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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Damaged Reputation, by Harold Bindloss
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Damaged Reputation
+
+Author: Harold Bindloss
+
+Release Date: October 15, 2011 [EBook #37761]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAMAGED REPUTATION ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was
+produced from scanned images of public domain material
+from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A DAMAGED
+REPUTATION
+
+BY HAROLD BINDLOSS
+
+AUTHOR OF "ALTON OF SOMASCO"
+"MISTRESS OF BONAVENTURE" ETC., ETC.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+R. F. FENNO & COMPANY
+18 EAST 17TH STREET, NEW YORK
+
+Copyright, 1908, by
+R. F. FENNO & COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+  CONTENTS.
+
+  CHAPTER I.                          PAGE
+  Brooke Pauses to Reflect               9
+
+  CHAPTER II.
+  Brooke Takes the Trail                25
+
+  CHAPTER III.
+  The Narrow Way                        37
+
+  CHAPTER IV.
+  Saxton Makes an Offer                 51
+
+  CHAPTER V.
+  Barbara Renews an Acquaintance        64
+
+  CHAPTER VI.
+  An Arduous Journey                    79
+
+  CHAPTER VII.
+  Allonby's Illusion                    91
+
+  CHAPTER VIII.
+  A Bold Venture                       104
+
+  CHAPTER IX.
+  Devine Makes a Suggestion            121
+
+  CHAPTER X.
+  The Flume Builder                    135
+
+  CHAPTER XI.
+  An Embarrassing Position             151
+
+  CHAPTER XII.
+  Brooke is Carried Away               166
+
+  CHAPTER XIII.
+  The Old Love                         179
+
+  CHAPTER XIV.
+  Brooke Has Visitors                  193
+
+  CHAPTER XV.
+  Saxton Gains His Point               209
+
+  CHAPTER XVI.
+  Barbara's Responsibility             222
+
+  CHAPTER XVII.
+  Brooke Attempts Burglary             236
+
+  CHAPTER XVIII.
+  Brooke Makes a Decision              249
+
+  CHAPTER XIX.
+  Brooke's Bargain                     264
+
+  CHAPTER XX.
+  The Bridging of the Caņon            278
+
+  CHAPTER XXI.
+  Devine's Offer                       293
+
+  CHAPTER XXII.
+  The Unexpected Happens               305
+
+  CHAPTER XXIII.
+  Brooke's Confession                  317
+
+  CHAPTER XXIV.
+  Allonby Strikes Silver               334
+
+  CHAPTER XXV.
+  Barbara is Merciless                 350
+
+  CHAPTER XXVI.
+  The Jumping of the Canopus           365
+
+  CHAPTER XXVII.
+  The Last Round                       381
+
+  CHAPTER XXVIII.
+  Brooke Does Not Come Back            395
+
+  CHAPTER XXIX.
+  A Final Effort                       406
+
+  CHAPTER XXX.
+  The Other Chance                     419
+
+  CHAPTER XXXI.
+  Brooke is Forgiven                   431
+
+
+
+
+A DAMAGED REPUTATION.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+BROOKE PAUSES TO REFLECT.
+
+
+It was a still, hot night, and the moon hung round and full above the
+cedars, when rancher Brooke sat in his comfortless shanty with a whisky
+bottle at his hand. The door stood open, and the drowsy fragrance of the
+coniferous forest stole into the room, while when he glanced in that
+direction he could see hemlock and cedar, redwood and balsam, tower,
+great black spires, against the luminous blueness of the night. Far
+above them gleamed the untrodden snow that clothed the great peaks with
+spotless purity; but this was melting fast under the autumn sun, and the
+river that swirled by the shanty sang noisily among the boulders.
+
+There are few more beautiful valleys than that one among all the ranges
+of British Columbia, but its wild grandeur made little impression upon
+Brooke that night. He felt that a crisis in his affairs was at hand,
+and he must face it boldly or go under once for all, for it was borne in
+upon him that he had already drifted perilously far. His face, however,
+grew a trifle grim, and his fingers closed irresolutely on the neck of
+the bottle, for drifting was easy in that country, and pleasant, so long
+as one did not remember.
+
+Even when the great peaks were rolled in tempest cloud, the snow fell
+but lightly among the Quatomac pines. Bright sunlight shone on them for
+weeks together, and it was but seldom a cold blast whipped the still,
+blue lake where the shadows of the cedars that distilled ambrosial
+essences lay asleep. There were deer and blue grouse in the woods,
+salmon in the river, and big trout in the lake; and the deleterious
+whisky purveyed at the nearest settlement was not inordinately dear. It
+had, however, dawned on Brooke by degrees that there were many things he
+could not find at Quatomac which men of his upbringing hold necessary.
+
+In the meanwhile, his sole comrade, Jimmy, who assisted him to loaf the
+greater part of every day away, watched him with a curious little smile.
+Jimmy was big, loose-limbed, and slouching, but in his own way he was
+wise, and he had seen more than one young Englishman of Brooke's
+description take the down-grade in that colony.
+
+"Feeling kind of low to-night?" he said, suggestively. "Now, I'd have
+been quite lively if Tom Gordon's Bella had made up to me. Bella's nice
+to look at, and 'most as smart with the axe as a good many men I know.
+I guess if you got her you wouldn't have anything to do."
+
+Brooke's bronzed face flushed a trifle as he saw his comrade's grin, for
+it was what had passed between him and Tom Gordon's Bella at the
+settlement that afternoon which had thrust before him the question what
+his life was to be. He had also not surmised that Jimmy or anybody else
+beyond themselves had been present at that meeting among the pines.
+Bella was certainly pretty and wholly untaught, while, though he had
+made no attempts to gain her favor they had not been necessary, since
+the maid had with disconcerting frankness conferred it upon him. She
+had, in fact, made it evident that she considered him her property, and
+Brooke wondered uneasily how far he had tacitly accepted the position.
+His irresponsive coolness had proved no deterrent; he could neither be
+brutal, nor continually run away; and there were times when he had
+almost resigned himself to the prospect of spending the rest of his life
+with her, though he fancied he realized what the result of that would
+be. The woman had the waywardness and wildness of the creatures of the
+forest, and almost as little sensibility, while he was unpleasantly
+conscious that he was already sinking fast to her level. With a soulless
+mate, swayed by primitive instincts and passions, and a little further
+indulgence in bad whisky, it was evident that he might very well sink a
+good deal further, and Brooke had once had his ideals and aspirations.
+
+"Jimmy," he said, slowly, "I'm thinking of going away."
+
+Jimmy shook out his corn-cob pipe, and apparently ruminated. "Well, I'd
+'most have expected it," he said. "The question is, where you're going
+to, and what you're going to do? You don't get your grub for nothing
+everywhere, and living's cheap here. It only costs the cartridges, and
+the deerhides pay the tea and flour. Besides, you put a pile of dollars
+into this place, didn't you?"
+
+"Most of six thousand, and I've taken about two hundred out. Of course I
+was a fool."
+
+Jimmy nodded with a tranquil concurrence which his comrade might not
+have been pleased with at another time.
+
+"Bought it on survey, without looking at it?" he said. "Going to make
+your fortune growing fruit! It's kind of unfortunate that big peaches
+and California plums don't grow on rocks."
+
+Brooke sat moodily silent awhile. He had, as his comrade had mentioned,
+bought the four hundred acres of virgin soil without examining it, which
+is not such an especially unusual proceeding on the part of
+newly-arrived young Englishmen, and partly explains why some land-agency
+companies pay big dividends. For twelve months he had toiled with hope,
+strenuously hewing down the great redwoods which cumbered his
+possessions; and expended the rest of his scanty capital in hiring
+assistance. It was only in the second year that the truth dawned on him,
+and he commenced to realize that treble the sum he could lay hands upon
+would not clear the land, and that in all probability it would grow
+nothing worth marketing then. In the meanwhile something had happened
+which made it easier for him to accept the inevitable, and losing hold
+of hope he had made the most of the present and ignored the future. It
+was sufficient that the forest and the river fed him during most of the
+year, and he could earn a few dollars hewing trails for the Government
+when they did not. His aspirations had vanished, and he dwelt, almost,
+if not quite, content in a state of apathetic resignation which is not
+wholesome for the educated Englishman.
+
+It was Jimmy who broke the silence.
+
+"What was it you done back there in England? I never asked you before,"
+he said.
+
+Brooke smiled somewhat drily, for it was not a very unusual question in
+that country. "Nothing the police could lay hands on me for. I only
+quarrelled with my bread and butter. I had plenty of it at one time, you
+see."
+
+"That means the folks who gave it you?" said Jimmy.
+
+"Exactly. It was the evident duty of one of them to leave me his
+property, and I think he would have done it, only he insisted on me
+taking a wife he had fixed upon as suitable along with it. There was,
+however, the difficulty that I had made my own choice in the meanwhile.
+I believe the old man was right now, though I did not think so then, and
+when we had words on the subject I came out to make a home for the other
+woman here."
+
+"And you let up after two years of it?"
+
+"I did," said Brooke, with a trace of bitterness. "The girl, however,
+did not wait so long. Before I'd been gone half the time she married a
+richer man."
+
+Jimmy nodded. "There are women made that way," he said reflectively.
+"Still, you wouldn't have to worry 'bout Bella. Once you showed her who
+was to do the bossing--with a nice handy strap--she'd stick to you good
+and tight, and 'most scratch the eyes out of any one who said a word
+against her husband. Still, I figure she's not quite the kind of woman
+you would have married in the old country."
+
+That was very evident, and Brooke sat silent while the memories of his
+life in the land he had left crowded upon him. He also recoiled from the
+brutality of the one his comrade had pictured him leading with the maid
+of the bush, though it had seemed less appalling when she stood before
+him, vigorous and comely, a few hours ago. He had, however, made no
+advances to her. On that point, at least, his mind was clear, and now he
+realized clearly what the result of such a match must be. Yet he knew
+his own loneliness and the maid's pertinacity, and once more it was
+borne in upon him that to stay where he was would mean disaster. Rising
+abruptly he flung the bottle out into the night, and then, while Jimmy
+stared at him with astonishment and indignation, laughed curiously as he
+heard it crash against a stone.
+
+"That's the commencement of the change," he said. "After this I'll pitch
+every bottle you bring up from the settlement into the river."
+
+"Well," said Jimmy, resignedly, "I guess I can bring the whisky up
+inside of me, and you'd get hurt considerable if you tried slinging me
+into the river. The trouble is, however, I'd be seeing panthers all the
+way up whenever I brought along a little extra, and I'm most scared of
+panthers when they aren't there."
+
+Brooke laughed again, for, as he had discovered, men take life lightly
+in that country, but just then the soft beat of horse hoofs rose from
+across the river, and a cry came out of the darkness.
+
+"Strangers!" said Jimmy. "Quite a crowd of them. With the river coming
+down as she's doing it's a risky ford. We'll have to go across."
+
+They went, rather more than waist-deep in the snow-water which swirled
+frothing about them, for the ford was perilous, with a big black pool
+close below; and found a mounted party waiting them on the other side.
+There was an elderly man who sat very straight in his saddle with his
+hand on his hip, and Brooke, at least, recognized the bearing of one
+who had commanded cavalry in the Old Country. There was also a younger
+man, dismounted and smoking a cigarette, two girls on Cayuse ponies, and
+an Indian, whose appearance suggested inebriation, holding the bridles
+of the baggage mules. The men were certainly not ranchers or
+timber-right prospectors, but now and then of late a fishing party had
+passed that way into the wilderness.
+
+"I understand the ford is not very safe, and the Indian has contrived to
+leave our tents behind," said the older man. "If you can take us across,
+and find the ladies, at least, shelter of any kind for the night, it
+would be a kindness for which I should be glad to make any suitable
+recompense."
+
+Jimmy grinned, for it was evident that the speaker was an insular
+Englishman, and quite unacquainted with the customs of that country,
+wherein no rancher accepts payment for a night's hospitality. Brooke
+had, however, a certain sense of humor, and touched his big shapeless
+hat, which is also never done in Western Canada.
+
+"They can have it, sir," he said. "That is, if they're not very
+particular. Take the lady's bridle, Jimmy. Keep behind him, sir."
+
+Jimmy did as he was bidden, and Brooke seized the bridle of the Cayuse
+the other girl rode. The half-tamed beast, however, objected to entering
+the water, and edged away from it, then rose with forehoofs in the air
+while Brooke smote it on the nostrils with his fist. The girl, he
+noticed, said nothing, and showed no sign of fear, though the rest were
+half-way across before he had an opportunity of doing more than cast a
+glance at her. Then, as he stood waist-deep in water patting the
+trembling beast, he looked up.
+
+"I hope you're not afraid," he said. "It will be a trifle deeper
+presently."
+
+He stopped with a curious abruptness as she turned her head, and stood
+still with his hand on the bridle a moment or two gazing at her. She
+sat, lithe and slim, but very shapely, with the skirt of the loose light
+habit she had gathered in one hand just clear of the sliding foam, and
+revealing the little foot in the stirrup. The moon, which hung round and
+full behind her shoulder, touched one side of the face beneath the big
+white hat with silvery light, that emphasized the ivory gleam of the
+firm white neck. He could also just catch the sparkle of her eyes in the
+shadow, and her freshness and daintiness came upon him as a revelation.
+It was so long since he had seen a girl of the station she evidently
+belonged to. Then she laughed, and it seemed to him that her voice was
+in keeping with her appearance, for it reached him through the clamor of
+the river, soft and musical.
+
+"Oh, no," she said. "What are we stopping for?"
+
+Brooke, who had seldom been at a loss for a neat rejoinder in England,
+felt his face grow hot as he smote the pony's neck.
+
+"I really don't know. I think it was the Cayuse stopped," he said.
+
+The girl smiled. "One would fancy that the water was a trifle too cold
+for even a pony of that kind to be anxious to stay in it."
+
+They went on with a plunge and a flounder, and twice Brooke came near
+being swept off his feet, for the pony seemed bent on taking the
+shortest way to the other bank, which was, as it happened, not quite the
+safest one. Still, they came through the river, and Brooke dragged the
+Cayuse up the bank in time to see the rest disappear into the shanty.
+Then he boldly held up his hand, and felt a curious little thrill run
+through him as he swung his companion down.
+
+"It was very good of you to come across for us, and I am afraid you must
+be very wet," she said. "This is really a quite inadequate recompense."
+
+Then she turned and left him with the pony, staring vaguely after her,
+flushed in face, with a big piece of minted silver in his hand. It was
+at least a minute before he slipped it into his pocket with a curious
+little laugh.
+
+"This is almost too much, and I don't know what has come over me. There
+was a time when I would have been quite equal to the occasion," he
+said.
+
+Then he turned away to the stables, where Jimmy, who came in with an
+armful of clothing, found him rubbing down the Cayuse with unusual
+solicitude, in spite of its attempts to kick him.
+
+"I guess you'll have to change," he said. "Those things aren't decent,
+and you can put the deerskin ones on. The old man's a high-toned
+Englishman going camping and fishing, and, by what she said, the younger
+girl's struck on frontiersmen. When you get into that jacket you'll look
+the real thing."
+
+Brooke had no great desire to look like one of the picturesque
+desperadoes who are, somewhat erroneously, supposed, in England, to
+wander about the Pacific Slope, but as he mended his own clothes with
+any convenient piece of flour bag, he saw that his comrade's advice was
+good.
+
+When he entered the shanty Jimmy had supper ready, but he realized, as
+he had never done since he raised its log walls, the comfortless squalor
+of the room. The red dust had blown into it, it was littered with
+discarded clothing, lines and traps, and broken boots, while two
+candles, which flickered in the draughts, stuck in whisky bottles,
+furnished uncertain illumination. He had made the unsteady table, and
+Jimmy had made the chairs, but the result was no great credit to either
+of them, while nobody who was not very hungry would have considered the
+meal his comrade laid out inviting. Still, his guests had evidently no
+fault to find with it, and during it the girl whose pony he had led
+once or twice glanced covertly at him.
+
+She saw a tall man with a bronzed face of not unpleasant English type,
+attired picturesquely in fringed deerskin which had crossed the
+mountains from the prairie. He had grey eyes, and his hair was crisped
+by the sun; but while he was, she decided, distinctly, personable and
+still young, there was something in his expression which puzzled her. It
+was neither diffidence nor embarrassment, and yet there was a suggestion
+of constraint about him which his comrade was wholly free from. Brooke,
+on his part, saw a girl with brown eyes and hair who held herself well,
+and had a faint suggestion of imperiousness about her, and wondered with
+an uneasiness he was by no means accustomed to what she thought of him,
+since he felt that the condition of his dwelling must show her the
+shiftless life he led. Still, he shook off that thought, and others that
+troubled him, and played his part as host, talking, with a purpose, only
+of the Canadian bush, until, when the meal was over, Jimmy, who felt
+himself being left out, turned to the guests.
+
+"A little whisky would have come in to settle those fried potatoes
+down," he said. "I would have offered you some, but my partner here
+slung the bottle into the river just before you came."
+
+There was a trace of a smile in the face of the grey-haired man, but the
+girl with the brown eyes looked up sharply, and once more Brooke felt
+his face grow a trifle hot. Men do not as a rule fling whisky bottles
+into rivers without a cogent reason, especially in Canada, where liquor
+is scarce. He was, however, both astonished and annoyed at himself that
+he should attach the slightest value to this stranger's good opinion.
+
+Then, when the others seconded Jimmy's suggestion, he took a dingy
+fiddle from its case, and, although there is little a rancher of that
+country will not do for the pleasure of a chance guest, wondered why he
+had complied so readily. He played French-Canadian dances, as the
+inhabitants play them, and though only some of them may be classed as
+music, became sensible that there was a curious silence of attention.
+
+"That violin has a beautiful mellow tone," said the younger girl, whom
+he had scarcely noticed. "I am, however, quite aware that there is a
+good deal in the bowing."
+
+"It might have!" said Jimmy, who disregarded his comrade's glance.
+"There was once a man came along here who said it would fetch the most
+of one thousand dollars. Still, every old Canadian lumberman can play
+those things, and you ought to hear him on the one he calls the
+Chopping. Play it for them, and I'll open the door so they can see the
+night and hear the river singing."
+
+The military gentleman stared at him, and even the girl with the brown
+eyes, who was very reposeful, appeared surprised at this flight of
+fancy, which nobody would, from his appearance, have expected of Jimmy.
+
+"The Chopping? Oh, yes, of course I understand," she said. "This is the
+place of all places for it. We have never heard it in such
+surroundings."
+
+Brooke smiled a little. "I'm afraid it is difficult to get moonlight and
+mystery out of an American steel first string," he said. "One can't keep
+it from screaming on the shifting."
+
+He drew the bow across the strings, and save for the fret of the
+snow-fed river which rose and fell in deep undertone, there was a
+curious silence in the room. The younger girl watched the player with
+grave appreciation in her eyes, and a little flush crept into her
+companion's cheek. Perhaps she was thinking of the dollar she had given
+the man who could play the famous nocturne as she had rarely heard it
+played before, and owned what, though she could scarcely believe it to
+be a genuine Cremona, was evidently an old Italian fiddle of no mean
+value. There was also silence for at least a minute after he had laid
+down the bow, and then Brooke held out the violin to the girl who had
+praised its tone.
+
+"Would you care to try the instrument?" he said.
+
+"No," said the girl, with quiet decisiveness. "Not after that, though it
+is, I think, a better one than I have ever handled."
+
+"And I fancy I should explain that she is studying under an eminent
+teacher, who professes himself perfectly satisfied with her progress,"
+said the man with the grey hair.
+
+Brooke said nothing. He knew the compliment was sincere enough, but he
+had seen the appreciation in the other girl's eyes, and that pleased him
+most. Then, as he put away the fiddle the man turned to him again.
+
+"I am far from satisfied with our Siwash guide," he said. "In fact, I am
+by no means sure that he knows the country, and as we propose making for
+the big lake and camping by it, I should prefer to send him back if you
+could recommend us anybody who would take us there."
+
+Brooke felt a curious little thrill of anticipation, but it was the girl
+with the brown eyes he glanced at. She, of course, said nothing, but,
+though it seemed preposterous, Brooke fancied that she knew what he was
+thinking and was not displeased.
+
+"With your approval I would come myself, sir," he said. "There is
+nothing just now to keep me at the ranch."
+
+The other man professed himself pleased, and before Brooke retired to
+his couch in the stable the matter was arranged. He did not, however,
+fall asleep for several hours, which was a distinctly unusual thing with
+him, and then the face of the brown-eyed girl followed him into his
+dreams. Its reposefulness had impressed him the more because of the
+hint of strength and pride behind it, and again he saw her sitting
+fearlessly on the plunging horse in the midst of the river with the moon
+round and full behind her.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+BROOKE TAKES THE TRAIL.
+
+
+The sun had not cleared the dark firs upon the steep hillside, though
+the snow on the peaks across the valley glowed with saffron light, when
+Brooke came upon the girl with the brown eyes sitting on a cedar trunk
+beside the river, and she looked up with a smile when he stopped beside
+her. There was nobody else about, for the rest of the party had
+apparently not risen yet, and Jimmy had set out to catch a trout for
+breakfast. Save for the song of the river all the pine-shrouded hollow
+was very still.
+
+"I was wondering if I might ask what you thought of this country?" said
+Brooke. "It is, of course, the usual question."
+
+The girl laughed a little. "If you really wish to know, I think it is
+the grandest there is on this earth, as I believe it will be one of the
+greatest. Still, my liking for it isn't so astonishing, because,
+although I have lived in England, I am a Canadian."
+
+Brooke made a little deprecatory gesture. "It's a mistake I've been led
+into before, and I'm not sure you would consider it a compliment if I
+told you that I scarcely supposed you belonged to Canada. It also
+reminds me of a friend of mine who had spent a few months in Spain, and
+took some pains to teach a man, who, though he was not aware of it, had
+lived fifteen years in Cuba, Castilian. Still, perhaps you will tell me
+what you thought of England."
+
+The girl did not invite him, but she drew her skirt a trifle aside, and
+Brooke sat down upon the log beside her. She looked even daintier, and
+appealed to his fancy more, in the searching morning light than she had
+done when the moon shone down on her, which he was not altogether
+prepared for. Her eyes were clear and steady in spite of the faint smile
+in them, and there was no uncertainty of coloring on cheek or forehead,
+which had been tinted a delicate warm brown by wind and sun.
+
+"When you came up I was just contrasting this valley with one I remember
+visiting in the Old Country," she said. "It was in the West. Major Hume,
+who is with us now, once took me there, and we spent an afternoon at a
+house which, I think, is older than any we have in Canada."
+
+"In a river valley in the West Country?" said Brooke.
+
+The girl nodded. "Yes," she said. "Ivy, with stems thicker than your
+wrist, climbs about the front of it, and a lawn mown until it looks like
+velvet slopes to the sliding water. A wall of clipped yews shuts it in,
+and the river slides past it silently without froth or haste, as though
+afraid that any sound it made would jar upon the drowsy quietness of the
+place. There is a big beech wood behind it, and one little meadow, green
+as an emerald, between that and the river----"
+
+"Where the stepping-stones stretch across. A path comes twisting down
+through the dimness of the wood, and there are black firs upon the ridge
+above."
+
+"Of course!" said the girl. "That is, beyond the ash poles--but how
+could you know?"
+
+Brooke smiled curiously. "I was once there--ever so long ago."
+
+His companion seemed a trifle astonished. "Then I wonder if you felt as
+I did, that those shadowy woods and dark yew hedges shut out all that is
+real and strenuous in life. One could fancy that nobody did anything but
+sit still and dream there."
+
+Brooke smiled a little, though it had not escaped his attention that she
+seemed to take his comprehension for granted.
+
+"Well," he said, reflectively, "there was very little else one could do.
+Anything that savored of strenuousness would have been considered
+distinctly bad form in that valley."
+
+A little sardonic twinkle flickered in the girl's eyes. "Oh," she said,
+"I know. The distinction between those who work and those who idle is
+marked in your country. It even seems to be considered a desirable
+thing for a man to fritter his time away, so long as he does it
+gracefully. Still, there is room for all one's activities, and the big
+thoughts that lead to big schemes here. How far does your ranch go?"
+
+"To the lake," said Brooke, who understood the purport of the question.
+"There are four hundred acres of it, and I have, I don't mind telling
+you, been here rather more than two years."
+
+The girl glanced at the very small gap in the forest, and again the man
+guessed her thoughts.
+
+"And that is all you have cleared?"
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, with a little smile. "One can lounge very
+successfully here. Still, even if there was not a tree upon it the soil
+wouldn't be worth anything, and it's only in places one can find a foot
+or two of it. When I first came in, an enterprising gentleman in the
+land agency business sold me this wilderness of rock and gravel to feed
+cattle and grow fruit trees on, though I fancy I am not the only
+confiding stranger who has been treated in the same fashion in this
+country."
+
+For a moment a curious expression, which Brooke could attach no meaning
+to, crept into his companion's face, but though there was a faint flush
+in her cheeks it grew suddenly reposeful again.
+
+"I gave you a dollar last night," she said, and stopped a moment. "I
+have, as I told you, lived in England, and I recognized by your voice
+that you came from there, but, of course, I hadn't----"
+
+Brooke smiled at her. "If you look at it in one light, I scarcely think
+that explanation is gratifying to one's vanity. Still, you have also
+lived in Canada, and you ought to know that whoever parts with a dollar
+in this country, even under a misapprehension, very rarely gets it
+back."
+
+The girl regarded him gravely a moment with the faint warmth still
+showing in her sun-tanned cheeks, and then looked away towards the
+sliding water. She said nothing whatever, although there was a good deal
+to be deduced from the man's speech. Then she rose as Major Hume came
+out of the house.
+
+They left the ranch that day, and for a week Brooke led them through
+dark fir forests, and waited on them in their camps. He would also have
+stayed with them longer could he have found a reasonable excuse, but, as
+it happened, a most exemplary Siwash whom he knew appeared, and offered
+his services, when they reached the lonely mountain-girt lake. Then he
+said farewell to Major Hume, and was plodding down the homeward trail
+with his packs slung about him, when he met the girl coming up from the
+lake. She carried a cluster of the crimson wine-berries in her hand, and
+stopped abruptly when she saw him. She and her younger companions had
+been fishing that afternoon, and though Brooke could not see the latter
+amidst the serried trunks, their voices broke sharply through the
+stillness of the evening. It was significant that both he and the girl
+stood still without speaking until the voices grew less distinct.
+
+Then she said, quietly, "So you are going away?"
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, a trifle grimly. "An Indian I can recommend came in
+this afternoon. That made it unnecessary for me to stay."
+
+"You seem in a hurry to go."
+
+Brooke made a little gesture. "I fancy I have stayed with Major Hume
+quite as long as is good for me. The effort it cost me to go away was
+sufficiently unpleasant already. It is, you see, scarcely likely that I
+shall ever spend a week like the past one again."
+
+There was sympathy in his companion's eyes, for she had seen his
+comfortless dwelling, and guessed tolerably correctly what manner of
+life he led. It would, she realized, have been easier for him had he
+been born a bushman, for there was no doubt in her mind that he was one
+who had been accustomed to luxury in England.
+
+"You are going back to the ranch?" she said.
+
+"For a little while, and then I shall take the trail. Where it will lead
+me is more than I know, but the ranch is as great a failure as its
+owner. And yet a month--or even a week--ago I was dangerously content to
+stay there."
+
+The girl fancied she understood him, for she had seen broken men who had
+lost heart in the struggle sink to the Indian's level, and ask no more
+than the subsistence they could gain with rod and gun. That was,
+perhaps, enough for an Indian, but it seemed to her a flinging of his
+birthright away in the case of a white man. Her face was quietly grave,
+and Brooke felt a little thrill run through him as he looked at her.
+
+She stood, slender and very shapely, with unconscious pride in her pose,
+in front of the great cylindrical trunk of a cedar whose grey bark
+forced up every line of her white-clad figure, and he realized, when he
+met the big grave eyes, that he had pulled himself upon the edge of a
+precipice a week ago. He had let himself drift recklessly during the
+last two years, but it was plain to him now that he would have gone down
+once for all had he mated with Bella.
+
+"I think you are doing wisely," she said, quietly. "There is a chance
+for every man somewhere in this country."
+
+Brooke smiled drily. "I am going to look for mine. Whether I shall find
+it I do not know, but I am, at least, glad I have seen you. Otherwise, I
+might have settled down at the ranch again."
+
+"What have I to do with that decision?" and the girl regarded him
+steadily.
+
+"It is a trifle difficult to explain. Still, you see, your gracious
+kindliness reminded me of a good deal that once was mine, and after the
+past week I could never go back to the old life at the ranch. No doubt
+there comes to every one who attempts to console himself with them, a
+time when the husks and sty grow nauseating. I do not know why I should
+tell you this, and scarcely think I would have done so had there been
+any probability of our ever meeting again."
+
+There was full comprehension in the girl's eyes, as well as a trace of
+compassion, and she held out a little hand.
+
+"Good-bye!" she said, quietly. "If they are of any value, my good wishes
+go with you."
+
+Brooke made her a little deferential inclination, as the dainty fingers
+rested a moment in his hard palm; then he swung off his big shapeless
+hat and turned away, but the girl stood still, looking after him, until
+the lonely, plodding figure faded into the shadows of the pines, while
+it was with a little thrill of sympathy she went back to camp, for she
+realized it was a very great compliment the man had paid her. He was, it
+seemed, turning his back on his possessions, and going away, because she
+had awakened in him the latent sense of responsibility. She was,
+however, also a little afraid, for no one could foresee what the result
+of his decision would be, and she felt that to help in diverting the
+course of another's life was no light thing.
+
+In the meanwhile, Brooke held on up the hillside with long, swinging
+strides, crashing through barberry thickets and trampling the
+breast-high fern, until he stopped and made his camp on the edge of the
+snow-scarped slopes when the soft darkness fell. His road was rough, and
+in places perilous, but there was a relief in vigorous action now the
+decision was made, and the old apathy fell from him as he climbed
+towards the peaks above. It was, however, several days later when he
+reached the ranch, and came upon Jimmy sprawling his ungainly length
+outside it, basking in the sun. Still, the latter took his corn-cob pipe
+from his lips, and became attentive when he saw his face. This, he
+realized, was not altogether the same man who had left him a little
+while ago.
+
+"Get up!" said Brooke, almost sharply. "I want you to listen to me. If
+it suits you to stay here by yourself, you can; in the meanwhile, do
+what you like, which will, of course, be very little, with the ranch. In
+return, I'll only ask you to take care of the fiddle until I send for
+it. I'm going away."
+
+Jimmy nodded, for he had expected this. "That's all right!" he said. "I
+guess I'll stay. I don't know any other place where one can grub out
+enough to eat quite so easily. Where're you going to?"
+
+"I don't quite know," and Brooke smiled grimly. "Up and down the
+province--anywhere I can pick up a dollar or two daily by working for
+them."
+
+"The trouble is that they're so blamed hard to stick to when you've got
+them," said Jimmy, reflectively. "Now, you don't want dollars here."
+
+"If I had two thousand of them I'd stay, and make something of the
+ranch, rocky as it is."
+
+"It couldn't be done with less, and I guess you're sensible. I'm quite
+happy slouching round here, but there's a kind of difference between you
+and me. That girl with the big eyes has been putting notions into you?"
+
+Brooke made no disclaimer, and Jimmy laughed. "It's a little
+curious--you don't even know who she is?"
+
+"Her name is Barbara. She is, she told me, a Canadian."
+
+"Canada's quite a big country," said Jimmy, reflectively. "You could put
+England into its vest pocket without knowing it was there. I guess it
+will be a long while before you see her again, and if you meet her in
+the cities she's not going to remember you. You'd find her quite a
+different kind of young woman there. When are you going?"
+
+"At sundown. I'd go now, but I want a few hours' rest and sleep."
+
+Jimmy looked at him with sudden concern in his face. "Then I'll be good
+and lonely to-night," he said. "Say, do you think I could take out the
+fiddle now and then to keep me company? I guess I could play it, like a
+banjo, with my fingers."
+
+"No," said Brooke, drily, "that's the one thing you can't do."
+
+He flung himself down in his straw-filled bunk, dressed as he was, for
+he had floundered through tangled forest since the dawn crept into the
+sky; and the shadows of the cedars lay long and black upon the river
+when he opened his eyes again. Jimmy was busy at the little stove, and
+in another few minutes the simple meal, crudely served but barbaric in
+its profusion, was upon the table. Neither of the men said very much
+during it, and then Jimmy silently helped his comrade to gird his packs
+about him. The sun had gone, and the valley was dim and very still when
+they stood in the doorway.
+
+"Good luck!" said Jimmy. "You'll come back by-and-by?"
+
+Brooke smiled curiously as he shook hands with him. "If I'm ever a rich
+man, I may."
+
+Then he went out into the deepening shadows, and floundering waist-deep
+through the ford, plodded up the climbing trail with his face towards
+the snow. It grew a trifle grim, however, when he looked back once from
+a bare hill shoulder, and saw a feeble light blink out far down in the
+hollow. Jimmy, he knew, was lying, pipe in hand, beside the stove, and,
+after all, the lonely ranch had been a home to him.
+
+A man without ambition who could stifle memory might have found the life
+he led there a pleasant one. Bountiful Nature fed him, the hills that
+walled the valley in shut out strife and care, and now he was homeless
+altogether. He had also just six dollars in his pockets, and that sum,
+he knew, will not go a very long way in Western Canada.
+
+As he gazed, the fleecy mist that rolled up from the river blotted out
+the light, and the man felt the deep stillness and loneliness as he had
+not done since he first came there. That sudden eclipse of Jimmy's light
+seemed very significant just then, for he knew it would never burn again
+as a beacon for him. The last red gleam had also faded off the snow,
+and, with a jerk at the pack straps that galled his shoulders, he set
+his lips, and swung away into the darkness of the coming night.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+THE NARROW WAY.
+
+
+The big engine was running slowly, which did not happen often, and
+Brooke, who leaned on the planer table, was thankful for the respite. A
+belt slid round above him, and on either side were turning wheels, while
+he had in front of him a long vista of sliding logs, whirring saws, and
+toiling men. The air was heavy with gritty dust, and a sweet resinous
+smell, while here and there a blaze of sunshine streamed into the great
+open-sided building. Something had gone wrong with the big engine, and
+its sonorous panting, which reverberated across the still, blue inlet,
+had slackened a trifle. There was not, as a result of this, power enough
+to drive all the machines in the mill, and Brooke was waiting until the
+engineer should set matters right.
+
+It was very hot in the big shed. In fact, the cedar shingles on the roof
+were crackling overhead; and Brooke's thin jean garments were soaked
+with perspiration. The dust the planer threw off had also worked its way
+through them, and adhered in smeary patches to his dripping face, while
+his hair and eyebrows might have been rubbed with flour. That fine
+powder was, however, not the worst, for he was also covered with
+prismatic grains of wood, whose sharp angles caused him an intolerable
+irritation when his garments rasped across his flesh. His hands were raw
+and bleeding, there was a cramp in one shoulder, and an ache, which now
+and then grew excruciating, down all the opposite side of him.
+
+The toilers are, as a rule, at least, liberally paid in Western Canada,
+but a good deal is expected from them, and the manager of the mill had
+installed that planer because it could, the makers claimed, be run by
+one live man. The workmen, however, said that if he held to the contract
+he would very soon be dead, and Brooke was already worn out with the
+struggle to keep pace with steam. It was a long while since he had
+toiled much at the ranch, and in England he had not toiled at all,
+while, as he stood there, gasping, and hoping that the engineer would
+not get through his task too soon, he remembered that on the two
+eventful occasions in his life when he had made a commendable decision,
+it had brought him only trouble and strain. The way of the virtuous, it
+seemed, was hard.
+
+He turned languidly when a man who carried an oil can came by and
+stopped a moment beside him.
+
+"You're looking kind of played out," said the newcomer.
+
+"It's not astonishing," said Brooke. "I feel quite that way."
+
+"Then I guess that's a kind of pity. The boss will have the belt on the
+relief shaft in a minute now, and he allows he's going to cut every foot
+as much as usual by the supper hour. You'll have to shake yourself quite
+lively. How long've you been on to that planer?"
+
+"A month."
+
+"Well," said the engineer, "she broke the last man up in considerably
+less time than that. Weak in the chest he was, and when we were driving
+her lively he used to cough up blood. He had to let up sudden one day,
+and he's in the hospital now. Say, can't you strike somebody for a
+softer job?"
+
+"I'm afraid I can't," said Brooke, drily. "I'll have to go on till I'm
+beaten."
+
+The engineer made a little gesture of comprehension as he passed on, for
+the attitude the Englishman had adopted is not uncommon in the Dominion
+of Canada, or the country where toil is at least as arduous to the south
+of it. Men who demand, and not infrequently obtain, the full value of
+their labor, are proud of their manhood there, and there was an innate
+resoluteness in Brooke, which had never been wholly awakened in England.
+
+Suddenly, however, the belt above him ran round; there was a clash as he
+slipped in the clutch, and a noisy whirring which sank to a deeper tone
+when he flung a rough redwood board upon the table. The whirring millers
+took hold of it, and its splintery edges galled his raw hands as he
+guided it, while thick dust and woody fragments torn off by the
+trenchant steel, whirled about him in a stream until his eyes were
+blinded and his nostrils filled. Then the board slid off the table
+smooth on one side, and he knew that he was lagging when the hum of the
+millers changed to a thin scream. They must not at any cost be kept
+waiting for their food, for by inexorable custom so many feet of dressed
+lumber every day was due from that machine.
+
+He flung up another heavy piece, reckless of the splinters in his hand,
+made no pause to wipe the rust from his smarting eyes, and peering at
+the spinning cutters blindly thrust upon the end of the board, and
+wondered vaguely whether this was what man was made for, or how long
+flesh and blood could be expected to stand the strain. The board went
+off the table with a crash, and it was time for the next, while Brooke,
+who bent sideways with a distressful crick in his waist, once more faced
+the sawdust stream with lowered head. It ceased only for a second or
+two, while he stooped from the table to the lumber that slid by
+gravitation to his feet, and he knew that to let that stream overtake
+him and pile up would proclaim his incapacity and defeat. So long as he
+was there he must keep pace with it, whatever tax it laid upon his jaded
+body.
+
+He did it for an hour, flagging all the while, for it was a task no man
+could have successfully undertaken unless he had done such work before,
+and Brooke's head was aching under a tension which had grown unendurable
+that afternoon. Then the screaming millers closed upon a knot in the
+wood, and, half-dazed as he was, he thrust upon the board savagely,
+instead of easing it. There was a crash, a big piece of steel flew
+across the table, and the hum of the machine ceased suddenly. Brooke
+laughed grimly, and sat down gasping. He had done his best, and now he
+was not altogether sorry that he was beaten.
+
+He was still sitting there when a dusty man in store clothes, with a
+lean, intent face, came along and glanced at the planer before he looked
+at him.
+
+"You let her get ahead of you, and tried to make up time by feeding her
+too hard?" he said.
+
+"No," said Brooke. "Not exactly! She got hold of a knot."
+
+"Same thing!" said the other man. "You've smashed her, anyway, and it
+will cost the company most of three hundred dollars before we get her
+running again. You don't expect me to keep you after that?"
+
+Brooke smiled drily. "I'm not quite sure that I'd like to stay."
+
+"Then we'll fix it so it will suit everybody. I'll give you your pay
+order up to now, and you'll be glad I ran you out by-and-by. There are
+no chances saw-milling unless you're owner, and it's quite likely
+somebody's got a better use for you."
+
+Brooke understood this as a compliment, and took his order, after which
+he had a spirited altercation with the clerk, who desired him to wait
+for payment until it was six o'clock, which he would not do. Then he
+went back to his little cubicle, which, with its flimsy partitions one
+could hear his neighbor snoring through, resembled a cell in a hive of
+bees, in the big boarding-house, and slept heavily until he was awakened
+by the clangor of the half-past six supper bell. He descended, and,
+devouring his share of the meal in ten minutes, which is about the usual
+time in that country, strolled leisurely into the great general room,
+which had a big stove in the middle and a bar down one side of it. He
+already loathed the comfortless place, from the hideous oleographs on
+the bare wood walls down to the uncleanly sawdust on the floor.
+
+He sat down, and two men, whose acquaintance he had made during his stay
+there, lounged across to him. Trade was slack in the province then, and
+both wore very threadbare jean. There was also a significant moodiness
+in their gaunt faces which suggested that they had felt the pinch of
+adversity.
+
+"You let up before supper-time?" said one.
+
+"I did," said Brooke, a trifle grimly. "I broke up the Kenawa planer in
+the Tomlinson mill. That's why I came away. I'm not going back again."
+
+One of the men laughed softly. "Then it was only the square thing. Since
+we've been here that planer has broke up two or three men. Held out a
+month, didn't you? What were you at before that?"
+
+"Road-making, firing at a cannery, surrey packing. I've a ranch that
+doesn't pay, you see?"
+
+The other man smiled again. "So have we! Half the deadbeats in this
+country are landholders, too. Two men couldn't get away with many of the
+big trees on our lot in a lifetime, and one has to light out and earn
+something to put the winter through. This month Jake and I have made
+'bout twenty dollars between us. I guess your trouble's want of
+capital--same as ours. One can't do a great deal with a hundred dollars.
+Still, you'd have had more than that when you came in?"
+
+"I had," said Brooke, drily. "I put six thousand into the land, or
+rather the land-agent's bank, besides what I spent on clearing a little
+of it, and when I've paid my board and for the clothes I bought, I'll
+have about four dollars now."
+
+"That's how those land-company folks get rich," said one of the men.
+"Was it a piece of snow mountain he sold you, or a bottomless swamp?"
+
+"Rock. One might have drained a swamp."
+
+The men smiled. "Well," said the first of them, "that's not always easy.
+A man's not a steam navvy--but the game's an old one. It was the Indian
+Spring folks played it off on you?"
+
+"No. It was Devine."
+
+There was a little silence, and then the men appeared reflective.
+
+"Now, if any man in that business goes tolerably straight, it's Devine,"
+said one of them. "Of course, if a green Britisher comes along bursting
+to hand over the bills for any kind of land, he'll oblige him, but I'd
+sit down and think a little before I called Devine a thief. Anyway, he's
+quite a big man in the province."
+
+The bronze deepened a trifle in Brooke's face. "I can't see any
+particular difference between a swindler and a thief. In any case, the
+man robbed me, and if I live long enough I'll get even with him."
+
+"That's going to be quite a big contract," said one of the men. "It's
+best to lie low and wait for another fool when you've been taken in.
+Besides, there's many a worse man in his own line than Devine. There was
+one fellow up at Jamieson's when the rush was on. He could talk the
+shoes off a mule--and he was an Englishman. Whatever any man wanted,
+fruit-land, mineral-land, sawing lumber, and gold outcrop, he'd got.
+Picked it out on the survey map and sold it him. For 'most a month he
+rolled the dollars in, and then the circus began. The folks who'd made
+the deals went up to see their land, and most of them found it belonged
+to another man. You see, if three of them wanted maple bush, that's
+generally good soil and light to clear, and he'd only one piece of it,
+he sold the same lot to all of them. They went back with clubs, but that
+man knew when to light out, and he didn't wait for them."
+
+Brooke sat silent awhile. He knew that the story was not a very unlikely
+one, for while, in view of the simplicity of the Canadian land tenure
+legislation, there is no reason why any man should be swindled, as a
+matter of fact, a good many are. He was also irritated that he had
+allowed himself to indulge in what he realized must have appeared a
+puerile threat. This was, of course, of no moment in itself, but he felt
+that it showed how he was losing hold of the nice discretion he had, at
+least, affected in England. Still, he meant exactly what he had said.
+
+During the greater portion of two years he had attempted a hopeless
+task, and then, discovering his folly, resigned himself, and drifted
+idly, perilously near the brink of the long declivity which Englishmen
+of good upbringing not infrequently descend with astonishing swiftness
+in that country, and for that, rightly or wrongly, he blamed the man who
+had robbed him. Then the awakening had come, and he saw that while there
+were many careers open to a man with six thousand dollars, or even half
+of them, there was only strenuous physical toil for the man with none.
+He had attempted it, but proficiency in even the more brutal forms of
+labor cannot be attained in a day, and he now looked back on a year of
+hardship and effort which had left an indelible mark on him.
+
+It had been a season when there was little industrial enterprise, and he
+had no friends, while the dollars he gained were earned for the most
+part by the strain of overtaxed muscles and bleeding hands. He had
+toiled up to his waist in snow-water at the mines, swung the shovel
+under the lashing deluge driving a Government road over a big divide,
+hung from dizzy railroad trestles holding with fingers bruised by the
+hammer the spikes the craftsmen drove, and been taught all there is to
+learn about exposure and fatigue. He had braced himself to bear it,
+though he had lived softly in England, but each time he crawled into
+draughty tent or reeking shanty, wet through, with aching limbs, at
+night, he remembered the man who had robbed him.
+
+It was, perhaps, not altogether astonishing that under such conditions
+the wrong done him should assume undue proportions, and that when a
+slipping hammer laid his knuckles bare he should charge the smart to
+Devine, and long for the reckoning. The man who had condemned him to
+this life of toil had, he told himself, grown rich by theft, and he
+dwelt upon his injury until the memory of it possessed him. It was not,
+however, the physical hardship that troubled him most, but the thought
+of the opportunities he had lost, for since he had seen the girl with
+the brown eyes they had assumed their due value. Devine had not only
+taken his dollars, but had driven him out from the society of those who
+had been his equals, and made him one who could scarcely hope to meet a
+woman of refinement on friendly terms again. Coarse fare and a life of
+brutal toil were all that seemed left to him. There were, he knew, men
+in that country who had commenced with a very few dollars, and acquired
+a competence, but they were not young Englishmen brought up as he had
+been.
+
+"You are the only man I've ever heard say anything good about any one in
+the land business, and it does not amount to much at that," he said.
+"Devine has been successful so far, but even gentlemen of his talents
+are liable to make a mistake occasionally, and if ever he makes a big
+one, it will probably go hardly with him. That, at least, is one
+consolation."
+
+Another man who had been standing near the bar sauntered towards them,
+cigar in hand. He was dressed in store clothing, and his hands were, as
+Brooke noticed, not those of a workman, though they seemed wiry and
+capable. He had penetrating dark eyes, and the Western business man's
+lean, intent face, while Brooke would have guessed his age at a little
+over thirty.
+
+"I don't mind admitting that I heard a little," he said. "Those
+land-agency fellows have a good deal to account for. You're not exactly
+struck on Devine?"
+
+"No," said Brooke, drily. "I have no particular cause to be. Still, that
+really does not concern everybody."
+
+"Beat him out of six thousand dollars!" said one of his companions.
+
+The stranger laughed a little. "He has done me out of a good many more,
+but one has to take his chances in this country. You are working at the
+Tomlinson mill?"
+
+"No," said Brooke. "I was turned out to-day."
+
+"Got no notion where to strike next?"
+
+"No."
+
+The stranger, who did not seem at all repulsed by his abruptness, looked
+at him reflectively.
+
+"I heard they were wanting survey packers up at the Johnston Lake in the
+bush," he said. "A Government man's starting to run the line through to
+the big range Thursday. If you took him this card up he might put you
+on."
+
+Brooke took the card, and a little tinge of color crept into his face.
+
+"I appreciate the kindness, but still, you see, you know nothing
+whatever about me," he said.
+
+The stranger laughed. "I wouldn't worry. We're not particular in this
+country. Go up, and show him the card if you feel like it. I've been in
+a tight place myself once or twice, and we'll take it as an
+introduction. A good many people know me--you are Mr. Brooke?"
+
+Brooke admitted it, and after a few minutes' conversation, the stranger,
+who informed him that he had come there in the hope of meeting a man who
+did not seem likely to put in an appearance now, moved away.
+
+"Thomas P. Saxton. What is he?" said Brooke to his companions, as he
+glanced at the card.
+
+"Puts through mine and sawmill deals," said one of the men. "I'd light
+out for Johnston Lake right away, and if you have the dollars take the
+cars. Atlantic express is late to-night, waiting the Empress boat, and
+if you get off at Chumas, you'll only have 'bout twelve leagues to walk.
+I figure it will cost you four dollars."
+
+Brooke decided that it would be advisable to take the risk, and when he
+had settled with his host and a storekeeper, found he had about six
+dollars left. When he went out, one of the ranchers looked at the other.
+He was the one who had spoken least, and a quiet, observant man, from
+Ontario.
+
+"I'm not that sure it was good advice you gave him," he said.
+
+"No," said his companion.
+
+The other man appeared reflective. "I was watching Saxton, and he kind
+of woke up when Brooke let out about Devine. Now, it seems to me, it
+wasn't without a reason he put him on to that survey."
+
+His companion laughed. "It doesn't count, anyway. The Government's
+dollars are certain."
+
+"Well," said the Ontario man, drily, "if I had to give one of the pair
+any kind of a hold on me, I figure from what I've heard it would be
+Devine instead of Saxton."
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+SAXTON MAKES AN OFFER.
+
+
+It was raining as hard as it not infrequently does in the mountain
+province, and the deluge lashed the sombre pines that towered above the
+dripping camp, when Brooke stood in the entrance of the Surveyor's tent.
+He was wet to the skin, as well as weary, for he had walked most of
+thirty miles that day over a very bad trail, and was but indifferently
+successful in his attempts to hide his anxiety. The Surveyor also
+noticed the grimness of his wet face, and dallied a moment with the card
+he held, for he had known what fatigue and short commons were in his
+early days.
+
+"I'm sorry I can't take you, but I've two more men than I've any
+particular use for already," he said at last. "I can't give you a place
+to spread your blankets in to-night either, because the freighter didn't
+bring up all our tents. Still, you might make Beasley's Hotel, and
+strike Saxton's prospectors, if you head back over the divide. He has a
+few men up there opening up a silver lead."
+
+Brooke said nothing, and the Surveyor turned to his assistant as he
+moved away. "It's rough on that man, and he seems kind of played out,"
+he said. "I can't quite figure, either, why Saxton sent him here, when
+he's putting men on at his mine. It seems to me I told him I was only
+going to take men who'd packed for me before."
+
+In the meanwhile, Brooke stood still a few moments in the rain. He was
+aching all over, and his wet boots galled him, while he was also very
+hungry, and uncertain what to do. There was nothing to be gained by
+pushing on four leagues to Beasley's Hotel, even if he had been capable
+of doing it, which was not the case, because he had just then only two
+or three copper coins worth ten cents in his pocket. It was, he knew,
+scarcely likely he would be turned out for that reason, but he had not
+yet come down to asking a stranger's charity. Supper, which he would
+have been offered a share of, was also over, and there was not a ranch
+about, only a dripping wilderness, for he had plodded on after the
+Surveyor from the lonely settlement at Johnston Lake.
+
+It was very enviously he watched two men piling fresh branches on a
+crackling fire. Darkness was not far away, and already a light shone
+through the wet canvas of the Surveyor's tent. A cheerful hum of voices
+came out from the others, and a man was singing in one of them. The
+survey packers had, at least, a makeshift shelter for the night, food in
+sufficiency, and such warmth as the fires and their damp blankets might
+supply, while he had nowhere to lay his head. The smell of the stinging
+wood smoke was curiously alluring, and he felt as he glanced at the
+black wall of bush which closed in upon the little camp that his
+hardihood was deserting him, and in another minute he would go back and
+offer his services in return for food. Then his pride came to the
+rescue, and, turning away abruptly, he plodded back into the bush, where
+a bitter wind that came down from the snow blew the drips from the great
+branches into his face.
+
+He kept to the trail instinctively, though he did not know where he was
+going, or why, when one place had as little to commend itself as
+another, he blundered on at all, except that he was getting cold, until
+the creeping dark surprised him at a forking of the way. He knew that
+the path he had come by led through a burnt forest and thin willow bush,
+while great cedars shrouded the other, which apparently wound up a
+valley towards the heights above. They promised, at least, a little more
+shelter than the willows, but that, he fancied, must be the trail that
+crossed the divide and it led into a desolation of rock and forest. He
+had very little hope of being offered employment at the mine the
+Surveyor had mentioned, and stood still for several minutes with the
+rain beating into his face, while, though he did not know it then, a
+good deal depended on his decision. A little mist rolled out of the
+valley, and it was growing very cold, while the dull roar of a snow-fed
+torrent made the silence more impressive.
+
+Then, attracted solely by the sombre clustering of the cedars, which
+promised to keep off at least a little of the rain, he turned up the
+valley with a shiver, and finally unrolled his one wet blanket under a
+big tree. There was an angle among its roots, which ran along the
+ground, and, scooping a hollow in the withered sprays, he crawled into
+it, and lay down with his back to the trunk. The roar of the river
+seemed louder now, and he could hear a timber wolf howling far off on
+the hillside. He was very cold and hungry, but his weariness blunted the
+sense of physical discomfort, though as yet his activity of mind
+remained, and he asked himself what he had gained by leaving the ranch,
+and could find no answer.
+
+Still, even then, he would not regret that he had broken away, for there
+was in him an inherent obstinacy, and he would have struggled on at the
+ranch had not the absence of funds precluded it, and consideration shown
+him that it would be merely throwing his toil away. Life, it seemed, had
+very little to offer him, but now he had made the decision he would
+adhere to it, though he had arrived at the resolution in cold blood, for
+it was his reason only which had responded to the girl's influence, and
+as yet what was spiritual in him remained untouched. He would not live
+as the Indians do, or sink into a sot. There were vague possibilities
+before him which, though this appeared most unlikely, might prove
+themselves facts, and the place he had been born to in England might yet
+be his. That was why he would not sell his birthright for a mess of
+stringy venison, and the deleterious whisky sold at the settlement,
+which seemed to him a most unfair price. Still, he went no further, even
+when he thought of the girl, which he did with dispassionate admiration.
+
+Worn-out as he was, he slept, and awakened in the grey dawn almost unfit
+to rise. There was a distressful pain in his hip-joints, which those who
+sleep in the open are acquainted with, and at the first few steps he
+took his face went awry, but his physical nature demanded warmth and
+food, and there was only one way of obtaining it before the life went
+out of him. Whatever effort it cost him, he must reach the mine. He set
+out for it, limping, while the sharp gravel rolled under his bleeding
+feet as he floundered up the climbing trail. It seemed to lead upwards
+for ever between endless colonnades of towering trunks, and when at last
+pine and cedar had been left behind, there was slippery rock smoothed by
+sliding snow to be clambered over.
+
+Still, reeling and gasping, he held on, and it was afternoon, and he had
+eaten nothing for close on thirty hours, when a filmy trail of smoke
+that drifted faintly blue athwart the climbing pines beneath him caught
+his eye. He braced himself for the effort to reach it, and went down
+with loose, uneven strides, smashing through sal-sal and barberry when
+he reached the bush again. The fern met above his head, there were mazes
+of fallen trunks to be scrambled through, and he tore the soaken jean
+that clung about him to rags in his haste. Still, he had learned to
+travel straight in the bush, and at last he staggered into sight of the
+mine.
+
+There was a little scar on the hillside, an iron shanty, a few soaked
+tents and shelters of bark, but the ringing clink of the drills vibrated
+about them, and a most welcome smell of wood smoke came up to him with a
+murmur of voices. Brooke heard them faintly, and did not stop until a
+handful of men clustered about him, while, as he blinked at them, one,
+who appeared different from the others, pushed his way through the
+group.
+
+"You seem considerably used up," he said.
+
+"I am," said Brooke, hoarsely, "I'm almost starving."
+
+It occurred to him that the man's voice ought to be familiar, but it was
+a few moments before he recognized him as the one who had sent him on
+the useless journey after the Surveyor.
+
+"Then come right along. It's not quite supper-time, but there's food in
+the camp," he said.
+
+Brooke went with him to the shanty, where he fell against a chair, and
+found it difficult to straighten himself when he picked it up. Saxton,
+so far as he could remember, asked no questions, but smiled at him
+reassuringly while he explained, somewhat incoherently, what had brought
+him there, until a man appeared with a big tray. Then Brooke ate
+strenuously.
+
+"Some folks have a notion that one can kill himself by getting through
+too much at once when he's 'most starved," said Saxton. "I never found
+it work out that way in this country."
+
+"Were you ever almost starved?" said Brooke, who felt the life coming
+back to him, with no great show of interest.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Saxton, drily. "Twice, at least. I was three days
+without food the last time. One has to take his chances in the ranges,
+and you don't pick up dollars without trouble anywhere. Still, we'll
+talk of that afterwards. Had enough?"
+
+Brooke said he fancied he had, and Saxton hammered upon the iron roof of
+the shanty until a man appeared.
+
+"Give him a pair of blankets, Ike. He can sleep in the lean-to," he
+said.
+
+Brooke went with the man, vacantly, and in another few minutes found
+himself lying in dry blankets on a couch of springy twigs. He was
+sensible that it was delightfully warm, but he could not remember how he
+got there, and was wondering why the rain no longer lashed his face,
+when sleep came to him.
+
+It was next morning when he was awakened by the roar of a blasting
+charge, and lay still with an unusual sense of comfort until the silence
+that followed it was broken by the clinking of the drills. Then he rose
+stiffly, and put on his clothes, which he found had been dried, and was
+informed by a man who appeared while he was doing it that his breakfast
+was waiting. Brooke wondered a little at this, for he knew that it was
+past the usual hour, but he made an excellent meal, and then, being
+shown into a compartment of the little galvanized iron shanty, found
+Saxton sitting at a table. The latter now wore long boots and jean, and
+there were pieces of discolored stone strewn about in front of him.
+
+He looked up with a little nod as Brooke came in. "Feeling quite
+yourself again?" he said.
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, "thanks to the way your men have treated me. This
+is, of course, a hospitable country, but I may admit that I could
+scarcely have expected to be so well looked after by one I hadn't the
+slightest claim upon."
+
+"And you almost wondered what he did it for?"
+
+Brooke was a trifle astonished, for this certainly expressed his
+thoughts, but he was in no way disconcerted, and he laughed.
+
+"I should, at least, never have ventured to suggest that anything except
+good-nature influenced you," he said.
+
+"Still, you felt it? Well, you were considerably used up when you came
+in, and, as I sent you to the Surveyor, who didn't seem to have any use
+for you, I felt myself responsible. That appears sufficient?"
+
+Now, Brooke had mixed with men of a good many different stations, and he
+was observant, and, as might have been expected, by no means diffident.
+
+"Since you ask, I scarcely think it does," he said.
+
+Saxton laughed. "Take a cigar. That's the kind of talk I like. We'll
+come to the point right away."
+
+Brooke lighted a cigar, and found it good. "Thanks. I'm willing to
+listen as long as appears necessary," he said.
+
+"You have a kind of grievance against Devine?"
+
+"I have. According to my notion of ethics, he owes me six thousand
+dollars, and I shall not be quite content until I get them out of him,
+although that may never happen. I feel just now that it would please me
+especially to make him smart as well, which I quite realize, is
+unnecessary folly."
+
+The Canadian nodded, and shook the ash from his cigar. "Exactly," he
+said. "A man with sense keeps his eye on the dollars, and leaves out the
+sentiment. It's quite apt to get in his way and trip him up. Well,
+suppose I could give you a chance of getting those dollars back?"
+
+"I should be very much inclined to take it. Still, presumably, you do
+not mean to do it out of pure good-nature?"
+
+"No, sir," said Saxton, drily. "I'm here to make dollars. That has been
+my object since I struck out for myself at fourteen, and I've piled
+quite a few of them together. I'd have had more only that wherever I
+plan a nice little venture in mines or land up and down this province, I
+run up against Devine. That's quite straight, isn't it?"
+
+"I fancy it is. You are suggesting community of interest? Still, I
+scarcely realize how a man with empty pockets could be of very much use
+to you."
+
+"I have a kind of notion that you could be if it suited you. I want a
+man with grit in him, who has had a good education, and could, if it was
+necessary, mix on equal terms with the folks in the cities."
+
+"One would fancy there were a good many men of that kind in Canada."
+
+Saxton appeared reflective. "Oh, yes," he said, drily. "The trouble is
+that most of them have got something better to do, and I can't think of
+one who has any special reason for wanting to get even with Devine."
+
+"That means the work you have in view would scarcely suit a man who was
+prosperous, or likely to be fastidious?"
+
+"No," said Saxton, simply. "I don't quite think it would. Still, I've
+seen enough to show me that you can take the sensible point of view. We
+both want dollars, and I can't afford to be particular. I'm not sure you
+can, either."
+
+Brooke sat silent awhile. He could, at least, appreciate the Canadian's
+candor, while events had rubbed the sentiment he had once had plenty of
+out of him, and left him a somewhat hard and bitter man. The woman he
+believed in had used him very badly, and the first man he trusted in
+Canada had plundered him. Brooke was, unfortunately, young when he was
+called upon to face the double treachery, and had generalized too freely
+from too limited premises. He felt that in all society there must be a
+conflict between the men who had all to gain and those who had anything
+worth keeping, and sentiment, it seemed, was out of place in that
+struggle.
+
+"As you observed, I can't afford to be too particular," he said. "Still,
+it is quite possible I might not be prepared to go quite so far as you
+would wish me."
+
+The Canadian laughed. "I'll take my chances. Nobody can bring up any
+very low-down game against me. Well, are you open to consider my offer?"
+
+"You haven't exactly made one yet."
+
+"Then we'll fix the terms. Until one of us gives the other notice that
+he lets up on this agreement, you will do just what I tell you. Pay will
+be about the usual thing for whatever you're set to do. It would be
+reasonably high if I put you on to anything in the cities."
+
+"Is that likely?"
+
+"I've a notion that we might get you into a place where you could watch
+Devine's game for me. I want to feel quite sure of it before I take any
+chances with that kind of man. If I struck him for anything worth while,
+you would have a share."
+
+Brooke's face flushed just a trifle, and again he sat silent a moment or
+two. Then he laughed somewhat curiously.
+
+"Well," he said, "I suppose there are no other means, and the man robbed
+me."
+
+Saxton smiled. "If we pull off the deal I'm figuring on, your share
+might 'most work up to those six thousand dollars. They're yours."
+
+Brooke realized that it was a clever man he was dealing with, but in his
+present state of mind the somewhat vague arrangement commended itself to
+him. He was, he decided, warranted in getting his six thousand dollars
+back by any means that were open to him. More he did not want, for he
+still retained in a slight degree the notions instilled into him in
+England, which had, however, since he was seldom able to indulge in
+them, not tended to make him happier.
+
+"There is a point you don't seem to have grasped," he said. "Since I am
+not to be particular, can't you conceive that it would not be pleasant
+for you if Devine went one better?"
+
+Saxton laughed. "I've met quite a few Englishmen--of your
+kind--already," he said. "That's why I feel that when you've taken my
+dollars you're not going to go back on me without giving me warning.
+Besides, Devine would be considerably more likely to fix you up in quite
+another way. Now, I want an answer. Is it a deal?"
+
+"It is," said Brooke, who, in spite of the fashion in which he had
+expressed himself during the last few minutes, felt a slight warmth in
+his face. Though he could not afford to be particular, there was one
+aspect of the arrangement which did not commend itself to him.
+
+Saxton nodded. "Then, as you'll want to know a little about mining,
+we'll put you on now, helping the drillers, at $2.50 a day. You'll get
+considerably more by-and-by. Take this little treatise on the minerals
+of the province, and keep it by you."
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+BARBARA RENEWS AN ACQUAINTANCE.
+
+
+There was an amateur concert for a commendable purpose in the Vancouver
+opera-house, which, since the inhabitants of the mountain province do
+not expect any organized body to take over their individual
+responsibilities, was a somewhat unusual event, and Miss Barbara
+Heathcote, who had not as yet found it particularly entertaining, was
+leaning back languidly in her chair.
+
+"There are really one or two things they do a little better in the Old
+Country," she said.
+
+The young man who sat beside her laughed. "There must be, or you never
+would have admitted it," he said. "Still, I'm not sure you would find
+many folks who would believe you here."
+
+"One has to be candid occasionally," and Barbara made a little gesture
+of weariness. "There is still another hour of it, but, I sincerely hope,
+not another cornet solo. What comes next? We were a little late, and
+nobody provided me with a programme. They are inconsistent. Milly, I
+notice, has several."
+
+The man opened the paper which a girl Barbara glanced at handed him.
+
+"A violin solo," he said. "I think they mean Schumann, but it's not
+altogether astonishing that they've spelt it wrong. A man called Brooke
+is put down for it."
+
+"Brooke!" said Barbara, a trifle sharply. "Where does he come from? Do
+you know him?"
+
+"I can't say I do----" the man commenced reflectively, and stopped a
+moment when he saw the little smile in the girl's brown eyes. "What were
+you thinking?"
+
+"I was wondering whether that means he can't be worth knowing."
+
+"Well," said the man, good-humoredly, "there are, I believe, one or two
+decent folks in this city I haven't had the pleasure of meeting, but you
+were a trifle too previous. I don't know him, but if he's the man I
+think he is, I've heard about him. He came down from the bush lately,
+and somebody put him on to Naseby, the surveyor. Naseby's busy just now,
+doing a good deal for the Government--Crown mineral lands, I think, or
+something of that kind--and he took the man. I understand he's quite
+smart at the bush work, and Naseby's pleased with him. That's about all
+I can tell you. You're scarcely likely to know him."
+
+Barbara sat silent a space, looking about her while the amateur
+orchestra chased one another through the treacherous mazes of an
+overture. The handsome building was well filled, but there were one or
+two empty places at hand, for the man who had sent her there had taken a
+row of them and sent tickets to his friends, as was expected from a
+citizen of his importance. It was, in the usual course, scarcely likely
+that she would know a man who had lately been installed in a subordinate
+place in a surveyor's service, for her acquaintances were people of
+position in that province, and yet she had a very clear recollection of
+a certain rancher Brooke who played the violin.
+
+"I once met a man of that name in the bush," she said, with almost
+overdone indifference. "Still, he is scarcely likely to be the same
+one."
+
+Her companion started another topic, and neither of them listened to the
+orchestra, though the girl was a trifle irritated at herself for wishing
+that the overture had been shorter. At last, when the second violins
+were not more than a note behind the rest, the music stopped, and
+Barbara sat very still with eyes fixed on the stage while the usual
+little stir and rustle of draperies ran round the building. Then there
+was silence for a moment, and she was sensible of a curious little
+thrill as a man who held a violin came forward into the blaze of light.
+He wore conventional evening-dress in place of the fringed deerskin she
+had last seen him in, and she decided that it became his somewhat spare,
+symmetrical figure almost as well. The years he had spent swinging axe
+and pounding drill had toughened and suppled it, and yet left him free
+from the coarsening stamp of toil, which is, however, not as a rule a
+necessary accompaniment of strenuous labor in that country. Standing
+still a moment quietly at his ease, straight-limbed, sinewy, with a
+little smile in his frost-bronzed face, he was certainly a personable
+man, and for no very apparent reason she was pleased to notice that two
+of her companions were regarding him with evident approbation.
+
+"I think one could call him quite good-looking," said the girl beside
+her. "He has been in this country a while, but I wouldn't call him a
+Canadian. Not from this side of the Rockies, anyway."
+
+"Why?" asked Barbara, mainly to discover how far her companion's
+thoughts coincided with her own.
+
+"Well," said the other girl, reflectively, "it seems to me he takes it
+too easily. If he had been one of us he'd have either been grim and
+serious or worrying with the strings. We're most desperately in earnest,
+but they do things as though they didn't count in the Old Country. Now
+he has got the A right off without the least fussing, as if he couldn't
+help doing it."
+
+The explanation was rather suggestive than definite, but Barbara was
+satisfied with it. She was usually a reposeful young woman herself, and
+the man's graceful tranquillity, which was of a kind not to be met with
+every day in that country, appealed to her. Then he drew the bow across
+the strings, and she sat very still to listen. It was not music that a
+good many of his audience were accustomed to, but scarcely a dress
+rustled or a programme fluttered until he took the fiddle from his
+shoulder. Then, while the plaudits rang through the building, his eyes
+met Barbara's. Leaning forward a trifle in her chair, she saw the sudden
+intentness of his face, but he gazed at her steadily for a moment
+without sign of recognition. Then she smiled graciously, for that was
+what she had expected of him, and again felt a faint thrill of content,
+for his eyes were fixed on her when as the tumult of applause increased
+he made a little inclination.
+
+He was not permitted to retire, and when he put the fiddle to his
+shoulder again she knew why he played the nocturne she had heard in the
+bush. It was also, she felt, in a fashion significant that it had now,
+in place of the roar of a snow-fed river, the chords of a grand piano
+for accompaniment, though the latter, it seemed to her, made an
+indifferent substitute. The bronze-faced man in deerskin had fitted the
+surroundings in which she had seen him, and they had been close comrades
+in the wilderness for a week. It could, she knew, scarcely be the same
+in the city, but she saw that he was, at least, equally at home there.
+It was only their relative positions that had changed, for the guide was
+the person of importance in the primeval bush, and the fact that he had
+waited without a sign until she smiled showed that he had not failed to
+recognize it. When at last he moved away she turned to the man at her
+side.
+
+"Will you go down and ask Mr. Brooke to come here?" she said. "You can
+tell him that I would like to speak to him."
+
+The young man did not express any of the astonishment he certainly felt,
+but proceeded to do her bidding, though it afforded him no particular
+pleasure, for there was a certain imperiousness about Barbara Heathcote
+which was not without its effect. Brooke was putting away his fiddle
+when he came upon him.
+
+"I haven't the pleasure of your acquaintance, Mr. Brooke, but it seems
+you know a friend of mine," he said. "If you are at liberty, Miss
+Heathcote would like to see you."
+
+"Miss Heathcote?" said Brooke, for it had happened, not unnaturally,
+that he had never heard the girl's full name. Her companions, of whom he
+had not felt warranted in inquiring it, had called her Barbara in the
+bush, and he had addressed her without prefix.
+
+"Yes," said the other, who was once more a trifle astonished. "Miss
+Barbara Heathcote."
+
+He glanced at Brooke sharply, or he would not have seen the swift
+content in his face, for the latter put a sudden restraint upon himself.
+
+"Of course! I will come with you at once," he said, and a minute or two
+later took the vacant place at Barbara's side.
+
+"You do not appear very much surprised, and yet it was a long way from
+here I saw you last," she said.
+
+Brooke fancied she meant that it was under somewhat different
+circumstances, and sat looking at her with a little smile. She was also,
+he decided, even better worth inspection than she had been in the bush,
+for the rich attire became her, and the garish electric radiance
+emphasized the gleam of the white shoulder the dainty laces clung about
+and of the ivory neck the moonlight had shone upon when first they met.
+
+"No," he said. "The fact is, I have seen you already on several
+occasions in this city."
+
+Barbara glanced at him covertly. "Then why did you not claim
+recognition?"
+
+"Isn't the reason obvious?"
+
+"No," said Barbara, reflectively, "I scarcely think it is--unless, of
+course, you had no desire to renew the acquaintance."
+
+"Does one usually renew a chance acquaintance made with a packer in the
+bush?"
+
+"It would depend a good deal on the packer," said Barbara, quietly. "Now
+this country is----"
+
+There was a trace of dryness in Brooke's smile. "You were going to say a
+democratic one. That, of course, might to some extent explain the
+anomaly."
+
+"No," said Barbara, sharply, with a very faint flush of color in her
+face, "I was not. You ought to know that, too. Explanations are
+occasionally odious, and almost always difficult, but both Major Hume
+and his daughter invited you to their house if you were ever in
+England."
+
+"The Major may have felt himself tolerably safe in making that offer,"
+said Brooke, reflectively. "You see, I am naturally acquainted with my
+fellow Briton's idiosyncrasies."
+
+The girl looked at him with a little sparkle in her eyes. "I do not know
+why you are adopting this attitude, or assigning one to me," she said.
+"Did we ever attempt to patronize you, and if we had done, is there any
+reason why you should take the trouble to resent it?"
+
+Brooke laughed softly. "I scarcely think I could afford to resent a
+kindness, however it was offered; but there is a point you don't quite
+seem to have grasped. How could I be certain you had remembered me?"
+
+The girl smiled a little. "Your own powers of recollection might have
+furnished a standard of comparison."
+
+Brooke looked at her steadily. "The sharpness of the memory depends upon
+the effect the object one wishes to recollect produced upon one's
+mind," he said. "I should, of course, have known you at once had it been
+twenty years hence."
+
+The girl turned to her programme, for now she had induced him to abandon
+his reticence his candor was almost disconcerting.
+
+"Well," she said. "Tell me what you have been doing. You have left the
+ranch?"
+
+Brooke nodded and glanced at the hand he laid on his knee, which, as the
+girl saw, was still ingrained and hard.
+
+"Road-making for one thing," he said. "Chopping trees, quarrying rock,
+and following other useful occupations of the kind. They are, one
+presumes, healthy and necessary, but I did not find any of them
+especially remunerative."
+
+"And now?"
+
+Brooke's face, as she did not fail to notice, hardened suddenly, and he
+felt an unpleasant embarrassment as he met her eyes. He had decided that
+he was fully warranted in taking any steps likely to lead to the
+recovery of the dollars he had been robbed of, but he was sensible that
+the only ones he had found convenient would scarcely commend themselves
+to his companion. There was also no ignoring the fact that he would very
+much have preferred her approbation.
+
+"At present I am surveying, though I cannot, of course, become a
+surveyor," he said. "The legislature of this country has placed that
+out of the question."
+
+Barbara was aware that in Canada a man can no more set up as a surveyor
+without the specified training than he can as a solicitor, though she
+did not think that fact accounted for the constraint in the man's voice
+and attitude. He was not one who readily betrayed what he felt, but she
+was tolerably certain that something in connection with his occupation
+caused him considerable dissatisfaction.
+
+"Still," she said, "you must have known a little about the profession?"
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, a trifle unguardedly. "Of course, there is a
+difference, but I had once the management of an estate in England. What
+one might call the more useful branches of mathematics were also, a good
+while ago, a favorite study of mine. One could find a use for them even
+in measuring a tree."
+
+The girl had a question on her lips, but she did not consider it
+advisable to ask it just then.
+
+"You would find a knowledge of timber of service in Canada?" she said.
+
+"Not very often. You see the only apparent use of the trees on my
+possessions was to keep me busy two years attempting to destroy them,
+and of late I have chiefly had to do with minerals."
+
+"With minerals?" said the girl, quickly, and then, as he volunteered no
+answer, swiftly asked the question she had wished to put before. "Whose
+was the estate in England?"
+
+Brooke did not look at her, and she fancied he was not sorry that the
+necessity of affecting a show of interest in the music meanwhile made
+continuous conversation difficult. His eyes were then turned upon a
+performer on the stage.
+
+"The estate--it belonged to--a friend of mine," he said. "Of course, I
+had no regular training, but connection and influence count for
+everything in the Old Country."
+
+Barbara watched him covertly, and once more noticed the slight hardening
+of his lips, and the very faint deepening of the bronze in his cheeks.
+It was only just perceptible, but though the sun and wind had darkened
+its tinting, Brooke had a clear English complexion, and the blood showed
+through his skin. His companion remembered the old house in the English
+valley, with its trim gardens and great sweep of velvet lawn, where he
+had admitted that he had once been long ago. The statement she had
+fancied at the time was purposely vague, and she wondered now if he had
+meant that he had lived there, for Barbara possessed the not unusual
+feminine capacity for putting two and two together. She, however,
+naturally showed nothing of this.
+
+"I suppose it does," she said. "I wonder if you ever feel any faint
+longing for what you must have left behind you there. One learns to do
+without a good deal in Canada."
+
+Brooke smiled curiously. "Of course! That is one reason why I am pleased
+you sent for me. This, you see, brings it back to me."
+
+He glanced suggestively round the big, brilliantly-lighted building,
+across the rows of citizens in broadcloth, and daintily-dressed women,
+and then turned and fixed his eyes upon his companion's face almost too
+steadily. The girl understood him, but she would not admit it.
+
+"You mean the music?" she said.
+
+"No. The music, to tell the truth, is by no means very good. It is you
+who have taken me back to the Old Country. Imagination will do a great
+deal, but it needs a fillip, and something tangible to build upon."
+
+Barbara laughed softly.
+
+"I fancy the C. P. R. and an Allan liner would be a much more reliable
+means of transportation. You will presumably take that route some day?"
+
+"I scarcely think it likely. They have, in the Western idiom, no use for
+poor men yonder."
+
+"Still, men get rich now and then in this country."
+
+The man's face grew momentarily a trifle grim. "It would apparently be
+difficult to accomplish it by serving as assistant survey, and the means
+employed by some of them might, if they went back to the old life, tend
+to prevent them feeling very comfortable. I"--and he paused for a
+second--"fancy that I shall stay in Canada."
+
+Barbara was a trifle puzzled, and said nothing further for a space,
+until when the singer who occupied the stage just then was dismissed,
+the man turned to her.
+
+"How long is a chance acquaintance warranted in presuming on a favor
+shown him in this country?"
+
+Barbara smiled at him. "If I understand you correctly, until the other
+person allows him to perceive that his absence would be supportable. In
+this case, just as long as it pleases him. Now you can tell me about the
+road-making."
+
+Brooke understood that she wished to hear, and when he could accomplish
+it without attracting too much attention, pictured for her benefit his
+life in the bush. He also did it humorously, but effectively, without
+any trace of the self-commiseration she watched for, and her fancy dwelt
+upon the hardships he lightly sketched. She knew how the toilers lived
+and worked in the bush, and had seen their reeking shanties and
+rain-swept camps. Labor is accounted honorable in that land, but it is
+none the less very frequently brutal as well as strenuous, and she could
+fancy how this man, who, she felt certain, had been accustomed to live
+softly in England, must have shrunk from some of his tasks, and picture
+to herself what he felt when he came back at night to herd close-packed
+with comrades whose thoughts and his must always be far apart. That many
+possibly better men had certainly borne with as hard a lot longer, after
+all, made no great difference to the facts. She also recognized that
+there was a vein of pathos in the story, as she remembered that he had
+told her it was scarcely likely he would ever go back to England again.
+That naturally suggested a good deal to her, for she held him blameless,
+though she knew it was not the regularity of their conduct at home which
+sent a good many of his countrymen out to Canada.
+
+At last he rose between two songs, and stood still a moment looking down
+on her.
+
+"I'm afraid I have trespassed on your kindness," he said. "I am going
+back to the bush with a survey expedition to-morrow, and I do not know
+when I shall be fortunate enough to see you again."
+
+Barbara smiled a little. "That," she said, "is for you to decide. We are
+'At home' every Thursday in the afternoon--and, in your case, in the
+evening."
+
+He made her a little inclination, and turned away, while Barbara sat
+still, looking straight in front of her, but quite oblivious of the
+music, until she turned with a laugh, and the girl who sat next to her
+glanced round.
+
+"Was the man very amusing?" she said.
+
+"No," said Barbara, reflectively. "I scarcely think he was. I gave him
+permission to call upon us, and never told him where we lived."
+
+"Still, he would, like everybody else in this city, know it already."
+
+"He may," said Barbara. "That, I suppose, is what I felt at the time,
+but now I scarcely think he does."
+
+"Then one would fancy that to meet a young man of his appearance who
+didn't know all about you would be something quite new," said her
+companion, drily.
+
+Barbara flushed ever so slightly, but her companion noticed it. She was
+quite aware that if she was made much of in that city it was, in part,
+at least, due to the fact that she was the niece of a well-known man,
+and had considerable possessions.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+AN ARDUOUS JOURNEY.
+
+
+It was late at night, and raining hard, when a line of dripping mules
+stood waiting beneath the pines that crowded in upon the workings of the
+Elktail mine. A few lights blinked among the log-sheds that clustered
+round the mouth of the rift in the steep hillside, and a warm wind that
+drove the deluge before it came wailing out of the blackness of the
+valley beneath them. The mine was not a big one, but it was believed
+that it paid Thomas P. Saxton and his friends tolerably well, in spite
+of the heavy cost of transport to the nearest smelter. A somewhat
+varying vein of galena, which is silver-lead, was worked there, and
+Saxton had, on several occasions, declined an offer to buy it, made on
+behalf of a company.
+
+On the night in question he stood in the doorway of one of the sheds
+with Brooke, for whom the Surveyor had no more work just then, beside
+him. Brooke wore long boots and a big rubber coat, on whose dripping
+surface the light of the lantern Saxton held flickered. Here and there a
+man was dimly visible beside the mules, but beyond them impenetrable
+darkness closed in.
+
+"It's a wicked kind of night," said Saxton, who, Brooke fancied,
+nevertheless, appeared quite content with it. "You know what you've got
+to do?"
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, a trifle drily, "you have given me tolerably
+complete instructions once or twice already. The ore is to be delivered
+to Allonby at the Dayspring mine not later than to-morrow night, and I'm
+to be contented with his verbal acknowledgment. The getting it across
+the river will, I fancy, be the difficulty, especially as I'm to send
+half the teamsters back before we reach it."
+
+"Still, you have got to send them back," said Saxton. "Jake and Tom will
+go on, and when you have crossed the ford that will be two mules for
+each of you. Not one of the other men must come within a mile of the
+trail forking. It's part of our bargain that you're to do just what I
+tell you."
+
+Brooke laughed a little. "I'm not going to grumble very much at leading
+two mules. I have done a good deal harder work quite frequently."
+
+"You'll find it tough enough by the time you're through. You must be in
+at the mine by daylight the day after to-morrow, anyway. Allonby will be
+sitting up waiting for you."
+
+Brooke said nothing further, but went out into the rain, calling to one
+of the teamsters, and the mules were got under way. The trail that led
+to the Elktail mine sloped steep as a roof just there, and was slippery
+with rain and mire, but the mules went down it as no other loaded beasts
+could have done, feeling their way foot by foot, or glissading on all
+four hoofs for yards together. The men made little attempt to guide
+them, for a mule is opinionated by nature, and when it cannot find its
+own way up or down any ascent it is seldom worth while for its driver to
+endeavor to show it one.
+
+When they reached the level, or rather the depth of the hollow, for of
+level, in the usual sense of the word, there is none in that country,
+Brooke, who was then cumbered with no bridle, turned and looked round.
+The lights of the Elktail had faded among the pines, and there was only
+black darkness about him. Here and there he could discern the ghostly
+outline of a towering trunk a little more solid than the night it rose
+against, and he could hear the men and beasts floundering and splashing
+in front of him. A deep reverberating sound rose out of the obscurity
+beneath, and he knew it to be the roar of a torrent in a deep-sunk
+gully, while now and then a diminishing rattle suggested that a
+hundred-weight or so of water-loosened gravel had slipped down into the
+chasm from the perilous trail.
+
+It was a difficult road to travel by daylight, and, naturally,
+considerably worse at night, while Brooke had already wondered why
+Saxton had not sent off the ore earlier. That, however, was not his
+business, and, shaking the rain from his dripping hat, he plodded on.
+It was still two or three hours before daylight when they reached a
+wider and smoother trail, and he sent away three of the men.
+
+"It's a tolerably good road now, and Saxton wants you at the mine," he
+said.
+
+One of the teamsters who were remaining laughed ironically. "I'm blamed
+if I ever heard the dip down to the long ford called a good trail
+before!"
+
+"Well," said one of the others, "what in the name of thunder are you
+going that way for?"
+
+Brooke, who was standing close by, fancied that a man who had not spoken
+kicked his loquacious comrade viciously.
+
+"Tom never does know where he's going. It's the mule that does the
+thinking for both of them," he said.
+
+There was a little hoarse laughter, and those who were going back
+vanished into the deluge, while Brooke, who took a bridle now, went on
+with two men again. It was darker than ever, for great fir branches met
+overhead just there, but they at least kept off a little of the rain,
+and he groped onward, splashing in the mire, until the roar of a river
+throbbed across the forest as the night was wearing through. Then the
+leading teamster pulled up his mules.
+
+"It's a nasty ford in daylight, and she'll be swirling over it
+waist-deep and more just now," he said. "Still, we've got to take our
+chances of getting through."
+
+"It will be light in two hours," said Brooke, suggestively. "Of course,
+you know better than I do whether we could make the wasted time up."
+
+The man laughed curiously. "I guess we could, but there's two concerned
+bush ranchers just started their chopping over yonder. I had a kind of
+notion the boss would have told you that."
+
+It commenced to dawn on Brooke that Saxton had a reason for not desiring
+that everybody should know he was sending ore away, but he was too wet
+to concern himself about the question then.
+
+"I don't think he did," he said. "Anyway, if we have to go through in
+the dark there's nothing to be gained by waiting here."
+
+They went on, down what appeared to be the side of a bottomless gully,
+with the stones and soil slipping away from under them, while half-seen
+trees flitted up out of the obscurity. Then they reached the bed of a
+stream, and proceeded along it, splashing and stumbling amidst the
+boulders. In the meanwhile the roar of the river was growing steadily
+louder, and when they stopped again they could hear the clamor of the
+invisible flood close in front of them. It came out of the rain and
+darkness, hoarse and terrifying, but while the wind drove the deluge
+into his face Brooke could see nothing beyond dim, dripping trees.
+
+"Well," said the leading teamster, "I have struck a nicer job than this
+one, but it has got to be done. Tether the spare mule, each of you, and
+then get in behind me."
+
+Brooke had no diffidence about taking the last place in the line. Though
+he was in charge of the pack train, it was evident that the men knew a
+good deal more about that ford than he did, and he had no particular
+desire to make himself responsible for a disaster. Then there was a
+scrambling and splashing, and he found himself suddenly waist-deep in
+the river. He was, however, tolerably accustomed to a ford, and though
+the mule he led objected strenuously to entering the water, it proceeded
+with that beast's usual sagacity once it was in. He endeavored to keep
+its head a trifle up-stream, and as close behind his two companions as
+he could, but apart from that he left the beast to the guidance of its
+own acumen, for he knew that it is seldom the sagacious mule takes any
+risk that can be avoided.
+
+Twice, at least, his feet were swept from under him, and once he lost
+his grip on the bridle, and simultaneously all sight of his companions
+and the beast he led. Then he felt unpleasantly lonely as he stood more
+than waist-deep in the noisy flood, but after a few yards floundering he
+found the mule again, and at last scrambled up, breathless and gasping,
+beneath the pines on the farther side.
+
+"Hit it square that time!" said the teamster. "I'm not quite so sure as
+I'd like to be we can do it again."
+
+They went back through the river for the rest of the mules, and were
+half-way across on the return journey when the leader shouted to them
+that they should stop. The water seemed deeper than it had been on the
+previous occasion, and Brooke found it difficult to keep his footing at
+all as he peered into the darkness. The rain had ceased, but there was
+little visible beyond the faint whiteness of sliding froth, and a
+shadowy blur of trees on either shore. He could see nothing that might
+serve any one as guide, and the leading teamster was standing still,
+apparently in a state of uncertainty, with dim streaks of froth
+streaming past him.
+
+"I'm 'most afraid we're too far down-stream," he said. "Anyway, we can't
+stay here. Head the beasts up a little."
+
+His voice reached the others brokenly through the roar of the torrent,
+and with a pull at the bridle Brooke turned his face up-stream. He could
+hear the rest splashing in front of him until his mule lost his footing,
+and he sank suddenly up to the breast. Then there was a shout, and a
+struggling beast swept down on him with the swing of an eddy. Brooke
+went down, head under, and one of the teamsters appeared to be shouting
+instructions to him when he came up again. He had not the faintest
+notion of what they were, and swung round with the eddy until he was
+driven violently against a boulder. There was a mule close beside him,
+and he contrived to grasp the bridle, and found to his astonishment that
+he could now stand upright without difficulty. Exactly where the others
+were, or where the opposite side of the river lay, he did not at the
+moment know; but the mule appeared to be floundering on with a definite
+purpose, and he went with it, until they scrambled up the bank, and he
+found two other men and one beast already there.
+
+"One of them's gone," said the teamster. "There'll be trouble when we go
+back, but I guess it can't be helped. Anyway, there's 'most a fathom in
+the deep below the ford, and no mule would do much swimming with that
+load."
+
+"A fathom's quite enough to cover the bags up so nobody's going to find
+them," said the other man.
+
+Brooke did not quite understand why, since the ore was valuable, this
+fact should afford the teamster the consolation it apparently did, but
+he was not in a mood to consider that point just then, and all his
+attention was occupied when they proceeded again. The trail that climbed
+the rise was wet and steep, and seemed to consist largely of boulders,
+into which he blundered with unpleasant frequency. It was but little
+better when they once more plunged into the forest, for the way was
+scarcely two feet wide, and wound round and through thickets of thorn
+and fern which, when he brushed against it, further saturated him. He
+was wet enough already, but the water which remained any time in his
+clothing got slowly warm. It also dipped into splashy hollows and
+climbed loose gravel banks, while once a hoarse shout from the leader,
+which changed to a howl of pain, was followed by a stoppage. The man had
+stumbled into a clump of the horrible Devil's club thorn, than which
+nothing that grows anywhere is more unpleasant when it gets a good hold
+on human flesh.
+
+He was cut loose, and his objurgations mingled with the soft splashing
+from the branches as they blundered on until a faint grey light filtered
+down, and the firs they passed beneath grew into definite form. It had
+also become unpleasantly chilly, and a thin, clammy mist rose like steam
+from every hollow. Then the trees grew thinner as they climbed steadily,
+until at last Brooke could see the black hill shoulders rise out of the
+trails of mist, and the leader pulled up his mules.
+
+"We've done 'bout enough for one spell, and nobody's going to see us
+here," he said. "Get a fire started. I'm emptier'n a drum."
+
+Brooke, who knew where to find the resinous knots, was glad to help, and
+soon a great fire blazed upon a shelf of rock. The mules were tethered
+and forage given them, and the men lay steaming about the blaze until
+the breakfast of flapjacks, canned stuff, and green tea was ready. It
+was despatched in ten minutes, and rolling his half-dried blanket about
+him, Brooke lay down to sleep. He had a strip of very damp rock for
+mattress, and a bag of ore for pillow, but he had grown accustomed to a
+hard bed in the bush, and had scarcely laid his head down when slumber
+came to him. Food and sleep, he had discovered, were things to be
+appreciated, for it was not always that he was able to obtain very much
+of either. His stay in the Canadian cities had been brief, and the night
+he had spent with the brown-eyed girl at the opera-house had already
+drifted back into the past.
+
+It was raining when he awakened, and they once more took the trail,
+while during what was left of the day they plodded among the boulders
+beside frothing streams, crept through shadowy forests, and climbed over
+treacherous slopes of gravel and slippery rock outcrop round the great
+hill shoulders above. Everywhere the cold gleam of snow met the eye,
+save when the mists that clung in ragged wisps about the climbing pines
+rolled together and blotted all the vista out. The smell of fir and
+balsam filled every hollow, and the song of the rivers rang through a
+dead stillness that even to Brooke, who was accustomed to it, was
+curiously impressive.
+
+There was no sign of man anywhere, save for the smear of trampled mire
+or hoof-scattered gravel, and no sound that was made by any creature of
+the forest in all the primeval solitude. For no very evident reason,
+tracts of that wild country remain a desolation of grand and almost
+overwhelming beauty, and in such places even the bushman speaks softly,
+or plods on faster, as though anxious to escape from them, in wondering
+silence. The teamsters, however, appeared by no means displeased at the
+solitude, and Brooke was not in a condition to be receptive of more than
+physical impressions. His long boots were full of water, his clothes
+were soaked, the sliding gravel had galled his feet, and his limbs
+ached. The beasts were also flagging, for their loads were heavy, and
+the patter of their hoofs rose with a slower beat through the rain,
+while the teamsters said nothing save when they urged them on.
+
+They rested again for an hour and lighted another fire, and afterwards
+found the trail smoother, but evening was closing in when, scrambling
+down from a hill shoulder, they came upon a winding valley. It was
+filled with dusky cedars, and the mist rolled out of it, but the
+teamsters quickened their pace a trifle, and smote the lagging beasts.
+Then, where the trees were thinner, Brooke saw a faint smear of vapor a
+little bluer than the mist drawn out across the ragged pines above him,
+and one of his companions laughed.
+
+"Well," he said, "I guess we're there at last, and if Boss Allonby isn't
+on the jump you'll be putting away your supper, and as much whisky as
+you've any use for inside an hour."
+
+"Is it a complaint he's often troubled with?" said Brooke.
+
+The teamster grinned. "He has it 'bout once a fortnight--when the pack
+beasts from the settlement come in. It lasts two days, in the usual way,
+and on the third one every boy about the mine looks out for him."
+
+Brooke asked no more questions, though he hoped that several days had
+elapsed since the supplies from the settlement had come up, and in
+another few minutes they plodded into sight of the mine. The workings
+appeared to consist of a heap of débris and a big windlass, but here and
+there a crazy log hut stood amidst the pines which crowded in serried
+ranks upon the narrow strip of clearing. The door of the largest shanty
+stood open, and the shadowy figure of a man appeared in it.
+
+"Good-evening, boys," he said. "You have brought the ore and Saxton's
+man along?"
+
+One of the teamsters said they had, and turned to Brooke with a laugh.
+
+"You're not going to have any trouble to-night," he said. "He's coming
+round again, and when he feels like it, there's nobody can be more
+high-toned polite!"
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+ALLONBY'S ILLUSION.
+
+
+The shanty was draughty as well as very damp, and the glass of the
+flickering lamp blackened so that the light was dim. It, however, served
+to show one-half of Allonby's face in silhouette against the shadow, as
+he sat leaning one elbow on the table, with a steaming glass in front of
+him. Brooke, who was stiff and weary, lay in a dilapidated canvas chair
+beside the crackling fire, which filled the very untidy room with
+aromatic odors. It was still apparently raining outside, for there was a
+heavy splashing on the shingled roof above, and darkness had closed down
+on the lonely valley several hours ago, but while Brooke's eyes were
+heavy, Allonby showed no sign of drowsiness. He sat looking straight in
+front of him vacantly.
+
+"You will pass your glass across when you are ready, Mr. Brooke," he
+said, and the latter noticed his clean English intonation. "The night is
+young yet, that bottle is by no means the last in the shanty, and it is,
+I think, six months since I have been favored with any intelligent
+company. I have, of course, the boys, but with due respect to the
+democratic sentiments of this colony they are--the boys, and the fact
+that they are a good deal more use to the country than I am does not
+affect the question."
+
+Brooke smiled a little. His host was attired somewhat curiously in a
+frayed white shirt and black store jacket, which was flecked with cigar
+ash, and had evidently seen better days, though his other garments were
+of the prevalent jean, and a portion of his foot protruded through one
+of his deerhide slippers. His face was gaunt and haggard, but it was
+just then a trifle flushed, and though his voice was still clear and
+nicely modulated, there was a suggestive unsteadiness in his gaze. The
+man was evidently a victim of indulgence, but there was a trace of
+refinement about him, and Brooke had realized already that he had
+reached the somewhat pathetic stage when pride sinks to the vanity which
+prompts its possessor to find a curious solace in the recollection of
+what he has thrown away.
+
+"No more!" he said. "I have lived long enough in the bush to find out
+that is the way disaster lies."
+
+Allonby nodded. "You are no doubt perfectly right," he said. "I had,
+however, gone a little too far when I made the discovery, and by that
+time the result of any further progress had become a matter of
+indifference to me. In any case, a man who has played his part with
+credit among his equals where life has a good deal to offer one and
+intellect is appreciated, must drown recollection now and then when he
+drags out his days in a lonely exile that can have only one end. I am
+quite aware that it is not particularly good form for me to commiserate
+myself, but it should be evident that there is nobody else here to do it
+for me."
+
+Brooke had already found his host's maudlin moralizings becoming
+monotonous, but he also felt in a half-contemptuous fashion sorry for
+the man. He was, it seemed to him, in spite of his proclivities, in the
+restricted sense of the word, almost a gentleman.
+
+"If one may make the inquiry, you came from England?" he said.
+
+Allonby laughed. "Most men put that question differently in this
+country. They talk straight, as they term it, and apparently consider
+brutality to be the soul of candor. Yes, I came from England, because
+something happened which prevented me feeling any great desire to spend
+any further time there. What it was does not, of course, matter. I came
+out with a sheaf of certificates and several medals to exploit the
+mineral riches of Western Canada, and found that mineralogical science
+is not greatly appreciated here."
+
+He rose, and taking down a battered walnut case, shook out a little
+bundle of greasy papers with a trembling hand. Then a faint gleam crept
+into his eyes as he opened a little box in which Brooke saw several big
+round pieces of gold. The dulness of the unpolished metal made the
+inscriptions on them more legible, and he knew enough about such matters
+to realize that no man of mean talent could have won those trophies.
+
+"They would, I fancy, have got you a good appointment anywhere," he
+said.
+
+"As a matter of fact, they got me one or two. It is, however,
+occasionally a little difficult to keep an appointment when obtained."
+
+Brooke could understand that there were reasons which made that likely
+in his host's case, but he had by this time had enough of the subject.
+
+"What are you going to do with the ore I brought you?" he said.
+
+Allonby's eyes twinkled. "Enrich what we raise here with it."
+
+"It is a little difficult to understand what you would gain by that."
+
+Allonby smiled suggestively. "I would certainly gain nothing, but Thomas
+P. Saxton seems to fancy the result would be profitable to him."
+
+"But does the Dayspring belong to Saxton?"
+
+Allonby emptied his glass at a gulp. "As much as I do, and he believes
+he has bought me soul and body. The price was not a big one--a very few
+dollars every month, and enough whisky to keep me here. If that failed
+me, I should go away, though I do not know where to, for I cannot use
+the axe. He is, however, now quite willing to part with the Dayspring,
+which has done little more than pay expenses."
+
+A light commenced to dawn on Brooke, and his face grew a trifle hot.
+"That is presumably why he arranged that I should bring the ore down
+past the few ranches near the trail at night?"
+
+"Precisely!" said Allonby. "You see, Saxton wants to sell the mine to
+another man--because he is a fool. Now the chief recommendation a mine
+has to a prospective purchaser is naturally the quality of the ore to be
+got out of it."
+
+"But the man who proposed buying it would send an expert to collect
+samples for assaying."
+
+Allonby's voice was not quite so clear as it had been, but he smiled
+again. "It is not quite so difficult for a mine captain who knows his
+business to contrive that an expert sees no more than is advisable. A
+good deal of discretion is, however, necessary when you salt a poor mine
+with high-grade ore. It has to be done with knowledge, artistically. You
+don't seem quite pleased at being mixed up in such a deal."
+
+Brooke was a trifle grim in face, but he laughed. "I have no doubt that,
+considering everything, it is a trifle absurd of me, but I'm not," he
+said. "One has to get accustomed to the notion that he is being made use
+of in connection with an ingenious swindle. That, however, is a matter
+which rests between Saxton and me, and we may talk over it when I go
+back again. Why did you call him a fool?"
+
+Allonby leaned forward in his chair, and his face grew suddenly eager.
+"I suppose you couldn't raise eight thousand dollars to buy the mine
+with?"
+
+Brooke laughed outright. "I should have some difficulty in raising
+twenty until the month is up."
+
+"Then you are losing a chance you'll never get again in a lifetime," and
+Allonby made a little gesture of resignation. "I would have liked you to
+have taken it, because I think I could make you believe in me. That is
+why I showed you the medals."
+
+Brooke looked at him curiously for a moment or two. It was evident that
+the man was in earnest, for his gaunt face was wholly intent, and his
+fingers were trembling.
+
+"It is a very long time since I had the expectation of ever calling
+eight thousand dollars my own, and if I had them I should feel very
+dubious about putting them into any mine, and especially this one."
+
+Allonby leaned forward further, and clutched his arm. "If you have any
+friends in the Old Country, beg or borrow from them. Offer them twenty
+per cent.--anything they ask. There is a fortune under your feet. Of
+course, you do not believe it. Nobody I ever told it to would even
+listen seriously."
+
+"I believe you feel sure of it, but that is quite another thing," and
+Brooke smiled.
+
+Allonby rose shakily, and leaned upon the table with his fingers
+trembling.
+
+"Listen a few minutes--I was sure of attention without asking for it
+once," he said. "It was I who found the Dayspring, not by chance
+prospecting, but by calculations that very few men in the province could
+make. I know what that must appear--but you have seen the medals.
+Tracing the dip and curvature of the stratification from the Elktail and
+two prospectors' shafts, I knew the vein would approach the level here,
+and I put five thousand dollars--every cent I could scrape
+together--into proving it. We struck the vein, but while it should have
+been rich, we found it broken, displaced, and poor. There had, you see,
+been a disturbance of the strata. I borrowed money, worked night and
+day, and starved myself--did everything that would save a dollar from
+the rapidly-melting pile--and at last we struck the vein again, and
+struck it rich."
+
+He stopped abruptly and stood staring vacantly in front of him, while
+Brooke heard him noisily draw in his breath.
+
+"You can imagine what that meant!" he continued. "After what had
+happened in England I could never go back a poor man, but a good deal is
+forgiven the one who comes home rich. Then, while I tried to keep my
+head, we came to the fault where the ore vein suddenly ran out. It broke
+off as though cut through with a knife, and went down, as the men who
+knew no better said, to the centre of the earth. Now a fault is a very
+curious thing, but one can deduce a good deal when he has studied them,
+and a big snow-slide had laid bare an interesting slice of the
+foundations of this country in the valley opposite. It took me a month
+to construct my theory, and that was little when you consider the
+factors I had to reckon with--ages of crushing pressure, denudation by
+grinding ice and sliding snow, and Titanic upheavals thousands of years
+ago. The result was from one point of view contemptible. With about four
+thousand dollars I could strike the vein again."
+
+"Of course you tried to raise them?"
+
+Allonby made a grimace. "For six long years. The men who had lent me
+money laughed at me, and worked the poor ore back along the incline
+instead of boring. Somebody has been working it--for about five cents on
+the dollar--ever since, and when I told them what they were letting slip
+all of them smiled compassionately. I am of course--though once it was
+different--a broken man, with a brain clouded by whisky, only fit to run
+a played-out mine. How could I be expected to find any man a fortune?"
+
+His brain, it was evident, was slightly affected by alcohol then, but
+there was no mistaking the genuineness of his bitterness. It was too
+deep to be maudlin or tinged with self-commiseration now. The little
+hopeless gesture of resignation he made was also very eloquent, and
+while the rain splashed upon the roof Brooke sat silent regarding him
+curiously. The dim light and the flickering radiance from the fire were
+still on one side of his face, forcing it up with all its gauntness of
+outline, but the weakness had gone out of it, and for once it was strong
+and almost stern. Then a little sardonic smile crept into it.
+
+"A fortune under our feet--and nobody will have it! It is one of Fate's
+grim jests," he said. "I spent a month making a theory, and every day of
+six years--that is when I was capable of thinking--has shown me
+something to prove that theory right. Now Saxton wants to swindle
+another man into buying the mine for--you can call it a song."
+
+He poured out another glass with a shaking hand, and then turned
+abruptly to his companion. "Put on your rubber coat and come with me,"
+he said.
+
+Brooke would much rather have retired to sleep, but the man's
+earnestness had its effect on him, and he rose and went out into the
+rain with him. Allonby came near falling down the shaft when they stood
+at its head, but Brooke got him into the ore hoist and sent him down,
+after which he descended the running chain he had locked fast hand over
+hand. The level, as he had been told, was close to the surface, and
+while Allonby walked unsteadily in front of him with a blinking candle
+in his hat, they followed it into the face of the hill. Twice his
+companion stumbled over a piece of the timbering, and the light went
+out, while Brooke wondered uneasily if there was another sinking
+anywhere ahead as he lighted it again. He knew a little about mining,
+since he had on one or two occasions earned a few dollars assisting in
+the driving of an adit.
+
+Finally, Allonby stopped and leaned against the dripping rock, as he
+took off his hat and held the candle high above his head. Then he turned
+and pointed down the gallery the way they had come.
+
+"Look at it!" he said, thickly. "Until we struck the ore where you see
+the extra timbering, I counted the dollars every yard of it cost me as I
+would drops of my life's blood. I worked while the men slept, and lived
+like a Chinaman. There was a fortune within my grasp if those dollars
+would hold out until I reached it--and fortune meant England, and I once
+more the man I had been. Then--we came to that."
+
+He swung round and pointed with a wide, dramatic gesture which Brooke
+fancied he would not have used in his prosperous days, to a bare face of
+rock. It was of different nature to the sides of the tunnel, and had
+evidently come down from above. Brooke understood. The strata his
+companion had been working in had suddenly broken off and gone down,
+only he knew where. He sat down on a big fallen fragment, and there was
+silence for a space, emphasized by the drip of water in the blackness of
+the mine. Brooke was very drowsy, but the scene, with its loneliness and
+the haggard face of his companion showing pale and drawn in the
+candle-light, had a curious effect on him, and in the meanwhile
+compelled him to wakefulness.
+
+"You know where that broken strata has dipped to?" he said, at last.
+
+Allonby, who laughed in a strained fashion, sat down abruptly, and
+thrust a bundle of papers upon his companion. "Almost to a fathom. If
+you know anything of geology, look at these."
+
+Brooke, who unrolled the papers, knew enough to recognize that, even if
+his companion had illusions, they were the work of a clever man. There
+was skill and what appeared to be a high regard for minute accuracy in
+every line of the plans, while he fancied the attached calculations
+would have aroused a mathematician's appreciation. He spent several
+minutes poring over them with growing wonder, while Allonby held the
+candle, and then looked up at him.
+
+"They would, I think, almost satisfy any man, but there is a weak
+point," he said.
+
+Allonby smiled in a curious fashion. "The one the rest split on? I see
+you understand."
+
+"You deduce where the ore ought to be--by analogy. That kind of
+reasoning is, I fancy, not greatly favored in this country by practical
+men. They prefer the fact that it is there established by the drill."
+
+Allonby made a little gesture of impatience. "They have driven shaft
+and adit for half a lifetime, most of them, and they do not know yet
+that one law of Nature--the sequence of cause and effect--is immutable.
+I have shown them the causes--but it would cost five thousand dollars to
+demonstrate the effect. Well, as no one will ever spend them, we will go
+back."
+
+He had come out unsteadily, but he went back more so still, as though a
+sustaining purpose had been taken from him, and, as he fell down now and
+then, Brooke had some difficulty in conveying him to the foot of the
+shaft. When he had bestowed him in the ore hoist, and was about to
+ascend by the chain, Allonby laughed.
+
+"You needn't be particularly careful. I shall come down here
+head-foremost one of these nights, and nobody will be any the worse
+off," he said. "I lost my last chance when that vein worked out."
+
+Then Brooke went up into the darkness, and with some difficulty hove his
+companion to the surface. They went back to the shanty together, and as
+Allonby incontinently fell asleep in his chair, Brooke retired to the
+bunk set apart for him. Still, tired as he was, it was some little time
+before he slept, for what he had seen had made its impression. The
+shanty was very still, save for the snapping of the fire, and the
+broken-down outcast, who held the key of a fortune the men of that
+province were too shrewd to believe in, slept uneasily, with head hung
+forward, in his chair. Brooke could see him dimly by the dying light of
+the fire, and felt very far from sure that it was a delusion he labored
+under.
+
+When he awakened next morning Allonby was already about, and looked at
+him curiously when he endeavored to reopen the subject.
+
+"It is not considerate to refer next morning to anything a man with my
+shortcomings may have said the night before," he said. "I think you
+should recognize that fact."
+
+"I'm sorry," said Brooke. "Still, it occurred to me that you believed
+very firmly in the truth of it."
+
+Allonby smiled drily. "Well," he said, "I do. What is that to you?"
+
+"Nothing," said Brooke. "I shall, as I think I told you, be worth about
+thirty dollars when the month is out. What is the name of the man Saxton
+wishes to sell the mine to?"
+
+"Devine," said Allonby, and went out to fling a vitriolic reproof at a
+miner who was doing something he did not approve of about the windlass,
+while Brooke, who saw no more of him, departed when he had made his
+breakfast.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+A BOLD VENTURE.
+
+
+It was a hot morning shortly after Brooke's return to the Elktail mine,
+and Saxton sat in his galvanized shanty with his feet on a chair and a
+cigar in his hand. The door stood open and let a stream of sunlight and
+balsamic odors of the forest in. He wore soil-stained jean, and seemed
+very damp, for he had just come out of the mine. Thomas P. Saxton was
+what is termed a rustler in that country, a man of unlimited assurance
+and activity, troubled by no particular scruples and keen to seize on
+any chances that might result in the acquisition of even a very few
+dollars. He was also, like most of his countrymen, eminently adaptable,
+and the fact that he occasionally knew very little about the task he
+took in hand seldom acted as a deterrent. It was characteristic that
+during the past hour he had been endeavoring to show his foreman how to
+run a new rock-drilling machine which he had never seen in operation
+until that time.
+
+Brooke, who had been speaking, sat watching him with a faint ironical
+appreciation. The man was delightfully candid, at least with him, and
+though he was evidently not averse from sailing perilously near the wind
+it was done with boldness and ingenuity. There was a little twinkle in
+his keen eyes as he glanced at his companion.
+
+"Well," he said, "one has to take his chances when he has all to gain
+and very little to let up upon. That's the kind of man I am."
+
+"I believe you told me you had got quite a few dollars together not very
+long ago," said Brooke, reflectively.
+
+The smile became a trifle plainer in Saxton's eyes. "I did, but very few
+of them are mine. Somehow I get to know everybody worth knowing in the
+province, and now and then folks with dollars to spare for a venture
+hand them me to put into a deal."
+
+"On the principle that one has to take his chances in this country?"
+
+Saxton laughed good-humoredly. "Well," he said, "I never go back upon a
+partner, anyway, and when we make a deal the other folks are quite at
+liberty to keep their eyes on me. They know the rules of the game, and
+if they don't always get the value they expected they most usually lie
+low and sell out to another man instead of blaming me. It pays their way
+better than crying down their bargain. Still, I have started off mills
+and wild-cat mines that turned out well, and went on coining dollars for
+everybody."
+
+"Which was no doubt a cause of satisfaction to you!"
+
+Saxton shook his head. "No, sir," he said. "I felt sorry ever after I
+hadn't kept them."
+
+Brooke straightened himself a trifle in his chair, for he felt that they
+were straying from the point.
+
+"Industrial speculations in this province remind me of a game we have in
+England. Perhaps you have seen it," he said, reflectively. "You bet a
+shilling or half-a-crown that when you lift up a thimble you will find a
+pea you have seen a man place under it. It is not very often that you
+accomplish it. Still, in that case--there is--a pea."
+
+"And there's nothing but low-grade ore in the Dayspring? Now, nobody
+ever quite knows what he will find in a mine if he lays out enough
+dollars looking for it."
+
+"That," said Brooke, drily, "is probably correct enough, especially if
+he is ignorant of geology. What I take exception to is the sprinkling of
+the mine with richer ore to induce him to buy it. Such a proceeding
+would be called by very unpleasant names in England, and I'm not quite
+sure it mightn't bring you within the reach of the law here. Mind, what
+you may think fit to do is, naturally, no concern of mine, but I have
+tolerably strong objections to taking any further personal part in the
+scheme."
+
+"The point is that we're playing it off on Devine, the man who robbed
+you, and has once or twice put his foot on me. I was considerably
+flattened when I crawled from under. He's a big man and he puts it down
+heavy."
+
+"Still, I feel it's necessary to draw the line at a swindle."
+
+Saxton made a little whimsical gesture. "Call it the game with the pea
+and thimble. Devine has got a notion there's something in the mine, and
+I don't know any reason why I shouldn't humor him. He's quite often
+right, you see."
+
+"It does not affect the point, but are you quite sure he isn't right
+now?"
+
+"You mean that Allonby may be?"
+
+"I shouldn't consider it quite out of the question."
+
+Saxton laughed softly. "Allonby's a whisky-skin, and I keep him because
+he's cheap and it's a charity. Everybody knows that story of his, and he
+only trots it out when he has got a good bottle of old rye into him. At
+most other times he's quite sensible. Anyway, Devine doesn't want the
+mine to keep. He has to get a working group with a certain output and
+assays that look well all round before he floats it off on the English
+market. If he knew I was quietly dumping that ore in I'm not quite sure
+it would rile him."
+
+Brooke sat silent a space. He had discovered by this time that it is not
+advisable to expect any excess of probity in a mining deal, and that it
+is the speculator, and not the men who face the perils of the
+wilderness (which are many, prospecting), who usually takes the profit.
+A handful or two of dollars for them, and a big bank balance for the
+trickster stock manipulator appeared to be the rules of the game. Still,
+nobody can expect to acquire riches without risk or labor, and it seemed
+no great wrong to him that the men with the dollars should lose a few of
+them occasionally. Granting that, he did not, however, feel it warranted
+him in taking any active part in fleecing them.
+
+"Still, if another bag of ore goes into the Dayspring you can count me
+out," he said. "No doubt, it's a trifle inconsistent, but you will
+understand plainly that I take no further share in selling the mine."
+
+Saxton shook his head reproachfully. "Those notions of yours are going
+to get in your way, and it's unfortunate, because we have taken hold of
+a big thing," he said. "I'm an irresponsible planter of wild-cat mining
+schemes, you're nobody, and between us we're going to best Devine, the
+biggest man in his line in the province, and a clever one. Still, that's
+one reason why the notion gets hold of me. When you come in ahead of the
+little man there's nothing to be got out of him, and Devine's good for
+quite a pile when we can put the screw on."
+
+Again Brooke was sensible of a certain tempered admiration for his
+comrade's hardihood, for it seemed to him that the project he had
+mooted might very well involve them both in disaster.
+
+"You expect to accomplish it?" he said.
+
+"Well," said Saxton, drily, "I mean to try. We can't squeeze him much on
+the Dayspring, but we want dollars to fight him with, and that's how
+we're going to get a few of them. It's on the Canopus I mean to strike
+him."
+
+"The Canopus!" said Brooke, who knew the mine in question was considered
+a rich one. "How could you gain any hold on him over that?"
+
+"On the title. By jumping it. Devine takes too many chances now and
+then, and if one could put his fingers on a little information I have a
+notion the Canopus wouldn't be his. I guess you know that unless you do
+this, that, and the other, after recording your correct frontage on the
+lead or vein, you can't hold a mine on a patent from the Crown. Suppose
+you have got possession, and it's found that there was anything wrong
+with the papers you or your prospectors filed, the minerals go back to
+the Crown again, and the man who's first to drive his stakes in can
+re-locate them. It's done now and then."
+
+Brooke sat silent a space. A jumper--as the man who re-locates the
+minerals somebody else has found, on the ground of incorrect record or
+non-compliance with the mining enactments, is called--is not regarded
+with any particular favor in that province, or, indeed, elsewhere, but
+his proceedings may be, at least, perfectly legitimate, and there was a
+certain simplicity and daring of conception in the new scheme that had
+its effect on Brooke.
+
+"I will do what I can within limits," he said.
+
+Saxton nodded. "Then you will have to get into the mine, though I don't
+quite know how we are going to fix it yet," he said. "Anyway, we've
+talked enough for one day already, and you have to go down to the
+settlement to see about getting those new drills up."
+
+Brooke set out for the settlement, and slept at a ranch on the way,
+where he left his horse which had fallen lame, for it was a two days'
+journey, while it was late in the afternoon when he sat down to rest
+where the trail crossed a bridge. The latter was a somewhat rudimentary
+log structure put together with the axe and saw alone, of a width that
+would just allow one of the light wagons in use in that country to cross
+over it, and, as the bottom of the hollow the river swirled through was
+level there, an ungainly piece of trestle work carried the road up to
+it. There was a long, white rapid not far away, and the roar of it rang
+in deep vibrations among the rocks above. Brooke, who had walked a long
+way, found the pulsating sound soothing, while the fragrance the dusky
+cedars distilled had its usual drowsy effect on him, and as he watched
+the glancing water slide by his eyes grew heavy.
+
+He did not remember falling asleep, but by and by the sombre wall of
+coniferous forest that shut the hollow in seemed to dwindle to the
+likeness of a trim yew hedge, and the river now slid by smooth and
+placidly. There was also velvet grass beneath his feet in place of
+wheel-rutted gravel and brown fir needles. Still, the scene he gazed
+upon was known to him, though it seemed incomplete until a girl with
+brown eyes in a long white dress and big white hat appeared at his side.
+She fitted the surroundings wonderfully, for her almost stately serenity
+harmonized with the quietness and order of the still English valley, but
+yet he was puzzled, for there was sunlight on the water, and he felt
+that the moon should be shining round and full above her shoulder. Then
+when he would have spoken the picture faded, and he became suddenly
+conscious that his pipe had fallen from his hand, and that he was
+dressed in soil-stained jean which seemed quite out of keeping with the
+English lawn. That was his first impression, but while he wondered
+vaguely how he came to have a pipe made out of a corn-cob, which cost
+him about thirty cents, at all, a rattle of displaced gravel and
+pounding of hoofs became audible, and he recognized that something
+unusual was going on.
+
+He shook himself to attention, and looking about him saw a man sitting
+stiffly erect on the driving seat of a light wagon and endeavoring to
+urge a pair of unwilling horses up the sloping trestle. They were
+Cayuses, beasts of native blood and very uncertain temper, bred by
+Indians, and as usual, about half-broken to the rein. They also appeared
+to have decided objections to crossing the bridge, for which any one new
+to the province would scarcely have felt inclined to blame them. The
+river frothed beneath it, the ascent was steep with a twist in it, and a
+small log, perhaps a foot through, spiked down to the timbers, served as
+sole protection. It would evidently not be difficult for a pair of
+frightened horses to tilt a wheel of the very light vehicle over it.
+
+Still, the structure compared favorably with most of those in the
+mountains, and Brooke, who knew that it is not always advisable to
+interfere in a dispute between a bush rancher and his horses, sat still,
+until it became evident to him that the man did not belong to that
+community. He was elderly, for there was grey in the hair beneath the
+wide hat, while something in the way he held himself and the fit of his
+clothes, which appeared unusually good, suggested a connection with the
+cities. It was, however, evident that he was a determined man, for he
+showed no intention of dismounting, and responded to the off horse's
+vicious kicking with a stinging cut of the whip. The result of this was
+a plunge, and one wheel struck the foot-high guard with a crash. The man
+plied the whip again, and with another plunge and scramble the beasts
+gained the level of the bridge. Here they stopped altogether, and one
+attempted to stand upright while Brooke sprang to his feet.
+
+"Hadn't you better get down, sir, or let me lead them across?" he said.
+
+The man, tightening both hands upon the reins, cast a momentary glance
+at him, and his little grim smile and the firm grip of his long, lean
+fingers supplied a hint of his character.
+
+"Not until I have to," he said. "They're going to cross this bridge."
+
+Brooke moved a few paces nearer. It was one thing for a rancher
+accustomed to horses and bridges of that description to take pleasure in
+such a struggle, but quite another in the case of a man from the cities,
+and he had misgivings as to the result of it. The latter, however,
+showed very little concern, though the near horse was now apparently
+endeavoring to kick the front of the wagon in. Then Brooke sprang
+suddenly towards them as both backed the wagon against the log. He
+fancied that one wheel was mounting it when he seized the near horse's
+head, but after that he had very little opportunity of noticing
+anything.
+
+The beast plunged, and came near swinging him off his feet, the wagon
+pole creaked portentously, and the whip fell swishing across the other
+horse's back again. Then there was a hammering of hoofs, and a rattle;
+the team bolted incontinently, and because the bridge was narrow,
+Brooke, who lost his hold, sprang upon the log that very indifferently
+guarded it. It was, however, rounded on the top, and next moment he
+found himself standing knee-deep in the river, shaken, and considerably
+astonished, but by no means hurt. A drop of ten feet or so is not very
+apt to hurt an agile man who alights upon his feet. He saw the wagon
+bounce upon the half-round logs, as with the team stretching out in a
+furious gallop in front of it, it crossed the trestle on the opposite
+side, and vanish into the forest; and then finding himself very little
+the worse, proceeded to wade back to the bridge. He was plodding up the
+climbing trail beneath the firs when a shout came down and he saw the
+man had pulled the wagon up. When Brooke drew level he looked at him
+with a little dry smile.
+
+"I guess you and the Cayuses came off the worst," he said.
+
+Brooke glanced at the horses. They were flecked with lather but quiet
+enough now, and it was evident that the driver had beaten the spirit out
+of them on the ascent.
+
+"I fancied the result would have been different a little while ago," he
+said.
+
+The stranger laughed. "I 'most always get my way," he said. "Still, I
+didn't pull the team up to tell you that. You're going in to the
+settlement?"
+
+Brooke said he was, and the stranger bade him get up, which he did, and
+seized the first opportunity of glancing at his companion. There is, it
+had already appeared to him, a greater typical likeness between the
+business men of the Pacific slope, in which category he placed his
+companion, than is usual in the case of Englishmen. Even when large of
+frame they seldom put on flesh, and the characteristic lean face and
+spare figure alone supply a hint of restlessness and activity, which is
+emphasized by mobility of features and quick nervous gesture. The man
+who drove the wagon was almost unusually gaunt, and while his eyes,
+which were brown, and reminded Brooke curiously of somebody else's,
+seemed to scintillate with a faint sardonic twinkle, there was a
+suggestion of reticence in his firm thin lips, and an unmistakable stamp
+of command upon him. He also held himself well, and Brooke fancied that
+he was in his own sphere a man of some importance. His first observation
+was, however, not exactly what Brooke would have expected from an
+Englishman of his apparent station.
+
+"I'm much obliged to you," he said. "I don't like to be beaten, and it's
+a thing that doesn't happen very often. Besides, when a horse is too
+much for a man it's kind of humiliating. There's something that doesn't
+strike one as quite fitting in the principle of the thing."
+
+Brooke laughed. "I'm not sure it's worth while to worry very much over a
+point of that kind, especially when it seems likely to lead to nothing
+beyond the probability of being pitched into a river."
+
+"Still," said the stranger, with the little twinkle showing plainer in
+his eyes, "in this case it was the other man who fell in."
+
+"I fancy it quite frequently is," said Brooke, reflectively. "That is
+usually the result of meddling."
+
+The stranger nodded, and quietly inspected him. "You have been here some
+time, but you are an Englishman," he said.
+
+"I am," said Brooke. "Is there any reason why I should hide the fact?"
+
+"You couldn't do it. How long have you been here?"
+
+"Four years in all, I think."
+
+"What did you come out for?"
+
+Brooke was accustomed to Western brusquerie, and there was nothing in
+his companion's manner which made the question offensive.
+
+"I fancy my motive was not an unusual one. To pick up a few dollars."
+
+"Got them yet?"
+
+"I can't say I have."
+
+The stranger appeared reflective. "There are not many folks who would
+have admitted that," he said. "When a man has been four years in this
+country he ought to have put a few dollars together. What have you been
+at?"
+
+"Ranching most of the time. Road-making, saw-milling, and a few other
+occupations of the same kind afterwards."
+
+"What was wrong with the ranch?"
+
+Persistent questioning is not unusual in that country, for what is
+considered delicacy depends largely upon locality, and Brooke laughed.
+
+"Almost everything," he said. "It had a good many disadvantages besides
+its rockiness, sterility, and an unusually abundant growth of
+two-hundred-feet trees. Still, it was the man who sold it me I found
+most fault with. He was a land agent."
+
+"One of the little men?"
+
+"No. I believe he is considered rather a big one--in fact about the
+biggest in that particular line."
+
+The little sardonic gleam showed a trifle more plainly in the stranger's
+eyes. "He told you the land was nicely cleared ready, and would grow
+anything?"
+
+"No," said Brooke. "He, however, led me to believe that it could be
+cleared with very little difficulty, and that the lumber was worth a
+good deal. I daresay it is, if there was any means whatever of getting
+it to a mill, which there isn't. He certainly told me there was no
+reason it shouldn't grow as good fruit as any that comes from Oregon,
+while I found the greatest difficulty in getting a little green oat
+fodder out of it."
+
+"You went back, and tried to cry off your bargain?"
+
+Brooke glanced at his companion, and fancied that he was watching him
+closely. "I really don't know any reason why I should worry you with my
+affairs. My case isn't at all an unusual one."
+
+"I don't know of any why you shouldn't. Go right on."
+
+"Then I never got hold of the man himself. It was one of his agents I
+made the deal with, and there was nothing to be obtained from him. In
+fact, I could see no probability of getting any redress at all. It
+appears to be considered commendable to take the newly-arrived Britisher
+in."
+
+The other man smiled drily. "Well," he said, "some of them 'most seem to
+expect it. Ever think of trying the law against the principal?"
+
+"The law," said Brooke, "is apt to prove a very uncertain remedy, and I
+spent my last few dollars convincing myself that the ranch was
+worthless. Now, one confidence ought to warrant another. What has
+brought you into the bush? You do not belong to it."
+
+The stranger laughed. "There's not much bush in this country, from
+Kootenay to Caribou, I haven't wandered through. I used to live in
+it--quite a long while ago. I came up to look at a mine. I buy one up
+occasionally."
+
+"Isn't that a little risky?"
+
+"Well," said the other, with a little smile, "it depends. There are
+goods, like eggs and oranges, you don't want to keep."
+
+"And a good market in England for whatever the Colonials have no
+particular use for?"
+
+The stranger laughed good-humoredly. "Did you ever strike any real good
+salt pork in Canada?"
+
+"No," said Brooke, decisively, "I certainly never did."
+
+"Then where does the best bacon you get in England come from? Same with
+cheese--and other things."
+
+"Including mines?"
+
+"Well, when any of them look like paying it's generally your folk who
+get them. Know anything about the Dayspring?"
+
+"Not a great deal," Brooke said, guardedly. "I have been in the
+workings, and it is for sale."
+
+"Ore worth anything at the smelter?"
+
+Now Brooke was perfectly certain that such a man as his companion
+appeared to be would attach no great importance to any information
+obtained by chance from a stranger.
+
+"There is certainly a little good ore in it," he said, drily.
+
+"That is about all you mean to tell me?"
+
+"It is about all I know definitely."
+
+The stranger smiled curiously. "Well," he said, "I'm not going to worry
+you, and I guess I know a little more."
+
+Brooke changed the topic, and listened with growing interest, and a
+little astonishment, to his companion as they drove on. The man seemed
+acquainted with everything he could mention, including the sentiments
+of the insular English and the economics as well as the history of their
+country. He was even more astonished when, as they alighted before the
+little log hotel at the pine-shrouded settlement, the host greeted the
+stranger.
+
+"You'll be Mr. Devine who wrote me about the room and a saddle horse?"
+he said.
+
+"Yes," said the other man, who glanced at Brooke with a little whimsical
+smile, "you have addressed me quite correctly."
+
+Brooke said nothing, for he realized then something of the nature of the
+task he and Saxton had undertaken, while it was painfully evident that
+he had done very little to further his cause at the first encounter. He
+also found the little gleam in Devine's eyes almost exasperating, and
+turned to the hotel-keeper to conceal the fact.
+
+"Has the freighter come through?" he said.
+
+"No," said the man. "Bob, who has just come in, said he'd a big load and
+we needn't expect him until to-morrow."
+
+Devine had turned away now, and Brooke touched the hotel-keeper's arm.
+"I don't wish that man to know I'm from the Elktail," he said.
+
+"Well," said the hotel-keeper, "you know Saxton's business best, but if
+I had any share in it and struck a man of that kind looking round for
+mines I'd do what was in me to shove the Dayspring off on to him."
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+DEVINE MAKES A SUGGESTION.
+
+
+There was only one hotel, which scarcely deserved the title, in the
+settlement, and when Brooke returned to it an hour after the six o'clock
+supper, he found Devine sitting on the verandah. He had never met the
+man until that afternoon, and had only received one very terse response
+to the somewhat acrimonious correspondence he had insisted on his agent
+forwarding him respecting the ranch. He had no doubt that the affair had
+long ago passed out of Devine's memory, though he was still, on his
+part, as determined as ever on obtaining restitution. He had, however,
+no expectation of doing it by persuasion, though the man was evidently a
+very different individual from the one his fancy had depicted, and, that
+being so, recrimination appeared useless, as well as undignified. He
+was, therefore, while he would have done nothing to avoid him, by no
+means anxious to spend the remainder of the evening in Devine's company.
+The latter was, however, already on the verandah, and looked up when he
+entered it.
+
+"I had almost a fancy you meant to keep out of my way," he said.
+
+Brooke sat down, and there was a trace of dryness in his smile.
+
+"If I had felt inclined to do so, you would scarcely expect me to admit
+it? I don't mean because that would not have been complimentary to you,"
+he said.
+
+Devine laughed, and handed his cigar-case across. "Take one if you feel
+like it. I quite see your point," he said. "Some of you folks from the
+old country are a trifle tender in the hide, but I don't mind telling
+you that there was a time when I spent an hour or two every day keeping
+out of other men's way. They wanted dollars I couldn't raise, you see,
+and now and then I had to spend mornings in the city because I couldn't
+get into my office on account of them. I meant to pay them, and I did,
+but there was no way of doing it just then."
+
+Brooke's smile was a trifle curious, and might have been construed into
+implying a doubt of his companion's commendable intentions, but the
+latter did not appear to notice it, and he took one of the cigars
+offered him, and found it excellent. Though they were to be adversaries,
+there was nothing to be gained by betraying a puerile bitterness against
+the man, and now he had met him, Brooke was not quite so sure as he
+could have wished that he disliked him personally. He meant to secure
+his six thousand dollars if it could be done, which appeared distinctly
+doubtful, and sentiment of any kind was, he assured himself, out of
+place. Still, he did not altogether relish Devine's cigar.
+
+"They were probably persistent men," he said.
+
+Devine glanced at him sharply, but Brooke's face was, or at least he
+hoped so, expressionless.
+
+"Well," he said, tranquilly, "I contrive to pay my debts as the usual
+thing, but we'll let that slide. What are you at up here in the bush?"
+
+"Mining, just now," said Brooke. "To be more definite, acting as handy
+man about a mine."
+
+"You'd make more rock-drilling. Feel fond of it?"
+
+"I can't say I do. Still, I have a notion that it is going to lead to
+the acquisition of a few dollars presently."
+
+Devine sat silent at a space, apparently reflecting, and then looked up
+again.
+
+"Now," he said, "suppose I was to make you an offer, would you feel
+inclined to listen to me?"
+
+Brooke had acquired in England a composure which was frequently useful
+to him, but he was young, and started a trifle, while once more the
+blood showed through his unfortunately clear skin.
+
+"I think I could promise that much, at least," he said.
+
+"Well," said Devine, "I have some use for a man who knows a little about
+bush ranches and mines, and understands the English folks who now and
+then buy them from me. I could afford to pay him a moderate salary."
+
+Brooke closed one hand a trifle, and the bronze deepened in his face.
+The opportunity Saxton had been waiting for was now, it seemed, being
+thrust upon him, and yet he felt that he could not avail himself of it.
+It was clear that he had everything to gain by doing so, but there was,
+he realized now, a treachery he could not descend to. He strove to
+persuade himself that this was a sentimental weakness, for it had become
+even more apparent of late that with the knowledge he had gained of that
+country there would be no great difficulty in making his way once he had
+the dollars he had been robbed of again in his hands, and he had had a
+bitter taste of the life that must be dragged through by the man with
+none. Still, the fact that his instincts, which, as occasionally happens
+to other men, would not be controlled by his reason, revolted from the
+part he must play if he made terms with Devine, remained, and he sat
+very still, with forehead wrinkled and one hand clenched, until his
+companion, who had never taken his eyes off him, spoke again.
+
+"It doesn't sound good enough?" he said.
+
+Brooke shook himself together. "As a matter of fact, I am very doubtful
+if I shall get quite as good an offer again. Still, I am afraid I can't
+quite see my way to entertaining it."
+
+"No?" said Devine. "I guess you have your reasons?"
+
+Brooke felt that he could scarcely consider the motive which had induced
+him to answer as he did a reason. It was rather an impulse he could not
+hold in check, or the result of a prejudice, but he could not explain
+this, and what was under the circumstances a somewhat illogical
+bitterness against Devine took possession of him.
+
+"When I first came into this province my confiding simplicity cost me a
+good deal, and I almost think I should rather feel myself impelled to
+warn any of my countrymen I came into contact with against making rash
+ventures in land and mines than induce them to do so," he said.
+
+Devine smiled drily. "That is tolerably plain talk, anyway. Still, it
+ought to be clear that a man can't keep on taking folks' dollars without
+giving them reasonable value anywhere. No, sir. As soon as they find out
+he has only worthless goods to sell, they stop dealing with him right
+away. There's another point. Are they all fools who come out from
+England to buy mines and ranching land?"
+
+"I have certainly met a few who seemed to be. Of course, I include
+myself," said Brooke, grimly.
+
+"Well, you can take it from me, and I ought to know, that there are
+folks back yonder quite as smart at getting one hundred and fifty cents
+for the dollar's worth as any man in Canada. We needn't, however, worry
+about that. I made you an offer, and you have quite decided that it
+wouldn't suit you?"
+
+Again Brooke sat silent a space. He felt in some degree bound to Saxton,
+though he had certainly earned every dollar the latter had handed him,
+and it had been agreed that a verbal intimation from either would
+suffice to terminate the compact between them. There was also no reason
+why he should do anything that would prejudice him if he entered
+Devine's service, and a very faint hope commenced to dawn on him that
+there might be a way out of the difficulty. Devine appeared to be a
+reasonable man, and he determined to at least give him an opportunity.
+
+"It is probably an unusual course under the circumstances, but before I
+decide I would like to ask a question," he said. "We will suppose that
+you or one of your agents had sold a man who did not know what he was
+buying a tract of worthless land, and he demanded compensation. What
+would you do?"
+
+"The man would naturally look at the land and use his discretion."
+
+"We'll assume that he didn't. Men who come into this country at a time
+when everybody is eager to buy now and then most unwisely take a
+land-agent's statements for granted. Even if they surveyed the property
+offered them they would not very often be able to form any opinion of
+its value."
+
+"Then," said Devine, drily, "they take their chances, and can't blame
+the other man."
+
+"Still, if the buyer convinced you that your agent knew the land was
+worth nothing when he sold it him?"
+
+Devine glanced at him sharply. "That would be a little difficult, but
+I'll answer you. I've been stuck with a good many bad bargains in my
+time, and I never went back and tried to cry off one of them. No, sir. I
+took hold and worried the most I could out of them. Nobody quite knows
+what a piece of land in this country is or will be worth, except that
+it's quite certain every rod of it is going to be some use for
+something, and bring in dollars to the man who holds on to it,
+presently."
+
+"Then you would not make the victim any compensation?"
+
+"No, sir. Not a cent. I shouldn't consider him a victim. That's quite
+straight?"
+
+"I scarcely think anybody would consider it ambiguous," Brooke said,
+drily, for he felt his face grow warm, and realized that it was not
+advisable to give the anger that was gaining on him the rein. "It
+demands an equal candor, and I have given you one of my reasons for
+deciding that it would not suit me to enter your service. I can't help
+wondering what induced you to make me the offer."
+
+Devine laughed. "Well," he said, reflectively, "so am I. I had, as I
+told you, a notion that I might have a use for a man of the kind you
+seem to be, but I'm not quite so sure of it now. Though I don't know
+that I'm especially thin in the skin, some of the questions you seem
+fond of asking might make trouble between you and me. For another thing,
+on thinking it over afterwards, it struck me that the team might have
+tilted that wagon off the bridge this afternoon. I'm not sure that they
+would have done, but you came along handy."
+
+He rose with a little sardonic smile and went into the hotel, leaving
+Brooke sitting on the verandah and staring at the dusky forest vacantly,
+for his thoughts were not exactly pleasant just then. He had been
+offered a chance Saxton, at least, would have eagerly seized upon, and
+it was becoming evident that there was little of the stuff successful
+conspirators are made of in him. He could not ignore the fact that it
+was a conspiracy they were engaged in, for he meant to get his six
+thousand dollars back, and found it especially galling to remember that
+it was a kindness Devine had purposed doing him.
+
+He had also misgivings as to what his confederate--for that was, he
+recognized, the most fitting term he could apply to Saxton--would have
+to say about his decision, and after all it was evident that he owed him
+a little. Once more he fumed at his folly in ever buying the ranch, for
+all his difficulties sprang from that mistake, and he felt he could not
+face the result of it and drag out his days cut off from all that made
+life bearable, a mere wielder of axe and shovel, without a struggle,
+even though it left a mark on him which could never be quite effaced.
+
+The freighter came in early next morning with the drills, and Brooke,
+who hired pack-horses, set off with them, but as he drove the loaded
+beasts out of the clearing he saw Devine watching him from the verandah,
+with a little smile. He made a salutation, and Brooke, for no apparent
+reason, jerked the leading pack-horse's bridle somewhat viciously. It
+was a long journey to the mine, and there were several difficult ascents
+upon the way, but he reached it safely, and found Saxton expecting him
+impatiently. They spent an hour or two getting the drills to work, and
+then sat down to a meal in the galvanized shanty.
+
+Saxton was damp and stained with soil, his long boots were miry, and one
+of his hands was bleeding, but he laughed a little as he glanced at the
+heavy, doughy bread and untempting canned stuff on the table and round
+the comfortless room.
+
+"I guess I don't get my dollars easily," he said. "There are quite a few
+ways of making them, but the one the sensible man has the least use for
+is with the hammer and drill. Still, I'm going back to the city, and
+we'll try another one presently. You'll stay here about a week, and then
+there'll be work for you. I've heard of something while you were away."
+
+"So have I!" said Brooke. "I met Devine, and he gave me an opportunity
+of entering his service."
+
+Saxton became suddenly eager. "You took it?"
+
+"No," said Brooke, drily, "I did not. I had one or two reasons for not
+doing so, though I feel it is very probable that you would not
+appreciate them."
+
+Saxton stared at him in astonishment, and then made a little gesture of
+resignation. "Well," he said, "I guess I wouldn't--after what I've seen
+of you. Still, can't you understand what kind of chance you've thrown
+away? I might have made 'most anything out of the pointers you could
+have picked up and given me."
+
+Brooke smiled drily. "I don't think you could," he said. "As a matter of
+fact, I wouldn't have given you any."
+
+Saxton turned towards him resolutely, with his elbows planted on the
+table and his black eyes intent. "Now," he said, "I want a straight
+answer. Are you going back on your bargain?"
+
+"No. If I had meant to do that, I should naturally have taken Devine's
+offer. As I have told you a good many times already, I am going to get
+my six thousand dollars out of him. That is, of course, if we can manage
+it, about which I am more than a little doubtful."
+
+Saxton laughed contemptuously. "You would never get six dollars out of
+anybody who wasn't quite willing to let you have them," he said. "A
+struggling man has no use for the notions you seem proud of."
+
+"I really can't help having them," said Brooke, with a little smile.
+
+Saxton shook his head. "Well," he said, "it's fortunate you're not going
+to be left to yourself, or somebody would take the clothes off you. Now,
+I've heard from a friend of mine, who has a contract to build the
+Canopus folks a flume. It seems they want more water, and it's Devine's
+mine."
+
+"How is that going to help us?"
+
+"Since Leeson made that contract, he got the offer of another that would
+pay him better, and he's willing to pass it on at Devine's figure to any
+one who will take it off his hands. Now, I'll find you a man or two and
+tools, and when they're ready, you'll start right away for the Canopus
+and build that flume."
+
+"The difficulty is that I haven't the least notion how to build a
+flume."
+
+Saxton made a little impatient gesture. "Then I guess you have got to
+learn, and there are plenty of men to be hired in the bush who do. You
+know how to rough down redwood logs and blow out rocks?"
+
+Brooke admitted that he did, and Saxton nodded.
+
+"Then the thing's quite easy," he said. "You look at the one they've got
+already, and make another like it. Haven't you found out yet that a man
+can do 'most anything that another one can?"
+
+"Well," said Brooke, "I'll try it, but that brings us to the question,
+what else do you expect from me? It is very probable that I shall make
+an unfortunate mistake for both of us, if you leave me in the dark. I
+want to understand the position."
+
+Saxton explained it at length, and Brooke leaned back in his chair,
+glancing abstractedly through the open door as he listened, for his mind
+took in the details mechanically, while his thoughts were otherwise
+busy. He saw the dusky forest he had toiled and lost hope in, and then,
+turning his head a trifle, the comfortless dingy room and Saxton's
+intent face and eager eyes. He was speaking with little nervous
+gestures, vehemently, and all the sensibility that the struggle had left
+in Brooke shrank from the sordidness of the compact he had made with
+him. The fact that his confederate apparently considered their purpose
+perfectly legitimate and even commendable, intensified the disgust he
+felt, but once more he told himself that he could not afford to be
+particular. There was, it seemed, a price to everything, and if he was
+ever to regain his status he must let no more opportunities slip past
+him.
+
+Still the memory of the old house in the English valley, and a certain
+silver-haired lady who had long ago paced the velvet lawns that swept
+about it with her white hand upon his shoulder, returned to trouble him.
+She had endeavored to instil the fine sense of honor that guided her own
+life into him, and he remembered her wholesome pride and the stories
+she had told him of the men who had gone forth from that quiet home
+before him. Most of them had served their nation well, even those who
+had hewn down the ancient oaks and mortgaged the wheat-land in the
+reckless Georgian days, and now, when the white-haired lady slept in the
+still valley, he was about to sell the honor she had held priceless for
+six thousand dollars in Western Canada. Nevertheless, he strove to
+persuade himself that the times had changed and the old codes vanished,
+and sat still listening while Saxton, stained with soil and water from
+the mine, talked on, and gesticulated with a bleeding hand. He touched
+upon frontages, ore-leads, record and patents from the Crown, and then
+stopped abruptly, and looked hard at Brooke.
+
+"Now I think you've got it all," he said.
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, whose face had grown a trifle grim, "I fancy I have.
+I am to find out, if I can, how far the third drift runs west, and when
+the driving of it began. Then one of us will stake off a claim on
+Devine's holding and endeavor, with the support of the other, to hold
+his own in as tough a struggle as was probably ever undertaken by two
+men in our position. You see I have met Devine."
+
+Saxton laughed. "I guess he's not going to give us very much trouble.
+He'll buy us off instead, once we make it plain that we have got the
+whip hand of him. Your share's six thousand dollars, and if you lay
+them out as I tell you, you'll go back to England a prosperous man."
+
+Brooke smiled a trifle drily. "I hope so," he said. "Still, I shall have
+left more than I could buy with a great many dollars behind me in
+Canada."
+
+"Dollars will buy you anything," said Saxton. "That is, when you have
+enough of them. They're going to buy me a seat in the Provincial
+Legislature by and by. Then I'll let the business slide, and start in
+doing something for the other folks. We've got 'most everything but men
+here, and I'll bring out your starving deadbeats from England and make
+them happy--like Strathcona."
+
+Brooke looked hard at him, and then leaned back in his chair, and
+laughed when he saw that he was perfectly serious.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+THE FLUME BUILDER.
+
+
+It was a hot afternoon, and a long trail of ethereal mist lay motionless
+athwart the gleaming snow above, when Brooke stood dripping with
+perspiration in the shadow of a towering pine. The red dust was thick
+upon him, and his coarse blue shirt, which was badly torn, fell open at
+the neck as he turned his head and looked down fixedly into the winding
+valley. A lake flashed like a mirror among the trees below, save where
+the slumbering shadows pointed downwards into its crystal depths, but
+the strip of hillside the forest had been hewn back from was scarred and
+torn with raw gashes, and the dull thumping of the stamp-heads that
+crushed the gold-bearing quartz jarred discordantly through the song of
+the river. Mounds of débris, fire-blackened fir stumps, and piles of
+half-burnt branches cumbered the little clearing, round which the
+towering redwoods uplifted their stately spires, and the acrid fumes of
+smoke and giant powder drifted through their drowsy fragrance.
+
+The blotch of man's crude handiwork marred the pristine beauty of the
+wilderness; but it had its significance, and pointed to what was to come
+when the plough had followed the axe and drill, and cornfields and
+orchards should creep up the hillsides where now the solemn pines looked
+down upon the desecrated valley. Brooke, however, was very naturally not
+concerned with this just then. He was engaged in building a flume, or
+wooden conduit to bring down water to the mine, and was intently
+watching two little trails of faint blue smoke with a thin red sparkle
+in the midst of them which crept up a dark rock's side.
+
+He had no interest whatever in the task when he undertook it, but a
+somewhat astonishing and unexpected thing had happened, for by degrees
+the work took hold of him. He was not by nature a lounger, and was
+endued with a certain pertinacity, which had, however, only led him into
+difficulties hitherto, or he would probably never have come out to
+Canada. Thus it came about that when he found the building of the flume
+taxed all his ingenuity, as well as his physical strength, he became
+sensible of a wholly unanticipated pleasure in the necessary effort, and
+had almost forgotten the purpose which brought him there.
+
+"How long did you cut those fuses to burn?" he said to Jimmy, who,
+though by no means fond of physical exertion, had come up to assist him
+from the ranch.
+
+The latter glanced at the two trails of smoke, which a handful of men,
+snugly ensconced behind convenient trees, were also watching.
+
+"I guessed it at four minutes," he said. "They're 'bout half-way through
+now. Still, I can't see nothing of the third one."
+
+"No," said Brooke. "Nor can I. That loosely-spun kind snuffs out
+occasionally. Quite sure they're not more than half-way through?"
+
+"No," said Jimmy, reflectively. "I'd give them 'most two minutes yet.
+Hallo! What in the name of thunder are you going to do?"
+
+It was not an unnatural question, because when those creeping trains of
+sparks reached the detonators the rock would be reft asunder by giant
+powder and a shower of ponderous fragments and flying débris hurled
+across the valley, while Brooke, who swung round abruptly, bounded down
+the slope.
+
+Jimmy stared at him in wonder, and then set off without reflection in
+chase of him. He was not addicted to hurrying himself when it was not
+necessary, but he ran well that day, with the vague intention of
+dragging back his comrade, whose senses, he fancied, had suddenly
+deserted him. The men behind the trees were evidently under the same
+impression, for confused cries went up.
+
+"Go back! Stop right there! Catch him, Jimmy; trip him up!"
+
+Jimmy did his best, but he was slouching and loose of limb, while
+Brooke was light of foot and young. He was also running his hardest,
+with grim face and set lips, straight for the rock, and was scrambling
+across the débris beneath it, which rolled down at every step, when
+Jimmy reached up and caught his leg. He said nothing, but when Brooke
+slid backwards, grabbed his jacket, which tore up the back; and there
+was a shout from the men behind the trees, two of whom came running
+towards the pair.
+
+"Pull him down! No, let go of him, and tear the fuses out!"
+
+Nobody saw exactly what took place next, and neither Brooke nor Jimmy
+afterwards remembered; but in another moment the latter sat gasping
+among the débris, while his comrade clambered up the slope alone. It
+also happened, though everybody was too intent to notice this, that a
+girl, with brown eyes and a big white hat, who had been strolling
+through the shadow of the pines on the ridge above, stopped abruptly
+just then. She could see the trail of sparks creep across the stone, and
+understood the position, which the shouts of the miners would have made
+plain to her if she had not. She could not see the man's face, though
+she realized that he was in imminent peril, and felt her heart throb
+painfully. Then, in common with the rest of those who watched him, she
+had a second astonishment, for he did not pull out the burning fuses,
+but crawled past them, and bent over something with a lighted match in
+his hand.
+
+Brooke in the meanwhile set his lips as the match went out, and struck
+another, while a heavy silence followed the shouts. The men, who grasped
+his purpose, now realized that interference would come too late, and
+those who had started from them went back to the trees. There only
+remained Brooke, clinging with one hand to a cranny of the rock while he
+held the match, whose diminutive flame showed pale in the blaze of
+sunlight, and Jimmy, rising apparently half-dazed from among the débris.
+The girl in the white hat afterwards recalled that picture, and could
+see the two lonely men, blurred figures in the shadows, and clustering
+pines. When that happened, she also felt a curious little thrill which
+was half-horror and half-appreciation.
+
+Then the third fuse sparkled, and Brooke sprang down, grasped Jimmy's
+shoulder, and drove him before him. There was a fresh shouting, and now
+every one could see two men running for their lives for the shelter of
+the pines. It seemed a very long while before they reached them, and all
+the time three blue trails of smoke and sparkling lines of fire were
+creeping with remorseless certainty up the slope of stone. The girl upon
+the ridge above closed her hands tightly to check a scream, and bronzed
+men, who had braved a good many perils in their time, set their lips or
+murmured incoherently.
+
+In the meanwhile the two men were running well, with drawn faces,
+staring eyes, and the perspiration dripping from them, and there was a
+hoarse murmur of relief when at last they flung themselves into the
+shadow of the pines. It was followed by a stunning detonation, and a
+blaze of yellow flame, while the hillside trembled when the smoke rolled
+down. Flying fragments of rock came out of it, there was a roar of
+falling stones, a crashing in the forest where great boughs snapped, and
+the lake boiled as though torn up by cannon shot. Then a curious silence
+followed, intensified by an occasional splash and rattle as a stone
+which had travelled farther than the rest came down, and the girl in the
+white hat retired hastily as the fumes of giant powder, which produce
+dizziness and nausea, drifted up the hillside.
+
+Brooke sat down on a felled log, Jimmy leaned against a tree, and while
+the men clustered round them they looked at one another, and gasped
+heavily.
+
+"I figured you'd be blown into very little pieces less than a minute
+ago," said one of those who stood by. "What did you do it for, anyway?"
+
+Brooke blinked at the questioner. "Third fuse snuffed out," he said. "It
+would have spoiled the shot. I cut it to match the others, and lighted
+it."
+
+This was comprehensible, for to rend a piece of rock effectively, it is
+occasionally necessary to apply the riving force at several places at
+the same time.
+
+"Still, you could have pulled the other fuses out and put new ones back.
+It would have been considerably less risky," said another man.
+
+Brooke laughed breathlessly. "It certainly would, but I never thought of
+that," he said.
+
+Then Jimmy broke in. "What made me sit down like I did?" he said.
+
+"It was probably the same thing that tore my jacket half-way up the
+back."
+
+"Well," said Jimmy, "there's a big lump there didn't use to be on the
+side of my head, too, and it was the concernedest hardest kind of rock I
+sat down upon. Next time you try to blow yourself up, I'm not going
+after you."
+
+Brooke glanced at him quietly, with a curious look in his eyes.
+
+"What made you come at all?" he said.
+
+Jim appeared to reflect. "I've done quite a lot of foolish things
+before--and I don't quite know."
+
+Brooke only smiled, but a little flush crept into Jimmy's face, for men
+do not express their sentiments dramatically in that country, that is,
+unless they are connected with mineral speculations or the selling of
+land.
+
+"Of course!" he said. "I fancy I shall remember it."
+
+They turned away together to inspect the result of the shot, and one of
+the miners who looked after them nodded approval. "When that man takes
+hold of anything he puts it through 'most every time," he said.
+"There's good hard sand in him."
+
+In the meanwhile Jimmy glanced at his comrade, apparently with an entire
+absence of interest, out of half-closed eyes.
+
+"I guess you were too busy to see a friend of yours a little while ago?"
+he said.
+
+"I expect I was," said Brooke. "Anyway, nobody I'm acquainted with is
+likely to be met with in this part of the province, unless it was
+Saxton."
+
+"No," said Jimmy, "it wasn't him. Saxton doesn't go trailing round in a
+big white hat and a four-decker skirt with a long tail to it."
+
+Brooke turned a trifle sharply, and glanced at him. "You mean Miss
+Heathcote?"
+
+"Yes," said Jimmy, reflectively, "if it's the one that was Barbara last
+time, I guess I do. You have been finding out the rest of it since you
+met her at the ranch? She was up yonder ten minutes ago."
+
+He pointed to a forest-covered ridge above the mine, but Brooke, looking
+up with all his eyes, saw nothing but the serried ranks of climbing
+pines. As it happened, however, the girl, who stood amidst their
+shadows, saw him, and smiled. She had noticed Jimmy's pointing hand, and
+fancied she knew what his companion was looking for.
+
+"Then you are certainly mistaken," he said. "There is nowhere she could
+be staying at within several leagues of the Canopus."
+
+"There's the Englishman's old ranch house Devine bought. It's quite a
+good one."
+
+Brooke started a little, and Jimmy, who was much quicker of wit than
+some folks believed, noticed it.
+
+"She certainly couldn't be staying there. It's quite out of the
+question," he said, with an assurance that was chiefly intended to
+convince himself.
+
+"Well," said Jimmy, who appeared to ruminate, "I guess you know best.
+Still, I can't think of any other place, unless she's living in a cave."
+
+Brooke said nothing further, but signed to the men who were waiting, and
+proceeded to roll the shattered rock out of the course of his flume. He
+felt it was certain that Jimmy was mistaken, for the only other
+conclusion appeared preposterous, and he could not persuade himself to
+consider it. Still, he thought of the girl with the brown eyes often
+while he swung axe and hammer during the rest of the afternoon, and when
+he strolled up the hillside after the six o'clock supper he was thinking
+of her still. He climbed until the raw gap of the workings was lost
+among the pines, and then lay down.
+
+The evening was still and cool, for the chill of the snow made itself
+felt once the sunlight faded from the valley. Now and then a sound came
+up faintly from the mine, but that was not often, and a great quietness
+reigned among the pines, which towered above him, two hundred feet to
+their topmost sprays, in serried ranks. They were old long before the
+white man first entered that wild mountain land, while, as he lay there
+in the scented dimness among their wide-girthed trunks, all that
+concerned the Canopus and its pounding stamp-heads slipped away from
+him. He was worn out in body, but his mind was clear and free, and,
+lying still, unlighted pipe in hand, he gave his fancy the rein, and,
+forgetting Devine and the flume, dreamed of what had once been his, and
+might, if he could make his purpose good, be his again.
+
+The sordid details of the struggle he had embarked upon faded from his
+memory, for the cold silence of the mountains seemed to banish them. It
+gave him courage and tranquillity, and, for the time at least, nothing
+seemed unattainable, while through all his wandering fancies moved a
+vision of a girl in a long white dress, who looked down upon him
+fearlessly from a plunging pony's back. That was the recollection he
+cherished most, though he had also seen her with diamonds gleaming in
+her dusky hair in the Vancouver opera-house.
+
+Then he started, and a little thrill ran through him as he wondered
+whether it was a trick his eyes had played him or he saw her in the
+flesh. She stood close beside him, with a grey cedar trunk behind her,
+in a long trailing dress, but the white hat was in her hand now, and the
+little shapely head bared to the cooling touch of the dew. Still, she
+had materialized so silently out of the shadows that he almost felt
+afraid to move lest she should melt into them again, and he lay very
+still, watching her until she glanced at him. Then he sprang, awkwardly,
+to his feet, with a little smile.
+
+"I would scarcely venture to tell you what I thought you were, but it is
+in one respect consoling to find you real," he said.
+
+"Why?" said the girl.
+
+"Because you are not likely to vanish again. You must remember that I
+first saw you clothed in white samite, with the moon behind your
+shoulder, in the river."
+
+The girl laughed. "I wonder if you know what white samite is?"
+
+"I don't," said Brooke, reflectively. "I never did, but it seems to go
+with water lapping on the rocks and mystery. Still, you--are--material,
+fortunately."
+
+"Very," said Barbara. "Besides, I certainly did not bring you a sword."
+
+Brooke appeared to consider. "One can never be quite certain of
+anything--especially in British Columbia. But how did you come here?"
+
+The girl favored him with a comprehensive glance, which Brooke felt took
+in his well-worn jean, coarse blue shirt, badly-rent jacket, and
+shapeless hat.
+
+"I was about to ask you the same thing. It was in Vancouver I saw you
+last," she said.
+
+"I came here on a very wicked pack-horse--one that kicked, and on two
+occasions came very near falling down a gorge with me. I am now building
+a flume for the Canopus mine--if you know what that is."
+
+Barbara laughed. "I fancy I know rather more about flumes than you did a
+little while ago. At least, I have reason to believe so, from what a
+mining foreman told me this afternoon. He, however, expressed
+unqualified approval, as well as a little astonishment, at the progress
+you had made. You see, I happened to observe what took place before the
+shot was fired a few hours ago."
+
+"Then you witnessed an entirely unwarranted piece of folly."
+
+A curious little gleam crept into Barbara's eyes, but she smiled. "You
+could have cut those fuses, and relighted them afterwards, but, since
+you did not remember it, I don't think that counts. What made you take
+the risk?"
+
+"Well," said Brooke, reflectively, "after worrying over the probable
+line of cleavage of that troublesome rock, it seemed to me that if I
+wished to split it, I must explode three charges of giant powder in
+certain places simultaneously. Now, if you examine what you might call
+the texture of a rock, though, of course, a really crystalline body----"
+
+Barbara made a little gesture of impatience. "That is not in the least
+what I mean--as I fancy you are quite aware."
+
+"Then," said Brooke, with a faint twinkle in his eyes, "I'm afraid I
+don't quite understand the moral causes of the proceeding myself, though
+I have heard my comrade describe one quality which may have had
+something to do with it as mulishness. It was, of course, reprehensible
+of me to be led away by it, especially as when I took the contract I
+really didn't care if the flume was never built."
+
+"And now you mean to finish it if it ruins you?"
+
+"No," said Brooke, "I really don't think I do. In fact, I hope to make a
+good many dollars out of it, directly or indirectly."
+
+He had spoken without reflection, and was sensible of a most unpleasant
+embarrassment when the girl glanced at him sharply, which she did not
+fail to notice.
+
+"Building flumes is evidently more profitable than I thought it was,"
+she said. "Still, you will no doubt make most of those
+dollars--indirectly?"
+
+Brooke decided that it was advisable to change the subject. "I have," he
+said, "answered--your--question."
+
+"Then I will do the same. I came here, because one can see the sunset on
+the snow from this ridge, most prosaically on my feet."
+
+"But from where?" and Brooke's voice was almost sharp.
+
+"From the old ranch house in the valley, of course!"
+
+Brooke made an effort to retain his serenity, but his face grew a trifle
+grim, and he looked at the girl curiously, with his lips tight set. Then
+he made a little gesture.
+
+"But that is where Devine lives when he comes here. It's preposterous!"
+he said.
+
+Barbara felt astonished, though she was very reposeful. "I really don't
+see why it should be. Mrs. Devine is there. We have to entertain a good
+deal in the city, and are glad to get away to the mountains for
+quietness occasionally."
+
+"But what connection can you possibly have with Mrs. Devine?"
+
+"I am," said Barbara, quietly, "merely her sister. I have always lived
+with her."
+
+Brooke positively gasped. "And you never told me!"
+
+"Why should I? You never asked me, and I fancied everybody knew."
+
+Brooke stood silent a moment, with the fingers of one hand closed, and
+the blood in his face, then he turned, as the girl moved, and they went
+back along the little rough rail together.
+
+"Of course, I can think of no reason," he said, quietly. "Still, the
+news astonished me."
+
+Barbara glanced away from him. There was only one way in which she could
+account for his evident concern at what she had told him, and the
+deduction she made was not altogether unpleasant to her, though, as it
+happened, it was not the correct one. The man was, as he had told her,
+without friends or dollars, but she knew that men with his capacities do
+not always remain poor in that country, and there were qualities which
+had gained her appreciation in him, while it had not dawned on her that
+there might also be others which could only meet with her
+disapprobation.
+
+"If you had called at the address I gave you in Vancouver, you would
+have known exactly who I was, but there is now nothing to prevent you
+coming to the ranch," she said.
+
+Brooke glanced down somewhat grimly at his hard, scarred hands and his
+clothes, and a faint flush crept into the girl's face.
+
+"Have I to remind you again that you are not in the English valley?" she
+said. "Mr. Devine, at least, is rather proud of the fact that he once
+earned his living with the shovel and the drill."
+
+"I am not sure that the one you imagine is my only reason for feeling a
+trifle diffident about presenting myself at Mr. Devine's house," said
+Brooke, very slowly.
+
+Barbara looked at him with a little imperious smile. "I did not ask you
+for any at all. I merely suggested that if you wished to come we should
+be pleased to see you at the ranch."
+
+Brooke made her a little inclination, and said nothing, until, when
+another white-clad figure appeared among the pines, the girl turned to
+him.
+
+"That is Mrs. Devine," she said. "Shall I present you?"
+
+Brooke stopped abruptly, with, as the girl noticed once more, a very
+curious expression in his face. He meant to use whatever means were
+available against Devine, but he could not profit by a woman's kindness
+to creep into his adversary's house.
+
+"No," he said, almost harshly. "Not to-night. It would be a
+pleasure--another time."
+
+Barbara looked at him with big, grave eyes, and the faintest suggestion
+of color in her cheek. "Very well," she said. "I need not detain you."
+
+Brooke swung round, and as Mrs. Devine strolled towards them, retired
+almost precipitately into the shadow of the pines, while, when he
+stopped again, with a curious little laugh, he was distinctly flushed in
+face.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+AN EMBARRASSING POSITION.
+
+
+The wooden conduit which sprang across a gorge just there on a slender
+trestle was full to the brim, and Brooke, who leaned on his long hammer
+shaft, watched the crystal water swirl by with a satisfaction which was
+distinctly new to him, while the roar it made as it plunged down into
+the valley from the end of the uncompleted flume came throbbing across
+the pines. Though it was a very crude piece of engineering, that trestle
+had cost him hours of anxious thought and days of strenuous labor, and
+now, standing above it, very wet and somewhat ragged, with hands as hard
+as a navvy's, he surveyed it with a pride which was scarcely warranted
+by its appearance. It was, however, the creation of his hands and brain,
+and evidently capable of doing its work effectively.
+
+Then he smiled somewhat curiously as he remembered with what purpose he
+had taken over the contract to build the flume from its original holder,
+and, turning abruptly away, walked along it until he stopped where the
+torrent that fed it swirled round a pool. The latter had rapidly
+lowered its level since the big sluice was opened, and he stood looking
+at it intently while a project, which involved a fresh struggle with
+hard rock and forest, dawned upon him. He had gained his first
+practically useful triumph over savage Nature, and it had filled him
+with a desire he had never supposed himself capable of for a renewal of
+the conflict. A little sparkle came into his eyes, and he stood with
+head flung back a trifle and his corded arms uncovered to the elbow,
+busy with rough calculations, and once more oblivious of the fact that
+he was only there to play his part in a conspiracy, until a man with
+grey in his hair came out of the shadow of the pines.
+
+"I came up along the flume and she's wasting very little water," he
+said. "Not a trickle from the trestle! It would 'most carry a wagon. You
+must have spent quite a pile of dollars over it."
+
+Brooke smiled a trifle drily, for that was a point he had overlooked
+until the cost had been sharply impressed upon him.
+
+"I'm afraid I did, Mr. Devine," he said. "Still, I couldn't see how to
+get the work done more cheaply without taking the risk of the flume
+settling a little by and by. That would, of course, have started it
+leaking. What do you think of it?"
+
+Devine smiled as he noticed his eagerness. "It seems to me that risk
+would have been mine," he said. "I've seen neater work, but not very
+much that looked like lasting longer. Who gave you the plan of it?"
+
+"Nobody," said Brooke, with a trace of the pride he could not quite
+repress. "I worried it out myself. You see, I once or twice gave the
+carpenters a hand at stiffening the railroad trestles."
+
+Devine nodded, and flashed a keen glance at him as he said, "What are
+you looking at that pool for?"
+
+Brooke stood silent a moment or two. "Well," he said, diffidently, "it
+occurred to me that when there was frost on the high peaks you might
+have some difficulty in getting enough water to feed the flume. You can
+see how the pool has run down already. Now, with a hundred tons or so of
+rock and débris and a log framing, one could contrive a very workable
+dam. It would ensure you a full supply and equalize the pressure."
+
+"You feel equal to putting the thing through?"
+
+"I would at least very much like to try."
+
+Devine regarded him thoughtfully. "Then you can let me have your
+notions."
+
+Brooke unfolded his crude scheme, and the other man watched him keenly
+until he said, "If that meets with your approbation I could start two of
+my men getting out the logs almost immediately."
+
+Devine smiled. "Has it struck you that there is a point you have
+forgotten?"
+
+"It is quite possible there are a good many."
+
+"You can't think of one that's important in particular?"
+
+"No," said Brooke, reflectively, "not just now."
+
+A little sardonic twinkle crept into Devine's eyes. "Well," he said,
+"before I took hold of any contract of that kind I would like to know
+just how much I was going to make on it, and what it would cost me."
+
+Brooke looked at him and laughed. "Of course!" he said. "Still, I never
+thought of it until this moment."
+
+"It's quite clear you weren't raised in Canada," said Devine. "You can
+worry out the thing during the afternoon and bring along any rough plan
+you'd like to show me to the ranch this evening. That's fixed? Then
+there's another thing. Has anybody tried to stop you getting out
+lumber?"
+
+"No," said Brooke. "I met two men who appeared to be timber-right
+prospectors more than once, but they made no difficulty."
+
+Devine, who seemed a trifle astonished, looked at him curiously before
+he turned away. "Then," he said drily, "you are more fortunate than I
+am."
+
+Brooke went back to his work, and supper had been cleared away in his
+double tent when he completed his simple toilet, which had commenced
+with a plunge into a whirling pool of the snow-fed river, preparatory to
+his visit to the ranch. Jimmy, who had assisted in it, stood surveying
+him complacently.
+
+"Now," he said, with a nod of approbation, "I guess you'll do when I've
+run a few stitches up the back of you. Stand quite still while I get the
+tent needle."
+
+Brooke glanced at the implement he produced somewhat dubiously, for it
+was of considerable thickness and several inches long.
+
+"I suppose," he said, resignedly, "you haven't got a smaller one?"
+
+Jimmy shook his head. "I guess I wouldn't trust it if I had," he said.
+"I want to fix that darn up good and strong so it will do you credit.
+There are two women at the ranch, and it's quite likely they'll come in
+and talk to you."
+
+Brooke made no further protest, but he smiled somewhat curiously as
+Jimmy stitched away. His work was not remarkable for neatness, and
+Brooke remembered that the two women at the ranch were fresh from the
+cities, where men do not mend their clothes with pieces of tents or
+cotton flour bags. Then he decided that, after all, it did not matter
+what they thought of him. One would probably set him down as a rude bush
+chopper, and the other, whose good opinion he would have valued under
+different circumstances, was a kinswoman of his adversary. Sooner or
+later she would know him for what he was, and then it was clear she
+would only have contempt for him. That she of all women should be Mrs.
+Devine's sister was, he reflected with a sense of impotent anger, one
+of the grim jests that Fate seemed to delight in playing.
+
+"Now," said Jimmy, breaking off his thread at last, "I guess you might
+go 'most anywhere if you stand with your face to the folks who talk to
+you, and don't sit down too suddenly. Be cautious how you get up again
+if you hear those stitches tearing through."
+
+Brooke went out, and discovered that Jimmy had, no doubt as a
+precautionary measure, sewn several of his garments together as he
+walked through the shadowy bush towards the ranch. Devine, to whom the
+scheme suggested had commended itself, was, as it happened, already
+waiting him in a big log walled room. He sat by the open window, which
+looked across blue lake and climbing pines towards the great white
+ramparts of unmelting snow that shut the valley in. The rest of the room
+was dim, and now the sun had gone, sweet resinous odors and an
+exhilarating coolness that stirred the blood like wine came in. Two
+women sat back in the shadow, and Devine moved a little in his chair as
+he answered one of them.
+
+"I know very little about the man, but I never saw more thorough work
+than he has put in on the flume," he said. "That's 'most enough
+guarantee for him, but there are one or two points about him I can't
+quite worry out the meaning of. For one thing, the timber-righters
+haven't stopped him chopping."
+
+Mrs. Devine looked thoughtful, for she was acquainted with the less
+pleasant aspect of mine-owning, but Barbara broke in.
+
+"It is a little difficult to understand what use timber-rights would be
+to anybody here," she said. "They could hardly get their lumber out, and
+there are very few people to sell it to if they put up a mill."
+
+"I expect they mean to sell it me," said Devine, a trifle grimly.
+
+"But you always cut what you wanted without asking anybody."
+
+"I did. Still, it seems scarcely likely that I'm going to do it again.
+If anyone has located timber-rights--which he'd get for 'most nothing on
+a patent from the Crown--he has never worried about them until the
+Canopus began to pay. Of course, one has to put in timber as he takes
+out the ore, and it seems to have struck somebody that the men who
+started it on the Canopus had burnt off all the young firs they ought to
+have kept. That's why he bought those timber-rights up."
+
+"Still there are thousands of them nobody can ever use, and you must
+have timber," said Barbara.
+
+"Precisely!" said Devine. "That man figures that when I get it he's
+going to screw a big share of the profits in this mine out of me."
+
+A portentous sparkle crept into Barbara's eyes, while Mrs. Devine, who
+knew her husband best, watched him with a little smile.
+
+"But that is infamous extortion!" said the girl.
+
+Devine laughed. "Well," he said, "it's not going to be good business for
+the man who puts up the game, but I don't quite see why he didn't strike
+Brooke for a few dollars as well. Men of his kind are like ostriches.
+They take in 'most anything."
+
+He might have said more, but Brooke appeared in the doorway just then
+and stood still with, so Barbara fancied, a faint trace of disconcertion
+when he saw the women, until Devine turned to him.
+
+"Come right in," he said. "Barbara tells me she has met you, but you
+haven't seen Mrs. Devine. Mr. Brooke, who is building the new flume for
+me, Katty."
+
+There was no avoiding the introduction, nor could Brooke escape with an
+inclination as he wished to do, for the lady held out her hand to him.
+She was older and more matronly than Barbara, but otherwise very like
+her, and she had the same gracious serenity. Still, Brooke felt his
+cheeks burn beneath the bronze on them as he shook hands with her. It
+was one thing to wrest his dollars back from Devine, but, while he
+cherished that purpose, quite another to be graciously welcomed to his
+house.
+
+"We are very pleased to see any of Barbara's friends," she said. "You
+apparently hadn't an opportunity of calling upon us in Vancouver?"
+
+Brooke glanced at Barbara, who was not exactly pleased with her sister
+just then, and met his gaze a trifle coldly. Still, he was sensible of a
+curious satisfaction, for it was evident that the girl who had been his
+comrade in the bush had not altogether forgotten him in the city.
+
+"I left the day after Miss Heathcote was kind enough to give me
+permission," he said.
+
+He felt that his response might have been amplified, but he was chiefly
+conscious of a desire to avoid any further civilities then, and because
+he was quite aware that Barbara was watching him quietly, it was a
+relief when Devine turned to him.
+
+"We'll get down to business," he said. "You brought a plan of the dam
+along?"
+
+He led the way to the little table at the window, and while Mrs. Devine
+went on with her sewing and Barbara took up a book again, Brooke
+unrolled the plan he had made with some difficulty. Then the men
+discussed it until Devine said, "You can start in when it pleases you,
+and my clerk will hand you the dollars as soon as you are through. How
+long do you figure it will take you?"
+
+"Three or four months," said Brooke, and looking up saw that the girl's
+eyes were fixed on him. She turned them away next moment, but he felt
+that she had heard him and they would be companions that long.
+
+"Well," said Devine, "it's quite likely we will be up here part, at
+least, of the time. Now you'll have to put on more men, and I haven't
+forgotten what you admitted the day I drove you in to the settlement.
+You'll want a good many dollars to pay them."
+
+"If you will give me a written contract, I dare say I can borrow them
+from a bank agent or mortgage broker on the strength of it."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Devine, drily. "It's quite likely you can, but he would
+charge you a percentage that's going to make a big hole in the profit."
+
+"I'm afraid I haven't any other means of getting the money."
+
+"Well," said Devine, "I rather think you have. In fact, I'll lend it you
+as the work goes on."
+
+Brooke felt distinctly uncomfortable and sat silent a moment, for this
+was the last thing he had desired or expected.
+
+"I have really no claim on you, sir," he said at length. "In this
+province payment is very seldom made until the work is done, and quite
+often not until a long while afterwards."
+
+Devine smiled drily. "I guess that is my business. Now is there any
+special reason you shouldn't borrow those dollars from me?"
+
+Brooke felt that there was a very good one, but it was one he could not
+well make plain to Devine. He was troubled by an unpleasant sense of
+meanness already, and felt that it would be almost insufferable to have
+a kindness thrust upon him by his companion. He was, though he would not
+look at her, also sensible that Barbara Heathcote was watching him
+covertly, and decided that what he and Devine had said had been
+perfectly audible in the silent room.
+
+"I would, at least, prefer to grapple with the financial difficulty in
+my own way, sir," he said.
+
+Devine made a little gesture of indifference. "Then, if you should want
+a few dollars at any time you know where to come for them. Now, I guess
+we're through with the business and you can talk to Mrs. Devine--who has
+been there--about the Old Country."
+
+Brooke did so, and after the first few minutes, which were distinctly
+unpleasant to him, managed to forget the purpose which had brought him
+to the ranch. His hostess was quietly kind, and evidently a lady who had
+appreciated and was pleased to talk about what she had seen in England,
+which was, as it happened, a good deal. Brooke also knew how to listen,
+and now and then a curious little smile crept into his eyes as she
+dilated on scenes and functions which were very familiar to him. It was
+evident that she never for a moment supposed that the man who sat
+listening to her somewhat stiffly, from reasons connected with Jimmy's
+repairs to his clothes, could have taken a part in them, but he was
+once or twice almost embarrassed when Barbara, who seemed to take his
+comprehension for granted, broke in.
+
+In the meanwhile a miner came for Devine, who went out with him, and by
+and by Mrs. Devine, making her household duties an excuse, also left the
+room. Then Barbara smiled a little as she turned to Brooke.
+
+"I wonder," she said, quietly, "why you were so unwilling to meet my
+sister? There is really no reason why anybody should be afraid of her."
+
+Brooke was glad that the dimness which was creeping across the valley
+had deepened the shadow in the room, for he was not anxious that the
+girl should see his face just then.
+
+"You assume that I was unwilling?" he said.
+
+"It was evident, though I am not quite sure that Mrs. Devine noticed
+it."
+
+Brooke saw that an answer was expected from him. "Well," he said, "Mrs.
+Devine is a lady of station, and I am, you see, merely the builder of
+one of her husband's flumes. One naturally does not care to presume, and
+it takes some little time to get accustomed to the fact that these
+little distinctions are not remembered in this country."
+
+Barbara laughed. "One could get accustomed to a good deal in three or
+four years. I scarcely think that was your reason."
+
+"Why?" said Brooke.
+
+"Well," said the girl, reflectively, "the fact is that we do recognize
+the distinctions you allude to, though not to the same extent that you
+do; but it takes rather longer to acquire certain mannerisms and modes
+of expressing oneself than it does to learn the use of the axe and
+drill. To be more candid, any one can put on a flume-builder's clothes."
+
+"I fancy you are jumping at conclusions. There are hotel waiters in the
+Old Country who speak much better English than I do."
+
+"It is possible. I am, however, not quite sure that they would make good
+flume-builders. Still, we will let that pass, as well as one or two
+vague admissions you have previously made me. Why wouldn't you take the
+dollars you needed when Mr. Devine was perfectly willing to lend them to
+you?"
+
+"It really isn't usual to make a stranger an advance of that kind," said
+Brooke, reflectively. "Besides, I might spend the dollars recklessly,
+and then break away and leave the work unfinished some day. Everybody is
+subject to occasional fits of restlessness here."
+
+Barbara laughed. "Pshaw!" she said. "You had a much better reason than
+that. Now I think we were what might be called good comrades in the
+bush?"
+
+Again Brooke felt a little thrill of pleasure. The girl sat where the
+dim light that still came in through the open window fell upon her, and
+she was very alluring with the faint smile, which was, nevertheless,
+curiously expressive, in her eyes.
+
+"Yes," he said, almost grimly, "I had a better reason. I cannot tell you
+what it was, but it may become apparent presently."
+
+Barbara asked no more questions, and while she sat silent, Mrs. Devine
+came in with a little dainty silver set on a tray. Maids of any kind,
+and even Chinese house-boys, are scarce in that country, especially in
+the bush, and Brooke realized that it must have been with her own hands
+she had prepared the quite unusual meal. Supper is served at six or
+seven o'clock through most of Canada. Probably the stove was burning,
+and her task was but a light one, but once more Brooke was sensible of a
+most unpleasant embarrassment when she smiled at him.
+
+"Barbara and I got used to taking a cup of coffee in the evening when we
+were in England," she said. "Talking of the Old Country reminded me of
+it. Will you pour it out, Barbara?"
+
+Barbara did so, and Brooke's fingers closed more tightly than was
+necessary on the cup she handed to him, while the cracker he forced
+himself to eat came near choking him. This was absurd sentimentality, he
+told himself, but, for all that, he dared scarcely meet the eyes of the
+lady who had, he realized, prepared that meal out of compliment to him.
+It was a relief when it was over and he was able to take his leave, but,
+as it happened, he forgot the plan he had laid down, and Barbara, who
+noticed it, overtook him in the log-hall. Devine had not come back yet.
+
+"We shall be here for some little time--in fact, until Mr. Devine has
+seen the new adit driven," she said.
+
+Brooke understood that this was tantamount to a general invitation, and
+smiled, as she noticed, somewhat wryly.
+
+"I am afraid I shall scarcely venture to come back again," he said.
+"Mrs. Devine is very kind, but still, you see--it really wouldn't be
+fitting."
+
+Then he turned and vanished into the darkness outside, and Barbara went
+back to the lighted room with a curious look in her eyes.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+BROOKE IS CARRIED AWAY.
+
+
+The flume was finished, and the dam already progressing well, when one
+morning Devine came out, somewhat grim in face, from the new adit he was
+driving at the Canopus. The captain of the mine also came with him, and
+stood still, evidently in a state of perplexity, when Devine looked at
+him.
+
+"Well," said the latter, brusquely, "what are we going to do, Wilkins?"
+
+The captain blinked at the forest with eyes not yet accustomed to the
+change of light, as though in search of inspiration, which apparently
+did not come.
+
+"There's plenty timber yonder," he said.
+
+"There is," said Devine, drily. "Still, as we can't touch a log of it,
+it isn't much use to us. There is no doubt about the validity of the
+patent that fellow holds it under either, and it covers everything right
+back to the caņon. He doesn't seem disposed to make any terms with me."
+
+Wilkins appeared to reflect. "Hanging off for a bigger figure, but there
+are points I'm not quite clear about. Mackinder's not quite the man to
+play that game--I guess I know him well, and if it had been left to
+him, once he saw there were dollars in the thing, he'd have jumped right
+on to them and lit out for the cities to raise Cain with them. Now, I
+kind of wonder if there's a bigger man behind him."
+
+"That's my end of the business," said Devine, with a little grim smile.
+"I'll take care of it. There are men in the cities who would find any
+dead-beat dollars if he wanted them for a fling at me. The question
+is--What about the mine? You feel reasonably sure we're going to strike
+ore that will pay for the crushing at the end of that adit?"
+
+Wilkins glanced round at the forest, and then lowered his voice a
+trifle, though it was some distance off and there was nobody else about.
+
+"We have got to, sir--and it's there if it's anywhere," he said. "You
+have seen the yield on the lower workings going down until it's just
+about worth while to keep the stamps going, and though none of the boys
+seem to notice anything, there are signs that are tolerably clear to me
+that the pay dirt's running right out. Still, I guess the chances of
+striking it again rich on the different level are good enough for me to
+put 'most every dollar I have by me in on a share of the crushings. I
+can't say any more than that."
+
+"No," said Devine, drily. "Anyway, I'm going on with the adit. But about
+the timber?"
+
+"Well, we will want no end of props, and that's a fact. It's quite a
+big contract to hold up the side of a mountain when you're working
+through soft stuff and crumbly rock, and the split-logs we've been
+worrying along with aren't going to be much use to us. We want round
+props, grown the size we're going to use, with the strength the tree was
+meant to have in them."
+
+Devine looked thoughtful. "Then I'll have to get you them. Say nothing
+to the boys, and see nobody who doesn't belong to the gang you have sent
+there puts his foot in any part of the mine. It is, of course, specially
+necessary to keep the result of the crushings quiet. I'm not telling you
+this without a reason."
+
+Wilkins went back into the adit, and Devine proceeded to flounder round
+the boundaries of the Englishman's abandoned ranch, which he had bought
+up for a few hundred dollars, chiefly because of the house on it. It
+consisted, for the most part, of a miry swamp, which the few prospectors
+who had once or twice spent the night with him said had broken the heart
+of the Englishman after a strenuous attempt to drain it, while the rest
+was rock outcrop, on which even the hardy conifers would not grow.
+Devine, who wet himself to the knees during his peregrination, had a
+survey plan with him, but he could see no means of extending his rights
+beyond the crumbling split-rail fence, and inside the latter there were
+no trees that appeared adapted for mining purposes. Willows straggled
+over the wetter places, and little, half-rotten pines stood tottering
+here and there in a tangled chaos a man could scarcely force his way
+through, but when he had wasted an hour or two, and was muddy all over,
+it became evident that he was scarcely likely to come upon a foot of
+timber that would be of any use to him. He had, of course, been told
+this, but he had on other occasions showed the men who pointed out
+insuperable difficulties to him that they were mistaken.
+
+Devine, however, was, as that fact would indicate, not the man to be
+readily turned aside. He wanted mine props, and meant to obtain them,
+and, though his face grew a trifle grimmer, he climbed the hillside to
+where Brooke was busy knee-deep in water at the dam. He signed to him,
+and then, taking out his cigar-case, sat down on a log and looked at the
+younger man.
+
+"Take one!" he said.
+
+Brooke lighted a cigar, and sat down, with the water draining from him.
+"We'll have another tier of logs bolted on to the framing by to-morrow
+night," he said.
+
+Devine glanced at the dam indifferently. "You take kindly to this kind
+of thing?" he said.
+
+Brooke smiled a little, for he had of late been almost astonished at his
+growing interest in his work. Of scientific engineering he knew nothing,
+though he remembered that several relatives of his had made their mark
+at it, but every man who lives any time in the bush of the Pacific slope
+of necessity acquires some skill with axe and cross-cut saw, besides a
+working acquaintance with the principles of construction. Wooden houses,
+bridges, dams, must be built, and now and then a wagon road underpinned
+with redwood logs along the side of a precipice. He had done his share
+of such work, but he had, it seemed, of late become endued with a
+boldness of conception and clearness of insight into the best means of
+overcoming the difficulties to be faced, which had now and then
+astonished those who assisted him.
+
+"I really think I do, though I don't know why I should," he said. "I
+never undertook anything of the description in England."
+
+"Then I guess it must be in the family. Any of your folks doing well
+back there as mechanics?"
+
+Brooke smiled somewhat drily. As a matter of fact, a near kinsman of his
+had gained distinction in the Royal Engineers, and another's name was
+famous in connection with irrigation works in Egypt. He did not,
+however, feel it in any way incumbent on him to explain this to Devine.
+
+"I could not exactly say they are," he said. "Anyway, isn't it a little
+outside the question?"
+
+"Well," said Devine, drily, "I don't quite know. What's born in a man
+will come out somehow, whether it's good for him or not. Now, I was
+thinking over another piece of work you might feel inclined to put
+through for me."
+
+Brooke became suddenly intent, and Devine noticed the little gleam in
+his eyes as he said, "If you can give me any particulars----"
+
+"Come along," said Devine, a trifle grimly, "and I'll show you them.
+Then if you still feel willing to go into the thing we can worry out my
+notion."
+
+Brooke rose and followed him along the hillside, which was seamed with
+rock outcrop and thinly covered with brushwood, while the roar of water
+grew louder in his ears. When they had made a mile or so Devine stopped
+and looked about him.
+
+"It wouldn't cost too much to clear a ground-sled trail from here to the
+mine," he said. "A team of mules could haul a good many props in over it
+in a day."
+
+"But where are you going to get them from?" said Brooke.
+
+Devine smiled curiously. "Come along a little further, and I'll show
+you."
+
+Again Brooke went with him, wondering a little, for he knew that a caņon
+would cut off all further progress presently, until Devine stopped once
+more where the hillside fell sheer away beneath them.
