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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/37949-8.txt b/37949-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..11e5e19 --- /dev/null +++ b/37949-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5195 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Scarlett of the Mounted, by Marguerite +Merington + + +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: Scarlett of the Mounted + + +Author: Marguerite Merington + + + +Release Date: November 7, 2011 [eBook #37949] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCARLETT OF THE MOUNTED*** + + +E-text prepared by Roland Schlenker, Matthew Wheaton, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 37949-h.htm or 37949-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37949/37949-h/37949-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37949/37949-h.zip) + + + + + +SCARLETT OF THE MOUNTED + + +[Illustration: SHE STUCK A PIN IN THE HANDKERCHIEF.] + + +SCARLETT OF THE MOUNTED + +by + +MARGUERITE MERINGTON + +Illustrated + + + + + + + +New York +Moffat, Yard & Company +1906 + +Copyright, 1906, by +Moffat, Yard & Company +New York + +Published, August, 1906 + +J. F. Tapley Co. +Printers and Binders +New York + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER + + I LOST SHOE CREEK + II THE WOMENKIND OF LOST SHOE CREEK + III LUCKY DURAND + IV THE PICTURE GIRL + V EVELYN ENGAGES A COURIER + VI EVELYN SEEKS COUNSEL + VII PEACE, PERFECT PEACE + VIII AT THE SIGN OF THE TEMPERANCE SALOON + IX THE PROVISIONAL BOUNDARY + X LUCKY'S LUCK + XI AN INTERNATIONAL EPISODE + XII NORTHERN LIGHTS + XIII A YEAR AFTER + XIV CONCLUSION + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + SHE STUCK A PIN IN THE HANDKERCHIEF _Frontispiece_ + + MINGLED WITH THE TRAVELERS AT GUMBOOT ANNIE'S BOARD + + DEPARTED IN A GLOW OF SELF CONGRATULATION AT HER TACT + + "WHY, MY DAUGHTER, DOES THIS DENOTE A HAPPY CHANGE OF HEART AND + SAVING GRACE? YOU ARE TAKING THOUGHT TO SAVE YOUR SOUL?" + + "DARTER DON'T LOOK AS IF IT WAS SPELLED RIGHT," CRITICIZED BULLY + + THE UBIQUITOUS YOUNG SOLDIER, SERGEANT SCARLETT + + + + +SCARLETT _of the_ MOUNTED + + + + +I + +LOST SHOE CREEK + + +Parson MacLane came running along the rough trail, his dogs, Telegraph +and Wrangel, named after former mission charges, following. As he paused +at the crest of a hill to take breath and wipe the grime from his face +he smiled, for over the thicket of scrub willow that lay between him and +Lost Shoe Creek rose the voices of the "boys" he had traveled far to +reach. Then he sighed, because the jest and song, as he heard them, were +ribald; the laughter thick with drink. Finally, reflecting that in no +human heart had he ever found evil so strong but that the good was +stronger, he smiled again, and stooping to pluck from a low-growing bush +the deep crimson wild rose of the north, he set this in his buttonhole, +and squaring his shoulders for a fresh bout with his old adversary of +horns and cloven hoof, trotted cheerily down the steep incline. + +With an expiring wheeze the concertina dropped from the singer's hand. +One of the group playing Black Jack, looked up. "Go on, Bill! Thar's +other verses--an' each more decorative than the last!" + +Lighting a pipe, Bill shook his head. "Grand opera sore throat! Left my +music at home--and home," he added, under his ragged mustache, "is so +cursed far away!" + +Mops' remonstrance was cut short by a disparaging comment on his methods +of card-playing from a raw-boned Scotchman who had lost an +inconsiderable amount. "You accuse me o' cheatin'?" + +"Aweel!" Sandy scratched his head. "While it's na' to say cheating it's +na' to say fair playing neither!" + +"You liar!" kicking over the barrel that served for a table, with a +volley of oaths Mops sprang at him, and a free fight would have ensued +but for the intervention of the more cautious, who, pointing to a +squalid bundle from which lusty snores were issuing, reminded the +belligerents that if Bully Nick were roused from his innocent slumbers +some indiscriminate gun-play might be looked for, transmuting every +mother's son into cold meat. This argument prevailed; peace was restored +and celebrated in the dire wassail of the district, served in the open +by Ikey, bartender of the dilapidated refreshment-tent nearby, and by +general consent charged to the protesting but helpless Sandy. + +It was at this auspicious moment that, followed by his dogs, rose in +buttonhole, and with smiling countenance, Parson Maclane made his +entrance into the camp on Lost Shoe Creek. + +Hailing the newcomer as dude and tenderfoot, with winks and nudges among +themselves the men prepared to "have fun" with him. Raising their +glasses in derisive welcome, "Hello, stranger!" they chorused. "'Drink +your health!" + +"Thanks, friends, but I fear you are not drinking your own!" + +"By gum," cried Mops, delightedly, "if he ain't a blamed teetotaller!" + +"The Laird kens we hae need o' sic," hiccoughed Sandy. "Hoots, but we're +a sinfu' crew! Ikey, lad, mair whuskey!" + +While glasses were being refilled, this time at Mops' expense, Maclane +went toward the tent, over whose entrance hung the sign KLONDIKE +DELMONICO'S. GUMBOOT ANNIE. Addressing the plump female in jersey and +culottes, who lolled beneath, picking her teeth skilfully: "Good day, +madam," he began, baring his head. "I should like to speak with the +proprietor." + +Gumboot Annie took time to spit before replying, "I am the lady." + +"I want to hold a prayer-meeting. Will you lend me your tent?" + +"Lend! Me lend anything! Now wouldn't that pa'alyze yer!" she demanded +of the listening prospectors. "I ain't up here fer me health," she then +explained to Maclane, "but I'll sell or rent anything in sight. Twenty +dollars is the price for a Gospel show!" + +"Agreed!" + +"Thar's a bar in thar, y'know!" + +"Oh, the bar's no hindrance!" The minister already was unstrapping his +pack of hymnals. "But I warn you I shall preach against the evils of +drink." + +"That's all right. The boys ull be jest as thirsty! Say, fer five +dollars you kin convert Ikey. He's useter it. He gives his experiences +real cute. Water is two bits a bucket, but fer a baptism attraction I'll +throw it in!" + +Refusing with a gesture, the minister seized the dinner-bell from its +nail and rang it vigorously. "Prayer-meeting and service of song. All +are cordially welcome!" + +"Wouldn't it be slick ter dump him in the creek," suggested one. + +"No, no! Lay low till Bully Nick wakes up! Nick ull fix him," said +Mops, to which the rest agreed, "Betcherlife!" + +"Come, boys," urged Maclane, "who'll lead the