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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:41:55 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:41:55 -0700 |
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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/13343-0.txt b/13343-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..11794a3 --- /dev/null +++ b/13343-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12488 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13343 *** + +[Illustration: He worked tirelessly, as though he was determined to +infuse her numb veins with his own vigor. FRONTISPIECE.] + + +THE RIM OF THE DESERT + +BY + +ADA WOODRUFF ANDERSON + +AUTHOR OF "THE STRAIN OF WHITE," "THE HEART OF THE RED FIRS," ETC. + +WITH FRONTISPIECE BY MONTE CREWS + + + +1915 + + + +_To the Memory of_ + +MY MOTHER + +A gentle and appreciative critic, the only one, perhaps, who re-read my +previous books with pleasure and found no flaw in them, and who would have +had a greater interest than any other in this publication. + + + + +FOREWORD + + +The desert of this story is that semi-arid region east of the upper +Columbia. It is cut off from the moisture laden winds of the Pacific by +the lofty summits of the Cascade Mountains which form its western rim, and +for many miles the great river crowds the barrier, winding, breaking in +rapids, seeking a way through. To one approaching this rim from the dense +forests of the westward slopes, the sage grown levels seem to stretch +limitless into the far horizon, but they are broken by hidden coulees; in +propitious seasons reclaimed areas have yielded phenominal crops of wheat, +and under irrigation the valley of one of the two tributaries from the +west, wherein lies Hesperides Vale, has become a garden spot of the world. + +To the initiated I wish to say if in the chapters touching on the Alaska +coal cases I have followed too literally the statements of prominent men, +it was not in an effort to portray them but merely to represent as clearly +as possible the Alaska situation. + +ADA WOODRUFF ANDERSON. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I THE MAN WHO NEVER CAME BACK + II THE QUESTION + III FOSTER TOO + IV SNOQUALMIE PASS AND A BROKEN AXLE + V APPLES OF EDEN + VI NIP AND TUCK + VII A NIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN ROAD + VIII THE BRAVEST WOMAN HE EVER KNEW + IX THE DUNES OF THE COLUMBIA + X A WOMAN'S HEART-STRINGS + XI THE LOOPHOLE + XII "WHOM THE GODS WOULD DESTROY" + XIII "A LITTLE STREAK OF LUCK" + XIV ON BOARD THE AQUILA + XV THE STORY OF THE TENAS PAPOOSE + XVI THE ALTERNATIVE + XVII "ALL THESE THINGS WILL I GIVE THEE" + XVIII THE OPTION + XIX LUCKY BANKS AND THE PINK CHIFFON + XX KERNEL AND PEACH + XXI FOSTER'S HOUR + XXII AS MAN TO MAN + XXIII THE DAY OF PUBLICATION + XXIV SNOWBOUND IN THE ROCKIES AND "FIT AS A MOOSE" + XXV THE IDES OF MARCH + XXVI THE EVERLASTING DOOR + XXVII KISMET, AN ACT OF GOD +XXVIII SURRENDER + XXIX BACK TO HESPERIDES VALE + XXX THE JUNIOR DEFENDANT + XXXI TISDALE OF ALASKA--AND WASHINGTON, D.C. + XXXII THE OTHER DOCUMENT +XXXIII THE CALF-BOUND NOTEBOOK + + +THE RIM OF THE DESERT + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE MAN WHO NEVER CAME BACK + + +It is in October, when the trails over the wet tundra harden, and before +the ice locks Bering Sea, that the Alaska exodus sets towards Seattle; but +there were a few members of the Arctic Circle in town that first evening +in September to open the clubhouse on the Lake Boulevard with an informal +little supper for special delegate Feversham, who had arrived on the +steamer from the north, on his way to Washington. + +The clubhouse, which was built of great, hewn logs, with gabled eaves, +stood in a fringe of firs, and an upper rear balcony afforded a broad +outlook of lake and forest, with the glaciered heights of the Cascade +Mountains breaking a far horizon. The day had been warm, but a soft +breeze, drawing across this veranda through the open door, cooled the +assembly room, and, lifting one of the lighter hangings of Indian-wrought +elk leather, found the stairs and raced with a gentle rustle through the +lower front entrance back into the night. It had caressed many familiar +things on its way, for the walls were embellished with trophies from the +big spaces where winds are born. There were skins of polar and Kodiak +bear; of silver and black fox; there were antlered heads set above the +fireplace and on the rough, bark-seamed pillars that supported the +unceiled roof. A frieze of pressed and framed Alaska flora finished the +low gallery which extended around three sides of the hall, and the massive +chairs, like the polished banquet board, were of crocus-yellow Alaska +cedar. + +The delegate, who had come out to tide-water over the Fairbanks-Valdez +trail, was describing with considerable heat the rigors of the journey. +The purple parka, which was the regalia of the Circle, seemed to increase +his prominence of front and intensified the color in his face to a sort of +florid ripeness. + +"Yes, gentlemen," he continued, thumping the table with a stout hand and +repeating the gesture slowly, while the glasses trembled, "Alaska's crying +need is a railroad; a single finished line from the most northern harbor +open to navigation the whole year--and that is Prince William Sound-- +straight through to the Tanana Valley and the upper Yukon. Already the +first problem has been solved; we have pierced the icy barrier of the +Coast Range. All we are waiting for is further right of way; the right to +the forests, that timber may be secured for construction work; the right +to mine coal for immediate use. But, gentlemen, we may grow gray waiting. +What do men four thousand miles away, men who never saw Alaska, care about +our needs?" He leaned back in his chair, while his glance moved from face +to face and rested, half in challenge, on the member at the foot of the +board. "These commissioners appointed off there in Washington," he added. +"These carpet-baggers from the little States beyond the Mississippi!" + +Hollis Tisdale, who had spent some of the hardest years of his Alaska +career in the service of the Government, met the delegate's look with a +quiet humor in his eyes. + +"It seems to me," he said, and his deep, expressive voice instantly held +the attention of every one, "that such a man, with intelligence and +insight, of course, stands the surest chance of giving general +satisfaction in the end. He is at least disinterested, while the best of +us, no matter how big he is, how clear-visioned, is bound to take his own +district specially to heart. Prince William Sound alone has hundreds of +miles of coast-line and includes more than one fine harbor with an +ambitious seaport." + +At this a smile rippled around the table, and Miles Feversham, who was the +attorney for one of the most ambitious syndicates of promoters in the +north, gave his attention to the menu. But Tisdale, having spoken, turned +his face to the open balcony door. His parka was thrown back, showing an +incongruous breadth of stiff white bosom, yet he was the only man present +who wore the garment with grace. In that moment the column of throat +rising from the purple folds, the upward, listening pose of the fine head, +in relief against the bearskin on the wall behind his chair, suggested a +Greek medallion. His brown hair, close-cut, waved at the temples; lines +were chiseled at the corners of his eyes and, with a lighter touch, about +his mouth; yet his face, his whole compact, muscular body, gave an +impression of youth--youth and power and the capacity for great endurance. +His friends said the north never had left a mark of its grip on Tisdale. +The life up there that had scarred, crippled, wrecked most of them seemed +only to have mellowed him. + +"But," resumed Feversham quickly, "I shall make a stiff fight at +Washington; I shall force attention to our suspended land laws; demand the +rights the United States allows her western territories; I shall ask for +the same concessions that were the making of the Oregon country; and first +and last I shall do all I can to loosen the strangling clutch of +Conservation." He paused, while his hand fell still more heavily on the +table, and the glasses jingled anew. "And, gentlemen, the day of the +floating population is practically over; we have our settled communities, +our cities; we are ready for a legislative body of our own; the time has +come for Home Rule. But the men who make our laws must be familiar with +the country, have allied interests. Gentlemen,"--his voice, dropping its +aggressive tone, took a honeyed insistence,--"we want in our first +executive a man who knows us intimately, who has covered our vast +distances, whose vision has broadened; a man big enough to hold the +welfare of all Alaska at heart." + +The delegate finished this period with an all-embracing smile and, nodding +gently, leaned back again in his chair. But in the brief silence that +followed, he experienced a kind of shock. Foster, the best known mining +engineer from Prince William Sound to the Tanana, had turned his eyes on +Tisdale; and Banks, Lucky Banks, who had made the rich strike in the +Iditarod wilderness, also looked that way. Then instantly their thought +was telegraphed from face to face. When Feversham allowed his glance to +follow the rest, it struck him as a second shock that Tisdale was the only +one on whom the significance of the moment was lost. + +The interval passed. Tisdale stirred, and his glance, coming back from the +door, rested on a dish that had been placed before him. "Japanese +pheasant!" he exclaimed. The mellowness glowed in his face. He lifted his +eyes, and the delegate, meeting that clear, direct gaze, dropped his own +to his plate. "Think of it! Game from the other side of the Pacific. They +look all right, but--do you know?"--the lines deepened humorously at the +corners of his mouth--"nothing with wings ever seems quite as fine to me +as ptarmigan." + +"Ptarmigan!" Feversham suspended his fork in astonishment. "Not +ptarmigan?" + +"Yes," persisted Tisdale gently, "ptarmigan; and particularly the ones +that nest in Nunatak Arm." + +There was a pause, while for the first time his eyes swept the Circle. He +still held the attention of every one, but with a difference; the +tenseness had given place to a pleased expectancy. + +Then Foster said: "That must have been on some trip you made, while you +were doing geological work around St. Elias." + +Tisdale shook his head. "No, it was before that; the year I gave up +Government work to have my little fling at prospecting. You were still in +college. Every one was looking for a quick route to the Klondike then, and +I believed if I could push through the Coast Range from Yakutat Bay to the +valley of the Alsek, it would be smooth going straight to the Yukon. An +old Indian I talked with at the mission told me he had made it once on a +hunting trip, and Weatherbee--you all remember David Weatherbee--was eager +to try it with me. The Tlinket helped us with the outfit, canoeing around +the bay and up into the Arm to his starting point across Nunatak glacier. +But it took all three of us seventy-two days to pack the year's supplies +over the ice. We tramped back and forth in stages, twelve hundred miles. +We hadn't been able to get dogs, and in the end, when winter overtook us +in the, mountains, we cached the outfit and came out." + +"And never went back." Banks laughed, a shrill, mirthless laugh, and added +in a higher key: "Lost a whole year and--the outfit." + +Tisdale nodded slowly. "All we gained was experience. We had plenty of +that to invest the next venture over the mountains from Prince William +Sound. But--do you know?--I always liked that little canoe trip around +from Yakutat. I can't tell you how fine it is in that upper fiord; big +peaks and ice walls growing all around. Yes."--he nodded again, while the +genial wrinkles deepened--"I've seen mountains grow. We had a shock once +that raised the coast-line forty-five feet. And another time, while we +were going back to the village for a load, a small glacier in a hanging +valley high up, perhaps two thousand feet, toppled right out of its cradle +into the sea. It stirred things some and noise"--he shook his head with an +expressive sound that ended in a hissing whistle. "But it missed the +canoe, and the wave it made lifted us and set us safe on top of a little +rocky island." He paused again, laughing softly. "I don't know how we kept +right side up, but we did. Weatherbee was great in an emergency." + +A shadow crossed his face. He looked off to the end of the room. + +"I guess you both understood a canoe," said Banks. His voice was still +high-pitched, like that of a man under continued stress, and his eyes +burned in his withered, weather-beaten face like the vents of buried +fires. "But likely it was then, while you was freighting the outfit around +to the glacier, you came across those ptarmigan." + +Tisdale's glance returned, and the humor played again softly at the +corners of his eyes. "I had forgotten about those birds. It was this way. +I made the last trip in the canoe alone, for the mail and a small load, +principally ammunition and clothing, while Weatherbee and the Tlinket +pushed ahead on one of those interminable stages over the glacier. And on +the way back, I was caught in fog. It rolled in, layer on layer, while I +felt for the landing; but I managed to find the place and picked up the +trail we had worn packing over the ice. And I lost it; probably in a new +thaw that had opened and glazed over since I left. Anyhow, in a little +while I didn't know where I was. I had given my compass to Weatherbee, and +there was no sun to take bearings from, not a landmark in sight. Nothing +but fog and ice, and it all looked alike. The surface was too hard to take +my impressions, so I wasn't able to follow my own tracks back to the +landing. But I had to keep moving, it was so miserably cold; I hardly let +myself rest at night; and that fog hung on five days. The third evening I +found myself on the water-front, and pretty soon I stumbled on my canoe. I +was down to a mighty small allowance of crackers and cheese then, but I +parcelled it out in rations for three days and started once more along the +shore for Yakutat. The next night I was traveling by a sort of sedge when +I heard ptarmigan. It sounded good to me, and I brought my canoe up and +stepped out. I couldn't see, but I could hear those birds stirring and +cheeping all around. I lay down and lifted my gun ready to take the first +that came between me and the sky." His voice had fallen to an undernote, +and his glance rested an absent moment on the circle of light on the +rafter above an electric lamp. "When it did, and I blazed, the whole flock +rose. I winged two. I had to grope for them in the reeds, but I found +them, and I made a little fire and cooked one of them in a tin pail I +carried in the canoe. But when I had finished that supper and pushed off-- +do you know?"--his look returned, moving humorously from face to face--"I +was hungrier than I had been before. And I just paddled back and cooked +the other one." + +There was a stir along the table; a sighing breath. Then some one laughed, +and Banks piped his strained note. "And," he said after a moment, "of +course you kept on to that missionary camp and waited for the fog to +lift." + +Tisdale shook his head. "After that supper, there wasn't any need; I +turned back to the glacier. And before I reached the landing, I heard +Weatherbee's voice booming out on the thick silence like a siren at sea; +piloting me straight to that one dip in the ice-wall." + +He looked off again to the end of the room, absently, with the far-sighted +gaze of one accustomed to travel great solitudes. It was as though he +heard again that singing voice. Then suddenly his expression changed. His +eyes had rested on a Kodiak bearskin that hung against a pillar at the top +of the gallery steps. The corner was unlighted, in heavy shadow, but a +hand reaching from behind had drawn the rug slightly aside, and its +whiteness on the brown fur, the flash of a jewelled ring, caught his +attention. The next moment the hand was withdrawn. He gave it no more +thought then, but a time came afterward when he remembered it. + +"Weatherbee had noticed that fog-bank," he went on, "from high up the +glacier. It worried him so he finally turned back to meet me, and he had +waited so long he was down to his last biscuit. I was mighty reckless +about that second ptarmigan, but the water the birds were cooked in made a +fine soup. And the fog broke, and we overtook the Tlinket and supplies the +next morning." + +There was another stir along the table, then Foster said: "That was a +great voice of Weatherbee's. I've seen it hearten a whole crowd on a mean +trail, like the bugle and fife of a regiment." + +"So have I." It was Lucky Banks who spoke. "So have I. And Weatherbee was +always ready to stand by a poor devil in a tight place. When the frost got +me"--he held up a crippled and withered hand--"it was Dave Weatherbee who +pulled me through. We were mushing it on the same stampede from Fairbanks +to Ruby Creek, and he never had seen me before. It had come to the last +day, and we were fighting it out in the teeth of a blizzard. You all know +what that means. In the end we just kept the trail, following the +hummocks. Sometimes it was a pack under a drift, or maybe a sled; and +sometimes it was a hand reaching up through the snow, frozen stiff. Then +it came my turn, and I lay down in my tracks. But Weatherbee stopped to +work over me. He wouldn't go on. He said if I was determined to stay in +that cemet'ry, I could count on his company. And when he got me on my +feet, he just started 'Dixie,' nice and lively, and the next I knew he had +me all wound up and set going again, good as new." + +His laugh, like the treble notes of the Arctic wind, gave an edge to the +story. + +Presently Foster said: "That was Weatherbee; I never knew another such +man. Always effacing himself when it came to a choice; always ready to +share a good thing. Why, he made some of his friends rich, and yet in the +end, after seven years of it, seven years of struggle of the worst kind, +what did he have to show?" + +"Nothing, Foster; nothing but seven feet of earth up there on the edge of +the wilderness." Tisdale's voice vibrated gently; an emotion like the +surface stir of shaken depths crossed his face. "And a tract of unimproved +desert down here in eastern Washington," he added. + +"And Mrs. Weatherbee," supplemented Feversham quickly. "You mustn't forget +her. Any man must have counted such a wife his most valuable asset. Here's +to her! Young, charming, clever; a typical American beauty!" He stopped to +drain his glass, then went on. "I remember the day Weatherbee sailed for +Alaska. I was taking the same steamer, and she was on the dock, with all +Seattle, to see the Argonauts away. It was a hazardous journey into the +Unknown in those days, and scenes were going on all around--my own wife +was weeping on my shoulder--but Mrs. Weatherbee, and she had just been +married then, bridged the parting like a little trump. 'Well, David,' she +said, with a smile to turn a priest's head, 'good-by and good luck. Come +back when you've made your fortune, and I'll help you to spend it.'" + +The delegate, laughing deeply, reached for the port decanter to refill his +glass. No one else saw the humor of the story, though the man with the +maimed hand again gave an edge to the silence that followed with his +strained, mirthless laugh. Presently he said: "But he never came back." + +"No." It was Foster who answered. "No, but he was on his way out to the +States at last, when the end came. I don't understand it. It seems +incredible that Weatherbee, who had won through so many times, handicapped +by the waifs and strays of the trail,--Weatherbee, to whom the Susitna +country was an open scroll,--should have perished as he did. But it was +you who found him, Hollis. Come, tell us all about it." + +Tisdale shook his head. "Some other time, Foster. It's a long story and +not the kind to tell here." + +"Go on! Go on!" The urging came from many, and Banks added in his high, +tense key; "I guess we can stand it. Most of us saw the iron side of +Alaska before we saw the golden." + +"Well, then," Tisdale began reluctantly, "I must take you back a year. I +was completing trail reconnaissance from the new Alaska Midway surveys in +the Susitna Valley, through Rainy Pass, to connect with the mail route +from the interior to Nome, and, to avoid returning another season, kept my +party late in the field. It was the close of September when we struck +Seward Peninsula and miserably cold, with gales sweeping in from Bering +Sea. The grass had frozen, and before we reached a cache of oats I had +relied on, most of our horses perished; we arrived at Nome too late for +the last steamer of the year. That is how I came to winter there, and why +a letter Weatherbee had written in October was so long finding me. It was +forwarded from Seattle with other mail I cabled for, back to Prince +William Sound, over the Fairbanks-Valdez trail, and out again by the +winter route three thousand miles to Nome. It was the middle of March when +I received it, and he had asked me to buy his half interest in the Aurora +mine. He needed the money to go out to the States." + +Tisdale's voice broke a little; and for a moment he looked off through the +open door. "Perhaps some of you remember I grub-staked him for a half +share when he left the Tanana to prospect down along the Alaska Range. +After he located, I forwarded him small amounts several times to carry on +development work. I never had been on the ground, but he explained he was +handicapped by high water and was trying to divert the channel of a creek. +In that last letter he said he had carried the scheme nearly through; the +next season would pay my money back and more; the Aurora would pan out the +richest strike he had ever made. But that did not trouble me. I knew if +Weatherbee had spent two years on that placer, the gravels had something +to show. The point that weighed was that he was willing to go home at last +to the States. I had urged him before I put up the grub-stake, but he had +answered: 'Not until I have made good.' It was hardly probable that, +failing to hear from me, he had sold out to any one else. From his +description, the Aurora was isolated; hundreds of miles from the new +Iditarod camp; he hadn't a neighbor in fifty miles. So I forwarded his +price and arranged with the mail carrier to send a special messenger on +from the nearest post. In the letter I wrote to explain my delay, I +sketched a plan of my summer's work and told him how sorry I was I had +missed seeing him while the party was camped below Rainy Pass. Though I +couldn't have spared the time to go to the Aurora, he might have found me, +had I sent an Indian with word. It was the first time I had gone through +his orbit without letting him know. + +"But after that carrier had gone, Weatherbee's letter kept worrying me. It +wasn't like him to complain, yet he had written he was tired of the +eternal winters; he couldn't stand those everlasting snow peaks sometimes, +they got to crowding him so; they kept him awake when he needed sleep, +threatening him. 'I've got to break away from them, Hollis,' he said, 'and +get where it's warm once more; and when my blood begins to thaw, I'll show +you I can make a go of things.' Then he reminded me of the land he owned +down here on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains. The soil was the +finest volcanic ash; the kind that grew the vineyards on Vesuvius, and he +meant to plant it with grapes; with orchards, too, on the bench levels. +All the tract needed was water, but there was a natural reservoir and +spring on a certain high plateau that could be easily tapped with a +flume." + +Tisdale paused while his glance moved slowly, singling out those who had +known Weatherbee. A great gentleness rested on his face, and when he went +on, it crept like a caress through his voice. "Most of you have heard him +talk about that irrigation scheme; some of you have seen those plans he +used to-work on, long Alaska nights. It was his dream for years. He went +north in the beginning just to accumulate capital enough to swing that +project. But the more I studied that letter, the more confident I was he +had stayed his limit; he was breaking, and he knew it. That was why he was +so anxious to turn the Aurora over to me and get to the States. Finally I +decided to go with the mail carrier and on to the mine. If Weatherbee was +still there, as I believed, we would travel to Fairbanks together and take +the Valdez trail out to the open harbor on Prince William Sound. I picked +up a team of eight good huskies--the weather was clear with a moon in her +second quarter--and I started light, cutting my stops short; but when I +left Nome I had lost four days." + +Hollis paused another interval, looking off again through the open door, +while the far-sighted expression gathered in his eyes. It was as though +his listeners also in that moment saw those white solitudes stretching +limitless under the Arctic night. + +"I never caught up with that carrier," he went on, "and the messenger he +sent on broke trail for me all the way to the Aurora. I met him on his +return trip, thirty hours out from the mine. But he had found Weatherbee +there, and had a deed for me which David had asked him to see recorded and +forwarded to me at Nome. It was a relief to hear he had been able to +attend to these business matters, but I wondered why he had not brought +the deed himself, since he must come that way to strike the Fairbanks +trail, and why the man had not waited to travel with him. Then he told me +Weatherbee had decided to use the route I had sketched in my letter. The +messenger had tried to dissuade him; he had reminded him there were no +road-houses, and that the traces left by my party must have been wiped out +by the winter snows. But Weatherbee argued that the new route would +shorten the distance to open tide-water hundreds of miles; that his +nearest neighbors were in that direction, fifty miles to the south; and +they would let him have dogs. Then, when he struck the Susitna Valley, he +would have miles of railroad bed to ease the last stage. So, at the time +the messenger left the Aurora, Weatherbee started south on his long trek +to Rainy Pass. He was mushing afoot, with Tyee pulling the sled. Some of +you must remember that big husky with a strain of St. Bernard he used to +drive on the Tanana." + +"My, yes," piped little Banks, and his eyes scintillated like chippings of +blue glacier ice. "Likely I do remember Tyee. Dave picked him up that same +trip he set me on my feet. He found him left to starve on the trail with a +broken leg. And he camped right there, pitched his tent for a hospital, +and went to whittling splints out of a piece of willow to set that bone. +'I am sorry to keep you waiting,' he says to me, 'but he is a mighty good +dog. He would have done his level best to see the man who deserted him +through.' And he would. I'd bank my money on old Tyee." + +Tisdale nodded slowly. "But my chance to overtake David was before he +secured that team fifty miles on. And I pushed my dogs too hard. When I +reached the Aurora, they were nearly done for. I was forced to rest them a +day. That gave me time to look into Weatherbee's work. I found that the +creek where he had made his discovery ran through a deep and narrow +canyon, and it was clear to me that the boxed channel, which was frozen +solid then, was fed during the short summer by a small glacier at the top +of the gorge. To turn the high water from his placer, he had made a bore +of nearly one thousand feet and practically through rock. I followed a +bucket tramway he had rigged to lift the dump and found a primitive +lighting-plant underground. The whole tunnel was completed, with the +exception of a thin wall left to safeguard against an early thaw in the +stream, while the bore was being equipped with a five-foot flume. You all +know what that means, hundreds of miles from navigation or a main traveled +road. To get that necessary lumber, he felled trees in a spruce grove up +the ravine; every board was hewn by hand. And about two-thirds of those +sluice-boxes, the bottoms fitted with riffles, were finished. Afterwards, +at that camp where he stopped for dogs, I learned that aside from a few +days at long intervals, when the two miners had exchanged their labor for +some engineering, he had made his improvements alone, single-handed. And +most of that flume was constructed in those slow months he waited to hear +from me." + +Tisdale paused, and again his glance sought the faces of those who had +known David Weatherbee. But all the Circle was strung responsive. Those +who never had known Weatherbee understood the terrible conditions he had +braved; the body-wracking toil underground; the soul-breaking solitude; +the crowding silence that months earlier he had felt the necessity to +escape. In that picked company, the latent force in each acknowledged the +iron courage of the man; but it was Tisdale's magnetic personality, the +unstudied play of expression in his rugged face, the undercurrent of +emotion quickening through infinite tones of his voice, that plumbed the +depths and in every listener struck the dominant chord. And, too, these +men had bridged subconsciously those vast distances between Tisdale's +start from Nome in clear weather, "with a moon in her second quarter," and +that stop at the deserted mine, when his dogs--powerful huskies, part +wolf, since they were bred in the Seward Peninsula--"were nearly done +for." Long and inevitable periods of dark there had been; perils of white +blizzard, of black frost. They had run familiarly the whole gamut of +hardship and danger he himself must have faced single-handed; and while +full measure was accorded Weatherbee, the greater tribute passed silently, +unsought, to the man who had traveled so far and so fast to rescue him. + +"It ought to have been me," exclaimed Lucky Banks at last in his high +treble. "I was just down in the Iditarod country, less than three hundred +miles. I ought to have run up once in awhile to see how he was getting +along. But I never thought of Dave's needing help himself, and nobody told +me he was around. I'd ought to have kept track of him, though; it was up +to me. But go on, Hollis; go on. I bet you made up that day you lost at +the mine. My, yes, I bet you broke the record hitting that fifty-mile +camp." + +Tisdale nodded, and for an instant the humor played lightly at the corners +of his eyes. "It took me just seven hours with an up-grade the last twenty +miles. You see, I had Weatherbee to break trail. He rested a night at the +camp and lost about three hours more, while they hunted a missing husky to +make up his team. Still he pushed out with nearly eighteen hours start and +four fresh dogs, with Tyee pulling a strong lead; while I wasn't able to +replace even one of mine that had gone lame. I had to leave him there, and +before I reached the summit of Rainy Pass, I was carrying his mate on my +sled. But I had a sun then,--the days were lengthening fast into May,--and +by cutting my stops short I managed to hold my own to the divide. After +that I gained. Finally, one morning, I came to a rough place where his +outfit had upset, and I saw his dogs were giving him trouble. There were +blood stains all around on the snow. It looked like the pack had broken +open, and the huskies had tried to get at the dried salmon. Tyee must have +fought them off until Weatherbee was able to master them. At the end of +the next day I reached a miners' cabin where he had spent the night, and +the man who had helped him unhitch told me he had had to remind him to +feed his dogs. He had seemed all right, only dead tired; but he had gone +to bed early and, neglecting to leave a call, had slept fifteen hours. I +rested my team five, and late the next morning I came upon his camp-fire +burning." + +Tisdale paused to draw his hand across his eyes and met Foster's look over +the table. "It was there I blundered. There was a plain traveled trail +from that mine down through the lowlands to Susitna, and I failed to see +that his tracks left it: they were partly blotted out in a fresh fall of +snow. I lost six hours there, and when I picked up his trail again, I saw +he was avoiding the few way houses; he passed the settlement by; then I +missed his camp-fire. It was plain he was afraid to sleep any more. But he +knew the Susitna country; he kept a true course, and sometimes, in swampy +places, turned back to the main thoroughfare. At last, near the crossing +of the Matanuska, I was caught in the first spring thaw. It was heavy +going. All the streams were out of banks; the valley became a network of +small sloughs undermining the snowfields, creating innumerable ponds and +lakes. The earth, bared in patches, gave and oozed like a sponge. It was +impossible to follow Weatherbee's trail, but I picked it up once more, +where it came into the other, along the Chugach foot-hills. Slides began +to block the way; ice glazed the overflows at night; and at last a cold +wave struck down from the summits; the track stiffened in an hour and it +was hard as steel underfoot. The wind cut like swords. Then came snow." + +Tisdale looked off with his far-sighted gaze through the open door. Every +face was turned to him, but no one hurried him. It was a time when silence +spoke. + +"I came on Weatherbee's dogs in a small ravine," he said. "They had +broken through thin ice in an overflow, and the sled had mired in muck. +The cold wave set them tight; their legs were planted like posts, and I +had to cut them out. Two were done for." + +"You mean," exclaimed Banks, "Dave hadn't cut the traces to give his +huskies a chance." + +Tisdale nodded slowly. "But the instant I cut Tyee loose, he went limping +off, picking up his master's trail. It was a zigzag course up the face of +a ridge into a grove of spruce. Weatherbee took a course like a husky; +location was a sixth sense to him; yet I found his tracks up there, +winding aimlessly. It had stopped snowing then, but the first impressions +were nearly filled. In a little while I noticed the spaces were shorter +between the prints of the left shoe; they made a dip and blur. Then I came +into a parallel trail, and these tracks were clear, made since the +snowstorm, but there was the same favoring of the left foot. He was +traveling in a circle. Sometimes in unsheltered places, where the wind +swept through an avenue of trees, small drifts covered the impressions, +but the dog found them again, still doubling that broad circle. Finally I +saw a great dark blotch ahead where the ground sloped up to a narrow +plateau. And in a moment I saw it was caused by a great many fresh twigs +of spruce, all stuck upright in the snow and set carefully in rows, like a +child's make-believe garden." + +Tisdale's voice broke. He was looking off again into the night, and his +face hardened; two vertical lines like clefts divided his brows. It was as +though the iron in the man cropped through. The pause was breathless. Here +and there a grim face worked. + +"When the dog reached the spot," Hollis went on, "he gave a quick bark and +ran with short yelps towards a clump of young trees a few yards off. The +rim of a drift formed a partial windbreak, but he had only a low bough to +cover him,--and the temperature,--along those ice-peaks--" + +His voice failed. There was another speaking silence. It was as though +these men, having followed all those hundreds of miles over tundra and +mountains, through thaw and frost, felt with him in that moment the +heart-breaking futility of his pursuit. "I tried my best," he added. "I +guess you all know that, but--I was too late." + +The warning blast of an automobile cut the stillness, and the machine +stopped in front of the clubhouse, but no one at the table noticed the +interruption. + +Then Banks said, in his high key: "But you hitched his dogs up with yours, +the ones that were fit, and brought him through to Seward. You saw him +buried. Thank you for that." + +Feversham cleared his throat and reached for the decanter, "Think of it!" +he exclaimed. "A man like that, lost on a main traveled thoroughfare! But +the toll will go on every year until we have a railroad. Here's to that +road, gentlemen. Here's to the Alaska Midway and Home Rule." + +The toast was responded to, and it was followed by others. But Tisdale had +left his place to step through the open door to the balcony. Presently +Foster joined him. They stood for an interval smoking and taking in those +small night sounds for which long intimacy with Nature teaches a man to +listen; the distant voice of running water; the teasing note of the +breeze; the complaint of a balsam-laden bough; the restless stir of unseen +wings; the patter of diminutive feet. A wooded point that formed the horn +of a bay was etched in black on the silver lake; then suddenly the moon +illumined the horizon and, rising over a stencilled crest of the Cascades, +stretched her golden path to the shore below them. Both these men, +watching it, saw that other trail reaching white, limitless, hard as steel +through the Alaska solitudes. + +"At Seward," said Foster at last, "you received orders by cable detailing +you to a season in the Matanuska fields; but before you took your party +in, you sent a force of men back to the Aurora to finish Weatherbee's work +and begin operations. And the diverting of that stream exposed gravels +that are going to make you rich. You deserve it. I grant that. It's your +compensation; but just the same it gives a sharper edge to poor +Weatherbee's luck." + +Tisdale swung around. "See here, Foster, I want you to know I should have +considered that money as a loan if David had lived. If he had lived--and +recovered--I should have made him take back that half interest in the +Aurora. You've got to believe that; and I would be ready to do as much for +his wife, if she had treated him differently. But she wrecked his life. I +hold her responsible." + +Foster was silent. + +"Think of it!" Hollis went on. "The shame of it! All those years while he +faced privation, the worst kind, tramping Alaska trails, panning in icy +streams, sluicing, digging sometimes like any common laborer, wintering in +shacks, she was living in luxury down here. He never made a promising +discovery that he wasn't forced to sell. She spent his money faster than +he made it; kept him handicapped. And all she ever gave him was a friendly +letter now and then, full of herself and the gay life she led, and showing +clearly how happy she could be without him. Think of it, Foster!" His +voice deepened and caught its vibrant quality. "A fine fellow like +Weatherbee; so reliable, so great in a hard place. How could she have +treated him as she did? Damn it! How could he have thrown himself away +like that, for a feather-headed woman?" + +Foster knocked the ash from the end of his cigar. "You don't know her," he +answered. "If you did, you wouldn't put it in that way." He smiled a +little and looked off at the golden path on the lake. "So," he said after +a moment, and his glance returned to meet Tisdale's squarely, "she has +absolutely nothing now but that tract of unimproved desert on the other +side of the Cascades." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE QUESTION + + +Sometime, high on a mountain slope, a cross current of air, or perhaps a +tremor of the surface occasioned far off, starts the small snow-cap, that +sliding, halting, impelled forward again, always accumulating, gathering +momentum, finally becomes the irresistible avalanche. So Marcia Feversham, +the following morning, gave the first slight impetus to the question that +eventually menaced Tisdale with swift destruction. She was not taking the +early train with her husband; she desired to break the long journey and, +after the season in the north, prolong the visit with her relatives in +Seattle. The delegate had left her sleeping, but when he had finished the +light breakfast served him alone in the Morganstein dining-room and +hurried out to the waiting limousine, to his surprise he found her in the +car. "I am going down to see you away," she explained; "this salt breeze +with the morning tide is so delightfully fresh." + +There was no archness in her glance; her humor was wholly masculine. A +firm mouthy brilliant, dark eyes, the heavy Morganstein brows that met +over the high nose, gave weight and intensity to anything she said. Her +husband, in coaching her for the coming campaign at Washington, had told +her earnestness was her strong suit; that her deep, deliberate voice was +her best card, but she held in her eyes, unquestionably, both bowers. + +"Delightful of you, I am sure," he answered, taking the seat beside her, +with his for-the-public smile, "but I give credit to the air; you are +looking as brilliant at this outrageous hour as you would on your way to +an afternoon at bridge." Then, the chauffeur having closed the door and +taken his place in the machine, Feversham turned a little to scrutinize +her face. + +"Now, my lady," he asked, "to what do I owe the pleasure?" + +"Mr. Tisdale," she answered directly. "Of course you must see now, even if +I do contrive to meet him through Frederic, as you suggested, and manage +to see him frequently; even if I find out what he means to say in those +coal reports, when it comes to influence, I won't have the weight of a +feather. No woman could. He is made of iron, and his principles were cast +in the mold." + +"Every man has his vulnerable point, and I can trust you to find Hollis +Tisdale's." The delegate paused an instant, still regarding his wife's +face, frowning a little, yet not without humor, then said: "But you have +changed your attitude quickly. Where did you learn so much about him? How +can you be so positive about a man you never have met? Whom you have seen +only a time or two at a distance, on some street--or was it a hotel +lobby?--in Valdez or Fairbanks?" + +"Yesterday, when we were talking, that was true; but since then I have +seen him at close range. I've heard him." She turned and met Feversham's +scrutiny with the brilliancy rising in her eyes. "Last night at the +clubhouse, when he told the story of David Weatherbee, I was there." + +"You were there? Impossible! That is against the rules. Not a man of the +Circle would have permitted it, and you certainly would have been +discovered before you reached the assembly hall. Why, I myself was the +last to arrive. Frederic, you remember, had to speed the car a little to +get me there. And I looked back from the door and saw you in the tonneau +with Elizabeth, while Mrs. Weatherbee kept her place in front with +Frederic. You were going down the boulevard to spend the evening with her +at Vivian Court." + +"That was our plan, but we turned back," she explained. "We had a +curiosity to see the Circle seated around the banquet board in those +ridiculous purple parkas. And Frederic bet me a new electric runabout +against the parka of silver fox and the mukluks I bought of the Esquimau +girl at Valdez that we never could get as far as the assembly room. He +waited with Elizabeth in the car while we two crept up the stairs. The +door was open, and we stood almost screened by that portière of Indian +leather, peeping in. Mr. Tisdale was telling the ptarmigan yarn--it's +wonderful the power he has to hold the interest of a crowd of men--and the +chance was too good to miss. We stole on up the steps to the gallery,--no +one noticed us,--and concealed ourselves behind that hanging Kodiak +bearskin." + +"Incredible!" exclaimed Feversham. "But I see you arrived at the opportune +moment,--when Tisdale was talking. There's something occult about the +personality of that man. And she, Mrs. Weatherbee, heard everything?" + +Marcia nodded. "Even your graceful toast to her." + +At this he settled back in his seat, laughing. "Well, I am glad I made it. +I could hardly have put it more neatly had I known she was there." + +"She couldn't have missed a word. We had found a bench behind the Kodiak +skin, and she sat straight as a soldier, listening through it all. I +couldn't get her to come away; it was as though she was looking on at an +interesting play. She was just as neutral and still; only her face turned +white, and her eyes were wide as stars, and once she gripped the fur of +the Kodiak so hard I expected to see it come down. But I know she failed +to grasp the vital point of the story. I mean the point vital to her. She +doesn't understand enough about law. And I myself slept on it the night +through before I saw. It came the moment I wakened this morning, clear and +sudden as an electric flash. If David Weatherbee was mentally unbalanced +when he made that transfer, the last half interest in the Aurora mine +ought to revert to her." + +Feversham started. He lifted his plump hands and let them drop forcibly on +his broad knees. But she did not notice his surprise. They were +approaching the station, and time pressed. "You know it is not a simple +infatuation with Frederic," she hurried on, "to be forgotten tomorrow. He +has loved her passionately from the day he first met her, four years ago. +He can't think of anything else; he never will do anything of credit to +the family until she is his wife. And now, with David Weatherbee safely +buried, it seems reasonably sure. Still, still, Miles, this unexpected +fortune held out to her just now might turn the scales. We have got to +keep it from her, and if those coal claims are coming up for trial, you +must frame some excuse to have them postponed." + +"Postponed? Why, we've just succeeded in gaining Federal attention. We've +been waiting five years. We want them settled now. It concerns Frederic as +well as the rest of us." + +"True," she answered, "even more. If those patents are allowed, he will +take immediate steps to mine the coal on a large scale. And it came over +me, instantly, on the heels of the first flash, that it was inevitable, if +Mr. Tisdale had taken advantage of David Weatherbee's condition--and his +own story shows the man had lost his mind; he was wandering around +planting make-believe orchards in the snow--you would use the point to +impeach the Government's star witness." + +"Impeach the Government's witness?" repeated Feversham, then a sudden +intelligence leaped into his face. "Impeach Hollis Tisdale," he added +softly and laughed. + +Presently, as the chauffeur slackened speed, looking for a stand among the +waiting machines at the depot, the attorney said: "If the syndicate sends +Stuart Foster north to the Iditarod, he may be forced to winter there; +that would certainly postpone the trial until spring." + +The next moment the chauffeur threw open the limousine door, and the +delegate stepped out; but he lingered a little over his good-by, retaining +his wife's hand, which he continued to shake slowly, while his eyes +telegraphed an answer to the question in hers. Then, laughing again +deeply, he said: "My lady! My lady! Nature juggled; she played your +brother Frederic a trick when she set that mind in your woman's head." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +FOSTER TOO + + +The apartment Tisdale called home was in a high corner of the Alaska +building, where the western windows, overtopping other stone and brick +blocks of the business center, commanded the harbor, caught like a faceted +jewel between Duwamish Head and Magnolia Bluff, and a far sweep of the +outer Sound set in wooded islands and the lofty snow peaks of the Olympic +peninsula. Next to his summer camp in the open he liked this eyrie, and +particularly he liked it at this hour of the night tide. He drew his chair +forward where the stiff, salt wind blew full in his face, but Foster, who +had found the elevator not running and was somewhat heated by his long +climb to the "summit," took the precaution of choosing a sheltered place +near the north window, which was closed. A shaded electric lamp cast a +ring of light on the package he had laid on the table between them, but +the rest of the room was in shadow, and from his seat he glanced down on +the iridescent sign displays of Second Avenue, then followed the lines of +street globes trailing away to the brilliant constellations set against +the blackness of Queen Anne hill. + +"She is to be out of town a week," he said, "and I hardly liked to leave +Weatherbee's things with a hotel clerk; since I am sailing on the _Admiral +Sampson_ tonight, I brought the package back. You will have to be your own +messenger." + +"That's all right, Foster; I can find another when she returns. I'll ask +Banks." + +"No." Foster's glance came back from the street; his voice rang a little +sharp. "Take it yourself, Hollis." + +"I can trust it with Banks." Tisdale paused a moment, still looking out on +the harbor lights and the stars, then said: "So you are going north again; +back to the copper mine, I presume?" + +"No, I shall be there later, but I expect to make a quick trip in to the +Iditarod now, to look over placer properties. The syndicate has bonded +Banks' claims and, if it is feasible, a dredger will be sent in next +spring to begin operations on a big scale. I shall go, of course, by way +of the Yukon, and if ice comes early and the steamers are taken off, +return by trail around through Fairbanks." + +"I see." Tisdale leaned forward a little, grasping the arms of his chair. +"The syndicate is taking considerable risk in sending you to the Iditarod +at this time. Suppose those coal cases should be called, with you +winter-bound up there. Why, the Chugach trial couldn't go on." + +"I am identified with the Morganstein interests there, I admit; but why +should the Chugach claims be classed with conspiracies to defraud the +Government? They were entered regularly, fifty coal claims of one hundred +and sixty acres each, by as many different persons. Because the President +temporarily suspended Alaska coal laws is no reason those patents should +be refused or even delayed. Our money was accepted by the Government; it +was never refunded." + +"As I thought," said Tisdale softly, addressing the stars; "as I feared." +Then, "Foster, Foster," he admonished, "be careful. Keep your head. That +syndicate is going to worry you some, old man, before you are through." + +Foster got to his feet. "See here, Hollis, be fair. Look at it once from +the other side. The Morgansteins have done more for Alaska than they will +ever be given credit for. Capital is the one key to open that big, new, +mountain-locked country, and the Government is treating it like a +boa-constrictor to be throttled and stamped out. Millions went into the +development of the El Dorado, yet they still have to ship the ore +thousands of miles to a smelter, with coal,--the best kind, inexhaustible +fields of it,--at our door. And go back to McFarlane. He put one hundred +and fifty thousand into the Chugach Railway to bring out the coal he had +mined, but he can't touch it; it's all tied up in red tape; the road is +rotting away. He is getting to be an old man, but I saw him doing day +labor on the Seattle streets to-day. Then there's the Copper River +Northwestern. That company built a railroad where every engineer but one, +who saw the conditions, said it could not be done. You yourself have +called it the most wonderful piece of construction on record. You know how +that big bridge was built in winter--the only time when the bergs stopped +chipping off the face of the glacier long enough to set the piers; you +know how Haney worked his men, racing against the spring thaw--he's paying +for it with his life, now, down in California. In dollars that bridge +alone cost a million and a half. Yet, with this road finished through the +coast mountains, they've had to suspend operation because they can't burn +their own coal. They've got to change their locomotives to oil burners. +And all this is just because the President delays to annul a temporary +restriction the previous executive neglected to remove. We have waited; we +have imported from British Columbia, from Japan; shipped in Pennsylvania, +laid down at Prince William Sound at fifteen dollars a ton, when our own +coal could be mined for two and a quarter and delivered here in Seattle +for five." + +"It could, I grant that," said Tisdale mellowly, "but would it, Stuart? +Would it, if the Morganstein interests had exclusive control?" + +Foster seemed not to have heard that question. He turned restlessly and +strode across the room. "The Government with just as much reason might +have conserved Alaska gold." + +Tisdale laughed. "That would have been a good thing for Alaska," he +answered; "if a part, at least of her placer streams had been conserved. +Come, Foster, you know as well as I do that the regulations early +prospectors accepted as laws are not respected to-day. Every discovery is +followed by speculators who travel light, who do not expect to do even +first assessment work, but only to stay on the ground long enough to stake +as many claims as possible for themselves and their friends. When the real +prospector arrives, with his year's outfit, he finds hundreds of miles, a +whole valley staked, and his one chance is to buy or work under a lease. +Most of these speculators live in the towns, some of them down here in +Seattle, carrying on other business, and they never visit their claims. +They re-stake and re-stake year after year and follow on the heels of each +new strike, often by proxy. We have proof enough of all this to convince +the most lukewarm senator." + +"You think then," said Foster quickly, "there is going to be a chance, +after all, for the bill for Home Rule?" + +"No." Tisdale's voice lost its mellowness. "It is a mistake; it's asking +too much at the beginning. We need amended mining laws; we should work for +that at once, in the quickest concerted way. And, first of all, our +special delegates should push the necessity of a law giving a defined +length of shaft or tunnel for assessment work, as is enforced in the +Klondike, and ask for efficient inspectors to see that such laws as we +have are obeyed." + +Foster moved to the window and stood looking down again on the city +lights. Presently he said: "I presume you will see the President while you +are in Washington." + +"Probably. He is always interested in the field work up there, and this +season's reconnaissance in the Matanuska coal district should be of +special importance to him just now. The need of a naval coaling station on +the Pacific coast has grown imperative, and with vast bodies of coal +accessible to Prince William Sound, the question of location should soon +be solved." + +There was another silence, while Poster walked again to the end of the +room and returned. "How soon do you start east?" he asked. + +"Within a week. Meantime, I am going over the Cascades into the sage-brush +country to look up that land of Weatherbee's." + +"You intend then," said Foster quickly, "to take that piece of desert off +Mrs. Weatherbee's hands?" + +"Perhaps. It depends on the possibility of carrying out his project. I +have just shipped a steam thawing apparatus in to the Aurora, and that, +with supplies for a winter camp, has taken a good deal of ready money. +Freighting runs high, whether it's from the Iditarod or south from +Fairbanks. But spring should see expenses paid and my investment back." + +"From all I've heard," responded Foster dryly, "you'll get your investment +back with interest." + +"Of course," said Tisdale after a moment, "Mrs. Weatherbee will be eager +to dispose of the tract; the only reason it is still on her hands is that +no one has wanted to buy it at any price." + +"And that's just why you should." Foster paused, then went on slowly, +controlling the emotion in his voice, "You don't know her, Hollis. She's +proud. She won't admit the situation, and I can't ask her directly, but I +am sure she has come to the limit. I've been trying all day, ever since I +knew I must go north again, to raise enough money to make an offer for +that land, but practically all I have is tied up in Alaska properties. It +takes time to find a customer, and the banks are cautious." + +Tisdale rose from his chair. "Foster!" he cried and stretched out his +hands. "Foster--not you, too." + +Then his hands dropped, and Foster drew a step nearer into the circle of +light and stood meeting squarely the silent remonstrance, accusation, +censure, for which he was prepared. "I knew how you would take it," he +broke out at last, "but it's the truth. I've smothered it, kept it down +for years; but it's nothing to be ashamed of any longer. I'd have been +glad to exchange places with Weatherbee. I'd have counted it a privilege +to work, even as he did, for her; I could have suffered privation, the +worst kind, wrung success out of failure, for the hope of her." + +"See here, Foster,"--Tisdale laid his hands on the younger man's +shoulders, shaking him slowly,--"you must stop this." His hold relaxed; he +stepped back, and his voice vibrated softly through the room. "How could +you have said it, knowing David Weatherbee as you did? No matter what kind +of a woman she is, you should have remembered she was his wife and +respected her for his sake." + +"Respect? I do respect her. She's the kind of woman a man sets on a +pedestal to worship and glorify. You don't understand it, Hollis; you +don't know her, and I can't explain; but just her presence is an appeal, +an inspiration to all that's worth anything in me." + +Tisdale's hands sought his pockets; his head dropped forward a little and +he stood regarding Foster with an upward look from under frowning brows. + +"You don't know her," Foster repeated. "She's different--finer than other +women. And she has been gently bred. Generations of the best blood is +bottled like old wine in her crystal body." He paused, his face +brightening at the fancy. "You can always see the spirit sparkling +through." + +"I remember about that blue blood," Tisdale said tersely. "Weatherbee told +me how it could be traced back through a Spanish mother to some +buccaneering adventurer, Don Silva de y somebody, who made his +headquarters in Mexico. And that means a trace of Mexican in the race, or +at least Aztec." + +Foster colored. "The son of that Don Silva came north and settled in +California. He brought his peons with him and made a great rancheria. At +the time of the Mexican War, his herds and flocks covered immense ranges. +Hundreds of these cattle must have supplied the United States commissary; +the rest were scattered, and in the end there was little left of the +estate; just a few hundred acres and a battered hacienda. But Mrs. +Weatherbee's father was English; the younger son of an old and knighted +family." + +"I know," answered Tisdale dryly. "Here in the northwest we call such sons +remittance men. They are paid generous allowances, sometimes, to come to +America and stay." + +"That's unfair," Foster flamed. "You have no right to say it. He came to +California when he was just a young fellow to invest a small inheritance. +He doubled it twice in a few years. Then he was persuaded to put his money +in an old, low-grade gold mine. The company made improvements, built a +flume thirty miles long to bring water to the property for development, +but it was hardly finished when a State law was passed prohibiting +hydraulic mining. It practically ruined him. He had nothing to depend on +then but a small annuity." + +"Meantime," supplemented Tisdale, "he had married his Spanish señorita and +her inheritance, the old rancheria, was sunk with his own in the gold +mine. Then he began to play fast and loose with his annuity at the San +Francisco stock exchange." + +"He hoped to make good quickly. He was getting past his prime, with his +daughter's future to be secured. But it got to be a habit and, after the +death of his wife, a passion. His figure was well known on the street; he +was called a plunger. Some days he made fortunes; the next lost them. +Still he was the same distinguished, courteous gentleman to the end." + +"And that came on the stock exchange, after a prolonged strain. David +Weatherbee found him and took him home." Tisdale paused, then went on, +still regarding Foster with that upward look from under his forbidding +brows. "It fell to Weatherbee to break the news to the daughter, and ten +days later, on the eve of his sailing north to Seattle, that marriage was +hurried through." + +There was a silent moment, then Foster said: "Weatherbee loved her, and he +was going to Alaska; it was uncertain when he could return; married, he +might send for her when conditions were fit. And her father's affairs were +a complete wreck; even the annuity stopped at his death, and there wasn't +an acre of her mother's inheritance left. Not a relative to take her in." + +"I know; that is why she married Weatherbee." Tisdale set his lips grimly; +he swung around and strode across the floor. "You see, you can't tell me +anything," he said. "I know all about it. Wait. Listen. I am going over +the mountains and look up that land of Weatherbee's, and I shall probably +buy it, but I want you to understand clearly it is only because I hope to +carry his project through. Now go north, Foster; take a new grip on +things; get to work and let your investments alone." + +After that, when Foster had gone, Tisdale spent a long interval tramping +the floor of his breezy room. The furrows still divided his brows, his +mouth was set, and a dark color burned and glowed through his tan. But +deeper than his angry solicitude for Foster rankled his resentment against +this woman. Who was she, he asked himself, that she should fix her hold on +level-headed Foster? But he knew her kind. Feversham had called her a +"typical American beauty," but there were many types, and he knew her +kind. She was a brunette, of course, showing a swarthier trace of Mexican +with the Spanish, and she would have a sort of personal magnetism. She +might prove dramatic if roused, but those Spanish-California women were +indolent, and they grew heavy early. Big, handsome, voluptuous; just a +splendid animal without a spark of soul. + +He had stopped near the table, and his glance fell on the package in the +ring of light from the shaded lamp. After a moment he lifted it and, +drawing up a chair, seated himself and removed the wrapper. It covered a +tin box such as he was accustomed to use in the wilderness for the +protection and portage of field notes and maps. He raised the lid and took +from the top a heavy paper, which he unfolded and spread before him. It +was Weatherbee's landscape plan, traced with the skill of a draughtsman +and showing plainly the contour of the tract in eastern Washington and his +method of reclamation. The land included a deep pocket set between spurs +of the Cascade Mountains. The ridges and peaks above it had an altitude of +from one to six thousand feet. He found the spring, marked high in a +depressed shoulder, and followed the line of flume drawn from it down to a +natural dry basin at the top of the pocket. A dam was set in the lower rim +of this reservoir and, reaching from it, a canal was sketched in, feeding +cross ditches, distributing spillways to the orchards that covered the +slopes and levels below. Finally he traced the roadway up through the +avenues between the trees, over the bench, to the house that commanded the +valley. The mission walls, the inside court, the roomy, vine-grown +portico, all the detail of foliage here had been elaborated skilfully, +with the touch of an artist. The habitation stood out the central feature +of the picture and, as a good etching will, assumed a certain personality. + +How fond David would have been of a home,--a home and children! Tisdale +folded the plan and sat holding it absently in his hands. His mind ran +back from this final, elaborated copy to the first rough draft Weatherbee +had shown him one night at the beginning of that interminable winter they +had passed together in the Alaska solitudes. He had watched the drawing +and the project grow. But afterwards, when he had taken up geological work +again, they had met only at long intervals; at times he had lost all trace +of Weatherbee, and he had not realized the scheme had such a hold. Still, +he should have understood; he should have had at least a suspicion before +that letter reached him at Nome. And even then he had been blind. With +that written proof in his hands, he had failed to grasp its meaning. The +tragedy! the shame of it! That he should have hesitated,--thrown away four +days. + +He looked off once more to the harbor, and his eyes gathered their +far-sighted expression, as though they went seeking that white trail +through the solitudes stretching limitless under the cold Arctic night. +His face hardened. When finally the features stirred, disturbed by forces +far down, he had come to that make-believe orchard of spruce twigs. + +After a while he folded the drawing to put it away, but as his glance fell +on the contents of the box, he laid the plan on the table to take up the +miner's poke tucked in a corner made by a packet of letters, and drew out +Weatherbee's watch. It was valuable but the large monogram deeply engraved +on the gold case may have made it unnegotiable. That probably was why +David never had parted with it. Tisdale wound it, and set the hands. The +action seemed suddenly to bring Weatherbee close. He felt his splendid +personality there beside him, as he used to feel it still nights up under +the near Yukon stars. It was as though he was back to one night, the last +on a long trail, when they were about to part company. He had been urging +him to come out with him to the States, but Weatherbee had as steadily +refused. "Not yet," he persisted. "Not until I have something to show." +And again: "No, Hollis, don't ask me to throw away all these years. I have +the experience now, and I've got to make good." Then he spoke of his wife-- +for an instant Tisdale seemed to see him once more, bending to hold his +open watch so that the light of the camp-fire played on her picture set in +the lower rim. "You see Alaska is no place for a woman like her," he said, +"but she is worth waiting for and working for. You ought to understand, +Hollis, how the thought of her buoys me through." + +But it was a long time to remember a picture seen only by the flicker of a +camp-fire and starshine, and the woman of Tisdale's imagination clouded +out the face he tried to recall. "Still Weatherbee was so sensitive, so +fine," he argued with himself. "A woman must have possessed more than a +beautiful body to have become the center of his life. She must, at the +start, have possessed some capacity of feeling." + +He put his thumb on the spring to open the lower case, but the image so +clearly fixed in his mind stayed the impulse. "What is the use?" he +exclaimed, and thrusting the watch back into the bag, quickly tied the +string. "I don't want to see you. I don't want to know you," and he added, +pushing the poke into its place and closing the box; "The facts are all +against you." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +SNOQUALMIE PASS AND A BROKEN AXLE + + +Tisdale leaned forward in his seat in the observation car. His rugged +features worked a little, and his eyes had their far-sighted gaze. Scarred +buttes crowded the track; great firs, clinging with exposed roots to the +bluffs, leaned in menace, and above the timber belt granite pyramids and +fingers shone amethyst against the sky; then a giant door closed on this +vestibule of the Pass, and he was in an amphitheatre of lofty peaks. The +eastbound began to wind and lift like a leviathan seeking a way through. +It crept along a tilting shelf, rounded a sheer spur, and ran shrieking +over a succession of trestles, while the noise of the exhausts rang a +continuous challenge from shoulder and crag. Then suddenly a mighty summit +built like a pulpit of the gods closed behind, and a company of still +higher mountains encircled the gorge. Everywhere above the wooded slopes +towered castellated heights and spires. + +Presently a near cliff came between him and the higher view and, with a +lift and drop of his square shoulders, he settled back in his chair. He +drew his hand across his eyes, the humorous lines deepened and, like one +admitting a weakness, he shook his head. It was always so; the sight of +any mountains, a patch of snow on a far blue ridge, set his pulses +singing; wakened the wanderlust for the big spaces in God's out-of-doors. +And this canyon of the Snoqualmie was old, familiar ground. He had served +his surveyor's apprenticeship on these western slopes of the Cascades. He +had triangulated most of these peaks, named some of them, and he had +carried a transit to these headwaters, following his axman often over a +new trail. Now, far, far down between the columns of hemlock and fir, he +caught glimpses of the State road on the opposite bank of the stream that, +like a lost river, went forever seeking a way out, and finally, for an +instant he saw a cabin set like a toy house at the wooden bridge where the +thoroughfare crossed. Then the eastbound, having made a great loop, found +another hidden gateway and moved up to the levels above Lake Keechelus. +The whistle signalled a mountain station, and Tisdale rose and went out to +the platform; when the trucks jolted to a standstill, he swung himself +down to the ground to enjoy a breath of the fine air. + +The next moment he found himself almost upon a wrecked automobile. He saw +in a flash that the road, coming through a cut, crossed the railroad +track, and that in making a quick turn to avoid the end of the slowing +train, the chauffeur had forced the car into the bank. The machine was +still upright, but it listed forward on a broken axle. A young woman who +had kept her seat in the tonneau was nursing a painful wrist, while two +girls, who evidently had come through the accident unscathed, were trying +to help the only man of the party up from the ground. Tisdale bent to give +him the support of his shoulder, and, groaning, the stranger settled +against the side of his car and into a sitting position on the edge of the +floor, easing an injured leg. He had also received an ugly hurt above his +brows, which were heavy and black and met in an angle over a prominent +nose. + +The lady in the tonneau and one of the girls had the same marked features +and the same brilliant dark eyes, though the retreating chin, which in the +man amounted to almost a blemish, in them was modified. But the last one +in the party, whom Tisdale had noticed first, was not like the rest. She +was not like any one in the world he had seen before. From the hem of her +light gray motoring coat to the crown of her big hat, she was a delight to +the eyes. The veil that tied the hat down framed a face full of a piquant +yet delicate charm. She was watching the man huddled against the machine, +and her mouth, parted a little, showed the upper lip short with the upward +curves of a bow. It was as though words were arrested, half spoken, and +her eyes, shadowy under curling dark lashes, held their expression, +uncertain whether to sparkle out or to cloud. + +After a moment the man lifted his head and, meeting her look, smiled. "I'm +all right," he said, "only I've wrenched this knee; sprained it, I guess. +And my head feels like a drum." + +"Oh, I am--glad"--her voice fluctuated softly, but the sparkle broke in +her eyes--"that it isn't worse. Would you like a glass of ice-water from +the train? A porter is coming and the conductor, too. I will ask for +anything." + +He smiled again. "You'll get it, if you do. But what I want most just now +is a glass of that port. Elizabeth," and his glance moved to the other +girl, "where did you put that hamper?" + +Elizabeth, followed by the porter, hurried around to the other side of the +automobile to find the basket, and Tisdale moved a few steps away, waiting +to see if he could be of further service. + +A passenger with a camera and an alert, inquiring face had come down from +the day coach. He wound the film key and focussed for a closer exposure, +but no one noticed him. At that moment all interest centered on the man +who was hurt. "Well," said the conductor at last, having looked the group +and the situation over, "what's the trouble?" + +"Looks like a broken axle, doesn't it? And possibly a broken leg." He +groaned and repeated aggressively: "A broken axle. With the worst of +Snoqualmie Pass before us, and not a garage or a repair shop within fifty +miles." + +"You are in a fix, sure. But this train will take you through the Pass to +Ellensburg, and there ought to be a hospital and a garage there. Or--the +westbound passenger, due at this siding in seven minutes"--the conductor +looked at his watch--"could put you back in Seattle at eight-fifteen." + +"Make it the westbound; no hospital for me. Telegraph for a drawing-room, +conductor, and notify this station agent to ship the machine on the same +train. And, Elizabeth," he paused to take the drinking-cup she had filled, +"you look up a telephone, or if there isn't a long distance, telegraph +James. Tell him to have a couple of doctors, Hillis and Norton, to meet +the eight-fifteen; and to bring the limousine down with plenty of pillows +and comforters." He drained the cup and dropped it into the open hamper. +"Now, porter," he added, "if you hurry up a cocktail, the right sort, +before that westbound gets here, it means a five to you." + +As these various messengers scurried away, the girl who remained picked up +the cup and poured a draught of wine for the lady in the tonneau. "I am so +sorry, but it was the only way. Do you think it is a sprain?" she asked. + +"Yes." The older woman took the cup in her left hand. She had a deep, +carrying voice, and she added, looking at the injured wrist: "It's +swelling frightfully, but it saved my face; I might have had just such a +hideous wound as Frederic's. Isn't it a relief to hear him talking so +rationally?" + +The girl nodded. "He seems quite himself," she said gravely. But she +turned to cover the mirth in her eyes; it suffused her face, her whole +charming personality. Then suddenly, at the moment the flow was highest, +came the ebb. Her glance met Tisdale's clear, appraising look, and she +stood silent and aloof. + +He looked away and, after a moment, seeing nothing further to do, started +back to his train. She turned to take the empty cup, and as she closed the +hamper the whistle of the westbound sounded through the gorge. + +Tisdale walked on through the observation car to the rear platform and +stood looking absently off through an aisle of Alpine firs that, parklike, +bordered the track. It was a long time since the sight of a pretty woman +had so quickened his blood. He had believed that for him this sort of +thing was over, and he laughed at himself a little. + +The westbound rumbled to a stop on the parallel track, he felt the trucks +under him start, and an unaccountable depression came over him; the next +moment he heard a soft voice directing the porter behind him, and as +unaccountably his heart rose. The girl came on through the open door and +stopped beside him, bracing herself with one hand on the railing, while +she waved her handkerchief to the group she had left. He caught a faint, +clean perfume suggesting violets, the wind lifted the end of her veil +across his shoulder, and something of her exhilaration was transmitted to +the currents in his veins. "Good-by, Elizabeth," she called. "Good-by. +Good-by." + +Some trainmen were getting the injured man aboard the westbound passenger, +and the lady who had left the wrecked automobile to go with him sent back +a sonorous "Au revoir." But Elizabeth, who was hurrying down from the +station where she had accomplished her errand, turned in astonishment to +look after the speeding eastbound. Then a rocky knob closed all this from +sight. + +The girl on the platform turned, and Tisdale moved a little to let her +pass. At the same time the lurching of the car, as it swung to the curve, +threw her against him. It all happened very quickly; he steadied her with +his arm, and she drew back in confusion; he raised his hand to his head +and, remembering he had left his hat in his seat, a flush shaded through +his tan. Then, "I beg your pardon," she said and hurried by him through +the door. + +Tisdale stood smoothing his wind-ruffled hair and watching the receding +cliff. "Her eyes are hazel," he thought, "with turquoise lights. I never +heard of such a combination, but--it's fine." + +A little later, when he went in to take his seat, he found her in the +chair across the aisle. The train was skirting the bluffs of Keechelus +then, and she had taken off her coat and hat and sat watching the +unfolding lake. His side glance swept her slender, gray-clad figure to the +toe of one trim shoe, braced lightly on her footstool, and returned to her +face. In profile it was a new delight. One caught the upward curl of her +black lashes; the suggestion of a fault in the tip of her high, yet +delicately chiseled nose; the piquant curve of her short upper lip; the +full contour of the lifted chin. Her hair, roughened some, was soft and +fine and black with bluish tones. + +The temptation to watch her was very great, and Tisdale squared his +shoulders resolutely and swung his chair more towards his own window, +which did not afford a view of the lake. He wanted to see this new +railroad route through the Cascades. This Pass of Snoqualmie had always +been his choice of a transcontinental line. And he was approaching new +territory; he never had pushed down the eastern side from the divide. He +had chosen this roundabout way purposely, with thirty miles of horseback +at the end, when the Great Northern would have put him directly into the +Wenatchee Valley and within a few miles of that tract of Weatherbee's he +was going to see. + +There were few travelers in the observation car, and for a while nothing +broke the silence but the clamp and rush of the wheels on the down-grade, +then the man with a camera entered and came down the aisle as far as the +new passenger's chair. "I hope you'll excuse me," he said, "I'm Daniels, +representing the _Seattle Press_, and I thought you would like to see this +story go in straight." + +Tisdale swung his chair a little towards the open rear door, so that he +was able to watch without seeming to see the progress of the comedy. He +was quick enough to catch the sweeping look she gave the intruder, aloof +yet fearless, as though she saw him across an invisible barrier. "You mean +you are a reporter," she asked quietly, "and are writing an account of the +accident for your newspaper?" + +"Yes." Daniels dropped his cap into the next chair and seated himself +airily on the arm. The camera swung by a carrying strap from his shoulder, +and he opened a notebook, which he supported on his knee while he felt in +his pocket for a pencil. "Of course I recognized young Morganstein; +everybody knows him and that chocolate car; he's been run in so often for +speeding about town. And I suppose he was touring through Snoqualmie Pass +to the races at North Yakima fair. There should be some horses there worth +going to see." + +"We meant to spend a day or two at the fair," she admitted, "but we +expected to motor on, exploring a little in the neighborhood." + +"I see. Up the valley to have a look at the big irrigation dam the +Government is putting in and maybe on to see the great Tieton bore. That +would have been a fine trip; sorry you missed it." Daniels paused to place +several dots and hooks on his page. "I recognized Miss Morganstein, too," +he went on, "though she was too busy to notice me. I met her when I was +taking my course in journalism at the State University; danced with her at +the Junior Prom. And the other lady, whose wrist was sprained, must have +been her sister, Mrs. Feversham. I was detailed to interview the new +Alaska delegate when he passed through Seattle, and I understood his wife +was to join him later. She was stopping over for a visit, and the society +editor called my attention to a mighty good picture of her in last +Sunday's issue. Do you know?--" he paused, looking into the girl's face +with a curious scrutiny, "there was another fine reproduction on that page +that you might have posed for. The lady served tea or punch or did +something at the same affair. But I can't remember her name--I've tried +ever since we left that station--though seems to me it was a married one." + +"I remember the picture you mean; I remember. And I was there. It was a +bridge-luncheon at the Country Club in honor of Mrs. Feversham. And she-- +the lady you were reminded of--won the prize. So you think I resemble that +photograph?" She tipped her head back a little, holding his glance with +her half-veiled eyes. "What an imagination!" + +"Of course if you did pose for that picture, it doesn't do you half +justice; I admit that. But"--regarding her with a wavering doubt--"I guess +I've been jumping at conclusions again. They call me the 'Novelist' at the +office." He paused, laughing off a momentary embarrassment. "That's why I +didn't want to depend on getting your name from the society editor." + +"I am glad you did not. It would have been very annoying, I'm sure--to the +lady. I suppose," she went on slowly, while the glamour grew in her eyes, +"I suppose nothing could induce you to keep this story out of the +_Press_." + +He pursed his lips and shook his head decidedly. "I don't see how I can. +I'd do 'most anything to oblige you, but this is the biggest scoop I ever +fell into. The fellows detailed by the other papers to report the fair +went straight through by way of the Northern Pacific. I was the only +reporter at the wreck." + +"I understand, but," her voice fluctuated softly, "I dislike publicity so +intensely. Of course it's different with Mrs. Feversham. She is accustomed +to newspaper notice; her husband and brother are so completely in the +public eye. But since you must use the story, couldn't you suppress my +name?" + +"Oh, but how could I? The whole story hinges on you. You were driving the +machine. I saw you from the train window as you came through the cut. You +handled the gear like an imported chauffeur, but it was steep there on the +approach, and the car began to skid. I saw in a flash what was going to +happen; it made me limp as a rag. But there was a chance,--the merest +hairbreadth, and you took it." He waited a moment, then said, smiling: +"That was a picture worth snapping, but I was too batty to think of it in +time. You see," he went on seriously, "the leading character in this story +is you. And it means a lot to me. I was going to be fired; honest I was. +The old man told me he wasn't looking for any _Treasure Island_ genius; +what his paper needed was plain facts. Then his big heart got the upper +hand, and he called me back. 'Jimmie,' he said, 'there's good stuff in +you, and I am going to give you one more trial. Go over to North Yakima +and tell us about the fair. Take the new Milwaukee line as far as +Ellensburg and pick up something about the automobile road through +Snoqualmie Pass. But remember, cut out the fiction; keep to facts!'" + +"I understand," she repeated gravely, "I understand. The accident came +opportunely. It was life and color to your setting and demonstrates the +need of a better road. The most I can hope is that you will not exaggerate +or--or put us in a ridiculous light." + +"I swear to that." He settled his notebook again on his knee and lifted +his pencil. "Nothing sensational," he added, "nothing annoying; now please +give me your name." + +"Well, then, write Miss Armitage." + +"Miss Armitage. Thank you. Miss Armitage of?" + +"San Francisco." + +"Of San Francisco; and visiting the Morgansteins, of course. But going on +now alone to meet the friends who are expecting you--am I right?--at North +Yakima." + +There was a brief silence, and she moved a little in her chair. "Where I +am going now," she said, and looked at him once more across the invisible +barrier, "is another story." + +"I beg your pardon." Daniels laughed and, rising from his perch on the +chair arm, put his notebook in his pocket. "And I'm awfully grateful. If +ever I can be of service to you, I hope you'll let me know." He started up +the car, then paused to say over his shoulder: "The light for photography +was fine; the old man will double column every illustration." + +"Illustrations?" She started up in dismay. "Oh, no. Please--I couldn't +endure--" + +But Jimmie Daniels, with the camera swinging to his quick step, hurried on +to the vestibule. + +She settled back in her seat, and for a moment her consternation grew; +then the humor of the situation must have dawned on her, for suddenly the +sparkles danced in her eyes. Her glance met Tisdale's briefly and, +suppress it as he tried, his own smile broke at the corners of his mouth. +He rose and walked out again to the platform. + +This was the rarest woman on earth. She was able to appreciate a joke at +her own expense. Clearly she had finessed, then, in the instant she had +been sure of the game, she had met and accepted defeat with a smile. But +he would like to discipline that fellow Daniels;--here he frowned--those +films should be destroyed. Still, the boy would hardly give them up +peaceably and to take them otherwise would not spare her the publicity she +so desired to avoid; such a scene must simply furnish fresh material, a +new chapter to the story. After all, not one newspaper cut in a hundred +could be recognized. It was certain she was in no need of a champion; he +never had seen a woman so well equipped, so sure of herself and her +weapons, and yet so altogether feminine. If Foster had but known _her_. + +Instantly, in sharp contrast to this delightful stranger, rose the woman +of his imagination; the idle spendthrift who had cast her spell over +level-headed Foster; who had wrecked David Weatherbee; and his face +hardened. A personal interview, he told himself presently, would be worse +than useless. There was no way to reach a woman like her; she was past +appeal. But he would take that tract of desert off her hands at her price, +and perhaps, while the money lasted, she would let Foster alone. + +The train had left Lake Keechelus and was racing easily down the banks of +the Yakima. He was entering the country he had desired to see, and soon +his interest wakened. He seated himself to watch the heights that seemed +to move in quick succession like the endlessly closing gates of the Pass. +The track still ran shelf-wise along precipitous knobs and ridges; +sometimes it bored through. The forests of fir and hemlock were replaced +by thinning groves of pine; then appeared the first bare, sage-mottled +dune. The trucks rumbled over a bit of trestle, and for an instant he saw +the intake of an irrigating canal, and finally, after a last tunnel, the +eastbound steamed out of the canyon into a broad, mountain-locked plateau. +Everywhere, watered by the brimming ditch, stretched fields of vivid +alfalfa or ripe grain. Where the harvesting was over, herds of fine horses +and cattle or great flocks of sheep were turned in to browse on the +stubble. At rare intervals a sage-grown breadth of unreclaimed land, like +a ragged blemish, divided these farms. Then, when the arid slopes began to +crowd again, the train whistled Ellensburg on the lower rim of the plain. + +Tisdale left his seat to lean over the railing and look ahead. He was in +time to catch a fleeting glimpse of Jimmie Daniels as he hurried out of +the telegraph office and sprang on the step of a starting bus. It was here +the young newspaper man was to transfer to the Northern Pacific, and +doubtless the girl too was changing trains. The Milwaukee, beyond +Ellensburg, passed through new, unbroken country for many miles; the +stations were all in embryo, and even though she may not have resumed her +journey at the Pass with the intention of stopping off at the fair, the +same bus was probably taking her over to the old, main traveled route down +the Yakima to the Columbia. + +Again that unaccountable depression came over him. He tried to throw it +off, laughing at himself a little and lighting a cigar. This pretty woman +had happened in his path like a flower; she had pleased his eyes for a few +hours and was gone. But what possible difference could her coming and +going make to him? + +The train started, and he settled back in his seat. The fertile fields +were left behind, then presently the eastbound steamed through a gap in a +sun-baked ridge and entered a great arid level. Sage-brush stretched +limitless, and the dull green of each bush, powdered with dust, made a +grayer blotch on the pale shifting soil, that every chance zephyr lifted +in swirls and scattered like ashes. Sometimes a whiter patch showed where +alkali streaked through. It was like coming into an old, worn-out world. +The sun burned pitilessly, and when finally the train had crossed this +plain and began to wind through lofty dunes, the heat pent between the +slopes became stifling. The rear platform was growing intolerable, and he +knew his station could not be far off. He rose to go in, but the eastbound +suddenly plunged into the coolness of a tunnel, and he waited while it +bored through to daylight and moved on along a shelf overlooking a dry +run. Then, as he turned to the open door, he saw the girl had not taken +the Northern Pacific at Ellensburg. She was still there in the observation +car. + +Her eyes were closed, and he noticed as he went forward that her breast +rose and fell gently; the shorter, loose hair formed damp, cool little +rings on her forehead and about her ears. She was sleeping in her chair. +But a turn in the track brought the sun streaming through her window; the +polished ceiling reflected the glare, and he stopped to reach carefully +and draw the blind. A moment later the whistle shrieked, and the conductor +called his station. He hurried on up the aisle and, finding his satchel in +the vestibule, stood waiting until the car jolted to a stop, then swung +himself off. But the porter followed with a suitcase and placed his stool, +and the next instant the girl appeared. She carried her hat in her hands, +her coat was tucked under her arm, and as she stepped down beside Tisdale, +the bell began to ring, the porter sprang aboard, and the train went +speeding ahead. + +The station was only a telegraph office, flanked by a water-tank on a +siding. There was no waiting hotel bus, no cab, no vehicle of any kind. +The small building rose like an islet out of a gray sea. Far off through +billowing swells one other islet appeared, but these two passengers the +eastbound had left were like a man and woman marooned. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +APPLES OF EDEN + + +Tisdale stood looking after the train while the girl's swift, startled +glance swept the billowing desert and with growing dismay searched the +draw below the station. "There isn't a town in sight!" she exclaimed, and +her lip trembled. "Not a taxi or even a stage!" And she added, moving and +lifting her eyes to meet his: "What am I to do?" + +"I'll do my best, madam," he paused, and the genial lines broke lightly in +his face, "but I could find out quicker if I knew where you want to go." + +"To Wenatchee. And I tho--ought--I understood--the conductor told me you +were going there, and this was your stop. It was his first trip over the +new Milwaukee, and we trusted--to you." + +Tisdale pursed his lips, shaking his head slowly. "I guess I am +responsible. I did tell that conductor I was going to Wenatchee when I +asked him to drop me at this siding, but I should have explained I +expected to find a saddle-horse here and take a cut-off to strike the +Ellensburg road. It should save an hour." He drew a Government map of the +quadrangle of that section from his pocket and opened it. "You see, your +stop was Ellensburg; the only through road starts there." He found the +thoroughfare and began to trace it with his forefinger. "It crosses rugged +country; follows the canyons through these spurs of the Cascades. They +push down sheer to the Columbia. See the big bend it makes, flowing south +for miles along the mountains trying to find a way out to the Pacific. The +river ought to be off there." He paused and swung on his heel to look +eastward. "It isn't far from this station. But even if we reached it, it +would be up-stream, against a succession of rapids, from here to +Wenatchee. A boat would be impossible." He folded the plat and put it +away, then asked abruptly: "Do you ride, madam?" + +She gave him a swift side-glance and looked off in the direction of the +hidden Columbia. "Sometimes--but I haven't a riding habit." + +Tisdale waited. The humor deepened a little at the corners of his mouth. +There was but one passenger train each way daily on the newly opened +Milwaukee road, and plainly she could not remain at this siding alone all +night; yet she was debating the propriety of riding through the mountains +to Wenatchee with him. Then unexpectedly the click of a telegraph cut the +stillness, and a sudden brightness leaped in her face. "A station master," +she cried; "perhaps there's a telephone." And she hurried up the platform +to the open office door. + +Tisdale slowly followed. + +The station master, having transmitted his message, swung around on his +stool, and got to his feet in astonishment on seeing the girl. + +"I have made a mistake," she said, with a wavering glance over the +interior, "and I tho--ought, I hoped there was a telephone. But you can +communicate with the nearest garage for me, can you not? Or a stable--or-- +somewhere. You see," and for an instant the coquetry of a pretty woman who +knows she is pretty beamed in her eyes, "I really must have a taxicab or +some kind of a carriage to take me back to Ellensburg." + +The station master, who was a very young man, answered her smile and, +reaching to take a coat from a peg on the wall, hastily slipped it on. "Of +course I could call up Ellensburg," he said; "that's the nearest for a +machine. But it belongs to the doctor, and even if he was in town and +could spare it, it would take till dark to bring it down. It's a mean road +over sandhills for thirty-five miles." + +"It is hardly farther than that to Wenatchee," said Tisdale quietly. "With +good saddle-horses we should be able to make it as soon. Do you know +anything about the trail through to tap the Ellensburg-Wenatchee highway?" + +The station master came around the end of his desk. "So you are going to +Wenatchee," he exclaimed, and his face shone with a sort of inner glow. "I +guess then you must have heard about Hesperides Vale; the air's full of +it, and while land is selling next to nothing you want to get in on the +ground floor. Yes, sir," his voice quickened, "I own property over there, +and I came that way, up the mountain road, in the spring to take this +position when the Milwaukee opened. But I don't know much about your +cut-off; I just kept on to Ellensburg and dropped down by train from there. +The main road, though, was in pretty good shape. It's the old stage road +that used to connect with the Northern Pacific, and they had to do some +mighty heavy hauling over it while the mountain division of the Great +Northern was building up the Wenatchee. It keeps an easy grade, following +the canyons up and up till it's six thousand feet at the divide, then you +begin to drop to the Columbia. And when you leave the woods, it's like +this again, bunch grass and sage, sand and alkali, for twenty miles. Of +course there isn't a regular stage now; you have to hire." + +"Any road-houses?" asked Tisdale briefly. + +"No, but you come across a ranch once in awhile, and any of them would +take a man in over night--or a lady." + +Tisdale turned to the door. "I can find saddle-horses, I presume, at that +ranch off there through the draw. Is it the nearest?" + +"The nearest and the only one." The station master walked on with him to +the platform. "It's a new place. They are working two teams, every day and +Sunday, while daylight lasts, grubbing out the sage-brush for planting. +It's a pumping layout to bring water from the Columbia, and they are +starting with forty acres all in apples." + +"But they have saddle-horses?" said Tisdale, frowning. + +"I can't tell you that. The fellow I talked with came over for freight and +used one of the teams. Said they couldn't spare it. But that's your only +chance. I don't know of any other horses in twenty miles, unless it's a +wild band that passed this morning. They stopped down the draw, nosing out +the bunch grass for an hour or two, then skidooed." + +Tisdale paused a thoughtful moment then asked: "When is the next freight +due on this siding?" + +"Two-forty-five. And say"--he slapped his knee at the sudden thought-- +"that's your chance, sure. I have orders to hold them for the eastbound +silk train, and they'll let you ride in the caboose up to Kittitas. That's +the stop this side of Ellensburg, and there's a livery there, with a +cross-road to strike the Ellensburg-Wenatchee. But, say! If you do drop +off at Kittitas, ask Lighter to show you the colts. They are the star team +in three counties. Took the prize at North Yakima last year for +three-year-olds. They're too fly for livery work, but if you can drive, +and Lighter likes your looks"--the station master gave Tisdale a careful +scrutiny--"and you have his price, I shouldn't wonder if you could hire +Nip and Tuck." + +Tisdale laughed. "I see. If I can't hire them, I may be allowed the +privilege to buy them. But," and he looked at his watch, "there's time to +try that ranch." + +He started down the platform then stopped to look back at the girl who had +followed a few steps from the threshold. Her eyes held their expression of +uncertainty whether to sparkle or to cloud, and he read the arrested +question on her lips. "If there are any saddle-horses," he answered, "I +will have them here before that two-forty-five freight arrives, but," and +he smiled, "I am not so sure I can supply the proper riding-suit. And the +most I hope for in saddles is just a small Mexican." + +"A Mexican is easy riding," she said, "on a mountain road." But she stood +watching him, with the uncertainty still clouding her face, while he moved +down the draw. + +He wore the suit of gray corduroy it was his habit to wear in open +country, with leggings of russet leather, and he traveled very swiftly, +with a long, easy stride, though never rapidly enough to wholly escape the +dust he disturbed. Once he stopped and bent to fasten a loose strap, and +then he took off his coat, which he folded to carry. The pall of dust +enveloped him. In it his actions gathered mystery, and his big frame +loomed indistinctly like the figure of a genii in a column of smoke. The +fancy must have occurred to the watcher on the platform, for it was then +the sparkles broke in her eyes, and she said aloud, softly clapping her +hands: "I wish--I wish it to be Nip and Tuck." + +"So do I." She started and turned, and the station master smiled. "They're +beauties, you can take my word. It would be the drive of your life." + +He carried his office chair around the corner of the building to place for +her in the shade. Then his instrument called him, and for an interval she +was left alone. The desert stretched before her, limitless, in the glare +of the afternoon sun. If the Columbia flowed in that neighborhood, it was +hidden by sand dunes and decomposing cliffs of granite. There was no +glimpse of water anywhere, not a green blade; even the bunch grass, that +grew sparsely between the sage-brush through the draw, was dry and gray. +For a while no sound but the click of the telegraph disturbed the great +silence, then a hot wind came wailing out of the solitudes and passed into +a fastness of the mountains. + +Finally the station master returned. "Well," he said genially, "how are +you making it? Lonesome, I guess." + +"Oh," she exclaimed, "how can you, how could any human being, live in this +dead, worn-out world?" + +"It is desolate now," he admitted, sending a thoughtful glance over the +arid waste; "it must seem like the Great Sahara to you, coming into it for +the first time and directly from the Puget Sound country. I remember how I +felt when I struck the Hesperides. Why, it looked like the front door of +Hades to me; I said so, and I called myself all kinds of a fool. But I had +sunk an even thousand dollars in a twenty-acre tract; bought it off a real +estate map over in Seattle, without seeing the ground." He laughed, half +in embarrassment at the confession, and moved to take a more comfortable +position against the wall. "I was in a railroad office in Chicago," he +explained, "and my father expected me to work up to the responsible +position he held with the company and take it when he was through. But the +western fever caught me; I wanted to come to Washington and grow with the +country. He couldn't talk me out of it; so he gave me that thousand +dollars and told me to go and to stay till I made good." + +"Oh," she cried, "how hard! How miserable! And you?" + +"Why, I stayed. There wasn't anything else to do. And after I looked +around the valley a little and saw the Peshastin ditch and what it could +do, I got busy. I found work; did anything that turned up and saved like a +miser, until I was able to have the land cleared of sagebrush. It has mean +roots, you know, sprawling in all directions like the branches. Then I +saved to make connections with the ditch and to buy trees. I set the whole +twenty acres to apples--I always did like a good apple, and I had sized up +the few home orchards around Wenatchee--then I put in alfalfa for a +filler, and that eased things, and I settled down to office work, small +pay, lots of time to plan, and waited for my trees to grow. That was four +years ago, five since I struck the Wenatchee valley, and this season they +came into bearing. Now, at the end of this month, I am giving up my +position with the Milwaukee, cutting railroading for good, to go over and +superintend the harvesting. And say"--he stood erect, the inner glow +illumined his face--"I've had an offer for my crop; three hundred and +fifty dollars an acre for the fruit on the trees. Three hundred and fifty +dollars for a four-year-old orchard! Think of that! Seven thousand clear +for re-investment." + +"How splendid!" she said, and in that instant her face seemed to catch and +reflect his enthusiasm. "To have waited, fought like that in the face of +defeat, and to have made good." + +"And it's only the beginning," his voice caught a little; "an apple +orchard has bigger results every year after maturity. There's a man over +there on the Wenatchee who is going to make a thousand dollar profit on +each acre of his twelve-year orchard. You ought to see those trees, all +braced up with scaffolding, only fourteen acres of them, but every branch +loaded. But that orchard is an exception; they had to lift water from the +river with buckets and a wheel, and most of the pioneers put in grain. +Their eyes are just beginning to open. But think of Hesperides Vale in +another five years. And think what that High Line ditch means. Just +imagine it! Water, all you can use and running to waste; water spilling +over in this sage-brush desert. Doesn't it spell oasis? Think of it! Grass +and flowers and shade in place of this sunbaked sand and alkali." + +"It sounds like a fairy tale," she said. "I can hardly believe it." + +"I'll show you." He hurried around to the office door and came back +directly with a basket of fruit. "Here are a few samples from my trees. +Did you ever see pink like that in a bellflower? Isn't it pretty enough +for a girl's cheek? And say," he held up an exceedingly large apple, +nearer the size of a small pumpkin, "how's this for a Rome Beauty? An +agent who is selling acreage for a company down the Yakima offered me five +dollars for that apple yesterday. He wanted it for a window display over +at his Seattle office. But look at these Jonathans." His sensitive fingers +touched the fruit lingeringly with a sort of caress, and the glow deepened +in his face. "They represent the main crop. And talk about color! Did you +ever see wine and scarlet and gold blend and shade nicer than this?" + +She shook her head. "Unless it was in a Puget Sound cloud effect at +sunset. That is what it reminds me of; a handful of Puget Sound sunset." + +The station master laughed softly. "That's about it, sure. Now taste one +and tell me what the flavor of a Wenatchee Jonathan is like. No, that's +not quite ripe; try this." + +She set her small white teeth in the crimson cheek and tested the flavor +deliberately, with the gravity of an epicure, while the boy watched her, +his whole nervous frame keyed by her responsiveness to high pitch. "It's +like nothing else in the world," she said finally. "No, wait, yes, it is. +It's like condensed wine; a blend of the best; golden Angelica, red port, +amber champagne, with just enough of old-fashioned cider to remind you it +is an apple." + +The station master laughed again. "Say, but you've got it all in, fine." +He set the basket at her feet and stood looking down at her an uncertain +moment. "I would like awfully well to send you a box," he added, and the +flush of his bellflower was reflected in his cheek. + +She gave him a swift upward glance and turned her face to the desert. +"Thank you, but when one is traveling, it is hard to give a certain +address." In the pause that followed, she glanced again and smiled. "I +would like one or two of these samples, though, if you can spare them," +she compromised; "I shall be thirsty on that mountain road." + +"I can spare all you'll take." + +"Thank you," she repeated hastily. "And you may be sure I shall look for +your orchard when I reach Wenatchee. The fruit on the trees must be +beautiful." + +"It is. It's worth the drive up from Wenatchee just to see Hesperides +Vale, and that special Eden of mine is the core. You couldn't miss it; +about ten miles up and right on the river road." + +"I shall find it," she nodded brightly. "I am going that way to see a wild +tract in a certain pocket of the valley. I wonder"--she started and turned +a little to give him her direct look--"if by any possibility it could be +brought under your Peshastin ditch?" + +He shook his head. "Hardly. I wouldn't count on it. Most of those pockets +back in the benches are too high. Some of them are cut off by ridges from +one to six thousand feet. Maybe your agent will talk of pumping water from +the canal, but don't you bite. It means an expensive electric plant and +several miles of private flume. And perhaps he will show you how easy it's +going to be to tap the new High Line that's building down the Wenatchee +and on to the plateau across the Columbia thirty miles. But it's a big +proposition to finance; in places they'll have to bore through granite +cliffs; and if the day ever comes when it's finished far enough to benefit +your tract, I doubt the water would reach your upper levels. And say, what +is the use of letting him talk you into buying a roof garden when, for one +or two hundred dollars an acre, you can still get in on the ground floor?" + +She did not answer. Her eyes were turned again to the desert, and a sudden +weariness clouded her face. In that moment she seemed older, and the +strong light brought out two lines delicately traced at the corners of her +beautiful mouth that had not been apparent before. + +"But, say," the young man went on eagerly, "let me tell you a little more +about the Vale. It's sheltered in there. The mountains wall it in, and you +don't get the fierce winds off the Columbia desert. The snow never drifts; +it lies flat as a carpet all winter. And we don't have late frosts; never +have to stay up all night watching smudge pots to keep the trees warm. And +those steep slopes catch the early spring sun and cast it off like big +reflectors; things start to grow before winter is gone. And I don't know +what makes it so, but the soil on those low Wenatchee benches is a little +different from any other. It looks like the Almighty made his hot beds +there, all smooth and level, and just forgot to turn the water on. And +take a project like the Peshastin, run by a strong company with plenty of +capital; the man along the canal only has to pay his water rate, so much +an irrigated acre; nothing towards the plant, nothing for flume +construction and repairs. And, say, I don't want to bore you, I don't want +to influence you too far, but I hate to see a woman--a lady--throw her +money away right in sight of a sure proposition; even if you can't go into +improved orchards, any Hesperides investment is safe. It means at least +double the price to you within two years. I've bonded forty acres more of +wild land joining my tract, and I shall plant thirty of it in the fall. +The last ten will be cleared and reserved for speculation. The piece comes +within a stone's throw of the Great Northern's tracks. There's a siding +there now, and when the Vale comes into full bearing, they are bound to +make it a shipping station. Then I'm going to plat that strip into town +lots and put it on the market." He paused while her glance, returning from +the desert, met his in a veiled side-look, and the flush of the bellflower +again tinged his cheek. "I mean," he added, "I'd be mighty glad to let you +in." + +The blue sparkles played under her lashes. "Thank you, it sounds like +riches, but--" + +She stopped, leaving the excuse unsaid. The station master had turned his +face suddenly towards the Columbia; he was not listening to her. Then, +presently, the sound that had caught his alert ear reached her own +faintly. Somewhere out in the solitudes a train had whistled. "The +westbound freight!" she exclaimed softly. "Isn't it the westbound +freight?" + +He nodded. "She's signalling Beverley. They'll call me in a minute." And +he started around to the office door. + +She rose and followed to the corner to look for Tisdale. Midway the road +doubled a knoll and was lost, to reappear, a paler streak, on the gray +slope where the ranch house stood; and it was there, at the turn, she +first noticed a cloud of dust. It advanced rapidly, but for a while she +was not able to determine whether it enveloped a rider or a man on foot; +she was certain there was no led horse. Then a gust of wind parted the +cloud an instant, and the sparkle suffused her whole face. He was +returning as she had hoped, afoot. + +She stood watching the moving cloud; the man's bulk began to detach from +it and gathered shape. Between pauses, the click of the telegraph reached +her, then suddenly the shriek of the whistle cut the stillness. The train +must have crossed the Columbia and was winding up through the dunes. She +went along the platform and picked up her hat, which she had left on the +suitcase with her coat. While she pinned it on and tied her veil over it, +the freight signalled twice. It was so close she caught the echo of the +thundering trucks from some rocky cut. When the call sounded a third time, +it brought an answer from the silk special, far off in the direction of +Ellensburg. She lifted her coat and turned again to watch Tisdale. He had +quickened his pace, but a shade of suspense subdued the light in her face. + +Since the whistle of the special, the telegraph instrument had remained +silent, and presently she heard the station master's step behind her. +"Well," he said, "it's Nip and Tuck, sure. But say, he can sprint some. +Does it easy, too, like one of those cross-country fellows out of a +college team. I'd back him against the freight." + +"If he misses it," and the suspense crept into her voice, "I must go +without him, and I suppose I can be sure of a hotel at Ellensburg?" + +"You'll find fair accommodations at Kittitas. But he isn't going to miss +the freight, and it will be hours saved to you if Lighter lets you have +the colts." + +She lifted her coat, and he held it while she slipped her arms in the +sleeves. "I've 'most forgotten how to do this," he said; "it's so long +since I've seen a girl--or a lady. I'm afraid I've bored you a lot, but +you don't know how I've enjoyed it. It's been an epoch seeing you in this +wilderness." + +"It's been very interesting to me, I'm sure," she replied gravely. "I've +learned so much. I wonder if, should I come this way again, I would find +all this desert blossoming?" + +"I shouldn't be surprised; settlement's bound to follow a new railroad. +But say, look into Hesperides Vale while you are at Wenatchee, and if my +proposition seems good to you at one hundred dollars an acre, and that is +what I'm paying, drop me a line. My name is Bailey. Henderson Bailey, +Post-Office, Wenatchee, after the end of the month." + +He waited with expectation in his frank brown eyes, but the girl stood +obliviously watching Tisdale. He reached the platform and stopped, +breathing deep and full, while he shook the dust from his hat. "I am +sorry, madam," he said, "but their only saddle-horse pulled his rope-stake +this morning and went off with the wild herd. You will have to take this +freight back to Kittitas." + +"How disappointing!" she exclaimed. "And you were forced to tramp back +directly through this heat and dust." + +"This is the lightest soil I ever stepped on"--he glanced down over his +powdered leggings and shoes; the humor broke gently in his face--"and +there's just one kind deeper,--the Alaska tundra." + +With this he hurried by her to the office. Presently the freight whistled +the siding, and Bailey picked up the baggage and went down to make +arrangements with the trainmen. The girl followed, and when Tisdale came +back, she stood framed in the doorway of the waiting caboose, while a +brakeman dusted a chair, which he placed adroitly facing outside, so that +she might forget the unmade bunks and greasy stove. "It isn't much on +accommodations," he said conciliatingly, "but you can have it all to +yourselves; as far as you go, it's your private car." + +The other train thundered into the station and past; the freight began to +move, and Tisdale swung himself aboard. Then the station master, +remembering the apples at the last moment, ran with the basket, crowned +still by the Rome Beauty for which he had refused five dollars, and +dropped it as a parting tribute at her feet. + +"Thank you! Thank you for everything!" Her soft voice fluted back to +Bailey, and she leaned forward a little, raising her hand with a parting +salute. "Good-by!" + +Then, as she settled back in her chair, her swift side-glance swept +Tisdale. It was incredible he had removed so much dust in that brief +interval, but plainly, somewhere in that miserable station, he had found +water and towels; he had not seemed more fit that morning in the +observation car. The hand he laid on the wall as a brace against the +rocking of the light caboose was on a level with her eyes, and they rested +there. It was a strong, well-made hand, the hand of the capable +draughtsman, sensitive yet controlled, and scrupulously cared for. "I hope +I pass muster," he said, and the amusement played gently in his face, "for +I am going to venture to introduce myself. Possibly you have heard Judge +Feversham speak of me. I am Hollis Tisdale--Miss Armitage." + +In the instant he hesitated on the name, she gave him another swift upward +glance, and he caught a question in her eyes; then the sparkles rose, and +she looked off again to the point where the railroad track was lost among +the dunes. "Of course I have heard of you," she admitted. "We--Mrs. +Feversham--recognized you this morning in Snoqualmie Pass and would have +spoken to thank you for your service had you not hurried aboard your +train. She has known you by sight and has wished to meet you personally a +long time. But I--I--as you must know--I--" + +She had turned once more to give him the direct look of her unveiled eyes, +and meeting his her voice failed. The color flamed and went in her face; +then, her glance falling to the basket at her feet, she bent and took the +largest apple. "Did you ever see such a marvel?" she asked. "It came from +that station master's orchard in the Wenatchee valley. He called it a Rome +Beauty. Divide it, please; let us see if the flavor is all it promises." + +"If it is"--and Tisdale took the apple and felt in his pocket for his +knife--"the ground that grew the tree is a bonanza." He waited another +moment, watching the changing color in her face, then turned and walked to +the upper end of the caboose, where he deliberately selected a stool which +he brought forward to the door. Her confusion puzzled him. Had she been +about to confess, as he had at first conjectured, that Miss Armitage was +an incognito used to satisfy the _Press_ reporter and so avoid publicity? +It was clear she had thought better of the impulse, and he told himself, +as he took the seat beside her and opened his knife, he was to have no +more of her confidence than Jimmie Daniels. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +NIP AND TUCK + + +Bailey was right; the colts were beauties. But at the time Tisdale arrived +at the Kittitas stables, Lighter, having decided to drive them to North +Yakima, was putting the pair to a smart buggy. They were not for hire at +double or treble the usual day rate. + +"I want to sell this team," the trader repeated flatly. "I don't want to +winter 'em again, and my best chance to show 'em is now, down at the fair. +I can keep 'em in good shape, making it in two stages and resting 'em over +night on the road, and be there by noon to-morrow." + +One of the horses reared, lifting the stable-boy off his feet, and Lighter +sprang to take the bit in his powerful grasp. "Steady, Tuck, steady! Whoa, +whoa, back now, back, steady, whoa!" The animal stood, frothing a little, +his beautiful coat moist, every muscle tense. "See there, now! Ain't he +peaceable? Nothing mean under his whole hide; just wants to go. The other +one will nip your fingers once in a while, if you don't watch out, but he +don't mean anything, either; it's all in fun." + +He gave his place to the boy again and stepped back to Tisdale's side, +still watching his team, while a second stableman hurried to fasten the +traces. "The fact is," he went on, dropping his voice confidentially, +"I've got wind of a customer. He's driving through from the Sound to the +races in his machine. A friend of mine wired me. Mebbe you know him. It's +one of those Morgansteins of Seattle; the young feller. He saw these bays +last year when they took the blue ribbon and said he'd keep an eye on 'em. +They were most too fly then for crowded streets and spinning around the +boulevard 'mongst the automobiles, but they're pretty well broke now. +Steady, Nip, whoa there!" + +"But," said Tisdale quietly, "young Morganstein met with an accident this +morning in Snoqualmie Pass. An axle was broken, and he was thrown out of +his machine. His leg was injured, and he took the train back to Seattle. I +happened to be on the eastbound at the siding where it all occurred." + +Lighter gave him a skeptical glance between narrowed lids. "Then, if he +can't come himself, I guess he'll send his man. He told that friend of +mine he counted on having another look at this team." + +Tisdale's brows contracted. "See here, I want to drive to Wenatchee; what +is the best you can do for me?" + +"Why, let's see. My best livery rig is on the Wenatchee road now. One of +them High Line fellers hired the outfit with a driver to take him through +to the valley. If you'd be'n here when they started, likely they'd be'n +glad to accommodate you. And the sorrels is out with a picnic to Nanum +canyon. That leaves the roans. They come in half an hour ago. A couple of +traveling salesmen had 'em out all the forenoon, and these drummers drive +like blue blazes; and it's a mean pull through to Wenatchee. But wait till +to-morrow and, with an early start, you can make it all right with the +roans. That's the best I can do, unless you want a saddle-horse." + +Tisdale walked back to the stalls and, convinced at a glance the jaded +roans were impossible for that day, at least, stopped to look over the +saddle animals. He saw that there were two promising travelers, but it +would be necessary to impress an indifferent third to carry the baggage. +Besides, judging from all he had seen, the resources of Kittitas did not +include a ready-made lady's habit. He returned and stood another silent +moment watching the lithe, impatient bays. Finally his eyes moved to the +entrance and down the road to the railroad station where Miss Armitage was +waiting. She was seated on a bench near the door. He could distinguish her +gray figure in relief against the reddish-brown wall. + +Directly he swung around. "What is your price?" he asked. + +Lighter's hand dropped from the edge of the buggy seat. He stepped back to +the heads of his team. "You get in, Harry," he said. "Drive 'em five or +six blocks. Keep your eyes open." + +Harry gathered the reins warily and sprang in; Lighter released his hold, +then hurried forward to the driveway and stood with Tisdale watching the +team. "Ain't they a sight?" he said. + +And they were. Their coats shone like satin in the sun; they stepped +airily, spurning the dust of Kittitas, and blew the ashen powder from +their nostrils; then without warning the splendid span was away. + +Tisdale repeated: "What is your price?" + +Lighter's shrewd eyes swept his new customer over; it was as though he +made an estimate of how much Tisdale could pay. "Five hundred dollars," he +said. "Five hundred--if it's spot cash." + +"And the outfit?" + +"Let me see. Harness is practically new; buggy first-class. I'll make it +an even seven hundred for the whole business; outfit and team." + +There was a brief silence. As a rule, a man drawing the salary of the +Geological Survey does not spend seven hundred dollars lightly. He bridles +his impulses to own fine driving-horses until at least he has tried them. +And this sum, just at that time, meant something of a drain on Tisdale's +bank account. He knew if he bought the Weatherbee tract and reclaimed it, +he must hedge on his personal expenses for a year or two; he had even +talked with Banks a little about a loan to open the project and keep it +moving until the next season's clean-up, when the Aurora should make good. +He stirred, with a quick upward lift of his head, and looked once more in +the direction of the station. + +The girl rose and began to walk the platform. + +Tisdale swung back and met the trader's calculating gaze. "Where is your +bank?" he asked. + +The business was quickly transacted and, when Lighter and his customer +stepped out of the bank, Harry was there, driving the bays slowly up and +down the street. In the moment they waited for him to draw up, the trader +looked Tisdale over again. "Your easiest way to get this team over to the +Sound is to drive through Snoqualmie Pass, the way you came." + +"But," said Tisdale, knitting his brows, "I told you I wanted this team to +drive to the Wenatchee valley." + +"You can't drive on through the Cascades from there and, if you try to +ship these colts aboard a Great Northern train, you'll have trouble." + +"I shall probably leave them to winter in the valley. Unless"--Tisdale +paused, smiling at the afterthought--"I decide to sell them to young +Morganstein when I get back to Seattle." + +Lighter laughed dryly. "I thought so. I sized you up all right at the +start. I says to myself: 'He don't look like a feller to run a bluff,' and +I says: 'Young Morganstein ain't the sort to pick up any second-hand +outfit,' but I thought all along you was his man." + +"I see." The humor played softly in Tisdale's face. "I see. But you +thought wrong." + +Lighter's lids narrowed again skeptically. "Those letters you showed to +identify yourself cinched it. Why, one was signed by his brother-in-law, +Miles Feversham, and your draft was on the Seattle National where the +Morgansteins bank. But it's all right; I got my price." He nudged Tisdale +slyly and, laughing again, moved to the heads of the team. "Now, sir, +watch your chance; they're chain lightning the minute you touch the seat." + +Tisdale was ready. At last he felt the tug of the lines in his grasp, the +hot wind stung his face, and he was speeding back in the direction of the +station. The girl came to the edge of the platform as he approached, and +while the solitary man from the freight office caught the first +opportunity to store the baggage under the seat, and the second to lift in +the basket of samples from Bailey's orchard, she tied her veil more snugly +under her chin and stood measuring the team with the sparkles breaking in +her eyes. Then she gathered her skirts in one hand and laid the other +lightly on the seat. + +"Don't try to help me," she said breathlessly. "Just hold them." And the +next instant she was up beside him, and her laugh fluted in exhilaration +as they whirled away. + +Kittitas fell far behind. They were racing directly across the seven miles +of level towards a pass in a lofty range that marked the road to +Wenatchee. Far to the left lines of poplars showed where the irrigating +canals below Ellensburg watered the plain, and on the right the dunes and +bluffs of the unseen Columbia broke the horizon. But the girl was watching +Tisdale's management of the horses. "What beauties!" she exclaimed. "And +Nip and Tuck!" Her lips rippled merriment. "How well named. Wait, be-- +care--ful--they are going to take that ho-le. Oh, would you mind giving +those reins to me?" + +"I wish I could." He shook his head, while the amusement played gently at +the corners of his mouth. "I know all about a team of huskies, and it +doesn't make much difference what I have under a saddle, but these kittens +in harness are rather out of my line." + +"Then trust yourself to me; please do. I used to drive just such a pair." + +"Oh, but your hands couldn't stand this, and those gloves would be ribbons +in half an hour." + +"They are heavier than they look; besides, there are the shops at +Wenatchee!" As if this settled the matter she said: "But we must change +places. Now." She slipped into his seat as he rose, and took the reins +dexterously, with a tightening grip, in her hands. "Whoa, whoa, Nip!" Her +voice deepened a little. "Steady, Tuck, steady! That's right; be a man." +There was another silent interval while he watched her handling of the +team, then, "I did not know there could be a pair in all the world so like +Pedro and Don José," she said, and the exhilaration softened in her face. +"They were my ponies given me the birthday I was seventeen. A long time +ago--" she sighed and flashed him a side-glance, shaking her head--"but I +shall never forget. We lived in San Francisco, and my father and I tried +them that morning in Golden Gate park. The roads were simply perfect, and +the sea beach at low tide was like a hardwood floor. After that we drove +for the week-end to Monterey, then through the redwoods to Santa Cruz and +everywhere." She paused reminiscently. "Those California hotels are fine. +They pride themselves on their orchestras, and wherever we went, we found +friends to enjoy the dancing evenings after table d'hôte. That was in the +winter, but it was more delightful in the spring. We drove far south then, +through Menlo Park and Palo Alto, where the great meadows were vivid with +alfalfa, and fields on fields were yellow with poppies or blue with +lupine; on and on into the peach and almond country. I can see those +blossoming orchards now; the air was flooded with perfume." + +Her glance moved from the horses out over the sage-covered levels, and the +contrast must have dropped like a curtain on her picture, for the light in +her face died. Tisdale's look followed the road up from the plain and +rested on the higher country; his eyes gathered their far-seeing gaze. He +had been suddenly reminded of Weatherbee. It was in those California +orchards he had spent his early life. He had known that scent of the +blossoming almond; those fields of poppies and lupine had been his +playground when he was a child. It was at the university at Palo Alto that +he had taken his engineering course; and it was at one of those gay +hotels, on a holiday and through some fellow student, he had met the woman +who had spoiled his life. + +The moment passed. One of the horses broke, and instantly the driver was +alert. And while she alternately admonished and upbraided, with a firm +manipulation of the reins, the humor began to play again in Tisdale's +face. They were approaching the point where the road met the highway from +Ellensburg, and in the irrigated sections that began to divide the +unreclaimed land, harvesters were reaping and binding; from a farther +field came the noise of a threshing machine; presently, as the bays turned +into the thoroughfare, the way was blocked by a great flock of sheep. + +"Oh," she exclaimed, "there must be thousands of them; how can the ones in +the center breathe? Whoa, Nip, whoa now! Do you think you are one of those +lambs? And there's no chance to go around; it is fenced with barbed wire +on both sides; we simply must drive through, No, let me, please. Steady, +now, Tuck, steady, whoa." + +They had passed the mounted herders, and the colts broke their way +playfully, dancing, curveting with bowing necks, into the midst of the +flock. Soon the figures of the advance shepherds loomed through the dust. +They were turning the sheep into a harvested field. They rolled in over +the yellow stubble like a foaming sea. Far away, outlined like a sail +against an island rick, the night tent of these nomads was already +pitched. + +Tisdale laughed softly. "Well, madam, that was skilful piloting. A bidarka +couldn't have been safer riding in a skiddery sea." + +"A bidarka?" she questioned, ruffling her brows. + +Tisdale nodded. "One of those small skin canoes the Alaskan natives use. +And it's touchy as a duck; comes bobbing up here and there, but right-side +up every time. And it's frail looking, frail as an eggshell, yet I would +stake a bidarka against a lifeboat in a surf. Do you know?"--he went on +after a moment--"I would like to see you in one, racing out with the +whitecaps up there in Bering Sea; your face all wet with spray, and your +hair tucked away in the hood of a gray fox parka. Nothing else would show; +the rest of you would be stowed below in a wonderful little water-tight +compartment." + +"It sounds delightful," she said, and the sparkles broke in her eyes. + +After that there was a long silence. The bays fell into an even trot. The +mountains loomed near, then before them, on the limits of the plain, a +mighty herd of cattle closed the road. The girl rose a little in her place +and looked over that moving sea of backs. "We must drive through again," +she said. "It's going to be stifling but there's no possible way around. +No," she protested, when he would have taken the reins, "I'm able. I +learned once, years ago, on a great ranch in southern California. I'd +rather." She settled in her seat smiling a little. "It's in the blood." + +Tisdale reached and took the whip. They had passed the drivers and were +pushing into the herd. Sometimes a red-eyed brute turned with lowered +horns and dripping mouth, then backed slowly out of the way of the team. +Sometimes, in a thicker press, an animal wheeled close to the tires and, +stemming the current, sounded a protest. But the young horses, less +playful now, divided the great herd and came at last safely out of the +smother. The road began to lift, as they rounded the first rampart of the +range, and Tisdale's glance fell to her hands. "Those gloves are done for, +as I expected," he exclaimed. "I'll wager your palms are blistered. Come, +own they hurt." + +She nodded. "But it was worth it, though you may drive now, if you wish. +It's my wrists; they have been so long out of practice. You don't know how +they a--che." + +"So," he said, when he had taken the reins, "so you are as fond of horses +as this." + +"Horses like these, yes. I haven't felt as happy and young since I gave up +Pedro and Don José." + +Tisdale turned a little to look in her face. She had said "young" with the +tone of one whose youth is past, yet the most conservative judge could not +place her age a day over twenty-five. And she was so buoyant, so vibrant. +His pulses quickened. It was as though currents of her vitality were being +continually transmitted through his veins. + +As they ascended, the plain unfolded like a map below; harvest fields, +pastures of feeding cattle or sheep, meadows of alfalfa, unreclaimed +reaches of sage-brush, and, far off among her shade-trees, the roofs of +Ellensburg reflecting the late sun. Above the opposite range that hemmed +the valley southward some thunder-heads crowded fast towards a loftier +snow-peak. Far away across the divide, white, symmetrical, wrought of +alabaster, inlaid with opal, lifted a peerless dome. + +"Mount Rainier!" exclaimed Tisdale. + +"I knew it." Her voice vibrated softly. "Even at this distance I knew. It +was like seeing unexpectedly, in an unfamiliar country, the head of a +noble friend lifting above the crowd." + +Tisdale's glance returned to her face. Surprise and understanding shone +softly in his own. She turned, and met the look with a smile. It was then, +for the first time, he discovered unsounded depths through the subdued +lights of her eyes. "You must have known old Rainier intimately," he said. + +She shook her head. "Not nearer than Puget Sound. But I have a marvelous +view from my hotel windows in Seattle, and often in long summer twilights +from the deck of Mr. Morganstein's yacht, I've watched the changing Alpine +glow on the mountain. I always draw my south curtains first, at Vivian +Court, to see whether the dome is clear or promises a wet day. I've +learned a mountain, surely as a person, has individuality; every cloud +effect is to me a different mood, and sometimes, when I've been most +unhappy or hard-pressed, the sight of Rainier rising so serene, so pure, +so high above the fretting clouds, has given me new courage. Can you +understand that, Mr. Tisdale? How a mountain can become an influence, an +inspiration, in a life?" + +"I think so, yes." Tisdale paused, then added quietly: "But I would like +to be the first to show you old Rainier at close range." + +At this she moved a little; he felt the invisible barrier stiffen between +them. "Mr. Morganstein promised to motor us through to the National Park +Inn when the new Government road was finished, but we've been waiting for +the heavy summer travel to be over. It has been like the road to Mecca +since the foot of the mountain has been accessible." + +There was a silence, during which Tisdale watched the pulling team. Her +manner of reminding him of his position was unmistakable, but it was her +frequent reference to young Morganstein that began to nettle him. Why +should she wish specially to motor to Rainier with that black-browed, +querulous nabob? Why had she so often sailed on his yacht? And why should +she ever have been unhappy and hard-pressed, as she had confessed? She who +was so clearly created for happiness. But to Tisdale her camaraderie with +Nature was charming. It was so very rare. A few of the women he had known +hitherto had been capable of it, but they had lived rugged lives; the +wilderness gave them little else. And of all the men whom he had made his +friends through an eventful career, there was only Foster who sometimes +felt the magnitude of high places,--and there had been David Weatherbee. +At this thought of Weatherbee his brows clouded, and that last letter, the +one that had reached him at Nome and which he still carried in his breast +pocket, seemed suddenly to gather a vital quality. It was as though it +cried out: "I can't stand these everlasting ice peaks, Hollis; they crowd +me so." + +Miss Armitage sat obliviously looking off once more across the valley. The +thunder-heads, denser now and driving in legions along the opposite +heights, stormed over the snow peak and assailed the far, shining dome. + +"Oh," she exclaimed, "see Rainier now! That blackest cloud is lifting over +the summit. Rain is streaming from it like a veil of gauze; but the dome +still shines through like a transfigured face!" + +Tisdale's glance rested a moment on the wonder. His face cleared. "If we +were on the other side of the Cascades," he said, "that weather-cap would +mean a storm before many hours; but here, in this country of little rain, +I presume it is only a threat." + +The bays began to round a curve and presently Rainier, the lesser heights, +all the valley of Kittitas, closed from sight. They had reached the timber +belt; poplars threaded the parks of pine, and young growths of fir, like +the stiff groves of a toy village, gathered hold on the sharp mountain +slopes. Sometimes the voice of a creek, hurrying down the canyon to join +the Yakima, broke the stillness, or a desert wind found its way in and +went wailing up the water-course. And sometimes in a rocky place, the +hoof-beats of the horses, the noise of the wheels, struck an echo from +spur to spur. Then Tisdale commenced to whistle cautiously, in fragments +at first, with his glance on the playing ears of the colts, until +satisfied they rather liked it, he settled into a definite tune, but with +the flutelike intonations of one who loves and is accustomed to make his +own melody. + +He knew that this woman beside him, since they had left the civilization +of the valley behind, half repented her adventure. He felt the barrier +strengthen to a wall, over which, uncertain, a little afraid, she watched +him. At last, having finished the tune, he turned and surprised the covert +look from under her curling black lashes. + +"I hope," he said, and the amusement broke softly in his face, "all this +appraisal is showing a little to my credit." + +The color flamed pinkly in her face. She looked away. "I was wondering if +you blamed me. I've been so unconservative--so--so--even daring. Is it not +true?" + +"No, Miss Armitage, I understand how you had to decide, in a moment, to +take that eastbound train in Snoqualmie Pass, and that you believed it +would be possible to motor or stage across to Wenatchee from the Milwaukee +road." + +"Yes, but," she persisted, "you think, having learned my mistake, I should +have stayed on the freight train as far as Ellensburg, where I could have +waited for the next passenger back to Seattle." + +"If you had, you would have disappointed me. That would have completely +spoiled my estimate of you." + +"Your estimate of me?" she questioned. + +"Yes." He paused and his glance moved slowly, a little absently, up the +unfolding gorge. "It's a fancy of mine to compare a woman, on sight, with +some kind of flower. It may be a lily or a rose or perhaps it's a +flaunting tulip. Once, up in the heart of the Alaska forest, it was just a +sweet wood anemone." He paused again, looking off through the trees, and a +hint of tenderness touched his mouth. "For instance," he went on, and his +voice quickened, "there is your friend, Mrs. Feversham. I never have met +her, but I've seen her a good many times, and she always reminds me of one +of those rich, dark roses florists call Black Prince. And there's her +sister, who makes me think of a fine, creamy hyacinth; the sturdy sort, +able to stand on its own stem without a prop. And they are exotics, both +of them; their personality, wherever they are, has the effect of a strong +perfume." + +He paused again, so long that this time his listener ventured to prompt +him. "And I?" she asked. + +"You?" He turned, and the color flushed through his tan. "Why, you are +like nothing in the world but a certain Alaska violet I once stumbled on. +It was out of season, on a bleak mountainside, where, at the close of a +miserable day, I was forced to make camp. A little thing stimulates a man +sometimes, and the sight of that flower blooming there when violet time +was gone, lifting its head next to a snow-field, nodding so pluckily, +holding its own against the bitter wind, buoyed me through a desperate +hour." + +She turned her face to look down through the treetops at the complaining +stream. Presently she said: "That is better than an estimate; it is a +tribute. I wish I might hope to live up to it, but sooner or later," and +the vibration played softly in her voice, "I am going to disappoint you." + +Tisdale laughed, shaking his head. "My first impressions are the ones that +count," he said simply. "But do you want to turn back now?" + +"N--o, unless you--do." + +Tisdale laughed again mellowly. "Then it's all right. We are going to see +this trip through. But I wish I could show you that Alaska mountainside in +midsummer. Imagine violets on violets, thousands of them, springing +everywhere in the vivid new grass. You can't avoid crushing some, no +matter how carefully you pick your steps. There's a rocky seat half-way up +on a level spur, where you might rest, and I would fill your lap with +those violets, big, long-stemmed ones, till the blue lights danced in your +eyes." + +They were doing that now, and her laugh fluted softly through the wood. +For that moment the barrier between them lost substance; it became the +sheerest tissue, a curtain of gauze. Then the aloofness for which he +waited settled on her. She looked away, her glance again seeking the +stream. "I can't imagine anything more delightful," she said. + +A rough and steep breadth of road opened before them, and for a while the +bays held his attention, then in a better stretch, he felt her swift +side-glance again reading his face. "Do you know," she said, "you are not +at all the kind of man I was led to expect." + +"No?" He turned interestedly, with the amusement shading the corners of +his mouth. "What did you hear?" + +"Why, I heard that you were the hardest man in the world to know; the most +elusive, shyest." + +Tisdale's laugh rang, a low note from the depths of his mellow heart. "And +you believed that?" + +She nodded, and he caught the blue sparkles under her drooping lids. "You +know how Mrs. Feversham has tried her best to know you; how she sent you +invitations repeatedly to dinner or for an evening at Juneau, Valdez, +Fairbanks, and you invariably made some excuse." + +"Oh, but that's easily explained. Summers, when she timed her visits to +Alaska, I was busy getting my party into the field. The working season up +there is short." + +"But winters, at Seattle and in Washington even, it has been the same." + +"Winters, why, winters, I have my geological reports to get in shape for +the printer; interminable proofs to go over; and there are so many +necessary people to meet in connection with my work. Then, too, if the +season has been spent in opening country of special interest, I like to +prepare a paper for the geographical society; that keeps me in touch with +old friends." + +"Old friends," she repeated after a moment. "Do you know it was one of +them, or rather one of your closest friends, who encouraged my delusion in +regard to you?" + +"No, how was it?" + +"Why, he said you were the hardest man in the world to turn, a man of iron +when once you made up your mind, but that Mrs. Feversham was right; you +were shy. He had known you to go miles around, on occasion, to avoid a +town, just to escape meeting a woman. And he told us--of course I can +repeat it since it is so ridiculously untrue--that it was easier to bridle +a trapped moose than to lead you to a ballroom; but that once there, no +doubt you would gentle fine." + +She leaned back in her seat, laughing softly, though it was obviously a +joke at her own expense as well as Tisdale's. "And I believed it," she +added. "I believed it--every word." + +Tisdale laughed too, a deep undernote. "That sounds like Billy Foster. I +wager it was Foster. Was it?" he asked. + +She nodded affirmatively. + +"Then Foster has met you." Tisdale's voice rang a little. "He knows you, +after all." + +"Yes, he could hardly help knowing me. His business interests are with my +closest friends, the Morgansteins; they think a great deal of him. And he +happens to play a remarkably good hand at bridge; we always depend on him +to make up a table when he is in town." + +Tisdale's eyes rested a thoughtful moment on the road ahead. Strange +Foster never had mentioned her. But that showed how blind, how completely +infatuated with the Spanish woman the boy was. His face set austerely. +Then suddenly he started; his grasp tightened on the reins so that the +colts sprang to the sharp grade. "Do you happen to know that enchantress, +too?" he asked. + +"Whom?" questioned Miss Armitage. + +"I mean Mrs. Weatherbee. I believe she counts the Morgansteins among her +friends, and you said you were staying at Vivian Court, where her +apartments are." + +"Oh, yes, I know--her. I"--the color flamed and went in her face; her +glance fell once more to the steep slope, searching out the narrowing +stream through the trees. "I--'ve known Beatriz Weatherbee all my life. +I--I think a great deal of her." + +"Madam, madam!" Tisdale protested, "don't tell me that. You have known +her, lived near her, perhaps, in California, those years when you were +growing up; shared the intimacies young girls enjoy. I understand all +that, but don't say you care anything for her now." + +Miss Armitage lifted her face. Her eyes did not sparkle then; they flamed. +"Why shouldn't I, Mr. Tisdale? And who are you to disparage Beatriz +Weatherbee? You never have known her. What right have you to condemn her?" + +"This right, Miss Armitage; she destroyed David Weatherbee. And I know +what a life was lost, what a man was sacrificed." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A NIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN ROAD + + +They drove on for a long interval in silence. The colts, sobered by the +sharp pull to the divide, kept an even pace now that they had struck the +down-grade, and Tisdale's gaze, hard still, uncompromising, remained fixed +absently on the winding road. Once, when the woman beside him ventured to +look in his face, she drew herself a little more erect and aloof. She must +have seen the futility of her effort to defend her friend, and the fire +that had flashed in her eyes had as quickly died. It was as though she +felt the iron out-cropping in this man and shrank from him baffled, almost +afraid. Yet she held her head high, and the delicate lines, etched again +at the corners of her mouth, gave it a saving touch of decision or +fortitude. + +But suddenly Hollis drew the horses in. Miss Armitage caught a great +breath. The way was blocked by a fallen pine tree, which, toppling from +the bluff they were skirting, had carried down a strip of the road and +started an incipient slide. "We can't drive around," he said at last, and +the humor broke the grim lines of his mouth. "We've got to go through." + +She looked hastily back along the curve, then ahead down the steep +mountainside. "We never could turn in this pla--ace, but it isn't possible +to drive through. Fate is against us." + +"Why, I think Fate favored us. She built this barricade, but she left us +an open door. I must unhitch, though, to get these kittens through." + +As he spoke he put the reins in her hands and, springing out, felt under +the seat for the halters. The girl's glance moved swiftly along the +tilting pine, searching for that door. The top of the tree, with its +debris of branches, rested prone on the slope below the road; but the +trunk was supported by a shoulder of the bluff on which it had stood. This +left a low and narrow portal under the clean bole between the first thick +bough and the wall. "But the buggy!" she exclaimed. + +"That's the trouble." Tisdale found one halter as he spoke and reached for +the other. "It is getting this trap over that will take time. But I pledge +myself to see you through these mountains before dark; and when we strike +the levels of the Columbia, these colts are going to make their record." + +"You mean we can't hope to reach Wenatchee before dark?" Her voice shook +a little. "And there isn't a house in sight--anywhere. Mr. Tisdale, we +haven't even seen another traveler on this road." + +"Well, this is luck!" He was drawing a coil of new rope from under the +seat. "This is luck! Lighter must have meant to picket his horses. Did I +tell you he was starting to drive these bays through to the fair at North +Yakima? And here is a hatchet--he expected to cut fire-wood--and this +looks like his lunch-box. Yes,"--and he lifted the lid to glance in--"here +are biscuits, sliced ham, all we need. Lighter must have intended to spend +a night on the road. And here is that second hitching-strap. Now, we are +all right: the outfit is complete." + +He took the precaution to tie one of the horses before he commenced to +unfasten the traces, and he worked swiftly, dexterously, while the girl +watched him, directing him sometimes from her seat in the buggy. Presently +he lifted the remaining strap, but before he could snap the hook in the +ring, the colt's ears flattened back, and he gripped Tisdale's hand. +Instantly Miss Armitage snatched the whip and was on her feet. "Whoa, +Nip," she cried, and cut the vixen lightly between the ears. "Whoa, now, +whoa!" + +The young horse released his hold and broke forward, with Hollis dragging +at the bit. He ducked with the colt under the barrier and, keeping his +feet with difficulty, ran hugging the bluff. Rocks, slipping beneath the +bay's incautious hoofs, rattled down the steep slope. Finally mastered by +that tugging weight, he settled to an unstable pace and so passed the +break in the road. + +Miss Armitage had left the buggy. She followed to the opening and stood +watching Tisdale until, unable to find a safe hitching-place, he turned +another bend. The remaining horse pulled at his halter and neighed shrilly +for his mate. She went to him. After a moment she untied him and led him +through the passage. He followed easily, crowding her sometimes, yet +choosing his steps with the caution of a superior animal in a hard +situation. Midway over the break in the road, where it was narrowest, he +halted with a forefoot on a perilous table of granite, feeling, testing +its stability. "That's right, be careful," she admonished, allowing the +strap to slacken while she, herself, balanced her weight on the rocking +slab. "But it is safe enough--you see. Now, now, Tuck, come on." + +But as she started on, Tisdale reappeared at the curve and, waving her +hand to reassure him, she took an incautious step. The slab, relieved +suddenly of her weight, tilted back and at the same instant caught on its +lowered edge the weight of the following horse. He backed off, jerking the +halter taut, but she kept her hold, springing again to the surface of the +rock. Loose splinters of granite began to clatter down the slope; then, in +the moment she paused to gather her equilibrium, she felt Tisdale's arm +reaching around to take the strap. "Creep by me," he said quietly. "No, +between me and the bluff, sidewise; there's room." She gained safe ground +and stood waiting while he brought the bay across. A last rain of rock +struck an answering echo through the gorge. + +"What made you?" he asked. "You knew I would hurry back. What made you? +handicapped, too, by those skirts and abominable heels." + +"I saw you were hurt--the vixen meant to hurt--and I knew I could manage +Tuck. I--I thought you might need me." + +Her breath was coming hard and quick; her eyes were big and shadowy and, +looking into their depths, the light began to play softly in his own. "You +thought right," he said. "I am going to." + +He turned to lead the horse around to the cleft where he had left his +mate. Miss Armitage followed. She regarded his broad back, pursing her +lips a little and ruffling her brows. "It is only a bruise," he said +presently over his shoulder, "and it served me right. Lighter warned me of +that trick." + +Nevertheless the handkerchief with which he had wrapped the bruise was +showing a red stain, and past the break in the road he changed the halter +to his left hand. The hitching-place he had chosen was in a cleft formed +by a divided spur of the mountain. It was roofed by the boughs of two +pines, and the boles of the trees offered secure hold. She seated herself +on a boulder, set benchwise against the rocky wall, and watched him +critically while he tied the second horse. + +"How pleasant," she said intrepidly; "it is like coming unexpectedly into +a room ready furnished in brown and green." + +Tisdale turned. "I could make you comfortable in this pocket, if it came +to that," he said. "It's sheltered and level as a floor, and I could make +you a bed, springy and fragrant, of boughs; the camp-fire would close the +door. And you needn't go hungry with Lighter's lunch and your apples; or +thirsty with my drinking-cup to fill down there at the stream." + +Even before he finished speaking her brows arched in protest, and he felt +the invisible barrier stiffen hard as a wall. "We really must hurry, Mr. +Tisdale," she said, rising. "Though it may be impossible to reach +Wenatchee to-night, we must find some sort of house. And where there is a +house, there must be housekeeping and"--her voice wavered--"a woman." + +"Of course," he answered. "And we have at least two hours of daylight +left. Don't worry; I am going now to hurry that carriage around." + +He had said "of course," but while he went back to the buggy, his mind +reviewed the sordid shelters he had found in just such solitudes, where a +woman's housekeeping was the exception. Men in communities employed camp +cooks, but most prospectors, ranchers, and cattlemen depended on +themselves. There had been times when he himself had been forced to make +bread. He had learned that first winter he had spent in Alaska with +Weatherbee. At the thought of that experimental mixture, he smiled grimly. +Then, suddenly, he imagined this gently nurtured woman confronted by a +night in such a shack as they had occupied. He saw her waiting expectantly +for that impossible chaperon; and, grasping the situation, struggling +pluckily to cover her amazement and dismay; he saw himself and Weatherbee +nerving each other to offer her that miserable fare. He hoped they would +find a housekeeper at the first house on that mountain road, but that +lunch of Lighter's gave him a sense of security, like a reserve fund, +inadequate, yet something against imminent panic. + +Miss Armitage did not return to her seat when he was gone. She fell to +pacing the level; to the upper spur and back; to the lower wall and +return; then, finally, it was a few yards further to the bend, to discover +what progress Tisdale had made. The buggy was not yet in sight, but the +new rope stretched diagonally from beyond the breach in the road to a +standing tree on the bluff above her, and he was at work with the hatchet, +cutting away an upright bough on the fallen pine. Other broken limbs, +gathered from the debris, were piled along the slide to build up the edge. +When his branch dropped, he sprang down and dragged it lengthwise to +reinforce the rest. Presently he was on the log again, reaching now for +the buggy tongue, he set his knee as a brace on the stump of the limb, +his muscular body bent, lifted, strained. Then the front wheels rolled up +across the bole; he slipped to the ground and grasped the outer one, +steadying it down. After a moment, when he had taken in the slack of the +line, the remaining tires slowly followed, and he began to ease the +vehicle along the patched roadway. The rain of rock was renewed; fragments +of granite shifted under the bulkhead of boughs; the buggy heeled lower, +lower; then, at the final angle, began to right while the rope strung +taut. The narrowest point was passed, and Tisdale stopped a breathing +space. + +It was characteristic of the man to see the humor of the situation in that +moment while he stood wiping the perspiration from his face. Jove, how +Foster would enjoy seeing him labor like this for a girl. He imagined the +boy sitting up there at some coign of vantage on the bluff, admonishing, +advising him dryly, while he laughed in his sleeve. It was undeniably +funny. Alone, with one of Lighter's saddle-horses under him, his baggage +secured behind the saddle, he might have been threading the dunes of the +Columbia now. This incipient slide need not have caused him ten minutes' +delay, and eight, nine o'clock at the latest, would have found him putting +up for the night at the hotel in Wenatchee. But here he was hardly over +the divide; it was almost sunset, but he was dragging a buggy by hand +around a mountain top. He hoped Foster never would find out what he had +paid for these bays--the team of huskies that had carried him the long +trek from Nome to the Aurora mine and on through Rainy Pass had cost less. +Still, under the circumstances, would not Foster himself have done the +same? She was no ordinary woman; she was more than pretty, more than +attractive; there was no woman like her in all the world. To travel this +little journey with her, listen to her, watch her charms unfold, was worth +the price. And if it had fallen to Foster, if he were here now to feel the +spell of her, that Spanish woman would lose her hold. Then he remembered +that Foster knew her; she had admitted that. It was inconceivable, but he +had known her at the time he confessed his infatuation for Weatherbee's +wife. The amusement went out of Tisdale's face. He bent, frowning, to free +the buggy of the rope. + +It was then Miss Armitage, exhilarated at his success, hurried forward +from the bend. "Oh," she cried radiantly, "how resourceful, how strong you +are. It looked simply impossible; I couldn't guess what you meant to do, +and now we have only to hitch the team and drive on to Wenatchee. But," +she added gravely and shook her head, "it was defying Fate." + +He turned, regarding her from under still cloudy brows, though the genial +lines began to deepen anew. "I told you Fate was on our side. She threw +those boughs there in easy reach. She might as well have said: 'There's +some lumber I cut for you; now mend your road.'" + +"Perhaps, well, perhaps," the girl laughed softly. "But if Fate had said +that to any other man, at least to any man I know, he would not have +heard." + +But the Columbia was still far off when darkness closed, and with sunset +the thunder-heads they had watched across the Kittitas Valley gathered +behind them. It was as though armies encamped on the heights they had +left, waiting for night to pass. Then searchlights began to play on the +lower country; there was skirmishing along the skyline; blades flashed. + +At last, between the lightning flashes, the blackness was so dense it was +hardly possible for Tisdale to see the road, and he could not trust the +nervous team to keep the track; it was necessary to stop, at least to wait +until the moon should rise. But while he was preparing to tell her so, the +silence was broken by the barking of a dog. Instantly it was swelled by a +deeper baying, and the echo rang a continuous clamor through the gorge. +Then a faint illumination brought out in silhouette a final bluff ahead; +rounding it, they saw a low-roofed habitation, and in the open door a +woman with a lamp. + +One of the dogs stood bristling and growling beside her; the other, +barking furiously, sprang from the porch so that for a moment Tisdale was +busy with the plunging team. Then the woman spoke, and the setter, +whimpering, snapping furtively, crept back to her feet. + +"We have been delayed by an accident," Tisdale explained briefly, "and I +want you to take this lady in for the night. Make her comfortable as +possible, and I will see it is worth your while." + +"This ain't much of a road-house." The woman held the lamp higher to +scrutinize the lady's face. "We only got one room, an' the best I can do +is to double up with the kids an' give you my bed." + +"That will do very well," answered Tisdale quickly. "I can take care of +myself. Of course there's a stable somewhere out here in the dark, and a +bale or two of hay." + +"No, we got a shed up, but we're short on feed. We're short on 'bout +everything: flour, potatoes, bacon, beans. We've just took up this here +claim, an' things ain't growed. But my man's gone down to Wenatchee to +fetch a load." Then, seeing this fact was hardly one to solace her +transient guests, she laughed shortly and went into the cabin to set the +lamp on a table and bring a lantern that hung on the farther wall. + +Tisdale turned to help Miss Armitage down. "We may be able to find better +accommodations towards the Columbia, when the moon rises," he said, "but I +can't be as sure of another--chaperon." Then, looking into her face, he +added in his minor key: "I am sorry, but you will make the best of things, +I know. And the night will pass. Come." + +She slipped down beside him and stood holding her skirts out of the +powdery soil, while her wide eyes searched that interior through the open +door. Tisdale lifted the baggage from the buggy to the porch, then the +woman returned with the lantern and, followed by the dogs, went to show +him where he might stable the horses. After a moment Miss Armitage +ventured up the low steps to the threshold. It was a portable cabin such +as she had noticed from the train window at intervals where construction +was incomplete along the new railroad. It was battered and weak, showing +old earmarks of transportation, but it was furnished with a rusty +cook-stove, some bench chairs, and two beds, which stood in the farther +corners and nearly filled that half of the room. A few heavy dishes, the +part of a loaf of bread, and several slices of indifferently fried bacon +were on the table, between the lamp and a bucket containing a little +water. Presently, still holding her skirts, she crossed the grimy floor +and stood inspecting with a mingled fascination and dread those ancient +beds. Both were destitute of linen, but one was supplied with a tumbled +heap of coarse, brown blankets. In the other, beneath a frayed comforter, +two small boys were sleeping. Their sun-baked faces were overhung with +thatches of streaked blond hair, and one restless arm, throwing off the +sodden cover, partly exposed the child's day attire, an unclean denim +blouse tucked into overalls. She turned in sudden panic and hurried back +to the porch. + +In a little while she noticed her suitcase, opened it, and found her +cologne; with this she drenched a fresh handkerchief and began to bathe +her face and hands. Then she drew one of the bench chairs through the +doorway and, seating herself with her back to the room, kept on dabbing +her lips and her cheeks with the cool, delicately pungent perfume, and so +gathered up the remnants of her scattered fortitude. Finally, when the +lantern glimmered again, and she was able to distinguish the two returning +figures, she had laid aside her hat and coat, and she was ready to smile, +if not radiantly at least encouragingly, at Tisdale as he came up the +steps. + +The woman went in to shake out and spread the blankets with a pretence at +making the bed, and he followed to the threshold, where he took a swift +and closer inventory of the room. Its resources were even more meager than +he had supposed. He swung around and looked up through the darkness +towards that sheltered cleft they had left near the Pass. He did not say +anything, but the girl watching him answered his thought. "I wish it had +been possible. It would have been delightful--the ground was like a +carpet, clean and soft and fragrant--under those pines." + +"I wish we had even had the forethought to bring down an armful of those +boughs. But, after all, it might have been worse. At least you need not go +hungry, with that lunch of Lighter's and your apples, to say nothing of +the sandwiches I asked the steward to make before I left the train. And +to-morrow, when you are safe with your friends at Wenatchee, you are going +to forget this miserable experience like an unpleasant dream." + +"I am not ungrateful," she said quickly. "I enjoyed every moment of that +drive. And besides the apples, I have tea. I always tuck a little in my +suitcase when we are touring with Mrs. Feversham, because she uses a +different blend." + +She bent as she spoke, to find the tea, which she produced together with a +small kettle and alcohol burner. Her evident desire to contribute her +share, the fine show of courage that accepted and made the best of the +inevitable, went straight to Tisdale's heart. "Tea," he repeated mellowly, +"tea and all the outfit. Well, that was mighty thoughtful of you. I won't +even have to make a fire. But wait a minute; I am going to lift that table +out here where it is cooler." + +With two seats, there was barely room for it on the porch. Then, while he +filled the kettle and lighted the burner, she spread the cloth, a fine +damask towel supplied also from her baggage. On the whole it was a rather +gay little supper and, considering the limitations of the menu, it bridged +a long interval. Tisdale, who had been accustomed to drink tea black and +bitter on a hard trail, but habitually refused it socially, tasted his cup +with deliberation. "Miss Armitage," he exclaimed, "you can't delude me. +Whatever this beverage may be, I am sure it is no ordinary tea." + +She was pouring a second cup when his glance fell from her face to her +hands. They were delicately made, artistic, with wilful little thumbs, yet +they impressed him with a certain resourcefulness, a strength in reserve. +Suddenly the light from the lantern which he had hung on a nail in the +wall above the table, struck an exceedingly large ruby she wore on her +left hand. It glowed blood-red, scintillated, flamed. He saw the stone was +mounted with diamonds in a unique setting of some foreign workmanship, and +he told himself it was probably an heirloom; it was too massive, too +ornate for a betrothal ring; still he moved uneasily and set the cup down +untasted. His eyes returned to her face, questioning, doubting. He was +like a musician surprised to detect in a beautiful symphony the first +false note. + +After that the conversation lagged. It was not cool on the porch. A +broadside of lightning sweeping the cabin showed it stood in a narrow +valley walled by precipitous, barren slopes and widening gulfwise towards +the Columbia desert. The pent air seemed surcharged. It was as though that +table was set in a space between running dynamos, and when a stronger +flash came, Miss Armitage instinctively grasped her chair, holding herself +from contact with an unseen and terrible force. Once, during an interlude, +the silence was broken by a strange, faint cry. + +"Did you hear?" she asked breathlessly. "What was it?" + +Tisdale smiled into her troubled eyes. "Why, just a cougar; lonesome, I +guess, and calling his mate. But it's all right. Sounds carry in these +mountain gorges, and his cry was picked up by some cross wind miles from +here. Look at those dogs! They wouldn't stay curled up there on the ground +asleep, too indifferent to prick up an ear, if a cougar, or even a coyote, +were near." + +Still she was not wholly reassured. She leaned forward, listening, trying +to fathom the darkness with a lurking terror in her eyes. At last, when +Tisdale rose to say good night, she, too, left her chair. She laid her +hand on the edge of the table as though that might steady her voice. "Are +you going to the stable?" she asked. "Did you find a possible bed?" + +Hollis laughed. "You needn't trouble about me. I am the sort of fellow to +find the soft side of a plank. Yes, it's true. There have been times when +I've slept luxuriously on a board, with just my coat rolled up for a +pillow." + +There was a brief pause while her imagination grasped the thought; then: +"You must have been very tired," she said. + +"I was," he answered dryly and reached to take the lantern from the wall. +At the foot of the steps he halted and put the light down to pick up his +bag, which he opened. "Here's a bunch of my handkerchiefs," he said. "They +are bigger than yours. They should make you at least a pillow-case. Good +night." + +The setter rose to follow inquiringly at his heels; the lantern swung +gently to his tread and, as his shape disappeared in the gloom, his +whistle, sweet, soft, almost tender, fluted back to her. It was the "Good +night" from the opera of _Martha_. And Miss Armitage smiled in the face of +Fear and turned resolutely to go in. + +But the next moment she was back again over the threshold. "Mr. Tisdale!" +she called, and the currents held so long in check surged in her voice. +"Mr. Tisdale!" + +Instantly the lantern swung an arc. He came quickly back to the steps. +"Well," he said, breaking the pause, "what is the trouble?" + +"I know I must seem foolish--but--please don't go--yet." Her position on +the edge of the porch brought her face almost on a level with his. Her +eyes in the semi-darkness were luminously big; her face, her whole body +quivered. She leaned a little towards him, and her nearness, the low, +vibrant intensity of her voice, set his pulses singing. + +"I really can't stay in that room," she explained. "Those beds all but +touch, and she, the mother, has crowded in, dressed as she is, to sleep +with the children. There isn't any air to breathe. I--I really can't make +myself lie down--there. I had rather spend the night here on the piazza. +Only--please wait--until--" + +Tisdale laughed his short, mellow note. "You mean you are afraid of the +dark, or is it the cougar?" + +"It's both and the lightning, too. There! See how it plays along those +awful heights; javelins of it; whole broadsides. I know it is foolish, but +I can't help feeling it is following me. It singles me out, threatens me +as though I am--guilty." + +"Guilty? You? Of what?" Tisdale put down the lantern and came up the +steps. "See here, Miss Armitage, come take your chair." He moved it around +from the table and laid his hand on her arm, impelling her into the seat. +"Now face it out. Those flashes of heat lightning are about as dangerous +as the Aurora Borealis. You ought to know that." + +Then, because the personal contact had set his blood racing, he moved away +to the edge of the porch and stood frowning off up the gorge. He knew she +covered her face with her hands; he believed she was crying, and he +desired beyond all reason to take her to his heart and quiet her. He only +said: "But I understand. I have seen strong men just as foolish before an +electrical storm, and the bravest woman I ever knew lost her grip one +still morning just from solitude." + +There was another silence, then suddenly she lifted her head. "I am +sorry," she said, "but it is all over. I shall try my best not to annoy +you any more." + +"Annoy me? Why, you haven't. What makes you think that?" Tisdale turned, +and the mellowness stole into his voice. "I didn't expect you to creep in +and go to sleep tranquilly alongside that bunch of sage." + +At this she smiled. "You have found a flower to fit even her." + +"I never made a misfit--yet," he answered and waited, looking into her +face, reading her through. + +"But you have doubts," she supplemented, "and I warned you I should +disappoint you. I warned you at the start." + +Tisdale laughed again, softly. "The odds were all against that Alaska +violet," he said, "but she weathered it through." And seating himself on +the steps, he looked up again to the night-enshrouded Pass. The air was +cooler; a light wind, drawing down from the divide, brought a hint of +dampness; it was raining somewhere, far off. "My doubts are all right," he +added, "and I am going to stay here as long as you want me to." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE BRAVEST WOMAN HE EVER KNEW + + +Presently, during one of the interludes when darkness enveloped the gulf, +she began to entertain Tisdale with an experience in the Sierras, a little +adventure on one of those journeys with her father, when she had driven +Pedro and Don José. But though she told the story with composure, even +with a certain vivacity and charm, as she might have narrated it to a +small and intimate audience in any safe drawing-room, her self-control was +a transparency through which he saw her anxiety manoeuvering, in spite of +his promise, to keep him there. + +"Strange, is it not?" she went on, "how things will take the gloss of +humor, looking back. That cloudburst was anything but funny at the time; +it was miserably exasperating to stand there drenched, with the +comfortable quarters of the mining company in sight, cut off by an +impassable washout. And it was wretched driving all those miles to our +hotel in wet clothes, with not so much as a dry rug to cover us; yet +afterwards, whenever I tried to tell about it, I failed to gain a shred of +sympathy. People laughed, as you are doing now." + +"And you laughed with them," answered Tisdale quickly, "because looking +back you caught the right perspective. It is always so. Another incident +that seemed trivial in passing will loom up behind us like a cliff on the +horizon. And it is so with people. The man who held the foreground through +sheer egoism sinks to his proper place in obscurity, while a little, +white-faced woman we knew for a day stands out of the past like a +monument." + +His brows clouded; he turned from the lantern light to look off again to +the shrouded mountain tops. "And looking back," he added, "the man you +thought you knew better than the rest, the partner, friend, to whom, when +you were reminded and it suited your convenience, you were ready to do a +service, stands out from the shadows clearly defined. It is under the test +of those high lights behind that his character shines. You wonder at his +greatness. His personality takes a stronger, closer hold, and you would +give the rest of your life just to go back and travel the old, hard road +again with him." + +There was a long silence, broken once more by that far, wailing cry on the +wind. Miss Armitage started. She laid her hand on Tisdale's shoulder, the +nearest object, in a tightening grip, while for a breathless moment she +leaned forward, trying to penetrate the darkness of the gorge. The action +seemed to remind him of her presence, and he turned to look at her. +"Frightened again?" he asked. + +Her hand fell; she settled back in her seat. "N-o, not very much, but it +took me off guard. It sounds so desolate, so--so--supernatural; like the +cry of a doomed soul." + +Tisdale smiled. "That describes it, but you never have heard it at close +range." + +She shivered; her glance moved again in apprehension to the +night-enshrouded Pass. "Have you, Mr. Tisdale?" + +"Yes, lonesome nights by a mountain camp-fire, with just the wind piping +down a ravine, or a cataract breaking over a spur to fill the interlude." + +"Oh, that must have been terrifying," and the shiver crept into her voice. +"But what did you do?" + +"Why, I hurried to pull the embers together and throw on more spruce +boughs. A cougar is cautious around a fire." + +There was another silence, then, "I was thinking of your little, +white-faced woman," said Miss Armitage. "She baffles me. Was she your +bravest woman or just your anemone? Would you mind telling me?" + +"So you were thinking of her. That's odd; so was I." Tisdale changed his +position, turning to lean on the edge of the porch with his elbow resting +on the floor. "But it was that Gordon setter there that reminded me of +her. Her dog had the same points, though he had been better trained." He +paused briefly, then said: "She was both. She was like that small, white +flower which grows in the shelter of the Alaska woods--sweet and modest +and frail looking--yet she was the bravest woman and the strongest when it +came to endurance I ever knew." + +"It happened, of course, in Alaska," Miss Armitage ventured, breaking the +pause. "You knew her there?" + +"Yes, it was in Alaska and about five years ago. The season I gave up +getting rich in a hurry and went back to geological work. I had spent the +winter on the Tanana with David Weatherbee. We had staked a promising +placer, and we were ready to begin sluicing with the first spring thaw, +when he sold his interest unexpectedly to meet an obligation down in the +States. That nettled me, and I sold out my own share to the same men and +accepted a position with the department, who had written to ask me to take +charge of a party working above Seward. Weatherbee started with me, but I +left him to prospect along the headwaters of the Susitna. My surveys kept +me in the neighborhood of Turnagain Arm until midsummer, when I moved camp +up the river to the mouth of an unexplored tributary. It was the kind of +stream to lure a prospector or a sportsman, clear, rapid, broken by +riffles and sand-bars, while the grassy shores looked favorable for elk or +caribou. To bridge the delay while the last pack-horses straggled in and +the men were busy pitching tents and putting things into shape, I decided +to go on a short hunting trip. I traveled light, with only a single +blanket rolled compactly for my shoulder strap, in case the short night +should overtake me, with a generous lunch that Sandy, the cook, had +supplied, but at the end of two hours' steady tramping I had sighted +nothing. I had reached a wooded ravine and a snow-peak, apparently the +source of the stream, closed the top of the gorge. It was the heart of the +wilderness, over a hundred miles from a settlement and off the track of +road-houses, but a few rods on I came upon the flume and dump of a placer +mine. The miner's cabin stood a little farther up the bank under a clump +of spruce, but the place seemed abandoned. Then I noticed some berry +bushes near the sluice had been lately snapped off, where some heavy +animal had pushed through, and a moment later, in the moist soil at a +small spillway, I picked up the trail of a large bear. + +"The tracks led me up the rough path towards the cabin, but midway I came +to a fallen tree. It must have been down a week or more, but no attempt +had been made to clear the trail or to cut through, so, pushing up over +the matted boughs, I leaped from the bole to avoid the litter beyond. At +the same instant I saw under me, wedged in the broken branches, the body +of my bear. He was a huge grizzly, and must have made an easy and ugly +target as he lumbered across the barricade. I found one bullet had taken +him nearly between the eyes, while another had lodged in the shoulder. And +it was plain the shots were aimed from the window, with the rifle probably +resting on the sill. + +"As I went on up the path, the loud baying of a dog came from the cabin, +then a woman's face, young and small and very white, appeared at the +window. Seeing me, she turned quickly and threw open the door. The next +instant her hand fell to the neck of a fine Gordon setter and, tugging at +his collar, she drew back and stood surveying me from head to foot. 'It's +all right, madam,' I said, stopping before her. 'Don't try to hold him. +The bear won't trouble you any more. You made a mighty fine shot.' + +"'Oh,' she said, and let the dog go, 'I am so glad you have come.' And she +sank into a chair, shaking and sobbing." + +"You mean," exclaimed Miss Armitage breathlessly, "it was she who killed +the bear?" + +Tisdale nodded gently. "I wish I could make you understand the situation. +She was not a sportswoman. She was city bred and had been carefully +reared--accustomed to have things done for her. I saw this at a glance. +Only her extremity and the fear that the dog would be hurt nerved her to +shoot." + +"Oh, I see, I see," said Miss Armitage. "Fate had brought her, left her in +that solitary place--alone." + +"Fate?" Tisdale questioned. "Well, perhaps, but not maliciously; not in +jest. On second thought I would not lay it to Fate at all. You see, she +had come voluntarily, willingly, though blindly enough. She was one of the +few women who are capable of a great love." + +Tisdale waited, but the woman beside him had no more to say. "I saw I must +give her time to gather her self-control," he went on, "so I turned my +attention to the setter, who was alternately springing on me and excitedly +wagging his tail. I like a good dog, and I soon had him familiarly +snuffing my pockets; then he stretched himself playfully, with an +inquiring, almost human yawn; but suddenly remembering the bear, he stood +pointing, head up, forepaw lifted, and made a rush, baying furiously. + +"'It's all right, madam,' I repeated and stepped into the room. 'You made +a fine shot, and that bearskin is going to make a great rug for your +floor.' + +"She lifted her face, downing a last sob, and gave me a brave little +smile. 'It isn't altogether the bear,' she explained. 'It's partly because +I haven't seen any one for so long, and partly because, for a moment, I +thought you were my husband. I've been worried about him. He has been gone +over three weeks, and he never stayed longer than five days before. But it +was a relief to have you come.' + +"It sounds differently when I repeat it. You lose the sweet shyness of her +face, the appeal in her eyes not yet dry, and that soft minor chord in her +voice that reminds me now of a wood-thrush. + +"'I understand,' I hurried to say, 'the solitude has grown intolerable. I +know what that means, I have lived so long in the eternal stillness +sometimes that the first patter of a rain on the leaves came like the +tramp of an army, and the snapping of a twig rang sharp as a pistol shot.' + +"'You do understand,' she said. 'You have been through it. And, of course, +you see my husband had to leave me. The trail up the canyon is the merest +thread. It would have been impossible for me, and I should have only +hindered him, now, when every day counts.' + +"'You mean,' I said, 'he has left his placer to prospect for the main lode +above?' And she answered yes. That every gravel bar made a better showing; +the last trip had taken him above the tree line, and this time he expected +to prospect along the glacier at the source of the stream. Sometimes +erosions laid veins open, and any hour 'he might stumble on riches.' She +smiled again, though her lip trembled, then said it was his limited outfit +that troubled her most. He had taken only a light blanket and a small +allowance of bacon and bread. + +"'But,' I reassured her, 'there is almost a certainty he has found game at +this season of the year.' + +"She looked at the rifle she had set by the window against the wall. 'I +haven't been able to persuade him to take the gun,' she explained, 'for a +long time. He doesn't hunt any more.' She stopped, watching me, and locked +her slim hands. Then, 'He is greatly changed,' she went on. 'The last time +he came home, he hardly noticed me. He spent the whole evening sitting +with his eyes fixed on the floor--without a word. And the next morning, +before I was awake, he was gone.' + +"At last her real fear was clear to me. There is a terrible fascination +about those Alaska gold streams. Each gravel bar has just showing enough +to lead a man on and on. He hugs the belief from hour to hour he is on the +brink of a great find, until he has eyes for nothing but the colors in the +sand. He forgets hunger, weariness, everything, and finally, if rescue +fails him, he sinks in complete collapse. More than once I had come on +such a wreck, straying demented, babbling, all but famished in the hills. +And I was sorry for that little woman. I understood the pitch she must +have reached to speak so freely to a passing stranger. But it was hard to +find just the right thing to say, and while I stood choosing words, she +hurried to explain that two days before she had taken the dog and tramped +up-stream as far as she had dared, hoping to meet her husband, and that +she had intended to go even farther that day, but had been prevented, as I +saw, by the bear, who had prowled about the cabin the greater part of the +night. The setter's continual barking and growling had failed to drive him +away. + +"'If you had gone this morning,' I said, 'I should have missed you; then I +shouldn't have known about your husband. I am on my way up this canyon, +and I shall look for him. And, when I find him, I shall do my best to +bring him in touch with the outside world again.'" + +Tisdale paused. The abrupt slope that over-topped the portable cabin began +to take shape in the darkness. It had the appearance of a sail looming +through fog. Then the shadows scattered, and the belated moon, lifting +over the dunes beyond the Columbia, silvered the mouth of the gorge. It +was as though that other distant canyon, of which he was thinking, opened +before him into unknown solitudes. + +Miss Armitage leaned forward, watching his face, waiting for the issue of +the story. + +"And you found him?" she asked at last. + +"Yes. In the end." Tisdale's glance returned and, meeting hers, the grim +lines in his face relaxed. "But there was a long and rough tramp first. +She urged me to take the setter, and I saw the advantage in having a good +dog with me on such a search; any cleft, or thicket, or sprinkle of +boulders, might easily conceal a man's body from one passing only a few +feet off--but, much as he favored me, he was not to be coaxed far from his +mistress; so I suggested she should go, too. + +"'Oh,' she said, catching at the chance, 'do you think Jerry can make up +for the delay, if I do? I will travel my best, I promise you.' And she led +the way, picking up the faint trail and setting a pace that I knew must +soon tire her, while the dog brushed by us, bounding ahead and rushing +back and expressing his satisfaction in all sorts of manoeuvers. + +"In a little while, above the timber--the tree line is low on those Alaska +mountainsides--we came to a broad, grassy bog set deep between two spurs, +and she was forced to give me the lead. Then the canyon walls grew +steeper, lifting into rugged knobs. Sometimes I lost the prospector's +trail in a rock-choked torrent and picked it up again, where it hung like +a thin ribbon on a heather-grown slope; but it never wound or doubled if +there was foothold ahead. It led up stairs of graywacke, along the brink +of slaty cliffs that dropped sheer, hundreds of feet to the stream below. +Still she kept on pluckily, and whenever I turned to help her, I found her +there at my elbow, ready. Now and then in breadths of level, where it was +possible to walk abreast, we talked a little, but most of the distance was +covered in silence. I felt more and more sorry for her. She was so eager, +patient, watchful, forever scanning the pitches on either side. And if the +setter made a sudden break, scenting a bare perhaps, or starting a +ptarmigan, she always stopped, waiting with a light in her face; and when +he jogged back to her heels, the expectation settled into patience again. + +"Finally we came to a rill where I urged her to rest; and when I had +spread my blanket on a boulder, she took the seat, leaning comfortably +against a higher rock, and watched me while I opened the tin box in which +Sandy had stored my lunch. She told me my cook made a good sandwich and +knew how to fry a bird Southern fashion. Then she spoke of the Virginia +town where she had lived before her marriage. The trip west had been her +wedding journey, and her husband, who was an architect, had intended to +open an office in a new town on Puget Sound, but at Seattle he caught the +Alaska fever. + +"'The future looked very certain and brilliant then,' she said, with her +smile, 'but as long as I have my husband, nothing else counts. I could +live out my life, be happy here in this wilderness, anywhere, with him. If +I could only have him back--as he used to be.'" + +Tisdale's voice softened, vibrating gently, so that the pathos of it all +must have impressed the coldest listener. The woman beside him trembled +and lifted her hand to her throat. + +"I can't remember all she told me," he went on, "but her husband had left +her in Seattle when he started north, and the next season, when he failed +to return for her, she had sailed to Seward in search of him. She had +tried to influence him to give up the placer, when she saw the change in +him; at least to go down to one of the coast towns and take up the work +for which he had prepared, but he had delayed, with promises, until he was +beyond listening to her. + +"'Of course he may stumble on riches any hour, as he believes,' she said +finally, 'but not all the comforts or luxuries in the world are worth the +price.' She did not break down, as she had in the cabin, but somehow I +could hear the tears falling in her voice. I can yet, and see them big and +shining deep in her eyes. + +"But she was off again, making up the delay, before I could fasten my +pack, and when I overtook her in a level stretch and halted a moment to +frolic with the dog, her face brightened. Then she spoke of a little trick +she had taught him,--to go and meet his master and fetch his hat to her. +Sometimes she had hidden it in shrubs, or among rocks, but invariably he +had brought it home. + +"At last we made a turn and saw the front of the glacier that closed the +top of the gorge. The stream gushed from a cavern at the foot, and above +the noise of water sounded the grinding and roaring of subterranean forces +at work. Once in a while a stone was hurled through. But that is +impossible to explain. You must have been on intimate terms with a glacier +to grasp the magnitude. Still, try to imagine the ice arching that cave +like a bridge and lifting back, rimmed in moraine, far and away to the +great white dome. And it was all wrapped in a fine Alpine splendor, so +that she stopped beside me in a sort of hushed wonder to look. But I could +hear her breath, laboring hard and quick, and she rocked uncertainly on +her feet. I laid my hand on her arm to steady her. It was time we turned +back. For half an hour I had been gathering courage to tell her so. While +I hesitated, allowing her a few minutes to take in the glory, the setter +ran nosing ahead, up over the wreckage along the edge of the glacier, and +on across the bridge. I waited until he disappeared in a small pocket, +then began: 'You know, madam, what all this color means. These twilights +linger, and it will be easier traveling down-grade, but we must hurry, to +have you home before dark.' + +"She turned to answer but stopped, looking beyond me to the bridge. Then I +saw the setter had caught her attention. He was coming back. His black +body moved in strong relief against the ice-field, and I noticed he had +something in his mouth. It seemed about the size and color of a grouse,--a +ptarmigan, no doubt. Then it flashed over me the thing was a hat. At the +same moment I felt her tremble, and I had just time to see that her face +had gone white, when she sank against me, a dead weight. I carried her a +few yards to a bank of heather and laid her down, and while I was filling +my folding cup at the stream, the dog bounded over the rocks and dropped +the thing on her breast. It was a hat, a gray felt with a good brim, such +as a prospector, or indeed any man who lives in the open, favors; but the +setter's actions,--he alternately rushed towards the glacier and back to +his mistress, with short yelps,--warned me to be careful, and I tucked the +hat out of sight, between two stones. The dog had it out instantly, bent +on giving it to her, but I snatched it from him and threw it into the +torrent, where it struck upright, floating lightly on the brim, and lodged +in a shallow. He followed and came bounding back with it, while I was +raising the cup to her lips, and I had barely a chance to crowd it into my +blanket roll when she opened her eyes. 'He had Louis' hat,' she said and +drifted into unconsciousness again. + +"I took my flask from my pocket and, blaming myself for bringing her that +hard trip, mixed a draught. It revived her, and in a moment she started +up. 'Where is the hat?' she asked, looking about her. 'Jerry had it on the +ice-bridge.' + +"At the sound of her voice, the dog, who had been trying to get at the +hat, commenced his manoeuvers to attract her across the gorge, bounding +ahead, calling her with his short, excited barks, and making all the signs +of a hunting dog impatient to lead to the quarry. She tried to get to her +feet, but I put my hand on her shoulder. 'Wait, madam,' I said. 'You must +rest a little longer before you try to start back. You were so tired you +fainted. And your eyes must have played you a trick.' + +"'You mean,' she began and stopped. + +"I am not much of a dissembler, and I found it hard to meet her look, but +I answered with all the assurance I could muster. 'I mean, madam, you are +mistaken about that hat.' + +"She waited a moment, watching the setter, then her glance moved back +incredulously to me. 'Then what excites Jerry?' she asked. + +"'Why,' I hurried to answer, 'just another bunch, of ptarmigan, probably. +But while you are resting here, I will go over into that pocket to satisfy +him.' + +"The setter, content with my company, ran ahead, and I followed him across +the ice-bridge. The pocket was thickly strewn with broken rock, but at the +upper end there was a clear space grown with heather. And it was there, as +I feared, between a bluff and a solitary thumb-shaped boulder that the dog +had found his master." + +Tisdale paused, looking off again with clouding brows to the stormy +heights. Eastward the moon in a clear sky threw a soft illumination on the +desert. The cry of the cougar had ceased. The electrical display was less +brilliant; it seemed farther off. Miss Armitage moved a little and waited, +watching his face. + +"But of course," she ventured at last, "you mixed another draught from +your emergency flask. The stimulant saved his life." + +"No." Tisdale's glance came slowly back. "He was beyond any help. A square +of canvas was set obliquely on the glacier side, and that and the blanket +which covered him proved the place was his camp; but the only traces of +food were a few cracker or bread crumbs in a trap made of twigs, and a +marmot skin and a bunch of ptarmigan feathers to show the primitive +contrivance had worked. There was no wood in the neighborhood, but the +ashes of a small fire showed he must have carried fuel from the belt of +spruce half-way down the gorge. If he had made such a trip and not gone on +to the cabin, it clearly proved his mental condition. Still in the end +there had been a glimmer of light, for he had torn a leaf from his +notebook and written first his wife's name and then a line, out of which I +was only able to pick the words 'give' and 'help' and 'States.' Evidently +he had tried to put the paper into his poke, which had dropped, untied, +from his hand with the pencil he had used. The sack was nearly full; it +had fallen upright in a fold of the blanket, so only a little of the gold, +which was very coarse and rough and bright, had spilled. I made all this +inventory almost at a glance, and saw directly he had left his pan and +shovel in the gravels of a stream that cascaded over the wall and through +the pocket to join the creek below the glacier. Then it came over me that +I must keep the truth from her until she was safely back at the cabin, and +I put the poke in my pocket and hurried to do what I could. + +"The setter hampered me and was frantic when I turned away, alternately +following me a few yards, whining and begging, and rushing back to his +master. Finally he stopped on the farther side of the ice-bridge and set +up a prolonged cry. His mistress had come to meet me and she waited at the +crossing, supporting herself with her hands on a great boulder, shoulders +forward, breath hushed, watching me with her soul in her eyes. At last I +reached her. 'Madam,' I began, but the words caught in my throat. I turned +and looked up at the splendor on the mountain. The air drew sharp across +the ice, but a sudden heat swept me; I was wet with perspiration from head +to foot. 'Madam,' and I forced myself to meet her eyes, 'it is just as I +expected; the dog found--nothing.' + +"She straightened herself slowly, still watching me, then suddenly threw +her arms against the rock and dropped her face. 'Come,' I said, 'we must +start back. Come, I want to hurry through to my camp for a horse.' + +"This promise was all she needed to call up her supreme self-control, and +she lifted her face with a smile that cut me worse than any tears. 'I'm +not ungrateful,' she said, 'but--I felt so sure, from the first, you would +find him.' + +"'And you felt right,' I hurried to answer. 'Trust me to bring him +through.' + +"I whistled the setter, and she called repeatedly, but he refused to +follow. When we started down the trail, he watched us from his post at the +farther end of the ice-bridge, whining and baying, and the moment she +stopped at the first turn to look back, he streaked off once more for that +pocket. 'Never mind,' I said, and helped her over a rough place, 'Jerry +knows he is a good traveler. He will be home before you.' But it was plain +to me he would not, and try as I might to hurry her out of range of his +cry, it belled again soon, and the cliffs caught it over and over and +passed it on to us far down the gorge." + +There was one of those speaking silences in which the great heart of the +man found expression, and the woman beside him, following his gaze, sifted +the cloudy Pass. She seemed in that moment to see that other canyon, +stretching down from the glacier, and those two skirting the edge of +cliffs, treading broken stairs, pursued by the cry of the setter into the +gathering gloom of the Arctic night. + +"It grew very cold in that gorge," he went on, "and I blamed myself for +taking her that trip more and more. She never complained, never stopped, +except to look back and listen for the dog, but shadows deepened under her +eyes; the patient lines seemed chiseled where they had been only lightly +drawn, and when she caught me watching her and coaxed up her poor little +smile, I could have picked her up in my arms and carried her the rest of +the way. But we reached the tree-line before she came to her limit. It was +at the turn in a cliff, and I stopped, looking down across the tops of a +belt of spruce, to locate the cabin. 'There it is,' I said. 'You see that +little brown patch down there in the blur of green. That is your house. +You are almost home.' + +"She moved a step to see better and stumbled, and she only saved herself +by catching my arm in both hands. Then her whole body fell to shaking. I +felt unnerved a little, for that matter. It was a dangerous place. I had +been recklessly foolish to delay her there. But when I had found a safe +seat for her around the cliff, the shivering kept up, chill after chill, +and I mixed a draught for her, as I had at the glacier. + +"'This will warm your blood,' I said, holding the cup for her. 'Come, +madam, we must fight the cold off for another hour; that should see you +home. After I have made a good fire, I am going to show you what a fine +little supper I can prepare. Bear steaks at this season are prime.' + +"I laughed to encourage her, and because the chills were still obstinate, +I hurried to unstrap my blanket to wrap around her. And I only remembered +the hat when it dropped at her feet. She did not cry out but sat like a +marble woman, with her eyes fixed on it. Then, after a while, she bent and +lifted it and began to shape it gently with her numb little fingers. She +was beyond tears, and the white stillness of her face made me more +helpless than any sobbing. I could think of nothing to say to comfort her +and turned away, looking off in the direction of the cabin. It seemed +suddenly a long distance off. + +"Finally she spoke, slowly at first, convincing herself. 'Jerry did bring +it across the ice-bridge. He found Louis and stayed to watch, as I +thought. Sir, now tell me the truth.' + +"I turned back to her, and it came bluntly enough. Then I explained it was +not an accident or anything terrible; that the end had come easily, +probably the previous night, of heart failure. 'But I couldn't nerve +myself to tell you up there,' I said, 'with all those miles of hard travel +before you; and I am going back to-morrow, as I promised, to bring him +through.' + +"She had nothing to say but rose and held out her hand. In a little while +I began to lead her down through the belt of spruce. I moved very slowly, +choosing steps, for she paid no attention to her footing. Her hand rested +limply in mine, and she stumbled, like one whose light has gone out in a +dark place." + +Tisdale's story was finished, but Miss Armitage waited, listening. It was +as though in the silence she heard his unexpressed thoughts. + +"But her life was wrecked," she said at last. "She never could forget. +Think of it! The terror of those weeks; the long-drawn suspense. She +should not have stayed in Alaska. She should have gone home at the +beginning. She was not able to help her husband. Her influence was lost." + +"True," Tisdale answered slowly. "Long before that day I found her, she +must have known it was a losing fight. But the glory of the battle is not +always to the victor. And she blamed herself that she had not gone north +with her husband at the start. You see she loved him, and love with that +kind of woman means self-sacrifice; she counted it a privilege to have +been there, to have faced the worst with him, done what she could." + +Miss Armitage straightened, lifting her head with that movement of a +flower shaken on its stem. "Every woman owes it to herself to keep her +self-respect," she said. "She owes it to her family--the past and future +generations of her race--to make the most of her life." + +"And she made the most of hers," responded Tisdale quickly. "That was her +crowning year." He hesitated, then said quietly, with his upward look from +under slightly frowning brows: "And it was just that reason, the debt to +her race, that buoyed her all the way through. It controlled her there at +the glacier and gave her strength to turn back, when the setter refused to +come. Afterwards, in mid-winter, when news of the birth of her son came +down from Seward, I understood." + +An emotion like a transparent shadow crossed his listener's face. "That +changes everything," she said. "But of course you returned the next day +with a horse to do as you promised, and afterwards helped her out to +civilization." + +"I saw Louis Barbour buried, yes." Tisdale's glance traveled off again to +the distant Pass. "We chose a low mound, sheltered by a solitary spruce, +between the cabin and the creek, and I inscribed his name and the date on +the trunk of the tree. But my time belonged to the Government. I had a +party in the field, and the Alaska season is short. It fell to David +Weatherbee to see her down to Seward." + +"To David Weatherbee?" Miss Armitage started. Protest fluctuated with the +surprise in her voice. "But I see, I see!" and she settled back in her +seat. "You sent him word. He had known her previously." + +"No. When I left him early in the spring, he intended to prospect down the +headwaters of the Susitna, you remember, and I was carrying my surveys +back from the lower valley. We were working toward each other, and I +expected to meet him any day. In fact, I had mail for him at my camp that +had come by way of Seward, so I hardly was surprised the next morning, +when I made the last turn below the glacier with my horse to see old +Weatherbee coming over the ice-bridge. + +"He had made a discovery at the source of that little tributary, where the +erosion of the glacier had opened a rich vein, and on following the stream +through graywackes and slate to the first gravelled fissure, he had found +the storage plant for his placer gold. He was on his way out to have the +claim recorded and get supplies and mail when he heard the baying setter +and, rounding the mouth of the pocket, saw the camp and the dead +prospector. Afterwards, when he had talked with the woman waiting down the +canyon, he asked to see her husband's poke and compared the gold with the +sample he had panned. It was the same, coarse and rough, with little +scraps of quartz clinging to the bigger flakes sometimes, and he insisted +the strike was Barbour's. He tried to persuade her to make the entry, but +she refused, and finally they compromised with a partnership." + +"So they were partners." Miss Armitage paused, then went on with a touch +of frostiness: "And they traveled those miles of wilderness alone, for +days together, out to the coast." + +"Yes." Tisdale's glance, coming back, challenged hers. "Sometimes the +wilderness enforces a social code of her own. Miss Armitage,"--his voice +vibrated softly,--"I wish you had known David Weatherbee. But imagine Sir +Galahad, that whitest knight of the whole Round Table, Sir Galahad on that +Alaska trail, to-day. And Weatherbee was doubly anxious to reach Seward. +There was a letter from his wife in that packet of mail I gave him. She +had written she was taking the opportunity to travel as far as Seward with +some friends, who were making the summer tour of the coast. But he was +ready to cut the trip into short and easy stages to see Mrs. Barbour +through. 'It's all right,' he said at the start. 'Leave it to me. I am +going to take this lady to my wife.'" + +"And--at Seward?" questioned Miss Armitage, breaking the pause. + +"At Seward his wife failed him. But he rented a snug cottage of some +people going out to the States and had the good fortune to find a motherly +woman, who knew something about nursing, to stay with Mrs. Barbour. It was +Christmas when her father arrived from Virginia to help her home, and it +was spring before she was able to make the sea voyage as far as Seattle." + +"Expenses, in those new, frontier towns, are so impossible; I hope her +father was able"--she halted, then added hurriedly, flushing under +Tisdale's searching eyes, "but, of course, in any case, he reimbursed Mr. +Weatherbee." + +"He did, you may be sure, if there was any need. But you have forgotten +that poke of Barbour's. There was dust enough to have carried her through +even an Alaska winter; but an old Nevada miner, on the strength of that +showing, paid her twenty thousand dollars outright for her interest in the +claim." + +Miss Armitage drew a deep breath. "And David Weatherbee, too? He sold his +share--did he not--and stayed on at Seward?" + +"Yes, he wasted the best weeks of the season in Seward, waiting for his +wife. But she never came. She wrote she had changed her mind. He showed me +that letter one night at the close of the season when he stopped at my +camp on his way back to the Tanana. It was short but long enough to remind +him there were accounts pressing; one particularly that she called a 'debt +of honor.' She hadn't specified, but I guessed directly she had been +accepting loans from her friends, and I saw it was that that had worried +him. To raise the necessary money, he had been obliged to realize on the +new placer. His partner had been waiting to go in to the claim with him, +and Weatherbee's sudden offer to sell made the mining man suspicious. He +refused to buy at any price. Then David found an old prospector whom he +had once befriended and made a deal with him. It was five hundred dollars +down, and two thousand out of the first year's clean-up. And he sent all +of the ready money to her and started in to make a new stake below +Discovery. But the inevitable stampede had followed on the Nevada man's +heels, and the strike turned out small. + +"It was one of those rich pockets we find sometimes along a glacier that +make fortunes for the first men, while the rank and file pan out defeat +and disappointment. There was the quartz body above, stringers and veins +of it reaching through the graywackes and slate, but to handle it +Weatherbee must set up a stamp-mill; and only a line of pack-mules from +the Andes, and another line of steamships could transport the ore to the +nearest smelter, on Puget Sound. So--he took up the long trek northward +again, to the Tanana. Think of it! The irony of it!" + +Tisdale rose and turned on the step to look down at her. The light from +the lantern intensified the furrows between his brooding eyes. "And think +what it meant to Weatherbee to have seen, as he had, day after day, hour +after hour, the heart of another man's wife laid bare, while to his own he +himself was simply a source of revenue." + +Miss Armitage too rose and stood meeting his look. Her lip trembled a +little, but the blue lights flamed in her eyes. "You believe that," she +said, and her voice dropped into an unexpected note. "You believe he threw +away that rich discovery for the few hundreds of dollars he sent his wife; +but I know--she was told--differently. She thought he was glad to--escape-- +at so small a price. He wrote he was glad she had reconsidered that trip; +Alaska was no place for her." + +"Madam," Tisdale remonstrated softly, "you couldn't judge David Weatherbee +literally by his letters. If you had ever felt his personality, you would +have caught the undercurrent, deep and strong, sweeping between the lines. +It wasn't himself that counted; it was what was best for her. You couldn't +estimate him by other men; he stood, like your white mountain, alone above +the crowd. And he set a pedestal higher than himself and raised his wife +there to worship and glorify. A word from her at any time would have +turned the balance and brought him home; her presence, her sympathy, even +that last season at the Aurora mine, would have brought him through. I +wish you had seen his face that day I met him below the glacier and had +told him about the woman waiting down the gorge. 'My God, Tisdale,' he +said, 'suppose it had been my wife.'" + +Miss Armitage stood another moment, locking her hands one over the other +in a tightening grip. Her lip trembled again, but the words failed. She +turned and walked uncertainly the few steps to the end of the porch. + +"You believe she might have influenced him, but I do not. Oh, I see, I +see, how you have measured him by your own great heart. But"--she turned +towards him and went on slowly, her voice fluctuating in little, steadying +pauses--"even if you were right, you might be generous; you might try to +imagine her side. Suppose she had not guessed his--need--of her; been able +to read, as you did, between the lines. Sometimes a woman waits to be +told. A proud woman does." She came back the few steps. "Beatriz +Weatherbee isn't the kind of woman you think she is. She has faults, of +course, but she has tried to make the best of her life. If she made a +mistake--or thought she had--no one else knew it. She braved it through. +She's been high-strung, too." + +Tisdale put up his hand. "Don't say any more; don't try to excuse her to +me. It's of no use. Good night." But a few feet from the porch he stopped +to add, less grimly: "I should have said good morning. You see how that +pyramid stands out against that pale streak of horizon. There is only time +for a nap before sunrise. Day is breaking." + +She was silent, but something in the intensity of her gaze, the unspoken +appeal that had also a hint of dread, the stillness of her small face, +white in the uncertain light when so lately he had seen it sparkle and +glow, brought him back. + +"I've tired you out," he said. "I shouldn't have told you that story. But +this outlook to-night reminded me of that other canyon, and I thought it +might help to bridge over the time. There's nothing can tide one through +an unpleasant situation like hearing about some one who fared worse. And I +hadn't meant to go so far into details. I'm sorry," and he held out his +hand, "but it was your interest, sympathy, something about you, that drew +me on." + +She did not answer directly. She seemed to need the moment to find her +voice and bring it under control. Then, "Any one must have been +interested," she said, and drew away her hand. "You have the +story-teller's gift. And I want to thank you for making it all so clear +to me; it was a revelation." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE DUNES OF THE COLUMBIA + + +Behind them, as Tisdale drove down, the heights they had crossed were +still shrouded in thunder-caps, but before them the end of the Wenatchee +range lifted clear-cut, in a mighty promontory, from the face of the +desert. Already the morning sun gave a promise of heat, and as the bays +rounded a knoll, Miss Armitage raised her hands to shade her eyes. + +"What color!" she exclaimed. "How barbarous! How ages old! But don't say +this is the Columbia, Mr. Tisdale. I know it is the Nile. Those are the +ruins of Thebes. In a moment we shall see the rest of the pyramids and the +Sphinx." + +Tisdale brought the horses around a sand-pit in the road which began to +parallel the river, rolling wide and swift and intensely blue, where the +rapids ceased, then he glanced at the other shore, where fantastic columns +and broken walls of granite rose like a ruined city through a red glory. + +"It is worth coming from New York to see, but you have traveled abroad. Do +you know, that disappoints me. A true American should see America first." + +"Then I confess." The girl laughed softly. "I haven't been nearer the Nile +than a lantern-slide lecture and the moving-picture show. But my father +knew Egypt when he was a boy; maybe I've inherited some memories, too." + +Her enthusiasm was irresistible. Looking into her glowing face, the +mirth-provoking lines broke and re-formed at the corners of his own mouth +and eyes. + +"But," he explained after a moment, "this desert of the Columbia is not +old; it's tremendously new; so new that Nature hasn't had time to take the +scaffolding away. You know--do you not--this was all once a great inland +sea? Countless glacial streams brought wash down from the mountains, +filling the shallows with the finest alluvial earth. Then, in some big +upheaval, one or perhaps several of these volcanic peaks poured down a +strata of lava and ash. As the ice tongues receded, the streams gradually +dried; only the larger ones, fed far back in the range, are left to-day." + +"How interesting!" Her glance swept upward and backward along the heights +and returned to the levels. "And naturally, as the bed of the sea was laid +bare, these last streams found the lowest depression, the channel of the +Columbia." + +Her quickness, her evident desire to grasp the great scheme of things, +which other women received with poorly veiled indifference, often hurried +to evade, warmed his scientist soul. "Yes," he answered, "Nature +remembered, while she was busy, to construct the main flume. She might as +well have said, when it was finished: 'Here are some garden tracts I +reclaimed for you. Now get to work; show what you can do.'" + +"And are you going to?" Her voice caught a little; she watched his face +covertly yet expectantly, her breath arrested, with parted lips. + +"Perhaps. I am on my way to find a certain garden spot that belonged to +David Weatherbee. He knew more about reclamation than I, for he grew up +among your California orchards, but I have the plans he drew; I ought to +be able to see his project through." + +"You mean you may buy the land, Mr. Tisdale, if--things--are as you +expect?" + +"Yes, provided I have Mrs. Weatherbee's price." + +"What do you consider the tract is worth?" + +"I couldn't make a fair estimate before I have been over the ground. +Seattle promoters are listing Wenatchee fruit lands now, but the +Weatherbee tract is off the main valley. Still, the railroad passes within +a few miles, and the property must have made some advance since he bought +the quarter section. That was over nine years ago. He was a student at +Stanford then and spent a summer vacation up here in the Cascades with a +party of engineers who were running surveys for the Great Northern. One +day he was riding along a high ridge at the top of one of those arid +gulfs, when he came to a bubbling spring. It was so cool and pleasant up +there above the desert heat that he set up a little camp of his own in the +shade of some pine trees that rimmed the pool, and the rest of the season +he rode to and from his work. Then he began to see the possibilities of +that alluvial pocket under irrigation, and before he went back to college +he secured the quarter section. That was his final year, and he expected +to return the next summer and open the project. But his whole future was +changed by that unfortunate marriage. His wife was not the kind of woman +to follow him into the desert and share inevitable discomfort and hardship +until his scheme should mature. He began to plan a little Eden for her at +the core, and to secure more capital he went to Alaska. He hoped to make a +rich strike and come back in a year or two with plenty of money to hurry +the project through. You know how near he came to it once, and why he +failed. And that was not the only time. But every year he stayed in the +north, his scheme took a stronger hold on him. He used to spend long +Arctic nights elaborating, making over his plans. He thought and brooded +on them so much that finally, when the end came, up there in the Chugach +snows, he set up an orchard of spruce twigs--" + +"I know, I know," interrupted Miss Armitage. "Please don't tell it over +again. I--can't--bear it." And she sank against the back of the seat, +shuddering, and covered her eyes with her hands. + +Tisdale looked at her, puzzled. "Again?" he repeated. "But I see you must +have heard the story through Mr. Feversham. I told it at the clubhouse the +night he was in Seattle." + +"It's impossible to explain; you never could understand." She sat erect, +but Tisdale felt her body tremble, and she went on swiftly, with little +breaks and catches: "You don't know the hold your story has on me. I've +dreamed it all over at night; I've wakened cold and wet with perspiration +from head to foot, as though I--too--were struggling through those frozen +solitudes. I've been afraid to sleep sometimes, the dread of facing--it-- +is so strong." + +Watching her, a sudden tenderness rose through the wonder in Tisdale's +face. + +"So you dreamed you were fighting it through with me; that's strange. But +I see the story was too hard for you; Feversham shouldn't have told it." +He paused and his brows clouded. "I wish I could make Weatherbee's wife +dream it," he broke out. "It might teach her what he endured. I have gone +over the ground with her in imagination, mile after mile, that long trek +from Nome. I have seen her done for, whimpering in a corner, like the +weakest husky in the team, there at the Aurora mine, and at her limit +again up in Rainy Pass. And once lately, the night of the club supper, +while I was lying awake in my room, looking off through the window to the +harbor lights and the stars, I heard her crying deeply from the heart. She +did not seem like herself then, but a different woman I was mighty sorry +for." + +Miss Armitage turned and met his look, questioning, hardly comprehending. +"That sounds occult," she said. + +"Does it? Well, perhaps it is. But a man who has lived in the big spaces +has his senses sharpened. He sees farther; feels more." + +There was a silent moment. The colts, topping a low dune, felt the +pressure of the fills on the down-grade, and the nigh horse broke, turning +the front wheel into a tangle of sage. "Mr. Tisdale," she cried a little +tremulously, "do you think this is a catboat, tacking into a squall? +Please, please let me drive." + +Her effort was supreme. It relieved the tension, and when the change was +made, she drew to the edge of the seat, holding her head high like that +intrepid flower to which he had compared her. + +"You mean," she said evenly, "the terrible silence of your big spaces keys +up the subjective mind. That, of course, was the trouble with Mrs. +Barbour's husband. He allowed it to dominate him. But a man like you"--and +she gave him her swift, direct look, and the shadow of a smile touched her +mouth--"well-balanced, strong, would have kept the danger down. I should +never be afraid--for you. But," she hurried on, "I can understand too how +in the great solitudes some men are drawn together. You have shown me. I +did not know before I heard your story how much a man can endure for a +friend--and sacrifice." + +Tisdale looked off over the desert. "Friendship up there does mean +something," he answered quietly. "Mere companionship in the Alaska +wilderness is a test. I don't know whether it's the darkness of those +interminable winters, or the monotony that plays on a man's nerves, but I +have seen the closest partners get beyond speaking to each other. It's a +life to bring out the good and the bad in a man; a life to make men hate; +and it can forge two men together. But David Weatherbee never had an +enemy. He never failed a man. In a crisis he was great. If things had been +reversed"--he set his lips, his face hardened--"if Weatherbee had been in +my place, there at Nome, with a letter of mine in his hands, he wouldn't +have thrown away those four days." + +"Yes, he would. Consider. He must have taken time to prepare for that +terrible journey. How else could he have carried it through?" She leaned +forward a little, compelling his glance, trying to reason down the tragedy +in his face. + +"How can you blame yourself?" she finished brokenly. "You must not. I will +not--let you." + +"Thank you for saying that." Tisdale's rugged features worked. He laid his +hand for an instant over hers. "If any one in the world can set me right +with myself, it is you." + +After that they both were silent. They began to round the bold promontory +at the end of the Wenatchee range; the Badger loomed on the rim of the +desert, then Old Baldy seemed to swing his sheer front like an opened +portal to let the blue flood of the Columbia through. The interest crept +back to her face. Between them and those guardian peaks a steel bridge, +fine as a spider web, was etched on the river, then a first orchard broke +the areas of sage, the rows of young trees radiating from a small, new +dwelling, like a geometrical pattern. Finally she said: "I would like to +know a little more about Mrs. Barbour. Did you ever see her again, Mr. +Tisdale? Or the child?" + +"Oh, yes. I made it a point the next winter, when I was in Washington, to +run down into Virginia and look them up. And I have always kept in touch +with them. She sends me new pictures of the boy every year. He keeps her +busy. He was a rugged little chap at the start, did his best to grow, and +bright!"--Tisdale paused, shaking his head, while the humorous lines +deepened--"But he had to be vigorous to carry the name she gave him. Did I +tell you it was Weatherbee Tisdale? Think of shouldering the names of two +full-sized men on that atom. But she picked a nice diminutive out of it-- +'Bee.' + +"It was a great christening party," he went on reminiscently. "She +arranged it when she passed through Seattle and had several hours to wait +for her train. The ceremony was at Trinity, that stone church on the first +hill, and the Bishop of Alaska, who was waiting too, officiated. I was in +town at the time, getting my outfit together for another season in the +north, but Weatherbee had to assume his responsibilities by proxy." + +"Do you mean David Weatherbee was the child's godfather?" + +"One of them, yes." Tisdale paused, and his brows clouded. "I wish the boy +had been his own. That would have been his salvation. If David Weatherbee +had had a son, he would be here with us now, to-day." + +Miss Armitage was silent. She looked off up the unfolding watercourse, and +the great weariness Tisdale had noticed that hour before dawn settled +again on her face. + +He laid his hand on the reins. "You are tired out," he said. "Come, give +the lines to me. You've deceived me with all that fine show of spirits, +but I've been selfish, or I must have seen. The truth is, I've been +humoring this hand." + +"You mean," she said quickly, "this vixen did hurt you yesterday more than +you would admit?" + +"Oh, no, but the friction of the reins can make even a scratch +uncomfortable after a while, and my glove is getting tight. A little +peroxide, when we reach a pharmacy, will fix it all right." + +But Miss Armitage watched him doubtfully. She assured him she was not +tired and that she loved to drive. Had she not told him so at the start? +Then, as they left the promontory, her glance followed the road ahead. The +bridge was no longer fine as a spider web; it was a railroad crossing of +steel, and the long eaves of the Great Northern depot lifted near, flanked +by the business blocks of a town. "Wenatchee!" she exclaimed; and +wavering, asked: "_Isn't_ this Wenatchee?" + +"Yes, Miss Armitage, I am afraid that it is. You are back to civilization. +A few minutes more and, if you will give me their address, you will be +safe with your friends." + +"I did not say I had any friends in Wenatchee, Mr. Tisdale. I am going on +to Hesperides Vale. But please leave me at any quiet hotel. I can't thank +you enough for all your kindness and patience," she went on hurriedly. +"For making this trip possible. All I can hope to do is share the +expense." And she found the inside pocket of her coat and drew out a small +silver purse. + +Tisdale, driving slowly, divided his attention between his team and the +buildings on either side. "There is a public garage," he said, "and a +rival establishment opposite. You will have no trouble to finish your trip +by automobile, as you planned. It will be pleasant making the run up the +valley this evening, when it is cool." + +Miss Armitage opened her purse. "The rates must be considerably higher on +a rough mountain road than on the Seattle boulevard, and, of course, one +couldn't expect to hire Nip and Tuck at ordinary rates." + +Tisdale drew in, hesitating, before a hotel, then relaxed the reins. "The +building seems modern, but we may find a quiet little inn up some side +street with more shade." + +"I presume you will drive on up the valley," she said, after a moment, +"and start back to Kittitas to-morrow. Or will it be necessary to rest the +team a day?" + +"I shall drive on to that tract of Weatherbee's this afternoon; but I +expect to take the westbound train to-night, somewhere up the valley." + +"I see," she said quickly and tried to cover her dismay, "you intend to +ship the team back to Kittitas by way of Seattle. I'm afraid"--her voice +broke a little, the color flushed pinkly to her forehead, her ears, and +her glance fell to the purse in her lap--"but please tell me the charges." + +"Madam," and the ready humor crinkled the corners of his mouth, "when I +ship these horses back to Lighter, he is going to pay the freight." + +She drew a quick breath of relief, but her purse remained open, and she +waited, regarding Tisdale with an expectant, disconcerting side-glance of +her half-veiled eyes. "And the day rates for the use of the team?" she +asked. + +For a moment he was busy turning the horses. They had reached a second +hotel, but it proved less inviting than the first, and the side streets +they had crossed afforded no quiet inn, or indeed any dwelling in the +shade. "After all," he said, "a room and bath on the north side, with +windows looking up the Columbia, should make you fairly comfortable +through the heat of the day." But the girl waited, and when his eyes fell +to that open purse, his own color burned through the tan. There was no +help for it; she must know the truth. He squared his shoulders, turning a +little toward her. "There are no expenses to share, Miss Armitage. I-- +happened to own this team, and since we were traveling the same way, I was +glad to offer you this vacant seat." + +"Do you mean you bought these horses--outright--at Kittitas?" + +"Yes, the opportunity was too good to miss." He tried to brave the +astonishment in her eyes, but his glance moved directly to the colts. +"And, you see, if I should buy that tract of Weatherbee's, I am going to +need a team." + +"Doubtless," answered Miss Armitage slowly. "Still, for breaking wild land +or even cultivating, one would choose a steadier, heavier team. But they +are beauties, Mr. Tisdale, and I know a man in Seattle who is going to be +disappointed. I congratulate you on being able to secure them." She closed +the purse at last and reluctantly put it away, and she added, with the +merriment dimpling her lips: "Fate certainly was with me yesterday." + +They had reached the hotel, and as he drew up to the curb, a man came from +the lobby to hold the bays. Several traveling salesmen stood smoking and +talking outside the entrance, while a little apart a land promoter and his +possible capitalist consulted a blue print; but there was a general pause +as Tisdale sprang out, and the curious scrutiny of wayfarers in a small +town was focussed on the arrivals. + +"It looks all right," he said quietly, helping her down, "but if you find +anything wrong, or should happen to want me, I shall be at that other +hotel until two o'clock. Good-by!" + +He saw the surprise in her face change to swift appreciation. Then +"Good-by," she answered and walked towards the door. But there she stopped. +Tisdale, looking back as he gave her suitcase to a boy, saw her lips part, +though she did not speak. Then her eyelids drooped, the color played +softly in her face, and she turned to go in. There had been no invitation +in her attitude, yet he had felt a certain appeal. It flashed over him she +did not want to motor up the valley; she wished to drive on with him. Too +proud, too fine to say so, she was letting her opportunity go. He hurried +across the pavement. + +"Miss Armitage," he said, and instantly she turned; the sparkles leaped in +her eyes; she came towards him a few steps and stopped expectantly. "If I +start up the valley at two"--and he looked at his watch--"that will be a +rest of nearly three hours. It means the heat of the day, but if it seems +better than motoring over a country road with a public chauffeur, I would +be glad to have you drive for me." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A WOMAN'S HEART-STRINGS + + +"Now I know the meaning of Wenatchee. It's something racy, Mr. Tisdale, +and a little wicked, yet with unexpected depths, and just the coolest, +limpid hazel-green." + +Tisdale's pulses quickened; his blood responded to her exhilaration. "Yes, +only"--and he waited to catch the glance she lifted from the stream--"your +green is blue, and you forgot to count the sparkles in." + +As he spoke, the bays paced off the bridge. They sprang, gathering +themselves lightly for a sharp ascent and for an interval held the +driver's close attention. The town and the Columbia were behind, and the +road, which followed the contour of the slopes rising abruptly from the +Wenatchee, began a series of sudden turns; it cut shelf-wise high across +the face of a ridge; spurs constantly closed after them; there seemed no +way back or through, then, like an opening gate, a bluff detached from the +wall ahead, and they entered another breadth of valley. In the wide levels +that bordered the river, young orchards began to supplant the sage. +Looking down from the thoroughfare, the even rows and squares seemed +wrought on the tawny background like the designs of a great carpet. +Sometimes, paralleling the road, the new High Line canal followed an upper +cut; it trestled a ravine or, stopped by a rocky cliff, bored through. +Where a finished spillway irrigated a mountainside, all the steep incline +between the runnels showed lines on lines of diminutive trees, pluckily +taking root-hold. + +A little after that, near an old mission, they dropped to a lower bench +and passed an apple orchard in full bearing. Everywhere boughs laden with +a gold or crimson harvest were supported by a network of scaffolding. It +was marvelous that fruit could so crowd and cling to a slender stem and +yet round and color to such perfection. Miss Armitage slowed the horses +down and looked up the shady avenues. Presently a driveway divided the +tract, leading to a dwelling so small it had the appearance of a toy +house; but on the gatepost above the rural delivery box the name of the +owner shone ostentatiously. It was "Henderson Bailey, Hesperides Vale." + +"Do you see?" she asked. "This is that station master's orchard, where the +Rome Beauty grew." + +But the team was troublesome again. The road made a turn, rounding the +orchard, and began the descent to a bridge. On the right a great +water-wheel, supplied with huge, scoop-shaped buckets, was lifting water +from the river to distribute it over a reclaimed section. The bays pranced +toward it suspiciously. "Now, now, Tuck," she admonished, "be a soldier." +The colt sidled gingerly. "Whoa, Nip, whoa!" and, rearing lightly, they +took the approach with a rush. + +As they quieted and trotted evenly off the bridge, a large and brilliant +signboard set in an area of sage-brush challenged the eye. Miss Armitage +fluted a laugh. + +"Buy one of these Choice Lots," + +she read, with charming, slightly mocking exaggeration. + +"Buy to-day. + +"To-morrow will see this Property the Heart of a City. + +"Buy before the Prices Soar. + +"Talk with Henderson Bailey. + +"This surely is Hesperides Vale," she added. + +The amusement went out of Tisdale's face. "Yes, madam, and your journey's +end. Probably the next post-box will announce the name of your friends." + +She did not answer directly. She looked beyond the heads of the team to +the top of the valley, where two brown slopes parted like drawn curtains +and opened a blue vista of canyon closed by a lofty snow-peak. The sun had +more than fulfilled its morning promise of heat, but a soft breeze began +to pull from that white summit down the watercourse. + +"I did not tell you I had friends in Hesperides Vale," she said at last. +Her eyes continued to search the far blue canyon, but her color heightened +at his quick glance of surprise, and she went on with a kind of +breathlessness. + +"I--I have a confession to make. I--But hasn't it occurred to you, Mr. +Tisdale, that I might be interested in this land you are on your way to +see?" + +His glance changed. It settled into his clear, calculating look of +appraisal. Under it her color flamed; she, turned her face farther away. +"No," he answered slowly, "No, that had not occurred to me." + +"I should have told you at the beginning, but I thought, at first, you +knew. Afterward--but I am going to explain now," and she turned +resolutely, smiling a little to brave that look. "Mr. Morganstein had +promised, when he planned the trip to Portland, that he would run over +from Ellensburg to look the property up. He believed it might be feasible +to plat it into five-acre tracts to put on the market. Of course we knew +nothing of the difficulties of the road; we had heard it was an old stage +route, and we expected to motor through and return the same day. So, when +the accident happened to the car in Snoqualmie Pass, and the others were +taking the Milwaukee train home, I decided, on the impulse of the moment, +to finish this side trip to Wenatchee and return to Seattle by the Great +Northern. I admit seeing you on the eastbound influenced me. We--Mrs. +Feversham--guessed you were on your way to see this land, and when the +porter was uncertain of the stage from Ellensburg, but that you were +leaving the trail below Kittitas, I thought you had found a newer, quicker +way. So--I followed you." + +Tisdale's brows relaxed. He laughed a little softly, trying to ease her +evident distress. "I am glad you did, Miss Armitage. I am mighty glad you +did. But I see," he went on slowly, his face clouding again, "I see Mrs. +Weatherbee had been talking to you about that tract. It's strange I hadn't +thought of that possibility. I'll wager she even tried to sell the land +off a map, in Seattle. I wonder, though, when this Weatherbee trip was +arranged to look the property over, that she didn't come, too. But no +doubt that seemed too eager." + +The blue lights flashed in her eyes; her lip trembled. "Be fair," she +said. "You can afford to be--generous." + +"I am going to be generous, Miss Armitage, to you." The ready humor +touched his mouth again, the corners of his eyes. "I am going to take you +over the ground with me; show you Weatherbee's project, his drawn plans. +But afterwards, if you outbid me--" + +"You need not be afraid of that," she interrupted quickly. "I--you must +know"--she paused, her lashes drooped--"I--am not very rich," she +finessed. + +Tisdale laughed outright. "Neither am I. Neither am I." Then, his glance +studying the road, he said: "I think we take that branch. But wait!" He +drew his map from his pocket and pored over it a moment. "Yes, we turn +there. After that there is just one track." + +For an instant Miss Armitage seemed to waver. She sent a backward look to +the river, and the glance, returning, swept Tisdale; then she straightened +in her seat and swung the bays into the branch. It cut the valley +diagonally, away from the Wenatchee, past a last orchard, into wild lands +that stretched in level benches under the mountain wall. One tawny, +sage-mottled slope began to detach from the rest; it took the shape of a +reclining brazen beast, partly leopard, partly wolf, and a line of pine +trees that had taken root in a moist strata along the backbone had the +effect of a bristling mane. + +"That is Weatherbee's landmark," said Tisdale. "He called it Cerberus. It +is all sketched in true as life on his plans. The gap there under the +brute's paw is the entrance to his vale." + +As they approached, the mountain seemed to move; it took the appearance of +an animal, ready to spring. Miss Armitage, watching, shivered. The +dreadful expectation she had shown the previous night when the cry of the +cougar came down the wind, rose in her face. It was as though she had come +upon that beast, more terrifying than she had feared, lying in wait for +her. Then the moment passed. She raised her head, her hands tightened on +the reins, and she drove resolutely into the shadows of the awful front. +"Now," she said, not quite steadily, "now I know how monstrously alive a +mountain can seem." + +Tisdale looked at her. "You never could live in Alaska," he said. "You +feel too much this personality of inanimate things. That was David +Weatherbee's trouble. You know how in the end he thought those Alaska +peaks were moving. They got to 'crowding' him." + +The girl turned a little and met his look. Her eyes, wide with dread, +entreated him. "Yes, I know," she said, and her voice was almost a +whisper. "I was thinking of him. But please don't say any more. I can't-- +bear it--here." + +So she was thinking of Weatherbee. Her emotion sprang from her sympathy +for him. A gentleness that was almost tenderness crept over Tisdale's +face. How fine she was, how sensitively made, and how measureless her +capacity for loving, if she could feel like this for a man of whom she had +only heard. + +Miss Armitage, squaring her shoulders and sitting very erect once more, +her lips closed in a straight red line drove firmly on. A stream ran +musically along the road side,--a stream so small it was marvelous it had +a voice. As they rounded the mountain, the gap widened into the mouth of +the vale, which lifted back to an upper bench, over-topped by a lofty +plateau. Then she swung the team around and stopped. The way was cut off +by a barbed wire fence. + +The enclosure was apparently a corral for a flock of Angora goats. There +was no gate for the passage of teams; the road ended there, and a rough +sign nailed to a hingeless wicket warned the wayfarer to "Keep Out." On a +rocky knob near this entrance a gaunt, hard-featured woman sat knitting. +She measured the trespassers with a furtive, smouldering glance and +clicked her needles with unnecessary force. + +Tisdale's eyes made a swift inventory of the poor shelter, half cabin, +partly shed, that evidently housed both the woman and her flock, then +searched the barren field for some sort of hitching post. But the few +bushes along the stream were small, kept low, doubtless, by the browsing +goats, and his glance rested on a fringe of poplars beyond the upper +fence. + +"There's no way around," he said at last, and the amusement broke softly +in his face. "We will have to go through." + +"The wicket will take the team singly," she answered, "but we must unhitch +and leave the buggy here." + +"And first, if you think you can hold the colts that long, I must tackle +this thistle." + +"I can manage," she said, and the sparkles danced in her eyes, "unless you +are vanquished." + +The woman rose and stood glowering while he sprang down and drew the +wooden pin to open the wicket. Then, "You keep off my land," she ordered +sharply. "I will, madam," he answered quietly, "as soon as I am satisfied +it is yours." + +"I've lived on this claim 'most five years," she screamed. "I'm +homesteading, and when I've used the water seven years, I get the rights." +She sprang backward with a cattish movement and caught up a gun that had +been concealed in some bushes. "Now you go," she said. + +But Tisdale stayed. He stood weighing her with his steady, appraising +eyes, while he drew the township plat from his pocket. + +"This is the quarter section I have come to look up. It starts here, you +see,"--and having unfolded the map, he turned to hold it under her +glance--"at the mouth of this gap, and lifts back through the pocket, +taking in the slopes to this bench and on up over this ridge to include +these springs." + +The woman, curbing herself to look at the plat, allowed the rifle to +settle in the curve of her arm. "I piped the water down," she said. "This +stream was a dry gully. I fenced and put up a house." + +"The tract was commuted and bought outright from the Government over seven +years ago." Tisdale's voice quickened; he set his lips dominantly and +folded the map. "I have copies of the field notes with me and the owner's +landscape plans. And I am a surveyor, madam. It won't take me long to find +out whether there is a mistake. But, before I go over the ground, I must +get my horses through to a hitching-place. I will have to lower that upper +fence, but if you will keep your goats together, I promise to put it back +as soon as the team is through." + +"You let that fence alone." Tisdale had started to cross the field, and +she followed, railing, though the gun still rested in the hollow of her +arm. "If one of those goats breaks away, the whole herd'll go wild. I +can't round 'em in without my dog. He's off trailing one of the ewes. She +strayed yesterday, and he'll chase the mountain through if he has to. It's +no use to whistle; he won't come back without her. You let that fence be. +You wouldn't dare to touch it," she finished impotently, "if I had a man." + +"Haven't you?" Tisdale swung around, and his voice dropped to its soft +undernote. "That's mighty hard. Who laid all that water-pipe? Who built +your house?" + +"I did," she answered grimly. "The man who hauled my load of lumber +stopped long enough to help set the posts, but I did the rest." + +"You did?" Tisdale shook his head incredulously. "My! My! Made all the +necessary improvements, single-handed, to hold your homestead and at the +same time managed these goats." + +The woman's glance moved to the shack and out over the barren fields, and +a shade of uncertainty crept into her passionate eyes. "The improvements +don't make much of a show yet; I've had to be off so much in the +mountains, foraging with the herd. But I was able to hire a boy half a day +with the shearing this spring, and from now on they're going to pay. There +are twenty-eight in the bunch, counting the kids, and I started with one +old billy and two ewes." + +"My! My! what a record!" Tisdale paused to look back at Miss Armitage, who +had turned the bays, allowing them to pace down a length of road and back. + +"But," he added, walking on, "what led you to choose goats instead of +sheep?" + +"I didn't do the choosing"; she moved abreast of Hollis, "it was a fool +man." + +"So," he answered softly, with a glimmer of amusement in his eyes, "there +is a man, after all." + +"There was," she corrected grimly. "The easiest fellow to be talked over +under the sun; the kind always chasing off after a new scheme. First it +was a mineral claim; then he banked the future on timber, and when he got +tired waiting for stumpage to soar, he put up a dinky sawmill to cut his +own trees. He was doing well, for him, getting out ties for a new +railroad--it was down in Oregon--when he saw the chance to trade for a +proved-up homestead. But it was the limit when he started out to buy a +bunch of sheep and came back with that old Angora billy and two ewes." + +"I see." They were near the fence, and Tisdale swerved a little to reach a +stout poplar that formed the corner post. He saw that the wire ends met +there and felt in his pocket for his knife. "I see. And then he left the +responsibility to his wife." + +"The wedding hadn't come off," she said sharply. "It was fixed for the +seventeenth of June, and that was only May. And I told him I couldn't risk +it--not in the face of those goats." + +"And he?" pressed Hollis gently. This thistle, isolated, denied human +intercourse, was more easily handled than he had hoped. + +"He said it suited him all right. He had been wanting to go to Alaska. +Nothing but that wedding had kept him back." + +Tisdale stopped and opened his knife. "And he went?" he asked. + +"Yes." The woman's face worked a little, and she stood looking at him with +hard, tragic eyes. "He sold the homestead for what he could get to raise +the money to take him to Dawson. He was gone in less than twenty-four +hours and before daylight, that night he left, I heard those goats +_ma-a-ing_ under my window. He had staked them there in the front yard and +tucked a note, with his compliments, in the door. He wrote he didn't know +of anything else he could leave that would make me remember him better." + +Tisdale shook his head. "I wish I had been there." He slipped the knife in +between the ends of the wires and the bole, clawing, prying, twisting. +"And you kept them?" he added. + +"Yes, I don't know why, unless it was because I knew it was the last thing +he expected. But I hated them worse than snakes. I couldn't stand it +having them around, and I hired a boy to herd them out on his father's +farm. Then I went on helping Dad, selling general merchandise and sorting +mail. But the post-office was moved that year five miles to the new +railroad station, and they put in a new man. Of course that meant a line +of goods, too, and competition. Trade fell off, then sickness came. It +lasted two years, and when Dad was gone, there wasn't much left of the +store but debt." She paused a moment, looking up to the serene sky above +the high plateau. A sudden moisture softened her burning eyes, and her +free hand crept to her throat. "Dad was a mighty fine man," she said. "He +had a great business head. It wasn't his fault he didn't leave me well +fixed." + +Tisdale laid the loosened wire down on the ground and started to work on +another. "But there was the man in Alaska," he said. "Of course you let +him know." + +"No, sir." Her eyes flashed back to Tisdale's face. "You wouldn't have +caught me writing to Johnny Banks, then. I'm not that kind. The most I +could do was to see what I could make of the goats. I commenced herding +them myself, but I hadn't the face to do it down there in Oregon, where +everybody knew me, and I gradually worked north with them until I ended +here." + +Tisdale had dropped his knife. He stooped to pick it up. "That's where you +made your mistake," he said. + +The woman drew a step nearer, watching his face; tense, breathless. +Clearly he had turned her thoughts from the fence, and he slipped the +knife in farther and continued to pry and twist the wire loose. "How do +you know it was a mistake?" she asked at last. + +Tisdale laid the second wire down. "Well, wasn't it? To punish yourself +like this, to cheat yourself out of the best years of your life, when you +knew how much Banks thought of you. But you seem to have overlooked his +side. Do you think, when he knows how you crucified yourself, it's going +to make him any happier? He carried a great spirit bottled in that small, +wiry frame, but he got to seeing himself through your eyes. He was ashamed +of his failures--he had always been a little sensitive about his size--and +it wasn't the usual enthusiasm that started him to Alaska; he was stung +into going. It was like him to play his poor joke gamily, at the last, and +pretend he didn't care. A word from you would have held him--you must have +known that--and a letter from you afterwards, when you needed him, would +have brought him back. Or you might have joined him up there and made a +home for him all these years, but you chose to bury yourself here in the +desert of the Columbia, starving your soul, wasting your best on these +goats." He paused with the last loosened wire in his hands and stood +looking at her with condemning eyes. "What made you?" he added, and his +voice vibrated softly. "What made you?" + +The woman's features worked; tears filled her eyes. + +They must have been the first in many months, for they came with the gush +that follows a probe. "You know him," she said brokenly. "You've seen him +lately, up there in Alaska." + +"I think so, yes. The Johnny Banks I knew in the north told me something +about a girl he left down in Oregon. But she was a remarkably pretty girl, +with merry black eyes and a nice color in her cheeks. Seems to me she used +to wear a pink gown sometimes, and a pink rose in her black hair, and made +a picture that the fellows busy along the new railroad came miles on +Sundays to see." + +A bleak smile touched the woman's mouth. "Dad always liked to see me wear +nice clothes. He said it advertised the store." Then her glance fell to +her coarse, wretched skirt, and the contrast struck poignantly. + +Tisdale moved the wires back, clearing a space for the bays to pass. +"There was one young engineer," he went on, as though she had not spoken; +"a big, handsome fellow, who came oftener than the rest. Banks thought it +was natural she should favor him. The little man believes yet that when he +was out of the way she married that engineer." + +The woman was beyond speech. Tisdale had penetrated the last barrier of +her fortitude. The bitterness, pent so long, fostered in solitude, filled +the vent and surged through. Her shoulders shook, she stumbled a few steps +to the poplar and, throwing up her arm against the bole, buried her face, +sobbing, in her sleeve. + +Tisdale looked back across the field. Miss Armitage was holding the team +in readiness at the wicket. "I am going now," he said. "You will have to +watch your goats until I get the horses through. But if you will write +that letter, madam, while I'm at work, I'll be glad to mail it for you." + +The woman looked up. A sudden hope transfigured her face. "I wish I dared +to. But he wouldn't know me now; I've changed so. Besides, I don't know +his address." + +"That's so." Tisdale met her glance thoughtfully. "But leave it to me. I +think I can get into touch with him when I am back in Seattle." + +Miss Armitage watched him as he came swiftly across the field. "Oh," she +cried, when he reached the waiting team, "how did you accomplish it? Are +you a magician?" + +Hollis shook his head. "I only tried to play a little on her +heart-strings, to gain time, and struck an unexpected chord. But it's all +right. It's going to do her good." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE LOOPHOLE + + +The afternoon sun shone hot in that pocket; the arid slopes reflected the +glare; heat waves lifted; the snow-peak was shut out, and when a puff of +wind found the gap it was a breath from the desert. Miss Armitage, who had +trailed pluckily after Tisdale through the sage-brush and up the steep +face of the bench, rested on the level, while he hurried on to find the +easiest route to the high plateau and the spring. He had left her seated +on a flat rock in the shade of a sentinel pine tree, looking over the vale +to Cerberus and the distant bit of the Wenatchee showing beyond the mouth, +but as he came back along the ridge, he saw she had turned her shoulder on +the crouching mountain. At his far "Hello!" she waved her hand to him and +rose to start across the bench to meet him. He was descending a broken +stairway below two granite pillars that topped a semi-circular bluff and, +springing from a knob to avoid a dry runnel, he shaped his way diagonally +to abridge the distance. He moved with incredible swiftness, swinging by +his hands to drop from a ledge, sliding where he must, and the ease and +expediency with which he accomplished it all brought the admiration +sparkling to her eyes. + +"I am sorry," he said, as he drew near, "but there isn't any easy way. +It's too bad to have traveled so far and miss the spring, for the whole +project hinges on it; but the climb is impossible for you in this heat." + +"Then you found the spring?" she asked quickly. "It was all the plans +promised?" + +"Yes." He began to walk on across the bench, suiting his steps to hers. +"And Weatherbee had put in a small dam there to create his first +reservoir. I found his old camp, too; a foundation of logs, open now to +the sky, with a few tatters left of the canvas that had roofed it over." +There was a silent moment, then he added, with the emotion still playing +gently in his voice: "I wish I could show you that place; the pool is +crystal clear and cool, rimmed in pines, like a basin of opals." + +When they reached the flat rock in the shade of the pine tree, he took the +reclamation plan from his inner pocket and seated himself beside her. +"This is Weatherbee's drawing," he said. "See how carefully he worked in +the detail. This is the spring and that upper reservoir, and this lower +one is a natural dry basin up there under that bluff, a little to the left +of those granite chimneys; you can see its rocky rim. All it needs is this +short flume sketched in here to bring the water down, and a sluice-gate to +feed the main canal that follows this bench we are on. Spillways would +irrigate a peach orchard along this slope below us and seep out through +this level around us to supply home gardens and lawn. Just imagine it!" He +paused, while her glance followed his brief comparisons, moving from the +plan to the surface of the bench and down over the slope to the vale. +"Imagine this tract at the end of four years; a billowing sea of green; +with peach trees in bearing on this mountainside; apples, the finest +Jonathans, Rome Beauties if you will, beginning to make a showing down +there. Water running, seeping everywhere; strawberries carpeting the +ground between the boles; alfalfa, cool and moist, filling in; and even +Cerberus off there losing his sinister shape in vineyards." + +"Then it is feasible," she exclaimed softly, and the sparkles broke +subdued in her eyes. "And the price, Mr. Tisdale; what would you consider +a fair price for the property as it stands now, unimproved?" Tisdale rose. +He paused to fold the drawing and put it away, while his glance moved +slowly down over the vale to the goat-keeper's cabin and her browsing +flock. "You must see, Miss Armitage," he said then, "that idea of Mr. +Morganstein's to plat this land into five-acre tracts for the market +couldn't materialize. It is out of range of the Wenatchee valley projects; +it is inaccessible to the railroad for the small farmer. Only the man with +capital to work it on a large scale could make it pay. And the property is +Mrs. Weatherbee's last asset; she is in urgent need of ready money. You +should be able to make easy terms with her, but I warn you, if it comes to +bidding, I am prepared to offer seven thousand dollars." + +He turned, frowning a little, to look down at her and, catching those +covert sparkles of her side-glance, smiled. + +"You may have it," she said. + +"Wait. Think it over," he answered. "I am going down to the gap now to +find the surveyor's monument and trace the section line back to the top of +the plateau. Rest here, where it's cooler, and I will come down this way +for you when I am through. Think the project over and take my word for the +spring; it's well worth the investment." + +Doubtless Miss Armitage followed his suggestion, for she sat thoughtfully, +almost absently, watching him down the slope. At the foot of the vale, the +goat-woman joined him, and it was clear he again used his magic art, for +presently he had her chaining for him and holding an improvised flag, +while he estimated the section line. But finally, when they left the bed +of the pocket and began to cross-cut up the opposite mountainside, the +girl rose and looked in the direction of the spring. It was cooler; a +breeze was drawing down from the upper ridge; a few thin clouds like torn +gauze veiled the sky overhead; the blue lost intensity. She began to walk +across the bench towards the granite chimneys. In a little while she found +the dry reservoir, walled, where the plateau lifted, in the semi-circular +bluff; then she stopped at the foot of an arid gully that rose between +this basin and a small shoulder which supported the first needle. This was +the stairway she had seen Tisdale descend, and presently she commenced to +climb it slowly, grasping bunches of the tenacious sage or jutting points +of rock to ease her weight. + +The stairs ended in a sharp incline covered with debris from the +decomposing pillars; splinters of granite shifted under her tread; she +felt the edges cutting through her shoes. Fragments began to rattle down; +one larger rock crashed over the bluff into the dry basin. Then, at last, +she was on the level, fighting for breath. She turned, trembling, and +braced herself against the broken chimney to look back. She shrank closer +to the needle and shook her head. It was as though she said: "I never +could go back alone." + +But when her glance moved to the opposite mountainside, Tisdale was no +longer in sight. And that shoulder was very narrow; it presented a sheer +front to the vale, like the base of a monument, so that between the +chimney and the drop to the gully there was little room in which to stand. +She began to choose a course, picking her foothold cautiously, zigzagging +as she had seen Hollis do on the slope above. Midway another knob jutted, +supporting a second pillar and a single pine tree, but as she came under +the chimney she was forced to hurry. Loose chippings of granite started at +every step. They formed little torrents, undermining, rushing, threatening +to sweep her down; and she reached the ledge in a panic. Then she felt the +stable security of the pine against her body and for a moment let herself +go, sinking to the foot of the tree and covering her eyes with her hands. + +Up there a stiff wind was blowing, and presently she saw the snow-peak she +had missed in the vale. The ridge lifted less abruptly from this second +spur, and in a little while she rose and pushed on, lagging sometimes, +stumbling, to the level of the plateau. The Wenatchee range, of which it +was a part, stretched bleak and forbidding, enclosing all those minor arid +gulfs down to the final, long, scarred headland set against the Columbia +desert. She was like a woman stranded, the last survivor, on an +inhospitable coast. Turning to look across the valley of the Wenatchee, +she saw the blue and glaciered crests of the Chelan mountains, and behind +her, over the neck of a loftier height, loomed other white domes. And +there yesterday's thunder-caps, bigger and blacker, with fringed edges, +drove along the sky line. One purplish mass was streaming like a sieve. +For an interval the sun was obscured, and her glance came back to the vale +below where Cerberus reclined, watchful, his tawny head lifted slightly +between two advanced paws. Suddenly the lower clouds grew brilliant, and +shafts of light breaking through changed the mountain before her to a +beast of brass. + +She turned and began to pick her way through grease brush and insistent +sage towards a grove of pines. In a little while she saw water shining +through the trees. She hesitated--it was as though she had come to the +threshold of a sanctuary--then went on under the boughs to the opal pool. + +She remained in the grove a long time. When she reappeared, the desert +eastward was curtained in a gray film. Torn breadths of it, driven by some +local current of air, formed tented clouds along the promontory. It was as +though yesterday's army was marshalled against other hosts that held the +Chelan heights. A twilight indistinctness settled over the valley between. +Rain, a downpour, was near. She hurried on to the brow of the plateau, but +she dared not attempt to go down around those crumbling chimneys alone. +And Tisdale had said he would come back this side of the vale. Any moment +he might appear. She turned to go back to the shelter of the pines. It was +then a first electrical flash, like a drawn sword, challenged the opposite +ridge. Instantly a searchlight from the encamped legions played over the +lower plain. She turned again, wavering, and began to run on over the +first dip of the slope and along to the first pillar. There she stopped, +leaning on the rock, trembling, yet trying to force down her fear. It was +useless; she could not venture over that stream of shifting granite. She +started back, then stopped, wavering again. After a moment she lifted her +voice in a clear, long call: "Mr. Tis--da--le!" + +"I'm coming!" The answer rang surprisingly close, from the gully above the +basin. Soon she discovered him and, looking up, he saw her standing +clear-cut against a cavernous, dun-colored cloud, which, gathering all +lesser drift into its gulf, drove low towards the plateau. She turned her +face, watching it, and it seemed to belch wind like a bellows, for her +skirt stiffened, and the loosened chiffon veil, lifting from her shoulders, +streamed like the drapery of some aërial figure, poised there briefly on +its flight through space. Then began cannonading. Army replied to army. +The advancing film from the desert, grown black, became an illuminated +scroll; thin ribbons of gold were traced on it, bowknots of tinsel. The +pattern changed continually. The legions repeated their fire; javelins, +shafts, flew. Lightning passed in vertical bolts, in sheets from ridge to +ridge. Then the cloud approaching the plateau spoke, and the curtain +moving from the Columbia became a wall of doom, in which great cracks +yawned, letting the light of eternity through. + +The girl was flying down the slope to meet Tisdale. She came with bent +head, hands to her ears, skimming the pitfalls. Under her light tread the +loose debris hardly stirred. Then, as he rounded the pillar, her pace +slackened. "I am afraid," she said and stumbled. "I am afraid." And her +trembling body sank against his arm; she buried her face in his coat. +"Take me away from this terrible place." + +Her impact had started the splintered granite moving, but Hollis swung +instantly and set his back to the crumbling chimney, clinging there, +staying her with his arm, until the slide stopped. + +"See here," he said, and his voice vibrated its soft undernote, "you +mustn't lose your grip. It's all right. Old Mother Nature is just having +one of her scolding fits. She has to show the woman in her once in a +while. But it's going to end, any minute, in tears." + +She lifted her face, and he paused, knitting his brows, yet smiling a +little, mastering the terror in her eyes with his quiet, compelling gaze. +"Come, Miss Armitage," he said, "we must hurry. You will be wet through." + +He took her hand and began to lead her quickly down the rugged staircase. +"Be careful," he admonished, "this granite is treacherous." But she gave +little heed to her steps; she looked back continually over her shoulder, +watching the dun cloud. Presently she tripped. Hollis turned to steady +her, and, himself looking up beyond her, caught her in his arms and ran, +springing, out of the gully. + +The ledge he reached formed the rim of the natural reservoir and, +measuring the distance with a swift glance, he let himself over, easing +the drop with one hand on the rocky brink, while the other arm supported +her. Midway, on a jutting knob, he gathered momentary foothold, then swung +to the bottom of the basin. + +It was all done surely but with incredible haste, while the cavernous +cloud drew directly overhead. The next instant, from its brazen depths, it +spoke again. The whole mountain seemed to heave. Then something mighty +crashed down. The basin suddenly darkened as though a trap door had +closed, and Tisdale, still shielding his companion, stood looking up, +listening, while the reverberations rang from slope to slope and filled +the vale. Then silence came. + +Miss Armitage drew erect, though her hand rested unconsciously on +Tisdale's sleeve. The thing that roofed the basin was black, impenetrably +thick; in it she saw no possible loophole of escape. "This time," she +faltered, "Fate is against you." + +Her breast rose and fell in deep, hurried breaths; in the twilight of the +basin her eyes, meeting his, shone like twin stars. Tisdale's blood began +to race; it rose full tide in his veins, "Fate is with me," he answered, +and bent and kissed her mouth. + +She shrank back, trembling, against the rocky wall; she glanced about her +with the swift, futile manner of a creature helplessly trapped, then she +pressed her fingers an instant to her eyes and straightened. "You never +will forgive yourself," she said; not in anger, not in judgment, but in a +tone so low, so sad, it seemed to express not only regret but finality. + +Tisdale was silent. After a moment he turned to the lower side of the +basin, which afforded better foothold than the wall he had descended, and +began to work up from niche to ledge, grasping a chance bunch of sage, a +stunted bush of chaparral that grew in a cranny, to steady himself. And +the girl stood aloof, watching him. Finally he reached a shelf that +brought him, in touch with the obstruction overhead and stopped to take +out his pocketknife, with which he commenced to create a loophole. Little +twigs rained down; a larger branch fell, letting the daylight through. The +roof was a mesh of pine boughs. + +At last he closed his knife and, taking firm hold on a fixed limb, leaned +to reach his other palm down to her. "Come," he said, "set your foot in +that first niche--no, the left one. Now, give me your hand." + +She obeyed as she must, and Hollis pushed backward through the aperture he +had made, getting the bough under one armpit. "Now, step to that jagged +little spur; it's solid. The right one, too; there's room." She gained the +upper ledge and waited, hugging the wall pluckily while he worked out on +the rim of the basin and, stretching full length, with the stem of the +tree under his waist, reached his arms down to her. "You will have to +spring a little," he directed, "and grip my shoulders hard. Now, come!" + +At last she was safe beside him. In another moment he was up and helped +her to her feet. They stood looking towards the mountain top. The dun +cloud stalking now with trailing skirts in the direction of the +snow-peaks, hurled back a parting threat. "It was the pine tree," she +exclaimed. "It was struck. And, see! It has carried down most of that +chimney. Our staircase is completely wrecked." + +Tisdale was silent. Her glance came back to him. A sudden emotion stirred +her face. Then all the conservatism dropped from her like a discarded +cloak, and he felt her intrepid spirit respond to his own. Now she +understood that moment in the basin; she knew it had been supreme; she was +great enough to see there was nothing to forgive. "You were right," she +said, and her voice broke in those steadying pauses that carried more +expression than any words. "Fate was with us again. But I owe--my life--to +you." + +"Sometime," he answered slowly, smiling a little, "not now, not here, I am +going to hold you to the debt. And when I do, you are going to pay me--in +full." + +The beautiful color, that was like the pink of coral, flamed and went in +her face. "We must hurry back to the team," she said and turned to finish +the descent to the bench. "Horses are always so nervous in an electrical +storm." Then suddenly, as Tisdale pushed by to help her in a difficult +place, she stopped. "How strange!" she exclaimed. "That terrible curtain +has lifted from the desert. It threatened a deluge any minute, and now it +is moving off without a drop of rain." + +"That's so," he replied. "A cross current of wind has turned it up the +Columbia. But the rain is there; it is streaming along those Chelan +summits in a downpour." + +"And look!" she cried, after a moment. "A double rainbow! See how it spans +the Wenatchee! It's a promise." And the turquoise lights shone once more +in her eyes. "Here in this desert, at last, I may come to my 'pot of +gold.'" + +"You mean," responded Tisdale, "now you have seen the spring, Weatherbee's +project seems possible to you. Well, I have reconsidered, too. I shall not +outbid you. That would favor Mrs. Weatherbee too much. And my interests +are going to keep me in Alaska indefinitely. I should be obliged to leave +the plans in the hands of a manager, and I had rather trust them to you." + +Miss Armitage did not answer directly. She was watching the arch, painted +higher now, less brilliantly, on the lifting film. The light had gone out +of her face. All the bench was in shadow; in the valley below a twilight +indistinctness had fallen. Then suddenly once more Cerberus stood forth +like a beast of brass. She shivered. + +"It isn't possible," she said. "It isn't possible. Even if I dared--for +David's sake--to assume the responsibility, I haven't the money to carry +the project through." + +Tisdale stopped and swung around. They had reached the flat rock under the +sentinel pine tree. "Did you know David Weatherbee?" he asked. + +She was silent. He put his hands in his pockets and stood regarding her +with his upward look from under slightly frowning brows. "So you knew +David," he went on. "In California, I presume, before he went to Alaska. +But why didn't you tell me so?" + +She waited another moment. In the great stillness Hollis heard her labored +breathing. She put out her hand, steadying herself on the bole of the +pine, then: "I've wanted to tell you," she began. "I've tried to--but--it +was impossible to make you understand. I--I hadn't the courage." + +Her voice fluted and broke. The last word was almost a whisper. She stood +before Tisdale with veiled eyes, breath still coming hard and quick, the +lovely color deepening and paling in her face, like a woman awaiting +judgment. And it came over him in a flash, with the strength of +conviction, that this beautiful, inscrutable girl wished him to know she +had loved Weatherbee. Incredible as it seemed, she had been set aside for +the Spanish woman. And she had learned about David's project; he himself +perhaps had told her years ago in California. And though his wife had +talked with Morganstein about platting the land into five-acre tracts to +dispose of quickly, this woman had desired to see the property with a view +to carrying out his plans. That was why she had continued the journey from +Snoqualmie Pass alone. That was why she had braved the mountain drive with +him. She had loved Weatherbee. This truth, sinking slowly, stirred his +inner consciousness and, wrenched in a rising commotion, something far +down in the depths of him lost hold. He had presumed to think, in the +infinite scheme of things, this one woman had been reserved for him. He +had dared to let her know he believed so; he had taken advantage of her +helpless situation, on an acquaintance of two days. His own color began to +burn through the tan. "You were right," he said at last, very gently, "I +never can forgive myself. I can't understand it!" he broke out then, "if +you had been his wife, David Weatherbee would have been safe with us here, +to-day." + +Miss Armitage started. She gave him a quick, searching glance, then sank +down upon the rock. She seemed suddenly exhausted, like a woman who, +hard-pressed in the midst of peril, finds unexpectedly a friendly +threshold. + +Tisdale looked off to the brazen slopes of Cerberus. It was the first time +he had censured Weatherbee for anything, and suddenly, while he brooded, +protesting over that one paramount mistake, he felt himself unaccountably +responsible. He was seized with a compelling desire to, in some way, make +it up to her. "Come," he said, "you mustn't lose heart; to-morrow, when +you are rested, it will look easier. And the question of ready money need +not trouble you. Mrs. Weatherbee has reached the point where she has got +to hedge on the future. Make her an offer of five thousand dollars in +yearly payments, say, of fifteen hundred. She'll take it. Then, if you +agree, I will arrange a loan with a Seattle bank. I should allow enough +margin to cover the first reclamation expenses. Your fillers of alfalfa +and strawberries would bring swift returns, and before your orchards came +into bearing, your vineyards would pay the purchase price on the whole +tract." + +He turned to her, smiling, and surprised a despair in her face that went +to his heart. + +"I thought, I hoped you meant to buy this land," she said. + +"So I did, so I do, unless you decide to. And if you undertake this +project, I pledge myself to see you through." His voice caught a pleading +undernote. "It rests with you. Above every one it rests with you to even +things for Weatherbee. Isn't that clear to you? Look ahead five years; see +this vale green and shady with orchards; the trees laden with harvest; +imagine his wife standing here on this bench, surveying it all. See her +waking to the knowledge she has let a fortune slip through her hands; see +her, the purchase price spent, facing the fact that another woman built +her faith on David Weatherbee; had the courage to carry out his scheme and +found it a bonanza. That is what is going to make her punishment strike +home." + +Miss Armitage rose. She stood a moment watching his face, then, "How you +hate her!" she said. + +"Hate?" Tisdale's laugh rang short and hard. "Well, I grant it; hate is +the word. I hate her so much I've known better than go where she was; I've +avoided her as an electrician avoids charged wire. Still, if I had found +myself in Weatherbee's place; if I had made his mistake and married her, +she should have felt my streak of iron. I might have stayed in Alaska as +he did, but she would have stayed too and made a home for me, helped to +fight things through." He paused and, meeting the appeal in her eyes, his +face softened. "I've distressed you again," he added. "I'm sorry; but it +isn't safe for me to speak of that woman; the thought of her starts my +temperature rising in bounds. I want you to help me forget her. Yet, down +in the depths of your heart you know you blame her." + +"Yes, I blame her." Miss Armitage began to walk on towards the edge of the +bench. "I blame her, but not as you do. I know she tried to do right; she +would have gone to Alaska--if David had wished it--at the start. And she's +been courageous, too. She's smiled--laughed in the face of defeat. Her +closest friends never knew." + +"You defend her. I wonder at that." Tisdale passed her and turned to offer +his help down the first abrupt pitch. "How you, who are the one to censure +her the most, can speak for her always, as you do. But there you are like +Weatherbee. It was his way to take the losing side; champion the absent." + +"And there is where your resemblance stops," she answered quickly. "He +lacked your streak of iron. Of course you know about your strange likeness +to him, Mr. Tisdale. It is so very marked; almost a dual personality. It +isn't height and breadth of shoulder alone; it's in the carriage, the turn +of the head; and it creeps into your eyes sometimes; it gets into your +voice. The first time I saw you, it was startling." + +Tisdale moved on, picking up the trail they had made in ascending; the +humor began to play reminiscently at the corners of his mouth. "Yes, I +know about that resemblance. When we were on the Tanana, it was 'Tisdale's +Twin' and 'Dave's Double.' A man has to take a name that fits up there, +and we seemed to grow more alike every day. But that often happens when +two friends who are accustomed to think in the same channels are brought +into continual touch, and the first year we spent in the north together we +were alone for weeks at a stretch, with no other human intercourse, not a +prospector's camp within a hundred miles. The most incompatible partners, +under those circumstances, will pick up subconsciously tricks of speech +and gesture. Still, looking back, I see it was I who changed. I had to +live up to Weatherbee; justify his faith in me." + +Miss Armitage shook her head slowly. "That is hard to believe. Whoever +tried to mould you would feel through the surface that streak of iron." +They had come to another precipitous place, and Tisdale turned again to +give her the support of his hand. The position brought his face on a level +with hers, and involuntarily she stopped. "But whatever you may say, Mr. +Tisdale," she went on, and as her palm rested in his the words gathered +the weight of a pact, "whatever may--happen--I shall never forget your +greatness to-day." She sprang down beside him, and drew away her hand and +looked back to the summit they had left. "Still, tell me this," she said +with a swift breathlessness. "If it had been David Weatherbee's wife up +there with you when the thunderbolt struck, would it have made a +difference? I mean, would you have left her to escape--or not--as she +could?" + +Tisdale waited a thoughtful moment. The ripple of amusement was gone; the +iron, so near the surface, cropped through. "I can't answer that," he +said. "I do not know. A man is not always able to control a first impulse, +and before that pine tree fell there wasn't time to hesitate." + +At this she was silent. All her buoyancy, the charming camaraderie that +stopped just short of intimacy, had dropped from her. It was as though the +atmosphere of that pocket rose and clung to her, enveloped her like a +nimbus, as she went down. In the pent heat her face seemed cold. She had +the appearance of being older. The fine vertical line at the corner of her +mouth, which Tisdale had not noticed before, brought a tightness to his +throat when he ventured to look at her. How could Weatherbee have been so +blind? How could he have missed the finer, spiritual loveliness of this +woman? Weatherbee, who himself had been so sensitive; whose intuition was +almost feminine. + +They had reached the final step from the bench to the floor of the vale +when Hollis spoke again. "If you do decide to buy this land and open the +project, I could recommend a man who would make a trusty manager." + +"Oh, you don't understand," she replied in desperation "You don't +understand. I should have to stay, to live in this terrible place for +weeks, months at a time. I couldn't endure it. That dreadful mountain +there at the gap would forever be watching me, holding me in." + +Tisdale looked at her, knitting his brows, "I told you it was dangerous to +allow yourself to feel the personality of inanimate things too much." + +"I know. I know. And this terrible beast"--she paused, trying to steady +her voice; her whole body trembled--"would remind me constantly of those +awful Alaska peaks--the ones that crowded--threatened him." + +Tisdale's face cleared. So that was the trouble. Now he understood. "Then +it's all right"--the minor notes in his voice, vibrating softly, had the +quality of a caress--"don't worry any more. I am going to buy this land of +David's. Trust me to see the project through." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +"WHOM THE GODS WOULD DESTROY" + + +Hope is an insistent thing. It may be strangled, lie cold and buried deep +in the heart of a man, yet suddenly, without premonition, he may feel it +rise and stretch small hands, groping towards a ray of light. So in that +reminiscent hour while the train labored up through the Cascades to the +great tunnel, Tisdale told himself this woman--the one woman for whom he +must have been waiting all these years, at whose coming old and cherished +memories had faded to shadows--was very near to loving him. Already she +knew that those mysterious forces she called Fate had impelled them out of +their separate orbits through unusual ways, to meet. Sometime--he would +not press her, he could be patient--but sometime she would surely pay him +that debt. + +He dwelt with new interest on his resemblance to Weatherbee, and he told +himself it was her constancy to David that had kept her safe. Then it came +over him that if Weatherbee had married her instead of the Spanish woman, +that must have been an insurmountable barrier between them to-day. As long +as they lived, she must have remained sacred on her pedestal, out of +reach. But how nobly partisan she was; how ready to cross swords for +Weatherbee's wife. That was the incredible test; her capacity for loving +was great. + +The porter was turning on the lights. Tisdale moved a little and looked +across the aisle. For that one moment he was glad Weatherbee had made his +mistake. She was so incomparable, so adorable. Any other woman must have +lost attractiveness, shown at least the wear and tear of that mountain +journey, but her weariness appealed to him as her buoyancy had not. She +had taken off her hat to rest her head on the high, cushioned back of the +seat, and the drooping curves of her short upper lip, the blue shadows +under those outward curling black lashes, roused a new emotion, the +paternal, in the depths of his great heart. He wished to smooth her +ruffled hair; it was so soft, so vital; under the electric light it seemed +to flash little answering blue sparks. Then his glance fell to her relaxed +palms, open in her lap, and he felt a quick solicitude over a scratch the +barbed fence must have made on one small, determined thumb. + +They had had trouble with the horses in the vale. Nip, who had broken away +during the storm, had been rounded in by the goat-woman and her returning +collie. The travelers found her trying to extricate his halter which had +caught, holding him dangerously close, in the wire fencing. It had taken +caution and long patience to free him, and more to hitch the excited team. +The delay had caused them to miss the westbound evening train; they were +forced to drive back and spend the night at Wenatchee. And the morning +Oriental Limited was crowded with delegates from some mystic order on an +annual pilgrimage. There was no room in the observation car; Tisdale was +able to secure only single seats on opposite sides of the sleeper. + +The train rumbled through the great tunnel and came to a brief stop +outside the west portal. It was snowing. Some railroad laborers, repairing +the track, worked in overcoats and sweaters, hat brims drawn down, collars +turned up against the bitter wind. The porter opened the transoms, and a +piercing draught pulled through the smoky, heat-laden car. Miss Armitage +sat erect and inhaled a full breath. She looked across at Tisdale, and the +sparkles broke softly in her eyes. "It's Wellington!" she exclaimed. "In a +moment we shall be racing down to Scenic Hot Springs and on along the +Skykomish--home." Then she stopped the porter. "Bring me a telegraph +blank, please. I want to send a message from the Springs." + +The limited, under way again, dropped below the cloud. Great peaks and +shoulders lifted everywhere; they began to make the loop around an +incredibly deep and fissure-like gorge. It was a wonderful feat of +railroad engineering; people on the other side of the car got to their +feet and came over to see. The girl, with the yellow blank in her hand, +drew close to Tisdale's elbow. "Oh, no," she demurred, when he rose to +offer his seat, "I only want standing room just a moment. There's going to +be a delightful view of Scenic." + +The passenger beside Hollis picked up his bag. "Take my place," he said. +"I am getting off at the Springs." + +Then presently, when she had moved into the vacated seat next the window, +the peaks stood apart, and far, far below the untouched forest at the +summer resort stood out darkly, with the gay eaves and gables of the hotel +etched on it like a toy Swiss chalet on a green plateau. + +"Oh," she cried softly, "it never seemed as charming before; but, of +course, it is coming, as we have, straight from the hot desert. There's +the coolest, fragrant wood road down there, Mr. Tisdale, from the hotel to +Surprise Falls. It follows the stream past deep green pools and cascades +breaking among the rocks. Listen. We should hear the river now." + +Tisdale smiled. There was nothing to be heard but the echo of the running +trucks and the scream of the whistle repeated from cliff and spur. They +were switchbacking down the fire-scarred front of a mountain. He bent a +little to look beyond her. It was as though they were coasting down a +tilted shelf in an oblique wall, and over the blackened skeletons of firs +he followed the course of the river out through crowding blue buttes. +Returning, his glance traced the track, cross-cutting up from the gorge. + +"I know Surprise Falls," he said; "and the old Skykomish from start to +finish. There's a point below the Springs where the current boils through +great flumes of granite into a rocky basin. Long before the hotel was +thought of, I fished that pool." + +"I know! I know!" she responded, glowing. "We--Miss Morganstein and her +brother and I--found it this summer. We had to work down-stream across +those fissures to reach it, but it was worth the trouble. There never was +another such pool. It was like a mighty bowl full of dissolving emeralds; +and the trout loved it. We caught twenty, and we built a fire on the rocks +and cooked them. It was delightfully cool and shady. It was one of those +golden days one never forgets; I was sorry when it was gone." She paused, +the high wave of her excitement passed. "I never could live in that +treeless country," she went on. "Water, running as God made it, plenty of +it, is a necessity to me. But please take your seat, Mr. Tisdale." She +settled back in her place and began to date her telegram. "I am just +sending the briefest message to let Mrs. Feversham know where I am." + +"The porter is coming back for it now," he answered "And thank you, but I +am going in the smoking-car." + +As he approached the vestibule, he caught her reflection in the mirror at +the end of the sleeper. She was looking after him, and she leaned forward +a little with parted lips, as though she had started to call him back, but +her eyes clouded in uncertainty; then suddenly, the sparkle rose. It +suffused her whole face. She had met his glance in the glass. And the +porter was waiting. She settled herself once more and devoted herself to +the telegram. + +The lines in Tisdale's face deepened mellowly. He believed that, now they +were so near their journey's end, she wanted to be sure of an opportunity +to thank him some more. "I am coming back," he said inwardly, addressing +the woman in the mirror, "but I must have a smoke to keep my pulse +normal." + +But he did not return to the sleeper, for the reason that at Scenic Hot +Springs the Seattle papers were brought aboard. The copy of the _Press_ he +bought contained the account of the accident in Snoqualmie Pass. The +illustrations were unusually clear, and Daniels' cuts were supplemented by +another labelled: "The Morganstein party leaving Vivian Court," which also +designated the group. + +(Mrs. Feversham, wife of the special delegate from Alaska, in the tonneau. + +Her sister, Miss Morganstein, on her right. + +Mrs. Weatherbee seated in front. + +Frederic Morganstein driving the car.) + +And under the central picture Hollis read: "Mrs. Weatherbee (Miss +Armitage?), as she drove the machine into the embankment." + +The paper rattled a little in his hands. His face flamed, then settled +gray and very still. Except that his eyes moved, flashing from the +photographs to the headlines, he might have been a man hewn of granite. +"One more reason why the Snoqualmie highway should be improved," he read. +"Narrow escape of the Morganstein party. Mrs. Weatherbee's presence of +mind." And, half-way down the page, "Mrs. Weatherbee modestly assumes an +incognito when interviewed by a representative of the _Press_." + +But Tisdale did not look at the story. He crushed the newspaper into the +corner of his seat and turned his face to the window. His cigar had gone +out. He laid it mechanically on the sill. So, this was the woman who had +wrecked David Weatherbee; who had cast her spell over level-headed Foster; +and already, in the less than three days he had known her, had made a +complete idiot of him. Suppose Foster should hear about that drive through +the mountains that had cost him over seven hundred dollars; suppose Foster +should know about that episode in the basin on Weatherbee's own ground. A +great revulsion came over him. + +Presently he began to take up detail after detail of that journey. Now he +saw the real impulse that had led her to board the eastbound train in +Snoqualmie Pass. She had recognized him, conjectured he was on his way to +find that tract of Weatherbee's; and she had determined to go over the +land with him, cajole him into putting the highest estimate possible on +the property. Even now, there in the sleeper, she was congratulating +herself no doubt on the success of her scheme. + +At the thought of the ease with which he had allowed himself to be +ensnared, his muscles tightened. It was as though the iron in the man took +shape, shook off the veneer, encased him like a coat of mail. Hitherto, in +those remote Alaska solitudes, this would have meant the calling to +account of some transgressor in his camp. He began to sift for the prime +element in this woman's wonderful personality. It was not physical beauty +alone; neither was it that mysterious magnetism, almost electrical, yet +delicately responsive as a stringed instrument. One of these might have +kept that tremendous hold on Weatherbee near, but on Weatherbee absent +through those long, breaking years, hardly. It was something deeper; +something elusive yet insistent that had made it easier for him to brave +out his defeat alone in the Alaska wilderness than come back to face. +Clearly she was not just the handsome animal he had believed her to be. +Had she not called herself proud? Had he not seen her courage? She had a +spirit to break. A soul! + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +"A LITTLE STREAK OF LUCK" + + +It was not the first time Jimmie Daniels had entertained the Society +Editor at the Rathskeller, and that Monday, though he had invited her to +lunch with him in the Venetian room, she asked him, as was her habit, to +"order for both." + +"Isn't there something special you'd like?" he asked generously; +"something you haven't had for a long time?" + +"No. You are so much of an epicure--for a literary person--I know it's +sure to be something nice. Besides," and the shadow of a smile drifted +across her face, "it saves me guessing the state of your finances." + +A critic would have called Geraldine Atkins too slender for her height, +and her face, notwithstanding its girlish freshness, hardly pretty. The +chin, in spite of its dimple, was too strong; the lips, scarlet as a holly +berry, lacked fullness and had a trick of closing firmly over her white +teeth. Even her gray-blue eyes, which should have been a dreamer's, had +acquired a direct intensity of expression as though they were forever +seeking the inner, real you. Still, from the rolling brim of her soft felt +hat to the hem of her brown tailor-made, that cleared the ankles of trim +brown shoes, she was undeniably chic and in the eyes of Jimmie Daniels +"mighty nice." + +He was longer than usual filling out the card, and the waiter hesitated +thoughtfully when he had read it, then be glanced from the young man to +his companion with a comprehensive smile and hurried away. There was +chilled grapefruit in goblets with cracked ice, followed by bouillon, +oysters, and a delectable young duck with toast. But it was only when the +man brought a small green bottle and held it for Jimmie to approve the +label that his guest began to arch her brows. + +Daniels smiled his ingenuous smile. "It's just to celebrate a little +streak of luck," he said. "And I owe it to you. If you hadn't been at +Vivian Court to write up the decorations for that bridge-luncheon and +happened to make that snap-shot of the Morganstein party, my leading lady +would have gone to the paper as Miss Armitage straight, and I guess that +would have queered me with the chief. But that headline you introduced +about Mrs. Weatherbee's incognito struck him right. 'Well, Jimmie,' he +said, 'you've saved your scalp this time.'" + +The Society Editor smiled. "You were a gullible kiddie," she replied. "But +it's a mystery to me how you could have lived in Seattle three years +without knowing the prettiest woman on the boulevard by sight." + +Jimmie shook his head. "I haven't the shadow of an excuse, unless it was +because another girl was running such a close second she always cut off my +view." + +"Think," said Miss Atkins quickly, disregarding the excuse, "if that name, +Miss Armitage, had been tagged to a picture that half the town would have +recognized. Mrs. Weatherbee is the most popular lady, socially, in +Seattle. When there's a reception for a new Council, she's always in the +receiving line; she pours tea at the tennis tournament, and it was she who +led the cotillion at the Charity ball. You would find her name in all the +important affairs, if you read the society column." + +Daniels nodded meekly. "It was a hairbreadth escape, and I'm mighty +grateful." + +There was a little silence then, but after the waiter had filled the +long-stemmed glasses and hurried away, she said slowly, her gray-blue eyes +sifting Jimmie through and through: "It looks like you've been playing +cards for money, but I never should have suspected it--of you." + +Daniels shook his head gravely. "No get-rich-quick games for me. My luck +doesn't come that way. But it cost me nearly two thousand dollars to find +it out. I've always meant to tell you about that, sometime. That two +thousand dollars was all my capital when I came to Seattle to take my +course in journalism. I expected it to see me through. But, well, it was +my first week at the University--fortunately I had paid the expenses of +the first semester in advance--when one night a couple of fellows I knew +brought me down to see the town. I didn't know much about a city then; I +had grown up over in the sage-brush country, and I never had heard of a +highball. To start with I had two, then I got interested in a game of +roulette, and the last I remember I was learning to play poker. But I must +have had more high-balls; the boys said afterwards they left me early in +the evening with a new acquaintance; they couldn't get me to go home. I +never knew how I got back to the dorm, and the next day, when I woke, the +stubs of my checkbook showed I had signed practically all of my two +thousand away." + +There was a brief silence. Out in the main room the orchestra began to +play. Miss Atkins was looking at Jimmie, and her scarlet lips were closed +like a straight cord. + +He drew his hand over his smooth, close-cut, dark hair and took a long +draught from his glass of ice-water. "I can't make you understand how I +felt about it," he went on, "but that two thousand was the price of my +father's ranch over near the Columbia. It stood for years of privation, +heart-breaking toil, and disappointment--the worst kind. Two seasons of +drouth we saw the whole wheat crop blister and go to ruin. I carried water +in buckets from the river up to that plateau day after day, just to keep +our home garden and a little patch of grass alive. And mother carried too +up that breaking slope in the desert sun. It was thinking of that made me-- +all in. She worked the same way with the stock. Something lacking in the +soil affected the feed, and some of the calves were born without hair; +their bones were soft. It baffled my father and every man along that rim +of the desert, but not mother. She said doctors prescribed lime for +rickety human babies, and she made limewater and mixed it with the feed. +It was just the thing. She was a small woman, but plucky from start to +finish. And we, Dad and I, didn't know what it was costing her--till she +was gone." + +There was another silence. In the orchestra, out beyond the palms and +screens of the Venetian room, the first violin was playing the +_Humoresque_. The girl leaned forward slightly, watching Jimmie's face. +Her lips were parted, and an unexpected sympathy softened her eyes. + +"She had been a school teacher back in Iowa," he resumed, "and long winter +evenings and Sundays when she could, she always had her books out. Up to +the year I was twenty, she taught me all I knew. She tried her best to +make a man of me, and I can see now how she turned my mind to journalism. +She said some day there was going to be an opening for a newspaper right +there in the Columbia desert. Where a great river received the waters of +another big stream, there was bound to be a city. She saw farther than we +did. The High Line canal was only a pipe dream then, but she believed it +would come true. When she died, we hadn't the heart to stay on with the +ranch, so Dad gave it to me, to sell for what I could get, and went back +to Iowa. He said he had promised her he would give me a chance at the +State University, and that was the best he could do. And, well, you see I +had to come to the U. of W. to stay, and I was used to work. I did all +sorts of stunts out of hours and managed to pull through the second +semester. Then I hiked over the mountains to the Wenatchee valley and +earned enough that summer vacation to tide me over the next year. I had a +friend there in the sage-brush country, a station agent named Bailey, who +had blown a thousand dollars into a tract of desert land he hadn't seen +off the map. He was the kind of fellow to call himself all kinds of a +fool, then go ahead and make that ground pay his money back. He saw a way +to bring it under irrigation and had it cleared and set to apples. But, +while he was waiting for the trees to grow, he put in fillers of alfalfa +and strawberries. He was operating for the new Milwaukee railroad then, +and hired me to harvest his crops. They paid my wages and the two Japs I +had to help, with a snug profit. And his trees were doing fine; thrifty, +every one in the twenty acres. Last year they began to bear, only a few +apples to a tree, but for flavor and size fit for Eden. This year he is +giving up his position with the Milwaukee; his orchards are going to make +him rich. And he wrote me the other day that the old ranch I threw away is +coming under the new High Line ditch. The company that bought it has +platted it into fruit tracts. Think-of that! Trees growing all over that +piece of desert. Water running to waste, where mother and I carried it in +buckets through the sand, in the sweltering heat, up that miserable +slope." + +The Society Editor drew a full breath and settled back in her chair. Her +glance fell to her glass, and she laid her fingers on the thin stem. +Jimmie refreshed himself again with the ice-water. "I didn't mean to go +into the story so deep," he said, "but you are a good listener." + +"It was worth listening to," she answered earnestly. "I've always wondered +about your mother; I knew she must have been nice. But you must simply +hate the sight of cards now. I am sorry I said what I did. And I don't +care how it happened, here is to that 'Little Streak of Luck.' May it lead +to the great pay-streak." + +She reached her glass out for Jimmie to touch with his, then raised it to +her lips. Daniels drank and held his glass off to examine the remaining +liquor, like a connoisseur. "I play cards a little sometimes," he +confessed; "on boats and places where I have to kill time. But," and he +brightened, "it was this way about that streak of luck. I was detailed to +write up the new Yacht Club quarters at West Seattle, with illustrations +to show the finer boats at the anchorage and, while I was on the landing +making an exposure of the Morganstein yacht, a tender put off with a +message for me to come aboard. Mr. Morganstein had seen me from the deck, +where he was nursing his injured leg. He was lonesome, I suppose. There +was no one else in sight, though as I stepped over the side, I heard a +victrola playing down below. 'How are you?' he said. 'Have a seat.' Then +he scowled down the companionway and called: 'Elizabeth, stop that +infernal machine, will you?' + +"The music was turned off, and pretty soon Miss Morganstein came up the +stairs. She was stunning, in a white sailor suit with red fixings, eyes +black as midnight; piles of raven hair. But as soon as he had introduced +us, and she had settled his pillows to suit him--he was lying in one of +those invalid chairs--he sent her off to mix a julep or something. Then he +said he presumed we were going to have a fine cut of the _Aquila_ in the +Sunday paper, if I was the reporter who made that exposure at the time of +the accident to his car. I told him yes, I was Daniels, representing the +_Press_, and had the good fortune to be in Snoqualmie Pass that day. 'I +was sure of it,' he said. 'Watched you over there with these binoculars.' +He put the glasses down on a table and opened a drawer and took out his +fountain-pen and checkbook. 'That write-up was so good,' he said, handing +me the blank he had filled, 'I want to make you a little present. But you +are the first _Press_ reporter I ever gave anything to, and I want this +kept quiet.' + +"I thanked him, but when I looked at that check I woke up. It was for a +cool hundred dollars. I tried to make him take it back; I told him my +paper was paying me; besides, I couldn't accept all the credit; that you +had fixed up the story and put the names right, and the first cut was +yours. 'Never mind,' he said, 'I have something else for your society miss +to do. I am going to have her describe my new country place, when it's all +in shape. Takes a woman to get hold of the scenery and color schemes.' +Then he insisted I had earned the extra money. Not one man in a hundred +would have been quick enough to make that exposure, and the picture was +certainly fine of the whole group. In fact, he wanted that film of the car +swinging into the embankment. He wanted to have an enlargement made." + +"I see," said Miss Atkins slowly, "I see." She paused, scooping the crest +from her pineapple ice, then added: "Now we are getting to the core." + +"I told him it belonged to the paper, but I thought I would be able to get +it for him," Jimmie resumed. "And he asked me to bring it down to Pier +Number Three just before four this afternoon. The _Aquila_ was starting +for a little cruise around Bainbridge Island to his country place, and if +I wanted to work in something about her equipment and speed, I might sail +as far as the Navy Yard, where they would make a short stop. Then he +mentioned that Hollis Tisdale might be aboard, and possibly I would be +able to pick up a little information on the coal question. These +Government people were 'non-committal,' he said, but there was a snug +corner behind the awnings aft, where in any case I could work up my Yacht +Club copy." + +"So," remarked the Society Editor slowly, "it's a double core." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +ON BOARD THE AQUILA + + +Tisdale's rooms were very warm that afternoon. It was another of those +rare, breezeless days, an aftermath of August rather than the advent of +Indian summer, and the sun streamed in at the western windows. His injured +hand, his whole feverish body, protested against the heat. The peroxide +which he had applied to the hurt at Wenatchee had brought little relief, +and that morning the increased pain and swelling had forced him to consult +a surgeon, who had probed the wound, cut a little, bandaged it, and +announced curtly that it looked like infection. + +"But I can't afford to nurse this hand"--Hollis rose from the couch where +he had thrown himself when he came in from the doctor's office--"I ought +to be using it now." He went over and drew the blinds, but the atmosphere +seemed more stifling. He needed air, plenty of it, clean and fresh in +God's out-of-doors; it was being penned in these close rooms that raised +his temperature. He pulled the shades up again and took a turn across the +floor. Then he noticed the crumpled note which, aimed left-handedly, had +missed the waste basket earlier, when he opened his mail, and he went over +and picked it up. He stood smoothing it on his desk. A perfume, spicy yet +suggestive of roses, pervaded the sheet, which was written in a round, +firm, masculine hand, under the gilt monogram, M.F. His glance ran through +the lines: + +"I am writing for my brother, Frederic Morganstein, who is recuperating +aboard his yacht, to ask you to join us on a little cruise around +Bainbridge Island this afternoon at four o'clock. Ever since his interests +have been identified with Alaska, he has hoped to know you personally, and +he wishes particularly to meet you now, to thank you for your services in +Snoqualmie Pass. In the general confusion after the accident I am afraid +none of us remembered to. + +"We expect to touch at the Navy Yard and again at Frederic's new villa to +see how the work is coming on, but the trip should not take longer than +four hours, and we are dining informally on board. + +"Do not trouble to answer. If the salt air is a strong enough lure this +warm day, you will find the _Aquila_ at Pier Three. + +"Very truly yours, + +"MARCIA FEVERSHAM. + +"Tuesday, September seventh." + +"That floating palace ought to stir up some breeze." Tisdale crumpled the +invitation again and dropped it deliberately in the waste basket. "And +to-morrow I shall be shut up on my eastbound train." He looked at his +watch; there was still half an hour to spare before the time of sailing. +"After all, why not?" + +A little later, when he had hurried into white flannels as expeditiously +as possible with his disabled hand, the suggestion crept to his inner +consciousness that he might find Mrs. Weatherbee aboard the _Aquila_. +"Well, why not?" he asked himself again. "Why not?" and picked up his hat. + +So he came to Pier Number Three and, looking down the gangway as he +crossed, saw her standing in the little group awaiting him on the after +deck. Morganstein spoke to him and introduced him to the ladies. He did +not avoid her look and, under his appraising eyes, he saw the color begin +to play in her face. Then her glance fell to his bandaged hand, and an +inquiry rushed to her lips. But she checked the words in time and drew +slowly aloof to a seat near the rail. + +Tisdale took a place near the reclining chair of his host. When she +ventured to give him a swift side-glance, his mouth set austerely. But the +space between them became electrical. It was as though wireless messages +passed continually between them. + +"Look back. See how often I tried to tell you! My courage failed. Believe +in me. I am not the monster you thought." + +And always the one response: "The facts are all against you." + +Duwamish Head had dropped from sight; Magnolia Bluff fell far astern, and +the _Aquila_ steamed out into the long, broad reach of Puget Sound; but +though the tide had turned, there was still no wind. The late sun touched +the glassy swells with the changing effect of a prism. The prow of the +craft shattered this mirror, and her wake stretched in a ragged and +widening crack. But under the awnings Frederic Morganstein's guests found +it delightfully cool. Only Jimmie Daniels, huddled on a stool in the +glare, outside the lowered curtain that cut him off from the breeze +created by the motion of the yacht, felt uncomfortably warm. + +The representative of the _Press_ had arrived on board in time to see +Tisdale come down the pier and had discreetly availed himself of the +secluded place that the financier had previously put to his disposal. He +had heard it told at the newspaper office that Tisdale, whose golden +statements were to furnish his little scoop, Hollis Tisdale of Alaska and +the Geographical Survey, who knew more about the coal situation than any +other man, was also the most silent, baffling sphinx on record when it +came to an interview. + +At the moment the _Aquila_ came into the open, the Japanese boy placed a +bowl of punch, with, pleasant clinking of ice, on the wicker table before +Mrs. Feversham, who began to serve it. Like Elizabeth's, the emblems on +her nautical white costume were embroidered in scarlet, and a red silk +handkerchief was knotted loosely on her full, boyish chest. She was not +less striking, and indeed she believed this meeting on the deck of the +yacht, where formalities were quickly abridged, would appeal to the +out-of-doors man and pave the way to a closer acquaintance in Washington. +But Tisdale's glance involuntarily moved beyond to the woman seated by the +rail. Her head was turned so that he caught the finely chiseled profile, +the outward sweep of black lashes, the adorable curve of the oval chin to +meet the throat. She too wore the conventional sailor suit, but without +color, and this effect of purity, the inscrutable delicacy of her, seemed +to set her apart from these dark, materialistic sisters as though she had +strayed like a lost vestal into the wrong atmosphere. His brows relaxed. +For a moment the censor that had come to hold dominion in his heart was +off guard. He felt the magnetism of her personality drawing him once more; +he desired to cross the deck to her, drop a word into those deep places he +had discovered, and see her emotions stir and overflow. Then suddenly the +enthusiasm, for which during that drive through the mountains he had +learned to watch, broke in her face. "Look!" she exclaimed softly. "See +Rainier!" + +Every one responded, but Tisdale started from his chair, and went over and +stood beside her. There, southward, through golden haze, with the dark and +wooded bluffs of Vashon Island flanking the deep foreground of opal sea, +the dome lifted like a phantom peak. "It doesn't seem to belong to our +world," she said, and her voice held its soft minor note, "but a vision of +some higher, better country." + +She turned to give him her rare, grave look, and instantly his eyes +telegraphed appreciation. Then he remembered. The swift revulsion came +over him. He swung on his heel to go back to his chair, and the unexpected +movement brought him in conjunction with the punch tray. The boy righted +it dexterously, and she took the offered glass and settled again in her +seat. But from his place across the deck, Tisdale noticed a drop had +fallen, spreading, above the hem of her white skirt. The red stain held +his austere gaze. It became a symbol of blood; on the garment of the +vestal the defilement of sacrifice. + +She was responsible for Weatherbee's death. He must not forget that. And +he saw through her. Now he saw. Had she not known at the beginning he was +an out-of-doors man? That he lived his best in the high spaces close to +Nature's heart? And so determined to win him in this way? She had meant to +win him. Even yet, she could not trust alone to his desire to see David's +project through, but threw in the charm of her own personality to swing +the balance. Oh, she understood him. At the start she had read him, +measured him, sounded him through. That supreme moment, at the crisis of +the storm, had she not lent herself to the situation, counting the price? +At this thought, the heat surged to his face. He wished in that instant to +punish her, break her, but deeper than his anger with her burned a fury +against himself. That he should have allowed her to use him, make a fool +of him. He who had blamed Weatherbee, censured Foster, for less. + +Then Marcia Feversham took advantage of the silence and, at her first +statement, Jimmie Daniels sat erect; he forgot his thirst, the discomfort +of his position, and opened his notebook on his knee. "I understand your +work this season was in the Matanuska coal region, Mr. Tisdale; you must +be able to guess a little nearer than the rest of us as to the outcome of +the Naval tests. Is it the Copper River Northwestern or the Prince William +Development Company that is to have the open door?" + +Tisdale's glance moved from the opal sea to the lady's face; the genial +lines crinkled faintly at the corners of his eyes. "I believe the Bering +and Matanuska coal will prove equally good for steaming purposes," he +replied. + +Frederic Morganstein grasped the arms of his chair and moved a little, +risking a twinge of pain, to look squarely at Tisdale. "You mean the +Government may conserve both?" His voice was habitually thick and +deliberate, as though the words had difficulty to escape his heavy lips. +"That, sir, would lock the shackles on every resource in Alaska. Guess +you've seen how construction and development are forced to a standstill, +pending the coal decision. Guess you know our few finished miles of +railroad, built at immense expense and burdened with an outrageous tax, +are operating under imported coal. Placed an order with Japan in the +spring for three thousand tons." + +"Think of it!" exclaimed Marcia. "Coal from the Orient, the lowest grade, +when we should be exporting the best. Think of the handicap, the injustice +put upon those pioneer Alaskans who fought tremendous obstacles to open +the interior; who paved the way for civilization." + +Tisdale's face clouded. "I am thinking of those pioneers, madam, and I +believe the Government is going to. Present laws can be easily amended and +enforced to fit nearly every situation until better ones are framed. The +settler and prospector should have privileges, but at the same time the +Government must put some restriction on speculation and monopoly." + +Behind the awning Jimmie's pencil was racing down the page, and +Morganstein dropped his head back on the pillow; a purplish flush rose in +his face. + +"The trouble is," Hollis went on evenly, "each senator has been so +over-burdened with the bills of his own State that Alaska has been +side-tracked. But I know the President's interest is waking; he wants to +see the situation intelligently; in fact, he favors a Government-built +railroad from the coast to the upper Yukon. And I believe as soon as a +selection is made for naval use, some of those old disputed coal claims-- +some, not all--will be allowed. Or else--Congress must pass a bill to +lease Alaska coal lands." + +"Lease Alaska coal lands?" Frederic started up again so recklessly he was +forced to sink back with a groan. "Do you mean we won't be allowed to mine +any coal in Alaska, in that case, except by lease?" And he added, turning +his cheek to the pillow, "Oh, damn!" + +Tisdale seemed not to have heard the question. His glance moved slowly +again over the opal sea and rested on the shining ramparts of the +Olympics, off the port bow. "Constance!" he exclaimed mellowly. "The +Brothers! Eleanor!" Then he said whimsically: "Thank God they can't set +steam-shovels to work there and level those peaks and fill the canyons. Do +you know?"--his look returned briefly and the genial lines deepened-- +"those mountains were my playground when I was a boy. My last hunting +trip, the year I finished college, came to an untimely end up there in the +gorge of the Dosewallups. You see it? That shaded contour cross-cutting +the front of Constance." + +Elizabeth, who had opened her workbag, looked up with sudden interest. +"Was there an accident?" she asked. "Something desperate and thrilling?" + +"It seemed so to me," he said. + +Then Mrs. Weatherbee rose and came over to the port rail. "I see," she +said, and shaded her eyes with her hand. "You mean where that gold mist +rises between that snow slope and the blue rim of that lower, nearer +mountain. And you had camped in that gorge"--her hand dropped; she turned +to him expectantly--"with friends, on a hunting trip?" + +He paused a moment then answered slowly: "Yes, madam, with one of them. +Sandy, our old camp cook, made a third in the party." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE STORY OF THE TENAS PAPOOSE + + +Tisdale paused another moment, while his far-seeing gaze sifted the +shadows of Constance, then began: "We had made camp that afternoon, at the +point where Rocky Brook tumbles over the last boulders to join the swift +current of the Dosewallups. I am something of an angler, and Sandy knew +how to treat a Dolly Varden to divide honors with a rainbow; so while the +others were pitching the tents, it fell to me to push up stream with my +rod and flies. The banks rose in sharp pitches under low boughs of fir, +hemlock, or cedar, but I managed to keep well to the bed of the stream, +working from boulder to boulder and stopping to make a cast wherever a +riffle looked promising. Finally, to avoid an unusually deep pool, I +detoured around through the trees. It was very still in there; not even +the cry of a jay or the drum of a woodpecker to break the silence, until +suddenly I heard voices. Then, in a tangle of young alder, I picked up a +trail and came soon on a group of squaws picking wild blackberries. They +made a great picture with their beautifully woven, gently flaring, +water-tight baskets, stained like pottery; their bright shawls wrapped +scarfwise around their waists out of the way; heads bound in gay +handkerchiefs. It was a long distance from any settlement, and they +stood watching me curiously while I wedged myself between twin cedars, on +over a big fallen fir, out of sight. + +"A little later I found myself in a small pocket hemmed by cliffs of +nearly two hundred feet, over which the brook plunged in a fine cataract. +Above, where it cut the precipice, a hanging spur of rock took the shape +of a tiger's profile, and a depression colored by mineral deposit formed a +big red eye; midway the stream struck shelving rock, breaking into a score +of cascades that spread out fan-shape and poured into a deep, green, +stone-lined pool; stirring, splashing, rippling ceaselessly, but so limpid +I could see the trout. It was a place that held me. When at last I put +away my flies and started down the bank, I knew dinner must be waiting for +me, but I had a string of beauties to pacify Sandy. As I hurried down to +the fallen tree, I heard the squaws calling to each other at a different +point out of sight up the ridge; then I found a step in the rough bole +and, setting my hands on the top, vaulted over. The next instant I would +have given anything, the best years of my life, to undo that leap. There, +where my foot had struck, left with some filled baskets in the lee of the +log, lay a small papoose." + +Tisdale's voice vibrated softly and stopped, while his glance moved from +face to face. He held the rapt attention of every one, and in the pause +the water along the keel played a minor interlude. Behind the awning a +different sound broke faintly. It was like the rustle of paper; a turned +page. + +"The baby was bound to the usual-shaped board," Hollis went on, "with a +woven pocket for the feet and a broad carrying-strap to fit the head of +the mother. I sat down and lifted the little fellow to my knees. I wore +heavy shoes, studded with nails for mountain climbing, and the mark of my +heel was stamped, cruelly, on the small brown cheek; the rim had crushed +the temple." + +Tisdale halted again, and in the silence Elizabeth sighed. Then, "I'll bet +you didn't waste any time in that place," exclaimed Morganstein. + +"The eyes were closed," resumed Tisdale gently. "I saw the blow had taken +him in his sleep, but the wantonness, the misery of it, turned me cold. +Then, you are right, I was seized with a panic to get away. I laid the +papoose back in the place where I had found him and left my string of +fish, a poor tribute, with what money I had about me, and hurried down +into the bed of the brook. + +"The squaws were several days' travel from the reservation, but I +remembered we had passed a small encampment a few miles down the river and +another near the mouth of the Dosewallups, where a couple of Indians were +fishing from canoes. I knew they would patrol the stream as soon as the +alarm was given, and my only chance was to make a wide detour, avoiding my +camp where they would first look for me, swim the river, and push through +the forest, around that steep, pyramid peak to the next canyon. You see +it?--The Duckabush cuts through there to tide water. I left no trail in +crossing the stony bed of the brook, and took advantage of a low basalt +bluff in climbing the farther bank. It was while I was working my way over +the rock into cover of the trees that the pleasant calling on the ridge +behind me changed to the first terrible cry. The mother had found her dead +baby. + +"Twilight was on me when I stopped at last on the river bank to take off +my shoes. I rolled them with my coat in a snug pack, which I secured with +a length of fish-line to my shoulders before I plunged in. The current was +swift; I lost headway, and a whirlpool caught me; I was swept under, came +up grazing a ragged rock, dipped again through a riffle, and when I +finally gathered myself and won out to the opposite shore, there was my +camp in full view below me. I was winded, bruised, shivering, and while I +lay resting I watched Sandy. He stirred the fire under his kettle, put a +fresh lag on, then walked to the mouth of the brook and stood looking up +stream, wondering, no doubt, what was keeping me. Then a long cry came up +the gorge. It was lost in the rush of the rapids and rose again in a +wailing dirge. The young squaw was mourning for her papoose. It struck me +colder than the waters of the Dosewallups. Sandy turned to listen. I knew +I had only to call, show myself, and the boys would be ready to fight for +me every step of the trail down to the settlement; but there was no need +to drag them in; I hoped they would waste no time in going out, and I +found my pocket compass, set a course, and pushed into the undergrowth. + +"That night journey was long-drawn torture. The moon rose, but its light +barely penetrated the fir boughs. My coat and shoes were gone, torn from +me in the rapids, and I walked blindly into snares of broken and pronged +branches, trod tangles of blackberry, and more than once my foot was +pierced by the barbs of a devil's-club. Dawn found me stumbling into a +small clearing. I was dull with weariness, but I saw a cabin with smoke +rising from the chimney, and the possibility of a breakfast heartened me. +As I hurried to the door, it opened, and a woman with a milking pail came +out. At sight of me she stopped, her face went white, and, dropping the +bucket, she moved backward into the room. The next moment she brought a +rifle from behind the door. 'If you come one step nearer,' she cried, +'I'll shoot.'" + +Tisdale paused, and the humor broke gently in his face. "I saw she was +quite capable of it," he went on, "and I stopped. It was the first time I +had seemed formidable to a woman, and I raised my hand to my head--my hat +was gone--to smooth my ruffled hair; then my glance fell from my shirt +sleeves, soiled and in tatters, down over my torn trousers to my shoeless +feet; my socks were in rags. 'I am sorry,' I began, but she refused to +listen. 'Don't you say a word,' she warned and had the rifle to her +shoulder, looking along the sight. 'If you do, I'll shoot, and I'm a +pretty good shot.' + +"'I haven't a doubt of that,' I answered, taking the word, 'and even if +you were not, you could hardly miss at that range.' + +"Her color came back, and she stopped sighting to look me over. 'Now,' she +said, 'you take that road down the Duckabush, and don't you stop short of +a mile. Ain't you ashamed,' she shrilled, as I moved ignominiously into +the trail, 'going 'round scaring ladies to death?' + +"But I did not go that mile. Out of sight of the cabin I found myself in +one of those old burned sections, overgrown with maple. The trees were +very big, and the gnarled, fantastic limbs and boles were wrapped in thick +bronze moss. It covered the huge, dead trunks and logs of the destroyed +timber, carpeted the earth, and out of it grew a natural fernery." He +turned his face a little, involuntarily seeking Mrs. Weatherbee. "I wish +you could have seen that place," he said. "Imagine a great billowing sea +of infinite shades of green, fronds waving everywhere, light, beautifully +stencilled elk-fern, starting with a breadth of two feet and tapering to +lengths of four or five; sword-fern shooting stiffly erect, and whole +knolls mantled in maidenhair." + +"I know, I know!" she responded breathlessly. "It must have been +beautiful, but it was terrible if you were pursued. I have seen such a +place. Wherever one stepped, fronds bent or broke and made a plain trail. +But of course you kept to the beaten road." + +Tisdale shook his head. "That road outside the clearing was simply a +narrow, little used path; and I was so dead tired I began to look for a +place where I might take an hour's rest. I chose a big cedar snag a few +rods from the trail, the spreading kind that is always hollow, and found +the opening screened in fern and just wide enough to let me in. Almost +instantly I was asleep and--do you know?"--the humor broke again gently-- +"it was late in the afternoon when I wakened. And I was only roused then +by a light blow on my face. I started up. The thing that had struck me was +a moccasin, and its mate had dropped at my elbow. Then I saw a can of milk +with a loaf of bread placed inside my door. But there was no one in sight, +though I hurried to look, and I concluded that for some unaccountable +reason that inhospitable woman had changed her opinion of me and wanted to +make amends. I took a long draught of the milk--it was the best I ever +tasted--then picked up one of the moccasins. It was new and elaborately +beaded, the kind a woman fancies for wall decorations, and she had +probably bartered with some passing squaw for the pair. But the size +looked encouraging, and with a little ripping and cutting, I managed to +work it on. Pinned to the toe of the other, I found a note. It ran like +this: 'Two Indians are trailing you. I sent them down-stream, but they +will come back. They told me about that poor little papoose.' + +"I saw she must have followed me that morning, while searching for her +cow, or perhaps to satisfy herself I had left the clearing, and so +discovered my hiding-place. The broader track of her skirts must have +covered mine through the fern." + +Tisdale paused. The _Aquila_ had come under the lee of Bainbridge Island. +The Olympics were out of sight, as the yacht, heeling to the first tide +rip, began to turn into the Narrows, and the batteries of Fort Ward +commanded her bows; a beautiful wooded point broke the line of the +opposite shore. It rimmed a small cove. But Mrs. Weatherbee was not +interested; her attention remained fixed on Tisdale. Indeed he held the +eyes of every one. Then Marcia Feversham relieved the tension. "And the +Indians came back?" she asked. + +"Oh, yes, that was inevitable; they had to come back to pick up my trail. +But you don't know what a different man that rest and the moccasins made +of me. In five minutes I was on the road and making my best time up the +gorge, in the opposite direction. The woman was standing in her door as I +passed the cabin; she put a warning finger to her lips and waved me on. In +a little while the ground began to fall in short pitches; sometimes it +broke in steps over granite spurs where the exposed roots of fir and +hemlock twined; then I came to a place where an immense boulder, big as a +house, moving down the mountain, had left a swath through the timber, and +I heard the thunder of the Duckabush. I turned into this cut, intending to +cross the river and work down the canyon on the farther side, and as I +went I saw the torrent storming below me, a winding sheet of spray. The +boulder had stopped on a level bluff, but two sections, splitting from it, +had dropped to the bank underneath and, tilting together in an apex, +formed a small cavern through which washed a rill. It made a considerable +pool and, dividing, poured on either side of the uprooted trunk of a fir +that bridged the stream. The log was very old; it sagged mid-channel, as +though a break had started, and snagged limbs stretched a line of +pitfalls. But a few yards below the river plunged in cataract, and above I +found sheer cliffs curving in a double horseshoe. It was impossible to +swim the racing current, and I came back to the log. By that time another +twilight was on me. The forest had been very still; I hadn't noticed a +bird all day, but while I stood weighing the chances of that crossing, I +heard the harsh call of a kingfisher or jay. It seemed to come from the +slope beyond the bluff, and instantly an answer rose faintly in the +direction of the trail. I was leaning on one of the tilted slabs, and I +wormed myself around the base, to avoid leaving an impression in the wet +sand, and dipped under the trailing bough of a cedar, through the pool, +and crawled up into the cavern. There wasn't room to stand erect, and I +waited crouching, over moccasins in water. The cedar began to sway--I had +used the upper boughs to ease myself in sliding down the slab from the +bluff--a fragment of granite dropped, then an Indian came between me and +the light. + +"While he stopped to examine the sand at the edge of the pool, another +followed. He ventured a short distance out on the log and came back, while +the first set his rifle against the trunk and sank on his hands and knees +to drink. The water, roiled probably by my steps, was not to his taste, +and he rejected it with a disgusted 'Hwah!' When he rose, he stood looking +across the pool into my cavern. I held my breath, hugging the bluff behind +me like a lizard. It was so dark I doubted if even his lynx eyes could +discover me, but he lifted the gun and for an instant I believed he meant +to send a shot into the hole. Then he seemed to think better of wasting +his ammunition and led the way down-stream. They stopped on a level bank +over the cataract, and in a little while I caught the odor of smoke and +later of cooking trout. My cramped position grew intolerable, and finally +I crept out into the pool to reconnoitre. The light of their fire showed +both figures stretched on the ground. They had camped for the night. + +"It was useless to try to go down-stream; before dawn Indians would patrol +the whole canyon; neither could I double back to the Dosewallups where +they had as surely left a watch; my only course was to risk the log +crossing at once, before the moon rose, and strike southward to the +Lilliwaup, where, at the mouth of the gorge, I knew the mail steamer made +infrequent stops. I began to work up between the gnarled roots to the top +of the trunk and pushed laboriously with infinite caution out over the +channel. I felt every inch of that log, but once a dead branch snapped +short in my hand, and the noise rang sharp as a pistol shot. I waited, +flattening myself to the bole, but the thunder of the river must have +drowned the sound; the Indians did not stir. So at last I came to the +danger point. Groping for the break, I found it started underneath, +reaching well around. Caused probably by some battering bulk in the spring +floods, and widening slowly ever since, it needed only a slight shock to +bring it to a finish. I grasped a stout snag and tried to swing myself +over the place, but there came a splitting report; and there was just time +to drop astride above that stub of limb, when the log parted below it, and +I was in the river. I managed to keep my hold and my head out of water, +though the current did its best to suck me under. Then I saw that while +the main portion of the tree had been swept away, the top to which I clung +remained fixed to the bank, wedged no doubt between trunks or boulders. As +I began to draw myself up out of the wash, a resinous bough thrown on the +fire warned me the Indians were roused, and I flattened again like a +chameleon on the slippery incline. They came as far as the rill and stood +looking across, then went down-stream, no doubt to see whether the trunk +had stranded on the riffles below the cataract. But they were back before +I could finish the log, and the rising moon illuminated the gorge. I was +forced to swing to the shady side of the snag. The time dragged endlessly; +a wind piping down the watercourse cut like a hundred whips through my wet +clothes; and I think in the end I only kept my hold because my fingers +were too stiff to let go. But at last the Indians stretched themselves +once more on the ground; their fire burned low, and I wormed myself up +within reach of a friendly young hemlock, grasped a bough, and gained +shelving rock. The next moment I relaxed, all but done for, on a dry bed +of needles." + +Tisdale paused, looking again from face to face, while the humor gleamed +in his own. "I am making a long story of it," he said modestly. "You must +be tired!" + +"Tired!" exclaimed Elizabeth, "It's the very best story I ever heard. +Please go on." + +"Of course you escaped," supplemented Marcia Feversham, "but we want to +know how. And what was your chum doing all the time? And wasn't there +another woman?" + +Frederic Morganstein rumbled a short laugh. "Maybe you made the Lilliwaup, +but I'll bet ten to one you missed your steamer." + +Tisdale's eyes rested involuntarily again on Mrs. Weatherbee. She did not +say anything, but she met the look with her direct gaze; her short upper +lip parted, and the color burned softly in her cheek. "I made the +Lilliwaup," he went on, "about two miles from the mouth, between the upper +and lower falls. The river breaks in cascades there, hundreds of them as +far as one can see, divided by tremendous boulders." + +"We know the place," said Elizabeth quickly. "Our first cruise on the +_Aquila_ was to the Lilliwaup. We climbed to the upper falls and spent +hours along the cascades. Those boulders, hundreds of them, rose through +the spray, all covered with little trees and ferns. There never was +anything like it, but we called it The Fairy Isles." + +Tisdale nodded. "It was near the end of that reach I found myself. The +channels gather below, you remember, and pour down a steep declivity under +a natural causeway. But the charm and grandeur were lost on me that day. I +wanted to reach the old trail from the falls on the opposite shore, and I +knew that stone bridge fell short a span, so I began to work my way from +boulder to boulder out to the main stream. It was a wide chasm to leap, +with an upward spring to a tilted table of basalt, and I overbalanced, +slipped down, and, coasting across the surface, recovered enough on the +edge to ease myself off to a nearly submerged ledge. There I stopped." He +paused an instant, and his eyes sought Marcia Feversham's; the amusement +played lightly on his flexible lips. "I had stumbled on another woman. She +was seated on a lower boulder, sketching the stone bridge. I was behind +her, but I saw a pretty hand and forearm, some nice brown hair tucked +under a big straw hat, and a trim and young figure in a well-made gown of +blue linen. Then she said pleasantly, without turning her head: 'Well, +John, what luck?' + +"I drew back into a shallow niche of the rock. I had not forgotten the +first impression I made on the woman up the Duckabush and had no desire to +'scare ladies.' But my steamer was almost due, and I hoped John would come +soon. Getting no reply from him, she rose and glanced around. Then she +looked at her watch, put her hand to her mouth, and sent a long call up +the gorge. 'Joh-n. Joh-n, hello!' She had a carrying, singer's voice, but +it brought no answer, so after a moment she gathered up her things and +started towards the bank. I watched her disappear among the trees; then, +my fear of missing the steamer growing stronger than the dread of +terrifying her, I followed. The trail drops precipitously around the lower +falls, you remember, and I struck the level where the river bends at the +foot of the cataract, with considerable noise. I found myself in a sort of +open-air parlor flanked by two tents; rustic seats under a canopy of maple +boughs, hammocks, a percolator bubbling on a sheet-iron contrivance over +the camp-fire coals, and, looking at me across a table, the girl. 'I beg +your pardon,' I hurried to say. 'Don't be afraid of me.' + +"'Afraid?' she repeated. 'Afraid--of you?' And the way she said it, with a +half scornful, half humorous surprise, the sight of her standing there so +self-reliant, buoyant, the type of that civilization I had tried so hard +to reach, started a reaction of my overstrained nerves. Still, I think I +might have held myself together had I not at that moment caught the voice +of that unhappy squaw. It struck a chill to my bones, and I sank down on +the nearest seat and dropped my face in my hands, completely unmanned. + +"I knew she came around the table and stood looking me over, but when I +finally managed to lift my head, she had gone back to the percolator to +bring me a cup of coffee. It had a pleasant aroma, and the cream with +which she cooled it gave it a nice color. You don't know how that first +draught steadied me. 'I am sorry, madam,' I said, 'but I have had a hard +experience in these woods, and I expected to catch the mail boat for +Seattle; but that singing down-stream means I am cut off.' + +"She started a little and looked me over again with new interest. 'The +squaw,' she said, 'is mourning for her papoose. It was a terrible +accident. A young hunter up the Dosewallups, where the Indians were +berrying, killed the baby in jumping a log.' + +"'Yes, madam,' I answered, and rose and put the cup down, 'I am the man. +It is harder breaking trail to the Lilliwaup than coming by canoe, and the +Indians have beaten me. I must double back now to the Duckabush. By that +time, they will have given up the watch.' + +"'Wait,' she said, 'let me think.' But it did not take her long. A turn +the length of the table, and her face brightened. 'Why, it's the easiest +thing in the world,' she said. 'I must row you to the steamer.' Then when +I hesitated to let her run the risk, she explained that her party had +moved their camp from the mouth of the Dosewallups after these Indians +arrived there; they knew her; they had seen her rowing about, and she +always carried a good many traps; an easel, sun umbrella, cushions, a +steamer rug. I had only to lie down in the bottom of the boat, and she +would cover me. And she drew back the flap of the nearest tent and told me +to change my clothes for a brown suit she laid out, and canvas shoes. +'Come,' she urged, 'there's time enough but none to waste; and any minute +the Indians may surprise you.' + +"She was waiting with the rug and pillows and a pair of oars when I came +out, and helped me carry them to the boat which was beached a short +distance below her camp. When it was launched, and I was stowed under the +baggage, with an ample breathing hole through which I could watch the +rower, she pushed off and fell into a long, even stroke. Presently I +noticed she had nice eyes, brown and very deep, and I thought her face was +beautiful. It had the expressiveness, the swift intelligence that goes +with a strong personality, and through all her determination, I felt a +running note of caution. I knew she saw clearly while she braved the +extremity. After a while her breast began to rise and fall with the +exercise, her cheeks flushed, and I saw she had met the flood tide. All +this time the voice of the squaw grew steadily nearer. I imagined her, as +I had seen others before, kneeling on the bank, rocking herself, beating +her breast. Then it came over me that we were forced to hug the shore to +avoid one of the reedy shallows that choked the estuary and must pass very +close to her. The next moment there was a lull, and the girl looked across +her shoulder and called 'Clahowya!' At the same time she rested on her +oars long enough to take off her hat and toss it with careless directness +on my breathing hole. The squaw's answer came from above me, and she +repeated and intoned the word so that it seemed part of her dirge. +'Clahowya! Clahowya! Clahowya! Wake tenas papoose. Halo! Halo!' The +despair of it cut me worse than lashes. Then I heard other voices; a dog +barked, and I understood we were skirting the encampment. + +"After that the noise grew fainter, and in a little while the girl +uncovered my face. The channel had widened; the tang of salt came on the +wind; and when I ventured to raise my head a little, I saw the point at +the mouth of the river looming purple-black. Then, as we began to round +it, we came suddenly on a canoe, drifting broadside, with a single salmon +hunter crouching in it, ready with his spear. It flashed over me that he +was one of the two Indians who had tracked me to the Duckabush; the taller +one who had tried to drink at the rill; then he made his throw and at the +same instant the girl's hat fell again on my face. I heard her call her +pleasant 'Clahowya!' and she added, rowing on evenly: 'Hyas delate +salmon.' The next moment his answer rang astern: 'Clahowya! Clahowya! Hyas +delate salmon.' + +"At last I felt the swell of the open, and she leaned to uncover my face +once more. 'The steamer is in sight,' she said, and I raised my head again +and saw the boat, a small moving blot with a trailer of smoke, far up the +sapphire sea. Then I turned on my elbow and looked back. The canoe and the +encampment were hidden by the point; we were drifting off the wharf of the +small town-site, almost abandoned, where the steamer made her stop. There +was nothing left to do but express my gratitude, which I did clumsily +enough. + +"'You mustn't make so much of it,' she said; 'the first thing a +reservation Indian is taught is to forget the old law, a life for a life.' + +"'I know that,' I answered, 'still I couldn't have faced the best white +man that first hour, and off there in the mountains, away from reservation +influences, my chances looked small. I wish I could be as sure the men who +were with me are safe.' + +"She gave me a long, calculating look. 'They will be--soon,' she said. 'My +brother Robert should be on the steamer with the superintendent and +reservation guard.' And she dipped her oars again, pointing the boat a +little more towards the landing, and watched the steamer while I sifted +her meaning. + +"'So,' I said at last. 'So they are there at that camp. You knew it and +brought me by.' + +"'You couldn't have helped them any,' she said, 'and you can go back, if +you wish, with the guard.' Then she told me how she had visited the camp +with her brother Robert and had seen them bound with stout strips of +elk-hide. They had explained the accident and how one of them, to give me +time at the start, had put himself in my place." + +Tisdale halted a moment; a wave of emotion crossed his face. His look +rested on Mrs. Weatherbee, and his eyes drew and held hers. She leaned +forward a little; her lips parted over a hushed breath. It was as though +she braved while she feared his next words. "That possibility hadn't +occurred to me," he went on, "yet I should have foreseen it, knowing the +man as I did. We were built on the same lines, practically the same size, +and we had outfitted together for the trip. He wore high, brown shoes +spiked for mountain climbing, exactly like mine; he even matched the marks +of that heel. But Sandy wouldn't stand for it. He declared there was a +third man who had gone up Rocky Brook and had not come back. One of the +squaws who had seen me agreed with him, but they were bound and taken to +the encampment. The next morning an Indian found my coat and shoes lodged +on a gravel bar and picked up my trail. The camp moved then by canoe +around to the mouth of the Duckabush. taking the prisoners with them, and +waited for my trailers to come down. They had discovered me on the log +crossing when it fell, and believed I was drowned." + +There was another pause. Mrs. Weatherbee sighed and leaned back in her +chair; then Mrs. Feversham said: "And they refused to let your substitute +go?" + +Tisdale nodded. "He was brought with Sandy along to the Lilliwaup. The +Indians were traveling home, and no doubt the reservation influence had +restrained them; still, they were staying a second night on the Lilliwaup, +and when Robert spoke to them they were sullen and ugly. That was why he +had hurried away to bring the superintendent down. He had started in his +Peterboro but expected to find a man on the way who would take him on in +his motor-boat. Once during the night John had drifted close to the camp +to listen, but things were quiet, and they had bridged the morning with a +little fishing and sketching up-stream. + +"'Suppose,' I said at last, 'suppose you had been afraid of me. I should +be doubling back to the Duckabush now. As it is, I wouldn't give much for +their opinion of me.' + +"'I wish you could have heard that man Sandy,' she said, and--did I tell +you she had a very nice smile? 'He called you true gold.' And while she +went on to repeat the rest he had told her, it struck me pleasantly I was +listening to my own obituary. But the steamer was drawing close. She +whistled the landing, and the girl dipped her oars again, pulling her +long, even strokes. I threw off the rug and sat erect, ready to ease the +boat off as we came alongside. And there on the lower deck watching us +stood a young fellow whom, from his resemblance to her, I knew as brother +Robert, with the superintendent from the reservation, backed by the whole +patrol. Then my old friend Doctor Wise, the new coroner at Hoodsport, came +edging through the crowd to take my hand. 'Well, well, Tisdale, old man,' +he said, 'this is good. Do you know they had you drowned--or worse?'" + +Tisdale settled back in his chair and, turning his face, looked off the +port bow. The Narrows had dropped behind, and for a moment the deck of the +_Aquila_ slanted to the tide rip off Port Orchard; then she righted and +raced lightly across the broad channel. Ahead, off Bremerton Navy Yard, +some anchored cruisers rose in black silhouette against a brilliant sea. + +"And," said Marcia Feversham, "of course you went to the camp in a body +and released the prisoners." + +"Yes, we used the mail steamer's boats, and she waited for us until the +inquest was over, then brought us on to Seattle. The motor-boat took the +doctor and superintendent home." + +"And the girl," said Elizabeth after a moment, "did you never see her +again?" + +"Oh, yes." The genial lines deepened, and Hollis rose from his chair. +"Often. I always look them up when I am in Seattle." + +"But who was John?" + +"John? Why, he was her husband." + +The Olympics had reappeared; the sun dropped behind a cloud over a high +crest; shafts of light silvered the gorges; the peaks caught an amethyst +glow. Tisdale, tracing once more that far canyon across the front of +Constance, walked slowly forward into the bows. + +The yacht touched the Bremerton dock to take on the lieutenant who was +expected aboard, and at the same time Jimmie Daniels swung lightly over +the side aft. The Seattle steamer whistled from her slip on the farther +side of the wharf, and he hurried to the gang-plank. There he sent a +glance behind and saw Tisdale still standing with his back squared to the +landing, looking off over the harbor. And the _Press_ representative +smiled. He had gathered little information in regard to the coal question, +but in that notebook, buttoned snugly away in his coat, he had set down +the papoose story, word for word. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE ALTERNATIVE + + +Tisdale did not follow the lieutenant aft. When the _Aquila_ turned into +Port Orchard, he still remained looking off her bows. The sun had set, a +soft breeze was in his face, and the Sound was no longer a mirror; it +fluted, broke in racy waves; the cutwater struck from them an intricate +melody. Northward a few thin streamers of cloud warmed like painted +flames, and their reflection changed the sea to running fire. Then he was +conscious that some one approached behind him; she stopped at his elbow to +watch the brilliant scene. And instantly the spirit of combat in him +stirred; his muscles tightened like those of a man on guard. + +After a moment she commenced to sing very softly, in unison with the music +of the waves along the keel, + +"How dear to me the hour when daylight dies." + +Even subdued, her voice was beautiful. It began surely, insistently, to +undermine all that stout breastwork he had reared against her these +twenty-four hours. But he thrust his hands in his pockets and turned to +her with that upward look of probing, upbraiding eyes. + +The song died. A flush rose over her face, but she met the look bravely. +"I came to explain," she said. "I thought at the beginning, when we +started on that drive through the mountains, you knew my identity. +Afterwards I tried repeatedly to tell you, but when I saw how bitterly +you--hated--me, my courage failed." + +Her lip trembled over a sighing breath, and she looked, away up the +brilliant sea. Tisdale could not doubt her. His mind raced back to +incident on incident of that journey; in flashes it was all made clear to +him. Even during that supreme hour of the electrical storm had she not +tried to undeceive him? He forgave her her transgressions against him; he +forgave her so completely that, at the recollection of the one moment in +the basin, his pulses sang. Then, inside his pockets, his hands clenched, +and he scourged himself for the lapse. + +"I was in desperate need," she went on quickly. "There was a debt--a debt +of honor--I wished to pay. And Mr. Foster told me you were interested in +that desert land; that you were going to look it over. He caught me by +long distance telephone the night he sailed for Alaska, to let me know. +Oh, it all sounds sordid, but if you have ever come to the ragged edge of +things--" + +She stopped, with a little outward, deprecating movement of her hands, and +turned again to meet Tisdale's look. But he was still silent. "I believed +when you knew me," she went on, "you would see I am not the kind of woman +you imagined; I even hoped, for David's sake, you would forgive me. But I +did not know there was such friendship as yours in the world. I thought +only mothers loved so,--the great ones, the Hagars, the Marys. It is more +than that; it is the best and deepest of every kind of love in one. I +can't fathom it--unless--men sometimes are born with twin souls." + +It was not the influence of her personality now; it was not any magnetism. +Something far down in the depths of him responded to that something in +her. It was as though he felt the white soul of her rising transcendent +over her body. It spoke in her pose, her eloquent face, and it filled the +brief silence with an insistent, almost vibrant appeal. + +"They are," he answered, and the emotion in his own face played softly +through his voice, "I am sure that they are. Weatherbee had other friends, +plenty of them, scattered from the Yukon territory to Nome; men who would +have been glad to go out of their way to serve him, if they had known; but +he never asked anything of them; he saved the right to call on me. Neither +of us ever came as near that 'ragged edge of things' as he did, toppled on +it as he did, for so long. There never was a braver fight, against greater +odds, single-handed, yet I failed him." He paused while his eyes again +sought that high gorge of the Olympic Mountains, then added: "The most I +can do now is to see that his work is carried on." + +"You mean," she said not quite steadily, "you are going to buy that land?" + +"I mean"--he frowned a little--"I am going to renew my offer to finance +the project for you. You owe it to David Weatherbee even more than I do. +Go back to that pocket; set his desert blossoming. It's your only +salvation." + +She groped for the bulwark behind her and moved back to its support. "I +could not. I could not. I should go mad in that terrible place." + +"Listen, madam." He said this very gently, but his voice carried its +vibrant undernote as though down beneath the surface a waiting reserve +force stirred. "I did not tell all about that orchard of spruce twigs. It +was planted along a bench, the miniature of the one we climbed in the +Wenatchee Mountains, that was crossed with tiny, frozen, irrigating canals +leading from a basin; and midway stood a house. You must have known that +trick he had of carving small things with his pocket-knife. Then imagine +that delicately modeled house of snow. It was the nucleus of the whole, +and before the door, fine as a cameo and holding a bundle in her arms, was +set the image of a woman." + +There was a silent moment. She waited, leaning a little forward, watching +Tisdale's face, while a sort of incredulous surprise rose through the +despair in her eyes. "There were women at Fairbanks and Seward after the +first year," he went on. "Bright, refined women who would have counted it +a privilege to share things, his hardest luck, with David Weatherbee. But +the best of them in his eyes was nothing more than a shadow. There was +just one woman in the world for him. That image stood for you. The whole +project revolved around you. It would be incomplete now without you." + +She shrank closer against the bulwark, glancing about her with the swift +look of a creature trapped, then for a moment dropped her face in her +hands. When she tried to say something, the words would not come. Her +lips, her whole face quivered, but she could only shake her head in +protest again and again. + +Tisdale waited, watching her with his upward look from under contracted +brows. "What else can you do?" he asked at last. "Your tract is too small +to be handled by a syndicate, and now that the levels of the Columbia +desert are to be brought under a big irrigation project, which means a +nominal expense to the grower, your high pocket, unimproved, will hardly +attract the single buyer. Will you, then, plat it in five-acre tracts for +the Seattle market and invite the--interest of your friends?" + +She drew erect; the danger signals flamed briefly in her eyes. "My friends +can be dis-interested, Mr. Tisdale. It has only been through them, for a +long time, I have been able to keep my hold." + +"There's where you made your mistake at the start; in gaining that hold. +When you conformed to their standards, your own were overthrown." + +"That is not true." She did not raise her voice any; it dropped rather to +a minor note? but a tremor ran over her body, and her face for an instant +betrayed how deep the shaft had struck. "And, always, when I have accepted +a favor, I have given full measure in exchange. But there is an +alternative you seem to have overlooked." + +"I understand," he said slowly, and his color rose. "You may marry again." +Then he asked, without protest: "Is it Foster?" + +On occasion, during that long drive through the mountains, he had felt the +varying height and thickness of an invisible barrier, but never, until +that moment, its chill. Then Marcia Feversham called her, and she turned +to go down the deck. "I'm coming!" she answered and stopped to look back. +"You need not trouble about Mr. Foster," she said. "He--is safe." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +"ALL THESE THINGS WILL I GIVE THEE" + + +Frederic had suggested a rubber at auction bridge. + +Elizabeth fixed another pillow under his shoulders and moved the card +table to his satisfaction, then took a chair near the players and unfolded +her crochet, while Tisdale, whose injured hand excluded him from the game, +seated himself beside her. He asked whimsically if she was manufacturing a +cloud like the one in the west where the sun had set; but she lacked her +sister's ready repartee, and, arresting her needle long enough to glance +at him and back to the woolly, peach-pink pile in her lap, answered +seriously: "It's going to be a hug-me-tight." + +The lieutenant laughed. "Sounds interesting, does it not?" he said, +shuffling the cards. "But calm yourself, sir; a hug-me-tight is merely a +kind of sweater built on the lines of a vest." + +He dealt, and Mrs. Feversham bid a lily. From his position Tisdale was +able to watch Mrs. Weatherbee's face and her cards. She held herself erect +in a subdued excitement as the game progressed; the pink flush deepened +and went and came in her cheek; the blue lights danced in her eyes. +Repeatedly she flashed intelligence to her partner across the board. And +the lieutenant began to wait in critical moments for the glance. They won +the first hand. Then it became apparent that he and Morganstein were +betting on the side, and Marcia remonstrated. "It isn't that we are +scrupulous alone," she said, "but we lose inspiration playing second +fiddle." + +"Come in then," suggested Frederic and explained to the lieutenant: "She +can put up a hundred dollars and lose 'em like a soldier." + +"The money stayed in the family," she said quickly. "Beatriz, it is your +bid." + +Mrs. Weatherbee was calculating the possibilities of her hand. Her suit +was diamonds; seven in sequence from the jack. She held also the three +highest in clubs and the other black king. She was weak in hearts. "I bid +two diamonds," she said slowly, "and, Marcia, it's my ruby against your +check for three hundred dollars." + +There was a flutter of surprise. "No," remonstrated Elizabeth sharply. +"No, Marcia can buy the ring for what it is worth." + +"Then I should lose the chance to keep it. Three hundred will be enough to +lose." And she added, less confidently: "But if you should win, Marcia, it +is understood you will not let the ring go out of your hands." + +"I bear witness," cried the lieutenant gallantly, "and we are proud to +play second when a Studevaris leads." + +But Morganstein stared at her in open admiration. "You thoroughbred!" he +said. + +"It shall stay in the family," confirmed Marcia. + +Then Frederic bid two lilies, the lieutenant passed and Mrs. Feversham +raised to three hearts. She wavered, and Tisdale saw the cards tremble in +her hand. "Four diamonds," she said at last. The men passed, and Marcia +doubled. Then Morganstein led a lily, and the lieutenant spread his hand +on the table. There were six clubs; in diamonds a single trey. + +But Mrs. Weatherbee was radiant. She moved a little and glanced back at +Elizabeth, inviting her to look at her hand. She might as well have said: +"You see, I have only to lead out trumps and establish clubs." + +Marcia played a diamond on her partner's second lead of spades, and led +the ace of hearts, following with the king; the fourth round Frederic +trumped over Mrs. Weatherbee and led another lily. Mrs. Feversham used her +second diamond and, returning with a heart, saw her partner trump again +over Mrs. Weatherbee. It was miserable. They gathered in the book before +the lead fell to her. The next deal the cards deserted her, and after that +the lieutenant blundered. But even though the ruby was inevitably lost, +she finished the rubber pluckily; the flush deepened in her cheek; the +blue fires flamed in her eyes. "You thoroughbred!" Morganstein repeated +thickly. "You thoroughbred!" + +To Tisdale it was unendurable. He rose and crossed to the farther side of +the desk. The _Aquila_, rounding the northern end of Bainbridge Island, +had come into Agate Pass; the tide ran swift in rips and eddies between +close wooded shores, but these things no longer caught his attention. The +scene he saw was the one he had put behind him, and in the calcium light +of his mind, one figure stood out clearly from the rest. Had he not known +this woman was a spendthrift? Had he not suspected she inherited this vice +from her father, that old gambler of the stock exchange. Was it not for +this reason he had determined to hold that last half interest in the +Aurora mine? Still, still, she had not shown the skill of long practice; +she had not played with ordinary caution. And had not Elizabeth +remonstrated, as though her loss was inevitable? Every one had been +undeniably surprised. Why, then, had she done this? She had told him she +was in "desperate need." Could this have been the alternative to which she +had referred? + +The _Aquila's_ whistle blew, and she came around, close under a bluff, +into a small cove, on the rim of which rose the new villa. The group +behind Tisdale began to push back chairs. He turned. The game was over, +and Mrs. Feversham stood moving her hand slowly to catch the changing +lights of the ring on her finger. Then she looked at the loser. "It seems +like robbery," she exclaimed, "to take this old family talisman from you, +Beatriz. I shall make out a check to ease my conscience." + +"Oh, no." She lifted her head bravely like his Alaska flower in the bitter +wind. "I shall not accept it. My grandfather believed in the ruby +devoutly," she went on evenly. "It was his birthstone. And since it is +yours too, Marcia, it should bring you better fortune than it has brought +me. But see! The villa roof is finished and stained moss-green as it +should be, against that background of firs. And isn't the big veranda +delightful, with those Venetian blinds?" + +The yacht nosed alongside the little stone quay, and preceded by the host, +who was carried ashore in his chair, not without difficulty, by relays of +his crew, the party made the landing. + +Tisdale's first impression when he stepped over the threshold of the villa +was of magnitude. A great fireplace built of granite blocks faced the +hospitable entrance, and the interior lifted to the beamed roof, with a +gallery midway, on which opened the upper rooms. The stairs rose easily in +two landings, and the curving balustrade formed a recess in which was +constructed a stage. Near this a pipe organ was being installed. It was +all luxurious, created for entertainment and pleasure, but it lacked the +ostentatious element for which he was prepared. + +It had been understood that the visit was made at this time to allow Mrs. +Feversham an opportunity to go through the house. She was to decide on +certain furnishings which she was to purchase in New York, but it was +evident to Tisdale that the items she listed followed the suggestions of +the woman who stood beside her, weighing with subdued enthusiasm the +possibilities of the room. "Imagine a splendid polar-bear rug here," she +said, "with a yellowish lynx at the foot of the stairs, and one of those +fine Kodiak skins in front of the hearth. A couch there in the chimney +corner, with a Navajo blanket and pillows would be color enough." + +Morganstein, watching her from his invalid chair, grasped the idea with +satisfaction. "Cut out those Wilton carpets, Marcia," he said. "I'll write +that Alaska hunter, Thompson, who heads the big-game parties, to send me +half a dozen bears. They mount 'em all right in Seattle. Now see what we +are going to need in that east suite up-stairs." + +They went trooping up the staircase, but Hollis did not hurry to follow. +His glance moved to the heavy, recumbent figure of his host. He was +looking up across the banisters at Mrs. Weatherbee as she ascended, and +something in his sensuous face, the steady gleam of his round black eyes, +started in Tisdale's mind a sudden suspicion. She stopped to look down +from the gallery railing and smiled with a gay little salute. Then +Elizabeth called, and she disappeared through an open door. + +"I'd give fifty dollars to see her face when she gets to that east room," +Morganstein said abruptly. "But go up, Mr. Tisdale; go up. Needn't bother +to stay with me." + +"There's a good deal to see here," Tisdale responded genially. "A man who +is accustomed to spend his time as I do, gathering accurate detail, is +slower than others, I suppose, and this all seems very fine to me." + +"It's got to be fine,--the finest bungalow on Puget Sound, I keep telling +the architect. Nothing short of that will do. Listen!" he added in a +smothered voice, "she's in there now." + +The vaulted roof carried the echoes down to Tisdale as he went up the +stairs. All the doors were open along the gallery; some were not yet hung, +but he walked directly to the last one from which the exclamations of +surprise had come. And, as he went, he heard Mrs. Weatherbee say: "It was +glorious, like this, the day the idea flashed to my mind; but I did not +dream Mr. Morganstein would alter the casement, for the men were hanging +the French windows. Why, it must have been necessary to change the whole +wall. Still, it was worth it, Marcia, was it not?" + +"It certainly is unique," admitted Mrs. Feversham. Then Tisdale stopped on +the threshold, facing a great window of plate glass in a single pane, +designed to frame the incomparable view of Mount Rainier lifting above the +sea. And it was no longer a phantom mountain; the haze had vanished, and +the great peak loomed near, sharply defined, shining in Alpine splendor. + +It was a fine conceit, too fine to have sprung from Morganstein's +materialistic brain, and Tisdale was not slow to grasp the truth. The +financier had reconstructed the wall to carry out Mrs. Weatherbee's +suggestion. Then it came over him that this whole building, feature by +feature, had been created to win, to ensnare this woman. It was as though +the wall had become a scroll on which was written: "'All these things will +I give thee, if thou wilt fall down'--and marry me." + +Suddenly the place oppressed him. He walked through the room to the +smaller one of the suite and out on a broad sleeping-porch. The casement +was nearly waist high, and he stood grasping the ledge and looking with +unseeing eyes into a grove of firs. So this was the alternative. And this +was why Foster was safe. The young mining engineer, with little besides +his pay, had fallen far short of her price. + +But the salt wind was in his face; it quieted him. He began to notice the +many small intruding influences of approaching night. The bough of a +resinous hemlock, soughing gently, touched his arm, and his hold on the +shingles relaxed. He moved, to rest the injured hand on the casing, and +its throbbing eased. His glance singled out clumps of changing maple or +dogwood that flamed like small fires on the slope. Then he caught the +rhythm of the tide, breaking far down along the rocky bulkhead; and above, +where a footbridge spanned a chasm, a cascade rippled in harmony. + +"Nice, isn't it?" said the lieutenant, who came onto the porch with +Elizabeth. + +"That is a pergola they are building down there," she explained. "It's to +be covered with Virginia creeper and wistaria and all sorts of climbing +things. And French doors open into it from the dining-room. A walk winds +up from the end--you see it, Mr. Tisdale?--across the footbridge to a +pavilion on the point. It is almost too dark to see the roof among the +trees. Mrs. Weatherbee calls it the observatory, because we have such a +long sweep of the Sound from there, north and south. You'd think you were +aboard a ship at sea, lieutenant, in stormy weather. It gets every wind +that blows." + +The lieutenant wished to go to the pavilion, but Tisdale excused himself +from joining them, and was left alone again with his thoughts. Then he was +conscious the other women had remained in the apartment. They had come +into the inner room, and Mrs. Feversham, having found an electric button, +flooded the interior with light. On the balcony a blue bulb glowed. +Tisdale turned a little more and, leaning on the casement, waited for them +to come through the open door. + +"What do you say to furnishing this suite in bird's-eye maple?" asked +Marcia. "With rugs and portieres in old blue." + +Mrs. Weatherbee shaded her dazzled eyes with her hand and looked +critically around. "The maple would be lovely," she said, "but--do you +know," and she turned to her companion with an engaging smile, "these +sunrise rooms seem meant for Alaska cedar? And the rugs should be not old +blue, but a soft, mossy blue-green." + +Mrs. Feversham laughed. "Home industry again! We don't go to New York for +Alaska cedar. But you are right; that pale yellow wood would be simply +charming with these primrose walls, and it takes a wonderful polish. That +leaves me only the rugs and hangings." She turned to go back through the +wide doorway, then stopped to say: "After all, Beatriz, why not see what +is to be had in Seattle? I had rather you selected everything for this +suite, since it is to be yours." + +"Mine?" She paused, steadying her voice, then went on with a swift +breathlessness. "But I see, you mean to use when I visit you and +Elizabeth. These rooms, from the first, have been my choice. But I am +afraid I've been officious. I've been carried away by all this beautiful +architecture and the pleasure of imagining harmonious, expensive +furnishings. I never have fitted a complete house; it's years since I had +a home. Then, too, you've spoiled me by listening to my suggestions. +You've made me believe it was one way I could--well--cancel obligations." + +Mrs. Feversham raised her hand and, turning it slowly, watched the play of +light on the ruby. "There isn't a stone like this in America," she said. +"You don't know how I've coveted it. But you need not have worried, +Beatriz. I disposed of your note to Frederic." + +"To Mr. Morganstein?" Her voice broke a little; she rocked unsteadily on +her feet. It was as though a great wind had taken her unawares. Then, "I +shall try to pay him as soon as possible," she said evenly. "I have the +land at Hesperides Vale, you know, and if I do not sell it soon, perhaps +he will take it for the debt." + +Mrs. Feversham dropped her hand. "Beatriz! Beatriz!" she exclaimed. "You +know there's an easier way. Come, it's time to stop this make-believe. You +know Frederic Morganstein would gladly pay your debts, every one. You know +he is building this villa for you; that he would marry you, now, to-day, +if you would say the word. Yet you hold him at arm's-length; you are so +conservative, so scrupulous about Public Opinion. But no one in Seattle +would breathe a suggestion of blame. And it isn't as though you had worn +first mourning. The wedding could be very quiet, with a long honeymoon to +Japan or Mexico; both, if you wished. And you might come home to open this +house with a reception late in May. The twilights are delightful then. +Come, think, Bee! You've been irreproachable; the most exacting would +admit that. And every one knows David Weatherbee practically deserted you +for years." + +Tisdale saw her mouth tremble. The quiver ran over her face, her whole +body. For an instant her lashes fell, then she lifted them and met Marcia +Feversham's calculating look. "It was not desertion," she said. "He +contributed--his best--to my support. I took all he had to give. If ever +you are where people are--talking--do me the favor to correct that +mistake. And, now, if you please, Marcia, we will not bring David +Weatherbee in any more." + +Mrs. Feversham laughed a little. "I am willing, bygones are bygones, only +listen to Frederic." + +"You are mistaken, too, about Mr. Morganstein's motive, Marcia. He built +this house for all his friends and Elizabeth's. He owes her something; she +has always been so devoted to him." And she added, as she turned to go +back to the gallery, "He knows I do not care to marry again." + +Tisdale had not foreseen the personal drift to the conversation. And it +had not occurred to him he was unobserved; the balcony light was directly +over him, and he had waited, expecting they would come through to the +porch, to speak to them. Now he saw that from where they had stopped in +the brilliant interior, his figure must have blended into the background +of hemlock boughs. If they had given him any thought, they had believed he +had gone down with Elizabeth and the lieutenant. To have apologized, made +himself known, after he grasped the significance of the situation, would +only have resulted in embarrassment to them all. He allowed them time to +reach the floor below. But the heat rose in his face. And suddenly, as his +mind ran back over that interview in the bows of the _Aquila_, his +question in regard to Foster seemed gross. Still, still, she had said she +did "not care to marry again." That one fact radiated subconsciously +through the puzzling thoughts that baffled him. + +Behind him a few splendid chords rolled through the hall to the vaulted +roof, then pealed forth the overture from Martha. That had been +Weatherbee's favorite opera. Sometimes on long Arctic nights, when they +were recalling old times and old songs, he himself had taken Plunkett's +part to David's Lionel. He could see that cabin now, the door set wide, +while their voices stormed the white silence under the near Yukon stars. +His eyes gathered their absent expression. It was as though he looked +beyond the park, far and away into other vast solitudes; saw once more the +cliffs of Nanatuk looming through fog and heard clearly, booming across +the ice, the great, familiar baritone. + +The notes of the organ ceased. Tisdale stirred like a man roused from +sleep. He turned and started through to the gallery. A woman's voice, +without accompaniment, was singing Martha's immortal aria, _The Last Rose +of Summer_. It was beautiful. The strains, sweet and rich, flooded the +hall and pervaded the upper rooms. Looking down from the railing, he saw +Elizabeth and the lieutenant at the entrance below. The men who had +installed the organ, were listening too, at the end of the hall, while +beyond the open door the crew of the _Aquila_ waited to carry the master +aboard. As he reached the top of the stairs, Mrs. Feversham appeared, +seated near the invalid in the center of the hall, and finally, as he came +to the first landing, there was the diva herself, acknowledging the +applause, sweeping backward with charming exaggeration from the front of +the stage. + +"Bravo!" shouted Frederic. "Bravo! Encore!" She took the vacant seat at +the organ, and the great notes of the _Good-night_ chorus rolled to the +rafters. Responding to her nodding invitation, the voices of the audience +joined her own. It was inspiring. Tisdale stopped on the landing and +involuntarily he caught up his old part. + + "Tho' no prayer of mine can move thee + Yet I wish thee sweet good night; + Now good night, good night, good night!" + +She looked up in quick surprise; her hands stumbled a little on the keys +and, singing on, she subdued her voice to listen to his. Then, hesitating +a little over the first chords, she began the final prelude, and Tisdale, +waiting, heard her voice waver and float out soft and full: + +"Ah, will Heaven indeed forgive me." + +Her face was still lifted to him. It was as though her soul rose in direct +appeal to him, and in that moment all his great heart went down to her in +response. + +It was over. Morganstein's heavy "Bravo!" broke the silence, followed by +the enthusiastic clapping of hands, Mrs. Weatherbee rose and started down +the hall to join Elizabeth and the lieutenant, but Marcia detained her. +"It was simply grand," she said. "I hadn't believed you had the reach or +the strength of touch. This organ was certainly a fine innovation." + +"Sure," said Frederic hazily. "It will make old Seattle sit up and take +notice. Great idea; your schemes always are. Confess though, I had my +doubts, when it came to this organ. I hedged and had that other jog built +in over there for a piano. We can use it sometimes when we want to rag." + +"It is a splendid instrument; much more expensive than I thought of, I am +afraid. But," and she looked back at the elaborate array of pipes with the +exhilaration showing in her face, "it's like giving the firs and the sea a +new voice." + +She passed on, and Frederic's glance followed her, puzzled, but with a +blended respect and admiration. When she went out with Elizabeth and the +lieutenant, he called his men to convey him to the yacht. Marcia walked +beside him. Night had fallen, and the _Aquila_ blazed like a fire ship. +Her lamps sifted the shadows and threw long, wavering flames on the tide. +Aft, where the table was spread, for the convenience of the host, who +could not hazard the companionway, a string of electric lights illumined +the deck. Japanese screens, a dropped awning or two, tempered the breeze, +and the array of silver and flowers, and long-stemmed glasses, promised +more than the informal little dinner to which Mrs. Feversham had referred. + +She stood looking the table critically over, while the sailors settled the +invalid's chair. While the rest of the party loitered in the bow, she +turned to brother. "Has it occurred to you," she asked, "that Beatriz may +be interested in some other man?" + +"No," answered Frederic, startled. "No. Hadn't thought of that--unless-- +it's Foster." + +"I don't know; he seems the most possible, if there's any one. She says +she does not care to marry again. In any case, it is advisable to keep him +in Alaska. You might send him on from the Iditarod to look over the Aurora +mine." And she added slowly: "Beatriz Weatherbee, backed by the +Morganstein money, will be able to carry the social end of the family +anywhere; but Beatriz Weatherbee, holding a half interest in one of the +best-paying placers in Alaska in her own right--is a wife worth straining +a point for." + +Frederic's round eyes widened; his face took an expression of childlike +goodness; it was the mask with which he habitually covered his avarice. +Then he said: "I understood Hollis Tisdale had exclusive, brass-bound, +double-rivited possession of the Aurora." + +"Hush," cautioned Marcia, "they are coming." And she added, in a still +lower tone: "There is a loose rivet, but contrive to marry her before she +knows." + +That dinner covered the homeward cruise, and from the wharf Tisdale went +directly to his rooms. There he telephoned the Rainier-Grand hotel. "Give +me John Banks, please," he said. "Yes, I mean Lucky Banks of Alaska." And, +after an interval, "Hello, Banks! This is Tisdale talking. I want you to +come up to my rooms. Yes, to-night. I am starting east in the morning. +Thank you. Good-by." + +He put up the receiver and brought Weatherbee's box from the safe to the +table under the hanging lamp. Seating himself, he took out the plan of the +project and spread it before him. He had not closed the lid, and presently +his eyes fell on David's watch. He lifted it and, hesitating to open it, +sat trying to recall that picture in the lower case. He wondered how, once +having seen it, even in firelight and starshine, he could have forgotten +it. The face would be younger of course, hardly more than a promise of the +one he knew; still there would be the upward curling lashes, the +suggestion of a fault in the nose, the piquant curve of the short, upper +lip, and perhaps that pervading, illusive something that was the secret of +her charm. "You were right, David, old man," he said at last, "it was a +face to fight for, wait for. And madam, madam, a woman with a face like +yours must have had some capacity for loving." + +His hand was on the spring, but he did not press it. A noise outside in +the corridor arrested him. He knew it was too soon for Banks to arrive, +but he laid the watch back in the box and closed the lid. "You will never +marry Frederic Morganstein," he said, and rising, began to walk the floor. +"It would be monstrous. You must not. You will not. I shall not let you." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE OPTION + + +Vivian count stood on the first hill. The brick walls of the business +center filled the levels below, and Mrs. Weatherbee's windows, like +Tisdale's, commanded the inner harbor rimmed by Duwamish Head, with a +broader sweep of the Sound beyond framed in wooded islands and the +snow-peaks of the Olympic Peninsula. Southeastward, from her alcove, lifted +the matchless, solitary crest of Rainier. It was the morning following the +cruise on the _Aquila_, and Mrs. Weatherbee was taking a light breakfast +in her room. The small table, placed near an open casement, allowed her to +enjoy both views. She inhaled the salt breeze with the gentle pleasure of +a woman whose sense has been trained, through generations, to fine and +delicate perfumes; her eyes caught the sapphire sparkle of the sea, and +her face had the freshness and warmth of a very young girl's. The elbow +length of the sleeve exposed a forearm beautifully molded, with the +velvety firmness of a child's; and the wistaria shade of her empire gown +intensified the blue tones in the dark masses of her hair. In short, she +stood for all that is refined, bright, charming in womanhood; and not for +any single type, but a blending of the best in several; the "typical +American beauty" that Miles Feversham had named her. + +Her glance moved slowly among the shipping. The great steamship leaving +the Great Northern docks was the splendid liner _Minnesota_, sailing for +Japan; the outbound freighter, laden to the gunwales and carrying a +deckload of lumber, was destined for Prince William Sound. She represented +Morganstein interests. And when her eyes moved farther, in the direction +of the Yacht Club, there again was the _Aquila_, the largest speck in the +moored fleet. A shadow crossed her face. She rose and, turning from the +windows, stood taking an inventory that began with the piano, a Steinway +mellowed by age, and ended at a quaint desk placed against the opposite +wall. It was very old; it had been brought in her great-grandfather's time +from Spain, and the carving, Moorish in design, had often roused the +enthusiastic comment of her friends. Appraising it, her brows ruffled a +little; the short upper lip met the lower in a line of resolve. She went +to her telephone and found in the directory the number of a dealer in +curios. But as she reached for the receiver, she was interrupted by a +knock and, closing the book hastily, put it down to open the door. + +A bell-boy stood holding a rare scarlet azalea in full flower. In its +jardiniere of Satsuma ware it was all his arms could compass, and a second +boy followed with the costly Japanese stand that accompanied it. There was +no need to read the name on the card tied conspicuously among the stiff +leaves. The gift was from Frederic Morganstein. It had arrived, doubtless, +on an Oriental steamer that had docked the previous evening while the +_Aquila_ made her landing. Mrs. Weatherbee had the plant placed where the +sunshine reached it through the window of the alcove, and it made a gay +showing against the subdued gray of the walls. Involuntarily her glance +moved from it to the harbor, seeking the _Minnesota_, now under full +headway off Magnolia Bluff. It was as though, in that moment, her +imagination out-traveled the powerful liner, and she saw before her that +alluring country set on the farther rim of the Pacific. + +The steamship passed from sight; she turned from the window. The boy had +taken away the breakfast tray and had left a box on the table. It was +modest, violet-colored, with Hollywood Gardens stamped on the cover, but +she hurried with an incredulous expectancy to open it. For an instant the +perfume seemed to envelop her, then she lifted the green waxed paper, and +a soft radiance shone in her face. It was only a corsage bouquet, but the +violets, arranged with a few fronds of maidenhair, were delightfully +fresh. She took them out carefully. For a moment she held them to her +cheek. But she did not fasten them on her gown; instead she filled a +cut-glass bowl with water and set them at the open casement in the shade. +A cloud of city smoke, driving low, obscured the _Aquila_; the freighter +bound for Prince William Sound rounded Magnolia Bluff, but clearly she had +forgotten these interests; she stood looking the other way, through the +southeast window, where Rainier rose in solitary splendor. A subdued +exhilaration possessed her. Did she not in imagination travel back over +the Cascades to that road to Wenatchee, where, rising to the divide, they +had come unexpectedly on that far view of the one mountain? Then her +glance fell again to the violets, and she lifted the bowl, leaning her +cheek, her forehead, to feel the touch of the cool petals and inhale their +fragrance. + +She had not looked for Tisdale's card, but presently, in disposing of the +florist's box, she found it tucked in the folds of waxed paper. He had +written across it, not very legibly, with his left hand, + +"I want to beg your pardon for that mistake I made. I know you never will +put any man in David Weatherbee's place. You are going to think too much +of him. When you are ready to make his project your life work, let me +know." + +She was a long time reading the note, going back to the beginning more +than once to reconsider his meaning. And her exhilaration died; the +weariness that made her suddenly older settled over her face. At last she +tore the card slowly in pieces and dropped it in the box. + +Her telephone rang, and she went over and took down the receiver. "Mrs. +Weatherbee," she said, and after a moment. "Yes. Please send him up." + +The bell-boy had left the door ajar, and she heard the elevator when it +stopped at her floor; a quick, nervous step sounded along the corridor, +the door swung wider to some draught, and a short, wiry man, with a +weather-beaten face, paused on the threshold. "I am Lucky Banks," he said +simply, taking off his hat. "Mr. Tisdale asked me to see you got this +bundle." + +Involuntarily her glance rested on the hand that held the package in the +curve of his arm, and she suppressed a shiver; the dread that the young +and physically perfect always betray at the sight of deformity sprang to +her eyes. "Thank you for troubling," she said, then, having taken the +bundle, she waited to close the door. + +But Banks was in no hurry. "It wasn't any trouble, my, no," he replied. "I +was glad of the chance. It's a little bunch of stuff that was Dave's. And +likely I'd have come up, anyhow," he added, "to inquire about a tract of +land you own east of the mountains. I heard you talked of selling." + +Instantly her face brightened. "Yes. But come in, will you not?" She +turned and placed the package on the table, and took one of two chairs +near the alcove. The azalea was so near that its vivid flowers seemed to +cast a reflection on her cheeks. "I presume you mean my tract in the +Wenatchee Mountains?" she went on engagingly. "A few miles above +Hesperides Vale." + +"Well, yes." Banks seated himself on the edge of the other chair and held +his hat so as to conceal the maimed hand. "I didn't know you had but one +piece. It's up among the benches and takes in a kind of pocket. It's off +the line of irrigation, but if the springs turn out what I expect, it +ought to be worth sixty dollars an acre. And I want an option on the whole +tract for ten thousand." + +"Ten thousand dollars?" Her voice fluted incredulously. "But I am afraid I +don't understand exactly what an option is. Please explain, Mr. Banks." + +"Why, it's this way. I pay something down, say about three thousand, and +you agree to let the sale rest for well, say six months, while I prospect +the ground and see how it is likely to pan out. Afterwards, if I fail to +buy, I naturally forfeit the bonus and all improvements." + +"I see," she said slowly. "I see. But--you know it is wild land; you have +been over the ground?" + +"Not exactly, but I know the country, and I've talked with a man I can +bank on, my, yes." + +"How soon"--she began, then, covering her eagerness, said: "I agree to +your option, Mr. Banks." + +He laid his hat on the floor and took out his billbook, in which he found +two printed blanks, filled according to his terms and ready for her +signature. "I thought likely we could close the deal right up, ma'am, so's +I could catch the Wenatchee train this afternoon. Your name goes here +above mine." + +She took the paper and started buoyantly to the secretary, but the little +man stopped her. "Read it over, read it over," he cautioned. "All square, +isn't it? And sign this duplicate, too. That's right. You're quite a +business woman." + +He laughed his high, mirthless laugh, and, taking a check from the +bill-book, added some bright gold pieces which he stacked on the table +carefully beside the package he had brought. "There's your three +thousand," he said. + +"It's out of a little bunch of dust I just turned in at the assay office." + +"Thank you." She stood waiting while he folded his duplicate and put it +away, but he did not rise to go, and after a moment, she went back to her +chair by the scarlet azalea. + +"They are doing really wonderful things in the Wenatchee Valley," she said +graciously, willing to make conversation in consideration of that little +pile of clean, new coin that had come so opportunely, "the apples are +marvelous. But"--and here her conscience spoke--"you understand this tract +is unreclaimed desert land; you must do everything." + +"Yes, ma'am, I understand that; but what interests me most in that pocket +is that it belonged to David Weatherbee. He mapped out a project of his +own long before anybody dreamed of Hesperides Vale. He told me all about +it; showed me the plans. That piece of ground got to be the garden spot of +the whole earth to him; and I can't stand back and see it parcelled out to +strangers." + +He paused. The color deepened a little in her face; she looked away +through the west window. "I thought an awful lot of Dave," he went on. +"I'd ought to. Likely you don't know it--he wasn't the kind to talk much +about himself--but I owe my life to him. _It_ had commenced"--he held up +the crippled hand and smiled grimly--"when Dave found me curled up under +the snow, but he stayed, in the teeth of a blizzard, to see me through. +And afterwards he lost time, weeks when hours counted, taking care of me,-- +operated when it came to it, like a regular doctor, my, yes. And when I +got to crawling around again, I found he'd made me his partner." + +"He had made a discovery," she asked, "while you were ill?" + +"Yes, and you could bank on Dave it was a good one. He knew the gravel +every time. But we had to sell; it was the men who bought us out that +struck it rich. You see, Dave had heavy bills pressing him down here in +the States; he never said just what he owed, but he had to have the money. +And, my, when he was doing the bulk of the work, I couldn't say much. It +was so the next time and the next. We never could keep a claim long enough +for the real clean-up. So, when I learned to use my hand, I cut loose to +try it alone." + +He halted again, but she waited in silence with her face turned to the +harbor. "I drifted into the Iditarod country," he went on, "and was among +the first to make a strike. It was the luckiest move I ever made, but I +wish now I had stayed by Dave. I was only a few hundred miles away, but I +never thought of his needing me. That was the trouble. He was always +putting some other man on his feet, cheering the rest along, but not one +of us ever thought of offering help to Dave Weatherbee. A fine, +independent fellow like him. + +"But I sure missed him," he said. "Many a time there in the Iditarod I +used to get to wishing we had that voice of his to take the edge off of +things. Why, back on the Tanana I've seen it keep a whole camp heartened; +and after he picked me up in that blizzard, when I was most done for and +couldn't sleep, it seemed like his singing about kept me alive. Sometimes +still nights I can hear those tunes yet. He knew a lot of 'em, but there +was _Carry Me Back to Old Virginny_, and _Heart Bowed Down_, and _You'll +Remember Me_. I always thought that song reminded him of some girl down +here in the States. He never told me so, always put me off if I said a +word, and none of us knew he was married then; but when he got to singing +that tune, somehow he seemed to forget us boys and the camp and +everything, and went trailing off after his voice, looking for somebody +clear out of sight. I know now, since I've seen you, I was likely right." + +Still she was silent. But she moved a little and lifted her hand to the +edge of the Satsuma jardinière; her fingers closed on it in a tightening +grip; she held her head high, but the lashes drooped over her eyes. +Watching her, the miner's seamed face worked. After a moment he said: "The +other night I paid seven dollars for a seat at the Metropolitan just to +hear one of those first-class singers try that song. The scenery was all +right. There were the boys and two or three women sitting around a +camp-fire. And the fiddles got the tune fine, but my, my! I couldn't +understand a word. Seemed like that fellow was talking darn Dago." + +At this she lifted her eyes. The shadow of a smile touched her mouth, +though her lashes were wet. "And he was, Mr. Banks," she said brightly. +"He was. I know, because I was there." + +Banks picked up his hat and rose to his feet. "We were all mighty proud of +Dave," he said. "There wasn't one of us wouldn't have done his level best +to reach him that last stampede; but I'm glad the chance came to Hollis +Tisdale. There wasn't another man in Alaska could have done what he did. +Yes, I'm mighty glad it was Tisdale who--found him." He paused, holding +his hat over the crippled hand, then added: "I suppose you never knew what +it means to be cold." + +She rose. The smile had left her lips, and she stood looking into his +withered face with wide eyes. "I mean so cold you don't care what happens. +So cold you can lie down in your tracks, in a sixty-mile-an-hour blizzard +and go to sleep." + +"No." She shivered, and her voice was almost a whisper. "I am afraid not." + +"Then you can't begin to imagine what Tisdale did. You can't see him +fighting his way through mountains, mushing ahead on the winter trail, +breaking road for his worn-out huskies, alone day after day, with just +poor Dave strapped to the sled." + +She put her hands to her ears. "Please, please don't say any more," she +begged. "I know--all--about it." + +"Even about the wolves?" + +She dropped her hands, bracing herself a little on the table, and turned +her face, looking, with that manner of one helplessly trapped, around the +room. + +"Even about the wolves?" he persisted. + +"No. No," she admitted at last. + +He nodded. "I thought likely not. Hollis never told that. It goes against +his grain to be made much of. He and Dave was cut out of the same block. +But last night in the lobby to the hotel, I happened on a fellow that met +him in the pass above Seward. There were four of 'em mushing through to +some mines beyond the Susitna. It was snowing like blazes when they heard +those wolves, and pretty soon Tisdale's dogs came streaking by through the +smother. Then a gun fired. It kept up, with just time enough between shots +to load, until they came up to him. He had stopped where a kind of small +cave was scooped in the mountainside and put the sled in and turned the +huskies loose. He had had the time, too, to make a fire in front of the +hole, but when the boys got there, his wood was about burned out, and the +wolves had got Dave's old husky, Jack. He had done his best to help hold +off the pack. There's no telling how many Hollis killed; you see the rest +fell on 'em soon's they dropped. It was hell. Nothing but hair and blood +and bones churned into the snow far as you could see. Excuse me, ma'am; I +guess it sounds a little rough. I'm more used to talking to men, my, yes. +But the fellow who told me said Hollis knew well enough what was coming at +the start, when he heard the first cry of the pack. He had a chance to +make a roadhouse below the pass. Not one man in a thousand would have +stayed by that sled." + +His withered face worked again. He moved to the door. "But Dave would have +done it." His voice took a higher pitch. "Yes, ma'am, Dave would have done +the same for Hollis Tisdale. They was a team; my, yes." He laughed his +hard, mirthless laugh. "Well, so long," he said. + +She did not answer. Half-way down the corridor Banks looked back through +the open door. She had not moved from the place where he had left her, +though her face was turned to the window. A little farther on, while he +waited for the elevator, he saw she had taken the package he had brought +from Tisdale. She stood weighing it, undecided, in her hands, then drew +out the table drawer and laid it in. She paused another instant in +uncertainty and, closing the drawer, began to gather up the pieces of +gold. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +LUCKY BANKS AND THE PINK CHIFFON + + +On his way down from Vivian Court, the mining man's attention was caught +by the great corner show window at Sedgewick-Wilson's, and instantly out +of the display of handsome evening gowns his eyes singled a dancing frock +of pink chiffon. "She always looked pretty," he told himself, "but when +she wore pink--my!" and he turned and found his way through the swinging +doors. A little later the elevator had left him at the second floor. For a +moment the mirrors bewildered him; they gave a sense of vastness, +repeating the elegant apartment in every direction, and whichever way he +glanced there was himself, seated on the edge of a chair, his square shoes +set primly on the thick green carpet, his hat held stiffly over the +crippled hand. Then an imposing young woman sauntered towards him. "Well," +she said severely, "what can I show you?" + +Banks drew himself a little stiffer. "A dress," he said abruptly in his +highest key, "ready-made and pink." + +"What size?" + +"Why"--the little man paused, and a blush that was nearer a shadow crossed +his weather-worn face--"let me see. She's five feet seven and a quarter, +in her shoes, and I judge a couple of inches wider through the shoulders +than you." His glance moved to another saleswoman, who came a step nearer +and stood listening, frankly amused. "You look more her figure," he added. + +"Takes a thirty-eight." The first saleswoman brought out a simple gown of +pink veiling and laid it on the rack before Banks, and he leaned forward +and took a fold between his thumb and forefinger, gravely feeling the +texture. + +"This is priced at twenty-five dollars," she said. "How does that suit?" + +Banks drew himself erect. "There's one down-stairs in the front window I +like better," he said. + +The woman looked him shrewdly over. He had put his hat down, and her +glance rested involuntarily on his maimed hand. "That pink chiffon is a +hundred and twenty-five," she explained. + +"I can stand it; the price doesn't cut any figure, if it's what I want." +He paused, nodding a little aggressively and tapping the carpet with one +square foot. "The lady it's for is a mighty good judge of cloth, and I +want you to show me the best you've got." + +She glanced at the other saleswoman, but she had turned her back--her +shoulders shook--and she hurried to bring out a duplicate of the pink +chiffon, which she arranged carefully on the rack. Bank's face softened; +he reached to touch it with a sort of caress. "This is more like it," he +said; then, turning to the second girl, "but I can tell better if you'll +put it on. You don't seem very busy," he added quickly, "and I'll pay you +your time." + +"Why, that's all right," she answered and came to pick up the gown. "I'll +be glad to; that's what I'm here for." + +She disappeared, laughing, into a dressing-room, and presently the first +saleswoman excused herself to wait on new customers. The girl came back +transformed. She had a handsome brunette face, with merry dark eyes and a +great deal of black hair arranged in an elaborate end striking coiffure. +"Isn't it swell?" she asked, walking leisurely before him. "But you'll +have to fasten it for her; it hooks in the back." Then she stopped; the +fun went out of her face; her glance had fallen to his crippled hand. "I'm +awfully sorry," she stammered. "Of course she can manage it herself; we +all have to sometimes." + +But the little man was rapt in the gown. "I'll take it!" he said +tremulously. "It suits you great, but, my! She'll be a sight." + +"I'll bet she's pretty," said the girl, still trying to make amends. "I'd +like to see her in this chiffon. And I guess your party will be swell." + +Banks looked troubled. "It isn't a party; not exactly. You see she's been +away from town quite a spell, and I thought likely she'd be a little short +on clothes. I guess while I'm about it I may as well take along everything +that naturally goes with this dress; shoes and socks and a hat and-- +flannels--" + +He paused in uncertainty, for the girl had suddenly turned her back again. +"I'd like to leave the rest to you," he added. "Pick out the best; the +whole outfit straight through." + +"I'll be glad to." The girl turned again, controlling a last dimple. "You +are the thoughtfullest man I ever saw on this floor. She's in luck; but I +guess you aren't married--yet." + +Banks laughed his high, strained laugh and rose. "No," he answered +briskly, "no, not exactly. But I want you to hurry out this bill of goods +in time for the four-ten Great Northern. I can't go without it, and I'm +counting on making Wenatchee to-night." + +"Wenatchee?" exclaimed the girl. "Is that where you expect her to wear +this chiffon? Why, it's the dustiest place under the sun. Take my word for +it; I came from there. And, see here, they don't give big parties there; +the people are just nice and friendly; it's a small town. If I were you +I'd choose a tan; a veiling gown, like this first one we showed you, only +tan. Then you could put the difference in price into a coat;--we have some +smart ones in tan,--with a light pongee duster to slip over it all, if +she's driving or using a machine." + +Banks nodded. "Sure, tuck them all in; but this pink dress goes, too, and +see it's on top. Likely they'll go best in a trunk. Now, if you will give +me the bill--" + +He paused to take out his poke, but the girl laughed. "I can't," she said. +"It will take me half an hour to foot it all up after I've picked out the +things. And unless you give me a limit, I won't know where to stop. Then +there's the hat. I never would dare to choose that for a woman I've never +seen, unless she's my style." + +"She is," the little man answered gravely, "that's why I picked you out +when I first come in. I guess maybe the other one was nice all right, but +she was a little too dried-up and froze to do." + +"Then I know what I'd like to send; it's a hat I tried on this morning. A +nice taupe--that's about the color of that sage-brush country over there +and won't show the dust--and it's trimmed with just one stunning plume the +same shade and a wreath of the tiniest pink French roses set under the +velvet brim. It looked like it was made for me, but twelve and a half is +my limit and it's twenty-five dollars. Maybe you don't want to go that +high." + +Banks untied the poke and poured the remaining gold pieces on the +show-case; then he found a pocket-book from which he took several crisp +bills. "There's three hundred," he said briefly, "and another ten for the +trunk. I want you to pick out a nice little one I can stow in the back of +a one-seated automobile. The hat and this pink dress go on top; and be +sure you get the outfit down to that four-ten train. Good-by," he put out +his hand, and a gleam of warmth touched his bleak face. "I'm glad I met +you." + +"And so am I. Good-by." She stopped gathering up the money long enough to +give him her hand. "And good luck," she added. + +The first saleswoman, again at leisure, approached and stood looking after +him as he hurried with his quick, uneven steps towards the elevator. "Of +all things!" she exclaimed. "He did buy that pink chiffon. Who'd ever have +thought he had the money or the taste. But I suppose he's one of those +lucky fellows who've struck it rich in Alaska." + +The other young woman nodded. "His gold came out of one of those pokes, +and it's fresh from the mint. But I guess he's earned all he's got, every +cent. I'll bet he's starved and froze; suffered ways we don't know. And +he's spending it on a girl. I'd like to see her. Maybe she's the +cold-blooded kind that'll snub him and make fun of this chiffon." + +She turned into the dressing-room, and it was then Banks stopped and +brought out the loose change in his pockets. There was a ten dollar piece, +to which he added two and a half in silver. He started back up the room, +but the girl had disappeared, and, while he stood hesitating, a +floor-walker approached. + +"Have you forgotten something?" he asked politely. + +"Yes," answered Banks, "I forgot to give this money to the young lady who +was waiting on me. She's likely gone to take off a pink dress I bought. +But she's the one with lots of black hair and pink cheeks and a real nice +smile; you couldn't miss her. And you might as well give her this; tell +her it's the other twelve and a half to make up the price of that hat; a +duplicate of the one we were talking about. She'll understand." + +He called these final words over his shoulder, for the elevator had +stopped, and he hurried to catch it. Going down, he looked at his watch; +he had spent an hour buying that dress. But on the lower floor he noticed +a telephone booth and saw a way to make up the time. + +"Hello!" he called, pitching his voice to a treble. "This is Banks, the +miner you was trying to talk into buying that little red car last week; +roadster I think you said 'twas. Well, I want you to fire up and run down +to the Rainier-Grand quick as you can." + +He listened a moment, then: "Yes, likely I'll change my mind, if I get +so's I can drive her all right by three p.m. I'm going east of the +mountains, and if I buy I've got to ship her on the four-ten train--Yes, I +mean the little one with a seat to accommodate two, with a place to carry +a trunk behind. Now get busy and rush her down. I've got some errands to +do, and I want you to hurry me around; then we'll get away from the crowd +out on the boulevard where I can have a clear track to break her on." + +The sale was made, and the mining man must have applied himself +successfully to his lesson, for the following morning, when the red car +spun out of Wenatchee and up the lifting valley road, a snug steamer-trunk +was stowed in the box behind, and Banks at the steering gear was traveling +alone. To be sure the rising curves were made in sudden spurts and jerks, +but his lack of skill was reinforced by a tireless vigilance gathered +through breaking days of driving and mushing over hazardous trails. And he +had made an early start; few wayfarers were yet astir. But at last, high +up where the track doubled the summit of a slope that lifted in a bluff +overhead, and on the other hand dropped precipitously to the river, the +little man barely averted catastrophe. The driver and the vehicle were +hidden by the curve, but at his warning honk, two percherons that blocked +the way halted and, lunging at his repeated note, crowded back on the team +they led. Then a woman's voice shrilled: "I've got the heaviest load; you +give me right of way." + +Banks sprang out and ran forward past the horses. The driver, dressed in a +skirt and blouse of khaki, was seated on a load of lumber. She held the +reins high in yellow-gauntleted hands, and a rope of loosened red hair +hung below a smart campaign hat. "I can't back," she exclaimed +aggressively. "You got to give me right of way." + +"Ain't there a man with the outfit?" he asked uncertainly. + +"No," she snapped. "Do I look like I need one?" But she hurried on +tremulously: "My husband's running the mill night and day, and Bryant, +down the valley, had to have his boxes for the apple crop. He said send +the boards down, and he'd let a couple of his Japs knock 'em together. So +I thought with an early start and a clear track, I could drive. But you've +got to turn out. I've got the heavy load." + +Banks shook his head. + +"It's my first trip," he said dubiously, "and I ain't learned to back her +only enough to turn 'round; and it's too narrow. But I used to drive +pretty good seven or eight years ago; and I've been managing a dog team +off and on ever since. Let me climb up there and back your load." + +"You can't do it," she cried. "It's up-grade and a mean curve, and that +nigh leader, for a first-class draught horse, has the cussedest +disposition you ever saw. You can't back him short of a gunshot under his +nose, and you got to get that buzz-wagon of yours out of sight before I +can get him past." + +"Then," said Banks, and smiled grimly, "I guess it's up to me to back." He +started to return to the machine but paused to add over his shoulder: +"It's all right; don't you be scared. No matter what happens, you forget +it and drive straight ahead." + +But destiny, who had scourged and thwarted the little man so many years, +was in a humorous mood that day. The little red car backed down from the +bend in zigzag spurts, grazing the bluff, sheering off to coast the +river-ward brink; then, in the final instant, when the machine failed to +respond to the lever speedily enough, a spur of rock jutting beyond the +roadway eased the outer wheel. It rolled up, all but over, while the next +tire met the obstruction and caught. Banks laughed. "Hooray!" he piped. +"Now swing the corner, lady! All circle to the left." + +"Get up!" the driver shrilled. "Get up, now, Duke, you imp!" And the +leader, balking suspiciously at the explosive machine, felt a smart touch +of the whip. He plunged, sidled against the bluff and broke by. There was +barely room to make that turn; the tailboard of the wagon, grating, left a +long blemish on the bright body of the car, but as the load rolled on down +the incline, Banks churned gayly up around the bend. + +In less than an hour Hesperides Vale stretched behind him, and the bold +front of Cerberus lifted holding the gap. Tisdale had warned him of the +barbed-wire fence, and while he cautiously rounded the mountain, his old +misgiving rose. What though he had made good; what though the Iditarod had +filled his poke many times over, the north had taken heavy toll. He had +left his youth up there, and what would this smart little automobile count +against a whole right hand? And this trunkful of clothes--what would it +weigh against a good-sized man? Still, still, though she might have taken +her pick of 'em all, Annabel had never married, and she had kept his +goats. Then he remembered Tisdale had said that she too had had a hard +fight, and the years must have changed her. And hadn't she herself told +him, in that letter he carried in his breast pocket, that if he cared to +come and see the goats, he would find his investment was turning out fine, +but he needn't expect she had kept her own good looks? + +The little man smiled with returning confidence and, lifting his glance, +saw the cabin and the browsing flock cut off by the barbed-wire fence from +the road. Then as he brought the car to a stop, the collie flew barking +against the wicket, and a gaunt woman rose from a rock and stood shading +her eyes from the morning sun. + +He sprang down and spoke to the dog, and instantly his tone quieted the +collie, but the woman came nearer to point at the sign. "You better read +that," she threatened. + +His hand dropped from the wicket, and he stood staring at her across the +barbed wire. "I was looking for a lady," he said slowly, "but I guess +likely I've made a mistake." + +She came another step and, again shading her eyes, stared back. A look +half eager, half wistful, trembled for a moment through the forbidding +tenseness of her face. "All the men I've seen in automobiles up here were +looking for land," she replied defiantly. + +He nodded; his eyes did not move from her face, but they shone like two +chippings of blue glacier ice, and his voice when he spoke piped its +sharpest key. "So am I. I've got an option on a pocket somewheres in this +range, and the lady I'm inquiring for happened to homestead the quarter +below. It sort of overlaps, so's she put her improvements on the wrong +edge. Yes, ma'am, I've likely made a mistake, but, you see, I heard she +had a bunch o' goats." + +There was a brief silence then. "Anyhow, you must o' come from that +surveyor," she said. "Maybe he was just a smooth talker, but he had a nice +face; laughing crinkles around his eyes and a way of looking at you, if +you'd done a mean thing, to make you feel like the scum of the earth. But +he happened to be acquainted with the man that made me a present of my +first billy and ewes, and you--favor him a little." She paused, then went +on unsteadily, while her eyes continued to search him. "He was about your +size, but he's been up in Alaska, way in the interior somewheres for +years, and the letter I wrote him couldn't have reached him inside a +month. I figured if he came out, he would just about catch the last +steamer in October." + +"So he would, if he hadn't come down to Seattle already." He stopped, +fumbling with the pin, and threw open the wicket. "I guess I ain't changed +much more'n you, Annabel." + +The woman was silent. Her chin dropped; her glance sought the earth. Then +Banks turned to fasten the gate behind him, and she started to stalk +mechanically up the field towards the cabin. "I feel all broke up," he +said, overtaking her; "like I'd been struck by a blizzard. Why, there was +a girl down in Seattle, she sold me a bill of goods that looked more like +you than you do yourself. I know I got myself to blame, but I never +counted for a minute on your keeping the goats." + +The woman stalked on a little faster, but she could not outstrip the +prospector; she turned her face, in refuge, to the flock. "Goats," she +said unsteadily, "goats--are all right when you get used to 'em. They're +something like children, I guess; a sight of trouble but good company and +mighty comforting to have 'round. And they're just as different. There's +old Dad, the cautious looking one standing off there watching us and +chewing the end of a thistle. It might as well be a toothpick, and I'll +bet he's thinking: 'You can't get the best of me, no, sir.' And that piece +of wisdom next to him is the Professor. Don't he remind you of the old +schoolmaster down at the Corners? And there goes Johnny Banks. See him? +The pert little fellow chasing up the field. You never can tell where +he'll turn up or what he'll do next." + +She laughed a dry, forced laugh, and Banks echoed it in his strained key. +"But we are going to get rid of 'em. They're a fine bunch--you've brought +'em up splendid, made a sight better showing than I could--but we are +going to get rid of 'em, yes, ma'am, and forget 'em as quick's we can. We +are going to start right now to make up those seven years." + +They had reached the cabin, and he stopped on the threshold. "My, my," he +said softly, "don't it look homey? There's your Dad's old chair, and the +dresser and the melodion. I was 'fraid you'd sold that, Annabel." + +"I could have, there's been plenty of chances, but Dad gave it to me, +don't you remember? the Christmas I was sixteen." + +"My, yes, and you opened it right there, under the cherry tree, and +started _Home, Sweet Home_. I can hear it now, and the crowd joining in. +I'm glad you kept it, Annabel; a new one wouldn't seem just the same." + +"It's traveled though. You ought to have seen me moving from Oregon. The +old delivery wagon was heaping full." Her laugh this time was spontaneous. +"And old Kate couldn't make more than ten miles a day. But I had a good +tent, and when she had done her day's stunt, I just tied her out to feed +and made camp. The hardest was keeping track of the goats, but the flock +was small then, and I had two dogs." + +"I see," said Banks. "You kept 'em ahead of the wagon when you was on the +road and let 'em forage for themselves. But I'd like to have a look at old +Kate. She came of good stock." + +Annabel went over and, seating herself in her father's chair, untied her +sunbonnet. "Kate died," she said. "I hired her out to a man down the +valley, and he worked her too hard in the heat." + +There was a silent moment. She took off the bonnet and laid it in her lap. +The light, streaming through a small window, touched her hair, which was +bound in smooth, thick braids around her head. + +"My, my," the little man said, "ain't it a sight? I'd have known you in a +minute without that bonnet down at the gate. My, but don't it make a +difference what a woman wears? I'll bet I can't tell you from the girl I +left in Oregon when you've changed your clothes." + +She shook her head. "This denim is all I've got," she said, with a touch +of defiance. "I wore out all I had; goats are hard on clothes." + +"I thought likely." His bleak face began to glow. "And I knew you was out +of town away from the stores, so's I brought along a little outfit. You +wait a minute, and I'll fetch it right in." + +He was gone before he finished speaking and returned in an incredibly +short time with the trunk, which he deposited on the floor before her. +Then he felt in his pocket and, finding the key, fitted it and lifted the +lid. It was then, for the first time, she noticed the maimed hand. + +"Johnny!" she cried, and the pent emotion surged in her voice. "Johnny, +you've been--hurt." + +"Oh, that don't amount to anything now, only the looks. I can turn out +just as much work." + +He hurried to open the tray, but before he could remove the packing of +tissue paper that enveloped the hat, she reached and took the crippled +hand between her own. Her fingers fluttered, caressing, while with +maternal protectiveness they covered it, and she drew him back to the +broad arm of her chair. The defiance had gone out of her face; her eyes +were misty and tender. "You tell me what happened," she said. + +So came Lucky Banks' hour. He saw this woman who had been fond of pretty +clothes, who had once worn them but was now reduced to a single frock of +coarse denim, turn from the fine outfit before it was even displayed; +waiting, with a wondrously comforting solicitude he never had suspected in +the girl whom he had left in Oregon, to hear first that miserable story of +the trail. He told it briefly, but with the vividness of one whose words +are coined straight from the crucible of bitter experience, and while she +listened, her heart shone in her passionate eyes. "What if it had +happened," she broke out at last. "If it had, Johnny, it would have been +my fault. I drove you into going up there. I'm responsible for this hand. +I--I couldn't have stood worse than that." + +The little man beamed. "Is that so, Annabel? Then I'm mighty glad +Weatherbee followed that stampede. Nobody else would have seen my hand +sticking up through the snow and stopped to dig me out. Unless--" he added +thoughtfully, "it was Hollis Tisdale. Yes, likely Hollis would. He was the +only man in Alaska fit to be Dave's running mate." + +"Do you mean that surveyor?" she asked. + +Banks nodded. + +"I thought so," she said with satisfaction. "Dad taught me to size people +up on sight. He could tell the first minute he saw a man's face whether he +was good for a bill of groceries or not; and I knew that surveyor was +straight. I bet he knew you was in Seattle when he got me to write. But I +wish I could have a look at the other one. He must be--great." + +Banks nodded again. "He was," he answered huskily. "He was. But he's made +his last trip. I wasn't three hundred miles off, but I never thought of +Dave Weatherbee's needing help; it took Tisdale, clear off in Nome, over a +thousand miles, to sense something was wrong. But he started to mush it, +alone with his huskies, to the Iditarod and on to the Aurora, Dave's mine. +You don't know anything about that winter trail, Annabel. It means from +twenty to fifty below, with the wind swooping out of every canyon, +cross-cutting like knives, and not the sign of a road-house in days, in +weeks sometimes. But he made it,"--Banks' voice reached high pitch--"He +beat the records, my, yes." + +"And something was wrong?" asked Annabel, breaking the pause. + +Banks nodded again. "You remember that sheepman down in Oregon they +brought in from the range. The one that ripped up his comforter that night +at the hotel and set the wool in little rolls around the floor; thought he +was tending sheep? Well, that's what was happening. And Hollis was two +days late. Dave had started for the coast; not the regular way to +Fairbanks and out by stage to Valdez, but a new route through the Alaska +Range to strike the Susitna and on to Seward. And he had fresh dogs. He +was through Rainy Pass when Tisdale began to catch up." + +"He did catch up?" Annabel questioned again hurriedly. + +Banks nodded once more. He drew his hand away and rose from his seat on +the chair arm. His eyes were shining like blue glacier ice. "It was in a +blizzard; the same as the day I lost my fingers--only--Hollis--he was too +late." He turned and walked unsteadily to the door and stood looking out. +"I wasn't three hundred miles from the Aurora," he added. "I could have +been in time. I can't ever forget that." + +Annabel rose and stood watching him, with the emotion playing in her face. +"Johnny!" she exclaimed at last. "Oh, Johnny!" She went over and put her +arm protectively around his shoulders. "I know just how you feel; but you +didn't drive him to it. You were just busy and interested in your work. +You'd have gone in a minute, left everything, if you had known." + +"That's it; I ought to have known. I ought to have kept track of Dave; run +over once in a while to say hullo. I'd have likely seen it was coming on, +then, in time. When Tisdale found him, he'd been setting out little pieces +of spruce, like an orchard in the snow. You see," he added after a moment, +"Dave always expected to come back here when he struck it rich and start a +fruit ranch. He was the man who owned this pocket." + +A sudden understanding shone in Annabel's face. "And that's why you got an +option on it; you want to carry out his scheme. I'll help you, Johnny, +I'll do my level best." + +Banks turned and looked at her. "That's all I want, Annabel. I was a +little afraid you'd be sick of the place. But, my, we can go right ahead +and set a crew of men to grubbing out the sage on both sections to once. +Folks might have said, seeing you take up with a undersized, froze-up +fellow like me, you was marrying me for my money; but they can't, no, +ma'am, not when they see the valuable claim you are developing in your own +right." + +Annabel laughed. "I guess you're entitled to your turn making fun of me. +But have you got money, Johnny? I never thought of that." + +"Likely not. But the Annabel sure brought me luck; that name worked better +than a rabbit's foot. Here's a little bunch of nuggets I saved out of the +first clean-up." He paused to take a small new poke from an inner pocket +and, untying the string, poured the contents in her hand. "I thought +likely you'd want 'em made up in a necklace with a few diamonds or mebbe +emeralds mixed in." + +She stood looking at the shining rough pieces of gold in her palm, while a +certain pride rose through the wonder in her face. "My gracious!" she +exclaimed, and a spark of her lost youth revived. "My gracious. And you +named your mine after me. I bet it was on account of that billy and the +ewes." + +"Likely," the little man beamed. "But more than likely it was because that +strike was a sure thing, and you was behind it, Annabel. My, yes, you was +responsible I ever got to Alaska; let alone stuck it out. Sure as a +grubstake, you gave me my start. Now come take a look at this outfit I +brought." + +He held the poke open while she poured the nuggets back. "I like them +plain," she said, "but I never saw any made up. I leave it to you." + +"Then I make it emeralds to match the Green, and mebbe a few sparklers +thrown in." He laughed gayly and, taking her arm, drew her back across the +room to the open trunk; when she was seated again in the armchair, he +knelt to remove the first layer of tissue packing. She took the precaution +to spread one smooth sheet of it on her lap and, leaning forward, saw him +uncover the plume, the entire hat. "Gracious goodness!" she exclaimed +tremulously, as he lifted it awkwardly to her eager hands, "ain't it +splendid? I didn't know they were making them like this. I never saw such +roses; why, they look alive and ready to smell; and ain't they pretty +fixed this way under the brim?" She paused, turning the masterpiece +slowly, like a connoisseur. "I bet I could have worn it when I was in +Oregon. It would have been my style. Do you suppose"--she glanced at Banks +timidly--"I'd dare to try it if my hair was done real nice, and I had on a +better dress?" + +"My, yes." Banks laughed again excitedly, and with growing confidence +opened the next compartment to display the chiffon gown. "Wait till you +get this on. You'll be a sight. You always was in pink." He paused to take +the hat and, wheeling, placed it on the old dresser, and so made room for +the frock on her lap. "Now, ain't that soft and peachy and--and rich?" + +But Annabel was silent. She lifted her eyes from the gown to Johnny, and +they were full of mist. Then her lip quivered, and a drop splashed down on +the delicate fabric. "My gracious!" she cried in consternation and, +rising, held the gown off at arm's-length. "Do you suppose it's going to +spot?" + +And Banks' laugh piped once more. "I guess it can stand a little salt +water," he replied. "But if it can't, we can get a duplicate. And now you +just take your time and pick out what you want to wear. I am going up the +bench to look around and find Dave's springs. It'll likely take me an hour +or so, and you can be ready to start soon's I get back." + +"Start?" she repeated. "Was you counting on going somewhere?" + +"My, yes. I was counting on taking you a little spin down to Wenatchee the +first thing, and having a chicken dinner to the hotel. Then, soon's we get +a license and hunt up a sky man, we are going to run down to Oregon and +have a look at the old Corners." + +"I never rode in an automobile," she said, glowing, "but I think I'd like +it fine." + +"I bet you will. I bet, coming home, you'll be running the machine +yourself half the time." + +He hurried away then, laughing his shrillest key, and Annabel laid the +pink chiffon back in the tray to follow him to the door. She stood +smiling, though the mist alternately gathered and cleared in her eyes, +watching him up the vale and waiting to see him reappear on the front of +the bench. But he found her ready when he returned; and the hat was +becoming beyond her hopes. It brought back in a measure the old brightness +that was half a challenge in her air, so that, to the mining man, she +seemed to have gone back, almost, those lost years. Still, his +satisfaction was tempered, and instantly she understood the cause. "The +roses seemed enough pink today," she said tactfully, "till I wear off some +of this tan. But I like this tan cloth awful well, don't you? It's a nice +color for out-of-doors and won't show the dust. And doesn't it fit +perfectly splendid? And look at these shoes. I don't see how you +remembered my size. You've thought of everything. There's even an +automobile veil. A lady that came out here with Mr. Tisdale had one about +the same shade. But you'll have to help me put it on so I won't spoil this +plume." + +She pushed the pongee coat, which was carefully folded across the back of +a chair, a little aside and, seating herself before the mirror, reached to +take the scarf and exposed a folded paper on the dresser. "I found that +envelope pinned inside the hat," she said still diplomatically, though a +touch of humor shaded her lips. "There's a ten dollar piece in it and two +and a half in silver. Probably it's your change." + +But Banks turned the envelope and read pencilled across the front: "There +isn't any duplicate, but thanks just the same." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +KERNEL AND PEACH + + +After that little wedding journey down in Oregon, Banks returned to +Seattle to engage a crew for the first step to reclamation; combining +pleasure with business, he brought Annabel and registered at the New +Washington Hotel. And here Daniels, detailed to learn something in regard +to the Iditarod strike where, it was rumored, the Morgansteins were +negotiating for the miner's valuable holdings, finally traced him. + +"Sure we have a Banks of Alaska with us," the clerk responded, smiling, +and turned the page to show the _Press_ representative the strained, +left-handed signature. "He's a sawed-off specimen with a face like a +peachstone; but he said if he put down his regular name, the boys likely +would miss his trail." + +"Mrs. Annabel Green Banks Hesperides Vale," read Jimmie. + +"Lucky Banks Iditarod and Hesperides Vale. + +"This looks like my man, sure; but who is Mrs. Green-Banks? His wife or +mother?" + +"Bride," the clerk replied laconically. "It's a sort of overdue honeymoon. +But she's rather smart looking; fine eyes and tall enough to make up for +him. They're a pair." + +"I see. Kernel and peach. But Hesperides Vale," Daniels went on +thoughtfully. "Why, that's in the new fruit belt over near Wenatchee, my +old stamping-ground." + +The clerk nodded. "She owns some orchard lands over there and to hear him +talk, you'd think she had the money; Until it comes to ordering; then the +Queen of Sheba isn't in it. 'I guess we can stand the best room in the +house,' he says. And when I showed them the blue suite and told them +Tarquina, the prima donna opening at the Metropolitan to-night, had the +companion suite in rose, it's: 'Do you think you can put up with this +blue, Annabel?' But there comes the cameo now. No, the other way, from the +street." + +Jimmie met the prospector midway across the lobby. "Mr. Banks?" he began +genially. "I am the lucky one this time; I came in purposely to see you. I +am Daniels, representing the _Seattle Press_. My paper is particular about +the Alaska news, and I came straight to headquarters to find out about the +Iditarod camp." + +Banks kept on to the desk, and Jimmie turned to walk with him. The clerk +was ready with his key. "Mrs. Banks hasn't come in yet," he said, smiling. + +"She's likely been kept up at Sedgewick-Wilson's. I introduced her to a +friend of mine there. I had to chase around to find a contractor that +could ship his own scrapers and shovels across the range, and I thought +the time would go quicker, for her, picking out clothes. But," he added, +turning to the reporter, "we may as well sit down and wait for her here in +the lobby." + +"I understand," began Daniels, opening his notebook on the arm of his +chair, "that your placer in the Iditarod country has panned out a clear +one hundred thousand dollars." + +"Ninety-five thousand, two hundred and twenty-six," corrected the mining +man, "with the last clean-up to hear from." + +Jimmie set these figures down, then asked: "Is the rumor true that the +Morgansteins are considering an offer from you?" + +"No, sir," piped the little man. "They made me an offer. I gave 'em an +option on my bunch of claims for a hundred and fifty thousand. Their +engineer has gone in to look the property over. If they buy, they'll +likely send a dredger through by spring and work a big bunch of men." + +There was a silent moment while Jimmie recorded these facts, then: "And I +understand you are interested in fruit lands east of the mountains," he +said. "It often happens that way. Men make their pile up there in the +frozen north and come back here to Washington to invest it." + +"Likely," replied Banks shortly. "Likely. But it's my wife that owns the +property in the fruit belt. And it's a mighty promising layout; it's up to +me to stay with it till she gets her improvements in. Afterwards--now I +want you to get this in correct. Last time things got mixed; the young +fellow wrote me down Bangs. And I've read things in the newspaper lately +about Hollis Tisdale that I know for a fact ain't so." + +"Hollis Tisdale?" Jimmie suspended his pencil. "So you know the Sphynx of +the Yukon, do you?" + +"That's it. That's the name that blame newspaper called him. Sphynx +nothing. Hollis Tisdale is the best known man in Alaska and the best +liked. If the Government had had the sense to put him at the head of the +Alaska business, there'd been something doing, my, yes." + +The reporter finished his period. "Don't let this interview bother you," +he said. "It's going into my paper straight, Mr. Banks, and in your own +words." + +While he spoke, his vigilant glance rested lightly on one of the several +guests scattered about the lobby. He was a grave and thoughtful man and +had seemed deeply engrossed in a magazine, but he had changed his seat for +a chair within speaking distance, and Jimmie had not seen him turn a page. + +"What I was going to say, then," resumed Banks, "was that afterwards, when +the orchards are in shape, I am going back to Alaska and take a bunch of +those abandoned claims, where the miners have quit turning up the earth, +and just seed 'em to oats and blue stem. Either would do mighty well. The +sun shines hot long summer days, and the ground keeps moist from the +melting snow on the mountains. I've seen little patches of grain up there +and hay ripening and standing high as my shoulder. But what they need most +in the interior is stock farms, horses and beeves, and I am going to take +in a fine bunch of both; they'll do fine; winter right along with the +caribou and reindeer." + +"Well, that's a new idea to me," exclaimed Daniels. "Alaska to me has +always stood for blizzards, snow, glaciers, impregnable mountains, bleak +and barren plains like the steppes of Russia, and privation, privation of +the worst kind." + +Banks nodded grimly. "That's because the first of us got caught by winter +unprepared. Why, men freeze to death every blizzard right here in the +States; sometimes it's in Dakota; sometimes old New York, with railroads +lacing back and forth close as shoestrings. And imagine that big, +unsettled Alaska interior without a single railroad and only one +wagon-road; men most of the time breaking their own trails. Not a town or +a house sometimes in hundreds of miles to shelter 'em, if a storm happens +to break. But you talk with any Swede miner from up there. He'll tell you +they could make a new Sweden out of Alaska. Let us use the timber for +building and fuel; let a man that's got the money to do it start a +lumber-mill or mine the coal. Give us the same land and mineral laws you +have here in the States, and homeseekers would flock in thick as birds in +springtime." + +The stranger closed his magazine. "Pardon me," he said, taking advantage +of the pause, "but do you mean that Conservation is all that is keeping +home-seekers out of Alaska?" + +Banks nodded this time with a kind of fierceness; his eyes scintillated a +white heat, but he suppressed the imminent explosion and began with forced +mildness, "My, yes. But you imagine a man trying to locate with +ninety-five per cent. of the country reserved. First you've got to +consider the Coast Range. The great wall of China's nothing but a line of +ninepins to the Chugach and St. Elias wall. The Almighty builds strong, +and he set that wall to hold the Pacific Ocean back. Imagine peaks piled +miles high and cemented together with glaciers; the Malispina alone has +eighty miles of water front; and there's the Nanatuk, Columbia, Muir; but +the Government ain't found names for more'n half of 'em yet, nor a quarter +of the mountains. Now imagine a man getting his family over that divide, +driving his little bunch of cattle through, packing an outfit to keep 'em +going the first year or so. Suppose he's even able to take along a +portable house; what's he going to do about fuel? Is he going to trek back +hundreds of miles to the seaport, like the Government expects, to pack in +coal? Australian maybe, or Japan low grade, but more likely it's +Pennsylvania sold on the dock for as high as seventeen dollars a ton. Yes, +sir, and with Alaska coal, the best kind and enough to supply the United +States for six hundred years, scattered all around, cropping right out of +the ground. Think of him camped alongside a whole forest of spruce, where +he can't cut a stick." + +The little man's voice had reached high pitch; he rose and took a short, +swift turn across the floor. The stranger was silent; apparently he was +weighing this astonishing information. But Daniels broke the pause. + +"The Government ought to hurry those investigations," he said. "Foster, +the mining engineer, told me never but one coal patent had been allowed in +all Alaska, and that's on the coast. He has put thousands into coal land +and can't get title or his money back. The company he is interested with +has had to stop development, because, pending investigation, no man can +mine coal until his patent is secured. It looks like the country is +strangled in red tape." + +"It is," cried Banks. "And one President's so busy building a railroad for +the Filipinos, and rushing supplies to the Panama Canal he goes out of +office and clear forgets he's left Alaska temporarily tied up; and the +next one has his hands so full fixing the tariff and running down the +trusts he can't look the question up. And if he could, Congress is working +overtime, appropriating the treasury money home in the States. There's so +many Government buildings to put up and harbors and rivers to dredge, it +can't even afford to give us a few lights and charts, and ships keep on +feeling their way and going to destruction on the Alaska coast. Alaska is +side-tracked. She's been left standing so long she's going to rust." + +"If some of our senators could listen to you," said the stranger, with a +swift and vanishing smile, "their eyes would be opened. But that is the +trouble; Alaska has had no voice. It is true each congressman has been so +burdened with the wants of his own State that session after session has +closed before the Alaska bills were reached. We have been accustomed to +look on Alaska as a bleak and forbidding country, with a floating +population of adventurers and lawless men, who go there with the intention +to stay only long enough to reap a mineral harvest. If she had other great +resources and such citizens as you, why were you not in Washington to +exploit her?" + +Lucky Banks shook his head. "Up to this year," he said and smiled grimly, +"I couldn't have made the trip without beating my way, and I guess if I +went to some of those senators now and escaped being put down for an +ex-convict, they'd say I was engineering a trust. They'd turn another key +on Alaska to keep me out." + +He wheeled to tramp down the lobby, then stopped. Annabel had entered. +Annabel arrayed in a new, imported tailored suit of excellent cloth, in a +shade of Copenhagen blue, and a chic hat of blue beaver trimmed with +paradise. Instantly the mining man's indignation cooled. He put aside +Alaska's wrongs and hurried, beaming, to meet his wife. "Why, you bought +blue," he said with pleased surprise. "And you can wear it, my, yes, about +as well as pink." + +Annabel smiled with the little ironical curl of the lip that showed +plainly her good sense held her steady, on the crest of that high wave +whereon it had been fortune's freak to raise her. "Lucile showed me a +place, on the next floor of the store, where I could get the tan taken off +my face while I was waiting for alterations to my suit. They did it with a +sort of cold cream and hot water. There's just a streak left around my +neck, and I can cover that with the necklace." She paused then added with +a gentle conciliation creeping through her confidential tone: "I am going +to wear the pink chiffon to-night to hear Tarquina. Lucile says it's all +right for a box party, opening night. I like her real well. I asked her to +go with us, and she's coming early, in time for dinner, at seven." + +"I thought you'd make a team," replied Banks, delighted. "And I'm glad you +asked her, my, yes. It would have been lonesome sitting by ourselves +'mongst the empty chairs." + +They were walking towards the elevator, and Daniels, who had learned from +the clerk that the important looking stranger who had seemed so interested +in Banks' information, was the head of the new coal commission, going +north for investigation, stopped the prospector to say good-by. + +"I want to thank you for that interview, Mr. Banks," he said frankly. +"I've learned more about Alaska from you in fifteen minutes than I had put +together in five years." + +"You are welcome, so's you get it in straight. But,"--and the little man +drew himself proudly erect,--"I want to make you acquainted with Mrs. +Banks, Mr. Daniels." + +"I am awfully glad to meet you, Mrs. Banks," said Jimmie cordially, +offering his hand. "I understand you are from Hesperides Vale, and I grew +up over there in the Columbia desert. It's almost like seeing friends from +home." + +"Likely," Banks began, but his glance moved from the reporter to his wife +and he repeated less certainly, "likely we could get him to take one of +those chairs off our hands." + +Annabel's humor rose to her eyes. "He's hired a box for Carmen to-night; +they were out of seats in the divans, and it worries him because our party +is so small." + +"I'd be delighted, only,"--Jimmie paused, flushing and looking intently +inside his hat--"the fact is, I am going to take the Society Editor on my +paper. We have miserable seats, the first row in the orchestra was the +best they could do for us, and she has to write up the gowns. She's an +awfully nice girl, and she has a little trick of keeping her copy out of +sight, so the people in the house never would catch on; would you think me +very bold,"--and with this he looked up directly at Annabel--"if I asked +you to give that place in your box to her?" + +He was graciously assured it would make Mr. Banks "easy" if they both +joined the party, and Annabel suggested that he bring the Society Editor +to dinner, "so as to get acquainted" before the opera. All of which was +speedily arranged by telephone. Miss Atkins accepted with pleasure. + +The dinner was a complete success; so complete that the orchestra was +concluding the overture when they arrived at the theater. A little flurry +ran through the body of the house when Annabel appeared. Mrs. Feversham in +the opposite box raised her lorgnette. + +"I wonder who they are," she said. "Why, the girl in white looks like Miss +Atkins, who writes the society news, and there is your reporter, Daniels." + +"Other man is Lucky Banks; stunning woman in pink must be his wife." +Frederic, having settled in his chair and eased his lame knee, focussed +his own glasses. + +"George, Marcia," he exclaimed, "do you see that necklace? Nuggets, +straight from the sluices of the Annabel, I bet. Nuggets strung with +emeralds, and each as big as they grow. I suppose that chain is what you +call barbarous, but I rather like it." + +"It is fit for a queen," admitted Marcia. "One of those barbarian queens +we read about. No ordinary woman could wear it, but it seems made for her +throat." And she added, dropping her lorgnette to turn her calculating +glance on her brother's face, "Every woman her price." + +Frederic laughed shortly. The purplish flush deepened in his cheeks, and +his eyes rested on Beatriz Weatherbee. She was seated in the front of the +box with Elizabeth, and as she leaned forward a little, stirred by the +passionate cry of the violins, her profile was turned to him. + +"The price doesn't cut as much figure as you think," he said. + +Then the curtain rose. Tarquina was a marvelous Carmen. The Society +Editor, who had taken her notebook surreptitiously from a silk evening bag +and, under cover of a chiffon scarf, commenced to record the names and +gowns of important personages, got no farther than the party in the +opposite box during the first act. But she made amends in the +intermission. It was then a smile suddenly softened her firm mouth, and +she introduced Annabel to her columns with this item. + +"Noticeable among the out of town guests were Mr. and Mrs. John Henry +Banks, who entertained a box party, following a charming dinner at the New +Washington. Mrs. Banks, a recent bride, was handsomely gowned in pink +chiffon over messaline, and wore a unique necklace of nuggets which were +gathered from her husband's mine near Iditarod, Alaska. The gold pieces +were linked lengthwise, alternating with single emeralds, and the pendant +was formed of three slender nuggets, each terminating in a matched diamond +and emerald." + +While Geraldine wrote this, Frederic Morganstein made his way laboriously, +with the aid of a crutch, around to the box. "How do do, Miss Atkins," he +said. "Hello, Daniels! Well, Mr. Banks, how are you? Greatest Carmen ever +sung in this theater, isn't it? Now, keep your seat. I find it easier to +stand. Just came for a minute to be presented to--your wife." + +His venture carried. The little man, rising, said with conscious pride: +"Mrs. Banks, allow me to make you acquainted with Mr. Morganstein. He's +the man that holds the option on the Annabel. And this is Miss Purdy, Mr. +Morganstein; Miss Lucile Purdy of Sedgewick-Wilson's. I see you know the +rest of the bunch." + +"I guess it's up to me to apologize, Mrs. Banks," said Frederic, heavily +humorous. "I wouldn't believe my sister, Mrs. Feversham, when she told me +there were some smart women in those Alaska towns." He paused, laughing, +while his glance moved from Annabel's ironical mouth to her superb +shoulders and rested on the nugget chain; then he said: "From that +interview of yours in tonight's _Press_, Mr. Banks, there isn't much the +country can't produce." + +"Likely not," responded the little man quickly. "But my wife was an Oregon +girl. We were engaged, my, yes, long before I saw Alaska. And lately she's +been living around Hesperides Vale. She's got some fine orchard property +over there, in her own right." + +"Is that so?" Frederic's speculative look returned to Annabel's face. +"Hesperides Vale. That's in the new reclamation country, east of the +mountains, isn't it? I was intending to motor through that neighborhood +when this accident stopped me and put an end to the trip. They are turning +out some fine apples in that valley, I understand. But it's curtain time. +Awfully glad I've met you; see you again. Lend me your shoulder, will you, +Daniels--around to my box?" + +While they were crossing the foyer, he said: "That enlargement came out +fine; you must run up to my office, while it's there to-morrow, to see it. +And that was a great write-up you gave Lucky Banks. It was yours, wasn't +it? Thought so. Bought a hundred copies. Mrs. Feversham is going to take +'em east to distribute in Washington. Double blue-pencilled one, +'specially for the President." + +Jimmie smiled, blushing. "That's more than I deserve, but I'm afraid, even +if it reaches his hands, he won't take the time to read it." + +"You leave that to Mrs. Feversham," replied Morganstein. "Saw that little +scoop, too, about Tisdale. He's the closest oyster on record." + +"The trouble was," said Jimmie wisely, "he started that Indian story and +nobody thought to interrupt with more coal questions." + +"You mean he told that yarn purposely to head us off?" + +"That's the way it seemed to me afterwards. He spun it out, you know; it +lasted to Bremerton, where I got off. But it was interesting; the best I +ever heard, and I took it all down, word for word. It was little use, +though. The chief gave one look at my bunch of copy and warned me, for the +last time, the paper wasn't publishing any novels. What I had gone aboard +the _Aquila_ for was to write up her equipment and, incidentally, to pick +up Hollis Tisdale's views on Alaska coal." + +They had reached the entrance to the Morganstein box; the orchestra was +playing again, the curtain began to rise on the second act, and Daniels +hurried back to his place. But during the next intermission, an usher +brought the young reporter a note. It was written concisely on a business +card, but Jimmie read it through slowly a second time before he handed it +to the Society Editor. + +"Mrs. Feversham wants to see that story," so it ran. "Leave it at my +office in the morning. She may take it east with her. Knows some magazine +people who are going to feature Alaska and the Northwest." + +After a thoughtful moment Miss Atkins returned the card to Jimmie. "Is it +the Indian story?" she asked. + +Daniels nodded, watching her face. His smouldering excitement was ready to +flame. "They will read it for Mrs. Feversham,"--Geraldine's voice trembled +slightly--"and they will take it. It's a magazine story. They ought to pay +you handsomely. It's the best thing you ever wrote." + +Marcia Feversham saw possibilities in that story. Indeed, writing Jimmie +from Washington, she called it a little masterpiece. There was no doubt it +would be accepted somewhere, though he must expect to see it cut down +considerably, it was so long. Then, presumably to facilitate the placing +of the manuscript, she herself went over it with exceeding care, revising +with her pencil, eliminating whole paragraphs, and finally fixing the end +short of several pages. In the copy which her husband's stenographer +prepared, the original was reduced fully a third. After that it mellowed +for an interval in Marcia's drawer. + +At the close of November, it was announced that Stuart Foster, the junior +defendant in the first "Conspiracy to defraud the Government" trial, was +weather-bound in Alaska. This, taken in consideration with the serious +illness of Tisdale, on whom the prosecution relied for technical +testimony, resulted in setting the case for hearing the last week in the +following March. It was at this time, while Hollis was lying unconscious +and in delirium at a hospital, that his great wealth began to be +exploited. Everywhere, when inquiries were made as to his health, fabulous +statements followed about the Aurora. To mention the mine was like saying +"Open Sesame!" Then, finally, it was whispered and repeated with +conviction by people who "wouldn't have believed it of Hollis Tisdale" at +the beginning, that he had defrauded the widow of his dead partner--who +had made the discovery and paid for it with his life--of her share. + +Then, at last, early in December, Jimmie's masterpiece was forwarded to a +new magazine in New York. + +"_Dear Mr. Sampson_;--" so Marcia wrote-- + +"Here is a story of Western life that I believe will be of interest to +you. The incident actually occurred. The man who killed the Indian child, +and who amused my brother's guests with the story while we were cruising +lately on the _Aquila_, was Hollis Tisdale of the Geographical Survey. He +is probably the best known figure in Alaska, the owner of the fabulously +rich Aurora mine. His partner, who made the discovery, paid for it with +his life, and there is a rumor that his wife, who should have a half +interest, is penniless. + +"Mr. Tisdale will he a leading witness for the Government in the pending +Alaska coal cases. Strange--is it not?--since a criminal is barred from +testifying in a United States court. + +"The last issue of your magazine was most attractive. Enclosed are lists +of two thousand names and my check to cover that many sample copies of the +number in which the story is published. March would be opportune. Of +course, while I do not object to any use you may care to make of this +information, I trust I shall be spared publicity. + +"Very truly, + +"MARCIA FEVERSHAM." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +FOSTER'S HOUR + + +Frederic Morganstein did not wait until spring to open his villa. The +furnishings were completed, even to the Kodiak and polar-bear rugs, in +time to entertain a house-party at Christmas. Marcia, who came home for +the event, arrived early enough to take charge of the final preparations, +but the ideas that gave character to the lavish decorations were Beatriz +Weatherbee's. She it was who suggested the chime of holly bells with +tongues of red berries, hung by ropes of cedar from the vaulted roof +directly over the stage; and saw the two great scarlet camellias that had +been coaxed into full bloom specially for the capitalist placed at either +end of the footlights, while potted poinsettias and small madrona trees, +brought in from the bluffs above the grounds, finished the scheme with the +effect of an old mission garden. Then there were a hundred more +poinsettias disposed of, without crowding, on the landings and inside the +railing of the gallery, with five hundred red carnations arranged with +Oregon grape and fern in Indian baskets to cap the balustrade. To one +looking up from the lower hall, they had the appearance of quaint +jardinière. + +There was not too much color. December, in the Puget Sound country, means +the climax of the wet season when under the interminable curtain of the +rain, dawn seems to touch hands with twilight. It was hardly four o'clock +that Christmas eve when the _Aquila_ arrived with the guests from Seattle, +but the villa lights were on. A huge and resinous backlog, sending broad +tongues of flame into the cavernous throat of the fireplace, gave to the +illumination a ruddier, flickering glow. To Foster, who was the first to +reach the veranda, Foster who had been so long accustomed to faring at +Alaska road-houses, to making his own camp, on occasion, with a single +helper in the frosty solitudes, that view through the French window must +have seemed like a scene from the Arabian Nights. Involuntarily he +stopped, and suddenly the luxurious interior became a setting for one +living figure. Elizabeth was there, arranging trifles on a Christmas tree; +and Mrs. Feversham, seated at a piano, was playing a brilliant bolero; but +the one woman he saw held the center of the stage. Her sparkling face was +framed in a mantilla; a camellia, plucked from one of the flowering +shrubs, was tucked in the lace above her ear, and she was dancing with +castanets in the old mission garden. + +The next moment Frederic passed him and threw open the door with his +inevitable "Bravo!" And instantly the music ceased; Marcia started to her +feet; the dancer pulled off her mantilla, and the flower dropped from her +hair. + +"Go on! Encore!" he laughed. "My, but you've got that cachucha down to a +science; bred, though, I guess, in your little Spanish feet. You'd dance +all the sense a man has out of his head." + +"That's the reason none of us heard the _Aquila_ whistle," said Marcia, +coming forward. "Beatriz promised to dance to-night, in a marvelous yellow +brocade that was her great-grandmother's, and we were rehearsing; but she +looked so like a nun, masquerading, in that gray crepe de Chine, I almost +forgot the accompaniment. Why, Mr. Foster! How delightful you were able to +get home for Christmas." + +"I am fortunate," he answered, smiling. "The ice caught me in the Yukon, +but I mushed through to Fairbanks and came on to the coast by stage. I +just made the steamer, and she docked alongside the _Aquila_ not fifteen +minutes before she sailed. Mr. Morganstein brought me along to hear my +report." + +"I guess we are all glad to have you home for Christmas," said Elizabeth. + +She moved on with her sister to meet the other guests who were trooping +into the hall, and Foster found himself taking Mrs. Weatherbee's hand. His +own shook a little, and suddenly he was unable to say any of the friendly, +solicitous things he had found it so easy to express to these other +people, after his long absence; only his young eyes, searching her face +for any traces of care or anxiety the season may have left, spoke +eloquently. Afterwards, when the greetings were over, and the women +trailed away to their rooms, he saw he had forgotten to give her a package +which he had carried up from the _Aquila_, and hurried to overtake her at +the foot of the stairs. + +"It was brought down by messenger from Vivian Court for you," he +explained, "just as we were casting off, and I took charge of it. There is +a letter, you see, which the clerk has tucked under the string." + +The package was a florist's carton, wide and deep, with the name Hollywood +Gardens printed across the violet cover, but the letter was postmarked +Washington, D.C. "Violets!" she exclaimed softly, "'when violet time is +gone.'" + +Her whole lithe body seemed to emanate a subdued pleasure, and settling +the box, unopened, in the curve of her arm, she started up the staircase. +Foster, looking up, caught the glance she remembered to send from the +gallery railing. Her smile was radiant. + +She did not turn on the electric switch when she closed her door; the +primrose walls reflected the light from the great plate-glass window, with +the effect of candle glow. She put the box on a table near the casement +and laid the letter aside to lift the lid. The perfume of violets rose in +her face like liberated incense. The box was filled with them; bunches on +bunches. She bent her cheek to feel the cool touch of them; inhaled their +fragrance with deep, satisfying breaths. Presently she found the florist's +envelope and in it Tisdale's card. And she read, written under the name in +a round, plain woman's hand, "This is to wish you a Merry Christmas and +let you know I have not forgotten the project." + +The sparkle went out of her face. After a moment she picked up the letter +and compared the address with the writing on the card. It was the same +and, seating herself by the window, she broke the seal. When she had read +the first line under the superscription, she stopped to look at the +signature. It was Katherine Purdy. She turned back and began again: + +"_My dear Mrs. Weatherbee:_ + +"I am the night nurse on Mr. Tisdale's ward. He dictated the message on +his card to me, and I learned your address through ordering the violets of +the Seattle florist for him. It set me wondering whether he has ever let +you know how desperate things were with him. He is the most unselfish man +I ever saw, and the bravest that ever came on this floor. The evening he +arrived the surgeons advised amputating his hand--it was a case of +blood-poisoning--but he said, 'No, I am ready to take the risk; that right +hand is more than half of me, my better half.' He could joke, even then. +And when the infection spread to the arm, it was the same. After that it +was too late to operate; just a question of endurance. And he could endure +all right. My, but he was patient! I wish you could have seen him, as I +did, lying here hour after hour, staring at the ceiling, asking for +nothing, when every nerve in his body must have been on fire. But he won +through. He is lying here still, weak and pale enough, but safe. + +"Maybe I seem impertinent, and I suppose I am young and foolish, but I +don't care; I wouldn't be hard as nails, like some in this clinic, if it +was to cost me my diploma. I came from the Pacific west--I am going back +there as soon as I graduate--and a girl from there never can learn to +bottle her feelings till she looks like a graven image. Besides, I know I +am writing to a western woman. But I want to say right here he never made +a confidant of me, never said one word, intentionally, about you, but +there were nights when his temperature was running from a hundred and four +degrees that he got to talking some. Most of the time he was going all +over that terrible trip to find poor Mr. Weatherbee, and once, when he was +hunting birds along some glacier, he kept hearing David singing and +calling him. Again he was just having the best, quiet little visit with +him. My, how he loved that man! And when it wasn't David, it was you. 'I +know you couldn't marry a man like Morgan,' he said. 'You may think so, +but you will not when the time comes.' And once it was, 'Beatrice, +Beatrice, in spite of everything I can't help believing in you.' Then one +night, his worst before the crisis, he seemed to be helping you through +some awful danger, it was a storm I think, and there were wild beasts and +mountains, and at last when it was all over, he said quietly: 'You do owe +your life to me, but I shall never hold you to the debt; that would be too +monstrous.' And a little later it was, 'Head high, hold fast, it will be a +stiff fight, soldier. My dear, my dear, do you think I don't know how near +you came to loving me?' I guess you know how he said that. There are +certain tones in his voice that sink straight to the bottom of your heart; +I couldn't keep from crying. And it seems to me that if you really knew +how much he thought of you, and how sick he had been, and how he has +wanted you, nothing could keep you from packing up and coming straight to +Washington. I know I should. I could go anywhere, through Alaska or the +Great Sahara, it wouldn't matter which, for a man, if there is one in this +world, who could love me that well." + +Beatriz Weatherbee folded the letter and replaced it in the envelope. The +action was mechanical, and she sat twisting it with a kind of silent +emphasis, looking out into the thick atmosphere. A dash of hail struck the +window; the plate glass grew opaque. Then, suddenly, she lifted her arms +to the table and dropped her face; her body shook. It was as though she +had come at last to her blank wall; the inevitable she had so persistently +evaded was upon her; there was no escape. + +Presently some one knocked. And instantly her intrepid spirit was up, on +guard. She sat erect and pressed her handkerchief swiftly to her eyes. +Then Marcia Feversham opened the door and, finding the button, flashed on +the lights. + +"Why, Beatriz," she exclaimed. "Are you here in the dark? You must have +fallen asleep in your chair." + +"And dreaming." She rose, shading her eyes from the sudden glare. "But it +was a wretched dream, Marcia; I am glad you wakened me. Where is +Elizabeth?" + +"Making Frederic's cocktail. He needed a bracer to go through a business +meeting with Stuart Foster; but she will be here directly. I thought, +since we are to share your rooms, we had better dress early to be out of +the way. And I sent Celeste in to the Hallidays; Elizabeth can do +everything for me." + +"Much better than Celeste," she agreed. "And while you are busy, I shall +go for a bracing little walk." + +"A walk?" echoed Marcia in astonishment. "Why, it's storming. Hear that!" + +Another burst of hail struck the window. Mrs. Weatherbee turned, +listening, and so avoiding Marcia's penetrating eyes, dropped her hand +from her own. "I have my raincoat and cap," she said, "and a smart brush +with the wind will clear my head of cobwebs." + +With this she hurriedly smoothed the letter and laid it between the pages +of a book; lifting the violets from the table, she carried them out of the +steam-heated apartment to the coolness of the sleeping-porch. Mrs. +Feversham followed to the inner room and stood watching her through the +open door. + +"Violets!" she exclaimed. "At Christmas! From wherever did they come?" + +"From Hollywood Gardens," she responded almost eagerly. "Isn't it +marvelous how they make the out-of-season flowers bloom? But this flurry +of hail is the end of the storm, Marcia; the clouds are breaking, and it +is light enough to see the path above the pergola. I shall have time to go +as far as the observatory." + +Before she finished speaking, she was back in the room and hurrying on her +raincoat. Mrs. Feversham began to lay out various toilet accessories, but +presently, when the gallery door closed behind Beatriz, she walked to the +table near the plate-glass window and picked up the book. It was a +morocco-bound edition of Omar's _Rubaiyat_, which she had often noticed at +the apartment in Vivian Court, yet she studied the title deliberately, and +also the frontispiece, before she turned to the pages that enclosed the +letter. But it was natural that, holding both her brother's and Beatriz +Weatherbee's interests so at heart, her scruples should be finally +dispelled, and she laid the volume face down, to keep the place, while she +read the night nurse's unclinical report. After that she went to the box +of violets in the sleeping-porch and found Tisdale's message, and she had +slipped the card carefully back and stood looking meditatively off through +the open casement when her sister entered from the gallery. At the same +time Mrs. Weatherbee appeared on the path above the pergola. But she had +not escaped to the solitude she so evidently had desired, for Foster +accompanied her. When they stopped to look down on the villa and the +little cove where the _Aquila_ rocked at her moorings, Marcia waved her +hand gaily, then turned to the brilliant room. + +Elizabeth met her at the threshold. "What has sent Beatriz out in this +weather?" she asked. + +"Why, you see,"--Marcia answered with a little backward gesture to the +figures on the slope,--"since this is Stuart Foster's first visit to the +villa, he must be personally conducted through the park." + +"She tried her best to discourage him. They were standing at the side +entrance when I came through the dining-room. She warned him first +impressions were everything and that it would be blowing a gale at the +observatory; besides, if Frederic was waiting, she would not be +responsible." + +"But, 'come what will, what may'"--and meeting her sister's look, Marcia's +eyes gathered brilliancy--"the man must have his hour." + +"That is what he told her. He said the syndicate had had his time and +brains, he might as well add his soul, for three months steady, and now he +was entitled to his hour. I wonder--" Elizabeth's even voice wavered--"Do +you think she will refuse him?" + +"I haven't a doubt." And Marcia crossed to the dressing-table and began to +remove the shell pins from her glossy black hair. + +"She seemed so changed," pursued Elizabeth following. "So, well, anxious, +depressed, and you know how gay she was at the time the _Aquila_ came. And +I happened to be near them when we started up-stairs. It was plain she was +glad to see him. But he gave her a package that had been forwarded from +Vivian Court. There was a letter; it may have been from Lucky Banks." + +Marcia was silent. She lifted her brush and swept it the length of her +unbound hair. + +"If it was," resumed Elizabeth, "if he has experimented far enough and +wants to forfeit that bonus, I am going to buy that piece of Wenatchee +desert myself. The Novelty mills will pay me enough for my tide lands." + +"No, Elizabeth. You will hold on to your tide lands, every foot." Mrs. +Feversham paused to watch her sister's eyes capitulate under the batteries +of her own, then said: "But you need not worry; Frederic will probably +take that option off Lucky Banks' hands. Now, please do my puffs; high, +you know, so as to use the paradise aigrette." + +Foster, too, had felt the change in Mrs. Weatherbee's mood since he left +her at the foot of the staircase; the exhilaration that had been so +spontaneous then, that had seemed to expand to take him in, was now so +manifestly forced. And presently it came over him she was making +conversation, saying all these neutral things about the villa and grounds +to safeguard the one vital thing she feared to have him touch. + +"Tell me about yourself," he interrupted at last. "You don't know how I've +worried about you; how I've blamed myself all these slow months for +leaving you as I did. Of course you understood the company decided to send +me in to the Iditarod suddenly, with only a few hours' notice, and to +reach the interior while the summer trails were passable I had to take the +steamer sailing that day. I tried to find you, but you were out of town; +so I wrote." + +"I received the letter," she responded quickly. "I want to thank you for +it; it was very pleasant indeed to feel the security of a friend in +reserve. But you had written if there was anything you could do, or if, +any time, I should need you to let you know, and there was no reason to. I +saw I had allowed you to guess the state of my finances; they had been a +little depressed, I confess, but soon after you sailed, I gave an option +on that desert land east of the Cascades and was paid a bonus of three +thousand dollars." + +"Then Tisdale did take that property off your hands, after all. I tried to +make myself believe he would; but his offer to buy hinged on the +practicability of that irrigation project." + +"I know. He found it was practicable to carry it out. But--I gave the +option to Mr. Banks." + +"Lucky Banks," questioned Foster incredulously, "of Iditarod? Why, he +talked of a big farming scheme in Alaska." + +"I do not know about that. But he had thought a great deal of David. They +had been partners, it seems, in Alaska. Once, in a dreadful blizzard, he +almost perished, and David rescued him. He knew about the project and +offered to make the payment of three thousand dollars to hold the land +until he found out whether the scheme was feasible. I needed the money +very much. There was a debt it was imperative to close. So I accepted the +bonus without waiting to let Mr. Tisdale know." + +Foster's brows clouded. "Well, why shouldn't you? Tisdale has himself to +blame, if he let his opportunity go." + +There was a silent interval. They had reached the brow of the bluff and, +coming into the teeth of the wind, she dipped her head and ran to gain the +shelter of the pavilion. Then, while she gathered her breath, leaning a +little on the parapet and looking off to the broad sweep of running sea, +Foster said: "It was that debt that worried me up there in the wilderness. +You had referred to it the evening after the theater, a week before I went +away. You called it a debt of honor. You laughed at the time, but you +warned me it was the hardest kind of debt because an obligation to a +friend kept one continually paying interest in a hundred small ways. You +said it was like selling yourself on a perpetual instalment plan. That +wasn't the first time you had spoken of it, but you seemed to feel the +pressure more that night and, afterwards, up there in the north, I got to +thinking it over. I blamed myself for not finding out the truth. I was +afraid the loan was Frederic Morganstein's." He paused and drew back a +step with a quick uplift of his aggressive chin. "Was it?" he asked. + +"Yes." She drew erect and turned from the parapet to meet his look. "My +note came into his hands. But I see I must explain. It began in a yearly +subscription to the Orthopedic hospital; the one, you know, for little +deformed children. I was very interested when the movement started; I sang +at concerts, danced sometimes you remember, to help along the fund. And I +endowed a little bed. David always seemed just on the brink of riches in +those days, his letters were full of brilliant predictions, but when the +second annual payment fell due, I had to borrow of Elizabeth. She +suggested it. She herself was interested deeper, financially, than I. All +the people we knew, who ever gave to charity, were eager to help the +Orthopedic; the ladies at the head were our personal friends; the best +surgeons were giving their services and time. I hadn't the courage to have +my subscription discontinued so soon, and I expected to cancel the debt +when I heard again from David. But the next spring it was the same; I +borrowed again from Elizabeth. After that, when she wanted to apply the +sum to the hospital building fund, Mrs. Feversham advanced the money, and +I gave my note. My bed, then, was given to a little, motherless boy. He +had the dearest, most trusting smile and great, dark eyes; the kind that +talk to you. And his father had deserted him. That seems incredible; that +a man can leave his own child, crippled, ill, unprovided for; but it does +happen, sometimes." She paused to steady her voice and looked off again +from the parapet. "The surgeons were greatly interested in the case," she +went on. "They were about to perform an unusual operation. All his future +depended on it. So--I let my subscription run on; so much could happen in +a year. The operation was a perfect success, and when the boy was ready to +go, one of the Orthopedic women adopted him. He is the happiest, sturdiest +little fellow now. + +"At the end of the summer when the note fell due Mrs. Feversham did not +care to renew it; she was going to Washington and wished to use the money +in New York. The desert tract was all I had, and when Mr. Morganstein +planned the motoring trip through the mountains and down to Portland, he +offered to take a day to look the land over. He did not want to encumber +himself with any more real estate, he said, but would advise me on its +possibilities for the market. An accident to the car in Snoqualmie Pass +obliged him to give up the excursion, and Marcia disposed of the note to +him. She said it could make little difference to me since her brother was +willing to let the obligation rest until I was ready to meet it. I do not +blame her; there are some things Marcia Feversham and I do not see in the +same light. It isn't so much through custom and breeding; it's the way we +were created, bone and spirit." Her voice broke but she laid her hand on +the parapet again with a controlling grasp and added evenly, "That is the +reason when Mr. Banks came I was so ready to accept his offer." + +"So, that was your debt of honor!" Foster began unsteadily; the words +caught in his throat, and for an instant her face grew indistinct through +the mist he could not keep back from his eyes. "You knew you were +traveling on thin ice; the break-up was almost on you, yet you handicapped +yourself with those foundlings. And you never told me. I could have taken +over that subscription, I should have been glad of the chance, you must +have known that, but you allowed me to believe it was a loan to cover +personal expenses." + +She met the reproach with a little fleeting smile. "There were times when +those accounts pressed, I am going to admit that, in justice to Elizabeth. +She always buoyed me through. I have known her intimately for years. We +were at Mills Seminary together, and even then she was the most +dependable, resourceful, generous girl in the school. I never should have +had the courage to dispose of things--for money--but she offered to. Once +it was the bracelet that had been my great-grandmother's; the serpent, you +remember, with jewelled scales and fascinating ruby eyes. The Japanese +consul bought it for his wife. And once it was that dagger the first +American Don Silva wore. The design was Moorish, you know, with a crescent +in the hilt of unique stones. The collector who wanted it promised to give +me the opportunity to redeem it if ever he wished to part with it, and +Elizabeth had the agreement written and signed." + +"Like a true Morganstein. But I knew how much she thought of you. I used +to remind myself, up there in the Iditarod wilderness, that you had her +clear, practical sense and executive ability to rely on." + +"That has been my one rare good-fortune; to have had Elizabeth. Not that I +depreciate my other friends," and she gave Foster another fleeting smile. +"There was Mrs. Brown who in the autumn, when I saw the necessity to give +up my apartment at Vivian Court, asked me to stay in exchange for piano +and dancing lessons. I had often taught her little girls for pleasure, +they were so sweet and lovable, when they visited in my rooms. Still, +afterwards, I learned the suggestion came from Elizabeth. Now you know +everything," she added with determined gaiety. "And I have had my draught +of ozone. We must hurry back, or they will wonder what has become of us." + +She turned to the path, and the young engineer followed in silence. He did +not know everything; deep in his heart the contradiction burned. Whatever +may have caused her exhilaration at the time the _Aquila_ arrived, it was +not his return, and while her explanations satisfied him that she was in +no immediate financial distress, he felt that her confidence covered +unplumbed depths she did not wish him to sound. + +They had reached the footbridge over the cascade when he said abruptly: +"After all, I am glad Lucky Banks got ahead on the irrigation project. He +will find it feasible, if any one can. He grew up on an Oregon farm, and +what he hasn't learned about sluicing in Alaska isn't worth knowing. It +leaves Hollis Tisdale no alternative." + +She turned waiting, with inquiry in her eyes. + +"I mean in regard to the Aurora. He hasn't the saving grace of an excuse, +now, not to convey that last half interest back to you." + +"I do not want a half interest in the Aurora mine." She drew herself very +straight, swaying a little on the balls of her feet. "You must not suggest +it. I should not accept it even through a United States court. It belongs +to Mr. Tisdale. He furnished the funds that made my husband's prospecting +trip possible. And all the gold in Alaska could not repay him for--what he +did. Sometimes, when I think of him alone on that terrible trail, he +stands out more than a man. Epics have been written on less; it was a +friendship to be glorified in some great painting or bronze. But then he +touched so lightly on his own part in the story; in the incense he burned +to David he was obscured." + +Foster stood watching her in surprise. The color that the wind had failed +to whip back to her cheeks burned now, two brilliant spots; raindrops, or +tears, hung trembling on her lashes, and through them flamed the blue +fires of her eyes. + +"So," he said slowly, "so, Tisdale did hunt you up, after all; and, of +course, you had the whole hard story from him." + +"I heard him tell it, yes, but he left out about the--wolves." + +"Wolves?" repeated Foster incredulously. "There were no wolves. Why, to be +overtaken by a pack, single-handed, on the trail, is the worst that can +happen to a man." + +She nodded. "Mr. Banks told me. He had talked with the miners who found +him. It was terrible." A great shudder ran through her body; for a moment +she pressed her fingers to her eyes, then she added with difficulty, +almost in a whisper: "He was defending David." + +"No, no! Great Scott! But see here,"--Foster laid his hand on her arm and +drew her on down the path, "don't try to tell me any more. I understand. +Banks shouldn't have told you. Come, remember Tisdale won through. He's +safe." + +After a silence, she said: "I doubt if you know how ill he has been." + +"Tisdale? No, I hadn't heard." + +"I only learned to-day; and he has been in a Washington hospital all these +months. The surgeons advised amputating his hand," she went on with a +tremulous breathlessness, "but he refused. He said he would take the risk; +that right hand was more than half of him, his 'better half.'" + +Involuntarily Foster smiled in recognition of that dominant note in +Tisdale. "But he never seemed more physically fit than on the night I left +Seattle," he expostulated. "And there isn't a man in Alaska who +understands the dangers and the precautions of frostbite better than +Hollis Tisdale does." + +"It was not frost; it was a vicious horse," she answered. "It happened +after you saw him, on that trip to Wenatchee, while he was leading the +vixen over a break in the road. We were obliged to spend the night at a +wretched way-house, and the hurt became infected." + +Foster stopped. "You were obliged to spend the night?" he inquired. + +"Yes. It happened in this way. Mr. Tisdale had taken the Milwaukee line +over the mountains, intending to finish the trip on horseback, to see the +country, and I, you remember, was motoring through Snoqualmie Pass with +the Morgansteins. His train barely missed colliding with our car. Mr. +Morganstein was injured, and the others took the westbound home with him, +but I decided to board the eastbound and go on by stage to Wenatchee, to +see my desert tract, and return by way of the Great Northern. I found the +stage service discontinued, so Mr. Tisdale secured a team instead of a +saddle-horse, and we drove across." + +"I see." Foster smiled again. So Tisdale had capitulated on sight. "I see. +You looked the tract over together, yet he hesitated with his offer." + +She did not answer directly. They had reached the pergola, and she put out +her hand groping, steadying herself through the shadows. "Mr. Tisdale +believed at the beginning I was some one else," she said then. "I was so +entirely different from his conception of David Weatherbee's wife. In the +end he offered to finance the project if I would see it carried through. I +refused." + +"Of course you refused," responded Foster quickly. "It was preposterous of +him to ask it of you. I can't understand it in Tisdale. He was always so +broad, so fine, so head and shoulders above other men, so, well, +chivalrous to women. But, meantime, while he hesitated, Banks came with +his offer?" + +"Yes. While he was desperately ill in that hospital. I--I don't know what +he will think of me--when he hears--" she went on with little, steadying +pauses. "It is difficult to explain. So much happened on that drive to the +Wenatchee valley. In the end, during an electrical storm, he saved me from +a falling tree. What he asked of me was so very little, the weight of a +feather, against all I owe him. Still, a woman does not allow even such a +man to finance her affairs; people never would have understood. Besides, +how could I have hoped, in a lifetime, to pay the loan? It was the most +barren, desolate place; a deep, dry gulf shut in by a wicked mountain--you +can't imagine--and I told him I never could live there, make it my home." +They were nearly through the pergola; involuntarily she stopped and, +looking up at Foster, the light from a Japanese lantern illumined her +small, troubled face. "But in spite of everything," she went on, "he +believes differently. To-day his first message came from Washington to +remind me he had not forgotten the project. How can I--when he is so ill-- +how can I let him know?" + +Foster had had his hour; and, at this final moment, he sounded those +hitherto unplumbed depths. "It will be all right," he said steadily; "wait +until you see what Lucky Banks does. You can trust him not to stand in +Tisdale's way. And don't think I underrate Hollis Tisdale. He is a man in +a thousand. No one knows that better than I. And that's why I am going to +hold him to his record." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +"AS MAN TO MAN" + + +In January, when Mrs. Feversham returned to Washington, her brother +accompanied her as far as Wenatchee. He went prepared to offer Banks as +high as five thousand dollars for his option. + +At that time the Weatherbee tract was blanketed in snow. It never drifted, +because Cerberus shut out the prevailing wind like a mighty door; even the +bench and the high ridge beyond lifted above the levels of the vale smooth +as upper floors. Previous to that rare precipitation, gangs of men, put to +work on both quarter sections, had removed the sage-brush and planted +trees, and the new orchard traced a delicate pattern on the white carpet +in rows and squares. Banks had hurried the concrete lining of the basin +walls, and when it became necessary to suspend construction on the flumes, +he saw with satisfaction that the reservoir would husband the melting +snows and so supply temporary irrigation in the early spring. All the +lumber estimates had been included in his orders for building material in +the autumn, and already the house on the bench showed a tiled roof above +its mission walls, while down the gap and midway up the side slope of +Cerberus rose the shingled gables of Annabel's home. + +To facilitate the handling of freight, the railroad company had laid a +siding at the nearest point in Hesperides Vale; then, for the convenience +of the workmen, the daily local made regular stops, and the little station +bore the name of Weatherbee. Later, at the beginning of the year, it had +become a post-office, and the Federal building included a general store. +Also, at that time, the girders of a new brick block rose on the adjoining +lots, and a sign secured to the basement wall announced: "This strictly +modern building will be completed about June first. For office and floor +space see Henderson Bailey." + +The financier, who had motored up the valley in a rented car, noted these +indications of an embryo town with interest. + +"Who is Henderson Bailey?" he asked. + +And the chauffeur answered with surprise: "Don't you know Bailey? Why, +he's the man that got in on the ground floor. He owns the heart of +Hesperides Vale. That was his apple orchard we passed, you remember, a few +minutes ago. But the man who is backing him on that brick block is Lucky +Banks of Alaska. They are pulling together, nip and tuck, for Weatherbee." + +"Nip--and Tuck," repeated Morganstein thoughtfully. "That reminds me of a +young team of bays I considered buying last fall, over at North Yakima. +Rather well named, if you knew 'em. But they were a little too gay for +Seattle hills and the lady I expected would drive 'em. George, though, +they made a handsome showing. A dealer named Lighter owned 'em, and they +won the blue ribbon for three-year-olds at Yakima and Spokane." + +"I know them," replied the chauffeur. "They are owned here in the valley +now; and Lucky Banks' wife is driving them. You can meet her most any day +speeling down to the Columbia to see her goats." + +"Goats?" queried Frederic. + +"Yes, sir. Didn't you know she used to keep a flock of Angoras up here? It +was her land before she was married. But when Banks turned up with his +pile and started the orchards, the goats had to go. It wouldn't have taken +them a week to chew up every stick he planted. So she hired a man to +winter them down on the Columbia, where she could keep an eye on them. +Strange," the chauffeur went on musingly, "what a difference clothes make +in a woman. Nobody noticed her much, only we thought she was kind of +touched, when she was herding those billies by herself up that pocket, but +the minute Banks came, she blossomed out; made us all sit up and take +notice. Yes, sir, she's sure some style. To see her in her up-to-date +motoring-coat, veil to match, cape gloves, and up behind that team, you'd +think the Empress of India had the road." + +"Just what I said first time I saw her," Morganstein chuckled thickly. "Or +I guess it was the Queen of Sheba I called her. Happened to be grand-opera +night, and she wore a necklace made of some of Banks' nuggets. George, she +could carry 'em; had the throat and shoulders. It isn't the clothes that +make the difference, my boy; it's the trick of wearing 'em. I know a slim +little thoroughbred, who puts on a plain gray silk like it was cloth of +gold. You'd think she was walking tiptoe to keep it off this darned old +earth. Lord, I'd like to see her in the real stuff. George, I'll do it, +soon's we're married," and he laughed deeply at the notion. "I'll order a +cloth of gold gown direct from Paris, and I'll set a diamond tiara on her +proud little head. Bet it don't out-sparkle her eyes. Lord, Lord, she'll +make 'em all stare." + +The chauffeur gave the financier a measuring glance from the corner of his +eye, but he puckered his lips discreetly to cover a grin, and with his +head still cocked sidewise, looked off to the lifting front of Cerberus, +whistling softly _Queen Among the Heather_. But the tune ceased abruptly +and, straightening like an unstrung bow, he swerved the machine out of the +thoroughfare and brought it to a stop. + +It was not the Empress of India who held the road, but little Banks in his +red car. Slackening speed, he shouted back above the noise of the exhaust: +"Hello! Is that you, Mr. Morganstein? I guess likely you're looking for +me. But I can't stop. I've got to catch the local for Wenatchee; the +eastbound don't make our station, and I'm booked for a little run through +to Washington, D.C." + +"That so?" answered Morganstein thoughtfully. "I came over just to look at +this orchard of yours. See here, wait a minute." He unbuttoned his heavy +coat and, finding a pocket, drew out a time-card. "You will have a couple +of hours to waste in Wenatchee between trains. Give me half an hour, long +enough to show me a bird's-eye view of the project--that's all I want in +this snow and I guarantee to put you in Wenatchee on time for your +eastbound. The road is in good shape; driver knows his car." + +Banks left his roadster and came over to the larger car. "I'll risk it +since you've broke trail," he said, taking the vacant seat behind. "But I +knew if I took chances with snow, in this contrary buzz-wagon of mine, +she'd likely skid off the first mean curve." + +Morganstein, laughing, changed his seat for the one beside the prospector. +"It's like this, dry and firm as a floor, straight through to Wenatchee. +These are great roads you have in this valley; wish we had 'em on the +other side the range." + +"I sent a scraper up from the station ahead of me," said Banks. "And, +driver, we may as well run up the switchback to the house. It's level +there, with room to turn. And it will give you the chance to see the whole +layout below," he went on, explaining to Morganstein. "The property on +this side the mountain belongs to my wife, but we ain't living here yet; +we are stopping with folks down by the station. Likely we'll move, soon's +I get back from my trip. That is, if the boys get busy. Seem's if I have +to keep after some of them all the time. To-day it's the lathers. I've got +to stop, going through Weatherbee, to tell my wife to have an eye on them. +They get paid by the bundle, and they told me this morning lathe would run +short before they was through. I knew I had ordered an extra hundred on +the architect's figgers, but I didn't say anything. Just prospected 'round +and came back unexpected, and caught one of them red-handed. He was +tucking a bunch between the ceiling and the upper floor, without even +cutting the string. I made them rip off the lathe, and there they were +stored thick, a full bundle to 'bout every three they'd nailed on." + +"That's the way," commented Morganstein, "every man of 'em will do you, if +he sees a chance. Mrs. Banks will have to keep both eyes open, if you are +leaving it to her. But it will be compensation to her, I guess, driving +those bays over from the station every day. Handsomest team in Washington. +I'll bet," and he turned his narrow eyes suddenly on Banks, "Lighter held +you up for all they were worth." + +"The team belongs to Hollis Tisdale," answered Banks. "He bought them at +Kittitas last fall and drove them through. They were in the valley when I +came, and he asked me to look after them while he was east. My wife +exercises them. She understands horses, my, yes. One of those colts had a +mean trick of snapping at you if you touched the bit, but she cured him +complete. And she took such a shine to that team I thought likely they'd +do for a Christmas present. Tisdale told me in the fall if I had a good +chance, to sell, so I wrote and made him an offer. But his answer never +came till last night. A nurse at the hospital in Washington wrote for him; +he had been laid up with a case of blood-poison all winter, and it started +from a nip that blame' colt gave him on the trip from Kittitas. He refused +my price because, seeing's the team wasn't safe for a full-sized man to +drive, it went against his conscience to let them go to a lady." + +"He was right," said Morganstein. "George, that was a lucky escape. I was +within an ace of buying that team myself. But I put down Tisdale's +sickness to frostbite; often goes that way with a man in the north." + +"Sure; it does." Banks paused, while his glance fell to the empty fingers +of his right glove. "But that colt, Nip, gets the credit this time. It +happened while Hollis was trying to lead him over a break in the road. He +said it didn't amount to anything, the night I saw him before he left +Seattle, but he had the hand bandaged, and I'd ought to have known it was +giving him trouble." + +Morganstein pondered a silent moment, then said slowly, "Kittitas is close +enough to be a suburb of Ellensburg, and that's where the Wenatchee stage +meets the Milwaukee Puget Sound train. Friend of mine made the trip about +that time; didn't say anything of a break in the road." + +"There's just one road through," answered Banks, "and that's the one they +used for hauling from the Northern Pacific line while this railroad was +building. Likely there was a stage then, but it ain't running now." + +Frederic pondered again, then a gleam of intelligence flashed in his eyes. +"Did Tisdale make that trip from Kittitas alone?" he asked. + +Banks shook his head. "He didn't mention any passengers. Likely it was +having to drive himself, after his hand was hurt, that did the mischief. +Anyhow, he's had a close call; fought it out sooner than let the doctors +take his hand; and he never let one of us boys know. That was just the way +with Dave Weatherbee; they was a team. But I'm going to look him up, now, +soon's I can. He had to get that nurse to write for him. Likely there +ain't a man around to tend to his business; he might be all out of money." + +"I guess, with the Aurora mine to back him, you needn't worry." + +The little man shook his head. "It will take more security than the Aurora +to open a bank account in Washington, D.C. I ain't saying anything against +Dave Weatherbee's strike," he added quickly, "but, when you talk Alaska to +those fellows off there in the east, they get cold feet." + +Morganstein looked off, chuckling his appreciation. They had arrived at +the final curve; on one side, rising from the narrow shoulder, stood +Annabel's new home, while on the other the mountain sloped abruptly to +Weatherbee's vale. Banks pointed out the peach orchard on the bench at the +top of the pocket; the rim of masonry, pushing through the snow, that +marked the reservoir; the apple tract below. + +"I see," said Frederic, "and this mountain we are on must be the one Mrs. +Weatherbee noticed, looking down from that bench. Reminded her of some +kind of a beast!" + +Banks nodded. "It looked like a cross between a cougar and a husky in the +fall. One place you catch sight of two heads. But she'll be tamer in the +spring, when things begin to grow. There's more peaches, set in narrow +terraces where the road cross-cuts down there, and all these small +hummocks under the snow are grapes. It's warm on this south slope and +sheltered from the frosts; the vines took right ahold; and, with fillers +of strawberries hurrying on the green, Dave's wife won't know the mountain +by summer, my, no." + +"Presume," said the financier abruptly, "you expect to supply both tracts +with water from those springs?" + +"My, no. This quarter section belongs to my wife, and it's up to me to +make the water connections safe for her. I can do it." Banks set his lips +grimly, and his voice shrilled a higher key. "Yes, sir, even if I have to +tunnel through from the Wenatchee. But I think likely I'll tap the new +High Line and rig a flume with one of these new-style electric pumps. And +my idea would be to hollow out a nice little reservoir, with maybe a +fountain, right here on this shoulder alongside the house, and let a +sluice and spillways follow the road down. There'd be water handy then, +and to spare, in case Dave's springs happen to pinch out." + +Morganstein's glance moved slowly over the sections of road cross-cutting +the mountain below, and on up the vale to the distant bench. Presently he +said: "What are you building over there? A barn, or is it a winery for +your grapes?" + +"It's neither," answered Banks with sharp emphasis. "It's a regular, +first-class house. Dave Weatherbee was counting on striking it rich in +Alaska when he drew the plans. The architect calls it California-Spanish +style. The rooms are built around a court, and we are piping for the +fountain now." + +Frederic grew thoughtful. Clearly an offer of five thousand dollars for +Lucky Banks' option on the Weatherbee tract was inadequate. After a moment +he said: "What is it going to cost you?" + +"Well, sir, counting that house complete, without the furniture, seven +thousand would be cheap." + +After that the financier was silent. He looked at his watch, as they +motored down Cerberus, considering, perhaps, the probabilities of a +telegram reaching Marcia; but he did not make the venture when they +arrived in Wenatchee, and the nearest approach he made to that offer was +while he and Banks were waiting at the station for their separate trains. +They were seated together on a bench at the time, and Frederic, having +lighted a cigar, drew deeply as though he hoped to gather inspiration. +Then he edged closer and, dropping his heavy hand on the little +prospector's shoulder, said thickly: "See here, tell me this, as man to +man, if you found both those tracts too big to handle, what would you take +for your option on the Weatherbee property?" + +And Banks, edging away to the end of the seat, answered sharply: "I can +handle both; my option ain't for sale." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE DAY OF PUBLICATION + + +It was a mild evening, the last in February, and Jimmie, who had received +two copies of the March issue of _Sampson's Magazine_ direct from the +publisher, celebrated the event by taking the Society Editor canoeing on +Lake Washington. Instead of helping with the bow paddle, of which she was +fully capable, Miss Atkins settled against the pillows facing him, with +the masterpiece in her lap. The magazine was closed, showing his name +among the specially mentioned on the cover, but she kept the place with +her finger. She had a pretty hand, and it was adorned by the very best +diamond that could be bought at Hanson's for one hundred and fifty +dollars. + +She waited, watching Jimmie's stroke, while the Peterboro slipped out from +the boathouse and rose quartering to the swells of a passing launch. Her +hat was placed carefully behind her in the bow, and the light wind +roughened her hair, which was parted on the side, into small rings on her +forehead. It gave her an air of boyish camaraderie, and the young author's +glance, moving from the magazine and the ring, swept her whole trim figure +to the mannish, flat-heeled little shoes, and returned to her face. "This +is my red-letter day," he said. + +"It's the proudest in my life," answered Geraldine, and the way in which +she said it made him catch his breath. + +"It makes me feel almost sure enough to cut loose from the _Press_ and go +into business for myself." + +"Oh, I shouldn't be in a hurry to leave the paper, if I were you," she +replied, "even though _Sampson's_ has asked to see more of your work." + +"It isn't the magazine opening I am considering; though I shall do what I +can in that way, of course. But what would you think of an offer to take +full charge of a newspaper east of the Cascades? It's so." He paused, +nodding in emphasis to the confirmation. "The letter is there in my coat +pocket. It's from Bailey--you remember that young fellow I told you about +who made an investment in the Wenatchee valley. Well, it seems they have +incorporated a town on some of that property. His city lots are selling so +fast he has raised the price three times. And they have put him up for +mayor. He says it's mighty hard to run an election without a newspaper, +and even if it's a late start, we will be ready next time. And the valley +needs advertising; people in the east don't know where Wenatchee apples +grow. You understand. He will finance a newspaper--or rather he and Lucky +Banks are going to--if I will take the management. He is holding offices +now, in a brick block that is building, until he hears from me." + +"Is it in Hesperides Vale, where the Bankses live?" + +"Yes. The name of the town is Weatherbee. And I heard from that little +miner, too." Jimmie paused, smiling at the recollection. "It was a kind of +supplement to Bailey's letter. He thought likely I could recommend some +young fellow to start a newspaper. A married man was preferred, as it was +a new camp and in need of more ladies." + +Geraldine laughed, flushing softly, "Isn't that just like him?" she said. +"I can see his eyes twinkling." + +"It sounds rather good to me," Jimmie went on earnestly. "I have +confidence in Bailey. And it was mother's dream, you know, to see me +establish a paper over there; it would mean something to me to see it +realized--but--do you think you could give up your career to help me +through?" + +Geraldine was silent, and Jimmie leaned forward a little, resting on his +stroke. "I know I am not worth it, but so far as that goes, neither was my +father; yet mother gave up everything to back him. She kept him on that +desert homestead the first five years, until he proved up and got his +patent, and he might have stayed with it, been rich to-day, if she had +lived." + +"Of course I like you awfully well," said Geraldine, flushing pinkly, "and +it isn't that I haven't every confidence in you, but--I must take a little +time to decide." + +A steamer passed, and Jimmie resumed his strokes, mechanically turning the +canoe out of the trough. Geraldine opened the magazine and began to scan +the editor's note under the title. "Why," she exclaimed tremulously, "did +you know about this? Did you see the proofs?" + +"No. What is the excitement? Isn't it straight?" + +"Listen!" Miss Atkins sat erect; the cushion dropped under her elbow; her +lips closed firmly between the sentences she read. + +"'This is one of those true stories stranger than fiction. This man, who +wantonly murdered a child in his path and told of it for the amusement of +a party of pleasure-seekers aboard a yacht on Puget Sound, who should be +serving a prison sentence to-day, yet never came to a trial, is Hollis +Tisdale of the Geographical Survey; a man in high favor with the +administration and the sole owner of the fabulously rich Aurora mine in +Alaska. The widow of his partner who made the discovery and paid for it +with his life is penniless. Strange as it may seem--for the testimony of a +criminal is not allowable in a United States court--Hollis Tisdale has +been called as a witness for the Government in the pending Alaska coal +trials!" + +The Society Editor met Jimmie's appalled gaze. "It sounds muckraky," she +commented, still tremulously. "But these new magazines have to do +something to get a hold. This is just to attract public attention." + +"They'll get that, when Tisdale brings a suit for libel. Hope he will do +it, and that the judgment will swamp them. They must have got his name +from Mrs. Feversham." + +"It looks political," said Geraldine conciliatingly, "as though they were +striking through him at the administration." + +"Go on," said Jimmie recklessly. "Let's have it over with." + +And Geraldine launched quickly into the story. It had been mercilessly and +skilfully abridged. All those undercurrents of feeling, which Jimmie had +faithfully noted, had been suppressed; and of David Weatherbee, whom +Tisdale had made the hero of the adventure, there was not a word. + +"Great guns!" exclaimed the unfortunate author at the finish. "Great-- +guns!" + +But Geraldine said nothing. She only closed the magazine and pushed it +under the pillow out of sight. There was a long silence. A first star +appeared and threw a wavering trail on the lake. Jimmie, dipping his +paddle mechanically, turned the Peterboro into this pale pathway. The +pride and elation had gone out of his face. His mouth drooped +disconsolately. + +"And you called this your proudest day," he broke out at last. + +An unexpected gentleness crept over the Society Editor's countenance. "It +would be great to help create a city," she said then. "To start with it +ourselves, at the foundations and grow." And she added very softly, with a +little break in her voice: "I've decided to resign and go to Weatherbee." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +SNOWBOUND IN THE ROCKIES AND "FIT AS A MOOSE" + + +Tisdale, who was expected to furnish important testimony in the Alaska +coal cases, had been served official notice at the hospital during Banks' +visit. The trial was set for the twenty-fourth of March and in Seattle. + +The prospector had found him braced up in bed, and going over the final +proof of his Matanuska report, with the aid of a secretary. "You better go +slow, Hollis," he said. "You are looking about as reliable as your shadow. +Likely the first puff of a wind would lift you out of sight. My, yes. But +I just ran over to say hello, and let you know if it's the expense that's +hurrying you, there's a couple of thousand in the Wenatchee bank I can't +find any use for, now the water-works are done and the house. You can have +it well's not. It ain't drawing any interest." And Tisdale had taken the +little man's hand between both his own and called him "true gold." But he +was in no pressing need of money, though it was possible he might delay in +refunding those sums Banks had advanced on the project. He was able enough +to be on his feet, but these doctors were cautious; it might be another +month before he would be doing a man's work. + +He started west, allowing himself ample time to reach Seattle by the +fifteenth of March, when Banks' option expired, but the fourteenth found +him, after three days of delay by floods, snowbound in the Rockies. The +morning of the fifteenth, while the rotaries were still clearing track +ahead, he made his way back a few miles to the nearest telegraph station +and got into communication with the mining man. + +"How are you?" came the response from Weatherbee. "Done for? Drop off at +Scenic Hot Springs, if your train comes through. She wrote she was there. +Came up with a little crowd for the coasting. Take care of yourself, and +here is to you. + +"Lucky." + +And Tisdale, with the genial wrinkles deepening at the corners of his eyes +once more, wired: "Fit as a moose. Go fifteenth. Close business." + +A judge may pronounce a sentence yet, at the same time, feel ungovernable +springs of sympathy welling from the depths of his heart, and while +Tisdale pushed his way back to the stalled train, he went over the +situation from Beatriz Weatherbee's side. He knew what the sale of that +desert tract must mean to her; how high her hopes had flown since the +payment of the bonus. Looking forward to that final interview when, +notwithstanding his improvements, Banks should relinquish his option, he +weighed her disappointment. In imagination he saw the light go out of her +eyes; her lip, that short upper lip with its curves of a bow, would quiver +a little, and the delicate nostril; then, instantly, before she had spoken +a word, her indomitable pride would be up like a lifted whip, to sting her +into self-control. Oh, she had the courage; she would brave it out. Still, +still, he had intended to be there, not only to press the ultimate +purpose, but to--ease her through. Banks might be abrupt. He was sorry. He +was so sorry that though he had tramped, mushed a mile, he faced about, +and, in the teeth of a bitter wind, returned to the station. + +The snow was falling thickly; it blurred his tracks behind him; the crest +of a drift was caught up and carried, swirling, into the railroad cut he +had left, and a great gust tore into the office with him. The solitary +operator hurried to close the door and, shivering, stooped to put a huge +stick of wood in the stove. "It's too bad," he said. "Forgot the main +point, I suppose. If this keeps up, and your train moves to-morrow, it +will be through a regular snow canyon. I just got word your head rotary is +out of commission, but another is coming up from the east with a gang of +shovellers. They'll stop here for water. It's a chance for you to ride +back to your train." + +"Thank you, I will wait," Tisdale answered genially. "But I like walking +in this mountain air. I like it so well that if the blockade doesn't lift +by to-morrow, I am going to mush through and pick up a special to the +coast." + +While he spoke, he brushed the snow from his shoulders and took off his +hat and gloves. He stood another moment, rubbing and pinching his numb +hands, then went over to the desk and filled a telegraph blank. He laid +down the exact amount of the charges in silver, to which he added five +dollars in gold. + +The operator went around the counter and picked up the money. For an +instant his glance, moving from the message, rested on Tisdale's face in +curious surprise. This man surely enjoyed the mountain air. He had tramped +back in the teeth of a growing blizzard to send an order for violets to +Hollywood Gardens, Seattle. The flowers were to be expressed to a lady at +Scenic Hot Springs. + +After that Tisdale spent an interval moving restlessly about the room. He +read the advertisements on the walls, studied the map of the Great +Northern route, and when the stove grew red-hot, threw open the door and +tramped the platform in the piping wind. Finally, when the keyboard was +quiet, the operator brought him a magazine. The station did not keep a +news-stand, but a conductor on the westbound had left this for him to +read. There was a mighty good yarn--this was it--"The Tenas Papoose." It +was just the kind when a man was trying to kill time. + +Tisdale took the periodical. No, he had not seen it aboard the train; +there were so many of these new magazines, it was hard to choose. He +smiled at first, that editor's note was so preposterous, so plainly +sensational; or was it malicious? He re-read it, knitting his brows. Who +was this writer Daniels? His mind ran back to that day aboard the +_Aquila_. Aside from the Morgansteins and Mrs. Weatherbee, there had been +no one else in the party until the lieutenant was picked up at Bremerton, +after the adventure was told. But Daniels--he glanced back to be sure of +the author's name--James Daniels. Now he remembered. That was the +irrepressible young fellow who had secured the photographs in Snoqualmie +Pass at the time of the accident to the Morganstein automobile; who had +later interviewed Mrs. Weatherbee on the train. Had he then sought her at +her hotel, ostensibly to present her with a copy of the newspaper in which +those illustrations were published, and so ingratiated himself far enough +in her favor to gather another story from her? + +Tisdale went over to a chair near the window and began to go over those +abridged columns. He turned the page, and his lips set grimly. At last he +closed the magazine and looked off through the drifting snow. He had been +grossly misrepresented, and the reason was clear. + +This editor, struggling to establish a new periodical, had used Daniels' +material to attract the public eye. He may even have had political +ambitions and aimed deeper to strike the administration through him. He +may have taken this method to curry favor with certain moneyed men. Still, +still, what object had there been in leaving Weatherbee completely out of +the story? Weatherbee, who should have carried the leading role; who, +lifting the adventure high above the sensational, had made it something +fine. + +Again his thoughts ran back to that cruise on the _Aquila_. He saw that +group on the after-deck; Rainier lifting southward like a phantom mountain +over the opal sea; and westward the Olympics, looming clear-cut, vivid as +a scene in the tropics; the purplish blue of the nearer height sharply +defined against the higher amethyst slope that marked the gorge of the +Dosewallups. This setting had brought the tragedy to his mind, and to +evade the questions Morganstein pressed, he had commenced to relate the +adventure. But afterwards he had found himself going into the more +intimate detail with a hope of reviving some spark of appreciation of +David in the heart of his wife. And he had believed that he had. Still, +who else, in all that little company, could have had any motive in leaving +out Weatherbee? Why had she told the story at all? She was a woman of +great self-control, but also she had depths of pride. Had she, in the high +tide of her anger or pique, taken this means to retaliate for the +disappointment he had caused her? + +The approaching work-train whistled the station. He rose and went back to +the operator's desk and filled another blank. This time he addressed a +prominent attorney, and his close friend, in Washington, D.C. And the +message ran: + +"See _Sampson's Magazine_, March, page 330. Find whether revised or +Daniels' copy." + +Toward noon the following day the express began to crawl cautiously out, +with the rotaries still bucking ahead, through the great snow canyons. The +morning of the sixteenth he had left Spokane with the great levels of the +Columbia desert stretching before him. And that afternoon at Wenatchee, +with the white gates of the Cascades a few hours off, a messenger called +his name down the aisle. The answer had come from his attorney. The story +was straight copy; published as received. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE IDES OF MARCH + + +In order to prepare for the defense, Miles Feversham, accompanied by his +wife, arrived in Seattle the first week in March. The month had opened +stormy, with heavy rains, and to bridge the interval preceding the trial, +Marcia planned an outing at Scenic Hot Springs where, at the higher +altitude, the precipitation had taken the form of snow, and the hotel +advertised good skeeing and tobogganing. "Make the most of it," she +admonished Frederic; "it's your last opportunity. If Lucky Banks forfeits +his bonus, and you can manage to keep your head and use a little +diplomacy, we may have the engagement announced before the case comes up." + +Though diplomacy was possible only through suggestion, Frederic was a +willing and confident medium. He knew Mrs. Weatherbee had notified Banks +she was at Scenic and, watching her that day of the fifteenth, he was at +first puzzled and then encouraged that, as the hours passed and the +prospector failed to come, her spirits steadily rose. + +Elizabeth betrayed more anxiety. At evening she stood at the window in +Beatriz's room, watching the bold front of the mountain which the Great +Northern tracks crosscut to Cascade tunnel, when the Spokane local rounded +the highest curve and dropped cautiously to the first snow-sheds. The +bluffs between were too sheer to accumulate snow, and against the dark +background the vague outlines of the cars passed like shadows; the +electric lights, blazing from the coaches, produced the effect of an +aërial, fiery dragon. Then, in the interval it disappeared, an eastbound +challenged from the lower gorge, and the monster rushed from cover, +shrieking defiance; the pawing clamp of its trucks roused the +mountainside. "There is your last westbound," she said. "If your option +man isn't aboard, he forfeits his bonus. But you will be ahead the three +thousand dollars and whatever improvements he may have made." + +Mrs. Weatherbee stood at the mirror fastening a great bunch of violets at +her belt. There was a bouquet of them on the dresser, and a huge bowl +filled with them and relieved by a single red rose stood on the table in +the center of the room. "That is what troubles me," she replied, and +ruffled her brows. "It seems so unjust that he should lose so much; that I +should accept everything without compensating him." + +Elizabeth smiled. "I guess he meant to get what he could out of the +investment, but afterwards, when he married and found his wife owned the +adjoining unreclaimed tract, it altered the situation. It called for +double capital and, if he hesitated and it came to a choice, naturally her +interests would swing the balance." + +"No doubt," admitted Beatriz. "And in that case,"--she turned from the +mirror to watch the train--"I might deed her a strip of ground where it +was discovered her tract overlapped David's. That would be a beginning." + +"See here." Elizabeth turned, and for an instant the motherhood deep in +her softened the masculine lines of her face. "Don't you worry about Lucky +Banks. Perhaps he did go into the project to satisfy his conscience, but +the deal was his, and he had the money to throw away. Some men get their +fun making over the earth. When one place is finished, they lose interest +and go looking for a chance to put their time and dollars into improving +somewhere else. Besides,"--and she took this other woman into her abrupt +and rare embrace--"I happen to know he had an offer for his option and +refused a good price. Now, come, Marcia and Frederic have gone down to the +dining-room, you know. They were to order for us." + +But Beatriz was in no hurry. "The train is on the bridge," she said and +caught a quick breath. "Do you hear? It is stopping at the station." + +Elizabeth, waiting at the open door, answered: "We can see the new +arrivals, if there are any, when we go through the lobby." + +Mrs. Weatherbee started across the room, but at the table she stopped to +bend over the bowl of violets, inhaling their fragrance. "Aren't they +lovely and--prodigal enough to color whole fields?" + +Elizabeth laughed. "Frederic must have ordered wholesale, or else he +forgot they were in season." + +Beatriz lifted her face. "Did Mr. Morganstein send these violets?" she +asked. "I thought--but there was no card." + +"Why, I don't know," said Elizabeth, "but who else would have ordered +whole fields of them?" + +Mrs. Weatherbee was silent, but she smiled a little as she followed +Elizabeth from the room. When they reached the foot of the staircase, the +lobby was nearly deserted; if the train had left any guests, they had been +shown already to their rooms. + +The Morganstein table was at the farther end of the dining-room, but +Frederic, who was watching the door when the young women entered, at once +noticed the violets at Mrs. Weatherbee's belt. + +"Must have been sent from Seattle on that last eastbound," he commented, +frowning. "Say, Marcia, why didn't you remind me to order some flowers +from town?" + +Marcia's calculating eyes followed his gaze. "You would not have +remembered she is fond of violets, and they seem specially made for her; +you would have ordered unusual orchids or imported azaleas." + +Frederic laughed uneasily, and a purplish flush deepened in his cheeks. "I +always figure the best is never too good for her. Not that the highest +priced makes so much difference with her. Look at her, now, will you? +Wouldn't you think, the way she carries herself, that little gray gown was +a coronation robe? George, but she is game! Acts like she expects Lucky +Banks to drop in with a clear fifty thousand, when the chances are he's +gone back on his ten. Well," he said, rising as she approached, to draw +out her chair, "what do you think about your customer now? Too bad. I bet +you've spent his Alaska dust in anticipation a hundred times over. Don't +deny it," he held up his heavy hand in playful warning as he resumed his +chair. "Speculated some myself on what you'd do with it. George, I'd like +to see the reins in your hands for once, and watch you go. You'd set us a +pace; break all records." + +"Oh, no, no," she expostulated in evident distress. "I shouldn't care to-- +set the pace--if I were to come into a kingdom; please don't think that. I +have wanted to keep up, I admit; to hold my own. I have been miserably +afraid sometimes of being left behind, alone, crowded out, beaten." + +"Beaten? You? I guess not. Bet anybody ten to one you'll be in at the +finish, I don't care who's in the field, even if you drop in your traces +next minute. And I bet if this sale does fall through to-night, you'll be +looking up, high as ever, to-morrow, setting your heart on something else +out of reach." + +"Out of reach?" she responded evenly, arching her brows. "You surprise me. +You have led me to believe I am easy to please." + +"So you are," he capitulated instantly, "in most ways. All the same, you +carry the ambitions of a duchess buttoned under that gray gown. But I like +you for it; like you so well I'm going to catch myself taking that +property off your hands, if Banks goes back on you." + +He leaned towards her as he said this, smiling and trying to hold her +glance, but she turned her face and looked off obliviously across the +room. There were moments when even Frederic Morganstein was conscious of +the indefinable barrier beyond which lay intrenched, an untried and +repelling force. He straightened and, following her gaze, saw Lucky Banks +enter the door. + +Involuntarily Elizabeth started, and Mrs. Feversham caught a quick breath. +"At the eleventh hour," she said then, and her eyes met her brother's. +"Yes or no?" they telegraphed. + +It was the popular hour, an orchestra was playing, and the tables were +well filled, but the mining man, marshalled by a tall and important head +waitress, drew himself straight and with soldierly precision came down the +room as far as the Morganstein group. There, recognizing Mrs. Weatherbee, +he stopped and, with the maimed hand behind him, made his short, swift +bow. "I guess likely you gave me up," he said in his high key, "but I +waited long's I dared for the through train. She's been snowed under three +days in the Rockies. They had her due at Wenatchee by two-fifteen; then it +was put off to five, and when the local came along, I thought I might as +well take her." + +Mrs. Weatherbee, who had started to rise, settled back in her chair with a +smile. "I had given you up, Mr. Banks," she said not quite steadily. + +Then Morganstein said: "How do, Banks," and offered his hand. "Just in +time to join us. Ordered saddle of Yakima lamb, first on the market, +dressing of fine herbs, for the crowd. Suits you, doesn't it?" + +To which the little prospector responded: "My, yes, first class, but I +don't want to put you out." + +"You won't," Frederic chuckled; "couldn't do it if you tried." + +But it was Elizabeth who rose to make room for the extra chair on her side +of the table, and who inquired presently after his wife. + +"Mrs. Banks is fine," he answered, his bleak face glowing. "My, yes, seems +like she makes a better showing now than she did at the Corners seven +years back." + +"Still driving those bays?" asked Frederic. + +The mining man nodded with reluctance. "It's no use to try to get her to +let 'em alone long's they are on the place, and I couldn't sneak 'em away; +she was always watching around. She thinks Tisdale will likely sell when +he sees she can manage the team." + +"So," laughed Morganstein, "you'll have to come up with that Christmas +present, after all." + +"They will do for her birthday," replied Banks gravely. "I picked out a +new ring for Christmas. It was a first-class diamond, and she liked it all +right. She said," and a shade of humor warmed his face, "she would have to +patronize the new manicure store down to Wenatchee, if I expected her to +have hands fit to wear it, and if she had to live up to that ring, it +would cost me something before she was through." + +"And did she try the parlors?" asked Elizabeth seriously. + +"My, yes, and it was worth the money. Her hands made a mighty fine showing +the first trip, and before she used up her ticket, I was telling her she'd +have to wear mittens when she played the old melodion, or likely her +fingers would get hurt hitting the keys." + +Banks laughed his high, strained laugh, and Morganstein echoed it deeply. +"Ought to have an establishment in the new town," he said. + +"We are going to," the prospector replied; "as soon as the new brick block +is ready to open up. There's going to be manicure and hair-dressing +parlors back of the millinery store. Lucile, Miss Lucile Purdy of +Sedgewick-Wilson's, is coming over to run 'em both. She can do it, my, +yes." + +"Now I can believe you have a self-respecting and wide-awake town," +commented Mrs. Feversham. "But is the big department store backing Miss +Purdy?" + +"No, ma'am. We ain't talking about it much, but Mrs. Banks has put up +money; she says she is the silent partner of the concern." + +"Is that so?" questioned Morganstein thoughtfully. "Seems to me you are +banking rather heavy on the new town." + +Banks' eyes gleamed appreciation, but the capitalist missed his +inadvertent pun. After a moment, the mining man said: "I guess the +millinery investment won't break us; but there's no question about +Weatherbee's being a live town, and Lucile can sell goods." + +"I presume next," said Mrs. Feversham with veiled irony, "we shall be +hearing of you as the first mayor of Weatherbee." + +Banks shook his head gravely. "They shouldered that on to Henderson +Bailey." + +"I remember," said Frederic. "Man who started the orchard excitement, +wasn't he? Got in on the ground floor and platted some of his land in city +lots. Naturally, he's running for mayor." + +"He's it," responded the mining man. "The election came off Tuesday, and +he led his ticket, my, yes, clear out of sight." + +"Bet you ran for something, though," responded Morganstein. "Bet they had +you up for treasurer." + +Banks laughed. "There was some talk of it--my wife said they were looking +for somebody that could make good if the city money fell short--but most +of the bunch thought my lay was the Board of Control. You see, I got to +looking after things to help Bailey out, while he was busy moving his +apples or maybe his city lots. My, it got so's when Mrs. Banks couldn't +find me down to the city park, watching the men grub out sage-brush for +the new trees, she could count on my being up-stream to the water-works, +or hiking out to the lighting-plant. It's kept me rushed, all right. It +takes time to start a first-class town. It has to be done straight from +bedrock. But now that Annabel's house up Hesperides Vale is built, and the +flumes are in, she thinks likely she can run her ranch, and I think +likely,"--the prospector paused, and his eyes, with their gleam of blue +glacier ice, sought Mrs. Weatherbee's. Hers clouded a little, and she +leaned slightly towards him, waiting with hushed breath--"I think likely," +he repeated in a higher key, "seeing's the Alameda has to be finished up, +and the fountain got in shape at the park, with the statue about due from +New York, I may as well drop Dave's project and call the deal off." + +There was a silence, during which the eyes of every one rested on Beatriz. +She straightened with a great sigh; the color rushed coral-pink to her +face. + +"I am--sorry--about your loss, Mr. Banks," she said, then, and her voice +fluctuated softly, "but I shall do my best--I shall make it a point of +honor--to sometime reimburse you." Her glance fell to the violets at her +belt; she singled one from the rest and, inhaling its perfume, held it +lightly to her lips. + +"You thoroughbred!" said Frederic thickly. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE EVERLASTING DOOR + + +Sometime during the night of the fifteenth, the belated Chinook wind began +to flute through the canyon, and towards dawn the guests at Scenic Hot +Springs were wakened by the near thunder of an avalanche. After a while, +word was brought that the Great Northern track was buried under forty feet +of snow and rock and fallen trees for a distance of nearly a mile. Later a +rotary steamed around the high curve on the mountain and stopped, like a +toy engine on an upper shelf, while the Spokane local, upon which Banks +had expected to return to Weatherbee, forged a few miles beyond the hotel +to leave a hundred laborers from Seattle. Thin wreaths of vapor commenced +to rise and, gathering volume with incredible swiftness, blotted out the +plow and the snow-sheds, and meeting, broke in a storm of hail. The cloud +lifted, but in a short interval was followed by another that burst in a +deluge of rain, and while the slope was still obscured, a report was +telegraphed from the summit that a second avalanche had closed the east +portal of Cascade tunnel, through which the Oriental Limited had just +passed. At nightfall, when the work of clearing away the first mass of +debris was not yet completed, a third slide swept down seven laborers and +demolished a snow-shed. The unfortunate train that had been delayed so +long in the Rockies was indefinitely stalled. + +The situation was unprecedented. Never before in the history of the Great +Northern had there been so heavy a snowfall in the Cascades; the sudden +thaw following an ordinary precipitation must have looked serious, but the +moving of this vast accumulation became appalling. All through that day, +the second night the cannonading of avalanches continued, distant and +near. At last came an interlude. The warm wind died out; at evening there +was a promise of frost; and only the voice of the river disturbed the +gorge. Dawn broke still and crisp and clear. The mountain tops shone in +splendor, purple cliffs stood sharply defined against snow-covered slopes, +and whole companies in the lower ranks of the trees had thrown off their +white cloaks. It was a day to delight the soul, to rouse the heart, invite +to deeds of emulation. Even Frederic was responsive, and when after +breakfast Marcia broached a plan to scale the peak that loomed southeast +of the pass, he grasped at the diversion. "We're pretty high up already, +here at Scenic," he commented, surveying the dome from his chair on the +hotel veranda. "Three or four thousand feet ought to put us on the summit. +Have the chance, anyhow, to see that stalled train." + +"Of course it wouldn't be an achievement like the ascent of Rainier," she +tempered, "but we should have chances enough to use our alpenstocks before +we're through; and it should be a magnificent view; all the great peaks +from Oregon to British Columbia rising around." + +"With the Columbia River below us," said Elizabeth, "and all those miles +of desert. We might even catch a glimpse of your new Eden over there, +Beatriz." + +Mrs. Weatherbee nodded, with the sparkles breaking in her eyes. "I know +this is the peak we watched the day I drove from Wenatchee. It rose white +and shining at the top of Hesperides Vale, and it may have another name, +but I called it the Everlasting Door." + +Once since their arrival at Scenic Hot Springs they had followed, skeeing, +an old abandoned railroad track, used by the Great Northern during the +construction of the big tunnel, to the edge of the desired peak, and, at +Marcia's suggestion, Frederic invited Lucky Banks to join the expedition +in the capacity of captain and guide. The prospector admitted he felt "the +need of a little exercise" and, having studied the mountain with +field-glasses and consulted with the hotel proprietor, he consented to see +them through. No doubt the opportunity to learn the situation of the +Oriental Limited and the possibilities of getting in touch with Tisdale, +should the train fail to move before his return from the summit, had +influenced the little man's decision. A few spikes in his shoes, some +hardtack and cheese with an emergency flask in his pockets, a coil of rope +and a small hatchet that might serve equally well as an ice-ax or to clear +undergrowth on the lower slopes, was ample equipment, and he was off to +reconnoiter the mountainside fully an hour in advance of the packer whom +Morganstein engaged for the first stage of the journey. + +When the man arrived at the foot of the sharp ascent where he was to be +relieved, Banks was finishing the piece of trail he had blazed and mushed +diagonally up the slope to a rocky cleaver that stretched like a causeway +from the timber to firm snow, but he returned with time to spare between +the departure of the packer and the appearance of his party, to open the +unwieldy load; from this he discarded two bottles of claret and another of +port, with their wrappings of straw, a steamer-rug, some tins of pâté de +foie gras and other sundries that made for weight, but which the +capitalist had considered essential to the comfort and success of the +expedition. There still remained a well-stocked hamper, including thermos +bottles of coffee and tea, and a second rug, which he rolled snugly in the +oilskin cover and secured with shoulder-straps. The eliminated articles, +that he cached under a log, were not missed until luncheon, which was +served on a high, spur below the summit while Banks was absent making a +last reconnaissance, and Frederic blamed the packer. + +The spur was flanked above by a craggy buttress and broke below to an +abyss which was divided by a narrow, tongue-like ridge, and over this, on +a lower level of the opposite peak, appeared the steep roofs of the +mountain station at the entrance to Cascade tunnel, where, on the tracks +outside the portal, stood the stalled train. It seemed within speaking +distance in that rare atmosphere, though several miles intervened. + +After a while sounds of metal striking ice came from a point around the +buttress; Banks was cutting steps. Then, following a silence, he appeared. +But, on coming into the sunny westward exposure, he stopped, and with two +fingers raised like a weather-vane, stood gazing down the canyon. His eyes +began to scintillate like chippings of blue glacier. + +Involuntarily every one turned in that direction, and Frederic reached to +take his field-glasses from the shelf of the buttress they had converted +into a table. But he saw nothing new to hold the attention except three or +four gauzy streamers of smoke or vapor that floated in the lower gorge. + +"Looks like a train starting up," he commented, "but the Limited gets the +right of way as soon as there's a clear track." + +Banks dropped his hand and moved a few steps to take the glasses from +Morganstein. "You're right," he replied in his high, strained key. "It +ain't any train moving; it's the Chinook waking up." He focussed on the +Oriental Limited, then slowly swept the peak that overtopped the cars. +"Likely they dasn't back her into the tunnel," he said. "The bore is long +enough to take in the whole bunch, but if a slide toppled off that +shoulder, it would pen 'em in and cut off the air. It looks better +outside, my, yes." + +"Here is your coffee, Mr. Banks," said Elizabeth, who had filled a cup +from the thermos bottle, "and please take anything else you wish while I +repack the basket. We are all waiting, you see, to go on." + +The prospector paused to take the cup, then said: "I guess likely we won't +make the summit this trip. We've got to hustle to get down before it turns +soft." + +"Oh, but we must make the summit," exclaimed Marcia, taking up her +alpenstock. "Why, we are all but there." + +"How does it look ahead?" inquired Frederic, walking along the buttress. +"Heard you chopping ice." + +"I was cutting steps across the tail end of a little glacier. It's a +gliddery place, but the going looks all right once you get past. Well, +likely you can make it," he added shrilly, "but you've got to be quick." + +The life of the trail that sharpens a man's perceptives teaches him to +read individuality swiftly, and this Alaskan who, the first day out on a +long stampede, could have told the dominant trait of each husky in his +team, knew his party as well as the risk. Golf and tennis, added to a +naturally strong physique, had given the two sisters nerves of steel. +Marcia, who had visited some of the great glaciers in the north, possessed +the insight and coolness of a mountain explorer; and all the third woman +lacked in physical endurance was more than made up in courage. The man, +though enervated by over-indulgence, had the brute force, the animal +instinct of self-preservation, to carry him through. So presently, when +the buttress was passed, and the prospector uncoiled his rope, it was to +Mrs. Feversham he gave the other end, placing Morganstein next, with +Elizabeth at the center and Mrs. Weatherbee second. Once, twice, Banks +felt her stumble, a sinking weight on the line, but in the instant he +caught a twist in the slack and fixed his heels in the crust to turn, she +had, in each case, recovered and come steadily on. It was only when the +gliddery passage was made, the peril behind, that she sank down in +momentary collapse. + +Banks stopped to unfold his pocket-cup and take out his flask. "You look +about done for," he said briskly. "My, yes, that little taste of glacier +was your limit. But you ain't the kind to back out. No, ma'am, all you +need is a little bracer to put you on your feet again, good as new." + +"I never can go back," she said, and met his concerned look with wide and +luminous eyes. "Unless--I'm carried. Never in the world." + +Morganstein forced a laugh. It had a frosty sound; his lips were blue. +"Excuse me," he responded. "Anywhere else I wouldn't hesitate, but here, I +draw the line." + +The prospector was holding the draught to her lips, and she took a swallow +and pushed away the cup. It was brandy, raw, scalding, and it brought the +color back to her face. "Thank you," she said, and forced a smile. "It is +bracing; my tensions are all screwed. I feel like climbing on to--Mars." + +Frederic laughed again. "You go on, Banks," he said, relieving him of the +cup; "she's all right. You hurry ahead before one of those girls walks +over a precipice." + +He could not persuade her to take more of the liquor, so he himself drank +the bracer, after which he put the cup and the flask, which Banks had +left, away in his own pockets. She was up, whipping down her fear. "Come," +she said, "we must hurry to overtake them." + +Her steps, unsteady at first, grew sure and determined; she drew longer, +deeper breaths; the pink of a wild rose flushed her cheeks. But Frederic, +plodding abreast, laid his hand on her arm. + +"See here," he said, "you can't keep this up; stop a minute. They've got +to wait for us. George, that ambition of yours can spur you to the pace. +Never saw so much spirit done up in a small package. Go off, sometime, +like Fourth o' July fireworks." He chuckled, looking down at her with +admiration in his round eyes. "Like you for it, though. George, it's just +that has made you worth waiting for." + +She gave him a quick glance and, setting her alpenstock, sprang from his +detaining hand. + +"See, they have reached the summit," she called. "They are waiting already +for us. And see!" she exclaimed tensely, as he struggled after her. "It is +going to be grand." + +A vast company of peaks began to lift, tier on tier like an amphitheater, +above the rim of the dome, while far eastward, as they cross-cut the +rounding incline, stretched those tawny mountains that had the appearance +of strange and watchful beasts, guarding the levels of the desert, bare of +snow. Glimpses there were of the blue Columbia, the racy Wenatchee, but +Weatherbee's pocket was closed. Then, presently, as they gained the +summit, it was no longer an amphitheater into which they looked, but a +billowing sea of cloud, out of which rose steep and inhospitable shores. +Then, everywhere, far and away, shone opal-shaded islands of mystery. + +"Oh," she said, with a little, sighing breath, "these are the Isles of the +Blest. We have come through the Everlasting Door into the better country." + +She stood looking off in rapture, but the man saw only the changing lights +in her face. He turned a little, taking in the charm of pose, the lift of +chin, parted lips, hand shading softly shining eyes. After a moment he +answered: "Wish we had. Wish every other man you knew was left out, on the +other side of the door." + +Her hand fell, she gave him her sweeping look and moved to join the +waiting group. + +Banks came to meet them. "We've stayed to the limit; my, yes, it's the +last call," he explained in his tense key. "There's a couple of places we +don't want to see ourselves caught in when the thaw strikes. And they're +getting a heavy rain down at the Springs now; likely up at the tunnel it's +snow or hail." He paused, turning to send a final glance into the mist, +then said: "Less than ten minutes ago I had a sight of that train, but you +see now she's wiped off the map. It'll be a close race, my, yes. Give me +that stick, ma'am; you can make better time on the down-grade holding on +to me." + +With this, he offered his able hand to Mrs. Weatherbee and, followed by +the rest of the party, helped her swiftly down the slope. But clearly his +mind was on the stalled train. "Likely, hugging the mountainside, they +don't see how the snow crowds overhead," he said. "And I'd ought to have +taken time to run over and give 'em a tip. I'm going to, I'm going to, +soon's I get you down to that old railroad track where you can make it +alone." + +"Do you mean the Limited is in danger?" she asked, springing and tripping +to his stride. + +And Banks nodded grimly. "Yes, ma'am. It's a hard proposition, even to a +man like Tisdale, who is used to breaking his own trail. He knows he's got +to fight shy of the slides along that burned over switchback, but if he +saw the box that train is in, he would just hike around to this side of +the canyon, where the pitches are shorter, and the green trees stand some +show to hold the snow, and work down to the old track to the Springs." + +"Is Mr. Tisdale"'--her voice broke a little--"Mr. Hollis Tisdale on that +train?" + +"Likely, yes. He was snowbound on her in the Rockies, last I heard, and +'feeling fit as a moose.' Being penned up so long, he'd likely rather take +a hike down to the hotel than not. It would be good for his health." And +the little man piped his high, mirthless laugh. + +She stumbled, and he felt the hand in his tremble, but the abrupt incline +of the glacier had opened before them, and he believed she dreaded to +re-cross the ice. "Keep cool," he admonished, releasing her to uncoil the +rope again, "Stand steady. Just recollect if you came over this, you can +get back." + +But when, presently, the difficult passage safely made, they rounded the +crag and gained the level shoulder where they had lunched, they seemed to +have arrived at a different place. The lower canyon, which not two hours +before had stretched into blue distance below them, was lost in the +creeping sea of cloud; the abyss at their feet gathered immensity, and the +top of the timbered ridge lifted midway like a strange, floating garden. +The station at Cascade tunnel, all the opposite mountain, was obscured, +then, while Banks stood re-coiling his rope, the sounds that had disturbed +the guests at Scenic Hot Springs those previous nights rose, +reverberating, through the hidden gorge. The Chinook had resumed its work. + +The way below the spur broke in easy steps to the long and gradual slope +that terminated above the cleaver of rock and, anxious to reach the +unfortunate train, Banks hurried on. Marcia and Elizabeth trailed quickly +after, but Mrs. Weatherbee remained seated on the shelving ledge at the +foot of the crag. Frederic sank heavily into the place beside her and took +out the flask. + +"You are all in," he said. "Come, take this; it's diluted this time with +snow." + +But she gave him no attention, except to push aside the cup. She waited, +listening, leaning forward a little as though her wide eyes could +penetrate the pall. Then, torn by cross currents of wind, the cloud +parted, and the mountain loomed like a phantom peak over the gulf. She +started up and stood swaying gently on her feet while the trees, tall and +spectral and cloaked in snow, opened rank on rank like a uniformed +company. Lower still, the steep roofs of the station reflected a shaft of +the sun, and the long line of cars appeared clearly defined, waiting still +on the tracks outside the portal. + +The rent in the cloud closed. She turned with a great, sighing breath. +"Did you see?" she said. "The train is safe." + +"Of course." And again, having himself taken the bracer, Frederic rose and +returned the flask to his pocket. "So, that was troubling you; thought +that train might have been struck. Guess if an avalanche had come down +there, we'd have heard some noise. It's safe enough here," he added. "Top +of this crag was built to shed snow like a church steeple." + +"But why are we waiting?" And glancing around, she exclaimed in dismay: +"The others have gone. See! They are almost out of sight." + +She began to walk swiftly to the lower rim of the shoulder, and Frederic +followed. Down the slope his sisters and Banks seemed to be moving through +a film. They mingled with it indistinctly as the figures in faded +tapestry. But Morganstein laid his hand on her arm to detain her. "What's +your hurry?" he asked thickly. "All we got to do now is keep their trail. +Tracks are clear as day." + +"We shall delay them; they will wait." + +She tried to pass him, but they had reached the step from the spur, and he +swung around to block the narrow way. "Not yet," he said. "This is the +moment I've been waiting for. First time in months you've given me a fair +chance to speak to you. Always headed me off. I'm tired of being held at +arm's length. I've been patient to the limit. I'm going to know now, +to-day, before we go down from this mountain, how soon you are going to +marry me." + +She tried again to pass him but, taking incautious footing, slipped, and +his arm saved her. "I don't care how soon it is," he went on, "or where. +Quietly at your apartments, or a big church wedding. On board the first +boat sailing for Yokohama, after those coal cases are settled, suits me." + +She struggled to free herself, then managed to turn and face him, with her +palms braced against his breast. His arm relaxed a little, so that he was +able to look down in her lifted face. What he saw there was not altogether +anger, though aversion was in her eyes; not surprise, not wholly derision, +though her lips suggested a smile, but an indefinable something that +baffled, mastered him. His arm fell. "Japan is fine in the spring," he +said. "And we could take our time, coming back by way of Hawaii to see the +big volcano, with another stop-over at Manila. Get home to begin +housekeeping at the villa in midsummer." + +"Oh," she exclaimed at last, "do you think I am a silly girl to be dazzled +and tempted? Who knows nothing of marriage and the cost?" + +"No," he responded quickly. "I think you are a mighty clever woman. But +you've got to the point where you can't hedge any more. Banks has gone +back on that option. If he won't buy, nobody else will. And it takes ready +money to run a big ranch like that, even after the improvements are in. +You can't realize on your orchards, even in the Wenatchee country, short +of four years. So you'll have to marry me; only way out." + +She gave him her swift, sweeping look, and the blue lights blazed in her +eyes. "I will remember you are Elizabeth's brother," she said. "I will try +to remember that. But please don't say any more. Every moment counts; +come." + +Morganstein laughed. As long as she parried, as long as she did not refuse +outright to marry him, he must keep reasonably cool. He stooped to pick up +the alpenstock she had dropped, then offered his hand down the step from +the spur. "Sorry I put it just that way," he said. "I'm a plain business +man; used to coming straight to the point; but I guess you've known how +much I thought of you all these years. Had to keep on a high check-rein +while Weatherbee lived, and tried my best, afterwards, to give him a +year's grace, but you knew just the same. Know--don't you?--I might take +my pick out of the dozen nicest girls in Seattle to-day. Only have to say +the word. Not one in the bunch would turn me down. But I wouldn't have one +of 'em for second choice. Nobody but you will do." He paused, then added +with his narrow look: "And what I want, you ought to know that too, I +get." + +She met the look with a shake of the head and forced a smile. "Some things +are not to be bought at any price. But, of course, I have seen--a woman +does--" she went on hurriedly, withdrawing her hand. "There was a time, I +confess, when I did consider--your way out. But I dared not take it; even +then, I dared not." + +"You dared not?" Frederic laughed again. "Never thought you were afraid of +me. Never saw you afraid of anything. But I see. Miserable experience with +Weatherbee made you little cautious. George, don't see how any man could +have deserted you. Trust me to make it up to you. Marry me, and I'll show +you such a good time Weatherbee won't amount to a bad dream." + +"I do not wish to forget David Weatherbee," she said. + +"George!" he exclaimed curiously. "Do you mean you ever really loved him? +A man who left you, practically without a cent, before you were married a +month." + +"No." Her voice was low; her lip trembled a little. "No, I did not love +him--as he deserved; as I was able to love." She paused, then went on with +decision: "But he did not leave me unprovided for. David Weatherbee never +deserted me. And, even though he had, though he had been the kind of man I +believed him to be, it would make no difference. I could not marry you." + +There was a silence during which they continued to follow the tracks that +cross-cut the slope. But Morganstein's face was not pleasant to see. All +the complaisancy of the egotist who has long and successfully shaped lives +to his own ends was withdrawn; it left exposed the ugly inner side of the +man. The trail was becoming soft; the damp of the Chinook began to envelop +them; already the advancing film stretched like a curtain over the sun, +and the three figures that had seemed parts of a shaken tapestry +disappeared. Then, presently, Banks' voice, muffled like a voice under a +blanket, rose through the pall. And Frederic stopped to put his hand to +his mouth. "All right! Coming!" he answered, but the shout rebounded as +though it had struck a sounding board. + +After another plodding silence, the prospector's hail reached them again. +It seemed farther off, and this time Morganstein did not respond. He +stopped, however, and the woman beside him waited in expectation. +"Suppose," he said slowly, "we are lost on this mountain to-night. Make a +difference to-morrow--wouldn't it?--whether you would marry me or not." + +The color rushed to her face and went; her breast rose and fell in deep, +quick breaths, but she met his look fearlessly, lifting herself with the +swaying movement from the balls of her feet that made her suddenly taller. +"No." And her tone, the way in which she said it, must have stung even his +small soul; then she added: "You are more brutal than I thought." + +She turned after that and herself sent the belated response to Banks. But +though she repeated the call twice, making a trumpet of her hands and with +all the power of her voice, his hail did not reach them again. She started +swiftly down. It was beginning to snow. + +Frederic had nothing more to say. He moved on with her. It was as though +each tried to out-travel the other, still they could not make up that +delay. The snow fell in big, soft flakes that blurred the tracks they +followed; soon they were completely blotted out, and though he strained +his eyes continually, watching for the cleaver of rock they had climbed +that morning, the landmark never appeared. Finally, at the same instant, +they both stopped, listening. On the silence broke innumerable small +sounds like many little hurrying feet. The mountain trembled slightly. +"God Almighty!" he cried thickly. Then came the closer rush of a +considerable body, not unlike sheep passing in a fog, and panic seized +him. "We've got to keep on top," he shouted and, grasping her arm, he +swung her around and began to run back up the slope. + +In the face of this common peril, personality called a truce, and she +pushed on with him blindly, leaving it to him to choose the way and set +the pace. But their own tracks down the incline had filled with incredible +swiftness; soon they were completely effaced. And, when the noise +subsided, he stopped and looked about him, bewildered. He saw nothing but +a breadth of sharply dipping slope, white, smooth as an unwritten scroll, +over which hung the swaying, voluminous veil of the falling snow. He put +his hands to his mouth then, and lifted his voice in a great hail. It +brought no reply, but in the moment he waited, somewhere far below in +those obscured depths, a great tree, splitting under tremendous pressure, +crashed down, then quickly the terrific sweep and roar of a second +mightier avalanche filled the hidden gorge. + +Morganstein caught her arm once more. "We must get back to that shoulder +where it's safe," he shouted. "Banks will come to look us up." After that, +as they struggled on up the slope, he fell to saying over and over, as +long as the reverberations lasted: "Almighty God!" + +As they ascended, the snow fell less heavily and finally ceased. It became +firm underfoot, and a cross wind, starting in puffs, struck their faces +sharply with a promise of frost. Then strange hummocks began to rise. They +were upheavals of ice, shrouded in snow. Sometimes a higher one presented +a sheer front shading to bluish-green. They had not passed this point with +Banks, but Morganstein shaped a course to a black pinnacle, lifting +through the mist beyond, that he believed was the crag at the shoulder. +She stumbled repeatedly on the rough surface. Her labored breathing in the +great stillness, like the beat of a pendulum in an empty house, tried his +strained nerves. He upbraided her for leaving her alpenstock down the +slope. But she paid no attention. She looked back constantly; she was like +a woman being led away from a locked door, moving reluctantly, listening +against hope for a word or sign. So, at last, they came to the rock. It +was not the crag, but a hanging promontory, where the mountain broke in a +three-sided precipice. The cloud surged around it like an unplumbed sea. + +They crept back, and Morganstein tried again to determine their position. +They were too high, he concluded; they must work down a little to round +the cliffs, so they took a course diagonally into the smother. Then he, +too, began to lose alertness; he walked mechanically, taking the line of +least resistance; his head sagged forward; he saw nothing but the hummocks +before him. These grew larger; they changed to narrow ridges with fissures +between. After a while, one of these breaks roused him. It was exceedingly +deep; he could not see either end of it. The only way was to leap, and he +did it clumsily. Then, with his alpenstock fixed, and his spiked heels set +in the crust, he reached a hand to her. She was barely able to spring to +the lower side, but it did not terrify her. One fear only possessed her. +Her glance, seeking, returned to the hidden canyon. But soon they were +confronted by a wider and still deeper chasm. It was impossible to cross +it, though it seemed to narrow upwards in the direction of the summit. He +took her arm and began to ascend, looking for a way over. The pitch grew +steadily sharper. They entered the thinning edge of the cloud, and it +became transparent like tissue of gold. Suddenly it parted, and Frederic +stopped, blinded by the blaze of a red sunset on snow. He closed his eyes +an instant, while, to avoid the glare, he turned his face. His first +glance shocked him into a sense of great peril. The two fissures ran +parallel, and they were ascending a tongue of ice between. Not far below, +it narrowed to a point where the two crevasses, uniting, yawned in one. +His knees weakened, but he managed to swing himself cautiously around. The +causeway seemed to rock under his weight; then, shading his sight with his +hand, he saw they were almost beneath the shoulder he had tried to reach. +They had climbed too high, as he had believed, but also they had descended +too far. And they had come directly down the glacier, to cross the upper +end of which Banks had found it necessary to use a lifeline. "Be careful!" +he whispered thickly, and laid his hand on her shoulder, impelling her on. +"Be careful, but, for God's sake, hurry!" + +He crowded her faster and faster up the incline; he dared not move +abreast, it was so narrow. Sometimes he lifted her bodily, for with every +step his panic grew. Beads of moisture gathered on his face, though the +wind stiffened and sharpened; his own breath out-labored hers, and he +cried again over and over: "God Almighty!" and "Almighty God!" Sometimes +his tone was blasphemy and sometimes prayer. + +But the moment came when she could not be farther pressed. Her shoulder +trembled under his hold, her limbs gave, and she sank down, to her knees +at first, then to her elbow. Even then she moved her head enough to look +backward over the abyss. "The train," she whispered and, shuddering, +dropped her face on her relaxed arm. + +Morganstein ventured to glance back. Ragged fragments torn from the cloud +below rose swirling across the opposite mountain top, and between their +edges, like a picture in a frame, appeared briefly the roofs of the little +station. But where the Oriental Limited had stood, the avalanche had +passed. "God Almighty!" he repeated impotently, then immediately the sense +of this appalling catastrophe whet the edge of his personal terror. +"Come!" he cried; "come, you can't stop here. It's dangerous. Come, you'll +freeze--or worse." + +She was silent. She made no effort to rise or indeed to move. He began to +press by her and on in the direction of that safe spur. But presently +another dread assailed him; the dread of the city-bred man--accustomed to +human intercourse, the swing of business, the stir of social life, to face +great solitudes alone. This cross-fear became so strong it turned him back +in a second panic. Then floundering to keep his equilibrium after an +incautious step, he sat down heavily and found himself skidding towards +the larger crevasse. He lifted his alpenstock and in a frenzy thrust it +into the ice between his knees. It caught fast just short of the brink +and held him astride, with heels dangling over the abyss. He worked away +cautiously, laboriously, shaking in all his big, soft bulk; and would have +given up further attempt to rescue Beatriz Weatherbee had he not at this +moment discovered himself at her side. + +He had not yet tried to rise to his feet, so safe-guarding himself with +the alpenstock thrust once more in the ice, he paused to take the flask +from his pocket and poured all that remained of the liquor into the cup. +It was a little over half full. Possibly he remembered how lavish he had +been with those previous draughts, for he looked at his companion with a +kind of regret as he lifted the cup unsteadily to drink. Then, gathering +the remnants of his courage, he put his arm under her head, raising it +while he forced the small surplus of brandy he had left between her lips. +She revived enough under the scalding swallow to push the cup away. +Anywhere else he would have laughed at her feeble effort to throw off his +touch; but he did not urge her to finish the draught, and, as he had done +earlier that day, himself hastily drained the cup. He dropped it beside +the empty flask and struggled up. + +"Now," he said, "we've got to make that spur where it's safe. Come. It +isn't far; just been up to that place where Banks helped us across; had to +come back for you." + +But he was obliged to lift her to her feet and to support her up the +slope. And this, even though the tongue widened above them, threw him +perilously close to the crevasse. Once, twice, the ice broke on the brink +and dropped clinking down, down. It was impossible to make the leap again +to the higher surface they had descended; unhampered, he must have been +physically unfit. Behind them the cloud closed over the Pass and the +mountain top under which the Oriental Limited had stood. His companion no +longer looked back; she moved as mechanically though less certainly than +one who walks in sleep. The fears that possessed him, that she herself had +held so finely in check when they had followed Banks on this glacier, did +not trouble her now. Her indifference to their extremity began to play on +Frederic's unhinged nerves. This white, blue-lipped woman was not the +Beatriz Weatherbee he had known; who had climbed the slope with him that +morning, all exhilaration, spirit, charm; whose example had challenged his +endurance and held his courage to the sticking point. + +"Why don't you say something?" he complained. "Have you turned into ice? +Now look where you step, can't you? Deuced fix you got us into, dreaming +there in the clouds, when Lucky Banks had left the spur. Come on, you +bloodless ghost; come, or I'll let you stay where you drop. Nice place to +spend the night in. Almighty God!" + +So, upbraiding her when she stumbled, blaming her for their plight, +threatening to leave her if she should fall, and flaying himself on with +renewed panic, he brought her to the top of the double crevasse and the +prospector's crossing. But here, with the levels of the spur before them, +her strength reached low ebb. This time he was not able to rouse her, and +he threw down his alpenstock and took her in his arms, and went slipping +and recovering the remaining steps. He stopped, winded, and stood her on +her feet, but her body sagged limply against him, and the sight of her +still face terrified him. He carried her a little farther, to the shelter +of the crag, and laid her there. Then he dropped to his knees beside her, +and grasping her shoulders shook her, at first slowly, then swiftly, with +the roughness of despair. + +"Wake up," he cried thickly. "Wake up! Don't you see we're out of that +hole? Come, Banks will be here any minute. Come, wake up." + +She made no response. The sun had set; it was growing bitterly cold, and +there was little protection under the crag. It was a place where cross +winds met. Torn fragments from the sea of cloud below drove against the +pinnacle. It was like a lofty headland breasting rolling surf. Frederic +stood erect and sent his voice down through the smother in a great shout. +It brought no answer, and he settled helplessly on the shelf beside her. +It began to hail furiously, and he dropped his face, shielding it in his +arms. + +The storm passed and, rousing himself, he searched his pockets vainly for +a match to light his remaining cigar. Later he went through them again, +hoping to find a piece of chocolate--he had carried some that morning--but +this, too, was without result. He fell to cursing the packer, for +appropriating the port and tinned things that were missing at lunch-time. +But after that he did not talk any more and, in a little while, he +stretched himself beside the unconscious figure at the foot of the crag. A +second cloud lifted in a flurry of snow. Every hidden canyon sent out +innumerable currents of air, and gales, meeting, lifted the powdery crust +in swirls, wrapping them in a white sheet. Finally, from far off, mingling +with the skirling pipes of the wind came a different, human sound. And, +presently, when the call--if call it was--was repeated, the man sat up and +looked dully around. But he made no effort to reply. He waited, listening +stupidly, and the cry did not reach him again. Then, his glance falling to +the woman, a ray of intelligence leaped in his eyes. He rose on his knees +and moved her so there was room for his own bulk between her body and the +rock. He had then, when he stretched himself on the snow, a windbreak. + +The wind rushed screaming into the vast spaces beyond the mountain top, +and returning, met the opposing forces from the canyon and instantly +became a whirlwind. It cut like myriads of teeth; it struck two-edged with +the swish, slash of a sword; and it lifted the advancing cloud in a mighty +swirl, bellied it as though it had been a gigantic sail, and shook from +its folds a deluge of hailstones followed by snow. Through it all a +grotesque shape that seemed sometimes a huge, abnormal beetle and +sometimes a beast, worked slowly around the crag, now crawling, now +rearing upright with a futile napping of stiff wings, towards the two +human figures. It was Lucky Banks, come to rescue them. + +A heavier blast threw him on his face, but he rose to his knees and, +creeping close, squared his shoulders to protect the slighter body. At the +same time the significance of the position of Morganstein's unconscious +bulk struck him. "You rat!" he cried with smothered fury. "You damn +rat!" + +Then he caught up a handful of snow with which he began to rub the woman's +face. Afterwards he removed her gloves to manipulate her cold hands. He +worked swiftly, with the deftness of practice, but the results were slow, +and presently he took the rug from the pack he carried and covered her +while he felt in Frederic's pockets for the flask he had neglected to +return. "Likely there wasn't a drop left when she came to need it, you +brute. And I'd like to leave you here to take your chances. You can thank +your luck I've got to use you." + +Banks keyed his voice high, between breaths, to out-scale the wind, but he +did not wait for a reply. Before he finished speaking, he had opened his +big, keen-bladed clasp-knife and commenced to cut broad strips from the +rug. He passed some of these, not without effort, under Morganstein's +body, trussing the arms. Then, wrapping the smaller figure snugly in the +blanket, he lifted it on to the human toboggan he had made and bound it +securely. Finally he converted the shoulder-straps of his pack into a sort +of steering gear, to which he fastened his life-line. + +These preparations had been quickly made. It was not yet dark when he +worked this sled over the rim of the spur and began to descend the long +slope. The violence of the wind was broken there, so that he was able to +travel erect, drawing his load. After a while, when the flurry of snow had +passed, a crust formed on the surface, and in steeper pitches he was +obliged to let the toboggan forge ahead, using himself as a drag. With the +change to colder temperature, there was no further danger of slides, and +to avoid the avalanche that had turned Morganstein back, the prospector +shaped his course more directly into the canyon. Soon he was below the +clouds; between their ragged edges a few stars appeared. Beyond a buttress +shone a ruddy illumination. Some firs stood against it darkly. It was the +fire Marcia and Elizabeth were watching at the place where he had cached +the surplus supplies that morning. It served as a beacon when the +crispness ceased, and for an interval he was forced to mush laboriously +through soft drifts. Then he came to a first bare spot. It was in crossing +this rough ground that Frederic showed signs of returning consciousness. +But Banks gave him no attention. He had caught a strange sound on the +wind. Others, far off, rose while he listened. Presently, looking back +beyond the end of the ridge that divided the upper gorge, he saw twinkling +lights. They were the lanterns of the searchers at the wrecked train. + +The little man did not exclaim. He did not pray. His was the anguish of +soul which finds no expression. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +KISMET. AN ACT OF GOD + + +Afterwards, some who compared the slope where the Oriental Limited had +stood, with the terrible pitches along the lower switchback, said: "It was +Fate;" and the defense in the damage suits against the Great Northern, +which were decided in favor of the company, called that catastrophe at +Cascade tunnel "An Act of God." In either solution, the fact that counted +was that no avalanche had occurred at this point before; mountain men had +regarded it as absolutely safe. At noon that day, a rumor reached the +stalled train that a slide at the front had struck one of the rotaries. +Laborers, at their own peril, had excavated the crew, but the plow was out +of commission, and the track was buried sixty feet under fresh tons of +snow and rock and fallen timber. The Limited could not move within +forty-eight hours, perhaps three days. + +Tisdale picked up his bag and went out to the observation platform. He +knew that to attempt to follow the railroad through those swaths the +avalanches had left, under the burned skeletons of trees ready to topple +at the first pressure of other bodies of snow, was to take one's life +needlessly in his hands; but there was another way. The slope from the +track at the portal dipped through a park of hemlock and fir, and the +blaze that had swept the lower mountainside had not reached this timber; +the great boughs, like fishers' nets, supported their dripping +accumulations. Also, at this altitude, there was no undergrowth. To make +the drop directly into the canyon and follow the river down to Scenic Hot +Springs meant little more to him than a bracing tramp of a few hours. + +Snowshoes were a necessity, and the demand at the little station had long +exceeded the supply, but the operator was able to furnish the length of +bale rope Tisdale asked of him. From the office door, where he had +curiously followed to see the line put to use, he watched the traveler +secure two pliable branches of hemlock, of the same size, which he brought +to the station platform, and, having stripped them of needles, bent into +ovals. Then, laying aside one, he commenced to weave half of the rope +net-wise, filling the space in the frame he held. A sudden intelligence +leaped in the agent's face. "That's simple enough," he exclaimed. "And +they'll carry you as far as you want to go." + +Tisdale smiled, nodding, and picked up the remaining frame. + +"Strange I never saw any one try the scheme before," the operator +commented. "I've weathered a good many blockades up here; seen lots of +fellows, men whose time was money, bucking it out to open track. But I bet +the first time this idea struck you you were up against it. I bet it's a +yarn worth listening to." + +Tisdale glanced up; the genial lines deepened. "It was a situation to +clear a man's head. There was snow from three to seven feet deep ahead of +me and going soft. My snowshoes, lost with the outfit at a hole in a Yukon +crossing, were swinging down-stream under the ice. I had two sea biscuit +in my pocket and a few inches of dried venison, with the nearest +road-house over fifty miles away." + +"Well, that was hard luck," the agent shook his head gravely. + +"It was the best kind of luck," responded Tisdale quickly, "to find myself +with that rope in my hands and a nice little spruce on the bank to supply +frames enough for a regiment. I was rigging a kind of derrick to ease my +sled up the sharp pitch from the crossing." + +"I see," said the operator thoughtfully, "and the sled broke through. Lost +it and the outfit. But your dogs--saved them, didn't you?" + +"All but two." Tisdale's brows contracted. "They were dragged under the +ice before I could cut the traces. There was leather enough on the leaders +to bind those shoes on, but"--and the humorous lines deepened again--"a +couple of straps, from an old suitcase, if you happen to have one, would +be an improvement." + +The operator hurried into the office and, after a vigorous search among +the miscellaneous articles stored under his desk, found an old valise, +from which he detached the desired straps. Tisdale adjusted the improvised +shoes. "I will send them back by a brakeman from Scenic Springs," he said, +rising from his seat on the edge of the platform. "You can keep them for a +pattern." + +"All right," the operator laughed. "If you do, I'll have to lay in a stock +of bale rope." + +It was beginning to snow again, big, soft flakes, and the wind, skimming +the drifts, speedily filled the broad, light rings Tisdale left in his +wake. A passenger with a baby in his arms stood on the observation +platform, and the child held out its mittened hands to him, crowing, with +little springs. They had formed an acquaintance during the delay in the +Rockies, which had grown to intimacy in the Cascades, and Hollis slipped +the carrying strap of his bag over his shoulder and stopped to toss him a +snowball, before he turned from the track. "Good-by, Joey," he said. "I am +coming back for you if there's a chance." + +The operator, shivering, closed the door. "Never saw such a man," he +commented. "But if he's lived in Alaska, a Cascade blizzard would just be +a light breeze to him." He paused to put a huge stick of wood in the +stove, then, after the habit of solitary humanity, resumed his soliloquy. +"I bet he's seen life. I bet, whoever he is, he's somewheres near the top +of the ladder. I bet, in a bunch of men, he does the thinking. And I bet +what he wants, I don't care what's piled in his way, he gets." + +As he descended, the trees closed behind Tisdale, rank on rank, and were +enveloped in the swaying curtain of the snow. Always a certain number +surrounded him; they seemed to march with him like a bodyguard. But he was +oblivious of the peril that from the higher peak had appeared so imminent +to Lucky Banks. When the snow-cloud lifted, the Pass was still completely +veiled from him, and the peak the prospector's party had ascended was then +cut off by the intervening ridge. He had crossed the headwaters and was +working along this slope down the watercourse, when the noise of the first +avalanche startled the gorge. A little later a far shout came to his quick +ear. He answered, but when another call reached him from a different +point, high up beyond the ridge, he was silent. He knew a company, +separated in the neighborhood of the slide, was trying to get into +communication. Then, in the interval that he waited, listening, began the +ominous roar of the mightier cataclysm. The mountain he had descended +seemed to heave; its front gave way; the ridge on which he stood trembled +at the concussion. + +Instantly, before the clamor ceased and the first cries reached him, +Tisdale knew what had occurred. His sense of location told him. Then the +fact was pressed on him that some on the unfortunate train still survived. +He saw that the course he had taken from the west portal was no longer +possible, but by keeping the curve of the ridge which joined the mountain +slope and formed the top of the gorge, and by working upward, he should be +able to gain the upper edge of the slide where rose the human sounds. He +took this way. His shoulder, turned a little, met the lower boughs with +the dip and push of the practiced woodsman, and even on the up-grade the +distance fell behind him swiftly. Always subconsciously, as he moved, he +saw that baby crowing him a good-by, and the young father smiling Godspeed +from the observation platform; sometimes the girl mother with tender brown +eyes watched him from the background. Suppose their coach, which had +directly preceded the observation car, had escaped; the snow-cloud, +parting on the mountain top, showed that the roofs of the station still +remained. + +After a while he noticed two men working downward from the portal along +the swath of the avalanche. One, he conjectured, was the operator, but +they stopped some distance above him and commenced to remove sections of +the débris. Then Hollis saw before him some brilliant spots on the snow. +They proved to be only pieces of stained glass from a shattered transom. +The side of the car with denuded window casings rested a few feet higher, +and a corner of the top of the coach protruded from under the fallen +skeleton of a fir. The voices now seemed all around him. Somewhere a man +was shouting "Help!" Another groaned, cursing, and, deeper in the +wreckage, rose a woman's muffled, continuous screaming. But, nearer than +the rest, a child was crying piteously. He reached the intact portion of +the crushed roof and found the baby sitting unhurt on a clear breadth of +snow. The body of the father was pinned hopelessly beneath the tree, and +the mother lay under the fragment of roof, an iron bar on her tender eyes. +It was as though Destiny, having destroyed them, whimsically threw a +charmed circle around this remaining atom of the family. + +"Well, Joey," Tisdale said quietly, "I've come back for you." + +Instantly the child stopped crying and turned to listen; then, seeing +Tisdale, he began to crow, rocking his little body and catching up +handsful of snow to demonstrate his delight. The hands and round bud of a +mouth were blue. + +"Cold, isn't it, Joey?" And he took the baby in his arms. "We can't find +your coat and mittens, but here is a nice blanket." + +He stooped, as he spoke, and pulled the blanket from under a broken door, +and the child nestled its face in his neck, telling him in expressive, +complaining sounds the story of his terror and discomfort. + +A man burrowed out of the snow above the log. His leg was injured, but he +began to creep, dragging it, in the direction of the woman's voice. "I'm +coming, Mary," he cried. "For God's sake, stop." + +Tisdale picked up a strip from the broken door and hurried to his aid. He +put the child down and used the board as a shovel, and Joey, watching from +the peephole in his blanket, laughed and crowed again. Up the slope the +operator and his companion had extricated a brakeman, who, forgetting his +own injuries, joined the little force of rescuers. + +At last the cries ceased. Haste was no longer imperative. The remaining +coaches were buried under tons of snow and debris. Weeks of labor, with +relays of men, might not reach them all. And it was time to let the +outside world know. The telephone lines were down, the telegraph out of +commission, and Tisdale, with the baby to bear him company, started to +carry the news to Scenic Hot Springs. + +It had grown very cold when he rounded the top of the gorge. The arrested +thaw hung in myriads of small icicles on every bough; they changed to +rubies when the late sun blazed out briefly; the trees seemed strung with +gems; the winds that gathered on the high dome above the upper canyon +rushed across the summit of the ridge. They fluted every pipe, and, as +though it were an enchanted forest, all the small pendants on all the +branches changed to striking cymbals and silver bells. The baby slept as +warm and safe in his blanket as though he had not left his mother's arms. + +Once there came a momentary lull, and on the silence, far off--so far it +seemed hardly more than a human breath drifting with the lighter current +that still set towards him from the loftier peak--Tisdale heard some one +calling him. His pulses missed their beat and raced on at fever heat. He +believed, in that halting instant, it was Beatriz Weatherbee. Then the +gale, making up for the pause, swept down in fury, and he hurried under +the shelter of the ridge with the child. He told himself there had been no +voice; it was an illusion. That the catastrophe, following so closely on +his illness, had unhinged him a little. The Morganstein party had +doubtless returned to Seattle at the beginning of the thaw; and even had +Mrs. Weatherbee remained at Scenic Springs, it was not probable she had +strayed far from the comfort and safety of the hotel. And recalling that +night she had passed in the Wenatchee mountains, he smiled. + +As twilight fell, a ruddy illumination outlined the ridge. He conjectured +that the men he had heard early in the afternoon in the vicinity of the +first slide were a party of belated hunters, who had camped in the upper +canyon. They must have known of the greater avalanche; possibly of the +disaster. They may have sent a messenger to the Springs and kindled this +beacon to guide any one who might choose this way to bring the news from +the portal. At least they would be able to direct him to the shortest out; +serve him the cup of coffee of which he was in need. So, coming to the end +of the ridge where the canyons met, he turned in the direction of the +fire, and found--two waiting women. + +Their presence alone was an explanation. Mrs. Feversham had only to say +Lucky Banks had led their party, in the ascent of the peak that brilliant +morning, and instantly everything was clear to Tisdale. The voice he had +heard from the top of the ridge was not an illusion. She had called him. + +"It was snowing," he said, interrupting the story, "but if they left the +shadow of a trail, Banks found it. There are two of them, though, and up +there--it's cold." Then, having gone a few steps, he remembered the child +and came back to put him in Elizabeth's arms. "His father and mother are +dead," he explained briefly, "but he hasn't a bruise. When he wakes, he is +going to be hungry." + +So, forgetting those wearing hours of rescue work, and without the coffee +for which he had intended to ask, he started on the prospector's trail. In +a little while, as he skirted the foot of the slide, he heard a great +commotion on the slope beyond. It was Lucky Banks easing his human +toboggan down the last pitch to the canyon floor. + +The two men stood a silent moment scanning each other in the uncertain +light across that load. Tisdale's eyes were searching for an answer to the +question he could not ask, but the prospector, breathing hard, was trying +to cover the emotion Tisdale's unexpected appearance had roused. + +"Hello, Hollis," he said at last. "Is that you? I had to see after Dave's +wife, but I thought likely, when I got her to camp, I'd take a little hike +up to the tunnel and look you up." + +But Tisdale, not finding the answer for which he looked, sank to his knee +beside the load and loosened the straps. Then he lifted a corner of the +rug that protected her face, and at the sight of it, so white, so still, +his heart cried. "Little soldier!" he said over and over and, as though he +hoped to warm them, laid his cheek gently to her blue lips. "You called +me! I heard you. I failed you, too!" + +Then a fluttering breath steadied him. Instantly the iron in the man +cropped through. He felt her pulse, her heart, as though she had been some +stranger from the unfortunate train and, moving her to a level place, +fixed her head low and began firmly, with exceeding care, those expedients +to eliminate the frost and start the circulation that Banks had already +hurriedly tried. His great, warm personality enfolded her; he worked +tirelessly, as though he was determined to infuse her numb veins with his +own vigor. When the prospector would have aided him, he wished to do +everything alone, and directed the miner's attention to Frederic +Morganstein, who showed signs of returning consciousness. + +But the intrepid little man failed to respond. "I guess likely he will +pull through," he said dryly. "He had a pretty good shaking up coming +down, and I'd better run around to camp and get a bottle of port I cached +this morning. The snipe got away with my flask; used the last drop, +likely, before she needed it." His voice took a higher pitch, and he added +over his shoulder, as he started in the direction of the fire: "He made a +windbreak of her." + +When he returned presently with the wine, Frederic was filling the night +with his complaints and groans. But neither of the men gave him any +attention. That was left for Marcia, who had followed the prospector. + +Beatriz Weatherbee was still unconscious. She was carried to the camp and +laid in a sheltered place remote from the fire. Then Lucky Banks +volunteered to go to Scenic Springs with the news of the train disaster, +and to bring an extra man with lanterns and a stretcher. He was well on +the way when Morganstein crept in. Marcia found him a seat on the end of a +log and, wrapping the cached rug about him, regaled him with the recovered +portion of the luncheon. But it was long after that when Beatriz +Weatherbee's eyelids fluttered open. Tisdale drew a little more into the +shadows, waiting, and the first to come within her range of vision was the +child. He was sitting on his blanket in the strong glow, and just beyond +him Elizabeth, who had found a tin of cream in the cache and had been +feeding him, was putting away the cup. Joey faced the waking woman and, +catching her look, he put out his hands, rocking gayly, and crowed. +Instantly a flash of intelligence lighted her face. She smiled and tried +to stretch out her arms. "Come!" she said. + +Elizabeth caught up the child and placed him beside her on the rug. He put +out his soft, moist fingers, touching her face curiously, with gathering +doubt. Then, satisfied this was not his mother, as in the uncertain light +he must have supposed, he drew back with a whimper and clung to Elizabeth. + +At the same moment Mrs. Weatherbee's smile changed to disappointment. "His +eyes are brown, Elizabeth," she said, "and my baby's were blue, like +mine." And she turned her face, weeping; not hysterically, like a woman +physically unstrung, but with the slow, deep sobs of a woman who has +wakened from a dream of one whom she has greatly loved--and buried. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +SURRENDER + + +Tisdale had not seen Beatriz Weatherbee since she had been brought +semi-conscious from the foot of the mountain, but he learned from the hotel +physician the following morning that she was able to travel on the special +train which was coming from Seattle to transport the Morganstein party +home. The first inquiry, after news of the disaster reached the outside +world, was from Joey's grandfather, a lumberman on Puget Sound. Put in +communication with Tisdale, he telephoned he would arrive at the Springs +on the special. So, leaving the child in charge of the housekeeper, Hollis +returned to the west portal, to join the little force of rescuers. It was +then no longer a question of life-saving, but of identification. The Swiss +chalet, which had ceased to be the mecca of pleasure-seekers, had become a +morgue. + +But Lucky Banks, who went with him, had received a message from Mrs. +Weatherbee, and in the interval that Tisdale was busy with long-distance +and disposing of Joey, the prospector went up to her room. She was pale +and very weak, but she smiled as he approached her couch and held out her +hand. "No, the right one," she said, and added, taking it with a gentle +pressure, "I know, now, what it is--to be cold." + +The little man nodded. His face worked, and he hurried to conceal the +maimed hand in his pocket. "But the doctor says you'll pull through good +as new," he commented. "I am proud to know that; my, yes." + +"And I am proud of you, Mr. Banks. It seems incredible, but Miss +Morganstein told me you rescued her brother, too. I've tried and tried to +remember, but I am not able. You must have carried me, at least, all of +the way." + +Banks glanced at Elizabeth, who was seated beyond the couch. She had laid +a warning finger to her lips and shook her head. "That was dead easy +coming downgrade," he answered. "And that little blow up there on the +mountain top wasn't anything to speak of, alongside a regular Alaska +blizzard. If I'd had to weight my pockets with rocks, that would have been +something doing. I might have felt then that I was squaring myself with +Dave Weatherbee." + +"I understand," she said slowly, "but," and she smiled again, "I am +grateful, Mr. Banks, just the same. Perhaps, since you loved David so +much, you will regard it as a kind of compensation that I am going on with +the project." + +"Is that so?" The little man beamed. "Well, the house is all done and +waiting, my, yes, whenever you are ready to move over." + +"Why, Beatriz," said Elizabeth in alarm, "I am going to take that desert +tract off your hands. I've been interested in reclamation work for +months." And looking at Banks, she added significantly: "I am afraid she +is talking too much." + +"Likely," replied the prospector, rising, "and I am due to take a little +hike up the canyon with Hollis Tisdale." + +"Mr. Tisdale?" she asked, with a quick brightening of her face. "Then he +is quite well again. Miss Morganstein told me he was saved--from that +unfortunate train," and she added, shivering and closing her eyes, "I +remember--that." + +"I couldn't have got there in time," Banks hurried to explain, "even if +you had given up making the summit. Likely I'd have got caught by the +slide, and Hollis was half-way to the Springs and 'feeling fit as a moose' +when it started. Well, good-by, ma'am; take care of yourself." + +"Good-by, Mr. Banks," and she smiled once more. "You may expect me at +Hesperides Vale in a few days; as soon as my things at Vivian Court are +packed." And she added, with the color softly warming her cheek, "Mr. +Tisdale might like to know that. He always wished to see David's project +carried through." + +And the little man replied from the door: "I'll tell him, ma'am, my, yes." + +The special, which brought other seekers besides Joey's grandfather, also +conveyed Jimmie Daniels. It was his last assignment with the _Press_; he +and Geraldine were to be married within the week and assume the editorial +position at Weatherbee. And he pushed up over Tisdale's trail, now become +well broken, eager to make a final scoop and his best one. Hours later, +when he should have been back at Scenic Hot Springs, rushing his copy +through to his paper, he still remained on the slope below the west portal +to carry out the brief and forceful instructions of the man who directed +and dominated everybody; who knew in each emergency the one thing to do. +Once Jimmie found himself aiding Banks to wrap a woman's body in a blanket +to be lowered by tackle down the mountainside. She was young, not older +than Geraldine, and the sight of her--rounded cheek, dimpled chin, arm so +beautifully molded--all with the life snuffed out without a moment's +warning--gave him a sensation of being smothered. He was seized with a +compelling desire to get away, and to conquer his panic, he asked the +prospector whether this man was not the superintendent of the mountain +division. + +The mining man replied: "No, that's the railroad boss over there with the +gang handling the derrick; this is Tisdale, Hollis Tisdale of Alaska and +Washington, D.C. You ought to have heard of him in your line of business +if you never happened to see him before." + +Then Jimmie, turning to look more directly at the stranger, hastily +dropped his face. "You are right," he said softly, "I've known him by +sight some time." + +Afterwards, while they were having coffee with the station master, Daniels +asked Banks how he and Tisdale happened to be at Cascade Tunnel. "I was +putting in a little time at the Springs," Banks responded, "but Hollis was +a passenger on the stalled train. He took a notion to hike down to the +hotel just ahead of the slide." + +"You mean that man who has taken charge out there," exclaimed the +operator. "I had a talk with him before he started; he was rigging up some +snowshoes. He said he was from Alaska, and I put him down for one of those +bonanza kings." + +"He is," said Banks in his high key. "What he don't know about minerals +ain't worth knowing, and he owns one of the finest layouts in the north, +Dave Weatherbee's bore." + +"The Aurora mine," confirmed Daniels. "And I presume there isn't a man +better known, or as well liked, in Alaska." + +Banks nodded. "Dave and him was a team. The best known and the best liked +in the whole country. And likely there's men on the top seats in +Washington, D.C., would be glad of a chance to shake hands with Hollis +Tisdale." + +"I knew he was somewhere near the top," commented the operator. "He can +handle men. I never saw such a fellow. Why, he must have got half-way to +the Springs when the slide started, but he was back, climbing up along the +edge of it to the wreck, almost before it quit thundering. And he took out +a live baby, without a damage mark, and all its folks lying right there +dead, before the rest of us got in earshot." + +Daniels put down his sandwich and took out his neglected notebook. He +gathered all the detail the ready operator could supply: how Tisdale had +wrapped the child in a blanket and carried him from place to place, +talking to him in his nice, friendly way, amusing him, keeping him quiet, +while he worked with the strength of two men to liberate other survivors. +And how, when none was left to save, he had taken the baby in his arms and +gone to break trail to the Springs to send out news of the disaster. All +that the station master and Banks could not tell him, with the name and +prominence of Joey's family, Jimmie added later at the chalet, and he +finished with a skilful reference to the papoose, killed by accident so +many years before. It was a great story. It went into the paper as it +stood. And when the day came to leave the _Press_ office, the chief, +shaking hands with his "novelist," said it was a fine scoop, and he had +always known Jimmie had it in him to make good; he was sorry to lose him. +But the Society Editor, reading between the lines, told him it was the +greatest apology he could have made. She was proud of him. + +At Vivian Court late that afternoon, Elizabeth read the story to Beatriz +Weatherbee. Her couch was drawn into the sunny alcove, where, from her +pillows, she might watch the changing light on Mount Rainier. Finally, +when Elizabeth finished, Beatriz broke the silence. "He must have passed +down the canyon while we were there." + +"Yes, he did. He carried one end of your stretcher all the way to the +Springs." Then Elizabeth asked: "Don't you remember the baby, either? He +had brown eyes." + +"I seem to remember a child," she answered slowly, "a baby sitting in the +firelight, but"--and she shook her head, "I've dreamed so many dreams." + +"He was a fact; a perfect dear. I should have adopted him, if his +relatives hadn't been so prominent and rich. And you, too, fell instantly +in love with him. You wanted him in your arms the moment you opened your +eyes." + +Elizabeth paused with a straight look from under her heavy brows and while +she hesitated there was a knock at the door. She threw it open and a +porter brought in one of those showy Japanese shrubs in an ornate +jardinière, such as Frederic Morganstein so often used as an expression of +his regard. His card hung by a ribbon from a branch, like a present on a +Christmas tree, and when the boy had gone, she untied it and carried it to +Mrs. Weatherbee. "I wish you could marry Frederic and settle it all," she +said. "Japan is lovely in the spring." + +Beatriz, who had taken the card indifferently, allowed it to drop without +reading it. Her glance rested again on the shining dome. + +"I told him I would ask you to see him a few moments to-night," Elizabeth +resumed. "He is feeling miserably. He says he was ill when we made the +ascent that day and never should have left the hotel; his high temperature +and the altitude affected his head. He believes he must have said things +that offended or frightened you--things he wasn't responsible for." She +paused, then, for a woman who had been so schooled to hold herself in hand +as Elizabeth Morganstein, went on uncertainly: "He is just a plain +business man, used to going straight to a point, but not many men care so +much for a woman as he does for you. You could mold him like wax. He says +all he wants now--if he did make a mistake--is a chance to wipe it out; +start with a clean slate." + +Mrs. Weatherbee rose from the couch. She stood a moment meeting +Elizabeth's earnest look. The shadow of a smile touched her mouth, but +well-springs of affection brimmed her eyes. "We cannot wipe out our +mistakes, dear," she said. "They are indelible. We have to accept them, +study them, use them as a rule from which to work out the problems of our +lives. There is no going back, no starting over, if we have missed an +easier way. Elizabeth, in one hour on that mountain I saw more of the true +Frederic Morganstein than in all the years I had known him before. In the +great moments of life, I should have no influence with him. Even for your +sake, dear, I could not marry him. I do not want to see him any more." + +There was a silence, then Elizabeth said: "In that case, I am going to +ease things for you. I am going to buy that desert land. Now, don't say a +word. I am going to pay you Lucky Banks' price, and, of course, for the +improvements whatever is right." + +"But it is not on the market," replied Beatriz. "I told you I had decided +to live there. I hoped--you would like to go with me. For awhile, at +least, you might find it interesting." + +Elizabeth tried to dissuade her. It was ridiculous. It was monstrous. She +was not strong enough. It would be throwing her life away, as surely as to +transplant a tender orchid to that burning sage-brush country. But in the +end she said: "Well, Bee, then I'll go with you." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +BACK TO HESPERIDES VALE + + +The Mayor of Weatherbee stopped his new, six-passenger car at the curb in +front of the completed brick block; not at the corner which was occupied +by the Merchants' National Bank, but at the adjoining entrance, above +which shone the neat gilt sign: "Madame Lucile's." He stood for a moment +surveying the window display, which was exceedingly up-to-date, showing +the prevailing color scheme of green or cerise in the millinery, softened +by a background of mauve and taupe in the arrangement of the gowns. A +card, placed unobtrusively in the corner of the plate glass, announced +that Madame Lucile, formerly with Sedgewick-Wilson of Seattle, was +prepared to give personal attention to all orders. + +Bailey himself that day was equipped in a well-made suit from the +tailoring establishment on the opposite side of the building. Though he +had not yet gathered that avoirdupois which is associated with the dignity +of office, there was in his square young frame an undeniable promise. +Already he carried himself with the deliberation of a man whose future is +assured, and his mouth took those upward curves of one who is humorously +satisfied with himself and his world. + +There were no customers when he entered, and since it was the hour when +her assistant was out at lunch, Madame, attired in a gown of dark blue +velvet, her black hair arranged with elaborate care, was alone in the +shop. And Bailey's glance, having traveled the length of the soft green +carpet to the farthest mirror, returned in final approval to her. "This +certainly is swell," he said, "It's like a sample right out of Chicago. +But I knew you could do it, the minute Mrs. Banks mentioned you. Why, the +first time I saw you--it was on the street the day I struck Wenatchee--I +told myself: 'This town can't be very wild and woolly if it can turn out +anything as classy as that.'" + +Madame laughed. "I must have looked like a moving fashion plate to attract +attention that way. I feel a little over-dressed now, after wearing the +uniform in Sedgewick-Wilson's so long; but Mrs. Banks said I ought to wear +nice clothes to advertise the store." + +Bailey tipped back his head at that, laughing softly. "I guess your silent +partner is going to be the power behind the throne, all right." + +Madame nodded, with the humor still lingering in her brown eyes. "But it +was good advice. I sold a gown like this to my first customer this +morning. And she had only come in to see millinery; she hadn't meant to +look at gowns. But she liked this one the moment she saw it." + +"Is that so? Well, I don't wonder. It certainly looks great--on you." + +Madame flushed and turned her face to look off through the plate glass +door. "Why," she exclaimed, "you didn't tell me your new automobile had +come." She moved a few steps, sweeping the car with admiring eyes. "Isn't +it luxurious though, and smart? But you deserve it; you deserve everything +that's coming to you now, staying here, sticking it out as you have in the +heat and sand. I often thought of it summer days while I was over on the +Sound." + +"You did?" questioned Bailey in pleased surprise. "Well, I am glad to know +that. I wonder whether you ever thought over the time we tramped the +railroad ties up to Leavenworth to that little dance?" + +"Often," she responded quickly. "And how we came back in the Oleson wagon, +riding behind with our heels hanging over, and the dust settling like +powder on our party clothes. But I had the loveliest time. It was the +starriest night, with moonlight coming home, and I danced every number." + +"Seven times with me," returned the mayor. + +"I wanted to learn the two-step," she explained hastily. + +"And I wanted to teach you," he laughed. "But say, how would you like to +take a little spin up the Leavenworth road this evening, in the new car?" + +"Oh, that would be delightful." Madame Lucile glowed. "With a party?" she +asked. + +"Well, I thought of asking Daniels and his wife to go with us. I am on the +way to the station now, to meet them. And Mrs. Weatherbee and Miss +Morganstein are due on the same train. I promised Mr. Banks I would take +them out to the Orchards in the machine; but we are to motor around to the +new bungalow first, to leave the bride and Jimmie and have luncheon." + +"I know. Mrs. Banks is going to have the table in that wide veranda +looking down the river. I would like to be there when they find out that +dear little bungalow is their wedding present. It was perfectly lovely of +Mrs. Banks to think of it; and of you to give them that beautiful lot on +the point. You can see Hesperides Vale for miles and miles to the lower +gap." + +Bailey smiled. "Mrs. Banks said it was a good way to use up the lumber +that was left over from the ranch house. And that bungalow certainly makes +a great showing for the town. It raised the value of the adjoining lots. I +sold three before the shingles were on the walls, and the people who +bought them thought they had a snap." + +"All the same, it is a lovely present," said Madame Lucile. + +"There's the train, whistling up the valley," said the mayor, but he +paused to ask, almost with diffidence, as he turned to the door: "Say, +what do you think of this tie?" + +"I like it." She nodded, with a reassuring smile. "And it's a nice shade +for you; it brings out the blue in your eyes." + +The mayor laughed gaily. "I ought to wear it steady after that, but I am +coming to black ones with a frock coat and silk hat. I am going to begin +to-morrow, when those German scientists, on their way home from the +Orient, stop to see Hesperides Vale." + +"Oh, I hope you will wear this nice business suit, unless they come late +in the afternoon. It seems more sensible here on the edge of the desert, +and even if you are the first mayor to do it, I know, the world over, +there isn't another as young." + +Bailey grew thoughtful. "The mayor in Chicago always wore a Prince Albert. +Why, that long coat and silk hat stood for the office. They were the most +important part of him. But good-by," he said hastily, as the train +whistled again, nearer, "I'll call for you at seven." + +Ten minutes later, the mayor stood on the station platform shaking hands +with Mrs. Weatherbee. "Say, I am surprised," he said. "I often wondered +what you thought of the vale. Lighter told me how you drove those colts +through that day, and I was disappointed not to hear from you. You didn't +let me know you had an investment already, and it never occurred to me, +afterwards, that you were our Mrs. Weatherbee." + +Then, introductions being over, he assisted Miss Morganstein into the +tonneau with the bridal couple and gave the seat in front to Mrs. +Weatherbee. He drove very slowly up the new thoroughfare, past the Bailey +building, where she expressed her astonishment at the inviting window +display of the millinery store. He explained that offices for the +_Weatherbee Record_ had been reserved on the second floor, and that in the +hall, in the third story, the first inaugural ball was to be given the +following night. It had been postponed a few days until her arrival, and +he hoped he might have the privilege of leading the grand march with her. +And, Mrs. Weatherbee having thanked him, with the pleasure dancing in her +eyes, Bailey pointed out the new city hospital, a tall, airy structure, +brave in fresh paint, which was equipped with a resident physician and +three trained nurses, including Miss Purdy, the milliner's sister, who was +on her way from Washington to join the force. + +After that they motored through the residence district, and Mrs. +Weatherbee expressed greater wonder and delight at the rows of thrifty +homes, each with its breadth of green lawn and budding shrubbery, where +hardly six months ago had been unreclaimed acres of sage. And so, at last, +they came to the city park, where the road wound smooth and firm between +broad stretches of velvety green, broken by beds of blossoming tulips, +nodding daffodils, clumps of landscape foliage putting forth new leaves. +Sprinklers, supplied by a limpid canal that followed the drive, played +here, there, everywhere, and under all this moisture and the warm rays of +the spring sun, the light soil teemed with awakening life. Then, finally, +the car skirted a low, broad mound, in which was set the source of the +viaduct, a basin of masonry, brimming with water crystal clear and fed by +two streams that gushed from a pedestal of stone on the farther rim. "How +beautiful!" she exclaimed. "How incredible! And there is to be a statue to +complete it. A faun, a water nymph, some figure to symbolize the spirit of +the place." + +"I can't tell you much about the statue," replied Bailey, watching the +curve ahead. "Mr. Banks engaged the sculptor; some noted man in the east. +He is carrying the responsibility; it was his idea. But it was to have +been in place, ready to be unveiled by the fifteenth, and there was some +delay." + +After that, the mayor was silent, devoting his attention to the speeding +car. They left the park and, taking the river road, arrived presently at +the bungalow. The shingles still lacked staining, the roof was incomplete, +but a sprinkler threw rainbow mist over the new lawn, which was beginning +to show shades of green. A creeper, planted at the corner of the veranda, +already sent out pale, crinkled shoots. + +Lucky Banks came beaming down the steps, and Annabel, in a crisp frock of +royal blue taffeta, stood smiling a welcome as the automobile stopped. +Then Bailey, springing down to throw open the door of the tonneau, lifted +his voice to say: "And this--is the home of the Editor of the _Weatherbee +Record_ and Mrs. Daniels." + +They did not at once grasp his meaning, and the prospector made it clear +as they went up to the veranda. "The house is a wedding present from Mrs. +Banks," he said; "and Mr. Bailey, here, put up the lot, so's I thought +this would come in handy; it will take quite a bunch of furniture." + +There was a silent moment while Geraldine stood regarding the envelope he +had put in her hand. She was looking her best in a trim, tailored suit of +gray. There was a turquoise facing to the brim of her smart gray hat, but +her only ornaments were a sorority pin fastened to the lapel of her coat +and a gold button that secured her watch in the small breast pocket made +for it. At last she looked up, an unusual flush warmed her face, and she +began: "It's perfectly lovely of you--we are so surprised--we never can +thank you enough." + +But Jimmie turned away. He stood looking down the valley in the direction +of that place, not very far off, where his mother had carried water up the +steep slope in the burning desert sun. His forehead creased; he closed his +lips tight over a rising sob. Then Geraldine laid her hand on his arm. "Do +you understand what these people have done for us?" she asked +unconventionally. "Did you hear?" + +Jimmie swung around. His glance met Annabel's. "I can't explain how I feel +about it," he burst out, "but I know if my mother could have been here +now, it--this--would have paid her for all--she missed. I don't deserve +it--but Geraldine does; and I pledge myself to stay by the _Weatherbee +Record_ as long as you want me to. I don't see how I can help making +good." + +Then Annabel, winking hard, hastily led the way over the house; and, +presently, when the party returned to the table in the veranda, and the +Japanese boy she had brought from the ranch house was successfully passing +the fried chicken, she wanted to know about the wedding. + +"Yes, we tried to have it quiet," responded Jimmie, "and we planned it so +the taxi would just make our train; but the fellows caught on and were +waiting for us at the station, full force, with their pocketfuls of rice +and shoes. They hardly let us get aboard." + +"Gracious!" exclaimed Annabel. "You might as well have been married in +church. You'd have looked pretty in a train and veil," she said, +addressing Geraldine, who was seated on her right. "Not but what you don't +look nice in gray. And I like your suit real well; it's a fine piece of +goods; the kind to stand the desert dust. But I would have liked to see +you in white, with a blaze of lights and decorations and a crowd." + +Geraldine laughed. "We had a nice little wedding, and the young men from +the office made up for their noise. They gave the porter a handsome case +of silver at the last moment, to bring to me." + +"And," supplemented Jimmie, "there was a handsome silver tea service from +the chief. He told her she had been a credit to the staff, and he would +find it hard to replace her. Think of that coming from the head of a big +daily. It makes me feel guilty. But she is to have full latitude in the +new paper; society, clubs, equal suffrage if she says so; anything she +writes goes with the _Weatherbee Record_." + +"If I were you, I'd have that down in writing." Annabel looked from +Daniels to the bride, and her lip curled whimsically. "They all talk that +way at first, as though the earth turned round for one woman, and the +whole crowd ought to stop to watch her go by. He pretends, so far as he is +concerned, she can stump the county for prohibition or lead the +suffragette parade, but, afterwards, he gets to taking the other view. +Instead of thanking his lucky stars the nicest girl in the world picked +him out of the bunch, he begins to think she naturally was proud that the +best one wanted her. Then, before they've been married two years, he +starts trying to make her over into some other kind of a woman. Why, I +know one man right here in Hesperides Vale who set to making a Garden of +Eden out of a sandhole in the mountains, just because it belonged to a +certain girl." She paused an instant, while her glance moved to Banks, and +the irony went out of her voice. "He could have bought the finest fruit +ranch in the valley, all under irrigation and coming into bearing, for he +had the money, but he went to wasting it on that piece of unreclaimed sage +desert. And now that he has got it all in shape, he's talking of opening a +big farm in Alaska." + +Banks laughed uneasily. "The boys need it up there," he said in his high +key. "Besides, I always get more fun out of making new ground over. It's +such mighty good soil here in Hesperides Vale things grow themselves +soon's the water is turned on. It don't leave a man enough to do. And we +could take a little run down to the ranch, any time; we could count on +always wintering here, my, yes." + +Annabel smiled. "He thinks by mid-summer he can take me right into the +interior, in that cranky red car. And I don't know but what I am ready to +risk it; there are places I'd like to see--where he was caught his first +winter in a blizzard, and where he picked up the nuggets for my necklace. +You remember it--don't you?--Mrs. Daniels. I wore it that night in Seattle +we went to hear Carmen." + +"I certainly do remember. It was the most wonderful thing in the theater +that night, and fit for an empress." Involuntarily Geraldine glanced down +at her own solitary jewel. It flashed a lovely blue light as she moved her +hand. + +Annabel followed the glance. "Your ring is a beauty," she said. "Not many +young men, just starting in business for themselves, would have thought +they could afford a diamond like that." + +Geraldine laughed, flushing a little. "It seems the finest in the world to +me," she replied almost shyly. "And it ought to show higher light and +color than any other; the way it was bought was so splendid." + +"Do you mean the way the money was earned to buy it?" inquired Annabel. + +Geraldine nodded. "It was the price, exactly, of his first magazine story. +Perhaps you read it. It was published in the March issue of _Sampson's_, +and the editors liked it so well they asked to see more of his work." + +Jimmie looked at his wife in mingled protest and surprise. He had believed +she, as well as himself, had wished to have that story quickly forgotten. +"It is an Indian story," she pursued; "about a poor little papoose that +was accidentally killed. It was a personal experience of Mr. Tisdale's." + +Mrs. Banks had not read it, but the prospector pushed aside his sherbet +glass and, laying his arms on the table, leaned towards Geraldine. "Was +that papoose cached under a log?" he asked softly. "And was its mother +berrying with a bunch of squaws up the ridge?" + + +"Yes," smiled Geraldine. "I see you have read it." + +"No, but I heard a couple of men size it up aboard the train coming from +Scenic Hot Springs. And once," he went on with gathering tenseness, "clear +up the Tanana, I heard Dave and Hollis talking it over. My, yes, it seems +like I can see them now; they was the huskiest, cleanest-cut, +openest-faced team that ever mushed a trail. It was one of those nights +when the stars come close and friendly, and the camp-fire blazes and +crackles straight to heaven and sets a man thinking; and Tisdale started +it by saying if he could cut one record out of his past he guessed the rest +could bear daylight. Then Dave told him he was ready to stand by that one, +too. And Hollis said it was knowing that had taken the edge off, but it +hadn't put the breath back into that papoose. Of course he never +suspicioned for a minute the kid was in the road when he jumped that log, +and the heart went out of him when he picked it up and saw what he was +responsible for. They had to tell me the whole story, and I wish you could +have heard 'em. Dave smoothing things when Hollis got too hard on himself, +and Hollis chipping in again for fear I wouldn't get full weight for +Dave's part. And the story sure enough does hinge on him. Likely that's +why Tisdale gave it to your magazine; to show up Dave Weatherbee. But +those men on the train--they had the seat in front of me so's I heard it +plain--lost their bearings. They left out Dave and put Hollis in a bad +light. He was 'caught red-handed and never was brought to an honest +trial.' And it was clear besides, being 'hand in glove with the Secretary +of the Interior' he had a 'pull with the Federal court.' I couldn't stand +for it." The prospector's voice reached high pitch, his forehead creased +in many fine lines, his eyes scintillated their blue glacier lights, and +he added, striking the table with his clenched hand, "I up and says: 'It's +all a damn lie.'" + +There was a silence. The self-possession and swiftness of the Japanese boy +saved the sherbet glass and its contents, but the mayor, who had been +interrupted in a confidential quotation of real estate values to Miss +Morganstein, sat staring at Banks in amazement. A spark of admiration shot +through the astonishment in Annabel's eyes then, catching the little man's +aggressive glance, she covered her pride with her ironical smile. Mrs. +Weatherbee was the only one who did not look at Banks. Her inscrutable +face was turned to the valley. She might never have heard of Hollis +Tisdale or, indeed, of David. But Elizabeth, who had kept the thread of +both conversations, said: "You were right. There was a coroner's inquest +that vindicated Mr. Tisdale at the time." + +"But," explained Geraldine courageously, "that was left out of the +magazine. Mr. Daniels took it all accurately, just as Mr. Tisdale told it, +word for word; but the story was cut terribly. Nothing at all was said of +Mr. Weatherbee's part. We couldn't understand that, for with names +suppressed, there could be no motive, and he was so clearly the leading +character. But magazines have no conscience. It's anything, with the new +ones at least, to catch the public eye, and they stir more melodrama into +their truths than the yellow journals do. But Mr. Daniels apologized to +Mr. Tisdale, and explained how he wasn't responsible for the editor's note +or for printing his name, and he did his best to make it up in his report +of the disaster at Cascade tunnel. That story went into the _Press_ +straight and has been widely copied." + +It was in Jimmie's favor that Lucky Banks had read the newspaper story, +and also that they had had those hours of intimacy at the west portal. +"Well, likely you ain't to blame," the prospector admitted finally, "but +there's people who don't know Hollis Tisdale that might believe what the +magazine says. And, if I was you, I'd take a little run over to Washington +or New York, wherever it is--I'll put up the money--and locate that +editor. I'd make him fix it right, my, yes." + +"I should be glad to," said Daniels, brightening, "but it's possible those +missing pages were lost on the way." + +"Well, I'd find out," persisted Banks. "And there's other stories I got +wind of when I was in Washington, D.C., and Seattle, too, last time I was +down, that ought to be trailed. Maybe it's just politics, but I know for a +fact they ain't so." + +The irony had gone out of Annabel's face. She had seen Hollis Tisdale but +once, yet his coming and going had marked the red-letter day of her life. +Her heart championed Banks' fight for him. She turned her dark eyes from +him to Daniels. + +"It's too bad you tried to tell Hollis Tisdale's story for him," she said. +"Even if the magazine had got it all straight, it wouldn't have been the +same as getting it first hand. It's like listening to one of those fine +singers in a phonograph; you can get the tune and some of the words, and +maybe the voice pretty fair, but you miss the man." + +With this she rose. "We are ready to go out to the Orchards, Mr. Bailey. +Mr. Banks and I are going to change places with the bride and groom." Then +from her silk bag, she brought forth a bunch of keys which she gave to +Geraldine. "Nukui is going to stay to clear away," she explained, "and +bring our car home. And when you have finished making your plans, and want +to go down to see the newspaper office, he will show you a nice short cut +through the park." + +So again the mayor's chocolate six-passenger car threaded the park and +emerged this time on a straight, broad thoroughfare through Hesperides +Vale. "This," said Bailey, turning from the town, "is the Alameda. They +motor from Wenatchee and beyond to try it. It's a pretty good road, but in +a year or two, when these shade trees come into full leaf, it will be +something to show." + +There were tufts on most of them now and on the young fruit trees that ran +in geometrical designs on either side, covering the levels that last year +had been overgrown with sage. As these infant orchards dropped behind and +the Wenatchee range loomed near, Cerberus detached from the other peaks; +but it was no longer a tawny monster on guard; its contour was broken by +many terraces, luxuriant with alfalfa and planted with trees. + +"Why," exclaimed Mrs. Weatherbee, "there is the gap. Then, this must be +the mountain--it reminded me once of a terrible, crouching, wild beast-- +but it has changed." + +"Yes, ma'am," responded Banks, "she's looking tamer now. The peaches have +taken right hold, and those fillers of strawberries are hurrying on the +green. But you give 'em three years or maybe four, and take 'em in blossom +time,--my, you won't know this old mountain then." + +A drive, cross-cutting the bold front, led to the level beneath the +summit, where rose the white walls and green gables of Annabel's home, but +they rounded the mountain into the smaller vale. "This," said the mayor, +with culminating pride, "is Weatherbee Orchards. It shows what money, in +the right hands, can do." + +A soft breeze came down over the ridge as they ascended; the flume, that +followed the contour of the roadway, gurgled pleasantly. Everywhere along +the spillways alfalfa spread thriftily, or strawberry plants sent out new +tendrils. All growing things were more advanced in that walled pocket than +in the outer vale; the arid gulf had become a vast greenhouse. Cerberus no +longer menaced. Even the habitation of the goat-woman, that had been the +central distraction of the melancholy picture, was obliterated. In all +that charming landscape there was no discordant note to break the harmony. + +The car doubled the curve at the top of the bench and ran smoothly between +breadths of green lawn, bordered by nodding narcissus, towards the house, +which was long and low, with a tiled roof and cream-colored walls that +enclosed a patio. A silence fell over the company. As they alighted, every +one waited, looking expectantly at Beatriz Weatherbee. The music of a +fountain fluted from the court, and she went forward, listening. Her face +was no longer inscrutable; it shone with a kind of inner illumination. But +when she saw the slender column of spray and the sparkling basin, with a +few semi-tropical plants grouped on the curb, a cactus, a feathery palm in +a quaint stone pot, she turned, and her eyes sought Elizabeth's. "It is +all like the old hacienda where grandfather was born, and mother, and"-- +her voice broke--"Only that had adobe walls," she finished. "It is like-- +coming home." + +"It is simply marvelous," replied Elizabeth, and she added abruptly, +looking at the prospector: "Mr. Banks, you are a problem beyond me." + +"It looks all right, doesn't it?" the little man beamed. "Likely it would +about suit Dave. And I was able to stand the investment. My, yes, now your +brother has bought out the Annabel, what I spent wouldn't cut any figure. +But," and his glance moved to the woman who had profited by the venture, +"I'll likely get my money back." + +Afterwards, when the party had inspected the reservoirs and upper flumes, +Beatriz found herself returning to the bench with Lucky Banks. It was +almost sunset, and the far Chelan peaks were touched with Alpine fire; +below them an amethyst mist filtered over the transformed vale. They had +been discussing the architecture of the building. + +"I had often gone over the map of the project with David," she said, "but +he must have drawn the plans of the house later, in Alaska. It was a +complete surprise. I wonder he remembered the old hacienda so accurately; +he was there only once--when we were on our wedding journey." + +"There were a few measurements that had to be looked up," admitted Banks; +"but I took a little run around into lower California last winter, on my +way home from Washington, D.C." + +"You were there? You troubled to go all the way to the old rancheria for +details?" + +"Yes, ma'am. It was a mighty good grazing country down there, but the +people who bought the place were making their money out of one of those +fine hotels; it was put up alongside a bunch of hot springs. Nobody but a +couple of Mexicans was living in the old house. It was in bad shape." + +"I know. I know. If I had been a man, it would have been different. I +should have restored it; I should have worked, fought to buy back every +acre. But you saw old Jacinta and Carlos? It was recorded in the title +they should be allowed to stay there and have the use of the old home +garden as long as they lived. My mother insisted on that." + +They had reached the level and walked on by the house towards the solitary +pine tree on the rim of the bench. After a moment he said: "Now Dave's +project is running in good shape, there isn't much left for me to do, my, +no, except see the statue set up in the park." + +"I wanted to ask you about that, Mr. Banks; we passed the place on the way +to the bungalow. It was beautiful. I presume you have selected a woman's +figure--a lovely Ceres or Aphrodite?" + +"No, ma'am," responded Banks a little sharply. "It's a full-sized man. +Full-sized and some over, what the sculptor who made it calls heroic; and +it's a good likeness of Dave Weatherbee." + +They had reached the pine tree, and she put out her hand to steady herself +on the bole. "I understand," she said slowly. "It was a beautiful-- +tribute." + +"It looks pretty nice," corroborated the prospector. "There was a mighty +good photograph of Dave a young fellow on a Yukon steamer gave me once, to +go by. He was standing on a low bluff, with his head up, looking off like +a young elk, when the boat pulled out, and the camera man snapped him. It +was the day we quit the partner lay, and I was going down-stream, and he +was starting for the headwaters of the Susitna. Tisdale told me about a +man who had done first-class work in New York, and I sent that picture +with a check for a starter on my order. I wrote him the price wasn't +cutting any figure with me; what I wanted was the best he could do and to +have it delivered by the fifteenth of March. And he did; he had it done on +time; and he said it was his best work. It's waiting down in Weatherbee +now. Hollis thought likely I better leave it to you whether to have the +burying with the statue down in the park, or up here, somewhere, on Dave's +own ground." + +"Do you mean," she asked, and her voice almost failed, "you have brought-- +David--home?" + +Banks nodded. "It was cold for him wintering up there in the Alaska snow." + +"Oh, I know. I've thought about--that. I should have done--as you have-- +had I been able." + +After a moment she said: "What is there I can say to you? I did not know +there were such men in the world until I knew you and Hollis Tisdale. Of +course you believed, as he did, that I was necessary to round out David's +project. That is why, when it was successfully completed, you forfeited +the bonus and all the investment. I may never be able to fully refund you +but--shall do my best. And this other--too. Mr. Banks, was that Mr. +Tisdale's suggestion? Did he share that--expense--with you?" + +"No, ma'am, he let me have that chance when we talked it over. I had to +get even with him on the project." + +"Even with him on the project?" + +"Yes, ma'am. He let me put up the money, but it's got to be paid back out +of Dave's half interest in the Aurora mine. And likely, likely, that's +what Dave Weatherbee would have wanted done." + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE JUNIOR DEFENDANT + + +It was following a recess during the third afternoon of the trial; a jury +had at last been impanelled, the attorney for the prosecution and the +leading lawyer for the defense had measured swords, when Stuart Foster, +the junior defendant in the "Conspiracy to Defraud the Government," was +called to the stand. Frederic Morganstein, the head of the Prince William +Development Company, straightened in his seat beside the vacated chair. He +was sleekly groomed, and his folded, pinkish white hands suggested a good +child's; his blank face assumed an expression of mildly protesting +innocence. But the man who stepped from his shadow into the strong light +of the south windows was plainly harassed and worn. His boyishness was +gone; he seemed to have aged years since that evening in September when he +had sailed for Alaska. Tisdale's great heart stirred, then his clear mind +began to tally the rapid fire of questions and Foster's replies. + +"When were you first connected with the Prince William Development +Company, Mr. Foster?" + +"In the summer of 1904." + +"You were then engaged in the capacity of mining engineer at a fixed +salary, were you not?" The prosecuting attorney had a disconcerting manner +of arching his brows. His mouth, taken in connection with his strong, +square jaw, had the effect of closing on his questions like a trap. + +"Yes," Foster answered briefly, "I was to receive two hundred and fifty +dollars a month the first year, and its equivalent in the company's +stock." + +"Did you not, at the same time, turn over to the company your interests in +the Chugach Railway and Development Company?" + +"Yes," said Foster. + +"And was not this railroad built for the purpose of opening certain coal +lands in the Matanuska region, in which you held an interest?" + +"Yes, I had entered a coal claim of one hundred and sixty acres." + +"All the law allowed to an individual; but, Mr. Foster, did you not induce +others, as many as thirty persons, to locate adjoining claims with the +idea that the entire group would come under one control?" + +Foster colored. "It was necessary to co-operate," he said slowly, "in +order to meet the enormous expense of development and transportation. We +wished to build a narrow-gauge road--it was then in course of +construction--but the survey was through the Chugach Mountains, the most +rugged in North America. The cost of moving material, after it was shipped +from the States, was almost prohibitive; ordinary labor commanded higher +wages than are paid skilled mechanics here in Seattle." + +"Mr. Foster, were not those coal claims located with a purpose to dispose +of them in a group at a profit?" + +"No, sir. I have told you on account of the great expense of development +it was necessary to work together; it was also necessary that as many +claims as possible should be taken." + +The prosecution, nodding affirmatively, looked at the jury. "The more +cunning and subtle the disguise," he said, "the more sure we may be of the +evasion of the law. So, Mr. Foster, you promoted an interest in the +fields, selected claims for men who never saw them; used their power of +attorney?" + +"Yes. That was in accordance with the law then in force. We paid for our +coal claims, the required ten dollars an acre. The land office accepted +our money, eighty thousand dollars. Then the President suspended the law, +and we never received our patents. About that time the Chugach forest +reserve was made, and we were hampered by all sorts of impossible +conditions. Some of us were financially ruined. One of the first locators +spent one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, his whole fortune, in +development. He opened his mine and had several tons of coal carried by +packers through the mountains to the coast, to be shipped to Seattle, to +be tested on one of the Government cruisers. The report was so favorable +it encouraged the rest of us to stay with the venture." + +"Mr. Foster," the attorney's voice took a higher, more aggressive pitch, +"were not many of those claims entered under names furnished by an agent +of the Morganstein interests?" + +"Well, yes." Foster threw his head with something of his old boyish +defiance. He was losing patience and skill. "Mr. Morganstein himself made +a filing, and his father. That is the reason all our holdings are now +classed as the Morganstein group." + +"And," pursued the lawyer, "their entries were incidental with the +consolidation of your company with the Prince William Development +Company?" + +Foster flushed hotly. "The Prince William Development Company was in need +of coal; no enterprise can be carried on without it in Alaska. And the +consolidation brought necessary capital to us; without it, our railroad +was bankrupt. It meant inestimable benefit to the country, to every +prospector, miner, homesteader, who must waste nerve-breaking weeks +packing his outfit through those bleak mountains in order to reach the +interior. But, before forty miles of track was completed, the executive +withdrew all Alaska coal lands from entry, and we discontinued +construction, pending an Act of Congress to allow our patents. The +material carried in there at so great a cost is lying there still, rotting +away." + +"Gentlemen, is it not all clear to you?" The prosecuting attorney flashed +a glance of triumph over the jury. "Do you not see in this Prince William +Development Company the long arm of the octopus that is strangling Alaska? +That has reached out its tentacles everywhere, for gold here, copper +there; for oil, coal, timber, anything in sight? That, but for the +foresight of the executive and Gifford Pinchot, would possess most of +Alaska today?" + +The men on the jury looked thoughtful but not altogether convinced. One +glanced at his neighbor with a covert smile. This man, whom the Government +had selected to prosecute the coal fraud cases was undeniably able, often +brilliant, but his statements showed he had brought his ideas of Alaska +from the Atlantic coast; to him, standing in the Seattle courtroom, our +outlying possession was still as remote. As his glance moved to the ranks +of outside listeners, who overflowed the seats and crowded the aisles to +the doors, he must have been conscious that the sentiment he had expressed +was at least unpopular in the northwest. Faces that had been merely +interested or curious grew suddenly lowering. The atmosphere of the place +seemed surcharged. + +The following morning Morganstein took the stand. Though in small matters +that touched his personal comfort he was arrogantly irritable, under the +cross-examination that assailed his commercial methods he proved suave and +non-committal. As the day passed, the prosecutor's insinuations grew more +open and vindictive. Judge Feversham sprang to his feet repeatedly to +challenge his accusations, and twice the Court calmed the Government's +attorney with a reprimand. The atmosphere of the room seemed to seethe +hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness. Finally, during the afternoon +session, Foster was recalled. + +Through it all Tisdale waited, listening to everything, separating, +weighing each point presented. It was beginning to look serious for +Foster. Clearly, in his determination to win his suit, the prosecution was +losing sight of the simple justice the Government desired. And a man less +dramatic, less choleric, with less of a reputation for political intrigue +than Miles Feversham might better have defended Stuart Foster. Foster was +so frank, so honest, so eager to make the Alaska situation understood. And +it was not an isolated case; there were hundreds of young men, who, like +him, had cast their fortunes with that new and growing country, to find +themselves, after years of hardship and privation of which the outside +world had no conception, bound hand and foot in an intricate tangle of the +Government's red tape. + +The evening of the fourth day the attorney for the prosecution surprised +Tisdale at his rooms. "Thank you," he said, when Hollis offered his +armchair, "but those windows open to the four winds of heaven are a little +imprudent to a man who lives by his voice. Pretty, though, isn't it?" He +paused a moment to look down on the harbor lights and the chains of +electric globes stretching off to Queen Anne hill and far and away to +Magnolia bluff, then seated himself between the screen and the table that +held the shaded reading lamp. "Has it occurred to you, Mr. Tisdale," he +asked, "that a question may be raised as to the legality of your testimony +in these coal cases?" + +"No." Hollis remained standing. He looked at his visitor in surprise. +"Please make that clear, Mr. Bromley," he said. + +The attorney smiled. "This is a trial case," he began. "A dozen others +hinge on it. I was warned to be prepared for anything; so, when my +attention was called to that article in _Sampson's Magazine_, my +suspicions were instantly awake. It looked much like blackmail and, in +connection with another story I heard in circulation at Washington, seemed +a systematic preparation to attack the Government's witness. Possibly you +do not know it was Mr. Jerold, your legal adviser and my personal friend, +who put me in touch with the magazine. You had wired him to find out +certain facts, but he was unable to go to New York at the time and, +knowing I was there for the week, he got into communication with me by +telephone and asked me to look the matter up. The publishers, fearing a +libel suit which would ruin them, were very obliging. They allowed me to +see not only the original manuscript, but Mrs. Feversham's letter, which I +took the trouble to copy." + +"Mrs. Feversham's letter?" Tisdale exclaimed. "Do you mean it was Mrs. +Feversham who was responsible for that story?" + +"As it was published, yes. But Daniels was not a pen name. There really +was such a writer--I have taken the trouble to find that out since I +arrived in Seattle. He was on the staff of the _Press_ and wrote a very +creditable account of the catastrophe on the Great Northern railroad, in +which glowing tribute was given you. But since then, and this is what +makes the situation so questionable, he has left the paper and dropped +completely out of sight." + +Tisdale drew forward his chair and settled himself comfortably. "There is +no need to worry about Jimmie Daniels," he said; "he is all right. I saw +him at Cascade tunnel; he told me he was about to be married and go to the +Wenatchee country to conduct a paper of his own. It's too bad there wasn't +another reporter up there to tell about him. He worked like a Trojan, and +it was a place to try a man's mettle. Afterwards, before he left, he came +to me and introduced himself. He had been aboard the yacht that day I told +the story. He had taken it down in his notebook behind an awning. He told +me one of the ladies on board--he did not mention her name--who read his +copy later, offered to dispose of it for him." + +"So," said the lawyer slowly, "you did tell the story; there was a +papoose; the unfortunate incident really occurred." + +"Yes," responded Tisdale, "it happened in a canyon of those mountains +across the Sound. You can barely make out their outline to-night; but +watch for them at sunrise; it's worth waiting for." Then, after a moment, +he said, "I told the story to show the caliber of Weatherbee, the man who +put himself in my place when the Indians came to our camp, looking for me; +but, in editing, all mention of him was cut out. Daniels couldn't +understand that. He said the manuscript was long, but if it was necessary +to abridge in making up the magazine, why had they thrown out the finest +part of the story?" + +"Let me see," said the attorney thoughtfully, "wasn't Weatherbee the name +of the man you grub-staked in Alaska, and who discovered the Aurora mine?" + +Tisdale bowed, then added, with the vibration playing softly in his voice: +"And the name of the bravest and noblest man that ever fought the unequal +fight of the north." + +"Which proves the story was not published to exploit a hero," commented +Bromley. "But now," he went on brusquely, "we have arrived at the other +story. Do you know, Mr. Tisdale, it is being said in Washington, and, too, +I have heard it here in Seattle, that though your own half interest in the +Aurora mine, acquired through the grub-stake you furnished Weatherbee, +will make you a millionaire at least, you are withholding the widow's +share." + +This time Tisdale did not express surprise. "I have had that suggested to +me," he answered quietly. "But the stories of the Aurora are very much +inflated. It is a comparatively new mine, and though it promises to be one +of the great discoveries, the expense of operating so far has exceeded the +output. Heavy machinery has been transported and installed, and Mrs. +Weatherbee could not have met any part of these payments. In all +probability she would have immediately disposed of an interest at a small +price and so handicapped me with a partner with his own ideas of +development. David Weatherbee paid for the Aurora with his life, and I +have pledged myself to carry out his plans. But, Mr. Bromley, do not +trouble about that last half interest. I bought it: the transfer was +regularly recorded; Mr. Jerold has assured me it is legally mine." + +"I know what Mr. Jerold thinks," replied the attorney. "It nettled him to +hear me repeat that story. 'Why, it's incredible,'" he said. "'There are +documents I drew up last fall that refute it completely.'" Mr. Bromley +paused, then went on slowly: "Last fall you were in a hospital, Mr. +Tisdale, beginning a long, all but hopeless fight for your life, and it +was natural you should have called in Mr. Jerold to settle your affairs. I +inferred from his remark that you had remembered Mrs. Weatherbee, at +least, in your will." He halted again, then added still more deliberately: +"If I am right, I should like to be prepared, in case of emergency, to +read such a clause in court." + +Tisdale was silent. He rose and turned to the west windows, where he stood +looking down on the harbor lights. + +"Am I right?" persisted the attorney. + +Hollis thrust his hands into his pockets and swung around. He stood with +his chin lowered, looking at the lawyer with his upward glance from under +slightly frowning brows. "Well," he said at last, "suppose you are. And +suppose I refuse to have my private papers read in open court?" + +"In that case," answered Mr. Bromley, rising, "I must telegraph to +Washington for one of the Alaska coal commission to take your place. I am +sorry. You were named to me at the beginning as a man who knew more about +Alaska coal, and, in fact, the whole Alaska situation, than any other +employee of the Government." + +Still, having said this, Mr. Bromley did not seem in any hurry to go, but +stood holding his hat and waiting for a word from Tisdale to redeem the +situation. At last it came. "Is there no other way," he asked, "than to +drag my private affairs into court?" + +The attorney gravely shook his head. "You never can tell what a jury will +do," he said. "Less than a prejudice against a witness has swung a +decision sometimes." + +Hollis said no more. He went over to his safe and selected a package +containing three documents held together by a rubber band. After a +hesitating moment, he drew out one, which he returned to its place. The +others he brought to the attorney, who carried them to the reading lamp to +scan. One was a deed to the last half interest in the Aurora, the one +which Weatherbee had had recorded, and the remaining paper was, as Mr. +Bromley conjectured, Tisdale's will; but it contained a somewhat +disconcerting surprise. However, the lawyer seated himself and, spreading +the paper open on the table, copied this clause. + + +... "The Aurora mine, lying in an unsurveyed region of Alaska, accessible +from Seward by way of Rainy Pass, and from the Iditarod district north by +east, I bequeath to Beatriz Silva Gonzales Weatherbee, to be held for her +in trust by Stuart Emory Poster for a period of five years, or until +development, according to David Weatherbee's plans, shall have been fully +carried out. The profits, above the cost of all improvements and all +operating expenses--which shall include a superintendent's salary of four +thousand dollars a year to said Stuart Emory Foster--to be paid in +semi-annual dividends to said Beatriz Silva Gonzales Weatherbee." + +"Stuart Emory Foster," repeated the lawyer meditatively, putting away his +fountain pen. "You evidently have considerable confidence in his +engineering skill, Mr. Tisdale." + +"Yes." His voice mellowed, but he regarded the attorney with the upward, +watchful look. "I have confidence in Stuart Emory Foster in every way. He +is not only one of the most capable, reliable mining engineers, but also +one of the most respected and most trusted men in the north." + +There was a silence, during which Mr. Bromley thoughtfully folded his copy +and placed it in his pocket-book. "Thank you, Mr. Tisdale," he said +finally, and rose once more. "You may not be called for several days but +when you are, it is advisable that you have the original documents at +hand. Good night." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +TISDALE OF ALASKA--AND WASHINGTON, D.C. + + +It was evident, after his interview with Hollis Tisdale, that Mr. Bromley +was in no hurry to precipitate the side issue for which he had prepared. +Every one who had taken coal land in the Morganstein group had been on the +witness stand, and many more who had not filed claims had given testimony, +yet the prosecution held him in reserve. Then came a day when Lucky Banks, +recalled to tell what he knew about the Chugach trail, made some +astonishing statements. He had traveled that route with a partner at the +end of a season in the Copper River plateau. They had expected to finish +the distance by the new railroad. The little man was brief but graphic. It +seemed to have been a running fight with storms, glaciers, and glacial +torrents to reach that narrow-gauge track before the first real September +blizzard. "But we could have stood it," he concluded in his high key, "my, +yes, it wouldn't have amounted to much, if we could have had firewood." + +"Did you not know the fallen timber was at your service?" questioned Mr. +Bromley. "Provided, of course, you conformed to the laws of the reserve in +building your fire and in extinguishing it when you broke camp." + +"There wasn't any fallen timber," responded Banks dryly; "and likely we +would have took it green, if there had been a tree in sight. It was +getting mighty cold, nights, and with the frost in his wet clothes, a man +needs a warm supper to hearten him." + +"What?" exclaimed Mr. Bromley sharply. "Do you mean you saw no trees? +Remember you were in the Chugach forest; or did you lose your way?" + +"No, sir. We struck the Chugach Railway just where we aimed to, but a +mighty lot of the Chugach reserve is out of timber line. That's why we +banked on Foster's new train to hurry us through. But we found she had +quit running. The Government had got wind of the scheme and sent a bunch +of rules and regulations. First came a heavy tax for operating the road; +and next was an order to put spark arresters on all his engines. He only +had two first-class ones and a couple of makeshifts to haul his gravel +cars; and his sparks would have froze, likely, where they lit, but there +he was, tied up on the edge of a fill he had counted on finishing up +before his crew went out for the winter, and the nearest spark arrester +farther off than Christmas." + +A ripple of amusement ran through the crowded room, but little Banks stood +waiting frostily. When his glance caught the judge's smile, his eyes +scintillated their blue light. "Likely Foster would have sent his order +out and had those arresters shipped around Cape Horn from New York," he +added. "They'd probably been in time for spring travel; but he opened +another bunch of mail and found there wouldn't be any more sparks. +Washington, D.C., had shut down his coal mine." + +Mr. Bromley had no further questions to ask. He seemed preoccupied and +passed the recess that followed the prospector's testimony in pacing the +corridor. Lucky Banks had been suggested as an intelligent and honest +fellow on whom the Government might rely; but his statements failed to +dovetail with his knowledge of Alaska and the case, and after the +intermission Tisdale was called. + +The moment he was sworn, Miles Feversham was on his feet. He held in his +hand a magazine, in which during the recess, he had been engrossed, and +his forefinger kept the place. + +"I object to this witness," he said sonorously and waited while a stir, +like a gust of wind in a wood, swept the courtroom, and the jury +straightened, alert. "I object, not because he defrauded the widow of +David Weatherbee out of her half interest in the Aurora mine, though, +gentlemen, you know this to be an open fact, but for the reason that he is +a criminal, self-confessed, who should be serving a prison sentence, and a +criminal's testimony is not allowable in a United States court." + +Before he finished speaking, or the Court had recovered from the shock, +Mr. Bromley had taken a bundle of papers from his pocket and stepped close +to the jury box. + +"This is an infamous fabrication," he exclaimed. "It was calculated to +surprise us, but it finds us prepared. In ten minutes we shall prove it +was planned six months ago to defame the character of the Government's +witness at this trial. I have here, gentlemen, a copy of the Alaska record +showing the transfer of David Weatherbee's interest in the Aurora mine to +Hollis Tisdale; it bears the signature of his wife. But this extract from +Mr. Tisdale's will, which was drawn shortly after his return from Alaska, +last year, and while he was dangerously ill in Washington, proves how far +it was from his intention to defraud the widow of David Weatherbee." Here +Mr. Bromley read the clause. + +Tisdale, standing at ease, with his hand resting on his chair, glanced +from the attorney to Foster. No mask covered his transparent face; the +dark circles under his fine, expressive eyes betrayed how nearly +threadbare his hope was worn. Then, suddenly, in the moment he met +Tisdale's look, wonder, swift intelligence, contrition, and the gratitude +of his young, sorely tried spirit flashed from his countenance. To Hollis +it became an illuminated scroll. + +"As to the main charge," resumed Mr. Bromley, "that is ridiculous. It is +based on an unfortunate accident to an Indian child years ago. The +distorted yarn was published in a late issue of a sensational magazine. No +doubt, most of you have read it, since it was widely circulated. +Different--isn't it?--from that other story of Mr. Tisdale which came down +from Cascade tunnel. Gentlemen, I have the letter that was enclosed with +the manuscript that was submitted to _Sampson's Magazine_. It was not +written by the author, James Daniels, but by a lady, who had offered to +dispose of the material for him, and who, without his knowledge, +substituted a revised copy." + +Miles Feversham had subsided, dumbfounded, into his chair; his +self-sufficiency had deserted him; for a moment the purple color surged in +his face; his chagrin overwhelmed him. But Marcia, seated in the front row +outside the bar, showed no confusion. Her brilliant, compelling eyes were +on her husband. It was as though she wished to reinforce him, and at the +same time convey some urgent, vital thought. He glanced around and, +reading the look, started again to his feet. He began to retract his +denunciation. It was evident he had been misinformed; he offered his +apologies to the witness and asked that the case be resumed. But the +prosecuting attorney, disregarding him, continued to explain. "In the +Daniels' manuscript, gentlemen, a coroner's inquest exonerated the man who +was responsible for the death of the papoose; this the magazine +suppressed. I am able to offer in evidence James Daniels' affidavit." + +Then, while the jury gathered these varying ideas in fragments, Lucky +Banks' treble rose. "Let's hear what the lady wrote." And some one at the +back of the courtroom said in a deep voice; "Read the lady's letter." + +It seemed inevitable. Mr. Bromley had separated a letter from the bundle +of papers. Involuntarily Marcia started up. But the knocking of the gavel, +sounding smartly, insistently, above the confusion, brought unexpected +deliverance. + +"It is unnecessary to further delay this Court with this issue," announced +the judge. "The case before the jury already has dragged through nearly +four weeks, and it should be conducted as expeditiously as possible to a +close. Mr. Bromley, the witness is sustained." + +Marcia settled back in her place; Miles Feversham, like a man who has +slipped on the edge of a chasm, sat a moment longer, gripping the arms of +his chair; then his shifting look caught Frederic's wide-eyed gaze of +uncomprehending innocence, and he weakly smiled. + +"Mr. Tisdale," began the prosecution, putting aside his papers and +endeavoring to focus his mind again on the case, "you have spent some +years with the Alaska division of the Geological Survey?" + +"Every open season and some of the winters for a period of ten years, with +the exception of three which I also spent in Alaska." + +"And you are particularly familiar with the locality included in the +Chugach forest reserve, I understand, Mr. Tisdale. Tell us a little about +it. It contains vast reaches of valuable and marketable timber, does it +not?" + +The genial lines crinkled lightly in Tisdale's face. "The Chugach forest +contains some marketable timber on the lower Pacific slopes," he replied, +"where there is excessive precipitation and the influence of the warm +Japan current, but along the streams on the other side of the divide there +are only occasional growths of scrubby spruce, hardly suitable for +telegraph poles or even railroad ties." He paused an instant then went on +mellowly: "Gifford Pinchot was thousands of miles away; he never had seen +Alaska, when he suggested that the Executive set aside the Chugach forest +reserve. No doubt he believed there was valuable timber on those lofty +peaks and glaciers, but I don't know how he first heard of a Chugach +forest, unless"--he halted again and looked at the jury, while the humor +deepened in his voice--"those Pennsylvania contractors, who were shipping +coal around Cape Horn to supply the Pacific navy, took the chance of there +being trees in those mountains and interested the Government in saving the +timber--to conserve the coal." + +A ripple of laughter passed over the jury and on through the courtroom. +Even the presiding judge smiled, and Mr. Bromley hurried to say: "Tell us +something about that Alaska coal, Mr. Tisdale. You have found vast bodies-- +have you not?--of a very high grade; to compare favorably with +Pennsylvania coal." + +"The Geodetic Survey estimates there are over eight millions of acres of +coal land already known in Alaska," replied Hollis statistically. "More +than is contained in all Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio combined. +It is of all grades. The Bonnifield near Fairbanks, far in the interior, +is the largest field yet discovered, and in one hundred and twenty-two +square miles of it that have been surveyed, there are about ten billions +of tons. Cross sections show veins two hundred and thirty-one feet thick. +This coal is lignite." + +"How about the Matanuska fields?" asked Mr. Bromley. + +"The Matanuska cover sixty-five thousand acres; the coal is a high grade +bituminous, fit for steam and coking purposes. There are also some veins +of anthracite. I consider the Matanuska the best and most important coal +yet discovered in Alaska, and with the Bering coal, which is similar +though more broken, these fields should supply the United States for +centuries to come." + +Mr. Bromley looked at the jury. His smile said: + +"You heard that, gentlemen?" Then, his glance returning to the witness: + +"Why the most important?" he asked. + +"Because all development, all industry, in the north depends on the +opening up of such a body of coal. And these fields are the most +accessible to the coast. A few hundreds of miles of railroad, the +extension of one or two of the embryo lines on which construction has been +suspended, would make the coal available on Prince William Sound. Used by +the Pacific Navy, it would save the Government a million dollars a year on +transportation." + +The prosecuting attorney looked at the jury again in triumph. "And that, +gentlemen, is why the Prince William Development Company was so ready to +finance one of those embryo railroads; why those Matanuska coal claims +were located by the syndicate's stenographers, bookkeepers, any employee +down here in their Seattle offices. Mr. Tisdale, if those patents had been +allowed and the claims had been turned over to the company, would it not +have given the Morganstein interests a monopoly on Alaska coal?" + +Tisdale paused a thoughtful moment. "No, at least only temporarily, if at +all. Out of those eight millions of acres of coal land already discovered +in Alaska, not more than thirty-two thousand acres have been staked--only +one claim, an old and small mine on the coast, has been allowed." His +glance moved slowly over the jury, from face to face, and he went on +evenly: "You can't expect capital to invest without some inducement. The +Northern Pacific, the first trans-continental railroad in the United +States, received enormous land grants along the right of way; but the +Prince William Development Company, which intends ultimately to bridge +distances as vast, to tap the unknown resources of the Alaska interior, +has not asked for concessions, beyond the privilege to develop such +properties as it may have acquired by location and purchase. Surely the +benefit that railroad would be in opening the country to settlement and in +the saving of human life, should more than compensate for those few +hundreds of acres of the Government's coal." + +"Mr. Tisdale," said the attorney sharply, "that, in an employee of the +Government, is a strange point of view." + +Tisdale's hands sought his pockets; he returned Mr. Bromley's look with +his steady, upward gaze from under slightly frowning brows. "The +perspective changes at close range," he said. "The Government knows less +about its great possession of Alaska than England knew about her American +colonies, one hundred and fifty years ago. The United States had owned +Alaska seventeen years before any form of government was established +there; more than thirty before a criminal code was provided, and +thirty-three years before she was given a suitable code of civil laws. +Now, to-day, there are no laws operative in Alaska under which title may +be acquired to coal land. Alaska has yielded hundreds of millions of +dollars from her placers, her fisheries, and furs, but the only thing the +Government ever did for Alaska was to import reindeer for the use of the +Esquimos." + +Another ripple of laughter passed through the courtroom; even the judge on +the bench smiled. But Mr. Bromley's face was a study. He began to fear the +effect of Tisdale's astonishing statements on the jury, while at the same +time he was impelled to listen. In the moment he hesitated over a +question, Hollis lifted his head and said mellowly: "The sins of Congress +have not been in commission but in omission. They are under the +impression, far away there in Washington, that Alaska is too bleak, too +barren for permanent settlement; that the white population is a floating +one, made up chiefly of freebooters and outlaws. But we know the +foundations of an empire have been laid there; that, allowed the use of +the fuel Nature has so bountifully stored there and granted a fair measure +of encouragement to transportation, those great inland tundras would be as +populous as Sweden; as progressive as Germany." His glance moved to the +jury; all the nobility, the fineness, the large humanity of the man was +expressed in that moment in his face; a subdued emotion pervaded his +voice. "We know the men who forged a way through that mighty bulwark of +mountains to the interior were brave, resourceful, determined--they had to +be--but, too, they saw a broad horizon; they had patriotism; if there are +any Americans left who have inherited a spark of the old Puritan spirit, +they are the ones who have cast their fortunes with Alaska." + +He paused again briefly, and his eyes rested on Foster. "Do you know?" he +resumed, and his glance returned to the prosecuting attorney, "when I came +out last season, I saw a ship at the terminus of the new Copper River and +Northwestern Railroad discharging Australian coal. This with the great +Bering fields lying at their side door! The people of Cordova wanted to +see that road finished; the life of their young seaport depended on it-- +but--that night they threw the whole of that cargo of foreign coal into +the waters of Prince William Sound. It is referred to, now, as the +'Cordova tea-party.'" + +In the silence that held the courtroom, Tisdale stood still regarding the +lawyer. His expression was most engaging, a hint of humor lurked at the +corners of his mouth, yet it seemed to veil a subtle meaning. Then the +jury began to laugh quietly, with a kind of seriousness, and again the +judge straightened, checking a smile. It was all very disturbing to Mr. +Bromley. He had been assured by one high in the administration that he +might rely on Tisdale's magnetic personality and practical knowledge as +well as his technical information in prosecuting the case; but while he +hesitated over the question he wished to ask, Tisdale said mellowly, no +doubt to bridge the awkward pause: "The Copper River and Northwestern +couldn't mine their coal, and they couldn't import any, so they changed +their locomotives to oil burners." + +Then Mr. Bromley said abruptly: "This is all very interesting, Mr. +Tisdale, but it is the Chugach Railway and not the Copper River +Northwestern, that bears on our case. You have been over that route, I +believe?" + +"Yes." Tisdale's voice quickened. "I used the roadbed going to and from +the Matanuska Valley. Also I went over the proposed route once with Mr. +Foster and the civil engineers." + +"Was it, in your opinion, a bona fide railroad, Mr. Tisdale? Or simply a +lure to entice people to make coal locations in order that they might be +bought after the patents were issued?" + +"It was started in good faith." The steel rang, a warning note, in his +voice. "The largest stockholder had spent nearly a hundred thousand +dollars in opening his coal claim. He was in need of immediate +transportation." + +"This was after the Chugach Company consolidated with the Prince William +syndicate, Mr. Tisdale?" + +"No, sir. It was previous to that time. The Chugach Railway and +Development Company had chosen one of the finest harbors in Alaska for a +terminus. It was doubly protected from the long Pacific swell by the +outer, precipitous shore of Prince William Sound. But their greatest +engineering problem met them there at the start. It was necessary to cross +a large glacier back of the bay. There was no possible way to build around +it; the only solution was a bore under the ice. The building of such a +tunnel meant labor and great expense. And it was not a rich company; it +was made up principally of small stockholders, young men, just out of +college some of them, who had gone up there with plenty of enthusiasm and +courage to invest in the enterprise, but very little money. They did their +own assessment work, dug like any coal miners with pick and shovel, cut +and carried the timbers to brace their excavations under Mr. Foster's +instructions. And when construction commenced on the railroad, they came +down to do their stunt at packing over the glacier--grading began from the +upper side--and sometimes they cut ties." + +"And meantime," said the attorney brusquely, "Mr. Foster, who was +responsible I believe, was trying to interest other capital to build the +tunnel." + +"Yes. And meantime, the Prince William syndicate started a parallel +railroad to the interior from the next harbor to the southwestward. It was +difficult to interest large capital with competition so close." Tisdale +paused; his glance moved from Mr. Bromley to the jury, his voice took its +minor note. "Stuart Foster did hold himself responsible to those young +fellows. He had known most of them personally in Seattle; they were a +picked company for the venture. He had youth and courage himself, in those +days, but he knew Alaska--he had been there before and made good. He had +their confidence. He was that kind of man; one to inspire trust on sight, +anywhere." Hollis paused another instant, while his eyes turned to Foster, +and involuntarily, one after the other, the jury followed his look. "It +was then," he added, "when other capital failed, the Chugach Company gave +up their seaport and consolidated with the Prince William syndicate." + +"Thank you, Mr. Tisdale," said the attorney for the prosecution. "That is +all." + +Miles Feversham had, as Frederic afterward expressed it, "caught his +second wind." While he listened attentively to the testimony, he made some +sweeping revisions in his notes for the argument which he was to open the +following day. He laughed at, while he congratulated himself, that the +Government's star witness, of whom he had been so afraid, should have +proved so invaluable to the defense. And when court adjourned, and the +trio went down the steps to the street, he assured his brother-in-law +there was a chance for him to escape, under Foster's cloak. To Marcia he +said jocularly, though still in an undertone: "'Snatched like a brand from +the burning!'" And he added: "My lady, had you consulted me, I should have +suggested the April issue. These magazines have a bad habit of arriving +too soon." + +Frederic, released from the long day's strain, did not take this +facetiousness meekly, but Marcia was silent. For once the "brightest +Morganstein" felt her eclipse. But while they stood on the curb, waiting +for the limousine to draw up, a newsboy called: "All about the Alaska +bill! Home Rule for Alaska!" + +The special delegate bought a copy, and Marcia drew close to his elbow +while they scanned the message together. It was true. The bill, to which +they both had devoted their energies that season in Washington, had +passed. Feversham folded the paper slowly and met his wife's brilliant +glance. It was as though she telegraphed: "Now, the President must name a +governor." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +THE OTHER DOCUMENT + + +The argument, which Miles Feversham opened with unusual brilliancy the +following morning, was prolonged with varying degrees of heat to the close +of another week; then the jury, out less than two hours, brought in their +verdict of "Not Guilty." + +And that night, for the first time since Tisdale's return, Foster climbed +to the eyrie in the Alaska building. "I came up to thank you, Hollis," he +began in his straightforward way. "It was breakers ahead when you turned +the tide. But," he added after a pause, "what will the President think of +your views?" + +Tisdale laughed softly. "He heard most of them before I left Washington, +and this is what he thinks." + +As he spoke, he took a letter from the table which he gave to Foster. It +bore the official stamp and was an appointment to that position which +Miles Feversham had so confidently hoped, with Marcia's aid, to secure. + +"Well, that shows the President's good judgment!" Foster exclaimed and +held out his hand. "You are the one man broad enough to fit the place." +After a moment he said, "But it is going to leave you little time to +devote to your own affairs. How about the Aurora?" + +Tisdale did not reply directly. He rose and walked the length of the +floor. "That depends," he said and stopped with his hands in his pockets +to regard Foster with the upward, appraising look from under knitting +brows. "I presume, Stuart, you are through with the syndicate?" + +Foster colored. "I put in my resignation as mining engineer of the company +shortly after I came out, at the beginning of the year." + +"And while you were in the interior," pursued Tisdale, "you were sent to +the Aurora to make a report. What did you think of the mine?" + +"I thought Frederic Morganstein would be safe in bonding the property if +he could interest you in selling; it looked better to me than even Banks' +strike in the Iditarod. This season's clean-up should justify Weatherbee." + +"You mean in staying on at the risk of his reason and life?" + +Foster nodded; a shadow crossed his open face. "I mean everything but--his +neglect to make final provision for his wife." + +Tisdale frowned. "There is where you make your mistake. Weatherbee +persisted as he did, in the face of defeat, for her sake." + +Foster laughed mirthlessly. "The proofs are otherwise. Look at things, +once, from her side," he broke out. "Think what it means to her to see you +realizing, from a few hundred dollars you could easily spare, this big +fortune. I know you've been generous, but after all, of what benefit to +her is a bequest in your will, when now she has absolutely nothing but +that hole in the Columbia desert? Face it, be reasonable; you always have +been in every way but this. I don't see how you can be so hard, knowing +her now as you do." + +Tisdale turned to the window. "I have not been as hard as you think," he +said. "But it was necessary, in order to carry out Weatherbee's plans, to-- +do as I did." + +"That's the trouble." Foster rose from his chair and went a few steps +nearer Tisdale. "You are the sanest man in the world in every way but one. +But you can't think straight when it comes to Weatherbee. There is where +the north got its hold on you. Can't you see it? Look at it through my +eyes, or any one's. You did for David Weatherbee what one man in a +thousand might have done. And you've interested Lucky Banks in that +reclamation project; you've gone on yourself with his developments at the +Aurora. But there's one thing you've lost sight of--justice to Beatriz +Weatherbee. You've done your best for him, but he is dead. Hollis, old +man, I tell you he is dead. And she is living. You have sent her, the +proudest, sweetest woman on God's earth, to brave out her life in that +sage-brush wilderness. Can't you see you owe something to her?" + +Tisdale did not reply. But presently he went over to his safe and took out +the two documents that were fastened together. This time it was the will +he returned to its place; the other paper he brought to Foster. "I am +going to apologize for my estimate of Mrs. Weatherbee the night you sailed +north," he said. "My judgment then, before I had seen her, was unfair; you +were right. But I could hardly have done differently in any case. There +was danger that she would dispose of a half interest in the Aurora at +once, at any low price Frederic Morganstein might name. And you know the +syndicate's methods. I did not want a Morganstein partnership. But, later, +at the time I had my will drawn, I saw this way." + +Foster took the document, but he did not read it immediately; he stood +looking at Tisdale. "So you too were afraid of him. But I knew nothing +about Lucky Banks' option. It worried me, those endless nights up there in +the Iditarod, to think that in her extremity she might marry Frederic +Morganstein. There was a debt that pressed her. Did you know about that?" + +"Yes. She called it a 'debt of honor.'" + +"And you believed, as I did, that it was a direct loan to cover personal +expenses. After I came home, I found out she borrowed the money originally +of Miss Morganstein, to endow a bed in the children's hospital. Think of +it! And Mrs. Feversham, who took it off her sister's hands, transferred +the note to Morganstein." + +Tisdale did not say anything, but his rugged face worked a little, and he +turned again to look out into the night. Foster moved nearer the +reading-lamp and unfolded the document. It was a deed conveying, for a +consideration of one dollar, a half interest in the Aurora mine to Beatriz +Silva Gonzales Weatherbee; provided said half interest be not sold, or +parceled, or in any way disposed of for a period of five years. Her share +of the profits above operating expenses was to be paid in semi-annual +dividends, and, as in the will, Stuart Emory Foster was named as trustee. + +Foster folded the document slowly. His glance moved to Tisdale, and his +eyes played every swift change from contrition to gratitude. Hollis +turned. "I want you to take the management of the whole mine," he said +mellowly. "At a salary of five thousand a year to start with. And as soon +as you wish, you may deliver this deed." + +Foster's lips trembled a little. "You've made a mistake," he said +unsteadily. Then: "Why don't you take it to her yourself, Hollis?" he +asked. + +Tisdale was silent. He turned back to the window, and after an interval, +Foster went over and stood beside him, looking down on the harbor lights. +His arm went up around Tisdale's shoulder as he said: "If Weatherbee could +know everything now; if he had loved her, put her first always, as you +believe, do you think he would be any happier to see her punished like +this?" + +Still Tisdale was silent. Then Foster's arm fell, and he said desperately: +"Can't you see, Hollis? Weatherbee was greater than either of us, I grant +that. But the one thing in the world you are so sure he most desired--the +lack of which wrecked his life--the one thing I have tried for the hardest +and missed--has fallen to you. Go and ask her to sail to Alaska with you. +You'll need her up there to carry the honors for you. You prize her, you +love her,--you know you do." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE CALF-BOUND NOTEBOOK + + +The statue was great. So Tisdale told Lucky Banks, that day the prospector +met him at the station and they motored around through the park. The +sculptor himself had said he must send people to Weatherbee when they +wanted to see his best work. It was plain his subject had dominated him. +He had achieved with the freedom of pose the suggestion of decision and +power that had been characteristic of David Weatherbee. Quick intelligence +spoke in the face, yet the eyes held their expression of seeing a far +horizon. To Hollis, coming suddenly, as he did, upon the bronze figure in +the Wenatchee sunshine, it seemed to warm with a latent consciousness. He +felt poignantly a sense of David's personality, as he had known him at the +crowning period of his life. + +"It suits me," responded Banks. "My, yes, it's about as good a likeness as +we can get of Dave." He put on his hat, which involuntarily he had +removed, and started the car on around the curve. "But it's a mighty lot +like you. It crops out most in the eyes, seeing things off somewheres, +clear out of sight, and the way you carry your size. You was a team." + +"I am sorry I missed those services," said Tisdale. "I meant to be here." + +Banks nodded. "But it all went off fine. She agreed with me it was the +best place. If I was to go back to Alaska, and she was off somewheres on a +trip, it would be sure to get taken care of here in the park; and, +afterwards, when neither of us can come around to keep things in shape any +more. And I told her how the ranchers up and down the valley would get to +feeling acquainted and friendly with Dave, seeing his statue when they was +in town; and how the fruit-buyers and the pickers, and maybe the tourists, +coming and going, would remember about him and tell everybody they knew; +and how the school children would ask questions about the statue, thinking +he was in the same class with Lincoln and Washington, and be always +telling how he was the first man that looked ahead and saw what water in +this valley could do." + +"You were right, Johnny. The memory of him will live and grow with this +town when the rest of us are forgotten." + +They had turned from the park and went speeding up between the rows of new +poplars along the Alameda, and the prospector's eyes moved over the +reclaimed vale, where acres on acres of young fruit trees in cultivated +squares crowded out the insistent sage. "And this town for a fact is bound +to grow," he said. + +Then at last, when Cerberus loomed near, and they entered the gap, the +little man's big heart rose and his bleak face glowed, under Tisdale's +expressions of wonder and approbation at the advance the vineyards and +orchards had made, so soon after the consummation of the project. Fillers +of alfalfa stretched along the spillways from the main canal like a green +carpet; strawberry plants were blossoming; grapes reached out pale +tendrils and many leaves. But, at the top of the pocket, where the road +began to lift gently in a double curve across the front of the bench, +Hollis dismissed Banks and his red car and walked the rest of the way. On +the rim of the level, near the solitary pine tree, he stopped to look down +on the transformed vale, and suddenly, once more he seemed to feel David's +presence. It was as though he stood beside him and saw all this awakening, +this responding of the desert to his project. Almost it compensated--for +those four days. + +Almost! Tisdale drew his hand across his eyes and turned to follow the +drive between the rows of nodding narcissus. The irony of it! That +Weatherbee should have lived to find the Aurora; that, with many times the +needed capital in sight, he should have lost. The perfume of the flowers +filled the warm atmosphere; the music of running water was everywhere. As +he left the side of the flume, the silver note of the fountain came to him +from the patio, then, like a mirage between him and the low Spanish +building, rose that miniature house he had found in the Alaska wilderness, +with the small snow figure before it, holding a bundle in her arms. + +The vision passed. But that image with the bundle was the one unfinished +problem in the project he had come to solve. + +He entered the court and saw on his right an open door and, across the +wide room, Beatriz Weatherbee. She was seated at a quaint secretary on +which were several bundles of papers, and the familiar box that had +contained David's letters and watch. At the moment Tisdale discovered her, +she was absorbed in a photograph she held in her hands, but at the sound +of his step in the patio she turned and rose to meet him. Her face was +radiant, yet she looked at him through arrested tears. + +"I am sorry if I startled you," he said conventionally. "Banks brought me +from the station, but he left me to walk up the bench." + +"I should have seen the red car down the gap had I been at the window," +she replied, "but I was busy putting away papers. Freight has been moving +slowly over the Great Northern, and my secretary arrived only to-day. It +bore the trip very well, considering its age. It belonged to my +great-grandfather, Don Silva Gonzales. He brought it from Spain, but +Elizabeth says it might have been made for this room. She is walking +somewhere in the direction of the spring." + +While she spoke, she touched her cheeks and eyes swiftly with her +handkerchief and led the way to some chairs between the secretary and the +great window that overlooked the vale. Tisdale did not look at her +directly; he wished to give her time to cover the emotion he had +surprised. + +"I should say the room was built for Don Silva's desk," he amended. "And-- +do you know?--this view reminds me of a little picture of Granada, a +water-color of my mother's, that hung in my room when I was a boy. But +this pocket has changed some since we first saw it; your dragon's teeth +are drawn." + +"Isn't it marvelous how the expression of the whole mountain has altered?" +she responded. "There, at the end of the pines, that looked like a +bristling mane, the green gables of Mrs. Banks' home have changed the +contour. And the Chelan peaks are showing now beyond it. That day the +farther ones were obscured. But we watched the rain tramp up Hesperides +Vale, you remember, and swing off unexpectedly to the near summits. There +was a rainbow, and I said that perhaps somewhere in this valley I should +find my pot of gold." + +"I remember. And I shouldn't be surprised if you do." + +"Do you think I do not know I have already?" she asked. "Do you think I +have no appreciation, no gratitude? Why, even had I been too dull to see +it, Elizabeth would have told me that this house alone, to say nothing of +the project, must have cost a good deal of money; and that, no matter how +deeply Mr. Banks may have felt his obligation to David, it was not in +reason he should have allowed everything to revert to me. But I told him I +should consider the investment as a loan, and now, since he has let me +know the truth"--her voice fluctuated softly--"I shall make it a debt of +honor just the same. Sometime--I shall repay you." + +It was very clear to Tisdale that though she saw the property had so +greatly increased in value, and that the reclamation movement in the outer +vale made the tract readily salable, she no longer considered placing it +on the market. "I thought Banks showed you a way easily to cancel that +loan," he began. But meeting her look, he paused; his glance returned to +the window while he felt in his pocket for that deed Foster had refused to +bring. It was going to be more difficult than he had foreseen to offer it +to her. "Madam," and compelling his eyes to brave hers, he slightly +frowned, "your share in the Aurora mine should pay you enough in dividends +the next season or two to refund all that has been expended on this +project." + +"My share in the Aurora mine?" she repeated. "But I see, I see. You have +been maligned into giving me the interest David conveyed to you. Oh, Mr. +Banks told me about that. How you were attacked at the trial; the use that +was made of that Indian story in the magazine; that monstrous editorial +note." + +Tisdale smiled. "That had nothing to do with it. This deed was drawn last +year as soon as I reached Washington. David knew the value of the Aurora. +That is the reason he risked another winter there, in the face of--all-- +that threatened him. And when he felt the fight was going against him, he +turned his interest over to me, not only as security on the small loan I +advanced to him, but because I was his partner, and he could trust me to +finish, his development work and put the mine on a paying basis. That is +accomplished. There is no reason now that I should not transfer his share +back to you." + +He rose to give her the deed, and she took it with reluctance and glanced +it over. "I think it is arranged about as David would have wished," he +added. "He had confidence in Foster." + +She looked up. "Mr. Foster knows how I regard the matter. I told him I +would not accept an interest in the Aurora mine. I said all the gold in +Alaska could not compensate you for--what you did. Besides, I do not +believe as you do, Mr. Tisdale. I think David meant his share should be +finally yours." + +Hollis was silent. He stood looking off again over Cerberus to the loftier +Chelan peaks. For a moment she sat regarding his broad back; her lip +trembled a little, and a tenderness, welling from depths of compassion, +brimmed her eyes. "You see I cannot possibly accept it," she said, and +rose to return the deed to him. + +She had forgotten the photograph, which dropped from her lap, and Tisdale +stooped to pick it up. It was lying face upward on the floor, and he saw +it was the picture of a child; then involuntarily he stopped to scan it, +and it came over him this small face, so beautifully molded, so full of +intelligence and charm, was a reproduction of Weatherbee in miniature; yet +retouched by a blend of the mother; her eyes under David's level brows. He +put the picture in her hand and an unspoken question flashed in the look +that met hers. + +Since he had not relieved her of the deed, she laid it down on the +secretary to take the photograph. + +"This is a picture of little Silva," she said. "It would have made a +difference about the share in the Aurora if he had lived. He must have +been provided for. David would have seen to that." + +"There was a child!" His voice rang softly like a vibrant string. "You +spoke of him that night you were lost above Scenic Springs, but I thought +it was a fancy of delirium. It seemed incredible that David should not +have told me if he had a son." + +She did not answer directly, but nodded a little and moved back to her +chair. + +"He was christened Silva Falconer, for my mother's father and mine," she +said. "They both were greatly disappointed in not having a son. I am going +to tell you about him, only it will be a long story; please be seated. And +it would be easier if you would not look at me." + +She waited while he settled again in his chair and turned his eyes to the +blue mountain tops. She was still able to see his face. "Silva was over +six months old when this photograph was taken," she began. "It was lost, +with the letter to David that enclosed it, on some terrible Alaska trail. +Afterwards, when the mailbag was recovered and the letter was returned to +me through the dead-letter office, two years had passed, and our little +boy was--gone. You must understand I expected David back that first +winter, and when word came that his expedition to the interior had failed, +and he had arranged to stay in the north in order to make an early start +in the following spring, I did not want to spoil his plans. So I answered +as gayly as I could and told him it would give me an opportunity to make a +long visit home to California. I went far south to Jacinta and Carlos. +They were caretakers at the old hacienda. My mother had managed that, with +the people who bought the rancheria and built the hotel and sanitarium. +Jacinta had been her nurse and mine. She was very experienced. But Silva +was born lame. He could not use his lower limbs. A great specialist, who +came to the hotel, said he might possibly recover under treatment, but if +he should not in a year or two, certain cords must be cut to allow him to +sit in a wheel chair, and in that case I must give up hope he would ever +walk. But--the treatment was very painful--Jacinta could not bear to-- +torture him; I could not afford a trained nurse; so--I did everything. He +was the dearest baby; so lovable. He never was cross, but he used to +nestle his cheek in my neck and explain how it hurt and coax me not to. +Not in words, but I understood--every sound. And he understood me, I know. +'You are going to blame me, by and by, if I stop,' I would say, over and +over; 'you are going to blame me for bringing you into the world.'" + +Her voice broke; her breast labored with short, quick breaths, as though +she were climbing some sharp ascent. Tisdale did not look at her; his face +stirred and settled in grim lines. + +"I could not write all this about our baby," she went on, "and I told +myself if the treatment failed it would be soon enough for David to know +of Silva when he came home. There was nothing he could do, and to share my +anxiety might hamper him in his work. He wrote glowingly of the new placer +he had discovered, and that was a relief to me, for I was obliged to ask +him to send me a good deal of money,--the specialist's account had been so +large. I believed he would start south when the Alaska season closed, for +he had written I might expect him then, with his pockets full of gold +dust, and I made my letters entertaining--or tried to--so he need not feel +any need to hurry. At last, one morning in the bath, when Silva was five +months old, he moved his right limb voluntarily. I shall never forget. It +renewed my courage and my faith. At the end of another month he moved the +left one, and after that, gradually, full use came to them both. It was +then, when the paralysis was mastered, I sent the letter that was lost. At +the same time David wrote that he must spend a second winter in Alaska. +But before that news reached me, my reaction set in. I was so ill I was +carried, unconscious, to the sanitarium. And, while I was there, Silva, +who had grown so sturdy and was creeping everywhere, followed his kitten +into the garden, and a little later old Jacinta found him in the arroyo. +There was only a little water running but--he had fallen--face down." + +Tisdale rose. Meeting her look, the emotion that was the surface stir of +shaken depths swept his face. Then, as though to blot out the +recollection, she pressed her fingers to her eyes. + +"And David was thousands of miles away," he said. "You braved that alone, +like the soldier you are." + +"When I read David's letter," she went on, "he was winter-bound in the +interior. A reply could not have reached him until spring. And meantime +Elizabeth Morganstein came with her mother to the hotel. We had been, +friends at boarding-school, and she persuaded me to go north to Seattle +with them. Later, after the _Aquila_ was launched in the spring, I was +invited to join the family on a cruise up the inside passage and across +the top of the Pacific to Prince William Sound. It seemed so much easier +to tell David everything than to write, so--I only let him know I intended +to sail to Valdez with friends and would go on by mail steamer to Seward +to visit him. That had been his last post-office address, and I believed +he expected to be in that neighborhood when the season opened. But our +stay was lengthened at Juneau, where we were entertained by acquaintances +of Mrs. Feversham's, and we spent a long time around Taku glacier and the +Muir. I missed my steamer connections, and there was not another boat due +within a week. But the weather was delightful, and Mr. Morganstein +suggested taking me on in the yacht. Then Mrs. Feversham proposed a side +trip along Columbia glacier and into College fiord. It was all very +wonderful to me, and inspiring; the salt air had been a restorative from +the start. And I saw no reason to hurry the party. David would understand. +So, the second mail steamer passed us, and finally, when we reached +Seward, David had gone back to the interior. The rest--you know." + +"You mean," said Tisdale slowly, "you heard about Mrs. Barbour." + +She bowed affirmatively. The color swept in a wave to her face; her lashes +fell. + +"Mrs. Feversham heard about it, how David had brought her down from the +interior. I saw the cabin he had furnished for her, and she herself, +sewing at the window. Her face was beautiful." + +There was a silence, then Hollis said: "So you came back on the _Aquila_ +to Seattle. But you wrote; you explained about the child?" + +She shook her head. "I waited to hear from David first. I did not know, +then, that the letter with Silva's picture was lost." + +Tisdale squared his shoulders, looking off again to the snow-peaks above +Cerberus. + +"Consider!" She rose with an outward movement of her hands, like one +groping in the dark for a closed door. "It was a terrible mistake, but I +did not know David as you knew him. My father, who was dying, arranged our +marriage. I was very young and practically without money in a big city; +there was not another relative in the world who cared what became of me. +And, in any case, even had I known the meaning of love and marriage, in +that hour,--when I was losing him,--I must have agreed to anything he +asked. We had been everything to each other; everything. But I've been a +proud woman; sensitive to slight. It was in the blood--both sides. And I +had been taught early to cover my feelings. My father had adored my +mother; he used to remind me she was patrician to the finger-tips, and +that I should not wear my heart on my sleeve if I wished to be like her. +And, when I visited my grandfather, Don Silva, in the south, he would say: +'Beatriz, remember the blood of generations of soldiers is bottled in you; +carry yourself like the last Gonzales, with some fortitude.' So--at +Seward--I remembered." + +Her voice, while she said this, almost failed, but every word reached +Tisdale. He felt, without seeing, the something that was appeal yet not +appeal, that keyed her whole body and shone like a changing light and +shade in her face. "I told myself I would not be sacrificed, effaced," she +went on. "It was my individuality against Fate. Since little Silva was +dead, my life was my own to shape as I might. I did not hear from David +for a long time; he wrote less and less frequently, more briefly every +year. He never spoke of the baby, and I believed he must have heard +through some friend in California of Silva's death. Nothing was left to +tell. He never spoke of his home-coming, and I did not; I dreaded it too +much. Whenever the last steamers of the season were due, I nerved myself +to look the passenger lists over; and when his name was missing, it was a +reprieve. Neither my father nor my grandfather had believed in divorce; in +their eyes it was disgrace. It seemed right, for Silva's sake, out of the +rich placers David continued to find, he should contribute to my support. +So--I lived my life--the best I was able. I had many interests, and always +one morning of each week I spent among the children at the hospital where +I had endowed the Silva Weatherbee bed." + +She paused so long that Tisdale turned. She seemed very tired. The patient +lines, fine as a thread, deepened perceptibly at the corners of her mouth. +He hurried to save her further explanation. "Foster told me," he said. "It +was a beautiful memorial. Sometime I should like to go there with you. I +know you met the first expense of that endowment with a loan from Miss +Morganstein, which of course you expected to cancel soon, when you had +found David at Seward. I understand how, when the note came into her +brother's hands, your only chance to meet it at once was through a sale of +this land. And I have thought since I knew this, that evening aboard the +_Aquila_, when you risked Don Silva's ruby, it was to make the yearly +payment at the hospital." + +"Yes, it was. But the option money from Mr. Banks made it possible to meet +all my debts. I did not know they were only assumed--by you. Though, +looking back, I wonder I failed to see the truth." + +With this she turned and took up the photograph which she had laid on the +secretary, and while her glance rested on the picture, Tisdale's regarded +her face. "So," he said then, "when the lost letter came back to you, you +kept it; Weatherbee never knew." + +She looked up. "Yes, I kept it. By that time I believed little Silva's +coming and going could make little difference to him." + +"And you went on believing all you had heard at Seward?" + +She bowed again affirmatively. "Until you told me the true story about +Mrs. Barbour that night on the mountain road. I know now that once he must +have loved me, as you believed. This house, which is built so nearly like +the old hacienda where I was born, must have been planned for me. But, +afterwards, when he thought I had failed him, when he contrasted me with +Mrs. Barbour, her devotion to her husband, it was different." + +She laid the photograph down again to draw the tin box forward. The +letters were on the desk with David's watch, but there still remained a +calf-bound notebook, such as surveyors use in field work. It fitted snugly +enough for a false bottom, and she was obliged to reverse the box to +remove it, prying slightly with a paper-knife. Tisdale's name was lettered +across the cover, and the first pages were written in his clear, fine +draughtsman's hand; then the characters changed to Weatherbee's. She +turned to the last ones. + +"This is a book you left among some old magazines at David's camp," she +explained. "He carried it with him until he discovered the Aurora. He +began to use it as a sort of diary. Sometime you will want to read it all, +but please read these last notes and this letter now." + +She waited a moment, then as he took up the letter and began to unfold it, +she turned and went out into the patio. + +The letter was from Lilias Barbour. It was friendly, earnest, full of her +child and a gentle solicitude for Weatherbee. Hollis read it through +twice, slowly. The last paragraph he went over a third time. "You are +staying too long in that bleak country,"--so it ran. "Come back to the +States, at least for a winter. If you do not, in the spring, Bee and I are +going to Alaska to learn the reason. We owe it to you." + +The date was the end of August, of the same year David had written that +final letter which reached him the following spring at Nome. But the date +on the open page of the notebook was the fifteenth of January of that +winter, his last at the Aurora mine. + +"Last night I dreamed of Beatriz," it began. "I thought I went down to +Seward to meet her, and when the steamer came, I saw her standing on the +forward deck, waving her hand gaily and smiling just as she did that day I +left her at Seattle so long ago. Then, as the ship came alongside the +dock, and she walked down the gangway, and I took her hand to kiss her, +her face suddenly changed. She was not Beatriz; she was Lilias. My God, if +it had been Lilias! Why, she would be here now, she and little Bee, +filling this frozen cabin with summer." + +The final date was two months later. + +"Still snowing," it ran. "Snowing. God, how I want to break away from this +hole. Get out somewhere, where men are alive and doing things. Nothing is +moving here but the snow and those two black buttes out there. They keep +crowding closer through the smother, watching everything I do. I've warned +them to keep back. They must, or I'll blow them off the face of the earth. +Oh, I'll do it, if it takes all that's left of the dynamite. I won't have +them threatening Lilias when she comes. She is coming; she said she would, +unless I went out to the States. And I can't go; I haven't heard from +Tisdale. I never have told her about those buttes. It's unusual; she might +not believe it; she would worry and think, perhaps, I am growing like +Barbour. God! Suppose I am. Suppose she should come up here in this +wilderness to find me a wreck like him. She must not come. I've got to +prevent it. But I've offered my half interest in the Aurora to Tisdale. He +will take it. He never failed me yet." + +Tisdale closed the book and laid it down. Furrows seamed his face, +changing, re-forming, to the inner upheaval. After awhile, he lifted +Weatherbee's watch from the desk and mechanically pressed the spring. The +lower case opened, but the picture he remembered was not there. In its +place was the face of the other child, his namesake, "Bee." + +Out in the patio the pool rippled ceaselessly; the fountain threw its +silver ribbon of spray, and Beatriz waited, listening, with her eyes +turned to the room she had left. At last she heard his step. It was the +tread of a man whose decision was made. She sank down on the curb of the +basin near one of the palms. Behind her an open door, creaking in the +light wind, swung wide, and beyond it the upper flume stretched back to +the natural reservoir where she had been imprisoned by the fallen pine +tree. His glance, as he crossed the court, moved from her through this +door and back to her face. + +"You were right," he said. "But it would have been different if David had +known about his child. His great heart was starved." + +She was silent. Her glance fell to the fountain. A ray of sunshine +slanting across it formed a rainbow. + +"But my mistake was greater than yours," he went on, and his voice struck +its minor chord; "I have no excuse for throwing away those four days. I +never can repair that, but I pledge myself to make you forget my injustice +to you." + +At this she rose. "You were not unjust--knowing David as you did. You +taught me how fine, how great he was. Silva--would have been proud of his +name." + +There was another silence. Tisdale looked off again through the open door +to the distant basin, and her glance returned to the fountain. "See!" she +exclaimed. "A double rainbow!" + +"Fate is with us again," he replied. "She's promising a better fight. But +there is one debt more, soldier," and, catching her swift look, he saw the +sparkles break softly in her eyes. "My ship sails for Alaska the tenth; I +shall stay indefinitely, and I want you to pay me--in full--before I go." + + +THE END + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Rim of the Desert, by Ada Woodruff Anderson + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13343 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..df6b705 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #13343 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13343) diff --git a/old/13343-8.txt b/old/13343-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..965befb --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13343-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12876 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Rim of the Desert, by Ada Woodruff Anderson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Rim of the Desert + +Author: Ada Woodruff Anderson + +Release Date: August 31, 2004 [EBook #13343] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RIM OF THE DESERT *** + + + + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Richard Prairie and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + +[Illustration: He worked tirelessly, as though he was determined to +infuse her numb veins with his own vigor. FRONTISPIECE.] + + +THE RIM OF THE DESERT + +BY + +ADA WOODRUFF ANDERSON + +AUTHOR OF "THE STRAIN OF WHITE," "THE HEART OF THE RED FIRS," ETC. + +WITH FRONTISPIECE BY MONTE CREWS + + + +1915 + + + +_To the Memory of_ + +MY MOTHER + +A gentle and appreciative critic, the only one, perhaps, who re-read my +previous books with pleasure and found no flaw in them, and who would have +had a greater interest than any other in this publication. + + + + +FOREWORD + + +The desert of this story is that semi-arid region east of the upper +Columbia. It is cut off from the moisture laden winds of the Pacific by +the lofty summits of the Cascade Mountains which form its western rim, and +for many miles the great river crowds the barrier, winding, breaking in +rapids, seeking a way through. To one approaching this rim from the dense +forests of the westward slopes, the sage grown levels seem to stretch +limitless into the far horizon, but they are broken by hidden coulees; in +propitious seasons reclaimed areas have yielded phenominal crops of wheat, +and under irrigation the valley of one of the two tributaries from the +west, wherein lies Hesperides Vale, has become a garden spot of the world. + +To the initiated I wish to say if in the chapters touching on the Alaska +coal cases I have followed too literally the statements of prominent men, +it was not in an effort to portray them but merely to represent as clearly +as possible the Alaska situation. + +ADA WOODRUFF ANDERSON. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I THE MAN WHO NEVER CAME BACK + II THE QUESTION + III FOSTER TOO + IV SNOQUALMIE PASS AND A BROKEN AXLE + V APPLES OF EDEN + VI NIP AND TUCK + VII A NIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN ROAD + VIII THE BRAVEST WOMAN HE EVER KNEW + IX THE DUNES OF THE COLUMBIA + X A WOMAN'S HEART-STRINGS + XI THE LOOPHOLE + XII "WHOM THE GODS WOULD DESTROY" + XIII "A LITTLE STREAK OF LUCK" + XIV ON BOARD THE AQUILA + XV THE STORY OF THE TENAS PAPOOSE + XVI THE ALTERNATIVE + XVII "ALL THESE THINGS WILL I GIVE THEE" + XVIII THE OPTION + XIX LUCKY BANKS AND THE PINK CHIFFON + XX KERNEL AND PEACH + XXI FOSTER'S HOUR + XXII AS MAN TO MAN + XXIII THE DAY OF PUBLICATION + XXIV SNOWBOUND IN THE ROCKIES AND "FIT AS A MOOSE" + XXV THE IDES OF MARCH + XXVI THE EVERLASTING DOOR + XXVII KISMET, AN ACT OF GOD +XXVIII SURRENDER + XXIX BACK TO HESPERIDES VALE + XXX THE JUNIOR DEFENDANT + XXXI TISDALE OF ALASKA--AND WASHINGTON, D.C. + XXXII THE OTHER DOCUMENT +XXXIII THE CALF-BOUND NOTEBOOK + + +THE RIM OF THE DESERT + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE MAN WHO NEVER CAME BACK + + +It is in October, when the trails over the wet tundra harden, and before +the ice locks Bering Sea, that the Alaska exodus sets towards Seattle; but +there were a few members of the Arctic Circle in town that first evening +in September to open the clubhouse on the Lake Boulevard with an informal +little supper for special delegate Feversham, who had arrived on the +steamer from the north, on his way to Washington. + +The clubhouse, which was built of great, hewn logs, with gabled eaves, +stood in a fringe of firs, and an upper rear balcony afforded a broad +outlook of lake and forest, with the glaciered heights of the Cascade +Mountains breaking a far horizon. The day had been warm, but a soft +breeze, drawing across this veranda through the open door, cooled the +assembly room, and, lifting one of the lighter hangings of Indian-wrought +elk leather, found the stairs and raced with a gentle rustle through the +lower front entrance back into the night. It had caressed many familiar +things on its way, for the walls were embellished with trophies from the +big spaces where winds are born. There were skins of polar and Kodiak +bear; of silver and black fox; there were antlered heads set above the +fireplace and on the rough, bark-seamed pillars that supported the +unceiled roof. A frieze of pressed and framed Alaska flora finished the +low gallery which extended around three sides of the hall, and the massive +chairs, like the polished banquet board, were of crocus-yellow Alaska +cedar. + +The delegate, who had come out to tide-water over the Fairbanks-Valdez +trail, was describing with considerable heat the rigors of the journey. +The purple parka, which was the regalia of the Circle, seemed to increase +his prominence of front and intensified the color in his face to a sort of +florid ripeness. + +"Yes, gentlemen," he continued, thumping the table with a stout hand and +repeating the gesture slowly, while the glasses trembled, "Alaska's crying +need is a railroad; a single finished line from the most northern harbor +open to navigation the whole year--and that is Prince William Sound-- +straight through to the Tanana Valley and the upper Yukon. Already the +first problem has been solved; we have pierced the icy barrier of the +Coast Range. All we are waiting for is further right of way; the right to +the forests, that timber may be secured for construction work; the right +to mine coal for immediate use. But, gentlemen, we may grow gray waiting. +What do men four thousand miles away, men who never saw Alaska, care about +our needs?" He leaned back in his chair, while his glance moved from face +to face and rested, half in challenge, on the member at the foot of the +board. "These commissioners appointed off there in Washington," he added. +"These carpet-baggers from the little States beyond the Mississippi!" + +Hollis Tisdale, who had spent some of the hardest years of his Alaska +career in the service of the Government, met the delegate's look with a +quiet humor in his eyes. + +"It seems to me," he said, and his deep, expressive voice instantly held +the attention of every one, "that such a man, with intelligence and +insight, of course, stands the surest chance of giving general +satisfaction in the end. He is at least disinterested, while the best of +us, no matter how big he is, how clear-visioned, is bound to take his own +district specially to heart. Prince William Sound alone has hundreds of +miles of coast-line and includes more than one fine harbor with an +ambitious seaport." + +At this a smile rippled around the table, and Miles Feversham, who was the +attorney for one of the most ambitious syndicates of promoters in the +north, gave his attention to the menu. But Tisdale, having spoken, turned +his face to the open balcony door. His parka was thrown back, showing an +incongruous breadth of stiff white bosom, yet he was the only man present +who wore the garment with grace. In that moment the column of throat +rising from the purple folds, the upward, listening pose of the fine head, +in relief against the bearskin on the wall behind his chair, suggested a +Greek medallion. His brown hair, close-cut, waved at the temples; lines +were chiseled at the corners of his eyes and, with a lighter touch, about +his mouth; yet his face, his whole compact, muscular body, gave an +impression of youth--youth and power and the capacity for great endurance. +His friends said the north never had left a mark of its grip on Tisdale. +The life up there that had scarred, crippled, wrecked most of them seemed +only to have mellowed him. + +"But," resumed Feversham quickly, "I shall make a stiff fight at +Washington; I shall force attention to our suspended land laws; demand the +rights the United States allows her western territories; I shall ask for +the same concessions that were the making of the Oregon country; and first +and last I shall do all I can to loosen the strangling clutch of +Conservation." He paused, while his hand fell still more heavily on the +table, and the glasses jingled anew. "And, gentlemen, the day of the +floating population is practically over; we have our settled communities, +our cities; we are ready for a legislative body of our own; the time has +come for Home Rule. But the men who make our laws must be familiar with +the country, have allied interests. Gentlemen,"--his voice, dropping its +aggressive tone, took a honeyed insistence,--"we want in our first +executive a man who knows us intimately, who has covered our vast +distances, whose vision has broadened; a man big enough to hold the +welfare of all Alaska at heart." + +The delegate finished this period with an all-embracing smile and, nodding +gently, leaned back again in his chair. But in the brief silence that +followed, he experienced a kind of shock. Foster, the best known mining +engineer from Prince William Sound to the Tanana, had turned his eyes on +Tisdale; and Banks, Lucky Banks, who had made the rich strike in the +Iditarod wilderness, also looked that way. Then instantly their thought +was telegraphed from face to face. When Feversham allowed his glance to +follow the rest, it struck him as a second shock that Tisdale was the only +one on whom the significance of the moment was lost. + +The interval passed. Tisdale stirred, and his glance, coming back from the +door, rested on a dish that had been placed before him. "Japanese +pheasant!" he exclaimed. The mellowness glowed in his face. He lifted his +eyes, and the delegate, meeting that clear, direct gaze, dropped his own +to his plate. "Think of it! Game from the other side of the Pacific. They +look all right, but--do you know?"--the lines deepened humorously at the +corners of his mouth--"nothing with wings ever seems quite as fine to me +as ptarmigan." + +"Ptarmigan!" Feversham suspended his fork in astonishment. "Not +ptarmigan?" + +"Yes," persisted Tisdale gently, "ptarmigan; and particularly the ones +that nest in Nunatak Arm." + +There was a pause, while for the first time his eyes swept the Circle. He +still held the attention of every one, but with a difference; the +tenseness had given place to a pleased expectancy. + +Then Foster said: "That must have been on some trip you made, while you +were doing geological work around St. Elias." + +Tisdale shook his head. "No, it was before that; the year I gave up +Government work to have my little fling at prospecting. You were still in +college. Every one was looking for a quick route to the Klondike then, and +I believed if I could push through the Coast Range from Yakutat Bay to the +valley of the Alsek, it would be smooth going straight to the Yukon. An +old Indian I talked with at the mission told me he had made it once on a +hunting trip, and Weatherbee--you all remember David Weatherbee--was eager +to try it with me. The Tlinket helped us with the outfit, canoeing around +the bay and up into the Arm to his starting point across Nunatak glacier. +But it took all three of us seventy-two days to pack the year's supplies +over the ice. We tramped back and forth in stages, twelve hundred miles. +We hadn't been able to get dogs, and in the end, when winter overtook us +in the, mountains, we cached the outfit and came out." + +"And never went back." Banks laughed, a shrill, mirthless laugh, and added +in a higher key: "Lost a whole year and--the outfit." + +Tisdale nodded slowly. "All we gained was experience. We had plenty of +that to invest the next venture over the mountains from Prince William +Sound. But--do you know?--I always liked that little canoe trip around +from Yakutat. I can't tell you how fine it is in that upper fiord; big +peaks and ice walls growing all around. Yes."--he nodded again, while the +genial wrinkles deepened--"I've seen mountains grow. We had a shock once +that raised the coast-line forty-five feet. And another time, while we +were going back to the village for a load, a small glacier in a hanging +valley high up, perhaps two thousand feet, toppled right out of its cradle +into the sea. It stirred things some and noise"--he shook his head with an +expressive sound that ended in a hissing whistle. "But it missed the +canoe, and the wave it made lifted us and set us safe on top of a little +rocky island." He paused again, laughing softly. "I don't know how we kept +right side up, but we did. Weatherbee was great in an emergency." + +A shadow crossed his face. He looked off to the end of the room. + +"I guess you both understood a canoe," said Banks. His voice was still +high-pitched, like that of a man under continued stress, and his eyes +burned in his withered, weather-beaten face like the vents of buried +fires. "But likely it was then, while you was freighting the outfit around +to the glacier, you came across those ptarmigan." + +Tisdale's glance returned, and the humor played again softly at the +corners of his eyes. "I had forgotten about those birds. It was this way. +I made the last trip in the canoe alone, for the mail and a small load, +principally ammunition and clothing, while Weatherbee and the Tlinket +pushed ahead on one of those interminable stages over the glacier. And on +the way back, I was caught in fog. It rolled in, layer on layer, while I +felt for the landing; but I managed to find the place and picked up the +trail we had worn packing over the ice. And I lost it; probably in a new +thaw that had opened and glazed over since I left. Anyhow, in a little +while I didn't know where I was. I had given my compass to Weatherbee, and +there was no sun to take bearings from, not a landmark in sight. Nothing +but fog and ice, and it all looked alike. The surface was too hard to take +my impressions, so I wasn't able to follow my own tracks back to the +landing. But I had to keep moving, it was so miserably cold; I hardly let +myself rest at night; and that fog hung on five days. The third evening I +found myself on the water-front, and pretty soon I stumbled on my canoe. I +was down to a mighty small allowance of crackers and cheese then, but I +parcelled it out in rations for three days and started once more along the +shore for Yakutat. The next night I was traveling by a sort of sedge when +I heard ptarmigan. It sounded good to me, and I brought my canoe up and +stepped out. I couldn't see, but I could hear those birds stirring and +cheeping all around. I lay down and lifted my gun ready to take the first +that came between me and the sky." His voice had fallen to an undernote, +and his glance rested an absent moment on the circle of light on the +rafter above an electric lamp. "When it did, and I blazed, the whole flock +rose. I winged two. I had to grope for them in the reeds, but I found +them, and I made a little fire and cooked one of them in a tin pail I +carried in the canoe. But when I had finished that supper and pushed off-- +do you know?"--his look returned, moving humorously from face to face--"I +was hungrier than I had been before. And I just paddled back and cooked +the other one." + +There was a stir along the table; a sighing breath. Then some one laughed, +and Banks piped his strained note. "And," he said after a moment, "of +course you kept on to that missionary camp and waited for the fog to +lift." + +Tisdale shook his head. "After that supper, there wasn't any need; I +turned back to the glacier. And before I reached the landing, I heard +Weatherbee's voice booming out on the thick silence like a siren at sea; +piloting me straight to that one dip in the ice-wall." + +He looked off again to the end of the room, absently, with the far-sighted +gaze of one accustomed to travel great solitudes. It was as though he +heard again that singing voice. Then suddenly his expression changed. His +eyes had rested on a Kodiak bearskin that hung against a pillar at the top +of the gallery steps. The corner was unlighted, in heavy shadow, but a +hand reaching from behind had drawn the rug slightly aside, and its +whiteness on the brown fur, the flash of a jewelled ring, caught his +attention. The next moment the hand was withdrawn. He gave it no more +thought then, but a time came afterward when he remembered it. + +"Weatherbee had noticed that fog-bank," he went on, "from high up the +glacier. It worried him so he finally turned back to meet me, and he had +waited so long he was down to his last biscuit. I was mighty reckless +about that second ptarmigan, but the water the birds were cooked in made a +fine soup. And the fog broke, and we overtook the Tlinket and supplies the +next morning." + +There was another stir along the table, then Foster said: "That was a +great voice of Weatherbee's. I've seen it hearten a whole crowd on a mean +trail, like the bugle and fife of a regiment." + +"So have I." It was Lucky Banks who spoke. "So have I. And Weatherbee was +always ready to stand by a poor devil in a tight place. When the frost got +me"--he held up a crippled and withered hand--"it was Dave Weatherbee who +pulled me through. We were mushing it on the same stampede from Fairbanks +to Ruby Creek, and he never had seen me before. It had come to the last +day, and we were fighting it out in the teeth of a blizzard. You all know +what that means. In the end we just kept the trail, following the +hummocks. Sometimes it was a pack under a drift, or maybe a sled; and +sometimes it was a hand reaching up through the snow, frozen stiff. Then +it came my turn, and I lay down in my tracks. But Weatherbee stopped to +work over me. He wouldn't go on. He said if I was determined to stay in +that cemet'ry, I could count on his company. And when he got me on my +feet, he just started 'Dixie,' nice and lively, and the next I knew he had +me all wound up and set going again, good as new." + +His laugh, like the treble notes of the Arctic wind, gave an edge to the +story. + +Presently Foster said: "That was Weatherbee; I never knew another such +man. Always effacing himself when it came to a choice; always ready to +share a good thing. Why, he made some of his friends rich, and yet in the +end, after seven years of it, seven years of struggle of the worst kind, +what did he have to show?" + +"Nothing, Foster; nothing but seven feet of earth up there on the edge of +the wilderness." Tisdale's voice vibrated gently; an emotion like the +surface stir of shaken depths crossed his face. "And a tract of unimproved +desert down here in eastern Washington," he added. + +"And Mrs. Weatherbee," supplemented Feversham quickly. "You mustn't forget +her. Any man must have counted such a wife his most valuable asset. Here's +to her! Young, charming, clever; a typical American beauty!" He stopped to +drain his glass, then went on. "I remember the day Weatherbee sailed for +Alaska. I was taking the same steamer, and she was on the dock, with all +Seattle, to see the Argonauts away. It was a hazardous journey into the +Unknown in those days, and scenes were going on all around--my own wife +was weeping on my shoulder--but Mrs. Weatherbee, and she had just been +married then, bridged the parting like a little trump. 'Well, David,' she +said, with a smile to turn a priest's head, 'good-by and good luck. Come +back when you've made your fortune, and I'll help you to spend it.'" + +The delegate, laughing deeply, reached for the port decanter to refill his +glass. No one else saw the humor of the story, though the man with the +maimed hand again gave an edge to the silence that followed with his +strained, mirthless laugh. Presently he said: "But he never came back." + +"No." It was Foster who answered. "No, but he was on his way out to the +States at last, when the end came. I don't understand it. It seems +incredible that Weatherbee, who had won through so many times, handicapped +by the waifs and strays of the trail,--Weatherbee, to whom the Susitna +country was an open scroll,--should have perished as he did. But it was +you who found him, Hollis. Come, tell us all about it." + +Tisdale shook his head. "Some other time, Foster. It's a long story and +not the kind to tell here." + +"Go on! Go on!" The urging came from many, and Banks added in his high, +tense key; "I guess we can stand it. Most of us saw the iron side of +Alaska before we saw the golden." + +"Well, then," Tisdale began reluctantly, "I must take you back a year. I +was completing trail reconnaissance from the new Alaska Midway surveys in +the Susitna Valley, through Rainy Pass, to connect with the mail route +from the interior to Nome, and, to avoid returning another season, kept my +party late in the field. It was the close of September when we struck +Seward Peninsula and miserably cold, with gales sweeping in from Bering +Sea. The grass had frozen, and before we reached a cache of oats I had +relied on, most of our horses perished; we arrived at Nome too late for +the last steamer of the year. That is how I came to winter there, and why +a letter Weatherbee had written in October was so long finding me. It was +forwarded from Seattle with other mail I cabled for, back to Prince +William Sound, over the Fairbanks-Valdez trail, and out again by the +winter route three thousand miles to Nome. It was the middle of March when +I received it, and he had asked me to buy his half interest in the Aurora +mine. He needed the money to go out to the States." + +Tisdale's voice broke a little; and for a moment he looked off through the +open door. "Perhaps some of you remember I grub-staked him for a half +share when he left the Tanana to prospect down along the Alaska Range. +After he located, I forwarded him small amounts several times to carry on +development work. I never had been on the ground, but he explained he was +handicapped by high water and was trying to divert the channel of a creek. +In that last letter he said he had carried the scheme nearly through; the +next season would pay my money back and more; the Aurora would pan out the +richest strike he had ever made. But that did not trouble me. I knew if +Weatherbee had spent two years on that placer, the gravels had something +to show. The point that weighed was that he was willing to go home at last +to the States. I had urged him before I put up the grub-stake, but he had +answered: 'Not until I have made good.' It was hardly probable that, +failing to hear from me, he had sold out to any one else. From his +description, the Aurora was isolated; hundreds of miles from the new +Iditarod camp; he hadn't a neighbor in fifty miles. So I forwarded his +price and arranged with the mail carrier to send a special messenger on +from the nearest post. In the letter I wrote to explain my delay, I +sketched a plan of my summer's work and told him how sorry I was I had +missed seeing him while the party was camped below Rainy Pass. Though I +couldn't have spared the time to go to the Aurora, he might have found me, +had I sent an Indian with word. It was the first time I had gone through +his orbit without letting him know. + +"But after that carrier had gone, Weatherbee's letter kept worrying me. It +wasn't like him to complain, yet he had written he was tired of the +eternal winters; he couldn't stand those everlasting snow peaks sometimes, +they got to crowding him so; they kept him awake when he needed sleep, +threatening him. 'I've got to break away from them, Hollis,' he said, 'and +get where it's warm once more; and when my blood begins to thaw, I'll show +you I can make a go of things.' Then he reminded me of the land he owned +down here on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains. The soil was the +finest volcanic ash; the kind that grew the vineyards on Vesuvius, and he +meant to plant it with grapes; with orchards, too, on the bench levels. +All the tract needed was water, but there was a natural reservoir and +spring on a certain high plateau that could be easily tapped with a +flume." + +Tisdale paused while his glance moved slowly, singling out those who had +known Weatherbee. A great gentleness rested on his face, and when he went +on, it crept like a caress through his voice. "Most of you have heard him +talk about that irrigation scheme; some of you have seen those plans he +used to-work on, long Alaska nights. It was his dream for years. He went +north in the beginning just to accumulate capital enough to swing that +project. But the more I studied that letter, the more confident I was he +had stayed his limit; he was breaking, and he knew it. That was why he was +so anxious to turn the Aurora over to me and get to the States. Finally I +decided to go with the mail carrier and on to the mine. If Weatherbee was +still there, as I believed, we would travel to Fairbanks together and take +the Valdez trail out to the open harbor on Prince William Sound. I picked +up a team of eight good huskies--the weather was clear with a moon in her +second quarter--and I started light, cutting my stops short; but when I +left Nome I had lost four days." + +Hollis paused another interval, looking off again through the open door, +while the far-sighted expression gathered in his eyes. It was as though +his listeners also in that moment saw those white solitudes stretching +limitless under the Arctic night. + +"I never caught up with that carrier," he went on, "and the messenger he +sent on broke trail for me all the way to the Aurora. I met him on his +return trip, thirty hours out from the mine. But he had found Weatherbee +there, and had a deed for me which David had asked him to see recorded and +forwarded to me at Nome. It was a relief to hear he had been able to +attend to these business matters, but I wondered why he had not brought +the deed himself, since he must come that way to strike the Fairbanks +trail, and why the man had not waited to travel with him. Then he told me +Weatherbee had decided to use the route I had sketched in my letter. The +messenger had tried to dissuade him; he had reminded him there were no +road-houses, and that the traces left by my party must have been wiped out +by the winter snows. But Weatherbee argued that the new route would +shorten the distance to open tide-water hundreds of miles; that his +nearest neighbors were in that direction, fifty miles to the south; and +they would let him have dogs. Then, when he struck the Susitna Valley, he +would have miles of railroad bed to ease the last stage. So, at the time +the messenger left the Aurora, Weatherbee started south on his long trek +to Rainy Pass. He was mushing afoot, with Tyee pulling the sled. Some of +you must remember that big husky with a strain of St. Bernard he used to +drive on the Tanana." + +"My, yes," piped little Banks, and his eyes scintillated like chippings of +blue glacier ice. "Likely I do remember Tyee. Dave picked him up that same +trip he set me on my feet. He found him left to starve on the trail with a +broken leg. And he camped right there, pitched his tent for a hospital, +and went to whittling splints out of a piece of willow to set that bone. +'I am sorry to keep you waiting,' he says to me, 'but he is a mighty good +dog. He would have done his level best to see the man who deserted him +through.' And he would. I'd bank my money on old Tyee." + +Tisdale nodded slowly. "But my chance to overtake David was before he +secured that team fifty miles on. And I pushed my dogs too hard. When I +reached the Aurora, they were nearly done for. I was forced to rest them a +day. That gave me time to look into Weatherbee's work. I found that the +creek where he had made his discovery ran through a deep and narrow +canyon, and it was clear to me that the boxed channel, which was frozen +solid then, was fed during the short summer by a small glacier at the top +of the gorge. To turn the high water from his placer, he had made a bore +of nearly one thousand feet and practically through rock. I followed a +bucket tramway he had rigged to lift the dump and found a primitive +lighting-plant underground. The whole tunnel was completed, with the +exception of a thin wall left to safeguard against an early thaw in the +stream, while the bore was being equipped with a five-foot flume. You all +know what that means, hundreds of miles from navigation or a main traveled +road. To get that necessary lumber, he felled trees in a spruce grove up +the ravine; every board was hewn by hand. And about two-thirds of those +sluice-boxes, the bottoms fitted with riffles, were finished. Afterwards, +at that camp where he stopped for dogs, I learned that aside from a few +days at long intervals, when the two miners had exchanged their labor for +some engineering, he had made his improvements alone, single-handed. And +most of that flume was constructed in those slow months he waited to hear +from me." + +Tisdale paused, and again his glance sought the faces of those who had +known David Weatherbee. But all the Circle was strung responsive. Those +who never had known Weatherbee understood the terrible conditions he had +braved; the body-wracking toil underground; the soul-breaking solitude; +the crowding silence that months earlier he had felt the necessity to +escape. In that picked company, the latent force in each acknowledged the +iron courage of the man; but it was Tisdale's magnetic personality, the +unstudied play of expression in his rugged face, the undercurrent of +emotion quickening through infinite tones of his voice, that plumbed the +depths and in every listener struck the dominant chord. And, too, these +men had bridged subconsciously those vast distances between Tisdale's +start from Nome in clear weather, "with a moon in her second quarter," and +that stop at the deserted mine, when his dogs--powerful huskies, part +wolf, since they were bred in the Seward Peninsula--"were nearly done +for." Long and inevitable periods of dark there had been; perils of white +blizzard, of black frost. They had run familiarly the whole gamut of +hardship and danger he himself must have faced single-handed; and while +full measure was accorded Weatherbee, the greater tribute passed silently, +unsought, to the man who had traveled so far and so fast to rescue him. + +"It ought to have been me," exclaimed Lucky Banks at last in his high +treble. "I was just down in the Iditarod country, less than three hundred +miles. I ought to have run up once in awhile to see how he was getting +along. But I never thought of Dave's needing help himself, and nobody told +me he was around. I'd ought to have kept track of him, though; it was up +to me. But go on, Hollis; go on. I bet you made up that day you lost at +the mine. My, yes, I bet you broke the record hitting that fifty-mile +camp." + +Tisdale nodded, and for an instant the humor played lightly at the corners +of his eyes. "It took me just seven hours with an up-grade the last twenty +miles. You see, I had Weatherbee to break trail. He rested a night at the +camp and lost about three hours more, while they hunted a missing husky to +make up his team. Still he pushed out with nearly eighteen hours start and +four fresh dogs, with Tyee pulling a strong lead; while I wasn't able to +replace even one of mine that had gone lame. I had to leave him there, and +before I reached the summit of Rainy Pass, I was carrying his mate on my +sled. But I had a sun then,--the days were lengthening fast into May,--and +by cutting my stops short I managed to hold my own to the divide. After +that I gained. Finally, one morning, I came to a rough place where his +outfit had upset, and I saw his dogs were giving him trouble. There were +blood stains all around on the snow. It looked like the pack had broken +open, and the huskies had tried to get at the dried salmon. Tyee must have +fought them off until Weatherbee was able to master them. At the end of +the next day I reached a miners' cabin where he had spent the night, and +the man who had helped him unhitch told me he had had to remind him to +feed his dogs. He had seemed all right, only dead tired; but he had gone +to bed early and, neglecting to leave a call, had slept fifteen hours. I +rested my team five, and late the next morning I came upon his camp-fire +burning." + +Tisdale paused to draw his hand across his eyes and met Foster's look over +the table. "It was there I blundered. There was a plain traveled trail +from that mine down through the lowlands to Susitna, and I failed to see +that his tracks left it: they were partly blotted out in a fresh fall of +snow. I lost six hours there, and when I picked up his trail again, I saw +he was avoiding the few way houses; he passed the settlement by; then I +missed his camp-fire. It was plain he was afraid to sleep any more. But he +knew the Susitna country; he kept a true course, and sometimes, in swampy +places, turned back to the main thoroughfare. At last, near the crossing +of the Matanuska, I was caught in the first spring thaw. It was heavy +going. All the streams were out of banks; the valley became a network of +small sloughs undermining the snowfields, creating innumerable ponds and +lakes. The earth, bared in patches, gave and oozed like a sponge. It was +impossible to follow Weatherbee's trail, but I picked it up once more, +where it came into the other, along the Chugach foot-hills. Slides began +to block the way; ice glazed the overflows at night; and at last a cold +wave struck down from the summits; the track stiffened in an hour and it +was hard as steel underfoot. The wind cut like swords. Then came snow." + +Tisdale looked off with his far-sighted gaze through the open door. Every +face was turned to him, but no one hurried him. It was a time when silence +spoke. + +"I came on Weatherbee's dogs in a small ravine," he said. "They had +broken through thin ice in an overflow, and the sled had mired in muck. +The cold wave set them tight; their legs were planted like posts, and I +had to cut them out. Two were done for." + +"You mean," exclaimed Banks, "Dave hadn't cut the traces to give his +huskies a chance." + +Tisdale nodded slowly. "But the instant I cut Tyee loose, he went limping +off, picking up his master's trail. It was a zigzag course up the face of +a ridge into a grove of spruce. Weatherbee took a course like a husky; +location was a sixth sense to him; yet I found his tracks up there, +winding aimlessly. It had stopped snowing then, but the first impressions +were nearly filled. In a little while I noticed the spaces were shorter +between the prints of the left shoe; they made a dip and blur. Then I came +into a parallel trail, and these tracks were clear, made since the +snowstorm, but there was the same favoring of the left foot. He was +traveling in a circle. Sometimes in unsheltered places, where the wind +swept through an avenue of trees, small drifts covered the impressions, +but the dog found them again, still doubling that broad circle. Finally I +saw a great dark blotch ahead where the ground sloped up to a narrow +plateau. And in a moment I saw it was caused by a great many fresh twigs +of spruce, all stuck upright in the snow and set carefully in rows, like a +child's make-believe garden." + +Tisdale's voice broke. He was looking off again into the night, and his +face hardened; two vertical lines like clefts divided his brows. It was as +though the iron in the man cropped through. The pause was breathless. Here +and there a grim face worked. + +"When the dog reached the spot," Hollis went on, "he gave a quick bark and +ran with short yelps towards a clump of young trees a few yards off. The +rim of a drift formed a partial windbreak, but he had only a low bough to +cover him,--and the temperature,--along those ice-peaks--" + +His voice failed. There was another speaking silence. It was as though +these men, having followed all those hundreds of miles over tundra and +mountains, through thaw and frost, felt with him in that moment the +heart-breaking futility of his pursuit. "I tried my best," he added. "I +guess you all know that, but--I was too late." + +The warning blast of an automobile cut the stillness, and the machine +stopped in front of the clubhouse, but no one at the table noticed the +interruption. + +Then Banks said, in his high key: "But you hitched his dogs up with yours, +the ones that were fit, and brought him through to Seward. You saw him +buried. Thank you for that." + +Feversham cleared his throat and reached for the decanter, "Think of it!" +he exclaimed. "A man like that, lost on a main traveled thoroughfare! But +the toll will go on every year until we have a railroad. Here's to that +road, gentlemen. Here's to the Alaska Midway and Home Rule." + +The toast was responded to, and it was followed by others. But Tisdale had +left his place to step through the open door to the balcony. Presently +Foster joined him. They stood for an interval smoking and taking in those +small night sounds for which long intimacy with Nature teaches a man to +listen; the distant voice of running water; the teasing note of the +breeze; the complaint of a balsam-laden bough; the restless stir of unseen +wings; the patter of diminutive feet. A wooded point that formed the horn +of a bay was etched in black on the silver lake; then suddenly the moon +illumined the horizon and, rising over a stencilled crest of the Cascades, +stretched her golden path to the shore below them. Both these men, +watching it, saw that other trail reaching white, limitless, hard as steel +through the Alaska solitudes. + +"At Seward," said Foster at last, "you received orders by cable detailing +you to a season in the Matanuska fields; but before you took your party +in, you sent a force of men back to the Aurora to finish Weatherbee's work +and begin operations. And the diverting of that stream exposed gravels +that are going to make you rich. You deserve it. I grant that. It's your +compensation; but just the same it gives a sharper edge to poor +Weatherbee's luck." + +Tisdale swung around. "See here, Foster, I want you to know I should have +considered that money as a loan if David had lived. If he had lived--and +recovered--I should have made him take back that half interest in the +Aurora. You've got to believe that; and I would be ready to do as much for +his wife, if she had treated him differently. But she wrecked his life. I +hold her responsible." + +Foster was silent. + +"Think of it!" Hollis went on. "The shame of it! All those years while he +faced privation, the worst kind, tramping Alaska trails, panning in icy +streams, sluicing, digging sometimes like any common laborer, wintering in +shacks, she was living in luxury down here. He never made a promising +discovery that he wasn't forced to sell. She spent his money faster than +he made it; kept him handicapped. And all she ever gave him was a friendly +letter now and then, full of herself and the gay life she led, and showing +clearly how happy she could be without him. Think of it, Foster!" His +voice deepened and caught its vibrant quality. "A fine fellow like +Weatherbee; so reliable, so great in a hard place. How could she have +treated him as she did? Damn it! How could he have thrown himself away +like that, for a feather-headed woman?" + +Foster knocked the ash from the end of his cigar. "You don't know her," he +answered. "If you did, you wouldn't put it in that way." He smiled a +little and looked off at the golden path on the lake. "So," he said after +a moment, and his glance returned to meet Tisdale's squarely, "she has +absolutely nothing now but that tract of unimproved desert on the other +side of the Cascades." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE QUESTION + + +Sometime, high on a mountain slope, a cross current of air, or perhaps a +tremor of the surface occasioned far off, starts the small snow-cap, that +sliding, halting, impelled forward again, always accumulating, gathering +momentum, finally becomes the irresistible avalanche. So Marcia Feversham, +the following morning, gave the first slight impetus to the question that +eventually menaced Tisdale with swift destruction. She was not taking the +early train with her husband; she desired to break the long journey and, +after the season in the north, prolong the visit with her relatives in +Seattle. The delegate had left her sleeping, but when he had finished the +light breakfast served him alone in the Morganstein dining-room and +hurried out to the waiting limousine, to his surprise he found her in the +car. "I am going down to see you away," she explained; "this salt breeze +with the morning tide is so delightfully fresh." + +There was no archness in her glance; her humor was wholly masculine. A +firm mouthy brilliant, dark eyes, the heavy Morganstein brows that met +over the high nose, gave weight and intensity to anything she said. Her +husband, in coaching her for the coming campaign at Washington, had told +her earnestness was her strong suit; that her deep, deliberate voice was +her best card, but she held in her eyes, unquestionably, both bowers. + +"Delightful of you, I am sure," he answered, taking the seat beside her, +with his for-the-public smile, "but I give credit to the air; you are +looking as brilliant at this outrageous hour as you would on your way to +an afternoon at bridge." Then, the chauffeur having closed the door and +taken his place in the machine, Feversham turned a little to scrutinize +her face. + +"Now, my lady," he asked, "to what do I owe the pleasure?" + +"Mr. Tisdale," she answered directly. "Of course you must see now, even if +I do contrive to meet him through Frederic, as you suggested, and manage +to see him frequently; even if I find out what he means to say in those +coal reports, when it comes to influence, I won't have the weight of a +feather. No woman could. He is made of iron, and his principles were cast +in the mold." + +"Every man has his vulnerable point, and I can trust you to find Hollis +Tisdale's." The delegate paused an instant, still regarding his wife's +face, frowning a little, yet not without humor, then said: "But you have +changed your attitude quickly. Where did you learn so much about him? How +can you be so positive about a man you never have met? Whom you have seen +only a time or two at a distance, on some street--or was it a hotel +lobby?--in Valdez or Fairbanks?" + +"Yesterday, when we were talking, that was true; but since then I have +seen him at close range. I've heard him." She turned and met Feversham's +scrutiny with the brilliancy rising in her eyes. "Last night at the +clubhouse, when he told the story of David Weatherbee, I was there." + +"You were there? Impossible! That is against the rules. Not a man of the +Circle would have permitted it, and you certainly would have been +discovered before you reached the assembly hall. Why, I myself was the +last to arrive. Frederic, you remember, had to speed the car a little to +get me there. And I looked back from the door and saw you in the tonneau +with Elizabeth, while Mrs. Weatherbee kept her place in front with +Frederic. You were going down the boulevard to spend the evening with her +at Vivian Court." + +"That was our plan, but we turned back," she explained. "We had a +curiosity to see the Circle seated around the banquet board in those +ridiculous purple parkas. And Frederic bet me a new electric runabout +against the parka of silver fox and the mukluks I bought of the Esquimau +girl at Valdez that we never could get as far as the assembly room. He +waited with Elizabeth in the car while we two crept up the stairs. The +door was open, and we stood almost screened by that portière of Indian +leather, peeping in. Mr. Tisdale was telling the ptarmigan yarn--it's +wonderful the power he has to hold the interest of a crowd of men--and the +chance was too good to miss. We stole on up the steps to the gallery,--no +one noticed us,--and concealed ourselves behind that hanging Kodiak +bearskin." + +"Incredible!" exclaimed Feversham. "But I see you arrived at the opportune +moment,--when Tisdale was talking. There's something occult about the +personality of that man. And she, Mrs. Weatherbee, heard everything?" + +Marcia nodded. "Even your graceful toast to her." + +At this he settled back in his seat, laughing. "Well, I am glad I made it. +I could hardly have put it more neatly had I known she was there." + +"She couldn't have missed a word. We had found a bench behind the Kodiak +skin, and she sat straight as a soldier, listening through it all. I +couldn't get her to come away; it was as though she was looking on at an +interesting play. She was just as neutral and still; only her face turned +white, and her eyes were wide as stars, and once she gripped the fur of +the Kodiak so hard I expected to see it come down. But I know she failed +to grasp the vital point of the story. I mean the point vital to her. She +doesn't understand enough about law. And I myself slept on it the night +through before I saw. It came the moment I wakened this morning, clear and +sudden as an electric flash. If David Weatherbee was mentally unbalanced +when he made that transfer, the last half interest in the Aurora mine +ought to revert to her." + +Feversham started. He lifted his plump hands and let them drop forcibly on +his broad knees. But she did not notice his surprise. They were +approaching the station, and time pressed. "You know it is not a simple +infatuation with Frederic," she hurried on, "to be forgotten tomorrow. He +has loved her passionately from the day he first met her, four years ago. +He can't think of anything else; he never will do anything of credit to +the family until she is his wife. And now, with David Weatherbee safely +buried, it seems reasonably sure. Still, still, Miles, this unexpected +fortune held out to her just now might turn the scales. We have got to +keep it from her, and if those coal claims are coming up for trial, you +must frame some excuse to have them postponed." + +"Postponed? Why, we've just succeeded in gaining Federal attention. We've +been waiting five years. We want them settled now. It concerns Frederic as +well as the rest of us." + +"True," she answered, "even more. If those patents are allowed, he will +take immediate steps to mine the coal on a large scale. And it came over +me, instantly, on the heels of the first flash, that it was inevitable, if +Mr. Tisdale had taken advantage of David Weatherbee's condition--and his +own story shows the man had lost his mind; he was wandering around +planting make-believe orchards in the snow--you would use the point to +impeach the Government's star witness." + +"Impeach the Government's witness?" repeated Feversham, then a sudden +intelligence leaped into his face. "Impeach Hollis Tisdale," he added +softly and laughed. + +Presently, as the chauffeur slackened speed, looking for a stand among the +waiting machines at the depot, the attorney said: "If the syndicate sends +Stuart Foster north to the Iditarod, he may be forced to winter there; +that would certainly postpone the trial until spring." + +The next moment the chauffeur threw open the limousine door, and the +delegate stepped out; but he lingered a little over his good-by, retaining +his wife's hand, which he continued to shake slowly, while his eyes +telegraphed an answer to the question in hers. Then, laughing again +deeply, he said: "My lady! My lady! Nature juggled; she played your +brother Frederic a trick when she set that mind in your woman's head." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +FOSTER TOO + + +The apartment Tisdale called home was in a high corner of the Alaska +building, where the western windows, overtopping other stone and brick +blocks of the business center, commanded the harbor, caught like a faceted +jewel between Duwamish Head and Magnolia Bluff, and a far sweep of the +outer Sound set in wooded islands and the lofty snow peaks of the Olympic +peninsula. Next to his summer camp in the open he liked this eyrie, and +particularly he liked it at this hour of the night tide. He drew his chair +forward where the stiff, salt wind blew full in his face, but Foster, who +had found the elevator not running and was somewhat heated by his long +climb to the "summit," took the precaution of choosing a sheltered place +near the north window, which was closed. A shaded electric lamp cast a +ring of light on the package he had laid on the table between them, but +the rest of the room was in shadow, and from his seat he glanced down on +the iridescent sign displays of Second Avenue, then followed the lines of +street globes trailing away to the brilliant constellations set against +the blackness of Queen Anne hill. + +"She is to be out of town a week," he said, "and I hardly liked to leave +Weatherbee's things with a hotel clerk; since I am sailing on the _Admiral +Sampson_ tonight, I brought the package back. You will have to be your own +messenger." + +"That's all right, Foster; I can find another when she returns. I'll ask +Banks." + +"No." Foster's glance came back from the street; his voice rang a little +sharp. "Take it yourself, Hollis." + +"I can trust it with Banks." Tisdale paused a moment, still looking out on +the harbor lights and the stars, then said: "So you are going north again; +back to the copper mine, I presume?" + +"No, I shall be there later, but I expect to make a quick trip in to the +Iditarod now, to look over placer properties. The syndicate has bonded +Banks' claims and, if it is feasible, a dredger will be sent in next +spring to begin operations on a big scale. I shall go, of course, by way +of the Yukon, and if ice comes early and the steamers are taken off, +return by trail around through Fairbanks." + +"I see." Tisdale leaned forward a little, grasping the arms of his chair. +"The syndicate is taking considerable risk in sending you to the Iditarod +at this time. Suppose those coal cases should be called, with you +winter-bound up there. Why, the Chugach trial couldn't go on." + +"I am identified with the Morganstein interests there, I admit; but why +should the Chugach claims be classed with conspiracies to defraud the +Government? They were entered regularly, fifty coal claims of one hundred +and sixty acres each, by as many different persons. Because the President +temporarily suspended Alaska coal laws is no reason those patents should +be refused or even delayed. Our money was accepted by the Government; it +was never refunded." + +"As I thought," said Tisdale softly, addressing the stars; "as I feared." +Then, "Foster, Foster," he admonished, "be careful. Keep your head. That +syndicate is going to worry you some, old man, before you are through." + +Foster got to his feet. "See here, Hollis, be fair. Look at it once from +the other side. The Morgansteins have done more for Alaska than they will +ever be given credit for. Capital is the one key to open that big, new, +mountain-locked country, and the Government is treating it like a +boa-constrictor to be throttled and stamped out. Millions went into the +development of the El Dorado, yet they still have to ship the ore +thousands of miles to a smelter, with coal,--the best kind, inexhaustible +fields of it,--at our door. And go back to McFarlane. He put one hundred +and fifty thousand into the Chugach Railway to bring out the coal he had +mined, but he can't touch it; it's all tied up in red tape; the road is +rotting away. He is getting to be an old man, but I saw him doing day +labor on the Seattle streets to-day. Then there's the Copper River +Northwestern. That company built a railroad where every engineer but one, +who saw the conditions, said it could not be done. You yourself have +called it the most wonderful piece of construction on record. You know how +that big bridge was built in winter--the only time when the bergs stopped +chipping off the face of the glacier long enough to set the piers; you +know how Haney worked his men, racing against the spring thaw--he's paying +for it with his life, now, down in California. In dollars that bridge +alone cost a million and a half. Yet, with this road finished through the +coast mountains, they've had to suspend operation because they can't burn +their own coal. They've got to change their locomotives to oil burners. +And all this is just because the President delays to annul a temporary +restriction the previous executive neglected to remove. We have waited; we +have imported from British Columbia, from Japan; shipped in Pennsylvania, +laid down at Prince William Sound at fifteen dollars a ton, when our own +coal could be mined for two and a quarter and delivered here in Seattle +for five." + +"It could, I grant that," said Tisdale mellowly, "but would it, Stuart? +Would it, if the Morganstein interests had exclusive control?" + +Foster seemed not to have heard that question. He turned restlessly and +strode across the room. "The Government with just as much reason might +have conserved Alaska gold." + +Tisdale laughed. "That would have been a good thing for Alaska," he +answered; "if a part, at least of her placer streams had been conserved. +Come, Foster, you know as well as I do that the regulations early +prospectors accepted as laws are not respected to-day. Every discovery is +followed by speculators who travel light, who do not expect to do even +first assessment work, but only to stay on the ground long enough to stake +as many claims as possible for themselves and their friends. When the real +prospector arrives, with his year's outfit, he finds hundreds of miles, a +whole valley staked, and his one chance is to buy or work under a lease. +Most of these speculators live in the towns, some of them down here in +Seattle, carrying on other business, and they never visit their claims. +They re-stake and re-stake year after year and follow on the heels of each +new strike, often by proxy. We have proof enough of all this to convince +the most lukewarm senator." + +"You think then," said Foster quickly, "there is going to be a chance, +after all, for the bill for Home Rule?" + +"No." Tisdale's voice lost its mellowness. "It is a mistake; it's asking +too much at the beginning. We need amended mining laws; we should work for +that at once, in the quickest concerted way. And, first of all, our +special delegates should push the necessity of a law giving a defined +length of shaft or tunnel for assessment work, as is enforced in the +Klondike, and ask for efficient inspectors to see that such laws as we +have are obeyed." + +Foster moved to the window and stood looking down again on the city +lights. Presently he said: "I presume you will see the President while you +are in Washington." + +"Probably. He is always interested in the field work up there, and this +season's reconnaissance in the Matanuska coal district should be of +special importance to him just now. The need of a naval coaling station on +the Pacific coast has grown imperative, and with vast bodies of coal +accessible to Prince William Sound, the question of location should soon +be solved." + +There was another silence, while Poster walked again to the end of the +room and returned. "How soon do you start east?" he asked. + +"Within a week. Meantime, I am going over the Cascades into the sage-brush +country to look up that land of Weatherbee's." + +"You intend then," said Foster quickly, "to take that piece of desert off +Mrs. Weatherbee's hands?" + +"Perhaps. It depends on the possibility of carrying out his project. I +have just shipped a steam thawing apparatus in to the Aurora, and that, +with supplies for a winter camp, has taken a good deal of ready money. +Freighting runs high, whether it's from the Iditarod or south from +Fairbanks. But spring should see expenses paid and my investment back." + +"From all I've heard," responded Foster dryly, "you'll get your investment +back with interest." + +"Of course," said Tisdale after a moment, "Mrs. Weatherbee will be eager +to dispose of the tract; the only reason it is still on her hands is that +no one has wanted to buy it at any price." + +"And that's just why you should." Foster paused, then went on slowly, +controlling the emotion in his voice, "You don't know her, Hollis. She's +proud. She won't admit the situation, and I can't ask her directly, but I +am sure she has come to the limit. I've been trying all day, ever since I +knew I must go north again, to raise enough money to make an offer for +that land, but practically all I have is tied up in Alaska properties. It +takes time to find a customer, and the banks are cautious." + +Tisdale rose from his chair. "Foster!" he cried and stretched out his +hands. "Foster--not you, too." + +Then his hands dropped, and Foster drew a step nearer into the circle of +light and stood meeting squarely the silent remonstrance, accusation, +censure, for which he was prepared. "I knew how you would take it," he +broke out at last, "but it's the truth. I've smothered it, kept it down +for years; but it's nothing to be ashamed of any longer. I'd have been +glad to exchange places with Weatherbee. I'd have counted it a privilege +to work, even as he did, for her; I could have suffered privation, the +worst kind, wrung success out of failure, for the hope of her." + +"See here, Foster,"--Tisdale laid his hands on the younger man's +shoulders, shaking him slowly,--"you must stop this." His hold relaxed; he +stepped back, and his voice vibrated softly through the room. "How could +you have said it, knowing David Weatherbee as you did? No matter what kind +of a woman she is, you should have remembered she was his wife and +respected her for his sake." + +"Respect? I do respect her. She's the kind of woman a man sets on a +pedestal to worship and glorify. You don't understand it, Hollis; you +don't know her, and I can't explain; but just her presence is an appeal, +an inspiration to all that's worth anything in me." + +Tisdale's hands sought his pockets; his head dropped forward a little and +he stood regarding Foster with an upward look from under frowning brows. + +"You don't know her," Foster repeated. "She's different--finer than other +women. And she has been gently bred. Generations of the best blood is +bottled like old wine in her crystal body." He paused, his face +brightening at the fancy. "You can always see the spirit sparkling +through." + +"I remember about that blue blood," Tisdale said tersely. "Weatherbee told +me how it could be traced back through a Spanish mother to some +buccaneering adventurer, Don Silva de y somebody, who made his +headquarters in Mexico. And that means a trace of Mexican in the race, or +at least Aztec." + +Foster colored. "The son of that Don Silva came north and settled in +California. He brought his peons with him and made a great rancheria. At +the time of the Mexican War, his herds and flocks covered immense ranges. +Hundreds of these cattle must have supplied the United States commissary; +the rest were scattered, and in the end there was little left of the +estate; just a few hundred acres and a battered hacienda. But Mrs. +Weatherbee's father was English; the younger son of an old and knighted +family." + +"I know," answered Tisdale dryly. "Here in the northwest we call such sons +remittance men. They are paid generous allowances, sometimes, to come to +America and stay." + +"That's unfair," Foster flamed. "You have no right to say it. He came to +California when he was just a young fellow to invest a small inheritance. +He doubled it twice in a few years. Then he was persuaded to put his money +in an old, low-grade gold mine. The company made improvements, built a +flume thirty miles long to bring water to the property for development, +but it was hardly finished when a State law was passed prohibiting +hydraulic mining. It practically ruined him. He had nothing to depend on +then but a small annuity." + +"Meantime," supplemented Tisdale, "he had married his Spanish señorita and +her inheritance, the old rancheria, was sunk with his own in the gold +mine. Then he began to play fast and loose with his annuity at the San +Francisco stock exchange." + +"He hoped to make good quickly. He was getting past his prime, with his +daughter's future to be secured. But it got to be a habit and, after the +death of his wife, a passion. His figure was well known on the street; he +was called a plunger. Some days he made fortunes; the next lost them. +Still he was the same distinguished, courteous gentleman to the end." + +"And that came on the stock exchange, after a prolonged strain. David +Weatherbee found him and took him home." Tisdale paused, then went on, +still regarding Foster with that upward look from under his forbidding +brows. "It fell to Weatherbee to break the news to the daughter, and ten +days later, on the eve of his sailing north to Seattle, that marriage was +hurried through." + +There was a silent moment, then Foster said: "Weatherbee loved her, and he +was going to Alaska; it was uncertain when he could return; married, he +might send for her when conditions were fit. And her father's affairs were +a complete wreck; even the annuity stopped at his death, and there wasn't +an acre of her mother's inheritance left. Not a relative to take her in." + +"I know; that is why she married Weatherbee." Tisdale set his lips grimly; +he swung around and strode across the floor. "You see, you can't tell me +anything," he said. "I know all about it. Wait. Listen. I am going over +the mountains and look up that land of Weatherbee's, and I shall probably +buy it, but I want you to understand clearly it is only because I hope to +carry his project through. Now go north, Foster; take a new grip on +things; get to work and let your investments alone." + +After that, when Foster had gone, Tisdale spent a long interval tramping +the floor of his breezy room. The furrows still divided his brows, his +mouth was set, and a dark color burned and glowed through his tan. But +deeper than his angry solicitude for Foster rankled his resentment against +this woman. Who was she, he asked himself, that she should fix her hold on +level-headed Foster? But he knew her kind. Feversham had called her a +"typical American beauty," but there were many types, and he knew her +kind. She was a brunette, of course, showing a swarthier trace of Mexican +with the Spanish, and she would have a sort of personal magnetism. She +might prove dramatic if roused, but those Spanish-California women were +indolent, and they grew heavy early. Big, handsome, voluptuous; just a +splendid animal without a spark of soul. + +He had stopped near the table, and his glance fell on the package in the +ring of light from the shaded lamp. After a moment he lifted it and, +drawing up a chair, seated himself and removed the wrapper. It covered a +tin box such as he was accustomed to use in the wilderness for the +protection and portage of field notes and maps. He raised the lid and took +from the top a heavy paper, which he unfolded and spread before him. It +was Weatherbee's landscape plan, traced with the skill of a draughtsman +and showing plainly the contour of the tract in eastern Washington and his +method of reclamation. The land included a deep pocket set between spurs +of the Cascade Mountains. The ridges and peaks above it had an altitude of +from one to six thousand feet. He found the spring, marked high in a +depressed shoulder, and followed the line of flume drawn from it down to a +natural dry basin at the top of the pocket. A dam was set in the lower rim +of this reservoir and, reaching from it, a canal was sketched in, feeding +cross ditches, distributing spillways to the orchards that covered the +slopes and levels below. Finally he traced the roadway up through the +avenues between the trees, over the bench, to the house that commanded the +valley. The mission walls, the inside court, the roomy, vine-grown +portico, all the detail of foliage here had been elaborated skilfully, +with the touch of an artist. The habitation stood out the central feature +of the picture and, as a good etching will, assumed a certain personality. + +How fond David would have been of a home,--a home and children! Tisdale +folded the plan and sat holding it absently in his hands. His mind ran +back from this final, elaborated copy to the first rough draft Weatherbee +had shown him one night at the beginning of that interminable winter they +had passed together in the Alaska solitudes. He had watched the drawing +and the project grow. But afterwards, when he had taken up geological work +again, they had met only at long intervals; at times he had lost all trace +of Weatherbee, and he had not realized the scheme had such a hold. Still, +he should have understood; he should have had at least a suspicion before +that letter reached him at Nome. And even then he had been blind. With +that written proof in his hands, he had failed to grasp its meaning. The +tragedy! the shame of it! That he should have hesitated,--thrown away four +days. + +He looked off once more to the harbor, and his eyes gathered their +far-sighted expression, as though they went seeking that white trail +through the solitudes stretching limitless under the cold Arctic night. +His face hardened. When finally the features stirred, disturbed by forces +far down, he had come to that make-believe orchard of spruce twigs. + +After a while he folded the drawing to put it away, but as his glance fell +on the contents of the box, he laid the plan on the table to take up the +miner's poke tucked in a corner made by a packet of letters, and drew out +Weatherbee's watch. It was valuable but the large monogram deeply engraved +on the gold case may have made it unnegotiable. That probably was why +David never had parted with it. Tisdale wound it, and set the hands. The +action seemed suddenly to bring Weatherbee close. He felt his splendid +personality there beside him, as he used to feel it still nights up under +the near Yukon stars. It was as though he was back to one night, the last +on a long trail, when they were about to part company. He had been urging +him to come out with him to the States, but Weatherbee had as steadily +refused. "Not yet," he persisted. "Not until I have something to show." +And again: "No, Hollis, don't ask me to throw away all these years. I have +the experience now, and I've got to make good." Then he spoke of his wife-- +for an instant Tisdale seemed to see him once more, bending to hold his +open watch so that the light of the camp-fire played on her picture set in +the lower rim. "You see Alaska is no place for a woman like her," he said, +"but she is worth waiting for and working for. You ought to understand, +Hollis, how the thought of her buoys me through." + +But it was a long time to remember a picture seen only by the flicker of a +camp-fire and starshine, and the woman of Tisdale's imagination clouded +out the face he tried to recall. "Still Weatherbee was so sensitive, so +fine," he argued with himself. "A woman must have possessed more than a +beautiful body to have become the center of his life. She must, at the +start, have possessed some capacity of feeling." + +He put his thumb on the spring to open the lower case, but the image so +clearly fixed in his mind stayed the impulse. "What is the use?" he +exclaimed, and thrusting the watch back into the bag, quickly tied the +string. "I don't want to see you. I don't want to know you," and he added, +pushing the poke into its place and closing the box; "The facts are all +against you." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +SNOQUALMIE PASS AND A BROKEN AXLE + + +Tisdale leaned forward in his seat in the observation car. His rugged +features worked a little, and his eyes had their far-sighted gaze. Scarred +buttes crowded the track; great firs, clinging with exposed roots to the +bluffs, leaned in menace, and above the timber belt granite pyramids and +fingers shone amethyst against the sky; then a giant door closed on this +vestibule of the Pass, and he was in an amphitheatre of lofty peaks. The +eastbound began to wind and lift like a leviathan seeking a way through. +It crept along a tilting shelf, rounded a sheer spur, and ran shrieking +over a succession of trestles, while the noise of the exhausts rang a +continuous challenge from shoulder and crag. Then suddenly a mighty summit +built like a pulpit of the gods closed behind, and a company of still +higher mountains encircled the gorge. Everywhere above the wooded slopes +towered castellated heights and spires. + +Presently a near cliff came between him and the higher view and, with a +lift and drop of his square shoulders, he settled back in his chair. He +drew his hand across his eyes, the humorous lines deepened and, like one +admitting a weakness, he shook his head. It was always so; the sight of +any mountains, a patch of snow on a far blue ridge, set his pulses +singing; wakened the wanderlust for the big spaces in God's out-of-doors. +And this canyon of the Snoqualmie was old, familiar ground. He had served +his surveyor's apprenticeship on these western slopes of the Cascades. He +had triangulated most of these peaks, named some of them, and he had +carried a transit to these headwaters, following his axman often over a +new trail. Now, far, far down between the columns of hemlock and fir, he +caught glimpses of the State road on the opposite bank of the stream that, +like a lost river, went forever seeking a way out, and finally, for an +instant he saw a cabin set like a toy house at the wooden bridge where the +thoroughfare crossed. Then the eastbound, having made a great loop, found +another hidden gateway and moved up to the levels above Lake Keechelus. +The whistle signalled a mountain station, and Tisdale rose and went out to +the platform; when the trucks jolted to a standstill, he swung himself +down to the ground to enjoy a breath of the fine air. + +The next moment he found himself almost upon a wrecked automobile. He saw +in a flash that the road, coming through a cut, crossed the railroad +track, and that in making a quick turn to avoid the end of the slowing +train, the chauffeur had forced the car into the bank. The machine was +still upright, but it listed forward on a broken axle. A young woman who +had kept her seat in the tonneau was nursing a painful wrist, while two +girls, who evidently had come through the accident unscathed, were trying +to help the only man of the party up from the ground. Tisdale bent to give +him the support of his shoulder, and, groaning, the stranger settled +against the side of his car and into a sitting position on the edge of the +floor, easing an injured leg. He had also received an ugly hurt above his +brows, which were heavy and black and met in an angle over a prominent +nose. + +The lady in the tonneau and one of the girls had the same marked features +and the same brilliant dark eyes, though the retreating chin, which in the +man amounted to almost a blemish, in them was modified. But the last one +in the party, whom Tisdale had noticed first, was not like the rest. She +was not like any one in the world he had seen before. From the hem of her +light gray motoring coat to the crown of her big hat, she was a delight to +the eyes. The veil that tied the hat down framed a face full of a piquant +yet delicate charm. She was watching the man huddled against the machine, +and her mouth, parted a little, showed the upper lip short with the upward +curves of a bow. It was as though words were arrested, half spoken, and +her eyes, shadowy under curling dark lashes, held their expression, +uncertain whether to sparkle out or to cloud. + +After a moment the man lifted his head and, meeting her look, smiled. "I'm +all right," he said, "only I've wrenched this knee; sprained it, I guess. +And my head feels like a drum." + +"Oh, I am--glad"--her voice fluctuated softly, but the sparkle broke in +her eyes--"that it isn't worse. Would you like a glass of ice-water from +the train? A porter is coming and the conductor, too. I will ask for +anything." + +He smiled again. "You'll get it, if you do. But what I want most just now +is a glass of that port. Elizabeth," and his glance moved to the other +girl, "where did you put that hamper?" + +Elizabeth, followed by the porter, hurried around to the other side of the +automobile to find the basket, and Tisdale moved a few steps away, waiting +to see if he could be of further service. + +A passenger with a camera and an alert, inquiring face had come down from +the day coach. He wound the film key and focussed for a closer exposure, +but no one noticed him. At that moment all interest centered on the man +who was hurt. "Well," said the conductor at last, having looked the group +and the situation over, "what's the trouble?" + +"Looks like a broken axle, doesn't it? And possibly a broken leg." He +groaned and repeated aggressively: "A broken axle. With the worst of +Snoqualmie Pass before us, and not a garage or a repair shop within fifty +miles." + +"You are in a fix, sure. But this train will take you through the Pass to +Ellensburg, and there ought to be a hospital and a garage there. Or--the +westbound passenger, due at this siding in seven minutes"--the conductor +looked at his watch--"could put you back in Seattle at eight-fifteen." + +"Make it the westbound; no hospital for me. Telegraph for a drawing-room, +conductor, and notify this station agent to ship the machine on the same +train. And, Elizabeth," he paused to take the drinking-cup she had filled, +"you look up a telephone, or if there isn't a long distance, telegraph +James. Tell him to have a couple of doctors, Hillis and Norton, to meet +the eight-fifteen; and to bring the limousine down with plenty of pillows +and comforters." He drained the cup and dropped it into the open hamper. +"Now, porter," he added, "if you hurry up a cocktail, the right sort, +before that westbound gets here, it means a five to you." + +As these various messengers scurried away, the girl who remained picked up +the cup and poured a draught of wine for the lady in the tonneau. "I am so +sorry, but it was the only way. Do you think it is a sprain?" she asked. + +"Yes." The older woman took the cup in her left hand. She had a deep, +carrying voice, and she added, looking at the injured wrist: "It's +swelling frightfully, but it saved my face; I might have had just such a +hideous wound as Frederic's. Isn't it a relief to hear him talking so +rationally?" + +The girl nodded. "He seems quite himself," she said gravely. But she +turned to cover the mirth in her eyes; it suffused her face, her whole +charming personality. Then suddenly, at the moment the flow was highest, +came the ebb. Her glance met Tisdale's clear, appraising look, and she +stood silent and aloof. + +He looked away and, after a moment, seeing nothing further to do, started +back to his train. She turned to take the empty cup, and as she closed the +hamper the whistle of the westbound sounded through the gorge. + +Tisdale walked on through the observation car to the rear platform and +stood looking absently off through an aisle of Alpine firs that, parklike, +bordered the track. It was a long time since the sight of a pretty woman +had so quickened his blood. He had believed that for him this sort of +thing was over, and he laughed at himself a little. + +The westbound rumbled to a stop on the parallel track, he felt the trucks +under him start, and an unaccountable depression came over him; the next +moment he heard a soft voice directing the porter behind him, and as +unaccountably his heart rose. The girl came on through the open door and +stopped beside him, bracing herself with one hand on the railing, while +she waved her handkerchief to the group she had left. He caught a faint, +clean perfume suggesting violets, the wind lifted the end of her veil +across his shoulder, and something of her exhilaration was transmitted to +the currents in his veins. "Good-by, Elizabeth," she called. "Good-by. +Good-by." + +Some trainmen were getting the injured man aboard the westbound passenger, +and the lady who had left the wrecked automobile to go with him sent back +a sonorous "Au revoir." But Elizabeth, who was hurrying down from the +station where she had accomplished her errand, turned in astonishment to +look after the speeding eastbound. Then a rocky knob closed all this from +sight. + +The girl on the platform turned, and Tisdale moved a little to let her +pass. At the same time the lurching of the car, as it swung to the curve, +threw her against him. It all happened very quickly; he steadied her with +his arm, and she drew back in confusion; he raised his hand to his head +and, remembering he had left his hat in his seat, a flush shaded through +his tan. Then, "I beg your pardon," she said and hurried by him through +the door. + +Tisdale stood smoothing his wind-ruffled hair and watching the receding +cliff. "Her eyes are hazel," he thought, "with turquoise lights. I never +heard of such a combination, but--it's fine." + +A little later, when he went in to take his seat, he found her in the +chair across the aisle. The train was skirting the bluffs of Keechelus +then, and she had taken off her coat and hat and sat watching the +unfolding lake. His side glance swept her slender, gray-clad figure to the +toe of one trim shoe, braced lightly on her footstool, and returned to her +face. In profile it was a new delight. One caught the upward curl of her +black lashes; the suggestion of a fault in the tip of her high, yet +delicately chiseled nose; the piquant curve of her short upper lip; the +full contour of the lifted chin. Her hair, roughened some, was soft and +fine and black with bluish tones. + +The temptation to watch her was very great, and Tisdale squared his +shoulders resolutely and swung his chair more towards his own window, +which did not afford a view of the lake. He wanted to see this new +railroad route through the Cascades. This Pass of Snoqualmie had always +been his choice of a transcontinental line. And he was approaching new +territory; he never had pushed down the eastern side from the divide. He +had chosen this roundabout way purposely, with thirty miles of horseback +at the end, when the Great Northern would have put him directly into the +Wenatchee Valley and within a few miles of that tract of Weatherbee's he +was going to see. + +There were few travelers in the observation car, and for a while nothing +broke the silence but the clamp and rush of the wheels on the down-grade, +then the man with a camera entered and came down the aisle as far as the +new passenger's chair. "I hope you'll excuse me," he said, "I'm Daniels, +representing the _Seattle Press_, and I thought you would like to see this +story go in straight." + +Tisdale swung his chair a little towards the open rear door, so that he +was able to watch without seeming to see the progress of the comedy. He +was quick enough to catch the sweeping look she gave the intruder, aloof +yet fearless, as though she saw him across an invisible barrier. "You mean +you are a reporter," she asked quietly, "and are writing an account of the +accident for your newspaper?" + +"Yes." Daniels dropped his cap into the next chair and seated himself +airily on the arm. The camera swung by a carrying strap from his shoulder, +and he opened a notebook, which he supported on his knee while he felt in +his pocket for a pencil. "Of course I recognized young Morganstein; +everybody knows him and that chocolate car; he's been run in so often for +speeding about town. And I suppose he was touring through Snoqualmie Pass +to the races at North Yakima fair. There should be some horses there worth +going to see." + +"We meant to spend a day or two at the fair," she admitted, "but we +expected to motor on, exploring a little in the neighborhood." + +"I see. Up the valley to have a look at the big irrigation dam the +Government is putting in and maybe on to see the great Tieton bore. That +would have been a fine trip; sorry you missed it." Daniels paused to place +several dots and hooks on his page. "I recognized Miss Morganstein, too," +he went on, "though she was too busy to notice me. I met her when I was +taking my course in journalism at the State University; danced with her at +the Junior Prom. And the other lady, whose wrist was sprained, must have +been her sister, Mrs. Feversham. I was detailed to interview the new +Alaska delegate when he passed through Seattle, and I understood his wife +was to join him later. She was stopping over for a visit, and the society +editor called my attention to a mighty good picture of her in last +Sunday's issue. Do you know?--" he paused, looking into the girl's face +with a curious scrutiny, "there was another fine reproduction on that page +that you might have posed for. The lady served tea or punch or did +something at the same affair. But I can't remember her name--I've tried +ever since we left that station--though seems to me it was a married one." + +"I remember the picture you mean; I remember. And I was there. It was a +bridge-luncheon at the Country Club in honor of Mrs. Feversham. And she-- +the lady you were reminded of--won the prize. So you think I resemble that +photograph?" She tipped her head back a little, holding his glance with +her half-veiled eyes. "What an imagination!" + +"Of course if you did pose for that picture, it doesn't do you half +justice; I admit that. But"--regarding her with a wavering doubt--"I guess +I've been jumping at conclusions again. They call me the 'Novelist' at the +office." He paused, laughing off a momentary embarrassment. "That's why I +didn't want to depend on getting your name from the society editor." + +"I am glad you did not. It would have been very annoying, I'm sure--to the +lady. I suppose," she went on slowly, while the glamour grew in her eyes, +"I suppose nothing could induce you to keep this story out of the +_Press_." + +He pursed his lips and shook his head decidedly. "I don't see how I can. +I'd do 'most anything to oblige you, but this is the biggest scoop I ever +fell into. The fellows detailed by the other papers to report the fair +went straight through by way of the Northern Pacific. I was the only +reporter at the wreck." + +"I understand, but," her voice fluctuated softly, "I dislike publicity so +intensely. Of course it's different with Mrs. Feversham. She is accustomed +to newspaper notice; her husband and brother are so completely in the +public eye. But since you must use the story, couldn't you suppress my +name?" + +"Oh, but how could I? The whole story hinges on you. You were driving the +machine. I saw you from the train window as you came through the cut. You +handled the gear like an imported chauffeur, but it was steep there on the +approach, and the car began to skid. I saw in a flash what was going to +happen; it made me limp as a rag. But there was a chance,--the merest +hairbreadth, and you took it." He waited a moment, then said, smiling: +"That was a picture worth snapping, but I was too batty to think of it in +time. You see," he went on seriously, "the leading character in this story +is you. And it means a lot to me. I was going to be fired; honest I was. +The old man told me he wasn't looking for any _Treasure Island_ genius; +what his paper needed was plain facts. Then his big heart got the upper +hand, and he called me back. 'Jimmie,' he said, 'there's good stuff in +you, and I am going to give you one more trial. Go over to North Yakima +and tell us about the fair. Take the new Milwaukee line as far as +Ellensburg and pick up something about the automobile road through +Snoqualmie Pass. But remember, cut out the fiction; keep to facts!'" + +"I understand," she repeated gravely, "I understand. The accident came +opportunely. It was life and color to your setting and demonstrates the +need of a better road. The most I can hope is that you will not exaggerate +or--or put us in a ridiculous light." + +"I swear to that." He settled his notebook again on his knee and lifted +his pencil. "Nothing sensational," he added, "nothing annoying; now please +give me your name." + +"Well, then, write Miss Armitage." + +"Miss Armitage. Thank you. Miss Armitage of?" + +"San Francisco." + +"Of San Francisco; and visiting the Morgansteins, of course. But going on +now alone to meet the friends who are expecting you--am I right?