+
+"Now," he said, quietly, "I guess we're there. You can see plenty young
+firs that would make mining props yonder."
+
+Brooke certainly could. The hillside in front of him rose, steep as a
+roof, to the ridge where the tufts of ragged pines were silhouetted in
+sombre outline against the gleaming snow behind. Streaked with drifting
+mist, they rolled upwards in serried ranks, and there was apparently
+timber enough for half the mines in the province. The difficulty,
+however, was the reaching it, for, between him and it, a green-stained
+torrent thundered through a tremendous gap, whose walls were worn smooth
+and polished for four hundred feet or so. Above that awful chasm rose
+bare and slippery slopes of rock, on which there was foothold for
+neither man nor beast, and only a stunted pine clung here and there in
+the crannies. What the total depth was he did not know, but he recoiled
+instinctively from the contemplation of it, and would have drawn back a
+yard or two only that Devine stood still, looking down into the gap with
+his usual grim smile.
+
+Still, it was a minute or two before he was sensible of more than a
+vague awe and a physical shrinking from that tremendous display of
+Nature's forces, and then, by degrees, his brain commenced to record the
+details of the scene. He saw the snow-fed river diminished by distance
+to a narrow green riband swirling round the pools, and frothing with a
+curious livid whiteness over reef and boulder far down in the dimness.
+The roar it made came up in long pulsations of sound, which were flung
+back by the climbing pines that seemed to tremble in unison with it.
+The rocks were hollowed a trifle at their bases, and arched above the
+river. It was, as a picture, awe-inspiring and sublime, but from a
+practical point of view an apparently insurmountable barrier between the
+owner of the Canopus mine and the timber he desired. Devine, however,
+knew better, for he was a man who had grappled with a good many
+apparently insuperable difficulties, and Brooke became sensible that he
+expected an expression of opinion from him.
+
+"The timber is certainly there, but I quite fail to see how it could be
+of the least use to anybody situated where we are," he said. "That caņon
+is, I should fancy, one of the deepest in the province."
+
+Devine nodded, but the little smile was still in his eyes, and he
+pointed to the one where, by crawling down the gully a torrent had
+fretted out, an agile man might reach a jutting crag a couple of hundred
+feet below.
+
+"The point is that it isn't very wide," he said. "It wouldn't take a
+great many fathoms of steel rope to reach across it."
+
+Brooke realized that, because the crag projected a little, this was
+correct; but as yet the suggestion conveyed no particular meaning to
+him.
+
+"No," he said. "Still, it isn't very evident what use that would be."
+
+Devine laughed. "Now, if you had told me you knew anything about
+engineering, you would have given yourself away. Have you never heard of
+an aerial tramway? It's quite simple--a steel rope set up tight, a winch
+for hauling, and a trolley. With that working, and a skid-slide up the
+gully, one could send over the props we want without much difficulty. It
+would be cheaper than buying off the timber-righters."
+
+Brooke gasped as the daring simplicity of the scheme dawned on him. If
+one had nerve enough to undertake it the thing was perfectly feasible,
+and he turned to Devine with a glow in his eyes.
+
+"It could be done," he said. "Still, do you know anybody who would be
+willing to stretch that rope across?"
+
+Devine looked at him steadily, noticing the slight dilation of his
+nostrils and the intentness of his face.
+
+"Well," he said, drily, "I was going to ask you."
+
+The blood surged into Brooke's forehead, and for the time he forgot his
+six thousand dollars and that the man who made the suggestion had
+plundered him of them. He had, during the course of his English
+education, shown signs of a certain originality and daring of thought
+which had slightly astonished those who taught him, and then had lounged
+three or four years away in the quiet valley, where originality of any
+kind was not looked upon with favor. The men and women he had been
+brought into contact with in London were also, for the most part, those
+who regarded everything from the accepted point of view, and his
+engagement to the girl his friends regarded with disapproval had, though
+he did not suspect this at the time, been in part, at least, a protest
+against the doctrine that no man of his station must do anything that
+was not outwardly befitting and convenient to it.
+
+The revolt had brought him disaster, as it usually does, but it had also
+thrust upon him the necessity of thinking for himself, though even
+during his two years' struggle on the worthless ranch he had not
+realized what qualities he was endued with, for it was not until he met
+Barbara Heathcote by the river that they were wholly stirred into
+activity. Then ambition, self-confidence, and lust of conflict with men
+and Nature asserted themselves, for it was, in point of fact, a sword
+she had brought him. Still, he was as yet a trifle inconsequent and
+precipitate in his activities, for at times the purpose which had sent
+him to the Canopus mine faded into insignificance, and he became
+oblivious to everything beyond the pleasure he found in the grapple with
+natural difficulties he was engaged in. Those who had known Brooke in
+England would have had little difficulty in recognizing him morally or
+physically as he stood, brawny and sinewy, in ragged jean, high above
+the thundering river.
+
+"Then I'll undertake it," he said, with a little vibration in his
+voice.
+
+Devine looked hard at him again. "Feel sure you can do it? You'll want
+good nerves."
+
+"I think I can," said Brooke, with a quietness the other man
+appreciated.
+
+"Then you can go down to the Mineral Development's new shaft, where they
+have one of those tramways working, and see how they swing their ore
+across the valley. I'll give you a line to the manager. Start when
+you're ready."
+
+Devine said nothing further as they turned back towards the mine, but
+Brooke felt that the bargain was already made. His companion was not the
+man to haggle over non-essentials, but one who knew what he wanted and
+usually went straight to the point. Brooke left him presently, and,
+turning off where the flume climbed to the dam, came upon Jimmy,
+tranquilly leaning upon his shovel while he watched the two or three men
+who toiled waist-deep in water.
+
+"I was kind of wondering whether she wouldn't be stiffer with another
+log or two in that framing?" he said, in explanation.
+
+"Of course!" said Brooke, drily. "It's more restful than shovelling.
+Still, that's my affair, and you'll have to rustle more and wonder less.
+I'm going to leave you in charge here."
+
+Jimmy grinned. "Then I guess the way that dam will grow will astonish
+you when you come back again. Where're you going to?"
+
+Brooke told him, and Jimmy contemplated the forest reflectively.
+
+"Well," he said, "nobody who saw you at the ranch would ever have
+figured you had snap enough to put a contract of that kind through.
+Still, you have me behind you."
+
+"A good way, as a rule," said Brooke, drily. "Especially when there is
+anything one can get very wet at to be done. Still, I shouldn't wonder
+if you were quite correct. I scarcely think I ever suspected I had it in
+myself."
+
+Jimmy still ruminated. "A man is like a mine. You see the indications on
+the top, but you can't be sure whether there's gold at the bottom or
+dirt that won't pay for washing, until you set the drills going or put
+in the giant powder and shake everything up. Still, I can't quite figure
+how anything of that kind could have happened to you."
+
+Brooke flashed a quick glance at him, but Jimmy's eyes were vacant, and
+he was apparently watching a mink slip in and out among the roots of a
+cedar.
+
+"There is a good deal of gravel waiting down there, and only two men to
+heave it out," he said.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Jimmy, tranquilly. "Still, it's a good while until it's
+dark, and I was thinking. Now, if you had the dollars you threw away
+over that ranch, and me for a partner, you'd make quite a smart
+contractor. While they're wanting flumes and bridges everywhere, it's a
+game one can pile up dollars at."
+
+Brooke's face flushed a trifle, and he slowly closed one hand.
+
+"Confound the six thousand dollars, and you for reminding me of them!"
+he said. "Get on with your shovelling."
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+THE OLD LOVE.
+
+
+Next morning Brooke set out for the Mineral Development Syndicate's new
+shaft, which lay a long day's ride nearer the railroad through the bush,
+and was well received by the manager.
+
+"Stay just as long as it pleases you, and look at everything you want,
+though you'll have to excuse me going round with you to-day," he said.
+"There's a party of the Directors' city friends coming up, and it's
+quite likely they'll keep me busy."
+
+Brooke was perfectly content to go round himself, and he had acquired a
+good deal of information about the working of aerial tramways when he
+sat on the hillside watching a rattling trolley swing across the tree
+tops beneath him on a curving rope of steel. A foreman leaned on a
+sawn-off cedar close by, and glanced at Brooke with a little ironical
+grin when a hum of voices broke out behind them.
+
+"You hear them? I guess the boss is enjoying himself," he said.
+
+Brooke turned his head and listened, and a woman said, "But how do
+those little specks of gold get into the rock? It really looks so
+solid."
+
+"That's nothing," said the foreman. "She quite expects him to know how
+the earth was made. Still, the other one's the worst. You'll hear her
+starting in again once she gets her breath. It's not information she's
+wanting, but to hear herself talk."
+
+The prediction was evidently warranted, for another voice broke in,
+"What makes those little trucks run down the rope? Gravity! Of course, I
+might have known that. How clever of you to think of it. You haven't
+anything like that at those works you're a director of, Shafton?"
+
+Brooke started a little, for though the speaker was invisible her voice
+was curiously familiar. It was also evidently an Englishman who answered
+the last remark, and Brooke, who decided that his ears must have
+deceived him, nevertheless became intent. He felt that the mere fancy
+should have awakened a host of memories, but he was only sensible of a
+wholly dispassionate curiosity when the voice was raised again, though
+it was, at least, very like one to which he had frequently listened in
+times past. Then there was a patter of approaching steps, and he rose to
+his feet as the strangers and the mine manager came down the slope.
+There were several men, one of whom was palpably an Englishman, and two
+women. One of the latter stopped abruptly, with a little exclamation.
+
+"Harford--is it really you?" she said.
+
+Brooke quietly swung off his wide hat, which he remembered, without
+embarrassment, was considerably battered, and while most of the others
+turned and gazed at him, stood still a moment looking at her. He did not
+appreciate being made the central figure in a dramatic incident, but it
+was evident that the woman rather relished the situation. Several years
+had certainly elapsed since she had tearfully bidden him farewell with
+protestations of unwavering constancy, but he realized with faint
+astonishment that he felt no emotion whatever, not even a trace of
+anger.
+
+"Yes," he said. "I really think it is."
+
+The woman made a little theatrical gesture, which might have meant
+anything, and in that moment the few illusions Brooke still retained
+concerning her vanished. She seemed very little older than when he
+parted from her, and at least as comely, but her shallow artificiality
+was very evident to him now. Her astonishment had, he felt, been
+exaggerated with a view to making the most of the situation, and even
+the little tremble in her voice appeared no more than an artistic
+affectation. The same impression was conveyed by her dress, which struck
+him as too ornate and in no way adapted to the country.
+
+Then she turned swiftly to the man who stood beside her, looking on with
+a little faintly ironical smile. He was a personable man, but his lips
+were thin, and there was a suggestion of half-contemptuous weariness in
+his face.
+
+"This is Harford Brooke, Shafton. Of course, you have heard of him!" she
+said with a coquettish smile, which it occurred to Brooke was not, under
+the circumstances, especially appropriate. "Harford, I don't think you
+ever met my husband."
+
+Brooke stood still and the other man nodded with an air of languid
+indifference. "Glad to see you, I'm sure," he said. "Met quite a number
+of Englishmen in this country."
+
+Then he turned towards the other woman as though he had done all that
+could be reasonably expected of him, and when the manager of the mine
+led the way down into the valley Brooke found himself walking with the
+woman who had flung him over a few paces behind the rest of the party.
+He did not know exactly how this came about, but he was certain that he,
+at least, had neither desired nor in any way contrived it.
+
+They went down into the hollow between colonnades of towering trunks,
+crossed a crystal stream and climbed a steep ascent towards the clashing
+stamp-heads, but the woman appeared in difficulties and gasped a little
+until Brooke held out his arm. He had already decided that her little
+high-heeled shoes were distinctly out of place in that country, and
+wondered at the same time what kind Barbara Heathcote wore, for she, at
+least, moved with lithe gracefulness through the bush. He was, however,
+sensible of nothing in particular when his companion looked up at him as
+she leaned upon his arm.
+
+"I was wondering how long it would be before you offered to help me. You
+used to be anxious to do it once," she said.
+
+Brooke smiled a little. "That was quite a long time ago. I scarcely
+supposed you needed help, and one does not care to risk a repulse."
+
+"Could you have expected one from me?"
+
+There was an archness in the glance she cast him which Brooke was not
+especially gratified to see, and it struck him that the eyes which he
+had once considered softest blue were in reality tinged with a hazy
+grey, but he smiled again as he parried the question. "One," he said,
+"never quite knows what to expect from a lady."
+
+His companion made no immediate answer, but by and by she once more
+glanced up at him.
+
+"I am really not used to climbing if Shafton is, and I am not going any
+further just now," she said.
+
+A newly-felled cedar lay conveniently near the trail, but its
+wide-girthed trunk stood high above the underbrush, and Brooke dragged
+up a big hewn-off branch to make a footstool before his companion sat
+down on it. The branch was heavy, and she watched his efforts
+approvingly.
+
+"Canada has made you another man. Now, I do not think Shafton could have
+done that in a day," she said. "Of course, he would never have tried,
+even to please me."
+
+Brooke, who was by no means certain what she wished him to understand
+from this, leaned against a cedar looking down at her gravely. This was
+the woman who had embittered several years of his life, and for whom he
+had flung a good deal away, and now he was most clearly sensible of his
+folly. Had he met her in a drawing-room or even the Vancouver
+opera-house, it might not have been quite so apparent to him, but she
+seemed an anachronism in that strip of primeval wilderness. Nature was
+dominant there, and the dull pounding of the stamp-heads, which came
+faintly through the silence among the great trunks that had grown slowly
+during centuries, suggested man's recognition of the curse and privilege
+that was laid upon him in Eden. Graceful idleness was not esteemed in
+that country, where bread was won by strenuous toil, and the stillness
+and dimness of those great forest aisles emphasized the woman's
+artificial superficiality. Voice and gesture, befrizzled, straw-colored
+hair which he had once called golden, constricted waist, and figure
+which was suggestively wooden in its curves, enforced the same
+impression, until the man, who realized that she had after all probably
+made at least as good a use of life as he had, turned his eyes away.
+
+"You really couldn't expect him to," he said, with a little laugh. "He
+has never had to do anything of that kind for a living as I have."
+
+He held up his hands and noticed her little shiver as she saw the
+scarred knuckles, hard, ingrained flesh, and broken nails.
+
+"Oh," she said, "how cruel! Whatever have you been doing?"
+
+Brooke glanced at his fingers reflectively. "On the contrary, I suppose
+I ought to feel proud of them, though I scarcely think I am. Building
+flumes and dams, though that will hardly convey any very clear
+impression to you. It implies swinging the axe and shovel most of every
+day, and working up to the waist in water occasionally."
+
+"But you were always so particular in England."
+
+"I could naturally afford to be. It cost me nothing when I was living on
+another man's bounty."
+
+The woman made a little gesture. "And you gave up everything for me!"
+
+Brooke laughed softly, for it seemed to him that a little candor was
+advisable. "As a matter of fact, I am not quite sure that I did. My
+native wrong-headedness may have had its share in influencing me.
+Anyway, that was all done with--several years ago."
+
+"You will not be bitter, Harford," and she cast him a glance of appeal
+which might have awakened a trace of tenderness in the man had it sprung
+from any depth of feeling. "Can anything of that kind ever be quite done
+with?"
+
+Brooke commenced to feel a trifle uneasy. "Well," he said, reflectively,
+"I certainly think it ought to be."
+
+To his relief his companion smiled and apparently decided to change the
+subject. "You never even sent me a message. It really wasn't kind."
+
+"It appeared considerably more becoming to let myself sink into
+oblivion. Besides, I could scarcely be expected to feel certain that you
+would care to hear from me."
+
+The woman glanced at him reflectively. "I have often thought about you.
+Of course, I was dreadfully sorry when I had to give you up, but I
+really couldn't do anything else, and it was all for the best."
+
+"Of course!" said Brooke, with a trace of dryness, and smiled when she
+glanced at him sharply. "I naturally mean in your case."
+
+"You are only involving yourself, Harford. You never used to be so
+unfeeling."
+
+"I was endorsing your own statement, and it is, at least, considerably
+easier to believe that all is for the best when one is prosperous. You
+have a wealthy husband, and Helen, who wrote me once, testified that he
+indulged you in--she said every caprice."
+
+"Yes," said his companion, thoughtfully, "Shafton is certainly not poor,
+and he is almost everything any one could expect him to be. As husbands
+go, I think he is eminently satisfactory."
+
+"One would fancy that an indulgent and wealthy husband of distinguished
+appearance would go a tolerably long way."
+
+Again the woman appeared to reflect "Prosperity is apt to kill romance,"
+she said. "One is never quite content, you know, and I feel now and then
+that Shafton scarcely understands me. That is a complaint people appear
+to find ludicrous, of course, though I really don't see why they should
+do so. Shafton is conventional and precise. You know exactly what he is
+going to do, and that it will be right, but one has longings now and
+then for something original and intense."
+
+Brooke regarded her with a little dry smile. One, as he had discovered,
+cannot have everything, and as she had sold herself for wealth and
+station it appeared a trifle unreasonable to repine because she could
+not enjoy a romantic passion at the same time. It was, in fact, very
+likely that had anything of the kind been thrust upon her she would not
+have known what to do with it. It also occurred to him that there were
+depths in her husband's nature which she had never sounded, and he
+remembered the look of cynical weariness in the man's face. Lucy Coulson
+was one who trifled with emotions as a pastime, but Brooke had no wish
+to be made the subject of another experiment in simulated tenderness,
+even if that was meant, which, under the circumstances, scarcely seemed
+likely.
+
+"Well," he said, "no doubt most people long for a good deal more than
+they ever get; but your friends must have reached the stamps by now, and
+they will be wondering what has become of you."
+
+"I scarcely think they will. The men seem to consider it a waste of time
+to talk to anybody who doesn't know all about ranches and mines, and
+Shafton has Miss Goldie to attend to. She has attached herself to him
+like a limpet, but she is, of course, a Canadian, and I really don't
+mind."
+
+Almost involuntarily Brooke contrasted her with a Canadian who had spent
+a week in the woods with him. Barbara Heathcote had never appeared out
+of place in the wilderness, for she was wholly natural and had moved
+amidst those scenes of wild grandeur as though in harmony with them,
+with the stillness of that lonely land in her steady eyes. There was no
+superficial sentimentality in her, for her thoughts and emotions were
+deep as the still blue lakes, and he could not fancy her disturbing
+their serenity for the purpose of whiling an idle day away. Then his
+face hardened, for it was becoming unpleasantly evident that she could
+not much longer even regard him with friendliness and there was nothing
+to be gained by letting his fancy run away with him.
+
+"You are not the man I used to talk nonsense with, Harford," said his
+companion, who had in the meanwhile been watching him. "This country has
+made you quiet and a little grim. Why don't you go back again?"
+
+"I am afraid they have too many men with no ostensible income in
+England."
+
+"Still you could make it up with the old man."
+
+Brooke's face was decidedly grim. "I scarcely think I could. Rather more
+was said by both of us than could be very well rubbed off one's memory.
+Besides, I think you know what kind of man he is?"
+
+Lucy Coulson leaned forward a trifle and there was a trace of genuine
+feeling in her voice. "Harford," she said, "he frets about you--and he
+is getting very old. Of course, he would never show anybody what he
+felt, but I could guess, because he was once not long ago almost rude to
+me. That could only have been on your account, you know. It hurts me a
+little, though one could scarcely take exception to anything he
+said--but you know the quiet precision of his manner. If it wasn't quite
+so perfect it would be pedantic now. One feels it's a relic of the days
+of the hoops and patches ever so long ago."
+
+"What did he say?" asked Brooke, a trifle impatiently.
+
+"Nothing that had any particular meaning by itself, but for all that he
+conveyed an impression, and I think if you were to go back----"
+
+"Empty-handed!" said Brooke. "There are circumstances under which the
+desire for reconciliation with a wealthy relative is liable to
+misconception. If I had prospered it would have been easier."
+
+Lucy Coulson looked at him thoughtfully. "Perhaps I did use you rather
+badly, and it might be possible for me to do you a trifling kindness
+now. Shall I talk to the old man when I go home again? I see him often."
+
+Brooke shook his head. "I shall never go back a poor man," he said.
+"What are you doing here?"
+
+"Everybody travels nowadays, and Shafton is never happy unless he is
+going somewhere. We started for Japan, and decided to see the Rockies
+and look at the British Columbian mines. That is, of course, Shafton
+did. He has money in some of them, and is interested in the colonies. I
+have to sit on platforms and listen while he abuses the Government for
+neglecting them. In fact, I don't know when I shall be able to get him
+out of the country now. Of course, I never expected to meet you
+here--and almost wonder if there is any reason beyond the one you
+mentioned that has kept you here so long."
+
+She glanced at him in a curious fashion and made the most of her eyes,
+which he had once considered remarkably expressive ones.
+
+"I can't quite think of any other, beyond the fact that I have a few
+dollars at stake," he said.
+
+"There is nothing else?"
+
+"No," said Brooke, a trifle too decisively. "What could there be?"
+
+His companion smiled. "Well," she said, "I fancied there might have been
+a Canadian. They are not all very good style, but some of them are
+almost pretty, and--when one has been a good while away----"
+
+The man flushed a trifle at the faint contempt in her tone. "I scarcely
+think there is one of them who would spare a thought for me. I should
+not be considered especially eligible even in this country."
+
+"And you have a good memory!"
+
+Brooke felt slightly disconcerted, for it was not the first delicate
+suggestion she had made. "I don't know that it is of any benefit to me.
+You see, I really haven't anything very pleasant to remember."
+
+Lucy Coulson sighed. "Harford," she said, dropping her voice a trifle,
+"you must try not to blame me. If one of us had been richer--I, at
+least, can't help remembering."
+
+Brooke looked at her steadily. Exactly where she wished to lead him he
+did not know, but she had flung away her power to lead him anywhere long
+ago. Perhaps she was influenced by vanity, for there was no genuine
+passion or tenderness in her, but Brooke was a well-favored man, and she
+had her caprices and drifted easily.
+
+"I really don't think you should," he said. "Your husband mightn't like
+it, and it is quite a long while ago, you know."
+
+A little pink flush crept into the woman's cheek and she rose leisurely.
+"Perhaps he will be wondering where I am, after all," she said. "You
+must come and make friends with him. We may be staying for some time yet
+at the C. P. R. Hotel, Vancouver."
+
+Brooke went with her and spent some little time talking to her husband,
+who made a favorable impression upon him, while when he took his leave
+of them the woman let her hand remain in his a moment longer than there
+was any apparent necessity for.
+
+"You must come down and see us--it really isn't very far, and we have so
+much to talk about," she said.
+
+Brooke said nothing, but he felt that he had had a warning as he swung
+off his big shapeless hat and turned away.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+BROOKE HAS VISITORS.
+
+
+The afternoon was hot, and the roar of the river in the depths below
+emphasized the drowsy stillness of the hillside and climbing bush, when
+Brooke stood on the little jutting crag above the caņon. Two hundred
+feet above him rose a wall of fissured rock, but a gully, down which the
+white thread of a torrent frothed, split through that grim battlement,
+and already a winding strip of somewhat perilous pathway had been cut
+out of and pinned against the side of the chasm. Men with hammers and
+shovels were busy upon it, and the ringing of the drills broke sharply
+through the deep pulsations of the flood, while several more were
+clustered round the foot of an iron column, which rose from the verge of
+the crag, where the rock fell in one tremendous sweep to the dim green
+river.
+
+Close beside it, and overhung by the rock wall, stood Brooke's double
+tent, for, absorbed as he had become in the struggle with the natural
+difficulties that must be faced and surmounted at every step, he lived
+by his work, and when he had risen that morning the sun had not touched
+the dim white ramparts beyond the climbing pines. He was just then,
+however, not watching his workmen, but looking up the gorge, and a
+little thrill of pleasure ran through him when two figures in light
+draperies appeared at the head of it. Then he went up at a pace which
+Jimmy, who grinned as he watched him, wondered at, and stopped a trifle
+breathless beside the two women who awaited him above.
+
+"I was almost afraid you would not come," he said. "You are sure you
+would care to go down now you have done so?"
+
+Mrs. Devine gazed down into the tremendous depths with something that
+suggested a shiver, but Barbara laughed. "Of course," she said. "Those
+men go up and down with big loads every day, don't they?"
+
+"They have to, and that naturally makes a difference," said Brooke, with
+a little smile.
+
+"Then we can go down because we wish to, which is, in the case of most
+people, even a better reason."
+
+Mrs. Devine appeared a trifle uncertain, and her face expressed rather
+resignation than any special desire to make the descent, but she
+permitted Brooke to assist her down the zig-zag trail, while Barbara
+followed with light, fearless tread. Once they entered the gully, they
+could not, however, see the caņon, which, in the elder lady's case, at
+least, made the climb considerably easier, and they reached the tent
+without misadventure. The door was triced up to form an outer shelter,
+and Barbara was a trifle astonished when Brooke signed them to enter.
+
+She had seen how he lived at the ranch, and the squalid discomfort of
+the log room had not been without its significance to her, but there was
+a difference now. Nothing stood out of place in that partition of the
+big double tent, and from the spruce twigs which lay a soft, springy
+carpet, on the floor, to the little nickelled clock above her head, all
+she saw betokened taste and order. Even the neat folding chairs and
+table shone spotlessly, and there was no chip or flaw upon the crockery
+laid out upon the latter. There had, it seemed, been a change, of which
+all this was but the outward sign, in the man who stood smiling beside
+her.
+
+"Tea at four o'clock is another English custom you may have become
+addicted to, and you have had a climb," he said. "Still, I'm afraid I
+can't guarantee it. Jimmy does the cooking."
+
+Jimmy, as it happened, came in with a teapot in his hand just then.
+"Well," he said, "I guess I'm considerably smarter at it than my boss.
+You needn't be bashful, either. I've a kettle that holds most of a
+gallon outside there on the fire, and here's two big tins of fixings we
+sent for to Vancouver."
+
+Mrs. Devine smiled, but Brooke's face was a trifle grim, as he glanced
+at his retainer, and Barbara did not look at either of them just then.
+It was, of course, after all, only a little thing, but she was,
+nevertheless, gratified that he could think of these trifles in the
+midst of his activities. She, however, took the white metal teapot,
+which was burnished brilliantly, from Jimmy, who, in spite of Brooke's
+warning glances, still hung about the tent, contemplating her with
+evident approbation as she passed the cups.
+
+"I guess she does it considerably smarter than Tom Gordon's Bella would
+have done," he said, with a wicked grin. "Bella had no use for teapots
+either. She'd have given it you out of the kettle."
+
+The glance Brooke rewarded him with was almost venomous, for he had seen
+the swift inquiry which had flashed into them fade as suddenly out of
+Barbara's eyes. She could not well admit the least desire to know who
+Tom Gordon's Bella was, though she would not have been unwilling to be
+enlightened. Jimmy, however, beamed upon Mrs. Devine, who had taken up
+her cup.
+
+"I hope you like it. No smoke on that," he said. "When you use the green
+tea a smack of the resin goes well as flavoring, especially if it's
+brewed in a coal-oil tin. Now, there's tea they make right where they
+sell it in Vancouver, but what you've got is different I guess it's
+grown in China, or it ought to be, for the boss he sent me down, and
+says he----"
+
+"Isn't it about time you made a start at getting that boulder out?" said
+Brooke, drily.
+
+Jimmy retired unwillingly, and Brooke glanced deprecatingly at his
+guests. "We have been comrades for several years," he said.
+
+"Of course!" said Mrs. Devine, with a little smile. "Still, I really
+don't think you need be so anxious to hide the fact that you have taken
+some pains to provide these little dainties for us. It would have been
+apparent in any case. We know how men live in the bush."
+
+Brooke made no disclaimer, though a faint trace of color deepened the
+bronze in his face, for he remembered the six thousand dollars, and
+winced under her graciousness. Then they discussed other matters, until
+at last Barbara laid aside her cup.
+
+"We came to see the caņon, and how you mean to put the rope across," she
+said.
+
+She glanced at her sister, but Mrs. Devine resolutely shook her head. "I
+have seen quite as much of the caņon as I have any wish to do," she
+said. "Besides, it was not exactly an easy matter getting down here, and
+I expect it will be considerably worse getting up. You can go with Mr.
+Brooke, my dear."
+
+They left her in the tent, and five minutes later Brooke led the girl to
+a seat on a dizzy ledge, from which the rock fell away in one awful
+smooth wall.
+
+"Now," he said quietly, "you can look about you."
+
+Barbara, who had been too occupied in picking her way to notice very
+much as yet, drew in her breath as she gazed down into the tremendous
+chasm. The sunshine lay warm upon the pine-clad slopes above, but no ray
+of brightness streamed down into that depth of shadow, and its eerie
+dimness was thickened by the mist which drifted filmily above the
+river's turmoil. Out of it a deep vibratory roar came up, diminished by
+the distance, in long pulsations that died far up among the pines in
+sinking waves of sound.
+
+"Oh," she said, with a little gasp, "it's tremendous!"
+
+"A trifle overwhelming!" said Brooke, reflectively, "and yet it gets
+hold of one. There is a difference between it and the English valley you
+once mentioned."
+
+Barbara turned to him, with a little gleam in her eyes.
+
+"Of course!" she said. "One is glad there is, since it is typical of
+both countries. You couldn't tame this river and set it gliding smoothly
+between mossy stepping-stones."
+
+"No," said Brooke, "I scarcely think one would wish to if he could. One
+feels it wouldn't be fitting."
+
+"And yet we shall put the power that's in it into harness by and by."
+
+"Without taming it?"
+
+Barbara nodded. "Yes," she said. "If you had ever stood in a Canadian
+power house, as I have done once or twice, you would understand. You
+can hear the big dynamos humming in one low, deep note while the little
+blue sparks flicker about the shafts. They stand for controlled energy;
+but the whole place rocks with the whirring of the turbines and the
+thunder of the water plunging down the shoots. The river that drives
+them does it exulting in its strength. You couldn't fancy it lapping
+among the lily leaves in sunlit pools. It hasn't time."
+
+"To have no time for artistic effect is typical of this country, then?"
+said Brooke.
+
+Barbara smiled. "Yes," she said, "I really think it is. We shall come to
+that later, but this, you see, isn't art, but something greater. It's
+nature untrammelled, and primeval force."
+
+"Then you, who personify reposefulness, admire force?"
+
+Barbara held her hand up. "When it accomplishes anything I do; but
+listen," she said. "That sound isn't the discord of purposeless haste.
+There's a rhythm in it. It's ordered and stately harmony."
+
+Brooke sat still, watching the little gleam in her brown eyes, until she
+turned again to him.
+
+"You are going to put that rope across?" she said.
+
+"I am, at least, going to try. There will, however, be difficulties."
+
+Barbara smiled a little. "There generally are. Still, I think you will
+get over them." She looked down again at the tremendous gap, and then
+met his eyes in a fashion that sent a thrill through him. "It would be
+worth while."
+
+"I almost think it would. Still, it is largely a question of dollars,
+and I have spent a good many with no great result already."
+
+"My brother-in-law will not see you beaten. He would throw in as much as
+the mine was worth before he yielded a point to the timber-righters."
+
+Brooke noticed the little hardness in her voice, and the sparkle in her
+eyes. "If he did, you would evidently sympathize with him?"
+
+"Of course, though it wasn't exactly in that sense I meant it would be
+worth while. One would naturally sympathize with anybody who was made
+the subject of that kind of extortion. If there is anything detestable,
+it is a conspiracy."
+
+"Still," said Brooke, reflectively, "it is in one sense a perfectly
+legitimate transaction."
+
+"Would you consider yourself warranted in scheming to extort money from
+any one?"
+
+Brooke did not look at her. "It would, of course, depend--upon, for
+example, any right I might consider I had to the money. We will suppose
+that somebody had robbed me----"
+
+"Then one who has been robbed may steal?"
+
+Brooke made a little deprecatory gesture while the blood crept to his
+face. "I'm afraid I have never given any questions of this kind much
+consideration. We were discussing the country."
+
+Barbara laughed. "Of course. I ought to have remembered. You are so
+horribly afraid of betraying your sentiments in England that you would
+almost prefer folks to believe you hadn't any. I am, however, going to
+venture on dangerous ground again. I think the country is having an
+effect on you. You have changed considerably since I met you at the
+ranch."
+
+"It is possible," and Brooke met her gaze with a little smile in his
+eyes. "Still, I am not quite sure it was altogether the fault of the
+country."
+
+Barbara looked down at the caņon. "Isn't that a little ambiguous?"
+
+"Well," said Brooke, reflectively, "it is, at least, rather a stretching
+of the simile, but I saw you first clothed in white samite, mystic,
+wonderful, in the midst of a frothing river--and I am not quite sure
+that you were right when you said it was not a sword you brought me."
+
+Barbara flashed a swift, keen glance at him, though she smiled. "Then
+beware in what quarrel you draw it--if I did. One would expect such a
+gift to be used with honor. It could, however, be legitimately employed
+against timber-righters, claim-jumpers, and all schemers and
+extortioners of that kind."
+
+She stopped a moment, and looked at him, steadily now. "Do you know that
+I am glad you left the ranch?"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"What you are doing now is worth while. You would consider that
+priggishness in England, but it's the truth."
+
+"You mean helping your brother-in-law to get ahead of the
+timber-righters?"
+
+"No," said Barbara. "That is not what I mean, though if it is any
+consolation to you, it meets with my approbation, too."
+
+"Then what I was doing before was not worth while?"
+
+"That," said Barbara, with a trace of dryness, "is a question you can
+answer best, though I saw no especial evidence of activity of any kind.
+The question is--Can you do nothing better still? This province needs
+big bridges and daringly-built roads."
+
+"I'm afraid not," and Brooke smiled a trifle wryly. "It costs a good
+many dollars to build a big bridge, and it is apparently very difficult
+for any man to acquire them so long as he works with his own hands."
+
+"Still, isn't it worth the effort--not exactly for the dollars?"
+
+Brooke looked at her gravely, with a slight hardening of his lips.
+
+"I think it would be in my case," he said. "The difficulty is that I
+should run a heavy risk if the effort was ever made. Now, however, I
+had, perhaps, better show you how far we have got with the tramway."
+
+There was, as it happened, not very much to show, and before half an
+hour had passed Barbara and Mrs. Devine climbed the steep ascent, while
+Brooke returned to redeem the hour spent with them by strenuous toil. It
+was also late that night before he flung aside the sheet of crude
+drawings and calculations he was making, and leaned back wearily in his
+chair. His limbs were aching, and so were his eyes, and he sat still
+awhile with them half-closed in a state of dreamy languor. He had
+dropped a tin shade over the lamp, and the tent was shadowy outside the
+narrow strip of radiance. There was no sound from the workmen's bark and
+canvas shanty, and the pulsating roar of the caņon broke sharply through
+an impressive stillness, until at last there was a faint rattle of
+gravel outside that suggested the approach of a cautious foot, and
+Brooke straightened himself suddenly as a man came into the tent. His
+face was invisible until he sat down within the range of light, and then
+Brooke started a little.
+
+"Saxton!" he said.
+
+Saxton laughed, and flung down his big hat. "Precisely!" he said. "There
+are camps in the province I wouldn't have cared to come into like this.
+It wouldn't be healthy for me, but in this case it seemed advisable to
+get here without anybody seeing me. Left my horse two hours ago at
+Tomlinson's ranch."
+
+"It was something special brought you so far on foot?"
+
+"Yes," said Saxton, "I guess it was. I came along to see what in the
+name of thunder you were doing here so long."
+
+"I was building Devine a dam, and I am now stretching a rope across the
+caņon to bring his mine props over."
+
+Saxton straightened himself, and stared at him, with blank astonishment
+in his face.
+
+"I want to understand," he said. "You are putting him a rope across to
+bring props over with?"
+
+"Yes," said Brooke. "Is there anything very extraordinary in that?"
+
+Saxton laughed harshly. "Under the circumstances, I guess there is. Do
+you know who's stopping him cutting all the props he wants right behind
+the mine?"
+
+"No," said Brooke, drily. "Devine doesn't either, which I fancy is
+probably as well for the man. The one who holds the rights is, I
+understand, only the dummy."
+
+"Then I'll tell you right now. It's me."
+
+Brooke started visibly, and then laid a firm restraint upon himself. "I
+warned you against leaving me in the dark."
+
+Saxton slammed his hand down on the table. "Well," he said, "who would
+have figured on your taking up that contract? What in the name of
+thunder do you want to build his slingway for?"
+
+Brooke sat thoughtfully silent for a moment or two. "To tell the truth,
+I'm not quite sure I know. The thing, you see, got hold of me."
+
+"You don't know!" and Saxton laughed again, unpleasantly. "It's no great
+wonder they were glad to send you out here from the Old Country. The
+last thing I counted on was that my partner would spoil my game. You'll
+have to stop it right away."
+
+Brooke closed his eyes a trifle, and looked at him. "No," he said. "That
+is precisely what can't be done."
+
+There was no anger in his voice, and he made no particular display of
+resolution, but Saxton seemed to realize that this decision was
+definite. He sat fuming for a space, and then made a little emphatic
+gesture, which expressed complete bewilderment as well as desperation.
+Still, even then, he was quick enough of wit to make no futile protest,
+for there are occasions when the quiet inertia of the insular
+Englishman, who has made up his mind, is more than a match for the
+nervous impatience of the Westerner.
+
+"Well," he said again, as though it was the only thing that occurred to
+him, "what did you do it for?"
+
+Brooke smiled quietly. "As I told you not long ago, I really don't
+know."
+
+"Then I guess there's nobody could size you up, and put you in the
+grade you belong to. You wouldn't take Devine's dollars when he wanted
+to hire you, and now you're building flumes and dams for him. I can't
+see any difference. There's no sense in it."
+
+"I'm afraid there is really very little myself. It's rather like
+splitting hairs, isn't it? Still, there is, at least, what one might
+call a distinction. You see, I took over another man's contract, and
+what I'm doing now doesn't make it necessary for Devine to favor me with
+his confidence."
+
+Saxton shook his head in a fashion that suggested he considered his
+comrade's case hopeless. "And it's just his confidence we want!" he
+said. "You don't seem able to get hold of the fact that you can't make
+very many dollars and keep your high-toned notions at the same time. The
+thing's out of the question. Now, I once heard a lecture on the New
+England States long ago, and pieces of it stuck to me. There were two or
+three of the hard old Puritans made their little pile cutting
+Frenchmen's and Spaniards' throats in the Gulf of Mexico, and built
+meeting-houses when they came home and settled down. Still, they had
+sense enough to see that what was the correct thing among the Quakers
+and Baptists of New England was quite out of place on the Caribbean
+Sea."
+
+Brooke felt that there was truth in this, but he meant, at least, to
+cling to the distinction, even though he disregarded the difference,
+and Saxton seemed to realize it.
+
+"Well," he said resignedly, "we may do something with that prop sling
+when we jump the claim. How are you getting on about the mine?"
+
+"In point of fact, I'm not getting on at all. Each time I try to saunter
+into the workings, I am civilly turned out again. Devine, it seems, will
+not even let the few men who work on top in."
+
+Saxton appeared to reflect. "Now, I wonder why," he said. "He's too
+smart to do anything without a reason, and he's not afraid of you, or
+he'd never have had you round the place. Still, you'll have to get hold
+of the facts we want before we can do anything, and I'm not quite sure
+what use I'll make of those timber-rights in the meanwhile. They cost me
+quite a few dollars, and it may be a while yet before anybody takes them
+from me. Building that slingway isn't quite what I expected from Devine
+after buying up forests to oblige him."
+
+"Well, I will do what I can, but I wish Devine would give me those
+dollars back of his own accord. I'm almost commencing to like the man."
+
+Saxton shook his head. "You can't afford to consider a point of that
+kind when it's against your business," he said. "Anyway, if you can give
+me a blanket or two, I'll get some sleep now. I have to be on the trail
+again by sun-up."
+
+Brooke gave him his own spruce-twig couch, and made him breakfast in
+the chilly dawn on a kerosene stove, and then was sensible of a curious
+relief as his confederate vanished into the filmy mists which drifted
+down the gorge.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+SAXTON GAINS HIS POINT.
+
+
+Brooke was very wet and physically weary, which in part accounted for
+his dejected state of mind, when he led his jaded horse up the last few
+rods of climbing trail that crossed the big divide. It had just ceased
+raining, and the slippery rock ran water, while a cold wind, which set
+him shivering, shook a doleful wailing out of the scattered pines. One
+of them had fallen, and, stopping beside it, he looped the bridle round
+a broken branch, and sat down to rest and think, for the difficulties of
+the way had occupied his attention during a long day's journey, and,
+since he expected to meet Saxton in another hour, he had food for
+reflection.
+
+It was not a cheerful prospect he looked down upon, and that evening the
+desolation of the surroundings reacted upon him. The gleaming snow was
+smothered now in banks of dingy mist, and below him there rolled away a
+dreary waste of pines, whose ragged spires rose out of the drifting
+vapors rent and twisted by the ceaseless winds. It was, in words he had
+not infrequently heard applied to it, a hard country he must spend his
+years of exile in, and of late nothing had gone well with him.
+
+Since he had last seen Saxton, he had lived in a state of tension,
+waiting for the time when circumstances should render the carrying out
+of their purpose feasible, and yet clinging to a faint hope that he
+might, by some unknown means, still be relieved of the necessity of
+persisting in a course that was becoming more odious every day. The dam
+was almost completed, but it was with dismay he had counted the cost of
+it, and twice the steel rope had torn up stays and columns, and hurled
+them into the caņon, while he would, he knew, be fortunate if he secured
+a profit of a couple of hundred dollars as the result of several months
+of perilous labor. Prosperity, it was very evident, was not to be
+achieved in that fashion. He had also seen very little of Barbara
+Heathcote for some time, and she had been to him as a mental stimulant,
+of which he felt the loss, while now his prospects seemed as dreary as
+the dripping waste he stared across with heavy eyes. All this, as it
+happened, bore directly upon his errand, for it once more brought home
+the fact that a man without dollars could expect very little in that
+country, while there was, it seemed, only one way of obtaining them open
+to him. It was true that he shrank from availing himself of it, but that
+did not, after all, greatly affect the case, and he endeavored to review
+the situation dispassionately.
+
+He had decided that he was warranted in recovering the six thousand
+dollars by any means available, and it was evidently folly to take into
+account the anger and contempt of a girl who could, of course, be
+nothing to him. Her station placed that out of the question, since it
+would, so far as he could see, be a very long time indeed before he
+could secure even the most modest competence, and he felt that there was
+a still greater distinction between them morally; but, in spite of this,
+he realized that the girl's approbation was the one thing he clung to.
+He could scarcely nerve himself to fling it away, and yet it seemed, in
+the light of reason, a very indifferent requital for a life of struggle
+and poverty. She had, he told himself, merely taken a passing interest
+in him, and once she met a man of her own station fortunate enough to
+gain her regard, was scarcely likely even to remember him.
+
+Then he rose with a little hardening of his lips, and, flinging himself
+wearily into the saddle, strove to shake off his thoughts as the jaded
+horse floundered down into the valley. They were both too weary to
+attempt to pick their way, and went down, sliding and slipping, with the
+gravel rattling away from under them, until they reached the thicker
+timber, and smashed recklessly through thickets of giant fern and salmon
+berry. Now and then a drooping branch struck Brooke as he passed, but he
+scarcely noticed it, and rode on, swaying in his saddle, while great
+drops of moisture splashed upon his grim, wet face. It was sunrise when
+he had ridden out from the Canopus mine, with his horse's head turned
+towards the settlement, and dark was closing down when at last he
+dropped, aching all over, from the saddle at the door of Saxton's shanty
+at the Elktail mine. The latter, who opened it, smiled at him somewhat
+drily, and was by no means effusive in his greeting.
+
+"I wasn't quite sure the message I sent you from Vancouver would fetch
+you, though I made it tolerably straight," he said.
+
+"You certainly did," said Brooke. "In fact, I don't know that you could
+have made it more unlikely to bring me here. Still, what put the fancy
+that I might disregard it into your head?"
+
+Saxton looked at him curiously. "Well," he said, with an air of
+reflection, "you seemed to be quite at home in several senses, and
+making the most of it there. There are folks who would consider that
+girl with the big eyes pretty."
+
+Brooke, who was entering the shanty, swung round sharply. "I think we
+can leave Miss Heathcote out. It's a little difficult to understand how
+you came to know what I was doing at the Canopus? You were in
+Vancouver."
+
+Saxton appeared almost disconcerted for a moment, but he laughed.
+"Well," he said, "I figured on what was most likely when I heard Miss
+Heathcote was still there."
+
+He saw that he had made another mistake, and wondered whether Brooke,
+who had, as it happened, done so, had noticed it, while the fact that
+the latter's face was now expressionless roused him to a little display
+of vindictiveness.
+
+"I heard something about her in Vancouver, anyway, which it's quite
+likely she didn't mention to you. It was that she's mighty good friends
+with one of the Pacific Squadron officers. She has a good many dollars
+of her own, and they're mostly folks who make a splash in their own
+country."
+
+Brooke afterwards decided that this must have been an inspiration, but
+just then he felt that Saxton was watching him, and showed no sign of
+interest.
+
+"If she did, I don't remember it, though I should consider the thing
+quite probable," he said. "Still, as Miss Heathcote's fancies don't
+concern us, wouldn't it be more to the purpose if you got me a little to
+eat?"
+
+Saxton summoned his cook, and nothing more was said until Brooke had
+finished his meal. Then his host looked at him as they sat beside the
+crackling stove.
+
+"Isn't it 'bout time you made a move at the Canopus?" he said. "So far
+as you have gone, you have only spoiled my hand. You didn't go there to
+build Devine flumes and dams."
+
+"In point of fact, I rather think I did. The difficulty, however, is
+that I am still unable to get into the mine. I have invented several
+excuses, which did not work, already. Nobody except the men who get the
+ore is even allowed to look at the workings."
+
+A little gleam crept into Saxton's eyes. "Now, it seems to me that
+Devine has struck it rich, or he wouldn't be so concerned particular.
+It's quite plain that he doesn't want everybody to know what he's
+getting out of the Canopus. It's only a mine that's paying folks think
+of jumping."
+
+"Has it struck you that he might wish to sell it, and be taking
+precautions for exactly the opposite reason?"
+
+Saxton made a little gesture of approval, though he shook his head. "You
+show you have a little sense now and then, but there's nothing in that
+view," he said. "Is a man going to lay out dollars on dams and wire-rope
+slings when he knows that none of them will be any use to him?"
+
+"I think he might. That is, if he wanted investors, who could be induced
+to take it off his hands, to hear of it."
+
+"The point is that he has only to put the Canopus into the market, and
+they'd pile down the dollars now."
+
+"Still, it is presumably our business, and not Devine's, you purposed to
+talk about."
+
+Saxton nodded. "Then we'll start in," he said. "You can't get into the
+mine, and it has struck me that if you could your eyes wouldn't be as
+good as a compass and a measuring-chain. Well, that brings us to the
+next move. When Devine left Vancouver a week ago, he took up a tin case
+he keeps the plans and patents of the Canopus in with him. You needn't
+worry about how I'm sure of this, but I am. Those papers will tell us
+all we want to know."
+
+"I have no doubt they would. Still, I don't see that we are any nearer
+getting over the difficulty. Devine is scarcely likely to show them me."
+
+"You'll have to lay your hands upon the case. It's in the ranch."
+
+Brooke's face flushed, and for a moment his lips set tight, while he
+closed one hand as he looked at his confederate. Then he spoke on
+impulse, "I'll be hanged if I do!"
+
+Saxton, who had, perhaps, expected the outbreak, regarded him with a
+little sardonic smile.
+
+"Now," he said, quietly, "you'll listen to me, and put aside those
+notions of yours for a while. I've had about enough of them already.
+Devine robbed you--once--and he has taken dollars out of my pocket a
+good many times, while I can't see any great difference between glancing
+at another man's papers and crawling into his mine. We're not going to
+take the Canopus from him anyway--it would be too big a deal--but we
+have got to find out enough to put the screw on him. You don't owe him
+anything, for you're building those flumes and dams cheaper than he
+would get it done by anybody else."
+
+Brooke sat silent a space, with the blood still in his cheeks and one
+hand closed. He was sensible of a curious disgust, and yet it was
+evident that his confederate was right. There was, after all, no great
+difference between the scheme suggested and what he had already been
+willing to do, and yet he was sensible that it was not that fact which
+chiefly influenced him, for Saxton had done wisely when he hinted at
+Barbara Heathcote's supposititious fondness for the naval officer.
+Brooke had already endeavored to contemplate the likelihood of something
+of this kind happening, with equanimity, and there was nothing
+incredible about the story. The men of the Pacific Squadron were
+frequently in Victoria, and steamers crossed to Vancouver every day; but
+now probability had changed to what appeared to be certainty, he was
+sensible almost of dismay. At the same time, the restraint which had
+counted most with him was suddenly removed, and he turned to Saxton with
+a little decisive gesture. He certainly owed Devine nothing, and his
+confederate had, when he needed it badly, shown him what he fancied was,
+in part, at least, genuine kindness.
+
+"Well," he said, "I will do what I can."
+
+"Then," said Saxton, drily, "you had better do it soon. Devine goes
+across to the Sumas valley, where he's selling land, every now and then,
+and I have reason for believing he's expected there not later than next
+week. I guess he's not likely to take that case with him. It's quite a
+big one. You'll get hold of it, and find out what we want to know, as
+soon as he's gone."
+
+"The question is--How am I to manage it? You wouldn't expect me to pick
+the lock of his safe, presumably?"
+
+Saxton, who appeared reflective, quite failed to notice the irony of the
+inquiry. "Well," he said, "if I figured I could do it, I guess I
+wouldn't let that stand in my way. Still, I'm not sure that he has any,
+and it's even chances he keeps the case under some books or truck of
+that kind in the room he has fixed up as office at the ranch. You see,
+the dollars for the men come straight up from Vancouver every pay-day."
+
+Brooke straightened himself in his chair, with a little shake of his
+shoulders. "Now," he said, "we'll talk of something else. This isn't
+particularly pleasant. I had, of course, realized before I came out that
+one might find it necessary to follow an occupation he had no particular
+taste for in the Dominion of Canada, which is, it seems, the home of the
+adaptable man who can accustom himself to anything, but I really never
+expected that I should consider it an admissible thing to steal my
+employer's papers. That, however, is not the question. Give me a cigar,
+and tell me how you purpose stimulating the progress of this great
+province when you get into the Legislature."
+
+Saxton did so at length, and it was perfectly evident that he saw no
+incongruity between what he purposed to do when in the Legislature and
+the means he adopted of getting there, for he sketched out reforms and
+improvements with optimistic ability. Once or twice a sardonic smile
+crept into Brooke's eyes, for there was no mistaking the fact that the
+man was serious, and then his attention wandered, and he ruminated on
+the position. Saxton appeared curiously well informed as to Devine's
+movements, but though Brooke could find no answer to the question how he
+had obtained the information, it did not, after all, seem to be of any
+great importance, and he once more found himself listening to his
+comrade languidly. Saxton was then declaiming against official
+corruption and incapacity.
+
+"We want to make a clean sweep, and put the best and squarest men into
+office. This country has no use for any other kind," he said.
+
+"That," said Brooke, drily, "is no doubt why you are going in. Anyway, I
+fancy it is getting late, and I have a long ride before me to-morrow."
+
+Saxton smiled good-humoredly. "Well," he said, "I can go just as
+straight as any man when I've made my little pile. Most folks find it a
+good deal easier then."
+
+It seemed to Brooke, who had not found adversity especially conducive
+to uprightness, that there was, perhaps, a certain truth in his
+comrade's notion, but he felt no great inclination to consider the
+question, and in another ten minutes was sinking into sleep. He also
+started before sunrise next morning, and was walking stiffly up the
+climbing trail to the Canopus mine, with the bridle of the jaded horse
+in his hand, when he came upon Barbara Heathcote amidst the pines. She
+apparently noticed his weariness and the mire upon the horse.
+
+"The trail must have been very bad," she said.
+
+"It certainly was," said Brooke, who, because it did not appear
+advisable that any one should suspect he was riding to the Elktail mine,
+had taken the trail to the settlement when he set out. "When there has
+been heavy rain, it usually is. The trail-choppers should have laid down
+logs in the Saverne swamp."
+
+"But what took you that way?" said the girl. "It must have been a
+tremendous round."
+
+Brooke realized that he had been indiscreet, for nobody who wished to
+reach the settlement was likely to cross that swamp.
+
+"As a matter of fact, it is," he said. "As you see, the horse is almost
+played out."
+
+Barbara glanced at him, as he fancied, rather curiously, but she changed
+the subject. "I have a friend from Vancouver, who heard you play at the
+concert, here, and we had hoped you might be persuaded to bring your
+violin across to the ranch to-night. Katty asked Jimmy to tell you that
+we expected you. That is, if you were not too tired."
+
+Brooke felt the blood creep into his face. He longed to go, but he had a
+sense of fitness, and he felt that, although such scruples were a trifle
+out of place in his case, he could not, after the arrangement he had
+made with Saxton, betray the girl's confidence by visiting the ranch
+again as a respected guest. No excuse but the one she had suggested,
+however, presented itself, and it seemed to him advisable to make use of
+it with uncompromising candidness. Her friendliness hurt him, and, since
+it presumably sprang from a mistaken good opinion, it would be a slight
+relief to show her that he was deficient even in courtesy.
+
+"I'm almost afraid I am," he said.
+
+Barbara Heathcote had a good deal of self-restraint, but there was a
+trace of astonishment in her face, and, for a moment, a suspicious
+sparkle in her eyes.
+
+"Then we will, of course, excuse you," she said. "You will, I hope, not
+think it very inconsiderate of me to stop you now."
+
+Brooke said nothing, but tugged at the bridle viciously, and trudged
+forward into the gloom of the pines, while Barbara, who would not admit
+that she had come there in the hope of meeting him, turned homewards
+thoughtfully. As it happened, she also met the freight-packer, who
+brought their supplies up on the way.
+
+"Where is Saverne swamp? Behind the range, isn't it?" she said.
+
+"Yes, miss," said the freighter, pointing across the pines. "Back
+yonder."
+
+"Then if I wished to ride into the settlement I could scarcely go round
+that way?"
+
+The man laughed. "No," he said. "I guess you couldn't. Not unless you
+started the night before, and then you'd have to climb right across the
+big divide. Nobody heading for the settlement would take that trail."
+
+He went on with his loaded beasts, and Barbara stood still, looking down
+upon the forest with a little pink tinge in her cheeks and a curious
+expression in her eyes. Remembering the trace of disconcertion he had
+shown, she very much wished to know where Brooke had really been.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+BARBARA'S RESPONSIBILITY.
+
+
+Darkness had closed down outside, and the lamp was lighted in Devine's
+office, which occupied a projection of the wooden ranch. Behind it stood
+the kitchen, and a short corridor, which gave access to both, led back
+from its inner door to the main building. Another door opened directly
+on to the clearing, and a grove of willows, past which the trail led,
+crept close up to it, so that any one standing among them could see into
+the room. There was, however, little probability of that happening, for
+nobody lived in that stretch of forest, except the miners, whose shanty
+stood almost a mile away. Devine sat opposite the captain of the mine
+across the little table, and he had let his cigar go out, while his face
+was a trifle grim.
+
+"The last clean-up was not particularly encouraging, Tom," he said.
+
+Wilkins nodded, and there was a trace of concern in his face, which was
+seamed and rugged, for he was one of the old-time prospectors, who,
+trusting solely to their practical acquaintance with the rocks, had
+played a leading part in the development of the mineral resources of
+that province.
+
+"The trouble is that the next one's going to be worse," he said. "The
+pay-dirt's getting scarcer as we cut further in, and I have a notion
+that the boys are beginning to notice it now and then, though there's
+not a man in the crowd who would make his grub prospecting. They're
+road-makers, most of them."
+
+Devine glanced at the little leather-bound book he held, in which was
+entered the net yield of gold from the ore the stamps crushed down, and
+noted the steady decrease.
+
+"It's quite plain to me that the vein is working out," he said. "It
+remains to be seen whether we'll strike better rock with the adit on the
+different level. I don't notice very many signs of that yet."
+
+Wilkins shook his head. "I guess I haven't seen any for a week, and
+we're spending quite a pile of dollars trying to hold the hillside up.
+The signs were all on top," he said. "There are ranges where you can
+strike it just as sure and easy as falling off a log, but I guess
+something long ago shook these mountains up, and mixed up all the rock.
+There's only one man figures he knows how it was done, and he won't talk
+about it when he's sensible."
+
+"Allonby, of the Dayspring!" said Devine. "Now, the last time we worried
+about the thing you told me you considered our chances good enough to
+put your savings in. Would you feel like doing it to-day? I want the
+information, not the dollars. You know it's generally wisest to be
+straight with me."
+
+"No, sir," said Wilkins, drily, "I wouldn't."
+
+Devine sat thoughtfully silent for a minute or two, and the captain, who
+lighted his cigar again, wondered what was in his mind. He felt
+tolerably certain there was, as usual, a good deal, and that something
+would result from it presently.
+
+"You went through the Dayspring?" Devine said, at length.
+
+"I did. So far as I can figure, it's a mine that will make its living,
+and nothing worth while more. 'Bout two or three cents on the dollar."
+
+"Allonby thinks more of it."
+
+A little incredulous smile crept into the captain's eyes. "When he has
+got most of a bottle of rye whisky into him! Allonby's a skin."
+
+"Well," said Devine, "I'm going over to talk to him, and I needn't keep
+you any longer in the meanwhile. You will remember that only you and I
+have got to know what the Canopus is really doing."
+
+The captain's smile was very expressive as he went out, but when the
+door closed behind him Devine sat still with wrinkled forehead and
+thoughtful eyes while half an hour slipped by. He was, however, not
+addicted to purposeless reflections, and the results of his cogitations
+as a rule became apparent in due time. He cheerfully took risks, or
+chances, as he called them, which the average English business man
+would have shrunk from, for the leaders of the Pacific Slope's
+activities have no time for caution. Life is too short, they tell one,
+to make sure of everything, and it is, in point of fact, not
+particularly long in case of most of them, for there is a significant
+scarcity of old men. Like the rest, he staked his dollars boldly, and
+when he lost them, which happened now and then, accepted it as what was
+to be expected, and usually recouped himself on another deal.
+
+That was why he had bought the Canopus under somewhat peculiar
+circumstances, and extended the workings without concerning himself
+greatly as to whether every stipulation of the Crown mining regulations
+had been complied with, until the mine proved profitable, when it had
+appeared advisable not to court inquiry, which might result in the claim
+being jumped by applying for corrected records. It also explained the
+fact that although he had no safe at the ranch, he had brought up all
+the plans and papers relating to it from his Vancouver office, and kept
+them merely covered by certain dusty books. Nobody who might feel an
+illegitimate interest in them would, he argued, expect to find them
+there.
+
+While he sat there the inner door opened softly, and Barbara, who came
+in noiselessly, laid a hand upon his shoulder. Devine had not, as it
+happened, heard her, but it was significant that he did not start at
+all, and only turned his head a trifle more quickly than usual. Then he
+looked up at her quietly.
+
+"Are you never astonished or put out?" she said. "You didn't expect me?"
+
+Devine smiled a little. "Well," he said, "I don't think I often am. The
+last time I remember, a cinnamon bear ran me up a tree. What brought
+you, anyway?"
+
+"It's getting late," and Barbara sat down. "You have been here two hours
+already. Now, of course, you show very little sign of it, but I can't
+help a fancy that you have been worrying over something the last day or
+two. I suppose one could scarcely expect you to take me into your
+confidence."
+
+"The thing's not big enough to worry over, but I have been thinking
+some. We have struck no gold in the adit, and now when we're waiting for
+the props the Englishman has dropped the rope into the caņon. That
+little contract is going to cost him considerable."
+
+Barbara wondered whether he had any particular reason for watching her,
+or if she only fancied that his gaze was a trifle more observant than
+usual.
+
+"Still, I think he will get a rope across," she said.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Devine, indifferently. "There's grit in him. A curious
+kind of man. Wouldn't take a good offer to work for me, and yet he
+jumped right at those contracts. He's going to find it hard to make
+them pay his grocery bill. I guess he hasn't told you anything?"
+
+"No," said Barbara, a trifle hastily, for once more she felt the keen
+eyes scan her face. "Of course not. Why should he?"
+
+Devine smiled. "If you don't know any reason you needn't ask me. You
+can't make a Britisher talk, anyway, unless he wants to."
+
+He made a little gesture as though to indicate that the subject was not
+worth discussing, and then, taking up a bundle of documents, turned to
+her again.
+
+"You see those papers, Bab? They're plans and Crown patents for the
+mine. I'm going away to-morrow, and can't take them along, so I'll put
+them under that pile of old books yonder. Now, if I was to tell Katty to
+make sure the doors were fast she'd get worrying, but you have better
+nerves, and I'll ask you to see that nobody gets in here until I come
+back again. Nobody's likely to want to, but I'll put a screw in the
+window, and give you the key."
+
+Barbara laughed. "I shall not be afraid. Are the papers valuable?"
+
+"No," said Devine, with a trace of dryness. "Not exactly! In fact, I'm
+not quite sure they would be worth anything to anybody in a month or
+two. Still, the man who got hold of them in the meanwhile might fancy he
+could make trouble for me."
+
+"How?" said Barbara. "You said they mightn't be much use to anybody."
+
+Devine smiled a little, but it was evident that he had considerable
+confidence in the discretion of his wife's sister.
+
+"I can't explain part of it," he said. "When I took hold of the Canopus,
+it didn't seem likely to pay me for my trouble, and I didn't worry about
+the patents or how far they covered what I was doing. Now, if you drive
+beyond the frontage you've made your claim on, it constitutes another
+mine, which isn't covered by your record and belongs to the Crown. It's
+open to any jumper who comes along. Besides, unless you do a good many
+things exactly as the law lays down, your patent mayn't hold good, and
+any one who knows the regulations can re-record the claim."
+
+"That means you or the previous owner neglected one or two formalities,
+and an unscrupulous person who found it out from those papers could take
+the Canopus, or part of it, away from you?"
+
+Devine smiled grimly. "Yes," he said. "That is, he might try."
+
+"I understand," said Barbara. "Still, there are no strangers here, and I
+don't think you have a man who would attempt anything of that kind about
+the mine."
+
+"Or at the caņon?"
+
+Barbara was sensible of a curious little thrill of anger, for Brooke
+was at the caņon, but she looked at him steadily.
+
+"No," she said. "I am quite sure that is the last thing one would expect
+from anybody at the caņon, but if we stay here Katty will be wondering
+what has become of me."
+
+Devine rose and followed her out of the room, and in another half-hour
+the ranch was in darkness. He rode away early next morning, and the big,
+empty living-room seemed lonely to the two women who sat by the window
+when night drew in again. The evening was very still and clear, and the
+chill of the snow was in the motionless air. No sound but the distant
+roar of the river broke the silence, and when the white line of snow
+grew dimmer high up in the dusky blue, and the pines across the clearing
+faded to a blur of shadow, Mrs. Devine shivered a little.
+
+"I suppose quietness is good for one, if only because it isn't very
+nice, but it gets a trifle depressing now and then," she said. "Why
+didn't you ask Mr. Brooke to come across?"
+
+"You may have noticed that he never comes when my brother-in-law is not
+here, and then he brings drawings or estimates of some kind with him."
+
+Mrs. Devine appeared reflective. "Grant has not been away for almost two
+weeks now, and it is quite that time since we have seen Mr. Brooke," she
+said. "Didn't we ask him to come when you had Minnie here?"
+
+"You did," said Barbara, with a faint flush, which the shadows hid. "He
+asked me to excuse him."
+
+"Because Grant was away?"
+
+"No," said Barbara, drily. "That, at least, was not the reason he gave
+me. He said he was--too tired."
+
+Mrs. Devine laughed, for she had noticed the hardness in her sister's
+voice.
+
+"It really must have been exasperating. He should have thought of a
+better excuse," she said. "You have only to hold up a finger at
+Vancouver, and they all flock round, eager to do a good deal more than
+you wish them to, while this flume-builder doesn't seem to understand
+what is implied by a royal invitation. No doubt you will find a way of
+making him realize his contumacy."
+
+"I am almost afraid I shall not have the opportunity."
+
+"And you can't very well attempt to make one, especially as I remember
+now that Grant told me he was very hard at work at the caņon. It would
+be even worse to be told he was too busy, since that implies that one
+has something better to do."
+
+Barbara had a spice of temper, as her sister naturally knew, but she
+smiled at this, for she was unwilling to admit, even to herself, and
+much less to anybody else, that she felt the slightest irritation at the
+fact that Brooke had shown no eagerness to avail himself of the
+invitation she had given him. Still, she was, on this score, very far
+from feeling pleased with him.
+
+"I dare say he has," she said.
+
+"Then he is, at least, not doing it very successfully. The rope--I
+forgot how much Grant said it cost--fell into the caņon."
+
+"I am not very sure there are many men who would have attempted to put a
+rope across at all," said Barbara, and did not realize for a moment that
+she had, to some extent, betrayed herself. She might, though she did not
+admit it, feel displeased with the flume-builder herself, but that was
+no reason why she should permit another person to disparage his
+capabilities, all of which her sister was probably acquainted with.
+
+"Well," she said, indifferently, "we hope he will be successful. The man
+pleases me, but I would very much like to know what Grant thinks about
+him."
+
+"Then why don't you ask him?"
+
+Mrs. Devine shook her head. "Grant never tells anybody his opinions
+until he's tolerably sure he's right, and I fancy he is a little
+undecided about Mr. Brooke as yet," she said. "Still, it's getting
+shivery, and this silence is a trifle eerie. I'm going to bed."
+
+She lighted a lamp, but when she went out Barbara made her way to her
+room without one. There was nobody else beyond Wilkins' wife in the
+ranch, and she had retired some time ago. The rambling wooden building
+was not dark, but dusky, with black depths of shadow in the corners of
+the rooms, for the dim crepuscular light would, at that season, linger
+almost until the dawn. To some natures it would also have been more
+suggestive of hidden dangers than impenetrable obscurity, but Barbara
+passed up the rickety stairway and down an echoing passage fearlessly,
+and then sat down by the open window of her room, looking out into the
+night. A half-moon was now slowly lifting itself above the
+faintly-gleaming snow, and she could see the pines roll away in sombre
+battalions into the drifting mists below. Their sleep-giving fragrance
+reached her through the dew-cooled air, but she scarcely noticed it as
+she lay with her low basket-chair drawn close up to the window-sill.
+
+It was the flume-builder her thoughts hovered round, and she endeavored
+fruitlessly to define the attraction he had for her, or, as she
+preferred to consider it, the reason for the interest she felt in him.
+She admitted that this existed, and wondered vaguely how much of it was
+due to vanity resulting from a recognition of the fact that it was she
+who had roused him from a state of too acquiescent lethargy. What she
+had seen at the Quatomac ranch had had its significance for her, and she
+had realized the hopelessness of the life he was leading there. Even if
+she had not done so, he had told her, more or less plainly, that it was
+she who had given him new aspirations, and re-awakened his sense of
+responsibility. That, perhaps, accounted for a good deal, since she was
+endued with the compassionate maternal instinct which, when it finds no
+natural outlet, prompts many women to encourage, and on opportunity,
+shelter the beaten down and fallen.
+
+It was, however, evident that the flume-builder did not exactly come
+under that category. Indeed, of late, his daring and pertinacity had won
+her admiration as well as sympathy, and that led her to the question
+what his aspirations pointed to. She would not consider it, for the
+fashion in which she had once or twice felt his eyes dwell upon her face
+was, in that connection, almost unpleasantly suggestive. Then she
+wondered why the fact that he had not long ago excused himself from
+spending an evening in her company at the ranch should have hurt her, as
+she now almost admitted that it did. It was, she decided, not exactly
+due to pique or wounded vanity, for, though very human in many respects,
+she, at least, considered herself too strong for either. That, however,
+brought her no nearer any answer which commended itself to her.
+
+The man was less brilliant than several she had met. She could not even
+be sure that there were not grave defects in his character, and he was,
+in the meanwhile, a mere flume-builder. Yet he was different from those
+other men, though, since the difference was by no means altogether in
+his favor, it was almost irritating that her thoughts should dwell upon
+him, to the exclusion of the rest. There was presumably a reason for
+this, but she made a little impatient movement, and resolutely put aside
+the subject as one suggested itself. It was, she decided, altogether
+untenable, and, in fact, preposterous.
+
+Still, she felt far from sleepy, and sat still, shivering a little now
+and then, while the moon rose higher above the snow, until its faint
+light drove back the shadows from the swamp. The clustering pines shook
+off their duskiness, and grew into definite tracery; an owl that hooted
+eerily flitted by on soundless wing, and she felt the silence become
+suddenly almost overwhelming. There was no wind that she could feel, but
+she could hear the little willow leaves stirring, it seemed, beneath the
+cooling dew, for the sound had scarcely strength enough to make a
+tangible impression upon her senses. It, however, appeared to grow a
+trifle louder, and she found herself listening with strained attention
+when it ceased awhile, until it rose again, a trifle more clearly. She
+glanced at the cedars above the clearing, but they stood sombre and
+motionless in silent ranks, and she leaned forward in her chair with
+heart beating more rapidly than usual as she wondered what made those
+leaves move. They were certainly rustling now, while the ranch was very
+silent, and the rest of the clearing altogether still.
+
+Then a shadow detached itself from the rest, and its contour did not
+suggest that of a slender tree. It increased in length, and, remembering
+Devine's papers, she rose with a little gasp. Her sister, as he had
+pointed out, had delicate nerves, Mrs. Wilkins was dull of hearing, and,
+as the men's shanty stood almost a mile away, it was evident that she
+must depend upon her own resources. She stood still, quivering a little,
+for almost a minute, and then with difficulty repressed a cry when the
+dim figure of a man appeared in the clearing. Two minutes later she
+slipped softly into the room where Katty Devine lay asleep, and opened a
+cupboard set apart for her husband's use, while, when she flitted across
+the stream of radiance that shone in through the window, she held an
+object, that gleamed with a metallic lustre, clenched in one hand.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+BROOKE ATTEMPTS BURGLARY.
+
+
+The half-moon Barbara watched from her window floated slowly above the
+serrated tops of the dusky pines when Brooke groped his way through
+their shadow across a strip of the Englishman's swamp. The ranch which
+he was making for rose darkly before him with the willows clustering
+close up to that side of it, and he stopped and stood listening when he
+reached them. The night was very still, so still, indeed, that the deep
+silence vaguely troubled him. High above the climbing forests great
+ramparts of never-melting snow gleamed against the blue, and standing
+there, hot, breathless, and a trifle muddy, he felt their impressive
+white serenity, until he started at a faint rattle in the house. It
+ceased suddenly, but it had set his heart throbbing unpleasantly fast,
+though he was sensible of a little annoyance with himself because this
+was the case.
+
+There was nothing he need fear, and he was, indeed, not quite sure that
+the prospect of facing a physical peril would have been altogether
+unpleasant then. Devine was away, the women were doubtless asleep, and
+it was the fact that he was about to creep like a thief into a house
+where he had been hospitably welcomed which occasioned his uneasiness.
+It was true that he only meant to acquire information which would enable
+him to recover the dollars he had been defrauded of, but the reflection
+brought him no more consolation than it had done on other occasions when
+he had been sensible of the same disgust and humiliation.
+
+He was, however, at the same time sensible of a faint relief, for the
+position had been growing almost intolerable of late, and, though he
+shrank from the revelation, it seemed preferable that Barbara Heathcote
+should see him in the true light at last. This, it was evident, must
+happen ultimately, and now it would, at least, dispense with the hateful
+necessity of continuing the deception. He had also, though that appeared
+of much less importance then, met with further difficulties at the
+caņon, and he realized almost with content that Devine would in all
+probability pay him nothing for the uncompleted work. He did not wish to
+feel that he owed Devine anything.
+
+In the meanwhile a little bent branch from which the bruised leaves
+drooped limply caught his eye, for he had trained his powers of
+observation following the deer at the ranch, and moving a trifle he
+noticed one that was broken. It was evident that somebody had recently
+forced his way through the thicket towards the house, and he wondered
+vacantly why anyone should have done so when a good trail led round the
+copse. The question would probably not have occupied his attention at
+any other time, but just then he was glad to seize upon anything that
+might serve to distract his thoughts from the purpose he had on hand.
+
+He could not, however, stay there considering it, and following the bend
+of the willows he came to the door of the ranch kitchen, behind which
+the office stood, and once more he stopped to listen. There was nothing
+audible but the distant roar of the caņon, and, though nobody could see
+him, he felt his face grow hot as he laid one hand upon the door and
+inserted the point of a little steel bar in the crevice. Devine's office
+was isolated from the rest of the ranch, but Brooke felt that if anybody
+heard the sound he expected to make he would not be especially sorry. He
+would not abandon his project, but he could have borne anything that
+made it impracticable with equanimity.
+
+The door, however, somewhat to his astonishment, swung open at a touch,
+and he crept in noiselessly with an even greater sense of degradation.
+The inmates of the ranch were, it seemed, wholly unsuspecting, and he
+whom they had treated with gracious kindliness was about to take a
+shameful advantage of their confidence. Still, he crossed the kitchen
+carrying the little bar and did not stop until he reached the office
+door. This stood ajar, but he stood still a moment in place of going in,
+longing, most illogically, for any interruption. The ranch seemed
+horribly and unnaturally still, for he could not hear the sound of the
+river now, until there was a low rustle that set him quivering.
+Somebody, it appeared, was moving about the room in front of him. Then a
+board creaked sharply, and with every nerve strung up he drew the door a
+trifle open.
+
+A faint stream of radiance shone in through the window, but it fell upon
+the wall opposite, and the rest of the room was wrapped in shadow, in
+which he could just discern a dim figure that moved stealthily. It was
+evidently a man who could have come there with no commendable purpose,
+and as he recognized this a somewhat curious thing happened, for
+Brooke's lips set tight, and he clenched the steel bar in a fit of
+venomous anger. It did not occur to him that his own object was, after
+all, very much the same as the stranger's, and creeping forward
+noiselessly with eyes fixed on the dusky figure he saw it stoop and
+apparently move a book that stood on what seemed to be a box. That
+movement enabled him to gain another yard, and then he stopped again,
+bracing himself for the grapple, while the dim object straightened
+itself and turned towards the light.
+
+Brooke could hear nothing but the throbbing of his heart, and for a
+moment his eyes grew hazy; but that passed, and he saw the man hold up
+an object that was very like a tin case. He moved again nearer the
+light, and Brooke sprang forward with the bar swung aloft. Quick as he
+was, the stranger was equally alert, and stepped forward instead of
+back, while next moment Brooke looked into the dully glinting muzzle of
+a pistol.
+
+"Stop right where you are!" a voice said.
+
+Brooke did as he was bidden, instinctively. Had there been any
+unevenness in the voice he might have risked a rush, but the grim
+quietness of the order was curiously impressive, and for a second or two
+the men stood tense and motionless, looking at one another with hands
+clenched and lips hard set Brooke recognized the intruder as a man who
+wheeled the ore between the mine and stamps, and remembered that he had
+not been there very long.
+
+"What do you want here?" he said, for the silence was getting
+intolerable.
+
+The man smiled grimly, though he did not move the pistol, and his eyes
+were unpleasantly steady.
+
+"I was going to ask you the same thing, but it don't count," he said.
+"There's a door yonder, and you have 'bout ten seconds to get out of it.
+If you're here any longer you're going to take tolerably steep chances
+of getting hurt."
+
+Brooke realized that the warning was probably warranted, but he stood
+still, stiffening his grasp on the bar, for to vacate the position was
+the last thing he contemplated. Barbara Heathcote was in the ranch, and
+he did not remember that she had also two companions then. Nor did he
+know exactly what he meant to do, that is, while the stranger eyed him
+with the same unpleasant steadiness, for it was evident that a very
+slight contraction of his forefinger would effectually prevent him doing
+anything. Then while they stood watching each other breathlessly for a
+second or two a door handle rattled and Brooke heard a rustle of
+draperies.
+
+"Look behind you!" said the stranger, sharply.
+
+Brooke, too strung up to recognize the risk of the proceeding, swung
+round almost before he heard him, and then gasped with consternation,
+for Barbara stood in the entrance holding up a light. She was, however,
+not quite defenseless, as Brooke realized when he saw the gleaming
+pistol in her hand. Next moment his folly, and the fact that the
+stranger had also seen it, became evident, for there was a hasty patter
+of feet, and when Brooke turned again he had almost gained the other
+door of the room. Barbara, who had moved forward in the meanwhile,
+however, now stood between him and it, and turning half round he raised
+the pistol menacingly. Then with hand clenched hard upon the bar Brooke
+sprang.
+
+There was a flash and a detonation, the acrid smoke drove into his eyes,
+and he fell with a crash against the door, which was flung to in front
+of him. He had, as he afterwards discovered, struck it with his head and
+shoulder, but just then he was only sensible of an unpleasant dizziness
+and a stinging pain in his left arm. Then he leaned somewhat heavily
+against the door, and he and the girl looked at each other through the
+filmy wisps of smoke that drifted athwart the light, while a rapid
+patter of footsteps grew less distinct. Barbara was somewhat white in
+face, and her lips were quivering.
+
+"Are you hurt?" she said, and her voice sounded curiously strained.
+
+"No," said Brooke, with a little hollow laugh. "Not seriously, anyway.
+The fellow flung the door to in my face, and the blow must have partly
+dazed me. That reminds me that I'm wasting time. Where is he now?"
+
+Barbara made a little forceful gesture. "Halfway across the clearing, I
+expect. You cannot go after him. Look at your arm."
+
+Brooke turned his head slowly, for the dizziness he was sensible of did
+not seem to be abating, and saw a thin, red trickle drip from the sleeve
+of his jean jacket, which the moonlight fell upon.
+
+"I scarcely think it's worth troubling about. The arm will bend all
+right," he said. "Still, perhaps, you wouldn't mind very much if I took
+this thing off."
+
+He seized the edge of the jacket, and then while his face went awry let
+his hand drop again.
+
+"It might, perhaps, be better to cut the sleeve," he said. "Could you
+run this knife down the seam? The jean is very thin."
+
+The girl's hand shook a little as she opened the knife he passed her,
+and just then a cry came down faintly from one of the rooms above.
+Barbara swung round swiftly, and moved into the corridor.
+
+"Nothing very dreadful has happened, and I am coming back in a minute or
+two, but whatever you do don't come down," she said authoritatively, and
+Brooke heard a door swing to above.
+
+Then she came towards him quietly, and laid a hand on his shoulder.
+
+"Keep still, and I will not be long. Katty is apt to lose her head," she
+said.
+
+Her fingers still quivered a little, but she was deft in spite of it,
+and when the slit sleeve fell away Brooke sat down on the table with a
+little smile.
+
+"Very sorry to trouble you," he said. "I don't know much about these
+things, but the artery evidently isn't cut, and I don't think the bone
+is touched. That means there can't be very much harm done. Would you
+mind tying my handkerchief tightly round it where I've laid my finger?"
+
+Barbara, who did so, afterwards sat down in the nearest chair, for she
+felt a trifle breathless as well as somewhat limp, and there was an
+embarrassing silence, while for no very apparent reason they now avoided
+looking at one another. A little filmy smoke still drifted about the
+room, and a short steel bar, a tin case, and a litter of papers lay
+between them on the floor. There were red splashes on one or two of the
+latter.
+
+"The man must have dropped them," said Barbara, quietly, though her
+voice was still not quite her usual one. "He, of course, brought the bar
+to open the door with."
+
+Brooke did not answer the last remark.
+
+"I fancy he dropped them when he flung the door in my face," he said.
+
+"Of course!" said Barbara. "He had his hands full."
+
+The point did not seem of the least importance to her, but she was
+shaken, and felt that the silence which was growing significant would be
+insupportable. Then a thought struck her, and she looked up suddenly at
+the man.
+
+"But, now, I remember, you had the bar," she said.
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, very simply, though his face was grim. "I certainly
+had."
+
+The girl had turned a little so that the light shone upon her, and he
+saw the faint bewilderment in her eyes. It, however, vanished in a
+moment or two, but Brooke decided that if he guessed her thoughts
+correctly he had done wisely in admitting the possession of the bar.
+
+"Of course! You hadn't a pistol, and it was, no doubt, the only thing
+you could find," she said. "I'm afraid I did not even remember to thank
+you, but to tell the truth I was too badly frightened to think of
+anything."
+
+Brooke nodded comprehendingly, but Barbara noticed that the blood was in
+his cheeks and he smiled in a very curious fashion.
+
+"I scarcely think I deserve any thanks," he said.
+
+Barbara made a little gesture. "Pshaw!" she said. "You are not always so
+conventional, and both I and Grant Devine owe you a great deal. The man
+must have been a claim-jumper, and meant to steal those papers. They
+are--the plans and patents of the Canopus."
+
+She stopped a moment, and then, seeing Brooke had noticed the momentary
+pause, continued, with a little forced laugh and a flush in her cheeks,
+"That was native Canadian caution asserting itself. I am ashamed of it,
+but you must remember I was rather badly startled a little while ago.
+There is no reason why I should not tell--you--this, or show you the
+documents."
+
+Brooke made a little grimace as though she had hurt him physically.
+
+"I think there is," he said.
+
+The girl stared at him a moment, and then he saw only sympathy in her
+eyes.
+
+"I'm afraid my wits have left me, or I would not have kept you talking
+while you are in pain. Your arm hurts?" she said.
+
+"No," said Brooke, drily. "The arm is, I feel almost sure, very little
+the worse. Hadn't you better pick the papers up? You will excuse me
+stooping to help you. I scarcely think it would be advisable just now."
+
+Barbara knelt down and gathered the scattered documents up, while the
+man noticed the curious flush in her face when one of them left a red
+smear on her little white fingers. Rising, she held them up to him half
+open as they had fallen, and looked at him steadily.
+
+"Will you put them straight while I find the band they were slipped
+through?" she said.
+
+Brooke fancied he understood her. She had a generous spirit, and having
+in a moment of confusion, when she was scarcely capable of thinking
+concisely, suggested a doubt of him, was making amends in the one
+fashion that suggested itself. Then she turned away, and her back was
+towards him as she moved slowly towards the door, when a plan of the
+Canopus mine fell open in his hand. The light was close beside him, but
+he closed his eyes for a moment and there was a rustle as the papers
+slipped from his fingers, while when the girl turned towards him his
+face was awry, and he looked at her with a little grim smile.
+
+"I am afraid they are scattered again," he said. "It was very clumsy of
+me, but I find it hurts me to use my left hand."
+
+Barbara thrust the papers into the case. "I am sorry I didn't think of
+that," she said. "Even if you don't appreciate my thanks you will have
+to put up with my brother-in-law's, and he is a man who remembers. It
+might have cost him a good deal if anybody who could not be trusted had
+seen those papers--and now no more of them. Take that canvas chair, and
+don't move again until I tell you."
+
+Brooke made no answer, and Barbara went out into the corridor.
+
+"Will you dress as quickly as you can, Katty, and come down," she said.
+"I don't know where you keep the decanters, and I want to give Mr.
+Brooke, who is hurt a little, a glass of wine."
+
+Brooke protested, but Barbara laughed as she said, "It will really be a
+kindness to Katty, who is now, I feel quite sure, lying in a state of
+terror, with everything she dare reach out to get hold of rolled about
+her head."
+
+It was three or four minutes later when Mrs. Devine appeared, and
+Barbara turned towards her, speaking very quietly.
+
+"There is nothing to be gained by getting nervous now," she said. "A man
+came in to steal Grant's papers about the mine, and Mr. Brooke, who saw
+him, crept in after him, though he had only a little bar, and the man
+had a pistol. I fancy Grant is considerably indebted to him, and we
+must, at least, keep him here until one of the boys brings up the
+settlement doctor."
+
+Brooke rose to his feet, but Barbara moved swiftly to the door and
+turned the key in it.
+
+"No," she said, decisively. "You are not going away when you are
+scarcely fit to walk. Katty, you haven't brought the wine yet."
+
+Brooke sat down again, and making no answer, looked away from her, for
+though he would greatly have preferred it he scarcely felt capable of
+reaching his tent. Then there was silence for several minutes until Mrs.
+Devine came back with the wine.
+
+"You are going to stay here until your arm is seen to. My husband would
+not be pleased if we did not do everything we could for you," she said.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+BROOKE MAKES A DECISION.
+
+
+It was the second morning after the attempt upon the papers, and Brooke
+lay in a basket chair on the little verandah at the ranch. In spite of
+the settlement doctor's ministrations his arm was a good deal more
+painful than he had expected it to be, his head ached; and he felt
+unpleasantly lethargic and limp. It, however, seemed to him that this
+wound was not sufficiently serious to account for this, and he wondered
+vaguely whether it resulted from too strenuous physical exertion coupled
+with the increasing mental strain he had borne of late. That question
+was, however, of no great importance, for he had a more urgent one to
+grapple with, and in the meanwhile it was pleasant to lie there and
+listen languidly while Barbara talked to him.
+
+The sunshine lay bright upon the climbing pines which filled the
+listless air with resinous odors, but there was restful shadow on the
+verandah, and wherever the eye wandered an entrancing vista of gleaming
+snow. Brooke had, however, seen a good deal of snow, and floundered
+through it waist-deep, already, and it was the girl who sat close at
+hand, looking, it seemed to him, refreshingly cool and dainty in her
+loose white dress, his gaze most often rested on. Her quiet graciousness
+had also a soothing effect upon the man who had risen unrefreshed after
+a night of mental conflict which had continued through the few brief
+snatches of fevered sleep. Brooke felt the need of moral stimulant as
+well as physical rest, for the struggle he had desisted from for the
+time was not over yet.
+
+He was tenacious of purpose, but it had cost him an effort to adhere to
+the terms of his compact with Saxton, and it was with a thrill of
+intense disgust he realized how far it had led him when he came upon the
+thief, for there was no ignoring the fact that it would be very
+difficult to make any great distinction between them. It had also become
+evident that he could not continue to play the part Saxton had allotted
+him, and yet if he threw it over he stood to lose everything his
+companion, who was at once a reproach to him and an incentive to a
+continuance in the career of deception, impersonated. Her society and
+his few visits to the ranch had shown him the due value of the
+refinement and congenial environment which no man without dollars could
+hope to enjoy, and re-awakened an appreciation of the little amenities
+and decencies of life which had become scarcely more than a memory to
+him. With the six thousand dollars in his hands he might once more
+attain them, but it was now evident that the memory of how he had
+accomplished it would tend to mar any satisfaction he could expect to
+derive from this. He could, in the meanwhile, neither nerve himself to
+bear the thought of the girl's scorn when she realized what his purpose
+had been, nor bid her farewell and go back to the aimless life of
+poverty. One thing alone was certain. Devine's papers were safe from
+him.
+
+He lay silent almost too long, watching her with a vague longing in his
+gaze, for her head was partly turned from him. He could see her face in
+profile, which accentuated its clean chiselling, while her pose
+displayed the firm white neck and fine lines of the figure the thin
+white dress flowed away from. He had also guessed enough of her
+character to realize that it was not to any approach to physical
+perfection she owed most of her attractiveness, for it seemed to him
+that she brought with her an atmosphere of refinement and tranquillity
+which nothing that was sordid or ignoble could breathe in. Perhaps she
+felt his eyes upon her, for she turned at last and glanced at him.
+
+"I have been thinking--about that night," she said.
+
+"You really shouldn't," said Brooke, who felt suddenly uneasy. "It isn't
+worth while."
+
+Barbara smiled. "That is a point upon which opinions may differ, but I
+understand your attitude. You see, I have been in England, and you
+apparently believe it the correct thing to hide your light under a
+bushel there."
+
+"No," said Brooke, drily, "at least, not all of us. In fact, we are not
+averse from graciously permitting other folks, and now and then the
+Press, to proclaim our good deeds for us. I don't know that the more
+primitive fashion of doing it one's self isn't quite as tasteful."
+
+Barbara shook her head. "There are," she said, "several kinds of
+affectation, and I am not to be put off. Now, you are quite aware that
+you did my brother-in-law a signal service, and contrived to get me out
+of a very unpleasant, and, I fancy, a slightly perilous situation."
+
+The color deepened a little in Brooke's face, and once more he was
+sensible of the humiliation that had troubled him on previous occasions,
+as he remembered that it was by no means to do Devine a service he had
+crept into the ranch. It was a most unpleasant feeling, and he had
+signally failed to accustom himself to it.
+
+"I really don't think there was very much risk," he said. "Besides, you
+had a pistol."
+
+Barbara laughed softly. "I never fired off a pistol in my life, and I
+almost fancy there was nothing in the one in question."
+
+"Didn't you notice whether there were any cartridges in the chamber?"
+
+"No," said Barbara. "I'm not sure I know which the chamber is, but I
+pressed something I supposed to be the trigger, and it only made a
+click."
+
+Brooke glanced at her a trifle sharply. "You meant to fire at the man?"
+
+"I'm afraid I did. Was it very dreadful? He was there with an unlawful
+purpose, and I saw his eyes grow wicked and his hand tighten just as you
+sprang at him. Still, I was almost glad when the pistol did not go off."
+
+She seemed to have some difficulty in repressing a shiver at the
+recollection, and Brooke sat silent for a moment or two with his heart
+throbbing a good deal faster than usual. He could guess what that effort
+had cost his companion, and that it was his peril which had nerved her
+to overcome her natural shrinking from taking life. Perhaps Barbara
+noticed the effect her explanation had on him, and desired to lessen it,
+for she said, "It really was unpleasant, but I remembered that you had
+come there to ensure the safety of my brother-in-law's property, and one
+is permitted to shoot at a thief in this country."
+
+Brooke, who could not help it, made a little abrupt movement, and felt
+his face grow hot as he wondered what she would think of him if she knew
+the purpose that had brought him there. The fact that she seemed quite
+willing to believe that one was warranted in firing at a thief had also
+its sting.
+
+"Of course!" he said. "I am, however, inclined to think you saved my
+life. The man probably saw your hand go up and that made him a trifle
+too precipitate. Still, perhaps, he only wanted to look at your
+brother-in-law's papers and had no intention of stealing anything."
+
+Barbara, who appeared glad to change the subject, smiled.
+
+"Admitting that, I can't see any great difference," she said. "The man
+who runs a personal risk to secure a wallet with dollar bills in it that
+belongs to somebody else naturally does not expect commendation, or
+usually get it, but it seems to me a good deal meaner thing to steal a
+claim by cunning trickery. For instance, one has a certain admiration
+for the train robbers across the frontier. For two or three
+road-agents--and there are not often more--to hold up and rob a train
+demands, at least, a good deal of courage, but to plunder a man by
+prying into his secrets is only contemptible. Don't you think so?"
+
+Brooke winced beneath her gaze.
+
+"Well," he said slowly, "I suppose it is. Still, you see there may be
+excuses even for such a person."
+
+"Excuses! Surely--you--do not feel capable of inventing any for a
+claim-jumper?"
+
+Brooke felt that in his case there were, at least, one or two, but he
+had sufficient reasons for not making them clear to the girl.
+
+"Well," he said, "I wonder if you could make any for a train-robber?"
+
+Barbara appeared reflective. "We will admit that the dishonesty is the
+same in both cases, though that is not quite the point. The men who hold
+a train up, however, take a serious personal risk, and stake their lives
+upon their quickness and nerve. They have nobody to fall back upon, and
+must face the results if the courage of any of the passengers is equal
+to theirs. Daring of that kind commands a certain respect. The
+claim-jumper, on the contrary, must necessarily proceed by stealth, and,
+of course, rarely ventures on an attempt until he makes sure that the
+law will support him, because the man he means to rob has neglected some
+trivial requirement."
+
+"Then it is admissible to steal, so long as you do it openly and take a
+personal risk? Still, I believe I have heard of claim-jumpers being
+shot, though I am not quite sure that it happened in Canada."
+
+Barbara laughed. "They probably deserved it. It is not admissible to
+steal under any circumstances, but the safer and more subtle forms of
+theft are especially repellent. Now, I think I have made out my case for
+the train-robber, but I cannot see why you should constitute yourself an
+advocate for the claim-jumper."
+
+Brooke contrived to force a smile. "It is," he said, "often a little
+difficult to make sure of one's motives, but we can, at least, take it
+for granted that the man who robs a train is the nobler rascal."
+
+Barbara, who appeared thoughtful, sat silent awhile. "It was fortunate
+you arrived when you did that night," she said, meditatively. "Still, as
+you could not well have known the man meant to make the attempt, or have
+expected to find anybody still awake at the ranch, it seems an almost
+astonishing coincidence."
+
+Though he surmised that no notion of what had brought him there had
+entered his companion's mind, Brooke felt hot to the forehead now, for
+he was unpleasantly sensible that the girl was watching him. An
+explanation that might have served also suggested itself to him, but he
+felt that he could not add to his offences.
+
+"It certainly was," he said, languidly. "I have, however, heard of
+coincidences that were more astonishing still."
+
+Barbara nodded. "No doubt," she said. "We will let it go at that. As you
+may have noticed, we are now and then almost indecently candid in this
+country, but I agree with my brother-in-law who says that nobody could
+make an Englishman talk unless he wanted to."
+
+"Silence is reputed to be golden," said Brooke, reflectively, "and I
+really think there are cases when it is. At least, there was one I
+figured in when some two or three minutes' unchecked speech cost me more
+dollars than I have made ever since. It happened in England, and I
+merely favored another man with my frank opinion of him. After a thing
+of that kind one is apt to be guarded."
+
+"I think you should cultivate a sense of proportion. Can one make up for
+a single mistake in one direction by erring continually in the opposite
+one? Still, that is not a question we need go into now. You expect to
+get the rope across the caņon very shortly?"
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, whose expression changed suddenly, "I do."
+
+"And then?"
+
+Brooke, who felt the girl's eyes upon him, and understood what she
+meant, made a little gesture. "I don't know. I shall probably take the
+trail again. It does not matter greatly where it may lead me."
+
+There was a curious little vibration he could not quite repress in his
+voice, and both he and his companion were, under the circumstances,
+silent a trifle too long, for there are times when silence is very
+expressive. Then it was Barbara who spoke, though she felt that what she
+said was not especially appropriate.
+
+"You will be sorry to go?"
+
+Brooke looked at her steadily, with his lips set, and, though she did
+not see this, his fingers quivering a little, for he realized at last
+what it would cost him to leave her. For a moment a hot flood of passion
+and longing threatened to sweep him away, but he held it in check, and
+Barbara only noticed the grimness of his face.
+
+"What answer could I make? The conventional one demanded scarcely fits
+the case," he said, and his laugh rang hollow.
+
+"But the dam will not be finished," said Barbara, who realized that she
+had made an unfortunate start.
+
+Again Brooke sat silent. It seemed folly to abandon his purpose, and he
+wondered whether he would have sufficient strength of will to go away.
+It was also folly to stay and sink further under the girl's influence,
+when the revelation he shrank from would, if he persisted in his attempt
+to recover his dollars, become inevitable. Still, once he left the
+Canopus he must go back to a life of hardship and labor, and, in spite
+of the humiliation and fear of the future he often felt, the present was
+very pleasant. On the other hand there was only scarcity, exposure to
+rain and frost, and bitter, hopeless toil. He sat very still with one
+hand closed, not daring to look at his companion until she spoke again.
+
+"You say you do not know where the trail may lead you, and you do not
+seem to care. One would fancy that was wrong," she said.
+
+"Why?"
+
+Barbara turned a little, and looked at him with a faint sparkle in her
+eyes. "In this province the trail the resolute man takes usually leads
+to success. We want bridges and railroad trestles, forests cleared, and
+the valleys lined with roads. You can build them."
+
+Brooke shook his head, though her confidence in him, as well as her
+optimism, had its due effect.
+
+"I wish I was a little more sure," he said. "The difficulty, as I think
+I once pointed out, is that one needs dollars to make a fair start
+with."
+
+"They are, at least, not indispensable, as the history of most of the
+men who have done anything worth while in the province shows. Isn't
+there a certain satisfaction in starting with everything against one?"
+
+"Afterwards, perhaps. That is, if one struggles through. There is,
+however, one learns by experience, really very little satisfaction at
+the time, especially if one scarcely gets beyond the start at all."
+
+Barbara smiled a little, though she looked at him steadily. "You," she
+said, "will, I think, go a long way. In fact, if it was a sword I gave
+you, I should expect it of you."
+
+Brooke came very near losing his head just then, though he realized
+that, after all, the words implied little more than a belief in his
+capabilities, and for a few insensate moments he almost decided to stay
+at the Canopus and make the most of his opportunities. Saxton, he
+reflected, might put sufficient pressure upon Devine to extort the six
+thousand dollars from him without the necessity for his part becoming
+apparent at all. With that sum in his hands there was, he felt, very
+little he could not attain, and then he shook off the deluding fancy,
+for it once more became apparent that the deed, which gave Saxton the
+hold he wished for upon Devine would, even if she never heard of it,
+stand as barrier between Barbara Heathcote and him.
+
+"One feels inclined to wonder now and then whether success does not
+occasionally, at least, cost the man who achieves it more than it is
+worth," he said. "The actual record of the leaders one is expected to
+look up to might, in that connection, provide one with a fund of
+somewhat astonishing information."
+
+Barbara made a little gesture of impatience. "Is the poor man the only
+one who can be honest?"
+
+"One would, at least, feel inclined to fancy that the man who is unduly
+honest runs a serious risk of remaining poor."
+
+"I think that is an argument I have very little sympathy with," said
+Barbara. "It is, you see, so easy for the incapable to impeach the
+successful man's honesty. I might even go a little further and admit
+that it is an attitude I scarcely expected from you."
+
+Brooke smiled somewhat bitterly. "You will, however, remember that I
+have made no attempt to persuade you of my own integrity."
+
+Just then, as it happened, Mrs. Devine came into the verandah with a
+packet in her hand.
+
+"These are the papers the man tried to steal," she said. "Since you
+insist upon going back to the caņon to-day I wonder if you would take
+care of them?"
+
+Brooke gasped, and felt the veins swell on his forehead as he looked at
+her. "You wish me to take them away?"
+
+"Of course! My nerves are really horribly unsettled, and I was sent to
+the mountains for quietness. How could any one expect me to get it when
+I couldn't even sleep for fear of that man or some one else coming back
+for these documents?"
+
+"They are, I think, of considerable importance to your husband," said
+Brooke.
+
+"That is precisely why I would like to feel that they were safe in your
+tent. Nobody would expect you to have them there."
+
+Brooke turned his head a little so that he could see Barbara's face.
+
+"I appreciate your confidence," he said, and the girl noticed that his
+voice was a trifle hoarse. "Still, I must point out that I am almost a
+stranger to Mr. Devine and you."
+
+Barbara smiled a little, but there was something that set the man's
+heart beating in her eyes.
+
+"I am not sure that everybody would be so willing to make the most of
+the fact, but I feel quite sure my sister's confidence is warranted,"
+she said. "That, of course, does not sound very nice, but you have made
+it necessary."
+
+Brooke, who glanced curiously at the single seal, laid down the packet,
+and Mrs. Devine smiled. "_I_ feel ever so much easier now that is off my
+mind," she said. "Still, I shall expect you to sleep with the papers
+under your pillow."
+
+She went out, and left him and Barbara alone again, but Brooke knew that
+the struggle was over and the question decided once for all. The girl's
+trust in him had not only made those papers inviolable so far as he was
+concerned, but had rendered a breach with Saxton unavoidable. He knew
+now that he could never do what the latter had expected from him.
+
+"You appeared almost unwilling to take the responsibility," said the
+girl.
+
+Brooke smiled curiously. "I really think that was the case," he said.
+"In fact, your confidence almost hurt me. One feels the obligation of
+proving it warranted--in every respect--you see. That is partly why I
+shall go away the day we swing the first load of props across the
+caņon."
+
+Barbara felt a trace of disconcertion. "But my brother-in-law may ask
+you to do something else for him."
+
+"I scarcely think that is likely," said Brooke, with a little dry smile.
+
+Barbara said nothing further, and when she left him Brooke was once
+more sensible of a curious relief. It would, he knew, cost him a
+strenuous effort to go away, but he would, at least, be freed from the
+horrible necessity of duping the girl, who, it seemed, believed in him.
+When Jimmy arrived that evening to accompany him back to his tent at the
+caņon, and expressed his satisfaction at the fact that he did not appear
+very much the worse, he smiled a trifle drily.
+
+"That," he said, "is a little astonishing. I am, I think, warranted in
+believing myself six thousand dollars worse off than when I went away."
+
+Jimmy stared at him incredulously.
+
+"Well," he said, "I never figured you had that many, and I don't quite
+see how you could have let them get away from you here. Something you
+didn't expect has happened?"
+
+Brooke appeared reflective. "I'm not quite sure whether I expected it or
+not, but I almost hope I did," he said.
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+BROOKE'S BARGAIN.
+
+
+There was a portentous quietness in the little wooden town which did not
+exactly please Mr. Faraday Slocum, the somewhat discredited local agent
+of Grant Devine, as he ascended the steep street from the grocery store.
+The pines closed in upon it, but their sombre spires were growing dim,
+and the white mists clung about them, for dusk was creeping up the
+valley. The latter fact brought Slocum a sense of satisfaction, and at
+the same time a growing uneasiness. He had, as it happened, signally
+failed to collect a certain sum from the store-keeper, who had expressed
+his opinion of him and his doings with vitriolic candor, and it was
+partly as the result of this that very little escaped his notice as he
+proceeded with an ostentatious leisureliness towards his dwelling.
+
+A straggling row of stores and houses, log and frame and galvanized
+iron, jumbled all together in unsightly confusion, stretched away before
+him towards the gap in the forest where the railroad track came in, but
+it was the little groups of men who hung about them which occupied his
+quiet attention. He saluted them with somewhat forced good-humor as he
+went by, but there was no great cordiality in their responses, and some
+of them stared at him in uncompromising silence. There was, he felt, a
+certain tension in the atmosphere, and it was not without a purpose he
+stopped in front of the wooden hotel, where a little crowd had collected
+upon the verandah.
+
+"It's kind of sultry to-night, boys," he said.
+
+Nobody responded for a moment or two, and then there was an unpleasant
+laugh as somebody said, "You've hit it; I guess it is."
+
+Slocum remembered that most of those loungers had been glad to greet
+him, and even hand him their spare dollars, not long ago; but there was
+a decided difference now. He was a capable business man, who could make
+the most of an opportunity, and the inhabitants of the little wooden
+town had shown themselves disposed to regard certain trifling
+obliquities leniently, while they or their friends made satisfactory
+profits on the deals in ranching land and building lots he recommended.
+That, however, was while the boom lasted, but when the bottom had, as
+they expressed it, dropped out, and a good many of them found themselves
+saddled with unmarketable possessions, they commenced to be troubled
+with grave doubts concerning the rectitude of his conduct. Slocum was
+naturally quite aware of this, but he was a man of nerve, and quietly
+walked up the verandah steps.
+
+"It's that hot I must have a drink, boys. Who's coming in with me?" he
+said, genially.
+
+A few months ago a good many of them would have been willing to profit
+by the invitation, but that night nobody moved, and Slocum laughed
+softly.
+
+"Well," he said, "I'm not going to worry you. This is evidently a
+temperance meeting."
+
+He passed into the empty bar alone, and a man who leaned upon the
+counter in his shirt sleeves shook his head as he glanced towards the
+verandah.
+
+"They're not in a good humor to-night. It looks very much as if someone
+has been talking to them?" he said.
+
+Slocum smiled a little, though he had already noticed this, and taken
+precautions the bar-keeper never suspected.
+
+"I guess they'll simmer down. Who has been talking to them?" he said.
+
+"The two ranchers you sold the Hemlock Range to. There was another man
+who'd bought a piece of natural prairie, and it cost him most of five
+dollars before he got through telling them what he thought of you. Now,
+I don't know what their notion is, but I'd light out for a little if I
+was you."
+
+Slocum appeared to reflect. "Well," he said, "I may go to-morrow."
+
+"I'd go to-night," said the bar-keeper, significantly. "I guess it would
+be wiser."
+
+Slocum, who did not consider it necessary to tell him that he quite
+agreed with this, went out, and a few minutes later stopped outside his
+house, which was the last one in the town. A big, rudely-painted sign,
+nailed across the front of it, recommended any one who desired to buy or
+sell land and mineral properties or had mortgages to arrange, to come in
+and confer with the agent of Grant Devine. He glanced back up the
+street, and was relieved to notice that there was nobody loitering about
+that part of it. Then he looked at the forest the trail led into, which
+was shadowy and still, and, slipping round the building, went in through
+the back of it. A woman stood waiting him in a dimly-lighted room, which
+was littered with feminine clothing besides two big valises and an array
+of bulky packages. She was expensively dressed, but her face was
+anxious, and he noticed that her fingers were quivering.
+
+"You're quite ready, Sue?" he said.
+
+The woman pointed to the packages with a little dramatic gesture. "Oh,
+yes," she said. "I'm ready, though I'll have to leave most two hundred
+dollars' worth of clothes behind me. I've no use for taking in plain
+sewing while you think over what you've brought me to in the
+penitentiary."
+
+Slocum smiled drily. "If you hadn't wanted quite so many dry goods, I'm
+not sure it would have come to this, but we needn't worry about that
+just now. Tom will have the horses round in 'bout five minutes. You
+don't figure on taking all that truck along with you?"
+
+"I do," said the woman. "I've got to have something to put on when we
+get to Oregon!"
+
+"Well," said Slocum, grimly, "I'll be quite glad to get out with a whole
+hide, and I guess it couldn't be done if we started with a packhorse
+train or a wagon. I hadn't quite fixed to light out until I got the
+message that Devine, who didn't seem quite pleased with the last
+accounts, was coming in."
+
+"Could you have stood the boys off?"
+
+"I might have done," said Slocum, reflectively. "Still, I couldn't stand
+off Devine. It's dollars he's coming for, and I've got 'bout half the
+accounts call for here."
+
+"You're going to leave him them?"
+
+Slocum laughed. "No," he said. "I guess they'll come in handy in Oregon.
+I'm going to leave him the boys to reckon with. They'll be here with
+clubs soon after the cars come in, and we'll be a league away down the
+trail by then."
+
+A patter of horse hoofs outside cut short the colloquy, though there was
+a brief altercation when the woman once more insisted on taking all the
+packages with her. Slocum terminated it by bundling her out of the door,
+and, when she tearfully consented to mount a kicking pony, swung himself
+to the saddle. Still, for several minutes his heart was in his mouth,
+as he picked his way through the blacker shadows on the skirt of the
+beaten trail, until a man rose suddenly out of them.
+
+"Hallo!" he said. "Where're you going?"
+
+Slocum, leaning sideways, gave his wife's pony a cut with the switch he
+held, and then laughed as he turned to the man.
+
+"I guess that's my business, but I'm going out of town."
+
+"Quite sure?" said the other, who made a sudden clutch at his bridle.
+
+He did not reach it, for Slocum was ready with hand and heel, and the
+switch came down upon the outstretched arm. Then there was a plunge and
+a rapid beat of hoofs, and Slocum, swinging half round in his saddle,
+swept off his hat to the gasping man.
+
+"I guess I am," he said. "You'll tell the boys I'm sorry I couldn't wait
+for them."
+
+Then he struck his wife's horse again. "Let him go," he said. "We'll
+have three or four of them after us in about ten minutes."
+
+The woman said nothing, but braced herself to ride, and, while the beat
+of hoofs grew fainter among the silent pines, the man on foot ran
+gasping up the climbing trail. There was bustle and consternation when
+he reached the wooden town, and, while two or three men who had good
+horses hastily saddled them, the rest collected in clusters which
+coalesced, and presently a body of silent men proceeded towards the
+Slocum dwelling. As they stopped in front of it, the hoot of a whistle
+came ringing across the pines, and there was an increasing roar as a
+train came up the valley. That, however, did not, so they fancied,
+concern them, and they commenced a parley with the local constable, who
+came hurrying after them. His duties consisted chiefly in the raising
+and peddling of fruit, and he had been recommended for the post by
+popular acclaim as the most tolerant man in the settlement, but he was,
+it seemed, not without a certain sense of responsibility.
+
+"What d'you figure on doing with those clubs, boys?" he said.
+
+"Seasoning them," said somebody. "Mine's quite soft and green. Now,
+why're you not taking the trail after Slocum? The province allows you
+for a horse, and Hake Guffy's has three good legs on him, anyway."
+
+The constable waved his hand, deprecatingly. "He fell down and hurt one
+of them hauling green stuff to the depôt. I guess I'd have to shove him
+most of the way."
+
+There was a little laughter, which had, however, a trace of grimness in
+it, and one of the men grasped the constable's shoulder.
+
+"Hadn't you better go round and run Jean Frenchy's hogs out of your
+citron patch?" he said.
+
+For a moment the constable appeared about to go, and then his face
+expanded into a genial grin.
+
+"That's not good enough, boys," he said. "I'm not quite so fresh that
+the cows would eat me. What've you come round here for, anyway?"
+
+The man who had spoken made a little gesture of resignation. "Well," he
+said, "if you have got to know, we are going in to see if Slocum has
+left any of the dollars he beat us out of behind him."
+
+"No," said the constable, stoutly. "Nobody's going in there without a
+warrant, unless it's me."
+
+There was a little murmur. The man was elderly, and a trifle infirm,
+which was partly why it had been decided that he was most likely to find
+a use for the provincial pay, but he turned upon the threshold and faced
+the crowd resolutely. Had he been younger, it is very probable that he
+would have been hustled away, but a Western mob is usually, to some
+extent, at least, chivalrous, and there was another murmur of protest.
+
+"Go home!" said one man. "They're not your dollars, anyway."
+
+"Boys," and the old man swung an arm aloft, "I'm here, and I'm going to
+make considerable trouble for the man who lays a hand on me. This is a
+law-abiding country, and Slocum wasn't fool enough to leave anything he
+could carry off."
+
+"We don't want to hurt you," said one of the assembly, "but we're going
+in."
+
+There was a growl of approbation, and the men were closing in upon the
+door when a stranger pushed his way through the midst of them, and then
+swung round and stood facing them beside the constable. He held himself
+commandingly, and, though nobody appeared to recognize him, for darkness
+was closing down, the meaning of his attitude was plain, and the crowd
+gave back a little.
+
+"Go home, boys!" he said. "I'll most certainly have the law of any man
+who puts his foot inside this door."
+
+There was a little ironical laughter, and the crowd once more closed in.
+Half the men of the settlement were present there, and a good many of
+them had bought land from, or trusted their spare dollars to, Slocum.
+
+"Who are you, anyway?" said one.
+
+The stranger laughed. "The man who owns the building. My name's Devine."
+
+It was a bold announcement, for those who heard him were not in the best
+of humors then, or disposed to concern themselves with the question how
+far the principal was acquainted with or responsible for the doings of
+his agent.
+
+"The boss thief!" said somebody. "Get hold of him, and bring him along
+to the hotel. Then, if Thorkell can't lock him up, we'll consider what
+we'll do with him."
+
+"No," said another man. "He'll keep for a little without going bad, and
+we're here to see if Slocum left anything behind him. Break that door
+in!"
+
+It was a critical moment, for there was a hoarse murmur of approbation,
+and the crowd surged closer about the pair. At any sign of weakness it
+would, perhaps, have gone hardly with them, but the elderly constable
+stood very still and quiet, with empty hands, while Devine fumbled
+inside his jacket. Then he swung one foot forward, and his right arm
+rose, until his hand, which was clenched on a dusky object, was level
+with his shoulder.
+
+"Boys," he said, drily, "somebody's going to get hurt in another minute.
+This is my office, and I can't do with any of you inside it to-night."
+
+"Then, if you hand our dollars out, it would suit us most as well," said
+the spokesman.
+
+Devine appeared to laugh softly. "I guess there are very few of them
+there. Anybody who can prove a claim on me will get satisfaction, but
+he'll have to wait. Neither the place nor I will run away, and you'll
+find me right here when you come along to-morrow."
+
+"Are you going to give every man back the dollars Slocum got from him?"
+
+It was evident that the question met with the approbation of the crowd,
+and a less resolute man might have temporized, but Devine laughed openly
+now.
+
+"No," he said, drily. "That's just what I'm not going to do. A man
+takes his chances when he makes a deal in land, and can't expect to cry
+off his bargain when they go against him. Still, if any one will bring
+me proof that Slocum swindled him, I'll see what I can do, but I guess
+it will be very little if some of you destroy the books and papers he
+recorded the deals in. You'll have to wait until to-morrow, while I
+worry through them."
+
+His resolution had its due effect, and the fact that no man could reach
+the threshold until he and the constable had been pulled down counted
+for a good deal, too. The men also wanted no more than they considered
+themselves entitled to, and shrank from what, if it was to prove
+successful, must evidently be a murderous assault upon two elderly men.
+
+"I guess there's sense in that," said one of them. "It's going to be
+quite easy to make sure he don't get out of the settlement."
+
+"I'm for letting him have until to-morrow, anyway," said another.
+"Still, the papers aren't there. Where's John Collier? He picked up some
+books and truck Slocum slung away when he met him on the trail."
+
+"I've got them right here," and another man stepped forward. "I was
+coming in from the ranch when I heard two horses pounding down the
+trail, and jumped clear into the fern. The man who went past me tried to
+sling a package into the gully, but I guess he got kind of rattled when
+I shouted, and dropped the thing. He didn't seem to want to stop, and,
+when he went on at a gallop, I groped round and picked the package up."
+
+Devine lowered the pistol, and turned quietly to the crowd. "There are
+just two courses open to you, boys, and you're going to make mighty
+little but trouble for yourselves by taking one of them. This is my
+office, and so long as I can hold you off nobody's coming in until he's
+asked. I feel quite equal to stopping two or three. Now, if you'll let
+me have those books and go home quietly, I'll have straightened Slocum's
+affairs out by to-morrow, and be ready to see what can be done for you."
+
+The men were evidently wavering, and there was a brief consultation,
+after which the leader turned to Devine.
+
+"We've no use for making any trouble that can be helped, and we'll go
+home," he said. "You can have those books, and a committee will come
+round to see what you've fixed up after breakfast to-morrow."
+
+Devine nodded tranquilly. "I guess you're wise," he said. "Good night,
+boys!"
+
+They went away, and left him to go in with the constable, who came out
+in a few minutes with a contented grin, which suggested that Devine had
+signified his appreciation of his efforts liberally. The latter,
+however, sat down, dusty and worn with an arduous journey, to undertake
+a night's hard work. He had left the Canopus before sunrise, and spent
+most of the day in the saddle, but nobody would have suspected him of
+weariness as he sat, grim and intent of face, before a table littered
+with papers. He had just imposed his will upon an angry crowd, and the
+tension of the past few minutes would have shaken many a younger man,
+but he showed no sign of feeling it, and, as the hours slipped by, only
+rose at intervals to stretch his aching limbs and brush the cigar ash
+from his dust-smeared clothes. This was one of the hard men who, in
+building up their own fortunes, had also laid the foundations of the
+future prosperity of a great province, and a little fatigue did not
+count with him.
+
+The settlement was very still, and the lamp-light paling as the chilly
+dawn crept in, when at last he opened a book that recorded Slocum's
+dealings several years back. There were several folded slips on which he
+had jotted down certain data inside it, and Devine smiled somewhat drily
+as he came upon one entry:--
+
+"24th. 6,000 dollars from Harford Brooke, in purchase of 400 acres bush
+land, Quatomac Valley. Ref. 22, slip B."
+
+Devine turned up 22 B, and read: "Mem. About 150 acres 200-foot pines,
+with gravel sub-soil, and very little mould on top of it. Rest of it
+rock. Oregon man bid 1,000 dollars on the 2nd, but asked for re-survey
+and cried off. 12th. Gave Custer four days' option at 950. 20th. Asked
+the British sucker 6,500, and clinched the deal at 6,000."
+
+Devine closed the book, and sat thoughtfully still for a minute or two.
+The epithet his agent had applied to Brooke carried with it the stigma
+of puerile folly in that country, and Devine had usually very little
+sympathy with the men it could be fittingly attached to. Still, he felt
+that nobody could very appropriately term his contractor a sucker now,
+and he had just discovered that he had been systematically plundered
+himself. Several points which had given him food for reflection also
+became suddenly plain, and he lighted another cigar before he fell to
+work again. He had, however, in the meanwhile decided what course to
+adopt with Brooke when he went back to the Canopus mine.
+
+
+
+
+XX.
+
+THE BRIDGING OF THE CAŅON.
+
+
+It was a week or two after he undertook the investigation of Slocum's
+affairs, and once more the light was failing, when Devine stood at the
+head of the gully above the caņon. His wife and Barbara were with him,
+and they were about to descend, when a cluster of moving figures
+appeared among the pines on the opposite hillside. So far as Devine
+could make out, they were rolling down two or three small trunks of
+firs.
+
+The river was veiled in white mist now, but the sound of its turmoil
+came up hoarsely out of the growing obscurity, and there was sufficient
+light above to show the rope which spanned the awful chasm. It swept
+downwards in a flattened curve, slender and ethereal, at that distance,
+as a film of gossamer, and lost itself in the gloom of the rocks, across
+the caņon. Barbara, however, fancied she realized what it had cost the
+flume-builder to place it there, and, as he glanced at it, a somewhat
+curious look crept into Devine's eyes. He knew that slender thread of
+steel had only been flung across the hollow at the risk of life and
+limb, and under a heavy nervous strain.
+
+"If we are going down, hadn't we better start?" said Mrs. Devine. "If it
+gets quite dark before we come up, I shall certainly have to stay there
+until to-morrow. In fact, I'm quite willing to let you and Barbara go
+without me now."
+
+Devine smiled. "I'm not sure we'll go at all. It seems to me Brooke
+means to give the thing a private trial before he asks me to come over
+and see it work, and that's why he waited until it was almost dark. Can
+you make him out, Barbara?"
+
+Barbara had, as a matter of fact, already done so, but she realized that
+her sister's eyes were upon her, and for no very apparent reason
+preferred not to admit it.
+
+"It is getting a little shadowy among the pines, and Katty used to tell
+me she had sharper eyes than mine," she said.
+
+Mrs. Devine laughed. "Still," she said, reflectively, "I scarcely think
+I have seen Mr. Brooke quite so often as you have."
+
+Devine glanced at them both a trifle sharply, but there was nothing in
+their faces that gave him a clue to their thoughts. "Well," he said,
+"I'm a good deal older than either of you, but I can make him out myself
+now. As usual, he seems to be doing most of the work."
+
+Nobody said anything further, and the moving figures stopped where the
+rope ran into the shadows of the rocks, while it was a few minutes later
+when a long, dusky object swung out on it. It slid somewhat slowly down
+the incline, and then stopped where the slight curve led upward, and
+remained dangling high above the hidden river. A shout came faintly
+through the roar of water in the gulf below, and the dark mass
+oscillated violently, but otherwise remained immovable.
+
+"What are they doing? Shouldn't it have run all the way across?" asked
+Mrs. Devine.
+
+Devine nodded. "I guess they're 'most pulling their arms off trying to
+haul the thing across," he said. "It should have come itself, but the
+sheave the trolley runs on must have jammed, or they haven't pulled all
+the kinks and snarls out of the rope. It's quite a big log they've
+loaded her with."
+
+The suspended trunk still oscillated, and a faint clinking came up with
+a hoarse murmur of voices from the hollow. Then there was silence, and
+Devine, who pointed to a fallen cedar, took out his cigar-case.
+
+"We'll stay right here, and see the thing out," he said. "I guess the
+boys have quite enough to worry them just now."
+
+Barbara surmised that most of the anxiety would fall on Brooke, and
+wondered why she should feel as eager as she did to see the fir trunk
+safely swung across. The economical handling of mining props was
+naturally not a subject she had any particular interest in, though she
+realized that the success of his venture was of some importance to the
+man who had stretched the rope across the caņon. There was no ostensible
+reason why it should affect her, and yet she was sensible of a curious
+nervous impatience.
+
+In the meanwhile, it was growing darker, and she could not quite see
+what the dim figures across the river were doing. They did not, in fact,
+appear to be doing anything in particular, beyond standing in a group,
+while the rope no longer oscillated. A thin, white mist commenced to
+drift out of the hollow in filmy wisps, and, in a curious fashion,
+suggested the vast depth of it. The silence the roar of the river broke
+through grew more intense as the chill of the distant snow descended,
+and the stately pines seemed to grow older and greater of girth. They
+dwarfed the tiny clustering figures into insignificance, and as iron
+columns and the raw gashes in the side of the gully faded into the
+gathering night, it seemed to Barbara that here in her primeval
+fastnesses Nature ignored man's puny handiwork.
+
+Then it was with a little thrill of anticipation she saw there was a
+movement among the dusky figures at last, but it cost her an effort to
+sit still when one of them appeared to move out on the rope, for she
+felt she knew who it must be. Devine rose sharply, and flung his cigar
+away, while his wife seemed to shiver apprehensively.
+
+"One of them is coming across. Isn't it horribly dangerous?" she said.
+
+Devine nodded. "It depends a good deal on what he means to do, but if he
+figures on clearing the jammed trolley there is a risk, especially to a
+man who has only one sound hand," he said. "They've slung him under the
+spare one. It's most probably Brooke."
+
+Mrs. Devine glanced at Barbara, and fancied that the rigidity of her
+attitude was a trifle significant. The girl, however, said nothing, for
+her lips were pressed together, and she felt a shiver run through her as
+she watched the dusky figure sliding down the curving rope. The rope
+itself was no longer visible, but the dangling shape that moved across
+the horrible gulf was forced up by the whiteness of the drifting mists
+below. She held her breath when it stopped, and swung perilously beside
+the pine trunk which oscillated too, and then clenched her fingers
+viciously as it rose and apparently clutched at something overhead. Then
+she became sensible of the distressful beating of her heart, and that
+the tension was growing unendurable. Dark pines and hillside seemed to
+have faded now, and the dim objects outlined against the sliding mists
+dominated her attention. Still, though they were invisible to her, the
+space between the hoary pines, tremendous rock wall, and never-melting
+snow, formed a fitting arena for that conflict between daring humanity
+and unsubdued Nature.
+
+Barbara never knew how long she sat there with set lips and straining
+eyes, but the time seemed interminable, until at last she gasped when
+Devine, who had been standing as motionless as the pines behind him,
+moved abruptly.
+
+"I guess he has done it," he said. "That man has hard sand in him."
+
+The dusky trunk slid onward; the dangling figure followed it; and a
+hoarse cry, that had a note of exultation in it as well as relief, came
+up when they vanished into the gloom beneath the dark rock's side.
+
+"They've got him, but I guess that's not all they mean," said Devine.
+"Whatever was wrong with it, he has fixed the thing. They've beaten the
+caņon. The sling's working."
+
+Then Barbara, rising, stood very straight, with a curious feeling that
+she had a personal part in those men's triumph. It did not even seem to
+matter when she felt that Mrs. Devine was looking at her.
+
+"Why don't you shout?" said the latter, significantly.
+
+Barbara laughed, but there was a little vibration in her voice her
+sister had not often noticed there.
+
+"If I thought any one could hear me, I certainly would," she said.
+
+They stayed where they were a few minutes, until once more a faint
+creaking and rattling came out of the mist, and an object, that was
+scarcely distinguishable, swung across the chasm. Another followed,
+until Barbara had counted three of them, and Devine laughed drily as
+they turned away.
+
+"It's most of eight miles round by the caņon foot, where one can get
+across by the big redwood log, but I guess they'd have taken the trail
+if Brooke hadn't given them a lead," he said. "It's not easy to
+understand any one, but that's a curious kind of man."
+
+"Is Mr. Brooke more peculiar than the rest of you?" asked Barbara.
+
+Devine seemed to smile, though she could not see him very well.
+
+"Well," he said, drily, "that's rather more than I know, but I have a
+notion that his difficulty is he isn't quite sure what he would be at.
+Now, the man who does one thing at one time, and all with the same
+purpose, is the one who generally gets there first."
+
+"And Brooke does not do that?"
+
+"It kind of seems to me he is being pulled hard two ways at once just
+now," said Devine, with a curious little laugh.
+
+Barbara asked no more questions, and said very little to her sister as
+they walked home through the pines. She could not blot out the picture
+which, for a few intense minutes, she had gazed upon, though it had been
+exasperatingly blurred, and, she felt, considering what it stood for,
+ineffective in itself--a dim, half-seen figure, dwarfed to
+insignificance, swinging across a background of filmy mist. There had
+been nothing at that distance to suggest the intensity of the effort
+which was the expression of an unyielding will, but she had, by some
+subtle sympathy, grasped it all--the daring that recognized the peril
+and disregarded it, and the thrill of the triumph, the wholesome
+satisfaction born of the struggle with the primitive forces of the
+universe which man was meant to wage. This, it seemed to her, was a
+nobler one than the strife of the cities, where wealth was less often
+created than torn or fleeced from one's fellows; for needy humanity
+flowed in to build her homes and prosper by sturdy toil at every fresh
+rolling back of the gates of the wilderness. The miner and the axeman
+led the way; but the big plough oxen and plodding packhorse train
+followed hard along the trails they made. Behind, in long procession,
+jaded with many sorrows, came the outcasts from crowded Eastern lands,
+but there was room, and to spare, for all of them in the new Canaan.
+
+That the man who had bridged the caņon would admit any feelings of the
+kind was, she knew, not to be expected. Men of his description, she had
+discovered, very seldom do, and she could rather fancy him coming fresh
+from such a struggle to discuss the climate or the flavor of a cigar.
+Yet he had once told her that she had brought him a sword, and, as she
+had certainly shivered at his peril, she could, without asking herself
+troublesome questions, now participate in the victory he had won. Still,
+she seemed to feel that one could not draw any very apt comparison
+between him and the stainless hero of the Arthurian legend belted with
+Excalibur, for Brooke was, she fancied, in the phraseology of the
+country, not that kind of man. That, however, appeared of less
+importance, since she had discovered that perfection is apt to pall on
+one.
+
+She had, she decided, permitted this train of thought to carry her
+sufficiently far, when a man appeared suddenly in the shadowy trail. It
+was evident that he did not see them at first, and Barbara fancied he
+was a trifle disconcerted and half-disposed to slip back into the
+undergrowth when he did. He, however, passed them hastily, and Devine
+swung round and looked after him.
+
+"That wasn't one of Brooke's men?" he said.
+
+"No," said Barbara. "I don't think it was. You didn't recognize him,
+Katty?"
+
+Mrs. Devine laughed. "If you didn't, I scarcely fancy there was anything
+to be gained by asking me."
+
+Barbara was not quite pleased with her sister, but she noticed that
+Devine was standing still.
+
+"Was there anything remarkable about the man?" she said.
+
+Devine laughed. "I didn't see his face; but if he's the man I took him
+for, nobody would have expected to meet him here."
+
+Then he turned, and they proceeded towards the ranch, while Barbara, who
+recollected Devine's speech at the caņon, also remembered her sister had
+said she would like to know what her husband really thought of Brooke.
+This had not been very comprehensible to Barbara, who had experienced no
+great trouble in forming what she believed to be an accurate opinion
+concerning the flume-builder. It was her feelings towards him that
+presented the difficulty.
+
+In the meanwhile, Brooke had flung himself down in a folding-chair in
+his tent. He was soaked with perspiration, his hard hands still quivered
+a little from the nervous strain, and his bronzed face was a trifle more
+colorless than usual, but he was, for the time being, sensible of a
+quiet exultation. He had done a difficult and dangerous thing, and the
+flush of success had swept away all his anxieties. He, however, found it
+a trifle difficult to sit still, and was carefully selecting a cigar in
+an attempt to compose himself, when a man came in, and took the chair
+opposite him. Then his face grew a trifle hard, and all sense of
+satisfaction was suddenly reft away from him.
+
+"I scarcely expected you quite so soon, Saxton," he said. "Here are
+cigars; you'll find some drinkables in the box yonder."
+
+Saxton opened the box he pointed to, and then looked at him with a grin
+as he took out a bottle.
+
+"I've no great use for California wine. Bourbon whisky's good enough for
+me," he said. "Who've you been entertaining? Not Devine, anyway."
+
+"Isn't the question a little outside the mark? If you want it, there's
+water with ice in it here. It's from the tail of the glacier."
+
+Saxton laughed. "Then it would take a man 'most an hour and a half to
+bring a pail of it. It's quite easy to tell where you came from. Well,
+I'm here; but on the other occasions it was I who sent for you."
+
+"There is, however, a difference on this one, though I wouldn't like you
+to think that was the reason. The fact is, I've been busy."
+
+"Well," said Saxton, "we'll get down to the business one. Still, how'd
+you get your arm in a sling?"
+
+"Are you sure you don't know?"
+
+"Quite!" and Saxton's sincerity was evident. "How should I?"
+
+"I had fancied you knew all about it by this time, and felt a little
+astonished that you didn't come over, but I see I was mistaken. I tried
+to get hold of Devine's papers, as I promised you, and came upon another
+man attempting the same thing. During the difference of opinion that
+followed he shot me."
+
+Saxton rose, and, kicking his chair aside, condemned himself several
+times as he moved up and down the tent.
+
+"To be quite straight, I put another man on to it, as you didn't seem to
+be making much of a show," he said. "Still, what in the name of thunder
+did he want to shoot you for, when he knew you were standing in with
+me?"
+
+"I can't say. The difficulty was that I was not as well informed as he
+seems to have been. It would have paid you better to be frank with me.
+Hasn't the man come back to you?"
+
+"No," and Saxton's face grew a trifle vicious, "he hasn't--concern him!
+You see what that brings us to? I felt sure of that man; but it's plain
+he meant to find out what I wanted, and then, if he couldn't make use of
+it himself, sell it me. There are three of us after the same thing now."
+
+Brooke shook his head. "No," he said, drily, "I don't think there are.
+You and the other man make two, while I scarcely fancy either of you
+will get hold of the papers, because I gave them back to Devine, and he
+has sent them to Vancouver."
+
+"You had them?" and Saxton gasped.
+
+"I certainly had," said Brooke. "They were put up in a very flimsy
+packet, which Mrs. Devine handed me. I did not, however, look at one of
+them."
+
+Saxton, who seemed about to sit down, crossed the tent and stared at
+him.
+
+"Well," he said, "may I be shot if I ever struck another man quite like
+you! What in the name of thunder made you let Devine have them back
+for?"
+
+"I really don't think you would appreciate my motives, especially as I'm
+not quite sure I understand them myself. Anyway, I did it, and that, of
+course, implies that there can be no further understanding between you
+and me. I don't mean to question the morality of what we purposed doing,
+but, to be quite frank, I've had enough of it."
+
+Saxton, who appeared to restrain himself with an effort, sat down and
+lighted a cigar.
+
+"No doubt I could worry along 'most as well without you, but there's a
+question to be answered," he said, drily. "Do you mean to give me away?"
+
+"It's not one I appreciate, and it seems to me a trifle unnecessary. You
+can reassure yourself on that point."
+
+Saxton took a drink of whisky. "Well," he said, meditatively, "I guess I
+can trust you, and I'm not going to worry about letting you off the
+deal. You have too many fancies to be of much use to anybody. There's
+just another thing, and it has to be said. It's business I have on hand,
+and life's too short for any man to waste time he could pile up dollars
+in, trying to get even with a partner who has gone back on him. In fact,
+I've a kind of liking for you--but you'll most certainly get hurt if you
+put yourself in my way. It's a friendly warning."
+
+Brooke laughed. "I will endeavor to keep out of it, so far as I can."
+
+Saxton nodded, and then looked at him reflectively.
+
+"Miss Heathcote's kind of pretty," he said.
+
+"I suggested once already that we should get on better if you left Miss
+Heathcote out."
+
+"You did. Still, when I've anything to say, it is scarcely a hint of
+that kind that's going to stop me. I guess you know she has quite a pile
+of dollars?"
+
+Brooke's face flushed. "I don't, and it does not concern me in the
+least."
+
+"She has, anyway. Devine's wife brought him a pile, and I heard one
+sister had the same as the other. Now, you ought to feel obliged to me."
+
+Brooke straightened himself a trifle in his chair. "I don't wish to be
+unpleasant, but you have gone quite as far as is advisable. Can't you
+see the thing you are suggesting is quite out of the question?"
+
+Saxton surveyed him critically. "Well," he said, reflectively, "I have
+seen better-looking men--quite a few of them, and you're blame hard to
+get on with, but there are women who don't expect too much."
+
+Brooke's face was growing flushed, but he realized that nothing short of
+physical violence was likely to restrain his visitor, and he laughed.
+
+"You will, of course, believe what pleases you," he said. "Are you going
+to stay here to-night?"
+
+"No," said Saxton. "When I'm through with this whisky, I'm going right
+back to Tomlinson's ranch. I wouldn't like Devine to run up against me,
+and he nearly did it on the trail a little while ago."
+
+Brooke looked up sharply. "He recognized you?"
+
+"No," said Saxton, drily. "He didn't. It wouldn't have suited me. When I
+come to clinch with Devine, I want to be sure I have the whip-hand of
+him. Still, it wouldn't have been a case of pistols out and getting
+behind a tree. It's quite a long while since I had any, and, though you
+don't seem to think so in England, nobody has any use for a circus of
+that kind now. I don't know that the way they had in '49 wasn't better
+than trying to get ahead of the other man quietly."
+
+Brooke made a little gesture of resignation. Saxton, he realized, had
+sufficient discretion not to persist in a useless attempt to hold him to
+his compact, but he was addicted to moralizing, and Brooke, who lighted
+another cigar, listened, as patiently as he could, while he discoursed
+upon the anxieties of the enterprising business man.
+
+
+
+
+XXI.
+
+DEVINE'S OFFER.
+
+
+Evening had come round again when Brooke called at the ranch, in
+response to a brief note from Devine, and found the latter sitting,
+cigar in hand, at his office table.
+
+"Take a cigar, if you feel like it, Mr. Brooke. We have got to have a
+talk," he said.
+
+Brooke did as he suggested, and when he sat down, Devine passed a strip
+of paper across to him.
+
+"There's your cheque for the tramway. I'll ask you for a receipt," he
+said. "Make up an account of what the dam has cost you to-morrow, and
+we'll try to arrange the thing so's to suit both of us."
+
+Brooke appeared a trifle astonished. "It is by no means finished, sir."
+
+"Well," said Devine, drily, "I'm not quite sure it ever will be. The
+mine no longer belongs to me. It's part of the Dayspring Consolidated
+Mineral Properties. I've been working the thing up quietly for quite a
+while now, and I've a cable from London that the deal's put through."
+
+Brooke, remembering what he had heard from Saxton, looked hard at him.
+"You have sold it out to English company promoters?"
+
+"Not exactly! I'm taking so many thousand dollars down, and a
+controlling share of the stock. I'm also the boss director, with full
+power to run operations as appears advisable at the mines. How does the
+deal strike you?"
+
+"Since you ask for my opinion, I fancy I should have preferred a good
+many dollars, and very little stock."
+
+Devine glanced at him with a curious smile.
+
+"You believe Allonby's a crank?"
+
+"Other people do. On my part, I'm not quite sure of it. Still, it seems
+to me that the men who spend their money to prove him right will run a
+tolerably heavy risk, especially as, so far, at least, there appears to
+be no ore that's worth reduction in the mine, so far as it has been
+opened up."
+
+"How do you know what is in the Dayspring?" and Devine looked at him
+steadily.
+
+Brooke made a little gesture. "I don't think that point's important," he
+said. "You, no doubt, had a purpose in telling me as much as you have
+done?"
+
+Devine did not answer for a moment or two, and Brooke was sensible of a
+slight bewilderment as he watched him. This was, he knew, a hard, shrewd
+man, and yet he had apparently permitted Saxton to beguile him into
+buying a mine in which nobody but a man whose faculties had been
+destroyed by alcohol believed. He was also, it seemed, willing to risk
+a moderate competence in another one which was liable to be jumped at
+any moment. The thing was almost incomprehensible.
+
+Then Devine made a sign that he desired attention. "When I told you
+this, I had a purpose," he said. "We are going to spend a pile of
+dollars on the Dayspring, and my part of the business lies in the city.
+Wilkins stays right at the Canopus, and while Allonby goes along with
+the mine it's too big a contract to reform him. That brings me to the
+point. I want a man to take charge at the Dayspring under him, and
+though you were not exactly civil when I made you an offer once before,
+we might make it worth your while."
+
+Brooke gasped, and felt his face becoming warm.
+
+"I have very little practical experience of mining, sir," he said.
+
+Devine nodded tranquilly. "Allonby has enough for two, but he lets up
+and loses his grip when the whisky comes along," he said. "Still, I
+guess you have got something that's worth rather more to me. You
+couldn't help having it. It was born in you."
+
+Brooke sat silent for a space, with an unpleasant realization of the
+fact that Devine's keen eyes were watching him. He had come there with
+the intention of severing his connection with the man, and now that
+astonishing offer had been made him in the very room he had not long ago
+crept into with the purpose of plundering him. Every detail of what had
+happened on that eventful night came back to him, and he remembered,
+with a sickening sense of degradation, how he had leaned upon the table
+where Devine was sitting then and permitted the startled girl to force
+her thanks on him. Then he raised his head, as Devine, turning a little,
+looked at him with disconcerting steadiness.
+
+"You have more reasons than the one you gave me for not taking hold?" he
+said.
+
+Suddenly, Brooke made up his mind. He was sick of the career of
+deception, and had already meant to put an end to it, while he now
+seized upon the opportunity of placing a continuance in it out of the
+question.
+
+"I have, and can't help fancying that one of them is a tolerably good
+one," he said. "You see, you really know very little about me."
+
+"Go on," said Devine, drily. "I'm generally quite willing to back my
+opinion of a mine or man. Besides, I have picked up one or two pointers
+about you."
+
+"Still," said Brooke, very slowly, while his face grew set, "you don't
+know why I came here to build that flume for you."
+
+Then he gasped with astonishment, for Devine laughed.
+
+"Well," he said, drily, "I guess I do."
+
+Brooke, who lost command of himself, rose abruptly, and stood looking
+down on him, with one quivering hand clenched on the edge of the table.
+
+"You know I meant to jump the claim?" he said.
+
+"I had a notion that you meant to try."
+
+Then there was a curious silence, and the two men remained motionless,
+looking at one another for a space, the younger one leaning somewhat
+heavily upon the table, with the crimson showing through the bronze in
+his face, the elder one watching him with a little grim smile. There was
+also a suggestion of sardonic amusement in it at which the other winced,
+as he would scarcely have done had Devine struck him.
+
+"And you let me stay on?" he said at length.
+
+"I did. It was plain you couldn't hurt me, and there was a kind of humor
+in the thing. I had just to put my hand down and squelch you when I felt
+like it."
+
+Brooke recognized that he had deserved this, but he had never felt the
+same utter sense of insignificance that he did just then. His companion
+evidently did not even consider it worth while to be angry with him, and
+he wondered vacantly at his folly in even fancying that he or Saxton
+could prove a match for such a man.
+
+Then Devine made a little gesture. "Hadn't you better sit down? We're
+not quite through yet."
+
+Brooke did as he suggested.
+
+"Still----" he said.
+
+Devine smiled again. "You don't quite understand? Well, I'll try to make
+it plain. You make about the poorest kind of claim-jumper I ever ran up
+against, and I've handled quite a few in my time. It's not your fault.
+You haven't it in you. If you had, you'd have stayed right with it, and
+not let the dam-building get hold of you so that you scarcely remembered
+what you came here for. You couldn't help that either."
+
+To be turned inside out in this fashion was almost too disconcerting to
+be exasperating, and Brooke sat stupidly silent for a moment or two.
+
+"After all, we need not go into that," he said. "I suppose what I meant
+to do requires no defence in this country, but while I am by no means
+proud of it, I should never have undertaken it had you not sold me a
+worthless ranch. I purposed doing nothing more than getting my six
+thousand dollars back."
+
+"You figure that would have contented the man behind you?"
+
+Brooke was once more startled, for Devine's penetration appeared almost
+uncanny, but he remembered that he, at least, owed a little to his
+confederate.
+
+"You think there was another man?" he said.
+
+Devine laughed. "I guess I'm sure. You don't know enough to fix up a
+thing of this kind. Who is he?"
+
+"That," said Brooke, drily, "is rather more than I feel at liberty to
+tell you. I have, however, broken with him once for all."
+
+Devine made a little gesture which implied that the point was of no
+great importance. "Well," he said, "I guess I've no great cause to be
+afraid of him, if he was content to have you for a partner. The question
+is--Are you going to take my offer?"
+
+"You are asking me seriously?"
+
+"I am. It seems to me I sized you up correctly quite a while ago, and
+you have had about enough claim-jumping. Now, I don't know that I blame
+you, and, anyway, if you had very little sense, it showed you had some
+grit. As the mining laws stand, it's a legitimate occupation, and you
+tell me you only figured on getting your dollars back. Well, if you want
+them, you can work for them at a reasonable salary."
+
+Brooke was once more astonished. Sentiment, it appeared, counted for as
+little with Devine as it had done with Saxton, and with both of them
+business was simply and solely a question of dollars.
+
+"Then you disclaim all responsibility for your agent's doings?" he said.
+
+"No," said Devine, drily. "If Slocum had swindled you, it would have
+been different, but you made a foolish deal, and you have got to stand
+up to it. Nobody was going to stop you surveying that land before you
+bought it, or getting a man who knew its value to do it for you. I'm
+offering you the option of working for those six thousand dollars. Do
+you take it?"
+
+Brooke scarcely considered. The money was no longer the chief
+inducement, for, as Devine had expressed it, the work had got hold of
+him, and he was sensible of a growing belief in his capabilities, while
+he now fancied he saw his opportunity.
+
+"Yes," he said, simply.
+
+Devine nodded. "Then we'll go into the thing right now," he said.
+"You'll start for the Dayspring soon as you can to-morrow."
+
+An hour had passed before they had arranged everything, and it seemed to
+one of them that it was, under the circumstances, a somewhat astonishing
+compact they made. What the other thought about it did not appear, but
+he was one who was seldom very much mistaken in his estimate of the
+character of his fellow-men. Then, as it happened, Brooke came upon
+Barbara in the log-walled hall as he was leaving the ranch, and stood
+still a moment irresolute. Whether Devine would tell her or his wife
+what had passed between them he did not know, but it appeared very
+probable, and just then he almost shrank from meeting her. It did not,
+however, occur to him to ask himself how she happened to be there.
+
+"So you are not going out on the trail that leads to nowhere in
+particular, after all?" she said.
+
+Brooke showed his astonishment. "You knew what Devine meant to offer
+me?"
+
+"Of course!" and Barbara smiled. "I don't even mind admitting that I
+think he did wisely."
+
+"Now, I wonder why?"
+
+Barbara laughed softly. "Don't you think the question is a little
+difficult, or do you expect me to present you with a catalogue of your
+virtues?"
+
+"I'm afraid the latter is out of the question. You would want, at least,
+several items."
+
+"And you imply that I should have a difficulty in finding them?"
+
+Brooke had spoken lightly, partly because the interview with Devine had
+put a strain on him, and he dare scarcely trust himself just then, but a
+tide of feeling swept him away, and his face grew suddenly grim. The
+girl was very alluring, and her little smile showed plainly that she had
+reposed her confidence in him.
+
+"Yes," he said, a trifle hoarsely, "you would have the greatest
+difficulty in finding one, and I am almost glad that I am going away
+to-morrow. Such a man as I am is scarcely fit to speak to you."
+
+Barbara was, though she did not show it, distinctly startled. She had
+never heard the man speak in that fashion, and his set face and vibrant
+voice were new to her. Indeed, she had now and then wondered whether he
+ever really let himself go. Still, she looked at him quietly, and,
+noticing the swollen veins on his forehead, and the glow in his eyes,
+decided it would not be advisable to admit that she attached much
+importance to what he had said. He was, she fancied, fit for any
+rashness just then.
+
+"I suppose we, all of us, have moods of self-depreciation occasionally,"
+she said. "Still, one would not have fancied that you were unduly
+morbid, and one part of that little speech was a trifle inexplicable."
+
+Brooke laughed curiously, but the girl noticed that one of his lean,
+hard hands was closed as he looked down on her.
+
+"There are times when one has to be one's self, and civilities don't
+seem to count," he said. "I am glad that I am going away, because if I
+stayed here I should lose the last shred of my self-respect. As a matter
+of fact, I have very little left, but that little is valuable, if only
+because it was you who gave it me."
+
+"Still, one would signally fail to see how you could lose it here."
+
+Brooke stood still, looking at her with signs of struggle, and, she
+could almost fancy, passion, in his set face; and then made a little
+gesture, which seemed to imply that he had borne enough.
+
+"You will probably understand it all by and by," he said. "I can only
+ask you not to think too hardly of me when that happens."
+
+Then, as one making a strenuous effort, he turned abruptly away, and
+Barbara, who let him go, went back to the room where her sister sat,
+very thoughtfully.
+
+Brooke in the meanwhile swung savagely along the trail, beneath the
+shadowy pines, for he recognized, with a painful distinctness, that
+Barbara Heathcote's view of his conduct was by no means likely to
+coincide with Devine's, and he could picture her disgust and anger when
+the revelation came, while it was only now, when he would in all
+probability never meet her on the same terms again, he realized the
+intensity of his longing for the girl. He had also, he felt, succeeded
+in making himself ridiculous by a display of sentimentality that must
+have been incomprehensible to her, and though that appeared of no great
+importance relatively, it naturally did not tend to console him. When he
+reached his tent Jimmy stared at him.
+
+"I guess you look kind of raised," he said. "Where's your hat?"
+
+Brooke laughed hoarsely. "I believe I must have left it at the ranch.
+Still, that's not so very astonishing, because, even if I didn't do it
+altogether, I came very near losing my head."
+
+Jimmy again surveyed him, with a grin. "Devine," he said, suggestively,
+"has been giving you whisky, and it mixed you up a little? That's what
+comes of drinking tea."
+
+Brooke made no answer, though a swift flush rose to his face, as he
+remembered his half-coherent speeches at the ranch, and the astonishment
+in the girl's eyes, for it seemed probable that the explanation that
+had occurred to Jimmy had also suggested itself to her. Then he smiled
+grimly, as he decided that it did not greatly matter, after all, since
+she could not think more hardly of him than she would do when the truth
+came out presently.
+
+
+
+
+XXII.
+
+THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENS.
+
+
+It was already late at night, but the mounted mail carrier had not
+reached the Dayspring mine, and Allonby, who was impatiently waiting
+news of certain supplies and plant, had insisted on Brooke sitting up
+with him. It was also raining hard, and, in spite of the glowing stove,
+the shanty reeked with damp, while there was a steady splashing upon the
+iron roof above. Now and then a trickle descended from a defective joint
+in it, and formed a rivulet upon the earthen floor, or fizzled into a
+puff of steam upon the corroded iron pipe which stretched across the
+room. The latter was strewn with soil-stained clothing, and wet
+knee-boots with the red mire of the mine still clinging about them.
+
+Brooke lay drowsily in a canvas chair, while Allonby sat at the
+uncleanly table, with a litter of burnt matches and tobacco ash as well
+as a steaming glass in front of him. His eyes were bleared and watery,
+and there were curious little patches of color in his haggard face,
+while the gorged, blue veins showed upon his forehead. He had been
+discoursing in a maudlin fashion which Brooke, who had endeavored to
+make the best of his company during the last three months, found
+singularly exasperating, but he moved abruptly when a stream from the
+roof suddenly descended upon his grizzled head.
+
+"That," he said, "is one of the trifles a man with a sense of proportion
+and a contemplative temperament makes light of. The curse of this effete
+age is its ceaseless striving after luxury."
+
+Brooke laughed softly, as he watched the water run down the moralizer's
+nose. "It is," he said, "at least, not often attainable in this
+country."
+
+"Which is precisely why men grow rich in the Colonies. Now, here are you
+and I, who at one time in our lives required four or five courses for
+dinner, not only subsisting, but thriving upon grindstone bread,
+flapjacks, molasses, and the contents of certain cans from Chicago,
+which one cannot even be certain are what they are averred to be, though
+the Colonist consumes them with the faith that asks no questions."
+
+"I fancy you are, in one respect, taking a good deal for granted,"
+Brooke said, drily.
+
+Allonby made a deprecatory gesture. "Being, although you might
+occasionally find a difficulty in crediting it, one myself, I am seldom
+mistaken about the points of a man who has moved in good society, though
+I may admit that it was the ruin of me. Had I been brought up in this
+country, one-third of my income would have sufficed me, and I should
+have made provision for my grey hairs with the rest, while I fed, like
+a Canadian, out of vessels of enamel and the useful wood pulp. As it
+was, I wasted my substance, and, unfortunately, that of other men who
+had undue confidence in me, in London clubs, with the result that I am
+now what is sometimes termed a waster in the land of promise."
+
+"It is not very difficult to get through a good deal of one's substance
+in a certain fashion, even in Canada," and Brooke glanced reflectively
+at the array of empty bottles.
+
+"That point of view, although a popular one, is illusory, which can be
+demonstrated by mathematics. A man, it is evident, cannot drink more
+than a certain quantity of whisky. His physical capacity precludes it,
+while even in my bad weeks the cost of it could not well exceed some
+eight dollars. Excluding that item, one could live contentedly here at
+an outlay of one dollar daily, if he did not, unfortunately, possess a
+memory."
+
+It seemed to Brooke that this latter observation might be true, if one
+had, at least, any hope for the future. Allonby's day was nearly done,
+and he had only the past to return and trouble him, but Brooke felt just
+then that, in spite of his pride in the profession which had been rather
+forced upon him than adopted, he had very little to look forward to,
+since he had, by his own folly, made the one thing he longed for above
+all others unattainable. He had been three months at the Dayspring, and
+had heard nothing from Barbara. She must, he fancied, have discovered
+the part he had played by this time, and would blot him out of her
+memory, while now, when it seemed conceivable that he might make his
+mark in Canada, all that this implied had become valueless to him.
+Wealth and celebrity might perhaps be attainable, but there would be
+nobody to share them with, for he realized that Barbara Heathcote did
+not possess the easy toleration on certain points which appeared to
+characterize Saxton and Devine. In the meanwhile, Allonby did not seem
+pleased with his silence.
+
+"You are," he said, a trifle quickly, "by no means an entertaining
+companion for a man who is at times too sensible of the irony of his
+position, and appear to be without either comprehension or sympathy.
+Here am I, who was accustomed to fare sumptuously in London clubs,
+living on the husks and other metaphorical et ceteras, and
+endeavoring--for that is all it amounts to--to console myself with
+profitless reflections. I am, of course, in the elegant simile of the
+country, a tank, or whisky-skin, but I am still a man who found a
+fortune and stripped himself of everything but whisky to develop it."
+
+Brooke laughed to conceal his impatience. "Then you are as sure as ever
+about the silver? We have got a good way down without finding very much
+sign of it."
+
+Allonby rose, with a little flush in his watery eyes, and leaned,
+somewhat unsteadily, upon the table.
+
+"It is the one thing I believe in. The rest, and I once had my fancies
+and theories like other men, are shadows and chimeras now. Only the
+silver is real--and there. All I made in Canada is sunk in this mine,
+which no longer belongs to me, and when I make the great discovery not a
+dollar will fall to my share."
+
+"Then it is a little difficult to understand what you are so anxious to
+find the silver for."
+
+Allonby swayed a trifle on his feet, but the gleam in his eyes grew
+brighter. "You," he said, "are, as I pointed out, curiously deficient in
+comprehension, but you never won a case of medals that were coveted by
+the keenest brains among all those who hoped to enter your profession.
+Of what use are dollars to a whisky-tank who will, in all probability,
+be found mangled at the bottom of the shaft one day? Still, when I made
+the calculations we are now working on, there was no man in the province
+with a knowledge equal to mine, and I ask no more than to prove them
+right."
+
+Brooke sat silent, because he could think of nothing appropriate to say.
+He had asked the question lightly, and had got his answer. It made the
+attitude of this broken-down wreck of humanity plain to him, and he
+vaguely realized the pathos underlying it. Possessed by the one fancy,
+the man had lost or flung away all that life might have offered him,
+while he clung to the apparently worthless mine, not, it seemed, for the
+dollars that success might bring him, but from pride in his professional
+skill and the faculties which had long deserted him. That, as he said,
+was his one point of faith, and he lived only to vindicate it.
+
+Then Allonby lurched unsteadily to the door, and held his hand up as he
+opened it.
+
+"Listen!" he said. "Is that the mail carrier? I must know when we'll get
+those drills and the giant powder before I sleep. The sinking goes on
+slowly, and life is very uncertain when one drinks whisky as I do."
+
+Brooke listened, and, for a time, heard only the splash from the pine
+boughs and the patter of the rain, while Allonby's frail figure cut
+against the white mists that slid past the doorway. Then a faint,
+measured thudding came up the valley, and he remembered afterwards that
+he felt a curious sense of anticipation. The sound swelled into the beat
+of horse hoofs floundering and slipping on the wet gravel, and Brooke
+smiled at his eagerness, for though he had, he fancied, cut himself off
+from all that concerned his past in England, he had never been quite
+able to await the approach of a mail carrier with complete indifference,
+and he felt the suggestiveness of the drumming of the weary horse's
+feet. There had been a time when he had listened with beating heart
+while it drew nearer down the shadowy trail, and once more a little
+thrill ran through him.
+
+Then there was a clatter of hoofs on wet rock, and a shout, as a man
+pulled his jaded beast up in the darkness outside, while a dripping
+packet was flung into the room. Brooke could see nobody, but a voice
+said, "That's your lot; I guess I can't stop. Got to make Truscott's
+before I sleep, and the beast's gone lame."
+
+The rattle of hoofs commenced again, and Brooke sat idly watching
+Allonby, who was tearing open the packet with shaky fingers.
+
+"The tools and powder are coming up," he said. "Hallo! Excuse my
+inadvertence, Brooke. This one's apparently for you."
+
+Brooke caught the big blue envelope tossed across to him, and when he
+had taken out several precisely folded papers and glanced at the sheet
+of stiff legal writing, sat still, staring vacantly straight in front of
+him. The uncleanly shanty faded from before his eyes, and he was not
+even conscious that Allonby, who had laid down his own correspondence,
+was watching him until the latter broke the silence.
+
+"I know that style of envelope, but it is, presumably, too long since
+you left England for it to contain any unpleasant reference to a debt,"
+he said. "Has somebody been leaving you a fortune?"
+
+Brooke smiled in a curious, listless fashion. "No," he said, "not a
+fortune. Still, I suppose one could almost consider it a competence."
+
+"Then you appear singularly free from the satisfaction one would
+naturally expect from a man who had just received any news of that
+description," said Allonby, drily.
+
+Brooke's face grew suddenly grim. "If it had come a little earlier, it
+might have been of much more use to me."
+
+Allonby had, apparently, sufficient sense left in him to recognize that
+any further observations he might feel inclined to make were scarcely
+likely to be appreciated just then, and once more Brooke sat motionless,
+with the letter in his hand, and the inclosures that had slipped from
+his fingers strewn about the floor. He had been left with what any one
+with simple tastes would have considered a moderate competence, at
+least, in Canada, by the man he had quarrelled with, and he gathered
+from the lawyer's letter that, if he wished it, there would be no
+difficulty in at once realizing the property. It naturally amounted to
+considerably more than the six thousand dollars he had sold his
+self-respect for, and at the moment he was only sensible of a bitter
+regret that the news had not come to hand a little earlier.
+
+If that had happened, he would never have made the attempt upon the
+papers, and might have broken with Saxton without the necessity for any
+explanation with Devine. He had no doubt that the latter had acquainted
+his wife and Barbara, which meant that he would be branded for ever as
+rather worse than a thief in her eyes. The money which would have saved
+him, and might have bought him happiness, was he felt, almost useless to
+him now.
+
+In the meanwhile, Allonby had turned to his own correspondence, and the
+shanty was very still, save for the patter of the rain outside and the
+doleful wailing of the pines. Brooke gazed at the letter he held with
+vacant eyes, but though he scarcely seemed to notice his surroundings,
+he could long afterwards recall them clearly--the litter of soil-stained
+garments and mining boots, the crackling stove, the rain that flashed
+through the stream of light outside the open door, and Allonby's haggard
+face and wasted figure.
+
+Then it occurred to him that there was a discrepancy between the time
+when the will was made and that on which the news of it had been sent to
+him, and as he stooped to pick up the papers from the floor, he came
+upon a black-edged envelope. He recognized the writing, and, hastily
+opening it, found it was from an English kinsman.
+
+"You will be sorry to hear that Austin Dangerfield has succumbed at
+last," he read. "He was, perhaps, a little hard upon you at one time,
+but Clara and I felt that he was right in his objections to Lucy all
+along, and no doubt you realized it when she married Shafton Coulson.
+However that may be, the old man mentioned you frequently a little
+before the end, and seemed to feel the fact that he had driven you away,
+which was, no doubt, what induced him to leave you most of his personal
+property. Baron and Rodway will have sent you a schedule, and, as one of
+the executors, I would say that we had some difficulty in finding where
+to address you until we heard from Coulson that Lucy had met you. There
+is one point I feel I should refer to. As you will notice, part of the
+estate is represented by stock in a Canadian mine. Austin, whose mental
+grip was getting a trifle slack latterly, appears to have been led
+rather too much by Shafton Coulson in the stock operations he was fond
+of dabbling in, and I fancy it was by the latter's advice he made the
+purchase. There is very little demand for the shares on the market here,
+but you will perhaps be able to form an accurate opinion concerning
+their value."
+
+Brooke laid down the letter, and took up the lawyers' schedule. Then he
+laughed curiously as he realized that a considerable proportion of his
+legacy was represented by shares in the Dayspring Consols. One of the
+mines, he knew, was liable to be jumped at any moment, and the other was
+worthless, unless the opinion of his half-crazy companion could be taken
+seriously. There were one or two more small gashes in the hillside,
+concerning which the miners he had questioned appeared distinctly
+dubious.
+
+Allonby turned at the sound. "One would scarcely have fancied from that
+laugh that you were feeling very much more pleased than you were when
+you hadn't gone into the affair," he said.
+
+"Then it was a tolerably accurate reflection of my state of mind," said
+Brooke. "This legacy, which came along two or three months after the
+time when it would have been of vital importance to me, consists in part
+of shares in this very mine. That is naturally about the last thing I
+would have desired or expected, and results from one of the curious
+conjunctions of circumstances which, I suppose, come about now and then.
+When the thing one has longed for does come along, it is generally at a
+time when the wish for it has gone."
+
+"Commiseration would be a little unnecessary," said Allonby, with
+unusual quietness. "The competence you mention will certainly prove a
+fortune before you are very much older."
+
+"I don't feel by any means as sure of it as you seem to be. Still, under
+the circumstances, it doesn't greatly matter."
+
+Allonby, with some difficulty, straightened himself. "I am," he said,
+not without a certain dignity which almost astonished Brooke, "a
+worn-out wastrel and a whisky-tank, but I'll live to show the men who
+look down on me with contemptuous pity what I was once capable of. That
+is all I am holding on to life for. It is naturally not a very pleasant
+one to a man with a memory."
+
+For a moment he stood almost erect, and then collapsed suddenly into his
+chair. "Devine has a brain of another and very much lower order, though
+it is of a kind that is apt to prove more useful to its possessor, and
+in his own sphere there are very few men to equal him. If I do not fall
+down the shaft in the meanwhile, we will certainly show this province
+what we can do together. And now I believe it is advisable for me to go
+to bed, while I feel to some extent capable of reaching it. My head is
+at least as clear as usual, but my legs are unruly."
+
+
+
+
+XXIII.
+
+BROOKE'S CONFESSION.
+
+
+The Pacific express had just come in, and the C. P. R. wharf at
+Vancouver was thronged with a hurrying crowd when Barbara Heathcote and
+her sister stood leaning upon the rails of the S. S. _Islander_. Beneath
+them the big locomotive which had hauled the dusty cars over the wild
+Selkirk passes was crawling slowly down the wharf with bell tolling
+dolefully, and while a feathery steam roared aloft above the tiers of
+white deckhouses a stream of passengers flowed up the gangway. Barbara,
+who was crossing to Victoria, watched them languidly until an
+elaborately-dressed woman ascended, leaning upon the arm of a man whose
+fastidious neatness of attire and air of indifference to the confusion
+about him proclaimed him an Englishman. She made a very slight
+inclination when the woman smiled at her.
+
+"It is fortunate she can't very well get at us here," she said, glancing
+at the pile of baggage which cut them off from the rest of the deck.
+"Three or four hours of Mrs. Coulson's conversation would be a good deal
+more than I could appreciate."
+
+"You need scarcely be afraid of it in the meanwhile," said Mrs. Devine.
+"It is a trifle difficult to hear one's self speak."
+
+"For which her husband is no doubt thankful. Until I met them once or
+twice I wondered why that man wore an habitually tired expression. Of
+course there are Englishmen who consider it becoming, but one feels that
+in his case his looks are quite in keeping with his sensations."
+
+Mrs. Devine laughed. "You don't like the woman?"
+
+"No," said Barbara, reflectively. "I really don't know why I shouldn't,
+but I don't. She certainly poses too much, and the last time I had the
+pleasure of listening to her at the Wheelers' house she patronized me
+and the country too graciously. The country can get along without her
+commendation."
+
+"I wonder if she asked you anything about Brooke?"
+
+"No," said Barbara, a trifle sharply. "Where could she have met him?"
+
+"In England. She seemed to know he was at the Dayspring, and managed, I
+fancy, intentionally, to leave me with the impression that they were
+especial friends in the Old Country. I wonder if she knows he will be on
+board to-day?"
+
+"Mr. Brooke is crossing with us?" said Barbara, with an indifference her
+sister had some doubts about.
+
+"Grant seemed to expect him. He is going to buy American mining
+machinery or something of the kind in Victoria. I believe it was he
+Grant left us to meet."
+
+Barbara said nothing, though she was sensible of a curious little
+thrill. She had not seen Brooke since the evening he had behaved in what
+was an apparently inexplicable fashion at the ranch, and had heard very
+little about him. She, however, watched the wharf intently, until she
+saw Devine accost a man with a bronzed face who was quietly threading
+his way through the hurrying groups, and her heart beat a trifle faster
+than usual as they moved together towards the steamer. Then almost
+unconsciously she turned to see if the woman they had been discussing
+was also watching for him, but she had by this time disappeared.
+Barbara, for no very apparent reason, felt a trifle pleased at this.
+
+In the meanwhile Devine was talking rapidly to Brooke.
+
+"Here is a letter for you that came in with yesterday's mail," he said.
+"Struck anything more encouraging at the mine since you wrote me?"
+
+"No," said Brooke. "I'm afraid we haven't. Still, Allonby seems as sure
+as ever and is most anxious to get the new plant in."
+
+Devine appeared thoughtful. "You'll have to knock off the big boring
+machine anyway. The mine's just swallowing dollars, and we'll have to go
+a trifle slower until some more come in. English directors didn't seem
+quite pleased last mail. Somebody in their papers has been slating the
+Dayspring properties, and there's a good deal of stock they couldn't
+work off. In fact, they seemed inclined to kick at my last draft, and
+we'll want two or three more thousand dollars before the month is up."
+
+Brooke would have liked to ask several questions, but between the
+clanging of the locomotive bell and the roar of steam conversation was
+difficult, and when they stopped a moment at the foot of the gangway
+Devine's voice only reached him in broken snatches.
+
+"Got to keep your hand down--spin every dollar out. I'm writing straight
+about another draft. Use the wires the moment you strike anything that
+would give the stock a lift."
+
+"If you're going I guess it's 'bout time you got aboard," said a seaman,
+who stood ready to launch the gangway in; and Brooke, making a sign of
+comprehension to Devine, went up with a run.
+
+Then the ropes were cast off, and he sat down to open his letter under
+the deckhouse, as with a sonorous blast of her whistle the big white
+steamer swung out from the wharf. It was from the English kinsman who
+had previously written him, and confirmed what Devine had said.
+
+"I'm sorry you are holding so much of the Canadian mining stock," he
+read. "You are, perhaps, better posted about the mine than I am, but
+though the shares were largely underwritten, I understand the promoters
+found it difficult to place a proportion of the rest, and my broker told
+me that several holders would be quite willing to get out at well under
+par already."
+
+It was not exactly good news from any point of view, and Brooke was
+pondering over it somewhat moodily when he heard a voice he recognized,
+and looking up saw a woman with pale blue eyes smiling at him.
+
+"Lucy!" he said, with evident astonishment, but no great show of
+pleasure.
+
+"You looked so occupied that I was really afraid to disturb you," said
+the woman. "Shafton is talking Canadian politics with somebody, and I
+wonder if you are too busy to find a chair for me."
+
+Brooke got one, and his companion, who was the woman Barbara had alluded
+to as Mrs. Coulson, sat down, and said nothing for a while as she gazed
+back across the blue inlet with evident appreciation. This was, in one
+respect, not astonishing, though so far as Brooke could remember she had
+never been remarkably fond of scenery, for the new stone city that rose
+with its towering telegraph poles roof beyond roof up the hillside,
+gleaming land-locked waterway, and engirdling pines with the white blink
+of ethereal snow high above them all, made a very fair picture that
+afternoon.
+
+"This," she said at last, "would really be a beautiful country if
+everything wasn't quite so crude."
+
+"It is certainly not exactly adapted to landscape-gardening," said
+Brooke. "A two-thousand foot precipice and a hundred-league forest is a
+trifle big. Still, I'm not sure its inhabitants would appreciate such
+praise."
+
+Lucy Coulson laughed. "They are like it in one respect--I don't mean in
+size--and delightfully touchy on the subject. Now, there was a girl I
+met not long ago who appeared quite displeased with me when I said that
+with a little improving one might compare it to Switzerland. I told her
+I scarcely felt warranted in dragging paradise in, if only because of
+some of its characteristic customs. I think her name was Devane, or
+something equally unusual, though it might have been her married
+sister's. Perhaps it's Canadian."
+
+She fancied a trace of indignation crept into the man's bronzed face,
+but it vanished swiftly.
+
+"One could scarcely call Miss Heathcote crude," he said.
+
+Lucy Coulson did not inquire whether he was acquainted with the lady in
+question, but made a mental note of the fact.
+
+"It, of course, depends upon one's standard of comparison," she said.
+"No doubt she comes up to the one adopted in this country. Still, though
+the latter is certainly pretty, what is keeping--you--in it now?"
+
+"Then you have heard of my good fortune?"
+
+"Of course! Shafton and I were delighted. Your executors wrote for your
+address to me."
+
+Brooke started visibly as he recognized that she must in that case have
+learned the news a month before he did, for a good deal had happened in
+the meanwhile.
+
+"Then it is a little curious that you did not mention it in the note you
+sent inviting me to meet you at the Glacier Lake," he said.
+
+Lucy Coulson lifted her eyes to his a moment, and then glanced aside,
+while there was a significant softness in her voice as she said, "The
+news seemed so good that I wanted to be the one who told it you."
+
+Again Brooke felt a disconcerting sense of embarrassment, and because he
+had no wish that she should recognize this looked at her steadily.
+
+"It apparently became of less importance when I did not come," he said
+with a trace of dryness. "There is a reliable postal service in this
+country. Do you remember exactly what day you went to the Lake on?"
+
+Mrs. Coulson laughed, and made a little half-petulant gesture. "I
+fancied you did not deserve to hear it when you could not contrive to
+come forty miles to see me. Still, I think I can remember the day.
+Shafton had to be in Vancouver on the Wednesday----"
+
+She told him in another moment, and Brooke was sensible of a sudden
+thrill of anger that was for the most part a futile protest against the
+fact that his destiny should lie at the mercy of a vain woman's idle
+fancy, for had he known on the day she mentioned he would never have
+made the attempt upon Devine's papers. Barbara Heathcote, he decided,
+doubtless knew by this time what had brought him to the ranch on the
+eventful night, and even if she did not the imposition he had been
+guilty of then remained as a barrier between him and her. After
+permitting her to give him credit for courage and a desire to watch over
+her safety he dare not tell her he had come as a thief. Still, he
+recognized that it was, after all, illogical to blame his companion for
+his own folly.
+
+"Harford," she said, gently, "are you very vexed with me?"
+
+Brooke smiled in a somewhat strained fashion. "No," he said, "I scarcely
+think I am, and I have, at least, no right to be. I don't know whether
+you will consider it a sufficient excuse, but I was very busy on the day
+in question. I was, you see, under the unfortunate necessity of earning
+my living."
+
+"I think there was a time when you would not have let that stand in the
+way, but men are seldom very constant, are they?"
+
+Brooke made no attempt to controvert the assertion. It seemed distinctly
+wiser to ignore it, since his companion apparently did not remember that
+she had now a husband who could hardly be expected to appreciate any
+unwavering devotion offered her, which was a fact that had its
+importance in Brooke's eyes, at least. Then she turned towards him with
+disconcerting suddenness.
+
+"Why don't you go home now you have enough to live, with a little
+economy, as you were meant to do?" she said. "This country is no place
+for you."
+
+Brooke, who did not remember that she previously endeavored to lead up
+to the question, started, for it was one which he had not infrequently
+asked himself of late, and the answer that the opportunity of proving
+his capabilities as a dam-builder and mining engineer had its
+attractions was, he knew, not quite sufficient in itself. Then, as it
+happened, Barbara Heathcote and Mrs. Devine, who appeared in the
+companion, came towards them along the deck, and Lucy Coulson noticed
+the glow in his eyes that was followed by a sudden hardening of his
+face. Perhaps she guessed a little, or it was done out of wantonness,
+for she laid her white-gloved hand upon his arm and leaned forward a
+trifle.
+
+"Harford," she said, looking up at him, "once upon a time you gave me
+your whole confidence."
+
+Brooke hoped his face was expressionless, for he was most unpleasantly
+sensible of that almost caressing touch upon his arm, as well as of the
+fact that his attitude, or, at least, that of his companion, was
+distinctly liable to misconception by any one aware that she was another
+man's wife. He had no longer any tenderness for her, and she had in any
+case married Shafton Coulson, who, so far as he had heard, made her a
+very patient as well as considerate husband.
+
+"That was several years ago," he said.
+
+Lucy Coulson laughed, and, though it is probable that she had seen them
+approach, turned with a little start that seemed unnecessarily apparent
+as Barbara and Mrs. Devine came up, while Brooke hoped his face did not
+suggest what he was thinking. As a matter of fact, it was distinctly
+flushed, which Barbara naturally noticed. She would have passed, but
+that Mrs. Coulson stopped her with a gesture.
+
+"So glad to see you!" she said. "Can't you stay a little and talk to us?
+One is out of the breeze under the deck-house here. Harford, there are
+two unoccupied chairs yonder."
+
+Brooke wished she would not persist in addressing him as Harford, but he
+brought the chairs, and Mrs. Devine, who had her own reasons for falling
+in with the suggestion, sat down. Barbara had no resource but to take
+the place beside her, and Lucy Coulson smiled at both of them.
+
+"I believe Mrs. Devine mentioned that you had met Mr. Brooke," she said
+to the girl. "He is, of course, a very old friend of mine."
+
+She contrived to give the words a significance which Brooke winced at,
+but he sat watching Barbara covertly while the others talked, or rather
+listened while Lucy Coulson did. Barbara scarcely glanced at him, but he
+fancied that Devine had not told her yet, or she would not have joined a
+group which included him at all. The position was not exactly a pleasant
+one, but he could think of no excuse for going away, and listened
+vacantly. Lucy Coulson, as it happened, was discoursing upon Canada,
+which when she did not desire to please a Canadian was a favorite topic
+of hers. Barbara, however, on this occasion only watched her with a
+little reposeful smile, and so half an hour slipped by while, with
+mastheads swinging lazily athwart the blue, the white-painted steamer
+rolled along, past rocky islets shrouded in dusky pines, across a
+shining sea above which white lines of snow gleamed ethereally.
+
+Mrs. Coulson, however, had no eyes to spare for any of it, for when they
+were not fixed upon the girl she was watching Brooke.
+
+"Some of the men we met in the mountains were delightfully
+inconsequent," she said at length. "There was one called Saxton at a
+mine, who spent a good deal of one afternoon telling us about the
+reforms that ought to be made in the administration of this province,
+and which I fancy he intended to effect. It was, of course, not a
+subject I was greatly interested in, but the man was so much in earnest
+that one had to listen to him, and Shafton told me afterwards that he
+was, where business was concerned, evidently a great rascal. Shafton,
+you know, enjoys listening quietly and afterwards turning people inside
+out for inspection. Still, perhaps, it was a little unwise to single the
+man out individually. There is always a risk of somebody who hears you
+being a friend of the person when you do that kind of thing--and now I
+remember he mentioned Mr. Brooke."
+
+Brooke noticed that Barbara cast a swift glance at him, and wondered
+with sudden anger if Lucy Coulson had not already done him harm enough.
+Then Barbara turned towards the latter.
+
+"Saxton," she said quietly, "is an utterly unprincipled man. I really do
+not think we have many like him in this country. You probably mistook
+his reference to Mr. Brooke."
+
+Mrs. Coulson laughed. "Of course, I may have done, though I almost think
+he said Harford was a partner of his. Perhaps, however, he had a purpose
+in telling us that, for he had been trying to sell Shafton some land
+company's shares, though if it hadn't been true he would scarcely have
+ventured to mention it."
+
+There was a sudden silence, and Brooke, who felt Barbara's eyes upon
+him, heard the splash of water along the steamer's plates and the
+throbbing of the screw. He also saw that Mrs. Devine was rather more
+intent than usual, and that Lucy Coulson was wondering at the effect of
+what she had said. He could, he fancied, acquit her of any ill intent,
+but that was no great consolation, for he could not controvert her
+assertion, and he felt that now she had mentioned the condemning fact
+his one faint chance was to let Barbara have the explanation from his
+own lips instead of asking it from Devine. Still, he could scarcely do
+so when the rest were there, and Lucy Coulson, at least, showed no
+intention of leaving him and the girl alone. It was, in fact, almost an
+hour later when her husband crossed the deck and she rose.
+
+"Shafton has nobody to talk to, and one has to remember their duty now
+and then," she said.
+
+Then as the steamer swung round a nest of reefs that rose out of a white
+swirl of tide the sea breeze swept that side of the deckhouse and Mrs.
+Devine departed for another wrap or shawl. Lifting her head Barbara
+looked at the man steadily.
+
+"Was that woman's story true?" she said.
+
+Brooke made a little gesture which implied that he attempted no defence.
+
+"It was," he said.
+
+A faint spark crept into Barbara's eyes, and a tinge of color into her
+cheek. "You know what you are admitting?"
+
+"I am afraid I do."
+
+Barbara Heathcote had a temper, and though she usually held it in check
+it swept her away just then.
+
+"Then, though we only discovered it afterwards, you knew that Saxton was
+scheming against my brother-in-law, and bought up the timber-rights to
+extort money from him?"
+
+Again Brooke made a little gesture, and the girl, who seemed stirred as
+he had scarcely believed her capable of being, straightened herself
+rigidly.
+
+"And yet you crept into his house, and permitted us--it is very hard to
+say it--to make friends with you! Had you no sense of fitness? Can't you
+even speak?"
+
+Brooke was too confused, and the girl too furious, for either of them to
+realize the significance of her anger, since the fact that she had
+merely permitted him to meet her as an acquaintance at the ranch
+scarcely seemed to warrant that almost passionate outbreak.
+
+"I'm afraid there is nothing I can plead in extenuation except that
+Grant Devine's agent swindled me," he said.
+
+Barbara laughed scornfully. "And you felt that would warrant you playing
+the part you did. Was it a spy's part only, or were you to be a traitor,
+too?"
+
+Then Brooke, who lost his head, did what was at the moment, at least, a
+most unwise thing.
+
+"I expect I deserve all you can say or think of me," he said. "Still, I
+can't help a fancy that you are not quite free from responsibility."
+
+"I?" said Barbara, incredulously.
+
+Brooke nodded. "Yes," he said, desperately, "you heard me correctly.
+Under the circumstances it isn't exactly complimentary or particularly
+easy to explain. Still, you see, you showed me that the content with my
+surroundings I was sinking into was dangerous when you came to the
+Quatomac ranch; and afterwards the more I saw of you the more I realized
+what the six thousand dollars I hoped to secure from Devine would give
+me a chance of attaining."
+
+He broke off abruptly, as though afraid to venture further, and Barbara
+watched him a moment, breathless with anger, with lips set. There was
+nobody on that part of the deck just then, and the steady pounding of
+the engines broke through what the man felt to be an especially
+disconcerting silence. Then she laughed in a fashion that stung him like
+a whip.
+
+"And you fancied there were girls in this country with anything worth
+offering who would be content with such a man as you are?" she said.
+"One has, however, to bear with a good deal that is said about Canada,
+and perhaps you would have been able to keep the deception that gained
+the appreciation of one of them up. You are proficient at that kind of
+thing."
+
+"I am quite aware that the excuse is a very poor one."
+
+The girl felt that whether it was dignified or not the relief speech
+afforded was imperative.
+
+"Haven't you even the wit to urge the one creditable thing you did?"
+
+Brooke contrived to meet her eyes. "You mean when I came into the ranch
+one night. You don't know that was merely a part of the rest?"
+
+The blood rushed to Barbara's face. "The man was your confederate, and
+you fell out over the booty--or perhaps you heard me coming and arranged
+the little scene for my benefit?"
+
+"No," said Brooke, with a harsh laugh. "In that case the climax of it
+would have been unnecessarily realistic. You may remember that he shot
+me. Still, since you may as well know the worst of me, it happened that
+we both came there with the same purpose, which is somewhat naturally
+accounted for by the fact that your brother-in-law was away that night."
+
+"And you allowed me to sympathize with you for your injury and to
+fancy----"
+
+Barbara broke off abruptly, for it appeared inadvisable under the
+circumstances to let him know what motive she had accredited him with.
+
+"My brother-in-law is naturally not aware of this?" she said.
+
+"I, at least, considered it necessary to acquaint him with most of it
+before I went to the Dayspring. No doubt you will find it difficult to
+credit that, but if it appears worth while you can of course confirm it.
+You would evidently have been less tolerant than he has shown himself!"
+
+Barbara stood up, and Brooke became sensible of intense relief as he saw
+Mrs. Devine was approaching with a bundle of wraps.
+
+"I would sooner have sacrificed the mine than continue to have any
+dealings with you," she said.
+
+Then she turned away, and left him sitting somewhat limply in his chair
+and staring vacantly at the sea. He saw no more of her during the rest
+of the voyage, but when two hours later the steamer reached Victoria he
+went straight to the cable company's office and sent his kinsman in
+England a message which somewhat astonished him.
+
+"Buy Dayspring on my account as far as funds will go," it read.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV.
+
+ALLONBY STRIKES SILVER.
+
+
+Winter had closed in early, with Arctic severity, and the pines were
+swathed in white and gleaming with the frost when Brooke stood one
+morning beside the crackling stove in the shanty he and Allonby occupied
+at the Dayspring mine. A very small piece of rancid pork was frizzling
+in the frying-pan, and he was busy whipping up two handfuls of flour
+with water, to make flapjacks of. He could readily have consumed twice
+as much alone, for it was twelve hours since his insufficient six
+o'clock supper, but he realized that it was advisable to curb his
+appetite. Supplies had run very low, and the lonely passes over which
+the trail to civilization led were blocked with snow, while it was a
+matter of uncertainty when the freighter and his packhorse train could
+force his way in.
+
+When the flour was ready he stirred the stove to a brisker glow, and,
+crossing the room, flung open the outer door. It was still an hour or
+two before sunrise, and the big stars scintillated with an intensity of
+frosty radiance, though the deep indigo of the cloudless vault was
+paling in color, and the pines were growing into definite form. Here and
+there a sombre spire or ragged branch rose harshly from the rest, but,
+for the most part, they were smeared with white, and his eyes were
+dazzled by the endless vista of dimly-gleaming snow. Towering peak and
+serrated rampart rose hard and sharp against a background of coldest
+blue. There was no sound, for the glaciers' slushy feet that fed the
+streams had hardened into adamant, and a deathlike silence pervaded the
+frozen wilderness.
+
+Brooke felt the cold strike through him with the keenness of steel, and
+was about to cross the space between the shanty and the men's log
+shelter, when a dusky figure, beating its arms across its chest, came
+out of the latter.
+
+"Are the rest of the boys stirring yet?" he said.
+
+The man laughed, and his voice rang with a curious distinctness through
+the nipping air.
+
+"I guess we've had the stove lit 'most an hour ago," he said. "They've
+no use for being frozen, and that's what's going to happen to some of us
+unless we can make Truscott's before it's dark. Say, hadn't you better
+change your mind, and come along with us?"
+
+Brooke made a little sign of negation, though it would have pleased him
+to fall in with the suggestion. Work is seldom continued through the
+winter at the remoter mines, and he had most unwillingly decided to pay
+off the men, owing to the difficulty of transporting provisions and
+supplies. There was, however, a faint probability of somebody attempting
+to jump the unoccupied claim, and he had of late become infected by
+Allonby's impatience, while he felt that he could not sit idle in the
+cities until the thaw came round again. Still, he was quite aware that
+he ran no slight risk by remaining.
+
+"I'm not sure that it wouldn't be wiser, but I've got to stay," he said.
+"Anyway, Allonby wouldn't come."
+
+The other man dropped his voice a little. "That don't count. If you'll
+stand in, we'll take him along on the jumper sled. The old tank's 'most
+played out, and it's only the whisky that's keeping the life in him.
+He'll go out on the long trail sudden when there's no more of it, and
+it's going to be quite a long while before the freighter gets a load
+over the big divide."
+
+Brooke knew that this was very likely, but he shook his head. "I'm half
+afraid it would kill him to leave the mine," he said. "It's the hope of
+striking silver that's holding him together as much as the whisky."
+
+"Well," said the man, who laughed softly, "I've been mining and
+prospecting most of twenty years, and it's my opinion that, except the
+little you're getting on the upper level, there's not a dollar's worth
+of silver here. Now I guess Harry will have breakfast ready."
+
+He moved away, and when Brooke went back into the shanty, Allonby came
+out of an inner room shivering. His face showed grey in the lamplight,
+and he looked unusually haggard and frail.
+
+"It's bitter cold, and I seem to feel it more than I did last year," he
+said. "We will, however, be beyond the necessity of putting up with any
+more unpleasantness of the kind long before another one is over. I shall
+probably feel adrift then--it will be difficult, in my case, to pick up
+the thread of the old life again."
+
+"If you stay here, I'm not sure you'll have an opportunity of doing it
+at all," said Brooke. "It's a risk a stronger man than you are might
+shrink from."
+
+"Still, I intend to take it. We have gone into this before. If I leave
+Dayspring before I find the silver, I leave it dead."
+
+Brooke made a little gesture of resignation. "Well," he said, "I have
+done all I could, and now, if you will pour that flour into the pan,
+we'll have breakfast."
+
+Both men were silent during the frugal meal, for they knew what they had
+to look forward to, and the cold silence of the lonely land already
+weighed upon their spirits. Long weeks of solitude must be dragged
+through before the men who were going south that morning came back
+again, while there might very well be interludes of scarcity, and hunger
+is singularly hard to bear with the temperature at forty degrees below.
+Allonby only trifled with his food, and smiled drily when at last he
+thrust his plate aside.
+
+"Dollars are not to be picked up easily anywhere, and you and I are
+going to find out the full value of them before the thaw begins again,"
+he said. "We shall, no doubt, also discover how thoroughly nauseated one
+can become with his companion's company. I have heard of men wintering
+in the mountains who tried to kill one another."