way?" + +After a chilly silence, "Don't all speak at once," jeered Mops. "Don't +crowd the mourners," echoed Bill. + +"You have mothers, sweethearts, wives, who never cease to pray for you. +Won't you spare a few minutes from Black Jack to put up a prayer for +them?" + +A pause followed, during which Bill swallowed a lump in his throat and +tried not to think of the mother in Montreal, whose last letter he had +been carrying about for eleven months, unanswered. Mops sent Ikey for +more drinks. + +"'Twull be a saving i' the lang run!" Foreseeing that he might again be +called upon to pay, Sandy stumbled toward the tent, falling over rows of +jocosely outstretched feet. "I misdoot my gait is na sae steady as it +micht be! A touch o' scurvy!" + +"Oh, we're all liable to trip!" Maclane helped him up. "Who'll be next?" + +"Count me in, Dominie!" An elderly man, gaunt and ill-clad, gold-pan +under his arm, climbed the banks of the creek and entered the tent. + +"Old Lucky's down on his luck, but he gen'lly knows whar the gold is!" A +boyish-looking prospector, who had been wanting an excuse, joined him. + +Several followed the example, till at last only Nick and his bodyguard +remained outside. When a rousing chorus of "Onward, Christian Soldiers," +pealed forth from the tent, Mops chuckled joyously. "Look out fer +fireworks! Nick's waking!" + +After preliminary grunts and stretchings the Bully sat up in his ugliest +mood. "Wot th' hell---- Is this Jedgment Day?" + +"Naw! Only some blasted holy windmill come for to save our souls," Bill +informed him. + +"The cursed stiff!" Nick sprang toward the tent. "I'll teach him ter +meddle with my anatomy!" He cocked his pistol. "One, two----" + +"Bully Nick! He never misses the bull's-eye!" shouted his delighted +followers. + +At this juncture a fresh-skinned young giant in blouse and overalls, who +had been chopping kindlings by Gumboot Annie's woodpile, dropped his +hatchet and strolled up with a casual air wholly at variance with the +keen, hawk-like glance of his gray-blue eyes. As Nick told off the last +minutes of Parson Maclane's earthly span, the newcomer pinioned him in +a grasp of iron from behind. "Not this time, Bully Nick!" + +"Eh? Who the mischief are ye to stop me?" is the polite, free rendering +of Nick's impolite free speech. "I don't think I hev the pleasure of +your acquaintance, my lad!" + +"I've been wanting for some time to make yours!" The young man seemed +quite unconcerned that the toughest gang in the district had forcibly +detached him from their chief and were holding him prisoner. + +"It's just a looney Irishman that's been hanging 'round all day! Ain't +worth a bullet, Nick!" At heart, Bill disliked human targets for sport. + +"Powerful strong! His muscles ud be wuth more ter ye than his darned +hide, Nick," supplemented Mops, who, while without prejudices as to +bloodshed, sometimes was called on to exert himself unduly. + +"I'll assay him," decreed the Bully. "Fust he shall drink my health! +Mops, you hold the booze ter the stiff's mouth! Bill, you got a ticker; +you keep time. Now, sonny, I give yer jest two minutes fer mamma's +little baby boy ter say his prayers in, or ter git good an' drunk, like +me. See?" + +The young man yawned, with a bored expression. "Excuse my not putting my +hand before my mouth, gentlemen!" + +"One minute gone, pard!" admonished Bill. + +"Phew!" The prisoner spat out the liquid Mops forced between his lips. +"That filthy stuff! I only drink the best! Besides, 'tis smuggled, and, +living or dead, I should incur a fine with contraband goods on, or in, +my person!" + +"You all-fired nateral, do yer _want_ ter be a angel?" growled the +Bully. + +"Faith, I wasn't aspiring to such promotion," admitted the stranger. +"But I'd look prettier that way than making myself a drunken beast like +you, Nick!" + +The insult had its effect; the Bully's pistol hand quavered, and he was +lost. "Say, young feller, you got grit! You're game! Boys, the Irishman +goes, see!" + +"Sorry I can't return the favor, Nick! You go--but to gaol!" With an +adroit movement the young man had whisked out a pair of handcuffs and +was fitting them to the astonished Bully's wrists. "Best take it +quietly, men. As they say in story-books, reinforcements are at hand! +And till they come, get in there, all of you, and say your own prayers!" +He lifted the tent flap. "Fall into line. Um, left. Left!--Left! March!" + +"Who in blazes air ye?" gasped Nick, as he obeyed. + +The answer came in awe-stricken tones from Mops, who, beneath the +stranger's rough externals had suddenly suspected the insignia of a +dreaded authority. "The hell! It's Scarlett of the Mounted!" + + + + +II + +THE WOMENKIND OF LOST SHOE CREEK + + +Dandy Raish swaggered up to the tent where he had an appointment with +old Blenksoe, relating to a little matter of holding up the stage, but +finding services in progress, he scattered a few flowers of profanity, +and turned on his heel. + +Scarlett, pacing to and fro while awaiting aid, caught sight of him. +"Now, that's a gentleman whose company I'd fancy most in his absence, +I'm thinking!" To escape the other's observation while making his own, +he returned to his kindlings. + +Developments came soon, first in the person of a woman wrapped in a red +cloak, young and comely, but at the moment repulsive from the effects of +a debauch. Reeling from the shelter of a ruined cabin, "Gumboot Annie!" +she cried, "Gumboot Annie, for the love of heaven, trust me with the +price of a drink!" + +Finding the source of refreshments temporarily inaccessible, she threw +herself on a bench, cursing religion, even as Raish had done. + +"Furs for sale; snow-shoes, moccasins, furs, velly damn fine!" An Indian +trader coming by recognized the girl, and accosted her. "Hello, Gelly! +Shake!" + +The girl complied good-naturedly. "Hello, Chilkat Jo!" + +"Gelly, I love you!" stated Jo, in unimpassioned monotone. "Love you +like hell-you-betyerlife! Say, Gelly, you mally me?" + +"Say, Jo, that's a proposal, even if you ain't nothin' but a Siwash!" + +"Me no Siwash!" Chilkat Jo drew himself up. "Me chew, swear, gamble, +dlink like hell, plenty wives, all same as Clistian white man!" + +"My, but you do give us a character," laughed the girl, "and I guess +we've earned it all right, all right! But, no, Jo! I ain't sunk so low +I'd marry you without I cared fer yer! Thar's only one man in the world +fer me!" With a sigh she looked over at Dandy Raish, who, leaning +against a Douglas spruce, was dressing his waxed mustache by the aid of +a pocket looking-glass. + +The Indian took his rejection with outward stoicism. "That's all light. +Some day I kill