--at North +Yakima." + +There was a brief silence, and she moved a little in her chair. "Where I +am going now," she said, and looked at him once more across the invisible +barrier, "is another story." + +"I beg your pardon." Daniels laughed and, rising from his perch on the +chair arm, put his notebook in his pocket. "And I'm awfully grateful. If +ever I can be of service to you, I hope you'll let me know." He started up +the car, then paused to say over his shoulder: "The light for photography +was fine; the old man will double column every illustration." + +"Illustrations?" She started up in dismay. "Oh, no. Please--I couldn't +endure--" + +But Jimmie Daniels, with the camera swinging to his quick step, hurried on +to the vestibule. + +She settled back in her seat, and for a moment her consternation grew; +then the humor of the situation must have dawned on her, for suddenly the +sparkles danced in her eyes. Her glance met Tisdale's briefly and, +suppress it as he tried, his own smile broke at the corners of his mouth. +He rose and walked out again to the platform. + +This was the rarest woman on earth. She was able to appreciate a joke at +her own expense. Clearly she had finessed, then, in the instant she had +been sure of the game, she had met and accepted defeat with a smile. But +he would like to discipline that fellow Daniels;--here he frowned--those +films should be destroyed. Still, the boy would hardly give them up +peaceably and to take them otherwise would not spare her the publicity she +so desired to avoid; such a scene must simply furnish fresh material, a +new chapter to the story. After all, not one newspaper cut in a hundred +could be recognized. It was certain she was in no need of a champion; he +never had seen a woman so well equipped, so sure of herself and her +weapons, and yet so altogether feminine. If Foster had but known _her_. + +Instantly, in sharp contrast to this delightful stranger, rose the woman +of his imagination; the idle spendthrift who had cast her spell over +level-headed Foster; who had wrecked David Weatherbee; and his face +hardened. A personal interview, he told himself presently, would be worse +than useless. There was no way to reach a woman like her; she was past +appeal. But he would take that tract of desert off her hands at her price, +and perhaps, while the money lasted, she would let Foster alone. + +The train had left Lake Keechelus and was racing easily down the banks of +the Yakima. He was entering the country he had desired to see, and soon +his interest wakened. He seated himself to watch the heights that seemed +to move in quick succession like the endlessly closing gates of the Pass. +The track still ran shelf-wise along precipitous knobs and ridges; +sometimes it bored through. The forests of fir and hemlock were replaced +by thinning groves of pine; then appeared the first bare, sage-mottled +dune. The trucks rumbled over a bit of trestle, and for an instant he saw +the intake of an irrigating canal, and finally, after a last tunnel, the +eastbound steamed out of the canyon into a broad, mountain-locked plateau. +Everywhere, watered by the brimming ditch, stretched fields of vivid +alfalfa or ripe grain. Where the harvesting was over, herds of fine horses +and cattle or great flocks of sheep were turned in to browse on the +stubble. At rare intervals a sage-grown breadth of unreclaimed land, like +a ragged blemish, divided these farms. Then, when the arid slopes began to +crowd again, the train whistled Ellensburg on the lower rim of the plain. + +Tisdale left his seat to lean over the railing and look ahead. He was in +time to catch a fleeting glimpse of Jimmie Daniels as he hurried out of +the telegraph office and sprang on the step of a starting bus. It was here +the young newspaper man was to transfer to the Northern Pacific, and +doubtless the girl too was changing trains. The Milwaukee, beyond +Ellensburg, passed through new, unbroken country for many miles; the +stations were all in embryo, and even though she may not have resumed her +journey at the Pass with the intention of stopping off at the fair, the +same bus was probably taking her over to the old, main traveled route down +the Yakima to the Columbia. + +Again that unaccountable depression came over him. He tried to throw it +off, laughing at himself a little and lighting a cigar. This pretty woman +had happened in his path like a flower; she had pleased his eyes for a few +hours and was gone. But what possible difference could her coming and +going make to him? + +The train started, and he settled back in his seat. The fertile fields +were left behind, then presently the eastbound steamed through a gap in a +sun-baked ridge and entered a great arid level. Sage-brush stretched +limitless, and the dull green of each bush, powdered with dust, made a +grayer blotch on the pale shifting soil, that every chance zephyr lifted +in swirls and scattered like ashes. Sometimes a whiter patch showed where +alkali streaked through. It was like coming into an old, worn-out world. +The sun burned pitilessly, and when finally the train had crossed this +plain and began to wind through lofty dunes, the heat pent between the +slopes became stifling. The rear platform was growing intolerable, and he +knew his station could not be far off. He rose to go in, but the eastbound +suddenly plunged into the coolness of a tunnel, and he waited while it +bored through to daylight and moved on along a shelf overlooking a dry +run. Then, as he turned to the open door, he saw the girl had not taken +the Northern Pacific at Ellensburg. She was still there in the observation +car. + +Her eyes were closed, and he noticed as he went forward that her breast +rose and fell gently; the shorter, loose hair formed damp, cool little +rings on her forehead and about her ears. She was sleeping in her chair. +But a turn in the track brought the sun streaming through her window; the +polished ceiling reflected the glare, and he stopped to reach carefully +and draw the blind. A moment later the whistle shrieked, and the conductor +called his station. He hurried on up the aisle and, finding his satchel in +the vestibule, stood waiting until the car jolted to a stop, then swung +himself off. But the porter followed with a suitcase and placed his stool, +and the next instant the girl appeared. She carried her hat in her hands, +her coat was tucked under her arm, and as she stepped down beside Tisdale, +the bell began to ring, the porter sprang aboard, and the train went +speeding ahead. + +The station was only a telegraph office, flanked by a water-tank on a +siding. There was no waiting hotel bus, no cab, no vehicle of any kind. +The small building rose like an islet out of a gray sea. Far off through +billowing swells one other islet appeared, but these two passengers the +eastbound had left were like a man and woman marooned. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +APPLES OF EDEN + + +Tisdale stood looking after the train while the girl's swift, startled +glance swept the billowing desert and with growing dismay searched the +draw below the station. "There isn't a town in sight!" she exclaimed, and +her lip trembled. "Not a taxi or even a stage!" And she added, moving and +lifting her eyes to meet his: "What am I to do?" + +"I'll do my best, madam," he paused, and the genial lines broke lightly in +his face, "but I could find out quicker if I knew where you want to go." + +"To Wenatchee. And I tho--ought--I understood--the conductor told me you +were going there, and this was your stop. It was his first trip over the +new Milwaukee, and we trusted--to you." + +Tisdale pursed his lips, shaking his head slowly. "I guess I am +responsible. I did tell that conductor I was going to Wenatchee when I +asked him to drop me at this siding, but I should have explained I +expected to find a saddle-horse here and take a cut-off to strike the +Ellensburg road. It should save an hour." He drew a Government map of the +quadrangle of that section from his pocket and opened it. "You see, your +stop was Ellensburg; the only through road starts there." He found the +thoroughfare and began to trace it with his forefinger. "It crosses rugged +country; follows the canyons through these spurs of the Cascades. They +push down sheer to the Columbia. See the big bend it makes, flowing south +for miles along the mountains trying to find a way out to the Pacific. The +river ought to be off there." He paused and swung on his heel to look +eastward. "It isn't far from this station. But even if we reached it, it +would be up-stream, against a succession of rapids, from here to +Wenatchee. A boat would be impossible." He folded the plat and put it +away, then asked abruptly: "Do you ride, madam?" + +She gave him a swift side-glance and looked off in the direction of the +hidden Columbia. "Sometimes--but I haven't a riding habit." + +Tisdale waited. The humor deepened a little at the corners of his mouth. +There was but one passenger train each way daily on the newly opened +Milwaukee road, and plainly she could not remain at this siding alone all +night; yet she was debating the propriety of riding through the mountains +to Wenatchee with him. Then unexpectedly the click of a telegraph cut the +stillness, and a sudden brightness leaped in her face. "A station master," +she cried; "perhaps there's a telephone." And she hurried up the platform +to the open office door. + +Tisdale slowly followed. + +The station master, having transmitted his message, swung around on his +stool, and got to his feet in astonishment on seeing the girl. + +"I have made a mistake," she said, with a wavering glance over the +interior, "and I tho--ought, I hoped there was a telephone. But you can +communicate with the nearest garage for me, can you not? Or a stable--or-- +somewhere. You see," and for an instant the coquetry of a pretty woman who +knows she is pretty beamed in her eyes, "I really must have a taxicab or +some kind of a carriage to take me back to Ellensburg." + +The station master, who was a very young man, answered her smile and, +reaching to take a coat from a peg on the wall, hastily slipped it on. "Of +course I could call up Ellensburg," he said; "that's the nearest for a +machine. But it belongs to the doctor, and even if he was in town and +could spare it, it would take till dark to bring it down. It's a mean road +over sandhills for thirty-five miles." + +"It is hardly farther than that to Wenatchee," said Tisdale quietly. "With +good saddle-horses we should be able to make it as soon. Do you know +anything about the trail through to tap the Ellensburg-Wenatchee highway?" + +The station master came around the end of his desk. "So you are going to +Wenatchee," he exclaimed, and his face shone with a sort of inner glow. "I +guess then you must have heard about Hesperides Vale; the air's full of +it, and while land is selling next to nothing you want to get in on the +ground floor. Yes, sir," his voice quickened, "I own property over there, +and I came that way, up the mountain road, in the spring to take this +position when the Milwaukee opened. But I don't know much about your +cut-off; I just kept on to Ellensburg and dropped down by train from there. +The main road, though, was in pretty good shape. It's the old stage road +that used to connect with the Northern Pacific, and they had to do some +mighty heavy hauling over it while the mountain division of the Great +Northern was building up the Wenatchee. It keeps an easy grade, following +the canyons up and up till it's six thousand feet at the divide, then you +begin to drop to the Columbia. And when you leave the woods, it's like +this again, bunch grass and sage, sand and alkali, for twenty miles. Of +course there isn't a regular stage now; you have to hire." + +"Any road-houses?" asked Tisdale briefly. + +"No, but you come across a ranch once in awhile, and any of them would +take a man in over night--or a lady." + +Tisdale turned to the door. "I can find saddle-horses, I presume, at that +ranch off there through the draw. Is it the nearest?" + +"The nearest and the only one." The station master walked on with him to +the platform. "It's a new place. They are working two teams, every day and +Sunday, while daylight lasts, grubbing out the sage-brush for planting. +It's a pumping layout to bring water from the Columbia, and they are +starting with forty acres all in apples." + +"But they have saddle-horses?" said Tisdale, frowning. + +"I can't tell you that. The fellow I talked with came over for freight and +used one of the teams. Said they couldn't spare it. But that's your only +chance. I don't know of any other horses in twenty miles, unless it's a +wild band that passed this morning. They stopped down the draw, nosing out +the bunch grass for an hour or two, then skidooed." + +Tisdale paused a thoughtful moment then asked: "When is the next freight +due on this siding?" + +"Two-forty-five. And say"--he slapped his knee at the sudden thought-- +"that's your chance, sure. I have orders to hold them for the eastbound +silk train, and they'll let you ride in the caboose up to Kittitas. That's +the stop this side of Ellensburg, and there's a livery there, with a +cross-road to strike the Ellensburg-Wenatchee. But, say! If you do drop +off at Kittitas, ask Lighter to show you the colts. They are the star team +in three counties. Took the prize at North Yakima last year for +three-year-olds. They're too fly for livery work, but if you can drive, +and Lighter likes your looks"--the station master gave Tisdale a careful +scrutiny--"and you have his price, I shouldn't wonder if you could hire +Nip and Tuck." + +Tisdale laughed. "I see. If I can't hire them, I may be allowed the +privilege to buy them. But," and he looked at his watch, "there's time to +try that ranch." + +He started down the platform then stopped to look back at the girl who had +followed a few steps from the threshold. Her eyes held their expression of +uncertainty whether to sparkle or to cloud, and he read the arrested +question on her lips. "If there are any saddle-horses," he answered, "I +will have them here before that two-forty-five freight arrives, but," and +he smiled, "I am not so sure I can supply the proper riding-suit. And the +most I hope for in saddles is just a small Mexican." + +"A Mexican is easy riding," she said, "on a mountain road." But she stood +watching him, with the uncertainty still clouding her face, while he moved +down the draw. + +He wore the suit of gray corduroy it was his habit to wear in open +country, with leggings of russet leather, and he traveled very swiftly, +with a long, easy stride, though never rapidly enough to wholly escape the +dust he disturbed. Once he stopped and bent to fasten a loose strap, and +then he took off his coat, which he folded to carry. The pall of dust +enveloped him. In it his actions gathered mystery, and his big frame +loomed indistinctly like the figure of a genii in a column of smoke. The +fancy must have occurred to the watcher on the platform, for it was then +the sparkles broke in her eyes, and she said aloud, softly clapping her +hands: "I wish--I wish it to be Nip and Tuck." + +"So do I." She started and turned, and the station master smiled. "They're +beauties, you can take my word. It would be the drive of your life." + +He carried his office chair around the corner of the building to place for +her in the shade. Then his instrument called him, and for an interval she +was left alone. The desert stretched before her, limitless, in the glare +of the afternoon sun. If the Columbia flowed in that neighborhood, it was +hidden by sand dunes and decomposing cliffs of granite. There was no +glimpse of water anywhere, not a green blade; even the bunch grass, that +grew sparsely between the sage-brush through the draw, was dry and gray. +For a while no sound but the click of the telegraph disturbed the great +silence, then a hot wind came wailing out of the solitudes and passed into +a fastness of the mountains. + +Finally the station master returned. "Well," he said genially, "how are +you making it? Lonesome, I guess." + +"Oh," she exclaimed, "how can you, how could any human being, live in this +dead, worn-out world?" + +"It is desolate now," he admitted, sending a thoughtful glance over the +arid waste; "it must seem like the Great Sahara to you, coming into it for +the first time and directly from the Puget Sound country. I remember how I +felt when I struck the Hesperides. Why, it looked like the front door of +Hades to me; I said so, and I called myself all kinds of a fool. But I had +sunk an even thousand dollars in a twenty-acre tract; bought it off a real +estate map over in Seattle, without seeing the ground." He laughed, half +in embarrassment at the confession, and moved to take a more comfortable +position against the wall. "I was in a railroad office in Chicago," he +explained, "and my father expected me to work up to the responsible +position he held with the company and take it when he was through. But the +western fever caught me; I wanted to come to Washington and grow with the +country. He couldn't talk me out of it; so he gave me that thousand +dollars and told me to go and to stay till I made good." + +"Oh," she cried, "how hard! How miserable! And you?" + +"Why, I stayed. There wasn't anything else to do. And after I looked +around the valley a little and saw the Peshastin ditch and what it could +do, I got busy. I found work; did anything that turned up and saved like a +miser, until I was able to have the land cleared of sagebrush. It has mean +roots, you know, sprawling in all directions like the branches. Then I +saved to make connections with the ditch and to buy trees. I set the whole +twenty acres to apples--I always did like a good apple, and I had sized up +the few home orchards around Wenatchee--then I put in alfalfa for a +filler, and that eased things, and I settled down to office work, small +pay, lots of time to plan, and waited for my trees to grow. That was four +years ago, five since I struck the Wenatchee valley, and this season they +came into bearing. Now, at the end of this month, I am giving up my +position with the Milwaukee, cutting railroading for good, to go over and +superintend the harvesting. And say"--he stood erect, the inner glow +illumined his face--"I've had an offer for my crop; three hundred and +fifty dollars an acre for the fruit on the trees. Three hundred and fifty +dollars for a four-year-old orchard! Think of that! Seven thousand clear +for re-investment." + +"How splendid!" she said, and in that instant her face seemed to catch and +reflect his enthusiasm. "To have waited, fought like that in the face of +defeat, and to have made good." + +"And it's only the beginning," his voice caught a little; "an apple +orchard has bigger results every year after maturity. There's a man over +there on the Wenatchee who is going to make a thousand dollar profit on +each acre of his twelve-year orchard. You ought to see those trees, all +braced up with scaffolding, only fourteen acres of them, but every branch +loaded. But that orchard is an exception; they had to lift water from the +river with buckets and a wheel, and most of the pioneers put in grain. +Their eyes are just beginning to open. But think of Hesperides Vale in +another five years. And think what that High Line ditch means. Just +imagine it! Water, all you can use and running to waste; water spilling +over in this sage-brush desert. Doesn't it spell oasis? Think of it! Grass +and flowers and shade in place of this sunbaked sand and alkali." + +"It sounds like a fairy tale," she said. "I can hardly believe it." + +"I'll show you." He hurried around to the office door and came back +directly with a basket of fruit. "Here are a few samples from my trees. +Did you ever see pink like that in a bellflower? Isn't it pretty enough +for a girl's cheek? And say," he held up an exceedingly large apple, +nearer the size of a small pumpkin, "how's this for a Rome Beauty? An +agent who is selling acreage for a company down the Yakima offered me five +dollars for that apple yesterday. He wanted it for a window display over +at his Seattle office. But look at these Jonathans." His sensitive fingers +touched the fruit lingeringly with a sort of caress, and the glow deepened +in his face. "They represent the main crop. And talk about color! Did you +ever see wine and scarlet and gold blend and shade nicer than this?" + +She shook her head. "Unless it was in a Puget Sound cloud effect at +sunset. That is what it reminds me of; a handful of Puget Sound sunset." + +The station master laughed softly. "That's about it, sure. Now taste one +and tell me what the flavor of a Wenatchee Jonathan is like. No, that's +not quite ripe; try this." + +She set her small white teeth in the crimson cheek and tested the flavor +deliberately, with the gravity of an epicure, while the boy watched her, +his whole nervous frame keyed by her responsiveness to high pitch. "It's +like nothing else in the world," she said finally. "No, wait, yes, it is. +It's like condensed wine; a blend of the best; golden Angelica, red port, +amber champagne, with just enough of old-fashioned cider to remind you it +is an apple." + +The station master laughed again. "Say, but you've got it all in, fine." +He set the basket at her feet and stood looking down at her an uncertain +moment. "I would like awfully well to send you a box," he added, and the +flush of his bellflower was reflected in his cheek. + +She gave him a swift upward glance and turned her face to the desert. +"Thank you, but when one is traveling, it is hard to give a certain +address." In the pause that followed, she glanced again and smiled. "I +would like one or two of these samples, though, if you can spare them," +she compromised; "I shall be thirsty on that mountain road." + +"I can spare all you'll take." + +"Thank you," she repeated hastily. "And you may be sure I shall look for +your orchard when I reach Wenatchee. The fruit on the trees must be +beautiful." + +"It is. It's worth the drive up from Wenatchee just to see Hesperides +Vale, and that special Eden of mine is the core. You couldn't miss it; +about ten miles up and right on the river road." + +"I shall find it," she nodded brightly. "I am going that way to see a wild +tract in a certain pocket of the valley. I wonder"--she started and turned +a little to give him her direct look--"if by any possibility it could be +brought under your Peshastin ditch?" + +He shook his head. "Hardly. I wouldn't count on it. Most of those pockets +back in the benches are too high. Some of them are cut off by ridges from +one to six thousand feet. Maybe your agent will talk of pumping water from +the canal, but don't you bite. It means an expensive electric plant and +several miles of private flume. And perhaps he will show you how easy it's +going to be to tap the new High Line that's building down the Wenatchee +and on to the plateau across the Columbia thirty miles. But it's a big +proposition to finance; in places they'll have to bore through granite +cliffs; and if the day ever comes when it's finished far enough to benefit +your tract, I doubt the water would reach your upper levels. And say, what +is the use of letting him talk you into buying a roof garden when, for one +or two hundred dollars an acre, you can still get in on the ground floor?" + +She did not answer. Her eyes were turned again to the desert, and a sudden +weariness clouded her face. In that moment she seemed older, and the +strong light brought out two lines delicately traced at the corners of her +beautiful mouth that had not been apparent before. + +"But, say," the young man went on eagerly, "let me tell you a little more +about the Vale. It's sheltered in there. The mountains wall it in, and you +don't get the fierce winds off the Columbia desert. The snow never drifts; +it lies flat as a carpet all winter. And we don't have late frosts; never +have to stay up all night watching smudge pots to keep the trees warm. And +those steep slopes catch the early spring sun and cast it off like big +reflectors; things start to grow before winter is gone. And I don't know +what makes it so, but the soil on those low Wenatchee benches is a little +different from any other. It looks like the Almighty made his hot beds +there, all smooth and level, and just forgot to turn the water on. And +take a project like the Peshastin, run by a strong company with plenty of +capital; the man along the canal only has to pay his water rate, so much +an irrigated acre; nothing towards the plant, nothing for flume +construction and repairs. And, say, I don't want to bore you, I don't want +to influence you too far, but I hate to see a woman--a lady--throw her +money away right in sight of a sure proposition; even if you can't go into +improved orchards, any Hesperides investment is safe. It means at least +double the price to you within two years. I've bonded forty acres more of +wild land joining my tract, and I shall plant thirty of it in the fall. +The last ten will be cleared and reserved for speculation. The piece comes +within a stone's throw of the Great Northern's tracks. There's a siding +there now, and when the Vale comes into full bearing, they are bound to +make it a shipping station. Then I'm going to plat that strip into town +lots and put it on the market." He paused while her glance, returning from +the desert, met his in a veiled side-look, and the flush of the bellflower +again tinged his cheek. "I mean," he added, "I'd be mighty glad to let you +in." + +The blue sparkles played under her lashes. "Thank you, it sounds like +riches, but--" + +She stopped, leaving the excuse unsaid. The station master had turned his +face suddenly towards the Columbia; he was not listening to her. Then, +presently, the sound that had caught his alert ear reached her own +faintly. Somewhere out in the solitudes a train had whistled. "The +westbound freight!" she exclaimed softly. "Isn't it the westbound +freight?" + +He nodded. "She's signalling Beverley. They'll call me in a minute." And +he started around to the office door. + +She rose and followed to the corner to look for Tisdale. Midway the road +doubled a knoll and was lost, to reappear, a paler streak, on the gray +slope where the ranch house stood; and it was there, at the turn, she +first noticed a cloud of dust. It advanced rapidly, but for a while she +was not able to determine whether it enveloped a rider or a man on foot; +she was certain there was no led horse. Then a gust of wind parted the +cloud an instant, and the sparkle suffused her whole face. He was +returning as she had hoped, afoot. + +She stood watching the moving cloud; the man's bulk began to detach from +it and gathered shape. Between pauses, the click of the telegraph reached +her, then suddenly the shriek of the whistle cut the stillness. The train +must have crossed the Columbia and was winding up through the dunes. She +went along the platform and picked up her hat, which she had left on the +suitcase with her coat. While she pinned it on and tied her veil over it, +the freight signalled twice. It was so close she caught the echo of the +thundering trucks from some rocky cut. When the call sounded a third time, +it brought an answer from the silk special, far off in the direction of +Ellensburg. She lifted her coat and turned again to watch Tisdale. He had +quickened his pace, but a shade of suspense subdued the light in her face. + +Since the whistle of the special, the telegraph instrument had remained +silent, and presently she heard the station master's step behind her. +"Well," he said, "it's Nip and Tuck, sure. But say, he can sprint some. +Does it easy, too, like one of those cross-country fellows out of a +college team. I'd back him against the freight." + +"If he misses it," and the suspense crept into her voice, "I must go +without him, and I suppose I can be sure of a hotel at Ellensburg?" + +"You'll find fair accommodations at Kittitas. But he isn't going to miss +the freight, and it will be hours saved to you if Lighter lets you have +the colts." + +She lifted her coat, and he held it while she slipped her arms in the +sleeves. "I've 'most forgotten how to do this," he said; "it's so long +since I've seen a girl--or a lady. I'm afraid I've bored you a lot, but +you don't know how I've enjoyed it. It's been an epoch seeing you in this +wilderness." + +"It's been very interesting to me, I'm sure," she replied gravely. "I've +learned so much. I wonder if, should I come this way again, I would find +all this desert blossoming?" + +"I shouldn't be surprised; settlement's bound to follow a new railroad. +But say, look into Hesperides Vale while you are at Wenatchee, and if my +proposition seems good to you at one hundred dollars an acre, and that is +what I'm paying, drop me a line. My name is Bailey. Henderson Bailey, +Post-Office, Wenatchee, after the end of the month." + +He waited with expectation in his frank brown eyes, but the girl stood +obliviously watching Tisdale. He reached the platform and stopped, +breathing deep and full, while he shook the dust from his hat. "I am +sorry, madam," he said, "but their only saddle-horse pulled his rope-stake +this morning and went off with the wild herd. You will have to take this +freight back to Kittitas." + +"How disappointing!" she exclaimed. "And you were forced to tramp back +directly through this heat and dust." + +"This is the lightest soil I ever stepped on"--he glanced down over his +powdered leggings and shoes; the humor broke gently in his face--"and +there's just one kind deeper,--the Alaska tundra." + +With this he hurried by her to the office. Presently the freight whistled +the siding, and Bailey picked up the baggage and went down to make +arrangements with the trainmen. The girl followed, and when Tisdale came +back, she stood framed in the doorway of the waiting caboose, while a +brakeman dusted a chair, which he placed adroitly facing outside, so that +she might forget the unmade bunks and greasy stove. "It isn't much on +accommodations," he said conciliatingly, "but you can have it all to +yourselves; as far as you go, it's your private car." + +The other train thundered into the station and past; the freight began to +move, and Tisdale swung himself aboard. Then the station master, +remembering the apples at the last moment, ran with the basket, crowned +still by the Rome Beauty for which he had refused five dollars, and +dropped it as a parting tribute at her feet. + +"Thank you! Thank you for everything!" Her soft voice fluted back to +Bailey, and she leaned forward a little, raising her hand with a parting +salute. "Good-by!" + +Then, as she settled back in her chair, her swift side-glance swept +Tisdale. It was incredible he had removed so much dust in that brief +interval, but plainly, somewhere in that miserable station, he had found +water and towels; he had not seemed more fit that morning in the +observation car. The hand he laid on the wall as a brace against the +rocking of the light caboose was on a level with her eyes, and they rested +there. It was a strong, well-made hand, the hand of the capable +draughtsman, sensitive yet controlled, and scrupulously cared for. "I hope +I pass muster," he said, and the amusement played gently in his face, "for +I am going to venture to introduce myself. Possibly you have heard Judge +Feversham speak of me. I am Hollis Tisdale--Miss Armitage." + +In the instant he hesitated on the name, she gave him another swift upward +glance, and he caught a question in her eyes; then the sparkles rose, and +she looked off again to the point where the railroad track was lost among +the dunes. "Of course I have heard of you," she admitted. "We--Mrs. +Feversham--recognized you this morning in Snoqualmie Pass and would have +spoken to thank you for your service had you not hurried aboard your +train. She has known you by sight and has wished to meet you personally a +long time. But I--I--as you must know--I--" + +She had turned once more to give him the direct look of her unveiled eyes, +and meeting his her voice failed. The color flamed and went in her face; +then, her glance falling to the basket at her feet, she bent and took the +largest apple. "Did you ever see such a marvel?" she asked. "It came from +that station master's orchard in the Wenatchee valley. He called it a Rome +Beauty. Divide it, please; let us see if the flavor is all it promises." + +"If it is"--and Tisdale took the apple and felt in his pocket for his +knife--"the ground that grew the tree is a bonanza." He waited another +moment, watching the changing color in her face, then turned and walked to +the upper end of the caboose, where he deliberately selected a stool which +he brought forward to the door. Her confusion puzzled him. Had she been +about to confess, as he had at first conjectured, that Miss Armitage was +an incognito used to satisfy the _Press_ reporter and so avoid publicity? +It was clear she had thought better of the impulse, and he told himself, +as he took the seat beside her and opened his knife, he was to have no +more of her confidence than Jimmie Daniels. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +NIP AND TUCK + + +Bailey was right; the colts were beauties. But at the time Tisdale arrived +at the Kittitas stables, Lighter, having decided to drive them to North +Yakima, was putting the pair to a smart buggy. They were not for hire at +double or treble the usual day rate. + +"I want to sell this team," the trader repeated flatly. "I don't want to +winter 'em again, and my best chance to show 'em is now, down at the fair. +I can keep 'em in good shape, making it in two stages and resting 'em over +night on the road, and be there by noon to-morrow." + +One of the horses reared, lifting the stable-boy off his feet, and Lighter +sprang to take the bit in his powerful grasp. "Steady, Tuck, steady! Whoa, +whoa, back now, back, steady, whoa!" The animal stood, frothing a little, +his beautiful coat moist, every muscle tense. "See there, now! Ain't he +peaceable? Nothing mean under his whole hide; just wants to go. The other +one will nip your fingers once in a while, if you don't watch out, but he +don't mean anything, either; it's all in fun." + +He gave his place to the boy again and stepped back to Tisdale's side, +still watching his team, while a second stableman hurried to fasten the +traces. "The fact is," he went on, dropping his voice confidentially, +"I've got wind of a customer. He's driving through from the Sound to the +races in his machine. A friend of mine wired me. Mebbe you know him. It's +one of those Morgansteins of Seattle; the young feller. He saw these bays +last year when they took the blue ribbon and said he'd keep an eye on 'em. +They were most too fly then for crowded streets and spinning around the +boulevard 'mongst the automobiles, but they're pretty well broke now. +Steady, Nip, whoa there!" + +"But," said Tisdale quietly, "young Morganstein met with an accident this +morning in Snoqualmie Pass. An axle was broken, and he was thrown out of +his machine. His leg was injured, and he took the train back to Seattle. I +happened to be on the eastbound at the siding where it all occurred." + +Lighter gave him a skeptical glance between narrowed lids. "Then, if he +can't come himself, I guess he'll send his man. He told that friend of +mine he counted on having another look at this team." + +Tisdale's brows contracted. "See here, I want to drive to Wenatchee; what +is the best you can do for me?" + +"Why, let's see. My best livery rig is on the Wenatchee road now. One of +them High Line fellers hired the outfit with a driver to take him through +to the valley. If you'd be'n here when they started, likely they'd be'n +glad to accommodate you. And the sorrels is out with a picnic to Nanum +canyon. That leaves the roans. They come in half an hour ago. A couple of +traveling salesmen had 'em out all the forenoon, and these drummers drive +like blue blazes; and it's a mean pull through to Wenatchee. But wait till +to-morrow and, with an early start, you can make it all right with the +roans. That's the best I can do, unless you want a saddle-horse." + +Tisdale walked back to the stalls and, convinced at a glance the jaded +roans were impossible for that day, at least, stopped to look over the +saddle animals. He saw that there were two promising travelers, but it +would be necessary to impress an indifferent third to carry the baggage. +Besides, judging from all he had seen, the resources of Kittitas did not +include a ready-made lady's habit. He returned and stood another silent +moment watching the lithe, impatient bays. Finally his eyes moved to the +entrance and down the road to the railroad station where Miss Armitage was +waiting. She was seated on a bench near the door. He could distinguish her +gray figure in relief against the reddish-brown wall. + +Directly he swung around. "What is your price?" he asked. + +Lighter's hand dropped from the edge of the buggy seat. He stepped back to +the heads of his team. "You get in, Harry," he said. "Drive 'em five or +six blocks. Keep your eyes open." + +Harry gathered the reins warily and sprang in; Lighter released his hold, +then hurried forward to the driveway and stood with Tisdale watching the +team. "Ain't they a sight?" he said. + +And they were. Their coats shone like satin in the sun; they stepped +airily, spurning the dust of Kittitas, and blew the ashen powder from +their nostrils; then without warning the splendid span was away. + +Tisdale repeated: "What is your price?" + +Lighter's shrewd eyes swept his new customer over; it was as though he +made an estimate of how much Tisdale could pay. "Five hundred dollars," he +said. "Five hundred--if it's spot cash." + +"And the outfit?" + +"Let me see. Harness is practically new; buggy first-class. I'll make it +an even seven hundred for the whole business; outfit and team." + +There was a brief silence. As a rule, a man drawing the salary of the +Geological Survey does not spend seven hundred dollars lightly. He bridles +his impulses to own fine driving-horses until at least he has tried them. +And this sum, just at that time, meant something of a drain on Tisdale's +bank account. He knew if he bought the Weatherbee tract and reclaimed it, +he must hedge on his personal expenses for a year or two; he had even +talked with Banks a little about a loan to open the project and keep it +moving until the next season's clean-up, when the Aurora should make good. +He stirred, with a quick upward lift of his head, and looked once more in +the direction of the station. + +The girl rose and began to walk the platform. + +Tisdale swung back and met the trader's calculating gaze. "Where is your +bank?" he asked. + +The business was quickly transacted and, when Lighter and his customer +stepped out of the bank, Harry was there, driving the bays slowly up and +down the street. In the moment they waited for him to draw up, the trader +looked Tisdale over again. "Your easiest way to get this team over to the +Sound is to drive through Snoqualmie Pass, the way you came." + +"But," said Tisdale, knitting his brows, "I told you I wanted this team to +drive to the Wenatchee valley." + +"You can't drive on through the Cascades from there and, if you try to +ship these colts aboard a Great Northern train, you'll have trouble." + +"I shall probably leave them to winter in the valley. Unless"--Tisdale +paused, smiling at the afterthought--"I decide to sell them to young +Morganstein when I get back to Seattle." + +Lighter laughed dryly. "I thought so. I sized you up all right at the +start. I says to myself: 'He don't look like a feller to run a bluff,' and +I says: 'Young Morganstein ain't the sort to pick up any second-hand +outfit,' but I thought all along you was his man." + +"I see." The humor played softly in Tisdale's face. "I see. But you +thought wrong." + +Lighter's lids narrowed again skeptically. "Those letters you showed to +identify yourself cinched it. Why, one was signed by his brother-in-law, +Miles Feversham, and your draft was on the Seattle National where the +Morgansteins bank. But it's all right; I got my price." He nudged Tisdale +slyly and, laughing again, moved to the heads of the team. "Now, sir, +watch your chance; they're chain lightning the minute you touch the seat." + +Tisdale was ready. At last he felt the tug of the lines in his grasp, the +hot wind stung his face, and he was speeding back in the direction of the +station. The girl came to the edge of the platform as he approached, and +while the solitary man from the freight office caught the first +opportunity to store the baggage under the seat, and the second to lift in +the basket of samples from Bailey's orchard, she tied her veil more snugly +under her chin and stood measuring the team with the sparkles breaking in +her eyes. Then she gathered her skirts in one hand and laid the other +lightly on the seat. + +"Don't try to help me," she said breathlessly. "Just hold them." And the +next instant she was up beside him, and her laugh fluted in exhilaration +as they whirled away. + +Kittitas fell far behind. They were racing directly across the seven miles +of level towards a pass in a lofty range that marked the road to +Wenatchee. Far to the left lines of poplars showed where the irrigating +canals below Ellensburg watered the plain, and on the right the dunes and +bluffs of the unseen Columbia broke the horizon. But the girl was watching +Tisdale's management of the horses. "What beauties!" she exclaimed. "And +Nip and Tuck!" Her lips rippled merriment. "How well named. Wait, be-- +care--ful--they are going to take that ho-le. Oh, would you mind giving +those reins to me?" + +"I wish I could." He shook his head, while the amusement played gently at +the corners of his mouth. "I know all about a team of huskies, and it +doesn't make much difference what I have under a saddle, but these kittens +in harness are rather out of my line." + +"Then trust yourself to me; please do. I used to drive just such a pair." + +"Oh, but your hands couldn't stand this, and those gloves would be ribbons +in half an hour." + +"They are heavier than they look; besides, there are the shops at +Wenatchee!" As if this settled the matter she said: "But we must change +places. Now." She slipped into his seat as he rose, and took the reins +dexterously, with a tightening grip, in her hands. "Whoa, whoa, Nip!" Her +voice deepened a little. "Steady, Tuck, steady! That's right; be a man." +There was another silent interval while he watched her handling of the +team, then, "I did not know there could be a pair in all the world so like +Pedro and Don José," she said, and the exhilaration softened in her face. +"They were my ponies given me the birthday I was seventeen. A long time +ago--" she sighed and flashed him a side-glance, shaking her head--"but I +shall never forget. We lived in San Francisco, and my father and I tried +them that morning in Golden Gate park. The roads were simply perfect, and +the sea beach at low tide was like a hardwood floor. After that we drove +for the week-end to Monterey, then through the redwoods to Santa Cruz and +everywhere." She paused reminiscently. "Those California hotels are fine. +They pride themselves on their orchestras, and wherever we went, we found +friends to enjoy the dancing evenings after table d'hôte. That was in the +winter, but it was more delightful in the spring. We drove far south then, +through Menlo Park and Palo Alto, where the great meadows were vivid with +alfalfa, and fields on fields were yellow with poppies or blue with +lupine; on and on into the peach and almond country. I can see those +blossoming orchards now; the air was flooded with perfume." + +Her glance moved from the horses out over the sage-covered levels, and the +contrast must have dropped like a curtain on her picture, for the light in +her face died. Tisdale's look followed the road up from the plain and +rested on the higher country; his eyes gathered their far-seeing gaze. He +had been suddenly reminded of Weatherbee. It was in those California +orchards he had spent his early life. He had known that scent of the +blossoming almond; those fields of poppies and lupine had been his +playground when he was a child. It was at the university at Palo Alto that +he had taken his engineering course; and it was at one of those gay +hotels, on a holiday and through some fellow student, he had met the woman +who had spoiled his life. + +The moment passed. One of the horses broke, and instantly the driver was +alert. And while she alternately admonished and upbraided, with a firm +manipulation of the reins, the humor began to play again in Tisdale's +face. They were approaching the point where the road met the highway from +Ellensburg, and in the irrigated sections that began to divide the +unreclaimed land, harvesters were reaping and binding; from a farther +field came the noise of a threshing machine; presently, as the bays turned +into the thoroughfare, the way was blocked by a great flock of sheep. + +"Oh," she exclaimed, "there must be thousands of them; how can the ones in +the center breathe? Whoa, Nip, whoa now! Do you think you are one of those +lambs? And there's no chance to go around; it is fenced with barbed wire +on both sides; we simply must drive through, No, let me, please. Steady, +now, Tuck, steady, whoa." + +They had passed the mounted herders, and the colts broke their way +playfully, dancing, curveting with bowing necks, into the midst of the +flock. Soon the figures of the advance shepherds loomed through the dust. +They were turning the sheep into a harvested field. They rolled in over +the yellow stubble like a foaming sea. Far away, outlined like a sail +against an island rick, the night tent of these nomads was already +pitched. + +Tisdale laughed softly. "Well, madam, that was skilful piloting. A bidarka +couldn't have been safer riding in a skiddery sea." + +"A bidarka?" she questioned, ruffling her brows. + +Tisdale nodded. "One of those small skin canoes the Alaskan natives use. +And it's touchy as a duck; comes bobbing up here and there, but right-side +up every time. And it's frail looking, frail as an eggshell, yet I would +stake a bidarka against a lifeboat in a surf. Do you know?"--he went on +after a moment--"I would like to see you in one, racing out with the +whitecaps up there in Bering Sea; your face all wet with spray, and your +hair tucked away in the hood of a gray fox parka. Nothing else would show; +the rest of you would be stowed below in a wonderful little water-tight +compartment." + +"It sounds delightful," she said, and the sparkles broke in her eyes. + +After that there was a long silence. The bays fell into an even trot. The +mountains loomed near, then before them, on the limits of the plain, a +mighty herd of cattle closed the road. The girl rose a little in her place +and looked over that moving sea of backs. "We must drive through again," +she said. "It's going to be stifling but there's no possible way around. +No," she protested, when he would have taken the reins, "I'm able. I +learned once, years ago, on a great ranch in southern California. I'd +rather." She settled in her seat smiling a little. "It's in the blood." + +Tisdale reached and took the whip. They had passed the drivers and were +pushing into the herd. Sometimes a red-eyed brute turned with lowered +horns and dripping mouth, then backed slowly out of the way of the team. +Sometimes, in a thicker press, an animal wheeled close to the tires and, +stemming the current, sounded a protest. But the young horses, less +playful now, divided the great herd and came at last safely out of the +smother. The road began to lift, as they rounded the first rampart of the +range, and Tisdale's glance fell to her hands. "Those gloves are done for, +as I expected," he exclaimed. "I'll wager your palms are blistered. Come, +own they hurt." + +She nodded. "But it was worth it, though you may drive now, if you wish. +It's my wrists; they have been so long out of practice. You don't know how +they a--che." + +"So," he said, when he had taken the reins, "so you are as fond of horses +as this." + +"Horses like these, yes. I haven't felt as happy and young since I gave up +Pedro and Don José." + +Tisdale turned a little to look in her face. She had said "young" with the +tone of one whose youth is past, yet the most conservative judge could not +place her age a day over twenty-five. And she was so buoyant, so vibrant. +His pulses quickened. It was as though currents of her vitality were being +continually transmitted through his veins. + +As they ascended, the plain unfolded like a map below; harvest fields, +pastures of feeding cattle or sheep, meadows of alfalfa, unreclaimed +reaches of sage-brush, and, far off among her shade-trees, the roofs of +Ellensburg reflecting the late sun. Above the opposite range that hemmed +the valley southward some thunder-heads crowded fast towards a loftier +snow-peak. Far away across the divide, white, symmetrical, wrought of +alabaster, inlaid with opal, lifted a peerless dome. + +"Mount Rainier!" exclaimed Tisdale. + +"I knew it." Her voice vibrated softly. "Even at this distance I knew. It +was like seeing unexpectedly, in an unfamiliar country, the head of a +noble friend lifting above the crowd." + +Tisdale's glance returned to her face. Surprise and understanding shone +softly in his own. She turned, and met the look with a smile. It was then, +for the first time, he discovered unsounded depths through the subdued +lights of her eyes. "You must have known old Rainier intimately," he said. + +She shook her head. "Not nearer than Puget Sound. But I have a marvelous +view from my hotel windows in Seattle, and often in long summer twilights +from the deck of Mr. Morganstein's yacht, I've watched the changing Alpine +glow on the mountain. I always draw my south curtains first, at Vivian +Court, to see whether the dome is clear or promises a wet day. I've +learned a mountain, surely as a person, has individuality; every cloud +effect is to me a different mood, and sometimes, when I've been most +unhappy or hard-pressed, the sight of Rainier rising so serene, so pure, +so high above the fretting clouds, has given me new courage. Can you +understand that, Mr. Tisdale? How a mountain can become an influence, an +inspiration, in a life?" + +"I think so, yes." Tisdale paused, then added quietly: "But I would like +to be the first to show you old Rainier at close range." + +At this she moved a little; he felt the invisible barrier stiffen between +them. "Mr. Morganstein promised to motor us through to the National Park +Inn when the new Government road was finished, but we've been waiting for +the heavy summer travel to be over. It has been like the road to Mecca +since the foot of the mountain has been accessible." + +There was a silence, during which Tisdale watched the pulling team. Her +manner of reminding him of his position was unmistakable, but it was her +frequent reference to young Morganstein that began to nettle him. Why +should she wish specially to motor to Rainier with that black-browed, +querulous nabob? Why had she so often sailed on his yacht? And why should +she ever have been unhappy and hard-pressed, as she had confessed? She who +was so clearly created for happiness. But to Tisdale her camaraderie with +Nature was charming. It was so very rare. A few of the women he had known +hitherto had been capable of it, but they had lived rugged lives; the +wilderness gave them little else. And of all the men whom he had made his +friends through an eventful career, there was only Foster who sometimes +felt the magnitude of high places,--and there had been David Weatherbee. +At this thought of Weatherbee his brows clouded, and that last letter, the +one that had reached him at Nome and which he still carried in his breast +pocket, seemed suddenly to gather a vital quality. It was as though it +cried out: "I can't stand these everlasting ice peaks, Hollis; they crowd +me so." + +Miss Armitage sat obliviously looking off once more across the valley. The +thunder-heads, denser now and driving in legions along the opposite +heights, stormed over the snow peak and assailed the far, shining dome. + +"Oh," she exclaimed, "see Rainier now! That blackest cloud is lifting over +the summit. Rain is streaming from it like a veil of gauze; but the dome +still shines through like a transfigured face!" + +Tisdale's glance rested a moment on the wonder. His face cleared. "If we +were on the other side of the Cascades," he said, "that weather-cap would +mean a storm before many hours; but here, in this country of little rain, +I presume it is only a threat." + +The bays began to round a curve and presently Rainier, the lesser heights, +all the valley of Kittitas, closed from sight. They had reached the timber +belt; poplars threaded the parks of pine, and young growths of fir, like +the stiff groves of a toy village, gathered hold on the sharp mountain +slopes. Sometimes the voice of a creek, hurrying down the canyon to join +the Yakima, broke the stillness, or a desert wind found its way in and +went wailing up the water-course. And sometimes in a rocky place, the +hoof-beats of the horses, the noise of the wheels, struck an echo from +spur to spur. Then Tisdale commenced to whistle cautiously, in fragments +at first, with his glance on the playing ears of the colts, until +satisfied they rather liked it, he settled into a definite tune, but with +the flutelike intonations of one who loves and is accustomed to make his +own melody. + +He knew that this woman beside him, since they had left the civilization +of the valley behind, half repented her adventure. He felt the barrier +strengthen to a wall, over which, uncertain, a little afraid, she watched +him. At last, having finished the tune, he turned and surprised the covert +look from under her curling black lashes. + +"I hope," he said, and the amusement broke softly in his face, "all this +appraisal is showing a little to my credit." + +The color flamed pinkly in her face. She looked away. "I was wondering if +you blamed me. I've been so unconservative--so--so--even daring. Is it not +true?" + +"No, Miss Armitage, I understand how you had to decide, in a moment, to +take that eastbound train in Snoqualmie Pass, and that you believed it +would be possible to motor or stage across to Wenatchee from the Milwaukee +road." + +"Yes, but," she persisted, "you think, having learned my mistake, I should +have stayed on the freight train as far as Ellensburg, where I could have +waited for the next passenger back to Seattle." + +"If you had, you would have disappointed me. That would have completely +spoiled my estimate of you." + +"Your estimate of me?" she questioned. + +"Yes." He paused and his glance moved slowly, a little absently, up the +unfolding gorge. "It's a fancy of mine to compare a woman, on sight, with +some kind of flower. It may be a lily or a rose or perhaps it's a +flaunting tulip. Once, up in the heart of the Alaska forest, it was just a +sweet wood anemone." He paused again, looking off through the trees, and a +hint of tenderness touched his mouth. "For instance," he went on, and his +voice quickened, "there is your friend, Mrs. Feversham. I never have met +her, but I've seen her a good many times, and she always reminds me of one +of those rich, dark roses florists call Black Prince. And there's her +sister, who makes me think of a fine, creamy hyacinth; the sturdy sort, +able to stand on its own stem without a prop. And they are exotics, both +of them; their personality, wherever they are, has the effect of a strong +perfume." + +He paused again, so long that this time his listener ventured to prompt +him. "And I?" she asked. + +"You?" He turned, and the color flushed through his tan. "Why, you are +like nothing in the world but a certain Alaska violet I once stumbled on. +It was out of season, on a bleak mountainside, where, at the close of a +miserable day, I was forced to make camp. A little thing stimulates a man +sometimes, and the sight of that flower blooming there when violet time +was gone, lifting its head next to a snow-field, nodding so pluckily, +holding its own against the bitter wind, buoyed me through a desperate +hour." + +She turned her face to look down through the treetops at the complaining +stream. Presently she said: "That is better than an estimate; it is a +tribute. I wish I might hope to live up to it, but sooner or later," and +the vibration played softly in her voice, "I am going to disappoint you." + +Tisdale laughed, shaking his head. "My first impressions are the ones that +count," he said simply. "But do you want to turn back now?" + +"N--o, unless you--do." + +Tisdale laughed again mellowly. "Then it's all right. We are going to see +this trip through. But I wish I could show you that Alaska mountainside in +midsummer. Imagine violets on violets, thousands of them, springing +everywhere in the vivid new grass. You can't avoid crushing some, no +matter how carefully you pick your steps. There's a rocky seat half-way up +on a level spur, where you might rest, and I would fill your lap with +those violets, big, long-stemmed ones, till the blue lights danced in your +eyes." + +They were doing that now, and her laugh fluted softly through the wood. +For that moment the barrier between them lost substance; it became the +sheerest tissue, a curtain of gauze. Then the aloofness for which he +waited settled on her. She looked away, her glance again seeking the +stream. "I can't imagine anything more delightful," she said. + +A rough and steep breadth of road opened before them, and for a while the +bays held his attention, then in a better stretch, he felt her swift +side-glance again reading his face. "Do you know," she said, "you are not +at all the kind of man I was led to expect." + +"No?" He turned interestedly, with the amusement shading the corners of +his mouth. "What did you hear?" + +"Why, I heard that you were the hardest man in the world to know; the most +elusive, shyest." + +Tisdale's laugh rang, a low note from the depths of his mellow heart. "And +you believed that?" + +She nodded, and he caught the blue sparkles under her drooping lids. "You +know how Mrs. Feversham has tried her best to know you; how she sent you +invitations repeatedly to dinner or for an evening at Juneau, Valdez, +Fairbanks, and you invariably made some excuse." + +"Oh, but that's easily explained. Summers, when she timed her visits to +Alaska, I was busy getting my party into the field. The working season up +there is short." + +"But winters, at Seattle and in Washington even, it has been the same." + +"Winters, why, winters, I have my geological reports to get in shape for +the printer; interminable proofs to go over; and there are so many +necessary people to meet in connection with my work. Then, too, if the +season has been spent in opening country of special interest, I like to +prepare a paper for the geographical society; that keeps me in touch with +old friends." + +"Old friends," she repeated after a moment. "Do you know it was one of +them, or rather one of your closest friends, who encouraged my delusion in +regard to you?" + +"No, how was it?" + +"Why, he said you were the hardest man in the world to turn, a man of iron +when once you made up your mind, but that Mrs. Feversham was right; you +were shy. He had known you to go miles around, on occasion, to avoid a +town, just to escape meeting a woman. And he told us--of course I can +repeat it since it is so ridiculously untrue--that it was easier to bridle +a trapped moose than to lead you to a ballroom; but that once there, no +doubt you would gentle fine." + +She leaned back in her seat, laughing softly, though it was obviously a +joke at her own expense as well as Tisdale's. "And I believed it," she +added. "I believed it--every word." + +Tisdale laughed too, a deep undernote. "That sounds like Billy Foster. I +wager it was Foster. Was it?" he asked. + +She nodded affirmatively. + +"Then Foster has met you." Tisdale's voice rang a little. "He knows you, +after all." + +"Yes, he could hardly help knowing me. His business interests are with my +closest friends, the Morgansteins; they think a great deal of him. And he +happens to play a remarkably good hand at bridge; we always depend on him +to make up a table when he is in town." + +Tisdale's eyes rested a thoughtful moment on the road ahead. Strange +Foster never had mentioned her. But that showed how blind, how completely +infatuated with the Spanish woman the boy was. His face set austerely. +Then suddenly he started; his grasp tightened on the reins so that the +colts sprang to the sharp grade. "Do you happen to know that enchantress, +too?" he asked. + +"Whom?" questioned Miss Armitage. + +"I mean Mrs. Weatherbee. I believe she counts the Morgansteins among her +friends, and you said you were staying at Vivian Court, where her +apartments are." + +"Oh, yes, I know--her. I"--the color flamed and went in her face; her +glance fell once more to the steep slope, searching out the narrowing +stream through the trees. "I--'ve known Beatriz Weatherbee all my life. +I--I think a great deal of her." + +"Madam, madam!" Tisdale protested, "don't tell me that. You have known +her, lived near her, perhaps, in California, those years when you were +growing up; shared the intimacies young girls enjoy. I understand all +that, but don't say you care anything for her now." + +Miss Armitage lifted her face. Her eyes did not sparkle then; they flamed. +"Why shouldn't I, Mr. Tisdale? And who are you to disparage Beatriz +Weatherbee? You never have known her. What right have you to condemn her?" + +"This right, Miss Armitage; she destroyed David Weatherbee. And I know +what a life was lost, what a man was sacrificed." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A NIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN ROAD + + +They drove on for a long interval in silence. The colts, sobered by the +sharp pull to the divide, kept an even pace now that they had struck the +down-grade, and Tisdale's gaze, hard still, uncompromising, remained fixed +absently on the winding road. Once, when the woman beside him ventured to +look in his face, she drew herself a little more erect and aloof. She must +have seen the futility of her effort to defend her friend, and the fire +that had flashed in her eyes had as quickly died. It was as though she +felt the iron out-cropping in this man and shrank from him baffled, almost +afraid. Yet she held her head high, and the delicate lines, etched again +at the corners of her mouth, gave it a saving touch of decision or +fortitude. + +But suddenly Hollis drew the horses in. Miss Armitage caught a great +breath. The way was blocked by a fallen pine tree, which, toppling from +the bluff they were skirting, had carried down a strip of the road and +started an incipient slide. "We can't drive around," he said at last, and +the humor broke the grim lines of his mouth. "We've got to go through." + +She looked hastily back along the curve, then ahead down the steep +mountainside. "We never could turn in this pla--ace, but it isn't possible +to drive through. Fate is against us." + +"Why, I think Fate favored us. She built this barricade, but she left us +an open door. I must unhitch, though, to get these kittens through." + +As he spoke he put the reins in her hands and, springing out, felt under +the seat for the halters. The girl's glance moved swiftly along the +tilting pine, searching for that door. The top of the tree, with its +debris of branches, rested prone on the slope below the road; but the +trunk was supported by a shoulder of the bluff on which it had stood. This +left a low and narrow portal under the clean bole between the first thick +bough and the wall. "But the buggy!" she exclaimed. + +"That's the trouble." Tisdale found one halter as he spoke and reached for +the other. "It is getting this trap over that will take time. But I pledge +myself to see you through these mountains before dark; and when we strike +the levels of the Columbia, these colts are going to make their record." + +"You mean we can't hope to reach Wenatchee before dark?" Her voice shook +a little. "And there isn't a house in sight--anywhere. Mr. Tisdale, we +haven't even seen another traveler on this road." + +"Well, this is luck!" He was drawing a coil of new rope from under the +seat. "This is luck! Lighter must have meant to picket his horses. Did I +tell you he was starting to drive these bays through to the fair at North +Yakima? And here is a hatchet--he expected to cut fire-wood--and this +looks like his lunch-box. Yes,"--and he lifted the lid to glance in--"here +are biscuits, sliced ham, all we need. Lighter must have intended to spend +a night on the road. And here is that second hitching-strap. Now, we are +all right: the outfit is complete." + +He took the precaution to tie one of the horses before he commenced to +unfasten the traces, and he worked swiftly, dexterously, while the girl +watched him, directing him sometimes from her seat in the buggy. Presently +he lifted the remaining strap, but before he could snap the hook in the +ring, the colt's ears flattened back, and he gripped Tisdale's hand. +Instantly Miss Armitage snatched the whip and was on her feet. "Whoa, +Nip," she cried, and cut the vixen lightly between the ears. "Whoa, now, +whoa!" + +The young horse released his hold and broke forward, with Hollis dragging +at the bit. He ducked with the colt under the barrier and, keeping his +feet with difficulty, ran hugging the bluff. Rocks, slipping beneath the +bay's incautious hoofs, rattled down the steep slope. Finally mastered by +that tugging weight, he settled to an unstable pace and so passed the +break in the road. + +Miss Armitage had left the buggy. She followed to the opening and stood +watching Tisdale until, unable to find a safe hitching-place, he turned +another bend. The remaining horse pulled at his halter and neighed shrilly +for his mate. She went to him. After a moment she untied him and led him +through the passage. He followed easily, crowding her sometimes, yet +choosing his steps with the caution of a superior animal in a hard +situation. Midway over the break in the road, where it was narrowest, he +halted with a forefoot on a perilous table of granite, feeling, testing +its stability. "That's right, be careful," she admonished, allowing the +strap to slacken while she, herself, balanced her weight on the rocking +slab. "But it is safe enough--you see. Now, now, Tuck, come on." + +But as she started on, Tisdale reappeared at the curve and, waving her +hand to reassure him, she took an incautious step. The slab, relieved +suddenly of her weight, tilted back and at the same instant caught on its +lowered edge the weight of the following horse. He backed off, jerking the +halter taut, but she kept her hold, springing again to the surface of the +rock. Loose splinters of granite began to clatter down the slope; then, in +the moment she paused to gather her equilibrium, she felt Tisdale's arm +reaching around to take the strap. "Creep by me," he said quietly. "No, +between me and the bluff, sidewise; there's room." She gained safe ground +and stood waiting while he brought the bay across. A last rain of rock +struck an answering echo through the gorge. + +"What made you?" he asked. "You knew I would hurry back. What made you? +handicapped, too, by those skirts and abominable heels." + +"I saw you were hurt--the vixen meant to hurt--and I knew I could manage +Tuck. I--I thought you might need me." + +Her breath was coming hard and quick; her eyes were big and shadowy and, +looking into their depths, the light began to play softly in his own. "You +thought right," he said. "I am going to." + +He turned to lead the horse around to the cleft where he had left his +mate. Miss Armitage followed. She regarded his broad back, pursing her +lips a little and ruffling her brows. "It is only a bruise," he said +presently over his shoulder, "and it served me right. Lighter warned me of +that trick." + +Nevertheless the handkerchief with which he had wrapped the bruise was +showing a red stain, and past the break in the road he changed the halter +to his left hand. The hitching-place he had chosen was in a cleft formed +by a divided spur of the mountain. It was roofed by the boughs of two +pines, and the boles of the trees offered secure hold. She seated herself +on a boulder, set benchwise against the rocky wall, and watched him +critically while he tied the second horse. + +"How pleasant," she said intrepidly; "it is like coming unexpectedly into +a room ready furnished in brown and green." + +Tisdale turned. "I could make you comfortable in this pocket, if it came +to that," he said. "It's sheltered and level as a floor, and I could make +you a bed, springy and fragrant, of boughs; the camp-fire would close the +door. And you needn't go hungry with Lighter's lunch and your apples; or +thirsty with my drinking-cup to fill down there at the stream." + +Even before he finished speaking her brows arched in protest, and he felt +the invisible barrier stiffen hard as a wall. "We really must hurry, Mr. +Tisdale," she said, rising. "Though it may be impossible to reach +Wenatchee to-night, we must find some sort of house. And where there is a +house, there must be housekeeping and"--her voice wavered--"a woman." + +"Of course," he answered. "And we have at least two hours of daylight +left. Don't worry; I am going now to hurry that carriage around." + +He had said "of course," but while he went back to the buggy, his mind +reviewed the sordid shelters he had found in just such solitudes, where a +woman's housekeeping was the exception. Men in communities employed camp +cooks, but most prospectors, ranchers, and cattlemen depended on +themselves. There had been times when he himself had been forced to make +bread. He had learned that first winter he had spent in Alaska with +Weatherbee. At the thought of that experimental mixture, he smiled grimly. +Then, suddenly, he imagined this gently nurtured woman confronted by a +night in such a shack as they had occupied. He saw her waiting expectantly +for that impossible chaperon; and, grasping the situation, struggling +pluckily to cover her amazement and dismay; he saw himself and Weatherbee +nerving each other to offer her that miserable fare. He hoped they would +find a housekeeper at the first house on that mountain road, but that +lunch of Lighter's gave him a sense of security, like a reserve fund, +inadequate, yet something against imminent panic. + +Miss Armitage did not return to her seat when he was gone. She fell to +pacing the level; to the upper spur and back; to the lower wall and +return; then, finally, it was a few yards further to the bend, to discover +what progress Tisdale had made. The buggy was not yet in sight, but the +new rope stretched diagonally from beyond the breach in the road to a +standing tree on the bluff above her, and he was at work with the hatchet, +cutting away an upright bough on the fallen pine. Other broken limbs, +gathered from the debris, were piled along the slide to build up the edge. +When his branch dropped, he sprang down and dragged it lengthwise to +reinforce the rest. Presently he was on the log again, reaching now for +the buggy tongue, he set his knee as a brace on the stump of the limb, +his muscular body bent, lifted, strained. Then the front wheels rolled up +across the bole; he slipped to the ground and grasped the outer one, +steadying it down. After a moment, when he had taken in the slack of the +line, the remaining tires slowly followed, and he began to ease the +vehicle along the patched roadway. The rain of rock was renewed; fragments +of granite shifted under the bulkhead of boughs; the buggy heeled lower, +lower; then, at the final angle, began to right while the rope strung +taut. The narrowest point was passed, and Tisdale stopped a breathing +space. + +It was characteristic of the man to see the humor of the situation in that +moment while he stood wiping the perspiration from his face. Jove, how +Foster would enjoy seeing him labor like this for a girl. He imagined the +boy sitting up there at some coign of vantage on the bluff, admonishing, +advising him dryly, while he laughed in his sleeve. It was undeniably +funny. Alone, with one of Lighter's saddle-horses under him, his baggage +secured behind the saddle, he might have been threading the dunes of the +Columbia now. This incipient slide need not have caused him ten minutes' +delay, and eight, nine o'clock at the latest, would have found him putting +up for the night at the hotel in Wenatchee. But here he was hardly over +the divide; it was almost sunset, but he was dragging a buggy by hand +around a mountain top. He hoped Foster never would find out what he had +paid for these bays--the team of huskies that had carried him the long +trek from Nome to the Aurora mine and on through Rainy Pass had cost less. +Still, under the circumstances, would not Foster himself have done the +same? She was no ordinary woman; she was more than pretty, more than +attractive; there was no woman like her in all the world. To travel this +little journey with her, listen to her, watch her charms unfold, was worth +the price. And if it had fallen to Foster, if he were here now to feel the +spell of her, that Spanish woman would lose her hold. Then he remembered +that Foster knew her; she had admitted that. It was inconceivable, but he +had known her at the time he confessed his infatuation for Weatherbee's +wife. The amusement went out of Tisdale's face. He bent, frowning, to free +the buggy of the rope. + +It was then Miss Armitage, exhilarated at his success, hurried forward +from the bend. "Oh," she cried radiantly, "how resourceful, how strong you +are. It looked simply impossible; I couldn't guess what you meant to do, +and now we have only to hitch the team and drive on to Wenatchee. But," +she added gravely and shook her head, "it was defying Fate." + +He turned, regarding her from under still cloudy brows, though the genial +lines began to deepen anew. "I told you Fate was on our side. She threw +those boughs there in easy reach. She might as well have said: 'There's +some lumber I cut for you; now mend your road.'" + +"Perhaps, well, perhaps," the girl laughed softly. "But if Fate had said +that to any other man, at least to any man I know, he would not have +heard." + +But the Columbia was still far off when darkness closed, and with sunset +the thunder-heads they had watched across the Kittitas Valley gathered +behind them. It was as though armies encamped on the heights they had +left, waiting for night to pass. Then searchlights began to play on the +lower country; there was skirmishing along the skyline; blades flashed. + +At last, between the lightning flashes, the blackness was so dense it was +hardly possible for Tisdale to see the road, and he could not trust the +nervous team to keep the track; it was necessary to stop, at least to wait +until the moon should rise. But while he was preparing to tell her so, the +silence was broken by the barking of a dog. Instantly it was swelled by a +deeper baying, and the echo rang a continuous clamor through the gorge. +Then a faint illumination brought out in silhouette a final bluff ahead; +rounding it, they saw a low-roofed habitation, and in the open door a +woman with a lamp. + +One of the dogs stood bristling and growling beside her; the other, +barking furiously, sprang from the porch so that for a moment Tisdale was +busy with the plunging team. Then the woman spoke, and the setter, +whimpering, snapping furtively, crept back to her feet. + +"We have been delayed by an accident," Tisdale explained briefly, "and I +want you to take this lady in for the night. Make her comfortable as +possible, and I will see it is worth your while." + +"This ain't much of a road-house." The woman held the lamp higher to +scrutinize the lady's face. "We only got one room, an' the best I can do +is to double up with the kids an' give you my bed." + +"That will do very well," answered Tisdale quickly. "I can take care of +myself. Of course there's a stable somewhere out here in the dark, and a +bale or two of hay." + +"No, we got a shed up, but we're short on feed. We're short on 'bout +everything: flour, potatoes, bacon, beans. We've just took up this here +claim, an' things ain't growed. But my man's gone down to Wenatchee to +fetch a load." Then, seeing this fact was hardly one to solace her +transient guests, she laughed shortly and went into the cabin to set the +lamp on a table and bring a lantern that hung on the farther wall. + +Tisdale turned to help Miss Armitage down. "We may be able to find better +accommodations towards the Columbia, when the moon rises," he said, "but I +can't be as sure of another--chaperon." Then, looking into her face, he +added in his minor key: "I am sorry, but you will make the best of things, +I know. And the night will pass. Come." + +She slipped down beside him and stood holding her skirts out of the +powdery soil, while her wide eyes searched that interior through the open +door. Tisdale lifted the baggage from the buggy to the porch, then the +woman returned with the lantern and, followed by the dogs, went to show +him where he might stable the horses. After a moment Miss Armitage +ventured up the low steps to the threshold. It was a portable cabin such +as she had noticed from the train window at intervals where construction +was incomplete along the new railroad. It was battered and weak, showing +old earmarks of transportation, but it was furnished with a rusty +cook-stove, some bench chairs, and two beds, which stood in the farther +corners and nearly filled that half of the room. A few heavy dishes, the +part of a loaf of bread, and several slices of indifferently fried bacon +were on the table, between the lamp and a bucket containing a little +water. Presently, still holding her skirts, she crossed the grimy floor +and stood inspecting with a mingled fascination and dread those ancient +beds. Both were destitute of linen, but one was supplied with a tumbled +heap of coarse, brown blankets. In the other, beneath a frayed comforter, +two small boys were sleeping. Their sun-baked faces were overhung with +thatches of streaked blond hair, and one restless arm, throwing off the +sodden cover, partly exposed the child's day attire, an unclean denim +blouse tucked into overalls. She turned in sudden panic and hurried back +to the porch. + +In a little while she noticed her suitcase, opened it, and found her +cologne; with this she drenched a fresh handkerchief and began to bathe +her face and hands. Then she drew one of the bench chairs through the +doorway and, seating herself with her back to the room, kept on dabbing +her lips and her cheeks with the cool, delicately pungent perfume, and so +gathered up the remnants of her scattered fortitude. Finally, when the +lantern glimmered again, and she was able to distinguish the two returning +figures, she had laid aside her hat and coat, and she was ready to smile, +if not radiantly at least encouragingly, at Tisdale as he came up the +steps. + +The woman went in to shake out and spread the blankets with a pretence at +making the bed, and he followed to the threshold, where he took a swift +and closer inventory of the room. Its resources were even more meager than +he had supposed. He swung around and looked up through the darkness +towards that sheltered cleft they had left near the Pass. He did not say +anything, but the girl watching him answered his thought. "I wish it had +been possible. It would have been delightful--the ground was like a +carpet, clean and soft and fragrant--under those pines." + +"I wish we had even had the forethought to bring down an armful of those +boughs. But, after all, it might have been worse. At least you need not go +hungry, with that lunch of Lighter's and your apples, to say nothing of +the sandwiches I asked the steward to make before I left the train. And +to-morrow, when you are safe with your friends at Wenatchee, you are going +to forget this miserable experience like an unpleasant dream." + +"I am not ungrateful," she said quickly. "I enjoyed every moment of that +drive. And besides the apples, I have tea. I always tuck a little in my +suitcase when we are touring with Mrs. Feversham, because she uses a +different blend." + +She bent as she spoke, to find the tea, which she produced together with a +small kettle and alcohol burner. Her evident desire to contribute her +share, the fine show of courage that accepted and made the best of the +inevitable, went straight to Tisdale's heart. "Tea," he repeated mellowly, +"tea and all the outfit. Well, that was mighty thoughtful of you. I won't +even have to make a fire. But wait a minute; I am going to lift that table +out here where it is cooler." + +With two seats, there was barely room for it on the porch. Then, while he +filled the kettle and lighted the burner, she spread the cloth, a fine +damask towel supplied also from her baggage. On the whole it was a rather +gay little supper and, considering the limitations of the menu, it bridged +a long interval. Tisdale, who had been accustomed to drink tea black and +bitter on a hard trail, but habitually refused it socially, tasted his cup +with deliberation. "Miss Armitage," he exclaimed, "you can't delude me. +Whatever this beverage may be, I am sure it is no ordinary tea." + +She was pouring a second cup when his glance fell from her face to her +hands. They were delicately made, artistic, with wilful little thumbs, yet +they impressed him with a certain resourcefulness, a strength in reserve. +Suddenly the light from the lantern which he had hung on a nail in the +wall above the table, struck an exceedingly large ruby she wore on her +left hand. It glowed blood-red, scintillated, flamed. He saw the stone was +mounted with diamonds in a unique setting of some foreign workmanship, and +he told himself it was probably an heirloom; it was too massive, too +ornate for a betrothal ring; still he moved uneasily and set the cup down +untasted. His eyes returned to her face, questioning, doubting. He was +like a musician surprised to detect in a beautiful symphony the first +false note. + +After that the conversation lagged. It was not cool on the porch. A +broadside of lightning sweeping the cabin showed it stood in a narrow +valley walled by precipitous, barren slopes and widening gulfwise towards +the Columbia desert. The pent air seemed surcharged. It was as though that +table was set in a space between running dynamos, and when a stronger +flash came, Miss Armitage instinctively grasped her chair, holding herself +from contact with an unseen and terrible force. Once, during an interlude, +the silence was broken by a strange, faint cry. + +"Did you hear?" she asked breathlessly. "What was it?" + +Tisdale smiled into her troubled eyes. "Why, just a cougar; lonesome, I +guess, and calling his mate. But it's all right. Sounds carry in these +mountain gorges, and his cry was picked up by some cross wind miles from +here. Look at those dogs! They wouldn't stay curled up there on the ground +asleep, too indifferent to prick up an ear, if a cougar, or even a coyote, +were near." + +Still she was not wholly reassured. She leaned forward, listening, trying +to fathom the darkness with a lurking terror in her eyes. At last, when +Tisdale rose to say good night, she, too, left her chair. She laid her +hand on the edge of the table as though that might steady her voice. "Are +you going to the stable?" she asked. "Did you find a possible bed?" + +Hollis laughed. "You needn't trouble about me. I am the sort of fellow to +find the soft side of a plank. Yes, it's true. There have been times when +I've slept luxuriously on a board, with just my coat rolled up for a +pillow." + +There was a brief pause while her imagination grasped the thought; then: +"You must have been very tired," she said. + +"I was," he answered dryly and reached to take the lantern from the wall. +At the foot of the steps he halted and put the light down to pick up his +bag, which he opened. "Here's a bunch of my handkerchiefs," he said. "They +are bigger than yours. They should make you at least a pillow-case. Good +night." + +The setter rose to follow inquiringly at his heels; the lantern swung +gently to his tread and, as his shape disappeared in the gloom, his +whistle, sweet, soft, almost tender, fluted back to her. It was the "Good +night" from the opera of _Martha_. And Miss Armitage smiled in the face of +Fear and turned resolutely to go in. + +But the next moment she was back again over the threshold. "Mr. Tisdale!" +she called, and the currents held so long in check surged in her voice. +"Mr. Tisdale!" + +Instantly the lantern swung an arc. He came quickly back to the steps. +"Well," he said, breaking the pause, "what is the trouble?" + +"I know I must seem foolish--but--please don't go--yet." Her position on +the edge of the porch brought her face almost on a level with his. Her +eyes in the semi-darkness were luminously big; her face, her whole body +quivered. She leaned a little towards him, and her nearness, the low, +vibrant intensity of her voice, set his pulses singing. + +"I really can't stay in that room," she explained. "Those beds all but +touch, and she, the mother, has crowded in, dressed as she is, to sleep +with the children. There isn't any air to breathe. I--I really can't make +myself lie down--there. I had rather spend the night here on the piazza. +Only--please wait--until--" + +Tisdale laughed his short, mellow note. "You mean you are afraid of the +dark, or is it the cougar?" + +"It's both and the lightning, too. There! See how it plays along those +awful heights; javelins of it; whole broadsides. I know it is foolish, but +I can't help feeling it is following me. It singles me out, threatens me +as though I am--guilty." + +"Guilty? You? Of what?" Tisdale put down the lantern and came up the +steps. "See here, Miss Armitage, come take your chair." He moved it around +from the table and laid his hand on her arm, impelling her into the seat. +"Now face it out. Those flashes of heat lightning are about as dangerous +as the Aurora Borealis. You ought to know that." + +Then, because the personal contact had set his blood racing, he moved away +to the edge of the porch and stood frowning off up the gorge. He knew she +covered her face with her hands; he believed she was crying, and he +desired beyond all reason to take her to his heart and quiet her. He only +said: "But I understand. I have seen strong men just as foolish before an +electrical storm, and the bravest woman I ever knew lost her grip one +still morning just from solitude." + +There was another silence, then suddenly she lifted her head. "I am +sorry," she said, "but it is all over. I shall try my best not to annoy +you any more." + +"Annoy me? Why, you haven't. What makes you think that?" Tisdale turned, +and the mellowness stole into his voice. "I didn't expect you to creep in +and go to sleep tranquilly alongside that bunch of sage." + +At this she smiled. "You have found a flower to fit even her." + +"I never made a misfit--yet," he answered and waited, looking into her +face, reading her through. + +"But you have doubts," she supplemented, "and I warned you I should +disappoint you. I warned you at the start." + +Tisdale laughed again, softly. "The odds were all against that Alaska +violet," he said, "but she weathered it through." And seating himself on +the steps, he looked up again to the night-enshrouded Pass. The air was +cooler; a light wind, drawing down from the divide, brought a hint of +dampness; it was raining somewhere, far off. "My doubts are all right," he +added, "and I am going to stay here as long as you want me to." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE BRAVEST WOMAN HE EVER KNEW + + +Presently, during one of the interludes when darkness enveloped the gulf, +she began to entertain Tisdale with an experience in the Sierras, a little +adventure on one of those journeys with her father, when she had driven +Pedro and Don José. But though she told the story with composure, even +with a certain vivacity and charm, as she might have narrated it to a +small and intimate audience in any safe drawing-room, her self-control was +a transparency through which he saw her anxiety manoeuvering, in spite of +his promise, to keep him there. + +"Strange, is it not?" she went on, "how things will take the gloss of +humor, looking back. That cloudburst was anything but funny at the time; +it was miserably exasperating to stand there drenched, with the +comfortable quarters of the mining company in sight, cut off by an +impassable washout. And it was wretched driving all those miles to our +hotel in wet clothes, with not so much as a dry rug to cover us; yet +afterwards, whenever I tried to tell about it, I failed to gain a shred of +sympathy. People laughed, as you are doing now." + +"And you laughed with them," answered Tisdale quickly, "because looking +back you caught the right perspective. It is always so. Another incident +that seemed trivial in passing will loom up behind us like a cliff on the +horizon. And it is so with people. The man who held the foreground through +sheer egoism sinks to his proper place in obscurity, while a little, +white-faced woman we knew for a day stands out of the past like a +monument." + +His brows clouded; he turned from the lantern light to look off again to +the shrouded mountain tops. "And looking back," he added, "the man you +thought you knew better than the rest, the partner, friend, to whom, when +you were reminded and it suited your convenience, you were ready to do a +service, stands out from the shadows clearly defined. It is under the test +of those high lights behind that his character shines. You wonder at his +greatness. His personality takes a stronger, closer hold, and you would +give the rest of your life just to go back and travel the old, hard road +again with him." + +There was a long silence, broken once more by that far, wailing cry on the +wind. Miss Armitage started. She laid her hand on Tisdale's shoulder, the +nearest object, in a tightening grip, while for a breathless moment she +leaned forward, trying to penetrate the darkness of the gorge. The action +seemed to remind him of her presence, and he turned to look at her. +"Frightened again?" he asked. + +Her hand fell; she settled back in her seat. "N-o, not very much, but it +took me off guard. It sounds so desolate, so--so--supernatural; like the +cry of a doomed soul." + +Tisdale smiled. "That describes it, but you never have heard it at close +range." + +She shivered; her glance moved again in apprehension to the +night-enshrouded Pass. "Have you, Mr. Tisdale?" + +"Yes, lonesome nights by a mountain camp-fire, with just the wind piping +down a ravine, or a cataract breaking over a spur to fill the interlude." + +"Oh, that must have been terrifying," and the shiver crept into her voice. +"But what did you do?" + +"Why, I hurried to pull the embers together and throw on more spruce +boughs. A cougar is cautious around a fire." + +There was another silence, then, "I was thinking of your little, +white-faced woman," said Miss Armitage. "She baffles me. Was she your +bravest woman or just your anemone? Would you mind telling me?" + +"So you were thinking of her. That's odd; so was I." Tisdale changed his +position, turning to lean on the edge of the porch with his elbow resting +on the floor. "But it was that Gordon setter there that reminded me of +her. Her dog had the same points, though he had been better trained." He +paused briefly, then said: "She was both. She was like that small, white +flower which grows in the shelter of the Alaska woods--sweet and modest +and frail looking--yet she was the bravest woman and the strongest when it +came to endurance I ever knew." + +"It happened, of course, in Alaska," Miss Armitage ventured, breaking the +pause. "You knew her there?" + +"Yes, it was in Alaska and about five years ago. The season I gave up +getting rich in a hurry and went back to geological work. I had spent the +winter on the Tanana with David Weatherbee. We had staked a promising +placer, and we were ready to begin sluicing with the first spring thaw, +when he sold his interest unexpectedly to meet an obligation down in the +States. That nettled me, and I sold out my own share to the same men and +accepted a position with the department, who had written to ask me to take +charge of a party working above Seward. Weatherbee started with me, but I +left him to prospect along the headwaters of the Susitna. My surveys kept +me in the neighborhood of Turnagain Arm until midsummer, when I moved camp +up the river to the mouth of an unexplored tributary. It was the kind of +stream to lure a prospector or a sportsman, clear, rapid, broken by +riffles and sand-bars, while the grassy shores looked favorable for elk or +caribou. To bridge the delay while the last pack-horses straggled in and +the men were busy pitching tents and putting things into shape, I decided +to go on a short hunting trip. I traveled light, with only a single +blanket rolled compactly for my shoulder strap, in case the short night +should overtake me, with a generous lunch that Sandy, the cook, had +supplied, but at the end of two hours' steady tramping I had sighted +nothing. I had reached a wooded ravine and a snow-peak, apparently the +source of the stream, closed the top of the gorge. It was the heart of the +wilderness, over a hundred miles from a settlement and off the track of +road-houses, but a few rods on I came upon the flume and dump of a placer +mine. The miner's cabin stood a little farther up the bank under a clump +of spruce, but the place seemed abandoned. Then I noticed some berry +bushes near the sluice had been lately snapped off, where some heavy +animal had pushed through, and a moment later, in the moist soil at a +small spillway, I picked up the trail of a large bear. + +"The tracks led me up the rough path towards the cabin, but midway I came +to a fallen tree. It must have been down a week or more, but no attempt +had been made to clear the trail or to cut through, so, pushing up over +the matted boughs, I leaped from the bole to avoid the litter beyond. At +the same instant I saw under me, wedged in the broken branches, the body +of my bear. He was a huge grizzly, and must have made an easy and ugly +target as he lumbered across the barricade. I found one bullet had taken +him nearly between the eyes, while another had lodged in the shoulder. And +it was plain the shots were aimed from the window, with the rifle probably +resting on the sill. + +"As I went on up the path, the loud baying of a dog came from the cabin, +then a woman's face, young and small and very white, appeared at the +window. Seeing me, she turned quickly and threw open the door. The next +instant her hand fell to the neck of a fine Gordon setter and, tugging at +his collar, she drew back and stood surveying me from head to foot. 'It's +all right, madam,' I said, stopping before her. 'Don't try to hold him. +The bear won't trouble you any more. You made a mighty fine shot.' + +"'Oh,' she said, and let the dog go, 'I am so glad you have come.' And she +sank into a chair, shaking and sobbing." + +"You mean," exclaimed Miss Armitage breathlessly, "it was she who killed +the bear?" + +Tisdale nodded gently. "I wish I could make you understand the situation. +She was not a sportswoman. She was city bred and had been carefully +reared--accustomed to have things done for her. I saw this at a glance. +Only her extremity and the fear that the dog would be hurt nerved her to +shoot." + +"Oh, I see, I see," said Miss Armitage. "Fate had brought her, left her in +that solitary place--alone." + +"Fate?" Tisdale questioned. "Well, perhaps, but not maliciously; not in +jest. On second thought I would not lay it to Fate at all. You see, she +had come voluntarily, willingly, though blindly enough. She was one of the +few women who are capable of a great love." + +Tisdale waited, but the woman beside him had no more to say. "I saw I must +give her time to gather her self-control," he went on, "so I turned my +attention to the setter, who was alternately springing on me and excitedly +wagging his tail. I like a good dog, and I soon had him familiarly +snuffing my pockets; then he stretched himself playfully, with an +inquiring, almost human yawn; but suddenly remembering the bear, he stood +pointing, head up, forepaw lifted, and made a rush, baying furiously. + +"'It's all right, madam,' I repeated and stepped into the room. 'You made +a fine shot, and that bearskin is going to make a great rug for your +floor.' + +"She lifted her face, downing a last sob, and gave me a brave little +smile. 'It isn't altogether the bear,' she explained. 'It's partly because +I haven't seen any one for so long, and partly because, for a moment, I +thought you were my husband. I've been worried about him. He has been gone +over three weeks, and he never stayed longer than five days before. But it +was a relief to have you come.' + +"It sounds differently when I repeat it. You lose the sweet shyness of her +face, the appeal in her eyes not yet dry, and that soft minor chord in her +voice that reminds me now of a wood-thrush. + +"'I understand,' I hurried to say, 'the solitude has grown intolerable. I +know what that means, I have lived so long in the eternal stillness +sometimes that the first patter of a rain on the leaves came like the +tramp of an army, and the snapping of a twig rang sharp as a pistol shot.' + +"'You do understand,' she said. 'You have been through it. And, of course, +you see my husband had to leave me. The trail up the canyon is the merest +thread. It would have been impossible for me, and I should have only +hindered him, now, when every day counts.' + +"'You mean,' I said, 'he has left his placer to prospect for the main lode +above?' And she answered yes. That every gravel bar made a better showing; +the last trip had taken him above the tree line, and this time he expected +to prospect along the glacier at the source of the stream. Sometimes +erosions laid veins open, and any hour 'he might stumble on riches.' She +smiled again, though her lip trembled, then said it was his limited outfit +that troubled her most. He had taken only a light blanket and a small +allowance of bacon and bread. + +"'But,' I reassured her, 'there is almost a certainty he has found game at +this season of the year.' + +"She looked at the rifle she had set by the window against the wall. 'I +haven't been able to persuade him to take the gun,' she explained, 'for a +long time. He doesn't hunt any more.' She stopped, watching me, and locked +her slim hands. Then, 'He is greatly changed,' she went on. 'The last time +he came home, he hardly noticed me. He spent the whole evening sitting +with his eyes fixed on the floor--without a word. And the next morning, +before I was awake, he was gone.' + +"At last her real fear was clear to me. There is a terrible fascination +about those Alaska gold streams. Each gravel bar has just showing enough +to lead a man on and on. He hugs the belief from hour to hour he is on the +brink of a great find, until he has eyes for nothing but the colors in the +sand. He forgets hunger, weariness, everything, and finally, if rescue +fails him, he sinks in complete collapse. More than once I had come on +such a wreck, straying demented, babbling, all but famished in the hills. +And I was sorry for that little woman. I understood the pitch she must +have reached to speak so freely to a passing stranger. But it was hard to +find just the right thing to say, and while I stood choosing words, she +hurried to explain that two days before she had taken the dog and tramped +up-stream as far as she had dared, hoping to meet her husband, and that +she had intended to go even farther that day, but had been prevented, as I +saw, by the bear, who had prowled about the cabin the greater part of the +night. The setter's continual barking and growling had failed to drive him +away. + +"'If you had gone this morning,' I said, 'I should have missed you; then I +shouldn't have known about your husband. I am on my way up this canyon, +and I shall look for him. And, when I find him, I shall do my best to +bring him in touch with the outside world again.'" + +Tisdale paused. The abrupt slope that over-topped the portable cabin began +to take shape in the darkness. It had the appearance of a sail looming +through fog. Then the shadows scattered, and the belated moon, lifting +over the dunes beyond the Columbia, silvered the mouth of the gorge. It +was as though that other distant canyon, of which he was thinking, opened +before him into unknown solitudes. + +Miss Armitage leaned forward, watching his face, waiting for the issue of +the story. + +"And you found him?" she asked at last. + +"Yes. In the end." Tisdale's glance returned and, meeting hers, the grim +lines in his face relaxed. "But there was a long and rough tramp first. +She urged me to take the setter, and I saw the advantage in having a good +dog with me on such a search; any cleft, or thicket, or sprinkle of +boulders, might easily conceal a man's body from one passing only a few +feet off--but, much as he favored me, he was not to be coaxed far from his +mistress; so I suggested she should go, too. + +"'Oh,' she said, catching at the chance, 'do you think Jerry can make up +for the delay, if I do? I will travel my best, I promise you.' And she led +the way, picking up the faint trail and setting a pace that I knew must +soon tire her, while the dog brushed by us, bounding ahead and rushing +back and expressing his satisfaction in all sorts of manoeuvers. + +"In a little while, above the timber--the tree line is low on those Alaska +mountainsides--we came to a broad, grassy bog set deep between two spurs, +and she was forced to give me the lead. Then the canyon walls grew +steeper, lifting into rugged knobs. Sometimes I lost the prospector's +trail in a rock-choked torrent and picked it up again, where it hung like +a thin ribbon on a heather-grown slope; but it never wound or doubled if +there was foothold ahead. It led up stairs of graywacke, along the brink +of slaty cliffs that dropped sheer, hundreds of feet to the stream below. +Still she kept on pluckily, and whenever I turned to help her, I found her +there at my elbow, ready. Now and then in breadths of level, where it was +possible to walk abreast, we talked a little, but most of the distance was +covered in silence. I felt more and more sorry for her. She was so eager, +patient, watchful, forever scanning the pitches on either side. And if the +setter made a sudden break, scenting a bare perhaps, or starting a +ptarmigan, she always stopped, waiting with a light in her face; and when +he jogged back to her heels, the expectation settled into patience again. + +"Finally we came to a rill where I urged her to rest; and when I had +spread my blanket on a boulder, she took the seat, leaning comfortably +against a higher rock, and watched me while I opened the tin box in which +Sandy had stored my lunch. She told me my cook made a good sandwich and +knew how to fry a bird Southern fashion. Then she spoke of the Virginia +town where she had lived before her marriage. The trip west had been her +wedding journey, and her husband, who was an architect, had intended to +open an office in a new town on Puget Sound, but at Seattle he caught the +Alaska fever. + +"'The future looked very certain and brilliant then,' she said, with her +smile, 'but as long as I have my husband, nothing else counts. I could +live out my life, be happy here in this wilderness, anywhere, with him. If +I could only have him back--as he used to be.'" + +Tisdale's voice softened, vibrating gently, so that the pathos of it all +must have impressed the coldest listener. The woman beside him trembled +and lifted her hand to her throat. + +"I can't remember all she told me," he went on, "but her husband had left +her in Seattle when he started north, and the next season, when he failed +to return for her, she had sailed to Seward in search of him. She had +tried to influence him to give up the placer, when she saw the change in +him; at least to go down to one of the coast towns and take up the work +for which he had prepared, but he had delayed, with promises, until he was +beyond listening to her. + +"'Of course he may stumble on riches any hour, as he believes,' she said +finally, 'but not all the comforts or luxuries in the world are worth the +price.' She did not break down, as she had in the cabin, but somehow I +could hear the tears falling in her voice. I can yet, and see them big and +shining deep in her eyes. + +"But she was off again, making up the delay, before I could fasten my +pack, and when I overtook her in a level stretch and halted a moment to +frolic with the dog, her face brightened. Then she spoke of a little trick +she had taught him,--to go and meet his master and fetch his hat to her. +Sometimes she had hidden it in shrubs, or among rocks, but invariably he +had brought it home. + +"At last we made a turn and saw the front of the glacier that closed the +top of the gorge. The stream gushed from a cavern at the foot, and above +the noise of water sounded the grinding and roaring of subterranean forces +at work. Once in a while a stone was hurled through. But that is +impossible to explain. You must have been on intimate terms with a glacier +to grasp the magnitude. Still, try to imagine the ice arching that cave +like a bridge and lifting back, rimmed in moraine, far and away to the +great white dome. And it was all wrapped in a fine Alpine splendor, so +that she stopped beside me in a sort of hushed wonder to look. But I could +hear her breath, laboring hard and quick, and she rocked uncertainly on +her feet. I laid my hand on her arm to steady her. It was time we turned +back. For half an hour I had been gathering courage to tell her so. While +I hesitated, allowing her a few minutes to take in the glory, the setter +ran nosing ahead, up over the wreckage along the edge of the glacier, and +on across the bridge. I waited until he disappeared in a small pocket, +then began: 'You know, madam, what all this color means. These twilights +linger, and it will be easier traveling down-grade, but we must hurry, to +have you home before dark.' + +"She turned to answer but stopped, looking beyond me to the bridge. Then I +saw the setter had caught her attention. He was coming back. His black +body moved in strong relief against the ice-field, and I noticed he had +something in his mouth. It seemed about the size and color of a grouse,--a +ptarmigan, no doubt. Then it flashed over me the thing was a hat. At the +same moment I felt her tremble, and I had just time to see that her face +had gone white, when she sank against me, a dead weight. I carried her a +few yards to a bank of heather and laid her down, and while I was filling +my folding cup at the stream, the dog bounded over the rocks and dropped +the thing on her breast. It was a hat, a gray felt with a good brim, such +as a prospector, or indeed any man who lives in the open, favors; but the +setter's actions,--he alternately rushed towards the glacier and back to +his mistress, with short yelps,--warned me to be careful, and I tucked the +hat out of sight, between two stones. The dog had it out instantly, bent +on giving it to her, but I snatched it from him and threw it into the +torrent, where it struck upright, floating lightly on the brim, and lodged +in a shallow. He followed and came bounding back with it, while I was +raising the cup to her lips, and I had barely a chance to crowd it into my +blanket roll when she opened her eyes. 'He had Louis' hat,' she said and +drifted into unconsciousness again. + +"I took my flask from my pocket and, blaming myself for bringing her that +hard trip, mixed a draught. It revived her, and in a moment she started +up. 'Where is the hat?' she asked, looking about her. 'Jerry had it on the +ice-bridge.' + +"At the sound of her voice, the dog, who had been trying to get at the +hat, commenced his manoeuvers to attract her across the gorge, bounding +ahead, calling her with his short, excited barks, and making all the signs +of a hunting dog impatient to lead to the quarry. She tried to get to her +feet, but I put my hand on her shoulder. 'Wait, madam,' I said. 'You must +rest a little longer before you try to start back. You were so tired you +fainted. And your eyes must have played you a trick.' + +"'You mean,' she began and stopped. + +"I am not much of a dissembler, and I found it hard to meet her look, but +I answered with all the assurance I could muster. 'I mean, madam, you are +mistaken about that hat.' + +"She waited a moment, watching the setter, then her glance moved back +incredulously to me. 'Then what excites Jerry?' she asked. + +"'Why,' I hurried to answer, 'just another bunch, of ptarmigan, probably. +But while you are resting here, I will go over into that pocket to satisfy +him.' + +"The setter, content with my company, ran ahead, and I followed him across +the ice-bridge. The pocket was thickly strewn with broken rock, but at the +upper end there was a clear space grown with heather. And it was there, as +I feared, between a bluff and a solitary thumb-shaped boulder that the dog +had found his master." + +Tisdale paused, looking off again with clouding brows to the stormy +heights. Eastward the moon in a clear sky threw a soft illumination on the +desert. The cry of the cougar had ceased. The electrical display was less +brilliant; it seemed farther off. Miss Armitage moved a little and waited, +watching his face. + +"But of course," she ventured at last, "you mixed another draught from +your emergency flask. The stimulant saved his life." + +"No." Tisdale's glance came slowly back. "He was beyond any help. A square +of canvas was set obliquely on the glacier side, and that and the blanket +which covered him proved the place was his camp; but the only traces of +food were a few cracker or bread crumbs in a trap made of twigs, and a +marmot skin and a bunch of ptarmigan feathers to show the primitive +contrivance had worked. There was no wood in the neighborhood, but the +ashes of a small fire showed he must have carried fuel from the belt of +spruce half-way down the gorge. If he had made such a trip and not gone on +to the cabin, it clearly proved his mental condition. Still in the end +there had been a glimmer of light, for he had torn a leaf from his +notebook and written first his wife's name and then a line, out of which I +was only able to pick the words 'give' and 'help' and 'States.' Evidently +he had tried to put the paper into his poke, which had dropped, untied, +from his hand with the pencil he had used. The sack was nearly full; it +had fallen upright in a fold of the blanket, so only a little of the gold, +which was very coarse and rough and bright, had spilled. I made all this +inventory almost at a glance, and saw directly he had left his pan and +shovel in the gravels of a stream that cascaded over the wall and through +the pocket to join the creek below the glacier. Then it came over me that +I must keep the truth from her until she was safely back at the cabin, and +I put the poke in my pocket and hurried to do what I could. + +"The setter hampered me and was frantic when I turned away, alternately +following me a few yards, whining and begging, and rushing back to his +master. Finally he stopped on the farther side of the ice-bridge and set +up a prolonged cry. His mistress had come to meet me and she waited at the +crossing, supporting herself with her hands on a great boulder, shoulders +forward, breath hushed, watching me with her soul in her eyes. At last I +reached her. 'Madam,' I began, but the words caught in my throat. I turned +and looked up at the splendor on the mountain. The air drew sharp across +the ice, but a sudden heat swept me; I was wet with perspiration from head +to foot. 'Madam,' and I forced myself to meet her eyes, 'it is just as I +expected; the dog found--nothing.' + +"She straightened herself slowly, still watching me, then suddenly threw +her arms against the rock and dropped her face. 'Come,' I said, 'we must +start back. Come, I want to hurry through to my camp for a horse.' + +"This promise was all she needed to call up her supreme self-control, and +she lifted her face with a smile that cut me worse than any tears. 'I'm +not ungrateful,' she said, 'but--I felt so sure, from the first, you would +find him.' + +"'And you felt right,' I hurried to answer. 'Trust me to bring him +through.' + +"I whistled the setter, and she called repeatedly, but he refused to +follow. When we started down the trail, he watched us from his post at the +farther end of the ice-bridge, whining and baying, and the moment she +stopped at the first turn to look back, he streaked off once more for that +pocket. 'Never mind,' I said, and helped her over a rough place, 'Jerry +knows he is a good traveler. He will be home before you.' But it was plain +to me he would not, and try as I might to hurry her out of range of his +cry, it belled again soon, and the cliffs caught it over and over and +passed it on to us far down the gorge." + +There was one of those speaking silences in which the great heart of the +man found expression, and the woman beside him, following his gaze, sifted +the cloudy Pass. She seemed in that moment to see that other canyon, +stretching down from the glacier, and those two skirting the edge of +cliffs, treading broken stairs, pursued by the cry of the setter into the +gathering gloom of the Arctic night. + +"It grew very cold in that gorge," he went on, "and I blamed myself for +taking her that trip more and more. She never complained, never stopped, +except to look back and listen for the dog, but shadows deepened under her +eyes; the patient lines seemed chiseled where they had been only lightly +drawn, and when she caught me watching her and coaxed up her poor little +smile, I could have picked her up in my arms and carried her the rest of +the way. But we reached the tree-line before she came to her limit. It was +at the turn in a cliff, and I stopped, looking down across the tops of a +belt of spruce, to locate the cabin. 'There it is,' I said. 'You see that +little brown patch down there in the blur of green. That is your house. +You are almost home.' + +"She moved a step to see better and stumbled, and she only saved herself +by catching my arm in both hands. Then her whole body fell to shaking. I +felt unnerved a little, for that matter. It was a dangerous place. I had +been recklessly foolish to delay her there. But when I had found a safe +seat for her around the cliff, the shivering kept up, chill after chill, +and I mixed a draught for her, as I had at the glacier. + +"'This will warm your blood,' I said, holding the cup for her. 'Come, +madam, we must fight the cold off for another hour; that should see you +home. After I have made a good fire, I am going to show you what a fine +little supper I can prepare. Bear steaks at this season are prime.' + +"I laughed to encourage her, and because the chills were still obstinate, +I hurried to unstrap my blanket to wrap around her. And I only remembered +the hat when it dropped at her feet. She did not cry out but sat like a +marble woman, with her eyes fixed on it. Then, after a while, she bent and +lifted it and began to shape it gently with her numb little fingers. She +was beyond tears, and the white stillness of her face made me more +helpless than any sobbing. I could think of nothing to say to comfort her +and turned away, looking off in the direction of the cabin. It seemed +suddenly a long distance off. + +"Finally she spoke, slowly at first, convincing herself. 'Jerry did bring +it across the ice-bridge. He found Louis and stayed to watch, as I +thought. Sir, now tell me the truth.' + +"I turned back to her, and it came bluntly enough. Then I explained it was +not an accident or anything terrible; that the end had come easily, +probably the previous night, of heart failure. 'But I couldn't nerve +myself to tell you up there,' I said, 'with all those miles of hard travel +before you; and I am going back to-morrow, as I promised, to bring him +through.' + +"She had nothing to say but rose and held out her hand. In a little while +I began to lead her down through the belt of spruce. I moved very slowly, +choosing steps, for she paid no attention to her footing. Her hand rested +limply in mine, and she stumbled, like one whose light has gone out in a +dark place." + +Tisdale's story was finished, but Miss Armitage waited, listening. It was +as though in the silence she heard his unexpressed thoughts. + +"But her life was wrecked," she said at last. "She never could forget. +Think of it! The terror of those weeks; the long-drawn suspense. She +should not have stayed in Alaska. She should have gone home at the +beginning. She was not able to help her husband. Her influence was lost." + +"True," Tisdale answered slowly. "Long before that day I found her, she +must have known it was a losing fight. But the glory of the battle is not +always to the victor. And she blamed herself that she had not gone north +with her husband at the start. You see she loved him, and love with that +kind of woman means self-sacrifice; she counted it a privilege to have +been there, to have faced the worst with him, done what she could." + +Miss Armitage straightened, lifting her head with that movement of a +flower shaken on its stem. "Every woman owes it to herself to keep her +self-respect," she said. "She owes it to her family--the past and future +generations of her race--to make the most of her life." + +"And she made the most of hers," responded Tisdale quickly. "That was her +crowning year." He hesitated, then said quietly, with his upward look from +under slightly frowning brows: "And it was just that reason, the debt to +her race, that buoyed her all the way through. It controlled her there at +the glacier and gave her strength to turn back, when the setter refused to +come. Afterwards, in mid-winter, when news of the birth of her son came +down from Seward, I understood." + +An emotion like a transparent shadow crossed his listener's face. "That +changes everything," she said. "But of course you returned the next day +with a horse to do as you promised, and afterwards helped her out to +civilization." + +"I saw Louis Barbour buried, yes." Tisdale's glance traveled off again to +the distant Pass. "We chose a low mound, sheltered by a solitary spruce, +between the cabin and the creek, and I inscribed his name and the date on +the trunk of the tree. But my time belonged to the Government. I had a +party in the field, and the Alaska season is short. It fell to David +Weatherbee to see her down to Seward." + +"To David Weatherbee?" Miss Armitage started. Protest fluctuated with the +surprise in her voice. "But I see, I see!" and she settled back in her +seat. "You sent him word. He had known her previously." + +"No. When I left him early in the spring, he intended to prospect down the +headwaters of the Susitna, you remember, and I was carrying my surveys +back from the lower valley. We were working toward each other, and I +expected to meet him any day. In fact, I had mail for him at my camp that +had come by way of Seward, so I hardly was surprised the next morning, +when I made the last turn below the glacier with my horse to see old +Weatherbee coming over the ice-bridge. + +"He had made a discovery at the source of that little tributary, where the +erosion of the glacier had opened a rich vein, and on following the stream +through graywackes and slate to the first gravelled fissure, he had found +the storage plant for his placer gold. He was on his way out to have the +claim recorded and get supplies and mail when he heard the baying setter +and, rounding the mouth of the pocket, saw the camp and the dead +prospector. Afterwards, when he had talked with the woman waiting down the +canyon, he asked to see her husband's poke and compared the gold with the +sample he had panned. It was the same, coarse and rough, with little +scraps of quartz clinging to the bigger flakes sometimes, and he insisted +the strike was Barbour's. He tried to persuade her to make the entry, but +she refused, and finally they compromised with a partnership." + +"So they were partners." Miss Armitage paused, then went on with a touch +of frostiness: "And they traveled those miles of wilderness alone, for +days together, out to the coast." + +"Yes." Tisdale's glance, coming back, challenged hers. "Sometimes the +wilderness enforces a social code of her own. Miss Armitage,"--his voice +vibrated softly,--"I wish you had known David Weatherbee. But imagine Sir +Galahad, that whitest knight of the whole Round Table, Sir Galahad on that +Alaska trail, to-day. And Weatherbee was doubly anxious to reach Seward. +There was a letter from his wife in that packet of mail I gave him. She +had written she was taking the opportunity to travel as far as Seward with +some friends, who were making the summer tour of the coast. But he was +ready to cut the trip into short and easy stages to see Mrs. Barbour +through. 'It's all right,' he said at the start. 'Leave it to me. I am +going to take this lady to my wife.'" + +"And--at Seward?" questioned Miss Armitage, breaking the pause. + +"At Seward his wife failed him. But he rented a snug cottage of some +people going out to the States and had the good fortune to find a motherly +woman, who knew something about nursing, to stay with Mrs. Barbour. It was +Christmas when her father arrived from Virginia to help her home, and it +was spring before she was able to make the sea voyage as far as Seattle." + +"Expenses, in those new, frontier towns, are so impossible; I hope her +father was able"--she halted, then added hurriedly, flushing under +Tisdale's searching eyes, "but, of course, in any case, he reimbursed Mr. +Weatherbee." + +"He did, you may be sure, if there was any need. But you have forgotten +that poke of Barbour's. There was dust enough to have carried her through +even an Alaska winter; but an old Nevada miner, on the strength of that +showing, paid her twenty thousand dollars outright for her interest in the +claim." + +Miss Armitage drew a deep breath. "And David Weatherbee, too? He sold his +share--did he not--and stayed on at Seward?" + +"Yes, he wasted the best weeks of the season in Seward, waiting for his +wife. But she never came. She wrote she had changed her mind. He showed me +that letter one night at the close of the season when he stopped at my +camp on his way back to the Tanana. It was short but long enough to remind +him there were accounts pressing; one particularly that she called a 'debt +of honor.' She hadn't specified, but I guessed directly she had been +accepting loans from her friends, and I saw it was that that had worried +him. To raise the necessary money, he had been obliged to realize on the +new placer. His partner had been waiting to go in to the claim with him, +and Weatherbee's sudden offer to sell made the mining man suspicious. He +refused to buy at any price. Then David found an old prospector whom he +had once befriended and made a deal with him. It was five hundred dollars +down, and two thousand out of the first year's clean-up. And he sent all +of the ready money to her and started in to make a new stake below +Discovery. But the inevitable stampede had followed on the Nevada man's +heels, and the strike turned out small. + +"It was one of those rich pockets we find sometimes along a glacier that +make fortunes for the first men, while the rank and file pan out defeat +and disappointment. There was the quartz body above, stringers and veins +of it reaching through the graywackes and slate, but to handle it +Weatherbee must set up a stamp-mill; and only a line of pack-mules from +the Andes, and another line of steamships could transport the ore to the +nearest smelter, on Puget Sound. So--he took up the long trek northward +again, to the Tanana. Think of it! The irony of it!" + +Tisdale rose and turned on the step to look down at her. The light from +the lantern intensified the furrows between his brooding eyes. "And think +what it meant to Weatherbee to have seen, as he had, day after day, hour +after hour, the heart of another man's wife laid bare, while to his own he +himself was simply a source of revenue." + +Miss Armitage too rose and stood meeting his look. Her lip trembled a +little, but the blue lights flamed in her eyes. "You believe that," she +said, and her voice dropped into an unexpected note. "You believe he threw +away that rich discovery for the few hundreds of dollars he sent his wife; +but I know--she was told--differently. She thought he was glad to--escape-- +at so small a price. He wrote he was glad she had reconsidered that trip; +Alaska was no place for her." + +"Madam," Tisdale remonstrated softly, "you couldn't judge David Weatherbee +literally by his letters. If you had ever felt his personality, you would +have caught the undercurrent, deep and strong, sweeping between the lines. +It wasn't himself that counted; it was what was best for her. You couldn't +estimate him by other men; he stood, like your white mountain, alone above +the crowd. And he set a pedestal higher than himself and raised his wife +there to worship and glorify. A word from her at any time would have +turned the balance and brought him home; her presence, her sympathy, even +that last season at the Aurora mine, would have brought him through. I +wish you had seen his face that day I met him below the glacier and had +told him about the woman waiting down the gorge. 'My God, Tisdale,' he +said, 'suppose it had been my wife.'" + +Miss Armitage stood another moment, locking her hands one over the other +in a tightening grip. Her lip trembled again, but the words failed. She +turned and walked uncertainly the few steps to the end of the porch. + +"You believe she might have influenced him, but I do not. Oh, I see, I +see, how you have measured him by your own great heart. But"--she turned +towards him and went on slowly, her voice fluctuating in little, steadying +pauses--"even if you were right, you might be generous; you might try to +imagine her side. Suppose she had not guessed his--need--of her; been able +to read, as you did, between the lines. Sometimes a woman waits to be +told. A proud woman does." She came back the few steps. "Beatriz +Weatherbee isn't the kind of woman you think she is. She has faults, of +course, but she has tried to make the best of her life. If she made a +mistake--or thought she had--no one else knew it. She braved it through. +She's been high-strung, too." + +Tisdale put up his hand. "Don't say any more; don't try to excuse her to +me. It's of no use. Good night." But a few feet from the porch he stopped +to add, less grimly: "I should have said good morning. You see how that +pyramid stands out against that pale streak of horizon. There is only time +for a nap before sunrise. Day is breaking." + +She was silent, but something in the intensity of her gaze, the unspoken +appeal that had also a hint of dread, the stillness of her small face, +white in the uncertain light when so lately he had seen it sparkle and +glow, brought him back. + +"I've tired you out," he said. "I shouldn't have told you that story. But +this outlook to-night reminded me of that other canyon, and I thought it +might help to bridge over the time. There's nothing can tide one through +an unpleasant situation like hearing about some one who fared worse. And I +hadn't meant to go so far into details. I'm sorry," and he held out his +hand, "but it was your interest, sympathy, something about you, that drew +me on." + +She did not answer directly. She seemed to need the moment to find her +voice and bring it under control. Then, "Any one must have been +interested," she said, and drew away her hand. "You have the +story-teller's gift. And I want to thank you for making it all so clear +to me; it was a revelation." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE DUNES OF THE COLUMBIA + + +Behind them, as Tisdale drove down, the heights they had crossed were +still shrouded in thunder-caps, but before them the end of the Wenatchee +range lifted clear-cut, in a mighty promontory, from the face of the +desert. Already the morning sun gave a promise of heat, and as the bays +rounded a knoll, Miss Armitage raised her hands to shade her eyes. + +"What color!" she exclaimed. "How barbarous! How ages old! But don't say +this is the Columbia, Mr. Tisdale. I know it is the Nile. Those are the +ruins of Thebes. In a moment we shall see the rest of the pyramids and the +Sphinx." + +Tisdale brought the horses around a sand-pit in the road which began to +parallel the river, rolling wide and swift and intensely blue, where the +rapids ceased, then he glanced at the other shore, where fantastic columns +and broken walls of granite rose like a ruined city through a red glory. + +"It is worth coming from New York to see, but you have traveled abroad. Do +you know, that disappoints me. A true American should see America first." + +"Then I confess." The girl laughed softly. "I haven't been nearer the Nile +than a lantern-slide lecture and the moving-picture show. But my father +knew Egypt when he was a boy; maybe I've inherited some memories, too." + +Her enthusiasm was irresistible. Looking into her glowing face, the +mirth-provoking lines broke and re-formed at the corners of his own mouth +and eyes. + +"But," he explained after a moment, "this desert of the Columbia is not +old; it's tremendously new; so new that Nature hasn't had time to take the +scaffolding away. You know--do you not--this was all once a great inland +sea? Countless glacial streams brought wash down from the mountains, +filling the shallows with the finest alluvial earth. Then, in some big +upheaval, one or perhaps several of these volcanic peaks poured down a +strata of lava and ash. As the ice tongues receded, the streams gradually +dried; only the larger ones, fed far back in the range, are left to-day." + +"How interesting!" Her glance swept upward and backward along the heights +and returned to the levels. "And naturally, as the bed of the sea was laid +bare, these last streams found the lowest depression, the channel of the +Columbia." + +Her quickness, her evident desire to grasp the great scheme of things, +which other women received with poorly veiled indifference, often hurried +to evade, warmed his scientist soul. "Yes," he answered, "Nature +remembered, while she was busy, to construct the main flume. She might as +well have said, when it was finished: 'Here are some garden tracts I +reclaimed for you. Now get to work; show what you can do.'" + +"And are you going to?" Her voice caught a little; she watched his face +covertly yet expectantly, her breath arrested, with parted lips. + +"Perhaps. I am on my way to find a certain garden spot that belonged to +David Weatherbee. He knew more about reclamation than I, for he grew up +among your California orchards, but I have the plans he drew; I ought to +be able to see his project through." + +"You mean you may buy the land, Mr. Tisdale, if--things--are as you +expect?" + +"Yes, provided I have Mrs. Weatherbee's price." + +"What do you consider the tract is worth?" + +"I couldn't make a fair estimate before I have been over the ground. +Seattle promoters are listing Wenatchee fruit lands now, but the +Weatherbee tract is off the main valley. Still, the railroad passes within +a few miles, and the property must have made some advance since he bought +the quarter section. That was over nine years ago. He was a student at +Stanford then and spent a summer vacation up here in the Cascades with a +party of engineers who were running surveys for the Great Northern. One +day he was riding along a high ridge at the top of one of those arid +gulfs, when he came to a bubbling spring. It was so cool and pleasant up +there above the desert heat that he set up a little camp of his own in the +shade of some pine trees that rimmed the pool, and the rest of the season +he rode to and from his work. Then he began to see the possibilities of +that alluvial pocket under irrigation, and before he went back to college +he secured the quarter section. That was his final year, and he expected +to return the next summer and open the project. But his whole future was +changed by that unfortunate marriage. His wife was not the kind of woman +to follow him into the desert and share inevitable discomfort and hardship +until his scheme should mature. He began to plan a little Eden for her at +the core, and to secure more capital he went to Alaska. He hoped to make a +rich strike and come back in a year or two with plenty of money to hurry +the project through. You know how near he came to it once, and why he +failed. And that was not the only time. But every year he stayed in the +north, his scheme took a stronger hold on him. He used to spend long +Arctic nights elaborating, making over his plans. He thought and brooded +on them so much that finally, when the end came, up there in the Chugach +snows, he set up an orchard of spruce twigs--" + +"I know, I know," interrupted Miss Armitage. "Please don't tell it over +again. I--can't--bear it." And she sank against the back of the seat, +shuddering, and covered her eyes with her hands. + +Tisdale looked at her, puzzled. "Again?" he repeated. "But I see you must +have heard the story through Mr. Feversham. I told it at the clubhouse the +night he was in Seattle." + +"It's impossible to explain; you never could understand." She sat erect, +but Tisdale felt her body tremble, and she went on swiftly, with little +breaks and catches: "You don't know the hold your story has on me. I've +dreamed it all over at night; I've wakened cold and wet with perspiration +from head to foot, as though I--too--were struggling through those frozen +solitudes. I've been afraid to sleep sometimes, the dread of facing--it-- +is so strong." + +Watching her, a sudden tenderness rose through the wonder in Tisdale's +face. + +"So you dreamed you were fighting it through with me; that's strange. But +I see the story was too hard for you; Feversham shouldn't have told it." +He paused and his brows clouded. "I wish I could make Weatherbee's wife +dream it," he broke out. "It might teach her what he endured. I have gone +over the ground with her in imagination, mile after mile, that long trek +from Nome. I have seen her done for, whimpering in a corner, like the +weakest husky in the team, there at the Aurora mine, and at her limit +again up in Rainy Pass. And once lately, the night of the club supper, +while I was lying awake in my room, looking off through the window to the +harbor lights and the stars, I heard her crying deeply from the heart. She +did not seem like herself then, but a different woman I was mighty sorry +for." + +Miss Armitage turned and met his look, questioning, hardly comprehending. +"That sounds occult," she said. + +"Does it? Well, perhaps it is. But a man who has lived in the big spaces +has his senses sharpened. He sees farther; feels more." + +There was a silent moment. The colts, topping a low dune, felt the +pressure of the fills on the down-grade, and the nigh horse broke, turning +the front wheel into a tangle of sage. "Mr. Tisdale," she cried a little +tremulously, "do you think this is a catboat, tacking into a squall? +Please, please let me drive." + +Her effort was supreme. It relieved the tension, and when the change was +made, she drew to the edge of the seat, holding her head high like that +intrepid flower to which he had compared her. + +"You mean," she said evenly, "the terrible silence of your big spaces keys +up the subjective mind. That, of course, was the trouble with Mrs. +Barbour's husband. He allowed it to dominate him. But a man like you"--and +she gave him her swift, direct look, and the shadow of a smile touched her +mouth--"well-balanced, strong, would have kept the danger down. I should +never be afraid--for you. But," she hurried on, "I can understand too how +in the great solitudes some men are drawn together. You have shown me. I +did not know before I heard your story how much a man can endure for a +friend--and sacrifice." + +Tisdale looked off over the desert. "Friendship up there does mean +something," he answered quietly. "Mere companionship in the Alaska +wilderness is a test. I don't know whether it's the darkness of those +interminable winters, or the monotony that plays on a man's nerves, but I +have seen the closest partners get beyond speaking to each other. It's a +life to bring out the good and the bad in a man; a life to make men hate; +and it can forge two men together. But David Weatherbee never had an +enemy. He never failed a man. In a crisis he was great. If things had been +reversed"--he set his lips, his face hardened--"if Weatherbee had been in +my place, there at Nome, with a letter of mine in his hands, he wouldn't +have thrown away those four days." + +"Yes, he would. Consider. He must have taken time to prepare for that +terrible journey. How else could he have carried it through?" She leaned +forward a little, compelling his glance, trying to reason down the tragedy +in his face. + +"How can you blame yourself?" she finished brokenly. "You must not. I will +not--let you." + +"Thank you for saying that." Tisdale's rugged features worked. He laid his +hand for an instant over hers. "If any one in the world can set me right +with myself, it is you." + +After that they both were silent. They began to round the bold promontory +at the end of the Wenatchee range; the Badger loomed on the rim of the +desert, then Old Baldy seemed to swing his sheer front like an opened +portal to let the blue flood of the Columbia through. The interest crept +back to her face. Between them and those guardian peaks a steel bridge, +fine as a spider web, was etched on the river, then a first orchard broke +the areas of sage, the rows of young trees radiating from a small, new +dwelling, like a geometrical pattern. Finally she said: "I would like to +know a little more about Mrs. Barbour. Did you ever see her again, Mr. +Tisdale? Or the child?" + +"Oh, yes. I made it a point the next winter, when I was in Washington, to +run down into Virginia and look them up. And I have always kept in touch +with them. She sends me new pictures of the boy every year. He keeps her +busy. He was a rugged little chap at the start, did his best to grow, and +bright!"--Tisdale paused, shaking his head, while the humorous lines +deepened--"But he had to be vigorous to carry the name she gave him. Did I +tell you it was Weatherbee Tisdale? Think of shouldering the names of two +full-sized men on that atom. But she picked a nice diminutive out of it-- +'Bee.' + +"It was a great christening party," he went on reminiscently. "She +arranged it when she passed through Seattle and had several hours to wait +for her train. The ceremony was at Trinity, that stone church on the first +hill, and the Bishop of Alaska, who was waiting too, officiated. I was in +town at the time, getting my outfit together for another season in the +north, but Weatherbee had to assume his responsibilities by proxy." + +"Do you mean David Weatherbee was the child's godfather?" + +"One of them, yes." Tisdale paused, and his brows clouded. "I wish the boy +had been his own. That would have been his salvation. If David Weatherbee +had had a son, he would be here with us now, to-day." + +Miss Armitage was silent. She looked off up the unfolding watercourse, and +the great weariness Tisdale had noticed that hour before dawn settled +again on her face. + +He laid his hand on the reins. "You are tired out," he said. "Come, give +the lines to me. You've deceived me with all that fine show of spirits, +but I've been selfish, or I must have seen. The truth is, I've been +humoring this hand." + +"You mean," she said quickly, "this vixen did hurt you yesterday more than +you would admit?" + +"Oh, no, but the friction of the reins can make even a scratch +uncomfortable after a while, and my glove is getting tight. A little +peroxide, when we reach a pharmacy, will fix it all right." + +But Miss Armitage watched him doubtfully. She assured him she was not +tired and that she loved to drive. Had she not told him so at the start? +Then, as they left the promontory, her glance followed the road ahead. The +bridge was no longer fine as a spider web; it was a railroad crossing of +steel, and the long eaves of the Great Northern depot lifted near, flanked +by the business blocks of a town. "Wenatchee!" she exclaimed; and +wavering, asked: "_Isn't_ this Wenatchee?" + +"Yes, Miss Armitage, I am afraid that it is. You are back to civilization. +A few minutes more and, if you will give me their address, you will be +safe with your friends." + +"I did not say I had any friends in Wenatchee, Mr. Tisdale. I am going on +to Hesperides Vale. But please leave me at any quiet hotel. I can't thank +you enough for all your kindness and patience," she went on hurriedly. +"For making this trip possible. All I can hope to do is share the +expense." And she found the inside pocket of her coat and drew out a small +silver purse. + +Tisdale, driving slowly, divided his attention between his team and the +buildings on either side. "There is a public garage," he said, "and a +rival establishment opposite. You will have no trouble to finish your trip +by automobile, as you planned. It will be pleasant making the run up the +valley this evening, when it is cool." + +Miss Armitage opened her purse. "The rates must be considerably higher on +a rough mountain road than on the Seattle boulevard, and, of course, one +couldn't expect to hire Nip and Tuck at ordinary rates." + +Tisdale drew in, hesitating, before a hotel, then relaxed the reins. "The +building seems modern, but we may find a quiet little inn up some side +street with more shade." + +"I presume you will drive on up the valley," she said, after a moment, +"and start back to Kittitas to-morrow. Or will it be necessary to rest the +team a day?" + +"I shall drive on to that tract of Weatherbee's this afternoon; but I +expect to take the westbound train to-night, somewhere up the valley." + +"I see," she said quickly and tried to cover her dismay, "you intend to +ship the team back to Kittitas by way of Seattle. I'm afraid"--her voice +broke a little, the color flushed pinkly to her forehead, her ears, and +her glance fell to the purse in her lap--"but please tell me the charges." + +"Madam," and the ready humor crinkled the corners of his mouth, "when I +ship these horses back to Lighter, he is going to pay the freight." + +She drew a quick breath of relief, but her purse remained open, and she +waited, regarding Tisdale with an expectant, disconcerting side-glance of +her half-veiled eyes. "And the day rates for the use of the team?" she +asked. + +For a moment he was busy turning the horses. They had reached a second +hotel, but it proved less inviting than the first, and the side streets +they had crossed afforded no quiet inn, or indeed any dwelling in the +shade. "After all," he said, "a room and bath on the north side, with +windows looking up the Columbia, should make you fairly comfortable +through the heat of the day." But the girl waited, and when his eyes fell +to that open purse, his own color burned through the tan. There was no +help for it; she must know the truth. He squared his shoulders, turning a +little toward her. "There are no expenses to share, Miss Armitage. I-- +happened to own this team, and since we were traveling the same way, I was +glad to offer you this vacant seat." + +"Do you mean you bought these horses--outright--at Kittitas?" + +"Yes, the opportunity was too good to miss." He tried to brave the +astonishment in her eyes, but his glance moved directly to the colts. +"And, you see, if I should buy that tract of Weatherbee's, I am going to +need a team." + +"Doubtless," answered Miss Armitage slowly. "Still, for breaking wild land +or even cultivating, one would choose a steadier, heavier team. But they +are beauties, Mr. Tisdale, and I know a man in Seattle who is going to be +disappointed. I congratulate you on being able to secure them." She closed +the purse at last and reluctantly put it away, and she added, with the +merriment dimpling her lips: "Fate certainly was with me yesterday." + +They had reached the hotel, and as he drew up to the curb, a man came from +the lobby to hold the bays. Several traveling salesmen stood smoking and +talking outside the entrance, while a little apart a land promoter and his +possible capitalist consulted a blue print; but there was a general pause +as Tisdale sprang out, and the curious scrutiny of wayfarers in a small +town was focussed on the arrivals. + +"It looks all right," he said quietly, helping her down, "but if you find +anything wrong, or should happen to want me, I shall be at that other +hotel until two o'clock. Good-by!" + +He saw the surprise in her face change to swift appreciation. Then +"Good-by," she answered and walked towards the door. But there she stopped. +Tisdale, looking back as he gave her suitcase to a boy, saw her lips part, +though she did not speak. Then her eyelids drooped, the color played +softly in her face, and she turned to go in. There had been no invitation +in her attitude, yet he had felt a certain appeal. It flashed over him she +did not want to motor up the valley; she wished to drive on with him. Too +proud, too fine to say so, she was letting her opportunity go. He hurried +across the pavement. + +"Miss Armitage," he said, and instantly she turned; the sparkles leaped in +her eyes; she came towards him a few steps and stopped expectantly. "If I +start up the valley at two"--and he looked at his watch--"that will be a +rest of nearly three hours. It means the heat of the day, but if it seems +better than motoring over a country road with a public chauffeur, I would +be glad to have you drive for me." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A WOMAN'S HEART-STRINGS + + +"Now I know the meaning of Wenatchee. It's something racy, Mr. Tisdale, +and a little wicked, yet with unexpected depths, and just the coolest, +limpid hazel-green." + +Tisdale's pulses quickened; his blood responded to her exhilaration. "Yes, +only"--and he waited to catch the glance she lifted from the stream--"your +green is blue, and you forgot to count the sparkles in." + +As he spoke, the bays paced off the bridge. They sprang, gathering +themselves lightly for a sharp ascent and for an interval held the +driver's close attention. The town and the Columbia were behind, and the +road, which followed the contour of the slopes rising abruptly from the +Wenatchee, began a series of sudden turns; it cut shelf-wise high across +the face of a ridge; spurs constantly closed after them; there seemed no +way back or through, then, like an opening gate, a bluff detached from the +wall ahead, and they entered another breadth of valley. In the wide levels +that bordered the river, young orchards began to supplant the sage. +Looking down from the thoroughfare, the even rows and squares seemed +wrought on the tawny background like the designs of a great carpet. +Sometimes, paralleling the road, the new High Line canal followed an upper +cut; it trestled a ravine or, stopped by a rocky cliff, bored through. +Where a finished spillway irrigated a mountainside, all the steep incline +between the runnels showed lines on lines of diminutive trees, pluckily +taking root-hold. + +A little after that, near an old mission, they dropped to a lower bench +and passed an apple orchard in full bearing. Everywhere boughs laden with +a gold or crimson harvest were supported by a network of scaffolding. It +was marvelous that fruit could so crowd and cling to a slender stem and +yet round and color to such perfection. Miss Armitage slowed the horses +down and looked up the shady avenues. Presently a driveway divided the +tract, leading to a dwelling so small it had the appearance of a toy +house; but on the gatepost above the rural delivery box the name of the +owner shone ostentatiously. It was "Henderson Bailey, Hesperides Vale." + +"Do you see?" she asked. "This is that station master's orchard, where the +Rome Beauty grew." + +But the team was troublesome again. The road made a turn, rounding the +orchard, and began the descent to a bridge. On the right a great +water-wheel, supplied with huge, scoop-shaped buckets, was lifting water +from the river to distribute it over a reclaimed section. The bays pranced +toward it suspiciously. "Now, now, Tuck," she admonished, "be a soldier." +The colt sidled gingerly. "Whoa, Nip, whoa!" and, rearing lightly, they +took the approach with a rush. + +As they quieted and trotted evenly off the bridge, a large and brilliant +signboard set in an area of sage-brush challenged the eye. Miss Armitage +fluted a laugh. + +"Buy one of these Choice Lots," + +she read, with charming, slightly mocking exaggeration. + +"Buy to-day. + +"To-morrow will see this Property the Heart of a City. + +"Buy before the Prices Soar. + +"Talk with Henderson Bailey. + +"This surely is Hesperides Vale," she added. + +The amusement went out of Tisdale's face. "Yes, madam, and your journey's +end. Probably the next post-box will announce the name of your friends." + +She did not answer directly. She looked beyond the heads of the team to +the top of the valley, where two brown slopes parted like drawn curtains +and opened a blue vista of canyon closed by a lofty snow-peak. The sun had +more than fulfilled its morning promise of heat, but a soft breeze began +to pull from that white summit down the watercourse. + +"I did not tell you I had friends in Hesperides Vale," she said at last. +Her eyes continued to search the far blue canyon, but her color heightened +at his quick glance of surprise, and she went on with a kind of +breathlessness. + +"I--I have a confession to make. I--But hasn't it occurred to you, Mr. +Tisdale, that I might be interested in this land you are on your way to +see?" + +His glance changed. It settled into his clear, calculating look of +appraisal. Under it her color flamed; she, turned her face farther away. +"No," he answered slowly, "No, that had not occurred to me." + +"I should have told you at the beginning, but I thought, at first, you +knew. Afterward--but I am going to explain now," and she turned +resolutely, smiling a little to brave that look. "Mr. Morganstein had +promised, when he planned the trip to Portland, that he would run over +from Ellensburg to look the property up. He believed it might be feasible +to plat it into five-acre tracts to put on the market. Of course we knew +nothing of the difficulties of the road; we had heard it was an old stage +route, and we expected to motor through and return the same day. So, when +the accident happened to the car in Snoqualmie Pass, and the others were +taking the Milwaukee train home, I decided, on the impulse of the moment, +to finish this side trip to Wenatchee and return to Seattle by the Great +Northern. I admit seeing you on the eastbound influenced me. We--Mrs. +Feversham--guessed you were on your way to see this land, and when the +porter was uncertain of the stage from Ellensburg, but that you were +leaving the trail below Kittitas, I thought you had found a newer, quicker +way. So--I followed you." + +Tisdale's brows relaxed. He laughed a little softly, trying to ease her +evident distress. "I am glad you did, Miss Armitage. I am mighty glad you +did. But I see," he went on slowly, his face clouding again, "I see Mrs. +Weatherbee had been talking to you about that tract. It's strange I hadn't +thought of that possibility. I'll wager she even tried to sell the land +off a map, in Seattle. I wonder, though, when this Weatherbee trip was +arranged to look the property over, that she didn't come, too. But no +doubt that seemed too eager." + +The blue lights flashed in her eyes; her lip trembled. "Be fair," she +said. "You can afford to be--generous." + +"I am going to be generous, Miss Armitage, to you." The ready humor +touched his mouth again, the corners of his eyes. "I am going to take you +over the ground with me; show you Weatherbee's project, his drawn plans. +But afterwards, if you outbid me--" + +"You need not be afraid of that," she interrupted quickly. "I--you must +know"--she paused, her lashes drooped--"I--am not very rich," she +finessed. + +Tisdale laughed outright. "Neither am I. Neither am I." Then, his glance +studying the road, he said: "I think we take that branch. But wait!" He +drew his map from his pocket and pored over it a moment. "Yes, we turn +there. After that there is just one track." + +For an instant Miss Armitage seemed to waver. She sent a backward look to +the river, and the glance, returning, swept Tisdale; then she straightened +in her seat and swung the bays into the branch. It cut the valley +diagonally, away from the Wenatchee, past a last orchard, into wild lands +that stretched in level benches under the mountain wall. One tawny, +sage-mottled slope began to detach from the rest; it took the shape of a +reclining brazen beast, partly leopard, partly wolf, and a line of pine +trees that had taken root in a moist strata along the backbone had the +effect of a bristling mane. + +"That is Weatherbee's landmark," said Tisdale. "He called it Cerberus. It +is all sketched in true as life on his plans. The gap there under the +brute's paw is the entrance to his vale." + +As they approached, the mountain seemed to move; it took the appearance of +an animal, ready to spring. Miss Armitage, watching, shivered. The +dreadful expectation she had shown the previous night when the cry of the +cougar came down the wind, rose in her face. It was as though she had come +upon that beast, more terrifying than she had feared, lying in wait for +her. Then the moment passed. She raised her head, her hands tightened on +the reins, and she drove resolutely into the shadows of the awful front. +"Now," she said, not quite steadily, "now I know how monstrously alive a +mountain can seem." + +Tisdale looked at her. "You never could live in Alaska," he said. "You +feel too much this personality of inanimate things. That was David +Weatherbee's trouble. You know how in the end he thought those Alaska +peaks were moving. They got to 'crowding' him." + +The girl turned a little and met his look. Her eyes, wide with dread, +entreated him. "Yes, I know," she said, and her voice was almost a +whisper. "I was thinking of him. But please don't say any more. I can't-- +bear it--here." + +So she was thinking of Weatherbee. Her emotion sprang from her sympathy +for him. A gentleness that was almost tenderness crept over Tisdale's +face. How fine she was, how sensitively made, and how measureless her +capacity for loving, if she could feel like this for a man of whom she had +only heard. + +Miss Armitage, squaring her shoulders and sitting very erect once more, +her lips closed in a straight red line drove firmly on. A stream ran +musically along the road side,--a stream so small it was marvelous it had +a voice. As they rounded the mountain, the gap widened into the mouth of +the vale, which lifted back to an upper bench, over-topped by a lofty +plateau. Then she swung the team around and stopped. The way was cut off +by a barbed wire fence. + +The enclosure was apparently a corral for a flock of Angora goats. There +was no gate for the passage of teams; the road ended there, and a rough +sign nailed to a hingeless wicket warned the wayfarer to "Keep Out." On a +rocky knob near this entrance a gaunt, hard-featured woman sat knitting. +She measured the trespassers with a furtive, smouldering glance and +clicked her needles with unnecessary force. + +Tisdale's eyes made a swift inventory of the poor shelter, half cabin, +partly shed, that evidently housed both the woman and her flock, then +searched the barren field for some sort of hitching post. But the few +bushes along the stream were small, kept low, doubtless, by the browsing +goats, and his glance rested on a fringe of poplars beyond the upper +fence. + +"There's no way around," he said at last, and the amusement broke softly +in his face. "We will have to go through." + +"The wicket will take the team singly," she answered, "but we must unhitch +and leave the buggy here." + +"And first, if you think you can hold the colts that long, I must tackle +this thistle." + +"I can manage," she said, and the sparkles danced in her eyes, "unless you +are vanquished." + +The woman rose and stood glowering while he sprang down and drew the +wooden pin to open the wicket. Then, "You keep off my land," she ordered +sharply. "I will, madam," he answered quietly, "as soon as I am satisfied +it is yours." + +"I've lived on this claim 'most five years," she screamed. "I'm +homesteading, and when I've used the water seven years, I get the rights." +She sprang backward with a cattish movement and caught up a gun that had +been concealed in some bushes. "Now you go," she said. + +But Tisdale stayed. He stood weighing her with his steady, appraising +eyes, while he drew the township plat from his pocket. + +"This is the quarter section I have come to look up. It starts here, you +see,"--and having unfolded the map, he turned to hold it under her +glance--"at the mouth of this gap, and lifts back through the pocket, +taking in the slopes to this bench and on up over this ridge to include +these springs." + +The woman, curbing herself to look at the plat, allowed the rifle to +settle in the curve of her arm. "I piped the water down," she said. "This +stream was a dry gully. I fenced and put up a house." + +"The tract was commuted and bought outright from the Government over seven +years ago." Tisdale's voice quickened; he set his lips dominantly and +folded the map. "I have copies of the field notes with me and the owner's +landscape plans. And I am a surveyor, madam. It won't take me long to find +out whether there is a mistake. But, before I go over the ground, I must +get my horses through to a hitching-place. I will have to lower that upper +fence, but if you will keep your goats together, I promise to put it back +as soon as the team is through." + +"You let that fence alone." Tisdale had started to cross the field, and +she followed, railing, though the gun still rested in the hollow of her +arm. "If one of those goats breaks away, the whole herd'll go wild. I +can't round 'em in without my dog. He's off trailing one of the ewes. She +strayed yesterday, and he'll chase the mountain through if he has to. It's +no use to whistle; he won't come back without her. You let that fence be. +You wouldn't dare to touch it," she finished impotently, "if I had a man." + +"Haven't you?" Tisdale swung around, and his voice dropped to its soft +undernote. "That's mighty hard. Who laid all that water-pipe? Who built +your house?" + +"I did," she answered grimly. "The man who hauled my load of lumber +stopped long enough to help set the posts, but I did the rest." + +"You did?" Tisdale shook his head incredulously. "My! My! Made all the +necessary improvements, single-handed, to hold your homestead and at the +same time managed these goats." + +The woman's glance moved to the shack and out over the barren fields, and +a shade of uncertainty crept into her passionate eyes. "The improvements +don't make much of a show yet; I've had to be off so much in the +mountains, foraging with the herd. But I was able to hire a boy half a day +with the shearing this spring, and from now on they're going to pay. There +are twenty-eight in the bunch, counting the kids, and I started with one +old billy and two ewes." + +"My! My! what a record!" Tisdale paused to look back at Miss Armitage, who +had turned the bays, allowing them to pace down a length of road and back. + +"But," he added, walking on, "what led you to choose goats instead of +sheep?" + +"I didn't do the choosing"; she moved abreast of Hollis, "it was a fool +man." + +"So," he answered softly, with a glimmer of amusement in his eyes, "there +is a man, after all." + +"There was," she corrected grimly. "The easiest fellow to be talked over +under the sun; the kind always chasing off after a new scheme. First it +was a mineral claim; then he banked the future on timber, and when he got +tired waiting for stumpage to soar, he put up a dinky sawmill to cut his +own trees. He was doing well, for him, getting out ties for a new +railroad--it was down in Oregon--when he saw the chance to trade for a +proved-up homestead. But it was the limit when he started out to buy a +bunch of sheep and came back with that old Angora billy and two ewes." + +"I see." They were near the fence, and Tisdale swerved a little to reach a +stout poplar that formed the corner post. He saw that the wire ends met +there and felt in his pocket for his knife. "I see. And then he left the +responsibility to his wife." + +"The wedding hadn't come off," she said sharply. "It was fixed for the +seventeenth of June, and that was only May. And I told him I couldn't risk +it--not in the face of those goats." + +"And he?" pressed Hollis gently. This thistle, isolated, denied human +intercourse, was more easily handled than he had hoped. + +"He said it suited him all right. He had been wanting to go to Alaska. +Nothing but that wedding had kept him back." + +Tisdale stopped and opened his knife. "And he went?" he asked. + +"Yes." The woman's face worked a little, and she stood looking at him with +hard, tragic eyes. "He sold the homestead for what he could get to raise +the money to take him to Dawson. He was gone in less than twenty-four +hours and before daylight, that night he left, I heard those goats +_ma-a-ing_ under my window. He had staked them there in the front yard and +tucked a note, with his compliments, in the door. He wrote he didn't know +of anything else he could leave that would make me remember him better." + +Tisdale shook his head. "I wish I had been there." He slipped the knife in +between the ends of the wires and the bole, clawing, prying, twisting. +"And you kept them?" he added. + +"Yes, I don't know why, unless it was because I knew it was the last thing +he expected. But I hated them worse than snakes. I couldn't stand it +having them around, and I hired a boy to herd them out on his father's +farm. Then I went on helping Dad, selling general merchandise and sorting +mail. But the post-office was moved that year five miles to the new +railroad station, and they put in a new man. Of course that meant a line +of goods, too, and competition. Trade fell off, then sickness came. It +lasted two years, and when Dad was gone, there wasn't much left of the +store but debt." She paused a moment, looking up to the serene sky above +the high plateau. A sudden moisture softened her burning eyes, and her +free hand crept to her throat. "Dad was a mighty fine man," she said. "He +had a great business head. It wasn't his fault he didn't leave me well +fixed." + +Tisdale laid the loosened wire down on the ground and started to work on +another. "But there was the man in Alaska," he said. "Of course you let +him know." + +"No, sir." Her eyes flashed back to Tisdale's face. "You wouldn't have +caught me writing to Johnny Banks, then. I'm not that kind. The most I +could do was to see what I could make of the goats. I commenced herding +them myself, but I hadn't the face to do it down there in Oregon, where +everybody knew me, and I gradually worked north with them until I ended +here." + +Tisdale had dropped his knife. He stooped to pick it up. "That's where you +made your mistake," he said. + +The woman drew a step nearer, watching his face; tense, breathless. +Clearly he had turned her thoughts from the fence, and he slipped the +knife in farther and continued to pry and twist the wire loose. "How do +you know it was a mistake?" she asked at last. + +Tisdale laid the second wire down. "Well, wasn't it? To punish yourself +like this, to cheat yourself out of the best years of your life, when you +knew how much Banks thought of you. But you seem to have overlooked his +side. Do you think, when he knows how you crucified yourself, it's going +to make him any happier? He carried a great spirit bottled in that small, +wiry frame, but he got to seeing himself through your eyes. He was ashamed +of his failures--he had always been a little sensitive about his size--and +it wasn't the usual enthusiasm that started him to Alaska; he was stung +into going. It was like him to play his poor joke gamily, at the last, and +pretend he didn't care. A word from you would have held him--you must have +known that--and a letter from you afterwards, when you needed him, would +have brought him back. Or you might have joined him up there and made a +home for him all these years, but you chose to bury yourself here in the +desert of the Columbia, starving your soul, wasting your best on these +goats." He paused with the last loosened wire in his hands and stood +looking at her with condemning eyes. "What made you?" he added, and his +voice vibrated softly. "What made you?" + +The woman's features worked; tears filled her eyes. + +They must have been the first in many months, for they came with the gush +that follows a probe. "You know him," she said brokenly. "You've seen him +lately, up there in Alaska." + +"I think so, yes. The Johnny Banks I knew in the north told me something +about a girl he left down in Oregon. But she was a remarkably pretty girl, +with merry black eyes and a nice color in her cheeks. Seems to me she used +to wear a pink gown sometimes, and a pink rose in her black hair, and made +a picture that the fellows busy along the new railroad came miles on +Sundays to see." + +A bleak smile touched the woman's mouth. "Dad always liked to see me wear +nice clothes. He said it advertised the store." Then her glance fell to +her coarse, wretched skirt, and the contrast struck poignantly. + +Tisdale moved the wires back, clearing a space for the bays to pass. +"There was one young engineer," he went on, as though she had not spoken; +"a big, handsome fellow, who came oftener than the rest. Banks thought it +was natural she should favor him. The little man believes yet that when he +was out of the way she married that engineer." + +The woman was beyond speech. Tisdale had penetrated the last barrier of +her fortitude. The bitterness, pent so long, fostered in solitude, filled +the vent and surged through. Her shoulders shook, she stumbled a few steps +to the poplar and, throwing up her arm against the bole, buried her face, +sobbing, in her sleeve. + +Tisdale looked back across the field. Miss Armitage was holding the team +in readiness at the wicket. "I am going now," he said. "You will have to +watch your goats until I get the horses through. But if you will write +that letter, madam, while I'm at work, I'll be glad to mail it for you." + +The woman looked up. A sudden hope transfigured her face. "I wish I dared +to. But he wouldn't know me now; I've changed so. Besides, I don't know +his address." + +"That's so." Tisdale met her glance thoughtfully. "But leave it to me. I +think I can get into touch with him when I am back in Seattle." + +Miss Armitage watched him as he came swiftly across the field. "Oh," she +cried, when he reached the waiting team, "how did you accomplish it? Are +you a magician?" + +Hollis shook his head. "I only tried to play a little on her +heart-strings, to gain time, and struck an unexpected chord. But it's all +right. It's going to do her good." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE LOOPHOLE + + +The afternoon sun shone hot in that pocket; the arid slopes reflected the +glare; heat waves lifted; the snow-peak was shut out, and when a puff of +wind found the gap it was a breath from the desert. Miss Armitage, who had +trailed pluckily after Tisdale through the sage-brush and up the steep +face of the bench, rested on the level, while he hurried on to find the +easiest route to the high plateau and the spring. He had left her seated +on a flat rock in the shade of a sentinel pine tree, looking over the vale +to Cerberus and the distant bit of the Wenatchee showing beyond the mouth, +but as he came back along the ridge, he saw she had turned her shoulder on +the crouching mountain. At his far "Hello!" she waved her hand to him and +rose to start across the bench to meet him. He was descending a broken +stairway below two granite pillars that topped a semi-circular bluff and, +springing from a knob to avoid a dry runnel, he shaped his way diagonally +to abridge the distance. He moved with incredible swiftness, swinging by +his hands to drop from a ledge, sliding where he must, and the ease and +expediency with which he accomplished it all brought the admiration +sparkling to her eyes. + +"I am sorry," he said, as he drew near, "but there isn't any easy way. +It's too bad to have traveled so far and miss the spring, for the whole +project hinges on it; but the climb is impossible for you in this heat." + +"Then you found the spring?" she asked quickly. "It was all the plans +promised?" + +"Yes." He began to walk on across the bench, suiting his steps to hers. +"And Weatherbee had put in a small dam there to create his first +reservoir. I found his old camp, too; a foundation of logs, open now to +the sky, with a few tatters left of the canvas that had roofed it over." +There was a silent moment, then he added, with the emotion still playing +gently in his voice: "I wish I could show you that place; the pool is +crystal clear and cool, rimmed in pines, like a basin of opals." + +When they reached the flat rock in the shade of the pine tree, he took the +reclamation plan from his inner pocket and seated himself beside her. +"This is Weatherbee's drawing," he said. "See how carefully he worked in +the detail. This is the spring and that upper reservoir, and this lower +one is a natural dry basin up there under that bluff, a little to the left +of those granite chimneys; you can see its rocky rim. All it needs is this +short flume sketched in here to bring the water down, and a sluice-gate to +feed the main canal that follows this bench we are on. Spillways would +irrigate a peach orchard along this slope below us and seep out through +this level around us to supply home gardens and lawn. Just imagine it!" He +paused, while her glance followed his brief comparisons, moving from the +plan to the surface of the bench and down over the slope to the vale. +"Imagine this tract at the end of four years; a billowing sea of green; +with peach trees in bearing on this mountainside; apples, the finest +Jonathans, Rome Beauties if you will, beginning to make a showing down +there. Water running, seeping everywhere; strawberries carpeting the +ground between the boles; alfalfa, cool and moist, filling in; and even +Cerberus off there losing his sinister shape in vineyards." + +"Then it is feasible," she exclaimed softly, and the sparkles broke +subdued in her eyes. "And the price, Mr. Tisdale; what would you consider +a fair price for the property as it stands now, unimproved?" Tisdale rose. +He paused to fold the drawing and put it away, while his glance moved +slowly down over the vale to the goat-keeper's cabin and her browsing +flock. "You must see, Miss Armitage," he said then, "that idea of Mr. +Morganstein's to plat this land into five-acre tracts for the market +couldn't materialize. It is out of range of the Wenatchee valley projects; +it is inaccessible to the railroad for the small farmer. Only the man with +capital to work it on a large scale could make it pay. And the property is +Mrs. Weatherbee's last asset; she is in urgent need of ready money. You +should be able to make easy terms with her, but I warn you, if it comes to +bidding, I am prepared to offer seven thousand dollars." + +He turned, frowning a little, to look down at her and, catching those +covert sparkles of her side-glance, smiled. + +"You may have it," she said. + +"Wait. Think it over," he answered. "I am going down to the gap now to +find the surveyor's monument and trace the section line back to the top of +the plateau. Rest here, where it's cooler, and I will come down this way +for you when I am through. Think the project over and take my word for the +spring; it's well worth the investment." + +Doubtless Miss Armitage followed his suggestion, for she sat thoughtfully, +almost absently, watching him down the slope. At the foot of the vale, the +goat-woman joined him, and it was clear he again used his magic art, for +presently he had her chaining for him and holding an improvised flag, +while he estimated the section line. But finally, when they left the bed +of the pocket and began to cross-cut up the opposite mountainside, the +girl rose and looked in the direction of the spring. It was cooler; a +breeze was drawing down from the upper ridge; a few thin clouds like torn +gauze veiled the sky overhead; the blue lost intensity. She began to walk +across the bench towards the granite chimneys. In a little while she found +the dry reservoir, walled, where the plateau lifted, in the semi-circular +bluff; then she stopped at the foot of an arid gully that rose between +this basin and a small shoulder which supported the first needle. This was +the stairway she had seen Tisdale descend, and presently she commenced to +climb it slowly, grasping bunches of the tenacious sage or jutting points +of rock to ease her weight. + +The stairs ended in a sharp incline covered with debris from the +decomposing pillars; splinters of granite shifted under her tread; she +felt the edges cutting through her shoes. Fragments began to rattle down; +one larger rock crashed over the bluff into the dry basin. Then, at last, +she was on the level, fighting for breath. She turned, trembling, and +braced herself against the broken chimney to look back. She shrank closer +to the needle and shook her head. It was as though she said: "I never +could go back alone." + +But when her glance moved to the opposite mountainside, Tisdale was no +longer in sight. And that shoulder was very narrow; it presented a sheer +front to the vale, like the base of a monument, so that between the +chimney and the drop to the gully there was little room in which to stand. +She began to choose a course, picking her foothold cautiously, zigzagging +as she had seen Hollis do on the slope above. Midway another knob jutted, +supporting a second pillar and a single pine tree, but as she came under +the chimney she was forced to hurry. Loose chippings of granite started at +every step. They formed little torrents, undermining, rushing, threatening +to sweep her down; and she reached the ledge in a panic. Then she felt the +stable security of the pine against her body and for a moment let herself +go, sinking to the foot of the tree and covering her eyes with her hands. + +Up there a stiff wind was blowing, and presently she saw the snow-peak she +had missed in the vale. The ridge lifted less abruptly from this second +spur, and in a little while she rose and pushed on, lagging sometimes, +stumbling, to the level of the plateau. The Wenatchee range, of which it +was a part, stretched bleak and forbidding, enclosing all those minor arid +gulfs down to the final, long, scarred headland set against the Columbia +desert. She was like a woman stranded, the last survivor, on an +inhospitable coast. Turning to look across the valley of the Wenatchee, +she saw the blue and glaciered crests of the Chelan mountains, and behind +her, over the neck of a loftier height, loomed other white domes. And +there yesterday's thunder-caps, bigger and blacker, with fringed edges, +drove along the sky line. One purplish mass was streaming like a sieve. +For an interval the sun was obscured, and her glance came back to the vale +below where Cerberus reclined, watchful, his tawny head lifted slightly +between two advanced paws. Suddenly the lower clouds grew brilliant, and +shafts of light breaking through changed the mountain before her to a +beast of brass. + +She turned and began to pick her way through grease brush and insistent +sage towards a grove of pines. In a little while she saw water shining +through the trees. She hesitated--it was as though she had come to the +threshold of a sanctuary--then went on under the boughs to the opal pool. + +She remained in the grove a long time. When she reappeared, the desert +eastward was curtained in a gray film. Torn breadths of it, driven by some +local current of air, formed tented clouds along the promontory. It was as +though yesterday's army was marshalled against other hosts that held the +Chelan heights. A twilight indistinctness settled over the valley between. +Rain, a downpour, was near. She hurried on to the brow of the plateau, but +she dared not attempt to go down around those crumbling chimneys alone. +And Tisdale had said he would come back this side of the vale. Any moment +he might appear. She turned to go back to the shelter of the pines. It was +then a first electrical flash, like a drawn sword, challenged the opposite +ridge. Instantly a searchlight from the encamped legions played over the +lower plain. She turned again, wavering, and began to run on over the +first dip of the slope and along to the first pillar. There she stopped, +leaning on the rock, trembling, yet trying to force down her fear. It was +useless; she could not venture over that stream of shifting granite. She +started back, then stopped, wavering again. After a moment she lifted her +voice in a clear, long call: "Mr. Tis--da--le!" + +"I'm coming!" The answer rang surprisingly close, from the gully above the +basin. Soon she discovered him and, looking up, he saw her standing +clear-cut against a cavernous, dun-colored cloud, which, gathering all +lesser drift into its gulf, drove low towards the plateau. She turned her +face, watching it, and it seemed to belch wind like a bellows, for her +skirt stiffened, and the loosened chiffon veil, lifting from her shoulders, +streamed like the drapery of some aërial figure, poised there briefly on +its flight through space. Then began cannonading. Army replied to army. +The advancing film from the desert, grown black, became an illuminated +scroll; thin ribbons of gold were traced on it, bowknots of tinsel. The +pattern changed continually. The legions repeated their fire; javelins, +shafts, flew. Lightning passed in vertical bolts, in sheets from ridge to +ridge. Then the cloud approaching the plateau spoke, and the curtain +moving from the Columbia became a wall of doom, in which great cracks +yawned, letting the light of eternity through. + +The girl was flying down the slope to meet Tisdale. She came with bent +head, hands to her ears, skimming the pitfalls. Under her light tread the +loose debris hardly stirred. Then, as he rounded the pillar, her pace +slackened. "I am afraid," she said and stumbled. "I am afraid." And her +trembling body sank against his arm; she buried her face in his coat. +"Take me away from this terrible place." + +Her impact had started the splintered granite moving, but Hollis swung +instantly and set his back to the crumbling chimney, clinging there, +staying her with his arm, until the slide stopped. + +"See here," he said, and his voice vibrated its soft undernote, "you +mustn't lose your grip. It's all right. Old Mother Nature is just having +one of her scolding fits. She has to show the woman in her once in a +while. But it's going to end, any minute, in tears." + +She lifted her face, and he paused, knitting his brows, yet smiling a +little, mastering the terror in her eyes with his quiet, compelling gaze. +"Come, Miss Armitage," he said, "we must hurry. You will be wet through." + +He took her hand and began to lead her quickly down the rugged staircase. +"Be careful," he admonished, "this granite is treacherous." But she gave +little heed to her steps; she looked back continually over her shoulder, +watching the dun cloud. Presently she tripped. Hollis turned to steady +her, and, himself looking up beyond her, caught her in his arms and ran, +springing, out of the gully. + +The ledge he reached formed the rim of the natural reservoir and, +measuring the distance with a swift glance, he let himself over, easing +the drop with one hand on the rocky brink, while the other arm supported +her. Midway, on a jutting knob, he gathered momentary foothold, then swung +to the bottom of the basin. + +It was all done surely but with incredible haste, while the cavernous +cloud drew directly overhead. The next instant, from its brazen depths, it +spoke again. The whole mountain seemed to heave. Then something mighty +crashed down. The basin suddenly darkened as though a trap door had +closed, and Tisdale, still shielding his companion, stood looking up, +listening, while the reverberations rang from slope to slope and filled +the vale. Then silence came. + +Miss Armitage drew erect, though her hand rested unconsciously on +Tisdale's sleeve. The thing that roofed the basin was black, impenetrably +thick; in it she saw no possible loophole of escape. "This time," she +faltered, "Fate is against you." + +Her breast rose and fell in deep, hurried breaths; in the twilight of the +basin her eyes, meeting his, shone like twin stars. Tisdale's blood began +to race; it rose full tide in his veins, "Fate is with me," he answered, +and bent and kissed her mouth. + +She shrank back, trembling, against the rocky wall; she glanced about her +with the swift, futile manner of a creature helplessly trapped, then she +pressed her fingers an instant to her eyes and straightened. "You never +will forgive yourself," she said; not in anger, not in judgment, but in a +tone so low, so sad, it seemed to express not only regret but finality. + +Tisdale was silent. After a moment he turned to the lower side of the +basin, which afforded better foothold than the wall he had descended, and +began to work up from niche to ledge, grasping a chance bunch of sage, a +stunted bush of chaparral that grew in a cranny, to steady himself. And +the girl stood aloof, watching him. Finally he reached a shelf that +brought him, in touch with the obstruction overhead and stopped to take +out his pocketknife, with which he commenced to create a loophole. Little +twigs rained down; a larger branch fell, letting the daylight through. The +roof was a mesh of pine boughs. + +At last he closed his knife and, taking firm hold on a fixed limb, leaned +to reach his other palm down to her. "Come," he said, "set your foot in +that first niche--no, the left one. Now, give me your hand." + +She obeyed as she must, and Hollis pushed backward through the aperture he +had made, getting the bough under one armpit. "Now, step to that jagged +little spur; it's solid. The right one, too; there's room." She gained the +upper ledge and waited, hugging the wall pluckily while he worked out on +the rim of the basin and, stretching full length, with the stem of the +tree under his waist, reached his arms down to her. "You will have to +spring a little," he directed, "and grip my shoulders hard. Now, come!" + +At last she was safe beside him. In another moment he was up and helped +her to her feet. They stood looking towards the mountain top. The dun +cloud stalking now with trailing skirts in the direction of the +snow-peaks, hurled back a parting threat. "It was the pine tree," she +exclaimed. "It was struck. And, see! It has carried down most of that +chimney. Our staircase is completely wrecked." + +Tisdale was silent. Her glance came back to him. A sudden emotion stirred +her face. Then all the conservatism dropped from her like a discarded +cloak, and he felt her intrepid spirit respond to his own. Now she +understood that moment in the basin; she knew it had been supreme; she was +great enough to see there was nothing to forgive. "You were right," she +said, and her voice broke in those steadying pauses that carried more +expression than any words. "Fate was with us again. But I owe--my life--to +you." + +"Sometime," he answered slowly, smiling a little, "not now, not here, I am +going to hold you to the debt. And when I do, you are going to pay me--in +full." + +The beautiful color, that was like the pink of coral, flamed and went in +her face. "We must hurry back to the team," she said and turned to finish +the descent to the bench. "Horses are always so nervous in an electrical +storm." Then suddenly, as Tisdale pushed by to help her in a difficult +place, she stopped. "How strange!" she exclaimed. "That terrible curtain +has lifted from the desert. It threatened a deluge any minute, and now it +is moving off without a drop of rain." + +"That's so," he replied. "A cross current of wind has turned it up the +Columbia. But the rain is there; it is streaming along those Chelan +summits in a downpour." + +"And look!" she cried, after a moment. "A double rainbow! See how it spans +the Wenatchee! It's a promise." And the turquoise lights shone once more +in her eyes. "Here in this desert, at last, I may come to my 'pot of +gold.'" + +"You mean," responded Tisdale, "now you have seen the spring, Weatherbee's +project seems possible to you. Well, I have reconsidered, too. I shall not +outbid you. That would favor Mrs. Weatherbee too much. And my interests +are going to keep me in Alaska indefinitely. I should be obliged to leave +the plans in the hands of a manager, and I had rather trust them to you." + +Miss Armitage did not answer directly. She was watching the arch, painted +higher now, less brilliantly, on the lifting film. The light had gone out +of her face. All the bench was in shadow; in the valley below a twilight +indistinctness had fallen. Then suddenly once more Cerberus stood forth +like a beast of brass. She shivered. + +"It isn't possible," she said. "It isn't possible. Even if I dared--for +David's sake--to assume the responsibility, I haven't the money to carry +the project through." + +Tisdale stopped and swung around. They had reached the flat rock under the +sentinel pine tree. "Did you know David Weatherbee?" he asked. + +She was silent. He put his hands in his pockets and stood regarding her +with his upward look from under slightly frowning brows. "So you knew +David," he went on. "In California, I presume, before he went to Alaska. +But why didn't you tell me so?" + +She waited another moment. In the great stillness Hollis heard her labored +breathing. She put out her hand, steadying herself on the bole of the +pine, then: "I've wanted to tell you," she began. "I've tried to--but--it +was impossible to make you understand. I--I hadn't the courage." + +Her voice fluted and broke. The last word was almost a whisper. She stood +before Tisdale with veiled eyes, breath still coming hard and quick, the +lovely color deepening and paling in her face, like a woman awaiting +judgment. And it came over him in a flash, with the strength of +conviction, that this beautiful, inscrutable girl wished him to know she +had loved Weatherbee. Incredible as it seemed, she had been set aside for +the Spanish woman. And she had learned about David's project; he himself +perhaps had told her years ago in California. And though his wife had +talked with Morganstein about platting the land into five-acre tracts to +dispose of quickly, this woman had desired to see the property with a view +to carrying out his plans. That was why she had continued the journey from +Snoqualmie Pass alone. That was why she had braved the mountain drive with +him. She had loved Weatherbee. This truth, sinking slowly, stirred his +inner consciousness and, wrenched in a rising commotion, something far +down in the depths of him lost hold. He had presumed to think, in the +infinite scheme of things, this one woman had been reserved for him. He +had dared to let her know he believed so; he had taken advantage of her +helpless situation, on an acquaintance of two days. His own color began to +burn through the tan. "You were right," he said at last, very gently, "I +never can forgive myself. I can't understand it!" he broke out then, "if +you had been his wife, David Weatherbee would have been safe with us here, +to-day." + +Miss Armitage started. She gave him a quick, searching glance, then sank +down upon the rock. She seemed suddenly exhausted, like a woman who, +hard-pressed in the midst of peril, finds unexpectedly a friendly +threshold. + +Tisdale looked off to the brazen slopes of Cerberus. It was the first time +he had censured Weatherbee for anything, and suddenly, while he brooded, +protesting over that one paramount mistake, he felt himself unaccountably +responsible. He was seized with a compelling desire to, in some way, make +it up to her. "Come," he said, "you mustn't lose heart; to-morrow, when +you are rested, it will look easier. And the question of ready money need +not trouble you. Mrs. Weatherbee has reached the point where she has got +to hedge on the future. Make her an offer of five thousand dollars in +yearly payments, say, of fifteen hundred. She'll take it. Then, if you +agree, I will arrange a loan with a Seattle bank. I should allow enough +margin to cover the first reclamation expenses. Your fillers of alfalfa +and strawberries would bring swift returns, and before your orchards came +into bearing, your vineyards would pay the purchase price on the whole +tract." + +He turned to her, smiling, and surprised a despair in her face that went +to his heart. + +"I thought, I hoped you meant to buy this land," she said. + +"So I did, so I do, unless you decide to. And if you undertake this +project, I pledge myself to see you through." His voice caught a pleading +undernote. "It rests with you. Above every one it rests with you to even +things for Weatherbee. Isn't that clear to you? Look ahead five years; see +this vale green and shady with orchards; the trees laden with harvest; +imagine his wife standing here on this bench, surveying it all. See her +waking to the knowledge she has let a fortune slip through her hands; see +her, the purchase price spent, facing the fact that another woman built +her faith on David Weatherbee; had the courage to carry out his scheme and +found it a bonanza. That is what is going to make her punishment strike +home." + +Miss Armitage rose. She stood a moment watching his face, then, "How you +hate her!" she said. + +"Hate?" Tisdale's laugh rang short and hard. "Well, I grant it; hate is +the word. I hate her so much I've known better than go where she was; I've +avoided her as an electrician avoids charged wire. Still, if I had found +myself in Weatherbee's place; if I had made his mistake and married her, +she should have felt my streak of iron. I might have stayed in Alaska as +he did, but she would have stayed too and made a home for me, helped to +fight things through." He paused and, meeting the appeal in her eyes, his +face softened. "I've distressed you again," he added. "I'm sorry; but it +isn't safe for me to speak of that woman; the thought of her starts my +temperature rising in bounds. I want you to help me forget her. Yet, down +in the depths of your heart you know you blame her." + +"Yes, I blame her." Miss Armitage began to walk on towards the edge of the +bench. "I blame her, but not as you do. I know she tried to do right; she +would have gone to Alaska--if David had wished it--at the start. And she's +been courageous, too. She's smiled--laughed in the face of defeat. Her +closest friends never knew." + +"You defend her. I wonder at that." Tisdale passed her and turned to offer +his help down the first abrupt pitch. "How you, who are the one to censure +her the most, can speak for her always, as you do. But there you are like +Weatherbee. It was his way to take the losing side; champion the absent." + +"And there is where your resemblance stops," she answered quickly. "He +lacked your streak of iron. Of course you know about your strange likeness +to him, Mr. Tisdale. It is so very marked; almost a dual personality. It +isn't height and breadth of shoulder alone; it's in the carriage, the turn +of the head; and it creeps into your eyes sometimes; it gets into your +voice. The first time I saw you, it was startling." + +Tisdale moved on, picking up the trail they had made in ascending; the +humor began to play reminiscently at the corners of his mouth. "Yes, I +know about that resemblance. When we were on the Tanana, it was 'Tisdale's +Twin' and 'Dave's Double.' A man has to take a name that fits up there, +and we seemed to grow more alike every day. But that often happens when +two friends who are accustomed to think in the same channels are brought +into continual touch, and the first year we spent in the north together we +were alone for weeks at a stretch, with no other human intercourse, not a +prospector's camp within a hundred miles. The most incompatible partners, +under those circumstances, will pick up subconsciously tricks of speech +and gesture. Still, looking back, I see it was I who changed. I had to +live up to Weatherbee; justify his faith in me." + +Miss Armitage shook her head slowly. "That is hard to believe. Whoever +tried to mould you would feel through the surface that streak of iron." +They had come to another precipitous place, and Tisdale turned again to +give her the support of his hand. The position brought his face on a level +with hers, and involuntarily she stopped. "But whatever you may say, Mr. +Tisdale," she went on, and as her palm rested in his the words gathered +the weight of a pact, "whatever may--happen--I shall never forget your +greatness to-day." She sprang down beside him, and drew away her hand and +looked back to the summit they had left. "Still, tell me this," she said +with a swift breathlessness. "If it had been David Weatherbee's wife up +there with you when the thunderbolt struck, would it have made a +difference? I mean, would you have left her to escape--or not--as she +could?" + +Tisdale waited a thoughtful moment. The ripple of amusement was gone; the +iron, so near the surface, cropped through. "I can't answer that," he +said. "I do not know. A man is not always able to control a first impulse, +and before that pine tree fell there wasn't time to hesitate." + +At this she was silent. All her buoyancy, the charming camaraderie that +stopped just short of intimacy, had dropped from her. It was as though the +atmosphere of that pocket rose and clung to her, enveloped her like a +nimbus, as she went down. In the pent heat her face seemed cold. She had +the appearance of being older. The fine vertical line at the corner of her +mouth, which Tisdale had not noticed before, brought a tightness to his +throat when he ventured to look at her. How could Weatherbee have been so +blind? How could he have missed the finer, spiritual loveliness of this +woman? Weatherbee, who himself had been so sensitive; whose intuition was +almost feminine. + +They had reached the final step from the bench to the floor of the vale +when Hollis spoke again. "If you do decide to buy this land and open the +project, I could recommend a man who would make a trusty manager." + +"Oh, you don't understand," she replied in desperation "You don't +understand. I should have to stay, to live in this terrible place for +weeks, months at a time. I couldn't endure it. That dreadful mountain +there at the gap would forever be watching me, holding me in." + +Tisdale looked at her, knitting his brows, "I told you it was dangerous to +allow yourself to feel the personality of inanimate things too much." + +"I know. I know. And this terrible beast"--she paused, trying to steady +her voice; her whole body trembled--"would remind me constantly of those +awful Alaska peaks--the ones that crowded--threatened him." + +Tisdale's face cleared. So that was the trouble. Now he understood. "Then +it's all right"--the minor notes in his voice, vibrating softly, had the +quality of a caress--"don't worry any more. I am going to buy this land of +David's. Trust me to see the project through." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +"WHOM THE GODS WOULD DESTROY" + + +Hope is an insistent thing. It may be strangled, lie cold and buried deep +in the heart of a man, yet suddenly, without premonition, he may feel it +rise and stretch small hands, groping towards a ray of light. So in that +reminiscent hour while the train labored up through the Cascades to the +great tunnel, Tisdale told himself this woman--the one woman for whom he +must have been waiting all these years, at whose coming old and cherished +memories had faded to shadows--was very near to loving him. Already she +knew that those mysterious forces she called Fate had impelled them out of +their separate orbits through unusual ways, to meet. Sometime--he would +not press her, he could be patient--but sometime she would surely pay him +that debt. + +He dwelt with new interest on his resemblance to Weatherbee, and he told +himself it was her constancy to David that had kept her safe. Then it came +over him that if Weatherbee had married her instead of the Spanish woman, +that must have been an insurmountable barrier between them to-day. As long +as they lived, she must have remained sacred on her pedestal, out of +reach. But how nobly partisan she was; how ready to cross swords for +Weatherbee's wife. That was the incredible test; her capacity for loving +was great. + +The porter was turning on the lights. Tisdale moved a little and looked +across the aisle. For that one moment he was glad Weatherbee had made his +mistake. She was so incomparable, so adorable. Any other woman must have +lost attractiveness, shown at least the wear and tear of that mountain +journey, but her weariness appealed to him as her buoyancy had not. She +had taken off her hat to rest her head on the high, cushioned back of the +seat, and the drooping curves of her short upper lip, the blue shadows +under those outward curling black lashes, roused a new emotion, the +paternal, in the depths of his great heart. He wished to smooth her +ruffled hair; it was so soft, so vital; under the electric light it seemed +to flash little answering blue sparks. Then his glance fell to her relaxed +palms, open in her lap, and he felt a quick solicitude over a scratch the +barbed fence must have made on one small, determined thumb. + +They had had trouble with the horses in the vale. Nip, who had broken away +during the storm, had been rounded in by the goat-woman and her returning +collie. The travelers found her trying to extricate his halter which had +caught, holding him dangerously close, in the wire fencing. It had taken +caution and long patience to free him, and more to hitch the excited team. +The delay had caused them to miss the westbound evening train; they were +forced to drive back and spend the night at Wenatchee. And the morning +Oriental Limited was crowded with delegates from some mystic order on an +annual pilgrimage. There was no room in the observation car; Tisdale was +able to secure only single seats on opposite sides of the sleeper. + +The train rumbled through the great tunnel and came to a brief stop +outside the west portal. It was snowing. Some railroad laborers, repairing +the track, worked in overcoats and sweaters, hat brims drawn down, collars +turned up against the bitter wind. The porter opened the transoms, and a +piercing draught pulled through the smoky, heat-laden car. Miss Armitage +sat erect and inhaled a full breath. She looked across at Tisdale, and the +sparkles broke softly in her eyes. "It's Wellington!" she exclaimed. "In a +moment we shall be racing down to Scenic Hot Springs and on along the +Skykomish--home." Then she stopped the porter. "Bring me a telegraph +blank, please. I want to send a message from the Springs." + +The limited, under way again, dropped below the cloud. Great peaks and +shoulders lifted everywhere; they began to make the loop around an +incredibly deep and fissure-like gorge. It was a wonderful feat of +railroad engineering; people on the other side of the car got to their +feet and came over to see. The girl, with the yellow blank in her hand, +drew close to Tisdale's elbow. "Oh, no," she demurred, when he rose to +offer his seat, "I only want standing room just a moment. There's going to +be a delightful view of Scenic." + +The passenger beside Hollis picked up his bag. "Take my place," he said. +"I am getting off at the Springs." + +Then presently, when she had moved into the vacated seat next the window, +the peaks stood apart, and far, far below the untouched forest at the +summer resort stood out darkly, with the gay eaves and gables of the hotel +etched on it like a toy Swiss chalet on a green plateau. + +"Oh," she cried softly, "it never seemed as charming before; but, of +course, it is coming, as we have, straight from the hot desert. There's +the coolest, fragrant wood road down there, Mr. Tisdale, from the hotel to +Surprise Falls. It follows the stream past deep green pools and cascades +breaking among the rocks. Listen. We should hear the river now." + +Tisdale smiled. There was nothing to be heard but the echo of the running +trucks and the scream of the whistle repeated from cliff and spur. They +were switchbacking down the fire-scarred front of a mountain. He bent a +little to look beyond her. It was as though they were coasting down a +tilted shelf in an oblique wall, and over the blackened skeletons of firs +he followed the course of the river out through crowding blue buttes. +Returning, his glance traced the track, cross-cutting up from the gorge. + +"I know Surprise Falls," he said; "and the old Skykomish from start to +finish. There's a point below the Springs where the current boils through +great flumes of granite into a rocky basin. Long before the hotel was +thought of, I fished that pool." + +"I know! I know!" she responded, glowing. "We--Miss Morganstein and her +brother and I--found it this summer. We had to work down-stream across +those fissures to reach it, but it was worth the trouble. There never was +another such pool. It was like a mighty bowl full of dissolving emeralds; +and the trout loved it. We caught twenty, and we built a fire on the rocks +and cooked them. It was delightfully cool and shady. It was one of those +golden days one never forgets; I was sorry when it was gone." She paused, +the high wave of her excitement passed. "I never could live in that +treeless country," she went on. "Water, running as God made it, plenty of +it, is a necessity to me. But please take your seat, Mr. Tisdale." She +settled back in her place and began to date her telegram. "I am just +sending the briefest message to let Mrs. Feversham know where I am." + +"The porter is coming back for it now," he answered "And thank you, but I +am going in the smoking-car." + +As he approached the vestibule, he caught her reflection in the mirror at +the end of the sleeper. She was looking after him, and she leaned forward +a little with parted lips, as though she had started to call him back, but +her eyes clouded in uncertainty; then suddenly, the sparkle rose. It +suffused her whole face. She had met his glance in the glass. And the +porter was waiting. She settled herself once more and devoted herself to +the telegram. + +The lines in Tisdale's face deepened mellowly. He believed that, now they +were so near their journey's end, she wanted to be sure of an opportunity +to thank him some more. "I am coming back," he said inwardly, addressing +the woman in the mirror, "but I must have a smoke to keep my pulse +normal." + +But he did not return to the sleeper, for the reason that at Scenic Hot +Springs the Seattle papers were brought aboard. The copy of the _Press_ he +bought contained the account of the accident in Snoqualmie Pass. The +illustrations were unusually clear, and Daniels' cuts were supplemented by +another labelled: "The Morganstein party leaving Vivian Court," which also +designated the group. + +(Mrs. Feversham, wife of the special delegate from Alaska, in the tonneau. + +Her sister, Miss Morganstein, on her right. + +Mrs. Weatherbee seated in front. + +Frederic Morganstein driving the car.) + +And under the central picture Hollis read: "Mrs. Weatherbee (Miss +Armitage?), as she drove the machine into the embankment." + +The paper rattled a little in his hands. His face flamed, then settled +gray and very still. Except that his eyes moved, flashing from the +photographs to the headlines, he might have been a man hewn of granite. +"One more reason why the Snoqualmie highway should be improved," he read. +"Narrow escape of the Morganstein party. Mrs. Weatherbee's presence of +mind." And, half-way down the page, "Mrs. Weatherbee modestly assumes an +incognito when interviewed by a representative of the _Press_." + +But Tisdale did not look at the story. He crushed the newspaper into the +corner of his seat and turned his face to the window. His cigar had gone +out. He laid it mechanically on the sill. So, this was the woman who had +wrecked David Weatherbee; who had cast her spell over level-headed Foster; +and already, in the less than three days he had known her, had made a +complete idiot of him. Suppose Foster should hear about that drive through +the mountains that had cost him over seven hundred dollars; suppose Foster +should know about that episode in the basin on Weatherbee's own ground. A +great revulsion came over him. + +Presently he began to take up detail after detail of that journey. Now he +saw the real impulse that had led her to board the eastbound train in +Snoqualmie Pass. She had recognized him, conjectured he was on his way to +find that tract of Weatherbee's; and she had determined to go over the +land with him, cajole him into putting the highest estimate possible on +the property. Even now, there in the sleeper, she was congratulating +herself no doubt on the success of her scheme. + +At the thought of the ease with which he had allowed himself to be +ensnared, his muscles tightened. It was as though the iron in the man took +shape, shook off the veneer, encased him like a coat of mail. Hitherto, in +those remote Alaska solitudes, this would have meant the calling to +account of some transgressor in his camp. He began to sift for the prime +element in this woman's wonderful personality. It was not physical beauty +alone; neither was it that mysterious magnetism, almost electrical, yet +delicately responsive as a stringed instrument. One of these might have +kept that tremendous hold on Weatherbee near, but on Weatherbee absent +through those long, breaking years, hardly. It was something deeper; +something elusive yet insistent that had made it easier for him to brave +out his defeat alone in the Alaska wilderness than come back to face. +Clearly she was not just the handsome animal he had believed her to be. +Had she not called herself proud? Had he not seen her courage? She had a +spirit to break. A soul! + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +"A LITTLE STREAK OF LUCK" + + +It was not the first time Jimmie Daniels had entertained the Society +Editor at the Rathskeller, and that Monday, though he had invited her to +lunch with him in the Venetian room, she asked him, as was her habit, to +"order for both." + +"Isn't there something special you'd like?" he asked generously; +"something you haven't had for a long time?" + +"No. You are so much of an epicure--for a literary person--I know it's +sure to be something nice. Besides," and the shadow of a smile drifted +across her face, "it saves me guessing the state of your finances." + +A critic would have called Geraldine Atkins too slender for her height, +and her face, notwithstanding its girlish freshness, hardly pretty. The +chin, in spite of its dimple, was too strong; the lips, scarlet as a holly +berry, lacked fullness and had a trick of closing firmly over her white +teeth. Even her gray-blue eyes, which should have been a dreamer's, had +acquired a direct intensity of expression as though they were forever +seeking the inner, real you. Still, from the rolling brim of her soft felt +hat to the hem of her brown tailor-made, that cleared the ankles of trim +brown shoes, she was undeniably chic and in the eyes of Jimmie Daniels +"mighty nice." + +He was longer than usual filling out the card, and the waiter hesitated +thoughtfully when he had read it, then be glanced from the young man to +his companion with a comprehensive smile and hurried away. There was +chilled grapefruit in goblets with cracked ice, followed by bouillon, +oysters, and a delectable young duck with toast. But it was only when the +man brought a small green bottle and held it for Jimmie to approve the +label that his guest began to arch her brows. + +Daniels smiled his ingenuous smile. "It's just to celebrate a little +streak of luck," he said. "And I owe it to you. If you hadn't been at +Vivian Court to write up the decorations for that bridge-luncheon and +happened to make that snap-shot of the Morganstein party, my leading lady +would have gone to the paper as Miss Armitage straight, and I guess that +would have queered me with the chief. But that headline you introduced +about Mrs. Weatherbee's incognito struck him right. 'Well, Jimmie,' he +said, 'you've saved your scalp this time.'" + +The Society Editor smiled. "You were a gullible kiddie," she replied. "But +it's a mystery to me how you could have lived in Seattle three years +without knowing the prettiest woman on the boulevard by sight." + +Jimmie shook his head. "I haven't the shadow of an excuse, unless it was +because another girl was running such a close second she always cut off my +view." + +"Think," said Miss Atkins quickly, disregarding the excuse, "if that name, +Miss Armitage, had been tagged to a picture that half the town would have +recognized. Mrs. Weatherbee is the most popular lady, socially, in +Seattle. When there's a reception for a new Council, she's always in the +receiving line; she pours tea at the tennis tournament, and it was she who +led the cotillion at the Charity ball. You would find her name in all the +important affairs, if you read the society column." + +Daniels nodded meekly. "It was a hairbreadth escape, and I'm mighty +grateful." + +There was a little silence then, but after the waiter had filled the +long-stemmed glasses and hurried away, she said slowly, her gray-blue eyes +sifting Jimmie through and through: "It looks like you've been playing +cards for money, but I never should have suspected it--of you." + +Daniels shook his head gravely. "No get-rich-quick games for me. My luck +doesn't come that way. But it cost me nearly two thousand dollars to find +it out. I've always meant to tell you about that, sometime. That two +thousand dollars was all my capital when I came to Seattle to take my +course in journalism. I expected it to see me through. But, well, it was +my first week at the University--fortunately I had paid the expenses of +the first semester in advance--when one night a couple of fellows I knew +brought me down to see the town. I didn't know much about a city then; I +had grown up over in the sage-brush country, and I never had heard of a +highball. To start with I had two, then I got interested in a game of +roulette, and the last I remember I was learning to play poker. But I must +have had more high-balls; the boys said afterwards they left me early in +the evening with a new acquaintance; they couldn't get me to go home. I +never knew how I got back to the dorm, and the next day, when I woke, the +stubs of my checkbook showed I had signed practically all of my two +thousand away." + +There was a brief silence. Out in the main room the orchestra began to +play. Miss Atkins was looking at Jimmie, and her scarlet lips were closed +like a straight cord. + +He drew his hand over his smooth, close-cut, dark hair and took a long +draught from his glass of ice-water. "I can't make you understand how I +felt about it," he went on, "but that two thousand was the price of my +father's ranch over near the Columbia. It stood for years of privation, +heart-breaking toil, and disappointment--the worst kind. Two seasons of +drouth we saw the whole wheat crop blister and go to ruin. I carried water +in buckets from the river up to that plateau day after day, just to keep +our home garden and a little patch of grass alive. And mother carried too +up that breaking slope in the desert sun. It was thinking of that made me-- +all in. She worked the same way with the stock. Something lacking in the +soil affected the feed, and some of the calves were born without hair; +their bones were soft. It baffled my father and every man along that rim +of the desert, but not mother. She said doctors prescribed lime for +rickety human babies, and she made limewater and mixed it with the feed. +It was just the thing. She was a small woman, but plucky from start to +finish. And we, Dad and I, didn't know what it was costing her--till she +was gone." + +There was another silence. In the orchestra, out beyond the palms and +screens of the Venetian room, the first violin was playing the +_Humoresque_. The girl leaned forward slightly, watching Jimmie's face. +Her lips were parted, and an unexpected sympathy softened her eyes. + +"She had been a school teacher back in Iowa," he resumed, "and long winter +evenings and Sundays when she could, she always had her books out. Up to +the year I was twenty, she taught me all I knew. She tried her best to +make a man of me, and I can see now how she turned my mind to journalism. +She said some day there was going to be an opening for a newspaper right +there in the Columbia desert. Where a great river received the waters of +another big stream, there was bound to be a city. She saw farther than we +did. The High Line canal was only a pipe dream then, but she believed it +would come true. When she died, we hadn't the heart to stay on with the +ranch, so Dad gave it to me, to sell for what I could get, and went back +to Iowa. He said he had promised her he would give me a chance at the +State University, and that was the best he could do. And, well, you see I +had to come to the U. of W. to stay, and I was used to work. I did all +sorts of stunts out of hours and managed to pull through the second +semester. Then I hiked over the mountains to the Wenatchee valley and +earned enough that summer vacation to tide me over the next year. I had a +friend there in the sage-brush country, a station agent named Bailey, who +had blown a thousand dollars into a tract of desert land he hadn't seen +off the map. He was the kind of fellow to call himself all kinds of a +fool, then go ahead and make that ground pay his money back. He saw a way +to bring it under irrigation and had it cleared and set to apples. But, +while he was waiting for the trees to grow, he put in fillers of alfalfa +and strawberries. He was operating for the new Milwaukee railroad then, +and hired me to harvest his crops. They paid my wages and the two Japs I +had to help, with a snug profit. And his trees were doing fine; thrifty, +every one in the twenty acres. Last year they began to bear, only a few +apples to a tree, but for flavor and size fit for Eden. This year he is +giving up his position with the Milwaukee; his orchards are going to make +him rich. And he wrote me the other day that the old ranch I threw away is +coming under the new High Line ditch. The company that bought it has +platted it into fruit tracts. Think-of that! Trees growing all over that +piece of desert. Water running to waste, where mother and I carried it in +buckets through the sand, in the sweltering heat, up that miserable +slope." + +The Society Editor drew a full breath and settled back in her chair. Her +glance fell to her glass, and she laid her fingers on the thin stem. +Jimmie refreshed himself again with the ice-water. "I didn't mean to go +into the story so deep," he said, "but you are a good listener." + +"It was worth listening to," she answered earnestly. "I've always wondered +about your mother; I knew she must have been nice. But you must simply +hate the sight of cards now. I am sorry I said what I did. And I don't +care how it happened, here is to that 'Little Streak of Luck.' May it lead +to the great pay-streak." + +She reached her glass out for Jimmie to touch with his, then raised it to +her lips. Daniels drank and held his glass off to examine the remaining +liquor, like a connoisseur. "I play cards a little sometimes," he +confessed; "on boats and places where I have to kill time. But," and he +brightened, "it was this way about that streak of luck. I was detailed to +write up the new Yacht Club quarters at West Seattle, with illustrations +to show the finer boats at the anchorage and, while I was on the landing +making an exposure of the Morganstein yacht, a tender put off with a +message for me to come aboard. Mr. Morganstein had seen me from the deck, +where he was nursing his injured leg. He was lonesome, I suppose. There +was no one else in sight, though as I stepped over the side, I heard a +victrola playing down below. 'How are you?' he said. 'Have a seat.' Then +he scowled down the companionway and called: 'Elizabeth, stop that +infernal machine, will you?' + +"The music was turned off, and pretty soon Miss Morganstein came up the +stairs. She was stunning, in a white sailor suit with red fixings, eyes +black as midnight; piles of raven hair. But as soon as he had introduced +us, and she had settled his pillows to suit him--he was lying in one of +those invalid chairs--he sent her off to mix a julep or something. Then he +said he presumed we were going to have a fine cut of the _Aquila_ in the +Sunday paper, if I was the reporter who made that exposure at the time of +the accident to his car. I told him yes, I was Daniels, representing the +_Press_, and had the good fortune to be in Snoqualmie Pass that day. 'I +was sure of it,' he said. 'Watched you over there with these binoculars.' +He put the glasses down on a table and opened a drawer and took out his +fountain-pen and checkbook. 'That write-up was so good,' he said, handing +me the blank he had filled, 'I want to make you a little present. But you +are the first _Press_ reporter I ever gave anything to, and I want this +kept quiet.' + +"I thanked him, but when I looked at that check I woke up. It was for a +cool hundred dollars. I tried to make him take it back; I told him my +paper was paying me; besides, I couldn't accept all the credit; that you +had fixed up the story and put the names right, and the first cut was +yours. 'Never mind,' he said, 'I have something else for your society miss +to do. I am going to have her describe my new country place, when it's all +in shape. Takes a woman to get hold of the scenery and color schemes.' +Then he insisted I had earned the extra money. Not one man in a hundred +would have been quick enough to make that exposure, and the picture was +certainly fine of the whole group. In fact, he wanted that film of the car +swinging into the embankment. He wanted to have an enlargement made." + +"I see," said Miss Atkins slowly, "I see." She paused, scooping the crest +from her pineapple ice, then added: "Now we are getting to the core." + +"I told him it belonged to the paper, but I thought I would be able to get +it for him," Jimmie resumed. "And he asked me to bring it down to Pier +Number Three just before four this afternoon. The _Aquila_ was starting +for a little cruise around Bainbridge Island to his country place, and if +I wanted to work in something about her equipment and speed, I might sail +as far as the Navy Yard, where they would make a short stop. Then he +mentioned that Hollis Tisdale might be aboard, and possibly I would be +able to pick up a little information on the coal question. These +Government people were 'non-committal,' he said, but there was a snug +corner behind the awnings aft, where in any case I could work up my Yacht +Club copy." + +"So," remarked the Society Editor slowly, "it's a double core." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +ON BOARD THE AQUILA + + +Tisdale's rooms were very warm that afternoon. It was another of those +rare, breezeless days, an aftermath of August rather than the advent of +Indian summer, and the sun streamed in at the western windows. His injured +hand, his whole feverish body, protested against the heat. The peroxide +which he had applied to the hurt at Wenatchee had brought little relief, +and that morning the increased pain and swelling had forced him to consult +a surgeon, who had probed the wound, cut a little, bandaged it, and +announced curtly that it looked like infection. + +"But I can't afford to nurse this hand"--Hollis rose from the couch where +he had thrown himself when he came in from the doctor's office--"I ought +to be using it now." He went over and drew the blinds, but the atmosphere +seemed more stifling. He needed air, plenty of it, clean and fresh in +God's out-of-doors; it was being penned in these close rooms that raised +his temperature. He pulled the shades up again and took a turn across the +floor. Then he noticed the crumpled note which, aimed left-handedly, had +missed the waste basket earlier, when he opened his mail, and he went over +and picked it up. He stood smoothing it on his desk. A perfume, spicy yet +suggestive of roses, pervaded the sheet, which was written in a round, +firm, masculine hand, under the gilt monogram, M.F. His glance ran through +the lines: + +"I am writing for my brother, Frederic Morganstein, who is recuperating +aboard his yacht, to ask you to join us on a little cruise around +Bainbridge Island this afternoon at four o'clock. Ever since his interests +have been identified with Alaska, he has hoped to know you personally, and +he wishes particularly to meet you now, to thank you for your services in +Snoqualmie Pass. In the general confusion after the accident I am afraid +none of us remembered to. + +"We expect to touch at the Navy Yard and again at Frederic's new villa to +see how the work is coming on, but the trip should not take longer than +four hours, and we are dining informally on board. + +"Do not trouble to answer. If the salt air is a strong enough lure this +warm day, you will find the _Aquila_ at Pier Three. + +"Very truly yours, + +"MARCIA FEVERSHAM. + +"Tuesday, September seventh." + +"That floating palace ought to stir up some breeze." Tisdale crumpled the +invitation again and dropped it deliberately in the waste basket. "And +to-morrow I shall be shut up on my eastbound train." He looked at his +watch; there was still half an hour to spare before the time of sailing. +"After all, why not?" + +A little later, when he had hurried into white flannels as expeditiously +as possible with his disabled hand, the suggestion crept to his inner +consciousness that he might find Mrs. Weatherbee aboard the _Aquila_. +"Well, why not?" he asked himself again. "Why not?" and picked up his hat. + +So he came to Pier Number Three and, looking down the gangway as he +crossed, saw her standing in the little group awaiting him on the after +deck. Morganstein spoke to him and introduced him to the ladies. He did +not avoid her look and, under his appraising eyes, he saw the color begin +to play in her face. Then her glance fell to his bandaged hand, and an +inquiry rushed to her lips. But she checked the words in time and drew +slowly aloof to a seat near the rail. + +Tisdale took a place near the reclining chair of his host. When she +ventured to give him a swift side-glance, his mouth set austerely. But the +space between them became electrical. It was as though wireless messages +passed continually between them. + +"Look back. See how often I tried to tell you! My courage failed. Believe +in me. I am not the monster you thought." + +And always the one response: "The facts are all against you." + +Duwamish Head had dropped from sight; Magnolia Bluff fell far astern, and +the _Aquila_ steamed out into the long, broad reach of Puget Sound; but +though the tide had turned, there was still no wind. The late sun touched +the glassy swells with the changing effect of a prism. The prow of the +craft shattered this mirror, and her wake stretched in a ragged and +widening crack. But under the awnings Frederic Morganstein's guests found +it delightfully cool. Only Jimmie Daniels, huddled on a stool in the +glare, outside the lowered curtain that cut him off from the breeze +created by the motion of the yacht, felt uncomfortably warm. + +The representative of the _Press_ had arrived on board in time to see +Tisdale come down the pier and had discreetly availed himself of the +secluded place that the financier had previously put to his disposal. He +had heard it told at the newspaper office that Tisdale, whose golden +statements were to furnish his little scoop, Hollis Tisdale of Alaska and +the Geographical Survey, who knew more about the coal situation than any +other man, was also the most silent, baffling sphinx on record when it +came to an interview. + +At the moment the _Aquila_ came into the open, the Japanese boy placed a +bowl of punch, with, pleasant clinking of ice, on the wicker table before +Mrs. Feversham, who began to serve it. Like Elizabeth's, the emblems on +her nautical white costume were embroidered in scarlet, and a red silk +handkerchief was knotted loosely on her full, boyish chest. She was not +less striking, and indeed she believed this meeting on the deck of the +yacht, where formalities were quickly abridged, would appeal to the +out-of-doors man and pave the way to a closer acquaintance in Washington. +But Tisdale's glance involuntarily moved beyond to the woman seated by the +rail. Her head was turned so that he caught the finely chiseled profile, +the outward sweep of black lashes, the adorable curve of the oval chin to +meet the throat. She too wore the conventional sailor suit, but without +color, and this effect of purity, the inscrutable delicacy of her, seemed +to set her apart from these dark, materialistic sisters as though she had +strayed like a lost vestal into the wrong atmosphere. His brows relaxed. +For a moment the censor that had come to hold dominion in his heart was +off guard. He felt the magnetism of her personality drawing him once more; +he desired to cross the deck to her, drop a word into those deep places he +had discovered, and see her emotions stir and overflow. Then suddenly the +enthusiasm, for which during that drive through the mountains he had +learned to watch, broke in her face. "Look!" she exclaimed softly. "See +Rainier!" + +Every one responded, but Tisdale started from his chair, and went over and +stood beside her. There, southward, through golden haze, with the dark and +wooded bluffs of Vashon Island flanking the deep foreground of opal sea, +the dome lifted like a phantom peak. "It doesn't seem to belong to our +world," she said, and her voice held its soft minor note, "but a vision of +some higher, better country." + +She turned to give him her rare, grave look, and instantly his eyes +telegraphed appreciation. Then he remembered. The swift revulsion came +over him. He swung on his heel to go back to his chair, and the unexpected +movement brought him in conjunction with the punch tray. The boy righted +it dexterously, and she took the offered glass and settled again in her +seat. But from his place across the deck, Tisdale noticed a drop had +fallen, spreading, above the hem of her white skirt. The red stain held +his austere gaze. It became a symbol of blood; on the garment of the +vestal the defilement of sacrifice. + +She was responsible for Weatherbee's death. He must not forget that. And +he saw through her. Now he saw. Had she not known at the beginning he was +an out-of-doors man? That he lived his best in the high spaces close to +Nature's heart? And so determined to win him in this way? She had meant to +win him. Even yet, she could not trust alone to his desire to see David's +project through, but threw in the charm of her own personality to swing +the balance. Oh, she understood him. At the start she had read him, +measured him, sounded him through. That supreme moment, at the crisis of +the storm, had she not lent herself to the situation, counting the price? +At this thought, the heat surged to his face. He wished in that instant to +punish her, break her, but deeper than his anger with her burned a fury +against himself. That he should have allowed her to use him, make a fool +of him. He who had blamed Weatherbee, censured Foster, for less. + +Then Marcia Feversham took advantage of the silence and, at her first +statement, Jimmie Daniels sat erect; he forgot his thirst, the discomfort +of his position, and opened his notebook on his knee. "I understand your +work this season was in the Matanuska coal region, Mr. Tisdale; you must +be able to guess a little nearer than the rest of us as to the outcome of +the Naval tests. Is it the Copper River Northwestern or the Prince William +Development Company that is to have the open door?" + +Tisdale's glance moved from the opal sea to the lady's face; the genial +lines crinkled faintly at the corners of his eyes. "I believe the Bering +and Matanuska coal will prove equally good for steaming purposes," he +replied. + +Frederic Morganstein grasped the arms of his chair and moved a little, +risking a twinge of pain, to look squarely at Tisdale. "You mean the +Government may conserve both?" His voice was habitually thick and +deliberate, as though the words had difficulty to escape his heavy lips. +"That, sir, would lock the shackles on every resource in Alaska. Guess +you've seen how construction and development are forced to a standstill, +pending the coal decision. Guess you know our few finished miles of +railroad, built at immense expense and burdened with an outrageous tax, +are operating under imported coal. Placed an order with Japan in the +spring for three thousand tons." + +"Think of it!" exclaimed Marcia. "Coal from the Orient, the lowest grade, +when we should be exporting the best. Think of the handicap, the injustice +put upon those pioneer Alaskans who fought tremendous obstacles to open +the interior; who paved the way for civilization." + +Tisdale's face clouded. "I am thinking of those pioneers, madam, and I +believe the Government is going to. Present laws can be easily amended and +enforced to fit nearly every situation until better ones are framed. The +settler and prospector should have privileges, but at the same time the +Government must put some restriction on speculation and monopoly." + +Behind the awning Jimmie's pencil was racing down the page, and +Morganstein dropped his head back on the pillow; a purplish flush rose in +his face. + +"The trouble is," Hollis went on evenly, "each senator has been so +over-burdened with the bills of his own State that Alaska has been +side-tracked. But I know the President's interest is waking; he wants to +see the situation intelligently; in fact, he favors a Government-built +railroad from the coast to the upper Yukon. And I believe as soon as a +selection is made for naval use, some of those old disputed coal claims-- +some, not all--will be allowed. Or else--Congress must pass a bill to +lease Alaska coal lands." + +"Lease Alaska coal lands?" Frederic started up again so recklessly he was +forced to sink back with a groan. "Do you mean we won't be allowed to mine +any coal in Alaska, in that case, except by lease?" And he added, turning +his cheek to the pillow, "Oh, damn!" + +Tisdale seemed not to have heard the question. His glance moved slowly +again over the opal sea and rested on the shining ramparts of the +Olympics, off the port bow. "Constance!" he exclaimed mellowly. "The +Brothers! Eleanor!" Then he said whimsically: "Thank God they can't set +steam-shovels to work there and level those peaks and fill the canyons. Do +you know?"--his look returned briefly and the genial lines deepened-- +"those mountains were my playground when I was a boy. My last hunting +trip, the year I finished college, came to an untimely end up there in the +gorge of the Dosewallups. You see it? That shaded contour cross-cutting +the front of Constance." + +Elizabeth, who had opened her workbag, looked up with sudden interest. +"Was there an accident?" she asked. "Something desperate and thrilling?" + +"It seemed so to me," he said. + +Then Mrs. Weatherbee rose and came over to the port rail. "I see," she +said, and shaded her eyes with her hand. "You mean where that gold mist +rises between that snow slope and the blue rim of that lower, nearer +mountain. And you had camped in that gorge"--her hand dropped; she turned +to him expectantly--"with friends, on a hunting trip?" + +He paused a moment then answered slowly: "Yes, madam, with one of them. +Sandy, our old camp cook, made a third in the party." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE STORY OF THE TENAS PAPOOSE + + +Tisdale paused another moment, while his far-seeing gaze sifted the +shadows of Constance, then began: "We had made camp that afternoon, at the +point where Rocky Brook tumbles over the last boulders to join the swift +current of the Dosewallups. I am something of an angler, and Sandy knew +how to treat a Dolly Varden to divide honors with a rainbow; so while the +others were pitching the tents, it fell to me to push up stream with my +rod and flies. The banks rose in sharp pitches under low boughs of fir, +hemlock, or cedar, but I managed to keep well to the bed of the stream, +working from boulder to boulder and stopping to make a cast wherever a +riffle looked promising. Finally, to avoid an unusually deep pool, I +detoured around through the trees. It was very still in there; not even +the cry of a jay or the drum of a woodpecker to break the silence, until +suddenly I heard voices. Then, in a tangle of young alder, I picked up a +trail and came soon on a group of squaws picking wild blackberries. They +made a great picture with their beautifully woven, gently flaring, +water-tight baskets, stained like pottery; their bright shawls wrapped +scarfwise around their waists out of the way; heads bound in gay +handkerchiefs. It was a long distance from any settlement, and they +stood watching me curiously while I wedged myself between twin cedars, on +over a big fallen fir, out of sight. + +"A little later I found myself in a small pocket hemmed by cliffs of +nearly two hundred feet, over which the brook plunged in a fine cataract. +Above, where it cut the precipice, a hanging spur of rock took the shape +of a tiger's profile, and a depression colored by mineral deposit formed a +big red eye; midway the stream struck shelving rock, breaking into a score +of cascades that spread out fan-shape and poured into a deep, green, +stone-lined pool; stirring, splashing, rippling ceaselessly, but so limpid +I could see the trout. It was a place that held me. When at last I put +away my flies and started down the bank, I knew dinner must be waiting for +me, but I had a string of beauties to pacify Sandy. As I hurried down to +the fallen tree, I heard the squaws calling to each other at a different +point out of sight up the ridge; then I found a step in the rough bole +and, setting my hands on the top, vaulted over. The next instant I would +have given anything, the best years of my life, to undo that leap. There, +where my foot had struck, left with some filled baskets in the lee of the +log, lay a small papoose." + +Tisdale's voice vibrated softly and stopped, while his glance moved from +face to face. He held the rapt attention of every one, and in the pause +the water along the keel played a minor interlude. Behind the awning a +different sound broke faintly. It was like the rustle of paper; a turned +page. + +"The baby was bound to the usual-shaped board," Hollis went on, "with a +woven pocket for the feet and a broad carrying-strap to fit the head of +the mother. I sat down and lifted the little fellow to my knees. I wore +heavy shoes, studded with nails for mountain climbing, and the mark of my +heel was stamped, cruelly, on the small brown cheek; the rim had crushed +the temple." + +Tisdale halted again, and in the silence Elizabeth sighed. Then, "I'll bet +you didn't waste any time in that place," exclaimed Morganstein. + +"The eyes were closed," resumed Tisdale gently. "I saw the blow had taken +him in his sleep, but the wantonness, the misery of it, turned me cold. +Then, you are right, I was seized with a panic to get away. I laid the +papoose back in the place where I had found him and left my string of +fish, a poor tribute, with what money I had about me, and hurried down +into the bed of the brook. + +"The squaws were several days' travel from the reservation, but I +remembered we had passed a small encampment a few miles down the river and +another near the mouth of the Dosewallups, where a couple of Indians were +fishing from canoes. I knew they would patrol the stream as soon as the +alarm was given, and my only chance was to make a wide detour, avoiding my +camp where they would first look for me, swim the river, and push through +the forest, around that steep, pyramid peak to the next canyon. You see +it?--The Duckabush cuts through there to tide water. I left no trail in +crossing the stony bed of the brook, and took advantage of a low basalt +bluff in climbing the farther bank. It was while I was working my way over +the rock into cover of the trees that the pleasant calling on the ridge +behind me changed to the first terrible cry. The mother had found her dead +baby. + +"Twilight was on me when I stopped at last on the river bank to take off +my shoes. I rolled them with my coat in a snug pack, which I secured with +a length of fish-line to my shoulders before I plunged in. The current was +swift; I lost headway, and a whirlpool caught me; I was swept under, came +up grazing a ragged rock, dipped again through a riffle, and when I +finally gathered myself and won out to the opposite shore, there was my +camp in full view below me. I was winded, bruised, shivering, and while I +lay resting I watched Sandy. He stirred the fire under his kettle, put a +fresh lag on, then walked to the mouth of the brook and stood looking up +stream, wondering, no doubt, what was keeping me. Then a long cry came up +the gorge. It was lost in the rush of the rapids and rose again in a +wailing dirge. The young squaw was mourning for her papoose. It struck me +colder than the waters of the Dosewallups. Sandy turned to listen. I knew +I had only to call, show myself, and the boys would be ready to fight for +me every step of the trail down to the settlement; but there was no need +to drag them in; I hoped they would waste no time in going out, and I +found my pocket compass, set a course, and pushed into the undergrowth. + +"That night journey was long-drawn torture. The moon rose, but its light +barely penetrated the fir boughs. My coat and shoes were gone, torn from +me in the rapids, and I walked blindly into snares of broken and pronged +branches, trod tangles of blackberry, and more than once my foot was +pierced by the barbs of a devil's-club. Dawn found me stumbling into a +small clearing. I was dull with weariness, but I saw a cabin with smoke +rising from the chimney, and the possibility of a breakfast heartened me. +As I hurried to the door, it opened, and a woman with a milking pail came +out. At sight of me she stopped, her face went white, and, dropping the +bucket, she moved backward into the room. The next moment she brought a +rifle from behind the door. 'If you come one step nearer,' she cried, +'I'll shoot.'" + +Tisdale paused, and the humor broke gently in his face. "I saw she was +quite capable of it," he went on, "and I stopped. It was the first time I +had seemed formidable to a woman, and I raised my hand to my head--my hat +was gone--to smooth my ruffled hair; then my glance fell from my shirt +sleeves, soiled and in tatters, down over my torn trousers to my shoeless +feet; my socks were in rags. 'I am sorry,' I began, but she refused to +listen. 'Don't you say a word,' she warned and had the rifle to her +shoulder, looking along the sight. 'If you do, I'll shoot, and I'm a +pretty good shot.' + +"'I haven't a doubt of that,' I answered, taking the word, 'and even if +you were not, you could hardly miss at that range.' + +"Her color came back, and she stopped sighting to look me over. 'Now,' she +said, 'you take that road down the Duckabush, and don't you stop short of +a mile. Ain't you ashamed,' she shrilled, as I moved ignominiously into +the trail, 'going 'round scaring ladies to death?' + +"But I did not go that mile. Out of sight of the cabin I found myself in +one of those old burned sections, overgrown with maple. The trees were +very big, and the gnarled, fantastic limbs and boles were wrapped in thick +bronze moss. It covered the huge, dead trunks and logs of the destroyed +timber, carpeted the earth, and out of it grew a natural fernery." He +turned his face a little, involuntarily seeking Mrs. Weatherbee. "I wish +you could have seen that place," he said. "Imagine a great billowing sea +of infinite shades of green, fronds waving everywhere, light, beautifully +stencilled elk-fern, starting with a breadth of two feet and tapering to +lengths of four or five; sword-fern shooting stiffly erect, and whole +knolls mantled in maidenhair." + +"I know, I know!" she responded breathlessly. "It must have been +beautiful, but it was terrible if you were pursued. I have seen such a +place. Wherever one stepped, fronds bent or broke and made a plain trail. +But of course you kept to the beaten road." + +Tisdale shook his head. "That road outside the clearing was simply a +narrow, little used path; and I was so dead tired I began to look for a +place where I might take an hour's rest. I chose a big cedar snag a few +rods from the trail, the spreading kind that is always hollow, and found +the opening screened in fern and just wide enough to let me in. Almost +instantly I was asleep and--do you know?"--the humor broke again gently-- +"it was late in the afternoon when I wakened. And I was only roused then +by a light blow on my face. I started up. The thing that had struck me was +a moccasin, and its mate had dropped at my elbow. Then I saw a can of milk +with a loaf of bread placed inside my door. But there was no one in sight, +though I hurried to look, and I concluded that for some unaccountable +reason that inhospitable woman had changed her opinion of me and wanted to +make amends. I took a long draught of the milk--it was the best I ever +tasted--then picked up one of the moccasins. It was new and elaborately +beaded, the kind a woman fancies for wall decorations, and she had +probably bartered with some passing squaw for the pair. But the size +looked encouraging, and with a little ripping and cutting, I managed to +work it on. Pinned to the toe of the other, I found a note. It ran like +this: 'Two Indians are trailing you. I sent them down-stream, but they +will come back. They told me about that poor little papoose.' + +"I saw she must have followed me that morning, while searching for her +cow, or perhaps to satisfy herself I had left the clearing, and so +discovered my hiding-place. The broader track of her skirts must have +covered mine through the fern." + +Tisdale paused. The _Aquila_ had come under the lee of Bainbridge Island. +The Olympics were out of sight, as the yacht, heeling to the first tide +rip, began to turn into the Narrows, and the batteries of Fort Ward +commanded her bows; a beautiful wooded point broke the line of the +opposite shore. It rimmed a small cove. But Mrs. Weatherbee was not +interested; her attention remained fixed on Tisdale. Indeed he held the +eyes of every one. Then Marcia Feversham relieved the tension. "And the +Indians came back?" she asked. + +"Oh, yes, that was inevitable; they had to come back to pick up my trail. +But you don't know what a different man that rest and the moccasins made +of me. In five minutes I was on the road and making my best time up the +gorge, in the opposite direction. The woman was standing in her door as I +passed the cabin; she put a warning finger to her lips and waved me on. In +a little while the ground began to fall in short pitches; sometimes it +broke in steps over granite spurs where the exposed roots of fir and +hemlock twined; then I came to a place where an immense boulder, big as a +house, moving down the mountain, had left a swath through the timber, and +I heard the thunder of the Duckabush. I turned into this cut, intending to +cross the river and work down the canyon on the farther side, and as I +went I saw the torrent storming below me, a winding sheet of spray. The +boulder had stopped on a level bluff, but two sections, splitting from it, +had dropped to the bank underneath and, tilting together in an apex, +formed a small cavern through which washed a rill. It made a considerable +pool and, dividing, poured on either side of the uprooted trunk of a fir +that bridged the stream. The log was very old; it sagged mid-channel, as +though a break had started, and snagged limbs stretched a line of +pitfalls. But a few yards below the river plunged in cataract, and above I +found sheer cliffs curving in a double horseshoe. It was impossible to +swim the racing current, and I came back to the log. By that time another +twilight was on me. The forest had been very still; I hadn't noticed a +bird all day, but while I stood weighing the chances of that crossing, I +heard the harsh call of a kingfisher or jay. It seemed to come from the +slope beyond the bluff, and instantly an answer rose faintly in the +direction of the trail. I was leaning on one of the tilted slabs, and I +wormed myself around the base, to avoid leaving an impression in the wet +sand, and dipped under the trailing bough of a cedar, through the pool, +and crawled up into the cavern. There wasn't room to stand erect, and I +waited crouching, over moccasins in water. The cedar began to sway--I had +used the upper boughs to ease myself in sliding down the slab from the +bluff--a fragment of granite dropped, then an Indian came between me and +the light. + +"While he stopped to examine the sand at the edge of the pool, another +followed. He ventured a short distance out on the log and came back, while +the first set his rifle against the trunk and sank on his hands and knees +to drink. The water, roiled probably by my steps, was not to his taste, +and he rejected it with a disgusted 'Hwah!' When he rose, he stood looking +across the pool into my cavern. I held my breath, hugging the bluff behind +me like a lizard. It was so dark I doubted if even his lynx eyes could +discover me, but he lifted the gun and for an instant I believed he meant +to send a shot into the hole. Then he seemed to think better of wasting +his ammunition and led the way down-stream. They stopped on a level bank +over the cataract, and in a little while I caught the odor of smoke and +later of cooking trout. My cramped position grew intolerable, and finally +I crept out into the pool to reconnoitre. The light of their fire showed +both figures stretched on the ground. They had camped for the night. + +"It was useless to try to go down-stream; before dawn Indians would patrol +the whole canyon; neither could I double back to the Dosewallups where +they had as surely left a watch; my only course was to risk the log +crossing at once, before the moon rose, and strike southward to the +Lilliwaup, where, at the mouth of the gorge, I knew the mail steamer made +infrequent stops. I began to work up between the gnarled roots to the top +of the trunk and pushed laboriously with infinite caution out over the +channel. I felt every inch of that log, but once a dead branch snapped +short in my hand, and the noise rang sharp as a pistol shot. I waited, +flattening myself to the bole, but the thunder of the river must have +drowned the sound; the Indians did not stir. So at last I came to the +danger point. Groping for the break, I found it started underneath, +reaching well around. Caused probably by some battering bulk in the spring +floods, and widening slowly ever since, it needed only a slight shock to +bring it to a finish. I grasped a stout snag and tried to swing myself +over the place, but there came a splitting report; and there was just time +to drop astride above that stub of limb, when the log parted below it, and +I was in the river. I managed to keep my hold and my head out of water, +though the current did its best to suck me under. Then I saw that while +the main portion of the tree had been swept away, the top to which I clung +remained fixed to the bank, wedged no doubt between trunks or boulders. As +I began to draw myself up out of the wash, a resinous bough thrown on the +fire warned me the Indians were roused, and I flattened again like a +chameleon on the slippery incline. They came as far as the rill and stood +looking across, then went down-stream, no doubt to see whether the trunk +had stranded on the riffles below the cataract. But they were back before +I could finish the log, and the rising moon illuminated the gorge. I was +forced to swing to the shady side of the snag. The time dragged endlessly; +a wind piping down the watercourse cut like a hundred whips through my wet +clothes; and I think in the end I only kept my hold because my fingers +were too stiff to let go. But at last the Indians stretched themselves +once more on the ground; their fire burned low, and I wormed myself up +within reach of a friendly young hemlock, grasped a bough, and gained +shelving rock. The next moment I relaxed, all but done for, on a dry bed +of needles." + +Tisdale paused, looking again from face to face, while the humor gleamed +in his own. "I am making a long story of it," he said modestly. "You must +be tired!" + +"Tired!" exclaimed Elizabeth, "It's the very best story I ever heard. +Please go on." + +"Of course you escaped," supplemented Marcia Feversham, "but we want to +know how. And what was your chum doing all the time? And wasn't there +another woman?" + +Frederic Morganstein rumbled a short laugh. "Maybe you made the Lilliwaup, +but I'll bet ten to one you missed your steamer." + +Tisdale's eyes rested involuntarily again on Mrs. Weatherbee. She did not +say anything, but she met the look with her direct gaze; her short upper +lip parted, and the color burned softly in her cheek. "I made the +Lilliwaup," he went on, "about two miles from the mouth, between the upper +and lower falls. The river breaks in cascades there, hundreds of them as +far as one can see, divided by tremendous boulders." + +"We know the place," said Elizabeth quickly. "Our first cruise on the +_Aquila_ was to the Lilliwaup. We climbed to the upper falls and spent +hours along the cascades. Those boulders, hundreds of them, rose through +the spray, all covered with little trees and ferns. There never was +anything like it, but we called it The Fairy Isles." + +Tisdale nodded. "It was near the end of that reach I found myself. The +channels gather below, you remember, and pour down a steep declivity under +a natural causeway. But the charm and grandeur were lost on me that day. I +wanted to reach the old trail from the falls on the opposite shore, and I +knew that stone bridge fell short a span, so I began to work my way from +boulder to boulder out to the main stream. It was a wide chasm to leap, +with an upward spring to a tilted table of basalt, and I overbalanced, +slipped down, and, coasting across the surface, recovered enough on the +edge to ease myself off to a nearly submerged ledge. There I stopped." He +paused an instant, and his eyes sought Marcia Feversham's; the amusement +played lightly on his flexible lips. "I had stumbled on another woman. She +was seated on a lower boulder, sketching the stone bridge. I was behind +her, but I saw a pretty hand and forearm, some nice brown hair tucked +under a big straw hat, and a trim and young figure in a well-made gown of +blue linen. Then she said pleasantly, without turning her head: 'Well, +John, what luck?' + +"I drew back into a shallow niche of the rock. I had not forgotten the +first impression I made on the woman up the Duckabush and had no desire to +'scare ladies.' But my steamer was almost due, and I hoped John would come +soon. Getting no reply from him, she rose and glanced around. Then she +looked at her watch, put her hand to her mouth, and sent a long call up +the gorge. 'Joh-n. Joh-n, hello!' She had a carrying, singer's voice, but +it brought no answer, so after a moment she gathered up her things and +started towards the bank. I watched her disappear among the trees; then, +my fear of missing the steamer growing stronger than the dread of +terrifying her, I followed. The trail drops precipitously around the lower +falls, you remember, and I struck the level where the river bends at the +foot of the cataract, with considerable noise. I found myself in a sort of +open-air parlor flanked by two tents; rustic seats under a canopy of maple +boughs, hammocks, a percolator bubbling on a sheet-iron contrivance over +the camp-fire coals, and, looking at me across a table, the girl. 'I beg +your pardon,' I hurried to say. 'Don't be afraid of me.' + +"'Afraid?' she repeated. 'Afraid--of you?' And the way she said it, with a +half scornful, half humorous surprise, the sight of her standing there so +self-reliant, buoyant, the type of that civilization I had tried so hard +to reach, started a reaction of my overstrained nerves. Still, I think I +might have held myself together had I not at that moment caught the voice +of that unhappy squaw. It struck a chill to my bones, and I sank down on +the nearest seat and dropped my face in my hands, completely unmanned. + +"I knew she came around the table and stood looking me over, but when I +finally managed to lift my head, she had gone back to the percolator to +bring me a cup of coffee. It had a pleasant aroma, and the cream with +which she cooled it gave it a nice color. You don't know how that first +draught steadied me. 'I am sorry, madam,' I said, 'but I have had a hard +experience in these woods, and I expected to catch the mail boat for +Seattle; but that singing down-stream means I am cut off.' + +"She started a little and looked me over again with new interest. 'The +squaw,' she said, 'is mourning for her papoose. It was a terrible +accident. A young hunter up the Dosewallups, where the Indians were +berrying, killed the baby in jumping a log.' + +"'Yes, madam,' I answered, and rose and put the cup down, 'I am the man. +It is harder breaking trail to the Lilliwaup than coming by canoe, and the +Indians have beaten me. I must double back now to the Duckabush. By that +time, they will have given up the watch.' + +"'Wait,' she said, 'let me think.' But it did not take her long. A turn +the length of the table, and her face brightened. 'Why, it's the easiest +thing in the world,' she said. 'I must row you to the steamer.' Then when +I hesitated to let her run the risk, she explained that her party had +moved their camp from the mouth of the Dosewallups after these Indians +arrived there; they knew her; they had seen her rowing about, and she +always carried a good many traps; an easel, sun umbrella, cushions, a +steamer rug. I had only to lie down in the bottom of the boat, and she +would cover me. And she drew back the flap of the nearest tent and told me +to change my clothes for a brown suit she laid out, and canvas shoes. +'Come,' she urged, 'there's time enough but none to waste; and any minute +the Indians may surprise you.' + +"She was waiting with the rug and pillows and a pair of oars when I came +out, and helped me carry them to the boat which was beached a short +distance below her camp. When it was launched, and I was stowed under the +baggage, with an ample breathing hole through which I could watch the +rower, she pushed off and fell into a long, even stroke. Presently I +noticed she had nice eyes, brown and very deep, and I thought her face was +beautiful. It had the expressiveness, the swift intelligence that goes +with a strong personality, and through all her determination, I felt a +running note of caution. I knew she saw clearly while she braved the +extremity. After a while her breast began to rise and fall with the +exercise, her cheeks flushed, and I saw she had met the flood tide. All +this time the voice of the squaw grew steadily nearer. I imagined her, as +I had seen others before, kneeling on the bank, rocking herself, beating +her breast. Then it came over me that we were forced to hug the shore to +avoid one of the reedy shallows that choked the estuary and must pass very +close to her. The next moment there was a lull, and the girl looked across +her shoulder and called 'Clahowya!' At the same time she rested on her +oars long enough to take off her hat and toss it with careless directness +on my breathing hole. The squaw's answer came from above me, and she +repeated and intoned the word so that it seemed part of her dirge. +'Clahowya! Clahowya! Clahowya! Wake tenas papoose. Halo! Halo!' The +despair of it cut me worse than lashes. Then I heard other voices; a dog +barked, and I understood we were skirting the encampment. + +"After that the noise grew fainter, and in a little while the girl +uncovered my face. The channel had widened; the tang of salt came on the +wind; and when I ventured to raise my head a little, I saw the point at +the mouth of the river looming purple-black. Then, as we began to round +it, we came suddenly on a canoe, drifting broadside, with a single salmon +hunter crouching in it, ready with his spear. It flashed over me that he +was one of the two Indians who had tracked me to the Duckabush; the taller +one who had tried to drink at the rill; then he made his throw and at the +same instant the girl's hat fell again on my face. I heard her call her +pleasant 'Clahowya!' and she added, rowing on evenly: 'Hyas delate +salmon.' The next moment his answer rang astern: 'Clahowya! Clahowya! Hyas +delate salmon.' + +"At last I felt the swell of the open, and she leaned to uncover my face +once more. 'The steamer is in sight,' she said, and I raised my head again +and saw the boat, a small moving blot with a trailer of smoke, far up the +sapphire sea. Then I turned on my elbow and looked back. The canoe and the +encampment were hidden by the point; we were drifting off the wharf of the +small town-site, almost abandoned, where the steamer made her stop. There +was nothing left to do but express my gratitude, which I did clumsily +enough. + +"'You mustn't make so much of it,' she said; 'the first thing a +reservation Indian is taught is to forget the old law, a life for a life.' + +"'I know that,' I answered, 'still I couldn't have faced the best white +man that first hour, and off there in the mountains, away from reservation +influences, my chances looked small. I wish I could be as sure the men who +were with me are safe.' + +"She gave me a long, calculating look. 'They will be--soon,' she said. 'My +brother Robert should be on the steamer with the superintendent and +reservation guard.' And she dipped her oars again, pointing the boat a +little more towards the landing, and watched the steamer while I sifted +her meaning. + +"'So,' I said at last. 'So they are there at that camp. You knew it and +brought me by.' + +"'You couldn't have helped them any,' she said, 'and you can go back, if +you wish, with the guard.' Then she told me how she had visited the camp +with her brother Robert and had seen them bound with stout strips of +elk-hide. They had explained the accident and how one of them, to give me +time at the start, had put himself in my place." + +Tisdale halted a moment; a wave of emotion crossed his face. His look +rested on Mrs. Weatherbee, and his eyes drew and held hers. She leaned +forward a little; her lips parted over a hushed breath. It was as though +she braved while she feared his next words. "That possibility hadn't +occurred to me," he went on, "yet I should have foreseen it, knowing the +man as I did. We were built on the same lines, practically the same size, +and we had outfitted together for the trip. He wore high, brown shoes +spiked for mountain climbing, exactly like mine; he even matched the marks +of that heel. But Sandy wouldn't stand for it. He declared there was a +third man who had gone up Rocky Brook and had not come back. One of the +squaws who had seen me agreed with him, but they were bound and taken to +the encampment. The next morning an Indian found my coat and shoes lodged +on a gravel bar and picked up my trail. The camp moved then by canoe +around to the mouth of the Duckabush. taking the prisoners with them, and +waited for my trailers to come down. They had discovered me on the log +crossing when it fell, and believed I was drowned." + +There was another pause. Mrs. Weatherbee sighed and leaned back in her +chair; then Mrs. Feversham said: "And they refused to let your substitute +go?" + +Tisdale nodded. "He was brought with Sandy along to the Lilliwaup. The +Indians were traveling home, and no doubt the reservation influence had +restrained them; still, they were staying a second night on the Lilliwaup, +and when Robert spoke to them they were sullen and ugly. That was why he +had hurried away to bring the superintendent down. He had started in his +Peterboro but expected to find a man on the way who would take him on in +his motor-boat. Once during the night John had drifted close to the camp +to listen, but things were quiet, and they had bridged the morning with a +little fishing and sketching up-stream. + +"'Suppose,' I said at last, 'suppose you had been afraid of me. I should +be doubling back to the Duckabush now. As it is, I wouldn't give much for +their opinion of me.' + +"'I wish you could have heard that man Sandy,' she said, and--did I tell +you she had a very nice smile? 'He called you true gold.' And while she +went on to repeat the rest he had told her, it struck me pleasantly I was +listening to my own obituary. But the steamer was drawing close. She +whistled the landing, and the girl dipped her oars again, pulling her +long, even strokes. I threw off the rug and sat erect, ready to ease the +boat off as we came alongside. And there on the lower deck watching us +stood a young fellow whom, from his resemblance to her, I knew as brother +Robert, with the superintendent from the reservation, backed by the whole +patrol. Then my old friend Doctor Wise, the new coroner at Hoodsport, came +edging through the crowd to take my hand. 'Well, well, Tisdale, old man,' +he said, 'this is good. Do you know they had you drowned--or worse?'" + +Tisdale settled back in his chair and, turning his face, looked off the +port bow. The Narrows had dropped behind, and for a moment the deck of the +_Aquila_ slanted to the tide rip off Port Orchard; then she righted and +raced lightly across the broad channel. Ahead, off Bremerton Navy Yard, +some anchored cruisers rose in black silhouette against a brilliant sea. + +"And," said Marcia Feversham, "of course you went to the camp in a body +and released the prisoners." + +"Yes, we used the mail steamer's boats, and she waited for us until the +inquest was over, then brought us on to Seattle. The motor-boat took the +doctor and superintendent home." + +"And the girl," said Elizabeth after a moment, "did you never see her +again?" + +"Oh, yes." The genial lines deepened, and Hollis rose from his chair. +"Often. I always look them up when I am in Seattle." + +"But who was John?" + +"John? Why, he was her husband." + +The Olympics had reappeared; the sun dropped behind a cloud over a high +crest; shafts of light silvered the gorges; the peaks caught an amethyst +glow. Tisdale, tracing once more that far canyon across the front of +Constance, walked slowly forward into the bows. + +The yacht touched the Bremerton dock to take on the lieutenant who was +expected aboard, and at the same time Jimmie Daniels swung lightly over +the side aft. The Seattle steamer whistled from her slip on the farther +side of the wharf, and he hurried to the gang-plank. There he sent a +glance behind and saw Tisdale still standing with his back squared to the +landing, looking off over the harbor. And the _Press_ representative +smiled. He had gathered little information in regard to the coal question, +but in that notebook, buttoned snugly away in his coat, he had set down +the papoose story, word for word. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE ALTERNATIVE + + +Tisdale did not follow the lieutenant aft. When the _Aquila_ turned into +Port Orchard, he still remained looking off her bows. The sun had set, a +soft breeze was in his face, and the Sound was no longer a mirror; it +fluted, broke in racy waves; the cutwater struck from them an intricate +melody. Northward a few thin streamers of cloud warmed like painted +flames, and their reflection changed the sea to running fire. Then he was +conscious that some one approached behind him; she stopped at his elbow to +watch the brilliant scene. And instantly the spirit of combat in him +stirred; his muscles tightened like those of a man on guard. + +After a moment she commenced to sing very softly, in unison with the music +of the waves along the keel, + +"How dear to me the hour when daylight dies." + +Even subdued, her voice was beautiful. It began surely, insistently, to +undermine all that stout breastwork he had reared against her these +twenty-four hours. But he thrust his hands in his pockets and turned to +her with that upward look of probing, upbraiding eyes. + +The song died. A flush rose over her face, but she met the look bravely. +"I came to explain," she said. "I thought at the beginning, when we +started on that drive through the mountains, you knew my identity. +Afterwards I tried repeatedly to tell you, but when I saw how bitterly +you--hated--me, my courage failed." + +Her lip trembled over a sighing breath, and she looked, away up the +brilliant sea. Tisdale could not doubt her. His mind raced back to +incident on incident of that journey; in flashes it was all made clear to +him. Even during that supreme hour of the electrical storm had she not +tried to undeceive him? He forgave her her transgressions against him; he +forgave her so completely that, at the recollection of the one moment in +the basin, his pulses sang. Then, inside his pockets, his hands clenched, +and he scourged himself for the lapse. + +"I was in desperate need," she went on quickly. "There was a debt--a debt +of honor--I wished to pay. And Mr. Foster told me you were interested in +that desert land; that you were going to look it over. He caught me by +long distance telephone the night he sailed for Alaska, to let me know. +Oh, it all sounds sordid, but if you have ever come to the ragged edge of +things--" + +She stopped, with a little outward, deprecating movement of her hands, and +turned again to meet Tisdale's look. But he was still silent. "I believed +when you knew me," she went on, "you would see I am not the kind of woman +you imagined; I even hoped, for David's sake, you would forgive me. But I +did not know there was such friendship as yours in the world. I thought +only mothers loved so,--the great ones, the Hagars, the Marys. It is more +than that; it is the best and deepest of every kind of love in one. I +can't fathom it--unless--men sometimes are born with twin souls." + +It was not the influence of her personality now; it was not any magnetism. +Something far down in the depths of him responded to that something in +her. It was as though he felt the white soul of her rising transcendent +over her body. It spoke in her pose, her eloquent face, and it filled the +brief silence with an insistent, almost vibrant appeal. + +"They are," he answered, and the emotion in his own face played softly +through his voice, "I am sure that they are. Weatherbee had other friends, +plenty of them, scattered from the Yukon territory to Nome; men who would +have been glad to go out of their way to serve him, if they had known; but +he never asked anything of them; he saved the right to call on me. Neither +of us ever came as near that 'ragged edge of things' as he did, toppled on +it as he did, for so long. There never was a braver fight, against greater +odds, single-handed, yet I failed him." He paused while his eyes again +sought that high gorge of the Olympic Mountains, then added: "The most I +can do now is to see that his work is carried on." + +"You mean," she said not quite steadily, "you are going to buy that land?" + +"I mean"--he frowned a little--"I am going to renew my offer to finance +the project for you. You owe it to David Weatherbee even more than I do. +Go back to that pocket; set his desert blossoming. It's your only +salvation." + +She groped for the bulwark behind her and moved back to its support. "I +could not. I could not. I should go mad in that terrible place." + +"Listen, madam." He said this very gently, but his voice carried its +vibrant undernote as though down beneath the surface a waiting reserve +force stirred. "I did not tell all about that orchard of spruce twigs. It +was planted along a bench, the miniature of the one we climbed in the +Wenatchee Mountains, that was crossed with tiny, frozen, irrigating canals +leading from a basin; and midway stood a house. You must have known that +trick he had of carving small things with his pocket-knife. Then imagine +that delicately modeled house of snow. It was the nucleus of the whole, +and before the door, fine as a cameo and holding a bundle in her arms, was +set the image of a woman." + +There was a silent moment. She waited, leaning a little forward, watching +Tisdale's face, while a sort of incredulous surprise rose through the +despair in her eyes. "There were women at Fairbanks and Seward after the +first year," he went on. "Bright, refined women who would have counted it +a privilege to share things, his hardest luck, with David Weatherbee. But +the best of them in his eyes was nothing more than a shadow. There was +just one woman in the world for him. That image stood for you. The whole +project revolved around you. It would be incomplete now without you." + +She shrank closer against the bulwark, glancing about her with the swift +look of a creature trapped, then for a moment dropped her face in her +hands. When she tried to say something, the words would not come. Her +lips, her whole face quivered, but she could only shake her head in +protest again and again. + +Tisdale waited, watching her with his upward look from under contracted +brows. "What else can you do?" he asked at last. "Your tract is too small +to be handled by a syndicate, and now that the levels of the Columbia +desert are to be brought under a big irrigation project, which means a +nominal expense to the grower, your high pocket, unimproved, will hardly +attract the single buyer. Will you, then, plat it in five-acre tracts for +the Seattle market and invite the--interest of your friends?" + +She drew erect; the danger signals flamed briefly in her eyes. "My friends +can be dis-interested, Mr. Tisdale. It has only been through them, for a +long time, I have been able to keep my hold." + +"There's where you made your mistake at the start; in gaining that hold. +When you conformed to their standards, your own were overthrown." + +"That is not true." She did not raise her voice any; it dropped rather to +a minor note? but a tremor ran over her body, and her face for an instant +betrayed how deep the shaft had struck. "And, always, when I have accepted +a favor, I have given full measure in exchange. But there is an +alternative you seem to have overlooked." + +"I understand," he said slowly, and his color rose. "You may marry again." +Then he asked, without protest: "Is it Foster?" + +On occasion, during that long drive through the mountains, he had felt the +varying height and thickness of an invisible barrier, but never, until +that moment, its chill. Then Marcia Feversham called her, and she turned +to go down the deck. "I'm coming!" she answered and stopped to look back. +"You need not trouble about Mr. Foster," she said. "He--is safe." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +"ALL THESE THINGS WILL I GIVE THEE" + + +Frederic had suggested a rubber at auction bridge. + +Elizabeth fixed another pillow under his shoulders and moved the card +table to his satisfaction, then took a chair near the players and unfolded +her crochet, while Tisdale, whose injured hand excluded him from the game, +seated himself beside her. He asked whimsically if she was manufacturing a +cloud like the one in the west where the sun had set; but she lacked her +sister's ready repartee, and, arresting her needle long enough to glance +at him and back to the woolly, peach-pink pile in her lap, answered +seriously: "It's going to be a hug-me-tight." + +The lieutenant laughed. "Sounds interesting, does it not?" he said, +shuffling the cards. "But calm yourself, sir; a hug-me-tight is merely a +kind of sweater built on the lines of a vest." + +He dealt, and Mrs. Feversham bid a lily. From his position Tisdale was +able to watch Mrs. Weatherbee's face and her cards. She held herself erect +in a subdued excitement as the game progressed; the pink flush deepened +and went and came in her cheek; the blue lights danced in her eyes. +Repeatedly she flashed intelligence to her partner across the board. And +the lieutenant began to wait in critical moments for the glance. They won +the first hand. Then it became apparent that he and Morganstein were +betting on the side, and Marcia remonstrated. "It isn't that we are +scrupulous alone," she said, "but we lose inspiration playing second +fiddle." + +"Come in then," suggested Frederic and explained to the lieutenant: "She +can put up a hundred dollars and lose 'em like a soldier." + +"The money stayed in the family," she said quickly. "Beatriz, it is your +bid." + +Mrs. Weatherbee was calculating the possibilities of her hand. Her suit +was diamonds; seven in sequence from the jack. She held also the three +highest in clubs and the other black king. She was weak in hearts. "I bid +two diamonds," she said slowly, "and, Marcia, it's my ruby against your +check for three hundred dollars." + +There was a flutter of surprise. "No," remonstrated Elizabeth sharply. +"No, Marcia can buy the ring for what it is worth." + +"Then I should lose the chance to keep it. Three hundred will be enough to +lose." And she added, less confidently: "But if you should win, Marcia, it +is understood you will not let the ring go out of your hands." + +"I bear witness," cried the lieutenant gallantly, "and we are proud to +play second when a Studevaris leads." + +But Morganstein stared at her in open admiration. "You thoroughbred!" he +said. + +"It shall stay in the family," confirmed Marcia. + +Then Frederic bid two lilies, the lieutenant passed and Mrs. Feversham +raised to three hearts. She wavered, and Tisdale saw the cards tremble in +her hand. "Four diamonds," she said at last. The men passed, and Marcia +doubled. Then Morganstein led a lily, and the lieutenant spread his hand +on the table. There were six clubs; in diamonds a single trey. + +But Mrs. Weatherbee was radiant. She moved a little and glanced back at +Elizabeth, inviting her to look at her hand. She might as well have said: +"You see, I have only to lead out trumps and establish clubs." + +Marcia played a diamond on her partner's second lead of spades, and led +the ace of hearts, following with the king; the fourth round Frederic +trumped over Mrs. Weatherbee and led another lily. Mrs. Feversham used her +second diamond and, returning with a heart, saw her partner trump again +over Mrs. Weatherbee. It was miserable. They gathered in the book before +the lead fell to her. The next deal the cards deserted her, and after that +the lieutenant blundered. But even though the ruby was inevitably lost, +she finished the rubber pluckily; the flush deepened in her cheek; the +blue fires flamed in her eyes. "You thoroughbred!" Morganstein repeated +thickly. "You thoroughbred!" + +To Tisdale it was unendurable. He rose and crossed to the farther side of +the desk. The _Aquila_, rounding the northern end of Bainbridge Island, +had come into Agate Pass; the tide ran swift in rips and eddies between +close wooded shores, but these things no longer caught his attention. The +scene he saw was the one he had put behind him, and in the calcium light +of his mind, one figure stood out clearly from the rest. Had he not known +this woman was a spendthrift? Had he not suspected she inherited this vice +from her father, that old gambler of the stock exchange. Was it not for +this reason he had determined to hold that last half interest in the +Aurora mine? Still, still, she had not shown the skill of long practice; +she had not played with ordinary caution. And had not Elizabeth +remonstrated, as though her loss was inevitable? Every one had been +undeniably surprised. Why, then, had she done this? She had told him she +was in "desperate need." Could this have been the alternative to which she +had referred? + +The _Aquila's_ whistle blew, and she came around, close under a bluff, +into a small cove, on the rim of which rose the new villa. The group +behind Tisdale began to push back chairs. He turned. The game was over, +and Mrs. Feversham stood moving her hand slowly to catch the changing +lights of the ring on her finger. Then she looked at the loser. "It seems +like robbery," she exclaimed, "to take this old family talisman from you, +Beatriz. I shall make out a check to ease my conscience." + +"Oh, no." She lifted her head bravely like his Alaska flower in the bitter +wind. "I shall not accept it. My grandfather believed in the ruby +devoutly," she went on evenly. "It was his birthstone. And since it is +yours too, Marcia, it should bring you better fortune than it has brought +me. But see! The villa roof is finished and stained moss-green as it +should be, against that background of firs. And isn't the big veranda +delightful, with those Venetian blinds?" + +The yacht nosed alongside the little stone quay, and preceded by the host, +who was carried ashore in his chair, not without difficulty, by relays of +his crew, the party made the landing. + +Tisdale's first impression when he stepped over the threshold of the villa +was of magnitude. A great fireplace built of granite blocks faced the +hospitable entrance, and the interior lifted to the beamed roof, with a +gallery midway, on which opened the upper rooms. The stairs rose easily in +two landings, and the curving balustrade formed a recess in which was +constructed a stage. Near this a pipe organ was being installed. It was +all luxurious, created for entertainment and pleasure, but it lacked the +ostentatious element for which he was prepared. + +It had been understood that the visit was made at this time to allow Mrs. +Feversham an opportunity to go through the house. She was to decide on +certain furnishings which she was to purchase in New York, but it was +evident to Tisdale that the items she listed followed the suggestions of +the woman who stood beside her, weighing with subdued enthusiasm the +possibilities of the room. "Imagine a splendid polar-bear rug here," she +said, "with a yellowish lynx at the foot of the stairs, and one of those +fine Kodiak skins in front of the hearth. A couch there in the chimney +corner, with a Navajo blanket and pillows would be color enough." + +Morganstein, watching her from his invalid chair, grasped the idea with +satisfaction. "Cut out those Wilton carpets, Marcia," he said. "I'll write +that Alaska hunter, Thompson, who heads the big-game parties, to send me +half a dozen bears. They mount 'em all right in Seattle. Now see what we +are going to need in that east suite up-stairs." + +They went trooping up the staircase, but Hollis did not hurry to follow. +His glance moved to the heavy, recumbent figure of his host. He was +looking up across the banisters at Mrs. Weatherbee as she ascended, and +something in his sensuous face, the steady gleam of his round black eyes, +started in Tisdale's mind a sudden suspicion. She stopped to look down +from the gallery railing and smiled with a gay little salute. Then +Elizabeth called, and she disappeared through an open door. + +"I'd give fifty dollars to see her face when she gets to that east room," +Morganstein said abruptly. "But go up, Mr. Tisdale; go up. Needn't bother +to stay with me." + +"There's a good deal to see here," Tisdale responded genially. "A man who +is accustomed to spend his time as I do, gathering accurate detail, is +slower than others, I suppose, and this all seems very fine to me." + +"It's got to be fine,--the finest bungalow on Puget Sound, I keep telling +the architect. Nothing short of that will do. Listen!" he added in a +smothered voice, "she's in there now." + +The vaulted roof carried the echoes down to Tisdale as he went up the +stairs. All the doors were open along the gallery; some were not yet hung, +but he walked directly to the last one from which the exclamations of +surprise had come. And, as he went, he heard Mrs. Weatherbee say: "It was +glorious, like this, the day the idea flashed to my mind; but I did not +dream Mr. Morganstein would alter the casement, for the men were hanging +the French windows. Why, it must have been necessary to change the whole +wall. Still, it was worth it, Marcia, was it not?" + +"It certainly is unique," admitted Mrs. Feversham. Then Tisdale stopped on +the threshold, facing a great window of plate glass in a single pane, +designed to frame the incomparable view of Mount Rainier lifting above the +sea. And it was no longer a phantom mountain; the haze had vanished, and +the great peak loomed near, sharply defined, shining in Alpine splendor. + +It was a fine conceit, too fine to have sprung from Morganstein's +materialistic brain, and Tisdale was not slow to grasp the truth. The +financier had reconstructed the wall to carry out Mrs. Weatherbee's +suggestion. Then it came over him that this whole building, feature by +feature, had been created to win, to ensnare this woman. It was as though +the wall had become a scroll on which was written: "'All these things will +I give thee, if thou wilt fall down'--and marry me." + +Suddenly the place oppressed him. He walked through the room to the +smaller one of the suite and out on a broad sleeping-porch. The casement +was nearly waist high, and he stood grasping the ledge and looking with +unseeing eyes into a grove of firs. So this was the alternative. And this +was why Foster was safe. The young mining engineer, with little besides +his pay, had fallen far short of her price. + +But the salt wind was in his face; it quieted him. He began to notice the +many small intruding influences of approaching night. The bough of a +resinous hemlock, soughing gently, touched his arm, and his hold on the +shingles relaxed. He moved, to rest the injured hand on the casing, and +its throbbing eased. His glance singled out clumps of changing maple or +dogwood that flamed like small fires on the slope. Then he caught the +rhythm of the tide, breaking far down along the rocky bulkhead; and above, +where a footbridge spanned a chasm, a cascade rippled in harmony. + +"Nice, isn't it?" said the lieutenant, who came onto the porch with +Elizabeth. + +"That is a pergola they are building down there," she explained. "It's to +be covered with Virginia creeper and wistaria and all sorts of climbing +things. And French doors open into it from the dining-room. A walk winds +up from the end--you see it, Mr. Tisdale?--across the footbridge to a +pavilion on the point. It is almost too dark to see the roof among the +trees. Mrs. Weatherbee calls it the observatory, because we have such a +long sweep of the Sound from there, north and south. You'd think you were +aboard a ship at sea, lieutenant, in stormy weather. It gets every wind +that blows." + +The lieutenant wished to go to the pavilion, but Tisdale excused himself +from joining them, and was left alone again with his thoughts. Then he was +conscious the other women had remained in the apartment. They had come +into the inner room, and Mrs. Feversham, having found an electric button, +flooded the interior with light. On the balcony a blue bulb glowed. +Tisdale turned a little more and, leaning on the casement, waited for them +to come through the open door. + +"What do you say to furnishing this suite in bird's-eye maple?" asked +Marcia. "With rugs and portieres in old blue." + +Mrs. Weatherbee shaded her dazzled eyes with her hand and looked +critically around. "The maple would be lovely," she said, "but--do you +know," and she turned to her companion with an engaging smile, "these +sunrise rooms seem meant for Alaska cedar? And the rugs should be not old +blue, but a soft, mossy blue-green." + +Mrs. Feversham laughed. "Home industry again! We don't go to New York for +Alaska cedar. But you are right; that pale yellow wood would be simply +charming with these primrose walls, and it takes a wonderful polish. That +leaves me only the rugs and hangings." She turned to go back through the +wide doorway, then stopped to say: "After all, Beatriz, why not see what +is to be had in Seattle? I had rather you selected everything for this +suite, since it is to be yours." + +"Mine?" She paused, steadying her voice, then went on with a swift +breathlessness. "But I see, you mean to use when I visit you and +Elizabeth. These rooms, from the first, have been my choice. But I am +afraid I've been officious. I've been carried away by all this beautiful +architecture and the pleasure of imagining harmonious, expensive +furnishings. I never have fitted a complete house; it's years since I had +a home. Then, too, you've spoiled me by listening to my suggestions. +You've made me believe it was one way I could--well--cancel obligations." + +Mrs. Feversham raised her hand and, turning it slowly, watched the play of +light on the ruby. "There isn't a stone like this in America," she said. +"You don't know how I've coveted it. But you need not have worried, +Beatriz. I disposed of your note to Frederic." + +"To Mr. Morganstein?" Her voice broke a little; she rocked unsteadily on +her feet. It was as though a great wind had taken her unawares. Then, "I +shall try to pay him as soon as possible," she said evenly. "I have the +land at Hesperides Vale, you know, and if I do not sell it soon, perhaps +he will take it for the debt." + +Mrs. Feversham dropped her hand. "Beatriz! Beatriz!" she exclaimed. "You +know there's an easier way. Come, it's time to stop this make-believe. You +know Frederic Morganstein would gladly pay your debts, every one. You know +he is building this villa for you; that he would marry you, now, to-day, +if you would say the word. Yet you hold him at arm's-length; you are so +conservative, so scrupulous about Public Opinion. But no one in Seattle +would breathe a suggestion of blame. And it isn't as though you had worn +first mourning. The wedding could be very quiet, with a long honeymoon to +Japan or Mexico; both, if you wished. And you might come home to open this +house with a reception late in May. The twilights are delightful then. +Come, think, Bee! You've been irreproachable; the most exacting would +admit that. And every one knows David Weatherbee practically deserted you +for years." + +Tisdale saw her mouth tremble. The quiver ran over her face, her whole +body. For an instant her lashes fell, then she lifted them and met Marcia +Feversham's calculating look. "It was not desertion," she said. "He +contributed--his best--to my support. I took all he had to give. If ever +you are where people are--talking--do me the favor to correct that +mistake. And, now, if you please, Marcia, we will not bring David +Weatherbee in any more." + +Mrs. Feversham laughed a little. "I am willing, bygones are bygones, only +listen to Frederic." + +"You are mistaken, too, about Mr. Morganstein's motive, Marcia. He built +this house for all his friends and Elizabeth's. He owes her something; she +has always been so devoted to him." And she added, as she turned to go +back to the gallery, "He knows I do not care to marry again." + +Tisdale had not foreseen the personal drift to the conversation. And it +had not occurred to him he was unobserved; the balcony light was directly +over him, and he had waited, expecting they would come through to the +porch, to speak to them. Now he saw that from where they had stopped in +the brilliant interior, his figure must have blended into the background +of hemlock boughs. If they had given him any thought, they had believed he +had gone down with Elizabeth and the lieutenant. To have apologized, made +himself known, after he grasped the significance of the situation, would +only have resulted in embarrassment to them all. He allowed them time to +reach the floor below. But the heat rose in his face. And suddenly, as his +mind ran back over that interview in the bows of the _Aquila_, his +question in regard to Foster seemed gross. Still, still, she had said she +did "not care to marry again." That one fact radiated subconsciously +through the puzzling thoughts that baffled him. + +Behind him a few splendid chords rolled through the hall to the vaulted +roof, then pealed forth the overture from Martha. That had been +Weatherbee's favorite opera. Sometimes on long Arctic nights, when they +were recalling old times and old songs, he himself had taken Plunkett's +part to David's Lionel. He could see that cabin now, the door set wide, +while their voices stormed the white silence under the near Yukon stars. +His eyes gathered their absent expression. It was as though he looked +beyond the park, far and away into other vast solitudes; saw once more the +cliffs of Nanatuk looming through fog and heard clearly, booming across +the ice, the great, familiar baritone. + +The notes of the organ ceased. Tisdale stirred like a man roused from +sleep. He turned and started through to the gallery. A woman's voice, +without accompaniment, was singing Martha's immortal aria, _The Last Rose +of Summer_. It was beautiful. The strains, sweet and rich, flooded the +hall and pervaded the upper rooms. Looking down from the railing, he saw +Elizabeth and the lieutenant at the entrance below. The men who had +installed the organ, were listening too, at the end of the hall, while +beyond the open door the crew of the _Aquila_ waited to carry the master +aboard. As he reached the top of the stairs, Mrs. Feversham appeared, +seated near the invalid in the center of the hall, and finally, as he came +to the first landing, there was the diva herself, acknowledging the +applause, sweeping backward with charming exaggeration from the front of +the stage. + +"Bravo!" shouted Frederic. "Bravo! Encore!" She took the vacant seat at +the organ, and the great notes of the _Good-night_ chorus rolled to the +rafters. Responding to her nodding invitation, the voices of the audience +joined her own. It was inspiring. Tisdale stopped on the landing and +involuntarily he caught up his old part. + + "Tho' no prayer of mine can move thee + Yet I wish thee sweet good night; + Now good night, good night, good night!" + +She looked up in quick surprise; her hands stumbled a little on the keys +and, singing on, she subdued her voice to listen to his. Then, hesitating +a little over the first chords, she began the final prelude, and Tisdale, +waiting, heard her voice waver and float out soft and full: + +"Ah, will Heaven indeed forgive me." + +Her face was still lifted to him. It was as though her soul rose in direct +appeal to him, and in that moment all his great heart went down to her in +response. + +It was over. Morganstein's heavy "Bravo!" broke the silence, followed by +the enthusiastic clapping of hands, Mrs. Weatherbee rose and started down +the hall to join Elizabeth and the lieutenant, but Marcia detained her. +"It was simply grand," she said. "I hadn't believed you had the reach or +the strength of touch. This organ was certainly a fine innovation." + +"Sure," said Frederic hazily. "It will make old Seattle sit up and take +notice. Great idea; your schemes always are. Confess though, I had my +doubts, when it came to this organ. I hedged and had that other jog built +in over there for a piano. We can use it sometimes when we want to rag." + +"It is a splendid instrument; much more expensive than I thought of, I am +afraid. But," and she looked back at the elaborate array of pipes with the +exhilaration showing in her face, "it's like giving the firs and the sea a +new voice." + +She passed on, and Frederic's glance followed her, puzzled, but with a +blended respect and admiration. When she went out with Elizabeth and the +lieutenant, he called his men to convey him to the yacht. Marcia walked +beside him. Night had fallen, and the _Aquila_ blazed like a fire ship. +Her lamps sifted the shadows and threw long, wavering flames on the tide. +Aft, where the table was spread, for the convenience of the host, who +could not hazard the companionway, a string of electric lights illumined +the deck. Japanese screens, a dropped awning or two, tempered the breeze, +and the array of silver and flowers, and long-stemmed glasses, promised +more than the informal little dinner to which Mrs. Feversham had referred. + +She stood looking the table critically over, while the sailors settled the +invalid's chair. While the rest of the party loitered in the bow, she +turned to brother. "Has it occurred to you," she asked, "that Beatriz may +be interested in some other man?" + +"No," answered Frederic, startled. "No. Hadn't thought of that--unless-- +it's Foster." + +"I don't know; he seems the most possible, if there's any one. She says +she does not care to marry again. In any case, it is advisable to keep him +in Alaska. You might send him on from the Iditarod to look over the Aurora +mine." And she added slowly: "Beatriz Weatherbee, backed by the +Morganstein money, will be able to carry the social end of the family +anywhere; but Beatriz Weatherbee, holding a half interest in one of the +best-paying placers in Alaska in her own right--is a wife worth straining +a point for." + +Frederic's round eyes widened; his face took an expression of childlike +goodness; it was the mask with which he habitually covered his avarice. +Then he said: "I understood Hollis Tisdale had exclusive, brass-bound, +double-rivited possession of the Aurora." + +"Hush," cautioned Marcia, "they are coming." And she added, in a still +lower tone: "There is a loose rivet, but contrive to marry her before she +knows." + +That dinner covered the homeward cruise, and from the wharf Tisdale went +directly to his rooms. There he telephoned the Rainier-Grand hotel. "Give +me John Banks, please," he said. "Yes, I mean Lucky Banks of Alaska." And, +after an interval, "Hello, Banks! This is Tisdale talking. I want you to +come up to my rooms. Yes, to-night. I am starting east in the morning. +Thank you. Good-by." + +He put up the receiver and brought Weatherbee's box from the safe to the +table under the hanging lamp. Seating himself, he took out the plan of the +project and spread it before him. He had not closed the lid, and presently +his eyes fell on David's watch. He lifted it and, hesitating to open it, +sat trying to recall that picture in the lower case. He wondered how, once +having seen it, even in firelight and starshine, he could have forgotten +it. The face would be younger of course, hardly more than a promise of the +one he knew; still there would be the upward curling lashes, the +suggestion of a fault in the nose, the piquant curve of the short, upper +lip, and perhaps that pervading, illusive something that was the secret of +her charm. "You were right, David, old man," he said at last, "it was a +face to fight for, wait for. And madam, madam, a woman with a face like +yours must have had some capacity for loving." + +His hand was on the spring, but he did not press it. A noise outside in +the corridor arrested him. He knew it was too soon for Banks to arrive, +but he laid the watch back in the box and closed the lid. "You will never +marry Frederic Morganstein," he said, and rising, began to walk the floor. +"It would be monstrous. You must not. You will not. I shall not let you." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE OPTION + + +Vivian count stood on the first hill. The brick walls of the business +center filled the levels below, and Mrs. Weatherbee's windows, like +Tisdale's, commanded the inner harbor rimmed by Duwamish Head, with a +broader sweep of the Sound beyond framed in wooded islands and the +snow-peaks of the Olympic Peninsula. Southeastward, from her alcove, lifted +the matchless, solitary crest of Rainier. It was the morning following the +cruise on the _Aquila_, and Mrs. Weatherbee was taking a light breakfast +in her room. The small table, placed near an open casement, allowed her to +enjoy both views. She inhaled the salt breeze with the gentle pleasure of +a woman whose sense has been trained, through generations, to fine and +delicate perfumes; her eyes caught the sapphire sparkle of the sea, and +her face had the freshness and warmth of a very young girl's. The elbow +length of the sleeve exposed a forearm beautifully molded, with the +velvety firmness of a child's; and the wistaria shade of her empire gown +intensified the blue tones in the dark masses of her hair. In short, she +stood for all that is refined, bright, charming in womanhood; and not for +any single type, but a blending of the best in several; the "typical +American beauty" that Miles Feversham had named her. + +Her glance moved slowly among the shipping. The great steamship leaving +the Great Northern docks was the splendid liner _Minnesota_, sailing for +Japan; the outbound freighter, laden to the gunwales and carrying a +deckload of lumber, was destined for Prince William Sound. She represented +Morganstein interests. And when her eyes moved farther, in the direction +of the Yacht Club, there again was the _Aquila_, the largest speck in the +moored fleet. A shadow crossed her face. She rose and, turning from the +windows, stood taking an inventory that began with the piano, a Steinway +mellowed by age, and ended at a quaint desk placed against the opposite +wall. It was very old; it had been brought in her great-grandfather's time +from Spain, and the carving, Moorish in design, had often roused the +enthusiastic comment of her friends. Appraising it, her brows ruffled a +little; the short upper lip met the lower in a line of resolve. She went +to her telephone and found in the directory the number of a dealer in +curios. But as she reached for the receiver, she was interrupted by a +knock and, closing the book hastily, put it down to open the door. + +A bell-boy stood holding a rare scarlet azalea in full flower. In its +jardiniere of Satsuma ware it was all his arms could compass, and a second +boy followed with the costly Japanese stand that accompanied it. There was +no need to read the name on the card tied conspicuously among the stiff +leaves. The gift was from Frederic Morganstein. It had arrived, doubtless, +on an Oriental steamer that had docked the previous evening while the +_Aquila_ made her landing. Mrs. Weatherbee had the plant placed where the +sunshine reached it through the window of the alcove, and it made a gay +showing against the subdued gray of the walls. Involuntarily her glance +moved from it to the harbor, seeking the _Minnesota_, now under full +headway off Magnolia Bluff. It was as though, in that moment, her +imagination out-traveled the powerful liner, and she saw before her that +alluring country set on the farther rim of the Pacific. + +The steamship passed from sight; she turned from the window. The boy had +taken away the breakfast tray and had left a box on the table. It was +modest, violet-colored, with Hollywood Gardens stamped on the cover, but +she hurried with an incredulous expectancy to open it. For an instant the +perfume seemed to envelop her, then she lifted the green waxed paper, and +a soft radiance shone in her face. It was only a corsage bouquet, but the +violets, arranged with a few fronds of maidenhair, were delightfully +fresh. She took them out carefully. For a moment she held them to her +cheek. But she did not fasten them on her gown; instead she filled a +cut-glass bowl with water and set them at the open casement in the shade. +A cloud of city smoke, driving low, obscured the _Aquila_; the freighter +bound for Prince William Sound rounded Magnolia Bluff, but clearly she had +forgotten these interests; she stood looking the other way, through the +southeast window, where Rainier rose in solitary splendor. A subdued +exhilaration possessed her. Did she not in imagination travel back over +the Cascades to that road to Wenatchee, where, rising to the divide, they +had come unexpectedly on that far view of the one mountain? Then her +glance fell again to the violets, and she lifted the bowl, leaning her +cheek, her forehead, to feel the touch of the cool petals and inhale their +fragrance. + +She had not looked for Tisdale's card, but presently, in disposing of the +florist's box, she found it tucked in the folds of waxed paper. He had +written across it, not very legibly, with his left hand, + +"I want to beg your pardon for that mistake I made. I know you never will +put any man in David Weatherbee's place. You are going to think too much +of him. When you are ready to make his project your life work, let me +know." + +She was a long time reading the note, going back to the beginning more +than once to reconsider his meaning. And her exhilaration died; the +weariness that made her suddenly older settled over her face. At last she +tore the card slowly in pieces and dropped it in the box. + +Her telephone rang, and she went over and took down the receiver. "Mrs. +Weatherbee," she said, and after a moment. "Yes. Please send him up." + +The bell-boy had left the door ajar, and she heard the elevator when it +stopped at her floor; a quick, nervous step sounded along the corridor, +the door swung wider to some draught, and a short, wiry man, with a +weather-beaten face, paused on the threshold. "I am Lucky Banks," he said +simply, taking off his hat. "Mr. Tisdale asked me to see you got this +bundle." + +Involuntarily her glance rested on the hand that held the package in the +curve of his arm, and she suppressed a shiver; the dread that the young +and physically perfect always betray at the sight of deformity sprang to +her eyes. "Thank you for troubling," she said, then, having taken the +bundle, she waited to close the door. + +But Banks was in no hurry. "It wasn't any trouble, my, no," he replied. "I +was glad of the chance. It's a little bunch of stuff that was Dave's. And +likely I'd have come up, anyhow," he added, "to inquire about a tract of +land you own east of the mountains. I heard you talked of selling." + +Instantly her face brightened. "Yes. But come in, will you not?" She +turned and placed the package on the table, and took one of two chairs +near the alcove. The azalea was so near that its vivid flowers seemed to +cast a reflection on her cheeks. "I presume you mean my tract in the +Wenatchee Mountains?" she went on engagingly. "A few miles above +Hesperides Vale." + +"Well, yes." Banks seated himself on the edge of the other chair and held +his hat so as to conceal the maimed hand. "I didn't know you had but one +piece. It's up among the benches and takes in a kind of pocket. It's off +the line of irrigation, but if the springs turn out what I expect, it +ought to be worth sixty dollars an acre. And I want an option on the whole +tract for ten thousand." + +"Ten thousand dollars?" Her voice fluted incredulously. "But I am afraid I +don't understand exactly what an option is. Please explain, Mr. Banks." + +"Why, it's this way. I pay something down, say about three thousand, and +you agree to let the sale rest for well, say six months, while I prospect +the ground and see how it is likely to pan out. Afterwards, if I fail to +buy, I naturally forfeit the bonus and all improvements." + +"I see," she said slowly. "I see. But--you know it is wild land; you have +been over the ground?" + +"Not exactly, but I know the country, and I've talked with a man I can +bank on, my, yes." + +"How soon"--she began, then, covering her eagerness, said: "I agree to +your option, Mr. Banks." + +He laid his hat on the floor and took out his billbook, in which he found +two printed blanks, filled according to his terms and ready for her +signature. "I thought likely we could close the deal right up, ma'am, so's +I could catch the Wenatchee train this afternoon. Your name goes here +above mine." + +She took the paper and started buoyantly to the secretary, but the little +man stopped her. "Read it over, read it over," he cautioned. "All square, +isn't it? And sign this duplicate, too. That's right. You're quite a +business woman." + +He laughed his high, mirthless laugh, and, taking a check from the +bill-book, added some bright gold pieces which he stacked on the table +carefully beside the package he had brought. "There's your three +thousand," he said. + +"It's out of a little bunch of dust I just turned in at the assay office." + +"Thank you." She stood waiting while he folded his duplicate and put it +away, but he did not rise to go, and after a moment, she went back to her +chair by the scarlet azalea. + +"They are doing really wonderful things in the Wenatchee Valley," she said +graciously, willing to make conversation in consideration of that little +pile of clean, new coin that had come so opportunely, "the apples are +marvelous. But"--and here her conscience spoke--"you understand this tract +is unreclaimed desert land; you must do everything." + +"Yes, ma'am, I understand that; but what interests me most in that pocket +is that it belonged to David Weatherbee. He mapped out a project of his +own long before anybody dreamed of Hesperides Vale. He told me all about +it; showed me the plans. That piece of ground got to be the garden spot of +the whole earth to him; and I can't stand back and see it parcelled out to +strangers." + +He paused. The color deepened a little in her face; she looked away +through the west window. "I thought an awful lot of Dave," he went on. +"I'd ought to. Likely you don't know it--he wasn't the kind to talk much +about himself--but I owe my life to him. _It_ had commenced"--he held up +the crippled hand and smiled grimly--"when Dave found me curled up under +the snow, but he stayed, in the teeth of a blizzard, to see me through. +And afterwards he lost time, weeks when hours counted, taking care of me,-- +operated when it came to it, like a regular doctor, my, yes. And when I +got to crawling around again, I found he'd made me his partner." + +"He had made a discovery," she asked, "while you were ill?" + +"Yes, and you could bank on Dave it was a good one. He knew the gravel +every time. But we had to sell; it was the men who bought us out that +struck it rich. You see, Dave had heavy bills pressing him down here in +the States; he never said just what he owed, but he had to have the money. +And, my, when he was doing the bulk of the work, I couldn't say much. It +was so the next time and the next. We never could keep a claim long enough +for the real clean-up. So, when I learned to use my hand, I cut loose to +try it alone." + +He halted again, but she waited in silence with her face turned to the +harbor. "I drifted into the Iditarod country," he went on, "and was among +the first to make a strike. It was the luckiest move I ever made, but I +wish now I had stayed by Dave. I was only a few hundred miles away, but I +never thought of his needing me. That was the trouble. He was always +putting some other man on his feet, cheering the rest along, but not one +of us ever thought of offering help to Dave Weatherbee. A fine, +independent fellow like him. + +"But I sure missed him," he said. "Many a time there in the Iditarod I +used to get to wishing we had that voice of his to take the edge off of +things. Why, back on the Tanana I've seen it keep a whole camp heartened; +and after he picked me up in that blizzard, when I was most done for and +couldn't sleep, it seemed like his singing about kept me alive. Sometimes +still nights I can hear those tunes yet. He knew a lot of 'em, but there +was _Carry Me Back to Old Virginny_, and _Heart Bowed Down_, and _You'll +Remember Me_. I always thought that song reminded him of some girl down +here in the States. He never told me so, always put me off if I said a +word, and none of us knew he was married then; but when he got to singing +that tune, somehow he seemed to forget us boys and the camp and +everything, and went trailing off after his voice, looking for somebody +clear out of sight. I know now, since I've seen you, I was likely right." + +Still she was silent. But she moved a little and lifted her hand to the +edge of the Satsuma jardinière; her fingers closed on it in a tightening +grip; she held her head high, but the lashes drooped over her eyes. +Watching her, the miner's seamed face worked. After a moment he said: "The +other night I paid seven dollars for a seat at the Metropolitan just to +hear one of those first-class singers try that song. The scenery was all +right. There were the boys and two or three women sitting around a +camp-fire. And the fiddles got the tune fine, but my, my! I couldn't +understand a word. Seemed like that fellow was talking darn Dago." + +At this she lifted her eyes. The shadow of a smile touched her mouth, +though her lashes were wet. "And he was, Mr. Banks," she said brightly. +"He was. I know, because I was there." + +Banks picked up his hat and rose to his feet. "We were all mighty proud of +Dave," he said. "There wasn't one of us wouldn't have done his level best +to reach him that last stampede; but I'm glad the chance came to Hollis +Tisdale. There wasn't another man in Alaska could have done what he did. +Yes, I'm mighty glad it was Tisdale who--found him." He paused, holding +his hat over the crippled hand, then added: "I suppose you never knew what +it means to be cold." + +She rose. The smile had left her lips, and she stood looking into his +withered face with wide eyes. "I mean so cold you don't care what happens. +So cold you can lie down in your tracks, in a sixty-mile-an-hour blizzard +and go to sleep." + +"No." She shivered, and her voice was almost a whisper. "I am afraid not." + +"Then you can't begin to imagine what Tisdale did. You can't see him +fighting his way through mountains, mushing ahead on the winter trail, +breaking road for his worn-out huskies, alone day after day, with just +poor Dave strapped to the sled." + +She put her hands to her ears. "Please, please don't say any more," she +begged. "I know--all--about it." + +"Even about the wolves?" + +She dropped her hands, bracing herself a little on the table, and turned +her face, looking, with that manner of one helplessly trapped, around the +room. + +"Even about the wolves?" he persisted. + +"No. No," she admitted at last. + +He nodded. "I thought likely not. Hollis never told that. It goes against +his grain to be made much of. He and Dave was cut out of the same block. +But last night in the lobby to the hotel, I happened on a fellow that met +him in the pass above Seward. There were four of 'em mushing through to +some mines beyond the Susitna. It was snowing like blazes when they heard +those wolves, and pretty soon Tisdale's dogs came streaking by through the +smother. Then a gun fired. It kept up, with just time enough between shots +to load, until they came up to him. He had stopped where a kind of small +cave was scooped in the mountainside and put the sled in and turned the +huskies loose. He had had the time, too, to make a fire in front of the +hole, but when the boys got there, his wood was about burned out, and the +wolves had got Dave's old husky, Jack. He had done his best to help hold +off the pack. There's no telling how many Hollis killed; you see the rest +fell on 'em soon's they dropped. It was hell. Nothing but hair and blood +and bones churned into the snow far as you could see. Excuse me, ma'am; I +guess it sounds a little rough. I'm more used to talking to men, my, yes. +But the fellow who told me said Hollis knew well enough what was coming at +the start, when he heard the first cry of the pack. He had a chance to +make a roadhouse below the pass. Not one man in a thousand would have +stayed by that sled." + +His withered face worked again. He moved to the door. "But Dave would have +done it." His voice took a higher pitch. "Yes, ma'am, Dave would have done +the same for Hollis Tisdale. They was a team; my, yes." He laughed his +hard, mirthless laugh. "Well, so long," he said. + +She did not answer. Half-way down the corridor Banks looked back through +the open door. She had not moved from the place where he had left her, +though her face was turned to the window. A little farther on, while he +waited for the elevator, he saw she had taken the package he had brought +from Tisdale. She stood weighing it, undecided, in her hands, then drew +out the table drawer and laid it in. She paused another instant in +uncertainty and, closing the drawer, began to gather up the pieces of +gold. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +LUCKY BANKS AND THE PINK CHIFFON + + +On his way down from Vivian Court, the mining man's attention was caught +by the great corner show window at Sedgewick-Wilson's, and instantly out +of the display of handsome evening gowns his eyes singled a dancing frock +of pink chiffon. "She always looked pretty," he told himself, "but when +she wore pink--my!" and he turned and found his way through the swinging +doors. A little later the elevator had left him at the second floor. For a +moment the mirrors bewildered him; they gave a sense of vastness, +repeating the elegant apartment in every direction, and whichever way he +glanced there was himself, seated on the edge of a chair, his square shoes +set primly on the thick green carpet, his hat held stiffly over the +crippled hand. Then an imposing young woman sauntered towards him. "Well," +she said severely, "what can I show you?" + +Banks drew himself a little stiffer. "A dress," he said abruptly in his +highest key, "ready-made and pink." + +"What size?" + +"Why"--the little man paused, and a blush that was nearer a shadow crossed +his weather-worn face--"let me see. She's five feet seven and a quarter, +in her shoes, and I judge a couple of inches wider through the shoulders +than you." His glance moved to another saleswoman, who came a step nearer +and stood listening, frankly amused. "You look more her figure," he added. + +"Takes a thirty-eight." The first saleswoman brought out a simple gown of +pink veiling and laid it on the rack before Banks, and he leaned forward +and took a fold between his thumb and forefinger, gravely feeling the +texture. + +"This is priced at twenty-five dollars," she said. "How does that suit?" + +Banks drew himself erect. "There's one down-stairs in the front window I +like better," he said. + +The woman looked him shrewdly over. He had put his hat down, and her +glance rested involuntarily on his maimed hand. "That pink chiffon is a +hundred and twenty-five," she explained. + +"I can stand it; the price doesn't cut any figure, if it's what I want." +He paused, nodding a little aggressively and tapping the carpet with one +square foot. "The lady it's for is a mighty good judge of cloth, and I +want you to show me the best you've got." + +She glanced at the other saleswoman, but she had turned her back--her +shoulders shook--and she hurried to bring out a duplicate of the pink +chiffon, which she arranged carefully on the rack. Bank's face softened; +he reached to touch it with a sort of caress. "This is more like it," he +said; then, turning to the second girl, "but I can tell better if you'll +put it on. You don't seem very busy," he added quickly, "and I'll pay you +your time." + +"Why, that's all right," she answered and came to pick up the gown. "I'll +be glad to; that's what I'm here for." + +She disappeared, laughing, into a dressing-room, and presently the first +saleswoman excused herself to wait on new customers. The girl came back +transformed. She had a handsome brunette face, with merry dark eyes and a +great deal of black hair arranged in an elaborate end striking coiffure. +"Isn't it swell?" she asked, walking leisurely before him. "But you'll +have to fasten it for her; it hooks in the back." Then she stopped; the +fun went out of her face; her glance had fallen to his crippled hand. "I'm +awfully sorry," she stammered. "Of course she can manage it herself; we +all have to sometimes." + +But the little man was rapt in the gown. "I'll take it!" he said +tremulously. "It suits you great, but, my! She'll be a sight." + +"I'll bet she's pretty," said the girl, still trying to make amends. "I'd +like to see her in this chiffon. And I guess your party will be swell." + +Banks looked troubled. "It isn't a party; not exactly. You see she's been +away from town quite a spell, and I thought likely she'd be a little short +on clothes. I guess while I'm about it I may as well take along everything +that naturally goes with this dress; shoes and socks and a hat and-- +flannels--" + +He paused in uncertainty, for the girl had suddenly turned her back again. +"I'd like to leave the rest to you," he added. "Pick out the best; the +whole outfit straight through." + +"I'll be glad to." The girl turned again, controlling a last dimple. "You +are the thoughtfullest man I ever saw on this floor. She's in luck; but I +guess you aren't married--yet." + +Banks laughed his high, strained laugh and rose. "No," he answered +briskly, "no, not exactly. But I want you to hurry out this bill of goods +in time for the four-ten Great Northern. I can't go without it, and I'm +counting on making Wenatchee to-night." + +"Wenatchee?" exclaimed the girl. "Is that where you expect her to wear +this chiffon? Why, it's the dustiest place under the sun. Take my word for +it; I came from there. And, see here, they don't give big parties there; +the people are just nice and friendly; it's a small town. If I were you +I'd choose a tan; a veiling gown, like this first one we showed you, only +tan. Then you could put the difference in price into a coat;--we have some +smart ones in tan,--with a light pongee duster to slip over it all, if +she's driving or using a machine." + +Banks nodded. "Sure, tuck them all in; but this pink dress goes, too, and +see it's on top. Likely they'll go best in a trunk. Now, if you will give +me the bill--" + +He paused to take out his poke, but the girl laughed. "I can't," she said. +"It will take me half an hour to foot it all up after I've picked out the +things. And unless you give me a limit, I won't know where to stop. Then +there's the hat. I never would dare to choose that for a woman I've never +seen, unless she's my style." + +"She is," the little man answered gravely, "that's why I picked you out +when I first come in. I guess maybe the other one was nice all right, but +she was a little too dried-up and froze to do." + +"Then I know what I'd like to send; it's a hat I tried on this morning. A +nice taupe--that's about the color of that sage-brush country over there +and won't show the dust--and it's trimmed with just one stunning plume the +same shade and a wreath of the tiniest pink French roses set under the +velvet brim. It looked like it was made for me, but twelve and a half is +my limit and it's twenty-five dollars. Maybe you don't want to go that +high." + +Banks untied the poke and poured the remaining gold pieces on the +show-case; then he found a pocket-book from which he took several crisp +bills. "There's three hundred," he said briefly, "and another ten for the +trunk. I want you to pick out a nice little one I can stow in the back of +a one-seated automobile. The hat and this pink dress go on top; and be +sure you get the outfit down to that four-ten train. Good-by," he put out +his hand, and a gleam of warmth touched his bleak face. "I'm glad I met +you." + +"And so am I. Good-by." She stopped gathering up the money long enough to +give him her hand. "And good luck," she added. + +The first saleswoman, again at leisure, approached and stood looking after +him as he hurried with his quick, uneven steps towards the elevator. "Of +all things!" she exclaimed. "He did buy that pink chiffon. Who'd ever have +thought he had the money or the taste. But I suppose he's one of those +lucky fellows who've struck it rich in Alaska." + +The other young woman nodded. "His gold came out of one of those pokes, +and it's fresh from the mint. But I guess he's earned all he's got, every +cent. I'll bet he's starved and froze; suffered ways we don't know. And +he's spending it on a girl. I'd like to see her. Maybe she's the +cold-blooded kind that'll snub him and make fun of this chiffon." + +She turned into the dressing-room, and it was then Banks stopped and +brought out the loose change in his pockets. There was a ten dollar piece, +to which he added two and a half in silver. He started back up the room, +but the girl had disappeared, and, while he stood hesitating, a +floor-walker approached. + +"Have you forgotten something?" he asked politely. + +"Yes," answered Banks, "I forgot to give this money to the young lady who +was waiting on me. She's likely gone to take off a pink dress I bought. +But she's the one with lots of black hair and pink cheeks and a real nice +smile; you couldn't miss her. And you might as well give her this; tell +her it's the other twelve and a half to make up the price of that hat; a +duplicate of the one we were talking about. She'll understand." + +He called these final words over his shoulder, for the elevator had +stopped, and he hurried to catch it. Going down, he looked at his watch; +he had spent an hour buying that dress. But on the lower floor he noticed +a telephone booth and saw a way to make up the time. + +"Hello!" he called, pitching his voice to a treble. "This is Banks, the +miner you was trying to talk into buying that little red car last week; +roadster I think you said 'twas. Well, I want you to fire up and run down +to the Rainier-Grand quick as you can." + +He listened a moment, then: "Yes, likely I'll change my mind, if I get +so's I can drive her all right by three p.m. I'm going east of the +mountains, and if I buy I've got to ship her on the four-ten train--Yes, I +mean the little one with a seat to accommodate two, with a place to carry +a trunk behind. Now get busy and rush her down. I've got some errands to +do, and I want you to hurry me around; then we'll get away from the crowd +out on the boulevard where I can have a clear track to break her on." + +The sale was made, and the mining man must have applied himself +successfully to his lesson, for the following morning, when the red car +spun out of Wenatchee and up the lifting valley road, a snug steamer-trunk +was stowed in the box behind, and Banks at the steering gear was traveling +alone. To be sure the rising curves were made in sudden spurts and jerks, +but his lack of skill was reinforced by a tireless vigilance gathered +through breaking days of driving and mushing over hazardous trails. And he +had made an early start; few wayfarers were yet astir. But at last, high +up where the track doubled the summit of a slope that lifted in a bluff +overhead, and on the other hand dropped precipitously to the river, the +little man barely averted catastrophe. The driver and the vehicle were +hidden by the curve, but at his warning honk, two percherons that blocked +the way halted and, lunging at his repeated note, crowded back on the team +they led. Then a woman's voice shrilled: "I've got the heaviest load; you +give me right of way." + +Banks sprang out and ran forward past the horses. The driver, dressed in a +skirt and blouse of khaki, was seated on a load of lumber. She held the +reins high in yellow-gauntleted hands, and a rope of loosened red hair +hung below a smart campaign hat. "I can't back," she exclaimed +aggressively. "You got to give me right of way." + +"Ain't there a man with the outfit?" he asked uncertainly. + +"No," she snapped. "Do I look like I need one?" But she hurried on +tremulously: "My husband's running the mill night and day, and Bryant, +down the valley, had to have his boxes for the apple crop. He said send +the boards down, and he'd let a couple of his Japs knock 'em together. So +I thought with an early start and a clear track, I could drive. But you've +got to turn out. I've got the heavy load." + +Banks shook his head. + +"It's my first trip," he said dubiously, "and I ain't learned to back her +only enough to turn 'round; and it's too narrow. But I used to drive +pretty good seven or eight years ago; and I've been managing a dog team +off and on ever since. Let me climb up there and back your load." + +"You can't do it," she cried. "It's up-grade and a mean curve, and that +nigh leader, for a first-class draught horse, has the cussedest +disposition you ever saw. You can't back him short of a gunshot under his +nose, and you got to get that buzz-wagon of yours out of sight before I +can get him past." + +"Then," said Banks, and smiled grimly, "I guess it's up to me to back." He +started to return to the machine but paused to add over his shoulder: +"It's all right; don't you be scared. No matter what happens, you forget +it and drive straight ahead." + +But destiny, who had scourged and thwarted the little man so many years, +was in a humorous mood that day. The little red car backed down from the +bend in zigzag spurts, grazing the bluff, sheering off to coast the +river-ward brink; then, in the final instant, when the machine failed to +respond to the lever speedily enough, a spur of rock jutting beyond the +roadway eased the outer wheel. It rolled up, all but over, while the next +tire met the obstruction and caught. Banks laughed. "Hooray!" he piped. +"Now swing the corner, lady! All circle to the left." + +"Get up!" the driver shrilled. "Get up, now, Duke, you imp!" And the +leader, balking suspiciously at the explosive machine, felt a smart touch +of the whip. He plunged, sidled against the bluff and broke by. There was +barely room to make that turn; the tailboard of the wagon, grating, left a +long blemish on the bright body of the car, but as the load rolled on down +the incline, Banks churned gayly up around the bend. + +In less than an hour Hesperides Vale stretched behind him, and the bold +front of Cerberus lifted holding the gap. Tisdale had warned him of the +barbed-wire fence, and while he cautiously rounded the mountain, his old +misgiving rose. What though he had made good; what though the Iditarod had +filled his poke many times over, the north had taken heavy toll. He had +left his youth up there, and what would this smart little automobile count +against a whole right hand? And this trunkful of clothes--what would it +weigh against a good-sized man? Still, still, though she might have taken +her pick of 'em all, Annabel had never married, and she had kept his +goats. Then he remembered Tisdale had said that she too had had a hard +fight, and the years must have changed her. And hadn't she herself told +him, in that letter he carried in his breast pocket, that if he cared to +come and see the goats, he would find his investment was turning out fine, +but he needn't expect she had kept her own good looks? + +The little man smiled with returning confidence and, lifting his glance, +saw the cabin and the browsing flock cut off by the barbed-wire fence from +the road. Then as he brought the car to a stop, the collie flew barking +against the wicket, and a gaunt woman rose from a rock and stood shading +her eyes from the morning sun. + +He sprang down and spoke to the dog, and instantly his tone quieted the +collie, but the woman came nearer to point at the sign. "You better read +that," she threatened. + +His hand dropped from the wicket, and he stood staring at her across the +barbed wire. "I was looking for a lady," he said slowly, "but I guess +likely I've made a mistake." + +She came another step and, again shading her eyes, stared back. A look +half eager, half wistful, trembled for a moment through the forbidding +tenseness of her face. "All the men I've seen in automobiles up here were +looking for land," she replied defiantly. + +He nodded; his eyes did not move from her face, but they shone like two +chippings of blue glacier ice, and his voice when he spoke piped its +sharpest key. "So am I. I've got an option on a pocket somewheres in this +range, and the lady I'm inquiring for happened to homestead the quarter +below. It sort of overlaps, so's she put her improvements on the wrong +edge. Yes, ma'am, I've likely made a mistake, but, you see, I heard she +had a bunch o' goats." + +There was a brief silence then. "Anyhow, you must o' come from that +surveyor," she said. "Maybe he was just a smooth talker, but he had a nice +face; laughing crinkles around his eyes and a way of looking at you, if +you'd done a mean thing, to make you feel like the scum of the earth. But +he happened to be acquainted with the man that made me a present of my +first billy and ewes, and you--favor him a little." She paused, then went +on unsteadily, while her eyes continued to search him. "He was about your +size, but he's been up in Alaska, way in the interior somewheres for +years, and the letter I wrote him couldn't have reached him inside a +month. I figured if he came out, he would just about catch the last +steamer in October." + +"So he would, if he hadn't come down to Seattle already." He stopped, +fumbling with the pin, and threw open the wicket. "I guess I ain't changed +much more'n you, Annabel." + +The woman was silent. Her chin dropped; her glance sought the earth. Then +Banks turned to fasten the gate behind him, and she started to stalk +mechanically up the field towards the cabin. "I feel all broke up," he +said, overtaking her; "like I'd been struck by a blizzard. Why, there was +a girl down in Seattle, she sold me a bill of goods that looked more like +you than you do yourself. I know I got myself to blame, but I never +counted for a minute on your keeping the goats." + +The woman stalked on a little faster, but she could not outstrip the +prospector; she turned her face, in refuge, to the flock. "Goats," she +said unsteadily, "goats--are all right when you get used to 'em. They're +something like children, I guess; a sight of trouble but good company and +mighty comforting to have 'round. And they're just as different. There's +old Dad, the cautious looking one standing off there watching us and +chewing the end of a thistle. It might as well be a toothpick, and I'll +bet he's thinking: 'You can't get the best of me, no, sir.' And that piece +of wisdom next to him is the Professor. Don't he remind you of the old +schoolmaster down at the Corners? And there goes Johnny Banks. See him? +The pert little fellow chasing up the field. You never can tell where +he'll turn up or what he'll do next." + +She laughed a dry, forced laugh, and Banks echoed it in his strained key. +"But we are going to get rid of 'em. They're a fine bunch--you've brought +'em up splendid, made a sight better showing than I could--but we are +going to get rid of 'em, yes, ma'am, and forget 'em as quick's we can. We +are going to start right now to make up those seven years." + +They had reached the cabin, and he stopped on the threshold. "My, my," he +said softly, "don't it look homey? There's your Dad's old chair, and the +dresser and the melodion. I was 'fraid you'd sold that, Annabel." + +"I could have, there's been plenty of chances, but Dad gave it to me, +don't you remember? the Christmas I was sixteen." + +"My, yes, and you opened it right there, under the cherry tree, and +started _Home, Sweet Home_. I can hear it now, and the crowd joining in. +I'm glad you kept it, Annabel; a new one wouldn't seem just the same." + +"It's traveled though. You ought to have seen me moving from Oregon. The +old delivery wagon was heaping full." Her laugh this time was spontaneous. +"And old Kate couldn't make more than ten miles a day. But I had a good +tent, and when she had done her day's stunt, I just tied her out to feed +and made camp. The hardest was keeping track of the goats, but the flock +was small then, and I had two dogs." + +"I see," said Banks. "You kept 'em ahead of the wagon when you was on the +road and let 'em forage for themselves. But I'd like to have a look at old +Kate. She came of good stock." + +Annabel went over and, seating herself in her father's chair, untied her +sunbonnet. "Kate died," she said. "I hired her out to a man down the +valley, and he worked her too hard in the heat." + +There was a silent moment. She took off the bonnet and laid it in her lap. +The light, streaming through a small window, touched her hair, which was +bound in smooth, thick braids around her head. + +"My, my," the little man said, "ain't it a sight? I'd have known you in a +minute without that bonnet down at the gate. My, but don't it make a +difference what a woman wears? I'll bet I can't tell you from the girl I +left in Oregon when you've changed your clothes." + +She shook her head. "This denim is all I've got," she said, with a touch +of defiance. "I wore out all I had; goats are hard on clothes." + +"I thought likely." His bleak face began to glow. "And I knew you was out +of town away from the stores, so's I brought along a little outfit. You +wait a minute, and I'll fetch it right in." + +He was gone before he finished speaking and returned in an incredibly +short time with the trunk, which he deposited on the floor before her. +Then he felt in his pocket and, finding the key, fitted it and lifted the +lid. It was then, for the first time, she noticed the maimed hand. + +"Johnny!" she cried, and the pent emotion surged in her voice. "Johnny, +you've been--hurt." + +"Oh, that don't amount to anything now, only the looks. I can turn out +just as much work." + +He hurried to open the tray, but before he could remove the packing of +tissue paper that enveloped the hat, she reached and took the crippled +hand between her own. Her fingers fluttered, caressing, while with +maternal protectiveness they covered it, and she drew him back to the +broad arm of her chair. The defiance had gone out of her face; her eyes +were misty and tender. "You tell me what happened," she said. + +So came Lucky Banks' hour. He saw this woman who had been fond of pretty +clothes, who had once worn them but was now reduced to a single frock of +coarse denim, turn from the fine outfit before it was even displayed; +waiting, with a wondrously comforting solicitude he never had suspected in +the girl whom he had left in Oregon, to hear first that miserable story of +the trail. He told it briefly, but with the vividness of one whose words +are coined straight from the crucible of bitter experience, and while she +listened, her heart shone in her passionate eyes. "What if it had +happened," she broke out at last. "If it had, Johnny, it would have been +my fault. I drove you into going up there. I'm responsible for this hand. +I--I couldn't have stood worse than that." + +The little man beamed. "Is that so, Annabel? Then I'm mighty glad +Weatherbee followed that stampede. Nobody else would have seen my hand +sticking up through the snow and stopped to dig me out. Unless--" he added +thoughtfully, "it was Hollis Tisdale. Yes, likely Hollis would. He was the +only man in Alaska fit to be Dave's running mate." + +"Do you mean that surveyor?" she asked. + +Banks nodded. + +"I thought so," she said with satisfaction. "Dad taught me to size people +up on sight. He could tell the first minute he saw a man's face whether he +was good for a bill of groceries or not; and I knew that surveyor was +straight. I bet he knew you was in Seattle when he got me to write. But I +wish I could have a look at the other one. He must be--great." + +Banks nodded again. "He was," he answered huskily. "He was. But he's made +his last trip. I wasn't three hundred miles off, but I never thought of +Dave Weatherbee's needing help; it took Tisdale, clear off in Nome, over a +thousand miles, to sense something was wrong. But he started to mush it, +alone with his huskies, to the Iditarod and on to the Aurora, Dave's mine. +You don't know anything about that winter trail, Annabel. It means from +twenty to fifty below, with the wind swooping out of every canyon, +cross-cutting like knives, and not the sign of a road-house in days, in +weeks sometimes. But he made it,"--Banks' voice reached high pitch--"He +beat the records, my, yes." + +"And something was wrong?" asked Annabel, breaking the pause. + +Banks nodded again. "You remember that sheepman down in Oregon they +brought in from the range. The one that ripped up his comforter that night +at the hotel and set the wool in little rolls around the floor; thought he +was tending sheep? Well, that's what was happening. And Hollis was two +days late. Dave had started for the coast; not the regular way to +Fairbanks and out by stage to Valdez, but a new route through the Alaska +Range to strike the Susitna and on to Seward. And he had fresh dogs. He +was through Rainy Pass when Tisdale began to catch up." + +"He did catch up?" Annabel questioned again hurriedly. + +Banks nodded once more. He drew his hand away and rose from his seat on +the chair arm. His eyes were shining like blue glacier ice. "It was in a +blizzard; the same as the day I lost my fingers--only--Hollis--he was too +late." He turned and walked unsteadily to the door and stood looking out. +"I wasn't three hundred miles from the Aurora," he added. "I could have +been in time. I can't ever forget that." + +Annabel rose and stood watching him, with the emotion playing in her face. +"Johnny!" she exclaimed at last. "Oh, Johnny!" She went over and put her +arm protectively around his shoulders. "I know just how you feel; but you +didn't drive him to it. You were just busy and interested in your work. +You'd have gone in a minute, left everything, if you had known." + +"That's it; I ought to have known. I ought to have kept track of Dave; run +over once in a while to say hullo. I'd have likely seen it was coming on, +then, in time. When Tisdale found him, he'd been setting out little pieces +of spruce, like an orchard in the snow. You see," he added after a moment, +"Dave always expected to come back here when he struck it rich and start a +fruit ranch. He was the man who owned this pocket." + +A sudden understanding shone in Annabel's face. "And that's why you got an +option on it; you want to carry out his scheme. I'll help you, Johnny, +I'll do my level best." + +Banks turned and looked at her. "That's all I want, Annabel. I was a +little afraid you'd be sick of the place. But, my, we can go right ahead +and set a crew of men to grubbing out the sage on both sections to once. +Folks might have said, seeing you take up with a undersized, froze-up +fellow like me, you was marrying me for my money; but they can't, no, +ma'am, not when they see the valuable claim you are developing in your own +right." + +Annabel laughed. "I guess you're entitled to your turn making fun of me. +But have you got money, Johnny? I never thought of that." + +"Likely not. But the Annabel sure brought me luck; that name worked better +than a rabbit's foot. Here's a little bunch of nuggets I saved out of the +first clean-up." He paused to take a small new poke from an inner pocket +and, untying the string, poured the contents in her hand. "I thought +likely you'd want 'em made up in a necklace with a few diamonds or mebbe +emeralds mixed in." + +She stood looking at the shining rough pieces of gold in her palm, while a +certain pride rose through the wonder in her face. "My gracious!" she +exclaimed, and a spark of her lost youth revived. "My gracious. And you +named your mine after me. I bet it was on account of that billy and the +ewes." + +"Likely," the little man beamed. "But more than likely it was because that +strike was a sure thing, and you was behind it, Annabel. My, yes, you was +responsible I ever got to Alaska; let alone stuck it out. Sure as a +grubstake, you gave me my start. Now come take a look at this outfit I +brought." + +He held the poke open while she poured the nuggets back. "I like them +plain," she said, "but I never saw any made up. I leave it to you." + +"Then I make it emeralds to match the Green, and mebbe a few sparklers +thrown in." He laughed gayly and, taking her arm, drew her back across the +room to the open trunk; when she was seated again in the armchair, he +knelt to remove the first layer of tissue packing. She took the precaution +to spread one smooth sheet of it on her lap and, leaning forward, saw him +uncover the plume, the entire hat. "Gracious goodness!" she exclaimed +tremulously, as he lifted it awkwardly to her eager hands, "ain't it +splendid? I didn't know they were making them like this. I never saw such +roses; why, they look alive and ready to smell; and ain't they pretty +fixed this way under the brim?" She paused, turning the masterpiece +slowly, like a connoisseur. "I bet I could have worn it when I was in +Oregon. It would have been my style. Do you suppose"--she glanced at Banks +timidly--"I'd dare to try it if my hair was done real nice, and I had on a +better dress?" + +"My, yes." Banks laughed again excitedly, and with growing confidence +opened the next compartment to display the chiffon gown. "Wait till you +get this on. You'll be a sight. You always was in pink." He paused to take +the hat and, wheeling, placed it on the old dresser, and so made room for +the frock on her lap. "Now, ain't that soft and peachy and--and rich?" + +But Annabel was silent. She lifted her eyes from the gown to Johnny, and +they were full of mist. Then her lip quivered, and a drop splashed down on +the delicate fabric. "My gracious!" she cried in consternation and, +rising, held the gown off at arm's-length. "Do you suppose it's going to +spot?" + +And Banks' laugh piped once more. "I guess it can stand a little salt +water," he replied. "But if it can't, we can get a duplicate. And now you +just take your time and pick out what you want to wear. I am going up the +bench to look around and find Dave's springs. It'll likely take me an hour +or so, and you can be ready to start soon's I get back." + +"Start?" she repeated. "Was you counting on going somewhere?" + +"My, yes. I was counting on taking you a little spin down to Wenatchee the +first thing, and having a chicken dinner to the hotel. Then, soon's we get +a license and hunt up a sky man, we are going to run down to Oregon and +have a look at the old Corners." + +"I never rode in an automobile," she said, glowing, "but I think I'd like +it fine." + +"I bet you will. I bet, coming home, you'll be running the machine +yourself half the time." + +He hurried away then, laughing his shrillest key, and Annabel laid the +pink chiffon back in the tray to follow him to the door. She stood +smiling, though the mist alternately gathered and cleared in her eyes, +watching him up the vale and waiting to see him reappear on the front of +the bench. But he found her ready when he returned; and the hat was +becoming beyond her hopes. It brought back in a measure the old brightness +that was half a challenge in her air, so that, to the mining man, she +seemed to have gone back, almost, those lost years. Still, his +satisfaction was tempered, and instantly she understood the cause. "The +roses seemed enough pink today," she said tactfully, "till I wear off some +of this tan. But I like this tan cloth awful well, don't you? It's a nice +color for out-of-doors and won't show the dust. And doesn't it fit +perfectly splendid? And look at these shoes. I don't see how you +remembered my size. You've thought of everything. There's even an +automobile veil. A lady that came out here with Mr. Tisdale had one about +the same shade. But you'll have to help me put it on so I won't spoil this +plume." + +She pushed the pongee coat, which was carefully folded across the back of +a chair, a little aside and, seating herself before the mirror, reached to +take the scarf and exposed a folded paper on the dresser. "I found that +envelope pinned inside the hat," she said still diplomatically, though a +touch of humor shaded her lips. "There's a ten dollar piece in it and two +and a half in silver. Probably it's your change." + +But Banks turned the envelope and read pencilled across the front: "There +isn't any duplicate, but thanks just the same." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +KERNEL AND PEACH + + +After that little wedding journey down in Oregon, Banks returned to +Seattle to engage a crew for the first step to reclamation; combining +pleasure with business, he brought Annabel and registered at the New +Washington Hotel. And here Daniels, detailed to learn something in regard +to the Iditarod strike where, it was rumored, the Morgansteins were +negotiating for the miner's valuable holdings, finally traced him. + +"Sure we have a Banks of Alaska with us," the clerk responded, smiling, +and turned the page to show the _Press_ representative the strained, +left-handed signature. "He's a sawed-off specimen with a face like a +peachstone; but he said if he put down his regular name, the boys likely +would miss his trail." + +"Mrs. Annabel Green Banks Hesperides Vale," read Jimmie. + +"Lucky Banks Iditarod and Hesperides Vale. + +"This looks like my man, sure; but who is Mrs. Green-Banks? His wife or +mother?" + +"Bride," the clerk replied laconically. "It's a sort of overdue honeymoon. +But she's rather smart looking; fine eyes and tall enough to make up for +him. They're a pair." + +"I see. Kernel and peach. But Hesperides Vale," Daniels went on +thoughtfully. "Why, that's in the new fruit belt over near Wenatchee, my +old stamping-ground." + +The clerk nodded. "She owns some orchard lands over there and to hear him +talk, you'd think she had the money; Until it comes to ordering; then the +Queen of Sheba isn't in it. 'I guess we can stand the best room in the +house,' he says. And when I showed them the blue suite and told them +Tarquina, the prima donna opening at the Metropolitan to-night, had the +companion suite in rose, it's: 'Do you think you can put up with this +blue, Annabel?' But there comes the cameo now. No, the other way, from the +street." + +Jimmie met the prospector midway across the lobby. "Mr. Banks?" he began +genially. "I am the lucky one this time; I came in purposely to see you. I +am Daniels, representing the _Seattle Press_. My paper is particular about +the Alaska news, and I came straight to headquarters to find out about the +Iditarod camp." + +Banks kept on to the desk, and Jimmie turned to walk with him. The clerk +was ready with his key. "Mrs. Banks hasn't come in yet," he said, smiling. + +"She's likely been kept up at Sedgewick-Wilson's. I introduced her to a +friend of mine there. I had to chase around to find a contractor that +could ship his own scrapers and shovels across the range, and I thought +the time would go quicker, for her, picking out clothes. But," he added, +turning to the reporter, "we may as well sit down and wait for her here in +the lobby." + +"I understand," began Daniels, opening his notebook on the arm of his +chair, "that your placer in the Iditarod country has panned out a clear +one hundred thousand dollars." + +"Ninety-five thousand, two hundred and twenty-six," corrected the mining +man, "with the last clean-up to hear from." + +Jimmie set these figures down, then asked: "Is the rumor true that the +Morgansteins are considering an offer from you?" + +"No, sir," piped the little man. "They made me an offer. I gave 'em an +option on my bunch of claims for a hundred and fifty thousand. Their +engineer has gone in to look the property over. If they buy, they'll +likely send a dredger through by spring and work a big bunch of men." + +There was a silent moment while Jimmie recorded these facts, then: "And I +understand you are interested in fruit lands east of the mountains," he +said. "It often happens that way. Men make their pile up there in the +frozen north and come back here to Washington to invest it." + +"Likely," replied Banks shortly. "Likely. But it's my wife that owns the +property in the fruit belt. And it's a mighty promising layout; it's up to +me to stay with it till she gets her improvements in. Afterwards--now I +want you to get this in correct. Last time things got mixed; the young +fellow wrote me down Bangs. And I've read things in the newspaper lately +about Hollis Tisdale that I know for a fact ain't so." + +"Hollis Tisdale?" Jimmie suspended his pencil. "So you know the Sphynx of +the Yukon, do you?" + +"That's it. That's the name that blame newspaper called him. Sphynx +nothing. Hollis Tisdale is the best known man in Alaska and the best +liked. If the Government had had the sense to put him at the head of the +Alaska business, there'd been something doing, my, yes." + +The reporter finished his period. "Don't let this interview bother you," +he said. "It's going into my paper straight, Mr. Banks, and in your own +words." + +While he spoke, his vigilant glance rested lightly on one of the several +guests scattered about the lobby. He was a grave and thoughtful man and +had seemed deeply engrossed in a magazine, but he had changed his seat for +a chair within speaking distance, and Jimmie had not seen him turn a page. + +"What I was going to say, then," resumed Banks, "was that afterwards, when +the orchards are in shape, I am going back to Alaska and take a bunch of +those abandoned claims, where the miners have quit turning up the earth, +and just seed 'em to oats and blue stem. Either would do mighty well. The +sun shines hot long summer days, and the ground keeps moist from the +melting snow on the mountains. I've seen little patches of grain up there +and hay ripening and standing high as my shoulder. But what they need most +in the interior is stock farms, horses and beeves, and I am going to take +in a fine bunch of both; they'll do fine; winter right along with the +caribou and reindeer." + +"Well, that's a new idea to me," exclaimed Daniels. "Alaska to me has +always stood for blizzards, snow, glaciers, impregnable mountains, bleak +and barren plains like the steppes of Russia, and privation, privation of +the worst kind." + +Banks nodded grimly. "That's because the first of us got caught by winter +unprepared. Why, men freeze to death every blizzard right here in the +States; sometimes it's in Dakota; sometimes old New York, with railroads +lacing back and forth close as shoestrings. And imagine that big, +unsettled Alaska interior without a single railroad and only one +wagon-road; men most of the time breaking their own trails. Not a town or +a house sometimes in hundreds of miles to shelter 'em, if a storm happens +to break. But you talk with any Swede miner from up there. He'll tell you +they could make a new Sweden out of Alaska. Let us use the timber for +building and fuel; let a man that's got the money to do it start a +lumber-mill or mine the coal. Give us the same land and mineral laws you +have here in the States, and homeseekers would flock in thick as birds in +springtime." + +The stranger closed his magazine. "Pardon me," he said, taking advantage +of the pause, "but do you mean that Conservation is all that is keeping +home-seekers out of Alaska?" + +Banks nodded this time with a kind of fierceness; his eyes scintillated a +white heat, but he suppressed the imminent explosion and began with forced +mildness, "My, yes. But you imagine a man trying to locate with +ninety-five per cent. of the country reserved. First you've got to +consider the Coast Range. The great wall of China's nothing but a line of +ninepins to the Chugach and St. Elias wall. The Almighty builds strong, +and he set that wall to hold the Pacific Ocean back. Imagine peaks piled +miles high and cemented together with glaciers; the Malispina alone has +eighty miles of water front; and there's the Nanatuk, Columbia, Muir; but +the Government ain't found names for more'n half of 'em yet, nor a quarter +of the mountains. Now imagine a man getting his family over that divide, +driving his little bunch of cattle through, packing an outfit to keep 'em +going the first year or so. Suppose he's even able to take along a +portable house; what's he going to do about fuel? Is he going to trek back +hundreds of miles to the seaport, like the Government expects, to pack in +coal? Australian maybe, or Japan low grade, but more likely it's +Pennsylvania sold on the dock for as high as seventeen dollars a ton. Yes, +sir, and with Alaska coal, the best kind and enough to supply the United +States for six hundred years, scattered all around, cropping right out of +the ground. Think of him camped alongside a whole forest of spruce, where +he can't cut a stick." + +The little man's voice had reached high pitch; he rose and took a short, +swift turn across the floor. The stranger was silent; apparently he was +weighing this astonishing information. But Daniels broke the pause. + +"The Government ought to hurry those investigations," he said. "Foster, +the mining engineer, told me never but one coal patent had been allowed in +all Alaska, and that's on the coast. He has put thousands into coal land +and can't get title or his money back. The company he is interested with +has had to stop development, because, pending investigation, no man can +mine coal until his patent is secured. It looks like the country is +strangled in red tape." + +"It is," cried Banks. "And one President's so busy building a railroad for +the Filipinos, and rushing supplies to the Panama Canal he goes out of +office and clear forgets he's left Alaska temporarily tied up; and the +next one has his hands so full fixing the tariff and running down the +trusts he can't look the question up. And if he could, Congress is working +overtime, appropriating the treasury money home in the States. There's so +many Government buildings to put up and harbors and rivers to dredge, it +can't even afford to give us a few lights and charts, and ships keep on +feeling their way and going to destruction on the Alaska coast. Alaska is +side-tracked. She's been left standing so long she's going to rust." + +"If some of our senators could listen to you," said the stranger, with a +swift and vanishing smile, "their eyes would be opened. But that is the +trouble; Alaska has had no voice. It is true each congressman has been so +burdened with the wants of his own State that session after session has +closed before the Alaska bills were reached. We have been accustomed to +look on Alaska as a bleak and forbidding country, with a floating +population of adventurers and lawless men, who go there with the intention +to stay only long enough to reap a mineral harvest. If she had other great +resources and such citizens as you, why were you not in Washington to +exploit her?" + +Lucky Banks shook his head. "Up to this year," he said and smiled grimly, +"I couldn't have made the trip without beating my way, and I guess if I +went to some of those senators now and escaped being put down for an +ex-convict, they'd say I was engineering a trust. They'd turn another key +on Alaska to keep me out." + +He wheeled to tramp down the lobby, then stopped. Annabel had entered. +Annabel arrayed in a new, imported tailored suit of excellent cloth, in a +shade of Copenhagen blue, and a chic hat of blue beaver trimmed with +paradise. Instantly the mining man's indignation cooled. He put aside +Alaska's wrongs and hurried, beaming, to meet his wife. "Why, you bought +blue," he said with pleased surprise. "And you can wear it, my, yes, about +as well as pink." + +Annabel smiled with the little ironical curl of the lip that showed +plainly her good sense held her steady, on the crest of that high wave +whereon it had been fortune's freak to raise her. "Lucile showed me a +place, on the next floor of the store, where I could get the tan taken off +my face while I was waiting for alterations to my suit. They did it with a +sort of cold cream and hot water. There's just a streak left around my +neck, and I can cover that with the necklace." She paused then added with +a gentle conciliation creeping through her confidential tone: "I am going +to wear the pink chiffon to-night to hear Tarquina. Lucile says it's all +right for a box party, opening night. I like her real well. I asked her to +go with us, and she's coming early, in time for dinner, at seven." + +"I thought you'd make a team," replied Banks, delighted. "And I'm glad you +asked her, my, yes. It would have been lonesome sitting by ourselves +'mongst the empty chairs." + +They were walking towards the elevator, and Daniels, who had learned from +the clerk that the important looking stranger who had seemed so interested +in Banks' information, was the head of the new coal commission, going +north for investigation, stopped the prospector to say good-by. + +"I want to thank you for that interview, Mr. Banks," he said frankly. +"I've learned more about Alaska from you in fifteen minutes than I had put +together in five years." + +"You are welcome, so's you get it in straight. But,"--and the little man +drew himself proudly erect,--"I want to make you acquainted with Mrs. +Banks, Mr. Daniels." + +"I am awfully glad to meet you, Mrs. Banks," said Jimmie cordially, +offering his hand. "I understand you are from Hesperides Vale, and I grew +up over there in the Columbia desert. It's almost like seeing friends from +home." + +"Likely," Banks began, but his glance moved from the reporter to his wife +and he repeated less certainly, "likely we could get him to take one of +those chairs off our hands." + +Annabel's humor rose to her eyes. "He's hired a box for Carmen to-night; +they were out of seats in the divans, and it worries him because our party +is so small." + +"I'd be delighted, only,"--Jimmie paused, flushing and looking intently +inside his hat--"the fact is, I am going to take the Society Editor on my +paper. We have miserable seats, the first row in the orchestra was the +best they could do for us, and she has to write up the gowns. She's an +awfully nice girl, and she has a little trick of keeping her copy out of +sight, so the people in the house never would catch on; would you think me +very bold,"--and with this he looked up directly at Annabel--"if I asked +you to give that place in your box to her?" + +He was graciously assured it would make Mr. Banks "easy" if they both +joined the party, and Annabel suggested that he bring the Society Editor +to dinner, "so as to get acquainted" before the opera. All of which was +speedily arranged by telephone. Miss Atkins accepted with pleasure. + +The dinner was a complete success; so complete that the orchestra was +concluding the overture when they arrived at the theater. A little flurry +ran through the body of the house when Annabel appeared. Mrs. Feversham in +the opposite box raised her lorgnette. + +"I wonder who they are," she said. "Why, the girl in white looks like Miss +Atkins, who writes the society news, and there is your reporter, Daniels." + +"Other man is Lucky Banks; stunning woman in pink must be his wife." +Frederic, having settled in his chair and eased his lame knee, focussed +his own glasses. + +"George, Marcia," he exclaimed, "do you see that necklace? Nuggets, +straight from the sluices of the Annabel, I bet. Nuggets strung with +emeralds, and each as big as they grow. I suppose that chain is what you +call barbarous, but I rather like it." + +"It is fit for a queen," admitted Marcia. "One of those barbarian queens +we read about. No ordinary woman could wear it, but it seems made for her +throat." And she added, dropping her lorgnette to turn her calculating +glance on her brother's face, "Every woman her price." + +Frederic laughed shortly. The purplish flush deepened in his cheeks, and +his eyes rested on Beatriz Weatherbee. She was seated in the front of the +box with Elizabeth, and as she leaned forward a little, stirred by the +passionate cry of the violins, her profile was turned to him. + +"The price doesn't cut as much figure as you think," he said. + +Then the curtain rose. Tarquina was a marvelous Carmen. The Society +Editor, who had taken her notebook surreptitiously from a silk evening bag +and, under cover of a chiffon scarf, commenced to record the names and +gowns of important personages, got no farther than the party in the +opposite box during the first act. But she made amends in the +intermission. It was then a smile suddenly softened her firm mouth, and +she introduced Annabel to her columns with this item. + +"Noticeable among the out of town guests were Mr. and Mrs. John Henry +Banks, who entertained a box party, following a charming dinner at the New +Washington. Mrs. Banks, a recent bride, was handsomely gowned in pink +chiffon over messaline, and wore a unique necklace of nuggets which were +gathered from her husband's mine near Iditarod, Alaska. The gold pieces +were linked lengthwise, alternating with single emeralds, and the pendant +was formed of three slender nuggets, each terminating in a matched diamond +and emerald." + +While Geraldine wrote this, Frederic Morganstein made his way laboriously, +with the aid of a crutch, around to the box. "How do do, Miss Atkins," he +said. "Hello, Daniels! Well, Mr. Banks, how are you? Greatest Carmen ever +sung in this theater, isn't it? Now, keep your seat. I find it easier to +stand. Just came for a minute to be presented to--your wife." + +His venture carried. The little man, rising, said with conscious pride: +"Mrs. Banks, allow me to make you acquainted with Mr. Morganstein. He's +the man that holds the option on the Annabel. And this is Miss Purdy, Mr. +Morganstein; Miss Lucile Purdy of Sedgewick-Wilson's. I see you know the +rest of the bunch." + +"I guess it's up to me to apologize, Mrs. Banks," said Frederic, heavily +humorous. "I wouldn't believe my sister, Mrs. Feversham, when she told me +there were some smart women in those Alaska towns." He paused, laughing, +while his glance moved from Annabel's ironical mouth to her superb +shoulders and rested on the nugget chain; then he said: "From that +interview of yours in tonight's _Press_, Mr. Banks, there isn't much the +country can't produce." + +"Likely not," responded the little man quickly. "But my wife was an Oregon +girl. We were engaged, my, yes, long before I saw Alaska. And lately she's +been living around Hesperides Vale. She's got some fine orchard property +over there, in her own right." + +"Is that so?" Frederic's speculative look returned to Annabel's face. +"Hesperides Vale. That's in the new reclamation country, east of the +mountains, isn't it? I was intending to motor through that neighborhood +when this accident stopped me and put an end to the trip. They are turning +out some fine apples in that valley, I understand. But it's curtain time. +Awfully glad I've met you; see you again. Lend me your shoulder, will you, +Daniels--around to my box?" + +While they were crossing the foyer, he said: "That enlargement came out +fine; you must run up to my office, while it's there to-morrow, to see it. +And that was a great write-up you gave Lucky Banks. It was yours, wasn't +it? Thought so. Bought a hundred copies. Mrs. Feversham is going to take +'em east to distribute in Washington. Double blue-pencilled one, +'specially for the President." + +Jimmie smiled, blushing. "That's more than I deserve, but I'm afraid, even +if it reaches his hands, he won't take the time to read it." + +"You leave that to Mrs. Feversham," replied Morganstein. "Saw that little +scoop, too, about Tisdale. He's the closest oyster on record." + +"The trouble was," said Jimmie wisely, "he started that Indian story and +nobody thought to interrupt with more coal questions." + +"You mean he told that yarn purposely to head us off?" + +"That's the way it seemed to me afterwards. He spun it out, you know; it +lasted to Bremerton, where I got off. But it was interesting; the best I +ever heard, and I took it all down, word for word. It was little use, +though. The chief gave one look at my bunch of copy and warned me, for the +last time, the paper wasn't publishing any novels. What I had gone aboard +the _Aquila_ for was to write up her equipment and, incidentally, to pick +up Hollis Tisdale's views on Alaska coal." + +They had reached the entrance to the Morganstein box; the orchestra was +playing again, the curtain began to rise on the second act, and Daniels +hurried back to his place. But during the next intermission, an usher +brought the young reporter a note. It was written concisely on a business +card, but Jimmie read it through slowly a second time before he handed it +to the Society Editor. + +"Mrs. Feversham wants to see that story," so it ran. "Leave it at my +office in the morning. She may take it east with her. Knows some magazine +people who are going to feature Alaska and the Northwest." + +After a thoughtful moment Miss Atkins returned the card to Jimmie. "Is it +the Indian story?" she asked. + +Daniels nodded, watching her face. His smouldering excitement was ready to +flame. "They will read it for Mrs. Feversham,"--Geraldine's voice trembled +slightly--"and they will take it. It's a magazine story. They ought to pay +you handsomely. It's the best thing you ever wrote." + +Marcia Feversham saw possibilities in that story. Indeed, writing Jimmie +from Washington, she called it a little masterpiece. There was no doubt it +would be accepted somewhere, though he must expect to see it cut down +considerably, it was so long. Then, presumably to facilitate the placing +of the manuscript, she herself went over it with exceeding care, revising +with her pencil, eliminating whole paragraphs, and finally fixing the end +short of several pages. In the copy which her husband's stenographer +prepared, the original was reduced fully a third. After that it mellowed +for an interval in Marcia's drawer. + +At the close of November, it was announced that Stuart Foster, the junior +defendant in the first "Conspiracy to defraud the Government" trial, was +weather-bound in Alaska. This, taken in consideration with the serious +illness of Tisdale, on whom the prosecution relied for technical +testimony, resulted in setting the case for hearing the last week in the +following March. It was at this time, while Hollis was lying unconscious +and in delirium at a hospital, that his great wealth began to be +exploited. Everywhere, when inquiries were made as to his health, fabulous +statements followed about the Aurora. To mention the mine was like saying +"Open Sesame!" Then, finally, it was whispered and repeated with +conviction by people who "wouldn't have believed it of Hollis Tisdale" at +the beginning, that he had defrauded the widow of his dead partner--who +had made the discovery and paid for it with his life--of her share. + +Then, at last, early in December, Jimmie's masterpiece was forwarded to a +new magazine in New York. + +"_Dear Mr. Sampson_;--" so Marcia wrote-- + +"Here is a story of Western life that I believe will be of interest to +you. The incident actually occurred. The man who killed the Indian child, +and who amused my brother's guests with the story while we were cruising +lately on the _Aquila_, was Hollis Tisdale of the Geographical Survey. He +is probably the best known figure in Alaska, the owner of the fabulously +rich Aurora mine. His partner, who made the discovery, paid for it with +his life, and there is a rumor that his wife, who should have a half +interest, is penniless. + +"Mr. Tisdale will he a leading witness for the Government in the pending +Alaska coal cases. Strange--is it not?--since a criminal is barred from +testifying in a United States court. + +"The last issue of your magazine was most attractive. Enclosed are lists +of two thousand names and my check to cover that many sample copies of the +number in which the story is published. March would be opportune. Of +course, while I do not object to any use you may care to make of this +information, I trust I shall be spared publicity. + +"Very truly, + +"MARCIA FEVERSHAM." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +FOSTER'S HOUR + + +Frederic Morganstein did not wait until spring to open his villa. The +furnishings were completed, even to the Kodiak and polar-bear rugs, in +time to entertain a house-party at Christmas. Marcia, who came home for +the event, arrived early enough to take charge of the final preparations, +but the ideas that gave character to the lavish decorations were Beatriz +Weatherbee's. She it was who suggested the chime of holly bells with +tongues of red berries, hung by ropes of cedar from the vaulted roof +directly over the stage; and saw the two great scarlet camellias that had +been coaxed into full bloom specially for the capitalist placed at either +end of the footlights, while potted poinsettias and small madrona trees, +brought in from the bluffs above the grounds, finished the scheme with the +effect of an old mission garden. Then there were a hundred more +poinsettias disposed of, without crowding, on the landings and inside the +railing of the gallery, with five hundred red carnations arranged with +Oregon grape and fern in Indian baskets to cap the balustrade. To one +looking up from the lower hall, they had the appearance of quaint +jardinière. + +There was not too much color. December, in the Puget Sound country, means +the climax of the wet season when under the interminable curtain of the +rain, dawn seems to touch hands with twilight. It was hardly four o'clock +that Christmas eve when the _Aquila_ arrived with the guests from Seattle, +but the villa lights were on. A huge and resinous backlog, sending broad +tongues of flame into the cavernous throat of the fireplace, gave to the +illumination a ruddier, flickering glow. To Foster, who was the first to +reach the veranda, Foster who had been so long accustomed to faring at +Alaska road-houses, to making his own camp, on occasion, with a single +helper in the frosty solitudes, that view through the French window must +have seemed like a scene from the Arabian Nights. Involuntarily he +stopped, and suddenly the luxurious interior became a setting for one +living figure. Elizabeth was there, arranging trifles on a Christmas tree; +and Mrs. Feversham, seated at a piano, was playing a brilliant bolero; but +the one woman he saw held the center of the stage. Her sparkling face was +framed in a mantilla; a camellia, plucked from one of the flowering +shrubs, was tucked in the lace above her ear, and she was dancing with +castanets in the old mission garden. + +The next moment Frederic passed him and threw open the door with his +inevitable "Bravo!" And instantly the music ceased; Marcia started to her +feet; the dancer pulled off her mantilla, and the flower dropped from her +hair. + +"Go on! Encore!" he laughed. "My, but you've got that cachucha down to a +science; bred, though, I guess, in your little Spanish feet. You'd dance +all the sense a man has out of his head." + +"That's the reason none of us heard the _Aquila_ whistle," said Marcia, +coming forward. "Beatriz promised to dance to-night, in a marvelous yellow +brocade that was her great-grandmother's, and we were rehearsing; but she +looked so like a nun, masquerading, in that gray crepe de Chine, I almost +forgot the accompaniment. Why, Mr. Foster! How delightful you were able to +get home for Christmas." + +"I am fortunate," he answered, smiling. "The ice caught me in the Yukon, +but I mushed through to Fairbanks and came on to the coast by stage. I +just made the steamer, and she docked alongside the _Aquila_ not fifteen +minutes before she sailed. Mr. Morganstein brought me along to hear my +report." + +"I guess we are all glad to have you home for Christmas," said Elizabeth. + +She moved on with her sister to meet the other guests who were trooping +into the hall, and Foster found himself taking Mrs. Weatherbee's hand. His +own shook a little, and suddenly he was unable to say any of the friendly, +solicitous things he had found it so easy to express to these other +people, after his long absence; only his young eyes, searching her face +for any traces of care or anxiety the season may have left, spoke +eloquently. Afterwards, when the greetings were over, and the women +trailed away to their rooms, he saw he had forgotten to give her a package +which he had carried up from the _Aquila_, and hurried to overtake her at +the foot of the stairs. + +"It was brought down by messenger from Vivian Court for you," he +explained, "just as we were casting off, and I took charge of it. There is +a letter, you see, which the clerk has tucked under the string." + +The package was a florist's carton, wide and deep, with the name Hollywood +Gardens printed across the violet cover, but the letter was postmarked +Washington, D.C. "Violets!" she exclaimed softly, "'when violet time is +gone.'" + +Her whole lithe body seemed to emanate a subdued pleasure, and settling +the box, unopened, in the curve of her arm, she started up the staircase. +Foster, looking up, caught the glance she remembered to send from the +gallery railing. Her smile was radiant. + +She did not turn on the electric switch when she closed her door; the +primrose walls reflected the light from the great plate-glass window, with +the effect of candle glow. She put the box on a table near the casement +and laid the letter aside to lift the lid. The perfume of violets rose in +her face like liberated incense. The box was filled with them; bunches on +bunches. She bent her cheek to feel the cool touch of them; inhaled their +fragrance with deep, satisfying breaths. Presently she found the florist's +envelope and in it Tisdale's card. And she read, written under the name in +a round, plain woman's hand, "This is to wish you a Merry Christmas and +let you know I have not forgotten the project." + +The sparkle went out of her face. After a moment she picked up the letter +and compared the address with the writing on the card. It was the same +and, seating herself by the window, she broke the seal. When she had read +the first line under the superscription, she stopped to look at the +signature. It was Katherine Purdy. She turned back and began again: + +"_My dear Mrs. Weatherbee:_ + +"I am the night nurse on Mr. Tisdale's ward. He dictated the message on +his card to me, and I learned your address through ordering the violets of +the Seattle florist for him. It set me wondering whether he has ever let +you know how desperate things were with him. He is the most unselfish man +I ever saw, and the bravest that ever came on this floor. The evening he +arrived the surgeons advised amputating his hand--it was a case of +blood-poisoning--but he said, 'No, I am ready to take the risk; that right +hand is more than half of me, my better half.' He could joke, even then. +And when the infection spread to the arm, it was the same. After that it +was too late to operate; just a question of endurance. And he could endure +all right. My, but he was patient! I wish you could have seen him, as I +did, lying here hour after hour, staring at the ceiling, asking for +nothing, when every nerve in his body must have been on fire. But he won +through. He is lying here still, weak and pale enough, but safe. + +"Maybe I seem impertinent, and I suppose I am young and foolish, but I +don't care; I wouldn't be hard as nails, like some in this clinic, if it +was to cost me my diploma. I came from the Pacific west--I am going back +there as soon as I graduate--and a girl from there never can learn to +bottle her feelings till she looks like a graven image. Besides, I know I +am writing to a western woman. But I want to say right here he never made +a confidant of me, never said one word, intentionally, about you, but +there were nights when his temperature was running from a hundred and four +degrees that he got to talking some. Most of the time he was going all +over that terrible trip to find poor Mr. Weatherbee, and once, when he was +hunting birds along some glacier, he kept hearing David singing and +calling him. Again he was just having the best, quiet little visit with +him. My, how he loved that man! And when it wasn't David, it was you. 'I +know you couldn't marry a man like Morgan,' he said. 'You may think so, +but you will not when the time comes.' And once it was, 'Beatrice, +Beatrice, in spite of everything I can't help believing in you.' Then one +night, his worst before the crisis, he seemed to be helping you through +some awful danger, it was a storm I think, and there were wild beasts and +mountains, and at last when it was all over, he said quietly: 'You do owe +your life to me, but I shall never hold you to the debt; that would be too +monstrous.' And a little later it was, 'Head high, hold fast, it will be a +stiff fight, soldier. My dear, my dear, do you think I don't know how near +you came to loving me?' I guess you know how he said that. There are +certain tones in his voice that sink straight to the bottom of your heart; +I couldn't keep from crying. And it seems to me that if you really knew +how much he thought of you, and how sick he had been, and how he has +wanted you, nothing could keep you from packing up and coming straight to +Washington. I know I should. I could go anywhere, through Alaska or the +Great Sahara, it wouldn't matter which, for a man, if there is one in this +world, who could love me that well." + +Beatriz Weatherbee folded the letter and replaced it in the envelope. The +action was mechanical, and she sat twisting it with a kind of silent +emphasis, looking out into the thick atmosphere. A dash of hail struck the +window; the plate glass grew opaque. Then, suddenly, she lifted her arms +to the table and dropped her face; her body shook. It was as though she +had come at last to her blank wall; the inevitable she had so persistently +evaded was upon her; there was no escape. + +Presently some one knocked. And instantly her intrepid spirit was up, on +guard. She sat erect and pressed her handkerchief swiftly to her eyes. +Then Marcia Feversham opened the door and, finding the button, flashed on +the lights. + +"Why, Beatriz," she exclaimed. "Are you here in the dark? You must have +fallen asleep in your chair." + +"And dreaming." She rose, shading her eyes from the sudden glare. "But it +was a wretched dream, Marcia; I am glad you wakened me. Where is +Elizabeth?" + +"Making Frederic's cocktail. He needed a bracer to go through a business +meeting with Stuart Foster; but she will be here directly. I thought, +since we are to share your rooms, we had better dress early to be out of +the way. And I sent Celeste in to the Hallidays; Elizabeth can do +everything for me." + +"Much better than Celeste," she agreed. "And while you are busy, I shall +go for a bracing little walk." + +"A walk?" echoed Marcia in astonishment. "Why, it's storming. Hear that!" + +Another burst of hail struck the window. Mrs. Weatherbee turned, +listening, and so avoiding Marcia's penetrating eyes, dropped her hand +from her own. "I have my raincoat and cap," she said, "and a smart brush +with the wind will clear my head of cobwebs." + +With this she hurriedly smoothed the letter and laid it between the pages +of a book; lifting the violets from the table, she carried them out of the +steam-heated apartment to the coolness of the sleeping-porch. Mrs. +Feversham followed to the inner room and stood watching her through the +open door. + +"Violets!" she exclaimed. "At Christmas! From wherever did they come?" + +"From Hollywood Gardens," she responded almost eagerly. "Isn't it +marvelous how they make the out-of-season flowers bloom? But this flurry +of hail is the end of the storm, Marcia; the clouds are breaking, and it +is light enough to see the path above the pergola. I shall have time to go +as far as the observatory." + +Before she finished speaking, she was back in the room and hurrying on her +raincoat. Mrs. Feversham began to lay out various toilet accessories, but +presently, when the gallery door closed behind Beatriz, she walked to the +table near the plate-glass window and picked up the book. It was a +morocco-bound edition of Omar's _Rubaiyat_, which she had often noticed at +the apartment in Vivian Court, yet she studied the title deliberately, and +also the frontispiece, before she turned to the pages that enclosed the +letter. But it was natural that, holding both her brother's and Beatriz +Weatherbee's interests so at heart, her scruples should be finally +dispelled, and she laid the volume face down, to keep the place, while she +read the night nurse's unclinical report. After that she went to the box +of violets in the sleeping-porch and found Tisdale's message, and she had +slipped the card carefully back and stood looking meditatively off through +the open casement when her sister entered from the gallery. At the same +time Mrs. Weatherbee appeared on the path above the pergola. But she had +not escaped to the solitude she so evidently had desired, for Foster +accompanied her. When they stopped to look down on the villa and the +little cove where the _Aquila_ rocked at her moorings, Marcia waved her +hand gaily, then turned to the brilliant room. + +Elizabeth met her at the threshold. "What has sent Beatriz out in this +weather?" she asked. + +"Why, you see,"--Marcia answered with a little backward gesture to the +figures on the slope,--"since this is Stuart Foster's first visit to the +villa, he must be personally conducted through the park." + +"She tried her best to discourage him. They were standing at the side +entrance when I came through the dining-room. She warned him first +impressions were everything and that it would be blowing a gale at the +observatory; besides, if Frederic was waiting, she would not be +responsible." + +"But, 'come what will, what may'"--and meeting her sister's look, Marcia's +eyes gathered brilliancy--"the man must have his hour." + +"That is what he told her. He said the syndicate had had his time and +brains, he might as well add his soul, for three months steady, and now he +was entitled to his hour. I wonder--" Elizabeth's even voice wavered--"Do +you think she will refuse him?" + +"I haven't a doubt." And Marcia crossed to the dressing-table and began to +remove the shell pins from her glossy black hair. + +"She seemed so changed," pursued Elizabeth following. "So, well, anxious, +depressed, and you know how gay she was at the time the _Aquila_ came. And +I happened to be near them when we started up-stairs. It was plain she was +glad to see him. But he gave her a package that had been forwarded from +Vivian Court. There was a letter; it may have been from Lucky Banks." + +Marcia was silent. She lifted her brush and swept it the length of her +unbound hair. + +"If it was," resumed Elizabeth, "if he has experimented far enough and +wants to forfeit that bonus, I am going to buy that piece of Wenatchee +desert myself. The Novelty mills will pay me enough for my tide lands." + +"No, Elizabeth. You will hold on to your tide lands, every foot." Mrs. +Feversham paused to watch her sister's eyes capitulate under the batteries +of her own, then said: "But you need not worry; Frederic will probably +take that option off Lucky Banks' hands. Now, please do my puffs; high, +you know, so as to use the paradise aigrette." + +Foster, too, had felt the change in Mrs. Weatherbee's mood since he left +her at the foot of the staircase; the exhilaration that had been so +spontaneous then, that had seemed to expand to take him in, was now so +manifestly forced. And presently it came over him she was making +conversation, saying all these neutral things about the villa and grounds +to safeguard the one vital thing she feared to have him touch. + +"Tell me about yourself," he interrupted at last. "You don't know how I've +worried about you; how I've blamed myself all these slow months for +leaving you as I did. Of course you understood the company decided to send +me in to the Iditarod suddenly, with only a few hours' notice, and to +reach the interior while the summer trails were passable I had to take the +steamer sailing that day. I tried to find you, but you were out of town; +so I wrote." + +"I received the letter," she responded quickly. "I want to thank you for +it; it was very pleasant indeed to feel the security of a friend in +reserve. But you had written if there was anything you could do, or if, +any time, I should need you to let you know, and there was no reason to. I +saw I had allowed you to guess the state of my finances; they had been a +little depressed, I confess, but soon after you sailed, I gave an option +on that desert land east of the Cascades and was paid a bonus of three +thousand dollars." + +"Then Tisdale did take that property off your hands, after all. I tried to +make myself believe he would; but his offer to buy hinged on the +practicability of that irrigation project." + +"I know. He found it was practicable to carry it out. But--I gave the +option to Mr. Banks." + +"Lucky Banks," questioned Foster incredulously, "of Iditarod? Why, he +talked of a big farming scheme in Alaska." + +"I do not know about that. But he had thought a great deal of David. They +had been partners, it seems, in Alaska. Once, in a dreadful blizzard, he +almost perished, and David rescued him. He knew about the project and +offered to make the payment of three thousand dollars to hold the land +until he found out whether the scheme was feasible. I needed the money +very much. There was a debt it was imperative to close. So I accepted the +bonus without waiting to let Mr. Tisdale know." + +Foster's brows clouded. "Well, why shouldn't you? Tisdale has himself to +blame, if he let his opportunity go." + +There was a silent interval. They had reached the brow of the bluff and, +coming into the teeth of the wind, she dipped her head and ran to gain the +shelter of the pavilion. Then, while she gathered her breath, leaning a +little on the parapet and looking off to the broad sweep of running sea, +Foster said: "It was that debt that worried me up there in the wilderness. +You had referred to it the evening after the theater, a week before I went +away. You called it a debt of honor. You laughed at the time, but you +warned me it was the hardest kind of debt because an obligation to a +friend kept one continually paying interest in a hundred small ways. You +said it was like selling yourself on a perpetual instalment plan. That +wasn't the first time you had spoken of it, but you seemed to feel the +pressure more that night and, afterwards, up there in the north, I got to +thinking it over. I blamed myself for not finding out the truth. I was +afraid the loan was Frederic Morganstein's." He paused and drew back a +step with a quick uplift of his aggressive chin. "Was it?" he asked. + +"Yes." She drew erect and turned from the parapet to meet his look. "My +note came into his hands. But I see I must explain. It began in a yearly +subscription to the Orthopedic hospital; the one, you know, for little +deformed children. I was very interested when the movement started; I sang +at concerts, danced sometimes you remember, to help along the fund. And I +endowed a little bed. David always seemed just on the brink of riches in +those days, his letters were full of brilliant predictions, but when the +second annual payment fell due, I had to borrow of Elizabeth. She +suggested it. She herself was interested deeper, financially, than I. All +the people we knew, who ever gave to charity, were eager to help the +Orthopedic; the ladies at the head were our personal friends; the best +surgeons were giving their services and time. I hadn't the courage to have +my subscription discontinued so soon, and I expected to cancel the debt +when I heard again from David. But the next spring it was the same; I +borrowed again from Elizabeth. After that, when she wanted to apply the +sum to the hospital building fund, Mrs. Feversham advanced the money, and +I gave my note. My bed, then, was given to a little, motherless boy. He +had the dearest, most trusting smile and great, dark eyes; the kind that +talk to you. And his father had deserted him. That seems incredible; that +a man can leave his own child, crippled, ill, unprovided for; but it does +happen, sometimes." She paused to steady her voice and looked off again +from the parapet. "The surgeons were greatly interested in the case," she +went on. "They were about to perform an unusual operation. All his future +depended on it. So--I let my subscription run on; so much could happen in +a year. The operation was a perfect success, and when the boy was ready to +go, one of the Orthopedic women adopted him. He is the happiest, sturdiest +little fellow now. + +"At the end of the summer when the note fell due Mrs. Feversham did not +care to renew it; she was going to Washington and wished to use the money +in New York. The desert tract was all I had, and when Mr. Morganstein +planned the motoring trip through the mountains and down to Portland, he +offered to take a day to look the land over. He did not want to encumber +himself with any more real estate, he said, but would advise me on its +possibilities for the market. An accident to the car in Snoqualmie Pass +obliged him to give up the excursion, and Marcia disposed of the note to +him. She said it could make little difference to me since her brother was +willing to let the obligation rest until I was ready to meet it. I do not +blame her; there are some things Marcia Feversham and I do not see in the +same light. It isn't so much through custom and breeding; it's the way we +were created, bone and spirit." Her voice broke but she laid her hand on +the parapet again with a controlling grasp and added evenly, "That is the +reason when Mr. Banks came I was so ready to accept his offer." + +"So, that was your debt of honor!" Foster began unsteadily; the words +caught in his throat, and for an instant her face grew indistinct through +the mist he could not keep back from his eyes. "You knew you were +traveling on thin ice; the break-up was almost on you, yet you handicapped +yourself with those foundlings. And you never told me. I could have taken +over that subscription, I should have been glad of the chance, you must +have known that, but you allowed me to believe it was a loan to cover +personal expenses." + +She met the reproach with a little fleeting smile. "There were times when +those accounts pressed, I am going to admit that, in justice to Elizabeth. +She always buoyed me through. I have known her intimately for years. We +were at Mills Seminary together, and even then she was the most +dependable, resourceful, generous girl in the school. I never should have +had the courage to dispose of things--for money--but she offered to. Once +it was the bracelet that had been my great-grandmother's; the serpent, you +remember, with jewelled scales and fascinating ruby eyes. The Japanese +consul bought it for his wife. And once it was that dagger the first +American Don Silva wore. The design was Moorish, you know, with a crescent +in the hilt of unique stones. The collector who wanted it promised to give +me the opportunity to redeem it if ever he wished to part with it, and +Elizabeth had the agreement written and signed." + +"Like a true Morganstein. But I knew how much she thought of you. I used +to remind myself, up there in the Iditarod wilderness, that you had her +clear, practical sense and executive ability to rely on." + +"That has been my one rare good-fortune; to have had Elizabeth. Not that I +depreciate my other friends," and she gave Foster another fleeting smile. +"There was Mrs. Brown who in the autumn, when I saw the necessity to give +up my apartment at Vivian Court, asked me to stay in exchange for piano +and dancing lessons. I had often taught her little girls for pleasure, +they were so sweet and lovable, when they visited in my rooms. Still, +afterwards, I learned the suggestion came from Elizabeth. Now you know +everything," she added with determined gaiety. "And I have had my draught +of ozone. We must hurry back, or they will wonder what has become of us." + +She turned to the path, and the young engineer followed in silence. He did +not know everything; deep in his heart the contradiction burned. Whatever +may have caused her exhilaration at the time the _Aquila_ arrived, it was +not his return, and while her explanations satisfied him that she was in +no immediate financial distress, he felt that her confidence covered +unplumbed depths she did not wish him to sound. + +They had reached the footbridge over the cascade when he said abruptly: +"After all, I am glad Lucky Banks got ahead on the irrigation project. He +will find it feasible, if any one can. He grew up on an Oregon farm, and +what he hasn't learned about sluicing in Alaska isn't worth knowing. It +leaves Hollis Tisdale no alternative." + +She turned waiting, with inquiry in her eyes. + +"I mean in regard to the Aurora. He hasn't the saving grace of an excuse, +now, not to convey that last half interest back to you." + +"I do not want a half interest in the Aurora mine." She drew herself very +straight, swaying a little on the balls of her feet. "You must not suggest +it. I should not accept it even through a United States court. It belongs +to Mr. Tisdale. He furnished the funds that made my husband's prospecting +trip possible. And all the gold in Alaska could not repay him for--what he +did. Sometimes, when I think of him alone on that terrible trail, he +stands out more than a man. Epics have been written on less; it was a +friendship to be glorified in some great painting or bronze. But then he +touched so lightly on his own part in the story; in the incense he burned +to David he was obscured." + +Foster stood watching her in surprise. The color that the wind had failed +to whip back to her cheeks burned now, two brilliant spots; raindrops, or +tears, hung trembling on her lashes, and through them flamed the blue +fires of her eyes. + +"So," he said slowly, "so, Tisdale did hunt you up, after all; and, of +course, you had the whole hard story from him." + +"I heard him tell it, yes, but he left out about the--wolves." + +"Wolves?" repeated Foster incredulously. "There were no wolves. Why, to be +overtaken by a pack, single-handed, on the trail, is the worst that can +happen to a man." + +She nodded. "Mr. Banks told me. He had talked with the miners who found +him. It was terrible." A great shudder ran through her body; for a moment +she pressed her fingers to her eyes, then she added with difficulty, +almost in a whisper: "He was defending David." + +"No, no! Great Scott! But see here,"--Foster laid his hand on her arm and +drew her on down the path, "don't try to tell me any more. I understand. +Banks shouldn't have told you. Come, remember Tisdale won through. He's +safe." + +After a silence, she said: "I doubt if you know how ill he has been." + +"Tisdale? No, I hadn't heard." + +"I only learned to-day; and he has been in a Washington hospital all these +months. The surgeons advised amputating his hand," she went on with a +tremulous breathlessness, "but he refused. He said he would take the risk; +that right hand was more than half of him, his 'better half.'" + +Involuntarily Foster smiled in recognition of that dominant note in +Tisdale. "But he never seemed more physically fit than on the night I left +Seattle," he expostulated. "And there isn't a man in Alaska who +understands the dangers and the precautions of frostbite better than +Hollis Tisdale does." + +"It was not frost; it was a vicious horse," she answered. "It happened +after you saw him, on that trip to Wenatchee, while he was leading the +vixen over a break in the road. We were obliged to spend the night at a +wretched way-house, and the hurt became infected." + +Foster stopped. "You were obliged to spend the night?" he inquired. + +"Yes. It happened in this way. Mr. Tisdale had taken the Milwaukee line +over the mountains, intending to finish the trip on horseback, to see the +country, and I, you remember, was motoring through Snoqualmie Pass with +the Morgansteins. His train barely missed colliding with our car. Mr. +Morganstein was injured, and the others took the westbound home with him, +but I decided to board the eastbound and go on by stage to Wenatchee, to +see my desert tract, and return by way of the Great Northern. I found the +stage service discontinued, so Mr. Tisdale secured a team instead of a +saddle-horse, and we drove across." + +"I see." Foster smiled again. So Tisdale had capitulated on sight. "I see. +You looked the tract over together, yet he hesitated with his offer." + +She did not answer directly. They had reached the pergola, and she put out +her hand groping, steadying herself through the shadows. "Mr. Tisdale +believed at the beginning I was some one else," she said then. "I was so +entirely different from his conception of David Weatherbee's wife. In the +end he offered to finance the project if I would see it carried through. I +refused." + +"Of course you refused," responded Foster quickly. "It was preposterous of +him to ask it of you. I can't understand it in Tisdale. He was always so +broad, so fine, so head and shoulders above other men, so, well, +chivalrous to women. But, meantime, while he hesitated, Banks came with +his offer?" + +"Yes. While he was desperately ill in that hospital. I--I don't know what +he will think of me--when he hears--" she went on with little, steadying +pauses. "It is difficult to explain. So much happened on that drive to the +Wenatchee valley. In the end, during an electrical storm, he saved me from +a falling tree. What he asked of me was so very little, the weight of a +feather, against all I owe him. Still, a woman does not allow even such a +man to finance her affairs; people never would have understood. Besides, +how could I have hoped, in a lifetime, to pay the loan? It was the most +barren, desolate place; a deep, dry gulf shut in by a wicked mountain--you +can't imagine--and I told him I never could live there, make it my home." +They were nearly through the pergola; involuntarily she stopped and, +looking up at Foster, the light from a Japanese lantern illumined her +small, troubled face. "But in spite of everything," she went on, "he +believes differently. To-day his first message came from Washington to +remind me he had not forgotten the project. How can I--when he is so ill-- +how can I let him know?" + +Foster had had his hour; and, at this final moment, he sounded those +hitherto unplumbed depths. "It will be all right," he said steadily; "wait +until you see what Lucky Banks does. You can trust him not to stand in +Tisdale's way. And don't think I underrate Hollis Tisdale. He is a man in +a thousand. No one knows that better than I. And that's why I am going to +hold him to his record." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +"AS MAN TO MAN" + + +In January, when Mrs. Feversham returned to Washington, her brother +accompanied her as far as Wenatchee. He went prepared to offer Banks as +high as five thousand dollars for his option. + +At that time the Weatherbee tract was blanketed in snow. It never drifted, +because Cerberus shut out the prevailing wind like a mighty door; even the +bench and the high ridge beyond lifted above the levels of the vale smooth +as upper floors. Previous to that rare precipitation, gangs of men, put to +work on both quarter sections, had removed the sage-brush and planted +trees, and the new orchard traced a delicate pattern on the white carpet +in rows and squares. Banks had hurried the concrete lining of the basin +walls, and when it became necessary to suspend construction on the flumes, +he saw with satisfaction that the reservoir would husband the melting +snows and so supply temporary irrigation in the early spring. All the +lumber estimates had been included in his orders for building material in +the autumn, and already the house on the bench showed a tiled roof above +its mission walls, while down the gap and midway up the side slope of +Cerberus rose the shingled gables of Annabel's home. + +To facilitate the handling of freight, the railroad company had laid a +siding at the nearest point in Hesperides Vale; then, for the convenience +of the workmen, the daily local made regular stops, and the little station +bore the name of Weatherbee. Later, at the beginning of the year, it had +become a post-office, and the Federal building included a general store. +Also, at that time, the girders of a new brick block rose on the adjoining +lots, and a sign secured to the basement wall announced: "This strictly +modern building will be completed about June first. For office and floor +space see Henderson Bailey." + +The financier, who had motored up the valley in a rented car, noted these +indications of an embryo town with interest. + +"Who is Henderson Bailey?" he asked. + +And the chauffeur answered with surprise: "Don't you know Bailey? Why, +he's the man that got in on the ground floor. He owns the heart of +Hesperides Vale. That was his apple orchard we passed, you remember, a few +minutes ago. But the man who is backing him on that brick block is Lucky +Banks of Alaska. They are pulling together, nip and tuck, for Weatherbee." + +"Nip--and Tuck," repeated Morganstein thoughtfully. "That reminds me of a +young team of bays I considered buying last fall, over at North Yakima. +Rather well named, if you knew 'em. But they were a little too gay for +Seattle hills and the lady I expected would drive 'em. George, though, +they made a handsome showing. A dealer named Lighter owned 'em, and they +won the blue ribbon for three-year-olds at Yakima and Spokane." + +"I know them," replied the chauffeur. "They are owned here in the valley +now; and Lucky Banks' wife is driving them. You can meet her most any day +speeling down to the Columbia to see her goats." + +"Goats?" queried Frederic. + +"Yes, sir. Didn't you know she used to keep a flock of Angoras up here? It +was her land before she was married. But when Banks turned up with his +pile and started the orchards, the goats had to go. It wouldn't have taken +them a week to chew up every stick he planted. So she hired a man to +winter them down on the Columbia, where she could keep an eye on them. +Strange," the chauffeur went on musingly, "what a difference clothes make +in a woman. Nobody noticed her much, only we thought she was kind of +touched, when she was herding those billies by herself up that pocket, but +the minute Banks came, she blossomed out; made us all sit up and take +notice. Yes, sir, she's sure some style. To see her in her up-to-date +motoring-coat, veil to match, cape gloves, and up behind that team, you'd +think the Empress of India had the road." + +"Just what I said first time I saw her," Morganstein chuckled thickly. "Or +I guess it was the Queen of Sheba I called her. Happened to be grand-opera +night, and she wore a necklace made of some of Banks' nuggets. George, she +could carry 'em; had the throat and shoulders. It isn't the clothes that +make the difference, my boy; it's the trick of wearing 'em. I know a slim +little thoroughbred, who puts on a plain gray silk like it was cloth of +gold. You'd think she was walking tiptoe to keep it off this darned old +earth. Lord, I'd like to see her in the real stuff. George, I'll do it, +soon's we're married," and he laughed deeply at the notion. "I'll order a +cloth of gold gown direct from Paris, and I'll set a diamond tiara on her +proud little head. Bet it don't out-sparkle her eyes. Lord, Lord, she'll +make 'em all stare." + +The chauffeur gave the financier a measuring glance from the corner of his +eye, but he puckered his lips discreetly to cover a grin, and with his +head still cocked sidewise, looked off to the lifting front of Cerberus, +whistling softly _Queen Among the Heather_. But the tune ceased abruptly +and, straightening like an unstrung bow, he swerved the machine out of the +thoroughfare and brought it to a stop. + +It was not the Empress of India who held the road, but little Banks in his +red car. Slackening speed, he shouted back above the noise of the exhaust: +"Hello! Is that you, Mr. Morganstein? I guess likely you're looking for +me. But I can't stop. I've got to catch the local for Wenatchee; the +eastbound don't make our station, and I'm booked for a little run through +to Washington, D.C." + +"That so?" answered Morganstein thoughtfully. "I came over just to look at +this orchard of yours. See here, wait a minute." He unbuttoned his heavy +coat and, finding a pocket, drew out a time-card. "You will have a couple +of hours to waste in Wenatchee between trains. Give me half an hour, long +enough to show me a bird's-eye view of the project--that's all I want in +this snow and I guarantee to put you in Wenatchee on time for your +eastbound. The road is in good shape; driver knows his car." + +Banks left his roadster and came over to the larger car. "I'll risk it +since you've broke trail," he said, taking the vacant seat behind. "But I +knew if I took chances with snow, in this contrary buzz-wagon of mine, +she'd likely skid off the first mean curve." + +Morganstein, laughing, changed his seat for the one beside the prospector. +"It's like this, dry and firm as a floor, straight through to Wenatchee. +These are great roads you have in this valley; wish we had 'em on the +other side the range." + +"I sent a scraper up from the station ahead of me," said Banks. "And, +driver, we may as well run up the switchback to the house. It's level +there, with room to turn. And it will give you the chance to see the whole +layout below," he went on, explaining to Morganstein. "The property on +this side the mountain belongs to my wife, but we ain't living here yet; +we are stopping with folks down by the station. Likely we'll move, soon's +I get back from my trip. That is, if the boys get busy. Seem's if I have +to keep after some of them all the time. To-day it's the lathers. I've got +to stop, going through Weatherbee, to tell my wife to have an eye on them. +They get paid by the bundle, and they told me this morning lathe would run +short before they was through. I knew I had ordered an extra hundred on +the architect's figgers, but I didn't say anything. Just prospected 'round +and came back unexpected, and caught one of them red-handed. He was +tucking a bunch between the ceiling and the upper floor, without even +cutting the string. I made them rip off the lathe, and there they were +stored thick, a full bundle to 'bout every three they'd nailed on." + +"That's the way," commented Morganstein, "every man of 'em will do you, if +he sees a chance. Mrs. Banks will have to keep both eyes open, if you are +leaving it to her. But it will be compensation to her, I guess, driving +those bays over from the station every day. Handsomest team in Washington. +I'll bet," and he turned his narrow eyes suddenly on Banks, "Lighter held +you up for all they were worth." + +"The team belongs to Hollis Tisdale," answered Banks. "He bought them at +Kittitas last fall and drove them through. They were in the valley when I +came, and he asked me to look after them while he was east. My wife +exercises them. She understands horses, my, yes. One of those colts had a +mean trick of snapping at you if you touched the bit, but she cured him +complete. And she took such a shine to that team I thought likely they'd +do for a Christmas present. Tisdale told me in the fall if I had a good +chance, to sell, so I wrote and made him an offer. But his answer never +came till last night. A nurse at the hospital in Washington wrote for him; +he had been laid up with a case of blood-poison all winter, and it started +from a nip that blame' colt gave him on the trip from Kittitas. He refused +my price because, seeing's the team wasn't safe for a full-sized man to +drive, it went against his conscience to let them go to a lady." + +"He was right," said Morganstein. "George, that was a lucky escape. I was +within an ace of buying that team myself. But I put down Tisdale's +sickness to frostbite; often goes that way with a man in the north." + +"Sure; it does." Banks paused, while his glance fell to the empty fingers +of his right glove. "But that colt, Nip, gets the credit this time. It +happened while Hollis was trying to lead him over a break in the road. He +said it didn't amount to anything, the night I saw him before he left +Seattle, but he had the hand bandaged, and I'd ought to have known it was +giving him trouble." + +Morganstein pondered a silent moment, then said slowly, "Kittitas is close +enough to be a suburb of Ellensburg, and that's where the Wenatchee stage +meets the Milwaukee Puget Sound train. Friend of mine made the trip about +that time; didn't say anything of a break in the road." + +"There's just one road through," answered Banks, "and that's the one they +used for hauling from the Northern Pacific line while this railroad was +building. Likely there was a stage then, but it ain't running now." + +Frederic pondered again, then a gleam of intelligence flashed in his eyes. +"Did Tisdale make that trip from Kittitas alone?" he asked. + +Banks shook his head. "He didn't mention any passengers. Likely it was +having to drive himself, after his hand was hurt, that did the mischief. +Anyhow, he's had a close call; fought it out sooner than let the doctors +take his hand; and he never let one of us boys know. That was just the way +with Dave Weatherbee; they was a team. But I'm going to look him up, now, +soon's I can. He had to get that nurse to write for him. Likely there +ain't a man around to tend to his business; he might be all out of money." + +"I guess, with the Aurora mine to back him, you needn't worry." + +The little man shook his head. "It will take more security than the Aurora +to open a bank account in Washington, D.C. I ain't saying anything against +Dave Weatherbee's strike," he added quickly, "but, when you talk Alaska to +those fellows off there in the east, they get cold feet." + +Morganstein looked off, chuckling his appreciation. They had arrived at +the final curve; on one side, rising from the narrow shoulder, stood +Annabel's new home, while on the other the mountain sloped abruptly to +Weatherbee's vale. Banks pointed out the peach orchard on the bench at the +top of the pocket; the rim of masonry, pushing through the snow, that +marked the reservoir; the apple tract below. + +"I see," said Frederic, "and this mountain we are on must be the one Mrs. +Weatherbee noticed, looking down from that bench. Reminded her of some +kind of a beast!" + +Banks nodded. "It looked like a cross between a cougar and a husky in the +fall. One place you catch sight of two heads. But she'll be tamer in the +spring, when things begin to grow. There's more peaches, set in narrow +terraces where the road cross-cuts down there, and all these small +hummocks under the snow are grapes. It's warm on this south slope and +sheltered from the frosts; the vines took right ahold; and, with fillers +of strawberries hurrying on the green, Dave's wife won't know the mountain +by summer, my, no." + +"Presume," said the financier abruptly, "you expect to supply both tracts +with water from those springs?" + +"My, no. This quarter section belongs to my wife, and it's up to me to +make the water connections safe for her. I can do it." Banks set his lips +grimly, and his voice shrilled a higher key. "Yes, sir, even if I have to +tunnel through from the Wenatchee. But I think likely I'll tap the new +High Line and rig a flume with one of these new-style electric pumps. And +my idea would be to hollow out a nice little reservoir, with maybe a +fountain, right here on this shoulder alongside the house, and let a +sluice and spillways follow the road down. There'd be water handy then, +and to spare, in case Dave's springs happen to pinch out." + +Morganstein's glance moved slowly over the sections of road cross-cutting +the mountain below, and on up the vale to the distant bench. Presently he +said: "What are you building over there? A barn, or is it a winery for +your grapes?" + +"It's neither," answered Banks with sharp emphasis. "It's a regular, +first-class house. Dave Weatherbee was counting on striking it rich in +Alaska when he drew the plans. The architect calls it California-Spanish +style. The rooms are built around a court, and we are piping for the +fountain now." + +Frederic grew thoughtful. Clearly an offer of five thousand dollars for +Lucky Banks' option on the Weatherbee tract was inadequate. After a moment +he said: "What is it going to cost you?" + +"Well, sir, counting that house complete, without the furniture, seven +thousand would be cheap." + +After that the financier was silent. He looked at his watch, as they +motored down Cerberus, considering, perhaps, the probabilities of a +telegram reaching Marcia; but he did not make the venture when they +arrived in Wenatchee, and the nearest approach he made to that offer was +while he and Banks were waiting at the station for their separate trains. +They were seated together on a bench at the time, and Frederic, having +lighted a cigar, drew deeply as though he hoped to gather inspiration. +Then he edged closer and, dropping his heavy hand on the little +prospector's shoulder, said thickly: "See here, tell me this, as man to +man, if you found both those tracts too big to handle, what would you take +for your option on the Weatherbee property?" + +And Banks, edging away to the end of the seat, answered sharply: "I can +handle both; my option ain't for sale." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE DAY OF PUBLICATION + + +It was a mild evening, the last in February, and Jimmie, who had received +two copies of the March issue of _Sampson's Magazine_ direct from the +publisher, celebrated the event by taking the Society Editor canoeing on +Lake Washington. Instead of helping with the bow paddle, of which she was +fully capable, Miss Atkins settled against the pillows facing him, with +the masterpiece in her lap. The magazine was closed, showing his name +among the specially mentioned on the cover, but she kept the place with +her finger. She had a pretty hand, and it was adorned by the very best +diamond that could be bought at Hanson's for one hundred and fifty +dollars. + +She waited, watching Jimmie's stroke, while the Peterboro slipped out from +the boathouse and rose quartering to the swells of a passing launch. Her +hat was placed carefully behind her in the bow, and the light wind +roughened her hair, which was parted on the side, into small rings on her +forehead. It gave her an air of boyish camaraderie, and the young author's +glance, moving from the magazine and the ring, swept her whole trim figure +to the mannish, flat-heeled little shoes, and returned to her face. "This +is my red-letter day," he said. + +"It's the proudest in my life," answered Geraldine, and the way in which +she said it made him catch his breath. + +"It makes me feel almost sure enough to cut loose from the _Press_ and go +into business for myself." + +"Oh, I shouldn't be in a hurry to leave the paper, if I were you," she +replied, "even though _Sampson's_ has asked to see more of your work." + +"It isn't the magazine opening I am considering; though I shall do what I +can in that way, of course. But what would you think of an offer to take +full charge of a newspaper east of the Cascades? It's so." He paused, +nodding in emphasis to the confirmation. "The letter is there in my coat +pocket. It's from Bailey--you remember that young fellow I told you about +who made an investment in the Wenatchee valley. Well, it seems they have +incorporated a town on some of that property. His city lots are selling so +fast he has raised the price three times. And they have put him up for +mayor. He says it's mighty hard to run an election without a newspaper, +and even if it's a late start, we will be ready next time. And the valley +needs advertising; people in the east don't know where Wenatchee apples +grow. You understand. He will finance a newspaper--or rather he and Lucky +Banks are going to--if I will take the management. He is holding offices +now, in a brick block that is building, until he hears from me." + +"Is it in Hesperides Vale, where the Bankses live?" + +"Yes. The name of the town is Weatherbee. And I heard from that little +miner, too." Jimmie paused, smiling at the recollection. "It was a kind of +supplement to Bailey's letter. He thought likely I could recommend some +young fellow to start a newspaper. A married man was preferred, as it was +a new camp and in need of more ladies." + +Geraldine laughed, flushing softly, "Isn't that just like him?" she said. +"I can see his eyes twinkling." + +"It sounds rather good to me," Jimmie went on earnestly. "I have +confidence in Bailey. And it was mother's dream, you know, to see me +establish a paper over there; it would mean something to me to see it +realized--but--do you think you could give up your career to help me +through?" + +Geraldine was silent, and Jimmie leaned forward a little, resting on his +stroke. "I know I am not worth it, but so far as that goes, neither was my +father; yet mother gave up everything to back him. She kept him on that +desert homestead the first five years, until he proved up and got his +patent, and he might have stayed with it, been rich to-day, if she had +lived." + +"Of course I like you awfully well," said Geraldine, flushing pinkly, "and +it isn't that I haven't every confidence in you, but--I must take a little +time to decide." + +A steamer passed, and Jimmie resumed his strokes, mechanically turning the +canoe out of the trough. Geraldine opened the magazine and began to scan +the editor's note under the title. "Why," she exclaimed tremulously, "did +you know about this? Did you see the proofs?" + +"No. What is the excitement? Isn't it straight?" + +"Listen!" Miss Atkins sat erect; the cushion dropped under her elbow; her +lips closed firmly between the sentences she read. + +"'This is one of those true stories stranger than fiction. This man, who +wantonly murdered a child in his path and told of it for the amusement of +a party of pleasure-seekers aboard a yacht on Puget Sound, who should be +serving a prison sentence to-day, yet never came to a trial, is Hollis +Tisdale of the Geographical Survey; a man in high favor with the +administration and the sole owner of the fabulously rich Aurora mine in +Alaska. The widow of his partner who made the discovery and paid for it +with his life is penniless. Strange as it may seem--for the testimony of a +criminal is not allowable in a United States court--Hollis Tisdale has +been called as a witness for the Government in the pending Alaska coal +trials!" + +The Society Editor met Jimmie's appalled gaze. "It sounds muckraky," she +commented, still tremulously. "But these new magazines have to do +something to get a hold. This is just to attract public attention." + +"They'll get that, when Tisdale brings a suit for libel. Hope he will do +it, and that the judgment will swamp them. They must have got his name +from Mrs. Feversham." + +"It looks political," said Geraldine conciliatingly, "as though they were +striking through him at the administration." + +"Go on," said Jimmie recklessly. "Let's have it over with." + +And Geraldine launched quickly into the story. It had been mercilessly and +skilfully abridged. All those undercurrents of feeling, which Jimmie had +faithfully noted, had been suppressed; and of David Weatherbee, whom +Tisdale had made the hero of the adventure, there was not a word. + +"Great guns!" exclaimed the unfortunate author at the finish. "Great-- +guns!" + +But Geraldine said nothing. She only closed the magazine and pushed it +under the pillow out of sight. There was a long silence. A first star +appeared and threw a wavering trail on the lake. Jimmie, dipping his +paddle mechanically, turned the Peterboro into this pale pathway. The +pride and elation had gone out of his face. His mouth drooped +disconsolately. + +"And you called this your proudest day," he broke out at last. + +An unexpected gentleness crept over the Society Editor's countenance. "It +would be great to help create a city," she said then. "To start with it +ourselves, at the foundations and grow." And she added very softly, with a +little break in her voice: "I've decided to resign and go to Weatherbee." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +SNOWBOUND IN THE ROCKIES AND "FIT AS A MOOSE" + + +Tisdale, who was expected to furnish important testimony in the Alaska +coal cases, had been served official notice at the hospital during Banks' +visit. The trial was set for the twenty-fourth of March and in Seattle. + +The prospector had found him braced up in bed, and going over the final +proof of his Matanuska report, with the aid of a secretary. "You better go +slow, Hollis," he said. "You are looking about as reliable as your shadow. +Likely the first puff of a wind would lift you out of sight. My, yes. But +I just ran over to say hello, and let you know if it's the expense that's +hurrying you, there's a couple of thousand in the Wenatchee bank I can't +find any use for, now the water-works are done and the house. You can have +it well's not. It ain't drawing any interest." And Tisdale had taken the +little man's hand between both his own and called him "true gold." But he +was in no pressing need of money, though it was possible he might delay in +refunding those sums Banks had advanced on the project. He was able enough +to be on his feet, but these doctors were cautious; it might be another +month before he would be doing a man's work. + +He started west, allowing himself ample time to reach Seattle by the +fifteenth of March, when Banks' option expired, but the fourteenth found +him, after three days of delay by floods, snowbound in the Rockies. The +morning of the fifteenth, while the rotaries were still clearing track +ahead, he made his way back a few miles to the nearest telegraph station +and got into communication with the mining man. + +"How are you?" came the response from Weatherbee. "Done for? Drop off at +Scenic Hot Springs, if your train comes through. She wrote she was there. +Came up with a little crowd for the coasting. Take care of yourself, and +here is to you. + +"Lucky." + +And Tisdale, with the genial wrinkles deepening at the corners of his eyes +once more, wired: "Fit as a moose. Go fifteenth. Close business." + +A judge may pronounce a sentence yet, at the same time, feel ungovernable +springs of sympathy welling from the depths of his heart, and while +Tisdale pushed his way back to the stalled train, he went over the +situation from Beatriz Weatherbee's side. He knew what the sale of that +desert tract must mean to her; how high her hopes had flown since the +payment of the bonus. Looking forward to that final interview when, +notwithstanding his improvements, Banks should relinquish his option, he +weighed her disappointment. In imagination he saw the light go out of her +eyes; her lip, that short upper lip with its curves of a bow, would quiver +a little, and the delicate nostril; then, instantly, before she had spoken +a word, her indomitable pride would be up like a lifted whip, to sting her +into self-control. Oh, she had the courage; she would brave it out. Still, +still, he had intended to be there, not only to press the ultimate +purpose, but to--ease her through. Banks might be abrupt. He was sorry. He +was so sorry that though he had tramped, mushed a mile, he faced about, +and, in the teeth of a bitter wind, returned to the station. + +The snow was falling thickly; it blurred his tracks behind him; the crest +of a drift was caught up and carried, swirling, into the railroad cut he +had left, and a great gust tore into the office with him. The solitary +operator hurried to close the door and, shivering, stooped to put a huge +stick of wood in the stove. "It's too bad," he said. "Forgot the main +point, I suppose. If this keeps up, and your train moves to-morrow, it +will be through a regular snow canyon. I just got word your head rotary is +out of commission, but another is coming up from the east with a gang of +shovellers. They'll stop here for water. It's a chance for you to ride +back to your train." + +"Thank you, I will wait," Tisdale answered genially. "But I like walking +in this mountain air. I like it so well that if the blockade doesn't lift +by to-morrow, I am going to mush through and pick up a special to the +coast." + +While he spoke, he brushed the snow from his shoulders and took off his +hat and gloves. He stood another moment, rubbing and pinching his numb +hands, then went over to the desk and filled a telegraph blank. He laid +down the exact amount of the charges in silver, to which he added five +dollars in gold. + +The operator went around the counter and picked up the money. For an +instant his glance, moving from the message, rested on Tisdale's face in +curious surprise. This man surely enjoyed the mountain air. He had tramped +back in the teeth of a growing blizzard to send an order for violets to +Hollywood Gardens, Seattle. The flowers were to be expressed to a lady at +Scenic Hot Springs. + +After that Tisdale spent an interval moving restlessly about the room. He +read the advertisements on the walls, studied the map of the Great +Northern route, and when the stove grew red-hot, threw open the door and +tramped the platform in the piping wind. Finally, when the keyboard was +quiet, the operator brought him a magazine. The station did not keep a +news-stand, but a conductor on the westbound had left this for him to +read. There was a mighty good yarn--this was it--"The Tenas Papoose." It +was just the kind when a man was trying to kill time. + +Tisdale took the periodical. No, he had not seen it aboard the train; +there were so many of these new magazines, it was hard to choose. He +smiled at first, that editor's note was so preposterous, so plainly +sensational; or was it malicious? He re-read it, knitting his brows. Who +was this writer Daniels? His mind ran back to that day aboard the +_Aquila_. Aside from the Morgansteins and Mrs. Weatherbee, there had been +no one else in the party until the lieutenant was picked up at Bremerton, +after the adventure was told. But Daniels--he glanced back to be sure of +the author's name--James Daniels. Now he remembered. That was the +irrepressible young fellow who had secured the photographs in Snoqualmie +Pass at the time of the accident to the Morganstein automobile; who had +later interviewed Mrs. Weatherbee on the train. Had he then sought her at +her hotel, ostensibly to present her with a copy of the newspaper in which +those illustrations were published, and so ingratiated himself far enough +in her favor to gather another story from her? + +Tisdale went over to a chair near the window and began to go over those +abridged columns. He turned the page, and his lips set grimly. At last he +closed the magazine and looked off through the drifting snow. He had been +grossly misrepresented, and the reason was clear. + +This editor, struggling to establish a new periodical, had used Daniels' +material to attract the public eye. He may even have had political +ambitions and aimed deeper to strike the administration through him. He +may have taken this method to curry favor with certain moneyed men. Still, +still, what object had there been in leaving Weatherbee completely out of +the story? Weatherbee, who should have carried the leading role; who, +lifting the adventure high above the sensational, had made it something +fine. + +Again his thoughts ran back to that cruise on the _Aquila_. He saw that +group on the after-deck; Rainier lifting southward like a phantom mountain +over the opal sea; and westward the Olympics, looming clear-cut, vivid as +a scene in the tropics; the purplish blue of the nearer height sharply +defined against the higher amethyst slope that marked the gorge of the +Dosewallups. This setting had brought the tragedy to his mind, and to +evade the questions Morganstein pressed, he had commenced to relate the +adventure. But afterwards he had found himself going into the more +intimate detail with a hope of reviving some spark of appreciation of +David in the heart of his wife. And he had believed that he had. Still, +who else, in all that little company, could have had any motive in leaving +out Weatherbee? Why had she told the story at all? She was a woman of +great self-control, but also she had depths of pride. Had she, in the high +tide of her anger or pique, taken this means to retaliate for the +disappointment he had caused her? + +The approaching work-train whistled the station. He rose and went back to +the operator's desk and filled another blank. This time he addressed a +prominent attorney, and his close friend, in Washington, D.C. And the +message ran: + +"See _Sampson's Magazine_, March, page 330. Find whether revised or +Daniels' copy." + +Toward noon the following day the express began to crawl cautiously out, +with the rotaries still bucking ahead, through the great snow canyons. The +morning of the sixteenth he had left Spokane with the great levels of the +Columbia desert stretching before him. And that afternoon at Wenatchee, +with the white gates of the Cascades a few hours off, a messenger called +his name down the aisle. The answer had come from his attorney. The story +was straight copy; published as received. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE IDES OF MARCH + + +In order to prepare for the defense, Miles Feversham, accompanied by his +wife, arrived in Seattle the first week in March. The month had opened +stormy, with heavy rains, and to bridge the interval preceding the trial, +Marcia planned an outing at Scenic Hot Springs where, at the higher +altitude, the precipitation had taken the form of snow, and the hotel +advertised good skeeing and tobogganing. "Make the most of it," she +admonished Frederic; "it's your last opportunity. If Lucky Banks forfeits +his bonus, and you can manage to keep your head and use a little +diplomacy, we may have the engagement announced before the case comes up." + +Though diplomacy was possible only through suggestion, Frederic was a +willing and confident medium. He knew Mrs. Weatherbee had notified Banks +she was at Scenic and, watching her that day of the fifteenth, he was at +first puzzled and then encouraged that, as the hours passed and the +prospector failed to come, her spirits steadily rose. + +Elizabeth betrayed more anxiety. At evening she stood at the window in +Beatriz's room, watching the bold front of the mountain which the Great +Northern tracks crosscut to Cascade tunnel, when the Spokane local rounded +the highest curve and dropped cautiously to the first snow-sheds. The +bluffs between were too sheer to accumulate snow, and against the dark +background the vague outlines of the cars passed like shadows; the +electric lights, blazing from the coaches, produced the effect of an +aërial, fiery dragon. Then, in the interval it disappeared, an eastbound +challenged from the lower gorge, and the monster rushed from cover, +shrieking defiance; the pawing clamp of its trucks roused the +mountainside. "There is your last westbound," she said. "If your option +man isn't aboard, he forfeits his bonus. But you will be ahead the three +thousand dollars and whatever improvements he may have made." + +Mrs. Weatherbee stood at the mirror fastening a great bunch of violets at +her belt. There was a bouquet of them on the dresser, and a huge bowl +filled with them and relieved by a single red rose stood on the table in +the center of the room. "That is what troubles me," she replied, and +ruffled her brows. "It seems so unjust that he should lose so much; that I +should accept everything without compensating him." + +Elizabeth smiled. "I guess he meant to get what he could out of the +investment, but afterwards, when he married and found his wife owned the +adjoining unreclaimed tract, it altered the situation. It called for +double capital and, if he hesitated and it came to a choice, naturally her +interests would swing the balance." + +"No doubt," admitted Beatriz. "And in that case,"--she turned from the +mirror to watch the train--"I might deed her a strip of ground where it +was discovered her tract overlapped David's. That would be a beginning." + +"See here." Elizabeth turned, and for an instant the motherhood deep in +her softened the masculine lines of her face. "Don't you worry about Lucky +Banks. Perhaps he did go into the project to satisfy his conscience, but +the deal was his, and he had the money to throw away. Some men get their +fun making over the earth. When one place is finished, they lose interest +and go looking for a chance to put their time and dollars into improving +somewhere else. Besides,"--and she took this other woman into her abrupt +and rare embrace--"I happen to know he had an offer for his option and +refused a good price. Now, come, Marcia and Frederic have gone down to the +dining-room, you know. They were to order for us." + +But Beatriz was in no hurry. "The train is on the bridge," she said and +caught a quick breath. "Do you hear? It is stopping at the station." + +Elizabeth, waiting at the open door, answered: "We can see the new +arrivals, if there are any, when we go through the lobby." + +Mrs. Weatherbee started across the room, but at the table she stopped to +bend over the bowl of violets, inhaling their fragrance. "Aren't they +lovely and--prodigal enough to color whole fields?" + +Elizabeth laughed. "Frederic must have ordered wholesale, or else he +forgot they were in season." + +Beatriz lifted her face. "Did Mr. Morganstein send these violets?" she +asked. "I thought--but there was no card." + +"Why, I don't know," said Elizabeth, "but who else would have ordered +whole fields of them?" + +Mrs. Weatherbee was silent, but she smiled a little as she followed +Elizabeth from the room. When they reached the foot of the staircase, the +lobby was nearly deserted; if the train had left any guests, they had been +shown already to their rooms. + +The Morganstein table was at the farther end of the dining-room, but +Frederic, who was watching the door when the young women entered, at once +noticed the violets at Mrs. Weatherbee's belt. + +"Must have been sent from Seattle on that last eastbound," he commented, +frowning. "Say, Marcia, why didn't you remind me to order some flowers +from town?" + +Marcia's calculating eyes followed his gaze. "You would not have +remembered she is fond of violets, and they seem specially made for her; +you would have ordered unusual orchids or imported azaleas." + +Frederic laughed uneasily, and a purplish flush deepened in his cheeks. "I +always figure the best is never too good for her. Not that the highest +priced makes so much difference with her. Look at her, now, will you? +Wouldn't you think, the way she carries herself, that little gray gown was +a coronation robe? George, but she is game! Acts like she expects Lucky +Banks to drop in with a clear fifty thousand, when the chances are he's +gone back on his ten. Well," he said, rising as she approached, to draw +out her chair, "what do you think about your customer now? Too bad. I bet +you've spent his Alaska dust in anticipation a hundred times over. Don't +deny it," he held up his heavy hand in playful warning as he resumed his +chair. "Speculated some myself on what you'd do with it. George, I'd like +to see the reins in your hands for once, and watch you go. You'd set us a +pace; break all records." + +"Oh, no, no," she expostulated in evident distress. "I shouldn't care to-- +set the pace--if I were to come into a kingdom; please don't think that. I +have wanted to keep up, I admit; to hold my own. I have been miserably +afraid sometimes of being left behind, alone, crowded out, beaten." + +"Beaten? You? I guess not. Bet anybody ten to one you'll be in at the +finish, I don't care who's in the field, even if you drop in your traces +next minute. And I bet if this sale does fall through to-night, you'll be +looking up, high as ever, to-morrow, setting your heart on something else +out of reach." + +"Out of reach?" she responded evenly, arching her brows. "You surprise me. +You have led me to believe I am easy to please." + +"So you are," he capitulated instantly, "in most ways. All the same, you +carry the ambitions of a duchess buttoned under that gray gown. But I like +you for it; like you so well I'm going to catch myself taking that +property off your hands, if Banks goes back on you." + +He leaned towards her as he said this, smiling and trying to hold her +glance, but she turned her face and looked off obliviously across the +room. There were moments when even Frederic Morganstein was conscious of +the indefinable barrier beyond which lay intrenched, an untried and +repelling force. He straightened and, following her gaze, saw Lucky Banks +enter the door. + +Involuntarily Elizabeth started, and Mrs. Feversham caught a quick breath. +"At the eleventh hour," she said then, and her eyes met her brother's. +"Yes or no?" they telegraphed. + +It was the popular hour, an orchestra was playing, and the tables were +well filled, but the mining man, marshalled by a tall and important head +waitress, drew himself straight and with soldierly precision came down the +room as far as the Morganstein group. There, recognizing Mrs. Weatherbee, +he stopped and, with the maimed hand behind him, made his short, swift +bow. "I guess likely you gave me up," he said in his high key, "but I +waited long's I dared for the through train. She's been snowed under three +days in the Rockies. They had her due at Wenatchee by two-fifteen; then it +was put off to five, and when the local came along, I thought I might as +well take her." + +Mrs. Weatherbee, who had started to rise, settled back in her chair with a +smile. "I had given you up, Mr. Banks," she said not quite steadily. + +Then Morganstein said: "How do, Banks," and offered his hand. "Just in +time to join us. Ordered saddle of Yakima lamb, first on the market, +dressing of fine herbs, for the crowd. Suits you, doesn't it?" + +To which the little prospector responded: "My, yes, first class, but I +don't want to put you out." + +"You won't," Frederic chuckled; "couldn't do it if you tried." + +But it was Elizabeth who rose to make room for the extra chair on her side +of the table, and who inquired presently after his wife. + +"Mrs. Banks is fine," he answered, his bleak face glowing. "My, yes, seems +like she makes a better showing now than she did at the Corners seven +years back." + +"Still driving those bays?" asked Frederic. + +The mining man nodded with reluctance. "It's no use to try to get her to +let 'em alone long's they are on the place, and I couldn't sneak 'em away; +she was always watching around. She thinks Tisdale will likely sell when +he sees she can manage the team." + +"So," laughed Morganstein, "you'll have to come up with that Christmas +present, after all." + +"They will do for her birthday," replied Banks gravely. "I picked out a +new ring for Christmas. It was a first-class diamond, and she liked it all +right. She said," and a shade of humor warmed his face, "she would have to +patronize the new manicure store down to Wenatchee, if I expected her to +have hands fit to wear it, and if she had to live up to that ring, it +would cost me something before she was through." + +"And did she try the parlors?" asked Elizabeth seriously. + +"My, yes, and it was worth the money. Her hands made a mighty fine showing +the first trip, and before she used up her ticket, I was telling her she'd +have to wear mittens when she played the old melodion, or likely her +fingers would get hurt hitting the keys." + +Banks laughed his high, strained laugh, and Morganstein echoed it deeply. +"Ought to have an establishment in the new town," he said. + +"We are going to," the prospector replied; "as soon as the new brick block +is ready to open up. There's going to be manicure and hair-dressing +parlors back of the millinery store. Lucile, Miss Lucile Purdy of +Sedgewick-Wilson's, is coming over to run 'em both. She can do it, my, +yes." + +"Now I can believe you have a self-respecting and wide-awake town," +commented Mrs. Feversham. "But is the big department store backing Miss +Purdy?" + +"No, ma'am. We ain't talking about it much, but Mrs. Banks has put up +money; she says she is the silent partner of the concern." + +"Is that so?" questioned Morganstein thoughtfully. "Seems to me you are +banking rather heavy on the new town." + +Banks' eyes gleamed appreciation, but the capitalist missed his +inadvertent pun. After a moment, the mining man said: "I guess the +millinery investment won't break us; but there's no question about +Weatherbee's being a live town, and Lucile can sell goods." + +"I presume next," said Mrs. Feversham with veiled irony, "we shall be +hearing of you as the first mayor of Weatherbee." + +Banks shook his head gravely. "They shouldered that on to Henderson +Bailey." + +"I remember," said Frederic. "Man who started the orchard excitement, +wasn't he? Got in on the ground floor and platted some of his land in city +lots. Naturally, he's running for mayor." + +"He's it," responded the mining man. "The election came off Tuesday, and +he led his ticket, my, yes, clear out of sight." + +"Bet you ran for something, though," responded Morganstein. "Bet they had +you up for treasurer." + +Banks laughed. "There was some talk of it--my wife said they were looking +for somebody that could make good if the city money fell short--but most +of the bunch thought my lay was the Board of Control. You see, I got to +looking after things to help Bailey out, while he was busy moving his +apples or maybe his city lots. My, it got so's when Mrs. Banks couldn't +find me down to the city park, watching the men grub out sage-brush for +the new trees, she could count on my being up-stream to the water-works, +or hiking out to the lighting-plant. It's kept me rushed, all right. It +takes time to start a first-class town. It has to be done straight from +bedrock. But now that Annabel's house up Hesperides Vale is built, and the +flumes are in, she thinks likely she can run her ranch, and I think +likely,"--the prospector paused, and his eyes, with their gleam of blue +glacier ice, sought Mrs. Weatherbee's. Hers clouded a little, and she +leaned slightly towards him, waiting with hushed breath--"I think likely," +he repeated in a higher key, "seeing's the Alameda has to be finished up, +and the fountain got in shape at the park, with the statue about due from +New York, I may as well drop Dave's project and call the deal off." + +There was a silence, during which the eyes of every one rested on Beatriz. +She straightened with a great sigh; the color rushed coral-pink to her +face. + +"I am--sorry--about your loss, Mr. Banks," she said, then, and her voice +fluctuated softly, "but I shall do my best--I shall make it a point of +honor--to sometime reimburse you." Her glance fell to the violets at her +belt; she singled one from the rest and, inhaling its perfume, held it +lightly to her lips. + +"You thoroughbred!" said Frederic thickly. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE EVERLASTING DOOR + + +Sometime during the night of the fifteenth, the belated Chinook wind began +to flute through the canyon, and towards dawn the guests at Scenic Hot +Springs were wakened by the near thunder of an avalanche. After a while, +word was brought that the Great Northern track was buried under forty feet +of snow and rock and fallen trees for a distance of nearly a mile. Later a +rotary steamed around the high curve on the mountain and stopped, like a +toy engine on an upper shelf, while the Spokane local, upon which Banks +had expected to return to Weatherbee, forged a few miles beyond the hotel +to leave a hundred laborers from Seattle. Thin wreaths of vapor commenced +to rise and, gathering volume with incredible swiftness, blotted out the +plow and the snow-sheds, and meeting, broke in a storm of hail. The cloud +lifted, but in a short interval was followed by another that burst in a +deluge of rain, and while the slope was still obscured, a report was +telegraphed from the summit that a second avalanche had closed the east +portal of Cascade tunnel, through which the Oriental Limited had just +passed. At nightfall, when the work of clearing away the first mass of +debris was not yet completed, a third slide swept down seven laborers and +demolished a snow-shed. The unfortunate train that had been delayed so +long in the Rockies was indefinitely stalled. + +The situation was unprecedented. Never before in the history of the Great +Northern had there been so heavy a snowfall in the Cascades; the sudden +thaw following an ordinary precipitation must have looked serious, but the +moving of this vast accumulation became appalling. All through that day, +the second night the cannonading of avalanches continued, distant and +near. At last came an interlude. The warm wind died out; at evening there +was a promise of frost; and only the voice of the river disturbed the +gorge. Dawn broke still and crisp and clear. The mountain tops shone in +splendor, purple cliffs stood sharply defined against snow-covered slopes, +and whole companies in the lower ranks of the trees had thrown off their +white cloaks. It was a day to delight the soul, to rouse the heart, invite +to deeds of emulation. Even Frederic was responsive, and when after +breakfast Marcia broached a plan to scale the peak that loomed southeast +of the pass, he grasped at the diversion. "We're pretty high up already, +here at Scenic," he commented, surveying the dome from his chair on the +hotel veranda. "Three or four thousand feet ought to put us on the summit. +Have the chance, anyhow, to see that stalled train." + +"Of course it wouldn't be an achievement like the ascent of Rainier," she +tempered, "but we should have chances enough to use our alpenstocks before +we're through; and it should be a magnificent view; all the great peaks +from Oregon to British Columbia rising around." + +"With the Columbia River below us," said Elizabeth, "and all those miles +of desert. We might even catch a glimpse of your new Eden over there, +Beatriz." + +Mrs. Weatherbee nodded, with the sparkles breaking in her eyes. "I know +this is the peak we watched the day I drove from Wenatchee. It rose white +and shining at the top of Hesperides Vale, and it may have another name, +but I called it the Everlasting Door." + +Once since their arrival at Scenic Hot Springs they had followed, skeeing, +an old abandoned railroad track, used by the Great Northern during the +construction of the big tunnel, to the edge of the desired peak, and, at +Marcia's suggestion, Frederic invited Lucky Banks to join the expedition +in the capacity of captain and guide. The prospector admitted he felt "the +need of a little exercise" and, having studied the mountain with +field-glasses and consulted with the hotel proprietor, he consented to see +them through. No doubt the opportunity to learn the situation of the +Oriental Limited and the possibilities of getting in touch with Tisdale, +should the train fail to move before his return from the summit, had +influenced the little man's decision. A few spikes in his shoes, some +hardtack and cheese with an emergency flask in his pockets, a coil of rope +and a small hatchet that might serve equally well as an ice-ax or to clear +undergrowth on the lower slopes, was ample equipment, and he was off to +reconnoiter the mountainside fully an hour in advance of the packer whom +Morganstein engaged for the first stage of the journey. + +When the man arrived at the foot of the sharp ascent where he was to be +relieved, Banks was finishing the piece of trail he had blazed and mushed +diagonally up the slope to a rocky cleaver that stretched like a causeway +from the timber to firm snow, but he returned with time to spare between +the departure of the packer and the appearance of his party, to open the +unwieldy load; from this he discarded two bottles of claret and another of +port, with their wrappings of straw, a steamer-rug, some tins of pâté de +foie gras and other sundries that made for weight, but which the +capitalist had considered essential to the comfort and success of the +expedition. There still remained a well-stocked hamper, including thermos +bottles of coffee and tea, and a second rug, which he rolled snugly in the +oilskin cover and secured with shoulder-straps. The eliminated articles, +that he cached under a log, were not missed until luncheon, which was +served on a high, spur below the summit while Banks was absent making a +last reconnaissance, and Frederic blamed the packer. + +The spur was flanked above by a craggy buttress and broke below to an +abyss which was divided by a narrow, tongue-like ridge, and over this, on +a lower level of the opposite peak, appeared the steep roofs of the +mountain station at the entrance to Cascade tunnel, where, on the tracks +outside the portal, stood the stalled train. It seemed within speaking +distance in that rare atmosphere, though several miles intervened. + +After a while sounds of metal striking ice came from a point around the +buttress; Banks was cutting steps. Then, following a silence, he appeared. +But, on coming into the sunny westward exposure, he stopped, and with two +fingers raised like a weather-vane, stood gazing down the canyon. His eyes +began to scintillate like chippings of blue glacier. + +Involuntarily every one turned in that direction, and Frederic reached to +take his field-glasses from the shelf of the buttress they had converted +into a table. But he saw nothing new to hold the attention except three or +four gauzy streamers of smoke or vapor that floated in the lower gorge. + +"Looks like a train starting up," he commented, "but the Limited gets the +right of way as soon as there's a clear track." + +Banks dropped his hand and moved a few steps to take the glasses from +Morganstein. "You're right," he replied in his high, strained key. "It +ain't any train moving; it's the Chinook waking up." He focussed on the +Oriental Limited, then slowly swept the peak that overtopped the cars. +"Likely they dasn't back her into the tunnel," he said. "The bore is long +enough to take in the whole bunch, but if a slide toppled off that +shoulder, it would pen 'em in and cut off the air. It looks better +outside, my, yes." + +"Here is your coffee, Mr. Banks," said Elizabeth, who had filled a cup +from the thermos bottle, "and please take anything else you wish while I +repack the basket. We are all waiting, you see, to go on." + +The prospector paused to take the cup, then said: "I guess likely we won't +make the summit this trip. We've got to hustle to get down before it turns +soft." + +"Oh, but we must make the summit," exclaimed Marcia, taking up her +alpenstock. "Why, we are all but there." + +"How does it look ahead?" inquired Frederic, walking along the buttress. +"Heard you chopping ice." + +"I was cutting steps across the tail end of a little glacier. It's a +gliddery place, but the going looks all right once you get past. Well, +likely you can make it," he added shrilly, "but you've got to be quick." + +The life of the trail that sharpens a man's perceptives teaches him to +read individuality swiftly, and this Alaskan who, the first day out on a +long stampede, could have told the dominant trait of each husky in his +team, knew his party as well as the risk. Golf and tennis, added to a +naturally strong physique, had given the two sisters nerves of steel. +Marcia, who had visited some of the great glaciers in the north, possessed +the insight and coolness of a mountain explorer; and all the third woman +lacked in physical endurance was more than made up in courage. The man, +though enervated by over-indulgence, had the brute force, the animal +instinct of self-preservation, to carry him through. So presently, when +the buttress was passed, and the prospector uncoiled his rope, it was to +Mrs. Feversham he gave the other end, placing Morganstein next, with +Elizabeth at the center and Mrs. Weatherbee second. Once, twice, Banks +felt her stumble, a sinking weight on the line, but in the instant he +caught a twist in the slack and fixed his heels in the crust to turn, she +had, in each case, recovered and come steadily on. It was only when the +gliddery passage was made, the peril behind, that she sank down in +momentary collapse. + +Banks stopped to unfold his pocket-cup and take out his flask. "You look +about done for," he said briskly. "My, yes, that little taste of glacier +was your limit. But you ain't the kind to back out. No, ma'am, all you +need is a little bracer to put you on your feet again, good as new." + +"I never can go back," she said, and met his concerned look with wide and +luminous eyes. "Unless--I'm carried. Never in the world." + +Morganstein forced a laugh. It had a frosty sound; his lips were blue. +"Excuse me," he responded. "Anywhere else I wouldn't hesitate, but here, I +draw the line." + +The prospector was holding the draught to her lips, and she took a swallow +and pushed away the cup. It was brandy, raw, scalding, and it brought the +color back to her face. "Thank you," she said, and forced a smile. "It is +bracing; my tensions are all screwed. I feel like climbing on to--Mars." + +Frederic laughed again. "You go on, Banks," he said, relieving him of the +cup; "she's all right. You hurry ahead before one of those girls walks +over a precipice." + +He could not persuade her to take more of the liquor, so he himself drank +the bracer, after which he put the cup and the flask, which Banks had +left, away in his own pockets. She was up, whipping down her fear. "Come," +she said, "we must hurry to overtake them." + +Her steps, unsteady at first, grew sure and determined; she drew longer, +deeper breaths; the pink of a wild rose flushed her cheeks. But Frederic, +plodding abreast, laid his hand on her arm. + +"See here," he said, "you can't keep this up; stop a minute. They've got +to wait for us. George, that ambition of yours can spur you to the pace. +Never saw so much spirit done up in a small package. Go off, sometime, +like Fourth o' July fireworks." He chuckled, looking down at her with +admiration in his round eyes. "Like you for it, though. George, it's just +that has made you worth waiting for." + +She gave him a quick glance and, setting her alpenstock, sprang from his +detaining hand. + +"See, they have reached the summit," she called. "They are waiting already +for us. And see!" she exclaimed tensely, as he struggled after her. "It is +going to be grand." + +A vast company of peaks began to lift, tier on tier like an amphitheater, +above the rim of the dome, while far eastward, as they cross-cut the +rounding incline, stretched those tawny mountains that had the appearance +of strange and watchful beasts, guarding the levels of the desert, bare of +snow. Glimpses there were of the blue Columbia, the racy Wenatchee, but +Weatherbee's pocket was closed. Then, presently, as they gained the +summit, it was no longer an amphitheater into which they looked, but a +billowing sea of cloud, out of which rose steep and inhospitable shores. +Then, everywhere, far and away, shone opal-shaded islands of mystery. + +"Oh," she said, with a little, sighing breath, "these are the Isles of the +Blest. We have come through the Everlasting Door into the better country." + +She stood looking off in rapture, but the man saw only the changing lights +in her face. He turned a little, taking in the charm of pose, the lift of +chin, parted lips, hand shading softly shining eyes. After a moment he +answered: "Wish we had. Wish every other man you knew was left out, on the +other side of the door." + +Her hand fell, she gave him her sweeping look and moved to join the +waiting group. + +Banks came to meet them. "We've stayed to the limit; my, yes, it's the +last call," he explained in his tense key. "There's a couple of places we +don't want to see ourselves caught in when the thaw strikes. And they're +getting a heavy rain down at the Springs now; likely up at the tunnel it's +snow or hail." He paused, turning to send a final glance into the mist, +then said: "Less than ten minutes ago I had a sight of that train, but you +see now she's wiped off the map. It'll be a close race, my, yes. Give me +that stick, ma'am; you can make better time on the down-grade holding on +to me." + +With this, he offered his able hand to Mrs. Weatherbee and, followed by +the rest of the party, helped her swiftly down the slope. But clearly his +mind was on the stalled train. "Likely, hugging the mountainside, they +don't see how the snow crowds overhead," he said. "And I'd ought to have +taken time to run over and give 'em a tip. I'm going to, I'm going to, +soon's I get you down to that old railroad track where you can make it +alone." + +"Do you mean the Limited is in danger?" she asked, springing and tripping +to his stride. + +And Banks nodded grimly. "Yes, ma'am. It's a hard proposition, even to a +man like Tisdale, who is used to breaking his own trail. He knows he's got +to fight shy of the slides along that burned over switchback, but if he +saw the box that train is in, he would just hike around to this side of +the canyon, where the pitches are shorter, and the green trees stand some +show to hold the snow, and work down to the old track to the Springs." + +"Is Mr. Tisdale"'--her voice broke a little--"Mr. Hollis Tisdale on that +train?" + +"Likely, yes. He was snowbound on her in the Rockies, last I heard, and +'feeling fit as a moose.' Being penned up so long, he'd likely rather take +a hike down to the hotel than not. It would be good for his health." And +the little man piped his high, mirthless laugh. + +She stumbled, and he felt the hand in his tremble, but the abrupt incline +of the glacier had opened before them, and he believed she dreaded to +re-cross the ice. "Keep cool," he admonished, releasing her to uncoil the +rope again, "Stand steady. Just recollect if you came over this, you can +get back." + +But when, presently, the difficult passage safely made, they rounded the +crag and gained the level shoulder where they had lunched, they seemed to +have arrived at a different place. The lower canyon, which not two hours +before had stretched into blue distance below them, was lost in the +creeping sea of cloud; the abyss at their feet gathered immensity, and the +top of the timbered ridge lifted midway like a strange, floating garden. +The station at Cascade tunnel, all the opposite mountain, was obscured, +then, while Banks stood re-coiling his rope, the sounds that had disturbed +the guests at Scenic Hot Springs those previous nights rose, +reverberating, through the hidden gorge. The Chinook had resumed its work. + +The way below the spur broke in easy steps to the long and gradual slope +that terminated above the cleaver of rock and, anxious to reach the +unfortunate train, Banks hurried on. Marcia and Elizabeth trailed quickly +after, but Mrs. Weatherbee remained seated on the shelving ledge at the +foot of the crag. Frederic sank heavily into the place beside her and took +out the flask. + +"You are all in," he said. "Come, take this; it's diluted this time with +snow." + +But she gave him no attention, except to push aside the cup. She waited, +listening, leaning forward a little as though her wide eyes could +penetrate the pall. Then, torn by cross currents of wind, the cloud +parted, and the mountain loomed like a phantom peak over the gulf. She +started up and stood swaying gently on her feet while the trees, tall and +spectral and cloaked in snow, opened rank on rank like a uniformed +company. Lower still, the steep roofs of the station reflected a shaft of +the sun, and the long line of cars appeared clearly defined, waiting still +on the tracks outside the portal. + +The rent in the cloud closed. She turned with a great, sighing breath. +"Did you see?" she said. "The train is safe." + +"Of course." And again, having himself taken the bracer, Frederic rose and +returned the flask to his pocket. "So, that was troubling you; thought +that train might have been struck. Guess if an avalanche had come down +there, we'd have heard some noise. It's safe enough here," he added. "Top +of this crag was built to shed snow like a church steeple." + +"But why are we waiting?" And glancing around, she exclaimed in dismay: +"The others have gone. See! They are almost out of sight." + +She began to walk swiftly to the lower rim of the shoulder, and Frederic +followed. Down the slope his sisters and Banks seemed to be moving through +a film. They mingled with it indistinctly as the figures in faded +tapestry. But Morganstein laid his hand on her arm to detain her. "What's +your hurry?" he asked thickly. "All we got to do now is keep their trail. +Tracks are clear as day." + +"We shall delay them; they will wait." + +She tried to pass him, but they had reached the step from the spur, and he +swung around to block the narrow way. "Not yet," he said. "This is the +moment I've been waiting for. First time in months you've given me a fair +chance to speak to you. Always headed me off. I'm tired of being held at +arm's length. I've been patient to the limit. I'm going to know now, +to-day, before we go down from this mountain, how soon you are going to +marry me." + +She tried again to pass him but, taking incautious footing, slipped, and +his arm saved her. "I don't care how soon it is," he went on, "or where. +Quietly at your apartments, or a big church wedding. On board the first +boat sailing for Yokohama, after those coal cases are settled, suits me." + +She struggled to free herself, then managed to turn and face him, with her +palms braced against his breast. His arm relaxed a little, so that he was +able to look down in her lifted face. What he saw there was not altogether +anger, though aversion was in her eyes; not surprise, not wholly derision, +though her lips suggested a smile, but an indefinable something that +baffled, mastered him. His arm fell. "Japan is fine in the spring," he +said. "And we could take our time, coming back by way of Hawaii to see the +big volcano, with another stop-over at Manila. Get home to begin +housekeeping at the villa in midsummer." + +"Oh," she exclaimed at last, "do you think I am a silly girl to be dazzled +and tempted? Who knows nothing of marriage and the cost?" + +"No," he responded quickly. "I think you are a mighty clever woman. But +you've got to the point where you can't hedge any more. Banks has gone +back on that option. If he won't buy, nobody else will. And it takes ready +money to run a big ranch like that, even after the improvements are in. +You can't realize on your orchards, even in the Wenatchee country, short +of four years. So you'll have to marry me; only way out." + +She gave him her swift, sweeping look, and the blue lights blazed in her +eyes. "I will remember you are Elizabeth's brother," she said. "I will try +to remember that. But please don't say any more. Every moment counts; +come." + +Morganstein laughed. As long as she parried, as long as she did not refuse +outright to marry him, he must keep reasonably cool. He stooped to pick up +the alpenstock she had dropped, then offered his hand down the step from +the spur. "Sorry I put it just that way," he said. "I'm a plain business +man; used to coming straight to the point; but I guess you've known how +much I thought of you all these years. Had to keep on a high check-rein +while Weatherbee lived, and tried my best, afterwards, to give him a +year's grace, but you knew just the same. Know--don't you?--I might take +my pick out of the dozen nicest girls in Seattle to-day. Only have to say +the word. Not one in the bunch would turn me down. But I wouldn't have one +of 'em for second choice. Nobody but you will do." He paused, then added +with his narrow look: "And what I want, you ought to know that too, I +get." + +She met the look with a shake of the head and forced a smile. "Some things +are not to be bought at any price. But, of course, I have seen--a woman +does--" she went on hurriedly, withdrawing her hand. "There was a time, I +confess, when I did consider--your way out. But I dared not take it; even +then, I dared not." + +"You dared not?" Frederic laughed again. "Never thought you were afraid of +me. Never saw you afraid of anything. But I see. Miserable experience with +Weatherbee made you little cautious. George, don't see how any man could +have deserted you. Trust me to make it up to you. Marry me, and I'll show +you such a good time Weatherbee won't amount to a bad dream." + +"I do not wish to forget David Weatherbee," she said. + +"George!" he exclaimed curiously. "Do you mean you ever really loved him? +A man who left you, practically without a cent, before you were married a +month." + +"No." Her voice was low; her lip trembled a little. "No, I did not love +him--as he deserved; as I was able to love." She paused, then went on with +decision: "But he did not leave me unprovided for. David Weatherbee never +deserted me. And, even though he had, though he had been the kind of man I +believed him to be, it would make no difference. I could not marry you." + +There was a silence during which they continued to follow the tracks that +cross-cut the slope. But Morganstein's face was not pleasant to see. All +the complaisancy of the egotist who has long and successfully shaped lives +to his own ends was withdrawn; it left exposed the ugly inner side of the +man. The trail was becoming soft; the damp of the Chinook began to envelop +them; already the advancing film stretched like a curtain over the sun, +and the three figures that had seemed parts of a shaken tapestry +disappeared. Then, presently, Banks' voice, muffled like a voice under a +blanket, rose through the pall. And Frederic stopped to put his hand to +his mouth. "All right! Coming!" he answered, but the shout rebounded as +though it had struck a sounding board. + +After another plodding silence, the prospector's hail reached them again. +It seemed farther off, and this time Morganstein did not respond. He +stopped, however, and the woman beside him waited in expectation. +"Suppose," he said slowly, "we are lost on this mountain to-night. Make a +difference to-morrow--wouldn't it?--whether you would marry me or not." + +The color rushed to her face and went; her breast rose and fell in deep, +quick breaths, but she met his look fearlessly, lifting herself with the +swaying movement from the balls of her feet that made her suddenly taller. +"No." And her tone, the way in which she said it, must have stung even his +small soul; then she added: "You are more brutal than I thought." + +She turned after that and herself sent the belated response to Banks. But +though she repeated the call twice, making a trumpet of her hands and with +all the power of her voice, his hail did not reach them again. She started +swiftly down. It was beginning to snow. + +Frederic had nothing more to say. He moved on with her. It was as though +each tried to out-travel the other, still they could not make up that +delay. The snow fell in big, soft flakes that blurred the tracks they +followed; soon they were completely blotted out, and though he strained +his eyes continually, watching for the cleaver of rock they had climbed +that morning, the landmark never appeared. Finally, at the same instant, +they both stopped, listening. On the silence broke innumerable small +sounds like many little hurrying feet. The mountain trembled slightly. +"God Almighty!" he cried thickly. Then came the closer rush of a +considerable body, not unlike sheep passing in a fog, and panic seized +him. "We've got to keep on top," he shouted and, grasping her arm, he +swung her around and began to run back up the slope. + +In the face of this common peril, personality called a truce, and she +pushed on with him blindly, leaving it to him to choose the way and set +the pace. But their own tracks down the incline had filled with incredible +swiftness; soon they were completely effaced. And, when the noise +subsided, he stopped and looked about him, bewildered. He saw nothing but +a breadth of sharply dipping slope, white, smooth as an unwritten scroll, +over which hung the swaying, voluminous veil of the falling snow. He put +his hands to his mouth then, and lifted his voice in a great hail. It +brought no reply, but in the moment he waited, somewhere far below in +those obscured depths, a great tree, splitting under tremendous pressure, +crashed down, then quickly the terrific sweep and roar of a second +mightier avalanche filled the hidden gorge. + +Morganstein caught her arm once more. "We must get back to that shoulder +where it's safe," he shouted. "Banks will come to look us up." After that, +as they struggled on up the slope, he fell to saying over and over, as +long as the reverberations lasted: "Almighty God!" + +As they ascended, the snow fell less heavily and finally ceased. It became +firm underfoot, and a cross wind, starting in puffs, struck their faces +sharply with a promise of frost. Then strange hummocks began to rise. They +were upheavals of ice, shrouded in snow. Sometimes a higher one presented +a sheer front shading to bluish-green. They had not passed this point with +Banks, but Morganstein shaped a course to a black pinnacle, lifting +through the mist beyond, that he believed was the crag at the shoulder. +She stumbled repeatedly on the rough surface. Her labored breathing in the +great stillness, like the beat of a pendulum in an empty house, tried his +strained nerves. He upbraided her for leaving her alpenstock down the +slope. But she paid no attention. She looked back constantly; she was like +a woman being led away from a locked door, moving reluctantly, listening +against hope for a word or sign. So, at last, they came to the rock. It +was not the crag, but a hanging promontory, where the mountain broke in a +three-sided precipice. The cloud surged around it like an unplumbed sea. + +They crept back, and Morganstein tried again to determine their position. +They were too high, he concluded; they must work down a little to round +the cliffs, so they took a course diagonally into the smother. Then he, +too, began to lose alertness; he walked mechanically, taking the line of +least resistance; his head sagged forward; he saw nothing but the hummocks +before him. These grew larger; they changed to narrow ridges with fissures +between. After a while, one of these breaks roused him. It was exceedingly +deep; he could not see either end of it. The only way was to leap, and he +did it clumsily. Then, with his alpenstock fixed, and his spiked heels set +in the crust, he reached a hand to her. She was barely able to spring to +the lower side, but it did not terrify her. One fear only possessed her. +Her glance, seeking, returned to the hidden canyon. But soon they were +confronted by a wider and still deeper chasm. It was impossible to cross +it, though it seemed to narrow upwards in the direction of the summit. He +took her arm and began to ascend, looking for a way over. The pitch grew +steadily sharper. They entered the thinning edge of the cloud, and it +became transparent like tissue of gold. Suddenly it parted, and Frederic +stopped, blinded by the blaze of a red sunset on snow. He closed his eyes +an instant, while, to avoid the glare, he turned his face. His first +glance shocked him into a sense of great peril. The two fissures ran +parallel, and they were ascending a tongue of ice between. Not far below, +it narrowed to a point where the two crevasses, uniting, yawned in one. +His knees weakened, but he managed to swing himself cautiously around. The +causeway seemed to rock under his weight; then, shading his sight with his +hand, he saw they were almost beneath the shoulder he had tried to reach. +They had climbed too high, as he had believed, but also they had descended +too far. And they had come directly down the glacier, to cross the upper +end of which Banks had found it necessary to use a lifeline. "Be careful!" +he whispered thickly, and laid his hand on her shoulder, impelling her on. +"Be careful, but, for God's sake, hurry!" + +He crowded her faster and faster up the incline; he dared not move +abreast, it was so narrow. Sometimes he lifted her bodily, for with every +step his panic grew. Beads of moisture gathered on his face, though the +wind stiffened and sharpened; his own breath out-labored hers, and he +cried again over and over: "God Almighty!" and "Almighty God!" Sometimes +his tone was blasphemy and sometimes prayer. + +But the moment came when she could not be farther pressed. Her shoulder +trembled under his hold, her limbs gave, and she sank down, to her knees +at first, then to her elbow. Even then she moved her head enough to look +backward over the abyss. "The train," she whispered and, shuddering, +dropped her face on her relaxed arm. + +Morganstein ventured to glance back. Ragged fragments torn from the cloud +below rose swirling across the opposite mountain top, and between their +edges, like a picture in a frame, appeared briefly the roofs of the little +station. But where the Oriental Limited had stood, the avalanche had +passed. "God Almighty!" he repeated impotently, then immediately the sense +of this appalling catastrophe whet the edge of his personal terror. +"Come!" he cried; "come, you can't stop here. It's dangerous. Come, you'll +freeze--or worse." + +She was silent. She made no effort to rise or indeed to move. He began to +press by her and on in the direction of that safe spur. But presently +another dread assailed him; the dread of the city-bred man--accustomed to +human intercourse, the swing of business, the stir of social life, to face +great solitudes alone. This cross-fear became so strong it turned him back +in a second panic. Then floundering to keep his equilibrium after an +incautious step, he sat down heavily and found himself skidding towards +the larger crevasse. He lifted his alpenstock and in a frenzy thrust it +into the ice between his knees. It caught fast just short of the brink +and held him astride, with heels dangling over the abyss. He worked away +cautiously, laboriously, shaking in all his big, soft bulk; and would have +given up further attempt to rescue Beatriz Weatherbee had he not at this +moment discovered himself at her side. + +He had not yet tried to rise to his feet, so safe-guarding himself with +the alpenstock thrust once more in the ice, he paused to take the flask +from his pocket and poured all that remained of the liquor into the cup. +It was a little over half full. Possibly he remembered how lavish he had +been with those previous draughts, for he looked at his companion with a +kind of regret as he lifted the cup unsteadily to drink. Then, gathering +the remnants of his courage, he put his arm under her head, raising it +while he forced the small surplus of brandy he had left between her lips. +She revived enough under the scalding swallow to push the cup away. +Anywhere else he would have laughed at her feeble effort to throw off his +touch; but he did not urge her to finish the draught, and, as he had done +earlier that day, himself hastily drained the cup. He dropped it beside +the empty flask and struggled up. + +"Now," he said, "we've got to make that spur where it's safe. Come. It +isn't far; just been up to that place where Banks helped us across; had to +come back for you." + +But he was obliged to lift her to her feet and to support her up the +slope. And this, even though the tongue widened above them, threw him +perilously close to the crevasse. Once, twice, the ice broke on the brink +and dropped clinking down, down. It was impossible to make the leap again +to the higher surface they had descended; unhampered, he must have been +physically unfit. Behind them the cloud closed over the Pass and the +mountain top under which the Oriental Limited had stood. His companion no +longer looked back; she moved as mechanically though less certainly than +one who walks in sleep. The fears that possessed him, that she herself had +held so finely in check when they had followed Banks on this glacier, did +not trouble her now. Her indifference to their extremity began to play on +Frederic's unhinged nerves. This white, blue-lipped woman was not the +Beatriz Weatherbee he had known; who had climbed the slope with him that +morning, all exhilaration, spirit, charm; whose example had challenged his +endurance and held his courage to the sticking point. + +"Why don't you say something?" he complained. "Have you turned into ice? +Now look where you step, can't you? Deuced fix you got us into, dreaming +there in the clouds, when Lucky Banks had left the spur. Come on, you +bloodless ghost; come, or I'll let you stay where you drop. Nice place to +spend the night in. Almighty God!" + +So, upbraiding her when she stumbled, blaming her for their plight, +threatening to leave her if she should fall, and flaying himself on with +renewed panic, he brought her to the top of the double crevasse and the +prospector's crossing. But here, with the levels of the spur before them, +her strength reached low ebb. This time he was not able to rouse her, and +he threw down his alpenstock and took her in his arms, and went slipping +and recovering the remaining steps. He stopped, winded, and stood her on +her feet, but her body sagged limply against him, and the sight of her +still face terrified him. He carried her a little farther, to the shelter +of the crag, and laid her there. Then he dropped to his knees beside her, +and grasping her shoulders shook her, at first slowly, then swiftly, with +the roughness of despair. + +"Wake up," he cried thickly. "Wake up! Don't you see we're out of that +hole? Come, Banks will be here any minute. Come, wake up." + +She made no response. The sun had set; it was growing bitterly cold, and +there was little protection under the crag. It was a place where cross +winds met. Torn fragments from the sea of cloud below drove against the +pinnacle. It was like a lofty headland breasting rolling surf. Frederic +stood erect and sent his voice down through the smother in a great shout. +It brought no answer, and he settled helplessly on the shelf beside her. +It began to hail furiously, and he dropped his face, shielding it in his +arms. + +The storm passed and, rousing himself, he searched his pockets vainly for +a match to light his remaining cigar. Later he went through them again, +hoping to find a piece of chocolate--he had carried some that morning--but +this, too, was without result. He fell to cursing the packer, for +appropriating the port and tinned things that were missing at lunch-time. +But after that he did not talk any more and, in a little while, he +stretched himself beside the unconscious figure at the foot of the crag. A +second cloud lifted in a flurry of snow. Every hidden canyon sent out +innumerable currents of air, and gales, meeting, lifted the powdery crust +in swirls, wrapping them in a white sheet. Finally, from far off, mingling +with the skirling pipes of the wind came a different, human sound. And, +presently, when the call--if call it was--was repeated, the man sat up and +looked dully around. But he made no effort to reply. He waited, listening +stupidly, and the cry did not reach him again. Then, his glance falling to +the woman, a ray of intelligence leaped in his eyes. He rose on his knees +and moved her so there was room for his own bulk between her body and the +rock. He had then, when he stretched himself on the snow, a windbreak. + +The wind rushed screaming into the vast spaces beyond the mountain top, +and returning, met the opposing forces from the canyon and instantly +became a whirlwind. It cut like myriads of teeth; it struck two-edged with +the swish, slash of a sword; and it lifted the advancing cloud in a mighty +swirl, bellied it as though it had been a gigantic sail, and shook from +its folds a deluge of hailstones followed by snow. Through it all a +grotesque shape that seemed sometimes a huge, abnormal beetle and +sometimes a beast, worked slowly around the crag, now crawling, now +rearing upright with a futile napping of stiff wings, towards the two +human figures. It was Lucky Banks, come to rescue them. + +A heavier blast threw him on his face, but he rose to his knees and, +creeping close, squared his shoulders to protect the slighter body. At the +same time the significance of the position of Morganstein's unconscious +bulk struck him. "You rat!" he cried with smothered fury. "You damn +rat!" + +Then he caught up a handful of snow with which he began to rub the woman's +face. Afterwards he removed her gloves to manipulate her cold hands. He +worked swiftly, with the deftness of practice, but the results were slow, +and presently he took the rug from the pack he carried and covered her +while he felt in Frederic's pockets for the flask he had neglected to +return. "Likely there wasn't a drop left when she came to need it, you +brute. And I'd like to leave you here to take your chances. You can thank +your luck I've got to use you." + +Banks keyed his voice high, between breaths, to out-scale the wind, but he +did not wait for a reply. Before he finished speaking, he had opened his +big, keen-bladed clasp-knife and commenced to cut broad strips from the +rug. He passed some of these, not without effort, under Morganstein's +body, trussing the arms. Then, wrapping the smaller figure snugly in the +blanket, he lifted it on to the human toboggan he had made and bound it +securely. Finally he converted the shoulder-straps of his pack into a sort +of steering gear, to which he fastened his life-line. + +These preparations had been quickly made. It was not yet dark when he +worked this sled over the rim of the spur and began to descend the long +slope. The violence of the wind was broken there, so that he was able to +travel erect, drawing his load. After a while, when the flurry of snow had +passed, a crust formed on the surface, and in steeper pitches he was +obliged to let the toboggan forge ahead, using himself as a drag. With the +change to colder temperature, there was no further danger of slides, and +to avoid the avalanche that had turned Morganstein back, the prospector +shaped his course more directly into the canyon. Soon he was below the +clouds; between their ragged edges a few stars appeared. Beyond a buttress +shone a ruddy illumination. Some firs stood against it darkly. It was the +fire Marcia and Elizabeth were watching at the place where he had cached +the surplus supplies that morning. It served as a beacon when the +crispness ceased, and for an interval he was forced to mush laboriously +through soft drifts. Then he came to a first bare spot. It was in crossing +this rough ground that Frederic showed signs of returning consciousness. +But Banks gave him no attention. He had caught a strange sound on the +wind. Others, far off, rose while he listened. Presently, looking back +beyond the end of the ridge that divided the upper gorge, he saw twinkling +lights. They were the lanterns of the searchers at the wrecked train. + +The little man did not exclaim. He did not pray. His was the anguish of +soul which finds no expression. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +KISMET. AN ACT OF GOD + + +Afterwards, some who compared the slope where the Oriental Limited had +stood, with the terrible pitches along the lower switchback, said: "It was +Fate;" and the defense in the damage suits against the Great Northern, +which were decided in favor of the company, called that catastrophe at +Cascade tunnel "An Act of God." In either solution, the fact that counted +was that no avalanche had occurred at this point before; mountain men had +regarded it as absolutely safe. At noon that day, a rumor reached the +stalled train that a slide at the front had struck one of the rotaries. +Laborers, at their own peril, had excavated the crew, but the plow was out +of commission, and the track was buried sixty feet under fresh tons of +snow and rock and fallen timber. The Limited could not move within +forty-eight hours, perhaps three days. + +Tisdale picked up his bag and went out to the observation platform. He +knew that to attempt to follow the railroad through those swaths the +avalanches had left, under the burned skeletons of trees ready to topple +at the first pressure of other bodies of snow, was to take one's life +needlessly in his hands; but there was another way. The slope from the +track at the portal dipped through a park of hemlock and fir, and the +blaze that had swept the lower mountainside had not reached this timber; +the great boughs, like fishers' nets, supported their dripping +accumulations. Also, at this altitude, there was no undergrowth. To make +the drop directly into the canyon and follow the river down to Scenic Hot +Springs meant little more to him than a bracing tramp of a few hours. + +Snowshoes were a necessity, and the demand at the little station had long +exceeded the supply, but the operator was able to furnish the length of +bale rope Tisdale asked of him. From the office door, where he had +curiously followed to see the line put to use, he watched the traveler +secure two pliable branches of hemlock, of the same size, which he brought +to the station platform, and, having stripped them of needles, bent into +ovals. Then, laying aside one, he commenced to weave half of the rope +net-wise, filling the space in the frame he held. A sudden intelligence +leaped in the agent's face. "That's simple enough," he exclaimed. "And +they'll carry you as far as you want to go." + +Tisdale smiled, nodding, and picked up the remaining frame. + +"Strange I never saw any one try the scheme before," the operator +commented. "I've weathered a good many blockades up here; seen lots of +fellows, men whose time was money, bucking it out to open track. But I bet +the first time this idea struck you you were up against it. I bet it's a +yarn worth listening to." + +Tisdale glanced up; the genial lines deepened. "It was a situation to +clear a man's head. There was snow from three to seven feet deep ahead of +me and going soft. My snowshoes, lost with the outfit at a hole in a Yukon +crossing, were swinging down-stream under the ice. I had two sea biscuit +in my pocket and a few inches of dried venison, with the nearest +road-house over fifty miles away." + +"Well, that was hard luck," the agent shook his head gravely. + +"It was the best kind of luck," responded Tisdale quickly, "to find myself +with that rope in my hands and a nice little spruce on the bank to supply +frames enough for a regiment. I was rigging a kind of derrick to ease my +sled up the sharp pitch from the crossing." + +"I see," said the operator thoughtfully, "and the sled broke through. Lost +it and the outfit. But your dogs--saved them, didn't you?" + +"All but two." Tisdale's brows contracted. "They were dragged under the +ice before I could cut the traces. There was leather enough on the leaders +to bind those shoes on, but"--and the humorous lines deepened again--"a +couple of straps, from an old suitcase, if you happen to have one, would +be an improvement." + +The operator hurried into the office and, after a vigorous search among +the miscellaneous articles stored under his desk, found an old valise, +from which he detached the desired straps. Tisdale adjusted the improvised +shoes. "I will send them back by a brakeman from Scenic Springs," he said, +rising from his seat on the edge of the platform. "You can keep them for a +pattern." + +"All right," the operator laughed. "If you do, I'll have to lay in a stock +of bale rope." + +It was beginning to snow again, big, soft flakes, and the wind, skimming +the drifts, speedily filled the broad, light rings Tisdale left in his +wake. A passenger with a baby in his arms stood on the observation +platform, and the child held out its mittened hands to him, crowing, with +little springs. They had formed an acquaintance during the delay in the +Rockies, which had grown to intimacy in the Cascades, and Hollis slipped +the carrying strap of his bag over his shoulder and stopped to toss him a +snowball, before he turned from the track. "Good-by, Joey," he said. "I am +coming back for you if there's a chance." + +The operator, shivering, closed the door. "Never saw such a man," he +commented. "But if he's lived in Alaska, a Cascade blizzard would just be +a light breeze to him." He paused to put a huge stick of wood in the +stove, then, after the habit of solitary humanity, resumed his soliloquy. +"I bet he's seen life. I bet, whoever he is, he's somewheres near the top +of the ladder. I bet, in a bunch of men, he does the thinking. And I bet +what he wants, I don't care what's piled in his way, he gets." + +As he descended, the trees closed behind Tisdale, rank on rank, and were +enveloped in the swaying curtain of the snow. Always a certain number +surrounded him; they seemed to march with him like a bodyguard. But he was +oblivious of the peril that from the higher peak had appeared so imminent +to Lucky Banks. When the snow-cloud lifted, the Pass was still completely +veiled from him, and the peak the prospector's party had ascended was then +cut off by the intervening ridge. He had crossed the headwaters and was +working along this slope down the watercourse, when the noise of the first +avalanche startled the gorge. A little later a far shout came to his quick +ear. He answered, but when another call reached him from a different +point, high up beyond the ridge, he was silent. He knew a company, +separated in the neighborhood of the slide, was trying to get into +communication. Then, in the interval that he waited, listening, began the +ominous roar of the mightier cataclysm. The mountain he had descended +seemed to heave; its front gave way; the ridge on which he stood trembled +at the concussion. + +Instantly, before the clamor ceased and the first cries reached him, +Tisdale knew what had occurred. His sense of location told him. Then the +fact was pressed on him that some on the unfortunate train still survived. +He saw that the course he had taken from the west portal was no longer +possible, but by keeping the curve of the ridge which joined the mountain +slope and formed the top of the gorge, and by working upward, he should be +able to gain the upper edge of the slide where rose the human sounds. He +took this way. His shoulder, turned a little, met the lower boughs with +the dip and push of the practiced woodsman, and even on the up-grade the +distance fell behind him swiftly. Always subconsciously, as he moved, he +saw that baby crowing him a good-by, and the young father smiling Godspeed +from the observation platform; sometimes the girl mother with tender brown +eyes watched him from the background. Suppose their coach, which had +directly preceded the observation car, had escaped; the snow-cloud, +parting on the mountain top, showed that the roofs of the station still +remained. + +After a while he noticed two men working downward from the portal along +the swath of the avalanche. One, he conjectured, was the operator, but +they stopped some distance above him and commenced to remove sections of +the débris. Then Hollis saw before him some brilliant spots on the snow. +They proved to be only pieces of stained glass from a shattered transom. +The side of the car with denuded window casings rested a few feet higher, +and a corner of the top of the coach protruded from under the fallen +skeleton of a fir. The voices now seemed all around him. Somewhere a man +was shouting "Help!" Another groaned, cursing, and, deeper in the +wreckage, rose a woman's muffled, continuous screaming. But, nearer than +the rest, a child was crying piteously. He reached the intact portion of +the crushed roof and found the baby sitting unhurt on a clear breadth of +snow. The body of the father was pinned hopelessly beneath the tree, and +the mother lay under the fragment of roof, an iron bar on her tender eyes. +It was as though Destiny, having destroyed them, whimsically threw a +charmed circle around this remaining atom of the family. + +"Well, Joey," Tisdale said quietly, "I've come back for you." + +Instantly the child stopped crying and turned to listen; then, seeing +Tisdale, he began to crow, rocking his little body and catching up +handsful of snow to demonstrate his delight. The hands and round bud of a +mouth were blue. + +"Cold, isn't it, Joey?" And he took the baby in his arms. "We can't find +your coat and mittens, but here is a nice blanket." + +He stooped, as he spoke, and pulled the blanket from under a broken door, +and the child nestled its face in his neck, telling him in expressive, +complaining sounds the story of his terror and discomfort. + +A man burrowed out of the snow above the log. His leg was injured, but he +began to creep, dragging it, in the direction of the woman's voice. "I'm +coming, Mary," he cried. "For God's sake, stop." + +Tisdale picked up a strip from the broken door and hurried to his aid. He +put the child down and used the board as a shovel, and Joey, watching from +the peephole in his blanket, laughed and crowed again. Up the slope the +operator and his companion had extricated a brakeman, who, forgetting his +own injuries, joined the little force of rescuers. + +At last the cries ceased. Haste was no longer imperative. The remaining +coaches were buried under tons of snow and debris. Weeks of labor, with +relays of men, might not reach them all. And it was time to let the +outside world know. The telephone lines were down, the telegraph out of +commission, and Tisdale, with the baby to bear him company, started to +carry the news to Scenic Hot Springs. + +It had grown very cold when he rounded the top of the gorge. The arrested +thaw hung in myriads of small icicles on every bough; they changed to +rubies when the late sun blazed out briefly; the trees seemed strung with +gems; the winds that gathered on the high dome above the upper canyon +rushed across the summit of the ridge. They fluted every pipe, and, as +though it were an enchanted forest, all the small pendants on all the +branches changed to striking cymbals and silver bells. The baby slept as +warm and safe in his blanket as though he had not left his mother's arms. + +Once there came a momentary lull, and on the silence, far off--so far it +seemed hardly more than a human breath drifting with the lighter current +that still set towards him from the loftier peak--Tisdale heard some one +calling him. His pulses missed their beat and raced on at fever heat. He +believed, in that halting instant, it was Beatriz Weatherbee. Then the +gale, making up for the pause, swept down in fury, and he hurried under +the shelter of the ridge with the child. He told himself there had been no +voice; it was an illusion. That the catastrophe, following so closely on +his illness, had unhinged him a little. The Morganstein party had +doubtless returned to Seattle at the beginning of the thaw; and even had +Mrs. Weatherbee remained at Scenic Springs, it was not probable she had +strayed far from the comfort and safety of the hotel. And recalling that +night she had passed in the Wenatchee mountains, he smiled. + +As twilight fell, a ruddy illumination outlined the ridge. He conjectured +that the men he had heard early in the afternoon in the vicinity of the +first slide were a party of belated hunters, who had camped in the upper +canyon. They must have known of the greater avalanche; possibly of the +disaster. They may have sent a messenger to the Springs and kindled this +beacon to guide any one who might choose this way to bring the news from +the portal. At least they would be able to direct him to the shortest out; +serve him the cup of coffee of which he was in need. So, coming to the end +of the ridge where the canyons met, he turned in the direction of the +fire, and found--two waiting women. + +Their presence alone was an explanation. Mrs. Feversham had only to say +Lucky Banks had led their party, in the ascent of the peak that brilliant +morning, and instantly everything was clear to Tisdale. The voice he had +heard from the top of the ridge was not an illusion. She had called him. + +"It was snowing," he said, interrupting the story, "but if they left the +shadow of a trail, Banks found it. There are two of them, though, and up +there--it's cold." Then, having gone a few steps, he remembered the child +and came back to put him in Elizabeth's arms. "His father and mother are +dead," he explained briefly, "but he hasn't a bruise. When he wakes, he is +going to be hungry." + +So, forgetting those wearing hours of rescue work, and without the coffee +for which he had intended to ask, he started on the prospector's trail. In +a little while, as he skirted the foot of the slide, he heard a great +commotion on the slope beyond. It was Lucky Banks easing his human +toboggan down the last pitch to the canyon floor. + +The two men stood a silent moment scanning each other in the uncertain +light across that load. Tisdale's eyes were searching for an answer to the +question he could not ask, but the prospector, breathing hard, was trying +to cover the emotion Tisdale's unexpected appearance had roused. + +"Hello, Hollis," he said at last. "Is that you? I had to see after Dave's +wife, but I thought likely, when I got her to camp, I'd take a little hike +up to the tunnel and look you up." + +But Tisdale, not finding the answer for which he looked, sank to his knee +beside the load and loosened the straps. Then he lifted a corner of the +rug that protected her face, and at the sight of it, so white, so still, +his heart cried. "Little soldier!" he said over and over and, as though he +hoped to warm them, laid his cheek gently to her blue lips. "You called +me! I heard you. I failed you, too!" + +Then a fluttering breath steadied him. Instantly the iron in the man +cropped through. He felt her pulse, her heart, as though she had been some +stranger from the unfortunate train and, moving her to a level place, +fixed her head low and began firmly, with exceeding care, those expedients +to eliminate the frost and start the circulation that Banks had already +hurriedly tried. His great, warm personality enfolded her; he worked +tirelessly, as though he was determined to infuse her numb veins with his +own vigor. When the prospector would have aided him, he wished to do +everything alone, and directed the miner's attention to Frederic +Morganstein, who showed signs of returning consciousness. + +But the intrepid little man failed to respond. "I guess likely he will +pull through," he said dryly. "He had a pretty good shaking up coming +down, and I'd better run around to camp and get a bottle of port I cached +this morning. The snipe got away with my flask; used the last drop, +likely, before she needed it." His voice took a higher pitch, and he added +over his shoulder, as he started in the direction of the fire: "He made a +windbreak of her." + +When he returned presently with the wine, Frederic was filling the night +with his complaints and groans. But neither of the men gave him any +attention. That was left for Marcia, who had followed the prospector. + +Beatriz Weatherbee was still unconscious. She was carried to the camp and +laid in a sheltered place remote from the fire. Then Lucky Banks +volunteered to go to Scenic Springs with the news of the train disaster, +and to bring an extra man with lanterns and a stretcher. He was well on +the way when Morganstein crept in. Marcia found him a seat on the end of a +log and, wrapping the cached rug about him, regaled him with the recovered +portion of the luncheon. But it was long after that when Beatriz +Weatherbee's eyelids fluttered open. Tisdale drew a little more into the +shadows, waiting, and the first to come within her range of vision was the +child. He was sitting on his blanket in the strong glow, and just beyond +him Elizabeth, who had found a tin of cream in the cache and had been +feeding him, was putting away the cup. Joey faced the waking woman and, +catching her look, he put out his hands, rocking gayly, and crowed. +Instantly a flash of intelligence lighted her face. She smiled and tried +to stretch out her arms. "Come!" she said. + +Elizabeth caught up the child and placed him beside her on the rug. He put +out his soft, moist fingers, touching her face curiously, with gathering +doubt. Then, satisfied this was not his mother, as in the uncertain light +he must have supposed, he drew back with a whimper and clung to Elizabeth. + +At the same moment Mrs. Weatherbee's smile changed to disappointment. "His +eyes are brown, Elizabeth," she said, "and my baby's were blue, like +mine." And she turned her face, weeping; not hysterically, like a woman +physically unstrung, but with the slow, deep sobs of a woman who has +wakened from a dream of one whom she has greatly loved--and buried. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +SURRENDER + + +Tisdale had not seen Beatriz Weatherbee since she had been brought +semi-conscious from the foot of the mountain, but he learned from the hotel +physician the following morning that she was able to travel on the special +train which was coming from Seattle to transport the Morganstein party +home. The first inquiry, after news of the disaster reached the outside +world, was from Joey's grandfather, a lumberman on Puget Sound. Put in +communication with Tisdale, he telephoned he would arrive at the Springs +on the special. So, leaving the child in charge of the housekeeper, Hollis +returned to the west portal, to join the little force of rescuers. It was +then no longer a question of life-saving, but of identification. The Swiss +chalet, which had ceased to be the mecca of pleasure-seekers, had become a +morgue. + +But Lucky Banks, who went with him, had received a message from Mrs. +Weatherbee, and in the interval that Tisdale was busy with long-distance +and disposing of Joey, the prospector went up to her room. She was pale +and very weak, but she smiled as he approached her couch and held out her +hand. "No, the right one," she said, and added, taking it with a gentle +pressure, "I know, now, what it is--to be cold." + +The little man nodded. His face worked, and he hurried to conceal the +maimed hand in his pocket. "But the doctor says you'll pull through good +as new," he commented. "I am proud to know that; my, yes." + +"And I am proud of you, Mr. Banks. It seems incredible, but Miss +Morganstein told me you rescued her brother, too. I've tried and tried to +remember, but I am not able. You must have carried me, at least, all of +the way." + +Banks glanced at Elizabeth, who was seated beyond the couch. She had laid +a warning finger to her lips and shook her head. "That was dead easy +coming downgrade," he answered. "And that little blow up there on the +mountain top wasn't anything to speak of, alongside a regular Alaska +blizzard. If I'd had to weight my pockets with rocks, that would have been +something doing. I might have felt then that I was squaring myself with +Dave Weatherbee." + +"I understand," she said slowly, "but," and she smiled again, "I am +grateful, Mr. Banks, just the same. Perhaps, since you loved David so +much, you will regard it as a kind of compensation that I am going on with +the project." + +"Is that so?" The little man beamed. "Well, the house is all done and +waiting, my, yes, whenever you are ready to move over." + +"Why, Beatriz," said Elizabeth in alarm, "I am going to take that desert +tract off your hands. I've been interested in reclamation work for +months." And looking at Banks, she added significantly: "I am afraid she +is talking too much." + +"Likely," replied the prospector, rising, "and I am due to take a little +hike up the canyon with Hollis Tisdale." + +"Mr. Tisdale?" she asked, with a quick brightening of her face. "Then he +is quite well again. Miss Morganstein told me he was saved--from that +unfortunate train," and she added, shivering and closing her eyes, "I +remember--that." + +"I couldn't have got there in time," Banks hurried to explain, "even if +you had given up making the summit. Likely I'd have got caught by the +slide, and Hollis was half-way to the Springs and 'feeling fit as a moose' +when it started. Well, good-by, ma'am; take care of yourself." + +"Good-by, Mr. Banks," and she smiled once more. "You may expect me at +Hesperides Vale in a few days; as soon as my things at Vivian Court are +packed." And she added, with the color softly warming her cheek, "Mr. +Tisdale might like to know that. He always wished to see David's project +carried through." + +And the little man replied from the door: "I'll tell him, ma'am, my, yes." + +The special, which brought other seekers besides Joey's grandfather, also +conveyed Jimmie Daniels. It was his last assignment with the _Press_; he +and Geraldine were to be married within the week and assume the editorial +position at Weatherbee. And he pushed up over Tisdale's trail, now become +well broken, eager to make a final scoop and his best one. Hours later, +when he should have been back at Scenic Hot Springs, rushing his copy +through to his paper, he still remained on the slope below the west portal +to carry out the brief and forceful instructions of the man who directed +and dominated everybody; who knew in each emergency the one thing to do. +Once Jimmie found himself aiding Banks to wrap a woman's body in a blanket +to be lowered by tackle down the mountainside. She was young, not older +than Geraldine, and the sight of her--rounded cheek, dimpled chin, arm so +beautifully molded--all with the life snuffed out without a moment's +warning--gave him a sensation of being smothered. He was seized with a +compelling desire to get away, and to conquer his panic, he asked the +prospector whether this man was not the superintendent of the mountain +division. + +The mining man replied: "No, that's the railroad boss over there with the +gang handling the derrick; this is Tisdale, Hollis Tisdale of Alaska and +Washington, D.C. You ought to have heard of him in your line of business +if you never happened to see him before." + +Then Jimmie, turning to look more directly at the stranger, hastily +dropped his face. "You are right," he said softly, "I've known him by +sight some time." + +Afterwards, while they were having coffee with the station master, Daniels +asked Banks how he and Tisdale happened to be at Cascade Tunnel. "I was +putting in a little time at the Springs," Banks responded, "but Hollis was +a passenger on the stalled train. He took a notion to hike down to the +hotel just ahead of the slide." + +"You mean that man who has taken charge out there," exclaimed the +operator. "I had a talk with him before he started; he was rigging up some +snowshoes. He said he was from Alaska, and I put him down for one of those +bonanza kings." + +"He is," said Banks in his high key. "What he don't know about minerals +ain't worth knowing, and he owns one of the finest layouts in the north, +Dave Weatherbee's bore." + +"The Aurora mine," confirmed Daniels. "And I presume there isn't a man +better known, or as well liked, in Alaska." + +Banks nodded. "Dave and him was a team. The best known and the best liked +in the whole country. And likely there's men on the top seats in +Washington, D.C., would be glad of a chance to shake hands with Hollis +Tisdale." + +"I knew he was somewhere near the top," commented the operator. "He can +handle men. I never saw such a fellow. Why, he must have got half-way to +the Springs when the slide started, but he was back, climbing up along the +edge of it to the wreck, almost before it quit thundering. And he took out +a live baby, without a damage mark, and all its folks lying right there +dead, before the rest of us got in earshot." + +Daniels put down his sandwich and took out his neglected notebook. He +gathered all the detail the ready operator could supply: how Tisdale had +wrapped the child in a blanket and carried him from place to place, +talking to him in his nice, friendly way, amusing him, keeping him quiet, +while he worked with the strength of two men to liberate other survivors. +And how, when none was left to save, he had taken the baby in his arms and +gone to break trail to the Springs to send out news of the disaster. All +that the station master and Banks could not tell him, with the name and +prominence of Joey's family, Jimmie added later at the chalet, and he +finished with a skilful reference to the papoose, killed by accident so +many years before. It was a great story. It went into the paper as it +stood. And when the day came to leave the _Press_ office, the chief, +shaking hands with his "novelist," said it was a fine scoop, and he had +always known Jimmie had it in him to make good; he was sorry to lose him. +But the Society Editor, reading between the lines, told him it was the +greatest apology he could have made. She was proud of him. + +At Vivian Court late that afternoon, Elizabeth read the story to Beatriz +Weatherbee. Her couch was drawn into the sunny alcove, where, from her +pillows, she might watch the changing light on Mount Rainier. Finally, +when Elizabeth finished, Beatriz broke the silence. "He must have passed +down the canyon while we were there." + +"Yes, he did. He carried one end of your stretcher all the way to the +Springs." Then Elizabeth asked: "Don't you remember the baby, either? He +had brown eyes." + +"I seem to remember a child," she answered slowly, "a baby sitting in the +firelight, but"--and she shook her head, "I've dreamed so many dreams." + +"He was a fact; a perfect dear. I should have adopted him, if his +relatives hadn't been so prominent and rich. And you, too, fell instantly +in love with him. You wanted him in your arms the moment you opened your +eyes." + +Elizabeth paused with a straight look from under her heavy brows and while +she hesitated there was a knock at the door. She threw it open and a +porter brought in one of those showy Japanese shrubs in an ornate +jardinière, such as Frederic Morganstein so often used as an expression of +his regard. His card hung by a ribbon from a branch, like a present on a +Christmas tree, and when the boy had gone, she untied it and carried it to +Mrs. Weatherbee. "I wish you could marry Frederic and settle it all," she +said. "Japan is lovely in the spring." + +Beatriz, who had taken the card indifferently, allowed it to drop without +reading it. Her glance rested again on the shining dome. + +"I told him I would ask you to see him a few moments to-night," Elizabeth +resumed. "He is feeling miserably. He says he was ill when we made the +ascent that day and never should have left the hotel; his high temperature +and the altitude affected his head. He believes he must have said things +that offended or frightened you--things he wasn't responsible for." She +paused, then, for a woman who had been so schooled to hold herself in hand +as Elizabeth Morganstein, went on uncertainly: "He is just a plain +business man, used to going straight to a point, but not many men care so +much for a woman as he does for you. You could mold him like wax. He says +all he wants now--if he did make a mistake--is a chance to wipe it out; +start with a clean slate." + +Mrs. Weatherbee rose from the couch. She stood a moment meeting +Elizabeth's earnest look. The shadow of a smile touched her mouth, but +well-springs of affection brimmed her eyes. "We cannot wipe out our +mistakes, dear," she said. "They are indelible. We have to accept them, +study them, use them as a rule from which to work out the problems of our +lives. There is no going back, no starting over, if we have missed an +easier way. Elizabeth, in one hour on that mountain I saw more of the true +Frederic Morganstein than in all the years I had known him before. In the +great moments of life, I should have no influence with him. Even for your +sake, dear, I could not marry him. I do not want to see him any more." + +There was a silence, then Elizabeth said: "In that case, I am going to +ease things for you. I am going to buy that desert land. Now, don't say a +word. I am going to pay you Lucky Banks' price, and, of course, for the +improvements whatever is right." + +"But it is not on the market," replied Beatriz. "I told you I had decided +to live there. I hoped--you would like to go with me. For awhile, at +least, you might find it interesting." + +Elizabeth tried to dissuade her. It was ridiculous. It was monstrous. She +was not strong enough. It would be throwing her life away, as surely as to +transplant a tender orchid to that burning sage-brush country. But in the +end she said: "Well, Bee, then I'll go with you." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +BACK TO HESPERIDES VALE + + +The Mayor of Weatherbee stopped his new, six-passenger car at the curb in +front of the completed brick block; not at the corner which was occupied +by the Merchants' National Bank, but at the adjoining entrance, above +which shone the neat gilt sign: "Madame Lucile's." He stood for a moment +surveying the window display, which was exceedingly up-to-date, showing +the prevailing color scheme of green or cerise in the millinery, softened +by a background of mauve and taupe in the arrangement of the gowns. A +card, placed unobtrusively in the corner of the plate glass, announced +that Madame Lucile, formerly with Sedgewick-Wilson of Seattle, was +prepared to give personal attention to all orders. + +Bailey himself that day was equipped in a well-made suit from the +tailoring establishment on the opposite side of the building. Though he +had not yet gathered that avoirdupois which is associated with the dignity +of office, there was in his square young frame an undeniable promise. +Already he carried himself with the deliberation of a man whose future is +assured, and his mouth took those upward curves of one who is humorously +satisfied with himself and his world. + +There were no customers when he entered, and since it was the hour when +her assistant was out at lunch, Madame, attired in a gown of dark blue +velvet, her black hair arranged with elaborate care, was alone in the +shop. And Bailey's glance, having traveled the length of the soft green +carpet to the farthest mirror, returned in final approval to her. "This +certainly is swell," he said, "It's like a sample right out of Chicago. +But I knew you could do it, the minute Mrs. Banks mentioned you. Why, the +first time I saw you--it was on the street the day I struck Wenatchee--I +told myself: 'This town can't be very wild and woolly if it can turn out +anything as classy as that.'" + +Madame laughed. "I must have looked like a moving fashion plate to attract +attention that way. I feel a little over-dressed now, after wearing the +uniform in Sedgewick-Wilson's so long; but Mrs. Banks said I ought to wear +nice clothes to advertise the store." + +Bailey tipped back his head at that, laughing softly. "I guess your silent +partner is going to be the power behind the throne, all right." + +Madame nodded, with the humor still lingering in her brown eyes. "But it +was good advice. I sold a gown like this to my first customer this +morning. And she had only come in to see millinery; she hadn't meant to +look at gowns. But she liked this one the moment she saw it." + +"Is that so? Well, I don't wonder. It certainly looks great--on you." + +Madame flushed and turned her face to look off through the plate glass +door. "Why," she exclaimed, "you didn't tell me your new automobile had +come." She moved a few steps, sweeping the car with admiring eyes. "Isn't +it luxurious though, and smart? But you deserve it; you deserve everything +that's coming to you now, staying here, sticking it out as you have in the +heat and sand. I often thought of it summer days while I was over on the +Sound." + +"You did?" questioned Bailey in pleased surprise. "Well, I am glad to know +that. I wonder whether you ever thought over the time we tramped the +railroad ties up to Leavenworth to that little dance?" + +"Often," she responded quickly. "And how we came back in the Oleson wagon, +riding behind with our heels hanging over, and the dust settling like +powder on our party clothes. But I had the loveliest time. It was the +starriest night, with moonlight coming home, and I danced every number." + +"Seven times with me," returned the mayor. + +"I wanted to learn the two-step," she explained hastily. + +"And I wanted to teach you," he laughed. "But say, how would you like to +take a little spin up the Leavenworth road this evening, in the new car?" + +"Oh, that would be delightful." Madame Lucile glowed. "With a party?" she +asked. + +"Well, I thought of asking Daniels and his wife to go with us. I am on the +way to the station now, to meet them. And Mrs. Weatherbee and Miss +Morganstein are due on the same train. I promised Mr. Banks I would take +them out to the Orchards in the machine; but we are to motor around to the +new bungalow first, to leave the bride and Jimmie and have luncheon." + +"I know. Mrs. Banks is going to have the table in that wide veranda +looking down the river. I would like to be there when they find out that +dear little bungalow is their wedding present. It was perfectly lovely of +Mrs. Banks to think of it; and of you to give them that beautiful lot on +the point. You can see Hesperides Vale for miles and miles to the lower +gap." + +Bailey smiled. "Mrs. Banks said it was a good way to use up the lumber +that was left over from the ranch house. And that bungalow certainly makes +a great showing for the town. It raised the value of the adjoining lots. I +sold three before the shingles were on the walls, and the people who +bought them thought they had a snap." + +"All the same, it is a lovely present," said Madame Lucile. + +"There's the train, whistling up the valley," said the mayor, but he +paused to ask, almost with diffidence, as he turned to the door: "Say, +what do you think of this tie?" + +"I like it." She nodded, with a reassuring smile. "And it's a nice shade +for you; it brings out the blue in your eyes." + +The mayor laughed gaily. "I ought to wear it steady after that, but I am +coming to black ones with a frock coat and silk hat. I am going to begin +to-morrow, when those German scientists, on their way home from the +Orient, stop to see Hesperides Vale." + +"Oh, I hope you will wear this nice business suit, unless they come late +in the afternoon. It seems more sensible here on the edge of the desert, +and even if you are the first mayor to do it, I know, the world over, +there isn't another as young." + +Bailey grew thoughtful. "The mayor in Chicago always wore a Prince Albert. +Why, that long coat and silk hat stood for the office. They were the most +important part of him. But good-by," he said hastily, as the train +whistled again, nearer, "I'll call for you at seven." + +Ten minutes later, the mayor stood on the station platform shaking hands +with Mrs. Weatherbee. "Say, I am surprised," he said. "I often wondered +what you thought of the vale. Lighter told me how you drove those colts +through that day, and I was disappointed not to hear from you. You didn't +let me know you had an investment already, and it never occurred to me, +afterwards, that you were our Mrs. Weatherbee." + +Then, introductions being over, he assisted Miss Morganstein into the +tonneau with the bridal couple and gave the seat in front to Mrs. +Weatherbee. He drove very slowly up the new thoroughfare, past the Bailey +building, where she expressed her astonishment at the inviting window +display of the millinery store. He explained that offices for the +_Weatherbee Record_ had been reserved on the second floor, and that in the +hall, in the third story, the first inaugural ball was to be given the +following night. It had been postponed a few days until her arrival, and +he hoped he might have the privilege of leading the grand march with her. +And, Mrs. Weatherbee having thanked him, with the pleasure dancing in her +eyes, Bailey pointed out the new city hospital, a tall, airy structure, +brave in fresh paint, which was equipped with a resident physician and +three trained nurses, including Miss Purdy, the milliner's sister, who was +on her way from Washington to join the force. + +After that they motored through the residence district, and Mrs. +Weatherbee expressed greater wonder and delight at the rows of thrifty +homes, each with its breadth of green lawn and budding shrubbery, where +hardly six months ago had been unreclaimed acres of sage. And so, at last, +they came to the city park, where the road wound smooth and firm between +broad stretches of velvety green, broken by beds of blossoming tulips, +nodding daffodils, clumps of landscape foliage putting forth new leaves. +Sprinklers, supplied by a limpid canal that followed the drive, played +here, there, everywhere, and under all this moisture and the warm rays of +the spring sun, the light soil teemed with awakening life. Then, finally, +the car skirted a low, broad mound, in which was set the source of the +viaduct, a basin of masonry, brimming with water crystal clear and fed by +two streams that gushed from a pedestal of stone on the farther rim. "How +beautiful!" she exclaimed. "How incredible! And there is to be a statue to +complete it. A faun, a water nymph, some figure to symbolize the spirit of +the place." + +"I can't tell you much about the statue," replied Bailey, watching the +curve ahead. "Mr. Banks engaged the sculptor; some noted man in the east. +He is carrying the responsibility; it was his idea. But it was to have +been in place, ready to be unveiled by the fifteenth, and there was some +delay." + +After that, the mayor was silent, devoting his attention to the speeding +car. They left the park and, taking the river road, arrived presently at +the bungalow. The shingles still lacked staining, the roof was incomplete, +but a sprinkler threw rainbow mist over the new lawn, which was beginning +to show shades of green. A creeper, planted at the corner of the veranda, +already sent out pale, crinkled shoots. + +Lucky Banks came beaming down the steps, and Annabel, in a crisp frock of +royal blue taffeta, stood smiling a welcome as the automobile stopped. +Then Bailey, springing down to throw open the door of the tonneau, lifted +his voice to say: "And this--is the home of the Editor of the _Weatherbee +Record_ and Mrs. Daniels." + +They did not at once grasp his meaning, and the prospector made it clear +as they went up to the veranda. "The house is a wedding present from Mrs. +Banks," he said; "and Mr. Bailey, here, put up the lot, so's I thought +this would come in handy; it will take quite a bunch of furniture." + +There was a silent moment while Geraldine stood regarding the envelope he +had put in her hand. She was looking her best in a trim, tailored suit of +gray. There was a turquoise facing to the brim of her smart gray hat, but +her only ornaments were a sorority pin fastened to the lapel of her coat +and a gold button that secured her watch in the small breast pocket made +for it. At last she looked up, an unusual flush warmed her face, and she +began: "It's perfectly lovely of you--we are so surprised--we never can +thank you enough." + +But Jimmie turned away. He stood looking down the valley in the direction +of that place, not very far off, where his mother had carried water up the +steep slope in the burning desert sun. His forehead creased; he closed his +lips tight over a rising sob. Then Geraldine laid her hand on his arm. "Do +you understand what these people have done for us?" she asked +unconventionally. "Did you hear?" + +Jimmie swung around. His glance met Annabel's. "I can't explain how I feel +about it," he burst out, "but I know if my mother could have been here +now, it--this--would have paid her for all--she missed. I don't deserve +it--but Geraldine does; and I pledge myself to stay by the _Weatherbee +Record_ as long as you want me to. I don't see how I can help making +good." + +Then Annabel, winking hard, hastily led the way over the house; and, +presently, when the party returned to the table in the veranda, and the +Japanese boy she had brought from the ranch house was successfully passing +the fried chicken, she wanted to know about the wedding. + +"Yes, we tried to have it quiet," responded Jimmie, "and we planned it so +the taxi would just make our train; but the fellows caught on and were +waiting for us at the station, full force, with their pocketfuls of rice +and shoes. They hardly let us get aboard." + +"Gracious!" exclaimed Annabel. "You might as well have been married in +church. You'd have looked pretty in a train and veil," she said, +addressing Geraldine, who was seated on her right. "Not but what you don't +look nice in gray. And I like your suit real well; it's a fine piece of +goods; the kind to stand the desert dust. But I would have liked to see +you in white, with a blaze of lights and decorations and a crowd." + +Geraldine laughed. "We had a nice little wedding, and the young men from +the office made up for their noise. They gave the porter a handsome case +of silver at the last moment, to bring to me." + +"And," supplemented Jimmie, "there was a handsome silver tea service from +the chief. He told her she had been a credit to the staff, and he would +find it hard to replace her. Think of that coming from the head of a big +daily. It makes me feel guilty. But she is to have full latitude in the +new paper; society, clubs, equal suffrage if she says so; anything she +writes goes with the _Weatherbee Record_." + +"If I were you, I'd have that down in writing." Annabel looked from +Daniels to the bride, and her lip curled whimsically. "They all talk that +way at first, as though the earth turned round for one woman, and the +whole crowd ought to stop to watch her go by. He pretends, so far as he is +concerned, she can stump the county for prohibition or lead the +suffragette parade, but, afterwards, he gets to taking the other view. +Instead of thanking his lucky stars the nicest girl in the world picked +him out of the bunch, he begins to think she naturally was proud that the +best one wanted her. Then, before they've been married two years, he +starts trying to make her over into some other kind of a woman. Why, I +know one man right here in Hesperides Vale who set to making a Garden of +Eden out of a sandhole in the mountains, just because it belonged to a +certain girl." She paused an instant, while her glance moved to Banks, and +the irony went out of her voice. "He could have bought the finest fruit +ranch in the valley, all under irrigation and coming into bearing, for he +had the money, but he went to wasting it on that piece of unreclaimed sage +desert. And now that he has got it all in shape, he's talking of opening a +big farm in Alaska." + +Banks laughed uneasily. "The boys need it up there," he said in his high +key. "Besides, I always get more fun out of making new ground over. It's +such mighty good soil here in Hesperides Vale things grow themselves +soon's the water is turned on. It don't leave a man enough to do. And we +could take a little run down to the ranch, any time; we could count on +always wintering here, my, yes." + +Annabel smiled. "He thinks by mid-summer he can take me right into the +interior, in that cranky red car. And I don't know but what I am ready to +risk it; there are places I'd like to see--where he was caught his first +winter in a blizzard, and where he picked up the nuggets for my necklace. +You remember it--don't you?