+
+Brooke laughed. "It's scarcely likely we will go quite as far as that,
+though I certainly remember two men in the Quatomac Valley who flung
+everything in the range at each other periodically. One was inordinately
+fond of green stuff, and his partner usually started the circus by
+telling him to take his clothes off, and go out like Nebuchadnezzar.
+They refitted with wood-pulp ware when the proceedings became
+expensive."
+
+Just then there was a knock upon the door, which swung open, and a
+cluster of shadowy figures, with their breath floating like steam about
+them, appeared outside it. One of them flung a deerhide bag into the
+room.
+
+"We figured we needn't trail quite so much grub along, and I guess
+you'll want it," a voice said. "Neither of you changed your minds 'bout
+lighting out of this?"
+
+"I don't like to take it from you, boys," said Brooke, who recognized
+the rough kindliness which had prompted the men to strip themselves of
+the greater portion of their provisions. "You can't have more than
+enough for one day's march left."
+
+"I guess a man never hits the trail so hard as when he knows he has to,"
+somebody said. "It will keep us on the rustle till we fetch Truscott's.
+Well, you're not coming?"
+
+For just a moment Brooke felt his resolution wavering, and, under
+different circumstances, he might have taken Allonby by force, and gone
+with them, but by a somewhat involved train of reasoning he felt that it
+was incumbent upon him to stay on at the mine because Barbara Heathcote
+had once trusted him. It had been tolerably evident from her attitude
+when he had last seen her, that she had very little confidence in him
+now, but that did not seem to affect the question, and most men are a
+trifle illogical at times.
+
+"No," he said, with somewhat forced indifference. "Still, I don't mind
+admitting that I wish we were."
+
+The man laughed. "Then I guess we'll pull out. We'll think of you two
+now and then when we're lying round beside the stove in Vancouver."
+
+Brooke said nothing further. There was a tramp of feet, and the shadowy
+figures melted into the dimness beneath the pines. Then the last
+footfall died away, and the silence of the mountains suddenly seemed to
+grow overwhelming. Brooke turned to Allonby, who smiled.
+
+"You will," he said, "feel it considerably worse before the next three
+months are over, and probably be willing to admit that there is some
+excuse for my shortcomings in one direction. I have, I may mention, put
+in a good many winters here."
+
+Brooke swung round abruptly. "I'm going to work in the mine. It's
+fortunate that one man can just manage that new boring machine."
+
+He left Allonby in the shanty, and toiled throughout that day, and
+several dreary weeks, during most of which the pines roared beneath the
+icy gales and blinding snow swirled down the valley. What he did was of
+very slight effect, but it kept him from thinking, which, he felt, was a
+necessity, and he only desisted at length from physical incapacity for
+further labor. The snow, it was evident, had choked the passes, so that
+no laden beast could make the hazardous journey over them, for the
+anxiously-expected freighter did not arrive, and there was an increasing
+scarcity of provisions as the days dragged by; while Brooke discovered
+that a handful of mouldy floor and a few inches of rancid pork daily is
+not sufficient to keep a man's full strength in him. Then, when an
+Arctic frost followed the snow, Allonby fell sick, and one bitter
+evening, when an icy wind came wailing down the valley, it dawned upon
+his comrade that his condition was becoming precarious. Saying nothing,
+he busied himself about the stove, and smiled reassuringly when Allonby
+turned to him.
+
+"Are we to hold a festival to-night, since you seem to be cooking what
+should keep us for a week?" said the latter.
+
+"I almost fancy it would keep one of us for several days, which, since
+you do not seem especially capable of getting anything ready for
+yourself, is what it is intended to do," said Brooke. "I shall probably
+be that time in making the settlement and getting back again."
+
+"What are you going there for?"
+
+"To bring out the doctor."
+
+Allonby raised his head and looked at him curiously. "Are you sure that,
+with six or eight feet of snow on the divide, you could ever get there?"
+
+"Well," said Brooke, cheerfully, "I believe I could, and, if I don't,
+you will be very little worse off than you were before. You see, the
+provisions will not last two of us more than a few days longer, and you
+can take it that I will do all I can to get through the snow. Since you
+are not the only man who is anxious to find the silver, your health is a
+matter of importance to everybody just now."
+
+Allonby smiled curiously. "We will consider that the reason, and it is a
+tolerably good one, or I would not let you go. Still, I fancy you have
+another, and it is appreciated. There is, however, something more to be
+said. You will find my working plans in the case yonder should anything
+unexpected happen before you come back. Life, you know, is always a
+trifle uncertain."
+
+"That," said Brooke, decisively, "is morbid nonsense. You will be down
+the mine again in a week after the doctor comes."
+
+"Well," said Allonby, with a curious quietness, "I should, at least,
+very much like to find the silver."
+
+Brooke changed the subject somewhat abruptly, and it was an hour later
+when he shook hands with his comrade and went out into the bitter night
+with two blankets strapped upon his shoulders. Their parting was not
+demonstrative, though they realized that the grim spectre with the
+scythe would stalk close behind each of them until they met again, and
+Brooke, turning on the threshold, saw Allonby following him with
+comprehending eyes. Then he suddenly pulled the door to, shutting out
+the lamplight and the alluring red glow of the stove, and swung forward,
+knee-deep in dusty snow, into the gloom of the pines. The silence of the
+great white land was overwhelming, and the frost struck through him.
+
+It was late on the third night when he floundered into a little sleeping
+settlement, and leaned gasping against the door of the doctor's house
+before he endeavored to rouse its occupant. The latter stared at him
+almost aghast when he opened it, lamp in hand, and Brooke reeled, grey
+in the face with weariness and sheeted white with frozen snow, into the
+light.
+
+"Steady!" he said, slipping his arm through Brooke's. "Come in here.
+Now, keep back from the stove. I'll get you something that will fix you
+up in a minute. You came in from the Dayspring--over the divide? I heard
+the freighter telling the boys it couldn't be done."
+
+Brooke laughed harshly. "Well," he said, "you see me here, and, if
+that's not sufficient, you're going to prove the range can be crossed
+yourself to-morrow."
+
+The doctor was new to that country, and he was very young, or he would,
+in all probability, not been there at all, but when he heard Brooke's
+story he nodded tranquilly. "I'm afraid I haven't done any
+mountaineering, but I had the long-distance snowshoe craze rather bad
+back in Montreal," he said. "You're not going to give me very much of a
+lead over the passes, anyway, unless you sleep the next twelve hours."
+
+Brooke, as it happened, slept for six and then set out with the young
+doctor in blinding snow. He had forty to fifty pounds upon his back now,
+and once they left the sheltering timber it cost them four strenuous
+hours to make a thousand feet. Part of that night they lay awake,
+shivering in the pungent fir smoke in a hollow of the rocks, and started
+again, aching in every limb, long before the lingering dawn, while the
+next day passed like a very unpleasant dream with the young doctor. The
+snow had ceased, and lay without cohesion, dusty and dry as flour,
+waist-deep where the bitter winds had whirled it in wreaths, while the
+glare of the white peaks became intolerable under the cloudless sun.
+
+For hours they crawled through juniper scrub or stunted wisps of pines,
+where the trunks the winds had reaped lay piled upon each other in
+tangled confusion, with the sifting snow blown in to conceal the
+pitfalls between. By afternoon the doctor was flagging visibly, and
+white peaks and climbing timber reeled formlessly before his dazzled
+eyes as he struggled onward the rest of that day. Then, when the
+pitiless blue above them grew deeper in tint until the stars shone in
+depths of indigo, and the ranges fading from silver put on dim shades of
+blueness that enhanced their spotless purity, they stopped again, and
+made shift to boil the battered kettle in a gully, down which there
+moaned a little breeze that seared every patch of unprotected skin. The
+doctor collapsed behind a boulder, and lay there limply while Brooke fed
+the fire.
+
+"I'm 'most afraid you'll have to fix supper yourself to-night," he said.
+"Just now I don't quite know how I'm going to start to-morrow, though it
+will naturally have to be done."
+
+Brooke glanced round at the grim ramparts of ice and snow that cut
+sharp against the indigo. Night as it was, there was no softness in that
+scheme of color lighted by the frosty scintillations of the stars, and a
+shiver ran through his stiffened limbs.
+
+"Yes," he said. "Nobody not hardened to it could expect to stand more
+than another day in the open up here."
+
+He got the meal ready, but very little was said during it, and for a few
+hours afterwards the doctor lay coughing in the smoke of the fire, while
+his gum-boots softened and grew hard again as he drew his feet, which
+pained him intolerably between whiles, a trifle further from the
+crackling brands. He staggered when at last Brooke, finding that shaking
+was unavailing, dragged him upright.
+
+"Breakfast's almost ready, and we have got to make the mine by
+to-night," he said.
+
+The doctor could never remember how they accomplished it, but his lips
+were split and crusted with coagulated blood, while there seemed to be
+no heat left in him, when Brooke stopped on a ridge of the hillside as
+dusk was closing in.
+
+"The mine is close below us. In fact, we should have seen it from where
+we are," he said.
+
+Worn out as he was, the doctor noticed the grimness of his tone. "The
+nearer the better," he said. "I don't quite know how I got here, but you
+scarcely seem at ease."
+
+"I was wondering why Allonby, who does not like the dark, has not
+lighted up yet," Brooke said, drily. "We will probably find out in a few
+more minutes."
+
+Then he went reeling down the descending trail, and did not stop again
+until he stood amidst the piles of débris and pine stumps, with the
+shanty looming dimly in front of him across the little clearing. It
+seemed very dark and still, and the doctor, who came up gasping, stopped
+abruptly when his comrade's shout died away. The silence that closed in
+again seemed curiously eerie.
+
+"He must have heard you at that distance," he said.
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, a trifle hoarsely. "If he didn't, there's only one
+thing that could have accounted for it."
+
+Then they went on again slowly, until Brooke flung the door of the
+shanty open. There was no fire in the stove, and the place was very
+cold, while the darkness seemed oppressive.
+
+"Strike a match--as soon as you can get it done," said the doctor.
+
+Brooke broke several as he tore them off the block with half-frozen
+fingers, for the Canadian sulphur matches are not usually put up in
+boxes, and then a pale blue luminescence crept across the room when he
+held one aloft. It sputtered out, leaving a pungent odor, and thick
+darkness closed in again; but for a moment Brooke felt a curious relief.
+
+"He's not here," he said.
+
+The doctor understood the satisfaction in his voice, for his eyes had
+also turned straight towards the rough wooden bunk, and he had not
+expected to find it empty.
+
+"The man must have been fit to walk. Where has he gone?" he said.
+
+Brooke fancied he knew, and, groping round the room, found and lighted a
+lantern. Its radiance showed that his face was grim again.
+
+"If you can manage to drag yourself as far as the mine, I think it would
+be advisable," he said. "It seems to me significant that the stove is
+quite cold. One would fancy there had been no fire in it for several
+hours now."
+
+The doctor went with him, and somehow contrived to descend the shaft.
+Brooke leaned out from the ladder, swinging his lantern when they neared
+the bottom, and his shout rang hollowly among the rocks. There was no
+answer, and even the doctor, who had never seen Allonby, felt the
+silence that followed it.
+
+"If the man was as ill as you fancied how could he have got down?" he
+said.
+
+"I don't know," said Brooke. "Still, I think we shall come upon him not
+very far away."
+
+They went down a little further into the darkness, and then the
+prediction was warranted, for Brooke swung off his hat, and the doctor
+dropped on one knee when Allonby's white face appeared in the moving
+light. He lay very still, with one arm under him, and, when a few
+seconds had slipped by, the doctor looked up and, meeting Brooke's eyes,
+nodded.
+
+"Yes," he said. "It must have happened at least twelve hours ago. How, I
+can't tell exactly. Cardiac affection, I fancy. Anyway, not a fall.
+There is something in his hand, and a bundle of papers beside him."
+
+Brooke glanced away from the dead man, and noticed the stain of giant
+powder on the rock, and shattered fragments that had not been where they
+lay when he had last descended. Then he turned again, and took the piece
+of stone the doctor had, with some difficulty, dislodged from the cold
+fingers.
+
+"It's heavy," said the latter.
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, quietly. "A considerable percentage of it is either
+lead or silver. You are no doubt right in your diagnosis; so far as it
+goes, I'm inclined to fancy I know what brought on the cardiac
+affection."
+
+The doctor, who said nothing, handed him the papers, and Brooke, who
+opened them vacantly, started a little when he saw the jagged line,
+which, in drawings of the kind, usually indicates a break, was now
+traced across the ore vein in the plan. There was also a scrap of paper,
+with his name scrawled across it, and he read, "When you have got your
+dollars back four or five times over, sell out your stock."
+
+He scarcely realized its significance just then, and, moving the
+lantern a little, looked down on Allonby's face again. It was very white
+and quiet, and the signs of indulgence had faded from it, while Brooke
+was sensible of a curious thrill of compassion.
+
+"I wonder if the thing we long for most invariably comes when it is no
+use to us?" he said. "Well, we will go back to the shanty."
+
+There was nothing more that any man could do for Allonby until the
+morrow, and the darkness once more closed in on him, while the
+flickering light grew fainter up the shaft.
+
+
+
+
+XXV.
+
+BARBARA IS MERCILESS.
+
+
+It was about eight o'clock in the evening when Brooke stopped a moment
+as he entered the verandah of Devine's house, which stood girt about by
+sombre pines on a low rise divided by a waste of blackened stumps and
+branches from the outskirts of Vancouver city. Beneath him rose the
+clustering roofs and big electric lights, and a little lower still a
+broad track of silver radiance, athwart which a great ship rode with
+every spar silhouetted black as ebony, streaked the inlet. Though the
+frost was arctic in the ranges he had left a few days ago, it was almost
+warm down there, and he felt that he would have preferred to linger on
+the verandah, or even go back to his hotel, for the front of the wooden
+house was brilliantly lighted, and he could hear the chords of a piano.
+
+It was evident that Mrs. Devine was entertaining, and standing there,
+draped from neck to ankles in an old fur coat, he felt that he with his
+frost-nipped face and hard, scarred hands would be distinctly out of
+place amidst an assembly of prosperous citizens, while he was by no
+means certain how Mrs. Devine or Barbara would receive him. Often as he
+had thought of the latter, since he made his confession, he felt
+scarcely equal to meeting her just then. Still, it was necessary that he
+should see Devine, who was away at the neighboring city of New
+Westminster, when Brooke called at his office soon after the Pacific
+express arrived that afternoon, but had left word that he would be at
+home in the evening and would expect him; and flinging his cigar away he
+moved towards the door.
+
+A Chinese house boy took his coat from him in the hall, and as he stood
+under the big lamp it happened that Barbara came out of an adjacent door
+with two companions. Brooke felt his heart throb, though he did not
+move, and the girl, who turned her head a moment in his direction,
+crossed the hall, and vanished through another door. Then he smiled very
+grimly, for, though she made no sign of being aware of his presence, he
+felt that she had seen him. This was no more than he had expected, but
+it hurt nevertheless. In the meanwhile the house boy had also vanished,
+and it was a minute or two later when Mrs. Devine appeared, but Brooke
+could not then or afterwards decide whether she had heard the truth
+concerning him, for, though this seemed very probable, he knew that
+Barbara could be reticent, and surmised that Devine did not tell his
+wife everything. In any case, she did not shake hands with him.
+
+"My husband, who has just come home, is waiting for you in his
+smoking-room," she said. "It is the second door down the corridor."
+
+Brooke fancied that she could have been a trifle more cordial, but the
+fact that she sent nobody to show him the way, at least, was readily
+accounted for in a country where servants of any kind are remarkably
+scarce. It also happened that while he proceeded along the corridor one
+of Barbara's companions turned to her.
+
+"Did you see the man in the hall as we passed through?" she said. "I
+didn't seem to recognize him."
+
+Barbara was not aware that her face hardened a trifle, but her companion
+noticed that it did. She had certainly seen the man, and had felt his
+eyes upon her, while it also occurred to her that he looked worn and
+haggard, and she had almost been stirred to compassion. He had made no
+claim to recognition, but his face had not been quite expressionless,
+and she had seen the wistfulness in it. There was, in fact, a certain
+forlornness about his attitude which had its effect on her, and it was,
+perhaps, because of this she had suddenly hardened herself against him.
+
+"He is a Mr. Brooke--from the mine," she said.
+
+"Brooke!" said her companion. "The man from the Dayspring? I should like
+to talk to him."
+
+Barbara made a little gesture, the meaning of which was not especially
+plain. She had read the sensational account of the journey Brooke and
+the doctor had made through the ranges, which had by some means been
+supplied the press. It made it plain to her that the man was doing and
+enduring a good deal, and she was not disposed to be unduly severe upon
+a repentant offender, even though she fancied that nothing he could do
+would ever reinstate him in the place he once held in her estimation.
+The difficulty, however, was that she could not be sure he was contrite
+at all, or had not sent that story to the press himself with a purpose,
+though she realized that the last course was a trifle unlikely in his
+case.
+
+"Since Grant Devine will probably bring him in you may get your wish,"
+she said, indifferently.
+
+Devine in the meanwhile was gravely turning over several pieces of
+broken rock which Brooke had handed him.
+
+"Yes," he said, "that's most certainly galena, and carrying good metal
+by the weight of it. How much of it's lead and how much silver I
+naturally don't know yet, but, anyway, it ought to leave a good margin
+on the smelting. You haven't proved the vein?"
+
+"No," said Brooke, "I fancy we are only on the edge of it, but it would
+have cost me two or three weeks' work to break out enough of rock to
+form any very clear opinion alone, and I was scarcely up to it. It
+occurred to me that I had better come down and get the necessary men,
+though I'm not sure we can contrive to feed them or induce them to
+come."
+
+Devine nodded. "You must have had the toughest kind of time!" he said.
+"Well, we'll bid double wages, and you can offer that freight contractor
+his own figure to bring provisions in."
+
+He stopped abruptly with a glance at Brooke's haggard face. "I guess you
+can hold out another month or two."
+
+"Of course," said Brooke, quietly.
+
+"It's worth while. Allonby was quite dead when you got back to him?"
+
+"Yes, I and the doctor buried him. We used giant powder."
+
+Devine laid down his cigar. "It was a little rough on Allonby, for it
+was his notion that the ore was there, and now, when it seems we've
+struck it, it's not going to be any use to him. I guess that man put a
+good deal more than dollars into the mine."
+
+Brooke, who had lived with Allonby, knew that this was true, but Devine
+made a little abrupt gesture which seemed to imply that after all that
+aspect of the question did not greatly concern them.
+
+"I'll send you every man we can raise," he said. "I've got quite a big
+credit through from London, and we can cut expenses by letting up a
+little on the Canopus."
+
+"But you expected a good deal from that mine."
+
+"No," said Devine, drily, "I can't say I did. It's quite a while since
+we got a good clean up out of it."
+
+Brooke sat silent, apparently regarding his cigar, for a moment or two.
+"Are you sure it's wise to tell me so much?" he said. "There are men in
+this city who would make good use of any information I might furnish
+them with."
+
+Devine smiled in a curious fashion. "Well," he said, reflectively, "I
+guess it is. You've had about enough of playing Saxton's game, and,
+though I don't know that everybody would do it, I'm going to trust you."
+
+"Thank you," said Brooke, quietly.
+
+Devine, who took up his cigar again, made a little movement with his
+hand. "We'll let that slide. Now when I got the specimen and your note
+which the doctor sent on I figured I'd increase my holding, and cabled a
+buying order to London, but I had to pay more for the stock than I
+expected. It appears that a man, called Cruttenden, had been quietly
+taking any that was put on the market up."
+
+Brooke knew that his trustee had, as directed, been buying the Dayspring
+shares, but he desired to ascertain how far Devine's confidence in him
+went.
+
+"That didn't suggest anything to you?" he said.
+
+"No," said Devine, drily, "it didn't--and I've answered your question
+once. Besides, the man who snapped up every thing that was offered
+hadn't waited until you struck the ore. Still, I'd very much like to
+know what he was buying that stock for."
+
+Brooke did not tell him. Indeed, he was not exactly sure what had
+induced him to cable Cruttenden to buy. He had acted on impulse with
+Barbara's scornful words ringing in his ears, and a vague feeling that
+to share the risks of the man he had plotted against would be some small
+solace to him, for he had not at the time the slightest notion that the
+hasty act of self-imposed penance was to prove remarkably profitable.
+
+"I scarcely think it is worth while worrying over that point," he said.
+"There are folks in our country with more money than sense, or a good
+many foreign mines would never be floated, and it is just as likely that
+the man did not exactly know why he was doing it himself."
+
+Devine laughed. "Well," he said, "we'll go along now and see what the
+rest are doing."
+
+Brooke would considerably sooner have gone back to his hotel, but Devine
+persisted, and he was one who usually carried out his purpose. Brooke
+was accordingly presented to a good many people whom he had never seen
+before, and did not find remarkably entertaining, though he fancied that
+most of them appeared a trifle interested when they heard his name. The
+reason for this did not, however, become apparent until he stopped close
+by a girl who looked up at him. She was young, but evidently by no
+means diffident.
+
+"You are Brooke of the Dayspring, are you not?" she said, making room
+for him beside her.
+
+"I certainly come from that mine," said Brooke, and the girl turned to
+one of her companions.
+
+"You wouldn't believe he was the man," she said.
+
+Brooke was not altogether unaccustomed to the directness of the West,
+but he felt a trifle embarrassed when two pairs of eyes were fixed upon
+him in what seemed to be an appreciative scrutiny.
+
+"One would almost fancy that you had heard of me," he said.
+
+The girl laughed. "Well," she said, "most of the folks in this province
+who read newspapers have. There was a column about you and your sick
+partner and the doctor. You carried him across the range when he was too
+played out to walk, didn't you?"
+
+"No," said Brooke, a trifle astonished. "I certainly did not. He was a
+good deal too heavy, as a matter of fact, and I was not very fit to drag
+myself. But when did this quite unwarranted narrative come out, and what
+shape did it take?"
+
+They told him as nearly as they could remember, and added running
+comments and questions both at once.
+
+"You had almost nothing to eat for a week when you started across the
+range to bring the doctor out. That must have been horrid--and what did
+it feel like?" said one.
+
+Brooke shook his head. "I really don't know," he said. "I should
+recommend you to try it."
+
+"And then the poor man was dead when you got there--I 'most cried over
+him. There was a good deal about it. It must have been creepy coming
+upon him lying in the dark."
+
+Brooke, who understood a little about Western journalism, waited until
+they stopped, for the thing was becoming comprehensible to him.
+
+"Now," he said, "I know how the story got out. I didn't think the doctor
+would be guilty of anything of that kind, but no doubt he told the
+little schoolmaster at the settlement, who is a friend of his, and, I
+believe, addicted to misusing ink. Still, you see, the thing is
+evidently inaccurate. Do I look as if I could do without anything to eat
+for a week?"
+
+One of the girls again favored him with a scrutinizing glance. "Well,"
+she said, with a little twinkle in her eyes, "you certainly look as
+though square meals were scarce at the Dayspring."
+
+Brooke laughed, and then glancing round saw Barbara approaching. He
+fancied that she could not well have avoided seeing him unless she
+wished to, but she passed so close that her skirt almost touched him,
+and then stopped, apparently smiling down on a matronly lady a few yards
+away. Brooke felt his face grow warm, and was glad that his companions'
+questions covered his confusion.
+
+"Who'd you get to do the funeral? There wouldn't be any kind of
+clergyman up there."
+
+"No," said Brooke, grimly. "We had to manage it ourselves--that is, the
+doctor did. I'm afraid it wasn't very ceremonious--and it was snowing
+hard at the time."
+
+He sat silent a moment while a little shiver ran through him as he
+remembered the bitter blast that had whirled the white flakes about the
+two lonely men, and shaken a mournful wailing from the thrashing pines.
+
+"How dreadful!" said one of his companions. "The story only mentioned
+the big glacier, and the forest lying black all round."
+
+Brooke fancied he understood the narrator's reticence, for there were
+details the doctor was not likely to be communicative about.
+
+"The big glacier was, at least, three miles away, and nobody could have
+seen it from where we stood," he said, evasively.
+
+Just then, and somewhat to his relief, Mrs. Devine came up to him.
+"There are two or three people here who heard you play at the concert,
+and I have been asked to try to persuade you to do so again," she said.
+"Clarice Marvin would be delighted to lend you her violin."
+
+Seeing that it was expected of him, Brooke agreed, and there was a
+brief discussion during the choosing of the music, in which two or three
+young women took part. Then it was discovered that the piano part of the
+piece fixed upon was unusually difficult, and the girl who had offered
+Brooke the violin said, "You must ask Barbara, Mrs. Devine."
+
+Barbara, being summoned, made excuses when she heard what was required
+of her, until the lady violinist looked at her in wonder.
+
+"Now," she said, "you know you can play it if you want to. You went
+right through it with me only a week ago."
+
+A faint tinge of color crept into Barbara's cheek, but saying nothing
+further, she took her place at the piano, and Brooke bent down towards
+her when he asked for the note.
+
+"It really doesn't commit you to anything," he said. "Still, I can
+obviate the difficulty by breaking a string."
+
+Barbara met his questioning gaze with a little cold smile.
+
+"It is scarcely worth while," she said.
+
+Then she commenced the prelude, and there was silence in the big room
+when the violin joined in. Nor were those who listened satisfied with
+one sonata, and Barbara had finished the second before she once more
+remembered whom she was playing for. Then there was a faint sparkle in
+her eyes as she looked up at him.
+
+"It is unfortunate that you did not choose music as a career," she said.
+
+Brooke laughed, though his face was a trifle grim.
+
+"The inference is tolerably plain," he said. "I really think I should
+have been more successful than I was at claim-jumping."
+
+Barbara turned away from the piano, and Brooke, who laid down the
+violin, took the vacant place beside her.
+
+"Still, I'm almost afraid it's out of the question now," he said,
+looking down at his scarred hands. "The kind of thing I have been doing
+the past few years spoils one's wrist. You no doubt noticed how slow I
+was in part of the shifting."
+
+The girl noticed the leanness of his hands and the broken nails, and
+then glanced covertly at his face. It was gaunt and hollow, and she was
+sensible that there was a suggestion of weariness in his pose, which
+had, so far as she could remember, not been there before. Again a little
+thrill of compassion ran through her, and she felt, perhaps illogically,
+as she had done during the sonata, that no man could be wholly bad who
+played the violin as he did. Still, the last thing she intended doing
+was admitting it.
+
+"Why did you stay at the Dayspring through the winter?" she asked,
+abruptly.
+
+"Well," said Brooke, reflectively, "I really don't know. No doubt it was
+an unwarranted fancy, but I think I felt that after what I had purposed
+at the Canopus I was doing a little _per contra_, that is, something
+that might count in balancing the score against me, though, of course,
+I'm far from certain that it could be balanced at all. You see, it was a
+little lonely up there, especially after Allonby died, as well as a
+trifle cold."
+
+Barbara would have smiled at any other time, for she knew what the
+ranges were in winter, but, as it was, her face was expressionless and
+her voice unusually even.
+
+"I think I understand," she said. "It was probably the same idea that
+once led your knights and barons to set out on pilgrimages with peas in
+their shoes, though it is not recorded that they did the more sensible
+thing by restoring their plundered neighbors' possessions."
+
+Brooke laughed. "Still, my stay at the Dayspring served a purpose, for,
+although somebody else would no doubt have done so eventually, I found
+the galena, and I didn't go quite so far as the gentlemen you mention
+after all. No doubt it is very reprehensible to steal a mine, or, in
+fact, anything, but I don't know that charitable people would consider
+that feeling tempted to do so was quite the same thing."
+
+Barbara started a little, and there was a distinct trace of color in her
+face.
+
+"I never quite grasped that point before," she said. "You certainly
+stopped short of----?
+
+"The actual theft," said Brooke. "I don't, however, mind admitting that
+the thing never occurred to me until this moment, but I can give you my
+word, whatever it may be worth, that I never glanced at the papers after
+you handed them to me."
+
+There was a trace of wonder in Barbara's face, though she was quite
+aware that it could not be flattering to any man to show unnecessary
+astonishment when informed that he had, after all, some slight sense of
+honor.
+
+"Then I really think I did you a wrong, but we are, I fancy, neither of
+us very good at ethics," she said, languidly, though she was now
+sensible of a curious relief. The man had, it seemed, at least, not
+abused her confidence altogether, for, while there was no evident reason
+why she should do so, she believed his assertion that he had not glanced
+at the papers.
+
+"Hair-splitting," said Brooke, reflectively, "is an art very few people
+really excel in, and I find the splitting of rocks and pines a good deal
+easier and more profitable. You were, of course, in spite of your last
+admission, quite warranted in not seeing me twice to-night."
+
+"I think I was," and Barbara looked at him steadily. "You see, I
+believed in you. In fact, you made me, and it was that I found so
+difficult to forgive you."
+
+It was a very comprehensive admission, and Brooke, whose heart throbbed
+as he heard it, sat silent awhile.
+
+"Then," he said, very slowly, "it would be useless to expect that
+anything I could do would ever induce you to once more have any
+confidence in me?"
+
+Barbara's eyes were still upon him, though they were not quite so steady
+as usual.
+
+"Yes," she said, quietly, "I am afraid it is."
+
+Brooke made her a little inclination. "Well," he said, "I scarcely think
+anybody acquainted with the circumstances would blame you for that
+decision. And now I fancy Mrs. Devine is waiting for you."
+
+
+
+
+XXVI.
+
+THE JUMPING OF THE CANOPUS.
+
+
+The snow was soft at last, and honeycombed by the splashes from the
+pines, which once more scattered their resinous odors on a little warm
+breeze, when Shyanne Tom came plodding down the trail to the Canopus. He
+was a rock-driller of no great proficiency, which was why Captain
+Wilkins had sent him on an errand to a ranch; and was then retracing his
+steps leisurely. It was still a long way to the mine, but he was in no
+great haste to reach it, because he found it pleasanter to slouch
+through the bush than swing the hammer, and the time he spent on the
+journey would be credited to him. He had turned out of the trail to
+relight his pipe in the shelter of a big cedar, which kept off the wind,
+when he became sensible of a beat of horse hoofs close behind him. He
+would have heard it earlier, but that the roar of a river, which had
+lately burst its icy chains, came throbbing across the trees.
+
+Shyanne was shredding his tobacco plug with a great knife, but he turned
+sharply round because he could not think of any one likely to be riding
+down that trail, which only led to the Canopus, just then. As it
+happened, he stood in the shadow, and it is difficult to make out a man
+who does not move amidst the great grey-tinted trunks, especially if he
+is dressed in stained and faded jean; but the sunlight was on the trail,
+and Shyanne was struck by the attitude of one of the horsemen who
+appeared among the trees. There were five or six of them, and the beasts
+were heavily loaded with provisions and blankets, as well as axes and
+mining tools. The last man, however, led a horse, which carried nothing
+at all, and the leader, who had just pulled his beast up, was holding up
+his hand. It was evident to Shyanne that they had seen his tracks in the
+snow, but, as that was a peaceful country, he failed to understand why
+it should have brought the party to a standstill. He, however, stayed
+where he was, watching the leader, who stooped in his saddle.
+
+"It can't be more than a few minutes since that fellow went along, and
+his tracks break off right here," he said. "I guess there's a side trail
+somewhere, though the bush seems kind of thick."
+
+"A blame rancher looking for a deer," said another man. "Anyway, if he'd
+heard us, he'd have stopped to talk."
+
+The leader, Shyanne fancied, appeared reflective. "Well," he said, "I
+can't quite figure where he could have come from. Tomlinson's ranch is
+quite a way back, and there's not another house of any kind until you
+strike the mine. Still, I guess we needn't worry, so long as he hasn't
+seen us."
+
+He shook his bridle, and while one or two of the men turning in their
+saddles looked about them the horses plodded on, but Shyanne stood still
+for at least five minutes. He was not especially remarkable for
+intelligence, but it was evident to him that the men had a sufficient
+reason for desiring that nobody should see them. Then he put his pipe
+away, and proceeded circumspectly up the trail, with the print of the
+horse hoofs leading on before him, until they turned off abruptly into
+the bush. The meaning of this was incomprehensible, since it was not the
+season when timber-right or mineral prospectors started on their
+journeys, and Shyanne decided that it might be advisable to go on and
+inform Wilkins of what he had seen. Still, he made no great progress,
+for the snow was soft, and, after all, the Canopus did not belong to
+him.
+
+About the time he reached it, Brooke, who had come up there on some
+business with Wilkins, was lounging, cigar in hand, on the verandah at
+the ranch. The night was, for the season, still and almost warm, and a
+half-moon hung low above the dripping pines, while he found the silence
+and the sweet resinous odors soothing, for he had been toiling
+feverishly at the Dayspring of late. Why he stayed there when there was
+no longer any reason he should not go back to England, and Barbara had
+told him that his offences were too grievous to be forgiven, he did not
+exactly know. Still, the work had taken hold of him, and he felt that
+while she was in the country he could not go away. He was wondering,
+disconsolately, whether time would soften her indignation, or if she
+would always be merciless, when Wilkins came into the verandah. He was
+an elderly and somewhat deliberate man, but Brooke fancied he was
+anxious just then.
+
+"It's kind of fortunate you're here to-night. We've got to have a talk,"
+he said.
+
+Brooke gave him a cigar, and leaned against the balustrade, when he
+slowly lighted it.
+
+"You can't let me have the men I asked for?" he said.
+
+Wilkins made a little gesture. "All you want. That's not the point. Now,
+you just let me have a minute or two."
+
+Ten had passed before he had related what Shyanne had told him, and then
+Brooke, who saw the hand of Saxton in this, quietly lighted another
+cigar.
+
+"Well," he said, "what do you make of it? They're scarcely likely to be
+timber-righters?"
+
+"They might be claim-jumpers."
+
+"Still, nobody could jump a claim whose title was good."
+
+Wilkins appeared a trifle uneasy, though it was too dark for Brooke to
+see him well, but he apparently made up his mind to speak.
+
+"The fact is, our title isn't quite as good as it might be. That is,
+there's a point or two anybody who knew all about it could make trouble
+on," he said, and then turned, a trifle impatiently, to Brooke. "You
+take it blame quietly. I had kind of figured that would astonish you."
+
+Brooke laughed. "I had surmised as much already. We'll suppose the men
+Shyanne saw intend to jump the claim. How will they set about it?"
+
+"They'll wait until they figure every one's asleep--twelve o'clock, most
+likely, since that would make it easy to get their record in the same
+day, though it's most of an eight hours' ride to the office of the Crown
+recorder. Then they'll drive their stakes in quietly, and while the rest
+sit down tight on the pegged-off claim, one of them will ride out all
+he's worth to get the record made. After that, they'll start in to bluff
+the dollars out of Devine."
+
+He stopped somewhat abruptly, and Brooke fancied that he had something
+still upon his mind, but he had discovered already that it was generally
+useless to attempt the extraction of any information Wilkins had not
+quite decided to impart.
+
+"Then what are we going to do?" he said.
+
+"Turn out the boys, and hold the jumpers off as long as we can, while
+somebody from our crowd rides out to put a new record in. When a claim's
+bad in law anybody can stake it, and the Crown will register him as
+owner until they can straighten out the thing."
+
+"Then what do you expect from me?"
+
+Wilkins' answer was prompt and decisive. "We'll have a horse ready.
+You'll ride for the Company."
+
+Brooke turned from him abruptly, and looked down the valley. He would
+have preferred to avoid an actual conflict with Saxton for several
+reasons, but he could not remain neutral, and must choose between Devine
+and him. He had also broken off his compact, and while he wished the
+jumpers had been acting for another man, there was apparently only the
+one course open to him. It was also conceivable that if he could make a
+valid new record it would count for a little in his favor with Barbara.
+
+"I certainly seem the most suitable person, and you can get the horse
+ready," he said. "Still, is there any reason I shouldn't make sure of
+the thing by starting right away?"
+
+Wilkins thought there was. "Well," he said, "I've only Shyanne's tale to
+go upon, and supposing those men aren't claim-jumpers after all, what do
+we gain by sending you to make a new record on the claim?"
+
+"Nothing beyond letting everybody know that your patent's bad, and
+raising trouble with the Crown people over it, while I scarcely fancy
+Devine would thank me for doing that unnecessarily. It would be wiser to
+wait and make certain of what they mean to do."
+
+"You've hit it," said Wilkins. "I'll go along and talk to the boys."
+
+He disappeared into the darkness, and Brooke, who was feeling chilly
+now, went back to the stove, while it was two hours later when he took
+his place behind one of the sawn-off firs which dotted the hillside
+above what had been one of the most profitable headings of the mine. The
+half-moon was higher now, and the pale radiance showed the six-foot
+stumps that straggled up the steep slope in rows until the bush closed
+in on them again. There was no longer any snow upon the firs, and they
+towered against the blueness of the night in black and solemn spires.
+The bush was also very quiet, as was the strip of clearing, and there
+was nothing to show that a handful of men were waiting there with a
+sense of grim anticipation.
+
+Half an hour slipped by, and there was no sound from the forest but the
+soft rustling of the fir twigs under a little breeze, while Brooke, who
+found the waiting particularly unpleasant, and was annoyed to feel his
+fingers were quivering a little with the tension, grew chilly. It would,
+he felt, be a relief when the jumpers came, but another ten minutes
+dragged by and there was still no sign of them. The breeze had grown a
+trifle colder, and the firs were whispering eerily, while he could now
+hear the men moving uneasily. Then he started when the howl of a wolf
+came out of the bush, and, leaning forward, grasped Wilkins' arm.
+
+"I suppose they will come?" he said.
+
+The mine captain made a sign to a man who crouched behind a neighboring
+tree.
+
+"Quite sure you were awake when you saw those men, Shyanne?" he said.
+"Harrup hadn't been giving you any of the hard cider?"
+
+Shyanne chuckled audibly. "Not more'n a jugful, anyway, and I don't see
+things on the hardest cider they make in Ontario. No, sir, those men
+were there, and I've a notion there's one of them yonder now."
+
+The shadows of the firs were black upon the clearing, but a dark patch
+was projected suddenly beyond the rest, and a voice came faintly through
+the whispering of the trees.
+
+"Stand by," it said. "They're coming along."
+
+Then Brooke set his lips as a human figure, carrying what seemed to be
+an axe, materialized out of the gloom. Another appeared behind it, and
+then a third, while, when a fourth became visible, Wilkins rose
+suddenly.
+
+"Now, what in the name of thunder are you wanting here?" he said.
+
+The foremost man jumped, as Shyanne asserted afterwards, like a shot
+deer, but the rest, who had apparently steadier nerves, came on at a
+run, and a man behind them shouted, "Don't worry 'bout anything, but
+get your stakes in. I'll do the talking."
+
+Then, while Brooke slipped away, Wilkins stepped out into the moonlight
+with a Marlin rifle gleaming dully in his hand. "Stop right where you
+are," he said. "Where's the man who wants to talk?"
+
+The men stopped, and stood glancing about them, irresolutely. There were
+six in all, but rather more than that number of shadowy objects had
+appeared unexpectedly among the sawn-off stumps. While they waited
+Saxton stepped forward.
+
+"Well," he said, "you see me."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Wilkins, drily, "and I guess I've seen many a squarer
+man. What do you want crawling round our claim, anyway?"
+
+"It's not yours. Your patent's bad, and we're going to re-locate it for
+you. Haven't you got those stakes ready, boys?"
+
+"Bring them along," said Wilkins. "I'm waiting."
+
+He stood stiff and resolute, with the rifle at his hip, and the
+moonlight on his face, which was very grim, and once more the
+claim-jumpers glanced at their leader, dubiously. They were aware that
+although the regulations respecting mineral claims might not have been
+complied with, there are conditions under which a man is warranted in
+holding on to his property. Wilkins also appeared quite decided on doing
+it.
+
+Then Saxton's voice rose sharply. "Hallo!" he said. "What the----"
+
+Wilkins swung round, and saw three or four more shadowy figures enter
+the clearing from the opposite side, and they also apparently carried
+stakes and axes.
+
+"Figured you'd get in ahead of us, Saxton," said one of them.
+
+Saxton evidently lost his temper. "Well," he said, "I guess I'm going to
+do it, you slinking skunk. If it can't be fixed any other way, I'll
+strike you for shooting Brooke."
+
+Wilkins laughed. "Any more of you coming along? It's a kind of pity you
+didn't get here a little earlier."
+
+They knew what he meant in another moment, when the sound of a horse
+ridden hard through slushy snow rose from the shadows of the pines.
+Wilkins made a little ironical gesture.
+
+"I guess you'll never get rich claim-jumping, boys," he said.
+
+Then Saxton's voice rose again. "The game's not finished. We'll play you
+for it yet," he said. "Where's that horse? Get your stakes in."
+
+He vanished in another minute, but his followers remained, and there was
+for a time a very lively scuffle about the stakes Brooke had already
+hammered in. They were torn up, and replaced several times before the
+affray was over, and then two men, who furnished a very vague account
+of the fashion in which they had received their injuries, were with
+difficulty conveyed to the Vancouver hospital. In spite of a popular
+illusion, pistols are not in general use in that country, but it is not
+insuperably difficult to disable an opponent effectively with an axe or
+shovel.
+
+In the meanwhile, three men, who realized that, under the circumstances,
+a good deal would depend upon who was first to reach it, were riding
+hard by different ways towards the recorder's office, and Brooke, having
+no great confidence in the horse Wilkins had supplied him with, had
+taken what was at once the worst and shortest route. That is not a nice
+country to ride through in daylight, even when there is no snow upon the
+ground, and there were times when he held his breath as the horse
+plunged down the side of a gulley with the half-melted snow and gravel
+sliding away beneath its hoofs. They also smashed and floundered through
+withered fern and crackling thickets of sal-sal and salmon berry, and
+during one perilous hour Brooke dragged the beast by the bridle up
+slopes of wet and slippery rock, from which the winds had swept the snow
+away.
+
+Still, it was long since he had felt in the same high spirits, and when
+they reached more even ground the rush through the cold night air
+brought him a curious elation. He felt he was, at least doing what might
+count in his favor against the past, and, apart from that, there was
+satisfaction to be derived from the reckless ride itself. He had,
+however, only a blurred recollection of most of it, flitting forest,
+peaks that glittered coldly, the glint of moonlight on still frozen
+lakes, and the frequent splashings through icy fords, until, when the
+stars had faded, and the firs rose black and hard against the dawn, they
+reeled down to the bank of a larger river, from which the white mists
+were streaming. It swirled by thick with floating ice, and the horse
+strenuously objected to enter the water at all. Twice it reared at the
+stabbing of the spurs, and then bounded with arching back, but Brooke
+was used to that trick, and contrived to keep his saddle until he and
+the beast slid down the bank together, and there was a splash and
+flounder as they reached the water.
+
+It was most of it freshly-melted ice, and when he slipped from the
+saddle, which he promptly found it necessary to do, the cold took his
+breath away, and he clung by the stirrup leather, gasping and
+half-dazed, while the beast proceeded unguided for a minute or two.
+Then, as they swung round in a white eddy, his perceptions came back to
+him, and he realized that there was no longer any need for swimming,
+when he drove against a boulder, whose head just showed above the
+swirling foam. He got on his feet somehow, and was never quite sure
+whether he led the beast through the rest of the passage or held on by
+the bridle, but at last they staggered up the opposite bank, where a
+man he could not see very well in the dim light sat looking down on him
+from the saddle. Brooke moved a pace nearer, and then recognized him as
+the one who had shot him at Devine's ranch.
+
+"Saxton has taken the high trail and he'll cross by the bridge, but I
+guess we're quite a while ahead of him," he said. "Now, do you know any
+reason why we shouldn't pool the thing?"
+
+Brooke stared at him, divided between indignation and appreciation of
+his assurance.
+
+"Yes," he said, drily, "several, and one of them is quite sufficient by
+itself."
+
+"Figure it out," said the other. "I tell you Saxton can't make our time
+over the high trail, though it's a better road. Now that one of us will
+get there first is a sure thing, but it's quite as certain it can't be
+both, and I'd be content with half of what you bluff out of Devine.
+That's reasonable."
+
+Brooke felt his face grow a trifle hot, though he recognized that it was
+not astonishing the man should credit him with the purpose he had
+certainly been impelled by at their last meeting.
+
+"I can't make a deal with you on any terms," he said. "Ride on, or pull
+your horse out of the trail."
+
+"I guess that wouldn't suit me," said the other man, and when Brooke had
+his foot in the stirrup, suddenly swung up his hand.
+
+Then there was a flash and a detonation, and the horse plunged. The
+flash was repeated, and while Brooke strove to clear his foot of the
+stirrup, the beast staggered and fell back on him. It, however, rolled
+and struggled, and, for his foot was free now, he contrived to drag
+himself away.
+
+When he was next sensible of anything, he could hear a very faint thud
+of hoofs far up the climbing trail, and, after lying still for several
+minutes, ventured to move circumspectly. He felt very sore, but all his
+limbs appeared to be in their usual places, and, rising shakily, he
+found, somewhat to his astonishment, that he could walk. The horse was
+evidently dead, but there was, he remembered, a ranch not very far away,
+and a certain probability of the other man still breaking one of his own
+limbs or his horse's legs, for the trail was rather worse than trails
+usually are in that country. Brooke accordingly decided to hobble on to
+the ranch, and somehow accomplished it, though the man who opened the
+door to him looked very dubious when he asked him for a horse.
+
+"The only beast I've got isn't worth much, but you don't look up to
+taking him in over the lake trail," he said.
+
+He, however, parted with the horse, and hove Brooke into the saddle,
+while the latter groaned as he rode away. One arm and one leg were stiff
+and aching, and at every jolt his back hurt him excruciatingly, but a
+few hours later he rode, spattered with mire and slushy snow, into a
+little wooden town, and had afterwards a fancy that somebody offered to
+lift him down. He was not sure how he got out of the saddle, but a man
+he recognized took the horse, and he proceeded, limping stiffly, with
+his wet clothes sticking to his skin, to the Crown mining office. The
+recorder, who appeared to be a young Englishman, looked hard at him when
+he came in, and then pointed to a chair.
+
+"You may as well sit down. If my surmises are correct, there is no great
+need for haste," he said.
+
+Brooke's face, which was a trifle grey, grew suddenly set.
+
+"Some one else has already recorded a new claim on the Canopus?" he
+said.
+
+"Yes," said the recorder. "In fact, two of them, and the last man was
+good enough to inform me that there was another of you coming along."
+
+"Then you can't give a record?"
+
+"No," said the other man, with a little smile. "I'm not sure that any of
+you will get one in the meanwhile; that is, not until we have obtained a
+few particulars from Mr. Devine."
+
+"I have come on behalf of him."
+
+"That," said the recorder, "is, under the circumstances, no great
+recommendation. In fact, there are several points your employer will be
+asked to clear up before we go any further with the matter."
+
+Brooke, who asked no more questions, contrived to make his way to the
+hotel, and flung himself down to rest, when he had ascertained when the
+Pacific express came in. Important as it was that he should see Devine,
+he was, however, very uncertain whether he would be able to get up
+again.
+
+
+
+
+XXVII.
+
+THE LAST ROUND.
+
+
+The whistle screamed hoarsely as the long train swung out from the
+shadow of the pines, and Brooke raised himself stiffly in his seat in a
+big, dusty car. A sawmill veiled in smoke and steam swept by, and, while
+the roar of wheels sank to a lower pitch, he caught the gleam of the
+blue inlet Vancouver City is built above ahead. Then, as the clustering
+roofs, which seamed the hillside ridge on ridge with a maze of poles and
+wires cutting against the background of stately pines grew plainer, he
+straightened his back with an effort. It was aching distressfully, and
+he felt dizzy as well as stiff, while he commenced to wonder whether his
+strength would hold out until he had seen Devine and finished his
+business in the city.
+
+Then the cars lurched a little, there was a doleful tolling of a bell,
+and when the long, dusty train rolled slowly into the depôt he dropped
+shakily from a vestibule platform. The rough planking did not seem quite
+steady, and he struck his feet against the metals when he crossed the
+track, but he managed to reach Devine's office, and found that he was
+out. He would, however, be back in another hour, his clerk said, and it
+occurred to Brooke that he could, in the meanwhile, consult a doctor.
+The latter asked him a few questions, and then sat looking at him
+thoughtfully for a moment or two.
+
+"It's not quite clear to me how the horse came to fall on you. You were
+dismounted at the time?" he said. "Still, after all, that's not quite
+the question."
+
+Brooke smiled a little. "No," he said. "I scarcely think it is."
+
+"Well," said the doctor, drily, "whichever way you managed it, the snow
+was either very soft or something else took the weight of the beast off
+you, but I don't think you need worry greatly about that fall. Lie down
+for a day or two, and rub some of the stuff I give you on the bruises.
+Now, suppose you tell me what you've been doing for the last few
+months."
+
+Brooke did so concisely, and the doctor nodded. "Pretty much as I
+figured," he said. "You want to stop it right away. Go down the Sound on
+a steamboat, or across to Victoria for two or three weeks, and do
+nothing."
+
+"I'm afraid that's out of the question."
+
+The doctor made a little gesture. "Then, if you go on taking it out of
+yourself, there'll be trouble, especially if you worry. Go slow, and eat
+and sleep all you can for a month, anyway."
+
+Brooke thanked him, and went back to Devine's office thoughtfully. He
+felt that the advice was good, though there were difficulties in the way
+of his acting upon it. He had already realized that the strain of the
+last few months, the insufficient food, and feverish work, were telling
+upon him, but he had made up his mind to hold out until the work at the
+Dayspring was in full swing and the value of the ore lead had been made
+clear beyond all doubt. Then there would be time to rest and consider
+the position.
+
+Devine was in when he reached the office, and looked hard at him, but he
+said very little while Brooke told his story. Nor did he appear by any
+means astonished or concerned.
+
+"Well," he said, reflectively, "it's quite likely that we'll have the
+pleasure of seeing Mr. Saxton to-morrow. He'll hang off until then, and
+when he comes I'll be ready to talk to him. In the meanwhile, you're
+coming home with me."
+
+Brooke hoped that he did not show the embarrassment he certainly felt,
+for, much as he longed to see her, it was, after their last meeting,
+difficult to believe that Barbara would appreciate his company, and he
+scarcely felt in a mood for another taste of her displeasure.
+
+"I had decided on going out on the Atlantic express this evening," he
+said. "There is a good deal to do at the Dayspring, and I could scarcely
+expect Mrs. Devine to be troubled with me. Besides, you see, I came
+right away----"
+
+He glanced significantly at his clothes, but Devine, who rose, laid a
+hand on his shoulder.
+
+"You're coming along," he said. "I may want you to-morrow."
+
+Brooke, who felt too languid to make another protest, went with him, and
+when they reached the house on the hillside, Devine led him into a room
+which looked down on the inlet.
+
+"Sit down," he said, pointing to a big lounge chair. "I'll send somebody
+to look after you, and, unless you look a good deal better than you do
+now, you'll stay right here to-morrow. In the meanwhile, you'll excuse
+me. There are one or two folks I have to see in the city."
+
+He went out, and Brooke, who let his head, which ached a good deal, sink
+back upon the soft upholstery, wondered vacantly what Mrs. Devine would
+think when she saw him there. He still wore the garments he was
+accustomed to at the mine, and, though they were dry now, and, at least,
+comparatively clean, he felt that long boots and soil-stained jean were
+a trifle out of place in that dainty room. That, however, did not seem
+to matter. He was drowsy and a trifle dizzy, while the room was warm,
+and it was with a little start he heard the door-handle rattle a few
+minutes later. Then, while he endeavored to straighten himself, Barbara
+came in.
+
+"I feel that I ought to offer you my excuses for being here, though I am
+not sure that I could help it," he said. "Grant Devine is of a somewhat
+determined disposition, and he insisted on bringing me."
+
+Barbara did not notice him wince as with pain when he turned to her, for
+she was not at that moment looking at him.
+
+"Then why should you make any? It is his house," she said.
+
+This was not very promising, for Brooke felt it suggested that, although
+the girl was willing to defer to Devine's wishes, they did not
+necessarily coincide with hers.
+
+"It is!" he said. "Still, I seem to have acquired the sense of fitness
+you once mentioned, and I feel I should not have come. One is, however,
+not always quite so wise as he ought to be, and I was feeling a trifle
+worn out when your brother-in-law invited me. That probably accounted
+for my want of firmness."
+
+Barbara glanced at him sharply, and noticed the gauntness of his face
+and the spareness of his frame, which had become accentuated since she
+had last seen him. It also stirred her to compassion, which was probably
+why she endeavored, as she had done before, to harden her heart against
+him.
+
+"No doubt you spent last night in the saddle, and the trails would be
+bad," she said. "I believe they are getting some tea ready, and, in the
+meanwhile, how are you progressing at the mine?"
+
+Brooke realized that she had heard nothing about his ride or the
+jumping of the Canopus, and determined that she should receive no
+enlightenment from him. This may have been due to wounded pride, but it
+afterwards stood him in good stead. Nor would he show that her chilly
+graciousness, which went just as far as the occasion demanded and no
+further, hurt him, and he accordingly roused himself, with an effort, to
+talk about the mine. The girl had usually appeared interested in the
+subject, and it was, at least, a comparatively safe one.
+
+She, on her part, noticed the weariness in his eyes, and found it
+necessary to remind herself of his offences, for the story he told was
+not without its effect on her. It was, though he omitted most of his own
+doings, a somewhat graphic one, and she realized a little of the
+struggle he and the handful of men Devine had been able to send him had
+made, half-fed, amidst the snow. Still, for no very apparent reason, his
+composure and the way he kept himself in the background irritated her.
+
+"One would wonder why you put up with so much hardship. Wasn't it a
+little inconsequent?" she said.
+
+Brooke's gaunt face flushed. "Well," he said, "one is under the painful
+necessity of earning a living."
+
+"Still, could it not be done a little more easily?"
+
+"I don't know that it is, under any circumstances, a remarkably simple
+thing, but that is not quite the question, and, since you seem to
+insist, I'll answer you candidly. In my case, it was almost
+astonishingly inconsequent--that is, as I expect you mean, about the
+last thing any one would naturally have expected from me. Still, I felt
+that, after what I had done, I had a good deal to pull up, you see;
+though that is a motive with which, as I noticed when I mentioned it
+once before, you apparently can scarcely credit me."
+
+Barbara smiled. "It was your own actions that made it difficult."
+
+"I admitted on another occasion that I am not exactly proud of them, but
+there was some slight excuse. There usually is, you see."
+
+"Of course!" said Barbara. "You need not be diffident. In your case
+there were the dollars of which my brother-in-law plundered you."
+
+Brooke looked at her with a little glint in his eyes. "You," he said,
+slowly, "can be very merciless."
+
+"Well," said Barbara, who met his gaze with quiet composure, "I might
+have been less so had I not expected quite so much from you. After all,
+it does not greatly matter--and here is the tea."
+
+"I think it matters a good deal, but perhaps we needn't go into that,"
+said Brooke, who took the cup she handed him. "You have poured out tea
+for me on several occasions now, but still, each one recalls the first
+time you did it at the Quatomac ranch."
+
+The same thing had happened to Barbara, but she laughed. "It,
+presumably, made no difference to the tea, and yours runs some risk of
+getting cold."
+
+Brooke appeared to be holding his cup with quite unnecessary firmness,
+and she fancied his color was a trifle paler than it had been, but he
+smiled.
+
+"I really do not remember that it tasted any the worse," he said.
+"Perhaps you can remember how the sound of the river came in through the
+open door that night, and the light flickered in the draughts. It showed
+up your face in profile, and I can still picture Jimmy sitting by the
+stove, with his mouth wide open, watching you. He had evidently never
+seen anything of the kind before."
+
+Barbara noticed the manner in which he pulled himself up, and realized
+that the sentence had deviated from its natural conclusion. It was,
+though he had certainly been guilty of obtaining what she was pleased to
+consider her esteem by a course of disgraceful imposition, gratifying
+that he should be able to recall that evening. That, however, was not to
+be admitted.
+
+"I remember that the two candles were stuck in whisky bottles," she
+said. "You removed them somewhat suddenly when you came in."
+
+Brooke smiled, but his face was a trifle grey in patches now, and the
+cup was shaking visibly. "I really shouldn't have done," he said.
+"Still, you see, I was a trifle flurried that night, and like Jimmy in
+one respect, in that I had never----"
+
+"You, at least, had been handed tea by a lady before," said Barbara,
+severely.
+
+"I had, but the incomplete explanation still holds good. Well, it was,
+no doubt, unwise of me to take those candlesticks away, since to
+disguise one's habits for a stranger's benefit naturally implies a
+deficiency of becoming pride, and it could, in any case, only have made
+the thing more palpable to you."
+
+"One's habits?" said Barbara, who would not admit comprehension.
+
+Brooke nodded. "Men," he said, "do not, as a rule, buy whisky bottles to
+make candlesticks of, and there were, as I believe you noticed, a good
+many more of them already on the floor. Still, you see, your good
+opinion--was--important to me, and I was willing to cheat you into
+bestowing it on me even then. It matters--it really does matter--a good
+deal."
+
+Then there was a crash, and Brooke's cup struck the leg of the chair,
+while his plate rolled across the floor, and Barbara's dress was
+splashed with tea. The man sat gripping the chair arm hard, and blinking
+at her, while his face grew grey; but when she rose he apparently
+recovered himself with an effort.
+
+"Very sorry!" he said, slowly. "Quite absurd of me! Still, I have had a
+good deal to do--and very little sleep--lately."
+
+Barbara was wholly compassionate now. "Sit still," she said, quietly. "I
+will bring you a glass of wine."
+
+"No," said Brooke, a trifle unevenly. "I must have kept you here half an
+hour already, and I am afraid I have spoiled your dress into the
+bargain. That ought to be enough. If you don't mind, I think I will go
+and lie down."
+
+He straightened himself resolutely, and Barbara, who called the
+house-boy, stood still, with a warm tinge in her face, when he went out
+of the room. The man was evidently worn out and ill, and yet he had
+endeavored to hide the fact to save her concern, while she had found a
+most unbecoming pleasure in flagellating him. He had met her very
+slightly-veiled reproaches with a composure which, she surmised, had not
+cost him a little, even when his strength was melting away from him.
+Then she flushed a still ruddier color as she remembered that, in any
+case, dissimulation was a strong point of his, for she felt distinctly
+angry with herself for recollecting it.
+
+She had engagements that evening, and did not see him, while he had
+apparently recovered during the night, for, when she came down to
+breakfast, Mrs. Devine told her that he had already gone out with her
+husband. In point of fact, an eight-hours' sleep had done a good deal
+for Brooke, who lunched, or rather dined, with Devine in the city, and
+then went with him to his office to wait until the Pacific express came
+in.
+
+"The train's up to schedule time. I sent to ask them at the depôt,"
+said Devine. "I guess we'll have Mr. Saxton here in another ten
+minutes."
+
+The prediction was warranted, for he had about half smoked the cigar he
+lighted when Saxton was shown in. The latter was dressed tastefully in
+city clothes, and wore a flower in his buttonhole. He also smiled as he
+glanced at Brooke.
+
+"It was quite a good game you put up, and you got away five minutes
+before I did," he said. "Still, three men are a little too many to jump
+a claim when I'm one of them."
+
+Brooke's face grew a trifle grim, for he saw Saxton's meaning, but
+Devine regarded the latter with a faint, sardonic smile.
+
+"Sit down and take a cigar," he said. "I guess you came here to talk to
+me, and Mr. Brooke never meant to jump the claim."
+
+"No?" and Saxton assumed an appearance of incredulity very well. "Now I
+quite figured that he did."
+
+"You can fix it with him afterwards," said Devine. "It seems to me that
+we're both here on business."
+
+"Then we'll get down to it. I have put in a record on the Canopus mine.
+I guess you know your patent's not quite straight on a point or two."
+
+"You're quite sure of that?"
+
+"The Crown people seem to be. Now, I can't draw back my claim without
+throwing the mine open to anybody, but I'm willing to hold on and trade
+my rights to you when I've got my improvements in. Of course, you'd have
+to make it worth while, but I'm not going to be unreasonable."
+
+Devine laughed a little. "There was once a jumper who figured he'd found
+the points you mentioned out. He wanted eight thousand dollars. Would
+you be content with that?"
+
+"No," said Saxton, drily. "I'm going to strike you for more."
+
+There was silence for a moment or two, and Brooke leaned forward a
+little as he watched his companions. Saxton was a trifle flushed in
+face, and his dark eyes had an exultant gleam in them, while the thin,
+nervous fingers of one hand were closed upon the edge of the table. His
+expression suggested that he was completely satisfied with himself and
+the strength of his position, for it apparently only remained for him to
+exact whatever terms he pleased. Devine's attitude was, however, not
+quite what one would have expected, for he did not look in the least
+like a man who felt himself at his adversary's mercy. He sat smiling a
+little, and trifling with his cigar.
+
+"Well," he said, reflectively, "I guess the man I mentioned was sorry he
+asked quite as much as he did. What is your figure?"
+
+"I'll wait your bid."
+
+Devine sat still for several moments, with the little sardonic smile
+growing plainer in his eyes, and Brooke, who felt the tension, fancied
+that Saxton was becoming uneasy. There was a curious silence in the
+room, through which the whirr of an elevator jarred harshly.
+
+"One dollar," he said.
+
+Saxton gasped. "Bluff!" he said. "That's not going to count with me. You
+want a full hand to carry it through, and the one you're holding isn't
+strong enough. Now, I'll put down my cards."
+
+"One dollar," said Devine, drily.
+
+Saxton stood up abruptly, and gazed at him in astonishment, with
+quivering fingers and tightening lips. "I tell you your patent's no
+good."
+
+"I know it is."
+
+Again there was silence, and Brooke saw that Saxton was holding himself
+in with difficulty.
+
+"Still, you want to keep your mine," he said.
+
+"You can have it for what I asked you, and if you can clear the cost of
+working, it's more than I can do. The Canopus was played out quite a
+while ago."
+
+Even Brooke was startled, and Saxton sat down with all his customary
+assurance gone out of him. His mouth opened loosely, he seemed to grow
+suddenly limp, and his cigar shook visibly in his nerveless fingers.
+
+"Now," he said, and stopped while a quiver of futile anger seemed to run
+through him, "that's the last thing I expected. What'd you put up that
+wire sling for? I can't figure out your game."
+
+Devine laughed. "It's quite easy. You have just about sense enough to
+worry anybody, or you wouldn't have dumped that ore into the Dayspring,
+and worked off one of the richest mines in the province on to me. Well,
+when I saw you meant to strike me on the Canopus, I just let you get to
+work because it suited me. I figured it would keep you busy while I took
+out timber-rights and bought up land round the Dayspring. Nobody
+believed in Allonby, and I got what I wanted at quite a reasonable
+figure. I'm holding the mine and everything worth while now. There's
+nothing left for you, and I guess it would be wiser to get hold of a man
+of your own weight next time."
+
+Saxton's face was colorless, but he put a restraint upon himself as he
+turned to Brooke.
+
+"You knew just what this man meant to do?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Devine, drily. "He told me quite a while ago. You're
+going? Haven't you any use for that dollar?"
+
+Saxton said nothing whatever, but the door slammed behind him, and
+Brooke, who, in spite of Devine's protests, went back to the Dayspring
+that evening, never saw him again.
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII.
+
+BROOKE DOES NOT COME BACK.
+
+
+Devine went home a little earlier than usual after Saxton left him, and
+dusk was not far away when he sat recounting the affair in his wife's
+drawing-room. She listened with keen appreciation, and then looked up at
+him.
+
+"But where is Brooke?" she said.
+
+Devine smiled. "I guess he's buying mining tools. You can't keep that
+man out of a hardware store," he said. "I wanted to bring him back, but
+he was feeling better, and made up his mind to go out on the Atlantic
+express. He asked me to make his excuses, as he had fixed to meet an
+American machinery agent, and wasn't quite sure he could get round."
+
+"Perhaps it is just as well," said Mrs. Devine, who appeared reflective.
+"Do you think you are wise in encouraging that man to come here, Grant?"
+
+"I wouldn't exactly call it that. I brought him. He didn't want to
+come."
+
+"You are, of course, quite sure?" and Mrs. Devine's smile implied that
+she, at least, was a trifle incredulous. "Hasn't it struck you that
+Barbara----"
+
+"So far as I've noticed lately, Barbara didn't seem in any way pleased
+with him."
+
+Mrs. Devine made a little impatient gesture. "That," she said, "is
+exactly what I don't like. It's a significant sign. Barbara wouldn't
+have been angry with him--if it was not worth while."
+
+"You said nothing when he came to the ranch, while we were at the mine."
+
+"The man was pleasant company, and there was, it seemed to me, very
+little risk of a superior workman attracting Barbara's fancy."
+
+Devine laughed. "I guess I was of no great account when you married me."
+
+"Pshaw!" said Mrs. Devine. "Anyway, you hadn't plotted to steal a mine
+from the people I belonged to."
+
+Devine's eyes twinkled. "It showed his grit, and 'most anything is
+considered square in a mining deal. Besides, there were the six thousand
+dollars Slocum took out of him."
+
+"I am quite aware that such transactions are evidently not subject to
+the ordinary code, but, seriously, if you would be content with Harford
+Brooke as my brother-in-law, it is considerably more than I would be. We
+don't even know why he left the Old Country."
+
+"Well," said Devine, drily, "I guess I have a notion. I've been finding
+out a good deal about him. But get on with your objections."
+
+"Barbara has a good many dollars."
+
+"So has Brooke. You needn't worry about that point."
+
+Mrs. Devine's astonishment was very apparent. "Then whatever is he
+working at the mine for--and why didn't you tell me before?"
+
+"I guess it's because that kind of thing pleases him, and, anyway, it's
+only since last mail came in I knew."
+
+"You're quite sure, now?"
+
+"I'll tell you what I heard. There was a man who bought up our stock in
+England when nobody else seemed to have any use for it. The directors
+wanted to know a little about him, and they found it was a trust
+account. He was taking up the stock for another man, who had been left
+quite a few dollars, and that man was called Harford Brooke. The
+executor, it seems, told somebody that the man he was buying for was
+here. Now, it's not likely there are two of them in this part of
+Canada."
+
+The door, as it happened, was not closed, and Mrs. Devine was too intent
+to hear it swing open a little further. "The dollars," she said, "are by
+no means the most important consideration, but still----"
+
+She stopped abruptly at a sound, and then turned round with a little
+gasp, for Barbara stood just inside the room. Then there was a
+disconcerting silence for a moment or two, until the girl glanced at
+Devine.
+
+"Yes," she said, quietly. "I heard. When did Mr. Brooke buy that stock?"
+
+Devine understood the question, and once more the twinkle crept into his
+eyes.
+
+"Well," he said, "it was quite a while before they found the silver. I
+don't know what he did it for. Now, I guess I've been here longer than I
+meant to stay. You'll excuse me, Katty."
+
+He seemed in haste to get away, and when the door closed behind him the
+two who were left looked at one another curiously. Mrs. Devine was
+evidently embarrassed.
+
+"I suppose," she said, drily, "you don't know why Brooke bought those
+shares, either?"
+
+"I think I do," said Barbara, with unusual quietness, though the color
+was very visible in her cheeks. "He had a reason----"
+
+She stopped abruptly, and there was once more an awkward silence, until
+she made a little impulsive gesture.
+
+"Oh!" she said, sharply now, "I feel horribly mean. He stayed there
+through the winter when they had scarcely anything to eat, and bought
+that stock when nobody else would have it or believed in the Dayspring.
+Then he risked his life to save the Canopus, and when he came down, worn
+out and ill, I had only hard words for him."
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Devine, drily, "the sensation is probably good for
+you. You don't seem to remember that he also tried to jump the mine."
+
+Barbara turned towards her with a little sparkle in her eyes. "Have
+you--never--done anything that was wrong?"
+
+Mrs. Devine naturally saw the point of this, but while she considered
+her answer, Barbara, who had a good deal to think of, and scarcely felt
+equal to any further conversation just then, abruptly turned away.
+Glancing at her watch, she went straight to a room, from the window of
+which she could see the road to the depôt, for she knew the Atlantic
+express would shortly start, and she had not been told that Brooke was
+not coming back. Exactly what she meant to say to him she did not know,
+but she felt she could not let him go without, at least, a slight
+expression of her appreciation of what he had done. She knew that he
+would value it, and that it would go far to blot out the memory of past
+unkindness. He had certainly meant to jump the Canopus, and deceived her
+shamefully, which was far harder to forgive, for the realization of the
+fact that she had bestowed rather more than friendliness upon a man who
+was unworthy of it had its sting, but she scarcely remembered that now.
+He had, it appeared, since then, sacrificed his fortune and broken down
+his strength, and that, considering the purpose which she fancied had
+impelled him, went a long way to condone his offences.
+
+He, however, did not appear on the road, as she had expected; and she
+grew a trifle anxious when the tolling of a bell came up from the depôt
+by the wharf as the big locomotive backed the long cars in. It was also
+significant that she did not notice that the room, which had no stove in
+it, was very cold. Then looking down she saw men with valises pass
+across an opening between the roofs and express wagons lurching along
+the uneven road. The train would start very soon, and there was at least
+one admission she must make, but the minutes were slipping by and still
+Brooke did not come. The man, it almost appeared, was content to go away
+without seeing her, though she felt compelled to admit that in view of
+what had passed at their last meeting this was not altogether
+astonishing. Still, the fact that he could do so hurt her, and she
+waited in a state of painful tension. A very few minutes would suffice
+for him to climb the hill, and even if there was no opportunity for an
+explanation, which now appeared very probable, a smile or even a glance
+might go a long way to set matters right.
+
+The few minutes, however, slipped by as the rest had done, until at last
+the locomotive bell slowly clanged again, and the hoot of a whistle came
+up the hillside and was flung back by the pines. Then a puff of white
+smoke rolled up from the wharf, and Barbara turned away from the window
+with the crimson in her face as the cars swept through an opening
+between the clustering roofs. The train had gone, and the man would not
+know how far she had relented towards him. She could settle to nothing
+during the rest of the evening, and scarcely slept that night, though
+she naturally did not mention the fact when she and Mrs. Devine met at
+breakfast next morning. Instead, she took out a letter she had received
+a week earlier.
+
+"It's from Hetty Hume, and the English mail goes out to-day," she said.
+"She suggests that I should come over and spend a few months with her. I
+really think we did what we could for her when she was here with the
+Major."
+
+Mrs. Devine took the letter. "I fancy she wants you to go," she said.
+"She mentions that she has asked you several times already."
+
+Barbara appeared reflective. "So she has," she said. "In fact, I think
+I'll go. The change will do me good."
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Devine, "I suppose you can afford it, but if you
+indulge in many changes of that kind you're not going to have very much
+of a dowry."
+
+"Do you think I need one?"
+
+Mrs. Devine laughed as she glanced at her, but her face grew thoughtful
+again. "Perhaps in your case it wouldn't be necessary, and though it is
+a very long way, I fancy that you might do worse than go to England and
+stay there while Hetty is willing to keep you."
+
+A little flush crept into Barbara's cheek, but she said quietly, "I
+think I'll start on Saturday."
+
+She did so, and it came about one night while the big train she
+travelled by swept across the rolling levels of the Assiniboian prairie
+that Brooke sat in his shanty at the Dayspring with Jimmy, who had just
+come down from the range, standing in front of him. The freighter had
+still now and then a difficulty in bringing them provisions in, and
+whenever Jimmy found the persistent plying of drill and hammer pall upon
+him he would go out and look out for a deer, though it was not always
+that he came back with one. On this occasion he brought a somewhat
+alarming tale instead.
+
+"A big snow-slide must have come along since I was up on that slope
+before, and gouged out quite a caņon for itself," he said. "Anyway, if
+it wasn't a snow-slide it was a cloudburst or a waterspout. They happen
+around when folks don't want them now and then."
+
+"Come to the point," said Brooke. "I'm sufficiently acquainted with the
+meteorological perversities of the country."
+
+"Slinging names at them isn't much use. I've tried it, and any one
+raised here could give you points at the thing. Now before I came to
+Quatomac I was staying up at the Tillicum ranch, and I'd just taken a
+new twelve-dollar pair of gum-boots off one night when there was a
+waterspout up the valley that washed me and Jardine out of the house. We
+sailed along until we struck a convenient pine, and sat in it most of
+the night while the flood went down. Then I hadn't any gum-boots, and
+Jardine couldn't find his house."
+
+"I believe you told me you went down the river on a door on the last
+occasion," Brooke said, wearily. "Still, it doesn't greatly matter. What
+has all this to do with the hollow the snow-slide made in the range?"
+
+"Well," said Jimmy, "I guess you know the way the big rock outcrop runs
+across the foot of the valley. Now, before the snow-slide or the
+waterspout came along the melting snow went down into the next hollow,
+and the one where the outcrop is got just enough to keep the outlet of
+the creek that comes through it open."
+
+"I do. Will it be an hour or more before you make it clear how that
+concerns anybody?"
+
+"No, sir. I'm getting right there. The snow's melting tolerably fast,
+and the drainage from the big peak isn't going the way it used to now.
+The foot of the valley's quite a nice-sized lake, and the stream has
+washed most of the broke-up pines the snow brought down into the outlet
+gully. I guess you have seen a bad lumber jam?"
+
+Brooke had, and he started as he recognized the significance of what was
+happening, for once a drifting log strikes fast in a narrow passage the
+stream is very apt to pile up and wedge fast those that come behind into
+a tolerably efficient substitute for a dam, while when log still follows
+log the result is usually an inextricable confusion of interlocked
+timber.
+
+"When the jam up broke we'd have the water and the wreckage down on the
+mine," he said.
+
+"All there is of it," said Jimmy. "It would cost quite a pile of dollars
+to dry the workings out."
+
+Brooke strode to the door and flung it open, but there was black
+darkness outside and a persistent patter of thick warm rain. Then he
+swung round with an objurgation and Jimmy grinned.
+
+"I guess it's no use. You couldn't see a pine ten foot off, and there
+isn't a man in the country who would go down that gully with a lantern
+in his hand," he said. "Go off to sleep. You'll see quite as much as you
+want to, anyway, to-morrow."
+
+Brooke stood still and listened a moment or two while the hoarse roar of
+a river which he knew was swirling in fierce flood among the boulders
+far down in the hollow came up in deep reverberations across the pines.
+It was a significant hint of what was likely to happen when the pent-up
+water poured down upon the mine. Still, there was nothing he could do in
+that thick darkness.
+
+"Sleep!" he said. "When almost every dollar I have--and a good deal
+more than that--is sunk in the mine."
+
+"Well," said Jimmy, reflectively, "in your place, if I could make sure
+of the dollars, I'd take my chances on the rest. Now and then I'm quite
+thankful I haven't any. It saves a mighty lot of worry."
+
+He swung out of the shanty, and Brooke, who flung himself down on his
+couch of spruce twigs, endeavored to sleep, though he had no great
+expectation of succeeding. As it happened, he lay tossing or holding
+himself still by an effort the long night through, for he had set his
+whole mind on the prosperity of the Dayspring. A good deal of his small
+fortune was also sunk in it, though that was not of the greatest moment
+to him. He had a vague hope that when the mine was, through his efforts,
+pouring out high-grade ore, he might reinstate himself in Barbara's
+estimation. In that case, at least, she might believe in his contrition,
+for he felt that where protests were evidently useless deeds might
+avail. Then the dollars in question would be valuable to him.
+
+It was two hours before the dawn, and still apparently raining hard,
+when he rose and lighted the stove. He felt a trifle dizzy and very
+shivery as he did it, but the frugal breakfast put a little warmth into
+him, and he went out into the thick haze of falling water and up the
+hillside, walking somewhat wearily and with considerably more effort
+than he had found it necessary to make a few months ago.
+
+
+
+
+XXIX.
+
+A FINAL EFFORT.
+
+
+A dim, grey light was creeping through the rain when Brooke stopped on a
+ridge of hillside that broke off from the parent range above the mine.
+The pines were slowly growing into shape, though as yet they showed as
+mere spires of blackness in the sliding haze, and there was a faint
+glimmer in the hollow beneath him, while the sound of running water
+drowned the splashing of the rain. The snow upon the lower slopes had
+mostly melted now, though that on the great hill shoulders would swell
+the frothing rivers for months to come, and, sinking ankle-deep in
+quaggy mould, he went down through the dripping undergrowth until he
+stopped again on the verge of what had become in the last few days a
+muddy lake.
+
+The wreckage of the higher forests was strewn upon it, but Brooke
+noticed that it drifted steadily in one direction, and floundering along
+the water's edge, he reached a narrow gully, which had served as outlet
+for the stream through the ridge that hemmed in the valley. The passage
+was, however, now choked by a mass of groaning timber, which was
+apparently growing every hour, and it already seemed scarcely possible
+to cut through that pile of wreckage by any means at his command. Once
+the pent-up water, which seemed rising rapidly, burst the jam, it would
+come down in an overwhelming torrent upon the mine, and he sat down on a
+fallen redwood to consider how the difficulty could be grappled with.
+
+He, however, found it no easy matter to keep his mind upon the question
+at all. His head was aching, he felt unpleasantly limp, as well as wet
+and cold, and the distressful stiffness of his back suggested that he
+had by no means recovered from the effects of his fall. The long months
+of strenuous physical toil, the scanty, and, when the freighter could
+not get in, often wholly insufficient food, and exposure to bitter frost
+and snow, had left their mark on him, while now, worn out in mind and
+body as he was, he realized that a last grim effort was demanded from
+him. How it was to be made he did not know, and he was sitting still,
+shivering, with the rain running from him, when Jimmy and another man
+from the mine appeared. It was almost light now, and the miner glanced
+at the gathering water with evident concern.
+
+"I guess something has got to be done," he said.
+
+Brooke lifted himself shakily to his feet, and blinked in a curious,
+heavy fashion at the man.
+
+"It has, and if you'll bring the boys up we'll make a start," he said.
+"Now I don't know that we could cut that jam, and if we did it would
+only turn the lake loose on the mine. What I purpose is to break a new
+cut through the rise where it's thinnest, and run enough water off to
+ease the pressure. Then we might, if it appeared advisable, get at the
+jam. In the meanwhile every man I can spare from here will start in
+cutting out a ten-foot trench at the mine. That would take away a good
+deal of any water that did come down."
+
+"I've been at this kind of work 'most all my life, and that's 'bout how
+I would fix it," said the other man.
+
+"Well," said Brooke, "there's just another point. Once you get started,
+you'll go right on, and there'll be very little sleep for any one until
+it's done, but we'll credit you with half extra on every hour's time in
+the pay-bill."
+
+The man laughed and waved his hand. "You needn't worry 'bout that. I
+guess the boys will see you through," he said.
+
+He disappeared into the rain, and the struggle commenced when he came
+back with the men. There were but a handful of them in all, and their
+task appeared almost beyond accomplishment, even to those born in a
+country where man and Nature unsubdued come to the closest grapple, and
+human daring and endurance must make head against the tremendous forces
+that unloose the rivers and slowly grind the ranges down. It is a
+continuous struggle, primitive and elemental, in which brute strength
+and the animal courage that plies axe and drill with worn-out muscle and
+bleeding hands plays at least an equal part with ingenuity, for man has
+arrayed against him sun and frost, roaring water, crushing ice, and
+sliding snow; and those who fall in it lie thick by towering trestle
+bridge and along each railroad track. Worn out, aching in every limb,
+and with heavy eyes, Brooke braced himself to bear his part in it.
+
+For three days they toiled with pick and shovel and clinking drill, and
+the roar of the blasting charges shook the wet hillside, but while the
+trenches deepened slowly the water rose. By night the big fires snapped
+and sputtered, and the feeble lanterns blinked through the rain, while
+wild figures, stained with mire and dripping water, moved amidst the
+smoke, and those who dragged themselves out of the workings lay down on
+the wet ground for a brief hour's sleep. Brooke, however, so far as he
+could afterwards remember, did not close his eyes at all, and where his
+dripping figure appeared the shovels swung more rapidly, and the ringing
+of the drills grew a trifle louder. The pace was, however, too fierce to
+last, and, though even the men who work for another toil strenuously in
+that land, it was evident to him that while their task was less than
+half-done, they could not sustain it long.
+
+Baffled in one direction, he had also changed his plans, for the ridge
+was singularly hard to cut through, even with giant powder, and he had
+withdrawn most of the men from it and sent them to the trench, which
+would, he hoped, afford a passage to, at least, part of the water that
+must eventually come down upon the mine. It was late on the third night
+when it became evident that this would very shortly happen, and he sat,
+wet through and very weary, in his tent on the hillside, when Jimmy and
+another man came in.
+
+"Water's riz another foot since sundown, and I guess there's lakes of it
+ready to come down yonder," said the miner, who stretched out a wet
+hand, and pointed towards the dripping canvas above him, though Brooke
+surmised that he intended to indicate the range. "So far as I could make
+out, there's quite a forest of smashed-up logs sailing along to pile up
+in the jam."
+
+Brooke lifted a wet, grey face, and blinked at him with half-closed
+eyes.
+
+"Then I'm afraid there are only two courses open to us," he said. "We
+can wait until the jam breaks up, when there'll be water enough to fill
+the Dayspring up and wash the plant above ground right down into the
+caņon, or we must try to cut it now."
+
+"And turn the lake loose on us with the trench 'bout half big enough to
+take it away?" said Jimmy.
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, grimly. "You have a six-foot dam thrown up. I'm not
+sure it will stand, but it's a good deal less likely to do it when the
+lake is twice as big."
+
+Jimmy looked at the other man, who nodded. "The boss is right," he said.
+"You can't stop to look for the nicest way out when you're in a blame
+tight place. No, sir, you've got to take the quickest one. When do you
+figure on starting on the jam, Mr. Brooke?"
+
+"Now."
+
+The man appeared astonished, and shook his head. "It can't be done in
+the dark," he said. "I guess nobody could find the king log that's
+keying up the jam, and though the boys aren't nervous, I'm not sure
+you'd get one of them to crawl down that gulley and over the live logs
+until it's light. They couldn't see to do anything with the axe anyway."
+
+Brooke smiled drily. "Since they will not be asked to do it, that does
+not count. I purposed trying giant-powder, and going myself; that is,
+unless Jimmy feels anxious to come along with me."
+
+"I don't," said Jimmy, with decision in his tone. "If it was anybody
+else, watching him would be quite good enough for me. Still, as it
+isn't, I guess I'll have to see you through."
+
+"Thanks!" said Brooke. "You can let them know what to expect at the
+mine, Cropper. I'll want you to put the detonators on the fuses with me,
+Jimmy."
+
+The other man went out, and the two who were left proceeded to nip down
+the fulminating caps on the strips of snaky fuse, after which they
+carefully embedded them in sundry plastic rolls, which looked very like
+big candles made of yellow wax. These they packed in an iron case, and
+then, carrying an axe and a big auger, went out of the tent. The rest of
+the men left at the ridge were waiting them, for every one understood
+the perilous nature of the attempt, though, as two men were sufficient
+for the work, there was nothing that they could do, and they proceeded
+in a body through the dripping undergrowth towards the gully. Here a big
+fire of resinous wood was lighted, and when at last the smoky glare
+flickered upon the wet rocks in the hollow, Brooke, who stripped to
+shirt and trousers, flung himself over the edge.
+
+He dropped upon a little ledge, and made another yard or two down a
+cranny, then a bold leap landed him on a second ledge, and the groaning
+trunks were close beneath him when he dropped again. The glare of the
+fire scarcely reached him now, and Jimmy, who alighted close by him,
+looked up longingly at the flickering light above.
+
+"It wasn't easy getting down, and I'd feel better if I knew just how we
+were going back," he said. "I guess it's not quite wise either to bang
+that can about on the rocks."
+
+This was incontrovertible, for while giant powder, which is dynamite,
+is, with due precaution, comparatively safe to handle, and cannot be
+exploded without a detonator, so those who make it claim, it is still
+addicted to going off with disastrous results on very small provocation.
+Brooke, who had the case containing it slung round his back, was,
+however, looking down on the logs that stirred and heaved beneath him
+with the water spouting up through the interstices between. He could see
+them when the fire grew brighter.
+
+"The king should not be far away, from the look of the jam," he said.
+"If we can't cut it, we may jar it loose. Giant powder strikes down. Let
+me have the axe."
+
+Jimmy glanced at him, and shook his head, for Brooke's face showed drawn
+and grey in the flickering light.
+
+"I'll do any chopping that's wanted, and be glad when I get you out of
+this," he said.
+
+He dropped upon the timber, and the gap he splashed into closed up
+suddenly as he whipped out his leg. Then, with Brooke behind him, he
+crawled over the grinding logs, and by and by drove the point of the
+auger into one that seemed to run downwards through the midst of them.
+It was a good many feet in girth, and Brooke gasped heavily when he also
+laid hold of the auger crutch. The hole they made was charged with one
+of the yellow rolls, and, moving to a second log, they bored another,
+while the mass shook and trembled under them, and twice a great spout of
+water fell splashing upon them. The logs were apparently endued with
+vitality, for they moved under and over their fellows, and ground upon
+them with the pulsations of the stream that brought down fresh
+accessions and found a fresh channel that promptly closed again. The jam
+might resist the pressure for another week, or break up at any moment,
+and whirl down the gully in chaotic ruin. Still, with the rain beating
+down upon them, the pair toiled on until several sticks of explosive had
+been embedded, when Brooke rose very stiffly and straightened himself as
+he took a little case out of his pocket.
+
+"I don't know that we've got the king, but the general shake-up ought to
+loosen it," he said. "Light your fuse, Jimmy, and then get up. I'll come
+in a moment or two, when I'm ready."
+
+Jimmy looked up, and saw a cluster of dark figures outlined against the
+glow of the fire, for the men had crowded to the edge of the gully.
+
+"Stand by to give us a lift up, boys," he said.
+
+Then he turned away, and was rather longer than he liked persuading a
+damp match to ignite. The fuse, however, sparkled readily, and, groping
+his way across the logs, he clutched a ledge of rock. It was wet and
+slippery, and he slid back from it, hurting one arm, while, when he
+regained the narrow shelf, a voice was raised warningly above.
+
+"Let her go," it said. "Jimmy's fuse will be on to the powder before
+you're through."
+
+Jimmy turned, and dimly saw his comrade still apparently stooping over
+one of the logs.
+
+"Have I got to come back and bring you?" he shouted.
+
+Brooke stood up, and a faint sparkling broke out at his feet. "Go on,"
+he said. "It's burning now."
+
+Jimmy said nothing further. Those fuses were short, and he was anxious
+to be clear of the gully. Still, even though he decided to sacrifice the
+axe, it was not an easy matter to ascend the almost precipitous slope of
+slippery rock, and as he climbed higher the glare of the fire in his
+eyes confused him. He had, however, almost reached the top when there
+was a crash and a rattle of stones below him, and he twisted himself
+partly round, while a hoarse shout rang out.
+
+"Get hold of him!" cried one of the men. "Oh, jump for it. He'll be over
+the ledge!"
+
+For a moment Jimmy had a glimpse of a wet, white face, and a hand,
+apparently clinging to a cranny, and then the flicker of firelight sank
+and left him in black darkness. He did not understand exactly what had
+taken place, but it was unpleasantly evident that the fuses would soon
+reach the powder, while his comrade, whom he could no longer see, was
+apparently unable to ascend the gully.
+
+"Can't you get him?" shouted somebody.
+
+"Jump down. Put the fuses out!" said another man.
+
+Jimmy was, fortunately, one of the slow men who usually keep their
+heads, and while he glanced down at the twinkling fuses in the dark pit
+beneath him, he swung up a warning hand.
+
+"Light right out of that, boys. It can't be done," he said. "Hold on,
+partner. Let me know where you are--I'm coming along."
+
+A faint shout answered him, and Jimmy made his way downwards until he
+could discern a dusky blur, which he surmised was Brooke, close beneath
+him. Taking a firm hold with one hand, he leaned down and clutched at
+it, and then, with every muscle strained, strove to drag his comrade up.
+Jimmy was a strong man, but Brooke, it seemed, was able to do very
+little to help him, and Jimmy's fingers commenced to slacken under the
+tension. Then Brooke, who made a convulsive flounder, lost the grip he
+had, and the arm Jimmy clung to was torn away from him. A dull sound
+that was unpleasantly suggestive rose from a ledge below, and there was
+silence that was more so after it.
+
+Then while Jimmy leaned down, blinking into the darkness and ignoring
+the risk he ran, a yellow flash leapt out below, and there was a
+stunning detonation. It was followed almost in the same moment by
+another, and the solid rock seemed to heave a shiver, while the hollow
+was filled with overwhelming sound and a nauseating vapor. Giant-powder
+strikes chiefly downwards, which was especially fortunate for two men
+just then, but the rock was swept by flying fragments of shattered
+trunks, and Jimmy cowered against it half-dazed. Then another sound rose
+out of the acrid haze as the rent trunks crushed beneath the pressure,
+and there was an appalling grinding and smashing of timber. It was
+succeeded by a furious roar of water.
+
+A minute had probably slipped by when once more a man who showed faintly
+black against the firelight leaned over the edge of the gully, and his
+voice reached Jimmy brokenly.
+
+"Hallo! Are either of you alive?" he cried.
+
+Jimmy roused himself with an effort. "Well," he said, hoarsely, "I guess
+I am. I don't quite know whether Brooke is."
+
+"Then I'm coming down," said the other man. "We have got to get him out
+of the stink if there's anything left of him."
+
+Jimmy grasped the necessity for this, since the fumes of giant-powder
+are in confined spaces usually sufficient to prostrate a strong man, and
+several of his comrades apparently came down instead of one, bringing
+lanterns and blazing brands with them. There was a slippery ledge a
+little lower down the gully, and while the nauseating vapor eddied about
+them and the shattered wreckage went thundering past below, they made
+their way along it until they came on Brooke.
+
+He was lying partly up on the ledge with his feet in the swirling
+torrent and his shirt rent open. There was a big red smear on it, his
+lips were bloodless, and one arm was doubled limply under him. Jimmy
+stooped and shook him gently, but Brooke made no sign, and his head sank
+forward until his face was hidden. Then Jimmy, who slipped his hand
+inside the torn shirt, withdrew it, smeared and warm, with a little
+shiver.
+
+"He's bleeding quite hard, and that shows there's life in him. We have
+got to get him out of this right now," he said.
+
+None of them quite remembered how they did it, for few men unaccustomed
+to the ranges would have cared to ascend that gully unencumbered by
+daylight, but it was accomplished, and when a litter of fir branches had
+been hastily lashed together they plodded behind it in silence down the
+hillside. If anything could be done, and they were very uncertain on
+that point, it could only be done in the shanty.
+
+As they floundered down the trail a man met them with the news that very
+little of the water had got into the mine, but that did not appear of
+much importance to any one just then. After all, the Dayspring belonged
+to an English company, and it was Brooke, who lay in the litter
+oblivious of everything, they had worked for.
+
+
+
+
+XXX.
+
+THE OTHER CHANCE.
+
+
+The blink of sunlight was pleasantly warm where Barbara sat with Hetty
+Hume on a seat set back among the laurels which just there cut off the
+shrewd wind from the English lawn. A black cloud sailed slowly over the
+green hilltop behind the old grey house, and the close-cropped grass was
+sparkling still with the sprinkle of bitter rain, but the scent of the
+pale narcissus drifted up from the borders and the sticky buds of a big
+chestnut were opening overhead. Barbara glanced across the sweep of lawn
+towards the line of willows that swung their tasseled boughs above the
+palely flashing river. They were apparently dusted with silver and
+ochre, and here and there a flush of green chequered the ridge of thorn
+along the winding road that led the eye upwards to the clean-cut edge of
+the moor. It was, however, a regular, even line, cropped to one
+unvarying level save for the breaks where the neat gates were hung; the
+road was smooth and wide, with a red board beside the wisp of firs above
+to warn all it might concern of the gradient; while the square fields
+with the polled trees in the trim hedgerows all conveyed the same
+impression. This was decorous, well-ordered England, where Nature was
+broken to man's dominion centuries ago. As she glanced at it her
+companion laughed.
+
+"The prospect from here is, I believe, generally admitted to be
+attractive, though I have not noticed any of my other friends spend much
+time in admiring it," she said. "Still, perhaps it is different in your
+case. You haven't anything quite like it in Canada."
+
+"No," said Barbara. "Anyway, not between Quatomac and the big glacier.
+You remember that ride?"
+
+"Of course!" said Hetty Hume. "I found it a little overwhelming. That
+is, the peaks and glaciers. I also remember the rancher. The one who
+played the violin. I suppose you never came across him again?"
+
+"I met him once or twice. At a big concert--and on other occasions."
+
+Barbara's smile was indifferent, but she was silent for the next minute
+or two. She had now spent several weeks in England, and had found the
+smooth, well-regulated life there pleasant after the restless activity
+of the one she had led in Western Canada, where everybody toiled
+feverishly. She felt the contrast every day, and now the sight of that
+softly-sliding river, whose low murmur came up soothingly across the
+lawn, recalled the one that frothed and foamed amidst the Quatomac
+pines, and the roar that rose from the misty caņon. That, very
+naturally, also brought back the face of the flume-builder, and she
+wondered vaguely whether he was still at the Dayspring, and what he was
+doing then, until her companion turned to her again.
+
+"We will really have to decide about the Cruttendens' dance to-night,"
+she said. "It will be the last frivolity of the season in this
+vicinity."
+
+"I haven't met Mrs. Cruttenden, have I?" said Barbara, indifferently.
+
+"You did, when you were here before. Don't you remember the old house
+you were so pleased with lower down the valley? In any case, she
+remembers you, and made a point of my bringing you. Cruttenden has a
+relative in your country, though I never heard much about the man."
+
+Barbara remembered the old building very well, and it suddenly flashed
+upon her that Brooke had on one occasion displayed a curious
+acquaintance with it. Everything that afternoon seemed to force him upon
+her recollection.
+
+"You would like to go?" she said.
+
+"I, at least, feel I ought to. We are, of course, quite newcomers here.
+In fact, we had only bought Larchwood just before you last came over,
+and it was Mrs. Cruttenden who first took us up. One may live a very
+long while in places of this kind without being admitted within the
+pale, you see, and even the rank of Major isn't a very great warranty,
+especially if it has been gained in foreign service instead of
+Aldershot."
+
+Miss Hume stopped as her father came slowly down the pathway with a
+grey-haired lady, whose dress proclaimed her a widow, and the latter's
+voice reached the girl's clearly. Her face was, so Barbara noticed, very
+expressive as she turned to her companion.
+
+"I think you know what I really came for," she said. "I feel I owe you a
+very great deal."
+
+Major Hume made a little deprecatory gesture. "I have," he said, "at
+least, seen the papers, and was very glad to notice that Reggie has got
+his step. He certainly deserved it. Very plucky thing, especially with
+only a handful of a raw native levy to back him. Frontal attack in
+daylight--and the niggers behind the stockade seem to have served their
+old guns astonishingly well!"
+
+"Still, if it had not been for your forbearance he would never have had
+the opportunity of doing it," said the lady. "I shall always remember
+that. You were the only one who made any excuse for him, and he told me
+his colonel was very bitter against him."
+
+The pair passed the girls, apparently without noticing them, and Barbara
+did not hear Major Hume's answer, but when he came back alone a few
+minutes later he stopped in front of them.
+
+"You were here when we went by?" he said.
+
+"Yes," said Hetty. "We heard you quite distinctly, too, and that
+suggests a question. What was it Reggie Ferris did?"
+
+Major Hume smiled drily. "Stormed a big rebel stockade with only a few
+half-drilled natives to help him. If you haven't read it already I can
+give you a paper with an account of the affair."
+
+"That," said Hetty, "is, as you are aware, not what I wished to ask.
+What was it he did before he left the line regiment? It was, presumably,
+something not especially creditable--and I always had an idea that he
+owed it to you that the result was not a good deal more unpleasant."
+
+The Major appeared a trifle embarrassed. "I scarcely think it would do
+you very much good to know," he said. "The thing wasn't a nice one, but
+there was good stuff in the lad, who, it was evident to me, at least,
+had been considerably more of a fool than a rogue, and all I did was to
+persuade the Colonel, who meant to break him, to give him another
+chance. It seems I was wise. Reggie Ferris has had his lesson, and has
+from all accounts retrieved his credit in the Colonial service."
+
+"If I remember correctly you once made a bad mistake in being equally
+considerate to another man," said Hetty, reflectively.
+
+"I certainly did, but you will find by the time you are as old as I am
+that taking it all round it is better to be merciful."
+
+"The Major," said Hetty, with a glance at Barbara, "is a confirmed
+optimist--and he has been in India."
+
+Major Hume smiled. "Well," he said, "the mistakes one makes from that
+cause hurt one less afterwards than the ones that result from believing
+in nobody. Now, there was that young woman who was engaged to
+Reggie----"
+
+"He has applied the suggestive epithet to her ever since she gave him
+up," said Hetty. "Still, I really don't think anybody could have
+expected very much more from her."
+
+"No," said the Major, grimly. "In my opinion she went further than there
+was any particular necessity for her to do. She knew the man's
+shortcomings when she was engaged to him--and she should have stuck to
+him. You don't condemn any one for a single slip in your country, Miss
+Heathcote?"
+
+Barbara made no answer, for this, it seemed, was just what she had done,
+but Hetty, who had been watching her, laughed.
+
+"You couldn't expect her to admit that their standard in Canada is lower
+than ours," she said.
+
+The Major appeared disconcerted. "That is not exactly what I mean. They
+have a little more charity yonder, and, in some respects, a good deal
+more sense. From one or two cases I am acquainted with they are, in
+fact, usually willing to give the man who trips another chance instead
+of falling upon him mercilessly before he can get up."
+
+"Still you haven't told us yet what Reggie Ferris did."
+
+Major Hume laughed as he turned away. "I am," he said, "quite aware of
+it."
+
+He left them, and Hetty smiled as she said, "The Major has not
+infrequently been imposed upon, but nothing will disabuse him of his
+cheerful belief in human nature, and I must admit that he is quite as
+often right as more censorious people. There was Lily Harland who gave
+Reggie Ferris up, which, of course, was probably only what he could have
+expected under the circumstances, but Reggie, it appears, is wiping out
+the past, and I have reasons for surmising that she has been sorry ever
+since. Nobody but my father and his mother ever hear from him now, and
+if that hurts Lily she has only herself to blame. She had her
+opportunity of showing what faith she had in the man, and can't expect
+to get another just because she would like it."
+
+She wondered why the warm color had crept into her companion's face, but
+Barbara said nothing, and vacantly watched the road that wound up
+through the meadows out of the valley, until a moving object appeared
+where it crossed the crest of the hill. In the meanwhile her thoughts
+were busy, for the Major's suggestive little story had not been without
+its effect on her, and the case of Reggie Ferris was, it seemed,
+remarkably similar to that of a certain Canadian flume-builder. The
+English soldier and Grant Devine had both been charitable, but she and
+the girl who was sorry ever since had shown themselves merciless, and
+there was in that connection a curious significance in the fact that
+Reggie Ferris, who was now brilliantly blotting out the past, wrote
+nobody but his mother and the man who had given him what the latter
+termed another chance. Barbara remembered the afternoon when she waited
+at the window and Brooke, who, she fancied, could have done so had he
+wished, had not come up from the depôt. She could not ignore the fact
+that this had since occasioned her a vague uneasiness.
+
+In the meanwhile the moving object had been growing larger, and when it
+reappeared lower down the road resolved itself into a gardener who had
+been despatched to the nearest village on a bicycle.
+
+"We will wait until Tom brings in the letters," said Hetty.
+
+It was a few minutes later when the man came up the path and handed her
+a packet. Among the letters she spread out there was one for Barbara,
+whose face grew suddenly intent as she opened it. It was from Mrs.
+Devine, and the thin paper crackled under her tightening fingers as she
+read:--
+
+"I have been alone since I last wrote you, as Grant had to go up to the
+Dayspring suddenly and has not come back. There was, I understand, a big
+flood in the valley above the mine, and Brooke, it seems, was very
+seriously hurt when endeavoring to protect the workings. I don't
+understand exactly how it happened, though I surmise from Grant's
+letters that he did a very daring thing. He is now in the Vancouver
+hospital, for although Grant wished him brought here, the surgeon
+considered him far too ill to move. His injuries, I understand, are not
+very serious in themselves, but it appears that the man was badly worn
+out and run down when he sustained them, and his condition, I am sorry
+to say, is just now very precarious."
+
+The rest of the letter concerned the doings of Barbara's friends in
+Vancouver, but the girl read no more of it, and sat still, a trifle
+white in the face, with her hands trembling, until Hetty turned to her.
+
+"You don't look well," she said. "I hope nothing has happened to your
+sister or Mr. Devine?"
+
+"No," said Barbara, quietly, though there was a faint tremor in her
+voice. "They are apparently in as good health as usual."
+
+"I'm glad to hear it," said Hetty, with an air of relief. "There is, of
+course, nobody else, or I should have known it, though you really seem a
+trifle paler than you generally do. Shall we go in and look through
+these patterns? I have been writing up about some dress material, and
+they've sent cuttings. Still, I don't suppose you will want anything
+new for Mrs. Cruttenden's?"
+
+"No," said Barbara, in a voice that was almost too even now, and not in
+keeping with the tension in her face. "In fact, I'm not going at all."
+
+Hetty glanced at her sharply, and then made a little gesture of
+comprehension.
+
+"Very well!" she said. "Whenever you feel it would be any consolation
+you can tell me, but in the meanwhile I have no doubt that you can get
+on without my company."
+
+She moved away, and Barbara, who was glad to be alone, sat still, for
+she wished to set her thoughts in order. This was apparently the climax
+all that had passed that afternoon had led up to, but she was just then
+chiefly conscious of an overwhelming distress that precluded any
+systematic consideration of its causes. The man whom she had roused from
+his lethargy at the Quatomac ranch was now, she gathered, dying in the
+Vancouver hospital, but not before he had blotted out his offences by
+slow endurance and unwearying effort in the face of flood and frost. She
+would have admitted this to him willingly now, but the opportunity was,
+it seemed, not to be afforded her, and the bitter words with which she
+had lashed him could never be withdrawn. She who had shown no mercy, and
+would not afford him what Major Hume had termed another chance, must, it
+seemed, long for it in vain herself.
+
+By degrees, however, her innate resolution rose against that decision,
+and she remembered that it was not, in point of time, at least a very
+long journey to British Columbia. There was nothing to prevent her
+setting out when it pleased her; and then it occurred to her that the
+difficulties would be plentiful at the other end. What explanation would
+she make to her sister, or the man, if--and the doubt was horrible--he
+was, indeed, still capable of receiving it? He had never in direct
+speech offered her his love, and she had not even the excuse of the girl
+who had given Reggie Ferris up for throwing herself at his feet. She was
+not even sure that she could have done it in that case, for her pride
+was strong, and once more she felt the hopelessness of the irrevocable.
+She had shown herself hard and unforgiving, and now she realized that
+the man she loved--and it was borne in upon her, that in spite of his
+offences she loved him well--was as far beyond her reach as though he
+had already slipped away from her into the other world at whose shadowy
+portals he lay in the Vancouver hospital.
+
+There had been a time, indeed the occasion had twice presented itself,
+when she could have relented gracefully, but she could no longer hope
+that it would ever happen again, and it only remained for her to face
+the result of her folly, and bear herself befittingly. It would, she
+realized, cost her a bitter effort, but the effort must be made, and she
+rose with a tense white face and turned towards the house. Hetty, as it
+happened, met her in the hall, and looked at her curiously.
+
+"There are, as you may remember, two or three people coming in to
+dinner," she said. "I have no doubt I could think out some excuse if you
+would sooner not come down."
+
+"Why do you think that would please me?" said Barbara, quietly.
+
+"Well," said Hetty, a trifle drily, "I fancied you would sooner have
+stayed away. Your appearance rather suggested it."
+
+Barbara smiled in a listless fashion. "I'm afraid I can't help that,"
+she said. "Your friends, however, will presumably not be here for an
+hour or two yet."
+
+Hetty made no further suggestions, and Barbara moved on slowly towards
+the stairway. She came of a stock that had grappled with frost and flood
+in the wild ranges of the mountain province, and courage and
+steadfastness were born in her, but she knew there was peril in the
+slightest concession to her gentler nature she might make just then.
+What she bore in the meanwhile she told nobody, but when the sonorous
+notes of a gong rolled through the building she came down the great
+stairway only a trifle colder in face than usual, and immaculately
+dressed.
+
+
+
+
+XXXI.
+
+BROOKE IS FORGIVEN.
+
+
+It was a pleasant morning, and Brooke lay luxuriating in the sunlight by
+an open window of the Vancouver hospital. His face was blanched and
+haggard, and his clothes hung loosely about his limbs, but there was a
+brightness in his eyes, and he was sensible that at last his strength
+was coming back to him. Opposite him sat Devine, who had just come in,
+and was watching him with evident approbation.
+
+"You will be fit to be moved out in a day or two, and I want to see you
+in Mrs. Devine's hands," he said. "We have a room fixed ready, and I
+came round to ask when the doctor would let you go."
+
+Brooke slowly shook his head. "You are both very kind, but I'm going
+back to the Old Country," he said. "Still, I don't know whether I shall
+stay there yet."
+
+Devine appeared a trifle disconcerted. "We had counted on you taking
+hold again at the Dayspring," he said. "Wilkins is getting an old man,
+and I don't know of any one who could handle that mine as you have
+done. Quite sure there's nothing I could do that would keep you?"
+
+Brooke lay silent a moment or two. He was loth to leave the mine, but
+during his slow recovery at the hospital a curious longing to see the
+Old Country once more had come upon him. He could go back now, and, if
+it pleased him, pick up the threads of the old life he had left behind,
+though he was by no means sure this would afford him the satisfaction he
+had once anticipated. The ambition to prove his capabilities in Canada
+had, in the meanwhile, at least, deserted him since his last meeting
+with Barbara, and he had heard from Mrs. Devine that it would probably
+be several months before she returned to Vancouver. He realized that it
+was she who had kept him there, and now she had gone, and the mine was,
+as Devine had informed him, exceeding all expectations, there was no
+longer any great inducement to stay in Canada. He had seen enough of the
+country, and, of late, a restless desire to get away from it had been
+growing stronger with every day of his recovery. It might, he felt, be
+easier to shake off the memory of his folly in another land.
+
+"No," he said, slowly, "I don't think there is. I feel I must go back,
+for a while, at least."
+
+"Well," said Devine, who seemed to recognize that protests would be
+useless, "it's quite a long journey. I guess you can afford it?"
+
+Brooke felt the keen eyes fixed on him with an almost disconcerting
+steadiness, but he contrived to smile.
+
+"Yes," he said, "if I don't do it too extravagantly, I fancy I can."
+
+"Then there's another point," said Devine, with a faint twinkle in his
+eyes. "You might want to do something yonder that would bring the
+dollars in. Now, I could give you a few lines that would be useful in
+case you wanted an engagement with one of your waterworks contractors or
+any one of that kind."
+
+"I scarcely think it will be necessary," said Brooke, with a little
+smile.
+
+"Well," said Devine, "I have a notion that it's not going to be very
+long before we see you back again. You have got used to us, and you're
+going to find the folks yonder slow. I can think of quite a few men who
+saved up, one or two of them for a very long while, to go home to the
+Old Country, and in about a month they'd had enough of it. The country
+was very much as they left it--but they had altered."
+
+He stopped a moment, with a little chuckle, before he continued. "Now,
+there was Sandy Campbell, who ran the stamps at the Canopus for me. He
+never spent a dollar when he could help it, and, when he'd quite a pile
+of them, he told me he was just sickening for a sight of Glasgow. Well,
+I let him go, and that day six weeks Sandy came round to the mine again.
+The Old Country was badly played out, he said, but, for another month,
+that was all he would tell me, and then the facts came out. Sandy's
+friends had met him at the Donaldson wharf, and started a circus over
+the whisky. Somebody broke the furniture, and Sandy doubled up a
+policeman who, he figured, had insulted him, so they had him up for
+doing it before whatever they call a magistrate in that country. Sandy's
+remarks were printed in a Glasgow paper, and he showed it me.
+
+"'Forty shillings. It's an iniquity,' he said. 'Is this how ye treat a
+man who has come six thousand miles to see his native land? I will not
+find ye a surety. I'm away back by the first Allan boat to a country
+where they appreciate me.'"
+
+Brooke laughed. "Still, I don't quite see how Sandy's case applies to
+me."
+
+"I guess it does. One piece of it, anyway. Sandy knew where he was
+appreciated, and we have room for a good many men of your kind in this
+country. That's about all I need say. When you feel like it, come right
+back to me."
+
+He went out a few minutes later, and Brooke lay still thoughtfully, with
+his old ambitions re-awakening. There was, he surmised, a good deal of
+truth in Devine's observations, and work in the mountain province that
+he could do. Still, he felt that even to make his mark there would be no
+great gain to him now. Barbara could not forgive him, but she was in
+England, and he might, at least, see her. Whether that would be wise he
+did not know, and scarcely fancied so, but the faint probability had its
+attractions, and he would go and stay there--until he had recovered his
+usual vigor, at least.
+
+It was, however, a little while before the doctors would permit him to
+risk the journey, and several months had passed when he stood with a
+kinsman and his wife on the lawn outside an old house in an English
+valley. The air was still and warm, and a full moon was rising above the
+beeches on the hillside. Its pale light touched the river, that slid
+smoothly between the mossy stepping-stones, and the shadows of clipped
+yew and drooping willow lay black upon the grass. There was a faint
+smell of flowers that linger in the fall, and here and there a withered
+leaf was softly sailing down, but that night it reminded Brooke of the
+resinous odors of the Western pines, and the drowsy song of the river,
+of the thunder of the torrent that swirled by Quatomac. His heart was
+also beating a trifle more rapidly than usual, and for that reason he
+was more than usually quiet.
+
+"I suppose your friends will come?" he said, indifferently.
+
+Mrs. Cruttenden, who stood close by him, laughed. "To the minute! Major
+Hume is punctuality itself. I fancy he will be a little astonished
+to-night."
+
+"I shall be pleased to meet him again. He was to bring Miss Hume?"
+
+"Of course," said Mrs. Cruttenden, with a keen glance at him. "And Miss
+Heathcote, whom you asked about. No doubt she will be a trifle
+astonished, too. You do not seem quite so sure that the meeting with her
+will afford you any pleasure?"
+
+Brooke smiled a trifle grimly. "The most important question is whether
+she will be pleased to see me. I don't mind admitting it is one that is
+causing me considerable anxiety."
+
+"Wouldn't her attitude on the last occasion serve as guide?"
+
+Brooke felt his face grow warm under her watchful eyes, but he laughed.
+
+"I would like to believe that it did not," he said. "Miss Heathcote did
+not appear by any means pleased with me. Still, you see, you sometimes
+change your minds."
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Cruttenden, reflectively. "Especially when the person
+who has offended us has been very ill. It is, in fact, the people one
+likes the most one is most inclined to feel angry with now and then, but
+there are circumstances under which one feels sorry for past
+severities."
+
+Brooke started, for this appeared astonishingly apposite in view of the
+fact that he had, as she had once or twice reminded him, told her
+unnecessarily little about his Canadian affairs. The difficulty,
+however, was that he could not be sure she was correct.
+
+"You naturally know what you would do, but, after all, that scarcely
+goes quite as far as one would like," he said.
+
+Mrs. Cruttenden laughed softly. "Still, I fancy the rest are very like
+me in one respect. In fact, it might be wise of you to take that for
+granted."
+
+Just then three figures appeared upon the path that came down to the
+stepping-stones across the river, and Brooke's eyes were eager as he
+watched them. They were as yet in the shadow, but he felt that he would
+have recognized one of them anywhere and under any circumstances. Then
+he strode forward precipitately, and a minute later sprang aside on to
+an outlying stone as a grey-haired man, who glanced at him sharply,
+turned, with hand held out, to one of his companions. Brooke moved a
+little nearer the one who came last, and then stood bareheaded, while
+the girl stopped suddenly and looked at him. He could catch the gleam of
+the brown eyes under the big hat, and, for the moon was above the
+beeches now, part of her face and neck gleamed like ivory in the silvery
+light. She stood quite still, with the flashing water sliding past her
+feet, etherealized, it seemed to him, by her surroundings and a
+complement of the harmonies of the night.
+
+"You?" she said.
+
+Brooke laughed softly, and swept his hand vaguely round, as though to
+indicate the shining river and dusky trees.
+
+"Yes," he said. "You remember how I met you at Quatomac. Who else could
+it be?"
+
+"Nobody," said Barbara, with a tinge of color in her face. "At least,
+any one else would have been distinctly out of place."
+
+Brooke tightened his grasp on the hand she had laid in his, for which
+there was some excuse, since the stone she stood upon was round and
+smooth, and it was a long step to the next one.
+
+"You knew I was here?" he said.
+
+"Yes," said Barbara, quietly.
+
+Brooke felt his heart throbbing painfully. "And you could have framed an
+excuse for staying away?"
+
+The girl glanced at him covertly as he stood very straight looking down
+on her, with lips that had set suddenly, and tension in his face. The
+moonlight shone into it, and it was, she noticed, quieter and a little
+grimmer than it had been, while his sinewy frame still showed spare to
+gauntness in the thin conventional dress. This had its significance to
+her.
+
+"Of course!" she said. "Still, it did not seem necessary. I had no
+reason for wishing to stay away."
+
+Brooke fancied that there was a good deal in this admission, and his
+voice had a little exultant thrill in it.
+
+"That implies--ever so much," he said. "Hold fast. That stone is
+treacherous, and one can get wet in this river, though it is not the
+Quatomac. Absurd to suggest that, isn't it? Are not Abana and Pharpar
+better than all the waters of Israel?"
+
+Barbara also laughed. "Do you wish the Major to come back for me?" she
+said. "It is really a little difficult to stand still upon a narrow
+piece of mossy stone."
+
+They went across, and Major Hume stared at Brooke in astonishment when
+Cruttenden presented him.
+
+"By all that's wonderful! Our Canadian guide!" he said.
+
+"Presumably so!" said Cruttenden. "Still, though, my wife appears to
+understand the allusion, it's more than I do. Anyway, he is my kinsman,
+Harford Brooke, and the owner of High Wycombe."
+
+Brooke smiled as he shook hands with the Major, but he was sensible that
+Barbara flashed a swift glance at him, and, as they moved towards the
+house, Hetty broke in.
+
+"You must know, Mr. Cruttenden, that your kinsman met Barbara beside a
+river once before, and on that occasion, too, they did not come out of
+it until some little time after we did," she said.
+
+"That," said Cruttenden, "appears to imply that they were--in--the
+water."
+
+"I really think that one of them was," said Hetty. "Barbara had a pony,
+but Mr. Brooke had not, and his appearance certainly suggested that he
+had been bathing. In fact, he was so bedraggled that Barbara gave him a
+dollar. She had, I must explain, already spent a few months in this
+country."
+
+Brooke was a trifle astonished, and noticed a sudden warmth in Barbara's
+face.
+
+"If I remember correctly, you had gone into the ranch, Miss Hume," he
+said, severely.
+
+"No," said Hetty. "You may have fancied so, but I hadn't. I was the only
+chaperon Barbara had, you see. I hope she didn't tell you not to lavish
+the dollar on whisky. No doubt you spent it wisely on tobacco."
+
+Brooke made no answer, and his smile was somewhat forced; but he went
+with the others into the house, and it was an hour or two later when he
+and Barbara again stood by the riverside alone. Neither of them quite
+knew how it came about, but they were there with the black shadows of
+the beeches behind them and the flashing water at their feet. Brooke
+glanced slowly round him, and then turned to the girl.
+
+"It reminds one of that other river--but there is a difference," he
+said. "The beeches make poor substitutes for your towering pines, and
+you no longer wear the white samite."
+
+"And," said Barbara, "where is the sword?"
+
+Brooke looked down on her gravely, and shook his head. "I am not fit to
+wear it, and yet I dare not give it back to you, stained as it is," he
+said. "What am I to do?"
+
+"Keep it," said Barbara, softly. "You have wiped the stain out, and it
+is bright again."
+
+Brooke laid a hand that quivered a little on her shoulder. "Barbara," he
+said, "I am not vainer than most men, and I know what I have done, but
+unless what once seemed beyond all hoping for was about to come to me,
+you and I would not have met again beside the river. It simply couldn't
+happen. You can forget all that has gone before, and once more try to
+believe in me?"
+
+"I think," said Barbara, quietly, "there is a good deal that you must
+never remember, too. I realized that"--and she stopped with a little
+shiver--"when you were lying in the Vancouver hospital."
+
+"And you knew I loved you, though in those days I dare not tell you so?
+I have done so, I think, from the night I first saw you, and yet there
+is so much to make you shrink from me."
+
+"No," said Barbara, very softly, "there is nothing whatever now--and if
+perfection had been indispensable you would never have thought of me."
+
+Brooke laid his other hand on her shoulder, and, standing so, while
+every nerve in him thrilled, still held her a little apart, so that the
+silvery light shone into her flushed face. For a moment she met his
+gaze, and her eyes were shining.
+
+"Do you know that, absurd as it may sound, I seemed to know that night
+at Quatomac that I should hold you in my arms again one day?" he said.
+"Of course, the thing seemed out of the question, an insensate dream,
+and still I could never quite let go my hold of the alluring fancy."
+
+"And if the dream had never been fulfilled?"
+
+Brooke laughed curiously. "You would still have ridden beside me through
+many a long night march, with the moon shining round and full behind
+your shoulder, and I should have felt the white dress brush me softly
+where the trail was dark."
+
+"Then I should have been always young to you. You would never have seen
+me grow faded and the grey creep into my hair."
+
+Brooke drew her towards him, and held her close. "My dear, you will be
+always beautiful to me. We will grow old together, and the one who must
+cross the last dark river first will, at least, start out on the shadowy
+trail holding the other's hand."
+
+It was an hour later when Barbara, with the man's arm still about her,
+glanced across the velvet lawn to the old grey house beneath the dusky
+slope of wooded hill. The moonlight silvered its weathered front, and
+the deep tranquillity of the sheltered valley made itself felt.
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, "it is yours and mine."
+
+Barbara made a little gesture that was eloquent of appreciation. "It is
+very beautiful. A place one could dream one's life away in. We have
+nothing like it in Canada. You would care to stay here always?"
+
+"Any place would be delightful with you."
+
+The girl laughed softly, but her voice had a tender thrill in it, and
+then she turned towards the west.
+
+"It is very beautiful--and full of rest," she said. "Still, I scarcely
+think it would suit you to sit down in idleness, and all that can be
+done for this rich country has been done years ago."
+
+"I wonder," said Brooke, who guessed her thoughts, "if you would be
+quite so sure when you had seen our towns."
+
+"Still, one would need to be very wise to take hold there--and I do not
+think you care for politics."
+
+"No," said Brooke, with a faint, dry smile. "Besides, remembering
+Saxton, I should feel a becoming diffidence about wishing to serve my
+nation in that fashion. There are men enough who are anxious to do it
+already, and I would be happier grappling with the rocks and pines in
+Western Canada."
+
+"Then," said Barbara, "if it pleases you, we will go back to the great
+unfinished land where the dreams of such men as you are come true."
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The Spotter
+
+[Illustration]
+
+_A Story of the Early Days in the Pennsylvania Oil Fields.._
+
+By W. W. CANFIELD
+
+
+Duncan Cameron is a Pennsylvania farmer, the owner of a large tract of
+land which the prototype of the Standard Oil Company desires to secure.
+Cameron for a long time successfully resists the efforts to compel him
+to sell, and The Spotter describes what happened to him, as well as what
+befell members of several families who are made wealthy by the sale of
+their oil lands. Those who oppose the advance of the monopoly feel its
+hand in no uncertain weight, for there is little hesitancy in the
+methods adopted to break the fortunes and prospects of those who do not
+quietly submit.
+
+The story describes the romantic side of the influx of a large number of
+speculators, operators and boomers, who find a country that heretofore
+has been almost isolated.
+
+
+Size 5―Ũ7ū. Cloth, Gilt Top.           Price $1.50
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the
+original edition have been corrected.
+
+In the table of contents, =The Jumping of the Caonpus= was changed to
+=The Jumping of the Canopus=.
+
+In Chapter VII, =The result was from one point of view comtemptible= was
+changed to =The result was from one point of view contemptible=.
+
+In Chapter VIII, an extra quotation mark was deleted after =it was the
+other man who fell in.=
+
+In Chapter XI, a comma was changed to a period after =a kindness thrust
+upon him by his companion=, ="Of course!" be said.= was changed to ="Of
+course!" be said.=, and =the distinctions you allude too= was changed to
+=the distinctions you allude to=.
+
+In Chapter XIII, a missing quotation mark was added after =We may be
+staying for some time yet at the C. P. R. Hotel, Vancouver.=
+
+In Chapter XIV, a question mark was changed to a period after =nature
+untrammelled, and primeval force=.
+
+In Chapter XVIII, a missing period was added after ="I'm not quite sure
+whether I expected it or not, but I almost hope I did," he said=.
+
+In Chapter XX, =What, in the name of thunder= was changed to =What in
+the name of thunder=.
+
+In Chapter XXI, =Lou, no doubt, had a purpose= was changed to =You, no
+doubt, had a purpose=.
+
+In Chapter XXII, =much more pleased that you were= was changed to =much
+more pleased than you were=.
+
+In Chapter XXV, =They told me as nearly as they could remember= was
+changed to =They told him as nearly as they could remember=.
+
+In Chapter XXVI, a quotation mark was removed after =he had certainly
+been impelled by at their last meeting.=
+
+In Chapter XXIX, =B ooke braced himself to bear his part in it= was
+changed to =Brooke braced himself to bear his part in it=.
+
+In Chapter XXXI, an extra quotation mark was removed before =I guess you
+can afford it?=
+
+In the advertisement for _The Spotter_, an extra period was deleted
+after "A Story of the Early Days in the Pennsylvania Oil Fields.", and a
+period was changed to a comma after =Duncan Cameron is a Pennsylvania
+farmer=.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Damaged Reputation, by Harold Bindloss
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Damaged Reputation, by Harold Bindloss
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Damaged Reputation
+
+Author: Harold Bindloss
+
+Release Date: October 15, 2011 [EBook #37761]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAMAGED REPUTATION ***
+
+
+
+
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+produced from scanned images of public domain material
+from the Google Print project.)
+
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+</pre>
+
+
+<h1>A DAMAGED<br />
+REPUTATION</h1>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smalltext">BY</span><br /><span class="bigtext">HAROLD BINDLOSS</span></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smalltext">AUTHOR OF</span><br />"<i>ALTON OF SOMASCO</i>"
+"<i>MISTRESS OF BONAVENTURE</i>" <i>ETC., ETC.</i></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 108px;">
+<img src="images/logo.png" width="108" height="175" alt="flower logo" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center smalltext">R.&nbsp;F. FENNO &amp; COMPANY<br />
+18 EAST <span class="smcap">17th</span> STREET, NEW YORK</p>
+
+<p class="center smalltext">Copyright, 1908, by<br />
+<span class="smcap">R.&nbsp;F. Fenno &amp; Company</span></p>
+
+<hr class="wide" />
+
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<table class="figcenter" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="Table of Contents">
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER I.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Brooke Pauses to Reflect</td>
+<td class="chappage"><span class="smalltext">PAGE</span><br /><a href="#CHAPTER_I">9</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER II.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Brooke Takes the Trail</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">25</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER III.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">The Narrow Way</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">37</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER IV.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Saxton Makes an Offer</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">51</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER V.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Barbara Renews an Acquaintance</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">64</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER VI.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">An Arduous Journey</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">79</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER VII.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Allonby's Illusion</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">91</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER VIII.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">A Bold Venture</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">104</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER IX.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Devine Makes a Suggestion</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">121</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER X.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">The Flume Builder</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">135</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER XI.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">An Embarrassing Position</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">151</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER XII.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Brooke is Carried Away</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">166</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER XIII.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">The Old Love</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">179</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER XIV.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Brooke Has Visitors</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">193</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER XV.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Saxton Gains His Point</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">209</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER XVI.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Barbara's Responsibility</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">222</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER XVII.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Brooke Attempts Burglary</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">236</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER XVIII.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Brooke Makes a Decision</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">249</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER XIX.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Brooke's Bargain</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">264</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER XX.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">The Bridging of the Ca&ntilde;on</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">278</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER XXI.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Devine's Offer</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">293</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER XXII.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">The Unexpected Happens</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">305</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER XXIII.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Brooke's Confession</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">317</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER XXIV.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Allonby Strikes Silver</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">334</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER XXV.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Barbara is Merciless</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">350</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER XXVI.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">The Jumping of the Canopus</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">365</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER XXVII.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">The Last Round</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">381</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER XXVIII.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Brooke Does Not Come Back</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">395</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER XXIX.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">A Final Effort</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">406</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER XXX.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">The Other Chance</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">419</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="chapnum">CHAPTER XXXI.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapname">Brooke is Forgiven</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">431</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class="wide" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="A_DAMAGED_REPUTATION" id="A_DAMAGED_REPUTATION"></a>A DAMAGED REPUTATION.</h2>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>I.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">BROOKE PAUSES TO REFLECT.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>It was a still, hot night, and the moon hung round and full above the
+cedars, when rancher Brooke sat in his comfortless shanty with a whisky
+bottle at his hand. The door stood open, and the drowsy fragrance of the
+coniferous forest stole into the room, while when he glanced in that
+direction he could see hemlock and cedar, redwood and balsam, tower,
+great black spires, against the luminous blueness of the night. Far
+above them gleamed the untrodden snow that clothed the great peaks with
+spotless purity; but this was melting fast under the autumn sun, and the
+river that swirled by the shanty sang noisily among the boulders.</p>
+
+<p>There are few more beautiful valleys than that one among all the ranges
+of British Columbia, but its wild grandeur made little impression upon
+Brooke that night. He felt that a crisis in his affairs was at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> hand,
+and he must face it boldly or go under once for all, for it was borne in
+upon him that he had already drifted perilously far. His face, however,
+grew a trifle grim, and his fingers closed irresolutely on the neck of
+the bottle, for drifting was easy in that country, and pleasant, so long
+as one did not remember.</p>
+
+<p>Even when the great peaks were rolled in tempest cloud, the snow fell
+but lightly among the Quatomac pines. Bright sunlight shone on them for
+weeks together, and it was but seldom a cold blast whipped the still,
+blue lake where the shadows of the cedars that distilled ambrosial
+essences lay asleep. There were deer and blue grouse in the woods,
+salmon in the river, and big trout in the lake; and the deleterious
+whisky purveyed at the nearest settlement was not inordinately dear. It
+had, however, dawned on Brooke by degrees that there were many things he
+could not find at Quatomac which men of his upbringing hold necessary.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile, his sole comrade, Jimmy, who assisted him to loaf the
+greater part of every day away, watched him with a curious little smile.
+Jimmy was big, loose-limbed, and slouching, but in his own way he was
+wise, and he had seen more than one young Englishman of Brooke's
+description take the down-grade in that colony.</p>
+
+<p>"Feeling kind of low to-night?" he said, suggestively. "Now, I'd have
+been quite lively if Tom Gordon's Bella had made up to me. Bella's nice
+to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> look at, and 'most as smart with the axe as a good many men I know.
+I guess if you got her you wouldn't have anything to do."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke's bronzed face flushed a trifle as he saw his comrade's grin, for
+it was what had passed between him and Tom Gordon's Bella at the
+settlement that afternoon which had thrust before him the question what
+his life was to be. He had also not surmised that Jimmy or anybody else
+beyond themselves had been present at that meeting among the pines.
+Bella was certainly pretty and wholly untaught, while, though he had
+made no attempts to gain her favor they had not been necessary, since
+the maid had with disconcerting frankness conferred it upon him. She
+had, in fact, made it evident that she considered him her property, and
+Brooke wondered uneasily how far he had tacitly accepted the position.
+His irresponsive coolness had proved no deterrent; he could neither be
+brutal, nor continually run away; and there were times when he had
+almost resigned himself to the prospect of spending the rest of his life
+with her, though he fancied he realized what the result of that would
+be. The woman had the waywardness and wildness of the creatures of the
+forest, and almost as little sensibility, while he was unpleasantly
+conscious that he was already sinking fast to her level. With a soulless
+mate, swayed by primitive instincts and passions, and a little further
+indulgence in bad whisky, it was evident that he might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> very well sink a
+good deal further, and Brooke had once had his ideals and aspirations.</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy," he said, slowly, "I'm thinking of going away."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy shook out his corn-cob pipe, and apparently ruminated. "Well, I'd
+'most have expected it," he said. "The question is, where you're going
+to, and what you're going to do? You don't get your grub for nothing
+everywhere, and living's cheap here. It only costs the cartridges, and
+the deerhides pay the tea and flour. Besides, you put a pile of dollars
+into this place, didn't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Most of six thousand, and I've taken about two hundred out. Of course I
+was a fool."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy nodded with a tranquil concurrence which his comrade might not
+have been pleased with at another time.</p>
+
+<p>"Bought it on survey, without looking at it?" he said. "Going to make
+your fortune growing fruit! It's kind of unfortunate that big peaches
+and California plums don't grow on rocks."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke sat moodily silent awhile. He had, as his comrade had mentioned,
+bought the four hundred acres of virgin soil without examining it, which
+is not such an especially unusual proceeding on the part of
+newly-arrived young Englishmen, and partly explains why some land-agency
+companies pay big dividends. For twelve months he had toiled with hope,
+strenuously hewing down the great redwoods which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> cumbered his
+possessions; and expended the rest of his scanty capital in hiring
+assistance. It was only in the second year that the truth dawned on him,
+and he commenced to realize that treble the sum he could lay hands upon
+would not clear the land, and that in all probability it would grow
+nothing worth marketing then. In the meanwhile something had happened
+which made it easier for him to accept the inevitable, and losing hold
+of hope he had made the most of the present and ignored the future. It
+was sufficient that the forest and the river fed him during most of the
+year, and he could earn a few dollars hewing trails for the Government
+when they did not. His aspirations had vanished, and he dwelt, almost,
+if not quite, content in a state of apathetic resignation which is not
+wholesome for the educated Englishman.</p>
+
+<p>It was Jimmy who broke the silence.</p>
+
+<p>"What was it you done back there in England? I never asked you before,"
+he said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled somewhat drily, for it was not a very unusual question in
+that country. "Nothing the police could lay hands on me for. I only
+quarrelled with my bread and butter. I had plenty of it at one time, you
+see."</p>
+
+<p>"That means the folks who gave it you?" said Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly. It was the evident duty of one of them to leave me his
+property, and I think he would have done it, only he insisted on me
+taking a wife he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> fixed upon as suitable along with it. There was,
+however, the difficulty that I had made my own choice in the meanwhile.
+I believe the old man was right now, though I did not think so then, and
+when we had words on the subject I came out to make a home for the other
+woman here."</p>
+
+<p>"And you let up after two years of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did," said Brooke, with a trace of bitterness. "The girl, however,
+did not wait so long. Before I'd been gone half the time she married a
+richer man."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy nodded. "There are women made that way," he said reflectively.
+"Still, you wouldn't have to worry 'bout Bella. Once you showed her who
+was to do the bossing&mdash;with a nice handy strap&mdash;she'd stick to you good
+and tight, and 'most scratch the eyes out of any one who said a word
+against her husband. Still, I figure she's not quite the kind of woman
+you would have married in the old country."</p>
+
+<p>That was very evident, and Brooke sat silent while the memories of his
+life in the land he had left crowded upon him. He also recoiled from the
+brutality of the one his comrade had pictured him leading with the maid
+of the bush, though it had seemed less appalling when she stood before
+him, vigorous and comely, a few hours ago. He had, however, made no
+advances to her. On that point, at least, his mind was clear, and now he
+realized clearly what the result of such a match must be. Yet he knew
+his own loneliness and the maid's pertinacity, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> once more it was
+borne in upon him that to stay where he was would mean disaster. Rising
+abruptly he flung the bottle out into the night, and then, while Jimmy
+stared at him with astonishment and indignation, laughed curiously as he
+heard it crash against a stone.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the commencement of the change," he said. "After this I'll pitch
+every bottle you bring up from the settlement into the river."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Jimmy, resignedly, "I guess I can bring the whisky up
+inside of me, and you'd get hurt considerable if you tried slinging me
+into the river. The trouble is, however, I'd be seeing panthers all the
+way up whenever I brought along a little extra, and I'm most scared of
+panthers when they aren't there."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laughed again, for, as he had discovered, men take life lightly
+in that country, but just then the soft beat of horse hoofs rose from
+across the river, and a cry came out of the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>"Strangers!" said Jimmy. "Quite a crowd of them. With the river coming
+down as she's doing it's a risky ford. We'll have to go across."</p>
+
+<p>They went, rather more than waist-deep in the snow-water which swirled
+frothing about them, for the ford was perilous, with a big black pool
+close below; and found a mounted party waiting them on the other side.
+There was an elderly man who sat very straight in his saddle with his
+hand on his hip,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> and Brooke, at least, recognized the bearing of one
+who had commanded cavalry in the Old Country. There was also a younger
+man, dismounted and smoking a cigarette, two girls on Cayuse ponies, and
+an Indian, whose appearance suggested inebriation, holding the bridles
+of the baggage mules. The men were certainly not ranchers or
+timber-right prospectors, but now and then of late a fishing party had
+passed that way into the wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>"I understand the ford is not very safe, and the Indian has contrived to
+leave our tents behind," said the older man. "If you can take us across,
+and find the ladies, at least, shelter of any kind for the night, it
+would be a kindness for which I should be glad to make any suitable
+recompense."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy grinned, for it was evident that the speaker was an insular
+Englishman, and quite unacquainted with the customs of that country,
+wherein no rancher accepts payment for a night's hospitality. Brooke
+had, however, a certain sense of humor, and touched his big shapeless
+hat, which is also never done in Western Canada.</p>
+
+<p>"They can have it, sir," he said. "That is, if they're not very
+particular. Take the lady's bridle, Jimmy. Keep behind him, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy did as he was bidden, and Brooke seized the bridle of the Cayuse
+the other girl rode. The half-tamed beast, however, objected to entering
+the water, and edged away from it, then rose with fore<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>hoofs in the air
+while Brooke smote it on the nostrils with his fist. The girl, he
+noticed, said nothing, and showed no sign of fear, though the rest were
+half-way across before he had an opportunity of doing more than cast a
+glance at her. Then, as he stood waist-deep in water patting the
+trembling beast, he looked up.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you're not afraid," he said. "It will be a trifle deeper
+presently."</p>
+
+<p>He stopped with a curious abruptness as she turned her head, and stood
+still with his hand on the bridle a moment or two gazing at her. She
+sat, lithe and slim, but very shapely, with the skirt of the loose light
+habit she had gathered in one hand just clear of the sliding foam, and
+revealing the little foot in the stirrup. The moon, which hung round and
+full behind her shoulder, touched one side of the face beneath the big
+white hat with silvery light, that emphasized the ivory gleam of the
+firm white neck. He could also just catch the sparkle of her eyes in the
+shadow, and her freshness and daintiness came upon him as a revelation.
+It was so long since he had seen a girl of the station she evidently
+belonged to. Then she laughed, and it seemed to him that her voice was
+in keeping with her appearance, for it reached him through the clamor of
+the river, soft and musical.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," she said. "What are we stopping for?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke, who had seldom been at a loss for a neat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> rejoinder in England,
+felt his face grow hot as he smote the pony's neck.</p>
+
+<p>"I really don't know. I think it was the Cayuse stopped," he said.</p>
+
+<p>The girl smiled. "One would fancy that the water was a trifle too cold
+for even a pony of that kind to be anxious to stay in it."</p>
+
+<p>They went on with a plunge and a flounder, and twice Brooke came near
+being swept off his feet, for the pony seemed bent on taking the
+shortest way to the other bank, which was, as it happened, not quite the
+safest one. Still, they came through the river, and Brooke dragged the
+Cayuse up the bank in time to see the rest disappear into the shanty.
+Then he boldly held up his hand, and felt a curious little thrill run
+through him as he swung his companion down.</p>
+
+<p>"It was very good of you to come across for us, and I am afraid you must
+be very wet," she said. "This is really a quite inadequate recompense."</p>
+
+<p>Then she turned and left him with the pony, staring vaguely after her,
+flushed in face, with a big piece of minted silver in his hand. It was
+at least a minute before he slipped it into his pocket with a curious
+little laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"This is almost too much, and I don't know what has come over me. There
+was a time when I would have been quite equal to the occasion," he
+said.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>Then he turned away to the stables, where Jimmy, who came in with an
+armful of clothing, found him rubbing down the Cayuse with unusual
+solicitude, in spite of its attempts to kick him.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess you'll have to change," he said. "Those things aren't decent,
+and you can put the deerskin ones on. The old man's a high-toned
+Englishman going camping and fishing, and, by what she said, the younger
+girl's struck on frontiersmen. When you get into that jacket you'll look
+the real thing."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke had no great desire to look like one of the picturesque
+desperadoes who are, somewhat erroneously, supposed, in England, to
+wander about the Pacific Slope, but as he mended his own clothes with
+any convenient piece of flour bag, he saw that his comrade's advice was
+good.</p>
+
+<p>When he entered the shanty Jimmy had supper ready, but he realized, as
+he had never done since he raised its log walls, the comfortless squalor
+of the room. The red dust had blown into it, it was littered with
+discarded clothing, lines and traps, and broken boots, while two
+candles, which flickered in the draughts, stuck in whisky bottles,
+furnished uncertain illumination. He had made the unsteady table, and
+Jimmy had made the chairs, but the result was no great credit to either
+of them, while nobody who was not very hungry would have considered the
+meal his comrade laid out inviting. Still, his guests had evidently no
+fault to find with it, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> during it the girl whose pony he had led
+once or twice glanced covertly at him.</p>
+
+<p>She saw a tall man with a bronzed face of not unpleasant English type,
+attired picturesquely in fringed deerskin which had crossed the
+mountains from the prairie. He had grey eyes, and his hair was crisped
+by the sun; but while he was, she decided, distinctly, personable and
+still young, there was something in his expression which puzzled her. It
+was neither diffidence nor embarrassment, and yet there was a suggestion
+of constraint about him which his comrade was wholly free from. Brooke,
+on his part, saw a girl with brown eyes and hair who held herself well,
+and had a faint suggestion of imperiousness about her, and wondered with
+an uneasiness he was by no means accustomed to what she thought of him,
+since he felt that the condition of his dwelling must show her the
+shiftless life he led. Still, he shook off that thought, and others that
+troubled him, and played his part as host, talking, with a purpose, only
+of the Canadian bush, until, when the meal was over, Jimmy, who felt
+himself being left out, turned to the guests.</p>
+
+<p>"A little whisky would have come in to settle those fried potatoes
+down," he said. "I would have offered you some, but my partner here
+slung the bottle into the river just before you came."</p>
+
+<p>There was a trace of a smile in the face of the grey-haired man, but the
+girl with the brown eyes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> looked up sharply, and once more Brooke felt
+his face grow a trifle hot. Men do not as a rule fling whisky bottles
+into rivers without a cogent reason, especially in Canada, where liquor
+is scarce. He was, however, both astonished and annoyed at himself that
+he should attach the slightest value to this stranger's good opinion.</p>
+
+<p>Then, when the others seconded Jimmy's suggestion, he took a dingy
+fiddle from its case, and, although there is little a rancher of that
+country will not do for the pleasure of a chance guest, wondered why he
+had complied so readily. He played French-Canadian dances, as the
+inhabitants play them, and though only some of them may be classed as
+music, became sensible that there was a curious silence of attention.</p>
+
+<p>"That violin has a beautiful mellow tone," said the younger girl, whom
+he had scarcely noticed. "I am, however, quite aware that there is a
+good deal in the bowing."</p>
+
+<p>"It might have!" said Jimmy, who disregarded his comrade's glance.
+"There was once a man came along here who said it would fetch the most
+of one thousand dollars. Still, every old Canadian lumberman can play
+those things, and you ought to hear him on the one he calls the
+Chopping. Play it for them, and I'll open the door so they can see the
+night and hear the river singing."</p>
+
+<p>The military gentleman stared at him, and even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> the girl with the brown
+eyes, who was very reposeful, appeared surprised at this flight of
+fancy, which nobody would, from his appearance, have expected of Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>"The Chopping? Oh, yes, of course I understand," she said. "This is the
+place of all places for it. We have never heard it in such
+surroundings."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled a little. "I'm afraid it is difficult to get moonlight and
+mystery out of an American steel first string," he said. "One can't keep
+it from screaming on the shifting."</p>
+
+<p>He drew the bow across the strings, and save for the fret of the
+snow-fed river which rose and fell in deep undertone, there was a
+curious silence in the room. The younger girl watched the player with
+grave appreciation in her eyes, and a little flush crept into her
+companion's cheek. Perhaps she was thinking of the dollar she had given
+the man who could play the famous nocturne as she had rarely heard it
+played before, and owned what, though she could scarcely believe it to
+be a genuine Cremona, was evidently an old Italian fiddle of no mean
+value. There was also silence for at least a minute after he had laid
+down the bow, and then Brooke held out the violin to the girl who had
+praised its tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you care to try the instrument?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said the girl, with quiet decisiveness. "Not after that, though it
+is, I think, a better one than I have ever handled."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>"And I fancy I should explain that she is studying under an eminent
+teacher, who professes himself perfectly satisfied with her progress,"
+said the man with the grey hair.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke said nothing. He knew the compliment was sincere enough, but he
+had seen the appreciation in the other girl's eyes, and that pleased him
+most. Then, as he put away the fiddle the man turned to him again.</p>
+
+<p>"I am far from satisfied with our Siwash guide," he said. "In fact, I am
+by no means sure that he knows the country, and as we propose making for
+the big lake and camping by it, I should prefer to send him back if you
+could recommend us anybody who would take us there."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke felt a curious little thrill of anticipation, but it was the girl
+with the brown eyes he glanced at. She, of course, said nothing, but,
+though it seemed preposterous, Brooke fancied that she knew what he was
+thinking and was not displeased.</p>
+
+<p>"With your approval I would come myself, sir," he said. "There is
+nothing just now to keep me at the ranch."</p>
+
+<p>The other man professed himself pleased, and before Brooke retired to
+his couch in the stable the matter was arranged. He did not, however,
+fall asleep for several hours, which was a distinctly unusual thing with
+him, and then the face of the brown-eyed girl followed him into his
+dreams. Its repose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>fulness had impressed him the more because of the
+hint of strength and pride behind it, and again he saw her sitting
+fearlessly on the plunging horse in the midst of the river with the moon
+round and full behind her.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>II.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">BROOKE TAKES THE TRAIL.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The sun had not cleared the dark firs upon the steep hillside, though
+the snow on the peaks across the valley glowed with saffron light, when
+Brooke came upon the girl with the brown eyes sitting on a cedar trunk
+beside the river, and she looked up with a smile when he stopped beside
+her. There was nobody else about, for the rest of the party had
+apparently not risen yet, and Jimmy had set out to catch a trout for
+breakfast. Save for the song of the river all the pine-shrouded hollow
+was very still.</p>
+
+<p>"I was wondering if I might ask what you thought of this country?" said
+Brooke. "It is, of course, the usual question."</p>
+
+<p>The girl laughed a little. "If you really wish to know, I think it is
+the grandest there is on this earth, as I believe it will be one of the
+greatest. Still, my liking for it isn't so astonishing, because,
+although I have lived in England, I am a Canadian."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke made a little deprecatory gesture. "It's a mistake I've been led
+into before, and I'm not sure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> you would consider it a compliment if I
+told you that I scarcely supposed you belonged to Canada. It also
+reminds me of a friend of mine who had spent a few months in Spain, and
+took some pains to teach a man, who, though he was not aware of it, had
+lived fifteen years in Cuba, Castilian. Still, perhaps you will tell me
+what you thought of England."</p>
+
+<p>The girl did not invite him, but she drew her skirt a trifle aside, and
+Brooke sat down upon the log beside her. She looked even daintier, and
+appealed to his fancy more, in the searching morning light than she had
+done when the moon shone down on her, which he was not altogether
+prepared for. Her eyes were clear and steady in spite of the faint smile
+in them, and there was no uncertainty of coloring on cheek or forehead,
+which had been tinted a delicate warm brown by wind and sun.</p>
+
+<p>"When you came up I was just contrasting this valley with one I remember
+visiting in the Old Country," she said. "It was in the West. Major Hume,
+who is with us now, once took me there, and we spent an afternoon at a
+house which, I think, is older than any we have in Canada."</p>
+
+<p>"In a river valley in the West Country?" said Brooke.</p>
+
+<p>The girl nodded. "Yes," she said. "Ivy, with stems thicker than your
+wrist, climbs about the front of it, and a lawn mown until it looks like
+velvet slopes to the sliding water. A wall of clipped yews<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> shuts it in,
+and the river slides past it silently without froth or haste, as though
+afraid that any sound it made would jar upon the drowsy quietness of the
+place. There is a big beech wood behind it, and one little meadow, green
+as an emerald, between that and the river&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Where the stepping-stones stretch across. A path comes twisting down
+through the dimness of the wood, and there are black firs upon the ridge
+above."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course!" said the girl. "That is, beyond the ash poles&mdash;but how
+could you know?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled curiously. "I was once there&mdash;ever so long ago."</p>
+
+<p>His companion seemed a trifle astonished. "Then I wonder if you felt as
+I did, that those shadowy woods and dark yew hedges shut out all that is
+real and strenuous in life. One could fancy that nobody did anything but
+sit still and dream there."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled a little, though it had not escaped his attention that she
+seemed to take his comprehension for granted.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, reflectively, "there was very little else one could do.
+Anything that savored of strenuousness would have been considered
+distinctly bad form in that valley."</p>
+
+<p>A little sardonic twinkle flickered in the girl's eyes. "Oh," she said,
+"I know. The distinction between those who work and those who idle is
+marked in your country. It even seems to be considered a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> desirable
+thing for a man to fritter his time away, so long as he does it
+gracefully. Still, there is room for all one's activities, and the big
+thoughts that lead to big schemes here. How far does your ranch go?"</p>
+
+<p>"To the lake," said Brooke, who understood the purport of the question.
+"There are four hundred acres of it, and I have, I don't mind telling
+you, been here rather more than two years."</p>
+
+<p>The girl glanced at the very small gap in the forest, and again the man
+guessed her thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>"And that is all you have cleared?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Brooke, with a little smile. "One can lounge very
+successfully here. Still, even if there was not a tree upon it the soil
+wouldn't be worth anything, and it's only in places one can find a foot
+or two of it. When I first came in, an enterprising gentleman in the
+land agency business sold me this wilderness of rock and gravel to feed
+cattle and grow fruit trees on, though I fancy I am not the only
+confiding stranger who has been treated in the same fashion in this
+country."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment a curious expression, which Brooke could attach no meaning
+to, crept into his companion's face, but though there was a faint flush
+in her cheeks it grew suddenly reposeful again.</p>
+
+<p>"I gave you a dollar last night," she said, and stopped a moment. "I
+have, as I told you, lived in England, and I recognized by your voice
+that you came from there, but, of course, I hadn't&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>Brooke smiled at her. "If you look at it in one light, I scarcely think
+that explanation is gratifying to one's vanity. Still, you have also
+lived in Canada, and you ought to know that whoever parts with a dollar
+in this country, even under a misapprehension, very rarely gets it
+back."</p>
+
+<p>The girl regarded him gravely a moment with the faint warmth still
+showing in her sun-tanned cheeks, and then looked away towards the
+sliding water. She said nothing whatever, although there was a good deal
+to be deduced from the man's speech. Then she rose as Major Hume came
+out of the house.</p>
+
+<p>They left the ranch that day, and for a week Brooke led them through
+dark fir forests, and waited on them in their camps. He would also have
+stayed with them longer could he have found a reasonable excuse, but, as
+it happened, a most exemplary Siwash whom he knew appeared, and offered
+his services, when they reached the lonely mountain-girt lake. Then he
+said farewell to Major Hume, and was plodding down the homeward trail
+with his packs slung about him, when he met the girl coming up from the
+lake. She carried a cluster of the crimson wine-berries in her hand, and
+stopped abruptly when she saw him. She and her younger companions had
+been fishing that afternoon, and though Brooke could not see the latter
+amidst the serried trunks, their voices broke sharply through the
+stillness of the evening. It was significant that both<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> he and the girl
+stood still without speaking until the voices grew less distinct.</p>
+
+<p>Then she said, quietly, "So you are going away?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Brooke, a trifle grimly. "An Indian I can recommend came in
+this afternoon. That made it unnecessary for me to stay."</p>
+
+<p>"You seem in a hurry to go."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke made a little gesture. "I fancy I have stayed with Major Hume
+quite as long as is good for me. The effort it cost me to go away was
+sufficiently unpleasant already. It is, you see, scarcely likely that I
+shall ever spend a week like the past one again."</p>
+
+<p>There was sympathy in his companion's eyes, for she had seen his
+comfortless dwelling, and guessed tolerably correctly what manner of
+life he led. It would, she realized, have been easier for him had he
+been born a bushman, for there was no doubt in her mind that he was one
+who had been accustomed to luxury in England.</p>
+
+<p>"You are going back to the ranch?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"For a little while, and then I shall take the trail. Where it will lead
+me is more than I know, but the ranch is as great a failure as its
+owner. And yet a month&mdash;or even a week&mdash;ago I was dangerously content to
+stay there."</p>
+
+<p>The girl fancied she understood him, for she had seen broken men who had
+lost heart in the struggle sink to the Indian's level, and ask no more
+than the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> subsistence they could gain with rod and gun. That was,
+perhaps, enough for an Indian, but it seemed to her a flinging of his
+birthright away in the case of a white man. Her face was quietly grave,
+and Brooke felt a little thrill run through him as he looked at her.</p>
+
+<p>She stood, slender and very shapely, with unconscious pride in her pose,
+in front of the great cylindrical trunk of a cedar whose grey bark
+forced up every line of her white-clad figure, and he realized, when he
+met the big grave eyes, that he had pulled himself upon the edge of a
+precipice a week ago. He had let himself drift recklessly during the
+last two years, but it was plain to him now that he would have gone down
+once for all had he mated with Bella.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you are doing wisely," she said, quietly. "There is a chance
+for every man somewhere in this country."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled drily. "I am going to look for mine. Whether I shall find
+it I do not know, but I am, at least, glad I have seen you. Otherwise, I
+might have settled down at the ranch again."</p>
+
+<p>"What have I to do with that decision?" and the girl regarded him
+steadily.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a trifle difficult to explain. Still, you see, your gracious
+kindliness reminded me of a good deal that once was mine, and after the
+past week I could never go back to the old life at the ranch. No doubt
+there comes to every one who attempts to console him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>self with them, a
+time when the husks and sty grow nauseating. I do not know why I should
+tell you this, and scarcely think I would have done so had there been
+any probability of our ever meeting again."</p>
+
+<p>There was full comprehension in the girl's eyes, as well as a trace of
+compassion, and she held out a little hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye!" she said, quietly. "If they are of any value, my good wishes
+go with you."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke made her a little deferential inclination, as the dainty fingers
+rested a moment in his hard palm; then he swung off his big shapeless
+hat and turned away, but the girl stood still, looking after him, until
+the lonely, plodding figure faded into the shadows of the pines, while
+it was with a little thrill of sympathy she went back to camp, for she
+realized it was a very great compliment the man had paid her. He was, it
+seemed, turning his back on his possessions, and going away, because she
+had awakened in him the latent sense of responsibility. She was,
+however, also a little afraid, for no one could foresee what the result
+of his decision would be, and she felt that to help in diverting the
+course of another's life was no light thing.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile, Brooke held on up the hillside with long, swinging
+strides, crashing through barberry thickets and trampling the
+breast-high fern, until he stopped and made his camp on the edge of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> the
+snow-scarped slopes when the soft darkness fell. His road was rough, and
+in places perilous, but there was a relief in vigorous action now the
+decision was made, and the old apathy fell from him as he climbed
+towards the peaks above. It was, however, several days later when he
+reached the ranch, and came upon Jimmy sprawling his ungainly length
+outside it, basking in the sun. Still, the latter took his corn-cob pipe
+from his lips, and became attentive when he saw his face. This, he
+realized, was not altogether the same man who had left him a little
+while ago.</p>
+
+<p>"Get up!" said Brooke, almost sharply. "I want you to listen to me. If
+it suits you to stay here by yourself, you can; in the meanwhile, do
+what you like, which will, of course, be very little, with the ranch. In
+return, I'll only ask you to take care of the fiddle until I send for
+it. I'm going away."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy nodded, for he had expected this. "That's all right!" he said. "I
+guess I'll stay. I don't know any other place where one can grub out
+enough to eat quite so easily. Where're you going to?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't quite know," and Brooke smiled grimly. "Up and down the
+province&mdash;anywhere I can pick up a dollar or two daily by working for
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"The trouble is that they're so blamed hard to stick to when you've got
+them," said Jimmy, reflectively. "Now, you don't want dollars here."</p>
+
+<p>"If I had two thousand of them I'd stay, and make something of the
+ranch, rocky as it is."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>"It couldn't be done with less, and I guess you're sensible. I'm quite
+happy slouching round here, but there's a kind of difference between you
+and me. That girl with the big eyes has been putting notions into you?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke made no disclaimer, and Jimmy laughed. "It's a little
+curious&mdash;you don't even know who she is?"</p>
+
+<p>"Her name is Barbara. She is, she told me, a Canadian."</p>
+
+<p>"Canada's quite a big country," said Jimmy, reflectively. "You could put
+England into its vest pocket without knowing it was there. I guess it
+will be a long while before you see her again, and if you meet her in
+the cities she's not going to remember you. You'd find her quite a
+different kind of young woman there. When are you going?"</p>
+
+<p>"At sundown. I'd go now, but I want a few hours' rest and sleep."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy looked at him with sudden concern in his face. "Then I'll be good
+and lonely to-night," he said. "Say, do you think I could take out the
+fiddle now and then to keep me company? I guess I could play it, like a
+banjo, with my fingers."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Brooke, drily, "that's the one thing you can't do."</p>
+
+<p>He flung himself down in his straw-filled bunk, dressed as he was, for
+he had floundered through tangled forest since the dawn crept into the
+sky; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> the shadows of the cedars lay long and black upon the river
+when he opened his eyes again. Jimmy was busy at the little stove, and
+in another few minutes the simple meal, crudely served but barbaric in
+its profusion, was upon the table. Neither of the men said very much
+during it, and then Jimmy silently helped his comrade to gird his packs
+about him. The sun had gone, and the valley was dim and very still when
+they stood in the doorway.</p>
+
+<p>"Good luck!" said Jimmy. "You'll come back by-and-by?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled curiously as he shook hands with him. "If I'm ever a rich
+man, I may."</p>
+
+<p>Then he went out into the deepening shadows, and floundering waist-deep
+through the ford, plodded up the climbing trail with his face towards
+the snow. It grew a trifle grim, however, when he looked back once from
+a bare hill shoulder, and saw a feeble light blink out far down in the
+hollow. Jimmy, he knew, was lying, pipe in hand, beside the stove, and,
+after all, the lonely ranch had been a home to him.</p>
+
+<p>A man without ambition who could stifle memory might have found the life
+he led there a pleasant one. Bountiful Nature fed him, the hills that
+walled the valley in shut out strife and care, and now he was homeless
+altogether. He had also just six dollars in his pockets, and that sum,
+he knew, will not go a very long way in Western Canada.</p>
+
+<p>As he gazed, the fleecy mist that rolled up from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> the river blotted out
+the light, and the man felt the deep stillness and loneliness as he had
+not done since he first came there. That sudden eclipse of Jimmy's light
+seemed very significant just then, for he knew it would never burn again
+as a beacon for him. The last red gleam had also faded off the snow,
+and, with a jerk at the pack straps that galled his shoulders, he set
+his lips, and swung away into the darkness of the coming night.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>III.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">THE NARROW WAY.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The big engine was running slowly, which did not happen often, and
+Brooke, who leaned on the planer table, was thankful for the respite. A
+belt slid round above him, and on either side were turning wheels, while
+he had in front of him a long vista of sliding logs, whirring saws, and
+toiling men. The air was heavy with gritty dust, and a sweet resinous
+smell, while here and there a blaze of sunshine streamed into the great
+open-sided building. Something had gone wrong with the big engine, and
+its sonorous panting, which reverberated across the still, blue inlet,
+had slackened a trifle. There was not, as a result of this, power enough
+to drive all the machines in the mill, and Brooke was waiting until the
+engineer should set matters right.</p>
+
+<p>It was very hot in the big shed. In fact, the cedar shingles on the roof
+were crackling overhead; and Brooke's thin jean garments were soaked
+with perspiration. The dust the planer threw off had also worked its way
+through them, and adhered in smeary patches to his dripping face, while
+his hair and eyebrows might have been rubbed with flour.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> That fine
+powder was, however, not the worst, for he was also covered with
+prismatic grains of wood, whose sharp angles caused him an intolerable
+irritation when his garments rasped across his flesh. His hands were raw
+and bleeding, there was a cramp in one shoulder, and an ache, which now
+and then grew excruciating, down all the opposite side of him.</p>
+
+<p>The toilers are, as a rule, at least, liberally paid in Western Canada,
+but a good deal is expected from them, and the manager of the mill had
+installed that planer because it could, the makers claimed, be run by
+one live man. The workmen, however, said that if he held to the contract
+he would very soon be dead, and Brooke was already worn out with the
+struggle to keep pace with steam. It was a long while since he had
+toiled much at the ranch, and in England he had not toiled at all,
+while, as he stood there, gasping, and hoping that the engineer would
+not get through his task too soon, he remembered that on the two
+eventful occasions in his life when he had made a commendable decision,
+it had brought him only trouble and strain. The way of the virtuous, it
+seemed, was hard.</p>
+
+<p>He turned languidly when a man who carried an oil can came by and
+stopped a moment beside him.</p>
+
+<p>"You're looking kind of played out," said the newcomer.</p>
+
+<p>"It's not astonishing," said Brooke. "I feel quite that way."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>"Then I guess that's a kind of pity. The boss will have the belt on the
+relief shaft in a minute now, and he allows he's going to cut every foot
+as much as usual by the supper hour. You'll have to shake yourself quite
+lively. How long've you been on to that planer?"</p>
+
+<p>"A month."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the engineer, "she broke the last man up in considerably
+less time than that. Weak in the chest he was, and when we were driving
+her lively he used to cough up blood. He had to let up sudden one day,
+and he's in the hospital now. Say, can't you strike somebody for a
+softer job?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I can't," said Brooke, drily. "I'll have to go on till I'm
+beaten."</p>
+
+<p>The engineer made a little gesture of comprehension as he passed on, for
+the attitude the Englishman had adopted is not uncommon in the Dominion
+of Canada, or the country where toil is at least as arduous to the south
+of it. Men who demand, and not infrequently obtain, the full value of
+their labor, are proud of their manhood there, and there was an innate
+resoluteness in Brooke, which had never been wholly awakened in England.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, however, the belt above him ran round; there was a clash as he
+slipped in the clutch, and a noisy whirring which sank to a deeper tone
+when he flung a rough redwood board upon the table. The whirring millers
+took hold of it, and its splintery<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> edges galled his raw hands as he
+guided it, while thick dust and woody fragments torn off by the
+trenchant steel, whirled about him in a stream until his eyes were
+blinded and his nostrils filled. Then the board slid off the table
+smooth on one side, and he knew that he was lagging when the hum of the
+millers changed to a thin scream. They must not at any cost be kept
+waiting for their food, for by inexorable custom so many feet of dressed
+lumber every day was due from that machine.</p>
+
+<p>He flung up another heavy piece, reckless of the splinters in his hand,
+made no pause to wipe the rust from his smarting eyes, and peering at
+the spinning cutters blindly thrust upon the end of the board, and
+wondered vaguely whether this was what man was made for, or how long
+flesh and blood could be expected to stand the strain. The board went
+off the table with a crash, and it was time for the next, while Brooke,
+who bent sideways with a distressful crick in his waist, once more faced
+the sawdust stream with lowered head. It ceased only for a second or
+two, while he stooped from the table to the lumber that slid by
+gravitation to his feet, and he knew that to let that stream overtake
+him and pile up would proclaim his incapacity and defeat. So long as he
+was there he must keep pace with it, whatever tax it laid upon his jaded
+body.</p>
+
+<p>He did it for an hour, flagging all the while, for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> it was a task no man
+could have successfully undertaken unless he had done such work before,
+and Brooke's head was aching under a tension which had grown unendurable
+that afternoon. Then the screaming millers closed upon a knot in the
+wood, and, half-dazed as he was, he thrust upon the board savagely,
+instead of easing it. There was a crash, a big piece of steel flew
+across the table, and the hum of the machine ceased suddenly. Brooke
+laughed grimly, and sat down gasping. He had done his best, and now he
+was not altogether sorry that he was beaten.</p>
+
+<p>He was still sitting there when a dusty man in store clothes, with a
+lean, intent face, came along and glanced at the planer before he looked
+at him.</p>
+
+<p>"You let her get ahead of you, and tried to make up time by feeding her
+too hard?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Brooke. "Not exactly! She got hold of a knot."</p>
+
+<p>"Same thing!" said the other man. "You've smashed her, anyway, and it
+will cost the company most of three hundred dollars before we get her
+running again. You don't expect me to keep you after that?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled drily. "I'm not quite sure that I'd like to stay."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we'll fix it so it will suit everybody. I'll give you your pay
+order up to now, and you'll be glad I ran you out by-and-by. There are
+no chances<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> saw-milling unless you're owner, and it's quite likely
+somebody's got a better use for you."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke understood this as a compliment, and took his order, after which
+he had a spirited altercation with the clerk, who desired him to wait
+for payment until it was six o'clock, which he would not do. Then he
+went back to his little cubicle, which, with its flimsy partitions one
+could hear his neighbor snoring through, resembled a cell in a hive of
+bees, in the big boarding-house, and slept heavily until he was awakened
+by the clangor of the half-past six supper bell. He descended, and,
+devouring his share of the meal in ten minutes, which is about the usual
+time in that country, strolled leisurely into the great general room,
+which had a big stove in the middle and a bar down one side of it. He
+already loathed the comfortless place, from the hideous oleographs on
+the bare wood walls down to the uncleanly sawdust on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>He sat down, and two men, whose acquaintance he had made during his stay
+there, lounged across to him. Trade was slack in the province then, and
+both wore very threadbare jean. There was also a significant moodiness
+in their gaunt faces which suggested that they had felt the pinch of
+adversity.</p>
+
+<p>"You let up before supper-time?" said one.</p>
+
+<p>"I did," said Brooke, a trifle grimly. "I broke up the Kenawa planer in
+the Tomlinson mill. That's why I came away. I'm not going back again."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>One of the men laughed softly. "Then it was only the square thing. Since
+we've been here that planer has broke up two or three men. Held out a
+month, didn't you? What were you at before that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Road-making, firing at a cannery, surrey packing. I've a ranch that
+doesn't pay, you see?"</p>
+
+<p>The other man smiled again. "So have we! Half the deadbeats in this
+country are landholders, too. Two men couldn't get away with many of the
+big trees on our lot in a lifetime, and one has to light out and earn
+something to put the winter through. This month Jake and I have made
+'bout twenty dollars between us. I guess your trouble's want of
+capital&mdash;same as ours. One can't do a great deal with a hundred dollars.
+Still, you'd have had more than that when you came in?"</p>
+
+<p>"I had," said Brooke, drily. "I put six thousand into the land, or
+rather the land-agent's bank, besides what I spent on clearing a little
+of it, and when I've paid my board and for the clothes I bought, I'll
+have about four dollars now."</p>
+
+<p>"That's how those land-company folks get rich," said one of the men.
+"Was it a piece of snow mountain he sold you, or a bottomless swamp?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rock. One might have drained a swamp."</p>
+
+<p>The men smiled. "Well," said the first of them, "that's not always easy.
+A man's not a steam navvy&mdash;but the game's an old one. It was the Indian
+Spring folks played it off on you?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>"No. It was Devine."</p>
+
+<p>There was a little silence, and then the men appeared reflective.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, if any man in that business goes tolerably straight, it's Devine,"
+said one of them. "Of course, if a green Britisher comes along bursting
+to hand over the bills for any kind of land, he'll oblige him, but I'd
+sit down and think a little before I called Devine a thief. Anyway, he's
+quite a big man in the province."</p>
+
+<p>The bronze deepened a trifle in Brooke's face. "I can't see any
+particular difference between a swindler and a thief. In any case, the
+man robbed me, and if I live long enough I'll get even with him."</p>
+
+<p>"That's going to be quite a big contract," said one of the men. "It's
+best to lie low and wait for another fool when you've been taken in.
+Besides, there's many a worse man in his own line than Devine. There was
+one fellow up at Jamieson's when the rush was on. He could talk the
+shoes off a mule&mdash;and he was an Englishman. Whatever any man wanted,
+fruit-land, mineral-land, sawing lumber, and gold outcrop, he'd got.
+Picked it out on the survey map and sold it him. For 'most a month he
+rolled the dollars in, and then the circus began. The folks who'd made
+the deals went up to see their land, and most of them found it belonged
+to another man. You see, if three of them wanted maple bush, that's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>
+generally good soil and light to clear, and he'd only one piece of it,
+he sold the same lot to all of them. They went back with clubs, but that
+man knew when to light out, and he didn't wait for them."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke sat silent awhile. He knew that the story was not a very unlikely
+one, for while, in view of the simplicity of the Canadian land tenure
+legislation, there is no reason why any man should be swindled, as a
+matter of fact, a good many are. He was also irritated that he had
+allowed himself to indulge in what he realized must have appeared a
+puerile threat. This was, of course, of no moment in itself, but he felt
+that it showed how he was losing hold of the nice discretion he had, at
+least, affected in England. Still, he meant exactly what he had said.</p>
+
+<p>During the greater portion of two years he had attempted a hopeless
+task, and then, discovering his folly, resigned himself, and drifted
+idly, perilously near the brink of the long declivity which Englishmen
+of good upbringing not infrequently descend with astonishing swiftness
+in that country, and for that, rightly or wrongly, he blamed the man who
+had robbed him. Then the awakening had come, and he saw that while there
+were many careers open to a man with six thousand dollars, or even half
+of them, there was only strenuous physical toil for the man with none.
+He had attempted it, but proficiency in even the more brutal forms of
+labor cannot be attained in a day, and he now looked back on a year of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>
+hardship and effort which had left an indelible mark on him.</p>
+
+<p>It had been a season when there was little industrial enterprise, and he
+had no friends, while the dollars he gained were earned for the most
+part by the strain of overtaxed muscles and bleeding hands. He had
+toiled up to his waist in snow-water at the mines, swung the shovel
+under the lashing deluge driving a Government road over a big divide,
+hung from dizzy railroad trestles holding with fingers bruised by the
+hammer the spikes the craftsmen drove, and been taught all there is to
+learn about exposure and fatigue. He had braced himself to bear it,
+though he had lived softly in England, but each time he crawled into
+draughty tent or reeking shanty, wet through, with aching limbs, at
+night, he remembered the man who had robbed him.</p>
+
+<p>It was, perhaps, not altogether astonishing that under such conditions
+the wrong done him should assume undue proportions, and that when a
+slipping hammer laid his knuckles bare he should charge the smart to
+Devine, and long for the reckoning. The man who had condemned him to
+this life of toil had, he told himself, grown rich by theft, and he
+dwelt upon his injury until the memory of it possessed him. It was not,
+however, the physical hardship that troubled him most, but the thought
+of the opportunities he had lost, for since he had seen the girl with
+the brown eyes they had assumed their due<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> value. Devine had not only
+taken his dollars, but had driven him out from the society of those who
+had been his equals, and made him one who could scarcely hope to meet a
+woman of refinement on friendly terms again. Coarse fare and a life of
+brutal toil were all that seemed left to him. There were, he knew, men
+in that country who had commenced with a very few dollars, and acquired
+a competence, but they were not young Englishmen brought up as he had
+been.</p>
+
+<p>"You are the only man I've ever heard say anything good about any one in
+the land business, and it does not amount to much at that," he said.
+"Devine has been successful so far, but even gentlemen of his talents
+are liable to make a mistake occasionally, and if ever he makes a big
+one, it will probably go hardly with him. That, at least, is one
+consolation."</p>
+
+<p>Another man who had been standing near the bar sauntered towards them,
+cigar in hand. He was dressed in store clothing, and his hands were, as
+Brooke noticed, not those of a workman, though they seemed wiry and
+capable. He had penetrating dark eyes, and the Western business man's
+lean, intent face, while Brooke would have guessed his age at a little
+over thirty.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mind admitting that I heard a little," he said. "Those
+land-agency fellows have a good deal to account for. You're not exactly
+struck on Devine?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>"No," said Brooke, drily. "I have no particular cause to be. Still, that
+really does not concern everybody."</p>
+
+<p>"Beat him out of six thousand dollars!" said one of his companions.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger laughed a little. "He has done me out of a good many more,
+but one has to take his chances in this country. You are working at the
+Tomlinson mill?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Brooke. "I was turned out to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Got no notion where to strike next?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>The stranger, who did not seem at all repulsed by his abruptness, looked
+at him reflectively.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard they were wanting survey packers up at the Johnston Lake in the
+bush," he said. "A Government man's starting to run the line through to
+the big range Thursday. If you took him this card up he might put you
+on."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke took the card, and a little tinge of color crept into his face.</p>
+
+<p>"I appreciate the kindness, but still, you see, you know nothing
+whatever about me," he said.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger laughed. "I wouldn't worry. We're not particular in this
+country. Go up, and show him the card if you feel like it. I've been in
+a tight place myself once or twice, and we'll take it as an
+introduction. A good many people know me&mdash;you are Mr. Brooke?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>Brooke admitted it, and after a few minutes' conversation, the stranger,
+who informed him that he had come there in the hope of meeting a man who
+did not seem likely to put in an appearance now, moved away.</p>
+
+<p>"Thomas P. Saxton. What is he?" said Brooke to his companions, as he
+glanced at the card.</p>
+
+<p>"Puts through mine and sawmill deals," said one of the men. "I'd light
+out for Johnston Lake right away, and if you have the dollars take the
+cars. Atlantic express is late to-night, waiting the Empress boat, and
+if you get off at Chumas, you'll only have 'bout twelve leagues to walk.
+I figure it will cost you four dollars."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke decided that it would be advisable to take the risk, and when he
+had settled with his host and a storekeeper, found he had about six
+dollars left. When he went out, one of the ranchers looked at the other.
+He was the one who had spoken least, and a quiet, observant man, from
+Ontario.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not that sure it was good advice you gave him," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said his companion.</p>
+
+<p>The other man appeared reflective. "I was watching Saxton, and he kind
+of woke up when Brooke let out about Devine. Now, it seems to me, it
+wasn't without a reason he put him on to that survey."</p>
+
+<p>His companion laughed. "It doesn't count, anyway. The Government's
+dollars are certain."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>"Well," said the Ontario man, drily, "if I had to give one of the pair
+any kind of a hold on me, I figure from what I've heard it would be
+Devine instead of Saxton."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>IV.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">SAXTON MAKES AN OFFER.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>It was raining as hard as it not infrequently does in the mountain
+province, and the deluge lashed the sombre pines that towered above the
+dripping camp, when Brooke stood in the entrance of the Surveyor's tent.
+He was wet to the skin, as well as weary, for he had walked most of
+thirty miles that day over a very bad trail, and was but indifferently
+successful in his attempts to hide his anxiety. The Surveyor also
+noticed the grimness of his wet face, and dallied a moment with the card
+he held, for he had known what fatigue and short commons were in his
+early days.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry I can't take you, but I've two more men than I've any
+particular use for already," he said at last. "I can't give you a place
+to spread your blankets in to-night either, because the freighter didn't
+bring up all our tents. Still, you might make Beasley's Hotel, and
+strike Saxton's prospectors, if you head back over the divide. He has a
+few men up there opening up a silver lead."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke said nothing, and the Surveyor turned to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> his assistant as he
+moved away. "It's rough on that man, and he seems kind of played out,"
+he said. "I can't quite figure, either, why Saxton sent him here, when
+he's putting men on at his mine. It seems to me I told him I was only
+going to take men who'd packed for me before."</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile, Brooke stood still a few moments in the rain. He was
+aching all over, and his wet boots galled him, while he was also very
+hungry, and uncertain what to do. There was nothing to be gained by
+pushing on four leagues to Beasley's Hotel, even if he had been capable
+of doing it, which was not the case, because he had just then only two
+or three copper coins worth ten cents in his pocket. It was, he knew,
+scarcely likely he would be turned out for that reason, but he had not
+yet come down to asking a stranger's charity. Supper, which he would
+have been offered a share of, was also over, and there was not a ranch
+about, only a dripping wilderness, for he had plodded on after the
+Surveyor from the lonely settlement at Johnston Lake.</p>
+
+<p>It was very enviously he watched two men piling fresh branches on a
+crackling fire. Darkness was not far away, and already a light shone
+through the wet canvas of the Surveyor's tent. A cheerful hum of voices
+came out from the others, and a man was singing in one of them. The
+survey packers had, at least, a makeshift shelter for the night, food in
+sufficiency, and such warmth as the fires and their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> damp blankets might
+supply, while he had nowhere to lay his head. The smell of the stinging
+wood smoke was curiously alluring, and he felt as he glanced at the
+black wall of bush which closed in upon the little camp that his
+hardihood was deserting him, and in another minute he would go back and
+offer his services in return for food. Then his pride came to the
+rescue, and, turning away abruptly, he plodded back into the bush, where
+a bitter wind that came down from the snow blew the drips from the great
+branches into his face.</p>
+
+<p>He kept to the trail instinctively, though he did not know where he was
+going, or why, when one place had as little to commend itself as
+another, he blundered on at all, except that he was getting cold, until
+the creeping dark surprised him at a forking of the way. He knew that
+the path he had come by led through a burnt forest and thin willow bush,
+while great cedars shrouded the other, which apparently wound up a
+valley towards the heights above. They promised, at least, a little more
+shelter than the willows, but that, he fancied, must be the trail that
+crossed the divide and it led into a desolation of rock and forest. He
+had very little hope of being offered employment at the mine the
+Surveyor had mentioned, and stood still for several minutes with the
+rain beating into his face, while, though he did not know it then, a
+good deal depended on his decision. A little mist rolled out of the
+valley, and it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> growing very cold, while the dull roar of a snow-fed
+torrent made the silence more impressive.</p>
+
+<p>Then, attracted solely by the sombre clustering of the cedars, which
+promised to keep off at least a little of the rain, he turned up the
+valley with a shiver, and finally unrolled his one wet blanket under a
+big tree. There was an angle among its roots, which ran along the
+ground, and, scooping a hollow in the withered sprays, he crawled into
+it, and lay down with his back to the trunk. The roar of the river
+seemed louder now, and he could hear a timber wolf howling far off on
+the hillside. He was very cold and hungry, but his weariness blunted the
+sense of physical discomfort, though as yet his activity of mind
+remained, and he asked himself what he had gained by leaving the ranch,
+and could find no answer.</p>
+
+<p>Still, even then, he would not regret that he had broken away, for there
+was in him an inherent obstinacy, and he would have struggled on at the
+ranch had not the absence of funds precluded it, and consideration shown
+him that it would be merely throwing his toil away. Life, it seemed, had
+very little to offer him, but now he had made the decision he would
+adhere to it, though he had arrived at the resolution in cold blood, for
+it was his reason only which had responded to the girl's influence, and
+as yet what was spiritual in him remained untouched. He would not live
+as the Indians do, or sink into a sot. There<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> were vague possibilities
+before him which, though this appeared most unlikely, might prove
+themselves facts, and the place he had been born to in England might yet
+be his. That was why he would not sell his birthright for a mess of
+stringy venison, and the deleterious whisky sold at the settlement,
+which seemed to him a most unfair price. Still, he went no further, even
+when he thought of the girl, which he did with dispassionate admiration.</p>
+
+<p>Worn-out as he was, he slept, and awakened in the grey dawn almost unfit
+to rise. There was a distressful pain in his hip-joints, which those who
+sleep in the open are acquainted with, and at the first few steps he
+took his face went awry, but his physical nature demanded warmth and
+food, and there was only one way of obtaining it before the life went
+out of him. Whatever effort it cost him, he must reach the mine. He set
+out for it, limping, while the sharp gravel rolled under his bleeding
+feet as he floundered up the climbing trail. It seemed to lead upwards
+for ever between endless colonnades of towering trunks, and when at last
+pine and cedar had been left behind, there was slippery rock smoothed by
+sliding snow to be clambered over.</p>
+
+<p>Still, reeling and gasping, he held on, and it was afternoon, and he had
+eaten nothing for close on thirty hours, when a filmy trail of smoke
+that drifted faintly blue athwart the climbing pines beneath him caught
+his eye. He braced himself for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> effort to reach it, and went down
+with loose, uneven strides, smashing through sal-sal and barberry when
+he reached the bush again. The fern met above his head, there were mazes
+of fallen trunks to be scrambled through, and he tore the soaken jean
+that clung about him to rags in his haste. Still, he had learned to
+travel straight in the bush, and at last he staggered into sight of the
+mine.</p>
+
+<p>There was a little scar on the hillside, an iron shanty, a few soaked
+tents and shelters of bark, but the ringing clink of the drills vibrated
+about them, and a most welcome smell of wood smoke came up to him with a
+murmur of voices. Brooke heard them faintly, and did not stop until a
+handful of men clustered about him, while, as he blinked at them, one,
+who appeared different from the others, pushed his way through the
+group.</p>
+
+<p>"You seem considerably used up," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I am," said Brooke, hoarsely, "I'm almost starving."</p>
+
+<p>It occurred to him that the man's voice ought to be familiar, but it was
+a few moments before he recognized him as the one who had sent him on
+the useless journey after the Surveyor.</p>
+
+<p>"Then come right along. It's not quite supper-time, but there's food in
+the camp," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke went with him to the shanty, where he fell against a chair, and
+found it difficult to straighten himself when he picked it up. Saxton,
+so far as he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> could remember, asked no questions, but smiled at him
+reassuringly while he explained, somewhat incoherently, what had brought
+him there, until a man appeared with a big tray. Then Brooke ate
+strenuously.</p>
+
+<p>"Some folks have a notion that one can kill himself by getting through
+too much at once when he's 'most starved," said Saxton. "I never found
+it work out that way in this country."</p>
+
+<p>"Were you ever almost starved?" said Brooke, who felt the life coming
+back to him, with no great show of interest.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," said Saxton, drily. "Twice, at least. I was three days
+without food the last time. One has to take his chances in the ranges,
+and you don't pick up dollars without trouble anywhere. Still, we'll
+talk of that afterwards. Had enough?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke said he fancied he had, and Saxton hammered upon the iron roof of
+the shanty until a man appeared.</p>
+
+<p>"Give him a pair of blankets, Ike. He can sleep in the lean-to," he
+said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke went with the man, vacantly, and in another few minutes found
+himself lying in dry blankets on a couch of springy twigs. He was
+sensible that it was delightfully warm, but he could not remember how he
+got there, and was wondering why the rain no longer lashed his face,
+when sleep came to him.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>It was next morning when he was awakened by the roar of a blasting
+charge, and lay still with an unusual sense of comfort until the silence
+that followed it was broken by the clinking of the drills. Then he rose
+stiffly, and put on his clothes, which he found had been dried, and was
+informed by a man who appeared while he was doing it that his breakfast
+was waiting. Brooke wondered a little at this, for he knew that it was
+past the usual hour, but he made an excellent meal, and then, being
+shown into a compartment of the little galvanized iron shanty, found
+Saxton sitting at a table. The latter now wore long boots and jean, and
+there were pieces of discolored stone strewn about in front of him.</p>
+
+<p>He looked up with a little nod as Brooke came in. "Feeling quite
+yourself again?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Brooke, "thanks to the way your men have treated me. This
+is, of course, a hospitable country, but I may admit that I could
+scarcely have expected to be so well looked after by one I hadn't the
+slightest claim upon."</p>
+
+<p>"And you almost wondered what he did it for?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke was a trifle astonished, for this certainly expressed his
+thoughts, but he was in no way disconcerted, and he laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"I should, at least, never have ventured to suggest that anything except
+good-nature influenced you," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Still, you felt it? Well, you were considerably<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> used up when you came
+in, and, as I sent you to the Surveyor, who didn't seem to have any use
+for you, I felt myself responsible. That appears sufficient?"</p>
+
+<p>Now, Brooke had mixed with men of a good many different stations, and he
+was observant, and, as might have been expected, by no means diffident.</p>
+
+<p>"Since you ask, I scarcely think it does," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Saxton laughed. "Take a cigar. That's the kind of talk I like. We'll
+come to the point right away."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke lighted a cigar, and found it good. "Thanks. I'm willing to
+listen as long as appears necessary," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"You have a kind of grievance against Devine?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have. According to my notion of ethics, he owes me six thousand
+dollars, and I shall not be quite content until I get them out of him,
+although that may never happen. I feel just now that it would please me
+especially to make him smart as well, which I quite realize, is
+unnecessary folly."</p>
+
+<p>The Canadian nodded, and shook the ash from his cigar. "Exactly," he
+said. "A man with sense keeps his eye on the dollars, and leaves out the
+sentiment. It's quite apt to get in his way and trip him up. Well,
+suppose I could give you a chance of getting those dollars back?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should be very much inclined to take it. Still, presumably, you do
+not mean to do it out of pure good-nature?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," said Saxton, drily. "I'm here to make<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> dollars. That has been
+my object since I struck out for myself at fourteen, and I've piled
+quite a few of them together. I'd have had more only that wherever I
+plan a nice little venture in mines or land up and down this province, I
+run up against Devine. That's quite straight, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I fancy it is. You are suggesting community of interest? Still, I
+scarcely realize how a man with empty pockets could be of very much use
+to you."</p>
+
+<p>"I have a kind of notion that you could be if it suited you. I want a
+man with grit in him, who has had a good education, and could, if it was
+necessary, mix on equal terms with the folks in the cities."</p>
+
+<p>"One would fancy there were a good many men of that kind in Canada."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton appeared reflective. "Oh, yes," he said, drily. "The trouble is
+that most of them have got something better to do, and I can't think of
+one who has any special reason for wanting to get even with Devine."</p>
+
+<p>"That means the work you have in view would scarcely suit a man who was
+prosperous, or likely to be fastidious?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Saxton, simply. "I don't quite think it would. Still, I've
+seen enough to show me that you can take the sensible point of view. We
+both want dollars, and I can't afford to be particular. I'm not sure you
+can, either."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke sat silent awhile. He could, at least, appre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>ciate the Canadian's
+candor, while events had rubbed the sentiment he had once had plenty of
+out of him, and left him a somewhat hard and bitter man. The woman he
+believed in had used him very badly, and the first man he trusted in
+Canada had plundered him. Brooke was, unfortunately, young when he was
+called upon to face the double treachery, and had generalized too freely
+from too limited premises. He felt that in all society there must be a
+conflict between the men who had all to gain and those who had anything
+worth keeping, and sentiment, it seemed, was out of place in that
+struggle.</p>
+
+<p>"As you observed, I can't afford to be too particular," he said. "Still,
+it is quite possible I might not be prepared to go quite so far as you
+would wish me."</p>
+
+<p>The Canadian laughed. "I'll take my chances. Nobody can bring up any
+very low-down game against me. Well, are you open to consider my offer?"</p>
+
+<p>"You haven't exactly made one yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we'll fix the terms. Until one of us gives the other notice that
+he lets up on this agreement, you will do just what I tell you. Pay will
+be about the usual thing for whatever you're set to do. It would be
+reasonably high if I put you on to anything in the cities."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that likely?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've a notion that we might get you into a place<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> where you could watch
+Devine's game for me. I want to feel quite sure of it before I take any
+chances with that kind of man. If I struck him for anything worth while,
+you would have a share."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke's face flushed just a trifle, and again he sat silent a moment or
+two. Then he laughed somewhat curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, "I suppose there are no other means, and the man robbed
+me."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton smiled. "If we pull off the deal I'm figuring on, your share
+might 'most work up to those six thousand dollars. They're yours."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke realized that it was a clever man he was dealing with, but in his
+present state of mind the somewhat vague arrangement commended itself to
+him. He was, he decided, warranted in getting his six thousand dollars
+back by any means that were open to him. More he did not want, for he
+still retained in a slight degree the notions instilled into him in
+England, which had, however, since he was seldom able to indulge in
+them, not tended to make him happier.</p>
+
+<p>"There is a point you don't seem to have grasped," he said. "Since I am
+not to be particular, can't you conceive that it would not be pleasant
+for you if Devine went one better?"</p>
+
+<p>Saxton laughed. "I've met quite a few Englishmen&mdash;of your
+kind&mdash;already," he said. "That's why I feel that when you've taken my
+dollars you're<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> not going to go back on me without giving me warning.