him, cally you off, beat you, smash yer face, make you +goddam' bad husband, all same as Clistian white man!" Then off he +stalked, crying: "Furs for sale. Moccasins. Hair dye! Sacled images! +Velly dam good sacled images!" + +Gelly rose and timidly approached the object of her affections. "Raish! +Dear Dandy, won't you speak to me?" + +"Gelly!" The man turned on her with an oath. "Taggin' on as usual!" + +"Raish, pop's turned me out, along of you, and I don't know whar ter +go!" + +"Such as you needn't look far! There, there, Gelly, don't get mad! I'm +sorry for you; indeed I am!" + +"Then marry me!" + +"Me marry you! With my social gifts! Ha, ha! You're crazy! But I'll tell +you what I will do: I'll help you out of this place; I'll get you a +berth in a swell saloon at Skagway, with a big rake-off on every bottle +that's uncorked and every bird that's plucked through you!" + +"And me tryin' to be decent! Curse it all, I _will_ be decent! You +_shall_ marry me!" + +"I'll strangle you first!" + +"Take your hands off that woman!" + +Turning, Raish confronted a young giant, and being a coward he obeyed. +"I can't spoil her!" he sneered. + +"What is the trouble?" Scarlett asked of Gelly. + +"None of your business," she replied, with feminine ingratitude. + +"Is this your husband?" + +"Sure!" At Raish's threatening gesture she modified the assertion. "In a +sort of way!" + +"The only sort of way he ever will be, you bet your boots," Raish flung +back as, hands in pockets, he swaggered off. + +"What is your name?" Scarlett asked the girl. + +"Gelly!" + +"Your full name? Gelly what?" + +"Ah, now you're gettin' too familiar!" Sidling closer she remarked, +approvingly: "Say, you're an awful pretty boy!" + +"Stand off!" As the girl shrank back, cowering, he added more gently: +"Go home to your parents!" + +"My home! My parents! Aw, that's a good un! Ma sloped with a faro dealer +from 'Frisco, and pop's turned me out!" + +"Poor child! You must get away from this district! I will send you down +to a mission, where good women will care for you!" + +"A mission? No, sirree! Too slow fer me!" Gelly moved away, humming a +ditty popular in low-class music-halls of the locality. + +"Stop!" Scarlett sharply reprimanded. "Sing if you will! Sing all you +can! The world has need of singing--but sing decent songs!" As a +stirring hymn, accompanied by Bill's concertina, just then sounded from +the tent, he went on: "Go in and help them! They need a woman's voice." + +"What!" Gelly was genuinely astonished. "Such as me--in church!" + +"My poor girl, churches are for such as you." + +Gelly looked in, uncertainly, then hurriedly drew back. "I can't, +mister. Pop's in thar--and pop has sworn ter kill me on sight! Pop's the +bully of the district," she added, proudly. + +"Hm!" Scarlett considered a moment, then felt in his pocket. "Here's +needle and thread. Go mend your clothes!" + +Gelly stared at him as she took the proffered housewife. "Say, you're a +real white man. I never before----" Breaking into sudden sobbing, she +went back to her cabin. + +Sergeant Scarlett gave a comprehensive glance at the scenery, nature's +magnificent setting for this squalid drama. + +"This district has the name of being the hottest proposition this side +of Hades," he reflected. "It contains an unsurveyed number of square +miles and crooked inhabitants. And it needs just three things to clean +it out. First, godliness, which only gets this way for a flying visit +once a year. Next--and it's only modesty prevented my putting it +first--law, which is just myself; and last, but foremost, women! And all +the womenkind we can muster are a travesty of the name--sketches the +Lord seems to have blotted in the making and thrown away." With tender +impatience he touched a cluster of wild roses with the toe of his +military boot. "Oh, why can't ye stop running to flowers and blossom +girls instead! Hello! Is this an answer to prayer, or a deceiving +dream?" Sure enough, among the crimson petals a girl's face laughed, +sparkling back at him. "By the St. Colmcille, a young lady at me feet! +Permit me to reverse the positions, miss!" Picking up the miniature, he +scanned the features closely. "Young? Yes, the right age, just; still in +her teens, but not too teeny! Pretty? Verdict unanimous, without leaving +the jury-box; guilty of wholesale manslaughter wherever those eyes set +foot! Good? As good as virgin gold! Perhaps a trifle too well pleased +with herself. Here, young lady, give an account of yourself! What are +you doing in my district? Are you visiting father, brother, sweetheart, +or do you intend to stake a claim on some poor wretch's unprospected +heart? Oh, here's a bit of writing on the back. 'For dear daddy, from +Evelyn,' Evelyn. A pretty name. Sounds like Eve with a little flounce +on. Daddy. I'm glad it's a mere father ye belong to. Now since ye've +dropped like manna from heaven to the wilderness, will ye think it a +liberty if I----" He approached the picture to his lips, then put it +resolutely aside. "No! I'm not the coward to kiss a girl anyway but to +her face!" In his absorption he had failed to observe a uniformed rider +coming at full gallop along the trail, and he had barely time to conceal +the miniature in his breast as Barney, his assistant and devoted +personal follower, dismounted a few paces from him. + +Instead of greeting his chief with the proper military salute, Barney +pushed him arrogantly aside. + +"Out av the shadow av your supariors, ye hulking son av a tiligraph +pole!" + +"Back into your own skin, you jackass, you!" Scarlett returned the push +with interest. + +Recognizing the other through his disguise, "Bejabers," exclaimed +Barney, "'tis Himself!" + +"You're late in coming up to time," remarked Scarlett, absently, his +thoughts still on the portrait. + +"Sure, sorr, an' 'twas the word from yourself I've been delaying for! +Ivery moment av the last four-an'-twenty hours I've slept at attintion +with me boots on and nary a wink on me! As me own flesh is livin' +witness, I've never moved me hindquarters from the saddle!" + +"I wish you'd learn to keep your headquarters in the saddle," returned +Scarlett. "Didn't I instruct ye if ye hadn't heard from me by the day +appointed to start the day before?" + +Barney scratched a puzzled head. He could interpret his own Irish bulls +readily enough, defending them, if needful, with his fists to a jury of +his peers, but those of his chief often passed him. Tactfully, he +changed the conversation. "The mail arrived, Sergeant, and was +distributed impartially. Only this remains unclaimed; a registhry +package, with duty to pay on it." + +Sergeant Scarlett examined