +"I do. Narcotics, one understands, are insidious things. If you take them +regularly, in small doses, they increase their hold on you until you +become wrapped up in dreams and unrealities. If, however, you get too big +a dose of them at the beginning, it leads to a vigorous revulsion. It's +nature's warning and remedy." + +"You're not flattering; but I almost fancy you're right." + +"We are told that man was made to struggle--to use all his powers. If he +rests too long beside the still backwaters of life, in fairy-like dales, +they're apt to atrophy, and he finds himself slack and nerveless when he +goes out to face the world again." + +Evelyn nodded, for she had felt and striven against the insidious +influence of which he spoke. She had now and then left the drowsy dale +for a while; but the life of which she had then caught glimpses was +equally sheltered--one possible only to the favored few. Even the echoes +of the real tense struggle seldom passed its boundaries. + +"But you confessed not long ago that you loved the western wilderness," +she said. "You have spent a good deal of time in it; and you expect to +do so again. After all, isn't that only exchanging one beautiful, +tranquil region for another? The bush must be even quieter than the +English dales." + +"Perhaps I haven't made the point quite clear. When one goes up into the +bush, it's not to lounge and dream there, but to make war upon it with ax +and drill." + +He pulled up his team and pointed to the clump of giant trees. + +"Look there! That's nature's challenge to man in this country." + +Evelyn recognized that it was an impressive one. The great trunks ran up +far aloft, tremendous columns, before their brighter portions were lost +in the vaulted roof of somber greenery. They dwarfed the rig and team; +she felt herself a pygmy by comparison. + +"They're a little larger than the average," her companion explained, +"Still, that's the kind of thing you run up against when you buy land to +start a ranch or clear the ground for a mine. Chopping, sawing up, +splitting those giants doesn't fill one with languorous dreams; the only +dreams that our axmen indulge in materialize. It's an unending, bracing +struggle. There are leagues and leagues of trees, shrouding the valleys +in a shadow that has lasted since the world was young; but you see the +dawn of a wonderful future breaking in as the long ranks go down." + +Once more, without clearly intending it, he had stirred the girl. He had +not spoken in that rather fanciful style to impress her; she knew that, +trusting in her comprehension, he had merely given his ideas free rein. +But in doing so he had somehow made her hear the trumpet-call to action +which, for such men, rings through the roar of the river and the song of +the tall black pines. + +"Ah!" she murmured, "it must be a glorious life, in many ways; but it's +bound to have its drawbacks. Doesn't the flesh shrink from them?" + +"The flesh?" He laughed. "In this land the flesh takes second +place--except, perhaps, in the cities." He turned and looked at her +curiously. "Why should you talk of shrinking? The bush couldn't daunt +you; you have courage." + +The girl's eyes sparkled, but not at the compliment. His words rang with +freedom; the freedom of the heights, where heroic effort was the rule, in +place of luxury. She longed now, as she had often done, to escape from +bondage; to break away. + +"Ah, well," she said, smiling half wistfully; "perhaps it's fortunate +that such courage as I have may never be put to the test." + +Though reticence was difficult, Vane made no comment. He had already +spoken unguardedly, and he decided that caution would be desirable. +As he started the team, an automobile came up, and he looked around +as he drove on. + +"It's curious that I never heard the thing," he remarked. + +"I didn't, either," replied Evelyn. "I was too much engrossed in the +trees. But I think Miss Horsfield was in it" + +"Was she?" responded Vane in a very casual manner; and Evelyn, for no +reason that she was willing to recognize, was pleased. + +She had not been mistaken. Jessy Horsfield was in the automobile, and she +had had a few moments in which to study Vane and his companion. The man's +look and the girl's expression had struck her as significant; and her +lips set in an ominously tight line as the car sped on. She felt that she +almost hated Vane; and there was no doubt that she entirely hated the +girl at his side. It would be soothing to humiliate her, to make her +suffer, and though the exact mode of setting about it was not very clear +just yet, she thought it might be managed. Her companion wondered why she +looked preoccupied during the rest of the journey. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +JESSY STRIKES + + +It was the afternoon before Vane's departure for the North, and Evelyn, +sitting alone for the time being in Mrs. Nairn's drawing-room, felt +disturbed by the thought of it. She sympathized with his object, as it +had been briefly related by her hostess, but she supposed there was a +certain risk attached to the journey, and that troubled her. In addition +to this, there was another point on which she was not altogether pleased. +She had twice seen him acknowledge a bow from a very pretty girl whose +general appearance suggested that she did not belong to Evelyn's own walk +in life, and that very morning she had noticed him crossing a street in +the young woman's company. Vane, as it happened, had met Kitty Blake by +accident and had asked her to accompany him on a visit to Celia. Evelyn +did not think she was of a jealous disposition, and jealousy appeared +irrational in the case of a man whom she had dismissed as a suitor; but +the thing undoubtedly rankled in her mind. While she was considering it, +Jessy Horsfield entered the room. + +"I'm here by invitation, to join Mr. Vane's other old friends in giving +him a good send-off," she explained. "Only, Mrs. Nairn told me to come +over earlier." + +Evelyn noticed that Jessy laid some stress upon her acquaintance with +Vane, and wondered whether she had any motive for doing so. + +"I suppose you have known him for some time?" + +"Oh, yes," was the careless answer. "My brother was one of the first to +take him up when he came to Vancouver." + +The phrase jarred on Evelyn. It savored of patronage; besides, she did +not like to think that Vane owed anything to the Horsfields. + +"Though I don't know much about it, I understood that they were opposed +to each other," she said coldly. + +Jessy laughed. + +"Their business interests don't coincide; but it doesn't follow that they +should disagree about anything else. My brother did all he could to +dissuade Mr. Vane from going on with his search for the timber until the +winter is over." + +This was true, inasmuch as Horsfield had spoken to Vane about the +subject, though it is possible that he would not have done so had he +expected the latter to yield to his reasoning. Vane was one whom +opposition usually rendered more determined. + +"I think it is rather fine of him to persist in it," Evelyn declared. + +Jessy smiled, though she felt venomous just then. + +"Yes," she agreed; "one undoubtedly feels that. Besides, the thing's +so characteristic of him; the man's impulsively generous and not +easily daunted. He possesses many of the rudimentary virtues, as well +as some of the corresponding weaknesses, which is very much what one +would look for." + +"What do you mean by that?" Evelyn inquired with a trace of asperity. +Though she was not prepared to pose as Vane's advocate, she was +conscious of a growing antagonism toward her companion. + +"It's difficult to explain, and I don't know that the subject's worth +discussing," answered Jessy. "However, what I think I meant was this--Mr. +Vane's of a type that's not uncommon in the West, and it's a type one +finds interesting. He's forcibly elementary, which is the only way I can +express it; the restraints the rest of us submit to don't bind him--he +breaks through them." + +This, Evelyn fancied, was more or less correct. Indeed, the man's +fearless disregard of hampering customs had pleased her, but she +recognized that some restraints are needful. Her companion followed the +same train of thought. + +"When one breaks down or gets over fences, it's necessary to +discriminate," she went on. "Men of the Berserker type, however, are more +addicted to going straight through the lot. In a way, they're +consistent--having smashed one barrier why should they respect the next?" + +Jessy, as she was quite aware, was playing a dangerous game; one that +might afterward be exposed. The latter possibility, however, was of less +account, for detection would come too late if she were successful. She +was acquainted with the salient points of Evelyn's character. + +"They're consistent, if not always very logical," she concluded after a +pause. "One endeavors to make allowances for men of that description." + +Something in her tone roused Evelyn to sudden imperious anger. It was +intolerable that this woman should offer excuses for Vane. + +"What particular allowances do you feel it needful to make in Mr. Vane's +case?" she asked haughtily. + +Now that she was faced by the direct question, Jessy hesitated. As a +rule, she was subtle, but she could be ruthlessly frank, and she was +possessed by a passionate hatred of the girl beside her. + +"You have forced me to an explanation," she smiled. "The fact is that +while he has a room at the hotel he has an--establishment--in a +different neighborhood. Unfortunately such places are a feature of some +western towns." + +It was a shock to Evelyn; one that she found hard to face; though she was +not convinced. The last piece of information agreed with something Mrs. +Nairn had told her; but, although she had on one occasion had the +testimony of her eyes in support of it, Jessy's first statement seemed +incredible. + +"It's impossible!" + +Jessy smiled in a bitter manner. + +"It's unpleasant, but it can't be denied. He undoubtedly pays the rent of +a shack in the neighborhood I mentioned." + +Evelyn sat tensely still for a moment or two. She dare not give rein to +her feelings, for she would not betray herself; but composure was +extremely difficult. + +"If that is true," she demanded, "how is it that he is received +everywhere--at your house and by Mrs. Nairn? He is coming here to-night." + +Jessy shrugged her shoulders. + +"People in general are more or less charitable in the case of a +successful man. Apart from that, Mr. Vane has a good many excellent +qualities. As I said, one has to make allowances." + +Just then, to Evelyn's relief, Mrs. Nairn came in, and though the girl +suffered during the time, it was half an hour before she could find an +excuse for slipping away alone. Then, sitting in the gathering darkness +in her own room, she set herself to consider, as dispassionately as +possible, what she had heard. It was exceedingly difficult to believe the +charge, but Jessy's assertion was definite enough, and one which, if +incorrect, could readily be disproved. Nobody would say such a thing +unless it could be substantiated; and that led Evelyn to consider why +Jessy had given her the information. She had obviously done so with at +least a trace of malice, but it could hardly have sprung from jealousy; +Evelyn could not think that a woman would vilify a man for whom she had +any tenderness. Besides, she had seen Vane entering the part of the town +indicated, where he could not have had any legitimate business. Hateful +as the suspicion was, it could not be contemptuously dismissed. Then she +recognized that she had no right to censure the man; he was not +accountable to her for his conduct--but calm reasoning carried her no +farther. She was once more filled with intolerable disgust and burning +indignation. Somehow, she had come to believe in Vane, and he had turned +out an impostor. + +About an hour later Vane and Carroll entered the house with Nairn and +proceeded to the latter's room where he offered them cigars. + +"So ye're all ready to sail the morn?" + +Vane nodded and handed him a paper. + +"There's your authority to act in my name, if it's required. If we have +moderately fine weather, I expect to be back before there's much change +in the situation; but I'll call at Nanaimo, where you can wire me if +anything turns up during the two or three days it may take us to get +there. The wind's ahead at present." + +"I suppose there's no use in my saying anything more now; but I can't +help pointing out that as head of the concern you have a certain duty to +the shareholders which you seem inclined to disregard," Carroll remarked. + +Vane smiled. + +"I've no doubt that their interests will be as safe in Nairn's hands as +in mine. What I stand to risk is the not getting my personal ideas +carried out, which is a different matter, though I'll own that it +wouldn't please me if they were overruled." + +"I fail to see why ye could no have let the whole thing stand over until +the spring," grunted Nairn. "The spruce will no run away." + +"I'd have done so, had it been a few years earlier, but the whole country +is overrun with mineral prospectors and timber righters now. Every +month's delay gives somebody else a chance for getting in ahead of me." + +"Weel," responded Nairn resignedly, "I can only wish ye luck; but, should +ye be detained up yonder, if one of ye could sail across to Comox to see +if there's any mail there it would be wise to do so." He waved his hand. +"No more of that; we'll consider what tactics I had better adopt in case +of delay." + +An hour had passed before they went down to join the guests who were +arriving for the evening meal. As a rule, the western business man, who +is more or less engrossed in his occupation except when he is asleep, +enjoys little privacy; and Nairn's friends sometimes compared his +dwelling to the rotunda of a hotel. The point of this was that people of +all descriptions who have nothing better to do are addicted to strolling +into the combined bazaar and lounge which is attached to many Canadian +hostelries. + +Vane was placed next to Evelyn at the table; but after a quiet reply to +his first observation she turned and talked to the man at her other side. +As the latter, who was elderly and dull, had only two topics--the most +efficient means of desiccating fruit and the lack of railroad +facilities--Vane was somewhat astonished that she appeared interested in +his conversation, and by and by he tried again. He was not more +successful this time, and his face grew warm as he realized that Evelyn +was not inclined to talk to him. Being a very ordinary mortal and not +particularly patient, he was sensible of some indignation, which was not +diminished when, on looking around, Jessy Horsfield favored him with a +compassionate smile. However, he took his part in the general +conversation; and the meal was over and the guests were scattered about +the adjoining rooms when, after impatiently waiting for the opportunity, +he at last found Evelyn alone. She was standing with one hand on a table, +looking rather thoughtful. + +"I've come to ask what I've done?" + +Evelyn was not prepared for this blunt directness and she felt a little +disconcerted, but she broke into a chilly smile. + +"The question's rather indefinite, isn't it? Do you expect me to be +acquainted with all your recent actions?" + +"Then I'll put the thing in another way--do you mind telling me how I +have offended you?" + +The girl almost wished that she could do so. Appearances were badly +against him, but she felt that if he declared himself innocent she could +take his word in the face of overwhelming testimony to the contrary. +Unfortunately, however, it was unthinkable that she should plainly state +the charge. + +"Do you suppose I should feel warranted in forming any opinion upon your +conduct?" she retorted. + +"It strikes me that you have formed one, and it isn't favorable." + +The girl hesitated a moment, but she had the courage of her convictions +and she felt impelled to make some protest. + +"That," she said, looking him in the eyes, "is perfectly true." + +He seemed more puzzled than guilty, and once more she chafed against the +fact that she could give him no opportunity for defending himself. + +"Well," he responded, "I'm sorry; but it brings us back to my first +question." + +The situation was becoming painful as well as embarrassing, and Evelyn, +perhaps unreasonably, grew more angry with the man. + +"I'm afraid that you either are clever at dissembling or have no +imagination." + +Vane held himself in hand with an effort. + +"I dare say you're right on the latter point. It's a fact I'm sometimes +thankful for. It leaves one more free to go straight ahead. Now, as I see +the dried-fruit man coming in search of you and you evidently don't mean +to answer me, I can't urge the matter." + +He turned away and left her wondering why he had abandoned his usual +persistency, unless it was that an uneasy conscience had driven him from +the field. It did not occur to her that the man had under strong +provocation merely yielded to the prompting of a somewhat hasty temper. +In the meanwhile he crossed the room in an absent-minded manner and +presently found himself near Jessy, who made room for him at her side. + +"It looks as if you were in disgrace to-night," she said sweetly, and +waited with concealed impatience for his answer. If Evelyn had been +sufficiently clever or bold to give him a hint as to what he was +suspected of, Jessy foresaw undesirable complications. + +"I think I am," he owned without reflection. "The trouble is that, while +I may deserve it on general grounds, I'm unconscious of having done +anything very reprehensible in particular." + +Jessy was sensible of considerable relief. The man was sore and +resentful; he would not press Evelyn for an explanation, and the breach +would widen. In the meanwhile she must play her cards skillfully. + +"Then that fact should sustain you," she smiled. "We shall miss you after +to-morrow--more than one of us. Of course, it's too late to tell you that +you are not altogether wise in resolving to go." + +"Everybody has been telling me the same thing for the last few weeks," +he laughed. + +"Then I'll only wish you every success. It's a pity that Bendle and the +other man haven't paid up yet." + +She met his surprised look with an engaging smile. + +"You needn't be astonished. There's not very much goes on in the city +that I don't hear about you know how men talk business here, and it's +interesting to look on, even when one can't actually take a hand in the +game. It's said that the watchers sometimes see the most of it." + +"To tell the truth, it's the uncertainty as to what those two men might +do that has chiefly been worrying me." + +"Of course. I believe that I understand the position--they've been +hanging fire, haven't they? But I've reasons for believing they'll come +to a decision before very long." + +Vane looked troubled. + +"That's interesting, but I ought to warn you that your brother--" + +Jessy stopped him with a smile. + +"I've no intention of giving him away; and, as a matter of fact, I think +you are a little prejudiced against him. After all, he's not your +greatest danger. There's a cabal against you among your shareholders." + +The man knit his brows, but she knew by the way he looked at her that he +admired her acumen. + +"Yes," he responded; "I've suspected that." + +"There are two courses open to you--the first is to put off your +expedition." + +The answer was to the effect she had anticipated. + +"That's impossible, for several reasons." + +"The other is to call at Nanaimo and wait until, we'll say, next +Thursday. If there's need for you to come back I think it will arise by +then; but it might be better if you called at Comox too--after you leave +the latter you'll be unreachable. If it seems necessary, I'll send you a +warning; if you hear nothing, you can go on." + +Vane reflected hastily. Jessy, as she had told him, had opportunities for +picking up valuable information about the business done in that city, and +he had confidence in her. + +"Thank you," he said. "It will be the second service you have done me, +and I appreciate it. Anyway, I promised Nairn I'd call at Nanaimo, in +case there should be a wire from him." + +"It's a bargain; and now we'll talk of something else." + +Jessy drew him into an exchange of badinage. Noticing, however, that +Evelyn once or twice glanced at her with some astonishment, she presently +got rid of him. She could understand Evelyn's attitude and she did not +wish her friendliness with the offender to appear unnatural after what +she had said about him. + +At length the guests began to leave, and most of them had gone when Vane +rose to take his departure. His host and hostess went with him to the +door, but, though he once or twice glanced round eagerly, there was no +sign of Evelyn. He lingered a few moments on the threshold after Mrs. +Nairn had given him a kindly send-off; but nobody appeared in the lighted +hall, and after another word with Nairn he went moodily down the steps to +join Jessy and Carroll, who were waiting for him below. As the group +walked down the garden path, Mrs. Nairn looked at her husband. + +"I do not know what has come over Evelyn this night," she remarked. + +Nairn followed Jessy's retreating figure with distrustful eyes. + +"Weel," he drawled, "I'm thinking yon besom may have had a hand in +the thing." + +A few minutes later Jessy, standing where the light of a big lamp +streamed down upon her through the boughs of a leafless maple, bade Vane +farewell at her brother's gate. + +"If my good wishes can bring you success, it will most certainly be +yours," she said, and there was something in her voice which faintly +stirred the man, who was feeling very sore. + +"Thank you." + +She did not immediately withdraw the hand she had given him. He was +grateful to her and thought she looked unusually pretty with the sympathy +shining in her eyes. + +"You will not forget to wait at Nanaimo and Comox?" she reminded him. + +"No. If you recall me, I'll come back at once; if not, I'll go on with a +lighter heart, knowing that I can safely stay away." + +Jessy said nothing further, and he moved on. She felt that she had scored +and she knew when to stop. The man had given her his full confidence. + +Soon afterward Vane entered his hotel, where he turned impatiently +upon Carroll. + +"You can go into the rotunda or the smoking-room and talk to any loafer +who thinks it worth while to listen to your cryptic remarks," he said. +"As we sail as soon as it's daylight to-morrow, I'm going to sleep." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE INTERCEPTED LETTER + + +The wind was fresh from the northwest when Vane drove the sloop out +through the Narrows in the early dawn and saw a dim stretch of +white-flecked sea in front of him. Land-locked as they are by Vancouver +Island, the long roll of the Pacific cannot enter those waters, but they +are now and then lashed into short, tumbling seas, sufficient to make +passage difficult for a craft no larger than the sloop. Carroll frowned +when a comber smote the weather bow and a shower of stinging spray +lashed his face. + +"Right ahead again," he remarked. "But as I suppose you're going on, we'd +better stretch straight across on the starboard tack. We'll get smoother +water along the island shore." + +They let her go and Vane sat at the helm hour after hour, drenched with +spray, hammering her mercilessly into the frothy seas. They could have +done with a second reef down, for the deck was swept and sluicing, and +most of the time the lee rail was buried deep in rushing foam; but Vane +showed no intention of shortening sail. Nor did Carroll, who saw that his +comrade was disturbed in temper, suggest it; resolute action had, he +knew, a soothing effect on Vane. As a matter of fact, Vane needed +soothing. Of late, he had felt that he was making steady progress in +Evelyn's favor, and now she had most inexplainably turned against him. +There was no doubt that, as Jessy had described it, he was in disgrace; +but rack his brain as he would, he could not discover the reason. That he +was conscious of no offense only made the position more galling. + +In the meanwhile, the boat engrossed more and more of his attention, and +though he was by no means careful of her, he spared no effort to get her +to windward. It was a relief to drive her hard at some white-topped sea +and watch her bows disappear in it with a thud, while it somehow eased +his mind to see the smashed-up brine fly half the height of her drenched +mainsail. There was also satisfaction in feeling the strain on the tiller +when, swayed down by a fiercer gust, she plunged through the combers with +the froth swirling, perilously close to the coaming, along her +half-submerged deck. In all their moods, men of his kind find pleasure in +such things; the turmoil, the rush, the need for quick, resolute action +stirs the blood in them. + +The day was cold; the man, who was compelled to sit almost still in a +nipping wind, was soon wet through; but this in some curious way further +tended to restore his accustomed optimism and good-humor. He had partly +recovered both when, as the sloop drove through the whiter turmoil +whipped up by a vicious squall, there was a crash forward. + +"Down helm!" shouted Carroll. "The bobstay's gone!" + +He scrambled toward the bowsprit, which having lost its principal support +swayed upward, in peril of being torn away by the sagging jib. Vane first +rounded up the boat into the wind and then followed him; and for several +minutes they had a savage struggle with the madly-flapping sail before +they flung it, bundled up, into the well. Then they ran in the bowsprit, +and Vane felt glad that, although the craft had been rigged in the usual +western fashion as a sloop, he had changed that by giving her a couple of +headsails in place of one. + +"She'll trim with the staysail if we haul down another reef," he +suggested. + +It cost them some labor, but they were warmer afterward, and when they +drove on again Vane glanced at the bowsprit. + +"We'll try to get a bit of galvanized steel in Nanaimo," he said. "I +can't risk another smash." + +Carroll laughed. + +"You'd better be prepared for one, if you mean to drive her as you have +been doing." He flung back the saloon scuttle. "You'd have swamped her in +another hour or two--the cabin floorings are all awash." + +"Then hadn't you better pump her out?" retorted Vane. "After that, you +can light the stove. It's beginning to dawn on me that it's a long while +since I had anything worth speaking of to eat. The kind of lunch you +brought along in the basket isn't sustaining." + +They made a bountiful if somewhat primitive meal, in turn, sitting in the +dripping saloon which was partly filled with smoke, and Carroll sighed +for the comforts he had abandoned. He did not, however, mention his +regrets, because he did not expect his comrade's sympathy. Vane seldom +noticed what he was eating when he was on board his boat. + +The craft, being under reduced sail, drove along more easily during the +rest of the afternoon, and they ran into a little colliery town late on +the following day. There Vane replaced the broken bobstay with a solid +piece of steel, and then sat down to write a letter while Carroll +stretched his cramped limbs ashore. + +The letter was addressed to Evelyn, and he found it difficult to express +himself as he desired. The spoken word, as he had discovered, is now and +then awkward to use, but the written one is more evasive and complex +still, and he shook his head ruefully over the production when he laid +down his pen. This was, perhaps, unnecessary, for having grown calm he +had framed a terse and forcible appeal to the girl's sense of justice, +which would in all probability have had its effect on her had she +received it. Though he hardly realized it, the few simple words were +convincing. + +Having had no news from Nairn or Jessy, they sailed again in a day or +two, bound for Comox farther along the coast, where there was a +possibility of communications overtaking them; but in the meanwhile +matters which concerned them were moving forward in Vancouver. + +It was rather early one afternoon when Jessy called on one of her friends +and found her alone. Mrs. Bendle was a young and impulsive woman from one +of the eastern cities and she had not made many friends in Vancouver yet, +though her husband, whom she had lately married, was a man of some +importance there. + +"I'm glad to see you," she said, greeting Jessy eagerly. "It's a week +since anybody has been in to talk to me, and Tom's away again. It's +a trying thing to be the wife of a western business man--you so +seldom see him." + +Jessy made herself comfortable in an easy-chair before she referred to +one of her companion's remarks. + +"Where has Mr. Bendle gone now?" she asked. + +"Into the bush to look at a mine. He left this morning and it will be a +week before he's back. Then he's going across the Selkirks with that +Clavering man about some irrigation scheme." + +This suggested one or two questions which Jessy desired to ask, but she +did not frame them immediately. Mrs. Bendle was incautious and +discursive, but there was nothing to be gained by being precipitate. + +"It must be dull for you," she sympathized. + +"I don't mean to complain. Tom's reasonable; the last time I said +anything about being left alone he bought me a pair of ponies. He said I +could have either them or an automobile, and I took the ponies. I thought +them safer." + +Jessy smiled. + +"You're fortunate in several ways; there are not a great many people who +can make such presents. But while everybody knows your husband has been +successful lately, I'm a little surprised that he's able to go into +Clavering's irrigation scheme. It's a very expensive one, and I +understand that they intend to confine it to a few, which means that +those interested will have to subscribe handsomely." + +"Tom," explained her companion, "likes to have a number of different +things in hand. He told me it was wiser, when I said that I couldn't tell +my friends back East what he really is, because he seemed to be +everything at once. But your brother's interested in a good many things, +too, isn't he?" + +"I believe so," answered Jessy. "Still, I'm pretty sure he couldn't +afford to join Clavering and at the same time take up a big block of +shares in Mr. Vane's mine." + +"But Tom isn't going to do the latter now." + +Jessy was startled. This was valuable information which she could +scarcely have expected to obtain so easily. There was more that she +desired to ascertain, but she had no intention of making any obvious +inquiries. + +"It's generally understood that Mr. Vane and your husband are on good +terms," she said. "You know him, don't you?" + +"I've met him once or twice, and I like him, but when I mention him Tom +smiles. He says it's unfortunate Mr. Vane can see only one thing at a +time, and that the one which lies right in front of his eyes. For all +that, he once owned that the man is likable." + +"Then it's a pity he's unable to stand by him now." + +Mrs. Bendle looked thoughtful. + +"I really believe Tom's half sorry he can't do so. He said something last +night that suggested it--I can't remember exactly what it was. Of course, +I don't understand much about these matters, but Howitson was here +talking business until late." + +Jessy was satisfied. Her hostess's previous incautious admission had gone +a long way, but to this was added the significant information that Bendle +was inclined to be sorry for Vane. The fact that he and Howitson had +decided on some joint action after a long private discussion implied that +there was trouble in store for the absent man, unless he could be +summoned to deal with the crisis in person. Jessy wondered whether Nairn +knew anything about the matter yet, and decided that she would call and +try to sound him. This would be difficult, because Nairn was not the man +to make any rash avowal, and he had an annoying habit of parrying an +injudicious question with an enigmatical smile. In the meanwhile she led +her companion away from the subject and they discussed millinery and such +matters until she took her departure. + +It was early in the evening when she reached Nairn's house, for she +thought it better to arrive there a little before he came home. She was +told that Mrs. Nairn and Miss Chisholm were out but were expected back +shortly. Evelyn had been by no means cordial to her since their last +interview, and Mrs. Nairn's manner had been colder; but Jessy decided +to wait; and for the second time that day fortune seemed to play into +her hands. + +It was dark outside, but the entrance hall was brightly lighted and Jessy +could see into it from where she sat. Highly trained domestics are +generally scarce in the West, and the maid had left the door of the room +open. Presently there was a knock at the outer door and a young lad came +in with some letters in his hand. He explained to the maid that he had +been to the post-office and had brought his employer's private mail. The +maid pointed out that the top letter looked dirty, and the lad owned that +he had dropped the bundle in the street. Then he withdrew and the maid +laid the letters carelessly on a little table and also retired, banging a +door behind her. The concussion shook down the letters, and one, +fluttering forward with the sudden draught, fell almost upon the +threshold of the room. Jessy, who was methodical in most things, rose to +pick it up and replace it with the rest. + +When she reached the door, however, she stopped abruptly, for she +recognized the rather large writing on the envelope. There was no doubt +that it was from Vane and she noticed that it was addressed to Miss +Chisholm. Jessy picked it up, and when she had laid the others on the +table, she stood with Vane's letter in her hand. + +"Has the man no pride?" she said half aloud. + +Then she looked about her, listening, greatly tempted, and considering. +There was no sound in the house; Evelyn and Mrs. Nairn were out, and the +other occupants were cut off from her by a closed door. Nobody would know +that she had entered the hall, and if the letter were subsequently missed +it would be remembered that the lad had confessed to dropping the bundle. +It was most unlikely, however, that any question regarding its +disappearance would ever be asked. If there should be no response from +Evelyn, Vane, she thought, would not renew his appeal. Jessy had no doubt +that the letter contained an appeal of some kind which might lead to a +reconciliation, and she knew that silence is often more potent than an +outbreak of anger. She had only to destroy the letter, and the breach +between the two people whom she desired to separate would widen +automatically. + +There was little risk of detection, but, standing tensely still, with set +lips and heart beating faster than usual, she shrank from the decisive +action. She could still replace the letter and look for other means of +bringing about what she wished. She was self-willed and endowed with few +troublesome principles, but until she had poisoned Evelyn's mind against +Vane she had never done anything flagrantly dishonorable. Then while she +waited, irresolute, a fresh temptation seized her in the shape of a +burning desire to learn what the man had to say. He would reveal his +feelings in the message and she could judge the strength of her rival's +influence over him. Jessy had her ideas on this point, but she could now +see them confirmed or refuted by the man's own words. + +Yet she hesitated, with a half-instinctive recognition of the fact that +the decision she must make was an eventful one. She had transgressed +grievously in one recent interview with Evelyn, but, while she had no +idea of making reparation, she could at least stop short of a second +offense. She had, perhaps, not gone too far yet, but if she ventured a +little farther she might be driven on against her will and become +inextricably involved in an entanglement of dishonorable treachery. + +The issue hung in the balance--the slightest thing would have turned +the scale--when she heard footsteps outside and the tinkle of a bell. +Moving with a start, she slipped back into the room just before the +maid opened the adjacent door. In another moment she thrust the +envelope inside her dress, and gathered her composure as Mrs. Nairn and +Evelyn entered the hall. The former approached the table and turned +over the handful of letters. + +"Two for ye from England, Evelyn, and one or two for me," she said, +flashing a quick glance at the girl. "Nothing else; I had thought Vane +would maybe send a bit note from one of the island ports to say how he +was getting on." + +Then Jessy rose, smiling, to greet her hostess. The question was +decided--it was too late to replace the letter now. She could not +remember what they talked about during the next half-hour, but she took +her part, until Nairn came in, and she contrived to have a word with him +before leaving. Mrs. Nairn had gone out to give some instructions about +supper, and when Evelyn followed her, Jessy turned to Nairn. + +"Mr. Vane should be at Comox now," she began. "Have you any idea of +recalling him? Of course, I know a little about the Clermont affairs." + +Nairn glanced at her with thoughtful eyes. + +"I'm no acquainted with any reason that would render such a course +necessary." + +Evelyn reappeared shortly after this, and Jessy excused herself from +staying for the evening meal and walked home thinking hard. It was +needful that Vane should be recalled. He had written to Evelyn, but Jessy +still meant to send him word. He would be grateful to her, and, indignant +and wounded as she was, she would not own herself beaten. She would warn +the man, and afterward perhaps allow Nairn to send him a second message. + +On reaching her brother's house, she went straight to her own room and +tore open the envelope. The color receded from her face as she read, and +sinking into a chair she sat still with hands clenched. The message was +terse, but it was stirringly candid; and even where the man did not +fully reveal his feelings in his words she could read between the lines. +There was no doubt that he had given his heart unreservedly into her +rival's keeping. He might be separated from her, but Jessy knew enough +of him to realize at last that he would not turn to another. The lurid +truth was burned upon her brain--she might do what she would, but this +man was not for her. + +For a while she sat still, and then stooping swiftly she seized the +letter, which she had dropped, and rent it into fragments. Her eyes had +grown hard and cruel; love of the only kind that she was capable of had +suddenly turned to hate. What was more, it was a hate that could be +gratified. + +A little later Horsfield came in. Jessy was very composed now, but she +noticed that her brother looked at her in a rather unusual manner once or +twice during the meal that followed. + +"You make me feel that you have something on your mind," she observed +at length. + +"That's a fact." + +Horsfield hesitated. He was attached to and rather proud of his sister. + +"Well?" she prompted. + +He leaned forward confidentially. + +"See here," he said, "I've always imagined that you would go far, and I'm +anxious to see you do so. I shouldn't like you to throw yourself away." + +His sister could take a hint, but there was information that she desired +and the man was speaking with unusual reserve. + +"You must be plainer," she retorted with a slight show of impatience. + +"Then, you have seen a good deal of Vane, and in case you have any +hankering after his scalp, I think I'd better mention that there's reason +to believe he won't be worth powder and shot before very long." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Jessy with a calmness that was difficult to assume; "you +may as well understand that there is nothing between Vane and me. I +suppose you mean that Howitson and Bendle are turning against him?" + +"Something like that." Horsfield's tone implied that her answer had +afforded him relief. "The man has trouble in front of him." + +Jessy changed the subject. What she had gathered from Mrs. Bendle was +fully confirmed; but she had made up her mind. Evelyn's lover might wait +for the warning which could save him, but he should wait in vain. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +ON THE TRAIL + + +It was a long, wet sail up the coast with the wind ahead, and Carroll was +quite content when, on reaching Comox, Vane announced his intention of +stopping there until the mail came in. Immediately after its arrival, +Carroll went ashore, and came back empty-handed. + +"Nothing," he reported. "Personally, I'm pleased. Nairn could have +advised us here if there had been any striking developments since we left +the last place." + +"I wasn't expecting to hear from him," Vane replied tersely. + +Carroll read keen disappointment in his face, and was not surprised, +although the absence of any message meant that it was safe for them to go +on with their project and that should have afforded his companion +satisfaction. The latter sat on deck, gazing somewhat moodily across the +ruffled water toward the snow-clad heights of the mainland range. They +towered, dimly white and majestic, above a scarcely-trodden wilderness, +and Carroll, at least, was not pleasantly impressed by the spectacle. +Though not to be expected always, the cold snaps are now and then severe +in those wilds. Indeed, at odd times a frost almost as rigorous as that +of Alaska lays its icy grip upon the mountains and the usually damp +forests at their feet. + +"I wish I could have got a man to go with us, but between the coal +development and the logging, everybody's busy," he remarked. + +"It doesn't matter," Vane assured him. "If we took a man along and came +back unsuccessful, there'd be a risk of his giving the thing away. +Besides, he might make trouble in other respects. A hired packer would +probably kick against what you and I may have to put up with." + +Carroll was far from pleased with this hint, but he let it pass. + +"Do you mean that if you don't find the spruce this time, you'll go +back again?" + +"Yes, that's my intention. And now we may as well get the mainsail on +her." + +They got off shortly afterward and stood out to northward with the wind +still ahead of them. It was a lowering day, and a short, tumbling sea was +running. When late in the afternoon Carroll fixed their position by the +bearing of a peak on the island, he pointed out the small progress they +had made. The sloop was then plunging close-hauled through the vicious +slate-green combers, and thin showers of spray flew all over her. + +"The luck's been dead against us ever since we began this search," he +commented. + +"Do you believe in that kind of foolishness?" Vane inquired. + +Carroll, sitting on the coaming, considered the question. It was not one +of much importance, but the dingy sky and the dreary waste of sad-colored +water had a depressing effect on him, and as it was a solace to talk, +one topic would serve as well as another. + +"I think I believe in a rhythmical recurrence of the contrary chance," he +answered. "I mean that the uncertain and adverse possibility often turns +up in succession for a time." + +"Then you couldn't call it uncertain." + +"You can't tell exactly when the break will come," Carroll explained. +"But if I were a gambler or had other big risks, I think I'd allow for +dangers in triplets." + +"Yes," Vane responded; "you could cite the three extra big head seas, +and I've noticed that when one burned tree comes down in a brûlée, it's +quite often followed by two more, though there may be a number just +ready to fall." + +He mused for a few moments, with the spray whistling about him. He had +three things at stake: Evelyn's favor; his interest in the Clermont Mine; +and the timber he expected to find. Two of them were undoubtedly +threatened, and he wondered gloomily if he might be bereft of all. Then +he drove the forebodings out of his mind. + +"In the present case, anyway, our course is pretty simple," he +declared with a laugh. "We have only to hold out and go on until the +luck changes." + +Carroll knew that Vane was capable of doing as he had suggested and he +was not encouraged by the prospect; but he went below to trim and bring +up the lights, and soon afterward retired to get what rest he could. The +locker cushions on which he lay felt unpleasantly damp; his blankets, +which were not much drier, smelt moldy; and there was a dismal splash +and gurgle of water among the timbers of the plunging craft. Now and +then a jet of it shot up between the joints of the flooring or spouted +through the opening made for the lifting-gear in the centerboard trunk. +When he had several times failed to plug the opening with a rag, Carroll +gave it up and shortly afterward fell into fitful slumber. + +He was awakened, shivering, by hearing Vane calling him, and scrambling +out into the well, he took the helm as his comrade left it. + +"What's her course?" he inquired. + +"If you can keep her hammering ahead close-hauled on the port tack, +it's all I ask," Vane laughed. "You needn't call me unless the sea +gets steeper." + +He crawled below; and it was a few minutes before Carroll, who was +dazzled by the change from the dim lamplight, felt himself fit for his +task. Fine spray whirled about him. It was pitch dark, but by degrees he +made out the shadowy seas which came charging up, tipped with frothing +white, upon the weather bow. By the way they broke on board it struck him +that they were steep enough already, but Vane had seen them not long ago +and there was nothing to be gained by expostulation if they caused him no +anxiety. Several hours went by, and then Carroll noticed that the faint +crimson blink which sometimes fell upon the seas to weather was no longer +visible. It was evident that the port light had either gone out or been +washed out, and it was his manifest duty to relight it. On the other +hand, he could not do so unless Vane took the helm. He was wet and +chilled through; any fresh effort was distasteful; he did not want to +move; and he decided that they were most unlikely to meet a steamer, +while it was certain that there would be no other yacht about. He left +the lamp alone, and at length Vane came up. + +"What's become of the port light?" he demanded. + +"That's more than I can tell you. It was burning an hour ago." + +"An hour ago!" Vane broke out with disgusted indignation. + +"It may have been a little longer. They've stopped the Alaska steamboats +now, but of course there's no reason why you shouldn't light that lamp +again, if it would give you any satisfaction. I'll stay up until you're +through with it." + +Vane did as he suggested, and immediately afterward Carroll retired +below. He slept until a pale ray of sunshine crept in through the +skylights, and then crawling out found the sloop lurching very slowly +over a dying swell, with her deck and shaking mainsail white with frost. +The wind had fallen almost dead away, and it was very cold. + +"On the whole," he complained, "this is worse than the other thing." + +Vane merely told him to get breakfast; and most of that day and the next +one they drifted with the tides through narrowing waters, though now and +then for a few hours they were wafted on by light and fickle winds. At +length, they crept into the inlet where they had landed on the previous +voyage, and on the morning after their arrival they set out on the march. +There was on this occasion reason to expect more rigorous weather, and +the load each carried was an almost crushing one. Where the trees were +thinner the ground was frozen hard, and even in the densest bush the +undergrowth was white and stiff with frost, while overhead a forbidding +gray sky hung. + +On approaching the rift in the hillside at which he had glanced when they +first passed that way, Vane stopped a moment. + +"I looked into that place before, but it didn't seem worth while to +follow it up," he said. "If you'll wait, I'll go a little farther +along it." + +Though the air was nipping, Carroll was content to remain where he was, +and he spent some time sitting upon a log before a faint shout reached +him. Then he rose and, making his way up the hollow, found his comrade +standing upon a jutting ledge. + +"I thought you were never coming! Climb up; I've something to show you!" + +Carroll joined him with difficulty, and Vane stretched out his hand. + +"Look yonder!" + +Carroll looked and started. They stood in a rocky gateway with a river +brawling down the chasm beneath them, but a valley opened up in front. +Filled with somber forest, it ran back almost straight between stupendous +walls of hills. + +"It answers Hartley's description. After all, I don't think it's +extraordinary that we should have taken so much trouble to push on past +the right place." + +"Why?" + +Carroll sat down and filled his pipe. + +"It's the natural result of possessing a temperament like yours. Somehow, +you've got it firmly fixed into your mind that everything worth doing +must be hard." + +"I've generally found it so." + +"I think," grinned Carroll, "you've generally made it so. There's a +marked difference between the two. If any means of doing a thing looks +easy, you at once conclude that it can't be the right one. That mode of +reasoning has never appealed to me. In my opinion, it's more sensible to +try the easiest method first." + +"As a rule, that leads to your having to fall back upon the other one; +and a frontal attack on a difficulty's often quicker than considering how +you can work round its flank. In this case, I'll own we have wasted a lot +of time and taken a good deal of trouble that might have been avoided. +But are you going to sit here and smoke?" + +"Until I've finished my pipe," Carroll answered firmly. "I expect we'll +find tobacco, among other things, getting pretty scarce before this +expedition ends." + +He carried out his intention, and they afterward pushed on up the valley +during the remainder of the day. It grew more level as they proceeded, +and in spite of the frost, which bound the feeding snows, there was a +steady flow of water down the river, which was free from rocky barriers. +Vane now and then glanced at the river attentively, and when dusk was +drawing near he stopped and fixed his gaze on the long ranks of trees +that stretched away in front of him; fretted spires of somber greenery +lifted high above a colonnade of mighty trunks. + +"Does anything in connection with this bush strike you?" he asked. + +"Its stiffness, if that's what you mean," Carroll answered with a smile. +"These big conifers look as if they'd been carved, like the wooden trees +in the Swiss or German toys. They're impressive in a way, but they're +too formally artificial." + +"That's not what I mean," Vane said impatiently. + +"To tell the truth, I didn't suppose it was. Anyway, these trees aren't +spruce. They're red cedar; the stuff they make roofing shingles of." + +"Precisely. Just now, shingles are in good demand in the Province, and +with the wooden towns springing up on the prairie, western millers can +hardly send roofing material across the Rockies fast enough. Besides +this, I haven't struck a creek more adapted for running down logs, and +the last sharp drop to tide-water would give power for a mill. I'm +only puzzled that none of the timber-lease prospectors have recorded +the place." + +"That's easy to understand," laughed Carroll. "Like you, they'd no doubt +first search the most difficult spots to get at." + +They went on, and when darkness fell they pitched their light tent beside +the creek. It was now freezing hard, and after supper the men lay +smoking, wrapped in blankets, with the tent between them and the stinging +wind, while a great fire of cedar branches snapped and roared in front of +them. Sometimes the red blaze shot up, flinging a lurid light on the +stately trunks and tinging the men's faces with the hue of burnished +copper; sometimes it fanned out away from them while the sparks drove +along the frozen ground and the great forest aisle, growing dim, was +filled with drifting vapor. The latter was aromatic; pungently fragrant. + +"It struck me that you were disappointed when you got no mail at +Comox," Carroll remarked at length, feeling that he was making +something of a venture. + +"I was," admitted Vane. + +"That's strange," Carroll persisted, "because your hearing nothing +from Nairn left you free to go ahead, which, one would suppose, was +what you wanted." + +Vane happened to be in a confidential mood; though usually averse to +sharing his troubles, he felt that he needed sympathy. + +"I'd better confess that I wrote Miss Chisholm a few lines from Nanaimo." + +"And she didn't answer you? Now, I couldn't well help noticing that you +were rather in her bad graces that night at Nairn's--the thing was pretty +obvious. No doubt you're acquainted with the reason?" + +"I'm not. That's just the trouble." + +Carroll reflected. He had an idea that Miss Horsfield was somehow +connected with the matter, but this was a suspicion he could not mention. + +"Well," he said, "as I pointed out, you're addicted to taking the hardest +way. When we came up here before, you marched past this valley, chiefly +because it was close at hand; but I don't want to dwell on that. Has it +occurred to you that you did something of the same kind when you were at +the Dene? The way that was then offered you was easy." + +Vane frowned. + +"That is not the kind of subject one cares to talk about; but you ought +to know that I couldn't allow them to force Miss Chisholm upon me against +her will. It was unthinkable! Besides, looking at it in the most +cold-blooded manner, it would have been foolishness, for which we'd both +have had to pay afterward." + +"I'm not so sure of that," Carroll smiled. "There were the Sabine women, +among other instances. Didn't they cut off their hair to make bowstring +for their abductors?" + +His companion made no comment, and Carroll, deciding that he had ventured +as far as was prudent, talked of something else until they crept into the +little tent and soon fell asleep. + +They started with the first of the daylight, but the timber grew denser +and more choked with underbrush as they proceeded and for a day or two +they wearily struggled through it and the clogging masses of tangled, +withered fern. Besides this, they were forced to clamber over mazes of +fallen trunks, when the ragged ends of the snapped-off branches caught +their loads. Their shoulders ached, their boots were ripped, their feet +were badly galled; but they held on stubbornly, plunging deeper into the +mountains all the while. It would probably overcome the average man if he +were compelled to carry all the provisions he needed for a week along a +well-kept road, but the task of the prospector and the survey packer, who +must transport also an ax, cooking utensils and whatever protection he +requires from the weather, through almost impenetrable thickets, is +infinitely more difficult. + +Vane and Carroll were more or less used to it, but both of them were +badly jaded when soon after setting out one morning they climbed a +clearer hillside to look about them. High up ahead, the crest of the +white range gleamed dazzlingly against leaden clouds in a burst of +sunshine; below, dark forest, still wrapped in gloom, filled all the +valley; and in between, a belt of timber touched by the light shone with +a curious silvery luster. Though it was some distance off, probably a +day's journey allowing for the difficulty of the march, Vane gazed at it +earnestly. The trees were bare--there was no doubt of that, for the +dwindling ranks, diminished by the distance, stood out against the +snow-streaked rock like rows of thick needles set upright; their +straightness and the way they glistened suggested the resemblance. + +"Ominous, isn't it?" Carroll suggested at length. "If this is the valley +Hartley came down--and everything points to that--we should be getting +near the spruce." + +Vane's face grew set. + +"Yes," he agreed. "There has been a big fire up yonder; but whether it +has swept the lower ground or not is more than I can tell. We'll find out +to-night or early to-morrow." + +He swung round without another word, and scrambling down the hillside +they resumed the march. They pushed on all that day rather faster than +before, with the same uncertainty troubling both of them. Forest fires +are common in that region when there is a hot dry fall; and where, as +often happens, a deep valley forms a natural channel for the winds that +fan them, they travel far, stripping and charring the surface of every +tree in their way. Neither of the men thought of stopping for a noonday +meal, and during the gloomy afternoon, when dingy clouds rolled down from +the peaks, they plodded forward with growing impatience. They could see +scarcely a hundred yards in front of them; dense withering thickets +choked up the spaces between the towering trunks; and there was nothing +to indicate that they were nearing the burned area when at last they +pitched their camp as darkness fell. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE END OF THE SEARCH + + +The two men made a hurried breakfast in the cold dawn, and soon afterward +they were struggling through thick timber when the light suddenly grew +clearer. Carroll remarked upon the fact and Vane's face hardened. + +"We're either coming to a swamp, or the track the fire has swept is close +in front," he explained. + +A thicket lay before them, but they smashed savagely through the midst of +it, the undergrowth snapping and crackling about their limbs. Then there +was a network of tangled branches to be crossed, and afterward, reaching +slightly clearer ground, they broke into a run. Three or four minutes +later they stopped, breathless and ragged, with their rent boots scarcely +clinging to their feet, and gazed eagerly about. + +The living forest rose behind them, an almost unbroken wall, but ahead +the trees ran up in detached and blackened spires. Their branches had +vanished; every cluster of somber-green needles and delicate spray had +gone; the great rampicks looked like shafts of charcoal. About their feet +lay crumbling masses of calcined wood, which grew more numerous where +there were open spaces farther on, and then the bare, black columns ran +on again, up the valley and the steep hill benches on either hand. It was +a weird scene of desolation; impressive to the point of being appalling +in its suggestiveness of wide-spread ruin. + +For the space of a minute the men gazed at it; and then Vane, stretching +out his hand, pointed to a snow-sheeted hill. + +"That's the peak Hartley mentioned," he said in a voice which was +strangely incisive. "Give me the ax!" + +He took it from his comrade and striding forward attacked the nearest +rampick. Twice the keen blade sank noiselessly overhead, scattering a +black dust in the frosty air, and then there was a clear, ringing thud. +After that, Vane smote on with a determined methodical swiftness, until +Carroll grabbed his shoulder. + +"Look out!" he cried. "It's going!" + +Vane stepped back a few paces; the trunk reeled and rushed downward; +there was a deafening crash, and they were enveloped in a cloud of gritty +dust. Through the midst of it they dimly saw two more great trunks +collapse; and then somewhere up the valley a series of thundering shocks, +which both knew were not echoes, broke out. The sound jarred on Carroll's +nerves, as the thud of the felled rampick had not done. Vane picked up +one of the chips. + +"We have found Hartley's spruce." + +Carroll did not answer for a minute. After all, when defeat must be +faced, there was very little to be said, though his companion's +expression troubled him. Its grim stolidity was portentous. + +"I suppose," he suggested hopefully, "nothing could be done with it?" + +Vane pointed to the butt of the tree, which showed a space of clear wood +surrounded by a blackened rim. + +"You can't make marketable pulp of charcoal, and the price would have to +run pretty high before it would pay for ripping most of the log away to +get at the residue. + +"But there may be some unburned spruce farther on." + +"It's possible. I'm going to find out." + +This was a logical determination; but, in spite of his recent suggestion, +Carroll realized that he would have abandoned the search there and then, +had the choice been left to him, in which he did not think he was +singular. After all they had undergone and the risk they had run in +leaving Vancouver, the shock of the disappointment was severe. He could +have faced a failure to locate the spruce, with some degree of +philosophical calm; but to find it at last, useless, was very much worse. +He did not, however, expect his companion to turn back yet; before he +desisted, Vane would search for and examine every unburned tree. What was +more, Carroll would have to accompany him. He noticed that Vane was +waiting for him to speak, and he decided that this was a situation which +he would better endeavor to treat lightly. + +"I think I'll have a smoke," he said. "I'm afraid any remarks I could +make wouldn't do justice to the occasion. Language has its limits." + +He sat down on the charred log and took out his pipe. + +"A brûlée's not a nice place to wander about in when there's any wind," +he proceeded; "and I've an idea there's some coming, though it's still +enough now." + +Shut in, as they were, in the deep hollow with the towering snows above +them, it was impressively still; and, in conjunction with the sight of +the black desolation, the deep silence reacted on Carroll's nerves. He +longed to escape from it, to make a noise; though this, if done +unguardedly, might bring more of the rampicks thundering down. He could +hear tiny flakes of charcoal falling from them and, though the fire had +long gone out, a faint and curious crackling, as if the dead embers were +stirring. He wondered if it were some effect of the frost; it struck him +as disturbing and weird. + +"We'll work right round the brûlée," Vane decided. "Then I suppose we'd +better head back for Vancouver, though we'll look at that cedar as we +go down. Something might be made of it--I'm not sure we've thrown our +time away." + +"You'd never be sure of that. It isn't in you." + +Vane disregarded this. A new, constructive policy was already springing +up out of the wreck of his previous plans. + +"There's a good mill site on the inlet, but as it's a long way from the +railroad we'll have to determine whether it would be cheaper to tow the +logs down or split them up on the spot. I'll talk it over with Drayton; +he'll no doubt be useful, and there's no reason why he shouldn't earn +his share." + +"Do you consider that the arrangement you made with Hartley applies to +the cedar?" Carroll asked. + +"Of course. I don't know that the other parties could insist on the +original terms--we can discuss that later; but, though it may be +modified, the arrangement stands." + +His companion considered the matter dispassionately, as an abstract +proposition. Here was a man, who in return for certain information +respecting the whereabouts of a marketable commodity had undertaken to +find and share it with his informant. The commodity had proved to be +valueless, but during the search for it he had incidentally discovered +something else. Was he under any obligation to share the latter with his +informant's heirs? + +Carroll decided that the question could be answered only in the negative; +but he had no intention of disputing his comrade's point of view. In the +first place, this would probably make Vane only more determined or would +ruffle his temper; and, in the second place, Carroll was neither a +covetous man nor an ambitious one, which, perhaps, was fortunate for him. +Ambition, the mother of steadfast industry and heroic effort, has also a +less reputable progeny. + +Vane, as his partner realized, was ambitious; but in place of aspiring +after wealth or social prominence, his was a different aim: to rend the +hidden minerals from the hills, to turn forests into dressed lumber, to +make something grow. Money is often, though not always, made that way; +but, while Vane affected no contempt for it, in his case its acquisition +was undoubtedly not the end. Fortunately, he was not altogether singular +in this respect. + +When he next spoke, however, there was no hint of altruistic sentiment in +his curt inquiry: + +"Are you going to sit there until you freeze?" + +Carroll got up and they spent the remainder of the day plodding through +the brûlée, with the result that when darkness fell Vane had abandoned +all idea of working the spruce. The next morning they set out for the +inlet, and one afternoon during the journey they came upon several fallen +logs lying athwart each other with their branches spread in an almost +impenetrable tangle. Vane proceeded to walk along one log, which was +tilted up several yards above the ground, balancing himself carefully +upon the rounded surface, and Carroll followed cautiously. Suddenly there +was a sharp snapping, and Vane plunged headlong into the tangle beneath, +while Carroll stood still and laughed. It was not an uncommon accident. + +Vane, however, did not reappear; nor was there any movement among the +half-rotten boughs and withered sprays, and Carroll, moving forward +hastily, looked down into the hole. He was disagreeably surprised to see +his comrade lying, rather white in face, upon his side. + +"I'm afraid you'll have to chop me out," came up hoarsely. "Get to work. +I can't move my leg." + +Moving farther along the log, Carroll dropped to the ground, which was +less encumbered there, and spent the next quarter of an hour hewing a +passage to his comrade. Then as he stood beside him, hot and panting, +Vane looked up. + +"It's my lower leg; the left," he explained. "Bone's broken; I +felt it snap." + +Carroll turned from him for a moment in consternation. Looking out +between the branches, he could see the lonely hills tower, pitilessly +white, against the blue of the frosty sky, and the rigid firs running +back as far as his vision reached upon their lower slopes. There was no +touch of life in all the picture; everything was silent and absolutely +motionless, and its desolation came near to appalling him. When he looked +around again, Vane smiled wryly. + +"If this had happened farther north, it would have been the end of me," +he said. "As it is, it's awkward." + +The word struck Carroll as singularly inexpressive, but he made an effort +to gather his courage when his companion broke off with a groan of pain. + +"It's lucky we helped that doctor when he set Pete's leg at Bryant's +mill," he declared cheerily. "Can you wait a few minutes?" + +Vane's face was beaded with damp now, but he tried to smile. + +"It strikes me," he answered, "I'll have to wait a mighty long time." + +Carroll turned and left him. He was afraid to stand still and think, and +action was a relief. It was some time before he returned with several +strips of fabric cut from the tent curtain, and the neatest splints he +could extemporize from slabs of stripped-off bark; and the next half-hour +was a trying one to both of them. Sometimes Vane assisted him with +suggestions--once he reviled his clumsiness--and sometimes he lay silent +with his face awry and his lips tight silent; but at length it was done +and Carroll stood up, breathing hard. + +"I'll fasten you on to a couple of skids and pull you out. Then I'll make +camp here." + +He managed it with difficulty, pitched the tent above Vane, whom he +covered with their blankets, and made a fire outside. + +"Are you comfortable now?" he inquired. + +Vane looked up at him with a somewhat ghastly smile. + +"I suppose I'm about as comfortable as could be expected. Anyhow, I've +got to get used to the thing. Six weeks is the shortest limit, isn't it?" + +Carroll confessed that he did not know, and presently Vane spoke again. + +"It's lucky that the winters aren't often very cold near the coast." + +The temperature struck Carroll as low enough, but he made no comment. To +his disgust, he could think of no cheering observation, for there was no +doubt that the situation was serious. They were cut off from the sloop by +leagues of tangled forest which a vigorous man would find it difficult to +traverse, and it would be weeks before Vane could use his leg; no human +assistance could be looked for; and they had only a small quantity of +provisions left. Besides this, it would not be easy to keep the sufferer +warm in rigorous weather. + +"I'll get supper. You'll feel better afterward," he said at length. + +"Don't be too liberal," Vane warned him. + +After the meal, Vane fell into a restless doze, and it was dark when he +opened his eyes again. + +"I can't sleep any more, and we may as well talk--there are things to be +arranged. In the first place, as soon as I feel a little easier you'll +have to sail across to Comox and hire some men to pack me out. When +you've sent them off, you can make for Vancouver and get a timber license +and find out how matters are going on." + +"That is quite out of the question," Carroll replied firmly. "Nairn can +look after our mining interests--he's a capable man--and if the thing's +too much for him, they can go to smash. Besides, they won't give you a +timber license without full particulars of area and limits, and we've +blazed no boundaries. Anyhow, I'm staying right here." + +Vane began to protest, but Carroll raised his hand. + +"Argument's not conducive to recovery. You're on your back, +unfortunately, and I'll give way to you as usual as soon as you're on +your feet again, but not before." + +"I'd better point out that we'll both be hungry by that time. The +provisions won't last long." + +"Then I'll look for a deer as soon as I think you can be left. And now +we'll try to talk of something more amusing." + +"Can you see anything humorous in the situation?" + +"I can't," Carroll confessed. "Still, there may be something of that +description which I haven't noticed yet. By the way, the last time we +were at Nairn's I happened to cross the room near where you and Miss +Horsfield were sitting, and I heard her ask you to wait for something at +Nanaimo or Comox. It struck me as curious." + +"She told me to wait so that she could send me word to come back, if it +should be needful." + +"Ah!" ejaculated Carroll. "I won't ask why she was willing to do so--it +concerns you more than me--but I think that as regards your interests in +the Clermont a warning from her would be worth as much as one from Nairn; +that is, if she could be depended on." + +"Have you any doubt upon the subject?" + +Carroll made a soothing gesture. + +"Don't get angry! Perhaps I've talked too much. We have to think of +your leg." + +"I'm not likely to forget it," Vane informed him. "But I dare say you're +right in one respect--as an amusing companion you're a dead failure; and +talking isn't as easy as I thought." + +He lay silent afterward, and though he had disclaimed any desire for +sleep, worn by the march and pain as he was, his eyes presently closed. +Carroll, however, sat long awake that night, and he afterward confessed +that he felt badly afraid. Deer are by no means numerous in some parts of +the bush--they had not seen one during the journey; and it was a long way +to the sloop. + +Once or twice, for no obvious reason, he drew aside the tent flap and +looked out. The sky was cloudless and darkly blue, and a sickle moon +gleamed in it, keen and clear with frost. Below, the hills were washed in +silver, majestic, but utterly cheerless; and lower still the serrated +tops of the rigid firs cut against the dreary whiteness. After each +glimpse of them, Carroll drew his blanket tighter round him with a +shiver. Very shortly, when the little flour and pork was gone and their +few cartridges had been expended, he would be reduced to the condition of +primitive man. Cut off from all other resources, he must then wrest what +means of subsistence he could from the snowy wilderness by brute strength +and cunning and such instruments as he could make with his unassisted +hands, except that an ax of Pennsylvania steel was better than a stone +one. Civilization has its compensations, and Carroll longed for a few +more of them that night. + +On rising the next morning, he found the frost keener, and he spent that +day and a number of those that followed in growing anxiety, which was +only temporarily lessened when he once succeeded in killing a deer. There +was almost a dearth of animal life in the lonely valley. Sometimes, at +first, Vane was feverish; often he was irritable; and the recollection of +the three or four weeks he spent with him afterward haunted Carroll like +a nightmare. At last, when he had spent several days in vain search for a +deer and the provisions were almost exhausted, he and his companion held +a council of emergency. + +"There's no use in arguing," Vane declared. "You'll rig me a shelter of +green boughs outside the tent and close to the fire. I can move from the +waist upward and, if it's necessary, drag myself with my hands. Then you +can chop enough cord-wood to last a while, cook my share of the eatables, +and leave me while you go down to the sloop. There's half a bag of flour +on board her, and a few other things I'd be uncommonly glad to have." + +Carroll expostulated; but it was evident that his companion was right, +and the next morning he started for the inlet, taking with him the +smallest possible portion of their provisions. So long as he had enough +to keep him from fainting on the way, it was all he required, because he +could renew his stores on board the sloop. The weather broke during the +march; driving snow followed him down the valley, and by and by gave +place to bitter rain. The withered underbrush was saturated, the soil was +soddened with melting snow, and after the first scanty meal or two the +man dare risk no delay. He felt himself flagging from insufficient food, +and it was obvious that he must reach the sloop before he broke down. He +had tobacco, but that failed to stay the gnawing pangs, and before the +march was done he was on the verge of exhaustion, forcing himself onward, +drenched and grim of face, scarcely able to keep upon his bleeding feet. + +It was falling dusk and blowing fresh when he limped down the beach and +with a last effort launched the light dingy and pulled off to the sloop. +She rode rather deep in the water, but that did not trouble him. Most +wooden craft leak more or less, and it was a considerable time since he +had pumped her out. Clambering wearily on board, he made the dingy fast; +and then stood still a moment or two, looking about him with his hand on +the cabin slide. Thin flakes of snow drifted past him; the firs were +rustling eerily ashore, and ragged wisps of cloud drove by low down +above their tops. Little frothy ripples flecked the darkening water with +streaks of white and splashed angrily against the bows of the craft. The +prospect was oppressively dreary, and the worn-out man was glad that he +was at last in shelter and could snatch a few hours' rest. + +Thrusting back the slide, he stepped below and lighted the lamp. The +brightening glow showed him that the boat's starboard side was wet high +up, and though there was a good deal of water in her, this puzzled him +until an explanation suggested itself. They had moored the craft +carefully, but he supposed she must have dragged her anchor or kedge and +swung in near enough the shore to ground toward low tide. Then as the +tide left her she would fall over on her starboard bilge, because they +had lashed the heavy boom down on that side, and the water in her would +cover the depressed portion of her interior. This reasoning was probably +correct; but he did not foresee the result until, after lighting the +stove and putting on the kettle, he opened the provision locker, which +was to starboard. Then he saw with a shock of dismay that the stock of +food they had counted on was ruined. The periodically-submerged flour-bag +had rotted and burst, and most of its contents had run out into the water +as the boat righted with the rising tide; the prepared cereals, purchased +to save cooking, had turned to moldy pulp; and the few other stores were +in much the same condition. There were only two sound cans of beef and a +few ounces of unspoiled tea in a canister. + +Carroll's courage failed him as he realized it, but he felt that he must +eat and sleep before he could grapple with the situation. He would allow +himself a scanty meal and a few hours' rest. While the kettle boiled, he +crawled out and shortened in the cable and plied the pump. Then he went +below and feasted on preserved beef and tea, gaging the size of each +slice with anxious care, until he reluctantly laid the can aside. After +that, he filled his pipe and stretching his aching limbs out on the port +locker, which was comparatively dry, soon sank into heavy sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +CARROLL SEEKS HELP + + +Carroll slept for several hours before he awakened and sat up on the +locker, shivering. He had left the hatch slightly open, and a confused +uproar reached him from outside; the wail of wind-tossed trees; the +furious splash of ripples against the bows; and the drumming of the +halyards upon the mast. There was no doubt that it was blowing hard, but +the wind was off the land and the sloop in shelter. + +Filling his pipe, he set himself to think, and promptly decided that it +would have been better had he gone down to the sloop in the beginning, +before the provisions had been spoiled. A natural reluctance to leave his +helpless companion had mainly prevented him from doing this, but he had +also been encouraged by the possibility of obtaining a deer now and then. +It was clear that he had made a mistake in remaining, but it was not the +first time he had done so, and the point was unimportant. The burning +question was--what should he do now. + +It would obviously be useless to go back with rations that would barely +suffice for the march. Vane still had food enough to keep life in one man +for a little while, and it would not be a long run to Comox with a strong +northerly wind. If the sloop would face the sea that was running he might +return with assistance before his comrade's scanty store was exhausted. +Getting out the mildewed chart, he laid off his course, carefully trimmed +and lighted the binnacle lamp, and going up on deck hauled in the +kedge-anchor. He could not break the main one out, though he worked +savagely with a tackle, and deciding to slip it, he managed to lash three +reefs in the mainsail and hoist it with the peak left down. Then he +stopped to gather breath--for the work had been cruelly heavy--before he +let the cable run and hoisted the jib. + +She paid off when he put up his helm, and the black loom of trees ashore +vanished. He thought that he could find his way out of the inlet, but he +knew that he had done so only when the angry ripples that splashed about +the boat suddenly changed to confused tumbling combers. They foamed up in +quick succession on her quarter, but he fancied she would withstand their +onslaught so long as he could prevent her from screwing up to windward +when she lifted. It would need constant care, and if he failed, the next +comber would, no doubt, break on board. His task was one that would have +taxed the vigilance of a strong, well-fed man, and Carroll had already +nearly reached the limit of his powers. + +His case, however, was by no means an unusual one. The cost of the +subjugation of the wilderness is the endurance of hunger and thirst, cold +and crushing fatigue; and somebody pays, to the utmost farthing. Carroll +sitting, drenched, strung up and hungry, at the helm, was merely playing +his part in the struggle, though he found it cruelly difficult. + +It was pitch dark, but he must gaze ahead and guess the track of the +pursuing seas by the angle of the spouting white ridge abreast of the +weather shrouds. He had a compass, but when his course did not coincide +with safety it must be disregarded. The one essential thing was to keep +the sloop on top, and to do so he had frequently to let her fall off +dead before the mad white combers that leaped out of the dark. By and by +his arms began to ache from the strain of the tiller, and his wet +fingers grew stiff and claw-like. The nervous strain was also telling, +but that could not be helped; he must keep the craft before the sea or +go down with her. There was one consolation; she was traveling at a +furious speed. + +At length, morning broke, gray and lowering, over a leaden sea that was +seamed with white. Carroll glanced longingly at the meat can on the +locker near his feet. He could reach it by stooping, though he dare not +leave the helm, but he determined to wait until noon before he broke his +fast again. It could not be very far to Comox, but the wind might drop. +Then he began to wonder how he had escaped the perils of the night. He +had come down what was really a wide and not quite straight sound, +passing several unlighted islands. Before starting, he had decided that +he would run so far, and then change his course a point or two, but he +could not be sure that he had done so. He had a hazy recollection of +seeing surf, and once a faint loom of land, but he supposed that he had +avoided it half-consciously or that chance had favored him. + +In the afternoon, the wind changed a little, backing to the northwest; +the sky grew brighter, and Carroll made out shadowy land over his +starboard quarter. Soon he recognized it with a start. It was the high +ridge north of Comox. He had run farther than he had expected, and he +must try to hoist the peak of the mainsail and haul her on the wind. +There was danger in rounding her up, but it must be faced, though a sea +foamed across her as he put down his helm. Another followed, but he +scrambled forward and struggled desperately to hoist the down-hanging +gaff. The halyards were swollen; and he could scarcely keep his footing +on the deluged deck that slanted steeply under him. He thought he could +have mastered the banging canvas had he been fresh; but worn out as he +was, drenched with spray and buffeted by the shattered tops of the seas, +the task was beyond his power. Giving it up, he staggered back, +breathless and almost nerveless, to the helm. + +He could not reach Comox, which lay to windward, with the sail half set, +but it was only seventy miles or so to Nanaimo and not much farther to +Vancouver. The breeze would be fair to either, and he could charter a +launch or tug for the return journey. Letting her go before the sea +again, he ate some canned meat ravenously, tearing it with one hand. + +During the afternoon, a gray mass rose out of the water to port and he +supposed it was Texada. There were mines on the island and he might be +able to engage a rescue party; but he reflected that he could not beat +the sloop back to windward unless the breeze fell, which it showed no +signs of doing. It would be more prudent to go on to Vancouver, where he +would be sure of getting a steamer; but he closed with the long island a +little, and dusk was falling when he made out a boat in the partial +shelter of a bight. Standing in closer, he saw that there were two men on +the craft, and driving down upon her he backed and ran alongside. There +was a crash as he struck the boat and an astonished and angry man +clutched the sloop's rail. + +"Now what in the name of thunder--" he began and stopped, struck by +Carroll's haggard and ragged appearance. + +"Can you take this sloop to Vancouver?" Carroll asked hoarsely. + +"I could if it was worth while," was the cautious answer. "It will be a +mighty wet run." + +"Seven dollars a day, until you're home again. A bonus, if you can sail +her with the whole reefed mainsail up--I won't stick at a few dollars. +Can your partner pull that boat ashore alone? If not, cast her adrift; +I'll buy her." + +"He'll make the beach," returned the other, jumping on board. "Seven +dollars sounds a square deal. I won't put the screw on you." + +"Then help me hoist the peak. After that, you can take the helm; I'm +played out." + +The man shouted something to his companion and then seized the halyards, +and the sloop drove on again, furiously, with an increased spread of +canvas, while Carroll stood holding on by the coaming until the boat +dropped back. + +"I'll leave you to it," he told the new helmsman, "It's twenty-four hours +since I've had more than a bite or two of food, and some weeks since I +had a decent meal." + +"You look it. Been up against it somewhere?" + +Carroll, without replying, crawled below and managed to light the stove +and make a kettleful of tea. He drank a good deal of it, and nearly +emptied the remaining small meat can, which he presently held out for the +helmsman's inspection, standing beneath the hatch. + +"There's some tea left, but this is all there is to eat on board the +craft," he said. "You're hired to take her to Vancouver--you'd better get +there as quick as you can." + +The bronzed helmsman nodded. + +"She won't be long on the way if the mast holds up." + +"Have you seen any papers lately?" Carroll inquired. "I've been up in the +bush and I'm interested in the Clermont Mine. It looked as if there might +be some changes in the company's prospects when I went away." + +"I noticed a bit about it in the _Colonist_ a while back. The +company sold out to another concern, or amalgamated with it; I don't +remember which." + +Carroll was not astonished. The news implied that he must be prepared to +face a more or less serious financial reverse, and it struck him as a +fitting climax to his misadventures. + +"It's pretty much what I expected," he said. "I'm going to sleep and I +don't want to be wakened before it's necessary." + +He crawled below, and he had hardly stretched himself out upon the locker +before his eyes closed. When he opened them, feeling more like his usual +self, he saw that the sun was above the horizon, and he recognized by the +boat's motion that the wind had fallen. Going out he found her driving +through the water under her whole mainsail and the helmsman sitting +stolidly at the tiller. The man stretched out a hand and pointed to the +hazy hills to port. + +"We'll fetch the Narrows some time before noon. If you'll take the helm, +I guess we'll half that meat for breakfast" + +His prediction proved correct, for Carroll reached his hotel about +midday, and hastily changing his clothes set off to call on Nairn. He had +not yet recovered his mental equipoise and, in spite of his long, sound +sleep, he was still badly jaded physically. On arriving at the house, he +was shown into a room where Mrs. Nairn and her husband were sitting with +Evelyn, waiting for the midday meal The elder lady rose with a start of +astonishment when he walked in. + +"Man," she cried, "what's wrong? Ye're looking like a ghost." + +It was not an inapt description. Carroll's face was worn and haggard, and +his clothes hung slack upon him. + +"I've been feeling rather unsubstantial of late, as the result of +a restricted diet," he answered with a smile sinking into the +nearest chair. + +Nairn regarded him with carefully suppressed curiosity. + +"Ye're over lang in coming," he remarked. "Where left ye your partner?" + +Carroll sat silent a moment or two, his eyes fixed on Evelyn. It was +evident that his sudden appearance unaccompanied by Vane, which he felt +had been undesirably dramatic, had alarmed her. At first, he felt +compassionate, and then he was suddenly possessed by hot indignation. +This girl, with her narrow prudish notions and dispassionate nature, had +presumed to condemn his comrade, unheard, for an imaginary offense. The +thing was at once ludicrous and intolerable; if his news brought her +dismay, let her suffer. His nerves, it must be remembered, were not in +their normal condition. + +"Yes," he said, in answer to his host's first remark; "I've gathered that +we have failed to save the situation. But I don't know exactly what has +happened. You had better tell me." + +Mrs. Nairn made a sign of protest, but her husband glanced at her +restrainingly. + +"Ye will hear his news in good time," he informed her, and then turned to +Carroll. "In a few words, the capital was no subscribed--it leaked out +that the ore was running poor--and we held an emergency meeting. With +Vane away, I could put no confidence into the shareholders--they were +anxious to get from under--and Horsfield brought forward an amalgamation +scheme: A combine would take the property over, on their valuation. I and +a few others were outvoted; the scheme went through; and when the +announcement steadied the stock, which had been tumbling down, I +exercised the authority given me and sold your shares and Vane's at +considerably less than their face value. Ye can have particulars later. +What I have to ask now is--where is Vane?" + +The man's voice grew sharp; the question was flung out like an +accusation; but Carroll still looked at Evelyn. He felt very bitter +against her; he would not soften the blow. + +"I left him in the bush, with no more than a few days' provisions and a +broken leg," he announced. + +Then, in spite of Evelyn's efforts to retain her composure, her face +blanched. Carroll's anger vanished, because the truth was clear. Vane had +triumphed through disaster; his peril and ruin had swept his offenses +away. The girl, who had condemned him in his prosperity, would not turn +from him in misfortune. In the meanwhile the others sat silent, gazing at +the bearer of evil news, until he spoke again. + +"I want a tug to take me back, at once, if she can be got. I'll pick up a +few men along the waterfront." + +Nairn rose and went out of the room. The tinkle of a telephone bell +reached those who remained, and a minute or two later he came back. + +"I've sent Whitney round," he explained. "He'll come across if there's a +boat to be had, and now ye look as if ye needed lunch." + +"It's several weeks since I had one," Carroll smiled. + +The meal was brought in, but for a while he talked as well as ate, +relating his adventures in somewhat disjointed fragments, while the +others sat listening eagerly. He was also pleased to notice something +which suggested returning confidence in him in Evelyn's intent eyes as +the tale proceeded. When at last he had made the matter clear, he added: + +"If I keep you waiting, you'll excuse me." + +His hostess watched his subsequent efforts with candid approval, and +looking up once or twice, he saw sympathy in the girl's face, instead of +the astonishment or disgust he had half expected. When he finished, his +hostess rose and Carroll stood up, but Nairn motioned to him to resume +his place. + +"I'm thinking ye had better sit still a while and smoke," he said. + +Carroll was glad to do so, and they conferred together until Nairn was +called to the telephone. + +"Ye can have the Brodick boat at noon to-morrow," he reported on +his return. + +"That won't do," Carroll objected heavily. "Send Whitney round again; I +must sail to-night." + +He had some difficulty in getting out the words, and when he rose his +eyes were half closed. Walking unsteadily, he crossed the room and sank +onto a big lounge. + +"I think," he added, "if you don't mind, I'll go to sleep." + +Nairn merely nodded, and when he went silently out of the room a minute +or two afterward, the worn-out man was already wrapped in profound +slumber. Nairn just then received another call by telephone and left in +haste for his office without speaking to his wife, with the result that +Mrs. Nairn and Evelyn, returning to the room in search of Carroll, found +him lying still. The elder lady raised her hand in warning as she bent +over the sleeper, and then taking up a light rug spread it gently over +him. Evelyn, too, was stirred to sudden pity, for the man's attitude was +eloquent of exhaustion. They withdrew softly and had reached the corridor +outside when Mrs. Nairn turned to the girl. + +"When he first came in, ye blamed that man for deserting his +partner," she said. + +Evelyn confessed it and her hostess smiled meaningly. + +"Are ye no rather too ready to blame?" + +"I'm afraid I am," Evelyn admitted, with the color creeping into her +face as she remembered another instance in which she had condemned a +man hastily. + +"In this case, ye were very foolish. The man came down for help, and if +he could no get it, he would go back his lone, if all the way was barred +with ice and he must walk on his naked feet. Love of woman's strong and +the fear of death is keen, but ye will find now and then a faith between +man and man that neither would sever." She paused and looked at the girl +fixedly as she asked: "What of him that could inspire it?" + +Evelyn did not answer. She had never seen her hostess in this mood, and +she also was stirred; but the elder lady went on again: + +"The virtue of a gift lies in part, but no altogether, with the giver. +Whiles, it may be bestowed unworthily, but I'm thinking it's no often. +The bond that will drag Carroll back to the North again, to his death, if +need be, has no been spun from nothing." + +Evelyn had no doubt that Mrs. Nairn was right. Loyalty, most often, +demanded a worthy object to tender service to; it sprang from implicit +confidence, mutual respect and strong appreciation. It was not without a +reason that Vane had inspired it in his comrade's breast; and this was +the man she had condemned. That fact, however, was by comparison a very +minor trouble. Vane was lying, helpless and alone, in the snowy +wilderness, in peril of his life; and she knew that she loved him. She +realized now, when it might be too late, that had he in reality been +stained with dishonor, she could have forgiven him. Indeed, it had only +been by a painful effort that she had maintained some show of composure +since Carroll had brought the disastrous news, and she felt that she +could not keep it up much longer. + +What she said to Mrs. Nairn she could not remember, but escaping from +her she retired to her own room, to lie still and grapple with an agony +of fear and contrition. + +It was two hours later when she went down and found Carroll, who still +looked drowsy, about to go out. His hostess had left him for a moment in +the hall, and meeting the girl's eyes, he smiled at her reassuringly. + +"Don't be anxious. I'll bring him back," he said. + +Then Mrs. Nairn appeared and in a few moments Carroll left without +another word to Evelyn. She did not ask herself why he had taken it for +granted that she would be anxious; she was beyond any petty regard for +appearances then. It was consoling to remember that he was Vane's tried +comrade; a man who kept his word. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +JESSY'S CONTRITION + + +After leaving Mrs. Nairn, Carroll walked toward Horsfield's residence +in a thoughtful mood, because he felt it incumbent upon him to play a +part he was not particularly fitted for in a somewhat delicate matter. +Uncongenial as his task was, it was one that could not be left to +Vane, who was even less to be trusted with the handling of such +affairs; and Carroll had resolved, as he would have described it, to +straighten out things. + +His partner had somehow offended Evelyn, and though she was now obviously +disposed to forgive him, the recollection of his supposititious iniquity +might afterward rankle in her mind. Though Vane was innocent of any +conduct to which she could with reason take exception, it was first of +all needful to ascertain the exact nature of the charge against him. +Carroll, who for several reasons had preferred not to press this question +upon Evelyn, had a strong suspicion that Jessy Horsfield was at the +bottom of the trouble. There was also one clue to follow--Vane had paid +the rent of Celia Hartley's shack, and he wondered whether Jessy could by +any means have heard of it. If she had done so, the matter would be +simplified, for he had a profound distrust of her. A recent action of +hers was, he thought, sufficient to justify this attitude. + +He found her at home, reclining gracefully in an easy-chair in her +drawing-room, and though she did not seem astonished to see him, he +fancied that her expression hinted at suppressed concern. + +"I heard that you had arrived alone, and I intended to make inquiries +from Mrs. Nairn as soon as I thought she would be at liberty," she +informed him. + +Carroll had found the direct attack effective in Evelyn's case, and he +determined to try it again. + +"Then," he declared, "it says a good deal for your courage." + +He never doubted that she possessed courage, and she displayed it now. + +"So," she said calmly, "you have come as an enemy." + +"Not exactly; it didn't seem worth while. Though there's no doubt you +betrayed us--Vane waited for the warning you could have sent--so far as +it concerns our ruined interests in the Clermont, the thing's done and +can't be mended. We'll let that question go. The most important point +is that if you had recalled us, as you promised, Vane would now be safe +and sound." + +This shot told. The girl's face became less imperturbable; there was +eagerness and, he thought, a hint of fear in it. + +"Then has any accident happened to him?" + +"He's lying in the bush, helpless, in imminent peril of starvation." + +"Go on!" + +There were signs of strain clearly perceptible in the girl's voice. +Carroll was brief, but he made her understand the position; then she +turned upon him imperiously. + +"Then why are you wasting your time here?" + +"It's a reasonable question. I can't get a tug to take me back until noon +to-morrow." + +"Ah!" murmured Jessy. "Excuse me for a minute." + +She left him astonished. He had not expected her to take him at a +disadvantage, as she had done with her previous thrust, and now he did +not think that she had slipped away to hide her feelings. That did not +seem necessary in Jessy's case, though he believed she was more or less +disturbed. She came back presently, looking calm, and sat down again. + +"My brother will be here in a quarter of an hour," she informed him. +"Things are rather slack, and he had half promised to take me for a +drive. I have just called him up." + +Carroll did not see how this bore upon the subject of their conversation, +but he left her to take the lead. + +"Did Mr. Vane tell you that I had promised to warn him?" she asked. + +"To do him justice, he let it out before he quite realized what he was +saying. I'd better own that I partly surprised him into giving me the +information." + +"The expedient seems a favorite one with you. I suppose no news of what +has happened here can have reached him?" + +"None. If it's any consolation, he has still an unshaken confidence in +you," Carroll assured her with blunt bitterness. + +The girl showed faint signs of confusion, but she sat silent for the +next few moments. During that time it flashed upon Carroll with +illuminating light that he had heard Celia Hartley say that Miss +Horsfield had found her orders for millinery. This confirmed his +previous suspicion that Jessy had discovered who had paid the rent of +Celia's shack, and that she had with deliberate malice informed Evelyn, +distorting her account so that it would tell against Vane. There were +breaks in the chain of reasoning which led him to this conclusion, but +he did not think that Jessy would shrink from such a course, and he +determined to try a chance shot. + +"Vane's inclined to be trustful, and his rash generosity has once or +twice got him into trouble," he remarked, and went on as if an +explanation were needed: "It's Miss Hartley's case I'm thinking about +just now. I've an idea he asked you to look after her. Am I right?" + +As soon as he had spoken he knew that he had hit the mark. Jessy did not +openly betray herself, but there are not many people who can remain +absolutely unmoved when unexpectedly asked a startling question. Besides, +the man was observant, and had all his faculties strung up for the +encounter. He saw one of her hands tighten on the arm of her chair and a +hint of uneasiness in her eyes, and that sufficed him. + +"Yes," she replied; "I recommended her to some of my friends. I +understand that she is getting along satisfactorily." + +Carroll felt compelled to admire her manner. He believed that she loved +his comrade but had nevertheless tried to ruin him in a fit of jealous +rage. She was, no doubt, now keenly regretting her success, but though he +thought she deserved to suffer, she was bravely facing the trying +situation. It was one that was rife with dramatic possibilities, and he +was grateful to her for avoiding them. + +"You are going back to-morrow," she said after a brief silence. "I +suppose you will have to tell your partner--what you have discovered +here--as soon as you reach him?" + +Carroll had not intended to spare her, but now he felt almost +compassionate, and he had one grain of comfort to offer. + +"I must tell him that his shares in the Clermont have been sacrificed. I +wonder if that is all you meant?" + +Jessy met his inquiring gaze with something very much like an appeal, and +then she spread out her hands in a manner that seemed to indicate that +she threw herself upon his mercy. + +"It is not all I meant," she confessed. + +"Then if it's any relief to you, I'll confine myself to telling him that +he has been deprived of his most valuable property. I dare say the news +will hit him hard enough. He may afterward discover other facts for +himself, but on the whole I shouldn't consider it likely. As I said, he's +confiding and slow to suspect." + +He read genuine gratitude, which he had hardly expected, in the girl's +face; but he raised his hand and went on in the rather formal manner +which he felt was the only safe one to assume: + +"I had, perhaps, better mention that I am going to call on Miss Hartley. +After that, I shall be uncommonly thankful to start back for the bush." +He paused and concluded with a sudden trace of humor: "I'll own that I +feel more at home with the work that awaits me there." + +Jessy made a little gesture which, while it might have meant anything, +was somehow very expressive. Just then there were footsteps outside and +the next moment Horsfield walked into the room. + +"So you're back!" + +"Yes," Carroll replied shortly. "Beaten at both ends--there's no use in +hiding it." + +Horsfield showed no sign of satisfaction, and Carroll afterward admitted +that the man behaved very considerately. + +"Well," he declared, "though you may be astonished to hear it, I'm sorry. +Unfortunately, our interests clashed, and I naturally looked after mine. +Once upon a time I thought I could have worked hand in hand with Vane, +but our ideas did not coincide, and your partner is not the man to yield +a point or listen to advice." + +Carroll was aware that Horsfield had by means which were far from +honorable deprived him of a considerable portion of his possessions. He +had also betrayed his fellow shareholders in the Clermont Mine, selling +their interests, doubtless for a tempting consideration, to the +directors of another company. For all that, Carroll recognized that +since he and Vane were beaten, as he had confessed, recriminations and +reproaches would be useless as well as undignified. He preferred to face +defeat calmly. + +"It's the fortunes of war," he returned. "What you say about Vane is +more or less correct; but, although it is not a matter of much +importance now, it was impossible from the beginning that your views +and his ever should agree." + +Horsfield smiled. + +"Too great a difference of temperament? I dare say you're right. Vane +measures things by a different standard--mine's perhaps more adapted to +the market-place. But where have you left him?" + +"In the bush. Miss Horsfield will, no doubt, give you particulars; I've +just told her the tale." + +"She called me up at the office and asked me to come across at once. Will +you excuse us for a few minutes?" + +They went out together, and Jessy presently came back alone and looked at +Carroll in a diffident manner. + +"I suppose," she began, "one could hardly expect you to think of either +of us very leniently; but I must ask you to believe that I am sincerely +distressed to hear of your partner's accident. It was a thing I could +never have anticipated; but there are amends I can make. Every minute you +can save is precious, isn't it?" + +"It is." + +"Then I can get you a tug. My brother tells me the _Atlin_ is coming +across from Victoria and should be here early this evening. He has gone +back to the office to secure her for you, though she was fixed to go off +for a lumber boom." + +"Thank you," responded Carroll. "It's a very great service. She's a +powerful boat." + +Jessy hesitated. + +"I think my brother would like to say a few words when he comes back. Can +I offer you some tea?" + +"I think not," answered Carroll, smiling. "For one thing, if I sit still +much longer, I shall, no doubt, go to sleep again, as I did at Nairn's; +and that would be neither seemly nor convenient, if I'm to sail this +evening. Besides, now that we've arranged an armistice, it might be wiser +not to put too much strain on it." + +"An armistice?" + +"I think that describes it." Carroll's manner grew significant. "The word +implies a cessation of hostilities--on certain terms." + +Jessy could take a hint, and his meaning was clear. Unless she forced him +to do so, he would not betray her to his comrade, who might never +discover the part she had played; but he had given her a warning, which +might be bluntly rendered as "Hands off." There was only one course open +to her--to respect it. She had brought down the man she loved, but it was +clear that he was not for her, and now that the unreasoning fury which +had driven her to strike had passed, she was troubled with contrition. +There was nothing left except to retire from the field, and it was better +to do so gracefully. For all that, there were signs of strain in her +expression as she capitulated. + +"Well," she said, "I have given you proof that you have nothing to fear +from me. My brother is the only man in Vancouver who could have got you +that tug for this evening; I understand that the sawmill people are very +much in need of the lumber she was engaged to tow." + +She held out her hand and Carroll took it, though he had not expected to +part from her on friendly terms. + +"I owe you a good deal for that," he smiled. + +His task, however, was only half completed when he left the house, and +the remaining portion was the more difficult, but he meant to finish it. +He preferred to take life lightly; he had trifled with it before disaster +had driven him out into the wilds; but there was resolution in the man, +and he could force himself to play an unpleasant part when it was +needful. Fortune also favored him, as she often does those who follow the +boldest course. + +He had entered a busy street when he met Kitty and Celia. The latter +looked thin and somewhat pale, but she was moving briskly, and her face +was eager when she shook hands with him. + +"We have been anxious about you," she declared; "there was no news. Is +Mr. Vane with you? How have you got on?" + +"We found the spruce," answered Carroll. "It's not worth milling--a +forest fire has wiped out most of it--but we struck some shingling cedar +we may make something of." + +"Where's Mr. Vane?" + +"In the bush. I've a good deal to tell you about him; but we can't talk +here. I wonder if we could find a quiet place in a restaurant, or if the +park would be better." + +"The park," said Kitty decidedly. + +They reached it in due time, and Carroll, who had refused to say anything +about Vane on the way, found the girls a seat in a grove of giant firs +and sat down opposite to them. Though it was winter, the day, as is often +the case near Vancouver, was pleasantly mild. + +"Now," he began, "my partner is a singularly unfortunate person. In the +first place, the transfer of the Clermont property, which you have no +doubt heard of, means a serious loss to him, though he is not ruined yet. +He talks of putting up a shingling mill, in which Drayton will be of +service, and if things turn out satisfactorily you will be given an +interest in it." + +He added the last sentence as an experiment, and was satisfied with +the result. + +"Never mind our interests," cried Kitty. "What about Mr. Vane?" + +For the third time since his arrival, Carroll made the strongest appeal +he could to womanly pity, drawing, with a purpose, a vivid picture of his +comrade's peril and suffering. Nor was he disappointed, for he saw +consternation, compassion and sympathy in the girls' faces. So far, the +thing had been easy, but now he hesitated, and it was with difficulty +that he nerved himself for what must follow. + +"He has been beaten out of his stock in the mine; he's broken down in +health and in danger; but, by comparison, that doesn't count for very +much with him. He has another trouble; and though I'm afraid I'm going +out of the way in mentioning it, if it could be got over, it would help +him to face the future and set him on his feet again." + +Then he briefly recounted the story of Vane's regard for Evelyn, making +the most of his sacrifice in withdrawing from the field, and again he +realized that he had acted wisely. A love affair appealed to his +listeners, and there was a romance in this one that heightened the +effect of it. + +"But Miss Chisholm can't mean to turn from him now," interrupted Celia. + +Carroll looked at her meaningly. + +"No; she turned from him before he sailed. She heard something +about him." + +His companions appeared astonished. + +"She couldn't have heard anything that anybody could mind," Kitty +exclaimed indignantly. "He's not that kind of man." + +"It's a compliment," returned Carroll. "I think he deserves it. At the +same time, he's a little rash, and now and then a man's generosity is +open to misconception. In this case, I don't think one could altogether +blame Miss Chisholm." + +Kitty glanced at him sharply and then at Celia, who looked at first +puzzled and then startled. Then the blood surged into Kitty's cheeks. + +"Oh!" she gasped, as if she were breathless, "I was once afraid of +something like this. You mean we're the cause of it?" + +The course he followed was hateful to Carroll, but the tangle could not +be straightened without having somebody's feelings hurt, and it was his +comrade about whom he was most concerned. + +"I believe that you understand the situation," he said quietly. + +He saw the fire in Kitty's eyes and noticed that Celia's face also was +flushed, but he did not think their anger was directed against him. +They knew the world they lived in, and, for that matter, he could share +their indignation. He resented the fact that a little thing should +bring swift suspicion upon them. He was, however, not required to face +any disconcerting climax. Indeed, it struck him as curious that a +difficult situation in which strong emotion was stirred up could become +so tamely prosaic merely because it was resolutely handled in a +matter-of-fact manner. + +"Well," inquired Celia, "why did you tell us this?" + +"I think you both owe Vane something, and you can do him a great favor +just now." + +Kitty looked up at him. + +"Don't ask me too much, Mr. Carroll. I'm Irish, and I feel like killing +somebody." + +"It's natural," responded Carroll with a sympathetic smile. "I've now and +then felt much the same way; it's probably unavoidable in a world like +this. However, I think you ought to call on Miss Chisholm, after I've +gone, though you'd better not mention that I sent you. You can say you +came for news of Vane--and add anything that you consider necessary." + +The girls looked at each other, and at length, though it obviously cost +her a struggle, Kitty said decidedly: + +"We will have to go." + +Then she faced round toward Carroll. + +"If Miss Chisholm won't believe us, she'll be sorry we came!" + +Carroll made her a slight inclination. + +"She'll deserve it, if she's not convinced. But it might be better if you +didn't approach her in the mood you're in just now." + +Kitty rose, motioning to Celia, and Carroll turned back with them toward +the city, feeling a certain constraint in their company and yet conscious +of a strong relief. It had grown dark when he returned to Nairn's house. + +"Where have ye been?" his host inquired. "I had a clerk seeking ye all +round the city. I canna get ye a boat before the morn." + +Carroll saw that Mrs. Nairn shared her husband's desire to learn how he +had been occupied. Evelyn also was in the room, and she waited +expectantly for his answer. + +"There were one or two little matters that required attention and I +managed to arrange them satisfactorily," he explained. "Among other +things, I've got a tug, and I expect to sail in an hour or two. Miss +Horsfield found me the vessel." + +He noticed Evelyn's interest, and was rather pleased to see it. If she +were disposed to be jealous of Jessy it could do no harm. Nairn, +however, frowned. + +"I'm thinking it might have been better if ye had no troubled Jessy," he +commented. + +"I'm sorry I can't agree with you," Carroll retorted. "The difference +between this evening and noon to-morrow is a big consideration." + +"Weel," replied Nairn resignedly; "I can no deny the thing, if ye look at +it like that." + +Carroll changed the subject; but some time later Mrs. Nairn sat down near +him in the temporary absence of her husband and Evelyn. + +"We will no be disturbed for two or three minutes," she said. "Ye +answered Alic like a Scotsman before supper and put him off the track, +though that's no so easy done." + +Carroll grinned. He enjoyed an encounter with Mrs. Nairn, though she was, +as a rule, more than a match for him. + +"You're too complimentary," he declared. "The genuine Caledonian caution +can't be acquired by outsiders; it's a gift." + +"I'll no practise it now," returned the lady. "Ye're no so proud of +yourself for nothing. What have ye been after?" + +Carroll crossed his finger-tips and looked at her over them. + +"Since you ask the question, I may say this--If Miss Chisholm has two +lady visitors during the next few days, you might make sure that she +sees them." + +"What are their names?" + +"Miss Celia Hartley, the daughter of the prospector who sent Vane off to +look for the timber, and Miss Kitty Blake, who, as you have probably +heard, once came down the west coast with him, in company with an elder +lady and myself." + +Mrs. Nairn started, then she looked thoughtful, and finally she broke +into a smile of open appreciation. + +"Now," she ejaculated, "I understand. I did no think it of ye. Ye're no +far from a genius!" + +"Thanks. I believe I succeeded better than I could have expected, and +perhaps than I deserved." + +They were interrupted then by Nairn, who came hastily into the room. + +"There's one of the _Atlin_ deck-hands below," he announced. "He's come +on here from Horsfield's to say that the boat's ready with a full head of +steam up, and the packers ye hired are waiting on the wharf." + +Carroll rose and became in a moment intent and eager. + +"Tell him I'll be down almost as soon as he is. You'll have to excuse +me." Two minutes later he left the house, and fervent good wishes +followed him from the party on the stoop. He did not stop to acknowledge +them, but shortly afterward the blast of a whistle came ringing across +the roofs from beside the water-front. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +CONVINCING TESTIMONY + + +One afternoon three or four days after Carroll had sailed, Evelyn sat +alone in Mrs. Nairn's drawing-room, a prey to confused regrets and keen +anxiety. She had recovered from the first shock caused her by Carroll's +news, but though she could face the situation more calmly, she could find +no comfort anywhere--Vane was lying, helpless and famishing, in the +frost-bound wilderness. She knew that she loved the man; indeed, she had +really known it for some time, and it was that which had made Jessy's +revelation so bitter. Now, fastidious in thought and feeling as she was, +she wondered whether she had been too hard upon him; it was becoming more +and more difficult to believe that he could have justified her disgust +and anger; but this was not what troubled her most. She had sent him away +with cold disfavor. Now he was threatened by dangers. It was horrible to +think of what might befall him before assistance arrived, and yet she +could not drive the haunting dread out of her mind. + +She was in this mood when a maid announced that two visitors wished to +see her; and when they were shown in, she found it difficult to hide her +astonishment as she recognized in Kitty the very attractive girl she had +once seen in Vane's company. It was this which prompted her to assume a +chilling manner, though she asked her guests to be seated. Neither of +them appeared altogether at her ease, and there was, indeed, a rather +ominous sparkle in Kitty's blue eyes. + +"Mr. Carroll was in town not long ago," Kitty began bluntly. "Have you +had any news of him since he sailed?" + +Evelyn did not know what to make of the question, and she answered +coldly. + +"No; we do not expect any word for some time." + +"I'm sorry. We're anxious about Mr. Vane." + +On the surface, the announcement appeared significant, but the girl's +boldness in coming to her for news was inexplainable to Evelyn. Puzzled +as she was, her attitude became more discouraging. + +"You know him then?" + +Something in her tone made Celia's cheeks burn and she drew herself up. + +"Yes," she said; "we know him, both of us. I guess it's astonishing to +you. But I met him first when he was poor, and getting rich hasn't +spoiled Mr. Vane." + +Evelyn was once more puzzled. The girl's manner savored less of assurance +than of wholesome pride which had been injured. Kitty then broke in: + +"We had no cards to send in; but I'm Kathleen Blake, and this is Celia +Hartley--it was her father sent Mr. Vane off to look for the spruce." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Evelyn, a little more gently, addressing Celia. "I +understand that your father died." + +Kitty flashed a commanding glance at Celia. + +"Yes," the girl replied; "that is correct. He left me ill and worn out, +without a dollar, and I don't know what I should have done if Mr. Vane +hadn't insisted on giving Drayton a little money for me; on account, he +said, because I was a partner in the venture. Then Miss Horsfield got +some work among her friends for me to do at home. Mr. Vane must have +asked her to; it would be like him." + +Evelyn sat silent a few moments. Celia had given her a good deal of +information in answer to a very simple remark; but she was most impressed +by the statement that Jessy, who had prejudiced her against Vane, had +helped the girl at his request. It was difficult to believe that she +would have done so had there been any foundation for her insinuations. If +Celia spoke the truth, and Evelyn somehow felt this was the case, the +whole thing was extraordinary. + +"Now," continued Celia, "it's no way astonishing that I'm grateful to Mr. +Vane and anxious to hear whether Mr. Carroll has reached him." This was +spoken with a hint of defiance, but the girl's voice changed. + +"I am anxious. It's horrible to think of a man like him freezing in +the bush." + +Her concern was so genuine and yet somehow so innocent that Evelyn's +heart softened. + +"Yes," she asserted, "it's dreadful." Then she asked a question. "Who's +the Mr. Drayton you mentioned?" + +Kitty blushed becomingly; this was her lead. + +"He's a kind of partner in the lumber scheme; I'm going to marry him. +He's as firm a friend of Mr. Vane's as any one. There's a reason for +that--I was in a very tight place once, left without money in a desolate +settlement where there was nothing I could do, when Mr. Vane helped me. +But perhaps that wouldn't interest you." + +For a moment her doubts still clung to their hold in Evelyn's mind, and +then she suddenly drove the last of them out, with a stinging sense of +humiliation. She could not distrust this girl; it was Jessy's suggestion +that was incredible. + +"It would interest me very much," she declared. + +Kitty told her story effectively, but with caution, laying most stress +upon Vane's compassion for the child and her invalid mother. She was +rather impressed by Miss Chisholm, but she supposed that she was endowed +with some of the failing common to human nature. + +Evelyn listened with confused emotions and a softened face. She was +convinced of the truth of the simple tale, and the thought of Vane's +keeping his moneyed friends and directors waiting in Vancouver in order +that a tired child might rest and gather shells upon a sunny beach +stirred her deeply. It was so characteristic; exactly what she would have +expected him to do. + +"Thank you," she said quietly, when Kitty had finished; and then, +flinging off the last of her reserve, she asked a number of questions +about Drayton and about Celia's affairs. + +Before her visitors left, all three were on friendly terms; but Evelyn +was glad when they took their departure. She wanted to be alone to think. +In spite of the relief of which she was conscious, her thoughts were far +from pleasant. Foremost among them figured a crushing sense of shame. She +had wickedly misjudged a man who had given her many proofs of the +fineness of his character; the evil she had imputed to him was born of +her own perverted imagination. She was no better than the narrow-minded, +conventional Pharisees she detested, who were swift to condemn out of the +uncleanness of their self-righteous hearts. Then, as she began to reason, +it flashed upon her that she was, perhaps, wronging herself. Her mind had +been cunningly poisoned by an utterly unscrupulous and wholly detestable +woman, and she flamed out into a fit of imperious anger against Jessy. +She had a hazy idea that this was not altogether reasonable, for she was +to some extent fastening the blame she deserved upon another person's +shoulders; but it did not detract from the comfort the indulgence in her +indignation brought her. + +When she had grown a little calmer, Mrs. Nairn came in; and Mrs. Nairn +was a discerning lady. It was not difficult to lead Evelyn on to speak of +her visitors, for the girl's pride was broken and she felt in urgent need +of sympathy; but when she had described the interview she felt impelled +to avoid any discussion of the more important issues, even with the +kindly Scotch lady. + +"I was surprised at the girls' manner," she concluded. "It must have been +embarrassing to them; but they were really so delicate over it, and they +had so much courage." + +Mrs. Nairn smiled. + +"Although one of them has traveled with third-rate strolling companies +and the other has waited in a hotel? Weel, maybe your surprise was +natural. Ye canna all at once get rid of the ideas and prejudices ye were +brought up with." + +"I suppose that was it," replied Evelyn thoughtfully. + +Her companion's eyes twinkled. + +"Then, if ye're to live among us happily, ye'll have to try. In the way +ye use the words, some of the leading men in this country were no brought +up at all." + +"Do you imagine that I'm going to live here?" + +Mrs. Nairn gathered up one or two articles she had brought into the room +with her and moved toward the door, but before she reached it she looked +back with a laugh. + +"It occurred to me that the thing was no altogether impossible." + +An hour afterward, Evelyn and Mrs. Nairn went down into the town, and in +one of the streets they came upon Jessy leaving a store. The latter was +not lacking in assurance and she moved toward them with a smile; but +Evelyn gazed at her with a total disregard of her presence and walked +quietly on. There was neither anger nor disdain in her attitude; to have +shown either would have been a concession she could not make. The +instincts of generations of gently-reared Englishwomen were aroused, as +well as the revulsion of an untainted nature from something unclean. + +Jessy's cheeks turned crimson and a malevolent light flashed into her +eyes as she crossed the street. Mrs. Nairn noticed her expression and +smiled at her companion. + +"I'm thinking it's as weel ye met Jessy after she had got the boat for +Carroll," she commented. + +The remark was no doubt justified, but the fact that Jessy had been able +to offer valuable assistance failed to soften Evelyn toward her. It was +merely another offense. + +In the meanwhile, the powerful tug steamed northward, towing the sloop, +which would be required, and after landing the rescue party at the inlet +steamed away again. Before she had disappeared Carroll began his march, +and his companions long remembered it. Two of them were accustomed to +packing surveyors' stores through the seldom-trodden bush and the others +had worked in logging camps and chopped new roads, but though they did +not spare themselves, they lacked their leader's animus. Carroll, with +all his love of ease, could rise to meet an emergency, and he wore out +his companions before the journey was half done. He scarcely let them +sleep; he fed them on canned stuff to save delay in lighting fires; and +he grew more feverishly impatient with every mile they made. He showed it +chiefly by the tight set of his lips and the tension of his face, though +now and then when fallen branches or thickets barred the way he fell upon +the obstacles with the ax in silent fury. For the rest, he took the lead +and kept it, and the others, following with shoulders aching from the +pack-straps and labored breath, suppressed their protests. + +Like many another made in that country, it was a heroic journey; one in +which every power of mind and body was taxed to the limit. Delay might +prove fatal. The loads were heavy; fatigue seized the shrinking flesh, +but the unrelenting will, trained in such adventures, mercilessly spurred +it on. Toughened muscle is useful and in the trackless North can seldom +be dispensed with; but man's strength does not consist of that alone: +there are occasions when the stalwart fall behind and die. + +In front of them, as they progressed, lay the unchanging forest, +tangled, choked with fallen wreckage, laced here and there with stabbing +thorns, appalling and almost impenetrable to the stranger. They must +cleave their passage, except where they could take to the creek for an +easier way and wade through stingingly cold water or flounder over +slippery fangs of rock and ice-encrusted stones. There was sharp frost +among the ranges and the brush through which they tore their way was +generally burdened with clogging snow. They went on, however, and on the +last day Carroll drew some distance ahead of those who followed him. It +was dark when he discovered that he had lost them, but that did not +matter, for now and then faint moonlight came filtering down and he was +leaving a plain trail behind. His shoulders were bleeding beneath the +biting straps; he was on the verge of exhaustion; but he struggled +forward, panting heavily and rending his garments to rags as he smashed +through the brakes in the darkness. + +The night--it seemed a very long one--was nearly over when he recognized +the roar of a rapid that rang in louder and louder pulsations across the +snow-sprinkled bush. He was not far from the end now, and he became +conscious of an unnerving fear. The ground was ascending sharply, and +when he reached the top of the slope the question from which he shrank +would be answered for him--if there should be no blink of light among the +serried trunks, he would have come too late. + +He reached the summit and his heart leaped; then he clutched at a +drooping branch to support himself, shaken by a reaction that sprang from +relief. A flicker of uncertain radiance fell upon the trees ahead, and +down the bitter wind there came the reek of pungent smoke. The bush was +slightly more open, and Carroll broke into a run. Presently he came +crashing and stumbling into the light of the fire and then stopped, too +stirred and out of breath to speak. Vane lay where the red glow fell upon +his face, smiling up at him. + +"Well," he said, "you've come. I've been expecting you, but on the whole +I got along not so badly." + +Carroll flung off his pack and sat down beside the fire; then he fumbled +for his pipe and began to fill it hurriedly with trembling fingers. He +lighted it and flung away the match before he spoke. + +"Sorry I couldn't get through sooner," he mumbled. "The stores on board +the sloop were spoiled; I had to go on to Vancouver. But there are things +to eat in my pack." + +"Hand it across. I haven't been faring sumptuously the last few days. No, +sit still! I'm supple enough from the waist up." + +He proved it by the way he leaned to and fro as he opened the pack and +distributed part of its contents among the cooking utensils. Carroll +assisted him now and then but he did not care to speak. The sight of the +man's gaunt face and the eagerness in his eyes prompted him to an +outbreak of feeling rather foreign to his nature, and he did not think +his companion would appreciate it. When the meal was ready, Vane looked +up at him. + +"I've no doubt this journey cost you something--partner," he said. + +Then they ate cheerfully, and Carroll, watching his friend's efforts with +appreciation, told his story in broken sentences. Afterward, they lighted +their pipes, but by and by Carroll's fell from his relaxing grasp. + +"I can't get over this sleepiness," he explained. "I believe I disgraced +myself in Vancouver by going off in the most unsuitable places," + +"I dare say it was quite natural. Anyway, hadn't you better hitch +yourself a little farther from the fire?" + +Carroll did so and lay still afterward, but Vane kept watch during the +rest of the night, until in the dawn the packers appeared. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +VANE IS REINSTATED + + +Breakfast was over and the two men, wrapped in blankets, lay on opposite +sides of the fire, while the packers reclined in various ungainly +attitudes about another. Now that they had a supply of provisions, haste +was not a matter of importance, and there was no doubt that the rescue +party needed a rest. Carroll was aching all over and was somewhat +disturbed in mind. He had not said anything about their financial affairs +to his comrade yet, and the subject must be mentioned. It was, from every +point of view, an unpleasant one. + +"What about the Clermont?" Vane asked at length. "You needn't trouble +about breaking the news--come right to the point." + +"Then, to all intents and purposes, the company has gone under; it's been +taken over by Horsfield's friends. Nairn has sold our stock--at +considerably less than face value," Carroll explained, adding a brief +account of the absorption of the concern. + +Vane's face set hard. + +"I anticipated something of the kind last night; I saw how you kept clear +of the matter." + +"But you said nothing." + +"No. I'd had time to consider the thing while I lay here, and it didn't +look as if I could have got an intelligible account out of you. But you +may as well mention how much Nairn got." + +He lay smoking silently for a few minutes after he learned the amount, +and Carroll was strongly moved to sympathy. He felt that it was not the +financial reverse but one indirect result of it which would hit his +comrade hardest. + +"Well," Vane said grimly, "I suppose I've done what my friends would +consider a mad thing in coming up here--and I must face the reckoning." + +Carroll wondered whether their conversation could be confined to the +surface of the subject, because there were depths beneath it that it +would be better to leave undisturbed. + +"After all, you're far from broke," he encouraged him. "You have what +the Clermont stock brought in, and you may make something out of this +shingle scheme." + +There was bitterness in Vane's laugh. + +"When I left Vancouver for England I was generally supposed to be well on +the way to affluence, and there was some foundation for the idea. I had +floated the Clermont in the face of opposition; people believed in me; I +could have raised what money I required for any new undertaking. Now a +good deal of my money and all of my prestige is gone; people have very +little confidence in a man who has shown himself a failure. What's more, +I may be a cripple. My leg will probably have to be broken again." + +Carroll could guess his companion's thoughts. There was a vein of +stubborn pride in him, and he had, no doubt, decided it was unfitting +that Evelyn's future should be linked to that of a ruined man. This was +an exaggerated view, because Vane was in reality far from ruined, and +even if he had been so, he had in him the ability to recover from his +misfortunes. Still, the man was obstinate and generally ready to make a +sacrifice for an idea. Carroll, however, consoled himself with the +reflection that Evelyn would probably have something to say upon the +subject if she were given an opportunity, and he felt certain that Mrs. +Nairn would contrive that she had one. + +"I can't see any benefit in making things out considerably worse than +they are," he objected. + +"Nor can I," Vane agreed. "After all, I was getting pretty tired of the +city, and I suppose I can raise enough to put up a small-power mill. It +will be a pleasant change to take charge for a year or two in the bush. +I'll make a start at the thing as soon as I'm able to walk." + +This was significant, as it implied that he did not intend to remain in +Vancouver, where he would be able to enjoy Evelyn's company; but Carroll +made no comment, and Vane soon spoke again. + +"Didn't you mention last night that it was through Miss Horsfield that +you got the tug? I was thinking about something else at the time." + +"Yes. She made Horsfield put some pressure on the people who had +previously hired the boat." + +"That's rather strange." + +For a moment he looked puzzled, but almost immediately his face grew +impassive, and Carroll knew that he had some idea of Jessy's treachery. +He was, however, sure that any suspicions his comrade entertained would +remain locked up in his breast. + +"I'm grateful to her, anyway," Vane added. "I dare say I could have held +out another day or two, but it wouldn't have been pleasant." + +Carroll began to talk about the preparations for their return, which he +soon afterward set about making, and early the next morning they started +for the sloop, carrying Vane upon a stretcher they had brought with them. +Though they had to cut a passage for it every here and there, they +reached the sloop in safety, and after some trouble in getting Vane below +and onto a locker, Carroll decided to sail straight for Vancouver. They +were favored with moderate, fair winds, and though the little vessel was +uncomfortably crowded, she made a quick passage and stole in through the +Narrows as dusk was closing down one tranquil evening. + +Evelyn had spent the greater part of the afternoon on the forest-crested +rise above the city, where she could look down upon the inlet. She had +visited the spot frequently during the last few days, watching eagerly +for a sail that did not appear. There had been no news of Carroll since +the skipper of the tug reported having landed him, and the girl was +tormented by doubts and anxieties. She had just come back and was +standing in Mrs. Nairn's sitting-room, when she heard the tinkle of the +telephone bell. A moment or two later her hostess entered hastily. + +"It's a message from Alic," she cried. "He's heard from the +wharf--Vane's sloop's crossing the harbor. I'll away down to see Carroll +brings him here." + +Evelyn turned to follow her, but Mrs. Nairn waved her back. + +"No," she said firmly; "ye'll bide where ye are. See they get plenty +lights on--at the stairhead and in the passage--and the room on the left +of it ready." + +She was gone in another moment, and Evelyn hastily carried out her +instructions and then waited with what patience she could assume. At last +there was a rattle of wheels outside, followed by a voice giving orders, +and then a tramp of feet. The sounds brought her a strange inward +shrinking, but she ran to the door, and saw two tattered men awkwardly +carrying a stretcher up the steps, while Carroll and another assisted +them. Then the light fell upon its burden and, half prepared as she was, +she started in dismay. Vane, whom she had last seen in vigorous health, +lay partly covered with an old blanket which had slipped off him to the +waist. His jacket looked a mass of rags, his hat had fallen aside and his +face showed hollow and worn and pinched. Then he saw her and a light +leaped into his eyes, but the next moment Carroll's shoulder hid him and +the men plodded on toward the stairs. They ascended them with difficulty +and the girl waited until Carroll came down. + +"I noticed you at the door. I dare say you were a little shocked at the +change in Vane," he said. "What he has undergone has pulled him down, but +if you had seen him when I first found him, you'd have been worse +startled. He's getting on quite satisfactorily." + +Evelyn was relieved to hear it; and Carroll continued: + +"As soon as the doctor comes, we'll make him more presentable; he can't +be moved till then, as I'm not sure about the last bandages I put on. +Afterward, he'll no doubt hold an audience." + +There was nothing to do but wait, and Evelyn again summoned her +patience. Before long, a doctor arrived, and Carroll followed him to +Vane's room. The invalid's face was very impassive, though Carroll waited +in tense suspense while the doctor stripped off the bandages and bark +supports from the injured leg. He examined it attentively, and then +looked around at Carroll. + +"You fixed that limb, when it was broken in the bush?" he asked. + +"Yes," Carroll answered, with a desperate attempt to treat the matter +humorously. "But I really think we both had a hand in the thing. My +partner favored me with his views; I disclaim some of the +responsibility." + +"Then I guess you've been remarkably fortunate. Perhaps that's the best +way of expressing it." + +Vane raised his head and fixed his eyes upon the speaker. + +"It won't have to be rebroken? I'll be able to walk without a limp?" + +"It's most probable." + +Vane's eyes glistened and he let his head fall back. + +"It's good news; better than I expected. Now if you could fix me up +again, I'd like to get dressed. I've felt like a hobo long enough." + +The doctor smiled indulgently. + +"We can venture to change that state of affairs, but I'll superintend the +operation." + +It was some time before Vane's toilet was completed, and then Carroll +surveyed him with humorous admiration. + +"It strikes me you do us credit; and now I suppose I can announce that +you'll receive?" + +Nairn and his wife and Evelyn came in. Nairn, shaking hands with Vane +very heartily, looked down at him with twinkling eyes. + +"I'd have been glad to see ye, however ye had come," he asserted, and +Vane fully believed him. "For a' that, this is no the way I would have +wished to welcome ye." + +"When a man won't take his friends' advice, what can he expect?" +retorted Vane. + +Nairn nodded, smiling. + +"Let it be a warning. If the making of your mark and money is your +object, ye must stick to it and think of nothing else. Ye canna +accumulate riches by spreading yourself, and philanthropy's no lucrative, +except maybe to a few." + +"It's good counsel, but I'm thinking that it's a pity," Mrs. Nairn +remarked. "What would ye say, Evelyn?" + +The girl was aware that the tone of light banter had been adopted to +cover deeper feelings, which those present shrank from expressing; but +she ventured to give her thoughts free rein. + +"I agree with you in one respect," she said. "But I can't believe the +object mentioned is Mr. Vane's only one. He would never be willing to pay +the necessary price." + +It was a delicate compliment uttered in all sincerity, and Vane's worn +face grew warm. He was, however, conscious that it would be safer to +avoid being serious, and he smiled. + +"Well," he drawled, "looking for timber rights is apt to prove +expensive, too. I had a haunting fear that I might be lame, until the +doctor banished it. I'd better own that I'd no great confidence in +Carroll's surgery." + +Carroll, keeping strictly to the line the others had chosen, made him an +ironical bow; but Evelyn was not to be deterred. + +"It was foolish of you to be troubled," she declared. "It isn't a fault +to be wounded in an honorable fight, and even if the mark remains, there +is no reason why one should be ashamed of it." + +Mrs. Nairn glanced at the girl rather sharply, but Carroll came to his +comrade's relief. + +"Strictly speaking, there wasn't a wound," he pointed out. "Fortunately, +it was what is known as a simple fracture. If it had been anything else, +I'm inclined to think I couldn't have treated it." + +Nairn chuckled, as if this met with his approval; and his wife turned +around as they heard a patter of footsteps on the stairs. + +"Yon bell has kept on ringing ever since we came up," she complained. "I +left word I was no to be disturbed. Weel"--as the door opened--"what is +it, Minnie?" + +"The reception room's plumb full," announced the maid, who was lately +from the bush. "If any more folks come along, I sure won't know where +to put 'em." + +Now that the door was open, Evelyn could hear a murmur of voices on the +floor below, and the next moment the bell rang violently again. It struck +her as a testimonial to the injured man. Vane had not spent a long time +in Vancouver, but he had the gift of making friends. Having heard of the +sloop's arrival, they had come to inquire for him, and there was +obviously a number of them. + +Mrs. Nairn glanced interrogatively at Carroll. + +"It does no look as if they could be got rid of by a message." + +"I guess he's fit to see them," Carroll answered, "We'll hold a levee. If +he'd only let me, I'd like to pose him a bit." + +Mrs. Nairn, with Evelyn's assistance, did so instead, rearranging the +cushions about the man, in spite of his confused and half-indignant +protests; and during the next half-hour the room was generally full. +People walked in, made sympathetic inquiries, or exchanged cheerful +banter, until Mrs. Nairn forcibly dismissed the last of them. After this, +she declared that Vane must go to sleep, and paying no heed to his +assertion that he had not the least wish to do so, she led her remaining +companions away. + +A couple of hours had passed when she handed Evelyn a large tumbler +containing a preparation of beaten eggs and milk. + +"Ye might take him this and ask if he would like anything else," she +said. "I'm weary of the stairs and I would no trust Minnie. She's +handiest at spilling things." + +Carroll grinned. + +"It's the third and, I'd better say firmly, the limit." + +Then he assumed an aggrieved expression as Evelyn moved off with the +tray. + +"I can't see why I couldn't have gone. I think I've discharged my duties +as nurse satisfactorily." + +"I canna help ye thinking," Mrs. Nairn informed him. "But I would point +out that ye have now and then been wrong." + +"That's a fact," Carroll confessed. + +Evelyn fully shared his suspicions. Her hostess's artifice was a +transparent one, but she nevertheless fell in with it. She had seen Vane +only in the company of others; this might be the same again to-morrow; +and there was something to be said. By intuition as much as reason, she +recognized that there was something working in his mind; something that +troubled him and might trouble her. It excited her apprehension and +animated her with a desire to combat it. That she might be compelled to +follow an unconventional course did not matter. She knew this man was +hers--and she could not let him go. + +She entered his room collectedly. He was lying, neatly dressed, upon a +couch with his shoulders raised against the end of it, for he had thrown +the cushions which supported him upon the floor. As she came in, he +leaned down in an attempt to recover them, and finding himself too late +looked up guiltily. The fact that he could move with so much freedom was +a comfort to the girl. She set the tray down on a table near him. + +"Mrs. Nairn has sent you this," she said, and the laugh they both +indulged in drew them together. + +Then her mood changed and her heart yearned over him. He had gone away +a strong, self-confident, prosperous man, and he had come back +defeated, broken in fortune and terribly worn. Her pity shone in her +softening eyes. + +"Do you wish to sleep?" she asked. + +"No," Vane assured her; "I'd a good deal rather talk to you." + +"I want to say something," Evelyn confessed. "I'm afraid I was rather +unpleasant to you the evening before you sailed. I was sorry for it +afterward; it was flagrant injustice." + +"Then I wonder why you didn't answer the letter I wrote at Nanaimo." + +"The letter? I never received one." + +Vane considered this for a few moments. + +"After all," he declared, "it doesn't matter now. I'm acquitted?" + +"Absolutely." + +The man's satisfaction was obvious, but he smiled. + +"Do you know," he said, "I've still no idea of my offense?" + +Evelyn was exceedingly glad to hear it, but a warmth crept into her face, +and as the blood showed through the delicate skin he fixed his eyes upon +her intently. + +"It was all a mistake; I'm sorry still," she murmured penitently. + +"Oh!" he exclaimed in a different tone. "Don't trouble about it. The +satisfaction of being acquitted outweighs everything else. Besides, I've +made a number of rather serious mistakes myself. The search for that +spruce, for instance, is supposed to be one." + +"No," returned Evelyn decidedly; "whoever thinks that, is wrong. It is a +very fine thing you have done. It doesn't matter in the least that you +were unsuccessful." + +"Do you really believe that?" + +"Of course. How could I believe anything else?" + +The man's face changed again, and once more she read the signs. Whatever +doubts and half-formed resolutions--and she had some idea of them--had +been working in his mind were dissipating. + +"Well," he continued, "I've sacrificed the best half of my possessions +and have destroyed the confidence of the people who, to serve their ends, +would have helped me on. Isn't that a serious thing?" + +"No; it's really a most unimportant one. I"--the slight pause gave the +assertion force--"really mean it." + +Vane partly raised himself with one arm and there was no doubting the +significance of his intent gaze. + +"I believe I made another blunder--in England. I should have had +more courage and have faced the risk. But you might have turned +against me then." + +"I don't think that's likely," Evelyn murmured, lowering her eyes. + +The man leaned forward eagerly, but the hand he stretched out fell short, +and the trivial fact once more roused her compassion for his +helplessness. + +"You can mean only one thing!" he cried. "You wouldn't be afraid to face +the future with me now?" + +"I wouldn't be afraid at all." + +A half-hour later Mrs. Nairn tapped at the door and smiled rather broadly +when she came in. Then she shook her head reproachfully. + +"Ye should have been asleep a while since," she scolded Vane, and then +turned to Evelyn. "Is this the way ye intend to look after him?" + +She waved the girl toward the door and when she joined her in the passage +she kissed her effusively. + +"Ye have got the man I would have chosen ye," she declared. "It will no +be any fault of his if ye are sorry." + +"I have very little fear of that," laughed Evelyn. + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Vane of the Timberlands, by Harold Bindloss + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VANE OF THE TIMBERLANDS *** + +***** This file should be named 9778-8.txt or 9778-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/7/7/9778/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + +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: Vane of the Timberlands + +Author: Harold Bindloss + +Posting Date: November 12, 2011 [EBook #9778] +Release Date: January, 2006 +First Posted: October 15, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VANE OF THE TIMBERLANDS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + + + + Vane of The Timberlands + + BY HAROLD BINDLOSS + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + +I. A FRIEND IN NEED +II. A BREEZE OF WIND +III. AN AFTERNOON ASHORE +IV. A CHANGE OF ENVIRONMENT +V. THE OLD COUNTRY +VI. UPON THE HEIGHTS +VII. STORM-STAYED +VIII. LUCY VANE +IX. CHISHOLM PROVES AMENABLE +X. WITH THE OTTER HOUNDS +XI. VANE WITHDRAWS +XII. IN VANCOUVER +XIII. A NEW PROJECT +XIV. VANE SAILS NORTH +XV. THE FIRST MISADVENTURE +XVI. THE BUSH +XVII. VANE POSTPONES THE SEARCH +XVIII. JESSY CONFERS A FAVOR +XIX. VANE FORESEES TROUBLE +XX. THE FLOOD +XXI. VANE YIELDS A POINT +XXII. EVELYN GOES FOR A SAIL +XXIII. VANE PROVES OBDURATE +XXIV. JESSY STRIKES +XXV. THE INTERCEPTED LETTER +XXVI. ON THE TRAIL +XXVII. THE END OF THE SEARCH +XXVIII. CARROLL SEEKS HELP +XXIX. JESSY'S CONTRITION +XXX. CONVINCING TESTIMONY +XXXI. VANE IS REINSTATED + + + + +VANE OF THE TIMBERLANDS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A FRIEND IN NEED + + +A light breeze, scented with the smell of the firs, was blowing down the +inlet, and the tiny ripples it chased across the water splashed musically +against the bows of the canoe. They met her end-on, sparkling in the warm +sunset light, gurgled about her sides, and trailed away astern in two +divergent lines as the paddles flashed and fell. There was a thud as the +blades struck the water, and the long, light hull forged onward with +slightly lifted, bird's-head prow, while the two men swung forward for +the next stroke with a rhythmic grace of motion. They knelt, facing +forward, in the bottom of the craft, and, dissimilar as they were in +features and, to some extent, in character, the likeness between them was +stronger than the difference. Both bore the unmistakable stamp of a +wholesome life spent in vigorous labor in the open. Their eyes were clear +and, like those of most bushmen, singularly steady; their skin was clean +and weather-darkened; and they were leanly muscular. + +On either side of the lane of green water giant firs, cedars and balsams +crept down the rocky hills to the whitened driftwood fringe. They formed +part of the great coniferous forest which rolls west from the wet Coast +Range of Canada's Pacific Province and, overleaping the straits, spreads +across the rugged and beautiful wilderness of Vancouver Island. Ahead, +clusters of little frame houses showed up here and there in openings +among the trees, and a small sloop, toward which the canoe was heading, +lay anchored near the wharf. + +The men had plied the paddle during most of that day, from inclination +rather than necessity, for they could have hired Siwash Indians to +undertake the labor for them, had they been so minded. They were, +though their appearance did not suggest it, moderately prosperous; but +their prosperity was of recent date; they had been accustomed to doing +everything for themselves, as are most of the men who dwell among the +woods and ranges of British Columbia. + +Vane, who knelt nearest the bow, was twenty-seven years of age. Nine of +those years he had spent chopping trees, driving cattle, poling canoes +and assisting in the search for useful minerals among the snow-clad +ranges. He wore a wide, gray felt hat, which had lost its shape from +frequent wettings, an old shirt of the same color, and blue duck +trousers, rent in places; but the light attire revealed a fine muscular +symmetry. He had brown hair and brown eyes; and a certain warmth of +coloring which showed through the deep bronze of his skin hinted at a +sanguine and somewhat impatient temperament. As a matter of fact, the +man was resolute and usually shrewd; but there was a vein of +impulsiveness in him, and, while he possessed considerable powers of +endurance, he was on occasion troubled by a shortness of temper. + +His companion, Carroll, had lighter hair and gray eyes, and his +appearance was a little less vigorous and a little more refined; though +he, too, had toiled hard and borne many privations in the wilderness. His +dress resembled Vane's, but, dilapidated as it was, it suggested a +greater fastidiousness. + +The two had located a valuable mineral property some months earlier and, +though this does not invariably follow, had held their own against city +financiers during the negotiations that preceded the floating of a +company to work the mine. That they had succeeded in securing a good deal +of the stock was largely due to Vane's pertinacity and said something for +his acumen; but both had been trained in a very hard school. + +As the wooden houses ahead rose higher and the sloop's gray hull grew +into sharper shape upon the clear green shining of the brine, Vane broke +into a snatch of song: + +"Had I the wings of a dove, I would fly +Just for to-night to the Old Country." + +He stopped and laughed. + +"It's nine years since I've seen it, but I can't get those lines out of +my head. Perhaps it's because of the girl who sang them. Somehow, I felt +sorry for her. She had remarkably fine eyes." + +"Sea-blue," suggested his companion. "I don't grasp the connection +between the last two remarks." + +"Neither do I," admitted Vane. "I suppose there isn't one. But they +weren't sea-blue; unless you mean the depth of indigo when you are out of +soundings. They're Irish eyes." + +"You're not Irish. There's not a trace of the Celt in you, except, +perhaps, your habit of getting indignant with the people who don't share +your views." + +"No, sir! By birth, I'm North Country--England, I mean. Over there we're +descendants of the Saxons, Scandinavians, Danes--Teutonic stock at +bottom, anyhow; and we've inherited their unromantic virtues. We're +solid, and cautious, respectable before everything, and smart at getting +hold of anything worth having. As a matter of fact, you Ontario Scotsmen +are mighty like us." + +"You certainly came out well ahead of those city men who put up the +money," agreed Carroll. "I guess it's in the blood; though I fancied once +or twice that they would take the mine from you." + +Vane brought his paddle down with a thud. + +"Just for to-night to the Old Country,--" + +He hummed, and added: + +"It sticks to one." + +"What made you leave the Old Country? I don't think you ever told me." + +Vane laughed. + +"That's a blamed injudicious question to ask anybody, as you ought to +know; but in this particular instance you shall have an answer. There was +a row at home--I was a sentimentalist then, and just eighteen--and as a +result of it I came out to Canada." His voice changed and grew softer. "I +hadn't many relatives, and, except one sister, they're all gone now. That +reminds me--she's not going to lecture for the county education +authorities any longer." + +The sloop was close ahead, and slackening the paddling they ran +alongside. Vane glanced at his watch when they had climbed on board. + +"Supper will be finished at the hotel," he remarked. "You had better get +the stove lighted. It's your turn, and that rascally Siwash seems to +have gone off again. If he's not back when we're ready, we'll sail +without him." + +Supper is served at the hotels in the western settlements as soon as work +ceases for the day, and the man who arrives after it is over must wait +until the next day's breakfast is ready. Carroll, accordingly, prepared +the meal; and when they had finished it they lay on deck smoking with a +content not altogether accounted for by a satisfied appetite. They had +spent several anxious months, during which they had come very near the +end of their slender resources, arranging for the exploitation of the +mine, and now at last the work was over. Vane had that day made his final +plans for the construction of a road and a wharf by which the ore could +be economically shipped for reduction, or, as an alternative to this, for +the erection of a small smelting plant. They had bought the sloop as a +convenient means of conveyance and shelter, as they could live in some +comfort on board; and now they could take their ease for a while, which +was a very unusual thing to both of them. + +"I suppose you're bent on sailing this craft back?" Carroll remarked at +length. "We could hire a couple of Siwash to take her home while we rode +across the island and got the train to Victoria. Besides, there's that +steamboat coming down the coast to-night." + +"Either way would cost a good deal extra." + +"That's true," Carroll agreed with an amused expression; "but you could +charge it to the company." + +Vane laughed. + +"You and I have a big stake in the concern; and I haven't got used to +spending money unnecessarily yet, I've been mighty glad to earn a couple +dollars by working from sunup until dark, though I didn't always get it +afterward. So have you." + +"How are you going to dispose of your money, then? You have a nice little +balance in cash, besides the shares." + +"It has occurred to me that I might spend a few months in the Old +Country. Have you ever been over there?" + +"I was across some time ago; but, if you like, I'll go along with you. We +could start as soon as we've arranged the few matters left open in +Vancouver." + +Vane was glad to hear it. He knew little about Carroll's antecedents, but +his companion was obviously a man of education, and they had been staunch +comrades for the last three years. They had plodded through leagues of +rain-swept bush, had forded icy rivers, had slept in wet fern and +sometimes slushy snow, and had toiled together with pick and drill. +During that time they had learned to know and trust each other and to +bear with each other's idiosyncrasies. + +Filling his pipe again as he lay in the fading sunlight, Vane looked back +on the nine years he had passed in Canada, and, allowing for the periods +of exposure to cold and wet and the almost ceaseless toil, he admitted +that he might have spent them more unpleasantly. He had a stout heart and +a muscular body, and the physical hardships had not troubled him. What +was more, he had a quick, almost instinctive, judgment and the faculty +for seizing an opportunity. + +Having quarreled with his relatives and declined any favors from them, he +had come to Canada with only a few pounds and had promptly set about +earning a living with his hands. When he had been in the country several +years, a friend of the family had, however, sent him a small sum, and the +young man had made judicious use of the money. The lot he bought outside +a wooden town doubled in value, and the share he took in a new orchard +paid him well; but he had held aloof from the cities, and his only +recklessness had been his prospecting journeys into the wilderness. +Prospecting for minerals is at once an art and a gamble. Skill, acquired +by long experience or instinctive--and there are men who seem to possess +the latter--counts for much, but chance plays a leading part. Provisions, +tents and packhorses are expensive, and though a placer mine may be +worked by two partners, a reef or lode can be disposed of only to men +with means sufficient to develop it. Even in this delicate matter, in +which he had had keen wits against him, Vane had held his own; but there +was one side of life with which he was practically unacquainted. + +There are no social amenities on the rangeside or in the bush, where +women are scarce. Vane had lived in Spartan simplicity, practising the +ascetic virtues, as a matter of course. He had had no time for sentiment, +his passions had remained unstirred; and now he was seven and twenty, +sound and vigorous of body, and, as a rule, level of head. At length, +however, there was to be a change. He had earned an interlude of +leisure, and he meant to enjoy it without, so he prudently determined, +making a fool of himself. + +Presently Carroll took his pipe from his mouth. + +"Are you going ashore again to the show to-night?" + +"Yes," Vane answered. "It's a long while since I've struck an +entertainment of any kind, and that yellow-haired mite's dancing is one +of the prettiest things I've seen." + +"You've been twice already," Carroll hinted. "The girl with the blue eyes +sings her first song rather well." + +"I think so," Vane agreed with a significant absence of embarrassment. +"In this case a good deal depends on the singing--the interpretation, +isn't it? The thing's on the border, and I've struck places where they'd +have made it gross; but the girl only brought out the mischief. Strikes +me she didn't see there was anything else in it" + +"That's curious, considering the crowd she goes about with. Aren't you +cultivating a critical faculty?" + +Vane disregarded the ironical question. + +"She's Irish; that accounts for a good deal." + +He paused and looked thoughtful. + +"If I knew how to do it, I'd like to give five or ten dollars to the +child who dances. It must be a tough life, and her mother--the woman +at the piano--looks ill. I wonder whatever brought them to a place +like this?" + +"Struck a cold streak at Nanaimo, the storekeeper told me. Anyway, since +we're to start at sunup, I'm staying here." Then he smiled. "Has it +struck you that your attendance in the front seats is liable to +misconception?" + +Vane rose without answering and dropped into the canoe. Thrusting her +off, he drove the light craft toward the wharf with vigorous strokes of +the paddle, and Carroll shook his head whimsically as he watched him. + +"Anybody except myself would conclude that he's waking up at last," he +commented. + +A minute or two later Vane swung himself up onto the wharf and strode +into the wooden settlement. There were one or two hydraulic mines and a +pulp mill in the vicinity, and, though the place was by no means +populous, a company of third-rate entertainers had arrived there a few +days earlier. On reaching the rude wooden building in which they had +given their performance and finding it closed, he accosted a lounger. + +"What's become of the show?" he asked. + +"Busted. Didn't take the boys' fancy. The crowd went out with the stage +this afternoon; though I heard that two of the women stayed behind. +Somebody said the hotel-keeper had trouble about his bill." + +Vane turned away with a slight sense of compassion. More than once during +his first year or two in Canada he had limped footsore and weary into a +wooden town where nobody seemed willing to employ him. An experience of +the kind was unpleasant to a vigorous man, but he reflected that it must +be much more so in the case of a woman, who probably had nothing to fall +back upon. However, he dismissed the matter from his mind. Having been +kneeling in a cramped position in the canoe most of the day, he decided +to stroll along the waterside before going back to the sloop. + +Great firs stretched out their somber branches over the smooth shingle, +and now that the sun had gone their clean resinous smell was heavy in the +dew-cooled air. Here and there brushwood grew among outcropping rock and +moss-grown logs lay fallen among the brambles. + +Catching sight of what looked like a strip of woven fabric beneath a +brake, Vane strode toward it. Then he stopped with a start, for a young +girl lay with her face hidden from him, in an attitude of dejected +abandonment. He was about to turn away softly, when she started and +looked up at him. Her long dark lashes glistened and her eyes were wet, +but they were of the deep blue he had described to Carroll, and he +stood still. + +"You really shouldn't give way like that," he said. + +It was all he could think of, but he spoke without obtrusive assurance or +pronounced embarrassment; and the girl, shaking out her crumpled skirt +over one little foot, with a swift sinuous movement, choked back a sob +and favored him with a glance of keen scrutiny as she rose to a sitting +posture. She was quick at reading character--the life she led had made +that necessary--and his manner and appearance were reassuring. He was on +the whole a well-favored man--good-looking seemed the best word for +it--though what impressed her most was his expression. It indicated that +he regarded her with some pity, not as an attractive young woman, which +she knew she was, but merely as a human being. The girl, however, said +nothing; and, sitting down on a neighboring boulder, Vane took out his +pipe from force of habit. + +"Well," he added, in much the same tone he would have used to a +distressed child, "what's the trouble?" + +She told him, speaking on impulse. + +"They've gone off and left me! The takings didn't meet expenses; there +was no treasury." + +"That's bad," responded Vane gravely. "Do you mean they've left +you alone?" + +"No; it's worse than that. I suppose I could go--somewhere--but there's +Mrs. Marvin and Elsie." + +"The child who dances?" + +The girl assented, and Vane looked thoughtful. He had already noticed +that Mrs. Marvin, whom he supposed to be the child's mother, was worn and +frail, and he did not think there was anything she could turn her hand to +in a vigorous mining community. The same applied to his companion, though +he was not greatly astonished that she had taken him into her confidence. +The reserve that characterizes the insular English is less common in the +West, where the stranger is more readily taken on trust. + +"The three of you stick together?" he suggested. + +"Of course! Mrs. Marvin's the only friend I have." + +"Then I suppose you've no idea what to do?" + +"No," she confessed, and then explained, not very clearly, that it was +the cause of her distress and that they had had bad luck of late. Vane +could understand that as he looked at her. Her dress was shabby, and he +fancied that she had not been bountifully fed. + +"If you stayed here a few days you could go out with the next stage and +take the train to Victoria." He paused and continued diffidently: "It +could be arranged with the hotel-keeper." + +She laughed in a half-hysterical manner, and he remembered what she had +said about the treasury, and that fares are high in that country. + +"I suppose you have no money," he added with blunt directness. "I want +you to tell Mrs. Marvin that I'll lend her enough to take you all to +Victoria." + +Her face crimsoned. He had not quite expected that, and he suddenly felt +embarrassed. It was a relief when she broke the brief silence. + +"No," she replied; "I can't do that. For one thing, it would be too late +when we got to Victoria, I think we could get an engagement if we reached +Vancouver in time to get to Kamloops by--" + +Vane knit his brows when he heard the date, and it was a moment or two +before he spoke. + +"There's only one way you can do it. There's a little steamboat coming +down the coast to-night. I had half thought of intercepting her, anyway, +and handing the skipper some letters to post in Victoria. He knows +me--I'm likely to have dealings with his employers. That's my sloop +yonder, and if I put you on board the steamer, you'd reach Vancouver in +good time. We should have sailed at sunup, anyhow." + +The girl hesitated and turned partly from him. He surmised that she did +not know what to make of his offer, though her need was urgent. In the +meanwhile he stood up. + +"Come along and talk it over with Mrs. Marvin," he urged. "I'd better +tell you that I'm Wallace Vane, of the Clermont Mine. Of course, I know +your name, from the program." + +She rose and they walked back to the hotel. Once more it struck him that +the girl was pretty and graceful, though he had already deduced from +several things that she had not been regularly trained as a singer nor +well educated. On reaching the hotel, he sat down on the veranda while +she went in, and a few minutes later Mrs. Marvin came out and looked at +him much as the girl had done. He grew hot under her gaze and repeated +his offer in the curtest terms. + +"If this breeze holds, we'll put you on board the steamer soon after +daybreak," he explained. + +The woman's face softened, and he recognized now that there had been +strong suspicion in it. + +"Thank you," she said simply; "we'll come." + +There was a moment's silence and then she added with an eloquent gesture: + +"You don't know what it means to us!" + +Vane merely took off his hat and turned away; but a minute or two later +he met the hotel-keeper. + +"Do these people owe you anything?" he asked. + +"Five dollars; they paid up part of the time. I was wondering what to do +with them. Guess they've no money. They didn't come in to supper, though +we would have stood them that. Made me think they were straight folks; +the other kind wouldn't have been bashful." + +Vane handed him a bill. + +"Take it out of this, and make any excuse you like. I'm going to put them +on board the steamboat." + +The man made no comment, and Vane, striding down to the beach, sent a +hail ringing across the water. Carroll appeared on the sloop's deck and +answered him. + +"Hallo!" he cried. "What's the trouble?" + +"Get ready the best supper you can manage, for three people, as quick +as you can!" + +"Supper for three people!" + +Vane caught the astonished exclamation and came near losing his temper. + +"For three people!" he shouted. "Don't ask any fool questions! You'll see +later on!" + +Then he turned away in a hurry, wondering somewhat uneasily what Carroll +would say when he grasped the situation. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A BREEZE OF WIND + + +There were signs of a change in the weather when Vane walked down to the +wharf with his passengers, for a cold wind which had sprung up struck an +eerie sighing from the somber firs and sent the white mists streaming +along the hillside. There was a watery moon in the sky, and when they +reached the water's edge Vane fancied that the singer hesitated; but Mrs. +Marvin laid her hand on the girl's arm reassuringly, and she got into the +canoe. A few minutes later Vane ran the craft alongside the sloop and saw +the amazement in Carroll's face by the glow from the cabin skylight. He +fancied, however, that his comrade would rise to the occasion, and he +helped his guests up. + +"My partner, Carroll. Mrs. Marvin and her daughter; Miss Kitty +Blake. You have seen them already. They're coming down with us to +catch the steamer." + +Carroll bowed, and Vane thrust back the cabin slide and motioned the +others below. The place was brightly lighted by a nickeled lamp, though +it was scarcely four feet high and the centerboard trunk occupied the +middle of it. A wide cushioned locker ran along either side a foot above +the floor, and a swing-table, fixed above the trunk, filled up most of +the space between. There was no cloth on the table, but it was +invitingly laid out with canned fruit, coffee, hot flapjacks and a big +lake trout, for in the western bush most men can cook. + +"You must help yourselves while we get sail upon the boat," said Vane +cheerily. "The saloon's at your disposal--my partner and I have the +forecastle. You will notice that there are blankets yonder, and as we'll +have smooth water most of the way you should get some sleep. Perhaps +you'd better keep the stove burning; and if you should like some coffee +in the early morning you'll find it in the top locker." + +He withdrew, closing the slide, and went forward with Carroll to shorten +in the cable; but when they stopped beside the bitts his companion broke +into a laugh. + +"Is there anything amusing you?" Vane asked curtly. + +"Well," drawled Carroll, "this country, of course, isn't England; but, +for all that, it's desirable that a man who expects to make his mark in +it should exercise a certain amount of caution. It strikes me that you're +making a rather unconventional use of your new prosperity, and it might +be prudent to consider how some of your friends in Vancouver may regard +the adventure." + +Vane sat down upon the bitts and took out his pipe. + +"One trouble in talking to you is that I never know whether you're in +earnest or not. You trot out your cold-blooded worldly wisdom--I suppose +it is wisdom--and then you grin at it." + +"It seems to me that's the only philosophic attitude," Carroll replied. +"It's possible to grow furiously indignant with the restraints +stereotyped people lay on one, but on the whole it's wiser to bow to them +and chuckle. After all, they've some foundation." + +Vane looked up at him sharply. + +"You've been right in the advice you have given me more than once. You +seem to know how prosperous, and what you call stereotyped, people look +at things. But you've never explained where you acquired the knowledge." + +"Oh, that's quite another matter," laughed Carroll. + +"Anyway, there's one remark of yours I'd like to answer. You would, no +doubt, consider that I made a legitimate use of my money when I +entertained that crowd of city people--some of whom would have plundered +me if they could have managed it--in Vancouver. I didn't grudge it, of +course, but I was a little astonished when I saw the wine and cigar bill. +It struck me that the best of them scarcely noticed what they got--I +think they'd been up against it at one time, as we have; and it would +have done the rest of the guzzlers good if they'd had to work with the +shovel all day on pork and flapjacks. But we'll let that go. What have +you and I done that we should swill in champagne, while a girl with a +face like that one below and a child who dances like a fairy haven't +enough to eat? You know what I paid for the last cigars. What confounded +hogs we are!" + +Carroll laughed outright. There was not an ounce of superfluous flesh +upon his comrade, who was hardened and toughened by determined labor. +With rare exceptions, which included the occasions when he had +entertained or had been entertained in Vancouver, his greatest indulgence +had been a draught of strong green tea from a blackened pannikin, though +he had at times drunk nothing but river water. The term hog appeared +singularly inappropriate as applied to him. + +"Well," replied Carroll, "you'll no doubt get used to the new conditions +by and by; and in regard to your latest exploit, there's a motto on your +insignia of the Garter which might meet the case. But hadn't we better +heave her over her anchor?" + +They seized the chain, and a sharp, musical rattle rang out as it ran +below, for the hollow hull flung back the metallic clinking like a +sounding-board. When the cable was short-up, they grasped the halyards +and the big gaff-mainsail rose flapping up the mast. They set it and +turned to the head-sails, for though, strictly speaking, a sloop carries +only one, the term is loosely applied in places, and as Vane had changed +her rig, there were two of them to be hoisted. + +"It's a fair wind, and I dare say we'll find more weight in it lower +down," commented Carroll. "We'll let the staysail lie and run her +with the jib." + +When they set the jib and broke out the anchor, Vane took the helm, and +the sloop, slanting over until her deck on one side dipped close to the +frothing brine, drove away into the darkness. The lights of the +settlement faded among the trees, and the black hills and the climbing +firs on either side slipped by, streaked by sliding vapors. A crisp, +splashing sound made by the curling ripples followed the vessel; the +canoe surged along noisily astern; and the frothing and gurgling grew +louder at the bows. They were running down one of the deep, +forest-shrouded inlets which, resembling the Norwegian fiords, pierce the +Pacific littoral of Canada; though there are no Scandinavian pines to +compare with the tremendous conifers which fill all the valleys and climb +high to the snow-line in that wild and rugged land. + +There was no sound from the cabin, and Vane decided that his guests had +gone to sleep. The sloop was driving along steadily, with neither lift +nor roll, but when, increasing her speed, she piled the foam up on her +lee side and the canoe rode on a great white wave, he glanced toward his +companion. + +"I wonder how the wind is outside?" he questioned. + +Carroll looked around and saw the white mists stream athwart the pines on +a promontory they were skirting. + +"That's more than I can tell. In these troughs among the hills, it either +blows straight up or directly down, and I dare say we'll find it +different when we reach the sound. One thing's certain--there's some +weight in it now." + +Vane nodded agreement, though an idea that troubled him crept into his +mind. + +"I understand that the steamboat skipper will run in to land some Siwash +he's bringing down. It will be awkward in the dark if the wind's +on-shore." + +Carroll made no comment, and they drove on. As they swept around the +point, the sloop, slanting sharply, dipped her lee rail in the froth. +Ahead of them the inlet was flecked with white, and the wail of the +swaying firs came off from the shadowy beach and mingled with the +gurgling of the water. + +"We'll have to tie down a reef and get the canoe on board," +suggested Carroll. + +"Here, take the tiller a minute!" + +Scrambling forward Vane rapped on the cabin slide and then flung it back. +Mrs. Marvin lay upon the leeward locker with a blanket thrown over her +and with the little girl at her feet; Miss Blake sat on the weather side +with a book in her hand. + +"We're going to take some sail off the boat," he explained. "You needn't +be disturbed by the noise." + +"When do you expect to meet the steamer?" Miss Blake inquired. + +"Not for two or three hours, anyway." + +Vane fancied that the girl noticed the hint of uncertainty in his voice, +and he banged the slide to as he disappeared. + +"Down helm!" he shouted to Carroll. + +There was a banging and thrashing of canvas as the sloop came up into the +wind. They held her there with the jib aback while they hauled the canoe +on board, which was not an easy task; and then with difficulty they hove +down a reef in the mainsail. It was heavy work, because there was nobody +at the helm; and the craft, falling off once or twice while they leaned +out upon the boom with toes on her depressed lee rail, threatened to hurl +them into the frothing water. Neither of them was a trained sailor; but +on that coast, with its inlets and sounds and rivers, the wanderer learns +readily to handle sail and paddle and canoe-pole. + +They finished their task; and when Vane seized the helm Carroll sat down +under the shelter of the coaming, out of the flying spray. + +"We'll probably have some trouble putting your friends on board the +steamer, even if she runs in," he remarked. "What are you going to do if +there's no sign of her?" + +"It's a question I've been shirking for the last half-hour," Vane +confessed. + +"It would be very slow work beating back up this inlet; and even if we +did so there isn't a stage across the island for several days. No doubt, +you remember that you have to see that contractor on Thursday; and +there's the directors' meeting, too." + +"It's uncommonly awkward," Vane answered dubiously. + +Carroll laughed. + +"It strikes me that your guests will have to stay where they are, whether +they like it or not; but there's one consolation--if this wind is from +the northwest, which is most likely, it will be a fast run to Victoria. +Guess I'll try to get some sleep." + +He disappeared down a scuttle forward, leaving Vane somewhat disturbed in +mind. He had contemplated taking his guests for merely a few hours' run, +but to have them on board for, perhaps, several days was a very different +thing. Besides, he was far from sure that they would understand the +necessity for keeping them, and in that case the situation might become +difficult. In the meanwhile, the sloop drove on, until at last, toward +morning, the beach fell back on either hand and she met the long swell +tumbling in from the Pacific. The wind was from the northwest and blowing +moderately hard; there was no light as yet in the sky above the black +heights to the east; and the onrushing swell grew higher and steeper, +breaking white here and there. The sloop plunged over it wildly, hurling +the spray aloft; and it cost Vane a determined effort to haul in his +sheets as the wind drew ahead. Shortly afterward, the beach faded +altogether on one hand, and the sea piled up madly into foaming ridges. +It seemed most improbable that the steamer would run in to land her +Indian passengers, but Vane drove the sloop on, with showers of stinging +brine beating into her wet canvas and whirling about him. + +As the Pacific opened up, he found it necessary to watch the seas that +came charging down upon her. They were long and high, and most of them +were ridged with seething foam. With a quick pull on the tiller, he edged +her over them, and a cascade swept her forward as she plunged across +their crests. Though there were driving clouds above him, it was not very +dark and he could see for some distance. The long ranks of tumbling +combers did not look encouraging, and when the plunges grew sharper and +the brine began to splash across the coaming that protected the well he +wished that they had hauled down a second reef. He could not shorten sail +unassisted, however; nor could he leave the helm to summon Carroll, who +was evidently sleeping soundly in the forecastle, without rousing his +passengers, which he did not desire to do. + +A little while later he noticed that a stream of smoke was pouring from +the short funnel of the stove and soon afterward the cabin slide opened. +Miss Blake crept out and stood in the well, gazing forward while she +clutched the coaming. + +Day was now breaking, and Vane could see that the girl's thin dress was +blown flat against her. There was something graceful in her pose, and it +struck him again that her figure was daintily slender. She wore no hat, +and it was evident that the wild plunging had no effect on her. He waited +uneasily until she turned and faced him. + +"We are going out to sea," she said. "Where's the steamer?" + +It was a question Vane had dreaded; but he answered it honestly. + +"I can't tell you. It's very likely that she has gone straight on to +Victoria." + +He saw the suspicion in her suddenly hardening face, but the quick anger +in it pleased him. He had not expected her to be prudish, but it was +clear that the situation did not appeal to her. + +"You expected this when you asked us to come on board!" she cried. + +"No," Vane replied quietly; "on my honor, I did nothing of the kind. +There was only a moderate breeze when we left, and when it freshened +enough to make it unlikely that the steamer would run in, I was as vexed +as you seem to be. As it happened, I couldn't go back; I must get on to +Victoria as soon as possible." + +She looked at him searchingly, but he fancied that she was slightly +comforted. + +"Can't you put us ashore?" + +"It might be possible if I could find a sheltered beach farther on, but +it wouldn't be wise. You would find yourselves twenty or thirty miles +from the nearest settlement, and you could never walk so far through +the bush." + +"Then what are we to do?" + +There was distress in the cry, and Vane answered it in his most +matter-of-fact tone. + +"So far as I can see, you can only reconcile yourselves to staying on +board. We'll have a fresh, fair wind for Victoria, once we're round the +next head, and with moderate luck we ought to get there late to-night" + +"You're sure?" + +Vane felt sorry for her. + +"I'm afraid I can't even promise that; it depends upon the weather," +he replied. "But you mustn't stand there in the spray. You're getting +wet through." + +She still clung to the coaming, but he fancied that her misgivings were +vanishing, and he spoke again. + +"How are Mrs. Marvin and the little girl? I see you have lighted +the stove." + +The girl sat down, shivering, in the partial shelter of the coaming, and +at last a gleam of amusement, which he felt was partly compassionate, +shone in her eyes. + +"I'm afraid they're--not well. That was why I kept the stove burning; I +wanted to make them some tea. There is some in the locker--I thought you +wouldn't mind." + +"Everything's at your service, as I told you. You must make the best +breakfast you can. The nicest things are at the back of the locker." + +She stood up, looking around again. The light was growing, and the +crests of the combers gleamed a livid white. Their steep breasts were +losing their grayness and changing to dusky blue and slatey green, but +their blurred coloring was atoned for by their grandeur of form. They +came on, ridge on ridge, in regularly ordered, tumbling phalanxes. + +"It's glorious!" she exclaimed, to his astonishment. "Aren't you carrying +a good deal of sail?" + +"We'll ease the peak down when we bring the wind farther aft. In the +meanwhile, you'd better get your breakfast, and if you come out again, +put on one of the coats you'll find below." + +She disappeared, and Vane felt relieved. Though the explanation had +proved less difficult than he had anticipated, he was glad that it was +over, and the way in which she had changed the subject implied that she +was satisfied with it. Half an hour later, she appeared again, carrying a +loaded tray, and he wondered at the ease of her movements, for the sloop +was plunging viciously. + +"I've brought you some breakfast. You have been up all night." + +Vane laughed. + +"As I can take only one hand from the helm, you will have to cut up the +bread and canned stuff for me. Draw out that box and sit down beneath the +coaming, if you mean to stay." + +She did as he told her. The well was about four feet long, and the bottom +of it about half that distance below the level of the deck. As a result +of this, she sat close at his feet, while he balanced himself on the +coaming, gripping the tiller. He noticed that she had brought out an +oilskin jacket with her. + +"Hadn't you better put this on first? There's a good deal of +spray," she said. + +Vane struggled into the jacket with some difficulty, and she smiled as +she handed him up a slice of bread and canned meat. + +"I suppose you can manage only one piece at a time," she laughed. + +"Thank you. That's about as much as you could expect one to be capable +of, even allowing for the bushman's appetite. I'm a little surprised to +see you looking so fresh." + +"Oh, I used to go out with the mackerel boats at home--we lived at the +ferry. It was a mile across the lough, and with the wind westerly the sea +worked in." + +"The lough? I told Carroll that you were from the Green Isle." + +It struck him that this was, perhaps, imprudent, as it implied that they +had been discussing her; but, on the other hand, he fancied that the +candor of the statement was in his favor. + +"Have you been long out here?" he added. + +The girl's face grew wistful. + +"Four years. I came out with Larry--he's my brother. He was a forester at +home, and he took small contracts for clearing land. Then he married--and +_I_ left him." + +Vane made a sign of comprehension. + +"I see. Where's Larry now?" + +"He went to Oregon. There was no answer to my last letter; I've lost +sight of him." + +"And you go about with Mrs. Marvin? Is her husband living?" + +Sudden anger flared up in the girl's blue eyes, though he knew that it +was not directed against him. + +"Yes! It's a pity he is! Men of his kind always seem to live!" + +It occurred to Vane that Miss Blake, who evidently had a spice of temper, +could be a staunch partizan, and he also noticed that now that he had +inspired her with some degree of trust in himself her conversation was +marked by an ingenuous candor. + +"Another piece, or some tea?" she asked. + +"Tea first, please." + +They both laughed when she handed him a second slice of bread. + +"These sandwiches strike me as unusually nice," he informed her. "It's +exceptionally good tea, too. I don't remember ever getting anything to +equal them at a hotel." + +The blue eyes gleamed with amusement. + +"You have been in the cold all night--but I was once in a restaurant." +She watched the effect of this statement on him. "You know I really can't +sing--I was never taught, anyway--though there were some of the +settlements where we did rather well." + +Vane hummed a few bars of a song. + +"I don't suppose you realize what one ballad of yours has done. I'd +almost forgotten the Old Country, but the night I heard you I felt I must +go back and see it again. What's more, Carroll and I are going +shortly--it's your doing." + +This was a matter of fact; but Kitty Blake had produced a deeper effect +on him, although he was not yet aware of it. + +"It's a shame to keep you handing me things to eat," he added +disconnectedly. "Still, I'd like another piece." + +She smiled delightfully as she passed the food to him. + +"You can't help yourself and steer the boat. Besides--after the +restaurant--I don't mind waiting on you." + +Vane made no comment, but he watched her with satisfaction while he ate. +There was no sign of the others; they were alone on the waste of tumbling +water in the early dawn. The girl was pretty, and there was a pleasing +daintiness about her. What was more, she was a guest of his, dependent +for her safety upon his skill with the tiller. So far as he could +remember, it was a year or two since he had breakfasted in a woman's +company; it was certain that no woman had waited on him so prettily. Then +as he remembered many a lonely camp in the dark pine forest or high on +the bare rangeside, it occurred to him for the first time that he had +missed a good deal of what life had to offer. He wondered what it would +have been like if when he had dragged himself back to his tent at night, +worn with heavy toil, as he had often done, there had been somebody with +blue eyes and a delightful smile to welcome him. + +Kitty Blake belonged to the people--there was no doubt of that; but then +he had a strong faith in the people, native-born and adopted, of the +Pacific Slope. It was from them that he had received the greatest +kindnesses he could remember. They were cheerful optimists; indomitable +grapplers with forest and flood, who did almost incredible things with ax +and saw and giant-powder. They lived in lonely ranch houses, tents and +rudely flung-up shacks; driving the new roads along the rangeside or +risking life and limb in wild-cat adits. They were quick to laughter, and +reckless in hospitality. + +Then with an effort he brushed the hazy thoughts away. Kitty Blake was +merely a guest of his; in another day he would land her in Victoria, and +that would be the end of it. He was assuring himself of this when Carroll +crawled up through the scuttle forward and came aft to join them. In +spite of his prudent reflections, Vane was by no means certain that he +was pleased to see him. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +AN AFTERNOON ASHORE + + +Half the day had slipped by. The breeze freshened further and the sun +broke through. The sloop was then rolling wildly as she drove along with +the peak of her mainsail lowered down before a big following sea. The +combers came up behind her, foaming and glistening blue and green, with +seamy white streaks on their hollow breasts, and broke about her with a +roar. Then they surged ahead while she sank down into the hollow with +sluicing deck and tilted stern. Vane's face was intent as he gripped the +helm; three or four miles away a head ran out from the beach he was +following, and he would have to haul the boat up to windward to get +around it. This would bring the combers upon her quarter, or, worse +still, abeam. Kitty Blake was below; and Mrs. Marvin had made no +appearance yet. Vane looked at Carroll, who was standing in the well. + +"The sea's breaking more sharply, and we'd get uncommonly wet before we +hammered round yonder head. There's an inlet on this side of it where we +ought to find good shelter." + +"The trouble is that if you stay there long you'll be too late for the +directors' meeting. Besides, I'm under the impression that I've seen you +run an open sea-canoe before as hard a breeze as this." + +"They can't have the meeting without me, and if it's necessary they can +wait," Vane answered impatiently. "I've had to. Many an hour I've spent +cooling my heels in corridors and outer offices before the head of the +concern could find time to attend to me. No doubt it was part of the +game, done to impress me with a due sense of my unimportance." + +"It's possible," Carroll laughed. + +"Besides, you can drive one of those big Siwash craft as hard as you can +this sloop; that is, so long as you keep the sea astern of her." + +"Yes; I dare say you can. After all, you hadn't any passengers on +the occasion I was referring to. I suppose you feel you have to +consider them?" + +Vane colored slightly. + +"Naturally, I'd prefer not to land Mrs. Marvin and the child in a +helpless condition; and I understand they're feeling the motion +pretty badly." + +Kitty Blake made her appearance in the cabin entrance, and Vane +smiled at her. + +"We're going to give you a rest," he announced. "There's an inlet close +ahead where we should find smooth water, and we'll put you all ashore for +a few hours until the wind drops." + +There was no suspicion in the girl's face now. She gave him a grateful +glance before she disappeared below with the consoling news. + +A quarter of an hour later Vane closed with the beach, and a break in the +hillside, which was dotted with wind-stunted pines, opened up. While the +two men struggled with the mainsheet, the big boom and the sail above it +lurched madly over. The sloop rolled down until half her deck on one side +was in the sea, but she hove herself up again and shot forward, wet and +gleaming, into a space of smooth green water behind a head. Soon +afterward, Vane luffed into a tiny bay, where she rode upright in the +sunshine, with loose canvas flapping softly in a faint breeze while the +cable rattled down. They got the canoe over, and when they had helped +Mrs. Marvin and her little girl, both of whom looked very wobegone and +the worse for the voyage, into her, Vane glanced around. + +"Isn't Miss Blake coming?" he asked. + +"She's changing her dress," explained Mrs. Marvin, with a smile. She +glanced at her own crumpled attire as she added: "I'm past thinking of +such things as that!" + +They waited some minutes, and then Kitty appeared in the entrance to the +cabin. Vane called to her. + +"Won't you look in the locker, and bring along anything you think would +be nice? We'll make a fire and have supper on the beach--if it isn't +first-rate, you'll be responsible!" + +A few minutes later they paddled ashore, and Vane landed them on a +strip of shingle. Beyond it a wall of rock arose, with dark firs +clinging in the rifts and crannies. The sunshine streamed into the +hollow; the wind was cut off; and not far away a crystal stream came +splashing down a ravine. + +"There's a creek at the top of the inlet," Vane told them, as he and +Carroll thrust out the canoe, "and we're going to look for a trout. You +can stroll about or rest in the sun for a couple of hours, and if the +wind drops after supper we'll make a start again." + +They paddled away, with a fishing-rod and a gun in the canoe, and it +was toward six o'clock in the evening when they came back with a few +trout. Vane made a fire of resinous wood, and Carroll and Kitty +prepared a bountiful supper. When it was finished, Carroll carried the +plates away to the stream; Mrs. Marvin and the little girl followed +him; and Vane and Kitty were left beside the fire. She sat on a log of +driftwood, and he lay on the warm shingle with his pipe in his hand. +The clear green water splashed and tinkled upon the pebbles close at +his feet, and a faint, elfin sighing fell from the firs above them. It +was very old music: the song of the primeval wilderness; and though he +had heard it often, it had a strange, unsettling effect on him as he +languidly watched his companion. There was no doubt that she was +pleasant to look upon; but, although he did not clearly recognize this, +it was to a large extent an impersonal interest that he took in her. +She was not so much an attractive young woman with qualities that +pleased him as a type of something that had so far not come into his +life; something which he vaguely felt that he had missed. One could +have fancied that by some deep-sunk intuition she recognized this fact, +and felt the security of it. + +"So you believe you can get an engagement if you reach Vancouver in +time?" he asked at length. + +"Yes." + +"How long will it last?" + +"I can't tell. Perhaps a week or two. It depends upon how the boys are +pleased with the show." + +Vane frowned. He felt very compassionate toward her and toward all +friendless women compelled to wander here and there, as she was forced +to do. It seemed intolerable that she should depend for daily bread +upon the manner in which a crowd of rude miners and choppers received +her song; though there was, as he knew, a vein of primitive chivalry in +most of them. + +"Suppose it only lasts a fortnight, what will you do then?" + +"I don't know," said Kitty simply. + +"It must be a hard life," Vane broke out. "You must make very +little--scarcely enough, I suppose, to carry you on from one engagement +to another. After all, weren't you as well off at the restaurant? Didn't +they treat you properly?" + +She colored a little at the question. + +"Oh, yes. At least, I had no fault to find with the man who kept it or +with his wife." + +Vane made a hasty sign of comprehension. He supposed that the difficulty +had arisen from the conduct of one or more of the regular customers. He +felt that he would very much like to meet the man whose undesired +attentions had driven his companion from her occupation. + +"Did you never try to learn keeping accounts or typewriting?" he asked. + +"I tried it once. I could manage the figures, but the mill shut down." + +Vane made his next suggestion casually, though he was troubled by an +inward diffidence. + +"I've an idea that I could find you a post. It looks as if I'm going to +be a person of some little influence in the future, which"--he +laughed--"is a very new thing to me." + +He saw a tinge of warmer color creep into the girl's cheeks. She had, as +he had already noticed a beautifully clear skin. + +"No," she said decidedly; "it wouldn't do." + +Vane knit his brows, though he fancied that she was right. + +"Well," he replied, "I don't want to be officious--but how can I help?" + +"You can't help at all." + +Vane saw that she meant it, and he broke out with quick impatience: + +"I've spent nine years in this country, in the hardest kind of work; but +all the while I fancied that money meant power, that if I ever got +enough of it I could do what I liked! Now I find that I can't do the +first simple thing that would please me! What a cramped, hide-bound +world it is!" + +Kitty smiled in a curious manner. + +"Yes; it's a very cramped world to some of us; but complaining won't do +any good," She paused with a faint sigh. "Don't spoil this evening. You +and Mr. Carroll have been very kind. It's so quiet and calm +here--though it was pleasant on board the yacht--and soon we'll have to +go to work again." + +Vane once more was stirred by a sense of pity which almost drove him to +rash and impulsive speech; but her manner restrained him. + +"Then you must be fond of the sea," he suggested. + +"I love it! I was born beside it--where the big, green hills drop to the +head of the water and you can hear the Atlantic rumble on the rocks all +night long." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Vane; "don't you long for another sight of it now +and then?" + +The girl smiled in a way that troubled him. + +"I'm wearying for it always; and some day, perhaps, I'll win back for +another glimpse at the old place." + +"You wouldn't go to stay?" + +"That would be impossible! What would I do yonder, after this other life? +Once you leave the old land, you can never quite get back again." + +Vane lay smoking in silence for a minute or two. On another occasion he +had felt the thrill of the exile's longing that spoke through the girl's +song, and now he recognized the truth of what she said. One changed in +the West, acquiring a new outlook which diverged more and more from that +held by those at home. Only a wistful tenderness for the motherland +remained. Still, alien in thought and feeling as he had become, he was +going back there for a time; and she, as she had said, must resume her +work. A feeling of anger at his impotence to alter this came upon him. + +Then Carroll came up with Mrs. Marvin and Elsie, and he felt strongly +stirred when the little girl walked up to him shyly with a basket filled +with shells and bright fir-cones. He drew her down beside him with an arm +about her waist while he examined her treasures. Glancing up he met +Kitty's eyes and felt his face grow hot with an emotion he failed to +analyze. The little mite was frail and delicate; life, he surmised, had +scanty pleasure to offer her; but now she was happy. + +"They're so pretty, and there are such lots of them!" she exclaimed. +"Can't we stay here just a little longer and gather some more?" + +"Yes," answered Vane, conscious that Carroll, who had heard the question, +was watching him. "You shall stay and get as many as you want. I'm afraid +you don't like the sloop." + +"No; I don't like it when it jumps. After I woke up, it jumped all +the time." + +"Never mind, little girl. The boat will keep still to-night, and I don't +think there'll be any waves to roll her about to-morrow. We'll have you +ashore the first thing in the morning." + +He talked to her for a few minutes, and then strolled along the beach +with Carroll until they could look out upon the Pacific. The breeze was +falling, though the sea still ran high. + +"Why did you promise that child to stay here?" Carroll asked. + +"Because I felt like doing so." + +"I needn't remind you that you've an appointment with Horsfield about +the smelter; and there's a meeting of the board next day. If we +started now and caught the first steamer across, you wouldn't have +much time to spare." + +"That's correct. I shall have to wire from Victoria that I've been +detained." + +Carroll laughed expressively. + +"Do you mean to put off the meeting and keep your directors waiting, to +please a child?" + +"I suppose that's one reason. Anyway, I don't propose to hustle the +little girl and her mother on board the steamer while they're helpless +with seasickness." A gleam of humor crept into his eyes. "As I think I +told you, I've no great objections to letting the gentlemen you mentioned +await my pleasure." + +"But they found you the shareholders, and set the concern on its feet." + +"Just so. On the other hand, they got excellent value for their +services--and I found the mine. What's more, during the preliminary +negotiations most of them treated me very casually." + +"Well?" + +"There's going to be a difference now. I've a board of directors--one way +or another, I've had to pay for the privilege pretty dearly; but it's not +my intention that they should run the Clermont Mine." + +Carroll glanced at him with open amusement. There had been a marked +change in Vane since he had located the mine, though it was one that did +not astonish his comrade. Carroll had long suspected him of latent +capabilities, which had suddenly sprung to life. + +"You ought to see Horsfield before you meet the board," he advised him. + +"I'm not sure," Vane answered. "In fact, I'm uncertain whether I'll give +Horsfield the contract, even if we decide about the smelter. He was +offensively patronizing once upon a time and tried to bluff me. Besides, +he has already a stake in the concern. I don't want a man with too firm a +hold-up against me." + +"But if he put his money in partly with the idea of getting certain +pickings?" + +"He didn't explain his intentions; and I made no promises. He'll get his +dividends, or he can sell his stock at a premium, and that ought to +satisfy him." + +"If you submitted the whole case to a business man, he'd probably tell +you that you were going to make a hash of things." + +"That's your own idea?" + +Carroll grinned. + +"Oh, I'll reserve my opinion. It's possible you may be right. Time +will show." + +They rejoined the others, and when the white mists crept lower down from +the heights above and the chill of the dew was in the air, Vane launched +the canoe. + +"It's getting late and there's a long run in front of us to-morrow," he +informed his passengers. "The sloop will lie as still as if moored in a +pond; and you'll have her all to yourselves. Carroll and I are going to +camp ashore." + +He paddled them off to the boat. Coming back with some blankets, he cut a +few armfuls of spruce twigs in a ravine and spread them out beside the +fire. Then sitting down just clear of the scented smoke he lighted his +pipe and asked an abrupt question. + +"What do you think of Kitty Blake?" + +"She's attractive, in person and manners." + +"Anybody could see that at a glance!" + +"Well," Carroll added cautiously, "I must confess that I've taken some +interest in the girl--partly because you were obviously doing so. In a +general way, what I noticed rather surprised me. It wasn't what I +expected." + +"You smart folks are as often wrong as the rest of us. I suppose you +looked for cold-blooded assurance, tempered by what one might call +experienced coquetry?" + +"Something of the kind," Carroll agreed. "As you say, I was wrong. There +are only two ways of explaining Miss Blake, and the first's the one that +would strike most people. That is, she's acting a part, possibly with an +object; holding her natural self in check, and doing it cleverly." + +Vane laughed scornfully. + +"I've lived in the woods for nine years, but I wouldn't have entertained +that idea for five seconds!" + +"Then, there's the other explanation. It's simply that the girl's life +hasn't affected her. Somehow, she has kept fresh and wholesome. I think +that's the correct view." + +"There's no doubt of it!" declared Vane. + +"You offered to help her in some way?" + +"I did; I don't know how you guessed it. I said I'd find her a situation. +She wouldn't hear of it." + +"She was wise. Vancouver isn't a very big place yet, and the girl has +more sense than you have. What did you say?" + +"I'm afraid I lost my temper because there was nothing I could do." + +Carroll grinned. + +"There are limitations--even to the power of the dollar. You'll probably +run up against more of them later on." + +"I suppose so," yawned Vane. "Well, I'm going to sleep." + +He rolled himself up in his blanket and lay down among the soft spruce +twigs, but Carroll sat still in the darkness and smoked out his pipe. +Then he glanced at his comrade, who lay still, breathing evenly. + +"No doubt you'd be considered fortunate," he said, apostrophizing him +half aloud. "You've had power and responsibility thrust upon you. What +will you make of it?" + +Then he, too, lay down, and only the soft splash of the tiny ripples +broke the silence while the fire sank lower. + +They sailed the next morning, and when they arrived in Victoria the boat +which crossed the straits had gone, but the breeze was fair from the +westward, and, after despatching a telegram, Vane sailed again. The sloop +made a quick passage, and most of the time her passengers lounged in the +sunshine on her gently slanted deck. It was evening when they ran through +the Narrows into Vancouver's land-locked harbor and saw the roofs of the +city rise tier on tier from the water-front. Somber forest crept down to +the skirts of it, and across the glistening water black hills ran up into +the evening sky, with the blink of towering snow to the north of them. + +Half an hour later Vane landed his passengers, and it was not until he +had left them that they discovered he had thrust a roll of paper currency +into the little girl's hand. Then he and Carroll set off for the C.P.R. +hotel, although they were not accustomed to a hostelry of that sort. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A CHANGE OF ENVIRONMENT + + +On the evening after his arrival in Vancouver, Vane paid a visit to one +of his directors; and, in accordance with the invitation, he and Carroll +reached the latter's dwelling some little time before the arrival of +several other guests, whose acquaintance it was considered advisable he +should make. In the business parts of most western cities iron and stone +have now replaced the native lumber, but on their outskirts wood is still +employed with admirable effect as a building material, and Nairn's house +was an example of the judicious use of the latter. It stood on a rise +above the inlet; picturesque in outline, with its artistic scroll-work, +Its wooden pillars, its lattice shutters and its balustraded verandas. +Virgin forest crept up close about it, and there was no fence to the +sweep of garden which divided it from the road. + +Vane and his companion were ushered into a small room, with an uncovered +floor and simple, hardwood furniture. It was obviously a working room, +for, as a rule, the work of the western business man goes on continuously +except when he is asleep; but a somewhat portly lady with a good-humored +face reclined in a rocking chair. A gaunt, elderly man of rugged +appearance rose from his seat at a writing-table as his guests entered. + +"So ye have come at last," he said. "I had ye shown in here, because this +room is mine, and I can smoke when I like. The rest of the house is Mrs. +Nairn's, and it seems that her friends do not appreciate the smell of my +cigars. I'm no sure that I can blame them." + +Mrs. Nairn smiled placidly. + +"Alic," she explained, "leaves them lying everywhere, and I do not +like the stubs of them on the stairs. But sit ye down and he will +give ye one." + +Vane felt at home with both of them. He had met people of their kind +before, and, allowing for certain idiosyncrasies, considered them the +salt of the Dominion. Nairn had done good service to his adopted country, +developing her industries--with some profit to himself, for he was of +Scottish extraction; but, while close at a bargain, he could be generous +afterward. In the beginning, he had fought sternly for his own hand, and +it was supposed that Mrs. Nairn had helped him, not only by sound advice, +but by such practical economies as the making of his working clothes. +Those he wore on the evening in question did not fit him well, though +they were no longer the work of her capable fingers. When his guests were +seated he laid two cigar boxes on the table. + +"Those," he said, pointing to one of them, "are mine. I think ye had +better try the others; they're for visitors." + +Vane had already noticed the aroma of the cigar that was smoldering on a +tray and he decided that Nairn was right; so he dipped his hand into the +second box, which he passed to Carroll. + +"Now," declared Nairn, "we can talk comfortably. Clara will listen. +Afterwards, it's possible she will favor me with her opinion." + +Mrs. Nairn smiled at them encouragingly, and her husband proceeded. + +"One or two of my colleagues were no pleased at ye for putting off +the meeting." + +"The sloop was small, and it was blowing rather hard," Vane explained. + +"Maybe. For all that, the tone of your message was no altogether what one +would call conciliatory. It informed us that ye would arrange for the +postponed meeting at your earliest convenience. Ye did not mention ours." + +"I pointed that out to him, and he said it didn't matter," Carroll +interrupted with a laugh. + +Nairn spread out his hands in expostulation, but there was dry +appreciation in his eyes. + +"Young blood must have its way." He paused and looked thoughtful. "Ye +will no have said anything definite to Horsfield yet about the smelter?" + +"No. So far, I'm not sure that it would pay us to put up the plant; and +the other man's terms are lower." + +"Maybe," Nairn answered, and he made the single word very expressive. "Ye +have had the handling of the thing; but henceforward it will be necessary +to get the sanction of the board. However, ye will meet Horsfield +to-night. We expect him and his sister." + +Vane thought he had been favored with a hint, but he fancied also that +his host was not inimical and was merely reserving his judgment with +Caledonian caution. Nairn changed the subject. + +"So ye're going to England for a holiday. Ye will have friends who'll be +glad to see ye yonder?" + +"I've one sister, but no other near relatives. But I expect to spend some +time with people you know. The Chisholms are old family friends, and, as +you will remember, it was through them that I first approached you." + +Then, obeying one of the impulses which occasionally swayed him, he +turned to Mrs. Nairn. + +"I'm grateful to them for sending me the letter of introduction to your +husband, because in many ways I'm in his debt. He didn't treat me as the +others did when I first went round this city with a few mineral +specimens." + +He had expected nothing when he spoke, but there was a responsive look in +the lady's face which hinted that he had made a friend. As a matter of +fact, he owed a good deal to his host. There is a vein of human kindness +in the Scot, and he is often endowed with a keen, half-instinctive +judgment of his fellows which renders him less likely to be impressed by +outward appearances and the accidental advantages of polished speech or +tasteful dress than his southern neighbors. Vane would have had even more +trouble in floating his company had not Nairn been satisfied with him. + +"So ye are meaning to stay with Chisholm!" the latter exclaimed. "We +had Evelyn here two years ago, and Clara said something about her +coming out again." + +"It's nine years since I saw Evelyn." + +"Then there's a surprise in store for ye. I believe they've a bonny +place--and there's no doubt Chisholm will make ye welcome." + +The slight pause was expressive. It implied that Nairn, who had a +somewhat biting humor, could furnish a reason for Chisholm's hospitality +if he desired, and Vane was confirmed in this supposition when he saw the +warning look which his hostess cast at her husband. + +"It's likely that we'll have Evelyn again in the fall," she said hastily. +"It's a very small world, Mr. Vane." + +"It's a far cry from Vancouver to England," Vane replied. "How did you +first come to know Chisholm?" + +Nairn answered him. + +"Our acquaintance began with business. A concern that he was chairman of +had invested in British Columbian mining stock; and he's some kind of +connection of Colquhoun's." + +Colquhoun was a man of some importance, who held a Crown appointment, and +Vane felt inclined to wonder why Chisholm had not sent him a letter to +him. Afterward, he guessed at the reason, which was not flattering to +himself or his host. Nairn and he chatted a while on business topics, +until there was a sound of voices below, and going down in company with +Mrs. Nairn they found two or three new arrivals in the entrance hall. +More came in; and when they sat down to supper, Vane was given a place +beside a young lady whom he had already met. + +Jessy Horsfield was about his own age; tall and slight in figure, with +regular features, a rather colorless face, and eyes of a cold, light +blue. There was, however, something striking in her appearance, and Vane +was gratified by her graciousness to him. Her brother sat almost opposite +them: a tall, spare man, with a somewhat expressionless countenance, +except for the aggressive hardness in his eyes. Vane had noticed this +look, and it had aroused his dislike, but he had not observed it in the +eyes of Miss Horsfield, though it was present now and then. Nor did he +realize that while she chatted she was unobtrusively studying him. She +had not favored him with much notice when she was in his company on a +previous occasion; he had been a man of no importance then. + +He was now dressed in ordinary attire, and the well-cut garments +displayed his lean, athletic figure. His face, Miss Horsfield decided, +was a good one: not exactly handsome, but attractive in its frankness; +and she liked the way he had of looking steadily at the person he +addressed. Though he had been, as she knew, a wandering chopper, a survey +packer, and, for a time, an unsuccessful prospector, there was no +coarsening stamp of toil on him. Indeed, the latter is not common in the +West, where as yet the division of employments is not practised to the +extent it is in older countries. Specialization has its advantages; but +it brands a man's profession upon him and renders it difficult for him to +change it. Except for the clear bronze of his skin, Vane might just have +left a Government office, or have come out from London or Montreal. He +was, moreover, a man whose acquaintance might be worth cultivating. + +"I suppose you are glad you have finished your work in the bush," she +remarked presently. "It must be nice to get back to civilization." + +Vane smiled as he glanced round the room. It ran right across the house, +and through the open windows came the clank of a locomotive bell down by +the wharf and the rattle of a steamer's winch. The sounds appealed to +him. They suggested organized activity, the stir of busy life; and it was +pleasant to hear them after the silence of the bush. The gleam of snowy +linen, dainty glass and silver caught his eye; and the hum of careless +voices and the light laughter were soothing. + +"Yes; it's remarkably nice after living for nine years in the wilderness, +with only an occasional visit to some little wooden town." + +A fresh dish was laid before him, and his companion smiled. + +"You didn't get things of this kind among the pines." + +"No," laughed Vane. "In fact, cookery is one of the bushman's trials; +anyway, when he's working for himself. You come back dead tired, and +often very wet, to your lonely tent, and then there's a fire to make and +supper to get before you can rest. It happens now and then that you're +too played out to trouble, and you go to sleep instead." + +"Dreadful!" sympathized the girl. "But you have been in Vancouver +before?" + +"Except on the last occasion, I stayed down near the water-front. We were +not provided with luxurious quarters or with suppers of this kind there." + +"It's romantic; and, though you're glad it's over, there must be some +satisfaction in feeling that you owe the change to your own efforts. I +mean it must be nice to think one has captured a fair share of the good +things of life, instead of having them accidentally thrust upon one. +Doesn't it give you a feeling that in some degree you're master of your +fate? I should like that" + +It was subtle flattery, and there were reasons why it appealed to the +man. He had worked for others, sometimes for inadequate wages, and had +wandered about the Province, dusty and footsore, in search of employment, +besides being beaten down at many a small bargain by richer or more +fortunately situated men. Now, however, he had resolved that there should +be a difference; instead of begging favors, he would dictate terms. + +"I should have imagined it," he laughed, in answer to her last remark; +and he was right, for Jessy Horsfield was a clever woman who loved power +and influence. + +Vane dropped his napkin, and was stooping to pick it up when an attendant +handed it back to him. He noticed and responded to the glimmer of +amusement in his companion's eyes. + +"We are not accustomed to being waited on in the bush," he explained. "It +takes some time to get used to the change. When we wanted anything there +we got it for ourselves." + +"Is that, in its wider sense, a characteristic of most bushmen?" + +"I don't quite follow." + +The girl laughed. + +"I suppose one could divide men into two classes: those who are able to +get the things they desire for themselves--which implies the possession +of certain eminently useful qualities--and those who have them given to +them. In Canada the former are the more numerous." + +"There's a third division," Vane corrected her, with a trace of grimness. +"I mean those who want a good many things and have to learn to do +without. It strikes me they're the most numerous of all." + +"It's no doubt excellent discipline," retorted his companion. + +She looked at him boldly, for she was interested in the man and was not +afraid of personalities. + +"In any case, you have now passed out of that division." + +Vane sat silent for the next few moments. Up to the age of eighteen most +of his reasonable wishes had been gratified. Then had come a startling +change, and he had discovered in the Dominion that he must lead a life of +Spartan self-denial. He had had the strength to do so, and for nine years +he had resolutely banished most natural longings. Amusements, in some of +which he excelled, the society of women, all the small amenities of life, +were things which must be foregone, and he had forced himself to be +content with food and, as a rule, very indifferent shelter. This, as his +companion suggested, had proved a wholesome discipline, since it had not +soured him. Now, though he did not overvalue them, he rejoiced in his new +surroundings, and the girl's comeliness and quickness of comprehension +had their full effect. + +"It was you who located the Clermont Mine, wasn't it?" she went on. +"I read something about it in the papers--I think they said it was +copper ore." + +This vagueness was misleading, for her brother had given her a good deal +of definite information about the mine. + +"Yes," replied Vane, willing to take up any subject she suggested; "it's +copper ore, but there's some silver combined with it. Of course, the +value of any ore depends upon two things--the percentage of the metal, +and the cost of extracting it." + +Her interest was flattering, and he added: + +"In both respects, the Clermont product is promising." + +After that he did not remember what they talked about; but the time +passed rapidly and he was surprised when Mrs. Nairn rose and the company +drifted away by twos and threes toward the veranda. Left by himself a +moment, he came upon Carroll sauntering down a corridor. + +"I've had a chat with Horsfield," Carroll remarked. + +"Well?" + +"He may merely have meant to make himself agreeable, and he may have +wished to extract information about you: If the latter was his object, he +was not successful." + +"Ah! Nairn's straight, anyway, and to be relied on. I like him and +his wife." + +"So do I, though they differ from some of the others. There's not much +gilding on either of them." + +"It's not needed; they're sterling metal." + +"That's my own idea." + +Carroll moved away and Vane strolled out onto the veranda, where +Horsfield joined him a few minutes later. + +"I don't know whether it's a very suitable time to mention it; but may I +ask whether you are any nearer a decision about that smelter? Candidly, +I'd like the contract." + +"I am not," Vane answered. "I can't make up my mind, and I may postpone +the matter indefinitely. It might prove more profitable to ship the ore +out for reduction." + +Horsfield examined his cigar. + +"Of course, I can't press you; but I may, perhaps, suggest that, as we'll +have to work together in other matters, I might be able to give you a +quid pro quo." + +"That occurred to me. On the other hand, I don't know how much importance +I ought to attach to the consideration." + +His companion laughed with apparent good-humor. + +"Oh, well; I must wait until you're ready." + +He strolled away, and presently joined his sister. + +"How does Vane strike you?" he asked. "You seem to get on with him." + +"I've an idea that you won't find him easy to influence," answered the +girl, looking at her brother pointedly. + +"I'm inclined to agree with you. In spite of that, he's a man whose +acquaintance is worth cultivating." + +He passed on to speak to Nairn; and shortly afterward Vane sat down +beside Jessy in a corner of a big room. Looking out across the veranda, +he could see far-off snowy heights tower in cold silver tracery against +the green of the evening sky. Voices and laughter reached him, and now +and then some of the guests strolled through the room. It was pleasant to +lounge there and feel that Miss Horsfield had taken him under her wing, +which seemed to describe her attitude toward him. She was handsome, and +he noticed how finely the soft, neutral tinting of her attire, which was +neither blue nor altogether gray, matched the azure of her eyes and +emphasized the dead-gold coloring of her hair. + +"As Mrs. Nairn tells me you are going to England, I suppose we shall not +see you in Vancouver for some months," she said presently. "This city +really isn't a bad place to live in." + +Vane felt gratified. She had implied that he would be an acquisition and +had included him among the number of her acquaintances. + +"I fancy that I shall find it a particularly pleasant place," he +responded. "Indeed, I'm inclined to be sorry that I've made arrangements +to leave it very shortly." + +"That is pure good-nature," laughed his companion. + +"No; it's what I really feel." + +Jessy let this pass. + +"Mrs. Nairn mentioned that you know the Chisholms." + +"I'd better say that I used to do so. They have probably changed out of +my knowledge, and they can scarcely remember me except by name." + +"But you are going to see them?" + +"I expect to spend some time with them." + +Jessy changed the subject, and Vane found her conversation entertaining. +She appealed to his artistic perceptions and his intelligence, and it +must be admitted that she laid herself out to do so. She said nothing of +any consequence, but she knew how to make a glance or a changed +inflection expressive. He was sorry when she left him, but she smiled at +him before she moved away. + +"If you and Mr. Carroll care to call, I am generally at home in the +afternoon," she said. + +She crossed the room, and Vane joined Nairn and remained near him until +he took his departure. + +Late the next afternoon, an hour or two after an Empress liner from China +and Japan had arrived, he and Carroll reached the C.P.R. station. The +Atlantic train was waiting and an unusual number of passengers were +hurrying about the cars. They were, for the most part, prosperous people: +business men, and tourists from England going home that way; and when +Vane found Mrs. Marvin and Kitty, he once more was conscious of a +stirring of compassion. The girl's dress, which had struck him as +becoming on the afternoon they spent on the beach, now looked shabby. In +Mrs. Marvin's case, the impression was more marked, and standing amid the +bustling throng with the child clinging to her hand she looked curiously +forlorn. Kitty smiled at him diffidently. + +"You have been so kind," she began, and, pausing, added with a tremor in +her voice: "But the tickets--" + +"Pshaw!" interrupted Vane. "If it will ease your mind, you can send me +what they cost after the first full house you draw." + +"How shall we address you?" + +"Clermont Mineral Exploitation. I don't want to think I'm going to lose +sight of you." + +Kitty looked away from him a moment, and then looked back. + +"I'm afraid you must make up your mind to that," she said. + +Vane could not remember his answer, though he afterward tried; but just +then an official strode along beside the cars, calling to the passengers, +and when a bell began tolling Vane hurried the girl and her companions +onto a platform. Mrs. Marvin entered the car, Elsie held up her face to +kiss him before she disappeared, and he and Kitty were left alone. She +held out her hand, and a liquid gleam crept into her eyes. + +"We can't thank you properly," she murmured, "Good-by!" + +"No," Vane protested. "You mustn't say that." + +"Yes," answered Kitty firmly, but with signs of effort. "It's good-by. +You'll be carried on in a moment!" + +Vane gazed down at her, and afterward wondered at what he did, but she +looked so forlorn and desolate, and the pretty face was so close to his. +Stooping swiftly, he kissed her, and had a thrilling fancy that she did +not recoil; then the cars lurched forward and he swung himself down. They +slid past him, clanking, while he stood and gazed after them. Turning +around, he was by no means pleased to see that Nairn was regarding him +with quiet amusement. + +"Been seeing the train away?" the latter suggested. "It's a popular +diversion with idle folk." + +"I was saying good-by to somebody I met on the west coast," Vane +explained. + +"Weel," chuckled Nairn, "she has bonny een." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE OLD COUNTRY + + +A month after Vane said good-by to Kitty he and Carroll alighted one +evening at a little station in northern England. Brown moors stretched +about it, for the heather had not bloomed yet, rolling back in long +slopes to the high ridge which cut against leaden thunder-clouds in the +eastern sky. To the westward, they fell away; and across a wide, green +valley smooth-backed heights gave place in turn to splintered crags and +ragged pinnacles etched in gray and purple on a vivid saffron glow. The +road outside the station gleamed with water, and a few big drops of +rain came splashing down, but there was a bracing freshness in the +mountain air. + +The train went on, and Vane stood still, looking about him with a +poignant recollection of how he had last waited on that platform, sick at +heart, but gathering his youthful courage for the effort that he must +make. It all came back to him--the dejection, the sense of +loneliness--for he was then going out to the Western Dominion in which he +had not a friend. Now he was returning, moderately prosperous and +successful; but once again the feeling of loneliness was with him--most +of those whom he had left behind had made a longer journey than he had +done. Then he noticed an elderly man, in rather shabby livery, +approaching, and he held out his hand with a smile of pleasure. + +"You haven't changed a bit, Jim!" he exclaimed. "Have you got the young +gray in the new cart outside?" + +"T' owd gray was shot twelve months since," the man replied. "Broke his +leg comin' down Hartop Bank. New car was sold off, done, two or t'ree +years ago." + +"That's bad news. Anyway, you're the same." + +"A bit stiffer in the joints, and maybe a bit sourer," was the answer. +Then the man's wrinkled face relaxed. "I'm main glad to see thee, Mr. +Wallace. Master wad have come, only he'd t' gan t' Manchester suddenly." + +Vane helped him to place their baggage into the trap and then bade him +sit behind; and as he gathered up the reins, he glanced at the horse and +harness. The one did not show the breeding of the gray he remembered, +and there was no doubt that the other was rather the worse for wear. +They set off down the descending road, which wound, unconfined, through +the heather, where the raindrops sparkled like diamonds. Farther down, +they ran in between rough limestone walls with gleaming spar in them, +smothered here and there in trailing brambles and clumps of fern, while +the streams that poured out from black gaps in the peat and flowed +beside the road flashed with coppery gold in the evening light. It was +growing brighter ahead of them, though inky clouds still clung to the +moors behind. + +By and by, ragged hedges, rent and twisted by the winds, climbed up to +meet them, and, clattering down between the straggling greenery, they +crossed a river sparkling over banks of gravel. After that, there was a +climb, for the country rolled in ridge and valley, and the crags ahead, +growing nearer, rose in more rugged grandeur against the paling glow. +Carroll gazed about him in open appreciation as they drove. + +"This little compact country is really wonderful, in its way!" he +exclaimed. "There's so much squeezed into it, even leaving out your +towns. Parts of it are like Ontario---the southern strip I mean--with the +plow-land, orchards and homesteads sprinkled among the woods and rolling +ground. Then your Midlands are like the prairie, only that they're +greener--there's the same sweep of grass and the same sweep of sky, and +this"--he gazed at the rugged hills rent by winding dales--"is British +Columbia on a miniature scale." + +"Yes," agreed Vane; "it isn't monotonous." + +"Now you have hit it! That's the precise difference. We've three belts of +country, beginning at Labrador and running west--rock and pine scrub, +level prairie, and ranges piled on ranges beyond the Rockies. Hundreds of +leagues of each of them, and, within their limits, all the same. But this +country's mixed. You can get what you like--woods, smooth grass-land, +mountains--in a few hours' ride." + +Vane smiled. + +"Our people and their speech and habits are mixed, too. There's more +difference between county and county in thirty miles than there is right +across your whole continent. You're cast in the one mold." + +"I'm inclined to think it's a good one," laughed Carroll. "What's more, +it has set its stamp on you. The very way your clothes hang proclaims +that you're a Westerner." + +Vane laughed good-humoredly; but as they clattered through a sleepy +hamlet with its little, square-towered church overhanging a brawling +river, his face grew grave. Pulling up the horse, he handed the reins +to Carroll. + +"This is the first stage of my pilgrimage. I won't keep you five +minutes." + +He swung himself down, and the groom motioned to him. + +"West of the tower, Mr. Wallace; just before you reach the porch." + +Vane passed through the wicket in the lichened limestone wall, and +there was a troubled look in his eyes when he came back and took the +reins again. + +"I went away in bitterness--and I'm sorry now," he said. "The real +trouble was unimportant; I think it was forgotten. Every now and then the +letters came; but the written word is cold. There are things that can +never be set quite right in this world." + +Carroll made no comment, though he knew that if it had not been for the +bond between them his comrade would not have spoken so. They drove on in +silence for a while, and then, as they entered a deep, wooded dale, Vane +turned to him again. + +"I've been taken right back into the old days to-night; days in +England, and afterward those when we worked on the branch road beneath +the range. There's not a boy among the crowd in the sleeping-shack I +can't recall--first, wild Larry, who taught me how to drill and hid my +rawness from the Construction Boss." + +"He lent me his gum-boots when the muskeg stiffened into half-frozen +slush," Carroll interrupted him. + +"And was smashed by the snowslide," Vane went on. "Then there was Tom, +from the boundary country. He packed me back a league to camp the day I +chopped my right foot; and went down in the lumber schooner off Flattery. +Black Pete, too, who held on to you in the rapid when we were running the +bridge-logs through. It was in firing a short fuse that he got his +discharge," He raised his free hand, with a wry smile. "Gone on--with +more of their kind after them; a goodly company. Why are we left +prosperous? What have we done?" + +Carroll made no response. The question was unanswerable, and after a +while Vane abruptly began to talk about their business in British +Columbia. It passed the time; and he had resumed his usual manner when he +pulled up where a stile path led across a strip of meadow. + +"You can drive round; we'll be there before you," he said to the groom as +he got down. + +Carroll and he crossed the meadow. Passing around a clump of larches they +came suddenly into sight of an old gray house with a fir wood rolling +down the hillside close behind it. The building was long and low, +weather-worn and stained with lichens where the creepers and climbing +roses left the stone exposed. The bottom row of mullioned windows opened +upon a terrace, and in front of the terrace ran a low wall with a broad +coping on which were placed urns bright with geraniums. It was pierced by +an opening approached by shallow stairs on which an iridescent peacock +stood, and in front of all that stretched a sweep of lawn. + +A couple of minutes later, a lady met them in the wide hall, and held out +her hand to Vane. She was middle-aged, and had once been handsome, but +now there were wrinkles about her eyes, which had a hint of hardness in +them, and her lips were thin. Carroll noticed that they closed tightly +when she was not speaking. + +"Welcome home, Wallace," she said effusively. "It should not be difficult +to look upon the Dene as that--you were here so often once upon a time." + +"Thank you," was the response. "I felt tempted to ask Jim to drive me +round by Low Wood; I wanted to see the place again." + +"I'm glad you didn't. The house is shut up and going to pieces. It would +have been depressing to-night." + +Vane presented Carroll. Mrs. Chisholm's manner was gracious, but for no +particular reason Carroll wondered whether she would have extended the +same welcome to his comrade had the latter not come back the discoverer +of a profitable mine. + +"Tom was sorry he couldn't wait to meet you, but he had to leave for +Manchester on some urgent business," she apologized. + +Just then a girl with disordered hair and an unusual length of stocking +displayed beneath her scanty skirt came up to them. + +"This is Mabel," said Mrs. Chisholm. "I hardly think you will +remember her." + +"I've carried her across the meadow." + +The girl greeted the strangers demurely, and favored Vane with a +critical gaze. + +"So you're Wallace Vane--who floated the Clermont Mine! Though I don't +remember you, I've heard a good deal about you lately. Very pleased to +make your acquaintance!" + +Vane's eyes twinkled as he shook hands with her. Her manner was quaintly +formal, but he fancied that there was a spice of mischief hidden behind +it. Carroll, watching his hostess, surmised that her daughter's remarks +had not altogether pleased her. She chatted with them, however, until the +man who had driven them appeared with their baggage, when they were shown +their respective rooms. + +Vane was the first to go down. Reaching the hall, he found nobody +there, though a clatter of dishes and a clink of silver suggested that +a meal was being laid out in an adjoining room. Sitting down near the +hearth, he looked about him. The house was old; a wide stairway with a +quaintly carved balustrade of dark oak ran up one side and led to a +landing, also fronted with ponderous oak rails. The place was shadowy, +but a stream of light from a high window struck athwart one part of it +and fell upon the stairs. + +Vane's eyes rested on many objects that he recognized, but as his glance +traveled to and fro it occurred to him that much of what he saw conveyed +a hint that economy was needful. Part of the rich molding of the Jacobean +mantel had fallen away, and patches of the key pattern bordering the +panels beneath it had broken off, though he decided that a clever +cabinet-maker could have repaired the damage in a day. There were one or +two choice rugs on the floor, but they were threadbare; the heavy +hangings about the inner doors were dingy and moth-eaten; and, though all +this was in harmony with the drowsy quietness and the faint smell of +decay, it had its significance. + +Presently he heard footsteps, and looking up he saw a girl descending the +stairs in the fading stream of light. She was clad in trailing white, +which gleamed against the dark oak and rustled softly as it flowed about +a tall, finely outlined and finely poised figure. She had hair of dark +brown with paler lights in its curling tendrils, gathered back from a +neck that showed a faintly warmer whiteness than the snowy fabric below +it. It was her face, though, that seized Vane's attention: the level +brows; the quiet, deep brown eyes; the straight, cleanly-cut nose; and +the subtle suggestion of steadfastness and pride which they all conveyed. +He rose with a cry that had pleasure and eagerness in it. + +"Evelyn!" + +She came down, moving lightly but with a rhythmic grace, and laid a firm, +cool hand in his. + +"I'm glad to see you back, Wallace," she said. "How you have changed!" + +"I'm not sure that's kind," smiled Vane. "In some ways, you haven't +changed at all; I would have known you anywhere!" + +"Nine years is a long time to remember any one." + +Vane had seen few women during that period; but he was not a fool, and he +recognized that this was no occasion for an attempt at gallantry. There +was nothing coquettish in Evelyn's words, nor was there any irony. She +had answered in the tranquil, matter-of-fact manner which, as he +remembered, usually characterized her. + +"It's a little while since you landed, isn't it?" she added. + +"A week. I had some business in London, and then I went on to look up +Lucy. She had just gone up to town--to a congress, I believe--and so +I missed her. I shall go up again to see her as soon as she answers +my letter." + +"It won't be necessary. She's coming here for a fortnight." + +"That's very kind. Whom have I to thank for suggesting it?" + +"Does it matter? It was a natural thing to ask your only sister--who is a +friend of mine. There is plenty of room, and the place is quiet." + +"It didn't used to be. If I remember, your mother generally had it full +part of the year." + +"Things have changed," said Evelyn quietly. + +Vane was baffled by something in her manner. Evelyn had never been +effusive--that was not her way---but now, while she was cordial, she did +not seem disposed to resume their acquaintance where it had been broken +off. After all, he could hardly have expected this. + +"Mabel is like you, as you used to be," he observed. "It struck me as +soon as I saw her; but when she began to talk there was a difference." + +Evelyn laughed softly. + +"Yes; I think you're right in both respects. Mopsy has the courage of her +convictions. She's an open rebel." + +There was no bitterness in her laugh. Evelyn's manner was never +pointed; but Vane fancied that she had said a meaning thing--one that +might explain what he found puzzling in her attitude, when he held the +key to it. + +"Mopsy was dubious about you before you arrived, but I'm pleased to say +she seems reassured," she laughed. + +Carroll came down, and a few moments later Mrs. Chisholm appeared and +they went in to dinner in a low-ceilinged room. During the general +conversation, Mabel suddenly turned to Vane. + +"I suppose you have brought your pistols with you?" + +"I haven't owned one since I was sixteen," Vane laughed. + +The girl looked at him with an excellent assumption of incredulity. + +"Then you have never shot anybody in British Columbia!" + +Carroll laughed, as if this greatly pleased him, but Vane's face was +rather grave as he answered her. + +"No; I'm thankful to say that I haven't. In fact, I've never seen a shot +fired, except at a grouse or a deer." + +"Then the West must be getting what the Archdeacon--he's Flora's husband, +you know--calls decadent," the girl sighed. + +"She's incorrigible," Mrs. Chisholm interposed with a smile. + +Carroll leaned toward Mabel confidentially. + +"In case you feel very badly disappointed, I'll let you into a secret. +When we feel real, real savage, we take the ax instead." + +Evelyn fancied that Vane winced at this, but Mabel looked openly +regretful. + +"Can either of you pick up a handkerchief going at full gallop on +horseback?" she inquired. + +"I'm sorry to say that I can't; and I've never seen Wallace do so," +Carroll laughed. + +Mrs. Chisholm shook her head at her daughter. + +"Miss Clifford complained of your inattention to the study of English +last quarter," she reproved severely. + +Mabel made no answer, though Vane thought it would have relieved her +to grimace. + +Presently the meal came to an end, and an hour afterward, Mrs. Chisholm +rose from her seat in the lamplit drawing-room. + +"We keep early hours at the Dene, but you will retire when you like," she +said. "As Tom is away, I had better tell you that you will find syphons +and whisky in the smoking-room. I have had the lamp lighted." + +"Thank you," Vane replied with a smile. "I'm afraid you have taken more +trouble on our account than you need have done. Except on special +occasions, we generally confine ourselves to strong green tea." + +Mabel looked at him in amazement. + +"Oh!" she cried. "The West is certainly decadent! You should be here when +the otter hounds are out. Why, it was only--" + +She broke off abruptly beneath her mother's withering glance. + +When Vane and Carroll were left alone, they strolled out, pipe in hand, +upon the terrace. They could see the fells tower darkly against the soft +sky, and a tarn that lay in the blackness of the valley beneath them was +revealed by its pale gleam. A wonderful mingling of odors stole out of +the still summer night. + +"I suppose you could put in a few weeks here?" Vane remarked. + +"I could," Carroll replied. "There's an atmosphere about these old houses +that appeals to me, perhaps because we have nothing like it in Canada. +The tranquillity of age is in it--it's restful, as a change. Besides, I +think your friends mean to make things pleasant." + +"I'm glad you like them." + +Carroll knew that his comrade would not resent a candid expression +of opinion. + +"I do; the girls in particular. They interest me. The younger one's of a +type that's common in our country, though it's generally given room for +free development into something useful there. Mabel's chafing at the +curb. It remains to be seen whether she'll kick, presently, and hurt +herself in doing so." + +Vane remembered that Evelyn had said something to the same effect; but +he had already discovered that Carroll possessed a keen insight in +certain matters. + +"And her sister?" he suggested. + +"You won't mind my saying that I'm inclined to be sorry for her? She has +learned repression--been driven into line. That girl has character, but +it's being cramped and stunted. You live in walled-in compartments in +this country." + +"Doesn't the same thing apply to New York, Montreal, or Toronto?" + +"Not to the same extent. We haven't had time yet to number off all the +little subdivisions and make rules for them, nor to elaborate the +niceties of an immutable system. No doubt, we'll come to it." + +He paused with a deprecatory laugh. + +"Mrs. Chisholm believes in the system. She has been modeled on it--it's +got into her blood; and that's why she's at variance with her daughters. +No doubt, the thing's necessary; I'm finding no fault with it. You must +remember that we're outsiders, with a different outlook; we've lived in +the new West." + +Vane strolled on along the terrace thoughtfully. He was not offended; he +understood his companion's attitude. Like other men of education and good +upbringing driven by unrest or disaster to the untrammeled life of the +bush, Carroll had gained sympathy as well as knowledge. Facing facts +candidly, he seldom indulged in decided protest against any of them. On +the other hand, Vane was on occasion liable to outbreaks of indignation. + +"Well," said Vane at length, "I guess it's time to go to bed." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +UPON THE HEIGHTS + + +Vane rose early the next morning, as he had been accustomed to do, and +taking a towel he made his way across dewy meadows and between tall +hedgerows to the tarn. Stripping where the rabbit-cropped sward met the +mossy boulders, he swam out, joyously breasting the little ripples which +splashed and sparkled beneath the breeze that had got up with the sun. +Coming back, where the water lay in shadow beneath a larchwood which as +yet had not wholly lost its vivid vernal green, he disturbed the paddling +moor-hens and put up a mallard from a clump of swaying reeds. Then he +dressed and turned homeward, glowing, beside a sluggish stream which +wound through a waste of heather where the curlew were whistling eerily. +He had no cares to trouble him, and it was delightful to feel that he had +nothing to do except to enjoy himself in what he considered the fairest +country in the world, at least in summertime. + +Scrambling over a limestone wall tufted thick with parsley fern, he +noticed Mabel stooping over an object which lay among the heather where a +rough cartroad approached a wooden bridge. On joining her he saw that she +was examining a finely-built canoe with a hole in one bilge. She looked +up at him ruefully. + +"It's sad, isn't it? That stupid Little did it with his clumsy cart." + +"I think it could be mended," Vane replied. + +"Old Beavan--he's the wheelwright--said it couldn't; and Dad said I could +hardly expect him to send the canoe back to Kingston. He bought it for me +at an exhibition." + +Then a thought seemed to strike her and her eyes grew eager. + +"Perhaps you had something to do with light canoes in Canada?" + +"Yes; I used to pole one loaded with provisions up a river and carry the +lot round several falls. If I remember, I made eight shillings a day at +it, and I think I earned it. You're fond of paddling?" + +"I love it! I used to row the fishing-punt, but it's too old to be safe; +and now that the canoe's smashed I can't go out at all." + +"Well, we'll walk across and see what we can find in Beavan's shop." + +He took a few measurements, making them on a stick, and they crossed the +heath to a tiny hamlet nestling in a hollow of a limestone crag. There +Vane made friends with the wheelwright, who regarded him dubiously at +first, and obtained a piece of larch board from him. The grizzled North +Countryman watched him closely as he set a plane, which is a delicate +operation, and he raised no objections when Vane made use of his +work-bench. When the board had been sawed up, Vane borrowed a few tools +and copper nails, and he and Mabel went back to the canoe. On the way she +glanced at him curiously. + +"I wasn't sure old Beavan would let you have the things," she remarked. +"It isn't often he'll even lend a hammer, but he seemed to take to you; I +think it was the way you handled his plane." + +"It's strange what little things win some people's good opinion, +isn't it?" + +"Oh, don't!" exclaimed Mabel. "That's the way the Archdeacon talks. I +thought you were different!" + +The man acquiesced in the rebuke; and after an hour's labor at the canoe, +he scraped the red lead he had used off his hands and sat down beside the +craft. The sun was warm now, the dew was drying, and a lark sang +riotously overhead. Vane became conscious that his companion was +regarding him with what seemed to be approval. + +"I really think you'll do, and we'll get on," she informed him. "If +you had been the wrong kind, you would have worried about your red +hands. Still, you could have rubbed them on the heather, instead of on +your socks." + +"I might have thought of that," Vane laughed. "But, you see, I've been +accustomed to wearing old clothes. Anyway, you'll be able to launch the +canoe as soon as the joint's dry." + +"There's one thing I should have told you," the girl replied. "Dad would +have sent the canoe away to be mended if it hadn't been so far. He's very +good when things don't ruffle him; but he hasn't been fortunate lately. +The lead mine takes a good deal of money." + +Vane admired her loyalty, and he refrained from taking advantage of her +candor, though there were one or two questions he would have liked to +ask. When he was last in England, Chisholm had been generally regarded as +a man of means, though it was rumored that he was addicted to hazardous +speculations. Mabel, without noticing his silence, went on: + +"I heard Stevens--he's the gamekeeper--tell Beavan that Dad should have +been a rabbit because he's so fond of burrowing. No doubt, that meant +that he couldn't keep out of mines." + +Vane made no comment; and Mabel, breaking off for a moment, looked up at +the rugged fells to the west and then around at the moors which cut +against the blue of the morning sky. + +"It's all very pretty, but it shuts one in!" she cried. "You feel you +want to get out and can't! I suppose you really couldn't take me back +with you to Canada?" + +"I'm afraid not. If you were about ten years older, it might be +possible." + +Mabel grimaced. + +"Oh, don't! That's the kind of thing some of Gerald's smart friends say, +and it makes one want to slap them! Besides," she added naively, glancing +down at her curtailed skirt, "I'm by no means so young as I appear to be. +The fact is, I'm not allowed to grow up yet." + +"Why?" + +The girl laughed at him. + +"Oh, you've lived in the woods. If you had stayed in England, you would +understand." + +"I'm afraid I've been injudicious," Vane answered with a show of +humility. "But don't you think it's getting on toward breakfast time?" + +"Breakfast won't be for a good while yet. We don't get up early. Evelyn +used to, but it's different now. We used to go out on the tarn every +morning, even in the wind and rain; but I suppose that's not good for +one's complexion, though bothering about such things doesn't seem to me +to be worth while. Aunt Julia couldn't do anything for Evelyn, though she +had her in London for some time. Flora is our shining light." + +"What did she do?" + +"She married the Archdeacon; and he isn't so very dried up. I've seen him +smile when I talked to him." + +"I'm not astonished at that, Mabel," laughed Vane. + +His companion looked up at him. + +"My name's not Mabel--to you. I'm Mopsy to the family, but my special +friends call me Mops. You're one of the few people one can be natural +with, and I'm getting sick--you won't be shocked--of having to be the +opposite. If you'll come along, I'll show you the setter puppies." + +It was half an hour later when Vane, who had seldom had to wait so long +for breakfast, sat down with an excellent appetite. The spacious room +pleased him after the cramped quarters to which he had been accustomed. +The sunlight that streamed in sparkled on choice old silver and glowed on +freshly gathered flowers; and through the open windows mingled fragrances +flowed in from the gardens. All that his gaze rested on spoke of ease and +taste and leisure. Evelyn, sitting opposite him, looked wonderfully fresh +in her white dress; Mopsy was as amusing as she dared to be; but Vane +felt drawn back to the restless world again as he glanced at his hostess +and saw the wrinkles round her eyes and a hint of cleverly hidden strain +in her expression. He fancied that a good deal could be deduced from the +fragments of information her younger daughter had given him. + +It was Mabel who suggested that they should picnic upon the summit of a +lofty hill, from which there was a striking view; and as this met with +the approval of Mrs. Chisholm, who excused herself from accompanying +them, they set out an hour later. The day was bright, with glaring +sunshine, and a moderate breeze drove up wisps of ragged cloud that +dappled the hills with flitting shadow. Towering crag and shingly scree +showed blue and purple through it and then flashed again into brilliancy, +while the long, grassy slopes gleamed with silvery gray and ocher. + +On leaving the head of the valley they climbed leisurely up easy slopes, +slipping on the crisp hill grass now and then. By and by they plunged +into tangled heather on a bolder ridge, rent by black gullies, down +which at times wild torrents poured. This did not trouble either of the +men, who were used to forcing a passage over more rugged hillsides and +through leagues of matted brush, but Vane was surprised at the ease with +which Evelyn threaded her way across the heath. She wore a short skirt +and stout laced boots, and he noticed the supple grace of her movements +and the delicate color the wind had brought into her face. It struck him +that she had somehow changed since they had left the valley. She seemed +to have flung off something, and her laugh had a gay ring; but, while she +smiled and chatted with him, he was still conscious of a subtle reserve +in her manner. + +Climbing still, they reached the haunts of the cloudberries and brushed +through broad patches of the snowy blossoms that open their gleaming +cups among the moss and heather. Vane gathered a handful and gave them +to Evelyn. + +"You should wear these. They grow only far up on the heights." + +She flashed a swift glance at him, but she smiled as she drew the fragile +stalks through her belt, and he felt that had it been permissible he +could have elaborated the idea in his mind. They are stainless flowers, +passionlessly white, that grow beyond the general reach of man, where the +air is keen and pure; and, in spite of her graciousness, there was a +coldness and a calm, which instead of repelling appealed to him strongly, +about this girl. Mabel laughed mischievously. + +"If you want to give me flowers, it had better be marsh-marigolds," she +said. "They grow low down where it's slushy--but they blaze." + +Carroll laughed. + +"Mabel," he remarked a few moments later to Vane, "is unguarded in what +she says, but she now and then shows signs of being considerably older +than her years." + +They left the black peat-soil behind them, and the heather gave place to +thin and more fragile ling, beaded with its unopened buds, while fangs of +rock cropped out here and there. Then turning the flank of a steep +ascent, they reached the foot of a shingly scree, and sat down to lunch +in the warm sunshine where the wind was cut off by the peak above. +Beneath them, a great rift opened up among the rocks, and far beyond the +blue lake in the depths of it they could catch the silver gleam of the +distant sea. + +The fishing creel in which the provisions had been carried was promptly +emptied; and when Mabel afterward took Carroll away to climb some +neighboring crags, Vane lay resting on one elbow not far from Evelyn. She +was looking down the long hollow, with the sunshine, which lighted a +golden sparkle in her brown eyes, falling upon her face. + +"You didn't seem to mind the climb." + +"I enjoyed it;" Evelyn declared, glancing at the cloudberry blossom in +her belt. "I really am fond of the mountains, and I have to thank you for +a day among them." + +On the surface the words offered an opening for a complimentary +rejoinder; but Vane was too shrewd to seize it. He had made one venture, +and he surmised that a second one would not please her. + +"They're almost at your door. One would imagine that you could indulge in +a scramble among them whenever it pleased you." + +"There are a good many things that look so close and still are out of +reach," Evelyn answered with a smile that somehow troubled him. Then her +manner changed. "You are content with this?" + +Vane gazed about him. Purple crags lay in shadow; glistening threads of +water fell among the rocks; and long slopes lay steeped in softest color +under the cloud-flecked summer sky. + +"Content is scarcely the right word for it," he assured her, "If it +weren't so still and serene up here, I'd be riotously happy. There are +reasons for this quite apart from the scenery; for one, it's remarkably +pleasant to feel that I need do nothing but what I like during the next +few months." + +"The sensation must be unusual. I wonder if, even in your case, it will +last so long?" + +Vane laughed and stretched out one of his hands. It was lean and brown, +and she could see the marks of old scars on the knuckles. + +"In my case," he answered, "it has come only once in a lifetime, and, if +it isn't too presumptuous, I think I've earned it." He indicated his +battered fingers. "That's the result of holding a wet and slippery drill; +and those aren't the only marks I carry about with me--though I've been +more fortunate than many fine comrades." + +Evelyn noticed something that pleased her in his voice as he concluded. + +"I suppose one must get hurt now and then," she responded. "After all, a +bruise that's only skin-deep doesn't trouble one long, and no doubt some +scars are honorable. It's slow corrosion that's the deadliest." + +She broke off with a laugh. + +"Moralizing's out of place on a day like this," she added; "and such days +are not frequent in the North. That's their greatest charm." + +Vane nodded. He knew the sad gray skies of his native land, when its +lonely heights are blurred by driving snow-cloud or scourged by bitter +rain for weeks together, though now and then they tower serenely into the +blue heavens, steeped in ethereal splendor. Once more it struck him that +in their latter aspect his companion resembled them. Made finely, of warm +flesh and blood, she was yet ethereal too. There was something aloof and +intangible about her that seemed in harmony with the hills among which +she was born. + +"Yes," he agreed. "On the face of it, the North is fickle; though to +those who know it that's a misleading term. To some of us it's always the +same, and its dark grimness makes one feel the radiance of its smile. For +all that, I think we're going to see a sudden change in the weather." + +Long wisps of leaden cloud began to stream across the crags above, +intensifying, until it seemed unnatural, the glow of light and color +on the rest. + +"I wonder if Mopsy is leading Mr. Carroll into any mischief? They have +been gone some time," said Evelyn. "She has a trick of getting herself +and other people into difficulties. I suppose he is an old friend of +yours, as you brought him over; unless, perhaps, he's acting as your +secretary." + +Vane's eyes twinkled. + +"If he came in any particular capacity, it's as bear-leader. You see, +there are a good many things I've forgotten in the bush, and, as I left +this country young, there are no doubt some that I never learned." + +"And so you make Mr. Carroll your confidential adviser. How did he gain +the necessary experience?" + +"That is more than I can tell you; but I'm inclined to believe he has +been at one of the universities--Toronto, most likely. Anyhow, on the +whole he acts as a judicious restraint." + +"But don't you really know anything about him?" + +"Only what some years of close companionship have taught me, though I +think that's enough. For the rest, I took him on trust." + +Evelyn looked surprised, and he spread out his hands in a humorous +manner. + +"A good many people have had to take me in that way, and they seemed +willing to do so--the thing's not uncommon in the West. Why should I be +more particular than they were?" + +Just then Mabel and Carroll appeared. The latter's garments were stained +in places, as if he had been scrambling over mossy rocks, and his pockets +bulged. Mabel's skirt was torn, while a patch of white skin showed +through her stocking. + +"We've found some sun-dew and two ferns I don't know, as well as all +sorts of other things," she announced. + +"That's correct," vouched Carroll dryly; "I've got them. I guess they're +going to fill up most of the creel." + +Mabel superintended their transfer, and then addressed the others +generally. + +"I think we ought to go up the Pike now, when we have the chance. It +isn't much of a climb from here: and we'll have rain before to-morrow. +Besides, the quickest way back to the road is across the top and down the +other side." + +Evelyn agreed, and they set out, following a sheep path which skirted the +screes, until they left the bank of sharp stones behind and faced a steep +ascent. Parts of it necessitated a breathless scramble, and the sunlight +faded from the hills as they climbed, while thicker wisps of cloud drove +across the ragged summit. They reached the top at length and stopped, +bracing themselves against a rush of chilly breeze, while they looked +down upon a wilderness of leaden-colored rock. Long trails of mist were +creeping in and out among the crags, and here and there masses of it +gathered round the higher slopes. + +"I think the Pike's grandest in this weather," Mabel declared. "Look +below, Mr. Carroll, and you'll see the mountain's like a starfish. It has +prongs running out from it." + +Carroll did as she directed him, and noticed three diverging ridges +springing off from the shoulders of the peak. Their crests, which were +narrow, led down toward the valley, but their sides fell in rent and +fissured crags to great black hollows. + +"You can get down two of them," Mabel went on. "The first is the nearest +to the road, but the third's the easiest. It takes you to the +Hause--that's the gap between it and the next big hill. You must be a +climber to try the middle one." + +A few big drops began to fall, and Evelyn cut her sister's +explanations short. + +"It strikes me that we'd better make a start at once," she said. + +They set out, Mabel and Carroll leading, and drawing farther away from +the two behind. The rain began in earnest as they descended. Rock slope +and scattered stones were slippery, and Vane found it difficult to keep +his footing on some of their lichened surfaces. He was relieved, however, +to see that his companion seldom hesitated, and they made their way +downward cautiously, until near the spot where the three ridges diverged +they walked into a belt of drifting mist. The peak above them was +suddenly blotted out, and Evelyn bade Vane hail Carroll and Mabel, who +had disappeared. He sent a shout ringing through the vapor, and caught a +faint and unintelligible answer. A flock of sheep fled past and dislodged +a rush of sliding stones. Vane heard the stones rattle far down the +hillside, and when he called again a blast of chilly wind whirled his +voice away. There was a faint echo above him and then silence. + +"It looks as if they were out of hearing; and the slope ahead of us seems +uncommonly steep by the way those stones went down. Do you think Mabel +has taken Carroll down the Stanghyll ridge?" + +"I can't tell," answered Evelyn. "It's comforting to remember that she +knows it better than I do. I think we ought to make for the Hause; +there's only one place that's really steep. Keep up to the left a little; +the Scale Crags must be close beneath us." + +They moved on circumspectly, skirting what seemed to be a pit of profound +depth in which dim vapors whirled, while the rain, growing thicker, beat +into their faces. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +STORM-STAYED + + +The weather was not the only thing that troubled Vane as he stumbled on +through the mist. Any unathletic tourist from the cities could have gone +up without much difficulty by the way they had ascended, but it was +different coming down on the opposite side of the mountain. There, their +route led across banks of sharp-pointed stones that rested lightly on the +steep slope, interspersed with outcropping rocks which were growing +dangerously slippery, and a wilderness of crags pierced by three great +radiating chasms lay beneath. + +After half an hour's arduous scramble, he decided that they must be close +upon the top of the last rift, and he stood still for a minute looking +about him. The mist was now so thick that he could see scarcely thirty +yards ahead, but the way it drove past him indicated that it was blowing +up a hollow. On one hand a rampart of hillside loomed dimly out of it; in +front there was a dark patch that looked like the face of a dripping +rock; and between that and the hill a boggy stretch of grass ran back +into the vapor. Vane glanced at his companion with some concern. Her +skirt was heavy with moisture and the rain dripped from the brim of her +hat, but she smiled at him reassuringly. + +"It's not the first time I've got wet," she said cheeringly; "and you're +not responsible--it's Mopsy's fault." + +Vane felt relieved on one account He had imagined that a woman hated to +feel draggled and untidy, and he was willing to own that in his case +fatigue usually tended toward shortness of temper. Though the scramble +had scarcely taxed his powers, he fancied that Evelyn had already done as +much as one could expect of her. + +"I must prospect about a bit. Scardale's somewhere below us; but, if I +remember, it's an awkward descent to the head of it; and I'm not sure of +the right entrance to the Hause." + +"I've only once been down this way, and that was a long while ago," +Evelyn replied. + +Vane left her and plodded away across the grass, sinking ankle-deep in +the spongy moss among the roots of it When he had grown scarcely +distinguishable in the haze he turned and waved his hand. + +"I know where we are--almost to the head of the beck!" he called. + +Evelyn joined him at the edge of a trickle of water splashing in a peaty +hollow, and they followed it down, seeing only odd strips of hillside +amid the vapor. At length the ground grew softer, and Vane, going first, +sank among the long green moss almost to his knees. It made a bubbling, +sucking sound as he drew out his feet. + +"That won't do! Stand still, please! I'll try a little to the right." + +He tried in one or two directions; but wherever he went he sank over his +boots. Coming back he informed his companion that they would better go +straight ahead. + +"I know there's no bog worth speaking of--the Hause is a regular +tourist track." + +He stopped and stripped off his jacket. + +"First of all, you must put this on; I'm sorry I didn't think of +it before." + +Evelyn demurred, and Vane rolled up the jacket. + +"You have to choose between doing what I ask and watching me pitch +it into the beck. I'm a rather determined person. It would be a +pity to throw the thing away, particularly as the rain hasn't got +through it yet." + +She yielded, and he held the jacket while she put it on. + +"There's another thing," he added. "I'm going to carry you for the next +hundred yards, or possibly farther." + +"No," replied Evelyn firmly. "On that point, my determination is as +strong as yours." + +Vane made a sign of acquiescence. + +"You may have your way for a minute; I expect that will be long enough." + +He was correct. Evelyn moved forward a pace or two, and then stopped with +the skirt she had gathered up brushing the quivering emerald moss, and +her boots, which were high ones, hidden in the mire. She had some +difficulty in pulling them out. Then Vane coolly picked her up. + +"All you have to do is to keep still for the next few minutes," he +informed her in a most matter-of-fact voice. + +Evelyn did not move, though she recognized that had he shown any sign of +self-conscious hesitation she would at once have shaken herself loose. As +it was, the fact that he appeared perfectly at ease and unaware that he +was doing anything unusual was reassuring. Then as he plodded forward she +wondered at his steadiness, for she remembered that when she had once +fallen heavily when nailing up a clematis her father, who was a vigorous +man, had found it difficult to carry her upstairs. Vane had never carried +any woman in his arms before, but he had occasionally had to pack--as it +is termed in the West--hundred-and-forty-pound flour bags over a rocky +portage, and, though the comparison did not strike him as a happy one, he +thought the girl was not quite so heavy as that. He was conscious of a +curious thrill and a certain stirring of his blood, but this, he decided, +must be sternly ignored. His task was not an easy one, and he stumbled +once or twice, but he accomplished it and set the girl down safely on +firmer ground. + +"Now," he said, "there's only the drop to the dale, but we must endeavor +to keep out of the beck." + +His voice and air were unembarrassed, though he was breathless, and +Evelyn fancied that in this and the incident of the jacket he had at last +revealed the forceful, natural manners of the West. It was the first +glimpse she had had of them, and she was not displeased. The man had +merely done what was most advisable, with practical sense. + +A little farther on, a shoot of falling water swept out of the mist above +and came splashing down a crag, spread out in frothing threads. It flowed +across their path, reunited in a deep gully, and then fell tumultuously +into the beck, which was now ten or twelve feet below them. They clung to +the rock as they traced it downward, stepping cautiously from ledge to +ledge and from slippery stone to stone. At times a stone plunged into the +mist beneath them, and Vane grasped the girl's arm and held out a +steadying hand, but he was never fussy nor needlessly concerned. When she +wanted help, it was offered at the right moment; but that was all. Had +she been alarmed, her companion's manner would have been more comforting +than persistent solicitude. He was, she decided, one who could be relied +upon in an emergency. + +"You are sure-footed," she remarked, when they stopped a minute or two +for breath. + +Vane laughed as he glanced into the vapor-rilled depths beneath. They +stood on a ledge, two or three yards in width, with a tall crag behind +them and the beck, which had rapidly grown larger, leaping half seen from +rock to rock in the rift in front. + +"I was born among these fells; and I have helped to pack various kinds of +mining truck over much rougher mountains." + +"Have you ever gone up as steep a place as this with a load?" + +"If I remember rightly, the top of the Hause drops about three hundred +feet, and we'll probably spend half an hour in reaching the valley. There +was one western divide that it took us several days to cross, dragging a +tent, camp gear and provisions in relays. Its foot was wrapped in tangled +brush that tore most of our clothes to rags, and the last pitch was two +thousand feet of rock where the snow lay waist-deep in the hollows." + +"Two thousand feet! That dwarfs our little drop to the Hause. What were +you doing so far up in the ranges?" + +"Looking for a copper mine." + +"And you found one?" + +"No; not that time. As a rule, the mineral trail leads poor men to +greater poverty, and sometimes to a grave; but once you have set your +feet on it you follow it again. The thing becomes an obsession; you feel +forced to go." + +"Even if you bring nothing back?" + +Vane laughed. + +"One always brings back something--frost-bite, bruises, a bag of +specimens that assayers and mineral development men smile at. They're +the palpable results, but in most cases you pick up an intangible +something else." + +"And that is?" + +"A thing beyond definition. A germ that lies in wait in the lonely places +and breeds fantasies when it gets into your blood. Anyway, you can never +quite get rid of it." + +Evelyn was interested. The man was endowed with a trick of quaint and +almost poetical imagination, which she had not suspected him of +possessing. + +"It conduces to unrest?" she suggested. + +"Yes. One feels that there's a rich claim waiting beyond the thick timber +through which one can hardly scramble, across the icy rivers, or over the +snow-line." + +"But you found one." + +"At last I found it easily. After ranging the wildest solitudes, we +struck it in a sheltered valley near the warm west coast. Curious, +isn't it?" + +"But didn't that banish the unrest and leave you satisfied?" + +The man looked at her with a flicker of grim amusement in his eyes. + +"As I explained, it can't be banished. There's always a richer claim +somewhere that you haven't found. Our prospectors dream of it as the +Mother Lode, and some spend half their lives in search of it; it was +called El Dorado three hundred years ago. After all, the idea's a +deeper thing than a miner's fantasy: in one shape or another it's +inherent in optimistic human nature. Are you sure the microbe hasn't +bitten you and Mopsy?" + +He was too shrewd. Turning from him, she looked down at the eddying mist. +For several years she had chafed at her surroundings and the restraints +they laid upon her, with a restless longing for something wider and +better: a freer, sunnier atmosphere where her nature could expand. At +times she fancied there was only one sun which could warm it to a perfect +growth, but that sun had not risen and scarcely seemed likely to do so. + +Vane broke the silence deprecatingly. + +"Now that you're rested, we'd better get on. I'm sorry I've kept +you so long." + +Though caution was still necessary, the rest of the descent was easier, +and after a while they reached a winding dale. They followed it +downward, splashing through water part of the time, and at length came +into sight of a cluster of little houses standing between a river and a +big fir wood. + +"It must be getting on toward evening. Mopsy and Carroll probably went +down the ridge, and as it runs out lower down the valley, they'll be +almost at home." + +"It's six o'clock," replied Vane, glancing at his watch. "You can't walk +home in the rain, and it's a long while since lunch. If Adam Bell and his +wife are still at the Golden Fleece, we'll get something to eat there and +borrow you some dry clothes. I've no doubt he'll drive us back +afterward." + +Evelyn made no objections. She was very wet and was beginning to feel +weary, and they were some distance from home. She returned his jacket, +and a few minutes later they entered an old hostelry which, like many +others among those hills, was a farm as well as an inn. The landlady +recognized Vane with pleased surprise. When she had attended to Evelyn +she provided Vane with some of her husband's clothes. Then she lighted a +fire; and when she had laid out a meal in the guest-room, Evelyn came in, +attired in a dress of lilac print. + +"It's Maggie Bell's," she explained demurely. "Her mother's things were +rather large. Adam is away at a sheep auction, and they have only the +trap he went in; but they expect him back in an hour or so." + +"Then we must wait," smiled Vane. "Worse misfortunes have befallen me." + +They made an excellent meal, and then Vane drew up a wicker chair to the +fire for Evelyn and sat down opposite her. The room was low and shadowy, +and partly paneled. Against one wall stood a black oak sideboard, with a +plate-rack above it, and a great chest of the same material with +ponderous hand-forged hinge-straps stood opposite it. A clock with an +engraved metal dial and a six-foot case, polished to a wonderful luster +by the hands of several generations, ticked in one corner; and here and +there the firelight flickered upon utensils of burnished copper. There +was little in the place that looked less than a century old, for there +are nooks in the North that have still escaped the ravages of the +collector. Outside, the rain dripped from the massy flagstone eaves, and +the song of the river stole in monotonous cadence into the room. + +Evelyn was silent and Vane said nothing for a while. He had been in the +air all day, and though this was nothing new to him he was content to sit +lazily still and leave the opening of conversation to his companion. In +the meanwhile it was pleasant to glance toward her now and then. The +pale-tinted dress became her, and he felt that the room would have looked +less cheerful had she been away; though this by no means comprised the +whole of his sensations. After living almost entirely among men, he had +of late met three women who had impressed him in different ways, and they +had all been pleasant to look upon. + +First, there was Kitty Blake, little, graceful and, in a way, alluring; +and it was she who had first roused in him a vague desire for a companion +who could be more to him than a man could be. Beyond that, pretty as she +was, she had only moved him to chivalrous pity and a wider sympathy. + +Then he had met Jessy Horsfield, whom he admired. She was a clever woman +and a handsome one, but she had scarcely stirred him at all. + +Last, he had met Evelyn, as well endowed with physical charm as either; +and there was no doubt that the effect she had on him was different +again. It was one that was difficult to analyze, though he lazily tried. +She appealed to him by the grace of her carriage, the poise of her head, +her delicate coloring, and the changing lights in her eyes; but behind +these points there was something stronger and deeper expressed through +them. He fancied that she possessed qualities he had not hitherto +encountered, which would become more precious when they were fully +understood. He thought of her as steadfast and wholesome in mind; one who +sought for the best; but beyond this there was an ethereal something that +could not be defined. Then a simile struck him: she was like the snow +that towered high into the empyrean in British Columbia. In this, +however, he was wrong, for there was warm human passion in the girl, +though as yet it was sleeping. + +He realized suddenly that he was getting absurdly sentimental, and +instinctively he fumbled for his pipe, then stopped. Evelyn noticed this +and smiled. + +"You needn't hesitate. The Dene is redolent of cigars, and Gerald smokes +everywhere when he is at home." + +"Is he likely to turn up?" Vane asked. "It's ever so long since I've +seen him." + +"I'm afraid not. In fact, Gerald's rather under a cloud just now. I +may as well tell you this, because you are sure to hear of it sooner +or later. He has been extravagant and, so he assures us, +extraordinarily unlucky." + +"Stocks?" suggested Vane. He was acquainted with some of the family +tendencies. + +Evelyn hesitated a moment. + +"That would more readily have been forgiven him. I believe he has +speculated on the turf as well." + +Vane was surprised. He understood that Gerald Chisholm was a barrister, +and betting on the turf was not an amusement he would have associated +with that profession. + +"I must run up and see him by and by," he said thoughtfully. + +Evelyn felt sorry she had spoken. Gerald needed help, which his father +was not in a position to offer. Evelyn was not censorious of other +people's faults, but it was impossible to be blind to some aspects of her +brother's character, and she would have preferred that Vane should not +meet Gerald while the latter was embarrassed by financial difficulties. +She abruptly changed the subject. + +"Several of the things you have told me about your life in Canada +interest me. It must have been bracing to feel that you depended upon +your own efforts and stood on your own feet, free from the hampering +customs that are common here." + +"The position has its disadvantages. You have no family influence behind +you--nothing to fall back on. If you can't make good your footing, you +must go down. It's curious that just before I came over here, a lady I +met in Vancouver expressed an opinion very much like yours. She said it +must be pleasant to feel that one is, to some extent at least, master of +one's fate." + +"Then she merely explained my meaning more clearly than I have done." + +"One could have imagined that she had everything she could reasonably +wish for. If I'm not transgressing, so have you. It's strange you should +both harbor the same idea." + +Evelyn smiled. + +"I don't think it's uncommon among young women nowadays. There's a +grandeur in the thought that one's fate lies in the hands of the high +unseen Powers; but to allow one's life to be molded by the prejudices and +preconceptions of one's--neighbors is a different matter. Besides, if +unrest and human striving were sent, was it only that they should be +repressed?" + +Vane sat silent a moment or two. He had noticed the brief pause and +fancied that she had changed one of the words that followed it. He did +not think that it was the opinions of her neighbors against which she +chafed most. + +"It's something that I've never experienced," he replied at length. "In a +general way, I've done what I wanted." + +"Which is a privilege that is denied us." + +Evelyn spoke without bitterness. + +"What do women who are left to their own resources do in western Canada?" +she asked presently. + +"Some of them marry; I suppose that's the most natural thing," answered +Vane, with an air of reflection that amused her. "Anyway, they have +plenty of opportunities. There's a preponderating number of unattached +young men in the newly opened parts of the Dominion." + +"Things are different here; or perhaps we require more than they do +across the Atlantic. What becomes of the others?" + +"They are waitresses in the hotels; they learn stenography and +typewriting, and go into offices and stores." + +"And earn just enough to live upon meagerly? If their wages are high, +they must pay out more. That follows, doesn't it?" + +"To some extent." + +"Is there nothing better open to them?" + +"No; not unless they're trained for it and become specialized. That +implies peculiar abilities and a systematic education with one end in +view. You can't enter the arena to fight for the higher prizes unless +you're properly armed. The easiest way for a woman to acquire power and +influence is by a judicious marriage. No doubt, it's the same here." + +"It is," laughed Evelyn. "A man is more fortunately situated." + +"Probably; but if he's poor, he's rather walled in, too. He breaks +through now and then; and in the newer countries he gets an opportunity." + +Vane abstractedly examined his pipe, which he had not lighted yet. It was +clear that the girl was dissatisfied with her surroundings, and had for +some reason temporarily relaxed the restraint she generally laid upon +herself; but he felt that, if she were wise, she would force herself to +be content. She was of too fine a fiber to plunge into the struggle that +many women had to wage. Though he did not doubt her courage, she had not +been trained for it. He had noticed that among men it was the cruder and +less developed organizations that proved hardiest in adverse situations; +one needed a strain of primitive vigor. There was, it seemed, only one +means of release for Evelyn, and that was a happy marriage. But a +marriage could not be happy unless the suitor should be all that she +desired; and Evelyn would be fastidious, though her family would, no +doubt, look only for wealth and station. Vane imagined that this was +where the trouble lay, and he felt a protective pity for her. He would +wait and keep his eyes open. + +Presently there was a rattle of wheels outside and the landlord came in +and greeted them with rude cordiality. Shortly afterward Vane helped +Evelyn into the rig, and Bell drove them home through the rain. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +LUCY VANE + + +Bright sunshine streamed down out of a cloudless sky one afternoon +shortly after the ascent of the Pike. Vane stood talking with his sister +upon the terrace in front of the Dene. He leaned against the low wall, +frowning, for Lucy hitherto had avoided a discussion of the subject which +occupied their attention, and now, as he would have said, he could not +make her listen to reason. + +She stood in front of him, with the point of her parasol pressed firmly +into the gravel and her lips set, though in her eyes there was a smile +which suggested forbearance. Lucy was tall and spare of figure; a year +younger than her brother; and of somewhat determined and essentially +practical character. She earned her living in a northern manufacturing +town by lecturing on domestic economy, for the public authorities. Vane +understood that she also received a small stipend as secretary to some +women's organization and that she took a part in suffrage propaganda. She +had a thin, forceful face, seldom characterized by repose. + +"After all," Vane broke out, "what I'm urging is a very natural thing. I +don't like to think of your being forced to work as you are doing, and +I've tried to show you that it wouldn't cost me any self-denial to make +you an allowance. There's no reason why you should be at the beck and +call of those committees any longer." + +Lucy's smile grew plainer. + +"I don't think that quite describes my position." + +"It's possible," Vane agreed with a trace of dryness. "No doubt, you +insist that the chairman or lady president give way to you; but this +doesn't affect the question. You have to work, anyway." + +"But I like it; and it keeps me in some degree of comfort." + +The man turned impatiently and glanced about him. The front of the old +gray house was flooded with light, and the mossy sward below the terrace +glowed luminously green. The shadows of the hollies and cypresses were +thin and unsubstantial, but where a beech overarched the grass, Evelyn +and Mrs. Chisholm. attired in light draperies, reclined in basket chairs. +Carroll, in thin gray tweed, stood near them, talking to Mabel, and +Chisholm sat on a bench with a newspaper in his hand. He looked half +asleep, and a languorous stillness pervaded the whole scene. Beyond it, +the tarn shone dazzlingly, and in the distance ranks of rugged fells +towered, dim and faintly blue. All that the eye rested on spoke of an +unbroken tranquillity. + +"Wouldn't you like this kind of thing, as well?" Vane asked. "Of course, +I mean what it implies--the power to take life easy and get as much +enjoyment as possible out of it. It wouldn't be difficult, if you'd only +take what I'd be glad to give you." He indicated the languid figures in +the foreground. "You could, for instance, spend your time among people of +this sort. After all, it's what you were meant to do." + +"Would that appeal to you?" + +"Oh, I like it in the meantime," he evaded. + +"Well," Lucy returned curtly, "I believe I'm more at home with the other +kind of people--those in poverty, squalor and ignorance. I've an idea +that they have a stronger claim on me; but that's not a point I can urge. +The fact is, I've chosen my career, and there are practical reasons why I +shouldn't abandon it. I had a good deal of trouble in getting a footing, +and if I fell out now, it would be harder still to take my place in the +ranks again." + +"But you wouldn't require to do so." + +"I can't be sure. I don't want to hurt you; but, after all, your success +was sudden, and one understands that it isn't wise to depend on an income +derived from mining properties." + +Vane frowned. + +"None of you ever did believe in me!" + +"I suppose there's some truth in that. You really did give us trouble, +you know. Somehow, you were different--you wouldn't fit in; though I +believe the same thing applied to me, for that matter." + +"And now you don't expect my prosperity to last?" + +The girl hesitated, but she was candid by nature. + +"Perhaps I'd better answer. You have it in you to work determinedly and, +when it's necessary, to do things that men with less courage would shrink +from; but I'm doubtful whether yours is the temperament that leads to +success. You haven't the huckster's instincts; you're not cold-blooded +enough; you wouldn't cajole your friends nor truckle to your enemies." + +"If I adopted the latter course, it would certainly be against the +grain," Vane confessed. + +Lucy laughed. + +"Well, I mean to go on earning my living; but you may take me up to +London for a few days, if you want to, and buy me some hats and things. +Then I don't mind your giving something to the Emancipation Society." + +"I am not sure that I believe in emancipation; but you may have +ten guineas." + +"Thank you." + +Lucy glanced around toward Carroll, who was approaching them with Mabel. + +"I'll give you a piece of advice," she added. "Stick to that man. He's +cooler and less headstrong than you are; he'll prove a useful friend." + +"What are you two talking about?" asked Carroll. "You look animated." + +"Wallace has just promised me ten guineas to assist the movement for the +emancipation of women." Lucy answered pointedly. "Our society's efforts +are sadly restricted by the lack of funds." + +"Vane is now and then a little inconsequential in his generosity," +Carroll rejoined. "I didn't know he was interested in that kind of thing; +but as I don't like to be outdone by my partner, I'll subscribe the same. +By the way, why do you people reckon these things in guineas?" + +"Thanks," smiled Lucy, making an entry in a notebook in a businesslike +manner. "As you said it was a subscription, you'll hear from us next +year. In answer to your question, it's an ancient custom, and it has the +advantage that you get in the extra shillings." + +They strolled along the terrace together, and as they went down the steps +to the lawn Carroll turned to her with a smile. + +"Have you tackled Chisholm yet?" + +"I never waste powder and shot," Lucy replied tersely. "A man of his +restricted views would sooner subscribe handsomely to a movement to +put us down." + +"Are you regretting the ten guineas, Vane?" Carroll questioned +laughingly. "You don't look pleased." + +"The fact is, I wanted to do something that wasn't allowed. I've met with +the same disillusionment here as I did in British Columbia." + +Lucy looked up at her brother. + +"Did you attempt to give somebody money there?" + +"I did. It's not worth discussing; and, anyway, she wouldn't +listen to me." + +They strolled on, Vane frowning, while Carroll, noticing signs of +suppressed interest in Lucy's face, smiled unobserved. Neither he nor the +others thought of Mabel, who was following them. + +Some time after they joined the others, Carroll lay back in a deep chair, +with his half-closed eyes turned in Lucy's direction. + +"Are you asleep, or thinking hard?" Mrs. Chisholm asked him. + +"Not more than half asleep," he laughed. "I was trying to remember _A +Dream of Fair Women_. It's a suitable occupation for a drowsy summer +afternoon in a place like this, but I must confess that it was Miss Vane +who put it into my head. She reminded me of one or two of the heroines +when she was championing the cause of the suffragist." + +"You mustn't imagine that Englishwomen in general sympathize with her, +or that such ideas are popular at the Dene." + +Carroll smiled reassuringly. + +"I shouldn't have imagined the latter for a moment. But, as I said, on an +afternoon of this kind one may be excused for indulging in romantic +fancies. Don't you see what brought those old-time heroines into my mind? +I mean the elusive resemblance to their latter-day prototype?" + +Mrs. Chisholm looked puzzled. + +"No," she declared. "One of them was Greek, another early English, and +the finest of all was the Hebrew maid. As they couldn't have been like +one another, how could they, collectively, have borne a resemblance to +anybody else?" + +"That's logical, on the surface. To digress, why do you most admire +Jephthah's daughter, the gentle Gileadite?" + +His hostess affected surprise. + +"Isn't it evident, when one remembers her patient sacrifice; her fine +sense of family honor?" + +Carroll felt that this was much the kind of sentiment one could have +expected from her; and he did her the justice to believe that it was +genuine and that she was capable of living up to her convictions. His +glance rested on Vane for a moment, and the latter was startled as he +guessed Carroll's thought. + +Evelyn sat near him, reclining languidly in a wicker chair. She had been +silent, and now that her face was in repose the signs of reserve and +repression were plainer than ever. There was, however, pride in it, and +Vane felt that she was endowed with a keener and finer sense of family +honor than her thin-lipped mother. Her brother's career was threatened +by the results of his own imprudence, and though her father could hardly +be compared with the Gileadite warrior, there was, Vane fancied, a +disturbing similarity between the two cases. It was unpleasant to +contemplate the possibility of this girl's being called upon to bear the +cost of her relatives' misfortunes or follies. + +Carroll looked across at Lucy with a smile. + +"You won't agree with Mrs. Chisholm?" he suggested. + +"No," answered Lucy firmly. "Leaving out the instance in question, there +are too many people who transgress and then expect somebody else--a +woman, generally--to serve as a sacrifice." + +"I don't agree, either," Mabel broke in. "I'd sooner have been Cleopatra, +or Joan of Arc--only she was burned, poor thing." + +"That was only what she might have expected. An unpleasant fate +generally overtakes people who go about disturbing things," Mrs. +Chisholm said severely. + +The speech was characteristic, and the others smiled. It would have +astonished them had Mrs. Chisholm sympathized with the rebel idealist +whose beckoning visions led to the clash of arms. + +"Aren't you getting off the track," Vane asked Carroll. "I don't see the +drift of your previous remarks." + +"Well," drawled Carroll, "there must be, I think, a certain distinctive +stamp upon those who belong to the leader type--I mean the people who are +capable of doing striking and heroic things. Apart from this, I've been +studying you English--I've been over here before--and it has struck me +that there's occasionally something imperious, or rather imperial, in +the faces of your women in the most northern counties. I can't define the +thing, but it's there--in the line of nose, in the mouth, and, I think, +most marked in the brows. It's not Saxon, nor Norse, nor Danish; I'd +sooner call it Roman." + +Vane was slightly astonished. He had seen that look in Evelyn's face, and +now, for the first time, he recognized it in his sister's. + +"Perhaps you have hit it," he said with a laugh. "You can reach the Wall +from here in a day's ride." + +"The Wall?" + +"The Roman Wall; Hadrian's Wall. I believe one authority states that they +had a garrison of one hundred thousand men to keep it." + +Chisholm joined the group. He was a tall, rather florid-faced man, with a +formal manner, and was dressed immaculately in creaseless clothes. + +"The point Wallace raises is interesting," he remarked. "While I don't +know how long it takes for a strain to die out, there must have been a +large civil population living near the Wall, and we know that the +characteristics of the Teutonic peoples who followed the Romans still +remain. On the other hand, some of the followers were vexillaries, from +the bounds of the Empire; Gauls, for example, or Iberians." + +When, later on, the group broke up, Evelyn was left alone for a few +minutes with Mabel. + +"Gerald should have been sent to Canada instead of to Oxford," the +younger girl declared. "Then he might have got as rich as Wallace Vane +and Mr. Carroll." + +"What makes you think they're rich?" Evelyn asked with reproof in her +tone. + +Mabel grimaced. + +"Oh, we all knew they were rich before they came. They were giving Lucy +guineas for the suffragists an hour ago. They must have a good deal of +money to waste it like that. Besides, I think Wallace wanted her to take +some more; and he seemed quite vexed when he said he'd tried to give +money to somebody else in Canada who wouldn't have it. As he said 'she,' +it must have been a woman, but I don't think he meant to mention that. It +slipped out." + +"You had no right to listen," Evelyn retorted severely; but the +information sank into her mind, and she afterward remembered it. + +She rose when the sunshine, creeping farther across the grass, fell upon +her, and Vane carried her chair, as well as those of the others, who were +strolling back toward them, into the shadow. This she thought was typical +of the man. He seemed happiest when he was doing something. By and by a +chance remark of her mother's once more set Carroll to discoursing +humorously. + +"After all," he contended, "it's difficult to obey a purely arbitrary +rule of conduct. Several of the philosophers seem to have decided that +the origin of virtue is utility." + +"Utility?" Chisholm queried. + +"Yes; utility to one's neighbors or the community at large. For +instance, I desire an apple growing on somebody else's tree--one of the +big red apples that hang over the roadside in Ontario. Now the longing +for the fruit is natural, and innocent in itself; the trouble is that +if it were indulged in and gratified by every person who passed along +the road, the farmer would abandon the cultivation of his orchard. He +would neither plant nor prune his trees, except for the expectation of +enjoying what they yield. The offense, accordingly, concerns everybody +who enjoys apples." + +Mrs. Chisholm smiled assent. + +"I believe that idea is the basis of our minor social and domestic +codes. Even when they're illogical in particular cases, they're +necessary in general." + +Evelyn looked across at Vane, as if to invite his opinion, and he knit +his brows. + +"I don't think Carroll's correct. The traditional view, which, as I +understand it, is that the sense of right is innate, ingrained in man's +nature, seems more reasonable. I'll give you two instances. There was a +man in charge of a little mine. He had had the crudest education, and no +moral training, but he was an excellent miner. Well, he was given a hint +that it was not desirable the mine should turn out much paying ore." + +"But why wasn't it required to produce as much as possible?" +Evelyn asked. + +"I believe that somebody wanted to break down the value of the shares and +afterward quietly buy them up. Anyway, though he knew it would result in +his dismissal, the man I mentioned drove the boys his hardest. He worked +savagely, taking risks he could have avoided by spending a little more +time in precautions, in a badly timbered tunnel. He didn't reason--he was +hardly capable of it--but he got the most out of the mine." + +"It was fine of him!" Evelyn exclaimed. + +"The engineer of a collier figures in the next case." Vane went on. "The +engines were clumsy and badly finished, but the man spent his care and +labor on them until I think he loved them. His only trouble was that he +was sent to sea with second-rate oils and stores. After a while they grew +so bad that he could hardly use them; and he had reasons for believing +that a person who could dismiss or promote him was getting a big +commission on the goods. He was a plain, unreasoning man; but he would +not cripple his engines; and at last he condemned the stores and made the +skipper purchase supplies he could use, at double the usual prices, in a +foreign port. There could be only one result; he was driving a pump in a +mine when I last met him." + +He paused, and added quietly: + +"It wasn't logic, it wasn't even conventional morality, that impelled +these men. It was something that was part of them. What's more, men of +their type are more common than the cynics believe." + +Carroll smiled good-humoredly; and when the party sauntered toward the +house, he walked beside Evelyn. + +"There's one point that Wallace omitted to mention in connection with his +tales," he remarked. "The things he narrated are precisely those which, +on being given the opportunity, he would have pleasure in doing himself." + +"Why pleasure? I could understand his doing them, but I'd expect him to +feel some reluctance." + +Carroll's eyes twinkled. + +"He gets indignant now and then. Virtuous people are generally content to +resist temptation, but Wallace is apt to attack the tempter. I dare say +it isn't wise, but that's the kind of man he is." + +"Ah! One couldn't find fault with the type. But I wonder why you have +taken the trouble to tell me this?" + +"Really, I don't know. Somehow, I have an impression that I ought to say +what I can in Wallace's favor, if only because he brought me here, and I +feel like talking when I can get a sympathetic listener." + +"I shouldn't have imagined the latter was indispensable," laughed Evelyn. +"Is this visit all you owe Wallace?" + +"No, indeed. In many ways, I owe him a good deal more. He has no idea of +this, but it doesn't lessen my obligation. By the way, it struck me that +in many respects Miss Vane is rather like her brother." + +"Lucy is opinionative, and now and then embarrassingly candid, but she +leads a life that most of us would shrink from. It isn't necessary that +she should do so--family friends would have arranged things +differently--and the tasks she's paid for are less than half her labors. +I believe she generally gets abuse as a reward for the rest." + +Then Mabel joined them and took possession of Carroll, and Evelyn +strolled on alone, thinking of what he had told her. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +CHISHOLM PROVES AMENABLE + + +Vane spent a month at the Dene, with quiet satisfaction, and when at last +he left for London and Paris he gladly promised to come back for another +few weeks before he sailed for Canada. He stayed some time in Paris, +because Carroll insisted on it, but it was with eagerness that he went +north again late in the autumn. For one reason--and he laid some stress +upon this--he longed for the moorland air and the rugged fells, though he +admitted that Evelyn's society enhanced their charm for him. + +At last, shortly before he set out on the journey, he took himself to +task and endeavored to determine precisely the nature of his feelings +toward her; but he signally failed to elucidate the point. It was clear +only that he was more contented in her presence, and that, apart from her +physical comeliness, she had a stimulating effect upon his mental +faculties. Then he wondered how she regarded him; and to this question he +could find no answer. She had treated him with a quiet friendliness, and +had to some extent taken him into her confidence. For the most part, +however, there was a reserve about her that he found more piquant than +deterrent, and he was conscious that, while willing to talk with him +freely, she was still holding him off at arm's length. + +On the whole, he could not be absolutely sure that he desired to get +much nearer. Though he failed to recognize this clearly, his attitude +was largely one of respectful admiration, tinged with a vein of +compassion. Evelyn was unhappy, and out of harmony with her relatives; +and he could understand this more readily because their ideas +occasionally jarred on him. + +One morning, about a fortnight after they returned to the Dene, Vane +and Carroll walked out of the hamlet where the wheelwright's shop +was. Sitting down on the wall of a bridge, Vane opened the telegram +in his hand. + +"I think you have Nairn's code in your wallet," he said. "We'll decipher +the thing." + +Carroll laid the message on a smooth stone and set to work with a pencil. + +"_Situation highly satisfactory_." + +He broke off, to chuckle a comment. + +"It must be, if Nairn paid for an extra word--highly's not in the code." + +Then he went on with the deciphering: + +"_Result of reduction exceeds anticipations. Stock thirty premium. Your +presence not immediately required_." + +"That's distinctly encouraging," declared Vane. "Now that they are +getting farther in, the ore must be carrying more silver." + +"It strikes me as fortunate. I ran through the bank account last night, +and there's no doubt that you have spent a good deal of money. It +confirms my opinion that you have mighty expensive friends." + +Vane frowned, but Carroll continued undeterred. + +"You want pulling up, after the way you have been indulging in a reckless +extravagance which, I feel compelled to point out, is new to you. The +check drawn in favor of Gerald Chisholm rather astonished me. Have you +said anything about it to his relatives?" + +"I haven't." + +"Then, judging by the little I saw of him, I should consider it most +unlikely that he has made any allusion to the matter. The next check was +even more surprising--I mean the one you gave his father." + +"They were both loans. Chisholm offered me security." + +"Unsalable stock, or a mortgage on property that carries another charge! +Have you any idea of getting the money back?" + +"What has that to do with you?" + +Carroll spread out his hands. + +"Only this: It strikes me that you need looking after. We can't stay here +indefinitely. Hadn't you better get back to Vancouver before your English +friends ruin you?" + +"I'll go in three or four weeks; not before." + +Carroll sat silent a minute or two, and then looked his companion +squarely in the face. + +"Is it your intention to marry Evelyn Chisholm?" + +"I don't know what has put that into your mind." + +"I should be a good deal astonished if it hadn't suggested itself to her +family," Carroll retorted. + +Vane looked thoughtful. + +"I'm far from sure that it's an idea they would entertain with any great +favor. For one thing, I can't live here." + +Carroll laughed. + +"Try them, and see. Show them Nairn's telegram when you mention +the matter." + +Vane swung himself down from the wall. During the past two weeks he had +seen a good deal of Evelyn, and his regard for her had rapidly grown +stronger. Now that news that his affairs were prospering had reached him, +he suddenly made up his mind. + +"It's very possible that I may do so," he informed his comrade. "We'll +get along." + +His heart beat a little more rapidly than usual as they turned back +toward the house, but he was perfectly composed when some time later he +sat down beside Chisholm, who was lounging away the morning on the lawn. + +"I've been across to the village for a telegram I expected," he said, +handing Chisholm the deciphered message. "It occurred to me that you +might be interested. The news is encouraging." + +Chisholm read it with inward satisfaction. When he laid it down he had +determined on the line he meant to follow. + +"You're a fortunate man. There's probably no reasonable wish that you +can't gratify." + +"There are things one can't buy with money," Vane replied. + +"That is very true. They're often the most valuable. On the other hand, +some of them may now and then be had for the asking. Besides, when one +has a sanguine temperament and a determination, it's difficult to believe +that anything one sets one's heart on is quite unattainable." + +Vane wondered whether he had been given a hint. Chisholm's manner was +suggestive, and Carroll's remarks had had an effect on him. He sat +silent, and Chisholm continued: + +"If I were in your place, I should feel that I had all that I could +desire within my reach." + +Vane was becoming sure that his comrade had been right. Chisholm would +not have harped on the same idea unless he had intended to convey some +particular meaning; but the man's methods roused Vane's dislike. He could +face opposition, and he would rather have been discouraged than +judiciously prompted. + +"Then if I offered myself as a suitor for Evelyn, you would not think me +presumptuous?" + +Chisholm was somewhat astonished at his abruptness, but he smiled +reassuringly. + +"No; I can't see why I should do so. You are in a position to maintain a +wife in comfort, and I don't think anybody could take exception to your +character." He paused a moment. "I suppose you have some idea of how +Evelyn regards you?" + +"Not the faintest. That's the trouble." + +"Would you like Mrs. Chisholm or myself to mention the matter?" + +"No," answered Vane decidedly. "In fact, I must ask you not to do +anything of the kind. I only wished to make sure of your good will, and +now that I'm satisfied on that point, I'd rather wait and speak--when it +seems judicious." + +Chisholm nodded. + +"I dare say that would be wisest. There is nothing to be gained by being +precipitate." + +Vane thanked him, and waited. He fancied that the transaction--that +seemed the best name for it--was not completed yet; but he meant to +leave the matter to his companion; he would not help the man. + +"There's something that had better be mentioned now, distasteful as it +is," Chisholm said at length. "I can settle nothing upon Evelyn. As you +must have guessed, my affairs are in a far from promising state. Indeed, +I'm afraid I may have to ask your indulgence when the loan falls due; and +I don't mind confessing that the prospect of Evelyn's making what I think +is a suitable marriage is a relief to me." + +Vane's feelings were somewhat mixed, but contempt figured prominently +among them. He could find no fault with Chisholm's desire to safeguard +his daughter's future, but he was convinced that the man looked for more +than this. He felt that he had been favored with a delicate hint to which +his companion expected an answer. He was sorry for Evelyn, and was +ashamed of the position he was forced to take. + +"Well," he replied curtly, "you need not be concerned about the loan; I'm +not likely to prove a pressing creditor. To go a little farther, I should +naturally take an interest in the welfare of my wife's relatives. I don't +think I can say anything more in the meanwhile." + +When he saw Chisholm's smile, he felt that he might have spoken more +plainly without offense; but the elder man looked satisfied. + +"Those are the views I expected you to hold," he declared. "I believe +that Mrs. Chisholm will share my gratification if you find Evelyn +disposed to listen to you." + +Vane left him shortly afterward with a sense of shame. He felt that he +had bought the girl, and that, if she ever heard of it, she would find it +hard to forgive him for the course he had taken. When he met Carroll he +was frowning. + +"I've had a talk with Chisholm," he said. "It has upset my temper--I feel +mean! There's no doubt that you were right." + +Carroll's smile showed that he could guess what was in his +comrade's mind. + +"I shouldn't worry too much about the thing. The girl probably +understands the situation. It's not altogether pleasant, but I dare say +she's more or less resigned to it. She can't help herself." + +Vane gazed at him with anger. + +"Does that make it any better? Is it any comfort to me?" + +"Take her out of it. If she has any liking for you, she'll thank you for +doing so." + +Vane strode away, and nobody saw him again for an hour or two. In the +afternoon, however, at Mrs. Chisholm's suggestion, he and Carroll set out +with the girls for a hill beyond the tarn. + +It was a perfect day of late autumn. A pale golden haze softened the +rugged outlines of crag and fell, which towered in purple masses against +a sky of stainless azure. Warm sunshine flooded the valley, glowing on +the gold and crimson that flecked the lower beech sprays and turning the +leaves of the brambles to points of ruby flame. Here and there white +limestone ridges flung back the light, and the tarn gleamed like molten +silver when a faint puff of wind traced a dark blue smear athwart its +surface. The winding road was thick with dust, and a deep stillness +brooded over everything. + +By and by, however, a couple of whip-cracks rose from beyond a dip of the +road and were followed by a shout in a woman's voice and a sharp clatter +of iron on stone. + +"Oh!" cried Mabel, when they reached the brow of the descent, "the poor +thing can't get up! What a shame to give it such a load!" + +The road fell sharply between ragged hedgerows, and near the foot of the +hill a pony was struggling vainly to move a cart. The vehicle was heavily +loaded, and while the animal strained and floundered, a woman struck it +with a whip. + +"Its Mrs. Hoggarth; her husband's the carrier," Mabel explained. "Come +on! We must stop her! She mustn't beat the pony like that!" + +Vane strode down the hill, and when they approached the cart Mabel called +indignantly to the woman. + +"Stop! You oughtn't to do that! The load's too heavy! Where's Hoggarth?" + +Vane seized one rein close up to the bit and turned the pony until +the cart was across the road. When he had done so, the woman looked +around at Mabel. + +"Wheel went over his foot last night. He canna get on his boot. I'm none +fond of beating pony, but bank's steep and we mun gan up. The folks mun +have their things." + +Vane glanced at the pony, which stood with lowered head and heaving +flank. It was evident that the animal could do no more. + +"There's only one way out of the trouble," he said. "We must pack some of +this truck to the top. What's in those bags?" + +"One's oats," answered the woman. "It's four bushel. Other one's linseed +cake. Those slates for Bell's new stable are the heaviest." + +Carroll came up with Evelyn just then, and Vane spoke to him. + +"Come here and help me with this bag!" + +They had it ready at the back of the cart in a few moments, and Evelyn, +who knew that a four-bushel bag of oats is difficult to move, was +astonished at the ease with which they handled it. Vane got the bag upon +his back and walked up the hill with it. The veins stood out on his +forehead and his face grew red, but he plodded steadily on and came back +for another load. + +"I'll take an armful of the slates this time, Carroll. You can tackle +the cake." + +The cake was heavy, though the bag was not full, and when they returned, +Carroll was breathing hard and there were smears of blood on one of +Vane's hands. The old woman gazed at him in amazed admiration. + +"Thank you, sir," she said. "There's not many men wad carry four bushel +up a bank like that." + +Vane laughed. + +"I'm used to it. Now I think that we can face the hill." + +He seized the rein, and after a flounder or two the pony started the load +and struggled up the ascent. Leaving the woman at the top, voluble with +thanks, Vane came down and sauntered on again with Mabel. + +"I made sure you would drop that bag until I saw how you got hold of it, +and then I knew you would manage," she informed him. "You see, I've +watched the men at Scarside mill. I didn't want you to drop it." + +"I wonder why?" laughed Vane. + +"If you do, you must be stupid. We're friends, aren't we? I like my +friends to be able to do anything that other folks can. That's partly why +I took to you." + +Vane made her a ceremonious bow and they went on, chatting lightly. When +they came to a sweep of climbing moor, they changed companions, for Mabel +led Carroll off in search of plants and ferns. Farther on, Evelyn sat +down upon a heathy bank, and Vane found a place on a stone beside a +trickling rill. + +"It's pleasant here, and I like the sun," she explained. "Besides, it's +still a good way to the top, and I generally feel discontented when I get +there. There are other peaks much higher--one wants to go on." + +Vane smiled in comprehension. + +"Yes," he agreed. "On and always on! It's the feeling that drives the +prospector. We seem to have the same thoughts on a good many points." + +Evelyn did not answer this. + +"I was glad you got that cart up the hill. What made you think of it?" + +"The pony was played out, though it was a plucky beast. I suppose I felt +sorry for it. I've been driven hard myself." + +The girl's eyes softened. She had seen him use his strength, though it +was, she imagined, the strength of determined will and disciplined body +rather than bulk of muscle, for the man was hard and lean. The strength +also was associated with a gentleness and a sympathy with the lower +creation that appealed to her. + +"How hard were you driven?" she asked. + +"Sometimes, until I could scarcely crawl back to my tent or the +sleeping-shack at night. Out yonder, construction bosses and contractors' +foremen are skilled in getting the utmost value of every dollar out of a +man. I've had my hands worn to raw wounds and half my knuckles bruised +until it was almost impossible to bend them." + +"Were you compelled to work like that?" + +"I thought so. It seemed to be the custom of the country; one had to get +used to it." + +Evelyn hesitated a moment; though she was interested. + +"But was there nothing easier? Had you no money?" + +"Very little, as a rule; and what I had I tried to keep. It was to give +me a start in life. It was hard to resist the temptation to use some of +it now and then, but I held out." He laughed grimly. "After all, I +suppose it was excellent discipline." + +The girl made a sign of comprehending sympathy. There was a romance in +the man's career which had its effect on her, and she could recognize the +strength of will which had held him to the laborious tasks he might have +shirked while the money lasted. Then a stain on the sleeve of his jacket +caught her eye. + +"You have hurt your hand!" she exclaimed. + +Vane glanced down at his hand, which was reddened all over. + +"It looks like it; those slates must have cut it." + +"Hadn't you better wash it and tie it up? It seems a nasty cut." + +He dipped his hand into the rill, and was fumbling awkwardly with his +handkerchief when she stopped him. + +"That won't do! Let me fix it for you." + +Rolling up her own handkerchief, she wet it and laid it on his palm, +across which a red gash ran. He had moved close to her, stooping down, +and a disturbing thrill ran through him as she held his hand. Once more, +however, he was troubled by a sense of compunction as he recalled his +interview with Chisholm. + +"Thank you," he said abruptly when she finished. + +There were signs of tension in his face, and she drew a little away from +him when he sat down again. For a few moments he struggled with himself. +They were alone; he had her father's consent; and he knew that what he +had done half an hour ago had appealed to her. But he felt that he could +not plead his cause just then. With her parents on his side, she was at a +disadvantage; and he shrank from the thought that she might be forced +upon him against her will. This was not what he desired; and she might +hate him for it afterward. She was very alluring, there had been signs of +an unusual gentleness in her manner, and the light touch of her cool +fingers had stirred his blood; but he wanted time to win her favor, aided +only by such gifts as he had been endowed with. It cost him a determined +effort, but he made up his mind to wait; and it was a relief to him when +the approach of Mabel and Carroll rendered any confidential conversation +out of the question. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +WITH THE OTTER HOUNDS + + +A week or two had slipped away since Vane cut his hand. He lounged one +morning upon the terrace, chatting with Carroll. It was a heavy, black +morning; the hills were hidden by wrappings of leaden mist, and the still +air was charged with moisture. + +Suddenly a long, faint howl came up the valley and was answered by +another in a deeper note. Then a confused swelling clamor broke out, +softened by the distance, and slightly resembling the sound of chiming +bells. Carroll stopped and listened. + +"What in the name of wonder is that?" he asked. "The first of it reminded +me of a coyote howling, but the rest's more like the noise the timber +wolves make in the bush at night." + +"You haven't made a bad shot," Vane laughed. "It's a pack of otter hounds +hot upon the scent." + +The sound ceased as suddenly as it had begun; and a few moments later +Mabel came running toward the men. + +"I knew the hounds met at Patten Brig, but Jim was sure they'd go +down-stream!" she cried breathlessly. "They're coming up! I think they're +at the pool below the village! Get two poles--you'll find some in the +tool-shed--and come along at once!" + +She climbed into the house through a window, calling for Evelyn, and +Carroll smiled. + +"We have our orders. I suppose we'd better go." + +"It's one of the popular sports up here," Vane replied. "You may as +well see it." + +They set out a few minutes later, accompanied by Evelyn, while Mabel +hurried on in front and reproached them for their tardiness. Sometimes +they heard the hounds, sometimes a hoarse shouting that traveled far +through the still air, and then sometimes there was only the tremulous +song of running water. At length, after crossing several wet fields, they +came to a rushy meadow on the edge of the river, which spread out into a +wide pool, fringed with alders which had not yet lost their leaves and +the barer withes of osiers. There was a swift stream at the head of it, +and a long rippling shallow at the tail; and scattered along the bank and +in the water was a curiously mixed company. + +A red-coated man with whip and horn stood in the tail outflow, and three +or four more with poles in their hands were spread out across the stream +behind him. These, and one or two in the head stream, appeared by their +dress to belong to the hunt; but the rest, among whom were a few women, +were attired in every-day garments and were of different walks in life: +artisans, laborers, people of leisure, and a late tourist or two. + +Three or four big hounds were swimming aimlessly up and down the pool; a +dozen more trotted to and fro along the water's edge, stopping to sniff +and give tongue in an uncertain manner now and then; but there was no +sign of an otter. + +Carroll looked round with a smile when his companions stopped. + +"It strikes me there'll be very little work done in this neighborhood +to-day," he remarked. "I'd no idea there were so many people in the +valley with time to spare. The only thing that's missing is the beast +they're after." + +"An otter is an almost invisible creature," Evelyn explained. "You very +seldom see one, unless it's hard pressed by the dogs. There are a good +many in the river, but even the trout fishers, who are about at sunrise +in the hot weather and wade in the dusk, rarely come across them. Are you +going to take a share in the hunt?" + +"No," replied Carroll, glancing humorously at his pole. "I don't know +why I brought this thing, unless it was because Mopsy sent me for it. +I'd rather stay and watch with you. Splashing through a river after a +little beast that I don't suppose they'd let an outsider kill doesn't +interest me. I don't see why I should want to kill it, anyway. Some of +you English people have sporting ideas I can't understand. I struck a +young man the other day--a well-educated man by the looks of him--who +was spending the afternoon happily with a ferret by a corn stack, +killing rats with a club. He seemed uncommonly pleased with himself +because he'd got four of them." + +"Oh," chided Mabel, "you're as bad as the silly people who call killing +things cruel! I wouldn't have thought it of you!" + +Vane laughed. + +"I've seen him drop a deer with a single-shot rifle when it was going +through thick brush almost as fast as a locomotive; and I believe that he +once assisted in killing a panther in a thicket where you couldn't see +two yards ahead. The point is that he meant to eat the deer--and the +panther had been taking a rancher's hogs." + +"I'm sorry I brought him," Mabel pouted. "He's not a sportsman." + +"I really think there's some excuse for the more vigorous sports," Evelyn +maintained. "Of course, you can't eliminate a certain amount of cruelty; +but, admitting that, isn't it just as well that men who live in a +luxurious civilization should be willing to plod through miles of heather +after grouse, risk their limbs on horseback, or spend hours in cold +water? These are bracing things; they imply some moral discipline. It +really can't be nice to ride at a dangerous fence, or to flounder down a +rapid after an otter when you're stiff with cold. The effort to do so +must be wholesome." + +"A sure thing," Carroll agreed. "The only trouble is that when you've got +your fox or otter, it isn't worth anything. A good many of the people in +the newer lands, every day, have to make something of the kind of effort +you describe. In their case, the results are wagon trails, valleys +cleared for orchards, or new branch railroads. I suppose it's a matter of +opinion, but if I'd put in a season's risky work, I'd rather have a piece +of land to grow fruit on or a share in a mineral claim--you get plenty of +excitement in prospecting for that--than a fox's tail." + +He strolled along the bank with Evelyn, following the hunt up-stream. +Suddenly he looked around. + +"Mopsy's gone; and I don't see Vane." + +"After all, he's one of us," Evelyn laughed. "If you're born in the +North Country, it's hard to keep out of the river when you hear the +otter hounds." + +"But Mopsy's not going in!" + +"I'm afraid I can't answer for her." + +They took up their station behind a growth of alders, and for a while +the dogs went trotting by in twos and threes or swam about the pool, +but nothing else broke the surface of the leaden-colored water. Then +there was a cry, an outbreak of shouting, a confused baying, and half a +dozen hounds dashed past. More followed, heading up-stream along the +bank, with a tiny brown terrier panting behind them. Evelyn stretched +out her hand. + +"Look!" + +Carroll saw a small gray spot--the top of the otter's head--moving across +the slacker part of the pool, with a very slight, wedge-shaped ripple +trailing away from it. It sank the next moment; a bubble or two rose; and +then there was nothing but the smooth flow of water. + +A horn called shrilly; a few whip-cracks rang out like pistol-shots; and +the dogs took the water, swimming slowly here and there. Men scrambled +along the bank. Some, entering the river, reinforced the line spread out +across the head rapid while others joined the second row wading steadily +up-stream and splashing about as they advanced with iron-tipped poles. +Nothing rewarded their efforts. The dogs suddenly turned and went +down-stream; and then everybody ran or waded toward the tail outflow. A +clamor of shouting and baying broke out; and floundering men and swimming +dogs went down the stream together in a confused mass. There was a brief +silence. The hounds came out and trotted to and fro along the bank; and +dripping men clambered after them. + +Evelyn laughed as she pointed to Vane among the leading group. He looked +even wetter than the others. + +"I don't suppose he meant to go in. It's in the blood." + +"There's no reason why he shouldn't, if it amuses him," Carroll replied. +"When I first met him, he'd have been more careful of his clothes." + +A little later the dogs were driven in again, and this time the whole of +the otter's head was visible as it swam up-stream. The animal was +flagging, and on reaching shoaler water it sprang out altogether now and +then, rising and falling in the stronger stream with a curious +serpentine motion. In fact, as head and body bent in the same sinuous +curves, it looked less like an animal than a plunging fish. The men +guarding the rapid stood ready with their poles, and more were wading +and splashing up both sides of the pool. The otter's pace was getting +slower; sometimes it seemed to stop; and now and then it vanished among +the ripples. Carroll saw that Evelyn's face was intent, though there +were signs of shrinking in it. + +"I'll tell you what you are thinking," he said. "You want that poor +little beast to get away." + +"I believe I do," Evelyn confessed. "And you?" + +"I'm afraid I'm not much of a sportsman, in this sense." + +They watched with strained attention. The girl could not help it, though +she dreaded the climax. Her sympathies were now with the hard-pressed, +exhausted creature that was making a desperate fight for its life. The +pursuers were close upon it, the swimming dogs leading them; and ahead +lay a foaming rush of water which seemed less than a foot deep, with men +spread out across it. The shouting from the bank had ceased, and +everybody waited in tense expectancy when the otter disappeared. The dogs +reached the rapid, where they were washed back a few yards before they +could make headway up-stream. Men who came splashing close upon them left +the water to scramble along the bank; and then they stopped abruptly, +while the dogs swam in an uncertain manner about the still reach beyond. +They came out in a few minutes and scampered up and down among the +stones, evidently at fault, for there was no sign of the otter anywhere. +Incredible as it seemed, the hunted creature, an animal that would +probably weigh about twenty-four pounds, had crept up the rush of water +among the feet of those who watched for it and vanished unseen into the +sheltering depths beyond. + +Evelyn sighed with relief. + +"I think it will escape," she said. "The river's rather full after the +rain, which is against the dogs, and there isn't another shallow for some +distance. Shall we go on?" + +They strolled forward behind the dogs, which were again moving up-stream; +but they turned aside to avoid a bit of woods, and it was some time later +when they came out upon a rocky promontory dropping steeply to the river. +Just there, the water flowed through a deep gorge, down the sides of +which great oaks and ashes straggled. In front of Carroll and his +companion a ragged face of rock fell about twenty feet; but there was a +little soil among the stones below, and a dense growth of alders +interspersed with willows, fringed the water's edge. The stream swirled +in deep black eddies beneath their drooping branches, though a little +farther on it poured tumultuously between scattered boulders into the +slacker pool. The rock sloped on one side, and there was a bank of +underbrush near the foot of the descent. + +The hunt was now widely scattered about the reach. Men crept along +slippery ledges above the water and moved over dangerously slanting +slopes, half hidden among the trees; a few were in the river. Three or +four of the dogs were swimming; the others, spread out in twos and +threes, trotted in and out among the undergrowth. + +Presently, a figure creeping along the foot of the rock not far away +seized Carroll's attention. + +"It's Mopsy!" he exclaimed. "The foothold doesn't look very safe among +those stones, and there seems to be deep water below." + +He called out in warning, but the girl did not heed. The willows were +thinner at the spot she had reached, and, squeezing herself through them, +she leaned down, clinging to an alder branch. + +"He's gone to holt among the roots!" she cried. + +Three or four men running along the opposite bank apparently decided that +she was right, for the horn was sounded and here and there a dog broke +through the underbrush. Just as the first-comers reached the rapid, there +was a splash. It was a moment or two before Evelyn or Carroll, who had +been watching the dogs, realized what had happened; then the blood ebbed +from the girl's face. Mabel had disappeared. + +Running a few paces forward, Carroll saw what looked like a bundle of +outspread garments swing round in an eddy. It washed in among the +willows, and he heard a faint cry. + +"Help!--Quick! I've caught a branch!" + +He could not see the girl now, but an alder branch was bending sharply, +and he flung a rapid glance around him. The summit of the rock on which +he stood rose above the trees. Had there been a better landing, he would +have faced the risky fall, but it seemed impossible to alight among the +stones without a broken leg. Even if he came down uninjured, there was a +barrier of tangled branches and densely growing withes between him and +the river, and the opening through which Mabel had fallen was some +distance away. Farther down-stream, he might reach the water by a +reckless jump, as the promontory sloped toward it there, but he would not +be able to swim back against the current. His position was a painful one; +there was nothing that he could do. + +The next moment, men and dogs went scrambling and swimming down the +rapid. They were in hot pursuit of the otter, which had left its +hiding place, and it was evident that the girl, clinging to a branch +beneath the willows, had escaped their attention. Carroll shouted +savagely as his comrade appeared among the tail of the hunt below. The +others were too much occupied to heed; or perhaps they concluded that +he was urging them on. + +"Help! Mabel!" Carroll shouted again and again, gesticulating wildly in +his desperation. + +Vane, waist-deep in the water, seemed to catch the girl's name and +understand. In a few moments he was swimming down the pool along the edge +of the alders. Then Carroll saw that Evelyn expected him to take some +part in the rescue. + +"Get down before it's too late!" she cried. + +Carroll spread out his hands, as if to beg her forbearance. While every +impulse urged him to the leap, he endeavored to keep his head. He fancied +that he would be wanted later, and it was obvious that he would not be +available if he lay upon the rocks below with broken bones. + +"I can't do any good just now," he tried to explain, knowing that he was +right and yet feeling horribly ashamed. "She's holding on, and Wallace +will reach her in a moment or two." + +Evelyn broke out at him in an agony of fear and anger. + +"You coward! Will you let her drown?" + +She turned and ran forward, but Carroll, dreading that she meant to +attempt the descent, seized her shoulder and held her fast. While he +grappled with her, Vane's voice rose from below, and he let his +hands drop. + +"Wallace has her. There's no more danger," he said quietly. + +Evelyn suddenly recovered a small degree of calm. Even amid the stress of +her terror, she recognized the assurance in the man's tone. He had blind +confidence in his comrade's prowess, and his next words made this +impression clearer. + +"Don't be afraid. He'll never let go until he brings her out." + +Standing, breathless, a pace or two apart, they saw Vane and the girl +appear from beneath the willows and wash away down-stream. The man was +swimming, but he was hampered by his burden, and once he and Mabel sank +almost from sight in a whirling eddy. Carroll said nothing. Turning, he +ran along the sloping ridge until the fall was less and the trees were +thinner; then he leaped out into the air. He broke through the alders +amid a rustle of bending boughs, and disappeared; but a moment or two +later his shoulders shot out of the water close beside Vane, and the two +men went down the stream with Mabel between them. + +Evelyn scrambled wildly along the ridge, and when she reached the foot of +it, Vane was helping Mabel up the sloping bank of gravel. The girl's +drenched garments clung about her, and her wet hair was streaked across +her face, but she seemed able to stand. The hunt had swept on through +shoaler water, but there was a cheer from the stragglers across the +river. Evelyn clutched her sister, half laughing, half sobbing, and +incoherently upbraided her. Mabel shook herself free, and her first +remark was characteristic. + +"Oh, don't make a silly fuss! I'm only wet through. Wallace, take me +home." + +She tried to shake out her dripping skirt, and Vane picked her up, as she +seemed to expect it. The others followed when he pushed through the +underbrush toward a neighboring meadow. Evelyn, however, was still a +little unnerved, and when they reached a gap in a wall she stopped and +leaned heavily against the stones. + +"I think I'm more disturbed than Mopsy is," she said to Carroll. "What I +felt must be some excuse for me. You were right, of course. I'm sorry +for what I said; it was unjustifiable." + +Carroll laughed lightly. + +"Anyway, it was perfectly natural; but I must confess that I felt some +temptation to make a spectacular fool of myself. I might have jumped into +those alders, but it's most unlikely that I could have got out of them." + +Evelyn looked at him with a new respect. He had not troubled to point +out that he had not flinched from the jump when it seemed likely to be +of service. + +"How could you have the sense to think of that?" she asked. + +"I suppose it's a matter of practise. One can't work among the ranges and +rivers without learning to make the right decision rapidly. When you +don't, you get badly hurt. With most of us, the thing has to be +cultivated; it's not instinctive." + +Evelyn was struck by the explanation. This acquired coolness was a finer +thing, and undoubtedly more useful, than hot-headed gallantry, though she +admired the latter. She was young, and physical prowess appealed to her; +besides, it had been displayed in saving her sister's life. Carroll and +his comrade were men of varied and romantic experience; and they +possessed, she fancied, qualities not shared by all their fellows. + +"Wallace was splendid in the water!" she exclaimed, uttering part of her +thoughts aloud. + +"I thought rather more of him in the city," Carroll replied. "That kind +of thing was new to him, and I'm inclined to believe that I'd have let +the people he had to negotiate with have the mine for a good deal less +than he eventually got for it. But I've said something about that before; +and, after all, I'm not here to play Boswell." + +The girl was surprised at the apt allusion; it was not what she would +have expected from the man. As she had not wholly recovered her +composure, she forgot what Vane had told her about him, and her comment +was an incautious one: + +"How did you hear of him?" + +Carroll parried this with a smile. + +"You don't suppose you can keep those old fellows to yourselves--they're +international. But hadn't we better be getting on? Let me help you +through the gap." + +They reached the Dene some time later, and Mabel, very much against her +wishes, was sent to bed. Shortly afterward Carroll came across Vane, who +had changed his clothes and was strolling up and down among the +shrubberies. + +"What are you doing here?" he asked. + +Vane looked embarrassed. + +"For one thing, I'm keeping out of Mrs. Chisholm's way; she's inclined to +be effusive. For another, I'm trying to think out what I ought to do. +We'll have to pull out very shortly; and I had meant to have an interview +with Evelyn to-day. That's why I feel uncommonly annoyed with Mopsy for +falling in." + +Carroll made a grimace. + +"If that's how it strikes you, any advice I could offer would be wasted. +A sensible man would consider it a promising opportunity." + +"And trade upon it? As you know, there wasn't the slightest risk, +with branches that one could get hold of, and a shelving bank almost +within reach." + +"Do you really want the girl?" + +"That impression's firmly in my mind," Vane said curtly. + +"Then you'd better pitch your Quixotic notions overboard and tell her +so." + +Vane frowned but made no answer; and Carroll, recognizing that his +comrade was not inclined to be communicative, left him pacing up and +down. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +VANE WITHDRAWS + + +Dusk was drawing on, but there was still a little light in the western +sky, when Vane strolled along the terrace in front of the Dene. In the +distance the ranks of fells rose black and solemn out of filmy trails of +mist, but the valley had faded to a trough of shadow. A faint breeze was +stirring, and the silence was broken by the soft patter of withered +leaves which fluttered down across the lawn. Vane noticed it all by some +involuntary action of his senses, for although, at the time, he was +oblivious to his surroundings, he afterward found that he could recall +each detail of the scene with vivid distinctness. He was preoccupied and +eager, but fully aware of the need for coolness, for it was quite +possible that he might fail in the task he had in hand. + +Presently he saw Evelyn, for whom he had been waiting, cross the opposite +end of the terrace. Moving forward he joined her at the entrance to a +shrubbery walk. A big, clipped yew with a recess in which a seat had been +placed stood close by. + +"I have been sitting with Mopsy," said Evelyn. "She seems very little the +worse for her adventure--thanks to you." She hesitated and her voice grew +softer. "I owe you a heavy debt--I am very fond of Mopsy." + +"It's a great pity she fell in," Vane declared curtly. + +Evelyn looked at him in surprise. She scarcely thought he could regret +the efforts he had made on her sister's behalf, but that was what his +words implied. He noticed her change of expression. + +"The trouble is that the thing might seem to give me some claim on you; +and I don't want that," he explained. "It cost me no more than a wetting; +I hadn't the least difficulty in getting her out." + +His companion was still puzzled. She could find no fault with him for +being modest about his exploit, but that he should make it clear that he +did not require her gratitude struck her as unnecessary. + +"For all that, you did bring her out," she persisted. "Even if it causes +you no satisfaction, the fact is of some importance to us." + +"I don't seem to be beginning very fortunately. What I mean is that I +don't want to urge my claim, if I have one. I'd rather be taken on my +merits." He paused a moment with a smile. "That's not much better, is it? +But it partly expresses what I feel. Leaving Mopsy out altogether, let me +try to explain--I don't wish you to be influenced by anything except your +own idea of me. I'm saying this because one or two points that seem in my +favor may have a contrary effect." + +Evelyn made no answer, and he indicated the seat. + +"Won't you sit down? I have something to say." + +The girl did as he suggested, and his smile died away. + +"Would you be astonished if I were to ask you to marry me?" + +He leaned against the smooth wall of yew, looking down at her with an +impressive steadiness of gaze. She could imagine him facing the city men +from whom he had extorted the full value of his mine in the same fashion, +and, in a later instance, so surveying the eddies beneath the osiers, +when he had gone to Mabel's rescue. It was borne in upon her that they +would better understand each other. + +"No," she answered. "If I must be candid, I am not astonished." Then the +color crept into her cheeks as she met his gaze. "I suppose it is an +honor; and it is undoubtedly a--temptation." + +"A temptation?" + +"Yes," said Evelyn, mustering her courage to face a crisis she had +dreaded. "It is only due you that you should hear the truth--though I +think you suspect it. Besides--I have some liking for you." + +"That is what I wanted you to own!" Vane broke in. + +She checked him with a gesture. Her manner was cold, and yet there was +something in it that stirred him more than her beauty. + +"After all," she explained, "it does not go very far, and you must try to +understand. I want to be quite honest, and what I have to say +is--difficult. In the first place, things are far from pleasant for me +here; I was expected to make a good marriage, and I had my chance in +London. I refused to profit by it, and now I'm a failure. I wonder +whether you can realize what a temptation it is to get away?" + +Vane frowned. + +"Yes," he responded. "It makes me savage to think of it! I can, at least, +take you out of all this. If you hadn't had a very fine courage, you +wouldn't have told me." + +Evelyn smiled, a curious wry smile. + +"It has only prompted me to behave, as most people would consider, +shamelessly; but there are times when one must get above that point of +view. Besides, there's a reason for my candor--had you been a man of +different stamp, it's possible that I might have been driven into taking +the risk. We should both have suffered for a time, but we might have +reached an understanding--not to intrude on each other--through open +variance. As it is, I could not do you that injustice, and I should +shrink from marrying you with only a little cold liking." + +The man held himself firmly in hand. Her calmness had infected him, and +he felt that this was not an occasion for romantic protestations, even +had he felt capable of making them, which was not the case. As a matter +of fact, such things were singularly foreign to his nature. + +"Even that would go a long way with me, if I could get nothing better," +he declared. "Besides, you might change. I could surround you with some +comfort; I think I could promise not to force my company upon you; I +believe I could be kind." + +"Yes," assented Evelyn. "I shouldn't be afraid of harshness from you; but +it seems impossible that I should change. You must see that you started +handicapped from the beginning. Had I been free to choose, it might have +been different, but I have lived for some time in shame and fear, hating +the thought that some one would be forced on me." + +He said nothing and she went on. + +"Must I tell you? You are the man!" + +His face grew hard and for a moment he set his lips tight. It would have +been a relief to express his feelings concerning his host just then. + +"If you don't hate me for it now, I'm willing to take the risk," he said +at length. "It will be my fault if you hate me in the future; I'll try +not to deserve it." + +He fancied that she was yielding, but she roused herself with an effort. + +"No. Love on one side may go a long way, if it is strong enough--but it +must be strong to overcome the many clashes of thought and will. +Yours"--she looked at him steadily--"would not stand the strain." + +Vane started. + +"You are the only woman I ever wished to marry," he declared vehemently. + +He paused and spread out his hands. + +"What can I say to convince you?" + +"I'm afraid it's impossible. If you had wanted me greatly, you would have +pressed the claim you had in saving Mopsy, and I should have forgiven you +that; you would have urged any and every claim. As it is, I suppose I am +pretty"--her lips curled scornfully--"and you find that some of your +ideas and mine agree. It isn't half enough! Shall I tell you that you are +scarcely moved as yet?" + +It flashed upon Vane that he was confronted with the reality. Her beauty +had appealed to him, and her other qualities--her reserved graciousness +with its tinge of dignity, her insight and her comprehension--had also +had their effect; but they had only awakened admiration and respect. He +desired her as one desires an object for its rarity and preciousness; but +this, as she had told him, was not enough. Behind her physical and mental +attributes, and half revealed by them, there was something deeper: the +real personality of the girl. It was elusive, mystic, with a spark of +immaterial radiance which might brighten human love with its transcendent +glow; but, as he dimly realized, if he won her by force, it might recede +and vanish altogether. He could not, with strong ardor, compel its +clearer manifestation. + +"I think I am moved as much as it is possible for me to be." + +Evelyn shook her head. + +"No; you will discover the difference some day, and then you will +thank me for leaving you your liberty. Now I beg you to leave me mine +and let me go." + +Vane stood silent a minute or two, for the last appeal had stirred him to +chivalrous pity. He was shrewd enough to realize that if he persisted he +could force her to come to him. Her father and mother were with him; she +had nothing--no commonplace usefulness nor trained abilities--to fall +back on if she defied them. But it was unthinkable that he should +brutally compel her. + +"Well," he yielded at length, "I must try to face the situation; I want +to assure you that it is not a pleasant one to me. But there's another +point--I'm afraid I've made things worse for you. Your people will +probably blame you for sending me away." + +Evelyn did not answer this, and he broke into a grim smile. + +"Well," he added, "I think I can save you any trouble on that +score--though the course I'm going to take isn't flattering, if you look +at it in one way, I want you to leave me to deal with your father." + +He took her consent for granted, and leaning down laid a hand lightly on +her shoulder. + +"You will try to forgive me for the anxiety I have caused you? The time +I've spent here has been very pleasant, but I'm going back to Canada in a +day or two. Perhaps you'll think of me without bitterness now and then." + +He turned away; and Evelyn sat still, glad that the strain was over, +thinking earnestly. The man was gentle and considerate as well as +forceful, and to some extent she liked him. Indeed, she admitted that she +had not met any man she liked as much; but that was not going very far. +Then she began to wonder at her candor, and to consider if it had been +necessary. It was curious that this was the only man she had ever taken +into her confidence. It struck her that her next suitor would probably be +a much less promising specimen. On the other hand, since her views on the +subject differed from those her parents held, it was consoling to +remember that eligible suitors for the daughter of an impoverished +gentleman were likely to be scarce. + +It had grown dark when she rose and entering the house went up to Mabel's +room. The girl looked at her sharply as she came in. + +"So you have got rid of him!" she said. "I think you're very silly." + +"How did you know?" Evelyn asked with a start. + +"I heard him walking up and down the terrace, and I heard you go out. You +can't walk over raked gravel without making a noise. He went along to +join you, and it was a good while before you came back at different +times. I've been waiting for this the last day or two." + +Evelyn sat down with a rather strained smile. + +"Well, I have sent him away." + +Mabel regarded her indignantly. + +"You'll never get another chance like this one. If I'd been in your +place, I'd have had Wallace if it had cost me no end of trouble to get +him. He said something about its being a pity I wasn't older, one day, +and I told him that I wasn't by any means as young as I looked. If you +had only taken him, I could have worn decent frocks. Nobody could call +the last one that!" + +This was a favorite grievance, and Evelyn ignored it; but Mabel had +more to say. + +"I suppose," she went on, "you don't know that Wallace has been getting +Gerald out of trouble?" + +"Are you sure of that?" + +"Yes. I'll tell you what I know. Wallace saw Gerald in London--he told us +that--and we all know that Gerald couldn't pay his debts a little while +ago. You remember he came down to Kendall and went on and stayed the next +night with the Claytons. It isn't astonishing that he didn't come here, +after the row there was on the last occasion." + +"Go on," prompted Evelyn impatiently. "What has his visit to the +Clayton's to do with it?" + +"Well, you don't know that I saw Gerald in the afternoon. After all, he's +the only brother I've got; and as Jim was going to the station with the +trap I made him take me. The Claytons were in the garden; we were +scattered about, and I heard Frank and Gerald, who had strolled off from +the others, talking. Gerald was telling him about some things he'd +bought--they must have been expensive, because Frank asked him where he +got the money. Gerald laughed and said he'd had an unexpected stroke of +luck that had set him straight again. Now, of course Gerald got no money +from home, and if he'd won it he would have told Frank how he did so. +Gerald always would tell a thing like that." + +Evelyn was filled with confusion and hot indignation. She had little +doubt that Mabel's surmise was correct. + +"I wonder whether he has told anybody; though it's scarcely likely." + +Mabel laughed. + +"Of course he hasn't. We all know what Gerald is. Before I came home, I +asked him what he thought of Wallace. He said he was a good sort, or +something like that, and I saw that he had a reason for saying it; but +he must go on in his patronizing style that Wallace was rather +Colonial, though he hadn't drifted too far--not beyond reclamation. +After all, Wallace was one of--us--before he went out; and if Carroll's +Colonial he's the kind of man I like. I was so angry with Gerald I +wanted to slap him!" + +There was no doubt that Mabel was a staunch partizan, and Evelyn +sympathized with her. She was, of course, acquainted with her brother's +character, and she was filled with indignant contempt for him. It was +intolerable that he should have allowed Vane to discharge his debts and +then have alluded to him in terms of indulgent condescension. + +"It strikes me Wallace ought to get his money back, now that you have +sent him away," Mabel added. "But of course that's most unlikely. It +wouldn't take Gerald long to waste it." + +Evelyn rose and, making some excuse, left the room. She could feel her +face growing hot, and Mabel had unusually keen eyes and precocious powers +of deduction. A suspicion which had troubled her more than Gerald's +conduct had lately crept into her mind, and it now thrust itself upon her +attention; several things pointed to the fact that her father had taken +the same course her brother had done. She felt that had she heard Mabel's +information before the interview with Vane, she might have yielded to him +in an agony of humiliation. Mabel had summed up the situation with +stinging candor and crudity--Vane, who had been defrauded, was entitled +to recover his money. For a few moments Evelyn was furiously angry with +him, and then, growing calmer, she recognized that this was unreasonable. +She could not imagine any idea of a compact originating with the man, and +he had quietly acquiesced in her decision. + +Soon after she left her sister, Vane walked into the room which Chisholm +reserved for his own use. It was handsomely furnished, and the big, +light-oak writing-table and glass-fronted cabinets were examples of +artistic handicraft. The sight of them jarred on Vane, who had already +surmised that it was the women of the Chisholm family who were expected +to practise self-denial. Chisholm was sitting at the table with some +papers in front of him and a cigar in his hand, and Vane drew out a chair +and lighted his pipe before he addressed him. + +"I've made up my mind to sail on Saturday, instead of next week," he +said abruptly. + +"You have decided rather suddenly, haven't you?" Chisholm suggested. + +Vane knew that what his host wished to know was the cause of the +decision, and he meant to come to the point. He was troubled by no +consideration for the man. + +"The last news I had indicated that I was wanted," he replied. "After +all, there is only one reason why I have abused Mrs. Chisholm's +hospitality so long." + +"Well?" + +"You will remember what I asked you some time ago. I had better say that +I retire from the position--abandon the idea." + +Chisholm started and his florid face grew redder, while Vane, in place of +embarrassment, was conscious of a somewhat grim amusement. It seemed +curious that a man of Chisholm's stamp should have any pride. + +"What am I to understand by that?" Chisholm asked with some asperity. + +"I think that what I said explained it. Bearing in mind your and Mrs. +Chisholm's influence, I've an idea that Evelyn might have yielded, if I'd +strongly urged my suit; but that was not by any means what I wanted. I'd +naturally prefer a wife who married me because she wished to do so. +That's why, after thinking the thing over, I've decided to--withdraw." + +Chisholm straightened himself in his chair in fiery indignation, which he +made no attempt to conceal. + +"You mean that after asking my consent, and seeing more of Evelyn, you +have changed your mind! Can't you understand that it's an unpardonable +confession--one which I never fancied a man born and brought up in your +station could have brought himself to make?" + +Vane looked at him with an impassive face. + +"It strikes me as largely a question of terms--I may not have used the +right one. Now that you know how the matter stands, you can describe it +in any way that sounds nicest. In regard to your other remark, I've been +in a good many stations, and I must admit that until lately none of them +were likely to promote much delicacy of sentiment." + +"So it seems!" Chisholm was almost too hot to sneer. "But can't you +realize how your action reflects upon my daughter?" + +Vane held himself in hand. He had only one object: to divert Chisholm's +wrath from Evelyn to himself, and he fancied that he was succeeding in +this. For the rest, he was conscious of a strong resentment against the +man. Evelyn had told him that he had started handicapped. + +"It can't reflect upon her unless you talk about it, and both you and +Mrs. Chisholm have sense enough to refrain from doing that," he answered +dryly. "I can't flatter myself that Evelyn will grieve over me." Then his +manner changed. "Now we'll get down to business. I don't purpose to call +in that loan, which will, no doubt, be a relief to you." + +He rose leisurely and strolled out of the room. + +Shortly afterward he met Carroll in the hall, and the latter glanced at +him sharply. + +"What have you been doing?" he inquired. "There's a look in your eyes I +seem to remember." + +Vane laughed. + +"I suppose I've been outraging the rules of decency; but I don't feel +ashamed. I've been acting the uncivilized Westerner, though it's possible +that I rather strained the part. To come to the point, however, we pull +out for the Dominion first thing to-morrow." + +Carroll asked no further questions; he did not think it would serve any +purpose. He contented himself with making arrangements for their +departure, which they took early on the morrow. Vane had a brief +interview with Mabel, and then by her contrivance he secured a word or +two with Evelyn alone. + +"It is possible," he told her, "that you may hear some hard things of +me--and I count upon your not contradicting them. After all, I think you +owe me that favor. There's just another matter--now that I won't be here +to trouble you, won't you try to think of me leniently?" + +He held her hand for a moment and then turned away, and a few minutes +later he and Carroll left the Dene. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +IN VANCOUVER + + +About a fortnight after Vane's return to Vancouver, he sat one evening on +the veranda of Nairn's house, in company with his host and Carroll, +lazily looking down upon the inlet. The days were growing shorter; the +air was clear and cool; and the snow upon the heights across the still, +blue water was creeping lower down. The clatter of a steamer's winches +rose sharply from the wharf, and the sails of two schooners gleamed +against the dark pines that overhang the Narrows. + +In some respects, Vane was glad to be back in the western city. At first, +the ease and leisure at the Dene had their charm for him, but by degrees +he came to chafe at them. The green English valley, hemmed in by its +sheltering hills, was steeped in too profound a tranquillity; the stream +of busy life passed it by with scarcely an entering ripple to break its +drowsy calm. One found its atmosphere enervating, dulling to the +faculties. In the new West, however, one was forcibly thrust into contact +with a strenuous activity. Life was free and untrammeled there; it flowed +with a fierce joyousness in natural channels, and one could feel the +eager throb of it. + +Yet the man was not content. He had been to the mine, and in going and +coming he had ridden far over a very rough trail, but the physical effort +had not afforded a sufficient outlet for his pent-up energies. He had +afterward lounged about the city for nearly a week, and he found this +becoming monotonous. + +Nairn presently referred to one of the papers in his hand. + +"Horsfield has been bringing up that smelter project again, and there's +something to be said in favor of his views," he remarked. "We're paying a +good deal for reduction." + +"We couldn't keep a smelter going, at present," Vane objected. + +"There are two or three low-grade mineral properties in the neighborhood +of the Clermont that have had very little development work done on them. +They can't pay freight on their raw product, but I'm thinking that we'd +encourage their owners to open up the mines, and we'd get their business, +if we had a smelter handy." + +"It wouldn't amount to much," Vane replied. "Besides, there's another +objection--we haven't the money to put up a thoroughly efficient plant." + +"Horsfield's ready to find part of it and to do the work." + +"I know he is." Vane frowned. "It strikes me he's suspiciously anxious. +The arrangement he has in view would give him a pretty strong hold upon +the company; and there are ways in which he could squeeze us." + +"It's possible. But, looking at it as a purely personal matter, there are +inducements he could offer ye. Horsfield's a man who has the handling of +other folks' money, if he has no that much of his own. It might be wise +to stand in with him." + +"So he hinted," Vane answered dryly. + +"Your argument was about the worst you could have used, Mr. Nairn," +Carroll laughed. + +"Weel," drawled Nairn good-humoredly, "I'm no urging it. I would not see +your partner make enemies for the want of a warning." + +"He'd probably do so, in any case; it's a gift of his. On the other hand, +it's fortunate that he has a way of making friends. The two things +sometimes go together." + +Vane turned to Nairn with signs of impatience. + +"It might save trouble if I state that while I'm a director of the +Clermont I expect to be content with a fair profit on my stock in +the company." + +"He's modest," Carroll commented. "What he means is that he doesn't +propose to augment that profit by taking advantage of his position." + +"It's a creditable idea, though I'm no sure it's as common as might be +desired. While I have to thank ye for it, I would not consider the +explanation altogether necessary." Nairn's eyes twinkled for a moment, +and then he turned seriously to Vane. "Now we come to another point--the +company's a small one, the mine is doing satisfactorily, and the moment's +favorable for the floating of mineral properties. If we got an option on +the half-developed claims near the Clermont and went into the market, +it's likely that an issue of new stock would meet with the favor of +investors." + +"I suppose so," Vane responded. "I'll support such a scheme when I can +see how an increased capital could be used to advantage and am convinced +about the need for a smelter. At present that's not the case." + +"I mentioned it as a duty---ye'll hear more of it. For the rest, I'm +inclined to agree with ye." + +A few minutes later, Nairn went into the house with Carroll, and as they +entered he glanced at his companion. + +"In the present instance, Mr. Vane's views are sound," he said. "But I +see difficulties before him in his business career." + +"So do I," smiled Carroll. "When he grapples with them it will be by a +frontal attack." + +"A bit of compromise is judicious now and then." + +"In a general way, it's not likely to appeal to Vane. When he can't get +through by direct means, there'll be something wrecked. You'd better +understand what kind of man he is." + +Nairn made a sign of concurrence. + +"It's no the first time I've been enlightened upon the point." + +Shortly after they had disappeared, Miss Horsfield came out of another +door, and Vane rose when she approached him. He had always found her a +pleasant companion. + +"Mrs. Nairn told me I would find you and the others on the veranda," she +informed him. "She said she would join you presently. It is too fine an +evening to stay in." + +"I'm alone, as you see. Nairn and Carroll have just deserted me: but I +can't complain. What pleases me most about this house is that you can +do what you like in it, and--within limits--the same thing applies to +this city." + +Jessy laughed as she sank gracefully into the chair he drew forward. She +was, as a rule, deliberate in her movements, and her pose was usually an +effective one. + +"Yes," she replied; "I think that would please you. But how long have you +been back?" + +"A fortnight, yesterday." + +There was a hint of reproach in Jessy's glance. + +"Then I think Mrs. Nairn might have brought you over to see us." + +Vane wondered whether she meant that she was surprised that he had not +come of his own accord. He felt mildly flattered. She was interesting, +and knew how to listen sympathetically, as well as how to talk, and she +was also a lady of station in the western city. + +"I was away at the mine a good deal of the time," he explained. + +"I wonder if you are sorry to get back?" + +Turning a little, Vane indicated the climbing city, rising tier on tier +above its water-front; and then the broad expanse of blue inlet and the +faint white line of towering snow. + +"Wouldn't anything I could say in praise of Vancouver be a trifle +superfluous?" he asked. + +Jessy recognized that he had parried her question neatly, but this did +not deter her. She was anxious to learn whether he had felt any regret at +leaving England, or, to be more concise, if there was anybody in that +country from whom he had reluctantly parted. She admitted that the man +attracted her. There was a breezy freshness about him which he had +brought from the rocks and woods, and though she was acquainted with a +number of young men whose conversation was characterized by snap and +sparkle, they needed toning down. This miner was set apart from them by +something which he had doubtless acquired in youth in the older land. + +"That wasn't quite what I meant," she returned. "We don't always want to +be flattered. I'm in search of information. You told me that you had +been eight or nine years in this country, and life must be rather +different yonder. How did it and the people you belong to strike you +after the absence?" + +"It's difficult to explain," Vane replied with an air of amused +reflection which hinted that he meant to get away from the point. "On +the whole, I think I'm more interested in the question as to how I +struck them. It's curious that whereas some people here insist on +considering me English, I've a suspicion that they looked upon me as a +typical Colonial there." + +"One wouldn't like to think you resented it." + +"How could I? This land sheltered me when I was an outcast; it provided +me with a living, widened my views, and set me on my feet." + +"Ah!" murmured Jessy, "you are the kind we don't mind taking in. The +others go back and try to forget us, or abuse us. But you haven't given +me very much information yet." + +"Well," drawled Vane, "the best comparison is supplied by my first +remark--that in this city you can do what you like. You're rather fenced +in yonder. If you're of a placid disposition, that, no doubt, is +comforting, because it shuts out unpleasant things. On the other hand, if +you happen to be restless and active, the fences are inconvenient, for +you can't always climb over--and it is not considered proper to break +them down. Still, having admitted that, I'm proud of the old land. If one +has means and will conform, it's the finest country in the world! It's +only the fences that irritate me." + +"Fences would naturally be obnoxious to you. But we have some here." + +"They're generally built loose, of split-rails, and not nailed. An +energetic man can pull off a bar or two and stride over. If it's +necessary, he can afterward put them up again, and there's no harm done." + +"Would you do the latter?" + +Vane's expression changed. + +"No. I think if there were anything good on the other side, I'd widen the +gap so that the less agile and the needy could crawl through." He smiled +at her. "You see, I owe some of them a good deal. They were the only +friends I had when I first tramped, jaded and footsore, about the +Province." + +Jessy was pleased with his answer. She had heard of the free hospitality +of the bush choppers, and she thought it was a graceful thing that he +should acknowledge his debt to them. She was also pleased that she could +lead him on to talk unreservedly. + +"Now at last you'll be content to rest a while," she suggested. "I dare +say you deserve it." + +"It's strange that you should say that, because just before you came out +of the house I was thinking that I'd sat still long enough. It's a thing +that gets monotonous. One must keep going on." + +"Take care that you don't walk over a precipice some day when you have +left all the fences behind. But I've kept you from your meditations, and +I had better see if Mrs. Nairn is coming." + +He was sitting alone, lighting a cigar, when he noticed a girl whose +appearance seemed familiar in the road below. Moving along the veranda, +he recognized her as Kitty, and hastily crossed the lawn toward her. She +was accompanied by a young man whom Vane had once or twice seen in the +city, and she greeted him with evident pleasure. + +"Tom," she introduced, when they had exchanged a few words, "this is Mr. +Vane." Turning to Vane she added: "Mr. Drayton." + +Vane liked the man's face and manner. He shook hands with him, and then +looked back at Kitty. + +"What are you doing now; and how are little Elsie and her mother?" + +Kitty's face clouded. + +"Mrs. Marvin's dead. Elsie's with some friends at Spokane, and I think +she's well looked after. I've given up the stage. Tom"--she explained +shyly--"didn't like it. Now I'm with some people at a ranch near the +Fraser, on the Westminster road. There are two or three children, and I'm +very fond of them." + +"She won't be there long," Drayton interposed. "I've wanted to meet you +for some time, Mr. Vane. They told me at the office that you were away." + +Vane smiled comprehendingly. + +"I suppose my congratulations will not be out of place? Won't you ask me +to the wedding?" + +Kitty blushed. + +"Will you come?" + +"Try!" + +"There's nobody we would rather see," declared Drayton. "I'm heavily in +your debt, Mr. Vane." + +"Pshaw!" rejoined Vane. "Come to see me any time--to-morrow, if you can +manage it." + +Drayton said that he would do so, and shortly afterward he and Kitty +moved away. Vane turned back across the lawn; but he was not aware that +Jessy Horsfield had watched the meeting from the veranda and had +recognized Kitty, whom she had once seen at the station. She had already +ascertained that the girl had arrived in Vancouver in Vane's company, +and, in view of the opinion she had formed of him, this somewhat puzzled +her; but she decided that one must endeavor to be charitable. Besides, +having closely watched the little group, she was inclined to believe from +the way Vane shook hands with the man that there was no danger to be +apprehended from Kitty. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A NEW PROJECT + + +Vane was sitting alone in the room set apart for the Clermont Company in +Nairn's office when Drayton was shown in. He took the chair Vane +indicated and lighted a cigar the latter gave him. + +"Now," he began with some diffidence, "you cut me off short when I met +you the other day, and one of my reasons for coming over was to get +through with what I was saying then. It's just this--I owe you a good +deal for taking care of Kitty; she's very grateful and thinks no end of +you. I want to say I'll always feel that you have a claim on me." + +Vane smiled at him. It was evident that Kitty had taken her lover into +her confidence with regard to her trip aboard the sloop, and that she had +done so said a good deal for her. He thought one might have expected a +certain amount of half-jealous resentment, or even faint suspicion, on +the man's part; but there was no sign of this. Drayton believed in Kitty, +and that was strongly in his favor. + +"It didn't cost me any trouble," Vane replied. "We were coming to +Vancouver, anyway." + +Drayton's embarrassment became more obvious. + +"It cost you some money--there were the tickets. Now I feel that I +have to--" + +"Nonsense! When you are married to Miss Blake, you can pay me back, if +it will be a relief to you. When's the wedding to be?" + +"In a couple of months," answered Drayton. He saw that it would be +useless to protest. "I'm a clerk in the Winstanley mills, and as one of +the staff is going, I'll get a move up then. We are to be married as +soon as I do." + +He said a little more on the same subject, and then after a few moments' +silence he added: + +"I wonder if the Clermont business keeps your hands full, Mr. Vane?" + +"It doesn't. It's a fact I'm beginning to regret." + +Drayton appeared to consider. + +"Well," he said, "people seem to regard you as a rising man with snap in +him, and there's a matter I might, perhaps, bring before you. Let me +explain. I'm a clerk on small pay, but I've taken an interest outside my +routine work in the lumber trade of this Province and its subsidiary +branches. I figured any knowledge I could pick up might stand me in some +money some day. So far"--he smiled ruefully--"it hasn't done so." + +"Go on," prompted Vane. His curiosity was aroused. + +"It has struck me that pulping spruce--paper spruce--is likely to be +scarce presently. The supply's not unlimited and the world's consumption +is going up by jumps." + +"There's a good deal of timber you could use for pulp, in British +Columbia alone," Vane interposed. + +"Sure. But there's not a very great deal that could be milled into +high-grade paper pulp; and it's getting rapidly worked out in most other +countries. Then, as a rule, it's mixed up with firs, cedars and +cypresses; and that means the cutting of logging roads to each cluster of +milling trees. There's another point--a good deal of the spruce lies back +from water or a railroad, and in some cases it would be costly to bring +in a milling plant or to pack the pulp out." + +"That's obvious; anyway, where you would have to haul every pound of +freight over a breakneck divide." + +Drayton leaned forward confidentially. + +"Then if one struck high-grade paper spruce--a whole valley full of +it--with water power and easy access to the sea, there ought to be money +in the thing?" + +"Yes," Vane answered with growing interest; "that strikes me as very +probable." + +"I believe I could put you on the track of such a valley." + +Vane looked at him thoughtfully. + +"We'd better understand each other. Do you want to sell me your +knowledge? And have you offered it to anybody else?" + +His companion answered with the candor he expected. + +"Kitty and I aren't going to find it easy to get along--rents are high in +this city. I want to give her as much as I can; but I'm willing to leave +you to do the square thing. The Winstanley people have their hands full +and won't look at any outside matter, and the one or two people I've +spoken to don't seem anxious to consider it. It's mighty hard for a +little man to launch a project." + +"It is," Vane agreed sympathetically. + +"Then," Drayton continued, "the idea's not my own. It was a mineral +prospector--a relative of mine--who struck the valley on his last trip. +He's an old man, and he came down played out and sick. Now I guess he's +slowly dying." He paused a moment. "Would you like to see him?" + +"I'll go with you now, if it's convenient," Vane replied. + +Drayton said that he might spare another half-hour without getting into +trouble, and they crossed the city to where a row of squalid frame +shacks stood on its outskirts. In the one they entered, a gaunt man +with grizzled hair lay upon a rickety bed. A glance showed Vane that +the man was very frail, and the harsh cough that he broke into as the +colder air from outside flowed in made the fact clearer. Drayton, +hastily shutting the door and explaining the cause of the visit, +motioned Vane to sit down. + +"I've heard of you," said the prospector, fixing his eyes on Vane. +"You're the man who located the Clermont--and put the project through. +You had the luck. I've been among the ranges half my life--and you can +see how much I've made of it! When I struck a claim that was worth +anything somebody else got the money." + +Vane had reasons for believing that this was not an uncommon experience. + +"Well," the man continued, "you look straight--and I've got to take some +chances. It's my last stake. We'll get down to business. I'll tell you +about that spruce." + +He spoke for a few minutes, and then asked abruptly: + +"What are you going to offer?" + +Vane had not been certain that he would make any offer at all; but, as +had befallen him once or twice before, the swift decision flashed +instinctively into his mind. + +"If I find that the timber and its location come up to your account of +it, I'll pay you so many dollars down--whatever we can agree on--when I +get my lease from the land office. Then I'll make another equal payment +the day we start the mill. But I don't bind myself to record the timber +or to put up a mill, unless I'm convinced that it's worth while." + +"I'd rather take less money and have a small share in the concern; and +Drayton must stand in." + +"It's a question of terms," Vane replied. "I'll consider your views." + +They discussed it for a while, and when they had at length arrived at a +provisional understanding, the prospector made a sign of acquiescence. + +"We'll let it go at that; but the thing will take time, and I'll +never get the money. If you exercise your option, you'll sure pay it +down to Seely?" + +"Celia's his daughter," Drayton explained. "He has no one else. She's a +waitress at the ---- House." He named a hotel of no great standing in the +city. "Comes home at nights, and looks after him as best she can." + +Vane glanced round the room. It was evident that Celia's earnings were +small; but he noticed several things which suggested that she had +lavished loving care upon the sick man, probably at the cost of severe +self-denial. This was what he would have expected, for he had spent most +of his nine years in Canada among the people who toil the hardest for +the least reward. + +"Yes," he answered; "I'll promise that. But, as I pointed out, while we +have agreed on the two payments, I reserve the right of deciding what +share your daughter and Drayton are to have, within the limits sketched +out. I can't fix it definitely until I've seen the timber--you'll have to +trust me." + +The prospector once more looked at him steadily, and then implied by a +gesture that he was satisfied. He was not in a position to dictate terms, +but his confidence had its effect on the man in whom he reposed it. + +"There's another thing. You'll do all you can to find that spruce?" + +"Yes," Vane promised. + +The man fumbled under his pillow and produced a piece cut out from a map +of the Province, with rough pencil notes on the back of it. + +"It was on my last prospecting trip I found the spruce," he said. "I'd +been looking round, and I figured I'd strike down to the coast over the +range. The creeks were full up with snow-water, and as I was held up here +and there before I could get across, provisions began to run short. Then +I fell down a gulch and hurt my knee, and as I had to leave my tent and +it rained most of the while, I lay in the wet at nights, half-fed, with +my knee getting worse. By and by I fell sick; but I had to get out of the +mountains, and I was pushing on for the straits when I struck the valley +where the spruce is. After that, I got kind of muddled in the head, but I +went down a long valley on an easy grade and struck some Siwash curing +the last of the salmon. The trouble is, I was too sick to figure exactly +where the small inlet they were camped by lies. They took me back with +them to their rancherie--you could find that--and sailed me across to +Comox. I came down on a steamboat, and the doctor told me I'd made my +last journey." + +Vane could sympathize. The narrative had been crudely matter-of-fact, but +he had been out on the prospecting trail often enough to fill in the +details the sick man omitted. He had slept in the rain, very scantily +fed, and he could picture the starving man limping along in an agony of +pain and exhaustion, with an injured knee, over boulders and broken rock +and through dense tangles of underbrush strewed with mighty fallen logs. + +"How far was the valley from the inlet?" he asked. + +"I can't tell you. I think I was three days on the trail; but it might +have been more. I was too sick to remember. Anyway, there was a creek you +could run the logs down." + +"Well, how far was the inlet from the rancherie?" + +"I was in the canoe part of one night and some of the next day. I can't +get it any clearer. We had a fair breeze. Guess thirty miles wouldn't +be far out." + +"That's something to go upon. How much does your daughter earn?" + +It was an abrupt change of subject, but the man answered as Vane had +expected. The girl's wages might maintain her economically, but it was +difficult to see how she could provide for her sick father. The latter +seemed to guess Vane's thoughts, for he spoke again. + +"If I'd known I was done for when I was up in the bush, I wouldn't have +pushed on quite so fast," he said with expressive simplicity. + +Vane rose. + +"If Drayton will come along with me, I'll send him back with a hundred +dollars. It's part of the first payment. Your getting it now should make +things a little easier for Celia." + +"But you haven't located the spruce yet!" + +"I'm going to locate it, if the thing's anyway possible." Vane shook +hands with the man. "I expect to get off up the straits very shortly." + +The prospector looked at him with relief and gratitude in his eyes. + +"You're white--and I guess you'd be mighty hard to beat!" + +When they reached the rutted street, which was bordered on one side by +great fir stumps, Drayton glanced at Vane with open admiration. + +"I'm glad I brought you across. You have a way of getting hold of +people--making them believe in you. Hartley hasn't a word in writing, but +he knows you mean to act square with him. Kitty felt the same thing--it +was why she came down in the sloop with you." + +Vane smiled, though there was a trace of embarrassment in his manner. + +"Now that you mention it, I don't think Hartley was wise; and you were +equally confiding. We have only arrived at a rather indefinite +understanding about your share." + +"We'll leave it at that. I haven't struck anybody else in this city who +would hear about the thing. Anyway, I'd prefer a few shares in the +concern, as mentioned, instead of money. If you get the thing on foot, I +guess it will go." + +"Won't they raise trouble at the mill about your staying out?" Vane +inquired. "We have still to go for that hundred dollars." + +Drayton owned that it might be advisable to hurry, and they set off for +the business quarter of the city. + +During the remainder of the day Vane was busy on board the sloop, but in +the evening he walked over to Horsfield's house with Mrs. Nairn and found +Jessy and her brother at home. Horsfield presently took Vane to his +smoking-room. + +"About that smelter," he began. "Haven't you made up your mind yet? The +thing's been hanging fire a long while." + +"Isn't it a matter for the board?" Vane asked suggestively. "There are +several directors." + +Horsfield laughed. + +"We'll face the fact: they'll do what you decide on." + +Vane did not reply to this. + +"Well," he said, "at present we couldn't keep a smelter big enough to be +economical going, and I'm doubtful whether we would get much ore from the +other properties you were talking about to Nairn." + +"Did he say it was my idea?" + +"He didn't; I'd reasons for assuming it. Those properties, however, are +of no account." + +Horsfield made no comment but waited expectantly, and Vane went on: + +"If it seems possible that we can profitably increase our output later +on, by means of further capital, we'll put up a smelter. But in that +case it might be economical to do the work ourselves." + +"Who would superintend it?" + +"I would, if necessary, with the assistance of an engineer used to +such plant." + +Horsfield smiled in a significant manner. + +"Aren't you inclined to take hold of too much? When you have plenty in +your hands, it's good policy to leave a little for somebody else. +Sometimes the person who benefits is willing to reciprocate." + +The hint was plain, and Nairn had said sufficient on another occasion to +make it clearer; but Vane did not respond. + +"If we gave the work out, it would be on an open tender," he declared. +"There would be no reason why you shouldn't make a bid." + +Horsfield found it difficult to conceal his disgust. He had no desire to +bid on an open tender, which would prevent his obtaining anything beyond +the market price. + +"The question must stand over until I come back," Vane went on. "I'm +going up the west coast shortly and may be away some time." + +They left the smoking-room shortly afterward, and when they strolled back +to the others, Vane sat down near Jessy. + +"I hear you are going away," she began. + +"Yes. I'm going to look for pulping timber." + +"But what do you want with pulping timber?" + +"It can sometimes be converted into money." + +"Isn't there every prospect of your obtaining a good deal already? Are +you never satisfied?" + +"I suppose I'm open to take as much as I can get." + +Vane answered with an air of humorous reflection. "The reason probably is +that I've had very little until lately. Still, I don't think it's +altogether the money that is driving me." + +"If it's the restlessness you once spoke of, you ought to put a check on +it and try to be content. There's danger in the longing to be always +going on." + +"It's a common idea that a small hazard gives a thing a spice." + +Jessy shot a swift glance at him, and she had, as he noticed, +expressive eyes. + +"Be careful," she advised. "After all, it's wiser to keep within safe +limits and not climb over too many fences." She paused and her voice grew +softer. "You have friends who would be sorry if you got hurt." + +The man was stirred. She was alluring, physically, while something in her +voice had its effect on him. Evelyn, however, still occupied his thoughts +and he smiled at his companion. + +"Thank you. I like to believe it." + +Then Mrs. Nairn and Horsfield crossed the room toward them and the +conversation became general. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +VANE SAILS NORTH + + +On the evening of Vane's departure he walked out of Nairn's room just as +dusk was falling. His host was with him, and when they entered an +adjacent room the elder man's face relaxed into a smile as he saw Jessy +Horsfield talking to his wife. Vane stopped a few minutes to speak to +them, and it was Jessy who gave the signal for the group to break up. + +"I must go," she said to Mrs. Nairn. "I've already stayed longer than I +intended. I'll let you have those patterns back in a day or two." + +"Mair patterns!" Nairn exclaimed with dry amusement. "It's the second lot +this week! Ye're surely industrious, Jessy. Women"--he addressed +Vane--"have curious notions of economy. They will spend a month knitting +a thing to give to somebody who does no want it, when they could buy it +for half a dollar, done better by machinery. I'm no saying, however, that +it does no keep them out of mischief." + +Jessy laughed. + +"I don't think many of us are industrious in that way now. After all, +isn't it a pity that so many of the beautiful old handicrafts are dying +out? No loom, for instance, could turn out some of the things your wife +makes. They're matchless." + +"She has an aumrie--ye can translate it bureaufull of them. It's no +longer customary to scatter them over the house. If ye mean to copy the +lot, ye have a task that will take ye most a lifetime." + +Mrs. Nairn's smile was half a sigh. + +"There were no books and no many amusements when I was young. We sat +through the long winter forenights, counting stitches, in the old gray +house at Burnfoot, under the Scottish moors. That, my dear, was thirty +years ago." + +She shook hands with Vane as he left the house with Jessy, and standing +on the stoop she watched them cross the lawn. + +"I'm thinking ye'll no see so much of Jessy for the next few weeks," +Nairn remarked dryly. "Has she shown ye any of yon knickknacks when she +has finished them?" + +His wife shook her head at him reproachfully. + +"Alic," she admonished, "ye're now and then hasty in jumping at +conclusions." + +"Maybe. I'm no infallible, but the fault ye mention is no common in the +land where we were born. I'm no denying that Jessy has enterprise, but +how far it will carry her in this case is mair than I can tell." + +He smiled as he recalled a scene at the station some time ago, and Mrs. +Nairn looked up at him. + +"What is amusing you, Alic?" + +"It was just a bit idea no worth the mentioning. I think it would no +count." He paused, and added with an air of reflection: "A young man's +heart is whiles inconstant and susceptible." + +Mrs. Nairn, ignoring the last remark, went into the house. In the +meanwhile Jessy and Vane walked down the road, until they stopped at a +gate. Jessy held out her hand. + +"I'm glad I met you to-night," she said. "You will allow me to wish you +every success?" + +There was a softness in her voice which Vane wholly failed to notice, +though he was aware that she was pretty and artistically dressed. This +was possibly why she made him think of Evelyn. + +"Thank you," he replied. "It's nice to feel that one has the sympathy of +one's friends." + +He turned away, and Jessy stood watching him as he strode down the road, +noticing, though it was getting dark, the free vigor of his movements. +There was, she thought, something in his fine poise and swing that set +him apart from other men she knew. None of them walked or carried himself +as Vane did. She was, however, forced to recognize that although he had +answered her courteously, there had been no warmth in his words. As a +matter of fact, Vane just then was conscious of a slight relief. He +admired Jessy, and he liked Nairn and his wife; but they belonged to the +city; and he was glad, on the whole, to leave it behind. He was going +back to the shadowy woods, where men lived naturally. The lust of fresh +adventure was strong in him. + +On reaching the wharf he found Kitty, with Celia Hartley, whom he had not +met hitherto, awaiting him with Carroll and Drayton. A boat lay at the +steps, and he and Carroll rowed the others off to the sloop. The moon was +just rising from behind the black firs at the inner end of the inlet, and +a little cold wind that blew down across them, faintly scented with +resinous fragrance, stirred the water into tiny ripples that flashed into +silvery radiance here and there. Lights gleamed on the forestays of +vessels whose tall spars were etched in high, black tracery against the +dusky blue of the sky, athwart which there streamed the long smoke trail +of a steamer passing out through the Narrows. + +Kitty, urged by Drayton, broke into a little song with a smooth, swinging +cadence that went harmoniously with the measured splash of oars; and Vane +enjoyed it all. The city was dropping behind him; he felt himself at +liberty. Carroll was a tried comrade; the others were simple people whose +views were more or less his own. Besides, it was a glorious night and +Kitty sang charmingly. + +A soft glow shone out from the skylights to welcome them as they +approached the sloop. When, laughing gaily, they clambered on board, +Carroll led the way to the tiny saloon, which just held them all. It was +brightly lighted by two nickeled lamps; flowers were fastened against the +paneling, and clusters of them stood upon the table, which was covered +with a spotless cloth. What was even more unusual, it was daintily set +out with good china and silver. Vane took the head of it, and Carroll +modestly explained that only part of the supper had been prepared by +himself. The rest he had obtained in the city, out of regard for the +guests, who, he added, had not lived in the bush. Presently Vane, who had +been busy talking to the others, turned to Celia. + +"Now that we can see each other better, I think you ought to recognize +me, Miss Hartley." + +The girl was young and attractive, and she blushed prettily. + +"I do, of course; but I thought I'd wait until I saw whether you +remembered me." + +"Why should you wait?" + +Celia looked confused. + +"It's two or three years since I've seen you; and I've left that place." + +Vane laughed. He had made her acquaintance at a workman's hotel where she +was engaged, when he was differently situated, and he fancied that she +was diffident about recalling the fact, now that he was obviously +prosperous. + +"Well," he responded, "it's only fair that I should give you supper, for +once. I've always had an idea that you brought me more dessert than I was +really entitled to." + +"It was because you were--civil," Celia explained, though her expression +suggested that the word did not convey all she meant. "Still, I can't +complain of the rest of the boys." + +"I wonder if you remember how astonished you were the first time you +brought me supper?" + +Celia smiled and Vane turned to the others. + +"I'd just come in on a schooner. We'd had wild weather, during which the +galley fire was generally washed out and the cook had some difficulty in +getting us anything to eat. Miss Hartley brought me a double supply. She +must have thought I needed it." + +"There was mighty little left," the girl retorted. + +The others laughed, but Vane went on, in a reminiscent manner: + +"I was wearing a pair of old gum-boots with one toe torn off, and my +jacket was split right up the back. When I went up-town the next day, +people looked at me suspiciously. The trade of the Province is pretty +bad when you see men in Vancouver dressed as I was. The fact that sticks +in my mind most clearly, however, is that on the following morning, when +I'd arranged to see a man who might give me a job, Miss Hartley offered +to sew up the tear for me. I was uncommonly glad to let her." + +Celia colored again, but it was evident that she was not displeased. +Kitty smiled at him, and there was appreciation in Drayton's eyes. + +"Were you surprised when she offered to sew it?" Kitty inquired. + +"Now, you have helped me on to what I wanted to say. I wasn't +surprised--how could I be? The kind of people I'd met out here had seldom +much money, or much of anything; but I had generally less, and they held +out a hand when I needed it and gave me what they had. It stirs me in a +way that almost hurts to think of it." + +Then Carroll started the general chatter, which went on after the meal +was finished, and nobody appeared to notice that Kitty sat with her hand +in Drayton's amid the happy laughter. Even Celia, who had her grief to +grapple with, smiled bravely. Vane had given them champagne, the best in +the city, though they drank sparingly; and at last, when Celia made a +move to rise, Drayton stood up with his glass in his hand. + +"We must go, but there's something to be done," he announced. "It's to +thank our host and wish him success. It's a little boat he's sailing in, +but she's carrying a big freight, if our good wishes count for anything." + +They emptied the glasses, and Vane replied: + +"My success is yours. You have all a stake in the venture, and that +piles up my responsibility. If the spruce is still in existence, I've +got to find it." + +"And you're going to find it!" declared Drayton. "It's a sure thing!" + +Vane divided the flowers between Celia and Kitty, but when they went up +on deck Kitty raised one bunch and kissed it. + +"Tom won't mind," she laughed. "Take that one back from Celia and +me--for luck." + +They got down into the boat, and Carroll handed them a basket of crockery +and table linen which Drayton promised to have delivered at the hotel. +Then, while the girls called back to Vane, Drayton rowed away, and the +boat was fading out of sight when Kitty's voice once more reached the men +on board. She was singing a well-known Jacobite ballad. + +Carroll laughed softly. + +"It strikes me as appropriate," he said. "Considering what his Highland +followers suffered on his account and what the women thought of him, some +of the virtues they credited the Young Chevalier with must have been +real." He raised his hand. "You may as well listen!" + +Vane stood still a moment, with the blood hot in his face, as the refrain +rang more clearly across the sparkling water: + +"Better lo'ed ye cannot be-- +Will ye no come back to me?" + +"I don't know whether you feel flattered, but I've an idea that Kitty and +Celia would go through fire for you; and Drayton seems to share their +confidence," Carroll went on in his most matter-of-fact tone. + +"Celia mended my jacket," Vane replied. "I got a month's work as a +result of it." Then he began to shake the mainsail loose. "I believe +we both went rather far in our talk to-night; but we have got to find +the spruce!" + +"So you have said already. Hadn't you better heave the boom up with the +topping lift?" + +They got the mainsail onto her, broke out the anchor and set the jib; and +as the boat slipped away before a freshening breeze Vane sat at the helm +while Carroll stood on the foredeck, coiling up the gear. The moon was +higher now; the broad sail gleamed a silvery gray; the ripples, which +were getting bigger, flashed and sparkled as they streamed back from the +bows; and the lights of the city dropped fast astern. Vane was conscious +of a keen exhilaration. He had started on a new adventure. He was going +back to the bush; and he knew that, no matter how his life might change, +the wilderness would always call to him. In spite of this, however, he +was, as he had said, conscious of an unusual responsibility. Hitherto he +had fought for what he could get, for himself; but now Kitty's future +partly depended on his efforts, and his success would be of vast +importance to Celia. + +He had a very friendly feeling toward both the girls. Indeed, all the +women he had met of late had attracted him, in different ways. It was +hard to believe that any of them possessed unlovable qualities, though +there was not one among them to compare with Evelyn. Whatever he liked +most in the others--intelligence, beauty, tenderness, courage--reminded +him of her. Kitty, he thought, belonged to the hearth; she personified +gentleness and solace; it would be her part to diffuse cheerful comfort +in the home. Jessy would make an ambitious man's companion; a clever +counselor, who would urge him forward if he lagged. Celia he had not +placed yet; but Evelyn stood apart from all. + +She appealed less to his senses and intellect than she did to a +sublimated something in the depths of his nature; and it somehow seemed +fitting that her image should materialize before his mental vision as the +sloop drove along under the cloudless night sky while the moonlight +poured down glamour on the shining water. Evelyn harmonized with such +things as these. + +It was true that she had repulsed him; but that, he felt, was what he +deserved for entering into an alliance against her with her venial +father. He was glad now that he had acquiesced in her dismissal of him, +since to have stood firm and broken her to his will would have brought +disaster upon both of them. He felt that she had not wholly escaped him, +after all; by and by he would go back and seek her favor by different +means. Then she might, perhaps, forgive him and listen. + +The breeze came down fresher as they drove out through the Narrows. +Carroll had gone below; and, brushing his thoughts aside, Vane busied +himself hauling in some of the mainsheet, while the water splashed more +loudly beneath the bows. The great black firs rolled by in somber +masses over his port hand, and presently the last of the lights were +blotted out. He was alone, flitting swiftly and smoothly across the +glittering sea. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE FIRST MISADVENTURE + + +The breeze freshened fiercely with the red and fiery dawn. Vane, who had +gone below, was advised of it by being flung off the locker in the +saloon, where he sat with coffee and crackers before him. The jug, +overturning, spilled its contents upon him, and the crackers were +scattered, but he picked himself up in haste and scrambled out into the +well. He found the sloop slanted over with a good deal of her lee deck +submerged in rushing foam, and Carroll bracing himself against the strain +upon the tiller. To windward, the sea looked as if it had been strewed +with feathers, for there were flecks and blurs of white everywhere. + +"I'll let her come up when you're ready!" Carroll shouted. "We'd better +get some sail off her, if we mean to hold on to the mast!" + +He thrust down his helm; and the sloop, forging round to windward, rose +upright, with her heavy main-boom banging to and fro. After that, they +were desperately busy for a few minutes. Vane wished that they had +engaged a hand in Vancouver, instead of waiting to hire a Siwash +somewhere up the coast. There was the headsail to haul to windward, which +was difficult, and the mainsheet to get in; then the two men, standing on +the slippery, inclined deck, struggled hard to haul the canvas down to +the boom. The jerking spar smote them in the ribs; once or twice the +reefing tackle beneath it was torn from their hands; but they mastered +the sail, tying two reefs in it, to reduce its size; and the craft drove +away with her lee rail just awash. + +"You'd better go down and get some crackers," Vane advised his comrade. +"You'll find them rolling up and down the floor. I spilled the coffee, +but perhaps the kettle's still on the stove. Anyhow, you may not have an +opportunity later." + +"It looks like that," Carroll agreed. "The wind's backing northward, and +that means more of it before long. You can call, if you want me." + +He disappeared below, and Vane sat at the helm with a frown on his face. +An angry coppery glare streamed down upon the white-flecked water which +gleamed in the lurid light. It was very cold, but there was a wonderful +quality that set the blood tingling in the nipping air. Even upon the +high peaks and in the trackless bush, one fails to find the bracing +freshness that comes with the dawn at sea. + +Vane, however, knew that the breeze would increase and draw ahead, which +was unfortunate, because they would have to beat, fighting for every +fathom they slowly made. There was no help for it, and he buttoned his +jacket against the spray. By the time Carroll came up the sloop was +plunging sharply, pitching showers of stinging brine all over her when +the bows went down. They drove her at it stubbornly most of the day, +making but little to windward, while the seas got bigger and whiter, +until they had some trouble to keep the light boat they carried upon the +deluged deck. At last, when she came bodily aft amid a frothing cascade +which poured into the well, Vane brought the sloop round, and they +stretched away to eastward, until they could let go the anchor in smooth +water beneath a wall of rock. They were very wet, and were stiff with +cold, for winter was drawing near. + +"We'll get supper," said Vane. "If the breeze drops a little at dusk, +which is likely, we'll go on again." + +Having eaten little since dawn, they enjoyed the meal; and Carroll would +have been content to remain at anchor afterward. The tiny saloon was +comfortably warm, and he thought it would be pleasanter to lounge away +the evening on a locker, with his pipe, than to sit amid the bitter spray +at the helm. The breeze had fallen a little, but the firs in a valley +ashore were still wailing loudly. Vane, however, was proof against his +companion's hints. + +"With a head wind, we'll be some time working up to the rancherie, and +then we have thirty miles of coast to search for the inlet Hartley +reached. After that, there's the valley to locate; he was uncertain how +far it lay from the beach." + +"It couldn't be very far. You wouldn't expect a man who was sick and +badly lame to make any great pace." + +"I can imagine a man, who knew he must reach the coast before he starved, +making a pretty vigorous effort. If he were worked-up and desperate, the +pain might turn him savage and drive him on, instead of stopping him. Do +you remember the time we crossed the divide in the snow?" + +"I could remember it, if I wanted to," Carroll answered with a shiver. +"As it happens, that's about the last thing I'm anxious to do." + +"The trouble is that there are a good many valleys in this strip of +country, and we may have to try a number before we strike the right one. +Winter's not far off, and I can't spend very much time over this search. +As soon as the man we put in charge of the mine has tried his present +system long enough to give us something to figure on, I want to see what +can be done to increase our output. We haven't marketed very much refined +metal yet." + +"There's no doubt that it would be advisable," Carroll answered +thoughtfully. "As I've pointed out, you have spent a good deal of the +cash you got when you turned the Clermont over to the company. In fact, +that's one reason why I didn't try to head off this timber-hunting +scheme. You can't spend much over the search, and if the spruce comes up +to expectations, you ought to get it back. It would be a fortunate +change, after your extravagance in England." + +Vane frowned. + +"That's a subject I don't want to talk about. We'll go up and see what +the weather's like." + +Carroll shivered when they stood in the well. It was falling dusk, and +the sky was a curious cold, shadowy blue. A nipping wind came down across +the darkening firs ashore, but there was no doubt that it had fallen +somewhat, and Carroll resigned himself when Vane began to pull the tiers +off the mainsail. + +In a few minutes they were under way, the sloop heading out toward open +water with two reefs down in her mainsail, a gray and ghostly shape of +slanted canvas that swept across the dim, furrowed plain of sea. By +midnight the breeze was as strong as ever, but they had clear moonlight +and they held on; the craft plunging with flooded decks through the +white combers, while Carroll sat at the helm, battered by spray and +stung with cold. + +When Vane came up, an hour or two later, the sea was breaking viciously. +Carroll would have put up his helm and run for shelter, had the decision +been left to him; but he saw his comrade's face in the moonlight and +refrained from any suggestion of that nature. There was a spice of +dogged obstinacy in Vane, which, although on the whole it made for +success, occasionally drove him into needless difficulties. They held +on; and soon after day broke, with its first red flush ominously high in +the eastern sky, they stretched in toward the land, with a somewhat +sheltered bay opening up beyond a foam-fringed point ahead of them. +Carroll glanced dubiously at the white turmoil in the midst of which +black fangs of rock appeared. + +"Will she weather the point on this tack?" he asked. + +"She'll have to! We'll have smoother water to work through, once we're +round, and the tide's helping her." + +They drove on, though it occurred to Carroll that they were not opening +up the bay very rapidly. The light was growing, and he could now discern +the orderly phalanxes of white-topped combers that crumbled into a +chaotic spouting on the point's outer end. It struck him that the sloop +would not last long if she touched bottom there; but once more, after a +glance at Vane's face, he kept silent. After all, Vane was leader; and +when he looked as he did then, he usually resented advice. The mouth of +the bay grew wider, until Carroll could see most of the forest-girt shore +on one side of it; but the surf upon the point was growing unpleasantly +near. Wisps of spray whirled away from it and vanished among the scrubby +firs clinging to the fissured crags behind. The sloop, however, was going +to windward, for Vane was handling her with nerve and skill. She had +almost cleared the point when there was a rattle and a bang inside of +her. Carroll started. + +"It's the centerboard coming up! It must have touched a boulder!" + +"Then jump down and lift it before it strikes another and bends!" cried +Vane. "She's far enough to windward to keep off the beach without it." + +Carroll went below and hove up the centerboard, which projected several +feet beneath the bottom of the craft; but he was not satisfied that the +sloop was far enough off the beach, as Vane seemed to be, and he got out +into the well as soon as possible. + +The worst of the surf was abreast of their quarter now, and less-troubled +water stretched away ahead. Carroll had hardly noticed this, however, +when there was a second heavy crash and the sloop stopped suddenly. The +comber to windward that should have lifted her up, broke all over her, +flinging the boat on deck upon the saloon skylight and pouring inches +deep over the coaming into the well. Vane was hurled from the tiller. His +wet face was smeared with blood, from a cut on his forehead, but he +seized a big oar to shove the sloop off, when she swung upright, moved, +and struck again. The following sea hove her up; there was a third, less +violent, crash; and as Vane dropped the oar and grasped the helm, she +suddenly shot ahead. + +"She'll go clear!" he shouted. "Jump below and see if she's damaged!" + +Carroll got no farther than the scuttle, for the saloon floorings on the +depressed side were already awash, and he could hear an ominous splashing +and gurgling. + +"It's pouring into her!" he cried. + +"Then, you'll have to pump!" + +"We passed an opening some miles to lee. Wouldn't it be better if you ran +back there?" Carroll suggested. + +"No! I won't run a yard! There's another inlet not far ahead and we'll +stand on until we reach it. I'd put her on the beach here, only that +she'd go to pieces with the first shift of the wind to westward." + +Carroll agreed with this opinion; but there is a great difference between +running to leeward with the sea behind the vessel and thrashing to +windward when it is ahead, and he hesitated. + +"Get the pump started! We're going on!" Vane said impatiently. + +Fortunately the pump was a powerful one, of the semi-rotary type, and +they had nearly two miles of smoother water before they stretched out of +the bay upon the other tack. When they did so, Carroll, glancing down +again through the scuttle, could not flatter himself that he had reduced +the water. It was comforting, however, to see that it had not increased, +though he did not expect that state of affairs to last. When they drove +out into broken water, he found it difficult to work the crank. The +plunges threw him against the coaming, and the sea poured in over it +continually. There are not many men who feel equal to determined toil +before their morning meal, and the physical slackness is generally more +pronounced if they have been up most of the preceding night; but Carroll +recognized that he had no choice. There was too much sea for the boat, +even if they could have launched her, and he could make out no spot on +the beach where it seemed possible to effect a landing if they ran the +sloop ashore. As a result of this, it behooved him to pump. + +After half an hour of it, he was breathless and exhausted, and Vane took +his place. The sea was higher; the sloop wetter than she had been; and +there was no doubt that the water was rising fast inside of her. Carroll +wondered how far ahead the inlet lay; and the next two hours were anxious +ones to both of them. Turn about, they pumped with savage determination +and went back, gasping, to the helm to thrash the boat on. They drove her +remorselessly; and she swept through the combers, tilted and streaming, +while the spray scourged the helmsman's face as he gazed to weather. The +men's arms and shoulders ached from working in a cramped position; but +there was no help for it. They toiled on furiously, until at last the +crest of a crag for which they were heading sloped away in front of them. + +A few minutes later they drove past the end of it into a broad lane of +water. The wind was suddenly cut off; the combers fell away; and the +sloop crept slowly up the inlet, which wound, green and placid, among the +hills, with long ranks of firs dropping steeply to the edge of the water. +Vane loosed the pump handle, and striding to the scuttle looked down at +the flood which splashed languidly to and fro below. + +"It strikes me as fortunate that we're in," he commented. "Another +half-hour would have seen the end of her. Let her come up a little! +There's a smooth beach to yonder cove." + +She slid in quietly, scarcely rippling the smooth surface of the tiny +basin, and Carroll laid her on the beach. + +"Now," advised Vane, "we'll drop the boom on the shore side to keep her +from canting over; and then we'll get breakfast. We'll see where she's +damaged when the tide ebbs." + +As most of their stores had lain in the flooded lockers, from which there +had been no time to extricate them, the meal was not an appetizing one. +They were, however, glad to have it; and rowing ashore afterward, they +lay on the shingle in the sunshine while the sloop was festooned with +their drying clothes. There was no wind in that deep hollow, and they +were thankful, for the weather was already getting cold. + +"If she has only split a plank or two, we can patch her up," Vane +remarked. "There are all the tools we'll want in the locker." + +"Where will you get new planks?" Carroll inquired. "I don't think we +have any spikes that would go through the frames." + +"That is the trouble. I expect I'll have to make a trip across to Comox +for them in a sea canoe. We're sure to come across a few Siwash somewhere +in the neighborhood." Then he knit his brows. "I can't say that this +expedition is beginning fortunately." + +"There's no doubt on that point," Carroll agreed. + +"Well, the sloop has to be patched up; and until I find that spruce I'm +going on--anyway, as long as the provisions hold out. If we're not +through with the business then, we'll come back again." + +Carroll made no comment. It was not worth while to object, when Vane was +obviously determined. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE BUSH + + +It was a quiet evening, nearly a fortnight after the arrival of the +sloop. Pale sunshine streamed into the cove, and little glittering +ripples lapped lazily along the shingle. The placid surface of the inlet +was streaked with faint blue lines where wandering airs came down from +the heights above, and now and then an elfin sighing fell from the ragged +summits of the firs. When it died away, the silence was broken only by +the pounding of a heavy hammer and the crackle of a fire. + +Carroll sat beside the latter, alternately holding a stout plank up to +the blaze and dabbling its hot surface with a dripping mop. His face was +scorched, and he coughed as the resinous-scented smoke drifted about his +head and floated in heavy, blue wisps half-way up the giant trunks behind +him. A big sea canoe lay drawn up not far away, and one of its +copper-skinned Siwash owners lounged on the shingle, stolidly watching +the white men. His comrade was then inside the sloop, holding a big stone +against one of her frames, while Vane crouched outside, swinging a +hammer. Her empty hull flung back the thud of the blows, which rang far +across the trees. + +Vane was bare-armed and stripped to shirt and trousers. He had arrived +from Comox across the straits at dawn that morning. It was a long trip +and they had had wild weather on the journey, but he had set to work with +characteristic energy as soon as he landed. Now, though the sun was low, +he was working harder than ever, with the flood tide, which would shortly +compel him to desist, creeping up to his feet. + +It is a difficult matter to fit a new plank into the rounded bilge of a +boat, particularly when one is provided with inadequate appliances. One +requires a good eye for curves, for the planks need much shaping. They +must also be driven into position by force. Two or three stout shores +were firmly wedged against the side of the boat, and these encumbered +Vane in the free use of his arms. His face was darkly flushed and he +panted heavily and now and then flung vitriolic instructions to the +Siwash inside the craft. Carroll, watching him with quiet amusement, was +on the whole content that the tide was rising, for his comrade had firmly +declined to stop for dinner, and he was conscious of a sharpened +appetite. It was comforting to reflect that Vane would be unable to get +the plank into place before the evening meal, for if there had been any +prospect of his doing so, he would certainly have postponed his dinner. + +Presently he stopped a moment and turned to Carroll. + +"If you were any use in an emergency, you'd be holding up for me, instead +of that wooden image inside! He will back the stone against any frame +except the one I'm nailing." + +"The difficulty is that I can't be in two places at the same time," +Carroll retorted good-naturedly. "Shall I leave this plank? You can't +get it in to-night." + +"I'm going to try," Vane answered grimly. + +He turned around to direct the Siwash and then cautiously hammered in one +of the wedges a little farther. Swinging back the hammer, he struck a +heavy blow. The result was disastrous, for there was a crash and one of +the shores shot backward, striking him on the knee. He jumped with a +savage cry, and the next moment there was a sharp snapping, and the end +of the plank sprang out. Then another shore gave way; and when the plank +fell clattering at his feet, Vane whirled the hammer round his head and +hurled it violently into the bush. This appeared to afford him some +satisfaction, and he strode up the beach, with the blood dripping from +the knuckles of one hand. + +"That's the blamed Siwash's fault!" he muttered. "I couldn't get him to +back up when I put the last spike in." + +"Hadn't you better tell him to come out?" Carroll suggested. + +"No!" thundered Vane. "If he hasn't sense enough to see that he isn't +wanted, he can stay where he is all night! Are you going to get supper, +or must I do that, too?" + +Carroll merely smiled and set about preparing the meal, which the two +Siwash partook of and afterward departed with some paper currency. Then +Vane, walking down the beach, came back with the plank. Lighting his +pipe, he pointed to one or two broken nails in it. The water was now +rippling softly about the sloop, and the splash of canoe paddles came up +out of the distance in rhythmic cadence. + +"That's the cause of the trouble," he explained. "It cost me a week's +journey to get the package of galvanized spikes--I could have managed to +split a plank or two out of one of these firs. The storekeeper fellow +assured me they were specially annealed for heading up. If I knew who the +manufacturers were, I'd have pleasure in telling them what I think of +them. If they set up to make spikes, they ought to make them, and empty +every keg that won't stand the test out on to the scrap-heap." + +Carroll smiled. The course his partner had indicated was the one he would +have adopted. He was characterized by a somewhat grim idea of efficiency, +and never spared his labor to attain it, though the latter fact now and +then had its inconveniences for those who cooperated with him, as Carroll +had discovered. The latter had no doubt that Vane would put the planks +in, if he spent a month over the operation. + +"I wouldn't have had this trouble if you'd been handier with tools," +Vane went on. "I can't see why you never took the trouble to learn how +to use them." + +"My abilities aren't as varied as yours; and the thing strikes me as bad +economy," Carroll replied. "Skill of the kind you mention is worth about +three dollars a day." + +"You were getting two dollars for shoveling in a mining ditch when I +first met you." + +"I was," Carroll assented good-humoredly. "I believe another month or +two of it would have worn me out. It's considerably pleasanter and more +profitable to act as your understudy; but a fairly proficient carpenter +might have bungled the matter." + +Vane looked embarrassed. + +"Let it pass. I've a pernicious habit of expressing myself unfortunately. +Anyhow, we'll start again on those planks the first thing to-morrow." + +He stretched out his aching limbs beside the fire, and languidly watched +the firs grow dimmer and the mists creep in ghostly trails down the +steep hillside. Presently Carroll broke the silence. + +"Wallace," he advised, "wouldn't it be wiser if you met that fellow +Horsfield to some extent?" + +"No," Vane answered decidedly. "I have no intention of giving way an +inch. It would only encourage the man to press me on another point, if I +did. I'm going to have trouble with him, and it seems to me that the +sooner it comes the better. There's room for only one controlling +influence in the Clermont Mine." + +Carroll smoked in silence for a while. His comrade had successfully +carried out most of the small projects he had undertaken in the bush, and +though fortune had, perhaps, favored him, he had every reason to be +satisfied with the result of his efforts as a prospector. He had +afterward held his own in the city, mainly by simple unwavering +determination. Carroll, however, realized that to guard against the wiles +of a clever man like Horsfield, who was unhampered by any scruples, might +prove a very different thing. + +"In that case, it might be as well to stay in Vancouver as much as +possible and keep your eye on him," he suggested. + +"The same idea has struck me since we sailed. The trouble is that until +I've decided about the pulp mill he'll have to go unwatched--for the same +reason that prevented you from holding up for me and steaming the plank." + +"If any unforeseen action of Horsfield's made it necessary, you could let +this pulp project drop." + +"You ought to understand why that's impossible. Drayton, Kitty and +Hartley count on my exertions; the matter was put into my hands only on +the condition that I did all that I could. They're poor people and I +can't go back on them. If we can't locate the spruce, or it doesn't seem +likely to pay for working up, there's nothing to prevent my abandoning +the undertaking; but I'm not at liberty to do so just because it would be +a convenience to myself. Hartley got my promise before he told me where +to search." + +Carroll changed the subject. + +"It might have been better if you had made the directors' qualification +higher. You would have been more sure of Horsfield then, because he would +have been less likely to do anything that might depreciate the value of +his stock." + +"I had to get a few good names to make it easier for men of standing to +join me. They wouldn't have been willing to subscribe for too many shares +until they saw how the thing would go. Anyhow, so long as he's a +director, Horsfield must hold a stipulated amount of stock. He's actually +holding a good deal." + +"The limit's rather a low one. Suppose he sold out down to it; he +wouldn't mind having the value of the rest knocked down, if he could make +more than the difference by some jobbery. Of course, we're only a small +concern, and we'll have to raise more capital sooner or later. I've an +idea that Horsfield might find his opportunity then." + +"If he does, we must try to be ready for him," Vane replied. "I sat up +most of last night with the spritsail sheet in my hand, and I'm going +to sleep." + +He strolled away to the tent they had pitched on the edge of the bush, +but Carroll sat a while smoking beside the fire with a thoughtful face. +He was suspicious of Horsfield and foresaw trouble; more particularly now +that his comrade had undertaken a project which seemed likely to occupy a +good deal of his attention. Hitherto, Vane had owed part of his success +to his faculty of concentrating all his powers upon one object. + +They rose at dawn the next morning, and by sunset had fitted the new +planks. Two days later, they sailed northward, and eventually they found +the rancherie Hartley mentioned. They had expected to hire a guide there, +but the rickety wooden building was empty. Vane decided that its Siwash +owners, who made long trips in search of fish and furs, had left it for a +time, and he pushed on again. + +He had now to face an unforeseen difficulty; there were a number of +openings in that strip of coast, and Hartley's description was of no +great service in deciding which was the right one. During the next day or +two, they looked into several bights, and seeing no valleys opening out +of them, went on again. One evening, however, they ran into an inlet with +a forest-shrouded hollow at the head of it. Here they moored the sloop +close in with a sheltered beach and after a night's rest got ready their +packs for the march inland. Carroll regretted they had not hired the +Indians with whom his comrade had crossed the straits. + +"We would have traveled a good deal more comfortably if you had brought +those Siwash along to pack for us," he observed. + +"If you had been with them on the canoe trip, you might think +differently," Vane answered with a laugh. "Besides, they're in the +habit of going to Cornox and might put some enterprising lumber men on +our trail." + +"There's one thing I'm going to insist on," Carroll declared. "We'll +leave enough provisions on board to last us until we get back to +civilization, even if we have a head wind. I've made one or two journeys +on short rations." + +Vane agreed to this, and after rowing ashore and hiding the boat among +the undergrowth, they proceeded to strap their packs about them. There is +an art in this, for the weight must be carried where it will be felt and +retard one's movements least. They had a light tent without poles--which +could be cut when wanted--two blankets, an ax, and one or two cooking +utensils, besides their provisions. A new-comer from the cities would +probably not have carried his share for half a day, but in that rugged +land mineral prospector and survey packer are accustomed to travel +heavily burdened, and the men had followed both these vocations. + +In front of them a deep trough opened up in the hills, but it was filled +with giant forest, through which no track led, and only those who have +traversed the dim recesses of the primeval bush can fully understand what +this implies. The west winds swept through that gateway, reaping as they +went, and here and there tremendous trees lay strewed athwart one another +with their branches spread abroad in impenetrable tangles. Some had +fallen amid the wreckage left by previous gales, which the forest had +partly made good, and there was scarcely a rod of the way that was not +obstructed by half-rotted trunks. Then there were thick bushes, and an +undergrowth of willows where the soil was damp, with thorny brakes and +matted fern in between. In places the growth was almost like a wall, and +the men, skirting the inlet, were glad to scramble forward among the +rough boulders and ragged driftwood at the water's edge for some minutes +at a time, until it was necessary to leave the beach behind. + +After the first few minutes there was no sign of the gleaming water. They +had entered a region of dim green shade, where the moist air was heavy +with resinous smells. The trunks rose about them in tremendous columns, +thorns clutched their garments, and twigs and brittle branches snapped +beneath their feet. The day was cool, but the sweat of tense effort +dripped from them, and when they stopped for breath at the end of an +hour, Vane estimated that they had gone a mile. + +"I'll be content if we can keep this up," he said. + +"It isn't likely," Carroll replied with a trace of dryness, glancing down +at a big rent in his jacket. + +A little farther on, they waded with difficulty through a large stream, +and Carroll stopped and glanced round at a deep rift in a crag on one +side of them. + +"I don't know whether that could be considered a valley; but we may as +well look at it." + +They scrambled forward, and reaching gravelly soil where the trees were +thinner, Vane surveyed the opening. It was very narrow and appeared to +lose itself among the rocks. The size of the creek which flowed out of it +was no guide, for those ranges are scored by running water. + +"We won't waste time over that ravine," Vane concluded. "I noticed a +wider one farther on. We'll see what it's like; though Hartley led me to +understand that he came down a straight and gently sloping valley. The +one we're in answers the description." + +It was two hours before they reached the second opening, and then Vane, +unstrapping his pack, clambered up the steep face of a crag. When he came +back, his face was thoughtful. He sat down and lighted his pipe. + +"This search seems likely to take us longer than I expected," he said. +"To begin with, there are a number of inlets, all of them pretty much +alike, along this part of the coast, but I needn't go into the reasons +for supposing that this is the one Hartley visited. Taking it for granted +that we're right, we're up against another difficulty. So far as I could +make out from the top of that rock, there's a regular series of ravines +running back into the hills." + +"Hartley told you he came straight down to tidewater, didn't he?" + +"That's not much of a guide. The slope of every fissure seems to run +naturally from the inland watershed to this basin. Hartley was sick and +it was raining all the time, and coming out of any of these ravines he'd +only have to make a slight turn to reach the water. What's more, he +could only tell me that he was heading roughly west. Allowing that there +was no sun visible, that might have meant either northwest or southwest, +which gives us the choice of searching the hollows on either side of the +main valley. Now, it strikes me as most probable that he came right down +the main valley itself; but we have to face the question as to whether +we should push straight on, or search every opening that might be called +a valley?" + +"What's your idea?" Carroll rejoined. + +"That we ought to go into the thing systematically, and look at every +ravine we come to." + +Carroll nodded agreement. + +"I guess you're right." + +They strapped their packs about them and struggled on again. Stopping +half an hour for dinner, they plodded all the afternoon up a long hollow, +which rose steadily in front of them. It was narrow, and in places the +bottom of it was so choked with fallen trunks that they were forced for +the sake of a clearer passage to take to the creek, where they +alternately stumbled among big boulders and splashed through shallow +pools. The water, which was mostly melted snow, was very cold. + +The light was fading down in the deep rift when, winding round a spur +through a tangle of clinging underbrush, they saw the timber thin off +ahead. In a few minutes Vane stopped with an exclamation, and Carroll, +overtaking him, loosened his pack. They stood upon the edge of the +timber, but in front of them a mass of soil and stones ran up almost +vertically to a great outcrop of rock high above. + +"If Hartley had come down that, he'd have remembered it," Vane +remarked grimly. + +"It's obvious," Carroll agreed, sitting down with a sigh of weariness. +"We'll try the next one to-morrow; I don't move another step to-night." + +Vane laughed. + +"I've no wish to urge you. There's hardly a joint in my body that doesn't +ache." He flung down his pack and stretched himself with an air of +relief. "That's what comes of civilization and soft living. It would be +nice to sit still now while somebody brought me my supper." + +As there was nobody to do so, he took up the ax and set about hewing +chips off a fallen trunk while Carroll made a fire. Then he cut the tent +poles and a few armfuls of twigs for a bed, and in half an hour the camp +was pitched and a meal prepared. Darkness closed down on them while they +ate, and they afterward lay a while, smoking and saying little, beside +the sinking fire, while the red light flickered upon the massy trunks and +fell away again. Then they crawled into the tent and wrapped their +blankets round them. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +VANE POSTPONES THE SEARCH + + +When Vane rose early the next morning, there was frost in the air. The +firs glistened with delicate silver filigree, and thin spears of ice +stretched out from behind the boulders in the stream. The smoke of the +fire thickened the light haze that filled the hollow, and when breakfast +was ready the men ate hastily, eager for the exertion that would put a +little warmth into them. + +"We've had it a good deal colder on other trips. I suppose I've been +getting luxurious, for I seem to resent it now," observed Vane. "There's +no doubt that winter's beginning earlier that I expected up here. As soon +as you can strike the tent, we'll get a move on." + +Carroll made no comment He had a vivid recollection of one or two of +those other journeys, during which they had spent arduous days +floundering through slushy snow and had slept in saturated blankets, and +sometimes shelterless in bitter frost. Carroll had endured these things +without complaint, though he had never attained to the cheerfulness his +comrade usually displayed. He was willing to face hardship, when it +promised to lead to a tangible result, but he failed to understand the +curious satisfaction Vane assumed to feel in ascertaining exactly how +much weariness and discomfort he could force his flesh to bear. + +Vane, however, was not singular in this respect; there are men in the +newer lands who, if they do not actually seek it, will seldom make an +effort to avoid the strain of overtaxed muscles and exposure to wild and +bitter weather. They have imbibed the pristine vigor of the wilderness, +and conflict with the natural forces braces instead of daunting them. One +recognizes them by their fixed and steady gaze, their direct and +deliberate speech, and the proficiency that most display with ax and saw +and rifle. But the effect of this Spartan training is not merely +physical; the men who leave the bush and the ranges, as a rule, come to +the forefront in commerce and industry. Endurance, swiftness of action +and stubborn tenacity are apt to carry their possessor far anywhere. + +Vane and his comrade needed these qualities during the following week. +The valley grew more wild and rugged as they proceeded. In places, its +bottom was filled with muskegs, cumbered with half-submerged, decaying +trunks of fallen trees; and when they could not spring from one crumbling +log to another they sank in slime and water to the knee. Then there were +effluents of the main river to be waded through, and every now and then +they were forced back by impenetrable thickets to the hillside, where +they scrambled along a talus of frost-shattered rock. They entered +transverse valleys, and after hours of exhausting labor abandoned the +search of each in turn and plodded back to the one they had been +following. Their boots and clothing suffered; their packs were rent upon +their backs; and their provisions diminished rapidly. + +At length, one lowering afternoon, they were brought to a standstill by +the river which forked into two branches, one of which came foaming out +of a cleft in the rocks. This would have mattered less, had it flowed +across the level; but just there it had scored itself out a deep hollow, +from which the roar of its turmoil rose in long reverberations. Carroll, +aching all over, stood upon the brink and gazed ahead. He surmised from +the steady ascent and the contours of the hills that the valley was dying +out and that they should reach the head of it in another day's journey. +The higher summits, however, were veiled in leaden mist, and there was a +sting in the cold breeze that blew down the hollow and set the ragged +firs to wailing. Then Carroll glanced dubiously at the dim, green water +which swirled in deep eddies and boiled in white confusion among the +fangs of rock sixty or seventy feet below. Not far away, the stream was +wider and, he supposed, in consequence, shallower, though it ran +furiously. + +"It doesn't look encouraging, and we have no more food left than will +take us back to the sloop if we're economical. Do you think it's worth +while going on?" + +"I haven't a doubt about it," Vane declared. "We ought to reach the head +of the valley and get back here in two or three days." + +Carroll fancied they could have walked the distance in a few hours on a +graded road; but the roughness of the ground was not the chief +difficulty. + +"Three days will make a big hole in the provisions," he pointed out. + +"Then we'll have to put up with short rations." + +Carroll nodded in rueful acquiescence. + +"If you're determined, we may as well get on." + +He stepped cautiously over the edge of the descent, and went down a few +yards with a run, while loosened soil and stones slipped away under him. +Then he clutched a slender tree, and proceeded as far as the next on his +hands and knees. After that it was necessary to swing himself over a +ledge, and he alighted safely on one below, from which he could scramble +down to the narrow strip of gravel between rock and water. He was +standing, breathless, looking at the latter, when Vane joined him. The +stones dipped sharply, and two or three large boulders, ringed about with +froth, rose near the middle of the stream, which seemed to be running +slacker on the other side of them. + +There was nothing to show how deep it was, and Carroll did not relish the +idea of being compelled to swim burdened with his pack. No trees grew +immediately upon the brink of the chasm, and to chop a good-sized log and +get it down to the water, in order to ferry themselves across on it, +would cost more time than Vane was likely to spare for the purpose. +Seeing no other way out of it, Carroll braced himself for an effort and +sturdily plunged in. + +Two steps took him up to the waist, and he had trouble in finding solid +bottom at the next, for the gravel rolled and slipped away beneath his +feet in the strong stream. The current dragged hard at his limbs, and he +set his lips tight when it crept up to his ribs. Then he lost his +footing, and was washed away, plunging and floundering, with now and then +one toe resting momentarily upon the bottom. Sweeping rapidly down the +stream he was hurled against the first of the boulders with a crash that +almost drove the little remaining breath out of his body. He clung to it +desperately, gasping hard; then, with a determined struggle, he contrived +to reach the second stone, but the stream pressed him violently against +this and he was unable to find any support for his feet. A moment later +Vane was washed down toward him and, grabbing at the boulder, held on by +it. They said nothing to each other, but they looked at the sliding water +between them and the opposite bank. Carroll was getting dangerously cold, +and he felt the power ebbing out of him. He realized that if he must swim +across he would better do it at once. + +Launching himself forward, he felt the flood lap his breast, but as his +arms went in he struck something with his knee and found that he could +stand on a submerged ledge. This carried him a yard or two, but the next +moment he had stepped suddenly over the end of the ledge into deeper +water. Floundering forward, he staggered up a strip of shelving shingle +and lay there, breathless, waiting for Vane; then together they +scrambled up the slope ahead. The work warmed them slightly, and they +needed it; but as they strode on again, keeping to the foot of the +hillside, where the timber was less dense, a cold rain drove into their +faces. It grew steadily thicker; the straps began to gall their wet +shoulders, and their saturated clothing clung heavily about their limbs. +In spite of this, they struggled on until nightfall, when with +difficulty they made a fire and, after a reduced supper, found a little +humid warmth in their wet blankets. + +The next day's work was much the same, only that they crossed no rivers. +It rained harder, however, and when evening came Carroll, who had burst +one boot, was limping badly. They made camp among the dripping firs which +partly sheltered them from the bitter wind, and shortly after their +meager supper Carroll fell asleep. Vane, to his annoyance, found that he +could not follow his friend's example. He was overstrung, and the +knowledge that the morrow would show whether the spruce he sought grew in +that valley made him restless. The flap of the tent was flung back and +resting on one elbow he looked out upon shadowy ranks of trunks, which +rose out of the gloom and vanished again as the firelight grew and sank. +He could smell the acrid smoke and could hear the splash of heavy drops +upon the saturated soil, while the hoarse roar of the river came up in +fitful cadence from the depths of the valley. + +In place of being deadened by fatigue, his imagination seemed quickened +and set free. It carried him back to the lonely heights and the rugged +dales of his own land, and once more in vivid memory he roamed the upland +heath with Evelyn. She had attracted him strongly when he was in her +visible presence; but now he thought he understood her better than he had +ever done then. He had, he felt, not grasped the inner meaning of much +that she said. Words might convey but little in their literal sense and +yet give to a sympathetic listener an insight into the depths of the +speaker's nature, or hint at a thought too finely spun and delicate for +formal expression. + +The same thing applied to her physical personality. Contours, coloring, +features, were things that could be defined and appraised; but there was +besides, in Evelyn's case, an aura that only now and then could dimly be +perceived by senses attuned to it. It enveloped her in a mystic light. +Again he remembered how he had sought her with crude longing and cold +appreciation. He had failed to comprehend her; the one creditable thing +he had done was the renouncing of his claim. Then the half-formed idea +grew plainer that she would understand and sympathize with what he was +doing now. It was to keep faith with those who trusted him that he meant +stubbornly to prosecute his search and, if the present journey failed, to +come back again. That Evelyn would ever hear of his undertaking, appeared +most improbable; but this did not matter. He knew now that it was the +remembrance of her that had largely animated him to make the venture; and +to go on in the face of all opposing difficulties was something he could +do in her honor. Then by degrees his eyes grew heavy, and when he sank +down in his wet blankets sleep came to him. Perhaps he had been +fanciful--he was undoubtedly overstrung--but, through such dreams as he +indulged in, passing glimpses of strange and splendid visions that +transfigure the toil and clamor of a material world are now and then +granted to wayfaring men. + +At noon the next day they reached the head of the valley. It was still +raining, and heavy mists obscured the summits of the hills, but above the +lower slopes of rock glimmering snow ran up into the woolly vapor. There +were firs, a few balsams and hemlocks, but no sign of a spruce. + +"Now," Carroll commented dryly, "perhaps you'll be satisfied." + +Vane smiled. He was no nearer to owning himself defeated than he had been +when they first set out. + +"We know there's no spruce in this valley--and that's something," he +replied. "When we come back again we'll try the next one." + +"It has cost us a good deal to make sure of the fact" + +Vane's expression changed. + +"We haven't ascertained the cost just yet. As a rule, you don't make up +the bill until you're through with the undertaking; and it may be a +longer one than either of us think. Well, we might as well turn upon +our tracks." + +Carroll recalled this speech afterward. Just then, however, he hitched +his burden a little higher on his aching shoulders as he plodded after +his comrade down the rain-swept hollow. They had good cause to remember +the march to the inlet. It rained most of the while and their clothes +were never dry; parts of them, indeed, flowed in tatters about their +aching limbs, and before they had covered half the distance, their boots +were dropping to pieces. What was more important, their provisions were +rapidly running out, and they marched on a few handfuls of food, +carefully apportioned, twice daily. At last they lay down hungry, with +empty bags, one night, to sleep shelterless in the rain, for they had +thrown their tent away. Carroll had some difficulty in getting on his +feet the next morning. + +"I believe I can hold out until sundown, though I'm far from sure of +it," he said. "You'll have to leave me behind if we don't strike the +inlet then." + +"We'll strike it in the afternoon," Vane assured him. + +They reslung their packs and set out wearily. Carroll, limping and +stumbling along, was soon troubled by a distressful stitch in his side. +He managed to keep pace with Vane, however, and some time after noon a +twinkling gleam among the trees caught their eye. Then the shuffling +pace grew faster, and they were breathless when at last they stopped and +dropped their burdens beside the boat. It was only at the third or +fourth attempt that they got her down to the water, and the veins were +swollen high on Vane's flushed forehead when he sat down, panting +heavily, on her gunwale. + +"We ran her up quite easily, though we had the slope to face then," +he remarked. + +"You could scarcely expect to carry boats about without trouble after a +march like the one we've made!" + +They ran her in and pulled off to the sloop. When at last they sat down +in the little saloon, Vane got a glimpse of himself in the mirror. + +"I knew you looked a deadbeat," he laughed, "but I'd no idea I was quite +so bad. Anyhow, we'll get the stove lighted and some dry things on. The +next question is--what shall we have for supper?" + +"That's easy. Everything that's most tempting, and the whole of it." + +Shortly afterward they flung their boots and rent garments overboard and +sat down to a feast. The plates were empty when they rose, and in another +hour both of them were wrapped in heavy slumber. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +JESSY CONFERS A FAVOR + + +The next morning it was blowing fresh from the southeast, which was right +ahead, and Vane's face was hard when he and Carroll got the boat on deck +and set about tying down two reefs in the mainsail. + +"Bad luck seems to follow us," he grumbled. + +Carroll smiled. + +"There's no doubt of that; but I suppose the fact won't have much +effect on you." + +"No," returned Vane decidedly, "We had our troubles in other ventures, +and somehow we got over them--I don't see why we shouldn't do the same +again. Now that we've seen the country, we ought to get some useful +information out of Hartley--we'll know what to ask him." + +"I shouldn't count too much on his help," Carroll answered with a +thoughtful air. + +They got sail upon the sloop and drove her out into a confused head sea, +through which she labored with flooded decks, making very little to +windward. When night came, a deluge killed the breeze, and the next day +she lay rolling wildly in a heavy calm while light mist narrowed in the +horizon and a persistent drizzle poured down upon the smoothly heaving +sea. Then they had light variable winds, and their provisions were once +more running out when they drew abreast of a little coaling port. Carroll +suggested running in and going on to Victoria by train, but they had +hardly decided to do so when the fickle breeze died away and the +tide-stream bore them past to the south. They had no longer a stitch of +dry clothing and they were again upon reduced rations. + +Still bad fortune dogged them, for that night a fresh head wind sprang up +and held steadily while they thrashed her south, swept by stinging spray. +Their tempers grew shorter under the strain, and their bodies ached from +the chill of their sodden garments and from sitting hour by hour at the +helm. At last the breeze fell, and shortly afterward a trail of smoke and +a half-seen strip of hull emerged from the creeping haze astern of them. + +"A lumber tug," observed Vane. "She seems to have a raft in tow, and it +will probably be for Drayton's people. If you'll edge in toward her I'll +send him word that we're on the way." + +There was very little wind just then and presently the tug was close +alongside, pitching her bows out of the slow swell, while a great mass of +timber wonderfully chained together surged along astern, the dim, +slate-green sea washing over it. A shapeless oil-skinned figure stood +outside her pilot-house, balancing itself against the heave of the +bridge, which slanted and straightened. + +"Winstanley?" Vane shouted. + +The figure waved an arm, as if in assent, and Vane raised his +voice again. + +"Report us to Mr. Drayton. We'll come along as fast as we can." + +The man turned and pointed to the misty horizon astern. + +"You'll get it from the north before to-morrow!"' he called. + +Then the straining tug and the long wet line of working raft drew ahead +while the sloop crawled on, close-hauled toward the south. Late that +night, however, the mist melted away, and a keen rushing breeze that came +out of the north crisped the water. The vessel sprang forward when the +ripples reached her; the flapping canvas went to sleep; and while each +slack rope tightened a musical tinkle broke out at the bows. It grew +steadily louder, and when the sun swung up red above the eastern hills, +she had piled the white froth to her channels and was driving forward +merrily with little sparkling seas tumbling, foam-tipped, after her. The +wind fell light as the sun rose higher, but the swinging sloop ran on all +day, with blurred hills and forests sliding past; and the western sky was +still blazing with a wondrous green when she stole into Vancouver harbor. + +Carroll gazed at the city with open appreciation. It rose, girded with +many wires and giant telegraph poles, roof above roof, up a low rise, on +the crest of which towering pines still lifted their ragged spires +against the evening sky. Lower down, big white lights were beginning to +blink, and the forests up the inlet beyond the smoke of the mills had +already faded to a belt of shadow. + +"Quebec," he remarked, "looks fine from the river, clustering round +and perched upon its heights; and Montreal at the foot of its +mountain strikes your eye from most points of view; but I can't +remember ever entering either with the pleasure I've experienced in +reaching this city." + +"You probably arrived at the others traveling in a Pullman or in a +luxurious side-wheel steamboat. It wouldn't be any great change from them +to a smart hotel." + +"That may explain the thing," Carroll agreed with an air of humorous +reflection. "I guess the way you regard a city depends largely on the +condition you're in when you reach it and on what you expect to get out +of it. In the present case, Vancouver stands for rest and comfort and +enough to eat." + +Vane laughed. + +"I'm as glad to be back as you are; but you'd better make the most of any +leisure that you can get. As soon as I've arranged things here we'll go +north again." + +The light faded as they crept across the inlet before a faint breeze, but +when they got the anchor over and the boat into the water, Carroll made +out two dim figures standing on the wharf. + +"It's Drayton, I think," he said, waving a hand to them. "Kitty's +with him." + +They pulled ashore, and Drayton and Kitty greeted them. + +"I've been looking out for you since noon," Drayton told them. "What +about the spruce?" + +There was eagerness in his voice, and Vane's face clouded. + +"We couldn't find a trace of it." + +Drayton's disappointment was obvious, though he tried to hide it. + +"Well," he said resignedly, "I've no doubt you did all you could." + +"Of course!" Kitty broke in. "We're quite sure of that!" + +Vane thanked her with a glance. He felt sorry for her and Drayton. +They were strongly attached to each other, and he had reasons for +believing that even with the advanced salary the man expected to get +they would find it needful to study strict economy. It was easy to +understand that a small share in a prosperous enterprise would have +made things easier for them. + +"I'm going to make another attempt. I expect some of our difficulties +will vanish after I've had a talk with Hartley." + +"That's impossible," Kitty explained softly. "Hartley died a week ago." + +Vane started. The prospector had given him very little definite +information, and it was disconcerting to recognize that he must now rely +entirely upon his own devices. + +"I'm sorry", he said "How's Celia?" + +"She's very ill." There was concern in Kitty's voice. "Hartley got worse +soon after you left, and she sat up all night with him, after her work +for the last few weeks. Now she's broken down, and she seems to worry for +fear they will not take her back again at the hotel." + +"I must go to see her," declared Vane. "But won't you and Drayton come +with us and have dinner?" + +Drayton explained that this was out of the question; Kitty's employer, +who had driven in that afternoon, was waiting with his team. They left +the wharf together, and a few minutes later Vane shook hands with the +girl and her companion. + +"Don't lose heart," he said encouragingly. "We're far from beaten yet." + +Some time afterward Vane, rejoicing in the unusual luxury of clean, dry +clothes, walked across to call on Nairn. The house struck him as +larger, more commodious and better lighted than it had been when he +left it, although he supposed that was only the result of his having +lived on board the sloop and in the bush. He was shown into a room +where Jessy Horsfield was sitting, and she rose with a slight start +when he came in; but her manner was reposeful and quietly friendly when +she held out her hand. + +"So you have come back! Have you succeeded in your search?" + +Vane was gratified. It was pleasant to feel that she was interested in +his undertaking. + +"No," he confessed. "For the time being, I'm afraid I have failed." + +There was reproach in Jessy's voice when she answered. + +"Then you have disappointed me!" + +It was delicate flattery, as she had conveyed the impression that she had +expected him to succeed, which implied that she held a high opinion of +his abilities. Still, she did not mean him to think that he had forfeited +the latter. + +"After all, you must have had a good deal against you," she added +consolingly. "Won't you sit down and tell me about it? Mr. Nairn, I +understand, is writing some letters, and he sent for Mrs. Nairn just +before you came in. I don't suppose she will be back for a few minutes." + +She indicated a chair beside the open hearth and Vane sat down opposite +her, where a low screen cut them off from the rest of the room. A shaded +lamp above their heads cast down a soft radiance which lighted a sparkle +in the girl's hair, and a red, wood fire glowed cheerfully in front of +them. Vane, still stiff and aching from exposure to the cold and rain, +reveled in the unusual sense of comfort. In addition to this, his +companion's pose was singularly graceful, and the ease of it and the +friendly smile with which she regarded him somehow implied that they were +on excellent terms. + +"It's very nice to be here again," he said languidly. + +Jessy looked up at him. He had, as she recognized, spoken as he felt, on +impulse, and this was more gratifying than an obvious desire to pay her a +compliment would have been. + +"I suppose you didn't get many comforts in the bush," she suggested. + +"No. Comforts of any kind are remarkably scarce up yonder. As a matter +of fact, I can't imagine a country where the contrasts between the +luxuries of civilization and--the other thing--are sharper. You can step +off a first-class car into the wilderness, where no amount of money can +buy you better fare than pork, potatoes and dried apples; and if you +want to travel you must shoulder your pack and walk. But that wasn't +exactly what I meant." + +"Then what did you mean?" + +"I don't know that it's worth explaining. We have rather luxurious +quarters at the hotel, but this room is somehow different. It's +restful--I think it's homely--in fact, as I said, it's nice to be here." + +Jessy made no comment. She understood that he had been attempting to +analyze his feelings, and had failed clearly to recognize that her +presence contributed to the satisfaction of which he was conscious. She +had no doubt that if he were a man of average susceptibility, which +seemed to be the case, the company of a well-dressed and attractive woman +would have some effect on him after his sojourn in the wilds; but whether +she had produced any deeper effect than that or not she could not +determine. Though she was curious upon the point, it did not appear +judicious to prompt him unduly. + +"But won't you tell me your adventures?" she begged. + +It required a few leading questions to start him but at length he told +the story in a manner that compelled her interest. + +"You see," he concluded, "it was the lack of definite knowledge as much +as the natural obstacles that brought us back--and I've been troubled +about the thing since we landed." + +Jessy's manner invited his confidence. + +"I wonder," she said softly, "if you would care to tell me why?" + +Vane knit his brows. + +"Hartley's dead, and I understand that his daughter has broken down after +nursing him. It's doubtful whether her situation can be kept open, and it +may be some time before she's strong enough to look for another." He +hesitated. "In a way, I feel responsible for her." + +"You really aren't responsible in the least," Jessy declared. "Still, I +can understand the idea's troubling you." + +"She's left without a cent and unable to work--and I don't know what to +do. In an affair of this kind I'm handicapped by being a man." + +"Would you like me to help you?" + +"I can hardly ask it, but it would be a relief to me," Vane answered with +obvious eagerness. + +"Then if you'll tell me her address, I'll go to see her, and we'll +consider what can be done." + +Vane leaned forward impulsively. + +"You have taken a weight off my mind. It's difficult to thank you +properly." + +"Oh, I don't suppose it will give me any trouble. Of course, it must be +embarrassing to you to feel that you have a helpless young woman on +your hands." + +Then a thought flashed into her mind, as she remembered what she had seen +at the station some months ago. + +"I wonder whether the situation is an altogether unusual one to you?" +she queried. "Have you never let your pity run away with your +judgment before?" + +"You wouldn't expect me to proclaim my charities," Vane parried +with a laugh. + +"I think you are trying to put me off. You haven't given me an answer." + +"Well, perhaps I was able to make things easier for somebody else not +very long ago," Vane confessed reluctantly but without embarrassment. "I +now see that I might have done harm without meaning to do so. It's +sometimes extraordinarily difficult to help people--and that makes me +especially grateful for your offer." + +For the next few moments Jessy sat silent. It was clear that she had +misjudged him, for although she was not one who demanded too much from +human nature, the fact that Kitty Blake had arrived in Vancouver in his +company had undoubtedly rankled in her mind. Now she acquitted him of any +blame, and it was a relief to do so. She changed the subject abruptly. + +"I suppose you will make another attempt to find the timber?" + +"Yes. In a week or two." + +He had hardly spoken when Mrs. Nairn came in and welcomed him with her +usual friendliness. + +"I'm glad to see ye, though ye're looking thin," she said. "What's the +way ye did not come straight to us, instead of going to the hotel. Ye +would have got as good a supper as they would give ye there." + +"I haven't a doubt of it," Vane declared. "On the other hand, I hardly +think that even one of your suppers would quite have put right the defect +in my appearance you mentioned. You see, the cause of it has been at work +for some time." + +Mrs. Nairn regarded him with half-amused compassion. + +"If ye'll come over every evening, we'll soon cure that. I would have +been down sooner if Alic had not kept me. He's writing letters, and there +was a matter or two he wanted to ask my opinion on." + +"I think that was very wise of him," Vane commented. + +His hostess smiled. + +"For one thing, we had a letter from Evelyn Chisholm this afternoon. +She'll be out to spend some time with us in about a month." + +"Evelyn's coming here?" Vane exclaimed, with a sudden stirring of +his heart. + +"Why should she no? I told ye some time ago that we partly expected her. +Ye were no astonished then." + +She appeared to expect an explanation of the change in his attitude, and +as he volunteered none she drew him a few paces aside. + +"If I'm no betraying a confidence, Evelyn writes--I'm no sure of the +exact words--that she'll be glad to get away a while. Now, I've been +wondering why she should be anxious to leave home?" + +She looked at him fixedly, and, to his annoyance, he felt his face grow +hot. Mrs. Nairn had quick perceptions, and now and then she was +painfully direct. + +"It struck me that Evelyn was not very comfortable there," he replied. +"She seemed out of harmony with her people--she didn't belong. The same +thing," he went on lamely, "applies to Mopsy." + +Mrs. Nairn glanced at him with a twinkle in her eyes. + +"It's no unlikely. The reason may serve--for the want of a better." Then +she changed her tone. "Ye'll away up to Alic; he told me to send ye." + +Vane went out of the room, but he left Jessy in a thoughtful mood. She +had seen his start at the mention of Evelyn, and it struck her as +significant, for she had heard that he had spent some time with the +Chisholms. On the other hand, there was the obvious fact that he had been +astonished to hear that Evelyn was coming out, which implied that their +acquaintance had not progressed far enough to warrant the girl's +informing him. Besides, Evelyn would not arrive for a month; and Jessy +reflected that she would probably see a good deal of Vane in the +meanwhile. She now felt glad that she had promised to look after Celia +Hartley, for that, no doubt, would necessitate her consulting with him +every now and then. She endeavored to dismiss the matter from her mind, +however, and exerted herself to interest Mrs. Nairn in a description of a +function she had lately attended. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +VANE FORESEES TROUBLE + + +Nairn was sitting at a writing-table when Vane entered his room, and +after a few questions about his journey he handed the younger man one of +the papers that lay in front of him. + +"It's a report from the mine. Ye can read and think it over while I +finish this letter." + +Vane carefully studied the document, and then waited until Nairn laid +down his pen. + +"It only brings us back to our last conversation on the subject," he said +when his host glanced at him inquiringly. "We have the choice of going on +as we are doing, or extending our operations by an increase of capital. +In the latter case, our total earnings might be larger, but I hardly +believe there would be as good a return on the money actually sunk. +Taking it all round, I don't know what to think. Of course, if it +appeared that there was a moral certainty of making a satisfactory profit +on the new stock, I should consent." + +Nairn chuckled. + +"A moral certainty is no a very common thing in mining." + +"Horsfield's in favor of the scheme. How far would you trust that man?" + +"About as far as I could fling a bull by the tail. The same thing applies +to both of them." + +"He has some influence. No doubt he'd find supporters." + +Nairn saw that the meaning of his last remark, which implied that he had +no more confidence in Jessy than he had in her brother, had not been +grasped by his companion, but he did not consider it judicious to make it +plainer. Instead, he gave Vane another piece of information. + +"He and Winter work into each other's hands." + +"But Winter has no interest in the Clermont!" + +Nairn smiled sourly. + +"He holds no shares in the mine; but there's no much in the shape of +mineral developments yon man has no an interest in. Since ye do no seem +inclined to yield Horsfield a point or two, it might pay ye to watch the +pair of them." + +Vane was aware that Winter was a person of some importance in financial +circles, and he sat thoughtfully silent for a couple of minutes. + +"Now," he explained at length, "every dollar we have in the Clermont is +usefully employed and earning a satisfactory profit. Of course, if we put +the concern on the market, we might get more than it is worth from +investors; but that doesn't greatly appeal to me." + +"It's unnecessary to point out that a director's interest is no +invariably the same as that of his shareholders," Nairn rejoined. + +"It's an unfortunate fact. Yet I'd be no better off if I got only the +same actual return on a larger amount of what would be watered stock." + +"There's sense in that. I'm no urging the scheme--there are other points +against it." + +"Well, I'll go up and look round the mine, and then we'll have another +talk about the matter." + +Vane walked back to his hotel in a thoughtful frame of mind. Finding +Carroll in the smoking-room, he related his conversation with Nairn. + +"I'm a little troubled about the situation," he confessed. "The Clermont +finances are now on a sound basis, but it might after all prove +advantageous to raise further capital; although in such a case we would, +perhaps, lie open to attack. Nairn's inclined to be cryptic in his +remarks; but he seems to hint that it would be advisable to make +Horsfield some concession--in other words, to buy him off." + +"Which is a course you have objections to?" + +"Very decided ones." + +"In a general way, Nairn's advice strikes me as quite sensible. Wherever +mining and other schemes are floated, there are men who make a good +living out of the operations. They're trained to the business; they've +control of the money; and when a new thing's put on the market, they +consider they've the first claim on the pickings. As a rule, that notion +seems to be justified." + +"You needn't elaborate the point," Vane broke in impatiently. + +"You made your appearance in this city as a poor and unknown man with a +mine to sell," Carroll went on. "Disregarding tactful hints, you laid +down your terms and stuck to them. Launching your venture without +considering their views, you did the gentlemen I've mentioned out of +their accustomed toll, and I've no doubt that some of them were +indignant. It's a thing you couldn't expect them to sanction. Now, +however, one who probably has others behind him is making overtures to +you. You ought to consider it a compliment; a recognition of ability. +The question is--do you mean to slight these advances and go on as you +have begun?" + +"That's my present intention," Vane answered. + +"Then you needn't be astonished if you find yourself up against a +determined opposition." + +"I think my friends will stand by me." + +Vane looked at him steadily, and Carroll laughed. + +"Thanks. I've merely been pointing out what you may expect, and hinting +at the most judicious course--though the latter's rather against my +natural inclinations. I'd better add that I've never been particularly +prudent, and the opposite policy appeals to me. If we're forced to clear +for action, we'll nail the flag to the mast." + +It was spoken lightly, because the man was serious, but Vane knew that he +had an ally who would support him with unflinching staunchness. + +"I'm far from sure that it will be needful," he replied. + +They talked about other matters until they strolled off to their rooms. +The next week Vane was kept occupied in the city; and then once more they +sailed for the North. They pushed inland until they were stopped by snow +among the ranges, without finding the spruce. The journey proved as +toilsome as the previous one, and both men were worn out when they +reached the coast. Vane was determined on making a third attempt, but he +decided to visit the mine before proceeding to Vancouver. They had heavy +rain during the voyage down the straits, and when, on the day after +reaching port, the jaded horses they had hired plodded up the sloppy +trail to the mine a pitiless deluge poured down on them. The light was +growing dim among the dripping firs, and a deep-toned roar came throbbing +across their shadowy ranks. Vane turned and glanced back at Carroll. + +"I've never heard the river so plainly before," he said. "It must be +unusually swollen." + +The mine was situated on a narrow level flat between the hillside and the +river, and Carroll understood the anxiety in his comrade's voice. Urging +the wearied horses they pressed on a little faster. It was almost dark, +however, when they reached the edge of an opening in the firs and saw a +cluster of iron-roofed, wooden buildings and a tall chimney-stack, in +front of which the unsightly ore-dump extended. Wet, chilled and worn out +as the men were, there was comfort in the sight; but Vane frowned as he +noticed that a shallow lake stretched between him and the buildings. On +one side of it there was a broad strip of tumbling foam, which rose and +fell in confused upheavals and filled the forest with the roar it made. +Vane drove his horse into the water; and dismounting among the stumps +before the ore-dump, he found a wet and soil-stained man awaiting him. A +long trail of smoke floated away from the iron stack behind him, and +through the sound of the river there broke the clank and thud of +hard-driven pumps. + +"You have got a big head of steam up, Salter," he remarked. + +The man nodded. + +"We want it. It's a taking me all my time to keep the water out of the +workings; and the boys are over their ankles in the new drift. Leave +your horses--I'll send along for them--and I'll show you what we've been +doing, after supper." + +"I'd rather go now, while I'm wet," Vane answered. "We came straight on +as soon as we landed, and I probably shouldn't feel like turning out +again when I'd had a meal." + +Salter made a sign of assent, and a few minutes later they went down into +the mine. The approach to it looked like a canal, and they descended the +shallow shaft amid a thin cascade. The tunnel slanted, for the lode +dipped, and the pale lights that twinkled here and there among the +timbering showed shadowy, half-naked figures toiling in water which rose +well up their boots. Further streams of it ran in from fissures; and +Vane's face grew grave as he plodded through the flood with a lamp in his +hand. He spent an hour in the workings, asking Salter a question now and +then, and afterward went back with him to one of the iron-roofed sheds, +where he put on dry clothes and sat down to a meal. + +When it was over and the table had been cleared, he lay in a canvas chair +beside the stove, listening to the resinous billets snapping and +crackling cheerfully. The little, brightly lighted room was pleasantly +warm, and Vane was filled with a languid sense of physical comfort after +long exposure to rain and bitter wind. The deluge roared upon the iron +roof; the song of the river rose and fell, filling the place with sound; +and now and then the pounding and clanking of the pumps broke in. + +Vane examined the sheet of figures Salter handed him, and lighted a fresh +cigar when he had laid it down. Then he carefully turned over some of +the pieces of stone which partly covered the table. + +"There's no doubt that those specimens aren't quite so promising," he +said at length; "and the cost of extraction is going up. I'll have a talk +with Nairn when I get back; but in the meanwhile it looks as if we were +going to have trouble with the water." + +"It's a thing I've been afraid of for some time," Salter answered. "We +can keep down any leakage that comes in through the rock, though it +means driving the pumps hard, but an inrush from the river would beat +us. A rise of a foot or so would turn the flood into the workings." He +paused and added significantly: "Drowning out a mine's a costly matter. +My idea is that you ought to double our pumping power and cut down the +rock in the river-bed near the rapid. That would take off three or four +feet of water." + +"It would mean a mighty big wages bill." + +Salter nodded gravely. + +"To do the thing properly would cost a pile of money; but it's an outlay +that you'll surely have to face." + +Vane let the matter drop, and an hour later retired to his wooden berth. +The roar of the rain upon the vibrating roof was like the roll of a great +drum, and the sound of the river's turmoil throbbed through the frail +wooden shack; but the man had lain down at night near many a rapid and +thundering fall, and in a few minutes he was fast asleep. He was awakened +by a new shrill note, which he recognized as the whistle of the pumping +engine. It was sounding the alarm. The next moment Vane was struggling +into his clothing; then the door swung open and Salter stood in the +entrance, lantern in hand, with water trickling from him. There was keen +anxiety in his expression. + +"Flood's lapping the bank top now!" he gasped. "There's a jam in the +narrow place at the head of the rapid and the water's backing up! I'm +going along with the boys." + +He vanished as suddenly as he had appeared and Vane savagely jerked on +his jacket. If the mine were drowned, it would entail a heavy +expenditure in pumping plant to clear out the water, and even then +operations might be stopped for a considerable time. What was more, it +would precipitate a crisis in the affairs of the company and necessitate +an increase of its capital. + +Vane was outside in less than a minute and stood still, looking about +him, while the deluge lashed his face and beat his clothing against his +limbs. He could make out only a blurred mass of climbing trees on one +side and a strip of foam cutting through the black level, which he +supposed was water, in front of him. His trained ears, however, gave him +a little information, for the clamor of the flood was broken by a sharp +snapping and crashing which he knew was made by a mass of driftwood +driving furiously against the boulders. In that region, the river banks +are encumbered here and there with great logs, partly burned by forest +fires, reaped by gales or brought down from the hillsides by falls of +frost-loosened soil. A flood higher than usual sets them floating, and on +subsiding sometimes leaves them packed in a gorge or stranded in a +shallow to wait for the next big rise. Now they were driving down and, +as Salter had said, jamming at the head of the rapid. + +Suddenly a column of fierce white radiance leaped up, lower down-stream, +and Vane knew that a big compressed air-lamp had been carried to the spot +where the driftwood was gathering. Even at a distance, the brightness of +the blaze dazzled him, and he could see nothing else when he headed +toward it. He stumbled against a fir stump, and the next minute the +splashing about his feet warned him that he was entering the water. +Having no wish to walk into the main stream, he floundered to one side. +Getting nearer to the blaze, he soon made out a swarm of shadowy figures +scurrying about beneath it. Some of them had saws or axes, for he caught +the gleam of steel. He broke into a splashing run; and presently Carroll, +whom he had forgotten, came up calling to him. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE FLOOD + + +When he reached the blast-lamp, which was raised on a tall tripod, Vane +stood with his back to the pulsating gaze while he grasped the details of +a somewhat impressive scene. A little upstream of him, the river leaped +out of the darkness, breaking into foaming waves, and a wall of dripping +firs flung back the roar it made, the first rows of serried trunks +standing out hard and sharp in the fierce white light. Nearer the spot +where he stood, a projecting spur of rock narrowed in the river, which +boiled tumultuously against its foot, while about halfway across, the top +of a giant boulder rose above the flood. + +Vane could just see it, because a mass of driftwood, which was +momentarily growing, stretched from bank to bank. A big log, drifting +down sidewise, had brought up against the boulder and once fixed had +seized and held fast each succeeding trunk. Some had been driven partly +out upon those that had preceded them; some had been drawn beneath and +catching the bottom had jammed; then the rest had been wedged by the +current into the gathering mass, trunks, branches and brushwood all +finding a place. When the stream is strong, a jam usually extends +downward, as well as rises, as the water it pens back increases in +depth, until it forms an almost solid barrier from surface to bed. If it +occurs during a log-drive the river is choked with valuable lumber. + +Bent figures were at work with handspikes and axes at the shoreward end +of the mass; others had crawled out along the logs in search of another +point where they could advantageously be attacked; but Vane, watching +them with practised eye, decided that they were largely throwing their +toil away. Then he glanced down-stream; but, powerful as the light was, +it did not pierce far into the darkness and the rain, and the mad white +rush of the rapid vanished abruptly into the surrounding gloom. He caught +the clink of a hammer on a drill, and seeing Salter not far away, he +strode toward him. + +"How are you getting to work?" he asked. + +Salter pointed to the foot of the rock on which they stood. + +"I reckoned that if we could put a shot in yonder we might cut out stone +enough to clear the butts of the larger logs that are keying up the jam." + +"You're wasting time--starting at the wrong place." + +"It's possible; but what am I to do? I'd rather split that boulder or +chop down to the king log there--but the boys can't get across." + +"Have they tried?" Vane demanded. "I will, if it's necessary." + +Salter expostulated. + +"I want to point out that you're the boss director of this company. I +don't know what you're making out of it; but you can hire men to do that +kind of work for three dollars a day." + +"We'll let the boys try it, if they're willing." + +Vane raised his voice. + +"Are any of you open to earn twenty dollars? I'll pay that to the man +who'll put a stick of giant-powder in yonder boulder, and another twenty +to any one who can find the king log and chop it through." + +Three or four of them crept cautiously along the driftwood bridge. It +heaved and worked beneath them; the foam sluiced across it and the +stream forced the thinner tops of shattered trees above the barrier. It +was obvious that the men were risking life and limb, and there was a +cry from the others when one of them went down and momentarily +disappeared. He scrambled to his feet again, but those behind him +stopped, bracing themselves against the stream, nearly waist-deep in +rushing froth. Most of them had followed rough and dangerous +occupations in the bush; but they were not professional river-Jacks +trained to high proficiency in log-driving, and one of them, turning, +shouted to the watchers on the bank. + +"This jam's not solid!" he explained above the roar of the water. "She's +working open and shutting; and you can't tell where the breaks are." + +He stooped and rubbed his leg, and Vane understood him to add: + +"Figured I had it smashed." + +Vane swung round toward Carroll. + +"We'll give them a lead!" + +Salter ventured another expostulation: + +"Stay where you are! How are you going to manage, if the boys can't +tackle the thing?" + +"They haven't as much at stake as I have," was Vane's reply. "I'm a +director of the company, as you pointed out. Give me two sticks of +giant-powder, some fuse, and detonators!" + +Salter yielded when he saw that Vane meant to be obeyed; and cramming the +blasting material into his pocket, Vane turned to Carroll. + +"Are you coming with me?" + +"Since I can't stop you, I suppose I'd better go." + +As they sprang down the bank, Salter addressed one of the miners at +work near him. + +"I've seen a few company bosses in my time, but this one's different from +the rest. I can't imagine any of the others wanting to cross that jam." + +Vane crawled out on the groaning timber, with Carroll a few feet behind +him. The perilous bridge they traversed rolled beneath their feet; but +they had joined the other men before they came to any particularly +troublesome opening. Then the clustering wet figures were brought up by a +gap filled with leaping foam, in the midst of which brushwood swung to +and fro and projecting branches ground on one another. Whether there was +solid timber a foot or two beneath, or only the entrance to some cavity +by which the stream swept through the barrier, there was nothing to show; +but Vane set his lips and leaped. He alighted on something that bore him, +and when the others followed, floundering and splashing, the deliberation +which hitherto had characterized their movements suddenly deserted them. +They had reached the limit beyond which it was no longer needful. + +There is courage which springs from knowledge, often painfully acquired, +of the threatened dangers and the best means of avoiding them; but it +carries its possessor only so far. Beyond that point he must face the +risk he cannot estimate and blindly trust to chance. At sea, when canvas +is still the propelling power, and in the wilderness, man at grips with +the elemental forces must now and then rise above bodily shrinking and +disregard the warnings of reason. There are tasks which cannot be +undertaken in cold blood; and when they had crossed the gap, Vane and +those behind him blundered on in hot Berserker fury. They had risen to +the demand on them, and the curious psychic change had come; now they +must achieve success or face annihilation. But in this there was nothing +unusual; it is the alternative offered many a log-driver, miner and +sailorman. + +Neither Vane nor Carroll, nor any of those who assisted them, had a clear +recollection of what they did. Somehow they reached the boulder; somehow +they plied ax or iron-hooked peevy, while the unstable, foam-lapped +platform rocked beneath their feet. Every movement entailed a peril no +one could calculate; but they toiled savagely on. When Vane began to +swing a hammer above a drill, or from whom he got it, he did not know, +any more than he remembered when he had torn off and thrown away his +jacket although the sticks of giant-powder which had been in his pocket +lay near him upon the stone. Sparks leaped from the drill which Carroll +held and fell among the coils of snaky fuse; but that did not trouble +them; and it was only when Vane was breathless that he changed places +with his companion. They heard neither the turmoil of the flood nor the +crashing of the timber, and the foam that lapped their long boots whirled +unheeded by. + +About them, bowed figures that breathed in stertorous gasps grappled +desperately with the grinding, smashing timber. Sometimes they were +forced up in harsh distinctness by a dazzling glare; sometimes they faded +into blurred shadows as the pulsating flame upon the bank sank a little +or was momentarily blown aside; but all the while gorged veins rose on +bronzed foreheads and toil-hardened muscles were taxed to the utmost. At +last, when a trunk rolled beneath him, Carroll missed a stroke and +realized with a shock of dismay that it was not the drill he had struck +with his hammer. + +"I couldn't help it!" he gasped. "Where did I hit you?" + +"Get on!" Vane cried hoarsely; "I can hold the drill." + +Carroll struck for a few more minutes, and then flung down the hammer and +inserted the giant-powder into the holes sunk in the stone. He lighted +the fuse and, warning the others, they hastily recrossed the dangerous +bridge. They had reached the edge of the forest when, a flash leaped up +amid the foam and a sharp crash was followed by a deafening, drawn-out +uproar. Rending, grinding, smashing, the jam broke up. It hammered upon +the partly shattered boulder, and, carrying it away or driving over it, +washed in tremendous ruin down the rapid. When the wild clamor had +subsided, Salter gave the men some instructions; and then, as they +approached the lamp, he noticed Vane's reddened hand. + +"That looks a nasty smash; you want to get it seen to," he advised. + +"I'll get it dressed at the settlement; we'll make an early start +to-morrow. We were lucky in breaking the jam; but you'll have the same +trouble over again any time a heavy flood brings down an unusual quantity +of driftwood." + +"It's what I'd expect." + +"Then something will have to be done to prevent it. I'll go into the +matter when I reach the city." + +Carroll and Vane walked back to the shack, where the latter bound up his +comrade's injured hand. When he had done so, Vane managed to light a +cigar, and lying back, still very wet, he looked thoughtful. + +"We can't risk having the workings drowned; but I'm afraid the cost of +the remedy will force me into sanctioning some scheme for increasing +our capital." + +"Its a very common procedure," Carroll rejoined. "I've wondered why +you had so strong an objection to it. Of course, I've heard your +business reasons." + +Vane smiled. + +"I have some of a different kind--we'll call them sentimental +ones--though I don't think I quite realized it until lately." + +"You're not given to introspection. Go on; I think I know what's coming." + +"To put the thing into words may help me to formulate my ideas; they're +rather hazy. Well, ostensibly, I left England as the result of a +difference of opinion--which I've regretted ever since--though I know now +that really it was from another cause. I wanted room, I wanted freedom; +and I got them both--freedom either to do work that nearly broke my heart +and wore the flesh off me or to starve." + +"The experience is not an unusual one." + +"Eventually," Vane proceeded, "I managed to get on my feet. I suppose I +got rather proud of myself when I beat the city men over the floating of +the mine, and I began to think of going back to the sphere of life in +which I was born--excuse the phrase." + +"It looked nice, from a distance," Carroll suggested. + +"It was tolerable in Vancouver; anyway, while I could go straight ahead +and interest myself in the development of the mine. I began to expect a +good deal from my English visit." + +Carroll laughed softly before he helped him out. + +"And you were bitterly disappointed. It's a very old tale. You had cut +loose--and you couldn't get back when you wanted to." + +"I suppose I'd changed: the bush had got hold of me. The ways and views +of the people over yonder didn't seem to be those I remembered. They +couldn't look at things from my standpoint; I wouldn't adopt theirs. You +and I have had to face--realities." + +"Hunger," corrected Carroll softly; "wet snow to sleep in; bodily +exhaustion. They probably teach one something, or, at any rate, they +alter one's point of view. When you've marched for days on half rations, +some things don't seem so important--how you put on your clothes, for +instance, or how your dinner's served. But I don't see yet what bearing +this has on your reluctance to extend the Clermont operations." + +"I could act as director, with such men as Nairn, when it was a question +of running a mine; but it's doubtful if I'd make a successful financial +juggler. It's hard to keep one's hands off some of the professional +tricksters. Bluff, assumption, make-believe--Pshaw! I've had enough of +them. Better stick to the ax and cross-cut; that's what I feel to-night." + +"Now that you've relieved your mind, I'll show you where you were wrong. +You said that you had changed in the wilderness--you haven't; your kind +are fore-loopers born. Your place is with the vedettes, ahead of the +massed columns. But there's a point that strikes one--is your objection +to financial scheming due to honesty or pride?" + +Vane laughed. + +"I suspect a good deal of it's bad temper. Anyhow, I've felt that rather +than truckle with that fellow Horsfield I'd like to pitch him down the +stairs. But all this is pretty random talk." + +"It is," Carroll agreed. "You haven't said whether you intend to +authorize that extension of capital?" + +"I suppose it will have to be done. And now it's very late and I'm going +to sleep." + +They retired to the wooden bunks Salter had placed at their disposal; and +early the next morning they left the mine. Vane got his hand dressed when +they reached the little mining town at the head of the railroad, and on +the following day they arrived in Vancouver. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +VANE YIELDS A POINT + + +The short afternoon was drawing toward its close when Vane came out +of a large building in the city. Glancing at his watch, he stopped on +the steps. + +"The meeting went pretty satisfactorily, taking it all round," he +remarked to Carroll. + +"I think so," agreed his companion. "But I'm far from sure that Horsfield +was pleased with the stockholders' decision." + +Vane smiled in a thoughtful manner. After returning from the mine, he had +gone inland to examine a new irrigation property in which he had been +asked to take an interest, and had got back only in time for a meeting of +the Clermont shareholders, which Nairn had arranged in his absence. The +meeting, of the kind that is sometimes correctly described as +extraordinary, was just over, and though Vane had been forced to yield to +a majority on some points, he had secured the abandonment of a +proposition he considered dangerous. + +"Though I don't see what the man could have gained by it, I'm inclined to +believe that if Nairn and I had been absent he'd have carried his total +reconstruction scheme. That wouldn't have pleased me." + +"I thought it injudicious." + +"It was only because we must raise more money that I agreed to the issue +of the new block of shares," Vane went on. "We ought to pay a fair +dividend on the moderate sum in question." + +"You think you'll get it?" + +"I've not much doubt." + +Carroll made no reply to this. Vane was capable and forceful; but his +abilities were of a practical rather than a diplomatic order, and he was +occasionally addicted to somewhat headstrong action. Knowing that he had +a very cunning antagonist intriguing against him, his companion had +misgivings. + +"Shall we walk back to the hotel?" he suggested. + +"No," answered Vane; "I'll go across and see how Celia Hartley's getting +on. I'm afraid I've been forgetting her." + +"Then I'll come too. You may need me; there are matters which you're not +to be trusted to deal with alone." + +Just then Nairn came down the steps and waved his hand to them. + +"Ye will no forget that Mrs. Nairn is expecting both of ye this evening." + +He passed on, and they set off together across the city toward the +district where Celia lived. Though the quarter in question may have been +improved out of existence since, a few years ago rows of low-rented +shacks stood upon mounds of sweating sawdust which had been dumped into a +swampy hollow. Leaky, frail and fissured, they were not the kind of +places anyone who could help it would choose to live in; but Vane found +the sick girl still installed in one of the worst of them. She looked +pale and haggard; but she was busily at work upon some millinery; and the +light of a tin lamp showed Drayton and Kitty Blake sitting near her. +There were cracks in the thin, boarded walls, from which a faint resinous +odor exuded, but it failed to hide the sour smell of the wet sawdust upon +which the shack was built. The room, which was almost bare of furniture, +felt damp and unwholesome. + +"You oughtn't to be at work; you don't look fit," Vane said to Celia. He +paused a moment, hesitating, before he added: "I'm sorry we couldn't find +that spruce; but, as I told Drayton, we're going back to try again." + +The girl smiled bravely. + +"Then you'll find it the next time. I'm glad I'm able to do a little; it +brings in a few dollars." + +"But what are you doing?" + +"Making hats. I did one for Miss Horsfield, and afterward some friends of +hers sent me two or three more to trim. She said she'd try to get me work +from one of the big stores." + +"But you're not a milliner, are you?" asked Vane, feeling grateful to +Jessy for the practical way in which she had kept her promise to assist. + +"Celia's something better," Kitty broke in. "She's a genius." + +"Isn't that a slight on the profession?" Vane laughed. + +He was anxious to lead the conversation away from Miss Horsfield's +action; he shrank from figuring as the benefactor who had prompted her. + +"I'm not quite sure," he continued, "what genius really is." + +"I don't altogether agree with the definition of it as the capacity for +taking infinite pains," Carroll, guessing his companion's thoughts, +remarked with mock sententiousness. "In Miss Hartley's case, it strikes +me as the instinctive ability to evolve a finished work of art from a few +fripperies, without the aid of technical training. Give her two or three +feathers, a yard of ribbon and a handful of mixed sundries, and she'll +magically transmute them into--this." + +He took up a hat from the table and surveyed it with an air of critical +intelligence. + +"It was innate genius that set this plume at the one artistic angle. Had +it been done by less capable hands, the thing would have looked like a +decorated beehive." + +The others laughed, and he led them on to general chatter, under cover of +which Vane presently drew Drayton to the door. + +"The girl looks far from fit," he said. "Has the doctor been over +lately?" + +"Two or three days ago," answered Drayton. "We've been worried about +Celia. It's out of the question that she should go back to the hotel, and +she can only manage to work a few hours daily. There's another thing--the +clerk of the fellow who owns these shacks has just been along for his +rent. It's overdue." + +"Where's he now?" + +Drayton laughed, for the sounds of a vigorous altercation rose from +farther up the unlighted street. + +"I guess he's yonder, having some more trouble with his collecting." + +"I'll fix that matter, anyway." + +Vane disappeared into the darkness, and it was some time later when +he re-entered the shack. He waited until a remark of Celia's gave +him a lead. + +"You're really a partner in the lumber scheme," he told her; "I can't +see why you shouldn't draw part of your share in the proceeds +beforehand." + +"The first payment isn't to be made until you find the spruce and get +your lease," the girl reminded him. "You've already paid a hundred +dollars that we had no claim on." + +"That doesn't matter; I'm going to find it." + +"Yes," agreed Celia, with a look of confidence, "I think you will. +But"--a flicker of color crept into her thin face--"I can't take any more +money until it is found." + +Vane, failing in another attempt to shake her resolution, dropped the +subject, and soon afterward he and Carroll took their departure. They +were sitting in their hotel, waiting for dinner, when Carroll looked up +lazily from his luxurious chair. + +"What are you thinking about so hard?" he inquired. + +Vane glanced meaningly round the elaborately furnished room. + +"There's a contrast between all this and that rotten shack. Did you +notice that Celia never stopped sewing while we were there, though she +once or twice leaned back rather heavily in her chair?" + +"I did. I suppose you're going to propound another conundrum of a kind +I've heard before--why you should have so many things you don't +particularly need, while Miss Hartley must go on sewing when she's hardly +able for it in her most unpleasant shack? I don't know whether the fact +that you found a mine answers the question; but if it doesn't the thing's +beyond your philosophy." + +"Come off!" Vane bade him with signs of impatience. "There are times +when your moralizing gets on one's nerves. Anyhow, I straightened out one +difficulty--I found the rent man, who'd been round worrying her, and got +rid of him." + +Carroll groaned in mock dismay, which covered some genuine annoyance with +himself; but Vane frowned. + +"What's the matter?" he inquired. "Do you want a drink?" + +"I'll get over it," Carroll informed him. "It isn't the first time I've +suffered from the same complaint. But I'd like to point out that your +chivalrous impulses may be the ruin of you some day. Why didn't you let +Drayton settle with the man? You gave him a check, I suppose?" + +"Sure. I'd only a few loose dollars with me." Vane frowned again. "Now I +see what you're driving at; and I want to say that any little reputation +I possess can pretty well take care of itself." + +"Just so. No doubt it will be necessary; but it doesn't seem to have +struck you that you're not the only person concerned." + +"It didn't," Vane confessed with a further show of irritation. "But who's +likely to hear or take any notice of the thing?" + +"I can't tell; but you make enemies as well as friends, and you're +walking in slippery places which you're not altogether accustomed to. You +can't meet your difficulties with the ax here." + +"That's true," assented Vane. "It's rather a pity. Anyhow, I'm not to be +scared out of my interest in Celia Hartley." + +"What is your interest in her? It's a question that may be asked." + +"As you pretend that you don't know, I'll have pleasure in telling you +again. When I first struck this city, played out and ragged, she was +waitress at a little hotel, and she brought me a double portion of the +nicest things at supper. What's more, she sewed up some of my clothes, +and I struck a job on the strength of looking comparatively decent. It's +the kind of thing you're apt to remember. One doesn't meet with too much +kindness in this blamed censorious world." + +"I'd expect you to remember," Carroll smiled. + +They went in to dinner and when the meal was over they walked across to +Nairn's. They were ushered into a room in which several other guests were +assembled, and Vane sat down beside Jessy Horsfield. A place on the sofa +she occupied was invitingly empty; he did not know, of course, that she +had adroitly got rid of her previous companion as soon as he came in. + +"I want to thank you; I was over at Miss Hartley's this +afternoon," he began. + +"I understood that you were at the mining meeting." + +"So I was, your brother would tell you that--" + +Vane broke off, remembering that he had defeated Horsfield; but Jessy +laughed encouragingly. + +"He did so--you were opposed to him; but it doesn't follow that I share +all his views. Perhaps I ought to be a stauncher partizan." + +"If you'll be just to both of us, I'll be satisfied." + +Jessy reflected that while this was, no doubt, a commendable sentiment, +he might have made a better use of the opening she had given him by at +least hinting that he would value her sympathy. + +"I suppose that means that you're convinced of the equity of your cause?" +she suggested. + +"I dare say I deserve the rebuke; but aren't you trying to switch me off +the subject?" Vane retorted with a laugh. "It's Celia Hartley that I want +to talk about." + +He did her an injustice. Jessy felt that she had earned his gratitude, +and she had no objection to his expressing it. + +"It was a happy thought of yours to give her hats and things to make; I'm +ever so much obliged to you," he went on. "I felt that you could be +trusted to think of the right thing. An ingenious idea of that kind would +never have occurred to me." + +Jessy smiled up at him. + +"It was very simple," she said sweetly. "I noticed a hat and dress of +hers, which she admitted she had made. The girl has some talent; I'm only +sorry I can't keep her busy." + +"Couldn't you give her an order for a dozen hats? I'd be glad to be +responsible." + +Jessy laughed. + +"The difficulty would be the disposal of them. They would be of no use to +you; and I couldn't allow you to present them to me." + +"I wish I could," Vane declared. "You certainly deserve them." + +This was satisfactory, so far as it went, though Jessy would have +preferred that his desire to bestow the favor should have sprung from +some other motive than a recognition of her services to Celia Hartley. +She was, however, convinced that his only feeling toward the girl was +one of compassion. Then she saw that he was looking at her with +half-humorous annoyance in his face. + +"Are you really grieved because I won't take those hats?" she +asked lightly. + +"I am," Vane confessed, and then proceeded to explain with rather +unnecessary ingenuousness: "I'm still more vexed with the state of things +that it's typical of--I suppose I mean the restrictedness of this +civilized life. When you want to do anything in the bush, you take the ax +and set about it; but here you're continually running up against some +quite unnecessary barrier." + +"One understands that it's worse in England," Jessy returned dryly. +"But in regard to Miss Hartley, I'll recommend her to my friends, as +far as I can." + +Vane made an abrupt movement, and Jessy realized by his expression that +he had suddenly become oblivious of her presence. She had no doubt about +the reason, for just then Evelyn Chisholm had entered the room. The +lamplight fell upon her as she crossed the threshold, and Jessy +recognized unwillingly that she looked surprisingly handsome. Handsome, +however, was not the word Vane would have used. He thought Evelyn looked +exotic: highly cultivated, strangely refined, as though she had grown up +in a rarefied atmosphere in which nothing rank could thrive. Exactly what +suggested this it was difficult to define; but the man felt that she had +brought along with her the clean, chill air of the heights where the +cloud-berries bloom. She was a flower of the dim and misty North, which +has nevertheless its flashes of radiant, ethereal beauty. Though Evelyn +had her faults, the impression she made on Vane was, perhaps, more or +less justifiable. + +Then he remembered that the girl had been offered to him and he had +refused the gift. He wondered how he had exerted the necessary strength +of will, for he was conscious that admiration, respect, pity, had now, +changed and melted into sudden passion. His blood tingled, and he felt +strangely happy. + +Laying a check upon his thoughts, he resumed a desultory conversation +with Jessy, but he betrayed himself several times during it, for no +change of his expression was lost upon the girl. At length she let him +go. It was some time, however, before he secured a place beside Evelyn, a +little apart from the others. He was now unusually quiet and +self-contained. + +"Nairn promised me an astonishment this evening, but it exceeds all my +expectations," he said. "How are your people?" + +Evelyn informed him that their health was satisfactory and added, +watching him the while: + +"Gerald sent his best remembrances." + +"Thank you," Vane responded in a casual manner; "I am glad to have them." + +Evelyn was now convinced that Mabel had been correct in concluding that +he had assisted Gerald financially, though she was aware that nothing +would induce either of the men to acquaint her with the fact. + +"And Mopsy?" he inquired. + +"I left her in tears because she could not come. She sent you so many +confused messages that I'm afraid I've forgotten them." + +Vane's face grew gentle. + +"Dear little girl! It's a pity you couldn't have brought her. Mopsy and +I are great friends." + +Evelyn smiled at him. The tenderness of the man appealed to her; and she +knew that to be the friend of anyone meant a good deal to him. + +"You are her hero," she told him. "I don't think it is because you pulled +her out of the water, either; in fact, I think you won her regard when +you mended her canoe. You have a reputation to keep up with Mopsy." + +There was no answering smile in Vane's eyes. + +"Well, I shouldn't like to disappoint her; but isn't it curious what +effect some things have? A patch on Mopsy's canoe, for instance--and I've +known a piece of cold pie carry with it a big obligation." + +The last was somewhat cryptic, and Evelyn looked at him with surprise, +until it dawned on her that he had merely been half-consciously +expressing a wandering thought aloud. + +"I understood from Mrs. Nairn that you were away in the bush," she said. + +"That was the case; and I'm shortly going off again. Perhaps it's +fortunate that I may be away some time. It will leave you more at ease." + +The last remark was more of a question than an assertion. Evelyn knew +that the man could be direct; and she esteemed candor. + +"No," she answered; "I shouldn't wish you to think that--and I shouldn't +like to believe that I had anything to do with driving you away." + +Vane saw a faintly warmer tone show through the clear pallor of her skin, +but while his heart beat faster than usual he recognized that she meant +just what she said and nothing more. He must proceed with caution, and +this, on the whole, was foreign to him. Shortly afterward he left her. + +When he had gone, Evelyn sat thinking about him. She had shrunk from the +man in rebellious alarm when her parents would have bestowed her hand on +him; but even then, and undoubtedly afterward, she had felt that there +was something in his nature which would have attracted her had she been +willing to allow it to do so. Now, though he had said nothing to rouse +it, the feeling had grown stronger. Then she remembered with a curious +smile her father's indignation when Vane had withdrawn from the field. He +had done this because she had appealed to his generosity, and she had +been grateful to him; but, unreasonable as she admitted the faint +resentment she was conscious of to be, the recollection of the fact that +he had yielded to her wishes was somehow bitter. + +In the meanwhile Carroll had taken his place by Jessy's side. + +"I understand that you steered your comrade satisfactorily through the +meeting to-day," she began. + +"No," objected Carrol; "I can't claim any credit for doing so. In matters +of that kind Vane takes full control; and I'm willing to own that he +drove us all, including your brother, on the course he chose." + +Jessy laughed good-humoredly. + +"Then it's in other matters you exercise a little judicious pressure on +the helm?" + +The man looked at her in well-assumed admiration of her keenness. + +"I don't know how you guessed it, but I suppose it's a fact. It's an open +secret, however, that Vane's now and then unguardedly ingenuous; indeed, +there are respects in which he's a babe by comparison with, we'll say, +either of us." + +"That's rather a dubious compliment. By the way, what do you think of +Miss Chisholm? I suppose you saw a good deal of her in England?" + +Carroll's eyes twinkled. + +"I spent a month or two in her company; so did Vane. I fancy she's rather +like him in several ways; and there are reasons for believing that he +thinks a good deal of her." + +Having watched Vane carefully when Evelyn came in, Jessy was inclined to +agree with him. She glanced round the room. One or two people were moving +about and the others were talking in little groups; but there was nobody +very near, and she fancied that she and her companion were safe from +interruption. + +"What are some of the reasons?" she asked boldly. + +Carroll had expected some question of this description, and had decided +to answer it plainly. It seemed probable that Jessy would get the +information out of him in one way or another, anyway; and he had also +another reason, which he thought a commendable one. Jessy had obviously +taken a certain interest in Vane, but it could not have gone very far as +yet, and Vane did not reciprocate it. His comrade, however, was +impulsive, while Jessy was calculating and clever; and Carroll foresaw +that complications might follow any increase of friendliness between her +and Vane. He thought it might be wise to warn her to leave Vane alone. + +"Well," he answered, "since you have asked, I'll try to tell you." + +He proceeded to recount what had passed at the Dene and Jessy listened, +sitting perfectly still, with an expressionless face. + +"So he gave her up--because he admired her?" she said at length. + +"That's my view of it. Of course, it sounds unlikely, but I don't think +it is so in my partner's case." + +Jessy made no comment, but he felt that she was hit hard, and that was +not what he had anticipated. He began to wonder whether he had acted +judiciously. He glanced about the room, as it did not seem considerate to +study her expression just then. A few moments later she turned to him +with a smile in which there was the faintest hint of strain. + +"I dare say you are right; but there are one or two people to whom I +haven't spoken." + +She moved away from him, and a little while afterward Mrs. Nairn came +upon Carroll standing for the moment alone. + +"It's no often one sees ye looking moody," she said. "Was Jessy no +gracious?" + +"That," replied Carroll, smiling, "is not the difficulty. I'm an +unsusceptible and a somewhat inconspicuous person--not worth powder and +shot, so to speak; for which I'm sometimes thankful. I believe it saves +me a good deal of trouble." + +"Then is it something Vane has done that is on your mind? Doubtless, ye +feel him a responsibility." + +"He's what you'd call all that," Carroll declared. "Still, you see, I've +constituted myself his guardian. I don't know why; he'd probably be very +vexed if he suspected it." + +"The gods give ye a good conceit of yourself," Mrs. Nairn laughed. + +"I need it. This afternoon I let him do a most injudicious thing; and now +I've done another which I fear is worse. On the whole, I think I'd better +take him away to the bush. He'd be safer there." + +"Ye will no; no just now," declared his hostess firmly. + +Carroll made a sign of resignation. + +"Oh, well," he agreed, "if you say so. I'm quite willing to stand out and +let things alone. Too many cooks are apt to spoil the kale." + +Mrs. Nairn left him, but she afterward glanced thoughtfully once or twice +at Vane and Evelyn, who had again drawn together. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +EVELYN GOES FOR A SAIL + + +Vane sat in Nairn's office with a frown on his face. Specimens of ore +lately received from the mine were scattered about a table and Nairn had +some papers in his hand. + +"Weel?" inquired the Scotchman when Vane, after examining two or three of +the stones, abruptly flung them down. + +"The ore's running poorer. On the other hand, I partly expected this. +There's better stuff in the reef. We're a little too high, for one thing; +I look for more encouraging results when we start the lower heading." + +He went into details of the new operations, and when he finished Nairn +looked up from the figures he had been jotting down. + +"Yon workings will cost a good deal," he pointed out "Ye will no be able +to make a start until we're sure of the money." + +"We ought to get it." + +Nairn looked thoughtful. + +"A month or two ago, I would have agreed with ye; but general investors +are kittle folk, and the applications for the new stock are no numerous." + +"Howitson promised to subscribe largely; and Bendle pledged himself to +take a considerable block." + +"I'm no denying it. But we have no been favored with their formal +applications yet." + +"You had better tell me if you have anything particular in your mind," +Vane said bluntly. + +An unqualified affirmation is not strictly in accordance with the +Scottish character, and Nairn was seldom rash. + +"I would have ye remember what I told ye about the average investor," he +replied. "He has no often the boldness to trust his judgment nor the +sense to ken a good thing when he sees it--he waits for a lead, and then +joins the rush when other folk are going in. What makes a mineral or +other stock a favorite for a time is now and then no easy to determine; +but we'll allow that it becomes so--ye will see men who should have mair +sense thronging to buy and running the price up. Like sheep they come in, +each following the other; and like sheep they run out, if anything scares +them. It's no difficult to start a panic." + +"The plain English of it is that the mine is not so popular as it was," +retorted Vane impatiently. + +"I'm thinking something of the kind," Nairn agreed. Then he proceeded +with a cautious explanation: "The result of the first reduction and the +way ye forced the concern on the market secured ye notice. Folk put their +money on ye, looking for sensational developments, and when the latter +are no forthcoming they feel a bit sore and disappointed." + +"There's nothing discouraging in our accounts. Even if the ore all ran as +poor as that,"--Vane pointed to the specimens on the table--"the mine +could be worked on a reasonably satisfactory paying basis. We have +issued no statements that could spread alarm." + +"Just so. What was looked for was more than reasonable satisfaction--ye +have no come up to expectations. Forby, it's my opinion that damaging +reports have somehow leaked out from the mine. Just now I see clouds on +the horizon." + +"Bendle pledged himself to take up a big block of the shares," repeated +Vane. "If Howitson does the same, as he said he would, our position would +be secure. As soon as it was known that they were largely interested, +others would follow them." + +"Now ye have it in a nutshell--it would put a wet blanket on the project +if they both backed down. In the meanwhile we canna hurry them. Ye will +have to give them time." + +Vane rose. + +"We'll leave it at that. I've promised to take Mrs. Nairn and Miss +Chisholm for a sail." + +By the time he reached the water-front he had got rid of the slight +uneasiness the interview had occasioned him. He found Mrs. Nairn and +Evelyn awaiting him with Carroll in attendance, and in a few minutes they +were rowing off to the sloop. As they approached her, the elder lady +glanced with evident approval at the craft, which swam, a gleaming ivory +shape, upon the shining green brine. + +"Ye have surely been painting the boat," she exclaimed. "Was that for +us?" + +Vane disregarded the question. + +"She wanted it, and paint's comparatively cheap. It has been good drying +weather the last few days." + +It was a little thing, but Evelyn was pleased. The girls had not been +greatly considered at the Dene, and it was flattering to recognize that +the man had thought it worth while to decorate his craft in her honor; +she supposed it had entailed a certain amount of work. She did not ask +herself if he had wished to please her; he had invited her for a sail +some days ago, and he was thorough in everything he did. He helped her +and Mrs. Nairn on board and when they sat down in the well he and Carroll +proceeded to hoist the mainsail. It looked exceedingly large as it +thrashed and fluttered above their heads, and there seemed to be a +bewildering quantity of ropes, but Evelyn was interested chiefly in +watching Vane. + +He was wonderfully quick, but no movement was wasted. His face was +intent, his glances sharp, and she liked the crisp, curt way in which he +spoke to Carroll. The man's task was, in one sense, not important, but he +was absorbed in it. Then while Carroll slipped the moorings, Vane ran up +the headsails and springing aft seized the tiller as the boat, slanting +over, commenced to forge through the water. It was the first time Evelyn +had ever traveled under sail and, receptive as she was of all new +impressions she sat silent a few minutes rejoicing in the sense of swift +and easy motion. The inlet was crisped by small white ripples, and the +boat with her boom broad off on her quarter drove through them, with a +wedge of foam on her lee bow and a stream of froth sluicing past her +sides. Overhead, the great inclined sail cut, sharply white, against the +dazzling blue of the mid-morning sky. + +Evelyn glanced farther around. Wharves stacked with lumber, railroad +track, clustering roofs, smoking mills, were flitting fast astern. Ahead, +a big side-wheel steamer was forging, foam-ringed, toward her, with the +tall spars of a four-master towering behind, and stately pines, that +apparently walled in the harbor, a little to one side. To starboard, +beyond the wide stretch of white-flecked water, mountains ran back in +ranks, with the chilly gleam of snow, which had crept lower since her +arrival, upon their shoulders. It was a sharp contrast: the noisy, +raw-new city and, so close at hand, the fringe of the wilderness. + +They swept out through the gate of the Narrows, and Vane luffed the boat +up to a moderately fresh breeze. + +"It's off the land, and we'll have fairly smooth water," he explained. +"How do you like sailing?" + +Evelyn watched the white ridges, which were larger than the ripples in +the inlet, smash in swift succession upon the weather bow and hurl the +glittering spray into the straining mainsail. There was something +fascinating in the way the gently-swaying boat clove through them. + +"It's glorious!" she cried, looking first ahead then back toward the +distant snow. "If anything more were wanted, there are the +mountains, too." + +Vane smiled, but there was a suggestive sparkle in his eyes. + +"Yes; we have them both, and that's something to be thankful for. The sea +and the mountains--the two grandest things in this world!" + +"If you think that, how did you reconcile yourself to the city?" + +"I'm not sure that I've done so." He indicated the gleaming heights. +"Anyway, I'm going back up yonder very soon." + +Mrs. Nairn glanced at Carroll, who affected to be busy with a rope; then +she turned to Vane. + +"It will no be possible with winter coming on." + +"It's not really so bad then," Vane declared. "Besides, I expect to get +my work done before the hardest weather's due." + +"But ye canna leave Vancouver until ye have settled about the mine!" + +"I don't want to," Vane admitted. "That's not quite the same thing." + +"It is with a good many people," Carroll interposed with a smile. + +Evelyn fancied that there was something behind all this, but it did not +directly concern her and she made no inquiry. In the meanwhile they were +driving on to the southward, opening up the straits, with the forests to +port growing smaller and the short seas increasing in size. The breeze +was cold, but the girl was warmly clad and the easy motion in no way +troubled her. The rush of keen salt air stirred her blood, and all round +her were spread wonderful harmonies of silver-laced blue and green, +through which the straining fabric that carried her swept on. The +mountains were majestic, but except when tempests lashed their crags or +torrents swept their lower slopes they were wrapped in eternal repose; +the sea was filled with ecstatic motion. + +"The hills have their fascination; it's a thing I know," she said, to +draw the helmsman out. "I think I should like the sea, too; but at first +sight it's charm isn't quite so plain." + +"You have started him," interposed Carroll. "He won't refuse that +challenge." + +Vane accepted it with a smile which meant more than good-humored +indulgence. + +"Well," he declared, "the sea's the same everywhere, unbridled, +unchanging; a force that remains as it was in the beginning. Once you're +out of harbor, under sail, you have done with civilization. It has +possibly provided you with excellent gear, but it can do no more; you +stand alone, stripped for the struggle with the elements." + +"Is it always a struggle?" + +"Always. The sea's as treacherous as the winds that vex it, pitiless, +murderous. When you have only sail to trust to, you can never relax your +vigilance; you must watch the varying drift of clouds and the swing of +the certain tides. There's nothing and nobody to fall back upon when the +breeze pipes its challenge; you have sloughed off civilization and must +stand or fall by the raw natural powers with which man is born, and chief +among them is the capacity for brutal labor. The thrashing sail must be +mastered; the tackle creaking with the strain must be hauled in. Perhaps, +that's the charm of it for some of us whose lives are pretty smooth--it +takes one back, as I said, to the beginning." + +"But haven't human progress and machines made life more smooth for +everybody?" + +Vane laughed somewhat grimly. + +"Oh, no; I think that can never be done. So far, somebody pays for the +others' ease. At sea, in the mine and in the bush man still grapples with +a rugged, naked world." + +The girl was pleased. She had drawn him out, and she thought that in +speaking he had kept a fair balance between too crude a mode of +colloquial expression and poetic elaboration. There was, she knew, a vein +of poetic conception in him, and the struggle he had hinted at could be +described fittingly only in heroic language. It was in one sense a pity +that those who had the gift of it and cultivated imagination had, for the +most part, never been forced into the fight; but that was, perhaps, not a +matter of much importance. There were plenty of men, such as her +companion, endowed with steadfast endurance who, if they seldom gave +their thoughts free rein, rejoiced in the struggle; and by them the +world's sternest work was clone. + +"After all," she went on, "we have the mountains in civilized England." + +Vane did not respond with the same freedom this time. He was inclined to +think he had spoken too unrestrainedly. + +"Yes," he agreed, smiling; "you can walk about them--where you won't +disturb the grouse--and they're grand enough; but if you look down you +can see the motor dust trails and the tourist coaches in the valleys." + +"But why shouldn't people enjoy themselves in that way?" + +"I can't think of any reason. No doubt most of them have earned the right +to do so. But you can't rip up those hills with giant-powder where you +feel inclined, or set to work to root out some miles of forest. The +Government encourages that kind of thing here." + +"And that's the charm?" + +"Yes; I suppose it is." + +"I'd better explain," Carroll interposed. "Men of a certain temperament +are apt to fall a prey to fantasies in the newer lands; any common sense +they once possessed seems to desert them. After that, they're never happy +except when they're ripping things--such as big rocks and trees--to +pieces, and though they'll tell you it's only to get out minerals or to +clear a ranch, they're wrong. Once they get the mine or ranch, they don't +care about it; they set to work wrecking things again. Isn't that true, +Mrs. Nairn?" + +"There are such crazy bodies," agreed the lady. "I know one or two; +but if I had my way with them, they should find one mine, or build +one sawmill." + +"And then," supplied Carroll, "you would chain them up for good by +marrying them." + +"I would like to try, but I'm no sure it would act in every case. I have +come across some women as bad as the men; they would drive their +husbands on." + +She smiled in a half wistful manner. + +"Maybe," she added, "it's as well to do something worth the remembering +when ye are young. There's a long while to sit still in afterward." + +Half in banter and half in earnest, they had given Evelyn a hint of the +master passion of the true colonist, whose pride is in his burden. +Afterward, Mrs. Nairn led the conversation until Carroll laid out in the +saloon a somewhat elaborate lunch which he had brought from the hotel. +Then the others went below, leaving Vane at the helm. When they came up +again, Carroll looked at his comrade ruefully. + +"I'm afraid Miss Chisholm's disappointed," he said. + +"No," declared Evelyn; "that would be most ungrateful. I only expected a +more characteristic example of sea cookery. After what Mr. Vane told us, +a lunch like the one you provided, with glass and silver, struck me as +rather an anachronism." + +"It's better to be broken in to sea cookery gently," Vane interposed with +some dryness. + +Evelyn laughed. + +"It's a poor compliment to take it for granted that we're afraid of a +little hardship. Besides, I don't think you're right." + +Vane left the helm to Carroll and went below. + +"He won't be long," Carroll informed the girl, with a smile. "He hasn't +got rid of all his primitive habits yet. I'll give him ten minutes." + +When Vane came up, he glanced about him before he resumed the helm and +noticed that it was blowing fresher. They were also drawing out from the +land and the short seas were getting bigger; but he held on to the whole +sail, and an hour or so afterward a white iron bark, light in ballast, +with her rusty load-line high above the water, came driving up to meet +them. She made a striking picture, Evelyn thought, with the great curve +of her forecourse, which was still set, stretching high above the foam +that spouted about her bows and tier upon tier of gray canvas diminishing +aloft. With the wind upon her quarter, she rode on an even keel, and the +long iron hull, gleaming snowily in the sunshine, drove on, majestic, +through a field of white-flecked green and azure. Abreast of one +quarter, a propeller tug that barely kept pace with her belched out a +cloud of smoke. + +"Her skipper's been up here before--he's no doubt coming for +salmon," Vane explained. Then he turned to Carroll. "We'd better +pass to lee of her." + +Carroll let a foot or two of a rope run out and the sloop's bows swung +round a little. Her rail was just awash, and she was sailing very fast. +Then her deck slanted more sharply and the low rail became submerged in +rushing foam. + +"We'll heave down a reef when we're clear of the bark," Vane said. + +The vessel was now to windward and coming up rapidly; to shorten sail +they must first round up the boat, for which they no longer had room. A +few moments later a fiercer blast swept suddenly down and the water +boiled white between the bark and the sloop. The latter's deck dipped +deeper until the lower part of it was lost in streaming froth. Carroll +made an abrupt movement. + +"Shall I drop the peak?" + +"No. There's the propeller close to lee." + +The tug was hidden by the inclined sail, but Evelyn, clinging tightly to +the coaming, understood that they were running into the gap between the +two vessels and in order to avoid collision with one or the other, must +hold on as they were through the stress of the squall. How much more the +boat would stand she did not know, but it looked as if it were going over +bodily. Then a glance at the helmsman's face reassured her. It was fixed +and expressionless, but she somehow felt that whatever was necessary +would be promptly done. He was not one to lose his nerve or vacillate in +a crisis, and his immobility appealed to her, because she knew that if +occasion arose it would be replaced by prompt decisive action. + +In the meanwhile the slant of sail and deck increased. One side of the +sloop was hove high out of the sea. It was all the girl could do to hold +herself upright, and Mrs. Nairn had fallen against and was only supported +by the coaming to leeward. Then the wind was suddenly cut off and the +sloop rose with a bewildering lurch, as the tall iron hull to weather +forged by, hurling off the sea. She passed, and while Vane called out +something and Carroll scrambled forward, the sloop swayed violently down +again. Everything in her creaked; the floorings sloped away beneath +Evelyn's feet, and now the madly-whirling froth poured in across the +coaming. The veins stood out on the helmsman's forehead, his pose +betrayed the tension on his arms; but the sloop was swinging round, and +she fell off before the wind when the upper half of the great sail +collapsed. + +Rising more upright, she flung the water off her deck, and for some +moments drove on at a bewildering speed; then there was a mad thrashing +as Vane brought her on the wind again. The two men, desperately busy, +mastered the fluttering sail, and in a few more minutes they were running +homeward, with the white seas splashing harmlessly astern. It was now +difficult to believe they had been in any danger, but Evelyn felt that +she had had an instance of the sea's treachery; what was more, she had +witnessed an exhibition of human nerve and skill. Vane, with his +half-formulated thoughts which yet had depth to them and his flashes of +imagination, had interested her; but now he had been revealed in his +finer capacity, as a man of action. + +"I'd have kept to weather of the bark, where we'd have had room to luff, +if I'd expected that burst of wind," he explained. "Did you hurt yourself +against the coaming, Mrs. Nairn?" + +The lady smiled reassuringly. + +"It's no worth mentioning, and I'm no altogether unused to it. Alic once +kept a boat and would have me out with him." + +The remainder of the trip proved uneventful, and as they ran homeward the +breeze gradually died away. The broad inlet lay still in the moonlight +when they crept across it with the water lapping very faintly about the +bows, and it was over a mirror-like surface they rowed ashore. Nairn was +waiting at the foot of the steps and Evelyn walked back with him, +feeling, she could not tell exactly why, that she had been drawn closer +to the sloop's helmsman. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +VANE PROVES OBDURATE + + +Vane spent two or three weeks very pleasantly in Vancouver, for Evelyn, +of whom he saw a good deal, was gracious to him. The embarrassment both +had felt on their first meeting in the western city had speedily +vanished; they had resumed their acquaintance on what was ostensibly a +purely friendly footing, and since both avoided any reference to what had +taken place in England, it had ripened into a mutual confidence and +appreciation. + +This would have been less probable in the older country, where they would +have been continually reminded of what the Chisholm family expected of +them; but the past seldom counts for much in the new and changeful West, +where men look forward to the future. Indeed, there is something in its +atmosphere which banishes regret and retrospection; and when Evelyn +looked back at all, she felt inclined to wonder why she had once been so +troubled by the man's satisfaction with her company. She decided that +this could not have been the result of any aversion for him, and that it +was merely an instinctive revolt against the part her parents had wished +to force upon her. Chisholm and his wife had blundered, as such people +often do, for it is possible that had they adopted a perfectly neutral +attitude everything would have gone as they desired. Their mistake was +nevertheless a natural one. Somewhat exaggerated reports of Vane's +prosperity had reached them; but while they coveted the advantages his +wealth might offer their daughter, in their secret hearts they looked +upon him as a raw Colonial and something of a barbarian, and the opinions +he occasionally expressed in their hearing did not dispel this idea. Both +feared that Evelyn regarded him in the same light, and it accordingly +became evident that a little pressure might be required. In spite of +their prejudices, they did not shrink from applying it. + +In the meanwhile, several people in Vancouver watched the increase of +friendliness between the girl and Vane. Mrs. Nairn and her husband did so +with benevolent interest, and it was by Mrs. Nairn's adroit management, +which even Evelyn did not often suspect, that they were thrown more and +more into each other's company. Jessy Horsfield, however, looked on with +bitterness. She was a strong-willed young woman who hitherto had +generally contrived to obtain whatever she had set her heart on; and she +had set it on this man. Indeed, she had fancied that he returned the +feeling, but disillusionment had come on the evening when he had +unexpectedly met Evelyn. Her smoldering resentment against the girl grew +steadily stronger, until it threatened to prove dangerous on opportunity. + +There were, however, days when Vane was disturbed in mind. Winter was +coming on, and although it is rarely severe on the southern seaboard, it +is by no means the season one would choose for an adventure among the +ranges of the northern wilderness. Unless he made his search for the +spruce very shortly he might be compelled to postpone it until the +spring, at the risk of some hardy prospector's forestalling him; but +there were two reasons which detained him. He thought that he was gaining +ground in Evelyn's esteem and he feared the effect of absence, and there +was no doubt that the new issue of the Clermont shares was in very slack +demand. To leave the city might cost him a good deal in several ways, but +he had pledged himself to go. + +That fact was uppermost in his mind one evening when he set off to call +on Celia Hartley. As it happened, Evelyn and Mrs. Nairn were driving past +as he turned off from a busy street toward the quarter in which she +lived. It had been dark for some time, but the street was well lighted +and Evelyn had no difficulty in recognizing him. Indeed, she watched him +for a few moments while he passed on into a more shadowy region, where +the gloom and dilapidation of the first small frame houses were +noticeable. Beyond them there was scarcely a light at all; the +neighborhood looked mysterious, and she wondered what kind of people +inhabited it. She did not think that Mrs. Nairn had noticed Vane. + +"You have never taken me into the district on our left," she said. + +"I'm no likely to. We're no proud of it." + +Evelyn was a little astonished. She had seen no signs of squalor or +dissipation since she entered Canada, and had almost fancied that they +did not exist. + +"I suppose the Chinese and other aliens live there?" + +"They do," was the dry answer. "I'm no sure, however, that they're +the worst." + +"But one understands that you haven't a criminal population." + +"We have folk who're on the fringe of it, only we see that they live all +together. Folk who would be respectable live somewhere else, except, +maybe, a few who have to consider cheapness. There's no great difference +in human nature wherever ye find it, and I do no suppose we're very much +better than the rest of the world; but it's no a recommendation to be +seen going into yon quarter after dark." + +This left Evelyn thoughtful, for she had undoubtedly seen Vane going +there. She considered herself a judge of character and generally trusted +her intuitions, and she believed that the man's visit to the neighborhood +in question admitted of some satisfactory explanation. On the other hand, +she felt that her friends should be beyond suspicion. Taking it all +round, she was rather vexed with Vane, and it cost her some trouble to +drive the matter out of her mind. + +She did not see Vane the next day, but the latter called upon Nairn at +his office during the afternoon. + +"Have you had any more applications for the new stock?" he asked. + +"I have no. Neither Bendle nor Howitson has paid up yet, though I've seen +them about it once or twice." + +"Investors are shy; that's a fact," Vane confessed. "It's unfortunate. +I've already put off my trip north as long as possible. I wanted to see +things arranged on a satisfactory basis before I went." + +"A very prudent wish. I should advise ye to carry it out." + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"Something like this--if the money's no forthcoming, we may be compelled +to fall back upon a different plan, and unless ye're to the fore, the +decision of a shareholders' meeting might no suit ye. Considering the +position and the stock ye hold, any views ye might express would carry +more weight than mine would do in your absence." + +Vane drummed with his fingers on the table. + +"I suppose that's the case; but I've got to make the journey. With +moderately good fortune it shouldn't take me long." + +"Ye would be running some risk if anything delayed ye and we had to call +a meeting before ye got back." + +Vane frowned. + +"I see that; but it can't be helped. I expect to be back before I'm +wanted. Anyway, I could leave you authority to act on my behalf." + +After a further attempt to dissuade him, Nairn spread out one hand +resignedly. + +"He who will to Cupar maun be left to gang," he said. "Whiles, I have +wondered why any one should be so keen on getting there, but doubtless a +douce Scottish town has mair attractions for a sensible person than the +rugged Northwest in the winter-time." + +Vane smiled and shortly afterward went out and left him; and when Nairn +reached home he briefly recounted the interview to his wife over his +evening meal. Evelyn listened attentively. + +"Yon man will no hear reason," Nairn concluded. "He's thrawn." + +Evelyn had already noticed that her host, for whom she had a strong +liking, spoke broader Scotch when he was either amused or angry, and she +supposed that Vane's determination disturbed him. + +"But why should he persist in leaving the city, when it's to his +disadvantage to do so, as you lead one to believe it is?" she asked. + +"If the latter's no absolutely certain, it's very likely." + +"You have answered only half my question." + +Mrs. Nairn smiled. + +"Alic," she explained, "is reserved by nature; but if ye're anxious for +an answer, I might tell ye." + +"Anxious hardly describes it." + +"Then we'll say curious. The fact is that Vane made a bargain with a sick +prospector, in which he undertook to locate some timber the man had +discovered away among the mountains. He was to pay the other a share of +its value when he got his Government license." + +"Is the timber very valuable?" + +"No," broke in Nairn. "One might make a fair business profit out of +pulping it, though the thing's far from certain." + +"Then why is Mr. Vane so determined on finding it?" + +The question gave Mrs. Nairn a lead, but she decided to say no more than +was necessary. + +"The prospector died, but that bound the bargain tighter, in Vane's +opinion. The man died without a dollar, leaving a daughter worn out and +ill with nursing him. According to the arrangement, his share will go to +the girl." + +"Then," said Evelyn, "Mr. Vane is really undertaking the search, which +may involve him in difficulties, in order to keep his promise to a man +who is dead? And he will not even postpone it, because if he did so +this penniless girl might, perhaps, lose her share? Isn't that rather +fine of him?" + +"On the whole, ye understand the position," Nairn agreed. "If ye +desire my view of the matter, I would merely say that yon's the kind +of man he is." + +Evelyn made no further comment, though the last common phrase struck her +as a most eloquent tribute. She had heard Vane confess that he did not +want to go north at present, and she now understood that to do so might +jeopardize his interests in the mine; but he was undoubtedly going. He +meant to keep his promise in its fullest and widest meaning--that was +what one would expect of him. + +One mild afternoon, a few days later, he took her for a drive among the +Stanley pines, and, though she knew that she would regret his departure, +she was unusually friendly. Vane rejoiced at it, but he had already +decided that he must endeavor to proceed with caution and to content +himself in the meanwhile with the part of trusted companion. For this +reason, he chatted lightly, which he felt was safer, during most of the +drive; but once or twice, when by chance or design she asked a leading +question, he responded without reserve. He did so when they were +approaching a group of giant conifers. + +"I wonder whether you ever feel any regret at having left England for +this country?" she asked. + +"I did so pretty often when I first came out," he answered with a +smile. "In those days I had to work in icy water and carry massive +lumps of rock." + +"I dare say regret was a natural feeling then; but that wasn't quite +what I meant." + +"So I supposed," Vane confessed. "Well, I'd better own that when I'd +spent a week or two in England--at the Dene--I began to think I'd missed +a good deal by not staying at home. It struck me that the life you led +had a singular charm. Everything went so smoothly there, among the +sheltering hills. One felt that care and anxiety could not creep in. +Somehow, the place reminded me of Avalon." + +"The impression was by no means correct," smiled Evelyn, "But I don't +think you have finished. Won't you go on?" + +"Then if I get out of my depth, you mustn't blame me. By and by I +discovered that charm wasn't the right word--the place was permeated with +a narcotic spell." + +"Narcotic? Do you think the term's more appropriate?" + +"I do. Narcotics, one understands, are insidious things. If you take them +regularly, in small doses, they increase their hold on you until you +become wrapped up in dreams and unrealities. If, however, you get too big +a dose of them at the beginning, it leads to a vigorous revulsion. It's +nature's warning and remedy." + +"You're not flattering; but I almost fancy you're right." + +"We are told that man was made to struggle--to use all his powers. If he +rests too long beside the still backwaters of life, in fairy-like dales, +they're apt to atrophy, and he finds himself slack and nerveless when he +goes out to face the world again." + +Evelyn nodded, for she had felt and striven against the insidious +influence of which he spoke. She had now and then left the drowsy dale +for a while; but the life of which she had then caught glimpses was +equally sheltered--one possible only to the favored few. Even the echoes +of the real tense struggle seldom passed its boundaries. + +"But you confessed not long ago that you loved the western wilderness," +she said. "You have spent a good deal of time in it; and you expect to +do so again. After all, isn't that only exchanging one beautiful, +tranquil region for another? The bush must be even quieter than the +English dales." + +"Perhaps I haven't made the point quite clear. When one goes up into the +bush, it's not to lounge and dream there, but to make war upon it with ax +and drill." + +He pulled up his team and pointed to the clump of giant trees. + +"Look there! That's nature's challenge to man in this country." + +Evelyn recognized that it was an impressive one. The great trunks ran up +far aloft, tremendous columns, before their brighter portions were lost +in the vaulted roof of somber greenery. They dwarfed the rig and team; +she felt herself a pygmy by comparison. + +"They're a little larger than the average," her companion explained, +"Still, that's the kind of thing you run up against when you buy land to +start a ranch or clear the ground for a mine. Chopping, sawing up, +splitting those giants doesn't fill one with languorous dreams; the only +dreams that our axmen indulge in materialize. It's an unending, bracing +struggle. There are leagues and leagues of trees, shrouding the valleys +in a shadow that has lasted since the world was young; but you see the +dawn of a wonderful future breaking in as the long ranks go down." + +Once more, without clearly intending it, he had stirred the girl. He had +not spoken in that rather fanciful style to impress her; she knew that, +trusting in her comprehension, he had merely given his ideas free rein. +But in doing so he had somehow made her hear the trumpet-call to action +which, for such men, rings through the roar of the river and the song of +the tall black pines. + +"Ah!" she murmured, "it must be a glorious life, in many ways; but it's +bound to have its drawbacks. Doesn't the flesh shrink from them?" + +"The flesh?" He laughed. "In this land the flesh takes second +place--except, perhaps, in the cities." He turned and looked at her +curiously. "Why should you talk of shrinking? The bush couldn't daunt +you; you have courage." + +The girl's eyes sparkled, but not at the compliment. His words rang with +freedom; the freedom of the heights, where heroic effort was the rule, in +place of luxury. She longed now, as she had often done, to escape from +bondage; to break away. + +"Ah, well," she said, smiling half wistfully; "perhaps it's fortunate +that such courage as I have may never be put to the test." + +Though reticence was difficult, Vane made no comment. He had already +spoken unguardedly, and he decided that caution would be desirable. +As he started the team, an automobile came up, and he looked around +as he drove on. + +"It's curious that I never heard the thing," he remarked. + +"I didn't, either," replied Evelyn. "I was too much engrossed in the +trees. But I think Miss Horsfield was in it" + +"Was she?" responded Vane in a very casual manner; and Evelyn, for no +reason that she was willing to recognize, was pleased. + +She had not been mistaken. Jessy Horsfield was in the automobile, and she +had had a few moments in which to study Vane and his companion. The man's +look and the girl's expression had struck her as significant; and her +lips set in an ominously tight line as the car sped on. She felt that she +almost hated Vane; and there was no doubt that she entirely hated the +girl at his side. It would be soothing to humiliate her, to make her +suffer, and though the exact mode of setting about it was not very clear +just yet, she thought it might be managed. Her companion wondered why she +looked preoccupied during the rest of the journey. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +JESSY STRIKES + + +It was the afternoon before Vane's departure for the North, and Evelyn, +sitting alone for the time being in Mrs. Nairn's drawing-room, felt +disturbed by the thought of it. She sympathized with his object, as it +had been briefly related by her hostess, but she supposed there was a +certain risk attached to the journey, and that troubled her. In addition +to this, there was another point on which she was not altogether pleased. +She had twice seen him acknowledge a bow from a very pretty girl whose +general appearance suggested that she did not belong to Evelyn's own walk +in life, and that very morning she had noticed him crossing a street in +the young woman's company. Vane, as it happened, had met Kitty Blake by +accident and had asked her to accompany him on a visit to Celia. Evelyn +did not think she was of a jealous disposition, and jealousy appeared +irrational in the case of a man whom she had dismissed as a suitor; but +the thing undoubtedly rankled in her mind. While she was considering it, +Jessy Horsfield entered the room. + +"I'm here by invitation, to join Mr. Vane's other old friends in giving +him a good send-off," she explained. "Only, Mrs. Nairn told me to come +over earlier." + +Evelyn noticed that Jessy laid some stress upon her acquaintance with +Vane, and wondered whether she had any motive for doing so. + +"I suppose you have known him for some time?" + +"Oh, yes," was the careless answer. "My brother was one of the first to +take him up when he came to Vancouver." + +The phrase jarred on Evelyn. It savored of patronage; besides, she did +not like to think that Vane owed anything to the Horsfields. + +"Though I don't know much about it, I understood that they were opposed +to each other," she said coldly. + +Jessy laughed. + +"Their business interests don't coincide; but it doesn't follow that they +should disagree about anything else. My brother did all he could to +dissuade Mr. Vane from going on with his search for the timber until the +winter is over." + +This was true, inasmuch as Horsfield had spoken to Vane about the +subject, though it is possible that he would not have done so had he +expected the latter to yield to his reasoning. Vane was one whom +opposition usually rendered more determined. + +"I think it is rather fine of him to persist in it," Evelyn declared. + +Jessy smiled, though she felt venomous just then. + +"Yes," she agreed; "one undoubtedly feels that. Besides, the thing's +so characteristic of him; the man's impulsively generous and not +easily daunted. He possesses many of the rudimentary virtues, as well +as some of the corresponding weaknesses, which is very much what one +would look for." + +"What do you mean by that?" Evelyn inquired with a trace of asperity. +Though she was not prepared to pose as Vane's advocate, she was +conscious of a growing antagonism toward her companion. + +"It's difficult to explain, and I don't know that the subject's worth +discussing," answered Jessy. "However, what I think I meant was this--Mr. +Vane's of a type that's not uncommon in the West, and it's a type one +finds interesting. He's forcibly elementary, which is the only way I can +express it; the restraints the rest of us submit to don't bind him--he +breaks through them." + +This, Evelyn fancied, was more or less correct. Indeed, the man's +fearless disregard of hampering customs had pleased her, but she +recognized that some restraints are needful. Her companion followed the +same train of thought. + +"When one breaks down or gets over fences, it's necessary to +discriminate," she went on. "Men of the Berserker type, however, are more +addicted to going straight through the lot. In a way, they're +consistent--having smashed one barrier why should they respect the next?" + +Jessy, as she was quite aware, was playing a dangerous game; one that +might afterward be exposed. The latter possibility, however, was of less +account, for detection would come too late if she were successful. She +was acquainted with the salient points of Evelyn's character. + +"They're consistent, if not always very logical," she concluded after a +pause. "One endeavors to make allowances for men of that description." + +Something in her tone roused Evelyn to sudden imperious anger. It was +intolerable that this woman should offer excuses for Vane. + +"What particular allowances do you feel it needful to make in Mr. Vane's +case?" she asked haughtily. + +Now that she was faced by the direct question, Jessy hesitated. As a +rule, she was subtle, but she could be ruthlessly frank, and she was +possessed by a passionate hatred of the girl beside her. + +"You have forced me to an explanation," she smiled. "The fact is that +while he has a room at the hotel he has an--establishment--in a +different neighborhood. Unfortunately such places are a feature of some +western towns." + +It was a shock to Evelyn; one that she found hard to face; though she was +not convinced. The last piece of information agreed with something Mrs. +Nairn had told her; but, although she had on one occasion had the +testimony of her eyes in support of it, Jessy's first statement seemed +incredible. + +"It's impossible!" + +Jessy smiled in a bitter manner. + +"It's unpleasant, but it can't be denied. He undoubtedly pays the rent of +a shack in the neighborhood I mentioned." + +Evelyn sat tensely still for a moment or two. She dare not give rein to +her feelings, for she would not betray herself; but composure was +extremely difficult. + +"If that is true," she demanded, "how is it that he is received +everywhere--at your house and by Mrs. Nairn? He is coming here to-night." + +Jessy shrugged her shoulders. + +"People in general are more or less charitable in the case of a +successful man. Apart from that, Mr. Vane has a good many excellent +qualities. As I said, one has to make allowances." + +Just then, to Evelyn's relief, Mrs. Nairn came in, and though the girl +suffered during the time, it was half an hour before she could find an +excuse for slipping away alone. Then, sitting in the gathering darkness +in her own room, she set herself to consider, as dispassionately as +possible, what she had heard. It was exceedingly difficult to believe the +charge, but Jessy's assertion was definite enough, and one which, if +incorrect, could readily be disproved. Nobody would say such a thing +unless it could be substantiated; and that led Evelyn to consider why +Jessy had given her the information. She had obviously done so with at +least a trace of malice, but it could hardly have sprung from jealousy; +Evelyn could not think that a woman would vilify a man for whom she had +any tenderness. Besides, she had seen Vane entering the part of the town +indicated, where he could not have had any legitimate business. Hateful +as the suspicion was, it could not be contemptuously dismissed. Then she +recognized that she had no right to censure the man; he was not +accountable to her for his conduct--but calm reasoning carried her no +farther. She was once more filled with intolerable disgust and burning +indignation. Somehow, she had come to believe in Vane, and he had turned +out an impostor. + +About an hour later Vane and Carroll entered the house with Nairn and +proceeded to the latter's room where he offered them cigars. + +"So ye're all ready to sail the morn?" + +Vane nodded and handed him a paper. + +"There's your authority to act in my name, if it's required. If we have +moderately fine weather, I expect to be back before there's much change +in the situation; but I'll call at Nanaimo, where you can wire me if +anything turns up during the two or three days it may take us to get +there. The wind's ahead at present." + +"I suppose there's no use in my saying anything more now; but I can't +help pointing out that as head of the concern you have a certain duty to +the shareholders which you seem inclined to disregard," Carroll remarked. + +Vane smiled. + +"I've no doubt that their interests will be as safe in Nairn's hands as +in mine. What I stand to risk is the not getting my personal ideas +carried out, which is a different matter, though I'll own that it +wouldn't please me if they were overruled." + +"I fail to see why ye could no have let the whole thing stand over until +the spring," grunted Nairn. "The spruce will no run away." + +"I'd have done so, had it been a few years earlier, but the whole country +is overrun with mineral prospectors and timber righters now. Every +month's delay gives somebody else a chance for getting in ahead of me." + +"Weel," responded Nairn resignedly, "I can only wish ye luck; but, should +ye be detained up yonder, if one of ye could sail across to Comox to see +if there's any mail there it would be wise to do so." He waved his hand. +"No more of that; we'll consider what tactics I had better adopt in case +of delay." + +An hour had passed before they went down to join the guests who were +arriving for the evening meal. As a rule, the western business man, who +is more or less engrossed in his occupation except when he is asleep, +enjoys little privacy; and Nairn's friends sometimes compared his +dwelling to the rotunda of a hotel. The point of this was that people of +all descriptions who have nothing better to do are addicted to strolling +into the combined bazaar and lounge which is attached to many Canadian +hostelries. + +Vane was placed next to Evelyn at the table; but after a quiet reply to +his first observation she turned and talked to the man at her other side. +As the latter, who was elderly and dull, had only two topics--the most +efficient means of desiccating fruit and the lack of railroad +facilities--Vane was somewhat astonished that she appeared interested in +his conversation, and by and by he tried again. He was not more +successful this time, and his face grew warm as he realized that Evelyn +was not inclined to talk to him. Being a very ordinary mortal and not +particularly patient, he was sensible of some indignation, which was not +diminished when, on looking around, Jessy Horsfield favored him with a +compassionate smile. However, he took his part in the general +conversation; and the meal was over and the guests were scattered about +the adjoining rooms when, after impatiently waiting for the opportunity, +he at last found Evelyn alone. She was standing with one hand on a table, +looking rather thoughtful. + +"I've come to ask what I've done?" + +Evelyn was not prepared for this blunt directness and she felt a little +disconcerted, but she broke into a chilly smile. + +"The question's rather indefinite, isn't it? Do you expect me to be +acquainted with all your recent actions?" + +"Then I'll put the thing in another way--do you mind telling me how I +have offended you?" + +The girl almost wished that she could do so. Appearances were badly +against him, but she felt that if he declared himself innocent she could +take his word in the face of overwhelming testimony to the contrary. +Unfortunately, however, it was unthinkable that she should plainly state +the charge. + +"Do you suppose I should feel warranted in forming any opinion upon your +conduct?" she retorted. + +"It strikes me that you have formed one, and it isn't favorable." + +The girl hesitated a moment, but she had the courage of her convictions +and she felt impelled to make some protest. + +"That," she said, looking him in the eyes, "is perfectly true." + +He seemed more puzzled than guilty, and once more she chafed against the +fact that she could give him no opportunity for defending himself. + +"Well," he responded, "I'm sorry; but it brings us back to my first +question." + +The situation was becoming painful as well as embarrassing, and Evelyn, +perhaps unreasonably, grew more angry with the man. + +"I'm afraid that you either are clever at dissembling or have no +imagination." + +Vane held himself in hand with an effort. + +"I dare say you're right on the latter point. It's a fact I'm sometimes +thankful for. It leaves one more free to go straight ahead. Now, as I see +the dried-fruit man coming in search of you and you evidently don't mean +to answer me, I can't urge the matter." + +He turned away and left her wondering why he had abandoned his usual +persistency, unless it was that an uneasy conscience had driven him from +the field. It did not occur to her that the man had under strong +provocation merely yielded to the prompting of a somewhat hasty temper. +In the meanwhile he crossed the room in an absent-minded manner and +presently found himself near Jessy, who made room for him at her side. + +"It looks as if you were in disgrace to-night," she said sweetly, and +waited with concealed impatience for his answer. If Evelyn had been +sufficiently clever or bold to give him a hint as to what he was +suspected of, Jessy foresaw undesirable complications. + +"I think I am," he owned without reflection. "The trouble is that, while +I may deserve it on general grounds, I'm unconscious of having done +anything very reprehensible in particular." + +Jessy was sensible of considerable relief. The man was sore and +resentful; he would not press Evelyn for an explanation, and the breach +would widen. In the meanwhile she must play her cards skillfully. + +"Then that fact should sustain you," she smiled. "We shall miss you after +to-morrow--more than one of us. Of course, it's too late to tell you that +you are not altogether wise in resolving to go." + +"Everybody has been telling me the same thing for the last few weeks," +he laughed. + +"Then I'll only wish you every success. It's a pity that Bendle and the +other man haven't paid up yet." + +She met his surprised look with an engaging smile. + +"You needn't be astonished. There's not very much goes on in the city +that I don't hear about you know how men talk business here, and it's +interesting to look on, even when one can't actually take a hand in the +game. It's said that the watchers sometimes see the most of it." + +"To tell the truth, it's the uncertainty as to what those two men might +do that has chiefly been worrying me." + +"Of course. I believe that I understand the position--they've been +hanging fire, haven't they? But I've reasons for believing they'll come +to a decision before very long." + +Vane looked troubled. + +"That's interesting, but I ought to warn you that your brother--" + +Jessy stopped him with a smile. + +"I've no intention of giving him away; and, as a matter of fact, I think +you are a little prejudiced against him. After all, he's not your +greatest danger. There's a cabal against you among your shareholders." + +The man knit his brows, but she knew by the way he looked at her that he +admired her acumen. + +"Yes," he responded; "I've suspected that." + +"There are two courses open to you--the first is to put off your +expedition." + +The answer was to the effect she had anticipated. + +"That's impossible, for several reasons." + +"The other is to call at Nanaimo and wait until, we'll say, next +Thursday. If there's need for you to come back I think it will arise by +then; but it might be better if you called at Comox too--after you leave +the latter you'll be unreachable. If it seems necessary, I'll send you a +warning; if you hear nothing, you can go on." + +Vane reflected hastily. Jessy, as she had told him, had opportunities for +picking up valuable information about the business done in that city, and +he had confidence in her. + +"Thank you," he said. "It will be the second service you have done me, +and I appreciate it. Anyway, I promised Nairn I'd call at Nanaimo, in +case there should be a wire from him." + +"It's a bargain; and now we'll talk of something else." + +Jessy drew him into an exchange of badinage. Noticing, however, that +Evelyn once or twice glanced at her with some astonishment, she presently +got rid of him. She could understand Evelyn's attitude and she did not +wish her friendliness with the offender to appear unnatural after what +she had said about him. + +At length the guests began to leave, and most of them had gone when Vane +rose to take his departure. His host and hostess went with him to the +door, but, though he once or twice glanced round eagerly, there was no +sign of Evelyn. He lingered a few moments on the threshold after Mrs. +Nairn had given him a kindly send-off; but nobody appeared in the lighted +hall, and after another word with Nairn he went moodily down the steps to +join Jessy and Carroll, who were waiting for him below. As the group +walked down the garden path, Mrs. Nairn looked at her husband. + +"I do not know what has come over Evelyn this night," she remarked. + +Nairn followed Jessy's retreating figure with distrustful eyes. + +"Weel," he drawled, "I'm thinking yon besom may have had a hand in +the thing." + +A few minutes later Jessy, standing where the light of a big lamp +streamed down upon her through the boughs of a leafless maple, bade Vane +farewell at her brother's gate. + +"If my good wishes can bring you success, it will most certainly be +yours," she said, and there was something in her voice which faintly +stirred the man, who was feeling very sore. + +"Thank you." + +She did not immediately withdraw the hand she had given him. He was +grateful to her and thought she looked unusually pretty with the sympathy +shining in her eyes. + +"You will not forget to wait at Nanaimo and Comox?" she reminded him. + +"No. If you recall me, I'll come back at once; if not, I'll go on with a +lighter heart, knowing that I can safely stay away." + +Jessy said nothing further, and he moved on. She felt that she had scored +and she knew when to stop. The man had given her his full confidence. + +Soon afterward Vane entered his hotel, where he turned impatiently +upon Carroll. + +"You can go into the rotunda or the smoking-room and talk to any loafer +who thinks it worth while to listen to your cryptic remarks," he said. +"As we sail as soon as it's daylight to-morrow, I'm going to sleep." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE INTERCEPTED LETTER + + +The wind was fresh from the northwest when Vane drove the sloop out +through the Narrows in the early dawn and saw a dim stretch of +white-flecked sea in front of him. Land-locked as they are by Vancouver +Island, the long roll of the Pacific cannot enter those waters, but they +are now and then lashed into short, tumbling seas, sufficient to make +passage difficult for a craft no larger than the sloop. Carroll frowned +when a comber smote the weather bow and a shower of stinging spray +lashed his face. + +"Right ahead again," he remarked. "But as I suppose you're going on, we'd +better stretch straight across on the starboard tack. We'll get smoother +water along the island shore." + +They let her go and Vane sat at the helm hour after hour, drenched with +spray, hammering her mercilessly into the frothy seas. They could have +done with a second reef down, for the deck was swept and sluicing, and +most of the time the lee rail was buried deep in rushing foam; but Vane +showed no intention of shortening sail. Nor did Carroll, who saw that his +comrade was disturbed in temper, suggest it; resolute action had, he +knew, a soothing effect on Vane. As a matter of fact, Vane needed +soothing. Of late, he had felt that he was making steady progress in +Evelyn's favor, and now she had most inexplainably turned against him. +There was no doubt that, as Jessy had described it, he was in disgrace; +but rack his brain as he would, he could not discover the reason. That he +was conscious of no offense only made the position more galling. + +In the meanwhile, the boat engrossed more and more of his attention, and +though he was by no means careful of her, he spared no effort to get her +to windward. It was a relief to drive her hard at some white-topped sea +and watch her bows disappear in it with a thud, while it somehow eased +his mind to see the smashed-up brine fly half the height of her drenched +mainsail. There was also satisfaction in feeling the strain on the tiller +when, swayed down by a fiercer gust, she plunged through the combers with +the froth swirling, perilously close to the coaming, along her +half-submerged deck. In all their moods, men of his kind find pleasure in +such things; the turmoil, the rush, the need for quick, resolute action +stirs the blood in them. + +The day was cold; the man, who was compelled to sit almost still in a +nipping wind, was soon wet through; but this in some curious way further +tended to restore his accustomed optimism and good-humor. He had partly +recovered both when, as the sloop drove through the whiter turmoil +whipped up by a vicious squall, there was a crash forward. + +"Down helm!" shouted Carroll. "The bobstay's gone!" + +He scrambled toward the bowsprit, which having lost its principal support +swayed upward, in peril of being torn away by the sagging jib. Vane first +rounded up the boat into the wind and then followed him; and for several +minutes they had a savage struggle with the madly-flapping sail before +they flung it, bundled up, into the well. Then they ran in the bowsprit, +and Vane felt glad that, although the craft had been rigged in the usual +western fashion as a sloop, he had changed that by giving her a couple of +headsails in place of one. + +"She'll trim with the staysail if we haul down another reef," he +suggested. + +It cost them some labor, but they were warmer afterward, and when they +drove on again Vane glanced at the bowsprit. + +"We'll try to get a bit of galvanized steel in Nanaimo," he said. "I +can't risk another smash." + +Carroll laughed. + +"You'd better be prepared for one, if you mean to drive her as you have +been doing." He flung back the saloon scuttle. "You'd have swamped her in +another hour or two--the cabin floorings are all awash." + +"Then hadn't you better pump her out?" retorted Vane. "After that, you +can light the stove. It's beginning to dawn on me that it's a long while +since I had anything worth speaking of to eat. The kind of lunch you +brought along in the basket isn't sustaining." + +They made a bountiful if somewhat primitive meal, in turn, sitting in the +dripping saloon which was partly filled with smoke, and Carroll sighed +for the comforts he had abandoned. He did not, however, mention his +regrets, because he did not expect his comrade's sympathy. Vane seldom +noticed what he was eating when he was on board his boat. + +The craft, being under reduced sail, drove along more easily during the +rest of the afternoon, and they ran into a little colliery town late on +the following day. There Vane replaced the broken bobstay with a solid +piece of steel, and then sat down to write a letter while Carroll +stretched his cramped limbs ashore. + +The letter was addressed to Evelyn, and he found it difficult to express +himself as he desired. The spoken word, as he had discovered, is now and +then awkward to use, but the written one is more evasive and complex +still, and he shook his head ruefully over the production when he laid +down his pen. This was, perhaps, unnecessary, for having grown calm he +had framed a terse and forcible appeal to the girl's sense of justice, +which would in all probability have had its effect on her had she +received it. Though he hardly realized it, the few simple words were +convincing. + +Having had no news from Nairn or Jessy, they sailed again in a day or +two, bound for Comox farther along the coast, where there was a +possibility of communications overtaking them; but in the meanwhile +matters which concerned them were moving forward in Vancouver. + +It was rather early one afternoon when Jessy called on one of her friends +and found her alone. Mrs. Bendle was a young and impulsive woman from one +of the eastern cities and she had not made many friends in Vancouver yet, +though her husband, whom she had lately married, was a man of some +importance there. + +"I'm glad to see you," she said, greeting Jessy eagerly. "It's a week +since anybody has been in to talk to me, and Tom's away again. It's +a trying thing to be the wife of a western business man--you so +seldom see him." + +Jessy made herself comfortable in an easy-chair before she referred to +one of her companion's remarks. + +"Where has Mr. Bendle gone now?" she asked. + +"Into the bush to look at a mine. He left this morning and it will be a +week before he's back. Then he's going across the Selkirks with that +Clavering man about some irrigation scheme." + +This suggested one or two questions which Jessy desired to ask, but she +did not frame them immediately. Mrs. Bendle was incautious and +discursive, but there was nothing to be gained by being precipitate. + +"It must be dull for you," she sympathized. + +"I don't mean to complain. Tom's reasonable; the last time I said +anything about being left alone he bought me a pair of ponies. He said I +could have either them or an automobile, and I took the ponies. I thought +them safer." + +Jessy smiled. + +"You're fortunate in several ways; there are not a great many people who +can make such presents. But while everybody knows your husband has been +successful lately, I'm a little surprised that he's able to go into +Clavering's irrigation scheme. It's a very expensive one, and I +understand that they intend to confine it to a few, which means that +those interested will have to subscribe handsomely." + +"Tom," explained her companion, "likes to have a number of different +things in hand. He told me it was wiser, when I said that I couldn't tell +my friends back East what he really is, because he seemed to be +everything at once. But your brother's interested in a good many things, +too, isn't he?" + +"I believe so," answered Jessy. "Still, I'm pretty sure he couldn't +afford to join Clavering and at the same time take up a big block of +shares in Mr. Vane's mine." + +"But Tom isn't going to do the latter now." + +Jessy was startled. This was valuable information which she could +scarcely have expected to obtain so easily. There was more that she +desired to ascertain, but she had no intention of making any obvious +inquiries. + +"It's generally understood that Mr. Vane and your husband are on good +terms," she said. "You know him, don't you?" + +"I've met him once or twice, and I like him, but when I mention him Tom +smiles. He says it's unfortunate Mr. Vane can see only one thing at a +time, and that the one which lies right in front of his eyes. For all +that, he once owned that the man is likable." + +"Then it's a pity he's unable to stand by him now." + +Mrs. Bendle looked thoughtful. + +"I really believe Tom's half sorry he can't do so. He said something last +night that suggested it--I can't remember exactly what it was. Of course, +I don't understand much about these matters, but Howitson was here +talking business until late." + +Jessy was satisfied. Her hostess's previous incautious admission had gone +a long way, but to this was added the significant information that Bendle +was inclined to be sorry for Vane. The fact that he and Howitson had +decided on some joint action after a long private discussion implied that +there was trouble in store for the absent man, unless he could be +summoned to deal with the crisis in person. Jessy wondered whether Nairn +knew anything about the matter yet, and decided that she would call and +try to sound him. This would be difficult, because Nairn was not the man +to make any rash avowal, and he had an annoying habit of parrying an +injudicious question with an enigmatical smile. In the meanwhile she led +her companion away from the subject and they discussed millinery and such +matters until she took her departure. + +It was early in the evening when she reached Nairn's house, for she +thought it better to arrive there a little before he came home. She was +told that Mrs. Nairn and Miss Chisholm were out but were expected back +shortly. Evelyn had been by no means cordial to her since their last +interview, and Mrs. Nairn's manner had been colder; but Jessy decided +to wait; and for the second time that day fortune seemed to play into +her hands. + +It was dark outside, but the entrance hall was brightly lighted and Jessy +could see into it from where she sat. Highly trained domestics are +generally scarce in the West, and the maid had left the door of the room +open. Presently there was a knock at the outer door and a young lad came +in with some letters in his hand. He explained to the maid that he had +been to the post-office and had brought his employer's private mail. The +maid pointed out that the top letter looked dirty, and the lad owned that +he had dropped the bundle in the street. Then he withdrew and the maid +laid the letters carelessly on a little table and also retired, banging a +door behind her. The concussion shook down the letters, and one, +fluttering forward with the sudden draught, fell almost upon the +threshold of the room. Jessy, who was methodical in most things, rose to +pick it up and replace it with the rest. + +When she reached the door, however, she stopped abruptly, for she +recognized the rather large writing on the envelope. There was no doubt +that it was from Vane and she noticed that it was addressed to Miss +Chisholm. Jessy picked it up, and when she had laid the others on the +table, she stood with Vane's letter in her hand. + +"Has the man no pride?" she said half aloud. + +Then she looked about her, listening, greatly tempted, and considering. +There was no sound in the house; Evelyn and Mrs. Nairn were out, and the +other occupants were cut off from her by a closed door. Nobody would know +that she had entered the hall, and if the letter were subsequently missed +it would be remembered that the lad had confessed to dropping the bundle. +It was most unlikely, however, that any question regarding its +disappearance would ever be asked. If there should be no response from +Evelyn, Vane, she thought, would not renew his appeal. Jessy had no doubt +that the letter contained an appeal of some kind which might lead to a +reconciliation, and she knew that silence is often more potent than an +outbreak of anger. She had only to destroy the letter, and the breach +between the two people whom she desired to separate would widen +automatically. + +There was little risk of detection, but, standing tensely still, with set +lips and heart beating faster than usual, she shrank from the decisive +action. She could still replace the letter and look for other means of +bringing about what she wished. She was self-willed and endowed with few +troublesome principles, but until she had poisoned Evelyn's mind against +Vane she had never done anything flagrantly dishonorable. Then while she +waited, irresolute, a fresh temptation seized her in the shape of a +burning desire to learn what the man had to say. He would reveal his +feelings in the message and she could judge the strength of her rival's +influence over him. Jessy had her ideas on this point, but she could now +see them confirmed or refuted by the man's own words. + +Yet she hesitated, with a half-instinctive recognition of the fact that +the decision she must make was an eventful one. She had transgressed +grievously in one recent interview with Evelyn, but, while she had no +idea of making reparation, she could at least stop short of a second +offense. She had, perhaps, not gone too far yet, but if she ventured a +little farther she might be driven on against her will and become +inextricably involved in an entanglement of dishonorable treachery. + +The issue hung in the balance--the slightest thing would have turned +the scale--when she heard footsteps outside and the tinkle of a bell. +Moving with a start, she slipped back into the room just before the +maid opened the adjacent door. In another moment she thrust the +envelope inside her dress, and gathered her composure as Mrs. Nairn and +Evelyn entered the hall. The former approached the table and turned +over the handful of letters. + +"Two for ye from England, Evelyn, and one or two for me," she said, +flashing a quick glance at the girl. "Nothing else; I had thought Vane +would maybe send a bit note from one of the island ports to say how he +was getting on." + +Then Jessy rose, smiling, to greet her hostess. The question was +decided--it was too late to replace the letter now. She could not +remember what they talked about during the next half-hour, but she took +her part, until Nairn came in, and she contrived to have a word with him +before leaving. Mrs. Nairn had gone out to give some instructions about +supper, and when Evelyn followed her, Jessy turned to Nairn. + +"Mr. Vane should be at Comox now," she began. "Have you any idea of +recalling him? Of course, I know a little about the Clermont affairs." + +Nairn glanced at her with thoughtful eyes. + +"I'm no acquainted with any reason that would render such a course +necessary." + +Evelyn reappeared shortly after this, and Jessy excused herself from +staying for the evening meal and walked home thinking hard. It was +needful that Vane should be recalled. He had written to Evelyn, but Jessy +still meant to send him word. He would be grateful to her, and, indignant +and wounded as she was, she would not own herself beaten. She would warn +the man, and afterward perhaps allow Nairn to send him a second message. + +On reaching her brother's house, she went straight to her own room and +tore open the envelope. The color receded from her face as she read, and +sinking into a chair she sat still with hands clenched. The message was +terse, but it was stirringly candid; and even where the man did not +fully reveal his feelings in his words she could read between the lines. +There was no doubt that he had given his heart unreservedly into her +rival's keeping. He might be separated from her, but Jessy knew enough +of him to realize at last that he would not turn to another. The lurid +truth was burned upon her brain--she might do what she would, but this +man was not for her. + +For a while she sat still, and then stooping swiftly she seized the +letter, which she had dropped, and rent it into fragments. Her eyes had +grown hard and cruel; love of the only kind that she was capable of had +suddenly turned to hate. What was more, it was a hate that could be +gratified. + +A little later Horsfield came in. Jessy was very composed now, but she +noticed that her brother looked at her in a rather unusual manner once or +twice during the meal that followed. + +"You make me feel that you have something on your mind," she observed +at length. + +"That's a fact." + +Horsfield hesitated. He was attached to and rather proud of his sister. + +"Well?" she prompted. + +He leaned forward confidentially. + +"See here," he said, "I've always imagined that you would go far, and I'm +anxious to see you do so. I shouldn't like you to throw yourself away." + +His sister could take a hint, but there was information that she desired +and the man was speaking with unusual reserve. + +"You must be plainer," she retorted with a slight show of impatience. + +"Then, you have seen a good deal of Vane, and in case you have any +hankering after his scalp, I think I'd better mention that there's reason +to believe he won't be worth powder and shot before very long." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Jessy with a calmness that was difficult to assume; "you +may as well understand that there is nothing between Vane and me. I +suppose you mean that Howitson and Bendle are turning against him?" + +"Something like that." Horsfield's tone implied that her answer had +afforded him relief. "The man has trouble in front of him." + +Jessy changed the subject. What she had gathered from Mrs. Bendle was +fully confirmed; but she had made up her mind. Evelyn's lover might wait +for the warning which could save him, but he should wait in vain. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +ON THE TRAIL + + +It was a long, wet sail up the coast with the wind ahead, and Carroll was +quite content when, on reaching Comox, Vane announced his intention of +stopping there until the mail came in. Immediately after its arrival, +Carroll went ashore, and came back empty-handed. + +"Nothing," he reported. "Personally, I'm pleased. Nairn could have +advised us here if there had been any striking developments since we left +the last place." + +"I wasn't expecting to hear from him," Vane replied tersely. + +Carroll read keen disappointment in his face, and was not surprised, +although the absence of any message meant that it was safe for them to go +on with their project and that should have afforded his companion +satisfaction. The latter sat on deck, gazing somewhat moodily across the +ruffled water toward the snow-clad heights of the mainland range. They +towered, dimly white and majestic, above a scarcely-trodden wilderness, +and Carroll, at least, was not pleasantly impressed by the spectacle. +Though not to be expected always, the cold snaps are now and then severe +in those wilds. Indeed, at odd times a frost almost as rigorous as that +of Alaska lays its icy grip upon the mountains and the usually damp +forests at their feet. + +"I wish I could have got a man to go with us, but between the coal +development and the logging, everybody's busy," he remarked. + +"It doesn't matter," Vane assured him. "If we took a man along and came +back unsuccessful, there'd be a risk of his giving the thing away. +Besides, he might make trouble in other respects. A hired packer would +probably kick against what you and I may have to put up with." + +Carroll was far from pleased with this hint, but he let it pass. + +"Do you mean that if you don't find the spruce this time, you'll go +back again?" + +"Yes, that's my intention. And now we may as well get the mainsail on +her." + +They got off shortly afterward and stood out to northward with the wind +still ahead of them. It was a lowering day, and a short, tumbling sea was +running. When late in the afternoon Carroll fixed their position by the +bearing of a peak on the island, he pointed out the small progress they +had made. The sloop was then plunging close-hauled through the vicious +slate-green combers, and thin showers of spray flew all over her. + +"The luck's been dead against us ever since we began this search," he +commented. + +"Do you believe in that kind of foolishness?" Vane inquired. + +Carroll, sitting on the coaming, considered the question. It was not one +of much importance, but the dingy sky and the dreary waste of sad-colored +water had a depressing effect on him, and as it was a solace to talk, +one topic would serve as well as another. + +"I think I believe in a rhythmical recurrence of the contrary chance," he +answered. "I mean that the uncertain and adverse possibility often turns +up in succession for a time." + +"Then you couldn't call it uncertain." + +"You can't tell exactly when the break will come," Carroll explained. +"But if I were a gambler or had other big risks, I think I'd allow for +dangers in triplets." + +"Yes," Vane responded; "you could cite the three extra big head seas, +and I've noticed that when one burned tree comes down in a brulee, it's +quite often followed by two more, though there may be a number just +ready to fall." + +He mused for a few moments, with the spray whistling about him. He had +three things at stake: Evelyn's favor; his interest in the Clermont Mine; +and the timber he expected to find. Two of them were undoubtedly +threatened, and he wondered gloomily if he might be bereft of all. Then +he drove the forebodings out of his mind. + +"In the present case, anyway, our course is pretty simple," he +declared with a laugh. "We have only to hold out and go on until the +luck changes." + +Carroll knew that Vane was capable of doing as he had suggested and he +was not encouraged by the prospect; but he went below to trim and bring +up the lights, and soon afterward retired to get what rest he could. The +locker cushions on which he lay felt unpleasantly damp; his blankets, +which were not much drier, smelt moldy; and there was a dismal splash +and gurgle of water among the timbers of the plunging craft. Now and +then a jet of it shot up between the joints of the flooring or spouted +through the opening made for the lifting-gear in the centerboard trunk. +When he had several times failed to plug the opening with a rag, Carroll +gave it up and shortly afterward fell into fitful slumber. + +He was awakened, shivering, by hearing Vane calling him, and scrambling +out into the well, he took the helm as his comrade left it. + +"What's her course?" he inquired. + +"If you can keep her hammering ahead close-hauled on the port tack, +it's all I ask," Vane laughed. "You needn't call me unless the sea +gets steeper." + +He crawled below; and it was a few minutes before Carroll, who was +dazzled by the change from the dim lamplight, felt himself fit for his +task. Fine spray whirled about him. It was pitch dark, but by degrees he +made out the shadowy seas which came charging up, tipped with frothing +white, upon the weather bow. By the way they broke on board it struck him +that they were steep enough already, but Vane had seen them not long ago +and there was nothing to be gained by expostulation if they caused him no +anxiety. Several hours went by, and then Carroll noticed that the faint +crimson blink which sometimes fell upon the seas to weather was no longer +visible. It was evident that the port light had either gone out or been +washed out, and it was his manifest duty to relight it. On the other +hand, he could not do so unless Vane took the helm. He was wet and +chilled through; any fresh effort was distasteful; he did not want to +move; and he decided that they were most unlikely to meet a steamer, +while it was certain that there would be no other yacht about. He left +the lamp alone, and at length Vane came up. + +"What's become of the port light?" he demanded. + +"That's more than I can tell you. It was burning an hour ago." + +"An hour ago!" Vane broke out with disgusted indignation. + +"It may have been a little longer. They've stopped the Alaska steamboats +now, but of course there's no reason why you shouldn't light that lamp +again, if it would give you any satisfaction. I'll stay up until you're +through with it." + +Vane did as he suggested, and immediately afterward Carroll retired +below. He slept until a pale ray of sunshine crept in through the +skylights, and then crawling out found the sloop lurching very slowly +over a dying swell, with her deck and shaking mainsail white with frost. +The wind had fallen almost dead away, and it was very cold. + +"On the whole," he complained, "this is worse than the other thing." + +Vane merely told him to get breakfast; and most of that day and the next +one they drifted with the tides through narrowing waters, though now and +then for a few hours they were wafted on by light and fickle winds. At +length, they crept into the inlet where they had landed on the previous +voyage, and on the morning after their arrival they set out on the march. +There was on this occasion reason to expect more rigorous weather, and +the load each carried was an almost crushing one. Where the trees were +thinner the ground was frozen hard, and even in the densest bush the +undergrowth was white and stiff with frost, while overhead a forbidding +gray sky hung. + +On approaching the rift in the hillside at which he had glanced when they +first passed that way, Vane stopped a moment. + +"I looked into that place before, but it didn't seem worth while to +follow it up," he said. "If you'll wait, I'll go a little farther +along it." + +Though the air was nipping, Carroll was content to remain where he was, +and he spent some time sitting upon a log before a faint shout reached +him. Then he rose and, making his way up the hollow, found his comrade +standing upon a jutting ledge. + +"I thought you were never coming! Climb up; I've something to show you!" + +Carroll joined him with difficulty, and Vane stretched out his hand. + +"Look yonder!" + +Carroll looked and started. They stood in a rocky gateway with a river +brawling down the chasm beneath them, but a valley opened up in front. +Filled with somber forest, it ran back almost straight between stupendous +walls of hills. + +"It answers Hartley's description. After all, I don't think it's +extraordinary that we should have taken so much trouble to push on past +the right place." + +"Why?" + +Carroll sat down and filled his pipe. + +"It's the natural result of possessing a temperament like yours. Somehow, +you've got it firmly fixed into your mind that everything worth doing +must be hard." + +"I've generally found it so." + +"I think," grinned Carroll, "you've generally made it so. There's a +marked difference between the two. If any means of doing a thing looks +easy, you at once conclude that it can't be the right one. That mode of +reasoning has never appealed to me. In my opinion, it's more sensible to +try the easiest method first." + +"As a rule, that leads to your having to fall back upon the other one; +and a frontal attack on a difficulty's often quicker than considering how +you can work round its flank. In this case, I'll own we have wasted a lot +of time and taken a good deal of trouble that might have been avoided. +But are you going to sit here and smoke?" + +"Until I've finished my pipe," Carroll answered firmly. "I expect we'll +find tobacco, among other things, getting pretty scarce before this +expedition ends." + +He carried out his intention, and they afterward pushed on up the valley +during the remainder of the day. It grew more level as they proceeded, +and in spite of the frost, which bound the feeding snows, there was a +steady flow of water down the river, which was free from rocky barriers. +Vane now and then glanced at the river attentively, and when dusk was +drawing near he stopped and fixed his gaze on the long ranks of trees +that stretched away in front of him; fretted spires of somber greenery +lifted high above a colonnade of mighty trunks. + +"Does anything in connection with this bush strike you?" he asked. + +"Its stiffness, if that's what you mean," Carroll answered with a smile. +"These big conifers look as if they'd been carved, like the wooden trees +in the Swiss or German toys. They're impressive in a way, but they're +too formally artificial." + +"That's not what I mean," Vane said impatiently. + +"To tell the truth, I didn't suppose it was. Anyway, these trees aren't +spruce. They're red cedar; the stuff they make roofing shingles of." + +"Precisely. Just now, shingles are in good demand in the Province, and +with the wooden towns springing up on the prairie, western millers can +hardly send roofing material across the Rockies fast enough. Besides +this, I haven't struck a creek more adapted for running down logs, and +the last sharp drop to tide-water would give power for a mill. I'm +only puzzled that none of the timber-lease prospectors have recorded +the place." + +"That's easy to understand," laughed Carroll. "Like you, they'd no doubt +first search the most difficult spots to get at." + +They went on, and when darkness fell they pitched their light tent beside +the creek. It was now freezing hard, and after supper the men lay +smoking, wrapped in blankets, with the tent between them and the stinging +wind, while a great fire of cedar branches snapped and roared in front of +them. Sometimes the red blaze shot up, flinging a lurid light on the +stately trunks and tinging the men's faces with the hue of burnished +copper; sometimes it fanned out away from them while the sparks drove +along the frozen ground and the great forest aisle, growing dim, was +filled with drifting vapor. The latter was aromatic; pungently fragrant. + +"It struck me that you were disappointed when you got no mail at +Comox," Carroll remarked at length, feeling that he was making +something of a venture. + +"I was," admitted Vane. + +"That's strange," Carroll persisted, "because your hearing nothing +from Nairn left you free to go ahead, which, one would suppose, was +what you wanted." + +Vane happened to be in a confidential mood; though usually averse to +sharing his troubles, he felt that he needed sympathy. + +"I'd better confess that I wrote Miss Chisholm a few lines from Nanaimo." + +"And she didn't answer you? Now, I couldn't well help noticing that you +were rather in her bad graces that night at Nairn's--the thing was pretty +obvious. No doubt you're acquainted with the reason?" + +"I'm not. That's just the trouble." + +Carroll reflected. He had an idea that Miss Horsfield was somehow +connected with the matter, but this was a suspicion he could not mention. + +"Well," he said, "as I pointed out, you're addicted to taking the hardest +way. When we came up here before, you marched past this valley, chiefly +because it was close at hand; but I don't want to dwell on that. Has it +occurred to you that you did something of the same kind when you were at +the Dene? The way that was then offered you was easy." + +Vane frowned. + +"That is not the kind of subject one cares to talk about; but you ought +to know that I couldn't allow them to force Miss Chisholm upon me against +her will. It was unthinkable! Besides, looking at it in the most +cold-blooded manner, it would have been foolishness, for which we'd both +have had to pay afterward." + +"I'm not so sure of that," Carroll smiled. "There were the Sabine women, +among other instances. Didn't they cut off their hair to make bowstring +for their abductors?" + +His companion made no comment, and Carroll, deciding that he had ventured +as far as was prudent, talked of something else until they crept into the +little tent and soon fell asleep. + +They started with the first of the daylight, but the timber grew denser +and more choked with underbrush as they proceeded and for a day or two +they wearily struggled through it and the clogging masses of tangled, +withered fern. Besides this, they were forced to clamber over mazes of +fallen trunks, when the ragged ends of the snapped-off branches caught +their loads. Their shoulders ached, their boots were ripped, their feet +were badly galled; but they held on stubbornly, plunging deeper into the +mountains all the while. It would probably overcome the average man if he +were compelled to carry all the provisions he needed for a week along a +well-kept road, but the task of the prospector and the survey packer, who +must transport also an ax, cooking utensils and whatever protection he +requires from the weather, through almost impenetrable thickets, is +infinitely more difficult. + +Vane and Carroll were more or less used to it, but both of them were +badly jaded when soon after setting out one morning they climbed a +clearer hillside to look about them. High up ahead, the crest of the +white range gleamed dazzlingly against leaden clouds in a burst of +sunshine; below, dark forest, still wrapped in gloom, filled all the +valley; and in between, a belt of timber touched by the light shone with +a curious silvery luster. Though it was some distance off, probably a +day's journey allowing for the difficulty of the march, Vane gazed at it +earnestly. The trees were bare--there was no doubt of that, for the +dwindling ranks, diminished by the distance, stood out against the +snow-streaked rock like rows of thick needles set upright; their +straightness and the way they glistened suggested the resemblance. + +"Ominous, isn't it?" Carroll suggested at length. "If this is the valley +Hartley came down--and everything points to that--we should be getting +near the spruce." + +Vane's face grew set. + +"Yes," he agreed. "There has been a big fire up yonder; but whether it +has swept the lower ground or not is more than I can tell. We'll find out +to-night or early to-morrow." + +He swung round without another word, and scrambling down the hillside +they resumed the march. They pushed on all that day rather faster than +before, with the same uncertainty troubling both of them. Forest fires +are common in that region when there is a hot dry fall; and where, as +often happens, a deep valley forms a natural channel for the winds that +fan them, they travel far, stripping and charring the surface of every +tree in their way. Neither of the men thought of stopping for a noonday +meal, and during the gloomy afternoon, when dingy clouds rolled down from +the peaks, they plodded forward with growing impatience. They could see +scarcely a hundred yards in front of them; dense withering thickets +choked up the spaces between the towering trunks; and there was nothing +to indicate that they were nearing the burned area when at last they +pitched their camp as darkness fell. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE END OF THE SEARCH + + +The two men made a hurried breakfast in the cold dawn, and soon afterward +they were struggling through thick timber when the light suddenly grew +clearer. Carroll remarked upon the fact and Vane's face hardened. + +"We're either coming to a swamp, or the track the fire has swept is close +in front," he explained. + +A thicket lay before them, but they smashed savagely through the midst of +it, the undergrowth snapping and crackling about their limbs. Then there +was a network of tangled branches to be crossed, and afterward, reaching +slightly clearer ground, they broke into a run. Three or four minutes +later they stopped, breathless and ragged, with their rent boots scarcely +clinging to their feet, and gazed eagerly about. + +The living forest rose behind them, an almost unbroken wall, but ahead +the trees ran up in detached and blackened spires. Their branches had +vanished; every cluster of somber-green needles and delicate spray had +gone; the great rampicks looked like shafts of charcoal. About their feet +lay crumbling masses of calcined wood, which grew more numerous where +there were open spaces farther on, and then the bare, black columns ran +on again, up the valley and the steep hill benches on either hand. It was +a weird scene of desolation; impressive to the point of being appalling +in its suggestiveness of wide-spread ruin. + +For the space of a minute the men gazed at it; and then Vane, stretching +out his hand, pointed to a snow-sheeted hill. + +"That's the peak Hartley mentioned," he said in a voice which was +strangely incisive. "Give me the ax!" + +He took it from his comrade and striding forward attacked the nearest +rampick. Twice the keen blade sank noiselessly overhead, scattering a +black dust in the frosty air, and then there was a clear, ringing thud. +After that, Vane smote on with a determined methodical swiftness, until +Carroll grabbed his shoulder. + +"Look out!" he cried. "It's going!" + +Vane stepped back a few paces; the trunk reeled and rushed downward; +there was a deafening crash, and they were enveloped in a cloud of gritty +dust. Through the midst of it they dimly saw two more great trunks +collapse; and then somewhere up the valley a series of thundering shocks, +which both knew were not echoes, broke out. The sound jarred on Carroll's +nerves, as the thud of the felled rampick had not done. Vane picked up +one of the chips. + +"We have found Hartley's spruce." + +Carroll did not answer for a minute. After all, when defeat must be +faced, there was very little to be said, though his companion's +expression troubled him. Its grim stolidity was portentous. + +"I suppose," he suggested hopefully, "nothing could be done with it?" + +Vane pointed to the butt of the tree, which showed a space of clear wood +surrounded by a blackened rim. + +"You can't make marketable pulp of charcoal, and the price would have to +run pretty high before it would pay for ripping most of the log away to +get at the residue. + +"But there may be some unburned spruce farther on." + +"It's possible. I'm going to find out." + +This was a logical determination; but, in spite of his recent suggestion, +Carroll realized that he would have abandoned the search there and then, +had the choice been left to him, in which he did not think he was +singular. After all they had undergone and the risk they had run in +leaving Vancouver, the shock of the disappointment was severe. He could +have faced a failure to locate the spruce, with some degree of +philosophical calm; but to find it at last, useless, was very much worse. +He did not, however, expect his companion to turn back yet; before he +desisted, Vane would search for and examine every unburned tree. What was +more, Carroll would have to accompany him. He noticed that Vane was +waiting for him to speak, and he decided that this was a situation which +he would better endeavor to treat lightly. + +"I think I'll have a smoke," he said. "I'm afraid any remarks I could +make wouldn't do justice to the occasion. Language has its limits." + +He sat down on the charred log and took out his pipe. + +"A brulee's not a nice place to wander about in when there's any wind," +he proceeded; "and I've an idea there's some coming, though it's still +enough now." + +Shut in, as they were, in the deep hollow with the towering snows above +them, it was impressively still; and, in conjunction with the sight of +the black desolation, the deep silence reacted on Carroll's nerves. He +longed to escape from it, to make a noise; though this, if done +unguardedly, might bring more of the rampicks thundering down. He could +hear tiny flakes of charcoal falling from them and, though the fire had +long gone out, a faint and curious crackling, as if the dead embers were +stirring. He wondered if it were some effect of the frost; it struck him +as disturbing and weird. + +"We'll work right round the brulee," Vane decided. "Then I suppose we'd +better head back for Vancouver, though we'll look at that cedar as we +go down. Something might be made of it--I'm not sure we've thrown our +time away." + +"You'd never be sure of that. It isn't in you." + +Vane disregarded this. A new, constructive policy was already springing +up out of the wreck of his previous plans. + +"There's a good mill site on the inlet, but as it's a long way from the +railroad we'll have to determine whether it would be cheaper to tow the +logs down or split them up on the spot. I'll talk it over with Drayton; +he'll no doubt be useful, and there's no reason why he shouldn't earn +his share." + +"Do you consider that the arrangement you made with Hartley applies to +the cedar?" Carroll asked. + +"Of course. I don't know that the other parties could insist on the +original terms--we can discuss that later; but, though it may be +modified, the arrangement stands." + +His companion considered the matter dispassionately, as an abstract +proposition. Here was a man, who in return for certain information +respecting the whereabouts of a marketable commodity had undertaken to +find and share it with his informant. The commodity had proved to be +valueless, but during the search for it he had incidentally discovered +something else. Was he under any obligation to share the latter with his +informant's heirs? + +Carroll decided that the question could be answered only in the negative; +but he had no intention of disputing his comrade's point of view. In the +first place, this would probably make Vane only more determined or would +ruffle his temper; and, in the second place, Carroll was neither a +covetous man nor an ambitious one, which, perhaps, was fortunate for him. +Ambition, the mother of steadfast industry and heroic effort, has also a +less reputable progeny. + +Vane, as his partner realized, was ambitious; but in place of aspiring +after wealth or social prominence, his was a different aim: to rend the +hidden minerals from the hills, to turn forests into dressed lumber, to +make something grow. Money is often, though not always, made that way; +but, while Vane affected no contempt for it, in his case its acquisition +was undoubtedly not the end. Fortunately, he was not altogether singular +in this respect. + +When he next spoke, however, there was no hint of altruistic sentiment in +his curt inquiry: + +"Are you going to sit there until you freeze?" + +Carroll got up and they spent the remainder of the day plodding through +the brulee, with the result that when darkness fell Vane had abandoned +all idea of working the spruce. The next morning they set out for the +inlet, and one afternoon during the journey they came upon several fallen +logs lying athwart each other with their branches spread in an almost +impenetrable tangle. Vane proceeded to walk along one log, which was +tilted up several yards above the ground, balancing himself carefully +upon the rounded surface, and Carroll followed cautiously. Suddenly there +was a sharp snapping, and Vane plunged headlong into the tangle beneath, +while Carroll stood still and laughed. It was not an uncommon accident. + +Vane, however, did not reappear; nor was there any movement among the +half-rotten boughs and withered sprays, and Carroll, moving forward +hastily, looked down into the hole. He was disagreeably surprised to see +his comrade lying, rather white in face, upon his side. + +"I'm afraid you'll have to chop me out," came up hoarsely. "Get to work. +I can't move my leg." + +Moving farther along the log, Carroll dropped to the ground, which was +less encumbered there, and spent the next quarter of an hour hewing a +passage to his comrade. Then as he stood beside him, hot and panting, +Vane looked up. + +"It's my lower leg; the left," he explained. "Bone's broken; I +felt it snap." + +Carroll turned from him for a moment in consternation. Looking out +between the branches, he could see the lonely hills tower, pitilessly +white, against the blue of the frosty sky, and the rigid firs running +back as far as his vision reached upon their lower slopes. There was no +touch of life in all the picture; everything was silent and absolutely +motionless, and its desolation came near to appalling him. When he looked +around again, Vane smiled wryly. + +"If this had happened farther north, it would have been the end of me," +he said. "As it is, it's awkward." + +The word struck Carroll as singularly inexpressive, but he made an effort +to gather his courage when his companion broke off with a groan of pain. + +"It's lucky we helped that doctor when he set Pete's leg at Bryant's +mill," he declared cheerily. "Can you wait a few minutes?" + +Vane's face was beaded with damp now, but he tried to smile. + +"It strikes me," he answered, "I'll have to wait a mighty long time." + +Carroll turned and left him. He was afraid to stand still and think, and +action was a relief. It was some time before he returned with several +strips of fabric cut from the tent curtain, and the neatest splints he +could extemporize from slabs of stripped-off bark; and the next half-hour +was a trying one to both of them. Sometimes Vane assisted him with +suggestions--once he reviled his clumsiness--and sometimes he lay silent +with his face awry and his lips tight silent; but at length it was done +and Carroll stood up, breathing hard. + +"I'll fasten you on to a couple of skids and pull you out. Then I'll make +camp here." + +He managed it with difficulty, pitched the tent above Vane, whom he +covered with their blankets, and made a fire outside. + +"Are you comfortable now?" he inquired. + +Vane looked up at him with a somewhat ghastly smile. + +"I suppose I'm about as comfortable as could be expected. Anyhow, I've +got to get used to the thing. Six weeks is the shortest limit, isn't it?" + +Carroll confessed that he did not know, and presently Vane spoke again. + +"It's lucky that the winters aren't often very cold near the coast." + +The temperature struck Carroll as low enough, but he made no comment. To +his disgust, he could think of no cheering observation, for there was no +doubt that the situation was serious. They were cut off from the sloop by +leagues of tangled forest which a vigorous man would find it difficult to +traverse, and it would be weeks before Vane could use his leg; no human +assistance could be looked for; and they had only a small quantity of +provisions left. Besides this, it would not be easy to keep the sufferer +warm in rigorous weather. + +"I'll get supper. You'll feel better afterward," he said at length. + +"Don't be too liberal," Vane warned him. + +After the meal, Vane fell into a restless doze, and it was dark when he +opened his eyes again. + +"I can't sleep any more, and we may as well talk--there are things to be +arranged. In the first place, as soon as I feel a little easier you'll +have to sail across to Comox and hire some men to pack me out. When +you've sent them off, you can make for Vancouver and get a timber license +and find out how matters are going on." + +"That is quite out of the question," Carroll replied firmly. "Nairn can +look after our mining interests--he's a capable man--and if the thing's +too much for him, they can go to smash. Besides, they won't give you a +timber license without full particulars of area and limits, and we've +blazed no boundaries. Anyhow, I'm staying right here." + +Vane began to protest, but Carroll raised his hand. + +"Argument's not conducive to recovery. You're on your back, +unfortunately, and I'll give way to you as usual as soon as you're on +your feet again, but not before." + +"I'd better point out that we'll both be hungry by that time. The +provisions won't last long." + +"Then I'll look for a deer as soon as I think you can be left. And now +we'll try to talk of something more amusing." + +"Can you see anything humorous in the situation?" + +"I can't," Carroll confessed. "Still, there may be something of that +description which I haven't noticed yet. By the way, the last time we +were at Nairn's I happened to cross the room near where you and Miss +Horsfield were sitting, and I heard her ask you to wait for something at +Nanaimo or Comox. It struck me as curious." + +"She told me to wait so that she could send me word to come back, if it +should be needful." + +"Ah!" ejaculated Carroll. "I won't ask why she was willing to do so--it +concerns you more than me--but I think that as regards your interests in +the Clermont a warning from her would be worth as much as one from Nairn; +that is, if she could be depended on." + +"Have you any doubt upon the subject?" + +Carroll made a soothing gesture. + +"Don't get angry! Perhaps I've talked too much. We have to think of +your leg." + +"I'm not likely to forget it," Vane informed him. "But I dare say you're +right in one respect--as an amusing companion you're a dead failure; and +talking isn't as easy as I thought." + +He lay silent afterward, and though he had disclaimed any desire for +sleep, worn by the march and pain as he was, his eyes presently closed. +Carroll, however, sat long awake that night, and he afterward confessed +that he felt badly afraid. Deer are by no means numerous in some parts of +the bush--they had not seen one during the journey; and it was a long way +to the sloop. + +Once or twice, for no obvious reason, he drew aside the tent flap and +looked out. The sky was cloudless and darkly blue, and a sickle moon +gleamed in it, keen and clear with frost. Below, the hills were washed in +silver, majestic, but utterly cheerless; and lower still the serrated +tops of the rigid firs cut against the dreary whiteness. After each +glimpse of them, Carroll drew his blanket tighter round him with a +shiver. Very shortly, when the little flour and pork was gone and their +few cartridges had been expended, he would be reduced to the condition of +primitive man. Cut off from all other resources, he must then wrest what +means of subsistence he could from the snowy wilderness by brute strength +and cunning and such instruments as he could make with his unassisted +hands, except that an ax of Pennsylvania steel was better than a stone +one. Civilization has its compensations, and Carroll longed for a few +more of them that night. + +On rising the next morning, he found the frost keener, and he spent that +day and a number of those that followed in growing anxiety, which was +only temporarily lessened when he once succeeded in killing a deer. There +was almost a dearth of animal life in the lonely valley. Sometimes, at +first, Vane was feverish; often he was irritable; and the recollection of +the three or four weeks he spent with him afterward haunted Carroll like +a nightmare. At last, when he had spent several days in vain search for a +deer and the provisions were almost exhausted, he and his companion held +a council of emergency. + +"There's no use in arguing," Vane declared. "You'll rig me a shelter of +green boughs outside the tent and close to the fire. I can move from the +waist upward and, if it's necessary, drag myself with my hands. Then you +can chop enough cord-wood to last a while, cook my share of the eatables, +and leave me while you go down to the sloop. There's half a bag of flour +on board her, and a few other things I'd be uncommonly glad to have." + +Carroll expostulated; but it was evident that his companion was right, +and the next morning he started for the inlet, taking with him the +smallest possible portion of their provisions. So long as he had enough +to keep him from fainting on the way, it was all he required, because he +could renew his stores on board the sloop. The weather broke during the +march; driving snow followed him down the valley, and by and by gave +place to bitter rain. The withered underbrush was saturated, the soil was +soddened with melting snow, and after the first scanty meal or two the +man dare risk no delay. He felt himself flagging from insufficient food, +and it was obvious that he must reach the sloop before he broke down. He +had tobacco, but that failed to stay the gnawing pangs, and before the +march was done he was on the verge of exhaustion, forcing himself onward, +drenched and grim of face, scarcely able to keep upon his bleeding feet. + +It was falling dusk and blowing fresh when he limped down the beach and +with a last effort launched the light dingy and pulled off to the sloop. +She rode rather deep in the water, but that did not trouble him. Most +wooden craft leak more or less, and it was a considerable time since he +had pumped her out. Clambering wearily on board, he made the dingy fast; +and then stood still a moment or two, looking about him with his hand on +the cabin slide. Thin flakes of snow drifted past him; the firs were +rustling eerily ashore, and ragged wisps of cloud drove by low down +above their tops. Little frothy ripples flecked the darkening water with +streaks of white and splashed angrily against the bows of the craft. The +prospect was oppressively dreary, and the worn-out man was glad that he +was at last in shelter and could snatch a few hours' rest. + +Thrusting back the slide, he stepped below and lighted the lamp. The +brightening glow showed him that the boat's starboard side was wet high +up, and though there was a good deal of water in her, this puzzled him +until an explanation suggested itself. They had moored the craft +carefully, but he supposed she must have dragged her anchor or kedge and +swung in near enough the shore to ground toward low tide. Then as the +tide left her she would fall over on her starboard bilge, because they +had lashed the heavy boom down on that side, and the water in her would +cover the depressed portion of her interior. This reasoning was probably +correct; but he did not foresee the result until, after lighting the +stove and putting on the kettle, he opened the provision locker, which +was to starboard. Then he saw with a shock of dismay that the stock of +food they had counted on was ruined. The periodically-submerged flour-bag +had rotted and burst, and most of its contents had run out into the water +as the boat righted with the rising tide; the prepared cereals, purchased +to save cooking, had turned to moldy pulp; and the few other stores were +in much the same condition. There were only two sound cans of beef and a +few ounces of unspoiled tea in a canister. + +Carroll's courage failed him as he realized it, but he felt that he must +eat and sleep before he could grapple with the situation. He would allow +himself a scanty meal and a few hours' rest. While the kettle boiled, he +crawled out and shortened in the cable and plied the pump. Then he went +below and feasted on preserved beef and tea, gaging the size of each +slice with anxious care, until he reluctantly laid the can aside. After +that, he filled his pipe and stretching his aching limbs out on the port +locker, which was comparatively dry, soon sank into heavy sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +CARROLL SEEKS HELP + + +Carroll slept for several hours before he awakened and sat up on the +locker, shivering. He had left the hatch slightly open, and a confused +uproar reached him from outside; the wail of wind-tossed trees; the +furious splash of ripples against the bows; and the drumming of the +halyards upon the mast. There was no doubt that it was blowing hard, but +the wind was off the land and the sloop in shelter. + +Filling his pipe, he set himself to think, and promptly decided that it +would have been better had he gone down to the sloop in the beginning, +before the provisions had been spoiled. A natural reluctance to leave his +helpless companion had mainly prevented him from doing this, but he had +also been encouraged by the possibility of obtaining a deer now and then. +It was clear that he had made a mistake in remaining, but it was not the +first time he had done so, and the point was unimportant. The burning +question was--what should he do now. + +It would obviously be useless to go back with rations that would barely +suffice for the march. Vane still had food enough to keep life in one man +for a little while, and it would not be a long run to Comox with a strong +northerly wind. If the sloop would face the sea that was running he might +return with assistance before his comrade's scanty store was exhausted. +Getting out the mildewed chart, he laid off his course, carefully trimmed +and lighted the binnacle lamp, and going up on deck hauled in the +kedge-anchor. He could not break the main one out, though he worked +savagely with a tackle, and deciding to slip it, he managed to lash three +reefs in the mainsail and hoist it with the peak left down. Then he +stopped to gather breath--for the work had been cruelly heavy--before he +let the cable run and hoisted the jib. + +She paid off when he put up his helm, and the black loom of trees ashore +vanished. He thought that he could find his way out of the inlet, but he +knew that he had done so only when the angry ripples that splashed about +the boat suddenly changed to confused tumbling combers. They foamed up in +quick succession on her quarter, but he fancied she would withstand their +onslaught so long as he could prevent her from screwing up to windward +when she lifted. It would need constant care, and if he failed, the next +comber would, no doubt, break on board. His task was one that would have +taxed the vigilance of a strong, well-fed man, and Carroll had already +nearly reached the limit of his powers. + +His case, however, was by no means an unusual one. The cost of the +subjugation of the wilderness is the endurance of hunger and thirst, cold +and crushing fatigue; and somebody pays, to the utmost farthing. Carroll +sitting, drenched, strung up and hungry, at the helm, was merely playing +his part in the struggle, though he found it cruelly difficult. + +It was pitch dark, but he must gaze ahead and guess the track of the +pursuing seas by the angle of the spouting white ridge abreast of the +weather shrouds. He had a compass, but when his course did not coincide +with safety it must be disregarded. The one essential thing was to keep +the sloop on top, and to do so he had frequently to let her fall off +dead before the mad white combers that leaped out of the dark. By and by +his arms began to ache from the strain of the tiller, and his wet +fingers grew stiff and claw-like. The nervous strain was also telling, +but that could not be helped; he must keep the craft before the sea or +go down with her. There was one consolation; she was traveling at a +furious speed. + +At length, morning broke, gray and lowering, over a leaden sea that was +seamed with white. Carroll glanced longingly at the meat can on the +locker near his feet. He could reach it by stooping, though he dare not +leave the helm, but he determined to wait until noon before he broke his +fast again. It could not be very far to Comox, but the wind might drop. +Then he began to wonder how he had escaped the perils of the night. He +had come down what was really a wide and not quite straight sound, +passing several unlighted islands. Before starting, he had decided that +he would run so far, and then change his course a point or two, but he +could not be sure that he had done so. He had a hazy recollection of +seeing surf, and once a faint loom of land, but he supposed that he had +avoided it half-consciously or that chance had favored him. + +In the afternoon, the wind changed a little, backing to the northwest; +the sky grew brighter, and Carroll made out shadowy land over his +starboard quarter. Soon he recognized it with a start. It was the high +ridge north of Comox. He had run farther than he had expected, and he +must try to hoist the peak of the mainsail and haul her on the wind. +There was danger in rounding her up, but it must be faced, though a sea +foamed across her as he put down his helm. Another followed, but he +scrambled forward and struggled desperately to hoist the down-hanging +gaff. The halyards were swollen; and he could scarcely keep his footing +on the deluged deck that slanted steeply under him. He thought he could +have mastered the banging canvas had he been fresh; but worn out as he +was, drenched with spray and buffeted by the shattered tops of the seas, +the task was beyond his power. Giving it up, he staggered back, +breathless and almost nerveless, to the helm. + +He could not reach Comox, which lay to windward, with the sail half set, +but it was only seventy miles or so to Nanaimo and not much farther to +Vancouver. The breeze would be fair to either, and he could charter a +launch or tug for the return journey. Letting her go before the sea +again, he ate some canned meat ravenously, tearing it with one hand. + +During the afternoon, a gray mass rose out of the water to port and he +supposed it was Texada. There were mines on the island and he might be +able to engage a rescue party; but he reflected that he could not beat +the sloop back to windward unless the breeze fell, which it showed no +signs of doing. It would be more prudent to go on to Vancouver, where he +would be sure of getting a steamer; but he closed with the long island a +little, and dusk was falling when he made out a boat in the partial +shelter of a bight. Standing in closer, he saw that there were two men on +the craft, and driving down upon her he backed and ran alongside. There +was a crash as he struck the boat and an astonished and angry man +clutched the sloop's rail. + +"Now what in the name of thunder--" he began and stopped, struck by +Carroll's haggard and ragged appearance. + +"Can you take this sloop to Vancouver?" Carroll asked hoarsely. + +"I could if it was worth while," was the cautious answer. "It will be a +mighty wet run." + +"Seven dollars a day, until you're home again. A bonus, if you can sail +her with the whole reefed mainsail up--I won't stick at a few dollars. +Can your partner pull that boat ashore alone? If not, cast her adrift; +I'll buy her." + +"He'll make the beach," returned the other, jumping on board. "Seven +dollars sounds a square deal. I won't put the screw on you." + +"Then help me hoist the peak. After that, you can take the helm; I'm +played out." + +The man shouted something to his companion and then seized the halyards, +and the sloop drove on again, furiously, with an increased spread of +canvas, while Carroll stood holding on by the coaming until the boat +dropped back. + +"I'll leave you to it," he told the new helmsman, "It's twenty-four hours +since I've had more than a bite or two of food, and some weeks since I +had a decent meal." + +"You look it. Been up against it somewhere?" + +Carroll, without replying, crawled below and managed to light the stove +and make a kettleful of tea. He drank a good deal of it, and nearly +emptied the remaining small meat can, which he presently held out for the +helmsman's inspection, standing beneath the hatch. + +"There's some tea left, but this is all there is to eat on board the +craft," he said. "You're hired to take her to Vancouver--you'd better get +there as quick as you can." + +The bronzed helmsman nodded. + +"She won't be long on the way if the mast holds up." + +"Have you seen any papers lately?" Carroll inquired. "I've been up in the +bush and I'm interested in the Clermont Mine. It looked as if there might +be some changes in the company's prospects when I went away." + +"I noticed a bit about it in the _Colonist_ a while back. The +company sold out to another concern, or amalgamated with it; I don't +remember which." + +Carroll was not astonished. The news implied that he must be prepared to +face a more or less serious financial reverse, and it struck him as a +fitting climax to his misadventures. + +"It's pretty much what I expected," he said. "I'm going to sleep and I +don't want to be wakened before it's necessary." + +He crawled below, and he had hardly stretched himself out upon the locker +before his eyes closed. When he opened them, feeling more like his usual +self, he saw that the sun was above the horizon, and he recognized by the +boat's motion that the wind had fallen. Going out he found her driving +through the water under her whole mainsail and the helmsman sitting +stolidly at the tiller. The man stretched out a hand and pointed to the +hazy hills to port. + +"We'll fetch the Narrows some time before noon. If you'll take the helm, +I guess we'll half that meat for breakfast" + +His prediction proved correct, for Carroll reached his hotel about +midday, and hastily changing his clothes set off to call on Nairn. He had +not yet recovered his mental equipoise and, in spite of his long, sound +sleep, he was still badly jaded physically. On arriving at the house, he +was shown into a room where Mrs. Nairn and her husband were sitting with +Evelyn, waiting for the midday meal The elder lady rose with a start of +astonishment when he walked in. + +"Man," she cried, "what's wrong? Ye're looking like a ghost." + +It was not an inapt description. Carroll's face was worn and haggard, and +his clothes hung slack upon him. + +"I've been feeling rather unsubstantial of late, as the result of +a restricted diet," he answered with a smile sinking into the +nearest chair. + +Nairn regarded him with carefully suppressed curiosity. + +"Ye're over lang in coming," he remarked. "Where left ye your partner?" + +Carroll sat silent a moment or two, his eyes fixed on Evelyn. It was +evident that his sudden appearance unaccompanied by Vane, which he felt +had been undesirably dramatic, had alarmed her. At first, he felt +compassionate, and then he was suddenly possessed by hot indignation. +This girl, with her narrow prudish notions and dispassionate nature, had +presumed to condemn his comrade, unheard, for an imaginary offense. The +thing was at once ludicrous and intolerable; if his news brought her +dismay, let her suffer. His nerves, it must be remembered, were not in +their normal condition. + +"Yes," he said, in answer to his host's first remark; "I've gathered that +we have failed to save the situation. But I don't know exactly what has +happened. You had better tell me." + +Mrs. Nairn made a sign of protest, but her husband glanced at her +restrainingly. + +"Ye will hear his news in good time," he informed her, and then turned to +Carroll. "In a few words, the capital was no subscribed--it leaked out +that the ore was running poor--and we held an emergency meeting. With +Vane away, I could put no confidence into the shareholders--they were +anxious to get from under--and Horsfield brought forward an amalgamation +scheme: A combine would take the property over, on their valuation. I and +a few others were outvoted; the scheme went through; and when the +announcement steadied the stock, which had been tumbling down, I +exercised the authority given me and sold your shares and Vane's at +considerably less than their face value. Ye can have particulars later. +What I have to ask now is--where is Vane?" + +The man's voice grew sharp; the question was flung out like an +accusation; but Carroll still looked at Evelyn. He felt very bitter +against her; he would not soften the blow. + +"I left him in the bush, with no more than a few days' provisions and a +broken leg," he announced. + +Then, in spite of Evelyn's efforts to retain her composure, her face +blanched. Carroll's anger vanished, because the truth was clear. Vane had +triumphed through disaster; his peril and ruin had swept his offenses +away. The girl, who had condemned him in his prosperity, would not turn +from him in misfortune. In the meanwhile the others sat silent, gazing at +the bearer of evil news, until he spoke again. + +"I want a tug to take me back, at once, if she can be got. I'll pick up a +few men along the waterfront." + +Nairn rose and went out of the room. The tinkle of a telephone bell +reached those who remained, and a minute or two later he came back. + +"I've sent Whitney round," he explained. "He'll come across if there's a +boat to be had, and now ye look as if ye needed lunch." + +"It's several weeks since I had one," Carroll smiled. + +The meal was brought in, but for a while he talked as well as ate, +relating his adventures in somewhat disjointed fragments, while the +others sat listening eagerly. He was also pleased to notice something +which suggested returning confidence in him in Evelyn's intent eyes as +the tale proceeded. When at last he had made the matter clear, he added: + +"If I keep you waiting, you'll excuse me." + +His hostess watched his subsequent efforts with candid approval, and +looking up once or twice, he saw sympathy in the girl's face, instead of +the astonishment or disgust he had half expected. When he finished, his +hostess rose and Carroll stood up, but Nairn motioned to him to resume +his place. + +"I'm thinking ye had better sit still a while and smoke," he said. + +Carroll was glad to do so, and they conferred together until Nairn was +called to the telephone. + +"Ye can have the Brodick boat at noon to-morrow," he reported on +his return. + +"That won't do," Carroll objected heavily. "Send Whitney round again; I +must sail to-night." + +He had some difficulty in getting out the words, and when he rose his +eyes were half closed. Walking unsteadily, he crossed the room and sank +onto a big lounge. + +"I think," he added, "if you don't mind, I'll go to sleep." + +Nairn merely nodded, and when he went silently out of the room a minute +or two afterward, the worn-out man was already wrapped in profound +slumber. Nairn just then received another call by telephone and left in +haste for his office without speaking to his wife, with the result that +Mrs. Nairn and Evelyn, returning to the room in search of Carroll, found +him lying still. The elder lady raised her hand in warning as she bent +over the sleeper, and then taking up a light rug spread it gently over +him. Evelyn, too, was stirred to sudden pity, for the man's attitude was +eloquent of exhaustion. They withdrew softly and had reached the corridor +outside when Mrs. Nairn turned to the girl. + +"When he first came in, ye blamed that man for deserting his +partner," she said. + +Evelyn confessed it and her hostess smiled meaningly. + +"Are ye no rather too ready to blame?" + +"I'm afraid I am," Evelyn admitted, with the color creeping into her +face as she remembered another instance in which she had condemned a +man hastily. + +"In this case, ye were very foolish. The man came down for help, and if +he could no get it, he would go back his lone, if all the way was barred +with ice and he must walk on his naked feet. Love of woman's strong and +the fear of death is keen, but ye will find now and then a faith between +man and man that neither would sever." She paused and looked at the girl +fixedly as she asked: "What of him that could inspire it?" + +Evelyn did not answer. She had never seen her hostess in this mood, and +she also was stirred; but the elder lady went on again: + +"The virtue of a gift lies in part, but no altogether, with the giver. +Whiles, it may be bestowed unworthily, but I'm thinking it's no often. +The bond that will drag Carroll back to the North again, to his death, if +need be, has no been spun from nothing." + +Evelyn had no doubt that Mrs. Nairn was right. Loyalty, most often, +demanded a worthy object to tender service to; it sprang from implicit +confidence, mutual respect and strong appreciation. It was not without a +reason that Vane had inspired it in his comrade's breast; and this was +the man she had condemned. That fact, however, was by comparison a very +minor trouble. Vane was lying, helpless and alone, in the snowy +wilderness, in peril of his life; and she knew that she loved him. She +realized now, when it might be too late, that had he in reality been +stained with dishonor, she could have forgiven him. Indeed, it had only +been by a painful effort that she had maintained some show of composure +since Carroll had brought the disastrous news, and she felt that she +could not keep it up much longer. + +What she said to Mrs. Nairn she could not remember, but escaping from +her she retired to her own room, to lie still and grapple with an agony +of fear and contrition. + +It was two hours later when she went down and found Carroll, who still +looked drowsy, about to go out. His hostess had left him for a moment in +the hall, and meeting the girl's eyes, he smiled at her reassuringly. + +"Don't be anxious. I'll bring him back," he said. + +Then Mrs. Nairn appeared and in a few moments Carroll left without +another word to Evelyn. She did not ask herself why he had taken it for +granted that she would be anxious; she was beyond any petty regard for +appearances then. It was consoling to remember that he was Vane's tried +comrade; a man who kept his word. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +JESSY'S CONTRITION + + +After leaving Mrs. Nairn, Carroll walked toward Horsfield's residence +in a thoughtful mood, because he felt it incumbent upon him to play a +part he was not particularly fitted for in a somewhat delicate matter. +Uncongenial as his task was, it was one that could not be left to +Vane, who was even less to be trusted with the handling of such +affairs; and Carroll had resolved, as he would have described it, to +straighten out things. + +His partner had somehow offended Evelyn, and though she was now obviously +disposed to forgive him, the recollection of his supposititious iniquity +might afterward rankle in her mind. Though Vane was innocent of any +conduct to which she could with reason take exception, it was first of +all needful to ascertain the exact nature of the charge against him. +Carroll, who for several reasons had preferred not to press this question +upon Evelyn, had a strong suspicion that Jessy Horsfield was at the +bottom of the trouble. There was also one clue to follow--Vane had paid +the rent of Celia Hartley's shack, and he wondered whether Jessy could by +any means have heard of it. If she had done so, the matter would be +simplified, for he had a profound distrust of her. A recent action of +hers was, he thought, sufficient to justify this attitude. + +He found her at home, reclining gracefully in an easy-chair in her +drawing-room, and though she did not seem astonished to see him, he +fancied that her expression hinted at suppressed concern. + +"I heard that you had arrived alone, and I intended to make inquiries +from Mrs. Nairn as soon as I thought she would be at liberty," she +informed him. + +Carroll had found the direct attack effective in Evelyn's case, and he +determined to try it again. + +"Then," he declared, "it says a good deal for your courage." + +He never doubted that she possessed courage, and she displayed it now. + +"So," she said calmly, "you have come as an enemy." + +"Not exactly; it didn't seem worth while. Though there's no doubt you +betrayed us--Vane waited for the warning you could have sent--so far as +it concerns our ruined interests in the Clermont, the thing's done and +can't be mended. We'll let that question go. The most important point +is that if you had recalled us, as you promised, Vane would now be safe +and sound." + +This shot told. The girl's face became less imperturbable; there was +eagerness and, he thought, a hint of fear in it. + +"Then has any accident happened to him?" + +"He's lying in the bush, helpless, in imminent peril of starvation." + +"Go on!" + +There were signs of strain clearly perceptible in the girl's voice. +Carroll was brief, but he made her understand the position; then she +turned upon him imperiously. + +"Then why are you wasting your time here?" + +"It's a reasonable question. I can't get a tug to take me back until noon +to-morrow." + +"Ah!" murmured Jessy. "Excuse me for a minute." + +She left him astonished. He had not expected her to take him at a +disadvantage, as she had done with her previous thrust, and now he did +not think that she had slipped away to hide her feelings. That did not +seem necessary in Jessy's case, though he believed she was more or less +disturbed. She came back presently, looking calm, and sat down again. + +"My brother will be here in a quarter of an hour," she informed him. +"Things are rather slack, and he had half promised to take me for a +drive. I have just called him up." + +Carroll did not see how this bore upon the subject of their conversation, +but he left her to take the lead. + +"Did Mr. Vane tell you that I had promised to warn him?" she asked. + +"To do him justice, he let it out before he quite realized what he was +saying. I'd better own that I partly surprised him into giving me the +information." + +"The expedient seems a favorite one with you. I suppose no news of what +has happened here can have reached him?" + +"None. If it's any consolation, he has still an unshaken confidence in +you," Carroll assured her with blunt bitterness. + +The girl showed faint signs of confusion, but she sat silent for the +next few moments. During that time it flashed upon Carroll with +illuminating light that he had heard Celia Hartley say that Miss +Horsfield had found her orders for millinery. This confirmed his +previous suspicion that Jessy had discovered who had paid the rent of +Celia's shack, and that she had with deliberate malice informed Evelyn, +distorting her account so that it would tell against Vane. There were +breaks in the chain of reasoning which led him to this conclusion, but +he did not think that Jessy would shrink from such a course, and he +determined to try a chance shot. + +"Vane's inclined to be trustful, and his rash generosity has once or +twice got him into trouble," he remarked, and went on as if an +explanation were needed: "It's Miss Hartley's case I'm thinking about +just now. I've an idea he asked you to look after her. Am I right?" + +As soon as he had spoken he knew that he had hit the mark. Jessy did not +openly betray herself, but there are not many people who can remain +absolutely unmoved when unexpectedly asked a startling question. Besides, +the man was observant, and had all his faculties strung up for the +encounter. He saw one of her hands tighten on the arm of her chair and a +hint of uneasiness in her eyes, and that sufficed him. + +"Yes," she replied; "I recommended her to some of my friends. I +understand that she is getting along satisfactorily." + +Carroll felt compelled to admire her manner. He believed that she loved +his comrade but had nevertheless tried to ruin him in a fit of jealous +rage. She was, no doubt, now keenly regretting her success, but though he +thought she deserved to suffer, she was bravely facing the trying +situation. It was one that was rife with dramatic possibilities, and he +was grateful to her for avoiding them. + +"You are going back to-morrow," she said after a brief silence. "I +suppose you will have to tell your partner--what you have discovered +here--as soon as you reach him?" + +Carroll had not intended to spare her, but now he felt almost +compassionate, and he had one grain of comfort to offer. + +"I must tell him that his shares in the Clermont have been sacrificed. I +wonder if that is all you meant?" + +Jessy met his inquiring gaze with something very much like an appeal, and +then she spread out her hands in a manner that seemed to indicate that +she threw herself upon his mercy. + +"It is not all I meant," she confessed. + +"Then if it's any relief to you, I'll confine myself to telling him that +he has been deprived of his most valuable property. I dare say the news +will hit him hard enough. He may afterward discover other facts for +himself, but on the whole I shouldn't consider it likely. As I said, he's +confiding and slow to suspect." + +He read genuine gratitude, which he had hardly expected, in the girl's +face; but he raised his hand and went on in the rather formal manner +which he felt was the only safe one to assume: + +"I had, perhaps, better mention that I am going to call on Miss Hartley. +After that, I shall be uncommonly thankful to start back for the bush." +He paused and concluded with a sudden trace of humor: "I'll own that I +feel more at home with the work that awaits me there." + +Jessy made a little gesture which, while it might have meant anything, +was somehow very expressive. Just then there were footsteps outside and +the next moment Horsfield walked into the room. + +"So you're back!" + +"Yes," Carroll replied shortly. "Beaten at both ends--there's no use in +hiding it." + +Horsfield showed no sign of satisfaction, and Carroll afterward admitted +that the man behaved very considerately. + +"Well," he declared, "though you may be astonished to hear it, I'm sorry. +Unfortunately, our interests clashed, and I naturally looked after mine. +Once upon a time I thought I could have worked hand in hand with Vane, +but our ideas did not coincide, and your partner is not the man to yield +a point or listen to advice." + +Carroll was aware that Horsfield had by means which were far from +honorable deprived him of a considerable portion of his possessions. He +had also betrayed his fellow shareholders in the Clermont Mine, selling +their interests, doubtless for a tempting consideration, to the +directors of another company. For all that, Carroll recognized that +since he and Vane were beaten, as he had confessed, recriminations and +reproaches would be useless as well as undignified. He preferred to face +defeat calmly. + +"It's the fortunes of war," he returned. "What you say about Vane is +more or less correct; but, although it is not a matter of much +importance now, it was impossible from the beginning that your views +and his ever should agree." + +Horsfield smiled. + +"Too great a difference of temperament? I dare say you're right. Vane +measures things by a different standard--mine's perhaps more adapted to +the market-place. But where have you left him?" + +"In the bush. Miss Horsfield will, no doubt, give you particulars; I've +just told her the tale." + +"She called me up at the office and asked me to come across at once. Will +you excuse us for a few minutes?" + +They went out together, and Jessy presently came back alone and looked at +Carroll in a diffident manner. + +"I suppose," she began, "one could hardly expect you to think of either +of us very leniently; but I must ask you to believe that I am sincerely +distressed to hear of your partner's accident. It was a thing I could +never have anticipated; but there are amends I can make. Every minute you +can save is precious, isn't it?" + +"It is." + +"Then I can get you a tug. My brother tells me the _Atlin_ is coming +across from Victoria and should be here early this evening. He has gone +back to the office to secure her for you, though she was fixed to go off +for a lumber boom." + +"Thank you," responded Carroll. "It's a very great service. She's a +powerful boat." + +Jessy hesitated. + +"I think my brother would like to say a few words when he comes back. Can +I offer you some tea?" + +"I think not," answered Carroll, smiling. "For one thing, if I sit still +much longer, I shall, no doubt, go to sleep again, as I did at Nairn's; +and that would be neither seemly nor convenient, if I'm to sail this +evening. Besides, now that we've arranged an armistice, it might be wiser +not to put too much strain on it." + +"An armistice?" + +"I think that describes it." Carroll's manner grew significant. "The word +implies a cessation of hostilities--on certain terms." + +Jessy could take a hint, and his meaning was clear. Unless she forced him +to do so, he would not betray her to his comrade, who might never +discover the part she had played; but he had given her a warning, which +might be bluntly rendered as "Hands off." There was only one course open +to her--to respect it. She had brought down the man she loved, but it was +clear that he was not for her, and now that the unreasoning fury which +had driven her to strike had passed, she was troubled with contrition. +There was nothing left except to retire from the field, and it was better +to do so gracefully. For all that, there were signs of strain in her +expression as she capitulated. + +"Well," she said, "I have given you proof that you have nothing to fear +from me. My brother is the only man in Vancouver who could have got you +that tug for this evening; I understand that the sawmill people are very +much in need of the lumber she was engaged to tow." + +She held out her hand and Carroll took it, though he had not expected to +part from her on friendly terms. + +"I owe you a good deal for that," he smiled. + +His task, however, was only half completed when he left the house, and +the remaining portion was the more difficult, but he meant to finish it. +He preferred to take life lightly; he had trifled with it before disaster +had driven him out into the wilds; but there was resolution in the man, +and he could force himself to play an unpleasant part when it was +needful. Fortune also favored him, as she often does those who follow the +boldest course. + +He had entered a busy street when he met Kitty and Celia. The latter +looked thin and somewhat pale, but she was moving briskly, and her face +was eager when she shook hands with him. + +"We have been anxious about you," she declared; "there was no news. Is +Mr. Vane with you? How have you got on?" + +"We found the spruce," answered Carroll. "It's not worth milling--a +forest fire has wiped out most of it--but we struck some shingling cedar +we may make something of." + +"Where's Mr. Vane?" + +"In the bush. I've a good deal to tell you about him; but we can't talk +here. I wonder if we could find a quiet place in a restaurant, or if the +park would be better." + +"The park," said Kitty decidedly. + +They reached it in due time, and Carroll, who had refused to say anything +about Vane on the way, found the girls a seat in a grove of giant firs +and sat down opposite to them. Though it was winter, the day, as is often +the case near Vancouver, was pleasantly mild. + +"Now," he began, "my partner is a singularly unfortunate person. In the +first place, the transfer of the Clermont property, which you have no +doubt heard of, means a serious loss to him, though he is not ruined yet. +He talks of putting up a shingling mill, in which Drayton will be of +service, and if things turn out satisfactorily you will be given an +interest in it." + +He added the last sentence as an experiment, and was satisfied with +the result. + +"Never mind our interests," cried Kitty. "What about Mr. Vane?" + +For the third time since his arrival, Carroll made the strongest appeal +he could to womanly pity, drawing, with a purpose, a vivid picture of his +comrade's peril and suffering. Nor was he disappointed, for he saw +consternation, compassion and sympathy in the girls' faces. So far, the +thing had been easy, but now he hesitated, and it was with difficulty +that he nerved himself for what must follow. + +"He has been beaten out of his stock in the mine; he's broken down in +health and in danger; but, by comparison, that doesn't count for very +much with him. He has another trouble; and though I'm afraid I'm going +out of the way in mentioning it, if it could be got over, it would help +him to face the future and set him on his feet again." + +Then he briefly recounted the story of Vane's regard for Evelyn, making +the most of his sacrifice in withdrawing from the field, and again he +realized that he had acted wisely. A love affair appealed to his +listeners, and there was a romance in this one that heightened the +effect of it. + +"But Miss Chisholm can't mean to turn from him now," interrupted Celia. + +Carroll looked at her meaningly. + +"No; she turned from him before he sailed. She heard something +about him." + +His companions appeared astonished. + +"She couldn't have heard anything that anybody could mind," Kitty +exclaimed indignantly. "He's not that kind of man." + +"It's a compliment," returned Carroll. "I think he deserves it. At the +same time, he's a little rash, and now and then a man's generosity is +open to misconception. In this case, I don't think one could altogether +blame Miss Chisholm." + +Kitty glanced at him sharply and then at Celia, who looked at first +puzzled and then startled. Then the blood surged into Kitty's cheeks. + +"Oh!" she gasped, as if she were breathless, "I was once afraid of +something like this. You mean we're the cause of it?" + +The course he followed was hateful to Carroll, but the tangle could not +be straightened without having somebody's feelings hurt, and it was his +comrade about whom he was most concerned. + +"I believe that you understand the situation," he said quietly. + +He saw the fire in Kitty's eyes and noticed that Celia's face also was +flushed, but he did not think their anger was directed against him. +They knew the world they lived in, and, for that matter, he could share +their indignation. He resented the fact that a little thing should +bring swift suspicion upon them. He was, however, not required to face +any disconcerting climax. Indeed, it struck him as curious that a +difficult situation in which strong emotion was stirred up could become +so tamely prosaic merely because it was resolutely handled in a +matter-of-fact manner. + +"Well," inquired Celia, "why did you tell us this?" + +"I think you both owe Vane something, and you can do him a great favor +just now." + +Kitty looked up at him. + +"Don't ask me too much, Mr. Carroll. I'm Irish, and I feel like killing +somebody." + +"It's natural," responded Carroll with a sympathetic smile. "I've now and +then felt much the same way; it's probably unavoidable in a world like +this. However, I think you ought to call on Miss Chisholm, after I've +gone, though you'd better not mention that I sent you. You can say you +came for news of Vane--and add anything that you consider necessary." + +The girls looked at each other, and at length, though it obviously cost +her a struggle, Kitty said decidedly: + +"We will have to go." + +Then she faced round toward Carroll. + +"If Miss Chisholm won't believe us, she'll be sorry we came!" + +Carroll made her a slight inclination. + +"She'll deserve it, if she's not convinced. But it might be better if you +didn't approach her in the mood you're in just now." + +Kitty rose, motioning to Celia, and Carroll turned back with them toward +the city, feeling a certain constraint in their company and yet conscious +of a strong relief. It had grown dark when he returned to Nairn's house. + +"Where have ye been?" his host inquired. "I had a clerk seeking ye all +round the city. I canna get ye a boat before the morn." + +Carroll saw that Mrs. Nairn shared her husband's desire to learn how he +had been occupied. Evelyn also was in the room, and she waited +expectantly for his answer. + +"There were one or two little matters that required attention and I +managed to arrange them satisfactorily," he explained. "Among other +things, I've got a tug, and I expect to sail in an hour or two. Miss +Horsfield found me the vessel." + +He noticed Evelyn's interest, and was rather pleased to see it. If she +were disposed to be jealous of Jessy it could do no harm. Nairn, +however, frowned. + +"I'm thinking it might have been better if ye had no troubled Jessy," he +commented. + +"I'm sorry I can't agree with you," Carroll retorted. "The difference +between this evening and noon to-morrow is a big consideration." + +"Weel," replied Nairn resignedly; "I can no deny the thing, if ye look at +it like that." + +Carroll changed the subject; but some time later Mrs. Nairn sat down near +him in the temporary absence of her husband and Evelyn. + +"We will no be disturbed for two or three minutes," she said. "Ye +answered Alic like a Scotsman before supper and put him off the track, +though that's no so easy done." + +Carroll grinned. He enjoyed an encounter with Mrs. Nairn, though she was, +as a rule, more than a match for him. + +"You're too complimentary," he declared. "The genuine Caledonian caution +can't be acquired by outsiders; it's a gift." + +"I'll no practise it now," returned the lady. "Ye're no so proud of +yourself for nothing. What have ye been after?" + +Carroll crossed his finger-tips and looked at her over them. + +"Since you ask the question, I may say this--If Miss Chisholm has two +lady visitors during the next few days, you might make sure that she +sees them." + +"What are their names?" + +"Miss Celia Hartley, the daughter of the prospector who sent Vane off to +look for the timber, and Miss Kitty Blake, who, as you have probably +heard, once came down the west coast with him, in company with an elder +lady and myself." + +Mrs. Nairn started, then she looked thoughtful, and finally she broke +into a smile of open appreciation. + +"Now," she ejaculated, "I understand. I did no think it of ye. Ye're no +far from a genius!" + +"Thanks. I believe I succeeded better than I could have expected, and +perhaps than I deserved." + +They were interrupted then by Nairn, who came hastily into the room. + +"There's one of the _Atlin_ deck-hands below," he announced. "He's come +on here from Horsfield's to say that the boat's ready with a full head of +steam up, and the packers ye hired are waiting on the wharf." + +Carroll rose and became in a moment intent and eager. + +"Tell him I'll be down almost as soon as he is. You'll have to excuse +me." Two minutes later he left the house, and fervent good wishes +followed him from the party on the stoop. He did not stop to acknowledge +them, but shortly afterward the blast of a whistle came ringing across +the roofs from beside the water-front. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +CONVINCING TESTIMONY + + +One afternoon three or four days after Carroll had sailed, Evelyn sat +alone in Mrs. Nairn's drawing-room, a prey to confused regrets and keen +anxiety. She had recovered from the first shock caused her by Carroll's +news, but though she could face the situation more calmly, she could find +no comfort anywhere--Vane was lying, helpless and famishing, in the +frost-bound wilderness. She knew that she loved the man; indeed, she had +really known it for some time, and it was that which had made Jessy's +revelation so bitter. Now, fastidious in thought and feeling as she was, +she wondered whether she had been too hard upon him; it was becoming more +and more difficult to believe that he could have justified her disgust +and anger; but this was not what troubled her most. She had sent him away +with cold disfavor. Now he was threatened by dangers. It was horrible to +think of what might befall him before assistance arrived, and yet she +could not drive the haunting dread out of her mind. + +She was in this mood when a maid announced that two visitors wished to +see her; and when they were shown in, she found it difficult to hide her +astonishment as she recognized in Kitty the very attractive girl she had +once seen in Vane's company. It was this which prompted her to assume a +chilling manner, though she asked her guests to be seated. Neither of +them appeared altogether at her ease, and there was, indeed, a rather +ominous sparkle in Kitty's blue eyes. + +"Mr. Carroll was in town not long ago," Kitty began bluntly. "Have you +had any news of him since he sailed?" + +Evelyn did not know what to make of the question, and she answered +coldly. + +"No; we do not expect any word for some time." + +"I'm sorry. We're anxious about Mr. Vane." + +On the surface, the announcement appeared significant, but the girl's +boldness in coming to her for news was inexplainable to Evelyn. Puzzled +as she was, her attitude became more discouraging. + +"You know him then?" + +Something in her tone made Celia's cheeks burn and she drew herself up. + +"Yes," she said; "we know him, both of us. I guess it's astonishing to +you. But I met him first when he was poor, and getting rich hasn't +spoiled Mr. Vane." + +Evelyn was once more puzzled. The girl's manner savored less of assurance +than of wholesome pride which had been injured. Kitty then broke in: + +"We had no cards to send in; but I'm Kathleen Blake, and this is Celia +Hartley--it was her father sent Mr. Vane off to look for the spruce." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Evelyn, a little more gently, addressing Celia. "I +understand that your father died." + +Kitty flashed a commanding glance at Celia. + +"Yes," the girl replied; "that is correct. He left me ill and worn out, +without a dollar, and I don't know what I should have done if Mr. Vane +hadn't insisted on giving Drayton a little money for me; on account, he +said, because I was a partner in the venture. Then Miss Horsfield got +some work among her friends for me to do at home. Mr. Vane must have +asked her to; it would be like him." + +Evelyn sat silent a few moments. Celia had given her a good deal of +information in answer to a very simple remark; but she was most impressed +by the statement that Jessy, who had prejudiced her against Vane, had +helped the girl at his request. It was difficult to believe that she +would have done so had there been any foundation for her insinuations. If +Celia spoke the truth, and Evelyn somehow felt this was the case, the +whole thing was extraordinary. + +"Now," continued Celia, "it's no way astonishing that I'm grateful to Mr. +Vane and anxious to hear whether Mr. Carroll has reached him." This was +spoken with a hint of defiance, but the girl's voice changed. + +"I am anxious. It's horrible to think of a man like him freezing in +the bush." + +Her concern was so genuine and yet somehow so innocent that Evelyn's +heart softened. + +"Yes," she asserted, "it's dreadful." Then she asked a question. "Who's +the Mr. Drayton you mentioned?" + +Kitty blushed becomingly; this was her lead. + +"He's a kind of partner in the lumber scheme; I'm going to marry him. +He's as firm a friend of Mr. Vane's as any one. There's a reason for +that--I was in a very tight place once, left without money in a desolate +settlement where there was nothing I could do, when Mr. Vane helped me. +But perhaps that wouldn't interest you." + +For a moment her doubts still clung to their hold in Evelyn's mind, and +then she suddenly drove the last of them out, with a stinging sense of +humiliation. She could not distrust this girl; it was Jessy's suggestion +that was incredible. + +"It would interest me very much," she declared. + +Kitty told her story effectively, but with caution, laying most stress +upon Vane's compassion for the child and her invalid mother. She was +rather impressed by Miss Chisholm, but she supposed that she was endowed +with some of the failing common to human nature. + +Evelyn listened with confused emotions and a softened face. She was +convinced of the truth of the simple tale, and the thought of Vane's +keeping his moneyed friends and directors waiting in Vancouver in order +that a tired child might rest and gather shells upon a sunny beach +stirred her deeply. It was so characteristic; exactly what she would have +expected him to do. + +"Thank you," she said quietly, when Kitty had finished; and then, +flinging off the last of her reserve, she asked a number of questions +about Drayton and about Celia's affairs. + +Before her visitors left, all three were on friendly terms; but Evelyn +was glad when they took their departure. She wanted to be alone to think. +In spite of the relief of which she was conscious, her thoughts were far +from pleasant. Foremost among them figured a crushing sense of shame. She +had wickedly misjudged a man who had given her many proofs of the +fineness of his character; the evil she had imputed to him was born of +her own perverted imagination. She was no better than the narrow-minded, +conventional Pharisees she detested, who were swift to condemn out of the +uncleanness of their self-righteous hearts. Then, as she began to reason, +it flashed upon her that she was, perhaps, wronging herself. Her mind had +been cunningly poisoned by an utterly unscrupulous and wholly detestable +woman, and she flamed out into a fit of imperious anger against Jessy. +She had a hazy idea that this was not altogether reasonable, for she was +to some extent fastening the blame she deserved upon another person's +shoulders; but it did not detract from the comfort the indulgence in her +indignation brought her. + +When she had grown a little calmer, Mrs. Nairn came in; and Mrs. Nairn +was a discerning lady. It was not difficult to lead Evelyn on to speak of +her visitors, for the girl's pride was broken and she felt in urgent need +of sympathy; but when she had described the interview she felt impelled +to avoid any discussion of the more important issues, even with the +kindly Scotch lady. + +"I was surprised at the girls' manner," she concluded. "It must have been +embarrassing to them; but they were really so delicate over it, and they +had so much courage." + +Mrs. Nairn smiled. + +"Although one of them has traveled with third-rate strolling companies +and the other has waited in a hotel? Weel, maybe your surprise was +natural. Ye canna all at once get rid of the ideas and prejudices ye were +brought up with." + +"I suppose that was it," replied Evelyn thoughtfully. + +Her companion's eyes twinkled. + +"Then, if ye're to live among us happily, ye'll have to try. In the way +ye use the words, some of the leading men in this country were no brought +up at all." + +"Do you imagine that I'm going to live here?" + +Mrs. Nairn gathered up one or two articles she had brought into the room +with her and moved toward the door, but before she reached it she looked +back with a laugh. + +"It occurred to me that the thing was no altogether impossible." + +An hour afterward, Evelyn and Mrs. Nairn went down into the town, and in +one of the streets they came upon Jessy leaving a store. The latter was +not lacking in assurance and she moved toward them with a smile; but +Evelyn gazed at her with a total disregard of her presence and walked +quietly on. There was neither anger nor disdain in her attitude; to have +shown either would have been a concession she could not make. The +instincts of generations of gently-reared Englishwomen were aroused, as +well as the revulsion of an untainted nature from something unclean. + +Jessy's cheeks turned crimson and a malevolent light flashed into her +eyes as she crossed the street. Mrs. Nairn noticed her expression and +smiled at her companion. + +"I'm thinking it's as weel ye met Jessy after she had got the boat for +Carroll," she commented. + +The remark was no doubt justified, but the fact that Jessy had been able +to offer valuable assistance failed to soften Evelyn toward her. It was +merely another offense. + +In the meanwhile, the powerful tug steamed northward, towing the sloop, +which would be required, and after landing the rescue party at the inlet +steamed away again. Before she had disappeared Carroll began his march, +and his companions long remembered it. Two of them were accustomed to +packing surveyors' stores through the seldom-trodden bush and the others +had worked in logging camps and chopped new roads, but though they did +not spare themselves, they lacked their leader's animus. Carroll, with +all his love of ease, could rise to meet an emergency, and he wore out +his companions before the journey was half done. He scarcely let them +sleep; he fed them on canned stuff to save delay in lighting fires; and +he grew more feverishly impatient with every mile they made. He showed it +chiefly by the tight set of his lips and the tension of his face, though +now and then when fallen branches or thickets barred the way he fell upon +the obstacles with the ax in silent fury. For the rest, he took the lead +and kept it, and the others, following with shoulders aching from the +pack-straps and labored breath, suppressed their protests. + +Like many another made in that country, it was a heroic journey; one in +which every power of mind and body was taxed to the limit. Delay might +prove fatal. The loads were heavy; fatigue seized the shrinking flesh, +but the unrelenting will, trained in such adventures, mercilessly spurred +it on. Toughened muscle is useful and in the trackless North can seldom +be dispensed with; but man's strength does not consist of that alone: +there are occasions when the stalwart fall behind and die. + +In front of them, as they progressed, lay the unchanging forest, +tangled, choked with fallen wreckage, laced here and there with stabbing +thorns, appalling and almost impenetrable to the stranger. They must +cleave their passage, except where they could take to the creek for an +easier way and wade through stingingly cold water or flounder over +slippery fangs of rock and ice-encrusted stones. There was sharp frost +among the ranges and the brush through which they tore their way was +generally burdened with clogging snow. They went on, however, and on the +last day Carroll drew some distance ahead of those who followed him. It +was dark when he discovered that he had lost them, but that did not +matter, for now and then faint moonlight came filtering down and he was +leaving a plain trail behind. His shoulders were bleeding beneath the +biting straps; he was on the verge of exhaustion; but he struggled +forward, panting heavily and rending his garments to rags as he smashed +through the brakes in the darkness. + +The night--it seemed a very long one--was nearly over when he recognized +the roar of a rapid that rang in louder and louder pulsations across the +snow-sprinkled bush. He was not far from the end now, and he became +conscious of an unnerving fear. The ground was ascending sharply, and +when he reached the top of the slope the question from which he shrank +would be answered for him--if there should be no blink of light among the +serried trunks, he would have come too late. + +He reached the summit and his heart leaped; then he clutched at a +drooping branch to support himself, shaken by a reaction that sprang from +relief. A flicker of uncertain radiance fell upon the trees ahead, and +down the bitter wind there came the reek of pungent smoke. The bush was +slightly more open, and Carroll broke into a run. Presently he came +crashing and stumbling into the light of the fire and then stopped, too +stirred and out of breath to speak. Vane lay where the red glow fell upon +his face, smiling up at him. + +"Well," he said, "you've come. I've been expecting you, but on the whole +I got along not so badly." + +Carroll flung off his pack and sat down beside the fire; then he fumbled +for his pipe and began to fill it hurriedly with trembling fingers. He +lighted it and flung away the match before he spoke. + +"Sorry I couldn't get through sooner," he mumbled. "The stores on board +the sloop were spoiled; I had to go on to Vancouver. But there are things +to eat in my pack." + +"Hand it across. I haven't been faring sumptuously the last few days. No, +sit still! I'm supple enough from the waist up." + +He proved it by the way he leaned to and fro as he opened the pack and +distributed part of its contents among the cooking utensils. Carroll +assisted him now and then but he did not care to speak. The sight of the +man's gaunt face and the eagerness in his eyes prompted him to an +outbreak of feeling rather foreign to his nature, and he did not think +his companion would appreciate it. When the meal was ready, Vane looked +up at him. + +"I've no doubt this journey cost you something--partner," he said. + +Then they ate cheerfully, and Carroll, watching his friend's efforts with +appreciation, told his story in broken sentences. Afterward, they lighted +their pipes, but by and by Carroll's fell from his relaxing grasp. + +"I can't get over this sleepiness," he explained. "I believe I disgraced +myself in Vancouver by going off in the most unsuitable places," + +"I dare say it was quite natural. Anyway, hadn't you better hitch +yourself a little farther from the fire?" + +Carroll did so and lay still afterward, but Vane kept watch during the +rest of the night, until in the dawn the packers appeared. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +VANE IS REINSTATED + + +Breakfast was over and the two men, wrapped in blankets, lay on opposite +sides of the fire, while the packers reclined in various ungainly +attitudes about another. Now that they had a supply of provisions, haste +was not a matter of importance, and there was no doubt that the rescue +party needed a rest. Carroll was aching all over and was somewhat +disturbed in mind. He had not said anything about their financial affairs +to his comrade yet, and the subject must be mentioned. It was, from every +point of view, an unpleasant one. + +"What about the Clermont?" Vane asked at length. "You needn't trouble +about breaking the news--come right to the point." + +"Then, to all intents and purposes, the company has gone under; it's been +taken over by Horsfield's friends. Nairn has sold our stock--at +considerably less than face value," Carroll explained, adding a brief +account of the absorption of the concern. + +Vane's face set hard. + +"I anticipated something of the kind last night; I saw how you kept clear +of the matter." + +"But you said nothing." + +"No. I'd had time to consider the thing while I lay here, and it didn't +look as if I could have got an intelligible account out of you. But you +may as well mention how much Nairn got." + +He lay smoking silently for a few minutes after he learned the amount, +and Carroll was strongly moved to sympathy. He felt that it was not the +financial reverse but one indirect result of it which would hit his +comrade hardest. + +"Well," Vane said grimly, "I suppose I've done what my friends would +consider a mad thing in coming up here--and I must face the reckoning." + +Carroll wondered whether their conversation could be confined to the +surface of the subject, because there were depths beneath it that it +would be better to leave undisturbed. + +"After all, you're far from broke," he encouraged him. "You have what +the Clermont stock brought in, and you may make something out of this +shingle scheme." + +There was bitterness in Vane's laugh. + +"When I left Vancouver for England I was generally supposed to be well on +the way to affluence, and there was some foundation for the idea. I had +floated the Clermont in the face of opposition; people believed in me; I +could have raised what money I required for any new undertaking. Now a +good deal of my money and all of my prestige is gone; people have very +little confidence in a man who has shown himself a failure. What's more, +I may be a cripple. My leg will probably have to be broken again." + +Carroll could guess his companion's thoughts. There was a vein of +stubborn pride in him, and he had, no doubt, decided it was unfitting +that Evelyn's future should be linked to that of a ruined man. This was +an exaggerated view, because Vane was in reality far from ruined, and +even if he had been so, he had in him the ability to recover from his +misfortunes. Still, the man was obstinate and generally ready to make a +sacrifice for an idea. Carroll, however, consoled himself with the +reflection that Evelyn would probably have something to say upon the +subject if she were given an opportunity, and he felt certain that Mrs. +Nairn would contrive that she had one. + +"I can't see any benefit in making things out considerably worse than +they are," he objected. + +"Nor can I," Vane agreed. "After all, I was getting pretty tired of the +city, and I suppose I can raise enough to put up a small-power mill. It +will be a pleasant change to take charge for a year or two in the bush. +I'll make a start at the thing as soon as I'm able to walk." + +This was significant, as it implied that he did not intend to remain in +Vancouver, where he would be able to enjoy Evelyn's company; but Carroll +made no comment, and Vane soon spoke again. + +"Didn't you mention last night that it was through Miss Horsfield that +you got the tug? I was thinking about something else at the time." + +"Yes. She made Horsfield put some pressure on the people who had +previously hired the boat." + +"That's rather strange." + +For a moment he looked puzzled, but almost immediately his face grew +impassive, and Carroll knew that he had some idea of Jessy's treachery. +He was, however, sure that any suspicions his comrade entertained would +remain locked up in his breast. + +"I'm grateful to her, anyway," Vane added. "I dare say I could have held +out another day or two, but it wouldn't have been pleasant." + +Carroll began to talk about the preparations for their return, which he +soon afterward set about making, and early the next morning they started +for the sloop, carrying Vane upon a stretcher they had brought with them. +Though they had to cut a passage for it every here and there, they +reached the sloop in safety, and after some trouble in getting Vane below +and onto a locker, Carroll decided to sail straight for Vancouver. They +were favored with moderate, fair winds, and though the little vessel was +uncomfortably crowded, she made a quick passage and stole in through the +Narrows as dusk was closing down one tranquil evening. + +Evelyn had spent the greater part of the afternoon on the forest-crested +rise above the city, where she could look down upon the inlet. She had +visited the spot frequently during the last few days, watching eagerly +for a sail that did not appear. There had been no news of Carroll since +the skipper of the tug reported having landed him, and the girl was +tormented by doubts and anxieties. She had just come back and was +standing in Mrs. Nairn's sitting-room, when she heard the tinkle of the +telephone bell. A moment or two later her hostess entered hastily. + +"It's a message from Alic," she cried. "He's heard from the +wharf--Vane's sloop's crossing the harbor. I'll away down to see Carroll +brings him here." + +Evelyn turned to follow her, but Mrs. Nairn waved her back. + +"No," she said firmly; "ye'll bide where ye are. See they get plenty +lights on--at the stairhead and in the passage--and the room on the left +of it ready." + +She was gone in another moment, and Evelyn hastily carried out her +instructions and then waited with what patience she could assume. At last +there was a rattle of wheels outside, followed by a voice giving orders, +and then a tramp of feet. The sounds brought her a strange inward +shrinking, but she ran to the door, and saw two tattered men awkwardly +carrying a stretcher up the steps, while Carroll and another assisted +them. Then the light fell upon its burden and, half prepared as she was, +she started in dismay. Vane, whom she had last seen in vigorous health, +lay partly covered with an old blanket which had slipped off him to the +waist. His jacket looked a mass of rags, his hat had fallen aside and his +face showed hollow and worn and pinched. Then he saw her and a light +leaped into his eyes, but the next moment Carroll's shoulder hid him and +the men plodded on toward the stairs. They ascended them with difficulty +and the girl waited until Carroll came down. + +"I noticed you at the door. I dare say you were a little shocked at the +change in Vane," he said. "What he has undergone has pulled him down, but +if you had seen him when I first found him, you'd have been worse +startled. He's getting on quite satisfactorily." + +Evelyn was relieved to hear it; and Carroll continued: + +"As soon as the doctor comes, we'll make him more presentable; he can't +be moved till then, as I'm not sure about the last bandages I put on. +Afterward, he'll no doubt hold an audience." + +There was nothing to do but wait, and Evelyn again summoned her +patience. Before long, a doctor arrived, and Carroll followed him to +Vane's room. The invalid's face was very impassive, though Carroll waited +in tense suspense while the doctor stripped off the bandages and bark +supports from the injured leg. He examined it attentively, and then +looked around at Carroll. + +"You fixed that limb, when it was broken in the bush?" he asked. + +"Yes," Carroll answered, with a desperate attempt to treat the matter +humorously. "But I really think we both had a hand in the thing. My +partner favored me with his views; I disclaim some of the +responsibility." + +"Then I guess you've been remarkably fortunate. Perhaps that's the best +way of expressing it." + +Vane raised his head and fixed his eyes upon the speaker. + +"It won't have to be rebroken? I'll be able to walk without a limp?" + +"It's most probable." + +Vane's eyes glistened and he let his head fall back. + +"It's good news; better than I expected. Now if you could fix me up +again, I'd like to get dressed. I've felt like a hobo long enough." + +The doctor smiled indulgently. + +"We can venture to change that state of affairs, but I'll superintend the +operation." + +It was some time before Vane's toilet was completed, and then Carroll +surveyed him with humorous admiration. + +"It strikes me you do us credit; and now I suppose I can announce that +you'll receive?" + +Nairn and his wife and Evelyn came in. Nairn, shaking hands with Vane +very heartily, looked down at him with twinkling eyes. + +"I'd have been glad to see ye, however ye had come," he asserted, and +Vane fully believed him. "For a' that, this is no the way I would have +wished to welcome ye." + +"When a man won't take his friends' advice, what can he expect?" +retorted Vane. + +Nairn nodded, smiling. + +"Let it be a warning. If the making of your mark and money is your +object, ye must stick to it and think of nothing else. Ye canna +accumulate riches by spreading yourself, and philanthropy's no lucrative, +except maybe to a few." + +"It's good counsel, but I'm thinking that it's a pity," Mrs. Nairn +remarked. "What would ye say, Evelyn?" + +The girl was aware that the tone of light banter had been adopted to +cover deeper feelings, which those present shrank from expressing; but +she ventured to give her thoughts free rein. + +"I agree with you in one respect," she said. "But I can't believe the +object mentioned is Mr. Vane's only one. He would never be willing to pay +the necessary price." + +It was a delicate compliment uttered in all sincerity, and Vane's worn +face grew warm. He was, however, conscious that it would be safer to +avoid being serious, and he smiled. + +"Well," he drawled, "looking for timber rights is apt to prove +expensive, too. I had a haunting fear that I might be lame, until the +doctor banished it. I'd better own that I'd no great confidence in +Carroll's surgery." + +Carroll, keeping strictly to the line the others had chosen, made him an +ironical bow; but Evelyn was not to be deterred. + +"It was foolish of you to be troubled," she declared. "It isn't a fault +to be wounded in an honorable fight, and even if the mark remains, there +is no reason why one should be ashamed of it." + +Mrs. Nairn glanced at the girl rather sharply, but Carroll came to his +comrade's relief. + +"Strictly speaking, there wasn't a wound," he pointed out. "Fortunately, +it was what is known as a simple fracture. If it had been anything else, +I'm inclined to think I couldn't have treated it." + +Nairn chuckled, as if this met with his approval; and his wife turned +around as they heard a patter of footsteps on the stairs. + +"Yon bell has kept on ringing ever since we came up," she complained. "I +left word I was no to be disturbed. Weel"--as the door opened--"what is +it, Minnie?" + +"The reception room's plumb full," announced the maid, who was lately +from the bush. "If any more folks come along, I sure won't know where +to put 'em." + +Now that the door was open, Evelyn could hear a murmur of voices on the +floor below, and the next moment the bell rang violently again. It struck +her as a testimonial to the injured man. Vane had not spent a long time +in Vancouver, but he had the gift of making friends. Having heard of the +sloop's arrival, they had come to inquire for him, and there was +obviously a number of them. + +Mrs. Nairn glanced interrogatively at Carroll. + +"It does no look as if they could be got rid of by a message." + +"I guess he's fit to see them," Carroll answered, "We'll hold a levee. If +he'd only let me, I'd like to pose him a bit." + +Mrs. Nairn, with Evelyn's assistance, did so instead, rearranging the +cushions about the man, in spite of his confused and half-indignant +protests; and during the next half-hour the room was generally full. +People walked in, made sympathetic inquiries, or exchanged cheerful +banter, until Mrs. Nairn forcibly dismissed the last of them. After this, +she declared that Vane must go to sleep, and paying no heed to his +assertion that he had not the least wish to do so, she led her remaining +companions away. + +A couple of hours had passed when she handed Evelyn a large tumbler +containing a preparation of beaten eggs and milk. + +"Ye might take him this and ask if he would like anything else," she +said. "I'm weary of the stairs and I would no trust Minnie. She's +handiest at spilling things." + +Carroll grinned. + +"It's the third and, I'd better say firmly, the limit." + +Then he assumed an aggrieved expression as Evelyn moved off with the +tray. + +"I can't see why I couldn't have gone. I think I've discharged my duties +as nurse satisfactorily." + +"I canna help ye thinking," Mrs. Nairn informed him. "But I would point +out that ye have now and then been wrong." + +"That's a fact," Carroll confessed. + +Evelyn fully shared his suspicions. Her hostess's artifice was a +transparent one, but she nevertheless fell in with it. She had seen Vane +only in the company of others; this might be the same again to-morrow; +and there was something to be said. By intuition as much as reason, she +recognized that there was something working in his mind; something that +troubled him and might trouble her. It excited her apprehension and +animated her with a desire to combat it. That she might be compelled to +follow an unconventional course did not matter. She knew this man was +hers--and she could not let him go. + +She entered his room collectedly. He was lying, neatly dressed, upon a +couch with his shoulders raised against the end of it, for he had thrown +the cushions which supported him upon the floor. As she came in, he +leaned down in an attempt to recover them, and finding himself too late +looked up guiltily. The fact that he could move with so much freedom was +a comfort to the girl. She set the tray down on a table near him. + +"Mrs. Nairn has sent you this," she said, and the laugh they both +indulged in drew them together. + +Then her mood changed and her heart yearned over him. He had gone away +a strong, self-confident, prosperous man, and he had come back +defeated, broken in fortune and terribly worn. Her pity shone in her +softening eyes. + +"Do you wish to sleep?" she asked. + +"No," Vane assured her; "I'd a good deal rather talk to you." + +"I want to say something," Evelyn confessed. "I'm afraid I was rather +unpleasant to you the evening before you sailed. I was sorry for it +afterward; it was flagrant injustice." + +"Then I wonder why you didn't answer the letter I wrote at Nanaimo." + +"The letter? I never received one." + +Vane considered this for a few moments. + +"After all," he declared, "it doesn't matter now. I'm acquitted?" + +"Absolutely." + +The man's satisfaction was obvious, but he smiled. + +"Do you know," he said, "I've still no idea of my offense?" + +Evelyn was exceedingly glad to hear it, but a warmth crept into her face, +and as the blood showed through the delicate skin he fixed his eyes upon +her intently. + +"It was all a mistake; I'm sorry still," she murmured penitently. + +"Oh!" he exclaimed in a different tone. "Don't trouble about it. The +satisfaction of being acquitted outweighs everything else. Besides, I've +made a number of rather serious mistakes myself. The search for that +spruce, for instance, is supposed to be one." + +"No," returned Evelyn decidedly; "whoever thinks that, is wrong. It is a +very fine thing you have done. It doesn't matter in the least that you +were unsuccessful." + +"Do you really believe that?" + +"Of course. How could I believe anything else?" + +The man's face changed again, and once more she read the signs. Whatever +doubts and half-formed resolutions--and she had some idea of them--had +been working in his mind were dissipating. + +"Well," he continued, "I've sacrificed the best half of my possessions +and have destroyed the confidence of the people who, to serve their ends, +would have helped me on. Isn't that a serious thing?" + +"No; it's really a most unimportant one. I"--the slight pause gave the +assertion force--"really mean it." + +Vane partly raised himself with one arm and there was no doubting the +significance of his intent gaze. + +"I believe I made another blunder--in England. I should have had +more courage and have faced the risk. But you might have turned +against me then." + +"I don't think that's likely," Evelyn murmured, lowering her eyes. + +The man leaned forward eagerly, but the hand he stretched out fell short, +and the trivial fact once more roused her compassion for his +helplessness. + +"You can mean only one thing!" he cried. "You wouldn't be afraid to face +the future with me now?" + +"I wouldn't be afraid at all." + +A half-hour later Mrs. Nairn tapped at the door and smiled rather broadly +when she came in. Then she shook her head reproachfully. + +"Ye should have been asleep a while since," she scolded Vane, and then +turned to Evelyn. "Is this the way ye intend to look after him?" + +She waved the girl toward the door and when she joined her in the passage +she kissed her effusively. + +"Ye have got the man I would have chosen ye," she declared. "It will no +be any fault of his if ye are sorry." + +"I have very little fear of that," laughed Evelyn. + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Vane of the Timberlands, by Harold Bindloss + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VANE OF THE TIMBERLANDS *** + +***** This file should be named 9778.txt or 9778.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/7/7/9778/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + +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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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Vane of the Timberlands + +Author: Harold Bindloss + +Release Date: January, 2006 [EBook #9778] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 15, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VANE OF THE TIMBERLANDS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan +and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + Vane of The Timberlands + + BY HAROLD BINDLOSS + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + +I. A FRIEND IN NEED +II. A BREEZE OF WIND +III. AN AFTERNOON ASHORE +IV. A CHANGE OF ENVIRONMENT +V. THE OLD COUNTRY +VI. UPON THE HEIGHTS +VII. STORM-STAYED +VIII. LUCY VANE +IX. CHISHOLM PROVES AMENABLE +X. WITH THE OTTER HOUNDS +XI. VANE WITHDRAWS +XII. IN VANCOUVER +XIII. A NEW PROJECT +XIV. VANE SAILS NORTH +XV. THE FIRST MISADVENTURE +XVI. THE BUSH +XVII. VANE POSTPONES THE SEARCH +XVIII. JESSY CONFERS A FAVOR +XIX. VANE FORESEES TROUBLE +XX. THE FLOOD +XXI. VANE YIELDS A POINT +XXII. EVELYN GOES FOR A SAIL +XXIII. VANE PROVES OBDURATE +XXIV. JESSY STRIKES +XXV. THE INTERCEPTED LETTER +XXVI. ON THE TRAIL +XXVII. THE END OF THE SEARCH +XXVIII. CARROLL SEEKS HELP +XXIX. JESSY'S CONTRITION +XXX. CONVINCING TESTIMONY +XXXI. VANE IS REINSTATED + + + + +VANE OF THE TIMBERLANDS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A FRIEND IN NEED + + +A light breeze, scented with the smell of the firs, was blowing down the +inlet, and the tiny ripples it chased across the water splashed musically +against the bows of the canoe. They met her end-on, sparkling in the warm +sunset light, gurgled about her sides, and trailed away astern in two +divergent lines as the paddles flashed and fell. There was a thud as the +blades struck the water, and the long, light hull forged onward with +slightly lifted, bird's-head prow, while the two men swung forward for +the next stroke with a rhythmic grace of motion. They knelt, facing +forward, in the bottom of the craft, and, dissimilar as they were in +features and, to some extent, in character, the likeness between them was +stronger than the difference. Both bore the unmistakable stamp of a +wholesome life spent in vigorous labor in the open. Their eyes were clear +and, like those of most bushmen, singularly steady; their skin was clean +and weather-darkened; and they were leanly muscular. + +On either side of the lane of green water giant firs, cedars and balsams +crept down the rocky hills to the whitened driftwood fringe. They formed +part of the great coniferous forest which rolls west from the wet Coast +Range of Canada's Pacific Province and, overleaping the straits, spreads +across the rugged and beautiful wilderness of Vancouver Island. Ahead, +clusters of little frame houses showed up here and there in openings +among the trees, and a small sloop, toward which the canoe was heading, +lay anchored near the wharf. + +The men had plied the paddle during most of that day, from inclination +rather than necessity, for they could have hired Siwash Indians to +undertake the labor for them, had they been so minded. They were, +though their appearance did not suggest it, moderately prosperous; but +their prosperity was of recent date; they had been accustomed to doing +everything for themselves, as are most of the men who dwell among the +woods and ranges of British Columbia. + +Vane, who knelt nearest the bow, was twenty-seven years of age. Nine of +those years he had spent chopping trees, driving cattle, poling canoes +and assisting in the search for useful minerals among the snow-clad +ranges. He wore a wide, gray felt hat, which had lost its shape from +frequent wettings, an old shirt of the same color, and blue duck +trousers, rent in places; but the light attire revealed a fine muscular +symmetry. He had brown hair and brown eyes; and a certain warmth of +coloring which showed through the deep bronze of his skin hinted at a +sanguine and somewhat impatient temperament. As a matter of fact, the +man was resolute and usually shrewd; but there was a vein of +impulsiveness in him, and, while he possessed considerable powers of +endurance, he was on occasion troubled by a shortness of temper. + +His companion, Carroll, had lighter hair and gray eyes, and his +appearance was a little less vigorous and a little more refined; though +he, too, had toiled hard and borne many privations in the wilderness. His +dress resembled Vane's, but, dilapidated as it was, it suggested a +greater fastidiousness. + +The two had located a valuable mineral property some months earlier and, +though this does not invariably follow, had held their own against city +financiers during the negotiations that preceded the floating of a +company to work the mine. That they had succeeded in securing a good deal +of the stock was largely due to Vane's pertinacity and said something for +his acumen; but both had been trained in a very hard school. + +As the wooden houses ahead rose higher and the sloop's gray hull grew +into sharper shape upon the clear green shining of the brine, Vane broke +into a snatch of song: + +"Had I the wings of a dove, I would fly +Just for to-night to the Old Country." + +He stopped and laughed. + +"It's nine years since I've seen it, but I can't get those lines out of +my head. Perhaps it's because of the girl who sang them. Somehow, I felt +sorry for her. She had remarkably fine eyes." + +"Sea-blue," suggested his companion. "I don't grasp the connection +between the last two remarks." + +"Neither do I," admitted Vane. "I suppose there isn't one. But they +weren't sea-blue; unless you mean the depth of indigo when you are out of +soundings. They're Irish eyes." + +"You're not Irish. There's not a trace of the Celt in you, except, +perhaps, your habit of getting indignant with the people who don't share +your views." + +"No, sir! By birth, I'm North Country--England, I mean. Over there we're +descendants of the Saxons, Scandinavians, Danes--Teutonic stock at +bottom, anyhow; and we've inherited their unromantic virtues. We're +solid, and cautious, respectable before everything, and smart at getting +hold of anything worth having. As a matter of fact, you Ontario Scotsmen +are mighty like us." + +"You certainly came out well ahead of those city men who put up the +money," agreed Carroll. "I guess it's in the blood; though I fancied once +or twice that they would take the mine from you." + +Vane brought his paddle down with a thud. + +"Just for to-night to the Old Country,--" + +He hummed, and added: + +"It sticks to one." + +"What made you leave the Old Country? I don't think you ever told me." + +Vane laughed. + +"That's a blamed injudicious question to ask anybody, as you ought to +know; but in this particular instance you shall have an answer. There was +a row at home--I was a sentimentalist then, and just eighteen--and as a +result of it I came out to Canada." His voice changed and grew softer. "I +hadn't many relatives, and, except one sister, they're all gone now. That +reminds me--she's not going to lecture for the county education +authorities any longer." + +The sloop was close ahead, and slackening the paddling they ran +alongside. Vane glanced at his watch when they had climbed on board. + +"Supper will be finished at the hotel," he remarked. "You had better get +the stove lighted. It's your turn, and that rascally Siwash seems to +have gone off again. If he's not back when we're ready, we'll sail +without him." + +Supper is served at the hotels in the western settlements as soon as work +ceases for the day, and the man who arrives after it is over must wait +until the next day's breakfast is ready. Carroll, accordingly, prepared +the meal; and when they had finished it they lay on deck smoking with a +content not altogether accounted for by a satisfied appetite. They had +spent several anxious months, during which they had come very near the +end of their slender resources, arranging for the exploitation of the +mine, and now at last the work was over. Vane had that day made his final +plans for the construction of a road and a wharf by which the ore could +be economically shipped for reduction, or, as an alternative to this, for +the erection of a small smelting plant. They had bought the sloop as a +convenient means of conveyance and shelter, as they could live in some +comfort on board; and now they could take their ease for a while, which +was a very unusual thing to both of them. + +"I suppose you're bent on sailing this craft back?" Carroll remarked at +length. "We could hire a couple of Siwash to take her home while we rode +across the island and got the train to Victoria. Besides, there's that +steamboat coming down the coast to-night." + +"Either way would cost a good deal extra." + +"That's true," Carroll agreed with an amused expression; "but you could +charge it to the company." + +Vane laughed. + +"You and I have a big stake in the concern; and I haven't got used to +spending money unnecessarily yet, I've been mighty glad to earn a couple +dollars by working from sunup until dark, though I didn't always get it +afterward. So have you." + +"How are you going to dispose of your money, then? You have a nice little +balance in cash, besides the shares." + +"It has occurred to me that I might spend a few months in the Old +Country. Have you ever been over there?" + +"I was across some time ago; but, if you like, I'll go along with you. We +could start as soon as we've arranged the few matters left open in +Vancouver." + +Vane was glad to hear it. He knew little about Carroll's antecedents, but +his companion was obviously a man of education, and they had been staunch +comrades for the last three years. They had plodded through leagues of +rain-swept bush, had forded icy rivers, had slept in wet fern and +sometimes slushy snow, and had toiled together with pick and drill. +During that time they had learned to know and trust each other and to +bear with each other's idiosyncrasies. + +Filling his pipe again as he lay in the fading sunlight, Vane looked back +on the nine years he had passed in Canada, and, allowing for the periods +of exposure to cold and wet and the almost ceaseless toil, he admitted +that he might have spent them more unpleasantly. He had a stout heart and +a muscular body, and the physical hardships had not troubled him. What +was more, he had a quick, almost instinctive, judgment and the faculty +for seizing an opportunity. + +Having quarreled with his relatives and declined any favors from them, he +had come to Canada with only a few pounds and had promptly set about +earning a living with his hands. When he had been in the country several +years, a friend of the family had, however, sent him a small sum, and the +young man had made judicious use of the money. The lot he bought outside +a wooden town doubled in value, and the share he took in a new orchard +paid him well; but he had held aloof from the cities, and his only +recklessness had been his prospecting journeys into the wilderness. +Prospecting for minerals is at once an art and a gamble. Skill, acquired +by long experience or instinctive--and there are men who seem to possess +the latter--counts for much, but chance plays a leading part. Provisions, +tents and packhorses are expensive, and though a placer mine may be +worked by two partners, a reef or lode can be disposed of only to men +with means sufficient to develop it. Even in this delicate matter, in +which he had had keen wits against him, Vane had held his own; but there +was one side of life with which he was practically unacquainted. + +There are no social amenities on the rangeside or in the bush, where +women are scarce. Vane had lived in Spartan simplicity, practising the +ascetic virtues, as a matter of course. He had had no time for sentiment, +his passions had remained unstirred; and now he was seven and twenty, +sound and vigorous of body, and, as a rule, level of head. At length, +however, there was to be a change. He had earned an interlude of +leisure, and he meant to enjoy it without, so he prudently determined, +making a fool of himself. + +Presently Carroll took his pipe from his mouth. + +"Are you going ashore again to the show to-night?" + +"Yes," Vane answered. "It's a long while since I've struck an +entertainment of any kind, and that yellow-haired mite's dancing is one +of the prettiest things I've seen." + +"You've been twice already," Carroll hinted. "The girl with the blue eyes +sings her first song rather well." + +"I think so," Vane agreed with a significant absence of embarrassment. +"In this case a good deal depends on the singing--the interpretation, +isn't it? The thing's on the border, and I've struck places where they'd +have made it gross; but the girl only brought out the mischief. Strikes +me she didn't see there was anything else in it" + +"That's curious, considering the crowd she goes about with. Aren't you +cultivating a critical faculty?" + +Vane disregarded the ironical question. + +"She's Irish; that accounts for a good deal." + +He paused and looked thoughtful. + +"If I knew how to do it, I'd like to give five or ten dollars to the +child who dances. It must be a tough life, and her mother--the woman +at the piano--looks ill. I wonder whatever brought them to a place +like this?" + +"Struck a cold streak at Nanaimo, the storekeeper told me. Anyway, since +we're to start at sunup, I'm staying here." Then he smiled. "Has it +struck you that your attendance in the front seats is liable to +misconception?" + +Vane rose without answering and dropped into the canoe. Thrusting her +off, he drove the light craft toward the wharf with vigorous strokes of +the paddle, and Carroll shook his head whimsically as he watched him. + +"Anybody except myself would conclude that he's waking up at last," he +commented. + +A minute or two later Vane swung himself up onto the wharf and strode +into the wooden settlement. There were one or two hydraulic mines and a +pulp mill in the vicinity, and, though the place was by no means +populous, a company of third-rate entertainers had arrived there a few +days earlier. On reaching the rude wooden building in which they had +given their performance and finding it closed, he accosted a lounger. + +"What's become of the show?" he asked. + +"Busted. Didn't take the boys' fancy. The crowd went out with the stage +this afternoon; though I heard that two of the women stayed behind. +Somebody said the hotel-keeper had trouble about his bill." + +Vane turned away with a slight sense of compassion. More than once during +his first year or two in Canada he had limped footsore and weary into a +wooden town where nobody seemed willing to employ him. An experience of +the kind was unpleasant to a vigorous man, but he reflected that it must +be much more so in the case of a woman, who probably had nothing to fall +back upon. However, he dismissed the matter from his mind. Having been +kneeling in a cramped position in the canoe most of the day, he decided +to stroll along the waterside before going back to the sloop. + +Great firs stretched out their somber branches over the smooth shingle, +and now that the sun had gone their clean resinous smell was heavy in the +dew-cooled air. Here and there brushwood grew among outcropping rock and +moss-grown logs lay fallen among the brambles. + +Catching sight of what looked like a strip of woven fabric beneath a +brake, Vane strode toward it. Then he stopped with a start, for a young +girl lay with her face hidden from him, in an attitude of dejected +abandonment. He was about to turn away softly, when she started and +looked up at him. Her long dark lashes glistened and her eyes were wet, +but they were of the deep blue he had described to Carroll, and he +stood still. + +"You really shouldn't give way like that," he said. + +It was all he could think of, but he spoke without obtrusive assurance or +pronounced embarrassment; and the girl, shaking out her crumpled skirt +over one little foot, with a swift sinuous movement, choked back a sob +and favored him with a glance of keen scrutiny as she rose to a sitting +posture. She was quick at reading character--the life she led had made +that necessary--and his manner and appearance were reassuring. He was on +the whole a well-favored man--good-looking seemed the best word for +it--though what impressed her most was his expression. It indicated that +he regarded her with some pity, not as an attractive young woman, which +she knew she was, but merely as a human being. The girl, however, said +nothing; and, sitting down on a neighboring boulder, Vane took out his +pipe from force of habit. + +"Well," he added, in much the same tone he would have used to a +distressed child, "what's the trouble?" + +She told him, speaking on impulse. + +"They've gone off and left me! The takings didn't meet expenses; there +was no treasury." + +"That's bad," responded Vane gravely. "Do you mean they've left +you alone?" + +"No; it's worse than that. I suppose I could go--somewhere--but there's +Mrs. Marvin and Elsie." + +"The child who dances?" + +The girl assented, and Vane looked thoughtful. He had already noticed +that Mrs. Marvin, whom he supposed to be the child's mother, was worn and +frail, and he did not think there was anything she could turn her hand to +in a vigorous mining community. The same applied to his companion, though +he was not greatly astonished that she had taken him into her confidence. +The reserve that characterizes the insular English is less common in the +West, where the stranger is more readily taken on trust. + +"The three of you stick together?" he suggested. + +"Of course! Mrs. Marvin's the only friend I have." + +"Then I suppose you've no idea what to do?" + +"No," she confessed, and then explained, not very clearly, that it was +the cause of her distress and that they had had bad luck of late. Vane +could understand that as he looked at her. Her dress was shabby, and he +fancied that she had not been bountifully fed. + +"If you stayed here a few days you could go out with the next stage and +take the train to Victoria." He paused and continued diffidently: "It +could be arranged with the hotel-keeper." + +She laughed in a half-hysterical manner, and he remembered what she had +said about the treasury, and that fares are high in that country. + +"I suppose you have no money," he added with blunt directness. "I want +you to tell Mrs. Marvin that I'll lend her enough to take you all to +Victoria." + +Her face crimsoned. He had not quite expected that, and he suddenly felt +embarrassed. It was a relief when she broke the brief silence. + +"No," she replied; "I can't do that. For one thing, it would be too late +when we got to Victoria, I think we could get an engagement if we reached +Vancouver in time to get to Kamloops by--" + +Vane knit his brows when he heard the date, and it was a moment or two +before he spoke. + +"There's only one way you can do it. There's a little steamboat coming +down the coast to-night. I had half thought of intercepting her, anyway, +and handing the skipper some letters to post in Victoria. He knows +me--I'm likely to have dealings with his employers. That's my sloop +yonder, and if I put you on board the steamer, you'd reach Vancouver in +good time. We should have sailed at sunup, anyhow." + +The girl hesitated and turned partly from him. He surmised that she did +not know what to make of his offer, though her need was urgent. In the +meanwhile he stood up. + +"Come along and talk it over with Mrs. Marvin," he urged. "I'd better +tell you that I'm Wallace Vane, of the Clermont Mine. Of course, I know +your name, from the program." + +She rose and they walked back to the hotel. Once more it struck him that +the girl was pretty and graceful, though he had already deduced from +several things that she had not been regularly trained as a singer nor +well educated. On reaching the hotel, he sat down on the veranda while +she went in, and a few minutes later Mrs. Marvin came out and looked at +him much as the girl had done. He grew hot under her gaze and repeated +his offer in the curtest terms. + +"If this breeze holds, we'll put you on board the steamer soon after +daybreak," he explained. + +The woman's face softened, and he recognized now that there had been +strong suspicion in it. + +"Thank you," she said simply; "we'll come." + +There was a moment's silence and then she added with an eloquent gesture: + +"You don't know what it means to us!" + +Vane merely took off his hat and turned away; but a minute or two later +he met the hotel-keeper. + +"Do these people owe you anything?" he asked. + +"Five dollars; they paid up part of the time. I was wondering what to do +with them. Guess they've no money. They didn't come in to supper, though +we would have stood them that. Made me think they were straight folks; +the other kind wouldn't have been bashful." + +Vane handed him a bill. + +"Take it out of this, and make any excuse you like. I'm going to put them +on board the steamboat." + +The man made no comment, and Vane, striding down to the beach, sent a +hail ringing across the water. Carroll appeared on the sloop's deck and +answered him. + +"Hallo!" he cried. "What's the trouble?" + +"Get ready the best supper you can manage, for three people, as quick +as you can!" + +"Supper for three people!" + +Vane caught the astonished exclamation and came near losing his temper. + +"For three people!" he shouted. "Don't ask any fool questions! You'll see +later on!" + +Then he turned away in a hurry, wondering somewhat uneasily what Carroll +would say when he grasped the situation. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A BREEZE OF WIND + + +There were signs of a change in the weather when Vane walked down to the +wharf with his passengers, for a cold wind which had sprung up struck an +eerie sighing from the somber firs and sent the white mists streaming +along the hillside. There was a watery moon in the sky, and when they +reached the water's edge Vane fancied that the singer hesitated; but Mrs. +Marvin laid her hand on the girl's arm reassuringly, and she got into the +canoe. A few minutes later Vane ran the craft alongside the sloop and saw +the amazement in Carroll's face by the glow from the cabin skylight. He +fancied, however, that his comrade would rise to the occasion, and he +helped his guests up. + +"My partner, Carroll. Mrs. Marvin and her daughter; Miss Kitty +Blake. You have seen them already. They're coming down with us to +catch the steamer." + +Carroll bowed, and Vane thrust back the cabin slide and motioned the +others below. The place was brightly lighted by a nickeled lamp, though +it was scarcely four feet high and the centerboard trunk occupied the +middle of it. A wide cushioned locker ran along either side a foot above +the floor, and a swing-table, fixed above the trunk, filled up most of +the space between. There was no cloth on the table, but it was +invitingly laid out with canned fruit, coffee, hot flapjacks and a big +lake trout, for in the western bush most men can cook. + +"You must help yourselves while we get sail upon the boat," said Vane +cheerily. "The saloon's at your disposal--my partner and I have the +forecastle. You will notice that there are blankets yonder, and as we'll +have smooth water most of the way you should get some sleep. Perhaps +you'd better keep the stove burning; and if you should like some coffee +in the early morning you'll find it in the top locker." + +He withdrew, closing the slide, and went forward with Carroll to shorten +in the cable; but when they stopped beside the bitts his companion broke +into a laugh. + +"Is there anything amusing you?" Vane asked curtly. + +"Well," drawled Carroll, "this country, of course, isn't England; but, +for all that, it's desirable that a man who expects to make his mark in +it should exercise a certain amount of caution. It strikes me that you're +making a rather unconventional use of your new prosperity, and it might +be prudent to consider how some of your friends in Vancouver may regard +the adventure." + +Vane sat down upon the bitts and took out his pipe. + +"One trouble in talking to you is that I never know whether you're in +earnest or not. You trot out your cold-blooded worldly wisdom--I suppose +it is wisdom--and then you grin at it." + +"It seems to me that's the only philosophic attitude," Carroll replied. +"It's possible to grow furiously indignant with the restraints +stereotyped people lay on one, but on the whole it's wiser to bow to them +and chuckle. After all, they've some foundation." + +Vane looked up at him sharply. + +"You've been right in the advice you have given me more than once. You +seem to know how prosperous, and what you call stereotyped, people look +at things. But you've never explained where you acquired the knowledge." + +"Oh, that's quite another matter," laughed Carroll. + +"Anyway, there's one remark of yours I'd like to answer. You would, no +doubt, consider that I made a legitimate use of my money when I +entertained that crowd of city people--some of whom would have plundered +me if they could have managed it--in Vancouver. I didn't grudge it, of +course, but I was a little astonished when I saw the wine and cigar bill. +It struck me that the best of them scarcely noticed what they got--I +think they'd been up against it at one time, as we have; and it would +have done the rest of the guzzlers good if they'd had to work with the +shovel all day on pork and flapjacks. But we'll let that go. What have +you and I done that we should swill in champagne, while a girl with a +face like that one below and a child who dances like a fairy haven't +enough to eat? You know what I paid for the last cigars. What confounded +hogs we are!" + +Carroll laughed outright. There was not an ounce of superfluous flesh +upon his comrade, who was hardened and toughened by determined labor. +With rare exceptions, which included the occasions when he had +entertained or had been entertained in Vancouver, his greatest indulgence +had been a draught of strong green tea from a blackened pannikin, though +he had at times drunk nothing but river water. The term hog appeared +singularly inappropriate as applied to him. + +"Well," replied Carroll, "you'll no doubt get used to the new conditions +by and by; and in regard to your latest exploit, there's a motto on your +insignia of the Garter which might meet the case. But hadn't we better +heave her over her anchor?" + +They seized the chain, and a sharp, musical rattle rang out as it ran +below, for the hollow hull flung back the metallic clinking like a +sounding-board. When the cable was short-up, they grasped the halyards +and the big gaff-mainsail rose flapping up the mast. They set it and +turned to the head-sails, for though, strictly speaking, a sloop carries +only one, the term is loosely applied in places, and as Vane had changed +her rig, there were two of them to be hoisted. + +"It's a fair wind, and I dare say we'll find more weight in it lower +down," commented Carroll. "We'll let the staysail lie and run her +with the jib." + +When they set the jib and broke out the anchor, Vane took the helm, and +the sloop, slanting over until her deck on one side dipped close to the +frothing brine, drove away into the darkness. The lights of the +settlement faded among the trees, and the black hills and the climbing +firs on either side slipped by, streaked by sliding vapors. A crisp, +splashing sound made by the curling ripples followed the vessel; the +canoe surged along noisily astern; and the frothing and gurgling grew +louder at the bows. They were running down one of the deep, +forest-shrouded inlets which, resembling the Norwegian fiords, pierce the +Pacific littoral of Canada; though there are no Scandinavian pines to +compare with the tremendous conifers which fill all the valleys and climb +high to the snow-line in that wild and rugged land. + +There was no sound from the cabin, and Vane decided that his guests had +gone to sleep. The sloop was driving along steadily, with neither lift +nor roll, but when, increasing her speed, she piled the foam up on her +lee side and the canoe rode on a great white wave, he glanced toward his +companion. + +"I wonder how the wind is outside?" he questioned. + +Carroll looked around and saw the white mists stream athwart the pines on +a promontory they were skirting. + +"That's more than I can tell. In these troughs among the hills, it either +blows straight up or directly down, and I dare say we'll find it +different when we reach the sound. One thing's certain--there's some +weight in it now." + +Vane nodded agreement, though an idea that troubled him crept into his +mind. + +"I understand that the steamboat skipper will run in to land some Siwash +he's bringing down. It will be awkward in the dark if the wind's +on-shore." + +Carroll made no comment, and they drove on. As they swept around the +point, the sloop, slanting sharply, dipped her lee rail in the froth. +Ahead of them the inlet was flecked with white, and the wail of the +swaying firs came off from the shadowy beach and mingled with the +gurgling of the water. + +"We'll have to tie down a reef and get the canoe on board," +suggested Carroll. + +"Here, take the tiller a minute!" + +Scrambling forward Vane rapped on the cabin slide and then flung it back. +Mrs. Marvin lay upon the leeward locker with a blanket thrown over her +and with the little girl at her feet; Miss Blake sat on the weather side +with a book in her hand. + +"We're going to take some sail off the boat," he explained. "You needn't +be disturbed by the noise." + +"When do you expect to meet the steamer?" Miss Blake inquired. + +"Not for two or three hours, anyway." + +Vane fancied that the girl noticed the hint of uncertainty in his voice, +and he banged the slide to as he disappeared. + +"Down helm!" he shouted to Carroll. + +There was a banging and thrashing of canvas as the sloop came up into the +wind. They held her there with the jib aback while they hauled the canoe +on board, which was not an easy task; and then with difficulty they hove +down a reef in the mainsail. It was heavy work, because there was nobody +at the helm; and the craft, falling off once or twice while they leaned +out upon the boom with toes on her depressed lee rail, threatened to hurl +them into the frothing water. Neither of them was a trained sailor; but +on that coast, with its inlets and sounds and rivers, the wanderer learns +readily to handle sail and paddle and canoe-pole. + +They finished their task; and when Vane seized the helm Carroll sat down +under the shelter of the coaming, out of the flying spray. + +"We'll probably have some trouble putting your friends on board the +steamer, even if she runs in," he remarked. "What are you going to do if +there's no sign of her?" + +"It's a question I've been shirking for the last half-hour," Vane +confessed. + +"It would be very slow work beating back up this inlet; and even if we +did so there isn't a stage across the island for several days. No doubt, +you remember that you have to see that contractor on Thursday; and +there's the directors' meeting, too." + +"It's uncommonly awkward," Vane answered dubiously. + +Carroll laughed. + +"It strikes me that your guests will have to stay where they are, whether +they like it or not; but there's one consolation--if this wind is from +the northwest, which is most likely, it will be a fast run to Victoria. +Guess I'll try to get some sleep." + +He disappeared down a scuttle forward, leaving Vane somewhat disturbed in +mind. He had contemplated taking his guests for merely a few hours' run, +but to have them on board for, perhaps, several days was a very different +thing. Besides, he was far from sure that they would understand the +necessity for keeping them, and in that case the situation might become +difficult. In the meanwhile, the sloop drove on, until at last, toward +morning, the beach fell back on either hand and she met the long swell +tumbling in from the Pacific. The wind was from the northwest and blowing +moderately hard; there was no light as yet in the sky above the black +heights to the east; and the onrushing swell grew higher and steeper, +breaking white here and there. The sloop plunged over it wildly, hurling +the spray aloft; and it cost Vane a determined effort to haul in his +sheets as the wind drew ahead. Shortly afterward, the beach faded +altogether on one hand, and the sea piled up madly into foaming ridges. +It seemed most improbable that the steamer would run in to land her +Indian passengers, but Vane drove the sloop on, with showers of stinging +brine beating into her wet canvas and whirling about him. + +As the Pacific opened up, he found it necessary to watch the seas that +came charging down upon her. They were long and high, and most of them +were ridged with seething foam. With a quick pull on the tiller, he edged +her over them, and a cascade swept her forward as she plunged across +their crests. Though there were driving clouds above him, it was not very +dark and he could see for some distance. The long ranks of tumbling +combers did not look encouraging, and when the plunges grew sharper and +the brine began to splash across the coaming that protected the well he +wished that they had hauled down a second reef. He could not shorten sail +unassisted, however; nor could he leave the helm to summon Carroll, who +was evidently sleeping soundly in the forecastle, without rousing his +passengers, which he did not desire to do. + +A little while later he noticed that a stream of smoke was pouring from +the short funnel of the stove and soon afterward the cabin slide opened. +Miss Blake crept out and stood in the well, gazing forward while she +clutched the coaming. + +Day was now breaking, and Vane could see that the girl's thin dress was +blown flat against her. There was something graceful in her pose, and it +struck him again that her figure was daintily slender. She wore no hat, +and it was evident that the wild plunging had no effect on her. He waited +uneasily until she turned and faced him. + +"We are going out to sea," she said. "Where's the steamer?" + +It was a question Vane had dreaded; but he answered it honestly. + +"I can't tell you. It's very likely that she has gone straight on to +Victoria." + +He saw the suspicion in her suddenly hardening face, but the quick anger +in it pleased him. He had not expected her to be prudish, but it was +clear that the situation did not appeal to her. + +"You expected this when you asked us to come on board!" she cried. + +"No," Vane replied quietly; "on my honor, I did nothing of the kind. +There was only a moderate breeze when we left, and when it freshened +enough to make it unlikely that the steamer would run in, I was as vexed +as you seem to be. As it happened, I couldn't go back; I must get on to +Victoria as soon as possible." + +She looked at him searchingly, but he fancied that she was slightly +comforted. + +"Can't you put us ashore?" + +"It might be possible if I could find a sheltered beach farther on, but +it wouldn't be wise. You would find yourselves twenty or thirty miles +from the nearest settlement, and you could never walk so far through +the bush." + +"Then what are we to do?" + +There was distress in the cry, and Vane answered it in his most +matter-of-fact tone. + +"So far as I can see, you can only reconcile yourselves to staying on +board. We'll have a fresh, fair wind for Victoria, once we're round the +next head, and with moderate luck we ought to get there late to-night" + +"You're sure?" + +Vane felt sorry for her. + +"I'm afraid I can't even promise that; it depends upon the weather," +he replied. "But you mustn't stand there in the spray. You're getting +wet through." + +She still clung to the coaming, but he fancied that her misgivings were +vanishing, and he spoke again. + +"How are Mrs. Marvin and the little girl? I see you have lighted +the stove." + +The girl sat down, shivering, in the partial shelter of the coaming, and +at last a gleam of amusement, which he felt was partly compassionate, +shone in her eyes. + +"I'm afraid they're--not well. That was why I kept the stove burning; I +wanted to make them some tea. There is some in the locker--I thought you +wouldn't mind." + +"Everything's at your service, as I told you. You must make the best +breakfast you can. The nicest things are at the back of the locker." + +She stood up, looking around again. The light was growing, and the +crests of the combers gleamed a livid white. Their steep breasts were +losing their grayness and changing to dusky blue and slatey green, but +their blurred coloring was atoned for by their grandeur of form. They +came on, ridge on ridge, in regularly ordered, tumbling phalanxes. + +"It's glorious!" she exclaimed, to his astonishment. "Aren't you carrying +a good deal of sail?" + +"We'll ease the peak down when we bring the wind farther aft. In the +meanwhile, you'd better get your breakfast, and if you come out again, +put on one of the coats you'll find below." + +She disappeared, and Vane felt relieved. Though the explanation had +proved less difficult than he had anticipated, he was glad that it was +over, and the way in which she had changed the subject implied that she +was satisfied with it. Half an hour later, she appeared again, carrying a +loaded tray, and he wondered at the ease of her movements, for the sloop +was plunging viciously. + +"I've brought you some breakfast. You have been up all night." + +Vane laughed. + +"As I can take only one hand from the helm, you will have to cut up the +bread and canned stuff for me. Draw out that box and sit down beneath the +coaming, if you mean to stay." + +She did as he told her. The well was about four feet long, and the bottom +of it about half that distance below the level of the deck. As a result +of this, she sat close at his feet, while he balanced himself on the +coaming, gripping the tiller. He noticed that she had brought out an +oilskin jacket with her. + +"Hadn't you better put this on first? There's a good deal of +spray," she said. + +Vane struggled into the jacket with some difficulty, and she smiled as +she handed him up a slice of bread and canned meat. + +"I suppose you can manage only one piece at a time," she laughed. + +"Thank you. That's about as much as you could expect one to be capable +of, even allowing for the bushman's appetite. I'm a little surprised to +see you looking so fresh." + +"Oh, I used to go out with the mackerel boats at home--we lived at the +ferry. It was a mile across the lough, and with the wind westerly the sea +worked in." + +"The lough? I told Carroll that you were from the Green Isle." + +It struck him that this was, perhaps, imprudent, as it implied that they +had been discussing her; but, on the other hand, he fancied that the +candor of the statement was in his favor. + +"Have you been long out here?" he added. + +The girl's face grew wistful. + +"Four years. I came out with Larry--he's my brother. He was a forester at +home, and he took small contracts for clearing land. Then he married--and +_I_ left him." + +Vane made a sign of comprehension. + +"I see. Where's Larry now?" + +"He went to Oregon. There was no answer to my last letter; I've lost +sight of him." + +"And you go about with Mrs. Marvin? Is her husband living?" + +Sudden anger flared up in the girl's blue eyes, though he knew that it +was not directed against him. + +"Yes! It's a pity he is! Men of his kind always seem to live!" + +It occurred to Vane that Miss Blake, who evidently had a spice of temper, +could be a staunch partizan, and he also noticed that now that he had +inspired her with some degree of trust in himself her conversation was +marked by an ingenuous candor. + +"Another piece, or some tea?" she asked. + +"Tea first, please." + +They both laughed when she handed him a second slice of bread. + +"These sandwiches strike me as unusually nice," he informed her. "It's +exceptionally good tea, too. I don't remember ever getting anything to +equal them at a hotel." + +The blue eyes gleamed with amusement. + +"You have been in the cold all night--but I was once in a restaurant." +She watched the effect of this statement on him. "You know I really can't +sing--I was never taught, anyway--though there were some of the +settlements where we did rather well." + +Vane hummed a few bars of a song. + +"I don't suppose you realize what one ballad of yours has done. I'd +almost forgotten the Old Country, but the night I heard you I felt I must +go back and see it again. What's more, Carroll and I are going +shortly--it's your doing." + +This was a matter of fact; but Kitty Blake had produced a deeper effect +on him, although he was not yet aware of it. + +"It's a shame to keep you handing me things to eat," he added +disconnectedly. "Still, I'd like another piece." + +She smiled delightfully as she passed the food to him. + +"You can't help yourself and steer the boat. Besides--after the +restaurant--I don't mind waiting on you." + +Vane made no comment, but he watched her with satisfaction while he ate. +There was no sign of the others; they were alone on the waste of tumbling +water in the early dawn. The girl was pretty, and there was a pleasing +daintiness about her. What was more, she was a guest of his, dependent +for her safety upon his skill with the tiller. So far as he could +remember, it was a year or two since he had breakfasted in a woman's +company; it was certain that no woman had waited on him so prettily. Then +as he remembered many a lonely camp in the dark pine forest or high on +the bare rangeside, it occurred to him for the first time that he had +missed a good deal of what life had to offer. He wondered what it would +have been like if when he had dragged himself back to his tent at night, +worn with heavy toil, as he had often done, there had been somebody with +blue eyes and a delightful smile to welcome him. + +Kitty Blake belonged to the people--there was no doubt of that; but then +he had a strong faith in the people, native-born and adopted, of the +Pacific Slope. It was from them that he had received the greatest +kindnesses he could remember. They were cheerful optimists; indomitable +grapplers with forest and flood, who did almost incredible things with ax +and saw and giant-powder. They lived in lonely ranch houses, tents and +rudely flung-up shacks; driving the new roads along the rangeside or +risking life and limb in wild-cat adits. They were quick to laughter, and +reckless in hospitality. + +Then with an effort he brushed the hazy thoughts away. Kitty Blake was +merely a guest of his; in another day he would land her in Victoria, and +that would be the end of it. He was assuring himself of this when Carroll +crawled up through the scuttle forward and came aft to join them. In +spite of his prudent reflections, Vane was by no means certain that he +was pleased to see him. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +AN AFTERNOON ASHORE + + +Half the day had slipped by. The breeze freshened further and the sun +broke through. The sloop was then rolling wildly as she drove along with +the peak of her mainsail lowered down before a big following sea. The +combers came up behind her, foaming and glistening blue and green, with +seamy white streaks on their hollow breasts, and broke about her with a +roar. Then they surged ahead while she sank down into the hollow with +sluicing deck and tilted stern. Vane's face was intent as he gripped the +helm; three or four miles away a head ran out from the beach he was +following, and he would have to haul the boat up to windward to get +around it. This would bring the combers upon her quarter, or, worse +still, abeam. Kitty Blake was below; and Mrs. Marvin had made no +appearance yet. Vane looked at Carroll, who was standing in the well. + +"The sea's breaking more sharply, and we'd get uncommonly wet before we +hammered round yonder head. There's an inlet on this side of it where we +ought to find good shelter." + +"The trouble is that if you stay there long you'll be too late for the +directors' meeting. Besides, I'm under the impression that I've seen you +run an open sea-canoe before as hard a breeze as this." + +"They can't have the meeting without me, and if it's necessary they can +wait," Vane answered impatiently. "I've had to. Many an hour I've spent +cooling my heels in corridors and outer offices before the head of the +concern could find time to attend to me. No doubt it was part of the +game, done to impress me with a due sense of my unimportance." + +"It's possible," Carroll laughed. + +"Besides, you can drive one of those big Siwash craft as hard as you can +this sloop; that is, so long as you keep the sea astern of her." + +"Yes; I dare say you can. After all, you hadn't any passengers on +the occasion I was referring to. I suppose you feel you have to +consider them?" + +Vane colored slightly. + +"Naturally, I'd prefer not to land Mrs. Marvin and the child in a +helpless condition; and I understand they're feeling the motion +pretty badly." + +Kitty Blake made her appearance in the cabin entrance, and Vane +smiled at her. + +"We're going to give you a rest," he announced. "There's an inlet close +ahead where we should find smooth water, and we'll put you all ashore for +a few hours until the wind drops." + +There was no suspicion in the girl's face now. She gave him a grateful +glance before she disappeared below with the consoling news. + +A quarter of an hour later Vane closed with the beach, and a break in the +hillside, which was dotted with wind-stunted pines, opened up. While the +two men struggled with the mainsheet, the big boom and the sail above it +lurched madly over. The sloop rolled down until half her deck on one side +was in the sea, but she hove herself up again and shot forward, wet and +gleaming, into a space of smooth green water behind a head. Soon +afterward, Vane luffed into a tiny bay, where she rode upright in the +sunshine, with loose canvas flapping softly in a faint breeze while the +cable rattled down. They got the canoe over, and when they had helped +Mrs. Marvin and her little girl, both of whom looked very wobegone and +the worse for the voyage, into her, Vane glanced around. + +"Isn't Miss Blake coming?" he asked. + +"She's changing her dress," explained Mrs. Marvin, with a smile. She +glanced at her own crumpled attire as she added: "I'm past thinking of +such things as that!" + +They waited some minutes, and then Kitty appeared in the entrance to the +cabin. Vane called to her. + +"Won't you look in the locker, and bring along anything you think would +be nice? We'll make a fire and have supper on the beach--if it isn't +first-rate, you'll be responsible!" + +A few minutes later they paddled ashore, and Vane landed them on a +strip of shingle. Beyond it a wall of rock arose, with dark firs +clinging in the rifts and crannies. The sunshine streamed into the +hollow; the wind was cut off; and not far away a crystal stream came +splashing down a ravine. + +"There's a creek at the top of the inlet," Vane told them, as he and +Carroll thrust out the canoe, "and we're going to look for a trout. You +can stroll about or rest in the sun for a couple of hours, and if the +wind drops after supper we'll make a start again." + +They paddled away, with a fishing-rod and a gun in the canoe, and it +was toward six o'clock in the evening when they came back with a few +trout. Vane made a fire of resinous wood, and Carroll and Kitty +prepared a bountiful supper. When it was finished, Carroll carried the +plates away to the stream; Mrs. Marvin and the little girl followed +him; and Vane and Kitty were left beside the fire. She sat on a log of +driftwood, and he lay on the warm shingle with his pipe in his hand. +The clear green water splashed and tinkled upon the pebbles close at +his feet, and a faint, elfin sighing fell from the firs above them. It +was very old music: the song of the primeval wilderness; and though he +had heard it often, it had a strange, unsettling effect on him as he +languidly watched his companion. There was no doubt that she was +pleasant to look upon; but, although he did not clearly recognize this, +it was to a large extent an impersonal interest that he took in her. +She was not so much an attractive young woman with qualities that +pleased him as a type of something that had so far not come into his +life; something which he vaguely felt that he had missed. One could +have fancied that by some deep-sunk intuition she recognized this fact, +and felt the security of it. + +"So you believe you can get an engagement if you reach Vancouver in +time?" he asked at length. + +"Yes." + +"How long will it last?" + +"I can't tell. Perhaps a week or two. It depends upon how the boys are +pleased with the show." + +Vane frowned. He felt very compassionate toward her and toward all +friendless women compelled to wander here and there, as she was forced +to do. It seemed intolerable that she should depend for daily bread +upon the manner in which a crowd of rude miners and choppers received +her song; though there was, as he knew, a vein of primitive chivalry in +most of them. + +"Suppose it only lasts a fortnight, what will you do then?" + +"I don't know," said Kitty simply. + +"It must be a hard life," Vane broke out. "You must make very +little--scarcely enough, I suppose, to carry you on from one engagement +to another. After all, weren't you as well off at the restaurant? Didn't +they treat you properly?" + +She colored a little at the question. + +"Oh, yes. At least, I had no fault to find with the man who kept it or +with his wife." + +Vane made a hasty sign of comprehension. He supposed that the difficulty +had arisen from the conduct of one or more of the regular customers. He +felt that he would very much like to meet the man whose undesired +attentions had driven his companion from her occupation. + +"Did you never try to learn keeping accounts or typewriting?" he asked. + +"I tried it once. I could manage the figures, but the mill shut down." + +Vane made his next suggestion casually, though he was troubled by an +inward diffidence. + +"I've an idea that I could find you a post. It looks as if I'm going to +be a person of some little influence in the future, which"--he +laughed--"is a very new thing to me." + +He saw a tinge of warmer color creep into the girl's cheeks. She had, as +he had already noticed a beautifully clear skin. + +"No," she said decidedly; "it wouldn't do." + +Vane knit his brows, though he fancied that she was right. + +"Well," he replied, "I don't want to be officious--but how can I help?" + +"You can't help at all." + +Vane saw that she meant it, and he broke out with quick impatience: + +"I've spent nine years in this country, in the hardest kind of work; but +all the while I fancied that money meant power, that if I ever got +enough of it I could do what I liked! Now I find that I can't do the +first simple thing that would please me! What a cramped, hide-bound +world it is!" + +Kitty smiled in a curious manner. + +"Yes; it's a very cramped world to some of us; but complaining won't do +any good," She paused with a faint sigh. "Don't spoil this evening. You +and Mr. Carroll have been very kind. It's so quiet and calm +here--though it was pleasant on board the yacht--and soon we'll have to +go to work again." + +Vane once more was stirred by a sense of pity which almost drove him to +rash and impulsive speech; but her manner restrained him. + +"Then you must be fond of the sea," he suggested. + +"I love it! I was born beside it--where the big, green hills drop to the +head of the water and you can hear the Atlantic rumble on the rocks all +night long." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Vane; "don't you long for another sight of it now +and then?" + +The girl smiled in a way that troubled him. + +"I'm wearying for it always; and some day, perhaps, I'll win back for +another glimpse at the old place." + +"You wouldn't go to stay?" + +"That would be impossible! What would I do yonder, after this other life? +Once you leave the old land, you can never quite get back again." + +Vane lay smoking in silence for a minute or two. On another occasion he +had felt the thrill of the exile's longing that spoke through the girl's +song, and now he recognized the truth of what she said. One changed in +the West, acquiring a new outlook which diverged more and more from that +held by those at home. Only a wistful tenderness for the motherland +remained. Still, alien in thought and feeling as he had become, he was +going back there for a time; and she, as she had said, must resume her +work. A feeling of anger at his impotence to alter this came upon him. + +Then Carroll came up with Mrs. Marvin and Elsie, and he felt strongly +stirred when the little girl walked up to him shyly with a basket filled +with shells and bright fir-cones. He drew her down beside him with an arm +about her waist while he examined her treasures. Glancing up he met +Kitty's eyes and felt his face grow hot with an emotion he failed to +analyze. The little mite was frail and delicate; life, he surmised, had +scanty pleasure to offer her; but now she was happy. + +"They're so pretty, and there are such lots of them!" she exclaimed. +"Can't we stay here just a little longer and gather some more?" + +"Yes," answered Vane, conscious that Carroll, who had heard the question, +was watching him. "You shall stay and get as many as you want. I'm afraid +you don't like the sloop." + +"No; I don't like it when it jumps. After I woke up, it jumped all +the time." + +"Never mind, little girl. The boat will keep still to-night, and I don't +think there'll be any waves to roll her about to-morrow. We'll have you +ashore the first thing in the morning." + +He talked to her for a few minutes, and then strolled along the beach +with Carroll until they could look out upon the Pacific. The breeze was +falling, though the sea still ran high. + +"Why did you promise that child to stay here?" Carroll asked. + +"Because I felt like doing so." + +"I needn't remind you that you've an appointment with Horsfield about +the smelter; and there's a meeting of the board next day. If we +started now and caught the first steamer across, you wouldn't have +much time to spare." + +"That's correct. I shall have to wire from Victoria that I've been +detained." + +Carroll laughed expressively. + +"Do you mean to put off the meeting and keep your directors waiting, to +please a child?" + +"I suppose that's one reason. Anyway, I don't propose to hustle the +little girl and her mother on board the steamer while they're helpless +with seasickness." A gleam of humor crept into his eyes. "As I think I +told you, I've no great objections to letting the gentlemen you mentioned +await my pleasure." + +"But they found you the shareholders, and set the concern on its feet." + +"Just so. On the other hand, they got excellent value for their +services--and I found the mine. What's more, during the preliminary +negotiations most of them treated me very casually." + +"Well?" + +"There's going to be a difference now. I've a board of directors--one way +or another, I've had to pay for the privilege pretty dearly; but it's not +my intention that they should run the Clermont Mine." + +Carroll glanced at him with open amusement. There had been a marked +change in Vane since he had located the mine, though it was one that did +not astonish his comrade. Carroll had long suspected him of latent +capabilities, which had suddenly sprung to life. + +"You ought to see Horsfield before you meet the board," he advised him. + +"I'm not sure," Vane answered. "In fact, I'm uncertain whether I'll give +Horsfield the contract, even if we decide about the smelter. He was +offensively patronizing once upon a time and tried to bluff me. Besides, +he has already a stake in the concern. I don't want a man with too firm a +hold-up against me." + +"But if he put his money in partly with the idea of getting certain +pickings?" + +"He didn't explain his intentions; and I made no promises. He'll get his +dividends, or he can sell his stock at a premium, and that ought to +satisfy him." + +"If you submitted the whole case to a business man, he'd probably tell +you that you were going to make a hash of things." + +"That's your own idea?" + +Carroll grinned. + +"Oh, I'll reserve my opinion. It's possible you may be right. Time +will show." + +They rejoined the others, and when the white mists crept lower down from +the heights above and the chill of the dew was in the air, Vane launched +the canoe. + +"It's getting late and there's a long run in front of us to-morrow," he +informed his passengers. "The sloop will lie as still as if moored in a +pond; and you'll have her all to yourselves. Carroll and I are going to +camp ashore." + +He paddled them off to the boat. Coming back with some blankets, he cut a +few armfuls of spruce twigs in a ravine and spread them out beside the +fire. Then sitting down just clear of the scented smoke he lighted his +pipe and asked an abrupt question. + +"What do you think of Kitty Blake?" + +"She's attractive, in person and manners." + +"Anybody could see that at a glance!" + +"Well," Carroll added cautiously, "I must confess that I've taken some +interest in the girl--partly because you were obviously doing so. In a +general way, what I noticed rather surprised me. It wasn't what I +expected." + +"You smart folks are as often wrong as the rest of us. I suppose you +looked for cold-blooded assurance, tempered by what one might call +experienced coquetry?" + +"Something of the kind," Carroll agreed. "As you say, I was wrong. There +are only two ways of explaining Miss Blake, and the first's the one that +would strike most people. That is, she's acting a part, possibly with an +object; holding her natural self in check, and doing it cleverly." + +Vane laughed scornfully. + +"I've lived in the woods for nine years, but I wouldn't have entertained +that idea for five seconds!" + +"Then, there's the other explanation. It's simply that the girl's life +hasn't affected her. Somehow, she has kept fresh and wholesome. I think +that's the correct view." + +"There's no doubt of it!" declared Vane. + +"You offered to help her in some way?" + +"I did; I don't know how you guessed it. I said I'd find her a situation. +She wouldn't hear of it." + +"She was wise. Vancouver isn't a very big place yet, and the girl has +more sense than you have. What did you say?" + +"I'm afraid I lost my temper because there was nothing I could do." + +Carroll grinned. + +"There are limitations--even to the power of the dollar. You'll probably +run up against more of them later on." + +"I suppose so," yawned Vane. "Well, I'm going to sleep." + +He rolled himself up in his blanket and lay down among the soft spruce +twigs, but Carroll sat still in the darkness and smoked out his pipe. +Then he glanced at his comrade, who lay still, breathing evenly. + +"No doubt you'd be considered fortunate," he said, apostrophizing him +half aloud. "You've had power and responsibility thrust upon you. What +will you make of it?" + +Then he, too, lay down, and only the soft splash of the tiny ripples +broke the silence while the fire sank lower. + +They sailed the next morning, and when they arrived in Victoria the boat +which crossed the straits had gone, but the breeze was fair from the +westward, and, after despatching a telegram, Vane sailed again. The sloop +made a quick passage, and most of the time her passengers lounged in the +sunshine on her gently slanted deck. It was evening when they ran through +the Narrows into Vancouver's land-locked harbor and saw the roofs of the +city rise tier on tier from the water-front. Somber forest crept down to +the skirts of it, and across the glistening water black hills ran up into +the evening sky, with the blink of towering snow to the north of them. + +Half an hour later Vane landed his passengers, and it was not until he +had left them that they discovered he had thrust a roll of paper currency +into the little girl's hand. Then he and Carroll set off for the C.P.R. +hotel, although they were not accustomed to a hostelry of that sort. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A CHANGE OF ENVIRONMENT + + +On the evening after his arrival in Vancouver, Vane paid a visit to one +of his directors; and, in accordance with the invitation, he and Carroll +reached the latter's dwelling some little time before the arrival of +several other guests, whose acquaintance it was considered advisable he +should make. In the business parts of most western cities iron and stone +have now replaced the native lumber, but on their outskirts wood is still +employed with admirable effect as a building material, and Nairn's house +was an example of the judicious use of the latter. It stood on a rise +above the inlet; picturesque in outline, with its artistic scroll-work, +Its wooden pillars, its lattice shutters and its balustraded verandas. +Virgin forest crept up close about it, and there was no fence to the +sweep of garden which divided it from the road. + +Vane and his companion were ushered into a small room, with an uncovered +floor and simple, hardwood furniture. It was obviously a working room, +for, as a rule, the work of the western business man goes on continuously +except when he is asleep; but a somewhat portly lady with a good-humored +face reclined in a rocking chair. A gaunt, elderly man of rugged +appearance rose from his seat at a writing-table as his guests entered. + +"So ye have come at last," he said. "I had ye shown in here, because this +room is mine, and I can smoke when I like. The rest of the house is Mrs. +Nairn's, and it seems that her friends do not appreciate the smell of my +cigars. I'm no sure that I can blame them." + +Mrs. Nairn smiled placidly. + +"Alic," she explained, "leaves them lying everywhere, and I do not +like the stubs of them on the stairs. But sit ye down and he will +give ye one." + +Vane felt at home with both of them. He had met people of their kind +before, and, allowing for certain idiosyncrasies, considered them the +salt of the Dominion. Nairn had done good service to his adopted country, +developing her industries--with some profit to himself, for he was of +Scottish extraction; but, while close at a bargain, he could be generous +afterward. In the beginning, he had fought sternly for his own hand, and +it was supposed that Mrs. Nairn had helped him, not only by sound advice, +but by such practical economies as the making of his working clothes. +Those he wore on the evening in question did not fit him well, though +they were no longer the work of her capable fingers. When his guests were +seated he laid two cigar boxes on the table. + +"Those," he said, pointing to one of them, "are mine. I think ye had +better try the others; they're for visitors." + +Vane had already noticed the aroma of the cigar that was smoldering on a +tray and he decided that Nairn was right; so he dipped his hand into the +second box, which he passed to Carroll. + +"Now," declared Nairn, "we can talk comfortably. Clara will listen. +Afterwards, it's possible she will favor me with her opinion." + +Mrs. Nairn smiled at them encouragingly, and her husband proceeded. + +"One or two of my colleagues were no pleased at ye for putting off +the meeting." + +"The sloop was small, and it was blowing rather hard," Vane explained. + +"Maybe. For all that, the tone of your message was no altogether what one +would call conciliatory. It informed us that ye would arrange for the +postponed meeting at your earliest convenience. Ye did not mention ours." + +"I pointed that out to him, and he said it didn't matter," Carroll +interrupted with a laugh. + +Nairn spread out his hands in expostulation, but there was dry +appreciation in his eyes. + +"Young blood must have its way." He paused and looked thoughtful. "Ye +will no have said anything definite to Horsfield yet about the smelter?" + +"No. So far, I'm not sure that it would pay us to put up the plant; and +the other man's terms are lower." + +"Maybe," Nairn answered, and he made the single word very expressive. "Ye +have had the handling of the thing; but henceforward it will be necessary +to get the sanction of the board. However, ye will meet Horsfield +to-night. We expect him and his sister." + +Vane thought he had been favored with a hint, but he fancied also that +his host was not inimical and was merely reserving his judgment with +Caledonian caution. Nairn changed the subject. + +"So ye're going to England for a holiday. Ye will have friends who'll be +glad to see ye yonder?" + +"I've one sister, but no other near relatives. But I expect to spend some +time with people you know. The Chisholms are old family friends, and, as +you will remember, it was through them that I first approached you." + +Then, obeying one of the impulses which occasionally swayed him, he +turned to Mrs. Nairn. + +"I'm grateful to them for sending me the letter of introduction to your +husband, because in many ways I'm in his debt. He didn't treat me as the +others did when I first went round this city with a few mineral +specimens." + +He had expected nothing when he spoke, but there was a responsive look in +the lady's face which hinted that he had made a friend. As a matter of +fact, he owed a good deal to his host. There is a vein of human kindness +in the Scot, and he is often endowed with a keen, half-instinctive +judgment of his fellows which renders him less likely to be impressed by +outward appearances and the accidental advantages of polished speech or +tasteful dress than his southern neighbors. Vane would have had even more +trouble in floating his company had not Nairn been satisfied with him. + +"So ye are meaning to stay with Chisholm!" the latter exclaimed. "We +had Evelyn here two years ago, and Clara said something about her +coming out again." + +"It's nine years since I saw Evelyn." + +"Then there's a surprise in store for ye. I believe they've a bonny +place--and there's no doubt Chisholm will make ye welcome." + +The slight pause was expressive. It implied that Nairn, who had a +somewhat biting humor, could furnish a reason for Chisholm's hospitality +if he desired, and Vane was confirmed in this supposition when he saw the +warning look which his hostess cast at her husband. + +"It's likely that we'll have Evelyn again in the fall," she said hastily. +"It's a very small world, Mr. Vane." + +"It's a far cry from Vancouver to England," Vane replied. "How did you +first come to know Chisholm?" + +Nairn answered him. + +"Our acquaintance began with business. A concern that he was chairman of +had invested in British Columbian mining stock; and he's some kind of +connection of Colquhoun's." + +Colquhoun was a man of some importance, who held a Crown appointment, and +Vane felt inclined to wonder why Chisholm had not sent him a letter to +him. Afterward, he guessed at the reason, which was not flattering to +himself or his host. Nairn and he chatted a while on business topics, +until there was a sound of voices below, and going down in company with +Mrs. Nairn they found two or three new arrivals in the entrance hall. +More came in; and when they sat down to supper, Vane was given a place +beside a young lady whom he had already met. + +Jessy Horsfield was about his own age; tall and slight in figure, with +regular features, a rather colorless face, and eyes of a cold, light +blue. There was, however, something striking in her appearance, and Vane +was gratified by her graciousness to him. Her brother sat almost opposite +them: a tall, spare man, with a somewhat expressionless countenance, +except for the aggressive hardness in his eyes. Vane had noticed this +look, and it had aroused his dislike, but he had not observed it in the +eyes of Miss Horsfield, though it was present now and then. Nor did he +realize that while she chatted she was unobtrusively studying him. She +had not favored him with much notice when she was in his company on a +previous occasion; he had been a man of no importance then. + +He was now dressed in ordinary attire, and the well-cut garments +displayed his lean, athletic figure. His face, Miss Horsfield decided, +was a good one: not exactly handsome, but attractive in its frankness; +and she liked the way he had of looking steadily at the person he +addressed. Though he had been, as she knew, a wandering chopper, a survey +packer, and, for a time, an unsuccessful prospector, there was no +coarsening stamp of toil on him. Indeed, the latter is not common in the +West, where as yet the division of employments is not practised to the +extent it is in older countries. Specialization has its advantages; but +it brands a man's profession upon him and renders it difficult for him to +change it. Except for the clear bronze of his skin, Vane might just have +left a Government office, or have come out from London or Montreal. He +was, moreover, a man whose acquaintance might be worth cultivating. + +"I suppose you are glad you have finished your work in the bush," she +remarked presently. "It must be nice to get back to civilization." + +Vane smiled as he glanced round the room. It ran right across the house, +and through the open windows came the clank of a locomotive bell down by +the wharf and the rattle of a steamer's winch. The sounds appealed to +him. They suggested organized activity, the stir of busy life; and it was +pleasant to hear them after the silence of the bush. The gleam of snowy +linen, dainty glass and silver caught his eye; and the hum of careless +voices and the light laughter were soothing. + +"Yes; it's remarkably nice after living for nine years in the wilderness, +with only an occasional visit to some little wooden town." + +A fresh dish was laid before him, and his companion smiled. + +"You didn't get things of this kind among the pines." + +"No," laughed Vane. "In fact, cookery is one of the bushman's trials; +anyway, when he's working for himself. You come back dead tired, and +often very wet, to your lonely tent, and then there's a fire to make and +supper to get before you can rest. It happens now and then that you're +too played out to trouble, and you go to sleep instead." + +"Dreadful!" sympathized the girl. "But you have been in Vancouver +before?" + +"Except on the last occasion, I stayed down near the water-front. We were +not provided with luxurious quarters or with suppers of this kind there." + +"It's romantic; and, though you're glad it's over, there must be some +satisfaction in feeling that you owe the change to your own efforts. I +mean it must be nice to think one has captured a fair share of the good +things of life, instead of having them accidentally thrust upon one. +Doesn't it give you a feeling that in some degree you're master of your +fate? I should like that" + +It was subtle flattery, and there were reasons why it appealed to the +man. He had worked for others, sometimes for inadequate wages, and had +wandered about the Province, dusty and footsore, in search of employment, +besides being beaten down at many a small bargain by richer or more +fortunately situated men. Now, however, he had resolved that there should +be a difference; instead of begging favors, he would dictate terms. + +"I should have imagined it," he laughed, in answer to her last remark; +and he was right, for Jessy Horsfield was a clever woman who loved power +and influence. + +Vane dropped his napkin, and was stooping to pick it up when an attendant +handed it back to him. He noticed and responded to the glimmer of +amusement in his companion's eyes. + +"We are not accustomed to being waited on in the bush," he explained. "It +takes some time to get used to the change. When we wanted anything there +we got it for ourselves." + +"Is that, in its wider sense, a characteristic of most bushmen?" + +"I don't quite follow." + +The girl laughed. + +"I suppose one could divide men into two classes: those who are able to +get the things they desire for themselves--which implies the possession +of certain eminently useful qualities--and those who have them given to +them. In Canada the former are the more numerous." + +"There's a third division," Vane corrected her, with a trace of grimness. +"I mean those who want a good many things and have to learn to do +without. It strikes me they're the most numerous of all." + +"It's no doubt excellent discipline," retorted his companion. + +She looked at him boldly, for she was interested in the man and was not +afraid of personalities. + +"In any case, you have now passed out of that division." + +Vane sat silent for the next few moments. Up to the age of eighteen most +of his reasonable wishes had been gratified. Then had come a startling +change, and he had discovered in the Dominion that he must lead a life of +Spartan self-denial. He had had the strength to do so, and for nine years +he had resolutely banished most natural longings. Amusements, in some of +which he excelled, the society of women, all the small amenities of life, +were things which must be foregone, and he had forced himself to be +content with food and, as a rule, very indifferent shelter. This, as his +companion suggested, had proved a wholesome discipline, since it had not +soured him. Now, though he did not overvalue them, he rejoiced in his new +surroundings, and the girl's comeliness and quickness of comprehension +had their full effect. + +"It was you who located the Clermont Mine, wasn't it?" she went on. +"I read something about it in the papers--I think they said it was +copper ore." + +This vagueness was misleading, for her brother had given her a good deal +of definite information about the mine. + +"Yes," replied Vane, willing to take up any subject she suggested; "it's +copper ore, but there's some silver combined with it. Of course, the +value of any ore depends upon two things--the percentage of the metal, +and the cost of extracting it." + +Her interest was flattering, and he added: + +"In both respects, the Clermont product is promising." + +After that he did not remember what they talked about; but the time +passed rapidly and he was surprised when Mrs. Nairn rose and the company +drifted away by twos and threes toward the veranda. Left by himself a +moment, he came upon Carroll sauntering down a corridor. + +"I've had a chat with Horsfield," Carroll remarked. + +"Well?" + +"He may merely have meant to make himself agreeable, and he may have +wished to extract information about you: If the latter was his object, he +was not successful." + +"Ah! Nairn's straight, anyway, and to be relied on. I like him and +his wife." + +"So do I, though they differ from some of the others. There's not much +gilding on either of them." + +"It's not needed; they're sterling metal." + +"That's my own idea." + +Carroll moved away and Vane strolled out onto the veranda, where +Horsfield joined him a few minutes later. + +"I don't know whether it's a very suitable time to mention it; but may I +ask whether you are any nearer a decision about that smelter? Candidly, +I'd like the contract." + +"I am not," Vane answered. "I can't make up my mind, and I may postpone +the matter indefinitely. It might prove more profitable to ship the ore +out for reduction." + +Horsfield examined his cigar. + +"Of course, I can't press you; but I may, perhaps, suggest that, as we'll +have to work together in other matters, I might be able to give you a +quid pro quo." + +"That occurred to me. On the other hand, I don't know how much importance +I ought to attach to the consideration." + +His companion laughed with apparent good-humor. + +"Oh, well; I must wait until you're ready." + +He strolled away, and presently joined his sister. + +"How does Vane strike you?" he asked. "You seem to get on with him." + +"I've an idea that you won't find him easy to influence," answered the +girl, looking at her brother pointedly. + +"I'm inclined to agree with you. In spite of that, he's a man whose +acquaintance is worth cultivating." + +He passed on to speak to Nairn; and shortly afterward Vane sat down +beside Jessy in a corner of a big room. Looking out across the veranda, +he could see far-off snowy heights tower in cold silver tracery against +the green of the evening sky. Voices and laughter reached him, and now +and then some of the guests strolled through the room. It was pleasant to +lounge there and feel that Miss Horsfield had taken him under her wing, +which seemed to describe her attitude toward him. She was handsome, and +he noticed how finely the soft, neutral tinting of her attire, which was +neither blue nor altogether gray, matched the azure of her eyes and +emphasized the dead-gold coloring of her hair. + +"As Mrs. Nairn tells me you are going to England, I suppose we shall not +see you in Vancouver for some months," she said presently. "This city +really isn't a bad place to live in." + +Vane felt gratified. She had implied that he would be an acquisition and +had included him among the number of her acquaintances. + +"I fancy that I shall find it a particularly pleasant place," he +responded. "Indeed, I'm inclined to be sorry that I've made arrangements +to leave it very shortly." + +"That is pure good-nature," laughed his companion. + +"No; it's what I really feel." + +Jessy let this pass. + +"Mrs. Nairn mentioned that you know the Chisholms." + +"I'd better say that I used to do so. They have probably changed out of +my knowledge, and they can scarcely remember me except by name." + +"But you are going to see them?" + +"I expect to spend some time with them." + +Jessy changed the subject, and Vane found her conversation entertaining. +She appealed to his artistic perceptions and his intelligence, and it +must be admitted that she laid herself out to do so. She said nothing of +any consequence, but she knew how to make a glance or a changed +inflection expressive. He was sorry when she left him, but she smiled at +him before she moved away. + +"If you and Mr. Carroll care to call, I am generally at home in the +afternoon," she said. + +She crossed the room, and Vane joined Nairn and remained near him until +he took his departure. + +Late the next afternoon, an hour or two after an Empress liner from China +and Japan had arrived, he and Carroll reached the C.P.R. station. The +Atlantic train was waiting and an unusual number of passengers were +hurrying about the cars. They were, for the most part, prosperous people: +business men, and tourists from England going home that way; and when +Vane found Mrs. Marvin and Kitty, he once more was conscious of a +stirring of compassion. The girl's dress, which had struck him as +becoming on the afternoon they spent on the beach, now looked shabby. In +Mrs. Marvin's case, the impression was more marked, and standing amid the +bustling throng with the child clinging to her hand she looked curiously +forlorn. Kitty smiled at him diffidently. + +"You have been so kind," she began, and, pausing, added with a tremor in +her voice: "But the tickets--" + +"Pshaw!" interrupted Vane. "If it will ease your mind, you can send me +what they cost after the first full house you draw." + +"How shall we address you?" + +"Clermont Mineral Exploitation. I don't want to think I'm going to lose +sight of you." + +Kitty looked away from him a moment, and then looked back. + +"I'm afraid you must make up your mind to that," she said. + +Vane could not remember his answer, though he afterward tried; but just +then an official strode along beside the cars, calling to the passengers, +and when a bell began tolling Vane hurried the girl and her companions +onto a platform. Mrs. Marvin entered the car, Elsie held up her face to +kiss him before she disappeared, and he and Kitty were left alone. She +held out her hand, and a liquid gleam crept into her eyes. + +"We can't thank you properly," she murmured, "Good-by!" + +"No," Vane protested. "You mustn't say that." + +"Yes," answered Kitty firmly, but with signs of effort. "It's good-by. +You'll be carried on in a moment!" + +Vane gazed down at her, and afterward wondered at what he did, but she +looked so forlorn and desolate, and the pretty face was so close to his. +Stooping swiftly, he kissed her, and had a thrilling fancy that she did +not recoil; then the cars lurched forward and he swung himself down. They +slid past him, clanking, while he stood and gazed after them. Turning +around, he was by no means pleased to see that Nairn was regarding him +with quiet amusement. + +"Been seeing the train away?" the latter suggested. "It's a popular +diversion with idle folk." + +"I was saying good-by to somebody I met on the west coast," Vane +explained. + +"Weel," chuckled Nairn, "she has bonny een." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE OLD COUNTRY + + +A month after Vane said good-by to Kitty he and Carroll alighted one +evening at a little station in northern England. Brown moors stretched +about it, for the heather had not bloomed yet, rolling back in long +slopes to the high ridge which cut against leaden thunder-clouds in the +eastern sky. To the westward, they fell away; and across a wide, green +valley smooth-backed heights gave place in turn to splintered crags and +ragged pinnacles etched in gray and purple on a vivid saffron glow. The +road outside the station gleamed with water, and a few big drops of +rain came splashing down, but there was a bracing freshness in the +mountain air. + +The train went on, and Vane stood still, looking about him with a +poignant recollection of how he had last waited on that platform, sick at +heart, but gathering his youthful courage for the effort that he must +make. It all came back to him--the dejection, the sense of +loneliness--for he was then going out to the Western Dominion in which he +had not a friend. Now he was returning, moderately prosperous and +successful; but once again the feeling of loneliness was with him--most +of those whom he had left behind had made a longer journey than he had +done. Then he noticed an elderly man, in rather shabby livery, +approaching, and he held out his hand with a smile of pleasure. + +"You haven't changed a bit, Jim!" he exclaimed. "Have you got the young +gray in the new cart outside?" + +"T' owd gray was shot twelve months since," the man replied. "Broke his +leg comin' down Hartop Bank. New car was sold off, done, two or t'ree +years ago." + +"That's bad news. Anyway, you're the same." + +"A bit stiffer in the joints, and maybe a bit sourer," was the answer. +Then the man's wrinkled face relaxed. "I'm main glad to see thee, Mr. +Wallace. Master wad have come, only he'd t' gan t' Manchester suddenly." + +Vane helped him to place their baggage into the trap and then bade him +sit behind; and as he gathered up the reins, he glanced at the horse and +harness. The one did not show the breeding of the gray he remembered, +and there was no doubt that the other was rather the worse for wear. +They set off down the descending road, which wound, unconfined, through +the heather, where the raindrops sparkled like diamonds. Farther down, +they ran in between rough limestone walls with gleaming spar in them, +smothered here and there in trailing brambles and clumps of fern, while +the streams that poured out from black gaps in the peat and flowed +beside the road flashed with coppery gold in the evening light. It was +growing brighter ahead of them, though inky clouds still clung to the +moors behind. + +By and by, ragged hedges, rent and twisted by the winds, climbed up to +meet them, and, clattering down between the straggling greenery, they +crossed a river sparkling over banks of gravel. After that, there was a +climb, for the country rolled in ridge and valley, and the crags ahead, +growing nearer, rose in more rugged grandeur against the paling glow. +Carroll gazed about him in open appreciation as they drove. + +"This little compact country is really wonderful, in its way!" he +exclaimed. "There's so much squeezed into it, even leaving out your +towns. Parts of it are like Ontario---the southern strip I mean--with the +plow-land, orchards and homesteads sprinkled among the woods and rolling +ground. Then your Midlands are like the prairie, only that they're +greener--there's the same sweep of grass and the same sweep of sky, and +this"--he gazed at the rugged hills rent by winding dales--"is British +Columbia on a miniature scale." + +"Yes," agreed Vane; "it isn't monotonous." + +"Now you have hit it! That's the precise difference. We've three belts of +country, beginning at Labrador and running west--rock and pine scrub, +level prairie, and ranges piled on ranges beyond the Rockies. Hundreds of +leagues of each of them, and, within their limits, all the same. But this +country's mixed. You can get what you like--woods, smooth grass-land, +mountains--in a few hours' ride." + +Vane smiled. + +"Our people and their speech and habits are mixed, too. There's more +difference between county and county in thirty miles than there is right +across your whole continent. You're cast in the one mold." + +"I'm inclined to think it's a good one," laughed Carroll. "What's more, +it has set its stamp on you. The very way your clothes hang proclaims +that you're a Westerner." + +Vane laughed good-humoredly; but as they clattered through a sleepy +hamlet with its little, square-towered church overhanging a brawling +river, his face grew grave. Pulling up the horse, he handed the reins +to Carroll. + +"This is the first stage of my pilgrimage. I won't keep you five +minutes." + +He swung himself down, and the groom motioned to him. + +"West of the tower, Mr. Wallace; just before you reach the porch." + +Vane passed through the wicket in the lichened limestone wall, and +there was a troubled look in his eyes when he came back and took the +reins again. + +"I went away in bitterness--and I'm sorry now," he said. "The real +trouble was unimportant; I think it was forgotten. Every now and then the +letters came; but the written word is cold. There are things that can +never be set quite right in this world." + +Carroll made no comment, though he knew that if it had not been for the +bond between them his comrade would not have spoken so. They drove on in +silence for a while, and then, as they entered a deep, wooded dale, Vane +turned to him again. + +"I've been taken right back into the old days to-night; days in +England, and afterward those when we worked on the branch road beneath +the range. There's not a boy among the crowd in the sleeping-shack I +can't recall--first, wild Larry, who taught me how to drill and hid my +rawness from the Construction Boss." + +"He lent me his gum-boots when the muskeg stiffened into half-frozen +slush," Carroll interrupted him. + +"And was smashed by the snowslide," Vane went on. "Then there was Tom, +from the boundary country. He packed me back a league to camp the day I +chopped my right foot; and went down in the lumber schooner off Flattery. +Black Pete, too, who held on to you in the rapid when we were running the +bridge-logs through. It was in firing a short fuse that he got his +discharge," He raised his free hand, with a wry smile. "Gone on--with +more of their kind after them; a goodly company. Why are we left +prosperous? What have we done?" + +Carroll made no response. The question was unanswerable, and after a +while Vane abruptly began to talk about their business in British +Columbia. It passed the time; and he had resumed his usual manner when he +pulled up where a stile path led across a strip of meadow. + +"You can drive round; we'll be there before you," he said to the groom as +he got down. + +Carroll and he crossed the meadow. Passing around a clump of larches they +came suddenly into sight of an old gray house with a fir wood rolling +down the hillside close behind it. The building was long and low, +weather-worn and stained with lichens where the creepers and climbing +roses left the stone exposed. The bottom row of mullioned windows opened +upon a terrace, and in front of the terrace ran a low wall with a broad +coping on which were placed urns bright with geraniums. It was pierced by +an opening approached by shallow stairs on which an iridescent peacock +stood, and in front of all that stretched a sweep of lawn. + +A couple of minutes later, a lady met them in the wide hall, and held out +her hand to Vane. She was middle-aged, and had once been handsome, but +now there were wrinkles about her eyes, which had a hint of hardness in +them, and her lips were thin. Carroll noticed that they closed tightly +when she was not speaking. + +"Welcome home, Wallace," she said effusively. "It should not be difficult +to look upon the Dene as that--you were here so often once upon a time." + +"Thank you," was the response. "I felt tempted to ask Jim to drive me +round by Low Wood; I wanted to see the place again." + +"I'm glad you didn't. The house is shut up and going to pieces. It would +have been depressing to-night." + +Vane presented Carroll. Mrs. Chisholm's manner was gracious, but for no +particular reason Carroll wondered whether she would have extended the +same welcome to his comrade had the latter not come back the discoverer +of a profitable mine. + +"Tom was sorry he couldn't wait to meet you, but he had to leave for +Manchester on some urgent business," she apologized. + +Just then a girl with disordered hair and an unusual length of stocking +displayed beneath her scanty skirt came up to them. + +"This is Mabel," said Mrs. Chisholm. "I hardly think you will +remember her." + +"I've carried her across the meadow." + +The girl greeted the strangers demurely, and favored Vane with a +critical gaze. + +"So you're Wallace Vane--who floated the Clermont Mine! Though I don't +remember you, I've heard a good deal about you lately. Very pleased to +make your acquaintance!" + +Vane's eyes twinkled as he shook hands with her. Her manner was quaintly +formal, but he fancied that there was a spice of mischief hidden behind +it. Carroll, watching his hostess, surmised that her daughter's remarks +had not altogether pleased her. She chatted with them, however, until the +man who had driven them appeared with their baggage, when they were shown +their respective rooms. + +Vane was the first to go down. Reaching the hall, he found nobody +there, though a clatter of dishes and a clink of silver suggested that +a meal was being laid out in an adjoining room. Sitting down near the +hearth, he looked about him. The house was old; a wide stairway with a +quaintly carved balustrade of dark oak ran up one side and led to a +landing, also fronted with ponderous oak rails. The place was shadowy, +but a stream of light from a high window struck athwart one part of it +and fell upon the stairs. + +Vane's eyes rested on many objects that he recognized, but as his glance +traveled to and fro it occurred to him that much of what he saw conveyed +a hint that economy was needful. Part of the rich molding of the Jacobean +mantel had fallen away, and patches of the key pattern bordering the +panels beneath it had broken off, though he decided that a clever +cabinet-maker could have repaired the damage in a day. There were one or +two choice rugs on the floor, but they were threadbare; the heavy +hangings about the inner doors were dingy and moth-eaten; and, though all +this was in harmony with the drowsy quietness and the faint smell of +decay, it had its significance. + +Presently he heard footsteps, and looking up he saw a girl descending the +stairs in the fading stream of light. She was clad in trailing white, +which gleamed against the dark oak and rustled softly as it flowed about +a tall, finely outlined and finely poised figure. She had hair of dark +brown with paler lights in its curling tendrils, gathered back from a +neck that showed a faintly warmer whiteness than the snowy fabric below +it. It was her face, though, that seized Vane's attention: the level +brows; the quiet, deep brown eyes; the straight, cleanly-cut nose; and +the subtle suggestion of steadfastness and pride which they all conveyed. +He rose with a cry that had pleasure and eagerness in it. + +"Evelyn!" + +She came down, moving lightly but with a rhythmic grace, and laid a firm, +cool hand in his. + +"I'm glad to see you back, Wallace," she said. "How you have changed!" + +"I'm not sure that's kind," smiled Vane. "In some ways, you haven't +changed at all; I would have known you anywhere!" + +"Nine years is a long time to remember any one." + +Vane had seen few women during that period; but he was not a fool, and he +recognized that this was no occasion for an attempt at gallantry. There +was nothing coquettish in Evelyn's words, nor was there any irony. She +had answered in the tranquil, matter-of-fact manner which, as he +remembered, usually characterized her. + +"It's a little while since you landed, isn't it?" she added. + +"A week. I had some business in London, and then I went on to look up +Lucy. She had just gone up to town--to a congress, I believe--and so +I missed her. I shall go up again to see her as soon as she answers +my letter." + +"It won't be necessary. She's coming here for a fortnight." + +"That's very kind. Whom have I to thank for suggesting it?" + +"Does it matter? It was a natural thing to ask your only sister--who is a +friend of mine. There is plenty of room, and the place is quiet." + +"It didn't used to be. If I remember, your mother generally had it full +part of the year." + +"Things have changed," said Evelyn quietly. + +Vane was baffled by something in her manner. Evelyn had never been +effusive--that was not her way---but now, while she was cordial, she did +not seem disposed to resume their acquaintance where it had been broken +off. After all, he could hardly have expected this. + +"Mabel is like you, as you used to be," he observed. "It struck me as +soon as I saw her; but when she began to talk there was a difference." + +Evelyn laughed softly. + +"Yes; I think you're right in both respects. Mopsy has the courage of her +convictions. She's an open rebel." + +There was no bitterness in her laugh. Evelyn's manner was never +pointed; but Vane fancied that she had said a meaning thing--one that +might explain what he found puzzling in her attitude, when he held the +key to it. + +"Mopsy was dubious about you before you arrived, but I'm pleased to say +she seems reassured," she laughed. + +Carroll came down, and a few moments later Mrs. Chisholm appeared and +they went in to dinner in a low-ceilinged room. During the general +conversation, Mabel suddenly turned to Vane. + +"I suppose you have brought your pistols with you?" + +"I haven't owned one since I was sixteen," Vane laughed. + +The girl looked at him with an excellent assumption of incredulity. + +"Then you have never shot anybody in British Columbia!" + +Carroll laughed, as if this greatly pleased him, but Vane's face was +rather grave as he answered her. + +"No; I'm thankful to say that I haven't. In fact, I've never seen a shot +fired, except at a grouse or a deer." + +"Then the West must be getting what the Archdeacon--he's Flora's husband, +you know--calls decadent," the girl sighed. + +"She's incorrigible," Mrs. Chisholm interposed with a smile. + +Carroll leaned toward Mabel confidentially. + +"In case you feel very badly disappointed, I'll let you into a secret. +When we feel real, real savage, we take the ax instead." + +Evelyn fancied that Vane winced at this, but Mabel looked openly +regretful. + +"Can either of you pick up a handkerchief going at full gallop on +horseback?" she inquired. + +"I'm sorry to say that I can't; and I've never seen Wallace do so," +Carroll laughed. + +Mrs. Chisholm shook her head at her daughter. + +"Miss Clifford complained of your inattention to the study of English +last quarter," she reproved severely. + +Mabel made no answer, though Vane thought it would have relieved her +to grimace. + +Presently the meal came to an end, and an hour afterward, Mrs. Chisholm +rose from her seat in the lamplit drawing-room. + +"We keep early hours at the Dene, but you will retire when you like," she +said. "As Tom is away, I had better tell you that you will find syphons +and whisky in the smoking-room. I have had the lamp lighted." + +"Thank you," Vane replied with a smile. "I'm afraid you have taken more +trouble on our account than you need have done. Except on special +occasions, we generally confine ourselves to strong green tea." + +Mabel looked at him in amazement. + +"Oh!" she cried. "The West is certainly decadent! You should be here when +the otter hounds are out. Why, it was only--" + +She broke off abruptly beneath her mother's withering glance. + +When Vane and Carroll were left alone, they strolled out, pipe in hand, +upon the terrace. They could see the fells tower darkly against the soft +sky, and a tarn that lay in the blackness of the valley beneath them was +revealed by its pale gleam. A wonderful mingling of odors stole out of +the still summer night. + +"I suppose you could put in a few weeks here?" Vane remarked. + +"I could," Carroll replied. "There's an atmosphere about these old houses +that appeals to me, perhaps because we have nothing like it in Canada. +The tranquillity of age is in it--it's restful, as a change. Besides, I +think your friends mean to make things pleasant." + +"I'm glad you like them." + +Carroll knew that his comrade would not resent a candid expression +of opinion. + +"I do; the girls in particular. They interest me. The younger one's of a +type that's common in our country, though it's generally given room for +free development into something useful there. Mabel's chafing at the +curb. It remains to be seen whether she'll kick, presently, and hurt +herself in doing so." + +Vane remembered that Evelyn had said something to the same effect; but +he had already discovered that Carroll possessed a keen insight in +certain matters. + +"And her sister?" he suggested. + +"You won't mind my saying that I'm inclined to be sorry for her? She has +learned repression--been driven into line. That girl has character, but +it's being cramped and stunted. You live in walled-in compartments in +this country." + +"Doesn't the same thing apply to New York, Montreal, or Toronto?" + +"Not to the same extent. We haven't had time yet to number off all the +little subdivisions and make rules for them, nor to elaborate the +niceties of an immutable system. No doubt, we'll come to it." + +He paused with a deprecatory laugh. + +"Mrs. Chisholm believes in the system. She has been modeled on it--it's +got into her blood; and that's why she's at variance with her daughters. +No doubt, the thing's necessary; I'm finding no fault with it. You must +remember that we're outsiders, with a different outlook; we've lived in +the new West." + +Vane strolled on along the terrace thoughtfully. He was not offended; he +understood his companion's attitude. Like other men of education and good +upbringing driven by unrest or disaster to the untrammeled life of the +bush, Carroll had gained sympathy as well as knowledge. Facing facts +candidly, he seldom indulged in decided protest against any of them. On +the other hand, Vane was on occasion liable to outbreaks of indignation. + +"Well," said Vane at length, "I guess it's time to go to bed." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +UPON THE HEIGHTS + + +Vane rose early the next morning, as he had been accustomed to do, and +taking a towel he made his way across dewy meadows and between tall +hedgerows to the tarn. Stripping where the rabbit-cropped sward met the +mossy boulders, he swam out, joyously breasting the little ripples which +splashed and sparkled beneath the breeze that had got up with the sun. +Coming back, where the water lay in shadow beneath a larchwood which as +yet had not wholly lost its vivid vernal green, he disturbed the paddling +moor-hens and put up a mallard from a clump of swaying reeds. Then he +dressed and turned homeward, glowing, beside a sluggish stream which +wound through a waste of heather where the curlew were whistling eerily. +He had no cares to trouble him, and it was delightful to feel that he had +nothing to do except to enjoy himself in what he considered the fairest +country in the world, at least in summertime. + +Scrambling over a limestone wall tufted thick with parsley fern, he +noticed Mabel stooping over an object which lay among the heather where a +rough cartroad approached a wooden bridge. On joining her he saw that she +was examining a finely-built canoe with a hole in one bilge. She looked +up at him ruefully. + +"It's sad, isn't it? That stupid Little did it with his clumsy cart." + +"I think it could be mended," Vane replied. + +"Old Beavan--he's the wheelwright--said it couldn't; and Dad said I could +hardly expect him to send the canoe back to Kingston. He bought it for me +at an exhibition." + +Then a thought seemed to strike her and her eyes grew eager. + +"Perhaps you had something to do with light canoes in Canada?" + +"Yes; I used to pole one loaded with provisions up a river and carry the +lot round several falls. If I remember, I made eight shillings a day at +it, and I think I earned it. You're fond of paddling?" + +"I love it! I used to row the fishing-punt, but it's too old to be safe; +and now that the canoe's smashed I can't go out at all." + +"Well, we'll walk across and see what we can find in Beavan's shop." + +He took a few measurements, making them on a stick, and they crossed the +heath to a tiny hamlet nestling in a hollow of a limestone crag. There +Vane made friends with the wheelwright, who regarded him dubiously at +first, and obtained a piece of larch board from him. The grizzled North +Countryman watched him closely as he set a plane, which is a delicate +operation, and he raised no objections when Vane made use of his +work-bench. When the board had been sawed up, Vane borrowed a few tools +and copper nails, and he and Mabel went back to the canoe. On the way she +glanced at him curiously. + +"I wasn't sure old Beavan would let you have the things," she remarked. +"It isn't often he'll even lend a hammer, but he seemed to take to you; I +think it was the way you handled his plane." + +"It's strange what little things win some people's good opinion, +isn't it?" + +"Oh, don't!" exclaimed Mabel. "That's the way the Archdeacon talks. I +thought you were different!" + +The man acquiesced in the rebuke; and after an hour's labor at the canoe, +he scraped the red lead he had used off his hands and sat down beside the +craft. The sun was warm now, the dew was drying, and a lark sang +riotously overhead. Vane became conscious that his companion was +regarding him with what seemed to be approval. + +"I really think you'll do, and we'll get on," she informed him. "If +you had been the wrong kind, you would have worried about your red +hands. Still, you could have rubbed them on the heather, instead of on +your socks." + +"I might have thought of that," Vane laughed. "But, you see, I've been +accustomed to wearing old clothes. Anyway, you'll be able to launch the +canoe as soon as the joint's dry." + +"There's one thing I should have told you," the girl replied. "Dad would +have sent the canoe away to be mended if it hadn't been so far. He's very +good when things don't ruffle him; but he hasn't been fortunate lately. +The lead mine takes a good deal of money." + +Vane admired her loyalty, and he refrained from taking advantage of her +candor, though there were one or two questions he would have liked to +ask. When he was last in England, Chisholm had been generally regarded as +a man of means, though it was rumored that he was addicted to hazardous +speculations. Mabel, without noticing his silence, went on: + +"I heard Stevens--he's the gamekeeper--tell Beavan that Dad should have +been a rabbit because he's so fond of burrowing. No doubt, that meant +that he couldn't keep out of mines." + +Vane made no comment; and Mabel, breaking off for a moment, looked up at +the rugged fells to the west and then around at the moors which cut +against the blue of the morning sky. + +"It's all very pretty, but it shuts one in!" she cried. "You feel you +want to get out and can't! I suppose you really couldn't take me back +with you to Canada?" + +"I'm afraid not. If you were about ten years older, it might be +possible." + +Mabel grimaced. + +"Oh, don't! That's the kind of thing some of Gerald's smart friends say, +and it makes one want to slap them! Besides," she added naively, glancing +down at her curtailed skirt, "I'm by no means so young as I appear to be. +The fact is, I'm not allowed to grow up yet." + +"Why?" + +The girl laughed at him. + +"Oh, you've lived in the woods. If you had stayed in England, you would +understand." + +"I'm afraid I've been injudicious," Vane answered with a show of +humility. "But don't you think it's getting on toward breakfast time?" + +"Breakfast won't be for a good while yet. We don't get up early. Evelyn +used to, but it's different now. We used to go out on the tarn every +morning, even in the wind and rain; but I suppose that's not good for +one's complexion, though bothering about such things doesn't seem to me +to be worth while. Aunt Julia couldn't do anything for Evelyn, though she +had her in London for some time. Flora is our shining light." + +"What did she do?" + +"She married the Archdeacon; and he isn't so very dried up. I've seen him +smile when I talked to him." + +"I'm not astonished at that, Mabel," laughed Vane. + +His companion looked up at him. + +"My name's not Mabel--to you. I'm Mopsy to the family, but my special +friends call me Mops. You're one of the few people one can be natural +with, and I'm getting sick--you won't be shocked--of having to be the +opposite. If you'll come along, I'll show you the setter puppies." + +It was half an hour later when Vane, who had seldom had to wait so long +for breakfast, sat down with an excellent appetite. The spacious room +pleased him after the cramped quarters to which he had been accustomed. +The sunlight that streamed in sparkled on choice old silver and glowed on +freshly gathered flowers; and through the open windows mingled fragrances +flowed in from the gardens. All that his gaze rested on spoke of ease and +taste and leisure. Evelyn, sitting opposite him, looked wonderfully fresh +in her white dress; Mopsy was as amusing as she dared to be; but Vane +felt drawn back to the restless world again as he glanced at his hostess +and saw the wrinkles round her eyes and a hint of cleverly hidden strain +in her expression. He fancied that a good deal could be deduced from the +fragments of information her younger daughter had given him. + +It was Mabel who suggested that they should picnic upon the summit of a +lofty hill, from which there was a striking view; and as this met with +the approval of Mrs. Chisholm, who excused herself from accompanying +them, they set out an hour later. The day was bright, with glaring +sunshine, and a moderate breeze drove up wisps of ragged cloud that +dappled the hills with flitting shadow. Towering crag and shingly scree +showed blue and purple through it and then flashed again into brilliancy, +while the long, grassy slopes gleamed with silvery gray and ocher. + +On leaving the head of the valley they climbed leisurely up easy slopes, +slipping on the crisp hill grass now and then. By and by they plunged +into tangled heather on a bolder ridge, rent by black gullies, down +which at times wild torrents poured. This did not trouble either of the +men, who were used to forcing a passage over more rugged hillsides and +through leagues of matted brush, but Vane was surprised at the ease with +which Evelyn threaded her way across the heath. She wore a short skirt +and stout laced boots, and he noticed the supple grace of her movements +and the delicate color the wind had brought into her face. It struck him +that she had somehow changed since they had left the valley. She seemed +to have flung off something, and her laugh had a gay ring; but, while she +smiled and chatted with him, he was still conscious of a subtle reserve +in her manner. + +Climbing still, they reached the haunts of the cloudberries and brushed +through broad patches of the snowy blossoms that open their gleaming +cups among the moss and heather. Vane gathered a handful and gave them +to Evelyn. + +"You should wear these. They grow only far up on the heights." + +She flashed a swift glance at him, but she smiled as she drew the fragile +stalks through her belt, and he felt that had it been permissible he +could have elaborated the idea in his mind. They are stainless flowers, +passionlessly white, that grow beyond the general reach of man, where the +air is keen and pure; and, in spite of her graciousness, there was a +coldness and a calm, which instead of repelling appealed to him strongly, +about this girl. Mabel laughed mischievously. + +"If you want to give me flowers, it had better be marsh-marigolds," she +said. "They grow low down where it's slushy--but they blaze." + +Carroll laughed. + +"Mabel," he remarked a few moments later to Vane, "is unguarded in what +she says, but she now and then shows signs of being considerably older +than her years." + +They left the black peat-soil behind them, and the heather gave place to +thin and more fragile ling, beaded with its unopened buds, while fangs of +rock cropped out here and there. Then turning the flank of a steep +ascent, they reached the foot of a shingly scree, and sat down to lunch +in the warm sunshine where the wind was cut off by the peak above. +Beneath them, a great rift opened up among the rocks, and far beyond the +blue lake in the depths of it they could catch the silver gleam of the +distant sea. + +The fishing creel in which the provisions had been carried was promptly +emptied; and when Mabel afterward took Carroll away to climb some +neighboring crags, Vane lay resting on one elbow not far from Evelyn. She +was looking down the long hollow, with the sunshine, which lighted a +golden sparkle in her brown eyes, falling upon her face. + +"You didn't seem to mind the climb." + +"I enjoyed it;" Evelyn declared, glancing at the cloudberry blossom in +her belt. "I really am fond of the mountains, and I have to thank you for +a day among them." + +On the surface the words offered an opening for a complimentary +rejoinder; but Vane was too shrewd to seize it. He had made one venture, +and he surmised that a second one would not please her. + +"They're almost at your door. One would imagine that you could indulge in +a scramble among them whenever it pleased you." + +"There are a good many things that look so close and still are out of +reach," Evelyn answered with a smile that somehow troubled him. Then her +manner changed. "You are content with this?" + +Vane gazed about him. Purple crags lay in shadow; glistening threads of +water fell among the rocks; and long slopes lay steeped in softest color +under the cloud-flecked summer sky. + +"Content is scarcely the right word for it," he assured her, "If it +weren't so still and serene up here, I'd be riotously happy. There are +reasons for this quite apart from the scenery; for one, it's remarkably +pleasant to feel that I need do nothing but what I like during the next +few months." + +"The sensation must be unusual. I wonder if, even in your case, it will +last so long?" + +Vane laughed and stretched out one of his hands. It was lean and brown, +and she could see the marks of old scars on the knuckles. + +"In my case," he answered, "it has come only once in a lifetime, and, if +it isn't too presumptuous, I think I've earned it." He indicated his +battered fingers. "That's the result of holding a wet and slippery drill; +and those aren't the only marks I carry about with me--though I've been +more fortunate than many fine comrades." + +Evelyn noticed something that pleased her in his voice as he concluded. + +"I suppose one must get hurt now and then," she responded. "After all, a +bruise that's only skin-deep doesn't trouble one long, and no doubt some +scars are honorable. It's slow corrosion that's the deadliest." + +She broke off with a laugh. + +"Moralizing's out of place on a day like this," she added; "and such days +are not frequent in the North. That's their greatest charm." + +Vane nodded. He knew the sad gray skies of his native land, when its +lonely heights are blurred by driving snow-cloud or scourged by bitter +rain for weeks together, though now and then they tower serenely into the +blue heavens, steeped in ethereal splendor. Once more it struck him that +in their latter aspect his companion resembled them. Made finely, of warm +flesh and blood, she was yet ethereal too. There was something aloof and +intangible about her that seemed in harmony with the hills among which +she was born. + +"Yes," he agreed. "On the face of it, the North is fickle; though to +those who know it that's a misleading term. To some of us it's always the +same, and its dark grimness makes one feel the radiance of its smile. For +all that, I think we're going to see a sudden change in the weather." + +Long wisps of leaden cloud began to stream across the crags above, +intensifying, until it seemed unnatural, the glow of light and color +on the rest. + +"I wonder if Mopsy is leading Mr. Carroll into any mischief? They have +been gone some time," said Evelyn. "She has a trick of getting herself +and other people into difficulties. I suppose he is an old friend of +yours, as you brought him over; unless, perhaps, he's acting as your +secretary." + +Vane's eyes twinkled. + +"If he came in any particular capacity, it's as bear-leader. You see, +there are a good many things I've forgotten in the bush, and, as I left +this country young, there are no doubt some that I never learned." + +"And so you make Mr. Carroll your confidential adviser. How did he gain +the necessary experience?" + +"That is more than I can tell you; but I'm inclined to believe he has +been at one of the universities--Toronto, most likely. Anyhow, on the +whole he acts as a judicious restraint." + +"But don't you really know anything about him?" + +"Only what some years of close companionship have taught me, though I +think that's enough. For the rest, I took him on trust." + +Evelyn looked surprised, and he spread out his hands in a humorous +manner. + +"A good many people have had to take me in that way, and they seemed +willing to do so--the thing's not uncommon in the West. Why should I be +more particular than they were?" + +Just then Mabel and Carroll appeared. The latter's garments were stained +in places, as if he had been scrambling over mossy rocks, and his pockets +bulged. Mabel's skirt was torn, while a patch of white skin showed +through her stocking. + +"We've found some sun-dew and two ferns I don't know, as well as all +sorts of other things," she announced. + +"That's correct," vouched Carroll dryly; "I've got them. I guess they're +going to fill up most of the creel." + +Mabel superintended their transfer, and then addressed the others +generally. + +"I think we ought to go up the Pike now, when we have the chance. It +isn't much of a climb from here: and we'll have rain before to-morrow. +Besides, the quickest way back to the road is across the top and down the +other side." + +Evelyn agreed, and they set out, following a sheep path which skirted the +screes, until they left the bank of sharp stones behind and faced a steep +ascent. Parts of it necessitated a breathless scramble, and the sunlight +faded from the hills as they climbed, while thicker wisps of cloud drove +across the ragged summit. They reached the top at length and stopped, +bracing themselves against a rush of chilly breeze, while they looked +down upon a wilderness of leaden-colored rock. Long trails of mist were +creeping in and out among the crags, and here and there masses of it +gathered round the higher slopes. + +"I think the Pike's grandest in this weather," Mabel declared. "Look +below, Mr. Carroll, and you'll see the mountain's like a starfish. It has +prongs running out from it." + +Carroll did as she directed him, and noticed three diverging ridges +springing off from the shoulders of the peak. Their crests, which were +narrow, led down toward the valley, but their sides fell in rent and +fissured crags to great black hollows. + +"You can get down two of them," Mabel went on. "The first is the nearest +to the road, but the third's the easiest. It takes you to the +Hause--that's the gap between it and the next big hill. You must be a +climber to try the middle one." + +A few big drops began to fall, and Evelyn cut her sister's +explanations short. + +"It strikes me that we'd better make a start at once," she said. + +They set out, Mabel and Carroll leading, and drawing farther away from +the two behind. The rain began in earnest as they descended. Rock slope +and scattered stones were slippery, and Vane found it difficult to keep +his footing on some of their lichened surfaces. He was relieved, however, +to see that his companion seldom hesitated, and they made their way +downward cautiously, until near the spot where the three ridges diverged +they walked into a belt of drifting mist. The peak above them was +suddenly blotted out, and Evelyn bade Vane hail Carroll and Mabel, who +had disappeared. He sent a shout ringing through the vapor, and caught a +faint and unintelligible answer. A flock of sheep fled past and dislodged +a rush of sliding stones. Vane heard the stones rattle far down the +hillside, and when he called again a blast of chilly wind whirled his +voice away. There was a faint echo above him and then silence. + +"It looks as if they were out of hearing; and the slope ahead of us seems +uncommonly steep by the way those stones went down. Do you think Mabel +has taken Carroll down the Stanghyll ridge?" + +"I can't tell," answered Evelyn. "It's comforting to remember that she +knows it better than I do. I think we ought to make for the Hause; +there's only one place that's really steep. Keep up to the left a little; +the Scale Crags must be close beneath us." + +They moved on circumspectly, skirting what seemed to be a pit of profound +depth in which dim vapors whirled, while the rain, growing thicker, beat +into their faces. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +STORM-STAYED + + +The weather was not the only thing that troubled Vane as he stumbled on +through the mist. Any unathletic tourist from the cities could have gone +up without much difficulty by the way they had ascended, but it was +different coming down on the opposite side of the mountain. There, their +route led across banks of sharp-pointed stones that rested lightly on the +steep slope, interspersed with outcropping rocks which were growing +dangerously slippery, and a wilderness of crags pierced by three great +radiating chasms lay beneath. + +After half an hour's arduous scramble, he decided that they must be close +upon the top of the last rift, and he stood still for a minute looking +about him. The mist was now so thick that he could see scarcely thirty +yards ahead, but the way it drove past him indicated that it was blowing +up a hollow. On one hand a rampart of hillside loomed dimly out of it; in +front there was a dark patch that looked like the face of a dripping +rock; and between that and the hill a boggy stretch of grass ran back +into the vapor. Vane glanced at his companion with some concern. Her +skirt was heavy with moisture and the rain dripped from the brim of her +hat, but she smiled at him reassuringly. + +"It's not the first time I've got wet," she said cheeringly; "and you're +not responsible--it's Mopsy's fault." + +Vane felt relieved on one account He had imagined that a woman hated to +feel draggled and untidy, and he was willing to own that in his case +fatigue usually tended toward shortness of temper. Though the scramble +had scarcely taxed his powers, he fancied that Evelyn had already done as +much as one could expect of her. + +"I must prospect about a bit. Scardale's somewhere below us; but, if I +remember, it's an awkward descent to the head of it; and I'm not sure of +the right entrance to the Hause." + +"I've only once been down this way, and that was a long while ago," +Evelyn replied. + +Vane left her and plodded away across the grass, sinking ankle-deep in +the spongy moss among the roots of it When he had grown scarcely +distinguishable in the haze he turned and waved his hand. + +"I know where we are--almost to the head of the beck!" he called. + +Evelyn joined him at the edge of a trickle of water splashing in a peaty +hollow, and they followed it down, seeing only odd strips of hillside +amid the vapor. At length the ground grew softer, and Vane, going first, +sank among the long green moss almost to his knees. It made a bubbling, +sucking sound as he drew out his feet. + +"That won't do! Stand still, please! I'll try a little to the right." + +He tried in one or two directions; but wherever he went he sank over his +boots. Coming back he informed his companion that they would better go +straight ahead. + +"I know there's no bog worth speaking of--the Hause is a regular +tourist track." + +He stopped and stripped off his jacket. + +"First of all, you must put this on; I'm sorry I didn't think of +it before." + +Evelyn demurred, and Vane rolled up the jacket. + +"You have to choose between doing what I ask and watching me pitch +it into the beck. I'm a rather determined person. It would be a +pity to throw the thing away, particularly as the rain hasn't got +through it yet." + +She yielded, and he held the jacket while she put it on. + +"There's another thing," he added. "I'm going to carry you for the next +hundred yards, or possibly farther." + +"No," replied Evelyn firmly. "On that point, my determination is as +strong as yours." + +Vane made a sign of acquiescence. + +"You may have your way for a minute; I expect that will be long enough." + +He was correct. Evelyn moved forward a pace or two, and then stopped with +the skirt she had gathered up brushing the quivering emerald moss, and +her boots, which were high ones, hidden in the mire. She had some +difficulty in pulling them out. Then Vane coolly picked her up. + +"All you have to do is to keep still for the next few minutes," he +informed her in a most matter-of-fact voice. + +Evelyn did not move, though she recognized that had he shown any sign of +self-conscious hesitation she would at once have shaken herself loose. As +it was, the fact that he appeared perfectly at ease and unaware that he +was doing anything unusual was reassuring. Then as he plodded forward she +wondered at his steadiness, for she remembered that when she had once +fallen heavily when nailing up a clematis her father, who was a vigorous +man, had found it difficult to carry her upstairs. Vane had never carried +any woman in his arms before, but he had occasionally had to pack--as it +is termed in the West--hundred-and-forty-pound flour bags over a rocky +portage, and, though the comparison did not strike him as a happy one, he +thought the girl was not quite so heavy as that. He was conscious of a +curious thrill and a certain stirring of his blood, but this, he decided, +must be sternly ignored. His task was not an easy one, and he stumbled +once or twice, but he accomplished it and set the girl down safely on +firmer ground. + +"Now," he said, "there's only the drop to the dale, but we must endeavor +to keep out of the beck." + +His voice and air were unembarrassed, though he was breathless, and +Evelyn fancied that in this and the incident of the jacket he had at last +revealed the forceful, natural manners of the West. It was the first +glimpse she had had of them, and she was not displeased. The man had +merely done what was most advisable, with practical sense. + +A little farther on, a shoot of falling water swept out of the mist above +and came splashing down a crag, spread out in frothing threads. It flowed +across their path, reunited in a deep gully, and then fell tumultuously +into the beck, which was now ten or twelve feet below them. They clung to +the rock as they traced it downward, stepping cautiously from ledge to +ledge and from slippery stone to stone. At times a stone plunged into the +mist beneath them, and Vane grasped the girl's arm and held out a +steadying hand, but he was never fussy nor needlessly concerned. When she +wanted help, it was offered at the right moment; but that was all. Had +she been alarmed, her companion's manner would have been more comforting +than persistent solicitude. He was, she decided, one who could be relied +upon in an emergency. + +"You are sure-footed," she remarked, when they stopped a minute or two +for breath. + +Vane laughed as he glanced into the vapor-rilled depths beneath. They +stood on a ledge, two or three yards in width, with a tall crag behind +them and the beck, which had rapidly grown larger, leaping half seen from +rock to rock in the rift in front. + +"I was born among these fells; and I have helped to pack various kinds of +mining truck over much rougher mountains." + +"Have you ever gone up as steep a place as this with a load?" + +"If I remember rightly, the top of the Hause drops about three hundred +feet, and we'll probably spend half an hour in reaching the valley. There +was one western divide that it took us several days to cross, dragging a +tent, camp gear and provisions in relays. Its foot was wrapped in tangled +brush that tore most of our clothes to rags, and the last pitch was two +thousand feet of rock where the snow lay waist-deep in the hollows." + +"Two thousand feet! That dwarfs our little drop to the Hause. What were +you doing so far up in the ranges?" + +"Looking for a copper mine." + +"And you found one?" + +"No; not that time. As a rule, the mineral trail leads poor men to +greater poverty, and sometimes to a grave; but once you have set your +feet on it you follow it again. The thing becomes an obsession; you feel +forced to go." + +"Even if you bring nothing back?" + +Vane laughed. + +"One always brings back something--frost-bite, bruises, a bag of +specimens that assayers and mineral development men smile at. They're +the palpable results, but in most cases you pick up an intangible +something else." + +"And that is?" + +"A thing beyond definition. A germ that lies in wait in the lonely places +and breeds fantasies when it gets into your blood. Anyway, you can never +quite get rid of it." + +Evelyn was interested. The man was endowed with a trick of quaint and +almost poetical imagination, which she had not suspected him of +possessing. + +"It conduces to unrest?" she suggested. + +"Yes. One feels that there's a rich claim waiting beyond the thick timber +through which one can hardly scramble, across the icy rivers, or over the +snow-line." + +"But you found one." + +"At last I found it easily. After ranging the wildest solitudes, we +struck it in a sheltered valley near the warm west coast. Curious, +isn't it?" + +"But didn't that banish the unrest and leave you satisfied?" + +The man looked at her with a flicker of grim amusement in his eyes. + +"As I explained, it can't be banished. There's always a richer claim +somewhere that you haven't found. Our prospectors dream of it as the +Mother Lode, and some spend half their lives in search of it; it was +called El Dorado three hundred years ago. After all, the idea's a +deeper thing than a miner's fantasy: in one shape or another it's +inherent in optimistic human nature. Are you sure the microbe hasn't +bitten you and Mopsy?" + +He was too shrewd. Turning from him, she looked down at the eddying mist. +For several years she had chafed at her surroundings and the restraints +they laid upon her, with a restless longing for something wider and +better: a freer, sunnier atmosphere where her nature could expand. At +times she fancied there was only one sun which could warm it to a perfect +growth, but that sun had not risen and scarcely seemed likely to do so. + +Vane broke the silence deprecatingly. + +"Now that you're rested, we'd better get on. I'm sorry I've kept +you so long." + +Though caution was still necessary, the rest of the descent was easier, +and after a while they reached a winding dale. They followed it +downward, splashing through water part of the time, and at length came +into sight of a cluster of little houses standing between a river and a +big fir wood. + +"It must be getting on toward evening. Mopsy and Carroll probably went +down the ridge, and as it runs out lower down the valley, they'll be +almost at home." + +"It's six o'clock," replied Vane, glancing at his watch. "You can't walk +home in the rain, and it's a long while since lunch. If Adam Bell and his +wife are still at the Golden Fleece, we'll get something to eat there and +borrow you some dry clothes. I've no doubt he'll drive us back +afterward." + +Evelyn made no objections. She was very wet and was beginning to feel +weary, and they were some distance from home. She returned his jacket, +and a few minutes later they entered an old hostelry which, like many +others among those hills, was a farm as well as an inn. The landlady +recognized Vane with pleased surprise. When she had attended to Evelyn +she provided Vane with some of her husband's clothes. Then she lighted a +fire; and when she had laid out a meal in the guest-room, Evelyn came in, +attired in a dress of lilac print. + +"It's Maggie Bell's," she explained demurely. "Her mother's things were +rather large. Adam is away at a sheep auction, and they have only the +trap he went in; but they expect him back in an hour or so." + +"Then we must wait," smiled Vane. "Worse misfortunes have befallen me." + +They made an excellent meal, and then Vane drew up a wicker chair to the +fire for Evelyn and sat down opposite her. The room was low and shadowy, +and partly paneled. Against one wall stood a black oak sideboard, with a +plate-rack above it, and a great chest of the same material with +ponderous hand-forged hinge-straps stood opposite it. A clock with an +engraved metal dial and a six-foot case, polished to a wonderful luster +by the hands of several generations, ticked in one corner; and here and +there the firelight flickered upon utensils of burnished copper. There +was little in the place that looked less than a century old, for there +are nooks in the North that have still escaped the ravages of the +collector. Outside, the rain dripped from the massy flagstone eaves, and +the song of the river stole in monotonous cadence into the room. + +Evelyn was silent and Vane said nothing for a while. He had been in the +air all day, and though this was nothing new to him he was content to sit +lazily still and leave the opening of conversation to his companion. In +the meanwhile it was pleasant to glance toward her now and then. The +pale-tinted dress became her, and he felt that the room would have looked +less cheerful had she been away; though this by no means comprised the +whole of his sensations. After living almost entirely among men, he had +of late met three women who had impressed him in different ways, and they +had all been pleasant to look upon. + +First, there was Kitty Blake, little, graceful and, in a way, alluring; +and it was she who had first roused in him a vague desire for a companion +who could be more to him than a man could be. Beyond that, pretty as she +was, she had only moved him to chivalrous pity and a wider sympathy. + +Then he had met Jessy Horsfield, whom he admired. She was a clever woman +and a handsome one, but she had scarcely stirred him at all. + +Last, he had met Evelyn, as well endowed with physical charm as either; +and there was no doubt that the effect she had on him was different +again. It was one that was difficult to analyze, though he lazily tried. +She appealed to him by the grace of her carriage, the poise of her head, +her delicate coloring, and the changing lights in her eyes; but behind +these points there was something stronger and deeper expressed through +them. He fancied that she possessed qualities he had not hitherto +encountered, which would become more precious when they were fully +understood. He thought of her as steadfast and wholesome in mind; one who +sought for the best; but beyond this there was an ethereal something that +could not be defined. Then a simile struck him: she was like the snow +that towered high into the empyrean in British Columbia. In this, +however, he was wrong, for there was warm human passion in the girl, +though as yet it was sleeping. + +He realized suddenly that he was getting absurdly sentimental, and +instinctively he fumbled for his pipe, then stopped. Evelyn noticed this +and smiled. + +"You needn't hesitate. The Dene is redolent of cigars, and Gerald smokes +everywhere when he is at home." + +"Is he likely to turn up?" Vane asked. "It's ever so long since I've +seen him." + +"I'm afraid not. In fact, Gerald's rather under a cloud just now. I +may as well tell you this, because you are sure to hear of it sooner +or later. He has been extravagant and, so he assures us, +extraordinarily unlucky." + +"Stocks?" suggested Vane. He was acquainted with some of the family +tendencies. + +Evelyn hesitated a moment. + +"That would more readily have been forgiven him. I believe he has +speculated on the turf as well." + +Vane was surprised. He understood that Gerald Chisholm was a barrister, +and betting on the turf was not an amusement he would have associated +with that profession. + +"I must run up and see him by and by," he said thoughtfully. + +Evelyn felt sorry she had spoken. Gerald needed help, which his father +was not in a position to offer. Evelyn was not censorious of other +people's faults, but it was impossible to be blind to some aspects of her +brother's character, and she would have preferred that Vane should not +meet Gerald while the latter was embarrassed by financial difficulties. +She abruptly changed the subject. + +"Several of the things you have told me about your life in Canada +interest me. It must have been bracing to feel that you depended upon +your own efforts and stood on your own feet, free from the hampering +customs that are common here." + +"The position has its disadvantages. You have no family influence behind +you--nothing to fall back on. If you can't make good your footing, you +must go down. It's curious that just before I came over here, a lady I +met in Vancouver expressed an opinion very much like yours. She said it +must be pleasant to feel that one is, to some extent at least, master of +one's fate." + +"Then she merely explained my meaning more clearly than I have done." + +"One could have imagined that she had everything she could reasonably +wish for. If I'm not transgressing, so have you. It's strange you should +both harbor the same idea." + +Evelyn smiled. + +"I don't think it's uncommon among young women nowadays. There's a +grandeur in the thought that one's fate lies in the hands of the high +unseen Powers; but to allow one's life to be molded by the prejudices and +preconceptions of one's--neighbors is a different matter. Besides, if +unrest and human striving were sent, was it only that they should be +repressed?" + +Vane sat silent a moment or two. He had noticed the brief pause and +fancied that she had changed one of the words that followed it. He did +not think that it was the opinions of her neighbors against which she +chafed most. + +"It's something that I've never experienced," he replied at length. "In a +general way, I've done what I wanted." + +"Which is a privilege that is denied us." + +Evelyn spoke without bitterness. + +"What do women who are left to their own resources do in western Canada?" +she asked presently. + +"Some of them marry; I suppose that's the most natural thing," answered +Vane, with an air of reflection that amused her. "Anyway, they have +plenty of opportunities. There's a preponderating number of unattached +young men in the newly opened parts of the Dominion." + +"Things are different here; or perhaps we require more than they do +across the Atlantic. What becomes of the others?" + +"They are waitresses in the hotels; they learn stenography and +typewriting, and go into offices and stores." + +"And earn just enough to live upon meagerly? If their wages are high, +they must pay out more. That follows, doesn't it?" + +"To some extent." + +"Is there nothing better open to them?" + +"No; not unless they're trained for it and become specialized. That +implies peculiar abilities and a systematic education with one end in +view. You can't enter the arena to fight for the higher prizes unless +you're properly armed. The easiest way for a woman to acquire power and +influence is by a judicious marriage. No doubt, it's the same here." + +"It is," laughed Evelyn. "A man is more fortunately situated." + +"Probably; but if he's poor, he's rather walled in, too. He breaks +through now and then; and in the newer countries he gets an opportunity." + +Vane abstractedly examined his pipe, which he had not lighted yet. It was +clear that the girl was dissatisfied with her surroundings, and had for +some reason temporarily relaxed the restraint she generally laid upon +herself; but he felt that, if she were wise, she would force herself to +be content. She was of too fine a fiber to plunge into the struggle that +many women had to wage. Though he did not doubt her courage, she had not +been trained for it. He had noticed that among men it was the cruder and +less developed organizations that proved hardiest in adverse situations; +one needed a strain of primitive vigor. There was, it seemed, only one +means of release for Evelyn, and that was a happy marriage. But a +marriage could not be happy unless the suitor should be all that she +desired; and Evelyn would be fastidious, though her family would, no +doubt, look only for wealth and station. Vane imagined that this was +where the trouble lay, and he felt a protective pity for her. He would +wait and keep his eyes open. + +Presently there was a rattle of wheels outside and the landlord came in +and greeted them with rude cordiality. Shortly afterward Vane helped +Evelyn into the rig, and Bell drove them home through the rain. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +LUCY VANE + + +Bright sunshine streamed down out of a cloudless sky one afternoon +shortly after the ascent of the Pike. Vane stood talking with his sister +upon the terrace in front of the Dene. He leaned against the low wall, +frowning, for Lucy hitherto had avoided a discussion of the subject which +occupied their attention, and now, as he would have said, he could not +make her listen to reason. + +She stood in front of him, with the point of her parasol pressed firmly +into the gravel and her lips set, though in her eyes there was a smile +which suggested forbearance. Lucy was tall and spare of figure; a year +younger than her brother; and of somewhat determined and essentially +practical character. She earned her living in a northern manufacturing +town by lecturing on domestic economy, for the public authorities. Vane +understood that she also received a small stipend as secretary to some +women's organization and that she took a part in suffrage propaganda. She +had a thin, forceful face, seldom characterized by repose. + +"After all," Vane broke out, "what I'm urging is a very natural thing. I +don't like to think of your being forced to work as you are doing, and +I've tried to show you that it wouldn't cost me any self-denial to make +you an allowance. There's no reason why you should be at the beck and +call of those committees any longer." + +Lucy's smile grew plainer. + +"I don't think that quite describes my position." + +"It's possible," Vane agreed with a trace of dryness. "No doubt, you +insist that the chairman or lady president give way to you; but this +doesn't affect the question. You have to work, anyway." + +"But I like it; and it keeps me in some degree of comfort." + +The man turned impatiently and glanced about him. The front of the old +gray house was flooded with light, and the mossy sward below the terrace +glowed luminously green. The shadows of the hollies and cypresses were +thin and unsubstantial, but where a beech overarched the grass, Evelyn +and Mrs. Chisholm. attired in light draperies, reclined in basket chairs. +Carroll, in thin gray tweed, stood near them, talking to Mabel, and +Chisholm sat on a bench with a newspaper in his hand. He looked half +asleep, and a languorous stillness pervaded the whole scene. Beyond it, +the tarn shone dazzlingly, and in the distance ranks of rugged fells +towered, dim and faintly blue. All that the eye rested on spoke of an +unbroken tranquillity. + +"Wouldn't you like this kind of thing, as well?" Vane asked. "Of course, +I mean what it implies--the power to take life easy and get as much +enjoyment as possible out of it. It wouldn't be difficult, if you'd only +take what I'd be glad to give you." He indicated the languid figures in +the foreground. "You could, for instance, spend your time among people of +this sort. After all, it's what you were meant to do." + +"Would that appeal to you?" + +"Oh, I like it in the meantime," he evaded. + +"Well," Lucy returned curtly, "I believe I'm more at home with the other +kind of people--those in poverty, squalor and ignorance. I've an idea +that they have a stronger claim on me; but that's not a point I can urge. +The fact is, I've chosen my career, and there are practical reasons why I +shouldn't abandon it. I had a good deal of trouble in getting a footing, +and if I fell out now, it would be harder still to take my place in the +ranks again." + +"But you wouldn't require to do so." + +"I can't be sure. I don't want to hurt you; but, after all, your success +was sudden, and one understands that it isn't wise to depend on an income +derived from mining properties." + +Vane frowned. + +"None of you ever did believe in me!" + +"I suppose there's some truth in that. You really did give us trouble, +you know. Somehow, you were different--you wouldn't fit in; though I +believe the same thing applied to me, for that matter." + +"And now you don't expect my prosperity to last?" + +The girl hesitated, but she was candid by nature. + +"Perhaps I'd better answer. You have it in you to work determinedly and, +when it's necessary, to do things that men with less courage would shrink +from; but I'm doubtful whether yours is the temperament that leads to +success. You haven't the huckster's instincts; you're not cold-blooded +enough; you wouldn't cajole your friends nor truckle to your enemies." + +"If I adopted the latter course, it would certainly be against the +grain," Vane confessed. + +Lucy laughed. + +"Well, I mean to go on earning my living; but you may take me up to +London for a few days, if you want to, and buy me some hats and things. +Then I don't mind your giving something to the Emancipation Society." + +"I am not sure that I believe in emancipation; but you may have +ten guineas." + +"Thank you." + +Lucy glanced around toward Carroll, who was approaching them with Mabel. + +"I'll give you a piece of advice," she added. "Stick to that man. He's +cooler and less headstrong than you are; he'll prove a useful friend." + +"What are you two talking about?" asked Carroll. "You look animated." + +"Wallace has just promised me ten guineas to assist the movement for the +emancipation of women." Lucy answered pointedly. "Our society's efforts +are sadly restricted by the lack of funds." + +"Vane is now and then a little inconsequential in his generosity," +Carroll rejoined. "I didn't know he was interested in that kind of thing; +but as I don't like to be outdone by my partner, I'll subscribe the same. +By the way, why do you people reckon these things in guineas?" + +"Thanks," smiled Lucy, making an entry in a notebook in a businesslike +manner. "As you said it was a subscription, you'll hear from us next +year. In answer to your question, it's an ancient custom, and it has the +advantage that you get in the extra shillings." + +They strolled along the terrace together, and as they went down the steps +to the lawn Carroll turned to her with a smile. + +"Have you tackled Chisholm yet?" + +"I never waste powder and shot," Lucy replied tersely. "A man of his +restricted views would sooner subscribe handsomely to a movement to +put us down." + +"Are you regretting the ten guineas, Vane?" Carroll questioned +laughingly. "You don't look pleased." + +"The fact is, I wanted to do something that wasn't allowed. I've met with +the same disillusionment here as I did in British Columbia." + +Lucy looked up at her brother. + +"Did you attempt to give somebody money there?" + +"I did. It's not worth discussing; and, anyway, she wouldn't +listen to me." + +They strolled on, Vane frowning, while Carroll, noticing signs of +suppressed interest in Lucy's face, smiled unobserved. Neither he nor the +others thought of Mabel, who was following them. + +Some time after they joined the others, Carroll lay back in a deep chair, +with his half-closed eyes turned in Lucy's direction. + +"Are you asleep, or thinking hard?" Mrs. Chisholm asked him. + +"Not more than half asleep," he laughed. "I was trying to remember _A +Dream of Fair Women_. It's a suitable occupation for a drowsy summer +afternoon in a place like this, but I must confess that it was Miss Vane +who put it into my head. She reminded me of one or two of the heroines +when she was championing the cause of the suffragist." + +"You mustn't imagine that Englishwomen in general sympathize with her, +or that such ideas are popular at the Dene." + +Carroll smiled reassuringly. + +"I shouldn't have imagined the latter for a moment. But, as I said, on an +afternoon of this kind one may be excused for indulging in romantic +fancies. Don't you see what brought those old-time heroines into my mind? +I mean the elusive resemblance to their latter-day prototype?" + +Mrs. Chisholm looked puzzled. + +"No," she declared. "One of them was Greek, another early English, and +the finest of all was the Hebrew maid. As they couldn't have been like +one another, how could they, collectively, have borne a resemblance to +anybody else?" + +"That's logical, on the surface. To digress, why do you most admire +Jephthah's daughter, the gentle Gileadite?" + +His hostess affected surprise. + +"Isn't it evident, when one remembers her patient sacrifice; her fine +sense of family honor?" + +Carroll felt that this was much the kind of sentiment one could have +expected from her; and he did her the justice to believe that it was +genuine and that she was capable of living up to her convictions. His +glance rested on Vane for a moment, and the latter was startled as he +guessed Carroll's thought. + +Evelyn sat near him, reclining languidly in a wicker chair. She had been +silent, and now that her face was in repose the signs of reserve and +repression were plainer than ever. There was, however, pride in it, and +Vane felt that she was endowed with a keener and finer sense of family +honor than her thin-lipped mother. Her brother's career was threatened +by the results of his own imprudence, and though her father could hardly +be compared with the Gileadite warrior, there was, Vane fancied, a +disturbing similarity between the two cases. It was unpleasant to +contemplate the possibility of this girl's being called upon to bear the +cost of her relatives' misfortunes or follies. + +Carroll looked across at Lucy with a smile. + +"You won't agree with Mrs. Chisholm?" he suggested. + +"No," answered Lucy firmly. "Leaving out the instance in question, there +are too many people who transgress and then expect somebody else--a +woman, generally--to serve as a sacrifice." + +"I don't agree, either," Mabel broke in. "I'd sooner have been Cleopatra, +or Joan of Arc--only she was burned, poor thing." + +"That was only what she might have expected. An unpleasant fate +generally overtakes people who go about disturbing things," Mrs. +Chisholm said severely. + +The speech was characteristic, and the others smiled. It would have +astonished them had Mrs. Chisholm sympathized with the rebel idealist +whose beckoning visions led to the clash of arms. + +"Aren't you getting off the track," Vane asked Carroll. "I don't see the +drift of your previous remarks." + +"Well," drawled Carroll, "there must be, I think, a certain distinctive +stamp upon those who belong to the leader type--I mean the people who are +capable of doing striking and heroic things. Apart from this, I've been +studying you English--I've been over here before--and it has struck me +that there's occasionally something imperious, or rather imperial, in +the faces of your women in the most northern counties. I can't define the +thing, but it's there--in the line of nose, in the mouth, and, I think, +most marked in the brows. It's not Saxon, nor Norse, nor Danish; I'd +sooner call it Roman." + +Vane was slightly astonished. He had seen that look in Evelyn's face, and +now, for the first time, he recognized it in his sister's. + +"Perhaps you have hit it," he said with a laugh. "You can reach the Wall +from here in a day's ride." + +"The Wall?" + +"The Roman Wall; Hadrian's Wall. I believe one authority states that they +had a garrison of one hundred thousand men to keep it." + +Chisholm joined the group. He was a tall, rather florid-faced man, with a +formal manner, and was dressed immaculately in creaseless clothes. + +"The point Wallace raises is interesting," he remarked. "While I don't +know how long it takes for a strain to die out, there must have been a +large civil population living near the Wall, and we know that the +characteristics of the Teutonic peoples who followed the Romans still +remain. On the other hand, some of the followers were vexillaries, from +the bounds of the Empire; Gauls, for example, or Iberians." + +When, later on, the group broke up, Evelyn was left alone for a few +minutes with Mabel. + +"Gerald should have been sent to Canada instead of to Oxford," the +younger girl declared. "Then he might have got as rich as Wallace Vane +and Mr. Carroll." + +"What makes you think they're rich?" Evelyn asked with reproof in her +tone. + +Mabel grimaced. + +"Oh, we all knew they were rich before they came. They were giving Lucy +guineas for the suffragists an hour ago. They must have a good deal of +money to waste it like that. Besides, I think Wallace wanted her to take +some more; and he seemed quite vexed when he said he'd tried to give +money to somebody else in Canada who wouldn't have it. As he said 'she,' +it must have been a woman, but I don't think he meant to mention that. It +slipped out." + +"You had no right to listen," Evelyn retorted severely; but the +information sank into her mind, and she afterward remembered it. + +She rose when the sunshine, creeping farther across the grass, fell upon +her, and Vane carried her chair, as well as those of the others, who were +strolling back toward them, into the shadow. This she thought was typical +of the man. He seemed happiest when he was doing something. By and by a +chance remark of her mother's once more set Carroll to discoursing +humorously. + +"After all," he contended, "it's difficult to obey a purely arbitrary +rule of conduct. Several of the philosophers seem to have decided that +the origin of virtue is utility." + +"Utility?" Chisholm queried. + +"Yes; utility to one's neighbors or the community at large. For +instance, I desire an apple growing on somebody else's tree--one of the +big red apples that hang over the roadside in Ontario. Now the longing +for the fruit is natural, and innocent in itself; the trouble is that +if it were indulged in and gratified by every person who passed along +the road, the farmer would abandon the cultivation of his orchard. He +would neither plant nor prune his trees, except for the expectation of +enjoying what they yield. The offense, accordingly, concerns everybody +who enjoys apples." + +Mrs. Chisholm smiled assent. + +"I believe that idea is the basis of our minor social and domestic +codes. Even when they're illogical in particular cases, they're +necessary in general." + +Evelyn looked across at Vane, as if to invite his opinion, and he knit +his brows. + +"I don't think Carroll's correct. The traditional view, which, as I +understand it, is that the sense of right is innate, ingrained in man's +nature, seems more reasonable. I'll give you two instances. There was a +man in charge of a little mine. He had had the crudest education, and no +moral training, but he was an excellent miner. Well, he was given a hint +that it was not desirable the mine should turn out much paying ore." + +"But why wasn't it required to produce as much as possible?" +Evelyn asked. + +"I believe that somebody wanted to break down the value of the shares and +afterward quietly buy them up. Anyway, though he knew it would result in +his dismissal, the man I mentioned drove the boys his hardest. He worked +savagely, taking risks he could have avoided by spending a little more +time in precautions, in a badly timbered tunnel. He didn't reason--he was +hardly capable of it--but he got the most out of the mine." + +"It was fine of him!" Evelyn exclaimed. + +"The engineer of a collier figures in the next case." Vane went on. "The +engines were clumsy and badly finished, but the man spent his care and +labor on them until I think he loved them. His only trouble was that he +was sent to sea with second-rate oils and stores. After a while they grew +so bad that he could hardly use them; and he had reasons for believing +that a person who could dismiss or promote him was getting a big +commission on the goods. He was a plain, unreasoning man; but he would +not cripple his engines; and at last he condemned the stores and made the +skipper purchase supplies he could use, at double the usual prices, in a +foreign port. There could be only one result; he was driving a pump in a +mine when I last met him." + +He paused, and added quietly: + +"It wasn't logic, it wasn't even conventional morality, that impelled +these men. It was something that was part of them. What's more, men of +their type are more common than the cynics believe." + +Carroll smiled good-humoredly; and when the party sauntered toward the +house, he walked beside Evelyn. + +"There's one point that Wallace omitted to mention in connection with his +tales," he remarked. "The things he narrated are precisely those which, +on being given the opportunity, he would have pleasure in doing himself." + +"Why pleasure? I could understand his doing them, but I'd expect him to +feel some reluctance." + +Carroll's eyes twinkled. + +"He gets indignant now and then. Virtuous people are generally content to +resist temptation, but Wallace is apt to attack the tempter. I dare say +it isn't wise, but that's the kind of man he is." + +"Ah! One couldn't find fault with the type. But I wonder why you have +taken the trouble to tell me this?" + +"Really, I don't know. Somehow, I have an impression that I ought to say +what I can in Wallace's favor, if only because he brought me here, and I +feel like talking when I can get a sympathetic listener." + +"I shouldn't have imagined the latter was indispensable," laughed Evelyn. +"Is this visit all you owe Wallace?" + +"No, indeed. In many ways, I owe him a good deal more. He has no idea of +this, but it doesn't lessen my obligation. By the way, it struck me that +in many respects Miss Vane is rather like her brother." + +"Lucy is opinionative, and now and then embarrassingly candid, but she +leads a life that most of us would shrink from. It isn't necessary that +she should do so--family friends would have arranged things +differently--and the tasks she's paid for are less than half her labors. +I believe she generally gets abuse as a reward for the rest." + +Then Mabel joined them and took possession of Carroll, and Evelyn +strolled on alone, thinking of what he had told her. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +CHISHOLM PROVES AMENABLE + + +Vane spent a month at the Dene, with quiet satisfaction, and when at last +he left for London and Paris he gladly promised to come back for another +few weeks before he sailed for Canada. He stayed some time in Paris, +because Carroll insisted on it, but it was with eagerness that he went +north again late in the autumn. For one reason--and he laid some stress +upon this--he longed for the moorland air and the rugged fells, though he +admitted that Evelyn's society enhanced their charm for him. + +At last, shortly before he set out on the journey, he took himself to +task and endeavored to determine precisely the nature of his feelings +toward her; but he signally failed to elucidate the point. It was clear +only that he was more contented in her presence, and that, apart from her +physical comeliness, she had a stimulating effect upon his mental +faculties. Then he wondered how she regarded him; and to this question he +could find no answer. She had treated him with a quiet friendliness, and +had to some extent taken him into her confidence. For the most part, +however, there was a reserve about her that he found more piquant than +deterrent, and he was conscious that, while willing to talk with him +freely, she was still holding him off at arm's length. + +On the whole, he could not be absolutely sure that he desired to get +much nearer. Though he failed to recognize this clearly, his attitude +was largely one of respectful admiration, tinged with a vein of +compassion. Evelyn was unhappy, and out of harmony with her relatives; +and he could understand this more readily because their ideas +occasionally jarred on him. + +One morning, about a fortnight after they returned to the Dene, Vane +and Carroll walked out of the hamlet where the wheelwright's shop +was. Sitting down on the wall of a bridge, Vane opened the telegram +in his hand. + +"I think you have Nairn's code in your wallet," he said. "We'll decipher +the thing." + +Carroll laid the message on a smooth stone and set to work with a pencil. + +"_Situation highly satisfactory_." + +He broke off, to chuckle a comment. + +"It must be, if Nairn paid for an extra word--highly's not in the code." + +Then he went on with the deciphering: + +"_Result of reduction exceeds anticipations. Stock thirty premium. Your +presence not immediately required_." + +"That's distinctly encouraging," declared Vane. "Now that they are +getting farther in, the ore must be carrying more silver." + +"It strikes me as fortunate. I ran through the bank account last night, +and there's no doubt that you have spent a good deal of money. It +confirms my opinion that you have mighty expensive friends." + +Vane frowned, but Carroll continued undeterred. + +"You want pulling up, after the way you have been indulging in a reckless +extravagance which, I feel compelled to point out, is new to you. The +check drawn in favor of Gerald Chisholm rather astonished me. Have you +said anything about it to his relatives?" + +"I haven't." + +"Then, judging by the little I saw of him, I should consider it most +unlikely that he has made any allusion to the matter. The next check was +even more surprising--I mean the one you gave his father." + +"They were both loans. Chisholm offered me security." + +"Unsalable stock, or a mortgage on property that carries another charge! +Have you any idea of getting the money back?" + +"What has that to do with you?" + +Carroll spread out his hands. + +"Only this: It strikes me that you need looking after. We can't stay here +indefinitely. Hadn't you better get back to Vancouver before your English +friends ruin you?" + +"I'll go in three or four weeks; not before." + +Carroll sat silent a minute or two, and then looked his companion +squarely in the face. + +"Is it your intention to marry Evelyn Chisholm?" + +"I don't know what has put that into your mind." + +"I should be a good deal astonished if it hadn't suggested itself to her +family," Carroll retorted. + +Vane looked thoughtful. + +"I'm far from sure that it's an idea they would entertain with any great +favor. For one thing, I can't live here." + +Carroll laughed. + +"Try them, and see. Show them Nairn's telegram when you mention +the matter." + +Vane swung himself down from the wall. During the past two weeks he had +seen a good deal of Evelyn, and his regard for her had rapidly grown +stronger. Now that news that his affairs were prospering had reached him, +he suddenly made up his mind. + +"It's very possible that I may do so," he informed his comrade. "We'll +get along." + +His heart beat a little more rapidly than usual as they turned back +toward the house, but he was perfectly composed when some time later he +sat down beside Chisholm, who was lounging away the morning on the lawn. + +"I've been across to the village for a telegram I expected," he said, +handing Chisholm the deciphered message. "It occurred to me that you +might be interested. The news is encouraging." + +Chisholm read it with inward satisfaction. When he laid it down he had +determined on the line he meant to follow. + +"You're a fortunate man. There's probably no reasonable wish that you +can't gratify." + +"There are things one can't buy with money," Vane replied. + +"That is very true. They're often the most valuable. On the other hand, +some of them may now and then be had for the asking. Besides, when one +has a sanguine temperament and a determination, it's difficult to believe +that anything one sets one's heart on is quite unattainable." + +Vane wondered whether he had been given a hint. Chisholm's manner was +suggestive, and Carroll's remarks had had an effect on him. He sat +silent, and Chisholm continued: + +"If I were in your place, I should feel that I had all that I could +desire within my reach." + +Vane was becoming sure that his comrade had been right. Chisholm would +not have harped on the same idea unless he had intended to convey some +particular meaning; but the man's methods roused Vane's dislike. He could +face opposition, and he would rather have been discouraged than +judiciously prompted. + +"Then if I offered myself as a suitor for Evelyn, you would not think me +presumptuous?" + +Chisholm was somewhat astonished at his abruptness, but he smiled +reassuringly. + +"No; I can't see why I should do so. You are in a position to maintain a +wife in comfort, and I don't think anybody could take exception to your +character." He paused a moment. "I suppose you have some idea of how +Evelyn regards you?" + +"Not the faintest. That's the trouble." + +"Would you like Mrs. Chisholm or myself to mention the matter?" + +"No," answered Vane decidedly. "In fact, I must ask you not to do +anything of the kind. I only wished to make sure of your good will, and +now that I'm satisfied on that point, I'd rather wait and speak--when it +seems judicious." + +Chisholm nodded. + +"I dare say that would be wisest. There is nothing to be gained by being +precipitate." + +Vane thanked him, and waited. He fancied that the transaction--that +seemed the best name for it--was not completed yet; but he meant to +leave the matter to his companion; he would not help the man. + +"There's something that had better be mentioned now, distasteful as it +is," Chisholm said at length. "I can settle nothing upon Evelyn. As you +must have guessed, my affairs are in a far from promising state. Indeed, +I'm afraid I may have to ask your indulgence when the loan falls due; and +I don't mind confessing that the prospect of Evelyn's making what I think +is a suitable marriage is a relief to me." + +Vane's feelings were somewhat mixed, but contempt figured prominently +among them. He could find no fault with Chisholm's desire to safeguard +his daughter's future, but he was convinced that the man looked for more +than this. He felt that he had been favored with a delicate hint to which +his companion expected an answer. He was sorry for Evelyn, and was +ashamed of the position he was forced to take. + +"Well," he replied curtly, "you need not be concerned about the loan; I'm +not likely to prove a pressing creditor. To go a little farther, I should +naturally take an interest in the welfare of my wife's relatives. I don't +think I can say anything more in the meanwhile." + +When he saw Chisholm's smile, he felt that he might have spoken more +plainly without offense; but the elder man looked satisfied. + +"Those are the views I expected you to hold," he declared. "I believe +that Mrs. Chisholm will share my gratification if you find Evelyn +disposed to listen to you." + +Vane left him shortly afterward with a sense of shame. He felt that he +had bought the girl, and that, if she ever heard of it, she would find it +hard to forgive him for the course he had taken. When he met Carroll he +was frowning. + +"I've had a talk with Chisholm," he said. "It has upset my temper--I feel +mean! There's no doubt that you were right." + +Carroll's smile showed that he could guess what was in his +comrade's mind. + +"I shouldn't worry too much about the thing. The girl probably +understands the situation. It's not altogether pleasant, but I dare say +she's more or less resigned to it. She can't help herself." + +Vane gazed at him with anger. + +"Does that make it any better? Is it any comfort to me?" + +"Take her out of it. If she has any liking for you, she'll thank you for +doing so." + +Vane strode away, and nobody saw him again for an hour or two. In the +afternoon, however, at Mrs. Chisholm's suggestion, he and Carroll set out +with the girls for a hill beyond the tarn. + +It was a perfect day of late autumn. A pale golden haze softened the +rugged outlines of crag and fell, which towered in purple masses against +a sky of stainless azure. Warm sunshine flooded the valley, glowing on +the gold and crimson that flecked the lower beech sprays and turning the +leaves of the brambles to points of ruby flame. Here and there white +limestone ridges flung back the light, and the tarn gleamed like molten +silver when a faint puff of wind traced a dark blue smear athwart its +surface. The winding road was thick with dust, and a deep stillness +brooded over everything. + +By and by, however, a couple of whip-cracks rose from beyond a dip of the +road and were followed by a shout in a woman's voice and a sharp clatter +of iron on stone. + +"Oh!" cried Mabel, when they reached the brow of the descent, "the poor +thing can't get up! What a shame to give it such a load!" + +The road fell sharply between ragged hedgerows, and near the foot of the +hill a pony was struggling vainly to move a cart. The vehicle was heavily +loaded, and while the animal strained and floundered, a woman struck it +with a whip. + +"Its Mrs. Hoggarth; her husband's the carrier," Mabel explained. "Come +on! We must stop her! She mustn't beat the pony like that!" + +Vane strode down the hill, and when they approached the cart Mabel called +indignantly to the woman. + +"Stop! You oughtn't to do that! The load's too heavy! Where's Hoggarth?" + +Vane seized one rein close up to the bit and turned the pony until +the cart was across the road. When he had done so, the woman looked +around at Mabel. + +"Wheel went over his foot last night. He canna get on his boot. I'm none +fond of beating pony, but bank's steep and we mun gan up. The folks mun +have their things." + +Vane glanced at the pony, which stood with lowered head and heaving +flank. It was evident that the animal could do no more. + +"There's only one way out of the trouble," he said. "We must pack some of +this truck to the top. What's in those bags?" + +"One's oats," answered the woman. "It's four bushel. Other one's linseed +cake. Those slates for Bell's new stable are the heaviest." + +Carroll came up with Evelyn just then, and Vane spoke to him. + +"Come here and help me with this bag!" + +They had it ready at the back of the cart in a few moments, and Evelyn, +who knew that a four-bushel bag of oats is difficult to move, was +astonished at the ease with which they handled it. Vane got the bag upon +his back and walked up the hill with it. The veins stood out on his +forehead and his face grew red, but he plodded steadily on and came back +for another load. + +"I'll take an armful of the slates this time, Carroll. You can tackle +the cake." + +The cake was heavy, though the bag was not full, and when they returned, +Carroll was breathing hard and there were smears of blood on one of +Vane's hands. The old woman gazed at him in amazed admiration. + +"Thank you, sir," she said. "There's not many men wad carry four bushel +up a bank like that." + +Vane laughed. + +"I'm used to it. Now I think that we can face the hill." + +He seized the rein, and after a flounder or two the pony started the load +and struggled up the ascent. Leaving the woman at the top, voluble with +thanks, Vane came down and sauntered on again with Mabel. + +"I made sure you would drop that bag until I saw how you got hold of it, +and then I knew you would manage," she informed him. "You see, I've +watched the men at Scarside mill. I didn't want you to drop it." + +"I wonder why?" laughed Vane. + +"If you do, you must be stupid. We're friends, aren't we? I like my +friends to be able to do anything that other folks can. That's partly why +I took to you." + +Vane made her a ceremonious bow and they went on, chatting lightly. When +they came to a sweep of climbing moor, they changed companions, for Mabel +led Carroll off in search of plants and ferns. Farther on, Evelyn sat +down upon a heathy bank, and Vane found a place on a stone beside a +trickling rill. + +"It's pleasant here, and I like the sun," she explained. "Besides, it's +still a good way to the top, and I generally feel discontented when I get +there. There are other peaks much higher--one wants to go on." + +Vane smiled in comprehension. + +"Yes," he agreed. "On and always on! It's the feeling that drives the +prospector. We seem to have the same thoughts on a good many points." + +Evelyn did not answer this. + +"I was glad you got that cart up the hill. What made you think of it?" + +"The pony was played out, though it was a plucky beast. I suppose I felt +sorry for it. I've been driven hard myself." + +The girl's eyes softened. She had seen him use his strength, though it +was, she imagined, the strength of determined will and disciplined body +rather than bulk of muscle, for the man was hard and lean. The strength +also was associated with a gentleness and a sympathy with the lower +creation that appealed to her. + +"How hard were you driven?" she asked. + +"Sometimes, until I could scarcely crawl back to my tent or the +sleeping-shack at night. Out yonder, construction bosses and contractors' +foremen are skilled in getting the utmost value of every dollar out of a +man. I've had my hands worn to raw wounds and half my knuckles bruised +until it was almost impossible to bend them." + +"Were you compelled to work like that?" + +"I thought so. It seemed to be the custom of the country; one had to get +used to it." + +Evelyn hesitated a moment; though she was interested. + +"But was there nothing easier? Had you no money?" + +"Very little, as a rule; and what I had I tried to keep. It was to give +me a start in life. It was hard to resist the temptation to use some of +it now and then, but I held out." He laughed grimly. "After all, I +suppose it was excellent discipline." + +The girl made a sign of comprehending sympathy. There was a romance in +the man's career which had its effect on her, and she could recognize the +strength of will which had held him to the laborious tasks he might have +shirked while the money lasted. Then a stain on the sleeve of his jacket +caught her eye. + +"You have hurt your hand!" she exclaimed. + +Vane glanced down at his hand, which was reddened all over. + +"It looks like it; those slates must have cut it." + +"Hadn't you better wash it and tie it up? It seems a nasty cut." + +He dipped his hand into the rill, and was fumbling awkwardly with his +handkerchief when she stopped him. + +"That won't do! Let me fix it for you." + +Rolling up her own handkerchief, she wet it and laid it on his palm, +across which a red gash ran. He had moved close to her, stooping down, +and a disturbing thrill ran through him as she held his hand. Once more, +however, he was troubled by a sense of compunction as he recalled his +interview with Chisholm. + +"Thank you," he said abruptly when she finished. + +There were signs of tension in his face, and she drew a little away from +him when he sat down again. For a few moments he struggled with himself. +They were alone; he had her father's consent; and he knew that what he +had done half an hour ago had appealed to her. But he felt that he could +not plead his cause just then. With her parents on his side, she was at a +disadvantage; and he shrank from the thought that she might be forced +upon him against her will. This was not what he desired; and she might +hate him for it afterward. She was very alluring, there had been signs of +an unusual gentleness in her manner, and the light touch of her cool +fingers had stirred his blood; but he wanted time to win her favor, aided +only by such gifts as he had been endowed with. It cost him a determined +effort, but he made up his mind to wait; and it was a relief to him when +the approach of Mabel and Carroll rendered any confidential conversation +out of the question. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +WITH THE OTTER HOUNDS + + +A week or two had slipped away since Vane cut his hand. He lounged one +morning upon the terrace, chatting with Carroll. It was a heavy, black +morning; the hills were hidden by wrappings of leaden mist, and the still +air was charged with moisture. + +Suddenly a long, faint howl came up the valley and was answered by +another in a deeper note. Then a confused swelling clamor broke out, +softened by the distance, and slightly resembling the sound of chiming +bells. Carroll stopped and listened. + +"What in the name of wonder is that?" he asked. "The first of it reminded +me of a coyote howling, but the rest's more like the noise the timber +wolves make in the bush at night." + +"You haven't made a bad shot," Vane laughed. "It's a pack of otter hounds +hot upon the scent." + +The sound ceased as suddenly as it had begun; and a few moments later +Mabel came running toward the men. + +"I knew the hounds met at Patten Brig, but Jim was sure they'd go +down-stream!" she cried breathlessly. "They're coming up! I think they're +at the pool below the village! Get two poles--you'll find some in the +tool-shed--and come along at once!" + +She climbed into the house through a window, calling for Evelyn, and +Carroll smiled. + +"We have our orders. I suppose we'd better go." + +"It's one of the popular sports up here," Vane replied. "You may as +well see it." + +They set out a few minutes later, accompanied by Evelyn, while Mabel +hurried on in front and reproached them for their tardiness. Sometimes +they heard the hounds, sometimes a hoarse shouting that traveled far +through the still air, and then sometimes there was only the tremulous +song of running water. At length, after crossing several wet fields, they +came to a rushy meadow on the edge of the river, which spread out into a +wide pool, fringed with alders which had not yet lost their leaves and +the barer withes of osiers. There was a swift stream at the head of it, +and a long rippling shallow at the tail; and scattered along the bank and +in the water was a curiously mixed company. + +A red-coated man with whip and horn stood in the tail outflow, and three +or four more with poles in their hands were spread out across the stream +behind him. These, and one or two in the head stream, appeared by their +dress to belong to the hunt; but the rest, among whom were a few women, +were attired in every-day garments and were of different walks in life: +artisans, laborers, people of leisure, and a late tourist or two. + +Three or four big hounds were swimming aimlessly up and down the pool; a +dozen more trotted to and fro along the water's edge, stopping to sniff +and give tongue in an uncertain manner now and then; but there was no +sign of an otter. + +Carroll looked round with a smile when his companions stopped. + +"It strikes me there'll be very little work done in this neighborhood +to-day," he remarked. "I'd no idea there were so many people in the +valley with time to spare. The only thing that's missing is the beast +they're after." + +"An otter is an almost invisible creature," Evelyn explained. "You very +seldom see one, unless it's hard pressed by the dogs. There are a good +many in the river, but even the trout fishers, who are about at sunrise +in the hot weather and wade in the dusk, rarely come across them. Are you +going to take a share in the hunt?" + +"No," replied Carroll, glancing humorously at his pole. "I don't know +why I brought this thing, unless it was because Mopsy sent me for it. +I'd rather stay and watch with you. Splashing through a river after a +little beast that I don't suppose they'd let an outsider kill doesn't +interest me. I don't see why I should want to kill it, anyway. Some of +you English people have sporting ideas I can't understand. I struck a +young man the other day--a well-educated man by the looks of him--who +was spending the afternoon happily with a ferret by a corn stack, +killing rats with a club. He seemed uncommonly pleased with himself +because he'd got four of them." + +"Oh," chided Mabel, "you're as bad as the silly people who call killing +things cruel! I wouldn't have thought it of you!" + +Vane laughed. + +"I've seen him drop a deer with a single-shot rifle when it was going +through thick brush almost as fast as a locomotive; and I believe that he +once assisted in killing a panther in a thicket where you couldn't see +two yards ahead. The point is that he meant to eat the deer--and the +panther had been taking a rancher's hogs." + +"I'm sorry I brought him," Mabel pouted. "He's not a sportsman." + +"I really think there's some excuse for the more vigorous sports," Evelyn +maintained. "Of course, you can't eliminate a certain amount of cruelty; +but, admitting that, isn't it just as well that men who live in a +luxurious civilization should be willing to plod through miles of heather +after grouse, risk their limbs on horseback, or spend hours in cold +water? These are bracing things; they imply some moral discipline. It +really can't be nice to ride at a dangerous fence, or to flounder down a +rapid after an otter when you're stiff with cold. The effort to do so +must be wholesome." + +"A sure thing," Carroll agreed. "The only trouble is that when you've got +your fox or otter, it isn't worth anything. A good many of the people in +the newer lands, every day, have to make something of the kind of effort +you describe. In their case, the results are wagon trails, valleys +cleared for orchards, or new branch railroads. I suppose it's a matter of +opinion, but if I'd put in a season's risky work, I'd rather have a piece +of land to grow fruit on or a share in a mineral claim--you get plenty of +excitement in prospecting for that--than a fox's tail." + +He strolled along the bank with Evelyn, following the hunt up-stream. +Suddenly he looked around. + +"Mopsy's gone; and I don't see Vane." + +"After all, he's one of us," Evelyn laughed. "If you're born in the +North Country, it's hard to keep out of the river when you hear the +otter hounds." + +"But Mopsy's not going in!" + +"I'm afraid I can't answer for her." + +They took up their station behind a growth of alders, and for a while +the dogs went trotting by in twos and threes or swam about the pool, +but nothing else broke the surface of the leaden-colored water. Then +there was a cry, an outbreak of shouting, a confused baying, and half a +dozen hounds dashed past. More followed, heading up-stream along the +bank, with a tiny brown terrier panting behind them. Evelyn stretched +out her hand. + +"Look!" + +Carroll saw a small gray spot--the top of the otter's head--moving across +the slacker part of the pool, with a very slight, wedge-shaped ripple +trailing away from it. It sank the next moment; a bubble or two rose; and +then there was nothing but the smooth flow of water. + +A horn called shrilly; a few whip-cracks rang out like pistol-shots; and +the dogs took the water, swimming slowly here and there. Men scrambled +along the bank. Some, entering the river, reinforced the line spread out +across the head rapid while others joined the second row wading steadily +up-stream and splashing about as they advanced with iron-tipped poles. +Nothing rewarded their efforts. The dogs suddenly turned and went +down-stream; and then everybody ran or waded toward the tail outflow. A +clamor of shouting and baying broke out; and floundering men and swimming +dogs went down the stream together in a confused mass. There was a brief +silence. The hounds came out and trotted to and fro along the bank; and +dripping men clambered after them. + +Evelyn laughed as she pointed to Vane among the leading group. He looked +even wetter than the others. + +"I don't suppose he meant to go in. It's in the blood." + +"There's no reason why he shouldn't, if it amuses him," Carroll replied. +"When I first met him, he'd have been more careful of his clothes." + +A little later the dogs were driven in again, and this time the whole of +the otter's head was visible as it swam up-stream. The animal was +flagging, and on reaching shoaler water it sprang out altogether now and +then, rising and falling in the stronger stream with a curious +serpentine motion. In fact, as head and body bent in the same sinuous +curves, it looked less like an animal than a plunging fish. The men +guarding the rapid stood ready with their poles, and more were wading +and splashing up both sides of the pool. The otter's pace was getting +slower; sometimes it seemed to stop; and now and then it vanished among +the ripples. Carroll saw that Evelyn's face was intent, though there +were signs of shrinking in it. + +"I'll tell you what you are thinking," he said. "You want that poor +little beast to get away." + +"I believe I do," Evelyn confessed. "And you?" + +"I'm afraid I'm not much of a sportsman, in this sense." + +They watched with strained attention. The girl could not help it, though +she dreaded the climax. Her sympathies were now with the hard-pressed, +exhausted creature that was making a desperate fight for its life. The +pursuers were close upon it, the swimming dogs leading them; and ahead +lay a foaming rush of water which seemed less than a foot deep, with men +spread out across it. The shouting from the bank had ceased, and +everybody waited in tense expectancy when the otter disappeared. The dogs +reached the rapid, where they were washed back a few yards before they +could make headway up-stream. Men who came splashing close upon them left +the water to scramble along the bank; and then they stopped abruptly, +while the dogs swam in an uncertain manner about the still reach beyond. +They came out in a few minutes and scampered up and down among the +stones, evidently at fault, for there was no sign of the otter anywhere. +Incredible as it seemed, the hunted creature, an animal that would +probably weigh about twenty-four pounds, had crept up the rush of water +among the feet of those who watched for it and vanished unseen into the +sheltering depths beyond. + +Evelyn sighed with relief. + +"I think it will escape," she said. "The river's rather full after the +rain, which is against the dogs, and there isn't another shallow for some +distance. Shall we go on?" + +They strolled forward behind the dogs, which were again moving up-stream; +but they turned aside to avoid a bit of woods, and it was some time later +when they came out upon a rocky promontory dropping steeply to the river. +Just there, the water flowed through a deep gorge, down the sides of +which great oaks and ashes straggled. In front of Carroll and his +companion a ragged face of rock fell about twenty feet; but there was a +little soil among the stones below, and a dense growth of alders +interspersed with willows, fringed the water's edge. The stream swirled +in deep black eddies beneath their drooping branches, though a little +farther on it poured tumultuously between scattered boulders into the +slacker pool. The rock sloped on one side, and there was a bank of +underbrush near the foot of the descent. + +The hunt was now widely scattered about the reach. Men crept along +slippery ledges above the water and moved over dangerously slanting +slopes, half hidden among the trees; a few were in the river. Three or +four of the dogs were swimming; the others, spread out in twos and +threes, trotted in and out among the undergrowth. + +Presently, a figure creeping along the foot of the rock not far away +seized Carroll's attention. + +"It's Mopsy!" he exclaimed. "The foothold doesn't look very safe among +those stones, and there seems to be deep water below." + +He called out in warning, but the girl did not heed. The willows were +thinner at the spot she had reached, and, squeezing herself through them, +she leaned down, clinging to an alder branch. + +"He's gone to holt among the roots!" she cried. + +Three or four men running along the opposite bank apparently decided that +she was right, for the horn was sounded and here and there a dog broke +through the underbrush. Just as the first-comers reached the rapid, there +was a splash. It was a moment or two before Evelyn or Carroll, who had +been watching the dogs, realized what had happened; then the blood ebbed +from the girl's face. Mabel had disappeared. + +Running a few paces forward, Carroll saw what looked like a bundle of +outspread garments swing round in an eddy. It washed in among the +willows, and he heard a faint cry. + +"Help!--Quick! I've caught a branch!" + +He could not see the girl now, but an alder branch was bending sharply, +and he flung a rapid glance around him. The summit of the rock on which +he stood rose above the trees. Had there been a better landing, he would +have faced the risky fall, but it seemed impossible to alight among the +stones without a broken leg. Even if he came down uninjured, there was a +barrier of tangled branches and densely growing withes between him and +the river, and the opening through which Mabel had fallen was some +distance away. Farther down-stream, he might reach the water by a +reckless jump, as the promontory sloped toward it there, but he would not +be able to swim back against the current. His position was a painful one; +there was nothing that he could do. + +The next moment, men and dogs went scrambling and swimming down the +rapid. They were in hot pursuit of the otter, which had left its +hiding place, and it was evident that the girl, clinging to a branch +beneath the willows, had escaped their attention. Carroll shouted +savagely as his comrade appeared among the tail of the hunt below. The +others were too much occupied to heed; or perhaps they concluded that +he was urging them on. + +"Help! Mabel!" Carroll shouted again and again, gesticulating wildly in +his desperation. + +Vane, waist-deep in the water, seemed to catch the girl's name and +understand. In a few moments he was swimming down the pool along the edge +of the alders. Then Carroll saw that Evelyn expected him to take some +part in the rescue. + +"Get down before it's too late!" she cried. + +Carroll spread out his hands, as if to beg her forbearance. While every +impulse urged him to the leap, he endeavored to keep his head. He fancied +that he would be wanted later, and it was obvious that he would not be +available if he lay upon the rocks below with broken bones. + +"I can't do any good just now," he tried to explain, knowing that he was +right and yet feeling horribly ashamed. "She's holding on, and Wallace +will reach her in a moment or two." + +Evelyn broke out at him in an agony of fear and anger. + +"You coward! Will you let her drown?" + +She turned and ran forward, but Carroll, dreading that she meant to +attempt the descent, seized her shoulder and held her fast. While he +grappled with her, Vane's voice rose from below, and he let his +hands drop. + +"Wallace has her. There's no more danger," he said quietly. + +Evelyn suddenly recovered a small degree of calm. Even amid the stress of +her terror, she recognized the assurance in the man's tone. He had blind +confidence in his comrade's prowess, and his next words made this +impression clearer. + +"Don't be afraid. He'll never let go until he brings her out." + +Standing, breathless, a pace or two apart, they saw Vane and the girl +appear from beneath the willows and wash away down-stream. The man was +swimming, but he was hampered by his burden, and once he and Mabel sank +almost from sight in a whirling eddy. Carroll said nothing. Turning, he +ran along the sloping ridge until the fall was less and the trees were +thinner; then he leaped out into the air. He broke through the alders +amid a rustle of bending boughs, and disappeared; but a moment or two +later his shoulders shot out of the water close beside Vane, and the two +men went down the stream with Mabel between them. + +Evelyn scrambled wildly along the ridge, and when she reached the foot of +it, Vane was helping Mabel up the sloping bank of gravel. The girl's +drenched garments clung about her, and her wet hair was streaked across +her face, but she seemed able to stand. The hunt had swept on through +shoaler water, but there was a cheer from the stragglers across the +river. Evelyn clutched her sister, half laughing, half sobbing, and +incoherently upbraided her. Mabel shook herself free, and her first +remark was characteristic. + +"Oh, don't make a silly fuss! I'm only wet through. Wallace, take me +home." + +She tried to shake out her dripping skirt, and Vane picked her up, as she +seemed to expect it. The others followed when he pushed through the +underbrush toward a neighboring meadow. Evelyn, however, was still a +little unnerved, and when they reached a gap in a wall she stopped and +leaned heavily against the stones. + +"I think I'm more disturbed than Mopsy is," she said to Carroll. "What I +felt must be some excuse for me. You were right, of course. I'm sorry +for what I said; it was unjustifiable." + +Carroll laughed lightly. + +"Anyway, it was perfectly natural; but I must confess that I felt some +temptation to make a spectacular fool of myself. I might have jumped into +those alders, but it's most unlikely that I could have got out of them." + +Evelyn looked at him with a new respect. He had not troubled to point +out that he had not flinched from the jump when it seemed likely to be +of service. + +"How could you have the sense to think of that?" she asked. + +"I suppose it's a matter of practise. One can't work among the ranges and +rivers without learning to make the right decision rapidly. When you +don't, you get badly hurt. With most of us, the thing has to be +cultivated; it's not instinctive." + +Evelyn was struck by the explanation. This acquired coolness was a finer +thing, and undoubtedly more useful, than hot-headed gallantry, though she +admired the latter. She was young, and physical prowess appealed to her; +besides, it had been displayed in saving her sister's life. Carroll and +his comrade were men of varied and romantic experience; and they +possessed, she fancied, qualities not shared by all their fellows. + +"Wallace was splendid in the water!" she exclaimed, uttering part of her +thoughts aloud. + +"I thought rather more of him in the city," Carroll replied. "That kind +of thing was new to him, and I'm inclined to believe that I'd have let +the people he had to negotiate with have the mine for a good deal less +than he eventually got for it. But I've said something about that before; +and, after all, I'm not here to play Boswell." + +The girl was surprised at the apt allusion; it was not what she would +have expected from the man. As she had not wholly recovered her +composure, she forgot what Vane had told her about him, and her comment +was an incautious one: + +"How did you hear of him?" + +Carroll parried this with a smile. + +"You don't suppose you can keep those old fellows to yourselves--they're +international. But hadn't we better be getting on? Let me help you +through the gap." + +They reached the Dene some time later, and Mabel, very much against her +wishes, was sent to bed. Shortly afterward Carroll came across Vane, who +had changed his clothes and was strolling up and down among the +shrubberies. + +"What are you doing here?" he asked. + +Vane looked embarrassed. + +"For one thing, I'm keeping out of Mrs. Chisholm's way; she's inclined to +be effusive. For another, I'm trying to think out what I ought to do. +We'll have to pull out very shortly; and I had meant to have an interview +with Evelyn to-day. That's why I feel uncommonly annoyed with Mopsy for +falling in." + +Carroll made a grimace. + +"If that's how it strikes you, any advice I could offer would be wasted. +A sensible man would consider it a promising opportunity." + +"And trade upon it? As you know, there wasn't the slightest risk, +with branches that one could get hold of, and a shelving bank almost +within reach." + +"Do you really want the girl?" + +"That impression's firmly in my mind," Vane said curtly. + +"Then you'd better pitch your Quixotic notions overboard and tell her +so." + +Vane frowned but made no answer; and Carroll, recognizing that his +comrade was not inclined to be communicative, left him pacing up and +down. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +VANE WITHDRAWS + + +Dusk was drawing on, but there was still a little light in the western +sky, when Vane strolled along the terrace in front of the Dene. In the +distance the ranks of fells rose black and solemn out of filmy trails of +mist, but the valley had faded to a trough of shadow. A faint breeze was +stirring, and the silence was broken by the soft patter of withered +leaves which fluttered down across the lawn. Vane noticed it all by some +involuntary action of his senses, for although, at the time, he was +oblivious to his surroundings, he afterward found that he could recall +each detail of the scene with vivid distinctness. He was preoccupied and +eager, but fully aware of the need for coolness, for it was quite +possible that he might fail in the task he had in hand. + +Presently he saw Evelyn, for whom he had been waiting, cross the opposite +end of the terrace. Moving forward he joined her at the entrance to a +shrubbery walk. A big, clipped yew with a recess in which a seat had been +placed stood close by. + +"I have been sitting with Mopsy," said Evelyn. "She seems very little the +worse for her adventure--thanks to you." She hesitated and her voice grew +softer. "I owe you a heavy debt--I am very fond of Mopsy." + +"It's a great pity she fell in," Vane declared curtly. + +Evelyn looked at him in surprise. She scarcely thought he could regret +the efforts he had made on her sister's behalf, but that was what his +words implied. He noticed her change of expression. + +"The trouble is that the thing might seem to give me some claim on you; +and I don't want that," he explained. "It cost me no more than a wetting; +I hadn't the least difficulty in getting her out." + +His companion was still puzzled. She could find no fault with him for +being modest about his exploit, but that he should make it clear that he +did not require her gratitude struck her as unnecessary. + +"For all that, you did bring her out," she persisted. "Even if it causes +you no satisfaction, the fact is of some importance to us." + +"I don't seem to be beginning very fortunately. What I mean is that I +don't want to urge my claim, if I have one. I'd rather be taken on my +merits." He paused a moment with a smile. "That's not much better, is it? +But it partly expresses what I feel. Leaving Mopsy out altogether, let me +try to explain--I don't wish you to be influenced by anything except your +own idea of me. I'm saying this because one or two points that seem in my +favor may have a contrary effect." + +Evelyn made no answer, and he indicated the seat. + +"Won't you sit down? I have something to say." + +The girl did as he suggested, and his smile died away. + +"Would you be astonished if I were to ask you to marry me?" + +He leaned against the smooth wall of yew, looking down at her with an +impressive steadiness of gaze. She could imagine him facing the city men +from whom he had extorted the full value of his mine in the same fashion, +and, in a later instance, so surveying the eddies beneath the osiers, +when he had gone to Mabel's rescue. It was borne in upon her that they +would better understand each other. + +"No," she answered. "If I must be candid, I am not astonished." Then the +color crept into her cheeks as she met his gaze. "I suppose it is an +honor; and it is undoubtedly a--temptation." + +"A temptation?" + +"Yes," said Evelyn, mustering her courage to face a crisis she had +dreaded. "It is only due you that you should hear the truth--though I +think you suspect it. Besides--I have some liking for you." + +"That is what I wanted you to own!" Vane broke in. + +She checked him with a gesture. Her manner was cold, and yet there was +something in it that stirred him more than her beauty. + +"After all," she explained, "it does not go very far, and you must try to +understand. I want to be quite honest, and what I have to say +is--difficult. In the first place, things are far from pleasant for me +here; I was expected to make a good marriage, and I had my chance in +London. I refused to profit by it, and now I'm a failure. I wonder +whether you can realize what a temptation it is to get away?" + +Vane frowned. + +"Yes," he responded. "It makes me savage to think of it! I can, at least, +take you out of all this. If you hadn't had a very fine courage, you +wouldn't have told me." + +Evelyn smiled, a curious wry smile. + +"It has only prompted me to behave, as most people would consider, +shamelessly; but there are times when one must get above that point of +view. Besides, there's a reason for my candor--had you been a man of +different stamp, it's possible that I might have been driven into taking +the risk. We should both have suffered for a time, but we might have +reached an understanding--not to intrude on each other--through open +variance. As it is, I could not do you that injustice, and I should +shrink from marrying you with only a little cold liking." + +The man held himself firmly in hand. Her calmness had infected him, and +he felt that this was not an occasion for romantic protestations, even +had he felt capable of making them, which was not the case. As a matter +of fact, such things were singularly foreign to his nature. + +"Even that would go a long way with me, if I could get nothing better," +he declared. "Besides, you might change. I could surround you with some +comfort; I think I could promise not to force my company upon you; I +believe I could be kind." + +"Yes," assented Evelyn. "I shouldn't be afraid of harshness from you; but +it seems impossible that I should change. You must see that you started +handicapped from the beginning. Had I been free to choose, it might have +been different, but I have lived for some time in shame and fear, hating +the thought that some one would be forced on me." + +He said nothing and she went on. + +"Must I tell you? You are the man!" + +His face grew hard and for a moment he set his lips tight. It would have +been a relief to express his feelings concerning his host just then. + +"If you don't hate me for it now, I'm willing to take the risk," he said +at length. "It will be my fault if you hate me in the future; I'll try +not to deserve it." + +He fancied that she was yielding, but she roused herself with an effort. + +"No. Love on one side may go a long way, if it is strong enough--but it +must be strong to overcome the many clashes of thought and will. +Yours"--she looked at him steadily--"would not stand the strain." + +Vane started. + +"You are the only woman I ever wished to marry," he declared vehemently. + +He paused and spread out his hands. + +"What can I say to convince you?" + +"I'm afraid it's impossible. If you had wanted me greatly, you would have +pressed the claim you had in saving Mopsy, and I should have forgiven you +that; you would have urged any and every claim. As it is, I suppose I am +pretty"--her lips curled scornfully--"and you find that some of your +ideas and mine agree. It isn't half enough! Shall I tell you that you are +scarcely moved as yet?" + +It flashed upon Vane that he was confronted with the reality. Her beauty +had appealed to him, and her other qualities--her reserved graciousness +with its tinge of dignity, her insight and her comprehension--had also +had their effect; but they had only awakened admiration and respect. He +desired her as one desires an object for its rarity and preciousness; but +this, as she had told him, was not enough. Behind her physical and mental +attributes, and half revealed by them, there was something deeper: the +real personality of the girl. It was elusive, mystic, with a spark of +immaterial radiance which might brighten human love with its transcendent +glow; but, as he dimly realized, if he won her by force, it might recede +and vanish altogether. He could not, with strong ardor, compel its +clearer manifestation. + +"I think I am moved as much as it is possible for me to be." + +Evelyn shook her head. + +"No; you will discover the difference some day, and then you will +thank me for leaving you your liberty. Now I beg you to leave me mine +and let me go." + +Vane stood silent a minute or two, for the last appeal had stirred him to +chivalrous pity. He was shrewd enough to realize that if he persisted he +could force her to come to him. Her father and mother were with him; she +had nothing--no commonplace usefulness nor trained abilities--to fall +back on if she defied them. But it was unthinkable that he should +brutally compel her. + +"Well," he yielded at length, "I must try to face the situation; I want +to assure you that it is not a pleasant one to me. But there's another +point--I'm afraid I've made things worse for you. Your people will +probably blame you for sending me away." + +Evelyn did not answer this, and he broke into a grim smile. + +"Well," he added, "I think I can save you any trouble on that +score--though the course I'm going to take isn't flattering, if you look +at it in one way, I want you to leave me to deal with your father." + +He took her consent for granted, and leaning down laid a hand lightly on +her shoulder. + +"You will try to forgive me for the anxiety I have caused you? The time +I've spent here has been very pleasant, but I'm going back to Canada in a +day or two. Perhaps you'll think of me without bitterness now and then." + +He turned away; and Evelyn sat still, glad that the strain was over, +thinking earnestly. The man was gentle and considerate as well as +forceful, and to some extent she liked him. Indeed, she admitted that she +had not met any man she liked as much; but that was not going very far. +Then she began to wonder at her candor, and to consider if it had been +necessary. It was curious that this was the only man she had ever taken +into her confidence. It struck her that her next suitor would probably be +a much less promising specimen. On the other hand, since her views on the +subject differed from those her parents held, it was consoling to +remember that eligible suitors for the daughter of an impoverished +gentleman were likely to be scarce. + +It had grown dark when she rose and entering the house went up to Mabel's +room. The girl looked at her sharply as she came in. + +"So you have got rid of him!" she said. "I think you're very silly." + +"How did you know?" Evelyn asked with a start. + +"I heard him walking up and down the terrace, and I heard you go out. You +can't walk over raked gravel without making a noise. He went along to +join you, and it was a good while before you came back at different +times. I've been waiting for this the last day or two." + +Evelyn sat down with a rather strained smile. + +"Well, I have sent him away." + +Mabel regarded her indignantly. + +"You'll never get another chance like this one. If I'd been in your +place, I'd have had Wallace if it had cost me no end of trouble to get +him. He said something about its being a pity I wasn't older, one day, +and I told him that I wasn't by any means as young as I looked. If you +had only taken him, I could have worn decent frocks. Nobody could call +the last one that!" + +This was a favorite grievance, and Evelyn ignored it; but Mabel had +more to say. + +"I suppose," she went on, "you don't know that Wallace has been getting +Gerald out of trouble?" + +"Are you sure of that?" + +"Yes. I'll tell you what I know. Wallace saw Gerald in London--he told us +that--and we all know that Gerald couldn't pay his debts a little while +ago. You remember he came down to Kendall and went on and stayed the next +night with the Claytons. It isn't astonishing that he didn't come here, +after the row there was on the last occasion." + +"Go on," prompted Evelyn impatiently. "What has his visit to the +Clayton's to do with it?" + +"Well, you don't know that I saw Gerald in the afternoon. After all, he's +the only brother I've got; and as Jim was going to the station with the +trap I made him take me. The Claytons were in the garden; we were +scattered about, and I heard Frank and Gerald, who had strolled off from +the others, talking. Gerald was telling him about some things he'd +bought--they must have been expensive, because Frank asked him where he +got the money. Gerald laughed and said he'd had an unexpected stroke of +luck that had set him straight again. Now, of course Gerald got no money +from home, and if he'd won it he would have told Frank how he did so. +Gerald always would tell a thing like that." + +Evelyn was filled with confusion and hot indignation. She had little +doubt that Mabel's surmise was correct. + +"I wonder whether he has told anybody; though it's scarcely likely." + +Mabel laughed. + +"Of course he hasn't. We all know what Gerald is. Before I came home, I +asked him what he thought of Wallace. He said he was a good sort, or +something like that, and I saw that he had a reason for saying it; but +he must go on in his patronizing style that Wallace was rather +Colonial, though he hadn't drifted too far--not beyond reclamation. +After all, Wallace was one of--us--before he went out; and if Carroll's +Colonial he's the kind of man I like. I was so angry with Gerald I +wanted to slap him!" + +There was no doubt that Mabel was a staunch partizan, and Evelyn +sympathized with her. She was, of course, acquainted with her brother's +character, and she was filled with indignant contempt for him. It was +intolerable that he should have allowed Vane to discharge his debts and +then have alluded to him in terms of indulgent condescension. + +"It strikes me Wallace ought to get his money back, now that you have +sent him away," Mabel added. "But of course that's most unlikely. It +wouldn't take Gerald long to waste it." + +Evelyn rose and, making some excuse, left the room. She could feel her +face growing hot, and Mabel had unusually keen eyes and precocious powers +of deduction. A suspicion which had troubled her more than Gerald's +conduct had lately crept into her mind, and it now thrust itself upon her +attention; several things pointed to the fact that her father had taken +the same course her brother had done. She felt that had she heard Mabel's +information before the interview with Vane, she might have yielded to him +in an agony of humiliation. Mabel had summed up the situation with +stinging candor and crudity--Vane, who had been defrauded, was entitled +to recover his money. For a few moments Evelyn was furiously angry with +him, and then, growing calmer, she recognized that this was unreasonable. +She could not imagine any idea of a compact originating with the man, and +he had quietly acquiesced in her decision. + +Soon after she left her sister, Vane walked into the room which Chisholm +reserved for his own use. It was handsomely furnished, and the big, +light-oak writing-table and glass-fronted cabinets were examples of +artistic handicraft. The sight of them jarred on Vane, who had already +surmised that it was the women of the Chisholm family who were expected +to practise self-denial. Chisholm was sitting at the table with some +papers in front of him and a cigar in his hand, and Vane drew out a chair +and lighted his pipe before he addressed him. + +"I've made up my mind to sail on Saturday, instead of next week," he +said abruptly. + +"You have decided rather suddenly, haven't you?" Chisholm suggested. + +Vane knew that what his host wished to know was the cause of the +decision, and he meant to come to the point. He was troubled by no +consideration for the man. + +"The last news I had indicated that I was wanted," he replied. "After +all, there is only one reason why I have abused Mrs. Chisholm's +hospitality so long." + +"Well?" + +"You will remember what I asked you some time ago. I had better say that +I retire from the position--abandon the idea." + +Chisholm started and his florid face grew redder, while Vane, in place of +embarrassment, was conscious of a somewhat grim amusement. It seemed +curious that a man of Chisholm's stamp should have any pride. + +"What am I to understand by that?" Chisholm asked with some asperity. + +"I think that what I said explained it. Bearing in mind your and Mrs. +Chisholm's influence, I've an idea that Evelyn might have yielded, if I'd +strongly urged my suit; but that was not by any means what I wanted. I'd +naturally prefer a wife who married me because she wished to do so. +That's why, after thinking the thing over, I've decided to--withdraw." + +Chisholm straightened himself in his chair in fiery indignation, which he +made no attempt to conceal. + +"You mean that after asking my consent, and seeing more of Evelyn, you +have changed your mind! Can't you understand that it's an unpardonable +confession--one which I never fancied a man born and brought up in your +station could have brought himself to make?" + +Vane looked at him with an impassive face. + +"It strikes me as largely a question of terms--I may not have used the +right one. Now that you know how the matter stands, you can describe it +in any way that sounds nicest. In regard to your other remark, I've been +in a good many stations, and I must admit that until lately none of them +were likely to promote much delicacy of sentiment." + +"So it seems!" Chisholm was almost too hot to sneer. "But can't you +realize how your action reflects upon my daughter?" + +Vane held himself in hand. He had only one object: to divert Chisholm's +wrath from Evelyn to himself, and he fancied that he was succeeding in +this. For the rest, he was conscious of a strong resentment against the +man. Evelyn had told him that he had started handicapped. + +"It can't reflect upon her unless you talk about it, and both you and +Mrs. Chisholm have sense enough to refrain from doing that," he answered +dryly. "I can't flatter myself that Evelyn will grieve over me." Then his +manner changed. "Now we'll get down to business. I don't purpose to call +in that loan, which will, no doubt, be a relief to you." + +He rose leisurely and strolled out of the room. + +Shortly afterward he met Carroll in the hall, and the latter glanced at +him sharply. + +"What have you been doing?" he inquired. "There's a look in your eyes I +seem to remember." + +Vane laughed. + +"I suppose I've been outraging the rules of decency; but I don't feel +ashamed. I've been acting the uncivilized Westerner, though it's possible +that I rather strained the part. To come to the point, however, we pull +out for the Dominion first thing to-morrow." + +Carroll asked no further questions; he did not think it would serve any +purpose. He contented himself with making arrangements for their +departure, which they took early on the morrow. Vane had a brief +interview with Mabel, and then by her contrivance he secured a word or +two with Evelyn alone. + +"It is possible," he told her, "that you may hear some hard things of +me--and I count upon your not contradicting them. After all, I think you +owe me that favor. There's just another matter--now that I won't be here +to trouble you, won't you try to think of me leniently?" + +He held her hand for a moment and then turned away, and a few minutes +later he and Carroll left the Dene. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +IN VANCOUVER + + +About a fortnight after Vane's return to Vancouver, he sat one evening on +the veranda of Nairn's house, in company with his host and Carroll, +lazily looking down upon the inlet. The days were growing shorter; the +air was clear and cool; and the snow upon the heights across the still, +blue water was creeping lower down. The clatter of a steamer's winches +rose sharply from the wharf, and the sails of two schooners gleamed +against the dark pines that overhang the Narrows. + +In some respects, Vane was glad to be back in the western city. At first, +the ease and leisure at the Dene had their charm for him, but by degrees +he came to chafe at them. The green English valley, hemmed in by its +sheltering hills, was steeped in too profound a tranquillity; the stream +of busy life passed it by with scarcely an entering ripple to break its +drowsy calm. One found its atmosphere enervating, dulling to the +faculties. In the new West, however, one was forcibly thrust into contact +with a strenuous activity. Life was free and untrammeled there; it flowed +with a fierce joyousness in natural channels, and one could feel the +eager throb of it. + +Yet the man was not content. He had been to the mine, and in going and +coming he had ridden far over a very rough trail, but the physical effort +had not afforded a sufficient outlet for his pent-up energies. He had +afterward lounged about the city for nearly a week, and he found this +becoming monotonous. + +Nairn presently referred to one of the papers in his hand. + +"Horsfield has been bringing up that smelter project again, and there's +something to be said in favor of his views," he remarked. "We're paying a +good deal for reduction." + +"We couldn't keep a smelter going, at present," Vane objected. + +"There are two or three low-grade mineral properties in the neighborhood +of the Clermont that have had very little development work done on them. +They can't pay freight on their raw product, but I'm thinking that we'd +encourage their owners to open up the mines, and we'd get their business, +if we had a smelter handy." + +"It wouldn't amount to much," Vane replied. "Besides, there's another +objection--we haven't the money to put up a thoroughly efficient plant." + +"Horsfield's ready to find part of it and to do the work." + +"I know he is." Vane frowned. "It strikes me he's suspiciously anxious. +The arrangement he has in view would give him a pretty strong hold upon +the company; and there are ways in which he could squeeze us." + +"It's possible. But, looking at it as a purely personal matter, there are +inducements he could offer ye. Horsfield's a man who has the handling of +other folks' money, if he has no that much of his own. It might be wise +to stand in with him." + +"So he hinted," Vane answered dryly. + +"Your argument was about the worst you could have used, Mr. Nairn," +Carroll laughed. + +"Weel," drawled Nairn good-humoredly, "I'm no urging it. I would not see +your partner make enemies for the want of a warning." + +"He'd probably do so, in any case; it's a gift of his. On the other hand, +it's fortunate that he has a way of making friends. The two things +sometimes go together." + +Vane turned to Nairn with signs of impatience. + +"It might save trouble if I state that while I'm a director of the +Clermont I expect to be content with a fair profit on my stock in +the company." + +"He's modest," Carroll commented. "What he means is that he doesn't +propose to augment that profit by taking advantage of his position." + +"It's a creditable idea, though I'm no sure it's as common as might be +desired. While I have to thank ye for it, I would not consider the +explanation altogether necessary." Nairn's eyes twinkled for a moment, +and then he turned seriously to Vane. "Now we come to another point--the +company's a small one, the mine is doing satisfactorily, and the moment's +favorable for the floating of mineral properties. If we got an option on +the half-developed claims near the Clermont and went into the market, +it's likely that an issue of new stock would meet with the favor of +investors." + +"I suppose so," Vane responded. "I'll support such a scheme when I can +see how an increased capital could be used to advantage and am convinced +about the need for a smelter. At present that's not the case." + +"I mentioned it as a duty---ye'll hear more of it. For the rest, I'm +inclined to agree with ye." + +A few minutes later, Nairn went into the house with Carroll, and as they +entered he glanced at his companion. + +"In the present instance, Mr. Vane's views are sound," he said. "But I +see difficulties before him in his business career." + +"So do I," smiled Carroll. "When he grapples with them it will be by a +frontal attack." + +"A bit of compromise is judicious now and then." + +"In a general way, it's not likely to appeal to Vane. When he can't get +through by direct means, there'll be something wrecked. You'd better +understand what kind of man he is." + +Nairn made a sign of concurrence. + +"It's no the first time I've been enlightened upon the point." + +Shortly after they had disappeared, Miss Horsfield came out of another +door, and Vane rose when she approached him. He had always found her a +pleasant companion. + +"Mrs. Nairn told me I would find you and the others on the veranda," she +informed him. "She said she would join you presently. It is too fine an +evening to stay in." + +"I'm alone, as you see. Nairn and Carroll have just deserted me: but I +can't complain. What pleases me most about this house is that you can +do what you like in it, and--within limits--the same thing applies to +this city." + +Jessy laughed as she sank gracefully into the chair he drew forward. She +was, as a rule, deliberate in her movements, and her pose was usually an +effective one. + +"Yes," she replied; "I think that would please you. But how long have you +been back?" + +"A fortnight, yesterday." + +There was a hint of reproach in Jessy's glance. + +"Then I think Mrs. Nairn might have brought you over to see us." + +Vane wondered whether she meant that she was surprised that he had not +come of his own accord. He felt mildly flattered. She was interesting, +and knew how to listen sympathetically, as well as how to talk, and she +was also a lady of station in the western city. + +"I was away at the mine a good deal of the time," he explained. + +"I wonder if you are sorry to get back?" + +Turning a little, Vane indicated the climbing city, rising tier on tier +above its water-front; and then the broad expanse of blue inlet and the +faint white line of towering snow. + +"Wouldn't anything I could say in praise of Vancouver be a trifle +superfluous?" he asked. + +Jessy recognized that he had parried her question neatly, but this did +not deter her. She was anxious to learn whether he had felt any regret at +leaving England, or, to be more concise, if there was anybody in that +country from whom he had reluctantly parted. She admitted that the man +attracted her. There was a breezy freshness about him which he had +brought from the rocks and woods, and though she was acquainted with a +number of young men whose conversation was characterized by snap and +sparkle, they needed toning down. This miner was set apart from them by +something which he had doubtless acquired in youth in the older land. + +"That wasn't quite what I meant," she returned. "We don't always want to +be flattered. I'm in search of information. You told me that you had +been eight or nine years in this country, and life must be rather +different yonder. How did it and the people you belong to strike you +after the absence?" + +"It's difficult to explain," Vane replied with an air of amused +reflection which hinted that he meant to get away from the point. "On +the whole, I think I'm more interested in the question as to how I +struck them. It's curious that whereas some people here insist on +considering me English, I've a suspicion that they looked upon me as a +typical Colonial there." + +"One wouldn't like to think you resented it." + +"How could I? This land sheltered me when I was an outcast; it provided +me with a living, widened my views, and set me on my feet." + +"Ah!" murmured Jessy, "you are the kind we don't mind taking in. The +others go back and try to forget us, or abuse us. But you haven't given +me very much information yet." + +"Well," drawled Vane, "the best comparison is supplied by my first +remark--that in this city you can do what you like. You're rather fenced +in yonder. If you're of a placid disposition, that, no doubt, is +comforting, because it shuts out unpleasant things. On the other hand, if +you happen to be restless and active, the fences are inconvenient, for +you can't always climb over--and it is not considered proper to break +them down. Still, having admitted that, I'm proud of the old land. If one +has means and will conform, it's the finest country in the world! It's +only the fences that irritate me." + +"Fences would naturally be obnoxious to you. But we have some here." + +"They're generally built loose, of split-rails, and not nailed. An +energetic man can pull off a bar or two and stride over. If it's +necessary, he can afterward put them up again, and there's no harm done." + +"Would you do the latter?" + +Vane's expression changed. + +"No. I think if there were anything good on the other side, I'd widen the +gap so that the less agile and the needy could crawl through." He smiled +at her. "You see, I owe some of them a good deal. They were the only +friends I had when I first tramped, jaded and footsore, about the +Province." + +Jessy was pleased with his answer. She had heard of the free hospitality +of the bush choppers, and she thought it was a graceful thing that he +should acknowledge his debt to them. She was also pleased that she could +lead him on to talk unreservedly. + +"Now at last you'll be content to rest a while," she suggested. "I dare +say you deserve it." + +"It's strange that you should say that, because just before you came out +of the house I was thinking that I'd sat still long enough. It's a thing +that gets monotonous. One must keep going on." + +"Take care that you don't walk over a precipice some day when you have +left all the fences behind. But I've kept you from your meditations, and +I had better see if Mrs. Nairn is coming." + +He was sitting alone, lighting a cigar, when he noticed a girl whose +appearance seemed familiar in the road below. Moving along the veranda, +he recognized her as Kitty, and hastily crossed the lawn toward her. She +was accompanied by a young man whom Vane had once or twice seen in the +city, and she greeted him with evident pleasure. + +"Tom," she introduced, when they had exchanged a few words, "this is Mr. +Vane." Turning to Vane she added: "Mr. Drayton." + +Vane liked the man's face and manner. He shook hands with him, and then +looked back at Kitty. + +"What are you doing now; and how are little Elsie and her mother?" + +Kitty's face clouded. + +"Mrs. Marvin's dead. Elsie's with some friends at Spokane, and I think +she's well looked after. I've given up the stage. Tom"--she explained +shyly--"didn't like it. Now I'm with some people at a ranch near the +Fraser, on the Westminster road. There are two or three children, and I'm +very fond of them." + +"She won't be there long," Drayton interposed. "I've wanted to meet you +for some time, Mr. Vane. They told me at the office that you were away." + +Vane smiled comprehendingly. + +"I suppose my congratulations will not be out of place? Won't you ask me +to the wedding?" + +Kitty blushed. + +"Will you come?" + +"Try!" + +"There's nobody we would rather see," declared Drayton. "I'm heavily in +your debt, Mr. Vane." + +"Pshaw!" rejoined Vane. "Come to see me any time--to-morrow, if you can +manage it." + +Drayton said that he would do so, and shortly afterward he and Kitty +moved away. Vane turned back across the lawn; but he was not aware that +Jessy Horsfield had watched the meeting from the veranda and had +recognized Kitty, whom she had once seen at the station. She had already +ascertained that the girl had arrived in Vancouver in Vane's company, +and, in view of the opinion she had formed of him, this somewhat puzzled +her; but she decided that one must endeavor to be charitable. Besides, +having closely watched the little group, she was inclined to believe from +the way Vane shook hands with the man that there was no danger to be +apprehended from Kitty. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A NEW PROJECT + + +Vane was sitting alone in the room set apart for the Clermont Company in +Nairn's office when Drayton was shown in. He took the chair Vane +indicated and lighted a cigar the latter gave him. + +"Now," he began with some diffidence, "you cut me off short when I met +you the other day, and one of my reasons for coming over was to get +through with what I was saying then. It's just this--I owe you a good +deal for taking care of Kitty; she's very grateful and thinks no end of +you. I want to say I'll always feel that you have a claim on me." + +Vane smiled at him. It was evident that Kitty had taken her lover into +her confidence with regard to her trip aboard the sloop, and that she had +done so said a good deal for her. He thought one might have expected a +certain amount of half-jealous resentment, or even faint suspicion, on +the man's part; but there was no sign of this. Drayton believed in Kitty, +and that was strongly in his favor. + +"It didn't cost me any trouble," Vane replied. "We were coming to +Vancouver, anyway." + +Drayton's embarrassment became more obvious. + +"It cost you some money--there were the tickets. Now I feel that I +have to--" + +"Nonsense! When you are married to Miss Blake, you can pay me back, if +it will be a relief to you. When's the wedding to be?" + +"In a couple of months," answered Drayton. He saw that it would be +useless to protest. "I'm a clerk in the Winstanley mills, and as one of +the staff is going, I'll get a move up then. We are to be married as +soon as I do." + +He said a little more on the same subject, and then after a few moments' +silence he added: + +"I wonder if the Clermont business keeps your hands full, Mr. Vane?" + +"It doesn't. It's a fact I'm beginning to regret." + +Drayton appeared to consider. + +"Well," he said, "people seem to regard you as a rising man with snap in +him, and there's a matter I might, perhaps, bring before you. Let me +explain. I'm a clerk on small pay, but I've taken an interest outside my +routine work in the lumber trade of this Province and its subsidiary +branches. I figured any knowledge I could pick up might stand me in some +money some day. So far"--he smiled ruefully--"it hasn't done so." + +"Go on," prompted Vane. His curiosity was aroused. + +"It has struck me that pulping spruce--paper spruce--is likely to be +scarce presently. The supply's not unlimited and the world's consumption +is going up by jumps." + +"There's a good deal of timber you could use for pulp, in British +Columbia alone," Vane interposed. + +"Sure. But there's not a very great deal that could be milled into +high-grade paper pulp; and it's getting rapidly worked out in most other +countries. Then, as a rule, it's mixed up with firs, cedars and +cypresses; and that means the cutting of logging roads to each cluster of +milling trees. There's another point--a good deal of the spruce lies back +from water or a railroad, and in some cases it would be costly to bring +in a milling plant or to pack the pulp out." + +"That's obvious; anyway, where you would have to haul every pound of +freight over a breakneck divide." + +Drayton leaned forward confidentially. + +"Then if one struck high-grade paper spruce--a whole valley full of +it--with water power and easy access to the sea, there ought to be money +in the thing?" + +"Yes," Vane answered with growing interest; "that strikes me as very +probable." + +"I believe I could put you on the track of such a valley." + +Vane looked at him thoughtfully. + +"We'd better understand each other. Do you want to sell me your +knowledge? And have you offered it to anybody else?" + +His companion answered with the candor he expected. + +"Kitty and I aren't going to find it easy to get along--rents are high in +this city. I want to give her as much as I can; but I'm willing to leave +you to do the square thing. The Winstanley people have their hands full +and won't look at any outside matter, and the one or two people I've +spoken to don't seem anxious to consider it. It's mighty hard for a +little man to launch a project." + +"It is," Vane agreed sympathetically. + +"Then," Drayton continued, "the idea's not my own. It was a mineral +prospector--a relative of mine--who struck the valley on his last trip. +He's an old man, and he came down played out and sick. Now I guess he's +slowly dying." He paused a moment. "Would you like to see him?" + +"I'll go with you now, if it's convenient," Vane replied. + +Drayton said that he might spare another half-hour without getting into +trouble, and they crossed the city to where a row of squalid frame +shacks stood on its outskirts. In the one they entered, a gaunt man +with grizzled hair lay upon a rickety bed. A glance showed Vane that +the man was very frail, and the harsh cough that he broke into as the +colder air from outside flowed in made the fact clearer. Drayton, +hastily shutting the door and explaining the cause of the visit, +motioned Vane to sit down. + +"I've heard of you," said the prospector, fixing his eyes on Vane. +"You're the man who located the Clermont--and put the project through. +You had the luck. I've been among the ranges half my life--and you can +see how much I've made of it! When I struck a claim that was worth +anything somebody else got the money." + +Vane had reasons for believing that this was not an uncommon experience. + +"Well," the man continued, "you look straight--and I've got to take some +chances. It's my last stake. We'll get down to business. I'll tell you +about that spruce." + +He spoke for a few minutes, and then asked abruptly: + +"What are you going to offer?" + +Vane had not been certain that he would make any offer at all; but, as +had befallen him once or twice before, the swift decision flashed +instinctively into his mind. + +"If I find that the timber and its location come up to your account of +it, I'll pay you so many dollars down--whatever we can agree on--when I +get my lease from the land office. Then I'll make another equal payment +the day we start the mill. But I don't bind myself to record the timber +or to put up a mill, unless I'm convinced that it's worth while." + +"I'd rather take less money and have a small share in the concern; and +Drayton must stand in." + +"It's a question of terms," Vane replied. "I'll consider your views." + +They discussed it for a while, and when they had at length arrived at a +provisional understanding, the prospector made a sign of acquiescence. + +"We'll let it go at that; but the thing will take time, and I'll +never get the money. If you exercise your option, you'll sure pay it +down to Seely?" + +"Celia's his daughter," Drayton explained. "He has no one else. She's a +waitress at the ---- House." He named a hotel of no great standing in the +city. "Comes home at nights, and looks after him as best she can." + +Vane glanced round the room. It was evident that Celia's earnings were +small; but he noticed several things which suggested that she had +lavished loving care upon the sick man, probably at the cost of severe +self-denial. This was what he would have expected, for he had spent most +of his nine years in Canada among the people who toil the hardest for +the least reward. + +"Yes," he answered; "I'll promise that. But, as I pointed out, while we +have agreed on the two payments, I reserve the right of deciding what +share your daughter and Drayton are to have, within the limits sketched +out. I can't fix it definitely until I've seen the timber--you'll have to +trust me." + +The prospector once more looked at him steadily, and then implied by a +gesture that he was satisfied. He was not in a position to dictate terms, +but his confidence had its effect on the man in whom he reposed it. + +"There's another thing. You'll do all you can to find that spruce?" + +"Yes," Vane promised. + +The man fumbled under his pillow and produced a piece cut out from a map +of the Province, with rough pencil notes on the back of it. + +"It was on my last prospecting trip I found the spruce," he said. "I'd +been looking round, and I figured I'd strike down to the coast over the +range. The creeks were full up with snow-water, and as I was held up here +and there before I could get across, provisions began to run short. Then +I fell down a gulch and hurt my knee, and as I had to leave my tent and +it rained most of the while, I lay in the wet at nights, half-fed, with +my knee getting worse. By and by I fell sick; but I had to get out of the +mountains, and I was pushing on for the straits when I struck the valley +where the spruce is. After that, I got kind of muddled in the head, but I +went down a long valley on an easy grade and struck some Siwash curing +the last of the salmon. The trouble is, I was too sick to figure exactly +where the small inlet they were camped by lies. They took me back with +them to their rancherie--you could find that--and sailed me across to +Comox. I came down on a steamboat, and the doctor told me I'd made my +last journey." + +Vane could sympathize. The narrative had been crudely matter-of-fact, but +he had been out on the prospecting trail often enough to fill in the +details the sick man omitted. He had slept in the rain, very scantily +fed, and he could picture the starving man limping along in an agony of +pain and exhaustion, with an injured knee, over boulders and broken rock +and through dense tangles of underbrush strewed with mighty fallen logs. + +"How far was the valley from the inlet?" he asked. + +"I can't tell you. I think I was three days on the trail; but it might +have been more. I was too sick to remember. Anyway, there was a creek you +could run the logs down." + +"Well, how far was the inlet from the rancherie?" + +"I was in the canoe part of one night and some of the next day. I can't +get it any clearer. We had a fair breeze. Guess thirty miles wouldn't +be far out." + +"That's something to go upon. How much does your daughter earn?" + +It was an abrupt change of subject, but the man answered as Vane had +expected. The girl's wages might maintain her economically, but it was +difficult to see how she could provide for her sick father. The latter +seemed to guess Vane's thoughts, for he spoke again. + +"If I'd known I was done for when I was up in the bush, I wouldn't have +pushed on quite so fast," he said with expressive simplicity. + +Vane rose. + +"If Drayton will come along with me, I'll send him back with a hundred +dollars. It's part of the first payment. Your getting it now should make +things a little easier for Celia." + +"But you haven't located the spruce yet!" + +"I'm going to locate it, if the thing's anyway possible." Vane shook +hands with the man. "I expect to get off up the straits very shortly." + +The prospector looked at him with relief and gratitude in his eyes. + +"You're white--and I guess you'd be mighty hard to beat!" + +When they reached the rutted street, which was bordered on one side by +great fir stumps, Drayton glanced at Vane with open admiration. + +"I'm glad I brought you across. You have a way of getting hold of +people--making them believe in you. Hartley hasn't a word in writing, but +he knows you mean to act square with him. Kitty felt the same thing--it +was why she came down in the sloop with you." + +Vane smiled, though there was a trace of embarrassment in his manner. + +"Now that you mention it, I don't think Hartley was wise; and you were +equally confiding. We have only arrived at a rather indefinite +understanding about your share." + +"We'll leave it at that. I haven't struck anybody else in this city who +would hear about the thing. Anyway, I'd prefer a few shares in the +concern, as mentioned, instead of money. If you get the thing on foot, I +guess it will go." + +"Won't they raise trouble at the mill about your staying out?" Vane +inquired. "We have still to go for that hundred dollars." + +Drayton owned that it might be advisable to hurry, and they set off for +the business quarter of the city. + +During the remainder of the day Vane was busy on board the sloop, but in +the evening he walked over to Horsfield's house with Mrs. Nairn and found +Jessy and her brother at home. Horsfield presently took Vane to his +smoking-room. + +"About that smelter," he began. "Haven't you made up your mind yet? The +thing's been hanging fire a long while." + +"Isn't it a matter for the board?" Vane asked suggestively. "There are +several directors." + +Horsfield laughed. + +"We'll face the fact: they'll do what you decide on." + +Vane did not reply to this. + +"Well," he said, "at present we couldn't keep a smelter big enough to be +economical going, and I'm doubtful whether we would get much ore from the +other properties you were talking about to Nairn." + +"Did he say it was my idea?" + +"He didn't; I'd reasons for assuming it. Those properties, however, are +of no account." + +Horsfield made no comment but waited expectantly, and Vane went on: + +"If it seems possible that we can profitably increase our output later +on, by means of further capital, we'll put up a smelter. But in that +case it might be economical to do the work ourselves." + +"Who would superintend it?" + +"I would, if necessary, with the assistance of an engineer used to +such plant." + +Horsfield smiled in a significant manner. + +"Aren't you inclined to take hold of too much? When you have plenty in +your hands, it's good policy to leave a little for somebody else. +Sometimes the person who benefits is willing to reciprocate." + +The hint was plain, and Nairn had said sufficient on another occasion to +make it clearer; but Vane did not respond. + +"If we gave the work out, it would be on an open tender," he declared. +"There would be no reason why you shouldn't make a bid." + +Horsfield found it difficult to conceal his disgust. He had no desire to +bid on an open tender, which would prevent his obtaining anything beyond +the market price. + +"The question must stand over until I come back," Vane went on. "I'm +going up the west coast shortly and may be away some time." + +They left the smoking-room shortly afterward, and when they strolled back +to the others, Vane sat down near Jessy. + +"I hear you are going away," she began. + +"Yes. I'm going to look for pulping timber." + +"But what do you want with pulping timber?" + +"It can sometimes be converted into money." + +"Isn't there every prospect of your obtaining a good deal already? Are +you never satisfied?" + +"I suppose I'm open to take as much as I can get." + +Vane answered with an air of humorous reflection. "The reason probably is +that I've had very little until lately. Still, I don't think it's +altogether the money that is driving me." + +"If it's the restlessness you once spoke of, you ought to put a check on +it and try to be content. There's danger in the longing to be always +going on." + +"It's a common idea that a small hazard gives a thing a spice." + +Jessy shot a swift glance at him, and she had, as he noticed, +expressive eyes. + +"Be careful," she advised. "After all, it's wiser to keep within safe +limits and not climb over too many fences." She paused and her voice grew +softer. "You have friends who would be sorry if you got hurt." + +The man was stirred. She was alluring, physically, while something in her +voice had its effect on him. Evelyn, however, still occupied his thoughts +and he smiled at his companion. + +"Thank you. I like to believe it." + +Then Mrs. Nairn and Horsfield crossed the room toward them and the +conversation became general. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +VANE SAILS NORTH + + +On the evening of Vane's departure he walked out of Nairn's room just as +dusk was falling. His host was with him, and when they entered an +adjacent room the elder man's face relaxed into a smile as he saw Jessy +Horsfield talking to his wife. Vane stopped a few minutes to speak to +them, and it was Jessy who gave the signal for the group to break up. + +"I must go," she said to Mrs. Nairn. "I've already stayed longer than I +intended. I'll let you have those patterns back in a day or two." + +"Mair patterns!" Nairn exclaimed with dry amusement. "It's the second lot +this week! Ye're surely industrious, Jessy. Women"--he addressed +Vane--"have curious notions of economy. They will spend a month knitting +a thing to give to somebody who does no want it, when they could buy it +for half a dollar, done better by machinery. I'm no saying, however, that +it does no keep them out of mischief." + +Jessy laughed. + +"I don't think many of us are industrious in that way now. After all, +isn't it a pity that so many of the beautiful old handicrafts are dying +out? No loom, for instance, could turn out some of the things your wife +makes. They're matchless." + +"She has an aumrie--ye can translate it bureaufull of them. It's no +longer customary to scatter them over the house. If ye mean to copy the +lot, ye have a task that will take ye most a lifetime." + +Mrs. Nairn's smile was half a sigh. + +"There were no books and no many amusements when I was young. We sat +through the long winter forenights, counting stitches, in the old gray +house at Burnfoot, under the Scottish moors. That, my dear, was thirty +years ago." + +She shook hands with Vane as he left the house with Jessy, and standing +on the stoop she watched them cross the lawn. + +"I'm thinking ye'll no see so much of Jessy for the next few weeks," +Nairn remarked dryly. "Has she shown ye any of yon knickknacks when she +has finished them?" + +His wife shook her head at him reproachfully. + +"Alic," she admonished, "ye're now and then hasty in jumping at +conclusions." + +"Maybe. I'm no infallible, but the fault ye mention is no common in the +land where we were born. I'm no denying that Jessy has enterprise, but +how far it will carry her in this case is mair than I can tell." + +He smiled as he recalled a scene at the station some time ago, and Mrs. +Nairn looked up at him. + +"What is amusing you, Alic?" + +"It was just a bit idea no worth the mentioning. I think it would no +count." He paused, and added with an air of reflection: "A young man's +heart is whiles inconstant and susceptible." + +Mrs. Nairn, ignoring the last remark, went into the house. In the +meanwhile Jessy and Vane walked down the road, until they stopped at a +gate. Jessy held out her hand. + +"I'm glad I met you to-night," she said. "You will allow me to wish you +every success?" + +There was a softness in her voice which Vane wholly failed to notice, +though he was aware that she was pretty and artistically dressed. This +was possibly why she made him think of Evelyn. + +"Thank you," he replied. "It's nice to feel that one has the sympathy of +one's friends." + +He turned away, and Jessy stood watching him as he strode down the road, +noticing, though it was getting dark, the free vigor of his movements. +There was, she thought, something in his fine poise and swing that set +him apart from other men she knew. None of them walked or carried himself +as Vane did. She was, however, forced to recognize that although he had +answered her courteously, there had been no warmth in his words. As a +matter of fact, Vane just then was conscious of a slight relief. He +admired Jessy, and he liked Nairn and his wife; but they belonged to the +city; and he was glad, on the whole, to leave it behind. He was going +back to the shadowy woods, where men lived naturally. The lust of fresh +adventure was strong in him. + +On reaching the wharf he found Kitty, with Celia Hartley, whom he had not +met hitherto, awaiting him with Carroll and Drayton. A boat lay at the +steps, and he and Carroll rowed the others off to the sloop. The moon was +just rising from behind the black firs at the inner end of the inlet, and +a little cold wind that blew down across them, faintly scented with +resinous fragrance, stirred the water into tiny ripples that flashed into +silvery radiance here and there. Lights gleamed on the forestays of +vessels whose tall spars were etched in high, black tracery against the +dusky blue of the sky, athwart which there streamed the long smoke trail +of a steamer passing out through the Narrows. + +Kitty, urged by Drayton, broke into a little song with a smooth, swinging +cadence that went harmoniously with the measured splash of oars; and Vane +enjoyed it all. The city was dropping behind him; he felt himself at +liberty. Carroll was a tried comrade; the others were simple people whose +views were more or less his own. Besides, it was a glorious night and +Kitty sang charmingly. + +A soft glow shone out from the skylights to welcome them as they +approached the sloop. When, laughing gaily, they clambered on board, +Carroll led the way to the tiny saloon, which just held them all. It was +brightly lighted by two nickeled lamps; flowers were fastened against the +paneling, and clusters of them stood upon the table, which was covered +with a spotless cloth. What was even more unusual, it was daintily set +out with good china and silver. Vane took the head of it, and Carroll +modestly explained that only part of the supper had been prepared by +himself. The rest he had obtained in the city, out of regard for the +guests, who, he added, had not lived in the bush. Presently Vane, who had +been busy talking to the others, turned to Celia. + +"Now that we can see each other better, I think you ought to recognize +me, Miss Hartley." + +The girl was young and attractive, and she blushed prettily. + +"I do, of course; but I thought I'd wait until I saw whether you +remembered me." + +"Why should you wait?" + +Celia looked confused. + +"It's two or three years since I've seen you; and I've left that place." + +Vane laughed. He had made her acquaintance at a workman's hotel where she +was engaged, when he was differently situated, and he fancied that she +was diffident about recalling the fact, now that he was obviously +prosperous. + +"Well," he responded, "it's only fair that I should give you supper, for +once. I've always had an idea that you brought me more dessert than I was +really entitled to." + +"It was because you were--civil," Celia explained, though her expression +suggested that the word did not convey all she meant. "Still, I can't +complain of the rest of the boys." + +"I wonder if you remember how astonished you were the first time you +brought me supper?" + +Celia smiled and Vane turned to the others. + +"I'd just come in on a schooner. We'd had wild weather, during which the +galley fire was generally washed out and the cook had some difficulty in +getting us anything to eat. Miss Hartley brought me a double supply. She +must have thought I needed it." + +"There was mighty little left," the girl retorted. + +The others laughed, but Vane went on, in a reminiscent manner: + +"I was wearing a pair of old gum-boots with one toe torn off, and my +jacket was split right up the back. When I went up-town the next day, +people looked at me suspiciously. The trade of the Province is pretty +bad when you see men in Vancouver dressed as I was. The fact that sticks +in my mind most clearly, however, is that on the following morning, when +I'd arranged to see a man who might give me a job, Miss Hartley offered +to sew up the tear for me. I was uncommonly glad to let her." + +Celia colored again, but it was evident that she was not displeased. +Kitty smiled at him, and there was appreciation in Drayton's eyes. + +"Were you surprised when she offered to sew it?" Kitty inquired. + +"Now, you have helped me on to what I wanted to say. I wasn't +surprised--how could I be? The kind of people I'd met out here had seldom +much money, or much of anything; but I had generally less, and they held +out a hand when I needed it and gave me what they had. It stirs me in a +way that almost hurts to think of it." + +Then Carroll started the general chatter, which went on after the meal +was finished, and nobody appeared to notice that Kitty sat with her hand +in Drayton's amid the happy laughter. Even Celia, who had her grief to +grapple with, smiled bravely. Vane had given them champagne, the best in +the city, though they drank sparingly; and at last, when Celia made a +move to rise, Drayton stood up with his glass in his hand. + +"We must go, but there's something to be done," he announced. "It's to +thank our host and wish him success. It's a little boat he's sailing in, +but she's carrying a big freight, if our good wishes count for anything." + +They emptied the glasses, and Vane replied: + +"My success is yours. You have all a stake in the venture, and that +piles up my responsibility. If the spruce is still in existence, I've +got to find it." + +"And you're going to find it!" declared Drayton. "It's a sure thing!" + +Vane divided the flowers between Celia and Kitty, but when they went up +on deck Kitty raised one bunch and kissed it. + +"Tom won't mind," she laughed. "Take that one back from Celia and +me--for luck." + +They got down into the boat, and Carroll handed them a basket of crockery +and table linen which Drayton promised to have delivered at the hotel. +Then, while the girls called back to Vane, Drayton rowed away, and the +boat was fading out of sight when Kitty's voice once more reached the men +on board. She was singing a well-known Jacobite ballad. + +Carroll laughed softly. + +"It strikes me as appropriate," he said. "Considering what his Highland +followers suffered on his account and what the women thought of him, some +of the virtues they credited the Young Chevalier with must have been +real." He raised his hand. "You may as well listen!" + +Vane stood still a moment, with the blood hot in his face, as the refrain +rang more clearly across the sparkling water: + +"Better lo'ed ye cannot be-- +Will ye no come back to me?" + +"I don't know whether you feel flattered, but I've an idea that Kitty and +Celia would go through fire for you; and Drayton seems to share their +confidence," Carroll went on in his most matter-of-fact tone. + +"Celia mended my jacket," Vane replied. "I got a month's work as a +result of it." Then he began to shake the mainsail loose. "I believe +we both went rather far in our talk to-night; but we have got to find +the spruce!" + +"So you have said already. Hadn't you better heave the boom up with the +topping lift?" + +They got the mainsail onto her, broke out the anchor and set the jib; and +as the boat slipped away before a freshening breeze Vane sat at the helm +while Carroll stood on the foredeck, coiling up the gear. The moon was +higher now; the broad sail gleamed a silvery gray; the ripples, which +were getting bigger, flashed and sparkled as they streamed back from the +bows; and the lights of the city dropped fast astern. Vane was conscious +of a keen exhilaration. He had started on a new adventure. He was going +back to the bush; and he knew that, no matter how his life might change, +the wilderness would always call to him. In spite of this, however, he +was, as he had said, conscious of an unusual responsibility. Hitherto he +had fought for what he could get, for himself; but now Kitty's future +partly depended on his efforts, and his success would be of vast +importance to Celia. + +He had a very friendly feeling toward both the girls. Indeed, all the +women he had met of late had attracted him, in different ways. It was +hard to believe that any of them possessed unlovable qualities, though +there was not one among them to compare with Evelyn. Whatever he liked +most in the others--intelligence, beauty, tenderness, courage--reminded +him of her. Kitty, he thought, belonged to the hearth; she personified +gentleness and solace; it would be her part to diffuse cheerful comfort +in the home. Jessy would make an ambitious man's companion; a clever +counselor, who would urge him forward if he lagged. Celia he had not +placed yet; but Evelyn stood apart from all. + +She appealed less to his senses and intellect than she did to a +sublimated something in the depths of his nature; and it somehow seemed +fitting that her image should materialize before his mental vision as the +sloop drove along under the cloudless night sky while the moonlight +poured down glamour on the shining water. Evelyn harmonized with such +things as these. + +It was true that she had repulsed him; but that, he felt, was what he +deserved for entering into an alliance against her with her venial +father. He was glad now that he had acquiesced in her dismissal of him, +since to have stood firm and broken her to his will would have brought +disaster upon both of them. He felt that she had not wholly escaped him, +after all; by and by he would go back and seek her favor by different +means. Then she might, perhaps, forgive him and listen. + +The breeze came down fresher as they drove out through the Narrows. +Carroll had gone below; and, brushing his thoughts aside, Vane busied +himself hauling in some of the mainsheet, while the water splashed more +loudly beneath the bows. The great black firs rolled by in somber +masses over his port hand, and presently the last of the lights were +blotted out. He was alone, flitting swiftly and smoothly across the +glittering sea. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE FIRST MISADVENTURE + + +The breeze freshened fiercely with the red and fiery dawn. Vane, who had +gone below, was advised of it by being flung off the locker in the +saloon, where he sat with coffee and crackers before him. The jug, +overturning, spilled its contents upon him, and the crackers were +scattered, but he picked himself up in haste and scrambled out into the +well. He found the sloop slanted over with a good deal of her lee deck +submerged in rushing foam, and Carroll bracing himself against the strain +upon the tiller. To windward, the sea looked as if it had been strewed +with feathers, for there were flecks and blurs of white everywhere. + +"I'll let her come up when you're ready!" Carroll shouted. "We'd better +get some sail off her, if we mean to hold on to the mast!" + +He thrust down his helm; and the sloop, forging round to windward, rose +upright, with her heavy main-boom banging to and fro. After that, they +were desperately busy for a few minutes. Vane wished that they had +engaged a hand in Vancouver, instead of waiting to hire a Siwash +somewhere up the coast. There was the headsail to haul to windward, which +was difficult, and the mainsheet to get in; then the two men, standing on +the slippery, inclined deck, struggled hard to haul the canvas down to +the boom. The jerking spar smote them in the ribs; once or twice the +reefing tackle beneath it was torn from their hands; but they mastered +the sail, tying two reefs in it, to reduce its size; and the craft drove +away with her lee rail just awash. + +"You'd better go down and get some crackers," Vane advised his comrade. +"You'll find them rolling up and down the floor. I spilled the coffee, +but perhaps the kettle's still on the stove. Anyhow, you may not have an +opportunity later." + +"It looks like that," Carroll agreed. "The wind's backing northward, and +that means more of it before long. You can call, if you want me." + +He disappeared below, and Vane sat at the helm with a frown on his face. +An angry coppery glare streamed down upon the white-flecked water which +gleamed in the lurid light. It was very cold, but there was a wonderful +quality that set the blood tingling in the nipping air. Even upon the +high peaks and in the trackless bush, one fails to find the bracing +freshness that comes with the dawn at sea. + +Vane, however, knew that the breeze would increase and draw ahead, which +was unfortunate, because they would have to beat, fighting for every +fathom they slowly made. There was no help for it, and he buttoned his +jacket against the spray. By the time Carroll came up the sloop was +plunging sharply, pitching showers of stinging brine all over her when +the bows went down. They drove her at it stubbornly most of the day, +making but little to windward, while the seas got bigger and whiter, +until they had some trouble to keep the light boat they carried upon the +deluged deck. At last, when she came bodily aft amid a frothing cascade +which poured into the well, Vane brought the sloop round, and they +stretched away to eastward, until they could let go the anchor in smooth +water beneath a wall of rock. They were very wet, and were stiff with +cold, for winter was drawing near. + +"We'll get supper," said Vane. "If the breeze drops a little at dusk, +which is likely, we'll go on again." + +Having eaten little since dawn, they enjoyed the meal; and Carroll would +have been content to remain at anchor afterward. The tiny saloon was +comfortably warm, and he thought it would be pleasanter to lounge away +the evening on a locker, with his pipe, than to sit amid the bitter spray +at the helm. The breeze had fallen a little, but the firs in a valley +ashore were still wailing loudly. Vane, however, was proof against his +companion's hints. + +"With a head wind, we'll be some time working up to the rancherie, and +then we have thirty miles of coast to search for the inlet Hartley +reached. After that, there's the valley to locate; he was uncertain how +far it lay from the beach." + +"It couldn't be very far. You wouldn't expect a man who was sick and +badly lame to make any great pace." + +"I can imagine a man, who knew he must reach the coast before he starved, +making a pretty vigorous effort. If he were worked-up and desperate, the +pain might turn him savage and drive him on, instead of stopping him. Do +you remember the time we crossed the divide in the snow?" + +"I could remember it, if I wanted to," Carroll answered with a shiver. +"As it happens, that's about the last thing I'm anxious to do." + +"The trouble is that there are a good many valleys in this strip of +country, and we may have to try a number before we strike the right one. +Winter's not far off, and I can't spend very much time over this search. +As soon as the man we put in charge of the mine has tried his present +system long enough to give us something to figure on, I want to see what +can be done to increase our output. We haven't marketed very much refined +metal yet." + +"There's no doubt that it would be advisable," Carroll answered +thoughtfully. "As I've pointed out, you have spent a good deal of the +cash you got when you turned the Clermont over to the company. In fact, +that's one reason why I didn't try to head off this timber-hunting +scheme. You can't spend much over the search, and if the spruce comes up +to expectations, you ought to get it back. It would be a fortunate +change, after your extravagance in England." + +Vane frowned. + +"That's a subject I don't want to talk about. We'll go up and see what +the weather's like." + +Carroll shivered when they stood in the well. It was falling dusk, and +the sky was a curious cold, shadowy blue. A nipping wind came down across +the darkening firs ashore, but there was no doubt that it had fallen +somewhat, and Carroll resigned himself when Vane began to pull the tiers +off the mainsail. + +In a few minutes they were under way, the sloop heading out toward open +water with two reefs down in her mainsail, a gray and ghostly shape of +slanted canvas that swept across the dim, furrowed plain of sea. By +midnight the breeze was as strong as ever, but they had clear moonlight +and they held on; the craft plunging with flooded decks through the +white combers, while Carroll sat at the helm, battered by spray and +stung with cold. + +When Vane came up, an hour or two later, the sea was breaking viciously. +Carroll would have put up his helm and run for shelter, had the decision +been left to him; but he saw his comrade's face in the moonlight and +refrained from any suggestion of that nature. There was a spice of +dogged obstinacy in Vane, which, although on the whole it made for +success, occasionally drove him into needless difficulties. They held +on; and soon after day broke, with its first red flush ominously high in +the eastern sky, they stretched in toward the land, with a somewhat +sheltered bay opening up beyond a foam-fringed point ahead of them. +Carroll glanced dubiously at the white turmoil in the midst of which +black fangs of rock appeared. + +"Will she weather the point on this tack?" he asked. + +"She'll have to! We'll have smoother water to work through, once we're +round, and the tide's helping her." + +They drove on, though it occurred to Carroll that they were not opening +up the bay very rapidly. The light was growing, and he could now discern +the orderly phalanxes of white-topped combers that crumbled into a +chaotic spouting on the point's outer end. It struck him that the sloop +would not last long if she touched bottom there; but once more, after a +glance at Vane's face, he kept silent. After all, Vane was leader; and +when he looked as he did then, he usually resented advice. The mouth of +the bay grew wider, until Carroll could see most of the forest-girt shore +on one side of it; but the surf upon the point was growing unpleasantly +near. Wisps of spray whirled away from it and vanished among the scrubby +firs clinging to the fissured crags behind. The sloop, however, was going +to windward, for Vane was handling her with nerve and skill. She had +almost cleared the point when there was a rattle and a bang inside of +her. Carroll started. + +"It's the centerboard coming up! It must have touched a boulder!" + +"Then jump down and lift it before it strikes another and bends!" cried +Vane. "She's far enough to windward to keep off the beach without it." + +Carroll went below and hove up the centerboard, which projected several +feet beneath the bottom of the craft; but he was not satisfied that the +sloop was far enough off the beach, as Vane seemed to be, and he got out +into the well as soon as possible. + +The worst of the surf was abreast of their quarter now, and less-troubled +water stretched away ahead. Carroll had hardly noticed this, however, +when there was a second heavy crash and the sloop stopped suddenly. The +comber to windward that should have lifted her up, broke all over her, +flinging the boat on deck upon the saloon skylight and pouring inches +deep over the coaming into the well. Vane was hurled from the tiller. His +wet face was smeared with blood, from a cut on his forehead, but he +seized a big oar to shove the sloop off, when she swung upright, moved, +and struck again. The following sea hove her up; there was a third, less +violent, crash; and as Vane dropped the oar and grasped the helm, she +suddenly shot ahead. + +"She'll go clear!" he shouted. "Jump below and see if she's damaged!" + +Carroll got no farther than the scuttle, for the saloon floorings on the +depressed side were already awash, and he could hear an ominous splashing +and gurgling. + +"It's pouring into her!" he cried. + +"Then, you'll have to pump!" + +"We passed an opening some miles to lee. Wouldn't it be better if you ran +back there?" Carroll suggested. + +"No! I won't run a yard! There's another inlet not far ahead and we'll +stand on until we reach it. I'd put her on the beach here, only that +she'd go to pieces with the first shift of the wind to westward." + +Carroll agreed with this opinion; but there is a great difference between +running to leeward with the sea behind the vessel and thrashing to +windward when it is ahead, and he hesitated. + +"Get the pump started! We're going on!" Vane said impatiently. + +Fortunately the pump was a powerful one, of the semi-rotary type, and +they had nearly two miles of smoother water before they stretched out of +the bay upon the other tack. When they did so, Carroll, glancing down +again through the scuttle, could not flatter himself that he had reduced +the water. It was comforting, however, to see that it had not increased, +though he did not expect that state of affairs to last. When they drove +out into broken water, he found it difficult to work the crank. The +plunges threw him against the coaming, and the sea poured in over it +continually. There are not many men who feel equal to determined toil +before their morning meal, and the physical slackness is generally more +pronounced if they have been up most of the preceding night; but Carroll +recognized that he had no choice. There was too much sea for the boat, +even if they could have launched her, and he could make out no spot on +the beach where it seemed possible to effect a landing if they ran the +sloop ashore. As a result of this, it behooved him to pump. + +After half an hour of it, he was breathless and exhausted, and Vane took +his place. The sea was higher; the sloop wetter than she had been; and +there was no doubt that the water was rising fast inside of her. Carroll +wondered how far ahead the inlet lay; and the next two hours were anxious +ones to both of them. Turn about, they pumped with savage determination +and went back, gasping, to the helm to thrash the boat on. They drove her +remorselessly; and she swept through the combers, tilted and streaming, +while the spray scourged the helmsman's face as he gazed to weather. The +men's arms and shoulders ached from working in a cramped position; but +there was no help for it. They toiled on furiously, until at last the +crest of a crag for which they were heading sloped away in front of them. + +A few minutes later they drove past the end of it into a broad lane of +water. The wind was suddenly cut off; the combers fell away; and the +sloop crept slowly up the inlet, which wound, green and placid, among the +hills, with long ranks of firs dropping steeply to the edge of the water. +Vane loosed the pump handle, and striding to the scuttle looked down at +the flood which splashed languidly to and fro below. + +"It strikes me as fortunate that we're in," he commented. "Another +half-hour would have seen the end of her. Let her come up a little! +There's a smooth beach to yonder cove." + +She slid in quietly, scarcely rippling the smooth surface of the tiny +basin, and Carroll laid her on the beach. + +"Now," advised Vane, "we'll drop the boom on the shore side to keep her +from canting over; and then we'll get breakfast. We'll see where she's +damaged when the tide ebbs." + +As most of their stores had lain in the flooded lockers, from which there +had been no time to extricate them, the meal was not an appetizing one. +They were, however, glad to have it; and rowing ashore afterward, they +lay on the shingle in the sunshine while the sloop was festooned with +their drying clothes. There was no wind in that deep hollow, and they +were thankful, for the weather was already getting cold. + +"If she has only split a plank or two, we can patch her up," Vane +remarked. "There are all the tools we'll want in the locker." + +"Where will you get new planks?" Carroll inquired. "I don't think we +have any spikes that would go through the frames." + +"That is the trouble. I expect I'll have to make a trip across to Comox +for them in a sea canoe. We're sure to come across a few Siwash somewhere +in the neighborhood." Then he knit his brows. "I can't say that this +expedition is beginning fortunately." + +"There's no doubt on that point," Carroll agreed. + +"Well, the sloop has to be patched up; and until I find that spruce I'm +going on--anyway, as long as the provisions hold out. If we're not +through with the business then, we'll come back again." + +Carroll made no comment. It was not worth while to object, when Vane was +obviously determined. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE BUSH + + +It was a quiet evening, nearly a fortnight after the arrival of the +sloop. Pale sunshine streamed into the cove, and little glittering +ripples lapped lazily along the shingle. The placid surface of the inlet +was streaked with faint blue lines where wandering airs came down from +the heights above, and now and then an elfin sighing fell from the ragged +summits of the firs. When it died away, the silence was broken only by +the pounding of a heavy hammer and the crackle of a fire. + +Carroll sat beside the latter, alternately holding a stout plank up to +the blaze and dabbling its hot surface with a dripping mop. His face was +scorched, and he coughed as the resinous-scented smoke drifted about his +head and floated in heavy, blue wisps half-way up the giant trunks behind +him. A big sea canoe lay drawn up not far away, and one of its +copper-skinned Siwash owners lounged on the shingle, stolidly watching +the white men. His comrade was then inside the sloop, holding a big stone +against one of her frames, while Vane crouched outside, swinging a +hammer. Her empty hull flung back the thud of the blows, which rang far +across the trees. + +Vane was bare-armed and stripped to shirt and trousers. He had arrived +from Comox across the straits at dawn that morning. It was a long trip +and they had had wild weather on the journey, but he had set to work with +characteristic energy as soon as he landed. Now, though the sun was low, +he was working harder than ever, with the flood tide, which would shortly +compel him to desist, creeping up to his feet. + +It is a difficult matter to fit a new plank into the rounded bilge of a +boat, particularly when one is provided with inadequate appliances. One +requires a good eye for curves, for the planks need much shaping. They +must also be driven into position by force. Two or three stout shores +were firmly wedged against the side of the boat, and these encumbered +Vane in the free use of his arms. His face was darkly flushed and he +panted heavily and now and then flung vitriolic instructions to the +Siwash inside the craft. Carroll, watching him with quiet amusement, was +on the whole content that the tide was rising, for his comrade had firmly +declined to stop for dinner, and he was conscious of a sharpened +appetite. It was comforting to reflect that Vane would be unable to get +the plank into place before the evening meal, for if there had been any +prospect of his doing so, he would certainly have postponed his dinner. + +Presently he stopped a moment and turned to Carroll. + +"If you were any use in an emergency, you'd be holding up for me, instead +of that wooden image inside! He will back the stone against any frame +except the one I'm nailing." + +"The difficulty is that I can't be in two places at the same time," +Carroll retorted good-naturedly. "Shall I leave this plank? You can't +get it in to-night." + +"I'm going to try," Vane answered grimly. + +He turned around to direct the Siwash and then cautiously hammered in one +of the wedges a little farther. Swinging back the hammer, he struck a +heavy blow. The result was disastrous, for there was a crash and one of +the shores shot backward, striking him on the knee. He jumped with a +savage cry, and the next moment there was a sharp snapping, and the end +of the plank sprang out. Then another shore gave way; and when the plank +fell clattering at his feet, Vane whirled the hammer round his head and +hurled it violently into the bush. This appeared to afford him some +satisfaction, and he strode up the beach, with the blood dripping from +the knuckles of one hand. + +"That's the blamed Siwash's fault!" he muttered. "I couldn't get him to +back up when I put the last spike in." + +"Hadn't you better tell him to come out?" Carroll suggested. + +"No!" thundered Vane. "If he hasn't sense enough to see that he isn't +wanted, he can stay where he is all night! Are you going to get supper, +or must I do that, too?" + +Carroll merely smiled and set about preparing the meal, which the two +Siwash partook of and afterward departed with some paper currency. Then +Vane, walking down the beach, came back with the plank. Lighting his +pipe, he pointed to one or two broken nails in it. The water was now +rippling softly about the sloop, and the splash of canoe paddles came up +out of the distance in rhythmic cadence. + +"That's the cause of the trouble," he explained. "It cost me a week's +journey to get the package of galvanized spikes--I could have managed to +split a plank or two out of one of these firs. The storekeeper fellow +assured me they were specially annealed for heading up. If I knew who the +manufacturers were, I'd have pleasure in telling them what I think of +them. If they set up to make spikes, they ought to make them, and empty +every keg that won't stand the test out on to the scrap-heap." + +Carroll smiled. The course his partner had indicated was the one he would +have adopted. He was characterized by a somewhat grim idea of efficiency, +and never spared his labor to attain it, though the latter fact now and +then had its inconveniences for those who cooperated with him, as Carroll +had discovered. The latter had no doubt that Vane would put the planks +in, if he spent a month over the operation. + +"I wouldn't have had this trouble if you'd been handier with tools," +Vane went on. "I can't see why you never took the trouble to learn how +to use them." + +"My abilities aren't as varied as yours; and the thing strikes me as bad +economy," Carroll replied. "Skill of the kind you mention is worth about +three dollars a day." + +"You were getting two dollars for shoveling in a mining ditch when I +first met you." + +"I was," Carroll assented good-humoredly. "I believe another month or +two of it would have worn me out. It's considerably pleasanter and more +profitable to act as your understudy; but a fairly proficient carpenter +might have bungled the matter." + +Vane looked embarrassed. + +"Let it pass. I've a pernicious habit of expressing myself unfortunately. +Anyhow, we'll start again on those planks the first thing to-morrow." + +He stretched out his aching limbs beside the fire, and languidly watched +the firs grow dimmer and the mists creep in ghostly trails down the +steep hillside. Presently Carroll broke the silence. + +"Wallace," he advised, "wouldn't it be wiser if you met that fellow +Horsfield to some extent?" + +"No," Vane answered decidedly. "I have no intention of giving way an +inch. It would only encourage the man to press me on another point, if I +did. I'm going to have trouble with him, and it seems to me that the +sooner it comes the better. There's room for only one controlling +influence in the Clermont Mine." + +Carroll smoked in silence for a while. His comrade had successfully +carried out most of the small projects he had undertaken in the bush, and +though fortune had, perhaps, favored him, he had every reason to be +satisfied with the result of his efforts as a prospector. He had +afterward held his own in the city, mainly by simple unwavering +determination. Carroll, however, realized that to guard against the wiles +of a clever man like Horsfield, who was unhampered by any scruples, might +prove a very different thing. + +"In that case, it might be as well to stay in Vancouver as much as +possible and keep your eye on him," he suggested. + +"The same idea has struck me since we sailed. The trouble is that until +I've decided about the pulp mill he'll have to go unwatched--for the same +reason that prevented you from holding up for me and steaming the plank." + +"If any unforeseen action of Horsfield's made it necessary, you could let +this pulp project drop." + +"You ought to understand why that's impossible. Drayton, Kitty and +Hartley count on my exertions; the matter was put into my hands only on +the condition that I did all that I could. They're poor people and I +can't go back on them. If we can't locate the spruce, or it doesn't seem +likely to pay for working up, there's nothing to prevent my abandoning +the undertaking; but I'm not at liberty to do so just because it would be +a convenience to myself. Hartley got my promise before he told me where +to search." + +Carroll changed the subject. + +"It might have been better if you had made the directors' qualification +higher. You would have been more sure of Horsfield then, because he would +have been less likely to do anything that might depreciate the value of +his stock." + +"I had to get a few good names to make it easier for men of standing to +join me. They wouldn't have been willing to subscribe for too many shares +until they saw how the thing would go. Anyhow, so long as he's a +director, Horsfield must hold a stipulated amount of stock. He's actually +holding a good deal." + +"The limit's rather a low one. Suppose he sold out down to it; he +wouldn't mind having the value of the rest knocked down, if he could make +more than the difference by some jobbery. Of course, we're only a small +concern, and we'll have to raise more capital sooner or later. I've an +idea that Horsfield might find his opportunity then." + +"If he does, we must try to be ready for him," Vane replied. "I sat up +most of last night with the spritsail sheet in my hand, and I'm going +to sleep." + +He strolled away to the tent they had pitched on the edge of the bush, +but Carroll sat a while smoking beside the fire with a thoughtful face. +He was suspicious of Horsfield and foresaw trouble; more particularly now +that his comrade had undertaken a project which seemed likely to occupy a +good deal of his attention. Hitherto, Vane had owed part of his success +to his faculty of concentrating all his powers upon one object. + +They rose at dawn the next morning, and by sunset had fitted the new +planks. Two days later, they sailed northward, and eventually they found +the rancherie Hartley mentioned. They had expected to hire a guide there, +but the rickety wooden building was empty. Vane decided that its Siwash +owners, who made long trips in search of fish and furs, had left it for a +time, and he pushed on again. + +He had now to face an unforeseen difficulty; there were a number of +openings in that strip of coast, and Hartley's description was of no +great service in deciding which was the right one. During the next day or +two, they looked into several bights, and seeing no valleys opening out +of them, went on again. One evening, however, they ran into an inlet with +a forest-shrouded hollow at the head of it. Here they moored the sloop +close in with a sheltered beach and after a night's rest got ready their +packs for the march inland. Carroll regretted they had not hired the +Indians with whom his comrade had crossed the straits. + +"We would have traveled a good deal more comfortably if you had brought +those Siwash along to pack for us," he observed. + +"If you had been with them on the canoe trip, you might think +differently," Vane answered with a laugh. "Besides, they're in the +habit of going to Cornox and might put some enterprising lumber men on +our trail." + +"There's one thing I'm going to insist on," Carroll declared. "We'll +leave enough provisions on board to last us until we get back to +civilization, even if we have a head wind. I've made one or two journeys +on short rations." + +Vane agreed to this, and after rowing ashore and hiding the boat among +the undergrowth, they proceeded to strap their packs about them. There is +an art in this, for the weight must be carried where it will be felt and +retard one's movements least. They had a light tent without poles--which +could be cut when wanted--two blankets, an ax, and one or two cooking +utensils, besides their provisions. A new-comer from the cities would +probably not have carried his share for half a day, but in that rugged +land mineral prospector and survey packer are accustomed to travel +heavily burdened, and the men had followed both these vocations. + +In front of them a deep trough opened up in the hills, but it was filled +with giant forest, through which no track led, and only those who have +traversed the dim recesses of the primeval bush can fully understand what +this implies. The west winds swept through that gateway, reaping as they +went, and here and there tremendous trees lay strewed athwart one another +with their branches spread abroad in impenetrable tangles. Some had +fallen amid the wreckage left by previous gales, which the forest had +partly made good, and there was scarcely a rod of the way that was not +obstructed by half-rotted trunks. Then there were thick bushes, and an +undergrowth of willows where the soil was damp, with thorny brakes and +matted fern in between. In places the growth was almost like a wall, and +the men, skirting the inlet, were glad to scramble forward among the +rough boulders and ragged driftwood at the water's edge for some minutes +at a time, until it was necessary to leave the beach behind. + +After the first few minutes there was no sign of the gleaming water. They +had entered a region of dim green shade, where the moist air was heavy +with resinous smells. The trunks rose about them in tremendous columns, +thorns clutched their garments, and twigs and brittle branches snapped +beneath their feet. The day was cool, but the sweat of tense effort +dripped from them, and when they stopped for breath at the end of an +hour, Vane estimated that they had gone a mile. + +"I'll be content if we can keep this up," he said. + +"It isn't likely," Carroll replied with a trace of dryness, glancing down +at a big rent in his jacket. + +A little farther on, they waded with difficulty through a large stream, +and Carroll stopped and glanced round at a deep rift in a crag on one +side of them. + +"I don't know whether that could be considered a valley; but we may as +well look at it." + +They scrambled forward, and reaching gravelly soil where the trees were +thinner, Vane surveyed the opening. It was very narrow and appeared to +lose itself among the rocks. The size of the creek which flowed out of it +was no guide, for those ranges are scored by running water. + +"We won't waste time over that ravine," Vane concluded. "I noticed a +wider one farther on. We'll see what it's like; though Hartley led me to +understand that he came down a straight and gently sloping valley. The +one we're in answers the description." + +It was two hours before they reached the second opening, and then Vane, +unstrapping his pack, clambered up the steep face of a crag. When he came +back, his face was thoughtful. He sat down and lighted his pipe. + +"This search seems likely to take us longer than I expected," he said. +"To begin with, there are a number of inlets, all of them pretty much +alike, along this part of the coast, but I needn't go into the reasons +for supposing that this is the one Hartley visited. Taking it for granted +that we're right, we're up against another difficulty. So far as I could +make out from the top of that rock, there's a regular series of ravines +running back into the hills." + +"Hartley told you he came straight down to tidewater, didn't he?" + +"That's not much of a guide. The slope of every fissure seems to run +naturally from the inland watershed to this basin. Hartley was sick and +it was raining all the time, and coming out of any of these ravines he'd +only have to make a slight turn to reach the water. What's more, he +could only tell me that he was heading roughly west. Allowing that there +was no sun visible, that might have meant either northwest or southwest, +which gives us the choice of searching the hollows on either side of the +main valley. Now, it strikes me as most probable that he came right down +the main valley itself; but we have to face the question as to whether +we should push straight on, or search every opening that might be called +a valley?" + +"What's your idea?" Carroll rejoined. + +"That we ought to go into the thing systematically, and look at every +ravine we come to." + +Carroll nodded agreement. + +"I guess you're right." + +They strapped their packs about them and struggled on again. Stopping +half an hour for dinner, they plodded all the afternoon up a long hollow, +which rose steadily in front of them. It was narrow, and in places the +bottom of it was so choked with fallen trunks that they were forced for +the sake of a clearer passage to take to the creek, where they +alternately stumbled among big boulders and splashed through shallow +pools. The water, which was mostly melted snow, was very cold. + +The light was fading down in the deep rift when, winding round a spur +through a tangle of clinging underbrush, they saw the timber thin off +ahead. In a few minutes Vane stopped with an exclamation, and Carroll, +overtaking him, loosened his pack. They stood upon the edge of the +timber, but in front of them a mass of soil and stones ran up almost +vertically to a great outcrop of rock high above. + +"If Hartley had come down that, he'd have remembered it," Vane +remarked grimly. + +"It's obvious," Carroll agreed, sitting down with a sigh of weariness. +"We'll try the next one to-morrow; I don't move another step to-night." + +Vane laughed. + +"I've no wish to urge you. There's hardly a joint in my body that doesn't +ache." He flung down his pack and stretched himself with an air of +relief. "That's what comes of civilization and soft living. It would be +nice to sit still now while somebody brought me my supper." + +As there was nobody to do so, he took up the ax and set about hewing +chips off a fallen trunk while Carroll made a fire. Then he cut the tent +poles and a few armfuls of twigs for a bed, and in half an hour the camp +was pitched and a meal prepared. Darkness closed down on them while they +ate, and they afterward lay a while, smoking and saying little, beside +the sinking fire, while the red light flickered upon the massy trunks and +fell away again. Then they crawled into the tent and wrapped their +blankets round them. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +VANE POSTPONES THE SEARCH + + +When Vane rose early the next morning, there was frost in the air. The +firs glistened with delicate silver filigree, and thin spears of ice +stretched out from behind the boulders in the stream. The smoke of the +fire thickened the light haze that filled the hollow, and when breakfast +was ready the men ate hastily, eager for the exertion that would put a +little warmth into them. + +"We've had it a good deal colder on other trips. I suppose I've been +getting luxurious, for I seem to resent it now," observed Vane. "There's +no doubt that winter's beginning earlier that I expected up here. As soon +as you can strike the tent, we'll get a move on." + +Carroll made no comment He had a vivid recollection of one or two of +those other journeys, during which they had spent arduous days +floundering through slushy snow and had slept in saturated blankets, and +sometimes shelterless in bitter frost. Carroll had endured these things +without complaint, though he had never attained to the cheerfulness his +comrade usually displayed. He was willing to face hardship, when it +promised to lead to a tangible result, but he failed to understand the +curious satisfaction Vane assumed to feel in ascertaining exactly how +much weariness and discomfort he could force his flesh to bear. + +Vane, however, was not singular in this respect; there are men in the +newer lands who, if they do not actually seek it, will seldom make an +effort to avoid the strain of overtaxed muscles and exposure to wild and +bitter weather. They have imbibed the pristine vigor of the wilderness, +and conflict with the natural forces braces instead of daunting them. One +recognizes them by their fixed and steady gaze, their direct and +deliberate speech, and the proficiency that most display with ax and saw +and rifle. But the effect of this Spartan training is not merely +physical; the men who leave the bush and the ranges, as a rule, come to +the forefront in commerce and industry. Endurance, swiftness of action +and stubborn tenacity are apt to carry their possessor far anywhere. + +Vane and his comrade needed these qualities during the following week. +The valley grew more wild and rugged as they proceeded. In places, its +bottom was filled with muskegs, cumbered with half-submerged, decaying +trunks of fallen trees; and when they could not spring from one crumbling +log to another they sank in slime and water to the knee. Then there were +effluents of the main river to be waded through, and every now and then +they were forced back by impenetrable thickets to the hillside, where +they scrambled along a talus of frost-shattered rock. They entered +transverse valleys, and after hours of exhausting labor abandoned the +search of each in turn and plodded back to the one they had been +following. Their boots and clothing suffered; their packs were rent upon +their backs; and their provisions diminished rapidly. + +At length, one lowering afternoon, they were brought to a standstill by +the river which forked into two branches, one of which came foaming out +of a cleft in the rocks. This would have mattered less, had it flowed +across the level; but just there it had scored itself out a deep hollow, +from which the roar of its turmoil rose in long reverberations. Carroll, +aching all over, stood upon the brink and gazed ahead. He surmised from +the steady ascent and the contours of the hills that the valley was dying +out and that they should reach the head of it in another day's journey. +The higher summits, however, were veiled in leaden mist, and there was a +sting in the cold breeze that blew down the hollow and set the ragged +firs to wailing. Then Carroll glanced dubiously at the dim, green water +which swirled in deep eddies and boiled in white confusion among the +fangs of rock sixty or seventy feet below. Not far away, the stream was +wider and, he supposed, in consequence, shallower, though it ran +furiously. + +"It doesn't look encouraging, and we have no more food left than will +take us back to the sloop if we're economical. Do you think it's worth +while going on?" + +"I haven't a doubt about it," Vane declared. "We ought to reach the head +of the valley and get back here in two or three days." + +Carroll fancied they could have walked the distance in a few hours on a +graded road; but the roughness of the ground was not the chief +difficulty. + +"Three days will make a big hole in the provisions," he pointed out. + +"Then we'll have to put up with short rations." + +Carroll nodded in rueful acquiescence. + +"If you're determined, we may as well get on." + +He stepped cautiously over the edge of the descent, and went down a few +yards with a run, while loosened soil and stones slipped away under him. +Then he clutched a slender tree, and proceeded as far as the next on his +hands and knees. After that it was necessary to swing himself over a +ledge, and he alighted safely on one below, from which he could scramble +down to the narrow strip of gravel between rock and water. He was +standing, breathless, looking at the latter, when Vane joined him. The +stones dipped sharply, and two or three large boulders, ringed about with +froth, rose near the middle of the stream, which seemed to be running +slacker on the other side of them. + +There was nothing to show how deep it was, and Carroll did not relish the +idea of being compelled to swim burdened with his pack. No trees grew +immediately upon the brink of the chasm, and to chop a good-sized log and +get it down to the water, in order to ferry themselves across on it, +would cost more time than Vane was likely to spare for the purpose. +Seeing no other way out of it, Carroll braced himself for an effort and +sturdily plunged in. + +Two steps took him up to the waist, and he had trouble in finding solid +bottom at the next, for the gravel rolled and slipped away beneath his +feet in the strong stream. The current dragged hard at his limbs, and he +set his lips tight when it crept up to his ribs. Then he lost his +footing, and was washed away, plunging and floundering, with now and then +one toe resting momentarily upon the bottom. Sweeping rapidly down the +stream he was hurled against the first of the boulders with a crash that +almost drove the little remaining breath out of his body. He clung to it +desperately, gasping hard; then, with a determined struggle, he contrived +to reach the second stone, but the stream pressed him violently against +this and he was unable to find any support for his feet. A moment later +Vane was washed down toward him and, grabbing at the boulder, held on by +it. They said nothing to each other, but they looked at the sliding water +between them and the opposite bank. Carroll was getting dangerously cold, +and he felt the power ebbing out of him. He realized that if he must swim +across he would better do it at once. + +Launching himself forward, he felt the flood lap his breast, but as his +arms went in he struck something with his knee and found that he could +stand on a submerged ledge. This carried him a yard or two, but the next +moment he had stepped suddenly over the end of the ledge into deeper +water. Floundering forward, he staggered up a strip of shelving shingle +and lay there, breathless, waiting for Vane; then together they +scrambled up the slope ahead. The work warmed them slightly, and they +needed it; but as they strode on again, keeping to the foot of the +hillside, where the timber was less dense, a cold rain drove into their +faces. It grew steadily thicker; the straps began to gall their wet +shoulders, and their saturated clothing clung heavily about their limbs. +In spite of this, they struggled on until nightfall, when with +difficulty they made a fire and, after a reduced supper, found a little +humid warmth in their wet blankets. + +The next day's work was much the same, only that they crossed no rivers. +It rained harder, however, and when evening came Carroll, who had burst +one boot, was limping badly. They made camp among the dripping firs which +partly sheltered them from the bitter wind, and shortly after their +meager supper Carroll fell asleep. Vane, to his annoyance, found that he +could not follow his friend's example. He was overstrung, and the +knowledge that the morrow would show whether the spruce he sought grew in +that valley made him restless. The flap of the tent was flung back and +resting on one elbow he looked out upon shadowy ranks of trunks, which +rose out of the gloom and vanished again as the firelight grew and sank. +He could smell the acrid smoke and could hear the splash of heavy drops +upon the saturated soil, while the hoarse roar of the river came up in +fitful cadence from the depths of the valley. + +In place of being deadened by fatigue, his imagination seemed quickened +and set free. It carried him back to the lonely heights and the rugged +dales of his own land, and once more in vivid memory he roamed the upland +heath with Evelyn. She had attracted him strongly when he was in her +visible presence; but now he thought he understood her better than he had +ever done then. He had, he felt, not grasped the inner meaning of much +that she said. Words might convey but little in their literal sense and +yet give to a sympathetic listener an insight into the depths of the +speaker's nature, or hint at a thought too finely spun and delicate for +formal expression. + +The same thing applied to her physical personality. Contours, coloring, +features, were things that could be defined and appraised; but there was +besides, in Evelyn's case, an aura that only now and then could dimly be +perceived by senses attuned to it. It enveloped her in a mystic light. +Again he remembered how he had sought her with crude longing and cold +appreciation. He had failed to comprehend her; the one creditable thing +he had done was the renouncing of his claim. Then the half-formed idea +grew plainer that she would understand and sympathize with what he was +doing now. It was to keep faith with those who trusted him that he meant +stubbornly to prosecute his search and, if the present journey failed, to +come back again. That Evelyn would ever hear of his undertaking, appeared +most improbable; but this did not matter. He knew now that it was the +remembrance of her that had largely animated him to make the venture; and +to go on in the face of all opposing difficulties was something he could +do in her honor. Then by degrees his eyes grew heavy, and when he sank +down in his wet blankets sleep came to him. Perhaps he had been +fanciful--he was undoubtedly overstrung--but, through such dreams as he +indulged in, passing glimpses of strange and splendid visions that +transfigure the toil and clamor of a material world are now and then +granted to wayfaring men. + +At noon the next day they reached the head of the valley. It was still +raining, and heavy mists obscured the summits of the hills, but above the +lower slopes of rock glimmering snow ran up into the woolly vapor. There +were firs, a few balsams and hemlocks, but no sign of a spruce. + +"Now," Carroll commented dryly, "perhaps you'll be satisfied." + +Vane smiled. He was no nearer to owning himself defeated than he had been +when they first set out. + +"We know there's no spruce in this valley--and that's something," he +replied. "When we come back again we'll try the next one." + +"It has cost us a good deal to make sure of the fact" + +Vane's expression changed. + +"We haven't ascertained the cost just yet. As a rule, you don't make up +the bill until you're through with the undertaking; and it may be a +longer one than either of us think. Well, we might as well turn upon +our tracks." + +Carroll recalled this speech afterward. Just then, however, he hitched +his burden a little higher on his aching shoulders as he plodded after +his comrade down the rain-swept hollow. They had good cause to remember +the march to the inlet. It rained most of the while and their clothes +were never dry; parts of them, indeed, flowed in tatters about their +aching limbs, and before they had covered half the distance, their boots +were dropping to pieces. What was more important, their provisions were +rapidly running out, and they marched on a few handfuls of food, +carefully apportioned, twice daily. At last they lay down hungry, with +empty bags, one night, to sleep shelterless in the rain, for they had +thrown their tent away. Carroll had some difficulty in getting on his +feet the next morning. + +"I believe I can hold out until sundown, though I'm far from sure of +it," he said. "You'll have to leave me behind if we don't strike the +inlet then." + +"We'll strike it in the afternoon," Vane assured him. + +They reslung their packs and set out wearily. Carroll, limping and +stumbling along, was soon troubled by a distressful stitch in his side. +He managed to keep pace with Vane, however, and some time after noon a +twinkling gleam among the trees caught their eye. Then the shuffling +pace grew faster, and they were breathless when at last they stopped and +dropped their burdens beside the boat. It was only at the third or +fourth attempt that they got her down to the water, and the veins were +swollen high on Vane's flushed forehead when he sat down, panting +heavily, on her gunwale. + +"We ran her up quite easily, though we had the slope to face then," +he remarked. + +"You could scarcely expect to carry boats about without trouble after a +march like the one we've made!" + +They ran her in and pulled off to the sloop. When at last they sat down +in the little saloon, Vane got a glimpse of himself in the mirror. + +"I knew you looked a deadbeat," he laughed, "but I'd no idea I was quite +so bad. Anyhow, we'll get the stove lighted and some dry things on. The +next question is--what shall we have for supper?" + +"That's easy. Everything that's most tempting, and the whole of it." + +Shortly afterward they flung their boots and rent garments overboard and +sat down to a feast. The plates were empty when they rose, and in another +hour both of them were wrapped in heavy slumber. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +JESSY CONFERS A FAVOR + + +The next morning it was blowing fresh from the southeast, which was right +ahead, and Vane's face was hard when he and Carroll got the boat on deck +and set about tying down two reefs in the mainsail. + +"Bad luck seems to follow us," he grumbled. + +Carroll smiled. + +"There's no doubt of that; but I suppose the fact won't have much +effect on you." + +"No," returned Vane decidedly, "We had our troubles in other ventures, +and somehow we got over them--I don't see why we shouldn't do the same +again. Now that we've seen the country, we ought to get some useful +information out of Hartley--we'll know what to ask him." + +"I shouldn't count too much on his help," Carroll answered with a +thoughtful air. + +They got sail upon the sloop and drove her out into a confused head sea, +through which she labored with flooded decks, making very little to +windward. When night came, a deluge killed the breeze, and the next day +she lay rolling wildly in a heavy calm while light mist narrowed in the +horizon and a persistent drizzle poured down upon the smoothly heaving +sea. Then they had light variable winds, and their provisions were once +more running out when they drew abreast of a little coaling port. Carroll +suggested running in and going on to Victoria by train, but they had +hardly decided to do so when the fickle breeze died away and the +tide-stream bore them past to the south. They had no longer a stitch of +dry clothing and they were again upon reduced rations. + +Still bad fortune dogged them, for that night a fresh head wind sprang up +and held steadily while they thrashed her south, swept by stinging spray. +Their tempers grew shorter under the strain, and their bodies ached from +the chill of their sodden garments and from sitting hour by hour at the +helm. At last the breeze fell, and shortly afterward a trail of smoke and +a half-seen strip of hull emerged from the creeping haze astern of them. + +"A lumber tug," observed Vane. "She seems to have a raft in tow, and it +will probably be for Drayton's people. If you'll edge in toward her I'll +send him word that we're on the way." + +There was very little wind just then and presently the tug was close +alongside, pitching her bows out of the slow swell, while a great mass of +timber wonderfully chained together surged along astern, the dim, +slate-green sea washing over it. A shapeless oil-skinned figure stood +outside her pilot-house, balancing itself against the heave of the +bridge, which slanted and straightened. + +"Winstanley?" Vane shouted. + +The figure waved an arm, as if in assent, and Vane raised his +voice again. + +"Report us to Mr. Drayton. We'll come along as fast as we can." + +The man turned and pointed to the misty horizon astern. + +"You'll get it from the north before to-morrow!"' he called. + +Then the straining tug and the long wet line of working raft drew ahead +while the sloop crawled on, close-hauled toward the south. Late that +night, however, the mist melted away, and a keen rushing breeze that came +out of the north crisped the water. The vessel sprang forward when the +ripples reached her; the flapping canvas went to sleep; and while each +slack rope tightened a musical tinkle broke out at the bows. It grew +steadily louder, and when the sun swung up red above the eastern hills, +she had piled the white froth to her channels and was driving forward +merrily with little sparkling seas tumbling, foam-tipped, after her. The +wind fell light as the sun rose higher, but the swinging sloop ran on all +day, with blurred hills and forests sliding past; and the western sky was +still blazing with a wondrous green when she stole into Vancouver harbor. + +Carroll gazed at the city with open appreciation. It rose, girded with +many wires and giant telegraph poles, roof above roof, up a low rise, on +the crest of which towering pines still lifted their ragged spires +against the evening sky. Lower down, big white lights were beginning to +blink, and the forests up the inlet beyond the smoke of the mills had +already faded to a belt of shadow. + +"Quebec," he remarked, "looks fine from the river, clustering round +and perched upon its heights; and Montreal at the foot of its +mountain strikes your eye from most points of view; but I can't +remember ever entering either with the pleasure I've experienced in +reaching this city." + +"You probably arrived at the others traveling in a Pullman or in a +luxurious side-wheel steamboat. It wouldn't be any great change from them +to a smart hotel." + +"That may explain the thing," Carroll agreed with an air of humorous +reflection. "I guess the way you regard a city depends largely on the +condition you're in when you reach it and on what you expect to get out +of it. In the present case, Vancouver stands for rest and comfort and +enough to eat." + +Vane laughed. + +"I'm as glad to be back as you are; but you'd better make the most of any +leisure that you can get. As soon as I've arranged things here we'll go +north again." + +The light faded as they crept across the inlet before a faint breeze, but +when they got the anchor over and the boat into the water, Carroll made +out two dim figures standing on the wharf. + +"It's Drayton, I think," he said, waving a hand to them. "Kitty's +with him." + +They pulled ashore, and Drayton and Kitty greeted them. + +"I've been looking out for you since noon," Drayton told them. "What +about the spruce?" + +There was eagerness in his voice, and Vane's face clouded. + +"We couldn't find a trace of it." + +Drayton's disappointment was obvious, though he tried to hide it. + +"Well," he said resignedly, "I've no doubt you did all you could." + +"Of course!" Kitty broke in. "We're quite sure of that!" + +Vane thanked her with a glance. He felt sorry for her and Drayton. +They were strongly attached to each other, and he had reasons for +believing that even with the advanced salary the man expected to get +they would find it needful to study strict economy. It was easy to +understand that a small share in a prosperous enterprise would have +made things easier for them. + +"I'm going to make another attempt. I expect some of our difficulties +will vanish after I've had a talk with Hartley." + +"That's impossible," Kitty explained softly. "Hartley died a week ago." + +Vane started. The prospector had given him very little definite +information, and it was disconcerting to recognize that he must now rely +entirely upon his own devices. + +"I'm sorry", he said "How's Celia?" + +"She's very ill." There was concern in Kitty's voice. "Hartley got worse +soon after you left, and she sat up all night with him, after her work +for the last few weeks. Now she's broken down, and she seems to worry for +fear they will not take her back again at the hotel." + +"I must go to see her," declared Vane. "But won't you and Drayton come +with us and have dinner?" + +Drayton explained that this was out of the question; Kitty's employer, +who had driven in that afternoon, was waiting with his team. They left +the wharf together, and a few minutes later Vane shook hands with the +girl and her companion. + +"Don't lose heart," he said encouragingly. "We're far from beaten yet." + +Some time afterward Vane, rejoicing in the unusual luxury of clean, dry +clothes, walked across to call on Nairn. The house struck him as +larger, more commodious and better lighted than it had been when he +left it, although he supposed that was only the result of his having +lived on board the sloop and in the bush. He was shown into a room +where Jessy Horsfield was sitting, and she rose with a slight start +when he came in; but her manner was reposeful and quietly friendly when +she held out her hand. + +"So you have come back! Have you succeeded in your search?" + +Vane was gratified. It was pleasant to feel that she was interested in +his undertaking. + +"No," he confessed. "For the time being, I'm afraid I have failed." + +There was reproach in Jessy's voice when she answered. + +"Then you have disappointed me!" + +It was delicate flattery, as she had conveyed the impression that she had +expected him to succeed, which implied that she held a high opinion of +his abilities. Still, she did not mean him to think that he had forfeited +the latter. + +"After all, you must have had a good deal against you," she added +consolingly. "Won't you sit down and tell me about it? Mr. Nairn, I +understand, is writing some letters, and he sent for Mrs. Nairn just +before you came in. I don't suppose she will be back for a few minutes." + +She indicated a chair beside the open hearth and Vane sat down opposite +her, where a low screen cut them off from the rest of the room. A shaded +lamp above their heads cast down a soft radiance which lighted a sparkle +in the girl's hair, and a red, wood fire glowed cheerfully in front of +them. Vane, still stiff and aching from exposure to the cold and rain, +reveled in the unusual sense of comfort. In addition to this, his +companion's pose was singularly graceful, and the ease of it and the +friendly smile with which she regarded him somehow implied that they were +on excellent terms. + +"It's very nice to be here again," he said languidly. + +Jessy looked up at him. He had, as she recognized, spoken as he felt, on +impulse, and this was more gratifying than an obvious desire to pay her a +compliment would have been. + +"I suppose you didn't get many comforts in the bush," she suggested. + +"No. Comforts of any kind are remarkably scarce up yonder. As a matter +of fact, I can't imagine a country where the contrasts between the +luxuries of civilization and--the other thing--are sharper. You can step +off a first-class car into the wilderness, where no amount of money can +buy you better fare than pork, potatoes and dried apples; and if you +want to travel you must shoulder your pack and walk. But that wasn't +exactly what I meant." + +"Then what did you mean?" + +"I don't know that it's worth explaining. We have rather luxurious +quarters at the hotel, but this room is somehow different. It's +restful--I think it's homely--in fact, as I said, it's nice to be here." + +Jessy made no comment. She understood that he had been attempting to +analyze his feelings, and had failed clearly to recognize that her +presence contributed to the satisfaction of which he was conscious. She +had no doubt that if he were a man of average susceptibility, which +seemed to be the case, the company of a well-dressed and attractive woman +would have some effect on him after his sojourn in the wilds; but whether +she had produced any deeper effect than that or not she could not +determine. Though she was curious upon the point, it did not appear +judicious to prompt him unduly. + +"But won't you tell me your adventures?" she begged. + +It required a few leading questions to start him but at length he told +the story in a manner that compelled her interest. + +"You see," he concluded, "it was the lack of definite knowledge as much +as the natural obstacles that brought us back--and I've been troubled +about the thing since we landed." + +Jessy's manner invited his confidence. + +"I wonder," she said softly, "if you would care to tell me why?" + +Vane knit his brows. + +"Hartley's dead, and I understand that his daughter has broken down after +nursing him. It's doubtful whether her situation can be kept open, and it +may be some time before she's strong enough to look for another." He +hesitated. "In a way, I feel responsible for her." + +"You really aren't responsible in the least," Jessy declared. "Still, I +can understand the idea's troubling you." + +"She's left without a cent and unable to work--and I don't know what to +do. In an affair of this kind I'm handicapped by being a man." + +"Would you like me to help you?" + +"I can hardly ask it, but it would be a relief to me," Vane answered with +obvious eagerness. + +"Then if you'll tell me her address, I'll go to see her, and we'll +consider what can be done." + +Vane leaned forward impulsively. + +"You have taken a weight off my mind. It's difficult to thank you +properly." + +"Oh, I don't suppose it will give me any trouble. Of course, it must be +embarrassing to you to feel that you have a helpless young woman on +your hands." + +Then a thought flashed into her mind, as she remembered what she had seen +at the station some months ago. + +"I wonder whether the situation is an altogether unusual one to you?" +she queried. "Have you never let your pity run away with your +judgment before?" + +"You wouldn't expect me to proclaim my charities," Vane parried +with a laugh. + +"I think you are trying to put me off. You haven't given me an answer." + +"Well, perhaps I was able to make things easier for somebody else not +very long ago," Vane confessed reluctantly but without embarrassment. "I +now see that I might have done harm without meaning to do so. It's +sometimes extraordinarily difficult to help people--and that makes me +especially grateful for your offer." + +For the next few moments Jessy sat silent. It was clear that she had +misjudged him, for although she was not one who demanded too much from +human nature, the fact that Kitty Blake had arrived in Vancouver in his +company had undoubtedly rankled in her mind. Now she acquitted him of any +blame, and it was a relief to do so. She changed the subject abruptly. + +"I suppose you will make another attempt to find the timber?" + +"Yes. In a week or two." + +He had hardly spoken when Mrs. Nairn came in and welcomed him with her +usual friendliness. + +"I'm glad to see ye, though ye're looking thin," she said. "What's the +way ye did not come straight to us, instead of going to the hotel. Ye +would have got as good a supper as they would give ye there." + +"I haven't a doubt of it," Vane declared. "On the other hand, I hardly +think that even one of your suppers would quite have put right the defect +in my appearance you mentioned. You see, the cause of it has been at work +for some time." + +Mrs. Nairn regarded him with half-amused compassion. + +"If ye'll come over every evening, we'll soon cure that. I would have +been down sooner if Alic had not kept me. He's writing letters, and there +was a matter or two he wanted to ask my opinion on." + +"I think that was very wise of him," Vane commented. + +His hostess smiled. + +"For one thing, we had a letter from Evelyn Chisholm this afternoon. +She'll be out to spend some time with us in about a month." + +"Evelyn's coming here?" Vane exclaimed, with a sudden stirring of +his heart. + +"Why should she no? I told ye some time ago that we partly expected her. +Ye were no astonished then." + +She appeared to expect an explanation of the change in his attitude, and +as he volunteered none she drew him a few paces aside. + +"If I'm no betraying a confidence, Evelyn writes--I'm no sure of the +exact words--that she'll be glad to get away a while. Now, I've been +wondering why she should be anxious to leave home?" + +She looked at him fixedly, and, to his annoyance, he felt his face grow +hot. Mrs. Nairn had quick perceptions, and now and then she was +painfully direct. + +"It struck me that Evelyn was not very comfortable there," he replied. +"She seemed out of harmony with her people--she didn't belong. The same +thing," he went on lamely, "applies to Mopsy." + +Mrs. Nairn glanced at him with a twinkle in her eyes. + +"It's no unlikely. The reason may serve--for the want of a better." Then +she changed her tone. "Ye'll away up to Alic; he told me to send ye." + +Vane went out of the room, but he left Jessy in a thoughtful mood. She +had seen his start at the mention of Evelyn, and it struck her as +significant, for she had heard that he had spent some time with the +Chisholms. On the other hand, there was the obvious fact that he had been +astonished to hear that Evelyn was coming out, which implied that their +acquaintance had not progressed far enough to warrant the girl's +informing him. Besides, Evelyn would not arrive for a month; and Jessy +reflected that she would probably see a good deal of Vane in the +meanwhile. She now felt glad that she had promised to look after Celia +Hartley, for that, no doubt, would necessitate her consulting with him +every now and then. She endeavored to dismiss the matter from her mind, +however, and exerted herself to interest Mrs. Nairn in a description of a +function she had lately attended. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +VANE FORESEES TROUBLE + + +Nairn was sitting at a writing-table when Vane entered his room, and +after a few questions about his journey he handed the younger man one of +the papers that lay in front of him. + +"It's a report from the mine. Ye can read and think it over while I +finish this letter." + +Vane carefully studied the document, and then waited until Nairn laid +down his pen. + +"It only brings us back to our last conversation on the subject," he said +when his host glanced at him inquiringly. "We have the choice of going on +as we are doing, or extending our operations by an increase of capital. +In the latter case, our total earnings might be larger, but I hardly +believe there would be as good a return on the money actually sunk. +Taking it all round, I don't know what to think. Of course, if it +appeared that there was a moral certainty of making a satisfactory profit +on the new stock, I should consent." + +Nairn chuckled. + +"A moral certainty is no a very common thing in mining." + +"Horsfield's in favor of the scheme. How far would you trust that man?" + +"About as far as I could fling a bull by the tail. The same thing applies +to both of them." + +"He has some influence. No doubt he'd find supporters." + +Nairn saw that the meaning of his last remark, which implied that he had +no more confidence in Jessy than he had in her brother, had not been +grasped by his companion, but he did not consider it judicious to make it +plainer. Instead, he gave Vane another piece of information. + +"He and Winter work into each other's hands." + +"But Winter has no interest in the Clermont!" + +Nairn smiled sourly. + +"He holds no shares in the mine; but there's no much in the shape of +mineral developments yon man has no an interest in. Since ye do no seem +inclined to yield Horsfield a point or two, it might pay ye to watch the +pair of them." + +Vane was aware that Winter was a person of some importance in financial +circles, and he sat thoughtfully silent for a couple of minutes. + +"Now," he explained at length, "every dollar we have in the Clermont is +usefully employed and earning a satisfactory profit. Of course, if we put +the concern on the market, we might get more than it is worth from +investors; but that doesn't greatly appeal to me." + +"It's unnecessary to point out that a director's interest is no +invariably the same as that of his shareholders," Nairn rejoined. + +"It's an unfortunate fact. Yet I'd be no better off if I got only the +same actual return on a larger amount of what would be watered stock." + +"There's sense in that. I'm no urging the scheme--there are other points +against it." + +"Well, I'll go up and look round the mine, and then we'll have another +talk about the matter." + +Vane walked back to his hotel in a thoughtful frame of mind. Finding +Carroll in the smoking-room, he related his conversation with Nairn. + +"I'm a little troubled about the situation," he confessed. "The Clermont +finances are now on a sound basis, but it might after all prove +advantageous to raise further capital; although in such a case we would, +perhaps, lie open to attack. Nairn's inclined to be cryptic in his +remarks; but he seems to hint that it would be advisable to make +Horsfield some concession--in other words, to buy him off." + +"Which is a course you have objections to?" + +"Very decided ones." + +"In a general way, Nairn's advice strikes me as quite sensible. Wherever +mining and other schemes are floated, there are men who make a good +living out of the operations. They're trained to the business; they've +control of the money; and when a new thing's put on the market, they +consider they've the first claim on the pickings. As a rule, that notion +seems to be justified." + +"You needn't elaborate the point," Vane broke in impatiently. + +"You made your appearance in this city as a poor and unknown man with a +mine to sell," Carroll went on. "Disregarding tactful hints, you laid +down your terms and stuck to them. Launching your venture without +considering their views, you did the gentlemen I've mentioned out of +their accustomed toll, and I've no doubt that some of them were +indignant. It's a thing you couldn't expect them to sanction. Now, +however, one who probably has others behind him is making overtures to +you. You ought to consider it a compliment; a recognition of ability. +The question is--do you mean to slight these advances and go on as you +have begun?" + +"That's my present intention," Vane answered. + +"Then you needn't be astonished if you find yourself up against a +determined opposition." + +"I think my friends will stand by me." + +Vane looked at him steadily, and Carroll laughed. + +"Thanks. I've merely been pointing out what you may expect, and hinting +at the most judicious course--though the latter's rather against my +natural inclinations. I'd better add that I've never been particularly +prudent, and the opposite policy appeals to me. If we're forced to clear +for action, we'll nail the flag to the mast." + +It was spoken lightly, because the man was serious, but Vane knew that he +had an ally who would support him with unflinching staunchness. + +"I'm far from sure that it will be needful," he replied. + +They talked about other matters until they strolled off to their rooms. +The next week Vane was kept occupied in the city; and then once more they +sailed for the North. They pushed inland until they were stopped by snow +among the ranges, without finding the spruce. The journey proved as +toilsome as the previous one, and both men were worn out when they +reached the coast. Vane was determined on making a third attempt, but he +decided to visit the mine before proceeding to Vancouver. They had heavy +rain during the voyage down the straits, and when, on the day after +reaching port, the jaded horses they had hired plodded up the sloppy +trail to the mine a pitiless deluge poured down on them. The light was +growing dim among the dripping firs, and a deep-toned roar came throbbing +across their shadowy ranks. Vane turned and glanced back at Carroll. + +"I've never heard the river so plainly before," he said. "It must be +unusually swollen." + +The mine was situated on a narrow level flat between the hillside and the +river, and Carroll understood the anxiety in his comrade's voice. Urging +the wearied horses they pressed on a little faster. It was almost dark, +however, when they reached the edge of an opening in the firs and saw a +cluster of iron-roofed, wooden buildings and a tall chimney-stack, in +front of which the unsightly ore-dump extended. Wet, chilled and worn out +as the men were, there was comfort in the sight; but Vane frowned as he +noticed that a shallow lake stretched between him and the buildings. On +one side of it there was a broad strip of tumbling foam, which rose and +fell in confused upheavals and filled the forest with the roar it made. +Vane drove his horse into the water; and dismounting among the stumps +before the ore-dump, he found a wet and soil-stained man awaiting him. A +long trail of smoke floated away from the iron stack behind him, and +through the sound of the river there broke the clank and thud of +hard-driven pumps. + +"You have got a big head of steam up, Salter," he remarked. + +The man nodded. + +"We want it. It's a taking me all my time to keep the water out of the +workings; and the boys are over their ankles in the new drift. Leave +your horses--I'll send along for them--and I'll show you what we've been +doing, after supper." + +"I'd rather go now, while I'm wet," Vane answered. "We came straight on +as soon as we landed, and I probably shouldn't feel like turning out +again when I'd had a meal." + +Salter made a sign of assent, and a few minutes later they went down into +the mine. The approach to it looked like a canal, and they descended the +shallow shaft amid a thin cascade. The tunnel slanted, for the lode +dipped, and the pale lights that twinkled here and there among the +timbering showed shadowy, half-naked figures toiling in water which rose +well up their boots. Further streams of it ran in from fissures; and +Vane's face grew grave as he plodded through the flood with a lamp in his +hand. He spent an hour in the workings, asking Salter a question now and +then, and afterward went back with him to one of the iron-roofed sheds, +where he put on dry clothes and sat down to a meal. + +When it was over and the table had been cleared, he lay in a canvas chair +beside the stove, listening to the resinous billets snapping and +crackling cheerfully. The little, brightly lighted room was pleasantly +warm, and Vane was filled with a languid sense of physical comfort after +long exposure to rain and bitter wind. The deluge roared upon the iron +roof; the song of the river rose and fell, filling the place with sound; +and now and then the pounding and clanking of the pumps broke in. + +Vane examined the sheet of figures Salter handed him, and lighted a fresh +cigar when he had laid it down. Then he carefully turned over some of +the pieces of stone which partly covered the table. + +"There's no doubt that those specimens aren't quite so promising," he +said at length; "and the cost of extraction is going up. I'll have a talk +with Nairn when I get back; but in the meanwhile it looks as if we were +going to have trouble with the water." + +"It's a thing I've been afraid of for some time," Salter answered. "We +can keep down any leakage that comes in through the rock, though it +means driving the pumps hard, but an inrush from the river would beat +us. A rise of a foot or so would turn the flood into the workings." He +paused and added significantly: "Drowning out a mine's a costly matter. +My idea is that you ought to double our pumping power and cut down the +rock in the river-bed near the rapid. That would take off three or four +feet of water." + +"It would mean a mighty big wages bill." + +Salter nodded gravely. + +"To do the thing properly would cost a pile of money; but it's an outlay +that you'll surely have to face." + +Vane let the matter drop, and an hour later retired to his wooden berth. +The roar of the rain upon the vibrating roof was like the roll of a great +drum, and the sound of the river's turmoil throbbed through the frail +wooden shack; but the man had lain down at night near many a rapid and +thundering fall, and in a few minutes he was fast asleep. He was awakened +by a new shrill note, which he recognized as the whistle of the pumping +engine. It was sounding the alarm. The next moment Vane was struggling +into his clothing; then the door swung open and Salter stood in the +entrance, lantern in hand, with water trickling from him. There was keen +anxiety in his expression. + +"Flood's lapping the bank top now!" he gasped. "There's a jam in the +narrow place at the head of the rapid and the water's backing up! I'm +going along with the boys." + +He vanished as suddenly as he had appeared and Vane savagely jerked on +his jacket. If the mine were drowned, it would entail a heavy +expenditure in pumping plant to clear out the water, and even then +operations might be stopped for a considerable time. What was more, it +would precipitate a crisis in the affairs of the company and necessitate +an increase of its capital. + +Vane was outside in less than a minute and stood still, looking about +him, while the deluge lashed his face and beat his clothing against his +limbs. He could make out only a blurred mass of climbing trees on one +side and a strip of foam cutting through the black level, which he +supposed was water, in front of him. His trained ears, however, gave him +a little information, for the clamor of the flood was broken by a sharp +snapping and crashing which he knew was made by a mass of driftwood +driving furiously against the boulders. In that region, the river banks +are encumbered here and there with great logs, partly burned by forest +fires, reaped by gales or brought down from the hillsides by falls of +frost-loosened soil. A flood higher than usual sets them floating, and on +subsiding sometimes leaves them packed in a gorge or stranded in a +shallow to wait for the next big rise. Now they were driving down and, +as Salter had said, jamming at the head of the rapid. + +Suddenly a column of fierce white radiance leaped up, lower down-stream, +and Vane knew that a big compressed air-lamp had been carried to the spot +where the driftwood was gathering. Even at a distance, the brightness of +the blaze dazzled him, and he could see nothing else when he headed +toward it. He stumbled against a fir stump, and the next minute the +splashing about his feet warned him that he was entering the water. +Having no wish to walk into the main stream, he floundered to one side. +Getting nearer to the blaze, he soon made out a swarm of shadowy figures +scurrying about beneath it. Some of them had saws or axes, for he caught +the gleam of steel. He broke into a splashing run; and presently Carroll, +whom he had forgotten, came up calling to him. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE FLOOD + + +When he reached the blast-lamp, which was raised on a tall tripod, Vane +stood with his back to the pulsating gaze while he grasped the details of +a somewhat impressive scene. A little upstream of him, the river leaped +out of the darkness, breaking into foaming waves, and a wall of dripping +firs flung back the roar it made, the first rows of serried trunks +standing out hard and sharp in the fierce white light. Nearer the spot +where he stood, a projecting spur of rock narrowed in the river, which +boiled tumultuously against its foot, while about halfway across, the top +of a giant boulder rose above the flood. + +Vane could just see it, because a mass of driftwood, which was +momentarily growing, stretched from bank to bank. A big log, drifting +down sidewise, had brought up against the boulder and once fixed had +seized and held fast each succeeding trunk. Some had been driven partly +out upon those that had preceded them; some had been drawn beneath and +catching the bottom had jammed; then the rest had been wedged by the +current into the gathering mass, trunks, branches and brushwood all +finding a place. When the stream is strong, a jam usually extends +downward, as well as rises, as the water it pens back increases in +depth, until it forms an almost solid barrier from surface to bed. If it +occurs during a log-drive the river is choked with valuable lumber. + +Bent figures were at work with handspikes and axes at the shoreward end +of the mass; others had crawled out along the logs in search of another +point where they could advantageously be attacked; but Vane, watching +them with practised eye, decided that they were largely throwing their +toil away. Then he glanced down-stream; but, powerful as the light was, +it did not pierce far into the darkness and the rain, and the mad white +rush of the rapid vanished abruptly into the surrounding gloom. He caught +the clink of a hammer on a drill, and seeing Salter not far away, he +strode toward him. + +"How are you getting to work?" he asked. + +Salter pointed to the foot of the rock on which they stood. + +"I reckoned that if we could put a shot in yonder we might cut out stone +enough to clear the butts of the larger logs that are keying up the jam." + +"You're wasting time--starting at the wrong place." + +"It's possible; but what am I to do? I'd rather split that boulder or +chop down to the king log there--but the boys can't get across." + +"Have they tried?" Vane demanded. "I will, if it's necessary." + +Salter expostulated. + +"I want to point out that you're the boss director of this company. I +don't know what you're making out of it; but you can hire men to do that +kind of work for three dollars a day." + +"We'll let the boys try it, if they're willing." + +Vane raised his voice. + +"Are any of you open to earn twenty dollars? I'll pay that to the man +who'll put a stick of giant-powder in yonder boulder, and another twenty +to any one who can find the king log and chop it through." + +Three or four of them crept cautiously along the driftwood bridge. It +heaved and worked beneath them; the foam sluiced across it and the +stream forced the thinner tops of shattered trees above the barrier. It +was obvious that the men were risking life and limb, and there was a +cry from the others when one of them went down and momentarily +disappeared. He scrambled to his feet again, but those behind him +stopped, bracing themselves against the stream, nearly waist-deep in +rushing froth. Most of them had followed rough and dangerous +occupations in the bush; but they were not professional river-Jacks +trained to high proficiency in log-driving, and one of them, turning, +shouted to the watchers on the bank. + +"This jam's not solid!" he explained above the roar of the water. "She's +working open and shutting; and you can't tell where the breaks are." + +He stooped and rubbed his leg, and Vane understood him to add: + +"Figured I had it smashed." + +Vane swung round toward Carroll. + +"We'll give them a lead!" + +Salter ventured another expostulation: + +"Stay where you are! How are you going to manage, if the boys can't +tackle the thing?" + +"They haven't as much at stake as I have," was Vane's reply. "I'm a +director of the company, as you pointed out. Give me two sticks of +giant-powder, some fuse, and detonators!" + +Salter yielded when he saw that Vane meant to be obeyed; and cramming the +blasting material into his pocket, Vane turned to Carroll. + +"Are you coming with me?" + +"Since I can't stop you, I suppose I'd better go." + +As they sprang down the bank, Salter addressed one of the miners at +work near him. + +"I've seen a few company bosses in my time, but this one's different from +the rest. I can't imagine any of the others wanting to cross that jam." + +Vane crawled out on the groaning timber, with Carroll a few feet behind +him. The perilous bridge they traversed rolled beneath their feet; but +they had joined the other men before they came to any particularly +troublesome opening. Then the clustering wet figures were brought up by a +gap filled with leaping foam, in the midst of which brushwood swung to +and fro and projecting branches ground on one another. Whether there was +solid timber a foot or two beneath, or only the entrance to some cavity +by which the stream swept through the barrier, there was nothing to show; +but Vane set his lips and leaped. He alighted on something that bore him, +and when the others followed, floundering and splashing, the deliberation +which hitherto had characterized their movements suddenly deserted them. +They had reached the limit beyond which it was no longer needful. + +There is courage which springs from knowledge, often painfully acquired, +of the threatened dangers and the best means of avoiding them; but it +carries its possessor only so far. Beyond that point he must face the +risk he cannot estimate and blindly trust to chance. At sea, when canvas +is still the propelling power, and in the wilderness, man at grips with +the elemental forces must now and then rise above bodily shrinking and +disregard the warnings of reason. There are tasks which cannot be +undertaken in cold blood; and when they had crossed the gap, Vane and +those behind him blundered on in hot Berserker fury. They had risen to +the demand on them, and the curious psychic change had come; now they +must achieve success or face annihilation. But in this there was nothing +unusual; it is the alternative offered many a log-driver, miner and +sailorman. + +Neither Vane nor Carroll, nor any of those who assisted them, had a clear +recollection of what they did. Somehow they reached the boulder; somehow +they plied ax or iron-hooked peevy, while the unstable, foam-lapped +platform rocked beneath their feet. Every movement entailed a peril no +one could calculate; but they toiled savagely on. When Vane began to +swing a hammer above a drill, or from whom he got it, he did not know, +any more than he remembered when he had torn off and thrown away his +jacket although the sticks of giant-powder which had been in his pocket +lay near him upon the stone. Sparks leaped from the drill which Carroll +held and fell among the coils of snaky fuse; but that did not trouble +them; and it was only when Vane was breathless that he changed places +with his companion. They heard neither the turmoil of the flood nor the +crashing of the timber, and the foam that lapped their long boots whirled +unheeded by. + +About them, bowed figures that breathed in stertorous gasps grappled +desperately with the grinding, smashing timber. Sometimes they were +forced up in harsh distinctness by a dazzling glare; sometimes they faded +into blurred shadows as the pulsating flame upon the bank sank a little +or was momentarily blown aside; but all the while gorged veins rose on +bronzed foreheads and toil-hardened muscles were taxed to the utmost. At +last, when a trunk rolled beneath him, Carroll missed a stroke and +realized with a shock of dismay that it was not the drill he had struck +with his hammer. + +"I couldn't help it!" he gasped. "Where did I hit you?" + +"Get on!" Vane cried hoarsely; "I can hold the drill." + +Carroll struck for a few more minutes, and then flung down the hammer and +inserted the giant-powder into the holes sunk in the stone. He lighted +the fuse and, warning the others, they hastily recrossed the dangerous +bridge. They had reached the edge of the forest when, a flash leaped up +amid the foam and a sharp crash was followed by a deafening, drawn-out +uproar. Rending, grinding, smashing, the jam broke up. It hammered upon +the partly shattered boulder, and, carrying it away or driving over it, +washed in tremendous ruin down the rapid. When the wild clamor had +subsided, Salter gave the men some instructions; and then, as they +approached the lamp, he noticed Vane's reddened hand. + +"That looks a nasty smash; you want to get it seen to," he advised. + +"I'll get it dressed at the settlement; we'll make an early start +to-morrow. We were lucky in breaking the jam; but you'll have the same +trouble over again any time a heavy flood brings down an unusual quantity +of driftwood." + +"It's what I'd expect." + +"Then something will have to be done to prevent it. I'll go into the +matter when I reach the city." + +Carroll and Vane walked back to the shack, where the latter bound up his +comrade's injured hand. When he had done so, Vane managed to light a +cigar, and lying back, still very wet, he looked thoughtful. + +"We can't risk having the workings drowned; but I'm afraid the cost of +the remedy will force me into sanctioning some scheme for increasing +our capital." + +"Its a very common procedure," Carroll rejoined. "I've wondered why +you had so strong an objection to it. Of course, I've heard your +business reasons." + +Vane smiled. + +"I have some of a different kind--we'll call them sentimental +ones--though I don't think I quite realized it until lately." + +"You're not given to introspection. Go on; I think I know what's coming." + +"To put the thing into words may help me to formulate my ideas; they're +rather hazy. Well, ostensibly, I left England as the result of a +difference of opinion--which I've regretted ever since--though I know now +that really it was from another cause. I wanted room, I wanted freedom; +and I got them both--freedom either to do work that nearly broke my heart +and wore the flesh off me or to starve." + +"The experience is not an unusual one." + +"Eventually," Vane proceeded, "I managed to get on my feet. I suppose I +got rather proud of myself when I beat the city men over the floating of +the mine, and I began to think of going back to the sphere of life in +which I was born--excuse the phrase." + +"It looked nice, from a distance," Carroll suggested. + +"It was tolerable in Vancouver; anyway, while I could go straight ahead +and interest myself in the development of the mine. I began to expect a +good deal from my English visit." + +Carroll laughed softly before he helped him out. + +"And you were bitterly disappointed. It's a very old tale. You had cut +loose--and you couldn't get back when you wanted to." + +"I suppose I'd changed: the bush had got hold of me. The ways and views +of the people over yonder didn't seem to be those I remembered. They +couldn't look at things from my standpoint; I wouldn't adopt theirs. You +and I have had to face--realities." + +"Hunger," corrected Carroll softly; "wet snow to sleep in; bodily +exhaustion. They probably teach one something, or, at any rate, they +alter one's point of view. When you've marched for days on half rations, +some things don't seem so important--how you put on your clothes, for +instance, or how your dinner's served. But I don't see yet what bearing +this has on your reluctance to extend the Clermont operations." + +"I could act as director, with such men as Nairn, when it was a question +of running a mine; but it's doubtful if I'd make a successful financial +juggler. It's hard to keep one's hands off some of the professional +tricksters. Bluff, assumption, make-believe--Pshaw! I've had enough of +them. Better stick to the ax and cross-cut; that's what I feel to-night." + +"Now that you've relieved your mind, I'll show you where you were wrong. +You said that you had changed in the wilderness--you haven't; your kind +are fore-loopers born. Your place is with the vedettes, ahead of the +massed columns. But there's a point that strikes one--is your objection +to financial scheming due to honesty or pride?" + +Vane laughed. + +"I suspect a good deal of it's bad temper. Anyhow, I've felt that rather +than truckle with that fellow Horsfield I'd like to pitch him down the +stairs. But all this is pretty random talk." + +"It is," Carroll agreed. "You haven't said whether you intend to +authorize that extension of capital?" + +"I suppose it will have to be done. And now it's very late and I'm going +to sleep." + +They retired to the wooden bunks Salter had placed at their disposal; and +early the next morning they left the mine. Vane got his hand dressed when +they reached the little mining town at the head of the railroad, and on +the following day they arrived in Vancouver. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +VANE YIELDS A POINT + + +The short afternoon was drawing toward its close when Vane came out +of a large building in the city. Glancing at his watch, he stopped on +the steps. + +"The meeting went pretty satisfactorily, taking it all round," he +remarked to Carroll. + +"I think so," agreed his companion. "But I'm far from sure that Horsfield +was pleased with the stockholders' decision." + +Vane smiled in a thoughtful manner. After returning from the mine, he had +gone inland to examine a new irrigation property in which he had been +asked to take an interest, and had got back only in time for a meeting of +the Clermont shareholders, which Nairn had arranged in his absence. The +meeting, of the kind that is sometimes correctly described as +extraordinary, was just over, and though Vane had been forced to yield to +a majority on some points, he had secured the abandonment of a +proposition he considered dangerous. + +"Though I don't see what the man could have gained by it, I'm inclined to +believe that if Nairn and I had been absent he'd have carried his total +reconstruction scheme. That wouldn't have pleased me." + +"I thought it injudicious." + +"It was only because we must raise more money that I agreed to the issue +of the new block of shares," Vane went on. "We ought to pay a fair +dividend on the moderate sum in question." + +"You think you'll get it?" + +"I've not much doubt." + +Carroll made no reply to this. Vane was capable and forceful; but his +abilities were of a practical rather than a diplomatic order, and he was +occasionally addicted to somewhat headstrong action. Knowing that he had +a very cunning antagonist intriguing against him, his companion had +misgivings. + +"Shall we walk back to the hotel?" he suggested. + +"No," answered Vane; "I'll go across and see how Celia Hartley's getting +on. I'm afraid I've been forgetting her." + +"Then I'll come too. You may need me; there are matters which you're not +to be trusted to deal with alone." + +Just then Nairn came down the steps and waved his hand to them. + +"Ye will no forget that Mrs. Nairn is expecting both of ye this evening." + +He passed on, and they set off together across the city toward the +district where Celia lived. Though the quarter in question may have been +improved out of existence since, a few years ago rows of low-rented +shacks stood upon mounds of sweating sawdust which had been dumped into a +swampy hollow. Leaky, frail and fissured, they were not the kind of +places anyone who could help it would choose to live in; but Vane found +the sick girl still installed in one of the worst of them. She looked +pale and haggard; but she was busily at work upon some millinery; and the +light of a tin lamp showed Drayton and Kitty Blake sitting near her. +There were cracks in the thin, boarded walls, from which a faint resinous +odor exuded, but it failed to hide the sour smell of the wet sawdust upon +which the shack was built. The room, which was almost bare of furniture, +felt damp and unwholesome. + +"You oughtn't to be at work; you don't look fit," Vane said to Celia. He +paused a moment, hesitating, before he added: "I'm sorry we couldn't find +that spruce; but, as I told Drayton, we're going back to try again." + +The girl smiled bravely. + +"Then you'll find it the next time. I'm glad I'm able to do a little; it +brings in a few dollars." + +"But what are you doing?" + +"Making hats. I did one for Miss Horsfield, and afterward some friends of +hers sent me two or three more to trim. She said she'd try to get me work +from one of the big stores." + +"But you're not a milliner, are you?" asked Vane, feeling grateful to +Jessy for the practical way in which she had kept her promise to assist. + +"Celia's something better," Kitty broke in. "She's a genius." + +"Isn't that a slight on the profession?" Vane laughed. + +He was anxious to lead the conversation away from Miss Horsfield's +action; he shrank from figuring as the benefactor who had prompted her. + +"I'm not quite sure," he continued, "what genius really is." + +"I don't altogether agree with the definition of it as the capacity for +taking infinite pains," Carroll, guessing his companion's thoughts, +remarked with mock sententiousness. "In Miss Hartley's case, it strikes +me as the instinctive ability to evolve a finished work of art from a few +fripperies, without the aid of technical training. Give her two or three +feathers, a yard of ribbon and a handful of mixed sundries, and she'll +magically transmute them into--this." + +He took up a hat from the table and surveyed it with an air of critical +intelligence. + +"It was innate genius that set this plume at the one artistic angle. Had +it been done by less capable hands, the thing would have looked like a +decorated beehive." + +The others laughed, and he led them on to general chatter, under cover of +which Vane presently drew Drayton to the door. + +"The girl looks far from fit," he said. "Has the doctor been over +lately?" + +"Two or three days ago," answered Drayton. "We've been worried about +Celia. It's out of the question that she should go back to the hotel, and +she can only manage to work a few hours daily. There's another thing--the +clerk of the fellow who owns these shacks has just been along for his +rent. It's overdue." + +"Where's he now?" + +Drayton laughed, for the sounds of a vigorous altercation rose from +farther up the unlighted street. + +"I guess he's yonder, having some more trouble with his collecting." + +"I'll fix that matter, anyway." + +Vane disappeared into the darkness, and it was some time later when +he re-entered the shack. He waited until a remark of Celia's gave +him a lead. + +"You're really a partner in the lumber scheme," he told her; "I can't +see why you shouldn't draw part of your share in the proceeds +beforehand." + +"The first payment isn't to be made until you find the spruce and get +your lease," the girl reminded him. "You've already paid a hundred +dollars that we had no claim on." + +"That doesn't matter; I'm going to find it." + +"Yes," agreed Celia, with a look of confidence, "I think you will. +But"--a flicker of color crept into her thin face--"I can't take any more +money until it is found." + +Vane, failing in another attempt to shake her resolution, dropped the +subject, and soon afterward he and Carroll took their departure. They +were sitting in their hotel, waiting for dinner, when Carroll looked up +lazily from his luxurious chair. + +"What are you thinking about so hard?" he inquired. + +Vane glanced meaningly round the elaborately furnished room. + +"There's a contrast between all this and that rotten shack. Did you +notice that Celia never stopped sewing while we were there, though she +once or twice leaned back rather heavily in her chair?" + +"I did. I suppose you're going to propound another conundrum of a kind +I've heard before--why you should have so many things you don't +particularly need, while Miss Hartley must go on sewing when she's hardly +able for it in her most unpleasant shack? I don't know whether the fact +that you found a mine answers the question; but if it doesn't the thing's +beyond your philosophy." + +"Come off!" Vane bade him with signs of impatience. "There are times +when your moralizing gets on one's nerves. Anyhow, I straightened out one +difficulty--I found the rent man, who'd been round worrying her, and got +rid of him." + +Carroll groaned in mock dismay, which covered some genuine annoyance with +himself; but Vane frowned. + +"What's the matter?" he inquired. "Do you want a drink?" + +"I'll get over it," Carroll informed him. "It isn't the first time I've +suffered from the same complaint. But I'd like to point out that your +chivalrous impulses may be the ruin of you some day. Why didn't you let +Drayton settle with the man? You gave him a check, I suppose?" + +"Sure. I'd only a few loose dollars with me." Vane frowned again. "Now I +see what you're driving at; and I want to say that any little reputation +I possess can pretty well take care of itself." + +"Just so. No doubt it will be necessary; but it doesn't seem to have +struck you that you're not the only person concerned." + +"It didn't," Vane confessed with a further show of irritation. "But who's +likely to hear or take any notice of the thing?" + +"I can't tell; but you make enemies as well as friends, and you're +walking in slippery places which you're not altogether accustomed to. You +can't meet your difficulties with the ax here." + +"That's true," assented Vane. "It's rather a pity. Anyhow, I'm not to be +scared out of my interest in Celia Hartley." + +"What is your interest in her? It's a question that may be asked." + +"As you pretend that you don't know, I'll have pleasure in telling you +again. When I first struck this city, played out and ragged, she was +waitress at a little hotel, and she brought me a double portion of the +nicest things at supper. What's more, she sewed up some of my clothes, +and I struck a job on the strength of looking comparatively decent. It's +the kind of thing you're apt to remember. One doesn't meet with too much +kindness in this blamed censorious world." + +"I'd expect you to remember," Carroll smiled. + +They went in to dinner and when the meal was over they walked across to +Nairn's. They were ushered into a room in which several other guests were +assembled, and Vane sat down beside Jessy Horsfield. A place on the sofa +she occupied was invitingly empty; he did not know, of course, that she +had adroitly got rid of her previous companion as soon as he came in. + +"I want to thank you; I was over at Miss Hartley's this +afternoon," he began. + +"I understood that you were at the mining meeting." + +"So I was, your brother would tell you that--" + +Vane broke off, remembering that he had defeated Horsfield; but Jessy +laughed encouragingly. + +"He did so--you were opposed to him; but it doesn't follow that I share +all his views. Perhaps I ought to be a stauncher partizan." + +"If you'll be just to both of us, I'll be satisfied." + +Jessy reflected that while this was, no doubt, a commendable sentiment, +he might have made a better use of the opening she had given him by at +least hinting that he would value her sympathy. + +"I suppose that means that you're convinced of the equity of your cause?" +she suggested. + +"I dare say I deserve the rebuke; but aren't you trying to switch me off +the subject?" Vane retorted with a laugh. "It's Celia Hartley that I want +to talk about." + +He did her an injustice. Jessy felt that she had earned his gratitude, +and she had no objection to his expressing it. + +"It was a happy thought of yours to give her hats and things to make; I'm +ever so much obliged to you," he went on. "I felt that you could be +trusted to think of the right thing. An ingenious idea of that kind would +never have occurred to me." + +Jessy smiled up at him. + +"It was very simple," she said sweetly. "I noticed a hat and dress of +hers, which she admitted she had made. The girl has some talent; I'm only +sorry I can't keep her busy." + +"Couldn't you give her an order for a dozen hats? I'd be glad to be +responsible." + +Jessy laughed. + +"The difficulty would be the disposal of them. They would be of no use to +you; and I couldn't allow you to present them to me." + +"I wish I could," Vane declared. "You certainly deserve them." + +This was satisfactory, so far as it went, though Jessy would have +preferred that his desire to bestow the favor should have sprung from +some other motive than a recognition of her services to Celia Hartley. +She was, however, convinced that his only feeling toward the girl was +one of compassion. Then she saw that he was looking at her with +half-humorous annoyance in his face. + +"Are you really grieved because I won't take those hats?" she +asked lightly. + +"I am," Vane confessed, and then proceeded to explain with rather +unnecessary ingenuousness: "I'm still more vexed with the state of things +that it's typical of--I suppose I mean the restrictedness of this +civilized life. When you want to do anything in the bush, you take the ax +and set about it; but here you're continually running up against some +quite unnecessary barrier." + +"One understands that it's worse in England," Jessy returned dryly. +"But in regard to Miss Hartley, I'll recommend her to my friends, as +far as I can." + +Vane made an abrupt movement, and Jessy realized by his expression that +he had suddenly become oblivious of her presence. She had no doubt about +the reason, for just then Evelyn Chisholm had entered the room. The +lamplight fell upon her as she crossed the threshold, and Jessy +recognized unwillingly that she looked surprisingly handsome. Handsome, +however, was not the word Vane would have used. He thought Evelyn looked +exotic: highly cultivated, strangely refined, as though she had grown up +in a rarefied atmosphere in which nothing rank could thrive. Exactly what +suggested this it was difficult to define; but the man felt that she had +brought along with her the clean, chill air of the heights where the +cloud-berries bloom. She was a flower of the dim and misty North, which +has nevertheless its flashes of radiant, ethereal beauty. Though Evelyn +had her faults, the impression she made on Vane was, perhaps, more or +less justifiable. + +Then he remembered that the girl had been offered to him and he had +refused the gift. He wondered how he had exerted the necessary strength +of will, for he was conscious that admiration, respect, pity, had now, +changed and melted into sudden passion. His blood tingled, and he felt +strangely happy. + +Laying a check upon his thoughts, he resumed a desultory conversation +with Jessy, but he betrayed himself several times during it, for no +change of his expression was lost upon the girl. At length she let him +go. It was some time, however, before he secured a place beside Evelyn, a +little apart from the others. He was now unusually quiet and +self-contained. + +"Nairn promised me an astonishment this evening, but it exceeds all my +expectations," he said. "How are your people?" + +Evelyn informed him that their health was satisfactory and added, +watching him the while: + +"Gerald sent his best remembrances." + +"Thank you," Vane responded in a casual manner; "I am glad to have them." + +Evelyn was now convinced that Mabel had been correct in concluding that +he had assisted Gerald financially, though she was aware that nothing +would induce either of the men to acquaint her with the fact. + +"And Mopsy?" he inquired. + +"I left her in tears because she could not come. She sent you so many +confused messages that I'm afraid I've forgotten them." + +Vane's face grew gentle. + +"Dear little girl! It's a pity you couldn't have brought her. Mopsy and +I are great friends." + +Evelyn smiled at him. The tenderness of the man appealed to her; and she +knew that to be the friend of anyone meant a good deal to him. + +"You are her hero," she told him. "I don't think it is because you pulled +her out of the water, either; in fact, I think you won her regard when +you mended her canoe. You have a reputation to keep up with Mopsy." + +There was no answering smile in Vane's eyes. + +"Well, I shouldn't like to disappoint her; but isn't it curious what +effect some things have? A patch on Mopsy's canoe, for instance--and I've +known a piece of cold pie carry with it a big obligation." + +The last was somewhat cryptic, and Evelyn looked at him with surprise, +until it dawned on her that he had merely been half-consciously +expressing a wandering thought aloud. + +"I understood from Mrs. Nairn that you were away in the bush," she said. + +"That was the case; and I'm shortly going off again. Perhaps it's +fortunate that I may be away some time. It will leave you more at ease." + +The last remark was more of a question than an assertion. Evelyn knew +that the man could be direct; and she esteemed candor. + +"No," she answered; "I shouldn't wish you to think that--and I shouldn't +like to believe that I had anything to do with driving you away." + +Vane saw a faintly warmer tone show through the clear pallor of her skin, +but while his heart beat faster than usual he recognized that she meant +just what she said and nothing more. He must proceed with caution, and +this, on the whole, was foreign to him. Shortly afterward he left her. + +When he had gone, Evelyn sat thinking about him. She had shrunk from the +man in rebellious alarm when her parents would have bestowed her hand on +him; but even then, and undoubtedly afterward, she had felt that there +was something in his nature which would have attracted her had she been +willing to allow it to do so. Now, though he had said nothing to rouse +it, the feeling had grown stronger. Then she remembered with a curious +smile her father's indignation when Vane had withdrawn from the field. He +had done this because she had appealed to his generosity, and she had +been grateful to him; but, unreasonable as she admitted the faint +resentment she was conscious of to be, the recollection of the fact that +he had yielded to her wishes was somehow bitter. + +In the meanwhile Carroll had taken his place by Jessy's side. + +"I understand that you steered your comrade satisfactorily through the +meeting to-day," she began. + +"No," objected Carrol; "I can't claim any credit for doing so. In matters +of that kind Vane takes full control; and I'm willing to own that he +drove us all, including your brother, on the course he chose." + +Jessy laughed good-humoredly. + +"Then it's in other matters you exercise a little judicious pressure on +the helm?" + +The man looked at her in well-assumed admiration of her keenness. + +"I don't know how you guessed it, but I suppose it's a fact. It's an open +secret, however, that Vane's now and then unguardedly ingenuous; indeed, +there are respects in which he's a babe by comparison with, we'll say, +either of us." + +"That's rather a dubious compliment. By the way, what do you think of +Miss Chisholm? I suppose you saw a good deal of her in England?" + +Carroll's eyes twinkled. + +"I spent a month or two in her company; so did Vane. I fancy she's rather +like him in several ways; and there are reasons for believing that he +thinks a good deal of her." + +Having watched Vane carefully when Evelyn came in, Jessy was inclined to +agree with him. She glanced round the room. One or two people were moving +about and the others were talking in little groups; but there was nobody +very near, and she fancied that she and her companion were safe from +interruption. + +"What are some of the reasons?" she asked boldly. + +Carroll had expected some question of this description, and had decided +to answer it plainly. It seemed probable that Jessy would get the +information out of him in one way or another, anyway; and he had also +another reason, which he thought a commendable one. Jessy had obviously +taken a certain interest in Vane, but it could not have gone very far as +yet, and Vane did not reciprocate it. His comrade, however, was +impulsive, while Jessy was calculating and clever; and Carroll foresaw +that complications might follow any increase of friendliness between her +and Vane. He thought it might be wise to warn her to leave Vane alone. + +"Well," he answered, "since you have asked, I'll try to tell you." + +He proceeded to recount what had passed at the Dene and Jessy listened, +sitting perfectly still, with an expressionless face. + +"So he gave her up--because he admired her?" she said at length. + +"That's my view of it. Of course, it sounds unlikely, but I don't think +it is so in my partner's case." + +Jessy made no comment, but he felt that she was hit hard, and that was +not what he had anticipated. He began to wonder whether he had acted +judiciously. He glanced about the room, as it did not seem considerate to +study her expression just then. A few moments later she turned to him +with a smile in which there was the faintest hint of strain. + +"I dare say you are right; but there are one or two people to whom I +haven't spoken." + +She moved away from him, and a little while afterward Mrs. Nairn came +upon Carroll standing for the moment alone. + +"It's no often one sees ye looking moody," she said. "Was Jessy no +gracious?" + +"That," replied Carroll, smiling, "is not the difficulty. I'm an +unsusceptible and a somewhat inconspicuous person--not worth powder and +shot, so to speak; for which I'm sometimes thankful. I believe it saves +me a good deal of trouble." + +"Then is it something Vane has done that is on your mind? Doubtless, ye +feel him a responsibility." + +"He's what you'd call all that," Carroll declared. "Still, you see, I've +constituted myself his guardian. I don't know why; he'd probably be very +vexed if he suspected it." + +"The gods give ye a good conceit of yourself," Mrs. Nairn laughed. + +"I need it. This afternoon I let him do a most injudicious thing; and now +I've done another which I fear is worse. On the whole, I think I'd better +take him away to the bush. He'd be safer there." + +"Ye will no; no just now," declared his hostess firmly. + +Carroll made a sign of resignation. + +"Oh, well," he agreed, "if you say so. I'm quite willing to stand out and +let things alone. Too many cooks are apt to spoil the kale." + +Mrs. Nairn left him, but she afterward glanced thoughtfully once or twice +at Vane and Evelyn, who had again drawn together. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +EVELYN GOES FOR A SAIL + + +Vane sat in Nairn's office with a frown on his face. Specimens of ore +lately received from the mine were scattered about a table and Nairn had +some papers in his hand. + +"Weel?" inquired the Scotchman when Vane, after examining two or three of +the stones, abruptly flung them down. + +"The ore's running poorer. On the other hand, I partly expected this. +There's better stuff in the reef. We're a little too high, for one thing; +I look for more encouraging results when we start the lower heading." + +He went into details of the new operations, and when he finished Nairn +looked up from the figures he had been jotting down. + +"Yon workings will cost a good deal," he pointed out "Ye will no be able +to make a start until we're sure of the money." + +"We ought to get it." + +Nairn looked thoughtful. + +"A month or two ago, I would have agreed with ye; but general investors +are kittle folk, and the applications for the new stock are no numerous." + +"Howitson promised to subscribe largely; and Bendle pledged himself to +take a considerable block." + +"I'm no denying it. But we have no been favored with their formal +applications yet." + +"You had better tell me if you have anything particular in your mind," +Vane said bluntly. + +An unqualified affirmation is not strictly in accordance with the +Scottish character, and Nairn was seldom rash. + +"I would have ye remember what I told ye about the average investor," he +replied. "He has no often the boldness to trust his judgment nor the +sense to ken a good thing when he sees it--he waits for a lead, and then +joins the rush when other folk are going in. What makes a mineral or +other stock a favorite for a time is now and then no easy to determine; +but we'll allow that it becomes so--ye will see men who should have mair +sense thronging to buy and running the price up. Like sheep they come in, +each following the other; and like sheep they run out, if anything scares +them. It's no difficult to start a panic." + +"The plain English of it is that the mine is not so popular as it was," +retorted Vane impatiently. + +"I'm thinking something of the kind," Nairn agreed. Then he proceeded +with a cautious explanation: "The result of the first reduction and the +way ye forced the concern on the market secured ye notice. Folk put their +money on ye, looking for sensational developments, and when the latter +are no forthcoming they feel a bit sore and disappointed." + +"There's nothing discouraging in our accounts. Even if the ore all ran as +poor as that,"--Vane pointed to the specimens on the table--"the mine +could be worked on a reasonably satisfactory paying basis. We have +issued no statements that could spread alarm." + +"Just so. What was looked for was more than reasonable satisfaction--ye +have no come up to expectations. Forby, it's my opinion that damaging +reports have somehow leaked out from the mine. Just now I see clouds on +the horizon." + +"Bendle pledged himself to take up a big block of the shares," repeated +Vane. "If Howitson does the same, as he said he would, our position would +be secure. As soon as it was known that they were largely interested, +others would follow them." + +"Now ye have it in a nutshell--it would put a wet blanket on the project +if they both backed down. In the meanwhile we canna hurry them. Ye will +have to give them time." + +Vane rose. + +"We'll leave it at that. I've promised to take Mrs. Nairn and Miss +Chisholm for a sail." + +By the time he reached the water-front he had got rid of the slight +uneasiness the interview had occasioned him. He found Mrs. Nairn and +Evelyn awaiting him with Carroll in attendance, and in a few minutes they +were rowing off to the sloop. As they approached her, the elder lady +glanced with evident approval at the craft, which swam, a gleaming ivory +shape, upon the shining green brine. + +"Ye have surely been painting the boat," she exclaimed. "Was that for +us?" + +Vane disregarded the question. + +"She wanted it, and paint's comparatively cheap. It has been good drying +weather the last few days." + +It was a little thing, but Evelyn was pleased. The girls had not been +greatly considered at the Dene, and it was flattering to recognize that +the man had thought it worth while to decorate his craft in her honor; +she supposed it had entailed a certain amount of work. She did not ask +herself if he had wished to please her; he had invited her for a sail +some days ago, and he was thorough in everything he did. He helped her +and Mrs. Nairn on board and when they sat down in the well he and Carroll +proceeded to hoist the mainsail. It looked exceedingly large as it +thrashed and fluttered above their heads, and there seemed to be a +bewildering quantity of ropes, but Evelyn was interested chiefly in +watching Vane. + +He was wonderfully quick, but no movement was wasted. His face was +intent, his glances sharp, and she liked the crisp, curt way in which he +spoke to Carroll. The man's task was, in one sense, not important, but he +was absorbed in it. Then while Carroll slipped the moorings, Vane ran up +the headsails and springing aft seized the tiller as the boat, slanting +over, commenced to forge through the water. It was the first time Evelyn +had ever traveled under sail and, receptive as she was of all new +impressions she sat silent a few minutes rejoicing in the sense of swift +and easy motion. The inlet was crisped by small white ripples, and the +boat with her boom broad off on her quarter drove through them, with a +wedge of foam on her lee bow and a stream of froth sluicing past her +sides. Overhead, the great inclined sail cut, sharply white, against the +dazzling blue of the mid-morning sky. + +Evelyn glanced farther around. Wharves stacked with lumber, railroad +track, clustering roofs, smoking mills, were flitting fast astern. Ahead, +a big side-wheel steamer was forging, foam-ringed, toward her, with the +tall spars of a four-master towering behind, and stately pines, that +apparently walled in the harbor, a little to one side. To starboard, +beyond the wide stretch of white-flecked water, mountains ran back in +ranks, with the chilly gleam of snow, which had crept lower since her +arrival, upon their shoulders. It was a sharp contrast: the noisy, +raw-new city and, so close at hand, the fringe of the wilderness. + +They swept out through the gate of the Narrows, and Vane luffed the boat +up to a moderately fresh breeze. + +"It's off the land, and we'll have fairly smooth water," he explained. +"How do you like sailing?" + +Evelyn watched the white ridges, which were larger than the ripples in +the inlet, smash in swift succession upon the weather bow and hurl the +glittering spray into the straining mainsail. There was something +fascinating in the way the gently-swaying boat clove through them. + +"It's glorious!" she cried, looking first ahead then back toward the +distant snow. "If anything more were wanted, there are the +mountains, too." + +Vane smiled, but there was a suggestive sparkle in his eyes. + +"Yes; we have them both, and that's something to be thankful for. The sea +and the mountains--the two grandest things in this world!" + +"If you think that, how did you reconcile yourself to the city?" + +"I'm not sure that I've done so." He indicated the gleaming heights. +"Anyway, I'm going back up yonder very soon." + +Mrs. Nairn glanced at Carroll, who affected to be busy with a rope; then +she turned to Vane. + +"It will no be possible with winter coming on." + +"It's not really so bad then," Vane declared. "Besides, I expect to get +my work done before the hardest weather's due." + +"But ye canna leave Vancouver until ye have settled about the mine!" + +"I don't want to," Vane admitted. "That's not quite the same thing." + +"It is with a good many people," Carroll interposed with a smile. + +Evelyn fancied that there was something behind all this, but it did not +directly concern her and she made no inquiry. In the meanwhile they were +driving on to the southward, opening up the straits, with the forests to +port growing smaller and the short seas increasing in size. The breeze +was cold, but the girl was warmly clad and the easy motion in no way +troubled her. The rush of keen salt air stirred her blood, and all round +her were spread wonderful harmonies of silver-laced blue and green, +through which the straining fabric that carried her swept on. The +mountains were majestic, but except when tempests lashed their crags or +torrents swept their lower slopes they were wrapped in eternal repose; +the sea was filled with ecstatic motion. + +"The hills have their fascination; it's a thing I know," she said, to +draw the helmsman out. "I think I should like the sea, too; but at first +sight it's charm isn't quite so plain." + +"You have started him," interposed Carroll. "He won't refuse that +challenge." + +Vane accepted it with a smile which meant more than good-humored +indulgence. + +"Well," he declared, "the sea's the same everywhere, unbridled, +unchanging; a force that remains as it was in the beginning. Once you're +out of harbor, under sail, you have done with civilization. It has +possibly provided you with excellent gear, but it can do no more; you +stand alone, stripped for the struggle with the elements." + +"Is it always a struggle?" + +"Always. The sea's as treacherous as the winds that vex it, pitiless, +murderous. When you have only sail to trust to, you can never relax your +vigilance; you must watch the varying drift of clouds and the swing of +the certain tides. There's nothing and nobody to fall back upon when the +breeze pipes its challenge; you have sloughed off civilization and must +stand or fall by the raw natural powers with which man is born, and chief +among them is the capacity for brutal labor. The thrashing sail must be +mastered; the tackle creaking with the strain must be hauled in. Perhaps, +that's the charm of it for some of us whose lives are pretty smooth--it +takes one back, as I said, to the beginning." + +"But haven't human progress and machines made life more smooth for +everybody?" + +Vane laughed somewhat grimly. + +"Oh, no; I think that can never be done. So far, somebody pays for the +others' ease. At sea, in the mine and in the bush man still grapples with +a rugged, naked world." + +The girl was pleased. She had drawn him out, and she thought that in +speaking he had kept a fair balance between too crude a mode of +colloquial expression and poetic elaboration. There was, she knew, a vein +of poetic conception in him, and the struggle he had hinted at could be +described fittingly only in heroic language. It was in one sense a pity +that those who had the gift of it and cultivated imagination had, for the +most part, never been forced into the fight; but that was, perhaps, not a +matter of much importance. There were plenty of men, such as her +companion, endowed with steadfast endurance who, if they seldom gave +their thoughts free rein, rejoiced in the struggle; and by them the +world's sternest work was clone. + +"After all," she went on, "we have the mountains in civilized England." + +Vane did not respond with the same freedom this time. He was inclined to +think he had spoken too unrestrainedly. + +"Yes," he agreed, smiling; "you can walk about them--where you won't +disturb the grouse--and they're grand enough; but if you look down you +can see the motor dust trails and the tourist coaches in the valleys." + +"But why shouldn't people enjoy themselves in that way?" + +"I can't think of any reason. No doubt most of them have earned the right +to do so. But you can't rip up those hills with giant-powder where you +feel inclined, or set to work to root out some miles of forest. The +Government encourages that kind of thing here." + +"And that's the charm?" + +"Yes; I suppose it is." + +"I'd better explain," Carroll interposed. "Men of a certain temperament +are apt to fall a prey to fantasies in the newer lands; any common sense +they once possessed seems to desert them. After that, they're never happy +except when they're ripping things--such as big rocks and trees--to +pieces, and though they'll tell you it's only to get out minerals or to +clear a ranch, they're wrong. Once they get the mine or ranch, they don't +care about it; they set to work wrecking things again. Isn't that true, +Mrs. Nairn?" + +"There are such crazy bodies," agreed the lady. "I know one or two; +but if I had my way with them, they should find one mine, or build +one sawmill." + +"And then," supplied Carroll, "you would chain them up for good by +marrying them." + +"I would like to try, but I'm no sure it would act in every case. I have +come across some women as bad as the men; they would drive their +husbands on." + +She smiled in a half wistful manner. + +"Maybe," she added, "it's as well to do something worth the remembering +when ye are young. There's a long while to sit still in afterward." + +Half in banter and half in earnest, they had given Evelyn a hint of the +master passion of the true colonist, whose pride is in his burden. +Afterward, Mrs. Nairn led the conversation until Carroll laid out in the +saloon a somewhat elaborate lunch which he had brought from the hotel. +Then the others went below, leaving Vane at the helm. When they came up +again, Carroll looked at his comrade ruefully. + +"I'm afraid Miss Chisholm's disappointed," he said. + +"No," declared Evelyn; "that would be most ungrateful. I only expected a +more characteristic example of sea cookery. After what Mr. Vane told us, +a lunch like the one you provided, with glass and silver, struck me as +rather an anachronism." + +"It's better to be broken in to sea cookery gently," Vane interposed with +some dryness. + +Evelyn laughed. + +"It's a poor compliment to take it for granted that we're afraid of a +little hardship. Besides, I don't think you're right." + +Vane left the helm to Carroll and went below. + +"He won't be long," Carroll informed the girl, with a smile. "He hasn't +got rid of all his primitive habits yet. I'll give him ten minutes." + +When Vane came up, he glanced about him before he resumed the helm and +noticed that it was blowing fresher. They were also drawing out from the +land and the short seas were getting bigger; but he held on to the whole +sail, and an hour or so afterward a white iron bark, light in ballast, +with her rusty load-line high above the water, came driving up to meet +them. She made a striking picture, Evelyn thought, with the great curve +of her forecourse, which was still set, stretching high above the foam +that spouted about her bows and tier upon tier of gray canvas diminishing +aloft. With the wind upon her quarter, she rode on an even keel, and the +long iron hull, gleaming snowily in the sunshine, drove on, majestic, +through a field of white-flecked green and azure. Abreast of one +quarter, a propeller tug that barely kept pace with her belched out a +cloud of smoke. + +"Her skipper's been up here before--he's no doubt coming for +salmon," Vane explained. Then he turned to Carroll. "We'd better +pass to lee of her." + +Carroll let a foot or two of a rope run out and the sloop's bows swung +round a little. Her rail was just awash, and she was sailing very fast. +Then her deck slanted more sharply and the low rail became submerged in +rushing foam. + +"We'll heave down a reef when we're clear of the bark," Vane said. + +The vessel was now to windward and coming up rapidly; to shorten sail +they must first round up the boat, for which they no longer had room. A +few moments later a fiercer blast swept suddenly down and the water +boiled white between the bark and the sloop. The latter's deck dipped +deeper until the lower part of it was lost in streaming froth. Carroll +made an abrupt movement. + +"Shall I drop the peak?" + +"No. There's the propeller close to lee." + +The tug was hidden by the inclined sail, but Evelyn, clinging tightly to +the coaming, understood that they were running into the gap between the +two vessels and in order to avoid collision with one or the other, must +hold on as they were through the stress of the squall. How much more the +boat would stand she did not know, but it looked as if it were going over +bodily. Then a glance at the helmsman's face reassured her. It was fixed +and expressionless, but she somehow felt that whatever was necessary +would be promptly done. He was not one to lose his nerve or vacillate in +a crisis, and his immobility appealed to her, because she knew that if +occasion arose it would be replaced by prompt decisive action. + +In the meanwhile the slant of sail and deck increased. One side of the +sloop was hove high out of the sea. It was all the girl could do to hold +herself upright, and Mrs. Nairn had fallen against and was only supported +by the coaming to leeward. Then the wind was suddenly cut off and the +sloop rose with a bewildering lurch, as the tall iron hull to weather +forged by, hurling off the sea. She passed, and while Vane called out +something and Carroll scrambled forward, the sloop swayed violently down +again. Everything in her creaked; the floorings sloped away beneath +Evelyn's feet, and now the madly-whirling froth poured in across the +coaming. The veins stood out on the helmsman's forehead, his pose +betrayed the tension on his arms; but the sloop was swinging round, and +she fell off before the wind when the upper half of the great sail +collapsed. + +Rising more upright, she flung the water off her deck, and for some +moments drove on at a bewildering speed; then there was a mad thrashing +as Vane brought her on the wind again. The two men, desperately busy, +mastered the fluttering sail, and in a few more minutes they were running +homeward, with the white seas splashing harmlessly astern. It was now +difficult to believe they had been in any danger, but Evelyn felt that +she had had an instance of the sea's treachery; what was more, she had +witnessed an exhibition of human nerve and skill. Vane, with his +half-formulated thoughts which yet had depth to them and his flashes of +imagination, had interested her; but now he had been revealed in his +finer capacity, as a man of action. + +"I'd have kept to weather of the bark, where we'd have had room to luff, +if I'd expected that burst of wind," he explained. "Did you hurt yourself +against the coaming, Mrs. Nairn?" + +The lady smiled reassuringly. + +"It's no worth mentioning, and I'm no altogether unused to it. Alic once +kept a boat and would have me out with him." + +The remainder of the trip proved uneventful, and as they ran homeward the +breeze gradually died away. The broad inlet lay still in the moonlight +when they crept across it with the water lapping very faintly about the +bows, and it was over a mirror-like surface they rowed ashore. Nairn was +waiting at the foot of the steps and Evelyn walked back with him, +feeling, she could not tell exactly why, that she had been drawn closer +to the sloop's helmsman. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +VANE PROVES OBDURATE + + +Vane spent two or three weeks very pleasantly in Vancouver, for Evelyn, +of whom he saw a good deal, was gracious to him. The embarrassment both +had felt on their first meeting in the western city had speedily +vanished; they had resumed their acquaintance on what was ostensibly a +purely friendly footing, and since both avoided any reference to what had +taken place in England, it had ripened into a mutual confidence and +appreciation. + +This would have been less probable in the older country, where they would +have been continually reminded of what the Chisholm family expected of +them; but the past seldom counts for much in the new and changeful West, +where men look forward to the future. Indeed, there is something in its +atmosphere which banishes regret and retrospection; and when Evelyn +looked back at all, she felt inclined to wonder why she had once been so +troubled by the man's satisfaction with her company. She decided that +this could not have been the result of any aversion for him, and that it +was merely an instinctive revolt against the part her parents had wished +to force upon her. Chisholm and his wife had blundered, as such people +often do, for it is possible that had they adopted a perfectly neutral +attitude everything would have gone as they desired. Their mistake was +nevertheless a natural one. Somewhat exaggerated reports of Vane's +prosperity had reached them; but while they coveted the advantages his +wealth might offer their daughter, in their secret hearts they looked +upon him as a raw Colonial and something of a barbarian, and the opinions +he occasionally expressed in their hearing did not dispel this idea. Both +feared that Evelyn regarded him in the same light, and it accordingly +became evident that a little pressure might be required. In spite of +their prejudices, they did not shrink from applying it. + +In the meanwhile, several people in Vancouver watched the increase of +friendliness between the girl and Vane. Mrs. Nairn and her husband did so +with benevolent interest, and it was by Mrs. Nairn's adroit management, +which even Evelyn did not often suspect, that they were thrown more and +more into each other's company. Jessy Horsfield, however, looked on with +bitterness. She was a strong-willed young woman who hitherto had +generally contrived to obtain whatever she had set her heart on; and she +had set it on this man. Indeed, she had fancied that he returned the +feeling, but disillusionment had come on the evening when he had +unexpectedly met Evelyn. Her smoldering resentment against the girl grew +steadily stronger, until it threatened to prove dangerous on opportunity. + +There were, however, days when Vane was disturbed in mind. Winter was +coming on, and although it is rarely severe on the southern seaboard, it +is by no means the season one would choose for an adventure among the +ranges of the northern wilderness. Unless he made his search for the +spruce very shortly he might be compelled to postpone it until the +spring, at the risk of some hardy prospector's forestalling him; but +there were two reasons which detained him. He thought that he was gaining +ground in Evelyn's esteem and he feared the effect of absence, and there +was no doubt that the new issue of the Clermont shares was in very slack +demand. To leave the city might cost him a good deal in several ways, but +he had pledged himself to go. + +That fact was uppermost in his mind one evening when he set off to call +on Celia Hartley. As it happened, Evelyn and Mrs. Nairn were driving past +as he turned off from a busy street toward the quarter in which she +lived. It had been dark for some time, but the street was well lighted +and Evelyn had no difficulty in recognizing him. Indeed, she watched him +for a few moments while he passed on into a more shadowy region, where +the gloom and dilapidation of the first small frame houses were +noticeable. Beyond them there was scarcely a light at all; the +neighborhood looked mysterious, and she wondered what kind of people +inhabited it. She did not think that Mrs. Nairn had noticed Vane. + +"You have never taken me into the district on our left," she said. + +"I'm no likely to. We're no proud of it." + +Evelyn was a little astonished. She had seen no signs of squalor or +dissipation since she entered Canada, and had almost fancied that they +did not exist. + +"I suppose the Chinese and other aliens live there?" + +"They do," was the dry answer. "I'm no sure, however, that they're +the worst." + +"But one understands that you haven't a criminal population." + +"We have folk who're on the fringe of it, only we see that they live all +together. Folk who would be respectable live somewhere else, except, +maybe, a few who have to consider cheapness. There's no great difference +in human nature wherever ye find it, and I do no suppose we're very much +better than the rest of the world; but it's no a recommendation to be +seen going into yon quarter after dark." + +This left Evelyn thoughtful, for she had undoubtedly seen Vane going +there. She considered herself a judge of character and generally trusted +her intuitions, and she believed that the man's visit to the neighborhood +in question admitted of some satisfactory explanation. On the other hand, +she felt that her friends should be beyond suspicion. Taking it all +round, she was rather vexed with Vane, and it cost her some trouble to +drive the matter out of her mind. + +She did not see Vane the next day, but the latter called upon Nairn at +his office during the afternoon. + +"Have you had any more applications for the new stock?" he asked. + +"I have no. Neither Bendle nor Howitson has paid up yet, though I've seen +them about it once or twice." + +"Investors are shy; that's a fact," Vane confessed. "It's unfortunate. +I've already put off my trip north as long as possible. I wanted to see +things arranged on a satisfactory basis before I went." + +"A very prudent wish. I should advise ye to carry it out." + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"Something like this--if the money's no forthcoming, we may be compelled +to fall back upon a different plan, and unless ye're to the fore, the +decision of a shareholders' meeting might no suit ye. Considering the +position and the stock ye hold, any views ye might express would carry +more weight than mine would do in your absence." + +Vane drummed with his fingers on the table. + +"I suppose that's the case; but I've got to make the journey. With +moderately good fortune it shouldn't take me long." + +"Ye would be running some risk if anything delayed ye and we had to call +a meeting before ye got back." + +Vane frowned. + +"I see that; but it can't be helped. I expect to be back before I'm +wanted. Anyway, I could leave you authority to act on my behalf." + +After a further attempt to dissuade him, Nairn spread out one hand +resignedly. + +"He who will to Cupar maun be left to gang," he said. "Whiles, I have +wondered why any one should be so keen on getting there, but doubtless a +douce Scottish town has mair attractions for a sensible person than the +rugged Northwest in the winter-time." + +Vane smiled and shortly afterward went out and left him; and when Nairn +reached home he briefly recounted the interview to his wife over his +evening meal. Evelyn listened attentively. + +"Yon man will no hear reason," Nairn concluded. "He's thrawn." + +Evelyn had already noticed that her host, for whom she had a strong +liking, spoke broader Scotch when he was either amused or angry, and she +supposed that Vane's determination disturbed him. + +"But why should he persist in leaving the city, when it's to his +disadvantage to do so, as you lead one to believe it is?" she asked. + +"If the latter's no absolutely certain, it's very likely." + +"You have answered only half my question." + +Mrs. Nairn smiled. + +"Alic," she explained, "is reserved by nature; but if ye're anxious for +an answer, I might tell ye." + +"Anxious hardly describes it." + +"Then we'll say curious. The fact is that Vane made a bargain with a sick +prospector, in which he undertook to locate some timber the man had +discovered away among the mountains. He was to pay the other a share of +its value when he got his Government license." + +"Is the timber very valuable?" + +"No," broke in Nairn. "One might make a fair business profit out of +pulping it, though the thing's far from certain." + +"Then why is Mr. Vane so determined on finding it?" + +The question gave Mrs. Nairn a lead, but she decided to say no more than +was necessary. + +"The prospector died, but that bound the bargain tighter, in Vane's +opinion. The man died without a dollar, leaving a daughter worn out and +ill with nursing him. According to the arrangement, his share will go to +the girl." + +"Then," said Evelyn, "Mr. Vane is really undertaking the search, which +may involve him in difficulties, in order to keep his promise to a man +who is dead? And he will not even postpone it, because if he did so +this penniless girl might, perhaps, lose her share? Isn't that rather +fine of him?" + +"On the whole, ye understand the position," Nairn agreed. "If ye +desire my view of the matter, I would merely say that yon's the kind +of man he is." + +Evelyn made no further comment, though the last common phrase struck her +as a most eloquent tribute. She had heard Vane confess that he did not +want to go north at present, and she now understood that to do so might +jeopardize his interests in the mine; but he was undoubtedly going. He +meant to keep his promise in its fullest and widest meaning--that was +what one would expect of him. + +One mild afternoon, a few days later, he took her for a drive among the +Stanley pines, and, though she knew that she would regret his departure, +she was unusually friendly. Vane rejoiced at it, but he had already +decided that he must endeavor to proceed with caution and to content +himself in the meanwhile with the part of trusted companion. For this +reason, he chatted lightly, which he felt was safer, during most of the +drive; but once or twice, when by chance or design she asked a leading +question, he responded without reserve. He did so when they were +approaching a group of giant conifers. + +"I wonder whether you ever feel any regret at having left England for +this country?" she asked. + +"I did so pretty often when I first came out," he answered with a +smile. "In those days I had to work in icy water and carry massive +lumps of rock." + +"I dare say regret was a natural feeling then; but that wasn't quite +what I meant." + +"So I supposed," Vane confessed. "Well, I'd better own that when I'd +spent a week or two in England--at the Dene--I began to think I'd missed +a good deal by not staying at home. It struck me that the life you led +had a singular charm. Everything went so smoothly there, among the +sheltering hills. One felt that care and anxiety could not creep in. +Somehow, the place reminded me of Avalon." + +"The impression was by no means correct," smiled Evelyn, "But I don't +think you have finished. Won't you go on?" + +"Then if I get out of my depth, you mustn't blame me. By and by I +discovered that charm wasn't the right word--the place was permeated with +a narcotic spell." + +"Narcotic? Do you think the term's more appropriate?" + +"I do. Narcotics, one understands, are insidious things. If you take them +regularly, in small doses, they increase their hold on you until you +become wrapped up in dreams and unrealities. If, however, you get too big +a dose of them at the beginning, it leads to a vigorous revulsion. It's +nature's warning and remedy." + +"You're not flattering; but I almost fancy you're right." + +"We are told that man was made to struggle--to use all his powers. If he +rests too long beside the still backwaters of life, in fairy-like dales, +they're apt to atrophy, and he finds himself slack and nerveless when he +goes out to face the world again." + +Evelyn nodded, for she had felt and striven against the insidious +influence of which he spoke. She had now and then left the drowsy dale +for a while; but the life of which she had then caught glimpses was +equally sheltered--one possible only to the favored few. Even the echoes +of the real tense struggle seldom passed its boundaries. + +"But you confessed not long ago that you loved the western wilderness," +she said. "You have spent a good deal of time in it; and you expect to +do so again. After all, isn't that only exchanging one beautiful, +tranquil region for another? The bush must be even quieter than the +English dales." + +"Perhaps I haven't made the point quite clear. When one goes up into the +bush, it's not to lounge and dream there, but to make war upon it with ax +and drill." + +He pulled up his team and pointed to the clump of giant trees. + +"Look there! That's nature's challenge to man in this country." + +Evelyn recognized that it was an impressive one. The great trunks ran up +far aloft, tremendous columns, before their brighter portions were lost +in the vaulted roof of somber greenery. They dwarfed the rig and team; +she felt herself a pygmy by comparison. + +"They're a little larger than the average," her companion explained, +"Still, that's the kind of thing you run up against when you buy land to +start a ranch or clear the ground for a mine. Chopping, sawing up, +splitting those giants doesn't fill one with languorous dreams; the only +dreams that our axmen indulge in materialize. It's an unending, bracing +struggle. There are leagues and leagues of trees, shrouding the valleys +in a shadow that has lasted since the world was young; but you see the +dawn of a wonderful future breaking in as the long ranks go down." + +Once more, without clearly intending it, he had stirred the girl. He had +not spoken in that rather fanciful style to impress her; she knew that, +trusting in her comprehension, he had merely given his ideas free rein. +But in doing so he had somehow made her hear the trumpet-call to action +which, for such men, rings through the roar of the river and the song of +the tall black pines. + +"Ah!" she murmured, "it must be a glorious life, in many ways; but it's +bound to have its drawbacks. Doesn't the flesh shrink from them?" + +"The flesh?" He laughed. "In this land the flesh takes second +place--except, perhaps, in the cities." He turned and looked at her +curiously. "Why should you talk of shrinking? The bush couldn't daunt +you; you have courage." + +The girl's eyes sparkled, but not at the compliment. His words rang with +freedom; the freedom of the heights, where heroic effort was the rule, in +place of luxury. She longed now, as she had often done, to escape from +bondage; to break away. + +"Ah, well," she said, smiling half wistfully; "perhaps it's fortunate +that such courage as I have may never be put to the test." + +Though reticence was difficult, Vane made no comment. He had already +spoken unguardedly, and he decided that caution would be desirable. +As he started the team, an automobile came up, and he looked around +as he drove on. + +"It's curious that I never heard the thing," he remarked. + +"I didn't, either," replied Evelyn. "I was too much engrossed in the +trees. But I think Miss Horsfield was in it" + +"Was she?" responded Vane in a very casual manner; and Evelyn, for no +reason that she was willing to recognize, was pleased. + +She had not been mistaken. Jessy Horsfield was in the automobile, and she +had had a few moments in which to study Vane and his companion. The man's +look and the girl's expression had struck her as significant; and her +lips set in an ominously tight line as the car sped on. She felt that she +almost hated Vane; and there was no doubt that she entirely hated the +girl at his side. It would be soothing to humiliate her, to make her +suffer, and though the exact mode of setting about it was not very clear +just yet, she thought it might be managed. Her companion wondered why she +looked preoccupied during the rest of the journey. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +JESSY STRIKES + + +It was the afternoon before Vane's departure for the North, and Evelyn, +sitting alone for the time being in Mrs. Nairn's drawing-room, felt +disturbed by the thought of it. She sympathized with his object, as it +had been briefly related by her hostess, but she supposed there was a +certain risk attached to the journey, and that troubled her. In addition +to this, there was another point on which she was not altogether pleased. +She had twice seen him acknowledge a bow from a very pretty girl whose +general appearance suggested that she did not belong to Evelyn's own walk +in life, and that very morning she had noticed him crossing a street in +the young woman's company. Vane, as it happened, had met Kitty Blake by +accident and had asked her to accompany him on a visit to Celia. Evelyn +did not think she was of a jealous disposition, and jealousy appeared +irrational in the case of a man whom she had dismissed as a suitor; but +the thing undoubtedly rankled in her mind. While she was considering it, +Jessy Horsfield entered the room. + +"I'm here by invitation, to join Mr. Vane's other old friends in giving +him a good send-off," she explained. "Only, Mrs. Nairn told me to come +over earlier." + +Evelyn noticed that Jessy laid some stress upon her acquaintance with +Vane, and wondered whether she had any motive for doing so. + +"I suppose you have known him for some time?" + +"Oh, yes," was the careless answer. "My brother was one of the first to +take him up when he came to Vancouver." + +The phrase jarred on Evelyn. It savored of patronage; besides, she did +not like to think that Vane owed anything to the Horsfields. + +"Though I don't know much about it, I understood that they were opposed +to each other," she said coldly. + +Jessy laughed. + +"Their business interests don't coincide; but it doesn't follow that they +should disagree about anything else. My brother did all he could to +dissuade Mr. Vane from going on with his search for the timber until the +winter is over." + +This was true, inasmuch as Horsfield had spoken to Vane about the +subject, though it is possible that he would not have done so had he +expected the latter to yield to his reasoning. Vane was one whom +opposition usually rendered more determined. + +"I think it is rather fine of him to persist in it," Evelyn declared. + +Jessy smiled, though she felt venomous just then. + +"Yes," she agreed; "one undoubtedly feels that. Besides, the thing's +so characteristic of him; the man's impulsively generous and not +easily daunted. He possesses many of the rudimentary virtues, as well +as some of the corresponding weaknesses, which is very much what one +would look for." + +"What do you mean by that?" Evelyn inquired with a trace of asperity. +Though she was not prepared to pose as Vane's advocate, she was +conscious of a growing antagonism toward her companion. + +"It's difficult to explain, and I don't know that the subject's worth +discussing," answered Jessy. "However, what I think I meant was this--Mr. +Vane's of a type that's not uncommon in the West, and it's a type one +finds interesting. He's forcibly elementary, which is the only way I can +express it; the restraints the rest of us submit to don't bind him--he +breaks through them." + +This, Evelyn fancied, was more or less correct. Indeed, the man's +fearless disregard of hampering customs had pleased her, but she +recognized that some restraints are needful. Her companion followed the +same train of thought. + +"When one breaks down or gets over fences, it's necessary to +discriminate," she went on. "Men of the Berserker type, however, are more +addicted to going straight through the lot. In a way, they're +consistent--having smashed one barrier why should they respect the next?" + +Jessy, as she was quite aware, was playing a dangerous game; one that +might afterward be exposed. The latter possibility, however, was of less +account, for detection would come too late if she were successful. She +was acquainted with the salient points of Evelyn's character. + +"They're consistent, if not always very logical," she concluded after a +pause. "One endeavors to make allowances for men of that description." + +Something in her tone roused Evelyn to sudden imperious anger. It was +intolerable that this woman should offer excuses for Vane. + +"What particular allowances do you feel it needful to make in Mr. Vane's +case?" she asked haughtily. + +Now that she was faced by the direct question, Jessy hesitated. As a +rule, she was subtle, but she could be ruthlessly frank, and she was +possessed by a passionate hatred of the girl beside her. + +"You have forced me to an explanation," she smiled. "The fact is that +while he has a room at the hotel he has an--establishment--in a +different neighborhood. Unfortunately such places are a feature of some +western towns." + +It was a shock to Evelyn; one that she found hard to face; though she was +not convinced. The last piece of information agreed with something Mrs. +Nairn had told her; but, although she had on one occasion had the +testimony of her eyes in support of it, Jessy's first statement seemed +incredible. + +"It's impossible!" + +Jessy smiled in a bitter manner. + +"It's unpleasant, but it can't be denied. He undoubtedly pays the rent of +a shack in the neighborhood I mentioned." + +Evelyn sat tensely still for a moment or two. She dare not give rein to +her feelings, for she would not betray herself; but composure was +extremely difficult. + +"If that is true," she demanded, "how is it that he is received +everywhere--at your house and by Mrs. Nairn? He is coming here to-night." + +Jessy shrugged her shoulders. + +"People in general are more or less charitable in the case of a +successful man. Apart from that, Mr. Vane has a good many excellent +qualities. As I said, one has to make allowances." + +Just then, to Evelyn's relief, Mrs. Nairn came in, and though the girl +suffered during the time, it was half an hour before she could find an +excuse for slipping away alone. Then, sitting in the gathering darkness +in her own room, she set herself to consider, as dispassionately as +possible, what she had heard. It was exceedingly difficult to believe the +charge, but Jessy's assertion was definite enough, and one which, if +incorrect, could readily be disproved. Nobody would say such a thing +unless it could be substantiated; and that led Evelyn to consider why +Jessy had given her the information. She had obviously done so with at +least a trace of malice, but it could hardly have sprung from jealousy; +Evelyn could not think that a woman would vilify a man for whom she had +any tenderness. Besides, she had seen Vane entering the part of the town +indicated, where he could not have had any legitimate business. Hateful +as the suspicion was, it could not be contemptuously dismissed. Then she +recognized that she had no right to censure the man; he was not +accountable to her for his conduct--but calm reasoning carried her no +farther. She was once more filled with intolerable disgust and burning +indignation. Somehow, she had come to believe in Vane, and he had turned +out an impostor. + +About an hour later Vane and Carroll entered the house with Nairn and +proceeded to the latter's room where he offered them cigars. + +"So ye're all ready to sail the morn?" + +Vane nodded and handed him a paper. + +"There's your authority to act in my name, if it's required. If we have +moderately fine weather, I expect to be back before there's much change +in the situation; but I'll call at Nanaimo, where you can wire me if +anything turns up during the two or three days it may take us to get +there. The wind's ahead at present." + +"I suppose there's no use in my saying anything more now; but I can't +help pointing out that as head of the concern you have a certain duty to +the shareholders which you seem inclined to disregard," Carroll remarked. + +Vane smiled. + +"I've no doubt that their interests will be as safe in Nairn's hands as +in mine. What I stand to risk is the not getting my personal ideas +carried out, which is a different matter, though I'll own that it +wouldn't please me if they were overruled." + +"I fail to see why ye could no have let the whole thing stand over until +the spring," grunted Nairn. "The spruce will no run away." + +"I'd have done so, had it been a few years earlier, but the whole country +is overrun with mineral prospectors and timber righters now. Every +month's delay gives somebody else a chance for getting in ahead of me." + +"Weel," responded Nairn resignedly, "I can only wish ye luck; but, should +ye be detained up yonder, if one of ye could sail across to Comox to see +if there's any mail there it would be wise to do so." He waved his hand. +"No more of that; we'll consider what tactics I had better adopt in case +of delay." + +An hour had passed before they went down to join the guests who were +arriving for the evening meal. As a rule, the western business man, who +is more or less engrossed in his occupation except when he is asleep, +enjoys little privacy; and Nairn's friends sometimes compared his +dwelling to the rotunda of a hotel. The point of this was that people of +all descriptions who have nothing better to do are addicted to strolling +into the combined bazaar and lounge which is attached to many Canadian +hostelries. + +Vane was placed next to Evelyn at the table; but after a quiet reply to +his first observation she turned and talked to the man at her other side. +As the latter, who was elderly and dull, had only two topics--the most +efficient means of desiccating fruit and the lack of railroad +facilities--Vane was somewhat astonished that she appeared interested in +his conversation, and by and by he tried again. He was not more +successful this time, and his face grew warm as he realized that Evelyn +was not inclined to talk to him. Being a very ordinary mortal and not +particularly patient, he was sensible of some indignation, which was not +diminished when, on looking around, Jessy Horsfield favored him with a +compassionate smile. However, he took his part in the general +conversation; and the meal was over and the guests were scattered about +the adjoining rooms when, after impatiently waiting for the opportunity, +he at last found Evelyn alone. She was standing with one hand on a table, +looking rather thoughtful. + +"I've come to ask what I've done?" + +Evelyn was not prepared for this blunt directness and she felt a little +disconcerted, but she broke into a chilly smile. + +"The question's rather indefinite, isn't it? Do you expect me to be +acquainted with all your recent actions?" + +"Then I'll put the thing in another way--do you mind telling me how I +have offended you?" + +The girl almost wished that she could do so. Appearances were badly +against him, but she felt that if he declared himself innocent she could +take his word in the face of overwhelming testimony to the contrary. +Unfortunately, however, it was unthinkable that she should plainly state +the charge. + +"Do you suppose I should feel warranted in forming any opinion upon your +conduct?" she retorted. + +"It strikes me that you have formed one, and it isn't favorable." + +The girl hesitated a moment, but she had the courage of her convictions +and she felt impelled to make some protest. + +"That," she said, looking him in the eyes, "is perfectly true." + +He seemed more puzzled than guilty, and once more she chafed against the +fact that she could give him no opportunity for defending himself. + +"Well," he responded, "I'm sorry; but it brings us back to my first +question." + +The situation was becoming painful as well as embarrassing, and Evelyn, +perhaps unreasonably, grew more angry with the man. + +"I'm afraid that you either are clever at dissembling or have no +imagination." + +Vane held himself in hand with an effort. + +"I dare say you're right on the latter point. It's a fact I'm sometimes +thankful for. It leaves one more free to go straight ahead. Now, as I see +the dried-fruit man coming in search of you and you evidently don't mean +to answer me, I can't urge the matter." + +He turned away and left her wondering why he had abandoned his usual +persistency, unless it was that an uneasy conscience had driven him from +the field. It did not occur to her that the man had under strong +provocation merely yielded to the prompting of a somewhat hasty temper. +In the meanwhile he crossed the room in an absent-minded manner and +presently found himself near Jessy, who made room for him at her side. + +"It looks as if you were in disgrace to-night," she said sweetly, and +waited with concealed impatience for his answer. If Evelyn had been +sufficiently clever or bold to give him a hint as to what he was +suspected of, Jessy foresaw undesirable complications. + +"I think I am," he owned without reflection. "The trouble is that, while +I may deserve it on general grounds, I'm unconscious of having done +anything very reprehensible in particular." + +Jessy was sensible of considerable relief. The man was sore and +resentful; he would not press Evelyn for an explanation, and the breach +would widen. In the meanwhile she must play her cards skillfully. + +"Then that fact should sustain you," she smiled. "We shall miss you after +to-morrow--more than one of us. Of course, it's too late to tell you that +you are not altogether wise in resolving to go." + +"Everybody has been telling me the same thing for the last few weeks," +he laughed. + +"Then I'll only wish you every success. It's a pity that Bendle and the +other man haven't paid up yet." + +She met his surprised look with an engaging smile. + +"You needn't be astonished. There's not very much goes on in the city +that I don't hear about you know how men talk business here, and it's +interesting to look on, even when one can't actually take a hand in the +game. It's said that the watchers sometimes see the most of it." + +"To tell the truth, it's the uncertainty as to what those two men might +do that has chiefly been worrying me." + +"Of course. I believe that I understand the position--they've been +hanging fire, haven't they? But I've reasons for believing they'll come +to a decision before very long." + +Vane looked troubled. + +"That's interesting, but I ought to warn you that your brother--" + +Jessy stopped him with a smile. + +"I've no intention of giving him away; and, as a matter of fact, I think +you are a little prejudiced against him. After all, he's not your +greatest danger. There's a cabal against you among your shareholders." + +The man knit his brows, but she knew by the way he looked at her that he +admired her acumen. + +"Yes," he responded; "I've suspected that." + +"There are two courses open to you--the first is to put off your +expedition." + +The answer was to the effect she had anticipated. + +"That's impossible, for several reasons." + +"The other is to call at Nanaimo and wait until, we'll say, next +Thursday. If there's need for you to come back I think it will arise by +then; but it might be better if you called at Comox too--after you leave +the latter you'll be unreachable. If it seems necessary, I'll send you a +warning; if you hear nothing, you can go on." + +Vane reflected hastily. Jessy, as she had told him, had opportunities for +picking up valuable information about the business done in that city, and +he had confidence in her. + +"Thank you," he said. "It will be the second service you have done me, +and I appreciate it. Anyway, I promised Nairn I'd call at Nanaimo, in +case there should be a wire from him." + +"It's a bargain; and now we'll talk of something else." + +Jessy drew him into an exchange of badinage. Noticing, however, that +Evelyn once or twice glanced at her with some astonishment, she presently +got rid of him. She could understand Evelyn's attitude and she did not +wish her friendliness with the offender to appear unnatural after what +she had said about him. + +At length the guests began to leave, and most of them had gone when Vane +rose to take his departure. His host and hostess went with him to the +door, but, though he once or twice glanced round eagerly, there was no +sign of Evelyn. He lingered a few moments on the threshold after Mrs. +Nairn had given him a kindly send-off; but nobody appeared in the lighted +hall, and after another word with Nairn he went moodily down the steps to +join Jessy and Carroll, who were waiting for him below. As the group +walked down the garden path, Mrs. Nairn looked at her husband. + +"I do not know what has come over Evelyn this night," she remarked. + +Nairn followed Jessy's retreating figure with distrustful eyes. + +"Weel," he drawled, "I'm thinking yon besom may have had a hand in +the thing." + +A few minutes later Jessy, standing where the light of a big lamp +streamed down upon her through the boughs of a leafless maple, bade Vane +farewell at her brother's gate. + +"If my good wishes can bring you success, it will most certainly be +yours," she said, and there was something in her voice which faintly +stirred the man, who was feeling very sore. + +"Thank you." + +She did not immediately withdraw the hand she had given him. He was +grateful to her and thought she looked unusually pretty with the sympathy +shining in her eyes. + +"You will not forget to wait at Nanaimo and Comox?" she reminded him. + +"No. If you recall me, I'll come back at once; if not, I'll go on with a +lighter heart, knowing that I can safely stay away." + +Jessy said nothing further, and he moved on. She felt that she had scored +and she knew when to stop. The man had given her his full confidence. + +Soon afterward Vane entered his hotel, where he turned impatiently +upon Carroll. + +"You can go into the rotunda or the smoking-room and talk to any loafer +who thinks it worth while to listen to your cryptic remarks," he said. +"As we sail as soon as it's daylight to-morrow, I'm going to sleep." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE INTERCEPTED LETTER + + +The wind was fresh from the northwest when Vane drove the sloop out +through the Narrows in the early dawn and saw a dim stretch of +white-flecked sea in front of him. Land-locked as they are by Vancouver +Island, the long roll of the Pacific cannot enter those waters, but they +are now and then lashed into short, tumbling seas, sufficient to make +passage difficult for a craft no larger than the sloop. Carroll frowned +when a comber smote the weather bow and a shower of stinging spray +lashed his face. + +"Right ahead again," he remarked. "But as I suppose you're going on, we'd +better stretch straight across on the starboard tack. We'll get smoother +water along the island shore." + +They let her go and Vane sat at the helm hour after hour, drenched with +spray, hammering her mercilessly into the frothy seas. They could have +done with a second reef down, for the deck was swept and sluicing, and +most of the time the lee rail was buried deep in rushing foam; but Vane +showed no intention of shortening sail. Nor did Carroll, who saw that his +comrade was disturbed in temper, suggest it; resolute action had, he +knew, a soothing effect on Vane. As a matter of fact, Vane needed +soothing. Of late, he had felt that he was making steady progress in +Evelyn's favor, and now she had most inexplainably turned against him. +There was no doubt that, as Jessy had described it, he was in disgrace; +but rack his brain as he would, he could not discover the reason. That he +was conscious of no offense only made the position more galling. + +In the meanwhile, the boat engrossed more and more of his attention, and +though he was by no means careful of her, he spared no effort to get her +to windward. It was a relief to drive her hard at some white-topped sea +and watch her bows disappear in it with a thud, while it somehow eased +his mind to see the smashed-up brine fly half the height of her drenched +mainsail. There was also satisfaction in feeling the strain on the tiller +when, swayed down by a fiercer gust, she plunged through the combers with +the froth swirling, perilously close to the coaming, along her +half-submerged deck. In all their moods, men of his kind find pleasure in +such things; the turmoil, the rush, the need for quick, resolute action +stirs the blood in them. + +The day was cold; the man, who was compelled to sit almost still in a +nipping wind, was soon wet through; but this in some curious way further +tended to restore his accustomed optimism and good-humor. He had partly +recovered both when, as the sloop drove through the whiter turmoil +whipped up by a vicious squall, there was a crash forward. + +"Down helm!" shouted Carroll. "The bobstay's gone!" + +He scrambled toward the bowsprit, which having lost its principal support +swayed upward, in peril of being torn away by the sagging jib. Vane first +rounded up the boat into the wind and then followed him; and for several +minutes they had a savage struggle with the madly-flapping sail before +they flung it, bundled up, into the well. Then they ran in the bowsprit, +and Vane felt glad that, although the craft had been rigged in the usual +western fashion as a sloop, he had changed that by giving her a couple of +headsails in place of one. + +"She'll trim with the staysail if we haul down another reef," he +suggested. + +It cost them some labor, but they were warmer afterward, and when they +drove on again Vane glanced at the bowsprit. + +"We'll try to get a bit of galvanized steel in Nanaimo," he said. "I +can't risk another smash." + +Carroll laughed. + +"You'd better be prepared for one, if you mean to drive her as you have +been doing." He flung back the saloon scuttle. "You'd have swamped her in +another hour or two--the cabin floorings are all awash." + +"Then hadn't you better pump her out?" retorted Vane. "After that, you +can light the stove. It's beginning to dawn on me that it's a long while +since I had anything worth speaking of to eat. The kind of lunch you +brought along in the basket isn't sustaining." + +They made a bountiful if somewhat primitive meal, in turn, sitting in the +dripping saloon which was partly filled with smoke, and Carroll sighed +for the comforts he had abandoned. He did not, however, mention his +regrets, because he did not expect his comrade's sympathy. Vane seldom +noticed what he was eating when he was on board his boat. + +The craft, being under reduced sail, drove along more easily during the +rest of the afternoon, and they ran into a little colliery town late on +the following day. There Vane replaced the broken bobstay with a solid +piece of steel, and then sat down to write a letter while Carroll +stretched his cramped limbs ashore. + +The letter was addressed to Evelyn, and he found it difficult to express +himself as he desired. The spoken word, as he had discovered, is now and +then awkward to use, but the written one is more evasive and complex +still, and he shook his head ruefully over the production when he laid +down his pen. This was, perhaps, unnecessary, for having grown calm he +had framed a terse and forcible appeal to the girl's sense of justice, +which would in all probability have had its effect on her had she +received it. Though he hardly realized it, the few simple words were +convincing. + +Having had no news from Nairn or Jessy, they sailed again in a day or +two, bound for Comox farther along the coast, where there was a +possibility of communications overtaking them; but in the meanwhile +matters which concerned them were moving forward in Vancouver. + +It was rather early one afternoon when Jessy called on one of her friends +and found her alone. Mrs. Bendle was a young and impulsive woman from one +of the eastern cities and she had not made many friends in Vancouver yet, +though her husband, whom she had lately married, was a man of some +importance there. + +"I'm glad to see you," she said, greeting Jessy eagerly. "It's a week +since anybody has been in to talk to me, and Tom's away again. It's +a trying thing to be the wife of a western business man--you so +seldom see him." + +Jessy made herself comfortable in an easy-chair before she referred to +one of her companion's remarks. + +"Where has Mr. Bendle gone now?" she asked. + +"Into the bush to look at a mine. He left this morning and it will be a +week before he's back. Then he's going across the Selkirks with that +Clavering man about some irrigation scheme." + +This suggested one or two questions which Jessy desired to ask, but she +did not frame them immediately. Mrs. Bendle was incautious and +discursive, but there was nothing to be gained by being precipitate. + +"It must be dull for you," she sympathized. + +"I don't mean to complain. Tom's reasonable; the last time I said +anything about being left alone he bought me a pair of ponies. He said I +could have either them or an automobile, and I took the ponies. I thought +them safer." + +Jessy smiled. + +"You're fortunate in several ways; there are not a great many people who +can make such presents. But while everybody knows your husband has been +successful lately, I'm a little surprised that he's able to go into +Clavering's irrigation scheme. It's a very expensive one, and I +understand that they intend to confine it to a few, which means that +those interested will have to subscribe handsomely." + +"Tom," explained her companion, "likes to have a number of different +things in hand. He told me it was wiser, when I said that I couldn't tell +my friends back East what he really is, because he seemed to be +everything at once. But your brother's interested in a good many things, +too, isn't he?" + +"I believe so," answered Jessy. "Still, I'm pretty sure he couldn't +afford to join Clavering and at the same time take up a big block of +shares in Mr. Vane's mine." + +"But Tom isn't going to do the latter now." + +Jessy was startled. This was valuable information which she could +scarcely have expected to obtain so easily. There was more that she +desired to ascertain, but she had no intention of making any obvious +inquiries. + +"It's generally understood that Mr. Vane and your husband are on good +terms," she said. "You know him, don't you?" + +"I've met him once or twice, and I like him, but when I mention him Tom +smiles. He says it's unfortunate Mr. Vane can see only one thing at a +time, and that the one which lies right in front of his eyes. For all +that, he once owned that the man is likable." + +"Then it's a pity he's unable to stand by him now." + +Mrs. Bendle looked thoughtful. + +"I really believe Tom's half sorry he can't do so. He said something last +night that suggested it--I can't remember exactly what it was. Of course, +I don't understand much about these matters, but Howitson was here +talking business until late." + +Jessy was satisfied. Her hostess's previous incautious admission had gone +a long way, but to this was added the significant information that Bendle +was inclined to be sorry for Vane. The fact that he and Howitson had +decided on some joint action after a long private discussion implied that +there was trouble in store for the absent man, unless he could be +summoned to deal with the crisis in person. Jessy wondered whether Nairn +knew anything about the matter yet, and decided that she would call and +try to sound him. This would be difficult, because Nairn was not the man +to make any rash avowal, and he had an annoying habit of parrying an +injudicious question with an enigmatical smile. In the meanwhile she led +her companion away from the subject and they discussed millinery and such +matters until she took her departure. + +It was early in the evening when she reached Nairn's house, for she +thought it better to arrive there a little before he came home. She was +told that Mrs. Nairn and Miss Chisholm were out but were expected back +shortly. Evelyn had been by no means cordial to her since their last +interview, and Mrs. Nairn's manner had been colder; but Jessy decided +to wait; and for the second time that day fortune seemed to play into +her hands. + +It was dark outside, but the entrance hall was brightly lighted and Jessy +could see into it from where she sat. Highly trained domestics are +generally scarce in the West, and the maid had left the door of the room +open. Presently there was a knock at the outer door and a young lad came +in with some letters in his hand. He explained to the maid that he had +been to the post-office and had brought his employer's private mail. The +maid pointed out that the top letter looked dirty, and the lad owned that +he had dropped the bundle in the street. Then he withdrew and the maid +laid the letters carelessly on a little table and also retired, banging a +door behind her. The concussion shook down the letters, and one, +fluttering forward with the sudden draught, fell almost upon the +threshold of the room. Jessy, who was methodical in most things, rose to +pick it up and replace it with the rest. + +When she reached the door, however, she stopped abruptly, for she +recognized the rather large writing on the envelope. There was no doubt +that it was from Vane and she noticed that it was addressed to Miss +Chisholm. Jessy picked it up, and when she had laid the others on the +table, she stood with Vane's letter in her hand. + +"Has the man no pride?" she said half aloud. + +Then she looked about her, listening, greatly tempted, and considering. +There was no sound in the house; Evelyn and Mrs. Nairn were out, and the +other occupants were cut off from her by a closed door. Nobody would know +that she had entered the hall, and if the letter were subsequently missed +it would be remembered that the lad had confessed to dropping the bundle. +It was most unlikely, however, that any question regarding its +disappearance would ever be asked. If there should be no response from +Evelyn, Vane, she thought, would not renew his appeal. Jessy had no doubt +that the letter contained an appeal of some kind which might lead to a +reconciliation, and she knew that silence is often more potent than an +outbreak of anger. She had only to destroy the letter, and the breach +between the two people whom she desired to separate would widen +automatically. + +There was little risk of detection, but, standing tensely still, with set +lips and heart beating faster than usual, she shrank from the decisive +action. She could still replace the letter and look for other means of +bringing about what she wished. She was self-willed and endowed with few +troublesome principles, but until she had poisoned Evelyn's mind against +Vane she had never done anything flagrantly dishonorable. Then while she +waited, irresolute, a fresh temptation seized her in the shape of a +burning desire to learn what the man had to say. He would reveal his +feelings in the message and she could judge the strength of her rival's +influence over him. Jessy had her ideas on this point, but she could now +see them confirmed or refuted by the man's own words. + +Yet she hesitated, with a half-instinctive recognition of the fact that +the decision she must make was an eventful one. She had transgressed +grievously in one recent interview with Evelyn, but, while she had no +idea of making reparation, she could at least stop short of a second +offense. She had, perhaps, not gone too far yet, but if she ventured a +little farther she might be driven on against her will and become +inextricably involved in an entanglement of dishonorable treachery. + +The issue hung in the balance--the slightest thing would have turned +the scale--when she heard footsteps outside and the tinkle of a bell. +Moving with a start, she slipped back into the room just before the +maid opened the adjacent door. In another moment she thrust the +envelope inside her dress, and gathered her composure as Mrs. Nairn and +Evelyn entered the hall. The former approached the table and turned +over the handful of letters. + +"Two for ye from England, Evelyn, and one or two for me," she said, +flashing a quick glance at the girl. "Nothing else; I had thought Vane +would maybe send a bit note from one of the island ports to say how he +was getting on." + +Then Jessy rose, smiling, to greet her hostess. The question was +decided--it was too late to replace the letter now. She could not +remember what they talked about during the next half-hour, but she took +her part, until Nairn came in, and she contrived to have a word with him +before leaving. Mrs. Nairn had gone out to give some instructions about +supper, and when Evelyn followed her, Jessy turned to Nairn. + +"Mr. Vane should be at Comox now," she began. "Have you any idea of +recalling him? Of course, I know a little about the Clermont affairs." + +Nairn glanced at her with thoughtful eyes. + +"I'm no acquainted with any reason that would render such a course +necessary." + +Evelyn reappeared shortly after this, and Jessy excused herself from +staying for the evening meal and walked home thinking hard. It was +needful that Vane should be recalled. He had written to Evelyn, but Jessy +still meant to send him word. He would be grateful to her, and, indignant +and wounded as she was, she would not own herself beaten. She would warn +the man, and afterward perhaps allow Nairn to send him a second message. + +On reaching her brother's house, she went straight to her own room and +tore open the envelope. The color receded from her face as she read, and +sinking into a chair she sat still with hands clenched. The message was +terse, but it was stirringly candid; and even where the man did not +fully reveal his feelings in his words she could read between the lines. +There was no doubt that he had given his heart unreservedly into her +rival's keeping. He might be separated from her, but Jessy knew enough +of him to realize at last that he would not turn to another. The lurid +truth was burned upon her brain--she might do what she would, but this +man was not for her. + +For a while she sat still, and then stooping swiftly she seized the +letter, which she had dropped, and rent it into fragments. Her eyes had +grown hard and cruel; love of the only kind that she was capable of had +suddenly turned to hate. What was more, it was a hate that could be +gratified. + +A little later Horsfield came in. Jessy was very composed now, but she +noticed that her brother looked at her in a rather unusual manner once or +twice during the meal that followed. + +"You make me feel that you have something on your mind," she observed +at length. + +"That's a fact." + +Horsfield hesitated. He was attached to and rather proud of his sister. + +"Well?" she prompted. + +He leaned forward confidentially. + +"See here," he said, "I've always imagined that you would go far, and I'm +anxious to see you do so. I shouldn't like you to throw yourself away." + +His sister could take a hint, but there was information that she desired +and the man was speaking with unusual reserve. + +"You must be plainer," she retorted with a slight show of impatience. + +"Then, you have seen a good deal of Vane, and in case you have any +hankering after his scalp, I think I'd better mention that there's reason +to believe he won't be worth powder and shot before very long." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Jessy with a calmness that was difficult to assume; "you +may as well understand that there is nothing between Vane and me. I +suppose you mean that Howitson and Bendle are turning against him?" + +"Something like that." Horsfield's tone implied that her answer had +afforded him relief. "The man has trouble in front of him." + +Jessy changed the subject. What she had gathered from Mrs. Bendle was +fully confirmed; but she had made up her mind. Evelyn's lover might wait +for the warning which could save him, but he should wait in vain. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +ON THE TRAIL + + +It was a long, wet sail up the coast with the wind ahead, and Carroll was +quite content when, on reaching Comox, Vane announced his intention of +stopping there until the mail came in. Immediately after its arrival, +Carroll went ashore, and came back empty-handed. + +"Nothing," he reported. "Personally, I'm pleased. Nairn could have +advised us here if there had been any striking developments since we left +the last place." + +"I wasn't expecting to hear from him," Vane replied tersely. + +Carroll read keen disappointment in his face, and was not surprised, +although the absence of any message meant that it was safe for them to go +on with their project and that should have afforded his companion +satisfaction. The latter sat on deck, gazing somewhat moodily across the +ruffled water toward the snow-clad heights of the mainland range. They +towered, dimly white and majestic, above a scarcely-trodden wilderness, +and Carroll, at least, was not pleasantly impressed by the spectacle. +Though not to be expected always, the cold snaps are now and then severe +in those wilds. Indeed, at odd times a frost almost as rigorous as that +of Alaska lays its icy grip upon the mountains and the usually damp +forests at their feet. + +"I wish I could have got a man to go with us, but between the coal +development and the logging, everybody's busy," he remarked. + +"It doesn't matter," Vane assured him. "If we took a man along and came +back unsuccessful, there'd be a risk of his giving the thing away. +Besides, he might make trouble in other respects. A hired packer would +probably kick against what you and I may have to put up with." + +Carroll was far from pleased with this hint, but he let it pass. + +"Do you mean that if you don't find the spruce this time, you'll go +back again?" + +"Yes, that's my intention. And now we may as well get the mainsail on +her." + +They got off shortly afterward and stood out to northward with the wind +still ahead of them. It was a lowering day, and a short, tumbling sea was +running. When late in the afternoon Carroll fixed their position by the +bearing of a peak on the island, he pointed out the small progress they +had made. The sloop was then plunging close-hauled through the vicious +slate-green combers, and thin showers of spray flew all over her. + +"The luck's been dead against us ever since we began this search," he +commented. + +"Do you believe in that kind of foolishness?" Vane inquired. + +Carroll, sitting on the coaming, considered the question. It was not one +of much importance, but the dingy sky and the dreary waste of sad-colored +water had a depressing effect on him, and as it was a solace to talk, +one topic would serve as well as another. + +"I think I believe in a rhythmical recurrence of the contrary chance," he +answered. "I mean that the uncertain and adverse possibility often turns +up in succession for a time." + +"Then you couldn't call it uncertain." + +"You can't tell exactly when the break will come," Carroll explained. +"But if I were a gambler or had other big risks, I think I'd allow for +dangers in triplets." + +"Yes," Vane responded; "you could cite the three extra big head seas, +and I've noticed that when one burned tree comes down in a brulee, it's +quite often followed by two more, though there may be a number just +ready to fall." + +He mused for a few moments, with the spray whistling about him. He had +three things at stake: Evelyn's favor; his interest in the Clermont Mine; +and the timber he expected to find. Two of them were undoubtedly +threatened, and he wondered gloomily if he might be bereft of all. Then +he drove the forebodings out of his mind. + +"In the present case, anyway, our course is pretty simple," he +declared with a laugh. "We have only to hold out and go on until the +luck changes." + +Carroll knew that Vane was capable of doing as he had suggested and he +was not encouraged by the prospect; but he went below to trim and bring +up the lights, and soon afterward retired to get what rest he could. The +locker cushions on which he lay felt unpleasantly damp; his blankets, +which were not much drier, smelt moldy; and there was a dismal splash +and gurgle of water among the timbers of the plunging craft. Now and +then a jet of it shot up between the joints of the flooring or spouted +through the opening made for the lifting-gear in the centerboard trunk. +When he had several times failed to plug the opening with a rag, Carroll +gave it up and shortly afterward fell into fitful slumber. + +He was awakened, shivering, by hearing Vane calling him, and scrambling +out into the well, he took the helm as his comrade left it. + +"What's her course?" he inquired. + +"If you can keep her hammering ahead close-hauled on the port tack, +it's all I ask," Vane laughed. "You needn't call me unless the sea +gets steeper." + +He crawled below; and it was a few minutes before Carroll, who was +dazzled by the change from the dim lamplight, felt himself fit for his +task. Fine spray whirled about him. It was pitch dark, but by degrees he +made out the shadowy seas which came charging up, tipped with frothing +white, upon the weather bow. By the way they broke on board it struck him +that they were steep enough already, but Vane had seen them not long ago +and there was nothing to be gained by expostulation if they caused him no +anxiety. Several hours went by, and then Carroll noticed that the faint +crimson blink which sometimes fell upon the seas to weather was no longer +visible. It was evident that the port light had either gone out or been +washed out, and it was his manifest duty to relight it. On the other +hand, he could not do so unless Vane took the helm. He was wet and +chilled through; any fresh effort was distasteful; he did not want to +move; and he decided that they were most unlikely to meet a steamer, +while it was certain that there would be no other yacht about. He left +the lamp alone, and at length Vane came up. + +"What's become of the port light?" he demanded. + +"That's more than I can tell you. It was burning an hour ago." + +"An hour ago!" Vane broke out with disgusted indignation. + +"It may have been a little longer. They've stopped the Alaska steamboats +now, but of course there's no reason why you shouldn't light that lamp +again, if it would give you any satisfaction. I'll stay up until you're +through with it." + +Vane did as he suggested, and immediately afterward Carroll retired +below. He slept until a pale ray of sunshine crept in through the +skylights, and then crawling out found the sloop lurching very slowly +over a dying swell, with her deck and shaking mainsail white with frost. +The wind had fallen almost dead away, and it was very cold. + +"On the whole," he complained, "this is worse than the other thing." + +Vane merely told him to get breakfast; and most of that day and the next +one they drifted with the tides through narrowing waters, though now and +then for a few hours they were wafted on by light and fickle winds. At +length, they crept into the inlet where they had landed on the previous +voyage, and on the morning after their arrival they set out on the march. +There was on this occasion reason to expect more rigorous weather, and +the load each carried was an almost crushing one. Where the trees were +thinner the ground was frozen hard, and even in the densest bush the +undergrowth was white and stiff with frost, while overhead a forbidding +gray sky hung. + +On approaching the rift in the hillside at which he had glanced when they +first passed that way, Vane stopped a moment. + +"I looked into that place before, but it didn't seem worth while to +follow it up," he said. "If you'll wait, I'll go a little farther +along it." + +Though the air was nipping, Carroll was content to remain where he was, +and he spent some time sitting upon a log before a faint shout reached +him. Then he rose and, making his way up the hollow, found his comrade +standing upon a jutting ledge. + +"I thought you were never coming! Climb up; I've something to show you!" + +Carroll joined him with difficulty, and Vane stretched out his hand. + +"Look yonder!" + +Carroll looked and started. They stood in a rocky gateway with a river +brawling down the chasm beneath them, but a valley opened up in front. +Filled with somber forest, it ran back almost straight between stupendous +walls of hills. + +"It answers Hartley's description. After all, I don't think it's +extraordinary that we should have taken so much trouble to push on past +the right place." + +"Why?" + +Carroll sat down and filled his pipe. + +"It's the natural result of possessing a temperament like yours. Somehow, +you've got it firmly fixed into your mind that everything worth doing +must be hard." + +"I've generally found it so." + +"I think," grinned Carroll, "you've generally made it so. There's a +marked difference between the two. If any means of doing a thing looks +easy, you at once conclude that it can't be the right one. That mode of +reasoning has never appealed to me. In my opinion, it's more sensible to +try the easiest method first." + +"As a rule, that leads to your having to fall back upon the other one; +and a frontal attack on a difficulty's often quicker than considering how +you can work round its flank. In this case, I'll own we have wasted a lot +of time and taken a good deal of trouble that might have been avoided. +But are you going to sit here and smoke?" + +"Until I've finished my pipe," Carroll answered firmly. "I expect we'll +find tobacco, among other things, getting pretty scarce before this +expedition ends." + +He carried out his intention, and they afterward pushed on up the valley +during the remainder of the day. It grew more level as they proceeded, +and in spite of the frost, which bound the feeding snows, there was a +steady flow of water down the river, which was free from rocky barriers. +Vane now and then glanced at the river attentively, and when dusk was +drawing near he stopped and fixed his gaze on the long ranks of trees +that stretched away in front of him; fretted spires of somber greenery +lifted high above a colonnade of mighty trunks. + +"Does anything in connection with this bush strike you?" he asked. + +"Its stiffness, if that's what you mean," Carroll answered with a smile. +"These big conifers look as if they'd been carved, like the wooden trees +in the Swiss or German toys. They're impressive in a way, but they're +too formally artificial." + +"That's not what I mean," Vane said impatiently. + +"To tell the truth, I didn't suppose it was. Anyway, these trees aren't +spruce. They're red cedar; the stuff they make roofing shingles of." + +"Precisely. Just now, shingles are in good demand in the Province, and +with the wooden towns springing up on the prairie, western millers can +hardly send roofing material across the Rockies fast enough. Besides +this, I haven't struck a creek more adapted for running down logs, and +the last sharp drop to tide-water would give power for a mill. I'm +only puzzled that none of the timber-lease prospectors have recorded +the place." + +"That's easy to understand," laughed Carroll. "Like you, they'd no doubt +first search the most difficult spots to get at." + +They went on, and when darkness fell they pitched their light tent beside +the creek. It was now freezing hard, and after supper the men lay +smoking, wrapped in blankets, with the tent between them and the stinging +wind, while a great fire of cedar branches snapped and roared in front of +them. Sometimes the red blaze shot up, flinging a lurid light on the +stately trunks and tinging the men's faces with the hue of burnished +copper; sometimes it fanned out away from them while the sparks drove +along the frozen ground and the great forest aisle, growing dim, was +filled with drifting vapor. The latter was aromatic; pungently fragrant. + +"It struck me that you were disappointed when you got no mail at +Comox," Carroll remarked at length, feeling that he was making +something of a venture. + +"I was," admitted Vane. + +"That's strange," Carroll persisted, "because your hearing nothing +from Nairn left you free to go ahead, which, one would suppose, was +what you wanted." + +Vane happened to be in a confidential mood; though usually averse to +sharing his troubles, he felt that he needed sympathy. + +"I'd better confess that I wrote Miss Chisholm a few lines from Nanaimo." + +"And she didn't answer you? Now, I couldn't well help noticing that you +were rather in her bad graces that night at Nairn's--the thing was pretty +obvious. No doubt you're acquainted with the reason?" + +"I'm not. That's just the trouble." + +Carroll reflected. He had an idea that Miss Horsfield was somehow +connected with the matter, but this was a suspicion he could not mention. + +"Well," he said, "as I pointed out, you're addicted to taking the hardest +way. When we came up here before, you marched past this valley, chiefly +because it was close at hand; but I don't want to dwell on that. Has it +occurred to you that you did something of the same kind when you were at +the Dene? The way that was then offered you was easy." + +Vane frowned. + +"That is not the kind of subject one cares to talk about; but you ought +to know that I couldn't allow them to force Miss Chisholm upon me against +her will. It was unthinkable! Besides, looking at it in the most +cold-blooded manner, it would have been foolishness, for which we'd both +have had to pay afterward." + +"I'm not so sure of that," Carroll smiled. "There were the Sabine women, +among other instances. Didn't they cut off their hair to make bowstring +for their abductors?" + +His companion made no comment, and Carroll, deciding that he had ventured +as far as was prudent, talked of something else until they crept into the +little tent and soon fell asleep. + +They started with the first of the daylight, but the timber grew denser +and more choked with underbrush as they proceeded and for a day or two +they wearily struggled through it and the clogging masses of tangled, +withered fern. Besides this, they were forced to clamber over mazes of +fallen trunks, when the ragged ends of the snapped-off branches caught +their loads. Their shoulders ached, their boots were ripped, their feet +were badly galled; but they held on stubbornly, plunging deeper into the +mountains all the while. It would probably overcome the average man if he +were compelled to carry all the provisions he needed for a week along a +well-kept road, but the task of the prospector and the survey packer, who +must transport also an ax, cooking utensils and whatever protection he +requires from the weather, through almost impenetrable thickets, is +infinitely more difficult. + +Vane and Carroll were more or less used to it, but both of them were +badly jaded when soon after setting out one morning they climbed a +clearer hillside to look about them. High up ahead, the crest of the +white range gleamed dazzlingly against leaden clouds in a burst of +sunshine; below, dark forest, still wrapped in gloom, filled all the +valley; and in between, a belt of timber touched by the light shone with +a curious silvery luster. Though it was some distance off, probably a +day's journey allowing for the difficulty of the march, Vane gazed at it +earnestly. The trees were bare--there was no doubt of that, for the +dwindling ranks, diminished by the distance, stood out against the +snow-streaked rock like rows of thick needles set upright; their +straightness and the way they glistened suggested the resemblance. + +"Ominous, isn't it?" Carroll suggested at length. "If this is the valley +Hartley came down--and everything points to that--we should be getting +near the spruce." + +Vane's face grew set. + +"Yes," he agreed. "There has been a big fire up yonder; but whether it +has swept the lower ground or not is more than I can tell. We'll find out +to-night or early to-morrow." + +He swung round without another word, and scrambling down the hillside +they resumed the march. They pushed on all that day rather faster than +before, with the same uncertainty troubling both of them. Forest fires +are common in that region when there is a hot dry fall; and where, as +often happens, a deep valley forms a natural channel for the winds that +fan them, they travel far, stripping and charring the surface of every +tree in their way. Neither of the men thought of stopping for a noonday +meal, and during the gloomy afternoon, when dingy clouds rolled down from +the peaks, they plodded forward with growing impatience. They could see +scarcely a hundred yards in front of them; dense withering thickets +choked up the spaces between the towering trunks; and there was nothing +to indicate that they were nearing the burned area when at last they +pitched their camp as darkness fell. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE END OF THE SEARCH + + +The two men made a hurried breakfast in the cold dawn, and soon afterward +they were struggling through thick timber when the light suddenly grew +clearer. Carroll remarked upon the fact and Vane's face hardened. + +"We're either coming to a swamp, or the track the fire has swept is close +in front," he explained. + +A thicket lay before them, but they smashed savagely through the midst of +it, the undergrowth snapping and crackling about their limbs. Then there +was a network of tangled branches to be crossed, and afterward, reaching +slightly clearer ground, they broke into a run. Three or four minutes +later they stopped, breathless and ragged, with their rent boots scarcely +clinging to their feet, and gazed eagerly about. + +The living forest rose behind them, an almost unbroken wall, but ahead +the trees ran up in detached and blackened spires. Their branches had +vanished; every cluster of somber-green needles and delicate spray had +gone; the great rampicks looked like shafts of charcoal. About their feet +lay crumbling masses of calcined wood, which grew more numerous where +there were open spaces farther on, and then the bare, black columns ran +on again, up the valley and the steep hill benches on either hand. It was +a weird scene of desolation; impressive to the point of being appalling +in its suggestiveness of wide-spread ruin. + +For the space of a minute the men gazed at it; and then Vane, stretching +out his hand, pointed to a snow-sheeted hill. + +"That's the peak Hartley mentioned," he said in a voice which was +strangely incisive. "Give me the ax!" + +He took it from his comrade and striding forward attacked the nearest +rampick. Twice the keen blade sank noiselessly overhead, scattering a +black dust in the frosty air, and then there was a clear, ringing thud. +After that, Vane smote on with a determined methodical swiftness, until +Carroll grabbed his shoulder. + +"Look out!" he cried. "It's going!" + +Vane stepped back a few paces; the trunk reeled and rushed downward; +there was a deafening crash, and they were enveloped in a cloud of gritty +dust. Through the midst of it they dimly saw two more great trunks +collapse; and then somewhere up the valley a series of thundering shocks, +which both knew were not echoes, broke out. The sound jarred on Carroll's +nerves, as the thud of the felled rampick had not done. Vane picked up +one of the chips. + +"We have found Hartley's spruce." + +Carroll did not answer for a minute. After all, when defeat must be +faced, there was very little to be said, though his companion's +expression troubled him. Its grim stolidity was portentous. + +"I suppose," he suggested hopefully, "nothing could be done with it?" + +Vane pointed to the butt of the tree, which showed a space of clear wood +surrounded by a blackened rim. + +"You can't make marketable pulp of charcoal, and the price would have to +run pretty high before it would pay for ripping most of the log away to +get at the residue. + +"But there may be some unburned spruce farther on." + +"It's possible. I'm going to find out." + +This was a logical determination; but, in spite of his recent suggestion, +Carroll realized that he would have abandoned the search there and then, +had the choice been left to him, in which he did not think he was +singular. After all they had undergone and the risk they had run in +leaving Vancouver, the shock of the disappointment was severe. He could +have faced a failure to locate the spruce, with some degree of +philosophical calm; but to find it at last, useless, was very much worse. +He did not, however, expect his companion to turn back yet; before he +desisted, Vane would search for and examine every unburned tree. What was +more, Carroll would have to accompany him. He noticed that Vane was +waiting for him to speak, and he decided that this was a situation which +he would better endeavor to treat lightly. + +"I think I'll have a smoke," he said. "I'm afraid any remarks I could +make wouldn't do justice to the occasion. Language has its limits." + +He sat down on the charred log and took out his pipe. + +"A brulee's not a nice place to wander about in when there's any wind," +he proceeded; "and I've an idea there's some coming, though it's still +enough now." + +Shut in, as they were, in the deep hollow with the towering snows above +them, it was impressively still; and, in conjunction with the sight of +the black desolation, the deep silence reacted on Carroll's nerves. He +longed to escape from it, to make a noise; though this, if done +unguardedly, might bring more of the rampicks thundering down. He could +hear tiny flakes of charcoal falling from them and, though the fire had +long gone out, a faint and curious crackling, as if the dead embers were +stirring. He wondered if it were some effect of the frost; it struck him +as disturbing and weird. + +"We'll work right round the brulee," Vane decided. "Then I suppose we'd +better head back for Vancouver, though we'll look at that cedar as we +go down. Something might be made of it--I'm not sure we've thrown our +time away." + +"You'd never be sure of that. It isn't in you." + +Vane disregarded this. A new, constructive policy was already springing +up out of the wreck of his previous plans. + +"There's a good mill site on the inlet, but as it's a long way from the +railroad we'll have to determine whether it would be cheaper to tow the +logs down or split them up on the spot. I'll talk it over with Drayton; +he'll no doubt be useful, and there's no reason why he shouldn't earn +his share." + +"Do you consider that the arrangement you made with Hartley applies to +the cedar?" Carroll asked. + +"Of course. I don't know that the other parties could insist on the +original terms--we can discuss that later; but, though it may be +modified, the arrangement stands." + +His companion considered the matter dispassionately, as an abstract +proposition. Here was a man, who in return for certain information +respecting the whereabouts of a marketable commodity had undertaken to +find and share it with his informant. The commodity had proved to be +valueless, but during the search for it he had incidentally discovered +something else. Was he under any obligation to share the latter with his +informant's heirs? + +Carroll decided that the question could be answered only in the negative; +but he had no intention of disputing his comrade's point of view. In the +first place, this would probably make Vane only more determined or would +ruffle his temper; and, in the second place, Carroll was neither a +covetous man nor an ambitious one, which, perhaps, was fortunate for him. +Ambition, the mother of steadfast industry and heroic effort, has also a +less reputable progeny. + +Vane, as his partner realized, was ambitious; but in place of aspiring +after wealth or social prominence, his was a different aim: to rend the +hidden minerals from the hills, to turn forests into dressed lumber, to +make something grow. Money is often, though not always, made that way; +but, while Vane affected no contempt for it, in his case its acquisition +was undoubtedly not the end. Fortunately, he was not altogether singular +in this respect. + +When he next spoke, however, there was no hint of altruistic sentiment in +his curt inquiry: + +"Are you going to sit there until you freeze?" + +Carroll got up and they spent the remainder of the day plodding through +the brulee, with the result that when darkness fell Vane had abandoned +all idea of working the spruce. The next morning they set out for the +inlet, and one afternoon during the journey they came upon several fallen +logs lying athwart each other with their branches spread in an almost +impenetrable tangle. Vane proceeded to walk along one log, which was +tilted up several yards above the ground, balancing himself carefully +upon the rounded surface, and Carroll followed cautiously. Suddenly there +was a sharp snapping, and Vane plunged headlong into the tangle beneath, +while Carroll stood still and laughed. It was not an uncommon accident. + +Vane, however, did not reappear; nor was there any movement among the +half-rotten boughs and withered sprays, and Carroll, moving forward +hastily, looked down into the hole. He was disagreeably surprised to see +his comrade lying, rather white in face, upon his side. + +"I'm afraid you'll have to chop me out," came up hoarsely. "Get to work. +I can't move my leg." + +Moving farther along the log, Carroll dropped to the ground, which was +less encumbered there, and spent the next quarter of an hour hewing a +passage to his comrade. Then as he stood beside him, hot and panting, +Vane looked up. + +"It's my lower leg; the left," he explained. "Bone's broken; I +felt it snap." + +Carroll turned from him for a moment in consternation. Looking out +between the branches, he could see the lonely hills tower, pitilessly +white, against the blue of the frosty sky, and the rigid firs running +back as far as his vision reached upon their lower slopes. There was no +touch of life in all the picture; everything was silent and absolutely +motionless, and its desolation came near to appalling him. When he looked +around again, Vane smiled wryly. + +"If this had happened farther north, it would have been the end of me," +he said. "As it is, it's awkward." + +The word struck Carroll as singularly inexpressive, but he made an effort +to gather his courage when his companion broke off with a groan of pain. + +"It's lucky we helped that doctor when he set Pete's leg at Bryant's +mill," he declared cheerily. "Can you wait a few minutes?" + +Vane's face was beaded with damp now, but he tried to smile. + +"It strikes me," he answered, "I'll have to wait a mighty long time." + +Carroll turned and left him. He was afraid to stand still and think, and +action was a relief. It was some time before he returned with several +strips of fabric cut from the tent curtain, and the neatest splints he +could extemporize from slabs of stripped-off bark; and the next half-hour +was a trying one to both of them. Sometimes Vane assisted him with +suggestions--once he reviled his clumsiness--and sometimes he lay silent +with his face awry and his lips tight silent; but at length it was done +and Carroll stood up, breathing hard. + +"I'll fasten you on to a couple of skids and pull you out. Then I'll make +camp here." + +He managed it with difficulty, pitched the tent above Vane, whom he +covered with their blankets, and made a fire outside. + +"Are you comfortable now?" he inquired. + +Vane looked up at him with a somewhat ghastly smile. + +"I suppose I'm about as comfortable as could be expected. Anyhow, I've +got to get used to the thing. Six weeks is the shortest limit, isn't it?" + +Carroll confessed that he did not know, and presently Vane spoke again. + +"It's lucky that the winters aren't often very cold near the coast." + +The temperature struck Carroll as low enough, but he made no comment. To +his disgust, he could think of no cheering observation, for there was no +doubt that the situation was serious. They were cut off from the sloop by +leagues of tangled forest which a vigorous man would find it difficult to +traverse, and it would be weeks before Vane could use his leg; no human +assistance could be looked for; and they had only a small quantity of +provisions left. Besides this, it would not be easy to keep the sufferer +warm in rigorous weather. + +"I'll get supper. You'll feel better afterward," he said at length. + +"Don't be too liberal," Vane warned him. + +After the meal, Vane fell into a restless doze, and it was dark when he +opened his eyes again. + +"I can't sleep any more, and we may as well talk--there are things to be +arranged. In the first place, as soon as I feel a little easier you'll +have to sail across to Comox and hire some men to pack me out. When +you've sent them off, you can make for Vancouver and get a timber license +and find out how matters are going on." + +"That is quite out of the question," Carroll replied firmly. "Nairn can +look after our mining interests--he's a capable man--and if the thing's +too much for him, they can go to smash. Besides, they won't give you a +timber license without full particulars of area and limits, and we've +blazed no boundaries. Anyhow, I'm staying right here." + +Vane began to protest, but Carroll raised his hand. + +"Argument's not conducive to recovery. You're on your back, +unfortunately, and I'll give way to you as usual as soon as you're on +your feet again, but not before." + +"I'd better point out that we'll both be hungry by that time. The +provisions won't last long." + +"Then I'll look for a deer as soon as I think you can be left. And now +we'll try to talk of something more amusing." + +"Can you see anything humorous in the situation?" + +"I can't," Carroll confessed. "Still, there may be something of that +description which I haven't noticed yet. By the way, the last time we +were at Nairn's I happened to cross the room near where you and Miss +Horsfield were sitting, and I heard her ask you to wait for something at +Nanaimo or Comox. It struck me as curious." + +"She told me to wait so that she could send me word to come back, if it +should be needful." + +"Ah!" ejaculated Carroll. "I won't ask why she was willing to do so--it +concerns you more than me--but I think that as regards your interests in +the Clermont a warning from her would be worth as much as one from Nairn; +that is, if she could be depended on." + +"Have you any doubt upon the subject?" + +Carroll made a soothing gesture. + +"Don't get angry! Perhaps I've talked too much. We have to think of +your leg." + +"I'm not likely to forget it," Vane informed him. "But I dare say you're +right in one respect--as an amusing companion you're a dead failure; and +talking isn't as easy as I thought." + +He lay silent afterward, and though he had disclaimed any desire for +sleep, worn by the march and pain as he was, his eyes presently closed. +Carroll, however, sat long awake that night, and he afterward confessed +that he felt badly afraid. Deer are by no means numerous in some parts of +the bush--they had not seen one during the journey; and it was a long way +to the sloop. + +Once or twice, for no obvious reason, he drew aside the tent flap and +looked out. The sky was cloudless and darkly blue, and a sickle moon +gleamed in it, keen and clear with frost. Below, the hills were washed in +silver, majestic, but utterly cheerless; and lower still the serrated +tops of the rigid firs cut against the dreary whiteness. After each +glimpse of them, Carroll drew his blanket tighter round him with a +shiver. Very shortly, when the little flour and pork was gone and their +few cartridges had been expended, he would be reduced to the condition of +primitive man. Cut off from all other resources, he must then wrest what +means of subsistence he could from the snowy wilderness by brute strength +and cunning and such instruments as he could make with his unassisted +hands, except that an ax of Pennsylvania steel was better than a stone +one. Civilization has its compensations, and Carroll longed for a few +more of them that night. + +On rising the next morning, he found the frost keener, and he spent that +day and a number of those that followed in growing anxiety, which was +only temporarily lessened when he once succeeded in killing a deer. There +was almost a dearth of animal life in the lonely valley. Sometimes, at +first, Vane was feverish; often he was irritable; and the recollection of +the three or four weeks he spent with him afterward haunted Carroll like +a nightmare. At last, when he had spent several days in vain search for a +deer and the provisions were almost exhausted, he and his companion held +a council of emergency. + +"There's no use in arguing," Vane declared. "You'll rig me a shelter of +green boughs outside the tent and close to the fire. I can move from the +waist upward and, if it's necessary, drag myself with my hands. Then you +can chop enough cord-wood to last a while, cook my share of the eatables, +and leave me while you go down to the sloop. There's half a bag of flour +on board her, and a few other things I'd be uncommonly glad to have." + +Carroll expostulated; but it was evident that his companion was right, +and the next morning he started for the inlet, taking with him the +smallest possible portion of their provisions. So long as he had enough +to keep him from fainting on the way, it was all he required, because he +could renew his stores on board the sloop. The weather broke during the +march; driving snow followed him down the valley, and by and by gave +place to bitter rain. The withered underbrush was saturated, the soil was +soddened with melting snow, and after the first scanty meal or two the +man dare risk no delay. He felt himself flagging from insufficient food, +and it was obvious that he must reach the sloop before he broke down. He +had tobacco, but that failed to stay the gnawing pangs, and before the +march was done he was on the verge of exhaustion, forcing himself onward, +drenched and grim of face, scarcely able to keep upon his bleeding feet. + +It was falling dusk and blowing fresh when he limped down the beach and +with a last effort launched the light dingy and pulled off to the sloop. +She rode rather deep in the water, but that did not trouble him. Most +wooden craft leak more or less, and it was a considerable time since he +had pumped her out. Clambering wearily on board, he made the dingy fast; +and then stood still a moment or two, looking about him with his hand on +the cabin slide. Thin flakes of snow drifted past him; the firs were +rustling eerily ashore, and ragged wisps of cloud drove by low down +above their tops. Little frothy ripples flecked the darkening water with +streaks of white and splashed angrily against the bows of the craft. The +prospect was oppressively dreary, and the worn-out man was glad that he +was at last in shelter and could snatch a few hours' rest. + +Thrusting back the slide, he stepped below and lighted the lamp. The +brightening glow showed him that the boat's starboard side was wet high +up, and though there was a good deal of water in her, this puzzled him +until an explanation suggested itself. They had moored the craft +carefully, but he supposed she must have dragged her anchor or kedge and +swung in near enough the shore to ground toward low tide. Then as the +tide left her she would fall over on her starboard bilge, because they +had lashed the heavy boom down on that side, and the water in her would +cover the depressed portion of her interior. This reasoning was probably +correct; but he did not foresee the result until, after lighting the +stove and putting on the kettle, he opened the provision locker, which +was to starboard. Then he saw with a shock of dismay that the stock of +food they had counted on was ruined. The periodically-submerged flour-bag +had rotted and burst, and most of its contents had run out into the water +as the boat righted with the rising tide; the prepared cereals, purchased +to save cooking, had turned to moldy pulp; and the few other stores were +in much the same condition. There were only two sound cans of beef and a +few ounces of unspoiled tea in a canister. + +Carroll's courage failed him as he realized it, but he felt that he must +eat and sleep before he could grapple with the situation. He would allow +himself a scanty meal and a few hours' rest. While the kettle boiled, he +crawled out and shortened in the cable and plied the pump. Then he went +below and feasted on preserved beef and tea, gaging the size of each +slice with anxious care, until he reluctantly laid the can aside. After +that, he filled his pipe and stretching his aching limbs out on the port +locker, which was comparatively dry, soon sank into heavy sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +CARROLL SEEKS HELP + + +Carroll slept for several hours before he awakened and sat up on the +locker, shivering. He had left the hatch slightly open, and a confused +uproar reached him from outside; the wail of wind-tossed trees; the +furious splash of ripples against the bows; and the drumming of the +halyards upon the mast. There was no doubt that it was blowing hard, but +the wind was off the land and the sloop in shelter. + +Filling his pipe, he set himself to think, and promptly decided that it +would have been better had he gone down to the sloop in the beginning, +before the provisions had been spoiled. A natural reluctance to leave his +helpless companion had mainly prevented him from doing this, but he had +also been encouraged by the possibility of obtaining a deer now and then. +It was clear that he had made a mistake in remaining, but it was not the +first time he had done so, and the point was unimportant. The burning +question was--what should he do now. + +It would obviously be useless to go back with rations that would barely +suffice for the march. Vane still had food enough to keep life in one man +for a little while, and it would not be a long run to Comox with a strong +northerly wind. If the sloop would face the sea that was running he might +return with assistance before his comrade's scanty store was exhausted. +Getting out the mildewed chart, he laid off his course, carefully trimmed +and lighted the binnacle lamp, and going up on deck hauled in the +kedge-anchor. He could not break the main one out, though he worked +savagely with a tackle, and deciding to slip it, he managed to lash three +reefs in the mainsail and hoist it with the peak left down. Then he +stopped to gather breath--for the work had been cruelly heavy--before he +let the cable run and hoisted the jib. + +She paid off when he put up his helm, and the black loom of trees ashore +vanished. He thought that he could find his way out of the inlet, but he +knew that he had done so only when the angry ripples that splashed about +the boat suddenly changed to confused tumbling combers. They foamed up in +quick succession on her quarter, but he fancied she would withstand their +onslaught so long as he could prevent her from screwing up to windward +when she lifted. It would need constant care, and if he failed, the next +comber would, no doubt, break on board. His task was one that would have +taxed the vigilance of a strong, well-fed man, and Carroll had already +nearly reached the limit of his powers. + +His case, however, was by no means an unusual one. The cost of the +subjugation of the wilderness is the endurance of hunger and thirst, cold +and crushing fatigue; and somebody pays, to the utmost farthing. Carroll +sitting, drenched, strung up and hungry, at the helm, was merely playing +his part in the struggle, though he found it cruelly difficult. + +It was pitch dark, but he must gaze ahead and guess the track of the +pursuing seas by the angle of the spouting white ridge abreast of the +weather shrouds. He had a compass, but when his course did not coincide +with safety it must be disregarded. The one essential thing was to keep +the sloop on top, and to do so he had frequently to let her fall off +dead before the mad white combers that leaped out of the dark. By and by +his arms began to ache from the strain of the tiller, and his wet +fingers grew stiff and claw-like. The nervous strain was also telling, +but that could not be helped; he must keep the craft before the sea or +go down with her. There was one consolation; she was traveling at a +furious speed. + +At length, morning broke, gray and lowering, over a leaden sea that was +seamed with white. Carroll glanced longingly at the meat can on the +locker near his feet. He could reach it by stooping, though he dare not +leave the helm, but he determined to wait until noon before he broke his +fast again. It could not be very far to Comox, but the wind might drop. +Then he began to wonder how he had escaped the perils of the night. He +had come down what was really a wide and not quite straight sound, +passing several unlighted islands. Before starting, he had decided that +he would run so far, and then change his course a point or two, but he +could not be sure that he had done so. He had a hazy recollection of +seeing surf, and once a faint loom of land, but he supposed that he had +avoided it half-consciously or that chance had favored him. + +In the afternoon, the wind changed a little, backing to the northwest; +the sky grew brighter, and Carroll made out shadowy land over his +starboard quarter. Soon he recognized it with a start. It was the high +ridge north of Comox. He had run farther than he had expected, and he +must try to hoist the peak of the mainsail and haul her on the wind. +There was danger in rounding her up, but it must be faced, though a sea +foamed across her as he put down his helm. Another followed, but he +scrambled forward and struggled desperately to hoist the down-hanging +gaff. The halyards were swollen; and he could scarcely keep his footing +on the deluged deck that slanted steeply under him. He thought he could +have mastered the banging canvas had he been fresh; but worn out as he +was, drenched with spray and buffeted by the shattered tops of the seas, +the task was beyond his power. Giving it up, he staggered back, +breathless and almost nerveless, to the helm. + +He could not reach Comox, which lay to windward, with the sail half set, +but it was only seventy miles or so to Nanaimo and not much farther to +Vancouver. The breeze would be fair to either, and he could charter a +launch or tug for the return journey. Letting her go before the sea +again, he ate some canned meat ravenously, tearing it with one hand. + +During the afternoon, a gray mass rose out of the water to port and he +supposed it was Texada. There were mines on the island and he might be +able to engage a rescue party; but he reflected that he could not beat +the sloop back to windward unless the breeze fell, which it showed no +signs of doing. It would be more prudent to go on to Vancouver, where he +would be sure of getting a steamer; but he closed with the long island a +little, and dusk was falling when he made out a boat in the partial +shelter of a bight. Standing in closer, he saw that there were two men on +the craft, and driving down upon her he backed and ran alongside. There +was a crash as he struck the boat and an astonished and angry man +clutched the sloop's rail. + +"Now what in the name of thunder--" he began and stopped, struck by +Carroll's haggard and ragged appearance. + +"Can you take this sloop to Vancouver?" Carroll asked hoarsely. + +"I could if it was worth while," was the cautious answer. "It will be a +mighty wet run." + +"Seven dollars a day, until you're home again. A bonus, if you can sail +her with the whole reefed mainsail up--I won't stick at a few dollars. +Can your partner pull that boat ashore alone? If not, cast her adrift; +I'll buy her." + +"He'll make the beach," returned the other, jumping on board. "Seven +dollars sounds a square deal. I won't put the screw on you." + +"Then help me hoist the peak. After that, you can take the helm; I'm +played out." + +The man shouted something to his companion and then seized the halyards, +and the sloop drove on again, furiously, with an increased spread of +canvas, while Carroll stood holding on by the coaming until the boat +dropped back. + +"I'll leave you to it," he told the new helmsman, "It's twenty-four hours +since I've had more than a bite or two of food, and some weeks since I +had a decent meal." + +"You look it. Been up against it somewhere?" + +Carroll, without replying, crawled below and managed to light the stove +and make a kettleful of tea. He drank a good deal of it, and nearly +emptied the remaining small meat can, which he presently held out for the +helmsman's inspection, standing beneath the hatch. + +"There's some tea left, but this is all there is to eat on board the +craft," he said. "You're hired to take her to Vancouver--you'd better get +there as quick as you can." + +The bronzed helmsman nodded. + +"She won't be long on the way if the mast holds up." + +"Have you seen any papers lately?" Carroll inquired. "I've been up in the +bush and I'm interested in the Clermont Mine. It looked as if there might +be some changes in the company's prospects when I went away." + +"I noticed a bit about it in the _Colonist_ a while back. The +company sold out to another concern, or amalgamated with it; I don't +remember which." + +Carroll was not astonished. The news implied that he must be prepared to +face a more or less serious financial reverse, and it struck him as a +fitting climax to his misadventures. + +"It's pretty much what I expected," he said. "I'm going to sleep and I +don't want to be wakened before it's necessary." + +He crawled below, and he had hardly stretched himself out upon the locker +before his eyes closed. When he opened them, feeling more like his usual +self, he saw that the sun was above the horizon, and he recognized by the +boat's motion that the wind had fallen. Going out he found her driving +through the water under her whole mainsail and the helmsman sitting +stolidly at the tiller. The man stretched out a hand and pointed to the +hazy hills to port. + +"We'll fetch the Narrows some time before noon. If you'll take the helm, +I guess we'll half that meat for breakfast" + +His prediction proved correct, for Carroll reached his hotel about +midday, and hastily changing his clothes set off to call on Nairn. He had +not yet recovered his mental equipoise and, in spite of his long, sound +sleep, he was still badly jaded physically. On arriving at the house, he +was shown into a room where Mrs. Nairn and her husband were sitting with +Evelyn, waiting for the midday meal The elder lady rose with a start of +astonishment when he walked in. + +"Man," she cried, "what's wrong? Ye're looking like a ghost." + +It was not an inapt description. Carroll's face was worn and haggard, and +his clothes hung slack upon him. + +"I've been feeling rather unsubstantial of late, as the result of +a restricted diet," he answered with a smile sinking into the +nearest chair. + +Nairn regarded him with carefully suppressed curiosity. + +"Ye're over lang in coming," he remarked. "Where left ye your partner?" + +Carroll sat silent a moment or two, his eyes fixed on Evelyn. It was +evident that his sudden appearance unaccompanied by Vane, which he felt +had been undesirably dramatic, had alarmed her. At first, he felt +compassionate, and then he was suddenly possessed by hot indignation. +This girl, with her narrow prudish notions and dispassionate nature, had +presumed to condemn his comrade, unheard, for an imaginary offense. The +thing was at once ludicrous and intolerable; if his news brought her +dismay, let her suffer. His nerves, it must be remembered, were not in +their normal condition. + +"Yes," he said, in answer to his host's first remark; "I've gathered that +we have failed to save the situation. But I don't know exactly what has +happened. You had better tell me." + +Mrs. Nairn made a sign of protest, but her husband glanced at her +restrainingly. + +"Ye will hear his news in good time," he informed her, and then turned to +Carroll. "In a few words, the capital was no subscribed--it leaked out +that the ore was running poor--and we held an emergency meeting. With +Vane away, I could put no confidence into the shareholders--they were +anxious to get from under--and Horsfield brought forward an amalgamation +scheme: A combine would take the property over, on their valuation. I and +a few others were outvoted; the scheme went through; and when the +announcement steadied the stock, which had been tumbling down, I +exercised the authority given me and sold your shares and Vane's at +considerably less than their face value. Ye can have particulars later. +What I have to ask now is--where is Vane?" + +The man's voice grew sharp; the question was flung out like an +accusation; but Carroll still looked at Evelyn. He felt very bitter +against her; he would not soften the blow. + +"I left him in the bush, with no more than a few days' provisions and a +broken leg," he announced. + +Then, in spite of Evelyn's efforts to retain her composure, her face +blanched. Carroll's anger vanished, because the truth was clear. Vane had +triumphed through disaster; his peril and ruin had swept his offenses +away. The girl, who had condemned him in his prosperity, would not turn +from him in misfortune. In the meanwhile the others sat silent, gazing at +the bearer of evil news, until he spoke again. + +"I want a tug to take me back, at once, if she can be got. I'll pick up a +few men along the waterfront." + +Nairn rose and went out of the room. The tinkle of a telephone bell +reached those who remained, and a minute or two later he came back. + +"I've sent Whitney round," he explained. "He'll come across if there's a +boat to be had, and now ye look as if ye needed lunch." + +"It's several weeks since I had one," Carroll smiled. + +The meal was brought in, but for a while he talked as well as ate, +relating his adventures in somewhat disjointed fragments, while the +others sat listening eagerly. He was also pleased to notice something +which suggested returning confidence in him in Evelyn's intent eyes as +the tale proceeded. When at last he had made the matter clear, he added: + +"If I keep you waiting, you'll excuse me." + +His hostess watched his subsequent efforts with candid approval, and +looking up once or twice, he saw sympathy in the girl's face, instead of +the astonishment or disgust he had half expected. When he finished, his +hostess rose and Carroll stood up, but Nairn motioned to him to resume +his place. + +"I'm thinking ye had better sit still a while and smoke," he said. + +Carroll was glad to do so, and they conferred together until Nairn was +called to the telephone. + +"Ye can have the Brodick boat at noon to-morrow," he reported on +his return. + +"That won't do," Carroll objected heavily. "Send Whitney round again; I +must sail to-night." + +He had some difficulty in getting out the words, and when he rose his +eyes were half closed. Walking unsteadily, he crossed the room and sank +onto a big lounge. + +"I think," he added, "if you don't mind, I'll go to sleep." + +Nairn merely nodded, and when he went silently out of the room a minute +or two afterward, the worn-out man was already wrapped in profound +slumber. Nairn just then received another call by telephone and left in +haste for his office without speaking to his wife, with the result that +Mrs. Nairn and Evelyn, returning to the room in search of Carroll, found +him lying still. The elder lady raised her hand in warning as she bent +over the sleeper, and then taking up a light rug spread it gently over +him. Evelyn, too, was stirred to sudden pity, for the man's attitude was +eloquent of exhaustion. They withdrew softly and had reached the corridor +outside when Mrs. Nairn turned to the girl. + +"When he first came in, ye blamed that man for deserting his +partner," she said. + +Evelyn confessed it and her hostess smiled meaningly. + +"Are ye no rather too ready to blame?" + +"I'm afraid I am," Evelyn admitted, with the color creeping into her +face as she remembered another instance in which she had condemned a +man hastily. + +"In this case, ye were very foolish. The man came down for help, and if +he could no get it, he would go back his lone, if all the way was barred +with ice and he must walk on his naked feet. Love of woman's strong and +the fear of death is keen, but ye will find now and then a faith between +man and man that neither would sever." She paused and looked at the girl +fixedly as she asked: "What of him that could inspire it?" + +Evelyn did not answer. She had never seen her hostess in this mood, and +she also was stirred; but the elder lady went on again: + +"The virtue of a gift lies in part, but no altogether, with the giver. +Whiles, it may be bestowed unworthily, but I'm thinking it's no often. +The bond that will drag Carroll back to the North again, to his death, if +need be, has no been spun from nothing." + +Evelyn had no doubt that Mrs. Nairn was right. Loyalty, most often, +demanded a worthy object to tender service to; it sprang from implicit +confidence, mutual respect and strong appreciation. It was not without a +reason that Vane had inspired it in his comrade's breast; and this was +the man she had condemned. That fact, however, was by comparison a very +minor trouble. Vane was lying, helpless and alone, in the snowy +wilderness, in peril of his life; and she knew that she loved him. She +realized now, when it might be too late, that had he in reality been +stained with dishonor, she could have forgiven him. Indeed, it had only +been by a painful effort that she had maintained some show of composure +since Carroll had brought the disastrous news, and she felt that she +could not keep it up much longer. + +What she said to Mrs. Nairn she could not remember, but escaping from +her she retired to her own room, to lie still and grapple with an agony +of fear and contrition. + +It was two hours later when she went down and found Carroll, who still +looked drowsy, about to go out. His hostess had left him for a moment in +the hall, and meeting the girl's eyes, he smiled at her reassuringly. + +"Don't be anxious. I'll bring him back," he said. + +Then Mrs. Nairn appeared and in a few moments Carroll left without +another word to Evelyn. She did not ask herself why he had taken it for +granted that she would be anxious; she was beyond any petty regard for +appearances then. It was consoling to remember that he was Vane's tried +comrade; a man who kept his word. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +JESSY'S CONTRITION + + +After leaving Mrs. Nairn, Carroll walked toward Horsfield's residence +in a thoughtful mood, because he felt it incumbent upon him to play a +part he was not particularly fitted for in a somewhat delicate matter. +Uncongenial as his task was, it was one that could not be left to +Vane, who was even less to be trusted with the handling of such +affairs; and Carroll had resolved, as he would have described it, to +straighten out things. + +His partner had somehow offended Evelyn, and though she was now obviously +disposed to forgive him, the recollection of his supposititious iniquity +might afterward rankle in her mind. Though Vane was innocent of any +conduct to which she could with reason take exception, it was first of +all needful to ascertain the exact nature of the charge against him. +Carroll, who for several reasons had preferred not to press this question +upon Evelyn, had a strong suspicion that Jessy Horsfield was at the +bottom of the trouble. There was also one clue to follow--Vane had paid +the rent of Celia Hartley's shack, and he wondered whether Jessy could by +any means have heard of it. If she had done so, the matter would be +simplified, for he had a profound distrust of her. A recent action of +hers was, he thought, sufficient to justify this attitude. + +He found her at home, reclining gracefully in an easy-chair in her +drawing-room, and though she did not seem astonished to see him, he +fancied that her expression hinted at suppressed concern. + +"I heard that you had arrived alone, and I intended to make inquiries +from Mrs. Nairn as soon as I thought she would be at liberty," she +informed him. + +Carroll had found the direct attack effective in Evelyn's case, and he +determined to try it again. + +"Then," he declared, "it says a good deal for your courage." + +He never doubted that she possessed courage, and she displayed it now. + +"So," she said calmly, "you have come as an enemy." + +"Not exactly; it didn't seem worth while. Though there's no doubt you +betrayed us--Vane waited for the warning you could have sent--so far as +it concerns our ruined interests in the Clermont, the thing's done and +can't be mended. We'll let that question go. The most important point +is that if you had recalled us, as you promised, Vane would now be safe +and sound." + +This shot told. The girl's face became less imperturbable; there was +eagerness and, he thought, a hint of fear in it. + +"Then has any accident happened to him?" + +"He's lying in the bush, helpless, in imminent peril of starvation." + +"Go on!" + +There were signs of strain clearly perceptible in the girl's voice. +Carroll was brief, but he made her understand the position; then she +turned upon him imperiously. + +"Then why are you wasting your time here?" + +"It's a reasonable question. I can't get a tug to take me back until noon +to-morrow." + +"Ah!" murmured Jessy. "Excuse me for a minute." + +She left him astonished. He had not expected her to take him at a +disadvantage, as she had done with her previous thrust, and now he did +not think that she had slipped away to hide her feelings. That did not +seem necessary in Jessy's case, though he believed she was more or less +disturbed. She came back presently, looking calm, and sat down again. + +"My brother will be here in a quarter of an hour," she informed him. +"Things are rather slack, and he had half promised to take me for a +drive. I have just called him up." + +Carroll did not see how this bore upon the subject of their conversation, +but he left her to take the lead. + +"Did Mr. Vane tell you that I had promised to warn him?" she asked. + +"To do him justice, he let it out before he quite realized what he was +saying. I'd better own that I partly surprised him into giving me the +information." + +"The expedient seems a favorite one with you. I suppose no news of what +has happened here can have reached him?" + +"None. If it's any consolation, he has still an unshaken confidence in +you," Carroll assured her with blunt bitterness. + +The girl showed faint signs of confusion, but she sat silent for the +next few moments. During that time it flashed upon Carroll with +illuminating light that he had heard Celia Hartley say that Miss +Horsfield had found her orders for millinery. This confirmed his +previous suspicion that Jessy had discovered who had paid the rent of +Celia's shack, and that she had with deliberate malice informed Evelyn, +distorting her account so that it would tell against Vane. There were +breaks in the chain of reasoning which led him to this conclusion, but +he did not think that Jessy would shrink from such a course, and he +determined to try a chance shot. + +"Vane's inclined to be trustful, and his rash generosity has once or +twice got him into trouble," he remarked, and went on as if an +explanation were needed: "It's Miss Hartley's case I'm thinking about +just now. I've an idea he asked you to look after her. Am I right?" + +As soon as he had spoken he knew that he had hit the mark. Jessy did not +openly betray herself, but there are not many people who can remain +absolutely unmoved when unexpectedly asked a startling question. Besides, +the man was observant, and had all his faculties strung up for the +encounter. He saw one of her hands tighten on the arm of her chair and a +hint of uneasiness in her eyes, and that sufficed him. + +"Yes," she replied; "I recommended her to some of my friends. I +understand that she is getting along satisfactorily." + +Carroll felt compelled to admire her manner. He believed that she loved +his comrade but had nevertheless tried to ruin him in a fit of jealous +rage. She was, no doubt, now keenly regretting her success, but though he +thought she deserved to suffer, she was bravely facing the trying +situation. It was one that was rife with dramatic possibilities, and he +was grateful to her for avoiding them. + +"You are going back to-morrow," she said after a brief silence. "I +suppose you will have to tell your partner--what you have discovered +here--as soon as you reach him?" + +Carroll had not intended to spare her, but now he felt almost +compassionate, and he had one grain of comfort to offer. + +"I must tell him that his shares in the Clermont have been sacrificed. I +wonder if that is all you meant?" + +Jessy met his inquiring gaze with something very much like an appeal, and +then she spread out her hands in a manner that seemed to indicate that +she threw herself upon his mercy. + +"It is not all I meant," she confessed. + +"Then if it's any relief to you, I'll confine myself to telling him that +he has been deprived of his most valuable property. I dare say the news +will hit him hard enough. He may afterward discover other facts for +himself, but on the whole I shouldn't consider it likely. As I said, he's +confiding and slow to suspect." + +He read genuine gratitude, which he had hardly expected, in the girl's +face; but he raised his hand and went on in the rather formal manner +which he felt was the only safe one to assume: + +"I had, perhaps, better mention that I am going to call on Miss Hartley. +After that, I shall be uncommonly thankful to start back for the bush." +He paused and concluded with a sudden trace of humor: "I'll own that I +feel more at home with the work that awaits me there." + +Jessy made a little gesture which, while it might have meant anything, +was somehow very expressive. Just then there were footsteps outside and +the next moment Horsfield walked into the room. + +"So you're back!" + +"Yes," Carroll replied shortly. "Beaten at both ends--there's no use in +hiding it." + +Horsfield showed no sign of satisfaction, and Carroll afterward admitted +that the man behaved very considerately. + +"Well," he declared, "though you may be astonished to hear it, I'm sorry. +Unfortunately, our interests clashed, and I naturally looked after mine. +Once upon a time I thought I could have worked hand in hand with Vane, +but our ideas did not coincide, and your partner is not the man to yield +a point or listen to advice." + +Carroll was aware that Horsfield had by means which were far from +honorable deprived him of a considerable portion of his possessions. He +had also betrayed his fellow shareholders in the Clermont Mine, selling +their interests, doubtless for a tempting consideration, to the +directors of another company. For all that, Carroll recognized that +since he and Vane were beaten, as he had confessed, recriminations and +reproaches would be useless as well as undignified. He preferred to face +defeat calmly. + +"It's the fortunes of war," he returned. "What you say about Vane is +more or less correct; but, although it is not a matter of much +importance now, it was impossible from the beginning that your views +and his ever should agree." + +Horsfield smiled. + +"Too great a difference of temperament? I dare say you're right. Vane +measures things by a different standard--mine's perhaps more adapted to +the market-place. But where have you left him?" + +"In the bush. Miss Horsfield will, no doubt, give you particulars; I've +just told her the tale." + +"She called me up at the office and asked me to come across at once. Will +you excuse us for a few minutes?" + +They went out together, and Jessy presently came back alone and looked at +Carroll in a diffident manner. + +"I suppose," she began, "one could hardly expect you to think of either +of us very leniently; but I must ask you to believe that I am sincerely +distressed to hear of your partner's accident. It was a thing I could +never have anticipated; but there are amends I can make. Every minute you +can save is precious, isn't it?" + +"It is." + +"Then I can get you a tug. My brother tells me the _Atlin_ is coming +across from Victoria and should be here early this evening. He has gone +back to the office to secure her for you, though she was fixed to go off +for a lumber boom." + +"Thank you," responded Carroll. "It's a very great service. She's a +powerful boat." + +Jessy hesitated. + +"I think my brother would like to say a few words when he comes back. Can +I offer you some tea?" + +"I think not," answered Carroll, smiling. "For one thing, if I sit still +much longer, I shall, no doubt, go to sleep again, as I did at Nairn's; +and that would be neither seemly nor convenient, if I'm to sail this +evening. Besides, now that we've arranged an armistice, it might be wiser +not to put too much strain on it." + +"An armistice?" + +"I think that describes it." Carroll's manner grew significant. "The word +implies a cessation of hostilities--on certain terms." + +Jessy could take a hint, and his meaning was clear. Unless she forced him +to do so, he would not betray her to his comrade, who might never +discover the part she had played; but he had given her a warning, which +might be bluntly rendered as "Hands off." There was only one course open +to her--to respect it. She had brought down the man she loved, but it was +clear that he was not for her, and now that the unreasoning fury which +had driven her to strike had passed, she was troubled with contrition. +There was nothing left except to retire from the field, and it was better +to do so gracefully. For all that, there were signs of strain in her +expression as she capitulated. + +"Well," she said, "I have given you proof that you have nothing to fear +from me. My brother is the only man in Vancouver who could have got you +that tug for this evening; I understand that the sawmill people are very +much in need of the lumber she was engaged to tow." + +She held out her hand and Carroll took it, though he had not expected to +part from her on friendly terms. + +"I owe you a good deal for that," he smiled. + +His task, however, was only half completed when he left the house, and +the remaining portion was the more difficult, but he meant to finish it. +He preferred to take life lightly; he had trifled with it before disaster +had driven him out into the wilds; but there was resolution in the man, +and he could force himself to play an unpleasant part when it was +needful. Fortune also favored him, as she often does those who follow the +boldest course. + +He had entered a busy street when he met Kitty and Celia. The latter +looked thin and somewhat pale, but she was moving briskly, and her face +was eager when she shook hands with him. + +"We have been anxious about you," she declared; "there was no news. Is +Mr. Vane with you? How have you got on?" + +"We found the spruce," answered Carroll. "It's not worth milling--a +forest fire has wiped out most of it--but we struck some shingling cedar +we may make something of." + +"Where's Mr. Vane?" + +"In the bush. I've a good deal to tell you about him; but we can't talk +here. I wonder if we could find a quiet place in a restaurant, or if the +park would be better." + +"The park," said Kitty decidedly. + +They reached it in due time, and Carroll, who had refused to say anything +about Vane on the way, found the girls a seat in a grove of giant firs +and sat down opposite to them. Though it was winter, the day, as is often +the case near Vancouver, was pleasantly mild. + +"Now," he began, "my partner is a singularly unfortunate person. In the +first place, the transfer of the Clermont property, which you have no +doubt heard of, means a serious loss to him, though he is not ruined yet. +He talks of putting up a shingling mill, in which Drayton will be of +service, and if things turn out satisfactorily you will be given an +interest in it." + +He added the last sentence as an experiment, and was satisfied with +the result. + +"Never mind our interests," cried Kitty. "What about Mr. Vane?" + +For the third time since his arrival, Carroll made the strongest appeal +he could to womanly pity, drawing, with a purpose, a vivid picture of his +comrade's peril and suffering. Nor was he disappointed, for he saw +consternation, compassion and sympathy in the girls' faces. So far, the +thing had been easy, but now he hesitated, and it was with difficulty +that he nerved himself for what must follow. + +"He has been beaten out of his stock in the mine; he's broken down in +health and in danger; but, by comparison, that doesn't count for very +much with him. He has another trouble; and though I'm afraid I'm going +out of the way in mentioning it, if it could be got over, it would help +him to face the future and set him on his feet again." + +Then he briefly recounted the story of Vane's regard for Evelyn, making +the most of his sacrifice in withdrawing from the field, and again he +realized that he had acted wisely. A love affair appealed to his +listeners, and there was a romance in this one that heightened the +effect of it. + +"But Miss Chisholm can't mean to turn from him now," interrupted Celia. + +Carroll looked at her meaningly. + +"No; she turned from him before he sailed. She heard something +about him." + +His companions appeared astonished. + +"She couldn't have heard anything that anybody could mind," Kitty +exclaimed indignantly. "He's not that kind of man." + +"It's a compliment," returned Carroll. "I think he deserves it. At the +same time, he's a little rash, and now and then a man's generosity is +open to misconception. In this case, I don't think one could altogether +blame Miss Chisholm." + +Kitty glanced at him sharply and then at Celia, who looked at first +puzzled and then startled. Then the blood surged into Kitty's cheeks. + +"Oh!" she gasped, as if she were breathless, "I was once afraid of +something like this. You mean we're the cause of it?" + +The course he followed was hateful to Carroll, but the tangle could not +be straightened without having somebody's feelings hurt, and it was his +comrade about whom he was most concerned. + +"I believe that you understand the situation," he said quietly. + +He saw the fire in Kitty's eyes and noticed that Celia's face also was +flushed, but he did not think their anger was directed against him. +They knew the world they lived in, and, for that matter, he could share +their indignation. He resented the fact that a little thing should +bring swift suspicion upon them. He was, however, not required to face +any disconcerting climax. Indeed, it struck him as curious that a +difficult situation in which strong emotion was stirred up could become +so tamely prosaic merely because it was resolutely handled in a +matter-of-fact manner. + +"Well," inquired Celia, "why did you tell us this?" + +"I think you both owe Vane something, and you can do him a great favor +just now." + +Kitty looked up at him. + +"Don't ask me too much, Mr. Carroll. I'm Irish, and I feel like killing +somebody." + +"It's natural," responded Carroll with a sympathetic smile. "I've now and +then felt much the same way; it's probably unavoidable in a world like +this. However, I think you ought to call on Miss Chisholm, after I've +gone, though you'd better not mention that I sent you. You can say you +came for news of Vane--and add anything that you consider necessary." + +The girls looked at each other, and at length, though it obviously cost +her a struggle, Kitty said decidedly: + +"We will have to go." + +Then she faced round toward Carroll. + +"If Miss Chisholm won't believe us, she'll be sorry we came!" + +Carroll made her a slight inclination. + +"She'll deserve it, if she's not convinced. But it might be better if you +didn't approach her in the mood you're in just now." + +Kitty rose, motioning to Celia, and Carroll turned back with them toward +the city, feeling a certain constraint in their company and yet conscious +of a strong relief. It had grown dark when he returned to Nairn's house. + +"Where have ye been?" his host inquired. "I had a clerk seeking ye all +round the city. I canna get ye a boat before the morn." + +Carroll saw that Mrs. Nairn shared her husband's desire to learn how he +had been occupied. Evelyn also was in the room, and she waited +expectantly for his answer. + +"There were one or two little matters that required attention and I +managed to arrange them satisfactorily," he explained. "Among other +things, I've got a tug, and I expect to sail in an hour or two. Miss +Horsfield found me the vessel." + +He noticed Evelyn's interest, and was rather pleased to see it. If she +were disposed to be jealous of Jessy it could do no harm. Nairn, +however, frowned. + +"I'm thinking it might have been better if ye had no troubled Jessy," he +commented. + +"I'm sorry I can't agree with you," Carroll retorted. "The difference +between this evening and noon to-morrow is a big consideration." + +"Weel," replied Nairn resignedly; "I can no deny the thing, if ye look at +it like that." + +Carroll changed the subject; but some time later Mrs. Nairn sat down near +him in the temporary absence of her husband and Evelyn. + +"We will no be disturbed for two or three minutes," she said. "Ye +answered Alic like a Scotsman before supper and put him off the track, +though that's no so easy done." + +Carroll grinned. He enjoyed an encounter with Mrs. Nairn, though she was, +as a rule, more than a match for him. + +"You're too complimentary," he declared. "The genuine Caledonian caution +can't be acquired by outsiders; it's a gift." + +"I'll no practise it now," returned the lady. "Ye're no so proud of +yourself for nothing. What have ye been after?" + +Carroll crossed his finger-tips and looked at her over them. + +"Since you ask the question, I may say this--If Miss Chisholm has two +lady visitors during the next few days, you might make sure that she +sees them." + +"What are their names?" + +"Miss Celia Hartley, the daughter of the prospector who sent Vane off to +look for the timber, and Miss Kitty Blake, who, as you have probably +heard, once came down the west coast with him, in company with an elder +lady and myself." + +Mrs. Nairn started, then she looked thoughtful, and finally she broke +into a smile of open appreciation. + +"Now," she ejaculated, "I understand. I did no think it of ye. Ye're no +far from a genius!" + +"Thanks. I believe I succeeded better than I could have expected, and +perhaps than I deserved." + +They were interrupted then by Nairn, who came hastily into the room. + +"There's one of the _Atlin_ deck-hands below," he announced. "He's come +on here from Horsfield's to say that the boat's ready with a full head of +steam up, and the packers ye hired are waiting on the wharf." + +Carroll rose and became in a moment intent and eager. + +"Tell him I'll be down almost as soon as he is. You'll have to excuse +me." Two minutes later he left the house, and fervent good wishes +followed him from the party on the stoop. He did not stop to acknowledge +them, but shortly afterward the blast of a whistle came ringing across +the roofs from beside the water-front. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +CONVINCING TESTIMONY + + +One afternoon three or four days after Carroll had sailed, Evelyn sat +alone in Mrs. Nairn's drawing-room, a prey to confused regrets and keen +anxiety. She had recovered from the first shock caused her by Carroll's +news, but though she could face the situation more calmly, she could find +no comfort anywhere--Vane was lying, helpless and famishing, in the +frost-bound wilderness. She knew that she loved the man; indeed, she had +really known it for some time, and it was that which had made Jessy's +revelation so bitter. Now, fastidious in thought and feeling as she was, +she wondered whether she had been too hard upon him; it was becoming more +and more difficult to believe that he could have justified her disgust +and anger; but this was not what troubled her most. She had sent him away +with cold disfavor. Now he was threatened by dangers. It was horrible to +think of what might befall him before assistance arrived, and yet she +could not drive the haunting dread out of her mind. + +She was in this mood when a maid announced that two visitors wished to +see her; and when they were shown in, she found it difficult to hide her +astonishment as she recognized in Kitty the very attractive girl she had +once seen in Vane's company. It was this which prompted her to assume a +chilling manner, though she asked her guests to be seated. Neither of +them appeared altogether at her ease, and there was, indeed, a rather +ominous sparkle in Kitty's blue eyes. + +"Mr. Carroll was in town not long ago," Kitty began bluntly. "Have you +had any news of him since he sailed?" + +Evelyn did not know what to make of the question, and she answered +coldly. + +"No; we do not expect any word for some time." + +"I'm sorry. We're anxious about Mr. Vane." + +On the surface, the announcement appeared significant, but the girl's +boldness in coming to her for news was inexplainable to Evelyn. Puzzled +as she was, her attitude became more discouraging. + +"You know him then?" + +Something in her tone made Celia's cheeks burn and she drew herself up. + +"Yes," she said; "we know him, both of us. I guess it's astonishing to +you. But I met him first when he was poor, and getting rich hasn't +spoiled Mr. Vane." + +Evelyn was once more puzzled. The girl's manner savored less of assurance +than of wholesome pride which had been injured. Kitty then broke in: + +"We had no cards to send in; but I'm Kathleen Blake, and this is Celia +Hartley--it was her father sent Mr. Vane off to look for the spruce." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Evelyn, a little more gently, addressing Celia. "I +understand that your father died." + +Kitty flashed a commanding glance at Celia. + +"Yes," the girl replied; "that is correct. He left me ill and worn out, +without a dollar, and I don't know what I should have done if Mr. Vane +hadn't insisted on giving Drayton a little money for me; on account, he +said, because I was a partner in the venture. Then Miss Horsfield got +some work among her friends for me to do at home. Mr. Vane must have +asked her to; it would be like him." + +Evelyn sat silent a few moments. Celia had given her a good deal of +information in answer to a very simple remark; but she was most impressed +by the statement that Jessy, who had prejudiced her against Vane, had +helped the girl at his request. It was difficult to believe that she +would have done so had there been any foundation for her insinuations. If +Celia spoke the truth, and Evelyn somehow felt this was the case, the +whole thing was extraordinary. + +"Now," continued Celia, "it's no way astonishing that I'm grateful to Mr. +Vane and anxious to hear whether Mr. Carroll has reached him." This was +spoken with a hint of defiance, but the girl's voice changed. + +"I am anxious. It's horrible to think of a man like him freezing in +the bush." + +Her concern was so genuine and yet somehow so innocent that Evelyn's +heart softened. + +"Yes," she asserted, "it's dreadful." Then she asked a question. "Who's +the Mr. Drayton you mentioned?" + +Kitty blushed becomingly; this was her lead. + +"He's a kind of partner in the lumber scheme; I'm going to marry him. +He's as firm a friend of Mr. Vane's as any one. There's a reason for +that--I was in a very tight place once, left without money in a desolate +settlement where there was nothing I could do, when Mr. Vane helped me. +But perhaps that wouldn't interest you." + +For a moment her doubts still clung to their hold in Evelyn's mind, and +then she suddenly drove the last of them out, with a stinging sense of +humiliation. She could not distrust this girl; it was Jessy's suggestion +that was incredible. + +"It would interest me very much," she declared. + +Kitty told her story effectively, but with caution, laying most stress +upon Vane's compassion for the child and her invalid mother. She was +rather impressed by Miss Chisholm, but she supposed that she was endowed +with some of the failing common to human nature. + +Evelyn listened with confused emotions and a softened face. She was +convinced of the truth of the simple tale, and the thought of Vane's +keeping his moneyed friends and directors waiting in Vancouver in order +that a tired child might rest and gather shells upon a sunny beach +stirred her deeply. It was so characteristic; exactly what she would have +expected him to do. + +"Thank you," she said quietly, when Kitty had finished; and then, +flinging off the last of her reserve, she asked a number of questions +about Drayton and about Celia's affairs. + +Before her visitors left, all three were on friendly terms; but Evelyn +was glad when they took their departure. She wanted to be alone to think. +In spite of the relief of which she was conscious, her thoughts were far +from pleasant. Foremost among them figured a crushing sense of shame. She +had wickedly misjudged a man who had given her many proofs of the +fineness of his character; the evil she had imputed to him was born of +her own perverted imagination. She was no better than the narrow-minded, +conventional Pharisees she detested, who were swift to condemn out of the +uncleanness of their self-righteous hearts. Then, as she began to reason, +it flashed upon her that she was, perhaps, wronging herself. Her mind had +been cunningly poisoned by an utterly unscrupulous and wholly detestable +woman, and she flamed out into a fit of imperious anger against Jessy. +She had a hazy idea that this was not altogether reasonable, for she was +to some extent fastening the blame she deserved upon another person's +shoulders; but it did not detract from the comfort the indulgence in her +indignation brought her. + +When she had grown a little calmer, Mrs. Nairn came in; and Mrs. Nairn +was a discerning lady. It was not difficult to lead Evelyn on to speak of +her visitors, for the girl's pride was broken and she felt in urgent need +of sympathy; but when she had described the interview she felt impelled +to avoid any discussion of the more important issues, even with the +kindly Scotch lady. + +"I was surprised at the girls' manner," she concluded. "It must have been +embarrassing to them; but they were really so delicate over it, and they +had so much courage." + +Mrs. Nairn smiled. + +"Although one of them has traveled with third-rate strolling companies +and the other has waited in a hotel? Weel, maybe your surprise was +natural. Ye canna all at once get rid of the ideas and prejudices ye were +brought up with." + +"I suppose that was it," replied Evelyn thoughtfully. + +Her companion's eyes twinkled. + +"Then, if ye're to live among us happily, ye'll have to try. In the way +ye use the words, some of the leading men in this country were no brought +up at all." + +"Do you imagine that I'm going to live here?" + +Mrs. Nairn gathered up one or two articles she had brought into the room +with her and moved toward the door, but before she reached it she looked +back with a laugh. + +"It occurred to me that the thing was no altogether impossible." + +An hour afterward, Evelyn and Mrs. Nairn went down into the town, and in +one of the streets they came upon Jessy leaving a store. The latter was +not lacking in assurance and she moved toward them with a smile; but +Evelyn gazed at her with a total disregard of her presence and walked +quietly on. There was neither anger nor disdain in her attitude; to have +shown either would have been a concession she could not make. The +instincts of generations of gently-reared Englishwomen were aroused, as +well as the revulsion of an untainted nature from something unclean. + +Jessy's cheeks turned crimson and a malevolent light flashed into her +eyes as she crossed the street. Mrs. Nairn noticed her expression and +smiled at her companion. + +"I'm thinking it's as weel ye met Jessy after she had got the boat for +Carroll," she commented. + +The remark was no doubt justified, but the fact that Jessy had been able +to offer valuable assistance failed to soften Evelyn toward her. It was +merely another offense. + +In the meanwhile, the powerful tug steamed northward, towing the sloop, +which would be required, and after landing the rescue party at the inlet +steamed away again. Before she had disappeared Carroll began his march, +and his companions long remembered it. Two of them were accustomed to +packing surveyors' stores through the seldom-trodden bush and the others +had worked in logging camps and chopped new roads, but though they did +not spare themselves, they lacked their leader's animus. Carroll, with +all his love of ease, could rise to meet an emergency, and he wore out +his companions before the journey was half done. He scarcely let them +sleep; he fed them on canned stuff to save delay in lighting fires; and +he grew more feverishly impatient with every mile they made. He showed it +chiefly by the tight set of his lips and the tension of his face, though +now and then when fallen branches or thickets barred the way he fell upon +the obstacles with the ax in silent fury. For the rest, he took the lead +and kept it, and the others, following with shoulders aching from the +pack-straps and labored breath, suppressed their protests. + +Like many another made in that country, it was a heroic journey; one in +which every power of mind and body was taxed to the limit. Delay might +prove fatal. The loads were heavy; fatigue seized the shrinking flesh, +but the unrelenting will, trained in such adventures, mercilessly spurred +it on. Toughened muscle is useful and in the trackless North can seldom +be dispensed with; but man's strength does not consist of that alone: +there are occasions when the stalwart fall behind and die. + +In front of them, as they progressed, lay the unchanging forest, +tangled, choked with fallen wreckage, laced here and there with stabbing +thorns, appalling and almost impenetrable to the stranger. They must +cleave their passage, except where they could take to the creek for an +easier way and wade through stingingly cold water or flounder over +slippery fangs of rock and ice-encrusted stones. There was sharp frost +among the ranges and the brush through which they tore their way was +generally burdened with clogging snow. They went on, however, and on the +last day Carroll drew some distance ahead of those who followed him. It +was dark when he discovered that he had lost them, but that did not +matter, for now and then faint moonlight came filtering down and he was +leaving a plain trail behind. His shoulders were bleeding beneath the +biting straps; he was on the verge of exhaustion; but he struggled +forward, panting heavily and rending his garments to rags as he smashed +through the brakes in the darkness. + +The night--it seemed a very long one--was nearly over when he recognized +the roar of a rapid that rang in louder and louder pulsations across the +snow-sprinkled bush. He was not far from the end now, and he became +conscious of an unnerving fear. The ground was ascending sharply, and +when he reached the top of the slope the question from which he shrank +would be answered for him--if there should be no blink of light among the +serried trunks, he would have come too late. + +He reached the summit and his heart leaped; then he clutched at a +drooping branch to support himself, shaken by a reaction that sprang from +relief. A flicker of uncertain radiance fell upon the trees ahead, and +down the bitter wind there came the reek of pungent smoke. The bush was +slightly more open, and Carroll broke into a run. Presently he came +crashing and stumbling into the light of the fire and then stopped, too +stirred and out of breath to speak. Vane lay where the red glow fell upon +his face, smiling up at him. + +"Well," he said, "you've come. I've been expecting you, but on the whole +I got along not so badly." + +Carroll flung off his pack and sat down beside the fire; then he fumbled +for his pipe and began to fill it hurriedly with trembling fingers. He +lighted it and flung away the match before he spoke. + +"Sorry I couldn't get through sooner," he mumbled. "The stores on board +the sloop were spoiled; I had to go on to Vancouver. But there are things +to eat in my pack." + +"Hand it across. I haven't been faring sumptuously the last few days. No, +sit still! I'm supple enough from the waist up." + +He proved it by the way he leaned to and fro as he opened the pack and +distributed part of its contents among the cooking utensils. Carroll +assisted him now and then but he did not care to speak. The sight of the +man's gaunt face and the eagerness in his eyes prompted him to an +outbreak of feeling rather foreign to his nature, and he did not think +his companion would appreciate it. When the meal was ready, Vane looked +up at him. + +"I've no doubt this journey cost you something--partner," he said. + +Then they ate cheerfully, and Carroll, watching his friend's efforts with +appreciation, told his story in broken sentences. Afterward, they lighted +their pipes, but by and by Carroll's fell from his relaxing grasp. + +"I can't get over this sleepiness," he explained. "I believe I disgraced +myself in Vancouver by going off in the most unsuitable places," + +"I dare say it was quite natural. Anyway, hadn't you better hitch +yourself a little farther from the fire?" + +Carroll did so and lay still afterward, but Vane kept watch during the +rest of the night, until in the dawn the packers appeared. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +VANE IS REINSTATED + + +Breakfast was over and the two men, wrapped in blankets, lay on opposite +sides of the fire, while the packers reclined in various ungainly +attitudes about another. Now that they had a supply of provisions, haste +was not a matter of importance, and there was no doubt that the rescue +party needed a rest. Carroll was aching all over and was somewhat +disturbed in mind. He had not said anything about their financial affairs +to his comrade yet, and the subject must be mentioned. It was, from every +point of view, an unpleasant one. + +"What about the Clermont?" Vane asked at length. "You needn't trouble +about breaking the news--come right to the point." + +"Then, to all intents and purposes, the company has gone under; it's been +taken over by Horsfield's friends. Nairn has sold our stock--at +considerably less than face value," Carroll explained, adding a brief +account of the absorption of the concern. + +Vane's face set hard. + +"I anticipated something of the kind last night; I saw how you kept clear +of the matter." + +"But you said nothing." + +"No. I'd had time to consider the thing while I lay here, and it didn't +look as if I could have got an intelligible account out of you. But you +may as well mention how much Nairn got." + +He lay smoking silently for a few minutes after he learned the amount, +and Carroll was strongly moved to sympathy. He felt that it was not the +financial reverse but one indirect result of it which would hit his +comrade hardest. + +"Well," Vane said grimly, "I suppose I've done what my friends would +consider a mad thing in coming up here--and I must face the reckoning." + +Carroll wondered whether their conversation could be confined to the +surface of the subject, because there were depths beneath it that it +would be better to leave undisturbed. + +"After all, you're far from broke," he encouraged him. "You have what +the Clermont stock brought in, and you may make something out of this +shingle scheme." + +There was bitterness in Vane's laugh. + +"When I left Vancouver for England I was generally supposed to be well on +the way to affluence, and there was some foundation for the idea. I had +floated the Clermont in the face of opposition; people believed in me; I +could have raised what money I required for any new undertaking. Now a +good deal of my money and all of my prestige is gone; people have very +little confidence in a man who has shown himself a failure. What's more, +I may be a cripple. My leg will probably have to be broken again." + +Carroll could guess his companion's thoughts. There was a vein of +stubborn pride in him, and he had, no doubt, decided it was unfitting +that Evelyn's future should be linked to that of a ruined man. This was +an exaggerated view, because Vane was in reality far from ruined, and +even if he had been so, he had in him the ability to recover from his +misfortunes. Still, the man was obstinate and generally ready to make a +sacrifice for an idea. Carroll, however, consoled himself with the +reflection that Evelyn would probably have something to say upon the +subject if she were given an opportunity, and he felt certain that Mrs. +Nairn would contrive that she had one. + +"I can't see any benefit in making things out considerably worse than +they are," he objected. + +"Nor can I," Vane agreed. "After all, I was getting pretty tired of the +city, and I suppose I can raise enough to put up a small-power mill. It +will be a pleasant change to take charge for a year or two in the bush. +I'll make a start at the thing as soon as I'm able to walk." + +This was significant, as it implied that he did not intend to remain in +Vancouver, where he would be able to enjoy Evelyn's company; but Carroll +made no comment, and Vane soon spoke again. + +"Didn't you mention last night that it was through Miss Horsfield that +you got the tug? I was thinking about something else at the time." + +"Yes. She made Horsfield put some pressure on the people who had +previously hired the boat." + +"That's rather strange." + +For a moment he looked puzzled, but almost immediately his face grew +impassive, and Carroll knew that he had some idea of Jessy's treachery. +He was, however, sure that any suspicions his comrade entertained would +remain locked up in his breast. + +"I'm grateful to her, anyway," Vane added. "I dare say I could have held +out another day or two, but it wouldn't have been pleasant." + +Carroll began to talk about the preparations for their return, which he +soon afterward set about making, and early the next morning they started +for the sloop, carrying Vane upon a stretcher they had brought with them. +Though they had to cut a passage for it every here and there, they +reached the sloop in safety, and after some trouble in getting Vane below +and onto a locker, Carroll decided to sail straight for Vancouver. They +were favored with moderate, fair winds, and though the little vessel was +uncomfortably crowded, she made a quick passage and stole in through the +Narrows as dusk was closing down one tranquil evening. + +Evelyn had spent the greater part of the afternoon on the forest-crested +rise above the city, where she could look down upon the inlet. She had +visited the spot frequently during the last few days, watching eagerly +for a sail that did not appear. There had been no news of Carroll since +the skipper of the tug reported having landed him, and the girl was +tormented by doubts and anxieties. She had just come back and was +standing in Mrs. Nairn's sitting-room, when she heard the tinkle of the +telephone bell. A moment or two later her hostess entered hastily. + +"It's a message from Alic," she cried. "He's heard from the +wharf--Vane's sloop's crossing the harbor. I'll away down to see Carroll +brings him here." + +Evelyn turned to follow her, but Mrs. Nairn waved her back. + +"No," she said firmly; "ye'll bide where ye are. See they get plenty +lights on--at the stairhead and in the passage--and the room on the left +of it ready." + +She was gone in another moment, and Evelyn hastily carried out her +instructions and then waited with what patience she could assume. At last +there was a rattle of wheels outside, followed by a voice giving orders, +and then a tramp of feet. The sounds brought her a strange inward +shrinking, but she ran to the door, and saw two tattered men awkwardly +carrying a stretcher up the steps, while Carroll and another assisted +them. Then the light fell upon its burden and, half prepared as she was, +she started in dismay. Vane, whom she had last seen in vigorous health, +lay partly covered with an old blanket which had slipped off him to the +waist. His jacket looked a mass of rags, his hat had fallen aside and his +face showed hollow and worn and pinched. Then he saw her and a light +leaped into his eyes, but the next moment Carroll's shoulder hid him and +the men plodded on toward the stairs. They ascended them with difficulty +and the girl waited until Carroll came down. + +"I noticed you at the door. I dare say you were a little shocked at the +change in Vane," he said. "What he has undergone has pulled him down, but +if you had seen him when I first found him, you'd have been worse +startled. He's getting on quite satisfactorily." + +Evelyn was relieved to hear it; and Carroll continued: + +"As soon as the doctor comes, we'll make him more presentable; he can't +be moved till then, as I'm not sure about the last bandages I put on. +Afterward, he'll no doubt hold an audience." + +There was nothing to do but wait, and Evelyn again summoned her +patience. Before long, a doctor arrived, and Carroll followed him to +Vane's room. The invalid's face was very impassive, though Carroll waited +in tense suspense while the doctor stripped off the bandages and bark +supports from the injured leg. He examined it attentively, and then +looked around at Carroll. + +"You fixed that limb, when it was broken in the bush?" he asked. + +"Yes," Carroll answered, with a desperate attempt to treat the matter +humorously. "But I really think we both had a hand in the thing. My +partner favored me with his views; I disclaim some of the +responsibility." + +"Then I guess you've been remarkably fortunate. Perhaps that's the best +way of expressing it." + +Vane raised his head and fixed his eyes upon the speaker. + +"It won't have to be rebroken? I'll be able to walk without a limp?" + +"It's most probable." + +Vane's eyes glistened and he let his head fall back. + +"It's good news; better than I expected. Now if you could fix me up +again, I'd like to get dressed. I've felt like a hobo long enough." + +The doctor smiled indulgently. + +"We can venture to change that state of affairs, but I'll superintend the +operation." + +It was some time before Vane's toilet was completed, and then Carroll +surveyed him with humorous admiration. + +"It strikes me you do us credit; and now I suppose I can announce that +you'll receive?" + +Nairn and his wife and Evelyn came in. Nairn, shaking hands with Vane +very heartily, looked down at him with twinkling eyes. + +"I'd have been glad to see ye, however ye had come," he asserted, and +Vane fully believed him. "For a' that, this is no the way I would have +wished to welcome ye." + +"When a man won't take his friends' advice, what can he expect?" +retorted Vane. + +Nairn nodded, smiling. + +"Let it be a warning. If the making of your mark and money is your +object, ye must stick to it and think of nothing else. Ye canna +accumulate riches by spreading yourself, and philanthropy's no lucrative, +except maybe to a few." + +"It's good counsel, but I'm thinking that it's a pity," Mrs. Nairn +remarked. "What would ye say, Evelyn?" + +The girl was aware that the tone of light banter had been adopted to +cover deeper feelings, which those present shrank from expressing; but +she ventured to give her thoughts free rein. + +"I agree with you in one respect," she said. "But I can't believe the +object mentioned is Mr. Vane's only one. He would never be willing to pay +the necessary price." + +It was a delicate compliment uttered in all sincerity, and Vane's worn +face grew warm. He was, however, conscious that it would be safer to +avoid being serious, and he smiled. + +"Well," he drawled, "looking for timber rights is apt to prove +expensive, too. I had a haunting fear that I might be lame, until the +doctor banished it. I'd better own that I'd no great confidence in +Carroll's surgery." + +Carroll, keeping strictly to the line the others had chosen, made him an +ironical bow; but Evelyn was not to be deterred. + +"It was foolish of you to be troubled," she declared. "It isn't a fault +to be wounded in an honorable fight, and even if the mark remains, there +is no reason why one should be ashamed of it." + +Mrs. Nairn glanced at the girl rather sharply, but Carroll came to his +comrade's relief. + +"Strictly speaking, there wasn't a wound," he pointed out. "Fortunately, +it was what is known as a simple fracture. If it had been anything else, +I'm inclined to think I couldn't have treated it." + +Nairn chuckled, as if this met with his approval; and his wife turned +around as they heard a patter of footsteps on the stairs. + +"Yon bell has kept on ringing ever since we came up," she complained. "I +left word I was no to be disturbed. Weel"--as the door opened--"what is +it, Minnie?" + +"The reception room's plumb full," announced the maid, who was lately +from the bush. "If any more folks come along, I sure won't know where +to put 'em." + +Now that the door was open, Evelyn could hear a murmur of voices on the +floor below, and the next moment the bell rang violently again. It struck +her as a testimonial to the injured man. Vane had not spent a long time +in Vancouver, but he had the gift of making friends. Having heard of the +sloop's arrival, they had come to inquire for him, and there was +obviously a number of them. + +Mrs. Nairn glanced interrogatively at Carroll. + +"It does no look as if they could be got rid of by a message." + +"I guess he's fit to see them," Carroll answered, "We'll hold a levee. If +he'd only let me, I'd like to pose him a bit." + +Mrs. Nairn, with Evelyn's assistance, did so instead, rearranging the +cushions about the man, in spite of his confused and half-indignant +protests; and during the next half-hour the room was generally full. +People walked in, made sympathetic inquiries, or exchanged cheerful +banter, until Mrs. Nairn forcibly dismissed the last of them. After this, +she declared that Vane must go to sleep, and paying no heed to his +assertion that he had not the least wish to do so, she led her remaining +companions away. + +A couple of hours had passed when she handed Evelyn a large tumbler +containing a preparation of beaten eggs and milk. + +"Ye might take him this and ask if he would like anything else," she +said. "I'm weary of the stairs and I would no trust Minnie. She's +handiest at spilling things." + +Carroll grinned. + +"It's the third and, I'd better say firmly, the limit." + +Then he assumed an aggrieved expression as Evelyn moved off with the +tray. + +"I can't see why I couldn't have gone. I think I've discharged my duties +as nurse satisfactorily." + +"I canna help ye thinking," Mrs. Nairn informed him. "But I would point +out that ye have now and then been wrong." + +"That's a fact," Carroll confessed. + +Evelyn fully shared his suspicions. Her hostess's artifice was a +transparent one, but she nevertheless fell in with it. She had seen Vane +only in the company of others; this might be the same again to-morrow; +and there was something to be said. By intuition as much as reason, she +recognized that there was something working in his mind; something that +troubled him and might trouble her. It excited her apprehension and +animated her with a desire to combat it. That she might be compelled to +follow an unconventional course did not matter. She knew this man was +hers--and she could not let him go. + +She entered his room collectedly. He was lying, neatly dressed, upon a +couch with his shoulders raised against the end of it, for he had thrown +the cushions which supported him upon the floor. As she came in, he +leaned down in an attempt to recover them, and finding himself too late +looked up guiltily. The fact that he could move with so much freedom was +a comfort to the girl. She set the tray down on a table near him. + +"Mrs. Nairn has sent you this," she said, and the laugh they both +indulged in drew them together. + +Then her mood changed and her heart yearned over him. He had gone away +a strong, self-confident, prosperous man, and he had come back +defeated, broken in fortune and terribly worn. Her pity shone in her +softening eyes. + +"Do you wish to sleep?" she asked. + +"No," Vane assured her; "I'd a good deal rather talk to you." + +"I want to say something," Evelyn confessed. "I'm afraid I was rather +unpleasant to you the evening before you sailed. I was sorry for it +afterward; it was flagrant injustice." + +"Then I wonder why you didn't answer the letter I wrote at Nanaimo." + +"The letter? I never received one." + +Vane considered this for a few moments. + +"After all," he declared, "it doesn't matter now. I'm acquitted?" + +"Absolutely." + +The man's satisfaction was obvious, but he smiled. + +"Do you know," he said, "I've still no idea of my offense?" + +Evelyn was exceedingly glad to hear it, but a warmth crept into her face, +and as the blood showed through the delicate skin he fixed his eyes upon +her intently. + +"It was all a mistake; I'm sorry still," she murmured penitently. + +"Oh!" he exclaimed in a different tone. "Don't trouble about it. The +satisfaction of being acquitted outweighs everything else. Besides, I've +made a number of rather serious mistakes myself. The search for that +spruce, for instance, is supposed to be one." + +"No," returned Evelyn decidedly; "whoever thinks that, is wrong. It is a +very fine thing you have done. It doesn't matter in the least that you +were unsuccessful." + +"Do you really believe that?" + +"Of course. How could I believe anything else?" + +The man's face changed again, and once more she read the signs. Whatever +doubts and half-formed resolutions--and she had some idea of them--had +been working in his mind were dissipating. + +"Well," he continued, "I've sacrificed the best half of my possessions +and have destroyed the confidence of the people who, to serve their ends, +would have helped me on. Isn't that a serious thing?" + +"No; it's really a most unimportant one. I"--the slight pause gave the +assertion force--"really mean it." + +Vane partly raised himself with one arm and there was no doubting the +significance of his intent gaze. + +"I believe I made another blunder--in England. I should have had +more courage and have faced the risk. But you might have turned +against me then." + +"I don't think that's likely," Evelyn murmured, lowering her eyes. + +The man leaned forward eagerly, but the hand he stretched out fell short, +and the trivial fact once more roused her compassion for his +helplessness. + +"You can mean only one thing!" he cried. "You wouldn't be afraid to face +the future with me now?" + +"I wouldn't be afraid at all." + +A half-hour later Mrs. Nairn tapped at the door and smiled rather broadly +when she came in. Then she shook her head reproachfully. + +"Ye should have been asleep a while since," she scolded Vane, and then +turned to Evelyn. "Is this the way ye intend to look after him?" + +She waved the girl toward the door and when she joined her in the passage +she kissed her effusively. + +"Ye have got the man I would have chosen ye," she declared. "It will no +be any fault of his if ye are sorry." + +"I have very little fear of that," laughed Evelyn. + + +THE END + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Vane of the Timberlands, by Harold Bindloss + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VANE OF THE TIMBERLANDS *** + +This file should be named 7vane10.txt or 7vane10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7vane11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7vane10a.txt + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan +and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Vane of the Timberlands + +Author: Harold Bindloss + +Release Date: January, 2006 [EBook #9778] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 15, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VANE OF THE TIMBERLANDS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan +and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + Vane of The Timberlands + + BY HAROLD BINDLOSS + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + +I. A FRIEND IN NEED +II. A BREEZE OF WIND +III. AN AFTERNOON ASHORE +IV. A CHANGE OF ENVIRONMENT +V. THE OLD COUNTRY +VI. UPON THE HEIGHTS +VII. STORM-STAYED +VIII. LUCY VANE +IX. CHISHOLM PROVES AMENABLE +X. WITH THE OTTER HOUNDS +XI. VANE WITHDRAWS +XII. IN VANCOUVER +XIII. A NEW PROJECT +XIV. VANE SAILS NORTH +XV. THE FIRST MISADVENTURE +XVI. THE BUSH +XVII. VANE POSTPONES THE SEARCH +XVIII. JESSY CONFERS A FAVOR +XIX. VANE FORESEES TROUBLE +XX. THE FLOOD +XXI. VANE YIELDS A POINT +XXII. EVELYN GOES FOR A SAIL +XXIII. VANE PROVES OBDURATE +XXIV. JESSY STRIKES +XXV. THE INTERCEPTED LETTER +XXVI. ON THE TRAIL +XXVII. THE END OF THE SEARCH +XXVIII. CARROLL SEEKS HELP +XXIX. JESSY'S CONTRITION +XXX. CONVINCING TESTIMONY +XXXI. VANE IS REINSTATED + + + + +VANE OF THE TIMBERLANDS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A FRIEND IN NEED + + +A light breeze, scented with the smell of the firs, was blowing down the +inlet, and the tiny ripples it chased across the water splashed musically +against the bows of the canoe. They met her end-on, sparkling in the warm +sunset light, gurgled about her sides, and trailed away astern in two +divergent lines as the paddles flashed and fell. There was a thud as the +blades struck the water, and the long, light hull forged onward with +slightly lifted, bird's-head prow, while the two men swung forward for +the next stroke with a rhythmic grace of motion. They knelt, facing +forward, in the bottom of the craft, and, dissimilar as they were in +features and, to some extent, in character, the likeness between them was +stronger than the difference. Both bore the unmistakable stamp of a +wholesome life spent in vigorous labor in the open. Their eyes were clear +and, like those of most bushmen, singularly steady; their skin was clean +and weather-darkened; and they were leanly muscular. + +On either side of the lane of green water giant firs, cedars and balsams +crept down the rocky hills to the whitened driftwood fringe. They formed +part of the great coniferous forest which rolls west from the wet Coast +Range of Canada's Pacific Province and, overleaping the straits, spreads +across the rugged and beautiful wilderness of Vancouver Island. Ahead, +clusters of little frame houses showed up here and there in openings +among the trees, and a small sloop, toward which the canoe was heading, +lay anchored near the wharf. + +The men had plied the paddle during most of that day, from inclination +rather than necessity, for they could have hired Siwash Indians to +undertake the labor for them, had they been so minded. They were, +though their appearance did not suggest it, moderately prosperous; but +their prosperity was of recent date; they had been accustomed to doing +everything for themselves, as are most of the men who dwell among the +woods and ranges of British Columbia. + +Vane, who knelt nearest the bow, was twenty-seven years of age. Nine of +those years he had spent chopping trees, driving cattle, poling canoes +and assisting in the search for useful minerals among the snow-clad +ranges. He wore a wide, gray felt hat, which had lost its shape from +frequent wettings, an old shirt of the same color, and blue duck +trousers, rent in places; but the light attire revealed a fine muscular +symmetry. He had brown hair and brown eyes; and a certain warmth of +coloring which showed through the deep bronze of his skin hinted at a +sanguine and somewhat impatient temperament. As a matter of fact, the +man was resolute and usually shrewd; but there was a vein of +impulsiveness in him, and, while he possessed considerable powers of +endurance, he was on occasion troubled by a shortness of temper. + +His companion, Carroll, had lighter hair and gray eyes, and his +appearance was a little less vigorous and a little more refined; though +he, too, had toiled hard and borne many privations in the wilderness. His +dress resembled Vane's, but, dilapidated as it was, it suggested a +greater fastidiousness. + +The two had located a valuable mineral property some months earlier and, +though this does not invariably follow, had held their own against city +financiers during the negotiations that preceded the floating of a +company to work the mine. That they had succeeded in securing a good deal +of the stock was largely due to Vane's pertinacity and said something for +his acumen; but both had been trained in a very hard school. + +As the wooden houses ahead rose higher and the sloop's gray hull grew +into sharper shape upon the clear green shining of the brine, Vane broke +into a snatch of song: + +"Had I the wings of a dove, I would fly +Just for to-night to the Old Country." + +He stopped and laughed. + +"It's nine years since I've seen it, but I can't get those lines out of +my head. Perhaps it's because of the girl who sang them. Somehow, I felt +sorry for her. She had remarkably fine eyes." + +"Sea-blue," suggested his companion. "I don't grasp the connection +between the last two remarks." + +"Neither do I," admitted Vane. "I suppose there isn't one. But they +weren't sea-blue; unless you mean the depth of indigo when you are out of +soundings. They're Irish eyes." + +"You're not Irish. There's not a trace of the Celt in you, except, +perhaps, your habit of getting indignant with the people who don't share +your views." + +"No, sir! By birth, I'm North Country--England, I mean. Over there we're +descendants of the Saxons, Scandinavians, Danes--Teutonic stock at +bottom, anyhow; and we've inherited their unromantic virtues. We're +solid, and cautious, respectable before everything, and smart at getting +hold of anything worth having. As a matter of fact, you Ontario Scotsmen +are mighty like us." + +"You certainly came out well ahead of those city men who put up the +money," agreed Carroll. "I guess it's in the blood; though I fancied once +or twice that they would take the mine from you." + +Vane brought his paddle down with a thud. + +"Just for to-night to the Old Country,--" + +He hummed, and added: + +"It sticks to one." + +"What made you leave the Old Country? I don't think you ever told me." + +Vane laughed. + +"That's a blamed injudicious question to ask anybody, as you ought to +know; but in this particular instance you shall have an answer. There was +a row at home--I was a sentimentalist then, and just eighteen--and as a +result of it I came out to Canada." His voice changed and grew softer. "I +hadn't many relatives, and, except one sister, they're all gone now. That +reminds me--she's not going to lecture for the county education +authorities any longer." + +The sloop was close ahead, and slackening the paddling they ran +alongside. Vane glanced at his watch when they had climbed on board. + +"Supper will be finished at the hotel," he remarked. "You had better get +the stove lighted. It's your turn, and that rascally Siwash seems to +have gone off again. If he's not back when we're ready, we'll sail +without him." + +Supper is served at the hotels in the western settlements as soon as work +ceases for the day, and the man who arrives after it is over must wait +until the next day's breakfast is ready. Carroll, accordingly, prepared +the meal; and when they had finished it they lay on deck smoking with a +content not altogether accounted for by a satisfied appetite. They had +spent several anxious months, during which they had come very near the +end of their slender resources, arranging for the exploitation of the +mine, and now at last the work was over. Vane had that day made his final +plans for the construction of a road and a wharf by which the ore could +be economically shipped for reduction, or, as an alternative to this, for +the erection of a small smelting plant. They had bought the sloop as a +convenient means of conveyance and shelter, as they could live in some +comfort on board; and now they could take their ease for a while, which +was a very unusual thing to both of them. + +"I suppose you're bent on sailing this craft back?" Carroll remarked at +length. "We could hire a couple of Siwash to take her home while we rode +across the island and got the train to Victoria. Besides, there's that +steamboat coming down the coast to-night." + +"Either way would cost a good deal extra." + +"That's true," Carroll agreed with an amused expression; "but you could +charge it to the company." + +Vane laughed. + +"You and I have a big stake in the concern; and I haven't got used to +spending money unnecessarily yet, I've been mighty glad to earn a couple +dollars by working from sunup until dark, though I didn't always get it +afterward. So have you." + +"How are you going to dispose of your money, then? You have a nice little +balance in cash, besides the shares." + +"It has occurred to me that I might spend a few months in the Old +Country. Have you ever been over there?" + +"I was across some time ago; but, if you like, I'll go along with you. We +could start as soon as we've arranged the few matters left open in +Vancouver." + +Vane was glad to hear it. He knew little about Carroll's antecedents, but +his companion was obviously a man of education, and they had been staunch +comrades for the last three years. They had plodded through leagues of +rain-swept bush, had forded icy rivers, had slept in wet fern and +sometimes slushy snow, and had toiled together with pick and drill. +During that time they had learned to know and trust each other and to +bear with each other's idiosyncrasies. + +Filling his pipe again as he lay in the fading sunlight, Vane looked back +on the nine years he had passed in Canada, and, allowing for the periods +of exposure to cold and wet and the almost ceaseless toil, he admitted +that he might have spent them more unpleasantly. He had a stout heart and +a muscular body, and the physical hardships had not troubled him. What +was more, he had a quick, almost instinctive, judgment and the faculty +for seizing an opportunity. + +Having quarreled with his relatives and declined any favors from them, he +had come to Canada with only a few pounds and had promptly set about +earning a living with his hands. When he had been in the country several +years, a friend of the family had, however, sent him a small sum, and the +young man had made judicious use of the money. The lot he bought outside +a wooden town doubled in value, and the share he took in a new orchard +paid him well; but he had held aloof from the cities, and his only +recklessness had been his prospecting journeys into the wilderness. +Prospecting for minerals is at once an art and a gamble. Skill, acquired +by long experience or instinctive--and there are men who seem to possess +the latter--counts for much, but chance plays a leading part. Provisions, +tents and packhorses are expensive, and though a placer mine may be +worked by two partners, a reef or lode can be disposed of only to men +with means sufficient to develop it. Even in this delicate matter, in +which he had had keen wits against him, Vane had held his own; but there +was one side of life with which he was practically unacquainted. + +There are no social amenities on the rangeside or in the bush, where +women are scarce. Vane had lived in Spartan simplicity, practising the +ascetic virtues, as a matter of course. He had had no time for sentiment, +his passions had remained unstirred; and now he was seven and twenty, +sound and vigorous of body, and, as a rule, level of head. At length, +however, there was to be a change. He had earned an interlude of +leisure, and he meant to enjoy it without, so he prudently determined, +making a fool of himself. + +Presently Carroll took his pipe from his mouth. + +"Are you going ashore again to the show to-night?" + +"Yes," Vane answered. "It's a long while since I've struck an +entertainment of any kind, and that yellow-haired mite's dancing is one +of the prettiest things I've seen." + +"You've been twice already," Carroll hinted. "The girl with the blue eyes +sings her first song rather well." + +"I think so," Vane agreed with a significant absence of embarrassment. +"In this case a good deal depends on the singing--the interpretation, +isn't it? The thing's on the border, and I've struck places where they'd +have made it gross; but the girl only brought out the mischief. Strikes +me she didn't see there was anything else in it" + +"That's curious, considering the crowd she goes about with. Aren't you +cultivating a critical faculty?" + +Vane disregarded the ironical question. + +"She's Irish; that accounts for a good deal." + +He paused and looked thoughtful. + +"If I knew how to do it, I'd like to give five or ten dollars to the +child who dances. It must be a tough life, and her mother--the woman +at the piano--looks ill. I wonder whatever brought them to a place +like this?" + +"Struck a cold streak at Nanaimo, the storekeeper told me. Anyway, since +we're to start at sunup, I'm staying here." Then he smiled. "Has it +struck you that your attendance in the front seats is liable to +misconception?" + +Vane rose without answering and dropped into the canoe. Thrusting her +off, he drove the light craft toward the wharf with vigorous strokes of +the paddle, and Carroll shook his head whimsically as he watched him. + +"Anybody except myself would conclude that he's waking up at last," he +commented. + +A minute or two later Vane swung himself up onto the wharf and strode +into the wooden settlement. There were one or two hydraulic mines and a +pulp mill in the vicinity, and, though the place was by no means +populous, a company of third-rate entertainers had arrived there a few +days earlier. On reaching the rude wooden building in which they had +given their performance and finding it closed, he accosted a lounger. + +"What's become of the show?" he asked. + +"Busted. Didn't take the boys' fancy. The crowd went out with the stage +this afternoon; though I heard that two of the women stayed behind. +Somebody said the hotel-keeper had trouble about his bill." + +Vane turned away with a slight sense of compassion. More than once during +his first year or two in Canada he had limped footsore and weary into a +wooden town where nobody seemed willing to employ him. An experience of +the kind was unpleasant to a vigorous man, but he reflected that it must +be much more so in the case of a woman, who probably had nothing to fall +back upon. However, he dismissed the matter from his mind. Having been +kneeling in a cramped position in the canoe most of the day, he decided +to stroll along the waterside before going back to the sloop. + +Great firs stretched out their somber branches over the smooth shingle, +and now that the sun had gone their clean resinous smell was heavy in the +dew-cooled air. Here and there brushwood grew among outcropping rock and +moss-grown logs lay fallen among the brambles. + +Catching sight of what looked like a strip of woven fabric beneath a +brake, Vane strode toward it. Then he stopped with a start, for a young +girl lay with her face hidden from him, in an attitude of dejected +abandonment. He was about to turn away softly, when she started and +looked up at him. Her long dark lashes glistened and her eyes were wet, +but they were of the deep blue he had described to Carroll, and he +stood still. + +"You really shouldn't give way like that," he said. + +It was all he could think of, but he spoke without obtrusive assurance or +pronounced embarrassment; and the girl, shaking out her crumpled skirt +over one little foot, with a swift sinuous movement, choked back a sob +and favored him with a glance of keen scrutiny as she rose to a sitting +posture. She was quick at reading character--the life she led had made +that necessary--and his manner and appearance were reassuring. He was on +the whole a well-favored man--good-looking seemed the best word for +it--though what impressed her most was his expression. It indicated that +he regarded her with some pity, not as an attractive young woman, which +she knew she was, but merely as a human being. The girl, however, said +nothing; and, sitting down on a neighboring boulder, Vane took out his +pipe from force of habit. + +"Well," he added, in much the same tone he would have used to a +distressed child, "what's the trouble?" + +She told him, speaking on impulse. + +"They've gone off and left me! The takings didn't meet expenses; there +was no treasury." + +"That's bad," responded Vane gravely. "Do you mean they've left +you alone?" + +"No; it's worse than that. I suppose I could go--somewhere--but there's +Mrs. Marvin and Elsie." + +"The child who dances?" + +The girl assented, and Vane looked thoughtful. He had already noticed +that Mrs. Marvin, whom he supposed to be the child's mother, was worn and +frail, and he did not think there was anything she could turn her hand to +in a vigorous mining community. The same applied to his companion, though +he was not greatly astonished that she had taken him into her confidence. +The reserve that characterizes the insular English is less common in the +West, where the stranger is more readily taken on trust. + +"The three of you stick together?" he suggested. + +"Of course! Mrs. Marvin's the only friend I have." + +"Then I suppose you've no idea what to do?" + +"No," she confessed, and then explained, not very clearly, that it was +the cause of her distress and that they had had bad luck of late. Vane +could understand that as he looked at her. Her dress was shabby, and he +fancied that she had not been bountifully fed. + +"If you stayed here a few days you could go out with the next stage and +take the train to Victoria." He paused and continued diffidently: "It +could be arranged with the hotel-keeper." + +She laughed in a half-hysterical manner, and he remembered what she had +said about the treasury, and that fares are high in that country. + +"I suppose you have no money," he added with blunt directness. "I want +you to tell Mrs. Marvin that I'll lend her enough to take you all to +Victoria." + +Her face crimsoned. He had not quite expected that, and he suddenly felt +embarrassed. It was a relief when she broke the brief silence. + +"No," she replied; "I can't do that. For one thing, it would be too late +when we got to Victoria, I think we could get an engagement if we reached +Vancouver in time to get to Kamloops by--" + +Vane knit his brows when he heard the date, and it was a moment or two +before he spoke. + +"There's only one way you can do it. There's a little steamboat coming +down the coast to-night. I had half thought of intercepting her, anyway, +and handing the skipper some letters to post in Victoria. He knows +me--I'm likely to have dealings with his employers. That's my sloop +yonder, and if I put you on board the steamer, you'd reach Vancouver in +good time. We should have sailed at sunup, anyhow." + +The girl hesitated and turned partly from him. He surmised that she did +not know what to make of his offer, though her need was urgent. In the +meanwhile he stood up. + +"Come along and talk it over with Mrs. Marvin," he urged. "I'd better +tell you that I'm Wallace Vane, of the Clermont Mine. Of course, I know +your name, from the program." + +She rose and they walked back to the hotel. Once more it struck him that +the girl was pretty and graceful, though he had already deduced from +several things that she had not been regularly trained as a singer nor +well educated. On reaching the hotel, he sat down on the veranda while +she went in, and a few minutes later Mrs. Marvin came out and looked at +him much as the girl had done. He grew hot under her gaze and repeated +his offer in the curtest terms. + +"If this breeze holds, we'll put you on board the steamer soon after +daybreak," he explained. + +The woman's face softened, and he recognized now that there had been +strong suspicion in it. + +"Thank you," she said simply; "we'll come." + +There was a moment's silence and then she added with an eloquent gesture: + +"You don't know what it means to us!" + +Vane merely took off his hat and turned away; but a minute or two later +he met the hotel-keeper. + +"Do these people owe you anything?" he asked. + +"Five dollars; they paid up part of the time. I was wondering what to do +with them. Guess they've no money. They didn't come in to supper, though +we would have stood them that. Made me think they were straight folks; +the other kind wouldn't have been bashful." + +Vane handed him a bill. + +"Take it out of this, and make any excuse you like. I'm going to put them +on board the steamboat." + +The man made no comment, and Vane, striding down to the beach, sent a +hail ringing across the water. Carroll appeared on the sloop's deck and +answered him. + +"Hallo!" he cried. "What's the trouble?" + +"Get ready the best supper you can manage, for three people, as quick +as you can!" + +"Supper for three people!" + +Vane caught the astonished exclamation and came near losing his temper. + +"For three people!" he shouted. "Don't ask any fool questions! You'll see +later on!" + +Then he turned away in a hurry, wondering somewhat uneasily what Carroll +would say when he grasped the situation. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A BREEZE OF WIND + + +There were signs of a change in the weather when Vane walked down to the +wharf with his passengers, for a cold wind which had sprung up struck an +eerie sighing from the somber firs and sent the white mists streaming +along the hillside. There was a watery moon in the sky, and when they +reached the water's edge Vane fancied that the singer hesitated; but Mrs. +Marvin laid her hand on the girl's arm reassuringly, and she got into the +canoe. A few minutes later Vane ran the craft alongside the sloop and saw +the amazement in Carroll's face by the glow from the cabin skylight. He +fancied, however, that his comrade would rise to the occasion, and he +helped his guests up. + +"My partner, Carroll. Mrs. Marvin and her daughter; Miss Kitty +Blake. You have seen them already. They're coming down with us to +catch the steamer." + +Carroll bowed, and Vane thrust back the cabin slide and motioned the +others below. The place was brightly lighted by a nickeled lamp, though +it was scarcely four feet high and the centerboard trunk occupied the +middle of it. A wide cushioned locker ran along either side a foot above +the floor, and a swing-table, fixed above the trunk, filled up most of +the space between. There was no cloth on the table, but it was +invitingly laid out with canned fruit, coffee, hot flapjacks and a big +lake trout, for in the western bush most men can cook. + +"You must help yourselves while we get sail upon the boat," said Vane +cheerily. "The saloon's at your disposal--my partner and I have the +forecastle. You will notice that there are blankets yonder, and as we'll +have smooth water most of the way you should get some sleep. Perhaps +you'd better keep the stove burning; and if you should like some coffee +in the early morning you'll find it in the top locker." + +He withdrew, closing the slide, and went forward with Carroll to shorten +in the cable; but when they stopped beside the bitts his companion broke +into a laugh. + +"Is there anything amusing you?" Vane asked curtly. + +"Well," drawled Carroll, "this country, of course, isn't England; but, +for all that, it's desirable that a man who expects to make his mark in +it should exercise a certain amount of caution. It strikes me that you're +making a rather unconventional use of your new prosperity, and it might +be prudent to consider how some of your friends in Vancouver may regard +the adventure." + +Vane sat down upon the bitts and took out his pipe. + +"One trouble in talking to you is that I never know whether you're in +earnest or not. You trot out your cold-blooded worldly wisdom--I suppose +it is wisdom--and then you grin at it." + +"It seems to me that's the only philosophic attitude," Carroll replied. +"It's possible to grow furiously indignant with the restraints +stereotyped people lay on one, but on the whole it's wiser to bow to them +and chuckle. After all, they've some foundation." + +Vane looked up at him sharply. + +"You've been right in the advice you have given me more than once. You +seem to know how prosperous, and what you call stereotyped, people look +at things. But you've never explained where you acquired the knowledge." + +"Oh, that's quite another matter," laughed Carroll. + +"Anyway, there's one remark of yours I'd like to answer. You would, no +doubt, consider that I made a legitimate use of my money when I +entertained that crowd of city people--some of whom would have plundered +me if they could have managed it--in Vancouver. I didn't grudge it, of +course, but I was a little astonished when I saw the wine and cigar bill. +It struck me that the best of them scarcely noticed what they got--I +think they'd been up against it at one time, as we have; and it would +have done the rest of the guzzlers good if they'd had to work with the +shovel all day on pork and flapjacks. But we'll let that go. What have +you and I done that we should swill in champagne, while a girl with a +face like that one below and a child who dances like a fairy haven't +enough to eat? You know what I paid for the last cigars. What confounded +hogs we are!" + +Carroll laughed outright. There was not an ounce of superfluous flesh +upon his comrade, who was hardened and toughened by determined labor. +With rare exceptions, which included the occasions when he had +entertained or had been entertained in Vancouver, his greatest indulgence +had been a draught of strong green tea from a blackened pannikin, though +he had at times drunk nothing but river water. The term hog appeared +singularly inappropriate as applied to him. + +"Well," replied Carroll, "you'll no doubt get used to the new conditions +by and by; and in regard to your latest exploit, there's a motto on your +insignia of the Garter which might meet the case. But hadn't we better +heave her over her anchor?" + +They seized the chain, and a sharp, musical rattle rang out as it ran +below, for the hollow hull flung back the metallic clinking like a +sounding-board. When the cable was short-up, they grasped the halyards +and the big gaff-mainsail rose flapping up the mast. They set it and +turned to the head-sails, for though, strictly speaking, a sloop carries +only one, the term is loosely applied in places, and as Vane had changed +her rig, there were two of them to be hoisted. + +"It's a fair wind, and I dare say we'll find more weight in it lower +down," commented Carroll. "We'll let the staysail lie and run her +with the jib." + +When they set the jib and broke out the anchor, Vane took the helm, and +the sloop, slanting over until her deck on one side dipped close to the +frothing brine, drove away into the darkness. The lights of the +settlement faded among the trees, and the black hills and the climbing +firs on either side slipped by, streaked by sliding vapors. A crisp, +splashing sound made by the curling ripples followed the vessel; the +canoe surged along noisily astern; and the frothing and gurgling grew +louder at the bows. They were running down one of the deep, +forest-shrouded inlets which, resembling the Norwegian fiords, pierce the +Pacific littoral of Canada; though there are no Scandinavian pines to +compare with the tremendous conifers which fill all the valleys and climb +high to the snow-line in that wild and rugged land. + +There was no sound from the cabin, and Vane decided that his guests had +gone to sleep. The sloop was driving along steadily, with neither lift +nor roll, but when, increasing her speed, she piled the foam up on her +lee side and the canoe rode on a great white wave, he glanced toward his +companion. + +"I wonder how the wind is outside?" he questioned. + +Carroll looked around and saw the white mists stream athwart the pines on +a promontory they were skirting. + +"That's more than I can tell. In these troughs among the hills, it either +blows straight up or directly down, and I dare say we'll find it +different when we reach the sound. One thing's certain--there's some +weight in it now." + +Vane nodded agreement, though an idea that troubled him crept into his +mind. + +"I understand that the steamboat skipper will run in to land some Siwash +he's bringing down. It will be awkward in the dark if the wind's +on-shore." + +Carroll made no comment, and they drove on. As they swept around the +point, the sloop, slanting sharply, dipped her lee rail in the froth. +Ahead of them the inlet was flecked with white, and the wail of the +swaying firs came off from the shadowy beach and mingled with the +gurgling of the water. + +"We'll have to tie down a reef and get the canoe on board," +suggested Carroll. + +"Here, take the tiller a minute!" + +Scrambling forward Vane rapped on the cabin slide and then flung it back. +Mrs. Marvin lay upon the leeward locker with a blanket thrown over her +and with the little girl at her feet; Miss Blake sat on the weather side +with a book in her hand. + +"We're going to take some sail off the boat," he explained. "You needn't +be disturbed by the noise." + +"When do you expect to meet the steamer?" Miss Blake inquired. + +"Not for two or three hours, anyway." + +Vane fancied that the girl noticed the hint of uncertainty in his voice, +and he banged the slide to as he disappeared. + +"Down helm!" he shouted to Carroll. + +There was a banging and thrashing of canvas as the sloop came up into the +wind. They held her there with the jib aback while they hauled the canoe +on board, which was not an easy task; and then with difficulty they hove +down a reef in the mainsail. It was heavy work, because there was nobody +at the helm; and the craft, falling off once or twice while they leaned +out upon the boom with toes on her depressed lee rail, threatened to hurl +them into the frothing water. Neither of them was a trained sailor; but +on that coast, with its inlets and sounds and rivers, the wanderer learns +readily to handle sail and paddle and canoe-pole. + +They finished their task; and when Vane seized the helm Carroll sat down +under the shelter of the coaming, out of the flying spray. + +"We'll probably have some trouble putting your friends on board the +steamer, even if she runs in," he remarked. "What are you going to do if +there's no sign of her?" + +"It's a question I've been shirking for the last half-hour," Vane +confessed. + +"It would be very slow work beating back up this inlet; and even if we +did so there isn't a stage across the island for several days. No doubt, +you remember that you have to see that contractor on Thursday; and +there's the directors' meeting, too." + +"It's uncommonly awkward," Vane answered dubiously. + +Carroll laughed. + +"It strikes me that your guests will have to stay where they are, whether +they like it or not; but there's one consolation--if this wind is from +the northwest, which is most likely, it will be a fast run to Victoria. +Guess I'll try to get some sleep." + +He disappeared down a scuttle forward, leaving Vane somewhat disturbed in +mind. He had contemplated taking his guests for merely a few hours' run, +but to have them on board for, perhaps, several days was a very different +thing. Besides, he was far from sure that they would understand the +necessity for keeping them, and in that case the situation might become +difficult. In the meanwhile, the sloop drove on, until at last, toward +morning, the beach fell back on either hand and she met the long swell +tumbling in from the Pacific. The wind was from the northwest and blowing +moderately hard; there was no light as yet in the sky above the black +heights to the east; and the onrushing swell grew higher and steeper, +breaking white here and there. The sloop plunged over it wildly, hurling +the spray aloft; and it cost Vane a determined effort to haul in his +sheets as the wind drew ahead. Shortly afterward, the beach faded +altogether on one hand, and the sea piled up madly into foaming ridges. +It seemed most improbable that the steamer would run in to land her +Indian passengers, but Vane drove the sloop on, with showers of stinging +brine beating into her wet canvas and whirling about him. + +As the Pacific opened up, he found it necessary to watch the seas that +came charging down upon her. They were long and high, and most of them +were ridged with seething foam. With a quick pull on the tiller, he edged +her over them, and a cascade swept her forward as she plunged across +their crests. Though there were driving clouds above him, it was not very +dark and he could see for some distance. The long ranks of tumbling +combers did not look encouraging, and when the plunges grew sharper and +the brine began to splash across the coaming that protected the well he +wished that they had hauled down a second reef. He could not shorten sail +unassisted, however; nor could he leave the helm to summon Carroll, who +was evidently sleeping soundly in the forecastle, without rousing his +passengers, which he did not desire to do. + +A little while later he noticed that a stream of smoke was pouring from +the short funnel of the stove and soon afterward the cabin slide opened. +Miss Blake crept out and stood in the well, gazing forward while she +clutched the coaming. + +Day was now breaking, and Vane could see that the girl's thin dress was +blown flat against her. There was something graceful in her pose, and it +struck him again that her figure was daintily slender. She wore no hat, +and it was evident that the wild plunging had no effect on her. He waited +uneasily until she turned and faced him. + +"We are going out to sea," she said. "Where's the steamer?" + +It was a question Vane had dreaded; but he answered it honestly. + +"I can't tell you. It's very likely that she has gone straight on to +Victoria." + +He saw the suspicion in her suddenly hardening face, but the quick anger +in it pleased him. He had not expected her to be prudish, but it was +clear that the situation did not appeal to her. + +"You expected this when you asked us to come on board!" she cried. + +"No," Vane replied quietly; "on my honor, I did nothing of the kind. +There was only a moderate breeze when we left, and when it freshened +enough to make it unlikely that the steamer would run in, I was as vexed +as you seem to be. As it happened, I couldn't go back; I must get on to +Victoria as soon as possible." + +She looked at him searchingly, but he fancied that she was slightly +comforted. + +"Can't you put us ashore?" + +"It might be possible if I could find a sheltered beach farther on, but +it wouldn't be wise. You would find yourselves twenty or thirty miles +from the nearest settlement, and you could never walk so far through +the bush." + +"Then what are we to do?" + +There was distress in the cry, and Vane answered it in his most +matter-of-fact tone. + +"So far as I can see, you can only reconcile yourselves to staying on +board. We'll have a fresh, fair wind for Victoria, once we're round the +next head, and with moderate luck we ought to get there late to-night" + +"You're sure?" + +Vane felt sorry for her. + +"I'm afraid I can't even promise that; it depends upon the weather," +he replied. "But you mustn't stand there in the spray. You're getting +wet through." + +She still clung to the coaming, but he fancied that her misgivings were +vanishing, and he spoke again. + +"How are Mrs. Marvin and the little girl? I see you have lighted +the stove." + +The girl sat down, shivering, in the partial shelter of the coaming, and +at last a gleam of amusement, which he felt was partly compassionate, +shone in her eyes. + +"I'm afraid they're--not well. That was why I kept the stove burning; I +wanted to make them some tea. There is some in the locker--I thought you +wouldn't mind." + +"Everything's at your service, as I told you. You must make the best +breakfast you can. The nicest things are at the back of the locker." + +She stood up, looking around again. The light was growing, and the +crests of the combers gleamed a livid white. Their steep breasts were +losing their grayness and changing to dusky blue and slatey green, but +their blurred coloring was atoned for by their grandeur of form. They +came on, ridge on ridge, in regularly ordered, tumbling phalanxes. + +"It's glorious!" she exclaimed, to his astonishment. "Aren't you carrying +a good deal of sail?" + +"We'll ease the peak down when we bring the wind farther aft. In the +meanwhile, you'd better get your breakfast, and if you come out again, +put on one of the coats you'll find below." + +She disappeared, and Vane felt relieved. Though the explanation had +proved less difficult than he had anticipated, he was glad that it was +over, and the way in which she had changed the subject implied that she +was satisfied with it. Half an hour later, she appeared again, carrying a +loaded tray, and he wondered at the ease of her movements, for the sloop +was plunging viciously. + +"I've brought you some breakfast. You have been up all night." + +Vane laughed. + +"As I can take only one hand from the helm, you will have to cut up the +bread and canned stuff for me. Draw out that box and sit down beneath the +coaming, if you mean to stay." + +She did as he told her. The well was about four feet long, and the bottom +of it about half that distance below the level of the deck. As a result +of this, she sat close at his feet, while he balanced himself on the +coaming, gripping the tiller. He noticed that she had brought out an +oilskin jacket with her. + +"Hadn't you better put this on first? There's a good deal of +spray," she said. + +Vane struggled into the jacket with some difficulty, and she smiled as +she handed him up a slice of bread and canned meat. + +"I suppose you can manage only one piece at a time," she laughed. + +"Thank you. That's about as much as you could expect one to be capable +of, even allowing for the bushman's appetite. I'm a little surprised to +see you looking so fresh." + +"Oh, I used to go out with the mackerel boats at home--we lived at the +ferry. It was a mile across the lough, and with the wind westerly the sea +worked in." + +"The lough? I told Carroll that you were from the Green Isle." + +It struck him that this was, perhaps, imprudent, as it implied that they +had been discussing her; but, on the other hand, he fancied that the +candor of the statement was in his favor. + +"Have you been long out here?" he added. + +The girl's face grew wistful. + +"Four years. I came out with Larry--he's my brother. He was a forester at +home, and he took small contracts for clearing land. Then he married--and +_I_ left him." + +Vane made a sign of comprehension. + +"I see. Where's Larry now?" + +"He went to Oregon. There was no answer to my last letter; I've lost +sight of him." + +"And you go about with Mrs. Marvin? Is her husband living?" + +Sudden anger flared up in the girl's blue eyes, though he knew that it +was not directed against him. + +"Yes! It's a pity he is! Men of his kind always seem to live!" + +It occurred to Vane that Miss Blake, who evidently had a spice of temper, +could be a staunch partizan, and he also noticed that now that he had +inspired her with some degree of trust in himself her conversation was +marked by an ingenuous candor. + +"Another piece, or some tea?" she asked. + +"Tea first, please." + +They both laughed when she handed him a second slice of bread. + +"These sandwiches strike me as unusually nice," he informed her. "It's +exceptionally good tea, too. I don't remember ever getting anything to +equal them at a hotel." + +The blue eyes gleamed with amusement. + +"You have been in the cold all night--but I was once in a restaurant." +She watched the effect of this statement on him. "You know I really can't +sing--I was never taught, anyway--though there were some of the +settlements where we did rather well." + +Vane hummed a few bars of a song. + +"I don't suppose you realize what one ballad of yours has done. I'd +almost forgotten the Old Country, but the night I heard you I felt I must +go back and see it again. What's more, Carroll and I are going +shortly--it's your doing." + +This was a matter of fact; but Kitty Blake had produced a deeper effect +on him, although he was not yet aware of it. + +"It's a shame to keep you handing me things to eat," he added +disconnectedly. "Still, I'd like another piece." + +She smiled delightfully as she passed the food to him. + +"You can't help yourself and steer the boat. Besides--after the +restaurant--I don't mind waiting on you." + +Vane made no comment, but he watched her with satisfaction while he ate. +There was no sign of the others; they were alone on the waste of tumbling +water in the early dawn. The girl was pretty, and there was a pleasing +daintiness about her. What was more, she was a guest of his, dependent +for her safety upon his skill with the tiller. So far as he could +remember, it was a year or two since he had breakfasted in a woman's +company; it was certain that no woman had waited on him so prettily. Then +as he remembered many a lonely camp in the dark pine forest or high on +the bare rangeside, it occurred to him for the first time that he had +missed a good deal of what life had to offer. He wondered what it would +have been like if when he had dragged himself back to his tent at night, +worn with heavy toil, as he had often done, there had been somebody with +blue eyes and a delightful smile to welcome him. + +Kitty Blake belonged to the people--there was no doubt of that; but then +he had a strong faith in the people, native-born and adopted, of the +Pacific Slope. It was from them that he had received the greatest +kindnesses he could remember. They were cheerful optimists; indomitable +grapplers with forest and flood, who did almost incredible things with ax +and saw and giant-powder. They lived in lonely ranch houses, tents and +rudely flung-up shacks; driving the new roads along the rangeside or +risking life and limb in wild-cat adits. They were quick to laughter, and +reckless in hospitality. + +Then with an effort he brushed the hazy thoughts away. Kitty Blake was +merely a guest of his; in another day he would land her in Victoria, and +that would be the end of it. He was assuring himself of this when Carroll +crawled up through the scuttle forward and came aft to join them. In +spite of his prudent reflections, Vane was by no means certain that he +was pleased to see him. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +AN AFTERNOON ASHORE + + +Half the day had slipped by. The breeze freshened further and the sun +broke through. The sloop was then rolling wildly as she drove along with +the peak of her mainsail lowered down before a big following sea. The +combers came up behind her, foaming and glistening blue and green, with +seamy white streaks on their hollow breasts, and broke about her with a +roar. Then they surged ahead while she sank down into the hollow with +sluicing deck and tilted stern. Vane's face was intent as he gripped the +helm; three or four miles away a head ran out from the beach he was +following, and he would have to haul the boat up to windward to get +around it. This would bring the combers upon her quarter, or, worse +still, abeam. Kitty Blake was below; and Mrs. Marvin had made no +appearance yet. Vane looked at Carroll, who was standing in the well. + +"The sea's breaking more sharply, and we'd get uncommonly wet before we +hammered round yonder head. There's an inlet on this side of it where we +ought to find good shelter." + +"The trouble is that if you stay there long you'll be too late for the +directors' meeting. Besides, I'm under the impression that I've seen you +run an open sea-canoe before as hard a breeze as this." + +"They can't have the meeting without me, and if it's necessary they can +wait," Vane answered impatiently. "I've had to. Many an hour I've spent +cooling my heels in corridors and outer offices before the head of the +concern could find time to attend to me. No doubt it was part of the +game, done to impress me with a due sense of my unimportance." + +"It's possible," Carroll laughed. + +"Besides, you can drive one of those big Siwash craft as hard as you can +this sloop; that is, so long as you keep the sea astern of her." + +"Yes; I dare say you can. After all, you hadn't any passengers on +the occasion I was referring to. I suppose you feel you have to +consider them?" + +Vane colored slightly. + +"Naturally, I'd prefer not to land Mrs. Marvin and the child in a +helpless condition; and I understand they're feeling the motion +pretty badly." + +Kitty Blake made her appearance in the cabin entrance, and Vane +smiled at her. + +"We're going to give you a rest," he announced. "There's an inlet close +ahead where we should find smooth water, and we'll put you all ashore for +a few hours until the wind drops." + +There was no suspicion in the girl's face now. She gave him a grateful +glance before she disappeared below with the consoling news. + +A quarter of an hour later Vane closed with the beach, and a break in the +hillside, which was dotted with wind-stunted pines, opened up. While the +two men struggled with the mainsheet, the big boom and the sail above it +lurched madly over. The sloop rolled down until half her deck on one side +was in the sea, but she hove herself up again and shot forward, wet and +gleaming, into a space of smooth green water behind a head. Soon +afterward, Vane luffed into a tiny bay, where she rode upright in the +sunshine, with loose canvas flapping softly in a faint breeze while the +cable rattled down. They got the canoe over, and when they had helped +Mrs. Marvin and her little girl, both of whom looked very wobegone and +the worse for the voyage, into her, Vane glanced around. + +"Isn't Miss Blake coming?" he asked. + +"She's changing her dress," explained Mrs. Marvin, with a smile. She +glanced at her own crumpled attire as she added: "I'm past thinking of +such things as that!" + +They waited some minutes, and then Kitty appeared in the entrance to the +cabin. Vane called to her. + +"Won't you look in the locker, and bring along anything you think would +be nice? We'll make a fire and have supper on the beach--if it isn't +first-rate, you'll be responsible!" + +A few minutes later they paddled ashore, and Vane landed them on a +strip of shingle. Beyond it a wall of rock arose, with dark firs +clinging in the rifts and crannies. The sunshine streamed into the +hollow; the wind was cut off; and not far away a crystal stream came +splashing down a ravine. + +"There's a creek at the top of the inlet," Vane told them, as he and +Carroll thrust out the canoe, "and we're going to look for a trout. You +can stroll about or rest in the sun for a couple of hours, and if the +wind drops after supper we'll make a start again." + +They paddled away, with a fishing-rod and a gun in the canoe, and it +was toward six o'clock in the evening when they came back with a few +trout. Vane made a fire of resinous wood, and Carroll and Kitty +prepared a bountiful supper. When it was finished, Carroll carried the +plates away to the stream; Mrs. Marvin and the little girl followed +him; and Vane and Kitty were left beside the fire. She sat on a log of +driftwood, and he lay on the warm shingle with his pipe in his hand. +The clear green water splashed and tinkled upon the pebbles close at +his feet, and a faint, elfin sighing fell from the firs above them. It +was very old music: the song of the primeval wilderness; and though he +had heard it often, it had a strange, unsettling effect on him as he +languidly watched his companion. There was no doubt that she was +pleasant to look upon; but, although he did not clearly recognize this, +it was to a large extent an impersonal interest that he took in her. +She was not so much an attractive young woman with qualities that +pleased him as a type of something that had so far not come into his +life; something which he vaguely felt that he had missed. One could +have fancied that by some deep-sunk intuition she recognized this fact, +and felt the security of it. + +"So you believe you can get an engagement if you reach Vancouver in +time?" he asked at length. + +"Yes." + +"How long will it last?" + +"I can't tell. Perhaps a week or two. It depends upon how the boys are +pleased with the show." + +Vane frowned. He felt very compassionate toward her and toward all +friendless women compelled to wander here and there, as she was forced +to do. It seemed intolerable that she should depend for daily bread +upon the manner in which a crowd of rude miners and choppers received +her song; though there was, as he knew, a vein of primitive chivalry in +most of them. + +"Suppose it only lasts a fortnight, what will you do then?" + +"I don't know," said Kitty simply. + +"It must be a hard life," Vane broke out. "You must make very +little--scarcely enough, I suppose, to carry you on from one engagement +to another. After all, weren't you as well off at the restaurant? Didn't +they treat you properly?" + +She colored a little at the question. + +"Oh, yes. At least, I had no fault to find with the man who kept it or +with his wife." + +Vane made a hasty sign of comprehension. He supposed that the difficulty +had arisen from the conduct of one or more of the regular customers. He +felt that he would very much like to meet the man whose undesired +attentions had driven his companion from her occupation. + +"Did you never try to learn keeping accounts or typewriting?" he asked. + +"I tried it once. I could manage the figures, but the mill shut down." + +Vane made his next suggestion casually, though he was troubled by an +inward diffidence. + +"I've an idea that I could find you a post. It looks as if I'm going to +be a person of some little influence in the future, which"--he +laughed--"is a very new thing to me." + +He saw a tinge of warmer color creep into the girl's cheeks. She had, as +he had already noticed a beautifully clear skin. + +"No," she said decidedly; "it wouldn't do." + +Vane knit his brows, though he fancied that she was right. + +"Well," he replied, "I don't want to be officious--but how can I help?" + +"You can't help at all." + +Vane saw that she meant it, and he broke out with quick impatience: + +"I've spent nine years in this country, in the hardest kind of work; but +all the while I fancied that money meant power, that if I ever got +enough of it I could do what I liked! Now I find that I can't do the +first simple thing that would please me! What a cramped, hide-bound +world it is!" + +Kitty smiled in a curious manner. + +"Yes; it's a very cramped world to some of us; but complaining won't do +any good," She paused with a faint sigh. "Don't spoil this evening. You +and Mr. Carroll have been very kind. It's so quiet and calm +here--though it was pleasant on board the yacht--and soon we'll have to +go to work again." + +Vane once more was stirred by a sense of pity which almost drove him to +rash and impulsive speech; but her manner restrained him. + +"Then you must be fond of the sea," he suggested. + +"I love it! I was born beside it--where the big, green hills drop to the +head of the water and you can hear the Atlantic rumble on the rocks all +night long." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Vane; "don't you long for another sight of it now +and then?" + +The girl smiled in a way that troubled him. + +"I'm wearying for it always; and some day, perhaps, I'll win back for +another glimpse at the old place." + +"You wouldn't go to stay?" + +"That would be impossible! What would I do yonder, after this other life? +Once you leave the old land, you can never quite get back again." + +Vane lay smoking in silence for a minute or two. On another occasion he +had felt the thrill of the exile's longing that spoke through the girl's +song, and now he recognized the truth of what she said. One changed in +the West, acquiring a new outlook which diverged more and more from that +held by those at home. Only a wistful tenderness for the motherland +remained. Still, alien in thought and feeling as he had become, he was +going back there for a time; and she, as she had said, must resume her +work. A feeling of anger at his impotence to alter this came upon him. + +Then Carroll came up with Mrs. Marvin and Elsie, and he felt strongly +stirred when the little girl walked up to him shyly with a basket filled +with shells and bright fir-cones. He drew her down beside him with an arm +about her waist while he examined her treasures. Glancing up he met +Kitty's eyes and felt his face grow hot with an emotion he failed to +analyze. The little mite was frail and delicate; life, he surmised, had +scanty pleasure to offer her; but now she was happy. + +"They're so pretty, and there are such lots of them!" she exclaimed. +"Can't we stay here just a little longer and gather some more?" + +"Yes," answered Vane, conscious that Carroll, who had heard the question, +was watching him. "You shall stay and get as many as you want. I'm afraid +you don't like the sloop." + +"No; I don't like it when it jumps. After I woke up, it jumped all +the time." + +"Never mind, little girl. The boat will keep still to-night, and I don't +think there'll be any waves to roll her about to-morrow. We'll have you +ashore the first thing in the morning." + +He talked to her for a few minutes, and then strolled along the beach +with Carroll until they could look out upon the Pacific. The breeze was +falling, though the sea still ran high. + +"Why did you promise that child to stay here?" Carroll asked. + +"Because I felt like doing so." + +"I needn't remind you that you've an appointment with Horsfield about +the smelter; and there's a meeting of the board next day. If we +started now and caught the first steamer across, you wouldn't have +much time to spare." + +"That's correct. I shall have to wire from Victoria that I've been +detained." + +Carroll laughed expressively. + +"Do you mean to put off the meeting and keep your directors waiting, to +please a child?" + +"I suppose that's one reason. Anyway, I don't propose to hustle the +little girl and her mother on board the steamer while they're helpless +with seasickness." A gleam of humor crept into his eyes. "As I think I +told you, I've no great objections to letting the gentlemen you mentioned +await my pleasure." + +"But they found you the shareholders, and set the concern on its feet." + +"Just so. On the other hand, they got excellent value for their +services--and I found the mine. What's more, during the preliminary +negotiations most of them treated me very casually." + +"Well?" + +"There's going to be a difference now. I've a board of directors--one way +or another, I've had to pay for the privilege pretty dearly; but it's not +my intention that they should run the Clermont Mine." + +Carroll glanced at him with open amusement. There had been a marked +change in Vane since he had located the mine, though it was one that did +not astonish his comrade. Carroll had long suspected him of latent +capabilities, which had suddenly sprung to life. + +"You ought to see Horsfield before you meet the board," he advised him. + +"I'm not sure," Vane answered. "In fact, I'm uncertain whether I'll give +Horsfield the contract, even if we decide about the smelter. He was +offensively patronizing once upon a time and tried to bluff me. Besides, +he has already a stake in the concern. I don't want a man with too firm a +hold-up against me." + +"But if he put his money in partly with the idea of getting certain +pickings?" + +"He didn't explain his intentions; and I made no promises. He'll get his +dividends, or he can sell his stock at a premium, and that ought to +satisfy him." + +"If you submitted the whole case to a business man, he'd probably tell +you that you were going to make a hash of things." + +"That's your own idea?" + +Carroll grinned. + +"Oh, I'll reserve my opinion. It's possible you may be right. Time +will show." + +They rejoined the others, and when the white mists crept lower down from +the heights above and the chill of the dew was in the air, Vane launched +the canoe. + +"It's getting late and there's a long run in front of us to-morrow," he +informed his passengers. "The sloop will lie as still as if moored in a +pond; and you'll have her all to yourselves. Carroll and I are going to +camp ashore." + +He paddled them off to the boat. Coming back with some blankets, he cut a +few armfuls of spruce twigs in a ravine and spread them out beside the +fire. Then sitting down just clear of the scented smoke he lighted his +pipe and asked an abrupt question. + +"What do you think of Kitty Blake?" + +"She's attractive, in person and manners." + +"Anybody could see that at a glance!" + +"Well," Carroll added cautiously, "I must confess that I've taken some +interest in the girl--partly because you were obviously doing so. In a +general way, what I noticed rather surprised me. It wasn't what I +expected." + +"You smart folks are as often wrong as the rest of us. I suppose you +looked for cold-blooded assurance, tempered by what one might call +experienced coquetry?" + +"Something of the kind," Carroll agreed. "As you say, I was wrong. There +are only two ways of explaining Miss Blake, and the first's the one that +would strike most people. That is, she's acting a part, possibly with an +object; holding her natural self in check, and doing it cleverly." + +Vane laughed scornfully. + +"I've lived in the woods for nine years, but I wouldn't have entertained +that idea for five seconds!" + +"Then, there's the other explanation. It's simply that the girl's life +hasn't affected her. Somehow, she has kept fresh and wholesome. I think +that's the correct view." + +"There's no doubt of it!" declared Vane. + +"You offered to help her in some way?" + +"I did; I don't know how you guessed it. I said I'd find her a situation. +She wouldn't hear of it." + +"She was wise. Vancouver isn't a very big place yet, and the girl has +more sense than you have. What did you say?" + +"I'm afraid I lost my temper because there was nothing I could do." + +Carroll grinned. + +"There are limitations--even to the power of the dollar. You'll probably +run up against more of them later on." + +"I suppose so," yawned Vane. "Well, I'm going to sleep." + +He rolled himself up in his blanket and lay down among the soft spruce +twigs, but Carroll sat still in the darkness and smoked out his pipe. +Then he glanced at his comrade, who lay still, breathing evenly. + +"No doubt you'd be considered fortunate," he said, apostrophizing him +half aloud. "You've had power and responsibility thrust upon you. What +will you make of it?" + +Then he, too, lay down, and only the soft splash of the tiny ripples +broke the silence while the fire sank lower. + +They sailed the next morning, and when they arrived in Victoria the boat +which crossed the straits had gone, but the breeze was fair from the +westward, and, after despatching a telegram, Vane sailed again. The sloop +made a quick passage, and most of the time her passengers lounged in the +sunshine on her gently slanted deck. It was evening when they ran through +the Narrows into Vancouver's land-locked harbor and saw the roofs of the +city rise tier on tier from the water-front. Somber forest crept down to +the skirts of it, and across the glistening water black hills ran up into +the evening sky, with the blink of towering snow to the north of them. + +Half an hour later Vane landed his passengers, and it was not until he +had left them that they discovered he had thrust a roll of paper currency +into the little girl's hand. Then he and Carroll set off for the C.P.R. +hotel, although they were not accustomed to a hostelry of that sort. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A CHANGE OF ENVIRONMENT + + +On the evening after his arrival in Vancouver, Vane paid a visit to one +of his directors; and, in accordance with the invitation, he and Carroll +reached the latter's dwelling some little time before the arrival of +several other guests, whose acquaintance it was considered advisable he +should make. In the business parts of most western cities iron and stone +have now replaced the native lumber, but on their outskirts wood is still +employed with admirable effect as a building material, and Nairn's house +was an example of the judicious use of the latter. It stood on a rise +above the inlet; picturesque in outline, with its artistic scroll-work, +Its wooden pillars, its lattice shutters and its balustraded verandas. +Virgin forest crept up close about it, and there was no fence to the +sweep of garden which divided it from the road. + +Vane and his companion were ushered into a small room, with an uncovered +floor and simple, hardwood furniture. It was obviously a working room, +for, as a rule, the work of the western business man goes on continuously +except when he is asleep; but a somewhat portly lady with a good-humored +face reclined in a rocking chair. A gaunt, elderly man of rugged +appearance rose from his seat at a writing-table as his guests entered. + +"So ye have come at last," he said. "I had ye shown in here, because this +room is mine, and I can smoke when I like. The rest of the house is Mrs. +Nairn's, and it seems that her friends do not appreciate the smell of my +cigars. I'm no sure that I can blame them." + +Mrs. Nairn smiled placidly. + +"Alic," she explained, "leaves them lying everywhere, and I do not +like the stubs of them on the stairs. But sit ye down and he will +give ye one." + +Vane felt at home with both of them. He had met people of their kind +before, and, allowing for certain idiosyncrasies, considered them the +salt of the Dominion. Nairn had done good service to his adopted country, +developing her industries--with some profit to himself, for he was of +Scottish extraction; but, while close at a bargain, he could be generous +afterward. In the beginning, he had fought sternly for his own hand, and +it was supposed that Mrs. Nairn had helped him, not only by sound advice, +but by such practical economies as the making of his working clothes. +Those he wore on the evening in question did not fit him well, though +they were no longer the work of her capable fingers. When his guests were +seated he laid two cigar boxes on the table. + +"Those," he said, pointing to one of them, "are mine. I think ye had +better try the others; they're for visitors." + +Vane had already noticed the aroma of the cigar that was smoldering on a +tray and he decided that Nairn was right; so he dipped his hand into the +second box, which he passed to Carroll. + +"Now," declared Nairn, "we can talk comfortably. Clara will listen. +Afterwards, it's possible she will favor me with her opinion." + +Mrs. Nairn smiled at them encouragingly, and her husband proceeded. + +"One or two of my colleagues were no pleased at ye for putting off +the meeting." + +"The sloop was small, and it was blowing rather hard," Vane explained. + +"Maybe. For all that, the tone of your message was no altogether what one +would call conciliatory. It informed us that ye would arrange for the +postponed meeting at your earliest convenience. Ye did not mention ours." + +"I pointed that out to him, and he said it didn't matter," Carroll +interrupted with a laugh. + +Nairn spread out his hands in expostulation, but there was dry +appreciation in his eyes. + +"Young blood must have its way." He paused and looked thoughtful. "Ye +will no have said anything definite to Horsfield yet about the smelter?" + +"No. So far, I'm not sure that it would pay us to put up the plant; and +the other man's terms are lower." + +"Maybe," Nairn answered, and he made the single word very expressive. "Ye +have had the handling of the thing; but henceforward it will be necessary +to get the sanction of the board. However, ye will meet Horsfield +to-night. We expect him and his sister." + +Vane thought he had been favored with a hint, but he fancied also that +his host was not inimical and was merely reserving his judgment with +Caledonian caution. Nairn changed the subject. + +"So ye're going to England for a holiday. Ye will have friends who'll be +glad to see ye yonder?" + +"I've one sister, but no other near relatives. But I expect to spend some +time with people you know. The Chisholms are old family friends, and, as +you will remember, it was through them that I first approached you." + +Then, obeying one of the impulses which occasionally swayed him, he +turned to Mrs. Nairn. + +"I'm grateful to them for sending me the letter of introduction to your +husband, because in many ways I'm in his debt. He didn't treat me as the +others did when I first went round this city with a few mineral +specimens." + +He had expected nothing when he spoke, but there was a responsive look in +the lady's face which hinted that he had made a friend. As a matter of +fact, he owed a good deal to his host. There is a vein of human kindness +in the Scot, and he is often endowed with a keen, half-instinctive +judgment of his fellows which renders him less likely to be impressed by +outward appearances and the accidental advantages of polished speech or +tasteful dress than his southern neighbors. Vane would have had even more +trouble in floating his company had not Nairn been satisfied with him. + +"So ye are meaning to stay with Chisholm!" the latter exclaimed. "We +had Evelyn here two years ago, and Clara said something about her +coming out again." + +"It's nine years since I saw Evelyn." + +"Then there's a surprise in store for ye. I believe they've a bonny +place--and there's no doubt Chisholm will make ye welcome." + +The slight pause was expressive. It implied that Nairn, who had a +somewhat biting humor, could furnish a reason for Chisholm's hospitality +if he desired, and Vane was confirmed in this supposition when he saw the +warning look which his hostess cast at her husband. + +"It's likely that we'll have Evelyn again in the fall," she said hastily. +"It's a very small world, Mr. Vane." + +"It's a far cry from Vancouver to England," Vane replied. "How did you +first come to know Chisholm?" + +Nairn answered him. + +"Our acquaintance began with business. A concern that he was chairman of +had invested in British Columbian mining stock; and he's some kind of +connection of Colquhoun's." + +Colquhoun was a man of some importance, who held a Crown appointment, and +Vane felt inclined to wonder why Chisholm had not sent him a letter to +him. Afterward, he guessed at the reason, which was not flattering to +himself or his host. Nairn and he chatted a while on business topics, +until there was a sound of voices below, and going down in company with +Mrs. Nairn they found two or three new arrivals in the entrance hall. +More came in; and when they sat down to supper, Vane was given a place +beside a young lady whom he had already met. + +Jessy Horsfield was about his own age; tall and slight in figure, with +regular features, a rather colorless face, and eyes of a cold, light +blue. There was, however, something striking in her appearance, and Vane +was gratified by her graciousness to him. Her brother sat almost opposite +them: a tall, spare man, with a somewhat expressionless countenance, +except for the aggressive hardness in his eyes. Vane had noticed this +look, and it had aroused his dislike, but he had not observed it in the +eyes of Miss Horsfield, though it was present now and then. Nor did he +realize that while she chatted she was unobtrusively studying him. She +had not favored him with much notice when she was in his company on a +previous occasion; he had been a man of no importance then. + +He was now dressed in ordinary attire, and the well-cut garments +displayed his lean, athletic figure. His face, Miss Horsfield decided, +was a good one: not exactly handsome, but attractive in its frankness; +and she liked the way he had of looking steadily at the person he +addressed. Though he had been, as she knew, a wandering chopper, a survey +packer, and, for a time, an unsuccessful prospector, there was no +coarsening stamp of toil on him. Indeed, the latter is not common in the +West, where as yet the division of employments is not practised to the +extent it is in older countries. Specialization has its advantages; but +it brands a man's profession upon him and renders it difficult for him to +change it. Except for the clear bronze of his skin, Vane might just have +left a Government office, or have come out from London or Montreal. He +was, moreover, a man whose acquaintance might be worth cultivating. + +"I suppose you are glad you have finished your work in the bush," she +remarked presently. "It must be nice to get back to civilization." + +Vane smiled as he glanced round the room. It ran right across the house, +and through the open windows came the clank of a locomotive bell down by +the wharf and the rattle of a steamer's winch. The sounds appealed to +him. They suggested organized activity, the stir of busy life; and it was +pleasant to hear them after the silence of the bush. The gleam of snowy +linen, dainty glass and silver caught his eye; and the hum of careless +voices and the light laughter were soothing. + +"Yes; it's remarkably nice after living for nine years in the wilderness, +with only an occasional visit to some little wooden town." + +A fresh dish was laid before him, and his companion smiled. + +"You didn't get things of this kind among the pines." + +"No," laughed Vane. "In fact, cookery is one of the bushman's trials; +anyway, when he's working for himself. You come back dead tired, and +often very wet, to your lonely tent, and then there's a fire to make and +supper to get before you can rest. It happens now and then that you're +too played out to trouble, and you go to sleep instead." + +"Dreadful!" sympathized the girl. "But you have been in Vancouver +before?" + +"Except on the last occasion, I stayed down near the water-front. We were +not provided with luxurious quarters or with suppers of this kind there." + +"It's romantic; and, though you're glad it's over, there must be some +satisfaction in feeling that you owe the change to your own efforts. I +mean it must be nice to think one has captured a fair share of the good +things of life, instead of having them accidentally thrust upon one. +Doesn't it give you a feeling that in some degree you're master of your +fate? I should like that" + +It was subtle flattery, and there were reasons why it appealed to the +man. He had worked for others, sometimes for inadequate wages, and had +wandered about the Province, dusty and footsore, in search of employment, +besides being beaten down at many a small bargain by richer or more +fortunately situated men. Now, however, he had resolved that there should +be a difference; instead of begging favors, he would dictate terms. + +"I should have imagined it," he laughed, in answer to her last remark; +and he was right, for Jessy Horsfield was a clever woman who loved power +and influence. + +Vane dropped his napkin, and was stooping to pick it up when an attendant +handed it back to him. He noticed and responded to the glimmer of +amusement in his companion's eyes. + +"We are not accustomed to being waited on in the bush," he explained. "It +takes some time to get used to the change. When we wanted anything there +we got it for ourselves." + +"Is that, in its wider sense, a characteristic of most bushmen?" + +"I don't quite follow." + +The girl laughed. + +"I suppose one could divide men into two classes: those who are able to +get the things they desire for themselves--which implies the possession +of certain eminently useful qualities--and those who have them given to +them. In Canada the former are the more numerous." + +"There's a third division," Vane corrected her, with a trace of grimness. +"I mean those who want a good many things and have to learn to do +without. It strikes me they're the most numerous of all." + +"It's no doubt excellent discipline," retorted his companion. + +She looked at him boldly, for she was interested in the man and was not +afraid of personalities. + +"In any case, you have now passed out of that division." + +Vane sat silent for the next few moments. Up to the age of eighteen most +of his reasonable wishes had been gratified. Then had come a startling +change, and he had discovered in the Dominion that he must lead a life of +Spartan self-denial. He had had the strength to do so, and for nine years +he had resolutely banished most natural longings. Amusements, in some of +which he excelled, the society of women, all the small amenities of life, +were things which must be foregone, and he had forced himself to be +content with food and, as a rule, very indifferent shelter. This, as his +companion suggested, had proved a wholesome discipline, since it had not +soured him. Now, though he did not overvalue them, he rejoiced in his new +surroundings, and the girl's comeliness and quickness of comprehension +had their full effect. + +"It was you who located the Clermont Mine, wasn't it?" she went on. +"I read something about it in the papers--I think they said it was +copper ore." + +This vagueness was misleading, for her brother had given her a good deal +of definite information about the mine. + +"Yes," replied Vane, willing to take up any subject she suggested; "it's +copper ore, but there's some silver combined with it. Of course, the +value of any ore depends upon two things--the percentage of the metal, +and the cost of extracting it." + +Her interest was flattering, and he added: + +"In both respects, the Clermont product is promising." + +After that he did not remember what they talked about; but the time +passed rapidly and he was surprised when Mrs. Nairn rose and the company +drifted away by twos and threes toward the veranda. Left by himself a +moment, he came upon Carroll sauntering down a corridor. + +"I've had a chat with Horsfield," Carroll remarked. + +"Well?" + +"He may merely have meant to make himself agreeable, and he may have +wished to extract information about you: If the latter was his object, he +was not successful." + +"Ah! Nairn's straight, anyway, and to be relied on. I like him and +his wife." + +"So do I, though they differ from some of the others. There's not much +gilding on either of them." + +"It's not needed; they're sterling metal." + +"That's my own idea." + +Carroll moved away and Vane strolled out onto the veranda, where +Horsfield joined him a few minutes later. + +"I don't know whether it's a very suitable time to mention it; but may I +ask whether you are any nearer a decision about that smelter? Candidly, +I'd like the contract." + +"I am not," Vane answered. "I can't make up my mind, and I may postpone +the matter indefinitely. It might prove more profitable to ship the ore +out for reduction." + +Horsfield examined his cigar. + +"Of course, I can't press you; but I may, perhaps, suggest that, as we'll +have to work together in other matters, I might be able to give you a +quid pro quo." + +"That occurred to me. On the other hand, I don't know how much importance +I ought to attach to the consideration." + +His companion laughed with apparent good-humor. + +"Oh, well; I must wait until you're ready." + +He strolled away, and presently joined his sister. + +"How does Vane strike you?" he asked. "You seem to get on with him." + +"I've an idea that you won't find him easy to influence," answered the +girl, looking at her brother pointedly. + +"I'm inclined to agree with you. In spite of that, he's a man whose +acquaintance is worth cultivating." + +He passed on to speak to Nairn; and shortly afterward Vane sat down +beside Jessy in a corner of a big room. Looking out across the veranda, +he could see far-off snowy heights tower in cold silver tracery against +the green of the evening sky. Voices and laughter reached him, and now +and then some of the guests strolled through the room. It was pleasant to +lounge there and feel that Miss Horsfield had taken him under her wing, +which seemed to describe her attitude toward him. She was handsome, and +he noticed how finely the soft, neutral tinting of her attire, which was +neither blue nor altogether gray, matched the azure of her eyes and +emphasized the dead-gold coloring of her hair. + +"As Mrs. Nairn tells me you are going to England, I suppose we shall not +see you in Vancouver for some months," she said presently. "This city +really isn't a bad place to live in." + +Vane felt gratified. She had implied that he would be an acquisition and +had included him among the number of her acquaintances. + +"I fancy that I shall find it a particularly pleasant place," he +responded. "Indeed, I'm inclined to be sorry that I've made arrangements +to leave it very shortly." + +"That is pure good-nature," laughed his companion. + +"No; it's what I really feel." + +Jessy let this pass. + +"Mrs. Nairn mentioned that you know the Chisholms." + +"I'd better say that I used to do so. They have probably changed out of +my knowledge, and they can scarcely remember me except by name." + +"But you are going to see them?" + +"I expect to spend some time with them." + +Jessy changed the subject, and Vane found her conversation entertaining. +She appealed to his artistic perceptions and his intelligence, and it +must be admitted that she laid herself out to do so. She said nothing of +any consequence, but she knew how to make a glance or a changed +inflection expressive. He was sorry when she left him, but she smiled at +him before she moved away. + +"If you and Mr. Carroll care to call, I am generally at home in the +afternoon," she said. + +She crossed the room, and Vane joined Nairn and remained near him until +he took his departure. + +Late the next afternoon, an hour or two after an Empress liner from China +and Japan had arrived, he and Carroll reached the C.P.R. station. The +Atlantic train was waiting and an unusual number of passengers were +hurrying about the cars. They were, for the most part, prosperous people: +business men, and tourists from England going home that way; and when +Vane found Mrs. Marvin and Kitty, he once more was conscious of a +stirring of compassion. The girl's dress, which had struck him as +becoming on the afternoon they spent on the beach, now looked shabby. In +Mrs. Marvin's case, the impression was more marked, and standing amid the +bustling throng with the child clinging to her hand she looked curiously +forlorn. Kitty smiled at him diffidently. + +"You have been so kind," she began, and, pausing, added with a tremor in +her voice: "But the tickets--" + +"Pshaw!" interrupted Vane. "If it will ease your mind, you can send me +what they cost after the first full house you draw." + +"How shall we address you?" + +"Clermont Mineral Exploitation. I don't want to think I'm going to lose +sight of you." + +Kitty looked away from him a moment, and then looked back. + +"I'm afraid you must make up your mind to that," she said. + +Vane could not remember his answer, though he afterward tried; but just +then an official strode along beside the cars, calling to the passengers, +and when a bell began tolling Vane hurried the girl and her companions +onto a platform. Mrs. Marvin entered the car, Elsie held up her face to +kiss him before she disappeared, and he and Kitty were left alone. She +held out her hand, and a liquid gleam crept into her eyes. + +"We can't thank you properly," she murmured, "Good-by!" + +"No," Vane protested. "You mustn't say that." + +"Yes," answered Kitty firmly, but with signs of effort. "It's good-by. +You'll be carried on in a moment!" + +Vane gazed down at her, and afterward wondered at what he did, but she +looked so forlorn and desolate, and the pretty face was so close to his. +Stooping swiftly, he kissed her, and had a thrilling fancy that she did +not recoil; then the cars lurched forward and he swung himself down. They +slid past him, clanking, while he stood and gazed after them. Turning +around, he was by no means pleased to see that Nairn was regarding him +with quiet amusement. + +"Been seeing the train away?" the latter suggested. "It's a popular +diversion with idle folk." + +"I was saying good-by to somebody I met on the west coast," Vane +explained. + +"Weel," chuckled Nairn, "she has bonny een." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE OLD COUNTRY + + +A month after Vane said good-by to Kitty he and Carroll alighted one +evening at a little station in northern England. Brown moors stretched +about it, for the heather had not bloomed yet, rolling back in long +slopes to the high ridge which cut against leaden thunder-clouds in the +eastern sky. To the westward, they fell away; and across a wide, green +valley smooth-backed heights gave place in turn to splintered crags and +ragged pinnacles etched in gray and purple on a vivid saffron glow. The +road outside the station gleamed with water, and a few big drops of +rain came splashing down, but there was a bracing freshness in the +mountain air. + +The train went on, and Vane stood still, looking about him with a +poignant recollection of how he had last waited on that platform, sick at +heart, but gathering his youthful courage for the effort that he must +make. It all came back to him--the dejection, the sense of +loneliness--for he was then going out to the Western Dominion in which he +had not a friend. Now he was returning, moderately prosperous and +successful; but once again the feeling of loneliness was with him--most +of those whom he had left behind had made a longer journey than he had +done. Then he noticed an elderly man, in rather shabby livery, +approaching, and he held out his hand with a smile of pleasure. + +"You haven't changed a bit, Jim!" he exclaimed. "Have you got the young +gray in the new cart outside?" + +"T' owd gray was shot twelve months since," the man replied. "Broke his +leg comin' down Hartop Bank. New car was sold off, done, two or t'ree +years ago." + +"That's bad news. Anyway, you're the same." + +"A bit stiffer in the joints, and maybe a bit sourer," was the answer. +Then the man's wrinkled face relaxed. "I'm main glad to see thee, Mr. +Wallace. Master wad have come, only he'd t' gan t' Manchester suddenly." + +Vane helped him to place their baggage into the trap and then bade him +sit behind; and as he gathered up the reins, he glanced at the horse and +harness. The one did not show the breeding of the gray he remembered, +and there was no doubt that the other was rather the worse for wear. +They set off down the descending road, which wound, unconfined, through +the heather, where the raindrops sparkled like diamonds. Farther down, +they ran in between rough limestone walls with gleaming spar in them, +smothered here and there in trailing brambles and clumps of fern, while +the streams that poured out from black gaps in the peat and flowed +beside the road flashed with coppery gold in the evening light. It was +growing brighter ahead of them, though inky clouds still clung to the +moors behind. + +By and by, ragged hedges, rent and twisted by the winds, climbed up to +meet them, and, clattering down between the straggling greenery, they +crossed a river sparkling over banks of gravel. After that, there was a +climb, for the country rolled in ridge and valley, and the crags ahead, +growing nearer, rose in more rugged grandeur against the paling glow. +Carroll gazed about him in open appreciation as they drove. + +"This little compact country is really wonderful, in its way!" he +exclaimed. "There's so much squeezed into it, even leaving out your +towns. Parts of it are like Ontario---the southern strip I mean--with the +plow-land, orchards and homesteads sprinkled among the woods and rolling +ground. Then your Midlands are like the prairie, only that they're +greener--there's the same sweep of grass and the same sweep of sky, and +this"--he gazed at the rugged hills rent by winding dales--"is British +Columbia on a miniature scale." + +"Yes," agreed Vane; "it isn't monotonous." + +"Now you have hit it! That's the precise difference. We've three belts of +country, beginning at Labrador and running west--rock and pine scrub, +level prairie, and ranges piled on ranges beyond the Rockies. Hundreds of +leagues of each of them, and, within their limits, all the same. But this +country's mixed. You can get what you like--woods, smooth grass-land, +mountains--in a few hours' ride." + +Vane smiled. + +"Our people and their speech and habits are mixed, too. There's more +difference between county and county in thirty miles than there is right +across your whole continent. You're cast in the one mold." + +"I'm inclined to think it's a good one," laughed Carroll. "What's more, +it has set its stamp on you. The very way your clothes hang proclaims +that you're a Westerner." + +Vane laughed good-humoredly; but as they clattered through a sleepy +hamlet with its little, square-towered church overhanging a brawling +river, his face grew grave. Pulling up the horse, he handed the reins +to Carroll. + +"This is the first stage of my pilgrimage. I won't keep you five +minutes." + +He swung himself down, and the groom motioned to him. + +"West of the tower, Mr. Wallace; just before you reach the porch." + +Vane passed through the wicket in the lichened limestone wall, and +there was a troubled look in his eyes when he came back and took the +reins again. + +"I went away in bitterness--and I'm sorry now," he said. "The real +trouble was unimportant; I think it was forgotten. Every now and then the +letters came; but the written word is cold. There are things that can +never be set quite right in this world." + +Carroll made no comment, though he knew that if it had not been for the +bond between them his comrade would not have spoken so. They drove on in +silence for a while, and then, as they entered a deep, wooded dale, Vane +turned to him again. + +"I've been taken right back into the old days to-night; days in +England, and afterward those when we worked on the branch road beneath +the range. There's not a boy among the crowd in the sleeping-shack I +can't recall--first, wild Larry, who taught me how to drill and hid my +rawness from the Construction Boss." + +"He lent me his gum-boots when the muskeg stiffened into half-frozen +slush," Carroll interrupted him. + +"And was smashed by the snowslide," Vane went on. "Then there was Tom, +from the boundary country. He packed me back a league to camp the day I +chopped my right foot; and went down in the lumber schooner off Flattery. +Black Pete, too, who held on to you in the rapid when we were running the +bridge-logs through. It was in firing a short fuse that he got his +discharge," He raised his free hand, with a wry smile. "Gone on--with +more of their kind after them; a goodly company. Why are we left +prosperous? What have we done?" + +Carroll made no response. The question was unanswerable, and after a +while Vane abruptly began to talk about their business in British +Columbia. It passed the time; and he had resumed his usual manner when he +pulled up where a stile path led across a strip of meadow. + +"You can drive round; we'll be there before you," he said to the groom as +he got down. + +Carroll and he crossed the meadow. Passing around a clump of larches they +came suddenly into sight of an old gray house with a fir wood rolling +down the hillside close behind it. The building was long and low, +weather-worn and stained with lichens where the creepers and climbing +roses left the stone exposed. The bottom row of mullioned windows opened +upon a terrace, and in front of the terrace ran a low wall with a broad +coping on which were placed urns bright with geraniums. It was pierced by +an opening approached by shallow stairs on which an iridescent peacock +stood, and in front of all that stretched a sweep of lawn. + +A couple of minutes later, a lady met them in the wide hall, and held out +her hand to Vane. She was middle-aged, and had once been handsome, but +now there were wrinkles about her eyes, which had a hint of hardness in +them, and her lips were thin. Carroll noticed that they closed tightly +when she was not speaking. + +"Welcome home, Wallace," she said effusively. "It should not be difficult +to look upon the Dene as that--you were here so often once upon a time." + +"Thank you," was the response. "I felt tempted to ask Jim to drive me +round by Low Wood; I wanted to see the place again." + +"I'm glad you didn't. The house is shut up and going to pieces. It would +have been depressing to-night." + +Vane presented Carroll. Mrs. Chisholm's manner was gracious, but for no +particular reason Carroll wondered whether she would have extended the +same welcome to his comrade had the latter not come back the discoverer +of a profitable mine. + +"Tom was sorry he couldn't wait to meet you, but he had to leave for +Manchester on some urgent business," she apologized. + +Just then a girl with disordered hair and an unusual length of stocking +displayed beneath her scanty skirt came up to them. + +"This is Mabel," said Mrs. Chisholm. "I hardly think you will +remember her." + +"I've carried her across the meadow." + +The girl greeted the strangers demurely, and favored Vane with a +critical gaze. + +"So you're Wallace Vane--who floated the Clermont Mine! Though I don't +remember you, I've heard a good deal about you lately. Very pleased to +make your acquaintance!" + +Vane's eyes twinkled as he shook hands with her. Her manner was quaintly +formal, but he fancied that there was a spice of mischief hidden behind +it. Carroll, watching his hostess, surmised that her daughter's remarks +had not altogether pleased her. She chatted with them, however, until the +man who had driven them appeared with their baggage, when they were shown +their respective rooms. + +Vane was the first to go down. Reaching the hall, he found nobody +there, though a clatter of dishes and a clink of silver suggested that +a meal was being laid out in an adjoining room. Sitting down near the +hearth, he looked about him. The house was old; a wide stairway with a +quaintly carved balustrade of dark oak ran up one side and led to a +landing, also fronted with ponderous oak rails. The place was shadowy, +but a stream of light from a high window struck athwart one part of it +and fell upon the stairs. + +Vane's eyes rested on many objects that he recognized, but as his glance +traveled to and fro it occurred to him that much of what he saw conveyed +a hint that economy was needful. Part of the rich molding of the Jacobean +mantel had fallen away, and patches of the key pattern bordering the +panels beneath it had broken off, though he decided that a clever +cabinet-maker could have repaired the damage in a day. There were one or +two choice rugs on the floor, but they were threadbare; the heavy +hangings about the inner doors were dingy and moth-eaten; and, though all +this was in harmony with the drowsy quietness and the faint smell of +decay, it had its significance. + +Presently he heard footsteps, and looking up he saw a girl descending the +stairs in the fading stream of light. She was clad in trailing white, +which gleamed against the dark oak and rustled softly as it flowed about +a tall, finely outlined and finely poised figure. She had hair of dark +brown with paler lights in its curling tendrils, gathered back from a +neck that showed a faintly warmer whiteness than the snowy fabric below +it. It was her face, though, that seized Vane's attention: the level +brows; the quiet, deep brown eyes; the straight, cleanly-cut nose; and +the subtle suggestion of steadfastness and pride which they all conveyed. +He rose with a cry that had pleasure and eagerness in it. + +"Evelyn!" + +She came down, moving lightly but with a rhythmic grace, and laid a firm, +cool hand in his. + +"I'm glad to see you back, Wallace," she said. "How you have changed!" + +"I'm not sure that's kind," smiled Vane. "In some ways, you haven't +changed at all; I would have known you anywhere!" + +"Nine years is a long time to remember any one." + +Vane had seen few women during that period; but he was not a fool, and he +recognized that this was no occasion for an attempt at gallantry. There +was nothing coquettish in Evelyn's words, nor was there any irony. She +had answered in the tranquil, matter-of-fact manner which, as he +remembered, usually characterized her. + +"It's a little while since you landed, isn't it?" she added. + +"A week. I had some business in London, and then I went on to look up +Lucy. She had just gone up to town--to a congress, I believe--and so +I missed her. I shall go up again to see her as soon as she answers +my letter." + +"It won't be necessary. She's coming here for a fortnight." + +"That's very kind. Whom have I to thank for suggesting it?" + +"Does it matter? It was a natural thing to ask your only sister--who is a +friend of mine. There is plenty of room, and the place is quiet." + +"It didn't used to be. If I remember, your mother generally had it full +part of the year." + +"Things have changed," said Evelyn quietly. + +Vane was baffled by something in her manner. Evelyn had never been +effusive--that was not her way---but now, while she was cordial, she did +not seem disposed to resume their acquaintance where it had been broken +off. After all, he could hardly have expected this. + +"Mabel is like you, as you used to be," he observed. "It struck me as +soon as I saw her; but when she began to talk there was a difference." + +Evelyn laughed softly. + +"Yes; I think you're right in both respects. Mopsy has the courage of her +convictions. She's an open rebel." + +There was no bitterness in her laugh. Evelyn's manner was never +pointed; but Vane fancied that she had said a meaning thing--one that +might explain what he found puzzling in her attitude, when he held the +key to it. + +"Mopsy was dubious about you before you arrived, but I'm pleased to say +she seems reassured," she laughed. + +Carroll came down, and a few moments later Mrs. Chisholm appeared and +they went in to dinner in a low-ceilinged room. During the general +conversation, Mabel suddenly turned to Vane. + +"I suppose you have brought your pistols with you?" + +"I haven't owned one since I was sixteen," Vane laughed. + +The girl looked at him with an excellent assumption of incredulity. + +"Then you have never shot anybody in British Columbia!" + +Carroll laughed, as if this greatly pleased him, but Vane's face was +rather grave as he answered her. + +"No; I'm thankful to say that I haven't. In fact, I've never seen a shot +fired, except at a grouse or a deer." + +"Then the West must be getting what the Archdeacon--he's Flora's husband, +you know--calls decadent," the girl sighed. + +"She's incorrigible," Mrs. Chisholm interposed with a smile. + +Carroll leaned toward Mabel confidentially. + +"In case you feel very badly disappointed, I'll let you into a secret. +When we feel real, real savage, we take the ax instead." + +Evelyn fancied that Vane winced at this, but Mabel looked openly +regretful. + +"Can either of you pick up a handkerchief going at full gallop on +horseback?" she inquired. + +"I'm sorry to say that I can't; and I've never seen Wallace do so," +Carroll laughed. + +Mrs. Chisholm shook her head at her daughter. + +"Miss Clifford complained of your inattention to the study of English +last quarter," she reproved severely. + +Mabel made no answer, though Vane thought it would have relieved her +to grimace. + +Presently the meal came to an end, and an hour afterward, Mrs. Chisholm +rose from her seat in the lamplit drawing-room. + +"We keep early hours at the Dene, but you will retire when you like," she +said. "As Tom is away, I had better tell you that you will find syphons +and whisky in the smoking-room. I have had the lamp lighted." + +"Thank you," Vane replied with a smile. "I'm afraid you have taken more +trouble on our account than you need have done. Except on special +occasions, we generally confine ourselves to strong green tea." + +Mabel looked at him in amazement. + +"Oh!" she cried. "The West is certainly decadent! You should be here when +the otter hounds are out. Why, it was only--" + +She broke off abruptly beneath her mother's withering glance. + +When Vane and Carroll were left alone, they strolled out, pipe in hand, +upon the terrace. They could see the fells tower darkly against the soft +sky, and a tarn that lay in the blackness of the valley beneath them was +revealed by its pale gleam. A wonderful mingling of odors stole out of +the still summer night. + +"I suppose you could put in a few weeks here?" Vane remarked. + +"I could," Carroll replied. "There's an atmosphere about these old houses +that appeals to me, perhaps because we have nothing like it in Canada. +The tranquillity of age is in it--it's restful, as a change. Besides, I +think your friends mean to make things pleasant." + +"I'm glad you like them." + +Carroll knew that his comrade would not resent a candid expression +of opinion. + +"I do; the girls in particular. They interest me. The younger one's of a +type that's common in our country, though it's generally given room for +free development into something useful there. Mabel's chafing at the +curb. It remains to be seen whether she'll kick, presently, and hurt +herself in doing so." + +Vane remembered that Evelyn had said something to the same effect; but +he had already discovered that Carroll possessed a keen insight in +certain matters. + +"And her sister?" he suggested. + +"You won't mind my saying that I'm inclined to be sorry for her? She has +learned repression--been driven into line. That girl has character, but +it's being cramped and stunted. You live in walled-in compartments in +this country." + +"Doesn't the same thing apply to New York, Montreal, or Toronto?" + +"Not to the same extent. We haven't had time yet to number off all the +little subdivisions and make rules for them, nor to elaborate the +niceties of an immutable system. No doubt, we'll come to it." + +He paused with a deprecatory laugh. + +"Mrs. Chisholm believes in the system. She has been modeled on it--it's +got into her blood; and that's why she's at variance with her daughters. +No doubt, the thing's necessary; I'm finding no fault with it. You must +remember that we're outsiders, with a different outlook; we've lived in +the new West." + +Vane strolled on along the terrace thoughtfully. He was not offended; he +understood his companion's attitude. Like other men of education and good +upbringing driven by unrest or disaster to the untrammeled life of the +bush, Carroll had gained sympathy as well as knowledge. Facing facts +candidly, he seldom indulged in decided protest against any of them. On +the other hand, Vane was on occasion liable to outbreaks of indignation. + +"Well," said Vane at length, "I guess it's time to go to bed." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +UPON THE HEIGHTS + + +Vane rose early the next morning, as he had been accustomed to do, and +taking a towel he made his way across dewy meadows and between tall +hedgerows to the tarn. Stripping where the rabbit-cropped sward met the +mossy boulders, he swam out, joyously breasting the little ripples which +splashed and sparkled beneath the breeze that had got up with the sun. +Coming back, where the water lay in shadow beneath a larchwood which as +yet had not wholly lost its vivid vernal green, he disturbed the paddling +moor-hens and put up a mallard from a clump of swaying reeds. Then he +dressed and turned homeward, glowing, beside a sluggish stream which +wound through a waste of heather where the curlew were whistling eerily. +He had no cares to trouble him, and it was delightful to feel that he had +nothing to do except to enjoy himself in what he considered the fairest +country in the world, at least in summertime. + +Scrambling over a limestone wall tufted thick with parsley fern, he +noticed Mabel stooping over an object which lay among the heather where a +rough cartroad approached a wooden bridge. On joining her he saw that she +was examining a finely-built canoe with a hole in one bilge. She looked +up at him ruefully. + +"It's sad, isn't it? That stupid Little did it with his clumsy cart." + +"I think it could be mended," Vane replied. + +"Old Beavan--he's the wheelwright--said it couldn't; and Dad said I could +hardly expect him to send the canoe back to Kingston. He bought it for me +at an exhibition." + +Then a thought seemed to strike her and her eyes grew eager. + +"Perhaps you had something to do with light canoes in Canada?" + +"Yes; I used to pole one loaded with provisions up a river and carry the +lot round several falls. If I remember, I made eight shillings a day at +it, and I think I earned it. You're fond of paddling?" + +"I love it! I used to row the fishing-punt, but it's too old to be safe; +and now that the canoe's smashed I can't go out at all." + +"Well, we'll walk across and see what we can find in Beavan's shop." + +He took a few measurements, making them on a stick, and they crossed the +heath to a tiny hamlet nestling in a hollow of a limestone crag. There +Vane made friends with the wheelwright, who regarded him dubiously at +first, and obtained a piece of larch board from him. The grizzled North +Countryman watched him closely as he set a plane, which is a delicate +operation, and he raised no objections when Vane made use of his +work-bench. When the board had been sawed up, Vane borrowed a few tools +and copper nails, and he and Mabel went back to the canoe. On the way she +glanced at him curiously. + +"I wasn't sure old Beavan would let you have the things," she remarked. +"It isn't often he'll even lend a hammer, but he seemed to take to you; I +think it was the way you handled his plane." + +"It's strange what little things win some people's good opinion, +isn't it?" + +"Oh, don't!" exclaimed Mabel. "That's the way the Archdeacon talks. I +thought you were different!" + +The man acquiesced in the rebuke; and after an hour's labor at the canoe, +he scraped the red lead he had used off his hands and sat down beside the +craft. The sun was warm now, the dew was drying, and a lark sang +riotously overhead. Vane became conscious that his companion was +regarding him with what seemed to be approval. + +"I really think you'll do, and we'll get on," she informed him. "If +you had been the wrong kind, you would have worried about your red +hands. Still, you could have rubbed them on the heather, instead of on +your socks." + +"I might have thought of that," Vane laughed. "But, you see, I've been +accustomed to wearing old clothes. Anyway, you'll be able to launch the +canoe as soon as the joint's dry." + +"There's one thing I should have told you," the girl replied. "Dad would +have sent the canoe away to be mended if it hadn't been so far. He's very +good when things don't ruffle him; but he hasn't been fortunate lately. +The lead mine takes a good deal of money." + +Vane admired her loyalty, and he refrained from taking advantage of her +candor, though there were one or two questions he would have liked to +ask. When he was last in England, Chisholm had been generally regarded as +a man of means, though it was rumored that he was addicted to hazardous +speculations. Mabel, without noticing his silence, went on: + +"I heard Stevens--he's the gamekeeper--tell Beavan that Dad should have +been a rabbit because he's so fond of burrowing. No doubt, that meant +that he couldn't keep out of mines." + +Vane made no comment; and Mabel, breaking off for a moment, looked up at +the rugged fells to the west and then around at the moors which cut +against the blue of the morning sky. + +"It's all very pretty, but it shuts one in!" she cried. "You feel you +want to get out and can't! I suppose you really couldn't take me back +with you to Canada?" + +"I'm afraid not. If you were about ten years older, it might be +possible." + +Mabel grimaced. + +"Oh, don't! That's the kind of thing some of Gerald's smart friends say, +and it makes one want to slap them! Besides," she added naively, glancing +down at her curtailed skirt, "I'm by no means so young as I appear to be. +The fact is, I'm not allowed to grow up yet." + +"Why?" + +The girl laughed at him. + +"Oh, you've lived in the woods. If you had stayed in England, you would +understand." + +"I'm afraid I've been injudicious," Vane answered with a show of +humility. "But don't you think it's getting on toward breakfast time?" + +"Breakfast won't be for a good while yet. We don't get up early. Evelyn +used to, but it's different now. We used to go out on the tarn every +morning, even in the wind and rain; but I suppose that's not good for +one's complexion, though bothering about such things doesn't seem to me +to be worth while. Aunt Julia couldn't do anything for Evelyn, though she +had her in London for some time. Flora is our shining light." + +"What did she do?" + +"She married the Archdeacon; and he isn't so very dried up. I've seen him +smile when I talked to him." + +"I'm not astonished at that, Mabel," laughed Vane. + +His companion looked up at him. + +"My name's not Mabel--to you. I'm Mopsy to the family, but my special +friends call me Mops. You're one of the few people one can be natural +with, and I'm getting sick--you won't be shocked--of having to be the +opposite. If you'll come along, I'll show you the setter puppies." + +It was half an hour later when Vane, who had seldom had to wait so long +for breakfast, sat down with an excellent appetite. The spacious room +pleased him after the cramped quarters to which he had been accustomed. +The sunlight that streamed in sparkled on choice old silver and glowed on +freshly gathered flowers; and through the open windows mingled fragrances +flowed in from the gardens. All that his gaze rested on spoke of ease and +taste and leisure. Evelyn, sitting opposite him, looked wonderfully fresh +in her white dress; Mopsy was as amusing as she dared to be; but Vane +felt drawn back to the restless world again as he glanced at his hostess +and saw the wrinkles round her eyes and a hint of cleverly hidden strain +in her expression. He fancied that a good deal could be deduced from the +fragments of information her younger daughter had given him. + +It was Mabel who suggested that they should picnic upon the summit of a +lofty hill, from which there was a striking view; and as this met with +the approval of Mrs. Chisholm, who excused herself from accompanying +them, they set out an hour later. The day was bright, with glaring +sunshine, and a moderate breeze drove up wisps of ragged cloud that +dappled the hills with flitting shadow. Towering crag and shingly scree +showed blue and purple through it and then flashed again into brilliancy, +while the long, grassy slopes gleamed with silvery gray and ocher. + +On leaving the head of the valley they climbed leisurely up easy slopes, +slipping on the crisp hill grass now and then. By and by they plunged +into tangled heather on a bolder ridge, rent by black gullies, down +which at times wild torrents poured. This did not trouble either of the +men, who were used to forcing a passage over more rugged hillsides and +through leagues of matted brush, but Vane was surprised at the ease with +which Evelyn threaded her way across the heath. She wore a short skirt +and stout laced boots, and he noticed the supple grace of her movements +and the delicate color the wind had brought into her face. It struck him +that she had somehow changed since they had left the valley. She seemed +to have flung off something, and her laugh had a gay ring; but, while she +smiled and chatted with him, he was still conscious of a subtle reserve +in her manner. + +Climbing still, they reached the haunts of the cloudberries and brushed +through broad patches of the snowy blossoms that open their gleaming +cups among the moss and heather. Vane gathered a handful and gave them +to Evelyn. + +"You should wear these. They grow only far up on the heights." + +She flashed a swift glance at him, but she smiled as she drew the fragile +stalks through her belt, and he felt that had it been permissible he +could have elaborated the idea in his mind. They are stainless flowers, +passionlessly white, that grow beyond the general reach of man, where the +air is keen and pure; and, in spite of her graciousness, there was a +coldness and a calm, which instead of repelling appealed to him strongly, +about this girl. Mabel laughed mischievously. + +"If you want to give me flowers, it had better be marsh-marigolds," she +said. "They grow low down where it's slushy--but they blaze." + +Carroll laughed. + +"Mabel," he remarked a few moments later to Vane, "is unguarded in what +she says, but she now and then shows signs of being considerably older +than her years." + +They left the black peat-soil behind them, and the heather gave place to +thin and more fragile ling, beaded with its unopened buds, while fangs of +rock cropped out here and there. Then turning the flank of a steep +ascent, they reached the foot of a shingly scree, and sat down to lunch +in the warm sunshine where the wind was cut off by the peak above. +Beneath them, a great rift opened up among the rocks, and far beyond the +blue lake in the depths of it they could catch the silver gleam of the +distant sea. + +The fishing creel in which the provisions had been carried was promptly +emptied; and when Mabel afterward took Carroll away to climb some +neighboring crags, Vane lay resting on one elbow not far from Evelyn. She +was looking down the long hollow, with the sunshine, which lighted a +golden sparkle in her brown eyes, falling upon her face. + +"You didn't seem to mind the climb." + +"I enjoyed it;" Evelyn declared, glancing at the cloudberry blossom in +her belt. "I really am fond of the mountains, and I have to thank you for +a day among them." + +On the surface the words offered an opening for a complimentary +rejoinder; but Vane was too shrewd to seize it. He had made one venture, +and he surmised that a second one would not please her. + +"They're almost at your door. One would imagine that you could indulge in +a scramble among them whenever it pleased you." + +"There are a good many things that look so close and still are out of +reach," Evelyn answered with a smile that somehow troubled him. Then her +manner changed. "You are content with this?" + +Vane gazed about him. Purple crags lay in shadow; glistening threads of +water fell among the rocks; and long slopes lay steeped in softest color +under the cloud-flecked summer sky. + +"Content is scarcely the right word for it," he assured her, "If it +weren't so still and serene up here, I'd be riotously happy. There are +reasons for this quite apart from the scenery; for one, it's remarkably +pleasant to feel that I need do nothing but what I like during the next +few months." + +"The sensation must be unusual. I wonder if, even in your case, it will +last so long?" + +Vane laughed and stretched out one of his hands. It was lean and brown, +and she could see the marks of old scars on the knuckles. + +"In my case," he answered, "it has come only once in a lifetime, and, if +it isn't too presumptuous, I think I've earned it." He indicated his +battered fingers. "That's the result of holding a wet and slippery drill; +and those aren't the only marks I carry about with me--though I've been +more fortunate than many fine comrades." + +Evelyn noticed something that pleased her in his voice as he concluded. + +"I suppose one must get hurt now and then," she responded. "After all, a +bruise that's only skin-deep doesn't trouble one long, and no doubt some +scars are honorable. It's slow corrosion that's the deadliest." + +She broke off with a laugh. + +"Moralizing's out of place on a day like this," she added; "and such days +are not frequent in the North. That's their greatest charm." + +Vane nodded. He knew the sad gray skies of his native land, when its +lonely heights are blurred by driving snow-cloud or scourged by bitter +rain for weeks together, though now and then they tower serenely into the +blue heavens, steeped in ethereal splendor. Once more it struck him that +in their latter aspect his companion resembled them. Made finely, of warm +flesh and blood, she was yet ethereal too. There was something aloof and +intangible about her that seemed in harmony with the hills among which +she was born. + +"Yes," he agreed. "On the face of it, the North is fickle; though to +those who know it that's a misleading term. To some of us it's always the +same, and its dark grimness makes one feel the radiance of its smile. For +all that, I think we're going to see a sudden change in the weather." + +Long wisps of leaden cloud began to stream across the crags above, +intensifying, until it seemed unnatural, the glow of light and color +on the rest. + +"I wonder if Mopsy is leading Mr. Carroll into any mischief? They have +been gone some time," said Evelyn. "She has a trick of getting herself +and other people into difficulties. I suppose he is an old friend of +yours, as you brought him over; unless, perhaps, he's acting as your +secretary." + +Vane's eyes twinkled. + +"If he came in any particular capacity, it's as bear-leader. You see, +there are a good many things I've forgotten in the bush, and, as I left +this country young, there are no doubt some that I never learned." + +"And so you make Mr. Carroll your confidential adviser. How did he gain +the necessary experience?" + +"That is more than I can tell you; but I'm inclined to believe he has +been at one of the universities--Toronto, most likely. Anyhow, on the +whole he acts as a judicious restraint." + +"But don't you really know anything about him?" + +"Only what some years of close companionship have taught me, though I +think that's enough. For the rest, I took him on trust." + +Evelyn looked surprised, and he spread out his hands in a humorous +manner. + +"A good many people have had to take me in that way, and they seemed +willing to do so--the thing's not uncommon in the West. Why should I be +more particular than they were?" + +Just then Mabel and Carroll appeared. The latter's garments were stained +in places, as if he had been scrambling over mossy rocks, and his pockets +bulged. Mabel's skirt was torn, while a patch of white skin showed +through her stocking. + +"We've found some sun-dew and two ferns I don't know, as well as all +sorts of other things," she announced. + +"That's correct," vouched Carroll dryly; "I've got them. I guess they're +going to fill up most of the creel." + +Mabel superintended their transfer, and then addressed the others +generally. + +"I think we ought to go up the Pike now, when we have the chance. It +isn't much of a climb from here: and we'll have rain before to-morrow. +Besides, the quickest way back to the road is across the top and down the +other side." + +Evelyn agreed, and they set out, following a sheep path which skirted the +screes, until they left the bank of sharp stones behind and faced a steep +ascent. Parts of it necessitated a breathless scramble, and the sunlight +faded from the hills as they climbed, while thicker wisps of cloud drove +across the ragged summit. They reached the top at length and stopped, +bracing themselves against a rush of chilly breeze, while they looked +down upon a wilderness of leaden-colored rock. Long trails of mist were +creeping in and out among the crags, and here and there masses of it +gathered round the higher slopes. + +"I think the Pike's grandest in this weather," Mabel declared. "Look +below, Mr. Carroll, and you'll see the mountain's like a starfish. It has +prongs running out from it." + +Carroll did as she directed him, and noticed three diverging ridges +springing off from the shoulders of the peak. Their crests, which were +narrow, led down toward the valley, but their sides fell in rent and +fissured crags to great black hollows. + +"You can get down two of them," Mabel went on. "The first is the nearest +to the road, but the third's the easiest. It takes you to the +Hause--that's the gap between it and the next big hill. You must be a +climber to try the middle one." + +A few big drops began to fall, and Evelyn cut her sister's +explanations short. + +"It strikes me that we'd better make a start at once," she said. + +They set out, Mabel and Carroll leading, and drawing farther away from +the two behind. The rain began in earnest as they descended. Rock slope +and scattered stones were slippery, and Vane found it difficult to keep +his footing on some of their lichened surfaces. He was relieved, however, +to see that his companion seldom hesitated, and they made their way +downward cautiously, until near the spot where the three ridges diverged +they walked into a belt of drifting mist. The peak above them was +suddenly blotted out, and Evelyn bade Vane hail Carroll and Mabel, who +had disappeared. He sent a shout ringing through the vapor, and caught a +faint and unintelligible answer. A flock of sheep fled past and dislodged +a rush of sliding stones. Vane heard the stones rattle far down the +hillside, and when he called again a blast of chilly wind whirled his +voice away. There was a faint echo above him and then silence. + +"It looks as if they were out of hearing; and the slope ahead of us seems +uncommonly steep by the way those stones went down. Do you think Mabel +has taken Carroll down the Stanghyll ridge?" + +"I can't tell," answered Evelyn. "It's comforting to remember that she +knows it better than I do. I think we ought to make for the Hause; +there's only one place that's really steep. Keep up to the left a little; +the Scale Crags must be close beneath us." + +They moved on circumspectly, skirting what seemed to be a pit of profound +depth in which dim vapors whirled, while the rain, growing thicker, beat +into their faces. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +STORM-STAYED + + +The weather was not the only thing that troubled Vane as he stumbled on +through the mist. Any unathletic tourist from the cities could have gone +up without much difficulty by the way they had ascended, but it was +different coming down on the opposite side of the mountain. There, their +route led across banks of sharp-pointed stones that rested lightly on the +steep slope, interspersed with outcropping rocks which were growing +dangerously slippery, and a wilderness of crags pierced by three great +radiating chasms lay beneath. + +After half an hour's arduous scramble, he decided that they must be close +upon the top of the last rift, and he stood still for a minute looking +about him. The mist was now so thick that he could see scarcely thirty +yards ahead, but the way it drove past him indicated that it was blowing +up a hollow. On one hand a rampart of hillside loomed dimly out of it; in +front there was a dark patch that looked like the face of a dripping +rock; and between that and the hill a boggy stretch of grass ran back +into the vapor. Vane glanced at his companion with some concern. Her +skirt was heavy with moisture and the rain dripped from the brim of her +hat, but she smiled at him reassuringly. + +"It's not the first time I've got wet," she said cheeringly; "and you're +not responsible--it's Mopsy's fault." + +Vane felt relieved on one account He had imagined that a woman hated to +feel draggled and untidy, and he was willing to own that in his case +fatigue usually tended toward shortness of temper. Though the scramble +had scarcely taxed his powers, he fancied that Evelyn had already done as +much as one could expect of her. + +"I must prospect about a bit. Scardale's somewhere below us; but, if I +remember, it's an awkward descent to the head of it; and I'm not sure of +the right entrance to the Hause." + +"I've only once been down this way, and that was a long while ago," +Evelyn replied. + +Vane left her and plodded away across the grass, sinking ankle-deep in +the spongy moss among the roots of it When he had grown scarcely +distinguishable in the haze he turned and waved his hand. + +"I know where we are--almost to the head of the beck!" he called. + +Evelyn joined him at the edge of a trickle of water splashing in a peaty +hollow, and they followed it down, seeing only odd strips of hillside +amid the vapor. At length the ground grew softer, and Vane, going first, +sank among the long green moss almost to his knees. It made a bubbling, +sucking sound as he drew out his feet. + +"That won't do! Stand still, please! I'll try a little to the right." + +He tried in one or two directions; but wherever he went he sank over his +boots. Coming back he informed his companion that they would better go +straight ahead. + +"I know there's no bog worth speaking of--the Hause is a regular +tourist track." + +He stopped and stripped off his jacket. + +"First of all, you must put this on; I'm sorry I didn't think of +it before." + +Evelyn demurred, and Vane rolled up the jacket. + +"You have to choose between doing what I ask and watching me pitch +it into the beck. I'm a rather determined person. It would be a +pity to throw the thing away, particularly as the rain hasn't got +through it yet." + +She yielded, and he held the jacket while she put it on. + +"There's another thing," he added. "I'm going to carry you for the next +hundred yards, or possibly farther." + +"No," replied Evelyn firmly. "On that point, my determination is as +strong as yours." + +Vane made a sign of acquiescence. + +"You may have your way for a minute; I expect that will be long enough." + +He was correct. Evelyn moved forward a pace or two, and then stopped with +the skirt she had gathered up brushing the quivering emerald moss, and +her boots, which were high ones, hidden in the mire. She had some +difficulty in pulling them out. Then Vane coolly picked her up. + +"All you have to do is to keep still for the next few minutes," he +informed her in a most matter-of-fact voice. + +Evelyn did not move, though she recognized that had he shown any sign of +self-conscious hesitation she would at once have shaken herself loose. As +it was, the fact that he appeared perfectly at ease and unaware that he +was doing anything unusual was reassuring. Then as he plodded forward she +wondered at his steadiness, for she remembered that when she had once +fallen heavily when nailing up a clematis her father, who was a vigorous +man, had found it difficult to carry her upstairs. Vane had never carried +any woman in his arms before, but he had occasionally had to pack--as it +is termed in the West--hundred-and-forty-pound flour bags over a rocky +portage, and, though the comparison did not strike him as a happy one, he +thought the girl was not quite so heavy as that. He was conscious of a +curious thrill and a certain stirring of his blood, but this, he decided, +must be sternly ignored. His task was not an easy one, and he stumbled +once or twice, but he accomplished it and set the girl down safely on +firmer ground. + +"Now," he said, "there's only the drop to the dale, but we must endeavor +to keep out of the beck." + +His voice and air were unembarrassed, though he was breathless, and +Evelyn fancied that in this and the incident of the jacket he had at last +revealed the forceful, natural manners of the West. It was the first +glimpse she had had of them, and she was not displeased. The man had +merely done what was most advisable, with practical sense. + +A little farther on, a shoot of falling water swept out of the mist above +and came splashing down a crag, spread out in frothing threads. It flowed +across their path, reunited in a deep gully, and then fell tumultuously +into the beck, which was now ten or twelve feet below them. They clung to +the rock as they traced it downward, stepping cautiously from ledge to +ledge and from slippery stone to stone. At times a stone plunged into the +mist beneath them, and Vane grasped the girl's arm and held out a +steadying hand, but he was never fussy nor needlessly concerned. When she +wanted help, it was offered at the right moment; but that was all. Had +she been alarmed, her companion's manner would have been more comforting +than persistent solicitude. He was, she decided, one who could be relied +upon in an emergency. + +"You are sure-footed," she remarked, when they stopped a minute or two +for breath. + +Vane laughed as he glanced into the vapor-rilled depths beneath. They +stood on a ledge, two or three yards in width, with a tall crag behind +them and the beck, which had rapidly grown larger, leaping half seen from +rock to rock in the rift in front. + +"I was born among these fells; and I have helped to pack various kinds of +mining truck over much rougher mountains." + +"Have you ever gone up as steep a place as this with a load?" + +"If I remember rightly, the top of the Hause drops about three hundred +feet, and we'll probably spend half an hour in reaching the valley. There +was one western divide that it took us several days to cross, dragging a +tent, camp gear and provisions in relays. Its foot was wrapped in tangled +brush that tore most of our clothes to rags, and the last pitch was two +thousand feet of rock where the snow lay waist-deep in the hollows." + +"Two thousand feet! That dwarfs our little drop to the Hause. What were +you doing so far up in the ranges?" + +"Looking for a copper mine." + +"And you found one?" + +"No; not that time. As a rule, the mineral trail leads poor men to +greater poverty, and sometimes to a grave; but once you have set your +feet on it you follow it again. The thing becomes an obsession; you feel +forced to go." + +"Even if you bring nothing back?" + +Vane laughed. + +"One always brings back something--frost-bite, bruises, a bag of +specimens that assayers and mineral development men smile at. They're +the palpable results, but in most cases you pick up an intangible +something else." + +"And that is?" + +"A thing beyond definition. A germ that lies in wait in the lonely places +and breeds fantasies when it gets into your blood. Anyway, you can never +quite get rid of it." + +Evelyn was interested. The man was endowed with a trick of quaint and +almost poetical imagination, which she had not suspected him of +possessing. + +"It conduces to unrest?" she suggested. + +"Yes. One feels that there's a rich claim waiting beyond the thick timber +through which one can hardly scramble, across the icy rivers, or over the +snow-line." + +"But you found one." + +"At last I found it easily. After ranging the wildest solitudes, we +struck it in a sheltered valley near the warm west coast. Curious, +isn't it?" + +"But didn't that banish the unrest and leave you satisfied?" + +The man looked at her with a flicker of grim amusement in his eyes. + +"As I explained, it can't be banished. There's always a richer claim +somewhere that you haven't found. Our prospectors dream of it as the +Mother Lode, and some spend half their lives in search of it; it was +called El Dorado three hundred years ago. After all, the idea's a +deeper thing than a miner's fantasy: in one shape or another it's +inherent in optimistic human nature. Are you sure the microbe hasn't +bitten you and Mopsy?" + +He was too shrewd. Turning from him, she looked down at the eddying mist. +For several years she had chafed at her surroundings and the restraints +they laid upon her, with a restless longing for something wider and +better: a freer, sunnier atmosphere where her nature could expand. At +times she fancied there was only one sun which could warm it to a perfect +growth, but that sun had not risen and scarcely seemed likely to do so. + +Vane broke the silence deprecatingly. + +"Now that you're rested, we'd better get on. I'm sorry I've kept +you so long." + +Though caution was still necessary, the rest of the descent was easier, +and after a while they reached a winding dale. They followed it +downward, splashing through water part of the time, and at length came +into sight of a cluster of little houses standing between a river and a +big fir wood. + +"It must be getting on toward evening. Mopsy and Carroll probably went +down the ridge, and as it runs out lower down the valley, they'll be +almost at home." + +"It's six o'clock," replied Vane, glancing at his watch. "You can't walk +home in the rain, and it's a long while since lunch. If Adam Bell and his +wife are still at the Golden Fleece, we'll get something to eat there and +borrow you some dry clothes. I've no doubt he'll drive us back +afterward." + +Evelyn made no objections. She was very wet and was beginning to feel +weary, and they were some distance from home. She returned his jacket, +and a few minutes later they entered an old hostelry which, like many +others among those hills, was a farm as well as an inn. The landlady +recognized Vane with pleased surprise. When she had attended to Evelyn +she provided Vane with some of her husband's clothes. Then she lighted a +fire; and when she had laid out a meal in the guest-room, Evelyn came in, +attired in a dress of lilac print. + +"It's Maggie Bell's," she explained demurely. "Her mother's things were +rather large. Adam is away at a sheep auction, and they have only the +trap he went in; but they expect him back in an hour or so." + +"Then we must wait," smiled Vane. "Worse misfortunes have befallen me." + +They made an excellent meal, and then Vane drew up a wicker chair to the +fire for Evelyn and sat down opposite her. The room was low and shadowy, +and partly paneled. Against one wall stood a black oak sideboard, with a +plate-rack above it, and a great chest of the same material with +ponderous hand-forged hinge-straps stood opposite it. A clock with an +engraved metal dial and a six-foot case, polished to a wonderful luster +by the hands of several generations, ticked in one corner; and here and +there the firelight flickered upon utensils of burnished copper. There +was little in the place that looked less than a century old, for there +are nooks in the North that have still escaped the ravages of the +collector. Outside, the rain dripped from the massy flagstone eaves, and +the song of the river stole in monotonous cadence into the room. + +Evelyn was silent and Vane said nothing for a while. He had been in the +air all day, and though this was nothing new to him he was content to sit +lazily still and leave the opening of conversation to his companion. In +the meanwhile it was pleasant to glance toward her now and then. The +pale-tinted dress became her, and he felt that the room would have looked +less cheerful had she been away; though this by no means comprised the +whole of his sensations. After living almost entirely among men, he had +of late met three women who had impressed him in different ways, and they +had all been pleasant to look upon. + +First, there was Kitty Blake, little, graceful and, in a way, alluring; +and it was she who had first roused in him a vague desire for a companion +who could be more to him than a man could be. Beyond that, pretty as she +was, she had only moved him to chivalrous pity and a wider sympathy. + +Then he had met Jessy Horsfield, whom he admired. She was a clever woman +and a handsome one, but she had scarcely stirred him at all. + +Last, he had met Evelyn, as well endowed with physical charm as either; +and there was no doubt that the effect she had on him was different +again. It was one that was difficult to analyze, though he lazily tried. +She appealed to him by the grace of her carriage, the poise of her head, +her delicate coloring, and the changing lights in her eyes; but behind +these points there was something stronger and deeper expressed through +them. He fancied that she possessed qualities he had not hitherto +encountered, which would become more precious when they were fully +understood. He thought of her as steadfast and wholesome in mind; one who +sought for the best; but beyond this there was an ethereal something that +could not be defined. Then a simile struck him: she was like the snow +that towered high into the empyrean in British Columbia. In this, +however, he was wrong, for there was warm human passion in the girl, +though as yet it was sleeping. + +He realized suddenly that he was getting absurdly sentimental, and +instinctively he fumbled for his pipe, then stopped. Evelyn noticed this +and smiled. + +"You needn't hesitate. The Dene is redolent of cigars, and Gerald smokes +everywhere when he is at home." + +"Is he likely to turn up?" Vane asked. "It's ever so long since I've +seen him." + +"I'm afraid not. In fact, Gerald's rather under a cloud just now. I +may as well tell you this, because you are sure to hear of it sooner +or later. He has been extravagant and, so he assures us, +extraordinarily unlucky." + +"Stocks?" suggested Vane. He was acquainted with some of the family +tendencies. + +Evelyn hesitated a moment. + +"That would more readily have been forgiven him. I believe he has +speculated on the turf as well." + +Vane was surprised. He understood that Gerald Chisholm was a barrister, +and betting on the turf was not an amusement he would have associated +with that profession. + +"I must run up and see him by and by," he said thoughtfully. + +Evelyn felt sorry she had spoken. Gerald needed help, which his father +was not in a position to offer. Evelyn was not censorious of other +people's faults, but it was impossible to be blind to some aspects of her +brother's character, and she would have preferred that Vane should not +meet Gerald while the latter was embarrassed by financial difficulties. +She abruptly changed the subject. + +"Several of the things you have told me about your life in Canada +interest me. It must have been bracing to feel that you depended upon +your own efforts and stood on your own feet, free from the hampering +customs that are common here." + +"The position has its disadvantages. You have no family influence behind +you--nothing to fall back on. If you can't make good your footing, you +must go down. It's curious that just before I came over here, a lady I +met in Vancouver expressed an opinion very much like yours. She said it +must be pleasant to feel that one is, to some extent at least, master of +one's fate." + +"Then she merely explained my meaning more clearly than I have done." + +"One could have imagined that she had everything she could reasonably +wish for. If I'm not transgressing, so have you. It's strange you should +both harbor the same idea." + +Evelyn smiled. + +"I don't think it's uncommon among young women nowadays. There's a +grandeur in the thought that one's fate lies in the hands of the high +unseen Powers; but to allow one's life to be molded by the prejudices and +preconceptions of one's--neighbors is a different matter. Besides, if +unrest and human striving were sent, was it only that they should be +repressed?" + +Vane sat silent a moment or two. He had noticed the brief pause and +fancied that she had changed one of the words that followed it. He did +not think that it was the opinions of her neighbors against which she +chafed most. + +"It's something that I've never experienced," he replied at length. "In a +general way, I've done what I wanted." + +"Which is a privilege that is denied us." + +Evelyn spoke without bitterness. + +"What do women who are left to their own resources do in western Canada?" +she asked presently. + +"Some of them marry; I suppose that's the most natural thing," answered +Vane, with an air of reflection that amused her. "Anyway, they have +plenty of opportunities. There's a preponderating number of unattached +young men in the newly opened parts of the Dominion." + +"Things are different here; or perhaps we require more than they do +across the Atlantic. What becomes of the others?" + +"They are waitresses in the hotels; they learn stenography and +typewriting, and go into offices and stores." + +"And earn just enough to live upon meagerly? If their wages are high, +they must pay out more. That follows, doesn't it?" + +"To some extent." + +"Is there nothing better open to them?" + +"No; not unless they're trained for it and become specialized. That +implies peculiar abilities and a systematic education with one end in +view. You can't enter the arena to fight for the higher prizes unless +you're properly armed. The easiest way for a woman to acquire power and +influence is by a judicious marriage. No doubt, it's the same here." + +"It is," laughed Evelyn. "A man is more fortunately situated." + +"Probably; but if he's poor, he's rather walled in, too. He breaks +through now and then; and in the newer countries he gets an opportunity." + +Vane abstractedly examined his pipe, which he had not lighted yet. It was +clear that the girl was dissatisfied with her surroundings, and had for +some reason temporarily relaxed the restraint she generally laid upon +herself; but he felt that, if she were wise, she would force herself to +be content. She was of too fine a fiber to plunge into the struggle that +many women had to wage. Though he did not doubt her courage, she had not +been trained for it. He had noticed that among men it was the cruder and +less developed organizations that proved hardiest in adverse situations; +one needed a strain of primitive vigor. There was, it seemed, only one +means of release for Evelyn, and that was a happy marriage. But a +marriage could not be happy unless the suitor should be all that she +desired; and Evelyn would be fastidious, though her family would, no +doubt, look only for wealth and station. Vane imagined that this was +where the trouble lay, and he felt a protective pity for her. He would +wait and keep his eyes open. + +Presently there was a rattle of wheels outside and the landlord came in +and greeted them with rude cordiality. Shortly afterward Vane helped +Evelyn into the rig, and Bell drove them home through the rain. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +LUCY VANE + + +Bright sunshine streamed down out of a cloudless sky one afternoon +shortly after the ascent of the Pike. Vane stood talking with his sister +upon the terrace in front of the Dene. He leaned against the low wall, +frowning, for Lucy hitherto had avoided a discussion of the subject which +occupied their attention, and now, as he would have said, he could not +make her listen to reason. + +She stood in front of him, with the point of her parasol pressed firmly +into the gravel and her lips set, though in her eyes there was a smile +which suggested forbearance. Lucy was tall and spare of figure; a year +younger than her brother; and of somewhat determined and essentially +practical character. She earned her living in a northern manufacturing +town by lecturing on domestic economy, for the public authorities. Vane +understood that she also received a small stipend as secretary to some +women's organization and that she took a part in suffrage propaganda. She +had a thin, forceful face, seldom characterized by repose. + +"After all," Vane broke out, "what I'm urging is a very natural thing. I +don't like to think of your being forced to work as you are doing, and +I've tried to show you that it wouldn't cost me any self-denial to make +you an allowance. There's no reason why you should be at the beck and +call of those committees any longer." + +Lucy's smile grew plainer. + +"I don't think that quite describes my position." + +"It's possible," Vane agreed with a trace of dryness. "No doubt, you +insist that the chairman or lady president give way to you; but this +doesn't affect the question. You have to work, anyway." + +"But I like it; and it keeps me in some degree of comfort." + +The man turned impatiently and glanced about him. The front of the old +gray house was flooded with light, and the mossy sward below the terrace +glowed luminously green. The shadows of the hollies and cypresses were +thin and unsubstantial, but where a beech overarched the grass, Evelyn +and Mrs. Chisholm. attired in light draperies, reclined in basket chairs. +Carroll, in thin gray tweed, stood near them, talking to Mabel, and +Chisholm sat on a bench with a newspaper in his hand. He looked half +asleep, and a languorous stillness pervaded the whole scene. Beyond it, +the tarn shone dazzlingly, and in the distance ranks of rugged fells +towered, dim and faintly blue. All that the eye rested on spoke of an +unbroken tranquillity. + +"Wouldn't you like this kind of thing, as well?" Vane asked. "Of course, +I mean what it implies--the power to take life easy and get as much +enjoyment as possible out of it. It wouldn't be difficult, if you'd only +take what I'd be glad to give you." He indicated the languid figures in +the foreground. "You could, for instance, spend your time among people of +this sort. After all, it's what you were meant to do." + +"Would that appeal to you?" + +"Oh, I like it in the meantime," he evaded. + +"Well," Lucy returned curtly, "I believe I'm more at home with the other +kind of people--those in poverty, squalor and ignorance. I've an idea +that they have a stronger claim on me; but that's not a point I can urge. +The fact is, I've chosen my career, and there are practical reasons why I +shouldn't abandon it. I had a good deal of trouble in getting a footing, +and if I fell out now, it would be harder still to take my place in the +ranks again." + +"But you wouldn't require to do so." + +"I can't be sure. I don't want to hurt you; but, after all, your success +was sudden, and one understands that it isn't wise to depend on an income +derived from mining properties." + +Vane frowned. + +"None of you ever did believe in me!" + +"I suppose there's some truth in that. You really did give us trouble, +you know. Somehow, you were different--you wouldn't fit in; though I +believe the same thing applied to me, for that matter." + +"And now you don't expect my prosperity to last?" + +The girl hesitated, but she was candid by nature. + +"Perhaps I'd better answer. You have it in you to work determinedly and, +when it's necessary, to do things that men with less courage would shrink +from; but I'm doubtful whether yours is the temperament that leads to +success. You haven't the huckster's instincts; you're not cold-blooded +enough; you wouldn't cajole your friends nor truckle to your enemies." + +"If I adopted the latter course, it would certainly be against the +grain," Vane confessed. + +Lucy laughed. + +"Well, I mean to go on earning my living; but you may take me up to +London for a few days, if you want to, and buy me some hats and things. +Then I don't mind your giving something to the Emancipation Society." + +"I am not sure that I believe in emancipation; but you may have +ten guineas." + +"Thank you." + +Lucy glanced around toward Carroll, who was approaching them with Mabel. + +"I'll give you a piece of advice," she added. "Stick to that man. He's +cooler and less headstrong than you are; he'll prove a useful friend." + +"What are you two talking about?" asked Carroll. "You look animated." + +"Wallace has just promised me ten guineas to assist the movement for the +emancipation of women." Lucy answered pointedly. "Our society's efforts +are sadly restricted by the lack of funds." + +"Vane is now and then a little inconsequential in his generosity," +Carroll rejoined. "I didn't know he was interested in that kind of thing; +but as I don't like to be outdone by my partner, I'll subscribe the same. +By the way, why do you people reckon these things in guineas?" + +"Thanks," smiled Lucy, making an entry in a notebook in a businesslike +manner. "As you said it was a subscription, you'll hear from us next +year. In answer to your question, it's an ancient custom, and it has the +advantage that you get in the extra shillings." + +They strolled along the terrace together, and as they went down the steps +to the lawn Carroll turned to her with a smile. + +"Have you tackled Chisholm yet?" + +"I never waste powder and shot," Lucy replied tersely. "A man of his +restricted views would sooner subscribe handsomely to a movement to +put us down." + +"Are you regretting the ten guineas, Vane?" Carroll questioned +laughingly. "You don't look pleased." + +"The fact is, I wanted to do something that wasn't allowed. I've met with +the same disillusionment here as I did in British Columbia." + +Lucy looked up at her brother. + +"Did you attempt to give somebody money there?" + +"I did. It's not worth discussing; and, anyway, she wouldn't +listen to me." + +They strolled on, Vane frowning, while Carroll, noticing signs of +suppressed interest in Lucy's face, smiled unobserved. Neither he nor the +others thought of Mabel, who was following them. + +Some time after they joined the others, Carroll lay back in a deep chair, +with his half-closed eyes turned in Lucy's direction. + +"Are you asleep, or thinking hard?" Mrs. Chisholm asked him. + +"Not more than half asleep," he laughed. "I was trying to remember _A +Dream of Fair Women_. It's a suitable occupation for a drowsy summer +afternoon in a place like this, but I must confess that it was Miss Vane +who put it into my head. She reminded me of one or two of the heroines +when she was championing the cause of the suffragist." + +"You mustn't imagine that Englishwomen in general sympathize with her, +or that such ideas are popular at the Dene." + +Carroll smiled reassuringly. + +"I shouldn't have imagined the latter for a moment. But, as I said, on an +afternoon of this kind one may be excused for indulging in romantic +fancies. Don't you see what brought those old-time heroines into my mind? +I mean the elusive resemblance to their latter-day prototype?" + +Mrs. Chisholm looked puzzled. + +"No," she declared. "One of them was Greek, another early English, and +the finest of all was the Hebrew maid. As they couldn't have been like +one another, how could they, collectively, have borne a resemblance to +anybody else?" + +"That's logical, on the surface. To digress, why do you most admire +Jephthah's daughter, the gentle Gileadite?" + +His hostess affected surprise. + +"Isn't it evident, when one remembers her patient sacrifice; her fine +sense of family honor?" + +Carroll felt that this was much the kind of sentiment one could have +expected from her; and he did her the justice to believe that it was +genuine and that she was capable of living up to her convictions. His +glance rested on Vane for a moment, and the latter was startled as he +guessed Carroll's thought. + +Evelyn sat near him, reclining languidly in a wicker chair. She had been +silent, and now that her face was in repose the signs of reserve and +repression were plainer than ever. There was, however, pride in it, and +Vane felt that she was endowed with a keener and finer sense of family +honor than her thin-lipped mother. Her brother's career was threatened +by the results of his own imprudence, and though her father could hardly +be compared with the Gileadite warrior, there was, Vane fancied, a +disturbing similarity between the two cases. It was unpleasant to +contemplate the possibility of this girl's being called upon to bear the +cost of her relatives' misfortunes or follies. + +Carroll looked across at Lucy with a smile. + +"You won't agree with Mrs. Chisholm?" he suggested. + +"No," answered Lucy firmly. "Leaving out the instance in question, there +are too many people who transgress and then expect somebody else--a +woman, generally--to serve as a sacrifice." + +"I don't agree, either," Mabel broke in. "I'd sooner have been Cleopatra, +or Joan of Arc--only she was burned, poor thing." + +"That was only what she might have expected. An unpleasant fate +generally overtakes people who go about disturbing things," Mrs. +Chisholm said severely. + +The speech was characteristic, and the others smiled. It would have +astonished them had Mrs. Chisholm sympathized with the rebel idealist +whose beckoning visions led to the clash of arms. + +"Aren't you getting off the track," Vane asked Carroll. "I don't see the +drift of your previous remarks." + +"Well," drawled Carroll, "there must be, I think, a certain distinctive +stamp upon those who belong to the leader type--I mean the people who are +capable of doing striking and heroic things. Apart from this, I've been +studying you English--I've been over here before--and it has struck me +that there's occasionally something imperious, or rather imperial, in +the faces of your women in the most northern counties. I can't define the +thing, but it's there--in the line of nose, in the mouth, and, I think, +most marked in the brows. It's not Saxon, nor Norse, nor Danish; I'd +sooner call it Roman." + +Vane was slightly astonished. He had seen that look in Evelyn's face, and +now, for the first time, he recognized it in his sister's. + +"Perhaps you have hit it," he said with a laugh. "You can reach the Wall +from here in a day's ride." + +"The Wall?" + +"The Roman Wall; Hadrian's Wall. I believe one authority states that they +had a garrison of one hundred thousand men to keep it." + +Chisholm joined the group. He was a tall, rather florid-faced man, with a +formal manner, and was dressed immaculately in creaseless clothes. + +"The point Wallace raises is interesting," he remarked. "While I don't +know how long it takes for a strain to die out, there must have been a +large civil population living near the Wall, and we know that the +characteristics of the Teutonic peoples who followed the Romans still +remain. On the other hand, some of the followers were vexillaries, from +the bounds of the Empire; Gauls, for example, or Iberians." + +When, later on, the group broke up, Evelyn was left alone for a few +minutes with Mabel. + +"Gerald should have been sent to Canada instead of to Oxford," the +younger girl declared. "Then he might have got as rich as Wallace Vane +and Mr. Carroll." + +"What makes you think they're rich?" Evelyn asked with reproof in her +tone. + +Mabel grimaced. + +"Oh, we all knew they were rich before they came. They were giving Lucy +guineas for the suffragists an hour ago. They must have a good deal of +money to waste it like that. Besides, I think Wallace wanted her to take +some more; and he seemed quite vexed when he said he'd tried to give +money to somebody else in Canada who wouldn't have it. As he said 'she,' +it must have been a woman, but I don't think he meant to mention that. It +slipped out." + +"You had no right to listen," Evelyn retorted severely; but the +information sank into her mind, and she afterward remembered it. + +She rose when the sunshine, creeping farther across the grass, fell upon +her, and Vane carried her chair, as well as those of the others, who were +strolling back toward them, into the shadow. This she thought was typical +of the man. He seemed happiest when he was doing something. By and by a +chance remark of her mother's once more set Carroll to discoursing +humorously. + +"After all," he contended, "it's difficult to obey a purely arbitrary +rule of conduct. Several of the philosophers seem to have decided that +the origin of virtue is utility." + +"Utility?" Chisholm queried. + +"Yes; utility to one's neighbors or the community at large. For +instance, I desire an apple growing on somebody else's tree--one of the +big red apples that hang over the roadside in Ontario. Now the longing +for the fruit is natural, and innocent in itself; the trouble is that +if it were indulged in and gratified by every person who passed along +the road, the farmer would abandon the cultivation of his orchard. He +would neither plant nor prune his trees, except for the expectation of +enjoying what they yield. The offense, accordingly, concerns everybody +who enjoys apples." + +Mrs. Chisholm smiled assent. + +"I believe that idea is the basis of our minor social and domestic +codes. Even when they're illogical in particular cases, they're +necessary in general." + +Evelyn looked across at Vane, as if to invite his opinion, and he knit +his brows. + +"I don't think Carroll's correct. The traditional view, which, as I +understand it, is that the sense of right is innate, ingrained in man's +nature, seems more reasonable. I'll give you two instances. There was a +man in charge of a little mine. He had had the crudest education, and no +moral training, but he was an excellent miner. Well, he was given a hint +that it was not desirable the mine should turn out much paying ore." + +"But why wasn't it required to produce as much as possible?" +Evelyn asked. + +"I believe that somebody wanted to break down the value of the shares and +afterward quietly buy them up. Anyway, though he knew it would result in +his dismissal, the man I mentioned drove the boys his hardest. He worked +savagely, taking risks he could have avoided by spending a little more +time in precautions, in a badly timbered tunnel. He didn't reason--he was +hardly capable of it--but he got the most out of the mine." + +"It was fine of him!" Evelyn exclaimed. + +"The engineer of a collier figures in the next case." Vane went on. "The +engines were clumsy and badly finished, but the man spent his care and +labor on them until I think he loved them. His only trouble was that he +was sent to sea with second-rate oils and stores. After a while they grew +so bad that he could hardly use them; and he had reasons for believing +that a person who could dismiss or promote him was getting a big +commission on the goods. He was a plain, unreasoning man; but he would +not cripple his engines; and at last he condemned the stores and made the +skipper purchase supplies he could use, at double the usual prices, in a +foreign port. There could be only one result; he was driving a pump in a +mine when I last met him." + +He paused, and added quietly: + +"It wasn't logic, it wasn't even conventional morality, that impelled +these men. It was something that was part of them. What's more, men of +their type are more common than the cynics believe." + +Carroll smiled good-humoredly; and when the party sauntered toward the +house, he walked beside Evelyn. + +"There's one point that Wallace omitted to mention in connection with his +tales," he remarked. "The things he narrated are precisely those which, +on being given the opportunity, he would have pleasure in doing himself." + +"Why pleasure? I could understand his doing them, but I'd expect him to +feel some reluctance." + +Carroll's eyes twinkled. + +"He gets indignant now and then. Virtuous people are generally content to +resist temptation, but Wallace is apt to attack the tempter. I dare say +it isn't wise, but that's the kind of man he is." + +"Ah! One couldn't find fault with the type. But I wonder why you have +taken the trouble to tell me this?" + +"Really, I don't know. Somehow, I have an impression that I ought to say +what I can in Wallace's favor, if only because he brought me here, and I +feel like talking when I can get a sympathetic listener." + +"I shouldn't have imagined the latter was indispensable," laughed Evelyn. +"Is this visit all you owe Wallace?" + +"No, indeed. In many ways, I owe him a good deal more. He has no idea of +this, but it doesn't lessen my obligation. By the way, it struck me that +in many respects Miss Vane is rather like her brother." + +"Lucy is opinionative, and now and then embarrassingly candid, but she +leads a life that most of us would shrink from. It isn't necessary that +she should do so--family friends would have arranged things +differently--and the tasks she's paid for are less than half her labors. +I believe she generally gets abuse as a reward for the rest." + +Then Mabel joined them and took possession of Carroll, and Evelyn +strolled on alone, thinking of what he had told her. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +CHISHOLM PROVES AMENABLE + + +Vane spent a month at the Dene, with quiet satisfaction, and when at last +he left for London and Paris he gladly promised to come back for another +few weeks before he sailed for Canada. He stayed some time in Paris, +because Carroll insisted on it, but it was with eagerness that he went +north again late in the autumn. For one reason--and he laid some stress +upon this--he longed for the moorland air and the rugged fells, though he +admitted that Evelyn's society enhanced their charm for him. + +At last, shortly before he set out on the journey, he took himself to +task and endeavored to determine precisely the nature of his feelings +toward her; but he signally failed to elucidate the point. It was clear +only that he was more contented in her presence, and that, apart from her +physical comeliness, she had a stimulating effect upon his mental +faculties. Then he wondered how she regarded him; and to this question he +could find no answer. She had treated him with a quiet friendliness, and +had to some extent taken him into her confidence. For the most part, +however, there was a reserve about her that he found more piquant than +deterrent, and he was conscious that, while willing to talk with him +freely, she was still holding him off at arm's length. + +On the whole, he could not be absolutely sure that he desired to get +much nearer. Though he failed to recognize this clearly, his attitude +was largely one of respectful admiration, tinged with a vein of +compassion. Evelyn was unhappy, and out of harmony with her relatives; +and he could understand this more readily because their ideas +occasionally jarred on him. + +One morning, about a fortnight after they returned to the Dene, Vane +and Carroll walked out of the hamlet where the wheelwright's shop +was. Sitting down on the wall of a bridge, Vane opened the telegram +in his hand. + +"I think you have Nairn's code in your wallet," he said. "We'll decipher +the thing." + +Carroll laid the message on a smooth stone and set to work with a pencil. + +"_Situation highly satisfactory_." + +He broke off, to chuckle a comment. + +"It must be, if Nairn paid for an extra word--highly's not in the code." + +Then he went on with the deciphering: + +"_Result of reduction exceeds anticipations. Stock thirty premium. Your +presence not immediately required_." + +"That's distinctly encouraging," declared Vane. "Now that they are +getting farther in, the ore must be carrying more silver." + +"It strikes me as fortunate. I ran through the bank account last night, +and there's no doubt that you have spent a good deal of money. It +confirms my opinion that you have mighty expensive friends." + +Vane frowned, but Carroll continued undeterred. + +"You want pulling up, after the way you have been indulging in a reckless +extravagance which, I feel compelled to point out, is new to you. The +check drawn in favor of Gerald Chisholm rather astonished me. Have you +said anything about it to his relatives?" + +"I haven't." + +"Then, judging by the little I saw of him, I should consider it most +unlikely that he has made any allusion to the matter. The next check was +even more surprising--I mean the one you gave his father." + +"They were both loans. Chisholm offered me security." + +"Unsalable stock, or a mortgage on property that carries another charge! +Have you any idea of getting the money back?" + +"What has that to do with you?" + +Carroll spread out his hands. + +"Only this: It strikes me that you need looking after. We can't stay here +indefinitely. Hadn't you better get back to Vancouver before your English +friends ruin you?" + +"I'll go in three or four weeks; not before." + +Carroll sat silent a minute or two, and then looked his companion +squarely in the face. + +"Is it your intention to marry Evelyn Chisholm?" + +"I don't know what has put that into your mind." + +"I should be a good deal astonished if it hadn't suggested itself to her +family," Carroll retorted. + +Vane looked thoughtful. + +"I'm far from sure that it's an idea they would entertain with any great +favor. For one thing, I can't live here." + +Carroll laughed. + +"Try them, and see. Show them Nairn's telegram when you mention +the matter." + +Vane swung himself down from the wall. During the past two weeks he had +seen a good deal of Evelyn, and his regard for her had rapidly grown +stronger. Now that news that his affairs were prospering had reached him, +he suddenly made up his mind. + +"It's very possible that I may do so," he informed his comrade. "We'll +get along." + +His heart beat a little more rapidly than usual as they turned back +toward the house, but he was perfectly composed when some time later he +sat down beside Chisholm, who was lounging away the morning on the lawn. + +"I've been across to the village for a telegram I expected," he said, +handing Chisholm the deciphered message. "It occurred to me that you +might be interested. The news is encouraging." + +Chisholm read it with inward satisfaction. When he laid it down he had +determined on the line he meant to follow. + +"You're a fortunate man. There's probably no reasonable wish that you +can't gratify." + +"There are things one can't buy with money," Vane replied. + +"That is very true. They're often the most valuable. On the other hand, +some of them may now and then be had for the asking. Besides, when one +has a sanguine temperament and a determination, it's difficult to believe +that anything one sets one's heart on is quite unattainable." + +Vane wondered whether he had been given a hint. Chisholm's manner was +suggestive, and Carroll's remarks had had an effect on him. He sat +silent, and Chisholm continued: + +"If I were in your place, I should feel that I had all that I could +desire within my reach." + +Vane was becoming sure that his comrade had been right. Chisholm would +not have harped on the same idea unless he had intended to convey some +particular meaning; but the man's methods roused Vane's dislike. He could +face opposition, and he would rather have been discouraged than +judiciously prompted. + +"Then if I offered myself as a suitor for Evelyn, you would not think me +presumptuous?" + +Chisholm was somewhat astonished at his abruptness, but he smiled +reassuringly. + +"No; I can't see why I should do so. You are in a position to maintain a +wife in comfort, and I don't think anybody could take exception to your +character." He paused a moment. "I suppose you have some idea of how +Evelyn regards you?" + +"Not the faintest. That's the trouble." + +"Would you like Mrs. Chisholm or myself to mention the matter?" + +"No," answered Vane decidedly. "In fact, I must ask you not to do +anything of the kind. I only wished to make sure of your good will, and +now that I'm satisfied on that point, I'd rather wait and speak--when it +seems judicious." + +Chisholm nodded. + +"I dare say that would be wisest. There is nothing to be gained by being +precipitate." + +Vane thanked him, and waited. He fancied that the transaction--that +seemed the best name for it--was not completed yet; but he meant to +leave the matter to his companion; he would not help the man. + +"There's something that had better be mentioned now, distasteful as it +is," Chisholm said at length. "I can settle nothing upon Evelyn. As you +must have guessed, my affairs are in a far from promising state. Indeed, +I'm afraid I may have to ask your indulgence when the loan falls due; and +I don't mind confessing that the prospect of Evelyn's making what I think +is a suitable marriage is a relief to me." + +Vane's feelings were somewhat mixed, but contempt figured prominently +among them. He could find no fault with Chisholm's desire to safeguard +his daughter's future, but he was convinced that the man looked for more +than this. He felt that he had been favored with a delicate hint to which +his companion expected an answer. He was sorry for Evelyn, and was +ashamed of the position he was forced to take. + +"Well," he replied curtly, "you need not be concerned about the loan; I'm +not likely to prove a pressing creditor. To go a little farther, I should +naturally take an interest in the welfare of my wife's relatives. I don't +think I can say anything more in the meanwhile." + +When he saw Chisholm's smile, he felt that he might have spoken more +plainly without offense; but the elder man looked satisfied. + +"Those are the views I expected you to hold," he declared. "I believe +that Mrs. Chisholm will share my gratification if you find Evelyn +disposed to listen to you." + +Vane left him shortly afterward with a sense of shame. He felt that he +had bought the girl, and that, if she ever heard of it, she would find it +hard to forgive him for the course he had taken. When he met Carroll he +was frowning. + +"I've had a talk with Chisholm," he said. "It has upset my temper--I feel +mean! There's no doubt that you were right." + +Carroll's smile showed that he could guess what was in his +comrade's mind. + +"I shouldn't worry too much about the thing. The girl probably +understands the situation. It's not altogether pleasant, but I dare say +she's more or less resigned to it. She can't help herself." + +Vane gazed at him with anger. + +"Does that make it any better? Is it any comfort to me?" + +"Take her out of it. If she has any liking for you, she'll thank you for +doing so." + +Vane strode away, and nobody saw him again for an hour or two. In the +afternoon, however, at Mrs. Chisholm's suggestion, he and Carroll set out +with the girls for a hill beyond the tarn. + +It was a perfect day of late autumn. A pale golden haze softened the +rugged outlines of crag and fell, which towered in purple masses against +a sky of stainless azure. Warm sunshine flooded the valley, glowing on +the gold and crimson that flecked the lower beech sprays and turning the +leaves of the brambles to points of ruby flame. Here and there white +limestone ridges flung back the light, and the tarn gleamed like molten +silver when a faint puff of wind traced a dark blue smear athwart its +surface. The winding road was thick with dust, and a deep stillness +brooded over everything. + +By and by, however, a couple of whip-cracks rose from beyond a dip of the +road and were followed by a shout in a woman's voice and a sharp clatter +of iron on stone. + +"Oh!" cried Mabel, when they reached the brow of the descent, "the poor +thing can't get up! What a shame to give it such a load!" + +The road fell sharply between ragged hedgerows, and near the foot of the +hill a pony was struggling vainly to move a cart. The vehicle was heavily +loaded, and while the animal strained and floundered, a woman struck it +with a whip. + +"Its Mrs. Hoggarth; her husband's the carrier," Mabel explained. "Come +on! We must stop her! She mustn't beat the pony like that!" + +Vane strode down the hill, and when they approached the cart Mabel called +indignantly to the woman. + +"Stop! You oughtn't to do that! The load's too heavy! Where's Hoggarth?" + +Vane seized one rein close up to the bit and turned the pony until +the cart was across the road. When he had done so, the woman looked +around at Mabel. + +"Wheel went over his foot last night. He canna get on his boot. I'm none +fond of beating pony, but bank's steep and we mun gan up. The folks mun +have their things." + +Vane glanced at the pony, which stood with lowered head and heaving +flank. It was evident that the animal could do no more. + +"There's only one way out of the trouble," he said. "We must pack some of +this truck to the top. What's in those bags?" + +"One's oats," answered the woman. "It's four bushel. Other one's linseed +cake. Those slates for Bell's new stable are the heaviest." + +Carroll came up with Evelyn just then, and Vane spoke to him. + +"Come here and help me with this bag!" + +They had it ready at the back of the cart in a few moments, and Evelyn, +who knew that a four-bushel bag of oats is difficult to move, was +astonished at the ease with which they handled it. Vane got the bag upon +his back and walked up the hill with it. The veins stood out on his +forehead and his face grew red, but he plodded steadily on and came back +for another load. + +"I'll take an armful of the slates this time, Carroll. You can tackle +the cake." + +The cake was heavy, though the bag was not full, and when they returned, +Carroll was breathing hard and there were smears of blood on one of +Vane's hands. The old woman gazed at him in amazed admiration. + +"Thank you, sir," she said. "There's not many men wad carry four bushel +up a bank like that." + +Vane laughed. + +"I'm used to it. Now I think that we can face the hill." + +He seized the rein, and after a flounder or two the pony started the load +and struggled up the ascent. Leaving the woman at the top, voluble with +thanks, Vane came down and sauntered on again with Mabel. + +"I made sure you would drop that bag until I saw how you got hold of it, +and then I knew you would manage," she informed him. "You see, I've +watched the men at Scarside mill. I didn't want you to drop it." + +"I wonder why?" laughed Vane. + +"If you do, you must be stupid. We're friends, aren't we? I like my +friends to be able to do anything that other folks can. That's partly why +I took to you." + +Vane made her a ceremonious bow and they went on, chatting lightly. When +they came to a sweep of climbing moor, they changed companions, for Mabel +led Carroll off in search of plants and ferns. Farther on, Evelyn sat +down upon a heathy bank, and Vane found a place on a stone beside a +trickling rill. + +"It's pleasant here, and I like the sun," she explained. "Besides, it's +still a good way to the top, and I generally feel discontented when I get +there. There are other peaks much higher--one wants to go on." + +Vane smiled in comprehension. + +"Yes," he agreed. "On and always on! It's the feeling that drives the +prospector. We seem to have the same thoughts on a good many points." + +Evelyn did not answer this. + +"I was glad you got that cart up the hill. What made you think of it?" + +"The pony was played out, though it was a plucky beast. I suppose I felt +sorry for it. I've been driven hard myself." + +The girl's eyes softened. She had seen him use his strength, though it +was, she imagined, the strength of determined will and disciplined body +rather than bulk of muscle, for the man was hard and lean. The strength +also was associated with a gentleness and a sympathy with the lower +creation that appealed to her. + +"How hard were you driven?" she asked. + +"Sometimes, until I could scarcely crawl back to my tent or the +sleeping-shack at night. Out yonder, construction bosses and contractors' +foremen are skilled in getting the utmost value of every dollar out of a +man. I've had my hands worn to raw wounds and half my knuckles bruised +until it was almost impossible to bend them." + +"Were you compelled to work like that?" + +"I thought so. It seemed to be the custom of the country; one had to get +used to it." + +Evelyn hesitated a moment; though she was interested. + +"But was there nothing easier? Had you no money?" + +"Very little, as a rule; and what I had I tried to keep. It was to give +me a start in life. It was hard to resist the temptation to use some of +it now and then, but I held out." He laughed grimly. "After all, I +suppose it was excellent discipline." + +The girl made a sign of comprehending sympathy. There was a romance in +the man's career which had its effect on her, and she could recognize the +strength of will which had held him to the laborious tasks he might have +shirked while the money lasted. Then a stain on the sleeve of his jacket +caught her eye. + +"You have hurt your hand!" she exclaimed. + +Vane glanced down at his hand, which was reddened all over. + +"It looks like it; those slates must have cut it." + +"Hadn't you better wash it and tie it up? It seems a nasty cut." + +He dipped his hand into the rill, and was fumbling awkwardly with his +handkerchief when she stopped him. + +"That won't do! Let me fix it for you." + +Rolling up her own handkerchief, she wet it and laid it on his palm, +across which a red gash ran. He had moved close to her, stooping down, +and a disturbing thrill ran through him as she held his hand. Once more, +however, he was troubled by a sense of compunction as he recalled his +interview with Chisholm. + +"Thank you," he said abruptly when she finished. + +There were signs of tension in his face, and she drew a little away from +him when he sat down again. For a few moments he struggled with himself. +They were alone; he had her father's consent; and he knew that what he +had done half an hour ago had appealed to her. But he felt that he could +not plead his cause just then. With her parents on his side, she was at a +disadvantage; and he shrank from the thought that she might be forced +upon him against her will. This was not what he desired; and she might +hate him for it afterward. She was very alluring, there had been signs of +an unusual gentleness in her manner, and the light touch of her cool +fingers had stirred his blood; but he wanted time to win her favor, aided +only by such gifts as he had been endowed with. It cost him a determined +effort, but he made up his mind to wait; and it was a relief to him when +the approach of Mabel and Carroll rendered any confidential conversation +out of the question. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +WITH THE OTTER HOUNDS + + +A week or two had slipped away since Vane cut his hand. He lounged one +morning upon the terrace, chatting with Carroll. It was a heavy, black +morning; the hills were hidden by wrappings of leaden mist, and the still +air was charged with moisture. + +Suddenly a long, faint howl came up the valley and was answered by +another in a deeper note. Then a confused swelling clamor broke out, +softened by the distance, and slightly resembling the sound of chiming +bells. Carroll stopped and listened. + +"What in the name of wonder is that?" he asked. "The first of it reminded +me of a coyote howling, but the rest's more like the noise the timber +wolves make in the bush at night." + +"You haven't made a bad shot," Vane laughed. "It's a pack of otter hounds +hot upon the scent." + +The sound ceased as suddenly as it had begun; and a few moments later +Mabel came running toward the men. + +"I knew the hounds met at Patten Brig, but Jim was sure they'd go +down-stream!" she cried breathlessly. "They're coming up! I think they're +at the pool below the village! Get two poles--you'll find some in the +tool-shed--and come along at once!" + +She climbed into the house through a window, calling for Evelyn, and +Carroll smiled. + +"We have our orders. I suppose we'd better go." + +"It's one of the popular sports up here," Vane replied. "You may as +well see it." + +They set out a few minutes later, accompanied by Evelyn, while Mabel +hurried on in front and reproached them for their tardiness. Sometimes +they heard the hounds, sometimes a hoarse shouting that traveled far +through the still air, and then sometimes there was only the tremulous +song of running water. At length, after crossing several wet fields, they +came to a rushy meadow on the edge of the river, which spread out into a +wide pool, fringed with alders which had not yet lost their leaves and +the barer withes of osiers. There was a swift stream at the head of it, +and a long rippling shallow at the tail; and scattered along the bank and +in the water was a curiously mixed company. + +A red-coated man with whip and horn stood in the tail outflow, and three +or four more with poles in their hands were spread out across the stream +behind him. These, and one or two in the head stream, appeared by their +dress to belong to the hunt; but the rest, among whom were a few women, +were attired in every-day garments and were of different walks in life: +artisans, laborers, people of leisure, and a late tourist or two. + +Three or four big hounds were swimming aimlessly up and down the pool; a +dozen more trotted to and fro along the water's edge, stopping to sniff +and give tongue in an uncertain manner now and then; but there was no +sign of an otter. + +Carroll looked round with a smile when his companions stopped. + +"It strikes me there'll be very little work done in this neighborhood +to-day," he remarked. "I'd no idea there were so many people in the +valley with time to spare. The only thing that's missing is the beast +they're after." + +"An otter is an almost invisible creature," Evelyn explained. "You very +seldom see one, unless it's hard pressed by the dogs. There are a good +many in the river, but even the trout fishers, who are about at sunrise +in the hot weather and wade in the dusk, rarely come across them. Are you +going to take a share in the hunt?" + +"No," replied Carroll, glancing humorously at his pole. "I don't know +why I brought this thing, unless it was because Mopsy sent me for it. +I'd rather stay and watch with you. Splashing through a river after a +little beast that I don't suppose they'd let an outsider kill doesn't +interest me. I don't see why I should want to kill it, anyway. Some of +you English people have sporting ideas I can't understand. I struck a +young man the other day--a well-educated man by the looks of him--who +was spending the afternoon happily with a ferret by a corn stack, +killing rats with a club. He seemed uncommonly pleased with himself +because he'd got four of them." + +"Oh," chided Mabel, "you're as bad as the silly people who call killing +things cruel! I wouldn't have thought it of you!" + +Vane laughed. + +"I've seen him drop a deer with a single-shot rifle when it was going +through thick brush almost as fast as a locomotive; and I believe that he +once assisted in killing a panther in a thicket where you couldn't see +two yards ahead. The point is that he meant to eat the deer--and the +panther had been taking a rancher's hogs." + +"I'm sorry I brought him," Mabel pouted. "He's not a sportsman." + +"I really think there's some excuse for the more vigorous sports," Evelyn +maintained. "Of course, you can't eliminate a certain amount of cruelty; +but, admitting that, isn't it just as well that men who live in a +luxurious civilization should be willing to plod through miles of heather +after grouse, risk their limbs on horseback, or spend hours in cold +water? These are bracing things; they imply some moral discipline. It +really can't be nice to ride at a dangerous fence, or to flounder down a +rapid after an otter when you're stiff with cold. The effort to do so +must be wholesome." + +"A sure thing," Carroll agreed. "The only trouble is that when you've got +your fox or otter, it isn't worth anything. A good many of the people in +the newer lands, every day, have to make something of the kind of effort +you describe. In their case, the results are wagon trails, valleys +cleared for orchards, or new branch railroads. I suppose it's a matter of +opinion, but if I'd put in a season's risky work, I'd rather have a piece +of land to grow fruit on or a share in a mineral claim--you get plenty of +excitement in prospecting for that--than a fox's tail." + +He strolled along the bank with Evelyn, following the hunt up-stream. +Suddenly he looked around. + +"Mopsy's gone; and I don't see Vane." + +"After all, he's one of us," Evelyn laughed. "If you're born in the +North Country, it's hard to keep out of the river when you hear the +otter hounds." + +"But Mopsy's not going in!" + +"I'm afraid I can't answer for her." + +They took up their station behind a growth of alders, and for a while +the dogs went trotting by in twos and threes or swam about the pool, +but nothing else broke the surface of the leaden-colored water. Then +there was a cry, an outbreak of shouting, a confused baying, and half a +dozen hounds dashed past. More followed, heading up-stream along the +bank, with a tiny brown terrier panting behind them. Evelyn stretched +out her hand. + +"Look!" + +Carroll saw a small gray spot--the top of the otter's head--moving across +the slacker part of the pool, with a very slight, wedge-shaped ripple +trailing away from it. It sank the next moment; a bubble or two rose; and +then there was nothing but the smooth flow of water. + +A horn called shrilly; a few whip-cracks rang out like pistol-shots; and +the dogs took the water, swimming slowly here and there. Men scrambled +along the bank. Some, entering the river, reinforced the line spread out +across the head rapid while others joined the second row wading steadily +up-stream and splashing about as they advanced with iron-tipped poles. +Nothing rewarded their efforts. The dogs suddenly turned and went +down-stream; and then everybody ran or waded toward the tail outflow. A +clamor of shouting and baying broke out; and floundering men and swimming +dogs went down the stream together in a confused mass. There was a brief +silence. The hounds came out and trotted to and fro along the bank; and +dripping men clambered after them. + +Evelyn laughed as she pointed to Vane among the leading group. He looked +even wetter than the others. + +"I don't suppose he meant to go in. It's in the blood." + +"There's no reason why he shouldn't, if it amuses him," Carroll replied. +"When I first met him, he'd have been more careful of his clothes." + +A little later the dogs were driven in again, and this time the whole of +the otter's head was visible as it swam up-stream. The animal was +flagging, and on reaching shoaler water it sprang out altogether now and +then, rising and falling in the stronger stream with a curious +serpentine motion. In fact, as head and body bent in the same sinuous +curves, it looked less like an animal than a plunging fish. The men +guarding the rapid stood ready with their poles, and more were wading +and splashing up both sides of the pool. The otter's pace was getting +slower; sometimes it seemed to stop; and now and then it vanished among +the ripples. Carroll saw that Evelyn's face was intent, though there +were signs of shrinking in it. + +"I'll tell you what you are thinking," he said. "You want that poor +little beast to get away." + +"I believe I do," Evelyn confessed. "And you?" + +"I'm afraid I'm not much of a sportsman, in this sense." + +They watched with strained attention. The girl could not help it, though +she dreaded the climax. Her sympathies were now with the hard-pressed, +exhausted creature that was making a desperate fight for its life. The +pursuers were close upon it, the swimming dogs leading them; and ahead +lay a foaming rush of water which seemed less than a foot deep, with men +spread out across it. The shouting from the bank had ceased, and +everybody waited in tense expectancy when the otter disappeared. The dogs +reached the rapid, where they were washed back a few yards before they +could make headway up-stream. Men who came splashing close upon them left +the water to scramble along the bank; and then they stopped abruptly, +while the dogs swam in an uncertain manner about the still reach beyond. +They came out in a few minutes and scampered up and down among the +stones, evidently at fault, for there was no sign of the otter anywhere. +Incredible as it seemed, the hunted creature, an animal that would +probably weigh about twenty-four pounds, had crept up the rush of water +among the feet of those who watched for it and vanished unseen into the +sheltering depths beyond. + +Evelyn sighed with relief. + +"I think it will escape," she said. "The river's rather full after the +rain, which is against the dogs, and there isn't another shallow for some +distance. Shall we go on?" + +They strolled forward behind the dogs, which were again moving up-stream; +but they turned aside to avoid a bit of woods, and it was some time later +when they came out upon a rocky promontory dropping steeply to the river. +Just there, the water flowed through a deep gorge, down the sides of +which great oaks and ashes straggled. In front of Carroll and his +companion a ragged face of rock fell about twenty feet; but there was a +little soil among the stones below, and a dense growth of alders +interspersed with willows, fringed the water's edge. The stream swirled +in deep black eddies beneath their drooping branches, though a little +farther on it poured tumultuously between scattered boulders into the +slacker pool. The rock sloped on one side, and there was a bank of +underbrush near the foot of the descent. + +The hunt was now widely scattered about the reach. Men crept along +slippery ledges above the water and moved over dangerously slanting +slopes, half hidden among the trees; a few were in the river. Three or +four of the dogs were swimming; the others, spread out in twos and +threes, trotted in and out among the undergrowth. + +Presently, a figure creeping along the foot of the rock not far away +seized Carroll's attention. + +"It's Mopsy!" he exclaimed. "The foothold doesn't look very safe among +those stones, and there seems to be deep water below." + +He called out in warning, but the girl did not heed. The willows were +thinner at the spot she had reached, and, squeezing herself through them, +she leaned down, clinging to an alder branch. + +"He's gone to holt among the roots!" she cried. + +Three or four men running along the opposite bank apparently decided that +she was right, for the horn was sounded and here and there a dog broke +through the underbrush. Just as the first-comers reached the rapid, there +was a splash. It was a moment or two before Evelyn or Carroll, who had +been watching the dogs, realized what had happened; then the blood ebbed +from the girl's face. Mabel had disappeared. + +Running a few paces forward, Carroll saw what looked like a bundle of +outspread garments swing round in an eddy. It washed in among the +willows, and he heard a faint cry. + +"Help!--Quick! I've caught a branch!" + +He could not see the girl now, but an alder branch was bending sharply, +and he flung a rapid glance around him. The summit of the rock on which +he stood rose above the trees. Had there been a better landing, he would +have faced the risky fall, but it seemed impossible to alight among the +stones without a broken leg. Even if he came down uninjured, there was a +barrier of tangled branches and densely growing withes between him and +the river, and the opening through which Mabel had fallen was some +distance away. Farther down-stream, he might reach the water by a +reckless jump, as the promontory sloped toward it there, but he would not +be able to swim back against the current. His position was a painful one; +there was nothing that he could do. + +The next moment, men and dogs went scrambling and swimming down the +rapid. They were in hot pursuit of the otter, which had left its +hiding place, and it was evident that the girl, clinging to a branch +beneath the willows, had escaped their attention. Carroll shouted +savagely as his comrade appeared among the tail of the hunt below. The +others were too much occupied to heed; or perhaps they concluded that +he was urging them on. + +"Help! Mabel!" Carroll shouted again and again, gesticulating wildly in +his desperation. + +Vane, waist-deep in the water, seemed to catch the girl's name and +understand. In a few moments he was swimming down the pool along the edge +of the alders. Then Carroll saw that Evelyn expected him to take some +part in the rescue. + +"Get down before it's too late!" she cried. + +Carroll spread out his hands, as if to beg her forbearance. While every +impulse urged him to the leap, he endeavored to keep his head. He fancied +that he would be wanted later, and it was obvious that he would not be +available if he lay upon the rocks below with broken bones. + +"I can't do any good just now," he tried to explain, knowing that he was +right and yet feeling horribly ashamed. "She's holding on, and Wallace +will reach her in a moment or two." + +Evelyn broke out at him in an agony of fear and anger. + +"You coward! Will you let her drown?" + +She turned and ran forward, but Carroll, dreading that she meant to +attempt the descent, seized her shoulder and held her fast. While he +grappled with her, Vane's voice rose from below, and he let his +hands drop. + +"Wallace has her. There's no more danger," he said quietly. + +Evelyn suddenly recovered a small degree of calm. Even amid the stress of +her terror, she recognized the assurance in the man's tone. He had blind +confidence in his comrade's prowess, and his next words made this +impression clearer. + +"Don't be afraid. He'll never let go until he brings her out." + +Standing, breathless, a pace or two apart, they saw Vane and the girl +appear from beneath the willows and wash away down-stream. The man was +swimming, but he was hampered by his burden, and once he and Mabel sank +almost from sight in a whirling eddy. Carroll said nothing. Turning, he +ran along the sloping ridge until the fall was less and the trees were +thinner; then he leaped out into the air. He broke through the alders +amid a rustle of bending boughs, and disappeared; but a moment or two +later his shoulders shot out of the water close beside Vane, and the two +men went down the stream with Mabel between them. + +Evelyn scrambled wildly along the ridge, and when she reached the foot of +it, Vane was helping Mabel up the sloping bank of gravel. The girl's +drenched garments clung about her, and her wet hair was streaked across +her face, but she seemed able to stand. The hunt had swept on through +shoaler water, but there was a cheer from the stragglers across the +river. Evelyn clutched her sister, half laughing, half sobbing, and +incoherently upbraided her. Mabel shook herself free, and her first +remark was characteristic. + +"Oh, don't make a silly fuss! I'm only wet through. Wallace, take me +home." + +She tried to shake out her dripping skirt, and Vane picked her up, as she +seemed to expect it. The others followed when he pushed through the +underbrush toward a neighboring meadow. Evelyn, however, was still a +little unnerved, and when they reached a gap in a wall she stopped and +leaned heavily against the stones. + +"I think I'm more disturbed than Mopsy is," she said to Carroll. "What I +felt must be some excuse for me. You were right, of course. I'm sorry +for what I said; it was unjustifiable." + +Carroll laughed lightly. + +"Anyway, it was perfectly natural; but I must confess that I felt some +temptation to make a spectacular fool of myself. I might have jumped into +those alders, but it's most unlikely that I could have got out of them." + +Evelyn looked at him with a new respect. He had not troubled to point +out that he had not flinched from the jump when it seemed likely to be +of service. + +"How could you have the sense to think of that?" she asked. + +"I suppose it's a matter of practise. One can't work among the ranges and +rivers without learning to make the right decision rapidly. When you +don't, you get badly hurt. With most of us, the thing has to be +cultivated; it's not instinctive." + +Evelyn was struck by the explanation. This acquired coolness was a finer +thing, and undoubtedly more useful, than hot-headed gallantry, though she +admired the latter. She was young, and physical prowess appealed to her; +besides, it had been displayed in saving her sister's life. Carroll and +his comrade were men of varied and romantic experience; and they +possessed, she fancied, qualities not shared by all their fellows. + +"Wallace was splendid in the water!" she exclaimed, uttering part of her +thoughts aloud. + +"I thought rather more of him in the city," Carroll replied. "That kind +of thing was new to him, and I'm inclined to believe that I'd have let +the people he had to negotiate with have the mine for a good deal less +than he eventually got for it. But I've said something about that before; +and, after all, I'm not here to play Boswell." + +The girl was surprised at the apt allusion; it was not what she would +have expected from the man. As she had not wholly recovered her +composure, she forgot what Vane had told her about him, and her comment +was an incautious one: + +"How did you hear of him?" + +Carroll parried this with a smile. + +"You don't suppose you can keep those old fellows to yourselves--they're +international. But hadn't we better be getting on? Let me help you +through the gap." + +They reached the Dene some time later, and Mabel, very much against her +wishes, was sent to bed. Shortly afterward Carroll came across Vane, who +had changed his clothes and was strolling up and down among the +shrubberies. + +"What are you doing here?" he asked. + +Vane looked embarrassed. + +"For one thing, I'm keeping out of Mrs. Chisholm's way; she's inclined to +be effusive. For another, I'm trying to think out what I ought to do. +We'll have to pull out very shortly; and I had meant to have an interview +with Evelyn to-day. That's why I feel uncommonly annoyed with Mopsy for +falling in." + +Carroll made a grimace. + +"If that's how it strikes you, any advice I could offer would be wasted. +A sensible man would consider it a promising opportunity." + +"And trade upon it? As you know, there wasn't the slightest risk, +with branches that one could get hold of, and a shelving bank almost +within reach." + +"Do you really want the girl?" + +"That impression's firmly in my mind," Vane said curtly. + +"Then you'd better pitch your Quixotic notions overboard and tell her +so." + +Vane frowned but made no answer; and Carroll, recognizing that his +comrade was not inclined to be communicative, left him pacing up and +down. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +VANE WITHDRAWS + + +Dusk was drawing on, but there was still a little light in the western +sky, when Vane strolled along the terrace in front of the Dene. In the +distance the ranks of fells rose black and solemn out of filmy trails of +mist, but the valley had faded to a trough of shadow. A faint breeze was +stirring, and the silence was broken by the soft patter of withered +leaves which fluttered down across the lawn. Vane noticed it all by some +involuntary action of his senses, for although, at the time, he was +oblivious to his surroundings, he afterward found that he could recall +each detail of the scene with vivid distinctness. He was preoccupied and +eager, but fully aware of the need for coolness, for it was quite +possible that he might fail in the task he had in hand. + +Presently he saw Evelyn, for whom he had been waiting, cross the opposite +end of the terrace. Moving forward he joined her at the entrance to a +shrubbery walk. A big, clipped yew with a recess in which a seat had been +placed stood close by. + +"I have been sitting with Mopsy," said Evelyn. "She seems very little the +worse for her adventure--thanks to you." She hesitated and her voice grew +softer. "I owe you a heavy debt--I am very fond of Mopsy." + +"It's a great pity she fell in," Vane declared curtly. + +Evelyn looked at him in surprise. She scarcely thought he could regret +the efforts he had made on her sister's behalf, but that was what his +words implied. He noticed her change of expression. + +"The trouble is that the thing might seem to give me some claim on you; +and I don't want that," he explained. "It cost me no more than a wetting; +I hadn't the least difficulty in getting her out." + +His companion was still puzzled. She could find no fault with him for +being modest about his exploit, but that he should make it clear that he +did not require her gratitude struck her as unnecessary. + +"For all that, you did bring her out," she persisted. "Even if it causes +you no satisfaction, the fact is of some importance to us." + +"I don't seem to be beginning very fortunately. What I mean is that I +don't want to urge my claim, if I have one. I'd rather be taken on my +merits." He paused a moment with a smile. "That's not much better, is it? +But it partly expresses what I feel. Leaving Mopsy out altogether, let me +try to explain--I don't wish you to be influenced by anything except your +own idea of me. I'm saying this because one or two points that seem in my +favor may have a contrary effect." + +Evelyn made no answer, and he indicated the seat. + +"Won't you sit down? I have something to say." + +The girl did as he suggested, and his smile died away. + +"Would you be astonished if I were to ask you to marry me?" + +He leaned against the smooth wall of yew, looking down at her with an +impressive steadiness of gaze. She could imagine him facing the city men +from whom he had extorted the full value of his mine in the same fashion, +and, in a later instance, so surveying the eddies beneath the osiers, +when he had gone to Mabel's rescue. It was borne in upon her that they +would better understand each other. + +"No," she answered. "If I must be candid, I am not astonished." Then the +color crept into her cheeks as she met his gaze. "I suppose it is an +honor; and it is undoubtedly a--temptation." + +"A temptation?" + +"Yes," said Evelyn, mustering her courage to face a crisis she had +dreaded. "It is only due you that you should hear the truth--though I +think you suspect it. Besides--I have some liking for you." + +"That is what I wanted you to own!" Vane broke in. + +She checked him with a gesture. Her manner was cold, and yet there was +something in it that stirred him more than her beauty. + +"After all," she explained, "it does not go very far, and you must try to +understand. I want to be quite honest, and what I have to say +is--difficult. In the first place, things are far from pleasant for me +here; I was expected to make a good marriage, and I had my chance in +London. I refused to profit by it, and now I'm a failure. I wonder +whether you can realize what a temptation it is to get away?" + +Vane frowned. + +"Yes," he responded. "It makes me savage to think of it! I can, at least, +take you out of all this. If you hadn't had a very fine courage, you +wouldn't have told me." + +Evelyn smiled, a curious wry smile. + +"It has only prompted me to behave, as most people would consider, +shamelessly; but there are times when one must get above that point of +view. Besides, there's a reason for my candor--had you been a man of +different stamp, it's possible that I might have been driven into taking +the risk. We should both have suffered for a time, but we might have +reached an understanding--not to intrude on each other--through open +variance. As it is, I could not do you that injustice, and I should +shrink from marrying you with only a little cold liking." + +The man held himself firmly in hand. Her calmness had infected him, and +he felt that this was not an occasion for romantic protestations, even +had he felt capable of making them, which was not the case. As a matter +of fact, such things were singularly foreign to his nature. + +"Even that would go a long way with me, if I could get nothing better," +he declared. "Besides, you might change. I could surround you with some +comfort; I think I could promise not to force my company upon you; I +believe I could be kind." + +"Yes," assented Evelyn. "I shouldn't be afraid of harshness from you; but +it seems impossible that I should change. You must see that you started +handicapped from the beginning. Had I been free to choose, it might have +been different, but I have lived for some time in shame and fear, hating +the thought that some one would be forced on me." + +He said nothing and she went on. + +"Must I tell you? You are the man!" + +His face grew hard and for a moment he set his lips tight. It would have +been a relief to express his feelings concerning his host just then. + +"If you don't hate me for it now, I'm willing to take the risk," he said +at length. "It will be my fault if you hate me in the future; I'll try +not to deserve it." + +He fancied that she was yielding, but she roused herself with an effort. + +"No. Love on one side may go a long way, if it is strong enough--but it +must be strong to overcome the many clashes of thought and will. +Yours"--she looked at him steadily--"would not stand the strain." + +Vane started. + +"You are the only woman I ever wished to marry," he declared vehemently. + +He paused and spread out his hands. + +"What can I say to convince you?" + +"I'm afraid it's impossible. If you had wanted me greatly, you would have +pressed the claim you had in saving Mopsy, and I should have forgiven you +that; you would have urged any and every claim. As it is, I suppose I am +pretty"--her lips curled scornfully--"and you find that some of your +ideas and mine agree. It isn't half enough! Shall I tell you that you are +scarcely moved as yet?" + +It flashed upon Vane that he was confronted with the reality. Her beauty +had appealed to him, and her other qualities--her reserved graciousness +with its tinge of dignity, her insight and her comprehension--had also +had their effect; but they had only awakened admiration and respect. He +desired her as one desires an object for its rarity and preciousness; but +this, as she had told him, was not enough. Behind her physical and mental +attributes, and half revealed by them, there was something deeper: the +real personality of the girl. It was elusive, mystic, with a spark of +immaterial radiance which might brighten human love with its transcendent +glow; but, as he dimly realized, if he won her by force, it might recede +and vanish altogether. He could not, with strong ardor, compel its +clearer manifestation. + +"I think I am moved as much as it is possible for me to be." + +Evelyn shook her head. + +"No; you will discover the difference some day, and then you will +thank me for leaving you your liberty. Now I beg you to leave me mine +and let me go." + +Vane stood silent a minute or two, for the last appeal had stirred him to +chivalrous pity. He was shrewd enough to realize that if he persisted he +could force her to come to him. Her father and mother were with him; she +had nothing--no commonplace usefulness nor trained abilities--to fall +back on if she defied them. But it was unthinkable that he should +brutally compel her. + +"Well," he yielded at length, "I must try to face the situation; I want +to assure you that it is not a pleasant one to me. But there's another +point--I'm afraid I've made things worse for you. Your people will +probably blame you for sending me away." + +Evelyn did not answer this, and he broke into a grim smile. + +"Well," he added, "I think I can save you any trouble on that +score--though the course I'm going to take isn't flattering, if you look +at it in one way, I want you to leave me to deal with your father." + +He took her consent for granted, and leaning down laid a hand lightly on +her shoulder. + +"You will try to forgive me for the anxiety I have caused you? The time +I've spent here has been very pleasant, but I'm going back to Canada in a +day or two. Perhaps you'll think of me without bitterness now and then." + +He turned away; and Evelyn sat still, glad that the strain was over, +thinking earnestly. The man was gentle and considerate as well as +forceful, and to some extent she liked him. Indeed, she admitted that she +had not met any man she liked as much; but that was not going very far. +Then she began to wonder at her candor, and to consider if it had been +necessary. It was curious that this was the only man she had ever taken +into her confidence. It struck her that her next suitor would probably be +a much less promising specimen. On the other hand, since her views on the +subject differed from those her parents held, it was consoling to +remember that eligible suitors for the daughter of an impoverished +gentleman were likely to be scarce. + +It had grown dark when she rose and entering the house went up to Mabel's +room. The girl looked at her sharply as she came in. + +"So you have got rid of him!" she said. "I think you're very silly." + +"How did you know?" Evelyn asked with a start. + +"I heard him walking up and down the terrace, and I heard you go out. You +can't walk over raked gravel without making a noise. He went along to +join you, and it was a good while before you came back at different +times. I've been waiting for this the last day or two." + +Evelyn sat down with a rather strained smile. + +"Well, I have sent him away." + +Mabel regarded her indignantly. + +"You'll never get another chance like this one. If I'd been in your +place, I'd have had Wallace if it had cost me no end of trouble to get +him. He said something about its being a pity I wasn't older, one day, +and I told him that I wasn't by any means as young as I looked. If you +had only taken him, I could have worn decent frocks. Nobody could call +the last one that!" + +This was a favorite grievance, and Evelyn ignored it; but Mabel had +more to say. + +"I suppose," she went on, "you don't know that Wallace has been getting +Gerald out of trouble?" + +"Are you sure of that?" + +"Yes. I'll tell you what I know. Wallace saw Gerald in London--he told us +that--and we all know that Gerald couldn't pay his debts a little while +ago. You remember he came down to Kendall and went on and stayed the next +night with the Claytons. It isn't astonishing that he didn't come here, +after the row there was on the last occasion." + +"Go on," prompted Evelyn impatiently. "What has his visit to the +Clayton's to do with it?" + +"Well, you don't know that I saw Gerald in the afternoon. After all, he's +the only brother I've got; and as Jim was going to the station with the +trap I made him take me. The Claytons were in the garden; we were +scattered about, and I heard Frank and Gerald, who had strolled off from +the others, talking. Gerald was telling him about some things he'd +bought--they must have been expensive, because Frank asked him where he +got the money. Gerald laughed and said he'd had an unexpected stroke of +luck that had set him straight again. Now, of course Gerald got no money +from home, and if he'd won it he would have told Frank how he did so. +Gerald always would tell a thing like that." + +Evelyn was filled with confusion and hot indignation. She had little +doubt that Mabel's surmise was correct. + +"I wonder whether he has told anybody; though it's scarcely likely." + +Mabel laughed. + +"Of course he hasn't. We all know what Gerald is. Before I came home, I +asked him what he thought of Wallace. He said he was a good sort, or +something like that, and I saw that he had a reason for saying it; but +he must go on in his patronizing style that Wallace was rather +Colonial, though he hadn't drifted too far--not beyond reclamation. +After all, Wallace was one of--us--before he went out; and if Carroll's +Colonial he's the kind of man I like. I was so angry with Gerald I +wanted to slap him!" + +There was no doubt that Mabel was a staunch partizan, and Evelyn +sympathized with her. She was, of course, acquainted with her brother's +character, and she was filled with indignant contempt for him. It was +intolerable that he should have allowed Vane to discharge his debts and +then have alluded to him in terms of indulgent condescension. + +"It strikes me Wallace ought to get his money back, now that you have +sent him away," Mabel added. "But of course that's most unlikely. It +wouldn't take Gerald long to waste it." + +Evelyn rose and, making some excuse, left the room. She could feel her +face growing hot, and Mabel had unusually keen eyes and precocious powers +of deduction. A suspicion which had troubled her more than Gerald's +conduct had lately crept into her mind, and it now thrust itself upon her +attention; several things pointed to the fact that her father had taken +the same course her brother had done. She felt that had she heard Mabel's +information before the interview with Vane, she might have yielded to him +in an agony of humiliation. Mabel had summed up the situation with +stinging candor and crudity--Vane, who had been defrauded, was entitled +to recover his money. For a few moments Evelyn was furiously angry with +him, and then, growing calmer, she recognized that this was unreasonable. +She could not imagine any idea of a compact originating with the man, and +he had quietly acquiesced in her decision. + +Soon after she left her sister, Vane walked into the room which Chisholm +reserved for his own use. It was handsomely furnished, and the big, +light-oak writing-table and glass-fronted cabinets were examples of +artistic handicraft. The sight of them jarred on Vane, who had already +surmised that it was the women of the Chisholm family who were expected +to practise self-denial. Chisholm was sitting at the table with some +papers in front of him and a cigar in his hand, and Vane drew out a chair +and lighted his pipe before he addressed him. + +"I've made up my mind to sail on Saturday, instead of next week," he +said abruptly. + +"You have decided rather suddenly, haven't you?" Chisholm suggested. + +Vane knew that what his host wished to know was the cause of the +decision, and he meant to come to the point. He was troubled by no +consideration for the man. + +"The last news I had indicated that I was wanted," he replied. "After +all, there is only one reason why I have abused Mrs. Chisholm's +hospitality so long." + +"Well?" + +"You will remember what I asked you some time ago. I had better say that +I retire from the position--abandon the idea." + +Chisholm started and his florid face grew redder, while Vane, in place of +embarrassment, was conscious of a somewhat grim amusement. It seemed +curious that a man of Chisholm's stamp should have any pride. + +"What am I to understand by that?" Chisholm asked with some asperity. + +"I think that what I said explained it. Bearing in mind your and Mrs. +Chisholm's influence, I've an idea that Evelyn might have yielded, if I'd +strongly urged my suit; but that was not by any means what I wanted. I'd +naturally prefer a wife who married me because she wished to do so. +That's why, after thinking the thing over, I've decided to--withdraw." + +Chisholm straightened himself in his chair in fiery indignation, which he +made no attempt to conceal. + +"You mean that after asking my consent, and seeing more of Evelyn, you +have changed your mind! Can't you understand that it's an unpardonable +confession--one which I never fancied a man born and brought up in your +station could have brought himself to make?" + +Vane looked at him with an impassive face. + +"It strikes me as largely a question of terms--I may not have used the +right one. Now that you know how the matter stands, you can describe it +in any way that sounds nicest. In regard to your other remark, I've been +in a good many stations, and I must admit that until lately none of them +were likely to promote much delicacy of sentiment." + +"So it seems!" Chisholm was almost too hot to sneer. "But can't you +realize how your action reflects upon my daughter?" + +Vane held himself in hand. He had only one object: to divert Chisholm's +wrath from Evelyn to himself, and he fancied that he was succeeding in +this. For the rest, he was conscious of a strong resentment against the +man. Evelyn had told him that he had started handicapped. + +"It can't reflect upon her unless you talk about it, and both you and +Mrs. Chisholm have sense enough to refrain from doing that," he answered +dryly. "I can't flatter myself that Evelyn will grieve over me." Then his +manner changed. "Now we'll get down to business. I don't purpose to call +in that loan, which will, no doubt, be a relief to you." + +He rose leisurely and strolled out of the room. + +Shortly afterward he met Carroll in the hall, and the latter glanced at +him sharply. + +"What have you been doing?" he inquired. "There's a look in your eyes I +seem to remember." + +Vane laughed. + +"I suppose I've been outraging the rules of decency; but I don't feel +ashamed. I've been acting the uncivilized Westerner, though it's possible +that I rather strained the part. To come to the point, however, we pull +out for the Dominion first thing to-morrow." + +Carroll asked no further questions; he did not think it would serve any +purpose. He contented himself with making arrangements for their +departure, which they took early on the morrow. Vane had a brief +interview with Mabel, and then by her contrivance he secured a word or +two with Evelyn alone. + +"It is possible," he told her, "that you may hear some hard things of +me--and I count upon your not contradicting them. After all, I think you +owe me that favor. There's just another matter--now that I won't be here +to trouble you, won't you try to think of me leniently?" + +He held her hand for a moment and then turned away, and a few minutes +later he and Carroll left the Dene. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +IN VANCOUVER + + +About a fortnight after Vane's return to Vancouver, he sat one evening on +the veranda of Nairn's house, in company with his host and Carroll, +lazily looking down upon the inlet. The days were growing shorter; the +air was clear and cool; and the snow upon the heights across the still, +blue water was creeping lower down. The clatter of a steamer's winches +rose sharply from the wharf, and the sails of two schooners gleamed +against the dark pines that overhang the Narrows. + +In some respects, Vane was glad to be back in the western city. At first, +the ease and leisure at the Dene had their charm for him, but by degrees +he came to chafe at them. The green English valley, hemmed in by its +sheltering hills, was steeped in too profound a tranquillity; the stream +of busy life passed it by with scarcely an entering ripple to break its +drowsy calm. One found its atmosphere enervating, dulling to the +faculties. In the new West, however, one was forcibly thrust into contact +with a strenuous activity. Life was free and untrammeled there; it flowed +with a fierce joyousness in natural channels, and one could feel the +eager throb of it. + +Yet the man was not content. He had been to the mine, and in going and +coming he had ridden far over a very rough trail, but the physical effort +had not afforded a sufficient outlet for his pent-up energies. He had +afterward lounged about the city for nearly a week, and he found this +becoming monotonous. + +Nairn presently referred to one of the papers in his hand. + +"Horsfield has been bringing up that smelter project again, and there's +something to be said in favor of his views," he remarked. "We're paying a +good deal for reduction." + +"We couldn't keep a smelter going, at present," Vane objected. + +"There are two or three low-grade mineral properties in the neighborhood +of the Clermont that have had very little development work done on them. +They can't pay freight on their raw product, but I'm thinking that we'd +encourage their owners to open up the mines, and we'd get their business, +if we had a smelter handy." + +"It wouldn't amount to much," Vane replied. "Besides, there's another +objection--we haven't the money to put up a thoroughly efficient plant." + +"Horsfield's ready to find part of it and to do the work." + +"I know he is." Vane frowned. "It strikes me he's suspiciously anxious. +The arrangement he has in view would give him a pretty strong hold upon +the company; and there are ways in which he could squeeze us." + +"It's possible. But, looking at it as a purely personal matter, there are +inducements he could offer ye. Horsfield's a man who has the handling of +other folks' money, if he has no that much of his own. It might be wise +to stand in with him." + +"So he hinted," Vane answered dryly. + +"Your argument was about the worst you could have used, Mr. Nairn," +Carroll laughed. + +"Weel," drawled Nairn good-humoredly, "I'm no urging it. I would not see +your partner make enemies for the want of a warning." + +"He'd probably do so, in any case; it's a gift of his. On the other hand, +it's fortunate that he has a way of making friends. The two things +sometimes go together." + +Vane turned to Nairn with signs of impatience. + +"It might save trouble if I state that while I'm a director of the +Clermont I expect to be content with a fair profit on my stock in +the company." + +"He's modest," Carroll commented. "What he means is that he doesn't +propose to augment that profit by taking advantage of his position." + +"It's a creditable idea, though I'm no sure it's as common as might be +desired. While I have to thank ye for it, I would not consider the +explanation altogether necessary." Nairn's eyes twinkled for a moment, +and then he turned seriously to Vane. "Now we come to another point--the +company's a small one, the mine is doing satisfactorily, and the moment's +favorable for the floating of mineral properties. If we got an option on +the half-developed claims near the Clermont and went into the market, +it's likely that an issue of new stock would meet with the favor of +investors." + +"I suppose so," Vane responded. "I'll support such a scheme when I can +see how an increased capital could be used to advantage and am convinced +about the need for a smelter. At present that's not the case." + +"I mentioned it as a duty---ye'll hear more of it. For the rest, I'm +inclined to agree with ye." + +A few minutes later, Nairn went into the house with Carroll, and as they +entered he glanced at his companion. + +"In the present instance, Mr. Vane's views are sound," he said. "But I +see difficulties before him in his business career." + +"So do I," smiled Carroll. "When he grapples with them it will be by a +frontal attack." + +"A bit of compromise is judicious now and then." + +"In a general way, it's not likely to appeal to Vane. When he can't get +through by direct means, there'll be something wrecked. You'd better +understand what kind of man he is." + +Nairn made a sign of concurrence. + +"It's no the first time I've been enlightened upon the point." + +Shortly after they had disappeared, Miss Horsfield came out of another +door, and Vane rose when she approached him. He had always found her a +pleasant companion. + +"Mrs. Nairn told me I would find you and the others on the veranda," she +informed him. "She said she would join you presently. It is too fine an +evening to stay in." + +"I'm alone, as you see. Nairn and Carroll have just deserted me: but I +can't complain. What pleases me most about this house is that you can +do what you like in it, and--within limits--the same thing applies to +this city." + +Jessy laughed as she sank gracefully into the chair he drew forward. She +was, as a rule, deliberate in her movements, and her pose was usually an +effective one. + +"Yes," she replied; "I think that would please you. But how long have you +been back?" + +"A fortnight, yesterday." + +There was a hint of reproach in Jessy's glance. + +"Then I think Mrs. Nairn might have brought you over to see us." + +Vane wondered whether she meant that she was surprised that he had not +come of his own accord. He felt mildly flattered. She was interesting, +and knew how to listen sympathetically, as well as how to talk, and she +was also a lady of station in the western city. + +"I was away at the mine a good deal of the time," he explained. + +"I wonder if you are sorry to get back?" + +Turning a little, Vane indicated the climbing city, rising tier on tier +above its water-front; and then the broad expanse of blue inlet and the +faint white line of towering snow. + +"Wouldn't anything I could say in praise of Vancouver be a trifle +superfluous?" he asked. + +Jessy recognized that he had parried her question neatly, but this did +not deter her. She was anxious to learn whether he had felt any regret at +leaving England, or, to be more concise, if there was anybody in that +country from whom he had reluctantly parted. She admitted that the man +attracted her. There was a breezy freshness about him which he had +brought from the rocks and woods, and though she was acquainted with a +number of young men whose conversation was characterized by snap and +sparkle, they needed toning down. This miner was set apart from them by +something which he had doubtless acquired in youth in the older land. + +"That wasn't quite what I meant," she returned. "We don't always want to +be flattered. I'm in search of information. You told me that you had +been eight or nine years in this country, and life must be rather +different yonder. How did it and the people you belong to strike you +after the absence?" + +"It's difficult to explain," Vane replied with an air of amused +reflection which hinted that he meant to get away from the point. "On +the whole, I think I'm more interested in the question as to how I +struck them. It's curious that whereas some people here insist on +considering me English, I've a suspicion that they looked upon me as a +typical Colonial there." + +"One wouldn't like to think you resented it." + +"How could I? This land sheltered me when I was an outcast; it provided +me with a living, widened my views, and set me on my feet." + +"Ah!" murmured Jessy, "you are the kind we don't mind taking in. The +others go back and try to forget us, or abuse us. But you haven't given +me very much information yet." + +"Well," drawled Vane, "the best comparison is supplied by my first +remark--that in this city you can do what you like. You're rather fenced +in yonder. If you're of a placid disposition, that, no doubt, is +comforting, because it shuts out unpleasant things. On the other hand, if +you happen to be restless and active, the fences are inconvenient, for +you can't always climb over--and it is not considered proper to break +them down. Still, having admitted that, I'm proud of the old land. If one +has means and will conform, it's the finest country in the world! It's +only the fences that irritate me." + +"Fences would naturally be obnoxious to you. But we have some here." + +"They're generally built loose, of split-rails, and not nailed. An +energetic man can pull off a bar or two and stride over. If it's +necessary, he can afterward put them up again, and there's no harm done." + +"Would you do the latter?" + +Vane's expression changed. + +"No. I think if there were anything good on the other side, I'd widen the +gap so that the less agile and the needy could crawl through." He smiled +at her. "You see, I owe some of them a good deal. They were the only +friends I had when I first tramped, jaded and footsore, about the +Province." + +Jessy was pleased with his answer. She had heard of the free hospitality +of the bush choppers, and she thought it was a graceful thing that he +should acknowledge his debt to them. She was also pleased that she could +lead him on to talk unreservedly. + +"Now at last you'll be content to rest a while," she suggested. "I dare +say you deserve it." + +"It's strange that you should say that, because just before you came out +of the house I was thinking that I'd sat still long enough. It's a thing +that gets monotonous. One must keep going on." + +"Take care that you don't walk over a precipice some day when you have +left all the fences behind. But I've kept you from your meditations, and +I had better see if Mrs. Nairn is coming." + +He was sitting alone, lighting a cigar, when he noticed a girl whose +appearance seemed familiar in the road below. Moving along the veranda, +he recognized her as Kitty, and hastily crossed the lawn toward her. She +was accompanied by a young man whom Vane had once or twice seen in the +city, and she greeted him with evident pleasure. + +"Tom," she introduced, when they had exchanged a few words, "this is Mr. +Vane." Turning to Vane she added: "Mr. Drayton." + +Vane liked the man's face and manner. He shook hands with him, and then +looked back at Kitty. + +"What are you doing now; and how are little Elsie and her mother?" + +Kitty's face clouded. + +"Mrs. Marvin's dead. Elsie's with some friends at Spokane, and I think +she's well looked after. I've given up the stage. Tom"--she explained +shyly--"didn't like it. Now I'm with some people at a ranch near the +Fraser, on the Westminster road. There are two or three children, and I'm +very fond of them." + +"She won't be there long," Drayton interposed. "I've wanted to meet you +for some time, Mr. Vane. They told me at the office that you were away." + +Vane smiled comprehendingly. + +"I suppose my congratulations will not be out of place? Won't you ask me +to the wedding?" + +Kitty blushed. + +"Will you come?" + +"Try!" + +"There's nobody we would rather see," declared Drayton. "I'm heavily in +your debt, Mr. Vane." + +"Pshaw!" rejoined Vane. "Come to see me any time--to-morrow, if you can +manage it." + +Drayton said that he would do so, and shortly afterward he and Kitty +moved away. Vane turned back across the lawn; but he was not aware that +Jessy Horsfield had watched the meeting from the veranda and had +recognized Kitty, whom she had once seen at the station. She had already +ascertained that the girl had arrived in Vancouver in Vane's company, +and, in view of the opinion she had formed of him, this somewhat puzzled +her; but she decided that one must endeavor to be charitable. Besides, +having closely watched the little group, she was inclined to believe from +the way Vane shook hands with the man that there was no danger to be +apprehended from Kitty. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A NEW PROJECT + + +Vane was sitting alone in the room set apart for the Clermont Company in +Nairn's office when Drayton was shown in. He took the chair Vane +indicated and lighted a cigar the latter gave him. + +"Now," he began with some diffidence, "you cut me off short when I met +you the other day, and one of my reasons for coming over was to get +through with what I was saying then. It's just this--I owe you a good +deal for taking care of Kitty; she's very grateful and thinks no end of +you. I want to say I'll always feel that you have a claim on me." + +Vane smiled at him. It was evident that Kitty had taken her lover into +her confidence with regard to her trip aboard the sloop, and that she had +done so said a good deal for her. He thought one might have expected a +certain amount of half-jealous resentment, or even faint suspicion, on +the man's part; but there was no sign of this. Drayton believed in Kitty, +and that was strongly in his favor. + +"It didn't cost me any trouble," Vane replied. "We were coming to +Vancouver, anyway." + +Drayton's embarrassment became more obvious. + +"It cost you some money--there were the tickets. Now I feel that I +have to--" + +"Nonsense! When you are married to Miss Blake, you can pay me back, if +it will be a relief to you. When's the wedding to be?" + +"In a couple of months," answered Drayton. He saw that it would be +useless to protest. "I'm a clerk in the Winstanley mills, and as one of +the staff is going, I'll get a move up then. We are to be married as +soon as I do." + +He said a little more on the same subject, and then after a few moments' +silence he added: + +"I wonder if the Clermont business keeps your hands full, Mr. Vane?" + +"It doesn't. It's a fact I'm beginning to regret." + +Drayton appeared to consider. + +"Well," he said, "people seem to regard you as a rising man with snap in +him, and there's a matter I might, perhaps, bring before you. Let me +explain. I'm a clerk on small pay, but I've taken an interest outside my +routine work in the lumber trade of this Province and its subsidiary +branches. I figured any knowledge I could pick up might stand me in some +money some day. So far"--he smiled ruefully--"it hasn't done so." + +"Go on," prompted Vane. His curiosity was aroused. + +"It has struck me that pulping spruce--paper spruce--is likely to be +scarce presently. The supply's not unlimited and the world's consumption +is going up by jumps." + +"There's a good deal of timber you could use for pulp, in British +Columbia alone," Vane interposed. + +"Sure. But there's not a very great deal that could be milled into +high-grade paper pulp; and it's getting rapidly worked out in most other +countries. Then, as a rule, it's mixed up with firs, cedars and +cypresses; and that means the cutting of logging roads to each cluster of +milling trees. There's another point--a good deal of the spruce lies back +from water or a railroad, and in some cases it would be costly to bring +in a milling plant or to pack the pulp out." + +"That's obvious; anyway, where you would have to haul every pound of +freight over a breakneck divide." + +Drayton leaned forward confidentially. + +"Then if one struck high-grade paper spruce--a whole valley full of +it--with water power and easy access to the sea, there ought to be money +in the thing?" + +"Yes," Vane answered with growing interest; "that strikes me as very +probable." + +"I believe I could put you on the track of such a valley." + +Vane looked at him thoughtfully. + +"We'd better understand each other. Do you want to sell me your +knowledge? And have you offered it to anybody else?" + +His companion answered with the candor he expected. + +"Kitty and I aren't going to find it easy to get along--rents are high in +this city. I want to give her as much as I can; but I'm willing to leave +you to do the square thing. The Winstanley people have their hands full +and won't look at any outside matter, and the one or two people I've +spoken to don't seem anxious to consider it. It's mighty hard for a +little man to launch a project." + +"It is," Vane agreed sympathetically. + +"Then," Drayton continued, "the idea's not my own. It was a mineral +prospector--a relative of mine--who struck the valley on his last trip. +He's an old man, and he came down played out and sick. Now I guess he's +slowly dying." He paused a moment. "Would you like to see him?" + +"I'll go with you now, if it's convenient," Vane replied. + +Drayton said that he might spare another half-hour without getting into +trouble, and they crossed the city to where a row of squalid frame +shacks stood on its outskirts. In the one they entered, a gaunt man +with grizzled hair lay upon a rickety bed. A glance showed Vane that +the man was very frail, and the harsh cough that he broke into as the +colder air from outside flowed in made the fact clearer. Drayton, +hastily shutting the door and explaining the cause of the visit, +motioned Vane to sit down. + +"I've heard of you," said the prospector, fixing his eyes on Vane. +"You're the man who located the Clermont--and put the project through. +You had the luck. I've been among the ranges half my life--and you can +see how much I've made of it! When I struck a claim that was worth +anything somebody else got the money." + +Vane had reasons for believing that this was not an uncommon experience. + +"Well," the man continued, "you look straight--and I've got to take some +chances. It's my last stake. We'll get down to business. I'll tell you +about that spruce." + +He spoke for a few minutes, and then asked abruptly: + +"What are you going to offer?" + +Vane had not been certain that he would make any offer at all; but, as +had befallen him once or twice before, the swift decision flashed +instinctively into his mind. + +"If I find that the timber and its location come up to your account of +it, I'll pay you so many dollars down--whatever we can agree on--when I +get my lease from the land office. Then I'll make another equal payment +the day we start the mill. But I don't bind myself to record the timber +or to put up a mill, unless I'm convinced that it's worth while." + +"I'd rather take less money and have a small share in the concern; and +Drayton must stand in." + +"It's a question of terms," Vane replied. "I'll consider your views." + +They discussed it for a while, and when they had at length arrived at a +provisional understanding, the prospector made a sign of acquiescence. + +"We'll let it go at that; but the thing will take time, and I'll +never get the money. If you exercise your option, you'll sure pay it +down to Seely?" + +"Celia's his daughter," Drayton explained. "He has no one else. She's a +waitress at the ---- House." He named a hotel of no great standing in the +city. "Comes home at nights, and looks after him as best she can." + +Vane glanced round the room. It was evident that Celia's earnings were +small; but he noticed several things which suggested that she had +lavished loving care upon the sick man, probably at the cost of severe +self-denial. This was what he would have expected, for he had spent most +of his nine years in Canada among the people who toil the hardest for +the least reward. + +"Yes," he answered; "I'll promise that. But, as I pointed out, while we +have agreed on the two payments, I reserve the right of deciding what +share your daughter and Drayton are to have, within the limits sketched +out. I can't fix it definitely until I've seen the timber--you'll have to +trust me." + +The prospector once more looked at him steadily, and then implied by a +gesture that he was satisfied. He was not in a position to dictate terms, +but his confidence had its effect on the man in whom he reposed it. + +"There's another thing. You'll do all you can to find that spruce?" + +"Yes," Vane promised. + +The man fumbled under his pillow and produced a piece cut out from a map +of the Province, with rough pencil notes on the back of it. + +"It was on my last prospecting trip I found the spruce," he said. "I'd +been looking round, and I figured I'd strike down to the coast over the +range. The creeks were full up with snow-water, and as I was held up here +and there before I could get across, provisions began to run short. Then +I fell down a gulch and hurt my knee, and as I had to leave my tent and +it rained most of the while, I lay in the wet at nights, half-fed, with +my knee getting worse. By and by I fell sick; but I had to get out of the +mountains, and I was pushing on for the straits when I struck the valley +where the spruce is. After that, I got kind of muddled in the head, but I +went down a long valley on an easy grade and struck some Siwash curing +the last of the salmon. The trouble is, I was too sick to figure exactly +where the small inlet they were camped by lies. They took me back with +them to their rancherie--you could find that--and sailed me across to +Comox. I came down on a steamboat, and the doctor told me I'd made my +last journey." + +Vane could sympathize. The narrative had been crudely matter-of-fact, but +he had been out on the prospecting trail often enough to fill in the +details the sick man omitted. He had slept in the rain, very scantily +fed, and he could picture the starving man limping along in an agony of +pain and exhaustion, with an injured knee, over boulders and broken rock +and through dense tangles of underbrush strewed with mighty fallen logs. + +"How far was the valley from the inlet?" he asked. + +"I can't tell you. I think I was three days on the trail; but it might +have been more. I was too sick to remember. Anyway, there was a creek you +could run the logs down." + +"Well, how far was the inlet from the rancherie?" + +"I was in the canoe part of one night and some of the next day. I can't +get it any clearer. We had a fair breeze. Guess thirty miles wouldn't +be far out." + +"That's something to go upon. How much does your daughter earn?" + +It was an abrupt change of subject, but the man answered as Vane had +expected. The girl's wages might maintain her economically, but it was +difficult to see how she could provide for her sick father. The latter +seemed to guess Vane's thoughts, for he spoke again. + +"If I'd known I was done for when I was up in the bush, I wouldn't have +pushed on quite so fast," he said with expressive simplicity. + +Vane rose. + +"If Drayton will come along with me, I'll send him back with a hundred +dollars. It's part of the first payment. Your getting it now should make +things a little easier for Celia." + +"But you haven't located the spruce yet!" + +"I'm going to locate it, if the thing's anyway possible." Vane shook +hands with the man. "I expect to get off up the straits very shortly." + +The prospector looked at him with relief and gratitude in his eyes. + +"You're white--and I guess you'd be mighty hard to beat!" + +When they reached the rutted street, which was bordered on one side by +great fir stumps, Drayton glanced at Vane with open admiration. + +"I'm glad I brought you across. You have a way of getting hold of +people--making them believe in you. Hartley hasn't a word in writing, but +he knows you mean to act square with him. Kitty felt the same thing--it +was why she came down in the sloop with you." + +Vane smiled, though there was a trace of embarrassment in his manner. + +"Now that you mention it, I don't think Hartley was wise; and you were +equally confiding. We have only arrived at a rather indefinite +understanding about your share." + +"We'll leave it at that. I haven't struck anybody else in this city who +would hear about the thing. Anyway, I'd prefer a few shares in the +concern, as mentioned, instead of money. If you get the thing on foot, I +guess it will go." + +"Won't they raise trouble at the mill about your staying out?" Vane +inquired. "We have still to go for that hundred dollars." + +Drayton owned that it might be advisable to hurry, and they set off for +the business quarter of the city. + +During the remainder of the day Vane was busy on board the sloop, but in +the evening he walked over to Horsfield's house with Mrs. Nairn and found +Jessy and her brother at home. Horsfield presently took Vane to his +smoking-room. + +"About that smelter," he began. "Haven't you made up your mind yet? The +thing's been hanging fire a long while." + +"Isn't it a matter for the board?" Vane asked suggestively. "There are +several directors." + +Horsfield laughed. + +"We'll face the fact: they'll do what you decide on." + +Vane did not reply to this. + +"Well," he said, "at present we couldn't keep a smelter big enough to be +economical going, and I'm doubtful whether we would get much ore from the +other properties you were talking about to Nairn." + +"Did he say it was my idea?" + +"He didn't; I'd reasons for assuming it. Those properties, however, are +of no account." + +Horsfield made no comment but waited expectantly, and Vane went on: + +"If it seems possible that we can profitably increase our output later +on, by means of further capital, we'll put up a smelter. But in that +case it might be economical to do the work ourselves." + +"Who would superintend it?" + +"I would, if necessary, with the assistance of an engineer used to +such plant." + +Horsfield smiled in a significant manner. + +"Aren't you inclined to take hold of too much? When you have plenty in +your hands, it's good policy to leave a little for somebody else. +Sometimes the person who benefits is willing to reciprocate." + +The hint was plain, and Nairn had said sufficient on another occasion to +make it clearer; but Vane did not respond. + +"If we gave the work out, it would be on an open tender," he declared. +"There would be no reason why you shouldn't make a bid." + +Horsfield found it difficult to conceal his disgust. He had no desire to +bid on an open tender, which would prevent his obtaining anything beyond +the market price. + +"The question must stand over until I come back," Vane went on. "I'm +going up the west coast shortly and may be away some time." + +They left the smoking-room shortly afterward, and when they strolled back +to the others, Vane sat down near Jessy. + +"I hear you are going away," she began. + +"Yes. I'm going to look for pulping timber." + +"But what do you want with pulping timber?" + +"It can sometimes be converted into money." + +"Isn't there every prospect of your obtaining a good deal already? Are +you never satisfied?" + +"I suppose I'm open to take as much as I can get." + +Vane answered with an air of humorous reflection. "The reason probably is +that I've had very little until lately. Still, I don't think it's +altogether the money that is driving me." + +"If it's the restlessness you once spoke of, you ought to put a check on +it and try to be content. There's danger in the longing to be always +going on." + +"It's a common idea that a small hazard gives a thing a spice." + +Jessy shot a swift glance at him, and she had, as he noticed, +expressive eyes. + +"Be careful," she advised. "After all, it's wiser to keep within safe +limits and not climb over too many fences." She paused and her voice grew +softer. "You have friends who would be sorry if you got hurt." + +The man was stirred. She was alluring, physically, while something in her +voice had its effect on him. Evelyn, however, still occupied his thoughts +and he smiled at his companion. + +"Thank you. I like to believe it." + +Then Mrs. Nairn and Horsfield crossed the room toward them and the +conversation became general. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +VANE SAILS NORTH + + +On the evening of Vane's departure he walked out of Nairn's room just as +dusk was falling. His host was with him, and when they entered an +adjacent room the elder man's face relaxed into a smile as he saw Jessy +Horsfield talking to his wife. Vane stopped a few minutes to speak to +them, and it was Jessy who gave the signal for the group to break up. + +"I must go," she said to Mrs. Nairn. "I've already stayed longer than I +intended. I'll let you have those patterns back in a day or two." + +"Mair patterns!" Nairn exclaimed with dry amusement. "It's the second lot +this week! Ye're surely industrious, Jessy. Women"--he addressed +Vane--"have curious notions of economy. They will spend a month knitting +a thing to give to somebody who does no want it, when they could buy it +for half a dollar, done better by machinery. I'm no saying, however, that +it does no keep them out of mischief." + +Jessy laughed. + +"I don't think many of us are industrious in that way now. After all, +isn't it a pity that so many of the beautiful old handicrafts are dying +out? No loom, for instance, could turn out some of the things your wife +makes. They're matchless." + +"She has an aumrie--ye can translate it bureaufull of them. It's no +longer customary to scatter them over the house. If ye mean to copy the +lot, ye have a task that will take ye most a lifetime." + +Mrs. Nairn's smile was half a sigh. + +"There were no books and no many amusements when I was young. We sat +through the long winter forenights, counting stitches, in the old gray +house at Burnfoot, under the Scottish moors. That, my dear, was thirty +years ago." + +She shook hands with Vane as he left the house with Jessy, and standing +on the stoop she watched them cross the lawn. + +"I'm thinking ye'll no see so much of Jessy for the next few weeks," +Nairn remarked dryly. "Has she shown ye any of yon knickknacks when she +has finished them?" + +His wife shook her head at him reproachfully. + +"Alic," she admonished, "ye're now and then hasty in jumping at +conclusions." + +"Maybe. I'm no infallible, but the fault ye mention is no common in the +land where we were born. I'm no denying that Jessy has enterprise, but +how far it will carry her in this case is mair than I can tell." + +He smiled as he recalled a scene at the station some time ago, and Mrs. +Nairn looked up at him. + +"What is amusing you, Alic?" + +"It was just a bit idea no worth the mentioning. I think it would no +count." He paused, and added with an air of reflection: "A young man's +heart is whiles inconstant and susceptible." + +Mrs. Nairn, ignoring the last remark, went into the house. In the +meanwhile Jessy and Vane walked down the road, until they stopped at a +gate. Jessy held out her hand. + +"I'm glad I met you to-night," she said. "You will allow me to wish you +every success?" + +There was a softness in her voice which Vane wholly failed to notice, +though he was aware that she was pretty and artistically dressed. This +was possibly why she made him think of Evelyn. + +"Thank you," he replied. "It's nice to feel that one has the sympathy of +one's friends." + +He turned away, and Jessy stood watching him as he strode down the road, +noticing, though it was getting dark, the free vigor of his movements. +There was, she thought, something in his fine poise and swing that set +him apart from other men she knew. None of them walked or carried himself +as Vane did. She was, however, forced to recognize that although he had +answered her courteously, there had been no warmth in his words. As a +matter of fact, Vane just then was conscious of a slight relief. He +admired Jessy, and he liked Nairn and his wife; but they belonged to the +city; and he was glad, on the whole, to leave it behind. He was going +back to the shadowy woods, where men lived naturally. The lust of fresh +adventure was strong in him. + +On reaching the wharf he found Kitty, with Celia Hartley, whom he had not +met hitherto, awaiting him with Carroll and Drayton. A boat lay at the +steps, and he and Carroll rowed the others off to the sloop. The moon was +just rising from behind the black firs at the inner end of the inlet, and +a little cold wind that blew down across them, faintly scented with +resinous fragrance, stirred the water into tiny ripples that flashed into +silvery radiance here and there. Lights gleamed on the forestays of +vessels whose tall spars were etched in high, black tracery against the +dusky blue of the sky, athwart which there streamed the long smoke trail +of a steamer passing out through the Narrows. + +Kitty, urged by Drayton, broke into a little song with a smooth, swinging +cadence that went harmoniously with the measured splash of oars; and Vane +enjoyed it all. The city was dropping behind him; he felt himself at +liberty. Carroll was a tried comrade; the others were simple people whose +views were more or less his own. Besides, it was a glorious night and +Kitty sang charmingly. + +A soft glow shone out from the skylights to welcome them as they +approached the sloop. When, laughing gaily, they clambered on board, +Carroll led the way to the tiny saloon, which just held them all. It was +brightly lighted by two nickeled lamps; flowers were fastened against the +paneling, and clusters of them stood upon the table, which was covered +with a spotless cloth. What was even more unusual, it was daintily set +out with good china and silver. Vane took the head of it, and Carroll +modestly explained that only part of the supper had been prepared by +himself. The rest he had obtained in the city, out of regard for the +guests, who, he added, had not lived in the bush. Presently Vane, who had +been busy talking to the others, turned to Celia. + +"Now that we can see each other better, I think you ought to recognize +me, Miss Hartley." + +The girl was young and attractive, and she blushed prettily. + +"I do, of course; but I thought I'd wait until I saw whether you +remembered me." + +"Why should you wait?" + +Celia looked confused. + +"It's two or three years since I've seen you; and I've left that place." + +Vane laughed. He had made her acquaintance at a workman's hotel where she +was engaged, when he was differently situated, and he fancied that she +was diffident about recalling the fact, now that he was obviously +prosperous. + +"Well," he responded, "it's only fair that I should give you supper, for +once. I've always had an idea that you brought me more dessert than I was +really entitled to." + +"It was because you were--civil," Celia explained, though her expression +suggested that the word did not convey all she meant. "Still, I can't +complain of the rest of the boys." + +"I wonder if you remember how astonished you were the first time you +brought me supper?" + +Celia smiled and Vane turned to the others. + +"I'd just come in on a schooner. We'd had wild weather, during which the +galley fire was generally washed out and the cook had some difficulty in +getting us anything to eat. Miss Hartley brought me a double supply. She +must have thought I needed it." + +"There was mighty little left," the girl retorted. + +The others laughed, but Vane went on, in a reminiscent manner: + +"I was wearing a pair of old gum-boots with one toe torn off, and my +jacket was split right up the back. When I went up-town the next day, +people looked at me suspiciously. The trade of the Province is pretty +bad when you see men in Vancouver dressed as I was. The fact that sticks +in my mind most clearly, however, is that on the following morning, when +I'd arranged to see a man who might give me a job, Miss Hartley offered +to sew up the tear for me. I was uncommonly glad to let her." + +Celia colored again, but it was evident that she was not displeased. +Kitty smiled at him, and there was appreciation in Drayton's eyes. + +"Were you surprised when she offered to sew it?" Kitty inquired. + +"Now, you have helped me on to what I wanted to say. I wasn't +surprised--how could I be? The kind of people I'd met out here had seldom +much money, or much of anything; but I had generally less, and they held +out a hand when I needed it and gave me what they had. It stirs me in a +way that almost hurts to think of it." + +Then Carroll started the general chatter, which went on after the meal +was finished, and nobody appeared to notice that Kitty sat with her hand +in Drayton's amid the happy laughter. Even Celia, who had her grief to +grapple with, smiled bravely. Vane had given them champagne, the best in +the city, though they drank sparingly; and at last, when Celia made a +move to rise, Drayton stood up with his glass in his hand. + +"We must go, but there's something to be done," he announced. "It's to +thank our host and wish him success. It's a little boat he's sailing in, +but she's carrying a big freight, if our good wishes count for anything." + +They emptied the glasses, and Vane replied: + +"My success is yours. You have all a stake in the venture, and that +piles up my responsibility. If the spruce is still in existence, I've +got to find it." + +"And you're going to find it!" declared Drayton. "It's a sure thing!" + +Vane divided the flowers between Celia and Kitty, but when they went up +on deck Kitty raised one bunch and kissed it. + +"Tom won't mind," she laughed. "Take that one back from Celia and +me--for luck." + +They got down into the boat, and Carroll handed them a basket of crockery +and table linen which Drayton promised to have delivered at the hotel. +Then, while the girls called back to Vane, Drayton rowed away, and the +boat was fading out of sight when Kitty's voice once more reached the men +on board. She was singing a well-known Jacobite ballad. + +Carroll laughed softly. + +"It strikes me as appropriate," he said. "Considering what his Highland +followers suffered on his account and what the women thought of him, some +of the virtues they credited the Young Chevalier with must have been +real." He raised his hand. "You may as well listen!" + +Vane stood still a moment, with the blood hot in his face, as the refrain +rang more clearly across the sparkling water: + +"Better lo'ed ye cannot be-- +Will ye no come back to me?" + +"I don't know whether you feel flattered, but I've an idea that Kitty and +Celia would go through fire for you; and Drayton seems to share their +confidence," Carroll went on in his most matter-of-fact tone. + +"Celia mended my jacket," Vane replied. "I got a month's work as a +result of it." Then he began to shake the mainsail loose. "I believe +we both went rather far in our talk to-night; but we have got to find +the spruce!" + +"So you have said already. Hadn't you better heave the boom up with the +topping lift?" + +They got the mainsail onto her, broke out the anchor and set the jib; and +as the boat slipped away before a freshening breeze Vane sat at the helm +while Carroll stood on the foredeck, coiling up the gear. The moon was +higher now; the broad sail gleamed a silvery gray; the ripples, which +were getting bigger, flashed and sparkled as they streamed back from the +bows; and the lights of the city dropped fast astern. Vane was conscious +of a keen exhilaration. He had started on a new adventure. He was going +back to the bush; and he knew that, no matter how his life might change, +the wilderness would always call to him. In spite of this, however, he +was, as he had said, conscious of an unusual responsibility. Hitherto he +had fought for what he could get, for himself; but now Kitty's future +partly depended on his efforts, and his success would be of vast +importance to Celia. + +He had a very friendly feeling toward both the girls. Indeed, all the +women he had met of late had attracted him, in different ways. It was +hard to believe that any of them possessed unlovable qualities, though +there was not one among them to compare with Evelyn. Whatever he liked +most in the others--intelligence, beauty, tenderness, courage--reminded +him of her. Kitty, he thought, belonged to the hearth; she personified +gentleness and solace; it would be her part to diffuse cheerful comfort +in the home. Jessy would make an ambitious man's companion; a clever +counselor, who would urge him forward if he lagged. Celia he had not +placed yet; but Evelyn stood apart from all. + +She appealed less to his senses and intellect than she did to a +sublimated something in the depths of his nature; and it somehow seemed +fitting that her image should materialize before his mental vision as the +sloop drove along under the cloudless night sky while the moonlight +poured down glamour on the shining water. Evelyn harmonized with such +things as these. + +It was true that she had repulsed him; but that, he felt, was what he +deserved for entering into an alliance against her with her venial +father. He was glad now that he had acquiesced in her dismissal of him, +since to have stood firm and broken her to his will would have brought +disaster upon both of them. He felt that she had not wholly escaped him, +after all; by and by he would go back and seek her favor by different +means. Then she might, perhaps, forgive him and listen. + +The breeze came down fresher as they drove out through the Narrows. +Carroll had gone below; and, brushing his thoughts aside, Vane busied +himself hauling in some of the mainsheet, while the water splashed more +loudly beneath the bows. The great black firs rolled by in somber +masses over his port hand, and presently the last of the lights were +blotted out. He was alone, flitting swiftly and smoothly across the +glittering sea. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE FIRST MISADVENTURE + + +The breeze freshened fiercely with the red and fiery dawn. Vane, who had +gone below, was advised of it by being flung off the locker in the +saloon, where he sat with coffee and crackers before him. The jug, +overturning, spilled its contents upon him, and the crackers were +scattered, but he picked himself up in haste and scrambled out into the +well. He found the sloop slanted over with a good deal of her lee deck +submerged in rushing foam, and Carroll bracing himself against the strain +upon the tiller. To windward, the sea looked as if it had been strewed +with feathers, for there were flecks and blurs of white everywhere. + +"I'll let her come up when you're ready!" Carroll shouted. "We'd better +get some sail off her, if we mean to hold on to the mast!" + +He thrust down his helm; and the sloop, forging round to windward, rose +upright, with her heavy main-boom banging to and fro. After that, they +were desperately busy for a few minutes. Vane wished that they had +engaged a hand in Vancouver, instead of waiting to hire a Siwash +somewhere up the coast. There was the headsail to haul to windward, which +was difficult, and the mainsheet to get in; then the two men, standing on +the slippery, inclined deck, struggled hard to haul the canvas down to +the boom. The jerking spar smote them in the ribs; once or twice the +reefing tackle beneath it was torn from their hands; but they mastered +the sail, tying two reefs in it, to reduce its size; and the craft drove +away with her lee rail just awash. + +"You'd better go down and get some crackers," Vane advised his comrade. +"You'll find them rolling up and down the floor. I spilled the coffee, +but perhaps the kettle's still on the stove. Anyhow, you may not have an +opportunity later." + +"It looks like that," Carroll agreed. "The wind's backing northward, and +that means more of it before long. You can call, if you want me." + +He disappeared below, and Vane sat at the helm with a frown on his face. +An angry coppery glare streamed down upon the white-flecked water which +gleamed in the lurid light. It was very cold, but there was a wonderful +quality that set the blood tingling in the nipping air. Even upon the +high peaks and in the trackless bush, one fails to find the bracing +freshness that comes with the dawn at sea. + +Vane, however, knew that the breeze would increase and draw ahead, which +was unfortunate, because they would have to beat, fighting for every +fathom they slowly made. There was no help for it, and he buttoned his +jacket against the spray. By the time Carroll came up the sloop was +plunging sharply, pitching showers of stinging brine all over her when +the bows went down. They drove her at it stubbornly most of the day, +making but little to windward, while the seas got bigger and whiter, +until they had some trouble to keep the light boat they carried upon the +deluged deck. At last, when she came bodily aft amid a frothing cascade +which poured into the well, Vane brought the sloop round, and they +stretched away to eastward, until they could let go the anchor in smooth +water beneath a wall of rock. They were very wet, and were stiff with +cold, for winter was drawing near. + +"We'll get supper," said Vane. "If the breeze drops a little at dusk, +which is likely, we'll go on again." + +Having eaten little since dawn, they enjoyed the meal; and Carroll would +have been content to remain at anchor afterward. The tiny saloon was +comfortably warm, and he thought it would be pleasanter to lounge away +the evening on a locker, with his pipe, than to sit amid the bitter spray +at the helm. The breeze had fallen a little, but the firs in a valley +ashore were still wailing loudly. Vane, however, was proof against his +companion's hints. + +"With a head wind, we'll be some time working up to the rancherie, and +then we have thirty miles of coast to search for the inlet Hartley +reached. After that, there's the valley to locate; he was uncertain how +far it lay from the beach." + +"It couldn't be very far. You wouldn't expect a man who was sick and +badly lame to make any great pace." + +"I can imagine a man, who knew he must reach the coast before he starved, +making a pretty vigorous effort. If he were worked-up and desperate, the +pain might turn him savage and drive him on, instead of stopping him. Do +you remember the time we crossed the divide in the snow?" + +"I could remember it, if I wanted to," Carroll answered with a shiver. +"As it happens, that's about the last thing I'm anxious to do." + +"The trouble is that there are a good many valleys in this strip of +country, and we may have to try a number before we strike the right one. +Winter's not far off, and I can't spend very much time over this search. +As soon as the man we put in charge of the mine has tried his present +system long enough to give us something to figure on, I want to see what +can be done to increase our output. We haven't marketed very much refined +metal yet." + +"There's no doubt that it would be advisable," Carroll answered +thoughtfully. "As I've pointed out, you have spent a good deal of the +cash you got when you turned the Clermont over to the company. In fact, +that's one reason why I didn't try to head off this timber-hunting +scheme. You can't spend much over the search, and if the spruce comes up +to expectations, you ought to get it back. It would be a fortunate +change, after your extravagance in England." + +Vane frowned. + +"That's a subject I don't want to talk about. We'll go up and see what +the weather's like." + +Carroll shivered when they stood in the well. It was falling dusk, and +the sky was a curious cold, shadowy blue. A nipping wind came down across +the darkening firs ashore, but there was no doubt that it had fallen +somewhat, and Carroll resigned himself when Vane began to pull the tiers +off the mainsail. + +In a few minutes they were under way, the sloop heading out toward open +water with two reefs down in her mainsail, a gray and ghostly shape of +slanted canvas that swept across the dim, furrowed plain of sea. By +midnight the breeze was as strong as ever, but they had clear moonlight +and they held on; the craft plunging with flooded decks through the +white combers, while Carroll sat at the helm, battered by spray and +stung with cold. + +When Vane came up, an hour or two later, the sea was breaking viciously. +Carroll would have put up his helm and run for shelter, had the decision +been left to him; but he saw his comrade's face in the moonlight and +refrained from any suggestion of that nature. There was a spice of +dogged obstinacy in Vane, which, although on the whole it made for +success, occasionally drove him into needless difficulties. They held +on; and soon after day broke, with its first red flush ominously high in +the eastern sky, they stretched in toward the land, with a somewhat +sheltered bay opening up beyond a foam-fringed point ahead of them. +Carroll glanced dubiously at the white turmoil in the midst of which +black fangs of rock appeared. + +"Will she weather the point on this tack?" he asked. + +"She'll have to! We'll have smoother water to work through, once we're +round, and the tide's helping her." + +They drove on, though it occurred to Carroll that they were not opening +up the bay very rapidly. The light was growing, and he could now discern +the orderly phalanxes of white-topped combers that crumbled into a +chaotic spouting on the point's outer end. It struck him that the sloop +would not last long if she touched bottom there; but once more, after a +glance at Vane's face, he kept silent. After all, Vane was leader; and +when he looked as he did then, he usually resented advice. The mouth of +the bay grew wider, until Carroll could see most of the forest-girt shore +on one side of it; but the surf upon the point was growing unpleasantly +near. Wisps of spray whirled away from it and vanished among the scrubby +firs clinging to the fissured crags behind. The sloop, however, was going +to windward, for Vane was handling her with nerve and skill. She had +almost cleared the point when there was a rattle and a bang inside of +her. Carroll started. + +"It's the centerboard coming up! It must have touched a boulder!" + +"Then jump down and lift it before it strikes another and bends!" cried +Vane. "She's far enough to windward to keep off the beach without it." + +Carroll went below and hove up the centerboard, which projected several +feet beneath the bottom of the craft; but he was not satisfied that the +sloop was far enough off the beach, as Vane seemed to be, and he got out +into the well as soon as possible. + +The worst of the surf was abreast of their quarter now, and less-troubled +water stretched away ahead. Carroll had hardly noticed this, however, +when there was a second heavy crash and the sloop stopped suddenly. The +comber to windward that should have lifted her up, broke all over her, +flinging the boat on deck upon the saloon skylight and pouring inches +deep over the coaming into the well. Vane was hurled from the tiller. His +wet face was smeared with blood, from a cut on his forehead, but he +seized a big oar to shove the sloop off, when she swung upright, moved, +and struck again. The following sea hove her up; there was a third, less +violent, crash; and as Vane dropped the oar and grasped the helm, she +suddenly shot ahead. + +"She'll go clear!" he shouted. "Jump below and see if she's damaged!" + +Carroll got no farther than the scuttle, for the saloon floorings on the +depressed side were already awash, and he could hear an ominous splashing +and gurgling. + +"It's pouring into her!" he cried. + +"Then, you'll have to pump!" + +"We passed an opening some miles to lee. Wouldn't it be better if you ran +back there?" Carroll suggested. + +"No! I won't run a yard! There's another inlet not far ahead and we'll +stand on until we reach it. I'd put her on the beach here, only that +she'd go to pieces with the first shift of the wind to westward." + +Carroll agreed with this opinion; but there is a great difference between +running to leeward with the sea behind the vessel and thrashing to +windward when it is ahead, and he hesitated. + +"Get the pump started! We're going on!" Vane said impatiently. + +Fortunately the pump was a powerful one, of the semi-rotary type, and +they had nearly two miles of smoother water before they stretched out of +the bay upon the other tack. When they did so, Carroll, glancing down +again through the scuttle, could not flatter himself that he had reduced +the water. It was comforting, however, to see that it had not increased, +though he did not expect that state of affairs to last. When they drove +out into broken water, he found it difficult to work the crank. The +plunges threw him against the coaming, and the sea poured in over it +continually. There are not many men who feel equal to determined toil +before their morning meal, and the physical slackness is generally more +pronounced if they have been up most of the preceding night; but Carroll +recognized that he had no choice. There was too much sea for the boat, +even if they could have launched her, and he could make out no spot on +the beach where it seemed possible to effect a landing if they ran the +sloop ashore. As a result of this, it behooved him to pump. + +After half an hour of it, he was breathless and exhausted, and Vane took +his place. The sea was higher; the sloop wetter than she had been; and +there was no doubt that the water was rising fast inside of her. Carroll +wondered how far ahead the inlet lay; and the next two hours were anxious +ones to both of them. Turn about, they pumped with savage determination +and went back, gasping, to the helm to thrash the boat on. They drove her +remorselessly; and she swept through the combers, tilted and streaming, +while the spray scourged the helmsman's face as he gazed to weather. The +men's arms and shoulders ached from working in a cramped position; but +there was no help for it. They toiled on furiously, until at last the +crest of a crag for which they were heading sloped away in front of them. + +A few minutes later they drove past the end of it into a broad lane of +water. The wind was suddenly cut off; the combers fell away; and the +sloop crept slowly up the inlet, which wound, green and placid, among the +hills, with long ranks of firs dropping steeply to the edge of the water. +Vane loosed the pump handle, and striding to the scuttle looked down at +the flood which splashed languidly to and fro below. + +"It strikes me as fortunate that we're in," he commented. "Another +half-hour would have seen the end of her. Let her come up a little! +There's a smooth beach to yonder cove." + +She slid in quietly, scarcely rippling the smooth surface of the tiny +basin, and Carroll laid her on the beach. + +"Now," advised Vane, "we'll drop the boom on the shore side to keep her +from canting over; and then we'll get breakfast. We'll see where she's +damaged when the tide ebbs." + +As most of their stores had lain in the flooded lockers, from which there +had been no time to extricate them, the meal was not an appetizing one. +They were, however, glad to have it; and rowing ashore afterward, they +lay on the shingle in the sunshine while the sloop was festooned with +their drying clothes. There was no wind in that deep hollow, and they +were thankful, for the weather was already getting cold. + +"If she has only split a plank or two, we can patch her up," Vane +remarked. "There are all the tools we'll want in the locker." + +"Where will you get new planks?" Carroll inquired. "I don't think we +have any spikes that would go through the frames." + +"That is the trouble. I expect I'll have to make a trip across to Comox +for them in a sea canoe. We're sure to come across a few Siwash somewhere +in the neighborhood." Then he knit his brows. "I can't say that this +expedition is beginning fortunately." + +"There's no doubt on that point," Carroll agreed. + +"Well, the sloop has to be patched up; and until I find that spruce I'm +going on--anyway, as long as the provisions hold out. If we're not +through with the business then, we'll come back again." + +Carroll made no comment. It was not worth while to object, when Vane was +obviously determined. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE BUSH + + +It was a quiet evening, nearly a fortnight after the arrival of the +sloop. Pale sunshine streamed into the cove, and little glittering +ripples lapped lazily along the shingle. The placid surface of the inlet +was streaked with faint blue lines where wandering airs came down from +the heights above, and now and then an elfin sighing fell from the ragged +summits of the firs. When it died away, the silence was broken only by +the pounding of a heavy hammer and the crackle of a fire. + +Carroll sat beside the latter, alternately holding a stout plank up to +the blaze and dabbling its hot surface with a dripping mop. His face was +scorched, and he coughed as the resinous-scented smoke drifted about his +head and floated in heavy, blue wisps half-way up the giant trunks behind +him. A big sea canoe lay drawn up not far away, and one of its +copper-skinned Siwash owners lounged on the shingle, stolidly watching +the white men. His comrade was then inside the sloop, holding a big stone +against one of her frames, while Vane crouched outside, swinging a +hammer. Her empty hull flung back the thud of the blows, which rang far +across the trees. + +Vane was bare-armed and stripped to shirt and trousers. He had arrived +from Comox across the straits at dawn that morning. It was a long trip +and they had had wild weather on the journey, but he had set to work with +characteristic energy as soon as he landed. Now, though the sun was low, +he was working harder than ever, with the flood tide, which would shortly +compel him to desist, creeping up to his feet. + +It is a difficult matter to fit a new plank into the rounded bilge of a +boat, particularly when one is provided with inadequate appliances. One +requires a good eye for curves, for the planks need much shaping. They +must also be driven into position by force. Two or three stout shores +were firmly wedged against the side of the boat, and these encumbered +Vane in the free use of his arms. His face was darkly flushed and he +panted heavily and now and then flung vitriolic instructions to the +Siwash inside the craft. Carroll, watching him with quiet amusement, was +on the whole content that the tide was rising, for his comrade had firmly +declined to stop for dinner, and he was conscious of a sharpened +appetite. It was comforting to reflect that Vane would be unable to get +the plank into place before the evening meal, for if there had been any +prospect of his doing so, he would certainly have postponed his dinner. + +Presently he stopped a moment and turned to Carroll. + +"If you were any use in an emergency, you'd be holding up for me, instead +of that wooden image inside! He will back the stone against any frame +except the one I'm nailing." + +"The difficulty is that I can't be in two places at the same time," +Carroll retorted good-naturedly. "Shall I leave this plank? You can't +get it in to-night." + +"I'm going to try," Vane answered grimly. + +He turned around to direct the Siwash and then cautiously hammered in one +of the wedges a little farther. Swinging back the hammer, he struck a +heavy blow. The result was disastrous, for there was a crash and one of +the shores shot backward, striking him on the knee. He jumped with a +savage cry, and the next moment there was a sharp snapping, and the end +of the plank sprang out. Then another shore gave way; and when the plank +fell clattering at his feet, Vane whirled the hammer round his head and +hurled it violently into the bush. This appeared to afford him some +satisfaction, and he strode up the beach, with the blood dripping from +the knuckles of one hand. + +"That's the blamed Siwash's fault!" he muttered. "I couldn't get him to +back up when I put the last spike in." + +"Hadn't you better tell him to come out?" Carroll suggested. + +"No!" thundered Vane. "If he hasn't sense enough to see that he isn't +wanted, he can stay where he is all night! Are you going to get supper, +or must I do that, too?" + +Carroll merely smiled and set about preparing the meal, which the two +Siwash partook of and afterward departed with some paper currency. Then +Vane, walking down the beach, came back with the plank. Lighting his +pipe, he pointed to one or two broken nails in it. The water was now +rippling softly about the sloop, and the splash of canoe paddles came up +out of the distance in rhythmic cadence. + +"That's the cause of the trouble," he explained. "It cost me a week's +journey to get the package of galvanized spikes--I could have managed to +split a plank or two out of one of these firs. The storekeeper fellow +assured me they were specially annealed for heading up. If I knew who the +manufacturers were, I'd have pleasure in telling them what I think of +them. If they set up to make spikes, they ought to make them, and empty +every keg that won't stand the test out on to the scrap-heap." + +Carroll smiled. The course his partner had indicated was the one he would +have adopted. He was characterized by a somewhat grim idea of efficiency, +and never spared his labor to attain it, though the latter fact now and +then had its inconveniences for those who cooperated with him, as Carroll +had discovered. The latter had no doubt that Vane would put the planks +in, if he spent a month over the operation. + +"I wouldn't have had this trouble if you'd been handier with tools," +Vane went on. "I can't see why you never took the trouble to learn how +to use them." + +"My abilities aren't as varied as yours; and the thing strikes me as bad +economy," Carroll replied. "Skill of the kind you mention is worth about +three dollars a day." + +"You were getting two dollars for shoveling in a mining ditch when I +first met you." + +"I was," Carroll assented good-humoredly. "I believe another month or +two of it would have worn me out. It's considerably pleasanter and more +profitable to act as your understudy; but a fairly proficient carpenter +might have bungled the matter." + +Vane looked embarrassed. + +"Let it pass. I've a pernicious habit of expressing myself unfortunately. +Anyhow, we'll start again on those planks the first thing to-morrow." + +He stretched out his aching limbs beside the fire, and languidly watched +the firs grow dimmer and the mists creep in ghostly trails down the +steep hillside. Presently Carroll broke the silence. + +"Wallace," he advised, "wouldn't it be wiser if you met that fellow +Horsfield to some extent?" + +"No," Vane answered decidedly. "I have no intention of giving way an +inch. It would only encourage the man to press me on another point, if I +did. I'm going to have trouble with him, and it seems to me that the +sooner it comes the better. There's room for only one controlling +influence in the Clermont Mine." + +Carroll smoked in silence for a while. His comrade had successfully +carried out most of the small projects he had undertaken in the bush, and +though fortune had, perhaps, favored him, he had every reason to be +satisfied with the result of his efforts as a prospector. He had +afterward held his own in the city, mainly by simple unwavering +determination. Carroll, however, realized that to guard against the wiles +of a clever man like Horsfield, who was unhampered by any scruples, might +prove a very different thing. + +"In that case, it might be as well to stay in Vancouver as much as +possible and keep your eye on him," he suggested. + +"The same idea has struck me since we sailed. The trouble is that until +I've decided about the pulp mill he'll have to go unwatched--for the same +reason that prevented you from holding up for me and steaming the plank." + +"If any unforeseen action of Horsfield's made it necessary, you could let +this pulp project drop." + +"You ought to understand why that's impossible. Drayton, Kitty and +Hartley count on my exertions; the matter was put into my hands only on +the condition that I did all that I could. They're poor people and I +can't go back on them. If we can't locate the spruce, or it doesn't seem +likely to pay for working up, there's nothing to prevent my abandoning +the undertaking; but I'm not at liberty to do so just because it would be +a convenience to myself. Hartley got my promise before he told me where +to search." + +Carroll changed the subject. + +"It might have been better if you had made the directors' qualification +higher. You would have been more sure of Horsfield then, because he would +have been less likely to do anything that might depreciate the value of +his stock." + +"I had to get a few good names to make it easier for men of standing to +join me. They wouldn't have been willing to subscribe for too many shares +until they saw how the thing would go. Anyhow, so long as he's a +director, Horsfield must hold a stipulated amount of stock. He's actually +holding a good deal." + +"The limit's rather a low one. Suppose he sold out down to it; he +wouldn't mind having the value of the rest knocked down, if he could make +more than the difference by some jobbery. Of course, we're only a small +concern, and we'll have to raise more capital sooner or later. I've an +idea that Horsfield might find his opportunity then." + +"If he does, we must try to be ready for him," Vane replied. "I sat up +most of last night with the spritsail sheet in my hand, and I'm going +to sleep." + +He strolled away to the tent they had pitched on the edge of the bush, +but Carroll sat a while smoking beside the fire with a thoughtful face. +He was suspicious of Horsfield and foresaw trouble; more particularly now +that his comrade had undertaken a project which seemed likely to occupy a +good deal of his attention. Hitherto, Vane had owed part of his success +to his faculty of concentrating all his powers upon one object. + +They rose at dawn the next morning, and by sunset had fitted the new +planks. Two days later, they sailed northward, and eventually they found +the rancherie Hartley mentioned. They had expected to hire a guide there, +but the rickety wooden building was empty. Vane decided that its Siwash +owners, who made long trips in search of fish and furs, had left it for a +time, and he pushed on again. + +He had now to face an unforeseen difficulty; there were a number of +openings in that strip of coast, and Hartley's description was of no +great service in deciding which was the right one. During the next day or +two, they looked into several bights, and seeing no valleys opening out +of them, went on again. One evening, however, they ran into an inlet with +a forest-shrouded hollow at the head of it. Here they moored the sloop +close in with a sheltered beach and after a night's rest got ready their +packs for the march inland. Carroll regretted they had not hired the +Indians with whom his comrade had crossed the straits. + +"We would have traveled a good deal more comfortably if you had brought +those Siwash along to pack for us," he observed. + +"If you had been with them on the canoe trip, you might think +differently," Vane answered with a laugh. "Besides, they're in the +habit of going to Cornox and might put some enterprising lumber men on +our trail." + +"There's one thing I'm going to insist on," Carroll declared. "We'll +leave enough provisions on board to last us until we get back to +civilization, even if we have a head wind. I've made one or two journeys +on short rations." + +Vane agreed to this, and after rowing ashore and hiding the boat among +the undergrowth, they proceeded to strap their packs about them. There is +an art in this, for the weight must be carried where it will be felt and +retard one's movements least. They had a light tent without poles--which +could be cut when wanted--two blankets, an ax, and one or two cooking +utensils, besides their provisions. A new-comer from the cities would +probably not have carried his share for half a day, but in that rugged +land mineral prospector and survey packer are accustomed to travel +heavily burdened, and the men had followed both these vocations. + +In front of them a deep trough opened up in the hills, but it was filled +with giant forest, through which no track led, and only those who have +traversed the dim recesses of the primeval bush can fully understand what +this implies. The west winds swept through that gateway, reaping as they +went, and here and there tremendous trees lay strewed athwart one another +with their branches spread abroad in impenetrable tangles. Some had +fallen amid the wreckage left by previous gales, which the forest had +partly made good, and there was scarcely a rod of the way that was not +obstructed by half-rotted trunks. Then there were thick bushes, and an +undergrowth of willows where the soil was damp, with thorny brakes and +matted fern in between. In places the growth was almost like a wall, and +the men, skirting the inlet, were glad to scramble forward among the +rough boulders and ragged driftwood at the water's edge for some minutes +at a time, until it was necessary to leave the beach behind. + +After the first few minutes there was no sign of the gleaming water. They +had entered a region of dim green shade, where the moist air was heavy +with resinous smells. The trunks rose about them in tremendous columns, +thorns clutched their garments, and twigs and brittle branches snapped +beneath their feet. The day was cool, but the sweat of tense effort +dripped from them, and when they stopped for breath at the end of an +hour, Vane estimated that they had gone a mile. + +"I'll be content if we can keep this up," he said. + +"It isn't likely," Carroll replied with a trace of dryness, glancing down +at a big rent in his jacket. + +A little farther on, they waded with difficulty through a large stream, +and Carroll stopped and glanced round at a deep rift in a crag on one +side of them. + +"I don't know whether that could be considered a valley; but we may as +well look at it." + +They scrambled forward, and reaching gravelly soil where the trees were +thinner, Vane surveyed the opening. It was very narrow and appeared to +lose itself among the rocks. The size of the creek which flowed out of it +was no guide, for those ranges are scored by running water. + +"We won't waste time over that ravine," Vane concluded. "I noticed a +wider one farther on. We'll see what it's like; though Hartley led me to +understand that he came down a straight and gently sloping valley. The +one we're in answers the description." + +It was two hours before they reached the second opening, and then Vane, +unstrapping his pack, clambered up the steep face of a crag. When he came +back, his face was thoughtful. He sat down and lighted his pipe. + +"This search seems likely to take us longer than I expected," he said. +"To begin with, there are a number of inlets, all of them pretty much +alike, along this part of the coast, but I needn't go into the reasons +for supposing that this is the one Hartley visited. Taking it for granted +that we're right, we're up against another difficulty. So far as I could +make out from the top of that rock, there's a regular series of ravines +running back into the hills." + +"Hartley told you he came straight down to tidewater, didn't he?" + +"That's not much of a guide. The slope of every fissure seems to run +naturally from the inland watershed to this basin. Hartley was sick and +it was raining all the time, and coming out of any of these ravines he'd +only have to make a slight turn to reach the water. What's more, he +could only tell me that he was heading roughly west. Allowing that there +was no sun visible, that might have meant either northwest or southwest, +which gives us the choice of searching the hollows on either side of the +main valley. Now, it strikes me as most probable that he came right down +the main valley itself; but we have to face the question as to whether +we should push straight on, or search every opening that might be called +a valley?" + +"What's your idea?" Carroll rejoined. + +"That we ought to go into the thing systematically, and look at every +ravine we come to." + +Carroll nodded agreement. + +"I guess you're right." + +They strapped their packs about them and struggled on again. Stopping +half an hour for dinner, they plodded all the afternoon up a long hollow, +which rose steadily in front of them. It was narrow, and in places the +bottom of it was so choked with fallen trunks that they were forced for +the sake of a clearer passage to take to the creek, where they +alternately stumbled among big boulders and splashed through shallow +pools. The water, which was mostly melted snow, was very cold. + +The light was fading down in the deep rift when, winding round a spur +through a tangle of clinging underbrush, they saw the timber thin off +ahead. In a few minutes Vane stopped with an exclamation, and Carroll, +overtaking him, loosened his pack. They stood upon the edge of the +timber, but in front of them a mass of soil and stones ran up almost +vertically to a great outcrop of rock high above. + +"If Hartley had come down that, he'd have remembered it," Vane +remarked grimly. + +"It's obvious," Carroll agreed, sitting down with a sigh of weariness. +"We'll try the next one to-morrow; I don't move another step to-night." + +Vane laughed. + +"I've no wish to urge you. There's hardly a joint in my body that doesn't +ache." He flung down his pack and stretched himself with an air of +relief. "That's what comes of civilization and soft living. It would be +nice to sit still now while somebody brought me my supper." + +As there was nobody to do so, he took up the ax and set about hewing +chips off a fallen trunk while Carroll made a fire. Then he cut the tent +poles and a few armfuls of twigs for a bed, and in half an hour the camp +was pitched and a meal prepared. Darkness closed down on them while they +ate, and they afterward lay a while, smoking and saying little, beside +the sinking fire, while the red light flickered upon the massy trunks and +fell away again. Then they crawled into the tent and wrapped their +blankets round them. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +VANE POSTPONES THE SEARCH + + +When Vane rose early the next morning, there was frost in the air. The +firs glistened with delicate silver filigree, and thin spears of ice +stretched out from behind the boulders in the stream. The smoke of the +fire thickened the light haze that filled the hollow, and when breakfast +was ready the men ate hastily, eager for the exertion that would put a +little warmth into them. + +"We've had it a good deal colder on other trips. I suppose I've been +getting luxurious, for I seem to resent it now," observed Vane. "There's +no doubt that winter's beginning earlier that I expected up here. As soon +as you can strike the tent, we'll get a move on." + +Carroll made no comment He had a vivid recollection of one or two of +those other journeys, during which they had spent arduous days +floundering through slushy snow and had slept in saturated blankets, and +sometimes shelterless in bitter frost. Carroll had endured these things +without complaint, though he had never attained to the cheerfulness his +comrade usually displayed. He was willing to face hardship, when it +promised to lead to a tangible result, but he failed to understand the +curious satisfaction Vane assumed to feel in ascertaining exactly how +much weariness and discomfort he could force his flesh to bear. + +Vane, however, was not singular in this respect; there are men in the +newer lands who, if they do not actually seek it, will seldom make an +effort to avoid the strain of overtaxed muscles and exposure to wild and +bitter weather. They have imbibed the pristine vigor of the wilderness, +and conflict with the natural forces braces instead of daunting them. One +recognizes them by their fixed and steady gaze, their direct and +deliberate speech, and the proficiency that most display with ax and saw +and rifle. But the effect of this Spartan training is not merely +physical; the men who leave the bush and the ranges, as a rule, come to +the forefront in commerce and industry. Endurance, swiftness of action +and stubborn tenacity are apt to carry their possessor far anywhere. + +Vane and his comrade needed these qualities during the following week. +The valley grew more wild and rugged as they proceeded. In places, its +bottom was filled with muskegs, cumbered with half-submerged, decaying +trunks of fallen trees; and when they could not spring from one crumbling +log to another they sank in slime and water to the knee. Then there were +effluents of the main river to be waded through, and every now and then +they were forced back by impenetrable thickets to the hillside, where +they scrambled along a talus of frost-shattered rock. They entered +transverse valleys, and after hours of exhausting labor abandoned the +search of each in turn and plodded back to the one they had been +following. Their boots and clothing suffered; their packs were rent upon +their backs; and their provisions diminished rapidly. + +At length, one lowering afternoon, they were brought to a standstill by +the river which forked into two branches, one of which came foaming out +of a cleft in the rocks. This would have mattered less, had it flowed +across the level; but just there it had scored itself out a deep hollow, +from which the roar of its turmoil rose in long reverberations. Carroll, +aching all over, stood upon the brink and gazed ahead. He surmised from +the steady ascent and the contours of the hills that the valley was dying +out and that they should reach the head of it in another day's journey. +The higher summits, however, were veiled in leaden mist, and there was a +sting in the cold breeze that blew down the hollow and set the ragged +firs to wailing. Then Carroll glanced dubiously at the dim, green water +which swirled in deep eddies and boiled in white confusion among the +fangs of rock sixty or seventy feet below. Not far away, the stream was +wider and, he supposed, in consequence, shallower, though it ran +furiously. + +"It doesn't look encouraging, and we have no more food left than will +take us back to the sloop if we're economical. Do you think it's worth +while going on?" + +"I haven't a doubt about it," Vane declared. "We ought to reach the head +of the valley and get back here in two or three days." + +Carroll fancied they could have walked the distance in a few hours on a +graded road; but the roughness of the ground was not the chief +difficulty. + +"Three days will make a big hole in the provisions," he pointed out. + +"Then we'll have to put up with short rations." + +Carroll nodded in rueful acquiescence. + +"If you're determined, we may as well get on." + +He stepped cautiously over the edge of the descent, and went down a few +yards with a run, while loosened soil and stones slipped away under him. +Then he clutched a slender tree, and proceeded as far as the next on his +hands and knees. After that it was necessary to swing himself over a +ledge, and he alighted safely on one below, from which he could scramble +down to the narrow strip of gravel between rock and water. He was +standing, breathless, looking at the latter, when Vane joined him. The +stones dipped sharply, and two or three large boulders, ringed about with +froth, rose near the middle of the stream, which seemed to be running +slacker on the other side of them. + +There was nothing to show how deep it was, and Carroll did not relish the +idea of being compelled to swim burdened with his pack. No trees grew +immediately upon the brink of the chasm, and to chop a good-sized log and +get it down to the water, in order to ferry themselves across on it, +would cost more time than Vane was likely to spare for the purpose. +Seeing no other way out of it, Carroll braced himself for an effort and +sturdily plunged in. + +Two steps took him up to the waist, and he had trouble in finding solid +bottom at the next, for the gravel rolled and slipped away beneath his +feet in the strong stream. The current dragged hard at his limbs, and he +set his lips tight when it crept up to his ribs. Then he lost his +footing, and was washed away, plunging and floundering, with now and then +one toe resting momentarily upon the bottom. Sweeping rapidly down the +stream he was hurled against the first of the boulders with a crash that +almost drove the little remaining breath out of his body. He clung to it +desperately, gasping hard; then, with a determined struggle, he contrived +to reach the second stone, but the stream pressed him violently against +this and he was unable to find any support for his feet. A moment later +Vane was washed down toward him and, grabbing at the boulder, held on by +it. They said nothing to each other, but they looked at the sliding water +between them and the opposite bank. Carroll was getting dangerously cold, +and he felt the power ebbing out of him. He realized that if he must swim +across he would better do it at once. + +Launching himself forward, he felt the flood lap his breast, but as his +arms went in he struck something with his knee and found that he could +stand on a submerged ledge. This carried him a yard or two, but the next +moment he had stepped suddenly over the end of the ledge into deeper +water. Floundering forward, he staggered up a strip of shelving shingle +and lay there, breathless, waiting for Vane; then together they +scrambled up the slope ahead. The work warmed them slightly, and they +needed it; but as they strode on again, keeping to the foot of the +hillside, where the timber was less dense, a cold rain drove into their +faces. It grew steadily thicker; the straps began to gall their wet +shoulders, and their saturated clothing clung heavily about their limbs. +In spite of this, they struggled on until nightfall, when with +difficulty they made a fire and, after a reduced supper, found a little +humid warmth in their wet blankets. + +The next day's work was much the same, only that they crossed no rivers. +It rained harder, however, and when evening came Carroll, who had burst +one boot, was limping badly. They made camp among the dripping firs which +partly sheltered them from the bitter wind, and shortly after their +meager supper Carroll fell asleep. Vane, to his annoyance, found that he +could not follow his friend's example. He was overstrung, and the +knowledge that the morrow would show whether the spruce he sought grew in +that valley made him restless. The flap of the tent was flung back and +resting on one elbow he looked out upon shadowy ranks of trunks, which +rose out of the gloom and vanished again as the firelight grew and sank. +He could smell the acrid smoke and could hear the splash of heavy drops +upon the saturated soil, while the hoarse roar of the river came up in +fitful cadence from the depths of the valley. + +In place of being deadened by fatigue, his imagination seemed quickened +and set free. It carried him back to the lonely heights and the rugged +dales of his own land, and once more in vivid memory he roamed the upland +heath with Evelyn. She had attracted him strongly when he was in her +visible presence; but now he thought he understood her better than he had +ever done then. He had, he felt, not grasped the inner meaning of much +that she said. Words might convey but little in their literal sense and +yet give to a sympathetic listener an insight into the depths of the +speaker's nature, or hint at a thought too finely spun and delicate for +formal expression. + +The same thing applied to her physical personality. Contours, coloring, +features, were things that could be defined and appraised; but there was +besides, in Evelyn's case, an aura that only now and then could dimly be +perceived by senses attuned to it. It enveloped her in a mystic light. +Again he remembered how he had sought her with crude longing and cold +appreciation. He had failed to comprehend her; the one creditable thing +he had done was the renouncing of his claim. Then the half-formed idea +grew plainer that she would understand and sympathize with what he was +doing now. It was to keep faith with those who trusted him that he meant +stubbornly to prosecute his search and, if the present journey failed, to +come back again. That Evelyn would ever hear of his undertaking, appeared +most improbable; but this did not matter. He knew now that it was the +remembrance of her that had largely animated him to make the venture; and +to go on in the face of all opposing difficulties was something he could +do in her honor. Then by degrees his eyes grew heavy, and when he sank +down in his wet blankets sleep came to him. Perhaps he had been +fanciful--he was undoubtedly overstrung--but, through such dreams as he +indulged in, passing glimpses of strange and splendid visions that +transfigure the toil and clamor of a material world are now and then +granted to wayfaring men. + +At noon the next day they reached the head of the valley. It was still +raining, and heavy mists obscured the summits of the hills, but above the +lower slopes of rock glimmering snow ran up into the woolly vapor. There +were firs, a few balsams and hemlocks, but no sign of a spruce. + +"Now," Carroll commented dryly, "perhaps you'll be satisfied." + +Vane smiled. He was no nearer to owning himself defeated than he had been +when they first set out. + +"We know there's no spruce in this valley--and that's something," he +replied. "When we come back again we'll try the next one." + +"It has cost us a good deal to make sure of the fact" + +Vane's expression changed. + +"We haven't ascertained the cost just yet. As a rule, you don't make up +the bill until you're through with the undertaking; and it may be a +longer one than either of us think. Well, we might as well turn upon +our tracks." + +Carroll recalled this speech afterward. Just then, however, he hitched +his burden a little higher on his aching shoulders as he plodded after +his comrade down the rain-swept hollow. They had good cause to remember +the march to the inlet. It rained most of the while and their clothes +were never dry; parts of them, indeed, flowed in tatters about their +aching limbs, and before they had covered half the distance, their boots +were dropping to pieces. What was more important, their provisions were +rapidly running out, and they marched on a few handfuls of food, +carefully apportioned, twice daily. At last they lay down hungry, with +empty bags, one night, to sleep shelterless in the rain, for they had +thrown their tent away. Carroll had some difficulty in getting on his +feet the next morning. + +"I believe I can hold out until sundown, though I'm far from sure of +it," he said. "You'll have to leave me behind if we don't strike the +inlet then." + +"We'll strike it in the afternoon," Vane assured him. + +They reslung their packs and set out wearily. Carroll, limping and +stumbling along, was soon troubled by a distressful stitch in his side. +He managed to keep pace with Vane, however, and some time after noon a +twinkling gleam among the trees caught their eye. Then the shuffling +pace grew faster, and they were breathless when at last they stopped and +dropped their burdens beside the boat. It was only at the third or +fourth attempt that they got her down to the water, and the veins were +swollen high on Vane's flushed forehead when he sat down, panting +heavily, on her gunwale. + +"We ran her up quite easily, though we had the slope to face then," +he remarked. + +"You could scarcely expect to carry boats about without trouble after a +march like the one we've made!" + +They ran her in and pulled off to the sloop. When at last they sat down +in the little saloon, Vane got a glimpse of himself in the mirror. + +"I knew you looked a deadbeat," he laughed, "but I'd no idea I was quite +so bad. Anyhow, we'll get the stove lighted and some dry things on. The +next question is--what shall we have for supper?" + +"That's easy. Everything that's most tempting, and the whole of it." + +Shortly afterward they flung their boots and rent garments overboard and +sat down to a feast. The plates were empty when they rose, and in another +hour both of them were wrapped in heavy slumber. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +JESSY CONFERS A FAVOR + + +The next morning it was blowing fresh from the southeast, which was right +ahead, and Vane's face was hard when he and Carroll got the boat on deck +and set about tying down two reefs in the mainsail. + +"Bad luck seems to follow us," he grumbled. + +Carroll smiled. + +"There's no doubt of that; but I suppose the fact won't have much +effect on you." + +"No," returned Vane decidedly, "We had our troubles in other ventures, +and somehow we got over them--I don't see why we shouldn't do the same +again. Now that we've seen the country, we ought to get some useful +information out of Hartley--we'll know what to ask him." + +"I shouldn't count too much on his help," Carroll answered with a +thoughtful air. + +They got sail upon the sloop and drove her out into a confused head sea, +through which she labored with flooded decks, making very little to +windward. When night came, a deluge killed the breeze, and the next day +she lay rolling wildly in a heavy calm while light mist narrowed in the +horizon and a persistent drizzle poured down upon the smoothly heaving +sea. Then they had light variable winds, and their provisions were once +more running out when they drew abreast of a little coaling port. Carroll +suggested running in and going on to Victoria by train, but they had +hardly decided to do so when the fickle breeze died away and the +tide-stream bore them past to the south. They had no longer a stitch of +dry clothing and they were again upon reduced rations. + +Still bad fortune dogged them, for that night a fresh head wind sprang up +and held steadily while they thrashed her south, swept by stinging spray. +Their tempers grew shorter under the strain, and their bodies ached from +the chill of their sodden garments and from sitting hour by hour at the +helm. At last the breeze fell, and shortly afterward a trail of smoke and +a half-seen strip of hull emerged from the creeping haze astern of them. + +"A lumber tug," observed Vane. "She seems to have a raft in tow, and it +will probably be for Drayton's people. If you'll edge in toward her I'll +send him word that we're on the way." + +There was very little wind just then and presently the tug was close +alongside, pitching her bows out of the slow swell, while a great mass of +timber wonderfully chained together surged along astern, the dim, +slate-green sea washing over it. A shapeless oil-skinned figure stood +outside her pilot-house, balancing itself against the heave of the +bridge, which slanted and straightened. + +"Winstanley?" Vane shouted. + +The figure waved an arm, as if in assent, and Vane raised his +voice again. + +"Report us to Mr. Drayton. We'll come along as fast as we can." + +The man turned and pointed to the misty horizon astern. + +"You'll get it from the north before to-morrow!"' he called. + +Then the straining tug and the long wet line of working raft drew ahead +while the sloop crawled on, close-hauled toward the south. Late that +night, however, the mist melted away, and a keen rushing breeze that came +out of the north crisped the water. The vessel sprang forward when the +ripples reached her; the flapping canvas went to sleep; and while each +slack rope tightened a musical tinkle broke out at the bows. It grew +steadily louder, and when the sun swung up red above the eastern hills, +she had piled the white froth to her channels and was driving forward +merrily with little sparkling seas tumbling, foam-tipped, after her. The +wind fell light as the sun rose higher, but the swinging sloop ran on all +day, with blurred hills and forests sliding past; and the western sky was +still blazing with a wondrous green when she stole into Vancouver harbor. + +Carroll gazed at the city with open appreciation. It rose, girded with +many wires and giant telegraph poles, roof above roof, up a low rise, on +the crest of which towering pines still lifted their ragged spires +against the evening sky. Lower down, big white lights were beginning to +blink, and the forests up the inlet beyond the smoke of the mills had +already faded to a belt of shadow. + +"Quebec," he remarked, "looks fine from the river, clustering round +and perched upon its heights; and Montreal at the foot of its +mountain strikes your eye from most points of view; but I can't +remember ever entering either with the pleasure I've experienced in +reaching this city." + +"You probably arrived at the others traveling in a Pullman or in a +luxurious side-wheel steamboat. It wouldn't be any great change from them +to a smart hotel." + +"That may explain the thing," Carroll agreed with an air of humorous +reflection. "I guess the way you regard a city depends largely on the +condition you're in when you reach it and on what you expect to get out +of it. In the present case, Vancouver stands for rest and comfort and +enough to eat." + +Vane laughed. + +"I'm as glad to be back as you are; but you'd better make the most of any +leisure that you can get. As soon as I've arranged things here we'll go +north again." + +The light faded as they crept across the inlet before a faint breeze, but +when they got the anchor over and the boat into the water, Carroll made +out two dim figures standing on the wharf. + +"It's Drayton, I think," he said, waving a hand to them. "Kitty's +with him." + +They pulled ashore, and Drayton and Kitty greeted them. + +"I've been looking out for you since noon," Drayton told them. "What +about the spruce?" + +There was eagerness in his voice, and Vane's face clouded. + +"We couldn't find a trace of it." + +Drayton's disappointment was obvious, though he tried to hide it. + +"Well," he said resignedly, "I've no doubt you did all you could." + +"Of course!" Kitty broke in. "We're quite sure of that!" + +Vane thanked her with a glance. He felt sorry for her and Drayton. +They were strongly attached to each other, and he had reasons for +believing that even with the advanced salary the man expected to get +they would find it needful to study strict economy. It was easy to +understand that a small share in a prosperous enterprise would have +made things easier for them. + +"I'm going to make another attempt. I expect some of our difficulties +will vanish after I've had a talk with Hartley." + +"That's impossible," Kitty explained softly. "Hartley died a week ago." + +Vane started. The prospector had given him very little definite +information, and it was disconcerting to recognize that he must now rely +entirely upon his own devices. + +"I'm sorry", he said "How's Celia?" + +"She's very ill." There was concern in Kitty's voice. "Hartley got worse +soon after you left, and she sat up all night with him, after her work +for the last few weeks. Now she's broken down, and she seems to worry for +fear they will not take her back again at the hotel." + +"I must go to see her," declared Vane. "But won't you and Drayton come +with us and have dinner?" + +Drayton explained that this was out of the question; Kitty's employer, +who had driven in that afternoon, was waiting with his team. They left +the wharf together, and a few minutes later Vane shook hands with the +girl and her companion. + +"Don't lose heart," he said encouragingly. "We're far from beaten yet." + +Some time afterward Vane, rejoicing in the unusual luxury of clean, dry +clothes, walked across to call on Nairn. The house struck him as +larger, more commodious and better lighted than it had been when he +left it, although he supposed that was only the result of his having +lived on board the sloop and in the bush. He was shown into a room +where Jessy Horsfield was sitting, and she rose with a slight start +when he came in; but her manner was reposeful and quietly friendly when +she held out her hand. + +"So you have come back! Have you succeeded in your search?" + +Vane was gratified. It was pleasant to feel that she was interested in +his undertaking. + +"No," he confessed. "For the time being, I'm afraid I have failed." + +There was reproach in Jessy's voice when she answered. + +"Then you have disappointed me!" + +It was delicate flattery, as she had conveyed the impression that she had +expected him to succeed, which implied that she held a high opinion of +his abilities. Still, she did not mean him to think that he had forfeited +the latter. + +"After all, you must have had a good deal against you," she added +consolingly. "Won't you sit down and tell me about it? Mr. Nairn, I +understand, is writing some letters, and he sent for Mrs. Nairn just +before you came in. I don't suppose she will be back for a few minutes." + +She indicated a chair beside the open hearth and Vane sat down opposite +her, where a low screen cut them off from the rest of the room. A shaded +lamp above their heads cast down a soft radiance which lighted a sparkle +in the girl's hair, and a red, wood fire glowed cheerfully in front of +them. Vane, still stiff and aching from exposure to the cold and rain, +reveled in the unusual sense of comfort. In addition to this, his +companion's pose was singularly graceful, and the ease of it and the +friendly smile with which she regarded him somehow implied that they were +on excellent terms. + +"It's very nice to be here again," he said languidly. + +Jessy looked up at him. He had, as she recognized, spoken as he felt, on +impulse, and this was more gratifying than an obvious desire to pay her a +compliment would have been. + +"I suppose you didn't get many comforts in the bush," she suggested. + +"No. Comforts of any kind are remarkably scarce up yonder. As a matter +of fact, I can't imagine a country where the contrasts between the +luxuries of civilization and--the other thing--are sharper. You can step +off a first-class car into the wilderness, where no amount of money can +buy you better fare than pork, potatoes and dried apples; and if you +want to travel you must shoulder your pack and walk. But that wasn't +exactly what I meant." + +"Then what did you mean?" + +"I don't know that it's worth explaining. We have rather luxurious +quarters at the hotel, but this room is somehow different. It's +restful--I think it's homely--in fact, as I said, it's nice to be here." + +Jessy made no comment. She understood that he had been attempting to +analyze his feelings, and had failed clearly to recognize that her +presence contributed to the satisfaction of which he was conscious. She +had no doubt that if he were a man of average susceptibility, which +seemed to be the case, the company of a well-dressed and attractive woman +would have some effect on him after his sojourn in the wilds; but whether +she had produced any deeper effect than that or not she could not +determine. Though she was curious upon the point, it did not appear +judicious to prompt him unduly. + +"But won't you tell me your adventures?" she begged. + +It required a few leading questions to start him but at length he told +the story in a manner that compelled her interest. + +"You see," he concluded, "it was the lack of definite knowledge as much +as the natural obstacles that brought us back--and I've been troubled +about the thing since we landed." + +Jessy's manner invited his confidence. + +"I wonder," she said softly, "if you would care to tell me why?" + +Vane knit his brows. + +"Hartley's dead, and I understand that his daughter has broken down after +nursing him. It's doubtful whether her situation can be kept open, and it +may be some time before she's strong enough to look for another." He +hesitated. "In a way, I feel responsible for her." + +"You really aren't responsible in the least," Jessy declared. "Still, I +can understand the idea's troubling you." + +"She's left without a cent and unable to work--and I don't know what to +do. In an affair of this kind I'm handicapped by being a man." + +"Would you like me to help you?" + +"I can hardly ask it, but it would be a relief to me," Vane answered with +obvious eagerness. + +"Then if you'll tell me her address, I'll go to see her, and we'll +consider what can be done." + +Vane leaned forward impulsively. + +"You have taken a weight off my mind. It's difficult to thank you +properly." + +"Oh, I don't suppose it will give me any trouble. Of course, it must be +embarrassing to you to feel that you have a helpless young woman on +your hands." + +Then a thought flashed into her mind, as she remembered what she had seen +at the station some months ago. + +"I wonder whether the situation is an altogether unusual one to you?" +she queried. "Have you never let your pity run away with your +judgment before?" + +"You wouldn't expect me to proclaim my charities," Vane parried +with a laugh. + +"I think you are trying to put me off. You haven't given me an answer." + +"Well, perhaps I was able to make things easier for somebody else not +very long ago," Vane confessed reluctantly but without embarrassment. "I +now see that I might have done harm without meaning to do so. It's +sometimes extraordinarily difficult to help people--and that makes me +especially grateful for your offer." + +For the next few moments Jessy sat silent. It was clear that she had +misjudged him, for although she was not one who demanded too much from +human nature, the fact that Kitty Blake had arrived in Vancouver in his +company had undoubtedly rankled in her mind. Now she acquitted him of any +blame, and it was a relief to do so. She changed the subject abruptly. + +"I suppose you will make another attempt to find the timber?" + +"Yes. In a week or two." + +He had hardly spoken when Mrs. Nairn came in and welcomed him with her +usual friendliness. + +"I'm glad to see ye, though ye're looking thin," she said. "What's the +way ye did not come straight to us, instead of going to the hotel. Ye +would have got as good a supper as they would give ye there." + +"I haven't a doubt of it," Vane declared. "On the other hand, I hardly +think that even one of your suppers would quite have put right the defect +in my appearance you mentioned. You see, the cause of it has been at work +for some time." + +Mrs. Nairn regarded him with half-amused compassion. + +"If ye'll come over every evening, we'll soon cure that. I would have +been down sooner if Alic had not kept me. He's writing letters, and there +was a matter or two he wanted to ask my opinion on." + +"I think that was very wise of him," Vane commented. + +His hostess smiled. + +"For one thing, we had a letter from Evelyn Chisholm this afternoon. +She'll be out to spend some time with us in about a month." + +"Evelyn's coming here?" Vane exclaimed, with a sudden stirring of +his heart. + +"Why should she no? I told ye some time ago that we partly expected her. +Ye were no astonished then." + +She appeared to expect an explanation of the change in his attitude, and +as he volunteered none she drew him a few paces aside. + +"If I'm no betraying a confidence, Evelyn writes--I'm no sure of the +exact words--that she'll be glad to get away a while. Now, I've been +wondering why she should be anxious to leave home?" + +She looked at him fixedly, and, to his annoyance, he felt his face grow +hot. Mrs. Nairn had quick perceptions, and now and then she was +painfully direct. + +"It struck me that Evelyn was not very comfortable there," he replied. +"She seemed out of harmony with her people--she didn't belong. The same +thing," he went on lamely, "applies to Mopsy." + +Mrs. Nairn glanced at him with a twinkle in her eyes. + +"It's no unlikely. The reason may serve--for the want of a better." Then +she changed her tone. "Ye'll away up to Alic; he told me to send ye." + +Vane went out of the room, but he left Jessy in a thoughtful mood. She +had seen his start at the mention of Evelyn, and it struck her as +significant, for she had heard that he had spent some time with the +Chisholms. On the other hand, there was the obvious fact that he had been +astonished to hear that Evelyn was coming out, which implied that their +acquaintance had not progressed far enough to warrant the girl's +informing him. Besides, Evelyn would not arrive for a month; and Jessy +reflected that she would probably see a good deal of Vane in the +meanwhile. She now felt glad that she had promised to look after Celia +Hartley, for that, no doubt, would necessitate her consulting with him +every now and then. She endeavored to dismiss the matter from her mind, +however, and exerted herself to interest Mrs. Nairn in a description of a +function she had lately attended. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +VANE FORESEES TROUBLE + + +Nairn was sitting at a writing-table when Vane entered his room, and +after a few questions about his journey he handed the younger man one of +the papers that lay in front of him. + +"It's a report from the mine. Ye can read and think it over while I +finish this letter." + +Vane carefully studied the document, and then waited until Nairn laid +down his pen. + +"It only brings us back to our last conversation on the subject," he said +when his host glanced at him inquiringly. "We have the choice of going on +as we are doing, or extending our operations by an increase of capital. +In the latter case, our total earnings might be larger, but I hardly +believe there would be as good a return on the money actually sunk. +Taking it all round, I don't know what to think. Of course, if it +appeared that there was a moral certainty of making a satisfactory profit +on the new stock, I should consent." + +Nairn chuckled. + +"A moral certainty is no a very common thing in mining." + +"Horsfield's in favor of the scheme. How far would you trust that man?" + +"About as far as I could fling a bull by the tail. The same thing applies +to both of them." + +"He has some influence. No doubt he'd find supporters." + +Nairn saw that the meaning of his last remark, which implied that he had +no more confidence in Jessy than he had in her brother, had not been +grasped by his companion, but he did not consider it judicious to make it +plainer. Instead, he gave Vane another piece of information. + +"He and Winter work into each other's hands." + +"But Winter has no interest in the Clermont!" + +Nairn smiled sourly. + +"He holds no shares in the mine; but there's no much in the shape of +mineral developments yon man has no an interest in. Since ye do no seem +inclined to yield Horsfield a point or two, it might pay ye to watch the +pair of them." + +Vane was aware that Winter was a person of some importance in financial +circles, and he sat thoughtfully silent for a couple of minutes. + +"Now," he explained at length, "every dollar we have in the Clermont is +usefully employed and earning a satisfactory profit. Of course, if we put +the concern on the market, we might get more than it is worth from +investors; but that doesn't greatly appeal to me." + +"It's unnecessary to point out that a director's interest is no +invariably the same as that of his shareholders," Nairn rejoined. + +"It's an unfortunate fact. Yet I'd be no better off if I got only the +same actual return on a larger amount of what would be watered stock." + +"There's sense in that. I'm no urging the scheme--there are other points +against it." + +"Well, I'll go up and look round the mine, and then we'll have another +talk about the matter." + +Vane walked back to his hotel in a thoughtful frame of mind. Finding +Carroll in the smoking-room, he related his conversation with Nairn. + +"I'm a little troubled about the situation," he confessed. "The Clermont +finances are now on a sound basis, but it might after all prove +advantageous to raise further capital; although in such a case we would, +perhaps, lie open to attack. Nairn's inclined to be cryptic in his +remarks; but he seems to hint that it would be advisable to make +Horsfield some concession--in other words, to buy him off." + +"Which is a course you have objections to?" + +"Very decided ones." + +"In a general way, Nairn's advice strikes me as quite sensible. Wherever +mining and other schemes are floated, there are men who make a good +living out of the operations. They're trained to the business; they've +control of the money; and when a new thing's put on the market, they +consider they've the first claim on the pickings. As a rule, that notion +seems to be justified." + +"You needn't elaborate the point," Vane broke in impatiently. + +"You made your appearance in this city as a poor and unknown man with a +mine to sell," Carroll went on. "Disregarding tactful hints, you laid +down your terms and stuck to them. Launching your venture without +considering their views, you did the gentlemen I've mentioned out of +their accustomed toll, and I've no doubt that some of them were +indignant. It's a thing you couldn't expect them to sanction. Now, +however, one who probably has others behind him is making overtures to +you. You ought to consider it a compliment; a recognition of ability. +The question is--do you mean to slight these advances and go on as you +have begun?" + +"That's my present intention," Vane answered. + +"Then you needn't be astonished if you find yourself up against a +determined opposition." + +"I think my friends will stand by me." + +Vane looked at him steadily, and Carroll laughed. + +"Thanks. I've merely been pointing out what you may expect, and hinting +at the most judicious course--though the latter's rather against my +natural inclinations. I'd better add that I've never been particularly +prudent, and the opposite policy appeals to me. If we're forced to clear +for action, we'll nail the flag to the mast." + +It was spoken lightly, because the man was serious, but Vane knew that he +had an ally who would support him with unflinching staunchness. + +"I'm far from sure that it will be needful," he replied. + +They talked about other matters until they strolled off to their rooms. +The next week Vane was kept occupied in the city; and then once more they +sailed for the North. They pushed inland until they were stopped by snow +among the ranges, without finding the spruce. The journey proved as +toilsome as the previous one, and both men were worn out when they +reached the coast. Vane was determined on making a third attempt, but he +decided to visit the mine before proceeding to Vancouver. They had heavy +rain during the voyage down the straits, and when, on the day after +reaching port, the jaded horses they had hired plodded up the sloppy +trail to the mine a pitiless deluge poured down on them. The light was +growing dim among the dripping firs, and a deep-toned roar came throbbing +across their shadowy ranks. Vane turned and glanced back at Carroll. + +"I've never heard the river so plainly before," he said. "It must be +unusually swollen." + +The mine was situated on a narrow level flat between the hillside and the +river, and Carroll understood the anxiety in his comrade's voice. Urging +the wearied horses they pressed on a little faster. It was almost dark, +however, when they reached the edge of an opening in the firs and saw a +cluster of iron-roofed, wooden buildings and a tall chimney-stack, in +front of which the unsightly ore-dump extended. Wet, chilled and worn out +as the men were, there was comfort in the sight; but Vane frowned as he +noticed that a shallow lake stretched between him and the buildings. On +one side of it there was a broad strip of tumbling foam, which rose and +fell in confused upheavals and filled the forest with the roar it made. +Vane drove his horse into the water; and dismounting among the stumps +before the ore-dump, he found a wet and soil-stained man awaiting him. A +long trail of smoke floated away from the iron stack behind him, and +through the sound of the river there broke the clank and thud of +hard-driven pumps. + +"You have got a big head of steam up, Salter," he remarked. + +The man nodded. + +"We want it. It's a taking me all my time to keep the water out of the +workings; and the boys are over their ankles in the new drift. Leave +your horses--I'll send along for them--and I'll show you what we've been +doing, after supper." + +"I'd rather go now, while I'm wet," Vane answered. "We came straight on +as soon as we landed, and I probably shouldn't feel like turning out +again when I'd had a meal." + +Salter made a sign of assent, and a few minutes later they went down into +the mine. The approach to it looked like a canal, and they descended the +shallow shaft amid a thin cascade. The tunnel slanted, for the lode +dipped, and the pale lights that twinkled here and there among the +timbering showed shadowy, half-naked figures toiling in water which rose +well up their boots. Further streams of it ran in from fissures; and +Vane's face grew grave as he plodded through the flood with a lamp in his +hand. He spent an hour in the workings, asking Salter a question now and +then, and afterward went back with him to one of the iron-roofed sheds, +where he put on dry clothes and sat down to a meal. + +When it was over and the table had been cleared, he lay in a canvas chair +beside the stove, listening to the resinous billets snapping and +crackling cheerfully. The little, brightly lighted room was pleasantly +warm, and Vane was filled with a languid sense of physical comfort after +long exposure to rain and bitter wind. The deluge roared upon the iron +roof; the song of the river rose and fell, filling the place with sound; +and now and then the pounding and clanking of the pumps broke in. + +Vane examined the sheet of figures Salter handed him, and lighted a fresh +cigar when he had laid it down. Then he carefully turned over some of +the pieces of stone which partly covered the table. + +"There's no doubt that those specimens aren't quite so promising," he +said at length; "and the cost of extraction is going up. I'll have a talk +with Nairn when I get back; but in the meanwhile it looks as if we were +going to have trouble with the water." + +"It's a thing I've been afraid of for some time," Salter answered. "We +can keep down any leakage that comes in through the rock, though it +means driving the pumps hard, but an inrush from the river would beat +us. A rise of a foot or so would turn the flood into the workings." He +paused and added significantly: "Drowning out a mine's a costly matter. +My idea is that you ought to double our pumping power and cut down the +rock in the river-bed near the rapid. That would take off three or four +feet of water." + +"It would mean a mighty big wages bill." + +Salter nodded gravely. + +"To do the thing properly would cost a pile of money; but it's an outlay +that you'll surely have to face." + +Vane let the matter drop, and an hour later retired to his wooden berth. +The roar of the rain upon the vibrating roof was like the roll of a great +drum, and the sound of the river's turmoil throbbed through the frail +wooden shack; but the man had lain down at night near many a rapid and +thundering fall, and in a few minutes he was fast asleep. He was awakened +by a new shrill note, which he recognized as the whistle of the pumping +engine. It was sounding the alarm. The next moment Vane was struggling +into his clothing; then the door swung open and Salter stood in the +entrance, lantern in hand, with water trickling from him. There was keen +anxiety in his expression. + +"Flood's lapping the bank top now!" he gasped. "There's a jam in the +narrow place at the head of the rapid and the water's backing up! I'm +going along with the boys." + +He vanished as suddenly as he had appeared and Vane savagely jerked on +his jacket. If the mine were drowned, it would entail a heavy +expenditure in pumping plant to clear out the water, and even then +operations might be stopped for a considerable time. What was more, it +would precipitate a crisis in the affairs of the company and necessitate +an increase of its capital. + +Vane was outside in less than a minute and stood still, looking about +him, while the deluge lashed his face and beat his clothing against his +limbs. He could make out only a blurred mass of climbing trees on one +side and a strip of foam cutting through the black level, which he +supposed was water, in front of him. His trained ears, however, gave him +a little information, for the clamor of the flood was broken by a sharp +snapping and crashing which he knew was made by a mass of driftwood +driving furiously against the boulders. In that region, the river banks +are encumbered here and there with great logs, partly burned by forest +fires, reaped by gales or brought down from the hillsides by falls of +frost-loosened soil. A flood higher than usual sets them floating, and on +subsiding sometimes leaves them packed in a gorge or stranded in a +shallow to wait for the next big rise. Now they were driving down and, +as Salter had said, jamming at the head of the rapid. + +Suddenly a column of fierce white radiance leaped up, lower down-stream, +and Vane knew that a big compressed air-lamp had been carried to the spot +where the driftwood was gathering. Even at a distance, the brightness of +the blaze dazzled him, and he could see nothing else when he headed +toward it. He stumbled against a fir stump, and the next minute the +splashing about his feet warned him that he was entering the water. +Having no wish to walk into the main stream, he floundered to one side. +Getting nearer to the blaze, he soon made out a swarm of shadowy figures +scurrying about beneath it. Some of them had saws or axes, for he caught +the gleam of steel. He broke into a splashing run; and presently Carroll, +whom he had forgotten, came up calling to him. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE FLOOD + + +When he reached the blast-lamp, which was raised on a tall tripod, Vane +stood with his back to the pulsating gaze while he grasped the details of +a somewhat impressive scene. A little upstream of him, the river leaped +out of the darkness, breaking into foaming waves, and a wall of dripping +firs flung back the roar it made, the first rows of serried trunks +standing out hard and sharp in the fierce white light. Nearer the spot +where he stood, a projecting spur of rock narrowed in the river, which +boiled tumultuously against its foot, while about halfway across, the top +of a giant boulder rose above the flood. + +Vane could just see it, because a mass of driftwood, which was +momentarily growing, stretched from bank to bank. A big log, drifting +down sidewise, had brought up against the boulder and once fixed had +seized and held fast each succeeding trunk. Some had been driven partly +out upon those that had preceded them; some had been drawn beneath and +catching the bottom had jammed; then the rest had been wedged by the +current into the gathering mass, trunks, branches and brushwood all +finding a place. When the stream is strong, a jam usually extends +downward, as well as rises, as the water it pens back increases in +depth, until it forms an almost solid barrier from surface to bed. If it +occurs during a log-drive the river is choked with valuable lumber. + +Bent figures were at work with handspikes and axes at the shoreward end +of the mass; others had crawled out along the logs in search of another +point where they could advantageously be attacked; but Vane, watching +them with practised eye, decided that they were largely throwing their +toil away. Then he glanced down-stream; but, powerful as the light was, +it did not pierce far into the darkness and the rain, and the mad white +rush of the rapid vanished abruptly into the surrounding gloom. He caught +the clink of a hammer on a drill, and seeing Salter not far away, he +strode toward him. + +"How are you getting to work?" he asked. + +Salter pointed to the foot of the rock on which they stood. + +"I reckoned that if we could put a shot in yonder we might cut out stone +enough to clear the butts of the larger logs that are keying up the jam." + +"You're wasting time--starting at the wrong place." + +"It's possible; but what am I to do? I'd rather split that boulder or +chop down to the king log there--but the boys can't get across." + +"Have they tried?" Vane demanded. "I will, if it's necessary." + +Salter expostulated. + +"I want to point out that you're the boss director of this company. I +don't know what you're making out of it; but you can hire men to do that +kind of work for three dollars a day." + +"We'll let the boys try it, if they're willing." + +Vane raised his voice. + +"Are any of you open to earn twenty dollars? I'll pay that to the man +who'll put a stick of giant-powder in yonder boulder, and another twenty +to any one who can find the king log and chop it through." + +Three or four of them crept cautiously along the driftwood bridge. It +heaved and worked beneath them; the foam sluiced across it and the +stream forced the thinner tops of shattered trees above the barrier. It +was obvious that the men were risking life and limb, and there was a +cry from the others when one of them went down and momentarily +disappeared. He scrambled to his feet again, but those behind him +stopped, bracing themselves against the stream, nearly waist-deep in +rushing froth. Most of them had followed rough and dangerous +occupations in the bush; but they were not professional river-Jacks +trained to high proficiency in log-driving, and one of them, turning, +shouted to the watchers on the bank. + +"This jam's not solid!" he explained above the roar of the water. "She's +working open and shutting; and you can't tell where the breaks are." + +He stooped and rubbed his leg, and Vane understood him to add: + +"Figured I had it smashed." + +Vane swung round toward Carroll. + +"We'll give them a lead!" + +Salter ventured another expostulation: + +"Stay where you are! How are you going to manage, if the boys can't +tackle the thing?" + +"They haven't as much at stake as I have," was Vane's reply. "I'm a +director of the company, as you pointed out. Give me two sticks of +giant-powder, some fuse, and detonators!" + +Salter yielded when he saw that Vane meant to be obeyed; and cramming the +blasting material into his pocket, Vane turned to Carroll. + +"Are you coming with me?" + +"Since I can't stop you, I suppose I'd better go." + +As they sprang down the bank, Salter addressed one of the miners at +work near him. + +"I've seen a few company bosses in my time, but this one's different from +the rest. I can't imagine any of the others wanting to cross that jam." + +Vane crawled out on the groaning timber, with Carroll a few feet behind +him. The perilous bridge they traversed rolled beneath their feet; but +they had joined the other men before they came to any particularly +troublesome opening. Then the clustering wet figures were brought up by a +gap filled with leaping foam, in the midst of which brushwood swung to +and fro and projecting branches ground on one another. Whether there was +solid timber a foot or two beneath, or only the entrance to some cavity +by which the stream swept through the barrier, there was nothing to show; +but Vane set his lips and leaped. He alighted on something that bore him, +and when the others followed, floundering and splashing, the deliberation +which hitherto had characterized their movements suddenly deserted them. +They had reached the limit beyond which it was no longer needful. + +There is courage which springs from knowledge, often painfully acquired, +of the threatened dangers and the best means of avoiding them; but it +carries its possessor only so far. Beyond that point he must face the +risk he cannot estimate and blindly trust to chance. At sea, when canvas +is still the propelling power, and in the wilderness, man at grips with +the elemental forces must now and then rise above bodily shrinking and +disregard the warnings of reason. There are tasks which cannot be +undertaken in cold blood; and when they had crossed the gap, Vane and +those behind him blundered on in hot Berserker fury. They had risen to +the demand on them, and the curious psychic change had come; now they +must achieve success or face annihilation. But in this there was nothing +unusual; it is the alternative offered many a log-driver, miner and +sailorman. + +Neither Vane nor Carroll, nor any of those who assisted them, had a clear +recollection of what they did. Somehow they reached the boulder; somehow +they plied ax or iron-hooked peevy, while the unstable, foam-lapped +platform rocked beneath their feet. Every movement entailed a peril no +one could calculate; but they toiled savagely on. When Vane began to +swing a hammer above a drill, or from whom he got it, he did not know, +any more than he remembered when he had torn off and thrown away his +jacket although the sticks of giant-powder which had been in his pocket +lay near him upon the stone. Sparks leaped from the drill which Carroll +held and fell among the coils of snaky fuse; but that did not trouble +them; and it was only when Vane was breathless that he changed places +with his companion. They heard neither the turmoil of the flood nor the +crashing of the timber, and the foam that lapped their long boots whirled +unheeded by. + +About them, bowed figures that breathed in stertorous gasps grappled +desperately with the grinding, smashing timber. Sometimes they were +forced up in harsh distinctness by a dazzling glare; sometimes they faded +into blurred shadows as the pulsating flame upon the bank sank a little +or was momentarily blown aside; but all the while gorged veins rose on +bronzed foreheads and toil-hardened muscles were taxed to the utmost. At +last, when a trunk rolled beneath him, Carroll missed a stroke and +realized with a shock of dismay that it was not the drill he had struck +with his hammer. + +"I couldn't help it!" he gasped. "Where did I hit you?" + +"Get on!" Vane cried hoarsely; "I can hold the drill." + +Carroll struck for a few more minutes, and then flung down the hammer and +inserted the giant-powder into the holes sunk in the stone. He lighted +the fuse and, warning the others, they hastily recrossed the dangerous +bridge. They had reached the edge of the forest when, a flash leaped up +amid the foam and a sharp crash was followed by a deafening, drawn-out +uproar. Rending, grinding, smashing, the jam broke up. It hammered upon +the partly shattered boulder, and, carrying it away or driving over it, +washed in tremendous ruin down the rapid. When the wild clamor had +subsided, Salter gave the men some instructions; and then, as they +approached the lamp, he noticed Vane's reddened hand. + +"That looks a nasty smash; you want to get it seen to," he advised. + +"I'll get it dressed at the settlement; we'll make an early start +to-morrow. We were lucky in breaking the jam; but you'll have the same +trouble over again any time a heavy flood brings down an unusual quantity +of driftwood." + +"It's what I'd expect." + +"Then something will have to be done to prevent it. I'll go into the +matter when I reach the city." + +Carroll and Vane walked back to the shack, where the latter bound up his +comrade's injured hand. When he had done so, Vane managed to light a +cigar, and lying back, still very wet, he looked thoughtful. + +"We can't risk having the workings drowned; but I'm afraid the cost of +the remedy will force me into sanctioning some scheme for increasing +our capital." + +"Its a very common procedure," Carroll rejoined. "I've wondered why +you had so strong an objection to it. Of course, I've heard your +business reasons." + +Vane smiled. + +"I have some of a different kind--we'll call them sentimental +ones--though I don't think I quite realized it until lately." + +"You're not given to introspection. Go on; I think I know what's coming." + +"To put the thing into words may help me to formulate my ideas; they're +rather hazy. Well, ostensibly, I left England as the result of a +difference of opinion--which I've regretted ever since--though I know now +that really it was from another cause. I wanted room, I wanted freedom; +and I got them both--freedom either to do work that nearly broke my heart +and wore the flesh off me or to starve." + +"The experience is not an unusual one." + +"Eventually," Vane proceeded, "I managed to get on my feet. I suppose I +got rather proud of myself when I beat the city men over the floating of +the mine, and I began to think of going back to the sphere of life in +which I was born--excuse the phrase." + +"It looked nice, from a distance," Carroll suggested. + +"It was tolerable in Vancouver; anyway, while I could go straight ahead +and interest myself in the development of the mine. I began to expect a +good deal from my English visit." + +Carroll laughed softly before he helped him out. + +"And you were bitterly disappointed. It's a very old tale. You had cut +loose--and you couldn't get back when you wanted to." + +"I suppose I'd changed: the bush had got hold of me. The ways and views +of the people over yonder didn't seem to be those I remembered. They +couldn't look at things from my standpoint; I wouldn't adopt theirs. You +and I have had to face--realities." + +"Hunger," corrected Carroll softly; "wet snow to sleep in; bodily +exhaustion. They probably teach one something, or, at any rate, they +alter one's point of view. When you've marched for days on half rations, +some things don't seem so important--how you put on your clothes, for +instance, or how your dinner's served. But I don't see yet what bearing +this has on your reluctance to extend the Clermont operations." + +"I could act as director, with such men as Nairn, when it was a question +of running a mine; but it's doubtful if I'd make a successful financial +juggler. It's hard to keep one's hands off some of the professional +tricksters. Bluff, assumption, make-believe--Pshaw! I've had enough of +them. Better stick to the ax and cross-cut; that's what I feel to-night." + +"Now that you've relieved your mind, I'll show you where you were wrong. +You said that you had changed in the wilderness--you haven't; your kind +are fore-loopers born. Your place is with the vedettes, ahead of the +massed columns. But there's a point that strikes one--is your objection +to financial scheming due to honesty or pride?" + +Vane laughed. + +"I suspect a good deal of it's bad temper. Anyhow, I've felt that rather +than truckle with that fellow Horsfield I'd like to pitch him down the +stairs. But all this is pretty random talk." + +"It is," Carroll agreed. "You haven't said whether you intend to +authorize that extension of capital?" + +"I suppose it will have to be done. And now it's very late and I'm going +to sleep." + +They retired to the wooden bunks Salter had placed at their disposal; and +early the next morning they left the mine. Vane got his hand dressed when +they reached the little mining town at the head of the railroad, and on +the following day they arrived in Vancouver. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +VANE YIELDS A POINT + + +The short afternoon was drawing toward its close when Vane came out +of a large building in the city. Glancing at his watch, he stopped on +the steps. + +"The meeting went pretty satisfactorily, taking it all round," he +remarked to Carroll. + +"I think so," agreed his companion. "But I'm far from sure that Horsfield +was pleased with the stockholders' decision." + +Vane smiled in a thoughtful manner. After returning from the mine, he had +gone inland to examine a new irrigation property in which he had been +asked to take an interest, and had got back only in time for a meeting of +the Clermont shareholders, which Nairn had arranged in his absence. The +meeting, of the kind that is sometimes correctly described as +extraordinary, was just over, and though Vane had been forced to yield to +a majority on some points, he had secured the abandonment of a +proposition he considered dangerous. + +"Though I don't see what the man could have gained by it, I'm inclined to +believe that if Nairn and I had been absent he'd have carried his total +reconstruction scheme. That wouldn't have pleased me." + +"I thought it injudicious." + +"It was only because we must raise more money that I agreed to the issue +of the new block of shares," Vane went on. "We ought to pay a fair +dividend on the moderate sum in question." + +"You think you'll get it?" + +"I've not much doubt." + +Carroll made no reply to this. Vane was capable and forceful; but his +abilities were of a practical rather than a diplomatic order, and he was +occasionally addicted to somewhat headstrong action. Knowing that he had +a very cunning antagonist intriguing against him, his companion had +misgivings. + +"Shall we walk back to the hotel?" he suggested. + +"No," answered Vane; "I'll go across and see how Celia Hartley's getting +on. I'm afraid I've been forgetting her." + +"Then I'll come too. You may need me; there are matters which you're not +to be trusted to deal with alone." + +Just then Nairn came down the steps and waved his hand to them. + +"Ye will no forget that Mrs. Nairn is expecting both of ye this evening." + +He passed on, and they set off together across the city toward the +district where Celia lived. Though the quarter in question may have been +improved out of existence since, a few years ago rows of low-rented +shacks stood upon mounds of sweating sawdust which had been dumped into a +swampy hollow. Leaky, frail and fissured, they were not the kind of +places anyone who could help it would choose to live in; but Vane found +the sick girl still installed in one of the worst of them. She looked +pale and haggard; but she was busily at work upon some millinery; and the +light of a tin lamp showed Drayton and Kitty Blake sitting near her. +There were cracks in the thin, boarded walls, from which a faint resinous +odor exuded, but it failed to hide the sour smell of the wet sawdust upon +which the shack was built. The room, which was almost bare of furniture, +felt damp and unwholesome. + +"You oughtn't to be at work; you don't look fit," Vane said to Celia. He +paused a moment, hesitating, before he added: "I'm sorry we couldn't find +that spruce; but, as I told Drayton, we're going back to try again." + +The girl smiled bravely. + +"Then you'll find it the next time. I'm glad I'm able to do a little; it +brings in a few dollars." + +"But what are you doing?" + +"Making hats. I did one for Miss Horsfield, and afterward some friends of +hers sent me two or three more to trim. She said she'd try to get me work +from one of the big stores." + +"But you're not a milliner, are you?" asked Vane, feeling grateful to +Jessy for the practical way in which she had kept her promise to assist. + +"Celia's something better," Kitty broke in. "She's a genius." + +"Isn't that a slight on the profession?" Vane laughed. + +He was anxious to lead the conversation away from Miss Horsfield's +action; he shrank from figuring as the benefactor who had prompted her. + +"I'm not quite sure," he continued, "what genius really is." + +"I don't altogether agree with the definition of it as the capacity for +taking infinite pains," Carroll, guessing his companion's thoughts, +remarked with mock sententiousness. "In Miss Hartley's case, it strikes +me as the instinctive ability to evolve a finished work of art from a few +fripperies, without the aid of technical training. Give her two or three +feathers, a yard of ribbon and a handful of mixed sundries, and she'll +magically transmute them into--this." + +He took up a hat from the table and surveyed it with an air of critical +intelligence. + +"It was innate genius that set this plume at the one artistic angle. Had +it been done by less capable hands, the thing would have looked like a +decorated beehive." + +The others laughed, and he led them on to general chatter, under cover of +which Vane presently drew Drayton to the door. + +"The girl looks far from fit," he said. "Has the doctor been over +lately?" + +"Two or three days ago," answered Drayton. "We've been worried about +Celia. It's out of the question that she should go back to the hotel, and +she can only manage to work a few hours daily. There's another thing--the +clerk of the fellow who owns these shacks has just been along for his +rent. It's overdue." + +"Where's he now?" + +Drayton laughed, for the sounds of a vigorous altercation rose from +farther up the unlighted street. + +"I guess he's yonder, having some more trouble with his collecting." + +"I'll fix that matter, anyway." + +Vane disappeared into the darkness, and it was some time later when +he re-entered the shack. He waited until a remark of Celia's gave +him a lead. + +"You're really a partner in the lumber scheme," he told her; "I can't +see why you shouldn't draw part of your share in the proceeds +beforehand." + +"The first payment isn't to be made until you find the spruce and get +your lease," the girl reminded him. "You've already paid a hundred +dollars that we had no claim on." + +"That doesn't matter; I'm going to find it." + +"Yes," agreed Celia, with a look of confidence, "I think you will. +But"--a flicker of color crept into her thin face--"I can't take any more +money until it is found." + +Vane, failing in another attempt to shake her resolution, dropped the +subject, and soon afterward he and Carroll took their departure. They +were sitting in their hotel, waiting for dinner, when Carroll looked up +lazily from his luxurious chair. + +"What are you thinking about so hard?" he inquired. + +Vane glanced meaningly round the elaborately furnished room. + +"There's a contrast between all this and that rotten shack. Did you +notice that Celia never stopped sewing while we were there, though she +once or twice leaned back rather heavily in her chair?" + +"I did. I suppose you're going to propound another conundrum of a kind +I've heard before--why you should have so many things you don't +particularly need, while Miss Hartley must go on sewing when she's hardly +able for it in her most unpleasant shack? I don't know whether the fact +that you found a mine answers the question; but if it doesn't the thing's +beyond your philosophy." + +"Come off!" Vane bade him with signs of impatience. "There are times +when your moralizing gets on one's nerves. Anyhow, I straightened out one +difficulty--I found the rent man, who'd been round worrying her, and got +rid of him." + +Carroll groaned in mock dismay, which covered some genuine annoyance with +himself; but Vane frowned. + +"What's the matter?" he inquired. "Do you want a drink?" + +"I'll get over it," Carroll informed him. "It isn't the first time I've +suffered from the same complaint. But I'd like to point out that your +chivalrous impulses may be the ruin of you some day. Why didn't you let +Drayton settle with the man? You gave him a check, I suppose?" + +"Sure. I'd only a few loose dollars with me." Vane frowned again. "Now I +see what you're driving at; and I want to say that any little reputation +I possess can pretty well take care of itself." + +"Just so. No doubt it will be necessary; but it doesn't seem to have +struck you that you're not the only person concerned." + +"It didn't," Vane confessed with a further show of irritation. "But who's +likely to hear or take any notice of the thing?" + +"I can't tell; but you make enemies as well as friends, and you're +walking in slippery places which you're not altogether accustomed to. You +can't meet your difficulties with the ax here." + +"That's true," assented Vane. "It's rather a pity. Anyhow, I'm not to be +scared out of my interest in Celia Hartley." + +"What is your interest in her? It's a question that may be asked." + +"As you pretend that you don't know, I'll have pleasure in telling you +again. When I first struck this city, played out and ragged, she was +waitress at a little hotel, and she brought me a double portion of the +nicest things at supper. What's more, she sewed up some of my clothes, +and I struck a job on the strength of looking comparatively decent. It's +the kind of thing you're apt to remember. One doesn't meet with too much +kindness in this blamed censorious world." + +"I'd expect you to remember," Carroll smiled. + +They went in to dinner and when the meal was over they walked across to +Nairn's. They were ushered into a room in which several other guests were +assembled, and Vane sat down beside Jessy Horsfield. A place on the sofa +she occupied was invitingly empty; he did not know, of course, that she +had adroitly got rid of her previous companion as soon as he came in. + +"I want to thank you; I was over at Miss Hartley's this +afternoon," he began. + +"I understood that you were at the mining meeting." + +"So I was, your brother would tell you that--" + +Vane broke off, remembering that he had defeated Horsfield; but Jessy +laughed encouragingly. + +"He did so--you were opposed to him; but it doesn't follow that I share +all his views. Perhaps I ought to be a stauncher partizan." + +"If you'll be just to both of us, I'll be satisfied." + +Jessy reflected that while this was, no doubt, a commendable sentiment, +he might have made a better use of the opening she had given him by at +least hinting that he would value her sympathy. + +"I suppose that means that you're convinced of the equity of your cause?" +she suggested. + +"I dare say I deserve the rebuke; but aren't you trying to switch me off +the subject?" Vane retorted with a laugh. "It's Celia Hartley that I want +to talk about." + +He did her an injustice. Jessy felt that she had earned his gratitude, +and she had no objection to his expressing it. + +"It was a happy thought of yours to give her hats and things to make; I'm +ever so much obliged to you," he went on. "I felt that you could be +trusted to think of the right thing. An ingenious idea of that kind would +never have occurred to me." + +Jessy smiled up at him. + +"It was very simple," she said sweetly. "I noticed a hat and dress of +hers, which she admitted she had made. The girl has some talent; I'm only +sorry I can't keep her busy." + +"Couldn't you give her an order for a dozen hats? I'd be glad to be +responsible." + +Jessy laughed. + +"The difficulty would be the disposal of them. They would be of no use to +you; and I couldn't allow you to present them to me." + +"I wish I could," Vane declared. "You certainly deserve them." + +This was satisfactory, so far as it went, though Jessy would have +preferred that his desire to bestow the favor should have sprung from +some other motive than a recognition of her services to Celia Hartley. +She was, however, convinced that his only feeling toward the girl was +one of compassion. Then she saw that he was looking at her with +half-humorous annoyance in his face. + +"Are you really grieved because I won't take those hats?" she +asked lightly. + +"I am," Vane confessed, and then proceeded to explain with rather +unnecessary ingenuousness: "I'm still more vexed with the state of things +that it's typical of--I suppose I mean the restrictedness of this +civilized life. When you want to do anything in the bush, you take the ax +and set about it; but here you're continually running up against some +quite unnecessary barrier." + +"One understands that it's worse in England," Jessy returned dryly. +"But in regard to Miss Hartley, I'll recommend her to my friends, as +far as I can." + +Vane made an abrupt movement, and Jessy realized by his expression that +he had suddenly become oblivious of her presence. She had no doubt about +the reason, for just then Evelyn Chisholm had entered the room. The +lamplight fell upon her as she crossed the threshold, and Jessy +recognized unwillingly that she looked surprisingly handsome. Handsome, +however, was not the word Vane would have used. He thought Evelyn looked +exotic: highly cultivated, strangely refined, as though she had grown up +in a rarefied atmosphere in which nothing rank could thrive. Exactly what +suggested this it was difficult to define; but the man felt that she had +brought along with her the clean, chill air of the heights where the +cloud-berries bloom. She was a flower of the dim and misty North, which +has nevertheless its flashes of radiant, ethereal beauty. Though Evelyn +had her faults, the impression she made on Vane was, perhaps, more or +less justifiable. + +Then he remembered that the girl had been offered to him and he had +refused the gift. He wondered how he had exerted the necessary strength +of will, for he was conscious that admiration, respect, pity, had now, +changed and melted into sudden passion. His blood tingled, and he felt +strangely happy. + +Laying a check upon his thoughts, he resumed a desultory conversation +with Jessy, but he betrayed himself several times during it, for no +change of his expression was lost upon the girl. At length she let him +go. It was some time, however, before he secured a place beside Evelyn, a +little apart from the others. He was now unusually quiet and +self-contained. + +"Nairn promised me an astonishment this evening, but it exceeds all my +expectations," he said. "How are your people?" + +Evelyn informed him that their health was satisfactory and added, +watching him the while: + +"Gerald sent his best remembrances." + +"Thank you," Vane responded in a casual manner; "I am glad to have them." + +Evelyn was now convinced that Mabel had been correct in concluding that +he had assisted Gerald financially, though she was aware that nothing +would induce either of the men to acquaint her with the fact. + +"And Mopsy?" he inquired. + +"I left her in tears because she could not come. She sent you so many +confused messages that I'm afraid I've forgotten them." + +Vane's face grew gentle. + +"Dear little girl! It's a pity you couldn't have brought her. Mopsy and +I are great friends." + +Evelyn smiled at him. The tenderness of the man appealed to her; and she +knew that to be the friend of anyone meant a good deal to him. + +"You are her hero," she told him. "I don't think it is because you pulled +her out of the water, either; in fact, I think you won her regard when +you mended her canoe. You have a reputation to keep up with Mopsy." + +There was no answering smile in Vane's eyes. + +"Well, I shouldn't like to disappoint her; but isn't it curious what +effect some things have? A patch on Mopsy's canoe, for instance--and I've +known a piece of cold pie carry with it a big obligation." + +The last was somewhat cryptic, and Evelyn looked at him with surprise, +until it dawned on her that he had merely been half-consciously +expressing a wandering thought aloud. + +"I understood from Mrs. Nairn that you were away in the bush," she said. + +"That was the case; and I'm shortly going off again. Perhaps it's +fortunate that I may be away some time. It will leave you more at ease." + +The last remark was more of a question than an assertion. Evelyn knew +that the man could be direct; and she esteemed candor. + +"No," she answered; "I shouldn't wish you to think that--and I shouldn't +like to believe that I had anything to do with driving you away." + +Vane saw a faintly warmer tone show through the clear pallor of her skin, +but while his heart beat faster than usual he recognized that she meant +just what she said and nothing more. He must proceed with caution, and +this, on the whole, was foreign to him. Shortly afterward he left her. + +When he had gone, Evelyn sat thinking about him. She had shrunk from the +man in rebellious alarm when her parents would have bestowed her hand on +him; but even then, and undoubtedly afterward, she had felt that there +was something in his nature which would have attracted her had she been +willing to allow it to do so. Now, though he had said nothing to rouse +it, the feeling had grown stronger. Then she remembered with a curious +smile her father's indignation when Vane had withdrawn from the field. He +had done this because she had appealed to his generosity, and she had +been grateful to him; but, unreasonable as she admitted the faint +resentment she was conscious of to be, the recollection of the fact that +he had yielded to her wishes was somehow bitter. + +In the meanwhile Carroll had taken his place by Jessy's side. + +"I understand that you steered your comrade satisfactorily through the +meeting to-day," she began. + +"No," objected Carrol; "I can't claim any credit for doing so. In matters +of that kind Vane takes full control; and I'm willing to own that he +drove us all, including your brother, on the course he chose." + +Jessy laughed good-humoredly. + +"Then it's in other matters you exercise a little judicious pressure on +the helm?" + +The man looked at her in well-assumed admiration of her keenness. + +"I don't know how you guessed it, but I suppose it's a fact. It's an open +secret, however, that Vane's now and then unguardedly ingenuous; indeed, +there are respects in which he's a babe by comparison with, we'll say, +either of us." + +"That's rather a dubious compliment. By the way, what do you think of +Miss Chisholm? I suppose you saw a good deal of her in England?" + +Carroll's eyes twinkled. + +"I spent a month or two in her company; so did Vane. I fancy she's rather +like him in several ways; and there are reasons for believing that he +thinks a good deal of her." + +Having watched Vane carefully when Evelyn came in, Jessy was inclined to +agree with him. She glanced round the room. One or two people were moving +about and the others were talking in little groups; but there was nobody +very near, and she fancied that she and her companion were safe from +interruption. + +"What are some of the reasons?" she asked boldly. + +Carroll had expected some question of this description, and had decided +to answer it plainly. It seemed probable that Jessy would get the +information out of him in one way or another, anyway; and he had also +another reason, which he thought a commendable one. Jessy had obviously +taken a certain interest in Vane, but it could not have gone very far as +yet, and Vane did not reciprocate it. His comrade, however, was +impulsive, while Jessy was calculating and clever; and Carroll foresaw +that complications might follow any increase of friendliness between her +and Vane. He thought it might be wise to warn her to leave Vane alone. + +"Well," he answered, "since you have asked, I'll try to tell you." + +He proceeded to recount what had passed at the Dene and Jessy listened, +sitting perfectly still, with an expressionless face. + +"So he gave her up--because he admired her?" she said at length. + +"That's my view of it. Of course, it sounds unlikely, but I don't think +it is so in my partner's case." + +Jessy made no comment, but he felt that she was hit hard, and that was +not what he had anticipated. He began to wonder whether he had acted +judiciously. He glanced about the room, as it did not seem considerate to +study her expression just then. A few moments later she turned to him +with a smile in which there was the faintest hint of strain. + +"I dare say you are right; but there are one or two people to whom I +haven't spoken." + +She moved away from him, and a little while afterward Mrs. Nairn came +upon Carroll standing for the moment alone. + +"It's no often one sees ye looking moody," she said. "Was Jessy no +gracious?" + +"That," replied Carroll, smiling, "is not the difficulty. I'm an +unsusceptible and a somewhat inconspicuous person--not worth powder and +shot, so to speak; for which I'm sometimes thankful. I believe it saves +me a good deal of trouble." + +"Then is it something Vane has done that is on your mind? Doubtless, ye +feel him a responsibility." + +"He's what you'd call all that," Carroll declared. "Still, you see, I've +constituted myself his guardian. I don't know why; he'd probably be very +vexed if he suspected it." + +"The gods give ye a good conceit of yourself," Mrs. Nairn laughed. + +"I need it. This afternoon I let him do a most injudicious thing; and now +I've done another which I fear is worse. On the whole, I think I'd better +take him away to the bush. He'd be safer there." + +"Ye will no; no just now," declared his hostess firmly. + +Carroll made a sign of resignation. + +"Oh, well," he agreed, "if you say so. I'm quite willing to stand out and +let things alone. Too many cooks are apt to spoil the kale." + +Mrs. Nairn left him, but she afterward glanced thoughtfully once or twice +at Vane and Evelyn, who had again drawn together. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +EVELYN GOES FOR A SAIL + + +Vane sat in Nairn's office with a frown on his face. Specimens of ore +lately received from the mine were scattered about a table and Nairn had +some papers in his hand. + +"Weel?" inquired the Scotchman when Vane, after examining two or three of +the stones, abruptly flung them down. + +"The ore's running poorer. On the other hand, I partly expected this. +There's better stuff in the reef. We're a little too high, for one thing; +I look for more encouraging results when we start the lower heading." + +He went into details of the new operations, and when he finished Nairn +looked up from the figures he had been jotting down. + +"Yon workings will cost a good deal," he pointed out "Ye will no be able +to make a start until we're sure of the money." + +"We ought to get it." + +Nairn looked thoughtful. + +"A month or two ago, I would have agreed with ye; but general investors +are kittle folk, and the applications for the new stock are no numerous." + +"Howitson promised to subscribe largely; and Bendle pledged himself to +take a considerable block." + +"I'm no denying it. But we have no been favored with their formal +applications yet." + +"You had better tell me if you have anything particular in your mind," +Vane said bluntly. + +An unqualified affirmation is not strictly in accordance with the +Scottish character, and Nairn was seldom rash. + +"I would have ye remember what I told ye about the average investor," he +replied. "He has no often the boldness to trust his judgment nor the +sense to ken a good thing when he sees it--he waits for a lead, and then +joins the rush when other folk are going in. What makes a mineral or +other stock a favorite for a time is now and then no easy to determine; +but we'll allow that it becomes so--ye will see men who should have mair +sense thronging to buy and running the price up. Like sheep they come in, +each following the other; and like sheep they run out, if anything scares +them. It's no difficult to start a panic." + +"The plain English of it is that the mine is not so popular as it was," +retorted Vane impatiently. + +"I'm thinking something of the kind," Nairn agreed. Then he proceeded +with a cautious explanation: "The result of the first reduction and the +way ye forced the concern on the market secured ye notice. Folk put their +money on ye, looking for sensational developments, and when the latter +are no forthcoming they feel a bit sore and disappointed." + +"There's nothing discouraging in our accounts. Even if the ore all ran as +poor as that,"--Vane pointed to the specimens on the table--"the mine +could be worked on a reasonably satisfactory paying basis. We have +issued no statements that could spread alarm." + +"Just so. What was looked for was more than reasonable satisfaction--ye +have no come up to expectations. Forby, it's my opinion that damaging +reports have somehow leaked out from the mine. Just now I see clouds on +the horizon." + +"Bendle pledged himself to take up a big block of the shares," repeated +Vane. "If Howitson does the same, as he said he would, our position would +be secure. As soon as it was known that they were largely interested, +others would follow them." + +"Now ye have it in a nutshell--it would put a wet blanket on the project +if they both backed down. In the meanwhile we canna hurry them. Ye will +have to give them time." + +Vane rose. + +"We'll leave it at that. I've promised to take Mrs. Nairn and Miss +Chisholm for a sail." + +By the time he reached the water-front he had got rid of the slight +uneasiness the interview had occasioned him. He found Mrs. Nairn and +Evelyn awaiting him with Carroll in attendance, and in a few minutes they +were rowing off to the sloop. As they approached her, the elder lady +glanced with evident approval at the craft, which swam, a gleaming ivory +shape, upon the shining green brine. + +"Ye have surely been painting the boat," she exclaimed. "Was that for +us?" + +Vane disregarded the question. + +"She wanted it, and paint's comparatively cheap. It has been good drying +weather the last few days." + +It was a little thing, but Evelyn was pleased. The girls had not been +greatly considered at the Dene, and it was flattering to recognize that +the man had thought it worth while to decorate his craft in her honor; +she supposed it had entailed a certain amount of work. She did not ask +herself if he had wished to please her; he had invited her for a sail +some days ago, and he was thorough in everything he did. He helped her +and Mrs. Nairn on board and when they sat down in the well he and Carroll +proceeded to hoist the mainsail. It looked exceedingly large as it +thrashed and fluttered above their heads, and there seemed to be a +bewildering quantity of ropes, but Evelyn was interested chiefly in +watching Vane. + +He was wonderfully quick, but no movement was wasted. His face was +intent, his glances sharp, and she liked the crisp, curt way in which he +spoke to Carroll. The man's task was, in one sense, not important, but he +was absorbed in it. Then while Carroll slipped the moorings, Vane ran up +the headsails and springing aft seized the tiller as the boat, slanting +over, commenced to forge through the water. It was the first time Evelyn +had ever traveled under sail and, receptive as she was of all new +impressions she sat silent a few minutes rejoicing in the sense of swift +and easy motion. The inlet was crisped by small white ripples, and the +boat with her boom broad off on her quarter drove through them, with a +wedge of foam on her lee bow and a stream of froth sluicing past her +sides. Overhead, the great inclined sail cut, sharply white, against the +dazzling blue of the mid-morning sky. + +Evelyn glanced farther around. Wharves stacked with lumber, railroad +track, clustering roofs, smoking mills, were flitting fast astern. Ahead, +a big side-wheel steamer was forging, foam-ringed, toward her, with the +tall spars of a four-master towering behind, and stately pines, that +apparently walled in the harbor, a little to one side. To starboard, +beyond the wide stretch of white-flecked water, mountains ran back in +ranks, with the chilly gleam of snow, which had crept lower since her +arrival, upon their shoulders. It was a sharp contrast: the noisy, +raw-new city and, so close at hand, the fringe of the wilderness. + +They swept out through the gate of the Narrows, and Vane luffed the boat +up to a moderately fresh breeze. + +"It's off the land, and we'll have fairly smooth water," he explained. +"How do you like sailing?" + +Evelyn watched the white ridges, which were larger than the ripples in +the inlet, smash in swift succession upon the weather bow and hurl the +glittering spray into the straining mainsail. There was something +fascinating in the way the gently-swaying boat clove through them. + +"It's glorious!" she cried, looking first ahead then back toward the +distant snow. "If anything more were wanted, there are the +mountains, too." + +Vane smiled, but there was a suggestive sparkle in his eyes. + +"Yes; we have them both, and that's something to be thankful for. The sea +and the mountains--the two grandest things in this world!" + +"If you think that, how did you reconcile yourself to the city?" + +"I'm not sure that I've done so." He indicated the gleaming heights. +"Anyway, I'm going back up yonder very soon." + +Mrs. Nairn glanced at Carroll, who affected to be busy with a rope; then +she turned to Vane. + +"It will no be possible with winter coming on." + +"It's not really so bad then," Vane declared. "Besides, I expect to get +my work done before the hardest weather's due." + +"But ye canna leave Vancouver until ye have settled about the mine!" + +"I don't want to," Vane admitted. "That's not quite the same thing." + +"It is with a good many people," Carroll interposed with a smile. + +Evelyn fancied that there was something behind all this, but it did not +directly concern her and she made no inquiry. In the meanwhile they were +driving on to the southward, opening up the straits, with the forests to +port growing smaller and the short seas increasing in size. The breeze +was cold, but the girl was warmly clad and the easy motion in no way +troubled her. The rush of keen salt air stirred her blood, and all round +her were spread wonderful harmonies of silver-laced blue and green, +through which the straining fabric that carried her swept on. The +mountains were majestic, but except when tempests lashed their crags or +torrents swept their lower slopes they were wrapped in eternal repose; +the sea was filled with ecstatic motion. + +"The hills have their fascination; it's a thing I know," she said, to +draw the helmsman out. "I think I should like the sea, too; but at first +sight it's charm isn't quite so plain." + +"You have started him," interposed Carroll. "He won't refuse that +challenge." + +Vane accepted it with a smile which meant more than good-humored +indulgence. + +"Well," he declared, "the sea's the same everywhere, unbridled, +unchanging; a force that remains as it was in the beginning. Once you're +out of harbor, under sail, you have done with civilization. It has +possibly provided you with excellent gear, but it can do no more; you +stand alone, stripped for the struggle with the elements." + +"Is it always a struggle?" + +"Always. The sea's as treacherous as the winds that vex it, pitiless, +murderous. When you have only sail to trust to, you can never relax your +vigilance; you must watch the varying drift of clouds and the swing of +the certain tides. There's nothing and nobody to fall back upon when the +breeze pipes its challenge; you have sloughed off civilization and must +stand or fall by the raw natural powers with which man is born, and chief +among them is the capacity for brutal labor. The thrashing sail must be +mastered; the tackle creaking with the strain must be hauled in. Perhaps, +that's the charm of it for some of us whose lives are pretty smooth--it +takes one back, as I said, to the beginning." + +"But haven't human progress and machines made life more smooth for +everybody?" + +Vane laughed somewhat grimly. + +"Oh, no; I think that can never be done. So far, somebody pays for the +others' ease. At sea, in the mine and in the bush man still grapples with +a rugged, naked world." + +The girl was pleased. She had drawn him out, and she thought that in +speaking he had kept a fair balance between too crude a mode of +colloquial expression and poetic elaboration. There was, she knew, a vein +of poetic conception in him, and the struggle he had hinted at could be +described fittingly only in heroic language. It was in one sense a pity +that those who had the gift of it and cultivated imagination had, for the +most part, never been forced into the fight; but that was, perhaps, not a +matter of much importance. There were plenty of men, such as her +companion, endowed with steadfast endurance who, if they seldom gave +their thoughts free rein, rejoiced in the struggle; and by them the +world's sternest work was clone. + +"After all," she went on, "we have the mountains in civilized England." + +Vane did not respond with the same freedom this time. He was inclined to +think he had spoken too unrestrainedly. + +"Yes," he agreed, smiling; "you can walk about them--where you won't +disturb the grouse--and they're grand enough; but if you look down you +can see the motor dust trails and the tourist coaches in the valleys." + +"But why shouldn't people enjoy themselves in that way?" + +"I can't think of any reason. No doubt most of them have earned the right +to do so. But you can't rip up those hills with giant-powder where you +feel inclined, or set to work to root out some miles of forest. The +Government encourages that kind of thing here." + +"And that's the charm?" + +"Yes; I suppose it is." + +"I'd better explain," Carroll interposed. "Men of a certain temperament +are apt to fall a prey to fantasies in the newer lands; any common sense +they once possessed seems to desert them. After that, they're never happy +except when they're ripping things--such as big rocks and trees--to +pieces, and though they'll tell you it's only to get out minerals or to +clear a ranch, they're wrong. Once they get the mine or ranch, they don't +care about it; they set to work wrecking things again. Isn't that true, +Mrs. Nairn?" + +"There are such crazy bodies," agreed the lady. "I know one or two; +but if I had my way with them, they should find one mine, or build +one sawmill." + +"And then," supplied Carroll, "you would chain them up for good by +marrying them." + +"I would like to try, but I'm no sure it would act in every case. I have +come across some women as bad as the men; they would drive their +husbands on." + +She smiled in a half wistful manner. + +"Maybe," she added, "it's as well to do something worth the remembering +when ye are young. There's a long while to sit still in afterward." + +Half in banter and half in earnest, they had given Evelyn a hint of the +master passion of the true colonist, whose pride is in his burden. +Afterward, Mrs. Nairn led the conversation until Carroll laid out in the +saloon a somewhat elaborate lunch which he had brought from the hotel. +Then the others went below, leaving Vane at the helm. When they came up +again, Carroll looked at his comrade ruefully. + +"I'm afraid Miss Chisholm's disappointed," he said. + +"No," declared Evelyn; "that would be most ungrateful. I only expected a +more characteristic example of sea cookery. After what Mr. Vane told us, +a lunch like the one you provided, with glass and silver, struck me as +rather an anachronism." + +"It's better to be broken in to sea cookery gently," Vane interposed with +some dryness. + +Evelyn laughed. + +"It's a poor compliment to take it for granted that we're afraid of a +little hardship. Besides, I don't think you're right." + +Vane left the helm to Carroll and went below. + +"He won't be long," Carroll informed the girl, with a smile. "He hasn't +got rid of all his primitive habits yet. I'll give him ten minutes." + +When Vane came up, he glanced about him before he resumed the helm and +noticed that it was blowing fresher. They were also drawing out from the +land and the short seas were getting bigger; but he held on to the whole +sail, and an hour or so afterward a white iron bark, light in ballast, +with her rusty load-line high above the water, came driving up to meet +them. She made a striking picture, Evelyn thought, with the great curve +of her forecourse, which was still set, stretching high above the foam +that spouted about her bows and tier upon tier of gray canvas diminishing +aloft. With the wind upon her quarter, she rode on an even keel, and the +long iron hull, gleaming snowily in the sunshine, drove on, majestic, +through a field of white-flecked green and azure. Abreast of one +quarter, a propeller tug that barely kept pace with her belched out a +cloud of smoke. + +"Her skipper's been up here before--he's no doubt coming for +salmon," Vane explained. Then he turned to Carroll. "We'd better +pass to lee of her." + +Carroll let a foot or two of a rope run out and the sloop's bows swung +round a little. Her rail was just awash, and she was sailing very fast. +Then her deck slanted more sharply and the low rail became submerged in +rushing foam. + +"We'll heave down a reef when we're clear of the bark," Vane said. + +The vessel was now to windward and coming up rapidly; to shorten sail +they must first round up the boat, for which they no longer had room. A +few moments later a fiercer blast swept suddenly down and the water +boiled white between the bark and the sloop. The latter's deck dipped +deeper until the lower part of it was lost in streaming froth. Carroll +made an abrupt movement. + +"Shall I drop the peak?" + +"No. There's the propeller close to lee." + +The tug was hidden by the inclined sail, but Evelyn, clinging tightly to +the coaming, understood that they were running into the gap between the +two vessels and in order to avoid collision with one or the other, must +hold on as they were through the stress of the squall. How much more the +boat would stand she did not know, but it looked as if it were going over +bodily. Then a glance at the helmsman's face reassured her. It was fixed +and expressionless, but she somehow felt that whatever was necessary +would be promptly done. He was not one to lose his nerve or vacillate in +a crisis, and his immobility appealed to her, because she knew that if +occasion arose it would be replaced by prompt decisive action. + +In the meanwhile the slant of sail and deck increased. One side of the +sloop was hove high out of the sea. It was all the girl could do to hold +herself upright, and Mrs. Nairn had fallen against and was only supported +by the coaming to leeward. Then the wind was suddenly cut off and the +sloop rose with a bewildering lurch, as the tall iron hull to weather +forged by, hurling off the sea. She passed, and while Vane called out +something and Carroll scrambled forward, the sloop swayed violently down +again. Everything in her creaked; the floorings sloped away beneath +Evelyn's feet, and now the madly-whirling froth poured in across the +coaming. The veins stood out on the helmsman's forehead, his pose +betrayed the tension on his arms; but the sloop was swinging round, and +she fell off before the wind when the upper half of the great sail +collapsed. + +Rising more upright, she flung the water off her deck, and for some +moments drove on at a bewildering speed; then there was a mad thrashing +as Vane brought her on the wind again. The two men, desperately busy, +mastered the fluttering sail, and in a few more minutes they were running +homeward, with the white seas splashing harmlessly astern. It was now +difficult to believe they had been in any danger, but Evelyn felt that +she had had an instance of the sea's treachery; what was more, she had +witnessed an exhibition of human nerve and skill. Vane, with his +half-formulated thoughts which yet had depth to them and his flashes of +imagination, had interested her; but now he had been revealed in his +finer capacity, as a man of action. + +"I'd have kept to weather of the bark, where we'd have had room to luff, +if I'd expected that burst of wind," he explained. "Did you hurt yourself +against the coaming, Mrs. Nairn?" + +The lady smiled reassuringly. + +"It's no worth mentioning, and I'm no altogether unused to it. Alic once +kept a boat and would have me out with him." + +The remainder of the trip proved uneventful, and as they ran homeward the +breeze gradually died away. The broad inlet lay still in the moonlight +when they crept across it with the water lapping very faintly about the +bows, and it was over a mirror-like surface they rowed ashore. Nairn was +waiting at the foot of the steps and Evelyn walked back with him, +feeling, she could not tell exactly why, that she had been drawn closer +to the sloop's helmsman. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +VANE PROVES OBDURATE + + +Vane spent two or three weeks very pleasantly in Vancouver, for Evelyn, +of whom he saw a good deal, was gracious to him. The embarrassment both +had felt on their first meeting in the western city had speedily +vanished; they had resumed their acquaintance on what was ostensibly a +purely friendly footing, and since both avoided any reference to what had +taken place in England, it had ripened into a mutual confidence and +appreciation. + +This would have been less probable in the older country, where they would +have been continually reminded of what the Chisholm family expected of +them; but the past seldom counts for much in the new and changeful West, +where men look forward to the future. Indeed, there is something in its +atmosphere which banishes regret and retrospection; and when Evelyn +looked back at all, she felt inclined to wonder why she had once been so +troubled by the man's satisfaction with her company. She decided that +this could not have been the result of any aversion for him, and that it +was merely an instinctive revolt against the part her parents had wished +to force upon her. Chisholm and his wife had blundered, as such people +often do, for it is possible that had they adopted a perfectly neutral +attitude everything would have gone as they desired. Their mistake was +nevertheless a natural one. Somewhat exaggerated reports of Vane's +prosperity had reached them; but while they coveted the advantages his +wealth might offer their daughter, in their secret hearts they looked +upon him as a raw Colonial and something of a barbarian, and the opinions +he occasionally expressed in their hearing did not dispel this idea. Both +feared that Evelyn regarded him in the same light, and it accordingly +became evident that a little pressure might be required. In spite of +their prejudices, they did not shrink from applying it. + +In the meanwhile, several people in Vancouver watched the increase of +friendliness between the girl and Vane. Mrs. Nairn and her husband did so +with benevolent interest, and it was by Mrs. Nairn's adroit management, +which even Evelyn did not often suspect, that they were thrown more and +more into each other's company. Jessy Horsfield, however, looked on with +bitterness. She was a strong-willed young woman who hitherto had +generally contrived to obtain whatever she had set her heart on; and she +had set it on this man. Indeed, she had fancied that he returned the +feeling, but disillusionment had come on the evening when he had +unexpectedly met Evelyn. Her smoldering resentment against the girl grew +steadily stronger, until it threatened to prove dangerous on opportunity. + +There were, however, days when Vane was disturbed in mind. Winter was +coming on, and although it is rarely severe on the southern seaboard, it +is by no means the season one would choose for an adventure among the +ranges of the northern wilderness. Unless he made his search for the +spruce very shortly he might be compelled to postpone it until the +spring, at the risk of some hardy prospector's forestalling him; but +there were two reasons which detained him. He thought that he was gaining +ground in Evelyn's esteem and he feared the effect of absence, and there +was no doubt that the new issue of the Clermont shares was in very slack +demand. To leave the city might cost him a good deal in several ways, but +he had pledged himself to go. + +That fact was uppermost in his mind one evening when he set off to call +on Celia Hartley. As it happened, Evelyn and Mrs. Nairn were driving past +as he turned off from a busy street toward the quarter in which she +lived. It had been dark for some time, but the street was well lighted +and Evelyn had no difficulty in recognizing him. Indeed, she watched him +for a few moments while he passed on into a more shadowy region, where +the gloom and dilapidation of the first small frame houses were +noticeable. Beyond them there was scarcely a light at all; the +neighborhood looked mysterious, and she wondered what kind of people +inhabited it. She did not think that Mrs. Nairn had noticed Vane. + +"You have never taken me into the district on our left," she said. + +"I'm no likely to. We're no proud of it." + +Evelyn was a little astonished. She had seen no signs of squalor or +dissipation since she entered Canada, and had almost fancied that they +did not exist. + +"I suppose the Chinese and other aliens live there?" + +"They do," was the dry answer. "I'm no sure, however, that they're +the worst." + +"But one understands that you haven't a criminal population." + +"We have folk who're on the fringe of it, only we see that they live all +together. Folk who would be respectable live somewhere else, except, +maybe, a few who have to consider cheapness. There's no great difference +in human nature wherever ye find it, and I do no suppose we're very much +better than the rest of the world; but it's no a recommendation to be +seen going into yon quarter after dark." + +This left Evelyn thoughtful, for she had undoubtedly seen Vane going +there. She considered herself a judge of character and generally trusted +her intuitions, and she believed that the man's visit to the neighborhood +in question admitted of some satisfactory explanation. On the other hand, +she felt that her friends should be beyond suspicion. Taking it all +round, she was rather vexed with Vane, and it cost her some trouble to +drive the matter out of her mind. + +She did not see Vane the next day, but the latter called upon Nairn at +his office during the afternoon. + +"Have you had any more applications for the new stock?" he asked. + +"I have no. Neither Bendle nor Howitson has paid up yet, though I've seen +them about it once or twice." + +"Investors are shy; that's a fact," Vane confessed. "It's unfortunate. +I've already put off my trip north as long as possible. I wanted to see +things arranged on a satisfactory basis before I went." + +"A very prudent wish. I should advise ye to carry it out." + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"Something like this--if the money's no forthcoming, we may be compelled +to fall back upon a different plan, and unless ye're to the fore, the +decision of a shareholders' meeting might no suit ye. Considering the +position and the stock ye hold, any views ye might express would carry +more weight than mine would do in your absence." + +Vane drummed with his fingers on the table. + +"I suppose that's the case; but I've got to make the journey. With +moderately good fortune it shouldn't take me long." + +"Ye would be running some risk if anything delayed ye and we had to call +a meeting before ye got back." + +Vane frowned. + +"I see that; but it can't be helped. I expect to be back before I'm +wanted. Anyway, I could leave you authority to act on my behalf." + +After a further attempt to dissuade him, Nairn spread out one hand +resignedly. + +"He who will to Cupar maun be left to gang," he said. "Whiles, I have +wondered why any one should be so keen on getting there, but doubtless a +douce Scottish town has mair attractions for a sensible person than the +rugged Northwest in the winter-time." + +Vane smiled and shortly afterward went out and left him; and when Nairn +reached home he briefly recounted the interview to his wife over his +evening meal. Evelyn listened attentively. + +"Yon man will no hear reason," Nairn concluded. "He's thrawn." + +Evelyn had already noticed that her host, for whom she had a strong +liking, spoke broader Scotch when he was either amused or angry, and she +supposed that Vane's determination disturbed him. + +"But why should he persist in leaving the city, when it's to his +disadvantage to do so, as you lead one to believe it is?" she asked. + +"If the latter's no absolutely certain, it's very likely." + +"You have answered only half my question." + +Mrs. Nairn smiled. + +"Alic," she explained, "is reserved by nature; but if ye're anxious for +an answer, I might tell ye." + +"Anxious hardly describes it." + +"Then we'll say curious. The fact is that Vane made a bargain with a sick +prospector, in which he undertook to locate some timber the man had +discovered away among the mountains. He was to pay the other a share of +its value when he got his Government license." + +"Is the timber very valuable?" + +"No," broke in Nairn. "One might make a fair business profit out of +pulping it, though the thing's far from certain." + +"Then why is Mr. Vane so determined on finding it?" + +The question gave Mrs. Nairn a lead, but she decided to say no more than +was necessary. + +"The prospector died, but that bound the bargain tighter, in Vane's +opinion. The man died without a dollar, leaving a daughter worn out and +ill with nursing him. According to the arrangement, his share will go to +the girl." + +"Then," said Evelyn, "Mr. Vane is really undertaking the search, which +may involve him in difficulties, in order to keep his promise to a man +who is dead? And he will not even postpone it, because if he did so +this penniless girl might, perhaps, lose her share? Isn't that rather +fine of him?" + +"On the whole, ye understand the position," Nairn agreed. "If ye +desire my view of the matter, I would merely say that yon's the kind +of man he is." + +Evelyn made no further comment, though the last common phrase struck her +as a most eloquent tribute. She had heard Vane confess that he did not +want to go north at present, and she now understood that to do so might +jeopardize his interests in the mine; but he was undoubtedly going. He +meant to keep his promise in its fullest and widest meaning--that was +what one would expect of him. + +One mild afternoon, a few days later, he took her for a drive among the +Stanley pines, and, though she knew that she would regret his departure, +she was unusually friendly. Vane rejoiced at it, but he had already +decided that he must endeavor to proceed with caution and to content +himself in the meanwhile with the part of trusted companion. For this +reason, he chatted lightly, which he felt was safer, during most of the +drive; but once or twice, when by chance or design she asked a leading +question, he responded without reserve. He did so when they were +approaching a group of giant conifers. + +"I wonder whether you ever feel any regret at having left England for +this country?" she asked. + +"I did so pretty often when I first came out," he answered with a +smile. "In those days I had to work in icy water and carry massive +lumps of rock." + +"I dare say regret was a natural feeling then; but that wasn't quite +what I meant." + +"So I supposed," Vane confessed. "Well, I'd better own that when I'd +spent a week or two in England--at the Dene--I began to think I'd missed +a good deal by not staying at home. It struck me that the life you led +had a singular charm. Everything went so smoothly there, among the +sheltering hills. One felt that care and anxiety could not creep in. +Somehow, the place reminded me of Avalon." + +"The impression was by no means correct," smiled Evelyn, "But I don't +think you have finished. Won't you go on?" + +"Then if I get out of my depth, you mustn't blame me. By and by I +discovered that charm wasn't the right word--the place was permeated with +a narcotic spell." + +"Narcotic? Do you think the term's more appropriate?" + +"I do. Narcotics, one understands, are insidious things. If you take them +regularly, in small doses, they increase their hold on you until you +become wrapped up in dreams and unrealities. If, however, you get too big +a dose of them at the beginning, it leads to a vigorous revulsion. It's +nature's warning and remedy." + +"You're not flattering; but I almost fancy you're right." + +"We are told that man was made to struggle--to use all his powers. If he +rests too long beside the still backwaters of life, in fairy-like dales, +they're apt to atrophy, and he finds himself slack and nerveless when he +goes out to face the world again." + +Evelyn nodded, for she had felt and striven against the insidious +influence of which he spoke. She had now and then left the drowsy dale +for a while; but the life of which she had then caught glimpses was +equally sheltered--one possible only to the favored few. Even the echoes +of the real tense struggle seldom passed its boundaries. + +"But you confessed not long ago that you loved the western wilderness," +she said. "You have spent a good deal of time in it; and you expect to +do so again. After all, isn't that only exchanging one beautiful, +tranquil region for another? The bush must be even quieter than the +English dales." + +"Perhaps I haven't made the point quite clear. When one goes up into the +bush, it's not to lounge and dream there, but to make war upon it with ax +and drill." + +He pulled up his team and pointed to the clump of giant trees. + +"Look there! That's nature's challenge to man in this country." + +Evelyn recognized that it was an impressive one. The great trunks ran up +far aloft, tremendous columns, before their brighter portions were lost +in the vaulted roof of somber greenery. They dwarfed the rig and team; +she felt herself a pygmy by comparison. + +"They're a little larger than the average," her companion explained, +"Still, that's the kind of thing you run up against when you buy land to +start a ranch or clear the ground for a mine. Chopping, sawing up, +splitting those giants doesn't fill one with languorous dreams; the only +dreams that our axmen indulge in materialize. It's an unending, bracing +struggle. There are leagues and leagues of trees, shrouding the valleys +in a shadow that has lasted since the world was young; but you see the +dawn of a wonderful future breaking in as the long ranks go down." + +Once more, without clearly intending it, he had stirred the girl. He had +not spoken in that rather fanciful style to impress her; she knew that, +trusting in her comprehension, he had merely given his ideas free rein. +But in doing so he had somehow made her hear the trumpet-call to action +which, for such men, rings through the roar of the river and the song of +the tall black pines. + +"Ah!" she murmured, "it must be a glorious life, in many ways; but it's +bound to have its drawbacks. Doesn't the flesh shrink from them?" + +"The flesh?" He laughed. "In this land the flesh takes second +place--except, perhaps, in the cities." He turned and looked at her +curiously. "Why should you talk of shrinking? The bush couldn't daunt +you; you have courage." + +The girl's eyes sparkled, but not at the compliment. His words rang with +freedom; the freedom of the heights, where heroic effort was the rule, in +place of luxury. She longed now, as she had often done, to escape from +bondage; to break away. + +"Ah, well," she said, smiling half wistfully; "perhaps it's fortunate +that such courage as I have may never be put to the test." + +Though reticence was difficult, Vane made no comment. He had already +spoken unguardedly, and he decided that caution would be desirable. +As he started the team, an automobile came up, and he looked around +as he drove on. + +"It's curious that I never heard the thing," he remarked. + +"I didn't, either," replied Evelyn. "I was too much engrossed in the +trees. But I think Miss Horsfield was in it" + +"Was she?" responded Vane in a very casual manner; and Evelyn, for no +reason that she was willing to recognize, was pleased. + +She had not been mistaken. Jessy Horsfield was in the automobile, and she +had had a few moments in which to study Vane and his companion. The man's +look and the girl's expression had struck her as significant; and her +lips set in an ominously tight line as the car sped on. She felt that she +almost hated Vane; and there was no doubt that she entirely hated the +girl at his side. It would be soothing to humiliate her, to make her +suffer, and though the exact mode of setting about it was not very clear +just yet, she thought it might be managed. Her companion wondered why she +looked preoccupied during the rest of the journey. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +JESSY STRIKES + + +It was the afternoon before Vane's departure for the North, and Evelyn, +sitting alone for the time being in Mrs. Nairn's drawing-room, felt +disturbed by the thought of it. She sympathized with his object, as it +had been briefly related by her hostess, but she supposed there was a +certain risk attached to the journey, and that troubled her. In addition +to this, there was another point on which she was not altogether pleased. +She had twice seen him acknowledge a bow from a very pretty girl whose +general appearance suggested that she did not belong to Evelyn's own walk +in life, and that very morning she had noticed him crossing a street in +the young woman's company. Vane, as it happened, had met Kitty Blake by +accident and had asked her to accompany him on a visit to Celia. Evelyn +did not think she was of a jealous disposition, and jealousy appeared +irrational in the case of a man whom she had dismissed as a suitor; but +the thing undoubtedly rankled in her mind. While she was considering it, +Jessy Horsfield entered the room. + +"I'm here by invitation, to join Mr. Vane's other old friends in giving +him a good send-off," she explained. "Only, Mrs. Nairn told me to come +over earlier." + +Evelyn noticed that Jessy laid some stress upon her acquaintance with +Vane, and wondered whether she had any motive for doing so. + +"I suppose you have known him for some time?" + +"Oh, yes," was the careless answer. "My brother was one of the first to +take him up when he came to Vancouver." + +The phrase jarred on Evelyn. It savored of patronage; besides, she did +not like to think that Vane owed anything to the Horsfields. + +"Though I don't know much about it, I understood that they were opposed +to each other," she said coldly. + +Jessy laughed. + +"Their business interests don't coincide; but it doesn't follow that they +should disagree about anything else. My brother did all he could to +dissuade Mr. Vane from going on with his search for the timber until the +winter is over." + +This was true, inasmuch as Horsfield had spoken to Vane about the +subject, though it is possible that he would not have done so had he +expected the latter to yield to his reasoning. Vane was one whom +opposition usually rendered more determined. + +"I think it is rather fine of him to persist in it," Evelyn declared. + +Jessy smiled, though she felt venomous just then. + +"Yes," she agreed; "one undoubtedly feels that. Besides, the thing's +so characteristic of him; the man's impulsively generous and not +easily daunted. He possesses many of the rudimentary virtues, as well +as some of the corresponding weaknesses, which is very much what one +would look for." + +"What do you mean by that?" Evelyn inquired with a trace of asperity. +Though she was not prepared to pose as Vane's advocate, she was +conscious of a growing antagonism toward her companion. + +"It's difficult to explain, and I don't know that the subject's worth +discussing," answered Jessy. "However, what I think I meant was this--Mr. +Vane's of a type that's not uncommon in the West, and it's a type one +finds interesting. He's forcibly elementary, which is the only way I can +express it; the restraints the rest of us submit to don't bind him--he +breaks through them." + +This, Evelyn fancied, was more or less correct. Indeed, the man's +fearless disregard of hampering customs had pleased her, but she +recognized that some restraints are needful. Her companion followed the +same train of thought. + +"When one breaks down or gets over fences, it's necessary to +discriminate," she went on. "Men of the Berserker type, however, are more +addicted to going straight through the lot. In a way, they're +consistent--having smashed one barrier why should they respect the next?" + +Jessy, as she was quite aware, was playing a dangerous game; one that +might afterward be exposed. The latter possibility, however, was of less +account, for detection would come too late if she were successful. She +was acquainted with the salient points of Evelyn's character. + +"They're consistent, if not always very logical," she concluded after a +pause. "One endeavors to make allowances for men of that description." + +Something in her tone roused Evelyn to sudden imperious anger. It was +intolerable that this woman should offer excuses for Vane. + +"What particular allowances do you feel it needful to make in Mr. Vane's +case?" she asked haughtily. + +Now that she was faced by the direct question, Jessy hesitated. As a +rule, she was subtle, but she could be ruthlessly frank, and she was +possessed by a passionate hatred of the girl beside her. + +"You have forced me to an explanation," she smiled. "The fact is that +while he has a room at the hotel he has an--establishment--in a +different neighborhood. Unfortunately such places are a feature of some +western towns." + +It was a shock to Evelyn; one that she found hard to face; though she was +not convinced. The last piece of information agreed with something Mrs. +Nairn had told her; but, although she had on one occasion had the +testimony of her eyes in support of it, Jessy's first statement seemed +incredible. + +"It's impossible!" + +Jessy smiled in a bitter manner. + +"It's unpleasant, but it can't be denied. He undoubtedly pays the rent of +a shack in the neighborhood I mentioned." + +Evelyn sat tensely still for a moment or two. She dare not give rein to +her feelings, for she would not betray herself; but composure was +extremely difficult. + +"If that is true," she demanded, "how is it that he is received +everywhere--at your house and by Mrs. Nairn? He is coming here to-night." + +Jessy shrugged her shoulders. + +"People in general are more or less charitable in the case of a +successful man. Apart from that, Mr. Vane has a good many excellent +qualities. As I said, one has to make allowances." + +Just then, to Evelyn's relief, Mrs. Nairn came in, and though the girl +suffered during the time, it was half an hour before she could find an +excuse for slipping away alone. Then, sitting in the gathering darkness +in her own room, she set herself to consider, as dispassionately as +possible, what she had heard. It was exceedingly difficult to believe the +charge, but Jessy's assertion was definite enough, and one which, if +incorrect, could readily be disproved. Nobody would say such a thing +unless it could be substantiated; and that led Evelyn to consider why +Jessy had given her the information. She had obviously done so with at +least a trace of malice, but it could hardly have sprung from jealousy; +Evelyn could not think that a woman would vilify a man for whom she had +any tenderness. Besides, she had seen Vane entering the part of the town +indicated, where he could not have had any legitimate business. Hateful +as the suspicion was, it could not be contemptuously dismissed. Then she +recognized that she had no right to censure the man; he was not +accountable to her for his conduct--but calm reasoning carried her no +farther. She was once more filled with intolerable disgust and burning +indignation. Somehow, she had come to believe in Vane, and he had turned +out an impostor. + +About an hour later Vane and Carroll entered the house with Nairn and +proceeded to the latter's room where he offered them cigars. + +"So ye're all ready to sail the morn?" + +Vane nodded and handed him a paper. + +"There's your authority to act in my name, if it's required. If we have +moderately fine weather, I expect to be back before there's much change +in the situation; but I'll call at Nanaimo, where you can wire me if +anything turns up during the two or three days it may take us to get +there. The wind's ahead at present." + +"I suppose there's no use in my saying anything more now; but I can't +help pointing out that as head of the concern you have a certain duty to +the shareholders which you seem inclined to disregard," Carroll remarked. + +Vane smiled. + +"I've no doubt that their interests will be as safe in Nairn's hands as +in mine. What I stand to risk is the not getting my personal ideas +carried out, which is a different matter, though I'll own that it +wouldn't please me if they were overruled." + +"I fail to see why ye could no have let the whole thing stand over until +the spring," grunted Nairn. "The spruce will no run away." + +"I'd have done so, had it been a few years earlier, but the whole country +is overrun with mineral prospectors and timber righters now. Every +month's delay gives somebody else a chance for getting in ahead of me." + +"Weel," responded Nairn resignedly, "I can only wish ye luck; but, should +ye be detained up yonder, if one of ye could sail across to Comox to see +if there's any mail there it would be wise to do so." He waved his hand. +"No more of that; we'll consider what tactics I had better adopt in case +of delay." + +An hour had passed before they went down to join the guests who were +arriving for the evening meal. As a rule, the western business man, who +is more or less engrossed in his occupation except when he is asleep, +enjoys little privacy; and Nairn's friends sometimes compared his +dwelling to the rotunda of a hotel. The point of this was that people of +all descriptions who have nothing better to do are addicted to strolling +into the combined bazaar and lounge which is attached to many Canadian +hostelries. + +Vane was placed next to Evelyn at the table; but after a quiet reply to +his first observation she turned and talked to the man at her other side. +As the latter, who was elderly and dull, had only two topics--the most +efficient means of desiccating fruit and the lack of railroad +facilities--Vane was somewhat astonished that she appeared interested in +his conversation, and by and by he tried again. He was not more +successful this time, and his face grew warm as he realized that Evelyn +was not inclined to talk to him. Being a very ordinary mortal and not +particularly patient, he was sensible of some indignation, which was not +diminished when, on looking around, Jessy Horsfield favored him with a +compassionate smile. However, he took his part in the general +conversation; and the meal was over and the guests were scattered about +the adjoining rooms when, after impatiently waiting for the opportunity, +he at last found Evelyn alone. She was standing with one hand on a table, +looking rather thoughtful. + +"I've come to ask what I've done?" + +Evelyn was not prepared for this blunt directness and she felt a little +disconcerted, but she broke into a chilly smile. + +"The question's rather indefinite, isn't it? Do you expect me to be +acquainted with all your recent actions?" + +"Then I'll put the thing in another way--do you mind telling me how I +have offended you?" + +The girl almost wished that she could do so. Appearances were badly +against him, but she felt that if he declared himself innocent she could +take his word in the face of overwhelming testimony to the contrary. +Unfortunately, however, it was unthinkable that she should plainly state +the charge. + +"Do you suppose I should feel warranted in forming any opinion upon your +conduct?" she retorted. + +"It strikes me that you have formed one, and it isn't favorable." + +The girl hesitated a moment, but she had the courage of her convictions +and she felt impelled to make some protest. + +"That," she said, looking him in the eyes, "is perfectly true." + +He seemed more puzzled than guilty, and once more she chafed against the +fact that she could give him no opportunity for defending himself. + +"Well," he responded, "I'm sorry; but it brings us back to my first +question." + +The situation was becoming painful as well as embarrassing, and Evelyn, +perhaps unreasonably, grew more angry with the man. + +"I'm afraid that you either are clever at dissembling or have no +imagination." + +Vane held himself in hand with an effort. + +"I dare say you're right on the latter point. It's a fact I'm sometimes +thankful for. It leaves one more free to go straight ahead. Now, as I see +the dried-fruit man coming in search of you and you evidently don't mean +to answer me, I can't urge the matter." + +He turned away and left her wondering why he had abandoned his usual +persistency, unless it was that an uneasy conscience had driven him from +the field. It did not occur to her that the man had under strong +provocation merely yielded to the prompting of a somewhat hasty temper. +In the meanwhile he crossed the room in an absent-minded manner and +presently found himself near Jessy, who made room for him at her side. + +"It looks as if you were in disgrace to-night," she said sweetly, and +waited with concealed impatience for his answer. If Evelyn had been +sufficiently clever or bold to give him a hint as to what he was +suspected of, Jessy foresaw undesirable complications. + +"I think I am," he owned without reflection. "The trouble is that, while +I may deserve it on general grounds, I'm unconscious of having done +anything very reprehensible in particular." + +Jessy was sensible of considerable relief. The man was sore and +resentful; he would not press Evelyn for an explanation, and the breach +would widen. In the meanwhile she must play her cards skillfully. + +"Then that fact should sustain you," she smiled. "We shall miss you after +to-morrow--more than one of us. Of course, it's too late to tell you that +you are not altogether wise in resolving to go." + +"Everybody has been telling me the same thing for the last few weeks," +he laughed. + +"Then I'll only wish you every success. It's a pity that Bendle and the +other man haven't paid up yet." + +She met his surprised look with an engaging smile. + +"You needn't be astonished. There's not very much goes on in the city +that I don't hear about you know how men talk business here, and it's +interesting to look on, even when one can't actually take a hand in the +game. It's said that the watchers sometimes see the most of it." + +"To tell the truth, it's the uncertainty as to what those two men might +do that has chiefly been worrying me." + +"Of course. I believe that I understand the position--they've been +hanging fire, haven't they? But I've reasons for believing they'll come +to a decision before very long." + +Vane looked troubled. + +"That's interesting, but I ought to warn you that your brother--" + +Jessy stopped him with a smile. + +"I've no intention of giving him away; and, as a matter of fact, I think +you are a little prejudiced against him. After all, he's not your +greatest danger. There's a cabal against you among your shareholders." + +The man knit his brows, but she knew by the way he looked at her that he +admired her acumen. + +"Yes," he responded; "I've suspected that." + +"There are two courses open to you--the first is to put off your +expedition." + +The answer was to the effect she had anticipated. + +"That's impossible, for several reasons." + +"The other is to call at Nanaimo and wait until, we'll say, next +Thursday. If there's need for you to come back I think it will arise by +then; but it might be better if you called at Comox too--after you leave +the latter you'll be unreachable. If it seems necessary, I'll send you a +warning; if you hear nothing, you can go on." + +Vane reflected hastily. Jessy, as she had told him, had opportunities for +picking up valuable information about the business done in that city, and +he had confidence in her. + +"Thank you," he said. "It will be the second service you have done me, +and I appreciate it. Anyway, I promised Nairn I'd call at Nanaimo, in +case there should be a wire from him." + +"It's a bargain; and now we'll talk of something else." + +Jessy drew him into an exchange of badinage. Noticing, however, that +Evelyn once or twice glanced at her with some astonishment, she presently +got rid of him. She could understand Evelyn's attitude and she did not +wish her friendliness with the offender to appear unnatural after what +she had said about him. + +At length the guests began to leave, and most of them had gone when Vane +rose to take his departure. His host and hostess went with him to the +door, but, though he once or twice glanced round eagerly, there was no +sign of Evelyn. He lingered a few moments on the threshold after Mrs. +Nairn had given him a kindly send-off; but nobody appeared in the lighted +hall, and after another word with Nairn he went moodily down the steps to +join Jessy and Carroll, who were waiting for him below. As the group +walked down the garden path, Mrs. Nairn looked at her husband. + +"I do not know what has come over Evelyn this night," she remarked. + +Nairn followed Jessy's retreating figure with distrustful eyes. + +"Weel," he drawled, "I'm thinking yon besom may have had a hand in +the thing." + +A few minutes later Jessy, standing where the light of a big lamp +streamed down upon her through the boughs of a leafless maple, bade Vane +farewell at her brother's gate. + +"If my good wishes can bring you success, it will most certainly be +yours," she said, and there was something in her voice which faintly +stirred the man, who was feeling very sore. + +"Thank you." + +She did not immediately withdraw the hand she had given him. He was +grateful to her and thought she looked unusually pretty with the sympathy +shining in her eyes. + +"You will not forget to wait at Nanaimo and Comox?" she reminded him. + +"No. If you recall me, I'll come back at once; if not, I'll go on with a +lighter heart, knowing that I can safely stay away." + +Jessy said nothing further, and he moved on. She felt that she had scored +and she knew when to stop. The man had given her his full confidence. + +Soon afterward Vane entered his hotel, where he turned impatiently +upon Carroll. + +"You can go into the rotunda or the smoking-room and talk to any loafer +who thinks it worth while to listen to your cryptic remarks," he said. +"As we sail as soon as it's daylight to-morrow, I'm going to sleep." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE INTERCEPTED LETTER + + +The wind was fresh from the northwest when Vane drove the sloop out +through the Narrows in the early dawn and saw a dim stretch of +white-flecked sea in front of him. Land-locked as they are by Vancouver +Island, the long roll of the Pacific cannot enter those waters, but they +are now and then lashed into short, tumbling seas, sufficient to make +passage difficult for a craft no larger than the sloop. Carroll frowned +when a comber smote the weather bow and a shower of stinging spray +lashed his face. + +"Right ahead again," he remarked. "But as I suppose you're going on, we'd +better stretch straight across on the starboard tack. We'll get smoother +water along the island shore." + +They let her go and Vane sat at the helm hour after hour, drenched with +spray, hammering her mercilessly into the frothy seas. They could have +done with a second reef down, for the deck was swept and sluicing, and +most of the time the lee rail was buried deep in rushing foam; but Vane +showed no intention of shortening sail. Nor did Carroll, who saw that his +comrade was disturbed in temper, suggest it; resolute action had, he +knew, a soothing effect on Vane. As a matter of fact, Vane needed +soothing. Of late, he had felt that he was making steady progress in +Evelyn's favor, and now she had most inexplainably turned against him. +There was no doubt that, as Jessy had described it, he was in disgrace; +but rack his brain as he would, he could not discover the reason. That he +was conscious of no offense only made the position more galling. + +In the meanwhile, the boat engrossed more and more of his attention, and +though he was by no means careful of her, he spared no effort to get her +to windward. It was a relief to drive her hard at some white-topped sea +and watch her bows disappear in it with a thud, while it somehow eased +his mind to see the smashed-up brine fly half the height of her drenched +mainsail. There was also satisfaction in feeling the strain on the tiller +when, swayed down by a fiercer gust, she plunged through the combers with +the froth swirling, perilously close to the coaming, along her +half-submerged deck. In all their moods, men of his kind find pleasure in +such things; the turmoil, the rush, the need for quick, resolute action +stirs the blood in them. + +The day was cold; the man, who was compelled to sit almost still in a +nipping wind, was soon wet through; but this in some curious way further +tended to restore his accustomed optimism and good-humor. He had partly +recovered both when, as the sloop drove through the whiter turmoil +whipped up by a vicious squall, there was a crash forward. + +"Down helm!" shouted Carroll. "The bobstay's gone!" + +He scrambled toward the bowsprit, which having lost its principal support +swayed upward, in peril of being torn away by the sagging jib. Vane first +rounded up the boat into the wind and then followed him; and for several +minutes they had a savage struggle with the madly-flapping sail before +they flung it, bundled up, into the well. Then they ran in the bowsprit, +and Vane felt glad that, although the craft had been rigged in the usual +western fashion as a sloop, he had changed that by giving her a couple of +headsails in place of one. + +"She'll trim with the staysail if we haul down another reef," he +suggested. + +It cost them some labor, but they were warmer afterward, and when they +drove on again Vane glanced at the bowsprit. + +"We'll try to get a bit of galvanized steel in Nanaimo," he said. "I +can't risk another smash." + +Carroll laughed. + +"You'd better be prepared for one, if you mean to drive her as you have +been doing." He flung back the saloon scuttle. "You'd have swamped her in +another hour or two--the cabin floorings are all awash." + +"Then hadn't you better pump her out?" retorted Vane. "After that, you +can light the stove. It's beginning to dawn on me that it's a long while +since I had anything worth speaking of to eat. The kind of lunch you +brought along in the basket isn't sustaining." + +They made a bountiful if somewhat primitive meal, in turn, sitting in the +dripping saloon which was partly filled with smoke, and Carroll sighed +for the comforts he had abandoned. He did not, however, mention his +regrets, because he did not expect his comrade's sympathy. Vane seldom +noticed what he was eating when he was on board his boat. + +The craft, being under reduced sail, drove along more easily during the +rest of the afternoon, and they ran into a little colliery town late on +the following day. There Vane replaced the broken bobstay with a solid +piece of steel, and then sat down to write a letter while Carroll +stretched his cramped limbs ashore. + +The letter was addressed to Evelyn, and he found it difficult to express +himself as he desired. The spoken word, as he had discovered, is now and +then awkward to use, but the written one is more evasive and complex +still, and he shook his head ruefully over the production when he laid +down his pen. This was, perhaps, unnecessary, for having grown calm he +had framed a terse and forcible appeal to the girl's sense of justice, +which would in all probability have had its effect on her had she +received it. Though he hardly realized it, the few simple words were +convincing. + +Having had no news from Nairn or Jessy, they sailed again in a day or +two, bound for Comox farther along the coast, where there was a +possibility of communications overtaking them; but in the meanwhile +matters which concerned them were moving forward in Vancouver. + +It was rather early one afternoon when Jessy called on one of her friends +and found her alone. Mrs. Bendle was a young and impulsive woman from one +of the eastern cities and she had not made many friends in Vancouver yet, +though her husband, whom she had lately married, was a man of some +importance there. + +"I'm glad to see you," she said, greeting Jessy eagerly. "It's a week +since anybody has been in to talk to me, and Tom's away again. It's +a trying thing to be the wife of a western business man--you so +seldom see him." + +Jessy made herself comfortable in an easy-chair before she referred to +one of her companion's remarks. + +"Where has Mr. Bendle gone now?" she asked. + +"Into the bush to look at a mine. He left this morning and it will be a +week before he's back. Then he's going across the Selkirks with that +Clavering man about some irrigation scheme." + +This suggested one or two questions which Jessy desired to ask, but she +did not frame them immediately. Mrs. Bendle was incautious and +discursive, but there was nothing to be gained by being precipitate. + +"It must be dull for you," she sympathized. + +"I don't mean to complain. Tom's reasonable; the last time I said +anything about being left alone he bought me a pair of ponies. He said I +could have either them or an automobile, and I took the ponies. I thought +them safer." + +Jessy smiled. + +"You're fortunate in several ways; there are not a great many people who +can make such presents. But while everybody knows your husband has been +successful lately, I'm a little surprised that he's able to go into +Clavering's irrigation scheme. It's a very expensive one, and I +understand that they intend to confine it to a few, which means that +those interested will have to subscribe handsomely." + +"Tom," explained her companion, "likes to have a number of different +things in hand. He told me it was wiser, when I said that I couldn't tell +my friends back East what he really is, because he seemed to be +everything at once. But your brother's interested in a good many things, +too, isn't he?" + +"I believe so," answered Jessy. "Still, I'm pretty sure he couldn't +afford to join Clavering and at the same time take up a big block of +shares in Mr. Vane's mine." + +"But Tom isn't going to do the latter now." + +Jessy was startled. This was valuable information which she could +scarcely have expected to obtain so easily. There was more that she +desired to ascertain, but she had no intention of making any obvious +inquiries. + +"It's generally understood that Mr. Vane and your husband are on good +terms," she said. "You know him, don't you?" + +"I've met him once or twice, and I like him, but when I mention him Tom +smiles. He says it's unfortunate Mr. Vane can see only one thing at a +time, and that the one which lies right in front of his eyes. For all +that, he once owned that the man is likable." + +"Then it's a pity he's unable to stand by him now." + +Mrs. Bendle looked thoughtful. + +"I really believe Tom's half sorry he can't do so. He said something last +night that suggested it--I can't remember exactly what it was. Of course, +I don't understand much about these matters, but Howitson was here +talking business until late." + +Jessy was satisfied. Her hostess's previous incautious admission had gone +a long way, but to this was added the significant information that Bendle +was inclined to be sorry for Vane. The fact that he and Howitson had +decided on some joint action after a long private discussion implied that +there was trouble in store for the absent man, unless he could be +summoned to deal with the crisis in person. Jessy wondered whether Nairn +knew anything about the matter yet, and decided that she would call and +try to sound him. This would be difficult, because Nairn was not the man +to make any rash avowal, and he had an annoying habit of parrying an +injudicious question with an enigmatical smile. In the meanwhile she led +her companion away from the subject and they discussed millinery and such +matters until she took her departure. + +It was early in the evening when she reached Nairn's house, for she +thought it better to arrive there a little before he came home. She was +told that Mrs. Nairn and Miss Chisholm were out but were expected back +shortly. Evelyn had been by no means cordial to her since their last +interview, and Mrs. Nairn's manner had been colder; but Jessy decided +to wait; and for the second time that day fortune seemed to play into +her hands. + +It was dark outside, but the entrance hall was brightly lighted and Jessy +could see into it from where she sat. Highly trained domestics are +generally scarce in the West, and the maid had left the door of the room +open. Presently there was a knock at the outer door and a young lad came +in with some letters in his hand. He explained to the maid that he had +been to the post-office and had brought his employer's private mail. The +maid pointed out that the top letter looked dirty, and the lad owned that +he had dropped the bundle in the street. Then he withdrew and the maid +laid the letters carelessly on a little table and also retired, banging a +door behind her. The concussion shook down the letters, and one, +fluttering forward with the sudden draught, fell almost upon the +threshold of the room. Jessy, who was methodical in most things, rose to +pick it up and replace it with the rest. + +When she reached the door, however, she stopped abruptly, for she +recognized the rather large writing on the envelope. There was no doubt +that it was from Vane and she noticed that it was addressed to Miss +Chisholm. Jessy picked it up, and when she had laid the others on the +table, she stood with Vane's letter in her hand. + +"Has the man no pride?" she said half aloud. + +Then she looked about her, listening, greatly tempted, and considering. +There was no sound in the house; Evelyn and Mrs. Nairn were out, and the +other occupants were cut off from her by a closed door. Nobody would know +that she had entered the hall, and if the letter were subsequently missed +it would be remembered that the lad had confessed to dropping the bundle. +It was most unlikely, however, that any question regarding its +disappearance would ever be asked. If there should be no response from +Evelyn, Vane, she thought, would not renew his appeal. Jessy had no doubt +that the letter contained an appeal of some kind which might lead to a +reconciliation, and she knew that silence is often more potent than an +outbreak of anger. She had only to destroy the letter, and the breach +between the two people whom she desired to separate would widen +automatically. + +There was little risk of detection, but, standing tensely still, with set +lips and heart beating faster than usual, she shrank from the decisive +action. She could still replace the letter and look for other means of +bringing about what she wished. She was self-willed and endowed with few +troublesome principles, but until she had poisoned Evelyn's mind against +Vane she had never done anything flagrantly dishonorable. Then while she +waited, irresolute, a fresh temptation seized her in the shape of a +burning desire to learn what the man had to say. He would reveal his +feelings in the message and she could judge the strength of her rival's +influence over him. Jessy had her ideas on this point, but she could now +see them confirmed or refuted by the man's own words. + +Yet she hesitated, with a half-instinctive recognition of the fact that +the decision she must make was an eventful one. She had transgressed +grievously in one recent interview with Evelyn, but, while she had no +idea of making reparation, she could at least stop short of a second +offense. She had, perhaps, not gone too far yet, but if she ventured a +little farther she might be driven on against her will and become +inextricably involved in an entanglement of dishonorable treachery. + +The issue hung in the balance--the slightest thing would have turned +the scale--when she heard footsteps outside and the tinkle of a bell. +Moving with a start, she slipped back into the room just before the +maid opened the adjacent door. In another moment she thrust the +envelope inside her dress, and gathered her composure as Mrs. Nairn and +Evelyn entered the hall. The former approached the table and turned +over the handful of letters. + +"Two for ye from England, Evelyn, and one or two for me," she said, +flashing a quick glance at the girl. "Nothing else; I had thought Vane +would maybe send a bit note from one of the island ports to say how he +was getting on." + +Then Jessy rose, smiling, to greet her hostess. The question was +decided--it was too late to replace the letter now. She could not +remember what they talked about during the next half-hour, but she took +her part, until Nairn came in, and she contrived to have a word with him +before leaving. Mrs. Nairn had gone out to give some instructions about +supper, and when Evelyn followed her, Jessy turned to Nairn. + +"Mr. Vane should be at Comox now," she began. "Have you any idea of +recalling him? Of course, I know a little about the Clermont affairs." + +Nairn glanced at her with thoughtful eyes. + +"I'm no acquainted with any reason that would render such a course +necessary." + +Evelyn reappeared shortly after this, and Jessy excused herself from +staying for the evening meal and walked home thinking hard. It was +needful that Vane should be recalled. He had written to Evelyn, but Jessy +still meant to send him word. He would be grateful to her, and, indignant +and wounded as she was, she would not own herself beaten. She would warn +the man, and afterward perhaps allow Nairn to send him a second message. + +On reaching her brother's house, she went straight to her own room and +tore open the envelope. The color receded from her face as she read, and +sinking into a chair she sat still with hands clenched. The message was +terse, but it was stirringly candid; and even where the man did not +fully reveal his feelings in his words she could read between the lines. +There was no doubt that he had given his heart unreservedly into her +rival's keeping. He might be separated from her, but Jessy knew enough +of him to realize at last that he would not turn to another. The lurid +truth was burned upon her brain--she might do what she would, but this +man was not for her. + +For a while she sat still, and then stooping swiftly she seized the +letter, which she had dropped, and rent it into fragments. Her eyes had +grown hard and cruel; love of the only kind that she was capable of had +suddenly turned to hate. What was more, it was a hate that could be +gratified. + +A little later Horsfield came in. Jessy was very composed now, but she +noticed that her brother looked at her in a rather unusual manner once or +twice during the meal that followed. + +"You make me feel that you have something on your mind," she observed +at length. + +"That's a fact." + +Horsfield hesitated. He was attached to and rather proud of his sister. + +"Well?" she prompted. + +He leaned forward confidentially. + +"See here," he said, "I've always imagined that you would go far, and I'm +anxious to see you do so. I shouldn't like you to throw yourself away." + +His sister could take a hint, but there was information that she desired +and the man was speaking with unusual reserve. + +"You must be plainer," she retorted with a slight show of impatience. + +"Then, you have seen a good deal of Vane, and in case you have any +hankering after his scalp, I think I'd better mention that there's reason +to believe he won't be worth powder and shot before very long." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Jessy with a calmness that was difficult to assume; "you +may as well understand that there is nothing between Vane and me. I +suppose you mean that Howitson and Bendle are turning against him?" + +"Something like that." Horsfield's tone implied that her answer had +afforded him relief. "The man has trouble in front of him." + +Jessy changed the subject. What she had gathered from Mrs. Bendle was +fully confirmed; but she had made up her mind. Evelyn's lover might wait +for the warning which could save him, but he should wait in vain. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +ON THE TRAIL + + +It was a long, wet sail up the coast with the wind ahead, and Carroll was +quite content when, on reaching Comox, Vane announced his intention of +stopping there until the mail came in. Immediately after its arrival, +Carroll went ashore, and came back empty-handed. + +"Nothing," he reported. "Personally, I'm pleased. Nairn could have +advised us here if there had been any striking developments since we left +the last place." + +"I wasn't expecting to hear from him," Vane replied tersely. + +Carroll read keen disappointment in his face, and was not surprised, +although the absence of any message meant that it was safe for them to go +on with their project and that should have afforded his companion +satisfaction. The latter sat on deck, gazing somewhat moodily across the +ruffled water toward the snow-clad heights of the mainland range. They +towered, dimly white and majestic, above a scarcely-trodden wilderness, +and Carroll, at least, was not pleasantly impressed by the spectacle. +Though not to be expected always, the cold snaps are now and then severe +in those wilds. Indeed, at odd times a frost almost as rigorous as that +of Alaska lays its icy grip upon the mountains and the usually damp +forests at their feet. + +"I wish I could have got a man to go with us, but between the coal +development and the logging, everybody's busy," he remarked. + +"It doesn't matter," Vane assured him. "If we took a man along and came +back unsuccessful, there'd be a risk of his giving the thing away. +Besides, he might make trouble in other respects. A hired packer would +probably kick against what you and I may have to put up with." + +Carroll was far from pleased with this hint, but he let it pass. + +"Do you mean that if you don't find the spruce this time, you'll go +back again?" + +"Yes, that's my intention. And now we may as well get the mainsail on +her." + +They got off shortly afterward and stood out to northward with the wind +still ahead of them. It was a lowering day, and a short, tumbling sea was +running. When late in the afternoon Carroll fixed their position by the +bearing of a peak on the island, he pointed out the small progress they +had made. The sloop was then plunging close-hauled through the vicious +slate-green combers, and thin showers of spray flew all over her. + +"The luck's been dead against us ever since we began this search," he +commented. + +"Do you believe in that kind of foolishness?" Vane inquired. + +Carroll, sitting on the coaming, considered the question. It was not one +of much importance, but the dingy sky and the dreary waste of sad-colored +water had a depressing effect on him, and as it was a solace to talk, +one topic would serve as well as another. + +"I think I believe in a rhythmical recurrence of the contrary chance," he +answered. "I mean that the uncertain and adverse possibility often turns +up in succession for a time." + +"Then you couldn't call it uncertain." + +"You can't tell exactly when the break will come," Carroll explained. +"But if I were a gambler or had other big risks, I think I'd allow for +dangers in triplets." + +"Yes," Vane responded; "you could cite the three extra big head seas, +and I've noticed that when one burned tree comes down in a brûlée, it's +quite often followed by two more, though there may be a number just +ready to fall." + +He mused for a few moments, with the spray whistling about him. He had +three things at stake: Evelyn's favor; his interest in the Clermont Mine; +and the timber he expected to find. Two of them were undoubtedly +threatened, and he wondered gloomily if he might be bereft of all. Then +he drove the forebodings out of his mind. + +"In the present case, anyway, our course is pretty simple," he +declared with a laugh. "We have only to hold out and go on until the +luck changes." + +Carroll knew that Vane was capable of doing as he had suggested and he +was not encouraged by the prospect; but he went below to trim and bring +up the lights, and soon afterward retired to get what rest he could. The +locker cushions on which he lay felt unpleasantly damp; his blankets, +which were not much drier, smelt moldy; and there was a dismal splash +and gurgle of water among the timbers of the plunging craft. Now and +then a jet of it shot up between the joints of the flooring or spouted +through the opening made for the lifting-gear in the centerboard trunk. +When he had several times failed to plug the opening with a rag, Carroll +gave it up and shortly afterward fell into fitful slumber. + +He was awakened, shivering, by hearing Vane calling him, and scrambling +out into the well, he took the helm as his comrade left it. + +"What's her course?" he inquired. + +"If you can keep her hammering ahead close-hauled on the port tack, +it's all I ask," Vane laughed. "You needn't call me unless the sea +gets steeper." + +He crawled below; and it was a few minutes before Carroll, who was +dazzled by the change from the dim lamplight, felt himself fit for his +task. Fine spray whirled about him. It was pitch dark, but by degrees he +made out the shadowy seas which came charging up, tipped with frothing +white, upon the weather bow. By the way they broke on board it struck him +that they were steep enough already, but Vane had seen them not long ago +and there was nothing to be gained by expostulation if they caused him no +anxiety. Several hours went by, and then Carroll noticed that the faint +crimson blink which sometimes fell upon the seas to weather was no longer +visible. It was evident that the port light had either gone out or been +washed out, and it was his manifest duty to relight it. On the other +hand, he could not do so unless Vane took the helm. He was wet and +chilled through; any fresh effort was distasteful; he did not want to +move; and he decided that they were most unlikely to meet a steamer, +while it was certain that there would be no other yacht about. He left +the lamp alone, and at length Vane came up. + +"What's become of the port light?" he demanded. + +"That's more than I can tell you. It was burning an hour ago." + +"An hour ago!" Vane broke out with disgusted indignation. + +"It may have been a little longer. They've stopped the Alaska steamboats +now, but of course there's no reason why you shouldn't light that lamp +again, if it would give you any satisfaction. I'll stay up until you're +through with it." + +Vane did as he suggested, and immediately afterward Carroll retired +below. He slept until a pale ray of sunshine crept in through the +skylights, and then crawling out found the sloop lurching very slowly +over a dying swell, with her deck and shaking mainsail white with frost. +The wind had fallen almost dead away, and it was very cold. + +"On the whole," he complained, "this is worse than the other thing." + +Vane merely told him to get breakfast; and most of that day and the next +one they drifted with the tides through narrowing waters, though now and +then for a few hours they were wafted on by light and fickle winds. At +length, they crept into the inlet where they had landed on the previous +voyage, and on the morning after their arrival they set out on the march. +There was on this occasion reason to expect more rigorous weather, and +the load each carried was an almost crushing one. Where the trees were +thinner the ground was frozen hard, and even in the densest bush the +undergrowth was white and stiff with frost, while overhead a forbidding +gray sky hung. + +On approaching the rift in the hillside at which he had glanced when they +first passed that way, Vane stopped a moment. + +"I looked into that place before, but it didn't seem worth while to +follow it up," he said. "If you'll wait, I'll go a little farther +along it." + +Though the air was nipping, Carroll was content to remain where he was, +and he spent some time sitting upon a log before a faint shout reached +him. Then he rose and, making his way up the hollow, found his comrade +standing upon a jutting ledge. + +"I thought you were never coming! Climb up; I've something to show you!" + +Carroll joined him with difficulty, and Vane stretched out his hand. + +"Look yonder!" + +Carroll looked and started. They stood in a rocky gateway with a river +brawling down the chasm beneath them, but a valley opened up in front. +Filled with somber forest, it ran back almost straight between stupendous +walls of hills. + +"It answers Hartley's description. After all, I don't think it's +extraordinary that we should have taken so much trouble to push on past +the right place." + +"Why?" + +Carroll sat down and filled his pipe. + +"It's the natural result of possessing a temperament like yours. Somehow, +you've got it firmly fixed into your mind that everything worth doing +must be hard." + +"I've generally found it so." + +"I think," grinned Carroll, "you've generally made it so. There's a +marked difference between the two. If any means of doing a thing looks +easy, you at once conclude that it can't be the right one. That mode of +reasoning has never appealed to me. In my opinion, it's more sensible to +try the easiest method first." + +"As a rule, that leads to your having to fall back upon the other one; +and a frontal attack on a difficulty's often quicker than considering how +you can work round its flank. In this case, I'll own we have wasted a lot +of time and taken a good deal of trouble that might have been avoided. +But are you going to sit here and smoke?" + +"Until I've finished my pipe," Carroll answered firmly. "I expect we'll +find tobacco, among other things, getting pretty scarce before this +expedition ends." + +He carried out his intention, and they afterward pushed on up the valley +during the remainder of the day. It grew more level as they proceeded, +and in spite of the frost, which bound the feeding snows, there was a +steady flow of water down the river, which was free from rocky barriers. +Vane now and then glanced at the river attentively, and when dusk was +drawing near he stopped and fixed his gaze on the long ranks of trees +that stretched away in front of him; fretted spires of somber greenery +lifted high above a colonnade of mighty trunks. + +"Does anything in connection with this bush strike you?" he asked. + +"Its stiffness, if that's what you mean," Carroll answered with a smile. +"These big conifers look as if they'd been carved, like the wooden trees +in the Swiss or German toys. They're impressive in a way, but they're +too formally artificial." + +"That's not what I mean," Vane said impatiently. + +"To tell the truth, I didn't suppose it was. Anyway, these trees aren't +spruce. They're red cedar; the stuff they make roofing shingles of." + +"Precisely. Just now, shingles are in good demand in the Province, and +with the wooden towns springing up on the prairie, western millers can +hardly send roofing material across the Rockies fast enough. Besides +this, I haven't struck a creek more adapted for running down logs, and +the last sharp drop to tide-water would give power for a mill. I'm +only puzzled that none of the timber-lease prospectors have recorded +the place." + +"That's easy to understand," laughed Carroll. "Like you, they'd no doubt +first search the most difficult spots to get at." + +They went on, and when darkness fell they pitched their light tent beside +the creek. It was now freezing hard, and after supper the men lay +smoking, wrapped in blankets, with the tent between them and the stinging +wind, while a great fire of cedar branches snapped and roared in front of +them. Sometimes the red blaze shot up, flinging a lurid light on the +stately trunks and tinging the men's faces with the hue of burnished +copper; sometimes it fanned out away from them while the sparks drove +along the frozen ground and the great forest aisle, growing dim, was +filled with drifting vapor. The latter was aromatic; pungently fragrant. + +"It struck me that you were disappointed when you got no mail at +Comox," Carroll remarked at length, feeling that he was making +something of a venture. + +"I was," admitted Vane. + +"That's strange," Carroll persisted, "because your hearing nothing +from Nairn left you free to go ahead, which, one would suppose, was +what you wanted." + +Vane happened to be in a confidential mood; though usually averse to +sharing his troubles, he felt that he needed sympathy. + +"I'd better confess that I wrote Miss Chisholm a few lines from Nanaimo." + +"And she didn't answer you? Now, I couldn't well help noticing that you +were rather in her bad graces that night at Nairn's--the thing was pretty +obvious. No doubt you're acquainted with the reason?" + +"I'm not. That's just the trouble." + +Carroll reflected. He had an idea that Miss Horsfield was somehow +connected with the matter, but this was a suspicion he could not mention. + +"Well," he said, "as I pointed out, you're addicted to taking the hardest +way. When we came up here before, you marched past this valley, chiefly +because it was close at hand; but I don't want to dwell on that. Has it +occurred to you that you did something of the same kind when you were at +the Dene? The way that was then offered you was easy." + +Vane frowned. + +"That is not the kind of subject one cares to talk about; but you ought +to know that I couldn't allow them to force Miss Chisholm upon me against +her will. It was unthinkable! Besides, looking at it in the most +cold-blooded manner, it would have been foolishness, for which we'd both +have had to pay afterward." + +"I'm not so sure of that," Carroll smiled. "There were the Sabine women, +among other instances. Didn't they cut off their hair to make bowstring +for their abductors?" + +His companion made no comment, and Carroll, deciding that he had ventured +as far as was prudent, talked of something else until they crept into the +little tent and soon fell asleep. + +They started with the first of the daylight, but the timber grew denser +and more choked with underbrush as they proceeded and for a day or two +they wearily struggled through it and the clogging masses of tangled, +withered fern. Besides this, they were forced to clamber over mazes of +fallen trunks, when the ragged ends of the snapped-off branches caught +their loads. Their shoulders ached, their boots were ripped, their feet +were badly galled; but they held on stubbornly, plunging deeper into the +mountains all the while. It would probably overcome the average man if he +were compelled to carry all the provisions he needed for a week along a +well-kept road, but the task of the prospector and the survey packer, who +must transport also an ax, cooking utensils and whatever protection he +requires from the weather, through almost impenetrable thickets, is +infinitely more difficult. + +Vane and Carroll were more or less used to it, but both of them were +badly jaded when soon after setting out one morning they climbed a +clearer hillside to look about them. High up ahead, the crest of the +white range gleamed dazzlingly against leaden clouds in a burst of +sunshine; below, dark forest, still wrapped in gloom, filled all the +valley; and in between, a belt of timber touched by the light shone with +a curious silvery luster. Though it was some distance off, probably a +day's journey allowing for the difficulty of the march, Vane gazed at it +earnestly. The trees were bare--there was no doubt of that, for the +dwindling ranks, diminished by the distance, stood out against the +snow-streaked rock like rows of thick needles set upright; their +straightness and the way they glistened suggested the resemblance. + +"Ominous, isn't it?" Carroll suggested at length. "If this is the valley +Hartley came down--and everything points to that--we should be getting +near the spruce." + +Vane's face grew set. + +"Yes," he agreed. "There has been a big fire up yonder; but whether it +has swept the lower ground or not is more than I can tell. We'll find out +to-night or early to-morrow." + +He swung round without another word, and scrambling down the hillside +they resumed the march. They pushed on all that day rather faster than +before, with the same uncertainty troubling both of them. Forest fires +are common in that region when there is a hot dry fall; and where, as +often happens, a deep valley forms a natural channel for the winds that +fan them, they travel far, stripping and charring the surface of every +tree in their way. Neither of the men thought of stopping for a noonday +meal, and during the gloomy afternoon, when dingy clouds rolled down from +the peaks, they plodded forward with growing impatience. They could see +scarcely a hundred yards in front of them; dense withering thickets +choked up the spaces between the towering trunks; and there was nothing +to indicate that they were nearing the burned area when at last they +pitched their camp as darkness fell. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE END OF THE SEARCH + + +The two men made a hurried breakfast in the cold dawn, and soon afterward +they were struggling through thick timber when the light suddenly grew +clearer. Carroll remarked upon the fact and Vane's face hardened. + +"We're either coming to a swamp, or the track the fire has swept is close +in front," he explained. + +A thicket lay before them, but they smashed savagely through the midst of +it, the undergrowth snapping and crackling about their limbs. Then there +was a network of tangled branches to be crossed, and afterward, reaching +slightly clearer ground, they broke into a run. Three or four minutes +later they stopped, breathless and ragged, with their rent boots scarcely +clinging to their feet, and gazed eagerly about. + +The living forest rose behind them, an almost unbroken wall, but ahead +the trees ran up in detached and blackened spires. Their branches had +vanished; every cluster of somber-green needles and delicate spray had +gone; the great rampicks looked like shafts of charcoal. About their feet +lay crumbling masses of calcined wood, which grew more numerous where +there were open spaces farther on, and then the bare, black columns ran +on again, up the valley and the steep hill benches on either hand. It was +a weird scene of desolation; impressive to the point of being appalling +in its suggestiveness of wide-spread ruin. + +For the space of a minute the men gazed at it; and then Vane, stretching +out his hand, pointed to a snow-sheeted hill. + +"That's the peak Hartley mentioned," he said in a voice which was +strangely incisive. "Give me the ax!" + +He took it from his comrade and striding forward attacked the nearest +rampick. Twice the keen blade sank noiselessly overhead, scattering a +black dust in the frosty air, and then there was a clear, ringing thud. +After that, Vane smote on with a determined methodical swiftness, until +Carroll grabbed his shoulder. + +"Look out!" he cried. "It's going!" + +Vane stepped back a few paces; the trunk reeled and rushed downward; +there was a deafening crash, and they were enveloped in a cloud of gritty +dust. Through the midst of it they dimly saw two more great trunks +collapse; and then somewhere up the valley a series of thundering shocks, +which both knew were not echoes, broke out. The sound jarred on Carroll's +nerves, as the thud of the felled rampick had not done. Vane picked up +one of the chips. + +"We have found Hartley's spruce." + +Carroll did not answer for a minute. After all, when defeat must be +faced, there was very little to be said, though his companion's +expression troubled him. Its grim stolidity was portentous. + +"I suppose," he suggested hopefully, "nothing could be done with it?" + +Vane pointed to the butt of the tree, which showed a space of clear wood +surrounded by a blackened rim. + +"You can't make marketable pulp of charcoal, and the price would have to +run pretty high before it would pay for ripping most of the log away to +get at the residue. + +"But there may be some unburned spruce farther on." + +"It's possible. I'm going to find out." + +This was a logical determination; but, in spite of his recent suggestion, +Carroll realized that he would have abandoned the search there and then, +had the choice been left to him, in which he did not think he was +singular. After all they had undergone and the risk they had run in +leaving Vancouver, the shock of the disappointment was severe. He could +have faced a failure to locate the spruce, with some degree of +philosophical calm; but to find it at last, useless, was very much worse. +He did not, however, expect his companion to turn back yet; before he +desisted, Vane would search for and examine every unburned tree. What was +more, Carroll would have to accompany him. He noticed that Vane was +waiting for him to speak, and he decided that this was a situation which +he would better endeavor to treat lightly. + +"I think I'll have a smoke," he said. "I'm afraid any remarks I could +make wouldn't do justice to the occasion. Language has its limits." + +He sat down on the charred log and took out his pipe. + +"A brûlée's not a nice place to wander about in when there's any wind," +he proceeded; "and I've an idea there's some coming, though it's still +enough now." + +Shut in, as they were, in the deep hollow with the towering snows above +them, it was impressively still; and, in conjunction with the sight of +the black desolation, the deep silence reacted on Carroll's nerves. He +longed to escape from it, to make a noise; though this, if done +unguardedly, might bring more of the rampicks thundering down. He could +hear tiny flakes of charcoal falling from them and, though the fire had +long gone out, a faint and curious crackling, as if the dead embers were +stirring. He wondered if it were some effect of the frost; it struck him +as disturbing and weird. + +"We'll work right round the brûlée," Vane decided. "Then I suppose we'd +better head back for Vancouver, though we'll look at that cedar as we +go down. Something might be made of it--I'm not sure we've thrown our +time away." + +"You'd never be sure of that. It isn't in you." + +Vane disregarded this. A new, constructive policy was already springing +up out of the wreck of his previous plans. + +"There's a good mill site on the inlet, but as it's a long way from the +railroad we'll have to determine whether it would be cheaper to tow the +logs down or split them up on the spot. I'll talk it over with Drayton; +he'll no doubt be useful, and there's no reason why he shouldn't earn +his share." + +"Do you consider that the arrangement you made with Hartley applies to +the cedar?" Carroll asked. + +"Of course. I don't know that the other parties could insist on the +original terms--we can discuss that later; but, though it may be +modified, the arrangement stands." + +His companion considered the matter dispassionately, as an abstract +proposition. Here was a man, who in return for certain information +respecting the whereabouts of a marketable commodity had undertaken to +find and share it with his informant. The commodity had proved to be +valueless, but during the search for it he had incidentally discovered +something else. Was he under any obligation to share the latter with his +informant's heirs? + +Carroll decided that the question could be answered only in the negative; +but he had no intention of disputing his comrade's point of view. In the +first place, this would probably make Vane only more determined or would +ruffle his temper; and, in the second place, Carroll was neither a +covetous man nor an ambitious one, which, perhaps, was fortunate for him. +Ambition, the mother of steadfast industry and heroic effort, has also a +less reputable progeny. + +Vane, as his partner realized, was ambitious; but in place of aspiring +after wealth or social prominence, his was a different aim: to rend the +hidden minerals from the hills, to turn forests into dressed lumber, to +make something grow. Money is often, though not always, made that way; +but, while Vane affected no contempt for it, in his case its acquisition +was undoubtedly not the end. Fortunately, he was not altogether singular +in this respect. + +When he next spoke, however, there was no hint of altruistic sentiment in +his curt inquiry: + +"Are you going to sit there until you freeze?" + +Carroll got up and they spent the remainder of the day plodding through +the brûlée, with the result that when darkness fell Vane had abandoned +all idea of working the spruce. The next morning they set out for the +inlet, and one afternoon during the journey they came upon several fallen +logs lying athwart each other with their branches spread in an almost +impenetrable tangle. Vane proceeded to walk along one log, which was +tilted up several yards above the ground, balancing himself carefully +upon the rounded surface, and Carroll followed cautiously. Suddenly there +was a sharp snapping, and Vane plunged headlong into the tangle beneath, +while Carroll stood still and laughed. It was not an uncommon accident. + +Vane, however, did not reappear; nor was there any movement among the +half-rotten boughs and withered sprays, and Carroll, moving forward +hastily, looked down into the hole. He was disagreeably surprised to see +his comrade lying, rather white in face, upon his side. + +"I'm afraid you'll have to chop me out," came up hoarsely. "Get to work. +I can't move my leg." + +Moving farther along the log, Carroll dropped to the ground, which was +less encumbered there, and spent the next quarter of an hour hewing a +passage to his comrade. Then as he stood beside him, hot and panting, +Vane looked up. + +"It's my lower leg; the left," he explained. "Bone's broken; I +felt it snap." + +Carroll turned from him for a moment in consternation. Looking out +between the branches, he could see the lonely hills tower, pitilessly +white, against the blue of the frosty sky, and the rigid firs running +back as far as his vision reached upon their lower slopes. There was no +touch of life in all the picture; everything was silent and absolutely +motionless, and its desolation came near to appalling him. When he looked +around again, Vane smiled wryly. + +"If this had happened farther north, it would have been the end of me," +he said. "As it is, it's awkward." + +The word struck Carroll as singularly inexpressive, but he made an effort +to gather his courage when his companion broke off with a groan of pain. + +"It's lucky we helped that doctor when he set Pete's leg at Bryant's +mill," he declared cheerily. "Can you wait a few minutes?" + +Vane's face was beaded with damp now, but he tried to smile. + +"It strikes me," he answered, "I'll have to wait a mighty long time." + +Carroll turned and left him. He was afraid to stand still and think, and +action was a relief. It was some time before he returned with several +strips of fabric cut from the tent curtain, and the neatest splints he +could extemporize from slabs of stripped-off bark; and the next half-hour +was a trying one to both of them. Sometimes Vane assisted him with +suggestions--once he reviled his clumsiness--and sometimes he lay silent +with his face awry and his lips tight silent; but at length it was done +and Carroll stood up, breathing hard. + +"I'll fasten you on to a couple of skids and pull you out. Then I'll make +camp here." + +He managed it with difficulty, pitched the tent above Vane, whom he +covered with their blankets, and made a fire outside. + +"Are you comfortable now?" he inquired. + +Vane looked up at him with a somewhat ghastly smile. + +"I suppose I'm about as comfortable as could be expected. Anyhow, I've +got to get used to the thing. Six weeks is the shortest limit, isn't it?" + +Carroll confessed that he did not know, and presently Vane spoke again. + +"It's lucky that the winters aren't often very cold near the coast." + +The temperature struck Carroll as low enough, but he made no comment. To +his disgust, he could think of no cheering observation, for there was no +doubt that the situation was serious. They were cut off from the sloop by +leagues of tangled forest which a vigorous man would find it difficult to +traverse, and it would be weeks before Vane could use his leg; no human +assistance could be looked for; and they had only a small quantity of +provisions left. Besides this, it would not be easy to keep the sufferer +warm in rigorous weather. + +"I'll get supper. You'll feel better afterward," he said at length. + +"Don't be too liberal," Vane warned him. + +After the meal, Vane fell into a restless doze, and it was dark when he +opened his eyes again. + +"I can't sleep any more, and we may as well talk--there are things to be +arranged. In the first place, as soon as I feel a little easier you'll +have to sail across to Comox and hire some men to pack me out. When +you've sent them off, you can make for Vancouver and get a timber license +and find out how matters are going on." + +"That is quite out of the question," Carroll replied firmly. "Nairn can +look after our mining interests--he's a capable man--and if the thing's +too much for him, they can go to smash. Besides, they won't give you a +timber license without full particulars of area and limits, and we've +blazed no boundaries. Anyhow, I'm staying right here." + +Vane began to protest, but Carroll raised his hand. + +"Argument's not conducive to recovery. You're on your back, +unfortunately, and I'll give way to you as usual as soon as you're on +your feet again, but not before." + +"I'd better point out that we'll both be hungry by that time. The +provisions won't last long." + +"Then I'll look for a deer as soon as I think you can be left. And now +we'll try to talk of something more amusing." + +"Can you see anything humorous in the situation?" + +"I can't," Carroll confessed. "Still, there may be something of that +description which I haven't noticed yet. By the way, the last time we +were at Nairn's I happened to cross the room near where you and Miss +Horsfield were sitting, and I heard her ask you to wait for something at +Nanaimo or Comox. It struck me as curious." + +"She told me to wait so that she could send me word to come back, if it +should be needful." + +"Ah!" ejaculated Carroll. "I won't ask why she was willing to do so--it +concerns you more than me--but I think that as regards your interests in +the Clermont a warning from her would be worth as much as one from Nairn; +that is, if she could be depended on." + +"Have you any doubt upon the subject?" + +Carroll made a soothing gesture. + +"Don't get angry! Perhaps I've talked too much. We have to think of +your leg." + +"I'm not likely to forget it," Vane informed him. "But I dare say you're +right in one respect--as an amusing companion you're a dead failure; and +talking isn't as easy as I thought." + +He lay silent afterward, and though he had disclaimed any desire for +sleep, worn by the march and pain as he was, his eyes presently closed. +Carroll, however, sat long awake that night, and he afterward confessed +that he felt badly afraid. Deer are by no means numerous in some parts of +the bush--they had not seen one during the journey; and it was a long way +to the sloop. + +Once or twice, for no obvious reason, he drew aside the tent flap and +looked out. The sky was cloudless and darkly blue, and a sickle moon +gleamed in it, keen and clear with frost. Below, the hills were washed in +silver, majestic, but utterly cheerless; and lower still the serrated +tops of the rigid firs cut against the dreary whiteness. After each +glimpse of them, Carroll drew his blanket tighter round him with a +shiver. Very shortly, when the little flour and pork was gone and their +few cartridges had been expended, he would be reduced to the condition of +primitive man. Cut off from all other resources, he must then wrest what +means of subsistence he could from the snowy wilderness by brute strength +and cunning and such instruments as he could make with his unassisted +hands, except that an ax of Pennsylvania steel was better than a stone +one. Civilization has its compensations, and Carroll longed for a few +more of them that night. + +On rising the next morning, he found the frost keener, and he spent that +day and a number of those that followed in growing anxiety, which was +only temporarily lessened when he once succeeded in killing a deer. There +was almost a dearth of animal life in the lonely valley. Sometimes, at +first, Vane was feverish; often he was irritable; and the recollection of +the three or four weeks he spent with him afterward haunted Carroll like +a nightmare. At last, when he had spent several days in vain search for a +deer and the provisions were almost exhausted, he and his companion held +a council of emergency. + +"There's no use in arguing," Vane declared. "You'll rig me a shelter of +green boughs outside the tent and close to the fire. I can move from the +waist upward and, if it's necessary, drag myself with my hands. Then you +can chop enough cord-wood to last a while, cook my share of the eatables, +and leave me while you go down to the sloop. There's half a bag of flour +on board her, and a few other things I'd be uncommonly glad to have." + +Carroll expostulated; but it was evident that his companion was right, +and the next morning he started for the inlet, taking with him the +smallest possible portion of their provisions. So long as he had enough +to keep him from fainting on the way, it was all he required, because he +could renew his stores on board the sloop. The weather broke during the +march; driving snow followed him down the valley, and by and by gave +place to bitter rain. The withered underbrush was saturated, the soil was +soddened with melting snow, and after the first scanty meal or two the +man dare risk no delay. He felt himself flagging from insufficient food, +and it was obvious that he must reach the sloop before he broke down. He +had tobacco, but that failed to stay the gnawing pangs, and before the +march was done he was on the verge of exhaustion, forcing himself onward, +drenched and grim of face, scarcely able to keep upon his bleeding feet. + +It was falling dusk and blowing fresh when he limped down the beach and +with a last effort launched the light dingy and pulled off to the sloop. +She rode rather deep in the water, but that did not trouble him. Most +wooden craft leak more or less, and it was a considerable time since he +had pumped her out. Clambering wearily on board, he made the dingy fast; +and then stood still a moment or two, looking about him with his hand on +the cabin slide. Thin flakes of snow drifted past him; the firs were +rustling eerily ashore, and ragged wisps of cloud drove by low down +above their tops. Little frothy ripples flecked the darkening water with +streaks of white and splashed angrily against the bows of the craft. The +prospect was oppressively dreary, and the worn-out man was glad that he +was at last in shelter and could snatch a few hours' rest. + +Thrusting back the slide, he stepped below and lighted the lamp. The +brightening glow showed him that the boat's starboard side was wet high +up, and though there was a good deal of water in her, this puzzled him +until an explanation suggested itself. They had moored the craft +carefully, but he supposed she must have dragged her anchor or kedge and +swung in near enough the shore to ground toward low tide. Then as the +tide left her she would fall over on her starboard bilge, because they +had lashed the heavy boom down on that side, and the water in her would +cover the depressed portion of her interior. This reasoning was probably +correct; but he did not foresee the result until, after lighting the +stove and putting on the kettle, he opened the provision locker, which +was to starboard. Then he saw with a shock of dismay that the stock of +food they had counted on was ruined. The periodically-submerged flour-bag +had rotted and burst, and most of its contents had run out into the water +as the boat righted with the rising tide; the prepared cereals, purchased +to save cooking, had turned to moldy pulp; and the few other stores were +in much the same condition. There were only two sound cans of beef and a +few ounces of unspoiled tea in a canister. + +Carroll's courage failed him as he realized it, but he felt that he must +eat and sleep before he could grapple with the situation. He would allow +himself a scanty meal and a few hours' rest. While the kettle boiled, he +crawled out and shortened in the cable and plied the pump. Then he went +below and feasted on preserved beef and tea, gaging the size of each +slice with anxious care, until he reluctantly laid the can aside. After +that, he filled his pipe and stretching his aching limbs out on the port +locker, which was comparatively dry, soon sank into heavy sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +CARROLL SEEKS HELP + + +Carroll slept for several hours before he awakened and sat up on the +locker, shivering. He had left the hatch slightly open, and a confused +uproar reached him from outside; the wail of wind-tossed trees; the +furious splash of ripples against the bows; and the drumming of the +halyards upon the mast. There was no doubt that it was blowing hard, but +the wind was off the land and the sloop in shelter. + +Filling his pipe, he set himself to think, and promptly decided that it +would have been better had he gone down to the sloop in the beginning, +before the provisions had been spoiled. A natural reluctance to leave his +helpless companion had mainly prevented him from doing this, but he had +also been encouraged by the possibility of obtaining a deer now and then. +It was clear that he had made a mistake in remaining, but it was not the +first time he had done so, and the point was unimportant. The burning +question was--what should he do now. + +It would obviously be useless to go back with rations that would barely +suffice for the march. Vane still had food enough to keep life in one man +for a little while, and it would not be a long run to Comox with a strong +northerly wind. If the sloop would face the sea that was running he might +return with assistance before his comrade's scanty store was exhausted. +Getting out the mildewed chart, he laid off his course, carefully trimmed +and lighted the binnacle lamp, and going up on deck hauled in the +kedge-anchor. He could not break the main one out, though he worked +savagely with a tackle, and deciding to slip it, he managed to lash three +reefs in the mainsail and hoist it with the peak left down. Then he +stopped to gather breath--for the work had been cruelly heavy--before he +let the cable run and hoisted the jib. + +She paid off when he put up his helm, and the black loom of trees ashore +vanished. He thought that he could find his way out of the inlet, but he +knew that he had done so only when the angry ripples that splashed about +the boat suddenly changed to confused tumbling combers. They foamed up in +quick succession on her quarter, but he fancied she would withstand their +onslaught so long as he could prevent her from screwing up to windward +when she lifted. It would need constant care, and if he failed, the next +comber would, no doubt, break on board. His task was one that would have +taxed the vigilance of a strong, well-fed man, and Carroll had already +nearly reached the limit of his powers. + +His case, however, was by no means an unusual one. The cost of the +subjugation of the wilderness is the endurance of hunger and thirst, cold +and crushing fatigue; and somebody pays, to the utmost farthing. Carroll +sitting, drenched, strung up and hungry, at the helm, was merely playing +his part in the struggle, though he found it cruelly difficult. + +It was pitch dark, but he must gaze ahead and guess the track of the +pursuing seas by the angle of the spouting white ridge abreast of the +weather shrouds. He had a compass, but when his course did not coincide +with safety it must be disregarded. The one essential thing was to keep +the sloop on top, and to do so he had frequently to let her fall off +dead before the mad white combers that leaped out of the dark. By and by +his arms began to ache from the strain of the tiller, and his wet +fingers grew stiff and claw-like. The nervous strain was also telling, +but that could not be helped; he must keep the craft before the sea or +go down with her. There was one consolation; she was traveling at a +furious speed. + +At length, morning broke, gray and lowering, over a leaden sea that was +seamed with white. Carroll glanced longingly at the meat can on the +locker near his feet. He could reach it by stooping, though he dare not +leave the helm, but he determined to wait until noon before he broke his +fast again. It could not be very far to Comox, but the wind might drop. +Then he began to wonder how he had escaped the perils of the night. He +had come down what was really a wide and not quite straight sound, +passing several unlighted islands. Before starting, he had decided that +he would run so far, and then change his course a point or two, but he +could not be sure that he had done so. He had a hazy recollection of +seeing surf, and once a faint loom of land, but he supposed that he had +avoided it half-consciously or that chance had favored him. + +In the afternoon, the wind changed a little, backing to the northwest; +the sky grew brighter, and Carroll made out shadowy land over his +starboard quarter. Soon he recognized it with a start. It was the high +ridge north of Comox. He had run farther than he had expected, and he +must try to hoist the peak of the mainsail and haul her on the wind. +There was danger in rounding her up, but it must be faced, though a sea +foamed across her as he put down his helm. Another followed, but he +scrambled forward and struggled desperately to hoist the down-hanging +gaff. The halyards were swollen; and he could scarcely keep his footing +on the deluged deck that slanted steeply under him. He thought he could +have mastered the banging canvas had he been fresh; but worn out as he +was, drenched with spray and buffeted by the shattered tops of the seas, +the task was beyond his power. Giving it up, he staggered back, +breathless and almost nerveless, to the helm. + +He could not reach Comox, which lay to windward, with the sail half set, +but it was only seventy miles or so to Nanaimo and not much farther to +Vancouver. The breeze would be fair to either, and he could charter a +launch or tug for the return journey. Letting her go before the sea +again, he ate some canned meat ravenously, tearing it with one hand. + +During the afternoon, a gray mass rose out of the water to port and he +supposed it was Texada. There were mines on the island and he might be +able to engage a rescue party; but he reflected that he could not beat +the sloop back to windward unless the breeze fell, which it showed no +signs of doing. It would be more prudent to go on to Vancouver, where he +would be sure of getting a steamer; but he closed with the long island a +little, and dusk was falling when he made out a boat in the partial +shelter of a bight. Standing in closer, he saw that there were two men on +the craft, and driving down upon her he backed and ran alongside. There +was a crash as he struck the boat and an astonished and angry man +clutched the sloop's rail. + +"Now what in the name of thunder--" he began and stopped, struck by +Carroll's haggard and ragged appearance. + +"Can you take this sloop to Vancouver?" Carroll asked hoarsely. + +"I could if it was worth while," was the cautious answer. "It will be a +mighty wet run." + +"Seven dollars a day, until you're home again. A bonus, if you can sail +her with the whole reefed mainsail up--I won't stick at a few dollars. +Can your partner pull that boat ashore alone? If not, cast her adrift; +I'll buy her." + +"He'll make the beach," returned the other, jumping on board. "Seven +dollars sounds a square deal. I won't put the screw on you." + +"Then help me hoist the peak. After that, you can take the helm; I'm +played out." + +The man shouted something to his companion and then seized the halyards, +and the sloop drove on again, furiously, with an increased spread of +canvas, while Carroll stood holding on by the coaming until the boat +dropped back. + +"I'll leave you to it," he told the new helmsman, "It's twenty-four hours +since I've had more than a bite or two of food, and some weeks since I +had a decent meal." + +"You look it. Been up against it somewhere?" + +Carroll, without replying, crawled below and managed to light the stove +and make a kettleful of tea. He drank a good deal of it, and nearly +emptied the remaining small meat can, which he presently held out for the +helmsman's inspection, standing beneath the hatch. + +"There's some tea left, but this is all there is to eat on board the +craft," he said. "You're hired to take her to Vancouver--you'd better get +there as quick as you can." + +The bronzed helmsman nodded. + +"She won't be long on the way if the mast holds up." + +"Have you seen any papers lately?" Carroll inquired. "I've been up in the +bush and I'm interested in the Clermont Mine. It looked as if there might +be some changes in the company's prospects when I went away." + +"I noticed a bit about it in the _Colonist_ a while back. The +company sold out to another concern, or amalgamated with it; I don't +remember which." + +Carroll was not astonished. The news implied that he must be prepared to +face a more or less serious financial reverse, and it struck him as a +fitting climax to his misadventures. + +"It's pretty much what I expected," he said. "I'm going to sleep and I +don't want to be wakened before it's necessary." + +He crawled below, and he had hardly stretched himself out upon the locker +before his eyes closed. When he opened them, feeling more like his usual +self, he saw that the sun was above the horizon, and he recognized by the +boat's motion that the wind had fallen. Going out he found her driving +through the water under her whole mainsail and the helmsman sitting +stolidly at the tiller. The man stretched out a hand and pointed to the +hazy hills to port. + +"We'll fetch the Narrows some time before noon. If you'll take the helm, +I guess we'll half that meat for breakfast" + +His prediction proved correct, for Carroll reached his hotel about +midday, and hastily changing his clothes set off to call on Nairn. He had +not yet recovered his mental equipoise and, in spite of his long, sound +sleep, he was still badly jaded physically. On arriving at the house, he +was shown into a room where Mrs. Nairn and her husband were sitting with +Evelyn, waiting for the midday meal The elder lady rose with a start of +astonishment when he walked in. + +"Man," she cried, "what's wrong? Ye're looking like a ghost." + +It was not an inapt description. Carroll's face was worn and haggard, and +his clothes hung slack upon him. + +"I've been feeling rather unsubstantial of late, as the result of +a restricted diet," he answered with a smile sinking into the +nearest chair. + +Nairn regarded him with carefully suppressed curiosity. + +"Ye're over lang in coming," he remarked. "Where left ye your partner?" + +Carroll sat silent a moment or two, his eyes fixed on Evelyn. It was +evident that his sudden appearance unaccompanied by Vane, which he felt +had been undesirably dramatic, had alarmed her. At first, he felt +compassionate, and then he was suddenly possessed by hot indignation. +This girl, with her narrow prudish notions and dispassionate nature, had +presumed to condemn his comrade, unheard, for an imaginary offense. The +thing was at once ludicrous and intolerable; if his news brought her +dismay, let her suffer. His nerves, it must be remembered, were not in +their normal condition. + +"Yes," he said, in answer to his host's first remark; "I've gathered that +we have failed to save the situation. But I don't know exactly what has +happened. You had better tell me." + +Mrs. Nairn made a sign of protest, but her husband glanced at her +restrainingly. + +"Ye will hear his news in good time," he informed her, and then turned to +Carroll. "In a few words, the capital was no subscribed--it leaked out +that the ore was running poor--and we held an emergency meeting. With +Vane away, I could put no confidence into the shareholders--they were +anxious to get from under--and Horsfield brought forward an amalgamation +scheme: A combine would take the property over, on their valuation. I and +a few others were outvoted; the scheme went through; and when the +announcement steadied the stock, which had been tumbling down, I +exercised the authority given me and sold your shares and Vane's at +considerably less than their face value. Ye can have particulars later. +What I have to ask now is--where is Vane?" + +The man's voice grew sharp; the question was flung out like an +accusation; but Carroll still looked at Evelyn. He felt very bitter +against her; he would not soften the blow. + +"I left him in the bush, with no more than a few days' provisions and a +broken leg," he announced. + +Then, in spite of Evelyn's efforts to retain her composure, her face +blanched. Carroll's anger vanished, because the truth was clear. Vane had +triumphed through disaster; his peril and ruin had swept his offenses +away. The girl, who had condemned him in his prosperity, would not turn +from him in misfortune. In the meanwhile the others sat silent, gazing at +the bearer of evil news, until he spoke again. + +"I want a tug to take me back, at once, if she can be got. I'll pick up a +few men along the waterfront." + +Nairn rose and went out of the room. The tinkle of a telephone bell +reached those who remained, and a minute or two later he came back. + +"I've sent Whitney round," he explained. "He'll come across if there's a +boat to be had, and now ye look as if ye needed lunch." + +"It's several weeks since I had one," Carroll smiled. + +The meal was brought in, but for a while he talked as well as ate, +relating his adventures in somewhat disjointed fragments, while the +others sat listening eagerly. He was also pleased to notice something +which suggested returning confidence in him in Evelyn's intent eyes as +the tale proceeded. When at last he had made the matter clear, he added: + +"If I keep you waiting, you'll excuse me." + +His hostess watched his subsequent efforts with candid approval, and +looking up once or twice, he saw sympathy in the girl's face, instead of +the astonishment or disgust he had half expected. When he finished, his +hostess rose and Carroll stood up, but Nairn motioned to him to resume +his place. + +"I'm thinking ye had better sit still a while and smoke," he said. + +Carroll was glad to do so, and they conferred together until Nairn was +called to the telephone. + +"Ye can have the Brodick boat at noon to-morrow," he reported on +his return. + +"That won't do," Carroll objected heavily. "Send Whitney round again; I +must sail to-night." + +He had some difficulty in getting out the words, and when he rose his +eyes were half closed. Walking unsteadily, he crossed the room and sank +onto a big lounge. + +"I think," he added, "if you don't mind, I'll go to sleep." + +Nairn merely nodded, and when he went silently out of the room a minute +or two afterward, the worn-out man was already wrapped in profound +slumber. Nairn just then received another call by telephone and left in +haste for his office without speaking to his wife, with the result that +Mrs. Nairn and Evelyn, returning to the room in search of Carroll, found +him lying still. The elder lady raised her hand in warning as she bent +over the sleeper, and then taking up a light rug spread it gently over +him. Evelyn, too, was stirred to sudden pity, for the man's attitude was +eloquent of exhaustion. They withdrew softly and had reached the corridor +outside when Mrs. Nairn turned to the girl. + +"When he first came in, ye blamed that man for deserting his +partner," she said. + +Evelyn confessed it and her hostess smiled meaningly. + +"Are ye no rather too ready to blame?" + +"I'm afraid I am," Evelyn admitted, with the color creeping into her +face as she remembered another instance in which she had condemned a +man hastily. + +"In this case, ye were very foolish. The man came down for help, and if +he could no get it, he would go back his lone, if all the way was barred +with ice and he must walk on his naked feet. Love of woman's strong and +the fear of death is keen, but ye will find now and then a faith between +man and man that neither would sever." She paused and looked at the girl +fixedly as she asked: "What of him that could inspire it?" + +Evelyn did not answer. She had never seen her hostess in this mood, and +she also was stirred; but the elder lady went on again: + +"The virtue of a gift lies in part, but no altogether, with the giver. +Whiles, it may be bestowed unworthily, but I'm thinking it's no often. +The bond that will drag Carroll back to the North again, to his death, if +need be, has no been spun from nothing." + +Evelyn had no doubt that Mrs. Nairn was right. Loyalty, most often, +demanded a worthy object to tender service to; it sprang from implicit +confidence, mutual respect and strong appreciation. It was not without a +reason that Vane had inspired it in his comrade's breast; and this was +the man she had condemned. That fact, however, was by comparison a very +minor trouble. Vane was lying, helpless and alone, in the snowy +wilderness, in peril of his life; and she knew that she loved him. She +realized now, when it might be too late, that had he in reality been +stained with dishonor, she could have forgiven him. Indeed, it had only +been by a painful effort that she had maintained some show of composure +since Carroll had brought the disastrous news, and she felt that she +could not keep it up much longer. + +What she said to Mrs. Nairn she could not remember, but escaping from +her she retired to her own room, to lie still and grapple with an agony +of fear and contrition. + +It was two hours later when she went down and found Carroll, who still +looked drowsy, about to go out. His hostess had left him for a moment in +the hall, and meeting the girl's eyes, he smiled at her reassuringly. + +"Don't be anxious. I'll bring him back," he said. + +Then Mrs. Nairn appeared and in a few moments Carroll left without +another word to Evelyn. She did not ask herself why he had taken it for +granted that she would be anxious; she was beyond any petty regard for +appearances then. It was consoling to remember that he was Vane's tried +comrade; a man who kept his word. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +JESSY'S CONTRITION + + +After leaving Mrs. Nairn, Carroll walked toward Horsfield's residence +in a thoughtful mood, because he felt it incumbent upon him to play a +part he was not particularly fitted for in a somewhat delicate matter. +Uncongenial as his task was, it was one that could not be left to +Vane, who was even less to be trusted with the handling of such +affairs; and Carroll had resolved, as he would have described it, to +straighten out things. + +His partner had somehow offended Evelyn, and though she was now obviously +disposed to forgive him, the recollection of his supposititious iniquity +might afterward rankle in her mind. Though Vane was innocent of any +conduct to which she could with reason take exception, it was first of +all needful to ascertain the exact nature of the charge against him. +Carroll, who for several reasons had preferred not to press this question +upon Evelyn, had a strong suspicion that Jessy Horsfield was at the +bottom of the trouble. There was also one clue to follow--Vane had paid +the rent of Celia Hartley's shack, and he wondered whether Jessy could by +any means have heard of it. If she had done so, the matter would be +simplified, for he had a profound distrust of her. A recent action of +hers was, he thought, sufficient to justify this attitude. + +He found her at home, reclining gracefully in an easy-chair in her +drawing-room, and though she did not seem astonished to see him, he +fancied that her expression hinted at suppressed concern. + +"I heard that you had arrived alone, and I intended to make inquiries +from Mrs. Nairn as soon as I thought she would be at liberty," she +informed him. + +Carroll had found the direct attack effective in Evelyn's case, and he +determined to try it again. + +"Then," he declared, "it says a good deal for your courage." + +He never doubted that she possessed courage, and she displayed it now. + +"So," she said calmly, "you have come as an enemy." + +"Not exactly; it didn't seem worth while. Though there's no doubt you +betrayed us--Vane waited for the warning you could have sent--so far as +it concerns our ruined interests in the Clermont, the thing's done and +can't be mended. We'll let that question go. The most important point +is that if you had recalled us, as you promised, Vane would now be safe +and sound." + +This shot told. The girl's face became less imperturbable; there was +eagerness and, he thought, a hint of fear in it. + +"Then has any accident happened to him?" + +"He's lying in the bush, helpless, in imminent peril of starvation." + +"Go on!" + +There were signs of strain clearly perceptible in the girl's voice. +Carroll was brief, but he made her understand the position; then she +turned upon him imperiously. + +"Then why are you wasting your time here?" + +"It's a reasonable question. I can't get a tug to take me back until noon +to-morrow." + +"Ah!" murmured Jessy. "Excuse me for a minute." + +She left him astonished. He had not expected her to take him at a +disadvantage, as she had done with her previous thrust, and now he did +not think that she had slipped away to hide her feelings. That did not +seem necessary in Jessy's case, though he believed she was more or less +disturbed. She came back presently, looking calm, and sat down again. + +"My brother will be here in a quarter of an hour," she informed him. +"Things are rather slack, and he had half promised to take me for a +drive. I have just called him up." + +Carroll did not see how this bore upon the subject of their conversation, +but he left her to take the lead. + +"Did Mr. Vane tell you that I had promised to warn him?" she asked. + +"To do him justice, he let it out before he quite realized what he was +saying. I'd better own that I partly surprised him into giving me the +information." + +"The expedient seems a favorite one with you. I suppose no news of what +has happened here can have reached him?" + +"None. If it's any consolation, he has still an unshaken confidence in +you," Carroll assured her with blunt bitterness. + +The girl showed faint signs of confusion, but she sat silent for the +next few moments. During that time it flashed upon Carroll with +illuminating light that he had heard Celia Hartley say that Miss +Horsfield had found her orders for millinery. This confirmed his +previous suspicion that Jessy had discovered who had paid the rent of +Celia's shack, and that she had with deliberate malice informed Evelyn, +distorting her account so that it would tell against Vane. There were +breaks in the chain of reasoning which led him to this conclusion, but +he did not think that Jessy would shrink from such a course, and he +determined to try a chance shot. + +"Vane's inclined to be trustful, and his rash generosity has once or +twice got him into trouble," he remarked, and went on as if an +explanation were needed: "It's Miss Hartley's case I'm thinking about +just now. I've an idea he asked you to look after her. Am I right?" + +As soon as he had spoken he knew that he had hit the mark. Jessy did not +openly betray herself, but there are not many people who can remain +absolutely unmoved when unexpectedly asked a startling question. Besides, +the man was observant, and had all his faculties strung up for the +encounter. He saw one of her hands tighten on the arm of her chair and a +hint of uneasiness in her eyes, and that sufficed him. + +"Yes," she replied; "I recommended her to some of my friends. I +understand that she is getting along satisfactorily." + +Carroll felt compelled to admire her manner. He believed that she loved +his comrade but had nevertheless tried to ruin him in a fit of jealous +rage. She was, no doubt, now keenly regretting her success, but though he +thought she deserved to suffer, she was bravely facing the trying +situation. It was one that was rife with dramatic possibilities, and he +was grateful to her for avoiding them. + +"You are going back to-morrow," she said after a brief silence. "I +suppose you will have to tell your partner--what you have discovered +here--as soon as you reach him?" + +Carroll had not intended to spare her, but now he felt almost +compassionate, and he had one grain of comfort to offer. + +"I must tell him that his shares in the Clermont have been sacrificed. I +wonder if that is all you meant?" + +Jessy met his inquiring gaze with something very much like an appeal, and +then she spread out her hands in a manner that seemed to indicate that +she threw herself upon his mercy. + +"It is not all I meant," she confessed. + +"Then if it's any relief to you, I'll confine myself to telling him that +he has been deprived of his most valuable property. I dare say the news +will hit him hard enough. He may afterward discover other facts for +himself, but on the whole I shouldn't consider it likely. As I said, he's +confiding and slow to suspect." + +He read genuine gratitude, which he had hardly expected, in the girl's +face; but he raised his hand and went on in the rather formal manner +which he felt was the only safe one to assume: + +"I had, perhaps, better mention that I am going to call on Miss Hartley. +After that, I shall be uncommonly thankful to start back for the bush." +He paused and concluded with a sudden trace of humor: "I'll own that I +feel more at home with the work that awaits me there." + +Jessy made a little gesture which, while it might have meant anything, +was somehow very expressive. Just then there were footsteps outside and +the next moment Horsfield walked into the room. + +"So you're back!" + +"Yes," Carroll replied shortly. "Beaten at both ends--there's no use in +hiding it." + +Horsfield showed no sign of satisfaction, and Carroll afterward admitted +that the man behaved very considerately. + +"Well," he declared, "though you may be astonished to hear it, I'm sorry. +Unfortunately, our interests clashed, and I naturally looked after mine. +Once upon a time I thought I could have worked hand in hand with Vane, +but our ideas did not coincide, and your partner is not the man to yield +a point or listen to advice." + +Carroll was aware that Horsfield had by means which were far from +honorable deprived him of a considerable portion of his possessions. He +had also betrayed his fellow shareholders in the Clermont Mine, selling +their interests, doubtless for a tempting consideration, to the +directors of another company. For all that, Carroll recognized that +since he and Vane were beaten, as he had confessed, recriminations and +reproaches would be useless as well as undignified. He preferred to face +defeat calmly. + +"It's the fortunes of war," he returned. "What you say about Vane is +more or less correct; but, although it is not a matter of much +importance now, it was impossible from the beginning that your views +and his ever should agree." + +Horsfield smiled. + +"Too great a difference of temperament? I dare say you're right. Vane +measures things by a different standard--mine's perhaps more adapted to +the market-place. But where have you left him?" + +"In the bush. Miss Horsfield will, no doubt, give you particulars; I've +just told her the tale." + +"She called me up at the office and asked me to come across at once. Will +you excuse us for a few minutes?" + +They went out together, and Jessy presently came back alone and looked at +Carroll in a diffident manner. + +"I suppose," she began, "one could hardly expect you to think of either +of us very leniently; but I must ask you to believe that I am sincerely +distressed to hear of your partner's accident. It was a thing I could +never have anticipated; but there are amends I can make. Every minute you +can save is precious, isn't it?" + +"It is." + +"Then I can get you a tug. My brother tells me the _Atlin_ is coming +across from Victoria and should be here early this evening. He has gone +back to the office to secure her for you, though she was fixed to go off +for a lumber boom." + +"Thank you," responded Carroll. "It's a very great service. She's a +powerful boat." + +Jessy hesitated. + +"I think my brother would like to say a few words when he comes back. Can +I offer you some tea?" + +"I think not," answered Carroll, smiling. "For one thing, if I sit still +much longer, I shall, no doubt, go to sleep again, as I did at Nairn's; +and that would be neither seemly nor convenient, if I'm to sail this +evening. Besides, now that we've arranged an armistice, it might be wiser +not to put too much strain on it." + +"An armistice?" + +"I think that describes it." Carroll's manner grew significant. "The word +implies a cessation of hostilities--on certain terms." + +Jessy could take a hint, and his meaning was clear. Unless she forced him +to do so, he would not betray her to his comrade, who might never +discover the part she had played; but he had given her a warning, which +might be bluntly rendered as "Hands off." There was only one course open +to her--to respect it. She had brought down the man she loved, but it was +clear that he was not for her, and now that the unreasoning fury which +had driven her to strike had passed, she was troubled with contrition. +There was nothing left except to retire from the field, and it was better +to do so gracefully. For all that, there were signs of strain in her +expression as she capitulated. + +"Well," she said, "I have given you proof that you have nothing to fear +from me. My brother is the only man in Vancouver who could have got you +that tug for this evening; I understand that the sawmill people are very +much in need of the lumber she was engaged to tow." + +She held out her hand and Carroll took it, though he had not expected to +part from her on friendly terms. + +"I owe you a good deal for that," he smiled. + +His task, however, was only half completed when he left the house, and +the remaining portion was the more difficult, but he meant to finish it. +He preferred to take life lightly; he had trifled with it before disaster +had driven him out into the wilds; but there was resolution in the man, +and he could force himself to play an unpleasant part when it was +needful. Fortune also favored him, as she often does those who follow the +boldest course. + +He had entered a busy street when he met Kitty and Celia. The latter +looked thin and somewhat pale, but she was moving briskly, and her face +was eager when she shook hands with him. + +"We have been anxious about you," she declared; "there was no news. Is +Mr. Vane with you? How have you got on?" + +"We found the spruce," answered Carroll. "It's not worth milling--a +forest fire has wiped out most of it--but we struck some shingling cedar +we may make something of." + +"Where's Mr. Vane?" + +"In the bush. I've a good deal to tell you about him; but we can't talk +here. I wonder if we could find a quiet place in a restaurant, or if the +park would be better." + +"The park," said Kitty decidedly. + +They reached it in due time, and Carroll, who had refused to say anything +about Vane on the way, found the girls a seat in a grove of giant firs +and sat down opposite to them. Though it was winter, the day, as is often +the case near Vancouver, was pleasantly mild. + +"Now," he began, "my partner is a singularly unfortunate person. In the +first place, the transfer of the Clermont property, which you have no +doubt heard of, means a serious loss to him, though he is not ruined yet. +He talks of putting up a shingling mill, in which Drayton will be of +service, and if things turn out satisfactorily you will be given an +interest in it." + +He added the last sentence as an experiment, and was satisfied with +the result. + +"Never mind our interests," cried Kitty. "What about Mr. Vane?" + +For the third time since his arrival, Carroll made the strongest appeal +he could to womanly pity, drawing, with a purpose, a vivid picture of his +comrade's peril and suffering. Nor was he disappointed, for he saw +consternation, compassion and sympathy in the girls' faces. So far, the +thing had been easy, but now he hesitated, and it was with difficulty +that he nerved himself for what must follow. + +"He has been beaten out of his stock in the mine; he's broken down in +health and in danger; but, by comparison, that doesn't count for very +much with him. He has another trouble; and though I'm afraid I'm going +out of the way in mentioning it, if it could be got over, it would help +him to face the future and set him on his feet again." + +Then he briefly recounted the story of Vane's regard for Evelyn, making +the most of his sacrifice in withdrawing from the field, and again he +realized that he had acted wisely. A love affair appealed to his +listeners, and there was a romance in this one that heightened the +effect of it. + +"But Miss Chisholm can't mean to turn from him now," interrupted Celia. + +Carroll looked at her meaningly. + +"No; she turned from him before he sailed. She heard something +about him." + +His companions appeared astonished. + +"She couldn't have heard anything that anybody could mind," Kitty +exclaimed indignantly. "He's not that kind of man." + +"It's a compliment," returned Carroll. "I think he deserves it. At the +same time, he's a little rash, and now and then a man's generosity is +open to misconception. In this case, I don't think one could altogether +blame Miss Chisholm." + +Kitty glanced at him sharply and then at Celia, who looked at first +puzzled and then startled. Then the blood surged into Kitty's cheeks. + +"Oh!" she gasped, as if she were breathless, "I was once afraid of +something like this. You mean we're the cause of it?" + +The course he followed was hateful to Carroll, but the tangle could not +be straightened without having somebody's feelings hurt, and it was his +comrade about whom he was most concerned. + +"I believe that you understand the situation," he said quietly. + +He saw the fire in Kitty's eyes and noticed that Celia's face also was +flushed, but he did not think their anger was directed against him. +They knew the world they lived in, and, for that matter, he could share +their indignation. He resented the fact that a little thing should +bring swift suspicion upon them. He was, however, not required to face +any disconcerting climax. Indeed, it struck him as curious that a +difficult situation in which strong emotion was stirred up could become +so tamely prosaic merely because it was resolutely handled in a +matter-of-fact manner. + +"Well," inquired Celia, "why did you tell us this?" + +"I think you both owe Vane something, and you can do him a great favor +just now." + +Kitty looked up at him. + +"Don't ask me too much, Mr. Carroll. I'm Irish, and I feel like killing +somebody." + +"It's natural," responded Carroll with a sympathetic smile. "I've now and +then felt much the same way; it's probably unavoidable in a world like +this. However, I think you ought to call on Miss Chisholm, after I've +gone, though you'd better not mention that I sent you. You can say you +came for news of Vane--and add anything that you consider necessary." + +The girls looked at each other, and at length, though it obviously cost +her a struggle, Kitty said decidedly: + +"We will have to go." + +Then she faced round toward Carroll. + +"If Miss Chisholm won't believe us, she'll be sorry we came!" + +Carroll made her a slight inclination. + +"She'll deserve it, if she's not convinced. But it might be better if you +didn't approach her in the mood you're in just now." + +Kitty rose, motioning to Celia, and Carroll turned back with them toward +the city, feeling a certain constraint in their company and yet conscious +of a strong relief. It had grown dark when he returned to Nairn's house. + +"Where have ye been?" his host inquired. "I had a clerk seeking ye all +round the city. I canna get ye a boat before the morn." + +Carroll saw that Mrs. Nairn shared her husband's desire to learn how he +had been occupied. Evelyn also was in the room, and she waited +expectantly for his answer. + +"There were one or two little matters that required attention and I +managed to arrange them satisfactorily," he explained. "Among other +things, I've got a tug, and I expect to sail in an hour or two. Miss +Horsfield found me the vessel." + +He noticed Evelyn's interest, and was rather pleased to see it. If she +were disposed to be jealous of Jessy it could do no harm. Nairn, +however, frowned. + +"I'm thinking it might have been better if ye had no troubled Jessy," he +commented. + +"I'm sorry I can't agree with you," Carroll retorted. "The difference +between this evening and noon to-morrow is a big consideration." + +"Weel," replied Nairn resignedly; "I can no deny the thing, if ye look at +it like that." + +Carroll changed the subject; but some time later Mrs. Nairn sat down near +him in the temporary absence of her husband and Evelyn. + +"We will no be disturbed for two or three minutes," she said. "Ye +answered Alic like a Scotsman before supper and put him off the track, +though that's no so easy done." + +Carroll grinned. He enjoyed an encounter with Mrs. Nairn, though she was, +as a rule, more than a match for him. + +"You're too complimentary," he declared. "The genuine Caledonian caution +can't be acquired by outsiders; it's a gift." + +"I'll no practise it now," returned the lady. "Ye're no so proud of +yourself for nothing. What have ye been after?" + +Carroll crossed his finger-tips and looked at her over them. + +"Since you ask the question, I may say this--If Miss Chisholm has two +lady visitors during the next few days, you might make sure that she +sees them." + +"What are their names?" + +"Miss Celia Hartley, the daughter of the prospector who sent Vane off to +look for the timber, and Miss Kitty Blake, who, as you have probably +heard, once came down the west coast with him, in company with an elder +lady and myself." + +Mrs. Nairn started, then she looked thoughtful, and finally she broke +into a smile of open appreciation. + +"Now," she ejaculated, "I understand. I did no think it of ye. Ye're no +far from a genius!" + +"Thanks. I believe I succeeded better than I could have expected, and +perhaps than I deserved." + +They were interrupted then by Nairn, who came hastily into the room. + +"There's one of the _Atlin_ deck-hands below," he announced. "He's come +on here from Horsfield's to say that the boat's ready with a full head of +steam up, and the packers ye hired are waiting on the wharf." + +Carroll rose and became in a moment intent and eager. + +"Tell him I'll be down almost as soon as he is. You'll have to excuse +me." Two minutes later he left the house, and fervent good wishes +followed him from the party on the stoop. He did not stop to acknowledge +them, but shortly afterward the blast of a whistle came ringing across +the roofs from beside the water-front. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +CONVINCING TESTIMONY + + +One afternoon three or four days after Carroll had sailed, Evelyn sat +alone in Mrs. Nairn's drawing-room, a prey to confused regrets and keen +anxiety. She had recovered from the first shock caused her by Carroll's +news, but though she could face the situation more calmly, she could find +no comfort anywhere--Vane was lying, helpless and famishing, in the +frost-bound wilderness. She knew that she loved the man; indeed, she had +really known it for some time, and it was that which had made Jessy's +revelation so bitter. Now, fastidious in thought and feeling as she was, +she wondered whether she had been too hard upon him; it was becoming more +and more difficult to believe that he could have justified her disgust +and anger; but this was not what troubled her most. She had sent him away +with cold disfavor. Now he was threatened by dangers. It was horrible to +think of what might befall him before assistance arrived, and yet she +could not drive the haunting dread out of her mind. + +She was in this mood when a maid announced that two visitors wished to +see her; and when they were shown in, she found it difficult to hide her +astonishment as she recognized in Kitty the very attractive girl she had +once seen in Vane's company. It was this which prompted her to assume a +chilling manner, though she asked her guests to be seated. Neither of +them appeared altogether at her ease, and there was, indeed, a rather +ominous sparkle in Kitty's blue eyes. + +"Mr. Carroll was in town not long ago," Kitty began bluntly. "Have you +had any news of him since he sailed?" + +Evelyn did not know what to make of the question, and she answered +coldly. + +"No; we do not expect any word for some time." + +"I'm sorry. We're anxious about Mr. Vane." + +On the surface, the announcement appeared significant, but the girl's +boldness in coming to her for news was inexplainable to Evelyn. Puzzled +as she was, her attitude became more discouraging. + +"You know him then?" + +Something in her tone made Celia's cheeks burn and she drew herself up. + +"Yes," she said; "we know him, both of us. I guess it's astonishing to +you. But I met him first when he was poor, and getting rich hasn't +spoiled Mr. Vane." + +Evelyn was once more puzzled. The girl's manner savored less of assurance +than of wholesome pride which had been injured. Kitty then broke in: + +"We had no cards to send in; but I'm Kathleen Blake, and this is Celia +Hartley--it was her father sent Mr. Vane off to look for the spruce." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Evelyn, a little more gently, addressing Celia. "I +understand that your father died." + +Kitty flashed a commanding glance at Celia. + +"Yes," the girl replied; "that is correct. He left me ill and worn out, +without a dollar, and I don't know what I should have done if Mr. Vane +hadn't insisted on giving Drayton a little money for me; on account, he +said, because I was a partner in the venture. Then Miss Horsfield got +some work among her friends for me to do at home. Mr. Vane must have +asked her to; it would be like him." + +Evelyn sat silent a few moments. Celia had given her a good deal of +information in answer to a very simple remark; but she was most impressed +by the statement that Jessy, who had prejudiced her against Vane, had +helped the girl at his request. It was difficult to believe that she +would have done so had there been any foundation for her insinuations. If +Celia spoke the truth, and Evelyn somehow felt this was the case, the +whole thing was extraordinary. + +"Now," continued Celia, "it's no way astonishing that I'm grateful to Mr. +Vane and anxious to hear whether Mr. Carroll has reached him." This was +spoken with a hint of defiance, but the girl's voice changed. + +"I am anxious. It's horrible to think of a man like him freezing in +the bush." + +Her concern was so genuine and yet somehow so innocent that Evelyn's +heart softened. + +"Yes," she asserted, "it's dreadful." Then she asked a question. "Who's +the Mr. Drayton you mentioned?" + +Kitty blushed becomingly; this was her lead. + +"He's a kind of partner in the lumber scheme; I'm going to marry him. +He's as firm a friend of Mr. Vane's as any one. There's a reason for +that--I was in a very tight place once, left without money in a desolate +settlement where there was nothing I could do, when Mr. Vane helped me. +But perhaps that wouldn't interest you." + +For a moment her doubts still clung to their hold in Evelyn's mind, and +then she suddenly drove the last of them out, with a stinging sense of +humiliation. She could not distrust this girl; it was Jessy's suggestion +that was incredible. + +"It would interest me very much," she declared. + +Kitty told her story effectively, but with caution, laying most stress +upon Vane's compassion for the child and her invalid mother. She was +rather impressed by Miss Chisholm, but she supposed that she was endowed +with some of the failing common to human nature. + +Evelyn listened with confused emotions and a softened face. She was +convinced of the truth of the simple tale, and the thought of Vane's +keeping his moneyed friends and directors waiting in Vancouver in order +that a tired child might rest and gather shells upon a sunny beach +stirred her deeply. It was so characteristic; exactly what she would have +expected him to do. + +"Thank you," she said quietly, when Kitty had finished; and then, +flinging off the last of her reserve, she asked a number of questions +about Drayton and about Celia's affairs. + +Before her visitors left, all three were on friendly terms; but Evelyn +was glad when they took their departure. She wanted to be alone to think. +In spite of the relief of which she was conscious, her thoughts were far +from pleasant. Foremost among them figured a crushing sense of shame. She +had wickedly misjudged a man who had given her many proofs of the +fineness of his character; the evil she had imputed to him was born of +her own perverted imagination. She was no better than the narrow-minded, +conventional Pharisees she detested, who were swift to condemn out of the +uncleanness of their self-righteous hearts. Then, as she began to reason, +it flashed upon her that she was, perhaps, wronging herself. Her mind had +been cunningly poisoned by an utterly unscrupulous and wholly detestable +woman, and she flamed out into a fit of imperious anger against Jessy. +She had a hazy idea that this was not altogether reasonable, for she was +to some extent fastening the blame she deserved upon another person's +shoulders; but it did not detract from the comfort the indulgence in her +indignation brought her. + +When she had grown a little calmer, Mrs. Nairn came in; and Mrs. Nairn +was a discerning lady. It was not difficult to lead Evelyn on to speak of +her visitors, for the girl's pride was broken and she felt in urgent need +of sympathy; but when she had described the interview she felt impelled +to avoid any discussion of the more important issues, even with the +kindly Scotch lady. + +"I was surprised at the girls' manner," she concluded. "It must have been +embarrassing to them; but they were really so delicate over it, and they +had so much courage." + +Mrs. Nairn smiled. + +"Although one of them has traveled with third-rate strolling companies +and the other has waited in a hotel? Weel, maybe your surprise was +natural. Ye canna all at once get rid of the ideas and prejudices ye were +brought up with." + +"I suppose that was it," replied Evelyn thoughtfully. + +Her companion's eyes twinkled. + +"Then, if ye're to live among us happily, ye'll have to try. In the way +ye use the words, some of the leading men in this country were no brought +up at all." + +"Do you imagine that I'm going to live here?" + +Mrs. Nairn gathered up one or two articles she had brought into the room +with her and moved toward the door, but before she reached it she looked +back with a laugh. + +"It occurred to me that the thing was no altogether impossible." + +An hour afterward, Evelyn and Mrs. Nairn went down into the town, and in +one of the streets they came upon Jessy leaving a store. The latter was +not lacking in assurance and she moved toward them with a smile; but +Evelyn gazed at her with a total disregard of her presence and walked +quietly on. There was neither anger nor disdain in her attitude; to have +shown either would have been a concession she could not make. The +instincts of generations of gently-reared Englishwomen were aroused, as +well as the revulsion of an untainted nature from something unclean. + +Jessy's cheeks turned crimson and a malevolent light flashed into her +eyes as she crossed the street. Mrs. Nairn noticed her expression and +smiled at her companion. + +"I'm thinking it's as weel ye met Jessy after she had got the boat for +Carroll," she commented. + +The remark was no doubt justified, but the fact that Jessy had been able +to offer valuable assistance failed to soften Evelyn toward her. It was +merely another offense. + +In the meanwhile, the powerful tug steamed northward, towing the sloop, +which would be required, and after landing the rescue party at the inlet +steamed away again. Before she had disappeared Carroll began his march, +and his companions long remembered it. Two of them were accustomed to +packing surveyors' stores through the seldom-trodden bush and the others +had worked in logging camps and chopped new roads, but though they did +not spare themselves, they lacked their leader's animus. Carroll, with +all his love of ease, could rise to meet an emergency, and he wore out +his companions before the journey was half done. He scarcely let them +sleep; he fed them on canned stuff to save delay in lighting fires; and +he grew more feverishly impatient with every mile they made. He showed it +chiefly by the tight set of his lips and the tension of his face, though +now and then when fallen branches or thickets barred the way he fell upon +the obstacles with the ax in silent fury. For the rest, he took the lead +and kept it, and the others, following with shoulders aching from the +pack-straps and labored breath, suppressed their protests. + +Like many another made in that country, it was a heroic journey; one in +which every power of mind and body was taxed to the limit. Delay might +prove fatal. The loads were heavy; fatigue seized the shrinking flesh, +but the unrelenting will, trained in such adventures, mercilessly spurred +it on. Toughened muscle is useful and in the trackless North can seldom +be dispensed with; but man's strength does not consist of that alone: +there are occasions when the stalwart fall behind and die. + +In front of them, as they progressed, lay the unchanging forest, +tangled, choked with fallen wreckage, laced here and there with stabbing +thorns, appalling and almost impenetrable to the stranger. They must +cleave their passage, except where they could take to the creek for an +easier way and wade through stingingly cold water or flounder over +slippery fangs of rock and ice-encrusted stones. There was sharp frost +among the ranges and the brush through which they tore their way was +generally burdened with clogging snow. They went on, however, and on the +last day Carroll drew some distance ahead of those who followed him. It +was dark when he discovered that he had lost them, but that did not +matter, for now and then faint moonlight came filtering down and he was +leaving a plain trail behind. His shoulders were bleeding beneath the +biting straps; he was on the verge of exhaustion; but he struggled +forward, panting heavily and rending his garments to rags as he smashed +through the brakes in the darkness. + +The night--it seemed a very long one--was nearly over when he recognized +the roar of a rapid that rang in louder and louder pulsations across the +snow-sprinkled bush. He was not far from the end now, and he became +conscious of an unnerving fear. The ground was ascending sharply, and +when he reached the top of the slope the question from which he shrank +would be answered for him--if there should be no blink of light among the +serried trunks, he would have come too late. + +He reached the summit and his heart leaped; then he clutched at a +drooping branch to support himself, shaken by a reaction that sprang from +relief. A flicker of uncertain radiance fell upon the trees ahead, and +down the bitter wind there came the reek of pungent smoke. The bush was +slightly more open, and Carroll broke into a run. Presently he came +crashing and stumbling into the light of the fire and then stopped, too +stirred and out of breath to speak. Vane lay where the red glow fell upon +his face, smiling up at him. + +"Well," he said, "you've come. I've been expecting you, but on the whole +I got along not so badly." + +Carroll flung off his pack and sat down beside the fire; then he fumbled +for his pipe and began to fill it hurriedly with trembling fingers. He +lighted it and flung away the match before he spoke. + +"Sorry I couldn't get through sooner," he mumbled. "The stores on board +the sloop were spoiled; I had to go on to Vancouver. But there are things +to eat in my pack." + +"Hand it across. I haven't been faring sumptuously the last few days. No, +sit still! I'm supple enough from the waist up." + +He proved it by the way he leaned to and fro as he opened the pack and +distributed part of its contents among the cooking utensils. Carroll +assisted him now and then but he did not care to speak. The sight of the +man's gaunt face and the eagerness in his eyes prompted him to an +outbreak of feeling rather foreign to his nature, and he did not think +his companion would appreciate it. When the meal was ready, Vane looked +up at him. + +"I've no doubt this journey cost you something--partner," he said. + +Then they ate cheerfully, and Carroll, watching his friend's efforts with +appreciation, told his story in broken sentences. Afterward, they lighted +their pipes, but by and by Carroll's fell from his relaxing grasp. + +"I can't get over this sleepiness," he explained. "I believe I disgraced +myself in Vancouver by going off in the most unsuitable places," + +"I dare say it was quite natural. Anyway, hadn't you better hitch +yourself a little farther from the fire?" + +Carroll did so and lay still afterward, but Vane kept watch during the +rest of the night, until in the dawn the packers appeared. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +VANE IS REINSTATED + + +Breakfast was over and the two men, wrapped in blankets, lay on opposite +sides of the fire, while the packers reclined in various ungainly +attitudes about another. Now that they had a supply of provisions, haste +was not a matter of importance, and there was no doubt that the rescue +party needed a rest. Carroll was aching all over and was somewhat +disturbed in mind. He had not said anything about their financial affairs +to his comrade yet, and the subject must be mentioned. It was, from every +point of view, an unpleasant one. + +"What about the Clermont?" Vane asked at length. "You needn't trouble +about breaking the news--come right to the point." + +"Then, to all intents and purposes, the company has gone under; it's been +taken over by Horsfield's friends. Nairn has sold our stock--at +considerably less than face value," Carroll explained, adding a brief +account of the absorption of the concern. + +Vane's face set hard. + +"I anticipated something of the kind last night; I saw how you kept clear +of the matter." + +"But you said nothing." + +"No. I'd had time to consider the thing while I lay here, and it didn't +look as if I could have got an intelligible account out of you. But you +may as well mention how much Nairn got." + +He lay smoking silently for a few minutes after he learned the amount, +and Carroll was strongly moved to sympathy. He felt that it was not the +financial reverse but one indirect result of it which would hit his +comrade hardest. + +"Well," Vane said grimly, "I suppose I've done what my friends would +consider a mad thing in coming up here--and I must face the reckoning." + +Carroll wondered whether their conversation could be confined to the +surface of the subject, because there were depths beneath it that it +would be better to leave undisturbed. + +"After all, you're far from broke," he encouraged him. "You have what +the Clermont stock brought in, and you may make something out of this +shingle scheme." + +There was bitterness in Vane's laugh. + +"When I left Vancouver for England I was generally supposed to be well on +the way to affluence, and there was some foundation for the idea. I had +floated the Clermont in the face of opposition; people believed in me; I +could have raised what money I required for any new undertaking. Now a +good deal of my money and all of my prestige is gone; people have very +little confidence in a man who has shown himself a failure. What's more, +I may be a cripple. My leg will probably have to be broken again." + +Carroll could guess his companion's thoughts. There was a vein of +stubborn pride in him, and he had, no doubt, decided it was unfitting +that Evelyn's future should be linked to that of a ruined man. This was +an exaggerated view, because Vane was in reality far from ruined, and +even if he had been so, he had in him the ability to recover from his +misfortunes. Still, the man was obstinate and generally ready to make a +sacrifice for an idea. Carroll, however, consoled himself with the +reflection that Evelyn would probably have something to say upon the +subject if she were given an opportunity, and he felt certain that Mrs. +Nairn would contrive that she had one. + +"I can't see any benefit in making things out considerably worse than +they are," he objected. + +"Nor can I," Vane agreed. "After all, I was getting pretty tired of the +city, and I suppose I can raise enough to put up a small-power mill. It +will be a pleasant change to take charge for a year or two in the bush. +I'll make a start at the thing as soon as I'm able to walk." + +This was significant, as it implied that he did not intend to remain in +Vancouver, where he would be able to enjoy Evelyn's company; but Carroll +made no comment, and Vane soon spoke again. + +"Didn't you mention last night that it was through Miss Horsfield that +you got the tug? I was thinking about something else at the time." + +"Yes. She made Horsfield put some pressure on the people who had +previously hired the boat." + +"That's rather strange." + +For a moment he looked puzzled, but almost immediately his face grew +impassive, and Carroll knew that he had some idea of Jessy's treachery. +He was, however, sure that any suspicions his comrade entertained would +remain locked up in his breast. + +"I'm grateful to her, anyway," Vane added. "I dare say I could have held +out another day or two, but it wouldn't have been pleasant." + +Carroll began to talk about the preparations for their return, which he +soon afterward set about making, and early the next morning they started +for the sloop, carrying Vane upon a stretcher they had brought with them. +Though they had to cut a passage for it every here and there, they +reached the sloop in safety, and after some trouble in getting Vane below +and onto a locker, Carroll decided to sail straight for Vancouver. They +were favored with moderate, fair winds, and though the little vessel was +uncomfortably crowded, she made a quick passage and stole in through the +Narrows as dusk was closing down one tranquil evening. + +Evelyn had spent the greater part of the afternoon on the forest-crested +rise above the city, where she could look down upon the inlet. She had +visited the spot frequently during the last few days, watching eagerly +for a sail that did not appear. There had been no news of Carroll since +the skipper of the tug reported having landed him, and the girl was +tormented by doubts and anxieties. She had just come back and was +standing in Mrs. Nairn's sitting-room, when she heard the tinkle of the +telephone bell. A moment or two later her hostess entered hastily. + +"It's a message from Alic," she cried. "He's heard from the +wharf--Vane's sloop's crossing the harbor. I'll away down to see Carroll +brings him here." + +Evelyn turned to follow her, but Mrs. Nairn waved her back. + +"No," she said firmly; "ye'll bide where ye are. See they get plenty +lights on--at the stairhead and in the passage--and the room on the left +of it ready." + +She was gone in another moment, and Evelyn hastily carried out her +instructions and then waited with what patience she could assume. At last +there was a rattle of wheels outside, followed by a voice giving orders, +and then a tramp of feet. The sounds brought her a strange inward +shrinking, but she ran to the door, and saw two tattered men awkwardly +carrying a stretcher up the steps, while Carroll and another assisted +them. Then the light fell upon its burden and, half prepared as she was, +she started in dismay. Vane, whom she had last seen in vigorous health, +lay partly covered with an old blanket which had slipped off him to the +waist. His jacket looked a mass of rags, his hat had fallen aside and his +face showed hollow and worn and pinched. Then he saw her and a light +leaped into his eyes, but the next moment Carroll's shoulder hid him and +the men plodded on toward the stairs. They ascended them with difficulty +and the girl waited until Carroll came down. + +"I noticed you at the door. I dare say you were a little shocked at the +change in Vane," he said. "What he has undergone has pulled him down, but +if you had seen him when I first found him, you'd have been worse +startled. He's getting on quite satisfactorily." + +Evelyn was relieved to hear it; and Carroll continued: + +"As soon as the doctor comes, we'll make him more presentable; he can't +be moved till then, as I'm not sure about the last bandages I put on. +Afterward, he'll no doubt hold an audience." + +There was nothing to do but wait, and Evelyn again summoned her +patience. Before long, a doctor arrived, and Carroll followed him to +Vane's room. The invalid's face was very impassive, though Carroll waited +in tense suspense while the doctor stripped off the bandages and bark +supports from the injured leg. He examined it attentively, and then +looked around at Carroll. + +"You fixed that limb, when it was broken in the bush?" he asked. + +"Yes," Carroll answered, with a desperate attempt to treat the matter +humorously. "But I really think we both had a hand in the thing. My +partner favored me with his views; I disclaim some of the +responsibility." + +"Then I guess you've been remarkably fortunate. Perhaps that's the best +way of expressing it." + +Vane raised his head and fixed his eyes upon the speaker. + +"It won't have to be rebroken? I'll be able to walk without a limp?" + +"It's most probable." + +Vane's eyes glistened and he let his head fall back. + +"It's good news; better than I expected. Now if you could fix me up +again, I'd like to get dressed. I've felt like a hobo long enough." + +The doctor smiled indulgently. + +"We can venture to change that state of affairs, but I'll superintend the +operation." + +It was some time before Vane's toilet was completed, and then Carroll +surveyed him with humorous admiration. + +"It strikes me you do us credit; and now I suppose I can announce that +you'll receive?" + +Nairn and his wife and Evelyn came in. Nairn, shaking hands with Vane +very heartily, looked down at him with twinkling eyes. + +"I'd have been glad to see ye, however ye had come," he asserted, and +Vane fully believed him. "For a' that, this is no the way I would have +wished to welcome ye." + +"When a man won't take his friends' advice, what can he expect?" +retorted Vane. + +Nairn nodded, smiling. + +"Let it be a warning. If the making of your mark and money is your +object, ye must stick to it and think of nothing else. Ye canna +accumulate riches by spreading yourself, and philanthropy's no lucrative, +except maybe to a few." + +"It's good counsel, but I'm thinking that it's a pity," Mrs. Nairn +remarked. "What would ye say, Evelyn?" + +The girl was aware that the tone of light banter had been adopted to +cover deeper feelings, which those present shrank from expressing; but +she ventured to give her thoughts free rein. + +"I agree with you in one respect," she said. "But I can't believe the +object mentioned is Mr. Vane's only one. He would never be willing to pay +the necessary price." + +It was a delicate compliment uttered in all sincerity, and Vane's worn +face grew warm. He was, however, conscious that it would be safer to +avoid being serious, and he smiled. + +"Well," he drawled, "looking for timber rights is apt to prove +expensive, too. I had a haunting fear that I might be lame, until the +doctor banished it. I'd better own that I'd no great confidence in +Carroll's surgery." + +Carroll, keeping strictly to the line the others had chosen, made him an +ironical bow; but Evelyn was not to be deterred. + +"It was foolish of you to be troubled," she declared. "It isn't a fault +to be wounded in an honorable fight, and even if the mark remains, there +is no reason why one should be ashamed of it." + +Mrs. Nairn glanced at the girl rather sharply, but Carroll came to his +comrade's relief. + +"Strictly speaking, there wasn't a wound," he pointed out. "Fortunately, +it was what is known as a simple fracture. If it had been anything else, +I'm inclined to think I couldn't have treated it." + +Nairn chuckled, as if this met with his approval; and his wife turned +around as they heard a patter of footsteps on the stairs. + +"Yon bell has kept on ringing ever since we came up," she complained. "I +left word I was no to be disturbed. Weel"--as the door opened--"what is +it, Minnie?" + +"The reception room's plumb full," announced the maid, who was lately +from the bush. "If any more folks come along, I sure won't know where +to put 'em." + +Now that the door was open, Evelyn could hear a murmur of voices on the +floor below, and the next moment the bell rang violently again. It struck +her as a testimonial to the injured man. Vane had not spent a long time +in Vancouver, but he had the gift of making friends. Having heard of the +sloop's arrival, they had come to inquire for him, and there was +obviously a number of them. + +Mrs. Nairn glanced interrogatively at Carroll. + +"It does no look as if they could be got rid of by a message." + +"I guess he's fit to see them," Carroll answered, "We'll hold a levee. If +he'd only let me, I'd like to pose him a bit." + +Mrs. Nairn, with Evelyn's assistance, did so instead, rearranging the +cushions about the man, in spite of his confused and half-indignant +protests; and during the next half-hour the room was generally full. +People walked in, made sympathetic inquiries, or exchanged cheerful +banter, until Mrs. Nairn forcibly dismissed the last of them. After this, +she declared that Vane must go to sleep, and paying no heed to his +assertion that he had not the least wish to do so, she led her remaining +companions away. + +A couple of hours had passed when she handed Evelyn a large tumbler +containing a preparation of beaten eggs and milk. + +"Ye might take him this and ask if he would like anything else," she +said. "I'm weary of the stairs and I would no trust Minnie. She's +handiest at spilling things." + +Carroll grinned. + +"It's the third and, I'd better say firmly, the limit." + +Then he assumed an aggrieved expression as Evelyn moved off with the +tray. + +"I can't see why I couldn't have gone. I think I've discharged my duties +as nurse satisfactorily." + +"I canna help ye thinking," Mrs. Nairn informed him. "But I would point +out that ye have now and then been wrong." + +"That's a fact," Carroll confessed. + +Evelyn fully shared his suspicions. Her hostess's artifice was a +transparent one, but she nevertheless fell in with it. She had seen Vane +only in the company of others; this might be the same again to-morrow; +and there was something to be said. By intuition as much as reason, she +recognized that there was something working in his mind; something that +troubled him and might trouble her. It excited her apprehension and +animated her with a desire to combat it. That she might be compelled to +follow an unconventional course did not matter. She knew this man was +hers--and she could not let him go. + +She entered his room collectedly. He was lying, neatly dressed, upon a +couch with his shoulders raised against the end of it, for he had thrown +the cushions which supported him upon the floor. As she came in, he +leaned down in an attempt to recover them, and finding himself too late +looked up guiltily. The fact that he could move with so much freedom was +a comfort to the girl. She set the tray down on a table near him. + +"Mrs. Nairn has sent you this," she said, and the laugh they both +indulged in drew them together. + +Then her mood changed and her heart yearned over him. He had gone away +a strong, self-confident, prosperous man, and he had come back +defeated, broken in fortune and terribly worn. Her pity shone in her +softening eyes. + +"Do you wish to sleep?" she asked. + +"No," Vane assured her; "I'd a good deal rather talk to you." + +"I want to say something," Evelyn confessed. "I'm afraid I was rather +unpleasant to you the evening before you sailed. I was sorry for it +afterward; it was flagrant injustice." + +"Then I wonder why you didn't answer the letter I wrote at Nanaimo." + +"The letter? I never received one." + +Vane considered this for a few moments. + +"After all," he declared, "it doesn't matter now. I'm acquitted?" + +"Absolutely." + +The man's satisfaction was obvious, but he smiled. + +"Do you know," he said, "I've still no idea of my offense?" + +Evelyn was exceedingly glad to hear it, but a warmth crept into her face, +and as the blood showed through the delicate skin he fixed his eyes upon +her intently. + +"It was all a mistake; I'm sorry still," she murmured penitently. + +"Oh!" he exclaimed in a different tone. "Don't trouble about it. The +satisfaction of being acquitted outweighs everything else. Besides, I've +made a number of rather serious mistakes myself. The search for that +spruce, for instance, is supposed to be one." + +"No," returned Evelyn decidedly; "whoever thinks that, is wrong. It is a +very fine thing you have done. It doesn't matter in the least that you +were unsuccessful." + +"Do you really believe that?" + +"Of course. How could I believe anything else?" + +The man's face changed again, and once more she read the signs. Whatever +doubts and half-formed resolutions--and she had some idea of them--had +been working in his mind were dissipating. + +"Well," he continued, "I've sacrificed the best half of my possessions +and have destroyed the confidence of the people who, to serve their ends, +would have helped me on. Isn't that a serious thing?" + +"No; it's really a most unimportant one. I"--the slight pause gave the +assertion force--"really mean it." + +Vane partly raised himself with one arm and there was no doubting the +significance of his intent gaze. + +"I believe I made another blunder--in England. I should have had +more courage and have faced the risk. But you might have turned +against me then." + +"I don't think that's likely," Evelyn murmured, lowering her eyes. + +The man leaned forward eagerly, but the hand he stretched out fell short, +and the trivial fact once more roused her compassion for his +helplessness. + +"You can mean only one thing!" he cried. "You wouldn't be afraid to face +the future with me now?" + +"I wouldn't be afraid at all." + +A half-hour later Mrs. Nairn tapped at the door and smiled rather broadly +when she came in. Then she shook her head reproachfully. + +"Ye should have been asleep a while since," she scolded Vane, and then +turned to Evelyn. "Is this the way ye intend to look after him?" + +She waved the girl toward the door and when she joined her in the passage +she kissed her effusively. + +"Ye have got the man I would have chosen ye," she declared. "It will no +be any fault of his if ye are sorry." + +"I have very little fear of that," laughed Evelyn. + + +THE END + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Vane of the Timberlands, by Harold Bindloss + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VANE OF THE TIMBERLANDS *** + +This file should be named 8vane10.txt or 8vane10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8vane11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8vane10a.txt + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan +and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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