+Besides, Devine would be considerably more likely to fix you up in quite
+another way. Now, I want an answer. Is it a deal?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is," said Brooke, who, in spite of the fashion in which he had
+expressed himself during the last few minutes, felt a slight warmth in
+his face. Though he could not afford to be particular, there was one
+aspect of the arrangement which did not commend itself to him.</p>
+
+<p>Saxton nodded. "Then, as you'll want to know a little about mining,
+we'll put you on now, helping the drillers, at $2.50 a day. You'll get
+considerably more by-and-by. Take this little treatise on the minerals
+of the province, and keep it by you."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>V.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">BARBARA RENEWS AN ACQUAINTANCE.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>There was an amateur concert for a commendable purpose in the Vancouver
+opera-house, which, since the inhabitants of the mountain province do
+not expect any organized body to take over their individual
+responsibilities, was a somewhat unusual event, and Miss Barbara
+Heathcote, who had not as yet found it particularly entertaining, was
+leaning back languidly in her chair.</p>
+
+<p>"There are really one or two things they do a little better in the Old
+Country," she said.</p>
+
+<p>The young man who sat beside her laughed. "There must be, or you never
+would have admitted it," he said. "Still, I'm not sure you would find
+many folks who would believe you here."</p>
+
+<p>"One has to be candid occasionally," and Barbara made a little gesture
+of weariness. "There is still another hour of it, but, I sincerely hope,
+not another cornet solo. What comes next? We were a little late, and
+nobody provided me with a programme. They are inconsistent. Milly, I
+notice, has several."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>The man opened the paper which a girl Barbara glanced at handed him.</p>
+
+<p>"A violin solo," he said. "I think they mean Schumann, but it's not
+altogether astonishing that they've spelt it wrong. A man called Brooke
+is put down for it."</p>
+
+<p>"Brooke!" said Barbara, a trifle sharply. "Where does he come from? Do
+you know him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't say I do&mdash;&mdash;" the man commenced reflectively, and stopped a
+moment when he saw the little smile in the girl's brown eyes. "What were
+you thinking?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was wondering whether that means he can't be worth knowing."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the man, good-humoredly, "there are, I believe, one or two
+decent folks in this city I haven't had the pleasure of meeting, but you
+were a trifle too previous. I don't know him, but if he's the man I
+think he is, I've heard about him. He came down from the bush lately,
+and somebody put him on to Naseby, the surveyor. Naseby's busy just now,
+doing a good deal for the Government&mdash;Crown mineral lands, I think, or
+something of that kind&mdash;and he took the man. I understand he's quite
+smart at the bush work, and Naseby's pleased with him. That's about all
+I can tell you. You're scarcely likely to know him."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara sat silent a space, looking about her while the amateur
+orchestra chased one another through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> the treacherous mazes of an
+overture. The handsome building was well filled, but there were one or
+two empty places at hand, for the man who had sent her there had taken a
+row of them and sent tickets to his friends, as was expected from a
+citizen of his importance. It was, in the usual course, scarcely likely
+that she would know a man who had lately been installed in a subordinate
+place in a surveyor's service, for her acquaintances were people of
+position in that province, and yet she had a very clear recollection of
+a certain rancher Brooke who played the violin.</p>
+
+<p>"I once met a man of that name in the bush," she said, with almost
+overdone indifference. "Still, he is scarcely likely to be the same
+one."</p>
+
+<p>Her companion started another topic, and neither of them listened to the
+orchestra, though the girl was a trifle irritated at herself for wishing
+that the overture had been shorter. At last, when the second violins
+were not more than a note behind the rest, the music stopped, and
+Barbara sat very still with eyes fixed on the stage while the usual
+little stir and rustle of draperies ran round the building. Then there
+was silence for a moment, and she was sensible of a curious little
+thrill as a man who held a violin came forward into the blaze of light.
+He wore conventional evening-dress in place of the fringed deerskin she
+had last seen him in, and she decided that it became his somewhat spare,
+sym<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>metrical figure almost as well. The years he had spent swinging axe
+and pounding drill had toughened and suppled it, and yet left him free
+from the coarsening stamp of toil, which is, however, not as a rule a
+necessary accompaniment of strenuous labor in that country. Standing
+still a moment quietly at his ease, straight-limbed, sinewy, with a
+little smile in his frost-bronzed face, he was certainly a personable
+man, and for no very apparent reason she was pleased to notice that two
+of her companions were regarding him with evident approbation.</p>
+
+<p>"I think one could call him quite good-looking," said the girl beside
+her. "He has been in this country a while, but I wouldn't call him a
+Canadian. Not from this side of the Rockies, anyway."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" asked Barbara, mainly to discover how far her companion's
+thoughts coincided with her own.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the other girl, reflectively, "it seems to me he takes it
+too easily. If he had been one of us he'd have either been grim and
+serious or worrying with the strings. We're most desperately in earnest,
+but they do things as though they didn't count in the Old Country. Now
+he has got the A right off without the least fussing, as if he couldn't
+help doing it."</p>
+
+<p>The explanation was rather suggestive than definite, but Barbara was
+satisfied with it. She was usually a reposeful young woman herself, and
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> man's graceful tranquillity, which was of a kind not to be met with
+every day in that country, appealed to her. Then he drew the bow across
+the strings, and she sat very still to listen. It was not music that a
+good many of his audience were accustomed to, but scarcely a dress
+rustled or a programme fluttered until he took the fiddle from his
+shoulder. Then, while the plaudits rang through the building, his eyes
+met Barbara's. Leaning forward a trifle in her chair, she saw the sudden
+intentness of his face, but he gazed at her steadily for a moment
+without sign of recognition. Then she smiled graciously, for that was
+what she had expected of him, and again felt a faint thrill of content,
+for his eyes were fixed on her when as the tumult of applause increased
+he made a little inclination.</p>
+
+<p>He was not permitted to retire, and when he put the fiddle to his
+shoulder again she knew why he played the nocturne she had heard in the
+bush. It was also, she felt, in a fashion significant that it had now,
+in place of the roar of a snow-fed river, the chords of a grand piano
+for accompaniment, though the latter, it seemed to her, made an
+indifferent substitute. The bronze-faced man in deerskin had fitted the
+surroundings in which she had seen him, and they had been close comrades
+in the wilderness for a week. It could, she knew, scarcely be the same
+in the city, but she saw that he was, at least, equally at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> home there.
+It was only their relative positions that had changed, for the guide was
+the person of importance in the primeval bush, and the fact that he had
+waited without a sign until she smiled showed that he had not failed to
+recognize it. When at last he moved away she turned to the man at her
+side.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you go down and ask Mr. Brooke to come here?" she said. "You can
+tell him that I would like to speak to him."</p>
+
+<p>The young man did not express any of the astonishment he certainly felt,
+but proceeded to do her bidding, though it afforded him no particular
+pleasure, for there was a certain imperiousness about Barbara Heathcote
+which was not without its effect. Brooke was putting away his fiddle
+when he came upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't the pleasure of your acquaintance, Mr. Brooke, but it seems
+you know a friend of mine," he said. "If you are at liberty, Miss
+Heathcote would like to see you."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Heathcote?" said Brooke, for it had happened, not unnaturally,
+that he had never heard the girl's full name. Her companions, of whom he
+had not felt warranted in inquiring it, had called her Barbara in the
+bush, and he had addressed her without prefix.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the other, who was once more a trifle astonished. "Miss
+Barbara Heathcote."</p>
+
+<p>He glanced at Brooke sharply, or he would not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> have seen the swift
+content in his face, for the latter put a sudden restraint upon himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course! I will come with you at once," he said, and a minute or two
+later took the vacant place at Barbara's side.</p>
+
+<p>"You do not appear very much surprised, and yet it was a long way from
+here I saw you last," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke fancied she meant that it was under somewhat different
+circumstances, and sat looking at her with a little smile. She was also,
+he decided, even better worth inspection than she had been in the bush,
+for the rich attire became her, and the garish electric radiance
+emphasized the gleam of the white shoulder the dainty laces clung about
+and of the ivory neck the moonlight had shone upon when first they met.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said. "The fact is, I have seen you already on several
+occasions in this city."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara glanced at him covertly. "Then why did you not claim
+recognition?"</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't the reason obvious?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Barbara, reflectively, "I scarcely think it is&mdash;unless, of
+course, you had no desire to renew the acquaintance."</p>
+
+<p>"Does one usually renew a chance acquaintance made with a packer in the
+bush?"</p>
+
+<p>"It would depend a good deal on the packer," said Barbara, quietly. "Now
+this country is&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>There was a trace of dryness in Brooke's smile. "You were going to say a
+democratic one. That, of course, might to some extent explain the
+anomaly."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Barbara, sharply, with a very faint flush of color in her
+face, "I was not. You ought to know that, too. Explanations are
+occasionally odious, and almost always difficult, but both Major Hume
+and his daughter invited you to their house if you were ever in
+England."</p>
+
+<p>"The Major may have felt himself tolerably safe in making that offer,"
+said Brooke, reflectively. "You see, I am naturally acquainted with my
+fellow Briton's idiosyncrasies."</p>
+
+<p>The girl looked at him with a little sparkle in her eyes. "I do not know
+why you are adopting this attitude, or assigning one to me," she said.
+"Did we ever attempt to patronize you, and if we had done, is there any
+reason why you should take the trouble to resent it?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laughed softly. "I scarcely think I could afford to resent a
+kindness, however it was offered; but there is a point you don't quite
+seem to have grasped. How could I be certain you had remembered me?"</p>
+
+<p>The girl smiled a little. "Your own powers of recollection might have
+furnished a standard of comparison."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke looked at her steadily. "The sharpness of the memory depends upon
+the effect the object one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> wishes to recollect produced upon one's
+mind," he said. "I should, of course, have known you at once had it been
+twenty years hence."</p>
+
+<p>The girl turned to her programme, for now she had induced him to abandon
+his reticence his candor was almost disconcerting.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," she said. "Tell me what you have been doing. You have left the
+ranch?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke nodded and glanced at the hand he laid on his knee, which, as the
+girl saw, was still ingrained and hard.</p>
+
+<p>"Road-making for one thing," he said. "Chopping trees, quarrying rock,
+and following other useful occupations of the kind. They are, one
+presumes, healthy and necessary, but I did not find any of them
+especially remunerative."</p>
+
+<p>"And now?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke's face, as she did not fail to notice, hardened suddenly, and he
+felt an unpleasant embarrassment as he met her eyes. He had decided that
+he was fully warranted in taking any steps likely to lead to the
+recovery of the dollars he had been robbed of, but he was sensible that
+the only ones he had found convenient would scarcely commend themselves
+to his companion. There was also no ignoring the fact that he would very
+much have preferred her approbation.</p>
+
+<p>"At present I am surveying, though I cannot, of course, become a
+surveyor," he said. "The legisla<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>ture of this country has placed that
+out of the question."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara was aware that in Canada a man can no more set up as a surveyor
+without the specified training than he can as a solicitor, though she
+did not think that fact accounted for the constraint in the man's voice
+and attitude. He was not one who readily betrayed what he felt, but she
+was tolerably certain that something in connection with his occupation
+caused him considerable dissatisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"Still," she said, "you must have known a little about the profession?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Brooke, a trifle unguardedly. "Of course, there is a
+difference, but I had once the management of an estate in England. What
+one might call the more useful branches of mathematics were also, a good
+while ago, a favorite study of mine. One could find a use for them even
+in measuring a tree."</p>
+
+<p>The girl had a question on her lips, but she did not consider it
+advisable to ask it just then.</p>
+
+<p>"You would find a knowledge of timber of service in Canada?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Not very often. You see the only apparent use of the trees on my
+possessions was to keep me busy two years attempting to destroy them,
+and of late I have chiefly had to do with minerals."</p>
+
+<p>"With minerals?" said the girl, quickly, and then, as he volunteered no
+answer, swiftly asked the ques<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>tion she had wished to put before. "Whose
+was the estate in England?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke did not look at her, and she fancied he was not sorry that the
+necessity of affecting a show of interest in the music meanwhile made
+continuous conversation difficult. His eyes were then turned upon a
+performer on the stage.</p>
+
+<p>"The estate&mdash;it belonged to&mdash;a friend of mine," he said. "Of course, I
+had no regular training, but connection and influence count for
+everything in the Old Country."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara watched him covertly, and once more noticed the slight hardening
+of his lips, and the very faint deepening of the bronze in his cheeks.
+It was only just perceptible, but though the sun and wind had darkened
+its tinting, Brooke had a clear English complexion, and the blood showed
+through his skin. His companion remembered the old house in the English
+valley, with its trim gardens and great sweep of velvet lawn, where he
+had admitted that he had once been long ago. The statement she had
+fancied at the time was purposely vague, and she wondered now if he had
+meant that he had lived there, for Barbara possessed the not unusual
+feminine capacity for putting two and two together. She, however,
+naturally showed nothing of this.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose it does," she said. "I wonder if you ever feel any faint
+longing for what you must have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> left behind you there. One learns to do
+without a good deal in Canada."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled curiously. "Of course! That is one reason why I am pleased
+you sent for me. This, you see, brings it back to me."</p>
+
+<p>He glanced suggestively round the big, brilliantly-lighted building,
+across the rows of citizens in broadcloth, and daintily-dressed women,
+and then turned and fixed his eyes upon his companion's face almost too
+steadily. The girl understood him, but she would not admit it.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean the music?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"No. The music, to tell the truth, is by no means very good. It is you
+who have taken me back to the Old Country. Imagination will do a great
+deal, but it needs a fillip, and something tangible to build upon."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara laughed softly.</p>
+
+<p>"I fancy the C.&nbsp;P.&nbsp;R. and an Allan liner would be a much more reliable
+means of transportation. You will presumably take that route some day?"</p>
+
+<p>"I scarcely think it likely. They have, in the Western idiom, no use for
+poor men yonder."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, men get rich now and then in this country."</p>
+
+<p>The man's face grew momentarily a trifle grim. "It would apparently be
+difficult to accomplish it by serving as assistant survey, and the means
+employed by some of them might, if they went back to the old life, tend
+to prevent them feeling very comfortable.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> I"&mdash;and he paused for a
+second&mdash;"fancy that I shall stay in Canada."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara was a trifle puzzled, and said nothing further for a space,
+until when the singer who occupied the stage just then was dismissed,
+the man turned to her.</p>
+
+<p>"How long is a chance acquaintance warranted in presuming on a favor
+shown him in this country?"</p>
+
+<p>Barbara smiled at him. "If I understand you correctly, until the other
+person allows him to perceive that his absence would be supportable. In
+this case, just as long as it pleases him. Now you can tell me about the
+road-making."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke understood that she wished to hear, and when he could accomplish
+it without attracting too much attention, pictured for her benefit his
+life in the bush. He also did it humorously, but effectively, without
+any trace of the self-commiseration she watched for, and her fancy dwelt
+upon the hardships he lightly sketched. She knew how the toilers lived
+and worked in the bush, and had seen their reeking shanties and
+rain-swept camps. Labor is accounted honorable in that land, but it is
+none the less very frequently brutal as well as strenuous, and she could
+fancy how this man, who, she felt certain, had been accustomed to live
+softly in England, must have shrunk from some of his tasks, and picture
+to herself what he felt when he came back at night to herd<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> close-packed
+with comrades whose thoughts and his must always be far apart. That many
+possibly better men had certainly borne with as hard a lot longer, after
+all, made no great difference to the facts. She also recognized that
+there was a vein of pathos in the story, as she remembered that he had
+told her it was scarcely likely he would ever go back to England again.
+That naturally suggested a good deal to her, for she held him blameless,
+though she knew it was not the regularity of their conduct at home which
+sent a good many of his countrymen out to Canada.</p>
+
+<p>At last he rose between two songs, and stood still a moment looking down
+on her.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I have trespassed on your kindness," he said. "I am going
+back to the bush with a survey expedition to-morrow, and I do not know
+when I shall be fortunate enough to see you again."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara smiled a little. "That," she said, "is for you to decide. We are
+'At home' every Thursday in the afternoon&mdash;and, in your case, in the
+evening."</p>
+
+<p>He made her a little inclination, and turned away, while Barbara sat
+still, looking straight in front of her, but quite oblivious of the
+music, until she turned with a laugh, and the girl who sat next to her
+glanced round.</p>
+
+<p>"Was the man very amusing?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Barbara, reflectively. "I scarcely think he was. I gave him
+permission to call upon us, and never told him where we lived."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>"Still, he would, like everybody else in this city, know it already."</p>
+
+<p>"He may," said Barbara. "That, I suppose, is what I felt at the time,
+but now I scarcely think he does."</p>
+
+<p>"Then one would fancy that to meet a young man of his appearance who
+didn't know all about you would be something quite new," said her
+companion, drily.</p>
+
+<p>Barbara flushed ever so slightly, but her companion noticed it. She was
+quite aware that if she was made much of in that city it was, in part,
+at least, due to the fact that she was the niece of a well-known man,
+and had considerable possessions.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>VI.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">AN ARDUOUS JOURNEY.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>It was late at night, and raining hard, when a line of dripping mules
+stood waiting beneath the pines that crowded in upon the workings of the
+Elktail mine. A few lights blinked among the log-sheds that clustered
+round the mouth of the rift in the steep hillside, and a warm wind that
+drove the deluge before it came wailing out of the blackness of the
+valley beneath them. The mine was not a big one, but it was believed
+that it paid Thomas P. Saxton and his friends tolerably well, in spite
+of the heavy cost of transport to the nearest smelter. A somewhat
+varying vein of galena, which is silver-lead, was worked there, and
+Saxton had, on several occasions, declined an offer to buy it, made on
+behalf of a company.</p>
+
+<p>On the night in question he stood in the doorway of one of the sheds
+with Brooke, for whom the Surveyor had no more work just then, beside
+him. Brooke wore long boots and a big rubber coat, on whose dripping
+surface the light of the lantern Saxton held flickered. Here and there a
+man was dimly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> visible beside the mules, but beyond them impenetrable
+darkness closed in.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a wicked kind of night," said Saxton, who, Brooke fancied,
+nevertheless, appeared quite content with it. "You know what you've got
+to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Brooke, a trifle drily, "you have given me tolerably
+complete instructions once or twice already. The ore is to be delivered
+to Allonby at the Dayspring mine not later than to-morrow night, and I'm
+to be contented with his verbal acknowledgment. The getting it across
+the river will, I fancy, be the difficulty, especially as I'm to send
+half the teamsters back before we reach it."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, you have got to send them back," said Saxton. "Jake and Tom will
+go on, and when you have crossed the ford that will be two mules for
+each of you. Not one of the other men must come within a mile of the
+trail forking. It's part of our bargain that you're to do just what I
+tell you."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laughed a little. "I'm not going to grumble very much at leading
+two mules. I have done a good deal harder work quite frequently."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll find it tough enough by the time you're through. You must be in
+at the mine by daylight the day after to-morrow, anyway. Allonby will be
+sitting up waiting for you."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke said nothing further, but went out into the rain, calling to one
+of the teamsters, and the mules were got under way. The trail that led
+to the Elk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>tail mine sloped steep as a roof just there, and was slippery
+with rain and mire, but the mules went down it as no other loaded beasts
+could have done, feeling their way foot by foot, or glissading on all
+four hoofs for yards together. The men made little attempt to guide
+them, for a mule is opinionated by nature, and when it cannot find its
+own way up or down any ascent it is seldom worth while for its driver to
+endeavor to show it one.</p>
+
+<p>When they reached the level, or rather the depth of the hollow, for of
+level, in the usual sense of the word, there is none in that country,
+Brooke, who was then cumbered with no bridle, turned and looked round.
+The lights of the Elktail had faded among the pines, and there was only
+black darkness about him. Here and there he could discern the ghostly
+outline of a towering trunk a little more solid than the night it rose
+against, and he could hear the men and beasts floundering and splashing
+in front of him. A deep reverberating sound rose out of the obscurity
+beneath, and he knew it to be the roar of a torrent in a deep-sunk
+gully, while now and then a diminishing rattle suggested that a
+hundred-weight or so of water-loosened gravel had slipped down into the
+chasm from the perilous trail.</p>
+
+<p>It was a difficult road to travel by daylight, and, naturally,
+considerably worse at night, while Brooke had already wondered why
+Saxton had not sent off the ore earlier. That, however, was not his
+business,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> and, shaking the rain from his dripping hat, he plodded on.
+It was still two or three hours before daylight when they reached a
+wider and smoother trail, and he sent away three of the men.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a tolerably good road now, and Saxton wants you at the mine," he
+said.</p>
+
+<p>One of the teamsters who were remaining laughed ironically. "I'm blamed
+if I ever heard the dip down to the long ford called a good trail
+before!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said one of the others, "what in the name of thunder are you
+going that way for?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke, who was standing close by, fancied that a man who had not spoken
+kicked his loquacious comrade viciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Tom never does know where he's going. It's the mule that does the
+thinking for both of them," he said.</p>
+
+<p>There was a little hoarse laughter, and those who were going back
+vanished into the deluge, while Brooke, who took a bridle now, went on
+with two men again. It was darker than ever, for great fir branches met
+overhead just there, but they at least kept off a little of the rain,
+and he groped onward, splashing in the mire, until the roar of a river
+throbbed across the forest as the night was wearing through. Then the
+leading teamster pulled up his mules.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a nasty ford in daylight, and she'll be swirling over it
+waist-deep and more just now," he said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> "Still, we've got to take our
+chances of getting through."</p>
+
+<p>"It will be light in two hours," said Brooke, suggestively. "Of course,
+you know better than I do whether we could make the wasted time up."</p>
+
+<p>The man laughed curiously. "I guess we could, but there's two concerned
+bush ranchers just started their chopping over yonder. I had a kind of
+notion the boss would have told you that."</p>
+
+<p>It commenced to dawn on Brooke that Saxton had a reason for not desiring
+that everybody should know he was sending ore away, but he was too wet
+to concern himself about the question then.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think he did," he said. "Anyway, if we have to go through in
+the dark there's nothing to be gained by waiting here."</p>
+
+<p>They went on, down what appeared to be the side of a bottomless gully,
+with the stones and soil slipping away from under them, while half-seen
+trees flitted up out of the obscurity. Then they reached the bed of a
+stream, and proceeded along it, splashing and stumbling amidst the
+boulders. In the meanwhile the roar of the river was growing steadily
+louder, and when they stopped again they could hear the clamor of the
+invisible flood close in front of them. It came out of the rain and
+darkness, hoarse and terrifying, but while the wind drove the deluge
+into his face Brooke could see nothing beyond dim, dripping trees.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>"Well," said the leading teamster, "I have struck a nicer job than this
+one, but it has got to be done. Tether the spare mule, each of you, and
+then get in behind me."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke had no diffidence about taking the last place in the line. Though
+he was in charge of the pack train, it was evident that the men knew a
+good deal more about that ford than he did, and he had no particular
+desire to make himself responsible for a disaster. Then there was a
+scrambling and splashing, and he found himself suddenly waist-deep in
+the river. He was, however, tolerably accustomed to a ford, and though
+the mule he led objected strenuously to entering the water, it proceeded
+with that beast's usual sagacity once it was in. He endeavored to keep
+its head a trifle up-stream, and as close behind his two companions as
+he could, but apart from that he left the beast to the guidance of its
+own acumen, for he knew that it is seldom the sagacious mule takes any
+risk that can be avoided.</p>
+
+<p>Twice, at least, his feet were swept from under him, and once he lost
+his grip on the bridle, and simultaneously all sight of his companions
+and the beast he led. Then he felt unpleasantly lonely as he stood more
+than waist-deep in the noisy flood, but after a few yards floundering he
+found the mule again, and at last scrambled up, breathless and gasping,
+beneath the pines on the farther side.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>"Hit it square that time!" said the teamster. "I'm not quite so sure as
+I'd like to be we can do it again."</p>
+
+<p>They went back through the river for the rest of the mules, and were
+half-way across on the return journey when the leader shouted to them
+that they should stop. The water seemed deeper than it had been on the
+previous occasion, and Brooke found it difficult to keep his footing at
+all as he peered into the darkness. The rain had ceased, but there was
+little visible beyond the faint whiteness of sliding froth, and a
+shadowy blur of trees on either shore. He could see nothing that might
+serve any one as guide, and the leading teamster was standing still,
+apparently in a state of uncertainty, with dim streaks of froth
+streaming past him.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm 'most afraid we're too far down-stream," he said. "Anyway, we can't
+stay here. Head the beasts up a little."</p>
+
+<p>His voice reached the others brokenly through the roar of the torrent,
+and with a pull at the bridle Brooke turned his face up-stream. He could
+hear the rest splashing in front of him until his mule lost his footing,
+and he sank suddenly up to the breast. Then there was a shout, and a
+struggling beast swept down on him with the swing of an eddy. Brooke
+went down, head under, and one of the teamsters appeared to be shouting
+instructions to him when he came up again. He had not the faintest
+notion of what they were, and swung round with the eddy until<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> he was
+driven violently against a boulder. There was a mule close beside him,
+and he contrived to grasp the bridle, and found to his astonishment that
+he could now stand upright without difficulty. Exactly where the others
+were, or where the opposite side of the river lay, he did not at the
+moment know; but the mule appeared to be floundering on with a definite
+purpose, and he went with it, until they scrambled up the bank, and he
+found two other men and one beast already there.</p>
+
+<p>"One of them's gone," said the teamster. "There'll be trouble when we go
+back, but I guess it can't be helped. Anyway, there's 'most a fathom in
+the deep below the ford, and no mule would do much swimming with that
+load."</p>
+
+<p>"A fathom's quite enough to cover the bags up so nobody's going to find
+them," said the other man.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke did not quite understand why, since the ore was valuable, this
+fact should afford the teamster the consolation it apparently did, but
+he was not in a mood to consider that point just then, and all his
+attention was occupied when they proceeded again. The trail that climbed
+the rise was wet and steep, and seemed to consist largely of boulders,
+into which he blundered with unpleasant frequency. It was but little
+better when they once more plunged into the forest, for the way was
+scarcely two feet wide, and wound round and through thickets of thorn
+and fern which, when he brushed against it, further saturated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> him. He
+was wet enough already, but the water which remained any time in his
+clothing got slowly warm. It also dipped into splashy hollows and
+climbed loose gravel banks, while once a hoarse shout from the leader,
+which changed to a howl of pain, was followed by a stoppage. The man had
+stumbled into a clump of the horrible Devil's club thorn, than which
+nothing that grows anywhere is more unpleasant when it gets a good hold
+on human flesh.</p>
+
+<p>He was cut loose, and his objurgations mingled with the soft splashing
+from the branches as they blundered on until a faint grey light filtered
+down, and the firs they passed beneath grew into definite form. It had
+also become unpleasantly chilly, and a thin, clammy mist rose like steam
+from every hollow. Then the trees grew thinner as they climbed steadily,
+until at last Brooke could see the black hill shoulders rise out of the
+trails of mist, and the leader pulled up his mules.</p>
+
+<p>"We've done 'bout enough for one spell, and nobody's going to see us
+here," he said. "Get a fire started. I'm emptier'n a drum."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke, who knew where to find the resinous knots, was glad to help, and
+soon a great fire blazed upon a shelf of rock. The mules were tethered
+and forage given them, and the men lay steaming about the blaze until
+the breakfast of flapjacks, canned stuff, and green tea was ready. It
+was despatched in ten minutes, and rolling his half-dried blanket about
+him,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> Brooke lay down to sleep. He had a strip of very damp rock for
+mattress, and a bag of ore for pillow, but he had grown accustomed to a
+hard bed in the bush, and had scarcely laid his head down when slumber
+came to him. Food and sleep, he had discovered, were things to be
+appreciated, for it was not always that he was able to obtain very much
+of either. His stay in the Canadian cities had been brief, and the night
+he had spent with the brown-eyed girl at the opera-house had already
+drifted back into the past.</p>
+
+<p>It was raining when he awakened, and they once more took the trail,
+while during what was left of the day they plodded among the boulders
+beside frothing streams, crept through shadowy forests, and climbed over
+treacherous slopes of gravel and slippery rock outcrop round the great
+hill shoulders above. Everywhere the cold gleam of snow met the eye,
+save when the mists that clung in ragged wisps about the climbing pines
+rolled together and blotted all the vista out. The smell of fir and
+balsam filled every hollow, and the song of the rivers rang through a
+dead stillness that even to Brooke, who was accustomed to it, was
+curiously impressive.</p>
+
+<p>There was no sign of man anywhere, save for the smear of trampled mire
+or hoof-scattered gravel, and no sound that was made by any creature of
+the forest in all the primeval solitude. For no very evident<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> reason,
+tracts of that wild country remain a desolation of grand and almost
+overwhelming beauty, and in such places even the bushman speaks softly,
+or plods on faster, as though anxious to escape from them, in wondering
+silence. The teamsters, however, appeared by no means displeased at the
+solitude, and Brooke was not in a condition to be receptive of more than
+physical impressions. His long boots were full of water, his clothes
+were soaked, the sliding gravel had galled his feet, and his limbs
+ached. The beasts were also flagging, for their loads were heavy, and
+the patter of their hoofs rose with a slower beat through the rain,
+while the teamsters said nothing save when they urged them on.</p>
+
+<p>They rested again for an hour and lighted another fire, and afterwards
+found the trail smoother, but evening was closing in when, scrambling
+down from a hill shoulder, they came upon a winding valley. It was
+filled with dusky cedars, and the mist rolled out of it, but the
+teamsters quickened their pace a trifle, and smote the lagging beasts.
+Then, where the trees were thinner, Brooke saw a faint smear of vapor a
+little bluer than the mist drawn out across the ragged pines above him,
+and one of his companions laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, "I guess we're there at last, and if Boss Allonby isn't
+on the jump you'll be putting away your supper, and as much whisky as
+you've any use for inside an hour."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>"Is it a complaint he's often troubled with?" said Brooke.</p>
+
+<p>The teamster grinned. "He has it 'bout once a fortnight&mdash;when the pack
+beasts from the settlement come in. It lasts two days, in the usual way,
+and on the third one every boy about the mine looks out for him."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke asked no more questions, though he hoped that several days had
+elapsed since the supplies from the settlement had come up, and in
+another few minutes they plodded into sight of the mine. The workings
+appeared to consist of a heap of d&eacute;bris and a big windlass, but here and
+there a crazy log hut stood amidst the pines which crowded in serried
+ranks upon the narrow strip of clearing. The door of the largest shanty
+stood open, and the shadowy figure of a man appeared in it.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-evening, boys," he said. "You have brought the ore and Saxton's
+man along?"</p>
+
+<p>One of the teamsters said they had, and turned to Brooke with a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"You're not going to have any trouble to-night," he said. "He's coming
+round again, and when he feels like it, there's nobody can be more
+high-toned polite!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>VII.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">ALLONBY'S ILLUSION.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The shanty was draughty as well as very damp, and the glass of the
+flickering lamp blackened so that the light was dim. It, however, served
+to show one-half of Allonby's face in silhouette against the shadow, as
+he sat leaning one elbow on the table, with a steaming glass in front of
+him. Brooke, who was stiff and weary, lay in a dilapidated canvas chair
+beside the crackling fire, which filled the very untidy room with
+aromatic odors. It was still apparently raining outside, for there was a
+heavy splashing on the shingled roof above, and darkness had closed down
+on the lonely valley several hours ago, but while Brooke's eyes were
+heavy, Allonby showed no sign of drowsiness. He sat looking straight in
+front of him vacantly.</p>
+
+<p>"You will pass your glass across when you are ready, Mr. Brooke," he
+said, and the latter noticed his clean English intonation. "The night is
+young yet, that bottle is by no means the last in the shanty, and it is,
+I think, six months since I have been favored with any intelligent
+company. I have, of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> course, the boys, but with due respect to the
+democratic sentiments of this colony they are&mdash;the boys, and the fact
+that they are a good deal more use to the country than I am does not
+affect the question."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled a little. His host was attired somewhat curiously in a
+frayed white shirt and black store jacket, which was flecked with cigar
+ash, and had evidently seen better days, though his other garments were
+of the prevalent jean, and a portion of his foot protruded through one
+of his deerhide slippers. His face was gaunt and haggard, but it was
+just then a trifle flushed, and though his voice was still clear and
+nicely modulated, there was a suggestive unsteadiness in his gaze. The
+man was evidently a victim of indulgence, but there was a trace of
+refinement about him, and Brooke had realized already that he had
+reached the somewhat pathetic stage when pride sinks to the vanity which
+prompts its possessor to find a curious solace in the recollection of
+what he has thrown away.</p>
+
+<p>"No more!" he said. "I have lived long enough in the bush to find out
+that is the way disaster lies."</p>
+
+<p>Allonby nodded. "You are no doubt perfectly right," he said. "I had,
+however, gone a little too far when I made the discovery, and by that
+time the result of any further progress had become a matter of
+indifference to me. In any case, a man who has played his part with
+credit among his equals where life has a good deal to offer one and
+intellect is ap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>preciated, must drown recollection now and then when he
+drags out his days in a lonely exile that can have only one end. I am
+quite aware that it is not particularly good form for me to commiserate
+myself, but it should be evident that there is nobody else here to do it
+for me."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke had already found his host's maudlin moralizings becoming
+monotonous, but he also felt in a half-contemptuous fashion sorry for
+the man. He was, it seemed to him, in spite of his proclivities, in the
+restricted sense of the word, almost a gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>"If one may make the inquiry, you came from England?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>Allonby laughed. "Most men put that question differently in this
+country. They talk straight, as they term it, and apparently consider
+brutality to be the soul of candor. Yes, I came from England, because
+something happened which prevented me feeling any great desire to spend
+any further time there. What it was does not, of course, matter. I came
+out with a sheaf of certificates and several medals to exploit the
+mineral riches of Western Canada, and found that mineralogical science
+is not greatly appreciated here."</p>
+
+<p>He rose, and taking down a battered walnut case, shook out a little
+bundle of greasy papers with a trembling hand. Then a faint gleam crept
+into his eyes as he opened a little box in which Brooke saw several big
+round pieces of gold. The dulness of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> unpolished metal made the
+inscriptions on them more legible, and he knew enough about such matters
+to realize that no man of mean talent could have won those trophies.</p>
+
+<p>"They would, I fancy, have got you a good appointment anywhere," he
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"As a matter of fact, they got me one or two. It is, however,
+occasionally a little difficult to keep an appointment when obtained."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke could understand that there were reasons which made that likely
+in his host's case, but he had by this time had enough of the subject.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you going to do with the ore I brought you?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>Allonby's eyes twinkled. "Enrich what we raise here with it."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a little difficult to understand what you would gain by that."</p>
+
+<p>Allonby smiled suggestively. "I would certainly gain nothing, but Thomas
+P. Saxton seems to fancy the result would be profitable to him."</p>
+
+<p>"But does the Dayspring belong to Saxton?"</p>
+
+<p>Allonby emptied his glass at a gulp. "As much as I do, and he believes
+he has bought me soul and body. The price was not a big one&mdash;a very few
+dollars every month, and enough whisky to keep me here. If that failed
+me, I should go away, though I do not know where to, for I cannot use
+the axe. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> is, however, now quite willing to part with the Dayspring,
+which has done little more than pay expenses."</p>
+
+<p>A light commenced to dawn on Brooke, and his face grew a trifle hot.
+"That is presumably why he arranged that I should bring the ore down
+past the few ranches near the trail at night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely!" said Allonby. "You see, Saxton wants to sell the mine to
+another man&mdash;because he is a fool. Now the chief recommendation a mine
+has to a prospective purchaser is naturally the quality of the ore to be
+got out of it."</p>
+
+<p>"But the man who proposed buying it would send an expert to collect
+samples for assaying."</p>
+
+<p>Allonby's voice was not quite so clear as it had been, but he smiled
+again. "It is not quite so difficult for a mine captain who knows his
+business to contrive that an expert sees no more than is advisable. A
+good deal of discretion is, however, necessary when you salt a poor mine
+with high-grade ore. It has to be done with knowledge, artistically. You
+don't seem quite pleased at being mixed up in such a deal."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke was a trifle grim in face, but he laughed. "I have no doubt that,
+considering everything, it is a trifle absurd of me, but I'm not," he
+said. "One has to get accustomed to the notion that he is being made use
+of in connection with an ingenious swindle. That, however, is a matter
+which rests be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>tween Saxton and me, and we may talk over it when I go
+back again. Why did you call him a fool?"</p>
+
+<p>Allonby leaned forward in his chair, and his face grew suddenly eager.
+"I suppose you couldn't raise eight thousand dollars to buy the mine
+with?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laughed outright. "I should have some difficulty in raising
+twenty until the month is up."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you are losing a chance you'll never get again in a lifetime," and
+Allonby made a little gesture of resignation. "I would have liked you to
+have taken it, because I think I could make you believe in me. That is
+why I showed you the medals."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke looked at him curiously for a moment or two. It was evident that
+the man was in earnest, for his gaunt face was wholly intent, and his
+fingers were trembling.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a very long time since I had the expectation of ever calling
+eight thousand dollars my own, and if I had them I should feel very
+dubious about putting them into any mine, and especially this one."</p>
+
+<p>Allonby leaned forward further, and clutched his arm. "If you have any
+friends in the Old Country, beg or borrow from them. Offer them twenty
+per cent.&mdash;anything they ask. There is a fortune under your feet. Of
+course, you do not believe it. Nobody I ever told it to would even
+listen seriously."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you feel sure of it, but that is quite another thing," and
+Brooke smiled.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>Allonby rose shakily, and leaned upon the table with his fingers
+trembling.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen a few minutes&mdash;I was sure of attention without asking for it
+once," he said. "It was I who found the Dayspring, not by chance
+prospecting, but by calculations that very few men in the province could
+make. I know what that must appear&mdash;but you have seen the medals.
+Tracing the dip and curvature of the stratification from the Elktail and
+two prospectors' shafts, I knew the vein would approach the level here,
+and I put five thousand dollars&mdash;every cent I could scrape
+together&mdash;into proving it. We struck the vein, but while it should have
+been rich, we found it broken, displaced, and poor. There had, you see,
+been a disturbance of the strata. I borrowed money, worked night and
+day, and starved myself&mdash;did everything that would save a dollar from
+the rapidly-melting pile&mdash;and at last we struck the vein again, and
+struck it rich."</p>
+
+<p>He stopped abruptly and stood staring vacantly in front of him, while
+Brooke heard him noisily draw in his breath.</p>
+
+<p>"You can imagine what that meant!" he continued. "After what had
+happened in England I could never go back a poor man, but a good deal is
+forgiven the one who comes home rich. Then, while I tried to keep my
+head, we came to the fault where the ore vein suddenly ran out. It broke
+off as though cut through with a knife, and went down, as the men who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>
+knew no better said, to the centre of the earth. Now a fault is a very
+curious thing, but one can deduce a good deal when he has studied them,
+and a big snow-slide had laid bare an interesting slice of the
+foundations of this country in the valley opposite. It took me a month
+to construct my theory, and that was little when you consider the
+factors I had to reckon with&mdash;ages of crushing pressure, denudation by
+grinding ice and sliding snow, and Titanic upheavals thousands of years
+ago. The result was from one point of view contemptible. With about four
+thousand dollars I could strike the vein again."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you tried to raise them?"</p>
+
+<p>Allonby made a grimace. "For six long years. The men who had lent me
+money laughed at me, and worked the poor ore back along the incline
+instead of boring. Somebody has been working it&mdash;for about five cents on
+the dollar&mdash;ever since, and when I told them what they were letting slip
+all of them smiled compassionately. I am of course&mdash;though once it was
+different&mdash;a broken man, with a brain clouded by whisky, only fit to run
+a played-out mine. How could I be expected to find any man a fortune?"</p>
+
+<p>His brain, it was evident, was slightly affected by alcohol then, but
+there was no mistaking the genuineness of his bitterness. It was too
+deep to be maudlin or tinged with self-commiseration now. The little
+hopeless gesture of resignation he made was also very eloquent, and
+while the rain splashed upon the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> roof Brooke sat silent regarding him
+curiously. The dim light and the flickering radiance from the fire were
+still on one side of his face, forcing it up with all its gauntness of
+outline, but the weakness had gone out of it, and for once it was strong
+and almost stern. Then a little sardonic smile crept into it.</p>
+
+<p>"A fortune under our feet&mdash;and nobody will have it! It is one of Fate's
+grim jests," he said. "I spent a month making a theory, and every day of
+six years&mdash;that is when I was capable of thinking&mdash;has shown me
+something to prove that theory right. Now Saxton wants to swindle
+another man into buying the mine for&mdash;you can call it a song."</p>
+
+<p>He poured out another glass with a shaking hand, and then turned
+abruptly to his companion. "Put on your rubber coat and come with me,"
+he said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke would much rather have retired to sleep, but the man's
+earnestness had its effect on him, and he rose and went out into the
+rain with him. Allonby came near falling down the shaft when they stood
+at its head, but Brooke got him into the ore hoist and sent him down,
+after which he descended the running chain he had locked fast hand over
+hand. The level, as he had been told, was close to the surface, and
+while Allonby walked unsteadily in front of him with a blinking candle
+in his hat, they followed it into the face of the hill. Twice his
+companion stumbled over a piece of the timbering, and the light went
+out, while Brooke wondered uneasily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> if there was another sinking
+anywhere ahead as he lighted it again. He knew a little about mining,
+since he had on one or two occasions earned a few dollars assisting in
+the driving of an adit.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, Allonby stopped and leaned against the dripping rock, as he
+took off his hat and held the candle high above his head. Then he turned
+and pointed down the gallery the way they had come.</p>
+
+<p>"Look at it!" he said, thickly. "Until we struck the ore where you see
+the extra timbering, I counted the dollars every yard of it cost me as I
+would drops of my life's blood. I worked while the men slept, and lived
+like a Chinaman. There was a fortune within my grasp if those dollars
+would hold out until I reached it&mdash;and fortune meant England, and I once
+more the man I had been. Then&mdash;we came to that."</p>
+
+<p>He swung round and pointed with a wide, dramatic gesture which Brooke
+fancied he would not have used in his prosperous days, to a bare face of
+rock. It was of different nature to the sides of the tunnel, and had
+evidently come down from above. Brooke understood. The strata his
+companion had been working in had suddenly broken off and gone down,
+only he knew where. He sat down on a big fallen fragment, and there was
+silence for a space, emphasized by the drip of water in the blackness of
+the mine. Brooke was very drowsy, but the scene, with its loneliness and
+the haggard face of his com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>panion showing pale and drawn in the
+candle-light, had a curious effect on him, and in the meanwhile
+compelled him to wakefulness.</p>
+
+<p>"You know where that broken strata has dipped to?" he said, at last.</p>
+
+<p>Allonby, who laughed in a strained fashion, sat down abruptly, and
+thrust a bundle of papers upon his companion. "Almost to a fathom. If
+you know anything of geology, look at these."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke, who unrolled the papers, knew enough to recognize that, even if
+his companion had illusions, they were the work of a clever man. There
+was skill and what appeared to be a high regard for minute accuracy in
+every line of the plans, while he fancied the attached calculations
+would have aroused a mathematician's appreciation. He spent several
+minutes poring over them with growing wonder, while Allonby held the
+candle, and then looked up at him.</p>
+
+<p>"They would, I think, almost satisfy any man, but there is a weak
+point," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Allonby smiled in a curious fashion. "The one the rest split on? I see
+you understand."</p>
+
+<p>"You deduce where the ore ought to be&mdash;by analogy. That kind of
+reasoning is, I fancy, not greatly favored in this country by practical
+men. They prefer the fact that it is there established by the drill."</p>
+
+<p>Allonby made a little gesture of impatience.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> "They have driven shaft
+and adit for half a lifetime, most of them, and they do not know yet
+that one law of Nature&mdash;the sequence of cause and effect&mdash;is immutable.
+I have shown them the causes&mdash;but it would cost five thousand dollars to
+demonstrate the effect. Well, as no one will ever spend them, we will go
+back."</p>
+
+<p>He had come out unsteadily, but he went back more so still, as though a
+sustaining purpose had been taken from him, and, as he fell down now and
+then, Brooke had some difficulty in conveying him to the foot of the
+shaft. When he had bestowed him in the ore hoist, and was about to
+ascend by the chain, Allonby laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't be particularly careful. I shall come down here
+head-foremost one of these nights, and nobody will be any the worse
+off," he said. "I lost my last chance when that vein worked out."</p>
+
+<p>Then Brooke went up into the darkness, and with some difficulty hove his
+companion to the surface. They went back to the shanty together, and as
+Allonby incontinently fell asleep in his chair, Brooke retired to the
+bunk set apart for him. Still, tired as he was, it was some little time
+before he slept, for what he had seen had made its impression. The
+shanty was very still, save for the snapping of the fire, and the
+broken-down outcast, who held the key of a fortune the men of that
+province were too shrewd to believe in, slept uneasily, with head hung
+for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>ward, in his chair. Brooke could see him dimly by the dying light of
+the fire, and felt very far from sure that it was a delusion he labored
+under.</p>
+
+<p>When he awakened next morning Allonby was already about, and looked at
+him curiously when he endeavored to reopen the subject.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not considerate to refer next morning to anything a man with my
+shortcomings may have said the night before," he said. "I think you
+should recognize that fact."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry," said Brooke. "Still, it occurred to me that you believed
+very firmly in the truth of it."</p>
+
+<p>Allonby smiled drily. "Well," he said, "I do. What is that to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing," said Brooke. "I shall, as I think I told you, be worth about
+thirty dollars when the month is out. What is the name of the man Saxton
+wishes to sell the mine to?"</p>
+
+<p>"Devine," said Allonby, and went out to fling a vitriolic reproof at a
+miner who was doing something he did not approve of about the windlass,
+while Brooke, who saw no more of him, departed when he had made his
+breakfast.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>VIII.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">A BOLD VENTURE.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>It was a hot morning shortly after Brooke's return to the Elktail mine,
+and Saxton sat in his galvanized shanty with his feet on a chair and a
+cigar in his hand. The door stood open and let a stream of sunlight and
+balsamic odors of the forest in. He wore soil-stained jean, and seemed
+very damp, for he had just come out of the mine. Thomas P. Saxton was
+what is termed a rustler in that country, a man of unlimited assurance
+and activity, troubled by no particular scruples and keen to seize on
+any chances that might result in the acquisition of even a very few
+dollars. He was also, like most of his countrymen, eminently adaptable,
+and the fact that he occasionally knew very little about the task he
+took in hand seldom acted as a deterrent. It was characteristic that
+during the past hour he had been endeavoring to show his foreman how to
+run a new rock-drilling machine which he had never seen in operation
+until that time.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke, who had been speaking, sat watching him with a faint ironical
+appreciation. The man was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> delightfully candid, at least with him, and
+though he was evidently not averse from sailing perilously near the wind
+it was done with boldness and ingenuity. There was a little twinkle in
+his keen eyes as he glanced at his companion.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, "one has to take his chances when he has all to gain
+and very little to let up upon. That's the kind of man I am."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you told me you had got quite a few dollars together not very
+long ago," said Brooke, reflectively.</p>
+
+<p>The smile became a trifle plainer in Saxton's eyes. "I did, but very few
+of them are mine. Somehow I get to know everybody worth knowing in the
+province, and now and then folks with dollars to spare for a venture
+hand them me to put into a deal."</p>
+
+<p>"On the principle that one has to take his chances in this country?"</p>
+
+<p>Saxton laughed good-humoredly. "Well," he said, "I never go back upon a
+partner, anyway, and when we make a deal the other folks are quite at
+liberty to keep their eyes on me. They know the rules of the game, and
+if they don't always get the value they expected they most usually lie
+low and sell out to another man instead of blaming me. It pays their way
+better than crying down their bargain. Still, I have started off mills
+and wild-cat mines that turned out well, and went on coining dollars for
+everybody."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>"Which was no doubt a cause of satisfaction to you!"</p>
+
+<p>Saxton shook his head. "No, sir," he said. "I felt sorry ever after I
+hadn't kept them."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke straightened himself a trifle in his chair, for he felt that they
+were straying from the point.</p>
+
+<p>"Industrial speculations in this province remind me of a game we have in
+England. Perhaps you have seen it," he said, reflectively. "You bet a
+shilling or half-a-crown that when you lift up a thimble you will find a
+pea you have seen a man place under it. It is not very often that you
+accomplish it. Still, in that case&mdash;there is&mdash;a pea."</p>
+
+<p>"And there's nothing but low-grade ore in the Dayspring? Now, nobody
+ever quite knows what he will find in a mine if he lays out enough
+dollars looking for it."</p>
+
+<p>"That," said Brooke, drily, "is probably correct enough, especially if
+he is ignorant of geology. What I take exception to is the sprinkling of
+the mine with richer ore to induce him to buy it. Such a proceeding
+would be called by very unpleasant names in England, and I'm not quite
+sure it mightn't bring you within the reach of the law here. Mind, what
+you may think fit to do is, naturally, no concern of mine, but I have
+tolerably strong objections to taking any further personal part in the
+scheme."</p>
+
+<p>"The point is that we're playing it off on Devine, the man who robbed
+you, and has once or twice put<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> his foot on me. I was considerably
+flattened when I crawled from under. He's a big man and he puts it down
+heavy."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, I feel it's necessary to draw the line at a swindle."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton made a little whimsical gesture. "Call it the game with the pea
+and thimble. Devine has got a notion there's something in the mine, and
+I don't know any reason why I shouldn't humor him. He's quite often
+right, you see."</p>
+
+<p>"It does not affect the point, but are you quite sure he isn't right
+now?"</p>
+
+<p>"You mean that Allonby may be?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't consider it quite out of the question."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton laughed softly. "Allonby's a whisky-skin, and I keep him because
+he's cheap and it's a charity. Everybody knows that story of his, and he
+only trots it out when he has got a good bottle of old rye into him. At
+most other times he's quite sensible. Anyway, Devine doesn't want the
+mine to keep. He has to get a working group with a certain output and
+assays that look well all round before he floats it off on the English
+market. If he knew I was quietly dumping that ore in I'm not quite sure
+it would rile him."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke sat silent a space. He had discovered by this time that it is not
+advisable to expect any excess of probity in a mining deal, and that it
+is the speculator, and not the men who face the perils of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>
+wilderness (which are many, prospecting), who usually takes the profit.
+A handful or two of dollars for them, and a big bank balance for the
+trickster stock manipulator appeared to be the rules of the game. Still,
+nobody can expect to acquire riches without risk or labor, and it seemed
+no great wrong to him that the men with the dollars should lose a few of
+them occasionally. Granting that, he did not, however, feel it warranted
+him in taking any active part in fleecing them.</p>
+
+<p>"Still, if another bag of ore goes into the Dayspring you can count me
+out," he said. "No doubt, it's a trifle inconsistent, but you will
+understand plainly that I take no further share in selling the mine."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton shook his head reproachfully. "Those notions of yours are going
+to get in your way, and it's unfortunate, because we have taken hold of
+a big thing," he said. "I'm an irresponsible planter of wild-cat mining
+schemes, you're nobody, and between us we're going to best Devine, the
+biggest man in his line in the province, and a clever one. Still, that's
+one reason why the notion gets hold of me. When you come in ahead of the
+little man there's nothing to be got out of him, and Devine's good for
+quite a pile when we can put the screw on."</p>
+
+<p>Again Brooke was sensible of a certain tempered admiration for his
+comrade's hardihood, for it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> seemed to him that the project he had
+mooted might very well involve them both in disaster.</p>
+
+<p>"You expect to accomplish it?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Saxton, drily, "I mean to try. We can't squeeze him much on
+the Dayspring, but we want dollars to fight him with, and that's how
+we're going to get a few of them. It's on the Canopus I mean to strike
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"The Canopus!" said Brooke, who knew the mine in question was considered
+a rich one. "How could you gain any hold on him over that?"</p>
+
+<p>"On the title. By jumping it. Devine takes too many chances now and
+then, and if one could put his fingers on a little information I have a
+notion the Canopus wouldn't be his. I guess you know that unless you do
+this, that, and the other, after recording your correct frontage on the
+lead or vein, you can't hold a mine on a patent from the Crown. Suppose
+you have got possession, and it's found that there was anything wrong
+with the papers you or your prospectors filed, the minerals go back to
+the Crown again, and the man who's first to drive his stakes in can
+re-locate them. It's done now and then."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke sat silent a space. A jumper&mdash;as the man who re-locates the
+minerals somebody else has found, on the ground of incorrect record or
+non-compliance with the mining enactments, is called&mdash;is not regarded
+with any particular favor in that province, or, indeed, elsewhere, but
+his proceedings may be, at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> least, perfectly legitimate, and there was a
+certain simplicity and daring of conception in the new scheme that had
+its effect on Brooke.</p>
+
+<p>"I will do what I can within limits," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Saxton nodded. "Then you will have to get into the mine, though I don't
+quite know how we are going to fix it yet," he said. "Anyway, we've
+talked enough for one day already, and you have to go down to the
+settlement to see about getting those new drills up."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke set out for the settlement, and slept at a ranch on the way,
+where he left his horse which had fallen lame, for it was a two days'
+journey, while it was late in the afternoon when he sat down to rest
+where the trail crossed a bridge. The latter was a somewhat rudimentary
+log structure put together with the axe and saw alone, of a width that
+would just allow one of the light wagons in use in that country to cross
+over it, and, as the bottom of the hollow the river swirled through was
+level there, an ungainly piece of trestle work carried the road up to
+it. There was a long, white rapid not far away, and the roar of it rang
+in deep vibrations among the rocks above. Brooke, who had walked a long
+way, found the pulsating sound soothing, while the fragrance the dusky
+cedars distilled had its usual drowsy effect on him, and as he watched
+the glancing water slide by his eyes grew heavy.</p>
+
+<p>He did not remember falling asleep, but by and by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> the sombre wall of
+coniferous forest that shut the hollow in seemed to dwindle to the
+likeness of a trim yew hedge, and the river now slid by smooth and
+placidly. There was also velvet grass beneath his feet in place of
+wheel-rutted gravel and brown fir needles. Still, the scene he gazed
+upon was known to him, though it seemed incomplete until a girl with
+brown eyes in a long white dress and big white hat appeared at his side.
+She fitted the surroundings wonderfully, for her almost stately serenity
+harmonized with the quietness and order of the still English valley, but
+yet he was puzzled, for there was sunlight on the water, and he felt
+that the moon should be shining round and full above her shoulder. Then
+when he would have spoken the picture faded, and he became suddenly
+conscious that his pipe had fallen from his hand, and that he was
+dressed in soil-stained jean which seemed quite out of keeping with the
+English lawn. That was his first impression, but while he wondered
+vaguely how he came to have a pipe made out of a corn-cob, which cost
+him about thirty cents, at all, a rattle of displaced gravel and
+pounding of hoofs became audible, and he recognized that something
+unusual was going on.</p>
+
+<p>He shook himself to attention, and looking about him saw a man sitting
+stiffly erect on the driving seat of a light wagon and endeavoring to
+urge a pair of unwilling horses up the sloping trestle. They were
+Cayuses, beasts of native blood and very uncer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>tain temper, bred by
+Indians, and as usual, about half-broken to the rein. They also appeared
+to have decided objections to crossing the bridge, for which any one new
+to the province would scarcely have felt inclined to blame them. The
+river frothed beneath it, the ascent was steep with a twist in it, and a
+small log, perhaps a foot through, spiked down to the timbers, served as
+sole protection. It would evidently not be difficult for a pair of
+frightened horses to tilt a wheel of the very light vehicle over it.</p>
+
+<p>Still, the structure compared favorably with most of those in the
+mountains, and Brooke, who knew that it is not always advisable to
+interfere in a dispute between a bush rancher and his horses, sat still,
+until it became evident to him that the man did not belong to that
+community. He was elderly, for there was grey in the hair beneath the
+wide hat, while something in the way he held himself and the fit of his
+clothes, which appeared unusually good, suggested a connection with the
+cities. It was, however, evident that he was a determined man, for he
+showed no intention of dismounting, and responded to the off horse's
+vicious kicking with a stinging cut of the whip. The result of this was
+a plunge, and one wheel struck the foot-high guard with a crash. The man
+plied the whip again, and with another plunge and scramble the beasts
+gained the level of the bridge. Here they stopped altogether, and one
+at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>tempted to stand upright while Brooke sprang to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Hadn't you better get down, sir, or let me lead them across?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>The man, tightening both hands upon the reins, cast a momentary glance
+at him, and his little grim smile and the firm grip of his long, lean
+fingers supplied a hint of his character.</p>
+
+<p>"Not until I have to," he said. "They're going to cross this bridge."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke moved a few paces nearer. It was one thing for a rancher
+accustomed to horses and bridges of that description to take pleasure in
+such a struggle, but quite another in the case of a man from the cities,
+and he had misgivings as to the result of it. The latter, however,
+showed very little concern, though the near horse was now apparently
+endeavoring to kick the front of the wagon in. Then Brooke sprang
+suddenly towards them as both backed the wagon against the log. He
+fancied that one wheel was mounting it when he seized the near horse's
+head, but after that he had very little opportunity of noticing
+anything.</p>
+
+<p>The beast plunged, and came near swinging him off his feet, the wagon
+pole creaked portentously, and the whip fell swishing across the other
+horse's back again. Then there was a hammering of hoofs, and a rattle;
+the team bolted incontinently, and because the bridge was narrow,
+Brooke, who lost his hold,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> sprang upon the log that very indifferently
+guarded it. It was, however, rounded on the top, and next moment he
+found himself standing knee-deep in the river, shaken, and considerably
+astonished, but by no means hurt. A drop of ten feet or so is not very
+apt to hurt an agile man who alights upon his feet. He saw the wagon
+bounce upon the half-round logs, as with the team stretching out in a
+furious gallop in front of it, it crossed the trestle on the opposite
+side, and vanish into the forest; and then finding himself very little
+the worse, proceeded to wade back to the bridge. He was plodding up the
+climbing trail beneath the firs when a shout came down and he saw the
+man had pulled the wagon up. When Brooke drew level he looked at him
+with a little dry smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess you and the Cayuses came off the worst," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke glanced at the horses. They were flecked with lather but quiet
+enough now, and it was evident that the driver had beaten the spirit out
+of them on the ascent.</p>
+
+<p>"I fancied the result would have been different a little while ago," he
+said.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger laughed. "I 'most always get my way," he said. "Still, I
+didn't pull the team up to tell you that. You're going in to the
+settlement?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke said he was, and the stranger bade him get up, which he did, and
+seized the first opportunity of glancing at his companion. There is, it
+had already<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> appeared to him, a greater typical likeness between the
+business men of the Pacific slope, in which category he placed his
+companion, than is usual in the case of Englishmen. Even when large of
+frame they seldom put on flesh, and the characteristic lean face and
+spare figure alone supply a hint of restlessness and activity, which is
+emphasized by mobility of features and quick nervous gesture. The man
+who drove the wagon was almost unusually gaunt, and while his eyes,
+which were brown, and reminded Brooke curiously of somebody else's,
+seemed to scintillate with a faint sardonic twinkle, there was a
+suggestion of reticence in his firm thin lips, and an unmistakable stamp
+of command upon him. He also held himself well, and Brooke fancied that
+he was in his own sphere a man of some importance. His first observation
+was, however, not exactly what Brooke would have expected from an
+Englishman of his apparent station.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm much obliged to you," he said. "I don't like to be beaten, and it's
+a thing that doesn't happen very often. Besides, when a horse is too
+much for a man it's kind of humiliating. There's something that doesn't
+strike one as quite fitting in the principle of the thing."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laughed. "I'm not sure it's worth while to worry very much over a
+point of that kind, especially when it seems likely to lead to nothing
+beyond the probability of being pitched into a river."</p>
+
+<p>"Still," said the stranger, with the little twinkle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> showing plainer in
+his eyes, "in this case it was the other man who fell in."</p>
+
+<p>"I fancy it quite frequently is," said Brooke, reflectively. "That is
+usually the result of meddling."</p>
+
+<p>The stranger nodded, and quietly inspected him. "You have been here some
+time, but you are an Englishman," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I am," said Brooke. "Is there any reason why I should hide the fact?"</p>
+
+<p>"You couldn't do it. How long have you been here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Four years in all, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"What did you come out for?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke was accustomed to Western brusquerie, and there was nothing in
+his companion's manner which made the question offensive.</p>
+
+<p>"I fancy my motive was not an unusual one. To pick up a few dollars."</p>
+
+<p>"Got them yet?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't say I have."</p>
+
+<p>The stranger appeared reflective. "There are not many folks who would
+have admitted that," he said. "When a man has been four years in this
+country he ought to have put a few dollars together. What have you been
+at?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ranching most of the time. Road-making, saw-milling, and a few other
+occupations of the same kind afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>"What was wrong with the ranch?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>Persistent questioning is not unusual in that country, for what is
+considered delicacy depends largely upon locality, and Brooke laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Almost everything," he said. "It had a good many disadvantages besides
+its rockiness, sterility, and an unusually abundant growth of
+two-hundred-feet trees. Still, it was the man who sold it me I found
+most fault with. He was a land agent."</p>
+
+<p>"One of the little men?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. I believe he is considered rather a big one&mdash;in fact about the
+biggest in that particular line."</p>
+
+<p>The little sardonic gleam showed a trifle more plainly in the stranger's
+eyes. "He told you the land was nicely cleared ready, and would grow
+anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Brooke. "He, however, led me to believe that it could be
+cleared with very little difficulty, and that the lumber was worth a
+good deal. I daresay it is, if there was any means whatever of getting
+it to a mill, which there isn't. He certainly told me there was no
+reason it shouldn't grow as good fruit as any that comes from Oregon,
+while I found the greatest difficulty in getting a little green oat
+fodder out of it."</p>
+
+<p>"You went back, and tried to cry off your bargain?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke glanced at his companion, and fancied that he was watching him
+closely. "I really don't know any reason why I should worry you with my
+affairs. My case isn't at all an unusual one."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>"I don't know of any why you shouldn't. Go right on."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I never got hold of the man himself. It was one of his agents I
+made the deal with, and there was nothing to be obtained from him. In
+fact, I could see no probability of getting any redress at all. It
+appears to be considered commendable to take the newly-arrived Britisher
+in."</p>
+
+<p>The other man smiled drily. "Well," he said, "some of them 'most seem to
+expect it. Ever think of trying the law against the principal?"</p>
+
+<p>"The law," said Brooke, "is apt to prove a very uncertain remedy, and I
+spent my last few dollars convincing myself that the ranch was
+worthless. Now, one confidence ought to warrant another. What has
+brought you into the bush? You do not belong to it."</p>
+
+<p>The stranger laughed. "There's not much bush in this country, from
+Kootenay to Caribou, I haven't wandered through. I used to live in
+it&mdash;quite a long while ago. I came up to look at a mine. I buy one up
+occasionally."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't that a little risky?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the other, with a little smile, "it depends. There are
+goods, like eggs and oranges, you don't want to keep."</p>
+
+<p>"And a good market in England for whatever the Colonials have no
+particular use for?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>The stranger laughed good-humoredly. "Did you ever strike any real good
+salt pork in Canada?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Brooke, decisively, "I certainly never did."</p>
+
+<p>"Then where does the best bacon you get in England come from? Same with
+cheese&mdash;and other things."</p>
+
+<p>"Including mines?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, when any of them look like paying it's generally your folk who
+get them. Know anything about the Dayspring?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a great deal," Brooke said, guardedly. "I have been in the
+workings, and it is for sale."</p>
+
+<p>"Ore worth anything at the smelter?"</p>
+
+<p>Now Brooke was perfectly certain that such a man as his companion
+appeared to be would attach no great importance to any information
+obtained by chance from a stranger.</p>
+
+<p>"There is certainly a little good ore in it," he said, drily.</p>
+
+<p>"That is about all you mean to tell me?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is about all I know definitely."</p>
+
+<p>The stranger smiled curiously. "Well," he said, "I'm not going to worry
+you, and I guess I know a little more."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke changed the topic, and listened with growing interest, and a
+little astonishment, to his companion as they drove on. The man seemed
+acquainted with everything he could mention, including<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> the sentiments
+of the insular English and the economics as well as the history of their
+country. He was even more astonished when, as they alighted before the
+little log hotel at the pine-shrouded settlement, the host greeted the
+stranger.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll be Mr. Devine who wrote me about the room and a saddle horse?"
+he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the other man, who glanced at Brooke with a little whimsical
+smile, "you have addressed me quite correctly."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke said nothing, for he realized then something of the nature of the
+task he and Saxton had undertaken, while it was painfully evident that
+he had done very little to further his cause at the first encounter. He
+also found the little gleam in Devine's eyes almost exasperating, and
+turned to the hotel-keeper to conceal the fact.</p>
+
+<p>"Has the freighter come through?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said the man. "Bob, who has just come in, said he'd a big load and
+we needn't expect him until to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Devine had turned away now, and Brooke touched the hotel-keeper's arm.
+"I don't wish that man to know I'm from the Elktail," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the hotel-keeper, "you know Saxton's business best, but if
+I had any share in it and struck a man of that kind looking round for
+mines I'd do what was in me to shove the Dayspring off on to him."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>IX.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">DEVINE MAKES A SUGGESTION.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>There was only one hotel, which scarcely deserved the title, in the
+settlement, and when Brooke returned to it an hour after the six o'clock
+supper, he found Devine sitting on the verandah. He had never met the
+man until that afternoon, and had only received one very terse response
+to the somewhat acrimonious correspondence he had insisted on his agent
+forwarding him respecting the ranch. He had no doubt that the affair had
+long ago passed out of Devine's memory, though he was still, on his
+part, as determined as ever on obtaining restitution. He had, however,
+no expectation of doing it by persuasion, though the man was evidently a
+very different individual from the one his fancy had depicted, and, that
+being so, recrimination appeared useless, as well as undignified. He
+was, therefore, while he would have done nothing to avoid him, by no
+means anxious to spend the remainder of the evening in Devine's company.
+The latter was, however, already on the verandah, and looked up when he
+entered it.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>"I had almost a fancy you meant to keep out of my way," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke sat down, and there was a trace of dryness in his smile.</p>
+
+<p>"If I had felt inclined to do so, you would scarcely expect me to admit
+it? I don't mean because that would not have been complimentary to you,"
+he said.</p>
+
+<p>Devine laughed, and handed his cigar-case across. "Take one if you feel
+like it. I quite see your point," he said. "Some of you folks from the
+old country are a trifle tender in the hide, but I don't mind telling
+you that there was a time when I spent an hour or two every day keeping
+out of other men's way. They wanted dollars I couldn't raise, you see,
+and now and then I had to spend mornings in the city because I couldn't
+get into my office on account of them. I meant to pay them, and I did,
+but there was no way of doing it just then."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke's smile was a trifle curious, and might have been construed into
+implying a doubt of his companion's commendable intentions, but the
+latter did not appear to notice it, and he took one of the cigars
+offered him, and found it excellent. Though they were to be adversaries,
+there was nothing to be gained by betraying a puerile bitterness against
+the man, and now he had met him, Brooke was not quite so sure as he
+could have wished that he disliked him personally. He meant to secure
+his six thousand dollars if it could be done, which appeared distinctly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>
+doubtful, and sentiment of any kind was, he assured himself, out of
+place. Still, he did not altogether relish Devine's cigar.</p>
+
+<p>"They were probably persistent men," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Devine glanced at him sharply, but Brooke's face was, or at least he
+hoped so, expressionless.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, tranquilly, "I contrive to pay my debts as the usual
+thing, but we'll let that slide. What are you at up here in the bush?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mining, just now," said Brooke. "To be more definite, acting as handy
+man about a mine."</p>
+
+<p>"You'd make more rock-drilling. Feel fond of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't say I do. Still, I have a notion that it is going to lead to
+the acquisition of a few dollars presently."</p>
+
+<p>Devine sat silent at a space, apparently reflecting, and then looked up
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," he said, "suppose I was to make you an offer, would you feel
+inclined to listen to me?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke had acquired in England a composure which was frequently useful
+to him, but he was young, and started a trifle, while once more the
+blood showed through his unfortunately clear skin.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I could promise that much, at least," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Devine, "I have some use for a man who knows a little about
+bush ranches and mines, and understands the English folks who now and
+then buy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> them from me. I could afford to pay him a moderate salary."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke closed one hand a trifle, and the bronze deepened in his face.
+The opportunity Saxton had been waiting for was now, it seemed, being
+thrust upon him, and yet he felt that he could not avail himself of it.
+It was clear that he had everything to gain by doing so, but there was,
+he realized now, a treachery he could not descend to. He strove to
+persuade himself that this was a sentimental weakness, for it had become
+even more apparent of late that with the knowledge he had gained of that
+country there would be no great difficulty in making his way once he had
+the dollars he had been robbed of again in his hands, and he had had a
+bitter taste of the life that must be dragged through by the man with
+none. Still, the fact that his instincts, which, as occasionally happens
+to other men, would not be controlled by his reason, revolted from the
+part he must play if he made terms with Devine, remained, and he sat
+very still, with forehead wrinkled and one hand clenched, until his
+companion, who had never taken his eyes off him, spoke again.</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't sound good enough?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke shook himself together. "As a matter of fact, I am very doubtful
+if I shall get quite as good an offer again. Still, I am afraid I can't
+quite see my way to entertaining it."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>"No?" said Devine. "I guess you have your reasons?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke felt that he could scarcely consider the motive which had induced
+him to answer as he did a reason. It was rather an impulse he could not
+hold in check, or the result of a prejudice, but he could not explain
+this, and what was under the circumstances a somewhat illogical
+bitterness against Devine took possession of him.</p>
+
+<p>"When I first came into this province my confiding simplicity cost me a
+good deal, and I almost think I should rather feel myself impelled to
+warn any of my countrymen I came into contact with against making rash
+ventures in land and mines than induce them to do so," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Devine smiled drily. "That is tolerably plain talk, anyway. Still, it
+ought to be clear that a man can't keep on taking folks' dollars without
+giving them reasonable value anywhere. No, sir. As soon as they find out
+he has only worthless goods to sell, they stop dealing with him right
+away. There's another point. Are they all fools who come out from
+England to buy mines and ranching land?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have certainly met a few who seemed to be. Of course, I include
+myself," said Brooke, grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you can take it from me, and I ought to know, that there are
+folks back yonder quite as smart at getting one hundred and fifty cents
+for the dol<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>lar's worth as any man in Canada. We needn't, however, worry
+about that. I made you an offer, and you have quite decided that it
+wouldn't suit you?"</p>
+
+<p>Again Brooke sat silent a space. He felt in some degree bound to Saxton,
+though he had certainly earned every dollar the latter had handed him,
+and it had been agreed that a verbal intimation from either would
+suffice to terminate the compact between them. There was also no reason
+why he should do anything that would prejudice him if he entered
+Devine's service, and a very faint hope commenced to dawn on him that
+there might be a way out of the difficulty. Devine appeared to be a
+reasonable man, and he determined to at least give him an opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>"It is probably an unusual course under the circumstances, but before I
+decide I would like to ask a question," he said. "We will suppose that
+you or one of your agents had sold a man who did not know what he was
+buying a tract of worthless land, and he demanded compensation. What
+would you do?"</p>
+
+<p>"The man would naturally look at the land and use his discretion."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll assume that he didn't. Men who come into this country at a time
+when everybody is eager to buy now and then most unwisely take a
+land-agent's statements for granted. Even if they surveyed the property
+offered them they would not very often be able to form any opinion of
+its value."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>"Then," said Devine, drily, "they take their chances, and can't blame
+the other man."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, if the buyer convinced you that your agent knew the land was
+worth nothing when he sold it him?"</p>
+
+<p>Devine glanced at him sharply. "That would be a little difficult, but
+I'll answer you. I've been stuck with a good many bad bargains in my
+time, and I never went back and tried to cry off one of them. No, sir. I
+took hold and worried the most I could out of them. Nobody quite knows
+what a piece of land in this country is or will be worth, except that
+it's quite certain every rod of it is going to be some use for
+something, and bring in dollars to the man who holds on to it,
+presently."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you would not make the victim any compensation?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. Not a cent. I shouldn't consider him a victim. That's quite
+straight?"</p>
+
+<p>"I scarcely think anybody would consider it ambiguous," Brooke said,
+drily, for he felt his face grow warm, and realized that it was not
+advisable to give the anger that was gaining on him the rein. "It
+demands an equal candor, and I have given you one of my reasons for
+deciding that it would not suit me to enter your service. I can't help
+wondering what induced you to make me the offer."</p>
+
+<p>Devine laughed. "Well," he said, reflectively, "so am I. I had, as I
+told you, a notion that I might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> have a use for a man of the kind you
+seem to be, but I'm not quite so sure of it now. Though I don't know
+that I'm especially thin in the skin, some of the questions you seem
+fond of asking might make trouble between you and me. For another thing,
+on thinking it over afterwards, it struck me that the team might have
+tilted that wagon off the bridge this afternoon. I'm not sure that they
+would have done, but you came along handy."</p>
+
+<p>He rose with a little sardonic smile and went into the hotel, leaving
+Brooke sitting on the verandah and staring at the dusky forest vacantly,
+for his thoughts were not exactly pleasant just then. He had been
+offered a chance Saxton, at least, would have eagerly seized upon, and
+it was becoming evident that there was little of the stuff successful
+conspirators are made of in him. He could not ignore the fact that it
+was a conspiracy they were engaged in, for he meant to get his six
+thousand dollars back, and found it especially galling to remember that
+it was a kindness Devine had purposed doing him.</p>
+
+<p>He had also misgivings as to what his confederate&mdash;for that was, he
+recognized, the most fitting term he could apply to Saxton&mdash;would have
+to say about his decision, and after all it was evident that he owed him
+a little. Once more he fumed at his folly in ever buying the ranch, for
+all his difficulties sprang from that mistake, and he felt he could not
+face the result of it and drag out his days cut off<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> from all that made
+life bearable, a mere wielder of axe and shovel, without a struggle,
+even though it left a mark on him which could never be quite effaced.</p>
+
+<p>The freighter came in early next morning with the drills, and Brooke,
+who hired pack-horses, set off with them, but as he drove the loaded
+beasts out of the clearing he saw Devine watching him from the verandah,
+with a little smile. He made a salutation, and Brooke, for no apparent
+reason, jerked the leading pack-horse's bridle somewhat viciously. It
+was a long journey to the mine, and there were several difficult ascents
+upon the way, but he reached it safely, and found Saxton expecting him
+impatiently. They spent an hour or two getting the drills to work, and
+then sat down to a meal in the galvanized shanty.</p>
+
+<p>Saxton was damp and stained with soil, his long boots were miry, and one
+of his hands was bleeding, but he laughed a little as he glanced at the
+heavy, doughy bread and untempting canned stuff on the table and round
+the comfortless room.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess I don't get my dollars easily," he said. "There are quite a few
+ways of making them, but the one the sensible man has the least use for
+is with the hammer and drill. Still, I'm going back to the city, and
+we'll try another one presently. You'll stay here about a week, and then
+there'll be work for you. I've heard of something while you were away."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>"So have I!" said Brooke. "I met Devine, and he gave me an opportunity
+of entering his service."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton became suddenly eager. "You took it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Brooke, drily, "I did not. I had one or two reasons for not
+doing so, though I feel it is very probable that you would not
+appreciate them."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton stared at him in astonishment, and then made a little gesture of
+resignation. "Well," he said, "I guess I wouldn't&mdash;after what I've seen
+of you. Still, can't you understand what kind of chance you've thrown
+away? I might have made 'most anything out of the pointers you could
+have picked up and given me."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled drily. "I don't think you could," he said. "As a matter of
+fact, I wouldn't have given you any."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton turned towards him resolutely, with his elbows planted on the
+table and his black eyes intent. "Now," he said, "I want a straight
+answer. Are you going back on your bargain?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. If I had meant to do that, I should naturally have taken Devine's
+offer. As I have told you a good many times already, I am going to get
+my six thousand dollars out of him. That is, of course, if we can manage
+it, about which I am more than a little doubtful."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton laughed contemptuously. "You would never get six dollars out of
+anybody who wasn't quite willing to let you have them," he said. "A
+strug<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>gling man has no use for the notions you seem proud of."</p>
+
+<p>"I really can't help having them," said Brooke, with a little smile.</p>
+
+<p>Saxton shook his head. "Well," he said, "it's fortunate you're not going
+to be left to yourself, or somebody would take the clothes off you. Now,
+I've heard from a friend of mine, who has a contract to build the
+Canopus folks a flume. It seems they want more water, and it's Devine's
+mine."</p>
+
+<p>"How is that going to help us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Since Leeson made that contract, he got the offer of another that would
+pay him better, and he's willing to pass it on at Devine's figure to any
+one who will take it off his hands. Now, I'll find you a man or two and
+tools, and when they're ready, you'll start right away for the Canopus
+and build that flume."</p>
+
+<p>"The difficulty is that I haven't the least notion how to build a
+flume."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton made a little impatient gesture. "Then I guess you have got to
+learn, and there are plenty of men to be hired in the bush who do. You
+know how to rough down redwood logs and blow out rocks?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke admitted that he did, and Saxton nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Then the thing's quite easy," he said. "You look at the one they've got
+already, and make another like it. Haven't you found out yet that a man
+can do 'most anything that another one can?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Brooke, "I'll try it, but that brings<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> us to the question,
+what else do you expect from me? It is very probable that I shall make
+an unfortunate mistake for both of us, if you leave me in the dark. I
+want to understand the position."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton explained it at length, and Brooke leaned back in his chair,
+glancing abstractedly through the open door as he listened, for his mind
+took in the details mechanically, while his thoughts were otherwise
+busy. He saw the dusky forest he had toiled and lost hope in, and then,
+turning his head a trifle, the comfortless dingy room and Saxton's
+intent face and eager eyes. He was speaking with little nervous
+gestures, vehemently, and all the sensibility that the struggle had left
+in Brooke shrank from the sordidness of the compact he had made with
+him. The fact that his confederate apparently considered their purpose
+perfectly legitimate and even commendable, intensified the disgust he
+felt, but once more he told himself that he could not afford to be
+particular. There was, it seemed, a price to everything, and if he was
+ever to regain his status he must let no more opportunities slip past
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Still the memory of the old house in the English valley, and a certain
+silver-haired lady who had long ago paced the velvet lawns that swept
+about it with her white hand upon his shoulder, returned to trouble him.
+She had endeavored to instil the fine sense of honor that guided her own
+life into him, and he re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>membered her wholesome pride and the stories
+she had told him of the men who had gone forth from that quiet home
+before him. Most of them had served their nation well, even those who
+had hewn down the ancient oaks and mortgaged the wheat-land in the
+reckless Georgian days, and now, when the white-haired lady slept in the
+still valley, he was about to sell the honor she had held priceless for
+six thousand dollars in Western Canada. Nevertheless, he strove to
+persuade himself that the times had changed and the old codes vanished,
+and sat still listening while Saxton, stained with soil and water from
+the mine, talked on, and gesticulated with a bleeding hand. He touched
+upon frontages, ore-leads, record and patents from the Crown, and then
+stopped abruptly, and looked hard at Brooke.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I think you've got it all," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Brooke, whose face had grown a trifle grim, "I fancy I have.
+I am to find out, if I can, how far the third drift runs west, and when
+the driving of it began. Then one of us will stake off a claim on
+Devine's holding and endeavor, with the support of the other, to hold
+his own in as tough a struggle as was probably ever undertaken by two
+men in our position. You see I have met Devine."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton laughed. "I guess he's not going to give us very much trouble.
+He'll buy us off instead, once we make it plain that we have got the
+whip hand of him. Your share's six thousand dollars, and if you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> lay
+them out as I tell you, you'll go back to England a prosperous man."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled a trifle drily. "I hope so," he said. "Still, I shall have
+left more than I could buy with a great many dollars behind me in
+Canada."</p>
+
+<p>"Dollars will buy you anything," said Saxton. "That is, when you have
+enough of them. They're going to buy me a seat in the Provincial
+Legislature by and by. Then I'll let the business slide, and start in
+doing something for the other folks. We've got 'most everything but men
+here, and I'll bring out your starving deadbeats from England and make
+them happy&mdash;like Strathcona."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke looked hard at him, and then leaned back in his chair, and
+laughed when he saw that he was perfectly serious.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>X.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">THE FLUME BUILDER.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>It was a hot afternoon, and a long trail of ethereal mist lay motionless
+athwart the gleaming snow above, when Brooke stood dripping with
+perspiration in the shadow of a towering pine. The red dust was thick
+upon him, and his coarse blue shirt, which was badly torn, fell open at
+the neck as he turned his head and looked down fixedly into the winding
+valley. A lake flashed like a mirror among the trees below, save where
+the slumbering shadows pointed downwards into its crystal depths, but
+the strip of hillside the forest had been hewn back from was scarred and
+torn with raw gashes, and the dull thumping of the stamp-heads that
+crushed the gold-bearing quartz jarred discordantly through the song of
+the river. Mounds of d&eacute;bris, fire-blackened fir stumps, and piles of
+half-burnt branches cumbered the little clearing, round which the
+towering redwoods uplifted their stately spires, and the acrid fumes of
+smoke and giant powder drifted through their drowsy fragrance.</p>
+
+<p>The blotch of man's crude handiwork marred the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> pristine beauty of the
+wilderness; but it had its significance, and pointed to what was to come
+when the plough had followed the axe and drill, and cornfields and
+orchards should creep up the hillsides where now the solemn pines looked
+down upon the desecrated valley. Brooke, however, was very naturally not
+concerned with this just then. He was engaged in building a flume, or
+wooden conduit to bring down water to the mine, and was intently
+watching two little trails of faint blue smoke with a thin red sparkle
+in the midst of them which crept up a dark rock's side.</p>
+
+<p>He had no interest whatever in the task when he undertook it, but a
+somewhat astonishing and unexpected thing had happened, for by degrees
+the work took hold of him. He was not by nature a lounger, and was
+endued with a certain pertinacity, which had, however, only led him into
+difficulties hitherto, or he would probably never have come out to
+Canada. Thus it came about that when he found the building of the flume
+taxed all his ingenuity, as well as his physical strength, he became
+sensible of a wholly unanticipated pleasure in the necessary effort, and
+had almost forgotten the purpose which brought him there.</p>
+
+<p>"How long did you cut those fuses to burn?" he said to Jimmy, who,
+though by no means fond of physical exertion, had come up to assist him
+from the ranch.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>The latter glanced at the two trails of smoke, which a handful of men,
+snugly ensconced behind convenient trees, were also watching.</p>
+
+<p>"I guessed it at four minutes," he said. "They're 'bout half-way through
+now. Still, I can't see nothing of the third one."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Brooke. "Nor can I. That loosely-spun kind snuffs out
+occasionally. Quite sure they're not more than half-way through?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Jimmy, reflectively. "I'd give them 'most two minutes yet.
+Hallo! What in the name of thunder are you going to do?"</p>
+
+<p>It was not an unnatural question, because when those creeping trains of
+sparks reached the detonators the rock would be reft asunder by giant
+powder and a shower of ponderous fragments and flying d&eacute;bris hurled
+across the valley, while Brooke, who swung round abruptly, bounded down
+the slope.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy stared at him in wonder, and then set off without reflection in
+chase of him. He was not addicted to hurrying himself when it was not
+necessary, but he ran well that day, with the vague intention of
+dragging back his comrade, whose senses, he fancied, had suddenly
+deserted him. The men behind the trees were evidently under the same
+impression, for confused cries went up.</p>
+
+<p>"Go back! Stop right there! Catch him, Jimmy; trip him up!"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy did his best, but he was slouching and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> loose of limb, while
+Brooke was light of foot and young. He was also running his hardest,
+with grim face and set lips, straight for the rock, and was scrambling
+across the d&eacute;bris beneath it, which rolled down at every step, when
+Jimmy reached up and caught his leg. He said nothing, but when Brooke
+slid backwards, grabbed his jacket, which tore up the back; and there
+was a shout from the men behind the trees, two of whom came running
+towards the pair.</p>
+
+<p>"Pull him down! No, let go of him, and tear the fuses out!"</p>
+
+<p>Nobody saw exactly what took place next, and neither Brooke nor Jimmy
+afterwards remembered; but in another moment the latter sat gasping
+among the d&eacute;bris, while his comrade clambered up the slope alone. It
+also happened, though everybody was too intent to notice this, that a
+girl, with brown eyes and a big white hat, who had been strolling
+through the shadow of the pines on the ridge above, stopped abruptly
+just then. She could see the trail of sparks creep across the stone, and
+understood the position, which the shouts of the miners would have made
+plain to her if she had not. She could not see the man's face, though
+she realized that he was in imminent peril, and felt her heart throb
+painfully. Then, in common with the rest of those who watched him, she
+had a second astonishment, for he did not pull<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> out the burning fuses,
+but crawled past them, and bent over something with a lighted match in
+his hand.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke in the meanwhile set his lips as the match went out, and struck
+another, while a heavy silence followed the shouts. The men, who grasped
+his purpose, now realized that interference would come too late, and
+those who had started from them went back to the trees. There only
+remained Brooke, clinging with one hand to a cranny of the rock while he
+held the match, whose diminutive flame showed pale in the blaze of
+sunlight, and Jimmy, rising apparently half-dazed from among the d&eacute;bris.
+The girl in the white hat afterwards recalled that picture, and could
+see the two lonely men, blurred figures in the shadows, and clustering
+pines. When that happened, she also felt a curious little thrill which
+was half-horror and half-appreciation.</p>
+
+<p>Then the third fuse sparkled, and Brooke sprang down, grasped Jimmy's
+shoulder, and drove him before him. There was a fresh shouting, and now
+every one could see two men running for their lives for the shelter of
+the pines. It seemed a very long while before they reached them, and all
+the time three blue trails of smoke and sparkling lines of fire were
+creeping with remorseless certainty up the slope of stone. The girl upon
+the ridge above closed her hands tightly to check a scream, and bronzed
+men, who had braved a good many perils in their time, set their lips or
+murmured incoherently.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>In the meanwhile the two men were running well, with drawn faces,
+staring eyes, and the perspiration dripping from them, and there was a
+hoarse murmur of relief when at last they flung themselves into the
+shadow of the pines. It was followed by a stunning detonation, and a
+blaze of yellow flame, while the hillside trembled when the smoke rolled
+down. Flying fragments of rock came out of it, there was a roar of
+falling stones, a crashing in the forest where great boughs snapped, and
+the lake boiled as though torn up by cannon shot. Then a curious silence
+followed, intensified by an occasional splash and rattle as a stone
+which had travelled farther than the rest came down, and the girl in the
+white hat retired hastily as the fumes of giant powder, which produce
+dizziness and nausea, drifted up the hillside.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke sat down on a felled log, Jimmy leaned against a tree, and while
+the men clustered round them they looked at one another, and gasped
+heavily.</p>
+
+<p>"I figured you'd be blown into very little pieces less than a minute
+ago," said one of those who stood by. "What did you do it for, anyway?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke blinked at the questioner. "Third fuse snuffed out," he said. "It
+would have spoiled the shot. I cut it to match the others, and lighted
+it."</p>
+
+<p>This was comprehensible, for to rend a piece of rock effectively, it is
+occasionally necessary to apply the riving force at several places at
+the same time.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>"Still, you could have pulled the other fuses out and put new ones back.
+It would have been considerably less risky," said another man.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laughed breathlessly. "It certainly would, but I never thought of
+that," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Then Jimmy broke in. "What made me sit down like I did?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"It was probably the same thing that tore my jacket half-way up the
+back."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Jimmy, "there's a big lump there didn't use to be on the
+side of my head, too, and it was the concernedest hardest kind of rock I
+sat down upon. Next time you try to blow yourself up, I'm not going
+after you."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke glanced at him quietly, with a curious look in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"What made you come at all?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>Jim appeared to reflect. "I've done quite a lot of foolish things
+before&mdash;and I don't quite know."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke only smiled, but a little flush crept into Jimmy's face, for men
+do not express their sentiments dramatically in that country, that is,
+unless they are connected with mineral speculations or the selling of
+land.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course!" he said. "I fancy I shall remember it."</p>
+
+<p>They turned away together to inspect the result of the shot, and one of
+the miners who looked after them nodded approval. "When that man takes
+hold of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> anything he puts it through 'most every time," he said.
+"There's good hard sand in him."</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile Jimmy glanced at his comrade, apparently with an entire
+absence of interest, out of half-closed eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess you were too busy to see a friend of yours a little while ago?"
+he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I expect I was," said Brooke. "Anyway, nobody I'm acquainted with is
+likely to be met with in this part of the province, unless it was
+Saxton."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Jimmy, "it wasn't him. Saxton doesn't go trailing round in a
+big white hat and a four-decker skirt with a long tail to it."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke turned a trifle sharply, and glanced at him. "You mean Miss
+Heathcote?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Jimmy, reflectively, "if it's the one that was Barbara last
+time, I guess I do. You have been finding out the rest of it since you
+met her at the ranch? She was up yonder ten minutes ago."</p>
+
+<p>He pointed to a forest-covered ridge above the mine, but Brooke, looking
+up with all his eyes, saw nothing but the serried ranks of climbing
+pines. As it happened, however, the girl, who stood amidst their
+shadows, saw him, and smiled. She had noticed Jimmy's pointing hand, and
+fancied she knew what his companion was looking for.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you are certainly mistaken," he said. "There is nowhere she could
+be staying at within several leagues of the Canopus."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>"There's the Englishman's old ranch house Devine bought. It's quite a
+good one."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke started a little, and Jimmy, who was much quicker of wit than
+some folks believed, noticed it.</p>
+
+<p>"She certainly couldn't be staying there. It's quite out of the
+question," he said, with an assurance that was chiefly intended to
+convince himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Jimmy, who appeared to ruminate, "I guess you know best.
+Still, I can't think of any other place, unless she's living in a cave."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke said nothing further, but signed to the men who were waiting, and
+proceeded to roll the shattered rock out of the course of his flume. He
+felt it was certain that Jimmy was mistaken, for the only other
+conclusion appeared preposterous, and he could not persuade himself to
+consider it. Still, he thought of the girl with the brown eyes often
+while he swung axe and hammer during the rest of the afternoon, and when
+he strolled up the hillside after the six o'clock supper he was thinking
+of her still. He climbed until the raw gap of the workings was lost
+among the pines, and then lay down.</p>
+
+<p>The evening was still and cool, for the chill of the snow made itself
+felt once the sunlight faded from the valley. Now and then a sound came
+up faintly from the mine, but that was not often, and a great quietness
+reigned among the pines, which towered above him, two hundred feet to
+their topmost sprays, in serried ranks. They were old long before the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>
+white man first entered that wild mountain land, while, as he lay there
+in the scented dimness among their wide-girthed trunks, all that
+concerned the Canopus and its pounding stamp-heads slipped away from
+him. He was worn out in body, but his mind was clear and free, and,
+lying still, unlighted pipe in hand, he gave his fancy the rein, and,
+forgetting Devine and the flume, dreamed of what had once been his, and
+might, if he could make his purpose good, be his again.</p>
+
+<p>The sordid details of the struggle he had embarked upon faded from his
+memory, for the cold silence of the mountains seemed to banish them. It
+gave him courage and tranquillity, and, for the time at least, nothing
+seemed unattainable, while through all his wandering fancies moved a
+vision of a girl in a long white dress, who looked down upon him
+fearlessly from a plunging pony's back. That was the recollection he
+cherished most, though he had also seen her with diamonds gleaming in
+her dusky hair in the Vancouver opera-house.</p>
+
+<p>Then he started, and a little thrill ran through him as he wondered
+whether it was a trick his eyes had played him or he saw her in the
+flesh. She stood close beside him, with a grey cedar trunk behind her,
+in a long trailing dress, but the white hat was in her hand now, and the
+little shapely head bared to the cooling touch of the dew. Still, she
+had materialized so silently out of the shadows that he almost felt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>
+afraid to move lest she should melt into them again, and he lay very
+still, watching her until she glanced at him. Then he sprang, awkwardly,
+to his feet, with a little smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I would scarcely venture to tell you what I thought you were, but it is
+in one respect consoling to find you real," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" said the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Because you are not likely to vanish again. You must remember that I
+first saw you clothed in white samite, with the moon behind your
+shoulder, in the river."</p>
+
+<p>The girl laughed. "I wonder if you know what white samite is?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't," said Brooke, reflectively. "I never did, but it seems to go
+with water lapping on the rocks and mystery. Still, you&mdash;are&mdash;material,
+fortunately."</p>
+
+<p>"Very," said Barbara. "Besides, I certainly did not bring you a sword."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke appeared to consider. "One can never be quite certain of
+anything&mdash;especially in British Columbia. But how did you come here?"</p>
+
+<p>The girl favored him with a comprehensive glance, which Brooke felt took
+in his well-worn jean, coarse blue shirt, badly-rent jacket, and
+shapeless hat.</p>
+
+<p>"I was about to ask you the same thing. It was in Vancouver I saw you
+last," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"I came here on a very wicked pack-horse&mdash;one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> that kicked, and on two
+occasions came very near falling down a gorge with me. I am now building
+a flume for the Canopus mine&mdash;if you know what that is."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara laughed. "I fancy I know rather more about flumes than you did a
+little while ago. At least, I have reason to believe so, from what a
+mining foreman told me this afternoon. He, however, expressed
+unqualified approval, as well as a little astonishment, at the progress
+you had made. You see, I happened to observe what took place before the
+shot was fired a few hours ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you witnessed an entirely unwarranted piece of folly."</p>
+
+<p>A curious little gleam crept into Barbara's eyes, but she smiled. "You
+could have cut those fuses, and relighted them afterwards, but, since
+you did not remember it, I don't think that counts. What made you take
+the risk?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Brooke, reflectively, "after worrying over the probable
+line of cleavage of that troublesome rock, it seemed to me that if I
+wished to split it, I must explode three charges of giant powder in
+certain places simultaneously. Now, if you examine what you might call
+the texture of a rock, though, of course, a really crystalline body&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Barbara made a little gesture of impatience. "That is not in the least
+what I mean&mdash;as I fancy you are quite aware."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>"Then," said Brooke, with a faint twinkle in his eyes, "I'm afraid I
+don't quite understand the moral causes of the proceeding myself, though
+I have heard my comrade describe one quality which may have had
+something to do with it as mulishness. It was, of course, reprehensible
+of me to be led away by it, especially as when I took the contract I
+really didn't care if the flume was never built."</p>
+
+<p>"And now you mean to finish it if it ruins you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Brooke, "I really don't think I do. In fact, I hope to make a
+good many dollars out of it, directly or indirectly."</p>
+
+<p>He had spoken without reflection, and was sensible of a most unpleasant
+embarrassment when the girl glanced at him sharply, which she did not
+fail to notice.</p>
+
+<p>"Building flumes is evidently more profitable than I thought it was,"
+she said. "Still, you will no doubt make most of those
+dollars&mdash;indirectly?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke decided that it was advisable to change the subject. "I have," he
+said, "answered&mdash;your&mdash;question."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I will do the same. I came here, because one can see the sunset on
+the snow from this ridge, most prosaically on my feet."</p>
+
+<p>"But from where?" and Brooke's voice was almost sharp.</p>
+
+<p>"From the old ranch house in the valley, of course!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>Brooke made an effort to retain his serenity, but his face grew a trifle
+grim, and he looked at the girl curiously, with his lips tight set. Then
+he made a little gesture.</p>
+
+<p>"But that is where Devine lives when he comes here. It's preposterous!"
+he said.</p>
+
+<p>Barbara felt astonished, though she was very reposeful. "I really don't
+see why it should be. Mrs. Devine is there. We have to entertain a good
+deal in the city, and are glad to get away to the mountains for
+quietness occasionally."</p>
+
+<p>"But what connection can you possibly have with Mrs. Devine?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am," said Barbara, quietly, "merely her sister. I have always lived
+with her."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke positively gasped. "And you never told me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why should I? You never asked me, and I fancied everybody knew."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke stood silent a moment, with the fingers of one hand closed, and
+the blood in his face, then he turned, as the girl moved, and they went
+back along the little rough rail together.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, I can think of no reason," he said, quietly. "Still, the
+news astonished me."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara glanced away from him. There was only one way in which she could
+account for his evident concern at what she had told him, and the
+deduction<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> she made was not altogether unpleasant to her, though, as it
+happened, it was not the correct one. The man was, as he had told her,
+without friends or dollars, but she knew that men with his capacities do
+not always remain poor in that country, and there were qualities which
+had gained her appreciation in him, while it had not dawned on her that
+there might also be others which could only meet with her
+disapprobation.</p>
+
+<p>"If you had called at the address I gave you in Vancouver, you would
+have known exactly who I was, but there is now nothing to prevent you
+coming to the ranch," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke glanced down somewhat grimly at his hard, scarred hands and his
+clothes, and a faint flush crept into the girl's face.</p>
+
+<p>"Have I to remind you again that you are not in the English valley?" she
+said. "Mr. Devine, at least, is rather proud of the fact that he once
+earned his living with the shovel and the drill."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not sure that the one you imagine is my only reason for feeling a
+trifle diffident about presenting myself at Mr. Devine's house," said
+Brooke, very slowly.</p>
+
+<p>Barbara looked at him with a little imperious smile. "I did not ask you
+for any at all. I merely suggested that if you wished to come we should
+be pleased to see you at the ranch."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>Brooke made her a little inclination, and said nothing, until, when
+another white-clad figure appeared among the pines, the girl turned to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"That is Mrs. Devine," she said. "Shall I present you?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke stopped abruptly, with, as the girl noticed once more, a very
+curious expression in his face. He meant to use whatever means were
+available against Devine, but he could not profit by a woman's kindness
+to creep into his adversary's house.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said, almost harshly. "Not to-night. It would be a
+pleasure&mdash;another time."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara looked at him with big, grave eyes, and the faintest suggestion
+of color in her cheek. "Very well," she said. "I need not detain you."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke swung round, and as Mrs. Devine strolled towards them, retired
+almost precipitately into the shadow of the pines, while, when he
+stopped again, with a curious little laugh, he was distinctly flushed in
+face.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>XI.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">AN EMBARRASSING POSITION.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The wooden conduit which sprang across a gorge just there on a slender
+trestle was full to the brim, and Brooke, who leaned on his long hammer
+shaft, watched the crystal water swirl by with a satisfaction which was
+distinctly new to him, while the roar it made as it plunged down into
+the valley from the end of the uncompleted flume came throbbing across
+the pines. Though it was a very crude piece of engineering, that trestle
+had cost him hours of anxious thought and days of strenuous labor, and
+now, standing above it, very wet and somewhat ragged, with hands as hard
+as a navvy's, he surveyed it with a pride which was scarcely warranted
+by its appearance. It was, however, the creation of his hands and brain,
+and evidently capable of doing its work effectively.</p>
+
+<p>Then he smiled somewhat curiously as he remembered with what purpose he
+had taken over the contract to build the flume from its original holder,
+and, turning abruptly away, walked along it until he stopped where the
+torrent that fed it swirled round<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> a pool. The latter had rapidly
+lowered its level since the big sluice was opened, and he stood looking
+at it intently while a project, which involved a fresh struggle with
+hard rock and forest, dawned upon him. He had gained his first
+practically useful triumph over savage Nature, and it had filled him
+with a desire he had never supposed himself capable of for a renewal of
+the conflict. A little sparkle came into his eyes, and he stood with
+head flung back a trifle and his corded arms uncovered to the elbow,
+busy with rough calculations, and once more oblivious of the fact that
+he was only there to play his part in a conspiracy, until a man with
+grey in his hair came out of the shadow of the pines.</p>
+
+<p>"I came up along the flume and she's wasting very little water," he
+said. "Not a trickle from the trestle! It would 'most carry a wagon. You
+must have spent quite a pile of dollars over it."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled a trifle drily, for that was a point he had overlooked
+until the cost had been sharply impressed upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I did, Mr. Devine," he said. "Still, I couldn't see how to
+get the work done more cheaply without taking the risk of the flume
+settling a little by and by. That would, of course, have started it
+leaking. What do you think of it?"</p>
+
+<p>Devine smiled as he noticed his eagerness. "It seems to me that risk
+would have been mine," he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> said. "I've seen neater work, but not very
+much that looked like lasting longer. Who gave you the plan of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody," said Brooke, with a trace of the pride he could not quite
+repress. "I worried it out myself. You see, I once or twice gave the
+carpenters a hand at stiffening the railroad trestles."</p>
+
+<p>Devine nodded, and flashed a keen glance at him as he said, "What are
+you looking at that pool for?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke stood silent a moment or two. "Well," he said, diffidently, "it
+occurred to me that when there was frost on the high peaks you might
+have some difficulty in getting enough water to feed the flume. You can
+see how the pool has run down already. Now, with a hundred tons or so of
+rock and d&eacute;bris and a log framing, one could contrive a very workable
+dam. It would ensure you a full supply and equalize the pressure."</p>
+
+<p>"You feel equal to putting the thing through?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would at least very much like to try."</p>
+
+<p>Devine regarded him thoughtfully. "Then you can let me have your
+notions."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke unfolded his crude scheme, and the other man watched him keenly
+until he said, "If that meets with your approbation I could start two of
+my men getting out the logs almost immediately."</p>
+
+<p>Devine smiled. "Has it struck you that there is a point you have
+forgotten?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>"It is quite possible there are a good many."</p>
+
+<p>"You can't think of one that's important in particular?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Brooke, reflectively, "not just now."</p>
+
+<p>A little sardonic twinkle crept into Devine's eyes. "Well," he said,
+"before I took hold of any contract of that kind I would like to know
+just how much I was going to make on it, and what it would cost me."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke looked at him and laughed. "Of course!" he said. "Still, I never
+thought of it until this moment."</p>
+
+<p>"It's quite clear you weren't raised in Canada," said Devine. "You can
+worry out the thing during the afternoon and bring along any rough plan
+you'd like to show me to the ranch this evening. That's fixed? Then
+there's another thing. Has anybody tried to stop you getting out
+lumber?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Brooke. "I met two men who appeared to be timber-right
+prospectors more than once, but they made no difficulty."</p>
+
+<p>Devine, who seemed a trifle astonished, looked at him curiously before
+he turned away. "Then," he said drily, "you are more fortunate than I
+am."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke went back to his work, and supper had been cleared away in his
+double tent when he completed his simple toilet, which had commenced
+with a plunge into a whirling pool of the snow-fed river, preparatory to
+his visit to the ranch. Jimmy, who had assisted in it, stood surveying
+him complacently.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>"Now," he said, with a nod of approbation, "I guess you'll do when I've
+run a few stitches up the back of you. Stand quite still while I get the
+tent needle."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke glanced at the implement he produced somewhat dubiously, for it
+was of considerable thickness and several inches long.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose," he said, resignedly, "you haven't got a smaller one?"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy shook his head. "I guess I wouldn't trust it if I had," he said.
+"I want to fix that darn up good and strong so it will do you credit.
+There are two women at the ranch, and it's quite likely they'll come in
+and talk to you."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke made no further protest, but he smiled somewhat curiously as
+Jimmy stitched away. His work was not remarkable for neatness, and
+Brooke remembered that the two women at the ranch were fresh from the
+cities, where men do not mend their clothes with pieces of tents or
+cotton flour bags. Then he decided that, after all, it did not matter
+what they thought of him. One would probably set him down as a rude bush
+chopper, and the other, whose good opinion he would have valued under
+different circumstances, was a kinswoman of his adversary. Sooner or
+later she would know him for what he was, and then it was clear she
+would only have contempt for him. That she of all women should be Mrs.
+Devine's sister was, he reflected with a sense of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> impotent anger, one
+of the grim jests that Fate seemed to delight in playing.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said Jimmy, breaking off his thread at last, "I guess you might
+go 'most anywhere if you stand with your face to the folks who talk to
+you, and don't sit down too suddenly. Be cautious how you get up again
+if you hear those stitches tearing through."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke went out, and discovered that Jimmy had, no doubt as a
+precautionary measure, sewn several of his garments together as he
+walked through the shadowy bush towards the ranch. Devine, to whom the
+scheme suggested had commended itself, was, as it happened, already
+waiting him in a big log walled room. He sat by the open window, which
+looked across blue lake and climbing pines towards the great white
+ramparts of unmelting snow that shut the valley in. The rest of the room
+was dim, and now the sun had gone, sweet resinous odors and an
+exhilarating coolness that stirred the blood like wine came in. Two
+women sat back in the shadow, and Devine moved a little in his chair as
+he answered one of them.</p>
+
+<p>"I know very little about the man, but I never saw more thorough work
+than he has put in on the flume," he said. "That's 'most enough
+guarantee for him, but there are one or two points about him I can't
+quite worry out the meaning of. For one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> thing, the timber-righters
+haven't stopped him chopping."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Devine looked thoughtful, for she was acquainted with the less
+pleasant aspect of mine-owning, but Barbara broke in.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a little difficult to understand what use timber-rights would be
+to anybody here," she said. "They could hardly get their lumber out, and
+there are very few people to sell it to if they put up a mill."</p>
+
+<p>"I expect they mean to sell it me," said Devine, a trifle grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"But you always cut what you wanted without asking anybody."</p>
+
+<p>"I did. Still, it seems scarcely likely that I'm going to do it again.
+If anyone has located timber-rights&mdash;which he'd get for 'most nothing on
+a patent from the Crown&mdash;he has never worried about them until the
+Canopus began to pay. Of course, one has to put in timber as he takes
+out the ore, and it seems to have struck somebody that the men who
+started it on the Canopus had burnt off all the young firs they ought to
+have kept. That's why he bought those timber-rights up."</p>
+
+<p>"Still there are thousands of them nobody can ever use, and you must
+have timber," said Barbara.</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely!" said Devine. "That man figures that when I get it he's
+going to screw a big share of the profits in this mine out of me."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>A portentous sparkle crept into Barbara's eyes, while Mrs. Devine, who
+knew her husband best, watched him with a little smile.</p>
+
+<p>"But that is infamous extortion!" said the girl.</p>
+
+<p>Devine laughed. "Well," he said, "it's not going to be good business for
+the man who puts up the game, but I don't quite see why he didn't strike
+Brooke for a few dollars as well. Men of his kind are like ostriches.
+They take in 'most anything."</p>
+
+<p>He might have said more, but Brooke appeared in the doorway just then
+and stood still with, so Barbara fancied, a faint trace of disconcertion
+when he saw the women, until Devine turned to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Come right in," he said. "Barbara tells me she has met you, but you
+haven't seen Mrs. Devine. Mr. Brooke, who is building the new flume for
+me, Katty."</p>
+
+<p>There was no avoiding the introduction, nor could Brooke escape with an
+inclination as he wished to do, for the lady held out her hand to him.
+She was older and more matronly than Barbara, but otherwise very like
+her, and she had the same gracious serenity. Still, Brooke felt his
+cheeks burn beneath the bronze on them as he shook hands with her. It
+was one thing to wrest his dollars back from Devine, but, while he
+cherished that purpose, quite another to be graciously welcomed to his
+house.</p>
+
+<p>"We are very pleased to see any of Barbara's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> friends," she said. "You
+apparently hadn't an opportunity of calling upon us in Vancouver?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke glanced at Barbara, who was not exactly pleased with her sister
+just then, and met his gaze a trifle coldly. Still, he was sensible of a
+curious satisfaction, for it was evident that the girl who had been his
+comrade in the bush had not altogether forgotten him in the city.</p>
+
+<p>"I left the day after Miss Heathcote was kind enough to give me
+permission," he said.</p>
+
+<p>He felt that his response might have been amplified, but he was chiefly
+conscious of a desire to avoid any further civilities then, and because
+he was quite aware that Barbara was watching him quietly, it was a
+relief when Devine turned to him.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll get down to business," he said. "You brought a plan of the dam
+along?"</p>
+
+<p>He led the way to the little table at the window, and while Mrs. Devine
+went on with her sewing and Barbara took up a book again, Brooke
+unrolled the plan he had made with some difficulty. Then the men
+discussed it until Devine said, "You can start in when it pleases you,
+and my clerk will hand you the dollars as soon as you are through. How
+long do you figure it will take you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Three or four months," said Brooke, and looking up saw that the girl's
+eyes were fixed on him. She turned them away next moment, but he felt
+that she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> had heard him and they would be companions that long.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Devine, "it's quite likely we will be up here part, at
+least, of the time. Now you'll have to put on more men, and I haven't
+forgotten what you admitted the day I drove you in to the settlement.
+You'll want a good many dollars to pay them."</p>
+
+<p>"If you will give me a written contract, I dare say I can borrow them
+from a bank agent or mortgage broker on the strength of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," said Devine, drily. "It's quite likely you can, but he would
+charge you a percentage that's going to make a big hole in the profit."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I haven't any other means of getting the money."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Devine, "I rather think you have. In fact, I'll lend it you
+as the work goes on."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke felt distinctly uncomfortable and sat silent a moment, for this
+was the last thing he had desired or expected.</p>
+
+<p>"I have really no claim on you, sir," he said at length. "In this
+province payment is very seldom made until the work is done, and quite
+often not until a long while afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>Devine smiled drily. "I guess that is my business. Now is there any
+special reason you shouldn't borrow those dollars from me?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke felt that there was a very good one, but it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> was one he could not
+well make plain to Devine. He was troubled by an unpleasant sense of
+meanness already, and felt that it would be almost insufferable to have
+a kindness thrust upon him by his companion. He was, though he would not
+look at her, also sensible that Barbara Heathcote was watching him
+covertly, and decided that what he and Devine had said had been
+perfectly audible in the silent room.</p>
+
+<p>"I would, at least, prefer to grapple with the financial difficulty in
+my own way, sir," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Devine made a little gesture of indifference. "Then, if you should want
+a few dollars at any time you know where to come for them. Now, I guess
+we're through with the business and you can talk to Mrs. Devine&mdash;who has
+been there&mdash;about the Old Country."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke did so, and after the first few minutes, which were distinctly
+unpleasant to him, managed to forget the purpose which had brought him
+to the ranch. His hostess was quietly kind, and evidently a lady who had
+appreciated and was pleased to talk about what she had seen in England,
+which was, as it happened, a good deal. Brooke also knew how to listen,
+and now and then a curious little smile crept into his eyes as she
+dilated on scenes and functions which were very familiar to him. It was
+evident that she never for a moment supposed that the man who sat
+listening to her somewhat stiffly, from reasons connected with Jimmy's
+repairs to his clothes,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> could have taken a part in them, but he was
+once or twice almost embarrassed when Barbara, who seemed to take his
+comprehension for granted, broke in.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile a miner came for Devine, who went out with him, and by
+and by Mrs. Devine, making her household duties an excuse, also left the
+room. Then Barbara smiled a little as she turned to Brooke.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder," she said, quietly, "why you were so unwilling to meet my
+sister? There is really no reason why anybody should be afraid of her."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke was glad that the dimness which was creeping across the valley
+had deepened the shadow in the room, for he was not anxious that the
+girl should see his face just then.</p>
+
+<p>"You assume that I was unwilling?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"It was evident, though I am not quite sure that Mrs. Devine noticed
+it."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke saw that an answer was expected from him. "Well," he said, "Mrs.
+Devine is a lady of station, and I am, you see, merely the builder of
+one of her husband's flumes. One naturally does not care to presume, and
+it takes some little time to get accustomed to the fact that these
+little distinctions are not remembered in this country."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara laughed. "One could get accustomed to a good deal in three or
+four years. I scarcely think that was your reason."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" said Brooke.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>"Well," said the girl, reflectively, "the fact is that we do recognize
+the distinctions you allude to, though not to the same extent that you
+do; but it takes rather longer to acquire certain mannerisms and modes
+of expressing oneself than it does to learn the use of the axe and
+drill. To be more candid, any one can put on a flume-builder's clothes."</p>
+
+<p>"I fancy you are jumping at conclusions. There are hotel waiters in the
+Old Country who speak much better English than I do."</p>
+
+<p>"It is possible. I am, however, not quite sure that they would make good
+flume-builders. Still, we will let that pass, as well as one or two
+vague admissions you have previously made me. Why wouldn't you take the
+dollars you needed when Mr. Devine was perfectly willing to lend them to
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"It really isn't usual to make a stranger an advance of that kind," said
+Brooke, reflectively. "Besides, I might spend the dollars recklessly,
+and then break away and leave the work unfinished some day. Everybody is
+subject to occasional fits of restlessness here."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara laughed. "Pshaw!" she said. "You had a much better reason than
+that. Now I think we were what might be called good comrades in the
+bush?"</p>
+
+<p>Again Brooke felt a little thrill of pleasure. The girl sat where the
+dim light that still came in through the open window fell upon her, and
+she was very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> alluring with the faint smile, which was, nevertheless,
+curiously expressive, in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, almost grimly, "I had a better reason. I cannot tell you
+what it was, but it may become apparent presently."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara asked no more questions, and while she sat silent, Mrs. Devine
+came in with a little dainty silver set on a tray. Maids of any kind,
+and even Chinese house-boys, are scarce in that country, especially in
+the bush, and Brooke realized that it must have been with her own hands
+she had prepared the quite unusual meal. Supper is served at six or
+seven o'clock through most of Canada. Probably the stove was burning,
+and her task was but a light one, but once more Brooke was sensible of a
+most unpleasant embarrassment when she smiled at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Barbara and I got used to taking a cup of coffee in the evening when we
+were in England," she said. "Talking of the Old Country reminded me of
+it. Will you pour it out, Barbara?"</p>
+
+<p>Barbara did so, and Brooke's fingers closed more tightly than was
+necessary on the cup she handed to him, while the cracker he forced
+himself to eat came near choking him. This was absurd sentimentality, he
+told himself, but, for all that, he dared scarcely meet the eyes of the
+lady who had, he realized, prepared that meal out of compliment to him.
+It was a relief when it was over and he was able to take his leave, but,
+as it happened, he forgot the plan he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> laid down, and Barbara, who
+noticed it, overtook him in the log-hall. Devine had not come back yet.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall be here for some little time&mdash;in fact, until Mr. Devine has
+seen the new adit driven," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke understood that this was tantamount to a general invitation, and
+smiled, as she noticed, somewhat wryly.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid I shall scarcely venture to come back again," he said.
+"Mrs. Devine is very kind, but still, you see&mdash;it really wouldn't be
+fitting."</p>
+
+<p>Then he turned and vanished into the darkness outside, and Barbara went
+back to the lighted room with a curious look in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>XII.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">BROOKE IS CARRIED AWAY.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The flume was finished, and the dam already progressing well, when one
+morning Devine came out, somewhat grim in face, from the new adit he was
+driving at the Canopus. The captain of the mine also came with him, and
+stood still, evidently in a state of perplexity, when Devine looked at
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the latter, brusquely, "what are we going to do, Wilkins?"</p>
+
+<p>The captain blinked at the forest with eyes not yet accustomed to the
+change of light, as though in search of inspiration, which apparently
+did not come.</p>
+
+<p>"There's plenty timber yonder," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"There is," said Devine, drily. "Still, as we can't touch a log of it,
+it isn't much use to us. There is no doubt about the validity of the
+patent that fellow holds it under either, and it covers everything right
+back to the ca&ntilde;on. He doesn't seem disposed to make any terms with me."</p>
+
+<p>Wilkins appeared to reflect. "Hanging off for a bigger figure, but there
+are points I'm not quite clear about. Mackinder's not quite the man to
+play that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> game&mdash;I guess I know him well, and if it had been left to
+him, once he saw there were dollars in the thing, he'd have jumped right
+on to them and lit out for the cities to raise Cain with them. Now, I
+kind of wonder if there's a bigger man behind him."</p>
+
+<p>"That's my end of the business," said Devine, with a little grim smile.
+"I'll take care of it. There are men in the cities who would find any
+dead-beat dollars if he wanted them for a fling at me. The question
+is&mdash;What about the mine? You feel reasonably sure we're going to strike
+ore that will pay for the crushing at the end of that adit?"</p>
+
+<p>Wilkins glanced round at the forest, and then lowered his voice a
+trifle, though it was some distance off and there was nobody else about.</p>
+
+<p>"We have got to, sir&mdash;and it's there if it's anywhere," he said. "You
+have seen the yield on the lower workings going down until it's just
+about worth while to keep the stamps going, and though none of the boys
+seem to notice anything, there are signs that are tolerably clear to me
+that the pay dirt's running right out. Still, I guess the chances of
+striking it again rich on the different level are good enough for me to
+put 'most every dollar I have by me in on a share of the crushings. I
+can't say any more than that."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Devine, drily. "Anyway, I'm going on with the adit. But about
+the timber?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we will want no end of props, and that's a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> fact. It's quite a
+big contract to hold up the side of a mountain when you're working
+through soft stuff and crumbly rock, and the split-logs we've been
+worrying along with aren't going to be much use to us. We want round
+props, grown the size we're going to use, with the strength the tree was
+meant to have in them."</p>
+
+<p>Devine looked thoughtful. "Then I'll have to get you them. Say nothing
+to the boys, and see nobody who doesn't belong to the gang you have sent
+there puts his foot in any part of the mine. It is, of course, specially
+necessary to keep the result of the crushings quiet. I'm not telling you
+this without a reason."</p>
+
+<p>Wilkins went back into the adit, and Devine proceeded to flounder round
+the boundaries of the Englishman's abandoned ranch, which he had bought
+up for a few hundred dollars, chiefly because of the house on it. It
+consisted, for the most part, of a miry swamp, which the few prospectors
+who had once or twice spent the night with him said had broken the heart
+of the Englishman after a strenuous attempt to drain it, while the rest
+was rock outcrop, on which even the hardy conifers would not grow.
+Devine, who wet himself to the knees during his peregrination, had a
+survey plan with him, but he could see no means of extending his rights
+beyond the crumbling split-rail fence, and inside the latter there were
+no trees that appeared adapted for min<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>ing purposes. Willows straggled
+over the wetter places, and little, half-rotten pines stood tottering
+here and there in a tangled chaos a man could scarcely force his way
+through, but when he had wasted an hour or two, and was muddy all over,
+it became evident that he was scarcely likely to come upon a foot of
+timber that would be of any use to him. He had, of course, been told
+this, but he had on other occasions showed the men who pointed out
+insuperable difficulties to him that they were mistaken.</p>
+
+<p>Devine, however, was, as that fact would indicate, not the man to be
+readily turned aside. He wanted mine props, and meant to obtain them,
+and, though his face grew a trifle grimmer, he climbed the hillside to
+where Brooke was busy knee-deep in water at the dam. He signed to him,
+and then, taking out his cigar-case, sat down on a log and looked at the
+younger man.</p>
+
+<p>"Take one!" he said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke lighted a cigar, and sat down, with the water draining from him.
+"We'll have another tier of logs bolted on to the framing by to-morrow
+night," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Devine glanced at the dam indifferently. "You take kindly to this kind
+of thing?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled a little, for he had of late been almost astonished at his
+growing interest in his work. Of scientific engineering he knew nothing,
+though<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> he remembered that several relatives of his had made their mark
+at it, but every man who lives any time in the bush of the Pacific slope
+of necessity acquires some skill with axe and cross-cut saw, besides a
+working acquaintance with the principles of construction. Wooden houses,
+bridges, dams, must be built, and now and then a wagon road underpinned
+with redwood logs along the side of a precipice. He had done his share
+of such work, but he had, it seemed, of late become endued with a
+boldness of conception and clearness of insight into the best means of
+overcoming the difficulties to be faced, which had now and then
+astonished those who assisted him.</p>
+
+<p>"I really think I do, though I don't know why I should," he said. "I
+never undertook anything of the description in England."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I guess it must be in the family. Any of your folks doing well
+back there as mechanics?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled somewhat drily. As a matter of fact, a near kinsman of his
+had gained distinction in the Royal Engineers, and another's name was
+famous in connection with irrigation works in Egypt. He did not,
+however, feel it in any way incumbent on him to explain this to Devine.</p>
+
+<p>"I could not exactly say they are," he said. "Anyway, isn't it a little
+outside the question?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Devine, drily, "I don't quite know. What's born in a man
+will come out somehow,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> whether it's good for him or not. Now, I was
+thinking over another piece of work you might feel inclined to put
+through for me."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke became suddenly intent, and Devine noticed the little gleam in
+his eyes as he said, "If you can give me any particulars&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Come along," said Devine, a trifle grimly, "and I'll show you them.
+Then if you still feel willing to go into the thing we can worry out my
+notion."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke rose and followed him along the hillside, which was seamed with
+rock outcrop and thinly covered with brushwood, while the roar of water
+grew louder in his ears. When they had made a mile or so Devine stopped
+and looked about him.</p>
+
+<p>"It wouldn't cost too much to clear a ground-sled trail from here to the
+mine," he said. "A team of mules could haul a good many props in over it
+in a day."</p>
+
+<p>"But where are you going to get them from?" said Brooke.</p>
+
+<p>Devine smiled curiously. "Come along a little further, and I'll show
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Again Brooke went with him, wondering a little, for he knew that a ca&ntilde;on
+would cut off all further progress presently, until Devine stopped once
+more where the hillside fell sheer away beneath them.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," he said, quietly, "I guess we're there. You can see plenty young
+firs that would make mining props yonder."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>Brooke certainly could. The hillside in front of him rose, steep as a
+roof, to the ridge where the tufts of ragged pines were silhouetted in
+sombre outline against the gleaming snow behind. Streaked with drifting
+mist, they rolled upwards in serried ranks, and there was apparently
+timber enough for half the mines in the province. The difficulty,
+however, was the reaching it, for, between him and it, a green-stained
+torrent thundered through a tremendous gap, whose walls were worn smooth
+and polished for four hundred feet or so. Above that awful chasm rose
+bare and slippery slopes of rock, on which there was foothold for
+neither man nor beast, and only a stunted pine clung here and there in
+the crannies. What the total depth was he did not know, but he recoiled
+instinctively from the contemplation of it, and would have drawn back a
+yard or two only that Devine stood still, looking down into the gap with
+his usual grim smile.</p>
+
+<p>Still, it was a minute or two before he was sensible of more than a
+vague awe and a physical shrinking from that tremendous display of
+Nature's forces, and then, by degrees, his brain commenced to record the
+details of the scene. He saw the snow-fed river diminished by distance
+to a narrow green riband swirling round the pools, and frothing with a
+curious livid whiteness over reef and boulder far down in the dimness.
+The roar it made came up in long pulsations of sound, which were flung
+back by the climb<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>ing pines that seemed to tremble in unison with it.
+The rocks were hollowed a trifle at their bases, and arched above the
+river. It was, as a picture, awe-inspiring and sublime, but from a
+practical point of view an apparently insurmountable barrier between the
+owner of the Canopus mine and the timber he desired. Devine, however,
+knew better, for he was a man who had grappled with a good many
+apparently insuperable difficulties, and Brooke became sensible that he
+expected an expression of opinion from him.</p>
+
+<p>"The timber is certainly there, but I quite fail to see how it could be
+of the least use to anybody situated where we are," he said. "That ca&ntilde;on
+is, I should fancy, one of the deepest in the province."</p>
+
+<p>Devine nodded, but the little smile was still in his eyes, and he
+pointed to the one where, by crawling down the gully a torrent had
+fretted out, an agile man might reach a jutting crag a couple of hundred
+feet below.</p>
+
+<p>"The point is that it isn't very wide," he said. "It wouldn't take a
+great many fathoms of steel rope to reach across it."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke realized that, because the crag projected a little, this was
+correct; but as yet the suggestion conveyed no particular meaning to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said. "Still, it isn't very evident what use that would be."</p>
+
+<p>Devine laughed. "Now, if you had told me you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> knew anything about
+engineering, you would have given yourself away. Have you never heard of
+an aerial tramway? It's quite simple&mdash;a steel rope set up tight, a winch
+for hauling, and a trolley. With that working, and a skid-slide up the
+gully, one could send over the props we want without much difficulty. It
+would be cheaper than buying off the timber-righters."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke gasped as the daring simplicity of the scheme dawned on him. If
+one had nerve enough to undertake it the thing was perfectly feasible,
+and he turned to Devine with a glow in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"It could be done," he said. "Still, do you know anybody who would be
+willing to stretch that rope across?"</p>
+
+<p>Devine looked at him steadily, noticing the slight dilation of his
+nostrils and the intentness of his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, drily, "I was going to ask you."</p>
+
+<p>The blood surged into Brooke's forehead, and for the time he forgot his
+six thousand dollars and that the man who made the suggestion had
+plundered him of them. He had, during the course of his English
+education, shown signs of a certain originality and daring of thought
+which had slightly astonished those who taught him, and then had lounged
+three or four years away in the quiet valley, where originality of any
+kind was not looked upon with favor. The men and women he had been
+brought into contact with in London were also, for the most part, those
+who re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>garded everything from the accepted point of view, and his
+engagement to the girl his friends regarded with disapproval had, though
+he did not suspect this at the time, been in part, at least, a protest
+against the doctrine that no man of his station must do anything that
+was not outwardly befitting and convenient to it.</p>
+
+<p>The revolt had brought him disaster, as it usually does, but it had also
+thrust upon him the necessity of thinking for himself, though even
+during his two years' struggle on the worthless ranch he had not
+realized what qualities he was endued with, for it was not until he met
+Barbara Heathcote by the river that they were wholly stirred into
+activity. Then ambition, self-confidence, and lust of conflict with men
+and Nature asserted themselves, for it was, in point of fact, a sword
+she had brought him. Still, he was as yet a trifle inconsequent and
+precipitate in his activities, for at times the purpose which had sent
+him to the Canopus mine faded into insignificance, and he became
+oblivious to everything beyond the pleasure he found in the grapple with
+natural difficulties he was engaged in. Those who had known Brooke in
+England would have had little difficulty in recognizing him morally or
+physically as he stood, brawny and sinewy, in ragged jean, high above
+the thundering river.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I'll undertake it," he said, with a little vibration in his
+voice.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>Devine looked hard at him again. "Feel sure you can do it? You'll want
+good nerves."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I can," said Brooke, with a quietness the other man
+appreciated.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you can go down to the Mineral Development's new shaft, where they
+have one of those tramways working, and see how they swing their ore
+across the valley. I'll give you a line to the manager. Start when
+you're ready."</p>
+
+<p>Devine said nothing further as they turned back towards the mine, but
+Brooke felt that the bargain was already made. His companion was not the
+man to haggle over non-essentials, but one who knew what he wanted and
+usually went straight to the point. Brooke left him presently, and,
+turning off where the flume climbed to the dam, came upon Jimmy,
+tranquilly leaning upon his shovel while he watched the two or three men
+who toiled waist-deep in water.</p>
+
+<p>"I was kind of wondering whether she wouldn't be stiffer with another
+log or two in that framing?" he said, in explanation.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course!" said Brooke, drily. "It's more restful than shovelling.
+Still, that's my affair, and you'll have to rustle more and wonder less.
+I'm going to leave you in charge here."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy grinned. "Then I guess the way that dam will grow will astonish
+you when you come back again. Where're you going to?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>Brooke told him, and Jimmy contemplated the forest reflectively.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, "nobody who saw you at the ranch would ever have
+figured you had snap enough to put a contract of that kind through.
+Still, you have me behind you."</p>
+
+<p>"A good way, as a rule," said Brooke, drily. "Especially when there is
+anything one can get very wet at to be done. Still, I shouldn't wonder
+if you were quite correct. I scarcely think I ever suspected I had it in
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy still ruminated. "A man is like a mine. You see the indications on
+the top, but you can't be sure whether there's gold at the bottom or
+dirt that won't pay for washing, until you set the drills going or put
+in the giant powder and shake everything up. Still, I can't quite figure
+how anything of that kind could have happened to you."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke flashed a quick glance at him, but Jimmy's eyes were vacant, and
+he was apparently watching a mink slip in and out among the roots of a
+cedar.</p>
+
+<p>"There is a good deal of gravel waiting down there, and only two men to
+heave it out," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," said Jimmy, tranquilly. "Still, it's a good while until it's
+dark, and I was thinking. Now, if you had the dollars you threw away
+over that ranch, and me for a partner, you'd make quite a smart
+contractor. While they're wanting flumes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> and bridges everywhere, it's a
+game one can pile up dollars at."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke's face flushed a trifle, and he slowly closed one hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Confound the six thousand dollars, and you for reminding me of them!"
+he said. "Get on with your shovelling."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>XIII.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">THE OLD LOVE.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Next morning Brooke set out for the Mineral Development Syndicate's new
+shaft, which lay a long day's ride nearer the railroad through the bush,
+and was well received by the manager.</p>
+
+<p>"Stay just as long as it pleases you, and look at everything you want,
+though you'll have to excuse me going round with you to-day," he said.
+"There's a party of the Directors' city friends coming up, and it's
+quite likely they'll keep me busy."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke was perfectly content to go round himself, and he had acquired a
+good deal of information about the working of aerial tramways when he
+sat on the hillside watching a rattling trolley swing across the tree
+tops beneath him on a curving rope of steel. A foreman leaned on a
+sawn-off cedar close by, and glanced at Brooke with a little ironical
+grin when a hum of voices broke out behind them.</p>
+
+<p>"You hear them? I guess the boss is enjoying himself," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke turned his head and listened, and a woman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> said, "But how do
+those little specks of gold get into the rock? It really looks so
+solid."</p>
+
+<p>"That's nothing," said the foreman. "She quite expects him to know how
+the earth was made. Still, the other one's the worst. You'll hear her
+starting in again once she gets her breath. It's not information she's
+wanting, but to hear herself talk."</p>
+
+<p>The prediction was evidently warranted, for another voice broke in,
+"What makes those little trucks run down the rope? Gravity! Of course, I
+might have known that. How clever of you to think of it. You haven't
+anything like that at those works you're a director of, Shafton?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke started a little, for though the speaker was invisible her voice
+was curiously familiar. It was also evidently an Englishman who answered
+the last remark, and Brooke, who decided that his ears must have
+deceived him, nevertheless became intent. He felt that the mere fancy
+should have awakened a host of memories, but he was only sensible of a
+wholly dispassionate curiosity when the voice was raised again, though
+it was, at least, very like one to which he had frequently listened in
+times past. Then there was a patter of approaching steps, and he rose to
+his feet as the strangers and the mine manager came down the slope.
+There were several men, one of whom was palpably an Englishman, and two
+women. One of the latter stopped abruptly, with a little exclamation.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>"Harford&mdash;is it really you?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke quietly swung off his wide hat, which he remembered, without
+embarrassment, was considerably battered, and while most of the others
+turned and gazed at him, stood still a moment looking at her. He did not
+appreciate being made the central figure in a dramatic incident, but it
+was evident that the woman rather relished the situation. Several years
+had certainly elapsed since she had tearfully bidden him farewell with
+protestations of unwavering constancy, but he realized with faint
+astonishment that he felt no emotion whatever, not even a trace of
+anger.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said. "I really think it is."</p>
+
+<p>The woman made a little theatrical gesture, which might have meant
+anything, and in that moment the few illusions Brooke still retained
+concerning her vanished. She seemed very little older than when he
+parted from her, and at least as comely, but her shallow artificiality
+was very evident to him now. Her astonishment had, he felt, been
+exaggerated with a view to making the most of the situation, and even
+the little tremble in her voice appeared no more than an artistic
+affectation. The same impression was conveyed by her dress, which struck
+him as too ornate and in no way adapted to the country.</p>
+
+<p>Then she turned swiftly to the man who stood beside her, looking on with
+a little faintly ironical smile. He was a personable man, but his lips
+were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> thin, and there was a suggestion of half-contemptuous weariness in
+his face.</p>
+
+<p>"This is Harford Brooke, Shafton. Of course, you have heard of him!" she
+said with a coquettish smile, which it occurred to Brooke was not, under
+the circumstances, especially appropriate. "Harford, I don't think you
+ever met my husband."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke stood still and the other man nodded with an air of languid
+indifference. "Glad to see you, I'm sure," he said. "Met quite a number
+of Englishmen in this country."</p>
+
+<p>Then he turned towards the other woman as though he had done all that
+could be reasonably expected of him, and when the manager of the mine
+led the way down into the valley Brooke found himself walking with the
+woman who had flung him over a few paces behind the rest of the party.
+He did not know exactly how this came about, but he was certain that he,
+at least, had neither desired nor in any way contrived it.</p>
+
+<p>They went down into the hollow between colonnades of towering trunks,
+crossed a crystal stream and climbed a steep ascent towards the clashing
+stamp-heads, but the woman appeared in difficulties and gasped a little
+until Brooke held out his arm. He had already decided that her little
+high-heeled shoes were distinctly out of place in that country, and
+wondered at the same time what kind Barbara Heathcote wore, for she, at
+least, moved with lithe grace<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>fulness through the bush. He was, however,
+sensible of nothing in particular when his companion looked up at him as
+she leaned upon his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"I was wondering how long it would be before you offered to help me. You
+used to be anxious to do it once," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled a little. "That was quite a long time ago. I scarcely
+supposed you needed help, and one does not care to risk a repulse."</p>
+
+<p>"Could you have expected one from me?"</p>
+
+<p>There was an archness in the glance she cast him which Brooke was not
+especially gratified to see, and it struck him that the eyes which he
+had once considered softest blue were in reality tinged with a hazy
+grey, but he smiled again as he parried the question. "One," he said,
+"never quite knows what to expect from a lady."</p>
+
+<p>His companion made no immediate answer, but by and by she once more
+glanced up at him.</p>
+
+<p>"I am really not used to climbing if Shafton is, and I am not going any
+further just now," she said.</p>
+
+<p>A newly-felled cedar lay conveniently near the trail, but its
+wide-girthed trunk stood high above the underbrush, and Brooke dragged
+up a big hewn-off branch to make a footstool before his companion sat
+down on it. The branch was heavy, and she watched his efforts
+approvingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Canada has made you another man. Now, I do not think Shafton could have
+done that in a day,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> she said. "Of course, he would never have tried,
+even to please me."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke, who was by no means certain what she wished him to understand
+from this, leaned against a cedar looking down at her gravely. This was
+the woman who had embittered several years of his life, and for whom he
+had flung a good deal away, and now he was most clearly sensible of his
+folly. Had he met her in a drawing-room or even the Vancouver
+opera-house, it might not have been quite so apparent to him, but she
+seemed an anachronism in that strip of primeval wilderness. Nature was
+dominant there, and the dull pounding of the stamp-heads, which came
+faintly through the silence among the great trunks that had grown slowly
+during centuries, suggested man's recognition of the curse and privilege
+that was laid upon him in Eden. Graceful idleness was not esteemed in
+that country, where bread was won by strenuous toil, and the stillness
+and dimness of those great forest aisles emphasized the woman's
+artificial superficiality. Voice and gesture, befrizzled, straw-colored
+hair which he had once called golden, constricted waist, and figure
+which was suggestively wooden in its curves, enforced the same
+impression, until the man, who realized that she had after all probably
+made at least as good a use of life as he had, turned his eyes away.</p>
+
+<p>"You really couldn't expect him to," he said, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> a little laugh. "He
+has never had to do anything of that kind for a living as I have."</p>
+
+<p>He held up his hands and noticed her little shiver as she saw the
+scarred knuckles, hard, ingrained flesh, and broken nails.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," she said, "how cruel! Whatever have you been doing?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke glanced at his fingers reflectively. "On the contrary, I suppose
+I ought to feel proud of them, though I scarcely think I am. Building
+flumes and dams, though that will hardly convey any very clear
+impression to you. It implies swinging the axe and shovel most of every
+day, and working up to the waist in water occasionally."</p>
+
+<p>"But you were always so particular in England."</p>
+
+<p>"I could naturally afford to be. It cost me nothing when I was living on
+another man's bounty."</p>
+
+<p>The woman made a little gesture. "And you gave up everything for me!"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laughed softly, for it seemed to him that a little candor was
+advisable. "As a matter of fact, I am not quite sure that I did. My
+native wrong-headedness may have had its share in influencing me.
+Anyway, that was all done with&mdash;several years ago."</p>
+
+<p>"You will not be bitter, Harford," and she cast him a glance of appeal
+which might have awakened a trace of tenderness in the man had it sprung
+from any depth of feeling. "Can anything of that kind ever be quite done
+with?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>Brooke commenced to feel a trifle uneasy. "Well," he said, reflectively,
+"I certainly think it ought to be."</p>
+
+<p>To his relief his companion smiled and apparently decided to change the
+subject. "You never even sent me a message. It really wasn't kind."</p>
+
+<p>"It appeared considerably more becoming to let myself sink into
+oblivion. Besides, I could scarcely be expected to feel certain that you
+would care to hear from me."</p>
+
+<p>The woman glanced at him reflectively. "I have often thought about you.
+Of course, I was dreadfully sorry when I had to give you up, but I
+really couldn't do anything else, and it was all for the best."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course!" said Brooke, with a trace of dryness, and smiled when she
+glanced at him sharply. "I naturally mean in your case."</p>
+
+<p>"You are only involving yourself, Harford. You never used to be so
+unfeeling."</p>
+
+<p>"I was endorsing your own statement, and it is, at least, considerably
+easier to believe that all is for the best when one is prosperous. You
+have a wealthy husband, and Helen, who wrote me once, testified that he
+indulged you in&mdash;she said every caprice."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said his companion, thoughtfully, "Shafton is certainly not poor,
+and he is almost everything any one could expect him to be. As husbands
+go, I think he is eminently satisfactory."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>"One would fancy that an indulgent and wealthy husband of distinguished
+appearance would go a tolerably long way."</p>
+
+<p>Again the woman appeared to reflect "Prosperity is apt to kill romance,"
+she said. "One is never quite content, you know, and I feel now and then
+that Shafton scarcely understands me. That is a complaint people appear
+to find ludicrous, of course, though I really don't see why they should
+do so. Shafton is conventional and precise. You know exactly what he is
+going to do, and that it will be right, but one has longings now and
+then for something original and intense."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke regarded her with a little dry smile. One, as he had discovered,
+cannot have everything, and as she had sold herself for wealth and
+station it appeared a trifle unreasonable to repine because she could
+not enjoy a romantic passion at the same time. It was, in fact, very
+likely that had anything of the kind been thrust upon her she would not
+have known what to do with it. It also occurred to him that there were
+depths in her husband's nature which she had never sounded, and he
+remembered the look of cynical weariness in the man's face. Lucy Coulson
+was one who trifled with emotions as a pastime, but Brooke had no wish
+to be made the subject of another experiment in simulated tenderness,
+even if that was meant, which, under the circumstances, scarcely seemed
+likely.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>"Well," he said, "no doubt most people long for a good deal more than
+they ever get; but your friends must have reached the stamps by now, and
+they will be wondering what has become of you."</p>
+
+<p>"I scarcely think they will. The men seem to consider it a waste of time
+to talk to anybody who doesn't know all about ranches and mines, and
+Shafton has Miss Goldie to attend to. She has attached herself to him
+like a limpet, but she is, of course, a Canadian, and I really don't
+mind."</p>
+
+<p>Almost involuntarily Brooke contrasted her with a Canadian who had spent
+a week in the woods with him. Barbara Heathcote had never appeared out
+of place in the wilderness, for she was wholly natural and had moved
+amidst those scenes of wild grandeur as though in harmony with them,
+with the stillness of that lonely land in her steady eyes. There was no
+superficial sentimentality in her, for her thoughts and emotions were
+deep as the still blue lakes, and he could not fancy her disturbing
+their serenity for the purpose of whiling an idle day away. Then his
+face hardened, for it was becoming unpleasantly evident that she could
+not much longer even regard him with friendliness and there was nothing
+to be gained by letting his fancy run away with him.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not the man I used to talk nonsense with, Harford," said his
+companion, who had in the meanwhile been watching him. "This country has
+made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> you quiet and a little grim. Why don't you go back again?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid they have too many men with no ostensible income in
+England."</p>
+
+<p>"Still you could make it up with the old man."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke's face was decidedly grim. "I scarcely think I could. Rather more
+was said by both of us than could be very well rubbed off one's memory.
+Besides, I think you know what kind of man he is?"</p>
+
+<p>Lucy Coulson leaned forward a trifle and there was a trace of genuine
+feeling in her voice. "Harford," she said, "he frets about you&mdash;and he
+is getting very old. Of course, he would never show anybody what he
+felt, but I could guess, because he was once not long ago almost rude to
+me. That could only have been on your account, you know. It hurts me a
+little, though one could scarcely take exception to anything he
+said&mdash;but you know the quiet precision of his manner. If it wasn't quite
+so perfect it would be pedantic now. One feels it's a relic of the days
+of the hoops and patches ever so long ago."</p>
+
+<p>"What did he say?" asked Brooke, a trifle impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing that had any particular meaning by itself, but for all that he
+conveyed an impression, and I think if you were to go back&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Empty-handed!" said Brooke. "There are circumstances under which the
+desire for reconciliation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> with a wealthy relative is liable to
+misconception. If I had prospered it would have been easier."</p>
+
+<p>Lucy Coulson looked at him thoughtfully. "Perhaps I did use you rather
+badly, and it might be possible for me to do you a trifling kindness
+now. Shall I talk to the old man when I go home again? I see him often."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke shook his head. "I shall never go back a poor man," he said.
+"What are you doing here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Everybody travels nowadays, and Shafton is never happy unless he is
+going somewhere. We started for Japan, and decided to see the Rockies
+and look at the British Columbian mines. That is, of course, Shafton
+did. He has money in some of them, and is interested in the colonies. I
+have to sit on platforms and listen while he abuses the Government for
+neglecting them. In fact, I don't know when I shall be able to get him
+out of the country now. Of course, I never expected to meet you
+here&mdash;and almost wonder if there is any reason beyond the one you
+mentioned that has kept you here so long."</p>
+
+<p>She glanced at him in a curious fashion and made the most of her eyes,
+which he had once considered remarkably expressive ones.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't quite think of any other, beyond the fact that I have a few
+dollars at stake," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing else?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>"No," said Brooke, a trifle too decisively. "What could there be?"</p>
+
+<p>His companion smiled. "Well," she said, "I fancied there might have been
+a Canadian. They are not all very good style, but some of them are
+almost pretty, and&mdash;when one has been a good while away&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The man flushed a trifle at the faint contempt in her tone. "I scarcely
+think there is one of them who would spare a thought for me. I should
+not be considered especially eligible even in this country."</p>
+
+<p>"And you have a good memory!"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke felt slightly disconcerted, for it was not the first delicate
+suggestion she had made. "I don't know that it is of any benefit to me.
+You see, I really haven't anything very pleasant to remember."</p>
+
+<p>Lucy Coulson sighed. "Harford," she said, dropping her voice a trifle,
+"you must try not to blame me. If one of us had been richer&mdash;I, at
+least, can't help remembering."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke looked at her steadily. Exactly where she wished to lead him he
+did not know, but she had flung away her power to lead him anywhere long
+ago. Perhaps she was influenced by vanity, for there was no genuine
+passion or tenderness in her, but Brooke was a well-favored man, and she
+had her caprices and drifted easily.</p>
+
+<p>"I really don't think you should," he said. "Your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> husband mightn't like
+it, and it is quite a long while ago, you know."</p>
+
+<p>A little pink flush crept into the woman's cheek and she rose leisurely.
+"Perhaps he will be wondering where I am, after all," she said. "You
+must come and make friends with him. We may be staying for some time yet
+at the C.&nbsp;P.&nbsp;R. Hotel, Vancouver."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke went with her and spent some little time talking to her husband,
+who made a favorable impression upon him, while when he took his leave
+of them the woman let her hand remain in his a moment longer than there
+was any apparent necessity for.</p>
+
+<p>"You must come down and see us&mdash;it really isn't very far, and we have so
+much to talk about," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke said nothing, but he felt that he had had a warning as he swung
+off his big shapeless hat and turned away.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>XIV.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">BROOKE HAS VISITORS.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The afternoon was hot, and the roar of the river in the depths below
+emphasized the drowsy stillness of the hillside and climbing bush, when
+Brooke stood on the little jutting crag above the ca&ntilde;on. Two hundred
+feet above him rose a wall of fissured rock, but a gully, down which the
+white thread of a torrent frothed, split through that grim battlement,
+and already a winding strip of somewhat perilous pathway had been cut
+out of and pinned against the side of the chasm. Men with hammers and
+shovels were busy upon it, and the ringing of the drills broke sharply
+through the deep pulsations of the flood, while several more were
+clustered round the foot of an iron column, which rose from the verge of
+the crag, where the rock fell in one tremendous sweep to the dim green
+river.</p>
+
+<p>Close beside it, and overhung by the rock wall, stood Brooke's double
+tent, for, absorbed as he had become in the struggle with the natural
+difficulties that must be faced and surmounted at every step,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> he lived
+by his work, and when he had risen that morning the sun had not touched
+the dim white ramparts beyond the climbing pines. He was just then,
+however, not watching his workmen, but looking up the gorge, and a
+little thrill of pleasure ran through him when two figures in light
+draperies appeared at the head of it. Then he went up at a pace which
+Jimmy, who grinned as he watched him, wondered at, and stopped a trifle
+breathless beside the two women who awaited him above.</p>
+
+<p>"I was almost afraid you would not come," he said. "You are sure you
+would care to go down now you have done so?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Devine gazed down into the tremendous depths with something that
+suggested a shiver, but Barbara laughed. "Of course," she said. "Those
+men go up and down with big loads every day, don't they?"</p>
+
+<p>"They have to, and that naturally makes a difference," said Brooke, with
+a little smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Then we can go down because we wish to, which is, in the case of most
+people, even a better reason."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Devine appeared a trifle uncertain, and her face expressed rather
+resignation than any special desire to make the descent, but she
+permitted Brooke to assist her down the zig-zag trail, while Barbara
+followed with light, fearless tread. Once they entered the gully, they
+could not, however, see the ca&ntilde;on, which, in the elder lady's case, at
+least, made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> the climb considerably easier, and they reached the tent
+without misadventure. The door was triced up to form an outer shelter,
+and Barbara was a trifle astonished when Brooke signed them to enter.</p>
+
+<p>She had seen how he lived at the ranch, and the squalid discomfort of
+the log room had not been without its significance to her, but there was
+a difference now. Nothing stood out of place in that partition of the
+big double tent, and from the spruce twigs which lay a soft, springy
+carpet, on the floor, to the little nickelled clock above her head, all
+she saw betokened taste and order. Even the neat folding chairs and
+table shone spotlessly, and there was no chip or flaw upon the crockery
+laid out upon the latter. There had, it seemed, been a change, of which
+all this was but the outward sign, in the man who stood smiling beside
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"Tea at four o'clock is another English custom you may have become
+addicted to, and you have had a climb," he said. "Still, I'm afraid I
+can't guarantee it. Jimmy does the cooking."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy, as it happened, came in with a teapot in his hand just then.
+"Well," he said, "I guess I'm considerably smarter at it than my boss.
+You needn't be bashful, either. I've a kettle that holds most of a
+gallon outside there on the fire, and here's two big tins of fixings we
+sent for to Vancouver."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Devine smiled, but Brooke's face was a trifle grim, as he glanced
+at his retainer, and Barbara did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> not look at either of them just then.
+It was, of course, after all, only a little thing, but she was,
+nevertheless, gratified that he could think of these trifles in the
+midst of his activities. She, however, took the white metal teapot,
+which was burnished brilliantly, from Jimmy, who, in spite of Brooke's
+warning glances, still hung about the tent, contemplating her with
+evident approbation as she passed the cups.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess she does it considerably smarter than Tom Gordon's Bella would
+have done," he said, with a wicked grin. "Bella had no use for teapots
+either. She'd have given it you out of the kettle."</p>
+
+<p>The glance Brooke rewarded him with was almost venomous, for he had seen
+the swift inquiry which had flashed into them fade as suddenly out of
+Barbara's eyes. She could not well admit the least desire to know who
+Tom Gordon's Bella was, though she would not have been unwilling to be
+enlightened. Jimmy, however, beamed upon Mrs. Devine, who had taken up
+her cup.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you like it. No smoke on that," he said. "When you use the green
+tea a smack of the resin goes well as flavoring, especially if it's
+brewed in a coal-oil tin. Now, there's tea they make right where they
+sell it in Vancouver, but what you've got is different I guess it's
+grown in China, or it ought to be, for the boss he sent me down, and
+says he&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>"Isn't it about time you made a start at getting that boulder out?" said
+Brooke, drily.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy retired unwillingly, and Brooke glanced deprecatingly at his
+guests. "We have been comrades for several years," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course!" said Mrs. Devine, with a little smile. "Still, I really
+don't think you need be so anxious to hide the fact that you have taken
+some pains to provide these little dainties for us. It would have been
+apparent in any case. We know how men live in the bush."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke made no disclaimer, though a faint trace of color deepened the
+bronze in his face, for he remembered the six thousand dollars, and
+winced under her graciousness. Then they discussed other matters, until
+at last Barbara laid aside her cup.</p>
+
+<p>"We came to see the ca&ntilde;on, and how you mean to put the rope across," she
+said.</p>
+
+<p>She glanced at her sister, but Mrs. Devine resolutely shook her head. "I
+have seen quite as much of the ca&ntilde;on as I have any wish to do," she
+said. "Besides, it was not exactly an easy matter getting down here, and
+I expect it will be considerably worse getting up. You can go with Mr.
+Brooke, my dear."</p>
+
+<p>They left her in the tent, and five minutes later Brooke led the girl to
+a seat on a dizzy ledge, from which the rock fell away in one awful
+smooth wall.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," he said quietly, "you can look about you."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara, who had been too occupied in picking her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> way to notice very
+much as yet, drew in her breath as she gazed down into the tremendous
+chasm. The sunshine lay warm upon the pine-clad slopes above, but no ray
+of brightness streamed down into that depth of shadow, and its eerie
+dimness was thickened by the mist which drifted filmily above the
+river's turmoil. Out of it a deep vibratory roar came up, diminished by
+the distance, in long pulsations that died far up among the pines in
+sinking waves of sound.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," she said, with a little gasp, "it's tremendous!"</p>
+
+<p>"A trifle overwhelming!" said Brooke, reflectively, "and yet it gets
+hold of one. There is a difference between it and the English valley you
+once mentioned."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara turned to him, with a little gleam in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course!" she said. "One is glad there is, since it is typical of
+both countries. You couldn't tame this river and set it gliding smoothly
+between mossy stepping-stones."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Brooke, "I scarcely think one would wish to if he could. One
+feels it wouldn't be fitting."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet we shall put the power that's in it into harness by and by."</p>
+
+<p>"Without taming it?"</p>
+
+<p>Barbara nodded. "Yes," she said. "If you had ever stood in a Canadian
+power house, as I have done<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> once or twice, you would understand. You
+can hear the big dynamos humming in one low, deep note while the little
+blue sparks flicker about the shafts. They stand for controlled energy;
+but the whole place rocks with the whirring of the turbines and the
+thunder of the water plunging down the shoots. The river that drives
+them does it exulting in its strength. You couldn't fancy it lapping
+among the lily leaves in sunlit pools. It hasn't time."</p>
+
+<p>"To have no time for artistic effect is typical of this country, then?"
+said Brooke.</p>
+
+<p>Barbara smiled. "Yes," she said, "I really think it is. We shall come to
+that later, but this, you see, isn't art, but something greater. It's
+nature untrammelled, and primeval force."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you, who personify reposefulness, admire force?"</p>
+
+<p>Barbara held her hand up. "When it accomplishes anything I do; but
+listen," she said. "That sound isn't the discord of purposeless haste.
+There's a rhythm in it. It's ordered and stately harmony."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke sat still, watching the little gleam in her brown eyes, until she
+turned again to him.</p>
+
+<p>"You are going to put that rope across?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"I am, at least, going to try. There will, however, be difficulties."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara smiled a little. "There generally are. Still, I think you will
+get over them." She looked down again at the tremendous gap, and then
+met his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> eyes in a fashion that sent a thrill through him. "It would be
+worth while."</p>
+
+<p>"I almost think it would. Still, it is largely a question of dollars,
+and I have spent a good many with no great result already."</p>
+
+<p>"My brother-in-law will not see you beaten. He would throw in as much as
+the mine was worth before he yielded a point to the timber-righters."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke noticed the little hardness in her voice, and the sparkle in her
+eyes. "If he did, you would evidently sympathize with him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, though it wasn't exactly in that sense I meant it would be
+worth while. One would naturally sympathize with anybody who was made
+the subject of that kind of extortion. If there is anything detestable,
+it is a conspiracy."</p>
+
+<p>"Still," said Brooke, reflectively, "it is in one sense a perfectly
+legitimate transaction."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you consider yourself warranted in scheming to extort money from
+any one?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke did not look at her. "It would, of course, depend&mdash;upon, for
+example, any right I might consider I had to the money. We will suppose
+that somebody had robbed me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Then one who has been robbed may steal?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke made a little deprecatory gesture while the blood crept to his
+face. "I'm afraid I have never given any questions of this kind much
+consideration. We were discussing the country."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>Barbara laughed. "Of course. I ought to have remembered. You are so
+horribly afraid of betraying your sentiments in England that you would
+almost prefer folks to believe you hadn't any. I am, however, going to
+venture on dangerous ground again. I think the country is having an
+effect on you. You have changed considerably since I met you at the
+ranch."</p>
+
+<p>"It is possible," and Brooke met her gaze with a little smile in his
+eyes. "Still, I am not quite sure it was altogether the fault of the
+country."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara looked down at the ca&ntilde;on. "Isn't that a little ambiguous?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Brooke, reflectively, "it is, at least, rather a stretching
+of the simile, but I saw you first clothed in white samite, mystic,
+wonderful, in the midst of a frothing river&mdash;and I am not quite sure
+that you were right when you said it was not a sword you brought me."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara flashed a swift, keen glance at him, though she smiled. "Then
+beware in what quarrel you draw it&mdash;if I did. One would expect such a
+gift to be used with honor. It could, however, be legitimately employed
+against timber-righters, claim-jumpers, and all schemers and
+extortioners of that kind."</p>
+
+<p>She stopped a moment, and looked at him, steadily now. "Do you know that
+I am glad you left the ranch?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"What you are doing now is worth while. You would consider that
+priggishness in England, but it's the truth."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean helping your brother-in-law to get ahead of the
+timber-righters?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Barbara. "That is not what I mean, though if it is any
+consolation to you, it meets with my approbation, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Then what I was doing before was not worth while?"</p>
+
+<p>"That," said Barbara, with a trace of dryness, "is a question you can
+answer best, though I saw no especial evidence of activity of any kind.
+The question is&mdash;Can you do nothing better still? This province needs
+big bridges and daringly-built roads."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid not," and Brooke smiled a trifle wryly. "It costs a good
+many dollars to build a big bridge, and it is apparently very difficult
+for any man to acquire them so long as he works with his own hands."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, isn't it worth the effort&mdash;not exactly for the dollars?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke looked at her gravely, with a slight hardening of his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"I think it would be in my case," he said. "The difficulty is that I
+should run a heavy risk if the effort was ever made. Now, however, I
+had, per<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>haps, better show you how far we have got with the tramway."</p>
+
+<p>There was, as it happened, not very much to show, and before half an
+hour had passed Barbara and Mrs. Devine climbed the steep ascent, while
+Brooke returned to redeem the hour spent with them by strenuous toil. It
+was also late that night before he flung aside the sheet of crude
+drawings and calculations he was making, and leaned back wearily in his
+chair. His limbs were aching, and so were his eyes, and he sat still
+awhile with them half-closed in a state of dreamy languor. He had
+dropped a tin shade over the lamp, and the tent was shadowy outside the
+narrow strip of radiance. There was no sound from the workmen's bark and
+canvas shanty, and the pulsating roar of the ca&ntilde;on broke sharply through
+an impressive stillness, until at last there was a faint rattle of
+gravel outside that suggested the approach of a cautious foot, and
+Brooke straightened himself suddenly as a man came into the tent. His
+face was invisible until he sat down within the range of light, and then
+Brooke started a little.</p>
+
+<p>"Saxton!" he said.</p>
+
+<p>Saxton laughed, and flung down his big hat. "Precisely!" he said. "There
+are camps in the province I wouldn't have cared to come into like this.
+It wouldn't be healthy for me, but in this case it seemed advisable to
+get here without anybody seeing me. Left my horse two hours ago at
+Tomlinson's ranch."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>"It was something special brought you so far on foot?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Saxton, "I guess it was. I came along to see what in the
+name of thunder you were doing here so long."</p>
+
+<p>"I was building Devine a dam, and I am now stretching a rope across the
+ca&ntilde;on to bring his mine props over."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton straightened himself, and stared at him, with blank astonishment
+in his face.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to understand," he said. "You are putting him a rope across to
+bring props over with?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Brooke. "Is there anything very extraordinary in that?"</p>
+
+<p>Saxton laughed harshly. "Under the circumstances, I guess there is. Do
+you know who's stopping him cutting all the props he wants right behind
+the mine?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Brooke, drily. "Devine doesn't either, which I fancy is
+probably as well for the man. The one who holds the rights is, I
+understand, only the dummy."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I'll tell you right now. It's me."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke started visibly, and then laid a firm restraint upon himself. "I
+warned you against leaving me in the dark."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton slammed his hand down on the table. "Well," he said, "who would
+have figured on your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> taking up that contract? What in the name of
+thunder do you want to build his slingway for?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke sat thoughtfully silent for a moment or two. "To tell the truth,
+I'm not quite sure I know. The thing, you see, got hold of me."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't know!" and Saxton laughed again, unpleasantly. "It's no great
+wonder they were glad to send you out here from the Old Country. The
+last thing I counted on was that my partner would spoil my game. You'll
+have to stop it right away."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke closed his eyes a trifle, and looked at him. "No," he said. "That
+is precisely what can't be done."</p>
+
+<p>There was no anger in his voice, and he made no particular display of
+resolution, but Saxton seemed to realize that this decision was
+definite. He sat fuming for a space, and then made a little emphatic
+gesture, which expressed complete bewilderment as well as desperation.
+Still, even then, he was quick enough of wit to make no futile protest,
+for there are occasions when the quiet inertia of the insular
+Englishman, who has made up his mind, is more than a match for the
+nervous impatience of the Westerner.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said again, as though it was the only thing that occurred to
+him, "what did you do it for?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled quietly. "As I told you not long ago, I really don't
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I guess there's nobody could size you up,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> and put you in the
+grade you belong to. You wouldn't take Devine's dollars when he wanted
+to hire you, and now you're building flumes and dams for him. I can't
+see any difference. There's no sense in it."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid there is really very little myself. It's rather like
+splitting hairs, isn't it? Still, there is, at least, what one might
+call a distinction. You see, I took over another man's contract, and
+what I'm doing now doesn't make it necessary for Devine to favor me with
+his confidence."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton shook his head in a fashion that suggested he considered his
+comrade's case hopeless. "And it's just his confidence we want!" he
+said. "You don't seem able to get hold of the fact that you can't make
+very many dollars and keep your high-toned notions at the same time. The
+thing's out of the question. Now, I once heard a lecture on the New
+England States long ago, and pieces of it stuck to me. There were two or
+three of the hard old Puritans made their little pile cutting
+Frenchmen's and Spaniards' throats in the Gulf of Mexico, and built
+meeting-houses when they came home and settled down. Still, they had
+sense enough to see that what was the correct thing among the Quakers
+and Baptists of New England was quite out of place on the Caribbean
+Sea."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke felt that there was truth in this, but he meant, at least, to
+cling to the distinction, even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> though he disregarded the difference,
+and Saxton seemed to realize it.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said resignedly, "we may do something with that prop sling
+when we jump the claim. How are you getting on about the mine?"</p>
+
+<p>"In point of fact, I'm not getting on at all. Each time I try to saunter
+into the workings, I am civilly turned out again. Devine, it seems, will
+not even let the few men who work on top in."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton appeared to reflect. "Now, I wonder why," he said. "He's too
+smart to do anything without a reason, and he's not afraid of you, or
+he'd never have had you round the place. Still, you'll have to get hold
+of the facts we want before we can do anything, and I'm not quite sure
+what use I'll make of those timber-rights in the meanwhile. They cost me
+quite a few dollars, and it may be a while yet before anybody takes them
+from me. Building that slingway isn't quite what I expected from Devine
+after buying up forests to oblige him."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I will do what I can, but I wish Devine would give me those
+dollars back of his own accord. I'm almost commencing to like the man."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton shook his head. "You can't afford to consider a point of that
+kind when it's against your business," he said. "Anyway, if you can give
+me a blanket or two, I'll get some sleep now. I have to be on the trail
+again by sun-up."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke gave him his own spruce-twig couch, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> made him breakfast in
+the chilly dawn on a kerosene stove, and then was sensible of a curious
+relief as his confederate vanished into the filmy mists which drifted
+down the gorge.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>XV.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">SAXTON GAINS HIS POINT.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Brooke was very wet and physically weary, which in part accounted for
+his dejected state of mind, when he led his jaded horse up the last few
+rods of climbing trail that crossed the big divide. It had just ceased
+raining, and the slippery rock ran water, while a cold wind, which set
+him shivering, shook a doleful wailing out of the scattered pines. One
+of them had fallen, and, stopping beside it, he looped the bridle round
+a broken branch, and sat down to rest and think, for the difficulties of
+the way had occupied his attention during a long day's journey, and,
+since he expected to meet Saxton in another hour, he had food for
+reflection.</p>
+
+<p>It was not a cheerful prospect he looked down upon, and that evening the
+desolation of the surroundings reacted upon him. The gleaming snow was
+smothered now in banks of dingy mist, and below him there rolled away a
+dreary waste of pines, whose ragged spires rose out of the drifting
+vapors rent and twisted by the ceaseless winds. It was, in words he had
+not infrequently heard applied to it, a hard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> country he must spend his
+years of exile in, and of late nothing had gone well with him.</p>
+
+<p>Since he had last seen Saxton, he had lived in a state of tension,
+waiting for the time when circumstances should render the carrying out
+of their purpose feasible, and yet clinging to a faint hope that he
+might, by some unknown means, still be relieved of the necessity of
+persisting in a course that was becoming more odious every day. The dam
+was almost completed, but it was with dismay he had counted the cost of
+it, and twice the steel rope had torn up stays and columns, and hurled
+them into the ca&ntilde;on, while he would, he knew, be fortunate if he secured
+a profit of a couple of hundred dollars as the result of several months
+of perilous labor. Prosperity, it was very evident, was not to be
+achieved in that fashion. He had also seen very little of Barbara
+Heathcote for some time, and she had been to him as a mental stimulant,
+of which he felt the loss, while now his prospects seemed as dreary as
+the dripping waste he stared across with heavy eyes. All this, as it
+happened, bore directly upon his errand, for it once more brought home
+the fact that a man without dollars could expect very little in that
+country, while there was, it seemed, only one way of obtaining them open
+to him. It was true that he shrank from availing himself of it, but that
+did not, after all, greatly affect the case, and he endeavored to review
+the situation dispassionately.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>He had decided that he was warranted in recovering the six thousand
+dollars by any means available, and it was evidently folly to take into
+account the anger and contempt of a girl who could, of course, be
+nothing to him. Her station placed that out of the question, since it
+would, so far as he could see, be a very long time indeed before he
+could secure even the most modest competence, and he felt that there was
+a still greater distinction between them morally; but, in spite of this,
+he realized that the girl's approbation was the one thing he clung to.
+He could scarcely nerve himself to fling it away, and yet it seemed, in
+the light of reason, a very indifferent requital for a life of struggle
+and poverty. She had, he told himself, merely taken a passing interest
+in him, and once she met a man of her own station fortunate enough to
+gain her regard, was scarcely likely even to remember him.</p>
+
+<p>Then he rose with a little hardening of his lips, and, flinging himself
+wearily into the saddle, strove to shake off his thoughts as the jaded
+horse floundered down into the valley. They were both too weary to
+attempt to pick their way, and went down, sliding and slipping, with the
+gravel rattling away from under them, until they reached the thicker
+timber, and smashed recklessly through thickets of giant fern and salmon
+berry. Now and then a drooping branch struck Brooke as he passed, but he
+scarcely noticed it, and rode on, swaying in his saddle, while great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>
+drops of moisture splashed upon his grim, wet face. It was sunrise when
+he had ridden out from the Canopus mine, with his horse's head turned
+towards the settlement, and dark was closing down when at last he
+dropped, aching all over, from the saddle at the door of Saxton's shanty
+at the Elktail mine. The latter, who opened it, smiled at him somewhat
+drily, and was by no means effusive in his greeting.</p>
+
+<p>"I wasn't quite sure the message I sent you from Vancouver would fetch
+you, though I made it tolerably straight," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"You certainly did," said Brooke. "In fact, I don't know that you could
+have made it more unlikely to bring me here. Still, what put the fancy
+that I might disregard it into your head?"</p>
+
+<p>Saxton looked at him curiously. "Well," he said, with an air of
+reflection, "you seemed to be quite at home in several senses, and
+making the most of it there. There are folks who would consider that
+girl with the big eyes pretty."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke, who was entering the shanty, swung round sharply. "I think we
+can leave Miss Heathcote out. It's a little difficult to understand how
+you came to know what I was doing at the Canopus? You were in
+Vancouver."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton appeared almost disconcerted for a moment, but he laughed.
+"Well," he said, "I figured on what was most likely when I heard Miss
+Heathcote was still there."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>He saw that he had made another mistake, and wondered whether Brooke,
+who had, as it happened, done so, had noticed it, while the fact that
+the latter's face was now expressionless roused him to a little display
+of vindictiveness.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard something about her in Vancouver, anyway, which it's quite
+likely she didn't mention to you. It was that she's mighty good friends
+with one of the Pacific Squadron officers. She has a good many dollars
+of her own, and they're mostly folks who make a splash in their own
+country."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke afterwards decided that this must have been an inspiration, but
+just then he felt that Saxton was watching him, and showed no sign of
+interest.</p>
+
+<p>"If she did, I don't remember it, though I should consider the thing
+quite probable," he said. "Still, as Miss Heathcote's fancies don't
+concern us, wouldn't it be more to the purpose if you got me a little to
+eat?"</p>
+
+<p>Saxton summoned his cook, and nothing more was said until Brooke had
+finished his meal. Then his host looked at him as they sat beside the
+crackling stove.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it 'bout time you made a move at the Canopus?" he said. "So far
+as you have gone, you have only spoiled my hand. You didn't go there to
+build Devine flumes and dams."</p>
+
+<p>"In point of fact, I rather think I did. The diffi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>culty, however, is
+that I am still unable to get into the mine. I have invented several
+excuses, which did not work, already. Nobody except the men who get the
+ore is even allowed to look at the workings."</p>
+
+<p>A little gleam crept into Saxton's eyes. "Now, it seems to me that
+Devine has struck it rich, or he wouldn't be so concerned particular.
+It's quite plain that he doesn't want everybody to know what he's
+getting out of the Canopus. It's only a mine that's paying folks think
+of jumping."</p>
+
+<p>"Has it struck you that he might wish to sell it, and be taking
+precautions for exactly the opposite reason?"</p>
+
+<p>Saxton made a little gesture of approval, though he shook his head. "You
+show you have a little sense now and then, but there's nothing in that
+view," he said. "Is a man going to lay out dollars on dams and wire-rope
+slings when he knows that none of them will be any use to him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think he might. That is, if he wanted investors, who could be induced
+to take it off his hands, to hear of it."</p>
+
+<p>"The point is that he has only to put the Canopus into the market, and
+they'd pile down the dollars now."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, it is presumably our business, and not Devine's, you purposed to
+talk about."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton nodded. "Then we'll start in," he said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> "You can't get into the
+mine, and it has struck me that if you could your eyes wouldn't be as
+good as a compass and a measuring-chain. Well, that brings us to the
+next move. When Devine left Vancouver a week ago, he took up a tin case
+he keeps the plans and patents of the Canopus in with him. You needn't
+worry about how I'm sure of this, but I am. Those papers will tell us
+all we want to know."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubt they would. Still, I don't see that we are any nearer
+getting over the difficulty. Devine is scarcely likely to show them me."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll have to lay your hands upon the case. It's in the ranch."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke's face flushed, and for a moment his lips set tight, while he
+closed one hand as he looked at his confederate. Then he spoke on
+impulse, "I'll be hanged if I do!"</p>
+
+<p>Saxton, who had, perhaps, expected the outbreak, regarded him with a
+little sardonic smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," he said, quietly, "you'll listen to me, and put aside those
+notions of yours for a while. I've had about enough of them already.
+Devine robbed you&mdash;once&mdash;and he has taken dollars out of my pocket a
+good many times, while I can't see any great difference between glancing
+at another man's papers and crawling into his mine. We're not going to
+take the Canopus from him anyway&mdash;it would be too big a deal&mdash;but we
+have got to find out enough to put the screw on him. You don't owe him
+anything, for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> you're building those flumes and dams cheaper than he
+would get it done by anybody else."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke sat silent a space, with the blood still in his cheeks and one
+hand closed. He was sensible of a curious disgust, and yet it was
+evident that his confederate was right. There was, after all, no great
+difference between the scheme suggested and what he had already been
+willing to do, and yet he was sensible that it was not that fact which
+chiefly influenced him, for Saxton had done wisely when he hinted at
+Barbara Heathcote's supposititious fondness for the naval officer.
+Brooke had already endeavored to contemplate the likelihood of something
+of this kind happening, with equanimity, and there was nothing
+incredible about the story. The men of the Pacific Squadron were
+frequently in Victoria, and steamers crossed to Vancouver every day; but
+now probability had changed to what appeared to be certainty, he was
+sensible almost of dismay. At the same time, the restraint which had
+counted most with him was suddenly removed, and he turned to Saxton with
+a little decisive gesture. He certainly owed Devine nothing, and his
+confederate had, when he needed it badly, shown him what he fancied was,
+in part, at least, genuine kindness.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, "I will do what I can."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said Saxton, drily, "you had better do it soon. Devine goes
+across to the Sumas valley, where he's selling land, every now and then,
+and I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> reason for believing he's expected there not later than next
+week. I guess he's not likely to take that case with him. It's quite a
+big one. You'll get hold of it, and find out what we want to know, as
+soon as he's gone."</p>
+
+<p>"The question is&mdash;How am I to manage it? You wouldn't expect me to pick
+the lock of his safe, presumably?"</p>
+
+<p>Saxton, who appeared reflective, quite failed to notice the irony of the
+inquiry. "Well," he said, "if I figured I could do it, I guess I
+wouldn't let that stand in my way. Still, I'm not sure that he has any,
+and it's even chances he keeps the case under some books or truck of
+that kind in the room he has fixed up as office at the ranch. You see,
+the dollars for the men come straight up from Vancouver every pay-day."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke straightened himself in his chair, with a little shake of his
+shoulders. "Now," he said, "we'll talk of something else. This isn't
+particularly pleasant. I had, of course, realized before I came out that
+one might find it necessary to follow an occupation he had no particular
+taste for in the Dominion of Canada, which is, it seems, the home of the
+adaptable man who can accustom himself to anything, but I really never
+expected that I should consider it an admissible thing to steal my
+employer's papers. That, however, is not the question. Give me a cigar,
+and tell me how you purpose stimulating the progress<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> of this great
+province when you get into the Legislature."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton did so at length, and it was perfectly evident that he saw no
+incongruity between what he purposed to do when in the Legislature and
+the means he adopted of getting there, for he sketched out reforms and
+improvements with optimistic ability. Once or twice a sardonic smile
+crept into Brooke's eyes, for there was no mistaking the fact that the
+man was serious, and then his attention wandered, and he ruminated on
+the position. Saxton appeared curiously well informed as to Devine's
+movements, but though Brooke could find no answer to the question how he
+had obtained the information, it did not, after all, seem to be of any
+great importance, and he once more found himself listening to his
+comrade languidly. Saxton was then declaiming against official
+corruption and incapacity.</p>
+
+<p>"We want to make a clean sweep, and put the best and squarest men into
+office. This country has no use for any other kind," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"That," said Brooke, drily, "is no doubt why you are going in. Anyway, I
+fancy it is getting late, and I have a long ride before me to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton smiled good-humoredly. "Well," he said, "I can go just as
+straight as any man when I've made my little pile. Most folks find it a
+good deal easier then."</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to Brooke, who had not found adversity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> especially conducive
+to uprightness, that there was, perhaps, a certain truth in his
+comrade's notion, but he felt no great inclination to consider the
+question, and in another ten minutes was sinking into sleep. He also
+started before sunrise next morning, and was walking stiffly up the
+climbing trail to the Canopus mine, with the bridle of the jaded horse
+in his hand, when he came upon Barbara Heathcote amidst the pines. She
+apparently noticed his weariness and the mire upon the horse.</p>
+
+<p>"The trail must have been very bad," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"It certainly was," said Brooke, who, because it did not appear
+advisable that any one should suspect he was riding to the Elktail mine,
+had taken the trail to the settlement when he set out. "When there has
+been heavy rain, it usually is. The trail-choppers should have laid down
+logs in the Saverne swamp."</p>
+
+<p>"But what took you that way?" said the girl. "It must have been a
+tremendous round."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke realized that he had been indiscreet, for nobody who wished to
+reach the settlement was likely to cross that swamp.</p>
+
+<p>"As a matter of fact, it is," he said. "As you see, the horse is almost
+played out."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara glanced at him, as he fancied, rather curiously, but she changed
+the subject. "I have a friend from Vancouver, who heard you play at the
+concert, here, and we had hoped you might be persuaded to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> bring your
+violin across to the ranch to-night. Katty asked Jimmy to tell you that
+we expected you. That is, if you were not too tired."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke felt the blood creep into his face. He longed to go, but he had a
+sense of fitness, and he felt that, although such scruples were a trifle
+out of place in his case, he could not, after the arrangement he had
+made with Saxton, betray the girl's confidence by visiting the ranch
+again as a respected guest. No excuse but the one she had suggested,
+however, presented itself, and it seemed to him advisable to make use of
+it with uncompromising candidness. Her friendliness hurt him, and, since
+it presumably sprang from a mistaken good opinion, it would be a slight
+relief to show her that he was deficient even in courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm almost afraid I am," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Barbara Heathcote had a good deal of self-restraint, but there was a
+trace of astonishment in her face, and, for a moment, a suspicious
+sparkle in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Then we will, of course, excuse you," she said. "You will, I hope, not
+think it very inconsiderate of me to stop you now."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke said nothing, but tugged at the bridle viciously, and trudged
+forward into the gloom of the pines, while Barbara, who would not admit
+that she had come there in the hope of meeting him, turned homewards
+thoughtfully. As it happened, she also<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> met the freight-packer, who
+brought their supplies up on the way.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Saverne swamp? Behind the range, isn't it?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, miss," said the freighter, pointing across the pines. "Back
+yonder."</p>
+
+<p>"Then if I wished to ride into the settlement I could scarcely go round
+that way?"</p>
+
+<p>The man laughed. "No," he said. "I guess you couldn't. Not unless you
+started the night before, and then you'd have to climb right across the
+big divide. Nobody heading for the settlement would take that trail."</p>
+
+<p>He went on with his loaded beasts, and Barbara stood still, looking down
+upon the forest with a little pink tinge in her cheeks and a curious
+expression in her eyes. Remembering the trace of disconcertion he had
+shown, she very much wished to know where Brooke had really been.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>XVI.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">BARBARA'S RESPONSIBILITY.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Darkness had closed down outside, and the lamp was lighted in Devine's
+office, which occupied a projection of the wooden ranch. Behind it stood
+the kitchen, and a short corridor, which gave access to both, led back
+from its inner door to the main building. Another door opened directly
+on to the clearing, and a grove of willows, past which the trail led,
+crept close up to it, so that any one standing among them could see into
+the room. There was, however, little probability of that happening, for
+nobody lived in that stretch of forest, except the miners, whose shanty
+stood almost a mile away. Devine sat opposite the captain of the mine
+across the little table, and he had let his cigar go out, while his face
+was a trifle grim.</p>
+
+<p>"The last clean-up was not particularly encouraging, Tom," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Wilkins nodded, and there was a trace of concern in his face, which was
+seamed and rugged, for he was one of the old-time prospectors, who,
+trusting solely to their practical acquaintance with the rocks,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> had
+played a leading part in the development of the mineral resources of
+that province.</p>
+
+<p>"The trouble is that the next one's going to be worse," he said. "The
+pay-dirt's getting scarcer as we cut further in, and I have a notion
+that the boys are beginning to notice it now and then, though there's
+not a man in the crowd who would make his grub prospecting. They're
+road-makers, most of them."</p>
+
+<p>Devine glanced at the little leather-bound book he held, in which was
+entered the net yield of gold from the ore the stamps crushed down, and
+noted the steady decrease.</p>
+
+<p>"It's quite plain to me that the vein is working out," he said. "It
+remains to be seen whether we'll strike better rock with the adit on the
+different level. I don't notice very many signs of that yet."</p>
+
+<p>Wilkins shook his head. "I guess I haven't seen any for a week, and
+we're spending quite a pile of dollars trying to hold the hillside up.
+The signs were all on top," he said. "There are ranges where you can
+strike it just as sure and easy as falling off a log, but I guess
+something long ago shook these mountains up, and mixed up all the rock.
+There's only one man figures he knows how it was done, and he won't talk
+about it when he's sensible."</p>
+
+<p>"Allonby, of the Dayspring!" said Devine. "Now, the last time we worried
+about the thing you told me you considered our chances good enough to
+put your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> savings in. Would you feel like doing it to-day? I want the
+information, not the dollars. You know it's generally wisest to be
+straight with me."</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," said Wilkins, drily, "I wouldn't."</p>
+
+<p>Devine sat thoughtfully silent for a minute or two, and the captain, who
+lighted his cigar again, wondered what was in his mind. He felt
+tolerably certain there was, as usual, a good deal, and that something
+would result from it presently.</p>
+
+<p>"You went through the Dayspring?" Devine said, at length.</p>
+
+<p>"I did. So far as I can figure, it's a mine that will make its living,
+and nothing worth while more. 'Bout two or three cents on the dollar."</p>
+
+<p>"Allonby thinks more of it."</p>
+
+<p>A little incredulous smile crept into the captain's eyes. "When he has
+got most of a bottle of rye whisky into him! Allonby's a skin."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Devine, "I'm going over to talk to him, and I needn't keep
+you any longer in the meanwhile. You will remember that only you and I
+have got to know what the Canopus is really doing."</p>
+
+<p>The captain's smile was very expressive as he went out, but when the
+door closed behind him Devine sat still with wrinkled forehead and
+thoughtful eyes while half an hour slipped by. He was, however, not
+addicted to purposeless reflections, and the results of his cogitations
+as a rule became apparent in due time. He cheerfully took risks, or
+chances, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> he called them, which the average English business man
+would have shrunk from, for the leaders of the Pacific Slope's
+activities have no time for caution. Life is too short, they tell one,
+to make sure of everything, and it is, in point of fact, not
+particularly long in case of most of them, for there is a significant
+scarcity of old men. Like the rest, he staked his dollars boldly, and
+when he lost them, which happened now and then, accepted it as what was
+to be expected, and usually recouped himself on another deal.</p>
+
+<p>That was why he had bought the Canopus under somewhat peculiar
+circumstances, and extended the workings without concerning himself
+greatly as to whether every stipulation of the Crown mining regulations
+had been complied with, until the mine proved profitable, when it had
+appeared advisable not to court inquiry, which might result in the claim
+being jumped by applying for corrected records. It also explained the
+fact that although he had no safe at the ranch, he had brought up all
+the plans and papers relating to it from his Vancouver office, and kept
+them merely covered by certain dusty books. Nobody who might feel an
+illegitimate interest in them would, he argued, expect to find them
+there.</p>
+
+<p>While he sat there the inner door opened softly, and Barbara, who came
+in noiselessly, laid a hand upon his shoulder. Devine had not, as it
+happened, heard her, but it was significant that he did not start<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> at
+all, and only turned his head a trifle more quickly than usual. Then he
+looked up at her quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you never astonished or put out?" she said. "You didn't expect me?"</p>
+
+<p>Devine smiled a little. "Well," he said, "I don't think I often am. The
+last time I remember, a cinnamon bear ran me up a tree. What brought
+you, anyway?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's getting late," and Barbara sat down. "You have been here two hours
+already. Now, of course, you show very little sign of it, but I can't
+help a fancy that you have been worrying over something the last day or
+two. I suppose one could scarcely expect you to take me into your
+confidence."</p>
+
+<p>"The thing's not big enough to worry over, but I have been thinking
+some. We have struck no gold in the adit, and now when we're waiting for
+the props the Englishman has dropped the rope into the ca&ntilde;on. That
+little contract is going to cost him considerable."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara wondered whether he had any particular reason for watching her,
+or if she only fancied that his gaze was a trifle more observant than
+usual.</p>
+
+<p>"Still, I think he will get a rope across," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," said Devine, indifferently. "There's grit in him. A curious
+kind of man. Wouldn't take a good offer to work for me, and yet he
+jumped right at those contracts. He's going to find it hard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> to make
+them pay his grocery bill. I guess he hasn't told you anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Barbara, a trifle hastily, for once more she felt the keen
+eyes scan her face. "Of course not. Why should he?"</p>
+
+<p>Devine smiled. "If you don't know any reason you needn't ask me. You
+can't make a Britisher talk, anyway, unless he wants to."</p>
+
+<p>He made a little gesture as though to indicate that the subject was not
+worth discussing, and then, taking up a bundle of documents, turned to
+her again.</p>
+
+<p>"You see those papers, Bab? They're plans and Crown patents for the
+mine. I'm going away to-morrow, and can't take them along, so I'll put
+them under that pile of old books yonder. Now, if I was to tell Katty to
+make sure the doors were fast she'd get worrying, but you have better
+nerves, and I'll ask you to see that nobody gets in here until I come
+back again. Nobody's likely to want to, but I'll put a screw in the
+window, and give you the key."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara laughed. "I shall not be afraid. Are the papers valuable?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Devine, with a trace of dryness. "Not exactly! In fact, I'm
+not quite sure they would be worth anything to anybody in a month or
+two. Still, the man who got hold of them in the meanwhile might fancy he
+could make trouble for me."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>"How?" said Barbara. "You said they mightn't be much use to anybody."</p>
+
+<p>Devine smiled a little, but it was evident that he had considerable
+confidence in the discretion of his wife's sister.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't explain part of it," he said. "When I took hold of the Canopus,
+it didn't seem likely to pay me for my trouble, and I didn't worry about
+the patents or how far they covered what I was doing. Now, if you drive
+beyond the frontage you've made your claim on, it constitutes another
+mine, which isn't covered by your record and belongs to the Crown. It's
+open to any jumper who comes along. Besides, unless you do a good many
+things exactly as the law lays down, your patent mayn't hold good, and
+any one who knows the regulations can re-record the claim."</p>
+
+<p>"That means you or the previous owner neglected one or two formalities,
+and an unscrupulous person who found it out from those papers could take
+the Canopus, or part of it, away from you?"</p>
+
+<p>Devine smiled grimly. "Yes," he said. "That is, he might try."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand," said Barbara. "Still, there are no strangers here, and I
+don't think you have a man who would attempt anything of that kind about
+the mine."</p>
+
+<p>"Or at the ca&ntilde;on?"</p>
+
+<p>Barbara was sensible of a curious little thrill of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> anger, for Brooke
+was at the ca&ntilde;on, but she looked at him steadily.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said. "I am quite sure that is the last thing one would expect
+from anybody at the ca&ntilde;on, but if we stay here Katty will be wondering
+what has become of me."</p>
+
+<p>Devine rose and followed her out of the room, and in another half-hour
+the ranch was in darkness. He rode away early next morning, and the big,
+empty living-room seemed lonely to the two women who sat by the window
+when night drew in again. The evening was very still and clear, and the
+chill of the snow was in the motionless air. No sound but the distant
+roar of the river broke the silence, and when the white line of snow
+grew dimmer high up in the dusky blue, and the pines across the clearing
+faded to a blur of shadow, Mrs. Devine shivered a little.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose quietness is good for one, if only because it isn't very
+nice, but it gets a trifle depressing now and then," she said. "Why
+didn't you ask Mr. Brooke to come across?"</p>
+
+<p>"You may have noticed that he never comes when my brother-in-law is not
+here, and then he brings drawings or estimates of some kind with him."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Devine appeared reflective. "Grant has not been away for almost two
+weeks now, and it is quite that time since we have seen Mr. Brooke," she
+said. "Didn't we ask him to come when you had Minnie here?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>"You did," said Barbara, with a faint flush, which the shadows hid. "He
+asked me to excuse him."</p>
+
+<p>"Because Grant was away?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Barbara, drily. "That, at least, was not the reason he gave
+me. He said he was&mdash;too tired."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Devine laughed, for she had noticed the hardness in her sister's
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>"It really must have been exasperating. He should have thought of a
+better excuse," she said. "You have only to hold up a finger at
+Vancouver, and they all flock round, eager to do a good deal more than
+you wish them to, while this flume-builder doesn't seem to understand
+what is implied by a royal invitation. No doubt you will find a way of
+making him realize his contumacy."</p>
+
+<p>"I am almost afraid I shall not have the opportunity."</p>
+
+<p>"And you can't very well attempt to make one, especially as I remember
+now that Grant told me he was very hard at work at the ca&ntilde;on. It would
+be even worse to be told he was too busy, since that implies that one
+has something better to do."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara had a spice of temper, as her sister naturally knew, but she
+smiled at this, for she was unwilling to admit, even to herself, and
+much less to anybody else, that she felt the slightest irritation at the
+fact that Brooke had shown no eagerness to avail himself of the
+invitation she had given him. Still,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> she was, on this score, very far
+from feeling pleased with him.</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say he has," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Then he is, at least, not doing it very successfully. The rope&mdash;I
+forgot how much Grant said it cost&mdash;fell into the ca&ntilde;on."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not very sure there are many men who would have attempted to put a
+rope across at all," said Barbara, and did not realize for a moment that
+she had, to some extent, betrayed herself. She might, though she did not
+admit it, feel displeased with the flume-builder herself, but that was
+no reason why she should permit another person to disparage his
+capabilities, all of which her sister was probably acquainted with.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," she said, indifferently, "we hope he will be successful. The man
+pleases me, but I would very much like to know what Grant thinks about
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why don't you ask him?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Devine shook her head. "Grant never tells anybody his opinions
+until he's tolerably sure he's right, and I fancy he is a little
+undecided about Mr. Brooke as yet," she said. "Still, it's getting
+shivery, and this silence is a trifle eerie. I'm going to bed."</p>
+
+<p>She lighted a lamp, but when she went out Barbara made her way to her
+room without one. There was nobody else beyond Wilkins' wife in the
+ranch, and she had retired some time ago. The rambling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> wooden building
+was not dark, but dusky, with black depths of shadow in the corners of
+the rooms, for the dim crepuscular light would, at that season, linger
+almost until the dawn. To some natures it would also have been more
+suggestive of hidden dangers than impenetrable obscurity, but Barbara
+passed up the rickety stairway and down an echoing passage fearlessly,
+and then sat down by the open window of her room, looking out into the
+night. A half-moon was now slowly lifting itself above the
+faintly-gleaming snow, and she could see the pines roll away in sombre
+battalions into the drifting mists below. Their sleep-giving fragrance
+reached her through the dew-cooled air, but she scarcely noticed it as
+she lay with her low basket-chair drawn close up to the window-sill.</p>
+
+<p>It was the flume-builder her thoughts hovered round, and she endeavored
+fruitlessly to define the attraction he had for her, or, as she
+preferred to consider it, the reason for the interest she felt in him.