the address on the parcel. "From E. Durant, +New York City, to Matthew Durant, owner of the Rainbow Mine---- Where +under the shining heavens is the Rainbow Mine, Barney?" he broke off to +ask. + +"In the clouds, for aught I know, sorr. I searched the books, but in all +the disthrict there's not even a claim recorded by the name, far less a +mine." + +"H'm! Well, the man, if not his mine, may be sojourning in our bally. +Step inside the tent, Barney, and when the parson pauses for breath, +whisper to him to inquire for one Matthew Durant!" + +When Barney had gone on his errand, Scarlett performed the official act +of unfastening the dainty package to appraise its contents. "White +neckties, doubtless," he soliloquized. "That is what folk on the outside +are by way of sending their kin to pull them through a Klondike winter. +No, but almost as bad: an embroidered cigar-case, with jeweled clasp. +Now I'm wondering if the fellow it's intended for can always muster up a +pipeful of tobacco! Well, Barney, what success?" + +"Just at this present, sorr, the howly man has got his teeth well into +the Evil Wan, but he tipped me the wink he'd find our man the moment he +darst let go. Oh, by the way--I hate to decompose ye, Sergeant--but +here's a letther for yourself!" + +"A letter for me, is it? Now, who the mischief would be writing to me?" + +"The mischief it is, indade, sorr! 'Tis a lawyer!" + +"A lawyer!" Scarlett scrutinized the name of the Dublin firm on the +missive Barney handed him. "Now I'd give something to know what that +means! I've always lived within the law, and without a lawyer!" + +"Sure, that's your offence, Sergeant. Depind on ut, that's phwat they're +afther charging ye for!" + +"'Tis their inflated cheek, then!" Resentfully, Scarlett tore open the +envelope. "If 'tis a bill they're sending me they can go to the divvle!" + +"Faith, sorr, that's exactly where they'll have ye! That's phwat they're +afther counting on!" + +Barney watched his chief with affectionate solicitude while the latter +read, and, crossing himself, began a prayer in which pious invocations +mingled strangely with unflattering estimates of legal lights. "Howly +Mary, full av grace---- The dirthy blackguards, I wish I'd lost the +letther for the lad! Blessed art thou among---- Bad cess to yez, ye +black limbs av an onreputable body, if 'tis only nearer ye were, or +meself less far away, rest aisy 'tis outwitted ye'd be intoirely, if +there's anny diplomacy in the fists av this Mick at all. Name av the +Father, Son an' Howly----" + +"Phew!" At last Scarlett broke through the stupor with which the perusal +of his letter seemed to have encompassed him. "Is it I standing here in +my five senses, or the fool of a deceiving dream? Barney, man, listen to +this and pronounce on it. 'By the demise of your uncle'--that's my +uncle, you understand?" + +"Sure, sorr, your uncle is my uncle; and many's the accommodation we've +had off him, thanks be!" + +"Oh, this doesn't refer to that impartial relative of all impoverished +humanity! This is, or was, the man who prevented my father from being +the eldest son and only child of his parents! By his demise----" + +"Precisely, sorr. And which av his qualifications may his demise be?" + +"The final one. Demise means death. Oh, not the commonplace, every-day +occurrence as we up here experience it; it is applied to those who have +something of value besides life to leave behind." + +"Faith, then, sergeant, it's ourselves will be immune." + +"That's what I'm doubting. Five minutes since, I was nobody of nowhere. +Now I suddenly find myself gazetted Sir Gerald Scarlett of Dunshinannon, +owner of a picturesque, if ruined, castle; three acres that might be +profitable under cultivation, and a cow!" + +Barney shook his head. "A grand dream, Sergeant. May the blissed saints +soften the awakening to ye," he added, with commiseration. + +"But, man--here, look at this, will ye?" Before his astonished eyes +Scarlett held a draft for a substantial sum. "A luck-slice from the +rent-roll. Oh, that proves it no dream, since money talks, but never in +its sleep!" + +Barney removed his regimental hat. "Hurrah for Sir Gerald, the castle, +including the ruins, the acres, and ivery blissed pertaty, past, present +and to come, adorning them!" + +"And the cow, God bless her!" Scarlett also bared his head. + +"Amen!" Barney supplemented, fervently. "I'm wid ye, sorr, in +prosperity, as in adversity! How soon do we quit the service, me +lordship?" + +"Not till we've finished out our term, you lazy vagabond! Meanwhile, +sink the title. I travel on my soldiership, and you're in the same +boat!" + +"Amen! if it has to be," acquiesced Barney, with philosophic +resignation, saluting meekly. "And phwat's the next orders, me +lord--Sergeant, I should say?" + +"For the present you can take charge and administer the law, unless +anything demanding a judicial mind comes up, while I wander on incog., +and do a little prospecting to identify the toughs and crooks that give +this the name of the blackest district in all the great Northwest! I've +begun rather well; I've just rounded up Bully Nick and his +sharp-shooting gang!" + +"Ye have?" Barney's jaw dropped with amazement. "Single-handed?" + +"Aye; but forewarned is four-armed, you know!" + +"Even so. Mother of Grace----" + +"Tut, tut, man; that's but a flea bite in the ocean, as one of our Irish +philosophers remarked. There's a regularly organized band of +thieves--aye, who don't stick at murder, either--that hold up stages, +terrorize the whole community, and play the dickens generally. The scum +of all nationalities, their headquarters are across the boundary in +Uncle Sam's domain, while their field of operations is the whole +Northwest. The thing is to identify them, catch them redhanded in our +precincts." + +"A Herculaneum task, me lordship--Sergeant, I should say--and more, +since that gintleman had only twelve impossibilities to conquer!" + +"Och, Hercules! I'd sooner any day be a whole man than just half a god +like Hercules! Any able-bodied son of Erin should be able to match +Hercules, except in the snake-strangling trick, since divvle an example +did Saint Patrick leave us to practice on." + +"Thrue," assented Barney. "Many's the dhrink I've laid on it that the +only snakes an Irishman is capable of behoulding is all in his own eye." + +"Don't ye be looking for them that way on duty. Keep your vision for +two-legged crawlers. There was a fellow here, just now, who, if faces +are incriminating testimony, stands twenty times convicted in the dark, +or I'm a duffer in face-palmistry." + +"Why not begin with the rope's end, Sergeant?" + +"No, no, man! We