--Mrs. Daniels. I wore it that night in Seattle +we went to hear Carmen." + +"I certainly do remember. It was the most wonderful thing in the theater +that night, and fit for an empress." Involuntarily Geraldine glanced down +at her own solitary jewel. It flashed a lovely blue light as she moved her +hand. + +Annabel followed the glance. "Your ring is a beauty," she said. "Not many +young men, just starting in business for themselves, would have thought +they could afford a diamond like that." + +Geraldine laughed, flushing a little. "It seems the finest in the world to +me," she replied almost shyly. "And it ought to show higher light and +color than any other; the way it was bought was so splendid." + +"Do you mean the way the money was earned to buy it?" inquired Annabel. + +Geraldine nodded. "It was the price, exactly, of his first magazine story. +Perhaps you read it. It was published in the March issue of _Sampson's_, +and the editors liked it so well they asked to see more of his work." + +Jimmie looked at his wife in mingled protest and surprise. He had believed +she, as well as himself, had wished to have that story quickly forgotten. +"It is an Indian story," she pursued; "about a poor little papoose that +was accidentally killed. It was a personal experience of Mr. Tisdale's." + +Mrs. Banks had not read it, but the prospector pushed aside his sherbet +glass and, laying his arms on the table, leaned towards Geraldine. "Was +that papoose cached under a log?" he asked softly. "And was its mother +berrying with a bunch of squaws up the ridge?" + + +"Yes," smiled Geraldine. "I see you have read it." + +"No, but I heard a couple of men size it up aboard the train coming from +Scenic Hot Springs. And once," he went on with gathering tenseness, "clear +up the Tanana, I heard Dave and Hollis talking it over. My, yes, it seems +like I can see them now; they was the huskiest, cleanest-cut, +openest-faced team that ever mushed a trail. It was one of those nights +when the stars come close and friendly, and the camp-fire blazes and +crackles straight to heaven and sets a man thinking; and Tisdale started +it by saying if he could cut one record out of his past he guessed the rest +could bear daylight. Then Dave told him he was ready to stand by that one, +too. And Hollis said it was knowing that had taken the edge off, but it +hadn't put the breath back into that papoose. Of course he never +suspicioned for a minute the kid was in the road when he jumped that log, +and the heart went out of him when he picked it up and saw what he was +responsible for. They had to tell me the whole story, and I wish you could +have heard 'em. Dave smoothing things when Hollis got too hard on himself, +and Hollis chipping in again for fear I wouldn't get full weight for +Dave's part. And the story sure enough does hinge on him. Likely that's +why Tisdale gave it to your magazine; to show up Dave Weatherbee. But +those men on the train--they had the seat in front of me so's I heard it +plain--lost their bearings. They left out Dave and put Hollis in a bad +light. He was 'caught red-handed and never was brought to an honest +trial.' And it was clear besides, being 'hand in glove with the Secretary +of the Interior' he had a 'pull with the Federal court.' I couldn't stand +for it." The prospector's voice reached high pitch, his forehead creased +in many fine lines, his eyes scintillated their blue glacier lights, and +he added, striking the table with his clenched hand, "I up and says: 'It's +all a damn lie.'" + +There was a silence. The self-possession and swiftness of the Japanese boy +saved the sherbet glass and its contents, but the mayor, who had been +interrupted in a confidential quotation of real estate values to Miss +Morganstein, sat staring at Banks in amazement. A spark of admiration shot +through the astonishment in Annabel's eyes then, catching the little man's +aggressive glance, she covered her pride with her ironical smile. Mrs. +Weatherbee was the only one who did not look at Banks. Her inscrutable +face was turned to the valley. She might never have heard of Hollis +Tisdale or, indeed, of David. But Elizabeth, who had kept the thread of +both conversations, said: "You were right. There was a coroner's inquest +that vindicated Mr. Tisdale at the time." + +"But," explained Geraldine courageously, "that was left out of the +magazine. Mr. Daniels took it all accurately, just as Mr. Tisdale told it, +word for word; but the story was cut terribly. Nothing at all was said of +Mr. Weatherbee's part. We couldn't understand that, for with names +suppressed, there could be no motive, and he was so clearly the leading +character. But magazines have no conscience. It's anything, with the new +ones at least, to catch the public eye, and they stir more melodrama into +their truths than the yellow journals do. But Mr. Daniels apologized to +Mr. Tisdale, and explained how he wasn't responsible for the editor's note +or for printing his name, and he did his best to make it up in his report +of the disaster at Cascade tunnel. That story went into the _Press_ +straight and has been widely copied." + +It was in Jimmie's favor that Lucky Banks had read the newspaper story, +and also that they had had those hours of intimacy at the west portal. +"Well, likely you ain't to blame," the prospector admitted finally, "but +there's people who don't know Hollis Tisdale that might believe what the +magazine says. And, if I was you, I'd take a little run over to Washington +or New York, wherever it is--I'll put up the money--and locate that +editor. I'd make him fix it right, my, yes." + +"I should be glad to," said Daniels, brightening, "but it's possible those +missing pages were lost on the way." + +"Well, I'd find out," persisted Banks. "And there's other stories I got +wind of when I was in Washington, D.C., and Seattle, too, last time I was +down, that ought to be trailed. Maybe it's just politics, but I know for a +fact they ain't so." + +The irony had gone out of Annabel's face. She had seen Hollis Tisdale but +once, yet his coming and going had marked the red-letter day of her life. +Her heart championed Banks' fight for him. She turned her dark eyes from +him to Daniels. + +"It's too bad you tried to tell Hollis Tisdale's story for him," she said. +"Even if the magazine had got it all straight, it wouldn't have been the +same as getting it first hand. It's like listening to one of those fine +singers in a phonograph; you can get the tune and some of the words, and +maybe the voice pretty fair, but you miss the man." + +With this she rose. "We are ready to go out to the Orchards, Mr. Bailey. +Mr. Banks and I are going to change places with the bride and groom." Then +from her silk bag, she brought forth a bunch of keys which she gave to +Geraldine. "Nukui is going to stay to clear away," she explained, "and +bring our car home. And when you have finished making your plans, and want +to go down to see the newspaper office, he will show you a nice short cut +through the park." + +So again the mayor's chocolate six-passenger car threaded the park and +emerged this time on a straight, broad thoroughfare through Hesperides +Vale. "This," said Bailey, turning from the town, "is the Alameda. They +motor from Wenatchee and beyond to try it. It's a pretty good road, but in +a year or two, when these shade trees come into full leaf, it will be +something to show." + +There were tufts on most of them now and on the young fruit trees that ran +in geometrical designs on either side, covering the levels that last year +had been overgrown with sage. As these infant orchards dropped behind and +the Wenatchee range loomed near, Cerberus detached from the other peaks; +but it was no longer a tawny monster on guard; its contour was broken by +many terraces, luxuriant with alfalfa and planted with trees. + +"Why," exclaimed Mrs. Weatherbee, "there is the gap. Then, this must be +the mountain--it reminded me once of a terrible, crouching, wild beast-- +but it has changed." + +"Yes, ma'am," responded Banks, "she's looking tamer now. The peaches have +taken right hold, and those fillers of strawberries are hurrying on the +green. But you give 'em three years or maybe four, and take 'em in blossom +time,--my, you won't know this old mountain then." + +A drive, cross-cutting the bold front, led to the level beneath the +summit, where rose the white walls and green gables of Annabel's home, but +they rounded the mountain into the smaller vale. "This," said the mayor, +with culminating pride, "is Weatherbee Orchards. It shows what money, in +the right hands, can do." + +A soft breeze came down over the ridge as they ascended; the flume, that +followed the contour of the roadway, gurgled pleasantly. Everywhere along +the spillways alfalfa spread thriftily, or strawberry plants sent out new +tendrils. All growing things were more advanced in that walled pocket than +in the outer vale; the arid gulf had become a vast greenhouse. Cerberus no +longer menaced. Even the habitation of the goat-woman, that had been the +central distraction of the melancholy picture, was obliterated. In all +that charming landscape there was no discordant note to break the harmony. + +The car doubled the curve at the top of the bench and ran smoothly between +breadths of green lawn, bordered by nodding narcissus, towards the house, +which was long and low, with a tiled roof and cream-colored walls that +enclosed a patio. A silence fell over the company. As they alighted, every +one waited, looking expectantly at Beatriz Weatherbee. The music of a +fountain fluted from the court, and she went forward, listening. Her face +was no longer inscrutable; it shone with a kind of inner illumination. But +when she saw the slender column of spray and the sparkling basin, with a +few semi-tropical plants grouped on the curb, a cactus, a feathery palm in +a quaint stone pot, she turned, and her eyes sought Elizabeth's. "It is +all like the old hacienda where grandfather was born, and mother, and"-- +her voice broke--"Only that had adobe walls," she finished. "It is like-- +coming home." + +"It is simply marvelous," replied Elizabeth, and she added abruptly, +looking at the prospector: "Mr. Banks, you are a problem beyond me." + +"It looks all right, doesn't it?" the little man beamed. "Likely it would +about suit Dave. And I was able to stand the investment. My, yes, now your +brother has bought out the Annabel, what I spent wouldn't cut any figure. +But," and his glance moved to the woman who had profited by the venture, +"I'll likely get my money back." + +Afterwards, when the party had inspected the reservoirs and upper flumes, +Beatriz found herself returning to the bench with Lucky Banks. It was +almost sunset, and the far Chelan peaks were touched with Alpine fire; +below them an amethyst mist filtered over the transformed vale. They had +been discussing the architecture of the building. + +"I had often gone over the map of the project with David," she said, "but +he must have drawn the plans of the house later, in Alaska. It was a +complete surprise. I wonder he remembered the old hacienda so accurately; +he was there only once--when we were on our wedding journey." + +"There were a few measurements that had to be looked up," admitted Banks; +"but I took a little run around into lower California last winter, on my +way home from Washington, D.C." + +"You were there? You troubled to go all the way to the old rancheria for +details?" + +"Yes, ma'am. It was a mighty good grazing country down there, but the +people who bought the place were making their money out of one of those +fine hotels; it was put up alongside a bunch of hot springs. Nobody but a +couple of Mexicans was living in the old house. It was in bad shape." + +"I know. I know. If I had been a man, it would have been different. I +should have restored it; I should have worked, fought to buy back every +acre. But you saw old Jacinta and Carlos? It was recorded in the title +they should be allowed to stay there and have the use of the old home +garden as long as they lived. My mother insisted on that." + +They had reached the level and walked on by the house towards the solitary +pine tree on the rim of the bench. After a moment he said: "Now Dave's +project is running in good shape, there isn't much left for me to do, my, +no, except see the statue set up in the park." + +"I wanted to ask you about that, Mr. Banks; we passed the place on the way +to the bungalow. It was beautiful. I presume you have selected a woman's +figure--a lovely Ceres or Aphrodite?" + +"No, ma'am," responded Banks a little sharply. "It's a full-sized man. +Full-sized and some over, what the sculptor who made it calls heroic; and +it's a good likeness of Dave Weatherbee." + +They had reached the pine tree, and she put out her hand to steady herself +on the bole. "I understand," she said slowly. "It was a beautiful-- +tribute." + +"It looks pretty nice," corroborated the prospector. "There was a mighty +good photograph of Dave a young fellow on a Yukon steamer gave me once, to +go by. He was standing on a low bluff, with his head up, looking off like +a young elk, when the boat pulled out, and the camera man snapped him. It +was the day we quit the partner lay, and I was going down-stream, and he +was starting for the headwaters of the Susitna. Tisdale told me about a +man who had done first-class work in New York, and I sent that picture +with a check for a starter on my order. I wrote him the price wasn't +cutting any figure with me; what I wanted was the best he could do and to +have it delivered by the fifteenth of March. And he did; he had it done on +time; and he said it was his best work. It's waiting down in Weatherbee +now. Hollis thought likely I better leave it to you whether to have the +burying with the statue down in the park, or up here, somewhere, on Dave's +own ground." + +"Do you mean," she asked, and her voice almost failed, "you have brought-- +David--home?" + +Banks nodded. "It was cold for him wintering up there in the Alaska snow." + +"Oh, I know. I've thought about--that. I should have done--as you have-- +had I been able." + +After a moment she said: "What is there I can say to you? I did not know +there were such men in the world until I knew you and Hollis Tisdale. Of +course you believed, as he did, that I was necessary to round out David's +project. That is why, when it was successfully completed, you forfeited +the bonus and all the investment. I may never be able to fully refund you +but--shall do my best. And this other--too. Mr. Banks, was that Mr. +Tisdale's suggestion? Did he share that--expense--with you?" + +"No, ma'am, he let me have that chance when we talked it over. I had to +get even with him on the project." + +"Even with him on the project?" + +"Yes, ma'am. He let me put up the money, but it's got to be paid back out +of Dave's half interest in the Aurora mine. And likely, likely, that's +what Dave Weatherbee would have wanted done." + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE JUNIOR DEFENDANT + + +It was following a recess during the third afternoon of the trial; a jury +had at last been impanelled, the attorney for the prosecution and the +leading lawyer for the defense had measured swords, when Stuart Foster, +the junior defendant in the "Conspiracy to Defraud the Government," was +called to the stand. Frederic Morganstein, the head of the Prince William +Development Company, straightened in his seat beside the vacated chair. He +was sleekly groomed, and his folded, pinkish white hands suggested a good +child's; his blank face assumed an expression of mildly protesting +innocence. But the man who stepped from his shadow into the strong light +of the south windows was plainly harassed and worn. His boyishness was +gone; he seemed to have aged years since that evening in September when he +had sailed for Alaska. Tisdale's great heart stirred, then his clear mind +began to tally the rapid fire of questions and Foster's replies. + +"When were you first connected with the Prince William Development +Company, Mr. Foster?" + +"In the summer of 1904." + +"You were then engaged in the capacity of mining engineer at a fixed +salary, were you not?" The prosecuting attorney had a disconcerting manner +of arching his brows. His mouth, taken in connection with his strong, +square jaw, had the effect of closing on his questions like a trap. + +"Yes," Foster answered briefly, "I was to receive two hundred and fifty +dollars a month the first year, and its equivalent in the company's +stock." + +"Did you not, at the same time, turn over to the company your interests in +the Chugach Railway and Development Company?" + +"Yes," said Foster. + +"And was not this railroad built for the purpose of opening certain coal +lands in the Matanuska region, in which you held an interest?" + +"Yes, I had entered a coal claim of one hundred and sixty acres." + +"All the law allowed to an individual; but, Mr. Foster, did you not induce +others, as many as thirty persons, to locate adjoining claims with the +idea that the entire group would come under one control?" + +Foster colored. "It was necessary to co-operate," he said slowly, "in +order to meet the enormous expense of development and transportation. We +wished to build a narrow-gauge road--it was then in course of +construction--but the survey was through the Chugach Mountains, the most +rugged in North America. The cost of moving material, after it was shipped +from the States, was almost prohibitive; ordinary labor commanded higher +wages than are paid skilled mechanics here in Seattle." + +"Mr. Foster, were not those coal claims located with a purpose to dispose +of them in a group at a profit?" + +"No, sir. I have told you on account of the great expense of development +it was necessary to work together; it was also necessary that as many +claims as possible should be taken." + +The prosecution, nodding affirmatively, looked at the jury. "The more +cunning and subtle the disguise," he said, "the more sure we may be of the +evasion of the law. So, Mr. Foster, you promoted an interest in the +fields, selected claims for men who never saw them; used their power of +attorney?" + +"Yes. That was in accordance with the law then in force. We paid for our +coal claims, the required ten dollars an acre. The land office accepted +our money, eighty thousand dollars. Then the President suspended the law, +and we never received our patents. About that time the Chugach forest +reserve was made, and we were hampered by all sorts of impossible +conditions. Some of us were financially ruined. One of the first locators +spent one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, his whole fortune, in +development. He opened his mine and had several tons of coal carried by +packers through the mountains to the coast, to be shipped to Seattle, to +be tested on one of the Government cruisers. The report was so favorable +it encouraged the rest of us to stay with the venture." + +"Mr. Foster," the attorney's voice took a higher, more aggressive pitch, +"were not many of those claims entered under names furnished by an agent +of the Morganstein interests?" + +"Well, yes." Foster threw his head with something of his old boyish +defiance. He was losing patience and skill. "Mr. Morganstein himself made +a filing, and his father. That is the reason all our holdings are now +classed as the Morganstein group." + +"And," pursued the lawyer, "their entries were incidental with the +consolidation of your company with the Prince William Development +Company?" + +Foster flushed hotly. "The Prince William Development Company was in need +of coal; no enterprise can be carried on without it in Alaska. And the +consolidation brought necessary capital to us; without it, our railroad +was bankrupt. It meant inestimable benefit to the country, to every +prospector, miner, homesteader, who must waste nerve-breaking weeks +packing his outfit through those bleak mountains in order to reach the +interior. But, before forty miles of track was completed, the executive +withdrew all Alaska coal lands from entry, and we discontinued +construction, pending an Act of Congress to allow our patents. The +material carried in there at so great a cost is lying there still, rotting +away." + +"Gentlemen, is it not all clear to you?" The prosecuting attorney flashed +a glance of triumph over the jury. "Do you not see in this Prince William +Development Company the long arm of the octopus that is strangling Alaska? +That has reached out its tentacles everywhere, for gold here, copper +there; for oil, coal, timber, anything in sight? That, but for the +foresight of the executive and Gifford Pinchot, would possess most of +Alaska today?" + +The men on the jury looked thoughtful but not altogether convinced. One +glanced at his neighbor with a covert smile. This man, whom the Government +had selected to prosecute the coal fraud cases was undeniably able, often +brilliant, but his statements showed he had brought his ideas of Alaska +from the Atlantic coast; to him, standing in the Seattle courtroom, our +outlying possession was still as remote. As his glance moved to the ranks +of outside listeners, who overflowed the seats and crowded the aisles to +the doors, he must have been conscious that the sentiment he had expressed +was at least unpopular in the northwest. Faces that had been merely +interested or curious grew suddenly lowering. The atmosphere of the place +seemed surcharged. + +The following morning Morganstein took the stand. Though in small matters +that touched his personal comfort he was arrogantly irritable, under the +cross-examination that assailed his commercial methods he proved suave and +non-committal. As the day passed, the prosecutor's insinuations grew more +open and vindictive. Judge Feversham sprang to his feet repeatedly to +challenge his accusations, and twice the Court calmed the Government's +attorney with a reprimand. The atmosphere of the room seemed to seethe +hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness. Finally, during the afternoon +session, Foster was recalled. + +Through it all Tisdale waited, listening to everything, separating, +weighing each point presented. It was beginning to look serious for +Foster. Clearly, in his determination to win his suit, the prosecution was +losing sight of the simple justice the Government desired. And a man less +dramatic, less choleric, with less of a reputation for political intrigue +than Miles Feversham might better have defended Stuart Foster. Foster was +so frank, so honest, so eager to make the Alaska situation understood. And +it was not an isolated case; there were hundreds of young men, who, like +him, had cast their fortunes with that new and growing country, to find +themselves, after years of hardship and privation of which the outside +world had no conception, bound hand and foot in an intricate tangle of the +Government's red tape. + +The evening of the fourth day the attorney for the prosecution surprised +Tisdale at his rooms. "Thank you," he said, when Hollis offered his +armchair, "but those windows open to the four winds of heaven are a little +imprudent to a man who lives by his voice. Pretty, though, isn't it?" He +paused a moment to look down on the harbor lights and the chains of +electric globes stretching off to Queen Anne hill and far and away to +Magnolia bluff, then seated himself between the screen and the table that +held the shaded reading lamp. "Has it occurred to you, Mr. Tisdale," he +asked, "that a question may be raised as to the legality of your testimony +in these coal cases?" + +"No." Hollis remained standing. He looked at his visitor in surprise. +"Please make that clear, Mr. Bromley," he said. + +The attorney smiled. "This is a trial case," he began. "A dozen others +hinge on it. I was warned to be prepared for anything; so, when my +attention was called to that article in _Sampson's Magazine_, my +suspicions were instantly awake. It looked much like blackmail and, in +connection with another story I heard in circulation at Washington, seemed +a systematic preparation to attack the Government's witness. Possibly you +do not know it was Mr. Jerold, your legal adviser and my personal friend, +who put me in touch with the magazine. You had wired him to find out +certain facts, but he was unable to go to New York at the time and, +knowing I was there for the week, he got into communication with me by +telephone and asked me to look the matter up. The publishers, fearing a +libel suit which would ruin them, were very obliging. They allowed me to +see not only the original manuscript, but Mrs. Feversham's letter, which I +took the trouble to copy." + +"Mrs. Feversham's letter?" Tisdale exclaimed. "Do you mean it was Mrs. +Feversham who was responsible for that story?" + +"As it was published, yes. But Daniels was not a pen name. There really +was such a writer--I have taken the trouble to find that out since I +arrived in Seattle. He was on the staff of the _Press_ and wrote a very +creditable account of the catastrophe on the Great Northern railroad, in +which glowing tribute was given you. But since then, and this is what +makes the situation so questionable, he has left the paper and dropped +completely out of sight." + +Tisdale drew forward his chair and settled himself comfortably. "There is +no need to worry about Jimmie Daniels," he said; "he is all right. I saw +him at Cascade tunnel; he told me he was about to be married and go to the +Wenatchee country to conduct a paper of his own. It's too bad there wasn't +another reporter up there to tell about him. He worked like a Trojan, and +it was a place to try a man's mettle. Afterwards, before he left, he came +to me and introduced himself. He had been aboard the yacht that day I told +the story. He had taken it down in his notebook behind an awning. He told +me one of the ladies on board--he did not mention her name--who read his +copy later, offered to dispose of it for him." + +"So," said the lawyer slowly, "you did tell the story; there was a +papoose; the unfortunate incident really occurred." + +"Yes," responded Tisdale, "it happened in a canyon of those mountains +across the Sound. You can barely make out their outline to-night; but +watch for them at sunrise; it's worth waiting for." Then, after a moment, +he said, "I told the story to show the caliber of Weatherbee, the man who +put himself in my place when the Indians came to our camp, looking for me; +but, in editing, all mention of him was cut out. Daniels couldn't +understand that. He said the manuscript was long, but if it was necessary +to abridge in making up the magazine, why had they thrown out the finest +part of the story?" + +"Let me see," said the attorney thoughtfully, "wasn't Weatherbee the name +of the man you grub-staked in Alaska, and who discovered the Aurora mine?" + +Tisdale bowed, then added, with the vibration playing softly in his voice: +"And the name of the bravest and noblest man that ever fought the unequal +fight of the north." + +"Which proves the story was not published to exploit a hero," commented +Bromley. "But now," he went on brusquely, "we have arrived at the other +story. Do you know, Mr. Tisdale, it is being said in Washington, and, too, +I have heard it here in Seattle, that though your own half interest in the +Aurora mine, acquired through the grub-stake you furnished Weatherbee, +will make you a millionaire at least, you are withholding the widow's +share." + +This time Tisdale did not express surprise. "I have had that suggested to +me," he answered quietly. "But the stories of the Aurora are very much +inflated. It is a comparatively new mine, and though it promises to be one +of the great discoveries, the expense of operating so far has exceeded the +output. Heavy machinery has been transported and installed, and Mrs. +Weatherbee could not have met any part of these payments. In all +probability she would have immediately disposed of an interest at a small +price and so handicapped me with a partner with his own ideas of +development. David Weatherbee paid for the Aurora with his life, and I +have pledged myself to carry out his plans. But, Mr. Bromley, do not +trouble about that last half interest. I bought it: the transfer was +regularly recorded; Mr. Jerold has assured me it is legally mine." + +"I know what Mr. Jerold thinks," replied the attorney. "It nettled him to +hear me repeat that story. 'Why, it's incredible,'" he said. "'There are +documents I drew up last fall that refute it completely.'" Mr. Bromley +paused, then went on slowly: "Last fall you were in a hospital, Mr. +Tisdale, beginning a long, all but hopeless fight for your life, and it +was natural you should have called in Mr. Jerold to settle your affairs. I +inferred from his remark that you had remembered Mrs. Weatherbee, at +least, in your will." He halted again, then added still more deliberately: +"If I am right, I should like to be prepared, in case of emergency, to +read such a clause in court." + +Tisdale was silent. He rose and turned to the west windows, where he stood +looking down on the harbor lights. + +"Am I right?" persisted the attorney. + +Hollis thrust his hands into his pockets and swung around. He stood with +his chin lowered, looking at the lawyer with his upward glance from under +slightly frowning brows. "Well," he said at last, "suppose you are. And +suppose I refuse to have my private papers read in open court?" + +"In that case," answered Mr. Bromley, rising, "I must telegraph to +Washington for one of the Alaska coal commission to take your place. I am +sorry. You were named to me at the beginning as a man who knew more about +Alaska coal, and, in fact, the whole Alaska situation, than any other +employee of the Government." + +Still, having said this, Mr. Bromley did not seem in any hurry to go, but +stood holding his hat and waiting for a word from Tisdale to redeem the +situation. At last it came. "Is there no other way," he asked, "than to +drag my private affairs into court?" + +The attorney gravely shook his head. "You never can tell what a jury will +do," he said. "Less than a prejudice against a witness has swung a +decision sometimes." + +Hollis said no more. He went over to his safe and selected a package +containing three documents held together by a rubber band. After a +hesitating moment, he drew out one, which he returned to its place. The +others he brought to the attorney, who carried them to the reading lamp to +scan. One was a deed to the last half interest in the Aurora, the one +which Weatherbee had had recorded, and the remaining paper was, as Mr. +Bromley conjectured, Tisdale's will; but it contained a somewhat +disconcerting surprise. However, the lawyer seated himself and, spreading +the paper open on the table, copied this clause. + + +... "The Aurora mine, lying in an unsurveyed region of Alaska, accessible +from Seward by way of Rainy Pass, and from the Iditarod district north by +east, I bequeath to Beatriz Silva Gonzales Weatherbee, to be held for her +in trust by Stuart Emory Poster for a period of five years, or until +development, according to David Weatherbee's plans, shall have been fully +carried out. The profits, above the cost of all improvements and all +operating expenses--which shall include a superintendent's salary of four +thousand dollars a year to said Stuart Emory Foster--to be paid in +semi-annual dividends to said Beatriz Silva Gonzales Weatherbee." + +"Stuart Emory Foster," repeated the lawyer meditatively, putting away his +fountain pen. "You evidently have considerable confidence in his +engineering skill, Mr. Tisdale." + +"Yes." His voice mellowed, but he regarded the attorney with the upward, +watchful look. "I have confidence in Stuart Emory Foster in every way. He +is not only one of the most capable, reliable mining engineers, but also +one of the most respected and most trusted men in the north." + +There was a silence, during which Mr. Bromley thoughtfully folded his copy +and placed it in his pocket-book. "Thank you, Mr. Tisdale," he said +finally, and rose once more. "You may not be called for several days but +when you are, it is advisable that you have the original documents at +hand. Good night." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +TISDALE OF ALASKA--AND WASHINGTON, D.C. + + +It was evident, after his interview with Hollis Tisdale, that Mr. Bromley +was in no hurry to precipitate the side issue for which he had prepared. +Every one who had taken coal land in the Morganstein group had been on the +witness stand, and many more who had not filed claims had given testimony, +yet the prosecution held him in reserve. Then came a day when Lucky Banks, +recalled to tell what he knew about the Chugach trail, made some +astonishing statements. He had traveled that route with a partner at the +end of a season in the Copper River plateau. They had expected to finish +the distance by the new railroad. The little man was brief but graphic. It +seemed to have been a running fight with storms, glaciers, and glacial +torrents to reach that narrow-gauge track before the first real September +blizzard. "But we could have stood it," he concluded in his high key, "my, +yes, it wouldn't have amounted to much, if we could have had firewood." + +"Did you not know the fallen timber was at your service?" questioned Mr. +Bromley. "Provided, of course, you conformed to the laws of the reserve in +building your fire and in extinguishing it when you broke camp." + +"There wasn't any fallen timber," responded Banks dryly; "and likely we +would have took it green, if there had been a tree in sight. It was +getting mighty cold, nights, and with the frost in his wet clothes, a man +needs a warm supper to hearten him." + +"What?" exclaimed Mr. Bromley sharply. "Do you mean you saw no trees? +Remember you were in the Chugach forest; or did you lose your way?" + +"No, sir. We struck the Chugach Railway just where we aimed to, but a +mighty lot of the Chugach reserve is out of timber line. That's why we +banked on Foster's new train to hurry us through. But we found she had +quit running. The Government had got wind of the scheme and sent a bunch +of rules and regulations. First came a heavy tax for operating the road; +and next was an order to put spark arresters on all his engines. He only +had two first-class ones and a couple of makeshifts to haul his gravel +cars; and his sparks would have froze, likely, where they lit, but there +he was, tied up on the edge of a fill he had counted on finishing up +before his crew went out for the winter, and the nearest spark arrester +farther off than Christmas." + +A ripple of amusement ran through the crowded room, but little Banks stood +waiting frostily. When his glance caught the judge's smile, his eyes +scintillated their blue light. "Likely Foster would have sent his order +out and had those arresters shipped around Cape Horn from New York," he +added. "They'd probably been in time for spring travel; but he opened +another bunch of mail and found there wouldn't be any more sparks. +Washington, D.C., had shut down his coal mine." + +Mr. Bromley had no further questions to ask. He seemed preoccupied and +passed the recess that followed the prospector's testimony in pacing the +corridor. Lucky Banks had been suggested as an intelligent and honest +fellow on whom the Government might rely; but his statements failed to +dovetail with his knowledge of Alaska and the case, and after the +intermission Tisdale was called. + +The moment he was sworn, Miles Feversham was on his feet. He held in his +hand a magazine, in which during the recess, he had been engrossed, and +his forefinger kept the place. + +"I object to this witness," he said sonorously and waited while a stir, +like a gust of wind in a wood, swept the courtroom, and the jury +straightened, alert. "I object, not because he defrauded the widow of +David Weatherbee out of her half interest in the Aurora mine, though, +gentlemen, you know this to be an open fact, but for the reason that he is +a criminal, self-confessed, who should be serving a prison sentence, and a +criminal's testimony is not allowable in a United States court." + +Before he finished speaking, or the Court had recovered from the shock, +Mr. Bromley had taken a bundle of papers from his pocket and stepped close +to the jury box. + +"This is an infamous fabrication," he exclaimed. "It was calculated to +surprise us, but it finds us prepared. In ten minutes we shall prove it +was planned six months ago to defame the character of the Government's +witness at this trial. I have here, gentlemen, a copy of the Alaska record +showing the transfer of David Weatherbee's interest in the Aurora mine to +Hollis Tisdale; it bears the signature of his wife. But this extract from +Mr. Tisdale's will, which was drawn shortly after his return from Alaska, +last year, and while he was dangerously ill in Washington, proves how far +it was from his intention to defraud the widow of David Weatherbee." Here +Mr. Bromley read the clause. + +Tisdale, standing at ease, with his hand resting on his chair, glanced +from the attorney to Foster. No mask covered his transparent face; the +dark circles under his fine, expressive eyes betrayed how nearly +threadbare his hope was worn. Then, suddenly, in the moment he met +Tisdale's look, wonder, swift intelligence, contrition, and the gratitude +of his young, sorely tried spirit flashed from his countenance. To Hollis +it became an illuminated scroll. + +"As to the main charge," resumed Mr. Bromley, "that is ridiculous. It is +based on an unfortunate accident to an Indian child years ago. The +distorted yarn was published in a late issue of a sensational magazine. No +doubt, most of you have read it, since it was widely circulated. +Different--isn't it?--from that other story of Mr. Tisdale which came down +from Cascade tunnel. Gentlemen, I have the letter that was enclosed with +the manuscript that was submitted to _Sampson's Magazine_. It was not +written by the author, James Daniels, but by a lady, who had offered to +dispose of the material for him, and who, without his knowledge, +substituted a revised copy." + +Miles Feversham had subsided, dumbfounded, into his chair; his +self-sufficiency had deserted him; for a moment the purple color surged in +his face; his chagrin overwhelmed him. But Marcia, seated in the front row +outside the bar, showed no confusion. Her brilliant, compelling eyes were +on her husband. It was as though she wished to reinforce him, and at the +same time convey some urgent, vital thought. He glanced around and, +reading the look, started again to his feet. He began to retract his +denunciation. It was evident he had been misinformed; he offered his +apologies to the witness and asked that the case be resumed. But the +prosecuting attorney, disregarding him, continued to explain. "In the +Daniels' manuscript, gentlemen, a coroner's inquest exonerated the man who +was responsible for the death of the papoose; this the magazine +suppressed. I am able to offer in evidence James Daniels' affidavit." + +Then, while the jury gathered these varying ideas in fragments, Lucky +Banks' treble rose. "Let's hear what the lady wrote." And some one at the +back of the courtroom said in a deep voice; "Read the lady's letter." + +It seemed inevitable. Mr. Bromley had separated a letter from the bundle +of papers. Involuntarily Marcia started up. But the knocking of the gavel, +sounding smartly, insistently, above the confusion, brought unexpected +deliverance. + +"It is unnecessary to further delay this Court with this issue," announced +the judge. "The case before the jury already has dragged through nearly +four weeks, and it should be conducted as expeditiously as possible to a +close. Mr. Bromley, the witness is sustained." + +Marcia settled back in her place; Miles Feversham, like a man who has +slipped on the edge of a chasm, sat a moment longer, gripping the arms of +his chair; then his shifting look caught Frederic's wide-eyed gaze of +uncomprehending innocence, and he weakly smiled. + +"Mr. Tisdale," began the prosecution, putting aside his papers and +endeavoring to focus his mind again on the case, "you have spent some +years with the Alaska division of the Geological Survey?" + +"Every open season and some of the winters for a period of ten years, with +the exception of three which I also spent in Alaska." + +"And you are particularly familiar with the locality included in the +Chugach forest reserve, I understand, Mr. Tisdale. Tell us a little about +it. It contains vast reaches of valuable and marketable timber, does it +not?" + +The genial lines crinkled lightly in Tisdale's face. "The Chugach forest +contains some marketable timber on the lower Pacific slopes," he replied, +"where there is excessive precipitation and the influence of the warm +Japan current, but along the streams on the other side of the divide there +are only occasional growths of scrubby spruce, hardly suitable for +telegraph poles or even railroad ties." He paused an instant then went on +mellowly: "Gifford Pinchot was thousands of miles away; he never had seen +Alaska, when he suggested that the Executive set aside the Chugach forest +reserve. No doubt he believed there was valuable timber on those lofty +peaks and glaciers, but I don't know how he first heard of a Chugach +forest, unless"--he halted again and looked at the jury, while the humor +deepened in his voice--"those Pennsylvania contractors, who were shipping +coal around Cape Horn to supply the Pacific navy, took the chance of there +being trees in those mountains and interested the Government in saving the +timber--to conserve the coal." + +A ripple of laughter passed over the jury and on through the courtroom. +Even the presiding judge smiled, and Mr. Bromley hurried to say: "Tell us +something about that Alaska coal, Mr. Tisdale. You have found vast bodies-- +have you not?--of a very high grade; to compare favorably with +Pennsylvania coal." + +"The Geodetic Survey estimates there are over eight millions of acres of +coal land already known in Alaska," replied Hollis statistically. "More +than is contained in all Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio combined. +It is of all grades. The Bonnifield near Fairbanks, far in the interior, +is the largest field yet discovered, and in one hundred and twenty-two +square miles of it that have been surveyed, there are about ten billions +of tons. Cross sections show veins two hundred and thirty-one feet thick. +This coal is lignite." + +"How about the Matanuska fields?" asked Mr. Bromley. + +"The Matanuska cover sixty-five thousand acres; the coal is a high grade +bituminous, fit for steam and coking purposes. There are also some veins +of anthracite. I consider the Matanuska the best and most important coal +yet discovered in Alaska, and with the Bering coal, which is similar +though more broken, these fields should supply the United States for +centuries to come." + +Mr. Bromley looked at the jury. His smile said: + +"You heard that, gentlemen?" Then, his glance returning to the witness: + +"Why the most important?" he asked. + +"Because all development, all industry, in the north depends on the +opening up of such a body of coal. And these fields are the most +accessible to the coast. A few hundreds of miles of railroad, the +extension of one or two of the embryo lines on which construction has been +suspended, would make the coal available on Prince William Sound. Used by +the Pacific Navy, it would save the Government a million dollars a year on +transportation." + +The prosecuting attorney looked at the jury again in triumph. "And that, +gentlemen, is why the Prince William Development Company was so ready to +finance one of those embryo railroads; why those Matanuska coal claims +were located by the syndicate's stenographers, bookkeepers, any employee +down here in their Seattle offices. Mr. Tisdale, if those patents had been +allowed and the claims had been turned over to the company, would it not +have given the Morganstein interests a monopoly on Alaska coal?" + +Tisdale paused a thoughtful moment. "No, at least only temporarily, if at +all. Out of those eight millions of acres of coal land already discovered +in Alaska, not more than thirty-two thousand acres have been staked--only +one claim, an old and small mine on the coast, has been allowed." His +glance moved slowly over the jury, from face to face, and he went on +evenly: "You can't expect capital to invest without some inducement. The +Northern Pacific, the first trans-continental railroad in the United +States, received enormous land grants along the right of way; but the +Prince William Development Company, which intends ultimately to bridge +distances as vast, to tap the unknown resources of the Alaska interior, +has not asked for concessions, beyond the privilege to develop such +properties as it may have acquired by location and purchase. Surely the +benefit that railroad would be in opening the country to settlement and in +the saving of human life, should more than compensate for those few +hundreds of acres of the Government's coal." + +"Mr. Tisdale," said the attorney sharply, "that, in an employee of the +Government, is a strange point of view." + +Tisdale's hands sought his pockets; he returned Mr. Bromley's look with +his steady, upward gaze from under slightly frowning brows. "The +perspective changes at close range," he said. "The Government knows less +about its great possession of Alaska than England knew about her American +colonies, one hundred and fifty years ago. The United States had owned +Alaska seventeen years before any form of government was established +there; more than thirty before a criminal code was provided, and +thirty-three years before she was given a suitable code of civil laws. +Now, to-day, there are no laws operative in Alaska under which title may +be acquired to coal land. Alaska has yielded hundreds of millions of +dollars from her placers, her fisheries, and furs, but the only thing the +Government ever did for Alaska was to import reindeer for the use of the +Esquimos." + +Another ripple of laughter passed through the courtroom; even the judge on +the bench smiled. But Mr. Bromley's face was a study. He began to fear the +effect of Tisdale's astonishing statements on the jury, while at the same +time he was impelled to listen. In the moment he hesitated over a +question, Hollis lifted his head and said mellowly: "The sins of Congress +have not been in commission but in omission. They are under the +impression, far away there in Washington, that Alaska is too bleak, too +barren for permanent settlement; that the white population is a floating +one, made up chiefly of freebooters and outlaws. But we know the +foundations of an empire have been laid there; that, allowed the use of +the fuel Nature has so bountifully stored there and granted a fair measure +of encouragement to transportation, those great inland tundras would be as +populous as Sweden; as progressive as Germany." His glance moved to the +jury; all the nobility, the fineness, the large humanity of the man was +expressed in that moment in his face; a subdued emotion pervaded his +voice. "We know the men who forged a way through that mighty bulwark of +mountains to the interior were brave, resourceful, determined--they had to +be--but, too, they saw a broad horizon; they had patriotism; if there are +any Americans left who have inherited a spark of the old Puritan spirit, +they are the ones who have cast their fortunes with Alaska." + +He paused again briefly, and his eyes rested on Foster. "Do you know?" he +resumed, and his glance returned to the prosecuting attorney, "when I came +out last season, I saw a ship at the terminus of the new Copper River and +Northwestern Railroad discharging Australian coal. This with the great +Bering fields lying at their side door! The people of Cordova wanted to +see that road finished; the life of their young seaport depended on it-- +but--that night they threw the whole of that cargo of foreign coal into +the waters of Prince William Sound. It is referred to, now, as the +'Cordova tea-party.'" + +In the silence that held the courtroom, Tisdale stood still regarding the +lawyer. His expression was most engaging, a hint of humor lurked at the +corners of his mouth, yet it seemed to veil a subtle meaning. Then the +jury began to laugh quietly, with a kind of seriousness, and again the +judge straightened, checking a smile. It was all very disturbing to Mr. +Bromley. He had been assured by one high in the administration that he +might rely on Tisdale's magnetic personality and practical knowledge as +well as his technical information in prosecuting the case; but while he +hesitated over the question he wished to ask, Tisdale said mellowly, no +doubt to bridge the awkward pause: "The Copper River and Northwestern +couldn't mine their coal, and they couldn't import any, so they changed +their locomotives to oil burners." + +Then Mr. Bromley said abruptly: "This is all very interesting, Mr. +Tisdale, but it is the Chugach Railway and not the Copper River +Northwestern, that bears on our case. You have been over that route, I +believe?" + +"Yes." Tisdale's voice quickened. "I used the roadbed going to and from +the Matanuska Valley. Also I went over the proposed route once with Mr. +Foster and the civil engineers." + +"Was it, in your opinion, a bona fide railroad, Mr. Tisdale? Or simply a +lure to entice people to make coal locations in order that they might be +bought after the patents were issued?" + +"It was started in good faith." The steel rang, a warning note, in his +voice. "The largest stockholder had spent nearly a hundred thousand +dollars in opening his coal claim. He was in need of immediate +transportation." + +"This was after the Chugach Company consolidated with the Prince William +syndicate, Mr. Tisdale?" + +"No, sir. It was previous to that time. The Chugach Railway and +Development Company had chosen one of the finest harbors in Alaska for a +terminus. It was doubly protected from the long Pacific swell by the +outer, precipitous shore of Prince William Sound. But their greatest +engineering problem met them there at the start. It was necessary to cross +a large glacier back of the bay. There was no possible way to build around +it; the only solution was a bore under the ice. The building of such a +tunnel meant labor and great expense. And it was not a rich company; it +was made up principally of small stockholders, young men, just out of +college some of them, who had gone up there with plenty of enthusiasm and +courage to invest in the enterprise, but very little money. They did their +own assessment work, dug like any coal miners with pick and shovel, cut +and carried the timbers to brace their excavations under Mr. Foster's +instructions. And when construction commenced on the railroad, they came +down to do their stunt at packing over the glacier--grading began from the +upper side--and sometimes they cut ties." + +"And meantime," said the attorney brusquely, "Mr. Foster, who was +responsible I believe, was trying to interest other capital to build the +tunnel." + +"Yes. And meantime, the Prince William syndicate started a parallel +railroad to the interior from the next harbor to the southwestward. It was +difficult to interest large capital with competition so close." Tisdale +paused; his glance moved from Mr. Bromley to the jury, his voice took its +minor note. "Stuart Foster did hold himself responsible to those young +fellows. He had known most of them personally in Seattle; they were a +picked company for the venture. He had youth and courage himself, in those +days, but he knew Alaska--he had been there before and made good. He had +their confidence. He was that kind of man; one to inspire trust on sight, +anywhere." Hollis paused another instant, while his eyes turned to Foster, +and involuntarily, one after the other, the jury followed his look. "It +was then," he added, "when other capital failed, the Chugach Company gave +up their seaport and consolidated with the Prince William syndicate." + +"Thank you, Mr. Tisdale," said the attorney for the prosecution. "That is +all." + +Miles Feversham had, as Frederic afterward expressed it, "caught his +second wind." While he listened attentively to the testimony, he made some +sweeping revisions in his notes for the argument which he was to open the +following day. He laughed at, while he congratulated himself, that the +Government's star witness, of whom he had been so afraid, should have +proved so invaluable to the defense. And when court adjourned, and the +trio went down the steps to the street, he assured his brother-in-law +there was a chance for him to escape, under Foster's cloak. To Marcia he +said jocularly, though still in an undertone: "'Snatched like a brand from +the burning!'" And he added: "My lady, had you consulted me, I should have +suggested the April issue. These magazines have a bad habit of arriving +too soon." + +Frederic, released from the long day's strain, did not take this +facetiousness meekly, but Marcia was silent. For once the "brightest +Morganstein" felt her eclipse. But while they stood on the curb, waiting +for the limousine to draw up, a newsboy called: "All about the Alaska +bill! Home Rule for Alaska!" + +The special delegate bought a copy, and Marcia drew close to his elbow +while they scanned the message together. It was true. The bill, to which +they both had devoted their energies that season in Washington, had +passed. Feversham folded the paper slowly and met his wife's brilliant +glance. It was as though she telegraphed: "Now, the President must name a +governor." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +THE OTHER DOCUMENT + + +The argument, which Miles Feversham opened with unusual brilliancy the +following morning, was prolonged with varying degrees of heat to the close +of another week; then the jury, out less than two hours, brought in their +verdict of "Not Guilty." + +And that night, for the first time since Tisdale's return, Foster climbed +to the eyrie in the Alaska building. "I came up to thank you, Hollis," he +began in his straightforward way. "It was breakers ahead when you turned +the tide. But," he added after a pause, "what will the President think of +your views?" + +Tisdale laughed softly. "He heard most of them before I left Washington, +and this is what he thinks." + +As he spoke, he took a letter from the table which he gave to Foster. It +bore the official stamp and was an appointment to that position which +Miles Feversham had so confidently hoped, with Marcia's aid, to secure. + +"Well, that shows the President's good judgment!" Foster exclaimed and +held out his hand. "You are the one man broad enough to fit the place." +After a moment he said, "But it is going to leave you little time to +devote to your own affairs. How about the Aurora?" + +Tisdale did not reply directly. He rose and walked the length of the +floor. "That depends," he said and stopped with his hands in his pockets +to regard Foster with the upward, appraising look from under knitting +brows. "I presume, Stuart, you are through with the syndicate?" + +Foster colored. "I put in my resignation as mining engineer of the company +shortly after I came out, at the beginning of the year." + +"And while you were in the interior," pursued Tisdale, "you were sent to +the Aurora to make a report. What did you think of the mine?" + +"I thought Frederic Morganstein would be safe in bonding the property if +he could interest you in selling; it looked better to me than even Banks' +strike in the Iditarod. This season's clean-up should justify Weatherbee." + +"You mean in staying on at the risk of his reason and life?" + +Foster nodded; a shadow crossed his open face. "I mean everything but--his +neglect to make final provision for his wife." + +Tisdale frowned. "There is where you make your mistake. Weatherbee +persisted as he did, in the face of defeat, for her sake." + +Foster laughed mirthlessly. "The proofs are otherwise. Look at things, +once, from her side," he broke out. "Think what it means to her to see you +realizing, from a few hundred dollars you could easily spare, this big +fortune. I know you've been generous, but after all, of what benefit to +her is a bequest in your will, when now she has absolutely nothing but +that hole in the Columbia desert? Face it, be reasonable; you always have +been in every way but this. I don't see how you can be so hard, knowing +her now as you do." + +Tisdale turned to the window. "I have not been as hard as you think," he +said. "But it was necessary, in order to carry out Weatherbee's plans, to-- +do as I did." + +"That's the trouble." Foster rose from his chair and went a few steps +nearer Tisdale. "You are the sanest man in the world in every way but one. +But you can't think straight when it comes to Weatherbee. There is where +the north got its hold on you. Can't you see it? Look at it through my +eyes, or any one's. You did for David Weatherbee what one man in a +thousand might have done. And you've interested Lucky Banks in that +reclamation project; you've gone on yourself with his developments at the +Aurora. But there's one thing you've lost sight of--justice to Beatriz +Weatherbee. You've done your best for him, but he is dead. Hollis, old +man, I tell you he is dead. And she is living. You have sent her, the +proudest, sweetest woman on God's earth, to brave out her life in that +sage-brush wilderness. Can't you see you owe something to her?" + +Tisdale did not reply. But presently he went over to his safe and took out +the two documents that were fastened together. This time it was the will +he returned to its place; the other paper he brought to Foster. "I am +going to apologize for my estimate of Mrs. Weatherbee the night you sailed +north," he said. "My judgment then, before I had seen her, was unfair; you +were right. But I could hardly have done differently in any case. There +was danger that she would dispose of a half interest in the Aurora at +once, at any low price Frederic Morganstein might name. And you know the +syndicate's methods. I did not want a Morganstein partnership. But, later, +at the time I had my will drawn, I saw this way." + +Foster took the document, but he did not read it immediately; he stood +looking at Tisdale. "So you too were afraid of him. But I knew nothing +about Lucky Banks' option. It worried me, those endless nights up there in +the Iditarod, to think that in her extremity she might marry Frederic +Morganstein. There was a debt that pressed her. Did you know about that?" + +"Yes. She called it a 'debt of honor.'" + +"And you believed, as I did, that it was a direct loan to cover personal +expenses. After I came home, I found out she borrowed the money originally +of Miss Morganstein, to endow a bed in the children's hospital. Think of +it! And Mrs. Feversham, who took it off her sister's hands, transferred +the note to Morganstein." + +Tisdale did not say anything, but his rugged face worked a little, and he +turned again to look out into the night. Foster moved nearer the +reading-lamp and unfolded the document. It was a deed conveying, for a +consideration of one dollar, a half interest in the Aurora mine to Beatriz +Silva Gonzales Weatherbee; provided said half interest be not sold, or +parceled, or in any way disposed of for a period of five years. Her share +of the profits above operating expenses was to be paid in semi-annual +dividends, and, as in the will, Stuart Emory Foster was named as trustee. + +Foster folded the document slowly. His glance moved to Tisdale, and his +eyes played every swift change from contrition to gratitude. Hollis +turned. "I want you to take the management of the whole mine," he said +mellowly. "At a salary of five thousand a year to start with. And as soon +as you wish, you may deliver this deed." + +Foster's lips trembled a little. "You've made a mistake," he said +unsteadily. Then: "Why don't you take it to her yourself, Hollis?" he +asked. + +Tisdale was silent. He turned back to the window, and after an interval, +Foster went over and stood beside him, looking down on the harbor lights. +His arm went up around Tisdale's shoulder as he said: "If Weatherbee could +know everything now; if he had loved her, put her first always, as you +believe, do you think he would be any happier to see her punished like +this?" + +Still Tisdale was silent. Then Foster's arm fell, and he said desperately: +"Can't you see, Hollis? Weatherbee was greater than either of us, I grant +that. But the one thing in the world you are so sure he most desired--the +lack of which wrecked his life--the one thing I have tried for the hardest +and missed--has fallen to you. Go and ask her to sail to Alaska with you. +You'll need her up there to carry the honors for you. You prize her, you +love her,--you know you do." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE CALF-BOUND NOTEBOOK + + +The statue was great. So Tisdale told Lucky Banks, that day the prospector +met him at the station and they motored around through the park. The +sculptor himself had said he must send people to Weatherbee when they +wanted to see his best work. It was plain his subject had dominated him. +He had achieved with the freedom of pose the suggestion of decision and +power that had been characteristic of David Weatherbee. Quick intelligence +spoke in the face, yet the eyes held their expression of seeing a far +horizon. To Hollis, coming suddenly, as he did, upon the bronze figure in +the Wenatchee sunshine, it seemed to warm with a latent consciousness. He +felt poignantly a sense of David's personality, as he had known him at the +crowning period of his life. + +"It suits me," responded Banks. "My, yes, it's about as good a likeness as +we can get of Dave." He put on his hat, which involuntarily he had +removed, and started the car on around the curve. "But it's a mighty lot +like you. It crops out most in the eyes, seeing things off somewheres, +clear out of sight, and the way you carry your size. You was a team." + +"I am sorry I missed those services," said Tisdale. "I meant to be here." + +Banks nodded. "But it all went off fine. She agreed with me it was the +best place. If I was to go back to Alaska, and she was off somewheres on a +trip, it would be sure to get taken care of here in the park; and, +afterwards, when neither of us can come around to keep things in shape any +more. And I told her how the ranchers up and down the valley would get to +feeling acquainted and friendly with Dave, seeing his statue when they was +in town; and how the fruit-buyers and the pickers, and maybe the tourists, +coming and going, would remember about him and tell everybody they knew; +and how the school children would ask questions about the statue, thinking +he was in the same class with Lincoln and Washington, and be always +telling how he was the first man that looked ahead and saw what water in +this valley could do." + +"You were right, Johnny. The memory of him will live and grow with this +town when the rest of us are forgotten." + +They had turned from the park and went speeding up between the rows of new +poplars along the Alameda, and the prospector's eyes moved over the +reclaimed vale, where acres on acres of young fruit trees in cultivated +squares crowded out the insistent sage. "And this town for a fact is bound +to grow," he said. + +Then at last, when Cerberus loomed near, and they entered the gap, the +little man's big heart rose and his bleak face glowed, under Tisdale's +expressions of wonder and approbation at the advance the vineyards and +orchards had made, so soon after the consummation of the project. Fillers +of alfalfa stretched along the spillways from the main canal like a green +carpet; strawberry plants were blossoming; grapes reached out pale +tendrils and many leaves. But, at the top of the pocket, where the road +began to lift gently in a double curve across the front of the bench, +Hollis dismissed Banks and his red car and walked the rest of the way. On +the rim of the level, near the solitary pine tree, he stopped to look down +on the transformed vale, and suddenly, once more he seemed to feel David's +presence. It was as though he stood beside him and saw all this awakening, +this responding of the desert to his project. Almost it compensated--for +those four days. + +Almost! Tisdale drew his hand across his eyes and turned to follow the +drive between the rows of nodding narcissus. The irony of it! That +Weatherbee should have lived to find the Aurora; that, with many times the +needed capital in sight, he should have lost. The perfume of the flowers +filled the warm atmosphere; the music of running water was everywhere. As +he left the side of the flume, the silver note of the fountain came to him +from the patio, then, like a mirage between him and the low Spanish +building, rose that miniature house he had found in the Alaska wilderness, +with the small snow figure before it, holding a bundle in her arms. + +The vision passed. But that image with the bundle was the one unfinished +problem in the project he had come to solve. + +He entered the court and saw on his right an open door and, across the +wide room, Beatriz Weatherbee. She was seated at a quaint secretary on +which were several bundles of papers, and the familiar box that had +contained David's letters and watch. At the moment Tisdale discovered her, +she was absorbed in a photograph she held in her hands, but at the sound +of his step in the patio she turned and rose to meet him. Her face was +radiant, yet she looked at him through arrested tears. + +"I am sorry if I startled you," he said conventionally. "Banks brought me +from the station, but he left me to walk up the bench." + +"I should have seen the red car down the gap had I been at the window," +she replied, "but I was busy putting away papers. Freight has been moving +slowly over the Great Northern, and my secretary arrived only to-day. It +bore the trip very well, considering its age. It belonged to my +great-grandfather, Don Silva Gonzales. He brought it from Spain, but +Elizabeth says it might have been made for this room. She is walking +somewhere in the direction of the spring." + +While she spoke, she touched her cheeks and eyes swiftly with her +handkerchief and led the way to some chairs between the secretary and the +great window that overlooked the vale. Tisdale did not look at her +directly; he wished to give her time to cover the emotion he had +surprised. + +"I should say the room was built for Don Silva's desk," he amended. "And-- +do you know?--this view reminds me of a little picture of Granada, a +water-color of my mother's, that hung in my room when I was a boy. But +this pocket has changed some since we first saw it; your dragon's teeth +are drawn." + +"Isn't it marvelous how the expression of the whole mountain has altered?" +she responded. "There, at the end of the pines, that looked like a +bristling mane, the green gables of Mrs. Banks' home have changed the +contour. And the Chelan peaks are showing now beyond it. That day the +farther ones were obscured. But we watched the rain tramp up Hesperides +Vale, you remember, and swing off unexpectedly to the near summits. There +was a rainbow, and I said that perhaps somewhere in this valley I should +find my pot of gold." + +"I remember. And I shouldn't be surprised if you do." + +"Do you think I do not know I have already?" she asked. "Do you think I +have no appreciation, no gratitude? Why, even had I been too dull to see +it, Elizabeth would have told me that this house alone, to say nothing of +the project, must have cost a good deal of money; and that, no matter how +deeply Mr. Banks may have felt his obligation to David, it was not in +reason he should have allowed everything to revert to me. But I told him I +should consider the investment as a loan, and now, since he has let me +know the truth"--her voice fluctuated softly--"I shall make it a debt of +honor just the same. Sometime--I shall repay you." + +It was very clear to Tisdale that though she saw the property had so +greatly increased in value, and that the reclamation movement in the outer +vale made the tract readily salable, she no longer considered placing it +on the market. "I thought Banks showed you a way easily to cancel that +loan," he began. But meeting her look, he paused; his glance returned to +the window while he felt in his pocket for that deed Foster had refused to +bring. It was going to be more difficult than he had foreseen to offer it +to her. "Madam," and compelling his eyes to brave hers, he slightly +frowned, "your share in the Aurora mine should pay you enough in dividends +the next season or two to refund all that has been expended on this +project." + +"My share in the Aurora mine?" she repeated. "But I see, I see. You have +been maligned into giving me the interest David conveyed to you. Oh, Mr. +Banks told me about that. How you were attacked at the trial; the use that +was made of that Indian story in the magazine; that monstrous editorial +note." + +Tisdale smiled. "That had nothing to do with it. This deed was drawn last +year as soon as I reached Washington. David knew the value of the Aurora. +That is the reason he risked another winter there, in the face of--all-- +that threatened him. And when he felt the fight was going against him, he +turned his interest over to me, not only as security on the small loan I +advanced to him, but because I was his partner, and he could trust me to +finish, his development work and put the mine on a paying basis. That is +accomplished. There is no reason now that I should not transfer his share +back to you." + +He rose to give her the deed, and she took it with reluctance and glanced +it over. "I think it is arranged about as David would have wished," he +added. "He had confidence in Foster." + +She looked up. "Mr. Foster knows how I regard the matter. I told him I +would not accept an interest in the Aurora mine. I said all the gold in +Alaska could not compensate you for--what you did. Besides, I do not +believe as you do, Mr. Tisdale. I think David meant his share should be +finally yours." + +Hollis was silent. He stood looking off again over Cerberus to the loftier +Chelan peaks. For a moment she sat regarding his broad back; her lip +trembled a little, and a tenderness, welling from depths of compassion, +brimmed her eyes. "You see I cannot possibly accept it," she said, and +rose to return the deed to him. + +She had forgotten the photograph, which dropped from her lap, and Tisdale +stooped to pick it up. It was lying face upward on the floor, and he saw +it was the picture of a child; then involuntarily he stopped to scan it, +and it came over him this small face, so beautifully molded, so full of +intelligence and charm, was a reproduction of Weatherbee in miniature; yet +retouched by a blend of the mother; her eyes under David's level brows. He +put the picture in her hand and an unspoken question flashed in the look +that met hers. + +Since he had not relieved her of the deed, she laid it down on the +secretary to take the photograph. + +"This is a picture of little Silva," she said. "It would have made a +difference about the share in the Aurora if he had lived. He must have +been provided for. David would have seen to that." + +"There was a child!" His voice rang softly like a vibrant string. "You +spoke of him that night you were lost above Scenic Springs, but I thought +it was a fancy of delirium. It seemed incredible that David should not +have told me if he had a son." + +She did not answer directly, but nodded a little and moved back to her +chair. + +"He was christened Silva Falconer, for my mother's father and mine," she +said. "They both were greatly disappointed in not having a son. I am going +to tell you about him, only it will be a long story; please be seated. And +it would be easier if you would not look at me." + +She waited while he settled again in his chair and turned his eyes to the +blue mountain tops. She was still able to see his face. "Silva was over +six months old when this photograph was taken," she began. "It was lost, +with the letter to David that enclosed it, on some terrible Alaska trail. +Afterwards, when the mailbag was recovered and the letter was returned to +me through the dead-letter office, two years had passed, and our little +boy was--gone. You must understand I expected David back that first +winter, and when word came that his expedition to the interior had failed, +and he had arranged to stay in the north in order to make an early start +in the following spring, I did not want to spoil his plans. So I answered +as gayly as I could and told him it would give me an opportunity to make a +long visit home to California. I went far south to Jacinta and Carlos. +They were caretakers at the old hacienda. My mother had managed that, with +the people who bought the rancheria and built the hotel and sanitarium. +Jacinta had been her nurse and mine. She was very experienced. But Silva +was born lame. He could not use his lower limbs. A great specialist, who +came to the hotel, said he might possibly recover under treatment, but if +he should not in a year or two, certain cords must be cut to allow him to +sit in a wheel chair, and in that case I must give up hope he would ever +walk. But--the treatment was very painful--Jacinta could not bear to-- +torture him; I could not afford a trained nurse; so--I did everything. He +was the dearest baby; so lovable. He never was cross, but he used to +nestle his cheek in my neck and explain how it hurt and coax me not to. +Not in words, but I understood--every sound. And he understood me, I know. +'You are going to blame me, by and by, if I stop,' I would say, over and +over; 'you are going to blame me for bringing you into the world.'" + +Her voice broke; her breast labored with short, quick breaths, as though +she were climbing some sharp ascent. Tisdale did not look at her; his face +stirred and settled in grim lines. + +"I could not write all this about our baby," she went on, "and I told +myself if the treatment failed it would be soon enough for David to know +of Silva when he came home. There was nothing he could do, and to share my +anxiety might hamper him in his work. He wrote glowingly of the new placer +he had discovered, and that was a relief to me, for I was obliged to ask +him to send me a good deal of money,--the specialist's account had been so +large. I believed he would start south when the Alaska season closed, for +he had written I might expect him then, with his pockets full of gold +dust, and I made my letters entertaining--or tried to--so he need not feel +any need to hurry. At last, one morning in the bath, when Silva was five +months old, he moved his right limb voluntarily. I shall never forget. It +renewed my courage and my faith. At the end of another month he moved the +left one, and after that, gradually, full use came to them both. It was +then, when the paralysis was mastered, I sent the letter that was lost. At +the same time David wrote that he must spend a second winter in Alaska. +But before that news reached me, my reaction set in. I was so ill I was +carried, unconscious, to the sanitarium. And, while I was there, Silva, +who had grown so sturdy and was creeping everywhere, followed his kitten +into the garden, and a little later old Jacinta found him in the arroyo. +There was only a little water running but--he had fallen--face down." + +Tisdale rose. Meeting her look, the emotion that was the surface stir of +shaken depths swept his face. Then, as though to blot out the +recollection, she pressed her fingers to her eyes. + +"And David was thousands of miles away," he said. "You braved that alone, +like the soldier you are." + +"When I read David's letter," she went on, "he was winter-bound in the +interior. A reply could not have reached him until spring. And meantime +Elizabeth Morganstein came with her mother to the hotel. We had been, +friends at boarding-school, and she persuaded me to go north to Seattle +with them. Later, after the _Aquila_ was launched in the spring, I was +invited to join the family on a cruise up the inside passage and across +the top of the Pacific to Prince William Sound. It seemed so much easier +to tell David everything than to write, so--I only let him know I intended +to sail to Valdez with friends and would go on by mail steamer to Seward +to visit him. That had been his last post-office address, and I believed +he expected to be in that neighborhood when the season opened. But our +stay was lengthened at Juneau, where we were entertained by acquaintances +of Mrs. Feversham's, and we spent a long time around Taku glacier and the +Muir. I missed my steamer connections, and there was not another boat due +within a week. But the weather was delightful, and Mr. Morganstein +suggested taking me on in the yacht. Then Mrs. Feversham proposed a side +trip along Columbia glacier and into College fiord. It was all very +wonderful to me, and inspiring; the salt air had been a restorative from +the start. And I saw no reason to hurry the party. David would understand. +So, the second mail steamer passed us, and finally, when we reached +Seward, David had gone back to the interior. The rest--you know." + +"You mean," said Tisdale slowly, "you heard about Mrs. Barbour." + +She bowed affirmatively. The color swept in a wave to her face; her lashes +fell. + +"Mrs. Feversham heard about it, how David had brought her down from the +interior. I saw the cabin he had furnished for her, and she herself, +sewing at the window. Her face was beautiful." + +There was a silence, then Hollis said: "So you came back on the _Aquila_ +to Seattle. But you wrote; you explained about the child?" + +She shook her head. "I waited to hear from David first. I did not know, +then, that the letter with Silva's picture was lost." + +Tisdale squared his shoulders, looking off again to the snow-peaks above +Cerberus. + +"Consider!" She rose with an outward movement of her hands, like one +groping in the dark for a closed door. "It was a terrible mistake, but I +did not know David as you knew him. My father, who was dying, arranged our +marriage. I was very young and practically without money in a big city; +there was not another relative in the world who cared what became of me. +And, in any case, even had I known the meaning of love and marriage, in +that hour,--when I was losing him,--I must have agreed to anything he +asked. We had been everything to each other; everything. But I've been a +proud woman; sensitive to slight. It was in the blood--both sides. And I +had been taught early to cover my feelings. My father had adored my +mother; he used to remind me she was patrician to the finger-tips, and +that I should not wear my heart on my sleeve if I wished to be like her. +And, when I visited my grandfather, Don Silva, in the south, he would say: +'Beatriz, remember the blood of generations of soldiers is bottled in you; +carry yourself like the last Gonzales, with some fortitude.' So--at +Seward--I remembered." + +Her voice, while she said this, almost failed, but every word reached +Tisdale. He felt, without seeing, the something that was appeal yet not +appeal, that keyed her whole body and shone like a changing light and +shade in her face. "I told myself I would not be sacrificed, effaced," she +went on. "It was my individuality against Fate. Since little Silva was +dead, my life was my own to shape as I might. I did not hear from David +for a long time; he wrote less and less frequently, more briefly every +year. He never spoke of the baby, and I believed he must have heard +through some friend in California of Silva's death. Nothing was left to +tell. He never spoke of his home-coming, and I did not; I dreaded it too +much. Whenever the last steamers of the season were due, I nerved myself +to look the passenger lists over; and when his name was missing, it was a +reprieve. Neither my father nor my grandfather had believed in divorce; in +their eyes it was disgrace. It seemed right, for Silva's sake, out of the +rich placers David continued to find, he should contribute to my support. +So--I lived my life--the best I was able. I had many interests, and always +one morning of each week I spent among the children at the hospital where +I had endowed the Silva Weatherbee bed." + +She paused so long that Tisdale turned. She seemed very tired. The patient +lines, fine as a thread, deepened perceptibly at the corners of her mouth. +He hurried to save her further explanation. "Foster told me," he said. "It +was a beautiful memorial. Sometime I should like to go there with you. I +know you met the first expense of that endowment with a loan from Miss +Morganstein, which of course you expected to cancel soon, when you had +found David at Seward. I understand how, when the note came into her +brother's hands, your only chance to meet it at once was through a sale of +this land. And I have thought since I knew this, that evening aboard the +_Aquila_, when you risked Don Silva's ruby, it was to make the yearly +payment at the hospital." + +"Yes, it was. But the option money from Mr. Banks made it possible to meet +all my debts. I did not know they were only assumed--by you. Though, +looking back, I wonder I failed to see the truth." + +With this she turned and took up the photograph which she had laid on the +secretary, and while her glance rested on the picture, Tisdale's regarded +her face. "So," he said then, "when the lost letter came back to you, you +kept it; Weatherbee never knew." + +She looked up. "Yes, I kept it. By that time I believed little Silva's +coming and going could make little difference to him." + +"And you went on believing all you had heard at Seward?" + +She bowed again affirmatively. "Until you told me the true story about +Mrs. Barbour that night on the mountain road. I know now that once he must +have loved me, as you believed. This house, which is built so nearly like +the old hacienda where I was born, must have been planned for me. But, +afterwards, when he thought I had failed him, when he contrasted me with +Mrs. Barbour, her devotion to her husband, it was different." + +She laid the photograph down again to draw the tin box forward. The +letters were on the desk with David's watch, but there still remained a +calf-bound notebook, such as surveyors use in field work. It fitted snugly +enough for a false bottom, and she was obliged to reverse the box to +remove it, prying slightly with a paper-knife. Tisdale's name was lettered +across the cover, and the first pages were written in his clear, fine +draughtsman's hand; then the characters changed to Weatherbee's. She +turned to the last ones. + +"This is a book you left among some old magazines at David's camp," she +explained. "He carried it with him until he discovered the Aurora. He +began to use it as a sort of diary. Sometime you will want to read it all, +but please read these last notes and this letter now." + +She waited a moment, then as he took up the letter and began to unfold it, +she turned and went out into the patio. + +The letter was from Lilias Barbour. It was friendly, earnest, full of her +child and a gentle solicitude for Weatherbee. Hollis read it through +twice, slowly. The last paragraph he went over a third time. "You are +staying too long in that bleak country,"--so it ran. "Come back to the +States, at least for a winter. If you do not, in the spring, Bee and I are +going to Alaska to learn the reason. We owe it to you." + +The date was the end of August, of the same year David had written that +final letter which reached him the following spring at Nome. But the date +on the open page of the notebook was the fifteenth of January of that +winter, his last at the Aurora mine. + +"Last night I dreamed of Beatriz," it began. "I thought I went down to +Seward to meet her, and when the steamer came, I saw her standing on the +forward deck, waving her hand gaily and smiling just as she did that day I +left her at Seattle so long ago. Then, as the ship came alongside the +dock, and she walked down the gangway, and I took her hand to kiss her, +her face suddenly changed. She was not Beatriz; she was Lilias. My God, if +it had been Lilias! Why, she would be here now, she and little Bee, +filling this frozen cabin with summer." + +The final date was two months later. + +"Still snowing," it ran. "Snowing. God, how I want to break away from this +hole. Get out somewhere, where men are alive and doing things. Nothing is +moving here but the snow and those two black buttes out there. They keep +crowding closer through the smother, watching everything I do. I've warned +them to keep back. They must, or I'll blow them off the face of the earth. +Oh, I'll do it, if it takes all that's left of the dynamite. I won't have +them threatening Lilias when she comes. She is coming; she said she would, +unless I went out to the States. And I can't go; I haven't heard from +Tisdale. I never have told her about those buttes. It's unusual; she might +not believe it; she would worry and think, perhaps, I am growing like +Barbour. God! Suppose I am. Suppose she should come up here in this +wilderness to find me a wreck like him. She must not come. I've got to +prevent it. But I've offered my half interest in the Aurora to Tisdale. He +will take it. He never failed me yet." + +Tisdale closed the book and laid it down. Furrows seamed his face, +changing, re-forming, to the inner upheaval. After awhile, he lifted +Weatherbee's watch from the desk and mechanically pressed the spring. The +lower case opened, but the picture he remembered was not there. In its +place was the face of the other child, his namesake, "Bee." + +Out in the patio the pool rippled ceaselessly; the fountain threw its +silver ribbon of spray, and Beatriz waited, listening, with her eyes +turned to the room she had left. At last she heard his step. It was the +tread of a man whose decision was made. She sank down on the curb of the +basin near one of the palms. Behind her an open door, creaking in the +light wind, swung wide, and beyond it the upper flume stretched back to +the natural reservoir where she had been imprisoned by the fallen pine +tree. His glance, as he crossed the court, moved from her through this +door and back to her face. + +"You were right," he said. "But it would have been different if David had +known about his child. His great heart was starved." + +She was silent. Her glance fell to the fountain. A ray of sunshine +slanting across it formed a rainbow. + +"But my mistake was greater than yours," he went on, and his voice struck +its minor chord; "I have no excuse for throwing away those four days. I +never can repair that, but I pledge myself to make you forget my injustice +to you." + +At this she rose. "You were not unjust--knowing David as you did. You +taught me how fine, how great he was. Silva--would have been proud of his +name." + +There was another silence. Tisdale looked off again through the open door +to the distant basin, and her glance returned to the fountain. "See!" she +exclaimed. "A double rainbow!" + +"Fate is with us again," he replied. "She's promising a better fight. But +there is one debt more, soldier," and, catching her swift look, he saw the +sparkles break softly in her eyes. "My ship sails for Alaska the tenth; I +shall stay indefinitely, and I want you to pay me--in full--before I go." + + +THE END + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Rim of the Desert, by Ada Woodruff Anderson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RIM OF THE DESERT *** + +***** This file should be named 13343-8.txt or 13343-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/3/4/13343/ + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Richard Prairie 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: The Rim of the Desert + +Author: Ada Woodruff Anderson + +Release Date: August 31, 2004 [EBook #13343] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RIM OF THE DESERT *** + + + + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Richard Prairie and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + +[Illustration: He worked tirelessly, as though he was determined to +infuse her numb veins with his own vigor. FRONTISPIECE.] + + +THE RIM OF THE DESERT + +BY + +ADA WOODRUFF ANDERSON + +AUTHOR OF "THE STRAIN OF WHITE," "THE HEART OF THE RED FIRS," ETC. + +WITH FRONTISPIECE BY MONTE CREWS + + + +1915 + + + +_To the Memory of_ + +MY MOTHER + +A gentle and appreciative critic, the only one, perhaps, who re-read my +previous books with pleasure and found no flaw in them, and who would have +had a greater interest than any other in this publication. + + + + +FOREWORD + + +The desert of this story is that semi-arid region east of the upper +Columbia. It is cut off from the moisture laden winds of the Pacific by +the lofty summits of the Cascade Mountains which form its western rim, and +for many miles the great river crowds the barrier, winding, breaking in +rapids, seeking a way through. To one approaching this rim from the dense +forests of the westward slopes, the sage grown levels seem to stretch +limitless into the far horizon, but they are broken by hidden coulees; in +propitious seasons reclaimed areas have yielded phenominal crops of wheat, +and under irrigation the valley of one of the two tributaries from the +west, wherein lies Hesperides Vale, has become a garden spot of the world. + +To the initiated I wish to say if in the chapters touching on the Alaska +coal cases I have followed too literally the statements of prominent men, +it was not in an effort to portray them but merely to represent as clearly +as possible the Alaska situation. + +ADA WOODRUFF ANDERSON. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I THE MAN WHO NEVER CAME BACK + II THE QUESTION + III FOSTER TOO + IV SNOQUALMIE PASS AND A BROKEN AXLE + V APPLES OF EDEN + VI NIP AND TUCK + VII A NIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN ROAD + VIII THE BRAVEST WOMAN HE EVER KNEW + IX THE DUNES OF THE COLUMBIA + X A WOMAN'S HEART-STRINGS + XI THE LOOPHOLE + XII "WHOM THE GODS WOULD DESTROY" + XIII "A LITTLE STREAK OF LUCK" + XIV ON BOARD THE AQUILA + XV THE STORY OF THE TENAS PAPOOSE + XVI THE ALTERNATIVE + XVII "ALL THESE THINGS WILL I GIVE THEE" + XVIII THE OPTION + XIX LUCKY BANKS AND THE PINK CHIFFON + XX KERNEL AND PEACH + XXI FOSTER'S HOUR + XXII AS MAN TO MAN + XXIII THE DAY OF PUBLICATION + XXIV SNOWBOUND IN THE ROCKIES AND "FIT AS A MOOSE" + XXV THE IDES OF MARCH + XXVI THE EVERLASTING DOOR + XXVII KISMET, AN ACT OF GOD +XXVIII SURRENDER + XXIX BACK TO HESPERIDES VALE + XXX THE JUNIOR DEFENDANT + XXXI TISDALE OF ALASKA--AND WASHINGTON, D.C. + XXXII THE OTHER DOCUMENT +XXXIII THE CALF-BOUND NOTEBOOK + + +THE RIM OF THE DESERT + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE MAN WHO NEVER CAME BACK + + +It is in October, when the trails over the wet tundra harden, and before +the ice locks Bering Sea, that the Alaska exodus sets towards Seattle; but +there were a few members of the Arctic Circle in town that first evening +in September to open the clubhouse on the Lake Boulevard with an informal +little supper for special delegate Feversham, who had arrived on the +steamer from the north, on his way to Washington. + +The clubhouse, which was built of great, hewn logs, with gabled eaves, +stood in a fringe of firs, and an upper rear balcony afforded a broad +outlook of lake and forest, with the glaciered heights of the Cascade +Mountains breaking a far horizon. The day had been warm, but a soft +breeze, drawing across this veranda through the open door, cooled the +assembly room, and, lifting one of the lighter hangings of Indian-wrought +elk leather, found the stairs and raced with a gentle rustle through the +lower front entrance back into the night. It had caressed many familiar +things on its way, for the walls were embellished with trophies from the +big spaces where winds are born. There were skins of polar and Kodiak +bear; of silver and black fox; there were antlered heads set above the +fireplace and on the rough, bark-seamed pillars that supported the +unceiled roof. A frieze of pressed and framed Alaska flora finished the +low gallery which extended around three sides of the hall, and the massive +chairs, like the polished banquet board, were of crocus-yellow Alaska +cedar. + +The delegate, who had come out to tide-water over the Fairbanks-Valdez +trail, was describing with considerable heat the rigors of the journey. +The purple parka, which was the regalia of the Circle, seemed to increase +his prominence of front and intensified the color in his face to a sort of +florid ripeness. + +"Yes, gentlemen," he continued, thumping the table with a stout hand and +repeating the gesture slowly, while the glasses trembled, "Alaska's crying +need is a railroad; a single finished line from the most northern harbor +open to navigation the whole year--and that is Prince William Sound-- +straight through to the Tanana Valley and the upper Yukon. Already the +first problem has been solved; we have pierced the icy barrier of the +Coast Range. All we are waiting for is further right of way; the right to +the forests, that timber may be secured for construction work; the right +to mine coal for immediate use. But, gentlemen, we may grow gray waiting. +What do men four thousand miles away, men who never saw Alaska, care about +our needs?" He leaned back in his chair, while his glance moved from face +to face and rested, half in challenge, on the member at the foot of the +board. "These commissioners appointed off there in Washington," he added. +"These carpet-baggers from the little States beyond the Mississippi!" + +Hollis Tisdale, who had spent some of the hardest years of his Alaska +career in the service of the Government, met the delegate's look with a +quiet humor in his eyes. + +"It seems to me," he said, and his deep, expressive voice instantly held +the attention of every one, "that such a man, with intelligence and +insight, of course, stands the surest chance of giving general +satisfaction in the end. He is at least disinterested, while the best of +us, no matter how big he is, how clear-visioned, is bound to take his own +district specially to heart. Prince William Sound alone has hundreds of +miles of coast-line and includes more than one fine harbor with an +ambitious seaport." + +At this a smile rippled around the table, and Miles Feversham, who was the +attorney for one of the most ambitious syndicates of promoters in the +north, gave his attention to the menu. But Tisdale, having spoken, turned +his face to the open balcony door. His parka was thrown back, showing an +incongruous breadth of stiff white bosom, yet he was the only man present +who wore the garment with grace. In that moment the column of throat +rising from the purple folds, the upward, listening pose of the fine head, +in relief against the bearskin on the wall behind his chair, suggested a +Greek medallion. His brown hair, close-cut, waved at the temples; lines +were chiseled at the corners of his eyes and, with a lighter touch, about +his mouth; yet his face, his whole compact, muscular body, gave an +impression of youth--youth and power and the capacity for great endurance. +His friends said the north never had left a mark of its grip on Tisdale. +The life up there that had scarred, crippled, wrecked most of them seemed +only to have mellowed him. + +"But," resumed Feversham quickly, "I shall make a stiff fight at +Washington; I shall force attention to our suspended land laws; demand the +rights the United States allows her western territories; I shall ask for +the same concessions that were the making of the Oregon country; and first +and last I shall do all I can to loosen the strangling clutch of +Conservation." He paused, while his hand fell still more heavily on the +table, and the glasses jingled anew. "And, gentlemen, the day of the +floating population is practically over; we have our settled communities, +our cities; we are ready for a legislative body of our own; the time has +come for Home Rule. But the men who make our laws must be familiar with +the country, have allied interests. Gentlemen,"--his voice, dropping its +aggressive tone, took a honeyed insistence,--"we want in our first +executive a man who knows us intimately, who has covered our vast +distances, whose vision has broadened; a man big enough to hold the +welfare of all Alaska at heart." + +The delegate finished this period with an all-embracing smile and, nodding +gently, leaned back again in his chair. But in the brief silence that +followed, he experienced a kind of shock. Foster, the best known mining +engineer from Prince William Sound to the Tanana, had turned his eyes on +Tisdale; and Banks, Lucky Banks, who had made the rich strike in the +Iditarod wilderness, also looked that way. Then instantly their thought +was telegraphed from face to face. When Feversham allowed his glance to +follow the rest, it struck him as a second shock that Tisdale was the only +one on whom the significance of the moment was lost. + +The interval passed. Tisdale stirred, and his glance, coming back from the +door, rested on a dish that had been placed before him. "Japanese +pheasant!" he exclaimed. The mellowness glowed in his face. He lifted his +eyes, and the delegate, meeting that clear, direct gaze, dropped his own +to his plate. "Think of it! Game from the other side of the Pacific. They +look all right, but--do you know?"--the lines deepened humorously at the +corners of his mouth--"nothing with wings ever seems quite as fine to me +as ptarmigan." + +"Ptarmigan!" Feversham suspended his fork in astonishment. "Not +ptarmigan?" + +"Yes," persisted Tisdale gently, "ptarmigan; and particularly the ones +that nest in Nunatak Arm." + +There was a pause, while for the first time his eyes swept the Circle. He +still held the attention of every one, but with a difference; the +tenseness had given place to a pleased expectancy. + +Then Foster said: "That must have been on some trip you made, while you +were doing geological work around St. Elias." + +Tisdale shook his head. "No, it was before that; the year I gave up +Government work to have my little fling at prospecting. You were still in +college. Every one was looking for a quick route to the Klondike then, and +I believed if I could push through the Coast Range from Yakutat Bay to the +valley of the Alsek, it would be smooth going straight to the Yukon. An +old Indian I talked with at the mission told me he had made it once on a +hunting trip, and Weatherbee--you all remember David Weatherbee--was eager +to try it with me. The Tlinket helped us with the outfit, canoeing around +the bay and up into the Arm to his starting point across Nunatak glacier. +But it took all three of us seventy-two days to pack the year's supplies +over the ice. We tramped back and forth in stages, twelve hundred miles. +We hadn't been able to get dogs, and in the end, when winter overtook us +in the, mountains, we cached the outfit and came out." + +"And never went back." Banks laughed, a shrill, mirthless laugh, and added +in a higher key: "Lost a whole year and--the outfit." + +Tisdale nodded slowly. "All we gained was experience. We had plenty of +that to invest the next venture over the mountains from Prince William +Sound. But--do you know?--I always liked that little canoe trip around +from Yakutat. I can't tell you how fine it is in that upper fiord; big +peaks and ice walls growing all around. Yes."--he nodded again, while the +genial wrinkles deepened--"I've seen mountains grow. We had a shock once +that raised the coast-line forty-five feet. And another time, while we +were going back to the village for a load, a small glacier in a hanging +valley high up, perhaps two thousand feet, toppled right out of its cradle +into the sea. It stirred things some and noise"--he shook his head with an +expressive sound that ended in a hissing whistle. "But it missed the +canoe, and the wave it made lifted us and set us safe on top of a little +rocky island." He paused again, laughing softly. "I don't know how we kept +right side up, but we did. Weatherbee was great in an emergency." + +A shadow crossed his face. He looked off to the end of the room. + +"I guess you both understood a canoe," said Banks. His voice was still +high-pitched, like that of a man under continued stress, and his eyes +burned in his withered, weather-beaten face like the vents of buried +fires. "But likely it was then, while you was freighting the outfit around +to the glacier, you came across those ptarmigan." + +Tisdale's glance returned, and the humor played again softly at the +corners of his eyes. "I had forgotten about those birds. It was this way. +I made the last trip in the canoe alone, for the mail and a small load, +principally ammunition and clothing, while Weatherbee and the Tlinket +pushed ahead on one of those interminable stages over the glacier. And on +the way back, I was caught in fog. It rolled in, layer on layer, while I +felt for the landing; but I managed to find the place and picked up the +trail we had worn packing over the ice. And I lost it; probably in a new +thaw that had opened and glazed over since I left. Anyhow, in a little +while I didn't know where I was. I had given my compass to Weatherbee, and +there was no sun to take bearings from, not a landmark in sight. Nothing +but fog and ice, and it all looked alike. The surface was too hard to take +my impressions, so I wasn't able to follow my own tracks back to the +landing. But I had to keep moving, it was so miserably cold; I hardly let +myself rest at night; and that fog hung on five days. The third evening I +found myself on the water-front, and pretty soon I stumbled on my canoe. I +was down to a mighty small allowance of crackers and cheese then, but I +parcelled it out in rations for three days and started once more along the +shore for Yakutat. The next night I was traveling by a sort of sedge when +I heard ptarmigan. It sounded good to me, and I brought my canoe up and +stepped out. I couldn't see, but I could hear those birds stirring and +cheeping all around. I lay down and lifted my gun ready to take the first +that came between me and the sky." His voice had fallen to an undernote, +and his glance rested an absent moment on the circle of light on the +rafter above an electric lamp. "When it did, and I blazed, the whole flock +rose. I winged two. I had to grope for them in the reeds, but I found +them, and I made a little fire and cooked one of them in a tin pail I +carried in the canoe. But when I had finished that supper and pushed off-- +do you know?"--his look returned, moving humorously from face to face--"I +was hungrier than I had been before. And I just paddled back and cooked +the other one." + +There was a stir along the table; a sighing breath. Then some one laughed, +and Banks piped his strained note. "And," he said after a moment, "of +course you kept on to that missionary camp and waited for the fog to +lift." + +Tisdale shook his head. "After that supper, there wasn't any need; I +turned back to the glacier. And before I reached the landing, I heard +Weatherbee's voice booming out on the thick silence like a siren at sea; +piloting me straight to that one dip in the ice-wall." + +He looked off again to the end of the room, absently, with the far-sighted +gaze of one accustomed to travel great solitudes. It was as though he +heard again that singing voice. Then suddenly his expression changed. His +eyes had rested on a Kodiak bearskin that hung against a pillar at the top +of the gallery steps. The corner was unlighted, in heavy shadow, but a +hand reaching from behind had drawn the rug slightly aside, and its +whiteness on the brown fur, the flash of a jewelled ring, caught his +attention. The next moment the hand was withdrawn. He gave it no more +thought then, but a time came afterward when he remembered it. + +"Weatherbee had noticed that fog-bank," he went on, "from high up the +glacier. It worried him so he finally turned back to meet me, and he had +waited so long he was down to his last biscuit. I was mighty reckless +about that second ptarmigan, but the water the birds were cooked in made a +fine soup. And the fog broke, and we overtook the Tlinket and supplies the +next morning." + +There was another stir along the table, then Foster said: "That was a +great voice of Weatherbee's. I've seen it hearten a whole crowd on a mean +trail, like the bugle and fife of a regiment." + +"So have I." It was Lucky Banks who spoke. "So have I. And Weatherbee was +always ready to stand by a poor devil in a tight place. When the frost got +me"--he held up a crippled and withered hand--"it was Dave Weatherbee who +pulled me through. We were mushing it on the same stampede from Fairbanks +to Ruby Creek, and he never had seen me before. It had come to the last +day, and we were fighting it out in the teeth of a blizzard. You all know +what that means. In the end we just kept the trail, following the +hummocks. Sometimes it was a pack under a drift, or maybe a sled; and +sometimes it was a hand reaching up through the snow, frozen stiff. Then +it came my turn, and I lay down in my tracks. But Weatherbee stopped to +work over me. He wouldn't go on. He said if I was determined to stay in +that cemet'ry, I could count on his company. And when he got me on my +feet, he just started 'Dixie,' nice and lively, and the next I knew he had +me all wound up and set going again, good as new." + +His laugh, like the treble notes of the Arctic wind, gave an edge to the +story. + +Presently Foster said: "That was Weatherbee; I never knew another such +man. Always effacing himself when it came to a choice; always ready to +share a good thing. Why, he made some of his friends rich, and yet in the +end, after seven years of it, seven years of struggle of the worst kind, +what did he have to show?" + +"Nothing, Foster; nothing but seven feet of earth up there on the edge of +the wilderness." Tisdale's voice vibrated gently; an emotion like the +surface stir of shaken depths crossed his face. "And a tract of unimproved +desert down here in eastern Washington," he added. + +"And Mrs. Weatherbee," supplemented Feversham quickly. "You mustn't forget +her. Any man must have counted such a wife his most valuable asset. Here's +to her! Young, charming, clever; a typical American beauty!" He stopped to +drain his glass, then went on. "I remember the day Weatherbee sailed for +Alaska. I was taking the same steamer, and she was on the dock, with all +Seattle, to see the Argonauts away. It was a hazardous journey into the +Unknown in those days, and scenes were going on all around--my own wife +was weeping on my shoulder--but Mrs. Weatherbee, and she had just been +married then, bridged the parting like a little trump. 'Well, David,' she +said, with a smile to turn a priest's head, 'good-by and good luck. Come +back when you've made your fortune, and I'll help you to spend it.'" + +The delegate, laughing deeply, reached for the port decanter to refill his +glass. No one else saw the humor of the story, though the man with the +maimed hand again gave an edge to the silence that followed with his +strained, mirthless laugh. Presently he said: "But he never came back." + +"No." It was Foster who answered. "No, but he was on his way out to the +States at last, when the end came. I don't understand it. It seems +incredible that Weatherbee, who had won through so many times, handicapped +by the waifs and strays of the trail,--Weatherbee, to whom the Susitna +country was an open scroll,--should have perished as he did. But it was +you who found him, Hollis. Come, tell us all about it." + +Tisdale shook his head. "Some other time, Foster. It's a long story and +not the kind to tell here." + +"Go on! Go on!" The urging came from many, and Banks added in his high, +tense key; "I guess we can stand it. Most of us saw the iron side of +Alaska before we saw the golden." + +"Well, then," Tisdale began reluctantly, "I must take you back a year. I +was completing trail reconnaissance from the new Alaska Midway surveys in +the Susitna Valley, through Rainy Pass, to connect with the mail route +from the interior to Nome, and, to avoid returning another season, kept my +party late in the field. It was the close of September when we struck +Seward Peninsula and miserably cold, with gales sweeping in from Bering +Sea. The grass had frozen, and before we reached a cache of oats I had +relied on, most of our horses perished; we arrived at Nome too late for +the last steamer of the year. That is how I came to winter there, and why +a letter Weatherbee had written in October was so long finding me. It was +forwarded from Seattle with other mail I cabled for, back to Prince +William Sound, over the Fairbanks-Valdez trail, and out again by the +winter route three thousand miles to Nome. It was the middle of March when +I received it, and he had asked me to buy his half interest in the Aurora +mine. He needed the money to go out to the States." + +Tisdale's voice broke a little; and for a moment he looked off through the +open door. "Perhaps some of you remember I grub-staked him for a half +share when he left the Tanana to prospect down along the Alaska Range. +After he located, I forwarded him small amounts several times to carry on +development work. I never had been on the ground, but he explained he was +handicapped by high water and was trying to divert the channel of a creek. +In that last letter he said he had carried the scheme nearly through; the +next season would pay my money back and more; the Aurora would pan out the +richest strike he had ever made. But that did not trouble me. I knew if +Weatherbee had spent two years on that placer, the gravels had something +to show. The point that weighed was that he was willing to go home at last +to the States. I had urged him before I put up the grub-stake, but he had +answered: 'Not until I have made good.' It was hardly probable that, +failing to hear from me, he had sold out to any one else. From his +description, the Aurora was isolated; hundreds of miles from the new +Iditarod camp; he hadn't a neighbor in fifty miles. So I forwarded his +price and arranged with the mail carrier to send a special messenger on +from the nearest post. In the letter I wrote to explain my delay, I +sketched a plan of my summer's work and told him how sorry I was I had +missed seeing him while the party was camped below Rainy Pass. Though I +couldn't have spared the time to go to the Aurora, he might have found me, +had I sent an Indian with word. It was the first time I had gone through +his orbit without letting him know. + +"But after that carrier had gone, Weatherbee's letter kept worrying me. It +wasn't like him to complain, yet he had written he was tired of the +eternal winters; he couldn't stand those everlasting snow peaks sometimes, +they got to crowding him so; they kept him awake when he needed sleep, +threatening him. 'I've got to break away from them, Hollis,' he said, 'and +get where it's warm once more; and when my blood begins to thaw, I'll show +you I can make a go of things.' Then he reminded me of the land he owned +down here on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains. The soil was the +finest volcanic ash; the kind that grew the vineyards on Vesuvius, and he +meant to plant it with grapes; with orchards, too, on the bench levels. +All the tract needed was water, but there was a natural reservoir and +spring on a certain high plateau that could be easily tapped with a +flume." + +Tisdale paused while his glance moved slowly, singling out those who had +known Weatherbee. A great gentleness rested on his face, and when he went +on, it crept like a caress through his voice. "Most of you have heard him +talk about that irrigation scheme; some of you have seen those plans he +used to-work on, long Alaska nights. It was his dream for years. He went +north in the beginning just to accumulate capital enough to swing that +project. But the more I studied that letter, the more confident I was he +had stayed his limit; he was breaking, and he knew it. That was why he was +so anxious to turn the Aurora over to me and get to the States. Finally I +decided to go with the mail carrier and on to the mine. If Weatherbee was +still there, as I believed, we would travel to Fairbanks together and take +the Valdez trail out to the open harbor on Prince William Sound. I picked +up a team of eight good huskies--the weather was clear with a moon in her +second quarter--and I started light, cutting my stops short; but when I +left Nome I had lost four days." + +Hollis paused another interval, looking off again through the open door, +while the far-sighted expression gathered in his eyes. It was as though +his listeners also in that moment saw those white solitudes stretching +limitless under the Arctic night. + +"I never caught up with that carrier," he went on, "and the messenger he +sent on broke trail for me all the way to the Aurora. I met him on his +return trip, thirty hours out from the mine. But he had found Weatherbee +there, and had a deed for me which David had asked him to see recorded and +forwarded to me at Nome. It was a relief to hear he had been able to +attend to these business matters, but I wondered why he had not brought +the deed himself, since he must come that way to strike the Fairbanks +trail, and why the man had not waited to travel with him. Then he told me +Weatherbee had decided to use the route I had sketched in my letter. The +messenger had tried to dissuade him; he had reminded him there were no +road-houses, and that the traces left by my party must have been wiped out +by the winter snows. But Weatherbee argued that the new route would +shorten the distance to open tide-water hundreds of miles; that his +nearest neighbors were in that direction, fifty miles to the south; and +they would let him have dogs. Then, when he struck the Susitna Valley, he +would have miles of railroad bed to ease the last stage. So, at the time +the messenger left the Aurora, Weatherbee started south on his long trek +to Rainy Pass. He was mushing afoot, with Tyee pulling the sled. Some of +you must remember that big husky with a strain of St. Bernard he used to +drive on the Tanana." + +"My, yes," piped little Banks, and his eyes scintillated like chippings of +blue glacier ice. "Likely I do remember Tyee. Dave picked him up that same +trip he set me on my feet. He found him left to starve on the trail with a +broken leg. And he camped right there, pitched his tent for a hospital, +and went to whittling splints out of a piece of willow to set that bone. +'I am sorry to keep you waiting,' he says to me, 'but he is a mighty good +dog. He would have done his level best to see the man who deserted him +through.' And he would. I'd bank my money on old Tyee." + +Tisdale nodded slowly. "But my chance to overtake David was before he +secured that team fifty miles on. And I pushed my dogs too hard. When I +reached the Aurora, they were nearly done for. I was forced to rest them a +day. That gave me time to look into Weatherbee's work. I found that the +creek where he had made his discovery ran through a deep and narrow +canyon, and it was clear to me that the boxed channel, which was frozen +solid then, was fed during the short summer by a small glacier at the top +of the gorge. To turn the high water from his placer, he had made a bore +of nearly one thousand feet and practically through rock. I followed a +bucket tramway he had rigged to lift the dump and found a primitive +lighting-plant underground. The whole tunnel was completed, with the +exception of a thin wall left to safeguard against an early thaw in the +stream, while the bore was being equipped with a five-foot flume. You all +know what that means, hundreds of miles from navigation or a main traveled +road. To get that necessary lumber, he felled trees in a spruce grove up +the ravine; every board was hewn by hand. And about two-thirds of those +sluice-boxes, the bottoms fitted with riffles, were finished. Afterwards, +at that camp where he stopped for dogs, I learned that aside from a few +days at long intervals, when the two miners had exchanged their labor for +some engineering, he had made his improvements alone, single-handed. And +most of that flume was constructed in those slow months he waited to hear +from me." + +Tisdale paused, and again his glance sought the faces of those who had +known David Weatherbee. But all the Circle was strung responsive. Those +who never had known Weatherbee understood the terrible conditions he had +braved; the body-wracking toil underground; the soul-breaking solitude; +the crowding silence that months earlier he had felt the necessity to +escape. In that picked company, the latent force in each acknowledged the +iron courage of the man; but it was Tisdale's magnetic personality, the +unstudied play of expression in his rugged face, the undercurrent of +emotion quickening through infinite tones of his voice, that plumbed the +depths and in every listener struck the dominant chord. And, too, these +men had bridged subconsciously those vast distances between Tisdale's +start from Nome in clear weather, "with a moon in her second quarter," and +that stop at the deserted mine, when his dogs--powerful huskies, part +wolf, since they were bred in the Seward Peninsula--"were nearly done +for." Long and inevitable periods of dark there had been; perils of white +blizzard, of black frost. They had run familiarly the whole gamut of +hardship and danger he himself must have faced single-handed; and while +full measure was accorded Weatherbee, the greater tribute passed silently, +unsought, to the man who had traveled so far and so fast to rescue him. + +"It ought to have been me," exclaimed Lucky Banks at last in his high +treble. "I was just down in the Iditarod country, less than three hundred +miles. I ought to have run up once in awhile to see how he was getting +along. But I never thought of Dave's needing help himself, and nobody told +me he was around. I'd ought to have kept track of him, though; it was up +to me. But go on, Hollis; go on. I bet you made up that day you lost at +the mine. My, yes, I bet you broke the record hitting that fifty-mile +camp." + +Tisdale nodded, and for an instant the humor played lightly at the corners +of his eyes. "It took me just seven hours with an up-grade the last twenty +miles. You see, I had Weatherbee to break trail. He rested a night at the +camp and lost about three hours more, while they hunted a missing husky to +make up his team. Still he pushed out with nearly eighteen hours start and +four fresh dogs, with Tyee pulling a strong lead; while I wasn't able to +replace even one of mine that had gone lame. I had to leave him there, and +before I reached the summit of Rainy Pass, I was carrying his mate on my +sled. But I had a sun then,--the days were lengthening fast into May,--and +by cutting my stops short I managed to hold my own to the divide. After +that I gained. Finally, one morning, I came to a rough place where his +outfit had upset, and I saw his dogs were giving him trouble. There were +blood stains all around on the snow. It looked like the pack had broken +open, and the huskies had tried to get at the dried salmon. Tyee must have +fought them off until Weatherbee was able to master them. At the end of +the next day I reached a miners' cabin where he had spent the night, and +the man who had helped him unhitch told me he had had to remind him to +feed his dogs. He had seemed all right, only dead tired; but he had gone +to bed early and, neglecting to leave a call, had slept fifteen hours. I +rested my team five, and late the next morning I came upon his camp-fire +burning." + +Tisdale paused to draw his hand across his eyes and met Foster's look over +the table. "It was there I blundered. There was a plain traveled trail +from that mine down through the lowlands to Susitna, and I failed to see +that his tracks left it: they were partly blotted out in a fresh fall of +snow. I lost six hours there, and when I picked up his trail again, I saw +he was avoiding the few way houses; he passed the settlement by; then I +missed his camp-fire. It was plain he was afraid to sleep any more. But he +knew the Susitna country; he kept a true course, and sometimes, in swampy +places, turned back to the main thoroughfare. At last, near the crossing +of the Matanuska, I was caught in the first spring thaw. It was heavy +going. All the streams were out of banks; the valley became a network of +small sloughs undermining the snowfields, creating innumerable ponds and +lakes. The earth, bared in patches, gave and oozed like a sponge. It was +impossible to follow Weatherbee's trail, but I picked it up once more, +where it came into the other, along the Chugach foot-hills. Slides began +to block the way; ice glazed the overflows at night; and at last a cold +wave struck down from the summits; the track stiffened in an hour and it +was hard as steel underfoot. The wind cut like swords. Then came snow." + +Tisdale looked off with his far-sighted gaze through the open door. Every +face was turned to him, but no one hurried him. It was a time when silence +spoke. + +"I came on Weatherbee's dogs in a small ravine," he said. "They had +broken through thin ice in an overflow, and the sled had mired in muck. +The cold wave set them tight; their legs were planted like posts, and I +had to cut them out. Two were done for." + +"You mean," exclaimed Banks, "Dave hadn't cut the traces to give his +huskies a chance." + +Tisdale nodded slowly. "But the instant I cut Tyee loose, he went limping +off, picking up his master's trail. It was a zigzag course up the face of +a ridge into a grove of spruce. Weatherbee took a course like a husky; +location was a sixth sense to him; yet I found his tracks up there, +winding aimlessly. It had stopped snowing then, but the first impressions +were nearly filled. In a little while I noticed the spaces were shorter +between the prints of the left shoe; they made a dip and blur. Then I came +into a parallel trail, and these tracks were clear, made since the +snowstorm, but there was the same favoring of the left foot. He was +traveling in a circle. Sometimes in unsheltered places, where the wind +swept through an avenue of trees, small drifts covered the impressions, +but the dog found them again, still doubling that broad circle. Finally I +saw a great dark blotch ahead where the ground sloped up to a narrow +plateau. And in a moment I saw it was caused by a great many fresh twigs +of spruce, all stuck upright in the snow and set carefully in rows, like a +child's make-believe garden." + +Tisdale's voice broke. He was looking off again into the night, and his +face hardened; two vertical lines like clefts divided his brows. It was as +though the iron in the man cropped through. The pause was breathless. Here +and there a grim face worked. + +"When the dog reached the spot," Hollis went on, "he gave a quick bark and +ran with short yelps towards a clump of young trees a few yards off. The +rim of a drift formed a partial windbreak, but he had only a low bough to +cover him,--and the temperature,--along those ice-peaks--" + +His voice failed. There was another speaking silence. It was as though +these men, having followed all those hundreds of miles over tundra and +mountains, through thaw and frost, felt with him in that moment the +heart-breaking futility of his pursuit. "I tried my best," he added. "I +guess you all know that, but--I was too late." + +The warning blast of an automobile cut the stillness, and the machine +stopped in front of the clubhouse, but no one at the table noticed the +interruption. + +Then Banks said, in his high key: "But you hitched his dogs up with yours, +the ones that were fit, and brought him through to Seward. You saw him +buried. Thank you for that." + +Feversham cleared his throat and reached for the decanter, "Think of it!" +he exclaimed. "A man like that, lost on a main traveled thoroughfare! But +the toll will go on every year until we have a railroad. Here's to that +road, gentlemen. Here's to the Alaska Midway and Home Rule." + +The toast was responded to, and it was followed by others. But Tisdale had +left his place to step through the open door to the balcony. Presently +Foster joined him. They stood for an interval smoking and taking in those +small night sounds for which long intimacy with Nature teaches a man to +listen; the distant voice of running water; the teasing note of the +breeze; the complaint of a balsam-laden bough; the restless stir of unseen +wings; the patter of diminutive feet. A wooded point that formed the horn +of a bay was etched in black on the silver lake; then suddenly the moon +illumined the horizon and, rising over a stencilled crest of the Cascades, +stretched her golden path to the shore below them. Both these men, +watching it, saw that other trail reaching white, limitless, hard as steel +through the Alaska solitudes. + +"At Seward," said Foster at last, "you received orders by cable detailing +you to a season in the Matanuska fields; but before you took your party +in, you sent a force of men back to the Aurora to finish Weatherbee's work +and begin operations. And the diverting of that stream exposed gravels +that are going to make you rich. You deserve it. I grant that. It's your +compensation; but just the same it gives a sharper edge to poor +Weatherbee's luck." + +Tisdale swung around. "See here, Foster, I want you to know I should have +considered that money as a loan if David had lived. If he had lived--and +recovered--I should have made him take back that half interest in the +Aurora. You've got to believe that; and I would be ready to do as much for +his wife, if she had treated him differently. But she wrecked his life. I +hold her responsible." + +Foster was silent. + +"Think of it!" Hollis went on. "The shame of it! All those years while he +faced privation, the worst kind, tramping Alaska trails, panning in icy +streams, sluicing, digging sometimes like any common laborer, wintering in +shacks, she was living in luxury down here. He never made a promising +discovery that he wasn't forced to sell. She spent his money faster than +he made it; kept him handicapped. And all she ever gave him was a friendly +letter now and then, full of herself and the gay life she led, and showing +clearly how happy she could be without him. Think of it, Foster!" His +voice deepened and caught its vibrant quality. "A fine fellow like +Weatherbee; so reliable, so great in a hard place. How could she have +treated him as she did? Damn it! How could he have thrown himself away +like that, for a feather-headed woman?" + +Foster knocked the ash from the end of his cigar. "You don't know her," he +answered. "If you did, you wouldn't put it in that way." He smiled a +little and looked off at the golden path on the lake. "So," he said after +a moment, and his glance returned to meet Tisdale's squarely, "she has +absolutely nothing now but that tract of unimproved desert on the other +side of the Cascades." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE QUESTION + + +Sometime, high on a mountain slope, a cross current of air, or perhaps a +tremor of the surface occasioned far off, starts the small snow-cap, that +sliding, halting, impelled forward again, always accumulating, gathering +momentum, finally becomes the irresistible avalanche. So Marcia Feversham, +the following morning, gave the first slight impetus to the question that +eventually menaced Tisdale with swift destruction. She was not taking the +early train with her husband; she desired to break the long journey and, +after the season in the north, prolong the visit with her relatives in +Seattle. The delegate had left her sleeping, but when he had finished the +light breakfast served him alone in the Morganstein dining-room and +hurried out to the waiting limousine, to his surprise he found her in the +car. "I am going down to see you away," she explained; "this salt breeze +with the morning tide is so delightfully fresh." + +There was no archness in her glance; her humor was wholly masculine. A +firm mouthy brilliant, dark eyes, the heavy Morganstein brows that met +over the high nose, gave weight and intensity to anything she said. Her +husband, in coaching her for the coming campaign at Washington, had told +her earnestness was her strong suit; that her deep, deliberate voice was +her best card, but she held in her eyes, unquestionably, both bowers. + +"Delightful of you, I am sure," he answered, taking the seat beside her, +with his for-the-public smile, "but I give credit to the air; you are +looking as brilliant at this outrageous hour as you would on your way to +an afternoon at bridge." Then, the chauffeur having closed the door and +taken his place in the machine, Feversham turned a little to scrutinize +her face. + +"Now, my lady," he asked, "to what do I owe the pleasure?" + +"Mr. Tisdale," she answered directly. "Of course you must see now, even if +I do contrive to meet him through Frederic, as you suggested, and manage +to see him frequently; even if I find out what he means to say in those +coal reports, when it comes to influence, I won't have the weight of a +feather. No woman could. He is made of iron, and his principles were cast +in the mold." + +"Every man has his vulnerable point, and I can trust you to find Hollis +Tisdale's." The delegate paused an instant, still regarding his wife's +face, frowning a little, yet not without humor, then said: "But you have +changed your attitude quickly. Where did you learn so much about him? How +can you be so positive about a man you never have met? Whom you have seen +only a time or two at a distance, on some street--or was it a hotel +lobby?--in Valdez or Fairbanks?" + +"Yesterday, when we were talking, that was true; but since then I have +seen him at close range. I've heard him." She turned and met Feversham's +scrutiny with the brilliancy rising in her eyes. "Last night at the +clubhouse, when he told the story of David Weatherbee, I was there." + +"You were there? Impossible! That is against the rules. Not a man of the +Circle would have permitted it, and you certainly would have been +discovered before you reached the assembly hall. Why, I myself was the +last to arrive. Frederic, you remember, had to speed the car a little to +get me there. And I looked back from the door and saw you in the tonneau +with Elizabeth, while Mrs. Weatherbee kept her place in front with +Frederic. You were going down the boulevard to spend the evening with her +at Vivian Court." + +"That was our plan, but we turned back," she explained. "We had a +curiosity to see the Circle seated around the banquet board in those +ridiculous purple parkas. And Frederic bet me a new electric runabout +against the parka of silver fox and the mukluks I bought of the Esquimau +girl at Valdez that we never could get as far as the assembly room. He +waited with Elizabeth in the car while we two crept up the stairs. The +door was open, and we stood almost screened by that portiere of Indian +leather, peeping in. Mr. Tisdale was telling the ptarmigan yarn--it's +wonderful the power he has to hold the interest of a crowd of men--and the +chance was too good to miss. We stole on up the steps to the gallery,--no +one noticed us,--and concealed ourselves behind that hanging Kodiak +bearskin." + +"Incredible!" exclaimed Feversham. "But I see you arrived at the opportune +moment,--when Tisdale was talking. There's something occult about the +personality of that man. And she, Mrs. Weatherbee, heard everything?" + +Marcia nodded. "Even your graceful toast to her." + +At this he settled back in his seat, laughing. "Well, I am glad I made it. +I could hardly have put it more neatly had I known she was there." + +"She couldn't have missed a word. We had found a bench behind the Kodiak +skin, and she sat straight as a soldier, listening through it all. I +couldn't get her to come away; it was as though she was looking on at an +interesting play. She was just as neutral and still; only her face turned +white, and her eyes were wide as stars, and once she gripped the fur of +the Kodiak so hard I expected to see it come down. But I know she failed +to grasp the vital point of the story. I mean the point vital to her. She +doesn't understand enough about law. And I myself slept on it the night +through before I saw. It came the moment I wakened this morning, clear and +sudden as an electric flash. If David Weatherbee was mentally unbalanced +when he made that transfer, the last half interest in the Aurora mine +ought to revert to her." + +Feversham started. He lifted his plump hands and let them drop forcibly on +his broad knees. But she did not notice his surprise. They were +approaching the station, and time pressed. "You know it is not a simple +infatuation with Frederic," she hurried on, "to be forgotten tomorrow. He +has loved her passionately from the day he first met her, four years ago. +He can't think of anything else; he never will do anything of credit to +the family until she is his wife. And now, with David Weatherbee safely +buried, it seems reasonably sure. Still, still, Miles, this unexpected +fortune held out to her just now might turn the scales. We have got to +keep it from her, and if those coal claims are coming up for trial, you +must frame some excuse to have them postponed." + +"Postponed? Why, we've just succeeded in gaining Federal attention. We've +been waiting five years. We want them settled now. It concerns Frederic as +well as the rest of us." + +"True," she answered, "even more. If those patents are allowed, he will +take immediate steps to mine the coal on a large scale. And it came over +me, instantly, on the heels of the first flash, that it was inevitable, if +Mr. Tisdale had taken advantage of David Weatherbee's condition--and his +own story shows the man had lost his mind; he was wandering around +planting make-believe orchards in the snow--you would use the point to +impeach the Government's star witness." + +"Impeach the Government's witness?" repeated Feversham, then a sudden +intelligence leaped into his face. "Impeach Hollis Tisdale," he added +softly and laughed. + +Presently, as the chauffeur slackened speed, looking for a stand among the +waiting machines at the depot, the attorney said: "If the syndicate sends +Stuart Foster north to the Iditarod, he may be forced to winter there; +that would certainly postpone the trial until spring." + +The next moment the chauffeur threw open the limousine door, and the +delegate stepped out; but he lingered a little over his good-by, retaining +his wife's hand, which he continued to shake slowly, while his eyes +telegraphed an answer to the question in hers. Then, laughing again +deeply, he said: "My lady! My lady! Nature juggled; she played your +brother Frederic a trick when she set that mind in your woman's head." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +FOSTER TOO + + +The apartment Tisdale called home was in a high corner of the Alaska +building, where the western windows, overtopping other stone and brick +blocks of the business center, commanded the harbor, caught like a faceted +jewel between Duwamish Head and Magnolia Bluff, and a far sweep of the +outer Sound set in wooded islands and the lofty snow peaks of the Olympic +peninsula. Next to his summer camp in the open he liked this eyrie, and +particularly he liked it at this hour of the night tide. He drew his chair +forward where the stiff, salt wind blew full in his face, but Foster, who +had found the elevator not running and was somewhat heated by his long +climb to the "summit," took the precaution of choosing a sheltered place +near the north window, which was closed. A shaded electric lamp cast a +ring of light on the package he had laid on the table between them, but +the rest of the room was in shadow, and from his seat he glanced down on +the iridescent sign displays of Second Avenue, then followed the lines of +street globes trailing away to the brilliant constellations set against +the blackness of Queen Anne hill. + +"She is to be out of town a week," he said, "and I hardly liked to leave +Weatherbee's things with a hotel clerk; since I am sailing on the _Admiral +Sampson_ tonight, I brought the package back. You will have to be your own +messenger." + +"That's all right, Foster; I can find another when she returns. I'll ask +Banks." + +"No." Foster's glance came back from the street; his voice rang a little +sharp. "Take it yourself, Hollis." + +"I can trust it with Banks." Tisdale paused a moment, still looking out on +the harbor lights and the stars, then said: "So you are going north again; +back to the copper mine, I presume?" + +"No, I shall be there later, but I expect to make a quick trip in to the +Iditarod now, to look over placer properties. The syndicate has bonded +Banks' claims and, if it is feasible, a dredger will be sent in next +spring to begin operations on a big scale. I shall go, of course, by way +of the Yukon, and if ice comes early and the steamers are taken off, +return by trail around through Fairbanks." + +"I see." Tisdale leaned forward a little, grasping the arms of his chair. +"The syndicate is taking considerable risk in sending you to the Iditarod +at this time. Suppose those coal cases should be called, with you +winter-bound up there. Why, the Chugach trial couldn't go on." + +"I am identified with the Morganstein interests there, I admit; but why +should the Chugach claims be classed with conspiracies to defraud the +Government? They were entered regularly, fifty coal claims of one hundred +and sixty acres each, by as many different persons. Because the President +temporarily suspended Alaska coal laws is no reason those patents should +be refused or even delayed. Our money was accepted by the Government; it +was never refunded." + +"As I thought," said Tisdale softly, addressing the stars; "as I feared." +Then, "Foster, Foster," he admonished, "be careful. Keep your head. That +syndicate is going to worry you some, old man, before you are through." + +Foster got to his feet. "See here, Hollis, be fair. Look at it once from +the other side. The Morgansteins have done more for Alaska than they will +ever be given credit for. Capital is the one key to open that big, new, +mountain-locked country, and the Government is treating it like a +boa-constrictor to be throttled and stamped out. Millions went into the +development of the El Dorado, yet they still have to ship the ore +thousands of miles to a smelter, with coal,--the best kind, inexhaustible +fields of it,--at our door. And go back to McFarlane. He put one hundred +and fifty thousand into the Chugach Railway to bring out the coal he had +mined, but he can't touch it; it's all tied up in red tape; the road is +rotting away. He is getting to be an old man, but I saw him doing day +labor on the Seattle streets to-day. Then there's the Copper River +Northwestern. That company built a railroad where every engineer but one, +who saw the conditions, said it could not be done. You yourself have +called it the most wonderful piece of construction on record. You know how +that big bridge was built in winter--the only time when the bergs stopped +chipping off the face of the glacier long enough to set the piers; you +know how Haney worked his men, racing against the spring thaw--he's paying +for it with his life, now, down in California. In dollars that bridge +alone cost a million and a half. Yet, with this road finished through the +coast mountains, they've had to suspend operation because they can't burn +their own coal. They've got to change their locomotives to oil burners. +And all this is just because the President delays to annul a temporary +restriction the previous executive neglected to remove. We have waited; we +have imported from British Columbia, from Japan; shipped in Pennsylvania, +laid down at Prince William Sound at fifteen dollars a ton, when our own +coal could be mined for two and a quarter and delivered here in Seattle +for five." + +"It could, I grant that," said Tisdale mellowly, "but would it, Stuart? +Would it, if the Morganstein interests had exclusive control?" + +Foster seemed not to have heard that question. He turned restlessly and +strode across the room. "The Government with just as much reason might +have conserved Alaska gold." + +Tisdale laughed. "That would have been a good thing for Alaska," he +answered; "if a part, at least of her placer streams had been conserved. +Come, Foster, you know as well as I do that the regulations early +prospectors accepted as laws are not respected to-day. Every discovery is +followed by speculators who travel light, who do not expect to do even +first assessment work, but only to stay on the ground long enough to stake +as many claims as possible for themselves and their friends. When the real +prospector arrives, with his year's outfit, he finds hundreds of miles, a +whole valley staked, and his one chance is to buy or work under a lease. +Most of these speculators live in the towns, some of them down here in +Seattle, carrying on other business, and they never visit their claims. +They re-stake and re-stake year after year and follow on the heels of each +new strike, often by proxy. We have proof enough of all this to convince +the most lukewarm senator." + +"You think then," said Foster quickly, "there is going to be a chance, +after all, for the bill for Home Rule?" + +"No." Tisdale's voice lost its mellowness. "It is a mistake; it's asking +too much at the beginning. We need amended mining laws; we should work for +that at once, in the quickest concerted way. And, first of all, our +special delegates should push the necessity of a law giving a defined +length of shaft or tunnel for assessment work, as is enforced in the +Klondike, and ask for efficient inspectors to see that such laws as we +have are obeyed." + +Foster moved to the window and stood looking down again on the city +lights. Presently he said: "I presume you will see the President while you +are in Washington." + +"Probably. He is always interested in the field work up there, and this +season's reconnaissance in the Matanuska coal district should be of +special importance to him just now. The need of a naval coaling station on +the Pacific coast has grown imperative, and with vast bodies of coal +accessible to Prince William Sound, the question of location should soon +be solved." + +There was another silence, while Poster walked again to the end of the +room and returned. "How soon do you start east?" he asked. + +"Within a week. Meantime, I am going over the Cascades into the sage-brush +country to look up that land of Weatherbee's." + +"You intend then," said Foster quickly, "to take that piece of desert off +Mrs. Weatherbee's hands?" + +"Perhaps. It depends on the possibility of carrying out his project. I +have just shipped a steam thawing apparatus in to the Aurora, and that, +with supplies for a winter camp, has taken a good deal of ready money. +Freighting runs high, whether it's from the Iditarod or south from +Fairbanks. But spring should see expenses paid and my investment back." + +"From all I've heard," responded Foster dryly, "you'll get your investment +back with interest." + +"Of course," said Tisdale after a moment, "Mrs. Weatherbee will be eager +to dispose of the tract; the only reason it is still on her hands is that +no one has wanted to buy it at any price." + +"And that's just why you should." Foster paused, then went on slowly, +controlling the emotion in his voice, "You don't know her, Hollis. She's +proud. She won't admit the situation, and I can't ask her directly, but I +am sure she has come to the limit. I've been trying all day, ever since I +knew I must go north again, to raise enough money to make an offer for +that land, but practically all I have is tied up in Alaska properties. It +takes time to find a customer, and the banks are cautious." + +Tisdale rose from his chair. "Foster!" he cried and stretched out his +hands. "Foster--not you, too." + +Then his hands dropped, and Foster drew a step nearer into the circle of +light and stood meeting squarely the silent remonstrance, accusation, +censure, for which he was prepared. "I knew how you would take it," he +broke out at last, "but it's the truth. I've smothered it, kept it down +for years; but it's nothing to be ashamed of any longer. I'd have been +glad to exchange places with Weatherbee. I'd have counted it a privilege +to work, even as he did, for her; I could have suffered privation, the +worst kind, wrung success out of failure, for the hope of her." + +"See here, Foster,"--Tisdale laid his hands on the younger man's +shoulders, shaking him slowly,--"you must stop this." His hold relaxed; he +stepped back, and his voice vibrated softly through the room. "How could +you have said it, knowing David Weatherbee as you did? No matter what kind +of a woman she is, you should have remembered she was his wife and +respected her for his sake." + +"Respect? I do respect her. She's the kind of woman a man sets on a +pedestal to worship and glorify. You don't understand it, Hollis; you +don't know her, and I can't explain; but just her presence is an appeal, +an inspiration to all that's worth anything in me." + +Tisdale's hands sought his pockets; his head dropped forward a little and +he stood regarding Foster with an upward look from under frowning brows. + +"You don't know her," Foster repeated. "She's different--finer than other +women. And she has been gently bred. Generations of the best blood is +bottled like old wine in her crystal body." He paused, his face +brightening at the fancy. "You can always see the spirit sparkling +through." + +"I remember about that blue blood," Tisdale said tersely. "Weatherbee told +me how it could be traced back through a Spanish mother to some +buccaneering adventurer, Don Silva de y somebody, who made his +headquarters in Mexico. And that means a trace of Mexican in the race, or +at least Aztec." + +Foster colored. "The son of that Don Silva came north and settled in +California. He brought his peons with him and made a great rancheria. At +the time of the Mexican War, his herds and flocks covered immense ranges. +Hundreds of these cattle must have supplied the United States commissary; +the rest were scattered, and in the end there was little left of the +estate; just a few hundred acres and a battered hacienda. But Mrs. +Weatherbee's father was English; the younger son of an old and knighted +family." + +"I know," answered Tisdale dryly. "Here in the northwest we call such sons +remittance men. They are paid generous allowances, sometimes, to come to +America and stay." + +"That's unfair," Foster flamed. "You have no right to say it. He came to +California when he was just a young fellow to invest a small inheritance. +He doubled it twice in a few years. Then he was persuaded to put his money +in an old, low-grade gold mine. The company made improvements, built a +flume thirty miles long to bring water to the property for development, +but it was hardly finished when a State law was passed prohibiting +hydraulic mining. It practically ruined him. He had nothing to depend on +then but a small annuity." + +"Meantime," supplemented Tisdale, "he had married his Spanish senorita and +her inheritance, the old rancheria, was sunk with his own in the gold +mine. Then he began to play fast and loose with his annuity at the San +Francisco stock exchange." + +"He hoped to make good quickly. He was getting past his prime, with his +daughter's future to be secured. But it got to be a habit and, after the +death of his wife, a passion. His figure was well known on the street; he +was called a plunger. Some days he made fortunes; the next lost them. +Still he was the same distinguished, courteous gentleman to the end." + +"And that came on the stock exchange, after a prolonged strain. David +Weatherbee found him and took him home." Tisdale paused, then went on, +still regarding Foster with that upward look from under his forbidding +brows. "It fell to Weatherbee to break the news to the daughter, and ten +days later, on the eve of his sailing north to Seattle, that marriage was +hurried through." + +There was a silent moment, then Foster said: "Weatherbee loved her, and he +was going to Alaska; it was uncertain when he could return; married, he +might send for her when conditions were fit. And her father's affairs were +a complete wreck; even the annuity stopped at his death, and there wasn't +an acre of her mother's inheritance left. Not a relative to take her in." + +"I know; that is why she married Weatherbee." Tisdale set his lips grimly; +he swung around and strode across the floor. "You see, you can't tell me +anything," he said. "I know all about it. Wait. Listen. I am going over +the mountains and look up that land of Weatherbee's, and I shall probably +buy it, but I want you to understand clearly it is only because I hope to +carry his project through. Now go north, Foster; take a new grip on +things; get to work and let your investments alone." + +After that, when Foster had gone, Tisdale spent a long interval tramping +the floor of his breezy room. The furrows still divided his brows, his +mouth was set, and a dark color burned and glowed through his tan. But +deeper than his angry solicitude for Foster rankled his resentment against +this woman. Who was she, he asked himself, that she should fix her hold on +level-headed Foster? But he knew her kind. Feversham had called her a +"typical American beauty," but there were many types, and he knew her +kind. She was a brunette, of course, showing a swarthier trace of Mexican +with the Spanish, and she would have a sort of personal magnetism. She +might prove dramatic if roused, but those Spanish-California women were +indolent, and they grew heavy early. Big, handsome, voluptuous; just a +splendid animal without a spark of soul. + +He had stopped near the table, and his glance fell on the package in the +ring of light from the shaded lamp. After a moment he lifted it and, +drawing up a chair, seated himself and removed the wrapper. It covered a +tin box such as he was accustomed to use in the wilderness for the +protection and portage of field notes and maps. He raised the lid and took +from the top a heavy paper, which he unfolded and spread before him. It +was Weatherbee's landscape plan, traced with the skill of a draughtsman +and showing plainly the contour of the tract in eastern Washington and his +method of reclamation. The land included a deep pocket set between spurs +of the Cascade Mountains. The ridges and peaks above it had an altitude of +from one to six thousand feet. He found the spring, marked high in a +depressed shoulder, and followed the line of flume drawn from it down to a +natural dry basin at the top of the pocket. A dam was set in the lower rim +of this reservoir and, reaching from it, a canal was sketched in, feeding +cross ditches, distributing spillways to the orchards that covered the +slopes and levels below. Finally he traced the roadway up through the +avenues between the trees, over the bench, to the house that commanded the +valley. The mission walls, the inside court, the roomy, vine-grown +portico, all the detail of foliage here had been elaborated skilfully, +with the touch of an artist. The habitation stood out the central feature +of the picture and, as a good etching will, assumed a certain personality. + +How fond David would have been of a home,--a home and children! Tisdale +folded the plan and sat holding it absently in his hands. His mind ran +back from this final, elaborated copy to the first rough draft Weatherbee +had shown him one night at the beginning of that interminable winter they +had passed together in the Alaska solitudes. He had watched the drawing +and the project grow. But afterwards, when he had taken up geological work +again, they had met only at long intervals; at times he had lost all trace +of Weatherbee, and he had not realized the scheme had such a hold. Still, +he should have understood; he should have had at least a suspicion before +that letter reached him at Nome. And even then he had been blind. With +that written proof in his hands, he had failed to grasp its meaning. The +tragedy! the shame of it! That he should have hesitated,--thrown away four +days. + +He looked off once more to the harbor, and his eyes gathered their +far-sighted expression, as though they went seeking that white trail +through the solitudes stretching limitless under the cold Arctic night. +His face hardened. When finally the features stirred, disturbed by forces +far down, he had come to that make-believe orchard of spruce twigs. + +After a while he folded the drawing to put it away, but as his glance fell +on the contents of the box, he laid the plan on the table to take up the +miner's poke tucked in a corner made by a packet of letters, and drew out +Weatherbee's watch. It was valuable but the large monogram deeply engraved +on the gold case may have made it unnegotiable. That probably was why +David never had parted with it. Tisdale wound it, and set the hands. The +action seemed suddenly to bring Weatherbee close. He felt his splendid +personality there beside him, as he used to feel it still nights up under +the near Yukon stars. It was as though he was back to one night, the last +on a long trail, when they were about to part company. He had been urging +him to come out with him to the States, but Weatherbee had as steadily +refused. "Not yet," he persisted. "Not until I have something to show." +And again: "No, Hollis, don't ask me to throw away all these years. I have +the experience now, and I've got to make good." Then he spoke of his wife-- +for an instant Tisdale seemed to see him once more, bending to hold his +open watch so that the light of the camp-fire played on her picture set in +the lower rim. "You see Alaska is no place for a woman like her," he said, +"but she is worth waiting for and working for. You ought to understand, +Hollis, how the thought of her buoys me through." + +But it was a long time to remember a picture seen only by the flicker of a +camp-fire and starshine, and the woman of Tisdale's imagination clouded +out the face he tried to recall. "Still Weatherbee was so sensitive, so +fine," he argued with himself. "A woman must have possessed more than a +beautiful body to have become the center of his life. She must, at the +start, have possessed some capacity of feeling." + +He put his thumb on the spring to open the lower case, but the image so +clearly fixed in his mind stayed the impulse. "What is the use?" he +exclaimed, and thrusting the watch back into the bag, quickly tied the +string. "I don't want to see you. I don't want to know you," and he added, +pushing the poke into its place and closing the box; "The facts are all +against you." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +SNOQUALMIE PASS AND A BROKEN AXLE + + +Tisdale leaned forward in his seat in the observation car. His rugged +features worked a little, and his eyes had their far-sighted gaze. Scarred +buttes crowded the track; great firs, clinging with exposed roots to the +bluffs, leaned in menace, and above the timber belt granite pyramids and +fingers shone amethyst against the sky; then a giant door closed on this +vestibule of the Pass, and he was in an amphitheatre of lofty peaks. The +eastbound began to wind and lift like a leviathan seeking a way through. +It crept along a tilting shelf, rounded a sheer spur, and ran shrieking +over a succession of trestles, while the noise of the exhausts rang a +continuous challenge from shoulder and crag. Then suddenly a mighty summit +built like a pulpit of the gods closed behind, and a company of still +higher mountains encircled the gorge. Everywhere above the wooded slopes +towered castellated heights and spires. + +Presently a near cliff came between him and the higher view and, with a +lift and drop of his square shoulders, he settled back in his chair. He +drew his hand across his eyes, the humorous lines deepened and, like one +admitting a weakness, he shook his head. It was always so; the sight of +any mountains, a patch of snow on a far blue ridge, set his pulses +singing; wakened the wanderlust for the big spaces in God's out-of-doors. +And this canyon of the Snoqualmie was old, familiar ground. He had served +his surveyor's apprenticeship on these western slopes of the Cascades. He +had triangulated most of these peaks, named some of them, and he had +carried a transit to these headwaters, following his axman often over a +new trail. Now, far, far down between the columns of hemlock and fir, he +caught glimpses of the State road on the opposite bank of the stream that, +like a lost river, went forever seeking a way out, and finally, for an +instant he saw a cabin set like a toy house at the wooden bridge where the +thoroughfare crossed. Then the eastbound, having made a great loop, found +another hidden gateway and moved up to the levels above Lake Keechelus. +The whistle signalled a mountain station, and Tisdale rose and went out to +the platform; when the trucks jolted to a standstill, he swung himself +down to the ground to enjoy a breath of the fine air. + +The next moment he found himself almost upon a wrecked automobile. He saw +in a flash that the road, coming through a cut, crossed the railroad +track, and that in making a quick turn to avoid the end of the slowing +train, the chauffeur had forced the car into the bank. The machine was +still upright, but it listed forward on a broken axle. A young woman who +had kept her seat in the tonneau was nursing a painful wrist, while two +girls, who evidently had come through the accident unscathed, were trying +to help the only man of the party up from the ground. Tisdale bent to give +him the support of his shoulder, and, groaning, the stranger settled +against the side of his car and into a sitting position on the edge of the +floor, easing an injured leg. He had also received an ugly hurt above his +brows, which were heavy and black and met in an angle over a prominent +nose. + +The lady in the tonneau and one of the girls had the same marked features +and the same brilliant dark eyes, though the retreating chin, which in the +man amounted to almost a blemish, in them was modified. But the last one +in the party, whom Tisdale had noticed first, was not like the rest. She +was not like any one in the world he had seen before. From the hem of her +light gray motoring coat to the crown of her big hat, she was a delight to +the eyes. The veil that tied the hat down framed a face full of a piquant +yet delicate charm. She was watching the man huddled against the machine, +and her mouth, parted a little, showed the upper lip short with the upward +curves of a bow. It was as though words were arrested, half spoken, and +her eyes, shadowy under curling dark lashes, held their expression, +uncertain whether to sparkle out or to cloud. + +After a moment the man lifted his head and, meeting her look, smiled. "I'm +all right," he said, "only I've wrenched this knee; sprained it, I guess. +And my head feels like a drum." + +"Oh, I am--glad"--her voice fluctuated softly, but the sparkle broke in +her eyes--"that it isn't worse. Would you like a glass of ice-water from +the train? A porter is coming and the conductor, too. I will ask for +anything." + +He smiled again. "You'll get it, if you do. But what I want most just now +is a glass of that port. Elizabeth," and his glance moved to the other +girl, "where did you put that hamper?" + +Elizabeth, followed by the porter, hurried around to the other side of the +automobile to find the basket, and Tisdale moved a few steps away, waiting +to see if he could be of further service. + +A passenger with a camera and an alert, inquiring face had come down from +the day coach. He wound the film key and focussed for a closer exposure, +but no one noticed him. At that moment all interest centered on the man +who was hurt. "Well," said the conductor at last, having looked the group +and the situation over, "what's the trouble?" + +"Looks like a broken axle, doesn't it? And possibly a broken leg." He +groaned and repeated aggressively: "A broken axle. With the worst of +Snoqualmie Pass before us, and not a garage or a repair shop within fifty +miles." + +"You are in a fix, sure. But this train will take you through the Pass to +Ellensburg, and there ought to be a hospital and a garage there. Or--the +westbound passenger, due at this siding in seven minutes"--the conductor +looked at his watch--"could put you back in Seattle at eight-fifteen." + +"Make it the westbound; no hospital for me. Telegraph for a drawing-room, +conductor, and notify this station agent to ship the machine on the same +train. And, Elizabeth," he paused to take the drinking-cup she had filled, +"you look up a telephone, or if there isn't a long distance, telegraph +James. Tell him to have a couple of doctors, Hillis and Norton, to meet +the eight-fifteen; and to bring the limousine down with plenty of pillows +and comforters." He drained the cup and dropped it into the open hamper. +"Now, porter," he added, "if you hurry up a cocktail, the right sort, +before that westbound gets here, it means a five to you." + +As these various messengers scurried away, the girl who remained picked up +the cup and poured a draught of wine for the lady in the tonneau. "I am so +sorry, but it was the only way. Do you think it is a sprain?" she asked. + +"Yes." The older woman took the cup in her left hand. She had a deep, +carrying voice, and she added, looking at the injured wrist: "It's +swelling frightfully, but it saved my face; I might have had just such a +hideous wound as Frederic's. Isn't it a relief to hear him talking so +rationally?" + +The girl nodded. "He seems quite himself," she said gravely. But she +turned to cover the mirth in her eyes; it suffused her face, her whole +charming personality. Then suddenly, at the moment the flow was highest, +came the ebb. Her glance met Tisdale's clear, appraising look, and she +stood silent and aloof. + +He looked away and, after a moment, seeing nothing further to do, started +back to his train. She turned to take the empty cup, and as she closed the +hamper the whistle of the westbound sounded through the gorge. + +Tisdale walked on through the observation car to the rear platform and +stood looking absently off through an aisle of Alpine firs that, parklike, +bordered the track. It was a long time since the sight of a pretty woman +had so quickened his blood. He had believed that for him this sort of +thing was over, and he laughed at himself a little. + +The westbound rumbled to a stop on the parallel track, he felt the trucks +under him start, and an unaccountable depression came over him; the next +moment he heard a soft voice directing the porter behind him, and as +unaccountably his heart rose. The girl came on through the open door and +stopped beside him, bracing herself with one hand on the railing, while +she waved her handkerchief to the group she had left. He caught a faint, +clean perfume suggesting violets, the wind lifted the end of her veil +across his shoulder, and something of her exhilaration was transmitted to +the currents in his veins. "Good-by, Elizabeth," she called. "Good-by. +Good-by." + +Some trainmen were getting the injured man aboard the westbound passenger, +and the lady who had left the wrecked automobile to go with him sent back +a sonorous "Au revoir." But Elizabeth, who was hurrying down from the +station where she had accomplished her errand, turned in astonishment to +look after the speeding eastbound. Then a rocky knob closed all this from +sight. + +The girl on the platform turned, and Tisdale moved a little to let her +pass. At the same time the lurching of the car, as it swung to the curve, +threw her against him. It all happened very quickly; he steadied her with +his arm, and she drew back in confusion; he raised his hand to his head +and, remembering he had left his hat in his seat, a flush shaded through +his tan. Then, "I beg your pardon," she said and hurried by him through +the door. + +Tisdale stood smoothing his wind-ruffled hair and watching the receding +cliff. "Her eyes are hazel," he thought, "with turquoise lights. I never +heard of such a combination, but--it's fine." + +A little later, when he went in to take his seat, he found her in the +chair across the aisle. The train was skirting the bluffs of Keechelus +then, and she had taken off her coat and hat and sat watching the +unfolding lake. His side glance swept her slender, gray-clad figure to the +toe of one trim shoe, braced lightly on her footstool, and returned to her +face. In profile it was a new delight. One caught the upward curl of her +black lashes; the suggestion of a fault in the tip of her high, yet +delicately chiseled nose; the piquant curve of her short upper lip; the +full contour of the lifted chin. Her hair, roughened some, was soft and +fine and black with bluish tones. + +The temptation to watch her was very great, and Tisdale squared his +shoulders resolutely and swung his chair more towards his own window, +which did not afford a view of the lake. He wanted to see this new +railroad route through the Cascades. This Pass of Snoqualmie had always +been his choice of a transcontinental line. And he was approaching new +territory; he never had pushed down the eastern side from the divide. He +had chosen this roundabout way purposely, with thirty miles of horseback +at the end, when the Great Northern would have put him directly into the +Wenatchee Valley and within a few miles of that tract of Weatherbee's he +was going to see. + +There were few travelers in the observation car, and for a while nothing +broke the silence but the clamp and rush of the wheels on the down-grade, +then the man with a camera entered and came down the aisle as far as the +new passenger's chair. "I hope you'll excuse me," he said, "I'm Daniels, +representing the _Seattle Press_, and I thought you would like to see this +story go in straight." + +Tisdale swung his chair a little towards the open rear door, so that he +was able to watch without seeming to see the progress of the comedy. He +was quick enough to catch the sweeping look she gave the intruder, aloof +yet fearless, as though she saw him across an invisible barrier. "You mean +you are a reporter," she asked quietly, "and are writing an account of the +accident for your newspaper?" + +"Yes." Daniels dropped his cap into the next chair and seated himself +airily on the arm. The camera swung by a carrying strap from his shoulder, +and he opened a notebook, which he supported on his knee while he felt in +his pocket for a pencil. "Of course I recognized young Morganstein; +everybody knows him and that chocolate car; he's been run in so often for +speeding about town. And I suppose he was touring through Snoqualmie Pass +to the races at North Yakima fair. There should be some horses there worth +going to see." + +"We meant to spend a day or two at the fair," she admitted, "but we +expected to motor on, exploring a little in the neighborhood." + +"I see. Up the valley to have a look at the big irrigation dam the +Government is putting in and maybe on to see the great Tieton bore. That +would have been a fine trip; sorry you missed it." Daniels paused to place +several dots and hooks on his page. "I recognized Miss Morganstein, too," +he went on, "though she was too busy to notice me. I met her when I was +taking my course in journalism at the State University; danced with her at +the Junior Prom. And the other lady, whose wrist was sprained, must have +been her sister, Mrs. Feversham. I was detailed to interview the new +Alaska delegate when he passed through Seattle, and I understood his wife +was to join him later. She was stopping over for a visit, and the society +editor called my attention to a mighty good picture of her in last +Sunday's issue. Do you know?--" he paused, looking into the girl's face +with a curious scrutiny, "there was another fine reproduction on that page +that you might have posed for. The lady served tea or punch or did +something at the same affair. But I can't remember her name--I've tried +ever since we left that station--though seems to me it was a married one." + +"I remember the picture you mean; I remember. And I was there. It was a +bridge-luncheon at the Country Club in honor of Mrs. Feversham. And she-- +the lady you were reminded of--won the prize. So you think I resemble that +photograph?" She tipped her head back a little, holding his glance with +her half-veiled eyes. "What an imagination!" + +"Of course if you did pose for that picture, it doesn't do you half +justice; I admit that. But"--regarding her with a wavering doubt--"I guess +I've been jumping at conclusions again. They call me the 'Novelist' at the +office." He paused, laughing off a momentary embarrassment. "That's why I +didn't want to depend on getting your name from the society editor." + +"I am glad you did not. It would have been very annoying, I'm sure--to the +lady. I suppose," she went on slowly, while the glamour grew in her eyes, +"I suppose nothing could induce you to keep this story out of the +_Press_." + +He pursed his lips and shook his head decidedly. "I don't see how I can. +I'd do 'most anything to oblige you, but this is the biggest scoop I ever +fell into. The fellows detailed by the other papers to report the fair +went straight through by way of the Northern Pacific. I was the only +reporter at the wreck." + +"I understand, but," her voice fluctuated softly, "I dislike publicity so +intensely. Of course it's different with Mrs. Feversham. She is accustomed +to newspaper notice; her husband and brother are so completely in the +public eye. But since you must use the story, couldn't you suppress my +name?" + +"Oh, but how could I? The whole story hinges on you. You were driving the +machine. I saw you from the train window as you came through the cut. You +handled the gear like an imported chauffeur, but it was steep there on the +approach, and the car began to skid. I saw in a flash what was going to +happen; it made me limp as a rag. But there was a chance,--the merest +hairbreadth, and you took it." He waited a moment, then said, smiling: +"That was a picture worth snapping, but I was too batty to think of it in +time. You see," he went on seriously, "the leading character in this story +is you. And it means a lot to me. I was going to be fired; honest I was. +The old man told me he wasn't looking for any _Treasure Island_ genius; +what his paper needed was plain facts. Then his big heart got the upper +hand, and he called me back. 'Jimmie,' he said, 'there's good stuff in +you, and I am going to give you one more trial. Go over to North Yakima +and tell us about the fair. Take the new Milwaukee line as far as +Ellensburg and pick up something about the automobile road through +Snoqualmie Pass. But remember, cut out the fiction; keep to facts!'" + +"I understand," she repeated gravely, "I understand. The accident came +opportunely. It was life and color to your setting and demonstrates the +need of a better road. The most I can hope is that you will not exaggerate +or--or put us in a ridiculous light." + +"I swear to that." He settled his notebook again on his knee and lifted +his pencil. "Nothing sensational," he added, "nothing annoying; now please +give me your name." + +"Well, then, write Miss Armitage." + +"Miss Armitage. Thank you. Miss Armitage of?" + +"San Francisco." + +"Of San Francisco; and visiting the Morgansteins, of course. But going on +now alone to meet the friends who are expecting you--am I right?--at North +Yakima." + +There was a brief silence, and she moved a little in her chair. "Where I +am going now," she said, and looked at him once more across the invisible +barrier, "is another story." + +"I beg your pardon." Daniels laughed and, rising from his perch on the +chair arm, put his notebook in his pocket. "And I'm awfully grateful. If +ever I can be of service to you, I hope you'll let me know." He started up +the car, then paused to say over his shoulder: "The light for photography +was fine; the old man will double column every illustration." + +"Illustrations?" She started up in dismay. "Oh, no. Please--I couldn't +endure--" + +But Jimmie Daniels, with the camera swinging to his quick step, hurried on +to the vestibule. + +She settled back in her seat, and for a moment her consternation grew; +then the humor of the situation must have dawned on her, for suddenly the +sparkles danced in her eyes. Her glance met Tisdale's briefly and, +suppress it as he tried, his own smile broke at the corners of his mouth. +He rose and walked out again to the platform. + +This was the rarest woman on earth. She was able to appreciate a joke at +her own expense. Clearly she had finessed, then, in the instant she had +been sure of the game, she had met and accepted defeat with a smile. But +he would like to discipline that fellow Daniels;--here he frowned--those +films should be destroyed. Still, the boy would hardly give them up +peaceably and to take them otherwise would not spare her the publicity she +so desired to avoid; such a scene must simply furnish fresh material, a +new chapter to the story. After all, not one newspaper cut in a hundred +could be recognized. It was certain she was in no need of a champion; he +never had seen a woman so well equipped, so sure of herself and her +weapons, and yet so altogether feminine. If Foster had but known _her_. + +Instantly, in sharp contrast to this delightful stranger, rose the woman +of his imagination; the idle spendthrift who had cast her spell over +level-headed Foster; who had wrecked David Weatherbee; and his face +hardened. A personal interview, he told himself presently, would be worse +than useless. There was no way to reach a woman like her; she was past +appeal. But he would take that tract of desert off her hands at her price, +and perhaps, while the money lasted, she would let Foster alone. + +The train had left Lake Keechelus and was racing easily down the banks of +the Yakima. He was entering the country he had desired to see, and soon +his interest wakened. He seated himself to watch the heights that seemed +to move in quick succession like the endlessly closing gates of the Pass. +The track still ran shelf-wise along precipitous knobs and ridges; +sometimes it bored through. The forests of fir and hemlock were replaced +by thinning groves of pine; then appeared the first bare, sage-mottled +dune. The trucks rumbled over a bit of trestle, and for an instant he saw +the intake of an irrigating canal, and finally, after a last tunnel, the +eastbound steamed out of the canyon into a broad, mountain-locked plateau. +Everywhere, watered by the brimming ditch, stretched fields of vivid +alfalfa or ripe grain. Where the harvesting was over, herds of fine horses +and cattle or great flocks of sheep were turned in to browse on the +stubble. At rare intervals a sage-grown breadth of unreclaimed land, like +a ragged blemish, divided these farms. Then, when the arid slopes began to +crowd again, the train whistled Ellensburg on the lower rim of the plain. + +Tisdale left his seat to lean over the railing and look ahead. He was in +time to catch a fleeting glimpse of Jimmie Daniels as he hurried out of +the telegraph office and sprang on the step of a starting bus. It was here +the young newspaper man was to transfer to the Northern Pacific, and +doubtless the girl too was changing trains. The Milwaukee, beyond +Ellensburg, passed through new, unbroken country for many miles; the +stations were all in embryo, and even though she may not have resumed her +journey at the Pass with the intention of stopping off at the fair, the +same bus was probably taking her over to the old, main traveled route down +the Yakima to the Columbia. + +Again that unaccountable depression came over him. He tried to throw it +off, laughing at himself a little and lighting a cigar. This pretty woman +had happened in his path like a flower; she had pleased his eyes for a few +hours and was gone. But what possible difference could her coming and +going make to him? + +The train started, and he settled back in his seat. The fertile fields +were left behind, then presently the eastbound steamed through a gap in a +sun-baked ridge and entered a great arid level. Sage-brush stretched +limitless, and the dull green of each bush, powdered with dust, made a +grayer blotch on the pale shifting soil, that every chance zephyr lifted +in swirls and scattered like ashes. Sometimes a whiter patch showed where +alkali streaked through. It was like coming into an old, worn-out world. +The sun burned pitilessly, and when finally the train had crossed this +plain and began to wind through lofty dunes, the heat pent between the +slopes became stifling. The rear platform was growing intolerable, and he +knew his station could not be far off. He rose to go in, but the eastbound +suddenly plunged into the coolness of a tunnel, and he waited while it +bored through to daylight and moved on along a shelf overlooking a dry +run. Then, as he turned to the open door, he saw the girl had not taken +the Northern Pacific at Ellensburg. She was still there in the observation +car. + +Her eyes were closed, and he noticed as he went forward that her breast +rose and fell gently; the shorter, loose hair formed damp, cool little +rings on her forehead and about her ears. She was sleeping in her chair. +But a turn in the track brought the sun streaming through her window; the +polished ceiling reflected the glare, and he stopped to reach carefully +and draw the blind. A moment later the whistle shrieked, and the conductor +called his station. He hurried on up the aisle and, finding his satchel in +the vestibule, stood waiting until the car jolted to a stop, then swung +himself off. But the porter followed with a suitcase and placed his stool, +and the next instant the girl appeared. She carried her hat in her hands, +her coat was tucked under her arm, and as she stepped down beside Tisdale, +the bell began to ring, the porter sprang aboard, and the train went +speeding ahead. + +The station was only a telegraph office, flanked by a water-tank on a +siding. There was no waiting hotel bus, no cab, no vehicle of any kind. +The small building rose like an islet out of a gray sea. Far off through +billowing swells one other islet appeared, but these two passengers the +eastbound had left were like a man and woman marooned. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +APPLES OF EDEN + + +Tisdale stood looking after the train while the girl's swift, startled +glance swept the billowing desert and with growing dismay searched the +draw below the station. "There isn't a town in sight!" she exclaimed, and +her lip trembled. "Not a taxi or even a stage!" And she added, moving and +lifting her eyes to meet his: "What am I to do?" + +"I'll do my best, madam," he paused, and the genial lines broke lightly in +his face, "but I could find out quicker if I knew where you want to go." + +"To Wenatchee. And I tho--ought--I understood--the conductor told me you +were going there, and this was your stop. It was his first trip over the +new Milwaukee, and we trusted--to you." + +Tisdale pursed his lips, shaking his head slowly. "I guess I am +responsible. I did tell that conductor I was going to Wenatchee when I +asked him to drop me at this siding, but I should have explained I +expected to find a saddle-horse here and take a cut-off to strike the +Ellensburg road. It should save an hour." He drew a Government map of the +quadrangle of that section from his pocket and opened it. "You see, your +stop was Ellensburg; the only through road starts there." He found the +thoroughfare and began to trace it with his forefinger. "It crosses rugged +country; follows the canyons through these spurs of the Cascades. They +push down sheer to the Columbia. See the big bend it makes, flowing south +for miles along the mountains trying to find a way out to the Pacific. The +river ought to be off there." He paused and swung on his heel to look +eastward. "It isn't far from this station. But even if we reached it, it +would be up-stream, against a succession of rapids, from here to +Wenatchee. A boat would be impossible." He folded the plat and put it +away, then asked abruptly: "Do you ride, madam?" + +She gave him a swift side-glance and looked off in the direction of the +hidden Columbia. "Sometimes--but I haven't a riding habit." + +Tisdale waited. The humor deepened a little at the corners of his mouth. +There was but one passenger train each way daily on the newly opened +Milwaukee road, and plainly she could not remain at this siding alone all +night; yet she was debating the propriety of riding through the mountains +to Wenatchee with him. Then unexpectedly the click of a telegraph cut the +stillness, and a sudden brightness leaped in her face. "A station master," +she cried; "perhaps there's a telephone." And she hurried up the platform +to the open office door. + +Tisdale slowly followed. + +The station master, having transmitted his message, swung around on his +stool, and got to his feet in astonishment on seeing the girl. + +"I have made a mistake," she said, with a wavering glance over the +interior, "and I tho--ought, I hoped there was a telephone. But you can +communicate with the nearest garage for me, can you not? Or a stable--or-- +somewhere. You see," and for an instant the coquetry of a pretty woman who +knows she is pretty beamed in her eyes, "I really must have a taxicab or +some kind of a carriage to take me back to Ellensburg." + +The station master, who was a very young man, answered her smile and, +reaching to take a coat from a peg on the wall, hastily slipped it on. "Of +course I could call up Ellensburg," he said; "that's the nearest for a +machine. But it belongs to the doctor, and even if he was in town and +could spare it, it would take till dark to bring it down. It's a mean road +over sandhills for thirty-five miles." + +"It is hardly farther than that to Wenatchee," said Tisdale quietly. "With +good saddle-horses we should be able to make it as soon. Do you know +anything about the trail through to tap the Ellensburg-Wenatchee highway?" + +The station master came around the end of his desk. "So you are going to +Wenatchee," he exclaimed, and his face shone with a sort of inner glow. "I +guess then you must have heard about Hesperides Vale; the air's full of +it, and while land is selling next to nothing you want to get in on the +ground floor. Yes, sir," his voice quickened, "I own property over there, +and I came that way, up the mountain road, in the spring to take this +position when the Milwaukee opened. But I don't know much about your +cut-off; I just kept on to Ellensburg and dropped down by train from there. +The main road, though, was in pretty good shape. It's the old stage road +that used to connect with the Northern Pacific, and they had to do some +mighty heavy hauling over it while the mountain division of the Great +Northern was building up the Wenatchee. It keeps an easy grade, following +the canyons up and up till it's six thousand feet at the divide, then you +begin to drop to the Columbia. And when you leave the woods, it's like +this again, bunch grass and sage, sand and alkali, for twenty miles. Of +course there isn't a regular stage now; you have to hire." + +"Any road-houses?" asked Tisdale briefly. + +"No, but you come across a ranch once in awhile, and any of them would +take a man in over night--or a lady." + +Tisdale turned to the door. "I can find saddle-horses, I presume, at that +ranch off there through the draw. Is it the nearest?" + +"The nearest and the only one." The station master walked on with him to +the platform. "It's a new place. They are working two teams, every day and +Sunday, while daylight lasts, grubbing out the sage-brush for planting. +It's a pumping layout to bring water from the Columbia, and they are +starting with forty acres all in apples." + +"But they have saddle-horses?" said Tisdale, frowning. + +"I can't tell you that. The fellow I talked with came over for freight and +used one of the teams. Said they couldn't spare it. But that's your only +chance. I don't know of any other horses in twenty miles, unless it's a +wild band that passed this morning. They stopped down the draw, nosing out +the bunch grass for an hour or two, then skidooed." + +Tisdale paused a thoughtful moment then asked: "When is the next freight +due on this siding?" + +"Two-forty-five. And say"--he slapped his knee at the sudden thought-- +"that's your chance, sure. I have orders to hold them for the eastbound +silk train, and they'll let you ride in the caboose up to Kittitas. That's +the stop this side of Ellensburg, and there's a livery there, with a +cross-road to strike the Ellensburg-Wenatchee. But, say! If you do drop +off at Kittitas, ask Lighter to show you the colts. They are the star team +in three counties. Took the prize at North Yakima last year for +three-year-olds. They're too fly for livery work, but if you can drive, +and Lighter likes your looks"--the station master gave Tisdale a careful +scrutiny--"and you have his price, I shouldn't wonder if you could hire +Nip and Tuck." + +Tisdale laughed. "I see. If I can't hire them, I may be allowed the +privilege to buy them. But," and he looked at his watch, "there's time to +try that ranch." + +He started down the platform then stopped to look back at the girl who had +followed a few steps from the threshold. Her eyes held their expression of +uncertainty whether to sparkle or to cloud, and he read the arrested +question on her lips. "If there are any saddle-horses," he answered, "I +will have them here before that two-forty-five freight arrives, but," and +he smiled, "I am not so sure I can supply the proper riding-suit. And the +most I hope for in saddles is just a small Mexican." + +"A Mexican is easy riding," she said, "on a mountain road." But she stood +watching him, with the uncertainty still clouding her face, while he moved +down the draw. + +He wore the suit of gray corduroy it was his habit to wear in open +country, with leggings of russet leather, and he traveled very swiftly, +with a long, easy stride, though never rapidly enough to wholly escape the +dust he disturbed. Once he stopped and bent to fasten a loose strap, and +then he took off his coat, which he folded to carry. The pall of dust +enveloped him. In it his actions gathered mystery, and his big frame +loomed indistinctly like the figure of a genii in a column of smoke. The +fancy must have occurred to the watcher on the platform, for it was then +the sparkles broke in her eyes, and she said aloud, softly clapping her +hands: "I wish--I wish it to be Nip and Tuck." + +"So do I." She started and turned, and the station master smiled. "They're +beauties, you can take my word. It would be the drive of your life." + +He carried his office chair around the corner of the building to place for +her in the shade. Then his instrument called him, and for an interval she +was left alone. The desert stretched before her, limitless, in the glare +of the afternoon sun. If the Columbia flowed in that neighborhood, it was +hidden by sand dunes and decomposing cliffs of granite. There was no +glimpse of water anywhere, not a green blade; even the bunch grass, that +grew sparsely between the sage-brush through the draw, was dry and gray. +For a while no sound but the click of the telegraph disturbed the great +silence, then a hot wind came wailing out of the solitudes and passed into +a fastness of the mountains. + +Finally the station master returned. "Well," he said genially, "how are +you making it? Lonesome, I guess." + +"Oh," she exclaimed, "how can you, how could any human being, live in this +dead, worn-out world?" + +"It is desolate now," he admitted, sending a thoughtful glance over the +arid waste; "it must seem like the Great Sahara to you, coming into it for +the first time and directly from the Puget Sound country. I remember how I +felt when I struck the Hesperides. Why, it looked like the front door of +Hades to me; I said so, and I called myself all kinds of a fool. But I had +sunk an even thousand dollars in a twenty-acre tract; bought it off a real +estate map over in Seattle, without seeing the ground." He laughed, half +in embarrassment at the confession, and moved to take a more comfortable +position against the wall. "I was in a railroad office in Chicago," he +explained, "and my father expected me to work up to the responsible +position he held with the company and take it when he was through. But the +western fever caught me; I wanted to come to Washington and grow with the +country. He couldn't talk me out of it; so he gave me that thousand +dollars and told me to go and to stay till I made good." + +"Oh," she cried, "how hard! How miserable! And you?" + +"Why, I stayed. There wasn't anything else to do. And after I looked +around the valley a little and saw the Peshastin ditch and what it could +do, I got busy. I found work; did anything that turned up and saved like a +miser, until I was able to have the land cleared of sagebrush. It has mean +roots, you know, sprawling in all directions like the branches. Then I +saved to make connections with the ditch and to buy trees. I set the whole +twenty acres to apples--I always did like a good apple, and I had sized up +the few home orchards around Wenatchee--then I put in alfalfa for a +filler, and that eased things, and I settled down to office work, small +pay, lots of time to plan, and waited for my trees to grow. That was four +years ago, five since I struck the Wenatchee valley, and this season they +came into bearing. Now, at the end of this month, I am giving up my +position with the Milwaukee, cutting railroading for good, to go over and +superintend the harvesting. And say"--he stood erect, the inner glow +illumined his face--"I've had an offer for my crop; three hundred and +fifty dollars an acre for the fruit on the trees. Three hundred and fifty +dollars for a four-year-old orchard! Think of that! Seven thousand clear +for re-investment." + +"How splendid!" she said, and in that instant her face seemed to catch and +reflect his enthusiasm. "To have waited, fought like that in the face of +defeat, and to have made good." + +"And it's only the beginning," his voice caught a little; "an apple +orchard has bigger results every year after maturity. There's a man over +there on the Wenatchee who is going to make a thousand dollar profit on +each acre of his twelve-year orchard. You ought to see those trees, all +braced up with scaffolding, only fourteen acres of them, but every branch +loaded. But that orchard is an exception; they had to lift water from the +river with buckets and a wheel, and most of the pioneers put in grain. +Their eyes are just beginning to open. But think of Hesperides Vale in +another five years. And think what that High Line ditch means. Just +imagine it! Water, all you can use and running to waste; water spilling +over in this sage-brush desert. Doesn't it spell oasis? Think of it! Grass +and flowers and shade in place of this sunbaked sand and alkali." + +"It sounds like a fairy tale," she said. "I can hardly believe it." + +"I'll show you." He hurried around to the office door and came back +directly with a basket of fruit. "Here are a few samples from my trees. +Did you ever see pink like that in a bellflower? Isn't it pretty enough +for a girl's cheek? And say," he held up an exceedingly large apple, +nearer the size of a small pumpkin, "how's this for a Rome Beauty? An +agent who is selling acreage for a company down the Yakima offered me five +dollars for that apple yesterday. He wanted it for a window display over +at his Seattle office. But look at these Jonathans." His sensitive fingers +touched the fruit lingeringly with a sort of caress, and the glow deepened +in his face. "They represent the main crop. And talk about color! Did you +ever see wine and scarlet and gold blend and shade nicer than this?" + +She shook her head. "Unless it was in a Puget Sound cloud effect at +sunset. That is what it reminds me of; a handful of Puget Sound sunset." + +The station master laughed softly. "That's about it, sure. Now taste one +and tell me what the flavor of a Wenatchee Jonathan is like. No, that's +not quite ripe; try this." + +She set her small white teeth in the crimson cheek and tested the flavor +deliberately, with the gravity of an epicure, while the boy watched her, +his whole nervous frame keyed by her responsiveness to high pitch. "It's +like nothing else in the world," she said finally. "No, wait, yes, it is. +It's like condensed wine; a blend of the best; golden Angelica, red port, +amber champagne, with just enough of old-fashioned cider to remind you it +is an apple." + +The station master laughed again. "Say, but you've got it all in, fine." +He set the basket at her feet and stood looking down at her an uncertain +moment. "I would like awfully well to send you a box," he added, and the +flush of his bellflower was reflected in his cheek. + +She gave him a swift upward glance and turned her face to the desert. +"Thank you, but when one is traveling, it is hard to give a certain +address." In the pause that followed, she glanced again and smiled. "I +would like one or two of these samples, though, if you can spare them," +she compromised; "I shall be thirsty on that mountain road." + +"I can spare all you'll take." + +"Thank you," she repeated hastily. "And you may be sure I shall look for +your orchard when I reach Wenatchee. The fruit on the trees must be +beautiful." + +"It is. It's worth the drive up from Wenatchee just to see Hesperides +Vale, and that special Eden of mine is the core. You couldn't miss it; +about ten miles up and right on the river road." + +"I shall find it," she nodded brightly. "I am going that way to see a wild +tract in a certain pocket of the valley. I wonder"--she started and turned +a little to give him her direct look--"if by any possibility it could be +brought under your Peshastin ditch?" + +He shook his head. "Hardly. I wouldn't count on it. Most of those pockets +back in the benches are too high. Some of them are cut off by ridges from +one to six thousand feet. Maybe your agent will talk of pumping water from +the canal, but don't you bite. It means an expensive electric plant and +several miles of private flume. And perhaps he will show you how easy it's +going to be to tap the new High Line that's building down the Wenatchee +and on to the plateau across the Columbia thirty miles. But it's a big +proposition to finance; in places they'll have to bore through granite +cliffs; and if the day ever comes when it's finished far enough to benefit +your tract, I doubt the water would reach your upper levels. And say, what +is the use of letting him talk you into buying a roof garden when, for one +or two hundred dollars an acre, you can still get in on the ground floor?" + +She did not answer. Her eyes were turned again to the desert, and a sudden +weariness clouded her face. In that moment she seemed older, and the +strong light brought out two lines delicately traced at the corners of her +beautiful mouth that had not been apparent before. + +"But, say," the young man went on eagerly, "let me tell you a little more +about the Vale. It's sheltered in there. The mountains wall it in, and you +don't get the fierce winds off the Columbia desert. The snow never drifts; +it lies flat as a carpet all winter. And we don't have late frosts; never +have to stay up all night watching smudge pots to keep the trees warm. And +those steep slopes catch the early spring sun and cast it off like big +reflectors; things start to grow before winter is gone. And I don't know +what makes it so, but the soil on those low Wenatchee benches is a little +different from any other. It looks like the Almighty made his hot beds +there, all smooth and level, and just forgot to turn the water on. And +take a project like the Peshastin, run by a strong company with plenty of +capital; the man along the canal only has to pay his water rate, so much +an irrigated acre; nothing towards the plant, nothing for flume +construction and repairs. And, say, I don't want to bore you, I don't want +to influence you too far, but I hate to see a woman--a lady--throw her +money away right in sight of a sure proposition; even if you can't go into +improved orchards, any Hesperides investment is safe. It means at least +double the price to you within two years. I've bonded forty acres more of +wild land joining my tract, and I shall plant thirty of it in the fall. +The last ten will be cleared and reserved for speculation. The piece comes +within a stone's throw of the Great Northern's tracks. There's a siding +there now, and when the Vale comes into full bearing, they are bound to +make it a shipping station. Then I'm going to plat that strip into town +lots and put it on the market." He paused while her glance, returning from +the desert, met his in a veiled side-look, and the flush of the bellflower +again tinged his cheek. "I mean," he added, "I'd be mighty glad to let you +in." + +The blue sparkles played under her lashes. "Thank you, it sounds like +riches, but--" + +She stopped, leaving the excuse unsaid. The station master had turned his +face suddenly towards the Columbia; he was not listening to her. Then, +presently, the sound that had caught his alert ear reached her own +faintly. Somewhere out in the solitudes a train had whistled. "The +westbound freight!" she exclaimed softly. "Isn't it the westbound +freight?" + +He nodded. "She's signalling Beverley. They'll call me in a minute." And +he started around to the office door. + +She rose and followed to the corner to look for Tisdale. Midway the road +doubled a knoll and was lost, to reappear, a paler streak, on the gray +slope where the ranch house stood; and it was there, at the turn, she +first noticed a cloud of dust. It advanced rapidly, but for a while she +was not able to determine whether it enveloped a rider or a man on foot; +she was certain there was no led horse. Then a gust of wind parted the +cloud an instant, and the sparkle suffused her whole face. He was +returning as she had hoped, afoot. + +She stood watching the moving cloud; the man's bulk began to detach from +it and gathered shape. Between pauses, the click of the telegraph reached +her, then suddenly the shriek of the whistle cut the stillness. The train +must have crossed the Columbia and was winding up through the dunes. She +went along the platform and picked up her hat, which she had left on the +suitcase with her coat. While she pinned it on and tied her veil over it, +the freight signalled twice. It was so close she caught the echo of the +thundering trucks from some rocky cut. When the call sounded a third time, +it brought an answer from the silk special, far off in the direction of +Ellensburg. She lifted her coat and turned again to watch Tisdale. He had +quickened his pace, but a shade of suspense subdued the light in her face. + +Since the whistle of the special, the telegraph instrument had remained +silent, and presently she heard the station master's step behind her. +"Well," he said, "it's Nip and Tuck, sure. But say, he can sprint some. +Does it easy, too, like one of those cross-country fellows out of a +college team. I'd back him against the freight." + +"If he misses it," and the suspense crept into her voice, "I must go +without him, and I suppose I can be sure of a hotel at Ellensburg?" + +"You'll find fair accommodations at Kittitas. But he isn't going to miss +the freight, and it will be hours saved to you if Lighter lets you have +the colts." + +She lifted her coat, and he held it while she slipped her arms in the +sleeves. "I've 'most forgotten how to do this," he said; "it's so long +since I've seen a girl--or a lady. I'm afraid I've bored you a lot, but +you don't know how I've enjoyed it. It's been an epoch seeing you in this +wilderness." + +"It's been very interesting to me, I'm sure," she replied gravely. "I've +learned so much. I wonder if, should I come this way again, I would find +all this desert blossoming?" + +"I shouldn't be surprised; settlement's bound to follow a new railroad. +But say, look into Hesperides Vale while you are at Wenatchee, and if my +proposition seems good to you at one hundred dollars an acre, and that is +what I'm paying, drop me a line. My name is Bailey. Henderson Bailey, +Post-Office, Wenatchee, after the end of the month." + +He waited with expectation in his frank brown eyes, but the girl stood +obliviously watching Tisdale. He reached the platform and stopped, +breathing deep and full, while he shook the dust from his hat. "I am +sorry, madam," he said, "but their only saddle-horse pulled his rope-stake +this morning and went off with the wild herd. You will have to take this +freight back to Kittitas." + +"How disappointing!" she exclaimed. "And you were forced to tramp back +directly through this heat and dust." + +"This is the lightest soil I ever stepped on"--he glanced down over his +powdered leggings and shoes; the humor broke gently in his face--"and +there's just one kind deeper,--the Alaska tundra." + +With this he hurried by her to the office. Presently the freight whistled +the siding, and Bailey picked up the baggage and went down to make +arrangements with the trainmen. The girl followed, and when Tisdale came +back, she stood framed in the doorway of the waiting caboose, while a +brakeman dusted a chair, which he placed adroitly facing outside, so that +she might forget the unmade bunks and greasy stove. "It isn't much on +accommodations," he said conciliatingly, "but you can have it all to +yourselves; as far as you go, it's your private car." + +The other train thundered into the station and past; the freight began to +move, and Tisdale swung himself aboard. Then the station master, +remembering the apples at the last moment, ran with the basket, crowned +still by the Rome Beauty for which he had refused five dollars, and +dropped it as a parting tribute at her feet. + +"Thank you! Thank you for everything!" Her soft voice fluted back to +Bailey, and she leaned forward a little, raising her hand with a parting +salute. "Good-by!" + +Then, as she settled back in her chair, her swift side-glance swept +Tisdale. It was incredible he had removed so much dust in that brief +interval, but plainly, somewhere in that miserable station, he had found +water and towels; he had not seemed more fit that morning in the +observation car. The hand he laid on the wall as a brace against the +rocking of the light caboose was on a level with her eyes, and they rested +there. It was a strong, well-made hand, the hand of the capable +draughtsman, sensitive yet controlled, and scrupulously cared for. "I hope +I pass muster," he said, and the amusement played gently in his face, "for +I am going to venture to introduce myself. Possibly you have heard Judge +Feversham speak of me. I am Hollis Tisdale--Miss Armitage." + +In the instant he hesitated on the name, she gave him another swift upward +glance, and he caught a question in her eyes; then the sparkles rose, and +she looked off again to the point where the railroad track was lost among +the dunes. "Of course I have heard of you," she admitted. "We--Mrs. +Feversham--recognized you this morning in Snoqualmie Pass and would have +spoken to thank you for your service had you not hurried aboard your +train. She has known you by sight and has wished to meet you personally a +long time. But I--I--as you must know--I--" + +She had turned once more to give him the direct look of her unveiled eyes, +and meeting his her voice failed. The color flamed and went in her face; +then, her glance falling to the basket at her feet, she bent and took the +largest apple. "Did you ever see such a marvel?" she asked. "It came from +that station master's orchard in the Wenatchee valley. He called it a Rome +Beauty. Divide it, please; let us see if the flavor is all it promises." + +"If it is"--and Tisdale took the apple and felt in his pocket for his +knife--"the ground that grew the tree is a bonanza." He waited another +moment, watching the changing color in her face, then turned and walked to +the upper end of the caboose, where he deliberately selected a stool which +he brought forward to the door. Her confusion puzzled him. Had she been +about to confess, as he had at first conjectured, that Miss Armitage was +an incognito used to satisfy the _Press_ reporter and so avoid publicity? +It was clear she had thought better of the impulse, and he told himself, +as he took the seat beside her and opened his knife, he was to have no +more of her confidence than Jimmie Daniels. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +NIP AND TUCK + + +Bailey was right; the colts were beauties. But at the time Tisdale arrived +at the Kittitas stables, Lighter, having decided to drive them to North +Yakima, was putting the pair to a smart buggy. They were not for hire at +double or treble the usual day rate. + +"I want to sell this team," the trader repeated flatly. "I don't want to +winter 'em again, and my best chance to show 'em is now, down at the fair. +I can keep 'em in good shape, making it in two stages and resting 'em over +night on the road, and be there by noon to-morrow." + +One of the horses reared, lifting the stable-boy off his feet, and Lighter +sprang to take the bit in his powerful grasp. "Steady, Tuck, steady! Whoa, +whoa, back now, back, steady, whoa!" The animal stood, frothing a little, +his beautiful coat moist, every muscle tense. "See there, now! Ain't he +peaceable? Nothing mean under his whole hide; just wants to go. The other +one will nip your fingers once in a while, if you don't watch out, but he +don't mean anything, either; it's all in fun." + +He gave his place to the boy again and stepped back to Tisdale's side, +still watching his team, while a second stableman hurried to fasten the +traces. "The fact is," he went on, dropping his voice confidentially, +"I've got wind of a customer. He's driving through from the Sound to the +races in his machine. A friend of mine wired me. Mebbe you know him. It's +one of those Morgansteins of Seattle; the young feller. He saw these bays +last year when they took the blue ribbon and said he'd keep an eye on 'em. +They were most too fly then for crowded streets and spinning around the +boulevard 'mongst the automobiles, but they're pretty well broke now. +Steady, Nip, whoa there!" + +"But," said Tisdale quietly, "young Morganstein met with an accident this +morning in Snoqualmie Pass. An axle was broken, and he was thrown out of +his machine. His leg was injured, and he took the train back to Seattle. I +happened to be on the eastbound at the siding where it all occurred." + +Lighter gave him a skeptical glance between narrowed lids. "Then, if he +can't come himself, I guess he'll send his man. He told that friend of +mine he counted on having another look at this team." + +Tisdale's brows contracted. "See here, I want to drive to Wenatchee; what +is the best you can do for me?" + +"Why, let's see. My best livery rig is on the Wenatchee road now. One of +them High Line fellers hired the outfit with a driver to take him through +to the valley. If you'd be'n here when they started, likely they'd be'n +glad to accommodate you. And the sorrels is out with a picnic to Nanum +canyon. That leaves the roans. They come in half an hour ago. A couple of +traveling salesmen had 'em out all the forenoon, and these drummers drive +like blue blazes; and it's a mean pull through to Wenatchee. But wait till +to-morrow and, with an early start, you can make it all right with the +roans. That's the best I can do, unless you want a saddle-horse." + +Tisdale walked back to the stalls and, convinced at a glance the jaded +roans were impossible for that day, at least, stopped to look over the +saddle animals. He saw that there were two promising travelers, but it +would be necessary to impress an indifferent third to carry the baggage. +Besides, judging from all he had seen, the resources of Kittitas did not +include a ready-made lady's habit. He returned and stood another silent +moment watching the lithe, impatient bays. Finally his eyes moved to the +entrance and down the road to the railroad station where Miss Armitage was +waiting. She was seated on a bench near the door. He could distinguish her +gray figure in relief against the reddish-brown wall. + +Directly he swung around. "What is your price?" he asked. + +Lighter's hand dropped from the edge of the buggy seat. He stepped back to +the heads of his team. "You get in, Harry," he said. "Drive 'em five or +six blocks. Keep your eyes open." + +Harry gathered the reins warily and sprang in; Lighter released his hold, +then hurried forward to the driveway and stood with Tisdale watching the +team. "Ain't they a sight?" he said. + +And they were. Their coats shone like satin in the sun; they stepped +airily, spurning the dust of Kittitas, and blew the ashen powder from +their nostrils; then without warning the splendid span was away. + +Tisdale repeated: "What is your price?" + +Lighter's shrewd eyes swept his new customer over; it was as though he +made an estimate of how much Tisdale could pay. "Five hundred dollars," he +said. "Five hundred--if it's spot cash." + +"And the outfit?" + +"Let me see. Harness is practically new; buggy first-class. I'll make it +an even seven hundred for the whole business; outfit and team." + +There was a brief silence. As a rule, a man drawing the salary of the +Geological Survey does not spend seven hundred dollars lightly. He bridles +his impulses to own fine driving-horses until at least he has tried them. +And this sum, just at that time, meant something of a drain on Tisdale's +bank account. He knew if he bought the Weatherbee tract and reclaimed it, +he must hedge on his personal expenses for a year or two; he had even +talked with Banks a little about a loan to open the project and keep it +moving until the next season's clean-up, when the Aurora should make good. +He stirred, with a quick upward lift of his head, and looked once more in +the direction of the station. + +The girl rose and began to walk the platform. + +Tisdale swung back and met the trader's calculating gaze. "Where is your +bank?" he asked. + +The business was quickly transacted and, when Lighter and his customer +stepped out of the bank, Harry was there, driving the bays slowly up and +down the street. In the moment they waited for him to draw up, the trader +looked Tisdale over again. "Your easiest way to get this team over to the +Sound is to drive through Snoqualmie Pass, the way you came." + +"But," said Tisdale, knitting his brows, "I told you I wanted this team to +drive to the Wenatchee valley." + +"You can't drive on through the Cascades from there and, if you try to +ship these colts aboard a Great Northern train, you'll have trouble." + +"I shall probably leave them to winter in the valley. Unless"--Tisdale +paused, smiling at the afterthought--"I decide to sell them to young +Morganstein when I get back to Seattle." + +Lighter laughed dryly. "I thought so. I sized you up all right at the +start. I says to myself: 'He don't look like a feller to run a bluff,' and +I says: 'Young Morganstein ain't the sort to pick up any second-hand +outfit,' but I thought all along you was his man." + +"I see." The humor played softly in Tisdale's face. "I see. But you +thought wrong." + +Lighter's lids narrowed again skeptically. "Those letters you showed to +identify yourself cinched it. Why, one was signed by his brother-in-law, +Miles Feversham, and your draft was on the Seattle National where the +Morgansteins bank. But it's all right; I got my price." He nudged Tisdale +slyly and, laughing again, moved to the heads of the team. "Now, sir, +watch your chance; they're chain lightning the minute you touch the seat." + +Tisdale was ready. At last he felt the tug of the lines in his grasp, the +hot wind stung his face, and he was speeding back in the direction of the +station. The girl came to the edge of the platform as he approached, and +while the solitary man from the freight office caught the first +opportunity to store the baggage under the seat, and the second to lift in +the basket of samples from Bailey's orchard, she tied her veil more snugly +under her chin and stood measuring the team with the sparkles breaking in +her eyes. Then she gathered her skirts in one hand and laid the other +lightly on the seat. + +"Don't try to help me," she said breathlessly. "Just hold them." And the +next instant she was up beside him, and her laugh fluted in exhilaration +as they whirled away. + +Kittitas fell far behind. They were racing directly across the seven miles +of level towards a pass in a lofty range that marked the road to +Wenatchee. Far to the left lines of poplars showed where the irrigating +canals below Ellensburg watered the plain, and on the right the dunes and +bluffs of the unseen Columbia broke the horizon. But the girl was watching +Tisdale's management of the horses. "What beauties!" she exclaimed. "And +Nip and Tuck!" Her lips rippled merriment. "How well named. Wait, be-- +care--ful--they are going to take that ho-le. Oh, would you mind giving +those reins to me?" + +"I wish I could." He shook his head, while the amusement played gently at +the corners of his mouth. "I know all about a team of huskies, and it +doesn't make much difference what I have under a saddle, but these kittens +in harness are rather out of my line." + +"Then trust yourself to me; please do. I used to drive just such a pair." + +"Oh, but your hands couldn't stand this, and those gloves would be ribbons +in half an hour." + +"They are heavier than they look; besides, there are the shops at +Wenatchee!" As if this settled the matter she said: "But we must change +places. Now." She slipped into his seat as he rose, and took the reins +dexterously, with a tightening grip, in her hands. "Whoa, whoa, Nip!" Her +voice deepened a little. "Steady, Tuck, steady! That's right; be a man." +There was another silent interval while he watched her handling of the +team, then, "I did not know there could be a pair in all the world so like +Pedro and Don Jose," she said, and the exhilaration softened in her face. +"They were my ponies given me the birthday I was seventeen. A long time +ago--" she sighed and flashed him a side-glance, shaking her head--"but I +shall never forget. We lived in San Francisco, and my father and I tried +them that morning in Golden Gate park. The roads were simply perfect, and +the sea beach at low tide was like a hardwood floor. After that we drove +for the week-end to Monterey, then through the redwoods to Santa Cruz and +everywhere." She paused reminiscently. "Those California hotels are fine. +They pride themselves on their orchestras, and wherever we went, we found +friends to enjoy the dancing evenings after table d'hote. That was in the +winter, but it was more delightful in the spring. We drove far south then, +through Menlo Park and Palo Alto, where the great meadows were vivid with +alfalfa, and fields on fields were yellow with poppies or blue with +lupine; on and on into the peach and almond country. I can see those +blossoming orchards now; the air was flooded with perfume." + +Her glance moved from the horses out over the sage-covered levels, and the +contrast must have dropped like a curtain on her picture, for the light in +her face died. Tisdale's look followed the road up from the plain and +rested on the higher country; his eyes gathered their far-seeing gaze. He +had been suddenly reminded of Weatherbee. It was in those California +orchards he had spent his early life. He had known that scent of the +blossoming almond; those fields of poppies and lupine had been his +playground when he was a child. It was at the university at Palo Alto that +he had taken his engineering course; and it was at one of those gay +hotels, on a holiday and through some fellow student, he had met the woman +who had spoiled his life. + +The moment passed. One of the horses broke, and instantly the driver was +alert. And while she alternately admonished and upbraided, with a firm +manipulation of the reins, the humor began to play again in Tisdale's +face. They were approaching the point where the road met the highway from +Ellensburg, and in the irrigated sections that began to divide the +unreclaimed land, harvesters were reaping and binding; from a farther +field came the noise of a threshing machine; presently, as the bays turned +into the thoroughfare, the way was blocked by a great flock of sheep. + +"Oh," she exclaimed, "there must be thousands of them; how can the ones in +the center breathe? Whoa, Nip, whoa now! Do you think you are one of those +lambs? And there's no chance to go around; it is fenced with barbed wire +on both sides; we simply must drive through, No, let me, please. Steady, +now, Tuck, steady, whoa." + +They had passed the mounted herders, and the colts broke their way +playfully, dancing, curveting with bowing necks, into the midst of the +flock. Soon the figures of the advance shepherds loomed through the dust. +They were turning the sheep into a harvested field. They rolled in over +the yellow stubble like a foaming sea. Far away, outlined like a sail +against an island rick, the night tent of these nomads was already +pitched. + +Tisdale laughed softly. "Well, madam, that was skilful piloting. A bidarka +couldn't have been safer riding in a skiddery sea." + +"A bidarka?" she questioned, ruffling her brows. + +Tisdale nodded. "One of those small skin canoes the Alaskan natives use. +And it's touchy as a duck; comes bobbing up here and there, but right-side +up every time. And it's frail looking, frail as an eggshell, yet I would +stake a bidarka against a lifeboat in a surf. Do you know?"--he went on +after a moment--"I would like to see you in one, racing out with the +whitecaps up there in Bering Sea; your face all wet with spray, and your +hair tucked away in the hood of a gray fox parka. Nothing else would show; +the rest of you would be stowed below in a wonderful little water-tight +compartment." + +"It sounds delightful," she said, and the sparkles broke in her eyes. + +After that there was a long silence. The bays fell into an even trot. The +mountains loomed near, then before them, on the limits of the plain, a +mighty herd of cattle closed the road. The girl rose a little in her place +and looked over that moving sea of backs. "We must drive through again," +she said. "It's going to be stifling but there's no possible way around. +No," she protested, when he would have taken the reins, "I'm able. I +learned once, years ago, on a great ranch in southern California. I'd +rather." She settled in her seat smiling a little. "It's in the blood." + +Tisdale reached and took the whip. They had passed the drivers and were +pushing into the herd. Sometimes a red-eyed brute turned with lowered +horns and dripping mouth, then backed slowly out of the way of the team. +Sometimes, in a thicker press, an animal wheeled close to the tires and, +stemming the current, sounded a protest. But the young horses, less +playful now, divided the great herd and came at last safely out of the +smother. The road began to lift, as they rounded the first rampart of the +range, and Tisdale's glance fell to her hands. "Those gloves are done for, +as I expected," he exclaimed. "I'll wager your palms are blistered. Come, +own they hurt." + +She nodded. "But it was worth it, though you may drive now, if you wish. +It's my wrists; they have been so long out of practice. You don't know how +they a--che." + +"So," he said, when he had taken the reins, "so you are as fond of horses +as this." + +"Horses like these, yes. I haven't felt as happy and young since I gave up +Pedro and Don Jose." + +Tisdale turned a little to look in her face. She had said "young" with the +tone of one whose youth is past, yet the most conservative judge could not +place her age a day over twenty-five. And she was so buoyant, so vibrant. +His pulses quickened. It was as though currents of her vitality were being +continually transmitted through his veins. + +As they ascended, the plain unfolded like a map below; harvest fields, +pastures of feeding cattle or sheep, meadows of alfalfa, unreclaimed +reaches of sage-brush, and, far off among her shade-trees, the roofs of +Ellensburg reflecting the late sun. Above the opposite range that hemmed +the valley southward some thunder-heads crowded fast towards a loftier +snow-peak. Far away across the divide, white, symmetrical, wrought of +alabaster, inlaid with opal, lifted a peerless dome. + +"Mount Rainier!" exclaimed Tisdale. + +"I knew it." Her voice vibrated softly. "Even at this distance I knew. It +was like seeing unexpectedly, in an unfamiliar country, the head of a +noble friend lifting above the crowd." + +Tisdale's glance returned to her face. Surprise and understanding shone +softly in his own. She turned, and met the look with a smile. It was then, +for the first time, he discovered unsounded depths through the subdued +lights of her eyes. "You must have known old Rainier intimately," he said. + +She shook her head. "Not nearer than Puget Sound. But I have a marvelous +view from my hotel windows in Seattle, and often in long summer twilights +from the deck of Mr. Morganstein's yacht, I've watched the changing Alpine +glow on the mountain. I always draw my south curtains first, at Vivian +Court, to see whether the dome is clear or promises a wet day. I've +learned a mountain, surely as a person, has individuality; every cloud +effect is to me a different mood, and sometimes, when I've been most +unhappy or hard-pressed, the sight of Rainier rising so serene, so pure, +so high above the fretting clouds, has given me new courage. Can you +understand that, Mr. Tisdale? How a mountain can become an influence, an +inspiration, in a life?" + +"I think so, yes." Tisdale paused, then added quietly: "But I would like +to be the first to show you old Rainier at close range." + +At this she moved a little; he felt the invisible barrier stiffen between +them. "Mr. Morganstein promised to motor us through to the National Park +Inn when the new Government road was finished, but we've been waiting for +the heavy summer travel to be over. It has been like the road to Mecca +since the foot of the mountain has been accessible." + +There was a silence, during which Tisdale watched the pulling team. Her +manner of reminding him of his position was unmistakable, but it was her +frequent reference to young Morganstein that began to nettle him. Why +should she wish specially to motor to Rainier with that black-browed, +querulous nabob? Why had she so often sailed on his yacht? And why should +she ever have been unhappy and hard-pressed, as she had confessed? She who +was so clearly created for happiness. But to Tisdale her camaraderie with +Nature was charming. It was so very rare. A few of the women he had known +hitherto had been capable of it, but they had lived rugged lives; the +wilderness gave them little else. And of all the men whom he had made his +friends through an eventful career, there was only Foster who sometimes +felt the magnitude of high places,--and there had been David Weatherbee. +At this thought of Weatherbee his brows clouded, and that last letter, the +one that had reached him at Nome and which he still carried in his breast +pocket, seemed suddenly to gather a vital quality. It was as though it +cried out: "I can't stand these everlasting ice peaks, Hollis; they crowd +me so." + +Miss Armitage sat obliviously looking off once more across the valley. The +thunder-heads, denser now and driving in legions along the opposite +heights, stormed over the snow peak and assailed the far, shining dome. + +"Oh," she exclaimed, "see Rainier now! That blackest cloud is lifting over +the summit. Rain is streaming from it like a veil of gauze; but the dome +still shines through like a transfigured face!" + +Tisdale's glance rested a moment on the wonder. His face cleared. "If we +were on the other side of the Cascades," he said, "that weather-cap would +mean a storm before many hours; but here, in this country of little rain, +I presume it is only a threat." + +The bays began to round a curve and presently Rainier, the lesser heights, +all the valley of Kittitas, closed from sight. They had reached the timber +belt; poplars threaded the parks of pine, and young growths of fir, like +the stiff groves of a toy village, gathered hold on the sharp mountain +slopes. Sometimes the voice of a creek, hurrying down the canyon to join +the Yakima, broke the stillness, or a desert wind found its way in and +went wailing up the water-course. And sometimes in a rocky place, the +hoof-beats of the horses, the noise of the wheels, struck an echo from +spur to spur. Then Tisdale commenced to whistle cautiously, in fragments +at first, with his glance on the playing ears of the colts, until +satisfied they rather liked it, he settled into a definite tune, but with +the flutelike intonations of one who loves and is accustomed to make his +own melody. + +He knew that this woman beside him, since they had left the civilization +of the valley behind, half repented her adventure. He felt the barrier +strengthen to a wall, over which, uncertain, a little afraid, she watched +him. At last, having finished the tune, he turned and surprised the covert +look from under her curling black lashes. + +"I hope," he said, and the amusement broke softly in his face, "all this +appraisal is showing a little to my credit." + +The color flamed pinkly in her face. She looked away. "I was wondering if +you blamed me. I've been so unconservative--so--so--even daring. Is it not +true?" + +"No, Miss Armitage, I understand how you had to decide, in a moment, to +take that eastbound train in Snoqualmie Pass, and that you believed it +would be possible to motor or stage across to Wenatchee from the Milwaukee +road." + +"Yes, but," she persisted, "you think, having learned my mistake, I should +have stayed on the freight train as far as Ellensburg, where I could have +waited for the next passenger back to Seattle." + +"If you had, you would have disappointed me. That would have completely +spoiled my estimate of you." + +"Your estimate of me?" she questioned. + +"Yes." He paused and his glance moved slowly, a little absently, up the +unfolding gorge. "It's a fancy of mine to compare a woman, on sight, with +some kind of flower. It may be a lily or a rose or perhaps it's a +flaunting tulip. Once, up in the heart of the Alaska forest, it was just a +sweet wood anemone." He paused again, looking off through the trees, and a +hint of tenderness touched his mouth. "For instance," he went on, and his +voice quickened, "there is your friend, Mrs. Feversham. I never have met +her, but I've seen her a good many times, and she always reminds me of one +of those rich, dark roses florists call Black Prince. And there's her +sister, who makes me think of a fine, creamy hyacinth; the sturdy sort, +able to stand on its own stem without a prop. And they are exotics, both +of them; their personality, wherever they are, has the effect of a strong +perfume." + +He paused again, so long that this time his listener ventured to prompt +him. "And I?" she asked. + +"You?" He turned, and the color flushed through his tan. "Why, you are +like nothing in the world but a certain Alaska violet I once stumbled on. +It was out of season, on a bleak mountainside, where, at the close of a +miserable day, I was forced to make camp. A little thing stimulates a man +sometimes, and the sight of that flower blooming there when violet time +was gone, lifting its head next to a snow-field, nodding so pluckily, +holding its own against the bitter wind, buoyed me through a desperate +hour." + +She turned her face to look down through the treetops at the complaining +stream. Presently she said: "That is better than an estimate; it is a +tribute. I wish I might hope to live up to it, but sooner or later," and +the vibration played softly in her voice, "I am going to disappoint you." + +Tisdale laughed, shaking his head. "My first impressions are the ones that +count," he said simply. "But do you want to turn back now?" + +"N--o, unless you--do." + +Tisdale laughed again mellowly. "Then it's all right. We are going to see +this trip through. But I wish I could show you that Alaska mountainside in +midsummer. Imagine violets on violets, thousands of them, springing +everywhere in the vivid new grass. You can't avoid crushing some, no +matter how carefully you pick your steps. There's a rocky seat half-way up +on a level spur, where you might rest, and I would fill your lap with +those violets, big, long-stemmed ones, till the blue lights danced in your +eyes." + +They were doing that now, and her laugh fluted softly through the wood. +For that moment the barrier between them lost substance; it became the +sheerest tissue, a curtain of gauze. Then the aloofness for which he +waited settled on her. She looked away, her glance again seeking the +stream. "I can't imagine anything more delightful," she said. + +A rough and steep breadth of road opened before them, and for a while the +bays held his attention, then in a better stretch, he felt her swift +side-glance again reading his face. "Do you know," she said, "you are not +at all the kind of man I was led to expect." + +"No?" He turned interestedly, with the amusement shading the corners of +his mouth. "What did you hear?" + +"Why, I heard that you were the hardest man in the world to know; the most +elusive, shyest." + +Tisdale's laugh rang, a low note from the depths of his mellow heart. "And +you believed that?" + +She nodded, and he caught the blue sparkles under her drooping lids. "You +know how Mrs. Feversham has tried her best to know you; how she sent you +invitations repeatedly to dinner or for an evening at Juneau, Valdez, +Fairbanks, and you invariably made some excuse." + +"Oh, but that's easily explained. Summers, when she timed her visits to +Alaska, I was busy getting my party into the field. The working season up +there is short." + +"But winters, at Seattle and in Washington even, it has been the same." + +"Winters, why, winters, I have my geological reports to get in shape for +the printer; interminable proofs to go over; and there are so many +necessary people to meet in connection with my work. Then, too, if the +season has been spent in opening country of special interest, I like to +prepare a paper for the geographical society; that keeps me in touch with +old friends." + +"Old friends," she repeated after a moment. "Do you know it was one of +them, or rather one of your closest friends, who encouraged my delusion in +regard to you?" + +"No, how was it?" + +"Why, he said you were the hardest man in the world to turn, a man of iron +when once you made up your mind, but that Mrs. Feversham was right; you +were shy. He had known you to go miles around, on occasion, to avoid a +town, just to escape meeting a woman. And he told us--of course I can +repeat it since it is so ridiculously untrue--that it was easier to bridle +a trapped moose than to lead you to a ballroom; but that once there, no +doubt you would gentle fine." + +She leaned back in her seat, laughing softly, though it was obviously a +joke at her own expense as well as Tisdale's. "And I believed it," she +added. "I believed it--every word." + +Tisdale laughed too, a deep undernote. "That sounds like Billy Foster. I +wager it was Foster. Was it?" he asked. + +She nodded affirmatively. + +"Then Foster has met you." Tisdale's voice rang a little. "He knows you, +after all." + +"Yes, he could hardly help knowing me. His business interests are with my +closest friends, the Morgansteins; they think a great deal of him. And he +happens to play a remarkably good hand at bridge; we always depend on him +to make up a table when he is in town." + +Tisdale's eyes rested a thoughtful moment on the road ahead. Strange +Foster never had mentioned her. But that showed how blind, how completely +infatuated with the Spanish woman the boy was. His face set austerely. +Then suddenly he started; his grasp tightened on the reins so that the +colts sprang to the sharp grade. "Do you happen to know that enchantress, +too?" he asked. + +"Whom?" questioned Miss Armitage. + +"I mean Mrs. Weatherbee. I believe she counts the Morgansteins among her +friends, and you said you were staying at Vivian Court, where her +apartments are." + +"Oh, yes, I know--her. I"--the color flamed and went in her face; her +glance fell once more to the steep slope, searching out the narrowing +stream through the trees. "I--'ve known Beatriz Weatherbee all my life. +I--I think a great deal of her." + +"Madam, madam!" Tisdale protested, "don't tell me that. You have known +her, lived near her, perhaps, in California, those years when you were +growing up; shared the intimacies young girls enjoy. I understand all +that, but don't say you care anything for her now." + +Miss Armitage lifted her face. Her eyes did not sparkle then; they flamed. +"Why shouldn't I, Mr. Tisdale? And who are you to disparage Beatriz +Weatherbee? You never have known her. What right have you to condemn her?" + +"This right, Miss Armitage; she destroyed David Weatherbee. And I know +what a life was lost, what a man was sacrificed." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A NIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN ROAD + + +They drove on for a long interval in silence. The colts, sobered by the +sharp pull to the divide, kept an even pace now that they had struck the +down-grade, and Tisdale's gaze, hard still, uncompromising, remained fixed +absently on the winding road. Once, when the woman beside him ventured to +look in his face, she drew herself a little more erect and aloof. She must +have seen the futility of her effort to defend her friend, and the fire +that had flashed in her eyes had as quickly died. It was as though she +felt the iron out-cropping in this man and shrank from him baffled, almost +afraid. Yet she held her head high, and the delicate lines, etched again +at the corners of her mouth, gave it a saving touch of decision or +fortitude. + +But suddenly Hollis drew the horses in. Miss Armitage caught a great +breath. The way was blocked by a fallen pine tree, which, toppling from +the bluff they were skirting, had carried down a strip of the road and +started an incipient slide. "We can't drive around," he said at last, and +the humor broke the grim lines of his mouth. "We've got to go through." + +She looked hastily back along the curve, then ahead down the steep +mountainside. "We never could turn in this pla--ace, but it isn't possible +to drive through. Fate is against us." + +"Why, I think Fate favored us. She built this barricade, but she left us +an open door. I must unhitch, though, to get these kittens through." + +As he spoke he put the reins in her hands and, springing out, felt under +the seat for the halters. The girl's glance moved swiftly along the +tilting pine, searching for that door. The top of the tree, with its +debris of branches, rested prone on the slope below the road; but the +trunk was supported by a shoulder of the bluff on which it had stood. This +left a low and narrow portal under the clean bole between the first thick +bough and the wall. "But the buggy!" she exclaimed. + +"That's the trouble." Tisdale found one halter as he spoke and reached for +the other. "It is getting this trap over that will take time. But I pledge +myself to see you through these mountains before dark; and when we strike +the levels of the Columbia, these colts are going to make their record." + +"You mean we can't hope to reach Wenatchee before dark?" Her voice shook +a little. "And there isn't a house in sight--anywhere. Mr. Tisdale, we +haven't even seen another traveler on this road." + +"Well, this is luck!" He was drawing a coil of new rope from under the +seat. "This is luck! Lighter must have meant to picket his horses. Did I +tell you he was starting to drive these bays through to the fair at North +Yakima? And here is a hatchet--he expected to cut fire-wood--and this +looks like his lunch-box. Yes,"--and he lifted the lid to glance in--"here +are biscuits, sliced ham, all we need. Lighter must have intended to spend +a night on the road. And here is that second hitching-strap. Now, we are +all right: the outfit is complete." + +He took the precaution to tie one of the horses before he commenced to +unfasten the traces, and he worked swiftly, dexterously, while the girl +watched him, directing him sometimes from her seat in the buggy. Presently +he lifted the remaining strap, but before he could snap the hook in the +ring, the colt's ears flattened back, and he gripped Tisdale's hand. +Instantly Miss Armitage snatched the whip and was on her feet. "Whoa, +Nip," she cried, and cut the vixen lightly between the ears. "Whoa, now, +whoa!" + +The young horse released his hold and broke forward, with Hollis dragging +at the bit. He ducked with the colt under the barrier and, keeping his +feet with difficulty, ran hugging the bluff. Rocks, slipping beneath the +bay's incautious hoofs, rattled down the steep slope. Finally mastered by +that tugging weight, he settled to an unstable pace and so passed the +break in the road. + +Miss Armitage had left the buggy. She followed to the opening and stood +watching Tisdale until, unable to find a safe hitching-place, he turned +another bend. The remaining horse pulled at his halter and neighed shrilly +for his mate. She went to him. After a moment she untied him and led him +through the passage. He followed easily, crowding her sometimes, yet +choosing his steps with the caution of a superior animal in a hard +situation. Midway over the break in the road, where it was narrowest, he +halted with a forefoot on a perilous table of granite, feeling, testing +its stability. "That's right, be careful," she admonished, allowing the +strap to slacken while she, herself, balanced her weight on the rocking +slab. "But it is safe enough--you see. Now, now, Tuck, come on." + +But as she started on, Tisdale reappeared at the curve and, waving her +hand to reassure him, she took an incautious step. The slab, relieved +suddenly of her weight, tilted back and at the same instant caught on its +lowered edge the weight of the following horse. He backed off, jerking the +halter taut, but she kept her hold, springing again to the surface of the +rock. Loose splinters of granite began to clatter down the slope; then, in +the moment she paused to gather her equilibrium, she felt Tisdale's arm +reaching around to take the strap. "Creep by me," he said quietly. "No, +between me and the bluff, sidewise; there's room." She gained safe ground +and stood waiting while he brought the bay across. A last rain of rock +struck an answering echo through the gorge. + +"What made you?" he asked. "You knew I would hurry back. What made you? +handicapped, too, by those skirts and abominable heels." + +"I saw you were hurt--the vixen meant to hurt--and I knew I could manage +Tuck. I--I thought you might need me." + +Her breath was coming hard and quick; her eyes were big and shadowy and, +looking into their depths, the light began to play softly in his own. "You +thought right," he said. "I am going to." + +He turned to lead the horse around to the cleft where he had left his +mate. Miss Armitage followed. She regarded his broad back, pursing her +lips a little and ruffling her brows. "It is only a bruise," he said +presently over his shoulder, "and it served me right. Lighter warned me of +that trick." + +Nevertheless the handkerchief with which he had wrapped the bruise was +showing a red stain, and past the break in the road he changed the halter +to his left hand. The hitching-place he had chosen was in a cleft formed +by a divided spur of the mountain. It was roofed by the boughs of two +pines, and the boles of the trees offered secure hold. She seated herself +on a boulder, set benchwise against the rocky wall, and watched him +critically while he tied the second horse. + +"How pleasant," she said intrepidly; "it is like coming unexpectedly into +a room ready furnished in brown and green." + +Tisdale turned. "I could make you comfortable in this pocket, if it came +to that," he said. "It's sheltered and level as a floor, and I could make +you a bed, springy and fragrant, of boughs; the camp-fire would close the +door. And you needn't go hungry with Lighter's lunch and your apples; or +thirsty with my drinking-cup to fill down there at the stream." + +Even before he finished speaking her brows arched in protest, and he felt +the invisible barrier stiffen hard as a wall. "We really must hurry, Mr. +Tisdale," she said, rising. "Though it may be impossible to reach +Wenatchee to-night, we must find some sort of house. And where there is a +house, there must be housekeeping and"--her voice wavered--"a woman." + +"Of course," he answered. "And we have at least two hours of daylight +left. Don't worry; I am going now to hurry that carriage around." + +He had said "of course," but while he went back to the buggy, his mind +reviewed the sordid shelters he had found in just such solitudes, where a +woman's housekeeping was the exception. Men in communities employed camp +cooks, but most prospectors, ranchers, and cattlemen depended on +themselves. There had been times when he himself had been forced to make +bread. He had learned that first winter he had spent in Alaska with +Weatherbee. At the thought of that experimental mixture, he smiled grimly. +Then, suddenly, he imagined this gently nurtured woman confronted by a +night in such a shack as they had occupied. He saw her waiting expectantly +for that impossible chaperon; and, grasping the situation, struggling +pluckily to cover her amazement and dismay; he saw himself and Weatherbee +nerving each other to offer her that miserable fare. He hoped they would +find a housekeeper at the first house on that mountain road, but that +lunch of Lighter's gave him a sense of security, like a reserve fund, +inadequate, yet something against imminent panic. + +Miss Armitage did not return to her seat when he was gone. She fell to +pacing the level; to the upper spur and back; to the lower wall and +return; then, finally, it was a few yards further to the bend, to discover +what progress Tisdale had made. The buggy was not yet in sight, but the +new rope stretched diagonally from beyond the breach in the road to a +standing tree on the bluff above her, and he was at work with the hatchet, +cutting away an upright bough on the fallen pine. Other broken limbs, +gathered from the debris, were piled along the slide to build up the edge. +When his branch dropped, he sprang down and dragged it lengthwise to +reinforce the rest. Presently he was on the log again, reaching now for +the buggy tongue, he set his knee as a brace on the stump of the limb, +his muscular body bent, lifted, strained. Then the front wheels rolled up +across the bole; he slipped to the ground and grasped the outer one, +steadying it down. After a moment, when he had taken in the slack of the +line, the remaining tires slowly followed, and he began to ease the +vehicle along the patched roadway. The rain of rock was renewed; fragments +of granite shifted under the bulkhead of boughs; the buggy heeled lower, +lower; then, at the final angle, began to right while the rope strung +taut. The narrowest point was passed, and Tisdale stopped a breathing +space. + +It was characteristic of the man to see the humor of the situation in that +moment while he stood wiping the perspiration from his face. Jove, how +Foster would enjoy seeing him labor like this for a girl. He imagined the +boy sitting up there at some coign of vantage on the bluff, admonishing, +advising him dryly, while he laughed in his sleeve. It was undeniably +funny. Alone, with one of Lighter's saddle-horses under him, his baggage +secured behind the saddle, he might have been threading the dunes of the +Columbia now. This incipient slide need not have caused him ten minutes' +delay, and eight, nine o'clock at the latest, would have found him putting +up for the night at the hotel in Wenatchee. But here he was hardly over +the divide; it was almost sunset, but he was dragging a buggy by hand +around a mountain top. He hoped Foster never would find out what he had +paid for these bays--the team of huskies that had carried him the long +trek from Nome to the Aurora mine and on through Rainy Pass had cost less. +Still, under the circumstances, would not Foster himself have done the +same? She was no ordinary woman; she was more than pretty, more than +attractive; there was no woman like her in all the world. To travel this +little journey with her, listen to her, watch her charms unfold, was worth +the price. And if it had fallen to Foster, if he were here now to feel the +spell of her, that Spanish woman would lose her hold. Then he remembered +that Foster knew her; she had admitted that. It was inconceivable, but he +had known her at the time he confessed his infatuation for Weatherbee's +wife. The amusement went out of Tisdale's face. He bent, frowning, to free +the buggy of the rope. + +It was then Miss Armitage, exhilarated at his success, hurried forward +from the bend. "Oh," she cried radiantly, "how resourceful, how strong you +are. It looked simply impossible; I couldn't guess what you meant to do, +and now we have only to hitch the team and drive on to Wenatchee. But," +she added gravely and shook her head, "it was defying Fate." + +He turned, regarding her from under still cloudy brows, though the genial +lines began to deepen anew. "I told you Fate was on our side. She threw +those boughs there in easy reach. She might as well have said: 'There's +some lumber I cut for you; now mend your road.'" + +"Perhaps, well, perhaps," the girl laughed softly. "But if Fate had said +that to any other man, at least to any man I know, he would not have +heard." + +But the Columbia was still far off when darkness closed, and with sunset +the thunder-heads they had watched across the Kittitas Valley gathered +behind them. It was as though armies encamped on the heights they had +left, waiting for night to pass. Then searchlights began to play on the +lower country; there was skirmishing along the skyline; blades flashed. + +At last, between the lightning flashes, the blackness was so dense it was +hardly possible for Tisdale to see the road, and he could not trust the +nervous team to keep the track; it was necessary to stop, at least to wait +until the moon should rise. But while he was preparing to tell her so, the +silence was broken by the barking of a dog. Instantly it was swelled by a +deeper baying, and the echo rang a continuous clamor through the gorge. +Then a faint illumination brought out in silhouette a final bluff ahead; +rounding it, they saw a low-roofed habitation, and in the open door a +woman with a lamp. + +One of the dogs stood bristling and growling beside her; the other, +barking furiously, sprang from the porch so that for a moment Tisdale was +busy with the plunging team. Then the woman spoke, and the setter, +whimpering, snapping furtively, crept back to her feet. + +"We have been delayed by an accident," Tisdale explained briefly, "and I +want you to take this lady in for the night. Make her comfortable as +possible, and I will see it is worth your while." + +"This ain't much of a road-house." The woman held the lamp higher to +scrutinize the lady's face. "We only got one room, an' the best I can do +is to double up with the kids an' give you my bed." + +"That will do very well," answered Tisdale quickly. "I can take care of +myself. Of course there's a stable somewhere out here in the dark, and a +bale or two of hay." + +"No, we got a shed up, but we're short on feed. We're short on 'bout +everything: flour, potatoes, bacon, beans. We've just took up this here +claim, an' things ain't growed. But my man's gone down to Wenatchee to +fetch a load." Then, seeing this fact was hardly one to solace her +transient guests, she laughed shortly and went into the cabin to set the +lamp on a table and bring a lantern that hung on the farther wall. + +Tisdale turned to help Miss Armitage down. "We may be able to find better +accommodations towards the Columbia, when the moon rises," he said, "but I +can't be as sure of another--chaperon." Then, looking into her face, he +added in his minor key: "I am sorry, but you will make the best of things, +I know. And the night will pass. Come." + +She slipped down beside him and stood holding her skirts out of the +powdery soil, while her wide eyes searched that interior through the open +door. Tisdale lifted the baggage from the buggy to the porch, then the +woman returned with the lantern and, followed by the dogs, went to show +him where he might stable the horses. After a moment Miss Armitage +ventured up the low steps to the threshold. It was a portable cabin such +as she had noticed from the train window at intervals where construction +was incomplete along the new railroad. It was battered and weak, showing +old earmarks of transportation, but it was furnished with a rusty +cook-stove, some bench chairs, and two beds, which stood in the farther +corners and nearly filled that half of the room. A few heavy dishes, the +part of a loaf of bread, and several slices of indifferently fried bacon +were on the table, between the lamp and a bucket containing a little +water. Presently, still holding her skirts, she crossed the grimy floor +and stood inspecting with a mingled fascination and dread those ancient +beds. Both were destitute of linen, but one was supplied with a tumbled +heap of coarse, brown blankets. In the other, beneath a frayed comforter, +two small boys were sleeping. Their sun-baked faces were overhung with +thatches of streaked blond hair, and one restless arm, throwing off the +sodden cover, partly exposed the child's day attire, an unclean denim +blouse tucked into overalls. She turned in sudden panic and hurried back +to the porch. + +In a little while she noticed her suitcase, opened it, and found her +cologne; with this she drenched a fresh handkerchief and began to bathe +her face and hands. Then she drew one of the bench chairs through the +doorway and, seating herself with her back to the room, kept on dabbing +her lips and her cheeks with the cool, delicately pungent perfume, and so +gathered up the remnants of her scattered fortitude. Finally, when the +lantern glimmered again, and she was able to distinguish the two returning +figures, she had laid aside her hat and coat, and she was ready to smile, +if not radiantly at least encouragingly, at Tisdale as he came up the +steps. + +The woman went in to shake out and spread the blankets with a pretence at +making the bed, and he followed to the threshold, where he took a swift +and closer inventory of the room. Its resources were even more meager than +he had supposed. He swung around and looked up through the darkness +towards that sheltered cleft they had left near the Pass. He did not say +anything, but the girl watching him answered his thought. "I wish it had +been possible. It would have been delightful--the ground was like a +carpet, clean and soft and fragrant--under those pines." + +"I wish we had even had the forethought to bring down an armful of those +boughs. But, after all, it might have been worse. At least you need not go +hungry, with that lunch of Lighter's and your apples, to say nothing of +the sandwiches I asked the steward to make before I left the train. And +to-morrow, when you are safe with your friends at Wenatchee, you are going +to forget this miserable experience like an unpleasant dream." + +"I am not ungrateful," she said quickly. "I enjoyed every moment of that +drive. And besides the apples, I have tea. I always tuck a little in my +suitcase when we are touring with Mrs. Feversham, because she uses a +different blend." + +She bent as she spoke, to find the tea, which she produced together with a +small kettle and alcohol burner. Her evident desire to contribute her +share, the fine show of courage that accepted and made the best of the +inevitable, went straight to Tisdale's heart. "Tea," he repeated mellowly, +"tea and all the outfit. Well, that was mighty thoughtful of you. I won't +even have to make a fire. But wait a minute; I am going to lift that table +out here where it is cooler." + +With two seats, there was barely room for it on the porch. Then, while he +filled the kettle and lighted the burner, she spread the cloth, a fine +damask towel supplied also from her baggage. On the whole it was a rather +gay little supper and, considering the limitations of the menu, it bridged +a long interval. Tisdale, who had been accustomed to drink tea black and +bitter on a hard trail, but habitually refused it socially, tasted his cup +with deliberation. "Miss Armitage," he exclaimed, "you can't delude me. +Whatever this beverage may be, I am sure it is no ordinary tea." + +She was pouring a second cup when his glance fell from her face to her +hands. They were delicately made, artistic, with wilful little thumbs, yet +they impressed him with a certain resourcefulness, a strength in reserve. +Suddenly the light from the lantern which he had hung on a nail in the +wall above the table, struck an exceedingly large ruby she wore on her +left hand. It glowed blood-red, scintillated, flamed. He saw the stone was +mounted with diamonds in a unique setting of some foreign workmanship, and +he told himself it was probably an heirloom; it was too massive, too +ornate for a betrothal ring; still he moved uneasily and set the cup down +untasted. His eyes returned to her face, questioning, doubting. He was +like a musician surprised to detect in a beautiful symphony the first +false note. + +After that the conversation lagged. It was not cool on the porch. A +broadside of lightning sweeping the cabin showed it stood in a narrow +valley walled by precipitous, barren slopes and widening gulfwise towards +the Columbia desert. The pent air seemed surcharged. It was as though that +table was set in a space between running dynamos, and when a stronger +flash came, Miss Armitage instinctively grasped her chair, holding herself +from contact with an unseen and terrible force. Once, during an interlude, +the silence was broken by a strange, faint cry. + +"Did you hear?" she asked breathlessly. "What was it?" + +Tisdale smiled into her troubled eyes. "Why, just a cougar; lonesome, I +guess, and calling his mate. But it's all right. Sounds carry in these +mountain gorges, and his cry was picked up by some cross wind miles from +here. Look at those dogs! They wouldn't stay curled up there on the ground +asleep, too indifferent to prick up an ear, if a cougar, or even a coyote, +were near." + +Still she was not wholly reassured. She leaned forward, listening, trying +to fathom the darkness with a lurking terror in her eyes. At last, when +Tisdale rose to say good night, she, too, left her chair. She laid her +hand on the edge of the table as though that might steady her voice. "Are +you going to the stable?" she asked. "Did you find a possible bed?" + +Hollis laughed. "You needn't trouble about me. I am the sort of fellow to +find the soft side of a plank. Yes, it's true. There have been times when +I've slept luxuriously on a board, with just my coat rolled up for a +pillow." + +There was a brief pause while her imagination grasped the thought; then: +"You must have been very tired," she said. + +"I was," he answered dryly and reached to take the lantern from the wall. +At the foot of the steps he halted and put the light down to pick up his +bag, which he opened. "Here's a bunch of my handkerchiefs," he said. "They +are bigger than yours. They should make you at least a pillow-case. Good +night." + +The setter rose to follow inquiringly at his heels; the lantern swung +gently to his tread and, as his shape disappeared in the gloom, his +whistle, sweet, soft, almost tender, fluted back to her. It was the "Good +night" from the opera of _Martha_. And Miss Armitage smiled in the face of +Fear and turned resolutely to go in. + +But the next moment she was back again over the threshold. "Mr. Tisdale!" +she called, and the currents held so long in check surged in her voice. +"Mr. Tisdale!" + +Instantly the lantern swung an arc. He came quickly back to the steps. +"Well," he said, breaking the pause, "what is the trouble?" + +"I know I must seem foolish--but--please don't go--yet." Her position on +the edge of the porch brought her face almost on a level with his. Her +eyes in the semi-darkness were luminously big; her face, her whole body +quivered. She leaned a little towards him, and her nearness, the low, +vibrant intensity of her voice, set his pulses singing. + +"I really can't stay in that room," she explained. "Those beds all but +touch, and she, the mother, has crowded in, dressed as she is, to sleep +with the children. There isn't any air to breathe. I--I really can't make +myself lie down--there. I had rather spend the night here on the piazza. +Only--please wait--until--" + +Tisdale laughed his short, mellow note. "You mean you are afraid of the +dark, or is it the cougar?" + +"It's both and the lightning, too. There! See how it plays along those +awful heights; javelins of it; whole broadsides. I know it is foolish, but +I can't help feeling it is following me. It singles me out, threatens me +as though I am--guilty." + +"Guilty? You? Of what?" Tisdale put down the lantern and came up the +steps. "See here, Miss Armitage, come take your chair." He moved it around +from the table and laid his hand on her arm, impelling her into the seat. +"Now face it out. Those flashes of heat lightning are about as dangerous +as the Aurora Borealis. You ought to know that." + +Then, because the personal contact had set his blood racing, he moved away +to the edge of the porch and stood frowning off up the gorge. He knew she +covered her face with her hands; he believed she was crying, and he +desired beyond all reason to take her to his heart and quiet her. He only +said: "But I understand. I have seen strong men just as foolish before an +electrical storm, and the bravest woman I ever knew lost her grip one +still morning just from solitude." + +There was another silence, then suddenly she lifted her head. "I am +sorry," she said, "but it is all over. I shall try my best not to annoy +you any more." + +"Annoy me? Why, you haven't. What makes you think that?" Tisdale turned, +and the mellowness stole into his voice. "I didn't expect you to creep in +and go to sleep tranquilly alongside that bunch of sage." + +At this she smiled. "You have found a flower to fit even her." + +"I never made a misfit--yet," he answered and waited, looking into her +face, reading her through. + +"But you have doubts," she supplemented, "and I warned you I should +disappoint you. I warned you at the start." + +Tisdale laughed again, softly. "The odds were all against that Alaska +violet," he said, "but she weathered it through." And seating himself on +the steps, he looked up again to the night-enshrouded Pass. The air was +cooler; a light wind, drawing down from the divide, brought a hint of +dampness; it was raining somewhere, far off. "My doubts are all right," he +added, "and I am going to stay here as long as you want me to." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE BRAVEST WOMAN HE EVER KNEW + + +Presently, during one of the interludes when darkness enveloped the gulf, +she began to entertain Tisdale with an experience in the Sierras, a little +adventure on one of those journeys with her father, when she had driven +Pedro and Don Jose. But though she told the story with composure, even +with a certain vivacity and charm, as she might have narrated it to a +small and intimate audience in any safe drawing-room, her self-control was +a transparency through which he saw her anxiety manoeuvering, in spite of +his promise, to keep him there. + +"Strange, is it not?" she went on, "how things will take the gloss of +humor, looking back. That cloudburst was anything but funny at the time; +it was miserably exasperating to stand there drenched, with the +comfortable quarters of the mining company in sight, cut off by an +impassable washout. And it was wretched driving all those miles to our +hotel in wet clothes, with not so much as a dry rug to cover us; yet +afterwards, whenever I tried to tell about it, I failed to gain a shred of +sympathy. People laughed, as you are doing now." + +"And you laughed with them," answered Tisdale quickly, "because looking +back you caught the right perspective. It is always so. Another incident +that seemed trivial in passing will loom up behind us like a cliff on the +horizon. And it is so with people. The man who held the foreground through +sheer egoism sinks to his proper place in obscurity, while a little, +white-faced woman we knew for a day stands out of the past like a +monument." + +His brows clouded; he turned from the lantern light to look off again to +the shrouded mountain tops. "And looking back," he added, "the man you +thought you knew better than the rest, the partner, friend, to whom, when +you were reminded and it suited your convenience, you were ready to do a +service, stands out from the shadows clearly defined. It is under the test +of those high lights behind that his character shines. You wonder at his +greatness. His personality takes a stronger, closer hold, and you would +give the rest of your life just to go back and travel the old, hard road +again with him." + +There was a long silence, broken once more by that far, wailing cry on the +wind. Miss Armitage started. She laid her hand on Tisdale's shoulder, the +nearest object, in a tightening grip, while for a breathless moment she +leaned forward, trying to penetrate the darkness of the gorge. The action +seemed to remind him of her presence, and he turned to look at her. +"Frightened again?" he asked. + +Her hand fell; she settled back in her seat. "N-o, not very much, but it +took me off guard. It sounds so desolate, so--so--supernatural; like the +cry of a doomed soul." + +Tisdale smiled. "That describes it, but you never have heard it at close +range." + +She shivered; her glance moved again in apprehension to the +night-enshrouded Pass. "Have you, Mr. Tisdale?" + +"Yes, lonesome nights by a mountain camp-fire, with just the wind piping +down a ravine, or a cataract breaking over a spur to fill the interlude." + +"Oh, that must have been terrifying," and the shiver crept into her voice. +"But what did you do?" + +"Why, I hurried to pull the embers together and throw on more spruce +boughs. A cougar is cautious around a fire." + +There was another silence, then, "I was thinking of your little, +white-faced woman," said Miss Armitage. "She baffles me. Was she your +bravest woman or just your anemone? Would you mind telling me?" + +"So you were thinking of her. That's odd; so was I." Tisdale changed his +position, turning to lean on the edge of the porch with his elbow resting +on the floor. "But it was that Gordon setter there that reminded me of +her. Her dog had the same points, though he had been better trained." He +paused briefly, then said: "She was both. She was like that small, white +flower which grows in the shelter of the Alaska woods--sweet and modest +and frail looking--yet she was the bravest woman and the strongest when it +came to endurance I ever knew." + +"It happened, of course, in Alaska," Miss Armitage ventured, breaking the +pause. "You knew her there?" + +"Yes, it was in Alaska and about five years ago. The season I gave up +getting rich in a hurry and went back to geological work. I had spent the +winter on the Tanana with David Weatherbee. We had staked a promising +placer, and we were ready to begin sluicing with the first spring thaw, +when he sold his interest unexpectedly to meet an obligation down in the +States. That nettled me, and I sold out my own share to the same men and +accepted a position with the department, who had written to ask me to take +charge of a party working above Seward. Weatherbee started with me, but I +left him to prospect along the headwaters of the Susitna. My surveys kept +me in the neighborhood of Turnagain Arm until midsummer, when I moved camp +up the river to the mouth of an unexplored tributary. It was the kind of +stream to lure a prospector or a sportsman, clear, rapid, broken by +riffles and sand-bars, while the grassy shores looked favorable for elk or +caribou. To bridge the delay while the last pack-horses straggled in and +the men were busy pitching tents and putting things into shape, I decided +to go on a short hunting trip. I traveled light, with only a single +blanket rolled compactly for my shoulder strap, in case the short night +should overtake me, with a generous lunch that Sandy, the cook, had +supplied, but at the end of two hours' steady tramping I had sighted +nothing. I had reached a wooded ravine and a snow-peak, apparently the +source of the stream, closed the top of the gorge. It was the heart of the +wilderness, over a hundred miles from a settlement and off the track of +road-houses, but a few rods on I came upon the flume and dump of a placer +mine. The miner's cabin stood a little farther up the bank under a clump +of spruce, but the place seemed abandoned. Then I noticed some berry +bushes near the sluice had been lately snapped off, where some heavy +animal had pushed through, and a moment later, in the moist soil at a +small spillway, I picked up the trail of a large bear. + +"The tracks led me up the rough path towards the cabin, but midway I came +to a fallen tree. It must have been down a week or more, but no attempt +had been made to clear the trail or to cut through, so, pushing up over +the matted boughs, I leaped from the bole to avoid the litter beyond. At +the same instant I saw under me, wedged in the broken branches, the body +of my bear. He was a huge grizzly, and must have made an easy and ugly +target as he lumbered across the barricade. I found one bullet had taken +him nearly between the eyes, while another had lodged in the shoulder. And +it was plain the shots were aimed from the window, with the rifle probably +resting on the sill. + +"As I went on up the path, the loud baying of a dog came from the cabin, +then a woman's face, young and small and very white, appeared at the +window. Seeing me, she turned quickly and threw open the door. The next +instant her hand fell to the neck of a fine Gordon setter and, tugging at +his collar, she drew back and stood surveying me from head to foot. 'It's +all right, madam,' I said, stopping before her. 'Don't try to hold him. +The bear won't trouble you any more. You made a mighty fine shot.' + +"'Oh,' she said, and let the dog go, 'I am so glad you have come.' And she +sank into a chair, shaking and sobbing." + +"You mean," exclaimed Miss Armitage breathlessly, "it was she who killed +the bear?" + +Tisdale nodded gently. "I wish I could make you understand the situation. +She was not a sportswoman. She was city bred and had been carefully +reared--accustomed to have things done for her. I saw this at a glance. +Only her extremity and the fear that the dog would be hurt nerved her to +shoot." + +"Oh, I see, I see," said Miss Armitage. "Fate had brought her, left her in +that solitary place--alone." + +"Fate?" Tisdale questioned. "Well, perhaps, but not maliciously; not in +jest. On second thought I would not lay it to Fate at all. You see, she +had come voluntarily, willingly, though blindly enough. She was one of the +few women who are capable of a great love." + +Tisdale waited, but the woman beside him had no more to say. "I saw I must +give her time to gather her self-control," he went on, "so I turned my +attention to the setter, who was alternately springing on me and excitedly +wagging his tail. I like a good dog, and I soon had him familiarly +snuffing my pockets; then he stretched himself playfully, with an +inquiring, almost human yawn; but suddenly remembering the bear, he stood +pointing, head up, forepaw lifted, and made a rush, baying furiously. + +"'It's all right, madam,' I repeated and stepped into the room. 'You made +a fine shot, and that bearskin is going to make a great rug for your +floor.' + +"She lifted her face, downing a last sob, and gave me a brave little +smile. 'It isn't altogether the bear,' she explained. 'It's partly because +I haven't seen any one for so long, and partly because, for a moment, I +thought you were my husband. I've been worried about him. He has been gone +over three weeks, and he never stayed longer than five days before. But it +was a relief to have you come.' + +"It sounds differently when I repeat it. You lose the sweet shyness of her +face, the appeal in her eyes not yet dry, and that soft minor chord in her +voice that reminds me now of a wood-thrush. + +"'I understand,' I hurried to say, 'the solitude has grown intolerable. I +know what that means, I have lived so long in the eternal stillness +sometimes that the first patter of a rain on the leaves came like the +tramp of an army, and the snapping of a twig rang sharp as a pistol shot.' + +"'You do understand,' she said. 'You have been through it. And, of course, +you see my husband had to leave me. The trail up the canyon is the merest +thread. It would have been impossible for me, and I should have only +hindered him, now, when every day counts.' + +"'You mean,' I said, 'he has left his placer to prospect for the main lode +above?' And she answered yes. That every gravel bar made a better showing; +the last trip had taken him above the tree line, and this time he expected +to prospect along the glacier at the source of the stream. Sometimes +erosions laid veins open, and any hour 'he might stumble on riches.' She +smiled again, though her lip trembled, then said it was his limited outfit +that troubled her most. He had taken only a light blanket and a small +allowance of bacon and bread. + +"'But,' I reassured her, 'there is almost a certainty he has found game at +this season of the year.' + +"She looked at the rifle she had set by the window against the wall. 'I +haven't been able to persuade him to take the gun,' she explained, 'for a +long time. He doesn't hunt any more.' She stopped, watching me, and locked +her slim hands. Then, 'He is greatly changed,' she went on. 'The last time +he came home, he hardly noticed me. He spent the whole evening sitting +with his eyes fixed on the floor--without a word. And the next morning, +before I was awake, he was gone.' + +"At last her real fear was clear to me. There is a terrible fascination +about those Alaska gold streams. Each gravel bar has just showing enough +to lead a man on and on. He hugs the belief from hour to hour he is on the +brink of a great find, until he has eyes for nothing but the colors in the +sand. He forgets hunger, weariness, everything, and finally, if rescue +fails him, he sinks in complete collapse. More than once I had come on +such a wreck, straying demented, babbling, all but famished in the hills. +And I was sorry for that little woman. I understood the pitch she must +have reached to speak so freely to a passing stranger. But it was hard to +find just the right thing to say, and while I stood choosing words, she +hurried to explain that two days before she had taken the dog and tramped +up-stream as far as she had dared, hoping to meet her husband, and that +she had intended to go even farther that day, but had been prevented, as I +saw, by the bear, who had prowled about the cabin the greater part of the +night. The setter's continual barking and growling had failed to drive him +away. + +"'If you had gone this morning,' I said, 'I should have missed you; then I +shouldn't have known about your husband. I am on my way up this canyon, +and I shall look for him. And, when I find him, I shall do my best to +bring him in touch with the outside world again.'" + +Tisdale paused. The abrupt slope that over-topped the portable cabin began +to take shape in the darkness. It had the appearance of a sail looming +through fog. Then the shadows scattered, and the belated moon, lifting +over the dunes beyond the Columbia, silvered the mouth of the gorge. It +was as though that other distant canyon, of which he was thinking, opened +before him into unknown solitudes. + +Miss Armitage leaned forward, watching his face, waiting for the issue of +the story. + +"And you found him?" she asked at last. + +"Yes. In the end." Tisdale's glance returned and, meeting hers, the grim +lines in his face relaxed. "But there was a long and rough tramp first. +She urged me to take the setter, and I saw the advantage in having a good +dog with me on such a search; any cleft, or thicket, or sprinkle of +boulders, might easily conceal a man's body from one passing only a few +feet off--but, much as he favored me, he was not to be coaxed far from his +mistress; so I suggested she should go, too. + +"'Oh,' she said, catching at the chance, 'do you think Jerry can make up +for the delay, if I do? I will travel my best, I promise you.' And she led +the way, picking up the faint trail and setting a pace that I knew must +soon tire her, while the dog brushed by us, bounding ahead and rushing +back and expressing his satisfaction in all sorts of manoeuvers. + +"In a little while, above the timber--the tree line is low on those Alaska +mountainsides--we came to a broad, grassy bog set deep between two spurs, +and she was forced to give me the lead. Then the canyon walls grew +steeper, lifting into rugged knobs. Sometimes I lost the prospector's +trail in a rock-choked torrent and picked it up again, where it hung like +a thin ribbon on a heather-grown slope; but it never wound or doubled if +there was foothold ahead. It led up stairs of graywacke, along the brink +of slaty cliffs that dropped sheer, hundreds of feet to the stream below. +Still she kept on pluckily, and whenever I turned to help her, I found her +there at my elbow, ready. Now and then in breadths of level, where it was +possible to walk abreast, we talked a little, but most of the distance was +covered in silence. I felt more and more sorry for her. She was so eager, +patient, watchful, forever scanning the pitches on either side. And if the +setter made a sudden break, scenting a bare perhaps, or starting a +ptarmigan, she always stopped, waiting with a light in her face; and when +he jogged back to her heels, the expectation settled into patience again. + +"Finally we came to a rill where I urged her to rest; and when I had +spread my blanket on a boulder, she took the seat, leaning comfortably +against a higher rock, and watched me while I opened the tin box in which +Sandy had stored my lunch. She told me my cook made a good sandwich and +knew how to fry a bird Southern fashion. Then she spoke of the Virginia +town where she had lived before her marriage. The trip west had been her +wedding journey, and her husband, who was an architect, had intended to +open an office in a new town on Puget Sound, but at Seattle he caught the +Alaska fever. + +"'The future looked very certain and brilliant then,' she said, with her +smile, 'but as long as I have my husband, nothing else counts. I could +live out my life, be happy here in this wilderness, anywhere, with him. If +I could only have him back--as he used to be.'" + +Tisdale's voice softened, vibrating gently, so that the pathos of it all +must have impressed the coldest listener. The woman beside him trembled +and lifted her hand to her throat. + +"I can't remember all she told me," he went on, "but her husband had left +her in Seattle when he started north, and the next season, when he failed +to return for her, she had sailed to Seward in search of him. She had +tried to influence him to give up the placer, when she saw the change in +him; at least to go down to one of the coast towns and take up the work +for which he had prepared, but he had delayed, with promises, until he was +beyond listening to her. + +"'Of course he may stumble on riches any hour, as he believes,' she said +finally, 'but not all the comforts or luxuries in the world are worth the +price.' She did not break down, as she had in the cabin, but somehow I +could hear the tears falling in her voice. I can yet, and see them big and +shining deep in her eyes. + +"But she was off again, making up the delay, before I could fasten my +pack, and when I overtook her in a level stretch and halted a moment to +frolic with the dog, her face brightened. Then she spoke of a little trick +she had taught him,--to go and meet his master and fetch his hat to her. +Sometimes she had hidden it in shrubs, or among rocks, but invariably he +had brought it home. + +"At last we made a turn and saw the front of the glacier that closed the +top of the gorge. The stream gushed from a cavern at the foot, and above +the noise of water sounded the grinding and roaring of subterranean forces +at work. Once in a while a stone was hurled through. But that is +impossible to explain. You must have been on intimate terms with a glacier +to grasp the magnitude. Still, try to imagine the ice arching that cave +like a bridge and lifting back, rimmed in moraine, far and away to the +great white dome. And it was all wrapped in a fine Alpine splendor, so +that she stopped beside me in a sort of hushed wonder to look. But I could +hear her breath, laboring hard and quick, and she rocked uncertainly on +her feet. I laid my hand on her arm to steady her. It was time we turned +back. For half an hour I had been gathering courage to tell her so. While +I hesitated, allowing her a few minutes to take in the glory, the setter +ran nosing ahead, up over the wreckage along the edge of the glacier, and +on across the bridge. I waited until he disappeared in a small pocket, +then began: 'You know, madam, what all this color means. These twilights +linger, and it will be easier traveling down-grade, but we must hurry, to +have you home before dark.' + +"She turned to answer but stopped, looking beyond me to the bridge. Then I +saw the setter had caught her attention. He was coming back. His black +body moved in strong relief against the ice-field, and I noticed he had +something in his mouth. It seemed about the size and color of a grouse,--a +ptarmigan, no doubt. Then it flashed over me the thing was a hat. At the +same moment I felt her tremble, and I had just time to see that her face +had gone white, when she sank against me, a dead weight. I carried her a +few yards to a bank of heather and laid her down, and while I was filling +my folding cup at the stream, the dog bounded over the rocks and dropped +the thing on her breast. It was a hat, a gray felt with a good brim, such +as a prospector, or indeed any man who lives in the open, favors; but the +setter's actions,--he alternately rushed towards the glacier and back to +his mistress, with short yelps,--warned me to be careful, and I tucked the +hat out of sight, between two stones. The dog had it out instantly, bent +on giving it to her, but I snatched it from him and threw it into the +torrent, where it struck upright, floating lightly on the brim, and lodged +in a shallow. He followed and came bounding back with it, while I was +raising the cup to her lips, and I had barely a chance to crowd it into my +blanket roll when she opened her eyes. 'He had Louis' hat,' she said and +drifted into unconsciousness again. + +"I took my flask from my pocket and, blaming myself for bringing her that +hard trip, mixed a draught. It revived her, and in a moment she started +up. 'Where is the hat?' she asked, looking about her. 'Jerry had it on the +ice-bridge.' + +"At the sound of her voice, the dog, who had been trying to get at the +hat, commenced his manoeuvers to attract her across the gorge, bounding +ahead, calling her with his short, excited barks, and making all the signs +of a hunting dog impatient to lead to the quarry. She tried to get to her +feet, but I put my hand on her shoulder. 'Wait, madam,' I said. 'You must +rest a little longer before you try to start back. You were so tired you +fainted. And your eyes must have played you a trick.' + +"'You mean,' she began and stopped. + +"I am not much of a dissembler, and I found it hard to meet her look, but +I answered with all the assurance I could muster. 'I mean, madam, you are +mistaken about that hat.' + +"She waited a moment, watching the setter, then her glance moved back +incredulously to me. 'Then what excites Jerry?' she asked. + +"'Why,' I hurried to answer, 'just another bunch, of ptarmigan, probably. +But while you are resting here, I will go over into that pocket to satisfy +him.' + +"The setter, content with my company, ran ahead, and I followed him across +the ice-bridge. The pocket was thickly strewn with broken rock, but at the +upper end there was a clear space grown with heather. And it was there, as +I feared, between a bluff and a solitary thumb-shaped boulder that the dog +had found his master." + +Tisdale paused, looking off again with clouding brows to the stormy +heights. Eastward the moon in a clear sky threw a soft illumination on the +desert. The cry of the cougar had ceased. The electrical display was less +brilliant; it seemed farther off. Miss Armitage moved a little and waited, +watching his face. + +"But of course," she ventured at last, "you mixed another draught from +your emergency flask. The stimulant saved his life." + +"No." Tisdale's glance came slowly back. "He was beyond any help. A square +of canvas was set obliquely on the glacier side, and that and the blanket +which covered him proved the place was his camp; but the only traces of +food were a few cracker or bread crumbs in a trap made of twigs, and a +marmot skin and a bunch of ptarmigan feathers to show the primitive +contrivance had worked. There was no wood in the neighborhood, but the +ashes of a small fire showed he must have carried fuel from the belt of +spruce half-way down the gorge. If he had made such a trip and not gone on +to the cabin, it clearly proved his mental condition. Still in the end +there had been a glimmer of light, for he had torn a leaf from his +notebook and written first his wife's name and then a line, out of which I +was only able to pick the words 'give' and 'help' and 'States.' Evidently +he had tried to put the paper into his poke, which had dropped, untied, +from his hand with the pencil he had used. The sack was nearly full; it +had fallen upright in a fold of the blanket, so only a little of the gold, +which was very coarse and rough and bright, had spilled. I made all this +inventory almost at a glance, and saw directly he had left his pan and +shovel in the gravels of a stream that cascaded over the wall and through +the pocket to join the creek below the glacier. Then it came over me that +I must keep the truth from her until she was safely back at the cabin, and +I put the poke in my pocket and hurried to do what I could. + +"The setter hampered me and was frantic when I turned away, alternately +following me a few yards, whining and begging, and rushing back to his +master. Finally he stopped on the farther side of the ice-bridge and set +up a prolonged cry. His mistress had come to meet me and she waited at the +crossing, supporting herself with her hands on a great boulder, shoulders +forward, breath hushed, watching me with her soul in her eyes. At last I +reached her. 'Madam,' I began, but the words caught in my throat. I turned +and looked up at the splendor on the mountain. The air drew sharp across +the ice, but a sudden heat swept me; I was wet with perspiration from head +to foot. 'Madam,' and I forced myself to meet her eyes, 'it is just as I +expected; the dog found--nothing.' + +"She straightened herself slowly, still watching me, then suddenly threw +her arms against the rock and dropped her face. 'Come,' I said, 'we must +start back. Come, I want to hurry through to my camp for a horse.' + +"This promise was all she needed to call up her supreme self-control, and +she lifted her face with a smile that cut me worse than any tears. 'I'm +not ungrateful,' she said, 'but--I felt so sure, from the first, you would +find him.' + +"'And you felt right,' I hurried to answer. 'Trust me to bring him +through.' + +"I whistled the setter, and she called repeatedly, but he refused to +follow. When we started down the trail, he watched us from his post at the +farther end of the ice-bridge, whining and baying, and the moment she +stopped at the first turn to look back, he streaked off once more for that +pocket. 'Never mind,' I said, and helped her over a rough place, 'Jerry +knows he is a good traveler. He will be home before you.' But it was plain +to me he would not, and try as I might to hurry her out of range of his +cry, it belled again soon, and the cliffs caught it over and over and +passed it on to us far down the gorge." + +There was one of those speaking silences in which the great heart of the +man found expression, and the woman beside him, following his gaze, sifted +the cloudy Pass. She seemed in that moment to see that other canyon, +stretching down from the glacier, and those two skirting the edge of +cliffs, treading broken stairs, pursued by the cry of the setter into the +gathering gloom of the Arctic night. + +"It grew very cold in that gorge," he went on, "and I blamed myself for +taking her that trip more and more. She never complained, never stopped, +except to look back and listen for the dog, but shadows deepened under her +eyes; the patient lines seemed chiseled where they had been only lightly +drawn, and when she caught me watching her and coaxed up her poor little +smile, I could have picked her up in my arms and carried her the rest of +the way. But we reached the tree-line before she came to her limit. It was +at the turn in a cliff, and I stopped, looking down across the tops of a +belt of spruce, to locate the cabin. 'There it is,' I said. 'You see that +little brown patch down there in the blur of green. That is your house. +You are almost home.' + +"She moved a step to see better and stumbled, and she only saved herself +by catching my arm in both hands. Then her whole body fell to shaking. I +felt unnerved a little, for that matter. It was a dangerous place. I had +been recklessly foolish to delay her there. But when I had found a safe +seat for her around the cliff, the shivering kept up, chill after chill, +and I mixed a draught for her, as I had at the glacier. + +"'This will warm your blood,' I said, holding the cup for her. 'Come, +madam, we must fight the cold off for another hour; that should see you +home. After I have made a good fire, I am going to show you what a fine +little supper I can prepare. Bear steaks at this season are prime.' + +"I laughed to encourage her, and because the chills were still obstinate, +I hurried to unstrap my blanket to wrap around her. And I only remembered +the hat when it dropped at her feet. She did not cry out but sat like a +marble woman, with her eyes fixed on it. Then, after a while, she bent and +lifted it and began to shape it gently with her numb little fingers. She +was beyond tears, and the white stillness of her face made me more +helpless than any sobbing. I could think of nothing to say to comfort her +and turned away, looking off in the direction of the cabin. It seemed +suddenly a long distance off. + +"Finally she spoke, slowly at first, convincing herself. 'Jerry did bring +it across the ice-bridge. He found Louis and stayed to watch, as I +thought. Sir, now tell me the truth.' + +"I turned back to her, and it came bluntly enough. Then I explained it was +not an accident or anything terrible; that the end had come easily, +probably the previous night, of heart failure. 'But I couldn't nerve +myself to tell you up there,' I said, 'with all those miles of hard travel +before you; and I am going back to-morrow, as I promised, to bring him +through.' + +"She had nothing to say but rose and held out her hand. In a little while +I began to lead her down through the belt of spruce. I moved very slowly, +choosing steps, for she paid no attention to her footing. Her hand rested +limply in mine, and she stumbled, like one whose light has gone out in a +dark place." + +Tisdale's story was finished, but Miss Armitage waited, listening. It was +as though in the silence she heard his unexpressed thoughts. + +"But her life was wrecked," she said at last. "She never could forget. +Think of it! The terror of those weeks; the long-drawn suspense. She +should not have stayed in Alaska. She should have gone home at the +beginning. She was not able to help her husband. Her influence was lost." + +"True," Tisdale answered slowly. "Long before that day I found her, she +must have known it was a losing fight. But the glory of the battle is not +always to the victor. And she blamed herself that she had not gone north +with her husband at the start. You see she loved him, and love with that +kind of woman means self-sacrifice; she counted it a privilege to have +been there, to have faced the worst with him, done what she could." + +Miss Armitage straightened, lifting her head with that movement of a +flower shaken on its stem. "Every woman owes it to herself to keep her +self-respect," she said. "She owes it to her family--the past and future +generations of her race--to make the most of her life." + +"And she made the most of hers," responded Tisdale quickly. "That was her +crowning year." He hesitated, then said quietly, with his upward look from +under slightly frowning brows: "And it was just that reason, the debt to +her race, that buoyed her all the way through. It controlled her there at +the glacier and gave her strength to turn back, when the setter refused to +come. Afterwards, in mid-winter, when news of the birth of her son came +down from Seward, I understood." + +An emotion like a transparent shadow crossed his listener's face. "That +changes everything," she said. "But of course you returned the next day +with a horse to do as you promised, and afterwards helped her out to +civilization." + +"I saw Louis Barbour buried, yes." Tisdale's glance traveled off again to +the distant Pass. "We chose a low mound, sheltered by a solitary spruce, +between the cabin and the creek, and I inscribed his name and the date on +the trunk of the tree. But my time belonged to the Government. I had a +party in the field, and the Alaska season is short. It fell to David +Weatherbee to see her down to Seward." + +"To David Weatherbee?" Miss Armitage started. Protest fluctuated with the +surprise in her voice. "But I see, I see!" and she settled back in her +seat. "You sent him word. He had known her previously." + +"No. When I left him early in the spring, he intended to prospect down the +headwaters of the Susitna, you remember, and I was carrying my surveys +back from the lower valley. We were working toward each other, and I +expected to meet him any day. In fact, I had mail for him at my camp that +had come by way of Seward, so I hardly was surprised the next morning, +when I made the last turn below the glacier with my horse to see old +Weatherbee coming over the ice-bridge. + +"He had made a discovery at the source of that little tributary, where the +erosion of the glacier had opened a rich vein, and on following the stream +through graywackes and slate to the first gravelled fissure, he had found +the storage plant for his placer gold. He was on his way out to have the +claim recorded and get supplies and mail when he heard the baying setter +and, rounding the mouth of the pocket, saw the camp and the dead +prospector. Afterwards, when he had talked with the woman waiting down the +canyon, he asked to see her husband's poke and compared the gold with the +sample he had panned. It was the same, coarse and rough, with little +scraps of quartz clinging to the bigger flakes sometimes, and he insisted +the strike was Barbour's. He tried to persuade her to make the entry, but +she refused, and finally they compromised with a partnership." + +"So they were partners." Miss Armitage paused, then went on with a touch +of frostiness: "And they traveled those miles of wilderness alone, for +days together, out to the coast." + +"Yes." Tisdale's glance, coming back, challenged hers. "Sometimes the +wilderness enforces a social code of her own. Miss Armitage,"--his voice +vibrated softly,--"I wish you had known David Weatherbee. But imagine Sir +Galahad, that whitest knight of the whole Round Table, Sir Galahad on that +Alaska trail, to-day. And Weatherbee was doubly anxious to reach Seward. +There was a letter from his wife in that packet of mail I gave him. She +had written she was taking the opportunity to travel as far as Seward with +some friends, who were making the summer tour of the coast. But he was +ready to cut the trip into short and easy stages to see Mrs. Barbour +through. 'It's all right,' he said at the start. 'Leave it to me. I am +going to take this lady to my wife.'" + +"And--at Seward?" questioned Miss Armitage, breaking the pause. + +"At Seward his wife failed him. But he rented a snug cottage of some +people going out to the States and had the good fortune to find a motherly +woman, who knew something about nursing, to stay with Mrs. Barbour. It was +Christmas when her father arrived from Virginia to help her home, and it +was spring before she was able to make the sea voyage as far as Seattle." + +"Expenses, in those new, frontier towns, are so impossible; I hope her +father was able"--she halted, then added hurriedly, flushing under +Tisdale's searching eyes, "but, of course, in any case, he reimbursed Mr. +Weatherbee." + +"He did, you may be sure, if there was any need. But you have forgotten +that poke of Barbour's. There was dust enough to have carried her through +even an Alaska winter; but an old Nevada miner, on the strength of that +showing, paid her twenty thousand dollars outright for her interest in the +claim." + +Miss Armitage drew a deep breath. "And David Weatherbee, too? He sold his +share--did he not--and stayed on at Seward?" + +"Yes, he wasted the best weeks of the season in Seward, waiting for his +wife. But she never came. She wrote she had changed her mind. He showed me +that letter one night at the close of the season when he stopped at my +camp on his way back to the Tanana. It was short but long enough to remind +him there were accounts pressing; one particularly that she called a 'debt +of honor.' She hadn't specified, but I guessed directly she had been +accepting loans from her friends, and I saw it was that that had worried +him. To raise the necessary money, he had been obliged to realize on the +new placer. His partner had been waiting to go in to the claim with him, +and Weatherbee's sudden offer to sell made the mining man suspicious. He +refused to buy at any price. Then David found an old prospector whom he +had once befriended and made a deal with him. It was five hundred dollars +down, and two thousand out of the first year's clean-up. And he sent all +of the ready money to her and started in to make a new stake below +Discovery. But the inevitable stampede had followed on the Nevada man's +heels, and the strike turned out small. + +"It was one of those rich pockets we find sometimes along a glacier that +make fortunes for the first men, while the rank and file pan out defeat +and disappointment. There was the quartz body above, stringers and veins +of it reaching through the graywackes and slate, but to handle it +Weatherbee must set up a stamp-mill; and only a line of pack-mules from +the Andes, and another line of steamships could transport the ore to the +nearest smelter, on Puget Sound. So--he took up the long trek northward +again, to the Tanana. Think of it! The irony of it!" + +Tisdale rose and turned on the step to look down at her. The light from +the lantern intensified the furrows between his brooding eyes. "And think +what it meant to Weatherbee to have seen, as he had, day after day, hour +after hour, the heart of another man's wife laid bare, while to his own he +himself was simply a source of revenue." + +Miss Armitage too rose and stood meeting his look. Her lip trembled a +little, but the blue lights flamed in her eyes. "You believe that," she +said, and her voice dropped into an unexpected note. "You believe he threw +away that rich discovery for the few hundreds of dollars he sent his wife; +but I know--she was told--differently. She thought he was glad to--escape-- +at so small a price. He wrote he was glad she had reconsidered that trip; +Alaska was no place for her." + +"Madam," Tisdale remonstrated softly, "you couldn't judge David Weatherbee +literally by his letters. If you had ever felt his personality, you would +have caught the undercurrent, deep and strong, sweeping between the lines. +It wasn't himself that counted; it was what was best for her. You couldn't +estimate him by other men; he stood, like your white mountain, alone above +the crowd. And he set a pedestal higher than himself and raised his wife +there to worship and glorify. A word from her at any time would have +turned the balance and brought him home; her presence, her sympathy, even +that last season at the Aurora mine, would have brought him through. I +wish you had seen his face that day I met him below the glacier and had +told him about the woman waiting down the gorge. 'My God, Tisdale,' he +said, 'suppose it had been my wife.'" + +Miss Armitage stood another moment, locking her hands one over the other +in a tightening grip. Her lip trembled again, but the words failed. She +turned and walked uncertainly the few steps to the end of the porch. + +"You believe she might have influenced him, but I do not. Oh, I see, I +see, how you have measured him by your own great heart. But"--she turned +towards him and went on slowly, her voice fluctuating in little, steadying +pauses--"even if you were right, you might be generous; you might try to +imagine her side. Suppose she had not guessed his--need--of her; been able +to read, as you did, between the lines. Sometimes a woman waits to be +told. A proud woman does." She came back the few steps. "Beatriz +Weatherbee isn't the kind of woman you think she is. She has faults, of +course, but she has tried to make the best of her life. If she made a +mistake--or thought she had--no one else knew it. She braved it through. +She's been high-strung, too." + +Tisdale put up his hand. "Don't say any more; don't try to excuse her to +me. It's of no use. Good night." But a few feet from the porch he stopped +to add, less grimly: "I should have said good morning. You see how that +pyramid stands out against that pale streak of horizon. There is only time +for a nap before sunrise. Day is breaking." + +She was silent, but something in the intensity of her gaze, the unspoken +appeal that had also a hint of dread, the stillness of her small face, +white in the uncertain light when so lately he had seen it sparkle and +glow, brought him back. + +"I've tired you out," he said. "I shouldn't have told you that story. But +this outlook to-night reminded me of that other canyon, and I thought it +might help to bridge over the time. There's nothing can tide one through +an unpleasant situation like hearing about some one who fared worse. And I +hadn't meant to go so far into details. I'm sorry," and he held out his +hand, "but it was your interest, sympathy, something about you, that drew +me on." + +She did not answer directly. She seemed to need the moment to find her +voice and bring it under control. Then, "Any one must have been +interested," she said, and drew away her hand. "You have the +story-teller's gift. And I want to thank you for making it all so clear +to me; it was a revelation." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE DUNES OF THE COLUMBIA + + +Behind them, as Tisdale drove down, the heights they had crossed were +still shrouded in thunder-caps, but before them the end of the Wenatchee +range lifted clear-cut, in a mighty promontory, from the face of the +desert. Already the morning sun gave a promise of heat, and as the bays +rounded a knoll, Miss Armitage raised her hands to shade her eyes. + +"What color!" she exclaimed. "How barbarous! How ages old! But don't say +this is the Columbia, Mr. Tisdale. I know it is the Nile. Those are the +ruins of Thebes. In a moment we shall see the rest of the pyramids and the +Sphinx." + +Tisdale brought the horses around a sand-pit in the road which began to +parallel the river, rolling wide and swift and intensely blue, where the +rapids ceased, then he glanced at the other shore, where fantastic columns +and broken walls of granite rose like a ruined city through a red glory. + +"It is worth coming from New York to see, but you have traveled abroad. Do +you know, that disappoints me. A true American should see America first." + +"Then I confess." The girl laughed softly. "I haven't been nearer the Nile +than a lantern-slide lecture and the moving-picture show. But my father +knew Egypt when he was a boy; maybe I've inherited some memories, too." + +Her enthusiasm was irresistible. Looking into her glowing face, the +mirth-provoking lines broke and re-formed at the corners of his own mouth +and eyes. + +"But," he explained after a moment, "this desert of the Columbia is not +old; it's tremendously new; so new that Nature hasn't had time to take the +scaffolding away. You know--do you not--this was all once a great inland +sea? Countless glacial streams brought wash down from the mountains, +filling the shallows with the finest alluvial earth. Then, in some big +upheaval, one or perhaps several of these volcanic peaks poured down a +strata of lava and ash. As the ice tongues receded, the streams gradually +dried; only the larger ones, fed far back in the range, are left to-day." + +"How interesting!" Her glance swept upward and backward along the heights +and returned to the levels. "And naturally, as the bed of the sea was laid +bare, these last streams found the lowest depression, the channel of the +Columbia." + +Her quickness, her evident desire to grasp the great scheme of things, +which other women received with poorly veiled indifference, often hurried +to evade, warmed his scientist soul. "Yes," he answered, "Nature +remembered, while she was busy, to construct the main flume. She might as +well have said, when it was finished: 'Here are some garden tracts I +reclaimed for you. Now get to work; show what you can do.'" + +"And are you going to?" Her voice caught a little; she watched his face +covertly yet expectantly, her breath arrested, with parted lips. + +"Perhaps. I am on my way to find a certain garden spot that belonged to +David Weatherbee. He knew more about reclamation than I, for he grew up +among your California orchards, but I have the plans he drew; I ought to +be able to see his project through." + +"You mean you may buy the land, Mr. Tisdale, if--things--are as you +expect?" + +"Yes, provided I have Mrs. Weatherbee's price." + +"What do you consider the tract is worth?" + +"I couldn't make a fair estimate before I have been over the ground. +Seattle promoters are listing Wenatchee fruit lands now, but the +Weatherbee tract is off the main valley. Still, the railroad passes within +a few miles, and the property must have made some advance since he bought +the quarter section. That was over nine years ago. He was a student at +Stanford then and spent a summer vacation up here in the Cascades with a +party of engineers who were running surveys for the Great Northern. One +day he was riding along a high ridge at the top of one of those arid +gulfs, when he came to a bubbling spring. It was so cool and pleasant up +there above the desert heat that he set up a little camp of his own in the +shade of some pine trees that rimmed the pool, and the rest of the season +he rode to and from his work. Then he began to see the possibilities of +that alluvial pocket under irrigation, and before he went back to college +he secured the quarter section. That was his final year, and he expected +to return the next summer and open the project. But his whole future was +changed by that unfortunate marriage. His wife was not the kind of woman +to follow him into the desert and share inevitable discomfort and hardship +until his scheme should mature. He began to plan a little Eden for her at +the core, and to secure more capital he went to Alaska. He hoped to make a +rich strike and come back in a year or two with plenty of money to hurry +the project through. You know how near he came to it once, and why he +failed. And that was not the only time. But every year he stayed in the +north, his scheme took a stronger hold on him. He used to spend long +Arctic nights elaborating, making over his plans. He thought and brooded +on them so much that finally, when the end came, up there in the Chugach +snows, he set up an orchard of spruce twigs--" + +"I know, I know," interrupted Miss Armitage. "Please don't tell it over +again. I--can't--bear it." And she sank against the back of the seat, +shuddering, and covered her eyes with her hands. + +Tisdale looked at her, puzzled. "Again?" he repeated. "But I see you must +have heard the story through Mr. Feversham. I told it at the clubhouse the +night he was in Seattle." + +"It's impossible to explain; you never could understand." She sat erect, +but Tisdale felt her body tremble, and she went on swiftly, with little +breaks and catches: "You don't know the hold your story has on me. I've +dreamed it all over at night; I've wakened cold and wet with perspiration +from head to foot, as though I--too--were struggling through those frozen +solitudes. I've been afraid to sleep sometimes, the dread of facing--it-- +is so strong." + +Watching her, a sudden tenderness rose through the wonder in Tisdale's +face. + +"So you dreamed you were fighting it through with me; that's strange. But +I see the story was too hard for you; Feversham shouldn't have told it." +He paused and his brows clouded. "I wish I could make Weatherbee's wife +dream it," he broke out. "It might teach her what he endured. I have gone +over the ground with her in imagination, mile after mile, that long trek +from Nome. I have seen her done for, whimpering in a corner, like the +weakest husky in the team, there at the Aurora mine, and at her limit +again up in Rainy Pass. And once lately, the night of the club supper, +while I was lying awake in my room, looking off through the window to the +harbor lights and the stars, I heard her crying deeply from the heart. She +did not seem like herself then, but a different woman I was mighty sorry +for." + +Miss Armitage turned and met his look, questioning, hardly comprehending. +"That sounds occult," she said. + +"Does it? Well, perhaps it is. But a man who has lived in the big spaces +has his senses sharpened. He sees farther; feels more." + +There was a silent moment. The colts, topping a low dune, felt the +pressure of the fills on the down-grade, and the nigh horse broke, turning +the front wheel into a tangle of sage. "Mr. Tisdale," she cried a little +tremulously, "do you think this is a catboat, tacking into a squall? +Please, please let me drive." + +Her effort was supreme. It relieved the tension, and when the change was +made, she drew to the edge of the seat, holding her head high like that +intrepid flower to which he had compared her. + +"You mean," she said evenly, "the terrible silence of your big spaces keys +up the subjective mind. That, of course, was the trouble with Mrs. +Barbour's husband. He allowed it to dominate him. But a man like you"--and +she gave him her swift, direct look, and the shadow of a smile touched her +mouth--"well-balanced, strong, would have kept the danger down. I should +never be afraid--for you. But," she hurried on, "I can understand too how +in the great solitudes some men are drawn together. You have shown me. I +did not know before I heard your story how much a man can endure for a +friend--and sacrifice." + +Tisdale looked off over the desert. "Friendship up there does mean +something," he answered quietly. "Mere companionship in the Alaska +wilderness is a test. I don't know whether it's the darkness of those +interminable winters, or the monotony that plays on a man's nerves, but I +have seen the closest partners get beyond speaking to each other. It's a +life to bring out the good and the bad in a man; a life to make men hate; +and it can forge two men together. But David Weatherbee never had an +enemy. He never failed a man. In a crisis he was great. If things had been +reversed"--he set his lips, his face hardened--"if Weatherbee had been in +my place, there at Nome, with a letter of mine in his hands, he wouldn't +have thrown away those four days." + +"Yes, he would. Consider. He must have taken time to prepare for that +terrible journey. How else could he have carried it through?" She leaned +forward a little, compelling his glance, trying to reason down the tragedy +in his face. + +"How can you blame yourself?" she finished brokenly. "You must not. I will +not--let you." + +"Thank you for saying that." Tisdale's rugged features worked. He laid his +hand for an instant over hers. "If any one in the world can set me right +with myself, it is you." + +After that they both were silent. They began to round the bold promontory +at the end of the Wenatchee range; the Badger loomed on the rim of the +desert, then Old Baldy seemed to swing his sheer front like an opened +portal to let the blue flood of the Columbia through. The interest crept +back to her face. Between them and those guardian peaks a steel bridge, +fine as a spider web, was etched on the river, then a first orchard broke +the areas of sage, the rows of young trees radiating from a small, new +dwelling, like a geometrical pattern. Finally she said: "I would like to +know a little more about Mrs. Barbour. Did you ever see her again, Mr. +Tisdale? Or the child?" + +"Oh, yes. I made it a point the next winter, when I was in Washington, to +run down into Virginia and look them up. And I have always kept in touch +with them. She sends me new pictures of the boy every year. He keeps her +busy. He was a rugged little chap at the start, did his best to grow, and +bright!"--Tisdale paused, shaking his head, while the humorous lines +deepened--"But he had to be vigorous to carry the name she gave him. Did I +tell you it was Weatherbee Tisdale? Think of shouldering the names of two +full-sized men on that atom. But she picked a nice diminutive out of it-- +'Bee.' + +"It was a great christening party," he went on reminiscently. "She +arranged it when she passed through Seattle and had several hours to wait +for her train. The ceremony was at Trinity, that stone church on the first +hill, and the Bishop of Alaska, who was waiting too, officiated. I was in +town at the time, getting my outfit together for another season in the +north, but Weatherbee had to assume his responsibilities by proxy." + +"Do you mean David Weatherbee was the child's godfather?" + +"One of them, yes." Tisdale paused, and his brows clouded. "I wish the boy +had been his own. That would have been his salvation. If David Weatherbee +had had a son, he would be here with us now, to-day." + +Miss Armitage was silent. She looked off up the unfolding watercourse, and +the great weariness Tisdale had noticed that hour before dawn settled +again on her face. + +He laid his hand on the reins. "You are tired out," he said. "Come, give +the lines to me. You've deceived me with all that fine show of spirits, +but I've been selfish, or I must have seen. The truth is, I've been +humoring this hand." + +"You mean," she said quickly, "this vixen did hurt you yesterday more than +you would admit?" + +"Oh, no, but the friction of the reins can make even a scratch +uncomfortable after a while, and my glove is getting tight. A little +peroxide, when we reach a pharmacy, will fix it all right." + +But Miss Armitage watched him doubtfully. She assured him she was not +tired and that she loved to drive. Had she not told him so at the start? +Then, as they left the promontory, her glance followed the road ahead. The +bridge was no longer fine as a spider web; it was a railroad crossing of +steel, and the long eaves of the Great Northern depot lifted near, flanked +by the business blocks of a town. "Wenatchee!" she exclaimed; and +wavering, asked: "_Isn't_ this Wenatchee?" + +"Yes, Miss Armitage, I am afraid that it is. You are back to civilization. +A few minutes more and, if you will give me their address, you will be +safe with your friends." + +"I did not say I had any friends in Wenatchee, Mr. Tisdale. I am going on +to Hesperides Vale. But please leave me at any quiet hotel. I can't thank +you enough for all your kindness and patience," she went on hurriedly. +"For making this trip possible. All I can hope to do is share the +expense." And she found the inside pocket of her coat and drew out a small +silver purse. + +Tisdale, driving slowly, divided his attention between his team and the +buildings on either side. "There is a public garage," he said, "and a +rival establishment opposite. You will have no trouble to finish your trip +by automobile, as you planned. It will be pleasant making the run up the +valley this evening, when it is cool." + +Miss Armitage opened her purse. "The rates must be considerably higher on +a rough mountain road than on the Seattle boulevard, and, of course, one +couldn't expect to hire Nip and Tuck at ordinary rates." + +Tisdale drew in, hesitating, before a hotel, then relaxed the reins. "The +building seems modern, but we may find a quiet little inn up some side +street with more shade." + +"I presume you will drive on up the valley," she said, after a moment, +"and start back to Kittitas to-morrow. Or will it be necessary to rest the +team a day?" + +"I shall drive on to that tract of Weatherbee's this afternoon; but I +expect to take the westbound train to-night, somewhere up the valley." + +"I see," she said quickly and tried to cover her dismay, "you intend to +ship the team back to Kittitas by way of Seattle. I'm afraid"--her voice +broke a little, the color flushed pinkly to her forehead, her ears, and +her glance fell to the purse in her lap--"but please tell me the charges." + +"Madam," and the ready humor crinkled the corners of his mouth, "when I +ship these horses back to Lighter, he is going to pay the freight." + +She drew a quick breath of relief, but her purse remained open, and she +waited, regarding Tisdale with an expectant, disconcerting side-glance of +her half-veiled eyes. "And the day rates for the use of the team?" she +asked. + +For a moment he was busy turning the horses. They had reached a second +hotel, but it proved less inviting than the first, and the side streets +they had crossed afforded no quiet inn, or indeed any dwelling in the +shade. "After all," he said, "a room and bath on the north side, with +windows looking up the Columbia, should make you fairly comfortable +through the heat of the day." But the girl waited, and when his eyes fell +to that open purse, his own color burned through the tan. There was no +help for it; she must know the truth. He squared his shoulders, turning a +little toward her. "There are no expenses to share, Miss Armitage. I-- +happened to own this team, and since we were traveling the same way, I was +glad to offer you this vacant seat." + +"Do you mean you bought these horses--outright--at Kittitas?" + +"Yes, the opportunity was too good to miss." He tried to brave the +astonishment in her eyes, but his glance moved directly to the colts. +"And, you see, if I should buy that tract of Weatherbee's, I am going to +need a team." + +"Doubtless," answered Miss Armitage slowly. "Still, for breaking wild land +or even cultivating, one would choose a steadier, heavier team. But they +are beauties, Mr. Tisdale, and I know a man in Seattle who is going to be +disappointed. I congratulate you on being able to secure them." She closed +the purse at last and reluctantly put it away, and she added, with the +merriment dimpling her lips: "Fate certainly was with me yesterday." + +They had reached the hotel, and as he drew up to the curb, a man came from +the lobby to hold the bays. Several traveling salesmen stood smoking and +talking outside the entrance, while a little apart a land promoter and his +possible capitalist consulted a blue print; but there was a general pause +as Tisdale sprang out, and the curious scrutiny of wayfarers in a small +town was focussed on the arrivals. + +"It looks all right," he said quietly, helping her down, "but if you find +anything wrong, or should happen to want me, I shall be at that other +hotel until two o'clock. Good-by!" + +He saw the surprise in her face change to swift appreciation. Then +"Good-by," she answered and walked towards the door. But there she stopped. +Tisdale, looking back as he gave her suitcase to a boy, saw her lips part, +though she did not speak. Then her eyelids drooped, the color played +softly in her face, and she turned to go in. There had been no invitation +in her attitude, yet he had felt a certain appeal. It flashed over him she +did not want to motor up the valley; she wished to drive on with him. Too +proud, too fine to say so, she was letting her opportunity go. He hurried +across the pavement. + +"Miss Armitage," he said, and instantly she turned; the sparkles leaped in +her eyes; she came towards him a few steps and stopped expectantly. "If I +start up the valley at two"--and he looked at his watch--"that will be a +rest of nearly three hours. It means the heat of the day, but if it seems +better than motoring over a country road with a public chauffeur, I would +be glad to have you drive for me." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A WOMAN'S HEART-STRINGS + + +"Now I know the meaning of Wenatchee. It's something racy, Mr. Tisdale, +and a little wicked, yet with unexpected depths, and just the coolest, +limpid hazel-green." + +Tisdale's pulses quickened; his blood responded to her exhilaration. "Yes, +only"--and he waited to catch the glance she lifted from the stream--"your +green is blue, and you forgot to count the sparkles in." + +As he spoke, the bays paced off the bridge. They sprang, gathering +themselves lightly for a sharp ascent and for an interval held the +driver's close attention. The town and the Columbia were behind, and the +road, which followed the contour of the slopes rising abruptly from the +Wenatchee, began a series of sudden turns; it cut shelf-wise high across +the face of a ridge; spurs constantly closed after them; there seemed no +way back or through, then, like an opening gate, a bluff detached from the +wall ahead, and they entered another breadth of valley. In the wide levels +that bordered the river, young orchards began to supplant the sage. +Looking down from the thoroughfare, the even rows and squares seemed +wrought on the tawny background like the designs of a great carpet. +Sometimes, paralleling the road, the new High Line canal followed an upper +cut; it trestled a ravine or, stopped by a rocky cliff, bored through. +Where a finished spillway irrigated a mountainside, all the steep incline +between the runnels showed lines on lines of diminutive trees, pluckily +taking root-hold. + +A little after that, near an old mission, they dropped to a lower bench +and passed an apple orchard in full bearing. Everywhere boughs laden with +a gold or crimson harvest were supported by a network of scaffolding. It +was marvelous that fruit could so crowd and cling to a slender stem and +yet round and color to such perfection. Miss Armitage slowed the horses +down and looked up the shady avenues. Presently a driveway divided the +tract, leading to a dwelling so small it had the appearance of a toy +house; but on the gatepost above the rural delivery box the name of the +owner shone ostentatiously. It was "Henderson Bailey, Hesperides Vale." + +"Do you see?" she asked. "This is that station master's orchard, where the +Rome Beauty grew." + +But the team was troublesome again. The road made a turn, rounding the +orchard, and began the descent to a bridge. On the right a great +water-wheel, supplied with huge, scoop-shaped buckets, was lifting water +from the river to distribute it over a reclaimed section. The bays pranced +toward it suspiciously. "Now, now, Tuck," she admonished, "be a soldier." +The colt sidled gingerly. "Whoa, Nip, whoa!" and, rearing lightly, they +took the approach with a rush. + +As they quieted and trotted evenly off the bridge, a large and brilliant +signboard set in an area of sage-brush challenged the eye. Miss Armitage +fluted a laugh. + +"Buy one of these Choice Lots," + +she read, with charming, slightly mocking exaggeration. + +"Buy to-day. + +"To-morrow will see this Property the Heart of a City. + +"Buy before the Prices Soar. + +"Talk with Henderson Bailey. + +"This surely is Hesperides Vale," she added. + +The amusement went out of Tisdale's face. "Yes, madam, and your journey's +end. Probably the next post-box will announce the name of your friends." + +She did not answer directly. She looked beyond the heads of the team to +the top of the valley, where two brown slopes parted like drawn curtains +and opened a blue vista of canyon closed by a lofty snow-peak. The sun had +more than fulfilled its morning promise of heat, but a soft breeze began +to pull from that white summit down the watercourse. + +"I did not tell you I had friends in Hesperides Vale," she said at last. +Her eyes continued to search the far blue canyon, but her color heightened +at his quick glance of surprise, and she went on with a kind of +breathlessness. + +"I--I have a confession to make. I--But hasn't it occurred to you, Mr. +Tisdale, that I might be interested in this land you are on your way to +see?" + +His glance changed. It settled into his clear, calculating look of +appraisal. Under it her color flamed; she, turned her face farther away. +"No," he answered slowly, "No, that had not occurred to me." + +"I should have told you at the beginning, but I thought, at first, you +knew. Afterward--but I am going to explain now," and she turned +resolutely, smiling a little to brave that look. "Mr. Morganstein had +promised, when he planned the trip to Portland, that he would run over +from Ellensburg to look the property up. He believed it might be feasible +to plat it into five-acre tracts to put on the market. Of course we knew +nothing of the difficulties of the road; we had heard it was an old stage +route, and we expected to motor through and return the same day. So, when +the accident happened to the car in Snoqualmie Pass, and the others were +taking the Milwaukee train home, I decided, on the impulse of the moment, +to finish this side trip to Wenatchee and return to Seattle by the Great +Northern. I admit seeing you on the eastbound influenced me. We--Mrs. +Feversham--guessed you were on your way to see this land, and when the +porter was uncertain of the stage from Ellensburg, but that you were +leaving the trail below Kittitas, I thought you had found a newer, quicker +way. So--I followed you." + +Tisdale's brows relaxed. He laughed a little softly, trying to ease her +evident distress. "I am glad you did, Miss Armitage. I am mighty glad you +did. But I see," he went on slowly, his face clouding again, "I see Mrs. +Weatherbee had been talking to you about that tract. It's strange I hadn't +thought of that possibility. I'll wager she even tried to sell the land +off a map, in Seattle. I wonder, though, when this Weatherbee trip was +arranged to look the property over, that she didn't come, too. But no +doubt that seemed too eager." + +The blue lights flashed in her eyes; her lip trembled. "Be fair," she +said. "You can afford to be--generous." + +"I am going to be generous, Miss Armitage, to you." The ready humor +touched his mouth again, the corners of his eyes. "I am going to take you +over the ground with me; show you Weatherbee's project, his drawn plans. +But afterwards, if you outbid me--" + +"You need not be afraid of that," she interrupted quickly. "I--you must +know"--she paused, her lashes drooped--"I--am not very rich," she +finessed. + +Tisdale laughed outright. "Neither am I. Neither am I." Then, his glance +studying the road, he said: "I think we take that branch. But wait!" He +drew his map from his pocket and pored over it a moment. "Yes, we turn +there. After that there is just one track." + +For an instant Miss Armitage seemed to waver. She sent a backward look to +the river, and the glance, returning, swept Tisdale; then she straightened +in her seat and swung the bays into the branch. It cut the valley +diagonally, away from the Wenatchee, past a last orchard, into wild lands +that stretched in level benches under the mountain wall. One tawny, +sage-mottled slope began to detach from the rest; it took the shape of a +reclining brazen beast, partly leopard, partly wolf, and a line of pine +trees that had taken root in a moist strata along the backbone had the +effect of a bristling mane. + +"That is Weatherbee's landmark," said Tisdale. "He called it Cerberus. It +is all sketched in true as life on his plans. The gap there under the +brute's paw is the entrance to his vale." + +As they approached, the mountain seemed to move; it took the appearance of +an animal, ready to spring. Miss Armitage, watching, shivered. The +dreadful expectation she had shown the previous night when the cry of the +cougar came down the wind, rose in her face. It was as though she had come +upon that beast, more terrifying than she had feared, lying in wait for +her. Then the moment passed. She raised her head, her hands tightened on +the reins, and she drove resolutely into the shadows of the awful front. +"Now," she said, not quite steadily, "now I know how monstrously alive a +mountain can seem." + +Tisdale looked at her. "You never could live in Alaska," he said. "You +feel too much this personality of inanimate things. That was David +Weatherbee's trouble. You know how in the end he thought those Alaska +peaks were moving. They got to 'crowding' him." + +The girl turned a little and met his look. Her eyes, wide with dread, +entreated him. "Yes, I know," she said, and her voice was almost a +whisper. "I was thinking of him. But please don't say any more. I can't-- +bear it--here." + +So she was thinking of Weatherbee. Her emotion sprang from her sympathy +for him. A gentleness that was almost tenderness crept over Tisdale's +face. How fine she was, how sensitively made, and how measureless her +capacity for loving, if she could feel like this for a man of whom she had +only heard. + +Miss Armitage, squaring her shoulders and sitting very erect once more, +her lips closed in a straight red line drove firmly on. A stream ran +musically along the road side,--a stream so small it was marvelous it had +a voice. As they rounded the mountain, the gap widened into the mouth of +the vale, which lifted back to an upper bench, over-topped by a lofty +plateau. Then she swung the team around and stopped. The way was cut off +by a barbed wire fence. + +The enclosure was apparently a corral for a flock of Angora goats. There +was no gate for the passage of teams; the road ended there, and a rough +sign nailed to a hingeless wicket warned the wayfarer to "Keep Out." On a +rocky knob near this entrance a gaunt, hard-featured woman sat knitting. +She measured the trespassers with a furtive, smouldering glance and +clicked her needles with unnecessary force. + +Tisdale's eyes made a swift inventory of the poor shelter, half cabin, +partly shed, that evidently housed both the woman and her flock, then +searched the barren field for some sort of hitching post. But the few +bushes along the stream were small, kept low, doubtless, by the browsing +goats, and his glance rested on a fringe of poplars beyond the upper +fence. + +"There's no way around," he said at last, and the amusement broke softly +in his face. "We will have to go through." + +"The wicket will take the team singly," she answered, "but we must unhitch +and leave the buggy here." + +"And first, if you think you can hold the colts that long, I must tackle +this thistle." + +"I can manage," she said, and the sparkles danced in her eyes, "unless you +are vanquished." + +The woman rose and stood glowering while he sprang down and drew the +wooden pin to open the wicket. Then, "You keep off my land," she ordered +sharply. "I will, madam," he answered quietly, "as soon as I am satisfied +it is yours." + +"I've lived on this claim 'most five years," she screamed. "I'm +homesteading, and when I've used the water seven years, I get the rights." +She sprang backward with a cattish movement and caught up a gun that had +been concealed in some bushes. "Now you go," she said. + +But Tisdale stayed. He stood weighing her with his steady, appraising +eyes, while he drew the township plat from his pocket. + +"This is the quarter section I have come to look up. It starts here, you +see,"--and having unfolded the map, he turned to hold it under her +glance--"at the mouth of this gap, and lifts back through the pocket, +taking in the slopes to this bench and on up over this ridge to include +these springs." + +The woman, curbing herself to look at the plat, allowed the rifle to +settle in the curve of her arm. "I piped the water down," she said. "This +stream was a dry gully. I fenced and put up a house." + +"The tract was commuted and bought outright from the Government over seven +years ago." Tisdale's voice quickened; he set his lips dominantly and +folded the map. "I have copies of the field notes with me and the owner's +landscape plans. And I am a surveyor, madam. It won't take me long to find +out whether there is a mistake. But, before I go over the ground, I must +get my horses through to a hitching-place. I will have to lower that upper +fence, but if you will keep your goats together, I promise to put it back +as soon as the team is through." + +"You let that fence alone." Tisdale had started to cross the field, and +she followed, railing, though the gun still rested in the hollow of her +arm. "If one of those goats breaks away, the whole herd'll go wild. I +can't round 'em in without my dog. He's off trailing one of the ewes. She +strayed yesterday, and he'll chase the mountain through if he has to. It's +no use to whistle; he won't come back without her. You let that fence be. +You wouldn't dare to touch it," she finished impotently, "if I had a man." + +"Haven't you?" Tisdale swung around, and his voice dropped to its soft +undernote. "That's mighty hard. Who laid all that water-pipe? Who built +your house?" + +"I did," she answered grimly. "The man who hauled my load of lumber +stopped long enough to help set the posts, but I did the rest." + +"You did?" Tisdale shook his head incredulously. "My! My! Made all the +necessary improvements, single-handed, to hold your homestead and at the +same time managed these goats." + +The woman's glance moved to the shack and out over the barren fields, and +a shade of uncertainty crept into her passionate eyes. "The improvements +don't make much of a show yet; I've had to be off so much in the +mountains, foraging with the herd. But I was able to hire a boy half a day +with the shearing this spring, and from now on they're going to pay. There +are twenty-eight in the bunch, counting the kids, and I started with one +old billy and two ewes." + +"My! My! what a record!" Tisdale paused to look back at Miss Armitage, who +had turned the bays, allowing them to pace down a length of road and back. + +"But," he added, walking on, "what led you to choose goats instead of +sheep?" + +"I didn't do the choosing"; she moved abreast of Hollis, "it was a fool +man." + +"So," he answered softly, with a glimmer of amusement in his eyes, "there +is a man, after all." + +"There was," she corrected grimly. "The easiest fellow to be talked over +under the sun; the kind always chasing off after a new scheme. First it +was a mineral claim; then he banked the future on timber, and when he got +tired waiting for stumpage to soar, he put up a dinky sawmill to cut his +own trees. He was doing well, for him, getting out ties for a new +railroad--it was down in Oregon--when he saw the chance to trade for a +proved-up homestead. But it was the limit when he started out to buy a +bunch of sheep and came back with that old Angora billy and two ewes." + +"I see." They were near the fence, and Tisdale swerved a little to reach a +stout poplar that formed the corner post. He saw that the wire ends met +there and felt in his pocket for his knife. "I see. And then he left the +responsibility to his wife." + +"The wedding hadn't come off," she said sharply. "It was fixed for the +seventeenth of June, and that was only May. And I told him I couldn't risk +it--not in the face of those goats." + +"And he?" pressed Hollis gently. This thistle, isolated, denied human +intercourse, was more easily handled than he had hoped. + +"He said it suited him all right. He had been wanting to go to Alaska. +Nothing but that wedding had kept him back." + +Tisdale stopped and opened his knife. "And he went?" he asked. + +"Yes." The woman's face worked a little, and she stood looking at him with +hard, tragic eyes. "He sold the homestead for what he could get to raise +the money to take him to Dawson. He was gone in less than twenty-four +hours and before daylight, that night he left, I heard those goats +_ma-a-ing_ under my window. He had staked them there in the front yard and +tucked a note, with his compliments, in the door. He wrote he didn't know +of anything else he could leave that would make me remember him better." + +Tisdale shook his head. "I wish I had been there." He slipped the knife in +between the ends of the wires and the bole, clawing, prying, twisting. +"And you kept them?" he added. + +"Yes, I don't know why, unless it was because I knew it was the last thing +he expected. But I hated them worse than snakes. I couldn't stand it +having them around, and I hired a boy to herd them out on his father's +farm. Then I went on helping Dad, selling general merchandise and sorting +mail. But the post-office was moved that year five miles to the new +railroad station, and they put in a new man. Of course that meant a line +of goods, too, and competition. Trade fell off, then sickness came. It +lasted two years, and when Dad was gone, there wasn't much left of the +store but debt." She paused a moment, looking up to the serene sky above +the high plateau. A sudden moisture softened her burning eyes, and her +free hand crept to her throat. "Dad was a mighty fine man," she said. "He +had a great business head. It wasn't his fault he didn't leave me well +fixed." + +Tisdale laid the loosened wire down on the ground and started to work on +another. "But there was the man in Alaska," he said. "Of course you let +him know." + +"No, sir." Her eyes flashed back to Tisdale's face. "You wouldn't have +caught me writing to Johnny Banks, then. I'm not that kind. The most I +could do was to see what I could make of the goats. I commenced herding +them myself, but I hadn't the face to do it down there in Oregon, where +everybody knew me, and I gradually worked north with them until I ended +here." + +Tisdale had dropped his knife. He stooped to pick it up. "That's where you +made your mistake," he said. + +The woman drew a step nearer, watching his face; tense, breathless. +Clearly he had turned her thoughts from the fence, and he slipped the +knife in farther and continued to pry and twist the wire loose. "How do +you know it was a mistake?" she asked at last. + +Tisdale laid the second wire down. "Well, wasn't it? To punish yourself +like this, to cheat yourself out of the best years of your life, when you +knew how much Banks thought of you. But you seem to have overlooked his +side. Do you think, when he knows how you crucified yourself, it's going +to make him any happier? He carried a great spirit bottled in that small, +wiry frame, but he got to seeing himself through your eyes. He was ashamed +of his failures--he had always been a little sensitive about his size--and +it wasn't the usual enthusiasm that started him to Alaska; he was stung +into going. It was like him to play his poor joke gamily, at the last, and +pretend he didn't care. A word from you would have held him--you must have +known that--and a letter from you afterwards, when you needed him, would +have brought him back. Or you might have joined him up there and made a +home for him all these years, but you chose to bury yourself here in the +desert of the Columbia, starving your soul, wasting your best on these +goats." He paused with the last loosened wire in his hands and stood +looking at her with condemning eyes. "What made you?" he added, and his +voice vibrated softly. "What made you?" + +The woman's features worked; tears filled her eyes. + +They must have been the first in many months, for they came with the gush +that follows a probe. "You know him," she said brokenly. "You've seen him +lately, up there in Alaska." + +"I think so, yes. The Johnny Banks I knew in the north told me something +about a girl he left down in Oregon. But she was a remarkably pretty girl, +with merry black eyes and a nice color in her cheeks. Seems to me she used +to wear a pink gown sometimes, and a pink rose in her black hair, and made +a picture that the fellows busy along the new railroad came miles on +Sundays to see." + +A bleak smile touched the woman's mouth. "Dad always liked to see me wear +nice clothes. He said it advertised the store." Then her glance fell to +her coarse, wretched skirt, and the contrast struck poignantly. + +Tisdale moved the wires back, clearing a space for the bays to pass. +"There was one young engineer," he went on, as though she had not spoken; +"a big, handsome fellow, who came oftener than the rest. Banks thought it +was natural she should favor him. The little man believes yet that when he +was out of the way she married that engineer." + +The woman was beyond speech. Tisdale had penetrated the last barrier of +her fortitude. The bitterness, pent so long, fostered in solitude, filled +the vent and surged through. Her shoulders shook, she stumbled a few steps +to the poplar and, throwing up her arm against the bole, buried her face, +sobbing, in her sleeve. + +Tisdale looked back across the field. Miss Armitage was holding the team +in readiness at the wicket. "I am going now," he said. "You will have to +watch your goats until I get the horses through. But if you will write +that letter, madam, while I'm at work, I'll be glad to mail it for you." + +The woman looked up. A sudden hope transfigured her face. "I wish I dared +to. But he wouldn't know me now; I've changed so. Besides, I don't know +his address." + +"That's so." Tisdale met her glance thoughtfully. "But leave it to me. I +think I can get into touch with him when I am back in Seattle." + +Miss Armitage watched him as he came swiftly across the field. "Oh," she +cried, when he reached the waiting team, "how did you accomplish it? Are +you a magician?" + +Hollis shook his head. "I only tried to play a little on her +heart-strings, to gain time, and struck an unexpected chord. But it's all +right. It's going to do her good." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE LOOPHOLE + + +The afternoon sun shone hot in that pocket; the arid slopes reflected the +glare; heat waves lifted; the snow-peak was shut out, and when a puff of +wind found the gap it was a breath from the desert. Miss Armitage, who had +trailed pluckily after Tisdale through the sage-brush and up the steep +face of the bench, rested on the level, while he hurried on to find the +easiest route to the high plateau and the spring. He had left her seated +on a flat rock in the shade of a sentinel pine tree, looking over the vale +to Cerberus and the distant bit of the Wenatchee showing beyond the mouth, +but as he came back along the ridge, he saw she had turned her shoulder on +the crouching mountain. At his far "Hello!" she waved her hand to him and +rose to start across the bench to meet him. He was descending a broken +stairway below two granite pillars that topped a semi-circular bluff and, +springing from a knob to avoid a dry runnel, he shaped his way diagonally +to abridge the distance. He moved with incredible swiftness, swinging by +his hands to drop from a ledge, sliding where he must, and the ease and +expediency with which he accomplished it all brought the admiration +sparkling to her eyes. + +"I am sorry," he said, as he drew near, "but there isn't any easy way. +It's too bad to have traveled so far and miss the spring, for the whole +project hinges on it; but the climb is impossible for you in this heat." + +"Then you found the spring?" she asked quickly. "It was all the plans +promised?" + +"Yes." He began to walk on across the bench, suiting his steps to hers. +"And Weatherbee had put in a small dam there to create his first +reservoir. I found his old camp, too; a foundation of logs, open now to +the sky, with a few tatters left of the canvas that had roofed it over." +There was a silent moment, then he added, with the emotion still playing +gently in his voice: "I wish I could show you that place; the pool is +crystal clear and cool, rimmed in pines, like a basin of opals." + +When they reached the flat rock in the shade of the pine tree, he took the +reclamation plan from his inner pocket and seated himself beside her. +"This is Weatherbee's drawing," he said. "See how carefully he worked in +the detail. This is the spring and that upper reservoir, and this lower +one is a natural dry basin up there under that bluff, a little to the left +of those granite chimneys; you can see its rocky rim. All it needs is this +short flume sketched in here to bring the water down, and a sluice-gate to +feed the main canal that follows this bench we are on. Spillways would +irrigate a peach orchard along this slope below us and seep out through +this level around us to supply home gardens and lawn. Just imagine it!" He +paused, while her glance followed his brief comparisons, moving from the +plan to the surface of the bench and down over the slope to the vale. +"Imagine this tract at the end of four years; a billowing sea of green; +with peach trees in bearing on this mountainside; apples, the finest +Jonathans, Rome Beauties if you will, beginning to make a showing down +there. Water running, seeping everywhere; strawberries carpeting the +ground between the boles; alfalfa, cool and moist, filling in; and even +Cerberus off there losing his sinister shape in vineyards." + +"Then it is feasible," she exclaimed softly, and the sparkles broke +subdued in her eyes. "And the price, Mr. Tisdale; what would you consider +a fair price for the property as it stands now, unimproved?" Tisdale rose. +He paused to fold the drawing and put it away, while his glance moved +slowly down over the vale to the goat-keeper's cabin and her browsing +flock. "You must see, Miss Armitage," he said then, "that idea of Mr. +Morganstein's to plat this land into five-acre tracts for the market +couldn't materialize. It is out of range of the Wenatchee valley projects; +it is inaccessible to the railroad for the small farmer. Only the man with +capital to work it on a large scale could make it pay. And the property is +Mrs. Weatherbee's last asset; she is in urgent need of ready money. You +should be able to make easy terms with her, but I warn you, if it comes to +bidding, I am prepared to offer seven thousand dollars." + +He turned, frowning a little, to look down at her and, catching those +covert sparkles of her side-glance, smiled. + +"You may have it," she said. + +"Wait. Think it over," he answered. "I am going down to the gap now to +find the surveyor's monument and trace the section line back to the top of +the plateau. Rest here, where it's cooler, and I will come down this way +for you when I am through. Think the project over and take my word for the +spring; it's well worth the investment." + +Doubtless Miss Armitage followed his suggestion, for she sat thoughtfully, +almost absently, watching him down the slope. At the foot of the vale, the +goat-woman joined him, and it was clear he again used his magic art, for +presently he had her chaining for him and holding an improvised flag, +while he estimated the section line. But finally, when they left the bed +of the pocket and began to cross-cut up the opposite mountainside, the +girl rose and looked in the direction of the spring. It was cooler; a +breeze was drawing down from the upper ridge; a few thin clouds like torn +gauze veiled the sky overhead; the blue lost intensity. She began to walk +across the bench towards the granite chimneys. In a little while she found +the dry reservoir, walled, where the plateau lifted, in the semi-circular +bluff; then she stopped at the foot of an arid gully that rose between +this basin and a small shoulder which supported the first needle. This was +the stairway she had seen Tisdale descend, and presently she commenced to +climb it slowly, grasping bunches of the tenacious sage or jutting points +of rock to ease her weight. + +The stairs ended in a sharp incline covered with debris from the +decomposing pillars; splinters of granite shifted under her tread; she +felt the edges cutting through her shoes. Fragments began to rattle down; +one larger rock crashed over the bluff into the dry basin. Then, at last, +she was on the level, fighting for breath. She turned, trembling, and +braced herself against the broken chimney to look back. She shrank closer +to the needle and shook her head. It was as though she said: "I never +could go back alone." + +But when her glance moved to the opposite mountainside, Tisdale was no +longer in sight. And that shoulder was very narrow; it presented a sheer +front to the vale, like the base of a monument, so that between the +chimney and the drop to the gully there was little room in which to stand. +She began to choose a course, picking her foothold cautiously, zigzagging +as she had seen Hollis do on the slope above. Midway another knob jutted, +supporting a second pillar and a single pine tree, but as she came under +the chimney she was forced to hurry. Loose chippings of granite started at +every step. They formed little torrents, undermining, rushing, threatening +to sweep her down; and she reached the ledge in a panic. Then she felt the +stable security of the pine against her body and for a moment let herself +go, sinking to the foot of the tree and covering her eyes with her hands. + +Up there a stiff wind was blowing, and presently she saw the snow-peak she +had missed in the vale. The ridge lifted less abruptly from this second +spur, and in a little while she rose and pushed on, lagging sometimes, +stumbling, to the level of the plateau. The Wenatchee range, of which it +was a part, stretched bleak and forbidding, enclosing all those minor arid +gulfs down to the final, long, scarred headland set against the Columbia +desert. She was like a woman stranded, the last survivor, on an +inhospitable coast. Turning to look across the valley of the Wenatchee, +she saw the blue and glaciered crests of the Chelan mountains, and behind +her, over the neck of a loftier height, loomed other white domes. And +there yesterday's thunder-caps, bigger and blacker, with fringed edges, +drove along the sky line. One purplish mass was streaming like a sieve. +For an interval the sun was obscured, and her glance came back to the vale +below where Cerberus reclined, watchful, his tawny head lifted slightly +between two advanced paws. Suddenly the lower clouds grew brilliant, and +shafts of light breaking through changed the mountain before her to a +beast of brass. + +She turned and began to pick her way through grease brush and insistent +sage towards a grove of pines. In a little while she saw water shining +through the trees. She hesitated--it was as though she had come to the +threshold of a sanctuary--then went on under the boughs to the opal pool. + +She remained in the grove a long time. When she reappeared, the desert +eastward was curtained in a gray film. Torn breadths of it, driven by some +local current of air, formed tented clouds along the promontory. It was as +though yesterday's army was marshalled against other hosts that held the +Chelan heights. A twilight indistinctness settled over the valley between. +Rain, a downpour, was near. She hurried on to the brow of the plateau, but +she dared not attempt to go down around those crumbling chimneys alone. +And Tisdale had said he would come back this side of the vale. Any moment +he might appear. She turned to go back to the shelter of the pines. It was +then a first electrical flash, like a drawn sword, challenged the opposite +ridge. Instantly a searchlight from the encamped legions played over the +lower plain. She turned again, wavering, and began to run on over the +first dip of the slope and along to the first pillar. There she stopped, +leaning on the rock, trembling, yet trying to force down her fear. It was +useless; she could not venture over that stream of shifting granite. She +started back, then stopped, wavering again. After a moment she lifted her +voice in a clear, long call: "Mr. Tis--da--le!" + +"I'm coming!" The answer rang surprisingly close, from the gully above the +basin. Soon she discovered him and, looking up, he saw her standing +clear-cut against a cavernous, dun-colored cloud, which, gathering all +lesser drift into its gulf, drove low towards the plateau. She turned her +face, watching it, and it seemed to belch wind like a bellows, for her +skirt stiffened, and the loosened chiffon veil, lifting from her shoulders, +streamed like the drapery of some aerial figure, poised there briefly on +its flight through space. Then began cannonading. Army replied to army. +The advancing film from the desert, grown black, became an illuminated +scroll; thin ribbons of gold were traced on it, bowknots of tinsel. The +pattern changed continually. The legions repeated their fire; javelins, +shafts, flew. Lightning passed in vertical bolts, in sheets from ridge to +ridge. Then the cloud approaching the plateau spoke, and the curtain +moving from the Columbia became a wall of doom, in which great cracks +yawned, letting the light of eternity through. + +The girl was flying down the slope to meet Tisdale. She came with bent +head, hands to her ears, skimming the pitfalls. Under her light tread the +loose debris hardly stirred. Then, as he rounded the pillar, her pace +slackened. "I am afraid," she said and stumbled. "I am afraid." And her +trembling body sank against his arm; she buried her face in his coat. +"Take me away from this terrible place." + +Her impact had started the splintered granite moving, but Hollis swung +instantly and set his back to the crumbling chimney, clinging there, +staying her with his arm, until the slide stopped. + +"See here," he said, and his voice vibrated its soft undernote, "you +mustn't lose your grip. It's all right. Old Mother Nature is just having +one of her scolding fits. She has to show the woman in her once in a +while. But it's going to end, any minute, in tears." + +She lifted her face, and he paused, knitting his brows, yet smiling a +little, mastering the terror in her eyes with his quiet, compelling gaze. +"Come, Miss Armitage," he said, "we must hurry. You will be wet through." + +He took her hand and began to lead her quickly down the rugged staircase. +"Be careful," he admonished, "this granite is treacherous." But she gave +little heed to her steps; she looked back continually over her shoulder, +watching the dun cloud. Presently she tripped. Hollis turned to steady +her, and, himself looking up beyond her, caught her in his arms and ran, +springing, out of the gully. + +The ledge he reached formed the rim of the natural reservoir and, +measuring the distance with a swift glance, he let himself over, easing +the drop with one hand on the rocky brink, while the other arm supported +her. Midway, on a jutting knob, he gathered momentary foothold, then swung +to the bottom of the basin. + +It was all done surely but with incredible haste, while the cavernous +cloud drew directly overhead. The next instant, from its brazen depths, it +spoke again. The whole mountain seemed to heave. Then something mighty +crashed down. The basin suddenly darkened as though a trap door had +closed, and Tisdale, still shielding his companion, stood looking up, +listening, while the reverberations rang from slope to slope and filled +the vale. Then silence came. + +Miss Armitage drew erect, though her hand rested unconsciously on +Tisdale's sleeve. The thing that roofed the basin was black, impenetrably +thick; in it she saw no possible loophole of escape. "This time," she +faltered, "Fate is against you." + +Her breast rose and fell in deep, hurried breaths; in the twilight of the +basin her eyes, meeting his, shone like twin stars. Tisdale's blood began +to race; it rose full tide in his veins, "Fate is with me," he answered, +and bent and kissed her mouth. + +She shrank back, trembling, against the rocky wall; she glanced about her +with the swift, futile manner of a creature helplessly trapped, then she +pressed her fingers an instant to her eyes and straightened. "You never +will forgive yourself," she said; not in anger, not in judgment, but in a +tone so low, so sad, it seemed to express not only regret but finality. + +Tisdale was silent. After a moment he turned to the lower side of the +basin, which afforded better foothold than the wall he had descended, and +began to work up from niche to ledge, grasping a chance bunch of sage, a +stunted bush of chaparral that grew in a cranny, to steady himself. And +the girl stood aloof, watching him. Finally he reached a shelf that +brought him, in touch with the obstruction overhead and stopped to take +out his pocketknife, with which he commenced to create a loophole. Little +twigs rained down; a larger branch fell, letting the daylight through. The +roof was a mesh of pine boughs. + +At last he closed his knife and, taking firm hold on a fixed limb, leaned +to reach his other palm down to her. "Come," he said, "set your foot in +that first niche--no, the left one. Now, give me your hand." + +She obeyed as she must, and Hollis pushed backward through the aperture he +had made, getting the bough under one armpit. "Now, step to that jagged +little spur; it's solid. The right one, too; there's room." She gained the +upper ledge and waited, hugging the wall pluckily while he worked out on +the rim of the basin and, stretching full length, with the stem of the +tree under his waist, reached his arms down to her. "You will have to +spring a little," he directed, "and grip my shoulders hard. Now, come!" + +At last she was safe beside him. In another moment he was up and helped +her to her feet. They stood looking towards the mountain top. The dun +cloud stalking now with trailing skirts in the direction of the +snow-peaks, hurled back a parting threat. "It was the pine tree," she +exclaimed. "It was struck. And, see! It has carried down most of that +chimney. Our staircase is completely wrecked." + +Tisdale was silent. Her glance came back to him. A sudden emotion stirred +her face. Then all the conservatism dropped from her like a discarded +cloak, and he felt her intrepid spirit respond to his own. Now she +understood that moment in the basin; she knew it had been supreme; she was +great enough to see there was nothing to forgive. "You were right," she +said, and her voice broke in those steadying pauses that carried more +expression than any words. "Fate was with us again. But I owe--my life--to +you." + +"Sometime," he answered slowly, smiling a little, "not now, not here, I am +going to hold you to the debt. And when I do, you are going to pay me--in +full." + +The beautiful color, that was like the pink of coral, flamed and went in +her face. "We must hurry back to the team," she said and turned to finish +the descent to the bench. "Horses are always so nervous in an electrical +storm." Then suddenly, as Tisdale pushed by to help her in a difficult +place, she stopped. "How strange!" she exclaimed. "That terrible curtain +has lifted from the desert. It threatened a deluge any minute, and now it +is moving off without a drop of rain." + +"That's so," he replied. "A cross current of wind has turned it up the +Columbia. But the rain is there; it is streaming along those Chelan +summits in a downpour." + +"And look!" she cried, after a moment. "A double rainbow! See how it spans +the Wenatchee! It's a promise." And the turquoise lights shone once more +in her eyes. "Here in this desert, at last, I may come to my 'pot of +gold.'" + +"You mean," responded Tisdale, "now you have seen the spring, Weatherbee's +project seems possible to you. Well, I have reconsidered, too. I shall not +outbid you. That would favor Mrs. Weatherbee too much. And my interests +are going to keep me in Alaska indefinitely. I should be obliged to leave +the plans in the hands of a manager, and I had rather trust them to you." + +Miss Armitage did not answer directly. She was watching the arch, painted +higher now, less brilliantly, on the lifting film. The light had gone out +of her face. All the bench was in shadow; in the valley below a twilight +indistinctness had fallen. Then suddenly once more Cerberus stood forth +like a beast of brass. She shivered. + +"It isn't possible," she said. "It isn't possible. Even if I dared--for +David's sake--to assume the responsibility, I haven't the money to carry +the project through." + +Tisdale stopped and swung around. They had reached the flat rock under the +sentinel pine tree. "Did you know David Weatherbee?" he asked. + +She was silent. He put his hands in his pockets and stood regarding her +with his upward look from under slightly frowning brows. "So you knew +David," he went on. "In California, I presume, before he went to Alaska. +But why didn't you tell me so?" + +She waited another moment. In the great stillness Hollis heard her labored +breathing. She put out her hand, steadying herself on the bole of the +pine, then: "I've wanted to tell you," she began. "I've tried to--but--it +was impossible to make you understand. I--I hadn't the courage." + +Her voice fluted and broke. The last word was almost a whisper. She stood +before Tisdale with veiled eyes, breath still coming hard and quick, the +lovely color deepening and paling in her face, like a woman awaiting +judgment. And it came over him in a flash, with the strength of +conviction, that this beautiful, inscrutable girl wished him to know she +had loved Weatherbee. Incredible as it seemed, she had been set aside for +the Spanish woman. And she had learned about David's project; he himself +perhaps had told her years ago in California. And though his wife had +talked with Morganstein about platting the land into five-acre tracts to +dispose of quickly, this woman had desired to see the property with a view +to carrying out his plans. That was why she had continued the journey from +Snoqualmie Pass alone. That was why she had braved the mountain drive with +him. She had loved Weatherbee. This truth, sinking slowly, stirred his +inner consciousness and, wrenched in a rising commotion, something far +down in the depths of him lost hold. He had presumed to think, in the +infinite scheme of things, this one woman had been reserved for him. He +had dared to let her know he believed so; he had taken advantage of her +helpless situation, on an acquaintance of two days. His own color began to +burn through the tan. "You were right," he said at last, very gently, "I +never can forgive myself. I can't understand it!" he broke out then, "if +you had been his wife, David Weatherbee would have been safe with us here, +to-day." + +Miss Armitage started. She gave him a quick, searching glance, then sank +down upon the rock. She seemed suddenly exhausted, like a woman who, +hard-pressed in the midst of peril, finds unexpectedly a friendly +threshold. + +Tisdale looked off to the brazen slopes of Cerberus. It was the first time +he had censured Weatherbee for anything, and suddenly, while he brooded, +protesting over that one paramount mistake, he felt himself unaccountably +responsible. He was seized with a compelling desire to, in some way, make +it up to her. "Come," he said, "you mustn't lose heart; to-morrow, when +you are rested, it will look easier. And the question of ready money need +not trouble you. Mrs. Weatherbee has reached the point where she has got +to hedge on the future. Make her an offer of five thousand dollars in +yearly payments, say, of fifteen hundred. She'll take it. Then, if you +agree, I will arrange a loan with a Seattle bank. I should allow enough +margin to cover the first reclamation expenses. Your fillers of alfalfa +and strawberries would bring swift returns, and before your orchards came +into bearing, your vineyards would pay the purchase price on the whole +tract." + +He turned to her, smiling, and surprised a despair in her face that went +to his heart. + +"I thought, I hoped you meant to buy this land," she said. + +"So I did, so I do, unless you decide to. And if you undertake this +project, I pledge myself to see you through." His voice caught a pleading +undernote. "It rests with you. Above every one it rests with you to even +things for Weatherbee. Isn't that clear to you? Look ahead five years; see +this vale green and shady with orchards; the trees laden with harvest; +imagine his wife standing here on this bench, surveying it all. See her +waking to the knowledge she has let a fortune slip through her hands; see +her, the purchase price spent, facing the fact that another woman built +her faith on David Weatherbee; had the courage to carry out his scheme and +found it a bonanza. That is what is going to make her punishment strike +home." + +Miss Armitage rose. She stood a moment watching his face, then, "How you +hate her!" she said. + +"Hate?" Tisdale's laugh rang short and hard. "Well, I grant it; hate is +the word. I hate her so much I've known better than go where she was; I've +avoided her as an electrician avoids charged wire. Still, if I had found +myself in Weatherbee's place; if I had made his mistake and married her, +she should have felt my streak of iron. I might have stayed in Alaska as +he did, but she would have stayed too and made a home for me, helped to +fight things through." He paused and, meeting the appeal in her eyes, his +face softened. "I've distressed you again," he added. "I'm sorry; but it +isn't safe for me to speak of that woman; the thought of her starts my +temperature rising in bounds. I want you to help me forget her. Yet, down +in the depths of your heart you know you blame her." + +"Yes, I blame her." Miss Armitage began to walk on towards the edge of the +bench. "I blame her, but not as you do. I know she tried to do right; she +would have gone to Alaska--if David had wished it--at the start. And she's +been courageous, too. She's smiled--laughed in the face of defeat. Her +closest friends never knew." + +"You defend her. I wonder at that." Tisdale passed her and turned to offer +his help down the first abrupt pitch. "How you, who are the one to censure +her the most, can speak for her always, as you do. But there you are like +Weatherbee. It was his way to take the losing side; champion the absent." + +"And there is where your resemblance stops," she answered quickly. "He +lacked your streak of iron. Of course you know about your strange likeness +to him, Mr. Tisdale. It is so very marked; almost a dual personality. It +isn't height and breadth of shoulder alone; it's in the carriage, the turn +of the head; and it creeps into your eyes sometimes; it gets into your +voice. The first time I saw you, it was startling." + +Tisdale moved on, picking up the trail they had made in ascending; the +humor began to play reminiscently at the corners of his mouth. "Yes, I +know about that resemblance. When we were on the Tanana, it was 'Tisdale's +Twin' and 'Dave's Double.' A man has to take a name that fits up there, +and we seemed to grow more alike every day. But that often happens when +two friends who are accustomed to think in the same channels are brought +into continual touch, and the first year we spent in the north together we +were alone for weeks at a stretch, with no other human intercourse, not a +prospector's camp within a hundred miles. The most incompatible partners, +under those circumstances, will pick up subconsciously tricks of speech +and gesture. Still, looking back, I see it was I who changed. I had to +live up to Weatherbee; justify his faith in me." + +Miss Armitage shook her head slowly. "That is hard to believe. Whoever +tried to mould you would feel through the surface that streak of iron." +They had come to another precipitous place, and Tisdale turned again to +give her the support of his hand. The position brought his face on a level +with hers, and involuntarily she stopped. "But whatever you may say, Mr. +Tisdale," she went on, and as her palm rested in his the words gathered +the weight of a pact, "whatever may--happen--I shall never forget your +greatness to-day." She sprang down beside him, and drew away her hand and +looked back to the summit they had left. "Still, tell me this," she said +with a swift breathlessness. "If it had been David Weatherbee's wife up +there with you when the thunderbolt struck, would it have made a +difference? I mean, would you have left her to escape--or not--as she +could?" + +Tisdale waited a thoughtful moment. The ripple of amusement was gone; the +iron, so near the surface, cropped through. "I can't answer that," he +said. "I do not know. A man is not always able to control a first impulse, +and before that pine tree fell there wasn't time to hesitate." + +At this she was silent. All her buoyancy, the charming camaraderie that +stopped just short of intimacy, had dropped from her. It was as though the +atmosphere of that pocket rose and clung to her, enveloped her like a +nimbus, as she went down. In the pent heat her face seemed cold. She had +the appearance of being older. The fine vertical line at the corner of her +mouth, which Tisdale had not noticed before, brought a tightness to his +throat when he ventured to look at her. How could Weatherbee have been so +blind? How could he have missed the finer, spiritual loveliness of this +woman? Weatherbee, who himself had been so sensitive; whose intuition was +almost feminine. + +They had reached the final step from the bench to the floor of the vale +when Hollis spoke again. "If you do decide to buy this land and open the +project, I could recommend a man who would make a trusty manager." + +"Oh, you don't understand," she replied in desperation "You don't +understand. I should have to stay, to live in this terrible place for +weeks, months at a time. I couldn't endure it. That dreadful mountain +there at the gap would forever be watching me, holding me in." + +Tisdale looked at her, knitting his brows, "I told you it was dangerous to +allow yourself to feel the personality of inanimate things too much." + +"I know. I know. And this terrible beast"--she paused, trying to steady +her voice; her whole body trembled--"would remind me constantly of those +awful Alaska peaks--the ones that crowded--threatened him." + +Tisdale's face cleared. So that was the trouble. Now he understood. "Then +it's all right"--the minor notes in his voice, vibrating softly, had the +quality of a caress--"don't worry any more. I am going to buy this land of +David's. Trust me to see the project through." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +"WHOM THE GODS WOULD DESTROY" + + +Hope is an insistent thing. It may be strangled, lie cold and buried deep +in the heart of a man, yet suddenly, without premonition, he may feel it +rise and stretch small hands, groping towards a ray of light. So in that +reminiscent hour while the train labored up through the Cascades to the +great tunnel, Tisdale told himself this woman--the one woman for whom he +must have been waiting all these years, at whose coming old and cherished +memories had faded to shadows--was very near to loving him. Already she +knew that those mysterious forces she called Fate had impelled them out of +their separate orbits through unusual ways, to meet. Sometime--he would +not press her, he could be patient--but sometime she would surely pay him +that debt. + +He dwelt with new interest on his resemblance to Weatherbee, and he told +himself it was her constancy to David that had kept her safe. Then it came +over him that if Weatherbee had married her instead of the Spanish woman, +that must have been an insurmountable barrier between them to-day. As long +as they lived, she must have remained sacred on her pedestal, out of +reach. But how nobly partisan she was; how ready to cross swords for +Weatherbee's wife. That was the incredible test; her capacity for loving +was great. + +The porter was turning on the lights. Tisdale moved a little and looked +across the aisle. For that one moment he was glad Weatherbee had made his +mistake. She was so incomparable, so adorable. Any other woman must have +lost attractiveness, shown at least the wear and tear of that mountain +journey, but her weariness appealed to him as her buoyancy had not. She +had taken off her hat to rest her head on the high, cushioned back of the +seat, and the drooping curves of her short upper lip, the blue shadows +under those outward curling black lashes, roused a new emotion, the +paternal, in the depths of his great heart. He wished to smooth her +ruffled hair; it was so soft, so vital; under the electric light it seemed +to flash little answering blue sparks. Then his glance fell to her relaxed +palms, open in her lap, and he felt a quick solicitude over a scratch the +barbed fence must have made on one small, determined thumb. + +They had had trouble with the horses in the vale. Nip, who had broken away +during the storm, had been rounded in by the goat-woman and her returning +collie. The travelers found her trying to extricate his halter which had +caught, holding him dangerously close, in the wire fencing. It had taken +caution and long patience to free him, and more to hitch the excited team. +The delay had caused them to miss the westbound evening train; they were +forced to drive back and spend the night at Wenatchee. And the morning +Oriental Limited was crowded with delegates from some mystic order on an +annual pilgrimage. There was no room in the observation car; Tisdale was +able to secure only single seats on opposite sides of the sleeper. + +The train rumbled through the great tunnel and came to a brief stop +outside the west portal. It was snowing. Some railroad laborers, repairing +the track, worked in overcoats and sweaters, hat brims drawn down, collars +turned up against the bitter wind. The porter opened the transoms, and a +piercing draught pulled through the smoky, heat-laden car. Miss Armitage +sat erect and inhaled a full breath. She looked across at Tisdale, and the +sparkles broke softly in her eyes. "It's Wellington!" she exclaimed. "In a +moment we shall be racing down to Scenic Hot Springs and on along the +Skykomish--home." Then she stopped the porter. "Bring me a telegraph +blank, please. I want to send a message from the Springs." + +The limited, under way again, dropped below the cloud. Great peaks and +shoulders lifted everywhere; they began to make the loop around an +incredibly deep and fissure-like gorge. It was a wonderful feat of +railroad engineering; people on the other side of the car got to their +feet and came over to see. The girl, with the yellow blank in her hand, +drew close to Tisdale's elbow. "Oh, no," she demurred, when he rose to +offer his seat, "I only want standing room just a moment. There's going to +be a delightful view of Scenic." + +The passenger beside Hollis picked up his bag. "Take my place," he said. +"I am getting off at the Springs." + +Then presently, when she had moved into the vacated seat next the window, +the peaks stood apart, and far, far below the untouched forest at the +summer resort stood out darkly, with the gay eaves and gables of the hotel +etched on it like a toy Swiss chalet on a green plateau. + +"Oh," she cried softly, "it never seemed as charming before; but, of +course, it is coming, as we have, straight from the hot desert. There's +the coolest, fragrant wood road down there, Mr. Tisdale, from the hotel to +Surprise Falls. It follows the stream past deep green pools and cascades +breaking among the rocks. Listen. We should hear the river now." + +Tisdale smiled. There was nothing to be heard but the echo of the running +trucks and the scream of the whistle repeated from cliff and spur. They +were switchbacking down the fire-scarred front of a mountain. He bent a +little to look beyond her. It was as though they were coasting down a +tilted shelf in an oblique wall, and over the blackened skeletons of firs +he followed the course of the river out through crowding blue buttes. +Returning, his glance traced the track, cross-cutting up from the gorge. + +"I know Surprise Falls," he said; "and the old Skykomish from start to +finish. There's a point below the Springs where the current boils through +great flumes of granite into a rocky basin. Long before the hotel was +thought of, I fished that pool." + +"I know! I know!" she responded, glowing. "We--Miss Morganstein and her +brother and I--found it this summer. We had to work down-stream across +those fissures to reach it, but it was worth the trouble. There never was +another such pool. It was like a mighty bowl full of dissolving emeralds; +and the trout loved it. We caught twenty, and we built a fire on the rocks +and cooked them. It was delightfully cool and shady. It was one of those +golden days one never forgets; I was sorry when it was gone." She paused, +the high wave of her excitement passed. "I never could live in that +treeless country," she went on. "Water, running as God made it, plenty of +it, is a necessity to me. But please take your seat, Mr. Tisdale." She +settled back in her place and began to date her telegram. "I am just +sending the briefest message to let Mrs. Feversham know where I am." + +"The porter is coming back for it now," he answered "And thank you, but I +am going in the smoking-car." + +As he approached the vestibule, he caught her reflection in the mirror at +the end of the sleeper. She was looking after him, and she leaned forward +a little with parted lips, as though she had started to call him back, but +her eyes clouded in uncertainty; then suddenly, the sparkle rose. It +suffused her whole face. She had met his glance in the glass. And the +porter was waiting. She settled herself once more and devoted herself to +the telegram. + +The lines in Tisdale's face deepened mellowly. He believed that, now they +were so near their journey's end, she wanted to be sure of an opportunity +to thank him some more. "I am coming back," he said inwardly, addressing +the woman in the mirror, "but I must have a smoke to keep my pulse +normal." + +But he did not return to the sleeper, for the reason that at Scenic Hot +Springs the Seattle papers were brought aboard. The copy of the _Press_ he +bought contained the account of the accident in Snoqualmie Pass. The +illustrations were unusually clear, and Daniels' cuts were supplemented by +another labelled: "The Morganstein party leaving Vivian Court," which also +designated the group. + +(Mrs. Feversham, wife of the special delegate from Alaska, in the tonneau. + +Her sister, Miss Morganstein, on her right. + +Mrs. Weatherbee seated in front. + +Frederic Morganstein driving the car.) + +And under the central picture Hollis read: "Mrs. Weatherbee (Miss +Armitage?), as she drove the machine into the embankment." + +The paper rattled a little in his hands. His face flamed, then settled +gray and very still. Except that his eyes moved, flashing from the +photographs to the headlines, he might have been a man hewn of granite. +"One more reason why the Snoqualmie highway should be improved," he read. +"Narrow escape of the Morganstein party. Mrs. Weatherbee's presence of +mind." And, half-way down the page, "Mrs. Weatherbee modestly assumes an +incognito when interviewed by a representative of the _Press_." + +But Tisdale did not look at the story. He crushed the newspaper into the +corner of his seat and turned his face to the window. His cigar had gone +out. He laid it mechanically on the sill. So, this was the woman who had +wrecked David Weatherbee; who had cast her spell over level-headed Foster; +and already, in the less than three days he had known her, had made a +complete idiot of him. Suppose Foster should hear about that drive through +the mountains that had cost him over seven hundred dollars; suppose Foster +should know about that episode in the basin on Weatherbee's own ground. A +great revulsion came over him. + +Presently he began to take up detail after detail of that journey. Now he +saw the real impulse that had led her to board the eastbound train in +Snoqualmie Pass. She had recognized him, conjectured he was on his way to +find that tract of Weatherbee's; and she had determined to go over the +land with him, cajole him into putting the highest estimate possible on +the property. Even now, there in the sleeper, she was congratulating +herself no doubt on the success of her scheme. + +At the thought of the ease with which he had allowed himself to be +ensnared, his muscles tightened. It was as though the iron in the man took +shape, shook off the veneer, encased him like a coat of mail. Hitherto, in +those remote Alaska solitudes, this would have meant the calling to +account of some transgressor in his camp. He began to sift for the prime +element in this woman's wonderful personality. It was not physical beauty +alone; neither was it that mysterious magnetism, almost electrical, yet +delicately responsive as a stringed instrument. One of these might have +kept that tremendous hold on Weatherbee near, but on Weatherbee absent +through those long, breaking years, hardly. It was something deeper; +something elusive yet insistent that had made it easier for him to brave +out his defeat alone in the Alaska wilderness than come back to face. +Clearly she was not just the handsome animal he had believed her to be. +Had she not called herself proud? Had he not seen her courage? She had a +spirit to break. A soul! + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +"A LITTLE STREAK OF LUCK" + + +It was not the first time Jimmie Daniels had entertained the Society +Editor at the Rathskeller, and that Monday, though he had invited her to +lunch with him in the Venetian room, she asked him, as was her habit, to +"order for both." + +"Isn't there something special you'd like?" he asked generously; +"something you haven't had for a long time?" + +"No. You are so much of an epicure--for a literary person--I know it's +sure to be something nice. Besides," and the shadow of a smile drifted +across her face, "it saves me guessing the state of your finances." + +A critic would have called Geraldine Atkins too slender for her height, +and her face, notwithstanding its girlish freshness, hardly pretty. The +chin, in spite of its dimple, was too strong; the lips, scarlet as a holly +berry, lacked fullness and had a trick of closing firmly over her white +teeth. Even her gray-blue eyes, which should have been a dreamer's, had +acquired a direct intensity of expression as though they were forever +seeking the inner, real you. Still, from the rolling brim of her soft felt +hat to the hem of her brown tailor-made, that cleared the ankles of trim +brown shoes, she was undeniably chic and in the eyes of Jimmie Daniels +"mighty nice." + +He was longer than usual filling out the card, and the waiter hesitated +thoughtfully when he had read it, then be glanced from the young man to +his companion with a comprehensive smile and hurried away. There was +chilled grapefruit in goblets with cracked ice, followed by bouillon, +oysters, and a delectable young duck with toast. But it was only when the +man brought a small green bottle and held it for Jimmie to approve the +label that his guest began to arch her brows. + +Daniels smiled his ingenuous smile. "It's just to celebrate a little +streak of luck," he said. "And I owe it to you. If you hadn't been at +Vivian Court to write up the decorations for that bridge-luncheon and +happened to make that snap-shot of the Morganstein party, my leading lady +would have gone to the paper as Miss Armitage straight, and I guess that +would have queered me with the chief. But that headline you introduced +about Mrs. Weatherbee's incognito struck him right. 'Well, Jimmie,' he +said, 'you've saved your scalp this time.'" + +The Society Editor smiled. "You were a gullible kiddie," she replied. "But +it's a mystery to me how you could have lived in Seattle three years +without knowing the prettiest woman on the boulevard by sight." + +Jimmie shook his head. "I haven't the shadow of an excuse, unless it was +because another girl was running such a close second she always cut off my +view." + +"Think," said Miss Atkins quickly, disregarding the excuse, "if that name, +Miss Armitage, had been tagged to a picture that half the town would have +recognized. Mrs. Weatherbee is the most popular lady, socially, in +Seattle. When there's a reception for a new Council, she's always in the +receiving line; she pours tea at the tennis tournament, and it was she who +led the cotillion at the Charity ball. You would find her name in all the +important affairs, if you read the society column." + +Daniels nodded meekly. "It was a hairbreadth escape, and I'm mighty +grateful." + +There was a little silence then, but after the waiter had filled the +long-stemmed glasses and hurried away, she said slowly, her gray-blue eyes +sifting Jimmie through and through: "It looks like you've been playing +cards for money, but I never should have suspected it--of you." + +Daniels shook his head gravely. "No get-rich-quick games for me. My luck +doesn't come that way. But it cost me nearly two thousand dollars to find +it out. I've always meant to tell you about that, sometime. That two +thousand dollars was all my capital when I came to Seattle to take my +course in journalism. I expected it to see me through. But, well, it was +my first week at the University--fortunately I had paid the expenses of +the first semester in advance--when one night a couple of fellows I knew +brought me down to see the town. I didn't know much about a city then; I +had grown up over in the sage-brush country, and I never had heard of a +highball. To start with I had two, then I got interested in a game of +roulette, and the last I remember I was learning to play poker. But I must +have had more high-balls; the boys said afterwards they left me early in +the evening with a new acquaintance; they couldn't get me to go home. I +never knew how I got back to the dorm, and the next day, when I woke, the +stubs of my checkbook showed I had signed practically all of my two +thousand away." + +There was a brief silence. Out in the main room the orchestra began to +play. Miss Atkins was looking at Jimmie, and her scarlet lips were closed +like a straight cord. + +He drew his hand over his smooth, close-cut, dark hair and took a long +draught from his glass of ice-water. "I can't make you understand how I +felt about it," he went on, "but that two thousand was the price of my +father's ranch over near the Columbia. It stood for years of privation, +heart-breaking toil, and disappointment--the worst kind. Two seasons of +drouth we saw the whole wheat crop blister and go to ruin. I carried water +in buckets from the river up to that plateau day after day, just to keep +our home garden and a little patch of grass alive. And mother carried too +up that breaking slope in the desert sun. It was thinking of that made me-- +all in. She worked the same way with the stock. Something lacking in the +soil affected the feed, and some of the calves were born without hair; +their bones were soft. It baffled my father and every man along that rim +of the desert, but not mother. She said doctors prescribed lime for +rickety human babies, and she made limewater and mixed it with the feed. +It was just the thing. She was a small woman, but plucky from start to +finish. And we, Dad and I, didn't know what it was costing her--till she +was gone." + +There was another silence. In the orchestra, out beyond the palms and +screens of the Venetian room, the first violin was playing the +_Humoresque_. The girl leaned forward slightly, watching Jimmie's face. +Her lips were parted, and an unexpected sympathy softened her eyes. + +"She had been a school teacher back in Iowa," he resumed, "and long winter +evenings and Sundays when she could, she always had her books out. Up to +the year I was twenty, she taught me all I knew. She tried her best to +make a man of me, and I can see now how she turned my mind to journalism. +She said some day there was going to be an opening for a newspaper right +there in the Columbia desert. Where a great river received the waters of +another big stream, there was bound to be a city. She saw farther than we +did. The High Line canal was only a pipe dream then, but she believed it +would come true. When she died, we hadn't the heart to stay on with the +ranch, so Dad gave it to me, to sell for what I could get, and went back +to Iowa. He said he had promised her he would give me a chance at the +State University, and that was the best he could do. And, well, you see I +had to come to the U. of W. to stay, and I was used to work. I did all +sorts of stunts out of hours and managed to pull through the second +semester. Then I hiked over the mountains to the Wenatchee valley and +earned enough that summer vacation to tide me over the next year. I had a +friend there in the sage-brush country, a station agent named Bailey, who +had blown a thousand dollars into a tract of desert land he hadn't seen +off the map. He was the kind of fellow to call himself all kinds of a +fool, then go ahead and make that ground pay his money back. He saw a way +to bring it under irrigation and had it cleared and set to apples. But, +while he was waiting for the trees to grow, he put in fillers of alfalfa +and strawberries. He was operating for the new Milwaukee railroad then, +and hired me to harvest his crops. They paid my wages and the two Japs I +had to help, with a snug profit. And his trees were doing fine; thrifty, +every one in the twenty acres. Last year they began to bear, only a few +apples to a tree, but for flavor and size fit for Eden. This year he is +giving up his position with the Milwaukee; his orchards are going to make +him rich. And he wrote me the other day that the old ranch I threw away is +coming under the new High Line ditch. The company that bought it has +platted it into fruit tracts. Think-of that! Trees growing all over that +piece of desert. Water running to waste, where mother and I carried it in +buckets through the sand, in the sweltering heat, up that miserable +slope." + +The Society Editor drew a full breath and settled back in her chair. Her +glance fell to her glass, and she laid her fingers on the thin stem. +Jimmie refreshed himself again with the ice-water. "I didn't mean to go +into the story so deep," he said, "but you are a good listener." + +"It was worth listening to," she answered earnestly. "I've always wondered +about your mother; I knew she must have been nice. But you must simply +hate the sight of cards now. I am sorry I said what I did. And I don't +care how it happened, here is to that 'Little Streak of Luck.' May it lead +to the great pay-streak." + +She reached her glass out for Jimmie to touch with his, then raised it to +her lips. Daniels drank and held his glass off to examine the remaining +liquor, like a connoisseur. "I play cards a little sometimes," he +confessed; "on boats and places where I have to kill time. But," and he +brightened, "it was this way about that streak of luck. I was detailed to +write up the new Yacht Club quarters at West Seattle, with illustrations +to show the finer boats at the anchorage and, while I was on the landing +making an exposure of the Morganstein yacht, a tender put off with a +message for me to come aboard. Mr. Morganstein had seen me from the deck, +where he was nursing his injured leg. He was lonesome, I suppose. There +was no one else in sight, though as I stepped over the side, I heard a +victrola playing down below. 'How are you?' he said. 'Have a seat.' Then +he scowled down the companionway and called: 'Elizabeth, stop that +infernal machine, will you?' + +"The music was turned off, and pretty soon Miss Morganstein came up the +stairs. She was stunning, in a white sailor suit with red fixings, eyes +black as midnight; piles of raven hair. But as soon as he had introduced +us, and she had settled his pillows to suit him--he was lying in one of +those invalid chairs--he sent her off to mix a julep or something. Then he +said he presumed we were going to have a fine cut of the _Aquila_ in the +Sunday paper, if I was the reporter who made that exposure at the time of +the accident to his car. I told him yes, I was Daniels, representing the +_Press_, and had the good fortune to be in Snoqualmie Pass that day. 'I +was sure of it,' he said. 'Watched you over there with these binoculars.' +He put the glasses down on a table and opened a drawer and took out his +fountain-pen and checkbook. 'That write-up was so good,' he said, handing +me the blank he had filled, 'I want to make you a little present. But you +are the first _Press_ reporter I ever gave anything to, and I want this +kept quiet.' + +"I thanked him, but when I looked at that check I woke up. It was for a +cool hundred dollars. I tried to make him take it back; I told him my +paper was paying me; besides, I couldn't accept all the credit; that you +had fixed up the story and put the names right, and the first cut was +yours. 'Never mind,' he said, 'I have something else for your society miss +to do. I am going to have her describe my new country place, when it's all +in shape. Takes a woman to get hold of the scenery and color schemes.' +Then he insisted I had earned the extra money. Not one man in a hundred +would have been quick enough to make that exposure, and the picture was +certainly fine of the whole group. In fact, he wanted that film of the car +swinging into the embankment. He wanted to have an enlargement made." + +"I see," said Miss Atkins slowly, "I see." She paused, scooping the crest +from her pineapple ice, then added: "Now we are getting to the core." + +"I told him it belonged to the paper, but I thought I would be able to get +it for him," Jimmie resumed. "And he asked me to bring it down to Pier +Number Three just before four this afternoon. The _Aquila_ was starting +for a little cruise around Bainbridge Island to his country place, and if +I wanted to work in something about her equipment and speed, I might sail +as far as the Navy Yard, where they would make a short stop. Then he +mentioned that Hollis Tisdale might be aboard, and possibly I would be +able to pick up a little information on the coal question. These +Government people were 'non-committal,' he said, but there was a snug +corner behind the awnings aft, where in any case I could work up my Yacht +Club copy." + +"So," remarked the Society Editor slowly, "it's a double core." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +ON BOARD THE AQUILA + + +Tisdale's rooms were very warm that afternoon. It was another of those +rare, breezeless days, an aftermath of August rather than the advent of +Indian summer, and the sun streamed in at the western windows. His injured +hand, his whole feverish body, protested against the heat. The peroxide +which he had applied to the hurt at Wenatchee had brought little relief, +and that morning the increased pain and swelling had forced him to consult +a surgeon, who had probed the wound, cut a little, bandaged it, and +announced curtly that it looked like infection. + +"But I can't afford to nurse this hand"--Hollis rose from the couch where +he had thrown himself when he came in from the doctor's office--"I ought +to be using it now." He went over and drew the blinds, but the atmosphere +seemed more stifling. He needed air, plenty of it, clean and fresh in +God's out-of-doors; it was being penned in these close rooms that raised +his temperature. He pulled the shades up again and took a turn across the +floor. Then he noticed the crumpled note which, aimed left-handedly, had +missed the waste basket earlier, when he opened his mail, and he went over +and picked it up. He stood smoothing it on his desk. A perfume, spicy yet +suggestive of roses, pervaded the sheet, which was written in a round, +firm, masculine hand, under the gilt monogram, M.F. His glance ran through +the lines: + +"I am writing for my brother, Frederic Morganstein, who is recuperating +aboard his yacht, to ask you to join us on a little cruise around +Bainbridge Island this afternoon at four o'clock. Ever since his interests +have been identified with Alaska, he has hoped to know you personally, and +he wishes particularly to meet you now, to thank you for your services in +Snoqualmie Pass. In the general confusion after the accident I am afraid +none of us remembered to. + +"We expect to touch at the Navy Yard and again at Frederic's new villa to +see how the work is coming on, but the trip should not take longer than +four hours, and we are dining informally on board. + +"Do not trouble to answer. If the salt air is a strong enough lure this +warm day, you will find the _Aquila_ at Pier Three. + +"Very truly yours, + +"MARCIA FEVERSHAM. + +"Tuesday, September seventh." + +"That floating palace ought to stir up some breeze." Tisdale crumpled the +invitation again and dropped it deliberately in the waste basket. "And +to-morrow I shall be shut up on my eastbound train." He looked at his +watch; there was still half an hour to spare before the time of sailing. +"After all, why not?" + +A little later, when he had hurried into white flannels as expeditiously +as possible with his disabled hand, the suggestion crept to his inner +consciousness that he might find Mrs. Weatherbee aboard the _Aquila_. +"Well, why not?" he asked himself again. "Why not?" and picked up his hat. + +So he came to Pier Number Three and, looking down the gangway as he +crossed, saw her standing in the little group awaiting him on the after +deck. Morganstein spoke to him and introduced him to the ladies. He did +not avoid her look and, under his appraising eyes, he saw the color begin +to play in her face. Then her glance fell to his bandaged hand, and an +inquiry rushed to her lips. But she checked the words in time and drew +slowly aloof to a seat near the rail. + +Tisdale took a place near the reclining chair of his host. When she +ventured to give him a swift side-glance, his mouth set austerely. But the +space between them became electrical. It was as though wireless messages +passed continually between them. + +"Look back. See how often I tried to tell you! My courage failed. Believe +in me. I am not the monster you thought." + +And always the one response: "The facts are all against you." + +Duwamish Head had dropped from sight; Magnolia Bluff fell far astern, and +the _Aquila_ steamed out into the long, broad reach of Puget Sound; but +though the tide had turned, there was still no wind. The late sun touched +the glassy swells with the changing effect of a prism. The prow of the +craft shattered this mirror, and her wake stretched in a ragged and +widening crack. But under the awnings Frederic Morganstein's guests found +it delightfully cool. Only Jimmie Daniels, huddled on a stool in the +glare, outside the lowered curtain that cut him off from the breeze +created by the motion of the yacht, felt uncomfortably warm. + +The representative of the _Press_ had arrived on board in time to see +Tisdale come down the pier and had discreetly availed himself of the +secluded place that the financier had previously put to his disposal. He +had heard it told at the newspaper office that Tisdale, whose golden +statements were to furnish his little scoop, Hollis Tisdale of Alaska and +the Geographical Survey, who knew more about the coal situation than any +other man, was also the most silent, baffling sphinx on record when it +came to an interview. + +At the moment the _Aquila_ came into the open, the Japanese boy placed a +bowl of punch, with, pleasant clinking of ice, on the wicker table before +Mrs. Feversham, who began to serve it. Like Elizabeth's, the emblems on +her nautical white costume were embroidered in scarlet, and a red silk +handkerchief was knotted loosely on her full, boyish chest. She was not +less striking, and indeed she believed this meeting on the deck of the +yacht, where formalities were quickly abridged, would appeal to the +out-of-doors man and pave the way to a closer acquaintance in Washington. +But Tisdale's glance involuntarily moved beyond to the woman seated by the +rail. Her head was turned so that he caught the finely chiseled profile, +the outward sweep of black lashes, the adorable curve of the oval chin to +meet the throat. She too wore the conventional sailor suit, but without +color, and this effect of purity, the inscrutable delicacy of her, seemed +to set her apart from these dark, materialistic sisters as though she had +strayed like a lost vestal into the wrong atmosphere. His brows relaxed. +For a moment the censor that had come to hold dominion in his heart was +off guard. He felt the magnetism of her personality drawing him once more; +he desired to cross the deck to her, drop a word into those deep places he +had discovered, and see her emotions stir and overflow. Then suddenly the +enthusiasm, for which during that drive through the mountains he had +learned to watch, broke in her face. "Look!" she exclaimed softly. "See +Rainier!" + +Every one responded, but Tisdale started from his chair, and went over and +stood beside her. There, southward, through golden haze, with the dark and +wooded bluffs of Vashon Island flanking the deep foreground of opal sea, +the dome lifted like a phantom peak. "It doesn't seem to belong to our +world," she said, and her voice held its soft minor note, "but a vision of +some higher, better country." + +She turned to give him her rare, grave look, and instantly his eyes +telegraphed appreciation. Then he remembered. The swift revulsion came +over him. He swung on his heel to go back to his chair, and the unexpected +movement brought him in conjunction with the punch tray. The boy righted +it dexterously, and she took the offered glass and settled again in her +seat. But from his place across the deck, Tisdale noticed a drop had +fallen, spreading, above the hem of her white skirt. The red stain held +his austere gaze. It became a symbol of blood; on the garment of the +vestal the defilement of sacrifice. + +She was responsible for Weatherbee's death. He must not forget that. And +he saw through her. Now he saw. Had she not known at the beginning he was +an out-of-doors man? That he lived his best in the high spaces close to +Nature's heart? And so determined to win him in this way? She had meant to +win him. Even yet, she could not trust alone to his desire to see David's +project through, but threw in the charm of her own personality to swing +the balance. Oh, she understood him. At the start she had read him, +measured him, sounded him through. That supreme moment, at the crisis of +the storm, had she not lent herself to the situation, counting the price? +At this thought, the heat surged to his face. He wished in that instant to +punish her, break her, but deeper than his anger with her burned a fury +against himself. That he should have allowed her to use him, make a fool +of him. He who had blamed Weatherbee, censured Foster, for less. + +Then Marcia Feversham took advantage of the silence and, at her first +statement, Jimmie Daniels sat erect; he forgot his thirst, the discomfort +of his position, and opened his notebook on his knee. "I understand your +work this season was in the Matanuska coal region, Mr. Tisdale; you must +be able to guess a little nearer than the rest of us as to the outcome of +the Naval tests. Is it the Copper River Northwestern or the Prince William +Development Company that is to have the open door?" + +Tisdale's glance moved from the opal sea to the lady's face; the genial +lines crinkled faintly at the corners of his eyes. "I believe the Bering +and Matanuska coal will prove equally good for steaming purposes," he +replied. + +Frederic Morganstein grasped the arms of his chair and moved a little, +risking a twinge of pain, to look squarely at Tisdale. "You mean the +Government may conserve both?" His voice was habitually thick and +deliberate, as though the words had difficulty to escape his heavy lips. +"That, sir, would lock the shackles on every resource in Alaska. Guess +you've seen how construction and development are forced to a standstill, +pending the coal decision. Guess you know our few finished miles of +railroad, built at immense expense and burdened with an outrageous tax, +are operating under imported coal. Placed an order with Japan in the +spring for three thousand tons." + +"Think of it!" exclaimed Marcia. "Coal from the Orient, the lowest grade, +when we should be exporting the best. Think of the handicap, the injustice +put upon those pioneer Alaskans who fought tremendous obstacles to open +the interior; who paved the way for civilization." + +Tisdale's face clouded. "I am thinking of those pioneers, madam, and I +believe the Government is going to. Present laws can be easily amended and +enforced to fit nearly every situation until better ones are framed. The +settler and prospector should have privileges, but at the same time the +Government must put some restriction on speculation and monopoly." + +Behind the awning Jimmie's pencil was racing down the page, and +Morganstein dropped his head back on the pillow; a purplish flush rose in +his face. + +"The trouble is," Hollis went on evenly, "each senator has been so +over-burdened with the bills of his own State that Alaska has been +side-tracked. But I know the President's interest is waking; he wants to +see the situation intelligently; in fact, he favors a Government-built +railroad from the coast to the upper Yukon. And I believe as soon as a +selection is made for naval use, some of those old disputed coal claims-- +some, not all--will be allowed. Or else--Congress must pass a bill to +lease Alaska coal lands." + +"Lease Alaska coal lands?" Frederic started up again so recklessly he was +forced to sink back with a groan. "Do you mean we won't be allowed to mine +any coal in Alaska, in that case, except by lease?" And he added, turning +his cheek to the pillow, "Oh, damn!" + +Tisdale seemed not to have heard the question. His glance moved slowly +again over the opal sea and rested on the shining ramparts of the +Olympics, off the port bow. "Constance!" he exclaimed mellowly. "The +Brothers! Eleanor!" Then he said whimsically: "Thank God they can't set +steam-shovels to work there and level those peaks and fill the canyons. Do +you know?"--his look returned briefly and the genial lines deepened-- +"those mountains were my playground when I was a boy. My last hunting +trip, the year I finished college, came to an untimely end up there in the +gorge of the Dosewallups. You see it? That shaded contour cross-cutting +the front of Constance." + +Elizabeth, who had opened her workbag, looked up with sudden interest. +"Was there an accident?" she asked. "Something desperate and thrilling?" + +"It seemed so to me," he said. + +Then Mrs. Weatherbee rose and came over to the port rail. "I see," she +said, and shaded her eyes with her hand. "You mean where that gold mist +rises between that snow slope and the blue rim of that lower, nearer +mountain. And you had camped in that gorge"--her hand dropped; she turned +to him expectantly--"with friends, on a hunting trip?" + +He paused a moment then answered slowly: "Yes, madam, with one of them. +Sandy, our old camp cook, made a third in the party." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE STORY OF THE TENAS PAPOOSE + + +Tisdale paused another moment, while his far-seeing gaze sifted the +shadows of Constance, then began: "We had made camp that afternoon, at the +point where Rocky Brook tumbles over the last boulders to join the swift +current of the Dosewallups. I am something of an angler, and Sandy knew +how to treat a Dolly Varden to divide honors with a rainbow; so while the +others were pitching the tents, it fell to me to push up stream with my +rod and flies. The banks rose in sharp pitches under low boughs of fir, +hemlock, or cedar, but I managed to keep well to the bed of the stream, +working from boulder to boulder and stopping to make a cast wherever a +riffle looked promising. Finally, to avoid an unusually deep pool, I +detoured around through the trees. It was very still in there; not even +the cry of a jay or the drum of a woodpecker to break the silence, until +suddenly I heard voices. Then, in a tangle of young alder, I picked up a +trail and came soon on a group of squaws picking wild blackberries. They +made a great picture with their beautifully woven, gently flaring, +water-tight baskets, stained like pottery; their bright shawls wrapped +scarfwise around their waists out of the way; heads bound in gay +handkerchiefs. It was a long distance from any settlement, and they +stood watching me curiously while I wedged myself between twin cedars, on +over a big fallen fir, out of sight. + +"A little later I found myself in a small pocket hemmed by cliffs of +nearly two hundred feet, over which the brook plunged in a fine cataract. +Above, where it cut the precipice, a hanging spur of rock took the shape +of a tiger's profile, and a depression colored by mineral deposit formed a +big red eye; midway the stream struck shelving rock, breaking into a score +of cascades that spread out fan-shape and poured into a deep, green, +stone-lined pool; stirring, splashing, rippling ceaselessly, but so limpid +I could see the trout. It was a place that held me. When at last I put +away my flies and started down the bank, I knew dinner must be waiting for +me, but I had a string of beauties to pacify Sandy. As I hurried down to +the fallen tree, I heard the squaws calling to each other at a different +point out of sight up the ridge; then I found a step in the rough bole +and, setting my hands on the top, vaulted over. The next instant I would +have given anything, the best years of my life, to undo that leap. There, +where my foot had struck, left with some filled baskets in the lee of the +log, lay a small papoose." + +Tisdale's voice vibrated softly and stopped, while his glance moved from +face to face. He held the rapt attention of every one, and in the pause +the water along the keel played a minor interlude. Behind the awning a +different sound broke faintly. It was like the rustle of paper; a turned +page. + +"The baby was bound to the usual-shaped board," Hollis went on, "with a +woven pocket for the feet and a broad carrying-strap to fit the head of +the mother. I sat down and lifted the little fellow to my knees. I wore +heavy shoes, studded with nails for mountain climbing, and the mark of my +heel was stamped, cruelly, on the small brown cheek; the rim had crushed +the temple." + +Tisdale halted again, and in the silence Elizabeth sighed. Then, "I'll bet +you didn't waste any time in that place," exclaimed Morganstein. + +"The eyes were closed," resumed Tisdale gently. "I saw the blow had taken +him in his sleep, but the wantonness, the misery of it, turned me cold. +Then, you are right, I was seized with a panic to get away. I laid the +papoose back in the place where I had found him and left my string of +fish, a poor tribute, with what money I had about me, and hurried down +into the bed of the brook. + +"The squaws were several days' travel from the reservation, but I +remembered we had passed a small encampment a few miles down the river and +another near the mouth of the Dosewallups, where a couple of Indians were +fishing from canoes. I knew they would patrol the stream as soon as the +alarm was given, and my only chance was to make a wide detour, avoiding my +camp where they would first look for me, swim the river, and push through +the forest, around that steep, pyramid peak to the next canyon. You see +it?--The Duckabush cuts through there to tide water. I left no trail in +crossing the stony bed of the brook, and took advantage of a low basalt +bluff in climbing the farther bank. It was while I was working my way over +the rock into cover of the trees that the pleasant calling on the ridge +behind me changed to the first terrible cry. The mother had found her dead +baby. + +"Twilight was on me when I stopped at last on the river bank to take off +my shoes. I rolled them with my coat in a snug pack, which I secured with +a length of fish-line to my shoulders before I plunged in. The current was +swift; I lost headway, and a whirlpool caught me; I was swept under, came +up grazing a ragged rock, dipped again through a riffle, and when I +finally gathered myself and won out to the opposite shore, there was my +camp in full view below me. I was winded, bruised, shivering, and while I +lay resting I watched Sandy. He stirred the fire under his kettle, put a +fresh lag on, then walked to the mouth of the brook and stood looking up +stream, wondering, no doubt, what was keeping me. Then a long cry came up +the gorge. It was lost in the rush of the rapids and rose again in a +wailing dirge. The young squaw was mourning for her papoose. It struck me +colder than the waters of the Dosewallups. Sandy turned to listen. I knew +I had only to call, show myself, and the boys would be ready to fight for +me every step of the trail down to the settlement; but there was no need +to drag them in; I hoped they would waste no time in going out, and I +found my pocket compass, set a course, and pushed into the undergrowth. + +"That night journey was long-drawn torture. The moon rose, but its light +barely penetrated the fir boughs. My coat and shoes were gone, torn from +me in the rapids, and I walked blindly into snares of broken and pronged +branches, trod tangles of blackberry, and more than once my foot was +pierced by the barbs of a devil's-club. Dawn found me stumbling into a +small clearing. I was dull with weariness, but I saw a cabin with smoke +rising from the chimney, and the possibility of a breakfast heartened me. +As I hurried to the door, it opened, and a woman with a milking pail came +out. At sight of me she stopped, her face went white, and, dropping the +bucket, she moved backward into the room. The next moment she brought a +rifle from behind the door. 'If you come one step nearer,' she cried, +'I'll shoot.'" + +Tisdale paused, and the humor broke gently in his face. "I saw she was +quite capable of it," he went on, "and I stopped. It was the first time I +had seemed formidable to a woman, and I raised my hand to my head--my hat +was gone--to smooth my ruffled hair; then my glance fell from my shirt +sleeves, soiled and in tatters, down over my torn trousers to my shoeless +feet; my socks were in rags. 'I am sorry,' I began, but she refused to +listen. 'Don't you say a word,' she warned and had the rifle to her +shoulder, looking along the sight. 'If you do, I'll shoot, and I'm a +pretty good shot.' + +"'I haven't a doubt of that,' I answered, taking the word, 'and even if +you were not, you could hardly miss at that range.' + +"Her color came back, and she stopped sighting to look me over. 'Now,' she +said, 'you take that road down the Duckabush, and don't you stop short of +a mile. Ain't you ashamed,' she shrilled, as I moved ignominiously into +the trail, 'going 'round scaring ladies to death?' + +"But I did not go that mile. Out of sight of the cabin I found myself in +one of those old burned sections, overgrown with maple. The trees were +very big, and the gnarled, fantastic limbs and boles were wrapped in thick +bronze moss. It covered the huge, dead trunks and logs of the destroyed +timber, carpeted the earth, and out of it grew a natural fernery." He +turned his face a little, involuntarily seeking Mrs. Weatherbee. "I wish +you could have seen that place," he said. "Imagine a great billowing sea +of infinite shades of green, fronds waving everywhere, light, beautifully +stencilled elk-fern, starting with a breadth of two feet and tapering to +lengths of four or five; sword-fern shooting stiffly erect, and whole +knolls mantled in maidenhair." + +"I know, I know!" she responded breathlessly. "It must have been +beautiful, but it was terrible if you were pursued. I have seen such a +place. Wherever one stepped, fronds bent or broke and made a plain trail. +But of course you kept to the beaten road." + +Tisdale shook his head. "That road outside the clearing was simply a +narrow, little used path; and I was so dead tired I began to look for a +place where I might take an hour's rest. I chose a big cedar snag a few +rods from the trail, the spreading kind that is always hollow, and found +the opening screened in fern and just wide enough to let me in. Almost +instantly I was asleep and--do you know?"--the humor broke again gently-- +"it was late in the afternoon when I wakened. And I was only roused then +by a light blow on my face. I started up. The thing that had struck me was +a moccasin, and its mate had dropped at my elbow. Then I saw a can of milk +with a loaf of bread placed inside my door. But there was no one in sight, +though I hurried to look, and I concluded that for some unaccountable +reason that inhospitable woman had changed her opinion of me and wanted to +make amends. I took a long draught of the milk--it was the best I ever +tasted--then picked up one of the moccasins. It was new and elaborately +beaded, the kind a woman fancies for wall decorations, and she had +probably bartered with some passing squaw for the pair. But the size +looked encouraging, and with a little ripping and cutting, I managed to +work it on. Pinned to the toe of the other, I found a note. It ran like +this: 'Two Indians are trailing you. I sent them down-stream, but they +will come back. They told me about that poor little papoose.' + +"I saw she must have followed me that morning, while searching for her +cow, or perhaps to satisfy herself I had left the clearing, and so +discovered my hiding-place. The broader track of her skirts must have +covered mine through the fern." + +Tisdale paused. The _Aquila_ had come under the lee of Bainbridge Island. +The Olympics were out of sight, as the yacht, heeling to the first tide +rip, began to turn into the Narrows, and the batteries of Fort Ward +commanded her bows; a beautiful wooded point broke the line of the +opposite shore. It rimmed a small cove. But Mrs. Weatherbee was not +interested; her attention remained fixed on Tisdale. Indeed he held the +eyes of every one. Then Marcia Feversham relieved the tension. "And the +Indians came back?" she asked. + +"Oh, yes, that was inevitable; they had to come back to pick up my trail. +But you don't know what a different man that rest and the moccasins made +of me. In five minutes I was on the road and making my best time up the +gorge, in the opposite direction. The woman was standing in her door as I +passed the cabin; she put a warning finger to her lips and waved me on. In +a little while the ground began to fall in short pitches; sometimes it +broke in steps over granite spurs where the exposed roots of fir and +hemlock twined; then I came to a place where an immense boulder, big as a +house, moving down the mountain, had left a swath through the timber, and +I heard the thunder of the Duckabush. I turned into this cut, intending to +cross the river and work down the canyon on the farther side, and as I +went I saw the torrent storming below me, a winding sheet of spray. The +boulder had stopped on a level bluff, but two sections, splitting from it, +had dropped to the bank underneath and, tilting together in an apex, +formed a small cavern through which washed a rill. It made a considerable +pool and, dividing, poured on either side of the uprooted trunk of a fir +that bridged the stream. The log was very old; it sagged mid-channel, as +though a break had started, and snagged limbs stretched a line of +pitfalls. But a few yards below the river plunged in cataract, and above I +found sheer cliffs curving in a double horseshoe. It was impossible to +swim the racing current, and I came back to the log. By that time another +twilight was on me. The forest had been very still; I hadn't noticed a +bird all day, but while I stood weighing the chances of that crossing, I +heard the harsh call of a kingfisher or jay. It seemed to come from the +slope beyond the bluff, and instantly an answer rose faintly in the +direction of the trail. I was leaning on one of the tilted slabs, and I +wormed myself around the base, to avoid leaving an impression in the wet +sand, and dipped under the trailing bough of a cedar, through the pool, +and crawled up into the cavern. There wasn't room to stand erect, and I +waited crouching, over moccasins in water. The cedar began to sway--I had +used the upper boughs to ease myself in sliding down the slab from the +bluff--a fragment of granite dropped, then an Indian came between me and +the light. + +"While he stopped to examine the sand at the edge of the pool, another +followed. He ventured a short distance out on the log and came back, while +the first set his rifle against the trunk and sank on his hands and knees +to drink. The water, roiled probably by my steps, was not to his taste, +and he rejected it with a disgusted 'Hwah!' When he rose, he stood looking +across the pool into my cavern. I held my breath, hugging the bluff behind +me like a lizard. It was so dark I doubted if even his lynx eyes could +discover me, but he lifted the gun and for an instant I believed he meant +to send a shot into the hole. Then he seemed to think better of wasting +his ammunition and led the way down-stream. They stopped on a level bank +over the cataract, and in a little while I caught the odor of smoke and +later of cooking trout. My cramped position grew intolerable, and finally +I crept out into the pool to reconnoitre. The light of their fire showed +both figures stretched on the ground. They had camped for the night. + +"It was useless to try to go down-stream; before dawn Indians would patrol +the whole canyon; neither could I double back to the Dosewallups where +they had as surely left a watch; my only course was to risk the log +crossing at once, before the moon rose, and strike southward to the +Lilliwaup, where, at the mouth of the gorge, I knew the mail steamer made +infrequent stops. I began to work up between the gnarled roots to the top +of the trunk and pushed laboriously with infinite caution out over the +channel. I felt every inch of that log, but once a dead branch snapped +short in my hand, and the noise rang sharp as a pistol shot. I waited, +flattening myself to the bole, but the thunder of the river must have +drowned the sound; the Indians did not stir. So at last I came to the +danger point. Groping for the break, I found it started underneath, +reaching well around. Caused probably by some battering bulk in the spring +floods, and widening slowly ever since, it needed only a slight shock to +bring it to a finish. I grasped a stout snag and tried to swing myself +over the place, but there came a splitting report; and there was just time +to drop astride above that stub of limb, when the log parted below it, and +I was in the river. I managed to keep my hold and my head out of water, +though the current did its best to suck me under. Then I saw that while +the main portion of the tree had been swept away, the top to which I clung +remained fixed to the bank, wedged no doubt between trunks or boulders. As +I began to draw myself up out of the wash, a resinous bough thrown on the +fire warned me the Indians were roused, and I flattened again like a +chameleon on the slippery incline. They came as far as the rill and stood +looking across, then went down-stream, no doubt to see whether the trunk +had stranded on the riffles below the cataract. But they were back before +I could finish the log, and the rising moon illuminated the gorge. I was +forced to swing to the shady side of the snag. The time dragged endlessly; +a wind piping down the watercourse cut like a hundred whips through my wet +clothes; and I think in the end I only kept my hold because my fingers +were too stiff to let go. But at last the Indians stretched themselves +once more on the ground; their fire burned low, and I wormed myself up +within reach of a friendly young hemlock, grasped a bough, and gained +shelving rock. The next moment I relaxed, all but done for, on a dry bed +of needles." + +Tisdale paused, looking again from face to face, while the humor gleamed +in his own. "I am making a long story of it," he said modestly. "You must +be tired!" + +"Tired!" exclaimed Elizabeth, "It's the very best story I ever heard. +Please go on." + +"Of course you escaped," supplemented Marcia Feversham, "but we want to +know how. And what was your chum doing all the time? And wasn't there +another woman?" + +Frederic Morganstein rumbled a short laugh. "Maybe you made the Lilliwaup, +but I'll bet ten to one you missed your steamer." + +Tisdale's eyes rested involuntarily again on Mrs. Weatherbee. She did not +say anything, but she met the look with her direct gaze; her short upper +lip parted, and the color burned softly in her cheek. "I made the +Lilliwaup," he went on, "about two miles from the mouth, between the upper +and lower falls. The river breaks in cascades there, hundreds of them as +far as one can see, divided by tremendous boulders." + +"We know the place," said Elizabeth quickly. "Our first cruise on the +_Aquila_ was to the Lilliwaup. We climbed to the upper falls and spent +hours along the cascades. Those boulders, hundreds of them, rose through +the spray, all covered with little trees and ferns. There never was +anything like it, but we called it The Fairy Isles." + +Tisdale nodded. "It was near the end of that reach I found myself. The +channels gather below, you remember, and pour down a steep declivity under +a natural causeway. But the charm and grandeur were lost on me that day. I +wanted to reach the old trail from the falls on the opposite shore, and I +knew that stone bridge fell short a span, so I began to work my way from +boulder to boulder out to the main stream. It was a wide chasm to leap, +with an upward spring to a tilted table of basalt, and I overbalanced, +slipped down, and, coasting across the surface, recovered enough on the +edge to ease myself off to a nearly submerged ledge. There I stopped." He +paused an instant, and his eyes sought Marcia Feversham's; the amusement +played lightly on his flexible lips. "I had stumbled on another woman. She +was seated on a lower boulder, sketching the stone bridge. I was behind +her, but I saw a pretty hand and forearm, some nice brown hair tucked +under a big straw hat, and a trim and young figure in a well-made gown of +blue linen. Then she said pleasantly, without turning her head: 'Well, +John, what luck?' + +"I drew back into a shallow niche of the rock. I had not forgotten the +first impression I made on the woman up the Duckabush and had no desire to +'scare ladies.' But my steamer was almost due, and I hoped John would come +soon. Getting no reply from him, she rose and glanced around. Then she +looked at her watch, put her hand to her mouth, and sent a long call up +the gorge. 'Joh-n. Joh-n, hello!' She had a carrying, singer's voice, but +it brought no answer, so after a moment she gathered up her things and +started towards the bank. I watched her disappear among the trees; then, +my fear of missing the steamer growing stronger than the dread of +terrifying her, I followed. The trail drops precipitously around the lower +falls, you remember, and I struck the level where the river bends at the +foot of the cataract, with considerable noise. I found myself in a sort of +open-air parlor flanked by two tents; rustic seats under a canopy of maple +boughs, hammocks, a percolator bubbling on a sheet-iron contrivance over +the camp-fire coals, and, looking at me across a table, the girl. 'I beg +your pardon,' I hurried to say. 'Don't be afraid of me.' + +"'Afraid?' she repeated. 'Afraid--of you?' And the way she said it, with a +half scornful, half humorous surprise, the sight of her standing there so +self-reliant, buoyant, the type of that civilization I had tried so hard +to reach, started a reaction of my overstrained nerves. Still, I think I +might have held myself together had I not at that moment caught the voice +of that unhappy squaw. It struck a chill to my bones, and I sank down on +the nearest seat and dropped my face in my hands, completely unmanned. + +"I knew she came around the table and stood looking me over, but when I +finally managed to lift my head, she had gone back to the percolator to +bring me a cup of coffee. It had a pleasant aroma, and the cream with +which she cooled it gave it a nice color. You don't know how that first +draught steadied me. 'I am sorry, madam,' I said, 'but I have had a hard +experience in these woods, and I expected to catch the mail boat for +Seattle; but that singing down-stream means I am cut off.' + +"She started a little and looked me over again with new interest. 'The +squaw,' she said, 'is mourning for her papoose. It was a terrible +accident. A young hunter up the Dosewallups, where the Indians were +berrying, killed the baby in jumping a log.' + +"'Yes, madam,' I answered, and rose and put the cup down, 'I am the man. +It is harder breaking trail to the Lilliwaup than coming by canoe, and the +Indians have beaten me. I must double back now to the Duckabush. By that +time, they will have given up the watch.' + +"'Wait,' she said, 'let me think.' But it did not take her long. A turn +the length of the table, and her face brightened. 'Why, it's the easiest +thing in the world,' she said. 'I must row you to the steamer.' Then when +I hesitated to let her run the risk, she explained that her party had +moved their camp from the mouth of the Dosewallups after these Indians +arrived there; they knew her; they had seen her rowing about, and she +always carried a good many traps; an easel, sun umbrella, cushions, a +steamer rug. I had only to lie down in the bottom of the boat, and she +would cover me. And she drew back the flap of the nearest tent and told me +to change my clothes for a brown suit she laid out, and canvas shoes. +'Come,' she urged, 'there's time enough but none to waste; and any minute +the Indians may surprise you.' + +"She was waiting with the rug and pillows and a pair of oars when I came +out, and helped me carry them to the boat which was beached a short +distance below her camp. When it was launched, and I was stowed under the +baggage, with an ample breathing hole through which I could watch the +rower, she pushed off and fell into a long, even stroke. Presently I +noticed she had nice eyes, brown and very deep, and I thought her face was +beautiful. It had the expressiveness, the swift intelligence that goes +with a strong personality, and through all her determination, I felt a +running note of caution. I knew she saw clearly while she braved the +extremity. After a while her breast began to rise and fall with the +exercise, her cheeks flushed, and I saw she had met the flood tide. All +this time the voice of the squaw grew steadily nearer. I imagined her, as +I had seen others before, kneeling on the bank, rocking herself, beating +her breast. Then it came over me that we were forced to hug the shore to +avoid one of the reedy shallows that choked the estuary and must pass very +close to her. The next moment there was a lull, and the girl looked across +her shoulder and called 'Clahowya!' At the same time she rested on her +oars long enough to take off her hat and toss it with careless directness +on my breathing hole. The squaw's answer came from above me, and she +repeated and intoned the word so that it seemed part of her dirge. +'Clahowya! Clahowya! Clahowya! Wake tenas papoose. Halo! Halo!' The +despair of it cut me worse than lashes. Then I heard other voices; a dog +barked, and I understood we were skirting the encampment. + +"After that the noise grew fainter, and in a little while the girl +uncovered my face. The channel had widened; the tang of salt came on the +wind; and when I ventured to raise my head a little, I saw the point at +the mouth of the river looming purple-black. Then, as we began to round +it, we came suddenly on a canoe, drifting broadside, with a single salmon +hunter crouching in it, ready with his spear. It flashed over me that he +was one of the two Indians who had tracked me to the Duckabush; the taller +one who had tried to drink at the rill; then he made his throw and at the +same instant the girl's hat fell again on my face. I heard her call her +pleasant 'Clahowya!' and she added, rowing on evenly: 'Hyas delate +salmon.' The next moment his answer rang astern: 'Clahowya! Clahowya! Hyas +delate salmon.' + +"At last I felt the swell of the open, and she leaned to uncover my face +once more. 'The steamer is in sight,' she said, and I raised my head again +and saw the boat, a small moving blot with a trailer of smoke, far up the +sapphire sea. Then I turned on my elbow and looked back. The canoe and the +encampment were hidden by the point; we were drifting off the wharf of the +small town-site, almost abandoned, where the steamer made her stop. There +was nothing left to do but express my gratitude, which I did clumsily +enough. + +"'You mustn't make so much of it,' she said; 'the first thing a +reservation Indian is taught is to forget the old law, a life for a life.' + +"'I know that,' I answered, 'still I couldn't have faced the best white +man that first hour, and off there in the mountains, away from reservation +influences, my chances looked small. I wish I could be as sure the men who +were with me are safe.' + +"She gave me a long, calculating look. 'They will be--soon,' she said. 'My +brother Robert should be on the steamer with the superintendent and +reservation guard.' And she dipped her oars again, pointing the boat a +little more towards the landing, and watched the steamer while I sifted +her meaning. + +"'So,' I said at last. 'So they are there at that camp. You knew it and +brought me by.' + +"'You couldn't have helped them any,' she said, 'and you can go back, if +you wish, with the guard.' Then she told me how she had visited the camp +with her brother Robert and had seen them bound with stout strips of +elk-hide. They had explained the accident and how one of them, to give me +time at the start, had put himself in my place." + +Tisdale halted a moment; a wave of emotion crossed his face. His look +rested on Mrs. Weatherbee, and his eyes drew and held hers. She leaned +forward a little; her lips parted over a hushed breath. It was as though +she braved while she feared his next words. "That possibility hadn't +occurred to me," he went on, "yet I should have foreseen it, knowing the +man as I did. We were built on the same lines, practically the same size, +and we had outfitted together for the trip. He wore high, brown shoes +spiked for mountain climbing, exactly like mine; he even matched the marks +of that heel. But Sandy wouldn't stand for it. He declared there was a +third man who had gone up Rocky Brook and had not come back. One of the +squaws who had seen me agreed with him, but they were bound and taken to +the encampment. The next morning an Indian found my coat and shoes lodged +on a gravel bar and picked up my trail. The camp moved then by canoe +around to the mouth of the Duckabush. taking the prisoners with them, and +waited for my trailers to come down. They had discovered me on the log +crossing when it fell, and believed I was drowned." + +There was another pause. Mrs. Weatherbee sighed and leaned back in her +chair; then Mrs. Feversham said: "And they refused to let your substitute +go?" + +Tisdale nodded. "He was brought with Sandy along to the Lilliwaup. The +Indians were traveling home, and no doubt the reservation influence had +restrained them; still, they were staying a second night on the Lilliwaup, +and when Robert spoke to them they were sullen and ugly. That was why he +had hurried away to bring the superintendent down. He had started in his +Peterboro but expected to find a man on the way who would take him on in +his motor-boat. Once during the night John had drifted close to the camp +to listen, but things were quiet, and they had bridged the morning with a +little fishing and sketching up-stream. + +"'Suppose,' I said at last, 'suppose you had been afraid of me. I should +be doubling back to the Duckabush now. As it is, I wouldn't give much for +their opinion of me.' + +"'I wish you could have heard that man Sandy,' she said, and--did I tell +you she had a very nice smile? 'He called you true gold.' And while she +went on to repeat the rest he had told her, it struck me pleasantly I was +listening to my own obituary. But the steamer was drawing close. She +whistled the landing, and the girl dipped her oars again, pulling her +long, even strokes. I threw off the rug and sat erect, ready to ease the +boat off as we came alongside. And there on the lower deck watching us +stood a young fellow whom, from his resemblance to her, I knew as brother +Robert, with the superintendent from the reservation, backed by the whole +patrol. Then my old friend Doctor Wise, the new coroner at Hoodsport, came +edging through the crowd to take my hand. 'Well, well, Tisdale, old man,' +he said, 'this is good. Do you know they had you drowned--or worse?'" + +Tisdale settled back in his chair and, turning his face, looked off the +port bow. The Narrows had dropped behind, and for a moment the deck of the +_Aquila_ slanted to the tide rip off Port Orchard; then she righted and +raced lightly across the broad channel. Ahead, off Bremerton Navy Yard, +some anchored cruisers rose in black silhouette against a brilliant sea. + +"And," said Marcia Feversham, "of course you went to the camp in a body +and released the prisoners." + +"Yes, we used the mail steamer's boats, and she waited for us until the +inquest was over, then brought us on to Seattle. The motor-boat took the +doctor and superintendent home." + +"And the girl," said Elizabeth after a moment, "did you never see her +again?" + +"Oh, yes." The genial lines deepened, and Hollis rose from his chair. +"Often. I always look them up when I am in Seattle." + +"But who was John?" + +"John? Why, he was her husband." + +The Olympics had reappeared; the sun dropped behind a cloud over a high +crest; shafts of light silvered the gorges; the peaks caught an amethyst +glow. Tisdale, tracing once more that far canyon across the front of +Constance, walked slowly forward into the bows. + +The yacht touched the Bremerton dock to take on the lieutenant who was +expected aboard, and at the same time Jimmie Daniels swung lightly over +the side aft. The Seattle steamer whistled from her slip on the farther +side of the wharf, and he hurried to the gang-plank. There he sent a +glance behind and saw Tisdale still standing with his back squared to the +landing, looking off over the harbor. And the _Press_ representative +smiled. He had gathered little information in regard to the coal question, +but in that notebook, buttoned snugly away in his coat, he had set down +the papoose story, word for word. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE ALTERNATIVE + + +Tisdale did not follow the lieutenant aft. When the _Aquila_ turned into +Port Orchard, he still remained looking off her bows. The sun had set, a +soft breeze was in his face, and the Sound was no longer a mirror; it +fluted, broke in racy waves; the cutwater struck from them an intricate +melody. Northward a few thin streamers of cloud warmed like painted +flames, and their reflection changed the sea to running fire. Then he was +conscious that some one approached behind him; she stopped at his elbow to +watch the brilliant scene. And instantly the spirit of combat in him +stirred; his muscles tightened like those of a man on guard. + +After a moment she commenced to sing very softly, in unison with the music +of the waves along the keel, + +"How dear to me the hour when daylight dies." + +Even subdued, her voice was beautiful. It began surely, insistently, to +undermine all that stout breastwork he had reared against her these +twenty-four hours. But he thrust his hands in his pockets and turned to +her with that upward look of probing, upbraiding eyes. + +The song died. A flush rose over her face, but she met the look bravely. +"I came to explain," she said. "I thought at the beginning, when we +started on that drive through the mountains, you knew my identity. +Afterwards I tried repeatedly to tell you, but when I saw how bitterly +you--hated--me, my courage failed." + +Her lip trembled over a sighing breath, and she looked, away up the +brilliant sea. Tisdale could not doubt her. His mind raced back to +incident on incident of that journey; in flashes it was all made clear to +him. Even during that supreme hour of the electrical storm had she not +tried to undeceive him? He forgave her her transgressions against him; he +forgave her so completely that, at the recollection of the one moment in +the basin, his pulses sang. Then, inside his pockets, his hands clenched, +and he scourged himself for the lapse. + +"I was in desperate need," she went on quickly. "There was a debt--a debt +of honor--I wished to pay. And Mr. Foster told me you were interested in +that desert land; that you were going to look it over. He caught me by +long distance telephone the night he sailed for Alaska, to let me know. +Oh, it all sounds sordid, but if you have ever come to the ragged edge of +things--" + +She stopped, with a little outward, deprecating movement of her hands, and +turned again to meet Tisdale's look. But he was still silent. "I believed +when you knew me," she went on, "you would see I am not the kind of woman +you imagined; I even hoped, for David's sake, you would forgive me. But I +did not know there was such friendship as yours in the world. I thought +only mothers loved so,--the great ones, the Hagars, the Marys. It is more +than that; it is the best and deepest of every kind of love in one. I +can't fathom it--unless--men sometimes are born with twin souls." + +It was not the influence of her personality now; it was not any magnetism. +Something far down in the depths of him responded to that something in +her. It was as though he felt the white soul of her rising transcendent +over her body. It spoke in her pose, her eloquent face, and it filled the +brief silence with an insistent, almost vibrant appeal. + +"They are," he answered, and the emotion in his own face played softly +through his voice, "I am sure that they are. Weatherbee had other friends, +plenty of them, scattered from the Yukon territory to Nome; men who would +have been glad to go out of their way to serve him, if they had known; but +he never asked anything of them; he saved the right to call on me. Neither +of us ever came as near that 'ragged edge of things' as he did, toppled on +it as he did, for so long. There never was a braver fight, against greater +odds, single-handed, yet I failed him." He paused while his eyes again +sought that high gorge of the Olympic Mountains, then added: "The most I +can do now is to see that his work is carried on." + +"You mean," she said not quite steadily, "you are going to buy that land?" + +"I mean"--he frowned a little--"I am going to renew my offer to finance +the project for you. You owe it to David Weatherbee even more than I do. +Go back to that pocket; set his desert blossoming. It's your only +salvation." + +She groped for the bulwark behind her and moved back to its support. "I +could not. I could not. I should go mad in that terrible place." + +"Listen, madam." He said this very gently, but his voice carried its +vibrant undernote as though down beneath the surface a waiting reserve +force stirred. "I did not tell all about that orchard of spruce twigs. It +was planted along a bench, the miniature of the one we climbed in the +Wenatchee Mountains, that was crossed with tiny, frozen, irrigating canals +leading from a basin; and midway stood a house. You must have known that +trick he had of carving small things with his pocket-knife. Then imagine +that delicately modeled house of snow. It was the nucleus of the whole, +and before the door, fine as a cameo and holding a bundle in her arms, was +set the image of a woman." + +There was a silent moment. She waited, leaning a little forward, watching +Tisdale's face, while a sort of incredulous surprise rose through the +despair in her eyes. "There were women at Fairbanks and Seward after the +first year," he went on. "Bright, refined women who would have counted it +a privilege to share things, his hardest luck, with David Weatherbee. But +the best of them in his eyes was nothing more than a shadow. There was +just one woman in the world for him. That image stood for you. The whole +project revolved around you. It would be incomplete now without you." + +She shrank closer against the bulwark, glancing about her with the swift +look of a creature trapped, then for a moment dropped her face in her +hands. When she tried to say something, the words would not come. Her +lips, her whole face quivered, but she could only shake her head in +protest again and again. + +Tisdale waited, watching her with his upward look from under contracted +brows. "What else can you do?" he asked at last. "Your tract is too small +to be handled by a syndicate, and now that the levels of the Columbia +desert are to be brought under a big irrigation project, which means a +nominal expense to the grower, your high pocket, unimproved, will hardly +attract the single buyer. Will you, then, plat it in five-acre tracts for +the Seattle market and invite the--interest of your friends?" + +She drew erect; the danger signals flamed briefly in her eyes. "My friends +can be dis-interested, Mr. Tisdale. It has only been through them, for a +long time, I have been able to keep my hold." + +"There's where you made your mistake at the start; in gaining that hold. +When you conformed to their standards, your own were overthrown." + +"That is not true." She did not raise her voice any; it dropped rather to +a minor note? but a tremor ran over her body, and her face for an instant +betrayed how deep the shaft had struck. "And, always, when I have accepted +a favor, I have given full measure in exchange. But there is an +alternative you seem to have overlooked." + +"I understand," he said slowly, and his color rose. "You may marry again." +Then he asked, without protest: "Is it Foster?" + +On occasion, during that long drive through the mountains, he had felt the +varying height and thickness of an invisible barrier, but never, until +that moment, its chill. Then Marcia Feversham called her, and she turned +to go down the deck. "I'm coming!" she answered and stopped to look back. +"You need not trouble about Mr. Foster," she said. "He--is safe." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +"ALL THESE THINGS WILL I GIVE THEE" + + +Frederic had suggested a rubber at auction bridge. + +Elizabeth fixed another pillow under his shoulders and moved the card +table to his satisfaction, then took a chair near the players and unfolded +her crochet, while Tisdale, whose injured hand excluded him from the game, +seated himself beside her. He asked whimsically if she was manufacturing a +cloud like the one in the west where the sun had set; but she lacked her +sister's ready repartee, and, arresting her needle long enough to glance +at him and back to the woolly, peach-pink pile in her lap, answered +seriously: "It's going to be a hug-me-tight." + +The lieutenant laughed. "Sounds interesting, does it not?" he said, +shuffling the cards. "But calm yourself, sir; a hug-me-tight is merely a +kind of sweater built on the lines of a vest." + +He dealt, and Mrs. Feversham bid a lily. From his position Tisdale was +able to watch Mrs. Weatherbee's face and her cards. She held herself erect +in a subdued excitement as the game progressed; the pink flush deepened +and went and came in her cheek; the blue lights danced in her eyes. +Repeatedly she flashed intelligence to her partner across the board. And +the lieutenant began to wait in critical moments for the glance. They won +the first hand. Then it became apparent that he and Morganstein were +betting on the side, and Marcia remonstrated. "It isn't that we are +scrupulous alone," she said, "but we lose inspiration playing second +fiddle." + +"Come in then," suggested Frederic and explained to the lieutenant: "She +can put up a hundred dollars and lose 'em like a soldier." + +"The money stayed in the family," she said quickly. "Beatriz, it is your +bid." + +Mrs. Weatherbee was calculating the possibilities of her hand. Her suit +was diamonds; seven in sequence from the jack. She held also the three +highest in clubs and the other black king. She was weak in hearts. "I bid +two diamonds," she said slowly, "and, Marcia, it's my ruby against your +check for three hundred dollars." + +There was a flutter of surprise. "No," remonstrated Elizabeth sharply. +"No, Marcia can buy the ring for what it is worth." + +"Then I should lose the chance to keep it. Three hundred will be enough to +lose." And she added, less confidently: "But if you should win, Marcia, it +is understood you will not let the ring go out of your hands." + +"I bear witness," cried the lieutenant gallantly, "and we are proud to +play second when a Studevaris leads." + +But Morganstein stared at her in open admiration. "You thoroughbred!" he +said. + +"It shall stay in the family," confirmed Marcia. + +Then Frederic bid two lilies, the lieutenant passed and Mrs. Feversham +raised to three hearts. She wavered, and Tisdale saw the cards tremble in +her hand. "Four diamonds," she said at last. The men passed, and Marcia +doubled. Then Morganstein led a lily, and the lieutenant spread his hand +on the table. There were six clubs; in diamonds a single trey. + +But Mrs. Weatherbee was radiant. She moved a little and glanced back at +Elizabeth, inviting her to look at her hand. She might as well have said: +"You see, I have only to lead out trumps and establish clubs." + +Marcia played a diamond on her partner's second lead of spades, and led +the ace of hearts, following with the king; the fourth round Frederic +trumped over Mrs. Weatherbee and led another lily. Mrs. Feversham used her +second diamond and, returning with a heart, saw her partner trump again +over Mrs. Weatherbee. It was miserable. They gathered in the book before +the lead fell to her. The next deal the cards deserted her, and after that +the lieutenant blundered. But even though the ruby was inevitably lost, +she finished the rubber pluckily; the flush deepened in her cheek; the +blue fires flamed in her eyes. "You thoroughbred!" Morganstein repeated +thickly. "You thoroughbred!" + +To Tisdale it was unendurable. He rose and crossed to the farther side of +the desk. The _Aquila_, rounding the northern end of Bainbridge Island, +had come into Agate Pass; the tide ran swift in rips and eddies between +close wooded shores, but these things no longer caught his attention. The +scene he saw was the one he had put behind him, and in the calcium light +of his mind, one figure stood out clearly from the rest. Had he not known +this woman was a spendthrift? Had he not suspected she inherited this vice +from her father, that old gambler of the stock exchange. Was it not for +this reason he had determined to hold that last half interest in the +Aurora mine? Still, still, she had not shown the skill of long practice; +she had not played with ordinary caution. And had not Elizabeth +remonstrated, as though her loss was inevitable? Every one had been +undeniably surprised. Why, then, had she done this? She had told him she +was in "desperate need." Could this have been the alternative to which she +had referred? + +The _Aquila's_ whistle blew, and she came around, close under a bluff, +into a small cove, on the rim of which rose the new villa. The group +behind Tisdale began to push back chairs. He turned. The game was over, +and Mrs. Feversham stood moving her hand slowly to catch the changing +lights of the ring on her finger. Then she looked at the loser. "It seems +like robbery," she exclaimed, "to take this old family talisman from you, +Beatriz. I shall make out a check to ease my conscience." + +"Oh, no." She lifted her head bravely like his Alaska flower in the bitter +wind. "I shall not accept it. My grandfather believed in the ruby +devoutly," she went on evenly. "It was his birthstone. And since it is +yours too, Marcia, it should bring you better fortune than it has brought +me. But see! The villa roof is finished and stained moss-green as it +should be, against that background of firs. And isn't the big veranda +delightful, with those Venetian blinds?" + +The yacht nosed alongside the little stone quay, and preceded by the host, +who was carried ashore in his chair, not without difficulty, by relays of +his crew, the party made the landing. + +Tisdale's first impression when he stepped over the threshold of the villa +was of magnitude. A great fireplace built of granite blocks faced the +hospitable entrance, and the interior lifted to the beamed roof, with a +gallery midway, on which opened the upper rooms. The stairs rose easily in +two landings, and the curving balustrade formed a recess in which was +constructed a stage. Near this a pipe organ was being installed. It was +all luxurious, created for entertainment and pleasure, but it lacked the +ostentatious element for which he was prepared. + +It had been understood that the visit was made at this time to allow Mrs. +Feversham an opportunity to go through the house. She was to decide on +certain furnishings which she was to purchase in New York, but it was +evident to Tisdale that the items she listed followed the suggestions of +the woman who stood beside her, weighing with subdued enthusiasm the +possibilities of the room. "Imagine a splendid polar-bear rug here," she +said, "with a yellowish lynx at the foot of the stairs, and one of those +fine Kodiak skins in front of the hearth. A couch there in the chimney +corner, with a Navajo blanket and pillows would be color enough." + +Morganstein, watching her from his invalid chair, grasped the idea with +satisfaction. "Cut out those Wilton carpets, Marcia," he said. "I'll write +that Alaska hunter, Thompson, who heads the big-game parties, to send me +half a dozen bears. They mount 'em all right in Seattle. Now see what we +are going to need in that east suite up-stairs." + +They went trooping up the staircase, but Hollis did not hurry to follow. +His glance moved to the heavy, recumbent figure of his host. He was +looking up across the banisters at Mrs. Weatherbee as she ascended, and +something in his sensuous face, the steady gleam of his round black eyes, +started in Tisdale's mind a sudden suspicion. She stopped to look down +from the gallery railing and smiled with a gay little salute. Then +Elizabeth called, and she disappeared through an open door. + +"I'd give fifty dollars to see her face when she gets to that east room," +Morganstein said abruptly. "But go up, Mr. Tisdale; go up. Needn't bother +to stay with me." + +"There's a good deal to see here," Tisdale responded genially. "A man who +is accustomed to spend his time as I do, gathering accurate detail, is +slower than others, I suppose, and this all seems very fine to me." + +"It's got to be fine,--the finest bungalow on Puget Sound, I keep telling +the architect. Nothing short of that will do. Listen!" he added in a +smothered voice, "she's in there now." + +The vaulted roof carried the echoes down to Tisdale as he went up the +stairs. All the doors were open along the gallery; some were not yet hung, +but he walked directly to the last one from which the exclamations of +surprise had come. And, as he went, he heard Mrs. Weatherbee say: "It was +glorious, like this, the day the idea flashed to my mind; but I did not +dream Mr. Morganstein would alter the casement, for the men were hanging +the French windows. Why, it must have been necessary to change the whole +wall. Still, it was worth it, Marcia, was it not?" + +"It certainly is unique," admitted Mrs. Feversham. Then Tisdale stopped on +the threshold, facing a great window of plate glass in a single pane, +designed to frame the incomparable view of Mount Rainier lifting above the +sea. And it was no longer a phantom mountain; the haze had vanished, and +the great peak loomed near, sharply defined, shining in Alpine splendor. + +It was a fine conceit, too fine to have sprung from Morganstein's +materialistic brain, and Tisdale was not slow to grasp the truth. The +financier had reconstructed the wall to carry out Mrs. Weatherbee's +suggestion. Then it came over him that this whole building, feature by +feature, had been created to win, to ensnare this woman. It was as though +the wall had become a scroll on which was written: "'All these things will +I give thee, if thou wilt fall down'--and marry me." + +Suddenly the place oppressed him. He walked through the room to the +smaller one of the suite and out on a broad sleeping-porch. The casement +was nearly waist high, and he stood grasping the ledge and looking with +unseeing eyes into a grove of firs. So this was the alternative. And this +was why Foster was safe. The young mining engineer, with little besides +his pay, had fallen far short of her price. + +But the salt wind was in his face; it quieted him. He began to notice the +many small intruding influences of approaching night. The bough of a +resinous hemlock, soughing gently, touched his arm, and his hold on the +shingles relaxed. He moved, to rest the injured hand on the casing, and +its throbbing eased. His glance singled out clumps of changing maple or +dogwood that flamed like small fires on the slope. Then he caught the +rhythm of the tide, breaking far down along the rocky bulkhead; and above, +where a footbridge spanned a chasm, a cascade rippled in harmony. + +"Nice, isn't it?" said the lieutenant, who came onto the porch with +Elizabeth. + +"That is a pergola they are building down there," she explained. "It's to +be covered with Virginia creeper and wistaria and all sorts of climbing +things. And French doors open into it from the dining-room. A walk winds +up from the end--you see it, Mr. Tisdale?--across the footbridge to a +pavilion on the point. It is almost too dark to see the roof among the +trees. Mrs. Weatherbee calls it the observatory, because we have such a +long sweep of the Sound from there, north and south. You'd think you were +aboard a ship at sea, lieutenant, in stormy weather. It gets every wind +that blows." + +The lieutenant wished to go to the pavilion, but Tisdale excused himself +from joining them, and was left alone again with his thoughts. Then he was +conscious the other women had remained in the apartment. They had come +into the inner room, and Mrs. Feversham, having found an electric button, +flooded the interior with light. On the balcony a blue bulb glowed. +Tisdale turned a little more and, leaning on the casement, waited for them +to come through the open door. + +"What do you say to furnishing this suite in bird's-eye maple?" asked +Marcia. "With rugs and portieres in old blue." + +Mrs. Weatherbee shaded her dazzled eyes with her hand and looked +critically around. "The maple would be lovely," she said, "but--do you +know," and she turned to her companion with an engaging smile, "these +sunrise rooms seem meant for Alaska cedar? And the rugs should be not old +blue, but a soft, mossy blue-green." + +Mrs. Feversham laughed. "Home industry again! We don't go to New York for +Alaska cedar. But you are right; that pale yellow wood would be simply +charming with these primrose walls, and it takes a wonderful polish. That +leaves me only the rugs and hangings." She turned to go back through the +wide doorway, then stopped to say: "After all, Beatriz, why not see what +is to be had in Seattle? I had rather you selected everything for this +suite, since it is to be yours." + +"Mine?" She paused, steadying her voice, then went on with a swift +breathlessness. "But I see, you mean to use when I visit you and +Elizabeth. These rooms, from the first, have been my choice. But I am +afraid I've been officious. I've been carried away by all this beautiful +architecture and the pleasure of imagining harmonious, expensive +furnishings. I never have fitted a complete house; it's years since I had +a home. Then, too, you've spoiled me by listening to my suggestions. +You've made me believe it was one way I could--well--cancel obligations." + +Mrs. Feversham raised her hand and, turning it slowly, watched the play of +light on the ruby. "There isn't a stone like this in America," she said. +"You don't know how I've coveted it. But you need not have worried, +Beatriz. I disposed of your note to Frederic." + +"To Mr. Morganstein?" Her voice broke a little; she rocked unsteadily on +her feet. It was as though a great wind had taken her unawares. Then, "I +shall try to pay him as soon as possible," she said evenly. "I have the +land at Hesperides Vale, you know, and if I do not sell it soon, perhaps +he will take it for the debt." + +Mrs. Feversham dropped her hand. "Beatriz! Beatriz!" she exclaimed. "You +know there's an easier way. Come, it's time to stop this make-believe. You +know Frederic Morganstein would gladly pay your debts, every one. You know +he is building this villa for you; that he would marry you, now, to-day, +if you would say the word. Yet you hold him at arm's-length; you are so +conservative, so scrupulous about Public Opinion. But no one in Seattle +would breathe a suggestion of blame. And it isn't as though you had worn +first mourning. The wedding could be very quiet, with a long honeymoon to +Japan or Mexico; both, if you wished. And you might come home to open this +house with a reception late in May. The twilights are delightful then. +Come, think, Bee! You've been irreproachable; the most exacting would +admit that. And every one knows David Weatherbee practically deserted you +for years." + +Tisdale saw her mouth tremble. The quiver ran over her face, her whole +body. For an instant her lashes fell, then she lifted them and met Marcia +Feversham's calculating look. "It was not desertion," she said. "He +contributed--his best--to my support. I took all he had to give. If ever +you are where people are--talking--do me the favor to correct that +mistake. And, now, if you please, Marcia, we will not bring David +Weatherbee in any more." + +Mrs. Feversham laughed a little. "I am willing, bygones are bygones, only +listen to Frederic." + +"You are mistaken, too, about Mr. Morganstein's motive, Marcia. He built +this house for all his friends and Elizabeth's. He owes her something; she +has always been so devoted to him." And she added, as she turned to go +back to the gallery, "He knows I do not care to marry again." + +Tisdale had not foreseen the personal drift to the conversation. And it +had not occurred to him he was unobserved; the balcony light was directly +over him, and he had waited, expecting they would come through to the +porch, to speak to them. Now he saw that from where they had stopped in +the brilliant interior, his figure must have blended into the background +of hemlock boughs. If they had given him any thought, they had believed he +had gone down with Elizabeth and the lieutenant. To have apologized, made +himself known, after he grasped the significance of the situation, would +only have resulted in embarrassment to them all. He allowed them time to +reach the floor below. But the heat rose in his face. And suddenly, as his +mind ran back over that interview in the bows of the _Aquila_, his +question in regard to Foster seemed gross. Still, still, she had said she +did "not care to marry again." That one fact radiated subconsciously +through the puzzling thoughts that baffled him. + +Behind him a few splendid chords rolled through the hall to the vaulted +roof, then pealed forth the overture from Martha. That had been +Weatherbee's favorite opera. Sometimes on long Arctic nights, when they +were recalling old times and old songs, he himself had taken Plunkett's +part to David's Lionel. He could see that cabin now, the door set wide, +while their voices stormed the white silence under the near Yukon stars. +His eyes gathered their absent expression. It was as though he looked +beyond the park, far and away into other vast solitudes; saw once more the +cliffs of Nanatuk looming through fog and heard clearly, booming across +the ice, the great, familiar baritone. + +The notes of the organ ceased. Tisdale stirred like a man roused from +sleep. He turned and started through to the gallery. A woman's voice, +without accompaniment, was singing Martha's immortal aria, _The Last Rose +of Summer_. It was beautiful. The strains, sweet and rich, flooded the +hall and pervaded the upper rooms. Looking down from the railing, he saw +Elizabeth and the lieutenant at the entrance below. The men who had +installed the organ, were listening too, at the end of the hall, while +beyond the open door the crew of the _Aquila_ waited to carry the master +aboard. As he reached the top of the stairs, Mrs. Feversham appeared, +seated near the invalid in the center of the hall, and finally, as he came +to the first landing, there was the diva herself, acknowledging the +applause, sweeping backward with charming exaggeration from the front of +the stage. + +"Bravo!" shouted Frederic. "Bravo! Encore!" She took the vacant seat at +the organ, and the great notes of the _Good-night_ chorus rolled to the +rafters. Responding to her nodding invitation, the voices of the audience +joined her own. It was inspiring. Tisdale stopped on the landing and +involuntarily he caught up his old part. + + "Tho' no prayer of mine can move thee + Yet I wish thee sweet good night; + Now good night, good night, good night!" + +She looked up in quick surprise; her hands stumbled a little on the keys +and, singing on, she subdued her voice to listen to his. Then, hesitating +a little over the first chords, she began the final prelude, and Tisdale, +waiting, heard her voice waver and float out soft and full: + +"Ah, will Heaven indeed forgive me." + +Her face was still lifted to him. It was as though her soul rose in direct +appeal to him, and in that moment all his great heart went down to her in +response. + +It was over. Morganstein's heavy "Bravo!" broke the silence, followed by +the enthusiastic clapping of hands, Mrs. Weatherbee rose and started down +the hall to join Elizabeth and the lieutenant, but Marcia detained her. +"It was simply grand," she said. "I hadn't believed you had the reach or +the strength of touch. This organ was certainly a fine innovation." + +"Sure," said Frederic hazily. "It will make old Seattle sit up and take +notice. Great idea; your schemes always are. Confess though, I had my +doubts, when it came to this organ. I hedged and had that other jog built +in over there for a piano. We can use it sometimes when we want to rag." + +"It is a splendid instrument; much more expensive than I thought of, I am +afraid. But," and she looked back at the elaborate array of pipes with the +exhilaration showing in her face, "it's like giving the firs and the sea a +new voice." + +She passed on, and Frederic's glance followed her, puzzled, but with a +blended respect and admiration. When she went out with Elizabeth and the +lieutenant, he called his men to convey him to the yacht. Marcia walked +beside him. Night had fallen, and the _Aquila_ blazed like a fire ship. +Her lamps sifted the shadows and threw long, wavering flames on the tide. +Aft, where the table was spread, for the convenience of the host, who +could not hazard the companionway, a string of electric lights illumined +the deck. Japanese screens, a dropped awning or two, tempered the breeze, +and the array of silver and flowers, and long-stemmed glasses, promised +more than the informal little dinner to which Mrs. Feversham had referred. + +She stood looking the table critically over, while the sailors settled the +invalid's chair. While the rest of the party loitered in the bow, she +turned to brother. "Has it occurred to you," she asked, "that Beatriz may +be interested in some other man?" + +"No," answered Frederic, startled. "No. Hadn't thought of that--unless-- +it's Foster." + +"I don't know; he seems the most possible, if there's any one. She says +she does not care to marry again. In any case, it is advisable to keep him +in Alaska. You might send him on from the Iditarod to look over the Aurora +mine." And she added slowly: "Beatriz Weatherbee, backed by the +Morganstein money, will be able to carry the social end of the family +anywhere; but Beatriz Weatherbee, holding a half interest in one of the +best-paying placers in Alaska in her own right--is a wife worth straining +a point for." + +Frederic's round eyes widened; his face took an expression of childlike +goodness; it was the mask with which he habitually covered his avarice. +Then he said: "I understood Hollis Tisdale had exclusive, brass-bound, +double-rivited possession of the Aurora." + +"Hush," cautioned Marcia, "they are coming." And she added, in a still +lower tone: "There is a loose rivet, but contrive to marry her before she +knows." + +That dinner covered the homeward cruise, and from the wharf Tisdale went +directly to his rooms. There he telephoned the Rainier-Grand hotel. "Give +me John Banks, please," he said. "Yes, I mean Lucky Banks of Alaska." And, +after an interval, "Hello, Banks! This is Tisdale talking. I want you to +come up to my rooms. Yes, to-night. I am starting east in the morning. +Thank you. Good-by." + +He put up the receiver and brought Weatherbee's box from the safe to the +table under the hanging lamp. Seating himself, he took out the plan of the +project and spread it before him. He had not closed the lid, and presently +his eyes fell on David's watch. He lifted it and, hesitating to open it, +sat trying to recall that picture in the lower case. He wondered how, once +having seen it, even in firelight and starshine, he could have forgotten +it. The face would be younger of course, hardly more than a promise of the +one he knew; still there would be the upward curling lashes, the +suggestion of a fault in the nose, the piquant curve of the short, upper +lip, and perhaps that pervading, illusive something that was the secret of +her charm. "You were right, David, old man," he said at last, "it was a +face to fight for, wait for. And madam, madam, a woman with a face like +yours must have had some capacity for loving." + +His hand was on the spring, but he did not press it. A noise outside in +the corridor arrested him. He knew it was too soon for Banks to arrive, +but he laid the watch back in the box and closed the lid. "You will never +marry Frederic Morganstein," he said, and rising, began to walk the floor. +"It would be monstrous. You must not. You will not. I shall not let you." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE OPTION + + +Vivian count stood on the first hill. The brick walls of the business +center filled the levels below, and Mrs. Weatherbee's windows, like +Tisdale's, commanded the inner harbor rimmed by Duwamish Head, with a +broader sweep of the Sound beyond framed in wooded islands and the +snow-peaks of the Olympic Peninsula. Southeastward, from her alcove, lifted +the matchless, solitary crest of Rainier. It was the morning following the +cruise on the _Aquila_, and Mrs. Weatherbee was taking a light breakfast +in her room. The small table, placed near an open casement, allowed her to +enjoy both views. She inhaled the salt breeze with the gentle pleasure of +a woman whose sense has been trained, through generations, to fine and +delicate perfumes; her eyes caught the sapphire sparkle of the sea, and +her face had the freshness and warmth of a very young girl's. The elbow +length of the sleeve exposed a forearm beautifully molded, with the +velvety firmness of a child's; and the wistaria shade of her empire gown +intensified the blue tones in the dark masses of her hair. In short, she +stood for all that is refined, bright, charming in womanhood; and not for +any single type, but a blending of the best in several; the "typical +American beauty" that Miles Feversham had named her. + +Her glance moved slowly among the shipping. The great steamship leaving +the Great Northern docks was the splendid liner _Minnesota_, sailing for +Japan; the outbound freighter, laden to the gunwales and carrying a +deckload of lumber, was destined for Prince William Sound. She represented +Morganstein interests. And when her eyes moved farther, in the direction +of the Yacht Club, there again was the _Aquila_, the largest speck in the +moored fleet. A shadow crossed her face. She rose and, turning from the +windows, stood taking an inventory that began with the piano, a Steinway +mellowed by age, and ended at a quaint desk placed against the opposite +wall. It was very old; it had been brought in her great-grandfather's time +from Spain, and the carving, Moorish in design, had often roused the +enthusiastic comment of her friends. Appraising it, her brows ruffled a +little; the short upper lip met the lower in a line of resolve. She went +to her telephone and found in the directory the number of a dealer in +curios. But as she reached for the receiver, she was interrupted by a +knock and, closing the book hastily, put it down to open the door. + +A bell-boy stood holding a rare scarlet azalea in full flower. In its +jardiniere of Satsuma ware it was all his arms could compass, and a second +boy followed with the costly Japanese stand that accompanied it. There was +no need to read the name on the card tied conspicuously among the stiff +leaves. The gift was from Frederic Morganstein. It had arrived, doubtless, +on an Oriental steamer that had docked the previous evening while the +_Aquila_ made her landing. Mrs. Weatherbee had the plant placed where the +sunshine reached it through the window of the alcove, and it made a gay +showing against the subdued gray of the walls. Involuntarily her glance +moved from it to the harbor, seeking the _Minnesota_, now under full +headway off Magnolia Bluff. It was as though, in that moment, her +imagination out-traveled the powerful liner, and she saw before her that +alluring country set on the farther rim of the Pacific. + +The steamship passed from sight; she turned from the window. The boy had +taken away the breakfast tray and had left a box on the table. It was +modest, violet-colored, with Hollywood Gardens stamped on the cover, but +she hurried with an incredulous expectancy to open it. For an instant the +perfume seemed to envelop her, then she lifted the green waxed paper, and +a soft radiance shone in her face. It was only a corsage bouquet, but the +violets, arranged with a few fronds of maidenhair, were delightfully +fresh. She took them out carefully. For a moment she held them to her +cheek. But she did not fasten them on her gown; instead she filled a +cut-glass bowl with water and set them at the open casement in the shade. +A cloud of city smoke, driving low, obscured the _Aquila_; the freighter +bound for Prince William Sound rounded Magnolia Bluff, but clearly she had +forgotten these interests; she stood looking the other way, through the +southeast window, where Rainier rose in solitary splendor. A subdued +exhilaration possessed her. Did she not in imagination travel back over +the Cascades to that road to Wenatchee, where, rising to the divide, they +had come unexpectedly on that far view of the one mountain? Then her +glance fell again to the violets, and she lifted the bowl, leaning her +cheek, her forehead, to feel the touch of the cool petals and inhale their +fragrance. + +She had not looked for Tisdale's card, but presently, in disposing of the +florist's box, she found it tucked in the folds of waxed paper. He had +written across it, not very legibly, with his left hand, + +"I want to beg your pardon for that mistake I made. I know you never will +put any man in David Weatherbee's place. You are going to think too much +of him. When you are ready to make his project your life work, let me +know." + +She was a long time reading the note, going back to the beginning more +than once to reconsider his meaning. And her exhilaration died; the +weariness that made her suddenly older settled over her face. At last she +tore the card slowly in pieces and dropped it in the box. + +Her telephone rang, and she went over and took down the receiver. "Mrs. +Weatherbee," she said, and after a moment. "Yes. Please send him up." + +The bell-boy had left the door ajar, and she heard the elevator when it +stopped at her floor; a quick, nervous step sounded along the corridor, +the door swung wider to some draught, and a short, wiry man, with a +weather-beaten face, paused on the threshold. "I am Lucky Banks," he said +simply, taking off his hat. "Mr. Tisdale asked me to see you got this +bundle." + +Involuntarily her glance rested on the hand that held the package in the +curve of his arm, and she suppressed a shiver; the dread that the young +and physically perfect always betray at the sight of deformity sprang to +her eyes. "Thank you for troubling," she said, then, having taken the +bundle, she waited to close the door. + +But Banks was in no hurry. "It wasn't any trouble, my, no," he replied. "I +was glad of the chance. It's a little bunch of stuff that was Dave's. And +likely I'd have come up, anyhow," he added, "to inquire about a tract of +land you own east of the mountains. I heard you talked of selling." + +Instantly her face brightened. "Yes. But come in, will you not?" She +turned and placed the package on the table, and took one of two chairs +near the alcove. The azalea was so near that its vivid flowers seemed to +cast a reflection on her cheeks. "I presume you mean my tract in the +Wenatchee Mountains?" she went on engagingly. "A few miles above +Hesperides Vale." + +"Well, yes." Banks seated himself on the edge of the other chair and held +his hat so as to conceal the maimed hand. "I didn't know you had but one +piece. It's up among the benches and takes in a kind of pocket. It's off +the line of irrigation, but if the springs turn out what I expect, it +ought to be worth sixty dollars an acre. And I want an option on the whole +tract for ten thousand." + +"Ten thousand dollars?" Her voice fluted incredulously. "But I am afraid I +don't understand exactly what an option is. Please explain, Mr. Banks." + +"Why, it's this way. I pay something down, say about three thousand, and +you agree to let the sale rest for well, say six months, while I prospect +the ground and see how it is likely to pan out. Afterwards, if I fail to +buy, I naturally forfeit the bonus and all improvements." + +"I see," she said slowly. "I see. But--you know it is wild land; you have +been over the ground?" + +"Not exactly, but I know the country, and I've talked with a man I can +bank on, my, yes." + +"How soon"--she began, then, covering her eagerness, said: "I agree to +your option, Mr. Banks." + +He laid his hat on the floor and took out his billbook, in which he found +two printed blanks, filled according to his terms and ready for her +signature. "I thought likely we could close the deal right up, ma'am, so's +I could catch the Wenatchee train this afternoon. Your name goes here +above mine." + +She took the paper and started buoyantly to the secretary, but the little +man stopped her. "Read it over, read it over," he cautioned. "All square, +isn't it? And sign this duplicate, too. That's right. You're quite a +business woman." + +He laughed his high, mirthless laugh, and, taking a check from the +bill-book, added some bright gold pieces which he stacked on the table +carefully beside the package he had brought. "There's your three +thousand," he said. + +"It's out of a little bunch of dust I just turned in at the assay office." + +"Thank you." She stood waiting while he folded his duplicate and put it +away, but he did not rise to go, and after a moment, she went back to her +chair by the scarlet azalea. + +"They are doing really wonderful things in the Wenatchee Valley," she said +graciously, willing to make conversation in consideration of that little +pile of clean, new coin that had come so opportunely, "the apples are +marvelous. But"--and here her conscience spoke--"you understand this tract +is unreclaimed desert land; you must do everything." + +"Yes, ma'am, I understand that; but what interests me most in that pocket +is that it belonged to David Weatherbee. He mapped out a project of his +own long before anybody dreamed of Hesperides Vale. He told me all about +it; showed me the plans. That piece of ground got to be the garden spot of +the whole earth to him; and I can't stand back and see it parcelled out to +strangers." + +He paused. The color deepened a little in her face; she looked away +through the west window. "I thought an awful lot of Dave," he went on. +"I'd ought to. Likely you don't know it--he wasn't the kind to talk much +about himself--but I owe my life to him. _It_ had commenced"--he held up +the crippled hand and smiled grimly--"when Dave found me curled up under +the snow, but he stayed, in the teeth of a blizzard, to see me through. +And afterwards he lost time, weeks when hours counted, taking care of me,-- +operated when it came to it, like a regular doctor, my, yes. And when I +got to crawling around again, I found he'd made me his partner." + +"He had made a discovery," she asked, "while you were ill?" + +"Yes, and you could bank on Dave it was a good one. He knew the gravel +every time. But we had to sell; it was the men who bought us out that +struck it rich. You see, Dave had heavy bills pressing him down here in +the States; he never said just what he owed, but he had to have the money. +And, my, when he was doing the bulk of the work, I couldn't say much. It +was so the next time and the next. We never could keep a claim long enough +for the real clean-up. So, when I learned to use my hand, I cut loose to +try it alone." + +He halted again, but she waited in silence with her face turned to the +harbor. "I drifted into the Iditarod country," he went on, "and was among +the first to make a strike. It was the luckiest move I ever made, but I +wish now I had stayed by Dave. I was only a few hundred miles away, but I +never thought of his needing me. That was the trouble. He was always +putting some other man on his feet, cheering the rest along, but not one +of us ever thought of offering help to Dave Weatherbee. A fine, +independent fellow like him. + +"But I sure missed him," he said. "Many a time there in the Iditarod I +used to get to wishing we had that voice of his to take the edge off of +things. Why, back on the Tanana I've seen it keep a whole camp heartened; +and after he picked me up in that blizzard, when I was most done for and +couldn't sleep, it seemed like his singing about kept me alive. Sometimes +still nights I can hear those tunes yet. He knew a lot of 'em, but there +was _Carry Me Back to Old Virginny_, and _Heart Bowed Down_, and _You'll +Remember Me_. I always thought that song reminded him of some girl down +here in the States. He never told me so, always put me off if I said a +word, and none of us knew he was married then; but when he got to singing +that tune, somehow he seemed to forget us boys and the camp and +everything, and went trailing off after his voice, looking for somebody +clear out of sight. I know now, since I've seen you, I was likely right." + +Still she was silent. But she moved a little and lifted her hand to the +edge of the Satsuma jardiniere; her fingers closed on it in a tightening +grip; she held her head high, but the lashes drooped over her eyes. +Watching her, the miner's seamed face worked. After a moment he said: "The +other night I paid seven dollars for a seat at the Metropolitan just to +hear one of those first-class singers try that song. The scenery was all +right. There were the boys and two or three women sitting around a +camp-fire. And the fiddles got the tune fine, but my, my! I couldn't +understand a word. Seemed like that fellow was talking darn Dago." + +At this she lifted her eyes. The shadow of a smile touched her mouth, +though her lashes were wet. "And he was, Mr. Banks," she said brightly. +"He was. I know, because I was there." + +Banks picked up his hat and rose to his feet. "We were all mighty proud of +Dave," he said. "There wasn't one of us wouldn't have done his level best +to reach him that last stampede; but I'm glad the chance came to Hollis +Tisdale. There wasn't another man in Alaska could have done what he did. +Yes, I'm mighty glad it was Tisdale who--found him." He paused, holding +his hat over the crippled hand, then added: "I suppose you never knew what +it means to be cold." + +She rose. The smile had left her lips, and she stood looking into his +withered face with wide eyes. "I mean so cold you don't care what happens. +So cold you can lie down in your tracks, in a sixty-mile-an-hour blizzard +and go to sleep." + +"No." She shivered, and her voice was almost a whisper. "I am afraid not." + +"Then you can't begin to imagine what Tisdale did. You can't see him +fighting his way through mountains, mushing ahead on the winter trail, +breaking road for his worn-out huskies, alone day after day, with just +poor Dave strapped to the sled." + +She put her hands to her ears. "Please, please don't say any more," she +begged. "I know--all--about it." + +"Even about the wolves?" + +She dropped her hands, bracing herself a little on the table, and turned +her face, looking, with that manner of one helplessly trapped, around the +room. + +"Even about the wolves?" he persisted. + +"No. No," she admitted at last. + +He nodded. "I thought likely not. Hollis never told that. It goes against +his grain to be made much of. He and Dave was cut out of the same block. +But last night in the lobby to the hotel, I happened on a fellow that met +him in the pass above Seward. There were four of 'em mushing through to +some mines beyond the Susitna. It was snowing like blazes when they heard +those wolves, and pretty soon Tisdale's dogs came streaking by through the +smother. Then a gun fired. It kept up, with just time enough between shots +to load, until they came up to him. He had stopped where a kind of small +cave was scooped in the mountainside and put the sled in and turned the +huskies loose. He had had the time, too, to make a fire in front of the +hole, but when the boys got there, his wood was about burned out, and the +wolves had got Dave's old husky, Jack. He had done his best to help hold +off the pack. There's no telling how many Hollis killed; you see the rest +fell on 'em soon's they dropped. It was hell. Nothing but hair and blood +and bones churned into the snow far as you could see. Excuse me, ma'am; I +guess it sounds a little rough. I'm more used to talking to men, my, yes. +But the fellow who told me said Hollis knew well enough what was coming at +the start, when he heard the first cry of the pack. He had a chance to +make a roadhouse below the pass. Not one man in a thousand would have +stayed by that sled." + +His withered face worked again. He moved to the door. "But Dave would have +done it." His voice took a higher pitch. "Yes, ma'am, Dave would have done +the same for Hollis Tisdale. They was a team; my, yes." He laughed his +hard, mirthless laugh. "Well, so long," he said. + +She did not answer. Half-way down the corridor Banks looked back through +the open door. She had not moved from the place where he had left her, +though her face was turned to the window. A little farther on, while he +waited for the elevator, he saw she had taken the package he had brought +from Tisdale. She stood weighing it, undecided, in her hands, then drew +out the table drawer and laid it in. She paused another instant in +uncertainty and, closing the drawer, began to gather up the pieces of +gold. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +LUCKY BANKS AND THE PINK CHIFFON + + +On his way down from Vivian Court, the mining man's attention was caught +by the great corner show window at Sedgewick-Wilson's, and instantly out +of the display of handsome evening gowns his eyes singled a dancing frock +of pink chiffon. "She always looked pretty," he told himself, "but when +she wore pink--my!" and he turned and found his way through the swinging +doors. A little later the elevator had left him at the second floor. For a +moment the mirrors bewildered him; they gave a sense of vastness, +repeating the elegant apartment in every direction, and whichever way he +glanced there was himself, seated on the edge of a chair, his square shoes +set primly on the thick green carpet, his hat held stiffly over the +crippled hand. Then an imposing young woman sauntered towards him. "Well," +she said severely, "what can I show you?" + +Banks drew himself a little stiffer. "A dress," he said abruptly in his +highest key, "ready-made and pink." + +"What size?" + +"Why"--the little man paused, and a blush that was nearer a shadow crossed +his weather-worn face--"let me see. She's five feet seven and a quarter, +in her shoes, and I judge a couple of inches wider through the shoulders +than you." His glance moved to another saleswoman, who came a step nearer +and stood listening, frankly amused. "You look more her figure," he added. + +"Takes a thirty-eight." The first saleswoman brought out a simple gown of +pink veiling and laid it on the rack before Banks, and he leaned forward +and took a fold between his thumb and forefinger, gravely feeling the +texture. + +"This is priced at twenty-five dollars," she said. "How does that suit?" + +Banks drew himself erect. "There's one down-stairs in the front window I +like better," he said. + +The woman looked him shrewdly over. He had put his hat down, and her +glance rested involuntarily on his maimed hand. "That pink chiffon is a +hundred and twenty-five," she explained. + +"I can stand it; the price doesn't cut any figure, if it's what I want." +He paused, nodding a little aggressively and tapping the carpet with one +square foot. "The lady it's for is a mighty good judge of cloth, and I +want you to show me the best you've got." + +She glanced at the other saleswoman, but she had turned her back--her +shoulders shook--and she hurried to bring out a duplicate of the pink +chiffon, which she arranged carefully on the rack. Bank's face softened; +he reached to touch it with a sort of caress. "This is more like it," he +said; then, turning to the second girl, "but I can tell better if you'll +put it on. You don't seem very busy," he added quickly, "and I'll pay you +your time." + +"Why, that's all right," she answered and came to pick up the gown. "I'll +be glad to; that's what I'm here for." + +She disappeared, laughing, into a dressing-room, and presently the first +saleswoman excused herself to wait on new customers. The girl came back +transformed. She had a handsome brunette face, with merry dark eyes and a +great deal of black hair arranged in an elaborate end striking coiffure. +"Isn't it swell?" she asked, walking leisurely before him. "But you'll +have to fasten it for her; it hooks in the back." Then she stopped; the +fun went out of her face; her glance had fallen to his crippled hand. "I'm +awfully sorry," she stammered. "Of course she can manage it herself; we +all have to sometimes." + +But the little man was rapt in the gown. "I'll take it!" he said +tremulously. "It suits you great, but, my! She'll be a sight." + +"I'll bet she's pretty," said the girl, still trying to make amends. "I'd +like to see her in this chiffon. And I guess your party will be swell." + +Banks looked troubled. "It isn't a party; not exactly. You see she's been +away from town quite a spell, and I thought likely she'd be a little short +on clothes. I guess while I'm about it I may as well take along everything +that naturally goes with this dress; shoes and socks and a hat and-- +flannels--" + +He paused in uncertainty, for the girl had suddenly turned her back again. +"I'd like to leave the rest to you," he added. "Pick out the best; the +whole outfit straight through." + +"I'll be glad to." The girl turned again, controlling a last dimple. "You +are the thoughtfullest man I ever saw on this floor. She's in luck; but I +guess you aren't married--yet." + +Banks laughed his high, strained laugh and rose. "No," he answered +briskly, "no, not exactly. But I want you to hurry out this bill of goods +in time for the four-ten Great Northern. I can't go without it, and I'm +counting on making Wenatchee to-night." + +"Wenatchee?" exclaimed the girl. "Is that where you expect her to wear +this chiffon? Why, it's the dustiest place under the sun. Take my word for +it; I came from there. And, see here, they don't give big parties there; +the people are just nice and friendly; it's a small town. If I were you +I'd choose a tan; a veiling gown, like this first one we showed you, only +tan. Then you could put the difference in price into a coat;--we have some +smart ones in tan,--with a light pongee duster to slip over it all, if +she's driving or using a machine." + +Banks nodded. "Sure, tuck them all in; but this pink dress goes, too, and +see it's on top. Likely they'll go best in a trunk. Now, if you will give +me the bill--" + +He paused to take out his poke, but the girl laughed. "I can't," she said. +"It will take me half an hour to foot it all up after I've picked out the +things. And unless you give me a limit, I won't know where to stop. Then +there's the hat. I never would dare to choose that for a woman I've never +seen, unless she's my style." + +"She is," the little man answered gravely, "that's why I picked you out +when I first come in. I guess maybe the other one was nice all right, but +she was a little too dried-up and froze to do." + +"Then I know what I'd like to send; it's a hat I tried on this morning. A +nice taupe--that's about the color of that sage-brush country over there +and won't show the dust--and it's trimmed with just one stunning plume the +same shade and a wreath of the tiniest pink French roses set under the +velvet brim. It looked like it was made for me, but twelve and a half is +my limit and it's twenty-five dollars. Maybe you don't want to go that +high." + +Banks untied the poke and poured the remaining gold pieces on the +show-case; then he found a pocket-book from which he took several crisp +bills. "There's three hundred," he said briefly, "and another ten for the +trunk. I want you to pick out a nice little one I can stow in the back of +a one-seated automobile. The hat and this pink dress go on top; and be +sure you get the outfit down to that four-ten train. Good-by," he put out +his hand, and a gleam of warmth touched his bleak face. "I'm glad I met +you." + +"And so am I. Good-by." She stopped gathering up the money long enough to +give him her hand. "And good luck," she added. + +The first saleswoman, again at leisure, approached and stood looking after +him as he hurried with his quick, uneven steps towards the elevator. "Of +all things!" she exclaimed. "He did buy that pink chiffon. Who'd ever have +thought he had the money or the taste. But I suppose he's one of those +lucky fellows who've struck it rich in Alaska." + +The other young woman nodded. "His gold came out of one of those pokes, +and it's fresh from the mint. But I guess he's earned all he's got, every +cent. I'll bet he's starved and froze; suffered ways we don't know. And +he's spending it on a girl. I'd like to see her. Maybe she's the +cold-blooded kind that'll snub him and make fun of this chiffon." + +She turned into the dressing-room, and it was then Banks stopped and +brought out the loose change in his pockets. There was a ten dollar piece, +to which he added two and a half in silver. He started back up the room, +but the girl had disappeared, and, while he stood hesitating, a +floor-walker approached. + +"Have you forgotten something?" he asked politely. + +"Yes," answered Banks, "I forgot to give this money to the young lady who +was waiting on me. She's likely gone to take off a pink dress I bought. +But she's the one with lots of black hair and pink cheeks and a real nice +smile; you couldn't miss her. And you might as well give her this; tell +her it's the other twelve and a half to make up the price of that hat; a +duplicate of the one we were talking about. She'll understand." + +He called these final words over his shoulder, for the elevator had +stopped, and he hurried to catch it. Going down, he looked at his watch; +he had spent an hour buying that dress. But on the lower floor he noticed +a telephone booth and saw a way to make up the time. + +"Hello!" he called, pitching his voice to a treble. "This is Banks, the +miner you was trying to talk into buying that little red car last week; +roadster I think you said 'twas. Well, I want you to fire up and run down +to the Rainier-Grand quick as you can." + +He listened a moment, then: "Yes, likely I'll change my mind, if I get +so's I can drive her all right by three p.m. I'm going east of the +mountains, and if I buy I've got to ship her on the four-ten train--Yes, I +mean the little one with a seat to accommodate two, with a place to carry +a trunk behind. Now get busy and rush her down. I've got some errands to +do, and I want you to hurry me around; then we'll get away from the crowd +out on the boulevard where I can have a clear track to break her on." + +The sale was made, and the mining man must have applied himself +successfully to his lesson, for the following morning, when the red car +spun out of Wenatchee and up the lifting valley road, a snug steamer-trunk +was stowed in the box behind, and Banks at the steering gear was traveling +alone. To be sure the rising curves were made in sudden spurts and jerks, +but his lack of skill was reinforced by a tireless vigilance gathered +through breaking days of driving and mushing over hazardous trails. And he +had made an early start; few wayfarers were yet astir. But at last, high +up where the track doubled the summit of a slope that lifted in a bluff +overhead, and on the other hand dropped precipitously to the river, the +little man barely averted catastrophe. The driver and the vehicle were +hidden by the curve, but at his warning honk, two percherons that blocked +the way halted and, lunging at his repeated note, crowded back on the team +they led. Then a woman's voice shrilled: "I've got the heaviest load; you +give me right of way." + +Banks sprang out and ran forward past the horses. The driver, dressed in a +skirt and blouse of khaki, was seated on a load of lumber. She held the +reins high in yellow-gauntleted hands, and a rope of loosened red hair +hung below a smart campaign hat. "I can't back," she exclaimed +aggressively. "You got to give me right of way." + +"Ain't there a man with the outfit?" he asked uncertainly. + +"No," she snapped. "Do I look like I need one?" But she hurried on +tremulously: "My husband's running the mill night and day, and Bryant, +down the valley, had to have his boxes for the apple crop. He said send +the boards down, and he'd let a couple of his Japs knock 'em together. So +I thought with an early start and a clear track, I could drive. But you've +got to turn out. I've got the heavy load." + +Banks shook his head. + +"It's my first trip," he said dubiously, "and I ain't learned to back her +only enough to turn 'round; and it's too narrow. But I used to drive +pretty good seven or eight years ago; and I've been managing a dog team +off and on ever since. Let me climb up there and back your load." + +"You can't do it," she cried. "It's up-grade and a mean curve, and that +nigh leader, for a first-class draught horse, has the cussedest +disposition you ever saw. You can't back him short of a gunshot under his +nose, and you got to get that buzz-wagon of yours out of sight before I +can get him past." + +"Then," said Banks, and smiled grimly, "I guess it's up to me to back." He +started to return to the machine but paused to add over his shoulder: +"It's all right; don't you be scared. No matter what happens, you forget +it and drive straight ahead." + +But destiny, who had scourged and thwarted the little man so many years, +was in a humorous mood that day. The little red car backed down from the +bend in zigzag spurts, grazing the bluff, sheering off to coast the +river-ward brink; then, in the final instant, when the machine failed to +respond to the lever speedily enough, a spur of rock jutting beyond the +roadway eased the outer wheel. It rolled up, all but over, while the next +tire met the obstruction and caught. Banks laughed. "Hooray!" he piped. +"Now swing the corner, lady! All circle to the left." + +"Get up!" the driver shrilled. "Get up, now, Duke, you imp!" And the +leader, balking suspiciously at the explosive machine, felt a smart touch +of the whip. He plunged, sidled against the bluff and broke by. There was +barely room to make that turn; the tailboard of the wagon, grating, left a +long blemish on the bright body of the car, but as the load rolled on down +the incline, Banks churned gayly up around the bend. + +In less than an hour Hesperides Vale stretched behind him, and the bold +front of Cerberus lifted holding the gap. Tisdale had warned him of the +barbed-wire fence, and while he cautiously rounded the mountain, his old +misgiving rose. What though he had made good; what though the Iditarod had +filled his poke many times over, the north had taken heavy toll. He had +left his youth up there, and what would this smart little automobile count +against a whole right hand? And this trunkful of clothes--what would it +weigh against a good-sized man? Still, still, though she might have taken +her pick of 'em all, Annabel had never married, and she had kept his +goats. Then he remembered Tisdale had said that she too had had a hard +fight, and the years must have changed her. And hadn't she herself told +him, in that letter he carried in his breast pocket, that if he cared to +come and see the goats, he would find his investment was turning out fine, +but he needn't expect she had kept her own good looks? + +The little man smiled with returning confidence and, lifting his glance, +saw the cabin and the browsing flock cut off by the barbed-wire fence from +the road. Then as he brought the car to a stop, the collie flew barking +against the wicket, and a gaunt woman rose from a rock and stood shading +her eyes from the morning sun. + +He sprang down and spoke to the dog, and instantly his tone quieted the +collie, but the woman came nearer to point at the sign. "You better read +that," she threatened. + +His hand dropped from the wicket, and he stood staring at her across the +barbed wire. "I was looking for a lady," he said slowly, "but I guess +likely I've made a mistake." + +She came another step and, again shading her eyes, stared back. A look +half eager, half wistful, trembled for a moment through the forbidding +tenseness of her face. "All the men I've seen in automobiles up here were +looking for land," she replied defiantly. + +He nodded; his eyes did not move from her face, but they shone like two +chippings of blue glacier ice, and his voice when he spoke piped its +sharpest key. "So am I. I've got an option on a pocket somewheres in this +range, and the lady I'm inquiring for happened to homestead the quarter +below. It sort of overlaps, so's she put her improvements on the wrong +edge. Yes, ma'am, I've likely made a mistake, but, you see, I heard she +had a bunch o' goats." + +There was a brief silence then. "Anyhow, you must o' come from that +surveyor," she said. "Maybe he was just a smooth talker, but he had a nice +face; laughing crinkles around his eyes and a way of looking at you, if +you'd done a mean thing, to make you feel like the scum of the earth. But +he happened to be acquainted with the man that made me a present of my +first billy and ewes, and you--favor him a little." She paused, then went +on unsteadily, while her eyes continued to search him. "He was about your +size, but he's been up in Alaska, way in the interior somewheres for +years, and the letter I wrote him couldn't have reached him inside a +month. I figured if he came out, he would just about catch the last +steamer in October." + +"So he would, if he hadn't come down to Seattle already." He stopped, +fumbling with the pin, and threw open the wicket. "I guess I ain't changed +much more'n you, Annabel." + +The woman was silent. Her chin dropped; her glance sought the earth. Then +Banks turned to fasten the gate behind him, and she started to stalk +mechanically up the field towards the cabin. "I feel all broke up," he +said, overtaking her; "like I'd been struck by a blizzard. Why, there was +a girl down in Seattle, she sold me a bill of goods that looked more like +you than you do yourself. I know I got myself to blame, but I never +counted for a minute on your keeping the goats." + +The woman stalked on a little faster, but she could not outstrip the +prospector; she turned her face, in refuge, to the flock. "Goats," she +said unsteadily, "goats--are all right when you get used to 'em. They're +something like children, I guess; a sight of trouble but good company and +mighty comforting to have 'round. And they're just as different. There's +old Dad, the cautious looking one standing off there watching us and +chewing the end of a thistle. It might as well be a toothpick, and I'll +bet he's thinking: 'You can't get the best of me, no, sir.' And that piece +of wisdom next to him is the Professor. Don't he remind you of the old +schoolmaster down at the Corners? And there goes Johnny Banks. See him? +The pert little fellow chasing up the field. You never can tell where +he'll turn up or what he'll do next." + +She laughed a dry, forced laugh, and Banks echoed it in his strained key. +"But we are going to get rid of 'em. They're a fine bunch--you've brought +'em up splendid, made a sight better showing than I could--but we are +going to get rid of 'em, yes, ma'am, and forget 'em as quick's we can. We +are going to start right now to make up those seven years." + +They had reached the cabin, and he stopped on the threshold. "My, my," he +said softly, "don't it look homey? There's your Dad's old chair, and the +dresser and the melodion. I was 'fraid you'd sold that, Annabel." + +"I could have, there's been plenty of chances, but Dad gave it to me, +don't you remember? the Christmas I was sixteen." + +"My, yes, and you opened it right there, under the cherry tree, and +started _Home, Sweet Home_. I can hear it now, and the crowd joining in. +I'm glad you kept it, Annabel; a new one wouldn't seem just the same." + +"It's traveled though. You ought to have seen me moving from Oregon. The +old delivery wagon was heaping full." Her laugh this time was spontaneous. +"And old Kate couldn't make more than ten miles a day. But I had a good +tent, and when she had done her day's stunt, I just tied her out to feed +and made camp. The hardest was keeping track of the goats, but the flock +was small then, and I had two dogs." + +"I see," said Banks. "You kept 'em ahead of the wagon when you was on the +road and let 'em forage for themselves. But I'd like to have a look at old +Kate. She came of good stock." + +Annabel went over and, seating herself in her father's chair, untied her +sunbonnet. "Kate died," she said. "I hired her out to a man down the +valley, and he worked her too hard in the heat." + +There was a silent moment. She took off the bonnet and laid it in her lap. +The light, streaming through a small window, touched her hair, which was +bound in smooth, thick braids around her head. + +"My, my," the little man said, "ain't it a sight? I'd have known you in a +minute without that bonnet down at the gate. My, but don't it make a +difference what a woman wears? I'll bet I can't tell you from the girl I +left in Oregon when you've changed your clothes." + +She shook her head. "This denim is all I've got," she said, with a touch +of defiance. "I wore out all I had; goats are hard on clothes." + +"I thought likely." His bleak face began to glow. "And I knew you was out +of town away from the stores, so's I brought along a little outfit. You +wait a minute, and I'll fetch it right in." + +He was gone before he finished speaking and returned in an incredibly +short time with the trunk, which he deposited on the floor before her. +Then he felt in his pocket and, finding the key, fitted it and lifted the +lid. It was then, for the first time, she noticed the maimed hand. + +"Johnny!" she cried, and the pent emotion surged in her voice. "Johnny, +you've been--hurt." + +"Oh, that don't amount to anything now, only the looks. I can turn out +just as much work." + +He hurried to open the tray, but before he could remove the packing of +tissue paper that enveloped the hat, she reached and took the crippled +hand between her own. Her fingers fluttered, caressing, while with +maternal protectiveness they covered it, and she drew him back to the +broad arm of her chair. The defiance had gone out of her face; her eyes +were misty and tender. "You tell me what happened," she said. + +So came Lucky Banks' hour. He saw this woman who had been fond of pretty +clothes, who had once worn them but was now reduced to a single frock of +coarse denim, turn from the fine outfit before it was even displayed; +waiting, with a wondrously comforting solicitude he never had suspected in +the girl whom he had left in Oregon, to hear first that miserable story of +the trail. He told it briefly, but with the vividness of one whose words +are coined straight from the crucible of bitter experience, and while she +listened, her heart shone in her passionate eyes. "What if it had +happened," she broke out at last. "If it had, Johnny, it would have been +my fault. I drove you into going up there. I'm responsible for this hand. +I--I couldn't have stood worse than that." + +The little man beamed. "Is that so, Annabel? Then I'm mighty glad +Weatherbee followed that stampede. Nobody else would have seen my hand +sticking up through the snow and stopped to dig me out. Unless--" he added +thoughtfully, "it was Hollis Tisdale. Yes, likely Hollis would. He was the +only man in Alaska fit to be Dave's running mate." + +"Do you mean that surveyor?" she asked. + +Banks nodded. + +"I thought so," she said with satisfaction. "Dad taught me to size people +up on sight. He could tell the first minute he saw a man's face whether he +was good for a bill of groceries or not; and I knew that surveyor was +straight. I bet he knew you was in Seattle when he got me to write. But I +wish I could have a look at the other one. He must be--great." + +Banks nodded again. "He was," he answered huskily. "He was. But he's made +his last trip. I wasn't three hundred miles off, but I never thought of +Dave Weatherbee's needing help; it took Tisdale, clear off in Nome, over a +thousand miles, to sense something was wrong. But he started to mush it, +alone with his huskies, to the Iditarod and on to the Aurora, Dave's mine. +You don't know anything about that winter trail, Annabel. It means from +twenty to fifty below, with the wind swooping out of every canyon, +cross-cutting like knives, and not the sign of a road-house in days, in +weeks sometimes. But he made it,"--Banks' voice reached high pitch--"He +beat the records, my, yes." + +"And something was wrong?" asked Annabel, breaking the pause. + +Banks nodded again. "You remember that sheepman down in Oregon they +brought in from the range. The one that ripped up his comforter that night +at the hotel and set the wool in little rolls around the floor; thought he +was tending sheep? Well, that's what was happening. And Hollis was two +days late. Dave had started for the coast; not the regular way to +Fairbanks and out by stage to Valdez, but a new route through the Alaska +Range to strike the Susitna and on to Seward. And he had fresh dogs. He +was through Rainy Pass when Tisdale began to catch up." + +"He did catch up?" Annabel questioned again hurriedly. + +Banks nodded once more. He drew his hand away and rose from his seat on +the chair arm. His eyes were shining like blue glacier ice. "It was in a +blizzard; the same as the day I lost my fingers--only--Hollis--he was too +late." He turned and walked unsteadily to the door and stood looking out. +"I wasn't three hundred miles from the Aurora," he added. "I could have +been in time. I can't ever forget that." + +Annabel rose and stood watching him, with the emotion playing in her face. +"Johnny!" she exclaimed at last. "Oh, Johnny!" She went over and put her +arm protectively around his shoulders. "I know just how you feel; but you +didn't drive him to it. You were just busy and interested in your work. +You'd have gone in a minute, left everything, if you had known." + +"That's it; I ought to have known. I ought to have kept track of Dave; run +over once in a while to say hullo. I'd have likely seen it was coming on, +then, in time. When Tisdale found him, he'd been setting out little pieces +of spruce, like an orchard in the snow. You see," he added after a moment, +"Dave always expected to come back here when he struck it rich and start a +fruit ranch. He was the man who owned this pocket." + +A sudden understanding shone in Annabel's face. "And that's why you got an +option on it; you want to carry out his scheme. I'll help you, Johnny, +I'll do my level best." + +Banks turned and looked at her. "That's all I want, Annabel. I was a +little afraid you'd be sick of the place. But, my, we can go right ahead +and set a crew of men to grubbing out the sage on both sections to once. +Folks might have said, seeing you take up with a undersized, froze-up +fellow like me, you was marrying me for my money; but they can't, no, +ma'am, not when they see the valuable claim you are developing in your own +right." + +Annabel laughed. "I guess you're entitled to your turn making fun of me. +But have you got money, Johnny? I never thought of that." + +"Likely not. But the Annabel sure brought me luck; that name worked better +than a rabbit's foot. Here's a little bunch of nuggets I saved out of the +first clean-up." He paused to take a small new poke from an inner pocket +and, untying the string, poured the contents in her hand. "I thought +likely you'd want 'em made up in a necklace with a few diamonds or mebbe +emeralds mixed in." + +She stood looking at the shining rough pieces of gold in her palm, while a +certain pride rose through the wonder in her face. "My gracious!" she +exclaimed, and a spark of her lost youth revived. "My gracious. And you +named your mine after me. I bet it was on account of that billy and the +ewes." + +"Likely," the little man beamed. "But more than likely it was because that +strike was a sure thing, and you was behind it, Annabel. My, yes, you was +responsible I ever got to Alaska; let alone stuck it out. Sure as a +grubstake, you gave me my start. Now come take a look at this outfit I +brought." + +He held the poke open while she poured the nuggets back. "I like them +plain," she said, "but I never saw any made up. I leave it to you." + +"Then I make it emeralds to match the Green, and mebbe a few sparklers +thrown in." He laughed gayly and, taking her arm, drew her back across the +room to the open trunk; when she was seated again in the armchair, he +knelt to remove the first layer of tissue packing. She took the precaution +to spread one smooth sheet of it on her lap and, leaning forward, saw him +uncover the plume, the entire hat. "Gracious goodness!" she exclaimed +tremulously, as he lifted it awkwardly to her eager hands, "ain't it +splendid? I didn't know they were making them like this. I never saw such +roses; why, they look alive and ready to smell; and ain't they pretty +fixed this way under the brim?" She paused, turning the masterpiece +slowly, like a connoisseur. "I bet I could have worn it when I was in +Oregon. It would have been my style. Do you suppose"--she glanced at Banks +timidly--"I'd dare to try it if my hair was done real nice, and I had on a +better dress?" + +"My, yes." Banks laughed again excitedly, and with growing confidence +opened the next compartment to display the chiffon gown. "Wait till you +get this on. You'll be a sight. You always was in pink." He paused to take +the hat and, wheeling, placed it on the old dresser, and so made room for +the frock on her lap. "Now, ain't that soft and peachy and--and rich?" + +But Annabel was silent. She lifted her eyes from the gown to Johnny, and +they were full of mist. Then her lip quivered, and a drop splashed down on +the delicate fabric. "My gracious!" she cried in consternation and, +rising, held the gown off at arm's-length. "Do you suppose it's going to +spot?" + +And Banks' laugh piped once more. "I guess it can stand a little salt +water," he replied. "But if it can't, we can get a duplicate. And now you +just take your time and pick out what you want to wear. I am going up the +bench to look around and find Dave's springs. It'll likely take me an hour +or so, and you can be ready to start soon's I get back." + +"Start?" she repeated. "Was you counting on going somewhere?" + +"My, yes. I was counting on taking you a little spin down to Wenatchee the +first thing, and having a chicken dinner to the hotel. Then, soon's we get +a license and hunt up a sky man, we are going to run down to Oregon and +have a look at the old Corners." + +"I never rode in an automobile," she said, glowing, "but I think I'd like +it fine." + +"I bet you will. I bet, coming home, you'll be running the machine +yourself half the time." + +He hurried away then, laughing his shrillest key, and Annabel laid the +pink chiffon back in the tray to follow him to the door. She stood +smiling, though the mist alternately gathered and cleared in her eyes, +watching him up the vale and waiting to see him reappear on the front of +the bench. But he found her ready when he returned; and the hat was +becoming beyond her hopes. It brought back in a measure the old brightness +that was half a challenge in her air, so that, to the mining man, she +seemed to have gone back, almost, those lost years. Still, his +satisfaction was tempered, and instantly she understood the cause. "The +roses seemed enough pink today," she said tactfully, "till I wear off some +of this tan. But I like this tan cloth awful well, don't you? It's a nice +color for out-of-doors and won't show the dust. And doesn't it fit +perfectly splendid? And look at these shoes. I don't see how you +remembered my size. You've thought of everything. There's even an +automobile veil. A lady that came out here with Mr. Tisdale had one about +the same shade. But you'll have to help me put it on so I won't spoil this +plume." + +She pushed the pongee coat, which was carefully folded across the back of +a chair, a little aside and, seating herself before the mirror, reached to +take the scarf and exposed a folded paper on the dresser. "I found that +envelope pinned inside the hat," she said still diplomatically, though a +touch of humor shaded her lips. "There's a ten dollar piece in it and two +and a half in silver. Probably it's your change." + +But Banks turned the envelope and read pencilled across the front: "There +isn't any duplicate, but thanks just the same." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +KERNEL AND PEACH + + +After that little wedding journey down in Oregon, Banks returned to +Seattle to engage a crew for the first step to reclamation; combining +pleasure with business, he brought Annabel and registered at the New +Washington Hotel. And here Daniels, detailed to learn something in regard +to the Iditarod strike where, it was rumored, the Morgansteins were +negotiating for the miner's valuable holdings, finally traced him. + +"Sure we have a Banks of Alaska with us," the clerk responded, smiling, +and turned the page to show the _Press_ representative the strained, +left-handed signature. "He's a sawed-off specimen with a face like a +peachstone; but he said if he put down his regular name, the boys likely +would miss his trail." + +"Mrs. Annabel Green Banks Hesperides Vale," read Jimmie. + +"Lucky Banks Iditarod and Hesperides Vale. + +"This looks like my man, sure; but who is Mrs. Green-Banks? His wife or +mother?" + +"Bride," the clerk replied laconically. "It's a sort of overdue honeymoon. +But she's rather smart looking; fine eyes and tall enough to make up for +him. They're a pair." + +"I see. Kernel and peach. But Hesperides Vale," Daniels went on +thoughtfully. "Why, that's in the new fruit belt over near Wenatchee, my +old stamping-ground." + +The clerk nodded. "She owns some orchard lands over there and to hear him +talk, you'd think she had the money; Until it comes to ordering; then the +Queen of Sheba isn't in it. 