+She admitted that this existed, and wondered vaguely how much of it was
+due to vanity resulting from a recognition of the fact that it was she
+who had roused him from a state of too acquiescent lethargy. What she
+had seen at the Quatomac ranch had had its significance for her, and she
+had realized the hopelessness of the life he was leading there. Even if
+she had not done so, he had told her, more or less plainly, that it was
+she who had given him new aspirations,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> and re-awakened his sense of
+responsibility. That, perhaps, accounted for a good deal, since she was
+endued with the compassionate maternal instinct which, when it finds no
+natural outlet, prompts many women to encourage, and on opportunity,
+shelter the beaten down and fallen.</p>
+
+<p>It was, however, evident that the flume-builder did not exactly come
+under that category. Indeed, of late, his daring and pertinacity had won
+her admiration as well as sympathy, and that led her to the question
+what his aspirations pointed to. She would not consider it, for the
+fashion in which she had once or twice felt his eyes dwell upon her face
+was, in that connection, almost unpleasantly suggestive. Then she
+wondered why the fact that he had not long ago excused himself from
+spending an evening in her company at the ranch should have hurt her, as
+she now almost admitted that it did. It was, she decided, not exactly
+due to pique or wounded vanity, for, though very human in many respects,
+she, at least, considered herself too strong for either. That, however,
+brought her no nearer any answer which commended itself to her.</p>
+
+<p>The man was less brilliant than several she had met. She could not even
+be sure that there were not grave defects in his character, and he was,
+in the meanwhile, a mere flume-builder. Yet he was different from those
+other men, though, since the difference was by no means altogether in
+his favor, it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> was almost irritating that her thoughts should dwell upon
+him, to the exclusion of the rest. There was presumably a reason for
+this, but she made a little impatient movement, and resolutely put aside
+the subject as one suggested itself. It was, she decided, altogether
+untenable, and, in fact, preposterous.</p>
+
+<p>Still, she felt far from sleepy, and sat still, shivering a little now
+and then, while the moon rose higher above the snow, until its faint
+light drove back the shadows from the swamp. The clustering pines shook
+off their duskiness, and grew into definite tracery; an owl that hooted
+eerily flitted by on soundless wing, and she felt the silence become
+suddenly almost overwhelming. There was no wind that she could feel, but
+she could hear the little willow leaves stirring, it seemed, beneath the
+cooling dew, for the sound had scarcely strength enough to make a
+tangible impression upon her senses. It, however, appeared to grow a
+trifle louder, and she found herself listening with strained attention
+when it ceased awhile, until it rose again, a trifle more clearly. She
+glanced at the cedars above the clearing, but they stood sombre and
+motionless in silent ranks, and she leaned forward in her chair with
+heart beating more rapidly than usual as she wondered what made those
+leaves move. They were certainly rustling now, while the ranch was very
+silent, and the rest of the clearing altogether still.</p>
+
+<p>Then a shadow detached itself from the rest, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> its contour did not
+suggest that of a slender tree. It increased in length, and, remembering
+Devine's papers, she rose with a little gasp. Her sister, as he had
+pointed out, had delicate nerves, Mrs. Wilkins was dull of hearing, and,
+as the men's shanty stood almost a mile away, it was evident that she
+must depend upon her own resources. She stood still, quivering a little,
+for almost a minute, and then with difficulty repressed a cry when the
+dim figure of a man appeared in the clearing. Two minutes later she
+slipped softly into the room where Katty Devine lay asleep, and opened a
+cupboard set apart for her husband's use, while, when she flitted across
+the stream of radiance that shone in through the window, she held an
+object, that gleamed with a metallic lustre, clenched in one hand.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>XVII.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">BROOKE ATTEMPTS BURGLARY.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The half-moon Barbara watched from her window floated slowly above the
+serrated tops of the dusky pines when Brooke groped his way through
+their shadow across a strip of the Englishman's swamp. The ranch which
+he was making for rose darkly before him with the willows clustering
+close up to that side of it, and he stopped and stood listening when he
+reached them. The night was very still, so still, indeed, that the deep
+silence vaguely troubled him. High above the climbing forests great
+ramparts of never-melting snow gleamed against the blue, and standing
+there, hot, breathless, and a trifle muddy, he felt their impressive
+white serenity, until he started at a faint rattle in the house. It
+ceased suddenly, but it had set his heart throbbing unpleasantly fast,
+though he was sensible of a little annoyance with himself because this
+was the case.</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing he need fear, and he was, indeed, not quite sure that
+the prospect of facing a physical peril would have been altogether
+unpleasant then. Devine was away, the women were doubtless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> asleep, and
+it was the fact that he was about to creep like a thief into a house
+where he had been hospitably welcomed which occasioned his uneasiness.
+It was true that he only meant to acquire information which would enable
+him to recover the dollars he had been defrauded of, but the reflection
+brought him no more consolation than it had done on other occasions when
+he had been sensible of the same disgust and humiliation.</p>
+
+<p>He was, however, at the same time sensible of a faint relief, for the
+position had been growing almost intolerable of late, and, though he
+shrank from the revelation, it seemed preferable that Barbara Heathcote
+should see him in the true light at last. This, it was evident, must
+happen ultimately, and now it would, at least, dispense with the hateful
+necessity of continuing the deception. He had also, though that appeared
+of much less importance then, met with further difficulties at the
+ca&ntilde;on, and he realized almost with content that Devine would in all
+probability pay him nothing for the uncompleted work. He did not wish to
+feel that he owed Devine anything.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile a little bent branch from which the bruised leaves
+drooped limply caught his eye, for he had trained his powers of
+observation following the deer at the ranch, and moving a trifle he
+noticed one that was broken. It was evident that somebody had recently
+forced his way through the thicket<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> towards the house, and he wondered
+vacantly why anyone should have done so when a good trail led round the
+copse. The question would probably not have occupied his attention at
+any other time, but just then he was glad to seize upon anything that
+might serve to distract his thoughts from the purpose he had on hand.</p>
+
+<p>He could not, however, stay there considering it, and following the bend
+of the willows he came to the door of the ranch kitchen, behind which
+the office stood, and once more he stopped to listen. There was nothing
+audible but the distant roar of the ca&ntilde;on, and, though nobody could see
+him, he felt his face grow hot as he laid one hand upon the door and
+inserted the point of a little steel bar in the crevice. Devine's office
+was isolated from the rest of the ranch, but Brooke felt that if anybody
+heard the sound he expected to make he would not be especially sorry. He
+would not abandon his project, but he could have borne anything that
+made it impracticable with equanimity.</p>
+
+<p>The door, however, somewhat to his astonishment, swung open at a touch,
+and he crept in noiselessly with an even greater sense of degradation.
+The inmates of the ranch were, it seemed, wholly unsuspecting, and he
+whom they had treated with gracious kindliness was about to take a
+shameful advantage of their confidence. Still, he crossed the kitchen
+carrying the little bar and did not stop until he reached<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> the office
+door. This stood ajar, but he stood still a moment in place of going in,
+longing, most illogically, for any interruption. The ranch seemed
+horribly and unnaturally still, for he could not hear the sound of the
+river now, until there was a low rustle that set him quivering.
+Somebody, it appeared, was moving about the room in front of him. Then a
+board creaked sharply, and with every nerve strung up he drew the door a
+trifle open.</p>
+
+<p>A faint stream of radiance shone in through the window, but it fell upon
+the wall opposite, and the rest of the room was wrapped in shadow, in
+which he could just discern a dim figure that moved stealthily. It was
+evidently a man who could have come there with no commendable purpose,
+and as he recognized this a somewhat curious thing happened, for
+Brooke's lips set tight, and he clenched the steel bar in a fit of
+venomous anger. It did not occur to him that his own object was, after
+all, very much the same as the stranger's, and creeping forward
+noiselessly with eyes fixed on the dusky figure he saw it stoop and
+apparently move a book that stood on what seemed to be a box. That
+movement enabled him to gain another yard, and then he stopped again,
+bracing himself for the grapple, while the dim object straightened
+itself and turned towards the light.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke could hear nothing but the throbbing of his heart, and for a
+moment his eyes grew hazy; but that passed, and he saw the man hold up
+an object<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> that was very like a tin case. He moved again nearer the
+light, and Brooke sprang forward with the bar swung aloft. Quick as he
+was, the stranger was equally alert, and stepped forward instead of
+back, while next moment Brooke looked into the dully glinting muzzle of
+a pistol.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop right where you are!" a voice said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke did as he was bidden, instinctively. Had there been any
+unevenness in the voice he might have risked a rush, but the grim
+quietness of the order was curiously impressive, and for a second or two
+the men stood tense and motionless, looking at one another with hands
+clenched and lips hard set Brooke recognized the intruder as a man who
+wheeled the ore between the mine and stamps, and remembered that he had
+not been there very long.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want here?" he said, for the silence was getting
+intolerable.</p>
+
+<p>The man smiled grimly, though he did not move the pistol, and his eyes
+were unpleasantly steady.</p>
+
+<p>"I was going to ask you the same thing, but it don't count," he said.
+"There's a door yonder, and you have 'bout ten seconds to get out of it.
+If you're here any longer you're going to take tolerably steep chances
+of getting hurt."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke realized that the warning was probably warranted, but he stood
+still, stiffening his grasp on the bar, for to vacate the position was
+the last thing he contemplated. Barbara Heathcote was in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> ranch, and
+he did not remember that she had also two companions then. Nor did he
+know exactly what he meant to do, that is, while the stranger eyed him
+with the same unpleasant steadiness, for it was evident that a very
+slight contraction of his forefinger would effectually prevent him doing
+anything. Then while they stood watching each other breathlessly for a
+second or two a door handle rattled and Brooke heard a rustle of
+draperies.</p>
+
+<p>"Look behind you!" said the stranger, sharply.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke, too strung up to recognize the risk of the proceeding, swung
+round almost before he heard him, and then gasped with consternation,
+for Barbara stood in the entrance holding up a light. She was, however,
+not quite defenseless, as Brooke realized when he saw the gleaming
+pistol in her hand. Next moment his folly, and the fact that the
+stranger had also seen it, became evident, for there was a hasty patter
+of feet, and when Brooke turned again he had almost gained the other
+door of the room. Barbara, who had moved forward in the meanwhile,
+however, now stood between him and it, and turning half round he raised
+the pistol menacingly. Then with hand clenched hard upon the bar Brooke
+sprang.</p>
+
+<p>There was a flash and a detonation, the acrid smoke drove into his eyes,
+and he fell with a crash against the door, which was flung to in front
+of him. He had, as he afterwards discovered, struck it with his head and
+shoulder, but just then he was only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> sensible of an unpleasant dizziness
+and a stinging pain in his left arm. Then he leaned somewhat heavily
+against the door, and he and the girl looked at each other through the
+filmy wisps of smoke that drifted athwart the light, while a rapid
+patter of footsteps grew less distinct. Barbara was somewhat white in
+face, and her lips were quivering.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you hurt?" she said, and her voice sounded curiously strained.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Brooke, with a little hollow laugh. "Not seriously, anyway.
+The fellow flung the door to in my face, and the blow must have partly
+dazed me. That reminds me that I'm wasting time. Where is he now?"</p>
+
+<p>Barbara made a little forceful gesture. "Halfway across the clearing, I
+expect. You cannot go after him. Look at your arm."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke turned his head slowly, for the dizziness he was sensible of did
+not seem to be abating, and saw a thin, red trickle drip from the sleeve
+of his jean jacket, which the moonlight fell upon.</p>
+
+<p>"I scarcely think it's worth troubling about. The arm will bend all
+right," he said. "Still, perhaps, you wouldn't mind very much if I took
+this thing off."</p>
+
+<p>He seized the edge of the jacket, and then while his face went awry let
+his hand drop again.</p>
+
+<p>"It might, perhaps, be better to cut the sleeve," he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> said. "Could you
+run this knife down the seam? The jean is very thin."</p>
+
+<p>The girl's hand shook a little as she opened the knife he passed her,
+and just then a cry came down faintly from one of the rooms above.
+Barbara swung round swiftly, and moved into the corridor.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing very dreadful has happened, and I am coming back in a minute or
+two, but whatever you do don't come down," she said authoritatively, and
+Brooke heard a door swing to above.</p>
+
+<p>Then she came towards him quietly, and laid a hand on his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Keep still, and I will not be long. Katty is apt to lose her head," she
+said.</p>
+
+<p>Her fingers still quivered a little, but she was deft in spite of it,
+and when the slit sleeve fell away Brooke sat down on the table with a
+little smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Very sorry to trouble you," he said. "I don't know much about these
+things, but the artery evidently isn't cut, and I don't think the bone
+is touched. That means there can't be very much harm done. Would you
+mind tying my handkerchief tightly round it where I've laid my finger?"</p>
+
+<p>Barbara, who did so, afterwards sat down in the nearest chair, for she
+felt a trifle breathless as well as somewhat limp, and there was an
+embarrassing silence, while for no very apparent reason they now avoided
+looking at one another. A little filmy smoke still drifted about the
+room, and a short steel bar, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> tin case, and a litter of papers lay
+between them on the floor. There were red splashes on one or two of the
+latter.</p>
+
+<p>"The man must have dropped them," said Barbara, quietly, though her
+voice was still not quite her usual one. "He, of course, brought the bar
+to open the door with."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke did not answer the last remark.</p>
+
+<p>"I fancy he dropped them when he flung the door in my face," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course!" said Barbara. "He had his hands full."</p>
+
+<p>The point did not seem of the least importance to her, but she was
+shaken, and felt that the silence which was growing significant would be
+insupportable. Then a thought struck her, and she looked up suddenly at
+the man.</p>
+
+<p>"But, now, I remember, you had the bar," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Brooke, very simply, though his face was grim. "I certainly
+had."</p>
+
+<p>The girl had turned a little so that the light shone upon her, and he
+saw the faint bewilderment in her eyes. It, however, vanished in a
+moment or two, but Brooke decided that if he guessed her thoughts
+correctly he had done wisely in admitting the possession of the bar.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course! You hadn't a pistol, and it was, no doubt, the only thing
+you could find," she said. "I'm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> afraid I did not even remember to thank
+you, but to tell the truth I was too badly frightened to think of
+anything."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke nodded comprehendingly, but Barbara noticed that the blood was in
+his cheeks and he smiled in a very curious fashion.</p>
+
+<p>"I scarcely think I deserve any thanks," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Barbara made a little gesture. "Pshaw!" she said. "You are not always so
+conventional, and both I and Grant Devine owe you a great deal. The man
+must have been a claim-jumper, and meant to steal those papers. They
+are&mdash;the plans and patents of the Canopus."</p>
+
+<p>She stopped a moment, and then, seeing Brooke had noticed the momentary
+pause, continued, with a little forced laugh and a flush in her cheeks,
+"That was native Canadian caution asserting itself. I am ashamed of it,
+but you must remember I was rather badly startled a little while ago.
+There is no reason why I should not tell&mdash;you&mdash;this, or show you the
+documents."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke made a little grimace as though she had hurt him physically.</p>
+
+<p>"I think there is," he said.</p>
+
+<p>The girl stared at him a moment, and then he saw only sympathy in her
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid my wits have left me, or I would not have kept you talking
+while you are in pain. Your arm hurts?" she said.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>"No," said Brooke, drily. "The arm is, I feel almost sure, very little
+the worse. Hadn't you better pick the papers up? You will excuse me
+stooping to help you. I scarcely think it would be advisable just now."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara knelt down and gathered the scattered documents up, while the
+man noticed the curious flush in her face when one of them left a red
+smear on her little white fingers. Rising, she held them up to him half
+open as they had fallen, and looked at him steadily.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you put them straight while I find the band they were slipped
+through?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke fancied he understood her. She had a generous spirit, and having
+in a moment of confusion, when she was scarcely capable of thinking
+concisely, suggested a doubt of him, was making amends in the one
+fashion that suggested itself. Then she turned away, and her back was
+towards him as she moved slowly towards the door, when a plan of the
+Canopus mine fell open in his hand. The light was close beside him, but
+he closed his eyes for a moment and there was a rustle as the papers
+slipped from his fingers, while when the girl turned towards him his
+face was awry, and he looked at her with a little grim smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid they are scattered again," he said. "It was very clumsy of
+me, but I find it hurts me to use my left hand."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>Barbara thrust the papers into the case. "I am sorry I didn't think of
+that," she said. "Even if you don't appreciate my thanks you will have
+to put up with my brother-in-law's, and he is a man who remembers. It
+might have cost him a good deal if anybody who could not be trusted had
+seen those papers&mdash;and now no more of them. Take that canvas chair, and
+don't move again until I tell you."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke made no answer, and Barbara went out into the corridor.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you dress as quickly as you can, Katty, and come down," she said.
+"I don't know where you keep the decanters, and I want to give Mr.
+Brooke, who is hurt a little, a glass of wine."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke protested, but Barbara laughed as she said, "It will really be a
+kindness to Katty, who is now, I feel quite sure, lying in a state of
+terror, with everything she dare reach out to get hold of rolled about
+her head."</p>
+
+<p>It was three or four minutes later when Mrs. Devine appeared, and
+Barbara turned towards her, speaking very quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing to be gained by getting nervous now," she said. "A man
+came in to steal Grant's papers about the mine, and Mr. Brooke, who saw
+him, crept in after him, though he had only a little bar, and the man
+had a pistol. I fancy Grant is considerably indebted to him, and we
+must, at least,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> keep him here until one of the boys brings up the
+settlement doctor."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke rose to his feet, but Barbara moved swiftly to the door and
+turned the key in it.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said, decisively. "You are not going away when you are
+scarcely fit to walk. Katty, you haven't brought the wine yet."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke sat down again, and making no answer, looked away from her, for
+though he would greatly have preferred it he scarcely felt capable of
+reaching his tent. Then there was silence for several minutes until Mrs.
+Devine came back with the wine.</p>
+
+<p>"You are going to stay here until your arm is seen to. My husband would
+not be pleased if we did not do everything we could for you," she said.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>XVIII.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">BROOKE MAKES A DECISION.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>It was the second morning after the attempt upon the papers, and Brooke
+lay in a basket chair on the little verandah at the ranch. In spite of
+the settlement doctor's ministrations his arm was a good deal more
+painful than he had expected it to be, his head ached; and he felt
+unpleasantly lethargic and limp. It, however, seemed to him that this
+wound was not sufficiently serious to account for this, and he wondered
+vaguely whether it resulted from too strenuous physical exertion coupled
+with the increasing mental strain he had borne of late. That question
+was, however, of no great importance, for he had a more urgent one to
+grapple with, and in the meanwhile it was pleasant to lie there and
+listen languidly while Barbara talked to him.</p>
+
+<p>The sunshine lay bright upon the climbing pines which filled the
+listless air with resinous odors, but there was restful shadow on the
+verandah, and wherever the eye wandered an entrancing vista of gleaming
+snow. Brooke had, however, seen a good deal of snow, and floundered
+through it waist-deep, already,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> and it was the girl who sat close at
+hand, looking, it seemed to him, refreshingly cool and dainty in her
+loose white dress, his gaze most often rested on. Her quiet graciousness
+had also a soothing effect upon the man who had risen unrefreshed after
+a night of mental conflict which had continued through the few brief
+snatches of fevered sleep. Brooke felt the need of moral stimulant as
+well as physical rest, for the struggle he had desisted from for the
+time was not over yet.</p>
+
+<p>He was tenacious of purpose, but it had cost him an effort to adhere to
+the terms of his compact with Saxton, and it was with a thrill of
+intense disgust he realized how far it had led him when he came upon the
+thief, for there was no ignoring the fact that it would be very
+difficult to make any great distinction between them. It had also become
+evident that he could not continue to play the part Saxton had allotted
+him, and yet if he threw it over he stood to lose everything his
+companion, who was at once a reproach to him and an incentive to a
+continuance in the career of deception, impersonated. Her society and
+his few visits to the ranch had shown him the due value of the
+refinement and congenial environment which no man without dollars could
+hope to enjoy, and re-awakened an appreciation of the little amenities
+and decencies of life which had become scarcely more than a memory to
+him. With the six thousand dollars in his hands he might once more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>
+attain them, but it was now evident that the memory of how he had
+accomplished it would tend to mar any satisfaction he could expect to
+derive from this. He could, in the meanwhile, neither nerve himself to
+bear the thought of the girl's scorn when she realized what his purpose
+had been, nor bid her farewell and go back to the aimless life of
+poverty. One thing alone was certain. Devine's papers were safe from
+him.</p>
+
+<p>He lay silent almost too long, watching her with a vague longing in his
+gaze, for her head was partly turned from him. He could see her face in
+profile, which accentuated its clean chiselling, while her pose
+displayed the firm white neck and fine lines of the figure the thin
+white dress flowed away from. He had also guessed enough of her
+character to realize that it was not to any approach to physical
+perfection she owed most of her attractiveness, for it seemed to him
+that she brought with her an atmosphere of refinement and tranquillity
+which nothing that was sordid or ignoble could breathe in. Perhaps she
+felt his eyes upon her, for she turned at last and glanced at him.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been thinking&mdash;about that night," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"You really shouldn't," said Brooke, who felt suddenly uneasy. "It isn't
+worth while."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara smiled. "That is a point upon which opinions may differ, but I
+understand your attitude.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> You see, I have been in England, and you
+apparently believe it the correct thing to hide your light under a
+bushel there."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Brooke, drily, "at least, not all of us. In fact, we are not
+averse from graciously permitting other folks, and now and then the
+Press, to proclaim our good deeds for us. I don't know that the more
+primitive fashion of doing it one's self isn't quite as tasteful."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara shook her head. "There are," she said, "several kinds of
+affectation, and I am not to be put off. Now, you are quite aware that
+you did my brother-in-law a signal service, and contrived to get me out
+of a very unpleasant, and, I fancy, a slightly perilous situation."</p>
+
+<p>The color deepened a little in Brooke's face, and once more he was
+sensible of the humiliation that had troubled him on previous occasions,
+as he remembered that it was by no means to do Devine a service he had
+crept into the ranch. It was a most unpleasant feeling, and he had
+signally failed to accustom himself to it.</p>
+
+<p>"I really don't think there was very much risk," he said. "Besides, you
+had a pistol."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara laughed softly. "I never fired off a pistol in my life, and I
+almost fancy there was nothing in the one in question."</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't you notice whether there were any cartridges in the chamber?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>"No," said Barbara. "I'm not sure I know which the chamber is, but I
+pressed something I supposed to be the trigger, and it only made a
+click."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke glanced at her a trifle sharply. "You meant to fire at the man?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I did. Was it very dreadful? He was there with an unlawful
+purpose, and I saw his eyes grow wicked and his hand tighten just as you
+sprang at him. Still, I was almost glad when the pistol did not go off."</p>
+
+<p>She seemed to have some difficulty in repressing a shiver at the
+recollection, and Brooke sat silent for a moment or two with his heart
+throbbing a good deal faster than usual. He could guess what that effort
+had cost his companion, and that it was his peril which had nerved her
+to overcome her natural shrinking from taking life. Perhaps Barbara
+noticed the effect her explanation had on him, and desired to lessen it,
+for she said, "It really was unpleasant, but I remembered that you had
+come there to ensure the safety of my brother-in-law's property, and one
+is permitted to shoot at a thief in this country."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke, who could not help it, made a little abrupt movement, and felt
+his face grow hot as he wondered what she would think of him if she knew
+the purpose that had brought him there. The fact that she seemed quite
+willing to believe that one was warranted in firing at a thief had also
+its sting.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course!" he said. "I am, however, inclined<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> to think you saved my
+life. The man probably saw your hand go up and that made him a trifle
+too precipitate. Still, perhaps, he only wanted to look at your
+brother-in-law's papers and had no intention of stealing anything."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara, who appeared glad to change the subject, smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Admitting that, I can't see any great difference," she said. "The man
+who runs a personal risk to secure a wallet with dollar bills in it that
+belongs to somebody else naturally does not expect commendation, or
+usually get it, but it seems to me a good deal meaner thing to steal a
+claim by cunning trickery. For instance, one has a certain admiration
+for the train robbers across the frontier. For two or three
+road-agents&mdash;and there are not often more&mdash;to hold up and rob a train
+demands, at least, a good deal of courage, but to plunder a man by
+prying into his secrets is only contemptible. Don't you think so?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke winced beneath her gaze.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said slowly, "I suppose it is. Still, you see there may be
+excuses even for such a person."</p>
+
+<p>"Excuses! Surely&mdash;you&mdash;do not feel capable of inventing any for a
+claim-jumper?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke felt that in his case there were, at least, one or two, but he
+had sufficient reasons for not making them clear to the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, "I wonder if you could make any for a train-robber?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>Barbara appeared reflective. "We will admit that the dishonesty is the
+same in both cases, though that is not quite the point. The men who hold
+a train up, however, take a serious personal risk, and stake their lives
+upon their quickness and nerve. They have nobody to fall back upon, and
+must face the results if the courage of any of the passengers is equal
+to theirs. Daring of that kind commands a certain respect. The
+claim-jumper, on the contrary, must necessarily proceed by stealth, and,
+of course, rarely ventures on an attempt until he makes sure that the
+law will support him, because the man he means to rob has neglected some
+trivial requirement."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it is admissible to steal, so long as you do it openly and take a
+personal risk? Still, I believe I have heard of claim-jumpers being
+shot, though I am not quite sure that it happened in Canada."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara laughed. "They probably deserved it. It is not admissible to
+steal under any circumstances, but the safer and more subtle forms of
+theft are especially repellent. Now, I think I have made out my case for
+the train-robber, but I cannot see why you should constitute yourself an
+advocate for the claim-jumper."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke contrived to force a smile. "It is," he said, "often a little
+difficult to make sure of one's motives, but we can, at least, take it
+for granted that the man who robs a train is the nobler rascal."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara, who appeared thoughtful, sat silent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> awhile. "It was fortunate
+you arrived when you did that night," she said, meditatively. "Still, as
+you could not well have known the man meant to make the attempt, or have
+expected to find anybody still awake at the ranch, it seems an almost
+astonishing coincidence."</p>
+
+<p>Though he surmised that no notion of what had brought him there had
+entered his companion's mind, Brooke felt hot to the forehead now, for
+he was unpleasantly sensible that the girl was watching him. An
+explanation that might have served also suggested itself to him, but he
+felt that he could not add to his offences.</p>
+
+<p>"It certainly was," he said, languidly. "I have, however, heard of
+coincidences that were more astonishing still."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara nodded. "No doubt," she said. "We will let it go at that. As you
+may have noticed, we are now and then almost indecently candid in this
+country, but I agree with my brother-in-law who says that nobody could
+make an Englishman talk unless he wanted to."</p>
+
+<p>"Silence is reputed to be golden," said Brooke, reflectively, "and I
+really think there are cases when it is. At least, there was one I
+figured in when some two or three minutes' unchecked speech cost me more
+dollars than I have made ever since. It happened in England, and I
+merely favored another man with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> my frank opinion of him. After a thing
+of that kind one is apt to be guarded."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you should cultivate a sense of proportion. Can one make up for
+a single mistake in one direction by erring continually in the opposite
+one? Still, that is not a question we need go into now. You expect to
+get the rope across the ca&ntilde;on very shortly?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Brooke, whose expression changed suddenly, "I do."</p>
+
+<p>"And then?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke, who felt the girl's eyes upon him, and understood what she
+meant, made a little gesture. "I don't know. I shall probably take the
+trail again. It does not matter greatly where it may lead me."</p>
+
+<p>There was a curious little vibration he could not quite repress in his
+voice, and both he and his companion were, under the circumstances,
+silent a trifle too long, for there are times when silence is very
+expressive. Then it was Barbara who spoke, though she felt that what she
+said was not especially appropriate.</p>
+
+<p>"You will be sorry to go?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke looked at her steadily, with his lips set, and, though she did
+not see this, his fingers quivering a little, for he realized at last
+what it would cost him to leave her. For a moment a hot flood of passion
+and longing threatened to sweep him away, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> he held it in check, and
+Barbara only noticed the grimness of his face.</p>
+
+<p>"What answer could I make? The conventional one demanded scarcely fits
+the case," he said, and his laugh rang hollow.</p>
+
+<p>"But the dam will not be finished," said Barbara, who realized that she
+had made an unfortunate start.</p>
+
+<p>Again Brooke sat silent. It seemed folly to abandon his purpose, and he
+wondered whether he would have sufficient strength of will to go away.
+It was also folly to stay and sink further under the girl's influence,
+when the revelation he shrank from would, if he persisted in his attempt
+to recover his dollars, become inevitable. Still, once he left the
+Canopus he must go back to a life of hardship and labor, and, in spite
+of the humiliation and fear of the future he often felt, the present was
+very pleasant. On the other hand there was only scarcity, exposure to
+rain and frost, and bitter, hopeless toil. He sat very still with one
+hand closed, not daring to look at his companion until she spoke again.</p>
+
+<p>"You say you do not know where the trail may lead you, and you do not
+seem to care. One would fancy that was wrong," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>Barbara turned a little, and looked at him with a faint sparkle in her
+eyes. "In this province the trail the resolute man takes usually leads
+to success. We want bridges and railroad trestles, forests cleared,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> and
+the valleys lined with roads. You can build them."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke shook his head, though her confidence in him, as well as her
+optimism, had its due effect.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I was a little more sure," he said. "The difficulty, as I think
+I once pointed out, is that one needs dollars to make a fair start
+with."</p>
+
+<p>"They are, at least, not indispensable, as the history of most of the
+men who have done anything worth while in the province shows. Isn't
+there a certain satisfaction in starting with everything against one?"</p>
+
+<p>"Afterwards, perhaps. That is, if one struggles through. There is,
+however, one learns by experience, really very little satisfaction at
+the time, especially if one scarcely gets beyond the start at all."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara smiled a little, though she looked at him steadily. "You," she
+said, "will, I think, go a long way. In fact, if it was a sword I gave
+you, I should expect it of you."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke came very near losing his head just then, though he realized
+that, after all, the words implied little more than a belief in his
+capabilities, and for a few insensate moments he almost decided to stay
+at the Canopus and make the most of his opportunities. Saxton, he
+reflected, might put sufficient pressure upon Devine to extort the six
+thousand dollars from him without the necessity for his part becoming
+apparent at all. With that sum in his hands there was,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> he felt, very
+little he could not attain, and then he shook off the deluding fancy,
+for it once more became apparent that the deed, which gave Saxton the
+hold he wished for upon Devine would, even if she never heard of it,
+stand as barrier between Barbara Heathcote and him.</p>
+
+<p>"One feels inclined to wonder now and then whether success does not
+occasionally, at least, cost the man who achieves it more than it is
+worth," he said. "The actual record of the leaders one is expected to
+look up to might, in that connection, provide one with a fund of
+somewhat astonishing information."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara made a little gesture of impatience. "Is the poor man the only
+one who can be honest?"</p>
+
+<p>"One would, at least, feel inclined to fancy that the man who is unduly
+honest runs a serious risk of remaining poor."</p>
+
+<p>"I think that is an argument I have very little sympathy with," said
+Barbara. "It is, you see, so easy for the incapable to impeach the
+successful man's honesty. I might even go a little further and admit
+that it is an attitude I scarcely expected from you."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled somewhat bitterly. "You will, however, remember that I
+have made no attempt to persuade you of my own integrity."</p>
+
+<p>Just then, as it happened, Mrs. Devine came into the verandah with a
+packet in her hand.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>"These are the papers the man tried to steal," she said. "Since you
+insist upon going back to the ca&ntilde;on to-day I wonder if you would take
+care of them?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke gasped, and felt the veins swell on his forehead as he looked at
+her. "You wish me to take them away?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course! My nerves are really horribly unsettled, and I was sent to
+the mountains for quietness. How could any one expect me to get it when
+I couldn't even sleep for fear of that man or some one else coming back
+for these documents?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are, I think, of considerable importance to your husband," said
+Brooke.</p>
+
+<p>"That is precisely why I would like to feel that they were safe in your
+tent. Nobody would expect you to have them there."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke turned his head a little so that he could see Barbara's face.</p>
+
+<p>"I appreciate your confidence," he said, and the girl noticed that his
+voice was a trifle hoarse. "Still, I must point out that I am almost a
+stranger to Mr. Devine and you."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara smiled a little, but there was something that set the man's
+heart beating in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not sure that everybody would be so willing to make the most of
+the fact, but I feel quite sure my sister's confidence is warranted,"
+she said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> "That, of course, does not sound very nice, but you have made
+it necessary."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke, who glanced curiously at the single seal, laid down the packet,
+and Mrs. Devine smiled. "<i>I</i> feel ever so much easier now that is off my
+mind," she said. "Still, I shall expect you to sleep with the papers
+under your pillow."</p>
+
+<p>She went out, and left him and Barbara alone again, but Brooke knew that
+the struggle was over and the question decided once for all. The girl's
+trust in him had not only made those papers inviolable so far as he was
+concerned, but had rendered a breach with Saxton unavoidable. He knew
+now that he could never do what the latter had expected from him.</p>
+
+<p>"You appeared almost unwilling to take the responsibility," said the
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled curiously. "I really think that was the case," he said.
+"In fact, your confidence almost hurt me. One feels the obligation of
+proving it warranted&mdash;in every respect&mdash;you see. That is partly why I
+shall go away the day we swing the first load of props across the
+ca&ntilde;on."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara felt a trace of disconcertion. "But my brother-in-law may ask
+you to do something else for him."</p>
+
+<p>"I scarcely think that is likely," said Brooke, with a little dry smile.</p>
+
+<p>Barbara said nothing further, and when she left<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> him Brooke was once
+more sensible of a curious relief. It would, he knew, cost him a
+strenuous effort to go away, but he would, at least, be freed from the
+horrible necessity of duping the girl, who, it seemed, believed in him.
+When Jimmy arrived that evening to accompany him back to his tent at the
+ca&ntilde;on, and expressed his satisfaction at the fact that he did not appear
+very much the worse, he smiled a trifle drily.</p>
+
+<p>"That," he said, "is a little astonishing. I am, I think, warranted in
+believing myself six thousand dollars worse off than when I went away."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy stared at him incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, "I never figured you had that many, and I don't quite
+see how you could have let them get away from you here. Something you
+didn't expect has happened?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke appeared reflective. "I'm not quite sure whether I expected it or
+not, but I almost hope I did," he said.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>XIX.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">BROOKE'S BARGAIN.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>There was a portentous quietness in the little wooden town which did not
+exactly please Mr. Faraday Slocum, the somewhat discredited local agent
+of Grant Devine, as he ascended the steep street from the grocery store.
+The pines closed in upon it, but their sombre spires were growing dim,
+and the white mists clung about them, for dusk was creeping up the
+valley. The latter fact brought Slocum a sense of satisfaction, and at
+the same time a growing uneasiness. He had, as it happened, signally
+failed to collect a certain sum from the store-keeper, who had expressed
+his opinion of him and his doings with vitriolic candor, and it was
+partly as the result of this that very little escaped his notice as he
+proceeded with an ostentatious leisureliness towards his dwelling.</p>
+
+<p>A straggling row of stores and houses, log and frame and galvanized
+iron, jumbled all together in unsightly confusion, stretched away before
+him towards the gap in the forest where the railroad track came in, but
+it was the little groups of men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> who hung about them which occupied his
+quiet attention. He saluted them with somewhat forced good-humor as he
+went by, but there was no great cordiality in their responses, and some
+of them stared at him in uncompromising silence. There was, he felt, a
+certain tension in the atmosphere, and it was not without a purpose he
+stopped in front of the wooden hotel, where a little crowd had collected
+upon the verandah.</p>
+
+<p>"It's kind of sultry to-night, boys," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody responded for a moment or two, and then there was an unpleasant
+laugh as somebody said, "You've hit it; I guess it is."</p>
+
+<p>Slocum remembered that most of those loungers had been glad to greet
+him, and even hand him their spare dollars, not long ago; but there was
+a decided difference now. He was a capable business man, who could make
+the most of an opportunity, and the inhabitants of the little wooden
+town had shown themselves disposed to regard certain trifling
+obliquities leniently, while they or their friends made satisfactory
+profits on the deals in ranching land and building lots he recommended.
+That, however, was while the boom lasted, but when the bottom had, as
+they expressed it, dropped out, and a good many of them found themselves
+saddled with unmarketable possessions, they commenced to be troubled
+with grave doubts concerning the rectitude of his conduct. Slocum was
+naturally quite aware of this, but he was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> a man of nerve, and quietly
+walked up the verandah steps.</p>
+
+<p>"It's that hot I must have a drink, boys. Who's coming in with me?" he
+said, genially.</p>
+
+<p>A few months ago a good many of them would have been willing to profit
+by the invitation, but that night nobody moved, and Slocum laughed
+softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, "I'm not going to worry you. This is evidently a
+temperance meeting."</p>
+
+<p>He passed into the empty bar alone, and a man who leaned upon the
+counter in his shirt sleeves shook his head as he glanced towards the
+verandah.</p>
+
+<p>"They're not in a good humor to-night. It looks very much as if someone
+has been talking to them?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>Slocum smiled a little, though he had already noticed this, and taken
+precautions the bar-keeper never suspected.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess they'll simmer down. Who has been talking to them?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"The two ranchers you sold the Hemlock Range to. There was another man
+who'd bought a piece of natural prairie, and it cost him most of five
+dollars before he got through telling them what he thought of you. Now,
+I don't know what their notion is, but I'd light out for a little if I
+was you."</p>
+
+<p>Slocum appeared to reflect. "Well," he said, "I may go to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>"I'd go to-night," said the bar-keeper, significantly. "I guess it would
+be wiser."</p>
+
+<p>Slocum, who did not consider it necessary to tell him that he quite
+agreed with this, went out, and a few minutes later stopped outside his
+house, which was the last one in the town. A big, rudely-painted sign,
+nailed across the front of it, recommended any one who desired to buy or
+sell land and mineral properties or had mortgages to arrange, to come in
+and confer with the agent of Grant Devine. He glanced back up the
+street, and was relieved to notice that there was nobody loitering about
+that part of it. Then he looked at the forest the trail led into, which
+was shadowy and still, and, slipping round the building, went in through
+the back of it. A woman stood waiting him in a dimly-lighted room, which
+was littered with feminine clothing besides two big valises and an array
+of bulky packages. She was expensively dressed, but her face was
+anxious, and he noticed that her fingers were quivering.</p>
+
+<p>"You're quite ready, Sue?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>The woman pointed to the packages with a little dramatic gesture. "Oh,
+yes," she said. "I'm ready, though I'll have to leave most two hundred
+dollars' worth of clothes behind me. I've no use for taking in plain
+sewing while you think over what you've brought me to in the
+penitentiary."</p>
+
+<p>Slocum smiled drily. "If you hadn't wanted quite so many dry goods, I'm
+not sure it would have come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> to this, but we needn't worry about that
+just now. Tom will have the horses round in 'bout five minutes. You
+don't figure on taking all that truck along with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do," said the woman. "I've got to have something to put on when we
+get to Oregon!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Slocum, grimly, "I'll be quite glad to get out with a whole
+hide, and I guess it couldn't be done if we started with a packhorse
+train or a wagon. I hadn't quite fixed to light out until I got the
+message that Devine, who didn't seem quite pleased with the last
+accounts, was coming in."</p>
+
+<p>"Could you have stood the boys off?"</p>
+
+<p>"I might have done," said Slocum, reflectively. "Still, I couldn't stand
+off Devine. It's dollars he's coming for, and I've got 'bout half the
+accounts call for here."</p>
+
+<p>"You're going to leave him them?"</p>
+
+<p>Slocum laughed. "No," he said. "I guess they'll come in handy in Oregon.
+I'm going to leave him the boys to reckon with. They'll be here with
+clubs soon after the cars come in, and we'll be a league away down the
+trail by then."</p>
+
+<p>A patter of horse hoofs outside cut short the colloquy, though there was
+a brief altercation when the woman once more insisted on taking all the
+packages with her. Slocum terminated it by bundling her out of the door,
+and, when she tearfully consented to mount a kicking pony, swung himself
+to the saddle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> Still, for several minutes his heart was in his mouth,
+as he picked his way through the blacker shadows on the skirt of the
+beaten trail, until a man rose suddenly out of them.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo!" he said. "Where're you going?"</p>
+
+<p>Slocum, leaning sideways, gave his wife's pony a cut with the switch he
+held, and then laughed as he turned to the man.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess that's my business, but I'm going out of town."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite sure?" said the other, who made a sudden clutch at his bridle.</p>
+
+<p>He did not reach it, for Slocum was ready with hand and heel, and the
+switch came down upon the outstretched arm. Then there was a plunge and
+a rapid beat of hoofs, and Slocum, swinging half round in his saddle,
+swept off his hat to the gasping man.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess I am," he said. "You'll tell the boys I'm sorry I couldn't wait
+for them."</p>
+
+<p>Then he struck his wife's horse again. "Let him go," he said. "We'll
+have three or four of them after us in about ten minutes."</p>
+
+<p>The woman said nothing, but braced herself to ride, and, while the beat
+of hoofs grew fainter among the silent pines, the man on foot ran
+gasping up the climbing trail. There was bustle and consternation when
+he reached the wooden town, and, while two or three men who had good
+horses hastily saddled them, the rest collected in clusters which
+coalesced, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> presently a body of silent men proceeded towards the
+Slocum dwelling. As they stopped in front of it, the hoot of a whistle
+came ringing across the pines, and there was an increasing roar as a
+train came up the valley. That, however, did not, so they fancied,
+concern them, and they commenced a parley with the local constable, who
+came hurrying after them. His duties consisted chiefly in the raising
+and peddling of fruit, and he had been recommended for the post by
+popular acclaim as the most tolerant man in the settlement, but he was,
+it seemed, not without a certain sense of responsibility.</p>
+
+<p>"What d'you figure on doing with those clubs, boys?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Seasoning them," said somebody. "Mine's quite soft and green. Now,
+why're you not taking the trail after Slocum? The province allows you
+for a horse, and Hake Guffy's has three good legs on him, anyway."</p>
+
+<p>The constable waved his hand, deprecatingly. "He fell down and hurt one
+of them hauling green stuff to the dep&ocirc;t. I guess I'd have to shove him
+most of the way."</p>
+
+<p>There was a little laughter, which had, however, a trace of grimness in
+it, and one of the men grasped the constable's shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Hadn't you better go round and run Jean Frenchy's hogs out of your
+citron patch?" he said.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>For a moment the constable appeared about to go, and then his face
+expanded into a genial grin.</p>
+
+<p>"That's not good enough, boys," he said. "I'm not quite so fresh that
+the cows would eat me. What've you come round here for, anyway?"</p>
+
+<p>The man who had spoken made a little gesture of resignation. "Well," he
+said, "if you have got to know, we are going in to see if Slocum has
+left any of the dollars he beat us out of behind him."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said the constable, stoutly. "Nobody's going in there without a
+warrant, unless it's me."</p>
+
+<p>There was a little murmur. The man was elderly, and a trifle infirm,
+which was partly why it had been decided that he was most likely to find
+a use for the provincial pay, but he turned upon the threshold and faced
+the crowd resolutely. Had he been younger, it is very probable that he
+would have been hustled away, but a Western mob is usually, to some
+extent, at least, chivalrous, and there was another murmur of protest.</p>
+
+<p>"Go home!" said one man. "They're not your dollars, anyway."</p>
+
+<p>"Boys," and the old man swung an arm aloft, "I'm here, and I'm going to
+make considerable trouble for the man who lays a hand on me. This is a
+law-abiding country, and Slocum wasn't fool enough to leave anything he
+could carry off."</p>
+
+<p>"We don't want to hurt you," said one of the assembly, "but we're going
+in."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>There was a growl of approbation, and the men were closing in upon the
+door when a stranger pushed his way through the midst of them, and then
+swung round and stood facing them beside the constable. He held himself
+commandingly, and, though nobody appeared to recognize him, for darkness
+was closing down, the meaning of his attitude was plain, and the crowd
+gave back a little.</p>
+
+<p>"Go home, boys!" he said. "I'll most certainly have the law of any man
+who puts his foot inside this door."</p>
+
+<p>There was a little ironical laughter, and the crowd once more closed in.
+Half the men of the settlement were present there, and a good many of
+them had bought land from, or trusted their spare dollars to, Slocum.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you, anyway?" said one.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger laughed. "The man who owns the building. My name's Devine."</p>
+
+<p>It was a bold announcement, for those who heard him were not in the best
+of humors then, or disposed to concern themselves with the question how
+far the principal was acquainted with or responsible for the doings of
+his agent.</p>
+
+<p>"The boss thief!" said somebody. "Get hold of him, and bring him along
+to the hotel. Then, if Thorkell can't lock him up, we'll consider what
+we'll do with him."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said another man. "He'll keep for a little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> without going bad, and
+we're here to see if Slocum left anything behind him. Break that door
+in!"</p>
+
+<p>It was a critical moment, for there was a hoarse murmur of approbation,
+and the crowd surged closer about the pair. At any sign of weakness it
+would, perhaps, have gone hardly with them, but the elderly constable
+stood very still and quiet, with empty hands, while Devine fumbled
+inside his jacket. Then he swung one foot forward, and his right arm
+rose, until his hand, which was clenched on a dusky object, was level
+with his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Boys," he said, drily, "somebody's going to get hurt in another minute.
+This is my office, and I can't do with any of you inside it to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, if you hand our dollars out, it would suit us most as well," said
+the spokesman.</p>
+
+<p>Devine appeared to laugh softly. "I guess there are very few of them
+there. Anybody who can prove a claim on me will get satisfaction, but
+he'll have to wait. Neither the place nor I will run away, and you'll
+find me right here when you come along to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going to give every man back the dollars Slocum got from him?"</p>
+
+<p>It was evident that the question met with the approbation of the crowd,
+and a less resolute man might have temporized, but Devine laughed openly
+now.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said, drily. "That's just what I'm not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> going to do. A man
+takes his chances when he makes a deal in land, and can't expect to cry
+off his bargain when they go against him. Still, if any one will bring
+me proof that Slocum swindled him, I'll see what I can do, but I guess
+it will be very little if some of you destroy the books and papers he
+recorded the deals in. You'll have to wait until to-morrow, while I
+worry through them."</p>
+
+<p>His resolution had its due effect, and the fact that no man could reach
+the threshold until he and the constable had been pulled down counted
+for a good deal, too. The men also wanted no more than they considered
+themselves entitled to, and shrank from what, if it was to prove
+successful, must evidently be a murderous assault upon two elderly men.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess there's sense in that," said one of them. "It's going to be
+quite easy to make sure he don't get out of the settlement."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm for letting him have until to-morrow, anyway," said another.
+"Still, the papers aren't there. Where's John Collier? He picked up some
+books and truck Slocum slung away when he met him on the trail."</p>
+
+<p>"I've got them right here," and another man stepped forward. "I was
+coming in from the ranch when I heard two horses pounding down the
+trail, and jumped clear into the fern. The man who went past me tried to
+sling a package into the gully, but I guess he got kind of rattled when
+I shouted, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> dropped the thing. He didn't seem to want to stop, and,
+when he went on at a gallop, I groped round and picked the package up."</p>
+
+<p>Devine lowered the pistol, and turned quietly to the crowd. "There are
+just two courses open to you, boys, and you're going to make mighty
+little but trouble for yourselves by taking one of them. This is my
+office, and so long as I can hold you off nobody's coming in until he's
+asked. I feel quite equal to stopping two or three. Now, if you'll let
+me have those books and go home quietly, I'll have straightened Slocum's
+affairs out by to-morrow, and be ready to see what can be done for you."</p>
+
+<p>The men were evidently wavering, and there was a brief consultation,
+after which the leader turned to Devine.</p>
+
+<p>"We've no use for making any trouble that can be helped, and we'll go
+home," he said. "You can have those books, and a committee will come
+round to see what you've fixed up after breakfast to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Devine nodded tranquilly. "I guess you're wise," he said. "Good night,
+boys!"</p>
+
+<p>They went away, and left him to go in with the constable, who came out
+in a few minutes with a contented grin, which suggested that Devine had
+signified his appreciation of his efforts liberally. The latter,
+however, sat down, dusty and worn with an arduous journey, to undertake
+a night's hard work. He had left the Canopus before sunrise, and spent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>
+most of the day in the saddle, but nobody would have suspected him of
+weariness as he sat, grim and intent of face, before a table littered
+with papers. He had just imposed his will upon an angry crowd, and the
+tension of the past few minutes would have shaken many a younger man,
+but he showed no sign of feeling it, and, as the hours slipped by, only
+rose at intervals to stretch his aching limbs and brush the cigar ash
+from his dust-smeared clothes. This was one of the hard men who, in
+building up their own fortunes, had also laid the foundations of the
+future prosperity of a great province, and a little fatigue did not
+count with him.</p>
+
+<p>The settlement was very still, and the lamp-light paling as the chilly
+dawn crept in, when at last he opened a book that recorded Slocum's
+dealings several years back. There were several folded slips on which he
+had jotted down certain data inside it, and Devine smiled somewhat drily
+as he came upon one entry:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"24th. 6,000 dollars from Harford Brooke, in purchase of 400 acres bush
+land, Quatomac Valley. Ref. 22, slip B."</p>
+
+<p>Devine turned up 22 B, and read: "Mem. About 150 acres 200-foot pines,
+with gravel sub-soil, and very little mould on top of it. Rest of it
+rock. Oregon man bid 1,000 dollars on the 2nd, but asked for re-survey
+and cried off. 12th. Gave Custer four<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> days' option at 950. 20th. Asked
+the British sucker 6,500, and clinched the deal at 6,000."</p>
+
+<p>Devine closed the book, and sat thoughtfully still for a minute or two.
+The epithet his agent had applied to Brooke carried with it the stigma
+of puerile folly in that country, and Devine had usually very little
+sympathy with the men it could be fittingly attached to. Still, he felt
+that nobody could very appropriately term his contractor a sucker now,
+and he had just discovered that he had been systematically plundered
+himself. Several points which had given him food for reflection also
+became suddenly plain, and he lighted another cigar before he fell to
+work again. He had, however, in the meanwhile decided what course to
+adopt with Brooke when he went back to the Canopus mine.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>XX.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">THE BRIDGING OF THE CA&Ntilde;ON.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>It was a week or two after he undertook the investigation of Slocum's
+affairs, and once more the light was failing, when Devine stood at the
+head of the gully above the ca&ntilde;on. His wife and Barbara were with him,
+and they were about to descend, when a cluster of moving figures
+appeared among the pines on the opposite hillside. So far as Devine
+could make out, they were rolling down two or three small trunks of
+firs.</p>
+
+<p>The river was veiled in white mist now, but the sound of its turmoil
+came up hoarsely out of the growing obscurity, and there was sufficient
+light above to show the rope which spanned the awful chasm. It swept
+downwards in a flattened curve, slender and ethereal, at that distance,
+as a film of gossamer, and lost itself in the gloom of the rocks, across
+the ca&ntilde;on. Barbara, however, fancied she realized what it had cost the
+flume-builder to place it there, and, as he glanced at it, a somewhat
+curious look crept into Devine's eyes. He knew that slender thread of
+steel had only been flung across the hollow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> at the risk of life and
+limb, and under a heavy nervous strain.</p>
+
+<p>"If we are going down, hadn't we better start?" said Mrs. Devine. "If it
+gets quite dark before we come up, I shall certainly have to stay there
+until to-morrow. In fact, I'm quite willing to let you and Barbara go
+without me now."</p>
+
+<p>Devine smiled. "I'm not sure we'll go at all. It seems to me Brooke
+means to give the thing a private trial before he asks me to come over
+and see it work, and that's why he waited until it was almost dark. Can
+you make him out, Barbara?"</p>
+
+<p>Barbara had, as a matter of fact, already done so, but she realized that
+her sister's eyes were upon her, and for no very apparent reason
+preferred not to admit it.</p>
+
+<p>"It is getting a little shadowy among the pines, and Katty used to tell
+me she had sharper eyes than mine," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Devine laughed. "Still," she said, reflectively, "I scarcely think
+I have seen Mr. Brooke quite so often as you have."</p>
+
+<p>Devine glanced at them both a trifle sharply, but there was nothing in
+their faces that gave him a clue to their thoughts. "Well," he said,
+"I'm a good deal older than either of you, but I can make him out myself
+now. As usual, he seems to be doing most of the work."</p>
+
+<p>Nobody said anything further, and the moving fig<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>ures stopped where the
+rope ran into the shadows of the rocks, while it was a few minutes later
+when a long, dusky object swung out on it. It slid somewhat slowly down
+the incline, and then stopped where the slight curve led upward, and
+remained dangling high above the hidden river. A shout came faintly
+through the roar of water in the gulf below, and the dark mass
+oscillated violently, but otherwise remained immovable.</p>
+
+<p>"What are they doing? Shouldn't it have run all the way across?" asked
+Mrs. Devine.</p>
+
+<p>Devine nodded. "I guess they're 'most pulling their arms off trying to
+haul the thing across," he said. "It should have come itself, but the
+sheave the trolley runs on must have jammed, or they haven't pulled all
+the kinks and snarls out of the rope. It's quite a big log they've
+loaded her with."</p>
+
+<p>The suspended trunk still oscillated, and a faint clinking came up with
+a hoarse murmur of voices from the hollow. Then there was silence, and
+Devine, who pointed to a fallen cedar, took out his cigar-case.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll stay right here, and see the thing out," he said. "I guess the
+boys have quite enough to worry them just now."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara surmised that most of the anxiety would fall on Brooke, and
+wondered why she should feel as eager as she did to see the fir trunk
+safely swung across. The economical handling of mining props<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> was
+naturally not a subject she had any particular interest in, though she
+realized that the success of his venture was of some importance to the
+man who had stretched the rope across the ca&ntilde;on. There was no ostensible
+reason why it should affect her, and yet she was sensible of a curious
+nervous impatience.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile, it was growing darker, and she could not quite see
+what the dim figures across the river were doing. They did not, in fact,
+appear to be doing anything in particular, beyond standing in a group,
+while the rope no longer oscillated. A thin, white mist commenced to
+drift out of the hollow in filmy wisps, and, in a curious fashion,
+suggested the vast depth of it. The silence the roar of the river broke
+through grew more intense as the chill of the distant snow descended,
+and the stately pines seemed to grow older and greater of girth. They
+dwarfed the tiny clustering figures into insignificance, and as iron
+columns and the raw gashes in the side of the gully faded into the
+gathering night, it seemed to Barbara that here in her primeval
+fastnesses Nature ignored man's puny handiwork.</p>
+
+<p>Then it was with a little thrill of anticipation she saw there was a
+movement among the dusky figures at last, but it cost her an effort to
+sit still when one of them appeared to move out on the rope, for she
+felt she knew who it must be. Devine rose sharply, and flung his cigar
+away, while his wife seemed to shiver apprehensively.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>"One of them is coming across. Isn't it horribly dangerous?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>Devine nodded. "It depends a good deal on what he means to do, but if he
+figures on clearing the jammed trolley there is a risk, especially to a
+man who has only one sound hand," he said. "They've slung him under the
+spare one. It's most probably Brooke."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Devine glanced at Barbara, and fancied that the rigidity of her
+attitude was a trifle significant. The girl, however, said nothing, for
+her lips were pressed together, and she felt a shiver run through her as
+she watched the dusky figure sliding down the curving rope. The rope
+itself was no longer visible, but the dangling shape that moved across
+the horrible gulf was forced up by the whiteness of the drifting mists
+below. She held her breath when it stopped, and swung perilously beside
+the pine trunk which oscillated too, and then clenched her fingers
+viciously as it rose and apparently clutched at something overhead. Then
+she became sensible of the distressful beating of her heart, and that
+the tension was growing unendurable. Dark pines and hillside seemed to
+have faded now, and the dim objects outlined against the sliding mists
+dominated her attention. Still, though they were invisible to her, the
+space between the hoary pines, tremendous rock wall, and never-melting
+snow, formed a fitting arena for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> that conflict between daring humanity
+and unsubdued Nature.</p>
+
+<p>Barbara never knew how long she sat there with set lips and straining
+eyes, but the time seemed interminable, until at last she gasped when
+Devine, who had been standing as motionless as the pines behind him,
+moved abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess he has done it," he said. "That man has hard sand in him."</p>
+
+<p>The dusky trunk slid onward; the dangling figure followed it; and a
+hoarse cry, that had a note of exultation in it as well as relief, came
+up when they vanished into the gloom beneath the dark rock's side.</p>
+
+<p>"They've got him, but I guess that's not all they mean," said Devine.
+"Whatever was wrong with it, he has fixed the thing. They've beaten the
+ca&ntilde;on. The sling's working."</p>
+
+<p>Then Barbara, rising, stood very straight, with a curious feeling that
+she had a personal part in those men's triumph. It did not even seem to
+matter when she felt that Mrs. Devine was looking at her.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you shout?" said the latter, significantly.</p>
+
+<p>Barbara laughed, but there was a little vibration in her voice her
+sister had not often noticed there.</p>
+
+<p>"If I thought any one could hear me, I certainly would," she said.</p>
+
+<p>They stayed where they were a few minutes, until<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> once more a faint
+creaking and rattling came out of the mist, and an object, that was
+scarcely distinguishable, swung across the chasm. Another followed,
+until Barbara had counted three of them, and Devine laughed drily as
+they turned away.</p>
+
+<p>"It's most of eight miles round by the ca&ntilde;on foot, where one can get
+across by the big redwood log, but I guess they'd have taken the trail
+if Brooke hadn't given them a lead," he said. "It's not easy to
+understand any one, but that's a curious kind of man."</p>
+
+<p>"Is Mr. Brooke more peculiar than the rest of you?" asked Barbara.</p>
+
+<p>Devine seemed to smile, though she could not see him very well.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, drily, "that's rather more than I know, but I have a
+notion that his difficulty is he isn't quite sure what he would be at.
+Now, the man who does one thing at one time, and all with the same
+purpose, is the one who generally gets there first."</p>
+
+<p>"And Brooke does not do that?"</p>
+
+<p>"It kind of seems to me he is being pulled hard two ways at once just
+now," said Devine, with a curious little laugh.</p>
+
+<p>Barbara asked no more questions, and said very little to her sister as
+they walked home through the pines. She could not blot out the picture
+which, for a few intense minutes, she had gazed upon, though it had been
+exasperatingly blurred, and, she felt, considering what it stood for,
+ineffective in itself&mdash;a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> dim, half-seen figure, dwarfed to
+insignificance, swinging across a background of filmy mist. There had
+been nothing at that distance to suggest the intensity of the effort
+which was the expression of an unyielding will, but she had, by some
+subtle sympathy, grasped it all&mdash;the daring that recognized the peril
+and disregarded it, and the thrill of the triumph, the wholesome
+satisfaction born of the struggle with the primitive forces of the
+universe which man was meant to wage. This, it seemed to her, was a
+nobler one than the strife of the cities, where wealth was less often
+created than torn or fleeced from one's fellows; for needy humanity
+flowed in to build her homes and prosper by sturdy toil at every fresh
+rolling back of the gates of the wilderness. The miner and the axeman
+led the way; but the big plough oxen and plodding packhorse train
+followed hard along the trails they made. Behind, in long procession,
+jaded with many sorrows, came the outcasts from crowded Eastern lands,
+but there was room, and to spare, for all of them in the new Canaan.</p>
+
+<p>That the man who had bridged the ca&ntilde;on would admit any feelings of the
+kind was, she knew, not to be expected. Men of his description, she had
+discovered, very seldom do, and she could rather fancy him coming fresh
+from such a struggle to discuss the climate or the flavor of a cigar.
+Yet he had once told her that she had brought him a sword, and, as she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>
+had certainly shivered at his peril, she could, without asking herself
+troublesome questions, now participate in the victory he had won. Still,
+she seemed to feel that one could not draw any very apt comparison
+between him and the stainless hero of the Arthurian legend belted with
+Excalibur, for Brooke was, she fancied, in the phraseology of the
+country, not that kind of man. That, however, appeared of less
+importance, since she had discovered that perfection is apt to pall on
+one.</p>
+
+<p>She had, she decided, permitted this train of thought to carry her
+sufficiently far, when a man appeared suddenly in the shadowy trail. It
+was evident that he did not see them at first, and Barbara fancied he
+was a trifle disconcerted and half-disposed to slip back into the
+undergrowth when he did. He, however, passed them hastily, and Devine
+swung round and looked after him.</p>
+
+<p>"That wasn't one of Brooke's men?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Barbara. "I don't think it was. You didn't recognize him,
+Katty?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Devine laughed. "If you didn't, I scarcely fancy there was anything
+to be gained by asking me."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara was not quite pleased with her sister, but she noticed that
+Devine was standing still.</p>
+
+<p>"Was there anything remarkable about the man?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>Devine laughed. "I didn't see his face; but if he's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> the man I took him
+for, nobody would have expected to meet him here."</p>
+
+<p>Then he turned, and they proceeded towards the ranch, while Barbara, who
+recollected Devine's speech at the ca&ntilde;on, also remembered her sister had
+said she would like to know what her husband really thought of Brooke.
+This had not been very comprehensible to Barbara, who had experienced no
+great trouble in forming what she believed to be an accurate opinion
+concerning the flume-builder. It was her feelings towards him that
+presented the difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile, Brooke had flung himself down in a folding-chair in
+his tent. He was soaked with perspiration, his hard hands still quivered
+a little from the nervous strain, and his bronzed face was a trifle more
+colorless than usual, but he was, for the time being, sensible of a
+quiet exultation. He had done a difficult and dangerous thing, and the
+flush of success had swept away all his anxieties. He, however, found it
+a trifle difficult to sit still, and was carefully selecting a cigar in
+an attempt to compose himself, when a man came in, and took the chair
+opposite him. Then his face grew a trifle hard, and all sense of
+satisfaction was suddenly reft away from him.</p>
+
+<p>"I scarcely expected you quite so soon, Saxton," he said. "Here are
+cigars; you'll find some drinkables in the box yonder."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>Saxton opened the box he pointed to, and then looked at him with a grin
+as he took out a bottle.</p>
+
+<p>"I've no great use for California wine. Bourbon whisky's good enough for
+me," he said. "Who've you been entertaining? Not Devine, anyway."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't the question a little outside the mark? If you want it, there's
+water with ice in it here. It's from the tail of the glacier."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton laughed. "Then it would take a man 'most an hour and a half to
+bring a pail of it. It's quite easy to tell where you came from. Well,
+I'm here; but on the other occasions it was I who sent for you."</p>
+
+<p>"There is, however, a difference on this one, though I wouldn't like you
+to think that was the reason. The fact is, I've been busy."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Saxton, "we'll get down to the business one. Still, how'd
+you get your arm in a sling?"</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure you don't know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite!" and Saxton's sincerity was evident. "How should I?"</p>
+
+<p>"I had fancied you knew all about it by this time, and felt a little
+astonished that you didn't come over, but I see I was mistaken. I tried
+to get hold of Devine's papers, as I promised you, and came upon another
+man attempting the same thing. During the difference of opinion that
+followed he shot me."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton rose, and, kicking his chair aside, condemned himself several
+times as he moved up and down the tent.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>"To be quite straight, I put another man on to it, as you didn't seem to
+be making much of a show," he said. "Still, what in the name of thunder
+did he want to shoot you for, when he knew you were standing in with
+me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't say. The difficulty was that I was not as well informed as he
+seems to have been. It would have paid you better to be frank with me.
+Hasn't the man come back to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," and Saxton's face grew a trifle vicious, "he hasn't&mdash;concern him!
+You see what that brings us to? I felt sure of that man; but it's plain
+he meant to find out what I wanted, and then, if he couldn't make use of
+it himself, sell it me. There are three of us after the same thing now."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke shook his head. "No," he said, drily, "I don't think there are.
+You and the other man make two, while I scarcely fancy either of you
+will get hold of the papers, because I gave them back to Devine, and he
+has sent them to Vancouver."</p>
+
+<p>"You had them?" and Saxton gasped.</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly had," said Brooke. "They were put up in a very flimsy
+packet, which Mrs. Devine handed me. I did not, however, look at one of
+them."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton, who seemed about to sit down, crossed the tent and stared at
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, "may I be shot if I ever struck another man quite like
+you! What in the name of thunder made you let Devine have them back
+for?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>"I really don't think you would appreciate my motives, especially as I'm
+not quite sure I understand them myself. Anyway, I did it, and that, of
+course, implies that there can be no further understanding between you
+and me. I don't mean to question the morality of what we purposed doing,
+but, to be quite frank, I've had enough of it."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton, who appeared to restrain himself with an effort, sat down and
+lighted a cigar.</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt I could worry along 'most as well without you, but there's a
+question to be answered," he said, drily. "Do you mean to give me away?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's not one I appreciate, and it seems to me a trifle unnecessary. You
+can reassure yourself on that point."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton took a drink of whisky. "Well," he said, meditatively, "I guess I
+can trust you, and I'm not going to worry about letting you off the
+deal. You have too many fancies to be of much use to anybody. There's
+just another thing, and it has to be said. It's business I have on hand,
+and life's too short for any man to waste time he could pile up dollars
+in, trying to get even with a partner who has gone back on him. In fact,
+I've a kind of liking for you&mdash;but you'll most certainly get hurt if you
+put yourself in my way. It's a friendly warning."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laughed. "I will endeavor to keep out of it, so far as I can."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton nodded, and then looked at him reflectively.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>"Miss Heathcote's kind of pretty," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I suggested once already that we should get on better if you left Miss
+Heathcote out."</p>
+
+<p>"You did. Still, when I've anything to say, it is scarcely a hint of
+that kind that's going to stop me. I guess you know she has quite a pile
+of dollars?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke's face flushed. "I don't, and it does not concern me in the
+least."</p>
+
+<p>"She has, anyway. Devine's wife brought him a pile, and I heard one
+sister had the same as the other. Now, you ought to feel obliged to me."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke straightened himself a trifle in his chair. "I don't wish to be
+unpleasant, but you have gone quite as far as is advisable. Can't you
+see the thing you are suggesting is quite out of the question?"</p>
+
+<p>Saxton surveyed him critically. "Well," he said, reflectively, "I have
+seen better-looking men&mdash;quite a few of them, and you're blame hard to
+get on with, but there are women who don't expect too much."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke's face was growing flushed, but he realized that nothing short of
+physical violence was likely to restrain his visitor, and he laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"You will, of course, believe what pleases you," he said. "Are you going
+to stay here to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Saxton. "When I'm through with this whisky, I'm going right
+back to Tomlinson's ranch. I wouldn't like Devine to run up against me,
+and he nearly did it on the trail a little while ago."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke looked up sharply. "He recognized you?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>"No," said Saxton, drily. "He didn't. It wouldn't have suited me. When I
+come to clinch with Devine, I want to be sure I have the whip-hand of
+him. Still, it wouldn't have been a case of pistols out and getting
+behind a tree. It's quite a long while since I had any, and, though you
+don't seem to think so in England, nobody has any use for a circus of
+that kind now. I don't know that the way they had in '49 wasn't better
+than trying to get ahead of the other man quietly."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke made a little gesture of resignation. Saxton, he realized, had
+sufficient discretion not to persist in a useless attempt to hold him to
+his compact, but he was addicted to moralizing, and Brooke, who lighted
+another cigar, listened, as patiently as he could, while he discoursed
+upon the anxieties of the enterprising business man.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>XXI.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">DEVINE'S OFFER.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Evening had come round again when Brooke called at the ranch, in
+response to a brief note from Devine, and found the latter sitting,
+cigar in hand, at his office table.</p>
+
+<p>"Take a cigar, if you feel like it, Mr. Brooke. We have got to have a
+talk," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke did as he suggested, and when he sat down, Devine passed a strip
+of paper across to him.</p>
+
+<p>"There's your cheque for the tramway. I'll ask you for a receipt," he
+said. "Make up an account of what the dam has cost you to-morrow, and
+we'll try to arrange the thing so's to suit both of us."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke appeared a trifle astonished. "It is by no means finished, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Devine, drily, "I'm not quite sure it ever will be. The
+mine no longer belongs to me. It's part of the Dayspring Consolidated
+Mineral Properties. I've been working the thing up quietly for quite a
+while now, and I've a cable from London that the deal's put through."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke, remembering what he had heard from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> Saxton, looked hard at him.
+"You have sold it out to English company promoters?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not exactly! I'm taking so many thousand dollars down, and a
+controlling share of the stock. I'm also the boss director, with full
+power to run operations as appears advisable at the mines. How does the
+deal strike you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Since you ask for my opinion, I fancy I should have preferred a good
+many dollars, and very little stock."</p>
+
+<p>Devine glanced at him with a curious smile.</p>
+
+<p>"You believe Allonby's a crank?"</p>
+
+<p>"Other people do. On my part, I'm not quite sure of it. Still, it seems
+to me that the men who spend their money to prove him right will run a
+tolerably heavy risk, especially as, so far, at least, there appears to
+be no ore that's worth reduction in the mine, so far as it has been
+opened up."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know what is in the Dayspring?" and Devine looked at him
+steadily.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke made a little gesture. "I don't think that point's important," he
+said. "You, no doubt, had a purpose in telling me as much as you have
+done?"</p>
+
+<p>Devine did not answer for a moment or two, and Brooke was sensible of a
+slight bewilderment as he watched him. This was, he knew, a hard, shrewd
+man, and yet he had apparently permitted Saxton to beguile him into
+buying a mine in which nobody but a man whose faculties had been
+destroyed by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> alcohol believed. He was also, it seemed, willing to risk
+a moderate competence in another one which was liable to be jumped at
+any moment. The thing was almost incomprehensible.</p>
+
+<p>Then Devine made a sign that he desired attention. "When I told you
+this, I had a purpose," he said. "We are going to spend a pile of
+dollars on the Dayspring, and my part of the business lies in the city.
+Wilkins stays right at the Canopus, and while Allonby goes along with
+the mine it's too big a contract to reform him. That brings me to the
+point. I want a man to take charge at the Dayspring under him, and
+though you were not exactly civil when I made you an offer once before,
+we might make it worth your while."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke gasped, and felt his face becoming warm.</p>
+
+<p>"I have very little practical experience of mining, sir," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Devine nodded tranquilly. "Allonby has enough for two, but he lets up
+and loses his grip when the whisky comes along," he said. "Still, I
+guess you have got something that's worth rather more to me. You
+couldn't help having it. It was born in you."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke sat silent for a space, with an unpleasant realization of the
+fact that Devine's keen eyes were watching him. He had come there with
+the intention of severing his connection with the man, and now that
+astonishing offer had been made him in the very room he had not long ago
+crept into with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> purpose of plundering him. Every detail of what had
+happened on that eventful night came back to him, and he remembered,
+with a sickening sense of degradation, how he had leaned upon the table
+where Devine was sitting then and permitted the startled girl to force
+her thanks on him. Then he raised his head, as Devine, turning a little,
+looked at him with disconcerting steadiness.</p>
+
+<p>"You have more reasons than the one you gave me for not taking hold?" he
+said.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, Brooke made up his mind. He was sick of the career of
+deception, and had already meant to put an end to it, while he now
+seized upon the opportunity of placing a continuance in it out of the
+question.</p>
+
+<p>"I have, and can't help fancying that one of them is a tolerably good
+one," he said. "You see, you really know very little about me."</p>
+
+<p>"Go on," said Devine, drily. "I'm generally quite willing to back my
+opinion of a mine or man. Besides, I have picked up one or two pointers
+about you."</p>
+
+<p>"Still," said Brooke, very slowly, while his face grew set, "you don't
+know why I came here to build that flume for you."</p>
+
+<p>Then he gasped with astonishment, for Devine laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, drily, "I guess I do."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke, who lost command of himself, rose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> abruptly, and stood looking
+down on him, with one quivering hand clenched on the edge of the table.</p>
+
+<p>"You know I meant to jump the claim?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I had a notion that you meant to try."</p>
+
+<p>Then there was a curious silence, and the two men remained motionless,
+looking at one another for a space, the younger one leaning somewhat
+heavily upon the table, with the crimson showing through the bronze in
+his face, the elder one watching him with a little grim smile. There was
+also a suggestion of sardonic amusement in it at which the other winced,
+as he would scarcely have done had Devine struck him.</p>
+
+<p>"And you let me stay on?" he said at length.</p>
+
+<p>"I did. It was plain you couldn't hurt me, and there was a kind of humor
+in the thing. I had just to put my hand down and squelch you when I felt
+like it."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke recognized that he had deserved this, but he had never felt the
+same utter sense of insignificance that he did just then. His companion
+evidently did not even consider it worth while to be angry with him, and
+he wondered vacantly at his folly in even fancying that he or Saxton
+could prove a match for such a man.</p>
+
+<p>Then Devine made a little gesture. "Hadn't you better sit down? We're
+not quite through yet."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke did as he suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"Still&mdash;&mdash;" he said.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>Devine smiled again. "You don't quite understand? Well, I'll try to make
+it plain. You make about the poorest kind of claim-jumper I ever ran up
+against, and I've handled quite a few in my time. It's not your fault.
+You haven't it in you. If you had, you'd have stayed right with it, and
+not let the dam-building get hold of you so that you scarcely remembered
+what you came here for. You couldn't help that either."</p>
+
+<p>To be turned inside out in this fashion was almost too disconcerting to
+be exasperating, and Brooke sat stupidly silent for a moment or two.</p>
+
+<p>"After all, we need not go into that," he said. "I suppose what I meant
+to do requires no defence in this country, but while I am by no means
+proud of it, I should never have undertaken it had you not sold me a
+worthless ranch. I purposed doing nothing more than getting my six
+thousand dollars back."</p>
+
+<p>"You figure that would have contented the man behind you?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke was once more startled, for Devine's penetration appeared almost
+uncanny, but he remembered that he, at least, owed a little to his
+confederate.</p>
+
+<p>"You think there was another man?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>Devine laughed. "I guess I'm sure. You don't know enough to fix up a
+thing of this kind. Who is he?"</p>
+
+<p>"That," said Brooke, drily, "is rather more than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> I feel at liberty to
+tell you. I have, however, broken with him once for all."</p>
+
+<p>Devine made a little gesture which implied that the point was of no
+great importance. "Well," he said, "I guess I've no great cause to be
+afraid of him, if he was content to have you for a partner. The question
+is&mdash;Are you going to take my offer?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are asking me seriously?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am. It seems to me I sized you up correctly quite a while ago, and
+you have had about enough claim-jumping. Now, I don't know that I blame
+you, and, anyway, if you had very little sense, it showed you had some
+grit. As the mining laws stand, it's a legitimate occupation, and you
+tell me you only figured on getting your dollars back. Well, if you want
+them, you can work for them at a reasonable salary."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke was once more astonished. Sentiment, it appeared, counted for as
+little with Devine as it had done with Saxton, and with both of them
+business was simply and solely a question of dollars.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you disclaim all responsibility for your agent's doings?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Devine, drily. "If Slocum had swindled you, it would have
+been different, but you made a foolish deal, and you have got to stand
+up to it. Nobody was going to stop you surveying that land before you
+bought it, or getting a man who knew its value to do it for you. I'm
+offering you the option<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> of working for those six thousand dollars. Do
+you take it?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke scarcely considered. The money was no longer the chief
+inducement, for, as Devine had expressed it, the work had got hold of
+him, and he was sensible of a growing belief in his capabilities, while
+he now fancied he saw his opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, simply.</p>
+
+<p>Devine nodded. "Then we'll go into the thing right now," he said.
+"You'll start for the Dayspring soon as you can to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>An hour had passed before they had arranged everything, and it seemed to
+one of them that it was, under the circumstances, a somewhat astonishing
+compact they made. What the other thought about it did not appear, but
+he was one who was seldom very much mistaken in his estimate of the
+character of his fellow-men. Then, as it happened, Brooke came upon
+Barbara in the log-walled hall as he was leaving the ranch, and stood
+still a moment irresolute. Whether Devine would tell her or his wife
+what had passed between them he did not know, but it appeared very
+probable, and just then he almost shrank from meeting her. It did not,
+however, occur to him to ask himself how she happened to be there.</p>
+
+<p>"So you are not going out on the trail that leads to nowhere in
+particular, after all?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke showed his astonishment. "You knew what Devine meant to offer
+me?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>"Of course!" and Barbara smiled. "I don't even mind admitting that I
+think he did wisely."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, I wonder why?"</p>
+
+<p>Barbara laughed softly. "Don't you think the question is a little
+difficult, or do you expect me to present you with a catalogue of your
+virtues?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid the latter is out of the question. You would want, at least,
+several items."</p>
+
+<p>"And you imply that I should have a difficulty in finding them?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke had spoken lightly, partly because the interview with Devine had
+put a strain on him, and he dare scarcely trust himself just then, but a
+tide of feeling swept him away, and his face grew suddenly grim. The
+girl was very alluring, and her little smile showed plainly that she had
+reposed her confidence in him.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, a trifle hoarsely, "you would have the greatest
+difficulty in finding one, and I am almost glad that I am going away
+to-morrow. Such a man as I am is scarcely fit to speak to you."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara was, though she did not show it, distinctly startled. She had
+never heard the man speak in that fashion, and his set face and vibrant
+voice were new to her. Indeed, she had now and then wondered whether he
+ever really let himself go. Still, she looked at him quietly, and,
+noticing the swollen veins on his forehead, and the glow in his eyes,
+decided it would not be advisable to admit that she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> attached much
+importance to what he had said. He was, she fancied, fit for any
+rashness just then.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose we, all of us, have moods of self-depreciation occasionally,"
+she said. "Still, one would not have fancied that you were unduly
+morbid, and one part of that little speech was a trifle inexplicable."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laughed curiously, but the girl noticed that one of his lean,
+hard hands was closed as he looked down on her.</p>
+
+<p>"There are times when one has to be one's self, and civilities don't
+seem to count," he said. "I am glad that I am going away, because if I
+stayed here I should lose the last shred of my self-respect. As a matter
+of fact, I have very little left, but that little is valuable, if only
+because it was you who gave it me."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, one would signally fail to see how you could lose it here."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke stood still, looking at her with signs of struggle, and, she
+could almost fancy, passion, in his set face; and then made a little
+gesture, which seemed to imply that he had borne enough.</p>
+
+<p>"You will probably understand it all by and by," he said. "I can only
+ask you not to think too hardly of me when that happens."</p>
+
+<p>Then, as one making a strenuous effort, he turned abruptly away, and
+Barbara, who let him go, went back to the room where her sister sat,
+very thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>Brooke in the meanwhile swung savagely along the trail, beneath the
+shadowy pines, for he recognized, with a painful distinctness, that
+Barbara Heathcote's view of his conduct was by no means likely to
+coincide with Devine's, and he could picture her disgust and anger when
+the revelation came, while it was only now, when he would in all
+probability never meet her on the same terms again, he realized the
+intensity of his longing for the girl. He had also, he felt, succeeded
+in making himself ridiculous by a display of sentimentality that must
+have been incomprehensible to her, and though that appeared of no great
+importance relatively, it naturally did not tend to console him. When he
+reached his tent Jimmy stared at him.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess you look kind of raised," he said. "Where's your hat?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laughed hoarsely. "I believe I must have left it at the ranch.
+Still, that's not so very astonishing, because, even if I didn't do it
+altogether, I came very near losing my head."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy again surveyed him, with a grin. "Devine," he said, suggestively,
+"has been giving you whisky, and it mixed you up a little? That's what
+comes of drinking tea."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke made no answer, though a swift flush rose to his face, as he
+remembered his half-coherent speeches at the ranch, and the astonishment
+in the girl's eyes, for it seemed probable that the explana<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>tion that
+had occurred to Jimmy had also suggested itself to her. Then he smiled
+grimly, as he decided that it did not greatly matter, after all, since
+she could not think more hardly of him than she would do when the truth
+came out presently.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>XXII.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENS.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>It was already late at night, but the mounted mail carrier had not
+reached the Dayspring mine, and Allonby, who was impatiently waiting
+news of certain supplies and plant, had insisted on Brooke sitting up
+with him. It was also raining hard, and, in spite of the glowing stove,
+the shanty reeked with damp, while there was a steady splashing upon the
+iron roof above. Now and then a trickle descended from a defective joint
+in it, and formed a rivulet upon the earthen floor, or fizzled into a
+puff of steam upon the corroded iron pipe which stretched across the
+room. The latter was strewn with soil-stained clothing, and wet
+knee-boots with the red mire of the mine still clinging about them.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke lay drowsily in a canvas chair, while Allonby sat at the
+uncleanly table, with a litter of burnt matches and tobacco ash as well
+as a steaming glass in front of him. His eyes were bleared and watery,
+and there were curious little patches of color in his haggard face,
+while the gorged, blue veins showed upon his forehead. He had been
+discoursing in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> maudlin fashion which Brooke, who had endeavored to
+make the best of his company during the last three months, found
+singularly exasperating, but he moved abruptly when a stream from the
+roof suddenly descended upon his grizzled head.</p>
+
+<p>"That," he said, "is one of the trifles a man with a sense of proportion
+and a contemplative temperament makes light of. The curse of this effete
+age is its ceaseless striving after luxury."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laughed softly, as he watched the water run down the moralizer's
+nose. "It is," he said, "at least, not often attainable in this
+country."</p>
+
+<p>"Which is precisely why men grow rich in the Colonies. Now, here are you
+and I, who at one time in our lives required four or five courses for
+dinner, not only subsisting, but thriving upon grindstone bread,
+flapjacks, molasses, and the contents of certain cans from Chicago,
+which one cannot even be certain are what they are averred to be, though
+the Colonist consumes them with the faith that asks no questions."</p>
+
+<p>"I fancy you are, in one respect, taking a good deal for granted,"
+Brooke said, drily.</p>
+
+<p>Allonby made a deprecatory gesture. "Being, although you might
+occasionally find a difficulty in crediting it, one myself, I am seldom
+mistaken about the points of a man who has moved in good society, though
+I may admit that it was the ruin of me. Had I been brought up in this
+country, one-third of my income would have sufficed me, and I should
+have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> made provision for my grey hairs with the rest, while I fed, like
+a Canadian, out of vessels of enamel and the useful wood pulp. As it
+was, I wasted my substance, and, unfortunately, that of other men who
+had undue confidence in me, in London clubs, with the result that I am
+now what is sometimes termed a waster in the land of promise."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not very difficult to get through a good deal of one's substance
+in a certain fashion, even in Canada," and Brooke glanced reflectively
+at the array of empty bottles.</p>
+
+<p>"That point of view, although a popular one, is illusory, which can be
+demonstrated by mathematics. A man, it is evident, cannot drink more
+than a certain quantity of whisky. His physical capacity precludes it,
+while even in my bad weeks the cost of it could not well exceed some
+eight dollars. Excluding that item, one could live contentedly here at
+an outlay of one dollar daily, if he did not, unfortunately, possess a
+memory."</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to Brooke that this latter observation might be true, if one
+had, at least, any hope for the future. Allonby's day was nearly done,
+and he had only the past to return and trouble him, but Brooke felt just
+then that, in spite of his pride in the profession which had been rather
+forced upon him than adopted, he had very little to look forward to,
+since he had, by his own folly, made the one thing he longed for above
+all others unattainable. He had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> been three months at the Dayspring, and
+had heard nothing from Barbara. She must, he fancied, have discovered
+the part he had played by this time, and would blot him out of her
+memory, while now, when it seemed conceivable that he might make his
+mark in Canada, all that this implied had become valueless to him.
+Wealth and celebrity might perhaps be attainable, but there would be
+nobody to share them with, for he realized that Barbara Heathcote did
+not possess the easy toleration on certain points which appeared to
+characterize Saxton and Devine. In the meanwhile, Allonby did not seem
+pleased with his silence.</p>
+
+<p>"You are," he said, a trifle quickly, "by no means an entertaining
+companion for a man who is at times too sensible of the irony of his
+position, and appear to be without either comprehension or sympathy.
+Here am I, who was accustomed to fare sumptuously in London clubs,
+living on the husks and other metaphorical et ceteras, and
+endeavoring&mdash;for that is all it amounts to&mdash;to console myself with
+profitless reflections. I am, of course, in the elegant simile of the
+country, a tank, or whisky-skin, but I am still a man who found a
+fortune and stripped himself of everything but whisky to develop it."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laughed to conceal his impatience. "Then you are as sure as ever
+about the silver? We have got a good way down without finding very much
+sign of it."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span>Allonby rose, with a little flush in his watery eyes, and leaned,
+somewhat unsteadily, upon the table.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the one thing I believe in. The rest, and I once had my fancies
+and theories like other men, are shadows and chimeras now. Only the
+silver is real&mdash;and there. All I made in Canada is sunk in this mine,
+which no longer belongs to me, and when I make the great discovery not a
+dollar will fall to my share."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it is a little difficult to understand what you are so anxious to
+find the silver for."</p>
+
+<p>Allonby swayed a trifle on his feet, but the gleam in his eyes grew
+brighter. "You," he said, "are, as I pointed out, curiously deficient in
+comprehension, but you never won a case of medals that were coveted by
+the keenest brains among all those who hoped to enter your profession.
+Of what use are dollars to a whisky-tank who will, in all probability,
+be found mangled at the bottom of the shaft one day? Still, when I made
+the calculations we are now working on, there was no man in the province
+with a knowledge equal to mine, and I ask no more than to prove them
+right."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke sat silent, because he could think of nothing appropriate to say.
+He had asked the question lightly, and had got his answer. It made the
+attitude of this broken-down wreck of humanity plain to him, and he
+vaguely realized the pathos underlying it. Possessed by the one fancy,
+the man had lost or flung<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> away all that life might have offered him,
+while he clung to the apparently worthless mine, not, it seemed, for the
+dollars that success might bring him, but from pride in his professional
+skill and the faculties which had long deserted him. That, as he said,
+was his one point of faith, and he lived only to vindicate it.</p>
+
+<p>Then Allonby lurched unsteadily to the door, and held his hand up as he
+opened it.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen!" he said. "Is that the mail carrier? I must know when we'll get
+those drills and the giant powder before I sleep. The sinking goes on
+slowly, and life is very uncertain when one drinks whisky as I do."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke listened, and, for a time, heard only the splash from the pine
+boughs and the patter of the rain, while Allonby's frail figure cut
+against the white mists that slid past the doorway. Then a faint,
+measured thudding came up the valley, and he remembered afterwards that
+he felt a curious sense of anticipation. The sound swelled into the beat
+of horse hoofs floundering and slipping on the wet gravel, and Brooke
+smiled at his eagerness, for though he had, he fancied, cut himself off
+from all that concerned his past in England, he had never been quite
+able to await the approach of a mail carrier with complete indifference,
+and he felt the suggestiveness of the drumming of the weary horse's
+feet. There had been a time when he had listened<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> with beating heart
+while it drew nearer down the shadowy trail, and once more a little
+thrill ran through him.</p>
+
+<p>Then there was a clatter of hoofs on wet rock, and a shout, as a man
+pulled his jaded beast up in the darkness outside, while a dripping
+packet was flung into the room. Brooke could see nobody, but a voice
+said, "That's your lot; I guess I can't stop. Got to make Truscott's
+before I sleep, and the beast's gone lame."</p>
+
+<p>The rattle of hoofs commenced again, and Brooke sat idly watching
+Allonby, who was tearing open the packet with shaky fingers.</p>
+
+<p>"The tools and powder are coming up," he said. "Hallo! Excuse my
+inadvertence, Brooke. This one's apparently for you."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke caught the big blue envelope tossed across to him, and when he
+had taken out several precisely folded papers and glanced at the sheet
+of stiff legal writing, sat still, staring vacantly straight in front of
+him. The uncleanly shanty faded from before his eyes, and he was not
+even conscious that Allonby, who had laid down his own correspondence,
+was watching him until the latter broke the silence.</p>
+
+<p>"I know that style of envelope, but it is, presumably, too long since
+you left England for it to contain any unpleasant reference to a debt,"
+he said. "Has somebody been leaving you a fortune?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled in a curious, listless fashion. "No,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> he said, "not a
+fortune. Still, I suppose one could almost consider it a competence."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you appear singularly free from the satisfaction one would
+naturally expect from a man who had just received any news of that
+description," said Allonby, drily.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke's face grew suddenly grim. "If it had come a little earlier, it
+might have been of much more use to me."</p>
+
+<p>Allonby had, apparently, sufficient sense left in him to recognize that
+any further observations he might feel inclined to make were scarcely
+likely to be appreciated just then, and once more Brooke sat motionless,
+with the letter in his hand, and the inclosures that had slipped from
+his fingers strewn about the floor. He had been left with what any one
+with simple tastes would have considered a moderate competence, at
+least, in Canada, by the man he had quarrelled with, and he gathered
+from the lawyer's letter that, if he wished it, there would be no
+difficulty in at once realizing the property. It naturally amounted to
+considerably more than the six thousand dollars he had sold his
+self-respect for, and at the moment he was only sensible of a bitter
+regret that the news had not come to hand a little earlier.</p>
+
+<p>If that had happened, he would never have made the attempt upon the
+papers, and might have broken with Saxton without the necessity for any
+explanation with Devine. He had no doubt that the latter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> had acquainted
+his wife and Barbara, which meant that he would be branded for ever as
+rather worse than a thief in her eyes. The money which would have saved
+him, and might have bought him happiness, was he felt, almost useless to
+him now.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile, Allonby had turned to his own correspondence, and the
+shanty was very still, save for the patter of the rain outside and the
+doleful wailing of the pines. Brooke gazed at the letter he held with
+vacant eyes, but though he scarcely seemed to notice his surroundings,
+he could long afterwards recall them clearly&mdash;the litter of soil-stained
+garments and mining boots, the crackling stove, the rain that flashed
+through the stream of light outside the open door, and Allonby's haggard
+face and wasted figure.</p>
+
+<p>Then it occurred to him that there was a discrepancy between the time
+when the will was made and that on which the news of it had been sent to
+him, and as he stooped to pick up the papers from the floor, he came
+upon a black-edged envelope. He recognized the writing, and, hastily
+opening it, found it was from an English kinsman.</p>
+
+<p>"You will be sorry to hear that Austin Dangerfield has succumbed at
+last," he read. "He was, perhaps, a little hard upon you at one time,
+but Clara and I felt that he was right in his objections to Lucy all
+along, and no doubt you realized it when she married Shafton Coulson.
+However that may be, the old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> man mentioned you frequently a little
+before the end, and seemed to feel the fact that he had driven you away,
+which was, no doubt, what induced him to leave you most of his personal
+property. Baron and Rodway will have sent you a schedule, and, as one of
+the executors, I would say that we had some difficulty in finding where
+to address you until we heard from Coulson that Lucy had met you. There
+is one point I feel I should refer to. As you will notice, part of the
+estate is represented by stock in a Canadian mine. Austin, whose mental
+grip was getting a trifle slack latterly, appears to have been led
+rather too much by Shafton Coulson in the stock operations he was fond
+of dabbling in, and I fancy it was by the latter's advice he made the
+purchase. There is very little demand for the shares on the market here,
+but you will perhaps be able to form an accurate opinion concerning
+their value."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laid down the letter, and took up the lawyers' schedule. Then he
+laughed curiously as he realized that a considerable proportion of his
+legacy was represented by shares in the Dayspring Consols. One of the
+mines, he knew, was liable to be jumped at any moment, and the other was
+worthless, unless the opinion of his half-crazy companion could be taken
+seriously. There were one or two more small gashes in the hillside,
+concerning which the miners he had questioned appeared distinctly
+dubious.</p>
+
+<p>Allonby turned at the sound. "One would scarcely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> have fancied from that
+laugh that you were feeling very much more pleased than you were when
+you hadn't gone into the affair," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Then it was a tolerably accurate reflection of my state of mind," said
+Brooke. "This legacy, which came along two or three months after the
+time when it would have been of vital importance to me, consists in part
+of shares in this very mine. That is naturally about the last thing I
+would have desired or expected, and results from one of the curious
+conjunctions of circumstances which, I suppose, come about now and then.
+When the thing one has longed for does come along, it is generally at a
+time when the wish for it has gone."</p>
+
+<p>"Commiseration would be a little unnecessary," said Allonby, with
+unusual quietness. "The competence you mention will certainly prove a
+fortune before you are very much older."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't feel by any means as sure of it as you seem to be. Still, under
+the circumstances, it doesn't greatly matter."</p>
+
+<p>Allonby, with some difficulty, straightened himself. "I am," he said,
+not without a certain dignity which almost astonished Brooke, "a
+worn-out wastrel and a whisky-tank, but I'll live to show the men who
+look down on me with contemptuous pity what I was once capable of. That
+is all I am holding on to life for. It is naturally not a very pleasant
+one to a man with a memory."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>For a moment he stood almost erect, and then collapsed suddenly into his
+chair. "Devine has a brain of another and very much lower order, though
+it is of a kind that is apt to prove more useful to its possessor, and
+in his own sphere there are very few men to equal him. If I do not fall
+down the shaft in the meanwhile, we will certainly show this province
+what we can do together. And now I believe it is advisable for me to go
+to bed, while I feel to some extent capable of reaching it. My head is
+at least as clear as usual, but my legs are unruly."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>XXIII.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">BROOKE'S CONFESSION.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The Pacific express had just come in, and the C.&nbsp;P.&nbsp;R. wharf at
+Vancouver was thronged with a hurrying crowd when Barbara Heathcote and
+her sister stood leaning upon the rails of the <span class="smcap lowercase">S.&nbsp;S.</span> <i>Islander</i>. Beneath
+them the big locomotive which had hauled the dusty cars over the wild
+Selkirk passes was crawling slowly down the wharf with bell tolling
+dolefully, and while a feathery steam roared aloft above the tiers of
+white deckhouses a stream of passengers flowed up the gangway. Barbara,
+who was crossing to Victoria, watched them languidly until an
+elaborately-dressed woman ascended, leaning upon the arm of a man whose
+fastidious neatness of attire and air of indifference to the confusion
+about him proclaimed him an Englishman. She made a very slight
+inclination when the woman smiled at her.</p>
+
+<p>"It is fortunate she can't very well get at us here," she said, glancing
+at the pile of baggage which cut them off from the rest of the deck.
+"Three or four hours of Mrs. Coulson's conversation would be a good deal
+more than I could appreciate."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span>"You need scarcely be afraid of it in the meanwhile," said Mrs. Devine.
+"It is a trifle difficult to hear one's self speak."</p>
+
+<p>"For which her husband is no doubt thankful. Until I met them once or
+twice I wondered why that man wore an habitually tired expression. Of
+course there are Englishmen who consider it becoming, but one feels that
+in his case his looks are quite in keeping with his sensations."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Devine laughed. "You don't like the woman?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Barbara, reflectively. "I really don't know why I shouldn't,
+but I don't. She certainly poses too much, and the last time I had the
+pleasure of listening to her at the Wheelers' house she patronized me
+and the country too graciously. The country can get along without her
+commendation."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if she asked you anything about Brooke?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Barbara, a trifle sharply. "Where could she have met him?"</p>
+
+<p>"In England. She seemed to know he was at the Dayspring, and managed, I
+fancy, intentionally, to leave me with the impression that they were
+especial friends in the Old Country. I wonder if she knows he will be on
+board to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Brooke is crossing with us?" said Barbara, with an indifference her
+sister had some doubts about.</p>
+
+<p>"Grant seemed to expect him. He is going to buy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> American mining
+machinery or something of the kind in Victoria. I believe it was he
+Grant left us to meet."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara said nothing, though she was sensible of a curious little
+thrill. She had not seen Brooke since the evening he had behaved in what
+was an apparently inexplicable fashion at the ranch, and had heard very
+little about him. She, however, watched the wharf intently, until she
+saw Devine accost a man with a bronzed face who was quietly threading
+his way through the hurrying groups, and her heart beat a trifle faster
+than usual as they moved together towards the steamer. Then almost
+unconsciously she turned to see if the woman they had been discussing
+was also watching for him, but she had by this time disappeared.
+Barbara, for no very apparent reason, felt a trifle pleased at this.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile Devine was talking rapidly to Brooke.</p>
+
+<p>"Here is a letter for you that came in with yesterday's mail," he said.
+"Struck anything more encouraging at the mine since you wrote me?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Brooke. "I'm afraid we haven't. Still, Allonby seems as sure
+as ever and is most anxious to get the new plant in."</p>
+
+<p>Devine appeared thoughtful. "You'll have to knock off the big boring
+machine anyway. The mine's just swallowing dollars, and we'll have to go
+a trifle slower until some more come in. English<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> directors didn't seem
+quite pleased last mail. Somebody in their papers has been slating the
+Dayspring properties, and there's a good deal of stock they couldn't
+work off. In fact, they seemed inclined to kick at my last draft, and
+we'll want two or three more thousand dollars before the month is up."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke would have liked to ask several questions, but between the
+clanging of the locomotive bell and the roar of steam conversation was
+difficult, and when they stopped a moment at the foot of the gangway
+Devine's voice only reached him in broken snatches.</p>
+
+<p>"Got to keep your hand down&mdash;spin every dollar out. I'm writing straight
+about another draft. Use the wires the moment you strike anything that
+would give the stock a lift."</p>
+
+<p>"If you're going I guess it's 'bout time you got aboard," said a seaman,
+who stood ready to launch the gangway in; and Brooke, making a sign of
+comprehension to Devine, went up with a run.</p>
+
+<p>Then the ropes were cast off, and he sat down to open his letter under
+the deckhouse, as with a sonorous blast of her whistle the big white
+steamer swung out from the wharf. It was from the English kinsman who
+had previously written him, and confirmed what Devine had said.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry you are holding so much of the Canadian mining stock," he
+read. "You are, perhaps,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> better posted about the mine than I am, but
+though the shares were largely underwritten, I understand the promoters
+found it difficult to place a proportion of the rest, and my broker told
+me that several holders would be quite willing to get out at well under
+par already."</p>
+
+<p>It was not exactly good news from any point of view, and Brooke was
+pondering over it somewhat moodily when he heard a voice he recognized,
+and looking up saw a woman with pale blue eyes smiling at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Lucy!" he said, with evident astonishment, but no great show of
+pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"You looked so occupied that I was really afraid to disturb you," said
+the woman. "Shafton is talking Canadian politics with somebody, and I
+wonder if you are too busy to find a chair for me."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke got one, and his companion, who was the woman Barbara had alluded
+to as Mrs. Coulson, sat down, and said nothing for a while as she gazed
+back across the blue inlet with evident appreciation. This was, in one
+respect, not astonishing, though so far as Brooke could remember she had
+never been remarkably fond of scenery, for the new stone city that rose
+with its towering telegraph poles roof beyond roof up the hillside,
+gleaming land-locked waterway, and engirdling pines with the white blink
+of ethereal snow high above them all, made a very fair picture that
+afternoon.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span>"This," she said at last, "would really be a beautiful country if
+everything wasn't quite so crude."</p>
+
+<p>"It is certainly not exactly adapted to landscape-gardening," said
+Brooke. "A two-thousand foot precipice and a hundred-league forest is a
+trifle big. Still, I'm not sure its inhabitants would appreciate such
+praise."</p>
+
+<p>Lucy Coulson laughed. "They are like it in one respect&mdash;I don't mean in
+size&mdash;and delightfully touchy on the subject. Now, there was a girl I
+met not long ago who appeared quite displeased with me when I said that
+with a little improving one might compare it to Switzerland. I told her
+I scarcely felt warranted in dragging paradise in, if only because of
+some of its characteristic customs. I think her name was Devane, or
+something equally unusual, though it might have been her married
+sister's. Perhaps it's Canadian."</p>
+
+<p>She fancied a trace of indignation crept into the man's bronzed face,
+but it vanished swiftly.</p>
+
+<p>"One could scarcely call Miss Heathcote crude," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Lucy Coulson did not inquire whether he was acquainted with the lady in
+question, but made a mental note of the fact.</p>
+
+<p>"It, of course, depends upon one's standard of comparison," she said.
+"No doubt she comes up to the one adopted in this country. Still, though
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> latter is certainly pretty, what is keeping&mdash;you&mdash;in it now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you have heard of my good fortune?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course! Shafton and I were delighted. Your executors wrote for your
+address to me."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke started visibly as he recognized that she must in that case have
+learned the news a month before he did, for a good deal had happened in
+the meanwhile.</p>
+
+<p>"Then it is a little curious that you did not mention it in the note you
+sent inviting me to meet you at the Glacier Lake," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Lucy Coulson lifted her eyes to his a moment, and then glanced aside,
+while there was a significant softness in her voice as she said, "The
+news seemed so good that I wanted to be the one who told it you."</p>
+
+<p>Again Brooke felt a disconcerting sense of embarrassment, and because he
+had no wish that she should recognize this looked at her steadily.</p>
+
+<p>"It apparently became of less importance when I did not come," he said
+with a trace of dryness. "There is a reliable postal service in this
+country. Do you remember exactly what day you went to the Lake on?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Coulson laughed, and made a little half-petulant gesture. "I
+fancied you did not deserve to hear it when you could not contrive to
+come forty miles to see me. Still, I think I can remember the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> day.
+Shafton had to be in Vancouver on the Wednesday&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She told him in another moment, and Brooke was sensible of a sudden
+thrill of anger that was for the most part a futile protest against the
+fact that his destiny should lie at the mercy of a vain woman's idle
+fancy, for had he known on the day she mentioned he would never have
+made the attempt upon Devine's papers. Barbara Heathcote, he decided,
+doubtless knew by this time what had brought him to the ranch on the
+eventful night, and even if she did not the imposition he had been
+guilty of then remained as a barrier between him and her. After
+permitting her to give him credit for courage and a desire to watch over
+her safety he dare not tell her he had come as a thief. Still, he
+recognized that it was, after all, illogical to blame his companion for
+his own folly.</p>
+
+<p>"Harford," she said, gently, "are you very vexed with me?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled in a somewhat strained fashion. "No," he said, "I scarcely
+think I am, and I have, at least, no right to be. I don't know whether
+you will consider it a sufficient excuse, but I was very busy on the day
+in question. I was, you see, under the unfortunate necessity of earning
+my living."</p>
+
+<p>"I think there was a time when you would not have let that stand in the
+way, but men are seldom very constant, are they?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span>Brooke made no attempt to controvert the assertion. It seemed distinctly
+wiser to ignore it, since his companion apparently did not remember that
+she had now a husband who could hardly be expected to appreciate any
+unwavering devotion offered her, which was a fact that had its
+importance in Brooke's eyes, at least. Then she turned towards him with
+disconcerting suddenness.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you go home now you have enough to live, with a little
+economy, as you were meant to do?" she said. "This country is no place
+for you."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke, who did not remember that she previously endeavored to lead up
+to the question, started, for it was one which he had not infrequently
+asked himself of late, and the answer that the opportunity of proving
+his capabilities as a dam-builder and mining engineer had its
+attractions was, he knew, not quite sufficient in itself. Then, as it
+happened, Barbara Heathcote and Mrs. Devine, who appeared in the
+companion, came towards them along the deck, and Lucy Coulson noticed
+the glow in his eyes that was followed by a sudden hardening of his
+face. Perhaps she guessed a little, or it was done out of wantonness,
+for she laid her white-gloved hand upon his arm and leaned forward a
+trifle.</p>
+
+<p>"Harford," she said, looking up at him, "once upon a time you gave me
+your whole confidence."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke hoped his face was expressionless, for he was most unpleasantly
+sensible of that almost caress<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span>ing touch upon his arm, as well as of the
+fact that his attitude, or, at least, that of his companion, was
+distinctly liable to misconception by any one aware that she was another
+man's wife. He had no longer any tenderness for her, and she had in any
+case married Shafton Coulson, who, so far as he had heard, made her a
+very patient as well as considerate husband.</p>
+
+<p>"That was several years ago," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Lucy Coulson laughed, and, though it is probable that she had seen them
+approach, turned with a little start that seemed unnecessarily apparent
+as Barbara and Mrs. Devine came up, while Brooke hoped his face did not
+suggest what he was thinking. As a matter of fact, it was distinctly
+flushed, which Barbara naturally noticed. She would have passed, but
+that Mrs. Coulson stopped her with a gesture.</p>
+
+<p>"So glad to see you!" she said. "Can't you stay a little and talk to us?
+One is out of the breeze under the deck-house here. Harford, there are
+two unoccupied chairs yonder."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke wished she would not persist in addressing him as Harford, but he
+brought the chairs, and Mrs. Devine, who had her own reasons for falling
+in with the suggestion, sat down. Barbara had no resource but to take
+the place beside her, and Lucy Coulson smiled at both of them.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe Mrs. Devine mentioned that you had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> met Mr. Brooke," she said
+to the girl. "He is, of course, a very old friend of mine."</p>
+
+<p>She contrived to give the words a significance which Brooke winced at,
+but he sat watching Barbara covertly while the others talked, or rather
+listened while Lucy Coulson did. Barbara scarcely glanced at him, but he
+fancied that Devine had not told her yet, or she would not have joined a
+group which included him at all. The position was not exactly a pleasant
+one, but he could think of no excuse for going away, and listened
+vacantly. Lucy Coulson, as it happened, was discoursing upon Canada,
+which when she did not desire to please a Canadian was a favorite topic
+of hers. Barbara, however, on this occasion only watched her with a
+little reposeful smile, and so half an hour slipped by while, with
+mastheads swinging lazily athwart the blue, the white-painted steamer
+rolled along, past rocky islets shrouded in dusky pines, across a
+shining sea above which white lines of snow gleamed ethereally.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Coulson, however, had no eyes to spare for any of it, for when they
+were not fixed upon the girl she was watching Brooke.</p>
+
+<p>"Some of the men we met in the mountains were delightfully
+inconsequent," she said at length. "There was one called Saxton at a
+mine, who spent a good deal of one afternoon telling us about the
+reforms that ought to be made in the administration of this province,
+and which I fancy he intended to effect. It was,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> of course, not a
+subject I was greatly interested in, but the man was so much in earnest
+that one had to listen to him, and Shafton told me afterwards that he
+was, where business was concerned, evidently a great rascal. Shafton,
+you know, enjoys listening quietly and afterwards turning people inside
+out for inspection. Still, perhaps, it was a little unwise to single the
+man out individually. There is always a risk of somebody who hears you
+being a friend of the person when you do that kind of thing&mdash;and now I
+remember he mentioned Mr. Brooke."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke noticed that Barbara cast a swift glance at him, and wondered
+with sudden anger if Lucy Coulson had not already done him harm enough.
+Then Barbara turned towards the latter.</p>
+
+<p>"Saxton," she said quietly, "is an utterly unprincipled man. I really do
+not think we have many like him in this country. You probably mistook
+his reference to Mr. Brooke."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Coulson laughed. "Of course, I may have done, though I almost think
+he said Harford was a partner of his. Perhaps, however, he had a purpose
+in telling us that, for he had been trying to sell Shafton some land
+company's shares, though if it hadn't been true he would scarcely have
+ventured to mention it."</p>
+
+<p>There was a sudden silence, and Brooke, who felt Barbara's eyes upon
+him, heard the splash of water along the steamer's plates and the
+throbbing of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> screw. He also saw that Mrs. Devine was rather more
+intent than usual, and that Lucy Coulson was wondering at the effect of
+what she had said. He could, he fancied, acquit her of any ill intent,
+but that was no great consolation, for he could not controvert her
+assertion, and he felt that now she had mentioned the condemning fact
+his one faint chance was to let Barbara have the explanation from his
+own lips instead of asking it from Devine. Still, he could scarcely do
+so when the rest were there, and Lucy Coulson, at least, showed no
+intention of leaving him and the girl alone. It was, in fact, almost an
+hour later when her husband crossed the deck and she rose.</p>
+
+<p>"Shafton has nobody to talk to, and one has to remember their duty now
+and then," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Then as the steamer swung round a nest of reefs that rose out of a white
+swirl of tide the sea breeze swept that side of the deckhouse and Mrs.
+Devine departed for another wrap or shawl. Lifting her head Barbara
+looked at the man steadily.</p>
+
+<p>"Was that woman's story true?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke made a little gesture which implied that he attempted no defence.</p>
+
+<p>"It was," he said.</p>
+
+<p>A faint spark crept into Barbara's eyes, and a tinge of color into her
+cheek. "You know what you are admitting?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid I do."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span>Barbara Heathcote had a temper, and though she usually held it in check
+it swept her away just then.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, though we only discovered it afterwards, you knew that Saxton was
+scheming against my brother-in-law, and bought up the timber-rights to
+extort money from him?"</p>
+
+<p>Again Brooke made a little gesture, and the girl, who seemed stirred as
+he had scarcely believed her capable of being, straightened herself
+rigidly.</p>
+
+<p>"And yet you crept into his house, and permitted us&mdash;it is very hard to
+say it&mdash;to make friends with you! Had you no sense of fitness? Can't you
+even speak?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke was too confused, and the girl too furious, for either of them to
+realize the significance of her anger, since the fact that she had
+merely permitted him to meet her as an acquaintance at the ranch
+scarcely seemed to warrant that almost passionate outbreak.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid there is nothing I can plead in extenuation except that
+Grant Devine's agent swindled me," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Barbara laughed scornfully. "And you felt that would warrant you playing
+the part you did. Was it a spy's part only, or were you to be a traitor,
+too?"</p>
+
+<p>Then Brooke, who lost his head, did what was at the moment, at least, a
+most unwise thing.</p>
+
+<p>"I expect I deserve all you can say or think of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> me," he said. "Still, I
+can't help a fancy that you are not quite free from responsibility."</p>
+
+<p>"I?" said Barbara, incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke nodded. "Yes," he said, desperately, "you heard me correctly.
+Under the circumstances it isn't exactly complimentary or particularly
+easy to explain. Still, you see, you showed me that the content with my
+surroundings I was sinking into was dangerous when you came to the
+Quatomac ranch; and afterwards the more I saw of you the more I realized
+what the six thousand dollars I hoped to secure from Devine would give
+me a chance of attaining."</p>
+
+<p>He broke off abruptly, as though afraid to venture further, and Barbara
+watched him a moment, breathless with anger, with lips set. There was
+nobody on that part of the deck just then, and the steady pounding of
+the engines broke through what the man felt to be an especially
+disconcerting silence. Then she laughed in a fashion that stung him like
+a whip.</p>
+
+<p>"And you fancied there were girls in this country with anything worth
+offering who would be content with such a man as you are?" she said.
+"One has, however, to bear with a good deal that is said about Canada,
+and perhaps you would have been able to keep the deception that gained
+the appreciation of one of them up. You are proficient at that kind of
+thing."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span>"I am quite aware that the excuse is a very poor one."</p>
+
+<p>The girl felt that whether it was dignified or not the relief speech
+afforded was imperative.</p>
+
+<p>"Haven't you even the wit to urge the one creditable thing you did?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke contrived to meet her eyes. "You mean when I came into the ranch
+one night. You don't know that was merely a part of the rest?"</p>
+
+<p>The blood rushed to Barbara's face. "The man was your confederate, and
+you fell out over the booty&mdash;or perhaps you heard me coming and arranged
+the little scene for my benefit?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Brooke, with a harsh laugh. "In that case the climax of it
+would have been unnecessarily realistic. You may remember that he shot
+me. Still, since you may as well know the worst of me, it happened that
+we both came there with the same purpose, which is somewhat naturally
+accounted for by the fact that your brother-in-law was away that night."</p>
+
+<p>"And you allowed me to sympathize with you for your injury and to
+fancy&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Barbara broke off abruptly, for it appeared inadvisable under the
+circumstances to let him know what motive she had accredited him with.</p>
+
+<p>"My brother-in-law is naturally not aware of this?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"I, at least, considered it necessary to acquaint<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> him with most of it
+before I went to the Dayspring. No doubt you will find it difficult to
+credit that, but if it appears worth while you can of course confirm it.
+You would evidently have been less tolerant than he has shown himself!"</p>
+
+<p>Barbara stood up, and Brooke became sensible of intense relief as he saw
+Mrs. Devine was approaching with a bundle of wraps.</p>
+
+<p>"I would sooner have sacrificed the mine than continue to have any
+dealings with you," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Then she turned away, and left him sitting somewhat limply in his chair
+and staring vacantly at the sea. He saw no more of her during the rest
+of the voyage, but when two hours later the steamer reached Victoria he
+went straight to the cable company's office and sent his kinsman in
+England a message which somewhat astonished him.</p>
+
+<p>"Buy Dayspring on my account as far as funds will go," it read.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>XXIV.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">ALLONBY STRIKES SILVER.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Winter had closed in early, with Arctic severity, and the pines were
+swathed in white and gleaming with the frost when Brooke stood one
+morning beside the crackling stove in the shanty he and Allonby occupied
+at the Dayspring mine. A very small piece of rancid pork was frizzling
+in the frying-pan, and he was busy whipping up two handfuls of flour
+with water, to make flapjacks of. He could readily have consumed twice
+as much alone, for it was twelve hours since his insufficient six
+o'clock supper, but he realized that it was advisable to curb his
+appetite. Supplies had run very low, and the lonely passes over which
+the trail to civilization led were blocked with snow, while it was a
+matter of uncertainty when the freighter and his packhorse train could
+force his way in.</p>
+
+<p>When the flour was ready he stirred the stove to a brisker glow, and,
+crossing the room, flung open the outer door. It was still an hour or
+two before sunrise, and the big stars scintillated with an intensity of
+frosty radiance, though the deep indigo of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> the cloudless vault was
+paling in color, and the pines were growing into definite form. Here and
+there a sombre spire or ragged branch rose harshly from the rest, but,
+for the most part, they were smeared with white, and his eyes were
+dazzled by the endless vista of dimly-gleaming snow. Towering peak and
+serrated rampart rose hard and sharp against a background of coldest
+blue. There was no sound, for the glaciers' slushy feet that fed the
+streams had hardened into adamant, and a deathlike silence pervaded the
+frozen wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke felt the cold strike through him with the keenness of steel, and
+was about to cross the space between the shanty and the men's log
+shelter, when a dusky figure, beating its arms across its chest, came
+out of the latter.</p>
+
+<p>"Are the rest of the boys stirring yet?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>The man laughed, and his voice rang with a curious distinctness through
+the nipping air.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess we've had the stove lit 'most an hour ago," he said. "They've
+no use for being frozen, and that's what's going to happen to some of us
+unless we can make Truscott's before it's dark. Say, hadn't you better
+change your mind, and come along with us?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke made a little sign of negation, though it would have pleased him
+to fall in with the suggestion. Work is seldom continued through the
+winter at the remoter mines, and he had most unwillingly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> decided to pay
+off the men, owing to the difficulty of transporting provisions and
+supplies. There was, however, a faint probability of somebody attempting
+to jump the unoccupied claim, and he had of late become infected by
+Allonby's impatience, while he felt that he could not sit idle in the
+cities until the thaw came round again. Still, he was quite aware that
+he ran no slight risk by remaining.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not sure that it wouldn't be wiser, but I've got to stay," he said.
+"Anyway, Allonby wouldn't come."</p>
+
+<p>The other man dropped his voice a little. "That don't count. If you'll
+stand in, we'll take him along on the jumper sled. The old tank's 'most
+played out, and it's only the whisky that's keeping the life in him.
+He'll go out on the long trail sudden when there's no more of it, and
+it's going to be quite a long while before the freighter gets a load
+over the big divide."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke knew that this was very likely, but he shook his head. "I'm half
+afraid it would kill him to leave the mine," he said. "It's the hope of
+striking silver that's holding him together as much as the whisky."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the man, who laughed softly, "I've been mining and
+prospecting most of twenty years, and it's my opinion that, except the
+little you're getting on the upper level, there's not a dollar's worth
+of silver here. Now I guess Harry will have breakfast ready."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span>He moved away, and when Brooke went back into the shanty, Allonby came
+out of an inner room shivering. His face showed grey in the lamplight,
+and he looked unusually haggard and frail.</p>
+
+<p>"It's bitter cold, and I seem to feel it more than I did last year," he
+said. "We will, however, be beyond the necessity of putting up with any
+more unpleasantness of the kind long before another one is over. I shall
+probably feel adrift then&mdash;it will be difficult, in my case, to pick up
+the thread of the old life again."</p>
+
+<p>"If you stay here, I'm not sure you'll have an opportunity of doing it
+at all," said Brooke. "It's a risk a stronger man than you are might
+shrink from."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, I intend to take it. We have gone into this before. If I leave
+Dayspring before I find the silver, I leave it dead."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke made a little gesture of resignation. "Well," he said, "I have
+done all I could, and now, if you will pour that flour into the pan,
+we'll have breakfast."</p>
+
+<p>Both men were silent during the frugal meal, for they knew what they had
+to look forward to, and the cold silence of the lonely land already
+weighed upon their spirits. Long weeks of solitude must be dragged
+through before the men who were going south that morning came back
+again, while there might very well be interludes of scarcity, and hunger
+is singu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span>larly hard to bear with the temperature at forty degrees below.
+Allonby only trifled with his food, and smiled drily when at last he
+thrust his plate aside.</p>
+
+<p>"Dollars are not to be picked up easily anywhere, and you and I are
+going to find out the full value of them before the thaw begins again,"
+he said. "We shall, no doubt, also discover how thoroughly nauseated one
+can become with his companion's company. I have heard of men wintering
+in the mountains who tried to kill one another."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laughed. "It's scarcely likely we will go quite as far as that,
+though I certainly remember two men in the Quatomac Valley who flung
+everything in the range at each other periodically. One was inordinately
+fond of green stuff, and his partner usually started the circus by
+telling him to take his clothes off, and go out like Nebuchadnezzar.
+They refitted with wood-pulp ware when the proceedings became
+expensive."</p>
+
+<p>Just then there was a knock upon the door, which swung open, and a
+cluster of shadowy figures, with their breath floating like steam about
+them, appeared outside it. One of them flung a deerhide bag into the
+room.</p>
+
+<p>"We figured we needn't trail quite so much grub along, and I guess
+you'll want it," a voice said. "Neither of you changed your minds 'bout
+lighting out of this?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span>"I don't like to take it from you, boys," said Brooke, who recognized
+the rough kindliness which had prompted the men to strip themselves of
+the greater portion of their provisions. "You can't have more than
+enough for one day's march left."</p>
+
+<p>"I guess a man never hits the trail so hard as when he knows he has to,"
+somebody said. "It will keep us on the rustle till we fetch Truscott's.
+Well, you're not coming?"</p>
+
+<p>For just a moment Brooke felt his resolution wavering, and, under
+different circumstances, he might have taken Allonby by force, and gone
+with them, but by a somewhat involved train of reasoning he felt that it
+was incumbent upon him to stay on at the mine because Barbara Heathcote
+had once trusted him. It had been tolerably evident from her attitude
+when he had last seen her, that she had very little confidence in him
+now, but that did not seem to affect the question, and most men are a
+trifle illogical at times.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said, with somewhat forced indifference. "Still, I don't mind
+admitting that I wish we were."</p>
+
+<p>The man laughed. "Then I guess we'll pull out. We'll think of you two
+now and then when we're lying round beside the stove in Vancouver."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke said nothing further. There was a tramp of feet, and the shadowy
+figures melted into the dimness beneath the pines. Then the last
+footfall died away, and the silence of the mountains suddenly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> seemed to
+grow overwhelming. Brooke turned to Allonby, who smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"You will," he said, "feel it considerably worse before the next three
+months are over, and probably be willing to admit that there is some
+excuse for my shortcomings in one direction. I have, I may mention, put
+in a good many winters here."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke swung round abruptly. "I'm going to work in the mine. It's
+fortunate that one man can just manage that new boring machine."</p>
+
+<p>He left Allonby in the shanty, and toiled throughout that day, and
+several dreary weeks, during most of which the pines roared beneath the
+icy gales and blinding snow swirled down the valley. What he did was of
+very slight effect, but it kept him from thinking, which, he felt, was a
+necessity, and he only desisted at length from physical incapacity for
+further labor. The snow, it was evident, had choked the passes, so that
+no laden beast could make the hazardous journey over them, for the
+anxiously-expected freighter did not arrive, and there was an increasing
+scarcity of provisions as the days dragged by; while Brooke discovered
+that a handful of mouldy floor and a few inches of rancid pork daily is
+not sufficient to keep a man's full strength in him. Then, when an
+Arctic frost followed the snow, Allonby fell sick, and one bitter
+evening, when an icy wind came wailing down the valley, it dawned upon
+his comrade that his condition was becoming precarious. Saying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> nothing,
+he busied himself about the stove, and smiled reassuringly when Allonby
+turned to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Are we to hold a festival to-night, since you seem to be cooking what
+should keep us for a week?" said the latter.</p>
+
+<p>"I almost fancy it would keep one of us for several days, which, since
+you do not seem especially capable of getting anything ready for
+yourself, is what it is intended to do," said Brooke. "I shall probably
+be that time in making the settlement and getting back again."</p>
+
+<p>"What are you going there for?"</p>
+
+<p>"To bring out the doctor."</p>
+
+<p>Allonby raised his head and looked at him curiously. "Are you sure that,
+with six or eight feet of snow on the divide, you could ever get there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Brooke, cheerfully, "I believe I could, and, if I don't,
+you will be very little worse off than you were before. You see, the
+provisions will not last two of us more than a few days longer, and you
+can take it that I will do all I can to get through the snow. Since you
+are not the only man who is anxious to find the silver, your health is a
+matter of importance to everybody just now."</p>
+
+<p>Allonby smiled curiously. "We will consider that the reason, and it is a
+tolerably good one, or I would not let you go. Still, I fancy you have
+another, and it is appreciated. There is, however, something more to be
+said. You will find my working plans in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> the case yonder should anything
+unexpected happen before you come back. Life, you know, is always a
+trifle uncertain."</p>
+
+<p>"That," said Brooke, decisively, "is morbid nonsense. You will be down
+the mine again in a week after the doctor comes."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Allonby, with a curious quietness, "I should, at least,
+very much like to find the silver."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke changed the subject somewhat abruptly, and it was an hour later
+when he shook hands with his comrade and went out into the bitter night
+with two blankets strapped upon his shoulders. Their parting was not
+demonstrative, though they realized that the grim spectre with the
+scythe would stalk close behind each of them until they met again, and
+Brooke, turning on the threshold, saw Allonby following him with
+comprehending eyes. Then he suddenly pulled the door to, shutting out
+the lamplight and the alluring red glow of the stove, and swung forward,
+knee-deep in dusty snow, into the gloom of the pines. The silence of the
+great white land was overwhelming, and the frost struck through him.</p>
+
+<p>It was late on the third night when he floundered into a little sleeping
+settlement, and leaned gasping against the door of the doctor's house
+before he endeavored to rouse its occupant. The latter stared at him
+almost aghast when he opened it, lamp in hand, and Brooke reeled, grey
+in the face with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> weariness and sheeted white with frozen snow, into the
+light.</p>
+
+<p>"Steady!" he said, slipping his arm through Brooke's. "Come in here.
+Now, keep back from the stove. I'll get you something that will fix you
+up in a minute. You came in from the Dayspring&mdash;over the divide? I heard
+the freighter telling the boys it couldn't be done."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laughed harshly. "Well," he said, "you see me here, and, if
+that's not sufficient, you're going to prove the range can be crossed
+yourself to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor was new to that country, and he was very young, or he would,
+in all probability, not been there at all, but when he heard Brooke's
+story he nodded tranquilly. "I'm afraid I haven't done any
+mountaineering, but I had the long-distance snowshoe craze rather bad
+back in Montreal," he said. "You're not going to give me very much of a
+lead over the passes, anyway, unless you sleep the next twelve hours."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke, as it happened, slept for six and then set out with the young
+doctor in blinding snow. He had forty to fifty pounds upon his back now,
+and once they left the sheltering timber it cost them four strenuous
+hours to make a thousand feet. Part of that night they lay awake,
+shivering in the pungent fir smoke in a hollow of the rocks, and started
+again,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> aching in every limb, long before the lingering dawn, while the
+next day passed like a very unpleasant dream with the young doctor. The
+snow had ceased, and lay without cohesion, dusty and dry as flour,
+waist-deep where the bitter winds had whirled it in wreaths, while the
+glare of the white peaks became intolerable under the cloudless sun.</p>
+
+<p>For hours they crawled through juniper scrub or stunted wisps of pines,
+where the trunks the winds had reaped lay piled upon each other in
+tangled confusion, with the sifting snow blown in to conceal the
+pitfalls between. By afternoon the doctor was flagging visibly, and
+white peaks and climbing timber reeled formlessly before his dazzled
+eyes as he struggled onward the rest of that day. Then, when the
+pitiless blue above them grew deeper in tint until the stars shone in
+depths of indigo, and the ranges fading from silver put on dim shades of
+blueness that enhanced their spotless purity, they stopped again, and
+made shift to boil the battered kettle in a gully, down which there
+moaned a little breeze that seared every patch of unprotected skin. The
+doctor collapsed behind a boulder, and lay there limply while Brooke fed
+the fire.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm 'most afraid you'll have to fix supper yourself to-night," he said.
+"Just now I don't quite know how I'm going to start to-morrow, though it
+will naturally have to be done."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke glanced round at the grim ramparts of ice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> and snow that cut
+sharp against the indigo. Night as it was, there was no softness in that
+scheme of color lighted by the frosty scintillations of the stars, and a
+shiver ran through his stiffened limbs.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said. "Nobody not hardened to it could expect to stand more
+than another day in the open up here."</p>
+
+<p>He got the meal ready, but very little was said during it, and for a few
+hours afterwards the doctor lay coughing in the smoke of the fire, while
+his gum-boots softened and grew hard again as he drew his feet, which
+pained him intolerably between whiles, a trifle further from the
+crackling brands. He staggered when at last Brooke, finding that shaking
+was unavailing, dragged him upright.</p>
+
+<p>"Breakfast's almost ready, and we have got to make the mine by
+to-night," he said.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor could never remember how they accomplished it, but his lips
+were split and crusted with coagulated blood, while there seemed to be
+no heat left in him, when Brooke stopped on a ridge of the hillside as
+dusk was closing in.</p>
+
+<p>"The mine is close below us. In fact, we should have seen it from where
+we are," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Worn out as he was, the doctor noticed the grimness of his tone. "The
+nearer the better," he said. "I don't quite know how I got here, but you
+scarcely seem at ease."</p>
+
+<p>"I was wondering why Allonby, who does not like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> the dark, has not
+lighted up yet," Brooke said, drily. "We will probably find out in a few
+more minutes."</p>
+
+<p>Then he went reeling down the descending trail, and did not stop again
+until he stood amidst the piles of d&eacute;bris and pine stumps, with the
+shanty looming dimly in front of him across the little clearing. It
+seemed very dark and still, and the doctor, who came up gasping, stopped
+abruptly when his comrade's shout died away. The silence that closed in
+again seemed curiously eerie.</p>
+
+<p>"He must have heard you at that distance," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Brooke, a trifle hoarsely. "If he didn't, there's only one
+thing that could have accounted for it."</p>
+
+<p>Then they went on again slowly, until Brooke flung the door of the
+shanty open. There was no fire in the stove, and the place was very
+cold, while the darkness seemed oppressive.</p>
+
+<p>"Strike a match&mdash;as soon as you can get it done," said the doctor.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke broke several as he tore them off the block with half-frozen
+fingers, for the Canadian sulphur matches are not usually put up in
+boxes, and then a pale blue luminescence crept across the room when he
+held one aloft. It sputtered out, leaving a pungent odor, and thick
+darkness closed in again; but for a moment Brooke felt a curious relief.</p>
+
+<p>"He's not here," he said.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span>The doctor understood the satisfaction in his voice, for his eyes had
+also turned straight towards the rough wooden bunk, and he had not
+expected to find it empty.</p>
+
+<p>"The man must have been fit to walk. Where has he gone?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke fancied he knew, and, groping round the room, found and lighted a
+lantern. Its radiance showed that his face was grim again.</p>
+
+<p>"If you can manage to drag yourself as far as the mine, I think it would
+be advisable," he said. "It seems to me significant that the stove is
+quite cold. One would fancy there had been no fire in it for several
+hours now."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor went with him, and somehow contrived to descend the shaft.
+Brooke leaned out from the ladder, swinging his lantern when they neared
+the bottom, and his shout rang hollowly among the rocks. There was no
+answer, and even the doctor, who had never seen Allonby, felt the
+silence that followed it.</p>
+
+<p>"If the man was as ill as you fancied how could he have got down?" he
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," said Brooke. "Still, I think we shall come upon him not
+very far away."</p>
+
+<p>They went down a little further into the darkness, and then the
+prediction was warranted, for Brooke swung off his hat, and the doctor
+dropped on one knee when Allonby's white face appeared in the moving
+light. He lay very still, with one arm under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> him, and, when a few
+seconds had slipped by, the doctor looked up and, meeting Brooke's eyes,
+nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said. "It must have happened at least twelve hours ago. How, I
+can't tell exactly. Cardiac affection, I fancy. Anyway, not a fall.
+There is something in his hand, and a bundle of papers beside him."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke glanced away from the dead man, and noticed the stain of giant
+powder on the rock, and shattered fragments that had not been where they
+lay when he had last descended. Then he turned again, and took the piece
+of stone the doctor had, with some difficulty, dislodged from the cold
+fingers.</p>
+
+<p>"It's heavy," said the latter.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Brooke, quietly. "A considerable percentage of it is either
+lead or silver. You are no doubt right in your diagnosis; so far as it
+goes, I'm inclined to fancy I know what brought on the cardiac
+affection."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor, who said nothing, handed him the papers, and Brooke, who
+opened them vacantly, started a little when he saw the jagged line,
+which, in drawings of the kind, usually indicates a break, was now
+traced across the ore vein in the plan. There was also a scrap of paper,
+with his name scrawled across it, and he read, "When you have got your
+dollars back four or five times over, sell out your stock."</p>
+
+<p>He scarcely realized its significance just then, and,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> moving the
+lantern a little, looked down on Allonby's face again. It was very white
+and quiet, and the signs of indulgence had faded from it, while Brooke
+was sensible of a curious thrill of compassion.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if the thing we long for most invariably comes when it is no
+use to us?" he said. "Well, we will go back to the shanty."</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing more that any man could do for Allonby until the
+morrow, and the darkness once more closed in on him, while the
+flickering light grew fainter up the shaft.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>XXV.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">BARBARA IS MERCILESS.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>It was about eight o'clock in the evening when Brooke stopped a moment
+as he entered the verandah of Devine's house, which stood girt about by
+sombre pines on a low rise divided by a waste of blackened stumps and
+branches from the outskirts of Vancouver city. Beneath him rose the
+clustering roofs and big electric lights, and a little lower still a
+broad track of silver radiance, athwart which a great ship rode with
+every spar silhouetted black as ebony, streaked the inlet. Though the
+frost was arctic in the ranges he had left a few days ago, it was almost
+warm down there, and he felt that he would have preferred to linger on
+the verandah, or even go back to his hotel, for the front of the wooden
+house was brilliantly lighted, and he could hear the chords of a piano.</p>
+
+<p>It was evident that Mrs. Devine was entertaining, and standing there,
+draped from neck to ankles in an old fur coat, he felt that he with his
+frost-nipped face and hard, scarred hands would be distinctly out of
+place amidst an assembly of prosperous citizens, while he was by no
+means certain how Mrs. Devine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> or Barbara would receive him. Often as he
+had thought of the latter, since he made his confession, he felt
+scarcely equal to meeting her just then. Still, it was necessary that he
+should see Devine, who was away at the neighboring city of New
+Westminster, when Brooke called at his office soon after the Pacific
+express arrived that afternoon, but had left word that he would be at
+home in the evening and would expect him; and flinging his cigar away he
+moved towards the door.</p>
+
+<p>A Chinese house boy took his coat from him in the hall, and as he stood
+under the big lamp it happened that Barbara came out of an adjacent door
+with two companions. Brooke felt his heart throb, though he did not
+move, and the girl, who turned her head a moment in his direction,
+crossed the hall, and vanished through another door. Then he smiled very
+grimly, for, though she made no sign of being aware of his presence, he
+felt that she had seen him. This was no more than he had expected, but
+it hurt nevertheless. In the meanwhile the house boy had also vanished,
+and it was a minute or two later when Mrs. Devine appeared, but Brooke
+could not then or afterwards decide whether she had heard the truth
+concerning him, for, though this seemed very probable, he knew that
+Barbara could be reticent, and surmised that Devine did not tell his
+wife everything. In any case, she did not shake hands with him.</p>
+
+<p>"My husband, who has just come home, is waiting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> for you in his
+smoking-room," she said. "It is the second door down the corridor."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke fancied that she could have been a trifle more cordial, but the
+fact that she sent nobody to show him the way, at least, was readily
+accounted for in a country where servants of any kind are remarkably
+scarce. It also happened that while he proceeded along the corridor one
+of Barbara's companions turned to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you see the man in the hall as we passed through?" she said. "I
+didn't seem to recognize him."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara was not aware that her face hardened a trifle, but her companion
+noticed that it did. She had certainly seen the man, and had felt his
+eyes upon her, while it also occurred to her that he looked worn and
+haggard, and she had almost been stirred to compassion. He had made no
+claim to recognition, but his face had not been quite expressionless,
+and she had seen the wistfulness in it. There was, in fact, a certain
+forlornness about his attitude which had its effect on her, and it was,
+perhaps, because of this she had suddenly hardened herself against him.</p>
+
+<p>"He is a Mr. Brooke&mdash;from the mine," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Brooke!" said her companion. "The man from the Dayspring? I should like
+to talk to him."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara made a little gesture, the meaning of which was not especially
+plain. She had read the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> sensational account of the journey Brooke and
+the doctor had made through the ranges, which had by some means been
+supplied the press. It made it plain to her that the man was doing and
+enduring a good deal, and she was not disposed to be unduly severe upon
+a repentant offender, even though she fancied that nothing he could do
+would ever reinstate him in the place he once held in her estimation.
+The difficulty, however, was that she could not be sure he was contrite
+at all, or had not sent that story to the press himself with a purpose,
+though she realized that the last course was a trifle unlikely in his
+case.</p>
+
+<p>"Since Grant Devine will probably bring him in you may get your wish,"
+she said, indifferently.</p>
+
+<p>Devine in the meanwhile was gravely turning over several pieces of
+broken rock which Brooke had handed him.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "that's most certainly galena, and carrying good metal
+by the weight of it. How much of it's lead and how much silver I
+naturally don't know yet, but, anyway, it ought to leave a good margin
+on the smelting. You haven't proved the vein?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Brooke, "I fancy we are only on the edge of it, but it would
+have cost me two or three weeks' work to break out enough of rock to
+form any very clear opinion alone, and I was scarcely up to it. It
+occurred to me that I had better come down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> and get the necessary men,
+though I'm not sure we can contrive to feed them or induce them to
+come."</p>
+
+<p>Devine nodded. "You must have had the toughest kind of time!" he said.
+"Well, we'll bid double wages, and you can offer that freight contractor
+his own figure to bring provisions in."</p>
+
+<p>He stopped abruptly with a glance at Brooke's haggard face. "I guess you
+can hold out another month or two."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said Brooke, quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"It's worth while. Allonby was quite dead when you got back to him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I and the doctor buried him. We used giant powder."</p>
+
+<p>Devine laid down his cigar. "It was a little rough on Allonby, for it
+was his notion that the ore was there, and now, when it seems we've
+struck it, it's not going to be any use to him. I guess that man put a
+good deal more than dollars into the mine."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke, who had lived with Allonby, knew that this was true, but Devine
+made a little abrupt gesture which seemed to imply that after all that
+aspect of the question did not greatly concern them.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll send you every man we can raise," he said. "I've got quite a big
+credit through from London, and we can cut expenses by letting up a
+little on the Canopus."</p>
+
+<p>"But you expected a good deal from that mine."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span>"No," said Devine, drily, "I can't say I did. It's quite a while since
+we got a good clean up out of it."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke sat silent, apparently regarding his cigar, for a moment or two.
+"Are you sure it's wise to tell me so much?" he said. "There are men in
+this city who would make good use of any information I might furnish
+them with."</p>
+
+<p>Devine smiled in a curious fashion. "Well," he said, reflectively, "I
+guess it is. You've had about enough of playing Saxton's game, and,
+though I don't know that everybody would do it, I'm going to trust you."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Brooke, quietly.</p>
+
+<p>Devine, who took up his cigar again, made a little movement with his
+hand. "We'll let that slide. Now when I got the specimen and your note
+which the doctor sent on I figured I'd increase my holding, and cabled a
+buying order to London, but I had to pay more for the stock than I
+expected. It appears that a man, called Cruttenden, had been quietly
+taking any that was put on the market up."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke knew that his trustee had, as directed, been buying the Dayspring
+shares, but he desired to ascertain how far Devine's confidence in him
+went.</p>
+
+<p>"That didn't suggest anything to you?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Devine, drily, "it didn't&mdash;and I've answered your question
+once. Besides, the man who snapped up every thing that was offered
+hadn't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> waited until you struck the ore. Still, I'd very much like to
+know what he was buying that stock for."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke did not tell him. Indeed, he was not exactly sure what had
+induced him to cable Cruttenden to buy. He had acted on impulse with
+Barbara's scornful words ringing in his ears, and a vague feeling that
+to share the risks of the man he had plotted against would be some small
+solace to him, for he had not at the time the slightest notion that the
+hasty act of self-imposed penance was to prove remarkably profitable.</p>
+
+<p>"I scarcely think it is worth while worrying over that point," he said.
+"There are folks in our country with more money than sense, or a good
+many foreign mines would never be floated, and it is just as likely that
+the man did not exactly know why he was doing it himself."</p>
+
+<p>Devine laughed. "Well," he said, "we'll go along now and see what the
+rest are doing."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke would considerably sooner have gone back to his hotel, but Devine
+persisted, and he was one who usually carried out his purpose. Brooke
+was accordingly presented to a good many people whom he had never seen
+before, and did not find remarkably entertaining, though he fancied that
+most of them appeared a trifle interested when they heard his name. The
+reason for this did not, however, become apparent until he stopped close
+by a girl who looked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> up at him. She was young, but evidently by no
+means diffident.</p>
+
+<p>"You are Brooke of the Dayspring, are you not?" she said, making room
+for him beside her.</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly come from that mine," said Brooke, and the girl turned to
+one of her companions.</p>
+
+<p>"You wouldn't believe he was the man," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke was not altogether unaccustomed to the directness of the West,
+but he felt a trifle embarrassed when two pairs of eyes were fixed upon
+him in what seemed to be an appreciative scrutiny.</p>
+
+<p>"One would almost fancy that you had heard of me," he said.</p>
+
+<p>The girl laughed. "Well," she said, "most of the folks in this province
+who read newspapers have. There was a column about you and your sick
+partner and the doctor. You carried him across the range when he was too
+played out to walk, didn't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Brooke, a trifle astonished. "I certainly did not. He was a
+good deal too heavy, as a matter of fact, and I was not very fit to drag
+myself. But when did this quite unwarranted narrative come out, and what
+shape did it take?"</p>
+
+<p>They told him as nearly as they could remember, and added running
+comments and questions both at once.</p>
+
+<p>"You had almost nothing to eat for a week when you started across the
+range to bring the doctor out.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> That must have been horrid&mdash;and what did
+it feel like?" said one.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke shook his head. "I really don't know," he said. "I should
+recommend you to try it."</p>
+
+<p>"And then the poor man was dead when you got there&mdash;I 'most cried over
+him. There was a good deal about it. It must have been creepy coming
+upon him lying in the dark."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke, who understood a little about Western journalism, waited until
+they stopped, for the thing was becoming comprehensible to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," he said, "I know how the story got out. I didn't think the doctor
+would be guilty of anything of that kind, but no doubt he told the
+little schoolmaster at the settlement, who is a friend of his, and, I
+believe, addicted to misusing ink. Still, you see, the thing is
+evidently inaccurate. Do I look as if I could do without anything to eat
+for a week?"</p>
+
+<p>One of the girls again favored him with a scrutinizing glance. "Well,"
+she said, with a little twinkle in her eyes, "you certainly look as
+though square meals were scarce at the Dayspring."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laughed, and then glancing round saw Barbara approaching. He
+fancied that she could not well have avoided seeing him unless she
+wished to, but she passed so close that her skirt almost touched him,
+and then stopped, apparently smiling down on a matronly lady a few yards
+away. Brooke felt his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> face grow warm, and was glad that his companions'
+questions covered his confusion.</p>
+
+<p>"Who'd you get to do the funeral? There wouldn't be any kind of
+clergyman up there."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Brooke, grimly. "We had to manage it ourselves&mdash;that is, the
+doctor did. I'm afraid it wasn't very ceremonious&mdash;and it was snowing
+hard at the time."</p>
+
+<p>He sat silent a moment while a little shiver ran through him as he
+remembered the bitter blast that had whirled the white flakes about the
+two lonely men, and shaken a mournful wailing from the thrashing pines.</p>
+
+<p>"How dreadful!" said one of his companions. "The story only mentioned
+the big glacier, and the forest lying black all round."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke fancied he understood the narrator's reticence, for there were
+details the doctor was not likely to be communicative about.</p>
+
+<p>"The big glacier was, at least, three miles away, and nobody could have
+seen it from where we stood," he said, evasively.</p>
+
+<p>Just then, and somewhat to his relief, Mrs. Devine came up to him.
+"There are two or three people here who heard you play at the concert,
+and I have been asked to try to persuade you to do so again," she said.
+"Clarice Marvin would be delighted to lend you her violin."</p>
+
+<p>Seeing that it was expected of him, Brooke agreed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> and there was a
+brief discussion during the choosing of the music, in which two or three
+young women took part. Then it was discovered that the piano part of the
+piece fixed upon was unusually difficult, and the girl who had offered
+Brooke the violin said, "You must ask Barbara, Mrs. Devine."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara, being summoned, made excuses when she heard what was required
+of her, until the lady violinist looked at her in wonder.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," she said, "you know you can play it if you want to. You went
+right through it with me only a week ago."</p>
+
+<p>A faint tinge of color crept into Barbara's cheek, but saying nothing
+further, she took her place at the piano, and Brooke bent down towards
+her when he asked for the note.</p>
+
+<p>"It really doesn't commit you to anything," he said. "Still, I can
+obviate the difficulty by breaking a string."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara met his questioning gaze with a little cold smile.</p>
+
+<p>"It is scarcely worth while," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Then she commenced the prelude, and there was silence in the big room
+when the violin joined in. Nor were those who listened satisfied with
+one sonata, and Barbara had finished the second before she once more
+remembered whom she was playing for. Then there was a faint sparkle in
+her eyes as she looked up at him.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span>"It is unfortunate that you did not choose music as a career," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laughed, though his face was a trifle grim.</p>
+
+<p>"The inference is tolerably plain," he said. "I really think I should
+have been more successful than I was at claim-jumping."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara turned away from the piano, and Brooke, who laid down the
+violin, took the vacant place beside her.</p>
+
+<p>"Still, I'm almost afraid it's out of the question now," he said,
+looking down at his scarred hands. "The kind of thing I have been doing
+the past few years spoils one's wrist. You no doubt noticed how slow I
+was in part of the shifting."</p>
+
+<p>The girl noticed the leanness of his hands and the broken nails, and
+then glanced covertly at his face. It was gaunt and hollow, and she was
+sensible that there was a suggestion of weariness in his pose, which
+had, so far as she could remember, not been there before. Again a little
+thrill of compassion ran through her, and she felt, perhaps illogically,
+as she had done during the sonata, that no man could be wholly bad who
+played the violin as he did. Still, the last thing she intended doing
+was admitting it.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you stay at the Dayspring through the winter?" she asked,
+abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Brooke, reflectively, "I really don't know. No doubt it was
+an unwarranted fancy, but I think I felt that after what I had purposed
+at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> Canopus I was doing a little <i>per contra</i>, that is, something
+that might count in balancing the score against me, though, of course,
+I'm far from certain that it could be balanced at all. You see, it was a
+little lonely up there, especially after Allonby died, as well as a
+trifle cold."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara would have smiled at any other time, for she knew what the
+ranges were in winter, but, as it was, her face was expressionless and
+her voice unusually even.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I understand," she said. "It was probably the same idea that
+once led your knights and barons to set out on pilgrimages with peas in
+their shoes, though it is not recorded that they did the more sensible
+thing by restoring their plundered neighbors' possessions."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laughed. "Still, my stay at the Dayspring served a purpose, for,
+although somebody else would no doubt have done so eventually, I found
+the galena, and I didn't go quite so far as the gentlemen you mention
+after all. No doubt it is very reprehensible to steal a mine, or, in
+fact, anything, but I don't know that charitable people would consider
+that feeling tempted to do so was quite the same thing."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara started a little, and there was a distinct trace of color in her
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"I never quite grasped that point before," she said. "You certainly
+stopped short of&mdash;&mdash;?</p>
+
+<p>"The actual theft," said Brooke. "I don't, how<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span>ever, mind admitting that
+the thing never occurred to me until this moment, but I can give you my
+word, whatever it may be worth, that I never glanced at the papers after
+you handed them to me."</p>
+
+<p>There was a trace of wonder in Barbara's face, though she was quite
+aware that it could not be flattering to any man to show unnecessary
+astonishment when informed that he had, after all, some slight sense of
+honor.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I really think I did you a wrong, but we are, I fancy, neither of
+us very good at ethics," she said, languidly, though she was now
+sensible of a curious relief. The man had, it seemed, at least, not
+abused her confidence altogether, for, while there was no evident reason
+why she should do so, she believed his assertion that he had not glanced
+at the papers.</p>
+
+<p>"Hair-splitting," said Brooke, reflectively, "is an art very few people
+really excel in, and I find the splitting of rocks and pines a good deal
+easier and more profitable. You were, of course, in spite of your last
+admission, quite warranted in not seeing me twice to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I was," and Barbara looked at him steadily. "You see, I
+believed in you. In fact, you made me, and it was that I found so
+difficult to forgive you."</p>
+
+<p>It was a very comprehensive admission, and Brooke, whose heart throbbed
+as he heard it, sat silent awhile.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span>"Then," he said, very slowly, "it would be useless to expect that
+anything I could do would ever induce you to once more have any
+confidence in me?"</p>
+
+<p>Barbara's eyes were still upon him, though they were not quite so steady
+as usual.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said, quietly, "I am afraid it is."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke made her a little inclination. "Well," he said, "I scarcely think
+anybody acquainted with the circumstances would blame you for that
+decision. And now I fancy Mrs. Devine is waiting for you."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>XXVI.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">THE JUMPING OF THE CANOPUS.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The snow was soft at last, and honeycombed by the splashes from the
+pines, which once more scattered their resinous odors on a little warm
+breeze, when Shyanne Tom came plodding down the trail to the Canopus. He
+was a rock-driller of no great proficiency, which was why Captain
+Wilkins had sent him on an errand to a ranch; and was then retracing his
+steps leisurely. It was still a long way to the mine, but he was in no
+great haste to reach it, because he found it pleasanter to slouch
+through the bush than swing the hammer, and the time he spent on the
+journey would be credited to him. He had turned out of the trail to
+relight his pipe in the shelter of a big cedar, which kept off the wind,
+when he became sensible of a beat of horse hoofs close behind him. He
+would have heard it earlier, but that the roar of a river, which had
+lately burst its icy chains, came throbbing across the trees.</p>
+
+<p>Shyanne was shredding his tobacco plug with a great knife, but he turned
+sharply round because he could not think of any one likely to be riding
+down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span> that trail, which only led to the Canopus, just then. As it
+happened, he stood in the shadow, and it is difficult to make out a man
+who does not move amidst the great grey-tinted trunks, especially if he
+is dressed in stained and faded jean; but the sunlight was on the trail,
+and Shyanne was struck by the attitude of one of the horsemen who
+appeared among the trees. There were five or six of them, and the beasts
+were heavily loaded with provisions and blankets, as well as axes and
+mining tools. The last man, however, led a horse, which carried nothing
+at all, and the leader, who had just pulled his beast up, was holding up
+his hand. It was evident to Shyanne that they had seen his tracks in the
+snow, but, as that was a peaceful country, he failed to understand why
+it should have brought the party to a standstill. He, however, stayed
+where he was, watching the leader, who stooped in his saddle.</p>
+
+<p>"It can't be more than a few minutes since that fellow went along, and
+his tracks break off right here," he said. "I guess there's a side trail
+somewhere, though the bush seems kind of thick."</p>
+
+<p>"A blame rancher looking for a deer," said another man. "Anyway, if he'd
+heard us, he'd have stopped to talk."</p>
+
+<p>The leader, Shyanne fancied, appeared reflective. "Well," he said, "I
+can't quite figure where he could have come from. Tomlinson's ranch is
+quite a way back, and there's not another house of any kind until<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span> you
+strike the mine. Still, I guess we needn't worry, so long as he hasn't
+seen us."</p>
+
+<p>He shook his bridle, and while one or two of the men turning in their
+saddles looked about them the horses plodded on, but Shyanne stood still
+for at least five minutes. He was not especially remarkable for
+intelligence, but it was evident to him that the men had a sufficient
+reason for desiring that nobody should see them. Then he put his pipe
+away, and proceeded circumspectly up the trail, with the print of the
+horse hoofs leading on before him, until they turned off abruptly into
+the bush. The meaning of this was incomprehensible, since it was not the
+season when timber-right or mineral prospectors started on their
+journeys, and Shyanne decided that it might be advisable to go on and
+inform Wilkins of what he had seen. Still, he made no great progress,
+for the snow was soft, and, after all, the Canopus did not belong to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>About the time he reached it, Brooke, who had come up there on some
+business with Wilkins, was lounging, cigar in hand, on the verandah at
+the ranch. The night was, for the season, still and almost warm, and a
+half-moon hung low above the dripping pines, while he found the silence
+and the sweet resinous odors soothing, for he had been toiling
+feverishly at the Dayspring of late. Why he stayed there when there was
+no longer any reason he should not go back to England, and Barbara had
+told him that his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span> offences were too grievous to be forgiven, he did not
+exactly know. Still, the work had taken hold of him, and he felt that
+while she was in the country he could not go away. He was wondering,
+disconsolately, whether time would soften her indignation, or if she
+would always be merciless, when Wilkins came into the verandah. He was
+an elderly and somewhat deliberate man, but Brooke fancied he was
+anxious just then.</p>
+
+<p>"It's kind of fortunate you're here to-night. We've got to have a talk,"
+he said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke gave him a cigar, and leaned against the balustrade, when he
+slowly lighted it.</p>
+
+<p>"You can't let me have the men I asked for?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>Wilkins made a little gesture. "All you want. That's not the point. Now,
+you just let me have a minute or two."</p>
+
+<p>Ten had passed before he had related what Shyanne had told him, and then
+Brooke, who saw the hand of Saxton in this, quietly lighted another
+cigar.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, "what do you make of it? They're scarcely likely to be
+timber-righters?"</p>
+
+<p>"They might be claim-jumpers."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, nobody could jump a claim whose title was good."</p>
+
+<p>Wilkins appeared a trifle uneasy, though it was too dark for Brooke to
+see him well, but he apparently made up his mind to speak.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span>"The fact is, our title isn't quite as good as it might be. That is,
+there's a point or two anybody who knew all about it could make trouble
+on," he said, and then turned, a trifle impatiently, to Brooke. "You
+take it blame quietly. I had kind of figured that would astonish you."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laughed. "I had surmised as much already. We'll suppose the men
+Shyanne saw intend to jump the claim. How will they set about it?"</p>
+
+<p>"They'll wait until they figure every one's asleep&mdash;twelve o'clock, most
+likely, since that would make it easy to get their record in the same
+day, though it's most of an eight hours' ride to the office of the Crown
+recorder. Then they'll drive their stakes in quietly, and while the rest
+sit down tight on the pegged-off claim, one of them will ride out all
+he's worth to get the record made. After that, they'll start in to bluff
+the dollars out of Devine."</p>
+
+<p>He stopped somewhat abruptly, and Brooke fancied that he had something
+still upon his mind, but he had discovered already that it was generally
+useless to attempt the extraction of any information Wilkins had not
+quite decided to impart.</p>
+
+<p>"Then what are we going to do?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Turn out the boys, and hold the jumpers off as long as we can, while
+somebody from our crowd rides out to put a new record in. When a claim's
+bad in law anybody can stake it, and the Crown will regis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span>ter him as
+owner until they can straighten out the thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Then what do you expect from me?"</p>
+
+<p>Wilkins' answer was prompt and decisive. "We'll have a horse ready.
+You'll ride for the Company."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke turned from him abruptly, and looked down the valley. He would
+have preferred to avoid an actual conflict with Saxton for several
+reasons, but he could not remain neutral, and must choose between Devine
+and him. He had also broken off his compact, and while he wished the
+jumpers had been acting for another man, there was apparently only the
+one course open to him. It was also conceivable that if he could make a
+valid new record it would count for a little in his favor with Barbara.</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly seem the most suitable person, and you can get the horse
+ready," he said. "Still, is there any reason I shouldn't make sure of
+the thing by starting right away?"</p>
+
+<p>Wilkins thought there was. "Well," he said, "I've only Shyanne's tale to
+go upon, and supposing those men aren't claim-jumpers after all, what do
+we gain by sending you to make a new record on the claim?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing beyond letting everybody know that your patent's bad, and
+raising trouble with the Crown people over it, while I scarcely fancy
+Devine would thank me for doing that unnecessarily. It would be wiser to
+wait and make certain of what they mean to do."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span>"You've hit it," said Wilkins. "I'll go along and talk to the boys."</p>
+
+<p>He disappeared into the darkness, and Brooke, who was feeling chilly
+now, went back to the stove, while it was two hours later when he took
+his place behind one of the sawn-off firs which dotted the hillside
+above what had been one of the most profitable headings of the mine. The
+half-moon was higher now, and the pale radiance showed the six-foot
+stumps that straggled up the steep slope in rows until the bush closed
+in on them again. There was no longer any snow upon the firs, and they
+towered against the blueness of the night in black and solemn spires.
+The bush was also very quiet, as was the strip of clearing, and there
+was nothing to show that a handful of men were waiting there with a
+sense of grim anticipation.</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour slipped by, and there was no sound from the forest but the
+soft rustling of the fir twigs under a little breeze, while Brooke, who
+found the waiting particularly unpleasant, and was annoyed to feel his
+fingers were quivering a little with the tension, grew chilly. It would,
+he felt, be a relief when the jumpers came, but another ten minutes
+dragged by and there was still no sign of them. The breeze had grown a
+trifle colder, and the firs were whispering eerily, while he could now
+hear the men moving uneasily. Then he started when the howl of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span> a wolf
+came out of the bush, and, leaning forward, grasped Wilkins' arm.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose they will come?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>The mine captain made a sign to a man who crouched behind a neighboring
+tree.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite sure you were awake when you saw those men, Shyanne?" he said.
+"Harrup hadn't been giving you any of the hard cider?"</p>
+
+<p>Shyanne chuckled audibly. "Not more'n a jugful, anyway, and I don't see
+things on the hardest cider they make in Ontario. No, sir, those men
+were there, and I've a notion there's one of them yonder now."</p>
+
+<p>The shadows of the firs were black upon the clearing, but a dark patch
+was projected suddenly beyond the rest, and a voice came faintly through
+the whispering of the trees.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand by," it said. "They're coming along."</p>
+
+<p>Then Brooke set his lips as a human figure, carrying what seemed to be
+an axe, materialized out of the gloom. Another appeared behind it, and
+then a third, while, when a fourth became visible, Wilkins rose
+suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, what in the name of thunder are you wanting here?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>The foremost man jumped, as Shyanne asserted afterwards, like a shot
+deer, but the rest, who had apparently steadier nerves, came on at a
+run, and a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> man behind them shouted, "Don't worry 'bout anything, but
+get your stakes in. I'll do the talking."</p>
+
+<p>Then, while Brooke slipped away, Wilkins stepped out into the moonlight
+with a Marlin rifle gleaming dully in his hand. "Stop right where you
+are," he said. "Where's the man who wants to talk?"</p>
+
+<p>The men stopped, and stood glancing about them, irresolutely. There were
+six in all, but rather more than that number of shadowy objects had
+appeared unexpectedly among the sawn-off stumps. While they waited
+Saxton stepped forward.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, "you see me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," said Wilkins, drily, "and I guess I've seen many a squarer
+man. What do you want crawling round our claim, anyway?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's not yours. Your patent's bad, and we're going to re-locate it for
+you. Haven't you got those stakes ready, boys?"</p>
+
+<p>"Bring them along," said Wilkins. "I'm waiting."</p>
+
+<p>He stood stiff and resolute, with the rifle at his hip, and the
+moonlight on his face, which was very grim, and once more the
+claim-jumpers glanced at their leader, dubiously. They were aware that
+although the regulations respecting mineral claims might not have been
+complied with, there are conditions under which a man is warranted in
+holding on to his property. Wilkins also appeared quite decided on doing
+it.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span>Then Saxton's voice rose sharply. "Hallo!" he said. "What the&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Wilkins swung round, and saw three or four more shadowy figures enter
+the clearing from the opposite side, and they also apparently carried
+stakes and axes.</p>
+
+<p>"Figured you'd get in ahead of us, Saxton," said one of them.</p>
+
+<p>Saxton evidently lost his temper. "Well," he said, "I guess I'm going to
+do it, you slinking skunk. If it can't be fixed any other way, I'll
+strike you for shooting Brooke."</p>
+
+<p>Wilkins laughed. "Any more of you coming along? It's a kind of pity you
+didn't get here a little earlier."</p>
+
+<p>They knew what he meant in another moment, when the sound of a horse
+ridden hard through slushy snow rose from the shadows of the pines.
+Wilkins made a little ironical gesture.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess you'll never get rich claim-jumping, boys," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Then Saxton's voice rose again. "The game's not finished. We'll play you
+for it yet," he said. "Where's that horse? Get your stakes in."</p>
+
+<p>He vanished in another minute, but his followers remained, and there was
+for a time a very lively scuffle about the stakes Brooke had already
+hammered in. They were torn up, and replaced several times before the
+affray was over, and then two men, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span> furnished a very vague account
+of the fashion in which they had received their injuries, were with
+difficulty conveyed to the Vancouver hospital. In spite of a popular
+illusion, pistols are not in general use in that country, but it is not
+insuperably difficult to disable an opponent effectively with an axe or
+shovel.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile, three men, who realized that, under the circumstances,
+a good deal would depend upon who was first to reach it, were riding
+hard by different ways towards the recorder's office, and Brooke, having
+no great confidence in the horse Wilkins had supplied him with, had
+taken what was at once the worst and shortest route. That is not a nice
+country to ride through in daylight, even when there is no snow upon the
+ground, and there were times when he held his breath as the horse
+plunged down the side of a gulley with the half-melted snow and gravel
+sliding away beneath its hoofs. They also smashed and floundered through
+withered fern and crackling thickets of sal-sal and salmon berry, and
+during one perilous hour Brooke dragged the beast by the bridle up
+slopes of wet and slippery rock, from which the winds had swept the snow
+away.</p>
+
+<p>Still, it was long since he had felt in the same high spirits, and when
+they reached more even ground the rush through the cold night air
+brought him a curious elation. He felt he was, at least doing what might
+count in his favor against the past, and, apart<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span> from that, there was
+satisfaction to be derived from the reckless ride itself. He had,
+however, only a blurred recollection of most of it, flitting forest,
+peaks that glittered coldly, the glint of moonlight on still frozen
+lakes, and the frequent splashings through icy fords, until, when the
+stars had faded, and the firs rose black and hard against the dawn, they
+reeled down to the bank of a larger river, from which the white mists
+were streaming. It swirled by thick with floating ice, and the horse
+strenuously objected to enter the water at all. Twice it reared at the
+stabbing of the spurs, and then bounded with arching back, but Brooke
+was used to that trick, and contrived to keep his saddle until he and
+the beast slid down the bank together, and there was a splash and
+flounder as they reached the water.</p>
+
+<p>It was most of it freshly-melted ice, and when he slipped from the
+saddle, which he promptly found it necessary to do, the cold took his
+breath away, and he clung by the stirrup leather, gasping and
+half-dazed, while the beast proceeded unguided for a minute or two.
+Then, as they swung round in a white eddy, his perceptions came back to
+him, and he realized that there was no longer any need for swimming,
+when he drove against a boulder, whose head just showed above the
+swirling foam. He got on his feet somehow, and was never quite sure
+whether he led the beast through the rest of the passage or held on by
+the bridle, but at last they staggered up the op<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span>posite bank, where a
+man he could not see very well in the dim light sat looking down on him
+from the saddle. Brooke moved a pace nearer, and then recognized him as
+the one who had shot him at Devine's ranch.</p>
+
+<p>"Saxton has taken the high trail and he'll cross by the bridge, but I
+guess we're quite a while ahead of him," he said. "Now, do you know any
+reason why we shouldn't pool the thing?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke stared at him, divided between indignation and appreciation of
+his assurance.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, drily, "several, and one of them is quite sufficient by
+itself."</p>
+
+<p>"Figure it out," said the other. "I tell you Saxton can't make our time
+over the high trail, though it's a better road. Now that one of us will
+get there first is a sure thing, but it's quite as certain it can't be
+both, and I'd be content with half of what you bluff out of Devine.
+That's reasonable."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke felt his face grow a trifle hot, though he recognized that it was
+not astonishing the man should credit him with the purpose he had
+certainly been impelled by at their last meeting.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't make a deal with you on any terms," he said. "Ride on, or pull
+your horse out of the trail."</p>
+
+<p>"I guess that wouldn't suit me," said the other man, and when Brooke had
+his foot in the stirrup, suddenly swung up his hand.</p>
+
+<p>Then there was a flash and a detonation, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span> horse plunged. The
+flash was repeated, and while Brooke strove to clear his foot of the
+stirrup, the beast staggered and fell back on him. It, however, rolled
+and struggled, and, for his foot was free now, he contrived to drag
+himself away.</p>
+
+<p>When he was next sensible of anything, he could hear a very faint thud
+of hoofs far up the climbing trail, and, after lying still for several
+minutes, ventured to move circumspectly. He felt very sore, but all his
+limbs appeared to be in their usual places, and, rising shakily, he
+found, somewhat to his astonishment, that he could walk. The horse was
+evidently dead, but there was, he remembered, a ranch not very far away,
+and a certain probability of the other man still breaking one of his own
+limbs or his horse's legs, for the trail was rather worse than trails
+usually are in that country. Brooke accordingly decided to hobble on to
+the ranch, and somehow accomplished it, though the man who opened the
+door to him looked very dubious when he asked him for a horse.</p>
+
+<p>"The only beast I've got isn't worth much, but you don't look up to
+taking him in over the lake trail," he said.</p>
+
+<p>He, however, parted with the horse, and hove Brooke into the saddle,
+while the latter groaned as he rode away. One arm and one leg were stiff
+and aching, and at every jolt his back hurt him excruciatingly, but a
+few hours later he rode, spattered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span> with mire and slushy snow, into a
+little wooden town, and had afterwards a fancy that somebody offered to
+lift him down. He was not sure how he got out of the saddle, but a man
+he recognized took the horse, and he proceeded, limping stiffly, with
+his wet clothes sticking to his skin, to the Crown mining office. The
+recorder, who appeared to be a young Englishman, looked hard at him when
+he came in, and then pointed to a chair.</p>
+
+<p>"You may as well sit down. If my surmises are correct, there is no great
+need for haste," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke's face, which was a trifle grey, grew suddenly set.</p>
+
+<p>"Some one else has already recorded a new claim on the Canopus?" he
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the recorder. "In fact, two of them, and the last man was
+good enough to inform me that there was another of you coming along."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you can't give a record?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said the other man, with a little smile. "I'm not sure that any of
+you will get one in the meanwhile; that is, not until we have obtained a
+few particulars from Mr. Devine."</p>
+
+<p>"I have come on behalf of him."</p>
+
+<p>"That," said the recorder, "is, under the circumstances, no great
+recommendation. In fact, there are several points your employer will be
+asked to clear up before we go any further with the matter."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span>Brooke, who asked no more questions, contrived to make his way to the
+hotel, and flung himself down to rest, when he had ascertained when the
+Pacific express came in. Important as it was that he should see Devine,
+he was, however, very uncertain whether he would be able to get up
+again.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>XXVII.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">THE LAST ROUND.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The whistle screamed hoarsely as the long train swung out from the
+shadow of the pines, and Brooke raised himself stiffly in his seat in a
+big, dusty car. A sawmill veiled in smoke and steam swept by, and, while
+the roar of wheels sank to a lower pitch, he caught the gleam of the
+blue inlet Vancouver City is built above ahead. Then, as the clustering
+roofs, which seamed the hillside ridge on ridge with a maze of poles and
+wires cutting against the background of stately pines grew plainer, he
+straightened his back with an effort. It was aching distressfully, and
+he felt dizzy as well as stiff, while he commenced to wonder whether his
+strength would hold out until he had seen Devine and finished his
+business in the city.</p>
+
+<p>Then the cars lurched a little, there was a doleful tolling of a bell,
+and when the long, dusty train rolled slowly into the dep&ocirc;t he dropped
+shakily from a vestibule platform. The rough planking did not seem quite
+steady, and he struck his feet against the metals when he crossed the
+track, but he managed to reach<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span> Devine's office, and found that he was
+out. He would, however, be back in another hour, his clerk said, and it
+occurred to Brooke that he could, in the meanwhile, consult a doctor.
+The latter asked him a few questions, and then sat looking at him
+thoughtfully for a moment or two.</p>
+
+<p>"It's not quite clear to me how the horse came to fall on you. You were
+dismounted at the time?" he said. "Still, after all, that's not quite
+the question."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled a little. "No," he said. "I scarcely think it is."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the doctor, drily, "whichever way you managed it, the snow
+was either very soft or something else took the weight of the beast off
+you, but I don't think you need worry greatly about that fall. Lie down
+for a day or two, and rub some of the stuff I give you on the bruises.
+Now, suppose you tell me what you've been doing for the last few
+months."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke did so concisely, and the doctor nodded. "Pretty much as I
+figured," he said. "You want to stop it right away. Go down the Sound on
+a steamboat, or across to Victoria for two or three weeks, and do
+nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid that's out of the question."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor made a little gesture. "Then, if you go on taking it out of
+yourself, there'll be trouble, especially if you worry. Go slow, and eat
+and sleep all you can for a month, anyway."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke thanked him, and went back to Devine's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> office thoughtfully. He
+felt that the advice was good, though there were difficulties in the way
+of his acting upon it. He had already realized that the strain of the
+last few months, the insufficient food, and feverish work, were telling
+upon him, but he had made up his mind to hold out until the work at the
+Dayspring was in full swing and the value of the ore lead had been made
+clear beyond all doubt. Then there would be time to rest and consider
+the position.</p>
+
+<p>Devine was in when he reached the office, and looked hard at him, but he
+said very little while Brooke told his story. Nor did he appear by any
+means astonished or concerned.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, reflectively, "it's quite likely that we'll have the
+pleasure of seeing Mr. Saxton to-morrow. He'll hang off until then, and
+when he comes I'll be ready to talk to him. In the meanwhile, you're
+coming home with me."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke hoped that he did not show the embarrassment he certainly felt,
+for, much as he longed to see her, it was, after their last meeting,
+difficult to believe that Barbara would appreciate his company, and he
+scarcely felt in a mood for another taste of her displeasure.</p>
+
+<p>"I had decided on going out on the Atlantic express this evening," he
+said. "There is a good deal to do at the Dayspring, and I could scarcely
+expect Mrs. Devine to be troubled with me. Besides, you see, I came
+right away&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span>He glanced significantly at his clothes, but Devine, who rose, laid a
+hand on his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"You're coming along," he said. "I may want you to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke, who felt too languid to make another protest, went with him, and
+when they reached the house on the hillside, Devine led him into a room
+which looked down on the inlet.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down," he said, pointing to a big lounge chair. "I'll send somebody
+to look after you, and, unless you look a good deal better than you do
+now, you'll stay right here to-morrow. In the meanwhile, you'll excuse
+me. There are one or two folks I have to see in the city."</p>
+
+<p>He went out, and Brooke, who let his head, which ached a good deal, sink
+back upon the soft upholstery, wondered vacantly what Mrs. Devine would
+think when she saw him there. He still wore the garments he was
+accustomed to at the mine, and, though they were dry now, and, at least,
+comparatively clean, he felt that long boots and soil-stained jean were
+a trifle out of place in that dainty room. That, however, did not seem
+to matter. He was drowsy and a trifle dizzy, while the room was warm,
+and it was with a little start he heard the door-handle rattle a few
+minutes later. Then, while he endeavored to straighten himself, Barbara
+came in.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel that I ought to offer you my excuses for being here, though I am
+not sure that I could help<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span> it," he said. "Grant Devine is of a somewhat
+determined disposition, and he insisted on bringing me."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara did not notice him wince as with pain when he turned to her, for
+she was not at that moment looking at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Then why should you make any? It is his house," she said.</p>
+
+<p>This was not very promising, for Brooke felt it suggested that, although
+the girl was willing to defer to Devine's wishes, they did not
+necessarily coincide with hers.</p>
+
+<p>"It is!" he said. "Still, I seem to have acquired the sense of fitness
+you once mentioned, and I feel I should not have come. One is, however,
+not always quite so wise as he ought to be, and I was feeling a trifle
+worn out when your brother-in-law invited me. That probably accounted
+for my want of firmness."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara glanced at him sharply, and noticed the gauntness of his face
+and the spareness of his frame, which had become accentuated since she
+had last seen him. It also stirred her to compassion, which was probably
+why she endeavored, as she had done before, to harden her heart against
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt you spent last night in the saddle, and the trails would be
+bad," she said. "I believe they are getting some tea ready, and, in the
+meanwhile, how are you progressing at the mine?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke realized that she had heard nothing about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span> his ride or the
+jumping of the Canopus, and determined that she should receive no
+enlightenment from him. This may have been due to wounded pride, but it
+afterwards stood him in good stead. Nor would he show that her chilly
+graciousness, which went just as far as the occasion demanded and no
+further, hurt him, and he accordingly roused himself, with an effort, to
+talk about the mine. The girl had usually appeared interested in the
+subject, and it was, at least, a comparatively safe one.</p>
+
+<p>She, on her part, noticed the weariness in his eyes, and found it
+necessary to remind herself of his offences, for the story he told was
+not without its effect on her. It was, though he omitted most of his own
+doings, a somewhat graphic one, and she realized a little of the
+struggle he and the handful of men Devine had been able to send him had
+made, half-fed, amidst the snow. Still, for no very apparent reason, his
+composure and the way he kept himself in the background irritated her.</p>
+
+<p>"One would wonder why you put up with so much hardship. Wasn't it a
+little inconsequent?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke's gaunt face flushed. "Well," he said, "one is under the painful
+necessity of earning a living."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, could it not be done a little more easily?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that it is, under any circumstances, a remarkably simple
+thing, but that is not quite the question, and, since you seem to
+insist, I'll answer you candidly. In my case, it was almost
+astonish<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span>ingly inconsequent&mdash;that is, as I expect you mean, about the
+last thing any one would naturally have expected from me. Still, I felt
+that, after what I had done, I had a good deal to pull up, you see;
+though that is a motive with which, as I noticed when I mentioned it
+once before, you apparently can scarcely credit me."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara smiled. "It was your own actions that made it difficult."</p>
+
+<p>"I admitted on another occasion that I am not exactly proud of them, but
+there was some slight excuse. There usually is, you see."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course!" said Barbara. "You need not be diffident. In your case
+there were the dollars of which my brother-in-law plundered you."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke looked at her with a little glint in his eyes. "You," he said,
+slowly, "can be very merciless."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Barbara, who met his gaze with quiet composure, "I might
+have been less so had I not expected quite so much from you. After all,
+it does not greatly matter&mdash;and here is the tea."</p>
+
+<p>"I think it matters a good deal, but perhaps we needn't go into that,"
+said Brooke, who took the cup she handed him. "You have poured out tea
+for me on several occasions now, but still, each one recalls the first
+time you did it at the Quatomac ranch."</p>
+
+<p>The same thing had happened to Barbara, but she laughed. "It,
+presumably, made no difference to the tea, and yours runs some risk of
+getting cold."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span>Brooke appeared to be holding his cup with quite unnecessary firmness,
+and she fancied his color was a trifle paler than it had been, but he
+smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"I really do not remember that it tasted any the worse," he said.
+"Perhaps you can remember how the sound of the river came in through the
+open door that night, and the light flickered in the draughts. It showed
+up your face in profile, and I can still picture Jimmy sitting by the
+stove, with his mouth wide open, watching you. He had evidently never
+seen anything of the kind before."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara noticed the manner in which he pulled himself up, and realized
+that the sentence had deviated from its natural conclusion. It was,
+though he had certainly been guilty of obtaining what she was pleased to
+consider her esteem by a course of disgraceful imposition, gratifying
+that he should be able to recall that evening. That, however, was not to
+be admitted.</p>
+
+<p>"I remember that the two candles were stuck in whisky bottles," she
+said. "You removed them somewhat suddenly when you came in."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled, but his face was a trifle grey in patches now, and the
+cup was shaking visibly. "I really shouldn't have done," he said.
+"Still, you see, I was a trifle flurried that night, and like Jimmy in
+one respect, in that I had never&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You, at least, had been handed tea by a lady before," said Barbara,
+severely.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span>"I had, but the incomplete explanation still holds good. Well, it was,
+no doubt, unwise of me to take those candlesticks away, since to
+disguise one's habits for a stranger's benefit naturally implies a
+deficiency of becoming pride, and it could, in any case, only have made
+the thing more palpable to you."</p>
+
+<p>"One's habits?" said Barbara, who would not admit comprehension.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke nodded. "Men," he said, "do not, as a rule, buy whisky bottles to
+make candlesticks of, and there were, as I believe you noticed, a good
+many more of them already on the floor. Still, you see, your good
+opinion&mdash;was&mdash;important to me, and I was willing to cheat you into
+bestowing it on me even then. It matters&mdash;it really does matter&mdash;a good
+deal."</p>
+
+<p>Then there was a crash, and Brooke's cup struck the leg of the chair,
+while his plate rolled across the floor, and Barbara's dress was
+splashed with tea. The man sat gripping the chair arm hard, and blinking
+at her, while his face grew grey; but when she rose he apparently
+recovered himself with an effort.</p>
+
+<p>"Very sorry!" he said, slowly. "Quite absurd of me! Still, I have had a
+good deal to do&mdash;and very little sleep&mdash;lately."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara was wholly compassionate now. "Sit still," she said, quietly. "I
+will bring you a glass of wine."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span>"No," said Brooke, a trifle unevenly. "I must have kept you here half an
+hour already, and I am afraid I have spoiled your dress into the
+bargain. That ought to be enough. If you don't mind, I think I will go
+and lie down."</p>
+
+<p>He straightened himself resolutely, and Barbara, who called the
+house-boy, stood still, with a warm tinge in her face, when he went out
+of the room. The man was evidently worn out and ill, and yet he had
+endeavored to hide the fact to save her concern, while she had found a
+most unbecoming pleasure in flagellating him. He had met her very
+slightly-veiled reproaches with a composure which, she surmised, had not
+cost him a little, even when his strength was melting away from him.
+Then she flushed a still ruddier color as she remembered that, in any
+case, dissimulation was a strong point of his, for she felt distinctly
+angry with herself for recollecting it.</p>
+
+<p>She had engagements that evening, and did not see him, while he had
+apparently recovered during the night, for, when she came down to
+breakfast, Mrs. Devine told her that he had already gone out with her
+husband. In point of fact, an eight-hours' sleep had done a good deal
+for Brooke, who lunched, or rather dined, with Devine in the city, and
+then went with him to his office to wait until the Pacific express came
+in.</p>
+
+<p>"The train's up to schedule time. I sent to ask<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span> them at the dep&ocirc;t,"
+said Devine. "I guess we'll have Mr. Saxton here in another ten
+minutes."</p>
+
+<p>The prediction was warranted, for he had about half smoked the cigar he
+lighted when Saxton was shown in. The latter was dressed tastefully in
+city clothes, and wore a flower in his buttonhole. He also smiled as he
+glanced at Brooke.</p>
+
+<p>"It was quite a good game you put up, and you got away five minutes
+before I did," he said. "Still, three men are a little too many to jump
+a claim when I'm one of them."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke's face grew a trifle grim, for he saw Saxton's meaning, but
+Devine regarded the latter with a faint, sardonic smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down and take a cigar," he said. "I guess you came here to talk to
+me, and Mr. Brooke never meant to jump the claim."</p>
+
+<p>"No?" and Saxton assumed an appearance of incredulity very well. "Now I
+quite figured that he did."</p>
+
+<p>"You can fix it with him afterwards," said Devine. "It seems to me that
+we're both here on business."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we'll get down to it. I have put in a record on the Canopus mine.