must even make haste slowly, as some old Roman of an +Irishman remarked. I'll just wander on, as if looking for a job, and if +any one inquires about me, give me what character ye please!" + +"Faith, sorr, since fair play demands reciprocity on both sides, I'll +damn ye for a blockhead!" + +"Go ahead," laughed Scarlett. Breaking off, he inquired: "Now who's this +chee-charka coming up the trail?" + + + + +III + +LUCKY DURANT + + +The lagging pace of the young man who was approaching, his weary stoop +under a light pack he carried, miner-wise, upon his shoulders, confessed +him all too surely the tenderfoot Scarlett had described him. + +With a bewildered stare at the congeries of squalid tents and cabins +that comprised the camp, he accosted Barney. + +"Surely this can't be Lost Shoe Creek?" "Maybe it can't be, but that's +phwat it does be, me lad!" + +"It's so different from what I expected." + +"Ye were anticipating skyscrapers? In these parts we build downwards for +gold--and both ways lead equally far from heaven, I'm thinking." + +"Well, though not skyscrapers, I certainly had looked for something more +imposing. Can you direct me to the office, or residence, of Mr. Matthew +Durant?" + +"Durant!" Involuntarily, Barney and Scarlett exchanged a glance of +surprise. + +"Office or residence, indade! 'Tis myself would like to be directed to +the man," replied the former. + +"Oh, but surely you know him!" cried the newcomer. "I mean Matthew +Durant, owner of the wonderful Rainbow Mine!" + +At this juncture the elderly man who had been spoken of by one of his +brother prospectors as Lucky, came hurrying toward them from the tent, +and addressed himself to Barney. "The Dominie has just announced that +you have mail for one Matthew Durant, officer. I am he." + +Before Barney could reply the young tenderfoot had darted forward with a +threatening gesture. "You Durant, indeed, you miserable fraud! I know +Mr. Durant well," he turned to Barney to explain. "I was employed in the +New York bank where he keeps his daughter's account, and many is the +chat I've had with him. Why, I've resigned my position and spent every +penny I'd saved to come out here to beg him to put me in the way of +making my fortune, as he has done, scooping gold out of the earth. The +idea of this beggarly imposter pretending to be Durant, owner of the +Rainbow Mine!" + +A sad smile crossed the worn features of the claimant. "I must indeed be +changed if Walter Pierce does not know me." + +At the sound of his voice the young man started, but gazed at the +unshorn face, the poverty-stricken figure, unconvinced. + +"Ye have some means of identification, perhaps?" suggested Barney, in +all good faith. "A strawberry mark, or a lock of your sainted mother's +hair?" + +Durant thought a moment. "No one here knows me by the name. But, wait! I +have a picture of my daughter Evelyn, whom Walter will recognize. Evelyn +will bear witness that I'm her own dear daddy." He felt in his breast, +but not finding what he sought, gave a smothered cry. "Lost--my little +Evie, have I lost you?" + +"This is herself, I'm thinking!" Scarlett held out the miniature. "I +found her on this spot, putting the wild roses to the blush." + +"Thank you--thank you! Evie!" Durant covered the portrait with kisses. + +"Which was to be proved," remarked Barney, conclusively, handing Durant +his mail. "There's a thrifle av duty to pay on it, sorr." + +Durant's expectant hand dropped to his side. "I--I'm rather down on my +luck just now," he faltered. + +While Barney hesitated between conscience and good will, Scarlett +whispered in his ear. "Good!" he then exclaimed. "The Sergeant will +settle it, Misther Durant. I mean," he corrected himself as Scarlett +kicked his leg, "it is already settled. Me man here," he indicated his +superior, "a great blockhead ordinarily, but with lucid intervals, +reminds me that the duty was prepaid beforehand in advance." + +When the soldiers had moved away, Walter Pierce found his voice. "Then +you are Durant. But where, where, where is the wonderful Rainbow Mine?" + +"Where it always has been--in the clouds!" + +"Good heavens, do you mean to say it is all a fraud?" + +"Less that than a fiction," amended the older man. "Sit here and I'll +tell you all about it." He sank wearily on the ground, leaning against a +huge pine tree, and when Walter had placed himself beside him, began his +strange tale. "Oh, the money has been no fraud, as your bank can +testify. I'm an old miner--a born prospector, with a nose for gold--and +I've always had streaks of luck; I've always made my pile, in +California, Colorado, and up here in Canada. But it has only been a rich +pocket here and there. I've never managed to develop a proposition into +a paying claim, or a paying claim into an exhaustless mine. But whenever +I've had a big clean-up I've blown it all in, as your born miner +invariably does, trusting to luck for the morrow. Some miners blow it in +on cards, drink--on worthless properties--but I've had only one +extravagance--my daughter. My wife always had vast ambitions, and when +the wife died she passed them on to me for our only child. To educate +Evelyn, to have her brought up a flower of civilization, that always has +been my dream, as I have roughed it in camps or tramped over glaciers, +through forests, sleeping under the stars. And so I sent the little one +to school in 'Frisco, Chicago, New York, with a European polishing off. +And somehow, the further East she traveled the grander her notions +grew--and as for myself, on my flying visits to her I took pride in +seeing my girl hold her own with the daughters of oil, beef and railways +trusts, and then with the daughters of princes of the Old World. And the +luck held out. However grand Evie's whims, I always had the stuff to +back her--and I always lived in hopes that any turn of the pick and +shovel would yield me, not merely a rich clean-up, but the +inexhaustible fortune that is every miner's dream. And so, between what +Evie took for granted and what I told her, half in jest, there grew up +this fable of the Rainbow Mine. But this season--I suppose it is my +punishment for my deception--the luck has turned clean against me. The +gold is here in the earth, as it always has been--but I've lost my knack +of finding it. The old earth no longer trusts me with her secrets." He +groaned, covering his face with his rough, knotted hands for a minute, +during which young Pierce exclaimed, bitterly: + +"Then what is to become of me?" + +"Ah, well!" Recovering composure, Durant rose. "It won't do to loaf. I'm +sorry for your disappointment, Walter. And the worst is, I can't