'I guess we can stand the best room in the +house,' he says. And when I showed them the blue suite and told them +Tarquina, the prima donna opening at the Metropolitan to-night, had the +companion suite in rose, it's: 'Do you think you can put up with this +blue, Annabel?' But there comes the cameo now. No, the other way, from the +street." + +Jimmie met the prospector midway across the lobby. "Mr. Banks?" he began +genially. "I am the lucky one this time; I came in purposely to see you. I +am Daniels, representing the _Seattle Press_. My paper is particular about +the Alaska news, and I came straight to headquarters to find out about the +Iditarod camp." + +Banks kept on to the desk, and Jimmie turned to walk with him. The clerk +was ready with his key. "Mrs. Banks hasn't come in yet," he said, smiling. + +"She's likely been kept up at Sedgewick-Wilson's. I introduced her to a +friend of mine there. I had to chase around to find a contractor that +could ship his own scrapers and shovels across the range, and I thought +the time would go quicker, for her, picking out clothes. But," he added, +turning to the reporter, "we may as well sit down and wait for her here in +the lobby." + +"I understand," began Daniels, opening his notebook on the arm of his +chair, "that your placer in the Iditarod country has panned out a clear +one hundred thousand dollars." + +"Ninety-five thousand, two hundred and twenty-six," corrected the mining +man, "with the last clean-up to hear from." + +Jimmie set these figures down, then asked: "Is the rumor true that the +Morgansteins are considering an offer from you?" + +"No, sir," piped the little man. "They made me an offer. I gave 'em an +option on my bunch of claims for a hundred and fifty thousand. Their +engineer has gone in to look the property over. If they buy, they'll +likely send a dredger through by spring and work a big bunch of men." + +There was a silent moment while Jimmie recorded these facts, then: "And I +understand you are interested in fruit lands east of the mountains," he +said. "It often happens that way. Men make their pile up there in the +frozen north and come back here to Washington to invest it." + +"Likely," replied Banks shortly. "Likely. But it's my wife that owns the +property in the fruit belt. And it's a mighty promising layout; it's up to +me to stay with it till she gets her improvements in. Afterwards--now I +want you to get this in correct. Last time things got mixed; the young +fellow wrote me down Bangs. And I've read things in the newspaper lately +about Hollis Tisdale that I know for a fact ain't so." + +"Hollis Tisdale?" Jimmie suspended his pencil. "So you know the Sphynx of +the Yukon, do you?" + +"That's it. That's the name that blame newspaper called him. Sphynx +nothing. Hollis Tisdale is the best known man in Alaska and the best +liked. If the Government had had the sense to put him at the head of the +Alaska business, there'd been something doing, my, yes." + +The reporter finished his period. "Don't let this interview bother you," +he said. "It's going into my paper straight, Mr. Banks, and in your own +words." + +While he spoke, his vigilant glance rested lightly on one of the several +guests scattered about the lobby. He was a grave and thoughtful man and +had seemed deeply engrossed in a magazine, but he had changed his seat for +a chair within speaking distance, and Jimmie had not seen him turn a page. + +"What I was going to say, then," resumed Banks, "was that afterwards, when +the orchards are in shape, I am going back to Alaska and take a bunch of +those abandoned claims, where the miners have quit turning up the earth, +and just seed 'em to oats and blue stem. Either would do mighty well. The +sun shines hot long summer days, and the ground keeps moist from the +melting snow on the mountains. I've seen little patches of grain up there +and hay ripening and standing high as my shoulder. But what they need most +in the interior is stock farms, horses and beeves, and I am going to take +in a fine bunch of both; they'll do fine; winter right along with the +caribou and reindeer." + +"Well, that's a new idea to me," exclaimed Daniels. "Alaska to me has +always stood for blizzards, snow, glaciers, impregnable mountains, bleak +and barren plains like the steppes of Russia, and privation, privation of +the worst kind." + +Banks nodded grimly. "That's because the first of us got caught by winter +unprepared. Why, men freeze to death every blizzard right here in the +States; sometimes it's in Dakota; sometimes old New York, with railroads +lacing back and forth close as shoestrings. And imagine that big, +unsettled Alaska interior without a single railroad and only one +wagon-road; men most of the time breaking their own trails. Not a town or +a house sometimes in hundreds of miles to shelter 'em, if a storm happens +to break. But you talk with any Swede miner from up there. He'll tell you +they could make a new Sweden out of Alaska. Let us use the timber for +building and fuel; let a man that's got the money to do it start a +lumber-mill or mine the coal. Give us the same land and mineral laws you +have here in the States, and homeseekers would flock in thick as birds in +springtime." + +The stranger closed his magazine. "Pardon me," he said, taking advantage +of the pause, "but do you mean that Conservation is all that is keeping +home-seekers out of Alaska?" + +Banks nodded this time with a kind of fierceness; his eyes scintillated a +white heat, but he suppressed the imminent explosion and began with forced +mildness, "My, yes. But you imagine a man trying to locate with +ninety-five per cent. of the country reserved. First you've got to +consider the Coast Range. The great wall of China's nothing but a line of +ninepins to the Chugach and St. Elias wall. The Almighty builds strong, +and he set that wall to hold the Pacific Ocean back. Imagine peaks piled +miles high and cemented together with glaciers; the Malispina alone has +eighty miles of water front; and there's the Nanatuk, Columbia, Muir; but +the Government ain't found names for more'n half of 'em yet, nor a quarter +of the mountains. Now imagine a man getting his family over that divide, +driving his little bunch of cattle through, packing an outfit to keep 'em +going the first year or so. Suppose he's even able to take along a +portable house; what's he going to do about fuel? Is he going to trek back +hundreds of miles to the seaport, like the Government expects, to pack in +coal? Australian maybe, or Japan low grade, but more likely it's +Pennsylvania sold on the dock for as high as seventeen dollars a ton. Yes, +sir, and with Alaska coal, the best kind and enough to supply the United +States for six hundred years, scattered all around, cropping right out of +the ground. Think of him camped alongside a whole forest of spruce, where +he can't cut a stick." + +The little man's voice had reached high pitch; he rose and took a short, +swift turn across the floor. The stranger was silent; apparently he was +weighing this astonishing information. But Daniels broke the pause. + +"The Government ought to hurry those investigations," he said. "Foster, +the mining engineer, told me never but one coal patent had been allowed in +all Alaska, and that's on the coast. He has put thousands into coal land +and can't get title or his money back. The company he is interested with +has had to stop development, because, pending investigation, no man can +mine coal until his patent is secured. It looks like the country is +strangled in red tape." + +"It is," cried Banks. "And one President's so busy building a railroad for +the Filipinos, and rushing supplies to the Panama Canal he goes out of +office and clear forgets he's left Alaska temporarily tied up; and the +next one has his hands so full fixing the tariff and running down the +trusts he can't look the question up. And if he could, Congress is working +overtime, appropriating the treasury money home in the States. There's so +many Government buildings to put up and harbors and rivers to dredge, it +can't even afford to give us a few lights and charts, and ships keep on +feeling their way and going to destruction on the Alaska coast. Alaska is +side-tracked. She's been left standing so long she's going to rust." + +"If some of our senators could listen to you," said the stranger, with a +swift and vanishing smile, "their eyes would be opened. But that is the +trouble; Alaska has had no voice. It is true each congressman has been so +burdened with the wants of his own State that session after session has +closed before the Alaska bills were reached. We have been accustomed to +look on Alaska as a bleak and forbidding country, with a floating +population of adventurers and lawless men, who go there with the intention +to stay only long enough to reap a mineral harvest. If she had other great +resources and such citizens as you, why were you not in Washington to +exploit her?" + +Lucky Banks shook his head. "Up to this year," he said and smiled grimly, +"I couldn't have made the trip without beating my way, and I guess if I +went to some of those senators now and escaped being put down for an +ex-convict, they'd say I was engineering a trust. They'd turn another key +on Alaska to keep me out." + +He wheeled to tramp down the lobby, then stopped. Annabel had entered. +Annabel arrayed in a new, imported tailored suit of excellent cloth, in a +shade of Copenhagen blue, and a chic hat of blue beaver trimmed with +paradise. Instantly the mining man's indignation cooled. He put aside +Alaska's wrongs and hurried, beaming, to meet his wife. "Why, you bought +blue," he said with pleased surprise. "And you can wear it, my, yes, about +as well as pink." + +Annabel smiled with the little ironical curl of the lip that showed +plainly her good sense held her steady, on the crest of that high wave +whereon it had been fortune's freak to raise her. "Lucile showed me a +place, on the next floor of the store, where I could get the tan taken off +my face while I was waiting for alterations to my suit. They did it with a +sort of cold cream and hot water. There's just a streak left around my +neck, and I can cover that with the necklace." She paused then added with +a gentle conciliation creeping through her confidential tone: "I am going +to wear the pink chiffon to-night to hear Tarquina. Lucile says it's all +right for a box party, opening night. I like her real well. I asked her to +go with us, and she's coming early, in time for dinner, at seven." + +"I thought you'd make a team," replied Banks, delighted. "And I'm glad you +asked her, my, yes. It would have been lonesome sitting by ourselves +'mongst the empty chairs." + +They were walking towards the elevator, and Daniels, who had learned from +the clerk that the important looking stranger who had seemed so interested +in Banks' information, was the head of the new coal commission, going +north for investigation, stopped the prospector to say good-by. + +"I want to thank you for that interview, Mr. Banks," he said frankly. +"I've learned more about Alaska from you in fifteen minutes than I had put +together in five years." + +"You are welcome, so's you get it in straight. But,"--and the little man +drew himself proudly erect,--"I want to make you acquainted with Mrs. +Banks, Mr. Daniels." + +"I am awfully glad to meet you, Mrs. Banks," said Jimmie cordially, +offering his hand. "I understand you are from Hesperides Vale, and I grew +up over there in the Columbia desert. It's almost like seeing friends from +home." + +"Likely," Banks began, but his glance moved from the reporter to his wife +and he repeated less certainly, "likely we could get him to take one of +those chairs off our hands." + +Annabel's humor rose to her eyes. "He's hired a box for Carmen to-night; +they were out of seats in the divans, and it worries him because our party +is so small." + +"I'd be delighted, only,"--Jimmie paused, flushing and looking intently +inside his hat--"the fact is, I am going to take the Society Editor on my +paper. We have miserable seats, the first row in the orchestra was the +best they could do for us, and she has to write up the gowns. She's an +awfully nice girl, and she has a little trick of keeping her copy out of +sight, so the people in the house never would catch on; would you think me +very bold,"--and with this he looked up directly at Annabel--"if I asked +you to give that place in your box to her?" + +He was graciously assured it would make Mr. Banks "easy" if they both +joined the party, and Annabel suggested that he bring the Society Editor +to dinner, "so as to get acquainted" before the opera. All of which was +speedily arranged by telephone. Miss Atkins accepted with pleasure. + +The dinner was a complete success; so complete that the orchestra was +concluding the overture when they arrived at the theater. A little flurry +ran through the body of the house when Annabel appeared. Mrs. Feversham in +the opposite box raised her lorgnette. + +"I wonder who they are," she said. "Why, the girl in white looks like Miss +Atkins, who writes the society news, and there is your reporter, Daniels." + +"Other man is Lucky Banks; stunning woman in pink must be his wife." +Frederic, having settled in his chair and eased his lame knee, focussed +his own glasses. + +"George, Marcia," he exclaimed, "do you see that necklace? Nuggets, +straight from the sluices of the Annabel, I bet. Nuggets strung with +emeralds, and each as big as they grow. I suppose that chain is what you +call barbarous, but I rather like it." + +"It is fit for a queen," admitted Marcia. "One of those barbarian queens +we read about. No ordinary woman could wear it, but it seems made for her +throat." And she added, dropping her lorgnette to turn her calculating +glance on her brother's face, "Every woman her price." + +Frederic laughed shortly. The purplish flush deepened in his cheeks, and +his eyes rested on Beatriz Weatherbee. She was seated in the front of the +box with Elizabeth, and as she leaned forward a little, stirred by the +passionate cry of the violins, her profile was turned to him. + +"The price doesn't cut as much figure as you think," he said. + +Then the curtain rose. Tarquina was a marvelous Carmen. The Society +Editor, who had taken her notebook surreptitiously from a silk evening bag +and, under cover of a chiffon scarf, commenced to record the names and +gowns of important personages, got no farther than the party in the +opposite box during the first act. But she made amends in the +intermission. It was then a smile suddenly softened her firm mouth, and +she introduced Annabel to her columns with this item. + +"Noticeable among the out of town guests were Mr. and Mrs. John Henry +Banks, who entertained a box party, following a charming dinner at the New +Washington. Mrs. Banks, a recent bride, was handsomely gowned in pink +chiffon over messaline, and wore a unique necklace of nuggets which were +gathered from her husband's mine near Iditarod, Alaska. The gold pieces +were linked lengthwise, alternating with single emeralds, and the pendant +was formed of three slender nuggets, each terminating in a matched diamond +and emerald." + +While Geraldine wrote this, Frederic Morganstein made his way laboriously, +with the aid of a crutch, around to the box. "How do do, Miss Atkins," he +said. "Hello, Daniels! Well, Mr. Banks, how are you? Greatest Carmen ever +sung in this theater, isn't it? Now, keep your seat. I find it easier to +stand. Just came for a minute to be presented to--your wife." + +His venture carried. The little man, rising, said with conscious pride: +"Mrs. Banks, allow me to make you acquainted with Mr. Morganstein. He's +the man that holds the option on the Annabel. And this is Miss Purdy, Mr. +Morganstein; Miss Lucile Purdy of Sedgewick-Wilson's. I see you know the +rest of the bunch." + +"I guess it's up to me to apologize, Mrs. Banks," said Frederic, heavily +humorous. "I wouldn't believe my sister, Mrs. Feversham, when she told me +there were some smart women in those Alaska towns." He paused, laughing, +while his glance moved from Annabel's ironical mouth to her superb +shoulders and rested on the nugget chain; then he said: "From that +interview of yours in tonight's _Press_, Mr. Banks, there isn't much the +country can't produce." + +"Likely not," responded the little man quickly. "But my wife was an Oregon +girl. We were engaged, my, yes, long before I saw Alaska. And lately she's +been living around Hesperides Vale. She's got some fine orchard property +over there, in her own right." + +"Is that so?" Frederic's speculative look returned to Annabel's face. +"Hesperides Vale. That's in the new reclamation country, east of the +mountains, isn't it? I was intending to motor through that neighborhood +when this accident stopped me and put an end to the trip. They are turning +out some fine apples in that valley, I understand. But it's curtain time. +Awfully glad I've met you; see you again. Lend me your shoulder, will you, +Daniels--around to my box?" + +While they were crossing the foyer, he said: "That enlargement came out +fine; you must run up to my office, while it's there to-morrow, to see it. +And that was a great write-up you gave Lucky Banks. It was yours, wasn't +it? Thought so. Bought a hundred copies. Mrs. Feversham is going to take +'em east to distribute in Washington. Double blue-pencilled one, +'specially for the President." + +Jimmie smiled, blushing. "That's more than I deserve, but I'm afraid, even +if it reaches his hands, he won't take the time to read it." + +"You leave that to Mrs. Feversham," replied Morganstein. "Saw that little +scoop, too, about Tisdale. He's the closest oyster on record." + +"The trouble was," said Jimmie wisely, "he started that Indian story and +nobody thought to interrupt with more coal questions." + +"You mean he told that yarn purposely to head us off?" + +"That's the way it seemed to me afterwards. He spun it out, you know; it +lasted to Bremerton, where I got off. But it was interesting; the best I +ever heard, and I took it all down, word for word. It was little use, +though. The chief gave one look at my bunch of copy and warned me, for the +last time, the paper wasn't publishing any novels. What I had gone aboard +the _Aquila_ for was to write up her equipment and, incidentally, to pick +up Hollis Tisdale's views on Alaska coal." + +They had reached the entrance to the Morganstein box; the orchestra was +playing again, the curtain began to rise on the second act, and Daniels +hurried back to his place. But during the next intermission, an usher +brought the young reporter a note. It was written concisely on a business +card, but Jimmie read it through slowly a second time before he handed it +to the Society Editor. + +"Mrs. Feversham wants to see that story," so it ran. "Leave it at my +office in the morning. She may take it east with her. Knows some magazine +people who are going to feature Alaska and the Northwest." + +After a thoughtful moment Miss Atkins returned the card to Jimmie. "Is it +the Indian story?" she asked. + +Daniels nodded, watching her face. His smouldering excitement was ready to +flame. "They will read it for Mrs. Feversham,"--Geraldine's voice trembled +slightly--"and they will take it. It's a magazine story. They ought to pay +you handsomely. It's the best thing you ever wrote." + +Marcia Feversham saw possibilities in that story. Indeed, writing Jimmie +from Washington, she called it a little masterpiece. There was no doubt it +would be accepted somewhere, though he must expect to see it cut down +considerably, it was so long. Then, presumably to facilitate the placing +of the manuscript, she herself went over it with exceeding care, revising +with her pencil, eliminating whole paragraphs, and finally fixing the end +short of several pages. In the copy which her husband's stenographer +prepared, the original was reduced fully a third. After that it mellowed +for an interval in Marcia's drawer. + +At the close of November, it was announced that Stuart Foster, the junior +defendant in the first "Conspiracy to defraud the Government" trial, was +weather-bound in Alaska. This, taken in consideration with the serious +illness of Tisdale, on whom the prosecution relied for technical +testimony, resulted in setting the case for hearing the last week in the +following March. It was at this time, while Hollis was lying unconscious +and in delirium at a hospital, that his great wealth began to be +exploited. Everywhere, when inquiries were made as to his health, fabulous +statements followed about the Aurora. To mention the mine was like saying +"Open Sesame!" Then, finally, it was whispered and repeated with +conviction by people who "wouldn't have believed it of Hollis Tisdale" at +the beginning, that he had defrauded the widow of his dead partner--who +had made the discovery and paid for it with his life--of her share. + +Then, at last, early in December, Jimmie's masterpiece was forwarded to a +new magazine in New York. + +"_Dear Mr. Sampson_;--" so Marcia wrote-- + +"Here is a story of Western life that I believe will be of interest to +you. The incident actually occurred. The man who killed the Indian child, +and who amused my brother's guests with the story while we were cruising +lately on the _Aquila_, was Hollis Tisdale of the Geographical Survey. He +is probably the best known figure in Alaska, the owner of the fabulously +rich Aurora mine. His partner, who made the discovery, paid for it with +his life, and there is a rumor that his wife, who should have a half +interest, is penniless. + +"Mr. Tisdale will he a leading witness for the Government in the pending +Alaska coal cases. Strange--is it not?--since a criminal is barred from +testifying in a United States court. + +"The last issue of your magazine was most attractive. Enclosed are lists +of two thousand names and my check to cover that many sample copies of the +number in which the story is published. March would be opportune. Of +course, while I do not object to any use you may care to make of this +information, I trust I shall be spared publicity. + +"Very truly, + +"MARCIA FEVERSHAM." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +FOSTER'S HOUR + + +Frederic Morganstein did not wait until spring to open his villa. The +furnishings were completed, even to the Kodiak and polar-bear rugs, in +time to entertain a house-party at Christmas. Marcia, who came home for +the event, arrived early enough to take charge of the final preparations, +but the ideas that gave character to the lavish decorations were Beatriz +Weatherbee's. She it was who suggested the chime of holly bells with +tongues of red berries, hung by ropes of cedar from the vaulted roof +directly over the stage; and saw the two great scarlet camellias that had +been coaxed into full bloom specially for the capitalist placed at either +end of the footlights, while potted poinsettias and small madrona trees, +brought in from the bluffs above the grounds, finished the scheme with the +effect of an old mission garden. Then there were a hundred more +poinsettias disposed of, without crowding, on the landings and inside the +railing of the gallery, with five hundred red carnations arranged with +Oregon grape and fern in Indian baskets to cap the balustrade. To one +looking up from the lower hall, they had the appearance of quaint +jardiniere. + +There was not too much color. December, in the Puget Sound country, means +the climax of the wet season when under the interminable curtain of the +rain, dawn seems to touch hands with twilight. It was hardly four o'clock +that Christmas eve when the _Aquila_ arrived with the guests from Seattle, +but the villa lights were on. A huge and resinous backlog, sending broad +tongues of flame into the cavernous throat of the fireplace, gave to the +illumination a ruddier, flickering glow. To Foster, who was the first to +reach the veranda, Foster who had been so long accustomed to faring at +Alaska road-houses, to making his own camp, on occasion, with a single +helper in the frosty solitudes, that view through the French window must +have seemed like a scene from the Arabian Nights. Involuntarily he +stopped, and suddenly the luxurious interior became a setting for one +living figure. Elizabeth was there, arranging trifles on a Christmas tree; +and Mrs. Feversham, seated at a piano, was playing a brilliant bolero; but +the one woman he saw held the center of the stage. Her sparkling face was +framed in a mantilla; a camellia, plucked from one of the flowering +shrubs, was tucked in the lace above her ear, and she was dancing with +castanets in the old mission garden. + +The next moment Frederic passed him and threw open the door with his +inevitable "Bravo!" And instantly the music ceased; Marcia started to her +feet; the dancer pulled off her mantilla, and the flower dropped from her +hair. + +"Go on! Encore!" he laughed. "My, but you've got that cachucha down to a +science; bred, though, I guess, in your little Spanish feet. You'd dance +all the sense a man has out of his head." + +"That's the reason none of us heard the _Aquila_ whistle," said Marcia, +coming forward. "Beatriz promised to dance to-night, in a marvelous yellow +brocade that was her great-grandmother's, and we were rehearsing; but she +looked so like a nun, masquerading, in that gray crepe de Chine, I almost +forgot the accompaniment. Why, Mr. Foster! How delightful you were able to +get home for Christmas." + +"I am fortunate," he answered, smiling. "The ice caught me in the Yukon, +but I mushed through to Fairbanks and came on to the coast by stage. I +just made the steamer, and she docked alongside the _Aquila_ not fifteen +minutes before she sailed. Mr. Morganstein brought me along to hear my +report." + +"I guess we are all glad to have you home for Christmas," said Elizabeth. + +She moved on with her sister to meet the other guests who were trooping +into the hall, and Foster found himself taking Mrs. Weatherbee's hand. His +own shook a little, and suddenly he was unable to say any of the friendly, +solicitous things he had found it so easy to express to these other +people, after his long absence; only his young eyes, searching her face +for any traces of care or anxiety the season may have left, spoke +eloquently. Afterwards, when the greetings were over, and the women +trailed away to their rooms, he saw he had forgotten to give her a package +which he had carried up from the _Aquila_, and hurried to overtake her at +the foot of the stairs. + +"It was brought down by messenger from Vivian Court for you," he +explained, "just as we were casting off, and I took charge of it. There is +a letter, you see, which the clerk has tucked under the string." + +The package was a florist's carton, wide and deep, with the name Hollywood +Gardens printed across the violet cover, but the letter was postmarked +Washington, D.C. "Violets!" she exclaimed softly, "'when violet time is +gone.'" + +Her whole lithe body seemed to emanate a subdued pleasure, and settling +the box, unopened, in the curve of her arm, she started up the staircase. +Foster, looking up, caught the glance she remembered to send from the +gallery railing. Her smile was radiant. + +She did not turn on the electric switch when she closed her door; the +primrose walls reflected the light from the great plate-glass window, with +the effect of candle glow. She put the box on a table near the casement +and laid the letter aside to lift the lid. The perfume of violets rose in +her face like liberated incense. The box was filled with them; bunches on +bunches. She bent her cheek to feel the cool touch of them; inhaled their +fragrance with deep, satisfying breaths. Presently she found the florist's +envelope and in it Tisdale's card. And she read, written under the name in +a round, plain woman's hand, "This is to wish you a Merry Christmas and +let you know I have not forgotten the project." + +The sparkle went out of her face. After a moment she picked up the letter +and compared the address with the writing on the card. It was the same +and, seating herself by the window, she broke the seal. When she had read +the first line under the superscription, she stopped to look at the +signature. It was Katherine Purdy. She turned back and began again: + +"_My dear Mrs. Weatherbee:_ + +"I am the night nurse on Mr. Tisdale's ward. He dictated the message on +his card to me, and I learned your address through ordering the violets of +the Seattle florist for him. It set me wondering whether he has ever let +you know how desperate things were with him. He is the most unselfish man +I ever saw, and the bravest that ever came on this floor. The evening he +arrived the surgeons advised amputating his hand--it was a case of +blood-poisoning--but he said, 'No, I am ready to take the risk; that right +hand is more than half of me, my better half.' He could joke, even then. +And when the infection spread to the arm, it was the same. After that it +was too late to operate; just a question of endurance. And he could endure +all right. My, but he was patient! I wish you could have seen him, as I +did, lying here hour after hour, staring at the ceiling, asking for +nothing, when every nerve in his body must have been on fire. But he won +through. He is lying here still, weak and pale enough, but safe. + +"Maybe I seem impertinent, and I suppose I am young and foolish, but I +don't care; I wouldn't be hard as nails, like some in this clinic, if it +was to cost me my diploma. I came from the Pacific west--I am going back +there as soon as I graduate--and a girl from there never can learn to +bottle her feelings till she looks like a graven image. Besides, I know I +am writing to a western woman. But I want to say right here he never made +a confidant of me, never said one word, intentionally, about you, but +there were nights when his temperature was running from a hundred and four +degrees that he got to talking some. Most of the time he was going all +over that terrible trip to find poor Mr. Weatherbee, and once, when he was +hunting birds along some glacier, he kept hearing David singing and +calling him. Again he was just having the best, quiet little visit with +him. My, how he loved that man! And when it wasn't David, it was you. 'I +know you couldn't marry a man like Morgan,' he said. 'You may think so, +but you will not when the time comes.' And once it was, 'Beatrice, +Beatrice, in spite of everything I can't help believing in you.' Then one +night, his worst before the crisis, he seemed to be helping you through +some awful danger, it was a storm I think, and there were wild beasts and +mountains, and at last when it was all over, he said quietly: 'You do owe +your life to me, but I shall never hold you to the debt; that would be too +monstrous.' And a little later it was, 'Head high, hold fast, it will be a +stiff fight, soldier. My dear, my dear, do you think I don't know how near +you came to loving me?' I guess you know how he said that. There are +certain tones in his voice that sink straight to the bottom of your heart; +I couldn't keep from crying. And it seems to me that if you really knew +how much he thought of you, and how sick he had been, and how he has +wanted you, nothing could keep you from packing up and coming straight to +Washington. I know I should. I could go anywhere, through Alaska or the +Great Sahara, it wouldn't matter which, for a man, if there is one in this +world, who could love me that well." + +Beatriz Weatherbee folded the letter and replaced it in the envelope. The +action was mechanical, and she sat twisting it with a kind of silent +emphasis, looking out into the thick atmosphere. A dash of hail struck the +window; the plate glass grew opaque. Then, suddenly, she lifted her arms +to the table and dropped her face; her body shook. It was as though she +had come at last to her blank wall; the inevitable she had so persistently +evaded was upon her; there was no escape. + +Presently some one knocked. And instantly her intrepid spirit was up, on +guard. She sat erect and pressed her handkerchief swiftly to her eyes. +Then Marcia Feversham opened the door and, finding the button, flashed on +the lights. + +"Why, Beatriz," she exclaimed. "Are you here in the dark? You must have +fallen asleep in your chair." + +"And dreaming." She rose, shading her eyes from the sudden glare. "But it +was a wretched dream, Marcia; I am glad you wakened me. Where is +Elizabeth?" + +"Making Frederic's cocktail. He needed a bracer to go through a business +meeting with Stuart Foster; but she will be here directly. I thought, +since we are to share your rooms, we had better dress early to be out of +the way. And I sent Celeste in to the Hallidays; Elizabeth can do +everything for me." + +"Much better than Celeste," she agreed. "And while you are busy, I shall +go for a bracing little walk." + +"A walk?" echoed Marcia in astonishment. "Why, it's storming. Hear that!" + +Another burst of hail struck the window. Mrs. Weatherbee turned, +listening, and so avoiding Marcia's penetrating eyes, dropped her hand +from her own. "I have my raincoat and cap," she said, "and a smart brush +with the wind will clear my head of cobwebs." + +With this she hurriedly smoothed the letter and laid it between the pages +of a book; lifting the violets from the table, she carried them out of the +steam-heated apartment to the coolness of the sleeping-porch. Mrs. +Feversham followed to the inner room and stood watching her through the +open door. + +"Violets!" she exclaimed. "At Christmas! From wherever did they come?" + +"From Hollywood Gardens," she responded almost eagerly. "Isn't it +marvelous how they make the out-of-season flowers bloom? But this flurry +of hail is the end of the storm, Marcia; the clouds are breaking, and it +is light enough to see the path above the pergola. I shall have time to go +as far as the observatory." + +Before she finished speaking, she was back in the room and hurrying on her +raincoat. Mrs. Feversham began to lay out various toilet accessories, but +presently, when the gallery door closed behind Beatriz, she walked to the +table near the plate-glass window and picked up the book. It was a +morocco-bound edition of Omar's _Rubaiyat_, which she had often noticed at +the apartment in Vivian Court, yet she studied the title deliberately, and +also the frontispiece, before she turned to the pages that enclosed the +letter. But it was natural that, holding both her brother's and Beatriz +Weatherbee's interests so at heart, her scruples should be finally +dispelled, and she laid the volume face down, to keep the place, while she +read the night nurse's unclinical report. After that she went to the box +of violets in the sleeping-porch and found Tisdale's message, and she had +slipped the card carefully back and stood looking meditatively off through +the open casement when her sister entered from the gallery. At the same +time Mrs. Weatherbee appeared on the path above the pergola. But she had +not escaped to the solitude she so evidently had desired, for Foster +accompanied her. When they stopped to look down on the villa and the +little cove where the _Aquila_ rocked at her moorings, Marcia waved her +hand gaily, then turned to the brilliant room. + +Elizabeth met her at the threshold. "What has sent Beatriz out in this +weather?" she asked. + +"Why, you see,"--Marcia answered with a little backward gesture to the +figures on the slope,--"since this is Stuart Foster's first visit to the +villa, he must be personally conducted through the park." + +"She tried her best to discourage him. They were standing at the side +entrance when I came through the dining-room. She warned him first +impressions were everything and that it would be blowing a gale at the +observatory; besides, if Frederic was waiting, she would not be +responsible." + +"But, 'come what will, what may'"--and meeting her sister's look, Marcia's +eyes gathered brilliancy--"the man must have his hour." + +"That is what he told her. He said the syndicate had had his time and +brains, he might as well add his soul, for three months steady, and now he +was entitled to his hour. I wonder--" Elizabeth's even voice wavered--"Do +you think she will refuse him?" + +"I haven't a doubt." And Marcia crossed to the dressing-table and began to +remove the shell pins from her glossy black hair. + +"She seemed so changed," pursued Elizabeth following. "So, well, anxious, +depressed, and you know how gay she was at the time the _Aquila_ came. And +I happened to be near them when we started up-stairs. It was plain she was +glad to see him. But he gave her a package that had been forwarded from +Vivian Court. There was a letter; it may have been from Lucky Banks." + +Marcia was silent. She lifted her brush and swept it the length of her +unbound hair. + +"If it was," resumed Elizabeth, "if he has experimented far enough and +wants to forfeit that bonus, I am going to buy that piece of Wenatchee +desert myself. The Novelty mills will pay me enough for my tide lands." + +"No, Elizabeth. You will hold on to your tide lands, every foot." Mrs. +Feversham paused to watch her sister's eyes capitulate under the batteries +of her own, then said: "But you need not worry; Frederic will probably +take that option off Lucky Banks' hands. Now, please do my puffs; high, +you know, so as to use the paradise aigrette." + +Foster, too, had felt the change in Mrs. Weatherbee's mood since he left +her at the foot of the staircase; the exhilaration that had been so +spontaneous then, that had seemed to expand to take him in, was now so +manifestly forced. And presently it came over him she was making +conversation, saying all these neutral things about the villa and grounds +to safeguard the one vital thing she feared to have him touch. + +"Tell me about yourself," he interrupted at last. "You don't know how I've +worried about you; how I've blamed myself all these slow months for +leaving you as I did. Of course you understood the company decided to send +me in to the Iditarod suddenly, with only a few hours' notice, and to +reach the interior while the summer trails were passable I had to take the +steamer sailing that day. I tried to find you, but you were out of town; +so I wrote." + +"I received the letter," she responded quickly. "I want to thank you for +it; it was very pleasant indeed to feel the security of a friend in +reserve. But you had written if there was anything you could do, or if, +any time, I should need you to let you know, and there was no reason to. I +saw I had allowed you to guess the state of my finances; they had been a +little depressed, I confess, but soon after you sailed, I gave an option +on that desert land east of the Cascades and was paid a bonus of three +thousand dollars." + +"Then Tisdale did take that property off your hands, after all. I tried to +make myself believe he would; but his offer to buy hinged on the +practicability of that irrigation project." + +"I know. He found it was practicable to carry it out. But--I gave the +option to Mr. Banks." + +"Lucky Banks," questioned Foster incredulously, "of Iditarod? Why, he +talked of a big farming scheme in Alaska." + +"I do not know about that. But he had thought a great deal of David. They +had been partners, it seems, in Alaska. Once, in a dreadful blizzard, he +almost perished, and David rescued him. He knew about the project and +offered to make the payment of three thousand dollars to hold the land +until he found out whether the scheme was feasible. I needed the money +very much. There was a debt it was imperative to close. So I accepted the +bonus without waiting to let Mr. Tisdale know." + +Foster's brows clouded. "Well, why shouldn't you? Tisdale has himself to +blame, if he let his opportunity go." + +There was a silent interval. They had reached the brow of the bluff and, +coming into the teeth of the wind, she dipped her head and ran to gain the +shelter of the pavilion. Then, while she gathered her breath, leaning a +little on the parapet and looking off to the broad sweep of running sea, +Foster said: "It was that debt that worried me up there in the wilderness. +You had referred to it the evening after the theater, a week before I went +away. You called it a debt of honor. You laughed at the time, but you +warned me it was the hardest kind of debt because an obligation to a +friend kept one continually paying interest in a hundred small ways. You +said it was like selling yourself on a perpetual instalment plan. That +wasn't the first time you had spoken of it, but you seemed to feel the +pressure more that night and, afterwards, up there in the north, I got to +thinking it over. I blamed myself for not finding out the truth. I was +afraid the loan was Frederic Morganstein's." He paused and drew back a +step with a quick uplift of his aggressive chin. "Was it?" he asked. + +"Yes." She drew erect and turned from the parapet to meet his look. "My +note came into his hands. But I see I must explain. It began in a yearly +subscription to the Orthopedic hospital; the one, you know, for little +deformed children. I was very interested when the movement started; I sang +at concerts, danced sometimes you remember, to help along the fund. And I +endowed a little bed. David always seemed just on the brink of riches in +those days, his letters were full of brilliant predictions, but when the +second annual payment fell due, I had to borrow of Elizabeth. She +suggested it. She herself was interested deeper, financially, than I. All +the people we knew, who ever gave to charity, were eager to help the +Orthopedic; the ladies at the head were our personal friends; the best +surgeons were giving their services and time. I hadn't the courage to have +my subscription discontinued so soon, and I expected to cancel the debt +when I heard again from David. But the next spring it was the same; I +borrowed again from Elizabeth. After that, when she wanted to apply the +sum to the hospital building fund, Mrs. Feversham advanced the money, and +I gave my note. My bed, then, was given to a little, motherless boy. He +had the dearest, most trusting smile and great, dark eyes; the kind that +talk to you. And his father had deserted him. That seems incredible; that +a man can leave his own child, crippled, ill, unprovided for; but it does +happen, sometimes." She paused to steady her voice and looked off again +from the parapet. "The surgeons were greatly interested in the case," she +went on. "They were about to perform an unusual operation. All his future +depended on it. So--I let my subscription run on; so much could happen in +a year. The operation was a perfect success, and when the boy was ready to +go, one of the Orthopedic women adopted him. He is the happiest, sturdiest +little fellow now. + +"At the end of the summer when the note fell due Mrs. Feversham did not +care to renew it; she was going to Washington and wished to use the money +in New York. The desert tract was all I had, and when Mr. Morganstein +planned the motoring trip through the mountains and down to Portland, he +offered to take a day to look the land over. He did not want to encumber +himself with any more real estate, he said, but would advise me on its +possibilities for the market. An accident to the car in Snoqualmie Pass +obliged him to give up the excursion, and Marcia disposed of the note to +him. She said it could make little difference to me since her brother was +willing to let the obligation rest until I was ready to meet it. I do not +blame her; there are some things Marcia Feversham and I do not see in the +same light. It isn't so much through custom and breeding; it's the way we +were created, bone and spirit." Her voice broke but she laid her hand on +the parapet again with a controlling grasp and added evenly, "That is the +reason when Mr. Banks came I was so ready to accept his offer." + +"So, that was your debt of honor!" Foster began unsteadily; the words +caught in his throat, and for an instant her face grew indistinct through +the mist he could not keep back from his eyes. "You knew you were +traveling on thin ice; the break-up was almost on you, yet you handicapped +yourself with those foundlings. And you never told me. I could have taken +over that subscription, I should have been glad of the chance, you must +have known that, but you allowed me to believe it was a loan to cover +personal expenses." + +She met the reproach with a little fleeting smile. "There were times when +those accounts pressed, I am going to admit that, in justice to Elizabeth. +She always buoyed me through. I have known her intimately for years. We +were at Mills Seminary together, and even then she was the most +dependable, resourceful, generous girl in the school. I never should have +had the courage to dispose of things--for money--but she offered to. Once +it was the bracelet that had been my great-grandmother's; the serpent, you +remember, with jewelled scales and fascinating ruby eyes. The Japanese +consul bought it for his wife. And once it was that dagger the first +American Don Silva wore. The design was Moorish, you know, with a crescent +in the hilt of unique stones. The collector who wanted it promised to give +me the opportunity to redeem it if ever he wished to part with it, and +Elizabeth had the agreement written and signed." + +"Like a true Morganstein. But I knew how much she thought of you. I used +to remind myself, up there in the Iditarod wilderness, that you had her +clear, practical sense and executive ability to rely on." + +"That has been my one rare good-fortune; to have had Elizabeth. Not that I +depreciate my other friends," and she gave Foster another fleeting smile. +"There was Mrs. Brown who in the autumn, when I saw the necessity to give +up my apartment at Vivian Court, asked me to stay in exchange for piano +and dancing lessons. I had often taught her little girls for pleasure, +they were so sweet and lovable, when they visited in my rooms. Still, +afterwards, I learned the suggestion came from Elizabeth. Now you know +everything," she added with determined gaiety. "And I have had my draught +of ozone. We must hurry back, or they will wonder what has become of us." + +She turned to the path, and the young engineer followed in silence. He did +not know everything; deep in his heart the contradiction burned. Whatever +may have caused her exhilaration at the time the _Aquila_ arrived, it was +not his return, and while her explanations satisfied him that she was in +no immediate financial distress, he felt that her confidence covered +unplumbed depths she did not wish him to sound. + +They had reached the footbridge over the cascade when he said abruptly: +"After all, I am glad Lucky Banks got ahead on the irrigation project. He +will find it feasible, if any one can. He grew up on an Oregon farm, and +what he hasn't learned about sluicing in Alaska isn't worth knowing. It +leaves Hollis Tisdale no alternative." + +She turned waiting, with inquiry in her eyes. + +"I mean in regard to the Aurora. He hasn't the saving grace of an excuse, +now, not to convey that last half interest back to you." + +"I do not want a half interest in the Aurora mine." She drew herself very +straight, swaying a little on the balls of her feet. "You must not suggest +it. I should not accept it even through a United States court. It belongs +to Mr. Tisdale. He furnished the funds that made my husband's prospecting +trip possible. And all the gold in Alaska could not repay him for--what he +did. Sometimes, when I think of him alone on that terrible trail, he +stands out more than a man. Epics have been written on less; it was a +friendship to be glorified in some great painting or bronze. But then he +touched so lightly on his own part in the story; in the incense he burned +to David he was obscured." + +Foster stood watching her in surprise. The color that the wind had failed +to whip back to her cheeks burned now, two brilliant spots; raindrops, or +tears, hung trembling on her lashes, and through them flamed the blue +fires of her eyes. + +"So," he said slowly, "so, Tisdale did hunt you up, after all; and, of +course, you had the whole hard story from him." + +"I heard him tell it, yes, but he left out about the--wolves." + +"Wolves?" repeated Foster incredulously. "There were no wolves. Why, to be +overtaken by a pack, single-handed, on the trail, is the worst that can +happen to a man." + +She nodded. "Mr. Banks told me. He had talked with the miners who found +him. It was terrible." A great shudder ran through her body; for a moment +she pressed her fingers to her eyes, then she added with difficulty, +almost in a whisper: "He was defending David." + +"No, no! Great Scott! But see here,"--Foster laid his hand on her arm and +drew her on down the path, "don't try to tell me any more. I understand. +Banks shouldn't have told you. Come, remember Tisdale won through. He's +safe." + +After a silence, she said: "I doubt if you know how ill he has been." + +"Tisdale? No, I hadn't heard." + +"I only learned to-day; and he has been in a Washington hospital all these +months. The surgeons advised amputating his hand," she went on with a +tremulous breathlessness, "but he refused. He said he would take the risk; +that right hand was more than half of him, his 'better half.'" + +Involuntarily Foster smiled in recognition of that dominant note in +Tisdale. "But he never seemed more physically fit than on the night I left +Seattle," he expostulated. "And there isn't a man in Alaska who +understands the dangers and the precautions of frostbite better than +Hollis Tisdale does." + +"It was not frost; it was a vicious horse," she answered. "It happened +after you saw him, on that trip to Wenatchee, while he was leading the +vixen over a break in the road. We were obliged to spend the night at a +wretched way-house, and the hurt became infected." + +Foster stopped. "You were obliged to spend the night?" he inquired. + +"Yes. It happened in this way. Mr. Tisdale had taken the Milwaukee line +over the mountains, intending to finish the trip on horseback, to see the +country, and I, you remember, was motoring through Snoqualmie Pass with +the Morgansteins. His train barely missed colliding with our car. Mr. +Morganstein was injured, and the others took the westbound home with him, +but I decided to board the eastbound and go on by stage to Wenatchee, to +see my desert tract, and return by way of the Great Northern. I found the +stage service discontinued, so Mr. Tisdale secured a team instead of a +saddle-horse, and we drove across." + +"I see." Foster smiled again. So Tisdale had capitulated on sight. "I see. +You looked the tract over together, yet he hesitated with his offer." + +She did not answer directly. They had reached the pergola, and she put out +her hand groping, steadying herself through the shadows. "Mr. Tisdale +believed at the beginning I was some one else," she said then. "I was so +entirely different from his conception of David Weatherbee's wife. In the +end he offered to finance the project if I would see it carried through. I +refused." + +"Of course you refused," responded Foster quickly. "It was preposterous of +him to ask it of you. I can't understand it in Tisdale. He was always so +broad, so fine, so head and shoulders above other men, so, well, +chivalrous to women. But, meantime, while he hesitated, Banks came with +his offer?" + +"Yes. While he was desperately ill in that hospital. I--I don't know what +he will think of me--when he hears--" she went on with little, steadying +pauses. "It is difficult to explain. So much happened on that drive to the +Wenatchee valley. In the end, during an electrical storm, he saved me from +a falling tree. What he asked of me was so very little, the weight of a +feather, against all I owe him. Still, a woman does not allow even such a +man to finance her affairs; people never would have understood. Besides, +how could I have hoped, in a lifetime, to pay the loan? It was the most +barren, desolate place; a deep, dry gulf shut in by a wicked mountain--you +can't imagine--and I told him I never could live there, make it my home." +They were nearly through the pergola; involuntarily she stopped and, +looking up at Foster, the light from a Japanese lantern illumined her +small, troubled face. "But in spite of everything," she went on, "he +believes differently. To-day his first message came from Washington to +remind me he had not forgotten the project. How can I--when he is so ill-- +how can I let him know?" + +Foster had had his hour; and, at this final moment, he sounded those +hitherto unplumbed depths. "It will be all right," he said steadily; "wait +until you see what Lucky Banks does. You can trust him not to stand in +Tisdale's way. And don't think I underrate Hollis Tisdale. He is a man in +a thousand. No one knows that better than I. And that's why I am going to +hold him to his record." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +"AS MAN TO MAN" + + +In January, when Mrs. Feversham returned to Washington, her brother +accompanied her as far as Wenatchee. He went prepared to offer Banks as +high as five thousand dollars for his option. + +At that time the Weatherbee tract was blanketed in snow. It never drifted, +because Cerberus shut out the prevailing wind like a mighty door; even the +bench and the high ridge beyond lifted above the levels of the vale smooth +as upper floors. Previous to that rare precipitation, gangs of men, put to +work on both quarter sections, had removed the sage-brush and planted +trees, and the new orchard traced a delicate pattern on the white carpet +in rows and squares. Banks had hurried the concrete lining of the basin +walls, and when it became necessary to suspend construction on the flumes, +he saw with satisfaction that the reservoir would husband the melting +snows and so supply temporary irrigation in the early spring. All the +lumber estimates had been included in his orders for building material in +the autumn, and already the house on the bench showed a tiled roof above +its mission walls, while down the gap and midway up the side slope of +Cerberus rose the shingled gables of Annabel's home. + +To facilitate the handling of freight, the railroad company had laid a +siding at the nearest point in Hesperides Vale; then, for the convenience +of the workmen, the daily local made regular stops, and the little station +bore the name of Weatherbee. Later, at the beginning of the year, it had +become a post-office, and the Federal building included a general store. +Also, at that time, the girders of a new brick block rose on the adjoining +lots, and a sign secured to the basement wall announced: "This strictly +modern building will be completed about June first. For office and floor +space see Henderson Bailey." + +The financier, who had motored up the valley in a rented car, noted these +indications of an embryo town with interest. + +"Who is Henderson Bailey?" he asked. + +And the chauffeur answered with surprise: "Don't you know Bailey? Why, +he's the man that got in on the ground floor. He owns the heart of +Hesperides Vale. That was his apple orchard we passed, you remember, a few +minutes ago. But the man who is backing him on that brick block is Lucky +Banks of Alaska. They are pulling together, nip and tuck, for Weatherbee." + +"Nip--and Tuck," repeated Morganstein thoughtfully. "That reminds me of a +young team of bays I considered buying last fall, over at North Yakima. +Rather well named, if you knew 'em. But they were a little too gay for +Seattle hills and the lady I expected would drive 'em. George, though, +they made a handsome showing. A dealer named Lighter owned 'em, and they +won the blue ribbon for three-year-olds at Yakima and Spokane." + +"I know them," replied the chauffeur. "They are owned here in the valley +now; and Lucky Banks' wife is driving them. You can meet her most any day +speeling down to the Columbia to see her goats." + +"Goats?" queried Frederic. + +"Yes, sir. Didn't you know she used to keep a flock of Angoras up here? It +was her land before she was married. But when Banks turned up with his +pile and started the orchards, the goats had to go. It wouldn't have taken +them a week to chew up every stick he planted. So she hired a man to +winter them down on the Columbia, where she could keep an eye on them. +Strange," the chauffeur went on musingly, "what a difference clothes make +in a woman. Nobody noticed her much, only we thought she was kind of +touched, when she was herding those billies by herself up that pocket, but +the minute Banks came, she blossomed out; made us all sit up and take +notice. Yes, sir, she's sure some style. To see her in her up-to-date +motoring-coat, veil to match, cape gloves, and up behind that team, you'd +think the Empress of India had the road." + +"Just what I said first time I saw her," Morganstein chuckled thickly. "Or +I guess it was the Queen of Sheba I called her. Happened to be grand-opera +night, and she wore a necklace made of some of Banks' nuggets. George, she +could carry 'em; had the throat and shoulders. It isn't the clothes that +make the difference, my boy; it's the trick of wearing 'em. I know a slim +little thoroughbred, who puts on a plain gray silk like it was cloth of +gold. You'd think she was walking tiptoe to keep it off this darned old +earth. Lord, I'd like to see her in the real stuff. George, I'll do it, +soon's we're married," and he laughed deeply at the notion. "I'll order a +cloth of gold gown direct from Paris, and I'll set a diamond tiara on her +proud little head. Bet it don't out-sparkle her eyes. Lord, Lord, she'll +make 'em all stare." + +The chauffeur gave the financier a measuring glance from the corner of his +eye, but he puckered his lips discreetly to cover a grin, and with his +head still cocked sidewise, looked off to the lifting front of Cerberus, +whistling softly _Queen Among the Heather_. But the tune ceased abruptly +and, straightening like an unstrung bow, he swerved the machine out of the +thoroughfare and brought it to a stop. + +It was not the Empress of India who held the road, but little Banks in his +red car. Slackening speed, he shouted back above the noise of the exhaust: +"Hello! Is that you, Mr. Morganstein? I guess likely you're looking for +me. But I can't stop. I've got to catch the local for Wenatchee; the +eastbound don't make our station, and I'm booked for a little run through +to Washington, D.C." + +"That so?" answered Morganstein thoughtfully. "I came over just to look at +this orchard of yours. See here, wait a minute." He unbuttoned his heavy +coat and, finding a pocket, drew out a time-card. "You will have a couple +of hours to waste in Wenatchee between trains. Give me half an hour, long +enough to show me a bird's-eye view of the project--that's all I want in +this snow and I guarantee to put you in Wenatchee on time for your +eastbound. The road is in good shape; driver knows his car." + +Banks left his roadster and came over to the larger car. "I'll risk it +since you've broke trail," he said, taking the vacant seat behind. "But I +knew if I took chances with snow, in this contrary buzz-wagon of mine, +she'd likely skid off the first mean curve." + +Morganstein, laughing, changed his seat for the one beside the prospector. +"It's like this, dry and firm as a floor, straight through to Wenatchee. +These are great roads you have in this valley; wish we had 'em on the +other side the range." + +"I sent a scraper up from the station ahead of me," said Banks. "And, +driver, we may as well run up the switchback to the house. It's level +there, with room to turn. And it will give you the chance to see the whole +layout below," he went on, explaining to Morganstein. "The property on +this side the mountain belongs to my wife, but we ain't living here yet; +we are stopping with folks down by the station. Likely we'll move, soon's +I get back from my trip. That is, if the boys get busy. Seem's if I have +to keep after some of them all the time. To-day it's the lathers. I've got +to stop, going through Weatherbee, to tell my wife to have an eye on them. +They get paid by the bundle, and they told me this morning lathe would run +short before they was through. I knew I had ordered an extra hundred on +the architect's figgers, but I didn't say anything. Just prospected 'round +and came back unexpected, and caught one of them red-handed. He was +tucking a bunch between the ceiling and the upper floor, without even +cutting the string. I made them rip off the lathe, and there they were +stored thick, a full bundle to 'bout every three they'd nailed on." + +"That's the way," commented Morganstein, "every man of 'em will do you, if +he sees a chance. Mrs. Banks will have to keep both eyes open, if you are +leaving it to her. But it will be compensation to her, I guess, driving +those bays over from the station every day. Handsomest team in Washington. +I'll bet," and he turned his narrow eyes suddenly on Banks, "Lighter held +you up for all they were worth." + +"The team belongs to Hollis Tisdale," answered Banks. "He bought them at +Kittitas last fall and drove them through. They were in the valley when I +came, and he asked me to look after them while he was east. My wife +exercises them. She understands horses, my, yes. One of those colts had a +mean trick of snapping at you if you touched the bit, but she cured him +complete. And she took such a shine to that team I thought likely they'd +do for a Christmas present. Tisdale told me in the fall if I had a good +chance, to sell, so I wrote and made him an offer. But his answer never +came till last night. A nurse at the hospital in Washington wrote for him; +he had been laid up with a case of blood-poison all winter, and it started +from a nip that blame' colt gave him on the trip from Kittitas. He refused +my price because, seeing's the team wasn't safe for a full-sized man to +drive, it went against his conscience to let them go to a lady." + +"He was right," said Morganstein. "George, that was a lucky escape. I was +within an ace of buying that team myself. But I put down Tisdale's +sickness to frostbite; often goes that way with a man in the north." + +"Sure; it does." Banks paused, while his glance fell to the empty fingers +of his right glove. "But that colt, Nip, gets the credit this time. It +happened while Hollis was trying to lead him over a break in the road. He +said it didn't amount to anything, the night I saw him before he left +Seattle, but he had the hand bandaged, and I'd ought to have known it was +giving him trouble." + +Morganstein pondered a silent moment, then said slowly, "Kittitas is close +enough to be a suburb of Ellensburg, and that's where the Wenatchee stage +meets the Milwaukee Puget Sound train. Friend of mine made the trip about +that time; didn't say anything of a break in the road." + +"There's just one road through," answered Banks, "and that's the one they +used for hauling from the Northern Pacific line while this railroad was +building. Likely there was a stage then, but it ain't running now." + +Frederic pondered again, then a gleam of intelligence flashed in his eyes. +"Did Tisdale make that trip from Kittitas alone?" he asked. + +Banks shook his head. "He didn't mention any passengers. Likely it was +having to drive himself, after his hand was hurt, that did the mischief. +Anyhow, he's had a close call; fought it out sooner than let the doctors +take his hand; and he never let one of us boys know. That was just the way +with Dave Weatherbee; they was a team. But I'm going to look him up, now, +soon's I can. He had to get that nurse to write for him. Likely there +ain't a man around to tend to his business; he might be all out of money." + +"I guess, with the Aurora mine to back him, you needn't worry." + +The little man shook his head. "It will take more security than the Aurora +to open a bank account in Washington, D.C. I ain't saying anything against +Dave Weatherbee's strike," he added quickly, "but, when you talk Alaska to +those fellows off there in the east, they get cold feet." + +Morganstein looked off, chuckling his appreciation. They had arrived at +the final curve; on one side, rising from the narrow shoulder, stood +Annabel's new home, while on the other the mountain sloped abruptly to +Weatherbee's vale. Banks pointed out the peach orchard on the bench at the +top of the pocket; the rim of masonry, pushing through the snow, that +marked the reservoir; the apple tract below. + +"I see," said Frederic, "and this mountain we are on must be the one Mrs. +Weatherbee noticed, looking down from that bench. Reminded her of some +kind of a beast!" + +Banks nodded. "It looked like a cross between a cougar and a husky in the +fall. One place you catch sight of two heads. But she'll be tamer in the +spring, when things begin to grow. There's more peaches, set in narrow +terraces where the road cross-cuts down there, and all these small +hummocks under the snow are grapes. It's warm on this south slope and +sheltered from the frosts; the vines took right ahold; and, with fillers +of strawberries hurrying on the green, Dave's wife won't know the mountain +by summer, my, no." + +"Presume," said the financier abruptly, "you expect to supply both tracts +with water from those springs?" + +"My, no. This quarter section belongs to my wife, and it's up to me to +make the water connections safe for her. I can do it." Banks set his lips +grimly, and his voice shrilled a higher key. "Yes, sir, even if I have to +tunnel through from the Wenatchee. But I think likely I'll tap the new +High Line and rig a flume with one of these new-style electric pumps. And +my idea would be to hollow out a nice little reservoir, with maybe a +fountain, right here on this shoulder alongside the house, and let a +sluice and spillways follow the road down. There'd be water handy then, +and to spare, in case Dave's springs happen to pinch out." + +Morganstein's glance moved slowly over the sections of road cross-cutting +the mountain below, and on up the vale to the distant bench. Presently he +said: "What are you building over there? A barn, or is it a winery for +your grapes?" + +"It's neither," answered Banks with sharp emphasis. "It's a regular, +first-class house. Dave Weatherbee was counting on striking it rich in +Alaska when he drew the plans. The architect calls it California-Spanish +style. The rooms are built around a court, and we are piping for the +fountain now." + +Frederic grew thoughtful. Clearly an offer of five thousand dollars for +Lucky Banks' option on the Weatherbee tract was inadequate. After a moment +he said: "What is it going to cost you?" + +"Well, sir, counting that house complete, without the furniture, seven +thousand would be cheap." + +After that the financier was silent. He looked at his watch, as they +motored down Cerberus, considering, perhaps, the probabilities of a +telegram reaching Marcia; but he did not make the venture when they +arrived in Wenatchee, and the nearest approach he made to that offer was +while he and Banks were waiting at the station for their separate trains. +They were seated together on a bench at the time, and Frederic, having +lighted a cigar, drew deeply as though he hoped to gather inspiration. +Then he edged closer and, dropping his heavy hand on the little +prospector's shoulder, said thickly: "See here, tell me this, as man to +man, if you found both those tracts too big to handle, what would you take +for your option on the Weatherbee property?" + +And Banks, edging away to the end of the seat, answered sharply: "I can +handle both; my option ain't for sale." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE DAY OF PUBLICATION + + +It was a mild evening, the last in February, and Jimmie, who had received +two copies of the March issue of _Sampson's Magazine_ direct from the +publisher, celebrated the event by taking the Society Editor canoeing on +Lake Washington. Instead of helping with the bow paddle, of which she was +fully capable, Miss Atkins settled against the pillows facing him, with +the masterpiece in her lap. The magazine was closed, showing his name +among the specially mentioned on the cover, but she kept the place with +her finger. She had a pretty hand, and it was adorned by the very best +diamond that could be bought at Hanson's for one hundred and fifty +dollars. + +She waited, watching Jimmie's stroke, while the Peterboro slipped out from +the boathouse and rose quartering to the swells of a passing launch. Her +hat was placed carefully behind her in the bow, and the light wind +roughened her hair, which was parted on the side, into small rings on her +forehead. It gave her an air of boyish camaraderie, and the young author's +glance, moving from the magazine and the ring, swept her whole trim figure +to the mannish, flat-heeled little shoes, and returned to her face. "This +is my red-letter day," he said. + +"It's the proudest in my life," answered Geraldine, and the way in which +she said it made him catch his breath. + +"It makes me feel almost sure enough to cut loose from the _Press_ and go +into business for myself." + +"Oh, I shouldn't be in a hurry to leave the paper, if I were you," she +replied, "even though _Sampson's_ has asked to see more of your work." + +"It isn't the magazine opening I am considering; though I shall do what I +can in that way, of course. But what would you think of an offer to take +full charge of a newspaper east of the Cascades? It's so." He paused, +nodding in emphasis to the confirmation. "The letter is there in my coat +pocket. It's from Bailey--you remember that young fellow I told you about +who made an investment in the Wenatchee valley. Well, it seems they have +incorporated a town on some of that property. His city lots are selling so +fast he has raised the price three times. And they have put him up for +mayor. He says it's mighty hard to run an election without a newspaper, +and even if it's a late start, we will be ready next time. And the valley +needs advertising; people in the east don't know where Wenatchee apples +grow. You understand. He will finance a newspaper--or rather he and Lucky +Banks are going to--if I will take the management. He is holding offices +now, in a brick block that is building, until he hears from me." + +"Is it in Hesperides Vale, where the Bankses live?" + +"Yes. The name of the town is Weatherbee. And I heard from that little +miner, too." Jimmie paused, smiling at the recollection. "It was a kind of +supplement to Bailey's letter. He thought likely I could recommend some +young fellow to start a newspaper. A married man was preferred, as it was +a new camp and in need of more ladies." + +Geraldine laughed, flushing softly, "Isn't that just like him?" she said. +"I can see his eyes twinkling." + +"It sounds rather good to me," Jimmie went on earnestly. "I have +confidence in Bailey. And it was mother's dream, you know, to see me +establish a paper over there; it would mean something to me to see it +realized--but--do you think you could give up your career to help me +through?" + +Geraldine was silent, and Jimmie leaned forward a little, resting on his +stroke. "I know I am not worth it, but so far as that goes, neither was my +father; yet mother gave up everything to back him. She kept him on that +desert homestead the first five years, until he proved up and got his +patent, and he might have stayed with it, been rich to-day, if she had +lived." + +"Of course I like you awfully well," said Geraldine, flushing pinkly, "and +it isn't that I haven't every confidence in you, but--I must take a little +time to decide." + +A steamer passed, and Jimmie resumed his strokes, mechanically turning the +canoe out of the trough. Geraldine opened the magazine and began to scan +the editor's note under the title. "Why," she exclaimed tremulously, "did +you know about this? Did you see the proofs?" + +"No. What is the excitement? Isn't it straight?" + +"Listen!" Miss Atkins sat erect; the cushion dropped under her elbow; her +lips closed firmly between the sentences she read. + +"'This is one of those true stories stranger than fiction. This man, who +wantonly murdered a child in his path and told of it for the amusement of +a party of pleasure-seekers aboard a yacht on Puget Sound, who should be +serving a prison sentence to-day, yet never came to a trial, is Hollis +Tisdale of the Geographical Survey; a man in high favor with the +administration and the sole owner of the fabulously rich Aurora mine in +Alaska. The widow of his partner who made the discovery and paid for it +with his life is penniless. Strange as it may seem--for the testimony of a +criminal is not allowable in a United States court--Hollis Tisdale has +been called as a witness for the Government in the pending Alaska coal +trials!" + +The Society Editor met Jimmie's appalled gaze. "It sounds muckraky," she +commented, still tremulously. "But these new magazines have to do +something to get a hold. This is just to attract public attention." + +"They'll get that, when Tisdale brings a suit for libel. Hope he will do +it, and that the judgment will swamp them. They must have got his name +from Mrs. Feversham." + +"It looks political," said Geraldine conciliatingly, "as though they were +striking through him at the administration." + +"Go on," said Jimmie recklessly. "Let's have it over with." + +And Geraldine launched quickly into the story. It had been mercilessly and +skilfully abridged. All those undercurrents of feeling, which Jimmie had +faithfully noted, had been suppressed; and of David Weatherbee, whom +Tisdale had made the hero of the adventure, there was not a word. + +"Great guns!" exclaimed the unfortunate author at the finish. "Great-- +guns!" + +But Geraldine said nothing. She only closed the magazine and pushed it +under the pillow out of sight. There was a long silence. A first star +appeared and threw a wavering trail on the lake. Jimmie, dipping his +paddle mechanically, turned the Peterboro into this pale pathway. The +pride and elation had gone out of his face. His mouth drooped +disconsolately. + +"And you called this your proudest day," he broke out at last. + +An unexpected gentleness crept over the Society Editor's countenance. "It +would be great to help create a city," she said then. "To start with it +ourselves, at the foundations and grow." And she added very softly, with a +little break in her voice: "I've decided to resign and go to Weatherbee." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +SNOWBOUND IN THE ROCKIES AND "FIT AS A MOOSE" + + +Tisdale, who was expected to furnish important testimony in the Alaska +coal cases, had been served official notice at the hospital during Banks' +visit. The trial was set for the twenty-fourth of March and in Seattle. + +The prospector had found him braced up in bed, and going over the final +proof of his Matanuska report, with the aid of a secretary. "You better go +slow, Hollis," he said. "You are looking about as reliable as your shadow. +Likely the first puff of a wind would lift you out of sight. My, yes. But +I just ran over to say hello, and let you know if it's the expense that's +hurrying you, there's a couple of thousand in the Wenatchee bank I can't +find any use for, now the water-works are done and the house. You can have +it well's not. It ain't drawing any interest." And Tisdale had taken the +little man's hand between both his own and called him "true gold." But he +was in no pressing need of money, though it was possible he might delay in +refunding those sums Banks had advanced on the project. He was able enough +to be on his feet, but these doctors were cautious; it might be another +month before he would be doing a man's work. + +He started west, allowing himself ample time to reach Seattle by the +fifteenth of March, when Banks' option expired, but the fourteenth found +him, after three days of delay by floods, snowbound in the Rockies. The +morning of the fifteenth, while the rotaries were still clearing track +ahead, he made his way back a few miles to the nearest telegraph station +and got into communication with the mining man. + +"How are you?" came the response from Weatherbee. "Done for? Drop off at +Scenic Hot Springs, if your train comes through. She wrote she was there. +Came up with a little crowd for the coasting. Take care of yourself, and +here is to you. + +"Lucky." + +And Tisdale, with the genial wrinkles deepening at the corners of his eyes +once more, wired: "Fit as a moose. Go fifteenth. Close business." + +A judge may pronounce a sentence yet, at the same time, feel ungovernable +springs of sympathy welling from the depths of his heart, and while +Tisdale pushed his way back to the stalled train, he went over the +situation from Beatriz Weatherbee's side. He knew what the sale of that +desert tract must mean to her; how high her hopes had flown since the +payment of the bonus. Looking forward to that final interview when, +notwithstanding his improvements, Banks should relinquish his option, he +weighed her disappointment. In imagination he saw the light go out of her +eyes; her lip, that short upper lip with its curves of a bow, would quiver +a little, and the delicate nostril; then, instantly, before she had spoken +a word, her indomitable pride would be up like a lifted whip, to sting her +into self-control. Oh, she had the courage; she would brave it out. Still, +still, he had intended to be there, not only to press the ultimate +purpose, but to--ease her through. Banks might be abrupt. He was sorry. He +was so sorry that though he had tramped, mushed a mile, he faced about, +and, in the teeth of a bitter wind, returned to the station. + +The snow was falling thickly; it blurred his tracks behind him; the crest +of a drift was caught up and carried, swirling, into the railroad cut he +had left, and a great gust tore into the office with him. The solitary +operator hurried to close the door and, shivering, stooped to put a huge +stick of wood in the stove. "It's too bad," he said. "Forgot the main +point, I suppose. If this keeps up, and your train moves to-morrow, it +will be through a regular snow canyon. I just got word your head rotary is +out of commission, but another is coming up from the east with a gang of +shovellers. They'll stop here for water. It's a chance for you to ride +back to your train." + +"Thank you, I will wait," Tisdale answered genially. "But I like walking +in this mountain air. I like it so well that if the blockade doesn't lift +by to-morrow, I am going to mush through and pick up a special to the +coast." + +While he spoke, he brushed the snow from his shoulders and took off his +hat and gloves. He stood another moment, rubbing and pinching his numb +hands, then went over to the desk and filled a telegraph blank. He laid +down the exact amount of the charges in silver, to which he added five +dollars in gold. + +The operator went around the counter and picked up the money. For an +instant his glance, moving from the message, rested on Tisdale's face in +curious surprise. This man surely enjoyed the mountain air. He had tramped +back in the teeth of a growing blizzard to send an order for violets to +Hollywood Gardens, Seattle. The flowers were to be expressed to a lady at +Scenic Hot Springs. + +After that Tisdale spent an interval moving restlessly about the room. He +read the advertisements on the walls, studied the map of the Great +Northern route, and when the stove grew red-hot, threw open the door and +tramped the platform in the piping wind. Finally, when the keyboard was +quiet, the operator brought him a magazine. The station did not keep a +news-stand, but a conductor on the westbound had left this for him to +read. There was a mighty good yarn--this was it--"The Tenas Papoose." It +was just the kind when a man was trying to kill time. + +Tisdale took the periodical. No, he had not seen it aboard the train; +there were so many of these new magazines, it was hard to choose. He +smiled at first, that editor's note was so preposterous, so plainly +sensational; or was it malicious? He re-read it, knitting his brows. Who +was this writer Daniels? His mind ran back to that day aboard the +_Aquila_. Aside from the Morgansteins and Mrs. Weatherbee, there had been +no one else in the party until the lieutenant was picked up at Bremerton, +after the adventure was told. But Daniels--he glanced back to be sure of +the author's name--James Daniels. Now he remembered. That was the +irrepressible young fellow who had secured the photographs in Snoqualmie +Pass at the time of the accident to the Morganstein automobile; who had +later interviewed Mrs. Weatherbee on the train. Had he then sought her at +her hotel, ostensibly to present her with a copy of the newspaper in which +those illustrations were published, and so ingratiated himself far enough +in her favor to gather another story from her? + +Tisdale went over to a chair near the window and began to go over those +abridged columns. He turned the page, and his lips set grimly. At last he +closed the magazine and looked off through the drifting snow. He had been +grossly misrepresented, and the reason was clear. + +This editor, struggling to establish a new periodical, had used Daniels' +material to attract the public eye. He may even have had political +ambitions and aimed deeper to strike the administration through him. He +may have taken this method to curry favor with certain moneyed men. Still, +still, what object had there been in leaving Weatherbee completely out of +the story? Weatherbee, who should have carried the leading role; who, +lifting the adventure high above the sensational, had made it something +fine. + +Again his thoughts ran back to that cruise on the _Aquila_. He saw that +group on the after-deck; Rainier lifting southward like a phantom mountain +over the opal sea; and westward the Olympics, looming clear-cut, vivid as +a scene in the tropics; the purplish blue of the nearer height sharply +defined against the higher amethyst slope that marked the gorge of the +Dosewallups. This setting had brought the tragedy to his mind, and to +evade the questions Morganstein pressed, he had commenced to relate the +adventure. But afterwards he had found himself going into the more +intimate detail with a hope of reviving some spark of appreciation of +David in the heart of his wife. And he had believed that he had. Still, +who else, in all that little company, could have had any motive in leaving +out Weatherbee? Why had she told the story at all? She was a woman of +great self-control, but also she had depths of pride. Had she, in the high +tide of her anger or pique, taken this means to retaliate for the +disappointment he had caused her? + +The approaching work-train whistled the station. He rose and went back to +the operator's desk and filled another blank. This time he addressed a +prominent attorney, and his close friend, in Washington, D.C. And the +message ran: + +"See _Sampson's Magazine_, March, page 330. Find whether revised or +Daniels' copy." + +Toward noon the following day the express began to crawl cautiously out, +with the rotaries still bucking ahead, through the great snow canyons. The +morning of the sixteenth he had left Spokane with the great levels of the +Columbia desert stretching before him. And that afternoon at Wenatchee, +with the white gates of the Cascades a few hours off, a messenger called +his name down the aisle. The answer had come from his attorney. The story +was straight copy; published as received. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE IDES OF MARCH + + +In order to prepare for the defense, Miles Feversham, accompanied by his +wife, arrived in Seattle the first week in March. The month had opened +stormy, with heavy rains, and to bridge the interval preceding the trial, +Marcia planned an outing at Scenic Hot Springs where, at the higher +altitude, the precipitation had taken the form of snow, and the hotel +advertised good skeeing and tobogganing. "Make the most of it," she +admonished Frederic; "it's your last opportunity. If Lucky Banks forfeits +his bonus, and you can manage to keep your head and use a little +diplomacy, we may have the engagement announced before the case comes up." + +Though diplomacy was possible only through suggestion, Frederic was a +willing and confident medium. He knew Mrs. Weatherbee had notified Banks +she was at Scenic and, watching her that day of the fifteenth, he was at +first puzzled and then encouraged that, as the hours passed and the +prospector failed to come, her spirits steadily rose. + +Elizabeth betrayed more anxiety. At evening she stood at the window in +Beatriz's room, watching the bold front of the mountain which the Great +Northern tracks crosscut to Cascade tunnel, when the Spokane local rounded +the highest curve and dropped cautiously to the first snow-sheds. The +bluffs between were too sheer to accumulate snow, and against the dark +background the vague outlines of the cars passed like shadows; the +electric lights, blazing from the coaches, produced the effect of an +aerial, fiery dragon. Then, in the interval it disappeared, an eastbound +challenged from the lower gorge, and the monster rushed from cover, +shrieking defiance; the pawing clamp of its trucks roused the +mountainside. "There is your last westbound," she said. "If your option +man isn't aboard, he forfeits his bonus. But you will be ahead the three +thousand dollars and whatever improvements he may have made." + +Mrs. Weatherbee stood at the mirror fastening a great bunch of violets at +her belt. There was a bouquet of them on the dresser, and a huge bowl +filled with them and relieved by a single red rose stood on the table in +the center of the room. "That is what troubles me," she replied, and +ruffled her brows. "It seems so unjust that he should lose so much; that I +should accept everything without compensating him." + +Elizabeth smiled. "I guess he meant to get what he could out of the +investment, but afterwards, when he married and found his wife owned the +adjoining unreclaimed tract, it altered the situation. It called for +double capital and, if he hesitated and it came to a choice, naturally her +interests would swing the balance." + +"No doubt," admitted Beatriz. "And in that case,"--she turned from the +mirror to watch the train--"I might deed her a strip of ground where it +was discovered her tract overlapped David's. That would be a beginning." + +"See here." Elizabeth turned, and for an instant the motherhood deep in +her softened the masculine lines of her face. "Don't you worry about Lucky +Banks. Perhaps he did go into the project to satisfy his conscience, but +the deal was his, and he had the money to throw away. Some men get their +fun making over the earth. When one place is finished, they lose interest +and go looking for a chance to put their time and dollars into improving +somewhere else. Besides,"--and she took this other woman into her abrupt +and rare embrace--"I happen to know he had an offer for his option and +refused a good price. Now, come, Marcia and Frederic have gone down to the +dining-room, you know. They were to order for us." + +But Beatriz was in no hurry. "The train is on the bridge," she said and +caught a quick breath. "Do you hear? It is stopping at the station." + +Elizabeth, waiting at the open door, answered: "We can see the new +arrivals, if there are any, when we go through the lobby." + +Mrs. Weatherbee started across the room, but at the table she stopped to +bend over the bowl of violets, inhaling their fragrance. "Aren't they +lovely and--prodigal enough to color whole fields?" + +Elizabeth laughed. "Frederic must have ordered wholesale, or else he +forgot they were in season." + +Beatriz lifted her face. "Did Mr. Morganstein send these violets?" she +asked. "I thought--but there was no card." + +"Why, I don't know," said Elizabeth, "but who else would have ordered +whole fields of them?" + +Mrs. Weatherbee was silent, but she smiled a little as she followed +Elizabeth from the room. When they reached the foot of the staircase, the +lobby was nearly deserted; if the train had left any guests, they had been +shown already to their rooms. + +The Morganstein table was at the farther end of the dining-room, but +Frederic, who was watching the door when the young women entered, at once +noticed the violets at Mrs. Weatherbee's belt. + +"Must have been sent from Seattle on that last eastbound," he commented, +frowning. "Say, Marcia, why didn't you remind me to order some flowers +from town?" + +Marcia's calculating eyes followed his gaze. "You would not have +remembered she is fond of violets, and they seem specially made for her; +you would have ordered unusual orchids or imported azaleas." + +Frederic laughed uneasily, and a purplish flush deepened in his cheeks. "I +always figure the best is never too good for her. Not that the highest +priced makes so much difference with her. Look at her, now, will you? +Wouldn't you think, the way she carries herself, that little gray gown was +a coronation robe? George, but she is game! Acts like she expects Lucky +Banks to drop in with a clear fifty thousand, when the chances are he's +gone back on his ten. Well," he said, rising as she approached, to draw +out her chair, "what do you think about your customer now? Too bad. I bet +you've spent his Alaska dust in anticipation a hundred times over. Don't +deny it," he held up his heavy hand in playful warning as he resumed his +chair. "Speculated some myself on what you'd do with it. George, I'd like +to see the reins in your hands for once, and watch you go. You'd set us a +pace; break all records." + +"Oh, no, no," she expostulated in evident distress. "I shouldn't care to-- +set the pace--if I were to come into a kingdom; please don't think that. I +have wanted to keep up, I admit; to hold my own. I have been miserably +afraid sometimes of being left behind, alone, crowded out, beaten." + +"Beaten? You? I guess not. Bet anybody ten to one you'll be in at the +finish, I don't care who's in the field, even if you drop in your traces +next minute. And I bet if this sale does fall through to-night, you'll be +looking up, high as ever, to-morrow, setting your heart on something else +out of reach." + +"Out of reach?" she responded evenly, arching her brows. "You surprise me. +You have led me to believe I am easy to please." + +"So you are," he capitulated instantly, "in most ways. All the same, you +carry the ambitions of a duchess buttoned under that gray gown. But I like +you for it; like you so well I'm going to catch myself taking that +property off your hands, if Banks goes back on you." + +He leaned towards her as he said this, smiling and trying to hold her +glance, but she turned her face and looked off obliviously across the +room. There were moments when even Frederic Morganstein was conscious of +the indefinable barrier beyond which lay intrenched, an untried and +repelling force. He straightened and, following her gaze, saw Lucky Banks +enter the door. + +Involuntarily Elizabeth started, and Mrs. Feversham caught a quick breath. +"At the eleventh hour," she said then, and her eyes met her brother's. +"Yes or no?" they telegraphed. + +It was the popular hour, an orchestra was playing, and the tables were +well filled, but the mining man, marshalled by a tall and important head +waitress, drew himself straight and with soldierly precision came down the +room as far as the Morganstein group. There, recognizing Mrs. Weatherbee, +he stopped and, with the maimed hand behind him, made his short, swift +bow. "I guess likely you gave me up," he said in his high key, "but I +waited long's I dared for the through train. She's been snowed under three +days in the Rockies. They had her due at Wenatchee by two-fifteen; then it +was put off to five, and when the local came along, I thought I might as +well take her." + +Mrs. Weatherbee, who had started to rise, settled back in her chair with a +smile. "I had given you up, Mr. Banks," she said not quite steadily. + +Then Morganstein said: "How do, Banks," and offered his hand. "Just in +time to join us. Ordered saddle of Yakima lamb, first on the market, +dressing of fine herbs, for the crowd. Suits you, doesn't it?" + +To which the little prospector responded: "My, yes, first class, but I +don't want to put you out." + +"You won't," Frederic chuckled; "couldn't do it if you tried." + +But it was Elizabeth who rose to make room for the extra chair on her side +of the table, and who inquired presently after his wife. + +"Mrs. Banks is fine," he answered, his bleak face glowing. "My, yes, seems +like she makes a better showing now than she did at the Corners seven +years back." + +"Still driving those bays?" asked Frederic. + +The mining man nodded with reluctance. "It's no use to try to get her to +let 'em alone long's they are on the place, and I couldn't sneak 'em away; +she was always watching around. She thinks Tisdale will likely sell when +he sees she can manage the team." + +"So," laughed Morganstein, "you'll have to come up with that Christmas +present, after all." + +"They will do for her birthday," replied Banks gravely. "I picked out a +new ring for Christmas. It was a first-class diamond, and she liked it all +right. She said," and a shade of humor warmed his face, "she would have to +patronize the new manicure store down to Wenatchee, if I expected her to +have hands fit to wear it, and if she had to live up to that ring, it +would cost me something before she was through." + +"And did she try the parlors?" asked Elizabeth seriously. + +"My, yes, and it was worth the money. Her hands made a mighty fine showing +the first trip, and before she used up her ticket, I was telling her she'd +have to wear mittens when she played the old melodion, or likely her +fingers would get hurt hitting the keys." + +Banks laughed his high, strained laugh, and Morganstein echoed it deeply. +"Ought to have an establishment in the new town," he said. + +"We are going to," the prospector replied; "as soon as the new brick block +is ready to open up. There's going to be manicure and hair-dressing +parlors back of the millinery store. Lucile, Miss Lucile Purdy of +Sedgewick-Wilson's, is coming over to run 'em both. She can do it, my, +yes." + +"Now I can believe you have a self-respecting and wide-awake town," +commented Mrs. Feversham. "But is the big department store backing Miss +Purdy?" + +"No, ma'am. We ain't talking about it much, but Mrs. Banks has put up +money; she says she is the silent partner of the concern." + +"Is that so?" questioned Morganstein thoughtfully. "Seems to me you are +banking rather heavy on the new town." + +Banks' eyes gleamed appreciation, but the capitalist missed his +inadvertent pun. After a moment, the mining man said: "I guess the +millinery investment won't break us; but there's no question about +Weatherbee's being a live town, and Lucile can sell goods." + +"I presume next," said Mrs. Feversham with veiled irony, "we shall be +hearing of you as the first mayor of Weatherbee." + +Banks shook his head gravely. "They shouldered that on to Henderson +Bailey." + +"I remember," said Frederic. "Man who started the orchard excitement, +wasn't he? Got in on the ground floor and platted some of his land in city +lots. Naturally, he's running for mayor." + +"He's it," responded the mining man. "The election came off Tuesday, and +he led his ticket, my, yes, clear out of sight." + +"Bet you ran for something, though," responded Morganstein. "Bet they had +you up for treasurer." + +Banks laughed. "There was some talk of it--my wife said they were looking +for somebody that could make good if the city money fell short--but most +of the bunch thought my lay was the Board of Control. You see, I got to +looking after things to help Bailey out, while he was busy moving his +apples or maybe his city lots. My, it got so's when Mrs. Banks couldn't +find me down to the city park, watching the men grub out sage-brush for +the new trees, she could count on my being up-stream to the water-works, +or hiking out to the lighting-plant. It's kept me rushed, all right. It +takes time to start a first-class town. It has to be done straight from +bedrock. But now that Annabel's house up Hesperides Vale is built, and the +flumes are in, she thinks likely she can run her ranch, and I think +likely,"--the prospector paused, and his eyes, with their gleam of blue +glacier ice, sought Mrs. Weatherbee's. Hers clouded a little, and she +leaned slightly towards him, waiting with hushed breath--"I think likely," +he repeated in a higher key, "seeing's the Alameda has to be finished up, +and the fountain got in shape at the park, with the statue about due from +New York, I may as well drop Dave's project and call the deal off." + +There was a silence, during which the eyes of every one rested on Beatriz. +She straightened with a great sigh; the color rushed coral-pink to her +face. + +"I am--sorry--about your loss, Mr. Banks," she said, then, and her voice +fluctuated softly, "but I shall do my best--I shall make it a point of +honor--to sometime reimburse you." Her glance fell to the violets at her +belt; she singled one from the rest and, inhaling its perfume, held it +lightly to her lips. + +"You thoroughbred!" said Frederic thickly. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE EVERLASTING DOOR + + +Sometime during the night of the fifteenth, the belated Chinook wind began +to flute through the canyon, and towards dawn the guests at Scenic Hot +Springs were wakened by the near thunder of an avalanche. After a while, +word was brought that the Great Northern track was buried under forty feet +of snow and rock and fallen trees for a distance of nearly a mile. Later a +rotary steamed around the high curve on the mountain and stopped, like a +toy engine on an upper shelf, while the Spokane local, upon which Banks +had expected to return to Weatherbee, forged a few miles beyond the hotel +to leave a hundred laborers from Seattle. Thin wreaths of vapor commenced +to rise and, gathering volume with incredible swiftness, blotted out the +plow and the snow-sheds, and meeting, broke in a storm of hail. The cloud +lifted, but in a short interval was followed by another that burst in a +deluge of rain, and while the slope was still obscured, a report was +telegraphed from the summit that a second avalanche had closed the east +portal of Cascade tunnel, through which the Oriental Limited had just +passed. At nightfall, when the work of clearing away the first mass of +debris was not yet completed, a third slide swept down seven laborers and +demolished a snow-shed. The unfortunate train that had been delayed so +long in the Rockies was indefinitely stalled. + +The situation was unprecedented. Never before in the history of the Great +Northern had there been so heavy a snowfall in the Cascades; the sudden +thaw following an ordinary precipitation must have looked serious, but the +moving of this vast accumulation became appalling. All through that day, +the second night the cannonading of avalanches continued, distant and +near. At last came an interlude. The warm wind died out; at evening there +was a promise of frost; and only the voice of the river disturbed the +gorge. Dawn broke still and crisp and clear. The mountain tops shone in +splendor, purple cliffs stood sharply defined against snow-covered slopes, +and whole companies in the lower ranks of the trees had thrown off their +white cloaks. It was a day to delight the soul, to rouse the heart, invite +to deeds of emulation. Even Frederic was responsive, and when after +breakfast Marcia broached a plan to scale the peak that loomed southeast +of the pass, he grasped at the diversion. "We're pretty high up already, +here at Scenic," he commented, surveying the dome from his chair on the +hotel veranda. "Three or four thousand feet ought to put us on the summit. +Have the chance, anyhow, to see that stalled train." + +"Of course it wouldn't be an achievement like the ascent of Rainier," she +tempered, "but we should have chances enough to use our alpenstocks before +we're through; and it should be a magnificent view; all the great peaks +from Oregon to British Columbia rising around." + +"With the Columbia River below us," said Elizabeth, "and all those miles +of desert. We might even catch a glimpse of your new Eden over there, +Beatriz." + +Mrs. Weatherbee nodded, with the sparkles breaking in her eyes. "I know +this is the peak we watched the day I drove from Wenatchee. It rose white +and shining at the top of Hesperides Vale, and it may have another name, +but I called it the Everlasting Door." + +Once since their arrival at Scenic Hot Springs they had followed, skeeing, +an old abandoned railroad track, used by the Great Northern during the +construction of the big tunnel, to the edge of the desired peak, and, at +Marcia's suggestion, Frederic invited Lucky Banks to join the expedition +in the capacity of captain and guide. The prospector admitted he felt "the +need of a little exercise" and, having studied the mountain with +field-glasses and consulted with the hotel proprietor, he consented to see +them through. No doubt the opportunity to learn the situation of the +Oriental Limited and the possibilities of getting in touch with Tisdale, +should the train fail to move before his return from the summit, had +influenced the little man's decision. A few spikes in his shoes, some +hardtack and cheese with an emergency flask in his pockets, a coil of rope +and a small hatchet that might serve equally well as an ice-ax or to clear +undergrowth on the lower slopes, was ample equipment, and he was off to +reconnoiter the mountainside fully an hour in advance of the packer whom +Morganstein engaged for the first stage of the journey. + +When the man arrived at the foot of the sharp ascent where he was to be +relieved, Banks was finishing the piece of trail he had blazed and mushed +diagonally up the slope to a rocky cleaver that stretched like a causeway +from the timber to firm snow, but he returned with time to spare between +the departure of the packer and the appearance of his party, to open the +unwieldy load; from this he discarded two bottles of claret and another of +port, with their wrappings of straw, a steamer-rug, some tins of pate de +foie gras and other sundries that made for weight, but which the +capitalist had considered essential to the comfort and success of the +expedition. There still remained a well-stocked hamper, including thermos +bottles of coffee and tea, and a second rug, which he rolled snugly in the +oilskin cover and secured with shoulder-straps. The eliminated articles, +that he cached under a log, were not missed until luncheon, which was +served on a high, spur below the summit while Banks was absent making a +last reconnaissance, and Frederic blamed the packer. + +The spur was flanked above by a craggy buttress and broke below to an +abyss which was divided by a narrow, tongue-like ridge, and over this, on +a lower level of the opposite peak, appeared the steep roofs of the +mountain station at the entrance to Cascade tunnel, where, on the tracks +outside the portal, stood the stalled train. It seemed within speaking +distance in that rare atmosphere, though several miles intervened. + +After a while sounds of metal striking ice came from a point around the +buttress; Banks was cutting steps. Then, following a silence, he appeared. +But, on coming into the sunny westward exposure, he stopped, and with two +fingers raised like a weather-vane, stood gazing down the canyon. His eyes +began to scintillate like chippings of blue glacier. + +Involuntarily every one turned in that direction, and Frederic reached to +take his field-glasses from the shelf of the buttress they had converted +into a table. But he saw nothing new to hold the attention except three or +four gauzy streamers of smoke or vapor that floated in the lower gorge. + +"Looks like a train starting up," he commented, "but the Limited gets the +right of way as soon as there's a clear track." + +Banks dropped his hand and moved a few steps to take the glasses from +Morganstein. "You're right," he replied in his high, strained key. "It +ain't any train moving; it's the Chinook waking up." He focussed on the +Oriental Limited, then slowly swept the peak that overtopped the cars. +"Likely they dasn't back her into the tunnel," he said. "The bore is long +enough to take in the whole bunch, but if a slide toppled off that +shoulder, it would pen 'em in and cut off the air. It looks better +outside, my, yes." + +"Here is your coffee, Mr. Banks," said Elizabeth, who had filled a cup +from the thermos bottle, "and please take anything else you wish while I +repack the basket. We are all waiting, you see, to go on." + +The prospector paused to take the cup, then said: "I guess likely we won't +make the summit this trip. We've got to hustle to get down before it turns +soft." + +"Oh, but we must make the summit," exclaimed Marcia, taking up her +alpenstock. "Why, we are all but there." + +"How does it look ahead?" inquired Frederic, walking along the buttress. +"Heard you chopping ice." + +"I was cutting steps across the tail end of a little glacier. It's a +gliddery place, but the going looks all right once you get past. Well, +likely you can make it," he added shrilly, "but you've got to be quick." + +The life of the trail that sharpens a man's perceptives teaches him to +read individuality swiftly, and this Alaskan who, the first day out on a +long stampede, could have told the dominant trait of each husky in his +team, knew his party as well as the risk. Golf and tennis, added to a +naturally strong physique, had given the two sisters nerves of steel. +Marcia, who had visited some of the great glaciers in the north, possessed +the insight and coolness of a mountain explorer; and all the third woman +lacked in physical endurance was more than made up in courage. The man, +though enervated by over-indulgence, had the brute force, the animal +instinct of self-preservation, to carry him through. So presently, when +the buttress was passed, and the prospector uncoiled his rope, it was to +Mrs. Feversham he gave the other end, placing Morganstein next, with +Elizabeth at the center and Mrs. Weatherbee second. Once, twice, Banks +felt her stumble, a sinking weight on the line, but in the instant he +caught a twist in the slack and fixed his heels in the crust to turn, she +had, in each case, recovered and come steadily on. It was only when the +gliddery passage was made, the peril behind, that she sank down in +momentary collapse. + +Banks stopped to unfold his pocket-cup and take out his flask. "You look +about done for," he said briskly. "My, yes, that little taste of glacier +was your limit. But you ain't the kind to back out. No, ma'am, all you +need is a little bracer to put you on your feet again, good as new." + +"I never can go back," she said, and met his concerned look with wide and +luminous eyes. "Unless--I'm carried. Never in the world." + +Morganstein forced a laugh. It had a frosty sound; his lips were blue. +"Excuse me," he responded. "Anywhere else I wouldn't hesitate, but here, I +draw the line." + +The prospector was holding the draught to her lips, and she took a swallow +and pushed away the cup. It was brandy, raw, scalding, and it brought the +color back to her face. "Thank you," she said, and forced a smile. "It is +bracing; my tensions are all screwed. I feel like climbing on to--Mars." + +Frederic laughed again. "You go on, Banks," he said, relieving him of the +cup; "she's all right. You hurry ahead before one of those girls walks +over a precipice." + +He could not persuade her to take more of the liquor, so he himself drank +the bracer, after which he put the cup and the flask, which Banks had +left, away in his own pockets. She was up, whipping down her fear. "Come," +she said, "we must hurry to overtake them." + +Her steps, unsteady at first, grew sure and determined; she drew longer, +deeper breaths; the pink of a wild rose flushed her cheeks. But Frederic, +plodding abreast, laid his hand on her arm. + +"See here," he said, "you can't keep this up; stop a minute. They've got +to wait for us. George, that ambition of yours can spur you to the pace. +Never saw so much spirit done up in a small package. Go off, sometime, +like Fourth o' July fireworks." He chuckled, looking down at her with +admiration in his round eyes. "Like you for it, though. George, it's just +that has made you worth waiting for." + +She gave him a quick glance and, setting her alpenstock, sprang from his +detaining hand. + +"See, they have reached the summit," she called. "They are waiting already +for us. And see!" she exclaimed tensely, as he struggled after her. "It is +going to be grand." + +A vast company of peaks began to lift, tier on tier like an amphitheater, +above the rim of the dome, while far eastward, as they cross-cut the +rounding incline, stretched those tawny mountains that had the appearance +of strange and watchful beasts, guarding the levels of the desert, bare of +snow. Glimpses there were of the blue Columbia, the racy Wenatchee, but +Weatherbee's pocket was closed. Then, presently, as they gained the +summit, it was no longer an amphitheater into which they looked, but a +billowing sea of cloud, out of which rose steep and inhospitable shores. +Then, everywhere, far and away, shone opal-shaded islands of mystery. + +"Oh," she said, with a little, sighing breath, "these are the Isles of the +Blest. We have come through the Everlasting Door into the better country." + +She stood looking off in rapture, but the man saw only the changing lights +in her face. He turned a little, taking in the charm of pose, the lift of +chin, parted lips, hand shading softly shining eyes. After a moment he +answered: "Wish we had. Wish every other man you knew was left out, on the +other side of the door." + +Her hand fell, she gave him her sweeping look and moved to join the +waiting group. + +Banks came to meet them. "We've stayed to the limit; my, yes, it's the +last call," he explained in his tense key. "There's a couple of places we +don't want to see ourselves caught in when the thaw strikes. And they're +getting a heavy rain down at the Springs now; likely up at the tunnel it's +snow or hail." He paused, turning to send a final glance into the mist, +then said: "Less than ten minutes ago I had a sight of that train, but you +see now she's wiped off the map. It'll be a close race, my, yes. Give me +that stick, ma'am; you can make better time on the down-grade holding on +to me." + +With this, he offered his able hand to Mrs. Weatherbee and, followed by +the rest of the party, helped her swiftly down the slope. But clearly his +mind was on the stalled train. "Likely, hugging the mountainside, they +don't see how the snow crowds overhead," he said. "And I'd ought to have +taken time to run over and give 'em a tip. I'm going to, I'm going to, +soon's I get you down to that old railroad track where you can make it +alone." + +"Do you mean the Limited is in danger?" she asked, springing and tripping +to his stride. + +And Banks nodded grimly. "Yes, ma'am. It's a hard proposition, even to a +man like Tisdale, who is used to breaking his own trail. He knows he's got +to fight shy of the slides along that burned over switchback, but if he +saw the box that train is in, he would just hike around to this side of +the canyon, where the pitches are shorter, and the green trees stand some +show to hold the snow, and work down to the old track to the Springs." + +"Is Mr. Tisdale"'--her voice broke a little--"Mr. Hollis Tisdale on that +train?" + +"Likely, yes. He was snowbound on her in the Rockies, last I heard, and +'feeling fit as a moose.' Being penned up so long, he'd likely rather take +a hike down to the hotel than not. It would be good for his health." And +the little man piped his high, mirthless laugh. + +She stumbled, and he felt the hand in his tremble, but the abrupt incline +of the glacier had opened before them, and he believed she dreaded to +re-cross the ice. "Keep cool," he admonished, releasing her to uncoil the +rope again, "Stand steady. Just recollect if you came over this, you can +get back." + +But when, presently, the difficult passage safely made, they rounded the +crag and gained the level shoulder where they had lunched, they seemed to +have arrived at a different place. The lower canyon, which not two hours +before had stretched into blue distance below them, was lost in the +creeping sea of cloud; the abyss at their feet gathered immensity, and the +top of the timbered ridge lifted midway like a strange, floating garden. +The station at Cascade tunnel, all the opposite mountain, was obscured, +then, while Banks stood re-coiling his rope, the sounds that had disturbed +the guests at Scenic Hot Springs those previous nights rose, +reverberating, through the hidden gorge. The Chinook had resumed its work. + +The way below the spur broke in easy steps to the long and gradual slope +that terminated above the cleaver of rock and, anxious to reach the +unfortunate train, Banks hurried on. Marcia and Elizabeth trailed quickly +after, but Mrs. Weatherbee remained seated on the shelving ledge at the +foot of the crag. Frederic sank heavily into the place beside her and took +out the flask. + +"You are all in," he said. "Come, take this; it's diluted this time with +snow." + +But she gave him no attention, except to push aside the cup. She waited, +listening, leaning forward a little as though her wide eyes could +penetrate the pall. Then, torn by cross currents of wind, the cloud +parted, and the mountain loomed like a phantom peak over the gulf. She +started up and stood swaying gently on her feet while the trees, tall and +spectral and cloaked in snow, opened rank on rank like a uniformed +company. Lower still, the steep roofs of the station reflected a shaft of +the sun, and the long line of cars appeared clearly defined, waiting still +on the tracks outside the portal. + +The rent in the cloud closed. She turned with a great, sighing breath. +"Did you see?" she said. "The train is safe." + +"Of course." And again, having himself taken the bracer, Frederic rose and +returned the flask to his pocket. "So, that was troubling you; thought +that train might have been struck. Guess if an avalanche had come down +there, we'd have heard some noise. It's safe enough here," he added. "Top +of this crag was built to shed snow like a church steeple." + +"But why are we waiting?" And glancing around, she exclaimed in dismay: +"The others have gone. See! They are almost out of sight." + +She began to walk swiftly to the lower rim of the shoulder, and Frederic +followed. Down the slope his sisters and Banks seemed to be moving through +a film. They mingled with it indistinctly as the figures in faded +tapestry. But Morganstein laid his hand on her arm to detain her. "What's +your hurry?" he asked thickly. "All we got to do now is keep their trail. +Tracks are clear as day." + +"We shall delay them; they will wait." + +She tried to pass him, but they had reached the step from the spur, and he +swung around to block the narrow way. "Not yet," he said. "This is the +moment I've been waiting for. First time in months you've given me a fair +chance to speak to you. Always headed me off. I'm tired of being held at +arm's length. I've been patient to the limit. I'm going to know now, +to-day, before we go down from this mountain, how soon you are going to +marry me." + +She tried again to pass him but, taking incautious footing, slipped, and +his arm saved her. "I don't care how soon it is," he went on, "or where. +Quietly at your apartments, or a big church wedding. On board the first +boat sailing for Yokohama, after those coal cases are settled, suits me." + +She struggled to free herself, then managed to turn and face him, with her +palms braced against his breast. His arm relaxed a little, so that he was +able to look down in her lifted face. What he saw there was not altogether +anger, though aversion was in her eyes; not surprise, not wholly derision, +though her lips suggested a smile, but an indefinable something that +baffled, mastered him. His arm fell. "Japan is fine in the spring," he +said. "And we could take our time, coming back by way of Hawaii to see the +big volcano, with another stop-over at Manila. Get home to begin +housekeeping at the villa in midsummer." + +"Oh," she exclaimed at last, "do you think I am a silly girl to be dazzled +and tempted? Who knows nothing of marriage and the cost?" + +"No," he responded quickly. "I think you are a mighty clever woman. But +you've got to the point where you can't hedge any more. Banks has gone +back on that option. If he won't buy, nobody else will. And it takes ready +money to run a big ranch like that, even after the improvements are in. +You can't realize on your orchards, even in the Wenatchee country, short +of four years. So you'll have to marry me; only way out." + +She gave him her swift, sweeping look, and the blue lights blazed in her +eyes. "I will remember you are Elizabeth's brother," she said. "I will try +to remember that. But please don't say any more. Every moment counts; +come." + +Morganstein laughed. As long as she parried, as long as she did not refuse +outright to marry him, he must keep reasonably cool. He stooped to pick up +the alpenstock she had dropped, then offered his hand down the step from +the spur. "Sorry I put it just that way," he said. "I'm a plain business +man; used to coming straight to the point; but I guess you've known how +much I thought of you all these years. Had to keep on a high check-rein +while Weatherbee lived, and tried my best, afterwards, to give him a +year's grace, but you knew just the same. Know--don't you?--I might take +my pick out of the dozen nicest girls in Seattle to-day. Only have to say +the word. Not one in the bunch would turn me down. But I wouldn't have one +of 'em for second choice. Nobody but you will do." He paused, then added +with his narrow look: "And what I want, you ought to know that too, I +get." + +She met the look with a shake of the head and forced a smile. "Some things +are not to be bought at any price. But, of course, I have seen--a woman +does--" she went on hurriedly, withdrawing her hand. "There was a time, I +confess, when I did consider--your way out. But I dared not take it; even +then, I dared not." + +"You dared not?" Frederic laughed again. "Never thought you were afraid of +me. Never saw you afraid of anything. But I see. Miserable experience with +Weatherbee made you little cautious. George, don't see how any man could +have deserted you. Trust me to make it up to you. Marry me, and I'll show +you such a good time Weatherbee won't amount to a bad dream." + +"I do not wish to forget David Weatherbee," she said. + +"George!" he exclaimed curiously. "Do you mean you ever really loved him? +A man who left you, practically without a cent, before you were married a +month." + +"No." Her voice was low; her lip trembled a little. "No, I did not love +him--as he deserved; as I was able to love." She paused, then went on with +decision: "But he did not leave me unprovided for. David Weatherbee never +deserted me. And, even though he had, though he had been the kind of man I +believed him to be, it would make no difference. I could not marry you." + +There was a silence during which they continued to follow the tracks that +cross-cut the slope. But Morganstein's face was not pleasant to see. All +the complaisancy of the egotist who has long and successfully shaped lives +to his own ends was withdrawn; it left exposed the ugly inner side of the +man. The trail was becoming soft; the damp of the Chinook began to envelop +them; already the advancing film stretched like a curtain over the sun, +and the three figures that had seemed parts of a shaken tapestry +disappeared. Then, presently, Banks' voice, muffled like a voice under a +blanket, rose through the pall. And Frederic stopped to put his hand to +his mouth. "All right! Coming!" he answered, but the shout rebounded as +though it had struck a sounding board. + +After another plodding silence, the prospector's hail reached them again. +It seemed farther off, and this time Morganstein did not respond. He +stopped, however, and the woman beside him waited in expectation. +"Suppose," he said slowly, "we are lost on this mountain to-night. Make a +difference to-morrow--wouldn't it?--whether you would marry me or not." + +The color rushed to her face and went; her breast rose and fell in deep, +quick breaths, but she met his look fearlessly, lifting herself with the +swaying movement from the balls of her feet that made her suddenly taller. +"No." And her tone, the way in which she said it, must have stung even his +small soul; then she added: "You are more brutal than I thought." + +She turned after that and herself sent the belated response to Banks. But +though she repeated the call twice, making a trumpet of her hands and with +all the power of her voice, his hail did not reach them again. She started +swiftly down. It was beginning to snow. + +Frederic had nothing more to say. He moved on with her. It was as though +each tried to out-travel the other, still they could not make up that +delay. The snow fell in big, soft flakes that blurred the tracks they +followed; soon they were completely blotted out, and though he strained +his eyes continually, watching for the cleaver of rock they had climbed +that morning, the landmark never appeared. Finally, at the same instant, +they both stopped, listening. On the silence broke innumerable small +sounds like many little hurrying feet. The mountain trembled slightly. +"God Almighty!" he cried thickly. Then came the closer rush of a +considerable body, not unlike sheep passing in a fog, and panic seized +him. "We've got to keep on top," he shouted and, grasping her arm, he +swung her around and began to run back up the slope. + +In the face of this common peril, personality called a truce, and she +pushed on with him blindly, leaving it to him to choose the way and set +the pace. But their own tracks down the incline had filled with incredible +swiftness; soon they were completely effaced. And, when the noise +subsided, he stopped and looked about him, bewildered. He saw nothing but +a breadth of sharply dipping slope, white, smooth as an unwritten scroll, +over which hung the swaying, voluminous veil of the falling snow. He put +his hands to his mouth then, and lifted his voice in a great hail. It +brought no reply, but in the moment he waited, somewhere far below in +those obscured depths, a great tree, splitting under tremendous pressure, +crashed down, then quickly the terrific sweep and roar of a second +mightier avalanche filled the hidden gorge. + +Morganstein caught her arm once more. "We must get back to that shoulder +where it's safe," he shouted. "Banks will come to look us up." After that, +as they struggled on up the slope, he fell to saying over and over, as +long as the reverberations lasted: "Almighty God!" + +As they ascended, the snow fell less heavily and finally ceased. It became +firm underfoot, and a cross wind, starting in puffs, struck their faces +sharply with a promise of frost. Then strange hummocks began to rise. They +were upheavals of ice, shrouded in snow. Sometimes a higher one presented +a sheer front shading to bluish-green. They had not passed this point with +Banks, but Morganstein shaped a course to a black pinnacle, lifting +through the mist beyond, that he believed was the crag at the shoulder. +She stumbled repeatedly on the rough surface. Her labored breathing in the +great stillness, like the beat of a pendulum in an empty house, tried his +strained nerves. He upbraided her for leaving her alpenstock down the +slope. But she paid no attention. She looked back constantly; she was like +a woman being led away from a locked door, moving reluctantly, listening +against hope for a word or sign. So, at last, they came to the rock. It +was not the crag, but a hanging promontory, where the mountain broke in a +three-sided precipice. The cloud surged around it like an unplumbed sea. + +They crept back, and Morganstein tried again to determine their position. +They were too high, he concluded; they must work down a little to round +the cliffs, so they took a course diagonally into the smother. Then he, +too, began to lose alertness; he walked mechanically, taking the line of +least resistance; his head sagged forward; he saw nothing but the hummocks +before him. These grew larger; they changed to narrow ridges with fissures +between. After a while, one of these breaks roused him. It was exceedingly +deep; he could not see either end of it. The only way was to leap, and he +did it clumsily. Then, with his alpenstock fixed, and his spiked heels set +in the crust, he reached a hand to her. She was barely able to spring to +the lower side, but it did not terrify her. One fear only possessed her. +Her glance, seeking, returned to the hidden canyon. But soon they were +confronted by a wider and still deeper chasm. It was impossible to cross +it, though it seemed to narrow upwards in the direction of the summit. He +took her arm and began to ascend, looking for a way over. The pitch grew +steadily sharper. They entered the thinning edge of the cloud, and it +became transparent like tissue of gold. Suddenly it parted, and Frederic +stopped, blinded by the blaze of a red sunset on snow. He closed his eyes +an instant, while, to avoid the glare, he turned his face. His first +glance shocked him into a sense of great peril. The two fissures ran +parallel, and they were ascending a tongue of ice between. Not far below, +it narrowed to a point where the two crevasses, uniting, yawned in one. +His knees weakened, but he managed to swing himself cautiously around. The +causeway seemed to rock under his weight; then, shading his sight with his +hand, he saw they were almost beneath the shoulder he had tried to reach. +They had climbed too high, as he had believed, but also they had descended +too far. And they had come directly down the glacier, to cross the upper +end of which Banks had found it necessary to use a lifeline. "Be careful!" +he whispered thickly, and laid his hand on her shoulder, impelling her on. +"Be careful, but, for God's sake, hurry!" + +He crowded her faster and faster up the incline; he dared not move +abreast, it was so narrow. Sometimes he lifted her bodily, for with every +step his panic grew. Beads of moisture gathered on his face, though the +wind stiffened and sharpened; his own breath out-labored hers, and he +cried again over and over: "God Almighty!" and "Almighty God!" Sometimes +his tone was blasphemy and sometimes prayer. + +But the moment came when she could not be farther pressed. Her shoulder +trembled under his hold, her limbs gave, and she sank down, to her knees +at first, then to her elbow. Even then she moved her head enough to look +backward over the abyss. "The train," she whispered and, shuddering, +dropped her face on her relaxed arm. + +Morganstein ventured to glance back. Ragged fragments torn from the cloud +below rose swirling across the opposite mountain top, and between their +edges, like a picture in a frame, appeared briefly the roofs of the little +station. But where the Oriental Limited had stood, the avalanche had +passed. "God Almighty!" he repeated impotently, then immediately the sense +of this appalling catastrophe whet the edge of his personal terror. +"Come!" he cried; "come, you can't stop here. It's dangerous. Come, you'll +freeze--or worse." + +She was silent. She made no effort to rise or indeed to move. He began to +press by her and on in the direction of that safe spur. But presently +another dread assailed him; the dread of the city-bred man--accustomed to +human intercourse, the swing of business, the stir of social life, to face +great solitudes alone. This cross-fear became so strong it turned him back +in a second panic. Then floundering to keep his equilibrium after an +incautious step, he sat down heavily and found himself skidding towards +the larger crevasse. He lifted his alpenstock and in a frenzy thrust it +into the ice between his knees. It caught fast just short of the brink +and held him astride, with heels dangling over the abyss. He worked away +cautiously, laboriously, shaking in all his big, soft bulk; and would have +given up further attempt to rescue Beatriz Weatherbee had he not at this +moment discovered himself at her side. + +He had not yet tried to rise to his feet, so safe-guarding himself with +the alpenstock thrust once more in the ice, he paused to take the flask +from his pocket and poured all that remained of the liquor into the cup. +It was a little over half full. Possibly he remembered how lavish he had +been with those previous draughts, for he looked at his companion with a +kind of regret as he lifted the cup unsteadily to drink. Then, gathering +the remnants of his courage, he put his arm under her head, raising it +while he forced the small surplus of brandy he had left between her lips. +She revived enough under the scalding swallow to push the cup away. +Anywhere else he would have laughed at her feeble effort to throw off his +touch; but he did not urge her to finish the draught, and, as he had done +earlier that day, himself hastily drained the cup. He dropped it beside +the empty flask and struggled up. + +"Now," he said, "we've got to make that spur where it's safe. Come. It +isn't far; just been up to that place where Banks helped us across; had to +come back for you." + +But he was obliged to lift her to her feet and to support her up the +slope. And this, even though the tongue widened above them, threw him +perilously close to the crevasse. Once, twice, the ice broke on the brink +and dropped clinking down, down. It was impossible to make the leap again +to the higher surface they had descended; unhampered, he must have been +physically unfit. Behind them the cloud closed over the Pass and the +mountain top under which the Oriental Limited had stood. His companion no +longer looked back; she moved as mechanically though less certainly than +one who walks in sleep. The fears that possessed him, that she herself had +held so finely in check when they had followed Banks on this glacier, did +not trouble her now. Her indifference to their extremity began to play on +Frederic's unhinged nerves. This white, blue-lipped woman was not the +Beatriz Weatherbee he had known; who had climbed the slope with him that +morning, all exhilaration, spirit, charm; whose example had challenged his +endurance and held his courage to the sticking point. + +"Why don't you say something?" he complained. "Have you turned into ice? +Now look where you step, can't you? Deuced fix you got us into, dreaming +there in the clouds, when Lucky Banks had left the spur. Come on, you +bloodless ghost; come, or I'll let you stay where you drop. Nice place to +spend the night in. Almighty God!" + +So, upbraiding her when she stumbled, blaming her for their plight, +threatening to leave her if she should fall, and flaying himself on with +renewed panic, he brought her to the top of the double crevasse and the +prospector's crossing. But here, with the levels of the spur before them, +her strength reached low ebb. This time he was not able to rouse her, and +he threw down his alpenstock and took her in his arms, and went slipping +and recovering the remaining steps. He stopped, winded, and stood her on +her feet, but her body sagged limply against him, and the sight of her +still face terrified him. He carried her a little farther, to the shelter +of the crag, and laid her there. Then he dropped to his knees beside her, +and grasping her shoulders shook her, at first slowly, then swiftly, with +the roughness of despair. + +"Wake up," he cried thickly. "Wake up! Don't you see we're out of that +hole? Come, Banks will be here any minute. Come, wake up." + +She made no response. The sun had set; it was growing bitterly cold, and +there was little protection under the crag. It was a place where cross +winds met. Torn fragments from the sea of cloud below drove against the +pinnacle. It was like a lofty headland breasting rolling surf. Frederic +stood erect and sent his voice down through the smother in a great shout. +It brought no answer, and he settled helplessly on the shelf beside her. +It began to hail furiously, and he dropped his face, shielding it in his +arms. + +The storm passed and, rousing himself, he searched his pockets vainly for +a match to light his remaining cigar. Later he went through them again, +hoping to find a piece of chocolate--he had carried some that morning--but +this, too, was without result. He fell to cursing the packer, for +appropriating the port and tinned things that were missing at lunch-time. +But after that he did not talk any more and, in a little while, he +stretched himself beside the unconscious figure at the foot of the crag. A +second cloud lifted in a flurry of snow. Every hidden canyon sent out +innumerable currents of air, and gales, meeting, lifted the powdery crust +in swirls, wrapping them in a white sheet. Finally, from far off, mingling +with the skirling pipes of the wind came a different, human sound. And, +presently, when the call--if call it was--was repeated, the man sat up and +looked dully around. But he made no effort to reply. He waited, listening +stupidly, and the cry did not reach him again. Then, his glance falling to +the woman, a ray of intelligence leaped in his eyes. He rose on his knees +and moved her so there was room for his own bulk between her body and the +rock. He had then, when he stretched himself on the snow, a windbreak. + +The wind rushed screaming into the vast spaces beyond the mountain top, +and returning, met the opposing forces from the canyon and instantly +became a whirlwind. It cut like myriads of teeth; it struck two-edged with +the swish, slash of a sword; and it lifted the advancing cloud in a mighty +swirl, bellied it as though it had been a gigantic sail, and shook from +its folds a deluge of hailstones followed by snow. Through it all a +grotesque shape that seemed sometimes a huge, abnormal beetle and +sometimes a beast, worked slowly around the crag, now crawling, now +rearing upright with a futile napping of stiff wings, towards the two +human figures. It was Lucky Banks, come to rescue them. + +A heavier blast threw him on his face, but he rose to his knees and, +creeping close, squared his shoulders to protect the slighter body. At the +same time the significance of the position of Morganstein's unconscious +bulk struck him. "You rat!" he cried with smothered fury. "You damn +rat!" + +Then he caught up a handful of snow with which he began to rub the woman's +face. Afterwards he removed her gloves to manipulate her cold hands. He +worked swiftly, with the deftness of practice, but the results were slow, +and presently he took the rug from the pack he carried and covered her +while he felt in Frederic's pockets for the flask he had neglected to +return. "Likely there wasn't a drop left when she came to need it, you +brute. And I'd like to leave you here to take your chances. You can thank +your luck I've got to use you." + +Banks keyed his voice high, between breaths, to out-scale the wind, but he +did not wait for a reply. Before he finished speaking, he had opened his +big, keen-bladed clasp-knife and commenced to cut broad strips from the +rug. He passed some of these, not without effort, under Morganstein's +body, trussing the arms. Then, wrapping the smaller figure snugly in the +blanket, he lifted it on to the human toboggan he had made and bound it +securely. Finally he converted the shoulder-straps of his pack into a sort +of steering gear, to which he fastened his life-line. + +These preparations had been quickly made. It was not yet dark when he +worked this sled over the rim of the spur and began to descend the long +slope. The violence of the wind was broken there, so that he was able to +travel erect, drawing his load. After a while, when the flurry of snow had +passed, a crust formed on the surface, and in steeper pitches he was +obliged to let the toboggan forge ahead, using himself as a drag. With the +change to colder temperature, there was no further danger of slides, and +to avoid the avalanche that had turned Morganstein back, the prospector +shaped his course more directly into the canyon. Soon he was below the +clouds; between their ragged edges a few stars appeared. Beyond a buttress +shone a ruddy illumination. Some firs stood against it darkly. It was the +fire Marcia and Elizabeth were watching at the place where he had cached +the surplus supplies that morning. It served as a beacon when the +crispness ceased, and for an interval he was forced to mush laboriously +through soft drifts. Then he came to a first bare spot. It was in crossing +this rough ground that Frederic showed signs of returning consciousness. +But Banks gave him no attention. He had caught a strange sound on the +wind. Others, far off, rose while he listened. Presently, looking back +beyond the end of the ridge that divided the upper gorge, he saw twinkling +lights. They were the lanterns of the searchers at the wrecked train. + +The little man did not exclaim. He did not pray. His was the anguish of +soul which finds no expression. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +KISMET. AN ACT OF GOD + + +Afterwards, some who compared the slope where the Oriental Limited had +stood, with the terrible pitches along the lower switchback, said: "It was +Fate;" and the defense in the damage suits against the Great Northern, +which were decided in favor of the company, called that catastrophe at +Cascade tunnel "An Act of God." In either solution, the fact that counted +was that no avalanche had occurred at this point before; mountain men had +regarded it as absolutely safe. At noon that day, a rumor reached the +stalled train that a slide at the front had struck one of the rotaries. +Laborers, at their own peril, had excavated the crew, but the plow was out +of commission, and the track was buried sixty feet under fresh tons of +snow and rock and fallen timber. The Limited could not move within +forty-eight hours, perhaps three days. + +Tisdale picked up his bag and went out to the observation platform. He +knew that to attempt to follow the railroad through those swaths the +avalanches had left, under the burned skeletons of trees ready to topple +at the first pressure of other bodies of snow, was to take one's life +needlessly in his hands; but there was another way. The slope from the +track at the portal dipped through a park of hemlock and fir, and the +blaze that had swept the lower mountainside had not reached this timber; +the great boughs, like fishers' nets, supported their dripping +accumulations. Also, at this altitude, there was no undergrowth. To make +the drop directly into the canyon and follow the river down to Scenic Hot +Springs meant little more to him than a bracing tramp of a few hours. + +Snowshoes were a necessity, and the demand at the little station had long +exceeded the supply, but the operator was able to furnish the length of +bale rope Tisdale asked of him. From the office door, where he had +curiously followed to see the line put to use, he watched the traveler +secure two pliable branches of hemlock, of the same size, which he brought +to the station platform, and, having stripped them of needles, bent into +ovals. Then, laying aside one, he commenced to weave half of the rope +net-wise, filling the space in the frame he held. A sudden intelligence +leaped in the agent's face. "That's simple enough," he exclaimed. "And +they'll carry you as far as you want to go." + +Tisdale smiled, nodding, and picked up the remaining frame. + +"Strange I never saw any one try the scheme before," the operator +commented. "I've weathered a good many blockades up here; seen lots of +fellows, men whose time was money, bucking it out to open track. But I bet +the first time this idea struck you you were up against it. I bet it's a +yarn worth listening to." + +Tisdale glanced up; the genial lines deepened. "It was a situation to +clear a man's head. There was snow from three to seven feet deep ahead of +me and going soft. My snowshoes, lost with the outfit at a hole in a Yukon +crossing, were swinging down-stream under the ice. I had two sea biscuit +in my pocket and a few inches of dried venison, with the nearest +road-house over fifty miles away." + +"Well, that was hard luck," the agent shook his head gravely. + +"It was the best kind of luck," responded Tisdale quickly, "to find myself +with that rope in my hands and a nice little spruce on the bank to supply +frames enough for a regiment. I was rigging a kind of derrick to ease my +sled up the sharp pitch from the crossing." + +"I see," said the operator thoughtfully, "and the sled broke through. Lost +it and the outfit. But your dogs--saved them, didn't you?" + +"All but two." Tisdale's brows contracted. "They were dragged under the +ice before I could cut the traces. There was leather enough on the leaders +to bind those shoes on, but"--and the humorous lines deepened again--"a +couple of straps, from an old suitcase, if you happen to have one, would +be an improvement." + +The operator hurried into the office and, after a vigorous search among +the miscellaneous articles stored under his desk, found an old valise, +from which he detached the desired straps. Tisdale adjusted the improvised +shoes. "I will send them back by a brakeman from Scenic Springs," he said, +rising from his seat on the edge of the platform. "You can keep them for a +pattern." + +"All right," the operator laughed. "If you do, I'll have to lay in a stock +of bale rope." + +It was beginning to snow again, big, soft flakes, and the wind, skimming +the drifts, speedily filled the broad, light rings Tisdale left in his +wake. A passenger with a baby in his arms stood on the observation +platform, and the child held out its mittened hands to him, crowing, with +little springs. They had formed an acquaintance during the delay in the +Rockies, which had grown to intimacy in the Cascades, and Hollis slipped +the carrying strap of his bag over his shoulder and stopped to toss him a +snowball, before he turned from the track. "Good-by, Joey," he said. "I am +coming back for you if there's a chance." + +The operator, shivering, closed the door. "Never saw such a man," he +commented. "But if he's lived in Alaska, a Cascade blizzard would just be +a light breeze to him." He paused to put a huge stick of wood in the +stove, then, after the habit of solitary humanity, resumed his soliloquy. +"I bet he's seen life. I bet, whoever he is, he's somewheres near the top +of the ladder. I bet, in a bunch of men, he does the thinking. And I bet +what he wants, I don't care what's piled in his way, he gets." + +As he descended, the trees closed behind Tisdale, rank on rank, and were +enveloped in the swaying curtain of the snow. Always a certain number +surrounded him; they seemed to march with him like a bodyguard. But he was +oblivious of the peril that from the higher peak had appeared so imminent +to Lucky Banks. When the snow-cloud lifted, the Pass was still completely +veiled from him, and the peak the prospector's party had ascended was then +cut off by the intervening ridge. He had crossed the headwaters and was +working along this slope down the watercourse, when the noise of the first +avalanche startled the gorge. A little later a far shout came to his quick +ear. He answered, but when another call reached him from a different +point, high up beyond the ridge, he was silent. He knew a company, +separated in the neighborhood of the slide, was trying to get into +communication. Then, in the interval that he waited, listening, began the +ominous roar of the mightier cataclysm. The mountain he had descended +seemed to heave; its front gave way; the ridge on which he stood trembled +at the concussion. + +Instantly, before the clamor ceased and the first cries reached him, +Tisdale knew what had occurred. His sense of location told him. Then the +fact was pressed on him that some on the unfortunate train still survived. +He saw that the course he had taken from the west portal was no longer +possible, but by keeping the curve of the ridge which joined the mountain +slope and formed the top of the gorge, and by working upward, he should be +able to gain the upper edge of the slide where rose the human sounds. He +took this way. His shoulder, turned a little, met the lower boughs with +the dip and push of the practiced woodsman, and even on the up-grade the +distance fell behind him swiftly. Always subconsciously, as he moved, he +saw that baby crowing him a good-by, and the young father smiling Godspeed +from the observation platform; sometimes the girl mother with tender brown +eyes watched him from the background. Suppose their coach, which had +directly preceded the observation car, had escaped; the snow-cloud, +parting on the mountain top, showed that the roofs of the station still +remained. + +After a while he noticed two men working downward from the portal along +the swath of the avalanche. One, he conjectured, was the operator, but +they stopped some distance above him and commenced to remove sections of +the debris. Then Hollis saw before him some brilliant spots on the snow. +They proved to be only pieces of stained glass from a shattered transom. +The side of the car with denuded window casings rested a few feet higher, +and a corner of the top of the coach protruded from under the fallen +skeleton of a fir. The voices now seemed all around him. Somewhere a man +was shouting "Help!" Another groaned, cursing, and, deeper in the +wreckage, rose a woman's muffled, continuous screaming. But, nearer than +the rest, a child was crying piteously. He reached the intact portion of +the crushed roof and found the baby sitting unhurt on a clear breadth of +snow. The body of the father was pinned hopelessly beneath the tree, and +the mother lay under the fragment of roof, an iron bar on her tender eyes. +It was as though Destiny, having destroyed them, whimsically threw a +charmed circle around this remaining atom of the family. + +"Well, Joey," Tisdale said quietly, "I've come back for you." + +Instantly the child stopped crying and turned to listen; then, seeing +Tisdale, he began to crow, rocking his little body and catching up +handsful of snow to demonstrate his delight. The hands and round bud of a +mouth were blue. + +"Cold, isn't it, Joey?" And he took the baby in his arms. "We can't find +your coat and mittens, but here is a nice blanket." + +He stooped, as he spoke, and pulled the blanket from under a broken door, +and the child nestled its face in his neck, telling him in expressive, +complaining sounds the story of his terror and discomfort. + +A man burrowed out of the snow above the log. His leg was injured, but he +began to creep, dragging it, in the direction of the woman's voice. "I'm +coming, Mary," he cried. "For God's sake, stop." + +Tisdale picked up a strip from the broken door and hurried to his aid. He +put the child down and used the board as a shovel, and Joey, watching from +the peephole in his blanket, laughed and crowed again. Up the slope the +operator and his companion had extricated a brakeman, who, forgetting his +own injuries, joined the little force of rescuers. + +At last the cries ceased. Haste was no longer imperative. The remaining +coaches were buried under tons of snow and debris. Weeks of labor, with +relays of men, might not reach them all. And it was time to let the +outside world know. The telephone lines were down, the telegraph out of +commission, and Tisdale, with the baby to bear him company, started to +carry the news to Scenic Hot Springs. + +It had grown very cold when he rounded the top of the gorge. The arrested +thaw hung in myriads of small icicles on every bough; they changed to +rubies when the late sun blazed out briefly; the trees seemed strung with +gems; the winds that gathered on the high dome above the upper canyon +rushed across the summit of the ridge. They fluted every pipe, and, as +though it were an enchanted forest, all the small pendants on all the +branches changed to striking cymbals and silver bells. The baby slept as +warm and safe in his blanket as though he had not left his mother's arms. + +Once there came a momentary lull, and on the silence, far off--so far it +seemed hardly more than a human breath drifting with the lighter current +that still set towards him from the loftier peak--Tisdale heard some one +calling him. His pulses missed their beat and raced on at fever heat. He +believed, in that halting instant, it was Beatriz Weatherbee. Then the +gale, making up for the pause, swept down in fury, and he hurried under +the shelter of the ridge with the child. He told himself there had been no +voice; it was an illusion. That the catastrophe, following so closely on +his illness, had unhinged him a little. The Morganstein party had +doubtless returned to Seattle at the beginning of the thaw; and even had +Mrs. Weatherbee remained at Scenic Springs, it was not probable she had +strayed far from the comfort and safety of the hotel. And recalling that +night she had passed in the Wenatchee mountains, he smiled. + +As twilight fell, a ruddy illumination outlined the ridge. He conjectured +that the men he had heard early in the afternoon in the vicinity of the +first slide were a party of belated hunters, who had camped in the upper +canyon. They must have known of the greater avalanche; possibly of the +disaster. They may have sent a messenger to the Springs and kindled this +beacon to guide any one who might choose this way to bring the news from +the portal. At least they would be able to direct him to the shortest out; +serve him the cup of coffee of which he was in need. So, coming to the end +of the ridge where the canyons met, he turned in the direction of the +fire, and found--two waiting women. + +Their presence alone was an explanation. Mrs. Feversham had only to say +Lucky Banks had led their party, in the ascent of the peak that brilliant +morning, and instantly everything was clear to Tisdale. The voice he had +heard from the top of the ridge was not an illusion. She had called him. + +"It was snowing," he said, interrupting the story, "but if they left the +shadow of a trail, Banks found it. There are two of them, though, and up +there--it's cold." Then, having gone a few steps, he remembered the child +and came back to put him in Elizabeth's arms. "His father and mother are +dead," he explained briefly, "but he hasn't a bruise. When he wakes, he is +going to be hungry." + +So, forgetting those wearing hours of rescue work, and without the coffee +for which he had intended to ask, he started on the prospector's trail. In +a little while, as he skirted the foot of the slide, he heard a great +commotion on the slope beyond. It was Lucky Banks easing his human +toboggan down the last pitch to the canyon floor. + +The two men stood a silent moment scanning each other in the uncertain +light across that load. Tisdale's eyes were searching for an answer to the +question he could not ask, but the prospector, breathing hard, was trying +to cover the emotion Tisdale's unexpected appearance had roused. + +"Hello, Hollis," he said at last. "Is that you? I had to see after Dave's +wife, but I thought likely, when I got her to camp, I'd take a little hike +up to the tunnel and look you up." + +But Tisdale, not finding the answer for which he looked, sank to his knee +beside the load and loosened the straps. Then he lifted a corner of the +rug that protected her face, and at the sight of it, so white, so still, +his heart cried. "Little soldier!" he said over and over and, as though he +hoped to warm them, laid his cheek gently to her blue lips. "You called +me! I heard you. I failed you, too!" + +Then a fluttering breath steadied him. Instantly the iron in the man +cropped through. He felt her pulse, her heart, as though she had been some +stranger from the unfortunate train and, moving her to a level place, +fixed her head low and began firmly, with exceeding care, those expedients +to eliminate the frost and start the circulation that Banks had already +hurriedly tried. His great, warm personality enfolded her; he worked +tirelessly, as though he was determined to infuse her numb veins with his +own vigor. When the prospector would have aided him, he wished to do +everything alone, and directed the miner's attention to Frederic +Morganstein, who showed signs of returning consciousness. + +But the intrepid little man failed to respond. "I guess likely he will +pull through," he said dryly. "He had a pretty good shaking up coming +down, and I'd better run around to camp and get a bottle of port I cached +this morning. The snipe got away with my flask; used the last drop, +likely, before she needed it." His voice took a higher pitch, and he added +over his shoulder, as he started in the direction of the fire: "He made a +windbreak of her." + +When he returned presently with the wine, Frederic was filling the night +with his complaints and groans. But neither of the men gave him any +attention. That was left for Marcia, who had followed the prospector. + +Beatriz Weatherbee was still unconscious. She was carried to the camp and +laid in a sheltered place remote from the fire. Then Lucky Banks +volunteered to go to Scenic Springs with the news of the train disaster, +and to bring an extra man with lanterns and a stretcher. He was well on +the way when Morganstein crept in. Marcia found him a seat on the end of a +log and, wrapping the cached rug about him, regaled him with the recovered +portion of the luncheon. But it was long after that when Beatriz +Weatherbee's eyelids fluttered open. Tisdale drew a little more into the +shadows, waiting, and the first to come within her range of vision was the +child. He was sitting on his blanket in the strong glow, and just beyond +him Elizabeth, who had found a tin of cream in the cache and had been +feeding him, was putting away the cup. Joey faced the waking woman and, +catching her look, he put out his hands, rocking gayly, and crowed. +Instantly a flash of intelligence lighted her face. She smiled and tried +to stretch out her arms. "Come!" she said. + +Elizabeth caught up the child and placed him beside her on the rug. He put +out his soft, moist fingers, touching her face curiously, with gathering +doubt. Then, satisfied this was not his mother, as in the uncertain light +he must have supposed, he drew back with a whimper and clung to Elizabeth. + +At the same moment Mrs. Weatherbee's smile changed to disappointment. "His +eyes are brown, Elizabeth," she said, "and my baby's were blue, like +mine." And she turned her face, weeping; not hysterically, like a woman +physically unstrung, but with the slow, deep sobs of a woman who has +wakened from a dream of one whom she has greatly loved--and buried. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +SURRENDER + + +Tisdale had not seen Beatriz Weatherbee since she had been brought +semi-conscious from the foot of the mountain, but he learned from the hotel +physician the following morning that she was able to travel on the special +train which was coming from Seattle to transport the Morganstein party +home. The first inquiry, after news of the disaster reached the outside +world, was from Joey's grandfather, a lumberman on Puget Sound. Put in +communication with Tisdale, he telephoned he would arrive at the Springs +on the special. So, leaving the child in charge of the housekeeper, Hollis +returned to the west portal, to join the little force of rescuers. It was +then no longer a question of life-saving, but of identification. The Swiss +chalet, which had ceased to be the mecca of pleasure-seekers, had become a +morgue. + +But Lucky Banks, who went with him, had received a message from Mrs. +Weatherbee, and in the interval that Tisdale was busy with long-distance +and disposing of Joey, the prospector went up to her room. She was pale +and very weak, but she smiled as he approached her couch and held out her +hand. "No, the right one," she said, and added, taking it with a gentle +pressure, "I know, now, what it is--to be cold." + +The little man nodded. His face worked, and he hurried to conceal the +maimed hand in his pocket. "But the doctor says you'll pull through good +as new," he commented. "I am proud to know that; my, yes." + +"And I am proud of you, Mr. Banks. It seems incredible, but Miss +Morganstein told me you rescued her brother, too. I've tried and tried to +remember, but I am not able. You must have carried me, at least, all of +the way." + +Banks glanced at Elizabeth, who was seated beyond the couch. She had laid +a warning finger to her lips and shook her head. "That was dead easy +coming downgrade," he answered. "And that little blow up there on the +mountain top wasn't anything to speak of, alongside a regular Alaska +blizzard. If I'd had to weight my pockets with rocks, that would have been +something doing. I might have felt then that I was squaring myself with +Dave Weatherbee." + +"I understand," she said slowly, "but," and she smiled again, "I am +grateful, Mr. Banks, just the same. Perhaps, since you loved David so +much, you will regard it as a kind of compensation that I am going on with +the project." + +"Is that so?" The little man beamed. "Well, the house is all done and +waiting, my, yes, whenever you are ready to move over." + +"Why, Beatriz," said Elizabeth in alarm, "I am going to take that desert +tract off your hands. I've been interested in reclamation work for +months." And looking at Banks, she added significantly: "I am afraid she +is talking too much." + +"Likely," replied the prospector, rising, "and I am due to take a little +hike up the canyon with Hollis Tisdale." + +"Mr. Tisdale?" she asked, with a quick brightening of her face. "Then he +is quite well again. Miss Morganstein told me he was saved--from that +unfortunate train," and she added, shivering and closing her eyes, "I +remember--that." + +"I couldn't have got there in time," Banks hurried to explain, "even if +you had given up making the summit. Likely I'd have got caught by the +slide, and Hollis was half-way to the Springs and 'feeling fit as a moose' +when it started. Well, good-by, ma'am; take care of yourself." + +"Good-by, Mr. Banks," and she smiled once more. "You may expect me at +Hesperides Vale in a few days; as soon as my things at Vivian Court are +packed." And she added, with the color softly warming her cheek, "Mr. +Tisdale might like to know that. He always wished to see David's project +carried through." + +And the little man replied from the door: "I'll tell him, ma'am, my, yes." + +The special, which brought other seekers besides Joey's grandfather, also +conveyed Jimmie Daniels. It was his last assignment with the _Press_; he +and Geraldine were to be married within the week and assume the editorial +position at Weatherbee. And he pushed up over Tisdale's trail, now become +well broken, eager to make a final scoop and his best one. Hours later, +when he should have been back at Scenic Hot Springs, rushing his copy +through to his paper, he still remained on the slope below the west portal +to carry out the brief and forceful instructions of the man who directed +and dominated everybody; who knew in each emergency the one thing to do. +Once Jimmie found himself aiding Banks to wrap a woman's body in a blanket +to be lowered by tackle down the mountainside. She was young, not older +than Geraldine, and the sight of her--rounded cheek, dimpled chin, arm so +beautifully molded--all with the life snuffed out without a moment's +warning--gave him a sensation of being smothered. He was seized with a +compelling desire to get away, and to conquer his panic, he asked the +prospector whether this man was not the superintendent of the mountain +division. + +The mining man replied: "No, that's the railroad boss over there with the +gang handling the derrick; this is Tisdale, Hollis Tisdale of Alaska and +Washington, D.C. You ought to have heard of him in your line of business +if you never happened to see him before." + +Then Jimmie, turning to look more directly at the stranger, hastily +dropped his face. "You are right," he said softly, "I've known him by +sight some time." + +Afterwards, while they were having coffee with the station master, Daniels +asked Banks how he and Tisdale happened to be at Cascade Tunnel. "I was +putting in a little time at the Springs," Banks responded, "but Hollis was +a passenger on the stalled train. He took a notion to hike down to the +hotel just ahead of the slide." + +"You mean that man who has taken charge out there," exclaimed the +operator. "I had a talk with him before he started; he was rigging up some +snowshoes. He said he was from Alaska, and I put him down for one of those +bonanza kings." + +"He is," said Banks in his high key. "What he don't know about minerals +ain't worth knowing, and he owns one of the finest layouts in the north, +Dave Weatherbee's bore." + +"The Aurora mine," confirmed Daniels. "And I presume there isn't a man +better known, or as well liked, in Alaska." + +Banks nodded. "Dave and him was a team. The best known and the best liked +in the whole country. And likely there's men on the top seats in +Washington, D.C., would be glad of a chance to shake hands with Hollis +Tisdale." + +"I knew he was somewhere near the top," commented the operator. "He can +handle men. I never saw such a fellow. Why, he must have got half-way to +the Springs when the slide started, but he was back, climbing up along the +edge of it to the wreck, almost before it quit thundering. And he took out +a live baby, without a damage mark, and all its folks lying right there +dead, before the rest of us got in earshot." + +Daniels put down his sandwich and took out his neglected notebook. He +gathered all the detail the ready operator could supply: how Tisdale had +wrapped the child in a blanket and carried him from place to place, +talking to him in his nice, friendly way, amusing him, keeping him quiet, +while he worked with the strength of two men to liberate other survivors. +And how, when none was left to save, he had taken the baby in his arms and +gone to break trail to the Springs to send out news of the disaster. All +that the station master and Banks could not tell him, with the name and +prominence of Joey's family, Jimmie added later at the chalet, and he +finished with a skilful reference to the papoose, killed by accident so +many years before. It was a great story. It went into the paper as it +stood. And when the day came to leave the _Press_ office, the chief, +shaking hands with his "novelist," said it was a fine scoop, and he had +always known Jimmie had it in him to make good; he was sorry to lose him. +But the Society Editor, reading between the lines, told him it was the +greatest apology he could have made. She was proud of him. + +At Vivian Court late that afternoon, Elizabeth read the story to Beatriz +Weatherbee. Her couch was drawn into the sunny alcove, where, from her +pillows, she might watch the changing light on Mount Rainier. Finally, +when Elizabeth finished, Beatriz broke the silence. "He must have passed +down the canyon while we were there." + +"Yes, he did. He carried one end of your stretcher all the way to the +Springs." Then Elizabeth asked: "Don't you remember the baby, either? He +had brown eyes." + +"I seem to remember a child," she answered slowly, "a baby sitting in the +firelight, but"--and she shook her head, "I've dreamed so many dreams." + +"He was a fact; a perfect dear. I should have adopted him, if his +relatives hadn't been so prominent and rich. And you, too, fell instantly +in love with him. You wanted him in your arms the moment you opened your +eyes." + +Elizabeth paused with a straight look from under her heavy brows and while +she hesitated there was a knock at the door. She threw it open and a +porter brought in one of those showy Japanese shrubs in an ornate +jardiniere, such as Frederic Morganstein so often used as an expression of +his regard. His card hung by a ribbon from a branch, like a present on a +Christmas tree, and when the boy had gone, she untied it and carried it to +Mrs. Weatherbee. "I wish you could marry Frederic and settle it all," she +said. "Japan is lovely in the spring." + +Beatriz, who had taken the card indifferently, allowed it to drop without +reading it. Her glance rested again on the shining dome. + +"I told him I would ask you to see him a few moments to-night," Elizabeth +resumed. "He is feeling miserably. He says he was ill when we made the +ascent that day and never should have left the hotel; his high temperature +and the altitude affected his head. He believes he must have said things +that offended or frightened you--things he wasn't responsible for." She +paused, then, for a woman who had been so schooled to hold herself in hand +as Elizabeth Morganstein, went on uncertainly: "He is just a plain +business man, used to going straight to a point, but not many men care so +much for a woman as he does for you. You could mold him like wax. He says +all he wants now--if he did make a mistake--is a chance to wipe it out; +start with a clean slate." + +Mrs. Weatherbee rose from the couch. She stood a moment meeting +Elizabeth's earnest look. The shadow of a smile touched her mouth, but +well-springs of affection brimmed her eyes. "We cannot wipe out our +mistakes, dear," she said. "They are indelible. We have to accept them, +study them, use them as a rule from which to work out the problems of our +lives. There is no going back, no starting over, if we have missed an +easier way. Elizabeth, in one hour on that mountain I saw more of the true +Frederic Morganstein than in all the years I had known him before. In the +great moments of life, I should have no influence with him. Even for your +sake, dear, I could not marry him. I do not want to see him any more." + +There was a silence, then Elizabeth said: "In that case, I am going to +ease things for you. I am going to buy that desert land. Now, don't say a +word. I am going to pay you Lucky Banks' price, and, of course, for the +improvements whatever is right." + +"But it is not on the market," replied Beatriz. "I told you I had decided +to live there. I hoped--you would like to go with me. For awhile, at +least, you might find it interesting." + +Elizabeth tried to dissuade her. It was ridiculous. It was monstrous. She +was not strong enough. It would be throwing her life away, as surely as to +transplant a tender orchid to that burning sage-brush country. But in the +end she said: "Well, Bee, then I'll go with you." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +BACK TO HESPERIDES VALE + + +The Mayor of Weatherbee stopped his new, six-passenger car at the curb in +front of the completed brick block; not at the corner which was occupied +by the Merchants' National Bank, but at the adjoining entrance, above +which shone the neat gilt sign: "Madame Lucile's." He stood for a moment +surveying the window display, which was exceedingly up-to-date, showing +the prevailing color scheme of green or cerise in the millinery, softened +by a background of mauve and taupe in the arrangement of the gowns. A +card, placed unobtrusively in the corner of the plate glass, announced +that Madame Lucile, formerly with Sedgewick-Wilson of Seattle, was +prepared to give personal attention to all orders. + +Bailey himself that day was equipped in a well-made suit from the +tailoring establishment on the opposite side of the building. Though he +had not yet gathered that avoirdupois which is associated with the dignity +of office, there was in his square young frame an undeniable promise. +Already he carried himself with the deliberation of a man whose future is +assured, and his mouth took those upward curves of one who is humorously +satisfied with himself and his world. + +There were no customers when he entered, and since it was the hour when +her assistant was out at lunch, Madame, attired in a gown of dark blue +velvet, her black hair arranged with elaborate care, was alone in the +shop. And Bailey's glance, having traveled the length of the soft green +carpet to the farthest mirror, returned in final approval to her. "This +certainly is swell," he said, "It's like a sample right out of Chicago. +But I knew you could do it, the minute Mrs. Banks mentioned you. Why, the +first time I saw you--it was on the street the day I struck Wenatchee--I +told myself: 'This town can't be very wild and woolly if it can turn out +anything as classy as that.'" + +Madame laughed. "I must have looked like a moving fashion plate to attract +attention that way. I feel a little over-dressed now, after wearing the +uniform in Sedgewick-Wilson's so long; but Mrs. Banks said I ought to wear +nice clothes to advertise the store." + +Bailey tipped back his head at that, laughing softly. "I guess your silent +partner is going to be the power behind the throne, all right." + +Madame nodded, with the humor still lingering in her brown eyes. "But it +was good advice. I sold a gown like this to my first customer this +morning. And she had only come in to see millinery; she hadn't meant to +look at gowns. But she liked this one the moment she saw it." + +"Is that so? Well, I don't wonder. It certainly looks great--on you." + +Madame flushed and turned her face to look off through the plate glass +door. "Why," she exclaimed, "you didn't tell me your new automobile had +come." She moved a few steps, sweeping the car with admiring eyes. "Isn't +it luxurious though, and smart? But you deserve it; you deserve everything +that's coming to you now, staying here, sticking it out as you have in the +heat and sand. I often thought of it summer days while I was over on the +Sound." + +"You did?" questioned Bailey in pleased surprise. "Well, I am glad to know +that. I wonder whether you ever thought over the time we tramped the +railroad ties up to Leavenworth to that little dance?" + +"Often," she responded quickly. "And how we came back in the Oleson wagon, +riding behind with our heels hanging over, and the dust settling like +powder on our party clothes. But I had the loveliest time. It was the +starriest night, with moonlight coming home, and I danced every number." + +"Seven times with me," returned the mayor. + +"I wanted to learn the two-step," she explained hastily. + +"And I wanted to teach you," he laughed. "But say, how would you like to +take a little spin up the Leavenworth road this evening, in the new car?" + +"Oh, that would be delightful." Madame Lucile glowed. "With a party?" she +asked. + +"Well, I thought of asking Daniels and his wife to go with us. I am on the +way to the station now, to meet them. And Mrs. Weatherbee and Miss +Morganstein are due on the same train. I promised Mr. Banks I would take +them out to the Orchards in the machine; but we are to motor around to the +new bungalow first, to leave the bride and Jimmie and have luncheon." + +"I know. Mrs. Banks is going to have the table in that wide veranda +looking down the river. I would like to be there when they find out that +dear little bungalow is their wedding present. It was perfectly lovely of +Mrs. Banks to think of it; and of you to give them that beautiful lot on +the point. You can see Hesperides Vale for miles and miles to the lower +gap." + +Bailey smiled. "Mrs. Banks said it was a good way to use up the lumber +that was left over from the ranch house. And that bungalow certainly makes +a great showing for the town. It raised the value of the adjoining lots. I +sold three before the shingles were on the walls, and the people who +bought them thought they had a snap." + +"All the same, it is a lovely present," said Madame Lucile. + +"There's the train, whistling up the valley," said the mayor, but he +paused to ask, almost with diffidence, as he turned to the door: "Say, +what do you think of this tie?" + +"I like it." She nodded, with a reassuring smile. "And it's a nice shade +for you; it brings out the blue in your eyes." + +The mayor laughed gaily. "I ought to wear it steady after that, but I am +coming to black ones with a frock coat and silk hat. I am going to begin +to-morrow, when those German scientists, on their way home from the +Orient, stop to see Hesperides Vale." + +"Oh, I hope you will wear this nice business suit, unless they come late +in the afternoon. It seems more sensible here on the edge of the desert, +and even if you are the first mayor to do it, I know, the world over, +there isn't another as young." + +Bailey grew thoughtful. "The mayor in Chicago always wore a Prince Albert. +Why, that long coat and silk hat stood for the office. They were the most +important part of him. But good-by," he said hastily, as the train +whistled again, nearer, "I'll call for you at seven." + +Ten minutes later, the mayor stood on the station platform shaking hands +with Mrs. Weatherbee. "Say, I am surprised," he said. "I often wondered +what you thought of the vale. Lighter told me how you drove those colts +through that day, and I was disappointed not to hear from you. You didn't +let me know you had an investment already, and it never occurred to me, +afterwards, that you were our Mrs. Weatherbee." + +Then, introductions being over, he assisted Miss Morganstein into the +tonneau with the bridal couple and gave the seat in front to Mrs. +Weatherbee. He drove very slowly up the new thoroughfare, past the Bailey +building, where she expressed her astonishment at the inviting window +display of the millinery store. He explained that offices for the +_Weatherbee Record_ had been reserved on the second floor, and that in the +hall, in the third story, the first inaugural ball was to be given the +following night. It had been postponed a few days until her arrival, and +he hoped he might have the privilege of leading the grand march with her. +And, Mrs. Weatherbee having thanked him, with the pleasure dancing in her +eyes, Bailey pointed out the new city hospital, a tall, airy structure, +brave in fresh paint, which was equipped with a resident physician and +three trained nurses, including Miss Purdy, the milliner's sister, who was +on her way from Washington to join the force. + +After that they motored through the residence district, and Mrs. +Weatherbee expressed greater wonder and delight at the rows of thrifty +homes, each with its breadth of green lawn and budding shrubbery, where +hardly six months ago had been unreclaimed acres of sage. And so, at last, +they came to the city park, where the road wound smooth and firm between +broad stretches of velvety green, broken by beds of blossoming tulips, +nodding daffodils, clumps of landscape foliage putting forth new leaves. +Sprinklers, supplied by a limpid canal that followed the drive, played +here, there, everywhere, and under all this moisture and the warm rays of +the spring sun, the light soil teemed with awakening life. Then, finally, +the car skirted a low, broad mound, in which was set the source of the +viaduct, a basin of masonry, brimming with water crystal clear and fed by +two streams that gushed from a pedestal of stone on the farther rim. "How +beautiful!" she exclaimed. "How incredible! And there is to be a statue to +complete it. A faun, a water nymph, some figure to symbolize the spirit of +the place." + +"I can't tell you much about the statue," replied Bailey, watching the +curve ahead. "Mr. Banks engaged the sculptor; some noted man in the east. +He is carrying the responsibility; it was his idea. But it was to have +been in place, ready to be unveiled by the fifteenth, and there was some +delay." + +After that, the mayor was silent, devoting his attention to the speeding +car. They left the park and, taking the river road, arrived presently at +the bungalow. The shingles still lacked staining, the roof was incomplete, +but a sprinkler threw rainbow mist over the new lawn, which was beginning +to show shades of green. A creeper, planted at the corner of the veranda, +already sent out pale, crinkled shoots. + +Lucky Banks came beaming down the steps, and Annabel, in a crisp frock of +royal blue taffeta, stood smiling a welcome as the automobile stopped. +Then Bailey, springing down to throw open the door of the tonneau, lifted +his voice to say: "And this--is the home of the Editor of the _Weatherbee +Record_ and Mrs. Daniels." + +They did not at once grasp his meaning, and the prospector made it clear +as they went up to the veranda. "The house is a wedding present from Mrs. +Banks," he said; "and Mr. Bailey, here, put up the lot, so's I thought +this would come in handy; it will take quite a bunch of furniture." + +There was a silent moment while Geraldine stood regarding the envelope he +had put in her hand. She was looking her best in a trim, tailored suit of +gray. There was a turquoise facing to the brim of her smart gray hat, but +her only ornaments were a sorority pin fastened to the lapel of her coat +and a gold button that secured her watch in the small breast pocket made +for it. At last she looked up, an unusual flush warmed her face, and she +began: "It's perfectly lovely of you--we are so surprised--we never can +thank you enough." + +But Jimmie turned away. He stood looking down the valley in the direction +of that place, not very far off, where his mother had carried water up the +steep slope in the burning desert sun. His forehead creased; he closed his +lips tight over a rising sob. Then Geraldine laid her hand on his arm. "Do +you understand what these people have done for us?" she asked +unconventionally. "Did you hear?" + +Jimmie swung around. His glance met Annabel's. "I can't explain how I feel +about it," he burst out, "but I know if my mother could have been here +now, it--this--would have paid her for all--she missed. I don't deserve +it--but Geraldine does; and I pledge myself to stay by the _Weatherbee +Record_ as long as you want me to. I don't see how I can help making +good." + +Then Annabel, winking hard, hastily led the way over the house; and, +presently, when the party returned to the table in the veranda, and the +Japanese boy she had brought from the ranch house was successfully passing +the fried chicken, she wanted to know about the wedding. + +"Yes, we tried to have it quiet," responded Jimmie, "and we planned it so +the taxi would just make our train; but the fellows caught on and were +waiting for us at the station, full force, with their pocketfuls of rice +and shoes. They hardly let us get aboard." + +"Gracious!" exclaimed Annabel. "You might as well have been married in +church. You'd have looked pretty in a train and veil," she said, +addressing Geraldine, who was seated on her right. "Not but what you don't +look nice in gray. And I like your suit real well; it's a fine piece of +goods; the kind to stand the desert dust. But I would have liked to see +you in white, with a blaze of lights and decorations and a crowd." + +Geraldine laughed. "We had a nice little wedding, and the young men from +the office made up for their noise. They gave the porter a handsome case +of silver at the last moment, to bring to me." + +"And," supplemented Jimmie, "there was a handsome silver tea service from +the chief. He told her she had been a credit to the staff, and he would +find it hard to replace her. Think of that coming from the head of a big +daily. It makes me feel guilty. But she is to have full latitude in the +new paper; society, clubs, equal suffrage if she says so; anything she +writes goes with the _Weatherbee Record_." + +"If I were you, I'd have that down in writing." Annabel looked from +Daniels to the bride, and her lip curled whimsically. "They all talk that +way at first, as though the earth turned round for one woman, and the +whole crowd ought to stop to watch her go by. He pretends, so far as he is +concerned, she can stump the county for prohibition or lead the +suffragette parade, but, afterwards, he gets to taking the other view. +Instead of thanking his lucky stars the nicest girl in the world picked +him out of the bunch, he begins to think she naturally was proud that the +best one wanted her. Then, before they've been married two years, he +starts trying to make her over into some other kind of a woman. Why, I +know one man right here in Hesperides Vale who set to making a Garden of +Eden out of a sandhole in the mountains, just because it belonged to a +certain girl." She paused an instant, while her glance moved to Banks, and +the irony went out of her voice. "He could have bought the finest fruit +ranch in the valley, all under irrigation and coming into bearing, for he +had the money, but he went to wasting it on that piece of unreclaimed sage +desert. And now that he has got it all in shape, he's talking of opening a +big farm in Alaska." + +Banks laughed uneasily. "The boys need it up there," he said in his high +key. "Besides, I always get more fun out of making new ground over. It's +such mighty good soil here in Hesperides Vale things grow themselves +soon's the water is turned on. It don't leave a man enough to do. And we +could take a little run down to the ranch, any time; we could count on +always wintering here, my, yes." + +Annabel smiled. "He thinks by mid-summer he can take me right into the +interior, in that cranky red car. And I don't know but what I am ready to +risk it; there are places I'd like to see--where he was caught his first +winter in a blizzard, and where he picked up the nuggets for my necklace. +You remember it--don't you?--Mrs. Daniels. I wore it that night in Seattle +we went to hear Carmen." + +"I certainly do remember. It was the most wonderful thing in the theater +that night, and fit for an empress." Involuntarily Geraldine glanced down +at her own solitary jewel. It flashed a lovely blue light as she moved her +hand. + +Annabel followed the glance. "Your ring is a beauty," she said. "Not many +young men, just starting in business for themselves, would have thought +they could afford a diamond like that." + +Geraldine laughed, flushing a little. "It seems the finest in the world to +me," she replied almost shyly. "And it ought to show higher light and +color than any other; the way it was bought was so splendid." + +"Do you mean the way the money was earned to buy it?" inquired Annabel. + +Geraldine nodded. "It was the price, exactly, of his first magazine story. +Perhaps you read it. It was published in the March issue of _Sampson's_, +and the editors liked it so well they asked to see more of his work." + +Jimmie looked at his wife in mingled protest and surprise. He had believed +she, as well as himself, had wished to have that story quickly forgotten. +"It is an Indian story," she pursued; "about a poor little papoose that +was accidentally killed. It was a personal experience of Mr. Tisdale's." + +Mrs. Banks had not read it, but the prospector pushed aside his sherbet +glass and, laying his arms on the table, leaned towards Geraldine. "Was +that papoose cached under a log?" he asked softly. "And was its mother +berrying with a bunch of squaws up the ridge?" + + +"Yes," smiled Geraldine. "I see you have read it." + +"No, but I heard a couple of men size it up aboard the train coming from +Scenic Hot Springs. And once," he went on with gathering tenseness, "clear +up the Tanana, I heard Dave and Hollis talking it over. My, yes, it seems +like I can see them now; they was the huskiest, cleanest-cut, +openest-faced team that ever mushed a trail. It was one of those nights +when the stars come close and friendly, and the camp-fire blazes and +crackles straight to heaven and sets a man thinking; and Tisdale started +it by saying if he could cut one record out of his past he guessed the rest +could bear daylight. Then Dave told him he was ready to stand by that one, +too. And Hollis said it was knowing that had taken the edge off, but it +hadn't put the breath back into that papoose. Of course he never +suspicioned for a minute the kid was in the road when he jumped that log, +and the heart went out of him when he picked it up and saw what he was +responsible for. They had to tell me the whole story, and I wish you could +have heard 'em. Dave smoothing things when Hollis got too hard on himself, +and Hollis chipping in again for fear I wouldn't get full weight for +Dave's part. And the story sure enough does hinge on him. Likely that's +why Tisdale gave it to your magazine; to show up Dave Weatherbee. But +those men on the train--they had the seat in front of me so's I heard it +plain--lost their bearings. They left out Dave and put Hollis in a bad +light. He was 'caught red-handed and never was brought to an honest +trial.' And it was clear besides, being 'hand in glove with the Secretary +of the Interior' he had a 'pull with the Federal court.' I couldn't stand +for it." The prospector's voice reached high pitch, his forehead creased +in many fine lines, his eyes scintillated their blue glacier lights, and +he added, striking the table with his clenched hand, "I up and says: 'It's +all a damn lie.'" + +There was a silence. The self-possession and swiftness of the Japanese boy +saved the sherbet glass and its contents, but the mayor, who had been +interrupted in a confidential quotation of real estate values to Miss +Morganstein, sat staring at Banks in amazement. A spark of admiration shot +through the astonishment in Annabel's eyes then, catching the little man's +aggressive glance, she covered her pride with her ironical smile. Mrs. +Weatherbee was the only one who did not look at Banks. Her inscrutable +face was turned to the valley. She might never have heard of Hollis +Tisdale or, indeed, of David. But Elizabeth, who had kept the thread of +both conversations, said: "You were right. There was a coroner's inquest +that vindicated Mr. Tisdale at the time." + +"But," explained Geraldine courageously, "that was left out of the +magazine. Mr. Daniels took it all accurately, just as Mr. Tisdale told it, +word for word; but the story was cut terribly. Nothing at all was said of +Mr. Weatherbee's part. We couldn't understand that, for with names +suppressed, there could be no motive, and he was so clearly the leading +character. But magazines have no conscience. It's anything, with the new +ones at least, to catch the public eye, and they stir more melodrama into +their truths than the yellow journals do. But Mr. Daniels apologized to +Mr. Tisdale, and explained how he wasn't responsible for the editor's note +or for printing his name, and he did his best to make it up in his report +of the disaster at Cascade tunnel. That story went into the _Press_ +straight and has been widely copied." + +It was in Jimmie's favor that Lucky Banks had read the newspaper story, +and also that they had had those hours of intimacy at the west portal. +"Well, likely you ain't to blame," the prospector admitted finally, "but +there's people who don't know Hollis Tisdale that might believe what the +magazine says. And, if I was you, I'd take a little run over to Washington +or New York, wherever it is--I'll put up the money--and locate that +editor. I'd make him fix it right, my, yes." + +"I should be glad to," said Daniels, brightening, "but it's possible those +missing pages were lost on the way." + +"Well, I'd find out," persisted Banks. "And there's other stories I got +wind of when I was in Washington, D.C., and Seattle, too, last time I was +down, that ought to be trailed. Maybe it's just politics, but I know for a +fact they ain't so." + +The irony had gone out of Annabel's face. She had seen Hollis Tisdale but +once, yet his coming and going had marked the red-letter day of her life. +Her heart championed Banks' fight for him. She turned her dark eyes from +him to Daniels. + +"It's too bad you tried to tell Hollis Tisdale's story for him," she said. +"Even if the magazine had got it all straight, it wouldn't have been the +same as getting it first hand. It's like listening to one of those fine +singers in a phonograph; you can get the tune and some of the words, and +maybe the voice pretty fair, but you miss the man." + +With this she rose. "We are ready to go out to the Orchards, Mr. Bailey. +Mr. Banks and I are going to change places with the bride and groom." Then +from her silk bag, she brought forth a bunch of keys which she gave to +Geraldine. "Nukui is going to stay to clear away," she explained, "and +bring our car home. And when you have finished making your plans, and want +to go down to see the newspaper office, he will show you a nice short cut +through the park." + +So again the mayor's chocolate six-passenger car threaded the park and +emerged this time on a straight, broad thoroughfare through Hesperides +Vale. "This," said Bailey, turning from the town, "is the Alameda. They +motor from Wenatchee and beyond to try it. It's a pretty good road, but in +a year or two, when these shade trees come into full leaf, it will be +something to show." + +There were tufts on most of them now and on the young fruit trees that ran +in geometrical designs on either side, covering the levels that last year +had been overgrown with sage. As these infant orchards dropped behind and +the Wenatchee range loomed near, Cerberus detached from the other peaks; +but it was no longer a tawny monster on guard; its contour was broken by +many terraces, luxuriant with alfalfa and planted with trees. + +"Why," exclaimed Mrs. Weatherbee, "there is the gap. Then, this must be +the mountain--it reminded me once of a terrible, crouching, wild beast-- +but it has changed." + +"Yes, ma'am," responded Banks, "she's looking tamer now. The peaches have +taken right hold, and those fillers of strawberries are hurrying on the +green. But you give 'em three years or maybe four, and take 'em in blossom +time,--my, you won't know this old mountain then." + +A drive, cross-cutting the bold front, led to the level beneath the +summit, where rose the white walls and green gables of Annabel's home, but +they rounded the mountain into the smaller vale. "This," said the mayor, +with culminating pride, "is Weatherbee Orchards. It shows what money, in +the right hands, can do." + +A soft breeze came down over the ridge as they ascended; the flume, that +followed the contour of the roadway, gurgled pleasantly. Everywhere along +the spillways alfalfa spread thriftily, or strawberry plants sent out new +tendrils. All growing things were more advanced in that walled pocket than +in the outer vale; the arid gulf had become a vast greenhouse. Cerberus no +longer menaced. Even the habitation of the goat-woman, that had been the +central distraction of the melancholy picture, was obliterated. In all +that charming landscape there was no discordant note to break the harmony. + +The car doubled the curve at the top of the bench and ran smoothly between +breadths of green lawn, bordered by nodding narcissus, towards the house, +which was long and low, with a tiled roof and cream-colored walls that +enclosed a patio. A silence fell over the company. As they alighted, every +one waited, looking expectantly at Beatriz Weatherbee. The music of a +fountain fluted from the court, and she went forward, listening. Her face +was no longer inscrutable; it shone with a kind of inner illumination. But +when she saw the slender column of spray and the sparkling basin, with a +few semi-tropical plants grouped on the curb, a cactus, a feathery palm in +a quaint stone pot, she turned, and her eyes sought Elizabeth's. "It is +all like the old hacienda where grandfather was born, and mother, and"-- +her voice broke--"Only that had adobe walls," she finished. "It is like-- +coming home." + +"It is simply marvelous," replied Elizabeth, and she added abruptly, +looking at the prospector: "Mr. Banks, you are a problem beyond me." + +"It looks all right, doesn't it?" the little man beamed. "Likely it would +about suit Dave. And I was able to stand the investment. My, yes, now your +brother has bought out the Annabel, what I spent wouldn't cut any figure. +But," and his glance moved to the woman who had profited by the venture, +"I'll likely get my money back." + +Afterwards, when the party had inspected the reservoirs and upper flumes, +Beatriz found herself returning to the bench with Lucky Banks. It was +almost sunset, and the far Chelan peaks were touched with Alpine fire; +below them an amethyst mist filtered over the transformed vale. They had +been discussing the architecture of the building. + +"I had often gone over the map of the project with David," she said, "but +he must have drawn the plans of the house later, in Alaska. It was a +complete surprise. I wonder he remembered the old hacienda so accurately; +he was there only once--when we were on our wedding journey." + +"There were a few measurements that had to be looked up," admitted Banks; +"but I took a little run around into lower California last winter, on my +way home from Washington, D.C." + +"You were there? You troubled to go all the way to the old rancheria for +details?" + +"Yes, ma'am. It was a mighty good grazing country down there, but the +people who bought the place were making their money out of one of those +fine hotels; it was put up alongside a bunch of hot springs. Nobody but a +couple of Mexicans was living in the old house. It was in bad shape." + +"I know. I know. If I had been a man, it would have been different. I +should have restored it; I should have worked, fought to buy back every +acre. But you saw old Jacinta and Carlos? It was recorded in the title +they should be allowed to stay there and have the use of the old home +garden as long as they lived. My mother insisted on that." + +They had reached the level and walked on by the house towards the solitary +pine tree on the rim of the bench. After a moment he said: "Now Dave's +project is running in good shape, there isn't much left for me to do, my, +no, except see the statue set up in the park." + +"I wanted to ask you about that, Mr. Banks; we passed the place on the way +to the bungalow. It was beautiful. I presume you have selected a woman's +figure--a lovely Ceres or Aphrodite?" + +"No, ma'am," responded Banks a little sharply. "It's a full-sized man. +Full-sized and some over, what the sculptor who made it calls heroic; and +it's a good likeness of Dave Weatherbee." + +They had reached the pine tree, and she put out her hand to steady herself +on the bole. "I understand," she said slowly. "It was a beautiful-- +tribute." + +"It looks pretty nice," corroborated the prospector. "There was a mighty +good photograph of Dave a young fellow on a Yukon steamer gave me once, to +go by. He was standing on a low bluff, with his head up, looking off like +a young elk, when the boat pulled out, and the camera man snapped him. It +was the day we quit the partner lay, and I was going down-stream, and he +was starting for the headwaters of the Susitna. Tisdale told me about a +man who had done first-class work in New York, and I sent that picture +with a check for a starter on my order. I wrote him the price wasn't +cutting any figure with me; what I wanted was the best he could do and to +have it delivered by the fifteenth of March. And he did; he had it done on +time; and he said it was his best work. It's waiting down in Weatherbee +now. Hollis thought likely I better leave it to you whether to have the +burying with the statue down in the park, or up here, somewhere, on Dave's +own ground." + +"Do you mean," she asked, and her voice almost failed, "you have brought-- +David--home?" + +Banks nodded. "It was cold for him wintering up there in the Alaska snow." + +"Oh, I know. I've thought about--that. I should have done--as you have-- +had I been able." + +After a moment she said: "What is there I can say to you? I did not know +there were such men in the world until I knew you and Hollis Tisdale. Of +course you believed, as he did, that I was necessary to round out David's +project. That is why, when it was successfully completed, you forfeited +the bonus and all the investment. I may never be able to fully refund you +but--shall do my best. And this other--too. Mr. Banks, was that Mr. +Tisdale's suggestion? Did he share that--expense--with you?" + +"No, ma'am, he let me have that chance when we talked it over. I had to +get even with him on the project." + +"Even with him on the project?" + +"Yes, ma'am. He let me put up the money, but it's got to be paid back out +of Dave's half interest in the Aurora mine. And likely, likely, that's +what Dave Weatherbee would have wanted done." + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE JUNIOR DEFENDANT + + +It was following a recess during the third afternoon of the trial; a jury +had at last been impanelled, the attorney for the prosecution and the +leading lawyer for the defense had measured swords, when Stuart Foster, +the junior defendant in the "Conspiracy to Defraud the Government," was +called to the stand. Frederic Morganstein, the head of the Prince William +Development Company, straightened in his seat beside the vacated chair. He +was sleekly groomed, and his folded, pinkish white hands suggested a good +child's; his blank face assumed an expression of mildly protesting +innocence. But the man who stepped from his shadow into the strong light +of the south windows was plainly harassed and worn. His boyishness was +gone; he seemed to have aged years since that evening in September when he +had sailed for Alaska. Tisdale's great heart stirred, then his clear mind +began to tally the rapid fire of questions and Foster's replies. + +"When were you first connected with the Prince William Development +Company, Mr. Foster?" + +"In the summer of 1904." + +"You were then engaged in the capacity of mining engineer at a fixed +salary, were you not?" The prosecuting attorney had a disconcerting manner +of arching his brows. His mouth, taken in connection with his strong, +square jaw, had the effect of closing on his questions like a trap. + +"Yes," Foster answered briefly, "I was to receive two hundred and fifty +dollars a month the first year, and its equivalent in the company's +stock." + +"Did you not, at the same time, turn over to the company your interests in +the Chugach Railway and Development Company?" + +"Yes," said Foster. + +"And was not this railroad built for the purpose of opening certain coal +lands in the Matanuska region, in which you held an interest?" + +"Yes, I had entered a coal claim of one hundred and sixty acres." + +"All the law allowed to an individual; but, Mr. Foster, did you not induce +others, as many as thirty persons, to locate adjoining claims with the +idea that the entire group would come under one control?" + +Foster colored. "It was necessary to co-operate," he said slowly, "in +order to meet the enormous expense of development and transportation. We +wished to build a narrow-gauge road--it was then in course of +construction--but the survey was through the Chugach Mountains, the most +rugged in North America. The cost of moving material, after it was shipped +from the States, was almost prohibitive; ordinary labor commanded higher +wages than are paid skilled mechanics here in Seattle." + +"Mr. Foster, were not those coal claims located with a purpose to dispose +of them in a group at a profit?" + +"No, sir. I have told you on account of the great expense of development +it was necessary to work together; it was also necessary that as many +claims as possible should be taken." + +The prosecution, nodding affirmatively, looked at the jury. "The more +cunning and subtle the disguise," he said, "the more sure we may be of the +evasion of the law. So, Mr. Foster, you promoted an interest in the +fields, selected claims for men who never saw them; used their power of +attorney?" + +"Yes. That was in accordance with the law then in force. We paid for our +coal claims, the required ten dollars an acre. The land office accepted +our money, eighty thousand dollars. Then the President suspended the law, +and we never received our patents. About that time the Chugach forest +reserve was made, and we were hampered by all sorts of impossible +conditions. Some of us were financially ruined. One of the first locators +spent one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, his whole fortune, in +development. He opened his mine and had several tons of coal carried by +packers through the mountains to the coast, to be shipped to Seattle, to +be tested on one of the Government cruisers. The report was so favorable +it encouraged the rest of us to stay with the venture." + +"Mr. Foster," the attorney's voice took a higher, more aggressive pitch, +"were not many of those claims entered under names furnished by an agent +of the Morganstein interests?" + +"Well, yes." Foster threw his head with something of his old boyish +defiance. He was losing patience and skill. "Mr. Morganstein himself made +a filing, and his father. That is the reason all our holdings are now +classed as the Morganstein group." + +"And," pursued the lawyer, "their entries were incidental with the +consolidation of your company with the Prince William Development +Company?" + +Foster flushed hotly. "The Prince William Development Company was in need +of coal; no enterprise can be carried on without it in Alaska. And the +consolidation brought necessary capital to us; without it, our railroad +was bankrupt. It meant inestimable benefit to the country, to every +prospector, miner, homesteader, who must waste nerve-breaking weeks +packing his outfit through those bleak mountains in order to reach the +interior. But, before forty miles of track was completed, the executive +withdrew all Alaska coal lands from entry, and we discontinued +construction, pending an Act of Congress to allow our patents. The +material carried in there at so great a cost is lying there still, rotting +away." + +"Gentlemen, is it not all clear to you?" The prosecuting attorney flashed +a glance of triumph over the jury. "Do you not see in this Prince William +Development Company the long arm of the octopus that is strangling Alaska? +That has reached out its tentacles everywhere, for gold here, copper +there; for oil, coal, timber, anything in sight? That, but for the +foresight of the executive and Gifford Pinchot, would possess most of +Alaska today?" + +The men on the jury looked thoughtful but not altogether convinced. One +glanced at his neighbor with a covert smile. This man, whom the Government +had selected to prosecute the coal fraud cases was undeniably able, often +brilliant, but his statements showed he had brought his ideas of Alaska +from the Atlantic coast; to him, standing in the Seattle courtroom, our +outlying possession was still as remote. As his glance moved to the ranks +of outside listeners, who overflowed the seats and crowded the aisles to +the doors, he must have been conscious that the sentiment he had expressed +was at least unpopular in the northwest. Faces that had been merely +interested or curious grew suddenly lowering. The atmosphere of the place +seemed surcharged. + +The following morning Morganstein took the stand. Though in small matters +that touched his personal comfort he was arrogantly irritable, under the +cross-examination that assailed his commercial methods he proved suave and +non-committal. As the day passed, the prosecutor's insinuations grew more +open and vindictive. Judge Feversham sprang to his feet repeatedly to +challenge his accusations, and twice the Court calmed the Government's +attorney with a reprimand. The atmosphere of the room seemed to seethe +hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness. Finally, during the afternoon +session, Foster was recalled. + +Through it all Tisdale waited, listening to everything, separating, +weighing each point presented. It was beginning to look serious for +Foster. Clearly, in his determination to win his suit, the prosecution was +losing sight of the simple justice the Government desired. And a man less +dramatic, less choleric, with less of a reputation for political intrigue +than Miles Feversham might better have defended Stuart Foster. Foster was +so frank, so honest, so eager to make the Alaska situation understood. And +it was not an isolated case; there were hundreds of young men, who, like +him, had cast their fortunes with that new and growing country, to find +themselves, after years of hardship and privation of which the outside +world had no conception, bound hand and foot in an intricate tangle of the +Government's red tape. + +The evening of the fourth day the attorney for the prosecution surprised +Tisdale at his rooms. "Thank you," he said, when Hollis offered his +armchair, "but those windows open to the four winds of heaven are a little +imprudent to a man who lives by his voice. Pretty, though, isn't it?" He +paused a moment to look down on the harbor lights and the chains of +electric globes stretching off to Queen Anne hill and far and away to +Magnolia bluff, then seated himself between the screen and the table that +held the shaded reading lamp. "Has it occurred to you, Mr. Tisdale," he +asked, "that a question may be raised as to the legality of your testimony +in these coal cases?" + +"No." Hollis remained standing. He looked at his visitor in surprise. +"Please make that clear, Mr. Bromley," he said. + +The attorney smiled. "This is a trial case," he began. "A dozen others +hinge on it. I was warned to be prepared for anything; so, when my +attention was called to that article in _Sampson's Magazine_, my +suspicions were instantly awake. It looked much like blackmail and, in +connection with another story I heard in circulation at Washington, seemed +a systematic preparation to attack the Government's witness. Possibly you +do not know it was Mr. Jerold, your legal adviser and my personal friend, +who put me in touch with the magazine. You had wired him to find out +certain facts, but he was unable to go to New York at the time and, +knowing I was there for the week, he got into communication with me by +telephone and asked me to look the matter up. The publishers, fearing a +libel suit which would ruin them, were very obliging. They allowed me to +see not only the original manuscript, but Mrs. Feversham's letter, which I +took the trouble to copy." + +"Mrs. Feversham's letter?" Tisdale exclaimed. "Do you mean it was Mrs. +Feversham who was responsible for that story?" + +"As it was published, yes. But Daniels was not a pen name. There really +was such a writer--I have taken the trouble to find that out since I +arrived in Seattle. He was on the staff of the _Press_ and wrote a very +creditable account of the catastrophe on the Great Northern railroad, in +which glowing tribute was given you. But since then, and this is what +makes the situation so questionable, he has left the paper and dropped +completely out of sight." + +Tisdale drew forward his chair and settled himself comfortably. "There is +no need to worry about Jimmie Daniels," he said; "he is all right. I saw +him at Cascade tunnel; he told me he was about to be married and go to the +Wenatchee country to conduct a paper of his own. It's too bad there wasn't +another reporter up there to tell about him. He worked like a Trojan, and +it was a place to try a man's mettle. Afterwards, before he left, he came +to me and introduced himself. He had been aboard the yacht that day I told +the story. He had taken it down in his notebook behind an awning. He told +me one of the ladies on board--he did not mention her name--who read his +copy later, offered to dispose of it for him." + +"So," said the lawyer slowly, "you did tell the story; there was a +papoose; the unfortunate incident really occurred." + +"Yes," responded Tisdale, "it happened in a canyon of those mountains +across the Sound. You can barely make out their outline to-night; but +watch for them at sunrise; it's worth waiting for." Then, after a moment, +he said, "I told the story to show the caliber of Weatherbee, the man who +put himself in my place when the Indians came to our camp, looking for me; +but, in editing, all mention of him was cut out. Daniels couldn't +understand that. He said the manuscript was long, but if it was necessary +to abridge in making up the magazine, why had they thrown out the finest +part of the story?" + +"Let me see," said the attorney thoughtfully, "wasn't Weatherbee the name +of the man you grub-staked in Alaska, and who discovered the Aurora mine?" + +Tisdale bowed, then added, with the vibration playing softly in his voice: +"And the name of the bravest and noblest man that ever fought the unequal +fight of the north." + +"Which proves the story was not published to exploit a hero," commented +Bromley. "But now," he went on brusquely, "we have arrived at the other +story. Do you know, Mr. Tisdale, it is being said in Washington, and, too, +I have heard it here in Seattle, that though your own half interest in the +Aurora mine, acquired through the grub-stake you furnished Weatherbee, +will make you a millionaire at least, you are withholding the widow's +share." + +This time Tisdale did not express surprise. "I have had that suggested to +me," he answered quietly. "But the stories of the Aurora are very much +inflated. It is a comparatively new mine, and though it promises to be one +of the great discoveries, the expense of operating so far has exceeded the +output. Heavy machinery has been transported and installed, and Mrs. +Weatherbee could not have met any part of these payments. In all +probability she would have immediately disposed of an interest at a small +price and so handicapped me with a partner with his own ideas of +development. David Weatherbee paid for the Aurora with his life, and I +have pledged myself to carry out his plans. But, Mr. Bromley, do not +trouble about that last half interest. I bought it: the transfer was +regularly recorded; Mr. Jerold has assured me it is legally mine." + +"I know what Mr. Jerold thinks," replied the attorney. "It nettled him to +hear me repeat that story. 'Why, it's incredible,'" he said. "'There are +documents I drew up last fall that refute it completely.'" Mr. Bromley +paused, then went on slowly: "Last fall you were in a hospital, Mr. +Tisdale, beginning a long, all but hopeless fight for your life, and it +was natural you should have called in Mr. Jerold to settle your affairs. I +inferred from his remark that you had remembered Mrs. Weatherbee, at +least, in your will." He halted again, then added still more deliberately: +"If I am right, I should like to be prepared, in case of emergency, to +read such a clause in court." + +Tisdale was silent. He rose and turned to the west windows, where he stood +looking down on the harbor lights. + +"Am I right?" persisted the attorney. + +Hollis thrust his hands into his pockets and swung around. He stood with +his chin lowered, looking at the lawyer with his upward glance from under +slightly frowning brows. "Well," he said at last, "suppose you are. And +suppose I refuse to have my private papers read in open court?" + +"In that case," answered Mr. Bromley, rising, "I must telegraph to +Washington for one of the Alaska coal commission to take your place. I am +sorry. You were named to me at the beginning as a man who knew more about +Alaska coal, and, in fact, the whole Alaska situation, than any other +employee of the Government." + +Still, having said this, Mr. Bromley did not seem in any hurry to go, but +stood holding his hat and waiting for a word from Tisdale to redeem the +situation. At last it came. "Is there no other way," he asked, "than to +drag my private affairs into court?" + +The attorney gravely shook his head. "You never can tell what a jury will +do," he said. "Less than a prejudice against a witness has swung a +decision sometimes." + +Hollis said no more. He went over to his safe and selected a package +containing three documents held together by a rubber band. After a +hesitating moment, he drew out one, which he returned to its place. The +others he brought to the attorney, who carried them to the reading lamp to +scan. One was a deed to the last half interest in the Aurora, the one +which Weatherbee had had recorded, and the remaining paper was, as Mr. +Bromley conjectured, Tisdale's will; but it contained a somewhat +disconcerting surprise. However, the lawyer seated himself and, spreading +the paper open on the table, copied this clause. + + +... "The Aurora mine, lying in an unsurveyed region of Alaska, accessible +from Seward by way of Rainy Pass, and from the Iditarod district north by +east, I bequeath to Beatriz Silva Gonzales Weatherbee, to be held for her +in trust by Stuart Emory Poster for a period of five years, or until +development, according to David Weatherbee's plans, shall have been fully +carried out. The profits, above the cost of all improvements and all +operating expenses--which shall include a superintendent's salary of four +thousand dollars a year to said Stuart Emory Foster--to be paid in +semi-annual dividends to said Beatriz Silva Gonzales Weatherbee." + +"Stuart Emory Foster," repeated the lawyer meditatively, putting away his +fountain pen. "You evidently have considerable confidence in his +engineering skill, Mr. Tisdale." + +"Yes." His voice mellowed, but he regarded the attorney with the upward, +watchful look. "I have confidence in Stuart Emory Foster in every way. He +is not only one of the most capable, reliable mining engineers, but also +one of the most respected and most trusted men in the north." + +There was a silence, during which Mr. Bromley thoughtfully folded his copy +and placed it in his pocket-book. "Thank you, Mr. Tisdale," he said +finally, and rose once more. "You may not be called for several days but +when you are, it is advisable that you have the original documents at +hand. Good night." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +TISDALE OF ALASKA--AND WASHINGTON, D.C. + + +It was evident, after his interview with Hollis Tisdale, that Mr. Bromley +was in no hurry to precipitate the side issue for which he had prepared. +Every one who had taken coal land in the Morganstein group had been on the +witness stand, and many more who had not filed claims had given testimony, +yet the prosecution held him in reserve. Then came a day when Lucky Banks, +recalled to tell what he knew about the Chugach trail, made some +astonishing statements. He had traveled that route with a partner at the +end of a season in the Copper River plateau. They had expected to finish +the distance by the new railroad. The little man was brief but graphic. It +seemed to have been a running fight with storms, glaciers, and glacial +torrents to reach that narrow-gauge track before the first real September +blizzard. "But we could have stood it," he concluded in his high key, "my, +yes, it wouldn't have amounted to much, if we could have had firewood." + +"Did you not know the fallen timber was at your service?" questioned Mr. +Bromley. "Provided, of course, you conformed to the laws of the reserve in +building your fire and in extinguishing it when you broke camp." + +"There wasn't any fallen timber," responded Banks dryly; "and likely we +would have took it green, if there had been a tree in sight. It was +getting mighty cold, nights, and with the frost in his wet clothes, a man +needs a warm supper to hearten him." + +"What?" exclaimed Mr. Bromley sharply. "Do you mean you saw no trees? +Remember you were in the Chugach forest; or did you lose your way?" + +"No, sir. We struck the Chugach Railway just where we aimed to, but a +mighty lot of the Chugach reserve is out of timber line. That's why we +banked on Foster's new train to hurry us through. But we found she had +quit running. The Government had got wind of the scheme and sent a bunch +of rules and regulations. First came a heavy tax for operating the road; +and next was an order to put spark arresters on all his engines. He only +had two first-class ones and a couple of makeshifts to haul his gravel +cars; and his sparks would have froze, likely, where they lit, but there +he was, tied up on the edge of a fill he had counted on finishing up +before his crew went out for the winter, and the nearest spark arrester +farther off than Christmas." + +A ripple of amusement ran through the crowded room, but little Banks stood +waiting frostily. When his glance caught the judge's smile, his eyes +scintillated their blue light. "Likely Foster would have sent his order +out and had those arresters shipped around Cape Horn from New York," he +added. "They'd probably been in time for spring travel; but he opened +another bunch of mail and found there wouldn't be any more sparks. +Washington, D.C., had shut down his coal mine." + +Mr. Bromley had no further questions to ask. He seemed preoccupied and +passed the recess that followed the prospector's testimony in pacing the +corridor. Lucky Banks had been suggested as an intelligent and honest +fellow on whom the Government might rely; but his statements failed to +dovetail with his knowledge of Alaska and the case, and after the +intermission Tisdale was called. + +The moment he was sworn, Miles Feversham was on his feet. He held in his +hand a magazine, in which during the recess, he had been engrossed, and +his forefinger kept the place. + +"I object to this witness," he said sonorously and waited while a stir, +like a gust of wind in a wood, swept the courtroom, and the jury +straightened, alert. "I object, not because he defrauded the widow of +David Weatherbee out of her half interest in the Aurora mine, though, +gentlemen, you know this to be an open fact, but for the reason that he is +a criminal, self-confessed, who should be serving a prison sentence, and a +criminal's testimony is not allowable in a United States court." + +Before he finished speaking, or the Court had recovered from the shock, +Mr. Bromley had taken a bundle of papers from his pocket and stepped close +to the jury box. + +"This is an infamous fabrication," he exclaimed. "It was calculated to +surprise us, but it finds us prepared. In ten minutes we shall prove it +was planned six months ago to defame the character of the Government's +witness at this trial. I have here, gentlemen, a copy of the Alaska record +showing the transfer of David Weatherbee's interest in the Aurora mine to +Hollis Tisdale; it bears the signature of his wife. But this extract from +Mr. Tisdale's will, which was drawn shortly after his return from Alaska, +last year, and while he was dangerously ill in Washington, proves how far +it was from his intention to defraud the widow of David Weatherbee." Here +Mr. Bromley read the clause. + +Tisdale, standing at ease, with his hand resting on his chair, glanced +from the attorney to Foster. No mask covered his transparent face; the +dark circles under his fine, expressive eyes betrayed how nearly +threadbare his hope was worn. Then, suddenly, in the moment he met +Tisdale's look, wonder, swift intelligence, contrition, and the gratitude +of his young, sorely tried spirit flashed from his countenance. To Hollis +it became an illuminated scroll. + +"As to the main charge," resumed Mr. Bromley, "that is ridiculous. It is +based on an unfortunate accident to an Indian child years ago. The +distorted yarn was published in a late issue of a sensational magazine. No +doubt, most of you have read it, since it was widely circulated. +Different--isn't it?--from that other story of Mr. Tisdale which came down +from Cascade tunnel. Gentlemen, I have the letter that was enclosed with +the manuscript that was submitted to _Sampson's Magazine_. It was not +written by the author, James Daniels, but by a lady, who had offered to +dispose of the material for him, and who, without his knowledge, +substituted a revised copy." + +Miles Feversham had subsided, dumbfounded, into his chair; his +self-sufficiency had deserted him; for a moment the purple color surged in +his face; his chagrin overwhelmed him. But Marcia, seated in the front row +outside the bar, showed no confusion. Her brilliant, compelling eyes were +on her husband. It was as though she wished to reinforce him, and at the +same time convey some urgent, vital thought. He glanced around and, +reading the look, started again to his feet. He began to retract his +denunciation. It was evident he had been misinformed; he offered his +apologies to the witness and asked that the case be resumed. But the +prosecuting attorney, disregarding him, continued to explain. "In the +Daniels' manuscript, gentlemen, a coroner's inquest exonerated the man who +was responsible for the death of the papoose; this the magazine +suppressed. I am able to offer in evidence James Daniels' affidavit." + +Then, while the jury gathered these varying ideas in fragments, Lucky +Banks' treble rose. "Let's hear what the lady wrote." And some one at the +back of the courtroom said in a deep voice; "Read the lady's letter." + +It seemed inevitable. Mr. Bromley had separated a letter from the bundle +of papers. Involuntarily Marcia started up. But the knocking of the gavel, +sounding smartly, insistently, above the confusion, brought unexpected +deliverance. + +"It is unnecessary to further delay this Court with this issue," announced +the judge. "The case before the jury already has dragged through nearly +four weeks, and it should be conducted as expeditiously as possible to a +close. Mr. Bromley, the witness is sustained." + +Marcia settled back in her place; Miles Feversham, like a man who has +slipped on the edge of a chasm, sat a moment longer, gripping the arms of +his chair; then his shifting look caught Frederic's wide-eyed gaze of +uncomprehending innocence, and he weakly smiled. + +"Mr. Tisdale," began the prosecution, putting aside his papers and +endeavoring to focus his mind again on the case, "you have spent some +years with the Alaska division of the Geological Survey?" + +"Every open season and some of the winters for a period of ten years, with +the exception of three which I also spent in Alaska." + +"And you are particularly familiar with the locality included in the +Chugach forest reserve, I understand, Mr. Tisdale. Tell us a little about +it. It contains vast reaches of valuable and marketable timber, does it +not?" + +The genial lines crinkled lightly in Tisdale's face. "The Chugach forest +contains some marketable timber on the lower Pacific slopes," he replied, +"where there is excessive precipitation and the influence of the warm +Japan current, but along the streams on the other side of the divide there +are only occasional growths of scrubby spruce, hardly suitable for +telegraph poles or even railroad ties." He paused an instant then went on +mellowly: "Gifford Pinchot was thousands of miles away; he never had seen +Alaska, when he suggested that the Executive set aside the Chugach forest +reserve. No doubt he believed there was valuable timber on those lofty +peaks and glaciers, but I don't know how he first heard of a Chugach +forest, unless"--he halted again and looked at the jury, while the humor +deepened in his voice--"those Pennsylvania contractors, who were shipping +coal around Cape Horn to supply the Pacific navy, took the chance of there +being trees in those mountains and interested the Government in saving the +timber--to conserve the coal." + +A ripple of laughter passed over the jury and on through the courtroom. +Even the presiding judge smiled, and Mr. Bromley hurried to say: "Tell us +something about that Alaska coal, Mr. Tisdale. You have found vast bodies-- +have you not?--of a very high grade; to compare favorably with +Pennsylvania coal." + +"The Geodetic Survey estimates there are over eight millions of acres of +coal land already known in Alaska," replied Hollis statistically. "More +than is contained in all Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio combined. +It is of all grades. The Bonnifield near Fairbanks, far in the interior, +is the largest field yet discovered, and in one hundred and twenty-two +square miles of it that have been surveyed, there are about ten billions +of tons. Cross sections show veins two hundred and thirty-one feet thick. +This coal is lignite." + +"How about the Matanuska fields?" asked Mr. Bromley. + +"The Matanuska cover sixty-five thousand acres; the coal is a high grade +bituminous, fit for steam and coking purposes. There are also some veins +of anthracite. I consider the Matanuska the best and most important coal +yet discovered in Alaska, and with the Bering coal, which is similar +though more broken, these fields should supply the United States for +centuries to come." + +Mr. Bromley looked at the jury. His smile said: + +"You heard that, gentlemen?" Then, his glance returning to the witness: + +"Why the most important?" he asked. + +"Because all development, all industry, in the north depends on the +opening up of such a body of coal. And these fields are the most +accessible to the coast. A few hundreds of miles of railroad, the +extension of one or two of the embryo lines on which construction has been +suspended, would make the coal available on Prince William Sound. Used by +the Pacific Navy, it would save the Government a million dollars a year on +transportation." + +The prosecuting attorney looked at the jury again in triumph. "And that, +gentlemen, is why the Prince William Development Company was so ready to +finance one of those embryo railroads; why those Matanuska coal claims +were located by the syndicate's stenographers, bookkeepers, any employee +down here in their Seattle offices. Mr. Tisdale, if those patents had been +allowed and the claims had been turned over to the company, would it not +have given the Morganstein interests a monopoly on Alaska coal?" + +Tisdale paused a thoughtful moment. "No, at least only temporarily, if at +all. Out of those eight millions of acres of coal land already discovered +in Alaska, not more than thirty-two thousand acres have been staked--only +one claim, an old and small mine on the coast, has been allowed." His +glance moved slowly over the jury, from face to face, and he went on +evenly: "You can't expect capital to invest without some inducement. The +Northern Pacific, the first trans-continental railroad in the United +States, received enormous land grants along the right of way; but the +Prince William Development Company, which intends ultimately to bridge +distances as vast, to tap the unknown resources of the Alaska interior, +has not asked for concessions, beyond the privilege to develop such +properties as it may have acquired by location and purchase. Surely the +benefit that railroad would be in opening the country to settlement and in +the saving of human life, should more than compensate for those few +hundreds of acres of the Government's coal." + +"Mr. Tisdale," said the attorney sharply, "that, in an employee of the +Government, is a strange point of view." + +Tisdale's hands sought his pockets; he returned Mr. Bromley's look with +his steady, upward gaze from under slightly frowning brows. "The +perspective changes at close range," he said. "The Government knows less +about its great possession of Alaska than England knew about her American +colonies, one hundred and fifty years ago. The United States had owned +Alaska seventeen years before any form of government was established +there; more than thirty before a criminal code was provided, and +thirty-three years before she was given a suitable code of civil laws. +Now, to-day, there are no laws operative in Alaska under which title may +be acquired to coal land. Alaska has yielded hundreds of millions of +dollars from her placers, her fisheries, and furs, but the only thing the +Government ever did for Alaska was to import reindeer for the use of the +Esquimos." + +Another ripple of laughter passed through the courtroom; even the judge on +the bench smiled. But Mr. Bromley's face was a study. He began to fear the +effect of Tisdale's astonishing statements on the jury, while at the same +time he was impelled to listen. In the moment he hesitated over a +question, Hollis lifted his head and said mellowly: "The sins of Congress +have not been in commission but in omission. They are under the +impression, far away there in Washington, that Alaska is too bleak, too +barren for permanent settlement; that the white population is a floating +one, made up chiefly of freebooters and outlaws. But we know the +foundations of an empire have been laid there; that, allowed the use of +the fuel Nature has so bountifully stored there and granted a fair measure +of encouragement to transportation, those great inland tundras would be as +populous as Sweden; as progressive as Germany." His glance moved to the +jury; all the nobility, the fineness, the large humanity of the man was +expressed in that moment in his face; a subdued emotion pervaded his +voice. "We know the men who forged a way through that mighty bulwark of +mountains to the interior were brave, resourceful, determined--they had to +be--but, too, they saw a broad horizon; they had patriotism; if there are +any Americans left who have inherited a spark of the old Puritan spirit, +they are the ones who have cast their fortunes with Alaska." + +He paused again briefly, and his eyes rested on Foster. "Do you know?" he +resumed, and his glance returned to the prosecuting attorney, "when I came +out last season, I saw a ship at the terminus of the new Copper River and +Northwestern Railroad discharging Australian coal. This with the great +Bering fields lying at their side door! The people of Cordova wanted to +see that road finished; the life of their young seaport depended on it-- +but--that night they threw the whole of that cargo of foreign coal into +the waters of Prince William Sound. It is referred to, now, as the +'Cordova tea-party.'" + +In the silence that held the courtroom, Tisdale stood still regarding the +lawyer. His expression was most engaging, a hint of humor lurked at the +corners of his mouth, yet it seemed to veil a subtle meaning. Then the +jury began to laugh quietly, with a kind of seriousness, and again the +judge straightened, checking a smile. It was all very disturbing to Mr. +Bromley. He had been assured by one high in the administration that he +might rely on Tisdale's magnetic personality and practical knowledge as +well as his technical information in prosecuting the case; but while he +hesitated over the question he wished to ask, Tisdale said mellowly, no +doubt to bridge the awkward pause: "The Copper River and Northwestern +couldn't mine their coal, and they couldn't import any, so they changed +their locomotives to oil burners." + +Then Mr. Bromley said abruptly: "This is all very interesting, Mr. +Tisdale, but it is the Chugach Railway and not the Copper River +Northwestern, that bears on our case. You have been over that route, I +believe?" + +"Yes." Tisdale's voice quickened. "I used the roadbed going to and from +the Matanuska Valley. Also I went over the proposed route once with Mr. +Foster and the civil engineers." + +"Was it, in your opinion, a bona fide railroad, Mr. Tisdale? Or simply a +lure to entice people to make coal locations in order that they might be +bought after the patents were issued?" + +"It was started in good faith." The steel rang, a warning note, in his +voice. "The largest stockholder had spent nearly a hundred thousand +dollars in opening his coal claim. He was in need of immediate +transportation." + +"This was after the Chugach Company consolidated with the Prince William +syndicate, Mr. Tisdale?" + +"No, sir. It was previous to that time. The Chugach Railway and +Development Company had chosen one of the finest harbors in Alaska for a +terminus. It was doubly protected from the long Pacific swell by the +outer, precipitous shore of Prince William Sound. But their greatest +engineering problem met them there at the start. It was necessary to cross +a large glacier back of the bay. There was no possible way to build around +it; the only solution was a bore under the ice. The building of such a +tunnel meant labor and great expense. And it was not a rich company; it +was made up principally of small stockholders, young men, just out of +college some of them, who had gone up there with plenty of enthusiasm and +courage to invest in the enterprise, but very little money. They did their +own assessment work, dug like any coal miners with pick and shovel, cut +and carried the timbers to brace their excavations under Mr. Foster's +instructions. And when construction commenced on the railroad, they came +down to do their stunt at packing over the glacier--grading began from the +upper side--and sometimes they cut ties." + +"And meantime," said the attorney brusquely, "Mr. Foster, who was +responsible I believe, was trying to interest other capital to build the +tunnel." + +"Yes. And meantime, the Prince William syndicate started a parallel +railroad to the interior from the next harbor to the southwestward. It was +difficult to interest large capital with competition so close." Tisdale +paused; his glance moved from Mr. Bromley to the jury, his voice took its +minor note. "Stuart Foster did hold himself responsible to those young +fellows. He had known most of them personally in Seattle; they were a +picked company for the venture. He had youth and courage himself, in those +days, but he knew Alaska--he had been there before and made good. He had +their confidence. He was that kind of man; one to inspire trust on sight, +anywhere." Hollis paused another instant, while his eyes turned to Foster, +and involuntarily, one after the other, the jury followed his look. "It +was then," he added, "when other capital failed, the Chugach Company gave +up their seaport and consolidated with the Prince William syndicate." + +"Thank you, Mr. Tisdale," said the attorney for the prosecution. "That is +all." + +Miles Feversham had, as Frederic afterward expressed it, "caught his +second wind." While he listened attentively to the testimony, he made some +sweeping revisions in his notes for the argument which he was to open the +following day. He laughed at, while he congratulated himself, that the +Government's star witness, of whom he had been so afraid, should have +proved so invaluable to the defense. And when court adjourned, and the +trio went down the steps to the street, he assured his brother-in-law +there was a chance for him to escape, under Foster's cloak. To Marcia he +said jocularly, though still in an undertone: "'Snatched like a brand from +the burning!'" And he added: "My lady, had you consulted me, I should have +suggested the April issue. These magazines have a bad habit of arriving +too soon." + +Frederic, released from the long day's strain, did not take this +facetiousness meekly, but Marcia was silent. For once the "brightest +Morganstein" felt her eclipse. But while they stood on the curb, waiting +for the limousine to draw up, a newsboy called: "All about the Alaska +bill! Home Rule for Alaska!" + +The special delegate bought a copy, and Marcia drew close to his elbow +while they scanned the message together. It was true. The bill, to which +they both had devoted their energies that season in Washington, had +passed. Feversham folded the paper slowly and met his wife's brilliant +glance. It was as though she telegraphed: "Now, the President must name a +governor." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +THE OTHER DOCUMENT + + +The argument, which Miles Feversham opened with unusual brilliancy the +following morning, was prolonged with varying degrees of heat to the close +of another week; then the jury, out less than two hours, brought in their +verdict of "Not Guilty." + +And that night, for the first time since Tisdale's return, Foster climbed +to the eyrie in the Alaska building. "I came up to thank you, Hollis," he +began in his straightforward way. "It was breakers ahead when you turned +the tide. But," he added after a pause, "what will the President think of +your views?" + +Tisdale laughed softly. "He heard most of them before I left Washington, +and this is what he thinks." + +As he spoke, he took a letter from the table which he gave to Foster. It +bore the official stamp and was an appointment to that position which +Miles Feversham had so confidently hoped, with Marcia's aid, to secure. + +"Well, that shows the President's good judgment!" Foster exclaimed and +held out his hand. "You are the one man broad enough to fit the place." +After a moment he said, "But it is going to leave you little time to +devote to your own affairs. How about the Aurora?" + +Tisdale did not reply directly. He rose and walked the length of the +floor. "That depends," he said and stopped with his hands in his pockets +to regard Foster with the upward, appraising look from under knitting +brows. "I presume, Stuart, you are through with the syndicate?" + +Foster colored. "I put in my resignation as mining engineer of the company +shortly after I came out, at the beginning of the year." + +"And while you were in the interior," pursued Tisdale, "you were sent to +the Aurora to make a report. What did you think of the mine?" + +"I thought Frederic Morganstein would be safe in bonding the property if +he could interest you in selling; it looked better to me than even Banks' +strike in the Iditarod. This season's clean-up should justify Weatherbee." + +"You mean in staying on at the risk of his reason and life?" + +Foster nodded; a shadow crossed his open face. "I mean everything but--his +neglect to make final provision for his wife." + +Tisdale frowned. "There is where you make your mistake. Weatherbee +persisted as he did, in the face of defeat, for her sake." + +Foster laughed mirthlessly. "The proofs are otherwise. Look at things, +once, from her side," he broke out. "Think what it means to her to see you +realizing, from a few hundred dollars you could easily spare, this big +fortune. I know you've been generous, but after all, of what benefit to +her is a bequest in your will, when now she has absolutely nothing but +that hole in the Columbia desert? Face it, be reasonable; you always have +been in every way but this. I don't see how you can be so hard, knowing +her now as you do." + +Tisdale turned to the window. "I have not been as hard as you think," he +said. "But it was necessary, in order to carry out Weatherbee's plans, to-- +do as I did." + +"That's the trouble." Foster rose from his chair and went a few steps +nearer Tisdale. "You are the sanest man in the world in every way but one. +But you can't think straight when it comes to Weatherbee. There is where +the north got its hold on you. Can't you see it? Look at it through my +eyes, or any one's. You did for David Weatherbee what one man in a +thousand might have done. And you've interested Lucky Banks in that +reclamation project; you've gone on yourself with his developments at the +Aurora. But there's one thing you've lost sight of--justice to Beatriz +Weatherbee. You've done your best for him, but he is dead. Hollis, old +man, I tell you he is dead. And she is living. You have sent her, the +proudest, sweetest woman on God's earth, to brave out her life in that +sage-brush wilderness. Can't you see you owe something to her?" + +Tisdale did not reply. But presently he went over to his safe and took out +the two documents that were fastened together. This time it was the will +he returned to its place; the other paper he brought to Foster. "I am +going to apologize for my estimate of Mrs. Weatherbee the night you sailed +north," he said. "My judgment then, before I had seen her, was unfair; you +were right. But I could hardly have done differently in any case. There +was danger that she would dispose of a half interest in the Aurora at +once, at any low price Frederic Morganstein might name. And you know the +syndicate's methods. I did not want a Morganstein partnership. But, later, +at the time I had my will drawn, I saw this way." + +Foster took the document, but he did not read it immediately; he stood +looking at Tisdale. "So you too were afraid of him. But I knew nothing +about Lucky Banks' option. It worried me, those endless nights up there in +the Iditarod, to think that in her extremity she might marry Frederic +Morganstein. There was a debt that pressed her. Did you know about that?" + +"Yes. She called it a 'debt of honor.'" + +"And you believed, as I did, that it was a direct loan to cover personal +expenses. After I came home, I found out she borrowed the money originally +of Miss Morganstein, to endow a bed in the children's hospital. Think of +it! And Mrs. Feversham, who took it off her sister's hands, transferred +the note to Morganstein." + +Tisdale did not say anything, but his rugged face worked a little, and he +turned again to look out into the night. Foster moved nearer the +reading-lamp and unfolded the document. It was a deed conveying, for a +consideration of one dollar, a half interest in the Aurora mine to Beatriz +Silva Gonzales Weatherbee; provided said half interest be not sold, or +parceled, or in any way disposed of for a period of five years. Her share +of the profits above operating expenses was to be paid in semi-annual +dividends, and, as in the will, Stuart Emory Foster was named as trustee. + +Foster folded the document slowly. His glance moved to Tisdale, and his +eyes played every swift change from contrition to gratitude. Hollis +turned. "I want you to take the management of the whole mine," he said +mellowly. "At a salary of five thousand a year to start with. And as soon +as you wish, you may deliver this deed." + +Foster's lips trembled a little. "You've made a mistake," he said +unsteadily. Then: "Why don't you take it to her yourself, Hollis?" he +asked. + +Tisdale was silent. He turned back to the window, and after an interval, +Foster went over and stood beside him, looking down on the harbor lights. +His arm went up around Tisdale's shoulder as he said: "If Weatherbee could +know everything now; if he had loved her, put her first always, as you +believe, do you think he would be any happier to see her punished like +this?" + +Still Tisdale was silent. Then Foster's arm fell, and he said desperately: +"Can't you see, Hollis? Weatherbee was greater than either of us, I grant +that. But the one thing in the world you are so sure he most desired--the +lack of which wrecked his life--the one thing I have tried for the hardest +and missed--has fallen to you. Go and ask her to sail to Alaska with you. +You'll need her up there to carry the honors for you. You prize her, you +love her,--you know you do." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE CALF-BOUND NOTEBOOK + + +The statue was great. So Tisdale told Lucky Banks, that day the prospector +met him at the station and they motored around through the park. The +sculptor himself had said he must send people to Weatherbee when they +wanted to see his best work. It was plain his subject had dominated him. +He had achieved with the freedom of pose the suggestion of decision and +power that had been characteristic of David Weatherbee. Quick intelligence +spoke in the face, yet the eyes held their expression of seeing a far +horizon. To Hollis, coming suddenly, as he did, upon the bronze figure in +the Wenatchee sunshine, it seemed to warm with a latent consciousness. He +felt poignantly a sense of David's personality, as he had known him at the +crowning period of his life. + +"It suits me," responded Banks. "My, yes, it's about as good a likeness as +we can get of Dave." He put on his hat, which involuntarily he had +removed, and started the car on around the curve. "But it's a mighty lot +like you. It crops out most in the eyes, seeing things off somewheres, +clear out of sight, and the way you carry your size. You was a team." + +"I am sorry I missed those services," said Tisdale. "I meant to be here." + +Banks nodded. "But it all went off fine. She agreed with me it was the +best place. If I was to go back to Alaska, and she was off somewheres on a +trip, it would be sure to get taken care of here in the park; and, +afterwards, when neither of us can come around to keep things in shape any +more. And I told her how the ranchers up and down the valley would get to +feeling acquainted and friendly with Dave, seeing his statue when they was +in town; and how the fruit-buyers and the pickers, and maybe the tourists, +coming and going, would remember about him and tell everybody they knew; +and how the school children would ask questions about the statue, thinking +he was in the same class with Lincoln and Washington, and be always +telling how he was the first man that looked ahead and saw what water in +this valley could do." + +"You were right, Johnny. The memory of him will live and grow with this +town when the rest of us are forgotten." + +They had turned from the park and went speeding up between the rows of new +poplars along the Alameda, and the prospector's eyes moved over the +reclaimed vale, where acres on acres of young fruit trees in cultivated +squares crowded out the insistent sage. "And this town for a fact is bound +to grow," he said. + +Then at last, when Cerberus loomed near, and they entered the gap, the +little man's big heart rose and his bleak face glowed, under Tisdale's +expressions of wonder and approbation at the advance the vineyards and +orchards had made, so soon after the consummation of the project. Fillers +of alfalfa stretched along the spillways from the main canal like a green +carpet; strawberry plants were blossoming; grapes reached out pale +tendrils and many leaves. But, at the top of the pocket, where the road +began to lift gently in a double curve across the front of the bench, +Hollis dismissed Banks and his red car and walked the rest of the way. On +the rim of the level, near the solitary pine tree, he stopped to look down +on the transformed vale, and suddenly, once more he seemed to feel David's +presence. It was as though he stood beside him and saw all this awakening, +this responding of the desert to his project. Almost it compensated--for +those four days. + +Almost! Tisdale drew his hand across his eyes and turned to follow the +drive between the rows of nodding narcissus. The irony of it! That +Weatherbee should have lived to find the Aurora; that, with many times the +needed capital in sight, he should have lost. The perfume of the flowers +filled the warm atmosphere; the music of running water was everywhere. As +he left the side of the flume, the silver note of the fountain came to him +from the patio, then, like a mirage between him and the low Spanish +building, rose that miniature house he had found in the Alaska wilderness, +with the small snow figure before it, holding a bundle in her arms. + +The vision passed. But that image with the bundle was the one unfinished +problem in the project he had come to solve. + +He entered the court and saw on his right an open door and, across the +wide room, Beatriz Weatherbee. She was seated at a quaint secretary on +which were several bundles of papers, and the familiar box that had +contained David's letters and watch. At the moment Tisdale discovered her, +she was absorbed in a photograph she held in her hands, but at the sound +of his step in the patio she turned and rose to meet him. Her face was +radiant, yet she looked at him through arrested tears. + +"I am sorry if I startled you," he said conventionally. "Banks brought me +from the station, but he left me to walk up the bench." + +"I should have seen the red car down the gap had I been at the window," +she replied, "but I was busy putting away papers. Freight has been moving +slowly over the Great Northern, and my secretary arrived only to-day. It +bore the trip very well, considering its age. It belonged to my +great-grandfather, Don Silva Gonzales. He brought it from Spain, but +Elizabeth says it might have been made for this room. She is walking +somewhere in the direction of the spring." + +While she spoke, she touched her cheeks and eyes swiftly with her +handkerchief and led the way to some chairs between the secretary and the +great window that overlooked the vale. Tisdale did not look at her +directly; he wished to give her time to cover the emotion he had +surprised. + +"I should say the room was built for Don Silva's desk," he amended. "And-- +do you know?--this view reminds me of a little picture of Granada, a +water-color of my mother's, that hung in my room when I was a boy. But +this pocket has changed some since we first saw it; your dragon's teeth +are drawn." + +"Isn't it marvelous how the expression of the whole mountain has altered?" +she responded. "There, at the end of the pines, that looked like a +bristling mane, the green gables of Mrs. Banks' home have changed the +contour. And the Chelan peaks are showing now beyond it. That day the +farther ones were obscured. But we watched the rain tramp up Hesperides +Vale, you remember, and swing off unexpectedly to the near summits. There +was a rainbow, and I said that perhaps somewhere in this valley I should +find my pot of gold." + +"I remember. And I shouldn't be surprised if you do." + +"Do you think I do not know I have already?" she asked. "Do you think I +have no appreciation, no gratitude? Why, even had I been too dull to see +it, Elizabeth would have told me that this house alone, to say nothing of +the project, must have cost a good deal of money; and that, no matter how +deeply Mr. Banks may have felt his obligation to David, it was not in +reason he should have allowed everything to revert to me. But I told him I +should consider the investment as a loan, and now, since he has let me +know the truth"--her voice fluctuated softly--"I shall make it a debt of +honor just the same. Sometime--I shall repay you." + +It was very clear to Tisdale that though she saw the property had so +greatly increased in value, and that the reclamation movement in the outer +vale made the tract readily salable, she no longer considered placing it +on the market. "I thought Banks showed you a way easily to cancel that +loan," he began. But meeting her look, he paused; his glance returned to +the window while he felt in his pocket for that deed Foster had refused to +bring. It was going to be more difficult than he had foreseen to offer it +to her. "Madam," and compelling his eyes to brave hers, he slightly +frowned, "your share in the Aurora mine should pay you enough in dividends +the next season or two to refund all that has been expended on this +project." + +"My share in the Aurora mine?" she repeated. "But I see, I see. You have +been maligned into giving me the interest David conveyed to you. Oh, Mr. +Banks told me about that. How you were attacked at the trial; the use that +was made of that Indian story in the magazine; that monstrous editorial +note." + +Tisdale smiled. "That had nothing to do with it. This deed was drawn last +year as soon as I reached Washington. David knew the value of the Aurora. +That is the reason he risked another winter there, in the face of--all-- +that threatened him. And when he felt the fight was going against him, he +turned his interest over to me, not only as security on the small loan I +advanced to him, but because I was his partner, and he could trust me to +finish, his development work and put the mine on a paying basis. That is +accomplished. There is no reason now that I should not transfer his share +back to you." + +He rose to give her the deed, and she took it with reluctance and glanced +it over. "I think it is arranged about as David would have wished," he +added. "He had confidence in Foster." + +She looked up. "Mr. Foster knows how I regard the matter. I told him I +would not accept an interest in the Aurora mine. I said all the gold in +Alaska could not compensate you for--what you did. Besides, I do not +believe as you do, Mr. Tisdale. I think David meant his share should be +finally yours." + +Hollis was silent. He stood looking off again over Cerberus to the loftier +Chelan peaks. For a moment she sat regarding his broad back; her lip +trembled a little, and a tenderness, welling from depths of compassion, +brimmed her eyes. "You see I cannot possibly accept it," she said, and +rose to return the deed to him. + +She had forgotten the photograph, which dropped from her lap, and Tisdale +stooped to pick it up. It was lying face upward on the floor, and he saw +it was the picture of a child; then involuntarily he stopped to scan it, +and it came over him this small face, so beautifully molded, so full of +intelligence and charm, was a reproduction of Weatherbee in miniature; yet +retouched by a blend of the mother; her eyes under David's level brows. He +put the picture in her hand and an unspoken question flashed in the look +that met hers. + +Since he had not relieved her of the deed, she laid it down on the +secretary to take the photograph. + +"This is a picture of little Silva," she said. "It would have made a +difference about the share in the Aurora if he had lived. He must have +been provided for. David would have seen to that." + +"There was a child!" His voice rang softly like a vibrant string. "You +spoke of him that night you were lost above Scenic Springs, but I thought +it was a fancy of delirium. It seemed incredible that David should not +have told me if he had a son." + +She did not answer directly, but nodded a little and moved back to her +chair. + +"He was christened Silva Falconer, for my mother's father and mine," she +said. "They both were greatly disappointed in not having a son. I am going +to tell you about him, only it will be a long story; please be seated. And +it would be easier if you would not look at me." + +She waited while he settled again in his chair and turned his eyes to the +blue mountain tops. She was still able to see his face. "Silva was over +six months old when this photograph was taken," she began. "It was lost, +with the letter to David that enclosed it, on some terrible Alaska trail. +Afterwards, when the mailbag was recovered and the letter was returned to +me through the dead-letter office, two years had passed, and our little +boy was--gone. You must understand I expected David back that first +winter, and when word came that his expedition to the interior had failed, +and he had arranged to stay in the north in order to make an early start +in the following spring, I did not want to spoil his plans. So I answered +as gayly as I could and told him it would give me an opportunity to make a +long visit home to California. I went far south to Jacinta and Carlos. +They were caretakers at the old hacienda. My mother had managed that, with +the people who bought the rancheria and built the hotel and sanitarium. +Jacinta had been her nurse and mine. She was very experienced. But Silva +was born lame. He could not use his lower limbs. A great specialist, who +came to the hotel, said he might possibly recover under treatment, but if +he should not in a year or two, certain cords must be cut to allow him to +sit in a wheel chair, and in that case I must give up hope he would ever +walk. But--the treatment was very painful--Jacinta could not bear to-- +torture him; I could not afford a trained nurse; so--I did everything. He +was the dearest baby; so lovable. He never was cross, but he used to +nestle his cheek in my neck and explain how it hurt and coax me not to. +Not in words, but I understood--every sound. And he understood me, I know. +'You are going to blame me, by and by, if I stop,' I would say, over and +over; 'you are going to blame me for bringing you into the world.'" + +Her voice broke; her breast labored with short, quick breaths, as though +she were climbing some sharp ascent. Tisdale did not look at her; his face +stirred and settled in grim lines. + +"I could not write all this about our baby," she went on, "and I told +myself if the treatment failed it would be soon enough for David to know +of Silva when he came home. There was nothing he could do, and to share my +anxiety might hamper him in his work. He wrote glowingly of the new placer +he had discovered, and that was a relief to me, for I was obliged to ask +him to send me a good deal of money,--the specialist's account had been so +large. I believed he would start south when the Alaska season closed, for +he had written I might expect him then, with his pockets full of gold +dust, and I made my letters entertaining--or tried to--so he need not feel +any need to hurry. At last, one morning in the bath, when Silva was five +months old, he moved his right limb voluntarily. I shall never forget. It +renewed my courage and my faith. At the end of another month he moved the +left one, and after that, gradually, full use came to them both. It was +then, when the paralysis was mastered, I sent the letter that was lost. At +the same time David wrote that he must spend a second winter in Alaska. +But before that news reached me, my reaction set in. I was so ill I was +carried, unconscious, to the sanitarium. And, while I was there, Silva, +who had grown so sturdy and was creeping everywhere, followed his kitten +into the garden, and a little later old Jacinta found him in the arroyo. +There was only a little water running but--he had fallen--face down." + +Tisdale rose. Meeting her look, the emotion that was the surface stir of +shaken depths swept his face. Then, as though to blot out the +recollection, she pressed her fingers to her eyes. + +"And David was thousands of miles away," he said. "You braved that alone, +like the soldier you are." + +"When I read David's letter," she went on, "he was winter-bound in the +interior. A reply could not have reached him until spring. And meantime +Elizabeth Morganstein came with her mother to the hotel. We had been, +friends at boarding-school, and she persuaded me to go north to Seattle +with them. Later, after the _Aquila_ was launched in the spring, I was +invited to join the family on a cruise up the inside passage and across +the top of the Pacific to Prince William Sound. It seemed so much easier +to tell David everything than to write, so--I only let him know I intended +to sail to Valdez with friends and would go on by mail steamer to Seward +to visit him. That had been his last post-office address, and I believed +he expected to be in that neighborhood when the season opened. But our +stay was lengthened at Juneau, where we were entertained by acquaintances +of Mrs. Feversham's, and we spent a long time around Taku glacier and the +Muir. I missed my steamer connections, and there was not another boat due +within a week. But the weather was delightful, and Mr. Morganstein +suggested taking me on in the yacht. Then Mrs. Feversham proposed a side +trip along Columbia glacier and into College fiord. It was all very +wonderful to me, and inspiring; the salt air had been a restorative from +the start. And I saw no reason to hurry the party. David would understand. +So, the second mail steamer passed us, and finally, when we reached +Seward, David had gone back to the interior. The rest--you know." + +"You mean," said Tisdale slowly, "you heard about Mrs. Barbour." + +She bowed affirmatively. The color swept in a wave to her face; her lashes +fell. + +"Mrs. Feversham heard about it, how David had brought her down from the +interior. I saw the cabin he had furnished for her, and she herself, +sewing at the window. Her face was beautiful." + +There was a silence, then Hollis said: "So you came back on the _Aquila_ +to Seattle. But you wrote; you explained about the child?" + +She shook her head. "I waited to hear from David first. I did not know, +then, that the letter with Silva's picture was lost." + +Tisdale squared his shoulders, looking off again to the snow-peaks above +Cerberus. + +"Consider!" She rose with an outward movement of her hands, like one +groping in the dark for a closed door. "It was a terrible mistake, but I +did not know David as you knew him. My father, who was dying, arranged our +marriage. I was very young and practically without money in a big city; +there was not another relative in the world who cared what became of me. +And, in any case, even had I known the meaning of love and marriage, in +that hour,--when I was losing him,--I must have agreed to anything he +asked. We had been everything to each other; everything. But I've been a +proud woman; sensitive to slight. It was in the blood--both sides. And I +had been taught early to cover my feelings. My father had adored my +mother; he used to remind me she was patrician to the finger-tips, and +that I should not wear my heart on my sleeve if I wished to be like her. +And, when I visited my grandfather, Don Silva, in the south, he would say: +'Beatriz, remember the blood of generations of soldiers is bottled in you; +carry yourself like the last Gonzales, with some fortitude.' So--at +Seward--I remembered." + +Her voice, while she said this, almost failed, but every word reached +Tisdale. He felt, without seeing, the something that was appeal yet not +appeal, that keyed her whole body and shone like a changing light and +shade in her face. "I told myself I would not be sacrificed, effaced," she +went on. "It was my individuality against Fate. Since little Silva was +dead, my life was my own to shape as I might. I did not hear from David +for a long time; he wrote less and less frequently, more briefly every +year. He never spoke of the baby, and I believed he must have heard +through some friend in California of Silva's death. Nothing was left to +tell. He never spoke of his home-coming, and I did not; I dreaded it too +much. Whenever the last steamers of the season were due, I nerved myself +to look the passenger lists over; and when his name was missing, it was a +reprieve. Neither my father nor my grandfather had believed in divorce; in +their eyes it was disgrace. It seemed right, for Silva's sake, out of the +rich placers David continued to find, he should contribute to my support. +So--I lived my life--the best I was able. I had many interests, and always +one morning of each week I spent among the children at the hospital where +I had endowed the Silva Weatherbee bed." + +She paused so long that Tisdale turned. She seemed very tired. The patient +lines, fine as a thread, deepened perceptibly at the corners of her mouth. +He hurried to save her further explanation. "Foster told me," he said. "It +was a beautiful memorial. Sometime I should like to go there with you. I +know you met the first expense of that endowment with a loan from Miss +Morganstein, which of course you expected to cancel soon, when you had +found David at Seward. I understand how, when the note came into her +brother's hands, your only chance to meet it at once was through a sale of +this land. And I have thought since I knew this, that evening aboard the +_Aquila_, when you risked Don Silva's ruby, it was to make the yearly +payment at the hospital." + +"Yes, it was. But the option money from Mr. Banks made it possible to meet +all my debts. I did not know they were only assumed--by you. Though, +looking back, I wonder I failed to see the truth." + +With this she turned and took up the photograph which she had laid on the +secretary, and while her glance rested on the picture, Tisdale's regarded +her face. "So," he said then, "when the lost letter came back to you, you +kept it; Weatherbee never knew." + +She looked up. "Yes, I kept it. By that time I believed little Silva's +coming and going could make little difference to him." + +"And you went on believing all you had heard at Seward?" + +She bowed again affirmatively. "Until you told me the true story about +Mrs. Barbour that night on the mountain road. I know now that once he must +have loved me, as you believed. This house, which is built so nearly like +the old hacienda where I was born, must have been planned for me. But, +afterwards, when he thought I had failed him, when he contrasted me with +Mrs. Barbour, her devotion to her husband, it was different." + +She laid the photograph down again to draw the tin box forward. The +letters were on the desk with David's watch, but there still remained a +calf-bound notebook, such as surveyors use in field work. It fitted snugly +enough for a false bottom, and she was obliged to reverse the box to +remove it, prying slightly with a paper-knife. Tisdale's name was lettered +across the cover, and the first pages were written in his clear, fine +draughtsman's hand; then the characters changed to Weatherbee's. She +turned to the last ones. + +"This is a book you left among some old magazines at David's camp," she +explained. "He carried it with him until he discovered the Aurora. He +began to use it as a sort of diary. Sometime you will want to read it all, +but please read these last notes and this letter now." + +She waited a moment, then as he took up the letter and began to unfold it, +she turned and went out into the patio. + +The letter was from Lilias Barbour. It was friendly, earnest, full of her +child and a gentle solicitude for Weatherbee. Hollis read it through +twice, slowly. The last paragraph he went over a third time. "You are +staying too long in that bleak country,"--so it ran. "Come back to the +States, at least for a winter. If you do not, in the spring, Bee and I are +going to Alaska to learn the reason. We owe it to you." + +The date was the end of August, of the same year David had written that +final letter which reached him the following spring at Nome. But the date +on the open page of the notebook was the fifteenth of January of that +winter, his last at the Aurora mine. + +"Last night I dreamed of Beatriz," it began. "I thought I went down to +Seward to meet her, and when the steamer came, I saw her standing on the +forward deck, waving her hand gaily and smiling just as she did that day I +left her at Seattle so long ago. Then, as the ship came alongside the +dock, and she walked down the gangway, and I took her hand to kiss her, +her face suddenly changed. She was not Beatriz; she was Lilias. My God, if +it had been Lilias! Why, she would be here now, she and little Bee, +filling this frozen cabin with summer." + +The final date was two months later. + +"Still snowing," it ran. "Snowing. God, how I want to break away from this +hole. Get out somewhere, where men are alive and doing things. Nothing is +moving here but the snow and those two black buttes out there. They keep +crowding closer through the smother, watching everything I do. I've warned +them to keep back. They must, or I'll blow them off the face of the earth. +Oh, I'll do it, if it takes all that's left of the dynamite. I won't have +them threatening Lilias when she comes. She is coming; she said she would, +unless I went out to the States. And I can't go; I haven't heard from +Tisdale. I never have told her about those buttes. It's unusual; she might +not believe it; she would worry and think, perhaps, I am growing like +Barbour. God! Suppose I am. Suppose she should come up here in this +wilderness to find me a wreck like him. She must not come. I've got to +prevent it. But I've offered my half interest in the Aurora to Tisdale. He +will take it. He never failed me yet." + +Tisdale closed the book and laid it down. Furrows seamed his face, +changing, re-forming, to the inner upheaval. After awhile, he lifted +Weatherbee's watch from the desk and mechanically pressed the spring. The +lower case opened, but the picture he remembered was not there. In its +place was the face of the other child, his namesake, "Bee." + +Out in the patio the pool rippled ceaselessly; the fountain threw its +silver ribbon of spray, and Beatriz waited, listening, with her eyes +turned to the room she had left. At last she heard his step. It was the +tread of a man whose decision was made. She sank down on the curb of the +basin near one of the palms. Behind her an open door, creaking in the +light wind, swung wide, and beyond it the upper flume stretched back to +the natural reservoir where she had been imprisoned by the fallen pine +tree. His glance, as he crossed the court, moved from her through this +door and back to her face. + +"You were right," he said. "But it would have been different if David had +known about his child. His great heart was starved." + +She was silent. Her glance fell to the fountain. A ray of sunshine +slanting across it formed a rainbow. + +"But my mistake was greater than yours," he went on, and his voice struck +its minor chord; "I have no excuse for throwing away those four days. I +never can repair that, but I pledge myself to make you forget my injustice +to you." + +At this she rose. "You were not unjust--knowing David as you did. You +taught me how fine, how great he was. Silva--would have been proud of his +name." + +There was another silence. Tisdale looked off again through the open door +to the distant basin, and her glance returned to the fountain. "See!" she +exclaimed. "A double rainbow!" + +"Fate is with us again," he replied. "She's promising a better fight. But +there is one debt more, soldier," and, catching her swift look, he saw the +sparkles break softly in her eyes. "My ship sails for Alaska the tenth; I +shall stay indefinitely, and I want you to pay me--in full--before I go." + + +THE END + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Rim of the Desert, by Ada Woodruff Anderson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RIM OF THE DESERT *** + +***** This file should be named 13343.txt or 13343.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/3/4/13343/ + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Richard Prairie 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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