+I guess you know your patent's not quite straight on a point or two."</p>
+
+<p>"You're quite sure of that?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Crown people seem to be. Now, I can't draw back my claim without
+throwing the mine open<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span> to anybody, but I'm willing to hold on and trade
+my rights to you when I've got my improvements in. Of course, you'd have
+to make it worth while, but I'm not going to be unreasonable."</p>
+
+<p>Devine laughed a little. "There was once a jumper who figured he'd found
+the points you mentioned out. He wanted eight thousand dollars. Would
+you be content with that?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Saxton, drily. "I'm going to strike you for more."</p>
+
+<p>There was silence for a moment or two, and Brooke leaned forward a
+little as he watched his companions. Saxton was a trifle flushed in
+face, and his dark eyes had an exultant gleam in them, while the thin,
+nervous fingers of one hand were closed upon the edge of the table. His
+expression suggested that he was completely satisfied with himself and
+the strength of his position, for it apparently only remained for him to
+exact whatever terms he pleased. Devine's attitude was, however, not
+quite what one would have expected, for he did not look in the least
+like a man who felt himself at his adversary's mercy. He sat smiling a
+little, and trifling with his cigar.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, reflectively, "I guess the man I mentioned was sorry he
+asked quite as much as he did. What is your figure?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll wait your bid."</p>
+
+<p>Devine sat still for several moments, with the little sardonic smile
+growing plainer in his eyes, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span> Brooke, who felt the tension, fancied
+that Saxton was becoming uneasy. There was a curious silence in the
+room, through which the whirr of an elevator jarred harshly.</p>
+
+<p>"One dollar," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Saxton gasped. "Bluff!" he said. "That's not going to count with me. You
+want a full hand to carry it through, and the one you're holding isn't
+strong enough. Now, I'll put down my cards."</p>
+
+<p>"One dollar," said Devine, drily.</p>
+
+<p>Saxton stood up abruptly, and gazed at him in astonishment, with
+quivering fingers and tightening lips. "I tell you your patent's no
+good."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it is."</p>
+
+<p>Again there was silence, and Brooke saw that Saxton was holding himself
+in with difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>"Still, you want to keep your mine," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"You can have it for what I asked you, and if you can clear the cost of
+working, it's more than I can do. The Canopus was played out quite a
+while ago."</p>
+
+<p>Even Brooke was startled, and Saxton sat down with all his customary
+assurance gone out of him. His mouth opened loosely, he seemed to grow
+suddenly limp, and his cigar shook visibly in his nerveless fingers.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," he said, and stopped while a quiver of futile anger seemed to run
+through him, "that's the last thing I expected. What'd you put up that
+wire sling for? I can't figure out your game."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span>Devine laughed. "It's quite easy. You have just about sense enough to
+worry anybody, or you wouldn't have dumped that ore into the Dayspring,
+and worked off one of the richest mines in the province on to me. Well,
+when I saw you meant to strike me on the Canopus, I just let you get to
+work because it suited me. I figured it would keep you busy while I took
+out timber-rights and bought up land round the Dayspring. Nobody
+believed in Allonby, and I got what I wanted at quite a reasonable
+figure. I'm holding the mine and everything worth while now. There's
+nothing left for you, and I guess it would be wiser to get hold of a man
+of your own weight next time."</p>
+
+<p>Saxton's face was colorless, but he put a restraint upon himself as he
+turned to Brooke.</p>
+
+<p>"You knew just what this man meant to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," said Devine, drily. "He told me quite a while ago. You're
+going? Haven't you any use for that dollar?"</p>
+
+<p>Saxton said nothing whatever, but the door slammed behind him, and
+Brooke, who, in spite of Devine's protests, went back to the Dayspring
+that evening, never saw him again.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>XXVIII.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">BROOKE DOES NOT COME BACK.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Devine went home a little earlier than usual after Saxton left him, and
+dusk was not far away when he sat recounting the affair in his wife's
+drawing-room. She listened with keen appreciation, and then looked up at
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"But where is Brooke?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>Devine smiled. "I guess he's buying mining tools. You can't keep that
+man out of a hardware store," he said. "I wanted to bring him back, but
+he was feeling better, and made up his mind to go out on the Atlantic
+express. He asked me to make his excuses, as he had fixed to meet an
+American machinery agent, and wasn't quite sure he could get round."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it is just as well," said Mrs. Devine, who appeared reflective.
+"Do you think you are wise in encouraging that man to come here, Grant?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't exactly call it that. I brought him. He didn't want to
+come."</p>
+
+<p>"You are, of course, quite sure?" and Mrs. Devine's smile implied that
+she, at least, was a trifle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span> incredulous. "Hasn't it struck you that
+Barbara&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"So far as I've noticed lately, Barbara didn't seem in any way pleased
+with him."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Devine made a little impatient gesture. "That," she said, "is
+exactly what I don't like. It's a significant sign. Barbara wouldn't
+have been angry with him&mdash;if it was not worth while."</p>
+
+<p>"You said nothing when he came to the ranch, while we were at the mine."</p>
+
+<p>"The man was pleasant company, and there was, it seemed to me, very
+little risk of a superior workman attracting Barbara's fancy."</p>
+
+<p>Devine laughed. "I guess I was of no great account when you married me."</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw!" said Mrs. Devine. "Anyway, you hadn't plotted to steal a mine
+from the people I belonged to."</p>
+
+<p>Devine's eyes twinkled. "It showed his grit, and 'most anything is
+considered square in a mining deal. Besides, there were the six thousand
+dollars Slocum took out of him."</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite aware that such transactions are evidently not subject to
+the ordinary code, but, seriously, if you would be content with Harford
+Brooke as my brother-in-law, it is considerably more than I would be. We
+don't even know why he left the Old Country."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Devine, drily, "I guess I have a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span> notion. I've been finding
+out a good deal about him. But get on with your objections."</p>
+
+<p>"Barbara has a good many dollars."</p>
+
+<p>"So has Brooke. You needn't worry about that point."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Devine's astonishment was very apparent. "Then whatever is he
+working at the mine for&mdash;and why didn't you tell me before?"</p>
+
+<p>"I guess it's because that kind of thing pleases him, and, anyway, it's
+only since last mail came in I knew."</p>
+
+<p>"You're quite sure, now?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you what I heard. There was a man who bought up our stock in
+England when nobody else seemed to have any use for it. The directors
+wanted to know a little about him, and they found it was a trust
+account. He was taking up the stock for another man, who had been left
+quite a few dollars, and that man was called Harford Brooke. The
+executor, it seems, told somebody that the man he was buying for was
+here. Now, it's not likely there are two of them in this part of
+Canada."</p>
+
+<p>The door, as it happened, was not closed, and Mrs. Devine was too intent
+to hear it swing open a little further. "The dollars," she said, "are by
+no means the most important consideration, but still&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She stopped abruptly at a sound, and then turned round with a little
+gasp, for Barbara stood just inside the room. Then there was a
+disconcerting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span> silence for a moment or two, until the girl glanced at
+Devine.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said, quietly. "I heard. When did Mr. Brooke buy that stock?"</p>
+
+<p>Devine understood the question, and once more the twinkle crept into his
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, "it was quite a while before they found the silver. I
+don't know what he did it for. Now, I guess I've been here longer than I
+meant to stay. You'll excuse me, Katty."</p>
+
+<p>He seemed in haste to get away, and when the door closed behind him the
+two who were left looked at one another curiously. Mrs. Devine was
+evidently embarrassed.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose," she said, drily, "you don't know why Brooke bought those
+shares, either?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think I do," said Barbara, with unusual quietness, though the color
+was very visible in her cheeks. "He had a reason&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She stopped abruptly, and there was once more an awkward silence, until
+she made a little impulsive gesture.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" she said, sharply now, "I feel horribly mean. He stayed there
+through the winter when they had scarcely anything to eat, and bought
+that stock when nobody else would have it or believed in the Dayspring.
+Then he risked his life to save the Canopus, and when he came down, worn
+out and ill, I had only hard words for him."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span>"Well," said Mrs. Devine, drily, "the sensation is probably good for
+you. You don't seem to remember that he also tried to jump the mine."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara turned towards her with a little sparkle in her eyes. "Have
+you&mdash;never&mdash;done anything that was wrong?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Devine naturally saw the point of this, but while she considered
+her answer, Barbara, who had a good deal to think of, and scarcely felt
+equal to any further conversation just then, abruptly turned away.
+Glancing at her watch, she went straight to a room, from the window of
+which she could see the road to the dep&ocirc;t, for she knew the Atlantic
+express would shortly start, and she had not been told that Brooke was
+not coming back. Exactly what she meant to say to him she did not know,
+but she felt she could not let him go without, at least, a slight
+expression of her appreciation of what he had done. She knew that he
+would value it, and that it would go far to blot out the memory of past
+unkindness. He had certainly meant to jump the Canopus, and deceived her
+shamefully, which was far harder to forgive, for the realization of the
+fact that she had bestowed rather more than friendliness upon a man who
+was unworthy of it had its sting, but she scarcely remembered that now.
+He had, it appeared, since then, sacrificed his fortune and broken down
+his strength, and that, considering the purpose which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span> she fancied had
+impelled him, went a long way to condone his offences.</p>
+
+<p>He, however, did not appear on the road, as she had expected; and she
+grew a trifle anxious when the tolling of a bell came up from the dep&ocirc;t
+by the wharf as the big locomotive backed the long cars in. It was also
+significant that she did not notice that the room, which had no stove in
+it, was very cold. Then looking down she saw men with valises pass
+across an opening between the roofs and express wagons lurching along
+the uneven road. The train would start very soon, and there was at least
+one admission she must make, but the minutes were slipping by and still
+Brooke did not come. The man, it almost appeared, was content to go away
+without seeing her, though she felt compelled to admit that in view of
+what had passed at their last meeting this was not altogether
+astonishing. Still, the fact that he could do so hurt her, and she
+waited in a state of painful tension. A very few minutes would suffice
+for him to climb the hill, and even if there was no opportunity for an
+explanation, which now appeared very probable, a smile or even a glance
+might go a long way to set matters right.</p>
+
+<p>The few minutes, however, slipped by as the rest had done, until at last
+the locomotive bell slowly clanged again, and the hoot of a whistle came
+up the hillside and was flung back by the pines. Then a puff of white
+smoke rolled up from the wharf, and Bar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span>bara turned away from the window
+with the crimson in her face as the cars swept through an opening
+between the clustering roofs. The train had gone, and the man would not
+know how far she had relented towards him. She could settle to nothing
+during the rest of the evening, and scarcely slept that night, though
+she naturally did not mention the fact when she and Mrs. Devine met at
+breakfast next morning. Instead, she took out a letter she had received
+a week earlier.</p>
+
+<p>"It's from Hetty Hume, and the English mail goes out to-day," she said.
+"She suggests that I should come over and spend a few months with her. I
+really think we did what we could for her when she was here with the
+Major."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Devine took the letter. "I fancy she wants you to go," she said.
+"She mentions that she has asked you several times already."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara appeared reflective. "So she has," she said. "In fact, I think
+I'll go. The change will do me good."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Mrs. Devine, "I suppose you can afford it, but if you
+indulge in many changes of that kind you're not going to have very much
+of a dowry."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think I need one?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Devine laughed as she glanced at her, but her face grew thoughtful
+again. "Perhaps in your case it wouldn't be necessary, and though it is
+a very long way, I fancy that you might do worse than go<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span> to England and
+stay there while Hetty is willing to keep you."</p>
+
+<p>A little flush crept into Barbara's cheek, but she said quietly, "I
+think I'll start on Saturday."</p>
+
+<p>She did so, and it came about one night while the big train she
+travelled by swept across the rolling levels of the Assiniboian prairie
+that Brooke sat in his shanty at the Dayspring with Jimmy, who had just
+come down from the range, standing in front of him. The freighter had
+still now and then a difficulty in bringing them provisions in, and
+whenever Jimmy found the persistent plying of drill and hammer pall upon
+him he would go out and look out for a deer, though it was not always
+that he came back with one. On this occasion he brought a somewhat
+alarming tale instead.</p>
+
+<p>"A big snow-slide must have come along since I was up on that slope
+before, and gouged out quite a ca&ntilde;on for itself," he said. "Anyway, if
+it wasn't a snow-slide it was a cloudburst or a waterspout. They happen
+around when folks don't want them now and then."</p>
+
+<p>"Come to the point," said Brooke. "I'm sufficiently acquainted with the
+meteorological perversities of the country."</p>
+
+<p>"Slinging names at them isn't much use. I've tried it, and any one
+raised here could give you points at the thing. Now before I came to
+Quatomac I was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span> staying up at the Tillicum ranch, and I'd just taken a
+new twelve-dollar pair of gum-boots off one night when there was a
+waterspout up the valley that washed me and Jardine out of the house. We
+sailed along until we struck a convenient pine, and sat in it most of
+the night while the flood went down. Then I hadn't any gum-boots, and
+Jardine couldn't find his house."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you told me you went down the river on a door on the last
+occasion," Brooke said, wearily. "Still, it doesn't greatly matter. What
+has all this to do with the hollow the snow-slide made in the range?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Jimmy, "I guess you know the way the big rock outcrop runs
+across the foot of the valley. Now, before the snow-slide or the
+waterspout came along the melting snow went down into the next hollow,
+and the one where the outcrop is got just enough to keep the outlet of
+the creek that comes through it open."</p>
+
+<p>"I do. Will it be an hour or more before you make it clear how that
+concerns anybody?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. I'm getting right there. The snow's melting tolerably fast,
+and the drainage from the big peak isn't going the way it used to now.
+The foot of the valley's quite a nice-sized lake, and the stream has
+washed most of the broke-up pines the snow brought down into the outlet
+gully. I guess you have seen a bad lumber jam?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span>Brooke had, and he started as he recognized the significance of what was
+happening, for once a drifting log strikes fast in a narrow passage the
+stream is very apt to pile up and wedge fast those that come behind into
+a tolerably efficient substitute for a dam, while when log still follows
+log the result is usually an inextricable confusion of interlocked
+timber.</p>
+
+<p>"When the jam up broke we'd have the water and the wreckage down on the
+mine," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"All there is of it," said Jimmy. "It would cost quite a pile of dollars
+to dry the workings out."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke strode to the door and flung it open, but there was black
+darkness outside and a persistent patter of thick warm rain. Then he
+swung round with an objurgation and Jimmy grinned.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess it's no use. You couldn't see a pine ten foot off, and there
+isn't a man in the country who would go down that gully with a lantern
+in his hand," he said. "Go off to sleep. You'll see quite as much as you
+want to, anyway, to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke stood still and listened a moment or two while the hoarse roar of
+a river which he knew was swirling in fierce flood among the boulders
+far down in the hollow came up in deep reverberations across the pines.
+It was a significant hint of what was likely to happen when the pent-up
+water poured down upon the mine. Still, there was nothing he could do in
+that thick darkness.</p>
+
+<p>"Sleep!" he said. "When almost every dollar I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span> have&mdash;and a good deal
+more than that&mdash;is sunk in the mine."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Jimmy, reflectively, "in your place, if I could make sure
+of the dollars, I'd take my chances on the rest. Now and then I'm quite
+thankful I haven't any. It saves a mighty lot of worry."</p>
+
+<p>He swung out of the shanty, and Brooke, who flung himself down on his
+couch of spruce twigs, endeavored to sleep, though he had no great
+expectation of succeeding. As it happened, he lay tossing or holding
+himself still by an effort the long night through, for he had set his
+whole mind on the prosperity of the Dayspring. A good deal of his small
+fortune was also sunk in it, though that was not of the greatest moment
+to him. He had a vague hope that when the mine was, through his efforts,
+pouring out high-grade ore, he might reinstate himself in Barbara's
+estimation. In that case, at least, she might believe in his contrition,
+for he felt that where protests were evidently useless deeds might
+avail. Then the dollars in question would be valuable to him.</p>
+
+<p>It was two hours before the dawn, and still apparently raining hard,
+when he rose and lighted the stove. He felt a trifle dizzy and very
+shivery as he did it, but the frugal breakfast put a little warmth into
+him, and he went out into the thick haze of falling water and up the
+hillside, walking somewhat wearily and with considerably more effort
+than he had found it necessary to make a few months ago.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>XXIX.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">A FINAL EFFORT.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>A dim, grey light was creeping through the rain when Brooke stopped on a
+ridge of hillside that broke off from the parent range above the mine.
+The pines were slowly growing into shape, though as yet they showed as
+mere spires of blackness in the sliding haze, and there was a faint
+glimmer in the hollow beneath him, while the sound of running water
+drowned the splashing of the rain. The snow upon the lower slopes had
+mostly melted now, though that on the great hill shoulders would swell
+the frothing rivers for months to come, and, sinking ankle-deep in
+quaggy mould, he went down through the dripping undergrowth until he
+stopped again on the verge of what had become in the last few days a
+muddy lake.</p>
+
+<p>The wreckage of the higher forests was strewn upon it, but Brooke
+noticed that it drifted steadily in one direction, and floundering along
+the water's edge, he reached a narrow gully, which had served as outlet
+for the stream through the ridge that hemmed in the valley. The passage
+was, however, now choked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span> by a mass of groaning timber, which was
+apparently growing every hour, and it already seemed scarcely possible
+to cut through that pile of wreckage by any means at his command. Once
+the pent-up water, which seemed rising rapidly, burst the jam, it would
+come down in an overwhelming torrent upon the mine, and he sat down on a
+fallen redwood to consider how the difficulty could be grappled with.</p>
+
+<p>He, however, found it no easy matter to keep his mind upon the question
+at all. His head was aching, he felt unpleasantly limp, as well as wet
+and cold, and the distressful stiffness of his back suggested that he
+had by no means recovered from the effects of his fall. The long months
+of strenuous physical toil, the scanty, and, when the freighter could
+not get in, often wholly insufficient food, and exposure to bitter frost
+and snow, had left their mark on him, while now, worn out in mind and
+body as he was, he realized that a last grim effort was demanded from
+him. How it was to be made he did not know, and he was sitting still,
+shivering, with the rain running from him, when Jimmy and another man
+from the mine appeared. It was almost light now, and the miner glanced
+at the gathering water with evident concern.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess something has got to be done," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke lifted himself shakily to his feet, and blinked in a curious,
+heavy fashion at the man.</p>
+
+<p>"It has, and if you'll bring the boys up we'll make a start," he said.
+"Now I don't know that we could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span> cut that jam, and if we did it would
+only turn the lake loose on the mine. What I purpose is to break a new
+cut through the rise where it's thinnest, and run enough water off to
+ease the pressure. Then we might, if it appeared advisable, get at the
+jam. In the meanwhile every man I can spare from here will start in
+cutting out a ten-foot trench at the mine. That would take away a good
+deal of any water that did come down."</p>
+
+<p>"I've been at this kind of work 'most all my life, and that's 'bout how
+I would fix it," said the other man.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Brooke, "there's just another point. Once you get started,
+you'll go right on, and there'll be very little sleep for any one until
+it's done, but we'll credit you with half extra on every hour's time in
+the pay-bill."</p>
+
+<p>The man laughed and waved his hand. "You needn't worry 'bout that. I
+guess the boys will see you through," he said.</p>
+
+<p>He disappeared into the rain, and the struggle commenced when he came
+back with the men. There were but a handful of them in all, and their
+task appeared almost beyond accomplishment, even to those born in a
+country where man and Nature unsubdued come to the closest grapple, and
+human daring and endurance must make head against the tremendous forces
+that unloose the rivers and slowly grind the ranges down. It is a
+continuous struggle, primitive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span> and elemental, in which brute strength
+and the animal courage that plies axe and drill with worn-out muscle and
+bleeding hands plays at least an equal part with ingenuity, for man has
+arrayed against him sun and frost, roaring water, crushing ice, and
+sliding snow; and those who fall in it lie thick by towering trestle
+bridge and along each railroad track. Worn out, aching in every limb,
+and with heavy eyes, Brooke braced himself to bear his part in it.</p>
+
+<p>For three days they toiled with pick and shovel and clinking drill, and
+the roar of the blasting charges shook the wet hillside, but while the
+trenches deepened slowly the water rose. By night the big fires snapped
+and sputtered, and the feeble lanterns blinked through the rain, while
+wild figures, stained with mire and dripping water, moved amidst the
+smoke, and those who dragged themselves out of the workings lay down on
+the wet ground for a brief hour's sleep. Brooke, however, so far as he
+could afterwards remember, did not close his eyes at all, and where his
+dripping figure appeared the shovels swung more rapidly, and the ringing
+of the drills grew a trifle louder. The pace was, however, too fierce to
+last, and, though even the men who work for another toil strenuously in
+that land, it was evident to him that while their task was less than
+half-done, they could not sustain it long.</p>
+
+<p>Baffled in one direction, he had also changed his plans, for the ridge
+was singularly hard to cut<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span> through, even with giant powder, and he had
+withdrawn most of the men from it and sent them to the trench, which
+would, he hoped, afford a passage to, at least, part of the water that
+must eventually come down upon the mine. It was late on the third night
+when it became evident that this would very shortly happen, and he sat,
+wet through and very weary, in his tent on the hillside, when Jimmy and
+another man came in.</p>
+
+<p>"Water's riz another foot since sundown, and I guess there's lakes of it
+ready to come down yonder," said the miner, who stretched out a wet
+hand, and pointed towards the dripping canvas above him, though Brooke
+surmised that he intended to indicate the range. "So far as I could make
+out, there's quite a forest of smashed-up logs sailing along to pile up
+in the jam."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke lifted a wet, grey face, and blinked at him with half-closed
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I'm afraid there are only two courses open to us," he said. "We
+can wait until the jam breaks up, when there'll be water enough to fill
+the Dayspring up and wash the plant above ground right down into the
+ca&ntilde;on, or we must try to cut it now."</p>
+
+<p>"And turn the lake loose on us with the trench 'bout half big enough to
+take it away?" said Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Brooke, grimly. "You have a six-foot dam thrown up. I'm not
+sure it will stand, but it's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span> a good deal less likely to do it when the
+lake is twice as big."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy looked at the other man, who nodded. "The boss is right," he said.
+"You can't stop to look for the nicest way out when you're in a blame
+tight place. No, sir, you've got to take the quickest one. When do you
+figure on starting on the jam, Mr. Brooke?"</p>
+
+<p>"Now."</p>
+
+<p>The man appeared astonished, and shook his head. "It can't be done in
+the dark," he said. "I guess nobody could find the king log that's
+keying up the jam, and though the boys aren't nervous, I'm not sure
+you'd get one of them to crawl down that gulley and over the live logs
+until it's light. They couldn't see to do anything with the axe anyway."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled drily. "Since they will not be asked to do it, that does
+not count. I purposed trying giant-powder, and going myself; that is,
+unless Jimmy feels anxious to come along with me."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't," said Jimmy, with decision in his tone. "If it was anybody
+else, watching him would be quite good enough for me. Still, as it
+isn't, I guess I'll have to see you through."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks!" said Brooke. "You can let them know what to expect at the
+mine, Cropper. I'll want you to put the detonators on the fuses with me,
+Jimmy."</p>
+
+<p>The other man went out, and the two who were left proceeded to nip down
+the fulminating caps on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span> the strips of snaky fuse, after which they
+carefully embedded them in sundry plastic rolls, which looked very like
+big candles made of yellow wax. These they packed in an iron case, and
+then, carrying an axe and a big auger, went out of the tent. The rest of
+the men left at the ridge were waiting them, for every one understood
+the perilous nature of the attempt, though, as two men were sufficient
+for the work, there was nothing that they could do, and they proceeded
+in a body through the dripping undergrowth towards the gully. Here a big
+fire of resinous wood was lighted, and when at last the smoky glare
+flickered upon the wet rocks in the hollow, Brooke, who stripped to
+shirt and trousers, flung himself over the edge.</p>
+
+<p>He dropped upon a little ledge, and made another yard or two down a
+cranny, then a bold leap landed him on a second ledge, and the groaning
+trunks were close beneath him when he dropped again. The glare of the
+fire scarcely reached him now, and Jimmy, who alighted close by him,
+looked up longingly at the flickering light above.</p>
+
+<p>"It wasn't easy getting down, and I'd feel better if I knew just how we
+were going back," he said. "I guess it's not quite wise either to bang
+that can about on the rocks."</p>
+
+<p>This was incontrovertible, for while giant powder, which is dynamite,
+is, with due precaution, comparatively safe to handle, and cannot be
+exploded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span> without a detonator, so those who make it claim, it is still
+addicted to going off with disastrous results on very small provocation.
+Brooke, who had the case containing it slung round his back, was,
+however, looking down on the logs that stirred and heaved beneath him
+with the water spouting up through the interstices between. He could see
+them when the fire grew brighter.</p>
+
+<p>"The king should not be far away, from the look of the jam," he said.
+"If we can't cut it, we may jar it loose. Giant powder strikes down. Let
+me have the axe."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy glanced at him, and shook his head, for Brooke's face showed drawn
+and grey in the flickering light.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll do any chopping that's wanted, and be glad when I get you out of
+this," he said.</p>
+
+<p>He dropped upon the timber, and the gap he splashed into closed up
+suddenly as he whipped out his leg. Then, with Brooke behind him, he
+crawled over the grinding logs, and by and by drove the point of the
+auger into one that seemed to run downwards through the midst of them.
+It was a good many feet in girth, and Brooke gasped heavily when he also
+laid hold of the auger crutch. The hole they made was charged with one
+of the yellow rolls, and, moving to a second log, they bored another,
+while the mass shook and trembled under them, and twice a great spout of
+water fell splashing upon them. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span> logs were apparently endued with
+vitality, for they moved under and over their fellows, and ground upon
+them with the pulsations of the stream that brought down fresh
+accessions and found a fresh channel that promptly closed again. The jam
+might resist the pressure for another week, or break up at any moment,
+and whirl down the gully in chaotic ruin. Still, with the rain beating
+down upon them, the pair toiled on until several sticks of explosive had
+been embedded, when Brooke rose very stiffly and straightened himself as
+he took a little case out of his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that we've got the king, but the general shake-up ought to
+loosen it," he said. "Light your fuse, Jimmy, and then get up. I'll come
+in a moment or two, when I'm ready."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy looked up, and saw a cluster of dark figures outlined against the
+glow of the fire, for the men had crowded to the edge of the gully.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand by to give us a lift up, boys," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Then he turned away, and was rather longer than he liked persuading a
+damp match to ignite. The fuse, however, sparkled readily, and, groping
+his way across the logs, he clutched a ledge of rock. It was wet and
+slippery, and he slid back from it, hurting one arm, while, when he
+regained the narrow shelf, a voice was raised warningly above.</p>
+
+<p>"Let her go," it said. "Jimmy's fuse will be on to the powder before
+you're through."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span>Jimmy turned, and dimly saw his comrade still apparently stooping over
+one of the logs.</p>
+
+<p>"Have I got to come back and bring you?" he shouted.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke stood up, and a faint sparkling broke out at his feet. "Go on,"
+he said. "It's burning now."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy said nothing further. Those fuses were short, and he was anxious
+to be clear of the gully. Still, even though he decided to sacrifice the
+axe, it was not an easy matter to ascend the almost precipitous slope of
+slippery rock, and as he climbed higher the glare of the fire in his
+eyes confused him. He had, however, almost reached the top when there
+was a crash and a rattle of stones below him, and he twisted himself
+partly round, while a hoarse shout rang out.</p>
+
+<p>"Get hold of him!" cried one of the men. "Oh, jump for it. He'll be over
+the ledge!"</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Jimmy had a glimpse of a wet, white face, and a hand,
+apparently clinging to a cranny, and then the flicker of firelight sank
+and left him in black darkness. He did not understand exactly what had
+taken place, but it was unpleasantly evident that the fuses would soon
+reach the powder, while his comrade, whom he could no longer see, was
+apparently unable to ascend the gully.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you get him?" shouted somebody.</p>
+
+<p>"Jump down. Put the fuses out!" said another man.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span>Jimmy was, fortunately, one of the slow men who usually keep their
+heads, and while he glanced down at the twinkling fuses in the dark pit
+beneath him, he swung up a warning hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Light right out of that, boys. It can't be done," he said. "Hold on,
+partner. Let me know where you are&mdash;I'm coming along."</p>
+
+<p>A faint shout answered him, and Jimmy made his way downwards until he
+could discern a dusky blur, which he surmised was Brooke, close beneath
+him. Taking a firm hold with one hand, he leaned down and clutched at
+it, and then, with every muscle strained, strove to drag his comrade up.
+Jimmy was a strong man, but Brooke, it seemed, was able to do very
+little to help him, and Jimmy's fingers commenced to slacken under the
+tension. Then Brooke, who made a convulsive flounder, lost the grip he
+had, and the arm Jimmy clung to was torn away from him. A dull sound
+that was unpleasantly suggestive rose from a ledge below, and there was
+silence that was more so after it.</p>
+
+<p>Then while Jimmy leaned down, blinking into the darkness and ignoring
+the risk he ran, a yellow flash leapt out below, and there was a
+stunning detonation. It was followed almost in the same moment by
+another, and the solid rock seemed to heave a shiver, while the hollow
+was filled with overwhelming sound and a nauseating vapor. Giant-powder
+strikes chiefly downwards, which was especially fortunate for two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span> men
+just then, but the rock was swept by flying fragments of shattered
+trunks, and Jimmy cowered against it half-dazed. Then another sound rose
+out of the acrid haze as the rent trunks crushed beneath the pressure,
+and there was an appalling grinding and smashing of timber. It was
+succeeded by a furious roar of water.</p>
+
+<p>A minute had probably slipped by when once more a man who showed faintly
+black against the firelight leaned over the edge of the gully, and his
+voice reached Jimmy brokenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo! Are either of you alive?" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy roused himself with an effort. "Well," he said, hoarsely, "I guess
+I am. I don't quite know whether Brooke is."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I'm coming down," said the other man. "We have got to get him out
+of the stink if there's anything left of him."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy grasped the necessity for this, since the fumes of giant-powder
+are in confined spaces usually sufficient to prostrate a strong man, and
+several of his comrades apparently came down instead of one, bringing
+lanterns and blazing brands with them. There was a slippery ledge a
+little lower down the gully, and while the nauseating vapor eddied about
+them and the shattered wreckage went thundering past below, they made
+their way along it until they came on Brooke.</p>
+
+<p>He was lying partly up on the ledge with his feet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</a></span> in the swirling
+torrent and his shirt rent open. There was a big red smear on it, his
+lips were bloodless, and one arm was doubled limply under him. Jimmy
+stooped and shook him gently, but Brooke made no sign, and his head sank
+forward until his face was hidden. Then Jimmy, who slipped his hand
+inside the torn shirt, withdrew it, smeared and warm, with a little
+shiver.</p>
+
+<p>"He's bleeding quite hard, and that shows there's life in him. We have
+got to get him out of this right now," he said.</p>
+
+<p>None of them quite remembered how they did it, for few men unaccustomed
+to the ranges would have cared to ascend that gully unencumbered by
+daylight, but it was accomplished, and when a litter of fir branches had
+been hastily lashed together they plodded behind it in silence down the
+hillside. If anything could be done, and they were very uncertain on
+that point, it could only be done in the shanty.</p>
+
+<p>As they floundered down the trail a man met them with the news that very
+little of the water had got into the mine, but that did not appear of
+much importance to any one just then. After all, the Dayspring belonged
+to an English company, and it was Brooke, who lay in the litter
+oblivious of everything, they had worked for.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>XXX.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">THE OTHER CHANCE.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The blink of sunlight was pleasantly warm where Barbara sat with Hetty
+Hume on a seat set back among the laurels which just there cut off the
+shrewd wind from the English lawn. A black cloud sailed slowly over the
+green hilltop behind the old grey house, and the close-cropped grass was
+sparkling still with the sprinkle of bitter rain, but the scent of the
+pale narcissus drifted up from the borders and the sticky buds of a big
+chestnut were opening overhead. Barbara glanced across the sweep of lawn
+towards the line of willows that swung their tasseled boughs above the
+palely flashing river. They were apparently dusted with silver and
+ochre, and here and there a flush of green chequered the ridge of thorn
+along the winding road that led the eye upwards to the clean-cut edge of
+the moor. It was, however, a regular, even line, cropped to one
+unvarying level save for the breaks where the neat gates were hung; the
+road was smooth and wide, with a red board beside the wisp of firs above
+to warn all it might concern of the gradient; while the square fields
+with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</a></span> polled trees in the trim hedgerows all conveyed the same
+impression. This was decorous, well-ordered England, where Nature was
+broken to man's dominion centuries ago. As she glanced at it her
+companion laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"The prospect from here is, I believe, generally admitted to be
+attractive, though I have not noticed any of my other friends spend much
+time in admiring it," she said. "Still, perhaps it is different in your
+case. You haven't anything quite like it in Canada."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Barbara. "Anyway, not between Quatomac and the big glacier.
+You remember that ride?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course!" said Hetty Hume. "I found it a little overwhelming. That
+is, the peaks and glaciers. I also remember the rancher. The one who
+played the violin. I suppose you never came across him again?"</p>
+
+<p>"I met him once or twice. At a big concert&mdash;and on other occasions."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara's smile was indifferent, but she was silent for the next minute
+or two. She had now spent several weeks in England, and had found the
+smooth, well-regulated life there pleasant after the restless activity
+of the one she had led in Western Canada, where everybody toiled
+feverishly. She felt the contrast every day, and now the sight of that
+softly-sliding river, whose low murmur came up soothingly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span> across the
+lawn, recalled the one that frothed and foamed amidst the Quatomac
+pines, and the roar that rose from the misty ca&ntilde;on. That, very
+naturally, also brought back the face of the flume-builder, and she
+wondered vaguely whether he was still at the Dayspring, and what he was
+doing then, until her companion turned to her again.</p>
+
+<p>"We will really have to decide about the Cruttendens' dance to-night,"
+she said. "It will be the last frivolity of the season in this
+vicinity."</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't met Mrs. Cruttenden, have I?" said Barbara, indifferently.</p>
+
+<p>"You did, when you were here before. Don't you remember the old house
+you were so pleased with lower down the valley? In any case, she
+remembers you, and made a point of my bringing you. Cruttenden has a
+relative in your country, though I never heard much about the man."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara remembered the old building very well, and it suddenly flashed
+upon her that Brooke had on one occasion displayed a curious
+acquaintance with it. Everything that afternoon seemed to force him upon
+her recollection.</p>
+
+<p>"You would like to go?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"I, at least, feel I ought to. We are, of course, quite newcomers here.
+In fact, we had only bought Larchwood just before you last came over,
+and it was Mrs. Cruttenden who first took us up. One may live a very
+long while in places of this kind without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span> being admitted within the
+pale, you see, and even the rank of Major isn't a very great warranty,
+especially if it has been gained in foreign service instead of
+Aldershot."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Hume stopped as her father came slowly down the pathway with a
+grey-haired lady, whose dress proclaimed her a widow, and the latter's
+voice reached the girl's clearly. Her face was, so Barbara noticed, very
+expressive as she turned to her companion.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you know what I really came for," she said. "I feel I owe you a
+very great deal."</p>
+
+<p>Major Hume made a little deprecatory gesture. "I have," he said, "at
+least, seen the papers, and was very glad to notice that Reggie has got
+his step. He certainly deserved it. Very plucky thing, especially with
+only a handful of a raw native levy to back him. Frontal attack in
+daylight&mdash;and the niggers behind the stockade seem to have served their
+old guns astonishingly well!"</p>
+
+<p>"Still, if it had not been for your forbearance he would never have had
+the opportunity of doing it," said the lady. "I shall always remember
+that. You were the only one who made any excuse for him, and he told me
+his colonel was very bitter against him."</p>
+
+<p>The pair passed the girls, apparently without noticing them, and Barbara
+did not hear Major Hume's answer, but when he came back alone a few
+minutes later he stopped in front of them.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</a></span>"You were here when we went by?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Hetty. "We heard you quite distinctly, too, and that
+suggests a question. What was it Reggie Ferris did?"</p>
+
+<p>Major Hume smiled drily. "Stormed a big rebel stockade with only a few
+half-drilled natives to help him. If you haven't read it already I can
+give you a paper with an account of the affair."</p>
+
+<p>"That," said Hetty, "is, as you are aware, not what I wished to ask.
+What was it he did before he left the line regiment? It was, presumably,
+something not especially creditable&mdash;and I always had an idea that he
+owed it to you that the result was not a good deal more unpleasant."</p>
+
+<p>The Major appeared a trifle embarrassed. "I scarcely think it would do
+you very much good to know," he said. "The thing wasn't a nice one, but
+there was good stuff in the lad, who, it was evident to me, at least,
+had been considerably more of a fool than a rogue, and all I did was to
+persuade the Colonel, who meant to break him, to give him another
+chance. It seems I was wise. Reggie Ferris has had his lesson, and has
+from all accounts retrieved his credit in the Colonial service."</p>
+
+<p>"If I remember correctly you once made a bad mistake in being equally
+considerate to another man," said Hetty, reflectively.</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly did, but you will find by the time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</a></span> you are as old as I am
+that taking it all round it is better to be merciful."</p>
+
+<p>"The Major," said Hetty, with a glance at Barbara, "is a confirmed
+optimist&mdash;and he has been in India."</p>
+
+<p>Major Hume smiled. "Well," he said, "the mistakes one makes from that
+cause hurt one less afterwards than the ones that result from believing
+in nobody. Now, there was that young woman who was engaged to
+Reggie&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He has applied the suggestive epithet to her ever since she gave him
+up," said Hetty. "Still, I really don't think anybody could have
+expected very much more from her."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said the Major, grimly. "In my opinion she went further than there
+was any particular necessity for her to do. She knew the man's
+shortcomings when she was engaged to him&mdash;and she should have stuck to
+him. You don't condemn any one for a single slip in your country, Miss
+Heathcote?"</p>
+
+<p>Barbara made no answer, for this, it seemed, was just what she had done,
+but Hetty, who had been watching her, laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"You couldn't expect her to admit that their standard in Canada is lower
+than ours," she said.</p>
+
+<p>The Major appeared disconcerted. "That is not exactly what I mean. They
+have a little more charity yonder, and, in some respects, a good deal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</a></span>
+more sense. From one or two cases I am acquainted with they are, in
+fact, usually willing to give the man who trips another chance instead
+of falling upon him mercilessly before he can get up."</p>
+
+<p>"Still you haven't told us yet what Reggie Ferris did."</p>
+
+<p>Major Hume laughed as he turned away. "I am," he said, "quite aware of
+it."</p>
+
+<p>He left them, and Hetty smiled as she said, "The Major has not
+infrequently been imposed upon, but nothing will disabuse him of his
+cheerful belief in human nature, and I must admit that he is quite as
+often right as more censorious people. There was Lily Harland who gave
+Reggie Ferris up, which, of course, was probably only what he could have
+expected under the circumstances, but Reggie, it appears, is wiping out
+the past, and I have reasons for surmising that she has been sorry ever
+since. Nobody but my father and his mother ever hear from him now, and
+if that hurts Lily she has only herself to blame. She had her
+opportunity of showing what faith she had in the man, and can't expect
+to get another just because she would like it."</p>
+
+<p>She wondered why the warm color had crept into her companion's face, but
+Barbara said nothing, and vacantly watched the road that wound up
+through the meadows out of the valley, until a moving object appeared
+where it crossed the crest of the hill. In the meanwhile her thoughts
+were busy, for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[Pg 426]</a></span> Major's suggestive little story had not been without
+its effect on her, and the case of Reggie Ferris was, it seemed,
+remarkably similar to that of a certain Canadian flume-builder. The
+English soldier and Grant Devine had both been charitable, but she and
+the girl who was sorry ever since had shown themselves merciless, and
+there was in that connection a curious significance in the fact that
+Reggie Ferris, who was now brilliantly blotting out the past, wrote
+nobody but his mother and the man who had given him what the latter
+termed another chance. Barbara remembered the afternoon when she waited
+at the window and Brooke, who, she fancied, could have done so had he
+wished, had not come up from the dep&ocirc;t. She could not ignore the fact
+that this had since occasioned her a vague uneasiness.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile the moving object had been growing larger, and when it
+reappeared lower down the road resolved itself into a gardener who had
+been despatched to the nearest village on a bicycle.</p>
+
+<p>"We will wait until Tom brings in the letters," said Hetty.</p>
+
+<p>It was a few minutes later when the man came up the path and handed her
+a packet. Among the letters she spread out there was one for Barbara,
+whose face grew suddenly intent as she opened it. It was from Mrs.
+Devine, and the thin paper crackled under her tightening fingers as she
+read:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have been alone since I last wrote you, as Grant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[Pg 427]</a></span> had to go up to the
+Dayspring suddenly and has not come back. There was, I understand, a big
+flood in the valley above the mine, and Brooke, it seems, was very
+seriously hurt when endeavoring to protect the workings. I don't
+understand exactly how it happened, though I surmise from Grant's
+letters that he did a very daring thing. He is now in the Vancouver
+hospital, for although Grant wished him brought here, the surgeon
+considered him far too ill to move. His injuries, I understand, are not
+very serious in themselves, but it appears that the man was badly worn
+out and run down when he sustained them, and his condition, I am sorry
+to say, is just now very precarious."</p>
+
+<p>The rest of the letter concerned the doings of Barbara's friends in
+Vancouver, but the girl read no more of it, and sat still, a trifle
+white in the face, with her hands trembling, until Hetty turned to her.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't look well," she said. "I hope nothing has happened to your
+sister or Mr. Devine?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Barbara, quietly, though there was a faint tremor in her
+voice. "They are apparently in as good health as usual."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad to hear it," said Hetty, with an air of relief. "There is, of
+course, nobody else, or I should have known it, though you really seem a
+trifle paler than you generally do. Shall we go in and look through
+these patterns? I have been writing up about some dress material, and
+they've sent cut<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[Pg 428]</a></span>tings. Still, I don't suppose you will want anything
+new for Mrs. Cruttenden's?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Barbara, in a voice that was almost too even now, and not in
+keeping with the tension in her face. "In fact, I'm not going at all."</p>
+
+<p>Hetty glanced at her sharply, and then made a little gesture of
+comprehension.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well!" she said. "Whenever you feel it would be any consolation
+you can tell me, but in the meanwhile I have no doubt that you can get
+on without my company."</p>
+
+<p>She moved away, and Barbara, who was glad to be alone, sat still, for
+she wished to set her thoughts in order. This was apparently the climax
+all that had passed that afternoon had led up to, but she was just then
+chiefly conscious of an overwhelming distress that precluded any
+systematic consideration of its causes. The man whom she had roused from
+his lethargy at the Quatomac ranch was now, she gathered, dying in the
+Vancouver hospital, but not before he had blotted out his offences by
+slow endurance and unwearying effort in the face of flood and frost. She
+would have admitted this to him willingly now, but the opportunity was,
+it seemed, not to be afforded her, and the bitter words with which she
+had lashed him could never be withdrawn. She who had shown no mercy, and
+would not afford him what Major Hume had termed another chance, must, it
+seemed, long for it in vain herself.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[Pg 429]</a></span>By degrees, however, her innate resolution rose against that decision,
+and she remembered that it was not, in point of time, at least a very
+long journey to British Columbia. There was nothing to prevent her
+setting out when it pleased her; and then it occurred to her that the
+difficulties would be plentiful at the other end. What explanation would
+she make to her sister, or the man, if&mdash;and the doubt was horrible&mdash;he
+was, indeed, still capable of receiving it? He had never in direct
+speech offered her his love, and she had not even the excuse of the girl
+who had given Reggie Ferris up for throwing herself at his feet. She was
+not even sure that she could have done it in that case, for her pride
+was strong, and once more she felt the hopelessness of the irrevocable.
+She had shown herself hard and unforgiving, and now she realized that
+the man she loved&mdash;and it was borne in upon her, that in spite of his
+offences she loved him well&mdash;was as far beyond her reach as though he
+had already slipped away from her into the other world at whose shadowy
+portals he lay in the Vancouver hospital.</p>
+
+<p>There had been a time, indeed the occasion had twice presented itself,
+when she could have relented gracefully, but she could no longer hope
+that it would ever happen again, and it only remained for her to face
+the result of her folly, and bear herself befittingly. It would, she
+realized, cost her a bitter effort, but the effort must be made, and she
+rose with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[Pg 430]</a></span> a tense white face and turned towards the house. Hetty, as it
+happened, met her in the hall, and looked at her curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"There are, as you may remember, two or three people coming in to
+dinner," she said. "I have no doubt I could think out some excuse if you
+would sooner not come down."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you think that would please me?" said Barbara, quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Hetty, a trifle drily, "I fancied you would sooner have
+stayed away. Your appearance rather suggested it."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara smiled in a listless fashion. "I'm afraid I can't help that,"
+she said. "Your friends, however, will presumably not be here for an
+hour or two yet."</p>
+
+<p>Hetty made no further suggestions, and Barbara moved on slowly towards
+the stairway. She came of a stock that had grappled with frost and flood
+in the wild ranges of the mountain province, and courage and
+steadfastness were born in her, but she knew there was peril in the
+slightest concession to her gentler nature she might make just then.
+What she bore in the meanwhile she told nobody, but when the sonorous
+notes of a gong rolled through the building she came down the great
+stairway only a trifle colder in face than usual, and immaculately
+dressed.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[Pg 431]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>XXXI.<br />
+<span class="smalltext">BROOKE IS FORGIVEN.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>It was a pleasant morning, and Brooke lay luxuriating in the sunlight by
+an open window of the Vancouver hospital. His face was blanched and
+haggard, and his clothes hung loosely about his limbs, but there was a
+brightness in his eyes, and he was sensible that at last his strength
+was coming back to him. Opposite him sat Devine, who had just come in,
+and was watching him with evident approbation.</p>
+
+<p>"You will be fit to be moved out in a day or two, and I want to see you
+in Mrs. Devine's hands," he said. "We have a room fixed ready, and I
+came round to ask when the doctor would let you go."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke slowly shook his head. "You are both very kind, but I'm going
+back to the Old Country," he said. "Still, I don't know whether I shall
+stay there yet."</p>
+
+<p>Devine appeared a trifle disconcerted. "We had counted on you taking
+hold again at the Dayspring," he said. "Wilkins is getting an old man,
+and I don't know of any one who could handle that mine as you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[Pg 432]</a></span> have
+done. Quite sure there's nothing I could do that would keep you?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke lay silent a moment or two. He was loth to leave the mine, but
+during his slow recovery at the hospital a curious longing to see the
+Old Country once more had come upon him. He could go back now, and, if
+it pleased him, pick up the threads of the old life he had left behind,
+though he was by no means sure this would afford him the satisfaction he
+had once anticipated. The ambition to prove his capabilities in Canada
+had, in the meanwhile, at least, deserted him since his last meeting
+with Barbara, and he had heard from Mrs. Devine that it would probably
+be several months before she returned to Vancouver. He realized that it
+was she who had kept him there, and now she had gone, and the mine was,
+as Devine had informed him, exceeding all expectations, there was no
+longer any great inducement to stay in Canada. He had seen enough of the
+country, and, of late, a restless desire to get away from it had been
+growing stronger with every day of his recovery. It might, he felt, be
+easier to shake off the memory of his folly in another land.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said, slowly, "I don't think there is. I feel I must go back,
+for a while, at least."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Devine, who seemed to recognize that protests would be
+useless, "it's quite a long journey. I guess you can afford it?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke felt the keen eyes fixed on him with an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[Pg 433]</a></span> almost disconcerting
+steadiness, but he contrived to smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "if I don't do it too extravagantly, I fancy I can."</p>
+
+<p>"Then there's another point," said Devine, with a faint twinkle in his
+eyes. "You might want to do something yonder that would bring the
+dollars in. Now, I could give you a few lines that would be useful in
+case you wanted an engagement with one of your waterworks contractors or
+any one of that kind."</p>
+
+<p>"I scarcely think it will be necessary," said Brooke, with a little
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Devine, "I have a notion that it's not going to be very
+long before we see you back again. You have got used to us, and you're
+going to find the folks yonder slow. I can think of quite a few men who
+saved up, one or two of them for a very long while, to go home to the
+Old Country, and in about a month they'd had enough of it. The country
+was very much as they left it&mdash;but they had altered."</p>
+
+<p>He stopped a moment, with a little chuckle, before he continued. "Now,
+there was Sandy Campbell, who ran the stamps at the Canopus for me. He
+never spent a dollar when he could help it, and, when he'd quite a pile
+of them, he told me he was just sickening for a sight of Glasgow. Well,
+I let him go, and that day six weeks Sandy came round to the mine again.
+The Old Country was badly played out,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[Pg 434]</a></span> he said, but, for another month,
+that was all he would tell me, and then the facts came out. Sandy's
+friends had met him at the Donaldson wharf, and started a circus over
+the whisky. Somebody broke the furniture, and Sandy doubled up a
+policeman who, he figured, had insulted him, so they had him up for
+doing it before whatever they call a magistrate in that country. Sandy's
+remarks were printed in a Glasgow paper, and he showed it me.</p>
+
+<p>"'Forty shillings. It's an iniquity,' he said. 'Is this how ye treat a
+man who has come six thousand miles to see his native land? I will not
+find ye a surety. I'm away back by the first Allan boat to a country
+where they appreciate me.'"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laughed. "Still, I don't quite see how Sandy's case applies to
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"I guess it does. One piece of it, anyway. Sandy knew where he was
+appreciated, and we have room for a good many men of your kind in this
+country. That's about all I need say. When you feel like it, come right
+back to me."</p>
+
+<p>He went out a few minutes later, and Brooke lay still thoughtfully, with
+his old ambitions re-awakening. There was, he surmised, a good deal of
+truth in Devine's observations, and work in the mountain province that
+he could do. Still, he felt that even to make his mark there would be no
+great gain to him now. Barbara could not forgive him, but she was in
+England, and he might, at least, see her. Whether<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[Pg 435]</a></span> that would be wise he
+did not know, and scarcely fancied so, but the faint probability had its
+attractions, and he would go and stay there&mdash;until he had recovered his
+usual vigor, at least.</p>
+
+<p>It was, however, a little while before the doctors would permit him to
+risk the journey, and several months had passed when he stood with a
+kinsman and his wife on the lawn outside an old house in an English
+valley. The air was still and warm, and a full moon was rising above the
+beeches on the hillside. Its pale light touched the river, that slid
+smoothly between the mossy stepping-stones, and the shadows of clipped
+yew and drooping willow lay black upon the grass. There was a faint
+smell of flowers that linger in the fall, and here and there a withered
+leaf was softly sailing down, but that night it reminded Brooke of the
+resinous odors of the Western pines, and the drowsy song of the river,
+of the thunder of the torrent that swirled by Quatomac. His heart was
+also beating a trifle more rapidly than usual, and for that reason he
+was more than usually quiet.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose your friends will come?" he said, indifferently.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Cruttenden, who stood close by him, laughed. "To the minute! Major
+Hume is punctuality itself. I fancy he will be a little astonished
+to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be pleased to meet him again. He was to bring Miss Hume?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[Pg 436]</a></span>"Of course," said Mrs. Cruttenden, with a keen glance at him. "And Miss
+Heathcote, whom you asked about. No doubt she will be a trifle
+astonished, too. You do not seem quite so sure that the meeting with her
+will afford you any pleasure?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled a trifle grimly. "The most important question is whether
+she will be pleased to see me. I don't mind admitting it is one that is
+causing me considerable anxiety."</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldn't her attitude on the last occasion serve as guide?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke felt his face grow warm under her watchful eyes, but he laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"I would like to believe that it did not," he said. "Miss Heathcote did
+not appear by any means pleased with me. Still, you see, you sometimes
+change your minds."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Mrs. Cruttenden, reflectively. "Especially when the person
+who has offended us has been very ill. It is, in fact, the people one
+likes the most one is most inclined to feel angry with now and then, but
+there are circumstances under which one feels sorry for past
+severities."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke started, for this appeared astonishingly apposite in view of the
+fact that he had, as she had once or twice reminded him, told her
+unnecessarily little about his Canadian affairs. The difficulty,
+however, was that he could not be sure she was correct.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[Pg 437]</a></span>"You naturally know what you would do, but, after all, that scarcely
+goes quite as far as one would like," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Cruttenden laughed softly. "Still, I fancy the rest are very like
+me in one respect. In fact, it might be wise of you to take that for
+granted."</p>
+
+<p>Just then three figures appeared upon the path that came down to the
+stepping-stones across the river, and Brooke's eyes were eager as he
+watched them. They were as yet in the shadow, but he felt that he would
+have recognized one of them anywhere and under any circumstances. Then
+he strode forward precipitately, and a minute later sprang aside on to
+an outlying stone as a grey-haired man, who glanced at him sharply,
+turned, with hand held out, to one of his companions. Brooke moved a
+little nearer the one who came last, and then stood bareheaded, while
+the girl stopped suddenly and looked at him. He could catch the gleam of
+the brown eyes under the big hat, and, for the moon was above the
+beeches now, part of her face and neck gleamed like ivory in the silvery
+light. She stood quite still, with the flashing water sliding past her
+feet, etherealized, it seemed to him, by her surroundings and a
+complement of the harmonies of the night.</p>
+
+<p>"You?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laughed softly, and swept his hand vaguely round, as though to
+indicate the shining river and dusky trees.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[Pg 438]</a></span>"Yes," he said. "You remember how I met you at Quatomac. Who else could
+it be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody," said Barbara, with a tinge of color in her face. "At least,
+any one else would have been distinctly out of place."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke tightened his grasp on the hand she had laid in his, for which
+there was some excuse, since the stone she stood upon was round and
+smooth, and it was a long step to the next one.</p>
+
+<p>"You knew I was here?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Barbara, quietly.</p>
+
+<p>Brooke felt his heart throbbing painfully. "And you could have framed an
+excuse for staying away?"</p>
+
+<p>The girl glanced at him covertly as he stood very straight looking down
+on her, with lips that had set suddenly, and tension in his face. The
+moonlight shone into it, and it was, she noticed, quieter and a little
+grimmer than it had been, while his sinewy frame still showed spare to
+gauntness in the thin conventional dress. This had its significance to
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course!" she said. "Still, it did not seem necessary. I had no
+reason for wishing to stay away."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke fancied that there was a good deal in this admission, and his
+voice had a little exultant thrill in it.</p>
+
+<p>"That implies&mdash;ever so much," he said. "Hold fast. That stone is
+treacherous, and one can get wet in this river, though it is not the
+Quatomac. Ab<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[Pg 439]</a></span>surd to suggest that, isn't it? Are not Abana and Pharpar
+better than all the waters of Israel?"</p>
+
+<p>Barbara also laughed. "Do you wish the Major to come back for me?" she
+said. "It is really a little difficult to stand still upon a narrow
+piece of mossy stone."</p>
+
+<p>They went across, and Major Hume stared at Brooke in astonishment when
+Cruttenden presented him.</p>
+
+<p>"By all that's wonderful! Our Canadian guide!" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Presumably so!" said Cruttenden. "Still, though, my wife appears to
+understand the allusion, it's more than I do. Anyway, he is my kinsman,
+Harford Brooke, and the owner of High Wycombe."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke smiled as he shook hands with the Major, but he was sensible that
+Barbara flashed a swift glance at him, and, as they moved towards the
+house, Hetty broke in.</p>
+
+<p>"You must know, Mr. Cruttenden, that your kinsman met Barbara beside a
+river once before, and on that occasion, too, they did not come out of
+it until some little time after we did," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"That," said Cruttenden, "appears to imply that they were&mdash;in&mdash;the
+water."</p>
+
+<p>"I really think that one of them was," said Hetty. "Barbara had a pony,
+but Mr. Brooke had not, and his appearance certainly suggested that he
+had been bathing. In fact, he was so bedraggled that Barbara<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[Pg 440]</a></span> gave him a
+dollar. She had, I must explain, already spent a few months in this
+country."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke was a trifle astonished, and noticed a sudden warmth in Barbara's
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"If I remember correctly, you had gone into the ranch, Miss Hume," he
+said, severely.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Hetty. "You may have fancied so, but I hadn't. I was the only
+chaperon Barbara had, you see. I hope she didn't tell you not to lavish
+the dollar on whisky. No doubt you spent it wisely on tobacco."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke made no answer, and his smile was somewhat forced; but he went
+with the others into the house, and it was an hour or two later when he
+and Barbara again stood by the riverside alone. Neither of them quite
+knew how it came about, but they were there with the black shadows of
+the beeches behind them and the flashing water at their feet. Brooke
+glanced slowly round him, and then turned to the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"It reminds one of that other river&mdash;but there is a difference," he
+said. "The beeches make poor substitutes for your towering pines, and
+you no longer wear the white samite."</p>
+
+<p>"And," said Barbara, "where is the sword?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke looked down on her gravely, and shook his head. "I am not fit to
+wear it, and yet I dare not give it back to you, stained as it is," he
+said. "What am I to do?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[Pg 441]</a></span>"Keep it," said Barbara, softly. "You have wiped the stain out, and it
+is bright again."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laid a hand that quivered a little on her shoulder. "Barbara," he
+said, "I am not vainer than most men, and I know what I have done, but
+unless what once seemed beyond all hoping for was about to come to me,
+you and I would not have met again beside the river. It simply couldn't
+happen. You can forget all that has gone before, and once more try to
+believe in me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think," said Barbara, quietly, "there is a good deal that you must
+never remember, too. I realized that"&mdash;and she stopped with a little
+shiver&mdash;"when you were lying in the Vancouver hospital."</p>
+
+<p>"And you knew I loved you, though in those days I dare not tell you so?
+I have done so, I think, from the night I first saw you, and yet there
+is so much to make you shrink from me."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Barbara, very softly, "there is nothing whatever now&mdash;and if
+perfection had been indispensable you would never have thought of me."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laid his other hand on her shoulder, and, standing so, while
+every nerve in him thrilled, still held her a little apart, so that the
+silvery light shone into her flushed face. For a moment she met his
+gaze, and her eyes were shining.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know that, absurd as it may sound, I seemed to know that night
+at Quatomac that I should hold you in my arms again one day?" he said.
+"Of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[Pg 442]</a></span> course, the thing seemed out of the question, an insensate dream,
+and still I could never quite let go my hold of the alluring fancy."</p>
+
+<p>"And if the dream had never been fulfilled?"</p>
+
+<p>Brooke laughed curiously. "You would still have ridden beside me through
+many a long night march, with the moon shining round and full behind
+your shoulder, and I should have felt the white dress brush me softly
+where the trail was dark."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I should have been always young to you. You would never have seen
+me grow faded and the grey creep into my hair."</p>
+
+<p>Brooke drew her towards him, and held her close. "My dear, you will be
+always beautiful to me. We will grow old together, and the one who must
+cross the last dark river first will, at least, start out on the shadowy
+trail holding the other's hand."</p>
+
+<p>It was an hour later when Barbara, with the man's arm still about her,
+glanced across the velvet lawn to the old grey house beneath the dusky
+slope of wooded hill. The moonlight silvered its weathered front, and
+the deep tranquillity of the sheltered valley made itself felt.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Brooke, "it is yours and mine."</p>
+
+<p>Barbara made a little gesture that was eloquent of appreciation. "It is
+very beautiful. A place one could dream one's life away in. We have
+nothing like it in Canada. You would care to stay here always?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[Pg 443]</a></span>"Any place would be delightful with you."</p>
+
+<p>The girl laughed softly, but her voice had a tender thrill in it, and
+then she turned towards the west.</p>
+
+<p>"It is very beautiful&mdash;and full of rest," she said. "Still, I scarcely
+think it would suit you to sit down in idleness, and all that can be
+done for this rich country has been done years ago."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder," said Brooke, who guessed her thoughts, "if you would be
+quite so sure when you had seen our towns."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, one would need to be very wise to take hold there&mdash;and I do not
+think you care for politics."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Brooke, with a faint, dry smile. "Besides, remembering
+Saxton, I should feel a becoming diffidence about wishing to serve my
+nation in that fashion. There are men enough who are anxious to do it
+already, and I would be happier grappling with the rocks and pines in
+Western Canada."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said Barbara, "if it pleases you, we will go back to the great
+unfinished land where the dreams of such men as you are come true."</p>
+
+
+<p class="theend">THE END.</p>
+
+<hr class="wide" />
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/rowoftrees.png" width="600" height="46" alt="decorative row of trees" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 247px;">
+<img src="images/spotter.jpg" width="247" height="350" alt="cover of The Spotter" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center bigtext">The Spotter</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>A Story of the Early Days in the Pennsylvania Oil Fields.</i></p>
+
+<p class="center">By<br />W.&nbsp;W. CANFIELD</p>
+
+
+<p>Duncan Cameron is a Pennsylvania farmer, the owner of a large tract of
+land which the prototype of the Standard Oil Company desires to secure.
+Cameron for a long time successfully resists the efforts to compel him
+to sell, and The Spotter describes what happened to him, as well as what
+befell members of several families who are made wealthy by the sale of
+their oil lands. Those who oppose the advance of the monopoly feel its
+hand in no uncertain weight, for there is little hesitancy in the
+methods adopted to break the fortunes and prospects of those who do not
+quietly submit.</p>
+
+<p>The story describes the romantic side of the influx of a large number of
+speculators, operators and boomers, who find a country that heretofore
+has been almost isolated.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smalltext">Size 5&frac12;&times;7&frac34;. Cloth, Gilt Top.</span><br />
+Price $1.50</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="wide" />
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the
+original edition have been corrected.</p>
+
+<p>In the table of contents, <b>The Jumping of the Caonpus</b> was changed to
+<b>The Jumping of the Canopus</b>.</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter VII, <b>The result was from one point of view comtemptible</b> was
+changed to <b>The result was from one point of view contemptible</b>.</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter VIII, an extra quotation mark was deleted after <b>it was the
+other man who fell in.</b></p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XI, a comma was changed to a period after <b>a kindness thrust
+upon him by his companion</b>, <b>"Of course!" be said.</b> was changed to <b>"Of
+course!" be said.</b>, and <b>the distinctions you allude too</b> was changed to
+<b>the distinctions you allude to</b>.</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XIII, a missing quotation mark was added after <b>We may be
+staying for some time yet at the C.&nbsp;P.&nbsp;R. Hotel, Vancouver.</b></p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XIV, a question mark was changed to a period after <b>nature
+untrammelled, and primeval force</b>.</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XVIII, a missing period was added after <b>"I'm not quite sure
+whether I expected it or not, but I almost hope I did," he said</b>.</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XX, <b>What, in the name of thunder</b> was changed to <b>What in
+the name of thunder</b>.</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XXI, <b>Lou, no doubt, had a purpose</b> was changed to <b>You, no
+doubt, had a purpose</b>.</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XXII, <b>much more pleased that you were</b> was changed to <b>much
+more pleased than you were</b>.</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XXV, <b>They told me as nearly as they could remember</b> was
+changed to <b>They told him as nearly as they could remember</b>.</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XXVI, a quotation mark was removed after <b>he had certainly
+been impelled by at their last meeting.</b></p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XXIX, <b>B&nbsp;ooke braced himself to bear his part in it</b> was
+changed to <b>Brooke braced himself to bear his part in it</b>.</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter XXXI, an extra quotation mark was removed before <b>I guess you
+can afford it?</b></p>
+
+<p>In the advertisement for <i>The Spotter</i>, an extra period was deleted
+after "A Story of the Early Days in the Pennsylvania Oil Fields.", and a period was changed to a comma
+after <b>Duncan Cameron is a Pennsylvania farmer</b>.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Damaged Reputation, by Harold Bindloss
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Damaged Reputation, by Harold Bindloss
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Damaged Reputation
+
+Author: Harold Bindloss
+
+Release Date: October 15, 2011 [EBook #37761]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAMAGED REPUTATION ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was
+produced from scanned images of public domain material
+from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A DAMAGED
+REPUTATION
+
+BY HAROLD BINDLOSS
+
+AUTHOR OF "ALTON OF SOMASCO"
+"MISTRESS OF BONAVENTURE" ETC., ETC.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+R. F. FENNO & COMPANY
+18 EAST 17TH STREET, NEW YORK
+
+Copyright, 1908, by
+R. F. FENNO & COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+  CONTENTS.
+
+  CHAPTER I.                          PAGE
+  Brooke Pauses to Reflect               9
+
+  CHAPTER II.
+  Brooke Takes the Trail                25
+
+  CHAPTER III.
+  The Narrow Way                        37
+
+  CHAPTER IV.
+  Saxton Makes an Offer                 51
+
+  CHAPTER V.
+  Barbara Renews an Acquaintance        64
+
+  CHAPTER VI.
+  An Arduous Journey                    79
+
+  CHAPTER VII.
+  Allonby's Illusion                    91
+
+  CHAPTER VIII.
+  A Bold Venture                       104
+
+  CHAPTER IX.
+  Devine Makes a Suggestion            121
+
+  CHAPTER X.
+  The Flume Builder                    135
+
+  CHAPTER XI.
+  An Embarrassing Position             151
+
+  CHAPTER XII.
+  Brooke is Carried Away               166
+
+  CHAPTER XIII.
+  The Old Love                         179
+
+  CHAPTER XIV.
+  Brooke Has Visitors                  193
+
+  CHAPTER XV.
+  Saxton Gains His Point               209
+
+  CHAPTER XVI.
+  Barbara's Responsibility             222
+
+  CHAPTER XVII.
+  Brooke Attempts Burglary             236
+
+  CHAPTER XVIII.
+  Brooke Makes a Decision              249
+
+  CHAPTER XIX.
+  Brooke's Bargain                     264
+
+  CHAPTER XX.
+  The Bridging of the Canon            278
+
+  CHAPTER XXI.
+  Devine's Offer                       293
+
+  CHAPTER XXII.
+  The Unexpected Happens               305
+
+  CHAPTER XXIII.
+  Brooke's Confession                  317
+
+  CHAPTER XXIV.
+  Allonby Strikes Silver               334
+
+  CHAPTER XXV.
+  Barbara is Merciless                 350
+
+  CHAPTER XXVI.
+  The Jumping of the Canopus           365
+
+  CHAPTER XXVII.
+  The Last Round                       381
+
+  CHAPTER XXVIII.
+  Brooke Does Not Come Back            395
+
+  CHAPTER XXIX.
+  A Final Effort                       406
+
+  CHAPTER XXX.
+  The Other Chance                     419
+
+  CHAPTER XXXI.
+  Brooke is Forgiven                   431
+
+
+
+
+A DAMAGED REPUTATION.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+BROOKE PAUSES TO REFLECT.
+
+
+It was a still, hot night, and the moon hung round and full above the
+cedars, when rancher Brooke sat in his comfortless shanty with a whisky
+bottle at his hand. The door stood open, and the drowsy fragrance of the
+coniferous forest stole into the room, while when he glanced in that
+direction he could see hemlock and cedar, redwood and balsam, tower,
+great black spires, against the luminous blueness of the night. Far
+above them gleamed the untrodden snow that clothed the great peaks with
+spotless purity; but this was melting fast under the autumn sun, and the
+river that swirled by the shanty sang noisily among the boulders.
+
+There are few more beautiful valleys than that one among all the ranges
+of British Columbia, but its wild grandeur made little impression upon
+Brooke that night. He felt that a crisis in his affairs was at hand,
+and he must face it boldly or go under once for all, for it was borne in
+upon him that he had already drifted perilously far. His face, however,
+grew a trifle grim, and his fingers closed irresolutely on the neck of
+the bottle, for drifting was easy in that country, and pleasant, so long
+as one did not remember.
+
+Even when the great peaks were rolled in tempest cloud, the snow fell
+but lightly among the Quatomac pines. Bright sunlight shone on them for
+weeks together, and it was but seldom a cold blast whipped the still,
+blue lake where the shadows of the cedars that distilled ambrosial
+essences lay asleep. There were deer and blue grouse in the woods,
+salmon in the river, and big trout in the lake; and the deleterious
+whisky purveyed at the nearest settlement was not inordinately dear. It
+had, however, dawned on Brooke by degrees that there were many things he
+could not find at Quatomac which men of his upbringing hold necessary.
+
+In the meanwhile, his sole comrade, Jimmy, who assisted him to loaf the
+greater part of every day away, watched him with a curious little smile.
+Jimmy was big, loose-limbed, and slouching, but in his own way he was
+wise, and he had seen more than one young Englishman of Brooke's
+description take the down-grade in that colony.
+
+"Feeling kind of low to-night?" he said, suggestively. "Now, I'd have
+been quite lively if Tom Gordon's Bella had made up to me. Bella's nice
+to look at, and 'most as smart with the axe as a good many men I know.
+I guess if you got her you wouldn't have anything to do."
+
+Brooke's bronzed face flushed a trifle as he saw his comrade's grin, for
+it was what had passed between him and Tom Gordon's Bella at the
+settlement that afternoon which had thrust before him the question what
+his life was to be. He had also not surmised that Jimmy or anybody else
+beyond themselves had been present at that meeting among the pines.
+Bella was certainly pretty and wholly untaught, while, though he had
+made no attempts to gain her favor they had not been necessary, since
+the maid had with disconcerting frankness conferred it upon him. She
+had, in fact, made it evident that she considered him her property, and
+Brooke wondered uneasily how far he had tacitly accepted the position.
+His irresponsive coolness had proved no deterrent; he could neither be
+brutal, nor continually run away; and there were times when he had
+almost resigned himself to the prospect of spending the rest of his life
+with her, though he fancied he realized what the result of that would
+be. The woman had the waywardness and wildness of the creatures of the
+forest, and almost as little sensibility, while he was unpleasantly
+conscious that he was already sinking fast to her level. With a soulless
+mate, swayed by primitive instincts and passions, and a little further
+indulgence in bad whisky, it was evident that he might very well sink a
+good deal further, and Brooke had once had his ideals and aspirations.
+
+"Jimmy," he said, slowly, "I'm thinking of going away."
+
+Jimmy shook out his corn-cob pipe, and apparently ruminated. "Well, I'd
+'most have expected it," he said. "The question is, where you're going
+to, and what you're going to do? You don't get your grub for nothing
+everywhere, and living's cheap here. It only costs the cartridges, and
+the deerhides pay the tea and flour. Besides, you put a pile of dollars
+into this place, didn't you?"
+
+"Most of six thousand, and I've taken about two hundred out. Of course I
+was a fool."
+
+Jimmy nodded with a tranquil concurrence which his comrade might not
+have been pleased with at another time.
+
+"Bought it on survey, without looking at it?" he said. "Going to make
+your fortune growing fruit! It's kind of unfortunate that big peaches
+and California plums don't grow on rocks."
+
+Brooke sat moodily silent awhile. He had, as his comrade had mentioned,
+bought the four hundred acres of virgin soil without examining it, which
+is not such an especially unusual proceeding on the part of
+newly-arrived young Englishmen, and partly explains why some land-agency
+companies pay big dividends. For twelve months he had toiled with hope,
+strenuously hewing down the great redwoods which cumbered his
+possessions; and expended the rest of his scanty capital in hiring
+assistance. It was only in the second year that the truth dawned on him,
+and he commenced to realize that treble the sum he could lay hands upon
+would not clear the land, and that in all probability it would grow
+nothing worth marketing then. In the meanwhile something had happened
+which made it easier for him to accept the inevitable, and losing hold
+of hope he had made the most of the present and ignored the future. It
+was sufficient that the forest and the river fed him during most of the
+year, and he could earn a few dollars hewing trails for the Government
+when they did not. His aspirations had vanished, and he dwelt, almost,
+if not quite, content in a state of apathetic resignation which is not
+wholesome for the educated Englishman.
+
+It was Jimmy who broke the silence.
+
+"What was it you done back there in England? I never asked you before,"
+he said.
+
+Brooke smiled somewhat drily, for it was not a very unusual question in
+that country. "Nothing the police could lay hands on me for. I only
+quarrelled with my bread and butter. I had plenty of it at one time, you
+see."
+
+"That means the folks who gave it you?" said Jimmy.
+
+"Exactly. It was the evident duty of one of them to leave me his
+property, and I think he would have done it, only he insisted on me
+taking a wife he had fixed upon as suitable along with it. There was,
+however, the difficulty that I had made my own choice in the meanwhile.
+I believe the old man was right now, though I did not think so then, and
+when we had words on the subject I came out to make a home for the other
+woman here."
+
+"And you let up after two years of it?"
+
+"I did," said Brooke, with a trace of bitterness. "The girl, however,
+did not wait so long. Before I'd been gone half the time she married a
+richer man."
+
+Jimmy nodded. "There are women made that way," he said reflectively.
+"Still, you wouldn't have to worry 'bout Bella. Once you showed her who
+was to do the bossing--with a nice handy strap--she'd stick to you good
+and tight, and 'most scratch the eyes out of any one who said a word
+against her husband. Still, I figure she's not quite the kind of woman
+you would have married in the old country."
+
+That was very evident, and Brooke sat silent while the memories of his
+life in the land he had left crowded upon him. He also recoiled from the
+brutality of the one his comrade had pictured him leading with the maid
+of the bush, though it had seemed less appalling when she stood before
+him, vigorous and comely, a few hours ago. He had, however, made no
+advances to her. On that point, at least, his mind was clear, and now he
+realized clearly what the result of such a match must be. Yet he knew
+his own loneliness and the maid's pertinacity, and once more it was
+borne in upon him that to stay where he was would mean disaster. Rising
+abruptly he flung the bottle out into the night, and then, while Jimmy
+stared at him with astonishment and indignation, laughed curiously as he
+heard it crash against a stone.
+
+"That's the commencement of the change," he said. "After this I'll pitch
+every bottle you bring up from the settlement into the river."
+
+"Well," said Jimmy, resignedly, "I guess I can bring the whisky up
+inside of me, and you'd get hurt considerable if you tried slinging me
+into the river. The trouble is, however, I'd be seeing panthers all the
+way up whenever I brought along a little extra, and I'm most scared of
+panthers when they aren't there."
+
+Brooke laughed again, for, as he had discovered, men take life lightly
+in that country, but just then the soft beat of horse hoofs rose from
+across the river, and a cry came out of the darkness.
+
+"Strangers!" said Jimmy. "Quite a crowd of them. With the river coming
+down as she's doing it's a risky ford. We'll have to go across."
+
+They went, rather more than waist-deep in the snow-water which swirled
+frothing about them, for the ford was perilous, with a big black pool
+close below; and found a mounted party waiting them on the other side.
+There was an elderly man who sat very straight in his saddle with his
+hand on his hip, and Brooke, at least, recognized the bearing of one
+who had commanded cavalry in the Old Country. There was also a younger
+man, dismounted and smoking a cigarette, two girls on Cayuse ponies, and
+an Indian, whose appearance suggested inebriation, holding the bridles
+of the baggage mules. The men were certainly not ranchers or
+timber-right prospectors, but now and then of late a fishing party had
+passed that way into the wilderness.
+
+"I understand the ford is not very safe, and the Indian has contrived to
+leave our tents behind," said the older man. "If you can take us across,
+and find the ladies, at least, shelter of any kind for the night, it
+would be a kindness for which I should be glad to make any suitable
+recompense."
+
+Jimmy grinned, for it was evident that the speaker was an insular
+Englishman, and quite unacquainted with the customs of that country,
+wherein no rancher accepts payment for a night's hospitality. Brooke
+had, however, a certain sense of humor, and touched his big shapeless
+hat, which is also never done in Western Canada.
+
+"They can have it, sir," he said. "That is, if they're not very
+particular. Take the lady's bridle, Jimmy. Keep behind him, sir."
+
+Jimmy did as he was bidden, and Brooke seized the bridle of the Cayuse
+the other girl rode. The half-tamed beast, however, objected to entering
+the water, and edged away from it, then rose with forehoofs in the air
+while Brooke smote it on the nostrils with his fist. The girl, he
+noticed, said nothing, and showed no sign of fear, though the rest were
+half-way across before he had an opportunity of doing more than cast a
+glance at her. Then, as he stood waist-deep in water patting the
+trembling beast, he looked up.
+
+"I hope you're not afraid," he said. "It will be a trifle deeper
+presently."
+
+He stopped with a curious abruptness as she turned her head, and stood
+still with his hand on the bridle a moment or two gazing at her. She
+sat, lithe and slim, but very shapely, with the skirt of the loose light
+habit she had gathered in one hand just clear of the sliding foam, and
+revealing the little foot in the stirrup. The moon, which hung round and
+full behind her shoulder, touched one side of the face beneath the big
+white hat with silvery light, that emphasized the ivory gleam of the
+firm white neck. He could also just catch the sparkle of her eyes in the
+shadow, and her freshness and daintiness came upon him as a revelation.
+It was so long since he had seen a girl of the station she evidently
+belonged to. Then she laughed, and it seemed to him that her voice was
+in keeping with her appearance, for it reached him through the clamor of
+the river, soft and musical.
+
+"Oh, no," she said. "What are we stopping for?"
+
+Brooke, who had seldom been at a loss for a neat rejoinder in England,
+felt his face grow hot as he smote the pony's neck.
+
+"I really don't know. I think it was the Cayuse stopped," he said.
+
+The girl smiled. "One would fancy that the water was a trifle too cold
+for even a pony of that kind to be anxious to stay in it."
+
+They went on with a plunge and a flounder, and twice Brooke came near
+being swept off his feet, for the pony seemed bent on taking the
+shortest way to the other bank, which was, as it happened, not quite the
+safest one. Still, they came through the river, and Brooke dragged the
+Cayuse up the bank in time to see the rest disappear into the shanty.
+Then he boldly held up his hand, and felt a curious little thrill run
+through him as he swung his companion down.
+
+"It was very good of you to come across for us, and I am afraid you must
+be very wet," she said. "This is really a quite inadequate recompense."
+
+Then she turned and left him with the pony, staring vaguely after her,
+flushed in face, with a big piece of minted silver in his hand. It was
+at least a minute before he slipped it into his pocket with a curious
+little laugh.
+
+"This is almost too much, and I don't know what has come over me. There
+was a time when I would have been quite equal to the occasion," he
+said.
+
+Then he turned away to the stables, where Jimmy, who came in with an
+armful of clothing, found him rubbing down the Cayuse with unusual
+solicitude, in spite of its attempts to kick him.
+
+"I guess you'll have to change," he said. "Those things aren't decent,
+and you can put the deerskin ones on. The old man's a high-toned
+Englishman going camping and fishing, and, by what she said, the younger
+girl's struck on frontiersmen. When you get into that jacket you'll look
+the real thing."
+
+Brooke had no great desire to look like one of the picturesque
+desperadoes who are, somewhat erroneously, supposed, in England, to
+wander about the Pacific Slope, but as he mended his own clothes with
+any convenient piece of flour bag, he saw that his comrade's advice was
+good.
+
+When he entered the shanty Jimmy had supper ready, but he realized, as
+he had never done since he raised its log walls, the comfortless squalor
+of the room. The red dust had blown into it, it was littered with
+discarded clothing, lines and traps, and broken boots, while two
+candles, which flickered in the draughts, stuck in whisky bottles,
+furnished uncertain illumination. He had made the unsteady table, and
+Jimmy had made the chairs, but the result was no great credit to either
+of them, while nobody who was not very hungry would have considered the
+meal his comrade laid out inviting. Still, his guests had evidently no
+fault to find with it, and during it the girl whose pony he had led
+once or twice glanced covertly at him.
+
+She saw a tall man with a bronzed face of not unpleasant English type,
+attired picturesquely in fringed deerskin which had crossed the
+mountains from the prairie. He had grey eyes, and his hair was crisped
+by the sun; but while he was, she decided, distinctly, personable and
+still young, there was something in his expression which puzzled her. It
+was neither diffidence nor embarrassment, and yet there was a suggestion
+of constraint about him which his comrade was wholly free from. Brooke,
+on his part, saw a girl with brown eyes and hair who held herself well,
+and had a faint suggestion of imperiousness about her, and wondered with
+an uneasiness he was by no means accustomed to what she thought of him,
+since he felt that the condition of his dwelling must show her the
+shiftless life he led. Still, he shook off that thought, and others that
+troubled him, and played his part as host, talking, with a purpose, only
+of the Canadian bush, until, when the meal was over, Jimmy, who felt
+himself being left out, turned to the guests.
+
+"A little whisky would have come in to settle those fried potatoes
+down," he said. "I would have offered you some, but my partner here
+slung the bottle into the river just before you came."
+
+There was a trace of a smile in the face of the grey-haired man, but the
+girl with the brown eyes looked up sharply, and once more Brooke felt
+his face grow a trifle hot. Men do not as a rule fling whisky bottles
+into rivers without a cogent reason, especially in Canada, where liquor
+is scarce. He was, however, both astonished and annoyed at himself that
+he should attach the slightest value to this stranger's good opinion.
+
+Then, when the others seconded Jimmy's suggestion, he took a dingy
+fiddle from its case, and, although there is little a rancher of that
+country will not do for the pleasure of a chance guest, wondered why he
+had complied so readily. He played French-Canadian dances, as the
+inhabitants play them, and though only some of them may be classed as
+music, became sensible that there was a curious silence of attention.
+
+"That violin has a beautiful mellow tone," said the younger girl, whom
+he had scarcely noticed. "I am, however, quite aware that there is a
+good deal in the bowing."
+
+"It might have!" said Jimmy, who disregarded his comrade's glance.
+"There was once a man came along here who said it would fetch the most
+of one thousand dollars. Still, every old Canadian lumberman can play
+those things, and you ought to hear him on the one he calls the
+Chopping. Play it for them, and I'll open the door so they can see the
+night and hear the river singing."
+
+The military gentleman stared at him, and even the girl with the brown
+eyes, who was very reposeful, appeared surprised at this flight of
+fancy, which nobody would, from his appearance, have expected of Jimmy.
+
+"The Chopping? Oh, yes, of course I understand," she said. "This is the
+place of all places for it. We have never heard it in such
+surroundings."
+
+Brooke smiled a little. "I'm afraid it is difficult to get moonlight and
+mystery out of an American steel first string," he said. "One can't keep
+it from screaming on the shifting."
+
+He drew the bow across the strings, and save for the fret of the
+snow-fed river which rose and fell in deep undertone, there was a
+curious silence in the room. The younger girl watched the player with
+grave appreciation in her eyes, and a little flush crept into her
+companion's cheek. Perhaps she was thinking of the dollar she had given
+the man who could play the famous nocturne as she had rarely heard it
+played before, and owned what, though she could scarcely believe it to
+be a genuine Cremona, was evidently an old Italian fiddle of no mean
+value. There was also silence for at least a minute after he had laid
+down the bow, and then Brooke held out the violin to the girl who had
+praised its tone.
+
+"Would you care to try the instrument?" he said.
+
+"No," said the girl, with quiet decisiveness. "Not after that, though it
+is, I think, a better one than I have ever handled."
+
+"And I fancy I should explain that she is studying under an eminent
+teacher, who professes himself perfectly satisfied with her progress,"
+said the man with the grey hair.
+
+Brooke said nothing. He knew the compliment was sincere enough, but he
+had seen the appreciation in the other girl's eyes, and that pleased him
+most. Then, as he put away the fiddle the man turned to him again.
+
+"I am far from satisfied with our Siwash guide," he said. "In fact, I am
+by no means sure that he knows the country, and as we propose making for
+the big lake and camping by it, I should prefer to send him back if you
+could recommend us anybody who would take us there."
+
+Brooke felt a curious little thrill of anticipation, but it was the girl
+with the brown eyes he glanced at. She, of course, said nothing, but,
+though it seemed preposterous, Brooke fancied that she knew what he was
+thinking and was not displeased.
+
+"With your approval I would come myself, sir," he said. "There is
+nothing just now to keep me at the ranch."
+
+The other man professed himself pleased, and before Brooke retired to
+his couch in the stable the matter was arranged. He did not, however,
+fall asleep for several hours, which was a distinctly unusual thing with
+him, and then the face of the brown-eyed girl followed him into his
+dreams. Its reposefulness had impressed him the more because of the
+hint of strength and pride behind it, and again he saw her sitting
+fearlessly on the plunging horse in the midst of the river with the moon
+round and full behind her.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+BROOKE TAKES THE TRAIL.
+
+
+The sun had not cleared the dark firs upon the steep hillside, though
+the snow on the peaks across the valley glowed with saffron light, when
+Brooke came upon the girl with the brown eyes sitting on a cedar trunk
+beside the river, and she looked up with a smile when he stopped beside
+her. There was nobody else about, for the rest of the party had
+apparently not risen yet, and Jimmy had set out to catch a trout for
+breakfast. Save for the song of the river all the pine-shrouded hollow
+was very still.
+
+"I was wondering if I might ask what you thought of this country?" said
+Brooke. "It is, of course, the usual question."
+
+The girl laughed a little. "If you really wish to know, I think it is
+the grandest there is on this earth, as I believe it will be one of the
+greatest. Still, my liking for it isn't so astonishing, because,
+although I have lived in England, I am a Canadian."
+
+Brooke made a little deprecatory gesture. "It's a mistake I've been led
+into before, and I'm not sure you would consider it a compliment if I
+told you that I scarcely supposed you belonged to Canada. It also
+reminds me of a friend of mine who had spent a few months in Spain, and
+took some pains to teach a man, who, though he was not aware of it, had
+lived fifteen years in Cuba, Castilian. Still, perhaps you will tell me
+what you thought of England."
+
+The girl did not invite him, but she drew her skirt a trifle aside, and
+Brooke sat down upon the log beside her. She looked even daintier, and
+appealed to his fancy more, in the searching morning light than she had
+done when the moon shone down on her, which he was not altogether
+prepared for. Her eyes were clear and steady in spite of the faint smile
+in them, and there was no uncertainty of coloring on cheek or forehead,
+which had been tinted a delicate warm brown by wind and sun.
+
+"When you came up I was just contrasting this valley with one I remember
+visiting in the Old Country," she said. "It was in the West. Major Hume,
+who is with us now, once took me there, and we spent an afternoon at a
+house which, I think, is older than any we have in Canada."
+
+"In a river valley in the West Country?" said Brooke.
+
+The girl nodded. "Yes," she said. "Ivy, with stems thicker than your
+wrist, climbs about the front of it, and a lawn mown until it looks like
+velvet slopes to the sliding water. A wall of clipped yews shuts it in,
+and the river slides past it silently without froth or haste, as though
+afraid that any sound it made would jar upon the drowsy quietness of the
+place. There is a big beech wood behind it, and one little meadow, green
+as an emerald, between that and the river----"
+
+"Where the stepping-stones stretch across. A path comes twisting down
+through the dimness of the wood, and there are black firs upon the ridge
+above."
+
+"Of course!" said the girl. "That is, beyond the ash poles--but how
+could you know?"
+
+Brooke smiled curiously. "I was once there--ever so long ago."
+
+His companion seemed a trifle astonished. "Then I wonder if you felt as
+I did, that those shadowy woods and dark yew hedges shut out all that is
+real and strenuous in life. One could fancy that nobody did anything but
+sit still and dream there."
+
+Brooke smiled a little, though it had not escaped his attention that she
+seemed to take his comprehension for granted.
+
+"Well," he said, reflectively, "there was very little else one could do.
+Anything that savored of strenuousness would have been considered
+distinctly bad form in that valley."
+
+A little sardonic twinkle flickered in the girl's eyes. "Oh," she said,
+"I know. The distinction between those who work and those who idle is
+marked in your country. It even seems to be considered a desirable
+thing for a man to fritter his time away, so long as he does it
+gracefully. Still, there is room for all one's activities, and the big
+thoughts that lead to big schemes here. How far does your ranch go?"
+
+"To the lake," said Brooke, who understood the purport of the question.
+"There are four hundred acres of it, and I have, I don't mind telling
+you, been here rather more than two years."
+
+The girl glanced at the very small gap in the forest, and again the man
+guessed her thoughts.
+
+"And that is all you have cleared?"
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, with a little smile. "One can lounge very
+successfully here. Still, even if there was not a tree upon it the soil
+wouldn't be worth anything, and it's only in places one can find a foot
+or two of it. When I first came in, an enterprising gentleman in the
+land agency business sold me this wilderness of rock and gravel to feed
+cattle and grow fruit trees on, though I fancy I am not the only
+confiding stranger who has been treated in the same fashion in this
+country."
+
+For a moment a curious expression, which Brooke could attach no meaning
+to, crept into his companion's face, but though there was a faint flush
+in her cheeks it grew suddenly reposeful again.
+
+"I gave you a dollar last night," she said, and stopped a moment. "I
+have, as I told you, lived in England, and I recognized by your voice
+that you came from there, but, of course, I hadn't----"
+
+Brooke smiled at her. "If you look at it in one light, I scarcely think
+that explanation is gratifying to one's vanity. Still, you have also
+lived in Canada, and you ought to know that whoever parts with a dollar
+in this country, even under a misapprehension, very rarely gets it
+back."
+
+The girl regarded him gravely a moment with the faint warmth still
+showing in her sun-tanned cheeks, and then looked away towards the
+sliding water. She said nothing whatever, although there was a good deal
+to be deduced from the man's speech. Then she rose as Major Hume came
+out of the house.
+
+They left the ranch that day, and for a week Brooke led them through
+dark fir forests, and waited on them in their camps. He would also have
+stayed with them longer could he have found a reasonable excuse, but, as
+it happened, a most exemplary Siwash whom he knew appeared, and offered
+his services, when they reached the lonely mountain-girt lake. Then he
+said farewell to Major Hume, and was plodding down the homeward trail
+with his packs slung about him, when he met the girl coming up from the
+lake. She carried a cluster of the crimson wine-berries in her hand, and
+stopped abruptly when she saw him. She and her younger companions had
+been fishing that afternoon, and though Brooke could not see the latter
+amidst the serried trunks, their voices broke sharply through the
+stillness of the evening. It was significant that both he and the girl
+stood still without speaking until the voices grew less distinct.
+
+Then she said, quietly, "So you are going away?"
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, a trifle grimly. "An Indian I can recommend came in
+this afternoon. That made it unnecessary for me to stay."
+
+"You seem in a hurry to go."
+
+Brooke made a little gesture. "I fancy I have stayed with Major Hume
+quite as long as is good for me. The effort it cost me to go away was
+sufficiently unpleasant already. It is, you see, scarcely likely that I
+shall ever spend a week like the past one again."
+
+There was sympathy in his companion's eyes, for she had seen his
+comfortless dwelling, and guessed tolerably correctly what manner of
+life he led. It would, she realized, have been easier for him had he
+been born a bushman, for there was no doubt in her mind that he was one
+who had been accustomed to luxury in England.
+
+"You are going back to the ranch?" she said.
+
+"For a little while, and then I shall take the trail. Where it will lead
+me is more than I know, but the ranch is as great a failure as its
+owner. And yet a month--or even a week--ago I was dangerously content to
+stay there."
+
+The girl fancied she understood him, for she had seen broken men who had
+lost heart in the struggle sink to the Indian's level, and ask no more
+than the subsistence they could gain with rod and gun. That was,
+perhaps, enough for an Indian, but it seemed to her a flinging of his
+birthright away in the case of a white man. Her face was quietly grave,
+and Brooke felt a little thrill run through him as he looked at her.
+
+She stood, slender and very shapely, with unconscious pride in her pose,
+in front of the great cylindrical trunk of a cedar whose grey bark
+forced up every line of her white-clad figure, and he realized, when he
+met the big grave eyes, that he had pulled himself upon the edge of a
+precipice a week ago. He had let himself drift recklessly during the
+last two years, but it was plain to him now that he would have gone down
+once for all had he mated with Bella.
+
+"I think you are doing wisely," she said, quietly. "There is a chance
+for every man somewhere in this country."
+
+Brooke smiled drily. "I am going to look for mine. Whether I shall find
+it I do not know, but I am, at least, glad I have seen you. Otherwise, I
+might have settled down at the ranch again."
+
+"What have I to do with that decision?" and the girl regarded him
+steadily.
+
+"It is a trifle difficult to explain. Still, you see, your gracious
+kindliness reminded me of a good deal that once was mine, and after the
+past week I could never go back to the old life at the ranch. No doubt
+there comes to every one who attempts to console himself with them, a
+time when the husks and sty grow nauseating. I do not know why I should
+tell you this, and scarcely think I would have done so had there been
+any probability of our ever meeting again."
+
+There was full comprehension in the girl's eyes, as well as a trace of
+compassion, and she held out a little hand.
+
+"Good-bye!" she said, quietly. "If they are of any value, my good wishes
+go with you."
+
+Brooke made her a little deferential inclination, as the dainty fingers
+rested a moment in his hard palm; then he swung off his big shapeless
+hat and turned away, but the girl stood still, looking after him, until
+the lonely, plodding figure faded into the shadows of the pines, while
+it was with a little thrill of sympathy she went back to camp, for she
+realized it was a very great compliment the man had paid her. He was, it
+seemed, turning his back on his possessions, and going away, because she
+had awakened in him the latent sense of responsibility. She was,
+however, also a little afraid, for no one could foresee what the result
+of his decision would be, and she felt that to help in diverting the
+course of another's life was no light thing.
+
+In the meanwhile, Brooke held on up the hillside with long, swinging
+strides, crashing through barberry thickets and trampling the
+breast-high fern, until he stopped and made his camp on the edge of the
+snow-scarped slopes when the soft darkness fell. His road was rough, and
+in places perilous, but there was a relief in vigorous action now the
+decision was made, and the old apathy fell from him as he climbed
+towards the peaks above. It was, however, several days later when he
+reached the ranch, and came upon Jimmy sprawling his ungainly length
+outside it, basking in the sun. Still, the latter took his corn-cob pipe
+from his lips, and became attentive when he saw his face. This, he
+realized, was not altogether the same man who had left him a little
+while ago.
+
+"Get up!" said Brooke, almost sharply. "I want you to listen to me. If
+it suits you to stay here by yourself, you can; in the meanwhile, do
+what you like, which will, of course, be very little, with the ranch. In
+return, I'll only ask you to take care of the fiddle until I send for
+it. I'm going away."
+
+Jimmy nodded, for he had expected this. "That's all right!" he said. "I
+guess I'll stay. I don't know any other place where one can grub out
+enough to eat quite so easily. Where're you going to?"
+
+"I don't quite know," and Brooke smiled grimly. "Up and down the
+province--anywhere I can pick up a dollar or two daily by working for
+them."
+
+"The trouble is that they're so blamed hard to stick to when you've got
+them," said Jimmy, reflectively. "Now, you don't want dollars here."
+
+"If I had two thousand of them I'd stay, and make something of the
+ranch, rocky as it is."
+
+"It couldn't be done with less, and I guess you're sensible. I'm quite
+happy slouching round here, but there's a kind of difference between you
+and me. That girl with the big eyes has been putting notions into you?"
+
+Brooke made no disclaimer, and Jimmy laughed. "It's a little
+curious--you don't even know who she is?"
+
+"Her name is Barbara. She is, she told me, a Canadian."
+
+"Canada's quite a big country," said Jimmy, reflectively. "You could put
+England into its vest pocket without knowing it was there. I guess it
+will be a long while before you see her again, and if you meet her in
+the cities she's not going to remember you. You'd find her quite a
+different kind of young woman there. When are you going?"
+
+"At sundown. I'd go now, but I want a few hours' rest and sleep."
+
+Jimmy looked at him with sudden concern in his face. "Then I'll be good
+and lonely to-night," he said. "Say, do you think I could take out the
+fiddle now and then to keep me company? I guess I could play it, like a
+banjo, with my fingers."
+
+"No," said Brooke, drily, "that's the one thing you can't do."
+
+He flung himself down in his straw-filled bunk, dressed as he was, for
+he had floundered through tangled forest since the dawn crept into the
+sky; and the shadows of the cedars lay long and black upon the river
+when he opened his eyes again. Jimmy was busy at the little stove, and
+in another few minutes the simple meal, crudely served but barbaric in
+its profusion, was upon the table. Neither of the men said very much
+during it, and then Jimmy silently helped his comrade to gird his packs
+about him. The sun had gone, and the valley was dim and very still when
+they stood in the doorway.
+
+"Good luck!" said Jimmy. "You'll come back by-and-by?"
+
+Brooke smiled curiously as he shook hands with him. "If I'm ever a rich
+man, I may."
+
+Then he went out into the deepening shadows, and floundering waist-deep
+through the ford, plodded up the climbing trail with his face towards
+the snow. It grew a trifle grim, however, when he looked back once from
+a bare hill shoulder, and saw a feeble light blink out far down in the
+hollow. Jimmy, he knew, was lying, pipe in hand, beside the stove, and,
+after all, the lonely ranch had been a home to him.
+
+A man without ambition who could stifle memory might have found the life
+he led there a pleasant one. Bountiful Nature fed him, the hills that
+walled the valley in shut out strife and care, and now he was homeless
+altogether. He had also just six dollars in his pockets, and that sum,
+he knew, will not go a very long way in Western Canada.
+
+As he gazed, the fleecy mist that rolled up from the river blotted out
+the light, and the man felt the deep stillness and loneliness as he had
+not done since he first came there. That sudden eclipse of Jimmy's light
+seemed very significant just then, for he knew it would never burn again
+as a beacon for him. The last red gleam had also faded off the snow,
+and, with a jerk at the pack straps that galled his shoulders, he set
+his lips, and swung away into the darkness of the coming night.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+THE NARROW WAY.
+
+
+The big engine was running slowly, which did not happen often, and
+Brooke, who leaned on the planer table, was thankful for the respite. A
+belt slid round above him, and on either side were turning wheels, while
+he had in front of him a long vista of sliding logs, whirring saws, and
+toiling men. The air was heavy with gritty dust, and a sweet resinous
+smell, while here and there a blaze of sunshine streamed into the great
+open-sided building. Something had gone wrong with the big engine, and
+its sonorous panting, which reverberated across the still, blue inlet,
+had slackened a trifle. There was not, as a result of this, power enough
+to drive all the machines in the mill, and Brooke was waiting until the
+engineer should set matters right.
+
+It was very hot in the big shed. In fact, the cedar shingles on the roof
+were crackling overhead; and Brooke's thin jean garments were soaked
+with perspiration. The dust the planer threw off had also worked its way
+through them, and adhered in smeary patches to his dripping face, while
+his hair and eyebrows might have been rubbed with flour. That fine
+powder was, however, not the worst, for he was also covered with
+prismatic grains of wood, whose sharp angles caused him an intolerable
+irritation when his garments rasped across his flesh. His hands were raw
+and bleeding, there was a cramp in one shoulder, and an ache, which now
+and then grew excruciating, down all the opposite side of him.
+
+The toilers are, as a rule, at least, liberally paid in Western Canada,
+but a good deal is expected from them, and the manager of the mill had
+installed that planer because it could, the makers claimed, be run by
+one live man. The workmen, however, said that if he held to the contract
+he would very soon be dead, and Brooke was already worn out with the
+struggle to keep pace with steam. It was a long while since he had
+toiled much at the ranch, and in England he had not toiled at all,
+while, as he stood there, gasping, and hoping that the engineer would
+not get through his task too soon, he remembered that on the two
+eventful occasions in his life when he had made a commendable decision,
+it had brought him only trouble and strain. The way of the virtuous, it
+seemed, was hard.
+
+He turned languidly when a man who carried an oil can came by and
+stopped a moment beside him.
+
+"You're looking kind of played out," said the newcomer.
+
+"It's not astonishing," said Brooke. "I feel quite that way."
+
+"Then I guess that's a kind of pity. The boss will have the belt on the
+relief shaft in a minute now, and he allows he's going to cut every foot
+as much as usual by the supper hour. You'll have to shake yourself quite
+lively. How long've you been on to that planer?"
+
+"A month."
+
+"Well," said the engineer, "she broke the last man up in considerably
+less time than that. Weak in the chest he was, and when we were driving
+her lively he used to cough up blood. He had to let up sudden one day,
+and he's in the hospital now. Say, can't you strike somebody for a
+softer job?"
+
+"I'm afraid I can't," said Brooke, drily. "I'll have to go on till I'm
+beaten."
+
+The engineer made a little gesture of comprehension as he passed on, for
+the attitude the Englishman had adopted is not uncommon in the Dominion
+of Canada, or the country where toil is at least as arduous to the south
+of it. Men who demand, and not infrequently obtain, the full value of
+their labor, are proud of their manhood there, and there was an innate
+resoluteness in Brooke, which had never been wholly awakened in England.
+
+Suddenly, however, the belt above him ran round; there was a clash as he
+slipped in the clutch, and a noisy whirring which sank to a deeper tone
+when he flung a rough redwood board upon the table. The whirring millers
+took hold of it, and its splintery edges galled his raw hands as he
+guided it, while thick dust and woody fragments torn off by the
+trenchant steel, whirled about him in a stream until his eyes were
+blinded and his nostrils filled. Then the board slid off the table
+smooth on one side, and he knew that he was lagging when the hum of the
+millers changed to a thin scream. They must not at any cost be kept
+waiting for their food, for by inexorable custom so many feet of dressed
+lumber every day was due from that machine.
+
+He flung up another heavy piece, reckless of the splinters in his hand,
+made no pause to wipe the rust from his smarting eyes, and peering at
+the spinning cutters blindly thrust upon the end of the board, and
+wondered vaguely whether this was what man was made for, or how long
+flesh and blood could be expected to stand the strain. The board went
+off the table with a crash, and it was time for the next, while Brooke,
+who bent sideways with a distressful crick in his waist, once more faced
+the sawdust stream with lowered head. It ceased only for a second or
+two, while he stooped from the table to the lumber that slid by
+gravitation to his feet, and he knew that to let that stream overtake
+him and pile up would proclaim his incapacity and defeat. So long as he
+was there he must keep pace with it, whatever tax it laid upon his jaded
+body.
+
+He did it for an hour, flagging all the while, for it was a task no man
+could have successfully undertaken unless he had done such work before,
+and Brooke's head was aching under a tension which had grown unendurable
+that afternoon. Then the screaming millers closed upon a knot in the
+wood, and, half-dazed as he was, he thrust upon the board savagely,
+instead of easing it. There was a crash, a big piece of steel flew
+across the table, and the hum of the machine ceased suddenly. Brooke
+laughed grimly, and sat down gasping. He had done his best, and now he
+was not altogether sorry that he was beaten.
+
+He was still sitting there when a dusty man in store clothes, with a
+lean, intent face, came along and glanced at the planer before he looked
+at him.
+
+"You let her get ahead of you, and tried to make up time by feeding her
+too hard?" he said.
+
+"No," said Brooke. "Not exactly! She got hold of a knot."
+
+"Same thing!" said the other man. "You've smashed her, anyway, and it
+will cost the company most of three hundred dollars before we get her
+running again. You don't expect me to keep you after that?"
+
+Brooke smiled drily. "I'm not quite sure that I'd like to stay."
+
+"Then we'll fix it so it will suit everybody. I'll give you your pay
+order up to now, and you'll be glad I ran you out by-and-by. There are
+no chances saw-milling unless you're owner, and it's quite likely
+somebody's got a better use for you."
+
+Brooke understood this as a compliment, and took his order, after which
+he had a spirited altercation with the clerk, who desired him to wait
+for payment until it was six o'clock, which he would not do. Then he
+went back to his little cubicle, which, with its flimsy partitions one
+could hear his neighbor snoring through, resembled a cell in a hive of
+bees, in the big boarding-house, and slept heavily until he was awakened
+by the clangor of the half-past six supper bell. He descended, and,
+devouring his share of the meal in ten minutes, which is about the usual
+time in that country, strolled leisurely into the great general room,
+which had a big stove in the middle and a bar down one side of it. He
+already loathed the comfortless place, from the hideous oleographs on
+the bare wood walls down to the uncleanly sawdust on the floor.
+
+He sat down, and two men, whose acquaintance he had made during his stay
+there, lounged across to him. Trade was slack in the province then, and
+both wore very threadbare jean. There was also a significant moodiness
+in their gaunt faces which suggested that they had felt the pinch of
+adversity.
+
+"You let up before supper-time?" said one.
+
+"I did," said Brooke, a trifle grimly. "I broke up the Kenawa planer in
+the Tomlinson mill. That's why I came away. I'm not going back again."
+
+One of the men laughed softly. "Then it was only the square thing. Since
+we've been here that planer has broke up two or three men. Held out a
+month, didn't you? What were you at before that?"
+
+"Road-making, firing at a cannery, surrey packing. I've a ranch that
+doesn't pay, you see?"
+
+The other man smiled again. "So have we! Half the deadbeats in this
+country are landholders, too. Two men couldn't get away with many of the
+big trees on our lot in a lifetime, and one has to light out and earn
+something to put the winter through. This month Jake and I have made
+'bout twenty dollars between us. I guess your trouble's want of
+capital--same as ours. One can't do a great deal with a hundred dollars.
+Still, you'd have had more than that when you came in?"
+
+"I had," said Brooke, drily. "I put six thousand into the land, or
+rather the land-agent's bank, besides what I spent on clearing a little
+of it, and when I've paid my board and for the clothes I bought, I'll
+have about four dollars now."
+
+"That's how those land-company folks get rich," said one of the men.
+"Was it a piece of snow mountain he sold you, or a bottomless swamp?"
+
+"Rock. One might have drained a swamp."
+
+The men smiled. "Well," said the first of them, "that's not always easy.
+A man's not a steam navvy--but the game's an old one. It was the Indian
+Spring folks played it off on you?"
+
+"No. It was Devine."
+
+There was a little silence, and then the men appeared reflective.
+
+"Now, if any man in that business goes tolerably straight, it's Devine,"
+said one of them. "Of course, if a green Britisher comes along bursting
+to hand over the bills for any kind of land, he'll oblige him, but I'd
+sit down and think a little before I called Devine a thief. Anyway, he's
+quite a big man in the province."
+
+The bronze deepened a trifle in Brooke's face. "I can't see any
+particular difference between a swindler and a thief. In any case, the
+man robbed me, and if I live long enough I'll get even with him."
+
+"That's going to be quite a big contract," said one of the men. "It's
+best to lie low and wait for another fool when you've been taken in.
+Besides, there's many a worse man in his own line than Devine. There was
+one fellow up at Jamieson's when the rush was on. He could talk the
+shoes off a mule--and he was an Englishman. Whatever any man wanted,
+fruit-land, mineral-land, sawing lumber, and gold outcrop, he'd got.
+Picked it out on the survey map and sold it him. For 'most a month he
+rolled the dollars in, and then the circus began. The folks who'd made
+the deals went up to see their land, and most of them found it belonged
+to another man. You see, if three of them wanted maple bush, that's
+generally good soil and light to clear, and he'd only one piece of it,
+he sold the same lot to all of them. They went back with clubs, but that
+man knew when to light out, and he didn't wait for them."
+
+Brooke sat silent awhile. He knew that the story was not a very unlikely
+one, for while, in view of the simplicity of the Canadian land tenure
+legislation, there is no reason why any man should be swindled, as a
+matter of fact, a good many are. He was also irritated that he had
+allowed himself to indulge in what he realized must have appeared a
+puerile threat. This was, of course, of no moment in itself, but he felt
+that it showed how he was losing hold of the nice discretion he had, at
+least, affected in England. Still, he meant exactly what he had said.
+
+During the greater portion of two years he had attempted a hopeless
+task, and then, discovering his folly, resigned himself, and drifted
+idly, perilously near the brink of the long declivity which Englishmen
+of good upbringing not infrequently descend with astonishing swiftness
+in that country, and for that, rightly or wrongly, he blamed the man who
+had robbed him. Then the awakening had come, and he saw that while there
+were many careers open to a man with six thousand dollars, or even half
+of them, there was only strenuous physical toil for the man with none.
+He had attempted it, but proficiency in even the more brutal forms of
+labor cannot be attained in a day, and he now looked back on a year of
+hardship and effort which had left an indelible mark on him.
+
+It had been a season when there was little industrial enterprise, and he
+had no friends, while the dollars he gained were earned for the most
+part by the strain of overtaxed muscles and bleeding hands. He had
+toiled up to his waist in snow-water at the mines, swung the shovel
+under the lashing deluge driving a Government road over a big divide,
+hung from dizzy railroad trestles holding with fingers bruised by the
+hammer the spikes the craftsmen drove, and been taught all there is to
+learn about exposure and fatigue. He had braced himself to bear it,
+though he had lived softly in England, but each time he crawled into
+draughty tent or reeking shanty, wet through, with aching limbs, at
+night, he remembered the man who had robbed him.
+
+It was, perhaps, not altogether astonishing that under such conditions
+the wrong done him should assume undue proportions, and that when a
+slipping hammer laid his knuckles bare he should charge the smart to
+Devine, and long for the reckoning. The man who had condemned him to
+this life of toil had, he told himself, grown rich by theft, and he
+dwelt upon his injury until the memory of it possessed him. It was not,
+however, the physical hardship that troubled him most, but the thought
+of the opportunities he had lost, for since he had seen the girl with
+the brown eyes they had assumed their due value. Devine had not only
+taken his dollars, but had driven him out from the society of those who
+had been his equals, and made him one who could scarcely hope to meet a
+woman of refinement on friendly terms again. Coarse fare and a life of
+brutal toil were all that seemed left to him. There were, he knew, men
+in that country who had commenced with a very few dollars, and acquired
+a competence, but they were not young Englishmen brought up as he had
+been.
+
+"You are the only man I've ever heard say anything good about any one in
+the land business, and it does not amount to much at that," he said.
+"Devine has been successful so far, but even gentlemen of his talents
+are liable to make a mistake occasionally, and if ever he makes a big
+one, it will probably go hardly with him. That, at least, is one
+consolation."
+
+Another man who had been standing near the bar sauntered towards them,
+cigar in hand. He was dressed in store clothing, and his hands were, as
+Brooke noticed, not those of a workman, though they seemed wiry and
+capable. He had penetrating dark eyes, and the Western business man's
+lean, intent face, while Brooke would have guessed his age at a little
+over thirty.
+
+"I don't mind admitting that I heard a little," he said. "Those
+land-agency fellows have a good deal to account for. You're not exactly
+struck on Devine?"
+
+"No," said Brooke, drily. "I have no particular cause to be. Still, that
+really does not concern everybody."
+
+"Beat him out of six thousand dollars!" said one of his companions.
+
+The stranger laughed a little. "He has done me out of a good many more,
+but one has to take his chances in this country. You are working at the
+Tomlinson mill?"
+
+"No," said Brooke. "I was turned out to-day."
+
+"Got no notion where to strike next?"
+
+"No."
+
+The stranger, who did not seem at all repulsed by his abruptness, looked
+at him reflectively.
+
+"I heard they were wanting survey packers up at the Johnston Lake in the
+bush," he said. "A Government man's starting to run the line through to
+the big range Thursday. If you took him this card up he might put you
+on."
+
+Brooke took the card, and a little tinge of color crept into his face.
+
+"I appreciate the kindness, but still, you see, you know nothing
+whatever about me," he said.
+
+The stranger laughed. "I wouldn't worry. We're not particular in this
+country. Go up, and show him the card if you feel like it. I've been in
+a tight place myself once or twice, and we'll take it as an
+introduction. A good many people know me--you are Mr. Brooke?"
+
+Brooke admitted it, and after a few minutes' conversation, the stranger,
+who informed him that he had come there in the hope of meeting a man who
+did not seem likely to put in an appearance now, moved away.
+
+"Thomas P. Saxton. What is he?" said Brooke to his companions, as he
+glanced at the card.
+
+"Puts through mine and sawmill deals," said one of the men. "I'd light
+out for Johnston Lake right away, and if you have the dollars take the
+cars. Atlantic express is late to-night, waiting the Empress boat, and
+if you get off at Chumas, you'll only have 'bout twelve leagues to walk.
+I figure it will cost you four dollars."
+
+Brooke decided that it would be advisable to take the risk, and when he
+had settled with his host and a storekeeper, found he had about six
+dollars left. When he went out, one of the ranchers looked at the other.
+He was the one who had spoken least, and a quiet, observant man, from
+Ontario.
+
+"I'm not that sure it was good advice you gave him," he said.
+
+"No," said his companion.
+
+The other man appeared reflective. "I was watching Saxton, and he kind
+of woke up when Brooke let out about Devine. Now, it seems to me, it
+wasn't without a reason he put him on to that survey."
+
+His companion laughed. "It doesn't count, anyway. The Government's
+dollars are certain."
+
+"Well," said the Ontario man, drily, "if I had to give one of the pair
+any kind of a hold on me, I figure from what I've heard it would be
+Devine instead of Saxton."
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+SAXTON MAKES AN OFFER.
+
+
+It was raining as hard as it not infrequently does in the mountain
+province, and the deluge lashed the sombre pines that towered above the
+dripping camp, when Brooke stood in the entrance of the Surveyor's tent.
+He was wet to the skin, as well as weary, for he had walked most of
+thirty miles that day over a very bad trail, and was but indifferently
+successful in his attempts to hide his anxiety. The Surveyor also
+noticed the grimness of his wet face, and dallied a moment with the card
+he held, for he had known what fatigue and short commons were in his
+early days.
+
+"I'm sorry I can't take you, but I've two more men than I've any
+particular use for already," he said at last. "I can't give you a place
+to spread your blankets in to-night either, because the freighter didn't
+bring up all our tents. Still, you might make Beasley's Hotel, and
+strike Saxton's prospectors, if you head back over the divide. He has a
+few men up there opening up a silver lead."
+
+Brooke said nothing, and the Surveyor turned to his assistant as he
+moved away. "It's rough on that man, and he seems kind of played out,"
+he said. "I can't quite figure, either, why Saxton sent him here, when
+he's putting men on at his mine. It seems to me I told him I was only
+going to take men who'd packed for me before."
+
+In the meanwhile, Brooke stood still a few moments in the rain. He was
+aching all over, and his wet boots galled him, while he was also very
+hungry, and uncertain what to do. There was nothing to be gained by
+pushing on four leagues to Beasley's Hotel, even if he had been capable
+of doing it, which was not the case, because he had just then only two
+or three copper coins worth ten cents in his pocket. It was, he knew,
+scarcely likely he would be turned out for that reason, but he had not
+yet come down to asking a stranger's charity. Supper, which he would
+have been offered a share of, was also over, and there was not a ranch
+about, only a dripping wilderness, for he had plodded on after the
+Surveyor from the lonely settlement at Johnston Lake.
+
+It was very enviously he watched two men piling fresh branches on a
+crackling fire. Darkness was not far away, and already a light shone
+through the wet canvas of the Surveyor's tent. A cheerful hum of voices
+came out from the others, and a man was singing in one of them. The
+survey packers had, at least, a makeshift shelter for the night, food in
+sufficiency, and such warmth as the fires and their damp blankets might
+supply, while he had nowhere to lay his head. The smell of the stinging
+wood smoke was curiously alluring, and he felt as he glanced at the
+black wall of bush which closed in upon the little camp that his
+hardihood was deserting him, and in another minute he would go back and
+offer his services in return for food. Then his pride came to the
+rescue, and, turning away abruptly, he plodded back into the bush, where
+a bitter wind that came down from the snow blew the drips from the great
+branches into his face.
+
+He kept to the trail instinctively, though he did not know where he was
+going, or why, when one place had as little to commend itself as
+another, he blundered on at all, except that he was getting cold, until
+the creeping dark surprised him at a forking of the way. He knew that
+the path he had come by led through a burnt forest and thin willow bush,
+while great cedars shrouded the other, which apparently wound up a
+valley towards the heights above. They promised, at least, a little more
+shelter than the willows, but that, he fancied, must be the trail that
+crossed the divide and it led into a desolation of rock and forest. He
+had very little hope of being offered employment at the mine the
+Surveyor had mentioned, and stood still for several minutes with the
+rain beating into his face, while, though he did not know it then, a
+good deal depended on his decision. A little mist rolled out of the
+valley, and it was growing very cold, while the dull roar of a snow-fed
+torrent made the silence more impressive.
+
+Then, attracted solely by the sombre clustering of the cedars, which
+promised to keep off at least a little of the rain, he turned up the
+valley with a shiver, and finally unrolled his one wet blanket under a
+big tree. There was an angle among its roots, which ran along the
+ground, and, scooping a hollow in the withered sprays, he crawled into
+it, and lay down with his back to the trunk. The roar of the river
+seemed louder now, and he could hear a timber wolf howling far off on
+the hillside. He was very cold and hungry, but his weariness blunted the
+sense of physical discomfort, though as yet his activity of mind
+remained, and he asked himself what he had gained by leaving the ranch,
+and could find no answer.
+
+Still, even then, he would not regret that he had broken away, for there
+was in him an inherent obstinacy, and he would have struggled on at the
+ranch had not the absence of funds precluded it, and consideration shown
+him that it would be merely throwing his toil away. Life, it seemed, had
+very little to offer him, but now he had made the decision he would
+adhere to it, though he had arrived at the resolution in cold blood, for
+it was his reason only which had responded to the girl's influence, and
+as yet what was spiritual in him remained untouched. He would not live
+as the Indians do, or sink into a sot. There were vague possibilities
+before him which, though this appeared most unlikely, might prove
+themselves facts, and the place he had been born to in England might yet
+be his. That was why he would not sell his birthright for a mess of
+stringy venison, and the deleterious whisky sold at the settlement,
+which seemed to him a most unfair price. Still, he went no further, even
+when he thought of the girl, which he did with dispassionate admiration.
+
+Worn-out as he was, he slept, and awakened in the grey dawn almost unfit
+to rise. There was a distressful pain in his hip-joints, which those who
+sleep in the open are acquainted with, and at the first few steps he
+took his face went awry, but his physical nature demanded warmth and
+food, and there was only one way of obtaining it before the life went
+out of him. Whatever effort it cost him, he must reach the mine. He set
+out for it, limping, while the sharp gravel rolled under his bleeding
+feet as he floundered up the climbing trail. It seemed to lead upwards
+for ever between endless colonnades of towering trunks, and when at last
+pine and cedar had been left behind, there was slippery rock smoothed by
+sliding snow to be clambered over.
+
+Still, reeling and gasping, he held on, and it was afternoon, and he had
+eaten nothing for close on thirty hours, when a filmy trail of smoke
+that drifted faintly blue athwart the climbing pines beneath him caught
+his eye. He braced himself for the effort to reach it, and went down
+with loose, uneven strides, smashing through sal-sal and barberry when
+he reached the bush again. The fern met above his head, there were mazes
+of fallen trunks to be scrambled through, and he tore the soaken jean
+that clung about him to rags in his haste. Still, he had learned to
+travel straight in the bush, and at last he staggered into sight of the
+mine.
+
+There was a little scar on the hillside, an iron shanty, a few soaked
+tents and shelters of bark, but the ringing clink of the drills vibrated
+about them, and a most welcome smell of wood smoke came up to him with a
+murmur of voices. Brooke heard them faintly, and did not stop until a
+handful of men clustered about him, while, as he blinked at them, one,
+who appeared different from the others, pushed his way through the
+group.
+
+"You seem considerably used up," he said.
+
+"I am," said Brooke, hoarsely, "I'm almost starving."
+
+It occurred to him that the man's voice ought to be familiar, but it was
+a few moments before he recognized him as the one who had sent him on
+the useless journey after the Surveyor.
+
+"Then come right along. It's not quite supper-time, but there's food in
+the camp," he said.
+
+Brooke went with him to the shanty, where he fell against a chair, and
+found it difficult to straighten himself when he picked it up. Saxton,
+so far as he could remember, asked no questions, but smiled at him
+reassuringly while he explained, somewhat incoherently, what had brought
+him there, until a man appeared with a big tray. Then Brooke ate
+strenuously.
+
+"Some folks have a notion that one can kill himself by getting through
+too much at once when he's 'most starved," said Saxton. "I never found
+it work out that way in this country."
+
+"Were you ever almost starved?" said Brooke, who felt the life coming
+back to him, with no great show of interest.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Saxton, drily. "Twice, at least. I was three days
+without food the last time. One has to take his chances in the ranges,
+and you don't pick up dollars without trouble anywhere. Still, we'll
+talk of that afterwards. Had enough?"
+
+Brooke said he fancied he had, and Saxton hammered upon the iron roof of
+the shanty until a man appeared.
+
+"Give him a pair of blankets, Ike. He can sleep in the lean-to," he
+said.
+
+Brooke went with the man, vacantly, and in another few minutes found
+himself lying in dry blankets on a couch of springy twigs. He was
+sensible that it was delightfully warm, but he could not remember how he
+got there, and was wondering why the rain no longer lashed his face,
+when sleep came to him.
+
+It was next morning when he was awakened by the roar of a blasting
+charge, and lay still with an unusual sense of comfort until the silence
+that followed it was broken by the clinking of the drills. Then he rose
+stiffly, and put on his clothes, which he found had been dried, and was
+informed by a man who appeared while he was doing it that his breakfast
+was waiting. Brooke wondered a little at this, for he knew that it was
+past the usual hour, but he made an excellent meal, and then, being
+shown into a compartment of the little galvanized iron shanty, found
+Saxton sitting at a table. The latter now wore long boots and jean, and
+there were pieces of discolored stone strewn about in front of him.
+
+He looked up with a little nod as Brooke came in. "Feeling quite
+yourself again?" he said.
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, "thanks to the way your men have treated me. This
+is, of course, a hospitable country, but I may admit that I could
+scarcely have expected to be so well looked after by one I hadn't the
+slightest claim upon."
+
+"And you almost wondered what he did it for?"
+
+Brooke was a trifle astonished, for this certainly expressed his
+thoughts, but he was in no way disconcerted, and he laughed.
+
+"I should, at least, never have ventured to suggest that anything except
+good-nature influenced you," he said.
+
+"Still, you felt it? Well, you were considerably used up when you came
+in, and, as I sent you to the Surveyor, who didn't seem to have any use
+for you, I felt myself responsible. That appears sufficient?"
+
+Now, Brooke had mixed with men of a good many different stations, and he
+was observant, and, as might have been expected, by no means diffident.
+
+"Since you ask, I scarcely think it does," he said.
+
+Saxton laughed. "Take a cigar. That's the kind of talk I like. We'll
+come to the point right away."
+
+Brooke lighted a cigar, and found it good. "Thanks. I'm willing to
+listen as long as appears necessary," he said.
+
+"You have a kind of grievance against Devine?"
+
+"I have. According to my notion of ethics, he owes me six thousand
+dollars, and I shall not be quite content until I get them out of him,
+although that may never happen. I feel just now that it would please me
+especially to make him smart as well, which I quite realize, is
+unnecessary folly."
+
+The Canadian nodded, and shook the ash from his cigar. "Exactly," he
+said. "A man with sense keeps his eye on the dollars, and leaves out the
+sentiment. It's quite apt to get in his way and trip him up. Well,
+suppose I could give you a chance of getting those dollars back?"
+
+"I should be very much inclined to take it. Still, presumably, you do
+not mean to do it out of pure good-nature?"
+
+"No, sir," said Saxton, drily. "I'm here to make dollars. That has been
+my object since I struck out for myself at fourteen, and I've piled
+quite a few of them together. I'd have had more only that wherever I
+plan a nice little venture in mines or land up and down this province, I
+run up against Devine. That's quite straight, isn't it?"
+
+"I fancy it is. You are suggesting community of interest? Still, I
+scarcely realize how a man with empty pockets could be of very much use
+to you."
+
+"I have a kind of notion that you could be if it suited you. I want a
+man with grit in him, who has had a good education, and could, if it was
+necessary, mix on equal terms with the folks in the cities."
+
+"One would fancy there were a good many men of that kind in Canada."
+
+Saxton appeared reflective. "Oh, yes," he said, drily. "The trouble is
+that most of them have got something better to do, and I can't think of
+one who has any special reason for wanting to get even with Devine."
+
+"That means the work you have in view would scarcely suit a man who was
+prosperous, or likely to be fastidious?"
+
+"No," said Saxton, simply. "I don't quite think it would. Still, I've
+seen enough to show me that you can take the sensible point of view. We
+both want dollars, and I can't afford to be particular. I'm not sure you
+can, either."
+
+Brooke sat silent awhile. He could, at least, appreciate the Canadian's
+candor, while events had rubbed the sentiment he had once had plenty of
+out of him, and left him a somewhat hard and bitter man. The woman he
+believed in had used him very badly, and the first man he trusted in
+Canada had plundered him. Brooke was, unfortunately, young when he was
+called upon to face the double treachery, and had generalized too freely
+from too limited premises. He felt that in all society there must be a
+conflict between the men who had all to gain and those who had anything
+worth keeping, and sentiment, it seemed, was out of place in that
+struggle.
+
+"As you observed, I can't afford to be too particular," he said. "Still,
+it is quite possible I might not be prepared to go quite so far as you
+would wish me."
+
+The Canadian laughed. "I'll take my chances. Nobody can bring up any
+very low-down game against me. Well, are you open to consider my offer?"
+
+"You haven't exactly made one yet."
+
+"Then we'll fix the terms. Until one of us gives the other notice that
+he lets up on this agreement, you will do just what I tell you. Pay will
+be about the usual thing for whatever you're set to do. It would be
+reasonably high if I put you on to anything in the cities."
+
+"Is that likely?"
+
+"I've a notion that we might get you into a place where you could watch
+Devine's game for me. I want to feel quite sure of it before I take any
+chances with that kind of man. If I struck him for anything worth while,
+you would have a share."
+
+Brooke's face flushed just a trifle, and again he sat silent a moment or
+two. Then he laughed somewhat curiously.
+
+"Well," he said, "I suppose there are no other means, and the man robbed
+me."
+
+Saxton smiled. "If we pull off the deal I'm figuring on, your share
+might 'most work up to those six thousand dollars. They're yours."
+
+Brooke realized that it was a clever man he was dealing with, but in his
+present state of mind the somewhat vague arrangement commended itself to
+him. He was, he decided, warranted in getting his six thousand dollars
+back by any means that were open to him. More he did not want, for he
+still retained in a slight degree the notions instilled into him in
+England, which had, however, since he was seldom able to indulge in
+them, not tended to make him happier.
+
+"There is a point you don't seem to have grasped," he said. "Since I am
+not to be particular, can't you conceive that it would not be pleasant
+for you if Devine went one better?"
+
+Saxton laughed. "I've met quite a few Englishmen--of your
+kind--already," he said. "That's why I feel that when you've taken my
+dollars you're not going to go back on me without giving me warning.
+Besides, Devine would be considerably more likely to fix you up in quite
+another way. Now, I want an answer. Is it a deal?"
+
+"It is," said Brooke, who, in spite of the fashion in which he had
+expressed himself during the last few minutes, felt a slight warmth in
+his face. Though he could not afford to be particular, there was one
+aspect of the arrangement which did not commend itself to him.
+
+Saxton nodded. "Then, as you'll want to know a little about mining,
+we'll put you on now, helping the drillers, at $2.50 a day. You'll get
+considerably more by-and-by. Take this little treatise on the minerals
+of the province, and keep it by you."
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+BARBARA RENEWS AN ACQUAINTANCE.
+
+
+There was an amateur concert for a commendable purpose in the Vancouver
+opera-house, which, since the inhabitants of the mountain province do
+not expect any organized body to take over their individual
+responsibilities, was a somewhat unusual event, and Miss Barbara
+Heathcote, who had not as yet found it particularly entertaining, was
+leaning back languidly in her chair.
+
+"There are really one or two things they do a little better in the Old
+Country," she said.
+
+The young man who sat beside her laughed. "There must be, or you never
+would have admitted it," he said. "Still, I'm not sure you would find
+many folks who would believe you here."
+
+"One has to be candid occasionally," and Barbara made a little gesture
+of weariness. "There is still another hour of it, but, I sincerely hope,
+not another cornet solo. What comes next? We were a little late, and
+nobody provided me with a programme. They are inconsistent. Milly, I
+notice, has several."
+
+The man opened the paper which a girl Barbara glanced at handed him.
+
+"A violin solo," he said. "I think they mean Schumann, but it's not
+altogether astonishing that they've spelt it wrong. A man called Brooke
+is put down for it."
+
+"Brooke!" said Barbara, a trifle sharply. "Where does he come from? Do
+you know him?"
+
+"I can't say I do----" the man commenced reflectively, and stopped a
+moment when he saw the little smile in the girl's brown eyes. "What were
+you thinking?"
+
+"I was wondering whether that means he can't be worth knowing."
+
+"Well," said the man, good-humoredly, "there are, I believe, one or two
+decent folks in this city I haven't had the pleasure of meeting, but you
+were a trifle too previous. I don't know him, but if he's the man I
+think he is, I've heard about him. He came down from the bush lately,
+and somebody put him on to Naseby, the surveyor. Naseby's busy just now,
+doing a good deal for the Government--Crown mineral lands, I think, or
+something of that kind--and he took the man. I understand he's quite
+smart at the bush work, and Naseby's pleased with him. That's about all
+I can tell you. You're scarcely likely to know him."
+
+Barbara sat silent a space, looking about her while the amateur
+orchestra chased one another through the treacherous mazes of an
+overture. The handsome building was well filled, but there were one or
+two empty places at hand, for the man who had sent her there had taken a
+row of them and sent tickets to his friends, as was expected from a
+citizen of his importance. It was, in the usual course, scarcely likely
+that she would know a man who had lately been installed in a subordinate
+place in a surveyor's service, for her acquaintances were people of
+position in that province, and yet she had a very clear recollection of
+a certain rancher Brooke who played the violin.
+
+"I once met a man of that name in the bush," she said, with almost
+overdone indifference. "Still, he is scarcely likely to be the same
+one."
+
+Her companion started another topic, and neither of them listened to the
+orchestra, though the girl was a trifle irritated at herself for wishing
+that the overture had been shorter. At last, when the second violins
+were not more than a note behind the rest, the music stopped, and
+Barbara sat very still with eyes fixed on the stage while the usual
+little stir and rustle of draperies ran round the building. Then there
+was silence for a moment, and she was sensible of a curious little
+thrill as a man who held a violin came forward into the blaze of light.
+He wore conventional evening-dress in place of the fringed deerskin she
+had last seen him in, and she decided that it became his somewhat spare,
+symmetrical figure almost as well. The years he had spent swinging axe
+and pounding drill had toughened and suppled it, and yet left him free
+from the coarsening stamp of toil, which is, however, not as a rule a
+necessary accompaniment of strenuous labor in that country. Standing
+still a moment quietly at his ease, straight-limbed, sinewy, with a
+little smile in his frost-bronzed face, he was certainly a personable
+man, and for no very apparent reason she was pleased to notice that two
+of her companions were regarding him with evident approbation.
+
+"I think one could call him quite good-looking," said the girl beside
+her. "He has been in this country a while, but I wouldn't call him a
+Canadian. Not from this side of the Rockies, anyway."
+
+"Why?" asked Barbara, mainly to discover how far her companion's
+thoughts coincided with her own.
+
+"Well," said the other girl, reflectively, "it seems to me he takes it
+too easily. If he had been one of us he'd have either been grim and
+serious or worrying with the strings. We're most desperately in earnest,
+but they do things as though they didn't count in the Old Country. Now
+he has got the A right off without the least fussing, as if he couldn't
+help doing it."
+
+The explanation was rather suggestive than definite, but Barbara was
+satisfied with it. She was usually a reposeful young woman herself, and
+the man's graceful tranquillity, which was of a kind not to be met with
+every day in that country, appealed to her. Then he drew the bow across
+the strings, and she sat very still to listen. It was not music that a
+good many of his audience were accustomed to, but scarcely a dress
+rustled or a programme fluttered until he took the fiddle from his
+shoulder. Then, while the plaudits rang through the building, his eyes
+met Barbara's. Leaning forward a trifle in her chair, she saw the sudden
+intentness of his face, but he gazed at her steadily for a moment
+without sign of recognition. Then she smiled graciously, for that was
+what she had expected of him, and again felt a faint thrill of content,
+for his eyes were fixed on her when as the tumult of applause increased
+he made a little inclination.
+
+He was not permitted to retire, and when he put the fiddle to his
+shoulder again she knew why he played the nocturne she had heard in the
+bush. It was also, she felt, in a fashion significant that it had now,
+in place of the roar of a snow-fed river, the chords of a grand piano
+for accompaniment, though the latter, it seemed to her, made an
+indifferent substitute. The bronze-faced man in deerskin had fitted the
+surroundings in which she had seen him, and they had been close comrades
+in the wilderness for a week. It could, she knew, scarcely be the same
+in the city, but she saw that he was, at least, equally at home there.
+It was only their relative positions that had changed, for the guide was
+the person of importance in the primeval bush, and the fact that he had
+waited without a sign until she smiled showed that he had not failed to
+recognize it. When at last he moved away she turned to the man at her
+side.
+
+"Will you go down and ask Mr. Brooke to come here?" she said. "You can
+tell him that I would like to speak to him."
+
+The young man did not express any of the astonishment he certainly felt,
+but proceeded to do her bidding, though it afforded him no particular
+pleasure, for there was a certain imperiousness about Barbara Heathcote
+which was not without its effect. Brooke was putting away his fiddle
+when he came upon him.
+
+"I haven't the pleasure of your acquaintance, Mr. Brooke, but it seems
+you know a friend of mine," he said. "If you are at liberty, Miss
+Heathcote would like to see you."
+
+"Miss Heathcote?" said Brooke, for it had happened, not unnaturally,
+that he had never heard the girl's full name. Her companions, of whom he
+had not felt warranted in inquiring it, had called her Barbara in the
+bush, and he had addressed her without prefix.
+
+"Yes," said the other, who was once more a trifle astonished. "Miss
+Barbara Heathcote."
+
+He glanced at Brooke sharply, or he would not have seen the swift
+content in his face, for the latter put a sudden restraint upon himself.
+
+"Of course! I will come with you at once," he said, and a minute or two
+later took the vacant place at Barbara's side.
+
+"You do not appear very much surprised, and yet it was a long way from
+here I saw you last," she said.
+
+Brooke fancied she meant that it was under somewhat different
+circumstances, and sat looking at her with a little smile. She was also,
+he decided, even better worth inspection than she had been in the bush,
+for the rich attire became her, and the garish electric radiance
+emphasized the gleam of the white shoulder the dainty laces clung about
+and of the ivory neck the moonlight had shone upon when first they met.
+
+"No," he said. "The fact is, I have seen you already on several
+occasions in this city."
+
+Barbara glanced at him covertly. "Then why did you not claim
+recognition?"
+
+"Isn't the reason obvious?"
+
+"No," said Barbara, reflectively, "I scarcely think it is--unless, of
+course, you had no desire to renew the acquaintance."
+
+"Does one usually renew a chance acquaintance made with a packer in the
+bush?"
+
+"It would depend a good deal on the packer," said Barbara, quietly. "Now
+this country is----"
+
+There was a trace of dryness in Brooke's smile. "You were going to say a
+democratic one. That, of course, might to some extent explain the
+anomaly."
+
+"No," said Barbara, sharply, with a very faint flush of color in her
+face, "I was not. You ought to know that, too. Explanations are
+occasionally odious, and almost always difficult, but both Major Hume
+and his daughter invited you to their house if you were ever in
+England."
+
+"The Major may have felt himself tolerably safe in making that offer,"
+said Brooke, reflectively. "You see, I am naturally acquainted with my
+fellow Briton's idiosyncrasies."
+
+The girl looked at him with a little sparkle in her eyes. "I do not know
+why you are adopting this attitude, or assigning one to me," she said.
+"Did we ever attempt to patronize you, and if we had done, is there any
+reason why you should take the trouble to resent it?"
+
+Brooke laughed softly. "I scarcely think I could afford to resent a
+kindness, however it was offered; but there is a point you don't quite
+seem to have grasped. How could I be certain you had remembered me?"
+
+The girl smiled a little. "Your own powers of recollection might have
+furnished a standard of comparison."
+
+Brooke looked at her steadily. "The sharpness of the memory depends upon
+the effect the object one wishes to recollect produced upon one's
+mind," he said. "I should, of course, have known you at once had it been
+twenty years hence."
+
+The girl turned to her programme, for now she had induced him to abandon
+his reticence his candor was almost disconcerting.
+
+"Well," she said. "Tell me what you have been doing. You have left the
+ranch?"
+
+Brooke nodded and glanced at the hand he laid on his knee, which, as the
+girl saw, was still ingrained and hard.
+
+"Road-making for one thing," he said. "Chopping trees, quarrying rock,
+and following other useful occupations of the kind. They are, one
+presumes, healthy and necessary, but I did not find any of them
+especially remunerative."
+
+"And now?"
+
+Brooke's face, as she did not fail to notice, hardened suddenly, and he
+felt an unpleasant embarrassment as he met her eyes. He had decided that
+he was fully warranted in taking any steps likely to lead to the
+recovery of the dollars he had been robbed of, but he was sensible that
+the only ones he had found convenient would scarcely commend themselves
+to his companion. There was also no ignoring the fact that he would very
+much have preferred her approbation.
+
+"At present I am surveying, though I cannot, of course, become a
+surveyor," he said. "The legislature of this country has placed that
+out of the question."
+
+Barbara was aware that in Canada a man can no more set up as a surveyor
+without the specified training than he can as a solicitor, though she
+did not think that fact accounted for the constraint in the man's voice
+and attitude. He was not one who readily betrayed what he felt, but she
+was tolerably certain that something in connection with his occupation
+caused him considerable dissatisfaction.
+
+"Still," she said, "you must have known a little about the profession?"
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, a trifle unguardedly. "Of course, there is a
+difference, but I had once the management of an estate in England. What
+one might call the more useful branches of mathematics were also, a good
+while ago, a favorite study of mine. One could find a use for them even
+in measuring a tree."
+
+The girl had a question on her lips, but she did not consider it
+advisable to ask it just then.
+
+"You would find a knowledge of timber of service in Canada?" she said.
+
+"Not very often. You see the only apparent use of the trees on my
+possessions was to keep me busy two years attempting to destroy them,
+and of late I have chiefly had to do with minerals."
+
+"With minerals?" said the girl, quickly, and then, as he volunteered no
+answer, swiftly asked the question she had wished to put before. "Whose
+was the estate in England?"
+
+Brooke did not look at her, and she fancied he was not sorry that the
+necessity of affecting a show of interest in the music meanwhile made
+continuous conversation difficult. His eyes were then turned upon a
+performer on the stage.
+
+"The estate--it belonged to--a friend of mine," he said. "Of course, I
+had no regular training, but connection and influence count for
+everything in the Old Country."
+
+Barbara watched him covertly, and once more noticed the slight hardening
+of his lips, and the very faint deepening of the bronze in his cheeks.
+It was only just perceptible, but though the sun and wind had darkened
+its tinting, Brooke had a clear English complexion, and the blood showed
+through his skin. His companion remembered the old house in the English
+valley, with its trim gardens and great sweep of velvet lawn, where he
+had admitted that he had once been long ago. The statement she had
+fancied at the time was purposely vague, and she wondered now if he had
+meant that he had lived there, for Barbara possessed the not unusual
+feminine capacity for putting two and two together. She, however,
+naturally showed nothing of this.
+
+"I suppose it does," she said. "I wonder if you ever feel any faint
+longing for what you must have left behind you there. One learns to do
+without a good deal in Canada."
+
+Brooke smiled curiously. "Of course! That is one reason why I am pleased
+you sent for me. This, you see, brings it back to me."
+
+He glanced suggestively round the big, brilliantly-lighted building,
+across the rows of citizens in broadcloth, and daintily-dressed women,
+and then turned and fixed his eyes upon his companion's face almost too
+steadily. The girl understood him, but she would not admit it.
+
+"You mean the music?" she said.
+
+"No. The music, to tell the truth, is by no means very good. It is you
+who have taken me back to the Old Country. Imagination will do a great
+deal, but it needs a fillip, and something tangible to build upon."
+
+Barbara laughed softly.
+
+"I fancy the C. P. R. and an Allan liner would be a much more reliable
+means of transportation. You will presumably take that route some day?"
+
+"I scarcely think it likely. They have, in the Western idiom, no use for
+poor men yonder."
+
+"Still, men get rich now and then in this country."
+
+The man's face grew momentarily a trifle grim. "It would apparently be
+difficult to accomplish it by serving as assistant survey, and the means
+employed by some of them might, if they went back to the old life, tend
+to prevent them feeling very comfortable. I"--and he paused for a
+second--"fancy that I shall stay in Canada."
+
+Barbara was a trifle puzzled, and said nothing further for a space,
+until when the singer who occupied the stage just then was dismissed,
+the man turned to her.
+
+"How long is a chance acquaintance warranted in presuming on a favor
+shown him in this country?"
+
+Barbara smiled at him. "If I understand you correctly, until the other
+person allows him to perceive that his absence would be supportable. In
+this case, just as long as it pleases him. Now you can tell me about the
+road-making."
+
+Brooke understood that she wished to hear, and when he could accomplish
+it without attracting too much attention, pictured for her benefit his
+life in the bush. He also did it humorously, but effectively, without
+any trace of the self-commiseration she watched for, and her fancy dwelt
+upon the hardships he lightly sketched. She knew how the toilers lived
+and worked in the bush, and had seen their reeking shanties and
+rain-swept camps. Labor is accounted honorable in that land, but it is
+none the less very frequently brutal as well as strenuous, and she could
+fancy how this man, who, she felt certain, had been accustomed to live
+softly in England, must have shrunk from some of his tasks, and picture
+to herself what he felt when he came back at night to herd close-packed
+with comrades whose thoughts and his must always be far apart. That many
+possibly better men had certainly borne with as hard a lot longer, after
+all, made no great difference to the facts. She also recognized that
+there was a vein of pathos in the story, as she remembered that he had
+told her it was scarcely likely he would ever go back to England again.
+That naturally suggested a good deal to her, for she held him blameless,
+though she knew it was not the regularity of their conduct at home which
+sent a good many of his countrymen out to Canada.
+
+At last he rose between two songs, and stood still a moment looking down
+on her.
+
+"I'm afraid I have trespassed on your kindness," he said. "I am going
+back to the bush with a survey expedition to-morrow, and I do not know
+when I shall be fortunate enough to see you again."
+
+Barbara smiled a little. "That," she said, "is for you to decide. We are
+'At home' every Thursday in the afternoon--and, in your case, in the
+evening."
+
+He made her a little inclination, and turned away, while Barbara sat
+still, looking straight in front of her, but quite oblivious of the
+music, until she turned with a laugh, and the girl who sat next to her
+glanced round.
+
+"Was the man very amusing?" she said.
+
+"No," said Barbara, reflectively. "I scarcely think he was. I gave him
+permission to call upon us, and never told him where we lived."
+
+"Still, he would, like everybody else in this city, know it already."
+
+"He may," said Barbara. "That, I suppose, is what I felt at the time,
+but now I scarcely think he does."
+
+"Then one would fancy that to meet a young man of his appearance who
+didn't know all about you would be something quite new," said her
+companion, drily.
+
+Barbara flushed ever so slightly, but her companion noticed it. She was
+quite aware that if she was made much of in that city it was, in part,
+at least, due to the fact that she was the niece of a well-known man,
+and had considerable possessions.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+AN ARDUOUS JOURNEY.
+
+
+It was late at night, and raining hard, when a line of dripping mules
+stood waiting beneath the pines that crowded in upon the workings of the
+Elktail mine. A few lights blinked among the log-sheds that clustered
+round the mouth of the rift in the steep hillside, and a warm wind that
+drove the deluge before it came wailing out of the blackness of the
+valley beneath them. The mine was not a big one, but it was believed
+that it paid Thomas P. Saxton and his friends tolerably well, in spite
+of the heavy cost of transport to the nearest smelter. A somewhat
+varying vein of galena, which is silver-lead, was worked there, and
+Saxton had, on several occasions, declined an offer to buy it, made on
+behalf of a company.
+
+On the night in question he stood in the doorway of one of the sheds
+with Brooke, for whom the Surveyor had no more work just then, beside
+him. Brooke wore long boots and a big rubber coat, on whose dripping
+surface the light of the lantern Saxton held flickered. Here and there a
+man was dimly visible beside the mules, but beyond them impenetrable
+darkness closed in.
+
+"It's a wicked kind of night," said Saxton, who, Brooke fancied,
+nevertheless, appeared quite content with it. "You know what you've got
+to do?"
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, a trifle drily, "you have given me tolerably
+complete instructions once or twice already. The ore is to be delivered
+to Allonby at the Dayspring mine not later than to-morrow night, and I'm
+to be contented with his verbal acknowledgment. The getting it across
+the river will, I fancy, be the difficulty, especially as I'm to send
+half the teamsters back before we reach it."
+
+"Still, you have got to send them back," said Saxton. "Jake and Tom will
+go on, and when you have crossed the ford that will be two mules for
+each of you. Not one of the other men must come within a mile of the
+trail forking. It's part of our bargain that you're to do just what I
+tell you."
+
+Brooke laughed a little. "I'm not going to grumble very much at leading
+two mules. I have done a good deal harder work quite frequently."
+
+"You'll find it tough enough by the time you're through. You must be in
+at the mine by daylight the day after to-morrow, anyway. Allonby will be
+sitting up waiting for you."
+
+Brooke said nothing further, but went out into the rain, calling to one
+of the teamsters, and the mules were got under way. The trail that led
+to the Elktail mine sloped steep as a roof just there, and was slippery
+with rain and mire, but the mules went down it as no other loaded beasts
+could have done, feeling their way foot by foot, or glissading on all
+four hoofs for yards together. The men made little attempt to guide
+them, for a mule is opinionated by nature, and when it cannot find its
+own way up or down any ascent it is seldom worth while for its driver to
+endeavor to show it one.
+
+When they reached the level, or rather the depth of the hollow, for of
+level, in the usual sense of the word, there is none in that country,
+Brooke, who was then cumbered with no bridle, turned and looked round.
+The lights of the Elktail had faded among the pines, and there was only
+black darkness about him. Here and there he could discern the ghostly
+outline of a towering trunk a little more solid than the night it rose
+against, and he could hear the men and beasts floundering and splashing
+in front of him. A deep reverberating sound rose out of the obscurity
+beneath, and he knew it to be the roar of a torrent in a deep-sunk
+gully, while now and then a diminishing rattle suggested that a
+hundred-weight or so of water-loosened gravel had slipped down into the
+chasm from the perilous trail.
+
+It was a difficult road to travel by daylight, and, naturally,
+considerably worse at night, while Brooke had already wondered why
+Saxton had not sent off the ore earlier. That, however, was not his
+business, and, shaking the rain from his dripping hat, he plodded on.
+It was still two or three hours before daylight when they reached a
+wider and smoother trail, and he sent away three of the men.
+
+"It's a tolerably good road now, and Saxton wants you at the mine," he
+said.
+
+One of the teamsters who were remaining laughed ironically. "I'm blamed
+if I ever heard the dip down to the long ford called a good trail
+before!"
+
+"Well," said one of the others, "what in the name of thunder are you
+going that way for?"
+
+Brooke, who was standing close by, fancied that a man who had not spoken
+kicked his loquacious comrade viciously.
+
+"Tom never does know where he's going. It's the mule that does the
+thinking for both of them," he said.
+
+There was a little hoarse laughter, and those who were going back
+vanished into the deluge, while Brooke, who took a bridle now, went on
+with two men again. It was darker than ever, for great fir branches met
+overhead just there, but they at least kept off a little of the rain,
+and he groped onward, splashing in the mire, until the roar of a river
+throbbed across the forest as the night was wearing through. Then the
+leading teamster pulled up his mules.
+
+"It's a nasty ford in daylight, and she'll be swirling over it
+waist-deep and more just now," he said. "Still, we've got to take our
+chances of getting through."
+
+"It will be light in two hours," said Brooke, suggestively. "Of course,
+you know better than I do whether we could make the wasted time up."
+
+The man laughed curiously. "I guess we could, but there's two concerned
+bush ranchers just started their chopping over yonder. I had a kind of
+notion the boss would have told you that."
+
+It commenced to dawn on Brooke that Saxton had a reason for not desiring
+that everybody should know he was sending ore away, but he was too wet
+to concern himself about the question then.
+
+"I don't think he did," he said. "Anyway, if we have to go through in
+the dark there's nothing to be gained by waiting here."
+
+They went on, down what appeared to be the side of a bottomless gully,
+with the stones and soil slipping away from under them, while half-seen
+trees flitted up out of the obscurity. Then they reached the bed of a
+stream, and proceeded along it, splashing and stumbling amidst the
+boulders. In the meanwhile the roar of the river was growing steadily
+louder, and when they stopped again they could hear the clamor of the
+invisible flood close in front of them. It came out of the rain and
+darkness, hoarse and terrifying, but while the wind drove the deluge
+into his face Brooke could see nothing beyond dim, dripping trees.
+
+"Well," said the leading teamster, "I have struck a nicer job than this
+one, but it has got to be done. Tether the spare mule, each of you, and
+then get in behind me."
+
+Brooke had no diffidence about taking the last place in the line. Though
+he was in charge of the pack train, it was evident that the men knew a
+good deal more about that ford than he did, and he had no particular
+desire to make himself responsible for a disaster. Then there was a
+scrambling and splashing, and he found himself suddenly waist-deep in
+the river. He was, however, tolerably accustomed to a ford, and though
+the mule he led objected strenuously to entering the water, it proceeded
+with that beast's usual sagacity once it was in. He endeavored to keep
+its head a trifle up-stream, and as close behind his two companions as
+he could, but apart from that he left the beast to the guidance of its
+own acumen, for he knew that it is seldom the sagacious mule takes any
+risk that can be avoided.
+
+Twice, at least, his feet were swept from under him, and once he lost
+his grip on the bridle, and simultaneously all sight of his companions
+and the beast he led. Then he felt unpleasantly lonely as he stood more
+than waist-deep in the noisy flood, but after a few yards floundering he
+found the mule again, and at last scrambled up, breathless and gasping,
+beneath the pines on the farther side.
+
+"Hit it square that time!" said the teamster. "I'm not quite so sure as
+I'd like to be we can do it again."
+
+They went back through the river for the rest of the mules, and were
+half-way across on the return journey when the leader shouted to them
+that they should stop. The water seemed deeper than it had been on the
+previous occasion, and Brooke found it difficult to keep his footing at
+all as he peered into the darkness. The rain had ceased, but there was
+little visible beyond the faint whiteness of sliding froth, and a
+shadowy blur of trees on either shore. He could see nothing that might
+serve any one as guide, and the leading teamster was standing still,
+apparently in a state of uncertainty, with dim streaks of froth
+streaming past him.
+
+"I'm 'most afraid we're too far down-stream," he said. "Anyway, we can't
+stay here. Head the beasts up a little."
+
+His voice reached the others brokenly through the roar of the torrent,
+and with a pull at the bridle Brooke turned his face up-stream. He could
+hear the rest splashing in front of him until his mule lost his footing,
+and he sank suddenly up to the breast. Then there was a shout, and a
+struggling beast swept down on him with the swing of an eddy. Brooke
+went down, head under, and one of the teamsters appeared to be shouting
+instructions to him when he came up again. He had not the faintest
+notion of what they were, and swung round with the eddy until he was
+driven violently against a boulder. There was a mule close beside him,
+and he contrived to grasp the bridle, and found to his astonishment that
+he could now stand upright without difficulty. Exactly where the others
+were, or where the opposite side of the river lay, he did not at the
+moment know; but the mule appeared to be floundering on with a definite
+purpose, and he went with it, until they scrambled up the bank, and he
+found two other men and one beast already there.
+
+"One of them's gone," said the teamster. "There'll be trouble when we go
+back, but I guess it can't be helped. Anyway, there's 'most a fathom in
+the deep below the ford, and no mule would do much swimming with that
+load."
+
+"A fathom's quite enough to cover the bags up so nobody's going to find
+them," said the other man.
+
+Brooke did not quite understand why, since the ore was valuable, this
+fact should afford the teamster the consolation it apparently did, but
+he was not in a mood to consider that point just then, and all his
+attention was occupied when they proceeded again. The trail that climbed
+the rise was wet and steep, and seemed to consist largely of boulders,
+into which he blundered with unpleasant frequency. It was but little
+better when they once more plunged into the forest, for the way was
+scarcely two feet wide, and wound round and through thickets of thorn
+and fern which, when he brushed against it, further saturated him. He
+was wet enough already, but the water which remained any time in his
+clothing got slowly warm. It also dipped into splashy hollows and
+climbed loose gravel banks, while once a hoarse shout from the leader,
+which changed to a howl of pain, was followed by a stoppage. The man had
+stumbled into a clump of the horrible Devil's club thorn, than which
+nothing that grows anywhere is more unpleasant when it gets a good hold
+on human flesh.
+
+He was cut loose, and his objurgations mingled with the soft splashing
+from the branches as they blundered on until a faint grey light filtered
+down, and the firs they passed beneath grew into definite form. It had
+also become unpleasantly chilly, and a thin, clammy mist rose like steam
+from every hollow. Then the trees grew thinner as they climbed steadily,
+until at last Brooke could see the black hill shoulders rise out of the
+trails of mist, and the leader pulled up his mules.
+
+"We've done 'bout enough for one spell, and nobody's going to see us
+here," he said. "Get a fire started. I'm emptier'n a drum."
+
+Brooke, who knew where to find the resinous knots, was glad to help, and
+soon a great fire blazed upon a shelf of rock. The mules were tethered
+and forage given them, and the men lay steaming about the blaze until
+the breakfast of flapjacks, canned stuff, and green tea was ready. It
+was despatched in ten minutes, and rolling his half-dried blanket about
+him, Brooke lay down to sleep. He had a strip of very damp rock for
+mattress, and a bag of ore for pillow, but he had grown accustomed to a
+hard bed in the bush, and had scarcely laid his head down when slumber
+came to him. Food and sleep, he had discovered, were things to be
+appreciated, for it was not always that he was able to obtain very much
+of either. His stay in the Canadian cities had been brief, and the night
+he had spent with the brown-eyed girl at the opera-house had already
+drifted back into the past.
+
+It was raining when he awakened, and they once more took the trail,
+while during what was left of the day they plodded among the boulders
+beside frothing streams, crept through shadowy forests, and climbed over
+treacherous slopes of gravel and slippery rock outcrop round the great
+hill shoulders above. Everywhere the cold gleam of snow met the eye,
+save when the mists that clung in ragged wisps about the climbing pines
+rolled together and blotted all the vista out. The smell of fir and
+balsam filled every hollow, and the song of the rivers rang through a
+dead stillness that even to Brooke, who was accustomed to it, was
+curiously impressive.
+
+There was no sign of man anywhere, save for the smear of trampled mire
+or hoof-scattered gravel, and no sound that was made by any creature of
+the forest in all the primeval solitude. For no very evident reason,
+tracts of that wild country remain a desolation of grand and almost
+overwhelming beauty, and in such places even the bushman speaks softly,
+or plods on faster, as though anxious to escape from them, in wondering
+silence. The teamsters, however, appeared by no means displeased at the
+solitude, and Brooke was not in a condition to be receptive of more than
+physical impressions. His long boots were full of water, his clothes
+were soaked, the sliding gravel had galled his feet, and his limbs
+ached. The beasts were also flagging, for their loads were heavy, and
+the patter of their hoofs rose with a slower beat through the rain,
+while the teamsters said nothing save when they urged them on.
+
+They rested again for an hour and lighted another fire, and afterwards
+found the trail smoother, but evening was closing in when, scrambling
+down from a hill shoulder, they came upon a winding valley. It was
+filled with dusky cedars, and the mist rolled out of it, but the
+teamsters quickened their pace a trifle, and smote the lagging beasts.
+Then, where the trees were thinner, Brooke saw a faint smear of vapor a
+little bluer than the mist drawn out across the ragged pines above him,
+and one of his companions laughed.
+
+"Well," he said, "I guess we're there at last, and if Boss Allonby isn't
+on the jump you'll be putting away your supper, and as much whisky as
+you've any use for inside an hour."
+
+"Is it a complaint he's often troubled with?" said Brooke.
+
+The teamster grinned. "He has it 'bout once a fortnight--when the pack
+beasts from the settlement come in. It lasts two days, in the usual way,
+and on the third one every boy about the mine looks out for him."
+
+Brooke asked no more questions, though he hoped that several days had
+elapsed since the supplies from the settlement had come up, and in
+another few minutes they plodded into sight of the mine. The workings
+appeared to consist of a heap of debris and a big windlass, but here and
+there a crazy log hut stood amidst the pines which crowded in serried
+ranks upon the narrow strip of clearing. The door of the largest shanty
+stood open, and the shadowy figure of a man appeared in it.
+
+"Good-evening, boys," he said. "You have brought the ore and Saxton's
+man along?"
+
+One of the teamsters said they had, and turned to Brooke with a laugh.
+
+"You're not going to have any trouble to-night," he said. "He's coming
+round again, and when he feels like it, there's nobody can be more
+high-toned polite!"
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+ALLONBY'S ILLUSION.
+
+
+The shanty was draughty as well as very damp, and the glass of the
+flickering lamp blackened so that the light was dim. It, however, served
+to show one-half of Allonby's face in silhouette against the shadow, as
+he sat leaning one elbow on the table, with a steaming glass in front of
+him. Brooke, who was stiff and weary, lay in a dilapidated canvas chair
+beside the crackling fire, which filled the very untidy room with
+aromatic odors. It was still apparently raining outside, for there was a
+heavy splashing on the shingled roof above, and darkness had closed down
+on the lonely valley several hours ago, but while Brooke's eyes were
+heavy, Allonby showed no sign of drowsiness. He sat looking straight in
+front of him vacantly.
+
+"You will pass your glass across when you are ready, Mr. Brooke," he
+said, and the latter noticed his clean English intonation. "The night is
+young yet, that bottle is by no means the last in the shanty, and it is,
+I think, six months since I have been favored with any intelligent
+company. I have, of course, the boys, but with due respect to the
+democratic sentiments of this colony they are--the boys, and the fact
+that they are a good deal more use to the country than I am does not
+affect the question."
+
+Brooke smiled a little. His host was attired somewhat curiously in a
+frayed white shirt and black store jacket, which was flecked with cigar
+ash, and had evidently seen better days, though his other garments were
+of the prevalent jean, and a portion of his foot protruded through one
+of his deerhide slippers. His face was gaunt and haggard, but it was
+just then a trifle flushed, and though his voice was still clear and
+nicely modulated, there was a suggestive unsteadiness in his gaze. The
+man was evidently a victim of indulgence, but there was a trace of
+refinement about him, and Brooke had realized already that he had
+reached the somewhat pathetic stage when pride sinks to the vanity which
+prompts its possessor to find a curious solace in the recollection of
+what he has thrown away.
+
+"No more!" he said. "I have lived long enough in the bush to find out
+that is the way disaster lies."
+
+Allonby nodded. "You are no doubt perfectly right," he said. "I had,
+however, gone a little too far when I made the discovery, and by that
+time the result of any further progress had become a matter of
+indifference to me. In any case, a man who has played his part with
+credit among his equals where life has a good deal to offer one and
+intellect is appreciated, must drown recollection now and then when he
+drags out his days in a lonely exile that can have only one end. I am
+quite aware that it is not particularly good form for me to commiserate
+myself, but it should be evident that there is nobody else here to do it
+for me."
+
+Brooke had already found his host's maudlin moralizings becoming
+monotonous, but he also felt in a half-contemptuous fashion sorry for
+the man. He was, it seemed to him, in spite of his proclivities, in the
+restricted sense of the word, almost a gentleman.
+
+"If one may make the inquiry, you came from England?" he said.
+
+Allonby laughed. "Most men put that question differently in this
+country. They talk straight, as they term it, and apparently consider
+brutality to be the soul of candor. Yes, I came from England, because
+something happened which prevented me feeling any great desire to spend
+any further time there. What it was does not, of course, matter. I came
+out with a sheaf of certificates and several medals to exploit the
+mineral riches of Western Canada, and found that mineralogical science
+is not greatly appreciated here."
+
+He rose, and taking down a battered walnut case, shook out a little
+bundle of greasy papers with a trembling hand. Then a faint gleam crept
+into his eyes as he opened a little box in which Brooke saw several big
+round pieces of gold. The dulness of the unpolished metal made the
+inscriptions on them more legible, and he knew enough about such matters
+to realize that no man of mean talent could have won those trophies.
+
+"They would, I fancy, have got you a good appointment anywhere," he
+said.
+
+"As a matter of fact, they got me one or two. It is, however,
+occasionally a little difficult to keep an appointment when obtained."
+
+Brooke could understand that there were reasons which made that likely
+in his host's case, but he had by this time had enough of the subject.
+
+"What are you going to do with the ore I brought you?" he said.
+
+Allonby's eyes twinkled. "Enrich what we raise here with it."
+
+"It is a little difficult to understand what you would gain by that."
+
+Allonby smiled suggestively. "I would certainly gain nothing, but Thomas
+P. Saxton seems to fancy the result would be profitable to him."
+
+"But does the Dayspring belong to Saxton?"
+
+Allonby emptied his glass at a gulp. "As much as I do, and he believes
+he has bought me soul and body. The price was not a big one--a very few
+dollars every month, and enough whisky to keep me here. If that failed
+me, I should go away, though I do not know where to, for I cannot use
+the axe. He is, however, now quite willing to part with the Dayspring,
+which has done little more than pay expenses."
+
+A light commenced to dawn on Brooke, and his face grew a trifle hot.
+"That is presumably why he arranged that I should bring the ore down
+past the few ranches near the trail at night?"
+
+"Precisely!" said Allonby. "You see, Saxton wants to sell the mine to
+another man--because he is a fool. Now the chief recommendation a mine
+has to a prospective purchaser is naturally the quality of the ore to be
+got out of it."
+
+"But the man who proposed buying it would send an expert to collect
+samples for assaying."
+
+Allonby's voice was not quite so clear as it had been, but he smiled
+again. "It is not quite so difficult for a mine captain who knows his
+business to contrive that an expert sees no more than is advisable. A
+good deal of discretion is, however, necessary when you salt a poor mine
+with high-grade ore. It has to be done with knowledge, artistically. You
+don't seem quite pleased at being mixed up in such a deal."
+
+Brooke was a trifle grim in face, but he laughed. "I have no doubt that,
+considering everything, it is a trifle absurd of me, but I'm not," he
+said. "One has to get accustomed to the notion that he is being made use
+of in connection with an ingenious swindle. That, however, is a matter
+which rests between Saxton and me, and we may talk over it when I go
+back again. Why did you call him a fool?"
+
+Allonby leaned forward in his chair, and his face grew suddenly eager.
+"I suppose you couldn't raise eight thousand dollars to buy the mine
+with?"
+
+Brooke laughed outright. "I should have some difficulty in raising
+twenty until the month is up."
+
+"Then you are losing a chance you'll never get again in a lifetime," and
+Allonby made a little gesture of resignation. "I would have liked you to
+have taken it, because I think I could make you believe in me. That is
+why I showed you the medals."
+
+Brooke looked at him curiously for a moment or two. It was evident that
+the man was in earnest, for his gaunt face was wholly intent, and his
+fingers were trembling.
+
+"It is a very long time since I had the expectation of ever calling
+eight thousand dollars my own, and if I had them I should feel very
+dubious about putting them into any mine, and especially this one."
+
+Allonby leaned forward further, and clutched his arm. "If you have any
+friends in the Old Country, beg or borrow from them. Offer them twenty
+per cent.--anything they ask. There is a fortune under your feet. Of
+course, you do not believe it. Nobody I ever told it to would even
+listen seriously."
+
+"I believe you feel sure of it, but that is quite another thing," and
+Brooke smiled.
+
+Allonby rose shakily, and leaned upon the table with his fingers
+trembling.
+
+"Listen a few minutes--I was sure of attention without asking for it
+once," he said. "It was I who found the Dayspring, not by chance
+prospecting, but by calculations that very few men in the province could
+make. I know what that must appear--but you have seen the medals.
+Tracing the dip and curvature of the stratification from the Elktail and
+two prospectors' shafts, I knew the vein would approach the level here,
+and I put five thousand dollars--every cent I could scrape
+together--into proving it. We struck the vein, but while it should have
+been rich, we found it broken, displaced, and poor. There had, you see,
+been a disturbance of the strata. I borrowed money, worked night and
+day, and starved myself--did everything that would save a dollar from
+the rapidly-melting pile--and at last we struck the vein again, and
+struck it rich."
+
+He stopped abruptly and stood staring vacantly in front of him, while
+Brooke heard him noisily draw in his breath.
+
+"You can imagine what that meant!" he continued. "After what had
+happened in England I could never go back a poor man, but a good deal is
+forgiven the one who comes home rich. Then, while I tried to keep my
+head, we came to the fault where the ore vein suddenly ran out. It broke
+off as though cut through with a knife, and went down, as the men who
+knew no better said, to the centre of the earth. Now a fault is a very
+curious thing, but one can deduce a good deal when he has studied them,
+and a big snow-slide had laid bare an interesting slice of the
+foundations of this country in the valley opposite. It took me a month
+to construct my theory, and that was little when you consider the
+factors I had to reckon with--ages of crushing pressure, denudation by
+grinding ice and sliding snow, and Titanic upheavals thousands of years
+ago. The result was from one point of view contemptible. With about four
+thousand dollars I could strike the vein again."
+
+"Of course you tried to raise them?"
+
+Allonby made a grimace. "For six long years. The men who had lent me
+money laughed at me, and worked the poor ore back along the incline
+instead of boring. Somebody has been working it--for about five cents on
+the dollar--ever since, and when I told them what they were letting slip
+all of them smiled compassionately. I am of course--though once it was
+different--a broken man, with a brain clouded by whisky, only fit to run
+a played-out mine. How could I be expected to find any man a fortune?"
+
+His brain, it was evident, was slightly affected by alcohol then, but
+there was no mistaking the genuineness of his bitterness. It was too
+deep to be maudlin or tinged with self-commiseration now. The little
+hopeless gesture of resignation he made was also very eloquent, and
+while the rain splashed upon the roof Brooke sat silent regarding him
+curiously. The dim light and the flickering radiance from the fire were
+still on one side of his face, forcing it up with all its gauntness of
+outline, but the weakness had gone out of it, and for once it was strong
+and almost stern. Then a little sardonic smile crept into it.
+
+"A fortune under our feet--and nobody will have it! It is one of Fate's
+grim jests," he said. "I spent a month making a theory, and every day of
+six years--that is when I was capable of thinking--has shown me
+something to prove that theory right. Now Saxton wants to swindle
+another man into buying the mine for--you can call it a song."
+
+He poured out another glass with a shaking hand, and then turned
+abruptly to his companion. "Put on your rubber coat and come with me,"
+he said.
+
+Brooke would much rather have retired to sleep, but the man's
+earnestness had its effect on him, and he rose and went out into the
+rain with him. Allonby came near falling down the shaft when they stood
+at its head, but Brooke got him into the ore hoist and sent him down,
+after which he descended the running chain he had locked fast hand over
+hand. The level, as he had been told, was close to the surface, and
+while Allonby walked unsteadily in front of him with a blinking candle
+in his hat, they followed it into the face of the hill. Twice his
+companion stumbled over a piece of the timbering, and the light went
+out, while Brooke wondered uneasily if there was another sinking
+anywhere ahead as he lighted it again. He knew a little about mining,
+since he had on one or two occasions earned a few dollars assisting in
+the driving of an adit.
+
+Finally, Allonby stopped and leaned against the dripping rock, as he
+took off his hat and held the candle high above his head. Then he turned
+and pointed down the gallery the way they had come.
+
+"Look at it!" he said, thickly. "Until we struck the ore where you see
+the extra timbering, I counted the dollars every yard of it cost me as I
+would drops of my life's blood. I worked while the men slept, and lived
+like a Chinaman. There was a fortune within my grasp if those dollars
+would hold out until I reached it--and fortune meant England, and I once
+more the man I had been. Then--we came to that."
+
+He swung round and pointed with a wide, dramatic gesture which Brooke
+fancied he would not have used in his prosperous days, to a bare face of
+rock. It was of different nature to the sides of the tunnel, and had
+evidently come down from above. Brooke understood. The strata his
+companion had been working in had suddenly broken off and gone down,
+only he knew where. He sat down on a big fallen fragment, and there was
+silence for a space, emphasized by the drip of water in the blackness of
+the mine. Brooke was very drowsy, but the scene, with its loneliness and
+the haggard face of his companion showing pale and drawn in the
+candle-light, had a curious effect on him, and in the meanwhile
+compelled him to wakefulness.
+
+"You know where that broken strata has dipped to?" he said, at last.
+
+Allonby, who laughed in a strained fashion, sat down abruptly, and
+thrust a bundle of papers upon his companion. "Almost to a fathom. If
+you know anything of geology, look at these."
+
+Brooke, who unrolled the papers, knew enough to recognize that, even if
+his companion had illusions, they were the work of a clever man. There
+was skill and what appeared to be a high regard for minute accuracy in
+every line of the plans, while he fancied the attached calculations
+would have aroused a mathematician's appreciation. He spent several
+minutes poring over them with growing wonder, while Allonby held the
+candle, and then looked up at him.
+
+"They would, I think, almost satisfy any man, but there is a weak
+point," he said.
+
+Allonby smiled in a curious fashion. "The one the rest split on? I see
+you understand."
+
+"You deduce where the ore ought to be--by analogy. That kind of
+reasoning is, I fancy, not greatly favored in this country by practical
+men. They prefer the fact that it is there established by the drill."
+
+Allonby made a little gesture of impatience. "They have driven shaft
+and adit for half a lifetime, most of them, and they do not know yet
+that one law of Nature--the sequence of cause and effect--is immutable.
+I have shown them the causes--but it would cost five thousand dollars to
+demonstrate the effect. Well, as no one will ever spend them, we will go
+back."
+
+He had come out unsteadily, but he went back more so still, as though a
+sustaining purpose had been taken from him, and, as he fell down now and
+then, Brooke had some difficulty in conveying him to the foot of the
+shaft. When he had bestowed him in the ore hoist, and was about to
+ascend by the chain, Allonby laughed.
+
+"You needn't be particularly careful. I shall come down here
+head-foremost one of these nights, and nobody will be any the worse
+off," he said. "I lost my last chance when that vein worked out."
+
+Then Brooke went up into the darkness, and with some difficulty hove his
+companion to the surface. They went back to the shanty together, and as
+Allonby incontinently fell asleep in his chair, Brooke retired to the
+bunk set apart for him. Still, tired as he was, it was some little time
+before he slept, for what he had seen had made its impression. The
+shanty was very still, save for the snapping of the fire, and the
+broken-down outcast, who held the key of a fortune the men of that
+province were too shrewd to believe in, slept uneasily, with head hung
+forward, in his chair. Brooke could see him dimly by the dying light of
+the fire, and felt very far from sure that it was a delusion he labored
+under.
+
+When he awakened next morning Allonby was already about, and looked at
+him curiously when he endeavored to reopen the subject.
+
+"It is not considerate to refer next morning to anything a man with my
+shortcomings may have said the night before," he said. "I think you
+should recognize that fact."
+
+"I'm sorry," said Brooke. "Still, it occurred to me that you believed
+very firmly in the truth of it."
+
+Allonby smiled drily. "Well," he said, "I do. What is that to you?"
+
+"Nothing," said Brooke. "I shall, as I think I told you, be worth about
+thirty dollars when the month is out. What is the name of the man Saxton
+wishes to sell the mine to?"
+
+"Devine," said Allonby, and went out to fling a vitriolic reproof at a
+miner who was doing something he did not approve of about the windlass,
+while Brooke, who saw no more of him, departed when he had made his
+breakfast.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+A BOLD VENTURE.
+
+
+It was a hot morning shortly after Brooke's return to the Elktail mine,
+and Saxton sat in his galvanized shanty with his feet on a chair and a
+cigar in his hand. The door stood open and let a stream of sunlight and
+balsamic odors of the forest in. He wore soil-stained jean, and seemed
+very damp, for he had just come out of the mine. Thomas P. Saxton was
+what is termed a rustler in that country, a man of unlimited assurance
+and activity, troubled by no particular scruples and keen to seize on
+any chances that might result in the acquisition of even a very few
+dollars. He was also, like most of his countrymen, eminently adaptable,
+and the fact that he occasionally knew very little about the task he
+took in hand seldom acted as a deterrent. It was characteristic that
+during the past hour he had been endeavoring to show his foreman how to
+run a new rock-drilling machine which he had never seen in operation
+until that time.
+
+Brooke, who had been speaking, sat watching him with a faint ironical
+appreciation. The man was delightfully candid, at least with him, and
+though he was evidently not averse from sailing perilously near the wind
+it was done with boldness and ingenuity. There was a little twinkle in
+his keen eyes as he glanced at his companion.
+
+"Well," he said, "one has to take his chances when he has all to gain
+and very little to let up upon. That's the kind of man I am."
+
+"I believe you told me you had got quite a few dollars together not very
+long ago," said Brooke, reflectively.
+
+The smile became a trifle plainer in Saxton's eyes. "I did, but very few
+of them are mine. Somehow I get to know everybody worth knowing in the
+province, and now and then folks with dollars to spare for a venture
+hand them me to put into a deal."
+
+"On the principle that one has to take his chances in this country?"
+
+Saxton laughed good-humoredly. "Well," he said, "I never go back upon a
+partner, anyway, and when we make a deal the other folks are quite at
+liberty to keep their eyes on me. They know the rules of the game, and
+if they don't always get the value they expected they most usually lie
+low and sell out to another man instead of blaming me. It pays their way
+better than crying down their bargain. Still, I have started off mills
+and wild-cat mines that turned out well, and went on coining dollars for
+everybody."
+
+"Which was no doubt a cause of satisfaction to you!"
+
+Saxton shook his head. "No, sir," he said. "I felt sorry ever after I
+hadn't kept them."
+
+Brooke straightened himself a trifle in his chair, for he felt that they
+were straying from the point.
+
+"Industrial speculations in this province remind me of a game we have in
+England. Perhaps you have seen it," he said, reflectively. "You bet a
+shilling or half-a-crown that when you lift up a thimble you will find a
+pea you have seen a man place under it. It is not very often that you
+accomplish it. Still, in that case--there is--a pea."
+
+"And there's nothing but low-grade ore in the Dayspring? Now, nobody
+ever quite knows what he will find in a mine if he lays out enough
+dollars looking for it."
+
+"That," said Brooke, drily, "is probably correct enough, especially if
+he is ignorant of geology. What I take exception to is the sprinkling of
+the mine with richer ore to induce him to buy it. Such a proceeding
+would be called by very unpleasant names in England, and I'm not quite
+sure it mightn't bring you within the reach of the law here. Mind, what
+you may think fit to do is, naturally, no concern of mine, but I have
+tolerably strong objections to taking any further personal part in the
+scheme."
+
+"The point is that we're playing it off on Devine, the man who robbed
+you, and has once or twice put his foot on me. I was considerably
+flattened when I crawled from under. He's a big man and he puts it down
+heavy."
+
+"Still, I feel it's necessary to draw the line at a swindle."
+
+Saxton made a little whimsical gesture. "Call it the game with the pea
+and thimble. Devine has got a notion there's something in the mine, and
+I don't know any reason why I shouldn't humor him. He's quite often
+right, you see."
+
+"It does not affect the point, but are you quite sure he isn't right
+now?"
+
+"You mean that Allonby may be?"
+
+"I shouldn't consider it quite out of the question."
+
+Saxton laughed softly. "Allonby's a whisky-skin, and I keep him because
+he's cheap and it's a charity. Everybody knows that story of his, and he
+only trots it out when he has got a good bottle of old rye into him. At
+most other times he's quite sensible. Anyway, Devine doesn't want the
+mine to keep. He has to get a working group with a certain output and
+assays that look well all round before he floats it off on the English
+market. If he knew I was quietly dumping that ore in I'm not quite sure
+it would rile him."
+
+Brooke sat silent a space. He had discovered by this time that it is not
+advisable to expect any excess of probity in a mining deal, and that it
+is the speculator, and not the men who face the perils of the
+wilderness (which are many, prospecting), who usually takes the profit.
+A handful or two of dollars for them, and a big bank balance for the
+trickster stock manipulator appeared to be the rules of the game. Still,
+nobody can expect to acquire riches without risk or labor, and it seemed
+no great wrong to him that the men with the dollars should lose a few of
+them occasionally. Granting that, he did not, however, feel it warranted
+him in taking any active part in fleecing them.
+
+"Still, if another bag of ore goes into the Dayspring you can count me
+out," he said. "No doubt, it's a trifle inconsistent, but you will
+understand plainly that I take no further share in selling the mine."
+
+Saxton shook his head reproachfully. "Those notions of yours are going
+to get in your way, and it's unfortunate, because we have taken hold of
+a big thing," he said. "I'm an irresponsible planter of wild-cat mining
+schemes, you're nobody, and between us we're going to best Devine, the
+biggest man in his line in the province, and a clever one. Still, that's
+one reason why the notion gets hold of me. When you come in ahead of the
+little man there's nothing to be got out of him, and Devine's good for
+quite a pile when we can put the screw on."
+
+Again Brooke was sensible of a certain tempered admiration for his
+comrade's hardihood, for it seemed to him that the project he had
+mooted might very well involve them both in disaster.
+
+"You expect to accomplish it?" he said.
+
+"Well," said Saxton, drily, "I mean to try. We can't squeeze him much on
+the Dayspring, but we want dollars to fight him with, and that's how
+we're going to get a few of them. It's on the Canopus I mean to strike
+him."
+
+"The Canopus!" said Brooke, who knew the mine in question was considered
+a rich one. "How could you gain any hold on him over that?"
+
+"On the title. By jumping it. Devine takes too many chances now and
+then, and if one could put his fingers on a little information I have a
+notion the Canopus wouldn't be his. I guess you know that unless you do
+this, that, and the other, after recording your correct frontage on the
+lead or vein, you can't hold a mine on a patent from the Crown. Suppose
+you have got possession, and it's found that there was anything wrong
+with the papers you or your prospectors filed, the minerals go back to
+the Crown again, and the man who's first to drive his stakes in can
+re-locate them. It's done now and then."
+
+Brooke sat silent a space. A jumper--as the man who re-locates the
+minerals somebody else has found, on the ground of incorrect record or
+non-compliance with the mining enactments, is called--is not regarded
+with any particular favor in that province, or, indeed, elsewhere, but
+his proceedings may be, at least, perfectly legitimate, and there was a
+certain simplicity and daring of conception in the new scheme that had
+its effect on Brooke.
+
+"I will do what I can within limits," he said.
+
+Saxton nodded. "Then you will have to get into the mine, though I don't
+quite know how we are going to fix it yet," he said. "Anyway, we've
+talked enough for one day already, and you have to go down to the
+settlement to see about getting those new drills up."
+
+Brooke set out for the settlement, and slept at a ranch on the way,
+where he left his horse which had fallen lame, for it was a two days'
+journey, while it was late in the afternoon when he sat down to rest
+where the trail crossed a bridge. The latter was a somewhat rudimentary
+log structure put together with the axe and saw alone, of a width that
+would just allow one of the light wagons in use in that country to cross
+over it, and, as the bottom of the hollow the river swirled through was
+level there, an ungainly piece of trestle work carried the road up to
+it. There was a long, white rapid not far away, and the roar of it rang
+in deep vibrations among the rocks above. Brooke, who had walked a long
+way, found the pulsating sound soothing, while the fragrance the dusky
+cedars distilled had its usual drowsy effect on him, and as he watched
+the glancing water slide by his eyes grew heavy.
+
+He did not remember falling asleep, but by and by the sombre wall of
+coniferous forest that shut the hollow in seemed to dwindle to the
+likeness of a trim yew hedge, and the river now slid by smooth and
+placidly. There was also velvet grass beneath his feet in place of
+wheel-rutted gravel and brown fir needles. Still, the scene he gazed
+upon was known to him, though it seemed incomplete until a girl with
+brown eyes in a long white dress and big white hat appeared at his side.
+She fitted the surroundings wonderfully, for her almost stately serenity
+harmonized with the quietness and order of the still English valley, but
+yet he was puzzled, for there was sunlight on the water, and he felt
+that the moon should be shining round and full above her shoulder. Then
+when he would have spoken the picture faded, and he became suddenly
+conscious that his pipe had fallen from his hand, and that he was
+dressed in soil-stained jean which seemed quite out of keeping with the
+English lawn. That was his first impression, but while he wondered
+vaguely how he came to have a pipe made out of a corn-cob, which cost
+him about thirty cents, at all, a rattle of displaced gravel and
+pounding of hoofs became audible, and he recognized that something
+unusual was going on.
+
+He shook himself to attention, and looking about him saw a man sitting
+stiffly erect on the driving seat of a light wagon and endeavoring to
+urge a pair of unwilling horses up the sloping trestle. They were
+Cayuses, beasts of native blood and very uncertain temper, bred by
+Indians, and as usual, about half-broken to the rein. They also appeared
+to have decided objections to crossing the bridge, for which any one new
+to the province would scarcely have felt inclined to blame them. The
+river frothed beneath it, the ascent was steep with a twist in it, and a
+small log, perhaps a foot through, spiked down to the timbers, served as
+sole protection. It would evidently not be difficult for a pair of
+frightened horses to tilt a wheel of the very light vehicle over it.
+
+Still, the structure compared favorably with most of those in the
+mountains, and Brooke, who knew that it is not always advisable to
+interfere in a dispute between a bush rancher and his horses, sat still,
+until it became evident to him that the man did not belong to that
+community. He was elderly, for there was grey in the hair beneath the
+wide hat, while something in the way he held himself and the fit of his
+clothes, which appeared unusually good, suggested a connection with the
+cities. It was, however, evident that he was a determined man, for he
+showed no intention of dismounting, and responded to the off horse's
+vicious kicking with a stinging cut of the whip. The result of this was
+a plunge, and one wheel struck the foot-high guard with a crash. The man
+plied the whip again, and with another plunge and scramble the beasts
+gained the level of the bridge. Here they stopped altogether, and one
+attempted to stand upright while Brooke sprang to his feet.
+
+"Hadn't you better get down, sir, or let me lead them across?" he said.
+
+The man, tightening both hands upon the reins, cast a momentary glance
+at him, and his little grim smile and the firm grip of his long, lean
+fingers supplied a hint of his character.
+
+"Not until I have to," he said. "They're going to cross this bridge."
+
+Brooke moved a few paces nearer. It was one thing for a rancher
+accustomed to horses and bridges of that description to take pleasure in
+such a struggle, but quite another in the case of a man from the cities,
+and he had misgivings as to the result of it. The latter, however,
+showed very little concern, though the near horse was now apparently
+endeavoring to kick the front of the wagon in. Then Brooke sprang
+suddenly towards them as both backed the wagon against the log. He
+fancied that one wheel was mounting it when he seized the near horse's
+head, but after that he had very little opportunity of noticing
+anything.
+
+The beast plunged, and came near swinging him off his feet, the wagon
+pole creaked portentously, and the whip fell swishing across the other
+horse's back again. Then there was a hammering of hoofs, and a rattle;
+the team bolted incontinently, and because the bridge was narrow,
+Brooke, who lost his hold, sprang upon the log that very indifferently
+guarded it. It was, however, rounded on the top, and next moment he
+found himself standing knee-deep in the river, shaken, and considerably
+astonished, but by no means hurt. A drop of ten feet or so is not very
+apt to hurt an agile man who alights upon his feet. He saw the wagon
+bounce upon the half-round logs, as with the team stretching out in a
+furious gallop in front of it, it crossed the trestle on the opposite
+side, and vanish into the forest; and then finding himself very little
+the worse, proceeded to wade back to the bridge. He was plodding up the
+climbing trail beneath the firs when a shout came down and he saw the
+man had pulled the wagon up. When Brooke drew level he looked at him
+with a little dry smile.
+
+"I guess you and the Cayuses came off the worst," he said.
+
+Brooke glanced at the horses. They were flecked with lather but quiet
+enough now, and it was evident that the driver had beaten the spirit out
+of them on the ascent.
+
+"I fancied the result would have been different a little while ago," he
+said.
+
+The stranger laughed. "I 'most always get my way," he said. "Still, I
+didn't pull the team up to tell you that. You're going in to the
+settlement?"
+
+Brooke said he was, and the stranger bade him get up, which he did, and
+seized the first opportunity of glancing at his companion. There is, it
+had already appeared to him, a greater typical likeness between the
+business men of the Pacific slope, in which category he placed his
+companion, than is usual in the case of Englishmen. Even when large of
+frame they seldom put on flesh, and the characteristic lean face and
+spare figure alone supply a hint of restlessness and activity, which is
+emphasized by mobility of features and quick nervous gesture. The man
+who drove the wagon was almost unusually gaunt, and while his eyes,
+which were brown, and reminded Brooke curiously of somebody else's,
+seemed to scintillate with a faint sardonic twinkle, there was a
+suggestion of reticence in his firm thin lips, and an unmistakable stamp
+of command upon him. He also held himself well, and Brooke fancied that
+he was in his own sphere a man of some importance. His first observation
+was, however, not exactly what Brooke would have expected from an
+Englishman of his apparent station.
+
+"I'm much obliged to you," he said. "I don't like to be beaten, and it's
+a thing that doesn't happen very often. Besides, when a horse is too
+much for a man it's kind of humiliating. There's something that doesn't
+strike one as quite fitting in the principle of the thing."
+
+Brooke laughed. "I'm not sure it's worth while to worry very much over a
+point of that kind, especially when it seems likely to lead to nothing
+beyond the probability of being pitched into a river."
+
+"Still," said the stranger, with the little twinkle showing plainer in
+his eyes, "in this case it was the other man who fell in."
+
+"I fancy it quite frequently is," said Brooke, reflectively. "That is
+usually the result of meddling."
+
+The stranger nodded, and quietly inspected him. "You have been here some
+time, but you are an Englishman," he said.