do much +for you; can't show you any hospitality. In order to maintain life till +the luck turns, I am sharing the outfit of a chap named Blenksoe. That's +he, yon." He indicated a man of evil aspect, who was lounging at the +entrance of a rude hut nearby. "Blenksoe is grub-staking me through a +superstition about my luck. But Blenksoe is a bad lot. You must not have +anything to do with him." + +"But what in the world am I to do?" cried Pierce. "I tell you, I am +penniless--penniless!" + +"You must work," Durant admonished. "You must get employment on a +lay--that is, you must induce some one to let you help work his claim on +shares. I'll teach you the trick of panning gold." + +"But if gold-dust can be taken out by the dish-pan," cried Walter, with +bulging eyes, "why should any one go poor?" + +"You young fool! First you have to find in which patch out of desert +areas of mud and cobblestone the gold-dust hides. And then you have to +pay the Government for the privilege of staking, working it. Look along +the banks of this creek. As far as eye can see every inch of pay-dirt is +claimed, staked, defended, not only by law, but by miners' justice, with +a shooting-iron. In a mining camp human life ain't worth a damn, as +you'll find if you trespass on another man's claim, or if he should take +a fancy to yours. Just be content if, for the present, by working +eighteen hours of daylight during the twenty-four, during the short +summer, you can pay your way." + +"Good heavens!" again cried Pierce. "Then are the stories of gold all a +fable? Surely many fortunes are made up here?" + +"Surely," replied Durant, "and lost here, too. Every Klondike camp is +the garden for a score of fortunes, and the graveyard of a thousand +hopes. Well, I must go get pick and shovel." He moved toward his tent. +"I must go out on the hills, prospecting. Thank God, I left my girl a +tidy sum in the bank--and before that is spent her daddy will have found +her Rainbow Mine--or will die like a trail-dog in the traces!" + +"I ought to tell you----" Walter detained him. "That money--Miss Durant +has drawn it, every penny." + +"Eh!" exclaimed Durant. "Are you sure?" + +"It was that which set me thinking about coming up here myself. I heard +her telling the cashier. You haven't paid her a visit for three years; +accordingly, she intends coming to visit you as a surprise." + +"A surprise! My God!" gasped the unhappy man. + +"She has invested in the most costly outfit," continued Walter. "She is +traveling with a princely retinue. You see, she thinks you live in regal +style--palaces and all that." + +"And when----" Durant moistened his dry lips. "How soon----?" + +Pierce shrugged his shoulders. "I fell in with her party to-day, though +as I was stone broke and hoofing it I didn't care to make myself known +to her. She was inquiring your whereabouts. She is coming by the stage. +She'll be here any minute now." + +The tooting of a horn echoed through the hills, mingled with bursts of +girlish laughter, as, with a crack of the driver's whip and the jingling +of bells, in a cloud of dust the stage was seen approaching. With a +groan Durant buried his face in his hands. "My God!" he muttered. +"Evelyn!" + + + + +IV + +THE PICTURE GIRL + + +"Let your light so shine----" At this cue the much-converted Ikey passed +Gumboot Annie's frying-pan about among the men. Instead of +organ-voluntary, or tenor solo, such as obtains during the offertory in +conventional places of worship, the Bully, at his own request, rose to +make a few appropriate remarks. "I ain't convarted," he frankly +announced. "Heaven ain't in it with a hot old hell of a whoop-up time in +this here life, d'ye see? Even if ye hang fer it! But say, parson, +you're all right. You're a sure square proposition! Boys, the collection +goes, d'ye see?" + +"You betcherlife!" with cordial emphasis acquiesced the boys, even as +the orthodox respond Amen, while pouring gold-dust from their pokes into +the frying-pan. + +"Oh, I don't despair of you, Nicholas! I shall yet see you a pillar of +the church!" The minister now was mingling with his congregation, +shaking hands, hearty if not invariably spotless, right and left. "Thank +you, lads, thank you! This will go toward the maintenance of a hospital, +where you shall be cared for when disabled by accident, or laid up with +a er--touch of--ahem!--scurvy." + +"Booze," corrected Bully Nick, scorning the well-meant euphemism. + +After a second, informal benediction from Maclane, Barney, considering +that the execution of justice temporal had been waived quite long enough +in favor of things pertaining to the soul, tapped Nick on the shoulder +with cheerful authority. "Now, me man, put your best fut forward and +step prattily to jail! The rest av yez"--he looked round on the group +with impartial invitation--"can accompany us on giniral lack av +principles!" + +"Oh, but say--the stage is a-comin' in," remonstrated Bill, as the +tooting of a distant horn echoed musically among the mountain passes. +"There's like to be ladies aboard her. Can't we wait for to look upon +the ladies?" + +The suggestion obviously was popular, even to the extent of suggesting +mutiny if not complied with, and Barney himself had some difficulty in +delaying his consent in order to add value to it before permitting his +mug to relax into a grin. "As a man in line av promotion to be nominated +an officer and a gintleman, 'tis no less than me duty." + +"Boys, boys!" Mops, who had been reconnoitering, ran back, breathless +and excited. "There's gals aboard!" + +"The hell thar is!" exclaimed the boys, delighted, and meaning no +disrespect. + +"A hull outfit o' gals," expatiated Mops. "And one, perched up by the +driver, jest the swellest, jim-dandiest little female proposition you +ever seen in all your life! Say, I wisht I hadn't left my dress-suit in +cold storage!" + +"Any one lend me a comb?" Any one being unable to oblige him, Bill ran a +corkscrew through his curly hair. "Well, anyway, my face is clean!" + +"All ye can see av it, for the dhirt that's on it," Barney encouraged +him. + +The horn blew a gay fanfare; the driver's whip cracked with more than +wonted smartness; the bells on its four horses jingled merrily as the +cumbersome old stage rattled into Lost Shoe Creek, and drew up before +Gumboot Annie's hostelry to an enthusiastic ovation of hurrahs, +cap-tossings, and gun-firings from the male populace. + +A handsome girl, wearing her modish clothes with a too conscious effect +of style, from her place on the box bowed pleased acknowledgments in all +directions for the cheering, but at the volley of shots gave a little +startled cry, which was taken up in louder note by her companions. + +Doffing his hat, Parson Maclane came forward, with a reassuring smile. +"Only a Klondike welcome, young ladies," he explained. + +"That's what!" the men confirmed him. "A Klondike welcome!" + +"How quite too utterly charming!" exclaimed the young lady. "Girls! +Sarah!" she appealed to the others of the party. "Aren't they too dear +and picturesque for anything!" That "they" were human beings and not +part of the brilliant panorama seemed hardly to occur to her. + +A score of pairs of rough but willing hands stretched up to help the +speaker from her high throne, but the honor fell to Scarlett, or rather +was appropriated by that masterful young man as, putting the other +aspirants aside, he lifted her over the wheel and swung her lightly to +the ground. Without waiting for her thanks he returned to his +wood-chopping with a sense of one of life's minor miracles upon him. "By +St. Bridget!" he was thinking, "but that's my picture-girl!" + +When all the passengers had alighted safely the boys pushed their leader +to the front. "Speech! Speech! Bully Nick!" they insisted. "Speech!" + +"Take my hat off fer me," in an undertone commanded the champion shot +and orator. When one of his lieutenants had hastened to comply, the +Bully stood forth and cleared his throat. "Ladies, in the name of the +district--and never mind jest at these presents what name the district +bears--I regret I can't give ye the glad hand, through bein' a-wearin' +of th' Government bracelets." + +"The Government bracelets," repeated the beautiful young lady, puzzled, +under cover of the guffaws with which his followers received Nick's +initial witticism. + +"Mary, love----" She appealed to the tallest of the girls who stood +about her. "You are up in political economy?" + +"I think he must mean some official decoration," glibly prompted Mary. + +"That's it," corroborated Nick, unashamed, amid the shame-faced laughter +of his followers. "Official decoration fer proficiency in gun-play!" He +held up his handcuffed hands. + +"Oh!" The girl and her companions recoiled instinctively. + +"My dears!" The minister stepped into the breach. "I assure you, +Nicholas here has the warmest heart, though at times he is a +trifle--er--impulsive." + +"Aye!" Nick nodded. "Impulsive, under the influence of bad liquor. Shot +a chap recent when drunk, me and him alike. Not but what he desarved it +all right, though the blamed Government won't see it in that light. But +never mind them little personal details. Let me present the boys. Step +up, lads. This here is Mops, our masher. Only hez ter look at a mess of +pertatoes to rejuce 'em. Tuk a prize once at a beauty show, there bein' +no other contestants, and the judge havin' been struck blind." + +"Oh, stop yer joshin'!" growled Mops, as, with a red face, he nearly +lost his balance in a bow. + +"And Bill. Bill's our dude," explained the Bully. "Won't use nothin' but +fashion-plates ter patch his breeches. Now, Bill, don't turn yer back on +the ladies, else they'll see that what I say is true. And this here +solemn guy is Sandy, who keeps everything that comes his way, except the +Commandments, and takes whatever he can lay hands on, except a joke." A +few more introductions having been achieved in the same style, "Well, +well, I guess we're a rough, tough lot," concluded Nick. + +"Nature's noblemen, my dear," interpolated the minister. "The dearest +souls, except for an occasional regrettable--ahem----" + +"Spree!" shouted the Bully. "But that, take it all in all, is a good +sign. When bedrock's too smooth you won't find gold. Gawd knows we're +tough--but when women comes among us--good women----" He broke off to +pass a ragged sleeve across his eyes and gulp. "They're welcome as +pay-dirt, and honored as queens." + +"That's what! You betcherlife!" emphatically assented the throng. + +"Thank you! thank you!" replied the beautiful young lady. "I must +introduce myself. I come from New York. My name is Evelyn Durant----" + +"'Rah, 'rah, for Evelyn!" shouted Mops, to his own surprise and the +general admiration. + +"And these young friends of mine"--Miss Durant indicated the six plainly +dressed little maids who were drinking in these wonderful happenings, +like children in a fairy dream--"their names are Mary, Ruth, Ethel, +Kate, Effie and Gertrude, They have come with me for a holiday from the +institution where they live. They are orphans." + +A round of cheers was thereupon called for, for Mary, Ruth, Ethel, Kate, +Effie and Gertrude, and clinched with Barney's flattering assertion, +"An' sure this is the idayal asoilum for thim, and may they prosper and +multiply galeor, for divvle a family in the disthrict can brag av an +orphan of its own at all, more shame to us!" + +"And this," Evelyn tapped a stout, middle-aged woman kindly on the +shoulder, "is my faithful maid, Sarah." + +Sarah having been duly cheered, "Sarah is nae bonny, but she micht be +sonsy and of a savin' disposeetion," commended Sandy, cautiously, for +which encomium, however, he was only rewarded by an angry shake of +Sarah's stout umbrella, with a counsel to keep his cheek to himself or +she'd know the reason why. + +These graceful amenities concluded, "We have come all this way to visit +my father," explained Miss Durant. "But it is far harder to find him +than I should have expected, considering how well known he is. But I'm +sure you can help me." + +"Sure!" cried her hearers. "You betcher-boots on that!" + +"And who may be your dad, lady?" inquired one. "Some crackerjack swell +capitalist, I reckon." + +At this, a gaunt, elderly man, who had kept in the background, leaning +against a tree, and taking no part in the proceedings, shifted his +position, uneasily. + +"Well," said the young lady, with a conscious laugh, and the +condescension of one who might boast descent from Santa Claus, "I +suppose every one in these parts is familiar with the name of Matthew +Durant." + +"Matthew Durant!" The owner of the name did not claim it, and Scarlett +and Barney, who, of the onlookers, alone could have identified him, +recognizing the tragedy that was being enacted before them, also were +silent. Meanwhile the prospectors, after scratching perplexed heads and +ransacking memories in vain, denied all knowledge of the man. + +"Maybe he warks his proposeetion as a company, leddy," suggested Sandy. + +"Oh, dear, no!" Miss Durant flouted the notion. "My father is It!" + +The man leaning against the Douglas spruce, his ragged cap drawn down +over his eyes, groaned slightly, and turning away, looked toward the +distant mountains, while overhead a bird trilled blithely. + +"Let me see