+
+"I am," said Brooke. "Is there any reason why I should hide the fact?"
+
+"You couldn't do it. How long have you been here?"
+
+"Four years in all, I think."
+
+"What did you come out for?"
+
+Brooke was accustomed to Western brusquerie, and there was nothing in
+his companion's manner which made the question offensive.
+
+"I fancy my motive was not an unusual one. To pick up a few dollars."
+
+"Got them yet?"
+
+"I can't say I have."
+
+The stranger appeared reflective. "There are not many folks who would
+have admitted that," he said. "When a man has been four years in this
+country he ought to have put a few dollars together. What have you been
+at?"
+
+"Ranching most of the time. Road-making, saw-milling, and a few other
+occupations of the same kind afterwards."
+
+"What was wrong with the ranch?"
+
+Persistent questioning is not unusual in that country, for what is
+considered delicacy depends largely upon locality, and Brooke laughed.
+
+"Almost everything," he said. "It had a good many disadvantages besides
+its rockiness, sterility, and an unusually abundant growth of
+two-hundred-feet trees. Still, it was the man who sold it me I found
+most fault with. He was a land agent."
+
+"One of the little men?"
+
+"No. I believe he is considered rather a big one--in fact about the
+biggest in that particular line."
+
+The little sardonic gleam showed a trifle more plainly in the stranger's
+eyes. "He told you the land was nicely cleared ready, and would grow
+anything?"
+
+"No," said Brooke. "He, however, led me to believe that it could be
+cleared with very little difficulty, and that the lumber was worth a
+good deal. I daresay it is, if there was any means whatever of getting
+it to a mill, which there isn't. He certainly told me there was no
+reason it shouldn't grow as good fruit as any that comes from Oregon,
+while I found the greatest difficulty in getting a little green oat
+fodder out of it."
+
+"You went back, and tried to cry off your bargain?"
+
+Brooke glanced at his companion, and fancied that he was watching him
+closely. "I really don't know any reason why I should worry you with my
+affairs. My case isn't at all an unusual one."
+
+"I don't know of any why you shouldn't. Go right on."
+
+"Then I never got hold of the man himself. It was one of his agents I
+made the deal with, and there was nothing to be obtained from him. In
+fact, I could see no probability of getting any redress at all. It
+appears to be considered commendable to take the newly-arrived Britisher
+in."
+
+The other man smiled drily. "Well," he said, "some of them 'most seem to
+expect it. Ever think of trying the law against the principal?"
+
+"The law," said Brooke, "is apt to prove a very uncertain remedy, and I
+spent my last few dollars convincing myself that the ranch was
+worthless. Now, one confidence ought to warrant another. What has
+brought you into the bush? You do not belong to it."
+
+The stranger laughed. "There's not much bush in this country, from
+Kootenay to Caribou, I haven't wandered through. I used to live in
+it--quite a long while ago. I came up to look at a mine. I buy one up
+occasionally."
+
+"Isn't that a little risky?"
+
+"Well," said the other, with a little smile, "it depends. There are
+goods, like eggs and oranges, you don't want to keep."
+
+"And a good market in England for whatever the Colonials have no
+particular use for?"
+
+The stranger laughed good-humoredly. "Did you ever strike any real good
+salt pork in Canada?"
+
+"No," said Brooke, decisively, "I certainly never did."
+
+"Then where does the best bacon you get in England come from? Same with
+cheese--and other things."
+
+"Including mines?"
+
+"Well, when any of them look like paying it's generally your folk who
+get them. Know anything about the Dayspring?"
+
+"Not a great deal," Brooke said, guardedly. "I have been in the
+workings, and it is for sale."
+
+"Ore worth anything at the smelter?"
+
+Now Brooke was perfectly certain that such a man as his companion
+appeared to be would attach no great importance to any information
+obtained by chance from a stranger.
+
+"There is certainly a little good ore in it," he said, drily.
+
+"That is about all you mean to tell me?"
+
+"It is about all I know definitely."
+
+The stranger smiled curiously. "Well," he said, "I'm not going to worry
+you, and I guess I know a little more."
+
+Brooke changed the topic, and listened with growing interest, and a
+little astonishment, to his companion as they drove on. The man seemed
+acquainted with everything he could mention, including the sentiments
+of the insular English and the economics as well as the history of their
+country. He was even more astonished when, as they alighted before the
+little log hotel at the pine-shrouded settlement, the host greeted the
+stranger.
+
+"You'll be Mr. Devine who wrote me about the room and a saddle horse?"
+he said.
+
+"Yes," said the other man, who glanced at Brooke with a little whimsical
+smile, "you have addressed me quite correctly."
+
+Brooke said nothing, for he realized then something of the nature of the
+task he and Saxton had undertaken, while it was painfully evident that
+he had done very little to further his cause at the first encounter. He
+also found the little gleam in Devine's eyes almost exasperating, and
+turned to the hotel-keeper to conceal the fact.
+
+"Has the freighter come through?" he said.
+
+"No," said the man. "Bob, who has just come in, said he'd a big load and
+we needn't expect him until to-morrow."
+
+Devine had turned away now, and Brooke touched the hotel-keeper's arm.
+"I don't wish that man to know I'm from the Elktail," he said.
+
+"Well," said the hotel-keeper, "you know Saxton's business best, but if
+I had any share in it and struck a man of that kind looking round for
+mines I'd do what was in me to shove the Dayspring off on to him."
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+DEVINE MAKES A SUGGESTION.
+
+
+There was only one hotel, which scarcely deserved the title, in the
+settlement, and when Brooke returned to it an hour after the six o'clock
+supper, he found Devine sitting on the verandah. He had never met the
+man until that afternoon, and had only received one very terse response
+to the somewhat acrimonious correspondence he had insisted on his agent
+forwarding him respecting the ranch. He had no doubt that the affair had
+long ago passed out of Devine's memory, though he was still, on his
+part, as determined as ever on obtaining restitution. He had, however,
+no expectation of doing it by persuasion, though the man was evidently a
+very different individual from the one his fancy had depicted, and, that
+being so, recrimination appeared useless, as well as undignified. He
+was, therefore, while he would have done nothing to avoid him, by no
+means anxious to spend the remainder of the evening in Devine's company.
+The latter was, however, already on the verandah, and looked up when he
+entered it.
+
+"I had almost a fancy you meant to keep out of my way," he said.
+
+Brooke sat down, and there was a trace of dryness in his smile.
+
+"If I had felt inclined to do so, you would scarcely expect me to admit
+it? I don't mean because that would not have been complimentary to you,"
+he said.
+
+Devine laughed, and handed his cigar-case across. "Take one if you feel
+like it. I quite see your point," he said. "Some of you folks from the
+old country are a trifle tender in the hide, but I don't mind telling
+you that there was a time when I spent an hour or two every day keeping
+out of other men's way. They wanted dollars I couldn't raise, you see,
+and now and then I had to spend mornings in the city because I couldn't
+get into my office on account of them. I meant to pay them, and I did,
+but there was no way of doing it just then."
+
+Brooke's smile was a trifle curious, and might have been construed into
+implying a doubt of his companion's commendable intentions, but the
+latter did not appear to notice it, and he took one of the cigars
+offered him, and found it excellent. Though they were to be adversaries,
+there was nothing to be gained by betraying a puerile bitterness against
+the man, and now he had met him, Brooke was not quite so sure as he
+could have wished that he disliked him personally. He meant to secure
+his six thousand dollars if it could be done, which appeared distinctly
+doubtful, and sentiment of any kind was, he assured himself, out of
+place. Still, he did not altogether relish Devine's cigar.
+
+"They were probably persistent men," he said.
+
+Devine glanced at him sharply, but Brooke's face was, or at least he
+hoped so, expressionless.
+
+"Well," he said, tranquilly, "I contrive to pay my debts as the usual
+thing, but we'll let that slide. What are you at up here in the bush?"
+
+"Mining, just now," said Brooke. "To be more definite, acting as handy
+man about a mine."
+
+"You'd make more rock-drilling. Feel fond of it?"
+
+"I can't say I do. Still, I have a notion that it is going to lead to
+the acquisition of a few dollars presently."
+
+Devine sat silent at a space, apparently reflecting, and then looked up
+again.
+
+"Now," he said, "suppose I was to make you an offer, would you feel
+inclined to listen to me?"
+
+Brooke had acquired in England a composure which was frequently useful
+to him, but he was young, and started a trifle, while once more the
+blood showed through his unfortunately clear skin.
+
+"I think I could promise that much, at least," he said.
+
+"Well," said Devine, "I have some use for a man who knows a little about
+bush ranches and mines, and understands the English folks who now and
+then buy them from me. I could afford to pay him a moderate salary."
+
+Brooke closed one hand a trifle, and the bronze deepened in his face.
+The opportunity Saxton had been waiting for was now, it seemed, being
+thrust upon him, and yet he felt that he could not avail himself of it.
+It was clear that he had everything to gain by doing so, but there was,
+he realized now, a treachery he could not descend to. He strove to
+persuade himself that this was a sentimental weakness, for it had become
+even more apparent of late that with the knowledge he had gained of that
+country there would be no great difficulty in making his way once he had
+the dollars he had been robbed of again in his hands, and he had had a
+bitter taste of the life that must be dragged through by the man with
+none. Still, the fact that his instincts, which, as occasionally happens
+to other men, would not be controlled by his reason, revolted from the
+part he must play if he made terms with Devine, remained, and he sat
+very still, with forehead wrinkled and one hand clenched, until his
+companion, who had never taken his eyes off him, spoke again.
+
+"It doesn't sound good enough?" he said.
+
+Brooke shook himself together. "As a matter of fact, I am very doubtful
+if I shall get quite as good an offer again. Still, I am afraid I can't
+quite see my way to entertaining it."
+
+"No?" said Devine. "I guess you have your reasons?"
+
+Brooke felt that he could scarcely consider the motive which had induced
+him to answer as he did a reason. It was rather an impulse he could not
+hold in check, or the result of a prejudice, but he could not explain
+this, and what was under the circumstances a somewhat illogical
+bitterness against Devine took possession of him.
+
+"When I first came into this province my confiding simplicity cost me a
+good deal, and I almost think I should rather feel myself impelled to
+warn any of my countrymen I came into contact with against making rash
+ventures in land and mines than induce them to do so," he said.
+
+Devine smiled drily. "That is tolerably plain talk, anyway. Still, it
+ought to be clear that a man can't keep on taking folks' dollars without
+giving them reasonable value anywhere. No, sir. As soon as they find out
+he has only worthless goods to sell, they stop dealing with him right
+away. There's another point. Are they all fools who come out from
+England to buy mines and ranching land?"
+
+"I have certainly met a few who seemed to be. Of course, I include
+myself," said Brooke, grimly.
+
+"Well, you can take it from me, and I ought to know, that there are
+folks back yonder quite as smart at getting one hundred and fifty cents
+for the dollar's worth as any man in Canada. We needn't, however, worry
+about that. I made you an offer, and you have quite decided that it
+wouldn't suit you?"
+
+Again Brooke sat silent a space. He felt in some degree bound to Saxton,
+though he had certainly earned every dollar the latter had handed him,
+and it had been agreed that a verbal intimation from either would
+suffice to terminate the compact between them. There was also no reason
+why he should do anything that would prejudice him if he entered
+Devine's service, and a very faint hope commenced to dawn on him that
+there might be a way out of the difficulty. Devine appeared to be a
+reasonable man, and he determined to at least give him an opportunity.
+
+"It is probably an unusual course under the circumstances, but before I
+decide I would like to ask a question," he said. "We will suppose that
+you or one of your agents had sold a man who did not know what he was
+buying a tract of worthless land, and he demanded compensation. What
+would you do?"
+
+"The man would naturally look at the land and use his discretion."
+
+"We'll assume that he didn't. Men who come into this country at a time
+when everybody is eager to buy now and then most unwisely take a
+land-agent's statements for granted. Even if they surveyed the property
+offered them they would not very often be able to form any opinion of
+its value."
+
+"Then," said Devine, drily, "they take their chances, and can't blame
+the other man."
+
+"Still, if the buyer convinced you that your agent knew the land was
+worth nothing when he sold it him?"
+
+Devine glanced at him sharply. "That would be a little difficult, but
+I'll answer you. I've been stuck with a good many bad bargains in my
+time, and I never went back and tried to cry off one of them. No, sir. I
+took hold and worried the most I could out of them. Nobody quite knows
+what a piece of land in this country is or will be worth, except that
+it's quite certain every rod of it is going to be some use for
+something, and bring in dollars to the man who holds on to it,
+presently."
+
+"Then you would not make the victim any compensation?"
+
+"No, sir. Not a cent. I shouldn't consider him a victim. That's quite
+straight?"
+
+"I scarcely think anybody would consider it ambiguous," Brooke said,
+drily, for he felt his face grow warm, and realized that it was not
+advisable to give the anger that was gaining on him the rein. "It
+demands an equal candor, and I have given you one of my reasons for
+deciding that it would not suit me to enter your service. I can't help
+wondering what induced you to make me the offer."
+
+Devine laughed. "Well," he said, reflectively, "so am I. I had, as I
+told you, a notion that I might have a use for a man of the kind you
+seem to be, but I'm not quite so sure of it now. Though I don't know
+that I'm especially thin in the skin, some of the questions you seem
+fond of asking might make trouble between you and me. For another thing,
+on thinking it over afterwards, it struck me that the team might have
+tilted that wagon off the bridge this afternoon. I'm not sure that they
+would have done, but you came along handy."
+
+He rose with a little sardonic smile and went into the hotel, leaving
+Brooke sitting on the verandah and staring at the dusky forest vacantly,
+for his thoughts were not exactly pleasant just then. He had been
+offered a chance Saxton, at least, would have eagerly seized upon, and
+it was becoming evident that there was little of the stuff successful
+conspirators are made of in him. He could not ignore the fact that it
+was a conspiracy they were engaged in, for he meant to get his six
+thousand dollars back, and found it especially galling to remember that
+it was a kindness Devine had purposed doing him.
+
+He had also misgivings as to what his confederate--for that was, he
+recognized, the most fitting term he could apply to Saxton--would have
+to say about his decision, and after all it was evident that he owed him
+a little. Once more he fumed at his folly in ever buying the ranch, for
+all his difficulties sprang from that mistake, and he felt he could not
+face the result of it and drag out his days cut off from all that made
+life bearable, a mere wielder of axe and shovel, without a struggle,
+even though it left a mark on him which could never be quite effaced.
+
+The freighter came in early next morning with the drills, and Brooke,
+who hired pack-horses, set off with them, but as he drove the loaded
+beasts out of the clearing he saw Devine watching him from the verandah,
+with a little smile. He made a salutation, and Brooke, for no apparent
+reason, jerked the leading pack-horse's bridle somewhat viciously. It
+was a long journey to the mine, and there were several difficult ascents
+upon the way, but he reached it safely, and found Saxton expecting him
+impatiently. They spent an hour or two getting the drills to work, and
+then sat down to a meal in the galvanized shanty.
+
+Saxton was damp and stained with soil, his long boots were miry, and one
+of his hands was bleeding, but he laughed a little as he glanced at the
+heavy, doughy bread and untempting canned stuff on the table and round
+the comfortless room.
+
+"I guess I don't get my dollars easily," he said. "There are quite a few
+ways of making them, but the one the sensible man has the least use for
+is with the hammer and drill. Still, I'm going back to the city, and
+we'll try another one presently. You'll stay here about a week, and then
+there'll be work for you. I've heard of something while you were away."
+
+"So have I!" said Brooke. "I met Devine, and he gave me an opportunity
+of entering his service."
+
+Saxton became suddenly eager. "You took it?"
+
+"No," said Brooke, drily, "I did not. I had one or two reasons for not
+doing so, though I feel it is very probable that you would not
+appreciate them."
+
+Saxton stared at him in astonishment, and then made a little gesture of
+resignation. "Well," he said, "I guess I wouldn't--after what I've seen
+of you. Still, can't you understand what kind of chance you've thrown
+away? I might have made 'most anything out of the pointers you could
+have picked up and given me."
+
+Brooke smiled drily. "I don't think you could," he said. "As a matter of
+fact, I wouldn't have given you any."
+
+Saxton turned towards him resolutely, with his elbows planted on the
+table and his black eyes intent. "Now," he said, "I want a straight
+answer. Are you going back on your bargain?"
+
+"No. If I had meant to do that, I should naturally have taken Devine's
+offer. As I have told you a good many times already, I am going to get
+my six thousand dollars out of him. That is, of course, if we can manage
+it, about which I am more than a little doubtful."
+
+Saxton laughed contemptuously. "You would never get six dollars out of
+anybody who wasn't quite willing to let you have them," he said. "A
+struggling man has no use for the notions you seem proud of."
+
+"I really can't help having them," said Brooke, with a little smile.
+
+Saxton shook his head. "Well," he said, "it's fortunate you're not going
+to be left to yourself, or somebody would take the clothes off you. Now,
+I've heard from a friend of mine, who has a contract to build the
+Canopus folks a flume. It seems they want more water, and it's Devine's
+mine."
+
+"How is that going to help us?"
+
+"Since Leeson made that contract, he got the offer of another that would
+pay him better, and he's willing to pass it on at Devine's figure to any
+one who will take it off his hands. Now, I'll find you a man or two and
+tools, and when they're ready, you'll start right away for the Canopus
+and build that flume."
+
+"The difficulty is that I haven't the least notion how to build a
+flume."
+
+Saxton made a little impatient gesture. "Then I guess you have got to
+learn, and there are plenty of men to be hired in the bush who do. You
+know how to rough down redwood logs and blow out rocks?"
+
+Brooke admitted that he did, and Saxton nodded.
+
+"Then the thing's quite easy," he said. "You look at the one they've got
+already, and make another like it. Haven't you found out yet that a man
+can do 'most anything that another one can?"
+
+"Well," said Brooke, "I'll try it, but that brings us to the question,
+what else do you expect from me? It is very probable that I shall make
+an unfortunate mistake for both of us, if you leave me in the dark. I
+want to understand the position."
+
+Saxton explained it at length, and Brooke leaned back in his chair,
+glancing abstractedly through the open door as he listened, for his mind
+took in the details mechanically, while his thoughts were otherwise
+busy. He saw the dusky forest he had toiled and lost hope in, and then,
+turning his head a trifle, the comfortless dingy room and Saxton's
+intent face and eager eyes. He was speaking with little nervous
+gestures, vehemently, and all the sensibility that the struggle had left
+in Brooke shrank from the sordidness of the compact he had made with
+him. The fact that his confederate apparently considered their purpose
+perfectly legitimate and even commendable, intensified the disgust he
+felt, but once more he told himself that he could not afford to be
+particular. There was, it seemed, a price to everything, and if he was
+ever to regain his status he must let no more opportunities slip past
+him.
+
+Still the memory of the old house in the English valley, and a certain
+silver-haired lady who had long ago paced the velvet lawns that swept
+about it with her white hand upon his shoulder, returned to trouble him.
+She had endeavored to instil the fine sense of honor that guided her own
+life into him, and he remembered her wholesome pride and the stories
+she had told him of the men who had gone forth from that quiet home
+before him. Most of them had served their nation well, even those who
+had hewn down the ancient oaks and mortgaged the wheat-land in the
+reckless Georgian days, and now, when the white-haired lady slept in the
+still valley, he was about to sell the honor she had held priceless for
+six thousand dollars in Western Canada. Nevertheless, he strove to
+persuade himself that the times had changed and the old codes vanished,
+and sat still listening while Saxton, stained with soil and water from
+the mine, talked on, and gesticulated with a bleeding hand. He touched
+upon frontages, ore-leads, record and patents from the Crown, and then
+stopped abruptly, and looked hard at Brooke.
+
+"Now I think you've got it all," he said.
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, whose face had grown a trifle grim, "I fancy I have.
+I am to find out, if I can, how far the third drift runs west, and when
+the driving of it began. Then one of us will stake off a claim on
+Devine's holding and endeavor, with the support of the other, to hold
+his own in as tough a struggle as was probably ever undertaken by two
+men in our position. You see I have met Devine."
+
+Saxton laughed. "I guess he's not going to give us very much trouble.
+He'll buy us off instead, once we make it plain that we have got the
+whip hand of him. Your share's six thousand dollars, and if you lay
+them out as I tell you, you'll go back to England a prosperous man."
+
+Brooke smiled a trifle drily. "I hope so," he said. "Still, I shall have
+left more than I could buy with a great many dollars behind me in
+Canada."
+
+"Dollars will buy you anything," said Saxton. "That is, when you have
+enough of them. They're going to buy me a seat in the Provincial
+Legislature by and by. Then I'll let the business slide, and start in
+doing something for the other folks. We've got 'most everything but men
+here, and I'll bring out your starving deadbeats from England and make
+them happy--like Strathcona."
+
+Brooke looked hard at him, and then leaned back in his chair, and
+laughed when he saw that he was perfectly serious.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+THE FLUME BUILDER.
+
+
+It was a hot afternoon, and a long trail of ethereal mist lay motionless
+athwart the gleaming snow above, when Brooke stood dripping with
+perspiration in the shadow of a towering pine. The red dust was thick
+upon him, and his coarse blue shirt, which was badly torn, fell open at
+the neck as he turned his head and looked down fixedly into the winding
+valley. A lake flashed like a mirror among the trees below, save where
+the slumbering shadows pointed downwards into its crystal depths, but
+the strip of hillside the forest had been hewn back from was scarred and
+torn with raw gashes, and the dull thumping of the stamp-heads that
+crushed the gold-bearing quartz jarred discordantly through the song of
+the river. Mounds of debris, fire-blackened fir stumps, and piles of
+half-burnt branches cumbered the little clearing, round which the
+towering redwoods uplifted their stately spires, and the acrid fumes of
+smoke and giant powder drifted through their drowsy fragrance.
+
+The blotch of man's crude handiwork marred the pristine beauty of the
+wilderness; but it had its significance, and pointed to what was to come
+when the plough had followed the axe and drill, and cornfields and
+orchards should creep up the hillsides where now the solemn pines looked
+down upon the desecrated valley. Brooke, however, was very naturally not
+concerned with this just then. He was engaged in building a flume, or
+wooden conduit to bring down water to the mine, and was intently
+watching two little trails of faint blue smoke with a thin red sparkle
+in the midst of them which crept up a dark rock's side.
+
+He had no interest whatever in the task when he undertook it, but a
+somewhat astonishing and unexpected thing had happened, for by degrees
+the work took hold of him. He was not by nature a lounger, and was
+endued with a certain pertinacity, which had, however, only led him into
+difficulties hitherto, or he would probably never have come out to
+Canada. Thus it came about that when he found the building of the flume
+taxed all his ingenuity, as well as his physical strength, he became
+sensible of a wholly unanticipated pleasure in the necessary effort, and
+had almost forgotten the purpose which brought him there.
+
+"How long did you cut those fuses to burn?" he said to Jimmy, who,
+though by no means fond of physical exertion, had come up to assist him
+from the ranch.
+
+The latter glanced at the two trails of smoke, which a handful of men,
+snugly ensconced behind convenient trees, were also watching.
+
+"I guessed it at four minutes," he said. "They're 'bout half-way through
+now. Still, I can't see nothing of the third one."
+
+"No," said Brooke. "Nor can I. That loosely-spun kind snuffs out
+occasionally. Quite sure they're not more than half-way through?"
+
+"No," said Jimmy, reflectively. "I'd give them 'most two minutes yet.
+Hallo! What in the name of thunder are you going to do?"
+
+It was not an unnatural question, because when those creeping trains of
+sparks reached the detonators the rock would be reft asunder by giant
+powder and a shower of ponderous fragments and flying debris hurled
+across the valley, while Brooke, who swung round abruptly, bounded down
+the slope.
+
+Jimmy stared at him in wonder, and then set off without reflection in
+chase of him. He was not addicted to hurrying himself when it was not
+necessary, but he ran well that day, with the vague intention of
+dragging back his comrade, whose senses, he fancied, had suddenly
+deserted him. The men behind the trees were evidently under the same
+impression, for confused cries went up.
+
+"Go back! Stop right there! Catch him, Jimmy; trip him up!"
+
+Jimmy did his best, but he was slouching and loose of limb, while
+Brooke was light of foot and young. He was also running his hardest,
+with grim face and set lips, straight for the rock, and was scrambling
+across the debris beneath it, which rolled down at every step, when
+Jimmy reached up and caught his leg. He said nothing, but when Brooke
+slid backwards, grabbed his jacket, which tore up the back; and there
+was a shout from the men behind the trees, two of whom came running
+towards the pair.
+
+"Pull him down! No, let go of him, and tear the fuses out!"
+
+Nobody saw exactly what took place next, and neither Brooke nor Jimmy
+afterwards remembered; but in another moment the latter sat gasping
+among the debris, while his comrade clambered up the slope alone. It
+also happened, though everybody was too intent to notice this, that a
+girl, with brown eyes and a big white hat, who had been strolling
+through the shadow of the pines on the ridge above, stopped abruptly
+just then. She could see the trail of sparks creep across the stone, and
+understood the position, which the shouts of the miners would have made
+plain to her if she had not. She could not see the man's face, though
+she realized that he was in imminent peril, and felt her heart throb
+painfully. Then, in common with the rest of those who watched him, she
+had a second astonishment, for he did not pull out the burning fuses,
+but crawled past them, and bent over something with a lighted match in
+his hand.
+
+Brooke in the meanwhile set his lips as the match went out, and struck
+another, while a heavy silence followed the shouts. The men, who grasped
+his purpose, now realized that interference would come too late, and
+those who had started from them went back to the trees. There only
+remained Brooke, clinging with one hand to a cranny of the rock while he
+held the match, whose diminutive flame showed pale in the blaze of
+sunlight, and Jimmy, rising apparently half-dazed from among the debris.
+The girl in the white hat afterwards recalled that picture, and could
+see the two lonely men, blurred figures in the shadows, and clustering
+pines. When that happened, she also felt a curious little thrill which
+was half-horror and half-appreciation.
+
+Then the third fuse sparkled, and Brooke sprang down, grasped Jimmy's
+shoulder, and drove him before him. There was a fresh shouting, and now
+every one could see two men running for their lives for the shelter of
+the pines. It seemed a very long while before they reached them, and all
+the time three blue trails of smoke and sparkling lines of fire were
+creeping with remorseless certainty up the slope of stone. The girl upon
+the ridge above closed her hands tightly to check a scream, and bronzed
+men, who had braved a good many perils in their time, set their lips or
+murmured incoherently.
+
+In the meanwhile the two men were running well, with drawn faces,
+staring eyes, and the perspiration dripping from them, and there was a
+hoarse murmur of relief when at last they flung themselves into the
+shadow of the pines. It was followed by a stunning detonation, and a
+blaze of yellow flame, while the hillside trembled when the smoke rolled
+down. Flying fragments of rock came out of it, there was a roar of
+falling stones, a crashing in the forest where great boughs snapped, and
+the lake boiled as though torn up by cannon shot. Then a curious silence
+followed, intensified by an occasional splash and rattle as a stone
+which had travelled farther than the rest came down, and the girl in the
+white hat retired hastily as the fumes of giant powder, which produce
+dizziness and nausea, drifted up the hillside.
+
+Brooke sat down on a felled log, Jimmy leaned against a tree, and while
+the men clustered round them they looked at one another, and gasped
+heavily.
+
+"I figured you'd be blown into very little pieces less than a minute
+ago," said one of those who stood by. "What did you do it for, anyway?"
+
+Brooke blinked at the questioner. "Third fuse snuffed out," he said. "It
+would have spoiled the shot. I cut it to match the others, and lighted
+it."
+
+This was comprehensible, for to rend a piece of rock effectively, it is
+occasionally necessary to apply the riving force at several places at
+the same time.
+
+"Still, you could have pulled the other fuses out and put new ones back.
+It would have been considerably less risky," said another man.
+
+Brooke laughed breathlessly. "It certainly would, but I never thought of
+that," he said.
+
+Then Jimmy broke in. "What made me sit down like I did?" he said.
+
+"It was probably the same thing that tore my jacket half-way up the
+back."
+
+"Well," said Jimmy, "there's a big lump there didn't use to be on the
+side of my head, too, and it was the concernedest hardest kind of rock I
+sat down upon. Next time you try to blow yourself up, I'm not going
+after you."
+
+Brooke glanced at him quietly, with a curious look in his eyes.
+
+"What made you come at all?" he said.
+
+Jim appeared to reflect. "I've done quite a lot of foolish things
+before--and I don't quite know."
+
+Brooke only smiled, but a little flush crept into Jimmy's face, for men
+do not express their sentiments dramatically in that country, that is,
+unless they are connected with mineral speculations or the selling of
+land.
+
+"Of course!" he said. "I fancy I shall remember it."
+
+They turned away together to inspect the result of the shot, and one of
+the miners who looked after them nodded approval. "When that man takes
+hold of anything he puts it through 'most every time," he said.
+"There's good hard sand in him."
+
+In the meanwhile Jimmy glanced at his comrade, apparently with an entire
+absence of interest, out of half-closed eyes.
+
+"I guess you were too busy to see a friend of yours a little while ago?"
+he said.
+
+"I expect I was," said Brooke. "Anyway, nobody I'm acquainted with is
+likely to be met with in this part of the province, unless it was
+Saxton."
+
+"No," said Jimmy, "it wasn't him. Saxton doesn't go trailing round in a
+big white hat and a four-decker skirt with a long tail to it."
+
+Brooke turned a trifle sharply, and glanced at him. "You mean Miss
+Heathcote?"
+
+"Yes," said Jimmy, reflectively, "if it's the one that was Barbara last
+time, I guess I do. You have been finding out the rest of it since you
+met her at the ranch? She was up yonder ten minutes ago."
+
+He pointed to a forest-covered ridge above the mine, but Brooke, looking
+up with all his eyes, saw nothing but the serried ranks of climbing
+pines. As it happened, however, the girl, who stood amidst their
+shadows, saw him, and smiled. She had noticed Jimmy's pointing hand, and
+fancied she knew what his companion was looking for.
+
+"Then you are certainly mistaken," he said. "There is nowhere she could
+be staying at within several leagues of the Canopus."
+
+"There's the Englishman's old ranch house Devine bought. It's quite a
+good one."
+
+Brooke started a little, and Jimmy, who was much quicker of wit than
+some folks believed, noticed it.
+
+"She certainly couldn't be staying there. It's quite out of the
+question," he said, with an assurance that was chiefly intended to
+convince himself.
+
+"Well," said Jimmy, who appeared to ruminate, "I guess you know best.
+Still, I can't think of any other place, unless she's living in a cave."
+
+Brooke said nothing further, but signed to the men who were waiting, and
+proceeded to roll the shattered rock out of the course of his flume. He
+felt it was certain that Jimmy was mistaken, for the only other
+conclusion appeared preposterous, and he could not persuade himself to
+consider it. Still, he thought of the girl with the brown eyes often
+while he swung axe and hammer during the rest of the afternoon, and when
+he strolled up the hillside after the six o'clock supper he was thinking
+of her still. He climbed until the raw gap of the workings was lost
+among the pines, and then lay down.
+
+The evening was still and cool, for the chill of the snow made itself
+felt once the sunlight faded from the valley. Now and then a sound came
+up faintly from the mine, but that was not often, and a great quietness
+reigned among the pines, which towered above him, two hundred feet to
+their topmost sprays, in serried ranks. They were old long before the
+white man first entered that wild mountain land, while, as he lay there
+in the scented dimness among their wide-girthed trunks, all that
+concerned the Canopus and its pounding stamp-heads slipped away from
+him. He was worn out in body, but his mind was clear and free, and,
+lying still, unlighted pipe in hand, he gave his fancy the rein, and,
+forgetting Devine and the flume, dreamed of what had once been his, and
+might, if he could make his purpose good, be his again.
+
+The sordid details of the struggle he had embarked upon faded from his
+memory, for the cold silence of the mountains seemed to banish them. It
+gave him courage and tranquillity, and, for the time at least, nothing
+seemed unattainable, while through all his wandering fancies moved a
+vision of a girl in a long white dress, who looked down upon him
+fearlessly from a plunging pony's back. That was the recollection he
+cherished most, though he had also seen her with diamonds gleaming in
+her dusky hair in the Vancouver opera-house.
+
+Then he started, and a little thrill ran through him as he wondered
+whether it was a trick his eyes had played him or he saw her in the
+flesh. She stood close beside him, with a grey cedar trunk behind her,
+in a long trailing dress, but the white hat was in her hand now, and the
+little shapely head bared to the cooling touch of the dew. Still, she
+had materialized so silently out of the shadows that he almost felt
+afraid to move lest she should melt into them again, and he lay very
+still, watching her until she glanced at him. Then he sprang, awkwardly,
+to his feet, with a little smile.
+
+"I would scarcely venture to tell you what I thought you were, but it is
+in one respect consoling to find you real," he said.
+
+"Why?" said the girl.
+
+"Because you are not likely to vanish again. You must remember that I
+first saw you clothed in white samite, with the moon behind your
+shoulder, in the river."
+
+The girl laughed. "I wonder if you know what white samite is?"
+
+"I don't," said Brooke, reflectively. "I never did, but it seems to go
+with water lapping on the rocks and mystery. Still, you--are--material,
+fortunately."
+
+"Very," said Barbara. "Besides, I certainly did not bring you a sword."
+
+Brooke appeared to consider. "One can never be quite certain of
+anything--especially in British Columbia. But how did you come here?"
+
+The girl favored him with a comprehensive glance, which Brooke felt took
+in his well-worn jean, coarse blue shirt, badly-rent jacket, and
+shapeless hat.
+
+"I was about to ask you the same thing. It was in Vancouver I saw you
+last," she said.
+
+"I came here on a very wicked pack-horse--one that kicked, and on two
+occasions came very near falling down a gorge with me. I am now building
+a flume for the Canopus mine--if you know what that is."
+
+Barbara laughed. "I fancy I know rather more about flumes than you did a
+little while ago. At least, I have reason to believe so, from what a
+mining foreman told me this afternoon. He, however, expressed
+unqualified approval, as well as a little astonishment, at the progress
+you had made. You see, I happened to observe what took place before the
+shot was fired a few hours ago."
+
+"Then you witnessed an entirely unwarranted piece of folly."
+
+A curious little gleam crept into Barbara's eyes, but she smiled. "You
+could have cut those fuses, and relighted them afterwards, but, since
+you did not remember it, I don't think that counts. What made you take
+the risk?"
+
+"Well," said Brooke, reflectively, "after worrying over the probable
+line of cleavage of that troublesome rock, it seemed to me that if I
+wished to split it, I must explode three charges of giant powder in
+certain places simultaneously. Now, if you examine what you might call
+the texture of a rock, though, of course, a really crystalline body----"
+
+Barbara made a little gesture of impatience. "That is not in the least
+what I mean--as I fancy you are quite aware."
+
+"Then," said Brooke, with a faint twinkle in his eyes, "I'm afraid I
+don't quite understand the moral causes of the proceeding myself, though
+I have heard my comrade describe one quality which may have had
+something to do with it as mulishness. It was, of course, reprehensible
+of me to be led away by it, especially as when I took the contract I
+really didn't care if the flume was never built."
+
+"And now you mean to finish it if it ruins you?"
+
+"No," said Brooke, "I really don't think I do. In fact, I hope to make a
+good many dollars out of it, directly or indirectly."
+
+He had spoken without reflection, and was sensible of a most unpleasant
+embarrassment when the girl glanced at him sharply, which she did not
+fail to notice.
+
+"Building flumes is evidently more profitable than I thought it was,"
+she said. "Still, you will no doubt make most of those
+dollars--indirectly?"
+
+Brooke decided that it was advisable to change the subject. "I have," he
+said, "answered--your--question."
+
+"Then I will do the same. I came here, because one can see the sunset on
+the snow from this ridge, most prosaically on my feet."
+
+"But from where?" and Brooke's voice was almost sharp.
+
+"From the old ranch house in the valley, of course!"
+
+Brooke made an effort to retain his serenity, but his face grew a trifle
+grim, and he looked at the girl curiously, with his lips tight set. Then
+he made a little gesture.
+
+"But that is where Devine lives when he comes here. It's preposterous!"
+he said.
+
+Barbara felt astonished, though she was very reposeful. "I really don't
+see why it should be. Mrs. Devine is there. We have to entertain a good
+deal in the city, and are glad to get away to the mountains for
+quietness occasionally."
+
+"But what connection can you possibly have with Mrs. Devine?"
+
+"I am," said Barbara, quietly, "merely her sister. I have always lived
+with her."
+
+Brooke positively gasped. "And you never told me!"
+
+"Why should I? You never asked me, and I fancied everybody knew."
+
+Brooke stood silent a moment, with the fingers of one hand closed, and
+the blood in his face, then he turned, as the girl moved, and they went
+back along the little rough rail together.
+
+"Of course, I can think of no reason," he said, quietly. "Still, the
+news astonished me."
+
+Barbara glanced away from him. There was only one way in which she could
+account for his evident concern at what she had told him, and the
+deduction she made was not altogether unpleasant to her, though, as it
+happened, it was not the correct one. The man was, as he had told her,
+without friends or dollars, but she knew that men with his capacities do
+not always remain poor in that country, and there were qualities which
+had gained her appreciation in him, while it had not dawned on her that
+there might also be others which could only meet with her
+disapprobation.
+
+"If you had called at the address I gave you in Vancouver, you would
+have known exactly who I was, but there is now nothing to prevent you
+coming to the ranch," she said.
+
+Brooke glanced down somewhat grimly at his hard, scarred hands and his
+clothes, and a faint flush crept into the girl's face.
+
+"Have I to remind you again that you are not in the English valley?" she
+said. "Mr. Devine, at least, is rather proud of the fact that he once
+earned his living with the shovel and the drill."
+
+"I am not sure that the one you imagine is my only reason for feeling a
+trifle diffident about presenting myself at Mr. Devine's house," said
+Brooke, very slowly.
+
+Barbara looked at him with a little imperious smile. "I did not ask you
+for any at all. I merely suggested that if you wished to come we should
+be pleased to see you at the ranch."
+
+Brooke made her a little inclination, and said nothing, until, when
+another white-clad figure appeared among the pines, the girl turned to
+him.
+
+"That is Mrs. Devine," she said. "Shall I present you?"
+
+Brooke stopped abruptly, with, as the girl noticed once more, a very
+curious expression in his face. He meant to use whatever means were
+available against Devine, but he could not profit by a woman's kindness
+to creep into his adversary's house.
+
+"No," he said, almost harshly. "Not to-night. It would be a
+pleasure--another time."
+
+Barbara looked at him with big, grave eyes, and the faintest suggestion
+of color in her cheek. "Very well," she said. "I need not detain you."
+
+Brooke swung round, and as Mrs. Devine strolled towards them, retired
+almost precipitately into the shadow of the pines, while, when he
+stopped again, with a curious little laugh, he was distinctly flushed in
+face.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+AN EMBARRASSING POSITION.
+
+
+The wooden conduit which sprang across a gorge just there on a slender
+trestle was full to the brim, and Brooke, who leaned on his long hammer
+shaft, watched the crystal water swirl by with a satisfaction which was
+distinctly new to him, while the roar it made as it plunged down into
+the valley from the end of the uncompleted flume came throbbing across
+the pines. Though it was a very crude piece of engineering, that trestle
+had cost him hours of anxious thought and days of strenuous labor, and
+now, standing above it, very wet and somewhat ragged, with hands as hard
+as a navvy's, he surveyed it with a pride which was scarcely warranted
+by its appearance. It was, however, the creation of his hands and brain,
+and evidently capable of doing its work effectively.
+
+Then he smiled somewhat curiously as he remembered with what purpose he
+had taken over the contract to build the flume from its original holder,
+and, turning abruptly away, walked along it until he stopped where the
+torrent that fed it swirled round a pool. The latter had rapidly
+lowered its level since the big sluice was opened, and he stood looking
+at it intently while a project, which involved a fresh struggle with
+hard rock and forest, dawned upon him. He had gained his first
+practically useful triumph over savage Nature, and it had filled him
+with a desire he had never supposed himself capable of for a renewal of
+the conflict. A little sparkle came into his eyes, and he stood with
+head flung back a trifle and his corded arms uncovered to the elbow,
+busy with rough calculations, and once more oblivious of the fact that
+he was only there to play his part in a conspiracy, until a man with
+grey in his hair came out of the shadow of the pines.
+
+"I came up along the flume and she's wasting very little water," he
+said. "Not a trickle from the trestle! It would 'most carry a wagon. You
+must have spent quite a pile of dollars over it."
+
+Brooke smiled a trifle drily, for that was a point he had overlooked
+until the cost had been sharply impressed upon him.
+
+"I'm afraid I did, Mr. Devine," he said. "Still, I couldn't see how to
+get the work done more cheaply without taking the risk of the flume
+settling a little by and by. That would, of course, have started it
+leaking. What do you think of it?"
+
+Devine smiled as he noticed his eagerness. "It seems to me that risk
+would have been mine," he said. "I've seen neater work, but not very
+much that looked like lasting longer. Who gave you the plan of it?"
+
+"Nobody," said Brooke, with a trace of the pride he could not quite
+repress. "I worried it out myself. You see, I once or twice gave the
+carpenters a hand at stiffening the railroad trestles."
+
+Devine nodded, and flashed a keen glance at him as he said, "What are
+you looking at that pool for?"
+
+Brooke stood silent a moment or two. "Well," he said, diffidently, "it
+occurred to me that when there was frost on the high peaks you might
+have some difficulty in getting enough water to feed the flume. You can
+see how the pool has run down already. Now, with a hundred tons or so of
+rock and debris and a log framing, one could contrive a very workable
+dam. It would ensure you a full supply and equalize the pressure."
+
+"You feel equal to putting the thing through?"
+
+"I would at least very much like to try."
+
+Devine regarded him thoughtfully. "Then you can let me have your
+notions."
+
+Brooke unfolded his crude scheme, and the other man watched him keenly
+until he said, "If that meets with your approbation I could start two of
+my men getting out the logs almost immediately."
+
+Devine smiled. "Has it struck you that there is a point you have
+forgotten?"
+
+"It is quite possible there are a good many."
+
+"You can't think of one that's important in particular?"
+
+"No," said Brooke, reflectively, "not just now."
+
+A little sardonic twinkle crept into Devine's eyes. "Well," he said,
+"before I took hold of any contract of that kind I would like to know
+just how much I was going to make on it, and what it would cost me."
+
+Brooke looked at him and laughed. "Of course!" he said. "Still, I never
+thought of it until this moment."
+
+"It's quite clear you weren't raised in Canada," said Devine. "You can
+worry out the thing during the afternoon and bring along any rough plan
+you'd like to show me to the ranch this evening. That's fixed? Then
+there's another thing. Has anybody tried to stop you getting out
+lumber?"
+
+"No," said Brooke. "I met two men who appeared to be timber-right
+prospectors more than once, but they made no difficulty."
+
+Devine, who seemed a trifle astonished, looked at him curiously before
+he turned away. "Then," he said drily, "you are more fortunate than I
+am."
+
+Brooke went back to his work, and supper had been cleared away in his
+double tent when he completed his simple toilet, which had commenced
+with a plunge into a whirling pool of the snow-fed river, preparatory to
+his visit to the ranch. Jimmy, who had assisted in it, stood surveying
+him complacently.
+
+"Now," he said, with a nod of approbation, "I guess you'll do when I've
+run a few stitches up the back of you. Stand quite still while I get the
+tent needle."
+
+Brooke glanced at the implement he produced somewhat dubiously, for it
+was of considerable thickness and several inches long.
+
+"I suppose," he said, resignedly, "you haven't got a smaller one?"
+
+Jimmy shook his head. "I guess I wouldn't trust it if I had," he said.
+"I want to fix that darn up good and strong so it will do you credit.
+There are two women at the ranch, and it's quite likely they'll come in
+and talk to you."
+
+Brooke made no further protest, but he smiled somewhat curiously as
+Jimmy stitched away. His work was not remarkable for neatness, and
+Brooke remembered that the two women at the ranch were fresh from the
+cities, where men do not mend their clothes with pieces of tents or
+cotton flour bags. Then he decided that, after all, it did not matter
+what they thought of him. One would probably set him down as a rude bush
+chopper, and the other, whose good opinion he would have valued under
+different circumstances, was a kinswoman of his adversary. Sooner or
+later she would know him for what he was, and then it was clear she
+would only have contempt for him. That she of all women should be Mrs.
+Devine's sister was, he reflected with a sense of impotent anger, one
+of the grim jests that Fate seemed to delight in playing.
+
+"Now," said Jimmy, breaking off his thread at last, "I guess you might
+go 'most anywhere if you stand with your face to the folks who talk to
+you, and don't sit down too suddenly. Be cautious how you get up again
+if you hear those stitches tearing through."
+
+Brooke went out, and discovered that Jimmy had, no doubt as a
+precautionary measure, sewn several of his garments together as he
+walked through the shadowy bush towards the ranch. Devine, to whom the
+scheme suggested had commended itself, was, as it happened, already
+waiting him in a big log walled room. He sat by the open window, which
+looked across blue lake and climbing pines towards the great white
+ramparts of unmelting snow that shut the valley in. The rest of the room
+was dim, and now the sun had gone, sweet resinous odors and an
+exhilarating coolness that stirred the blood like wine came in. Two
+women sat back in the shadow, and Devine moved a little in his chair as
+he answered one of them.
+
+"I know very little about the man, but I never saw more thorough work
+than he has put in on the flume," he said. "That's 'most enough
+guarantee for him, but there are one or two points about him I can't
+quite worry out the meaning of. For one thing, the timber-righters
+haven't stopped him chopping."
+
+Mrs. Devine looked thoughtful, for she was acquainted with the less
+pleasant aspect of mine-owning, but Barbara broke in.
+
+"It is a little difficult to understand what use timber-rights would be
+to anybody here," she said. "They could hardly get their lumber out, and
+there are very few people to sell it to if they put up a mill."
+
+"I expect they mean to sell it me," said Devine, a trifle grimly.
+
+"But you always cut what you wanted without asking anybody."
+
+"I did. Still, it seems scarcely likely that I'm going to do it again.
+If anyone has located timber-rights--which he'd get for 'most nothing on
+a patent from the Crown--he has never worried about them until the
+Canopus began to pay. Of course, one has to put in timber as he takes
+out the ore, and it seems to have struck somebody that the men who
+started it on the Canopus had burnt off all the young firs they ought to
+have kept. That's why he bought those timber-rights up."
+
+"Still there are thousands of them nobody can ever use, and you must
+have timber," said Barbara.
+
+"Precisely!" said Devine. "That man figures that when I get it he's
+going to screw a big share of the profits in this mine out of me."
+
+A portentous sparkle crept into Barbara's eyes, while Mrs. Devine, who
+knew her husband best, watched him with a little smile.
+
+"But that is infamous extortion!" said the girl.
+
+Devine laughed. "Well," he said, "it's not going to be good business for
+the man who puts up the game, but I don't quite see why he didn't strike
+Brooke for a few dollars as well. Men of his kind are like ostriches.
+They take in 'most anything."
+
+He might have said more, but Brooke appeared in the doorway just then
+and stood still with, so Barbara fancied, a faint trace of disconcertion
+when he saw the women, until Devine turned to him.
+
+"Come right in," he said. "Barbara tells me she has met you, but you
+haven't seen Mrs. Devine. Mr. Brooke, who is building the new flume for
+me, Katty."
+
+There was no avoiding the introduction, nor could Brooke escape with an
+inclination as he wished to do, for the lady held out her hand to him.
+She was older and more matronly than Barbara, but otherwise very like
+her, and she had the same gracious serenity. Still, Brooke felt his
+cheeks burn beneath the bronze on them as he shook hands with her. It
+was one thing to wrest his dollars back from Devine, but, while he
+cherished that purpose, quite another to be graciously welcomed to his
+house.
+
+"We are very pleased to see any of Barbara's friends," she said. "You
+apparently hadn't an opportunity of calling upon us in Vancouver?"
+
+Brooke glanced at Barbara, who was not exactly pleased with her sister
+just then, and met his gaze a trifle coldly. Still, he was sensible of a
+curious satisfaction, for it was evident that the girl who had been his
+comrade in the bush had not altogether forgotten him in the city.
+
+"I left the day after Miss Heathcote was kind enough to give me
+permission," he said.
+
+He felt that his response might have been amplified, but he was chiefly
+conscious of a desire to avoid any further civilities then, and because
+he was quite aware that Barbara was watching him quietly, it was a
+relief when Devine turned to him.
+
+"We'll get down to business," he said. "You brought a plan of the dam
+along?"
+
+He led the way to the little table at the window, and while Mrs. Devine
+went on with her sewing and Barbara took up a book again, Brooke
+unrolled the plan he had made with some difficulty. Then the men
+discussed it until Devine said, "You can start in when it pleases you,
+and my clerk will hand you the dollars as soon as you are through. How
+long do you figure it will take you?"
+
+"Three or four months," said Brooke, and looking up saw that the girl's
+eyes were fixed on him. She turned them away next moment, but he felt
+that she had heard him and they would be companions that long.
+
+"Well," said Devine, "it's quite likely we will be up here part, at
+least, of the time. Now you'll have to put on more men, and I haven't
+forgotten what you admitted the day I drove you in to the settlement.
+You'll want a good many dollars to pay them."
+
+"If you will give me a written contract, I dare say I can borrow them
+from a bank agent or mortgage broker on the strength of it."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Devine, drily. "It's quite likely you can, but he would
+charge you a percentage that's going to make a big hole in the profit."
+
+"I'm afraid I haven't any other means of getting the money."
+
+"Well," said Devine, "I rather think you have. In fact, I'll lend it you
+as the work goes on."
+
+Brooke felt distinctly uncomfortable and sat silent a moment, for this
+was the last thing he had desired or expected.
+
+"I have really no claim on you, sir," he said at length. "In this
+province payment is very seldom made until the work is done, and quite
+often not until a long while afterwards."
+
+Devine smiled drily. "I guess that is my business. Now is there any
+special reason you shouldn't borrow those dollars from me?"
+
+Brooke felt that there was a very good one, but it was one he could not
+well make plain to Devine. He was troubled by an unpleasant sense of
+meanness already, and felt that it would be almost insufferable to have
+a kindness thrust upon him by his companion. He was, though he would not
+look at her, also sensible that Barbara Heathcote was watching him
+covertly, and decided that what he and Devine had said had been
+perfectly audible in the silent room.
+
+"I would, at least, prefer to grapple with the financial difficulty in
+my own way, sir," he said.
+
+Devine made a little gesture of indifference. "Then, if you should want
+a few dollars at any time you know where to come for them. Now, I guess
+we're through with the business and you can talk to Mrs. Devine--who has
+been there--about the Old Country."
+
+Brooke did so, and after the first few minutes, which were distinctly
+unpleasant to him, managed to forget the purpose which had brought him
+to the ranch. His hostess was quietly kind, and evidently a lady who had
+appreciated and was pleased to talk about what she had seen in England,
+which was, as it happened, a good deal. Brooke also knew how to listen,
+and now and then a curious little smile crept into his eyes as she
+dilated on scenes and functions which were very familiar to him. It was
+evident that she never for a moment supposed that the man who sat
+listening to her somewhat stiffly, from reasons connected with Jimmy's
+repairs to his clothes, could have taken a part in them, but he was
+once or twice almost embarrassed when Barbara, who seemed to take his
+comprehension for granted, broke in.
+
+In the meanwhile a miner came for Devine, who went out with him, and by
+and by Mrs. Devine, making her household duties an excuse, also left the
+room. Then Barbara smiled a little as she turned to Brooke.
+
+"I wonder," she said, quietly, "why you were so unwilling to meet my
+sister? There is really no reason why anybody should be afraid of her."
+
+Brooke was glad that the dimness which was creeping across the valley
+had deepened the shadow in the room, for he was not anxious that the
+girl should see his face just then.
+
+"You assume that I was unwilling?" he said.
+
+"It was evident, though I am not quite sure that Mrs. Devine noticed
+it."
+
+Brooke saw that an answer was expected from him. "Well," he said, "Mrs.
+Devine is a lady of station, and I am, you see, merely the builder of
+one of her husband's flumes. One naturally does not care to presume, and
+it takes some little time to get accustomed to the fact that these
+little distinctions are not remembered in this country."
+
+Barbara laughed. "One could get accustomed to a good deal in three or
+four years. I scarcely think that was your reason."
+
+"Why?" said Brooke.
+
+"Well," said the girl, reflectively, "the fact is that we do recognize
+the distinctions you allude to, though not to the same extent that you
+do; but it takes rather longer to acquire certain mannerisms and modes
+of expressing oneself than it does to learn the use of the axe and
+drill. To be more candid, any one can put on a flume-builder's clothes."
+
+"I fancy you are jumping at conclusions. There are hotel waiters in the
+Old Country who speak much better English than I do."
+
+"It is possible. I am, however, not quite sure that they would make good
+flume-builders. Still, we will let that pass, as well as one or two
+vague admissions you have previously made me. Why wouldn't you take the
+dollars you needed when Mr. Devine was perfectly willing to lend them to
+you?"
+
+"It really isn't usual to make a stranger an advance of that kind," said
+Brooke, reflectively. "Besides, I might spend the dollars recklessly,
+and then break away and leave the work unfinished some day. Everybody is
+subject to occasional fits of restlessness here."
+
+Barbara laughed. "Pshaw!" she said. "You had a much better reason than
+that. Now I think we were what might be called good comrades in the
+bush?"
+
+Again Brooke felt a little thrill of pleasure. The girl sat where the
+dim light that still came in through the open window fell upon her, and
+she was very alluring with the faint smile, which was, nevertheless,
+curiously expressive, in her eyes.
+
+"Yes," he said, almost grimly, "I had a better reason. I cannot tell you
+what it was, but it may become apparent presently."
+
+Barbara asked no more questions, and while she sat silent, Mrs. Devine
+came in with a little dainty silver set on a tray. Maids of any kind,
+and even Chinese house-boys, are scarce in that country, especially in
+the bush, and Brooke realized that it must have been with her own hands
+she had prepared the quite unusual meal. Supper is served at six or
+seven o'clock through most of Canada. Probably the stove was burning,
+and her task was but a light one, but once more Brooke was sensible of a
+most unpleasant embarrassment when she smiled at him.
+
+"Barbara and I got used to taking a cup of coffee in the evening when we
+were in England," she said. "Talking of the Old Country reminded me of
+it. Will you pour it out, Barbara?"
+
+Barbara did so, and Brooke's fingers closed more tightly than was
+necessary on the cup she handed to him, while the cracker he forced
+himself to eat came near choking him. This was absurd sentimentality, he
+told himself, but, for all that, he dared scarcely meet the eyes of the
+lady who had, he realized, prepared that meal out of compliment to him.
+It was a relief when it was over and he was able to take his leave, but,
+as it happened, he forgot the plan he had laid down, and Barbara, who
+noticed it, overtook him in the log-hall. Devine had not come back yet.
+
+"We shall be here for some little time--in fact, until Mr. Devine has
+seen the new adit driven," she said.
+
+Brooke understood that this was tantamount to a general invitation, and
+smiled, as she noticed, somewhat wryly.
+
+"I am afraid I shall scarcely venture to come back again," he said.
+"Mrs. Devine is very kind, but still, you see--it really wouldn't be
+fitting."
+
+Then he turned and vanished into the darkness outside, and Barbara went
+back to the lighted room with a curious look in her eyes.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+BROOKE IS CARRIED AWAY.
+
+
+The flume was finished, and the dam already progressing well, when one
+morning Devine came out, somewhat grim in face, from the new adit he was
+driving at the Canopus. The captain of the mine also came with him, and
+stood still, evidently in a state of perplexity, when Devine looked at
+him.
+
+"Well," said the latter, brusquely, "what are we going to do, Wilkins?"
+
+The captain blinked at the forest with eyes not yet accustomed to the
+change of light, as though in search of inspiration, which apparently
+did not come.
+
+"There's plenty timber yonder," he said.
+
+"There is," said Devine, drily. "Still, as we can't touch a log of it,
+it isn't much use to us. There is no doubt about the validity of the
+patent that fellow holds it under either, and it covers everything right
+back to the canyon. He doesn't seem disposed to make any terms with me."
+
+Wilkins appeared to reflect. "Hanging off for a bigger figure, but there
+are points I'm not quite clear about. Mackinder's not quite the man to
+play that game--I guess I know him well, and if it had been left to
+him, once he saw there were dollars in the thing, he'd have jumped right
+on to them and lit out for the cities to raise Cain with them. Now, I
+kind of wonder if there's a bigger man behind him."
+
+"That's my end of the business," said Devine, with a little grim smile.
+"I'll take care of it. There are men in the cities who would find any
+dead-beat dollars if he wanted them for a fling at me. The question
+is--What about the mine? You feel reasonably sure we're going to strike
+ore that will pay for the crushing at the end of that adit?"
+
+Wilkins glanced round at the forest, and then lowered his voice a
+trifle, though it was some distance off and there was nobody else about.
+
+"We have got to, sir--and it's there if it's anywhere," he said. "You
+have seen the yield on the lower workings going down until it's just
+about worth while to keep the stamps going, and though none of the boys
+seem to notice anything, there are signs that are tolerably clear to me
+that the pay dirt's running right out. Still, I guess the chances of
+striking it again rich on the different level are good enough for me to
+put 'most every dollar I have by me in on a share of the crushings. I
+can't say any more than that."
+
+"No," said Devine, drily. "Anyway, I'm going on with the adit. But about
+the timber?"
+
+"Well, we will want no end of props, and that's a fact. It's quite a
+big contract to hold up the side of a mountain when you're working
+through soft stuff and crumbly rock, and the split-logs we've been
+worrying along with aren't going to be much use to us. We want round
+props, grown the size we're going to use, with the strength the tree was
+meant to have in them."
+
+Devine looked thoughtful. "Then I'll have to get you them. Say nothing
+to the boys, and see nobody who doesn't belong to the gang you have sent
+there puts his foot in any part of the mine. It is, of course, specially
+necessary to keep the result of the crushings quiet. I'm not telling you
+this without a reason."
+
+Wilkins went back into the adit, and Devine proceeded to flounder round
+the boundaries of the Englishman's abandoned ranch, which he had bought
+up for a few hundred dollars, chiefly because of the house on it. It
+consisted, for the most part, of a miry swamp, which the few prospectors
+who had once or twice spent the night with him said had broken the heart
+of the Englishman after a strenuous attempt to drain it, while the rest
+was rock outcrop, on which even the hardy conifers would not grow.
+Devine, who wet himself to the knees during his peregrination, had a
+survey plan with him, but he could see no means of extending his rights
+beyond the crumbling split-rail fence, and inside the latter there were
+no trees that appeared adapted for mining purposes. Willows straggled
+over the wetter places, and little, half-rotten pines stood tottering
+here and there in a tangled chaos a man could scarcely force his way
+through, but when he had wasted an hour or two, and was muddy all over,
+it became evident that he was scarcely likely to come upon a foot of
+timber that would be of any use to him. He had, of course, been told
+this, but he had on other occasions showed the men who pointed out
+insuperable difficulties to him that they were mistaken.
+
+Devine, however, was, as that fact would indicate, not the man to be
+readily turned aside. He wanted mine props, and meant to obtain them,
+and, though his face grew a trifle grimmer, he climbed the hillside to
+where Brooke was busy knee-deep in water at the dam. He signed to him,
+and then, taking out his cigar-case, sat down on a log and looked at the
+younger man.
+
+"Take one!" he said.
+
+Brooke lighted a cigar, and sat down, with the water draining from him.
+"We'll have another tier of logs bolted on to the framing by to-morrow
+night," he said.
+
+Devine glanced at the dam indifferently. "You take kindly to this kind
+of thing?" he said.
+
+Brooke smiled a little, for he had of late been almost astonished at his
+growing interest in his work. Of scientific engineering he knew nothing,
+though he remembered that several relatives of his had made their mark
+at it, but every man who lives any time in the bush of the Pacific slope
+of necessity acquires some skill with axe and cross-cut saw, besides a
+working acquaintance with the principles of construction. Wooden houses,
+bridges, dams, must be built, and now and then a wagon road underpinned
+with redwood logs along the side of a precipice. He had done his share
+of such work, but he had, it seemed, of late become endued with a
+boldness of conception and clearness of insight into the best means of
+overcoming the difficulties to be faced, which had now and then
+astonished those who assisted him.
+
+"I really think I do, though I don't know why I should," he said. "I
+never undertook anything of the description in England."
+
+"Then I guess it must be in the family. Any of your folks doing well
+back there as mechanics?"
+
+Brooke smiled somewhat drily. As a matter of fact, a near kinsman of his
+had gained distinction in the Royal Engineers, and another's name was
+famous in connection with irrigation works in Egypt. He did not,
+however, feel it in any way incumbent on him to explain this to Devine.
+
+"I could not exactly say they are," he said. "Anyway, isn't it a little
+outside the question?"
+
+"Well," said Devine, drily, "I don't quite know. What's born in a man
+will come out somehow, whether it's good for him or not. Now, I was
+thinking over another piece of work you might feel inclined to put
+through for me."
+
+Brooke became suddenly intent, and Devine noticed the little gleam in
+his eyes as he said, "If you can give me any particulars----"
+
+"Come along," said Devine, a trifle grimly, "and I'll show you them.
+Then if you still feel willing to go into the thing we can worry out my
+notion."
+
+Brooke rose and followed him along the hillside, which was seamed with
+rock outcrop and thinly covered with brushwood, while the roar of water
+grew louder in his ears. When they had made a mile or so Devine stopped
+and looked about him.
+
+"It wouldn't cost too much to clear a ground-sled trail from here to the
+mine," he said. "A team of mules could haul a good many props in over it
+in a day."
+
+"But where are you going to get them from?" said Brooke.
+
+Devine smiled curiously. "Come along a little further, and I'll show
+you."
+
+Again Brooke went with him, wondering a little, for he knew that a canyon
+would cut off all further progress presently, until Devine stopped once
+more where the hillside fell sheer away beneath them.
+
+"Now," he said, quietly, "I guess we're there. You can see plenty young
+firs that would make mining props yonder."
+
+Brooke certainly could. The hillside in front of him rose, steep as a
+roof, to the ridge where the tufts of ragged pines were silhouetted in
+sombre outline against the gleaming snow behind. Streaked with drifting
+mist, they rolled upwards in serried ranks, and there was apparently
+timber enough for half the mines in the province. The difficulty,
+however, was the reaching it, for, between him and it, a green-stained
+torrent thundered through a tremendous gap, whose walls were worn smooth
+and polished for four hundred feet or so. Above that awful chasm rose
+bare and slippery slopes of rock, on which there was foothold for
+neither man nor beast, and only a stunted pine clung here and there in
+the crannies. What the total depth was he did not know, but he recoiled
+instinctively from the contemplation of it, and would have drawn back a
+yard or two only that Devine stood still, looking down into the gap with
+his usual grim smile.
+
+Still, it was a minute or two before he was sensible of more than a
+vague awe and a physical shrinking from that tremendous display of
+Nature's forces, and then, by degrees, his brain commenced to record the
+details of the scene. He saw the snow-fed river diminished by distance
+to a narrow green riband swirling round the pools, and frothing with a
+curious livid whiteness over reef and boulder far down in the dimness.
+The roar it made came up in long pulsations of sound, which were flung
+back by the climbing pines that seemed to tremble in unison with it.
+The rocks were hollowed a trifle at their bases, and arched above the
+river. It was, as a picture, awe-inspiring and sublime, but from a
+practical point of view an apparently insurmountable barrier between the
+owner of the Canopus mine and the timber he desired. Devine, however,
+knew better, for he was a man who had grappled with a good many
+apparently insuperable difficulties, and Brooke became sensible that he
+expected an expression of opinion from him.
+
+"The timber is certainly there, but I quite fail to see how it could be
+of the least use to anybody situated where we are," he said. "That canyon
+is, I should fancy, one of the deepest in the province."
+
+Devine nodded, but the little smile was still in his eyes, and he
+pointed to the one where, by crawling down the gully a torrent had
+fretted out, an agile man might reach a jutting crag a couple of hundred
+feet below.
+
+"The point is that it isn't very wide," he said. "It wouldn't take a
+great many fathoms of steel rope to reach across it."
+
+Brooke realized that, because the crag projected a little, this was
+correct; but as yet the suggestion conveyed no particular meaning to
+him.
+
+"No," he said. "Still, it isn't very evident what use that would be."
+
+Devine laughed. "Now, if you had told me you knew anything about
+engineering, you would have given yourself away. Have you never heard of
+an aerial tramway? It's quite simple--a steel rope set up tight, a winch
+for hauling, and a trolley. With that working, and a skid-slide up the
+gully, one could send over the props we want without much difficulty. It
+would be cheaper than buying off the timber-righters."
+
+Brooke gasped as the daring simplicity of the scheme dawned on him. If
+one had nerve enough to undertake it the thing was perfectly feasible,
+and he turned to Devine with a glow in his eyes.
+
+"It could be done," he said. "Still, do you know anybody who would be
+willing to stretch that rope across?"
+
+Devine looked at him steadily, noticing the slight dilation of his
+nostrils and the intentness of his face.
+
+"Well," he said, drily, "I was going to ask you."
+
+The blood surged into Brooke's forehead, and for the time he forgot his
+six thousand dollars and that the man who made the suggestion had
+plundered him of them. He had, during the course of his English
+education, shown signs of a certain originality and daring of thought
+which had slightly astonished those who taught him, and then had lounged
+three or four years away in the quiet valley, where originality of any
+kind was not looked upon with favor. The men and women he had been
+brought into contact with in London were also, for the most part, those
+who regarded everything from the accepted point of view, and his
+engagement to the girl his friends regarded with disapproval had, though
+he did not suspect this at the time, been in part, at least, a protest
+against the doctrine that no man of his station must do anything that
+was not outwardly befitting and convenient to it.
+
+The revolt had brought him disaster, as it usually does, but it had also
+thrust upon him the necessity of thinking for himself, though even
+during his two years' struggle on the worthless ranch he had not
+realized what qualities he was endued with, for it was not until he met
+Barbara Heathcote by the river that they were wholly stirred into
+activity. Then ambition, self-confidence, and lust of conflict with men
+and Nature asserted themselves, for it was, in point of fact, a sword
+she had brought him. Still, he was as yet a trifle inconsequent and
+precipitate in his activities, for at times the purpose which had sent
+him to the Canopus mine faded into insignificance, and he became
+oblivious to everything beyond the pleasure he found in the grapple with
+natural difficulties he was engaged in. Those who had known Brooke in
+England would have had little difficulty in recognizing him morally or
+physically as he stood, brawny and sinewy, in ragged jean, high above
+the thundering river.
+
+"Then I'll undertake it," he said, with a little vibration in his
+voice.
+
+Devine looked hard at him again. "Feel sure you can do it? You'll want
+good nerves."
+
+"I think I can," said Brooke, with a quietness the other man
+appreciated.
+
+"Then you can go down to the Mineral Development's new shaft, where they
+have one of those tramways working, and see how they swing their ore
+across the valley. I'll give you a line to the manager. Start when
+you're ready."
+
+Devine said nothing further as they turned back towards the mine, but
+Brooke felt that the bargain was already made. His companion was not the
+man to haggle over non-essentials, but one who knew what he wanted and
+usually went straight to the point. Brooke left him presently, and,
+turning off where the flume climbed to the dam, came upon Jimmy,
+tranquilly leaning upon his shovel while he watched the two or three men
+who toiled waist-deep in water.
+
+"I was kind of wondering whether she wouldn't be stiffer with another
+log or two in that framing?" he said, in explanation.
+
+"Of course!" said Brooke, drily. "It's more restful than shovelling.
+Still, that's my affair, and you'll have to rustle more and wonder less.
+I'm going to leave you in charge here."
+
+Jimmy grinned. "Then I guess the way that dam will grow will astonish
+you when you come back again. Where're you going to?"
+
+Brooke told him, and Jimmy contemplated the forest reflectively.
+
+"Well," he said, "nobody who saw you at the ranch would ever have
+figured you had snap enough to put a contract of that kind through.
+Still, you have me behind you."
+
+"A good way, as a rule," said Brooke, drily. "Especially when there is
+anything one can get very wet at to be done. Still, I shouldn't wonder
+if you were quite correct. I scarcely think I ever suspected I had it in
+myself."
+
+Jimmy still ruminated. "A man is like a mine. You see the indications on
+the top, but you can't be sure whether there's gold at the bottom or
+dirt that won't pay for washing, until you set the drills going or put
+in the giant powder and shake everything up. Still, I can't quite figure
+how anything of that kind could have happened to you."
+
+Brooke flashed a quick glance at him, but Jimmy's eyes were vacant, and
+he was apparently watching a mink slip in and out among the roots of a
+cedar.
+
+"There is a good deal of gravel waiting down there, and only two men to
+heave it out," he said.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Jimmy, tranquilly. "Still, it's a good while until it's
+dark, and I was thinking. Now, if you had the dollars you threw away
+over that ranch, and me for a partner, you'd make quite a smart
+contractor. While they're wanting flumes and bridges everywhere, it's a
+game one can pile up dollars at."
+
+Brooke's face flushed a trifle, and he slowly closed one hand.
+
+"Confound the six thousand dollars, and you for reminding me of them!"
+he said. "Get on with your shovelling."
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+THE OLD LOVE.
+
+
+Next morning Brooke set out for the Mineral Development Syndicate's new
+shaft, which lay a long day's ride nearer the railroad through the bush,
+and was well received by the manager.
+
+"Stay just as long as it pleases you, and look at everything you want,
+though you'll have to excuse me going round with you to-day," he said.
+"There's a party of the Directors' city friends coming up, and it's
+quite likely they'll keep me busy."
+
+Brooke was perfectly content to go round himself, and he had acquired a
+good deal of information about the working of aerial tramways when he
+sat on the hillside watching a rattling trolley swing across the tree
+tops beneath him on a curving rope of steel. A foreman leaned on a
+sawn-off cedar close by, and glanced at Brooke with a little ironical
+grin when a hum of voices broke out behind them.
+
+"You hear them? I guess the boss is enjoying himself," he said.
+
+Brooke turned his head and listened, and a woman said, "But how do
+those little specks of gold get into the rock? It really looks so
+solid."
+
+"That's nothing," said the foreman. "She quite expects him to know how
+the earth was made. Still, the other one's the worst. You'll hear her
+starting in again once she gets her breath. It's not information she's
+wanting, but to hear herself talk."
+
+The prediction was evidently warranted, for another voice broke in,
+"What makes those little trucks run down the rope? Gravity! Of course, I
+might have known that. How clever of you to think of it. You haven't
+anything like that at those works you're a director of, Shafton?"
+
+Brooke started a little, for though the speaker was invisible her voice
+was curiously familiar. It was also evidently an Englishman who answered
+the last remark, and Brooke, who decided that his ears must have
+deceived him, nevertheless became intent. He felt that the mere fancy
+should have awakened a host of memories, but he was only sensible of a
+wholly dispassionate curiosity when the voice was raised again, though
+it was, at least, very like one to which he had frequently listened in
+times past. Then there was a patter of approaching steps, and he rose to
+his feet as the strangers and the mine manager came down the slope.
+There were several men, one of whom was palpably an Englishman, and two
+women. One of the latter stopped abruptly, with a little exclamation.
+
+"Harford--is it really you?" she said.
+
+Brooke quietly swung off his wide hat, which he remembered, without
+embarrassment, was considerably battered, and while most of the others
+turned and gazed at him, stood still a moment looking at her. He did not
+appreciate being made the central figure in a dramatic incident, but it
+was evident that the woman rather relished the situation. Several years
+had certainly elapsed since she had tearfully bidden him farewell with
+protestations of unwavering constancy, but he realized with faint
+astonishment that he felt no emotion whatever, not even a trace of
+anger.
+
+"Yes," he said. "I really think it is."
+
+The woman made a little theatrical gesture, which might have meant
+anything, and in that moment the few illusions Brooke still retained
+concerning her vanished. She seemed very little older than when he
+parted from her, and at least as comely, but her shallow artificiality
+was very evident to him now. Her astonishment had, he felt, been
+exaggerated with a view to making the most of the situation, and even
+the little tremble in her voice appeared no more than an artistic
+affectation. The same impression was conveyed by her dress, which struck
+him as too ornate and in no way adapted to the country.
+
+Then she turned swiftly to the man who stood beside her, looking on with
+a little faintly ironical smile. He was a personable man, but his lips
+were thin, and there was a suggestion of half-contemptuous weariness in
+his face.
+
+"This is Harford Brooke, Shafton. Of course, you have heard of him!" she
+said with a coquettish smile, which it occurred to Brooke was not, under
+the circumstances, especially appropriate. "Harford, I don't think you
+ever met my husband."
+
+Brooke stood still and the other man nodded with an air of languid
+indifference. "Glad to see you, I'm sure," he said. "Met quite a number
+of Englishmen in this country."
+
+Then he turned towards the other woman as though he had done all that
+could be reasonably expected of him, and when the manager of the mine
+led the way down into the valley Brooke found himself walking with the
+woman who had flung him over a few paces behind the rest of the party.
+He did not know exactly how this came about, but he was certain that he,
+at least, had neither desired nor in any way contrived it.
+
+They went down into the hollow between colonnades of towering trunks,
+crossed a crystal stream and climbed a steep ascent towards the clashing
+stamp-heads, but the woman appeared in difficulties and gasped a little
+until Brooke held out his arm. He had already decided that her little
+high-heeled shoes were distinctly out of place in that country, and
+wondered at the same time what kind Barbara Heathcote wore, for she, at
+least, moved with lithe gracefulness through the bush. He was, however,
+sensible of nothing in particular when his companion looked up at him as
+she leaned upon his arm.
+
+"I was wondering how long it would be before you offered to help me. You
+used to be anxious to do it once," she said.
+
+Brooke smiled a little. "That was quite a long time ago. I scarcely
+supposed you needed help, and one does not care to risk a repulse."
+
+"Could you have expected one from me?"
+
+There was an archness in the glance she cast him which Brooke was not
+especially gratified to see, and it struck him that the eyes which he
+had once considered softest blue were in reality tinged with a hazy
+grey, but he smiled again as he parried the question. "One," he said,
+"never quite knows what to expect from a lady."
+
+His companion made no immediate answer, but by and by she once more
+glanced up at him.
+
+"I am really not used to climbing if Shafton is, and I am not going any
+further just now," she said.
+
+A newly-felled cedar lay conveniently near the trail, but its
+wide-girthed trunk stood high above the underbrush, and Brooke dragged
+up a big hewn-off branch to make a footstool before his companion sat
+down on it. The branch was heavy, and she watched his efforts
+approvingly.
+
+"Canada has made you another man. Now, I do not think Shafton could have
+done that in a day," she said. "Of course, he would never have tried,
+even to please me."
+
+Brooke, who was by no means certain what she wished him to understand
+from this, leaned against a cedar looking down at her gravely. This was
+the woman who had embittered several years of his life, and for whom he
+had flung a good deal away, and now he was most clearly sensible of his
+folly. Had he met her in a drawing-room or even the Vancouver
+opera-house, it might not have been quite so apparent to him, but she
+seemed an anachronism in that strip of primeval wilderness. Nature was
+dominant there, and the dull pounding of the stamp-heads, which came
+faintly through the silence among the great trunks that had grown slowly
+during centuries, suggested man's recognition of the curse and privilege
+that was laid upon him in Eden. Graceful idleness was not esteemed in
+that country, where bread was won by strenuous toil, and the stillness
+and dimness of those great forest aisles emphasized the woman's
+artificial superficiality. Voice and gesture, befrizzled, straw-colored
+hair which he had once called golden, constricted waist, and figure
+which was suggestively wooden in its curves, enforced the same
+impression, until the man, who realized that she had after all probably
+made at least as good a use of life as he had, turned his eyes away.
+
+"You really couldn't expect him to," he said, with a little laugh. "He
+has never had to do anything of that kind for a living as I have."
+
+He held up his hands and noticed her little shiver as she saw the
+scarred knuckles, hard, ingrained flesh, and broken nails.
+
+"Oh," she said, "how cruel! Whatever have you been doing?"
+
+Brooke glanced at his fingers reflectively. "On the contrary, I suppose
+I ought to feel proud of them, though I scarcely think I am. Building
+flumes and dams, though that will hardly convey any very clear
+impression to you. It implies swinging the axe and shovel most of every
+day, and working up to the waist in water occasionally."
+
+"But you were always so particular in England."
+
+"I could naturally afford to be. It cost me nothing when I was living on
+another man's bounty."
+
+The woman made a little gesture. "And you gave up everything for me!"
+
+Brooke laughed softly, for it seemed to him that a little candor was
+advisable. "As a matter of fact, I am not quite sure that I did. My
+native wrong-headedness may have had its share in influencing me.
+Anyway, that was all done with--several years ago."
+
+"You will not be bitter, Harford," and she cast him a glance of appeal
+which might have awakened a trace of tenderness in the man had it sprung
+from any depth of feeling. "Can anything of that kind ever be quite done
+with?"
+
+Brooke commenced to feel a trifle uneasy. "Well," he said, reflectively,
+"I certainly think it ought to be."
+
+To his relief his companion smiled and apparently decided to change the
+subject. "You never even sent me a message. It really wasn't kind."
+
+"It appeared considerably more becoming to let myself sink into
+oblivion. Besides, I could scarcely be expected to feel certain that you
+would care to hear from me."
+
+The woman glanced at him reflectively. "I have often thought about you.
+Of course, I was dreadfully sorry when I had to give you up, but I
+really couldn't do anything else, and it was all for the best."
+
+"Of course!" said Brooke, with a trace of dryness, and smiled when she
+glanced at him sharply. "I naturally mean in your case."
+
+"You are only involving yourself, Harford. You never used to be so
+unfeeling."
+
+"I was endorsing your own statement, and it is, at least, considerably
+easier to believe that all is for the best when one is prosperous. You
+have a wealthy husband, and Helen, who wrote me once, testified that he
+indulged you in--she said every caprice."
+
+"Yes," said his companion, thoughtfully, "Shafton is certainly not poor,
+and he is almost everything any one could expect him to be. As husbands
+go, I think he is eminently satisfactory."
+
+"One would fancy that an indulgent and wealthy husband of distinguished
+appearance would go a tolerably long way."
+
+Again the woman appeared to reflect "Prosperity is apt to kill romance,"
+she said. "One is never quite content, you know, and I feel now and then
+that Shafton scarcely understands me. That is a complaint people appear
+to find ludicrous, of course, though I really don't see why they should
+do so. Shafton is conventional and precise. You know exactly what he is
+going to do, and that it will be right, but one has longings now and
+then for something original and intense."
+
+Brooke regarded her with a little dry smile. One, as he had discovered,
+cannot have everything, and as she had sold herself for wealth and
+station it appeared a trifle unreasonable to repine because she could
+not enjoy a romantic passion at the same time. It was, in fact, very
+likely that had anything of the kind been thrust upon her she would not
+have known what to do with it. It also occurred to him that there were
+depths in her husband's nature which she had never sounded, and he
+remembered the look of cynical weariness in the man's face. Lucy Coulson
+was one who trifled with emotions as a pastime, but Brooke had no wish
+to be made the subject of another experiment in simulated tenderness,
+even if that was meant, which, under the circumstances, scarcely seemed
+likely.
+
+"Well," he said, "no doubt most people long for a good deal more than
+they ever get; but your friends must have reached the stamps by now, and
+they will be wondering what has become of you."
+
+"I scarcely think they will. The men seem to consider it a waste of time
+to talk to anybody who doesn't know all about ranches and mines, and
+Shafton has Miss Goldie to attend to. She has attached herself to him
+like a limpet, but she is, of course, a Canadian, and I really don't
+mind."
+
+Almost involuntarily Brooke contrasted her with a Canadian who had spent
+a week in the woods with him. Barbara Heathcote had never appeared out
+of place in the wilderness, for she was wholly natural and had moved
+amidst those scenes of wild grandeur as though in harmony with them,
+with the stillness of that lonely land in her steady eyes. There was no
+superficial sentimentality in her, for her thoughts and emotions were
+deep as the still blue lakes, and he could not fancy her disturbing
+their serenity for the purpose of whiling an idle day away. Then his
+face hardened, for it was becoming unpleasantly evident that she could
+not much longer even regard him with friendliness and there was nothing
+to be gained by letting his fancy run away with him.
+
+"You are not the man I used to talk nonsense with, Harford," said his
+companion, who had in the meanwhile been watching him. "This country has
+made you quiet and a little grim. Why don't you go back again?"
+
+"I am afraid they have too many men with no ostensible income in
+England."
+
+"Still you could make it up with the old man."
+
+Brooke's face was decidedly grim. "I scarcely think I could. Rather more
+was said by both of us than could be very well rubbed off one's memory.
+Besides, I think you know what kind of man he is?"
+
+Lucy Coulson leaned forward a trifle and there was a trace of genuine
+feeling in her voice. "Harford," she said, "he frets about you--and he
+is getting very old. Of course, he would never show anybody what he
+felt, but I could guess, because he was once not long ago almost rude to
+me. That could only have been on your account, you know. It hurts me a
+little, though one could scarcely take exception to anything he
+said--but you know the quiet precision of his manner. If it wasn't quite
+so perfect it would be pedantic now. One feels it's a relic of the days
+of the hoops and patches ever so long ago."
+
+"What did he say?" asked Brooke, a trifle impatiently.
+
+"Nothing that had any particular meaning by itself, but for all that he
+conveyed an impression, and I think if you were to go back----"
+
+"Empty-handed!" said Brooke. "There are circumstances under which the
+desire for reconciliation with a wealthy relative is liable to
+misconception. If I had prospered it would have been easier."
+
+Lucy Coulson looked at him thoughtfully. "Perhaps I did use you rather
+badly, and it might be possible for me to do you a trifling kindness
+now. Shall I talk to the old man when I go home again? I see him often."
+
+Brooke shook his head. "I shall never go back a poor man," he said.
+"What are you doing here?"
+
+"Everybody travels nowadays, and Shafton is never happy unless he is
+going somewhere. We started for Japan, and decided to see the Rockies
+and look at the British Columbian mines. That is, of course, Shafton
+did. He has money in some of them, and is interested in the colonies. I
+have to sit on platforms and listen while he abuses the Government for
+neglecting them. In fact, I don't know when I shall be able to get him
+out of the country now. Of course, I never expected to meet you
+here--and almost wonder if there is any reason beyond the one you
+mentioned that has kept you here so long."
+
+She glanced at him in a curious fashion and made the most of her eyes,
+which he had once considered remarkably expressive ones.
+
+"I can't quite think of any other, beyond the fact that I have a few
+dollars at stake," he said.
+
+"There is nothing else?"
+
+"No," said Brooke, a trifle too decisively. "What could there be?"
+
+His companion smiled. "Well," she said, "I fancied there might have been
+a Canadian. They are not all very good style, but some of them are
+almost pretty, and--when one has been a good while away----"
+
+The man flushed a trifle at the faint contempt in her tone. "I scarcely
+think there is one of them who would spare a thought for me. I should
+not be considered especially eligible even in this country."
+
+"And you have a good memory!"
+
+Brooke felt slightly disconcerted, for it was not the first delicate
+suggestion she had made. "I don't know that it is of any benefit to me.
+You see, I really haven't anything very pleasant to remember."
+
+Lucy Coulson sighed. "Harford," she said, dropping her voice a trifle,
+"you must try not to blame me. If one of us had been richer--I, at
+least, can't help remembering."
+
+Brooke looked at her steadily. Exactly where she wished to lead him he
+did not know, but she had flung away her power to lead him anywhere long
+ago. Perhaps she was influenced by vanity, for there was no genuine
+passion or tenderness in her, but Brooke was a well-favored man, and she
+had her caprices and drifted easily.
+
+"I really don't think you should," he said. "Your husband mightn't like
+it, and it is quite a long while ago, you know."
+
+A little pink flush crept into the woman's cheek and she rose leisurely.
+"Perhaps he will be wondering where I am, after all," she said. "You
+must come and make friends with him. We may be staying for some time yet
+at the C. P. R. Hotel, Vancouver."
+
+Brooke went with her and spent some little time talking to her husband,
+who made a favorable impression upon him, while when he took his leave
+of them the woman let her hand remain in his a moment longer than there
+was any apparent necessity for.
+
+"You must come down and see us--it really isn't very far, and we have so
+much to talk about," she said.
+
+Brooke said nothing, but he felt that he had had a warning as he swung
+off his big shapeless hat and turned away.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+BROOKE HAS VISITORS.
+
+
+The afternoon was hot, and the roar of the river in the depths below
+emphasized the drowsy stillness of the hillside and climbing bush, when
+Brooke stood on the little jutting crag above the canyon. Two hundred
+feet above him rose a wall of fissured rock, but a gully, down which the
+white thread of a torrent frothed, split through that grim battlement,
+and already a winding strip of somewhat perilous pathway had been cut
+out of and pinned against the side of the chasm. Men with hammers and
+shovels were busy upon it, and the ringing of the drills broke sharply
+through the deep pulsations of the flood, while several more were
+clustered round the foot of an iron column, which rose from the verge of
+the crag, where the rock fell in one tremendous sweep to the dim green
+river.
+
+Close beside it, and overhung by the rock wall, stood Brooke's double
+tent, for, absorbed as he had become in the struggle with the natural
+difficulties that must be faced and surmounted at every step, he lived
+by his work, and when he had risen that morning the sun had not touched
+the dim white ramparts beyond the climbing pines. He was just then,
+however, not watching his workmen, but looking up the gorge, and a
+little thrill of pleasure ran through him when two figures in light
+draperies appeared at the head of it. Then he went up at a pace which
+Jimmy, who grinned as he watched him, wondered at, and stopped a trifle
+breathless beside the two women who awaited him above.
+
+"I was almost afraid you would not come," he said. "You are sure you
+would care to go down now you have done so?"
+
+Mrs. Devine gazed down into the tremendous depths with something that
+suggested a shiver, but Barbara laughed. "Of course," she said. "Those
+men go up and down with big loads every day, don't they?"
+
+"They have to, and that naturally makes a difference," said Brooke, with
+a little smile.
+
+"Then we can go down because we wish to, which is, in the case of most
+people, even a better reason."
+
+Mrs. Devine appeared a trifle uncertain, and her face expressed rather
+resignation than any special desire to make the descent, but she
+permitted Brooke to assist her down the zig-zag trail, while Barbara
+followed with light, fearless tread. Once they entered the gully, they
+could not, however, see the canyon, which, in the elder lady's case, at
+least, made the climb considerably easier, and they reached the tent
+without misadventure. The door was triced up to form an outer shelter,
+and Barbara was a trifle astonished when Brooke signed them to enter.
+
+She had seen how he lived at the ranch, and the squalid discomfort of
+the log room had not been without its significance to her, but there was
+a difference now. Nothing stood out of place in that partition of the
+big double tent, and from the spruce twigs which lay a soft, springy
+carpet, on the floor, to the little nickelled clock above her head, all
+she saw betokened taste and order. Even the neat folding chairs and
+table shone spotlessly, and there was no chip or flaw upon the crockery
+laid out upon the latter. There had, it seemed, been a change, of which
+all this was but the outward sign, in the man who stood smiling beside
+her.
+
+"Tea at four o'clock is another English custom you may have become
+addicted to, and you have had a climb," he said. "Still, I'm afraid I
+can't guarantee it. Jimmy does the cooking."
+
+Jimmy, as it happened, came in with a teapot in his hand just then.
+"Well," he said, "I guess I'm considerably smarter at it than my boss.
+You needn't be bashful, either. I've a kettle that holds most of a
+gallon outside there on the fire, and here's two big tins of fixings we
+sent for to Vancouver."
+
+Mrs. Devine smiled, but Brooke's face was a trifle grim, as he glanced
+at his retainer, and Barbara did not look at either of them just then.
+It was, of course, after all, only a little thing, but she was,
+nevertheless, gratified that he could think of these trifles in the
+midst of his activities. She, however, took the white metal teapot,
+which was burnished brilliantly, from Jimmy, who, in spite of Brooke's
+warning glances, still hung about the tent, contemplating her with
+evident approbation as she passed the cups.
+
+"I guess she does it considerably smarter than Tom Gordon's Bella would
+have done," he said, with a wicked grin. "Bella had no use for teapots
+either. She'd have given it you out of the kettle."
+
+The glance Brooke rewarded him with was almost venomous, for he had seen
+the swift inquiry which had flashed into them fade as suddenly out of
+Barbara's eyes. She could not well admit the least desire to know who
+Tom Gordon's Bella was, though she would not have been unwilling to be
+enlightened. Jimmy, however, beamed upon Mrs. Devine, who had taken up
+her cup.
+
+"I hope you like it. No smoke on that," he said. "When you use the green
+tea a smack of the resin goes well as flavoring, especially if it's
+brewed in a coal-oil tin. Now, there's tea they make right where they
+sell it in Vancouver, but what you've got is different I guess it's
+grown in China, or it ought to be, for the boss he sent me down, and
+says he----"
+
+"Isn't it about time you made a start at getting that boulder out?" said
+Brooke, drily.
+
+Jimmy retired unwillingly, and Brooke glanced deprecatingly at his
+guests. "We have been comrades for several years," he said.
+
+"Of course!" said Mrs. Devine, with a little smile. "Still, I really
+don't think you need be so anxious to hide the fact that you have taken
+some pains to provide these little dainties for us. It would have been
+apparent in any case. We know how men live in the bush."
+
+Brooke made no disclaimer, though a faint trace of color deepened the
+bronze in his face, for he remembered the six thousand dollars, and
+winced under her graciousness. Then they discussed other matters, until
+at last Barbara laid aside her cup.
+
+"We came to see the canyon, and how you mean to put the rope across," she
+said.
+
+She glanced at her sister, but Mrs. Devine resolutely shook her head. "I
+have seen quite as much of the canyon as I have any wish to do," she
+said. "Besides, it was not exactly an easy matter getting down here, and
+I expect it will be considerably worse getting up. You can go with Mr.
+Brooke, my dear."
+
+They left her in the tent, and five minutes later Brooke led the girl to
+a seat on a dizzy ledge, from which the rock fell away in one awful
+smooth wall.
+
+"Now," he said quietly, "you can look about you."
+
+Barbara, who had been too occupied in picking her way to notice very
+much as yet, drew in her breath as she gazed down into the tremendous
+chasm. The sunshine lay warm upon the pine-clad slopes above, but no ray
+of brightness streamed down into that depth of shadow, and its eerie
+dimness was thickened by the mist which drifted filmily above the
+river's turmoil. Out of it a deep vibratory roar came up, diminished by
+the distance, in long pulsations that died far up among the pines in
+sinking waves of sound.
+
+"Oh," she said, with a little gasp, "it's tremendous!"
+
+"A trifle overwhelming!" said Brooke, reflectively, "and yet it gets
+hold of one. There is a difference between it and the English valley you
+once mentioned."
+
+Barbara turned to him, with a little gleam in her eyes.
+
+"Of course!" she said. "One is glad there is, since it is typical of
+both countries. You couldn't tame this river and set it gliding smoothly
+between mossy stepping-stones."
+
+"No," said Brooke, "I scarcely think one would wish to if he could. One
+feels it wouldn't be fitting."
+
+"And yet we shall put the power that's in it into harness by and by."
+
+"Without taming it?"
+
+Barbara nodded. "Yes," she said. "If you had ever stood in a Canadian
+power house, as I have done once or twice, you would understand. You
+can hear the big dynamos humming in one low, deep note while the little
+blue sparks flicker about the shafts. They stand for controlled energy;
+but the whole place rocks with the whirring of the turbines and the
+thunder of the water plunging down the shoots. The river that drives
+them does it exulting in its strength. You couldn't fancy it lapping
+among the lily leaves in sunlit pools. It hasn't time."
+
+"To have no time for artistic effect is typical of this country, then?"
+said Brooke.
+
+Barbara smiled. "Yes," she said, "I really think it is. We shall come to
+that later, but this, you see, isn't art, but something greater. It's
+nature untrammelled, and primeval force."
+
+"Then you, who personify reposefulness, admire force?"
+
+Barbara held her hand up. "When it accomplishes anything I do; but
+listen," she said. "That sound isn't the discord of purposeless haste.
+There's a rhythm in it. It's ordered and stately harmony."
+
+Brooke sat still, watching the little gleam in her brown eyes, until she
+turned again to him.
+
+"You are going to put that rope across?" she said.
+
+"I am, at least, going to try. There will, however, be difficulties."
+
+Barbara smiled a little. "There generally are. Still, I think you will
+get over them." She looked down again at the tremendous gap, and then
+met his eyes in a fashion that sent a thrill through him. "It would be
+worth while."
+
+"I almost think it would. Still, it is largely a question of dollars,
+and I have spent a good many with no great result already."
+
+"My brother-in-law will not see you beaten. He would throw in as much as
+the mine was worth before he yielded a point to the timber-righters."
+
+Brooke noticed the little hardness in her voice, and the sparkle in her
+eyes. "If he did, you would evidently sympathize with him?"
+
+"Of course, though it wasn't exactly in that sense I meant it would be
+worth while. One would naturally sympathize with anybody who was made
+the subject of that kind of extortion. If there is anything detestable,
+it is a conspiracy."
+
+"Still," said Brooke, reflectively, "it is in one sense a perfectly
+legitimate transaction."
+
+"Would you consider yourself warranted in scheming to extort money from
+any one?"
+
+Brooke did not look at her. "It would, of course, depend--upon, for
+example, any right I might consider I had to the money. We will suppose
+that somebody had robbed me----"
+
+"Then one who has been robbed may steal?"
+
+Brooke made a little deprecatory gesture while the blood crept to his
+face. "I'm afraid I have never given any questions of this kind much
+consideration. We were discussing the country."
+
+Barbara laughed. "Of course. I ought to have remembered. You are so
+horribly afraid of betraying your sentiments in England that you would
+almost prefer folks to believe you hadn't any. I am, however, going to
+venture on dangerous ground again. I think the country is having an
+effect on you. You have changed considerably since I met you at the
+ranch."
+
+"It is possible," and Brooke met her gaze with a little smile in his
+eyes. "Still, I am not quite sure it was altogether the fault of the
+country."
+
+Barbara looked down at the canyon. "Isn't that a little ambiguous?"
+
+"Well," said Brooke, reflectively, "it is, at least, rather a stretching
+of the simile, but I saw you first clothed in white samite, mystic,
+wonderful, in the midst of a frothing river--and I am not quite sure
+that you were right when you said it was not a sword you brought me."
+
+Barbara flashed a swift, keen glance at him, though she smiled. "Then
+beware in what quarrel you draw it--if I did. One would expect such a
+gift to be used with honor. It could, however, be legitimately employed
+against timber-righters, claim-jumpers, and all schemers and
+extortioners of that kind."
+
+She stopped a moment, and looked at him, steadily now. "Do you know that
+I am glad you left the ranch?"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"What you are doing now is worth while. You would consider that
+priggishness in England, but it's the truth."
+
+"You mean helping your brother-in-law to get ahead of the
+timber-righters?"
+
+"No," said Barbara. "That is not what I mean, though if it is any
+consolation to you, it meets with my approbation, too."
+
+"Then what I was doing before was not worth while?"
+
+"That," said Barbara, with a trace of dryness, "is a question you can
+answer best, though I saw no especial evidence of activity of any kind.
+The question is--Can you do nothing better still? This province needs
+big bridges and daringly-built roads."
+
+"I'm afraid not," and Brooke smiled a trifle wryly. "It costs a good
+many dollars to build a big bridge, and it is apparently very difficult
+for any man to acquire them so long as he works with his own hands."
+
+"Still, isn't it worth the effort--not exactly for the dollars?"
+
+Brooke looked at her gravely, with a slight hardening of his lips.
+
+"I think it would be in my case," he said. "The difficulty is that I
+should run a heavy risk if the effort was ever made. Now, however, I
+had, perhaps, better show you how far we have got with the tramway."
+
+There was, as it happened, not very much to show, and before half an
+hour had passed Barbara and Mrs. Devine climbed the steep ascent, while
+Brooke returned to redeem the hour spent with them by strenuous toil. It
+was also late that night before he flung aside the sheet of crude
+drawings and calculations he was making, and leaned back wearily in his
+chair. His limbs were aching, and so were his eyes, and he sat still
+awhile with them half-closed in a state of dreamy languor. He had
+dropped a tin shade over the lamp, and the tent was shadowy outside the
+narrow strip of radiance. There was no sound from the workmen's bark and
+canvas shanty, and the pulsating roar of the canyon broke sharply through
+an impressive stillness, until at last there was a faint rattle of
+gravel outside that suggested the approach of a cautious foot, and
+Brooke straightened himself suddenly as a man came into the tent. His
+face was invisible until he sat down within the range of light, and then
+Brooke started a little.
+
+"Saxton!" he said.
+
+Saxton laughed, and flung down his big hat. "Precisely!" he said. "There
+are camps in the province I wouldn't have cared to come into like this.
+It wouldn't be healthy for me, but in this case it seemed advisable to
+get here without anybody seeing me. Left my horse two hours ago at
+Tomlinson's ranch."
+
+"It was something special brought you so far on foot?"
+
+"Yes," said Saxton, "I guess it was. I came along to see what in the
+name of thunder you were doing here so long."
+
+"I was building Devine a dam, and I am now stretching a rope across the
+canyon to bring his mine props over."
+
+Saxton straightened himself, and stared at him, with blank astonishment
+in his face.
+
+"I want to understand," he said. "You are putting him a rope across to
+bring props over with?"
+
+"Yes," said Brooke. "Is there anything very extraordinary in that?"
+
+Saxton laughed harshly. "Under the circumstances, I guess there is. Do
+you know who's stopping him cutting all the props he wants right behind
+the mine?"
+
+"No," said Brooke, drily. "Devine doesn't either, which I fancy is
+probably as well for the man. The one who holds the rights is, I
+understand, only the dummy."
+
+"Then I'll tell you right now. It's me."
+
+Brooke started visibly, and then laid a firm restraint upon himself. "I
+warned you against leaving me in the dark."
+
+Saxton slammed his hand down on the table. "Well," he said, "who would
+have figured on your taking up that contract? What in the name of
+thunder do you want to build his slingway for?"
+
+Brooke sat thoughtfully silent for a moment or two. "To tell the truth,
+I'm not quite sure I know. The thing, you see, got hold of me."
+
+"You don't know!" and Saxton laughed again, unpleasantly. "It's no great
+wonder they were glad to send you out here from the Old Country. The
+last thing I counted on was that my partner would spoil my game. You'll
+have to stop it right away."
+
+Brooke closed his eyes a trifle, and looked at him. "No," he said. "That
+is precisely what can't be done."
+
+There was no anger in his voice, and he made no particular display of
+resolution, but Saxton seemed to realize that this decision was
+definite. He sat fuming for a space, and then made a little emphatic
+gesture, which expressed complete bewilderment as well as desperation.
+Still, even then, he was quick enough of wit to make no futile protest,
+for there are occasions when the quiet inertia of the insular
+Englishman, who has made up his mind, is more than a match for the
+nervous impatience of the Westerner.
+
+"Well," he said again, as though it was the only thing that occurred to
+him, "what did you do it for?"
+
+Brooke smiled quietly. "As I told you not long ago, I really don't
+know."
+
+"Then I guess there's nobody could size you up, and put you in the
+grade you belong to. You wouldn't take Devine's dollars when he wanted
+to hire you, and now you're building flumes and dams for him. I can't
+see any difference. There's no sense in it."
+
+"I'm afraid there is really very little myself. It's rather like
+splitting hairs, isn't it? Still, there is, at least, what one might
+call a distinction. You see, I took over another man's contract, and
+what I'm doing now doesn't make it necessary for Devine to favor me with
+his confidence."
+
+Saxton shook his head in a fashion that suggested he considered his
+comrade's case hopeless. "And it's just his confidence we want!" he
+said. "You don't seem able to get hold of the fact that you can't make
+very many dollars and keep your high-toned notions at the same time. The
+thing's out of the question. Now, I once heard a lecture on the New
+England States long ago, and pieces of it stuck to me. There were two or
+three of the hard old Puritans made their little pile cutting
+Frenchmen's and Spaniards' throats in the Gulf of Mexico, and built
+meeting-houses when they came home and settled down. Still, they had
+sense enough to see that what was the correct thing among the Quakers
+and Baptists of New England was quite out of place on the Caribbean
+Sea."
+
+Brooke felt that there was truth in this, but he meant, at least, to
+cling to the distinction, even though he disregarded the difference,
+and Saxton seemed to realize it.
+
+"Well," he said resignedly, "we may do something with that prop sling
+when we jump the claim. How are you getting on about the mine?"
+
+"In point of fact, I'm not getting on at all. Each time I try to saunter
+into the workings, I am civilly turned out again. Devine, it seems, will
+not even let the few men who work on top in."
+
+Saxton appeared to reflect. "Now, I wonder why," he said. "He's too
+smart to do anything without a reason, and he's not afraid of you, or
+he'd never have had you round the place. Still, you'll have to get hold
+of the facts we want before we can do anything, and I'm not quite sure
+what use I'll make of those timber-rights in the meanwhile. They cost me
+quite a few dollars, and it may be a while yet before anybody takes them
+from me. Building that slingway isn't quite what I expected from Devine
+after buying up forests to oblige him."
+
+"Well, I will do what I can, but I wish Devine would give me those
+dollars back of his own accord. I'm almost commencing to like the man."
+
+Saxton shook his head. "You can't afford to consider a point of that
+kind when it's against your business," he said. "Anyway, if you can give
+me a blanket or two, I'll get some sleep now. I have to be on the trail
+again by sun-up."
+
+Brooke gave him his own spruce-twig couch, and made him breakfast in
+the chilly dawn on a kerosene stove, and then was sensible of a curious
+relief as his confederate vanished into the filmy mists which drifted
+down the gorge.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+SAXTON GAINS HIS POINT.
+
+
+Brooke was very wet and physically weary, which in part accounted for
+his dejected state of mind, when he led his jaded horse up the last few
+rods of climbing trail that crossed the big divide. It had just ceased
+raining, and the slippery rock ran water, while a cold wind, which set
+him shivering, shook a doleful wailing out of the scattered pines. One
+of them had fallen, and, stopping beside it, he looped the bridle round
+a broken branch, and sat down to rest and think, for the difficulties of
+the way had occupied his attention during a long day's journey, and,
+since he expected to meet Saxton in another hour, he had food for
+reflection.
+
+It was not a cheerful prospect he looked down upon, and that evening the
+desolation of the surroundings reacted upon him. The gleaming snow was
+smothered now in banks of dingy mist, and below him there rolled away a
+dreary waste of pines, whose ragged spires rose out of the drifting
+vapors rent and twisted by the ceaseless winds. It was, in words he had
+not infrequently heard applied to it, a hard country he must spend his
+years of exile in, and of late nothing had gone well with him.
+
+Since he had last seen Saxton, he had lived in a state of tension,
+waiting for the time when circumstances should render the carrying out
+of their purpose feasible, and yet clinging to a faint hope that he
+might, by some unknown means, still be relieved of the necessity of
+persisting in a course that was becoming more odious every day. The dam
+was almost completed, but it was with dismay he had counted the cost of
+it, and twice the steel rope had torn up stays and columns, and hurled
+them into the canyon, while he would, he knew, be fortunate if he secured
+a profit of a couple of hundred dollars as the result of several months
+of perilous labor. Prosperity, it was very evident, was not to be
+achieved in that fashion. He had also seen very little of Barbara
+Heathcote for some time, and she had been to him as a mental stimulant,
+of which he felt the loss, while now his prospects seemed as dreary as
+the dripping waste he stared across with heavy eyes. All this, as it
+happened, bore directly upon his errand, for it once more brought home
+the fact that a man without dollars could expect very little in that
+country, while there was, it seemed, only one way of obtaining them open
+to him. It was true that he shrank from availing himself of it, but that
+did not, after all, greatly affect the case, and he endeavored to review
+the situation dispassionately.
+
+He had decided that he was warranted in recovering the six thousand
+dollars by any means available, and it was evidently folly to take into
+account the anger and contempt of a girl who could, of course, be
+nothing to him. Her station placed that out of the question, since it
+would, so far as he could see, be a very long time indeed before he
+could secure even the most modest competence, and he felt that there was
+a still greater distinction between them morally; but, in spite of this,
+he realized that the girl's approbation was the one thing he clung to.
+He could scarcely nerve himself to fling it away, and yet it seemed, in
+the light of reason, a very indifferent requital for a life of struggle
+and poverty. She had, he told himself, merely taken a passing interest
+in him, and once she met a man of her own station fortunate enough to
+gain her regard, was scarcely likely even to remember him.
+
+Then he rose with a little hardening of his lips, and, flinging himself
+wearily into the saddle, strove to shake off his thoughts as the jaded
+horse floundered down into the valley. They were both too weary to
+attempt to pick their way, and went down, sliding and slipping, with the
+gravel rattling away from under them, until they reached the thicker
+timber, and smashed recklessly through thickets of giant fern and salmon
+berry. Now and then a drooping branch struck Brooke as he passed, but he
+scarcely noticed it, and rode on, swaying in his saddle, while great
+drops of moisture splashed upon his grim, wet face. It was sunrise when
+he had ridden out from the Canopus mine, with his horse's head turned
+towards the settlement, and dark was closing down when at last he
+dropped, aching all over, from the saddle at the door of Saxton's shanty
+at the Elktail mine. The latter, who opened it, smiled at him somewhat
+drily, and was by no means effusive in his greeting.
+
+"I wasn't quite sure the message I sent you from Vancouver would fetch
+you, though I made it tolerably straight," he said.
+
+"You certainly did," said Brooke. "In fact, I don't know that you could
+have made it more unlikely to bring me here. Still, what put the fancy
+that I might disregard it into your head?"
+
+Saxton looked at him curiously. "Well," he said, with an air of
+reflection, "you seemed to be quite at home in several senses, and
+making the most of it there. There are folks who would consider that
+girl with the big eyes pretty."
+
+Brooke, who was entering the shanty, swung round sharply. "I think we
+can leave Miss Heathcote out. It's a little difficult to understand how
+you came to know what I was doing at the Canopus? You were in
+Vancouver."
+
+Saxton appeared almost disconcerted for a moment, but he laughed.
+"Well," he said, "I figured on what was most likely when I heard Miss
+Heathcote was still there."
+
+He saw that he had made another mistake, and wondered whether Brooke,
+who had, as it happened, done so, had noticed it, while the fact that
+the latter's face was now expressionless roused him to a little display
+of vindictiveness.
+
+"I heard something about her in Vancouver, anyway, which it's quite
+likely she didn't mention to you. It was that she's mighty good friends
+with one of the Pacific Squadron officers. She has a good many dollars
+of her own, and they're mostly folks who make a splash in their own
+country."
+
+Brooke afterwards decided that this must have been an inspiration, but
+just then he felt that Saxton was watching him, and showed no sign of
+interest.
+
+"If she did, I don't remember it, though I should consider the thing
+quite probable," he said. "Still, as Miss Heathcote's fancies don't
+concern us, wouldn't it be more to the purpose if you got me a little to
+eat?"
+
+Saxton summoned his cook, and nothing more was said until Brooke had
+finished his meal. Then his host looked at him as they sat beside the
+crackling stove.
+
+"Isn't it 'bout time you made a move at the Canopus?" he said. "So far
+as you have gone, you have only spoiled my hand. You didn't go there to
+build Devine flumes and dams."
+
+"In point of fact, I rather think I did. The difficulty, however, is
+that I am still unable to get into the mine. I have invented several
+excuses, which did not work, already. Nobody except the men who get the
+ore is even allowed to look at the workings."
+
+A little gleam crept into Saxton's eyes. "Now, it seems to me that
+Devine has struck it rich, or he wouldn't be so concerned particular.
+It's quite plain that he doesn't want everybody to know what he's
+getting out of the Canopus. It's only a mine that's paying folks think
+of jumping."
+
+"Has it struck you that he might wish to sell it, and be taking
+precautions for exactly the opposite reason?"
+
+Saxton made a little gesture of approval, though he shook his head. "You
+show you have a little sense now and then, but there's nothing in that
+view," he said. "Is a man going to lay out dollars on dams and wire-rope
+slings when he knows that none of them will be any use to him?"
+
+"I think he might. That is, if he wanted investors, who could be induced
+to take it off his hands, to hear of it."
+
+"The point is that he has only to put the Canopus into the market, and
+they'd pile down the dollars now."
+
+"Still, it is presumably our business, and not Devine's, you purposed to
+talk about."
+
+Saxton nodded. "Then we'll start in," he said. "You can't get into the
+mine, and it has struck me that if you could your eyes wouldn't be as
+good as a compass and a measuring-chain. Well, that brings us to the
+next move. When Devine left Vancouver a week ago, he took up a tin case
+he keeps the plans and patents of the Canopus in with him. You needn't
+worry about how I'm sure of this, but I am. Those papers will tell us
+all we want to know."
+
+"I have no doubt they would. Still, I don't see that we are any nearer
+getting over the difficulty. Devine is scarcely likely to show them me."
+
+"You'll have to lay your hands upon the case. It's in the ranch."
+
+Brooke's face flushed, and for a moment his lips set tight, while he
+closed one hand as he looked at his confederate. Then he spoke on
+impulse, "I'll be hanged if I do!"
+
+Saxton, who had, perhaps, expected the outbreak, regarded him with a
+little sardonic smile.
+
+"Now," he said, quietly, "you'll listen to me, and put aside those
+notions of yours for a while. I've had about enough of them already.
+Devine robbed you--once--and he has taken dollars out of my pocket a
+good many times, while I can't see any great difference between glancing
+at another man's papers and crawling into his mine. We're not going to
+take the Canopus from him anyway--it would be too big a deal--but we
+have got to find out enough to put the screw on him. You don't owe him
+anything, for you're building those flumes and dams cheaper than he
+would get it done by anybody else."
+
+Brooke sat silent a space, with the blood still in his cheeks and one
+hand closed. He was sensible of a curious disgust, and yet it was
+evident that his confederate was right. There was, after all, no great
+difference between the scheme suggested and what he had already been
+willing to do, and yet he was sensible that it was not that fact which
+chiefly influenced him, for Saxton had done wisely when he hinted at
+Barbara Heathcote's supposititious fondness for the naval officer.
+Brooke had already endeavored to contemplate the likelihood of something
+of this kind happening, with equanimity, and there was nothing
+incredible about the story. The men of the Pacific Squadron were
+frequently in Victoria, and steamers crossed to Vancouver every day; but
+now probability had changed to what appeared to be certainty, he was
+sensible almost of dismay. At the same time, the restraint which had
+counted most with him was suddenly removed, and he turned to Saxton with
+a little decisive gesture. He certainly owed Devine nothing, and his
+confederate had, when he needed it badly, shown him what he fancied was,
+in part, at least, genuine kindness.
+
+"Well," he said, "I will do what I can."
+
+"Then," said Saxton, drily, "you had better do it soon. Devine goes
+across to the Sumas valley, where he's selling land, every now and then,
+and I have reason for believing he's expected there not later than next
+week. I guess he's not likely to take that case with him. It's quite a
+big one. You'll get hold of it, and find out what we want to know, as
+soon as he's gone."
+
+"The question is--How am I to manage it? You wouldn't expect me to pick
+the lock of his safe, presumably?"
+
+Saxton, who appeared reflective, quite failed to notice the irony of the
+inquiry. "Well," he said, "if I figured I could do it, I guess I
+wouldn't let that stand in my way. Still, I'm not sure that he has any,
+and it's even chances he keeps the case under some books or truck of
+that kind in the room he has fixed up as office at the ranch. You see,
+the dollars for the men come straight up from Vancouver every pay-day."
+
+Brooke straightened himself in his chair, with a little shake of his
+shoulders. "Now," he said, "we'll talk of something else. This isn't
+particularly pleasant. I had, of course, realized before I came out that
+one might find it necessary to follow an occupation he had no particular
+taste for in the Dominion of Canada, which is, it seems, the home of the
+adaptable man who can accustom himself to anything, but I really never
+expected that I should consider it an admissible thing to steal my
+employer's papers. That, however, is not the question. Give me a cigar,
+and tell me how you purpose stimulating the progress of this great
+province when you get into the Legislature."
+
+Saxton did so at length, and it was perfectly evident that he saw no
+incongruity between what he purposed to do when in the Legislature and
+the means he adopted of getting there, for he sketched out reforms and
+improvements with optimistic ability. Once or twice a sardonic smile
+crept into Brooke's eyes, for there was no mistaking the fact that the
+man was serious, and then his attention wandered, and he ruminated on
+the position. Saxton appeared curiously well informed as to Devine's
+movements, but though Brooke could find no answer to the question how he
+had obtained the information, it did not, after all, seem to be of any
+great importance, and he once more found himself listening to his
+comrade languidly. Saxton was then declaiming against official
+corruption and incapacity.
+
+"We want to make a clean sweep, and put the best and squarest men into
+office. This country has no use for any other kind," he said.
+
+"That," said Brooke, drily, "is no doubt why you are going in. Anyway, I
+fancy it is getting late, and I have a long ride before me to-morrow."
+
+Saxton smiled good-humoredly. "Well," he said, "I can go just as
+straight as any man when I've made my little pile. Most folks find it a
+good deal easier then."
+
+It seemed to Brooke, who had not found adversity especially conducive
+to uprightness, that there was, perhaps, a certain truth in his
+comrade's notion, but he felt no great inclination to consider the
+question, and in another ten minutes was sinking into sleep. He also
+started before sunrise next morning, and was walking stiffly up the
+climbing trail to the Canopus mine, with the bridle of the jaded horse
+in his hand, when he came upon Barbara Heathcote amidst the pines. She
+apparently noticed his weariness and the mire upon the horse.
+
+"The trail must have been very bad," she said.
+
+"It certainly was," said Brooke, who, because it did not appear
+advisable that any one should suspect he was riding to the Elktail mine,
+had taken the trail to the settlement when he set out. "When there has
+been heavy rain, it usually is. The trail-choppers should have laid down
+logs in the Saverne swamp."
+
+"But what took you that way?" said the girl. "It must have been a
+tremendous round."
+
+Brooke realized that he had been indiscreet, for nobody who wished to
+reach the settlement was likely to cross that swamp.
+
+"As a matter of fact, it is," he said. "As you see, the horse is almost
+played out."
+
+Barbara glanced at him, as he fancied, rather curiously, but she changed
+the subject. "I have a friend from Vancouver, who heard you play at the
+concert, here, and we had hoped you might be persuaded to bring your
+violin across to the ranch to-night. Katty asked Jimmy to tell you that
+we expected you. That is, if you were not too tired."
+
+Brooke felt the blood creep into his face. He longed to go, but he had a
+sense of fitness, and he felt that, although such scruples were a trifle
+out of place in his case, he could not, after the arrangement he had
+made with Saxton, betray the girl's confidence by visiting the ranch
+again as a respected guest. No excuse but the one she had suggested,
+however, presented itself, and it seemed to him advisable to make use of
+it with uncompromising candidness. Her friendliness hurt him, and, since
+it presumably sprang from a mistaken good opinion, it would be a slight
+relief to show her that he was deficient even in courtesy.
+
+"I'm almost afraid I am," he said.
+
+Barbara Heathcote had a good deal of self-restraint, but there was a
+trace of astonishment in her face, and, for a moment, a suspicious
+sparkle in her eyes.
+
+"Then we will, of course, excuse you," she said. "You will, I hope, not
+think it very inconsiderate of me to stop you now."
+
+Brooke said nothing, but tugged at the bridle viciously, and trudged
+forward into the gloom of the pines, while Barbara, who would not admit
+that she had come there in the hope of meeting him, turned homewards
+thoughtfully. As it happened, she also met the freight-packer, who
+brought their supplies up on the way.
+
+"Where is Saverne swamp? Behind the range, isn't it?" she said.
+
+"Yes, miss," said the freighter, pointing across the pines. "Back
+yonder."
+
+"Then if I wished to ride into the settlement I could scarcely go round
+that way?"
+
+The man laughed. "No," he said. "I guess you couldn't. Not unless you
+started the night before, and then you'd have to climb right across the
+big divide. Nobody heading for the settlement would take that trail."
+
+He went on with his loaded beasts, and Barbara stood still, looking down
+upon the forest with a little pink tinge in her cheeks and a curious
+expression in her eyes. Remembering the trace of disconcertion he had
+shown, she very much wished to know where Brooke had really been.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+BARBARA'S RESPONSIBILITY.
+
+
+Darkness had closed down outside, and the lamp was lighted in Devine's
+office, which occupied a projection of the wooden ranch. Behind it stood
+the kitchen, and a short corridor, which gave access to both, led back
+from its inner door to the main building. Another door opened directly
+on to the clearing, and a grove of willows, past which the trail led,
+crept close up to it, so that any one standing among them could see into
+the room. There was, however, little probability of that happening, for
+nobody lived in that stretch of forest, except the miners, whose shanty
+stood almost a mile away. Devine sat opposite the captain of the mine
+across the little table, and he had let his cigar go out, while his face
+was a trifle grim.
+
+"The last clean-up was not particularly encouraging, Tom," he said.
+
+Wilkins nodded, and there was a trace of concern in his face, which was
+seamed and rugged, for he was one of the old-time prospectors, who,
+trusting solely to their practical acquaintance with the rocks, had
+played a leading part in the development of the mineral resources of
+that province.
+
+"The trouble is that the next one's going to be worse," he said. "The
+pay-dirt's getting scarcer as we cut further in, and I have a notion
+that the boys are beginning to notice it now and then, though there's
+not a man in the crowd who would make his grub prospecting. They're
+road-makers, most of them."
+
+Devine glanced at the little leather-bound book he held, in which was
+entered the net yield of gold from the ore the stamps crushed down, and
+noted the steady decrease.
+
+"It's quite plain to me that the vein is working out," he said. "It
+remains to be seen whether we'll strike better rock with the adit on the
+different level. I don't notice very many signs of that yet."
+
+Wilkins shook his head. "I guess I haven't seen any for a week, and
+we're spending quite a pile of dollars trying to hold the hillside up.
+The signs were all on top," he said. "There are ranges where you can
+strike it just as sure and easy as falling off a log, but I guess
+something long ago shook these mountains up, and mixed up all the rock.
+There's only one man figures he knows how it was done, and he won't talk
+about it when he's sensible."
+
+"Allonby, of the Dayspring!" said Devine. "Now, the last time we worried
+about the thing you told me you considered our chances good enough to
+put your savings in. Would you feel like doing it to-day? I want the
+information, not the dollars. You know it's generally wisest to be
+straight with me."
+
+"No, sir," said Wilkins, drily, "I wouldn't."
+
+Devine sat thoughtfully silent for a minute or two, and the captain, who
+lighted his cigar again, wondered what was in his mind. He felt
+tolerably certain there was, as usual, a good deal, and that something
+would result from it presently.
+
+"You went through the Dayspring?" Devine said, at length.
+
+"I did. So far as I can figure, it's a mine that will make its living,
+and nothing worth while more. 'Bout two or three cents on the dollar."
+
+"Allonby thinks more of it."
+
+A little incredulous smile crept into the captain's eyes. "When he has
+got most of a bottle of rye whisky into him! Allonby's a skin."
+
+"Well," said Devine, "I'm going over to talk to him, and I needn't keep
+you any longer in the meanwhile. You will remember that only you and I
+have got to know what the Canopus is really doing."
+
+The captain's smile was very expressive as he went out, but when the
+door closed behind him Devine sat still with wrinkled forehead and
+thoughtful eyes while half an hour slipped by. He was, however, not
+addicted to purposeless reflections, and the results of his cogitations
+as a rule became apparent in due time. He cheerfully took risks, or
+chances, as he called them, which the average English business man
+would have shrunk from, for the leaders of the Pacific Slope's
+activities have no time for caution. Life is too short, they tell one,
+to make sure of everything, and it is, in point of fact, not
+particularly long in case of most of them, for there is a significant
+scarcity of old men. Like the rest, he staked his dollars boldly, and
+when he lost them, which happened now and then, accepted it as what was
+to be expected, and usually recouped himself on another deal.
+
+That was why he had bought the Canopus under somewhat peculiar
+circumstances, and extended the workings without concerning himself
+greatly as to whether every stipulation of the Crown mining regulations
+had been complied with, until the mine proved profitable, when it had
+appeared advisable not to court inquiry, which might result in the claim
+being jumped by applying for corrected records. It also explained the
+fact that although he had no safe at the ranch, he had brought up all
+the plans and papers relating to it from his Vancouver office, and kept
+them merely covered by certain dusty books. Nobody who might feel an
+illegitimate interest in them would, he argued, expect to find them
+there.
+
+While he sat there the inner door opened softly, and Barbara, who came
+in noiselessly, laid a hand upon his shoulder. Devine had not, as it
+happened, heard her, but it was significant that he did not start at
+all, and only turned his head a trifle more quickly than usual. Then he
+looked up at her quietly.
+
+"Are you never astonished or put out?" she said. "You didn't expect me?"
+
+Devine smiled a little. "Well," he said, "I don't think I often am. The
+last time I remember, a cinnamon bear ran me up a tree. What brought
+you, anyway?"
+
+"It's getting late," and Barbara sat down. "You have been here two hours
+already. Now, of course, you show very little sign of it, but I can't
+help a fancy that you have been worrying over something the last day or
+two. I suppose one could scarcely expect you to take me into your
+confidence."
+
+"The thing's not big enough to worry over, but I have been thinking
+some. We have struck no gold in the adit, and now when we're waiting for
+the props the Englishman has dropped the rope into the canyon. That
+little contract is going to cost him considerable."
+
+Barbara wondered whether he had any particular reason for watching her,
+or if she only fancied that his gaze was a trifle more observant than
+usual.
+
+"Still, I think he will get a rope across," she said.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Devine, indifferently. "There's grit in him. A curious
+kind of man. Wouldn't take a good offer to work for me, and yet he
+jumped right at those contracts. He's going to find it hard to make
+them pay his grocery bill. I guess he hasn't told you anything?"
+
+"No," said Barbara, a trifle hastily, for once more she felt the keen
+eyes scan her face. "Of course not. Why should he?"
+
+Devine smiled. "If you don't know any reason you needn't ask me. You
+can't make a Britisher talk, anyway, unless he wants to."
+
+He made a little gesture as though to indicate that the subject was not
+worth discussing, and then, taking up a bundle of documents, turned to
+her again.
+
+"You see those papers, Bab? They're plans and Crown patents for the
+mine. I'm going away to-morrow, and can't take them along, so I'll put
+them under that pile of old books yonder. Now, if I was to tell Katty to
+make sure the doors were fast she'd get worrying, but you have better
+nerves, and I'll ask you to see that nobody gets in here until I come
+back again. Nobody's likely to want to, but I'll put a screw in the
+window, and give you the key."
+
+Barbara laughed. "I shall not be afraid. Are the papers valuable?"
+
+"No," said Devine, with a trace of dryness. "Not exactly! In fact, I'm
+not quite sure they would be worth anything to anybody in a month or
+two. Still, the man who got hold of them in the meanwhile might fancy he
+could make trouble for me."
+
+"How?" said Barbara. "You said they mightn't be much use to anybody."
+
+Devine smiled a little, but it was evident that he had considerable
+confidence in the discretion of his wife's sister.
+
+"I can't explain part of it," he said. "When I took hold of the Canopus,
+it didn't seem likely to pay me for my trouble, and I didn't worry about
+the patents or how far they covered what I was doing. Now, if you drive
+beyond the frontage you've made your claim on, it constitutes another
+mine, which isn't covered by your record and belongs to the Crown. It's
+open to any jumper who comes along. Besides, unless you do a good many
+things exactly as the law lays down, your patent mayn't hold good, and
+any one who knows the regulations can re-record the claim."
+
+"That means you or the previous owner neglected one or two formalities,
+and an unscrupulous person who found it out from those papers could take
+the Canopus, or part of it, away from you?"
+
+Devine smiled grimly. "Yes," he said. "That is, he might try."
+
+"I understand," said Barbara. "Still, there are no strangers here, and I
+don't think you have a man who would attempt anything of that kind about
+the mine."
+
+"Or at the canyon?"
+
+Barbara was sensible of a curious little thrill of anger, for Brooke
+was at the canyon, but she looked at him steadily.
+
+"No," she said. "I am quite sure that is the last thing one would expect
+from anybody at the canyon, but if we stay here Katty will be wondering
+what has become of me."
+
+Devine rose and followed her out of the room, and in another half-hour
+the ranch was in darkness. He rode away early next morning, and the big,
+empty living-room seemed lonely to the two women who sat by the window
+when night drew in again. The evening was very still and clear, and the
+chill of the snow was in the motionless air. No sound but the distant
+roar of the river broke the silence, and when the white line of snow
+grew dimmer high up in the dusky blue, and the pines across the clearing
+faded to a blur of shadow, Mrs. Devine shivered a little.
+
+"I suppose quietness is good for one, if only because it isn't very
+nice, but it gets a trifle depressing now and then," she said. "Why
+didn't you ask Mr. Brooke to come across?"
+
+"You may have noticed that he never comes when my brother-in-law is not
+here, and then he brings drawings or estimates of some kind with him."
+
+Mrs. Devine appeared reflective. "Grant has not been away for almost two
+weeks now, and it is quite that time since we have seen Mr. Brooke," she
+said. "Didn't we ask him to come when you had Minnie here?"
+
+"You did," said Barbara, with a faint flush, which the shadows hid. "He
+asked me to excuse him."
+
+"Because Grant was away?"
+
+"No," said Barbara, drily. "That, at least, was not the reason he gave
+me. He said he was--too tired."
+
+Mrs. Devine laughed, for she had noticed the hardness in her sister's
+voice.
+
+"It really must have been exasperating. He should have thought of a
+better excuse," she said. "You have only to hold up a finger at
+Vancouver, and they all flock round, eager to do a good deal more than
+you wish them to, while this flume-builder doesn't seem to understand
+what is implied by a royal invitation. No doubt you will find a way of
+making him realize his contumacy."
+
+"I am almost afraid I shall not have the opportunity."
+
+"And you can't very well attempt to make one, especially as I remember
+now that Grant told me he was very hard at work at the canyon. It would
+be even worse to be told he was too busy, since that implies that one
+has something better to do."
+
+Barbara had a spice of temper, as her sister naturally knew, but she
+smiled at this, for she was unwilling to admit, even to herself, and
+much less to anybody else, that she felt the slightest irritation at the
+fact that Brooke had shown no eagerness to avail himself of the
+invitation she had given him. Still, she was, on this score, very far
+from feeling pleased with him.
+
+"I dare say he has," she said.
+
+"Then he is, at least, not doing it very successfully. The rope--I
+forgot how much Grant said it cost--fell into the canyon."
+
+"I am not very sure there are many men who would have attempted to put a
+rope across at all," said Barbara, and did not realize for a moment that
+she had, to some extent, betrayed herself. She might, though she did not
+admit it, feel displeased with the flume-builder herself, but that was
+no reason why she should permit another person to disparage his
+capabilities, all of which her sister was probably acquainted with.
+
+"Well," she said, indifferently, "we hope he will be successful. The man
+pleases me, but I would very much like to know what Grant thinks about
+him."
+
+"Then why don't you ask him?"
+
+Mrs. Devine shook her head. "Grant never tells anybody his opinions
+until he's tolerably sure he's right, and I fancy he is a little
+undecided about Mr. Brooke as yet," she said. "Still, it's getting
+shivery, and this silence is a trifle eerie. I'm going to bed."
+
+She lighted a lamp, but when she went out Barbara made her way to her
+room without one. There was nobody else beyond Wilkins' wife in the
+ranch, and she had retired some time ago. The rambling wooden building
+was not dark, but dusky, with black depths of shadow in the corners of
+the rooms, for the dim crepuscular light would, at that season, linger
+almost until the dawn. To some natures it would also have been more
+suggestive of hidden dangers than impenetrable obscurity, but Barbara
+passed up the rickety stairway and down an echoing passage fearlessly,
+and then sat down by the open window of her room, looking out into the
+night. A half-moon was now slowly lifting itself above the
+faintly-gleaming snow, and she could see the pines roll away in sombre
+battalions into the drifting mists below. Their sleep-giving fragrance
+reached her through the dew-cooled air, but she scarcely noticed it as
+she lay with her low basket-chair drawn close up to the window-sill.
+
+It was the flume-builder her thoughts hovered round, and she endeavored
+fruitlessly to define the attraction he had for her, or, as she
+preferred to consider it, the reason for the interest she felt in him.
+She admitted that this existed, and wondered vaguely how much of it was
+due to vanity resulting from a recognition of the fact that it was she
+who had roused him from a state of too acquiescent lethargy. What she
+had seen at the Quatomac ranch had had its significance for her, and she
+had realized the hopelessness of the life he was leading there. Even if
+she had not done so, he had told her, more or less plainly, that it was
+she who had given him new aspirations, and re-awakened his sense of
+responsibility. That, perhaps, accounted for a good deal, since she was
+endued with the compassionate maternal instinct which, when it finds no
+natural outlet, prompts many women to encourage, and on opportunity,
+shelter the beaten down and fallen.
+
+It was, however, evident that the flume-builder did not exactly come
+under that category. Indeed, of late, his daring and pertinacity had won
+her admiration as well as sympathy, and that led her to the question
+what his aspirations pointed to. She would not consider it, for the
+fashion in which she had once or twice felt his eyes dwell upon her face
+was, in that connection, almost unpleasantly suggestive. Then she
+wondered why the fact that he had not long ago excused himself from
+spending an evening in her company at the ranch should have hurt her, as
+she now almost admitted that it did. It was, she decided, not exactly
+due to pique or wounded vanity, for, though very human in many respects,
+she, at least, considered herself too strong for either. That, however,
+brought her no nearer any answer which commended itself to her.
+
+The man was less brilliant than several she had met. She could not even
+be sure that there were not grave defects in his character, and he was,
+in the meanwhile, a mere flume-builder. Yet he was different from those
+other men, though, since the difference was by no means altogether in
+his favor, it was almost irritating that her thoughts should dwell upon
+him, to the exclusion of the rest. There was presumably a reason for
+this, but she made a little impatient movement, and resolutely put aside
+the subject as one suggested itself. It was, she decided, altogether
+untenable, and, in fact, preposterous.
+
+Still, she felt far from sleepy, and sat still, shivering a little now
+and then, while the moon rose higher above the snow, until its faint
+light drove back the shadows from the swamp. The clustering pines shook
+off their duskiness, and grew into definite tracery; an owl that hooted
+eerily flitted by on soundless wing, and she felt the silence become
+suddenly almost overwhelming. There was no wind that she could feel, but
+she could hear the little willow leaves stirring, it seemed, beneath the
+cooling dew, for the sound had scarcely strength enough to make a
+tangible impression upon her senses. It, however, appeared to grow a
+trifle louder, and she found herself listening with strained attention
+when it ceased awhile, until it rose again, a trifle more clearly. She
+glanced at the cedars above the clearing, but they stood sombre and
+motionless in silent ranks, and she leaned forward in her chair with
+heart beating more rapidly than usual as she wondered what made those
+leaves move. They were certainly rustling now, while the ranch was very
+silent, and the rest of the clearing altogether still.
+
+Then a shadow detached itself from the rest, and its contour did not
+suggest that of a slender tree. It increased in length, and, remembering
+Devine's papers, she rose with a little gasp. Her sister, as he had
+pointed out, had delicate nerves, Mrs. Wilkins was dull of hearing, and,
+as the men's shanty stood almost a mile away, it was evident that she
+must depend upon her own resources. She stood still, quivering a little,
+for almost a minute, and then with difficulty repressed a cry when the
+dim figure of a man appeared in the clearing. Two minutes later she
+slipped softly into the room where Katty Devine lay asleep, and opened a
+cupboard set apart for her husband's use, while, when she flitted across
+the stream of radiance that shone in through the window, she held an
+object, that gleamed with a metallic lustre, clenched in one hand.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+BROOKE ATTEMPTS BURGLARY.
+
+
+The half-moon Barbara watched from her window floated slowly above the
+serrated tops of the dusky pines when Brooke groped his way through
+their shadow across a strip of the Englishman's swamp. The ranch which
+he was making for rose darkly before him with the willows clustering
+close up to that side of it, and he stopped and stood listening when he
+reached them. The night was very still, so still, indeed, that the deep
+silence vaguely troubled him. High above the climbing forests great
+ramparts of never-melting snow gleamed against the blue, and standing
+there, hot, breathless, and a trifle muddy, he felt their impressive
+white serenity, until he started at a faint rattle in the house. It
+ceased suddenly, but it had set his heart throbbing unpleasantly fast,
+though he was sensible of a little annoyance with himself because this
+was the case.
+
+There was nothing he need fear, and he was, indeed, not quite sure that
+the prospect of facing a physical peril would have been altogether
+unpleasant then. Devine was away, the women were doubtless asleep, and
+it was the fact that he was about to creep like a thief into a house
+where he had been hospitably welcomed which occasioned his uneasiness.
+It was true that he only meant to acquire information which would enable
+him to recover the dollars he had been defrauded of, but the reflection
+brought him no more consolation than it had done on other occasions when
+he had been sensible of the same disgust and humiliation.
+
+He was, however, at the same time sensible of a faint relief, for the
+position had been growing almost intolerable of late, and, though he
+shrank from the revelation, it seemed preferable that Barbara Heathcote
+should see him in the true light at last. This, it was evident, must
+happen ultimately, and now it would, at least, dispense with the hateful
+necessity of continuing the deception. He had also, though that appeared
+of much less importance then, met with further difficulties at the
+canyon, and he realized almost with content that Devine would in all
+probability pay him nothing for the uncompleted work. He did not wish to
+feel that he owed Devine anything.
+
+In the meanwhile a little bent branch from which the bruised leaves
+drooped limply caught his eye, for he had trained his powers of
+observation following the deer at the ranch, and moving a trifle he
+noticed one that was broken. It was evident that somebody had recently
+forced his way through the thicket towards the house, and he wondered
+vacantly why anyone should have done so when a good trail led round the
+copse. The question would probably not have occupied his attention at
+any other time, but just then he was glad to seize upon anything that
+might serve to distract his thoughts from the purpose he had on hand.
+
+He could not, however, stay there considering it, and following the bend
+of the willows he came to the door of the ranch kitchen, behind which
+the office stood, and once more he stopped to listen. There was nothing
+audible but the distant roar of the canyon, and, though nobody could see
+him, he felt his face grow hot as he laid one hand upon the door and
+inserted the point of a little steel bar in the crevice. Devine's office
+was isolated from the rest of the ranch, but Brooke felt that if anybody
+heard the sound he expected to make he would not be especially sorry. He
+would not abandon his project, but he could have borne anything that
+made it impracticable with equanimity.
+
+The door, however, somewhat to his astonishment, swung open at a touch,
+and he crept in noiselessly with an even greater sense of degradation.
+The inmates of the ranch were, it seemed, wholly unsuspecting, and he
+whom they had treated with gracious kindliness was about to take a
+shameful advantage of their confidence. Still, he crossed the kitchen
+carrying the little bar and did not stop until he reached the office
+door. This stood ajar, but he stood still a moment in place of going in,
+longing, most illogically, for any interruption. The ranch seemed
+horribly and unnaturally still, for he could not hear the sound of the
+river now, until there was a low rustle that set him quivering.
+Somebody, it appeared, was moving about the room in front of him. Then a
+board creaked sharply, and with every nerve strung up he drew the door a
+trifle open.
+
+A faint stream of radiance shone in through the window, but it fell upon
+the wall opposite, and the rest of the room was wrapped in shadow, in
+which he could just discern a dim figure that moved stealthily. It was
+evidently a man who could have come there with no commendable purpose,
+and as he recognized this a somewhat curious thing happened, for
+Brooke's lips set tight, and he clenched the steel bar in a fit of
+venomous anger. It did not occur to him that his own object was, after
+all, very much the same as the stranger's, and creeping forward
+noiselessly with eyes fixed on the dusky figure he saw it stoop and
+apparently move a book that stood on what seemed to be a box. That
+movement enabled him to gain another yard, and then he stopped again,
+bracing himself for the grapple, while the dim object straightened
+itself and turned towards the light.
+
+Brooke could hear nothing but the throbbing of his heart, and for a
+moment his eyes grew hazy; but that passed, and he saw the man hold up
+an object that was very like a tin case. He moved again nearer the
+light, and Brooke sprang forward with the bar swung aloft. Quick as he
+was, the stranger was equally alert, and stepped forward instead of
+back, while next moment Brooke looked into the dully glinting muzzle of
+a pistol.
+
+"Stop right where you are!" a voice said.
+
+Brooke did as he was bidden, instinctively. Had there been any
+unevenness in the voice he might have risked a rush, but the grim
+quietness of the order was curiously impressive, and for a second or two
+the men stood tense and motionless, looking at one another with hands
+clenched and lips hard set Brooke recognized the intruder as a man who
+wheeled the ore between the mine and stamps, and remembered that he had
+not been there very long.
+
+"What do you want here?" he said, for the silence was getting
+intolerable.
+
+The man smiled grimly, though he did not move the pistol, and his eyes
+were unpleasantly steady.
+
+"I was going to ask you the same thing, but it don't count," he said.
+"There's a door yonder, and you have 'bout ten seconds to get out of it.
+If you're here any longer you're going to take tolerably steep chances
+of getting hurt."
+
+Brooke realized that the warning was probably warranted, but he stood
+still, stiffening his grasp on the bar, for to vacate the position was
+the last thing he contemplated. Barbara Heathcote was in the ranch, and
+he did not remember that she had also two companions then. Nor did he
+know exactly what he meant to do, that is, while the stranger eyed him
+with the same unpleasant steadiness, for it was evident that a very
+slight contraction of his forefinger would effectually prevent him doing
+anything. Then while they stood watching each other breathlessly for a
+second or two a door handle rattled and Brooke heard a rustle of
+draperies.
+
+"Look behind you!" said the stranger, sharply.
+
+Brooke, too strung up to recognize the risk of the proceeding, swung
+round almost before he heard him, and then gasped with consternation,
+for Barbara stood in the entrance holding up a light. She was, however,
+not quite defenseless, as Brooke realized when he saw the gleaming
+pistol in her hand. Next moment his folly, and the fact that the
+stranger had also seen it, became evident, for there was a hasty patter
+of feet, and when Brooke turned again he had almost gained the other
+door of the room. Barbara, who had moved forward in the meanwhile,
+however, now stood between him and it, and turning half round he raised
+the pistol menacingly. Then with hand clenched hard upon the bar Brooke
+sprang.
+
+There was a flash and a detonation, the acrid smoke drove into his eyes,
+and he fell with a crash against the door, which was flung to in front
+of him. He had, as he afterwards discovered, struck it with his head and
+shoulder, but just then he was only sensible of an unpleasant dizziness
+and a stinging pain in his left arm. Then he leaned somewhat heavily
+against the door, and he and the girl looked at each other through the
+filmy wisps of smoke that drifted athwart the light, while a rapid
+patter of footsteps grew less distinct. Barbara was somewhat white in
+face, and her lips were quivering.
+
+"Are you hurt?" she said, and her voice sounded curiously strained.
+
+"No," said Brooke, with a little hollow laugh. "Not seriously, anyway.
+The fellow flung the door to in my face, and the blow must have partly
+dazed me. That reminds me that I'm wasting time. Where is he now?"
+
+Barbara made a little forceful gesture. "Halfway across the clearing, I
+expect. You cannot go after him. Look at your arm."
+
+Brooke turned his head slowly, for the dizziness he was sensible of did
+not seem to be abating, and saw a thin, red trickle drip from the sleeve
+of his jean jacket, which the moonlight fell upon.
+
+"I scarcely think it's worth troubling about. The arm will bend all
+right," he said. "Still, perhaps, you wouldn't mind very much if I took
+this thing off."
+
+He seized the edge of the jacket, and then while his face went awry let
+his hand drop again.
+
+"It might, perhaps, be better to cut the sleeve," he said. "Could you
+run this knife down the seam? The jean is very thin."
+
+The girl's hand shook a little as she opened the knife he passed her,
+and just then a cry came down faintly from one of the rooms above.
+Barbara swung round swiftly, and moved into the corridor.
+
+"Nothing very dreadful has happened, and I am coming back in a minute or
+two, but whatever you do don't come down," she said authoritatively, and
+Brooke heard a door swing to above.
+
+Then she came towards him quietly, and laid a hand on his shoulder.
+
+"Keep still, and I will not be long. Katty is apt to lose her head," she
+said.
+
+Her fingers still quivered a little, but she was deft in spite of it,
+and when the slit sleeve fell away Brooke sat down on the table with a
+little smile.
+
+"Very sorry to trouble you," he said. "I don't know much about these
+things, but the artery evidently isn't cut, and I don't think the bone
+is touched. That means there can't be very much harm done. Would you
+mind tying my handkerchief tightly round it where I've laid my finger?"
+
+Barbara, who did so, afterwards sat down in the nearest chair, for she
+felt a trifle breathless as well as somewhat limp, and there was an
+embarrassing silence, while for no very apparent reason they now avoided
+looking at one another. A little filmy smoke still drifted about the
+room, and a short steel bar, a tin case, and a litter of papers lay
+between them on the floor. There were red splashes on one or two of the
+latter.
+
+"The man must have dropped them," said Barbara, quietly, though her
+voice was still not quite her usual one. "He, of course, brought the bar
+to open the door with."
+
+Brooke did not answer the last remark.
+
+"I fancy he dropped them when he flung the door in my face," he said.
+
+"Of course!" said Barbara. "He had his hands full."
+
+The point did not seem of the least importance to her, but she was
+shaken, and felt that the silence which was growing significant would be
+insupportable. Then a thought struck her, and she looked up suddenly at
+the man.
+
+"But, now, I remember, you had the bar," she said.
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, very simply, though his face was grim. "I certainly
+had."
+
+The girl had turned a little so that the light shone upon her, and he
+saw the faint bewilderment in her eyes. It, however, vanished in a
+moment or two, but Brooke decided that if he guessed her thoughts
+correctly he had done wisely in admitting the possession of the bar.
+
+"Of course! You hadn't a pistol, and it was, no doubt, the only thing
+you could find," she said. "I'm afraid I did not even remember to thank
+you, but to tell the truth I was too badly frightened to think of
+anything."
+
+Brooke nodded comprehendingly, but Barbara noticed that the blood was in
+his cheeks and he smiled in a very curious fashion.
+
+"I scarcely think I deserve any thanks," he said.
+
+Barbara made a little gesture. "Pshaw!" she said. "You are not always so
+conventional, and both I and Grant Devine owe you a great deal. The man
+must have been a claim-jumper, and meant to steal those papers. They
+are--the plans and patents of the Canopus."
+
+She stopped a moment, and then, seeing Brooke had noticed the momentary
+pause, continued, with a little forced laugh and a flush in her cheeks,
+"That was native Canadian caution asserting itself. I am ashamed of it,
+but you must remember I was rather badly startled a little while ago.
+There is no reason why I should not tell--you--this, or show you the
+documents."
+
+Brooke made a little grimace as though she had hurt him physically.
+
+"I think there is," he said.
+
+The girl stared at him a moment, and then he saw only sympathy in her
+eyes.
+
+"I'm afraid my wits have left me, or I would not have kept you talking
+while you are in pain. Your arm hurts?" she said.
+
+"No," said Brooke, drily. "The arm is, I feel almost sure, very little
+the worse. Hadn't you better pick the papers up? You will excuse me
+stooping to help you. I scarcely think it would be advisable just now."
+
+Barbara knelt down and gathered the scattered documents up, while the
+man noticed the curious flush in her face when one of them left a red
+smear on her little white fingers. Rising, she held them up to him half
+open as they had fallen, and looked at him steadily.
+
+"Will you put them straight while I find the band they were slipped
+through?" she said.
+
+Brooke fancied he understood her. She had a generous spirit, and having
+in a moment of confusion, when she was scarcely capable of thinking
+concisely, suggested a doubt of him, was making amends in the one
+fashion that suggested itself. Then she turned away, and her back was
+towards him as she moved slowly towards the door, when a plan of the
+Canopus mine fell open in his hand. The light was close beside him, but
+he closed his eyes for a moment and there was a rustle as the papers
+slipped from his fingers, while when the girl turned towards him his
+face was awry, and he looked at her with a little grim smile.
+
+"I am afraid they are scattered again," he said. "It was very clumsy of
+me, but I find it hurts me to use my left hand."
+
+Barbara thrust the papers into the case. "I am sorry I didn't think of
+that," she said. "Even if you don't appreciate my thanks you will have
+to put up with my brother-in-law's, and he is a man who remembers. It
+might have cost him a good deal if anybody who could not be trusted had
+seen those papers--and now no more of them. Take that canvas chair, and
+don't move again until I tell you."
+
+Brooke made no answer, and Barbara went out into the corridor.
+
+"Will you dress as quickly as you can, Katty, and come down," she said.
+"I don't know where you keep the decanters, and I want to give Mr.
+Brooke, who is hurt a little, a glass of wine."
+
+Brooke protested, but Barbara laughed as she said, "It will really be a
+kindness to Katty, who is now, I feel quite sure, lying in a state of
+terror, with everything she dare reach out to get hold of rolled about
+her head."
+
+It was three or four minutes later when Mrs. Devine appeared, and
+Barbara turned towards her, speaking very quietly.
+
+"There is nothing to be gained by getting nervous now," she said. "A man
+came in to steal Grant's papers about the mine, and Mr. Brooke, who saw
+him, crept in after him, though he had only a little bar, and the man
+had a pistol. I fancy Grant is considerably indebted to him, and we
+must, at least, keep him here until one of the boys brings up the
+settlement doctor."
+
+Brooke rose to his feet, but Barbara moved swiftly to the door and
+turned the key in it.
+
+"No," she said, decisively. "You are not going away when you are
+scarcely fit to walk. Katty, you haven't brought the wine yet."
+
+Brooke sat down again, and making no answer, looked away from her, for
+though he would greatly have preferred it he scarcely felt capable of
+reaching his tent. Then there was silence for several minutes until Mrs.
+Devine came back with the wine.
+
+"You are going to stay here until your arm is seen to. My husband would
+not be pleased if we did not do everything we could for you," she said.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+BROOKE MAKES A DECISION.
+
+
+It was the second morning after the attempt upon the papers, and Brooke
+lay in a basket chair on the little verandah at the ranch. In spite of
+the settlement doctor's ministrations his arm was a good deal more
+painful than he had expected it to be, his head ached; and he felt
+unpleasantly lethargic and limp. It, however, seemed to him that this
+wound was not sufficiently serious to account for this, and he wondered
+vaguely whether it resulted from too strenuous physical exertion coupled
+with the increasing mental strain he had borne of late. That question
+was, however, of no great importance, for he had a more urgent one to
+grapple with, and in the meanwhile it was pleasant to lie there and
+listen languidly while Barbara talked to him.
+
+The sunshine lay bright upon the climbing pines which filled the
+listless air with resinous odors, but there was restful shadow on the
+verandah, and wherever the eye wandered an entrancing vista of gleaming
+snow. Brooke had, however, seen a good deal of snow, and floundered
+through it waist-deep, already, and it was the girl who sat close at
+hand, looking, it seemed to him, refreshingly cool and dainty in her
+loose white dress, his gaze most often rested on. Her quiet graciousness
+had also a soothing effect upon the man who had risen unrefreshed after
+a night of mental conflict which had continued through the few brief
+snatches of fevered sleep. Brooke felt the need of moral stimulant as
+well as physical rest, for the struggle he had desisted from for the
+time was not over yet.
+
+He was tenacious of purpose, but it had cost him an effort to adhere to
+the terms of his compact with Saxton, and it was with a thrill of
+intense disgust he realized how far it had led him when he came upon the
+thief, for there was no ignoring the fact that it would be very
+difficult to make any great distinction between them. It had also become
+evident that he could not continue to play the part Saxton had allotted
+him, and yet if he threw it over he stood to lose everything his
+companion, who was at once a reproach to him and an incentive to a
+continuance in the career of deception, impersonated. Her society and
+his few visits to the ranch had shown him the due value of the
+refinement and congenial environment which no man without dollars could
+hope to enjoy, and re-awakened an appreciation of the little amenities
+and decencies of life which had become scarcely more than a memory to
+him. With the six thousand dollars in his hands he might once more
+attain them, but it was now evident that the memory of how he had
+accomplished it would tend to mar any satisfaction he could expect to
+derive from this. He could, in the meanwhile, neither nerve himself to
+bear the thought of the girl's scorn when she realized what his purpose
+had been, nor bid her farewell and go back to the aimless life of
+poverty. One thing alone was certain. Devine's papers were safe from
+him.
+
+He lay silent almost too long, watching her with a vague longing in his
+gaze, for her head was partly turned from him. He could see her face in
+profile, which accentuated its clean chiselling, while her pose
+displayed the firm white neck and fine lines of the figure the thin
+white dress flowed away from. He had also guessed enough of her
+character to realize that it was not to any approach to physical
+perfection she owed most of her attractiveness, for it seemed to him
+that she brought with her an atmosphere of refinement and tranquillity
+which nothing that was sordid or ignoble could breathe in. Perhaps she
+felt his eyes upon her, for she turned at last and glanced at him.
+
+"I have been thinking--about that night," she said.
+
+"You really shouldn't," said Brooke, who felt suddenly uneasy. "It isn't
+worth while."
+
+Barbara smiled. "That is a point upon which opinions may differ, but I
+understand your attitude. You see, I have been in England, and you
+apparently believe it the correct thing to hide your light under a
+bushel there."
+
+"No," said Brooke, drily, "at least, not all of us. In fact, we are not
+averse from graciously permitting other folks, and now and then the
+Press, to proclaim our good deeds for us. I don't know that the more
+primitive fashion of doing it one's self isn't quite as tasteful."
+
+Barbara shook her head. "There are," she said, "several kinds of
+affectation, and I am not to be put off. Now, you are quite aware that
+you did my brother-in-law a signal service, and contrived to get me out
+of a very unpleasant, and, I fancy, a slightly perilous situation."
+
+The color deepened a little in Brooke's face, and once more he was
+sensible of the humiliation that had troubled him on previous occasions,
+as he remembered that it was by no means to do Devine a service he had
+crept into the ranch. It was a most unpleasant feeling, and he had
+signally failed to accustom himself to it.
+
+"I really don't think there was very much risk," he said. "Besides, you
+had a pistol."
+
+Barbara laughed softly. "I never fired off a pistol in my life, and I
+almost fancy there was nothing in the one in question."
+
+"Didn't you notice whether there were any cartridges in the chamber?"
+
+"No," said Barbara. "I'm not sure I know which the chamber is, but I
+pressed something I supposed to be the trigger, and it only made a
+click."
+
+Brooke glanced at her a trifle sharply. "You meant to fire at the man?"
+
+"I'm afraid I did. Was it very dreadful? He was there with an unlawful
+purpose, and I saw his eyes grow wicked and his hand tighten just as you
+sprang at him. Still, I was almost glad when the pistol did not go off."
+
+She seemed to have some difficulty in repressing a shiver at the
+recollection, and Brooke sat silent for a moment or two with his heart
+throbbing a good deal faster than usual. He could guess what that effort
+had cost his companion, and that it was his peril which had nerved her
+to overcome her natural shrinking from taking life. Perhaps Barbara
+noticed the effect her explanation had on him, and desired to lessen it,
+for she said, "It really was unpleasant, but I remembered that you had
+come there to ensure the safety of my brother-in-law's property, and one
+is permitted to shoot at a thief in this country."
+
+Brooke, who could not help it, made a little abrupt movement, and felt
+his face grow hot as he wondered what she would think of him if she knew
+the purpose that had brought him there. The fact that she seemed quite
+willing to believe that one was warranted in firing at a thief had also
+its sting.
+
+"Of course!" he said. "I am, however, inclined to think you saved my
+life. The man probably saw your hand go up and that made him a trifle
+too precipitate. Still, perhaps, he only wanted to look at your
+brother-in-law's papers and had no intention of stealing anything."
+
+Barbara, who appeared glad to change the subject, smiled.
+
+"Admitting that, I can't see any great difference," she said. "The man
+who runs a personal risk to secure a wallet with dollar bills in it that
+belongs to somebody else naturally does not expect commendation, or
+usually get it, but it seems to me a good deal meaner thing to steal a
+claim by cunning trickery. For instance, one has a certain admiration
+for the train robbers across the frontier. For two or three
+road-agents--and there are not often more--to hold up and rob a train
+demands, at least, a good deal of courage, but to plunder a man by
+prying into his secrets is only contemptible. Don't you think so?"
+
+Brooke winced beneath her gaze.
+
+"Well," he said slowly, "I suppose it is. Still, you see there may be
+excuses even for such a person."
+
+"Excuses! Surely--you--do not feel capable of inventing any for a
+claim-jumper?"
+
+Brooke felt that in his case there were, at least, one or two, but he
+had sufficient reasons for not making them clear to the girl.
+
+"Well," he said, "I wonder if you could make any for a train-robber?"
+
+Barbara appeared reflective. "We will admit that the dishonesty is the
+same in both cases, though that is not quite the point. The men who hold
+a train up, however, take a serious personal risk, and stake their lives
+upon their quickness and nerve. They have nobody to fall back upon, and
+must face the results if the courage of any of the passengers is equal
+to theirs. Daring of that kind commands a certain respect. The
+claim-jumper, on the contrary, must necessarily proceed by stealth, and,
+of course, rarely ventures on an attempt until he makes sure that the
+law will support him, because the man he means to rob has neglected some
+trivial requirement."
+
+"Then it is admissible to steal, so long as you do it openly and take a
+personal risk? Still, I believe I have heard of claim-jumpers being
+shot, though I am not quite sure that it happened in Canada."
+
+Barbara laughed. "They probably deserved it. It is not admissible to
+steal under any circumstances, but the safer and more subtle forms of
+theft are especially repellent. Now, I think I have made out my case for
+the train-robber, but I cannot see why you should constitute yourself an
+advocate for the claim-jumper."
+
+Brooke contrived to force a smile. "It is," he said, "often a little
+difficult to make sure of one's motives, but we can, at least, take it
+for granted that the man who robs a train is the nobler rascal."
+
+Barbara, who appeared thoughtful, sat silent awhile. "It was fortunate
+you arrived when you did that night," she said, meditatively. "Still, as
+you could not well have known the man meant to make the attempt, or have
+expected to find anybody still awake at the ranch, it seems an almost
+astonishing coincidence."
+
+Though he surmised that no notion of what had brought him there had
+entered his companion's mind, Brooke felt hot to the forehead now, for
+he was unpleasantly sensible that the girl was watching him. An
+explanation that might have served also suggested itself to him, but he
+felt that he could not add to his offences.
+
+"It certainly was," he said, languidly. "I have, however, heard of
+coincidences that were more astonishing still."
+
+Barbara nodded. "No doubt," she said. "We will let it go at that. As you
+may have noticed, we are now and then almost indecently candid in this
+country, but I agree with my brother-in-law who says that nobody could
+make an Englishman talk unless he wanted to."
+
+"Silence is reputed to be golden," said Brooke, reflectively, "and I
+really think there are cases when it is. At least, there was one I
+figured in when some two or three minutes' unchecked speech cost me more
+dollars than I have made ever since. It happened in England, and I
+merely favored another man with my frank opinion of him. After a thing
+of that kind one is apt to be guarded."
+
+"I think you should cultivate a sense of proportion. Can one make up for
+a single mistake in one direction by erring continually in the opposite
+one? Still, that is not a question we need go into now. You expect to
+get the rope across the canyon very shortly?"
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, whose expression changed suddenly, "I do."
+
+"And then?"
+
+Brooke, who felt the girl's eyes upon him, and understood what she
+meant, made a little gesture. "I don't know. I shall probably take the
+trail again. It does not matter greatly where it may lead me."
+
+There was a curious little vibration he could not quite repress in his
+voice, and both he and his companion were, under the circumstances,
+silent a trifle too long, for there are times when silence is very
+expressive. Then it was Barbara who spoke, though she felt that what she
+said was not especially appropriate.
+
+"You will be sorry to go?"
+
+Brooke looked at her steadily, with his lips set, and, though she did
+not see this, his fingers quivering a little, for he realized at last
+what it would cost him to leave her. For a moment a hot flood of passion
+and longing threatened to sweep him away, but he held it in check, and
+Barbara only noticed the grimness of his face.
+
+"What answer could I make? The conventional one demanded scarcely fits
+the case," he said, and his laugh rang hollow.
+
+"But the dam will not be finished," said Barbara, who realized that she
+had made an unfortunate start.
+
+Again Brooke sat silent. It seemed folly to abandon his purpose, and he
+wondered whether he would have sufficient strength of will to go away.
+It was also folly to stay and sink further under the girl's influence,
+when the revelation he shrank from would, if he persisted in his attempt
+to recover his dollars, become inevitable. Still, once he left the
+Canopus he must go back to a life of hardship and labor, and, in spite
+of the humiliation and fear of the future he often felt, the present was
+very pleasant. On the other hand there was only scarcity, exposure to
+rain and frost, and bitter, hopeless toil. He sat very still with one
+hand closed, not daring to look at his companion until she spoke again.
+
+"You say you do not know where the trail may lead you, and you do not
+seem to care. One would fancy that was wrong," she said.
+
+"Why?"
+
+Barbara turned a little, and looked at him with a faint sparkle in her
+eyes. "In this province the trail the resolute man takes usually leads
+to success. We want bridges and railroad trestles, forests cleared, and
+the valleys lined with roads. You can build them."
+
+Brooke shook his head, though her confidence in him, as well as her
+optimism, had its due effect.
+
+"I wish I was a little more sure," he said. "The difficulty, as I think
+I once pointed out, is that one needs dollars to make a fair start
+with."
+
+"They are, at least, not indispensable, as the history of most of the
+men who have done anything worth while in the province shows. Isn't
+there a certain satisfaction in starting with everything against one?"
+
+"Afterwards, perhaps. That is, if one struggles through. There is,
+however, one learns by experience, really very little satisfaction at
+the time, especially if one scarcely gets beyond the start at all."
+
+Barbara smiled a little, though she looked at him steadily. "You," she
+said, "will, I think, go a long way. In fact, if it was a sword I gave
+you, I should expect it of you."
+
+Brooke came very near losing his head just then, though he realized
+that, after all, the words implied little more than a belief in his
+capabilities, and for a few insensate moments he almost decided to stay
+at the Canopus and make the most of his opportunities. Saxton, he
+reflected, might put sufficient pressure upon Devine to extort the six
+thousand dollars from him without the necessity for his part becoming
+apparent at all. With that sum in his hands there was, he felt, very
+little he could not attain, and then he shook off the deluding fancy,
+for it once more became apparent that the deed, which gave Saxton the
+hold he wished for upon Devine would, even if she never heard of it,
+stand as barrier between Barbara Heathcote and him.
+
+"One feels inclined to wonder now and then whether success does not
+occasionally, at least, cost the man who achieves it more than it is
+worth," he said. "The actual record of the leaders one is expected to
+look up to might, in that connection, provide one with a fund of
+somewhat astonishing information."
+
+Barbara made a little gesture of impatience. "Is the poor man the only
+one who can be honest?"
+
+"One would, at least, feel inclined to fancy that the man who is unduly
+honest runs a serious risk of remaining poor."
+
+"I think that is an argument I have very little sympathy with," said
+Barbara. "It is, you see, so easy for the incapable to impeach the
+successful man's honesty. I might even go a little further and admit
+that it is an attitude I scarcely expected from you."
+
+Brooke smiled somewhat bitterly. "You will, however, remember that I
+have made no attempt to persuade you of my own integrity."
+
+Just then, as it happened, Mrs. Devine came into the verandah with a
+packet in her hand.
+
+"These are the papers the man tried to steal," she said. "Since you
+insist upon going back to the canyon to-day I wonder if you would take
+care of them?"
+
+Brooke gasped, and felt the veins swell on his forehead as he looked at
+her. "You wish me to take them away?"
+
+"Of course! My nerves are really horribly unsettled, and I was sent to
+the mountains for quietness. How could any one expect me to get it when
+I couldn't even sleep for fear of that man or some one else coming back
+for these documents?"
+
+"They are, I think, of considerable importance to your husband," said
+Brooke.
+
+"That is precisely why I would like to feel that they were safe in your
+tent. Nobody would expect you to have them there."
+
+Brooke turned his head a little so that he could see Barbara's face.
+
+"I appreciate your confidence," he said, and the girl noticed that his
+voice was a trifle hoarse. "Still, I must point out that I am almost a
+stranger to Mr. Devine and you."
+
+Barbara smiled a little, but there was something that set the man's
+heart beating in her eyes.
+
+"I am not sure that everybody would be so willing to make the most of
+the fact, but I feel quite sure my sister's confidence is warranted,"
+she said. "That, of course, does not sound very nice, but you have made
+it necessary."
+
+Brooke, who glanced curiously at the single seal, laid down the packet,
+and Mrs. Devine smiled. "_I_ feel ever so much easier now that is off my
+mind," she said. "Still, I shall expect you to sleep with the papers
+under your pillow."
+
+She went out, and left him and Barbara alone again, but Brooke knew that
+the struggle was over and the question decided once for all. The girl's
+trust in him had not only made those papers inviolable so far as he was
+concerned, but had rendered a breach with Saxton unavoidable. He knew
+now that he could never do what the latter had expected from him.
+
+"You appeared almost unwilling to take the responsibility," said the
+girl.
+
+Brooke smiled curiously. "I really think that was the case," he said.
+"In fact, your confidence almost hurt me. One feels the obligation of
+proving it warranted--in every respect--you see. That is partly why I
+shall go away the day we swing the first load of props across the
+canyon."
+
+Barbara felt a trace of disconcertion. "But my brother-in-law may ask
+you to do something else for him."
+
+"I scarcely think that is likely," said Brooke, with a little dry smile.
+
+Barbara said nothing further, and when she left him Brooke was once
+more sensible of a curious relief. It would, he knew, cost him a
+strenuous effort to go away, but he would, at least, be freed from the
+horrible necessity of duping the girl, who, it seemed, believed in him.
+When Jimmy arrived that evening to accompany him back to his tent at the
+canyon, and expressed his satisfaction at the fact that he did not appear
+very much the worse, he smiled a trifle drily.
+
+"That," he said, "is a little astonishing. I am, I think, warranted in
+believing myself six thousand dollars worse off than when I went away."
+
+Jimmy stared at him incredulously.
+
+"Well," he said, "I never figured you had that many, and I don't quite
+see how you could have let them get away from you here. Something you
+didn't expect has happened?"
+
+Brooke appeared reflective. "I'm not quite sure whether I expected it or
+not, but I almost hope I did," he said.
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+BROOKE'S BARGAIN.
+
+
+There was a portentous quietness in the little wooden town which did not
+exactly please Mr. Faraday Slocum, the somewhat discredited local agent
+of Grant Devine, as he ascended the steep street from the grocery store.
+The pines closed in upon it, but their sombre spires were growing dim,
+and the white mists clung about them, for dusk was creeping up the
+valley. The latter fact brought Slocum a sense of satisfaction, and at
+the same time a growing uneasiness. He had, as it happened, signally
+failed to collect a certain sum from the store-keeper, who had expressed
+his opinion of him and his doings with vitriolic candor, and it was
+partly as the result of this that very little escaped his notice as he
+proceeded with an ostentatious leisureliness towards his dwelling.
+
+A straggling row of stores and houses, log and frame and galvanized
+iron, jumbled all together in unsightly confusion, stretched away before
+him towards the gap in the forest where the railroad track came in, but
+it was the little groups of men who hung about them which occupied his
+quiet attention. He saluted them with somewhat forced good-humor as he
+went by, but there was no great cordiality in their responses, and some
+of them stared at him in uncompromising silence. There was, he felt, a
+certain tension in the atmosphere, and it was not without a purpose he
+stopped in front of the wooden hotel, where a little crowd had collected
+upon the verandah.
+
+"It's kind of sultry to-night, boys," he said.
+
+Nobody responded for a moment or two, and then there was an unpleasant
+laugh as somebody said, "You've hit it; I guess it is."
+
+Slocum remembered that most of those loungers had been glad to greet
+him, and even hand him their spare dollars, not long ago; but there was
+a decided difference now. He was a capable business man, who could make
+the most of an opportunity, and the inhabitants of the little wooden
+town had shown themselves disposed to regard certain trifling
+obliquities leniently, while they or their friends made satisfactory
+profits on the deals in ranching land and building lots he recommended.
+That, however, was while the boom lasted, but when the bottom had, as
+they expressed it, dropped out, and a good many of them found themselves
+saddled with unmarketable possessions, they commenced to be troubled
+with grave doubts concerning the rectitude of his conduct. Slocum was
+naturally quite aware of this, but he was a man of nerve, and quietly
+walked up the verandah steps.
+
+"It's that hot I must have a drink, boys. Who's coming in with me?" he
+said, genially.
+
+A few months ago a good many of them would have been willing to profit
+by the invitation, but that night nobody moved, and Slocum laughed
+softly.
+
+"Well," he said, "I'm not going to worry you. This is evidently a
+temperance meeting."
+
+He passed into the empty bar alone, and a man who leaned upon the
+counter in his shirt sleeves shook his head as he glanced towards the
+verandah.
+
+"They're not in a good humor to-night. It looks very much as if someone
+has been talking to them?" he said.
+
+Slocum smiled a little, though he had already noticed this, and taken
+precautions the bar-keeper never suspected.
+
+"I guess they'll simmer down. Who has been talking to them?" he said.
+
+"The two ranchers you sold the Hemlock Range to. There was another man
+who'd bought a piece of natural prairie, and it cost him most of five
+dollars before he got through telling them what he thought of you. Now,
+I don't know what their notion is, but I'd light out for a little if I
+was you."
+
+Slocum appeared to reflect. "Well," he said, "I may go to-morrow."
+
+"I'd go to-night," said the bar-keeper, significantly. "I guess it would
+be wiser."
+
+Slocum, who did not consider it necessary to tell him that he quite
+agreed with this, went out, and a few minutes later stopped outside his
+house, which was the last one in the town. A big, rudely-painted sign,
+nailed across the front of it, recommended any one who desired to buy or
+sell land and mineral properties or had mortgages to arrange, to come in
+and confer with the agent of Grant Devine. He glanced back up the
+street, and was relieved to notice that there was nobody loitering about
+that part of it. Then he looked at the forest the trail led into, which
+was shadowy and still, and, slipping round the building, went in through
+the back of it. A woman stood waiting him in a dimly-lighted room, which
+was littered with feminine clothing besides two big valises and an array
+of bulky packages. She was expensively dressed, but her face was
+anxious, and he noticed that her fingers were quivering.
+
+"You're quite ready, Sue?" he said.
+
+The woman pointed to the packages with a little dramatic gesture. "Oh,
+yes," she said. "I'm ready, though I'll have to leave most two hundred
+dollars' worth of clothes behind me. I've no use for taking in plain
+sewing while you think over what you've brought me to in the
+penitentiary."
+
+Slocum smiled drily. "If you hadn't wanted quite so many dry goods, I'm
+not sure it would have come to this, but we needn't worry about that
+just now. Tom will have the horses round in 'bout five minutes. You
+don't figure on taking all that truck along with you?"
+
+"I do," said the woman. "I've got to have something to put on when we
+get to Oregon!"
+
+"Well," said Slocum, grimly, "I'll be quite glad to get out with a whole
+hide, and I guess it couldn't be done if we started with a packhorse
+train or a wagon. I hadn't quite fixed to light out until I got the
+message that Devine, who didn't seem quite pleased with the last
+accounts, was coming in."
+
+"Could you have stood the boys off?"
+
+"I might have done," said Slocum, reflectively. "Still, I couldn't stand
+off Devine. It's dollars he's coming for, and I've got 'bout half the
+accounts call for here."
+
+"You're going to leave him them?"
+
+Slocum laughed. "No," he said. "I guess they'll come in handy in Oregon.
+I'm going to leave him the boys to reckon with. They'll be here with
+clubs soon after the cars come in, and we'll be a league away down the
+trail by then."
+
+A patter of horse hoofs outside cut short the colloquy, though there was
+a brief altercation when the woman once more insisted on taking all the
+packages with her. Slocum terminated it by bundling her out of the door,
+and, when she tearfully consented to mount a kicking pony, swung himself
+to the saddle. Still, for several minutes his heart was in his mouth,
+as he picked his way through the blacker shadows on the skirt of the
+beaten trail, until a man rose suddenly out of them.
+
+"Hallo!" he said. "Where're you going?"
+
+Slocum, leaning sideways, gave his wife's pony a cut with the switch he
+held, and then laughed as he turned to the man.
+
+"I guess that's my business, but I'm going out of town."
+
+"Quite sure?" said the other, who made a sudden clutch at his bridle.
+
+He did not reach it, for Slocum was ready with hand and heel, and the
+switch came down upon the outstretched arm. Then there was a plunge and
+a rapid beat of hoofs, and Slocum, swinging half round in his saddle,
+swept off his hat to the gasping man.
+
+"I guess I am," he said. "You'll tell the boys I'm sorry I couldn't wait
+for them."
+
+Then he struck his wife's horse again. "Let him go," he said. "We'll
+have three or four of them after us in about ten minutes."
+
+The woman said nothing, but braced herself to ride, and, while the beat
+of hoofs grew fainter among the silent pines, the man on foot ran
+gasping up the climbing trail. There was bustle and consternation when
+he reached the wooden town, and, while two or three men who had good
+horses hastily saddled them, the rest collected in clusters which
+coalesced, and presently a body of silent men proceeded towards the
+Slocum dwelling. As they stopped in front of it, the hoot of a whistle
+came ringing across the pines, and there was an increasing roar as a
+train came up the valley. That, however, did not, so they fancied,
+concern them, and they commenced a parley with the local constable, who
+came hurrying after them. His duties consisted chiefly in the raising
+and peddling of fruit, and he had been recommended for the post by
+popular acclaim as the most tolerant man in the settlement, but he was,
+it seemed, not without a certain sense of responsibility.
+
+"What d'you figure on doing with those clubs, boys?" he said.
+
+"Seasoning them," said somebody. "Mine's quite soft and green. Now,
+why're you not taking the trail after Slocum? The province allows you
+for a horse, and Hake Guffy's has three good legs on him, anyway."
+
+The constable waved his hand, deprecatingly. "He fell down and hurt one
+of them hauling green stuff to the depot. I guess I'd have to shove him
+most of the way."
+
+There was a little laughter, which had, however, a trace of grimness in
+it, and one of the men grasped the constable's shoulder.
+
+"Hadn't you better go round and run Jean Frenchy's hogs out of your
+citron patch?" he said.
+
+For a moment the constable appeared about to go, and then his face
+expanded into a genial grin.
+
+"That's not good enough, boys," he said. "I'm not quite so fresh that
+the cows would eat me. What've you come round here for, anyway?"
+
+The man who had spoken made a little gesture of resignation. "Well," he
+said, "if you have got to know, we are going in to see if Slocum has
+left any of the dollars he beat us out of behind him."
+
+"No," said the constable, stoutly. "Nobody's going in there without a
+warrant, unless it's me."
+
+There was a little murmur. The man was elderly, and a trifle infirm,
+which was partly why it had been decided that he was most likely to find
+a use for the provincial pay, but he turned upon the threshold and faced
+the crowd resolutely. Had he been younger, it is very probable that he
+would have been hustled away, but a Western mob is usually, to some
+extent, at least, chivalrous, and there was another murmur of protest.
+
+"Go home!" said one man. "They're not your dollars, anyway."
+
+"Boys," and the old man swung an arm aloft, "I'm here, and I'm going to
+make considerable trouble for the man who lays a hand on me. This is a
+law-abiding country, and Slocum wasn't fool enough to leave anything he
+could carry off."
+
+"We don't want to hurt you," said one of the assembly, "but we're going
+in."
+
+There was a growl of approbation, and the men were closing in upon the
+door when a stranger pushed his way through the midst of them, and then
+swung round and stood facing them beside the constable. He held himself
+commandingly, and, though nobody appeared to recognize him, for darkness
+was closing down, the meaning of his attitude was plain, and the crowd
+gave back a little.
+
+"Go home, boys!" he said. "I'll most certainly have the law of any man
+who puts his foot inside this door."
+
+There was a little ironical laughter, and the crowd once more closed in.
+Half the men of the settlement were present there, and a good many of
+them had bought land from, or trusted their spare dollars to, Slocum.
+
+"Who are you, anyway?" said one.
+
+The stranger laughed. "The man who owns the building. My name's Devine."
+
+It was a bold announcement, for those who heard him were not in the best
+of humors then, or disposed to concern themselves with the question how
+far the principal was acquainted with or responsible for the doings of
+his agent.
+
+"The boss thief!" said somebody. "Get hold of him, and bring him along
+to the hotel. Then, if Thorkell can't lock him up, we'll consider what
+we'll do with him."
+
+"No," said another man. "He'll keep for a little without going bad, and
+we're here to see if Slocum left anything behind him. Break that door
+in!"
+
+It was a critical moment, for there was a hoarse murmur of approbation,
+and the crowd surged closer about the pair. At any sign of weakness it
+would, perhaps, have gone hardly with them, but the elderly constable
+stood very still and quiet, with empty hands, while Devine fumbled
+inside his jacket. Then he swung one foot forward, and his right arm
+rose, until his hand, which was clenched on a dusky object, was level
+with his shoulder.
+
+"Boys," he said, drily, "somebody's going to get hurt in another minute.
+This is my office, and I can't do with any of you inside it to-night."
+
+"Then, if you hand our dollars out, it would suit us most as well," said
+the spokesman.
+
+Devine appeared to laugh softly. "I guess there are very few of them
+there. Anybody who can prove a claim on me will get satisfaction, but
+he'll have to wait. Neither the place nor I will run away, and you'll
+find me right here when you come along to-morrow."
+
+"Are you going to give every man back the dollars Slocum got from him?"
+
+It was evident that the question met with the approbation of the crowd,
+and a less resolute man might have temporized, but Devine laughed openly
+now.
+
+"No," he said, drily. "That's just what I'm not going to do. A man
+takes his chances when he makes a deal in land, and can't expect to cry
+off his bargain when they go against him. Still, if any one will bring
+me proof that Slocum swindled him, I'll see what I can do, but I guess
+it will be very little if some of you destroy the books and papers he
+recorded the deals in. You'll have to wait until to-morrow, while I
+worry through them."
+
+His resolution had its due effect, and the fact that no man could reach
+the threshold until he and the constable had been pulled down counted
+for a good deal, too. The men also wanted no more than they considered
+themselves entitled to, and shrank from what, if it was to prove
+successful, must evidently be a murderous assault upon two elderly men.
+
+"I guess there's sense in that," said one of them. "It's going to be
+quite easy to make sure he don't get out of the settlement."
+
+"I'm for letting him have until to-morrow, anyway," said another.
+"Still, the papers aren't there. Where's John Collier? He picked up some
+books and truck Slocum slung away when he met him on the trail."
+
+"I've got them right here," and another man stepped forward. "I was
+coming in from the ranch when I heard two horses pounding down the
+trail, and jumped clear into the fern. The man who went past me tried to
+sling a package into the gully, but I guess he got kind of rattled when
+I shouted, and dropped the thing. He didn't seem to want to stop, and,
+when he went on at a gallop, I groped round and picked the package up."
+
+Devine lowered the pistol, and turned quietly to the crowd. "There are
+just two courses open to you, boys, and you're going to make mighty
+little but trouble for yourselves by taking one of them. This is my
+office, and so long as I can hold you off nobody's coming in until he's
+asked. I feel quite equal to stopping two or three. Now, if you'll let
+me have those books and go home quietly, I'll have straightened Slocum's
+affairs out by to-morrow, and be ready to see what can be done for you."
+
+The men were evidently wavering, and there was a brief consultation,
+after which the leader turned to Devine.
+
+"We've no use for making any trouble that can be helped, and we'll go
+home," he said. "You can have those books, and a committee will come
+round to see what you've fixed up after breakfast to-morrow."
+
+Devine nodded tranquilly. "I guess you're wise," he said. "Good night,
+boys!"
+
+They went away, and left him to go in with the constable, who came out
+in a few minutes with a contented grin, which suggested that Devine had
+signified his appreciation of his efforts liberally. The latter,
+however, sat down, dusty and worn with an arduous journey, to undertake
+a night's hard work. He had left the Canopus before sunrise, and spent
+most of the day in the saddle, but nobody would have suspected him of
+weariness as he sat, grim and intent of face, before a table littered
+with papers. He had just imposed his will upon an angry crowd, and the
+tension of the past few minutes would have shaken many a younger man,
+but he showed no sign of feeling it, and, as the hours slipped by, only
+rose at intervals to stretch his aching limbs and brush the cigar ash
+from his dust-smeared clothes. This was one of the hard men who, in
+building up their own fortunes, had also laid the foundations of the
+future prosperity of a great province, and a little fatigue did not
+count with him.
+
+The settlement was very still, and the lamp-light paling as the chilly
+dawn crept in, when at last he opened a book that recorded Slocum's
+dealings several years back. There were several folded slips on which he
+had jotted down certain data inside it, and Devine smiled somewhat drily
+as he came upon one entry:--
+
+"24th. 6,000 dollars from Harford Brooke, in purchase of 400 acres bush
+land, Quatomac Valley. Ref. 22, slip B."
+
+Devine turned up 22 B, and read: "Mem. About 150 acres 200-foot pines,
+with gravel sub-soil, and very little mould on top of it. Rest of it
+rock. Oregon man bid 1,000 dollars on the 2nd, but asked for re-survey
+and cried off. 12th. Gave Custer four days' option at 950. 20th. Asked
+the British sucker 6,500, and clinched the deal at 6,000."
+
+Devine closed the book, and sat thoughtfully still for a minute or two.
+The epithet his agent had applied to Brooke carried with it the stigma
+of puerile folly in that country, and Devine had usually very little
+sympathy with the men it could be fittingly attached to. Still, he felt
+that nobody could very appropriately term his contractor a sucker now,
+and he had just discovered that he had been systematically plundered
+himself. Several points which had given him food for reflection also
+became suddenly plain, and he lighted another cigar before he fell to
+work again. He had, however, in the meanwhile decided what course to
+adopt with Brooke when he went back to the Canopus mine.
+
+
+
+
+XX.
+
+THE BRIDGING OF THE CANON.
+
+
+It was a week or two after he undertook the investigation of Slocum's
+affairs, and once more the light was failing, when Devine stood at the
+head of the gully above the canyon. His wife and Barbara were with him,
+and they were about to descend, when a cluster of moving figures
+appeared among the pines on the opposite hillside. So far as Devine
+could make out, they were rolling down two or three small trunks of
+firs.
+
+The river was veiled in white mist now, but the sound of its turmoil
+came up hoarsely out of the growing obscurity, and there was sufficient
+light above to show the rope which spanned the awful chasm. It swept
+downwards in a flattened curve, slender and ethereal, at that distance,
+as a film of gossamer, and lost itself in the gloom of the rocks, across
+the canyon. Barbara, however, fancied she realized what it had cost the
+flume-builder to place it there, and, as he glanced at it, a somewhat
+curious look crept into Devine's eyes. He knew that slender thread of
+steel had only been flung across the hollow at the risk of life and
+limb, and under a heavy nervous strain.
+
+"If we are going down, hadn't we better start?" said Mrs. Devine. "If it
+gets quite dark before we come up, I shall certainly have to stay there
+until to-morrow. In fact, I'm quite willing to let you and Barbara go
+without me now."
+
+Devine smiled. "I'm not sure we'll go at all. It seems to me Brooke
+means to give the thing a private trial before he asks me to come over
+and see it work, and that's why he waited until it was almost dark. Can
+you make him out, Barbara?"
+
+Barbara had, as a matter of fact, already done so, but she realized that
+her sister's eyes were upon her, and for no very apparent reason
+preferred not to admit it.
+
+"It is getting a little shadowy among the pines, and Katty used to tell
+me she had sharper eyes than mine," she said.
+
+Mrs. Devine laughed. "Still," she said, reflectively, "I scarcely think
+I have seen Mr. Brooke quite so often as you have."
+
+Devine glanced at them both a trifle sharply, but there was nothing in
+their faces that gave him a clue to their thoughts. "Well," he said,
+"I'm a good deal older than either of you, but I can make him out myself
+now. As usual, he seems to be doing most of the work."
+
+Nobody said anything further, and the moving figures stopped where the
+rope ran into the shadows of the rocks, while it was a few minutes later
+when a long, dusky object swung out on it. It slid somewhat slowly down
+the incline, and then stopped where the slight curve led upward, and
+remained dangling high above the hidden river. A shout came faintly
+through the roar of water in the gulf below, and the dark mass
+oscillated violently, but otherwise remained immovable.
+
+"What are they doing? Shouldn't it have run all the way across?" asked
+Mrs. Devine.
+
+Devine nodded. "I guess they're 'most pulling their arms off trying to
+haul the thing across," he said. "It should have come itself, but the
+sheave the trolley runs on must have jammed, or they haven't pulled all
+the kinks and snarls out of the rope. It's quite a big log they've
+loaded her with."
+
+The suspended trunk still oscillated, and a faint clinking came up with
+a hoarse murmur of voices from the hollow. Then there was silence, and
+Devine, who pointed to a fallen cedar, took out his cigar-case.
+
+"We'll stay right here, and see the thing out," he said. "I guess the
+boys have quite enough to worry them just now."
+
+Barbara surmised that most of the anxiety would fall on Brooke, and
+wondered why she should feel as eager as she did to see the fir trunk
+safely swung across. The economical handling of mining props was
+naturally not a subject she had any particular interest in, though she
+realized that the success of his venture was of some importance to the
+man who had stretched the rope across the canyon. There was no ostensible
+reason why it should affect her, and yet she was sensible of a curious
+nervous impatience.
+
+In the meanwhile, it was growing darker, and she could not quite see
+what the dim figures across the river were doing. They did not, in fact,
+appear to be doing anything in particular, beyond standing in a group,
+while the rope no longer oscillated. A thin, white mist commenced to
+drift out of the hollow in filmy wisps, and, in a curious fashion,
+suggested the vast depth of it. The silence the roar of the river broke
+through grew more intense as the chill of the distant snow descended,
+and the stately pines seemed to grow older and greater of girth. They
+dwarfed the tiny clustering figures into insignificance, and as iron
+columns and the raw gashes in the side of the gully faded into the
+gathering night, it seemed to Barbara that here in her primeval
+fastnesses Nature ignored man's puny handiwork.
+
+Then it was with a little thrill of anticipation she saw there was a
+movement among the dusky figures at last, but it cost her an effort to
+sit still when one of them appeared to move out on the rope, for she
+felt she knew who it must be. Devine rose sharply, and flung his cigar
+away, while his wife seemed to shiver apprehensively.
+
+"One of them is coming across. Isn't it horribly dangerous?" she said.
+
+Devine nodded. "It depends a good deal on what he means to do, but if he
+figures on clearing the jammed trolley there is a risk, especially to a
+man who has only one sound hand," he said. "They've slung him under the
+spare one. It's most probably Brooke."
+
+Mrs. Devine glanced at Barbara, and fancied that the rigidity of her
+attitude was a trifle significant. The girl, however, said nothing, for
+her lips were pressed together, and she felt a shiver run through her as
+she watched the dusky figure sliding down the curving rope. The rope
+itself was no longer visible, but the dangling shape that moved across
+the horrible gulf was forced up by the whiteness of the drifting mists
+below. She held her breath when it stopped, and swung perilously beside
+the pine trunk which oscillated too, and then clenched her fingers
+viciously as it rose and apparently clutched at something overhead. Then
+she became sensible of the distressful beating of her heart, and that
+the tension was growing unendurable. Dark pines and hillside seemed to
+have faded now, and the dim objects outlined against the sliding mists
+dominated her attention. Still, though they were invisible to her, the
+space between the hoary pines, tremendous rock wall, and never-melting
+snow, formed a fitting arena for that conflict between daring humanity
+and unsubdued Nature.
+
+Barbara never knew how long she sat there with set lips and straining
+eyes, but the time seemed interminable, until at last she gasped when
+Devine, who had been standing as motionless as the pines behind him,
+moved abruptly.
+
+"I guess he has done it," he said. "That man has hard sand in him."
+
+The dusky trunk slid onward; the dangling figure followed it; and a
+hoarse cry, that had a note of exultation in it as well as relief, came
+up when they vanished into the gloom beneath the dark rock's side.
+
+"They've got him, but I guess that's not all they mean," said Devine.
+"Whatever was wrong with it, he has fixed the thing. They've beaten the
+canyon. The sling's working."
+
+Then Barbara, rising, stood very straight, with a curious feeling that
+she had a personal part in those men's triumph. It did not even seem to
+matter when she felt that Mrs. Devine was looking at her.
+
+"Why don't you shout?" said the latter, significantly.
+
+Barbara laughed, but there was a little vibration in her voice her
+sister had not often noticed there.
+
+"If I thought any one could hear me, I certainly would," she said.
+
+They stayed where they were a few minutes, until once more a faint
+creaking and rattling came out of the mist, and an object, that was
+scarcely distinguishable, swung across the chasm. Another followed,
+until Barbara had counted three of them, and Devine laughed drily as
+they turned away.
+
+"It's most of eight miles round by the canyon foot, where one can get
+across by the big redwood log, but I guess they'd have taken the trail
+if Brooke hadn't given them a lead," he said. "It's not easy to
+understand any one, but that's a curious kind of man."
+
+"Is Mr. Brooke more peculiar than the rest of you?" asked Barbara.
+
+Devine seemed to smile, though she could not see him very well.
+
+"Well," he said, drily, "that's rather more than I know, but I have a
+notion that his difficulty is he isn't quite sure what he would be at.
+Now, the man who does one thing at one time, and all with the same
+purpose, is the one who generally gets there first."
+
+"And Brooke does not do that?"
+
+"It kind of seems to me he is being pulled hard two ways at once just
+now," said Devine, with a curious little laugh.
+
+Barbara asked no more questions, and said very little to her sister as
+they walked home through the pines. She could not blot out the picture
+which, for a few intense minutes, she had gazed upon, though it had been
+exasperatingly blurred, and, she felt, considering what it stood for,
+ineffective in itself--a dim, half-seen figure, dwarfed to
+insignificance, swinging across a background of filmy mist. There had
+been nothing at that distance to suggest the intensity of the effort
+which was the expression of an unyielding will, but she had, by some
+subtle sympathy, grasped it all--the daring that recognized the peril
+and disregarded it, and the thrill of the triumph, the wholesome
+satisfaction born of the struggle with the primitive forces of the
+universe which man was meant to wage. This, it seemed to her, was a
+nobler one than the strife of the cities, where wealth was less often
+created than torn or fleeced from one's fellows; for needy humanity
+flowed in to build her homes and prosper by sturdy toil at every fresh
+rolling back of the gates of the wilderness. The miner and the axeman
+led the way; but the big plough oxen and plodding packhorse train
+followed hard along the trails they made. Behind, in long procession,
+jaded with many sorrows, came the outcasts from crowded Eastern lands,
+but there was room, and to spare, for all of them in the new Canaan.
+
+That the man who had bridged the canyon would admit any feelings of the
+kind was, she knew, not to be expected. Men of his description, she had
+discovered, very seldom do, and she could rather fancy him coming fresh
+from such a struggle to discuss the climate or the flavor of a cigar.
+Yet he had once told her that she had brought him a sword, and, as she
+had certainly shivered at his peril, she could, without asking herself
+troublesome questions, now participate in the victory he had won. Still,
+she seemed to feel that one could not draw any very apt comparison
+between him and the stainless hero of the Arthurian legend belted with
+Excalibur, for Brooke was, she fancied, in the phraseology of the
+country, not that kind of man. That, however, appeared of less
+importance, since she had discovered that perfection is apt to pall on
+one.
+
+She had, she decided, permitted this train of thought to carry her
+sufficiently far, when a man appeared suddenly in the shadowy trail. It
+was evident that he did not see them at first, and Barbara fancied he
+was a trifle disconcerted and half-disposed to slip back into the
+undergrowth when he did. He, however, passed them hastily, and Devine
+swung round and looked after him.
+
+"That wasn't one of Brooke's men?" he said.
+
+"No," said Barbara. "I don't think it was. You didn't recognize him,
+Katty?"
+
+Mrs. Devine laughed. "If you didn't, I scarcely fancy there was anything
+to be gained by asking me."
+
+Barbara was not quite pleased with her sister, but she noticed that
+Devine was standing still.
+
+"Was there anything remarkable about the man?" she said.
+
+Devine laughed. "I didn't see his face; but if he's the man I took him
+for, nobody would have expected to meet him here."
+
+Then he turned, and they proceeded towards the ranch, while Barbara, who
+recollected Devine's speech at the canyon, also remembered her sister had
+said she would like to know what her husband really thought of Brooke.
+This had not been very comprehensible to Barbara, who had experienced no
+great trouble in forming what she believed to be an accurate opinion
+concerning the flume-builder. It was her feelings towards him that
+presented the difficulty.
+
+In the meanwhile, Brooke had flung himself down in a folding-chair in
+his tent. He was soaked with perspiration, his hard hands still quivered
+a little from the nervous strain, and his bronzed face was a trifle more
+colorless than usual, but he was, for the time being, sensible of a
+quiet exultation. He had done a difficult and dangerous thing, and the
+flush of success had swept away all his anxieties. He, however, found it
+a trifle difficult to sit still, and was carefully selecting a cigar in
+an attempt to compose himself, when a man came in, and took the chair
+opposite him. Then his face grew a trifle hard, and all sense of
+satisfaction was suddenly reft away from him.
+
+"I scarcely expected you quite so soon, Saxton," he said. "Here are
+cigars; you'll find some drinkables in the box yonder."
+
+Saxton opened the box he pointed to, and then looked at him with a grin
+as he took out a bottle.
+
+"I've no great use for California wine. Bourbon whisky's good enough for
+me," he said. "Who've you been entertaining? Not Devine, anyway."
+
+"Isn't the question a little outside the mark? If you want it, there's
+water with ice in it here. It's from the tail of the glacier."
+
+Saxton laughed. "Then it would take a man 'most an hour and a half to
+bring a pail of it. It's quite easy to tell where you came from. Well,
+I'm here; but on the other occasions it was I who sent for you."
+
+"There is, however, a difference on this one, though I wouldn't like you
+to think that was the reason. The fact is, I've been busy."
+
+"Well," said Saxton, "we'll get down to the business one. Still, how'd
+you get your arm in a sling?"
+
+"Are you sure you don't know?"
+
+"Quite!" and Saxton's sincerity was evident. "How should I?"
+
+"I had fancied you knew all about it by this time, and felt a little
+astonished that you didn't come over, but I see I was mistaken. I tried
+to get hold of Devine's papers, as I promised you, and came upon another
+man attempting the same thing. During the difference of opinion that
+followed he shot me."
+
+Saxton rose, and, kicking his chair aside, condemned himself several
+times as he moved up and down the tent.
+
+"To be quite straight, I put another man on to it, as you didn't seem to
+be making much of a show," he said. "Still, what in the name of thunder
+did he want to shoot you for, when he knew you were standing in with
+me?"
+
+"I can't say. The difficulty was that I was not as well informed as he
+seems to have been. It would have paid you better to be frank with me.
+Hasn't the man come back to you?"
+
+"No," and Saxton's face grew a trifle vicious, "he hasn't--concern him!
+You see what that brings us to? I felt sure of that man; but it's plain
+he meant to find out what I wanted, and then, if he couldn't make use of
+it himself, sell it me. There are three of us after the same thing now."
+
+Brooke shook his head. "No," he said, drily, "I don't think there are.
+You and the other man make two, while I scarcely fancy either of you
+will get hold of the papers, because I gave them back to Devine, and he
+has sent them to Vancouver."
+
+"You had them?" and Saxton gasped.
+
+"I certainly had," said Brooke. "They were put up in a very flimsy
+packet, which Mrs. Devine handed me. I did not, however, look at one of
+them."
+
+Saxton, who seemed about to sit down, crossed the tent and stared at
+him.
+
+"Well," he said, "may I be shot if I ever struck another man quite like
+you! What in the name of thunder made you let Devine have them back
+for?"
+
+"I really don't think you would appreciate my motives, especially as I'm
+not quite sure I understand them myself. Anyway, I did it, and that, of
+course, implies that there can be no further understanding between you
+and me. I don't mean to question the morality of what we purposed doing,
+but, to be quite frank, I've had enough of it."
+
+Saxton, who appeared to restrain himself with an effort, sat down and
+lighted a cigar.
+
+"No doubt I could worry along 'most as well without you, but there's a
+question to be answered," he said, drily. "Do you mean to give me away?"
+
+"It's not one I appreciate, and it seems to me a trifle unnecessary. You
+can reassure yourself on that point."
+
+Saxton took a drink of whisky. "Well," he said, meditatively, "I guess I
+can trust you, and I'm not going to worry about letting you off the
+deal. You have too many fancies to be of much use to anybody. There's
+just another thing, and it has to be said. It's business I have on hand,
+and life's too short for any man to waste time he could pile up dollars
+in, trying to get even with a partner who has gone back on him. In fact,
+I've a kind of liking for you--but you'll most certainly get hurt if you
+put yourself in my way. It's a friendly warning."
+
+Brooke laughed. "I will endeavor to keep out of it, so far as I can."
+
+Saxton nodded, and then looked at him reflectively.
+
+"Miss Heathcote's kind of pretty," he said.
+
+"I suggested once already that we should get on better if you left Miss
+Heathcote out."
+
+"You did. Still, when I've anything to say, it is scarcely a hint of
+that kind that's going to stop me. I guess you know she has quite a pile
+of dollars?"
+
+Brooke's face flushed. "I don't, and it does not concern me in the
+least."
+
+"She has, anyway. Devine's wife brought him a pile, and I heard one
+sister had the same as the other. Now, you ought to feel obliged to me."
+
+Brooke straightened himself a trifle in his chair. "I don't wish to be
+unpleasant, but you have gone quite as far as is advisable. Can't you
+see the thing you are suggesting is quite out of the question?"
+
+Saxton surveyed him critically. "Well," he said, reflectively, "I have
+seen better-looking men--quite a few of them, and you're blame hard to
+get on with, but there are women who don't expect too much."
+
+Brooke's face was growing flushed, but he realized that nothing short of
+physical violence was likely to restrain his visitor, and he laughed.
+
+"You will, of course, believe what pleases you," he said. "Are you going
+to stay here to-night?"
+
+"No," said Saxton. "When I'm through with this whisky, I'm going right
+back to Tomlinson's ranch. I wouldn't like Devine to run up against me,
+and he nearly did it on the trail a little while ago."
+
+Brooke looked up sharply. "He recognized you?"
+
+"No," said Saxton, drily. "He didn't. It wouldn't have suited me. When I
+come to clinch with Devine, I want to be sure I have the whip-hand of
+him. Still, it wouldn't have been a case of pistols out and getting
+behind a tree. It's quite a long while since I had any, and, though you
+don't seem to think so in England, nobody has any use for a circus of
+that kind now. I don't know that the way they had in '49 wasn't better
+than trying to get ahead of the other man quietly."
+
+Brooke made a little gesture of resignation. Saxton, he realized, had
+sufficient discretion not to persist in a useless attempt to hold him to
+his compact, but he was addicted to moralizing, and Brooke, who lighted
+another cigar, listened, as patiently as he could, while he discoursed
+upon the anxieties of the enterprising business man.
+
+
+
+
+XXI.
+
+DEVINE'S OFFER.
+
+
+Evening had come round again when Brooke called at the ranch, in
+response to a brief note from Devine, and found the latter sitting,
+cigar in hand, at his office table.
+
+"Take a cigar, if you feel like it, Mr. Brooke. We have got to have a
+talk," he said.
+
+Brooke did as he suggested, and when he sat down, Devine passed a strip
+of paper across to him.
+
+"There's your cheque for the tramway. I'll ask you for a receipt," he
+said. "Make up an account of what the dam has cost you to-morrow, and
+we'll try to arrange the thing so's to suit both of us."
+
+Brooke appeared a trifle astonished. "It is by no means finished, sir."
+
+"Well," said Devine, drily, "I'm not quite sure it ever will be. The
+mine no longer belongs to me. It's part of the Dayspring Consolidated
+Mineral Properties. I've been working the thing up quietly for quite a
+while now, and I've a cable from London that the deal's put through."
+
+Brooke, remembering what he had heard from Saxton, looked hard at him.
+"You have sold it out to English company promoters?"
+
+"Not exactly! I'm taking so many thousand dollars down, and a
+controlling share of the stock. I'm also the boss director, with full
+power to run operations as appears advisable at the mines. How does the
+deal strike you?"
+
+"Since you ask for my opinion, I fancy I should have preferred a good
+many dollars, and very little stock."
+
+Devine glanced at him with a curious smile.
+
+"You believe Allonby's a crank?"
+
+"Other people do. On my part, I'm not quite sure of it. Still, it seems
+to me that the men who spend their money to prove him right will run a
+tolerably heavy risk, especially as, so far, at least, there appears to
+be no ore that's worth reduction in the mine, so far as it has been
+opened up."
+
+"How do you know what is in the Dayspring?" and Devine looked at him
+steadily.
+
+Brooke made a little gesture. "I don't think that point's important," he
+said. "You, no doubt, had a purpose in telling me as much as you have
+done?"
+
+Devine did not answer for a moment or two, and Brooke was sensible of a
+slight bewilderment as he watched him. This was, he knew, a hard, shrewd
+man, and yet he had apparently permitted Saxton to beguile him into
+buying a mine in which nobody but a man whose faculties had been
+destroyed by alcohol believed. He was also, it seemed, willing to risk
+a moderate competence in another one which was liable to be jumped at
+any moment. The thing was almost incomprehensible.
+
+Then Devine made a sign that he desired attention. "When I told you
+this, I had a purpose," he said. "We are going to spend a pile of
+dollars on the Dayspring, and my part of the business lies in the city.
+Wilkins stays right at the Canopus, and while Allonby goes along with
+the mine it's too big a contract to reform him. That brings me to the
+point. I want a man to take charge at the Dayspring under him, and
+though you were not exactly civil when I made you an offer once before,
+we might make it worth your while."
+
+Brooke gasped, and felt his face becoming warm.
+
+"I have very little practical experience of mining, sir," he said.
+
+Devine nodded tranquilly. "Allonby has enough for two, but he lets up
+and loses his grip when the whisky comes along," he said. "Still, I
+guess you have got something that's worth rather more to me. You
+couldn't help having it. It was born in you."
+
+Brooke sat silent for a space, with an unpleasant realization of the
+fact that Devine's keen eyes were watching him. He had come there with
+the intention of severing his connection with the man, and now that
+astonishing offer had been made him in the very room he had not long ago
+crept into with the purpose of plundering him. Every detail of what had
+happened on that eventful night came back to him, and he remembered,
+with a sickening sense of degradation, how he had leaned upon the table
+where Devine was sitting then and permitted the startled girl to force
+her thanks on him. Then he raised his head, as Devine, turning a little,
+looked at him with disconcerting steadiness.
+
+"You have more reasons than the one you gave me for not taking hold?" he
+said.
+
+Suddenly, Brooke made up his mind. He was sick of the career of
+deception, and had already meant to put an end to it, while he now
+seized upon the opportunity of placing a continuance in it out of the
+question.
+
+"I have, and can't help fancying that one of them is a tolerably good
+one," he said. "You see, you really know very little about me."
+
+"Go on," said Devine, drily. "I'm generally quite willing to back my
+opinion of a mine or man. Besides, I have picked up one or two pointers
+about you."
+
+"Still," said Brooke, very slowly, while his face grew set, "you don't
+know why I came here to build that flume for you."
+
+Then he gasped with astonishment, for Devine laughed.
+
+"Well," he said, drily, "I guess I do."
+
+Brooke, who lost command of himself, rose abruptly, and stood looking
+down on him, with one quivering hand clenched on the edge of the table.
+
+"You know I meant to jump the claim?" he said.
+
+"I had a notion that you meant to try."
+
+Then there was a curious silence, and the two men remained motionless,
+looking at one another for a space, the younger one leaning somewhat
+heavily upon the table, with the crimson showing through the bronze in
+his face, the elder one watching him with a little grim smile. There was
+also a suggestion of sardonic amusement in it at which the other winced,
+as he would scarcely have done had Devine struck him.
+
+"And you let me stay on?" he said at length.
+
+"I did. It was plain you couldn't hurt me, and there was a kind of humor
+in the thing. I had just to put my hand down and squelch you when I felt
+like it."
+
+Brooke recognized that he had deserved this, but he had never felt the
+same utter sense of insignificance that he did just then. His companion
+evidently did not even consider it worth while to be angry with him, and
+he wondered vacantly at his folly in even fancying that he or Saxton
+could prove a match for such a man.
+
+Then Devine made a little gesture. "Hadn't you better sit down? We're
+not quite through yet."
+
+Brooke did as he suggested.
+
+"Still----" he said.
+
+Devine smiled again. "You don't quite understand? Well, I'll try to make
+it plain. You make about the poorest kind of claim-jumper I ever ran up
+against, and I've handled quite a few in my time. It's not your fault.
+You haven't it in you. If you had, you'd have stayed right with it, and
+not let the dam-building get hold of you so that you scarcely remembered
+what you came here for. You couldn't help that either."
+
+To be turned inside out in this fashion was almost too disconcerting to
+be exasperating, and Brooke sat stupidly silent for a moment or two.
+
+"After all, we need not go into that," he said. "I suppose what I meant
+to do requires no defence in this country, but while I am by no means
+proud of it, I should never have undertaken it had you not sold me a
+worthless ranch. I purposed doing nothing more than getting my six
+thousand dollars back."
+
+"You figure that would have contented the man behind you?"
+
+Brooke was once more startled, for Devine's penetration appeared almost
+uncanny, but he remembered that he, at least, owed a little to his
+confederate.
+
+"You think there was another man?" he said.
+
+Devine laughed. "I guess I'm sure. You don't know enough to fix up a
+thing of this kind. Who is he?"
+
+"That," said Brooke, drily, "is rather more than I feel at liberty to
+tell you. I have, however, broken with him once for all."
+
+Devine made a little gesture which implied that the point was of no
+great importance. "Well," he said, "I guess I've no great cause to be
+afraid of him, if he was content to have you for a partner. The question
+is--Are you going to take my offer?"
+
+"You are asking me seriously?"
+
+"I am. It seems to me I sized you up correctly quite a while ago, and
+you have had about enough claim-jumping. Now, I don't know that I blame
+you, and, anyway, if you had very little sense, it showed you had some
+grit. As the mining laws stand, it's a legitimate occupation, and you
+tell me you only figured on getting your dollars back. Well, if you want
+them, you can work for them at a reasonable salary."
+
+Brooke was once more astonished. Sentiment, it appeared, counted for as
+little with Devine as it had done with Saxton, and with both of them
+business was simply and solely a question of dollars.
+
+"Then you disclaim all responsibility for your agent's doings?" he said.
+
+"No," said Devine, drily. "If Slocum had swindled you, it would have
+been different, but you made a foolish deal, and you have got to stand
+up to it. Nobody was going to stop you surveying that land before you
+bought it, or getting a man who knew its value to do it for you. I'm
+offering you the option of working for those six thousand dollars. Do
+you take it?"
+
+Brooke scarcely considered. The money was no longer the chief
+inducement, for, as Devine had expressed it, the work had got hold of
+him, and he was sensible of a growing belief in his capabilities, while
+he now fancied he saw his opportunity.
+
+"Yes," he said, simply.
+
+Devine nodded. "Then we'll go into the thing right now," he said.
+"You'll start for the Dayspring soon as you can to-morrow."
+
+An hour had passed before they had arranged everything, and it seemed to
+one of them that it was, under the circumstances, a somewhat astonishing
+compact they made. What the other thought about it did not appear, but
+he was one who was seldom very much mistaken in his estimate of the
+character of his fellow-men. Then, as it happened, Brooke came upon
+Barbara in the log-walled hall as he was leaving the ranch, and stood
+still a moment irresolute. Whether Devine would tell her or his wife
+what had passed between them he did not know, but it appeared very
+probable, and just then he almost shrank from meeting her. It did not,
+however, occur to him to ask himself how she happened to be there.
+
+"So you are not going out on the trail that leads to nowhere in
+particular, after all?" she said.
+
+Brooke showed his astonishment. "You knew what Devine meant to offer
+me?"
+
+"Of course!" and Barbara smiled. "I don't even mind admitting that I
+think he did wisely."
+
+"Now, I wonder why?"
+
+Barbara laughed softly. "Don't you think the question is a little
+difficult, or do you expect me to present you with a catalogue of your
+virtues?"
+
+"I'm afraid the latter is out of the question. You would want, at least,
+several items."
+
+"And you imply that I should have a difficulty in finding them?"
+
+Brooke had spoken lightly, partly because the interview with Devine had
+put a strain on him, and he dare scarcely trust himself just then, but a
+tide of feeling swept him away, and his face grew suddenly grim. The
+girl was very alluring, and her little smile showed plainly that she had
+reposed her confidence in him.
+
+"Yes," he said, a trifle hoarsely, "you would have the greatest
+difficulty in finding one, and I am almost glad that I am going away
+to-morrow. Such a man as I am is scarcely fit to speak to you."
+
+Barbara was, though she did not show it, distinctly startled. She had
+never heard the man speak in that fashion, and his set face and vibrant
+voice were new to her. Indeed, she had now and then wondered whether he
+ever really let himself go. Still, she looked at him quietly, and,
+noticing the swollen veins on his forehead, and the glow in his eyes,
+decided it would not be advisable to admit that she attached much
+importance to what he had said. He was, she fancied, fit for any
+rashness just then.
+
+"I suppose we, all of us, have moods of self-depreciation occasionally,"
+she said. "Still, one would not have fancied that you were unduly
+morbid, and one part of that little speech was a trifle inexplicable."
+
+Brooke laughed curiously, but the girl noticed that one of his lean,
+hard hands was closed as he looked down on her.
+
+"There are times when one has to be one's self, and civilities don't
+seem to count," he said. "I am glad that I am going away, because if I
+stayed here I should lose the last shred of my self-respect. As a matter
+of fact, I have very little left, but that little is valuable, if only
+because it was you who gave it me."
+
+"Still, one would signally fail to see how you could lose it here."
+
+Brooke stood still, looking at her with signs of struggle, and, she
+could almost fancy, passion, in his set face; and then made a little
+gesture, which seemed to imply that he had borne enough.
+
+"You will probably understand it all by and by," he said. "I can only
+ask you not to think too hardly of me when that happens."
+
+Then, as one making a strenuous effort, he turned abruptly away, and
+Barbara, who let him go, went back to the room where her sister sat,
+very thoughtfully.
+
+Brooke in the meanwhile swung savagely along the trail, beneath the
+shadowy pines, for he recognized, with a painful distinctness, that
+Barbara Heathcote's view of his conduct was by no means likely to
+coincide with Devine's, and he could picture her disgust and anger when
+the revelation came, while it was only now, when he would in all
+probability never meet her on the same terms again, he realized the
+intensity of his longing for the girl. He had also, he felt, succeeded
+in making himself ridiculous by a display of sentimentality that must
+have been incomprehensible to her, and though that appeared of no great
+importance relatively, it naturally did not tend to console him. When he
+reached his tent Jimmy stared at him.
+
+"I guess you look kind of raised," he said. "Where's your hat?"
+
+Brooke laughed hoarsely. "I believe I must have left it at the ranch.
+Still, that's not so very astonishing, because, even if I didn't do it
+altogether, I came very near losing my head."
+
+Jimmy again surveyed him, with a grin. "Devine," he said, suggestively,
+"has been giving you whisky, and it mixed you up a little? That's what
+comes of drinking tea."
+
+Brooke made no answer, though a swift flush rose to his face, as he
+remembered his half-coherent speeches at the ranch, and the astonishment
+in the girl's eyes, for it seemed probable that the explanation that
+had occurred to Jimmy had also suggested itself to her. Then he smiled
+grimly, as he decided that it did not greatly matter, after all, since
+she could not think more hardly of him than she would do when the truth
+came out presently.
+
+
+
+
+XXII.
+
+THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENS.
+
+
+It was already late at night, but the mounted mail carrier had not
+reached the Dayspring mine, and Allonby, who was impatiently waiting
+news of certain supplies and plant, had insisted on Brooke sitting up
+with him. It was also raining hard, and, in spite of the glowing stove,
+the shanty reeked with damp, while there was a steady splashing upon the
+iron roof above. Now and then a trickle descended from a defective joint
+in it, and formed a rivulet upon the earthen floor, or fizzled into a
+puff of steam upon the corroded iron pipe which stretched across the
+room. The latter was strewn with soil-stained clothing, and wet
+knee-boots with the red mire of the mine still clinging about them.
+
+Brooke lay drowsily in a canvas chair, while Allonby sat at the
+uncleanly table, with a litter of burnt matches and tobacco ash as well
+as a steaming glass in front of him. His eyes were bleared and watery,
+and there were curious little patches of color in his haggard face,
+while the gorged, blue veins showed upon his forehead. He had been
+discoursing in a maudlin fashion which Brooke, who had endeavored to
+make the best of his company during the last three months, found
+singularly exasperating, but he moved abruptly when a stream from the
+roof suddenly descended upon his grizzled head.
+
+"That," he said, "is one of the trifles a man with a sense of proportion
+and a contemplative temperament makes light of. The curse of this effete
+age is its ceaseless striving after luxury."
+
+Brooke laughed softly, as he watched the water run down the moralizer's
+nose. "It is," he said, "at least, not often attainable in this
+country."
+
+"Which is precisely why men grow rich in the Colonies. Now, here are you
+and I, who at one time in our lives required four or five courses for
+dinner, not only subsisting, but thriving upon grindstone bread,
+flapjacks, molasses, and the contents of certain cans from Chicago,
+which one cannot even be certain are what they are averred to be, though
+the Colonist consumes them with the faith that asks no questions."
+
+"I fancy you are, in one respect, taking a good deal for granted,"
+Brooke said, drily.
+
+Allonby made a deprecatory gesture. "Being, although you might
+occasionally find a difficulty in crediting it, one myself, I am seldom
+mistaken about the points of a man who has moved in good society, though
+I may admit that it was the ruin of me. Had I been brought up in this
+country, one-third of my income would have sufficed me, and I should
+have made provision for my grey hairs with the rest, while I fed, like
+a Canadian, out of vessels of enamel and the useful wood pulp. As it
+was, I wasted my substance, and, unfortunately, that of other men who
+had undue confidence in me, in London clubs, with the result that I am
+now what is sometimes termed a waster in the land of promise."
+
+"It is not very difficult to get through a good deal of one's substance
+in a certain fashion, even in Canada," and Brooke glanced reflectively
+at the array of empty bottles.
+
+"That point of view, although a popular one, is illusory, which can be
+demonstrated by mathematics. A man, it is evident, cannot drink more
+than a certain quantity of whisky. His physical capacity precludes it,
+while even in my bad weeks the cost of it could not well exceed some
+eight dollars. Excluding that item, one could live contentedly here at
+an outlay of one dollar daily, if he did not, unfortunately, possess a
+memory."
+
+It seemed to Brooke that this latter observation might be true, if one
+had, at least, any hope for the future. Allonby's day was nearly done,
+and he had only the past to return and trouble him, but Brooke felt just
+then that, in spite of his pride in the profession which had been rather
+forced upon him than adopted, he had very little to look forward to,
+since he had, by his own folly, made the one thing he longed for above
+all others unattainable. He had been three months at the Dayspring, and
+had heard nothing from Barbara. She must, he fancied, have discovered
+the part he had played by this time, and would blot him out of her
+memory, while now, when it seemed conceivable that he might make his
+mark in Canada, all that this implied had become valueless to him.
+Wealth and celebrity might perhaps be attainable, but there would be
+nobody to share them with, for he realized that Barbara Heathcote did
+not possess the easy toleration on certain points which appeared to
+characterize Saxton and Devine. In the meanwhile, Allonby did not seem
+pleased with his silence.
+
+"You are," he said, a trifle quickly, "by no means an entertaining
+companion for a man who is at times too sensible of the irony of his
+position, and appear to be without either comprehension or sympathy.
+Here am I, who was accustomed to fare sumptuously in London clubs,
+living on the husks and other metaphorical et ceteras, and
+endeavoring--for that is all it amounts to--to console myself with
+profitless reflections. I am, of course, in the elegant simile of the
+country, a tank, or whisky-skin, but I am still a man who found a
+fortune and stripped himself of everything but whisky to develop it."
+
+Brooke laughed to conceal his impatience. "Then you are as sure as ever
+about the silver? We have got a good way down without finding very much
+sign of it."
+
+Allonby rose, with a little flush in his watery eyes, and leaned,
+somewhat unsteadily, upon the table.
+
+"It is the one thing I believe in. The rest, and I once had my fancies
+and theories like other men, are shadows and chimeras now. Only the
+silver is real--and there. All I made in Canada is sunk in this mine,
+which no longer belongs to me, and when I make the great discovery not a
+dollar will fall to my share."
+
+"Then it is a little difficult to understand what you are so anxious to
+find the silver for."
+
+Allonby swayed a trifle on his feet, but the gleam in his eyes grew
+brighter. "You," he said, "are, as I pointed out, curiously deficient in
+comprehension, but you never won a case of medals that were coveted by
+the keenest brains among all those who hoped to enter your profession.
+Of what use are dollars to a whisky-tank who will, in all probability,
+be found mangled at the bottom of the shaft one day? Still, when I made
+the calculations we are now working on, there was no man in the province
+with a knowledge equal to mine, and I ask no more than to prove them
+right."
+
+Brooke sat silent, because he could think of nothing appropriate to say.
+He had asked the question lightly, and had got his answer. It made the
+attitude of this broken-down wreck of humanity plain to him, and he
+vaguely realized the pathos underlying it. Possessed by the one fancy,
+the man had lost or flung away all that life might have offered him,
+while he clung to the apparently worthless mine, not, it seemed, for the
+dollars that success might bring him, but from pride in his professional
+skill and the faculties which had long deserted him. That, as he said,
+was his one point of faith, and he lived only to vindicate it.
+
+Then Allonby lurched unsteadily to the door, and held his hand up as he
+opened it.
+
+"Listen!" he said. "Is that the mail carrier? I must know when we'll get
+those drills and the giant powder before I sleep. The sinking goes on
+slowly, and life is very uncertain when one drinks whisky as I do."
+
+Brooke listened, and, for a time, heard only the splash from the pine
+boughs and the patter of the rain, while Allonby's frail figure cut
+against the white mists that slid past the doorway. Then a faint,
+measured thudding came up the valley, and he remembered afterwards that
+he felt a curious sense of anticipation. The sound swelled into the beat
+of horse hoofs floundering and slipping on the wet gravel, and Brooke
+smiled at his eagerness, for though he had, he fancied, cut himself off
+from all that concerned his past in England, he had never been quite
+able to await the approach of a mail carrier with complete indifference,
+and he felt the suggestiveness of the drumming of the weary horse's
+feet. There had been a time when he had listened with beating heart
+while it drew nearer down the shadowy trail, and once more a little
+thrill ran through him.
+
+Then there was a clatter of hoofs on wet rock, and a shout, as a man
+pulled his jaded beast up in the darkness outside, while a dripping
+packet was flung into the room. Brooke could see nobody, but a voice
+said, "That's your lot; I guess I can't stop. Got to make Truscott's
+before I sleep, and the beast's gone lame."
+
+The rattle of hoofs commenced again, and Brooke sat idly watching
+Allonby, who was tearing open the packet with shaky fingers.
+
+"The tools and powder are coming up," he said. "Hallo! Excuse my
+inadvertence, Brooke. This one's apparently for you."
+
+Brooke caught the big blue envelope tossed across to him, and when he
+had taken out several precisely folded papers and glanced at the sheet
+of stiff legal writing, sat still, staring vacantly straight in front of
+him. The uncleanly shanty faded from before his eyes, and he was not
+even conscious that Allonby, who had laid down his own correspondence,
+was watching him until the latter broke the silence.
+
+"I know that style of envelope, but it is, presumably, too long since
+you left England for it to contain any unpleasant reference to a debt,"
+he said. "Has somebody been leaving you a fortune?"
+
+Brooke smiled in a curious, listless fashion. "No," he said, "not a
+fortune. Still, I suppose one could almost consider it a competence."
+
+"Then you appear singularly free from the satisfaction one would
+naturally expect from a man who had just received any news of that
+description," said Allonby, drily.
+
+Brooke's face grew suddenly grim. "If it had come a little earlier, it
+might have been of much more use to me."
+
+Allonby had, apparently, sufficient sense left in him to recognize that
+any further observations he might feel inclined to make were scarcely
+likely to be appreciated just then, and once more Brooke sat motionless,
+with the letter in his hand, and the inclosures that had slipped from
+his fingers strewn about the floor. He had been left with what any one
+with simple tastes would have considered a moderate competence, at
+least, in Canada, by the man he had quarrelled with, and he gathered
+from the lawyer's letter that, if he wished it, there would be no
+difficulty in at once realizing the property. It naturally amounted to
+considerably more than the six thousand dollars he had sold his
+self-respect for, and at the moment he was only sensible of a bitter
+regret that the news had not come to hand a little earlier.
+
+If that had happened, he would never have made the attempt upon the
+papers, and might have broken with Saxton without the necessity for any
+explanation with Devine. He had no doubt that the latter had acquainted
+his wife and Barbara, which meant that he would be branded for ever as
+rather worse than a thief in her eyes. The money which would have saved
+him, and might have bought him happiness, was he felt, almost useless to
+him now.
+
+In the meanwhile, Allonby had turned to his own correspondence, and the
+shanty was very still, save for the patter of the rain outside and the
+doleful wailing of the pines. Brooke gazed at the letter he held with
+vacant eyes, but though he scarcely seemed to notice his surroundings,
+he could long afterwards recall them clearly--the litter of soil-stained
+garments and mining boots, the crackling stove, the rain that flashed
+through the stream of light outside the open door, and Allonby's haggard
+face and wasted figure.
+
+Then it occurred to him that there was a discrepancy between the time
+when the will was made and that on which the news of it had been sent to
+him, and as he stooped to pick up the papers from the floor, he came
+upon a black-edged envelope. He recognized the writing, and, hastily
+opening it, found it was from an English kinsman.
+
+"You will be sorry to hear that Austin Dangerfield has succumbed at
+last," he read. "He was, perhaps, a little hard upon you at one time,
+but Clara and I felt that he was right in his objections to Lucy all
+along, and no doubt you realized it when she married Shafton Coulson.
+However that may be, the old man mentioned you frequently a little
+before the end, and seemed to feel the fact that he had driven you away,
+which was, no doubt, what induced him to leave you most of his personal
+property. Baron and Rodway will have sent you a schedule, and, as one of
+the executors, I would say that we had some difficulty in finding where
+to address you until we heard from Coulson that Lucy had met you. There
+is one point I feel I should refer to. As you will notice, part of the
+estate is represented by stock in a Canadian mine. Austin, whose mental
+grip was getting a trifle slack latterly, appears to have been led
+rather too much by Shafton Coulson in the stock operations he was fond
+of dabbling in, and I fancy it was by the latter's advice he made the
+purchase. There is very little demand for the shares on the market here,
+but you will perhaps be able to form an accurate opinion concerning
+their value."
+
+Brooke laid down the letter, and took up the lawyers' schedule. Then he
+laughed curiously as he realized that a considerable proportion of his
+legacy was represented by shares in the Dayspring Consols. One of the
+mines, he knew, was liable to be jumped at any moment, and the other was
+worthless, unless the opinion of his half-crazy companion could be taken
+seriously. There were one or two more small gashes in the hillside,
+concerning which the miners he had questioned appeared distinctly
+dubious.
+
+Allonby turned at the sound. "One would scarcely have fancied from that
+laugh that you were feeling very much more pleased than you were when
+you hadn't gone into the affair," he said.
+
+"Then it was a tolerably accurate reflection of my state of mind," said
+Brooke. "This legacy, which came along two or three months after the
+time when it would have been of vital importance to me, consists in part
+of shares in this very mine. That is naturally about the last thing I
+would have desired or expected, and results from one of the curious
+conjunctions of circumstances which, I suppose, come about now and then.
+When the thing one has longed for does come along, it is generally at a
+time when the wish for it has gone."
+
+"Commiseration would be a little unnecessary," said Allonby, with
+unusual quietness. "The competence you mention will certainly prove a
+fortune before you are very much older."
+
+"I don't feel by any means as sure of it as you seem to be. Still, under
+the circumstances, it doesn't greatly matter."
+
+Allonby, with some difficulty, straightened himself. "I am," he said,
+not without a certain dignity which almost astonished Brooke, "a
+worn-out wastrel and a whisky-tank, but I'll live to show the men who
+look down on me with contemptuous pity what I was once capable of. That
+is all I am holding on to life for. It is naturally not a very pleasant
+one to a man with a memory."
+
+For a moment he stood almost erect, and then collapsed suddenly into his
+chair. "Devine has a brain of another and very much lower order, though
+it is of a kind that is apt to prove more useful to its possessor, and
+in his own sphere there are very few men to equal him. If I do not fall
+down the shaft in the meanwhile, we will certainly show this province
+what we can do together. And now I believe it is advisable for me to go
+to bed, while I feel to some extent capable of reaching it. My head is
+at least as clear as usual, but my legs are unruly."
+
+
+
+
+XXIII.
+
+BROOKE'S CONFESSION.
+
+
+The Pacific express had just come in, and the C. P. R. wharf at
+Vancouver was thronged with a hurrying crowd when Barbara Heathcote and
+her sister stood leaning upon the rails of the S. S. _Islander_. Beneath
+them the big locomotive which had hauled the dusty cars over the wild
+Selkirk passes was crawling slowly down the wharf with bell tolling
+dolefully, and while a feathery steam roared aloft above the tiers of
+white deckhouses a stream of passengers flowed up the gangway. Barbara,
+who was crossing to Victoria, watched them languidly until an
+elaborately-dressed woman ascended, leaning upon the arm of a man whose
+fastidious neatness of attire and air of indifference to the confusion
+about him proclaimed him an Englishman. She made a very slight
+inclination when the woman smiled at her.
+
+"It is fortunate she can't very well get at us here," she said, glancing
+at the pile of baggage which cut them off from the rest of the deck.
+"Three or four hours of Mrs. Coulson's conversation would be a good deal
+more than I could appreciate."
+
+"You need scarcely be afraid of it in the meanwhile," said Mrs. Devine.
+"It is a trifle difficult to hear one's self speak."
+
+"For which her husband is no doubt thankful. Until I met them once or
+twice I wondered why that man wore an habitually tired expression. Of
+course there are Englishmen who consider it becoming, but one feels that
+in his case his looks are quite in keeping with his sensations."
+
+Mrs. Devine laughed. "You don't like the woman?"
+
+"No," said Barbara, reflectively. "I really don't know why I shouldn't,
+but I don't. She certainly poses too much, and the last time I had the
+pleasure of listening to her at the Wheelers' house she patronized me
+and the country too graciously. The country can get along without her
+commendation."
+
+"I wonder if she asked you anything about Brooke?"
+
+"No," said Barbara, a trifle sharply. "Where could she have met him?"
+
+"In England. She seemed to know he was at the Dayspring, and managed, I
+fancy, intentionally, to leave me with the impression that they were
+especial friends in the Old Country. I wonder if she knows he will be on
+board to-day?"
+
+"Mr. Brooke is crossing with us?" said Barbara, with an indifference her
+sister had some doubts about.
+
+"Grant seemed to expect him. He is going to buy American mining
+machinery or something of the kind in Victoria. I believe it was he
+Grant left us to meet."
+
+Barbara said nothing, though she was sensible of a curious little
+thrill. She had not seen Brooke since the evening he had behaved in what
+was an apparently inexplicable fashion at the ranch, and had heard very
+little about him. She, however, watched the wharf intently, until she
+saw Devine accost a man with a bronzed face who was quietly threading
+his way through the hurrying groups, and her heart beat a trifle faster
+than usual as they moved together towards the steamer. Then almost
+unconsciously she turned to see if the woman they had been discussing
+was also watching for him, but she had by this time disappeared.
+Barbara, for no very apparent reason, felt a trifle pleased at this.
+
+In the meanwhile Devine was talking rapidly to Brooke.
+
+"Here is a letter for you that came in with yesterday's mail," he said.
+"Struck anything more encouraging at the mine since you wrote me?"
+
+"No," said Brooke. "I'm afraid we haven't. Still, Allonby seems as sure
+as ever and is most anxious to get the new plant in."
+
+Devine appeared thoughtful. "You'll have to knock off the big boring
+machine anyway. The mine's just swallowing dollars, and we'll have to go
+a trifle slower until some more come in. English directors didn't seem
+quite pleased last mail. Somebody in their papers has been slating the
+Dayspring properties, and there's a good deal of stock they couldn't
+work off. In fact, they seemed inclined to kick at my last draft, and
+we'll want two or three more thousand dollars before the month is up."
+
+Brooke would have liked to ask several questions, but between the
+clanging of the locomotive bell and the roar of steam conversation was
+difficult, and when they stopped a moment at the foot of the gangway
+Devine's voice only reached him in broken snatches.
+
+"Got to keep your hand down--spin every dollar out. I'm writing straight
+about another draft. Use the wires the moment you strike anything that
+would give the stock a lift."
+
+"If you're going I guess it's 'bout time you got aboard," said a seaman,
+who stood ready to launch the gangway in; and Brooke, making a sign of
+comprehension to Devine, went up with a run.
+
+Then the ropes were cast off, and he sat down to open his letter under
+the deckhouse, as with a sonorous blast of her whistle the big white
+steamer swung out from the wharf. It was from the English kinsman who
+had previously written him, and confirmed what Devine had said.
+
+"I'm sorry you are holding so much of the Canadian mining stock," he
+read. "You are, perhaps, better posted about the mine than I am, but
+though the shares were largely underwritten, I understand the promoters
+found it difficult to place a proportion of the rest, and my broker told
+me that several holders would be quite willing to get out at well under
+par already."
+
+It was not exactly good news from any point of view, and Brooke was
+pondering over it somewhat moodily when he heard a voice he recognized,
+and looking up saw a woman with pale blue eyes smiling at him.
+
+"Lucy!" he said, with evident astonishment, but no great show of
+pleasure.
+
+"You looked so occupied that I was really afraid to disturb you," said
+the woman. "Shafton is talking Canadian politics with somebody, and I
+wonder if you are too busy to find a chair for me."
+
+Brooke got one, and his companion, who was the woman Barbara had alluded
+to as Mrs. Coulson, sat down, and said nothing for a while as she gazed
+back across the blue inlet with evident appreciation. This was, in one
+respect, not astonishing, though so far as Brooke could remember she had
+never been remarkably fond of scenery, for the new stone city that rose
+with its towering telegraph poles roof beyond roof up the hillside,
+gleaming land-locked waterway, and engirdling pines with the white blink
+of ethereal snow high above them all, made a very fair picture that
+afternoon.
+
+"This," she said at last, "would really be a beautiful country if
+everything wasn't quite so crude."
+
+"It is certainly not exactly adapted to landscape-gardening," said
+Brooke. "A two-thousand foot precipice and a hundred-league forest is a
+trifle big. Still, I'm not sure its inhabitants would appreciate such
+praise."
+
+Lucy Coulson laughed. "They are like it in one respect--I don't mean in
+size--and delightfully touchy on the subject. Now, there was a girl I
+met not long ago who appeared quite displeased with me when I said that
+with a little improving one might compare it to Switzerland. I told her
+I scarcely felt warranted in dragging paradise in, if only because of
+some of its characteristic customs. I think her name was Devane, or
+something equally unusual, though it might have been her married
+sister's. Perhaps it's Canadian."
+
+She fancied a trace of indignation crept into the man's bronzed face,
+but it vanished swiftly.
+
+"One could scarcely call Miss Heathcote crude," he said.
+
+Lucy Coulson did not inquire whether he was acquainted with the lady in
+question, but made a mental note of the fact.
+
+"It, of course, depends upon one's standard of comparison," she said.
+"No doubt she comes up to the one adopted in this country. Still, though
+the latter is certainly pretty, what is keeping--you--in it now?"
+
+"Then you have heard of my good fortune?"
+
+"Of course! Shafton and I were delighted. Your executors wrote for your
+address to me."
+
+Brooke started visibly as he recognized that she must in that case have
+learned the news a month before he did, for a good deal had happened in
+the meanwhile.
+
+"Then it is a little curious that you did not mention it in the note you
+sent inviting me to meet you at the Glacier Lake," he said.
+
+Lucy Coulson lifted her eyes to his a moment, and then glanced aside,
+while there was a significant softness in her voice as she said, "The
+news seemed so good that I wanted to be the one who told it you."
+
+Again Brooke felt a disconcerting sense of embarrassment, and because he
+had no wish that she should recognize this looked at her steadily.
+
+"It apparently became of less importance when I did not come," he said
+with a trace of dryness. "There is a reliable postal service in this
+country. Do you remember exactly what day you went to the Lake on?"
+
+Mrs. Coulson laughed, and made a little half-petulant gesture. "I
+fancied you did not deserve to hear it when you could not contrive to
+come forty miles to see me. Still, I think I can remember the day.
+Shafton had to be in Vancouver on the Wednesday----"
+
+She told him in another moment, and Brooke was sensible of a sudden
+thrill of anger that was for the most part a futile protest against the
+fact that his destiny should lie at the mercy of a vain woman's idle
+fancy, for had he known on the day she mentioned he would never have
+made the attempt upon Devine's papers. Barbara Heathcote, he decided,
+doubtless knew by this time what had brought him to the ranch on the
+eventful night, and even if she did not the imposition he had been
+guilty of then remained as a barrier between him and her. After
+permitting her to give him credit for courage and a desire to watch over
+her safety he dare not tell her he had come as a thief. Still, he
+recognized that it was, after all, illogical to blame his companion for
+his own folly.
+
+"Harford," she said, gently, "are you very vexed with me?"
+
+Brooke smiled in a somewhat strained fashion. "No," he said, "I scarcely
+think I am, and I have, at least, no right to be. I don't know whether
+you will consider it a sufficient excuse, but I was very busy on the day
+in question. I was, you see, under the unfortunate necessity of earning
+my living."
+
+"I think there was a time when you would not have let that stand in the
+way, but men are seldom very constant, are they?"
+
+Brooke made no attempt to controvert the assertion. It seemed distinctly
+wiser to ignore it, since his companion apparently did not remember that
+she had now a husband who could hardly be expected to appreciate any
+unwavering devotion offered her, which was a fact that had its
+importance in Brooke's eyes, at least. Then she turned towards him with
+disconcerting suddenness.
+
+"Why don't you go home now you have enough to live, with a little
+economy, as you were meant to do?" she said. "This country is no place
+for you."
+
+Brooke, who did not remember that she previously endeavored to lead up
+to the question, started, for it was one which he had not infrequently
+asked himself of late, and the answer that the opportunity of proving
+his capabilities as a dam-builder and mining engineer had its
+attractions was, he knew, not quite sufficient in itself. Then, as it
+happened, Barbara Heathcote and Mrs. Devine, who appeared in the
+companion, came towards them along the deck, and Lucy Coulson noticed
+the glow in his eyes that was followed by a sudden hardening of his
+face. Perhaps she guessed a little, or it was done out of wantonness,
+for she laid her white-gloved hand upon his arm and leaned forward a
+trifle.
+
+"Harford," she said, looking up at him, "once upon a time you gave me
+your whole confidence."
+
+Brooke hoped his face was expressionless, for he was most unpleasantly
+sensible of that almost caressing touch upon his arm, as well as of the
+fact that his attitude, or, at least, that of his companion, was
+distinctly liable to misconception by any one aware that she was another
+man's wife. He had no longer any tenderness for her, and she had in any
+case married Shafton Coulson, who, so far as he had heard, made her a
+very patient as well as considerate husband.
+
+"That was several years ago," he said.
+
+Lucy Coulson laughed, and, though it is probable that she had seen them
+approach, turned with a little start that seemed unnecessarily apparent
+as Barbara and Mrs. Devine came up, while Brooke hoped his face did not
+suggest what he was thinking. As a matter of fact, it was distinctly
+flushed, which Barbara naturally noticed. She would have passed, but
+that Mrs. Coulson stopped her with a gesture.
+
+"So glad to see you!" she said. "Can't you stay a little and talk to us?
+One is out of the breeze under the deck-house here. Harford, there are
+two unoccupied chairs yonder."
+
+Brooke wished she would not persist in addressing him as Harford, but he
+brought the chairs, and Mrs. Devine, who had her own reasons for falling
+in with the suggestion, sat down. Barbara had no resource but to take
+the place beside her, and Lucy Coulson smiled at both of them.
+
+"I believe Mrs. Devine mentioned that you had met Mr. Brooke," she said
+to the girl. "He is, of course, a very old friend of mine."
+
+She contrived to give the words a significance which Brooke winced at,
+but he sat watching Barbara covertly while the others talked, or rather
+listened while Lucy Coulson did. Barbara scarcely glanced at him, but he
+fancied that Devine had not told her yet, or she would not have joined a
+group which included him at all. The position was not exactly a pleasant
+one, but he could think of no excuse for going away, and listened
+vacantly. Lucy Coulson, as it happened, was discoursing upon Canada,
+which when she did not desire to please a Canadian was a favorite topic
+of hers. Barbara, however, on this occasion only watched her with a
+little reposeful smile, and so half an hour slipped by while, with
+mastheads swinging lazily athwart the blue, the white-painted steamer
+rolled along, past rocky islets shrouded in dusky pines, across a
+shining sea above which white lines of snow gleamed ethereally.
+
+Mrs. Coulson, however, had no eyes to spare for any of it, for when they
+were not fixed upon the girl she was watching Brooke.
+
+"Some of the men we met in the mountains were delightfully
+inconsequent," she said at length. "There was one called Saxton at a
+mine, who spent a good deal of one afternoon telling us about the
+reforms that ought to be made in the administration of this province,
+and which I fancy he intended to effect. It was, of course, not a
+subject I was greatly interested in, but the man was so much in earnest
+that one had to listen to him, and Shafton told me afterwards that he
+was, where business was concerned, evidently a great rascal. Shafton,
+you know, enjoys listening quietly and afterwards turning people inside
+out for inspection. Still, perhaps, it was a little unwise to single the
+man out individually. There is always a risk of somebody who hears you
+being a friend of the person when you do that kind of thing--and now I
+remember he mentioned Mr. Brooke."
+
+Brooke noticed that Barbara cast a swift glance at him, and wondered
+with sudden anger if Lucy Coulson had not already done him harm enough.
+Then Barbara turned towards the latter.
+
+"Saxton," she said quietly, "is an utterly unprincipled man. I really do
+not think we have many like him in this country. You probably mistook
+his reference to Mr. Brooke."
+
+Mrs. Coulson laughed. "Of course, I may have done, though I almost think
+he said Harford was a partner of his. Perhaps, however, he had a purpose
+in telling us that, for he had been trying to sell Shafton some land
+company's shares, though if it hadn't been true he would scarcely have
+ventured to mention it."
+
+There was a sudden silence, and Brooke, who felt Barbara's eyes upon
+him, heard the splash of water along the steamer's plates and the
+throbbing of the screw. He also saw that Mrs. Devine was rather more
+intent than usual, and that Lucy Coulson was wondering at the effect of
+what she had said. He could, he fancied, acquit her of any ill intent,
+but that was no great consolation, for he could not controvert her
+assertion, and he felt that now she had mentioned the condemning fact
+his one faint chance was to let Barbara have the explanation from his
+own lips instead of asking it from Devine. Still, he could scarcely do
+so when the rest were there, and Lucy Coulson, at least, showed no
+intention of leaving him and the girl alone. It was, in fact, almost an
+hour later when her husband crossed the deck and she rose.
+
+"Shafton has nobody to talk to, and one has to remember their duty now
+and then," she said.
+
+Then as the steamer swung round a nest of reefs that rose out of a white
+swirl of tide the sea breeze swept that side of the deckhouse and Mrs.
+Devine departed for another wrap or shawl. Lifting her head Barbara
+looked at the man steadily.
+
+"Was that woman's story true?" she said.
+
+Brooke made a little gesture which implied that he attempted no defence.
+
+"It was," he said.
+
+A faint spark crept into Barbara's eyes, and a tinge of color into her
+cheek. "You know what you are admitting?"
+
+"I am afraid I do."
+
+Barbara Heathcote had a temper, and though she usually held it in check
+it swept her away just then.
+
+"Then, though we only discovered it afterwards, you knew that Saxton was
+scheming against my brother-in-law, and bought up the timber-rights to
+extort money from him?"
+
+Again Brooke made a little gesture, and the girl, who seemed stirred as
+he had scarcely believed her capable of being, straightened herself
+rigidly.
+
+"And yet you crept into his house, and permitted us--it is very hard to
+say it--to make friends with you! Had you no sense of fitness? Can't you
+even speak?"
+
+Brooke was too confused, and the girl too furious, for either of them to
+realize the significance of her anger, since the fact that she had
+merely permitted him to meet her as an acquaintance at the ranch
+scarcely seemed to warrant that almost passionate outbreak.
+
+"I'm afraid there is nothing I can plead in extenuation except that
+Grant Devine's agent swindled me," he said.
+
+Barbara laughed scornfully. "And you felt that would warrant you playing
+the part you did. Was it a spy's part only, or were you to be a traitor,
+too?"
+
+Then Brooke, who lost his head, did what was at the moment, at least, a
+most unwise thing.
+
+"I expect I deserve all you can say or think of me," he said. "Still, I
+can't help a fancy that you are not quite free from responsibility."
+
+"I?" said Barbara, incredulously.
+
+Brooke nodded. "Yes," he said, desperately, "you heard me correctly.
+Under the circumstances it isn't exactly complimentary or particularly
+easy to explain. Still, you see, you showed me that the content with my
+surroundings I was sinking into was dangerous when you came to the
+Quatomac ranch; and afterwards the more I saw of you the more I realized
+what the six thousand dollars I hoped to secure from Devine would give
+me a chance of attaining."
+
+He broke off abruptly, as though afraid to venture further, and Barbara
+watched him a moment, breathless with anger, with lips set. There was
+nobody on that part of the deck just then, and the steady pounding of
+the engines broke through what the man felt to be an especially
+disconcerting silence. Then she laughed in a fashion that stung him like
+a whip.
+
+"And you fancied there were girls in this country with anything worth
+offering who would be content with such a man as you are?" she said.
+"One has, however, to bear with a good deal that is said about Canada,
+and perhaps you would have been able to keep the deception that gained
+the appreciation of one of them up. You are proficient at that kind of
+thing."
+
+"I am quite aware that the excuse is a very poor one."
+
+The girl felt that whether it was dignified or not the relief speech
+afforded was imperative.
+
+"Haven't you even the wit to urge the one creditable thing you did?"
+
+Brooke contrived to meet her eyes. "You mean when I came into the ranch
+one night. You don't know that was merely a part of the rest?"
+
+The blood rushed to Barbara's face. "The man was your confederate, and
+you fell out over the booty--or perhaps you heard me coming and arranged
+the little scene for my benefit?"
+
+"No," said Brooke, with a harsh laugh. "In that case the climax of it
+would have been unnecessarily realistic. You may remember that he shot
+me. Still, since you may as well know the worst of me, it happened that
+we both came there with the same purpose, which is somewhat naturally
+accounted for by the fact that your brother-in-law was away that night."
+
+"And you allowed me to sympathize with you for your injury and to
+fancy----"
+
+Barbara broke off abruptly, for it appeared inadvisable under the
+circumstances to let him know what motive she had accredited him with.
+
+"My brother-in-law is naturally not aware of this?" she said.
+
+"I, at least, considered it necessary to acquaint him with most of it
+before I went to the Dayspring. No doubt you will find it difficult to
+credit that, but if it appears worth while you can of course confirm it.
+You would evidently have been less tolerant than he has shown himself!"
+
+Barbara stood up, and Brooke became sensible of intense relief as he saw
+Mrs. Devine was approaching with a bundle of wraps.
+
+"I would sooner have sacrificed the mine than continue to have any
+dealings with you," she said.
+
+Then she turned away, and left him sitting somewhat limply in his chair
+and staring vacantly at the sea. He saw no more of her during the rest
+of the voyage, but when two hours later the steamer reached Victoria he
+went straight to the cable company's office and sent his kinsman in
+England a message which somewhat astonished him.
+
+"Buy Dayspring on my account as far as funds will go," it read.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV.
+
+ALLONBY STRIKES SILVER.
+
+
+Winter had closed in early, with Arctic severity, and the pines were
+swathed in white and gleaming with the frost when Brooke stood one
+morning beside the crackling stove in the shanty he and Allonby occupied
+at the Dayspring mine. A very small piece of rancid pork was frizzling
+in the frying-pan, and he was busy whipping up two handfuls of flour
+with water, to make flapjacks of. He could readily have consumed twice
+as much alone, for it was twelve hours since his insufficient six
+o'clock supper, but he realized that it was advisable to curb his
+appetite. Supplies had run very low, and the lonely passes over which
+the trail to civilization led were blocked with snow, while it was a
+matter of uncertainty when the freighter and his packhorse train could
+force his way in.
+
+When the flour was ready he stirred the stove to a brisker glow, and,
+crossing the room, flung open the outer door. It was still an hour or
+two before sunrise, and the big stars scintillated with an intensity of
+frosty radiance, though the deep indigo of the cloudless vault was
+paling in color, and the pines were growing into definite form. Here and
+there a sombre spire or ragged branch rose harshly from the rest, but,
+for the most part, they were smeared with white, and his eyes were
+dazzled by the endless vista of dimly-gleaming snow. Towering peak and
+serrated rampart rose hard and sharp against a background of coldest
+blue. There was no sound, for the glaciers' slushy feet that fed the
+streams had hardened into adamant, and a deathlike silence pervaded the
+frozen wilderness.
+
+Brooke felt the cold strike through him with the keenness of steel, and
+was about to cross the space between the shanty and the men's log
+shelter, when a dusky figure, beating its arms across its chest, came
+out of the latter.
+
+"Are the rest of the boys stirring yet?" he said.
+
+The man laughed, and his voice rang with a curious distinctness through
+the nipping air.
+
+"I guess we've had the stove lit 'most an hour ago," he said. "They've
+no use for being frozen, and that's what's going to happen to some of us
+unless we can make Truscott's before it's dark. Say, hadn't you better
+change your mind, and come along with us?"
+
+Brooke made a little sign of negation, though it would have pleased him
+to fall in with the suggestion. Work is seldom continued through the
+winter at the remoter mines, and he had most unwillingly decided to pay
+off the men, owing to the difficulty of transporting provisions and
+supplies. There was, however, a faint probability of somebody attempting
+to jump the unoccupied claim, and he had of late become infected by
+Allonby's impatience, while he felt that he could not sit idle in the
+cities until the thaw came round again. Still, he was quite aware that
+he ran no slight risk by remaining.
+
+"I'm not sure that it wouldn't be wiser, but I've got to stay," he said.
+"Anyway, Allonby wouldn't come."
+
+The other man dropped his voice a little. "That don't count. If you'll
+stand in, we'll take him along on the jumper sled. The old tank's 'most
+played out, and it's only the whisky that's keeping the life in him.
+He'll go out on the long trail sudden when there's no more of it, and
+it's going to be quite a long while before the freighter gets a load
+over the big divide."
+
+Brooke knew that this was very likely, but he shook his head. "I'm half
+afraid it would kill him to leave the mine," he said. "It's the hope of
+striking silver that's holding him together as much as the whisky."
+
+"Well," said the man, who laughed softly, "I've been mining and
+prospecting most of twenty years, and it's my opinion that, except the
+little you're getting on the upper level, there's not a dollar's worth
+of silver here. Now I guess Harry will have breakfast ready."
+
+He moved away, and when Brooke went back into the shanty, Allonby came
+out of an inner room shivering. His face showed grey in the lamplight,
+and he looked unusually haggard and frail.
+
+"It's bitter cold, and I seem to feel it more than I did last year," he
+said. "We will, however, be beyond the necessity of putting up with any
+more unpleasantness of the kind long before another one is over. I shall
+probably feel adrift then--it will be difficult, in my case, to pick up
+the thread of the old life again."
+
+"If you stay here, I'm not sure you'll have an opportunity of doing it
+at all," said Brooke. "It's a risk a stronger man than you are might
+shrink from."
+
+"Still, I intend to take it. We have gone into this before. If I leave
+Dayspring before I find the silver, I leave it dead."
+
+Brooke made a little gesture of resignation. "Well," he said, "I have
+done all I could, and now, if you will pour that flour into the pan,
+we'll have breakfast."
+
+Both men were silent during the frugal meal, for they knew what they had
+to look forward to, and the cold silence of the lonely land already
+weighed upon their spirits. Long weeks of solitude must be dragged
+through before the men who were going south that morning came back
+again, while there might very well be interludes of scarcity, and hunger
+is singularly hard to bear with the temperature at forty degrees below.
+Allonby only trifled with his food, and smiled drily when at last he
+thrust his plate aside.
+
+"Dollars are not to be picked up easily anywhere, and you and I are
+going to find out the full value of them before the thaw begins again,"
+he said. "We shall, no doubt, also discover how thoroughly nauseated one
+can become with his companion's company. I have heard of men wintering
+in the mountains who tried to kill one another."
+
+Brooke laughed. "It's scarcely likely we will go quite as far as that,
+though I certainly remember two men in the Quatomac Valley who flung
+everything in the range at each other periodically. One was inordinately
+fond of green stuff, and his partner usually started the circus by
+telling him to take his clothes off, and go out like Nebuchadnezzar.
+They refitted with wood-pulp ware when the proceedings became
+expensive."
+
+Just then there was a knock upon the door, which swung open, and a
+cluster of shadowy figures, with their breath floating like steam about
+them, appeared outside it. One of them flung a deerhide bag into the
+room.
+
+"We figured we needn't trail quite so much grub along, and I guess
+you'll want it," a voice said. "Neither of you changed your minds 'bout
+lighting out of this?"
+
+"I don't like to take it from you, boys," said Brooke, who recognized
+the rough kindliness which had prompted the men to strip themselves of
+the greater portion of their provisions. "You can't have more than
+enough for one day's march left."
+
+"I guess a man never hits the trail so hard as when he knows he has to,"
+somebody said. "It will keep us on the rustle till we fetch Truscott's.
+Well, you're not coming?"
+
+For just a moment Brooke felt his resolution wavering, and, under
+different circumstances, he might have taken Allonby by force, and gone
+with them, but by a somewhat involved train of reasoning he felt that it
+was incumbent upon him to stay on at the mine because Barbara Heathcote
+had once trusted him. It had been tolerably evident from her attitude
+when he had last seen her, that she had very little confidence in him
+now, but that did not seem to affect the question, and most men are a
+trifle illogical at times.
+
+"No," he said, with somewhat forced indifference. "Still, I don't mind
+admitting that I wish we were."
+
+The man laughed. "Then I guess we'll pull out. We'll think of you two
+now and then when we're lying round beside the stove in Vancouver."
+
+Brooke said nothing further. There was a tramp of feet, and the shadowy
+figures melted into the dimness beneath the pines. Then the last
+footfall died away, and the silence of the mountains suddenly seemed to
+grow overwhelming. Brooke turned to Allonby, who smiled.
+
+"You will," he said, "feel it considerably worse before the next three
+months are over, and probably be willing to admit that there is some
+excuse for my shortcomings in one direction. I have, I may mention, put
+in a good many winters here."
+
+Brooke swung round abruptly. "I'm going to work in the mine. It's
+fortunate that one man can just manage that new boring machine."
+
+He left Allonby in the shanty, and toiled throughout that day, and
+several dreary weeks, during most of which the pines roared beneath the
+icy gales and blinding snow swirled down the valley. What he did was of
+very slight effect, but it kept him from thinking, which, he felt, was a
+necessity, and he only desisted at length from physical incapacity for
+further labor. The snow, it was evident, had choked the passes, so that
+no laden beast could make the hazardous journey over them, for the
+anxiously-expected freighter did not arrive, and there was an increasing
+scarcity of provisions as the days dragged by; while Brooke discovered
+that a handful of mouldy floor and a few inches of rancid pork daily is
+not sufficient to keep a man's full strength in him. Then, when an
+Arctic frost followed the snow, Allonby fell sick, and one bitter
+evening, when an icy wind came wailing down the valley, it dawned upon
+his comrade that his condition was becoming precarious. Saying nothing,
+he busied himself about the stove, and smiled reassuringly when Allonby
+turned to him.
+
+"Are we to hold a festival to-night, since you seem to be cooking what
+should keep us for a week?" said the latter.
+
+"I almost fancy it would keep one of us for several days, which, since
+you do not seem especially capable of getting anything ready for
+yourself, is what it is intended to do," said Brooke. "I shall probably
+be that time in making the settlement and getting back again."
+
+"What are you going there for?"
+
+"To bring out the doctor."
+
+Allonby raised his head and looked at him curiously. "Are you sure that,
+with six or eight feet of snow on the divide, you could ever get there?"
+
+"Well," said Brooke, cheerfully, "I believe I could, and, if I don't,
+you will be very little worse off than you were before. You see, the
+provisions will not last two of us more than a few days longer, and you
+can take it that I will do all I can to get through the snow. Since you
+are not the only man who is anxious to find the silver, your health is a
+matter of importance to everybody just now."
+
+Allonby smiled curiously. "We will consider that the reason, and it is a
+tolerably good one, or I would not let you go. Still, I fancy you have
+another, and it is appreciated. There is, however, something more to be
+said. You will find my working plans in the case yonder should anything
+unexpected happen before you come back. Life, you know, is always a
+trifle uncertain."
+
+"That," said Brooke, decisively, "is morbid nonsense. You will be down
+the mine again in a week after the doctor comes."
+
+"Well," said Allonby, with a curious quietness, "I should, at least,
+very much like to find the silver."
+
+Brooke changed the subject somewhat abruptly, and it was an hour later
+when he shook hands with his comrade and went out into the bitter night
+with two blankets strapped upon his shoulders. Their parting was not
+demonstrative, though they realized that the grim spectre with the
+scythe would stalk close behind each of them until they met again, and
+Brooke, turning on the threshold, saw Allonby following him with
+comprehending eyes. Then he suddenly pulled the door to, shutting out
+the lamplight and the alluring red glow of the stove, and swung forward,
+knee-deep in dusty snow, into the gloom of the pines. The silence of the
+great white land was overwhelming, and the frost struck through him.
+
+It was late on the third night when he floundered into a little sleeping
+settlement, and leaned gasping against the door of the doctor's house
+before he endeavored to rouse its occupant. The latter stared at him
+almost aghast when he opened it, lamp in hand, and Brooke reeled, grey
+in the face with weariness and sheeted white with frozen snow, into the
+light.
+
+"Steady!" he said, slipping his arm through Brooke's. "Come in here.
+Now, keep back from the stove. I'll get you something that will fix you
+up in a minute. You came in from the Dayspring--over the divide? I heard
+the freighter telling the boys it couldn't be done."
+
+Brooke laughed harshly. "Well," he said, "you see me here, and, if
+that's not sufficient, you're going to prove the range can be crossed
+yourself to-morrow."
+
+The doctor was new to that country, and he was very young, or he would,
+in all probability, not been there at all, but when he heard Brooke's
+story he nodded tranquilly. "I'm afraid I haven't done any
+mountaineering, but I had the long-distance snowshoe craze rather bad
+back in Montreal," he said. "You're not going to give me very much of a
+lead over the passes, anyway, unless you sleep the next twelve hours."
+
+Brooke, as it happened, slept for six and then set out with the young
+doctor in blinding snow. He had forty to fifty pounds upon his back now,
+and once they left the sheltering timber it cost them four strenuous
+hours to make a thousand feet. Part of that night they lay awake,
+shivering in the pungent fir smoke in a hollow of the rocks, and started
+again, aching in every limb, long before the lingering dawn, while the
+next day passed like a very unpleasant dream with the young doctor. The
+snow had ceased, and lay without cohesion, dusty and dry as flour,
+waist-deep where the bitter winds had whirled it in wreaths, while the
+glare of the white peaks became intolerable under the cloudless sun.
+
+For hours they crawled through juniper scrub or stunted wisps of pines,
+where the trunks the winds had reaped lay piled upon each other in
+tangled confusion, with the sifting snow blown in to conceal the
+pitfalls between. By afternoon the doctor was flagging visibly, and
+white peaks and climbing timber reeled formlessly before his dazzled
+eyes as he struggled onward the rest of that day. Then, when the
+pitiless blue above them grew deeper in tint until the stars shone in
+depths of indigo, and the ranges fading from silver put on dim shades of
+blueness that enhanced their spotless purity, they stopped again, and
+made shift to boil the battered kettle in a gully, down which there
+moaned a little breeze that seared every patch of unprotected skin. The
+doctor collapsed behind a boulder, and lay there limply while Brooke fed
+the fire.
+
+"I'm 'most afraid you'll have to fix supper yourself to-night," he said.
+"Just now I don't quite know how I'm going to start to-morrow, though it
+will naturally have to be done."
+
+Brooke glanced round at the grim ramparts of ice and snow that cut
+sharp against the indigo. Night as it was, there was no softness in that
+scheme of color lighted by the frosty scintillations of the stars, and a
+shiver ran through his stiffened limbs.
+
+"Yes," he said. "Nobody not hardened to it could expect to stand more
+than another day in the open up here."
+
+He got the meal ready, but very little was said during it, and for a few
+hours afterwards the doctor lay coughing in the smoke of the fire, while
+his gum-boots softened and grew hard again as he drew his feet, which
+pained him intolerably between whiles, a trifle further from the
+crackling brands. He staggered when at last Brooke, finding that shaking
+was unavailing, dragged him upright.
+
+"Breakfast's almost ready, and we have got to make the mine by
+to-night," he said.
+
+The doctor could never remember how they accomplished it, but his lips
+were split and crusted with coagulated blood, while there seemed to be
+no heat left in him, when Brooke stopped on a ridge of the hillside as
+dusk was closing in.
+
+"The mine is close below us. In fact, we should have seen it from where
+we are," he said.
+
+Worn out as he was, the doctor noticed the grimness of his tone. "The
+nearer the better," he said. "I don't quite know how I got here, but you
+scarcely seem at ease."
+
+"I was wondering why Allonby, who does not like the dark, has not
+lighted up yet," Brooke said, drily. "We will probably find out in a few
+more minutes."
+
+Then he went reeling down the descending trail, and did not stop again
+until he stood amidst the piles of debris and pine stumps, with the
+shanty looming dimly in front of him across the little clearing. It
+seemed very dark and still, and the doctor, who came up gasping, stopped
+abruptly when his comrade's shout died away. The silence that closed in
+again seemed curiously eerie.
+
+"He must have heard you at that distance," he said.
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, a trifle hoarsely. "If he didn't, there's only one
+thing that could have accounted for it."
+
+Then they went on again slowly, until Brooke flung the door of the
+shanty open. There was no fire in the stove, and the place was very
+cold, while the darkness seemed oppressive.
+
+"Strike a match--as soon as you can get it done," said the doctor.
+
+Brooke broke several as he tore them off the block with half-frozen
+fingers, for the Canadian sulphur matches are not usually put up in
+boxes, and then a pale blue luminescence crept across the room when he
+held one aloft. It sputtered out, leaving a pungent odor, and thick
+darkness closed in again; but for a moment Brooke felt a curious relief.
+
+"He's not here," he said.
+
+The doctor understood the satisfaction in his voice, for his eyes had
+also turned straight towards the rough wooden bunk, and he had not
+expected to find it empty.
+
+"The man must have been fit to walk. Where has he gone?" he said.
+
+Brooke fancied he knew, and, groping round the room, found and lighted a
+lantern. Its radiance showed that his face was grim again.
+
+"If you can manage to drag yourself as far as the mine, I think it would
+be advisable," he said. "It seems to me significant that the stove is
+quite cold. One would fancy there had been no fire in it for several
+hours now."
+
+The doctor went with him, and somehow contrived to descend the shaft.
+Brooke leaned out from the ladder, swinging his lantern when they neared
+the bottom, and his shout rang hollowly among the rocks. There was no
+answer, and even the doctor, who had never seen Allonby, felt the
+silence that followed it.
+
+"If the man was as ill as you fancied how could he have got down?" he
+said.
+
+"I don't know," said Brooke. "Still, I think we shall come upon him not
+very far away."
+
+They went down a little further into the darkness, and then the
+prediction was warranted, for Brooke swung off his hat, and the doctor
+dropped on one knee when Allonby's white face appeared in the moving
+light. He lay very still, with one arm under him, and, when a few
+seconds had slipped by, the doctor looked up and, meeting Brooke's eyes,
+nodded.
+
+"Yes," he said. "It must have happened at least twelve hours ago. How, I
+can't tell exactly. Cardiac affection, I fancy. Anyway, not a fall.
+There is something in his hand, and a bundle of papers beside him."
+
+Brooke glanced away from the dead man, and noticed the stain of giant
+powder on the rock, and shattered fragments that had not been where they
+lay when he had last descended. Then he turned again, and took the piece
+of stone the doctor had, with some difficulty, dislodged from the cold
+fingers.
+
+"It's heavy," said the latter.
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, quietly. "A considerable percentage of it is either
+lead or silver. You are no doubt right in your diagnosis; so far as it
+goes, I'm inclined to fancy I know what brought on the cardiac
+affection."
+
+The doctor, who said nothing, handed him the papers, and Brooke, who
+opened them vacantly, started a little when he saw the jagged line,
+which, in drawings of the kind, usually indicates a break, was now
+traced across the ore vein in the plan. There was also a scrap of paper,
+with his name scrawled across it, and he read, "When you have got your
+dollars back four or five times over, sell out your stock."
+
+He scarcely realized its significance just then, and, moving the
+lantern a little, looked down on Allonby's face again. It was very white
+and quiet, and the signs of indulgence had faded from it, while Brooke
+was sensible of a curious thrill of compassion.
+
+"I wonder if the thing we long for most invariably comes when it is no
+use to us?" he said. "Well, we will go back to the shanty."
+
+There was nothing more that any man could do for Allonby until the
+morrow, and the darkness once more closed in on him, while the
+flickering light grew fainter up the shaft.
+
+
+
+
+XXV.
+
+BARBARA IS MERCILESS.
+
+
+It was about eight o'clock in the evening when Brooke stopped a moment
+as he entered the verandah of Devine's house, which stood girt about by
+sombre pines on a low rise divided by a waste of blackened stumps and
+branches from the outskirts of Vancouver city. Beneath him rose the
+clustering roofs and big electric lights, and a little lower still a
+broad track of silver radiance, athwart which a great ship rode with
+every spar silhouetted black as ebony, streaked the inlet. Though the
+frost was arctic in the ranges he had left a few days ago, it was almost
+warm down there, and he felt that he would have preferred to linger on
+the verandah, or even go back to his hotel, for the front of the wooden
+house was brilliantly lighted, and he could hear the chords of a piano.
+
+It was evident that Mrs. Devine was entertaining, and standing there,
+draped from neck to ankles in an old fur coat, he felt that he with his
+frost-nipped face and hard, scarred hands would be distinctly out of
+place amidst an assembly of prosperous citizens, while he was by no
+means certain how Mrs. Devine or Barbara would receive him. Often as he
+had thought of the latter, since he made his confession, he felt
+scarcely equal to meeting her just then. Still, it was necessary that he
+should see Devine, who was away at the neighboring city of New
+Westminster, when Brooke called at his office soon after the Pacific
+express arrived that afternoon, but had left word that he would be at
+home in the evening and would expect him; and flinging his cigar away he
+moved towards the door.
+
+A Chinese house boy took his coat from him in the hall, and as he stood
+under the big lamp it happened that Barbara came out of an adjacent door
+with two companions. Brooke felt his heart throb, though he did not
+move, and the girl, who turned her head a moment in his direction,
+crossed the hall, and vanished through another door. Then he smiled very
+grimly, for, though she made no sign of being aware of his presence, he
+felt that she had seen him. This was no more than he had expected, but
+it hurt nevertheless. In the meanwhile the house boy had also vanished,
+and it was a minute or two later when Mrs. Devine appeared, but Brooke
+could not then or afterwards decide whether she had heard the truth
+concerning him, for, though this seemed very probable, he knew that
+Barbara could be reticent, and surmised that Devine did not tell his
+wife everything. In any case, she did not shake hands with him.
+
+"My husband, who has just come home, is waiting for you in his
+smoking-room," she said. "It is the second door down the corridor."
+
+Brooke fancied that she could have been a trifle more cordial, but the
+fact that she sent nobody to show him the way, at least, was readily
+accounted for in a country where servants of any kind are remarkably
+scarce. It also happened that while he proceeded along the corridor one
+of Barbara's companions turned to her.
+
+"Did you see the man in the hall as we passed through?" she said. "I
+didn't seem to recognize him."
+
+Barbara was not aware that her face hardened a trifle, but her companion
+noticed that it did. She had certainly seen the man, and had felt his
+eyes upon her, while it also occurred to her that he looked worn and
+haggard, and she had almost been stirred to compassion. He had made no
+claim to recognition, but his face had not been quite expressionless,
+and she had seen the wistfulness in it. There was, in fact, a certain
+forlornness about his attitude which had its effect on her, and it was,
+perhaps, because of this she had suddenly hardened herself against him.
+
+"He is a Mr. Brooke--from the mine," she said.
+
+"Brooke!" said her companion. "The man from the Dayspring? I should like
+to talk to him."
+
+Barbara made a little gesture, the meaning of which was not especially
+plain. She had read the sensational account of the journey Brooke and
+the doctor had made through the ranges, which had by some means been
+supplied the press. It made it plain to her that the man was doing and
+enduring a good deal, and she was not disposed to be unduly severe upon
+a repentant offender, even though she fancied that nothing he could do
+would ever reinstate him in the place he once held in her estimation.
+The difficulty, however, was that she could not be sure he was contrite
+at all, or had not sent that story to the press himself with a purpose,
+though she realized that the last course was a trifle unlikely in his
+case.
+
+"Since Grant Devine will probably bring him in you may get your wish,"
+she said, indifferently.
+
+Devine in the meanwhile was gravely turning over several pieces of
+broken rock which Brooke had handed him.
+
+"Yes," he said, "that's most certainly galena, and carrying good metal
+by the weight of it. How much of it's lead and how much silver I
+naturally don't know yet, but, anyway, it ought to leave a good margin
+on the smelting. You haven't proved the vein?"
+
+"No," said Brooke, "I fancy we are only on the edge of it, but it would
+have cost me two or three weeks' work to break out enough of rock to
+form any very clear opinion alone, and I was scarcely up to it. It
+occurred to me that I had better come down and get the necessary men,
+though I'm not sure we can contrive to feed them or induce them to
+come."
+
+Devine nodded. "You must have had the toughest kind of time!" he said.
+"Well, we'll bid double wages, and you can offer that freight contractor
+his own figure to bring provisions in."
+
+He stopped abruptly with a glance at Brooke's haggard face. "I guess you
+can hold out another month or two."
+
+"Of course," said Brooke, quietly.
+
+"It's worth while. Allonby was quite dead when you got back to him?"
+
+"Yes, I and the doctor buried him. We used giant powder."
+
+Devine laid down his cigar. "It was a little rough on Allonby, for it
+was his notion that the ore was there, and now, when it seems we've
+struck it, it's not going to be any use to him. I guess that man put a
+good deal more than dollars into the mine."
+
+Brooke, who had lived with Allonby, knew that this was true, but Devine
+made a little abrupt gesture which seemed to imply that after all that
+aspect of the question did not greatly concern them.
+
+"I'll send you every man we can raise," he said. "I've got quite a big
+credit through from London, and we can cut expenses by letting up a
+little on the Canopus."
+
+"But you expected a good deal from that mine."
+
+"No," said Devine, drily, "I can't say I did. It's quite a while since
+we got a good clean up out of it."
+
+Brooke sat silent, apparently regarding his cigar, for a moment or two.
+"Are you sure it's wise to tell me so much?" he said. "There are men in
+this city who would make good use of any information I might furnish
+them with."
+
+Devine smiled in a curious fashion. "Well," he said, reflectively, "I
+guess it is. You've had about enough of playing Saxton's game, and,
+though I don't know that everybody would do it, I'm going to trust you."
+
+"Thank you," said Brooke, quietly.
+
+Devine, who took up his cigar again, made a little movement with his
+hand. "We'll let that slide. Now when I got the specimen and your note
+which the doctor sent on I figured I'd increase my holding, and cabled a
+buying order to London, but I had to pay more for the stock than I
+expected. It appears that a man, called Cruttenden, had been quietly
+taking any that was put on the market up."
+
+Brooke knew that his trustee had, as directed, been buying the Dayspring
+shares, but he desired to ascertain how far Devine's confidence in him
+went.
+
+"That didn't suggest anything to you?" he said.
+
+"No," said Devine, drily, "it didn't--and I've answered your question
+once. Besides, the man who snapped up every thing that was offered
+hadn't waited until you struck the ore. Still, I'd very much like to
+know what he was buying that stock for."
+
+Brooke did not tell him. Indeed, he was not exactly sure what had
+induced him to cable Cruttenden to buy. He had acted on impulse with
+Barbara's scornful words ringing in his ears, and a vague feeling that
+to share the risks of the man he had plotted against would be some small
+solace to him, for he had not at the time the slightest notion that the
+hasty act of self-imposed penance was to prove remarkably profitable.
+
+"I scarcely think it is worth while worrying over that point," he said.
+"There are folks in our country with more money than sense, or a good
+many foreign mines would never be floated, and it is just as likely that
+the man did not exactly know why he was doing it himself."
+
+Devine laughed. "Well," he said, "we'll go along now and see what the
+rest are doing."
+
+Brooke would considerably sooner have gone back to his hotel, but Devine
+persisted, and he was one who usually carried out his purpose. Brooke
+was accordingly presented to a good many people whom he had never seen
+before, and did not find remarkably entertaining, though he fancied that
+most of them appeared a trifle interested when they heard his name. The
+reason for this did not, however, become apparent until he stopped close
+by a girl who looked up at him. She was young, but evidently by no
+means diffident.
+
+"You are Brooke of the Dayspring, are you not?" she said, making room
+for him beside her.
+
+"I certainly come from that mine," said Brooke, and the girl turned to
+one of her companions.
+
+"You wouldn't believe he was the man," she said.
+
+Brooke was not altogether unaccustomed to the directness of the West,
+but he felt a trifle embarrassed when two pairs of eyes were fixed upon
+him in what seemed to be an appreciative scrutiny.
+
+"One would almost fancy that you had heard of me," he said.
+
+The girl laughed. "Well," she said, "most of the folks in this province
+who read newspapers have. There was a column about you and your sick
+partner and the doctor. You carried him across the range when he was too
+played out to walk, didn't you?"
+
+"No," said Brooke, a trifle astonished. "I certainly did not. He was a
+good deal too heavy, as a matter of fact, and I was not very fit to drag
+myself. But when did this quite unwarranted narrative come out, and what
+shape did it take?"
+
+They told him as nearly as they could remember, and added running
+comments and questions both at once.
+
+"You had almost nothing to eat for a week when you started across the
+range to bring the doctor out. That must have been horrid--and what did
+it feel like?" said one.
+
+Brooke shook his head. "I really don't know," he said. "I should
+recommend you to try it."
+
+"And then the poor man was dead when you got there--I 'most cried over
+him. There was a good deal about it. It must have been creepy coming
+upon him lying in the dark."
+
+Brooke, who understood a little about Western journalism, waited until
+they stopped, for the thing was becoming comprehensible to him.
+
+"Now," he said, "I know how the story got out. I didn't think the doctor
+would be guilty of anything of that kind, but no doubt he told the
+little schoolmaster at the settlement, who is a friend of his, and, I
+believe, addicted to misusing ink. Still, you see, the thing is
+evidently inaccurate. Do I look as if I could do without anything to eat
+for a week?"
+
+One of the girls again favored him with a scrutinizing glance. "Well,"
+she said, with a little twinkle in her eyes, "you certainly look as
+though square meals were scarce at the Dayspring."
+
+Brooke laughed, and then glancing round saw Barbara approaching. He
+fancied that she could not well have avoided seeing him unless she
+wished to, but she passed so close that her skirt almost touched him,
+and then stopped, apparently smiling down on a matronly lady a few yards
+away. Brooke felt his face grow warm, and was glad that his companions'
+questions covered his confusion.
+
+"Who'd you get to do the funeral? There wouldn't be any kind of
+clergyman up there."
+
+"No," said Brooke, grimly. "We had to manage it ourselves--that is, the
+doctor did. I'm afraid it wasn't very ceremonious--and it was snowing
+hard at the time."
+
+He sat silent a moment while a little shiver ran through him as he
+remembered the bitter blast that had whirled the white flakes about the
+two lonely men, and shaken a mournful wailing from the thrashing pines.
+
+"How dreadful!" said one of his companions. "The story only mentioned
+the big glacier, and the forest lying black all round."
+
+Brooke fancied he understood the narrator's reticence, for there were
+details the doctor was not likely to be communicative about.
+
+"The big glacier was, at least, three miles away, and nobody could have
+seen it from where we stood," he said, evasively.
+
+Just then, and somewhat to his relief, Mrs. Devine came up to him.
+"There are two or three people here who heard you play at the concert,
+and I have been asked to try to persuade you to do so again," she said.
+"Clarice Marvin would be delighted to lend you her violin."
+
+Seeing that it was expected of him, Brooke agreed, and there was a
+brief discussion during the choosing of the music, in which two or three
+young women took part. Then it was discovered that the piano part of the
+piece fixed upon was unusually difficult, and the girl who had offered
+Brooke the violin said, "You must ask Barbara, Mrs. Devine."
+
+Barbara, being summoned, made excuses when she heard what was required
+of her, until the lady violinist looked at her in wonder.
+
+"Now," she said, "you know you can play it if you want to. You went
+right through it with me only a week ago."
+
+A faint tinge of color crept into Barbara's cheek, but saying nothing
+further, she took her place at the piano, and Brooke bent down towards
+her when he asked for the note.
+
+"It really doesn't commit you to anything," he said. "Still, I can
+obviate the difficulty by breaking a string."
+
+Barbara met his questioning gaze with a little cold smile.
+
+"It is scarcely worth while," she said.
+
+Then she commenced the prelude, and there was silence in the big room
+when the violin joined in. Nor were those who listened satisfied with
+one sonata, and Barbara had finished the second before she once more
+remembered whom she was playing for. Then there was a faint sparkle in
+her eyes as she looked up at him.
+
+"It is unfortunate that you did not choose music as a career," she said.
+
+Brooke laughed, though his face was a trifle grim.
+
+"The inference is tolerably plain," he said. "I really think I should
+have been more successful than I was at claim-jumping."
+
+Barbara turned away from the piano, and Brooke, who laid down the
+violin, took the vacant place beside her.
+
+"Still, I'm almost afraid it's out of the question now," he said,
+looking down at his scarred hands. "The kind of thing I have been doing
+the past few years spoils one's wrist. You no doubt noticed how slow I
+was in part of the shifting."
+
+The girl noticed the leanness of his hands and the broken nails, and
+then glanced covertly at his face. It was gaunt and hollow, and she was
+sensible that there was a suggestion of weariness in his pose, which
+had, so far as she could remember, not been there before. Again a little
+thrill of compassion ran through her, and she felt, perhaps illogically,
+as she had done during the sonata, that no man could be wholly bad who
+played the violin as he did. Still, the last thing she intended doing
+was admitting it.
+
+"Why did you stay at the Dayspring through the winter?" she asked,
+abruptly.
+
+"Well," said Brooke, reflectively, "I really don't know. No doubt it was
+an unwarranted fancy, but I think I felt that after what I had purposed
+at the Canopus I was doing a little _per contra_, that is, something
+that might count in balancing the score against me, though, of course,
+I'm far from certain that it could be balanced at all. You see, it was a
+little lonely up there, especially after Allonby died, as well as a
+trifle cold."
+
+Barbara would have smiled at any other time, for she knew what the
+ranges were in winter, but, as it was, her face was expressionless and
+her voice unusually even.
+
+"I think I understand," she said. "It was probably the same idea that
+once led your knights and barons to set out on pilgrimages with peas in
+their shoes, though it is not recorded that they did the more sensible
+thing by restoring their plundered neighbors' possessions."
+
+Brooke laughed. "Still, my stay at the Dayspring served a purpose, for,
+although somebody else would no doubt have done so eventually, I found
+the galena, and I didn't go quite so far as the gentlemen you mention
+after all. No doubt it is very reprehensible to steal a mine, or, in
+fact, anything, but I don't know that charitable people would consider
+that feeling tempted to do so was quite the same thing."
+
+Barbara started a little, and there was a distinct trace of color in her
+face.
+
+"I never quite grasped that point before," she said. "You certainly
+stopped short of----?
+
+"The actual theft," said Brooke. "I don't, however, mind admitting that
+the thing never occurred to me until this moment, but I can give you my
+word, whatever it may be worth, that I never glanced at the papers after
+you handed them to me."
+
+There was a trace of wonder in Barbara's face, though she was quite
+aware that it could not be flattering to any man to show unnecessary
+astonishment when informed that he had, after all, some slight sense of
+honor.
+
+"Then I really think I did you a wrong, but we are, I fancy, neither of
+us very good at ethics," she said, languidly, though she was now
+sensible of a curious relief. The man had, it seemed, at least, not
+abused her confidence altogether, for, while there was no evident reason
+why she should do so, she believed his assertion that he had not glanced
+at the papers.
+
+"Hair-splitting," said Brooke, reflectively, "is an art very few people
+really excel in, and I find the splitting of rocks and pines a good deal
+easier and more profitable. You were, of course, in spite of your last
+admission, quite warranted in not seeing me twice to-night."
+
+"I think I was," and Barbara looked at him steadily. "You see, I
+believed in you. In fact, you made me, and it was that I found so
+difficult to forgive you."
+
+It was a very comprehensive admission, and Brooke, whose heart throbbed
+as he heard it, sat silent awhile.
+
+"Then," he said, very slowly, "it would be useless to expect that
+anything I could do would ever induce you to once more have any
+confidence in me?"
+
+Barbara's eyes were still upon him, though they were not quite so steady
+as usual.
+
+"Yes," she said, quietly, "I am afraid it is."
+
+Brooke made her a little inclination. "Well," he said, "I scarcely think
+anybody acquainted with the circumstances would blame you for that
+decision. And now I fancy Mrs. Devine is waiting for you."
+
+
+
+
+XXVI.
+
+THE JUMPING OF THE CANOPUS.
+
+
+The snow was soft at last, and honeycombed by the splashes from the
+pines, which once more scattered their resinous odors on a little warm
+breeze, when Shyanne Tom came plodding down the trail to the Canopus. He
+was a rock-driller of no great proficiency, which was why Captain
+Wilkins had sent him on an errand to a ranch; and was then retracing his
+steps leisurely. It was still a long way to the mine, but he was in no
+great haste to reach it, because he found it pleasanter to slouch
+through the bush than swing the hammer, and the time he spent on the
+journey would be credited to him. He had turned out of the trail to
+relight his pipe in the shelter of a big cedar, which kept off the wind,
+when he became sensible of a beat of horse hoofs close behind him. He
+would have heard it earlier, but that the roar of a river, which had
+lately burst its icy chains, came throbbing across the trees.
+
+Shyanne was shredding his tobacco plug with a great knife, but he turned
+sharply round because he could not think of any one likely to be riding
+down that trail, which only led to the Canopus, just then. As it
+happened, he stood in the shadow, and it is difficult to make out a man
+who does not move amidst the great grey-tinted trunks, especially if he
+is dressed in stained and faded jean; but the sunlight was on the trail,
+and Shyanne was struck by the attitude of one of the horsemen who
+appeared among the trees. There were five or six of them, and the beasts
+were heavily loaded with provisions and blankets, as well as axes and
+mining tools. The last man, however, led a horse, which carried nothing
+at all, and the leader, who had just pulled his beast up, was holding up
+his hand. It was evident to Shyanne that they had seen his tracks in the
+snow, but, as that was a peaceful country, he failed to understand why
+it should have brought the party to a standstill. He, however, stayed
+where he was, watching the leader, who stooped in his saddle.
+
+"It can't be more than a few minutes since that fellow went along, and
+his tracks break off right here," he said. "I guess there's a side trail
+somewhere, though the bush seems kind of thick."
+
+"A blame rancher looking for a deer," said another man. "Anyway, if he'd
+heard us, he'd have stopped to talk."
+
+The leader, Shyanne fancied, appeared reflective. "Well," he said, "I
+can't quite figure where he could have come from. Tomlinson's ranch is
+quite a way back, and there's not another house of any kind until you
+strike the mine. Still, I guess we needn't worry, so long as he hasn't
+seen us."
+
+He shook his bridle, and while one or two of the men turning in their
+saddles looked about them the horses plodded on, but Shyanne stood still
+for at least five minutes. He was not especially remarkable for
+intelligence, but it was evident to him that the men had a sufficient
+reason for desiring that nobody should see them. Then he put his pipe
+away, and proceeded circumspectly up the trail, with the print of the
+horse hoofs leading on before him, until they turned off abruptly into
+the bush. The meaning of this was incomprehensible, since it was not the
+season when timber-right or mineral prospectors started on their
+journeys, and Shyanne decided that it might be advisable to go on and
+inform Wilkins of what he had seen. Still, he made no great progress,
+for the snow was soft, and, after all, the Canopus did not belong to
+him.
+
+About the time he reached it, Brooke, who had come up there on some
+business with Wilkins, was lounging, cigar in hand, on the verandah at
+the ranch. The night was, for the season, still and almost warm, and a
+half-moon hung low above the dripping pines, while he found the silence
+and the sweet resinous odors soothing, for he had been toiling
+feverishly at the Dayspring of late. Why he stayed there when there was
+no longer any reason he should not go back to England, and Barbara had
+told him that his offences were too grievous to be forgiven, he did not
+exactly know. Still, the work had taken hold of him, and he felt that
+while she was in the country he could not go away. He was wondering,
+disconsolately, whether time would soften her indignation, or if she
+would always be merciless, when Wilkins came into the verandah. He was
+an elderly and somewhat deliberate man, but Brooke fancied he was
+anxious just then.
+
+"It's kind of fortunate you're here to-night. We've got to have a talk,"
+he said.
+
+Brooke gave him a cigar, and leaned against the balustrade, when he
+slowly lighted it.
+
+"You can't let me have the men I asked for?" he said.
+
+Wilkins made a little gesture. "All you want. That's not the point. Now,
+you just let me have a minute or two."
+
+Ten had passed before he had related what Shyanne had told him, and then
+Brooke, who saw the hand of Saxton in this, quietly lighted another
+cigar.
+
+"Well," he said, "what do you make of it? They're scarcely likely to be
+timber-righters?"
+
+"They might be claim-jumpers."
+
+"Still, nobody could jump a claim whose title was good."
+
+Wilkins appeared a trifle uneasy, though it was too dark for Brooke to
+see him well, but he apparently made up his mind to speak.
+
+"The fact is, our title isn't quite as good as it might be. That is,
+there's a point or two anybody who knew all about it could make trouble
+on," he said, and then turned, a trifle impatiently, to Brooke. "You
+take it blame quietly. I had kind of figured that would astonish you."
+
+Brooke laughed. "I had surmised as much already. We'll suppose the men
+Shyanne saw intend to jump the claim. How will they set about it?"
+
+"They'll wait until they figure every one's asleep--twelve o'clock, most
+likely, since that would make it easy to get their record in the same
+day, though it's most of an eight hours' ride to the office of the Crown
+recorder. Then they'll drive their stakes in quietly, and while the rest
+sit down tight on the pegged-off claim, one of them will ride out all
+he's worth to get the record made. After that, they'll start in to bluff
+the dollars out of Devine."
+
+He stopped somewhat abruptly, and Brooke fancied that he had something
+still upon his mind, but he had discovered already that it was generally
+useless to attempt the extraction of any information Wilkins had not
+quite decided to impart.
+
+"Then what are we going to do?" he said.
+
+"Turn out the boys, and hold the jumpers off as long as we can, while
+somebody from our crowd rides out to put a new record in. When a claim's
+bad in law anybody can stake it, and the Crown will register him as
+owner until they can straighten out the thing."
+
+"Then what do you expect from me?"
+
+Wilkins' answer was prompt and decisive. "We'll have a horse ready.
+You'll ride for the Company."
+
+Brooke turned from him abruptly, and looked down the valley. He would
+have preferred to avoid an actual conflict with Saxton for several
+reasons, but he could not remain neutral, and must choose between Devine
+and him. He had also broken off his compact, and while he wished the
+jumpers had been acting for another man, there was apparently only the
+one course open to him. It was also conceivable that if he could make a
+valid new record it would count for a little in his favor with Barbara.
+
+"I certainly seem the most suitable person, and you can get the horse
+ready," he said. "Still, is there any reason I shouldn't make sure of
+the thing by starting right away?"
+
+Wilkins thought there was. "Well," he said, "I've only Shyanne's tale to
+go upon, and supposing those men aren't claim-jumpers after all, what do
+we gain by sending you to make a new record on the claim?"
+
+"Nothing beyond letting everybody know that your patent's bad, and
+raising trouble with the Crown people over it, while I scarcely fancy
+Devine would thank me for doing that unnecessarily. It would be wiser to
+wait and make certain of what they mean to do."
+
+"You've hit it," said Wilkins. "I'll go along and talk to the boys."
+
+He disappeared into the darkness, and Brooke, who was feeling chilly
+now, went back to the stove, while it was two hours later when he took
+his place behind one of the sawn-off firs which dotted the hillside
+above what had been one of the most profitable headings of the mine. The
+half-moon was higher now, and the pale radiance showed the six-foot
+stumps that straggled up the steep slope in rows until the bush closed
+in on them again. There was no longer any snow upon the firs, and they
+towered against the blueness of the night in black and solemn spires.
+The bush was also very quiet, as was the strip of clearing, and there
+was nothing to show that a handful of men were waiting there with a
+sense of grim anticipation.
+
+Half an hour slipped by, and there was no sound from the forest but the
+soft rustling of the fir twigs under a little breeze, while Brooke, who
+found the waiting particularly unpleasant, and was annoyed to feel his
+fingers were quivering a little with the tension, grew chilly. It would,
+he felt, be a relief when the jumpers came, but another ten minutes
+dragged by and there was still no sign of them. The breeze had grown a
+trifle colder, and the firs were whispering eerily, while he could now
+hear the men moving uneasily. Then he started when the howl of a wolf
+came out of the bush, and, leaning forward, grasped Wilkins' arm.
+
+"I suppose they will come?" he said.
+
+The mine captain made a sign to a man who crouched behind a neighboring
+tree.
+
+"Quite sure you were awake when you saw those men, Shyanne?" he said.
+"Harrup hadn't been giving you any of the hard cider?"
+
+Shyanne chuckled audibly. "Not more'n a jugful, anyway, and I don't see
+things on the hardest cider they make in Ontario. No, sir, those men
+were there, and I've a notion there's one of them yonder now."
+
+The shadows of the firs were black upon the clearing, but a dark patch
+was projected suddenly beyond the rest, and a voice came faintly through
+the whispering of the trees.
+
+"Stand by," it said. "They're coming along."
+
+Then Brooke set his lips as a human figure, carrying what seemed to be
+an axe, materialized out of the gloom. Another appeared behind it, and
+then a third, while, when a fourth became visible, Wilkins rose
+suddenly.
+
+"Now, what in the name of thunder are you wanting here?" he said.
+
+The foremost man jumped, as Shyanne asserted afterwards, like a shot
+deer, but the rest, who had apparently steadier nerves, came on at a
+run, and a man behind them shouted, "Don't worry 'bout anything, but
+get your stakes in. I'll do the talking."
+
+Then, while Brooke slipped away, Wilkins stepped out into the moonlight
+with a Marlin rifle gleaming dully in his hand. "Stop right where you
+are," he said. "Where's the man who wants to talk?"
+
+The men stopped, and stood glancing about them, irresolutely. There were
+six in all, but rather more than that number of shadowy objects had
+appeared unexpectedly among the sawn-off stumps. While they waited
+Saxton stepped forward.
+
+"Well," he said, "you see me."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Wilkins, drily, "and I guess I've seen many a squarer
+man. What do you want crawling round our claim, anyway?"
+
+"It's not yours. Your patent's bad, and we're going to re-locate it for
+you. Haven't you got those stakes ready, boys?"
+
+"Bring them along," said Wilkins. "I'm waiting."
+
+He stood stiff and resolute, with the rifle at his hip, and the
+moonlight on his face, which was very grim, and once more the
+claim-jumpers glanced at their leader, dubiously. They were aware that
+although the regulations respecting mineral claims might not have been
+complied with, there are conditions under which a man is warranted in
+holding on to his property. Wilkins also appeared quite decided on doing
+it.
+
+Then Saxton's voice rose sharply. "Hallo!" he said. "What the----"
+
+Wilkins swung round, and saw three or four more shadowy figures enter
+the clearing from the opposite side, and they also apparently carried
+stakes and axes.
+
+"Figured you'd get in ahead of us, Saxton," said one of them.
+
+Saxton evidently lost his temper. "Well," he said, "I guess I'm going to
+do it, you slinking skunk. If it can't be fixed any other way, I'll
+strike you for shooting Brooke."
+
+Wilkins laughed. "Any more of you coming along? It's a kind of pity you
+didn't get here a little earlier."
+
+They knew what he meant in another moment, when the sound of a horse
+ridden hard through slushy snow rose from the shadows of the pines.
+Wilkins made a little ironical gesture.
+
+"I guess you'll never get rich claim-jumping, boys," he said.
+
+Then Saxton's voice rose again. "The game's not finished. We'll play you
+for it yet," he said. "Where's that horse? Get your stakes in."
+
+He vanished in another minute, but his followers remained, and there was
+for a time a very lively scuffle about the stakes Brooke had already
+hammered in. They were torn up, and replaced several times before the
+affray was over, and then two men, who furnished a very vague account
+of the fashion in which they had received their injuries, were with
+difficulty conveyed to the Vancouver hospital. In spite of a popular
+illusion, pistols are not in general use in that country, but it is not
+insuperably difficult to disable an opponent effectively with an axe or
+shovel.
+
+In the meanwhile, three men, who realized that, under the circumstances,
+a good deal would depend upon who was first to reach it, were riding
+hard by different ways towards the recorder's office, and Brooke, having
+no great confidence in the horse Wilkins had supplied him with, had
+taken what was at once the worst and shortest route. That is not a nice
+country to ride through in daylight, even when there is no snow upon the
+ground, and there were times when he held his breath as the horse
+plunged down the side of a gulley with the half-melted snow and gravel
+sliding away beneath its hoofs. They also smashed and floundered through
+withered fern and crackling thickets of sal-sal and salmon berry, and
+during one perilous hour Brooke dragged the beast by the bridle up
+slopes of wet and slippery rock, from which the winds had swept the snow
+away.
+
+Still, it was long since he had felt in the same high spirits, and when
+they reached more even ground the rush through the cold night air
+brought him a curious elation. He felt he was, at least doing what might
+count in his favor against the past, and, apart from that, there was
+satisfaction to be derived from the reckless ride itself. He had,
+however, only a blurred recollection of most of it, flitting forest,
+peaks that glittered coldly, the glint of moonlight on still frozen
+lakes, and the frequent splashings through icy fords, until, when the
+stars had faded, and the firs rose black and hard against the dawn, they
+reeled down to the bank of a larger river, from which the white mists
+were streaming. It swirled by thick with floating ice, and the horse
+strenuously objected to enter the water at all. Twice it reared at the
+stabbing of the spurs, and then bounded with arching back, but Brooke
+was used to that trick, and contrived to keep his saddle until he and
+the beast slid down the bank together, and there was a splash and
+flounder as they reached the water.
+
+It was most of it freshly-melted ice, and when he slipped from the
+saddle, which he promptly found it necessary to do, the cold took his
+breath away, and he clung by the stirrup leather, gasping and
+half-dazed, while the beast proceeded unguided for a minute or two.
+Then, as they swung round in a white eddy, his perceptions came back to
+him, and he realized that there was no longer any need for swimming,
+when he drove against a boulder, whose head just showed above the
+swirling foam. He got on his feet somehow, and was never quite sure
+whether he led the beast through the rest of the passage or held on by
+the bridle, but at last they staggered up the opposite bank, where a
+man he could not see very well in the dim light sat looking down on him
+from the saddle. Brooke moved a pace nearer, and then recognized him as
+the one who had shot him at Devine's ranch.
+
+"Saxton has taken the high trail and he'll cross by the bridge, but I
+guess we're quite a while ahead of him," he said. "Now, do you know any
+reason why we shouldn't pool the thing?"
+
+Brooke stared at him, divided between indignation and appreciation of
+his assurance.
+
+"Yes," he said, drily, "several, and one of them is quite sufficient by
+itself."
+
+"Figure it out," said the other. "I tell you Saxton can't make our time
+over the high trail, though it's a better road. Now that one of us will
+get there first is a sure thing, but it's quite as certain it can't be
+both, and I'd be content with half of what you bluff out of Devine.
+That's reasonable."
+
+Brooke felt his face grow a trifle hot, though he recognized that it was
+not astonishing the man should credit him with the purpose he had
+certainly been impelled by at their last meeting.
+
+"I can't make a deal with you on any terms," he said. "Ride on, or pull
+your horse out of the trail."
+
+"I guess that wouldn't suit me," said the other man, and when Brooke had
+his foot in the stirrup, suddenly swung up his hand.
+
+Then there was a flash and a detonation, and the horse plunged. The
+flash was repeated, and while Brooke strove to clear his foot of the
+stirrup, the beast staggered and fell back on him. It, however, rolled
+and struggled, and, for his foot was free now, he contrived to drag
+himself away.
+
+When he was next sensible of anything, he could hear a very faint thud
+of hoofs far up the climbing trail, and, after lying still for several
+minutes, ventured to move circumspectly. He felt very sore, but all his
+limbs appeared to be in their usual places, and, rising shakily, he
+found, somewhat to his astonishment, that he could walk. The horse was
+evidently dead, but there was, he remembered, a ranch not very far away,
+and a certain probability of the other man still breaking one of his own
+limbs or his horse's legs, for the trail was rather worse than trails
+usually are in that country. Brooke accordingly decided to hobble on to
+the ranch, and somehow accomplished it, though the man who opened the
+door to him looked very dubious when he asked him for a horse.
+
+"The only beast I've got isn't worth much, but you don't look up to
+taking him in over the lake trail," he said.
+
+He, however, parted with the horse, and hove Brooke into the saddle,
+while the latter groaned as he rode away. One arm and one leg were stiff
+and aching, and at every jolt his back hurt him excruciatingly, but a
+few hours later he rode, spattered with mire and slushy snow, into a
+little wooden town, and had afterwards a fancy that somebody offered to
+lift him down. He was not sure how he got out of the saddle, but a man
+he recognized took the horse, and he proceeded, limping stiffly, with
+his wet clothes sticking to his skin, to the Crown mining office. The
+recorder, who appeared to be a young Englishman, looked hard at him when
+he came in, and then pointed to a chair.
+
+"You may as well sit down. If my surmises are correct, there is no great
+need for haste," he said.
+
+Brooke's face, which was a trifle grey, grew suddenly set.
+
+"Some one else has already recorded a new claim on the Canopus?" he
+said.
+
+"Yes," said the recorder. "In fact, two of them, and the last man was
+good enough to inform me that there was another of you coming along."
+
+"Then you can't give a record?"
+
+"No," said the other man, with a little smile. "I'm not sure that any of
+you will get one in the meanwhile; that is, not until we have obtained a
+few particulars from Mr. Devine."
+
+"I have come on behalf of him."
+
+"That," said the recorder, "is, under the circumstances, no great
+recommendation. In fact, there are several points your employer will be
+asked to clear up before we go any further with the matter."
+
+Brooke, who asked no more questions, contrived to make his way to the
+hotel, and flung himself down to rest, when he had ascertained when the
+Pacific express came in. Important as it was that he should see Devine,
+he was, however, very uncertain whether he would be able to get up
+again.
+
+
+
+
+XXVII.
+
+THE LAST ROUND.
+
+
+The whistle screamed hoarsely as the long train swung out from the
+shadow of the pines, and Brooke raised himself stiffly in his seat in a
+big, dusty car. A sawmill veiled in smoke and steam swept by, and, while
+the roar of wheels sank to a lower pitch, he caught the gleam of the
+blue inlet Vancouver City is built above ahead. Then, as the clustering
+roofs, which seamed the hillside ridge on ridge with a maze of poles and
+wires cutting against the background of stately pines grew plainer, he
+straightened his back with an effort. It was aching distressfully, and
+he felt dizzy as well as stiff, while he commenced to wonder whether his
+strength would hold out until he had seen Devine and finished his
+business in the city.
+
+Then the cars lurched a little, there was a doleful tolling of a bell,
+and when the long, dusty train rolled slowly into the depot he dropped
+shakily from a vestibule platform. The rough planking did not seem quite
+steady, and he struck his feet against the metals when he crossed the
+track, but he managed to reach Devine's office, and found that he was
+out. He would, however, be back in another hour, his clerk said, and it
+occurred to Brooke that he could, in the meanwhile, consult a doctor.
+The latter asked him a few questions, and then sat looking at him
+thoughtfully for a moment or two.
+
+"It's not quite clear to me how the horse came to fall on you. You were
+dismounted at the time?" he said. "Still, after all, that's not quite
+the question."
+
+Brooke smiled a little. "No," he said. "I scarcely think it is."
+
+"Well," said the doctor, drily, "whichever way you managed it, the snow
+was either very soft or something else took the weight of the beast off
+you, but I don't think you need worry greatly about that fall. Lie down
+for a day or two, and rub some of the stuff I give you on the bruises.
+Now, suppose you tell me what you've been doing for the last few
+months."
+
+Brooke did so concisely, and the doctor nodded. "Pretty much as I
+figured," he said. "You want to stop it right away. Go down the Sound on
+a steamboat, or across to Victoria for two or three weeks, and do
+nothing."
+
+"I'm afraid that's out of the question."
+
+The doctor made a little gesture. "Then, if you go on taking it out of
+yourself, there'll be trouble, especially if you worry. Go slow, and eat
+and sleep all you can for a month, anyway."
+
+Brooke thanked him, and went back to Devine's office thoughtfully. He
+felt that the advice was good, though there were difficulties in the way
+of his acting upon it. He had already realized that the strain of the
+last few months, the insufficient food, and feverish work, were telling
+upon him, but he had made up his mind to hold out until the work at the
+Dayspring was in full swing and the value of the ore lead had been made
+clear beyond all doubt. Then there would be time to rest and consider
+the position.
+
+Devine was in when he reached the office, and looked hard at him, but he
+said very little while Brooke told his story. Nor did he appear by any
+means astonished or concerned.
+
+"Well," he said, reflectively, "it's quite likely that we'll have the
+pleasure of seeing Mr. Saxton to-morrow. He'll hang off until then, and
+when he comes I'll be ready to talk to him. In the meanwhile, you're
+coming home with me."
+
+Brooke hoped that he did not show the embarrassment he certainly felt,
+for, much as he longed to see her, it was, after their last meeting,
+difficult to believe that Barbara would appreciate his company, and he
+scarcely felt in a mood for another taste of her displeasure.
+
+"I had decided on going out on the Atlantic express this evening," he
+said. "There is a good deal to do at the Dayspring, and I could scarcely
+expect Mrs. Devine to be troubled with me. Besides, you see, I came
+right away----"
+
+He glanced significantly at his clothes, but Devine, who rose, laid a
+hand on his shoulder.
+
+"You're coming along," he said. "I may want you to-morrow."
+
+Brooke, who felt too languid to make another protest, went with him, and
+when they reached the house on the hillside, Devine led him into a room
+which looked down on the inlet.
+
+"Sit down," he said, pointing to a big lounge chair. "I'll send somebody
+to look after you, and, unless you look a good deal better than you do
+now, you'll stay right here to-morrow. In the meanwhile, you'll excuse
+me. There are one or two folks I have to see in the city."
+
+He went out, and Brooke, who let his head, which ached a good deal, sink
+back upon the soft upholstery, wondered vacantly what Mrs. Devine would
+think when she saw him there. He still wore the garments he was
+accustomed to at the mine, and, though they were dry now, and, at least,
+comparatively clean, he felt that long boots and soil-stained jean were
+a trifle out of place in that dainty room. That, however, did not seem
+to matter. He was drowsy and a trifle dizzy, while the room was warm,
+and it was with a little start he heard the door-handle rattle a few
+minutes later. Then, while he endeavored to straighten himself, Barbara
+came in.
+
+"I feel that I ought to offer you my excuses for being here, though I am
+not sure that I could help it," he said. "Grant Devine is of a somewhat
+determined disposition, and he insisted on bringing me."
+
+Barbara did not notice him wince as with pain when he turned to her, for
+she was not at that moment looking at him.
+
+"Then why should you make any? It is his house," she said.
+
+This was not very promising, for Brooke felt it suggested that, although
+the girl was willing to defer to Devine's wishes, they did not
+necessarily coincide with hers.
+
+"It is!" he said. "Still, I seem to have acquired the sense of fitness
+you once mentioned, and I feel I should not have come. One is, however,
+not always quite so wise as he ought to be, and I was feeling a trifle
+worn out when your brother-in-law invited me. That probably accounted
+for my want of firmness."
+
+Barbara glanced at him sharply, and noticed the gauntness of his face
+and the spareness of his frame, which had become accentuated since she
+had last seen him. It also stirred her to compassion, which was probably
+why she endeavored, as she had done before, to harden her heart against
+him.
+
+"No doubt you spent last night in the saddle, and the trails would be
+bad," she said. "I believe they are getting some tea ready, and, in the
+meanwhile, how are you progressing at the mine?"
+
+Brooke realized that she had heard nothing about his ride or the
+jumping of the Canopus, and determined that she should receive no
+enlightenment from him. This may have been due to wounded pride, but it
+afterwards stood him in good stead. Nor would he show that her chilly
+graciousness, which went just as far as the occasion demanded and no
+further, hurt him, and he accordingly roused himself, with an effort, to
+talk about the mine. The girl had usually appeared interested in the
+subject, and it was, at least, a comparatively safe one.
+
+She, on her part, noticed the weariness in his eyes, and found it
+necessary to remind herself of his offences, for the story he told was
+not without its effect on her. It was, though he omitted most of his own
+doings, a somewhat graphic one, and she realized a little of the
+struggle he and the handful of men Devine had been able to send him had
+made, half-fed, amidst the snow. Still, for no very apparent reason, his
+composure and the way he kept himself in the background irritated her.
+
+"One would wonder why you put up with so much hardship. Wasn't it a
+little inconsequent?" she said.
+
+Brooke's gaunt face flushed. "Well," he said, "one is under the painful
+necessity of earning a living."
+
+"Still, could it not be done a little more easily?"
+
+"I don't know that it is, under any circumstances, a remarkably simple
+thing, but that is not quite the question, and, since you seem to
+insist, I'll answer you candidly. In my case, it was almost
+astonishingly inconsequent--that is, as I expect you mean, about the
+last thing any one would naturally have expected from me. Still, I felt
+that, after what I had done, I had a good deal to pull up, you see;
+though that is a motive with which, as I noticed when I mentioned it
+once before, you apparently can scarcely credit me."
+
+Barbara smiled. "It was your own actions that made it difficult."
+
+"I admitted on another occasion that I am not exactly proud of them, but
+there was some slight excuse. There usually is, you see."
+
+"Of course!" said Barbara. "You need not be diffident. In your case
+there were the dollars of which my brother-in-law plundered you."
+
+Brooke looked at her with a little glint in his eyes. "You," he said,
+slowly, "can be very merciless."
+
+"Well," said Barbara, who met his gaze with quiet composure, "I might
+have been less so had I not expected quite so much from you. After all,
+it does not greatly matter--and here is the tea."
+
+"I think it matters a good deal, but perhaps we needn't go into that,"
+said Brooke, who took the cup she handed him. "You have poured out tea
+for me on several occasions now, but still, each one recalls the first
+time you did it at the Quatomac ranch."
+
+The same thing had happened to Barbara, but she laughed. "It,
+presumably, made no difference to the tea, and yours runs some risk of
+getting cold."
+
+Brooke appeared to be holding his cup with quite unnecessary firmness,
+and she fancied his color was a trifle paler than it had been, but he
+smiled.
+
+"I really do not remember that it tasted any the worse," he said.
+"Perhaps you can remember how the sound of the river came in through the
+open door that night, and the light flickered in the draughts. It showed
+up your face in profile, and I can still picture Jimmy sitting by the
+stove, with his mouth wide open, watching you. He had evidently never
+seen anything of the kind before."
+
+Barbara noticed the manner in which he pulled himself up, and realized
+that the sentence had deviated from its natural conclusion. It was,
+though he had certainly been guilty of obtaining what she was pleased to
+consider her esteem by a course of disgraceful imposition, gratifying
+that he should be able to recall that evening. That, however, was not to
+be admitted.
+
+"I remember that the two candles were stuck in whisky bottles," she
+said. "You removed them somewhat suddenly when you came in."
+
+Brooke smiled, but his face was a trifle grey in patches now, and the
+cup was shaking visibly. "I really shouldn't have done," he said.
+"Still, you see, I was a trifle flurried that night, and like Jimmy in
+one respect, in that I had never----"
+
+"You, at least, had been handed tea by a lady before," said Barbara,
+severely.
+
+"I had, but the incomplete explanation still holds good. Well, it was,
+no doubt, unwise of me to take those candlesticks away, since to
+disguise one's habits for a stranger's benefit naturally implies a
+deficiency of becoming pride, and it could, in any case, only have made
+the thing more palpable to you."
+
+"One's habits?" said Barbara, who would not admit comprehension.
+
+Brooke nodded. "Men," he said, "do not, as a rule, buy whisky bottles to
+make candlesticks of, and there were, as I believe you noticed, a good
+many more of them already on the floor. Still, you see, your good
+opinion--was--important to me, and I was willing to cheat you into
+bestowing it on me even then. It matters--it really does matter--a good
+deal."
+
+Then there was a crash, and Brooke's cup struck the leg of the chair,
+while his plate rolled across the floor, and Barbara's dress was
+splashed with tea. The man sat gripping the chair arm hard, and blinking
+at her, while his face grew grey; but when she rose he apparently
+recovered himself with an effort.
+
+"Very sorry!" he said, slowly. "Quite absurd of me! Still, I have had a
+good deal to do--and very little sleep--lately."
+
+Barbara was wholly compassionate now. "Sit still," she said, quietly. "I
+will bring you a glass of wine."
+
+"No," said Brooke, a trifle unevenly. "I must have kept you here half an
+hour already, and I am afraid I have spoiled your dress into the
+bargain. That ought to be enough. If you don't mind, I think I will go
+and lie down."
+
+He straightened himself resolutely, and Barbara, who called the
+house-boy, stood still, with a warm tinge in her face, when he went out
+of the room. The man was evidently worn out and ill, and yet he had
+endeavored to hide the fact to save her concern, while she had found a
+most unbecoming pleasure in flagellating him. He had met her very
+slightly-veiled reproaches with a composure which, she surmised, had not
+cost him a little, even when his strength was melting away from him.
+Then she flushed a still ruddier color as she remembered that, in any
+case, dissimulation was a strong point of his, for she felt distinctly
+angry with herself for recollecting it.
+
+She had engagements that evening, and did not see him, while he had
+apparently recovered during the night, for, when she came down to
+breakfast, Mrs. Devine told her that he had already gone out with her
+husband. In point of fact, an eight-hours' sleep had done a good deal
+for Brooke, who lunched, or rather dined, with Devine in the city, and
+then went with him to his office to wait until the Pacific express came
+in.
+
+"The train's up to schedule time. I sent to ask them at the depot,"
+said Devine. "I guess we'll have Mr. Saxton here in another ten
+minutes."
+
+The prediction was warranted, for he had about half smoked the cigar he
+lighted when Saxton was shown in. The latter was dressed tastefully in
+city clothes, and wore a flower in his buttonhole. He also smiled as he
+glanced at Brooke.
+
+"It was quite a good game you put up, and you got away five minutes
+before I did," he said. "Still, three men are a little too many to jump
+a claim when I'm one of them."
+
+Brooke's face grew a trifle grim, for he saw Saxton's meaning, but
+Devine regarded the latter with a faint, sardonic smile.
+
+"Sit down and take a cigar," he said. "I guess you came here to talk to
+me, and Mr. Brooke never meant to jump the claim."
+
+"No?" and Saxton assumed an appearance of incredulity very well. "Now I
+quite figured that he did."
+
+"You can fix it with him afterwards," said Devine. "It seems to me that
+we're both here on business."
+
+"Then we'll get down to it. I have put in a record on the Canopus mine.
+I guess you know your patent's not quite straight on a point or two."
+
+"You're quite sure of that?"
+
+"The Crown people seem to be. Now, I can't draw back my claim without
+throwing the mine open to anybody, but I'm willing to hold on and trade
+my rights to you when I've got my improvements in. Of course, you'd have
+to make it worth while, but I'm not going to be unreasonable."
+
+Devine laughed a little. "There was once a jumper who figured he'd found
+the points you mentioned out. He wanted eight thousand dollars. Would
+you be content with that?"
+
+"No," said Saxton, drily. "I'm going to strike you for more."
+
+There was silence for a moment or two, and Brooke leaned forward a
+little as he watched his companions. Saxton was a trifle flushed in
+face, and his dark eyes had an exultant gleam in them, while the thin,
+nervous fingers of one hand were closed upon the edge of the table. His
+expression suggested that he was completely satisfied with himself and
+the strength of his position, for it apparently only remained for him to
+exact whatever terms he pleased. Devine's attitude was, however, not
+quite what one would have expected, for he did not look in the least
+like a man who felt himself at his adversary's mercy. He sat smiling a
+little, and trifling with his cigar.
+
+"Well," he said, reflectively, "I guess the man I mentioned was sorry he
+asked quite as much as he did. What is your figure?"
+
+"I'll wait your bid."
+
+Devine sat still for several moments, with the little sardonic smile
+growing plainer in his eyes, and Brooke, who felt the tension, fancied
+that Saxton was becoming uneasy. There was a curious silence in the
+room, through which the whirr of an elevator jarred harshly.
+
+"One dollar," he said.
+
+Saxton gasped. "Bluff!" he said. "That's not going to count with me. You
+want a full hand to carry it through, and the one you're holding isn't
+strong enough. Now, I'll put down my cards."
+
+"One dollar," said Devine, drily.
+
+Saxton stood up abruptly, and gazed at him in astonishment, with
+quivering fingers and tightening lips. "I tell you your patent's no
+good."
+
+"I know it is."
+
+Again there was silence, and Brooke saw that Saxton was holding himself
+in with difficulty.
+
+"Still, you want to keep your mine," he said.
+
+"You can have it for what I asked you, and if you can clear the cost of
+working, it's more than I can do. The Canopus was played out quite a
+while ago."
+
+Even Brooke was startled, and Saxton sat down with all his customary
+assurance gone out of him. His mouth opened loosely, he seemed to grow
+suddenly limp, and his cigar shook visibly in his nerveless fingers.
+
+"Now," he said, and stopped while a quiver of futile anger seemed to run
+through him, "that's the last thing I expected. What'd you put up that
+wire sling for? I can't figure out your game."
+
+Devine laughed. "It's quite easy. You have just about sense enough to
+worry anybody, or you wouldn't have dumped that ore into the Dayspring,
+and worked off one of the richest mines in the province on to me. Well,
+when I saw you meant to strike me on the Canopus, I just let you get to
+work because it suited me. I figured it would keep you busy while I took
+out timber-rights and bought up land round the Dayspring. Nobody
+believed in Allonby, and I got what I wanted at quite a reasonable
+figure. I'm holding the mine and everything worth while now. There's
+nothing left for you, and I guess it would be wiser to get hold of a man
+of your own weight next time."
+
+Saxton's face was colorless, but he put a restraint upon himself as he
+turned to Brooke.
+
+"You knew just what this man meant to do?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Devine, drily. "He told me quite a while ago. You're
+going? Haven't you any use for that dollar?"
+
+Saxton said nothing whatever, but the door slammed behind him, and
+Brooke, who, in spite of Devine's protests, went back to the Dayspring
+that evening, never saw him again.
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII.
+
+BROOKE DOES NOT COME BACK.
+
+
+Devine went home a little earlier than usual after Saxton left him, and
+dusk was not far away when he sat recounting the affair in his wife's
+drawing-room. She listened with keen appreciation, and then looked up at
+him.
+
+"But where is Brooke?" she said.
+
+Devine smiled. "I guess he's buying mining tools. You can't keep that
+man out of a hardware store," he said. "I wanted to bring him back, but
+he was feeling better, and made up his mind to go out on the Atlantic
+express. He asked me to make his excuses, as he had fixed to meet an
+American machinery agent, and wasn't quite sure he could get round."
+
+"Perhaps it is just as well," said Mrs. Devine, who appeared reflective.
+"Do you think you are wise in encouraging that man to come here, Grant?"
+
+"I wouldn't exactly call it that. I brought him. He didn't want to
+come."
+
+"You are, of course, quite sure?" and Mrs. Devine's smile implied that
+she, at least, was a trifle incredulous. "Hasn't it struck you that
+Barbara----"
+
+"So far as I've noticed lately, Barbara didn't seem in any way pleased
+with him."
+
+Mrs. Devine made a little impatient gesture. "That," she said, "is
+exactly what I don't like. It's a significant sign. Barbara wouldn't
+have been angry with him--if it was not worth while."
+
+"You said nothing when he came to the ranch, while we were at the mine."
+
+"The man was pleasant company, and there was, it seemed to me, very
+little risk of a superior workman attracting Barbara's fancy."
+
+Devine laughed. "I guess I was of no great account when you married me."
+
+"Pshaw!" said Mrs. Devine. "Anyway, you hadn't plotted to steal a mine
+from the people I belonged to."
+
+Devine's eyes twinkled. "It showed his grit, and 'most anything is
+considered square in a mining deal. Besides, there were the six thousand
+dollars Slocum took out of him."
+
+"I am quite aware that such transactions are evidently not subject to
+the ordinary code, but, seriously, if you would be content with Harford
+Brooke as my brother-in-law, it is considerably more than I would be. We
+don't even know why he left the Old Country."
+
+"Well," said Devine, drily, "I guess I have a notion. I've been finding
+out a good deal about him. But get on with your objections."
+
+"Barbara has a good many dollars."
+
+"So has Brooke. You needn't worry about that point."
+
+Mrs. Devine's astonishment was very apparent. "Then whatever is he
+working at the mine for--and why didn't you tell me before?"
+
+"I guess it's because that kind of thing pleases him, and, anyway, it's
+only since last mail came in I knew."
+
+"You're quite sure, now?"
+
+"I'll tell you what I heard. There was a man who bought up our stock in
+England when nobody else seemed to have any use for it. The directors
+wanted to know a little about him, and they found it was a trust
+account. He was taking up the stock for another man, who had been left
+quite a few dollars, and that man was called Harford Brooke. The
+executor, it seems, told somebody that the man he was buying for was
+here. Now, it's not likely there are two of them in this part of
+Canada."
+
+The door, as it happened, was not closed, and Mrs. Devine was too intent
+to hear it swing open a little further. "The dollars," she said, "are by
+no means the most important consideration, but still----"
+
+She stopped abruptly at a sound, and then turned round with a little
+gasp, for Barbara stood just inside the room. Then there was a
+disconcerting silence for a moment or two, until the girl glanced at
+Devine.
+
+"Yes," she said, quietly. "I heard. When did Mr. Brooke buy that stock?"
+
+Devine understood the question, and once more the twinkle crept into his
+eyes.
+
+"Well," he said, "it was quite a while before they found the silver. I
+don't know what he did it for. Now, I guess I've been here longer than I
+meant to stay. You'll excuse me, Katty."
+
+He seemed in haste to get away, and when the door closed behind him the
+two who were left looked at one another curiously. Mrs. Devine was
+evidently embarrassed.
+
+"I suppose," she said, drily, "you don't know why Brooke bought those
+shares, either?"
+
+"I think I do," said Barbara, with unusual quietness, though the color
+was very visible in her cheeks. "He had a reason----"
+
+She stopped abruptly, and there was once more an awkward silence, until
+she made a little impulsive gesture.
+
+"Oh!" she said, sharply now, "I feel horribly mean. He stayed there
+through the winter when they had scarcely anything to eat, and bought
+that stock when nobody else would have it or believed in the Dayspring.
+Then he risked his life to save the Canopus, and when he came down, worn
+out and ill, I had only hard words for him."
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Devine, drily, "the sensation is probably good for
+you. You don't seem to remember that he also tried to jump the mine."
+
+Barbara turned towards her with a little sparkle in her eyes. "Have
+you--never--done anything that was wrong?"
+
+Mrs. Devine naturally saw the point of this, but while she considered
+her answer, Barbara, who had a good deal to think of, and scarcely felt
+equal to any further conversation just then, abruptly turned away.
+Glancing at her watch, she went straight to a room, from the window of
+which she could see the road to the depot, for she knew the Atlantic
+express would shortly start, and she had not been told that Brooke was
+not coming back. Exactly what she meant to say to him she did not know,
+but she felt she could not let him go without, at least, a slight
+expression of her appreciation of what he had done. She knew that he
+would value it, and that it would go far to blot out the memory of past
+unkindness. He had certainly meant to jump the Canopus, and deceived her
+shamefully, which was far harder to forgive, for the realization of the
+fact that she had bestowed rather more than friendliness upon a man who
+was unworthy of it had its sting, but she scarcely remembered that now.
+He had, it appeared, since then, sacrificed his fortune and broken down
+his strength, and that, considering the purpose which she fancied had
+impelled him, went a long way to condone his offences.
+
+He, however, did not appear on the road, as she had expected; and she
+grew a trifle anxious when the tolling of a bell came up from the depot
+by the wharf as the big locomotive backed the long cars in. It was also
+significant that she did not notice that the room, which had no stove in
+it, was very cold. Then looking down she saw men with valises pass
+across an opening between the roofs and express wagons lurching along
+the uneven road. The train would start very soon, and there was at least
+one admission she must make, but the minutes were slipping by and still
+Brooke did not come. The man, it almost appeared, was content to go away
+without seeing her, though she felt compelled to admit that in view of
+what had passed at their last meeting this was not altogether
+astonishing. Still, the fact that he could do so hurt her, and she
+waited in a state of painful tension. A very few minutes would suffice
+for him to climb the hill, and even if there was no opportunity for an
+explanation, which now appeared very probable, a smile or even a glance
+might go a long way to set matters right.
+
+The few minutes, however, slipped by as the rest had done, until at last
+the locomotive bell slowly clanged again, and the hoot of a whistle came
+up the hillside and was flung back by the pines. Then a puff of white
+smoke rolled up from the wharf, and Barbara turned away from the window
+with the crimson in her face as the cars swept through an opening
+between the clustering roofs. The train had gone, and the man would not
+know how far she had relented towards him. She could settle to nothing
+during the rest of the evening, and scarcely slept that night, though
+she naturally did not mention the fact when she and Mrs. Devine met at
+breakfast next morning. Instead, she took out a letter she had received
+a week earlier.
+
+"It's from Hetty Hume, and the English mail goes out to-day," she said.
+"She suggests that I should come over and spend a few months with her. I
+really think we did what we could for her when she was here with the
+Major."
+
+Mrs. Devine took the letter. "I fancy she wants you to go," she said.
+"She mentions that she has asked you several times already."
+
+Barbara appeared reflective. "So she has," she said. "In fact, I think
+I'll go. The change will do me good."
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Devine, "I suppose you can afford it, but if you
+indulge in many changes of that kind you're not going to have very much
+of a dowry."
+
+"Do you think I need one?"
+
+Mrs. Devine laughed as she glanced at her, but her face grew thoughtful
+again. "Perhaps in your case it wouldn't be necessary, and though it is
+a very long way, I fancy that you might do worse than go to England and
+stay there while Hetty is willing to keep you."
+
+A little flush crept into Barbara's cheek, but she said quietly, "I
+think I'll start on Saturday."
+
+She did so, and it came about one night while the big train she
+travelled by swept across the rolling levels of the Assiniboian prairie
+that Brooke sat in his shanty at the Dayspring with Jimmy, who had just
+come down from the range, standing in front of him. The freighter had
+still now and then a difficulty in bringing them provisions in, and
+whenever Jimmy found the persistent plying of drill and hammer pall upon
+him he would go out and look out for a deer, though it was not always
+that he came back with one. On this occasion he brought a somewhat
+alarming tale instead.
+
+"A big snow-slide must have come along since I was up on that slope
+before, and gouged out quite a canyon for itself," he said. "Anyway, if
+it wasn't a snow-slide it was a cloudburst or a waterspout. They happen
+around when folks don't want them now and then."
+
+"Come to the point," said Brooke. "I'm sufficiently acquainted with the
+meteorological perversities of the country."
+
+"Slinging names at them isn't much use. I've tried it, and any one
+raised here could give you points at the thing. Now before I came to
+Quatomac I was staying up at the Tillicum ranch, and I'd just taken a
+new twelve-dollar pair of gum-boots off one night when there was a
+waterspout up the valley that washed me and Jardine out of the house. We
+sailed along until we struck a convenient pine, and sat in it most of
+the night while the flood went down. Then I hadn't any gum-boots, and
+Jardine couldn't find his house."
+
+"I believe you told me you went down the river on a door on the last
+occasion," Brooke said, wearily. "Still, it doesn't greatly matter. What
+has all this to do with the hollow the snow-slide made in the range?"
+
+"Well," said Jimmy, "I guess you know the way the big rock outcrop runs
+across the foot of the valley. Now, before the snow-slide or the
+waterspout came along the melting snow went down into the next hollow,
+and the one where the outcrop is got just enough to keep the outlet of
+the creek that comes through it open."
+
+"I do. Will it be an hour or more before you make it clear how that
+concerns anybody?"
+
+"No, sir. I'm getting right there. The snow's melting tolerably fast,
+and the drainage from the big peak isn't going the way it used to now.
+The foot of the valley's quite a nice-sized lake, and the stream has
+washed most of the broke-up pines the snow brought down into the outlet
+gully. I guess you have seen a bad lumber jam?"
+
+Brooke had, and he started as he recognized the significance of what was
+happening, for once a drifting log strikes fast in a narrow passage the
+stream is very apt to pile up and wedge fast those that come behind into
+a tolerably efficient substitute for a dam, while when log still follows
+log the result is usually an inextricable confusion of interlocked
+timber.
+
+"When the jam up broke we'd have the water and the wreckage down on the
+mine," he said.
+
+"All there is of it," said Jimmy. "It would cost quite a pile of dollars
+to dry the workings out."
+
+Brooke strode to the door and flung it open, but there was black
+darkness outside and a persistent patter of thick warm rain. Then he
+swung round with an objurgation and Jimmy grinned.
+
+"I guess it's no use. You couldn't see a pine ten foot off, and there
+isn't a man in the country who would go down that gully with a lantern
+in his hand," he said. "Go off to sleep. You'll see quite as much as you
+want to, anyway, to-morrow."
+
+Brooke stood still and listened a moment or two while the hoarse roar of
+a river which he knew was swirling in fierce flood among the boulders
+far down in the hollow came up in deep reverberations across the pines.
+It was a significant hint of what was likely to happen when the pent-up
+water poured down upon the mine. Still, there was nothing he could do in
+that thick darkness.
+
+"Sleep!" he said. "When almost every dollar I have--and a good deal
+more than that--is sunk in the mine."
+
+"Well," said Jimmy, reflectively, "in your place, if I could make sure
+of the dollars, I'd take my chances on the rest. Now and then I'm quite
+thankful I haven't any. It saves a mighty lot of worry."
+
+He swung out of the shanty, and Brooke, who flung himself down on his
+couch of spruce twigs, endeavored to sleep, though he had no great
+expectation of succeeding. As it happened, he lay tossing or holding
+himself still by an effort the long night through, for he had set his
+whole mind on the prosperity of the Dayspring. A good deal of his small
+fortune was also sunk in it, though that was not of the greatest moment
+to him. He had a vague hope that when the mine was, through his efforts,
+pouring out high-grade ore, he might reinstate himself in Barbara's
+estimation. In that case, at least, she might believe in his contrition,
+for he felt that where protests were evidently useless deeds might
+avail. Then the dollars in question would be valuable to him.
+
+It was two hours before the dawn, and still apparently raining hard,
+when he rose and lighted the stove. He felt a trifle dizzy and very
+shivery as he did it, but the frugal breakfast put a little warmth into
+him, and he went out into the thick haze of falling water and up the
+hillside, walking somewhat wearily and with considerably more effort
+than he had found it necessary to make a few months ago.
+
+
+
+
+XXIX.
+
+A FINAL EFFORT.
+
+
+A dim, grey light was creeping through the rain when Brooke stopped on a
+ridge of hillside that broke off from the parent range above the mine.
+The pines were slowly growing into shape, though as yet they showed as
+mere spires of blackness in the sliding haze, and there was a faint
+glimmer in the hollow beneath him, while the sound of running water
+drowned the splashing of the rain. The snow upon the lower slopes had
+mostly melted now, though that on the great hill shoulders would swell
+the frothing rivers for months to come, and, sinking ankle-deep in
+quaggy mould, he went down through the dripping undergrowth until he
+stopped again on the verge of what had become in the last few days a
+muddy lake.
+
+The wreckage of the higher forests was strewn upon it, but Brooke
+noticed that it drifted steadily in one direction, and floundering along
+the water's edge, he reached a narrow gully, which had served as outlet
+for the stream through the ridge that hemmed in the valley. The passage
+was, however, now choked by a mass of groaning timber, which was
+apparently growing every hour, and it already seemed scarcely possible
+to cut through that pile of wreckage by any means at his command. Once
+the pent-up water, which seemed rising rapidly, burst the jam, it would
+come down in an overwhelming torrent upon the mine, and he sat down on a
+fallen redwood to consider how the difficulty could be grappled with.
+
+He, however, found it no easy matter to keep his mind upon the question
+at all. His head was aching, he felt unpleasantly limp, as well as wet
+and cold, and the distressful stiffness of his back suggested that he
+had by no means recovered from the effects of his fall. The long months
+of strenuous physical toil, the scanty, and, when the freighter could
+not get in, often wholly insufficient food, and exposure to bitter frost
+and snow, had left their mark on him, while now, worn out in mind and
+body as he was, he realized that a last grim effort was demanded from
+him. How it was to be made he did not know, and he was sitting still,
+shivering, with the rain running from him, when Jimmy and another man
+from the mine appeared. It was almost light now, and the miner glanced
+at the gathering water with evident concern.
+
+"I guess something has got to be done," he said.
+
+Brooke lifted himself shakily to his feet, and blinked in a curious,
+heavy fashion at the man.
+
+"It has, and if you'll bring the boys up we'll make a start," he said.
+"Now I don't know that we could cut that jam, and if we did it would
+only turn the lake loose on the mine. What I purpose is to break a new
+cut through the rise where it's thinnest, and run enough water off to
+ease the pressure. Then we might, if it appeared advisable, get at the
+jam. In the meanwhile every man I can spare from here will start in
+cutting out a ten-foot trench at the mine. That would take away a good
+deal of any water that did come down."
+
+"I've been at this kind of work 'most all my life, and that's 'bout how
+I would fix it," said the other man.
+
+"Well," said Brooke, "there's just another point. Once you get started,
+you'll go right on, and there'll be very little sleep for any one until
+it's done, but we'll credit you with half extra on every hour's time in
+the pay-bill."
+
+The man laughed and waved his hand. "You needn't worry 'bout that. I
+guess the boys will see you through," he said.
+
+He disappeared into the rain, and the struggle commenced when he came
+back with the men. There were but a handful of them in all, and their
+task appeared almost beyond accomplishment, even to those born in a
+country where man and Nature unsubdued come to the closest grapple, and
+human daring and endurance must make head against the tremendous forces
+that unloose the rivers and slowly grind the ranges down. It is a
+continuous struggle, primitive and elemental, in which brute strength
+and the animal courage that plies axe and drill with worn-out muscle and
+bleeding hands plays at least an equal part with ingenuity, for man has
+arrayed against him sun and frost, roaring water, crushing ice, and
+sliding snow; and those who fall in it lie thick by towering trestle
+bridge and along each railroad track. Worn out, aching in every limb,
+and with heavy eyes, Brooke braced himself to bear his part in it.
+
+For three days they toiled with pick and shovel and clinking drill, and
+the roar of the blasting charges shook the wet hillside, but while the
+trenches deepened slowly the water rose. By night the big fires snapped
+and sputtered, and the feeble lanterns blinked through the rain, while
+wild figures, stained with mire and dripping water, moved amidst the
+smoke, and those who dragged themselves out of the workings lay down on
+the wet ground for a brief hour's sleep. Brooke, however, so far as he
+could afterwards remember, did not close his eyes at all, and where his
+dripping figure appeared the shovels swung more rapidly, and the ringing
+of the drills grew a trifle louder. The pace was, however, too fierce to
+last, and, though even the men who work for another toil strenuously in
+that land, it was evident to him that while their task was less than
+half-done, they could not sustain it long.
+
+Baffled in one direction, he had also changed his plans, for the ridge
+was singularly hard to cut through, even with giant powder, and he had
+withdrawn most of the men from it and sent them to the trench, which
+would, he hoped, afford a passage to, at least, part of the water that
+must eventually come down upon the mine. It was late on the third night
+when it became evident that this would very shortly happen, and he sat,
+wet through and very weary, in his tent on the hillside, when Jimmy and
+another man came in.
+
+"Water's riz another foot since sundown, and I guess there's lakes of it
+ready to come down yonder," said the miner, who stretched out a wet
+hand, and pointed towards the dripping canvas above him, though Brooke
+surmised that he intended to indicate the range. "So far as I could make
+out, there's quite a forest of smashed-up logs sailing along to pile up
+in the jam."
+
+Brooke lifted a wet, grey face, and blinked at him with half-closed
+eyes.
+
+"Then I'm afraid there are only two courses open to us," he said. "We
+can wait until the jam breaks up, when there'll be water enough to fill
+the Dayspring up and wash the plant above ground right down into the
+canyon, or we must try to cut it now."
+
+"And turn the lake loose on us with the trench 'bout half big enough to
+take it away?" said Jimmy.
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, grimly. "You have a six-foot dam thrown up. I'm not
+sure it will stand, but it's a good deal less likely to do it when the
+lake is twice as big."
+
+Jimmy looked at the other man, who nodded. "The boss is right," he said.
+"You can't stop to look for the nicest way out when you're in a blame
+tight place. No, sir, you've got to take the quickest one. When do you
+figure on starting on the jam, Mr. Brooke?"
+
+"Now."
+
+The man appeared astonished, and shook his head. "It can't be done in
+the dark," he said. "I guess nobody could find the king log that's
+keying up the jam, and though the boys aren't nervous, I'm not sure
+you'd get one of them to crawl down that gulley and over the live logs
+until it's light. They couldn't see to do anything with the axe anyway."
+
+Brooke smiled drily. "Since they will not be asked to do it, that does
+not count. I purposed trying giant-powder, and going myself; that is,
+unless Jimmy feels anxious to come along with me."
+
+"I don't," said Jimmy, with decision in his tone. "If it was anybody
+else, watching him would be quite good enough for me. Still, as it
+isn't, I guess I'll have to see you through."
+
+"Thanks!" said Brooke. "You can let them know what to expect at the
+mine, Cropper. I'll want you to put the detonators on the fuses with me,
+Jimmy."
+
+The other man went out, and the two who were left proceeded to nip down
+the fulminating caps on the strips of snaky fuse, after which they
+carefully embedded them in sundry plastic rolls, which looked very like
+big candles made of yellow wax. These they packed in an iron case, and
+then, carrying an axe and a big auger, went out of the tent. The rest of
+the men left at the ridge were waiting them, for every one understood
+the perilous nature of the attempt, though, as two men were sufficient
+for the work, there was nothing that they could do, and they proceeded
+in a body through the dripping undergrowth towards the gully. Here a big
+fire of resinous wood was lighted, and when at last the smoky glare
+flickered upon the wet rocks in the hollow, Brooke, who stripped to
+shirt and trousers, flung himself over the edge.
+
+He dropped upon a little ledge, and made another yard or two down a
+cranny, then a bold leap landed him on a second ledge, and the groaning
+trunks were close beneath him when he dropped again. The glare of the
+fire scarcely reached him now, and Jimmy, who alighted close by him,
+looked up longingly at the flickering light above.
+
+"It wasn't easy getting down, and I'd feel better if I knew just how we
+were going back," he said. "I guess it's not quite wise either to bang
+that can about on the rocks."
+
+This was incontrovertible, for while giant powder, which is dynamite,
+is, with due precaution, comparatively safe to handle, and cannot be
+exploded without a detonator, so those who make it claim, it is still
+addicted to going off with disastrous results on very small provocation.
+Brooke, who had the case containing it slung round his back, was,
+however, looking down on the logs that stirred and heaved beneath him
+with the water spouting up through the interstices between. He could see
+them when the fire grew brighter.
+
+"The king should not be far away, from the look of the jam," he said.
+"If we can't cut it, we may jar it loose. Giant powder strikes down. Let
+me have the axe."
+
+Jimmy glanced at him, and shook his head, for Brooke's face showed drawn
+and grey in the flickering light.
+
+"I'll do any chopping that's wanted, and be glad when I get you out of
+this," he said.
+
+He dropped upon the timber, and the gap he splashed into closed up
+suddenly as he whipped out his leg. Then, with Brooke behind him, he
+crawled over the grinding logs, and by and by drove the point of the
+auger into one that seemed to run downwards through the midst of them.
+It was a good many feet in girth, and Brooke gasped heavily when he also
+laid hold of the auger crutch. The hole they made was charged with one
+of the yellow rolls, and, moving to a second log, they bored another,
+while the mass shook and trembled under them, and twice a great spout of
+water fell splashing upon them. The logs were apparently endued with
+vitality, for they moved under and over their fellows, and ground upon
+them with the pulsations of the stream that brought down fresh
+accessions and found a fresh channel that promptly closed again. The jam
+might resist the pressure for another week, or break up at any moment,
+and whirl down the gully in chaotic ruin. Still, with the rain beating
+down upon them, the pair toiled on until several sticks of explosive had
+been embedded, when Brooke rose very stiffly and straightened himself as
+he took a little case out of his pocket.
+
+"I don't know that we've got the king, but the general shake-up ought to
+loosen it," he said. "Light your fuse, Jimmy, and then get up. I'll come
+in a moment or two, when I'm ready."
+
+Jimmy looked up, and saw a cluster of dark figures outlined against the
+glow of the fire, for the men had crowded to the edge of the gully.
+
+"Stand by to give us a lift up, boys," he said.
+
+Then he turned away, and was rather longer than he liked persuading a
+damp match to ignite. The fuse, however, sparkled readily, and, groping
+his way across the logs, he clutched a ledge of rock. It was wet and
+slippery, and he slid back from it, hurting one arm, while, when he
+regained the narrow shelf, a voice was raised warningly above.
+
+"Let her go," it said. "Jimmy's fuse will be on to the powder before
+you're through."
+
+Jimmy turned, and dimly saw his comrade still apparently stooping over
+one of the logs.
+
+"Have I got to come back and bring you?" he shouted.
+
+Brooke stood up, and a faint sparkling broke out at his feet. "Go on,"
+he said. "It's burning now."
+
+Jimmy said nothing further. Those fuses were short, and he was anxious
+to be clear of the gully. Still, even though he decided to sacrifice the
+axe, it was not an easy matter to ascend the almost precipitous slope of
+slippery rock, and as he climbed higher the glare of the fire in his
+eyes confused him. He had, however, almost reached the top when there
+was a crash and a rattle of stones below him, and he twisted himself
+partly round, while a hoarse shout rang out.
+
+"Get hold of him!" cried one of the men. "Oh, jump for it. He'll be over
+the ledge!"
+
+For a moment Jimmy had a glimpse of a wet, white face, and a hand,
+apparently clinging to a cranny, and then the flicker of firelight sank
+and left him in black darkness. He did not understand exactly what had
+taken place, but it was unpleasantly evident that the fuses would soon
+reach the powder, while his comrade, whom he could no longer see, was
+apparently unable to ascend the gully.
+
+"Can't you get him?" shouted somebody.
+
+"Jump down. Put the fuses out!" said another man.
+
+Jimmy was, fortunately, one of the slow men who usually keep their
+heads, and while he glanced down at the twinkling fuses in the dark pit
+beneath him, he swung up a warning hand.
+
+"Light right out of that, boys. It can't be done," he said. "Hold on,
+partner. Let me know where you are--I'm coming along."
+
+A faint shout answered him, and Jimmy made his way downwards until he
+could discern a dusky blur, which he surmised was Brooke, close beneath
+him. Taking a firm hold with one hand, he leaned down and clutched at
+it, and then, with every muscle strained, strove to drag his comrade up.
+Jimmy was a strong man, but Brooke, it seemed, was able to do very
+little to help him, and Jimmy's fingers commenced to slacken under the
+tension. Then Brooke, who made a convulsive flounder, lost the grip he
+had, and the arm Jimmy clung to was torn away from him. A dull sound
+that was unpleasantly suggestive rose from a ledge below, and there was
+silence that was more so after it.
+
+Then while Jimmy leaned down, blinking into the darkness and ignoring
+the risk he ran, a yellow flash leapt out below, and there was a
+stunning detonation. It was followed almost in the same moment by
+another, and the solid rock seemed to heave a shiver, while the hollow
+was filled with overwhelming sound and a nauseating vapor. Giant-powder
+strikes chiefly downwards, which was especially fortunate for two men
+just then, but the rock was swept by flying fragments of shattered
+trunks, and Jimmy cowered against it half-dazed. Then another sound rose
+out of the acrid haze as the rent trunks crushed beneath the pressure,
+and there was an appalling grinding and smashing of timber. It was
+succeeded by a furious roar of water.
+
+A minute had probably slipped by when once more a man who showed faintly
+black against the firelight leaned over the edge of the gully, and his
+voice reached Jimmy brokenly.
+
+"Hallo! Are either of you alive?" he cried.
+
+Jimmy roused himself with an effort. "Well," he said, hoarsely, "I guess
+I am. I don't quite know whether Brooke is."
+
+"Then I'm coming down," said the other man. "We have got to get him out
+of the stink if there's anything left of him."
+
+Jimmy grasped the necessity for this, since the fumes of giant-powder
+are in confined spaces usually sufficient to prostrate a strong man, and
+several of his comrades apparently came down instead of one, bringing
+lanterns and blazing brands with them. There was a slippery ledge a
+little lower down the gully, and while the nauseating vapor eddied about
+them and the shattered wreckage went thundering past below, they made
+their way along it until they came on Brooke.
+
+He was lying partly up on the ledge with his feet in the swirling
+torrent and his shirt rent open. There was a big red smear on it, his
+lips were bloodless, and one arm was doubled limply under him. Jimmy
+stooped and shook him gently, but Brooke made no sign, and his head sank
+forward until his face was hidden. Then Jimmy, who slipped his hand
+inside the torn shirt, withdrew it, smeared and warm, with a little
+shiver.
+
+"He's bleeding quite hard, and that shows there's life in him. We have
+got to get him out of this right now," he said.
+
+None of them quite remembered how they did it, for few men unaccustomed
+to the ranges would have cared to ascend that gully unencumbered by
+daylight, but it was accomplished, and when a litter of fir branches had
+been hastily lashed together they plodded behind it in silence down the
+hillside. If anything could be done, and they were very uncertain on
+that point, it could only be done in the shanty.
+
+As they floundered down the trail a man met them with the news that very
+little of the water had got into the mine, but that did not appear of
+much importance to any one just then. After all, the Dayspring belonged
+to an English company, and it was Brooke, who lay in the litter
+oblivious of everything, they had worked for.
+
+
+
+
+XXX.
+
+THE OTHER CHANCE.
+
+
+The blink of sunlight was pleasantly warm where Barbara sat with Hetty
+Hume on a seat set back among the laurels which just there cut off the
+shrewd wind from the English lawn. A black cloud sailed slowly over the
+green hilltop behind the old grey house, and the close-cropped grass was
+sparkling still with the sprinkle of bitter rain, but the scent of the
+pale narcissus drifted up from the borders and the sticky buds of a big
+chestnut were opening overhead. Barbara glanced across the sweep of lawn
+towards the line of willows that swung their tasseled boughs above the
+palely flashing river. They were apparently dusted with silver and
+ochre, and here and there a flush of green chequered the ridge of thorn
+along the winding road that led the eye upwards to the clean-cut edge of
+the moor. It was, however, a regular, even line, cropped to one
+unvarying level save for the breaks where the neat gates were hung; the
+road was smooth and wide, with a red board beside the wisp of firs above
+to warn all it might concern of the gradient; while the square fields
+with the polled trees in the trim hedgerows all conveyed the same
+impression. This was decorous, well-ordered England, where Nature was
+broken to man's dominion centuries ago. As she glanced at it her
+companion laughed.
+
+"The prospect from here is, I believe, generally admitted to be
+attractive, though I have not noticed any of my other friends spend much
+time in admiring it," she said. "Still, perhaps it is different in your
+case. You haven't anything quite like it in Canada."
+
+"No," said Barbara. "Anyway, not between Quatomac and the big glacier.
+You remember that ride?"
+
+"Of course!" said Hetty Hume. "I found it a little overwhelming. That
+is, the peaks and glaciers. I also remember the rancher. The one who
+played the violin. I suppose you never came across him again?"
+
+"I met him once or twice. At a big concert--and on other occasions."
+
+Barbara's smile was indifferent, but she was silent for the next minute
+or two. She had now spent several weeks in England, and had found the
+smooth, well-regulated life there pleasant after the restless activity
+of the one she had led in Western Canada, where everybody toiled
+feverishly. She felt the contrast every day, and now the sight of that
+softly-sliding river, whose low murmur came up soothingly across the
+lawn, recalled the one that frothed and foamed amidst the Quatomac
+pines, and the roar that rose from the misty canyon. That, very
+naturally, also brought back the face of the flume-builder, and she
+wondered vaguely whether he was still at the Dayspring, and what he was
+doing then, until her companion turned to her again.
+
+"We will really have to decide about the Cruttendens' dance to-night,"
+she said. "It will be the last frivolity of the season in this
+vicinity."
+
+"I haven't met Mrs. Cruttenden, have I?" said Barbara, indifferently.
+
+"You did, when you were here before. Don't you remember the old house
+you were so pleased with lower down the valley? In any case, she
+remembers you, and made a point of my bringing you. Cruttenden has a
+relative in your country, though I never heard much about the man."
+
+Barbara remembered the old building very well, and it suddenly flashed
+upon her that Brooke had on one occasion displayed a curious
+acquaintance with it. Everything that afternoon seemed to force him upon
+her recollection.
+
+"You would like to go?" she said.
+
+"I, at least, feel I ought to. We are, of course, quite newcomers here.
+In fact, we had only bought Larchwood just before you last came over,
+and it was Mrs. Cruttenden who first took us up. One may live a very
+long while in places of this kind without being admitted within the
+pale, you see, and even the rank of Major isn't a very great warranty,
+especially if it has been gained in foreign service instead of
+Aldershot."
+
+Miss Hume stopped as her father came slowly down the pathway with a
+grey-haired lady, whose dress proclaimed her a widow, and the latter's
+voice reached the girl's clearly. Her face was, so Barbara noticed, very
+expressive as she turned to her companion.
+
+"I think you know what I really came for," she said. "I feel I owe you a
+very great deal."
+
+Major Hume made a little deprecatory gesture. "I have," he said, "at
+least, seen the papers, and was very glad to notice that Reggie has got
+his step. He certainly deserved it. Very plucky thing, especially with
+only a handful of a raw native levy to back him. Frontal attack in
+daylight--and the niggers behind the stockade seem to have served their
+old guns astonishingly well!"
+
+"Still, if it had not been for your forbearance he would never have had
+the opportunity of doing it," said the lady. "I shall always remember
+that. You were the only one who made any excuse for him, and he told me
+his colonel was very bitter against him."
+
+The pair passed the girls, apparently without noticing them, and Barbara
+did not hear Major Hume's answer, but when he came back alone a few
+minutes later he stopped in front of them.
+
+"You were here when we went by?" he said.
+
+"Yes," said Hetty. "We heard you quite distinctly, too, and that
+suggests a question. What was it Reggie Ferris did?"
+
+Major Hume smiled drily. "Stormed a big rebel stockade with only a few
+half-drilled natives to help him. If you haven't read it already I can
+give you a paper with an account of the affair."
+
+"That," said Hetty, "is, as you are aware, not what I wished to ask.
+What was it he did before he left the line regiment? It was, presumably,
+something not especially creditable--and I always had an idea that he
+owed it to you that the result was not a good deal more unpleasant."
+
+The Major appeared a trifle embarrassed. "I scarcely think it would do
+you very much good to know," he said. "The thing wasn't a nice one, but
+there was good stuff in the lad, who, it was evident to me, at least,
+had been considerably more of a fool than a rogue, and all I did was to
+persuade the Colonel, who meant to break him, to give him another
+chance. It seems I was wise. Reggie Ferris has had his lesson, and has
+from all accounts retrieved his credit in the Colonial service."
+
+"If I remember correctly you once made a bad mistake in being equally
+considerate to another man," said Hetty, reflectively.
+
+"I certainly did, but you will find by the time you are as old as I am
+that taking it all round it is better to be merciful."
+
+"The Major," said Hetty, with a glance at Barbara, "is a confirmed
+optimist--and he has been in India."
+
+Major Hume smiled. "Well," he said, "the mistakes one makes from that
+cause hurt one less afterwards than the ones that result from believing
+in nobody. Now, there was that young woman who was engaged to
+Reggie----"
+
+"He has applied the suggestive epithet to her ever since she gave him
+up," said Hetty. "Still, I really don't think anybody could have
+expected very much more from her."
+
+"No," said the Major, grimly. "In my opinion she went further than there
+was any particular necessity for her to do. She knew the man's
+shortcomings when she was engaged to him--and she should have stuck to
+him. You don't condemn any one for a single slip in your country, Miss
+Heathcote?"
+
+Barbara made no answer, for this, it seemed, was just what she had done,
+but Hetty, who had been watching her, laughed.
+
+"You couldn't expect her to admit that their standard in Canada is lower
+than ours," she said.
+
+The Major appeared disconcerted. "That is not exactly what I mean. They
+have a little more charity yonder, and, in some respects, a good deal
+more sense. From one or two cases I am acquainted with they are, in
+fact, usually willing to give the man who trips another chance instead
+of falling upon him mercilessly before he can get up."
+
+"Still you haven't told us yet what Reggie Ferris did."
+
+Major Hume laughed as he turned away. "I am," he said, "quite aware of
+it."
+
+He left them, and Hetty smiled as she said, "The Major has not
+infrequently been imposed upon, but nothing will disabuse him of his
+cheerful belief in human nature, and I must admit that he is quite as
+often right as more censorious people. There was Lily Harland who gave
+Reggie Ferris up, which, of course, was probably only what he could have
+expected under the circumstances, but Reggie, it appears, is wiping out
+the past, and I have reasons for surmising that she has been sorry ever
+since. Nobody but my father and his mother ever hear from him now, and
+if that hurts Lily she has only herself to blame. She had her
+opportunity of showing what faith she had in the man, and can't expect
+to get another just because she would like it."
+
+She wondered why the warm color had crept into her companion's face, but
+Barbara said nothing, and vacantly watched the road that wound up
+through the meadows out of the valley, until a moving object appeared
+where it crossed the crest of the hill. In the meanwhile her thoughts
+were busy, for the Major's suggestive little story had not been without
+its effect on her, and the case of Reggie Ferris was, it seemed,
+remarkably similar to that of a certain Canadian flume-builder. The
+English soldier and Grant Devine had both been charitable, but she and
+the girl who was sorry ever since had shown themselves merciless, and
+there was in that connection a curious significance in the fact that
+Reggie Ferris, who was now brilliantly blotting out the past, wrote
+nobody but his mother and the man who had given him what the latter
+termed another chance. Barbara remembered the afternoon when she waited
+at the window and Brooke, who, she fancied, could have done so had he
+wished, had not come up from the depot. She could not ignore the fact
+that this had since occasioned her a vague uneasiness.
+
+In the meanwhile the moving object had been growing larger, and when it
+reappeared lower down the road resolved itself into a gardener who had
+been despatched to the nearest village on a bicycle.
+
+"We will wait until Tom brings in the letters," said Hetty.
+
+It was a few minutes later when the man came up the path and handed her
+a packet. Among the letters she spread out there was one for Barbara,
+whose face grew suddenly intent as she opened it. It was from Mrs.
+Devine, and the thin paper crackled under her tightening fingers as she
+read:--
+
+"I have been alone since I last wrote you, as Grant had to go up to the
+Dayspring suddenly and has not come back. There was, I understand, a big
+flood in the valley above the mine, and Brooke, it seems, was very
+seriously hurt when endeavoring to protect the workings. I don't
+understand exactly how it happened, though I surmise from Grant's
+letters that he did a very daring thing. He is now in the Vancouver
+hospital, for although Grant wished him brought here, the surgeon
+considered him far too ill to move. His injuries, I understand, are not
+very serious in themselves, but it appears that the man was badly worn
+out and run down when he sustained them, and his condition, I am sorry
+to say, is just now very precarious."
+
+The rest of the letter concerned the doings of Barbara's friends in
+Vancouver, but the girl read no more of it, and sat still, a trifle
+white in the face, with her hands trembling, until Hetty turned to her.
+
+"You don't look well," she said. "I hope nothing has happened to your
+sister or Mr. Devine?"
+
+"No," said Barbara, quietly, though there was a faint tremor in her
+voice. "They are apparently in as good health as usual."
+
+"I'm glad to hear it," said Hetty, with an air of relief. "There is, of
+course, nobody else, or I should have known it, though you really seem a
+trifle paler than you generally do. Shall we go in and look through
+these patterns? I have been writing up about some dress material, and
+they've sent cuttings. Still, I don't suppose you will want anything
+new for Mrs. Cruttenden's?"
+
+"No," said Barbara, in a voice that was almost too even now, and not in
+keeping with the tension in her face. "In fact, I'm not going at all."
+
+Hetty glanced at her sharply, and then made a little gesture of
+comprehension.
+
+"Very well!" she said. "Whenever you feel it would be any consolation
+you can tell me, but in the meanwhile I have no doubt that you can get
+on without my company."
+
+She moved away, and Barbara, who was glad to be alone, sat still, for
+she wished to set her thoughts in order. This was apparently the climax
+all that had passed that afternoon had led up to, but she was just then
+chiefly conscious of an overwhelming distress that precluded any
+systematic consideration of its causes. The man whom she had roused from
+his lethargy at the Quatomac ranch was now, she gathered, dying in the
+Vancouver hospital, but not before he had blotted out his offences by
+slow endurance and unwearying effort in the face of flood and frost. She
+would have admitted this to him willingly now, but the opportunity was,
+it seemed, not to be afforded her, and the bitter words with which she
+had lashed him could never be withdrawn. She who had shown no mercy, and
+would not afford him what Major Hume had termed another chance, must, it
+seemed, long for it in vain herself.
+
+By degrees, however, her innate resolution rose against that decision,
+and she remembered that it was not, in point of time, at least a very
+long journey to British Columbia. There was nothing to prevent her
+setting out when it pleased her; and then it occurred to her that the
+difficulties would be plentiful at the other end. What explanation would
+she make to her sister, or the man, if--and the doubt was horrible--he
+was, indeed, still capable of receiving it? He had never in direct
+speech offered her his love, and she had not even the excuse of the girl
+who had given Reggie Ferris up for throwing herself at his feet. She was
+not even sure that she could have done it in that case, for her pride
+was strong, and once more she felt the hopelessness of the irrevocable.
+She had shown herself hard and unforgiving, and now she realized that
+the man she loved--and it was borne in upon her, that in spite of his
+offences she loved him well--was as far beyond her reach as though he
+had already slipped away from her into the other world at whose shadowy
+portals he lay in the Vancouver hospital.
+
+There had been a time, indeed the occasion had twice presented itself,
+when she could have relented gracefully, but she could no longer hope
+that it would ever happen again, and it only remained for her to face
+the result of her folly, and bear herself befittingly. It would, she
+realized, cost her a bitter effort, but the effort must be made, and she
+rose with a tense white face and turned towards the house. Hetty, as it
+happened, met her in the hall, and looked at her curiously.
+
+"There are, as you may remember, two or three people coming in to
+dinner," she said. "I have no doubt I could think out some excuse if you
+would sooner not come down."
+
+"Why do you think that would please me?" said Barbara, quietly.
+
+"Well," said Hetty, a trifle drily, "I fancied you would sooner have
+stayed away. Your appearance rather suggested it."
+
+Barbara smiled in a listless fashion. "I'm afraid I can't help that,"
+she said. "Your friends, however, will presumably not be here for an
+hour or two yet."
+
+Hetty made no further suggestions, and Barbara moved on slowly towards
+the stairway. She came of a stock that had grappled with frost and flood
+in the wild ranges of the mountain province, and courage and
+steadfastness were born in her, but she knew there was peril in the
+slightest concession to her gentler nature she might make just then.
+What she bore in the meanwhile she told nobody, but when the sonorous
+notes of a gong rolled through the building she came down the great
+stairway only a trifle colder in face than usual, and immaculately
+dressed.
+
+
+
+
+XXXI.
+
+BROOKE IS FORGIVEN.
+
+
+It was a pleasant morning, and Brooke lay luxuriating in the sunlight by
+an open window of the Vancouver hospital. His face was blanched and
+haggard, and his clothes hung loosely about his limbs, but there was a
+brightness in his eyes, and he was sensible that at last his strength
+was coming back to him. Opposite him sat Devine, who had just come in,
+and was watching him with evident approbation.
+
+"You will be fit to be moved out in a day or two, and I want to see you
+in Mrs. Devine's hands," he said. "We have a room fixed ready, and I
+came round to ask when the doctor would let you go."
+
+Brooke slowly shook his head. "You are both very kind, but I'm going
+back to the Old Country," he said. "Still, I don't know whether I shall
+stay there yet."
+
+Devine appeared a trifle disconcerted. "We had counted on you taking
+hold again at the Dayspring," he said. "Wilkins is getting an old man,
+and I don't know of any one who could handle that mine as you have
+done. Quite sure there's nothing I could do that would keep you?"
+
+Brooke lay silent a moment or two. He was loth to leave the mine, but
+during his slow recovery at the hospital a curious longing to see the
+Old Country once more had come upon him. He could go back now, and, if
+it pleased him, pick up the threads of the old life he had left behind,
+though he was by no means sure this would afford him the satisfaction he
+had once anticipated. The ambition to prove his capabilities in Canada
+had, in the meanwhile, at least, deserted him since his last meeting
+with Barbara, and he had heard from Mrs. Devine that it would probably
+be several months before she returned to Vancouver. He realized that it
+was she who had kept him there, and now she had gone, and the mine was,
+as Devine had informed him, exceeding all expectations, there was no
+longer any great inducement to stay in Canada. He had seen enough of the
+country, and, of late, a restless desire to get away from it had been
+growing stronger with every day of his recovery. It might, he felt, be
+easier to shake off the memory of his folly in another land.
+
+"No," he said, slowly, "I don't think there is. I feel I must go back,
+for a while, at least."
+
+"Well," said Devine, who seemed to recognize that protests would be
+useless, "it's quite a long journey. I guess you can afford it?"
+
+Brooke felt the keen eyes fixed on him with an almost disconcerting
+steadiness, but he contrived to smile.
+
+"Yes," he said, "if I don't do it too extravagantly, I fancy I can."
+
+"Then there's another point," said Devine, with a faint twinkle in his
+eyes. "You might want to do something yonder that would bring the
+dollars in. Now, I could give you a few lines that would be useful in
+case you wanted an engagement with one of your waterworks contractors or
+any one of that kind."
+
+"I scarcely think it will be necessary," said Brooke, with a little
+smile.
+
+"Well," said Devine, "I have a notion that it's not going to be very
+long before we see you back again. You have got used to us, and you're
+going to find the folks yonder slow. I can think of quite a few men who
+saved up, one or two of them for a very long while, to go home to the
+Old Country, and in about a month they'd had enough of it. The country
+was very much as they left it--but they had altered."
+
+He stopped a moment, with a little chuckle, before he continued. "Now,
+there was Sandy Campbell, who ran the stamps at the Canopus for me. He
+never spent a dollar when he could help it, and, when he'd quite a pile
+of them, he told me he was just sickening for a sight of Glasgow. Well,
+I let him go, and that day six weeks Sandy came round to the mine again.
+The Old Country was badly played out, he said, but, for another month,
+that was all he would tell me, and then the facts came out. Sandy's
+friends had met him at the Donaldson wharf, and started a circus over
+the whisky. Somebody broke the furniture, and Sandy doubled up a
+policeman who, he figured, had insulted him, so they had him up for
+doing it before whatever they call a magistrate in that country. Sandy's
+remarks were printed in a Glasgow paper, and he showed it me.
+
+"'Forty shillings. It's an iniquity,' he said. 'Is this how ye treat a
+man who has come six thousand miles to see his native land? I will not
+find ye a surety. I'm away back by the first Allan boat to a country
+where they appreciate me.'"
+
+Brooke laughed. "Still, I don't quite see how Sandy's case applies to
+me."
+
+"I guess it does. One piece of it, anyway. Sandy knew where he was
+appreciated, and we have room for a good many men of your kind in this
+country. That's about all I need say. When you feel like it, come right
+back to me."
+
+He went out a few minutes later, and Brooke lay still thoughtfully, with
+his old ambitions re-awakening. There was, he surmised, a good deal of
+truth in Devine's observations, and work in the mountain province that
+he could do. Still, he felt that even to make his mark there would be no
+great gain to him now. Barbara could not forgive him, but she was in
+England, and he might, at least, see her. Whether that would be wise he
+did not know, and scarcely fancied so, but the faint probability had its
+attractions, and he would go and stay there--until he had recovered his
+usual vigor, at least.
+
+It was, however, a little while before the doctors would permit him to
+risk the journey, and several months had passed when he stood with a
+kinsman and his wife on the lawn outside an old house in an English
+valley. The air was still and warm, and a full moon was rising above the
+beeches on the hillside. Its pale light touched the river, that slid
+smoothly between the mossy stepping-stones, and the shadows of clipped
+yew and drooping willow lay black upon the grass. There was a faint
+smell of flowers that linger in the fall, and here and there a withered
+leaf was softly sailing down, but that night it reminded Brooke of the
+resinous odors of the Western pines, and the drowsy song of the river,
+of the thunder of the torrent that swirled by Quatomac. His heart was
+also beating a trifle more rapidly than usual, and for that reason he
+was more than usually quiet.
+
+"I suppose your friends will come?" he said, indifferently.
+
+Mrs. Cruttenden, who stood close by him, laughed. "To the minute! Major
+Hume is punctuality itself. I fancy he will be a little astonished
+to-night."
+
+"I shall be pleased to meet him again. He was to bring Miss Hume?"
+
+"Of course," said Mrs. Cruttenden, with a keen glance at him. "And Miss
+Heathcote, whom you asked about. No doubt she will be a trifle
+astonished, too. You do not seem quite so sure that the meeting with her
+will afford you any pleasure?"
+
+Brooke smiled a trifle grimly. "The most important question is whether
+she will be pleased to see me. I don't mind admitting it is one that is
+causing me considerable anxiety."
+
+"Wouldn't her attitude on the last occasion serve as guide?"
+
+Brooke felt his face grow warm under her watchful eyes, but he laughed.
+
+"I would like to believe that it did not," he said. "Miss Heathcote did
+not appear by any means pleased with me. Still, you see, you sometimes
+change your minds."
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Cruttenden, reflectively. "Especially when the person
+who has offended us has been very ill. It is, in fact, the people one
+likes the most one is most inclined to feel angry with now and then, but
+there are circumstances under which one feels sorry for past
+severities."
+
+Brooke started, for this appeared astonishingly apposite in view of the
+fact that he had, as she had once or twice reminded him, told her
+unnecessarily little about his Canadian affairs. The difficulty,
+however, was that he could not be sure she was correct.
+
+"You naturally know what you would do, but, after all, that scarcely
+goes quite as far as one would like," he said.
+
+Mrs. Cruttenden laughed softly. "Still, I fancy the rest are very like
+me in one respect. In fact, it might be wise of you to take that for
+granted."
+
+Just then three figures appeared upon the path that came down to the
+stepping-stones across the river, and Brooke's eyes were eager as he
+watched them. They were as yet in the shadow, but he felt that he would
+have recognized one of them anywhere and under any circumstances. Then
+he strode forward precipitately, and a minute later sprang aside on to
+an outlying stone as a grey-haired man, who glanced at him sharply,
+turned, with hand held out, to one of his companions. Brooke moved a
+little nearer the one who came last, and then stood bareheaded, while
+the girl stopped suddenly and looked at him. He could catch the gleam of
+the brown eyes under the big hat, and, for the moon was above the
+beeches now, part of her face and neck gleamed like ivory in the silvery
+light. She stood quite still, with the flashing water sliding past her
+feet, etherealized, it seemed to him, by her surroundings and a
+complement of the harmonies of the night.
+
+"You?" she said.
+
+Brooke laughed softly, and swept his hand vaguely round, as though to
+indicate the shining river and dusky trees.
+
+"Yes," he said. "You remember how I met you at Quatomac. Who else could
+it be?"
+
+"Nobody," said Barbara, with a tinge of color in her face. "At least,
+any one else would have been distinctly out of place."
+
+Brooke tightened his grasp on the hand she had laid in his, for which
+there was some excuse, since the stone she stood upon was round and
+smooth, and it was a long step to the next one.
+
+"You knew I was here?" he said.
+
+"Yes," said Barbara, quietly.
+
+Brooke felt his heart throbbing painfully. "And you could have framed an
+excuse for staying away?"
+
+The girl glanced at him covertly as he stood very straight looking down
+on her, with lips that had set suddenly, and tension in his face. The
+moonlight shone into it, and it was, she noticed, quieter and a little
+grimmer than it had been, while his sinewy frame still showed spare to
+gauntness in the thin conventional dress. This had its significance to
+her.
+
+"Of course!" she said. "Still, it did not seem necessary. I had no
+reason for wishing to stay away."
+
+Brooke fancied that there was a good deal in this admission, and his
+voice had a little exultant thrill in it.
+
+"That implies--ever so much," he said. "Hold fast. That stone is
+treacherous, and one can get wet in this river, though it is not the
+Quatomac. Absurd to suggest that, isn't it? Are not Abana and Pharpar
+better than all the waters of Israel?"
+
+Barbara also laughed. "Do you wish the Major to come back for me?" she
+said. "It is really a little difficult to stand still upon a narrow
+piece of mossy stone."
+
+They went across, and Major Hume stared at Brooke in astonishment when
+Cruttenden presented him.
+
+"By all that's wonderful! Our Canadian guide!" he said.
+
+"Presumably so!" said Cruttenden. "Still, though, my wife appears to
+understand the allusion, it's more than I do. Anyway, he is my kinsman,
+Harford Brooke, and the owner of High Wycombe."
+
+Brooke smiled as he shook hands with the Major, but he was sensible that
+Barbara flashed a swift glance at him, and, as they moved towards the
+house, Hetty broke in.
+
+"You must know, Mr. Cruttenden, that your kinsman met Barbara beside a
+river once before, and on that occasion, too, they did not come out of
+it until some little time after we did," she said.
+
+"That," said Cruttenden, "appears to imply that they were--in--the
+water."
+
+"I really think that one of them was," said Hetty. "Barbara had a pony,
+but Mr. Brooke had not, and his appearance certainly suggested that he
+had been bathing. In fact, he was so bedraggled that Barbara gave him a
+dollar. She had, I must explain, already spent a few months in this
+country."
+
+Brooke was a trifle astonished, and noticed a sudden warmth in Barbara's
+face.
+
+"If I remember correctly, you had gone into the ranch, Miss Hume," he
+said, severely.
+
+"No," said Hetty. "You may have fancied so, but I hadn't. I was the only
+chaperon Barbara had, you see. I hope she didn't tell you not to lavish
+the dollar on whisky. No doubt you spent it wisely on tobacco."
+
+Brooke made no answer, and his smile was somewhat forced; but he went
+with the others into the house, and it was an hour or two later when he
+and Barbara again stood by the riverside alone. Neither of them quite
+knew how it came about, but they were there with the black shadows of
+the beeches behind them and the flashing water at their feet. Brooke
+glanced slowly round him, and then turned to the girl.
+
+"It reminds one of that other river--but there is a difference," he
+said. "The beeches make poor substitutes for your towering pines, and
+you no longer wear the white samite."
+
+"And," said Barbara, "where is the sword?"
+
+Brooke looked down on her gravely, and shook his head. "I am not fit to
+wear it, and yet I dare not give it back to you, stained as it is," he
+said. "What am I to do?"
+
+"Keep it," said Barbara, softly. "You have wiped the stain out, and it
+is bright again."
+
+Brooke laid a hand that quivered a little on her shoulder. "Barbara," he
+said, "I am not vainer than most men, and I know what I have done, but
+unless what once seemed beyond all hoping for was about to come to me,
+you and I would not have met again beside the river. It simply couldn't
+happen. You can forget all that has gone before, and once more try to
+believe in me?"
+
+"I think," said Barbara, quietly, "there is a good deal that you must
+never remember, too. I realized that"--and she stopped with a little
+shiver--"when you were lying in the Vancouver hospital."
+
+"And you knew I loved you, though in those days I dare not tell you so?
+I have done so, I think, from the night I first saw you, and yet there
+is so much to make you shrink from me."
+
+"No," said Barbara, very softly, "there is nothing whatever now--and if
+perfection had been indispensable you would never have thought of me."
+
+Brooke laid his other hand on her shoulder, and, standing so, while
+every nerve in him thrilled, still held her a little apart, so that the
+silvery light shone into her flushed face. For a moment she met his
+gaze, and her eyes were shining.
+
+"Do you know that, absurd as it may sound, I seemed to know that night
+at Quatomac that I should hold you in my arms again one day?" he said.
+"Of course, the thing seemed out of the question, an insensate dream,
+and still I could never quite let go my hold of the alluring fancy."
+
+"And if the dream had never been fulfilled?"
+
+Brooke laughed curiously. "You would still have ridden beside me through
+many a long night march, with the moon shining round and full behind
+your shoulder, and I should have felt the white dress brush me softly
+where the trail was dark."
+
+"Then I should have been always young to you. You would never have seen
+me grow faded and the grey creep into my hair."
+
+Brooke drew her towards him, and held her close. "My dear, you will be
+always beautiful to me. We will grow old together, and the one who must
+cross the last dark river first will, at least, start out on the shadowy
+trail holding the other's hand."
+
+It was an hour later when Barbara, with the man's arm still about her,
+glanced across the velvet lawn to the old grey house beneath the dusky
+slope of wooded hill. The moonlight silvered its weathered front, and
+the deep tranquillity of the sheltered valley made itself felt.
+
+"Yes," said Brooke, "it is yours and mine."
+
+Barbara made a little gesture that was eloquent of appreciation. "It is
+very beautiful. A place one could dream one's life away in. We have
+nothing like it in Canada. You would care to stay here always?"
+
+"Any place would be delightful with you."
+
+The girl laughed softly, but her voice had a tender thrill in it, and
+then she turned towards the west.
+
+"It is very beautiful--and full of rest," she said. "Still, I scarcely
+think it would suit you to sit down in idleness, and all that can be
+done for this rich country has been done years ago."
+
+"I wonder," said Brooke, who guessed her thoughts, "if you would be
+quite so sure when you had seen our towns."
+
+"Still, one would need to be very wise to take hold there--and I do not
+think you care for politics."
+
+"No," said Brooke, with a faint, dry smile. "Besides, remembering
+Saxton, I should feel a becoming diffidence about wishing to serve my
+nation in that fashion. There are men enough who are anxious to do it
+already, and I would be happier grappling with the rocks and pines in
+Western Canada."
+
+"Then," said Barbara, "if it pleases you, we will go back to the great
+unfinished land where the dreams of such men as you are come true."
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The Spotter
+
+[Illustration]
+
+_A Story of the Early Days in the Pennsylvania Oil Fields.._
+
+By W. W. CANFIELD
+
+
+Duncan Cameron is a Pennsylvania farmer, the owner of a large tract of
+land which the prototype of the Standard Oil Company desires to secure.
+Cameron for a long time successfully resists the efforts to compel him
+to sell, and The Spotter describes what happened to him, as well as what
+befell members of several families who are made wealthy by the sale of
+their oil lands. Those who oppose the advance of the monopoly feel its
+hand in no uncertain weight, for there is little hesitancy in the
+methods adopted to break the fortunes and prospects of those who do not
+quietly submit.
+
+The story describes the romantic side of the influx of a large number of
+speculators, operators and boomers, who find a country that heretofore
+has been almost isolated.
+
+
+Size 5-1/2x7-3/4. Cloth, Gilt Top.           Price $1.50
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the
+original edition have been corrected.
+
+In the table of contents, =The Jumping of the Caonpus= was changed to
+=The Jumping of the Canopus=.
+
+In Chapter VII, =The result was from one point of view comtemptible= was
+changed to =The result was from one point of view contemptible=.
+
+In Chapter VIII, an extra quotation mark was deleted after =it was the
+other man who fell in.=
+
+In Chapter XI, a comma was changed to a period after =a kindness thrust
+upon him by his companion=, ="Of course!" be said.= was changed to ="Of
+course!" be said.=, and =the distinctions you allude too= was changed to
+=the distinctions you allude to=.
+
+In Chapter XIII, a missing quotation mark was added after =We may be
+staying for some time yet at the C. P. R. Hotel, Vancouver.=
+
+In Chapter XIV, a question mark was changed to a period after =nature
+untrammelled, and primeval force=.
+
+In Chapter XVIII, a missing period was added after ="I'm not quite sure
+whether I expected it or not, but I almost hope I did," he said=.
+
+In Chapter XX, =What, in the name of thunder= was changed to =What in
+the name of thunder=.
+
+In Chapter XXI, =Lou, no doubt, had a purpose= was changed to =You, no
+doubt, had a purpose=.
+
+In Chapter XXII, =much more pleased that you were= was changed to =much
+more pleased than you were=.
+
+In Chapter XXV, =They told me as nearly as they could remember= was
+changed to =They told him as nearly as they could remember=.
+
+In Chapter XXVI, a quotation mark was removed after =he had certainly
+been impelled by at their last meeting.=
+
+In Chapter XXIX, =B ooke braced himself to bear his part in it= was
+changed to =Brooke braced himself to bear his part in it=.
+
+In Chapter XXXI, an extra quotation mark was removed before =I guess you
+can afford it?=
+
+In the advertisement for _The Spotter_, an extra period was deleted
+after "A Story of the Early Days in the Pennsylvania Oil Fields.", and a
+period was changed to a comma after =Duncan Cameron is a Pennsylvania
+farmer=.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Damaged Reputation, by Harold Bindloss
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