if I can describe him," his daughter was saying, in her +sweet, assured young voice. "He is tall, erect----" + +Durant's bowed shoulders bowed themselves still lower. + +"He is clean-shaven----" + +Durant felt his unkempt beard. + +"He always dresses in the height of fashion. He's quite a dude, I tell +him." + +Durant laughed outright. + +"And I think him extremely handsome!" + +"Sure; judging by his darter!" cried Mops, gallantly. "Oh, I don't mean +that!" he hastened to add, fearful of having been too free. + +"Oh, but I don't mind your meaning it," laughed Evelyn. "But come, if +you've never met my father surely you all know his mine--the wonderful +Rainbow Mine." + +There was a pregnant pause, and then the Bully spoke, slowly, +impressively. "I never knowed an out-an'-out prospector that didn't own +the wonderfullest mine goin'--only waiting fer a triflin' circumstance +like capital ter come along from the East and open it up and put it on a +payin' basis. Why, every man Jack of us owns a placer claim, or +hydraulicking concession, a silver or a copper mountain or a glut of +gold or summat that entitles him to be It. Why, this here little +beggar," he jerked his head toward Bill, "he claims he owns an antimony +proposition that if developed ull make J. Peerpunt Morgan take a back +seat and Hetty Green look like thirty cents----" + +"No 'if' about it. You betcherlife it will!" cried Bill, with warmth. + +"Aye!" The Bully nodded his head, condoningly. "And Sandy here claims +ter have an option on a----" + +"A copper proposeetion, pure boanite," elucidated Sandy. + +"Aye! Something that's a-goin' ter make Clark of Montana bust with envy +some day," assented Nick, "and knock Newhouse of Salt Lake City inter a +cocked hat. Why, tho' by nacher conservative an' shrinking I myself am +calkilatin' on stackin' up the chips--I mean the books, ag'in Andy +Carnegie, and pourin' oil on the troubled waters of John D. +Rockefeller's poverty, unless he's run in fust! Take my word fer it, +missy, every man within range of them bright eyes of yourn is a +millionaire--ter-morrer! A stun-broke millionaire!" + +"But, you see, my father is a millionaire to-day," explained Miss +Durant, with amused tolerance. "A multi-millionaire." + +Nick shrugged his shoulders. "Lucky father!" + +"Why, that's his camp name," Evelyn exclaimed. "Lucky! He has often +told me. Surely you all know Lucky?" + +[Illustration: MINGLED WITH THE TRAVELLERS AT GUMBOOT ANNIE'S BOARD.] + +There was a dead silence, broken only by the fly-catcher's mocking +refrain, every man with wonderful restraint and delicacy avoiding so +much as a glance toward Durant. + +Then, again, Nick rose to the occasion, manfully. "Why, ter be sure! +Everybody knows Lucky, and Lucky's Rainbow Mine, eh, boys? Blast yer, +can't yer _say_ yer does?" he demanded, in an undertone that would have +been backed up with a shooting-iron had his hands been free. + +But of their own accord the boys, their presence of mind recovered, all +were loyally assuring Miss Durant that Lucky and Lucky's mine were +synonyms for boundless wealth at Lost Shoe Creek and throughout the +golden northland. "The mere mention of it brings better fortin' than +touchin' a hunchback, or spittin' on your money at new moon," one summed +up. + +"Too bad, but Lucky ain't here just now," the Bully went on to state, +with an authority that, handcuffed though he was, not even the most +audacious would have dared dispute. "An' what's more, tain't so easy ter +locate him. Like as not he's off, attendin' ter them vast interests of +his'n somewhar out among them hills!" He nodded, toward the +hoary-beaded mountains as if defying their granitic silence to gainsay +him. + +"Sure he is!" corroborated the prospectors, in a chorus, covering up the +long-drawn sigh of relief that nearly betrayed Durant. + +"Prospectors is here ter-day, and gone ter-morrer, like the snow, d'ye +see?" concluded Nick. "But he'll turn up in time all right, fer fair, +with a pokeful of dust in his corjeroys, and a train of mules loaded +down with nuggets fer his gal!" + +"Sure! That's what! Betchersweetlife!" cried the boys, who lacked their +leader's skill in improvising lies, but knew a good one when they heard +it. + +"Oh, thank you, thank you so much!" Evelyn had begun to feel real +uneasiness at the continued postponements in arriving at her journey's +end or obtaining definite intelligence of her father. "And when I join +him I shall tell him what a welcome you have given me. And I promise you +he shall back everybody's proposition. I promise every one of you a +substantial slice of our good fortune in the Rainbow Mine." + +Comment on this generous pledge was headed off by Ikey's vigorous +ringing of the supper-bell, coupled with an announcement from Gumboot +Annie that for a dollar within the tent might be obtained a meal +calculated to turn the mother of the Delmonicos the colors of a lettuce +and tomato salad from professional jealousy, on which, at Evelyn's +invitation and with Barney's willing concurrence, the execution of +justice temporal again was stayed, while Nick and his followers, with +their custodian, mingled with the travelers at Gumboot Annie's board. +There the Bully's manacled efforts to devour bacon and flapjacks +particularly delighted the young ladies, who took turns in cutting up +his food for him, while he himself was moved almost to tears that his +last victim could not be present to share the joy their late +unpleasantness was procuring for himself as the survivor. + +Durant followed them to the entrance of the tent where, unnoticed, he +lingered a few minutes, listening to the hum of merry voices, and +feasting his sad eyes upon his girl, then turned despairingly away. + + + + +V + +EVELYN ENGAGES A COURIER + + +While, as he knew, his identity was suspected by Nick and Nick's gang, +yet, so long as these were at supper his disguise enabled Scarlett to +wander through the camp, as if seeking employment, and reconnoitre in +order to ascertain what were the most flagrant examples of law-breaking +industries with which, officially, he would have to deal. Meanwhile, his +thoughts kept straying toward the picture-girl with pleasure in the +thought of her fascinating proximity, not unmingled with criticism of +her large assumption of little dignities, softened, however, with pity +for the bitter disappointment in store for her when she should learn the +true state of her father's affairs. + +As it would be manifestly impossible for her to continue under the +delusion that hers was the purse of Fortunatus to draw on, the +obviously wisest plan would be for Durant to disclose himself to her +without delay, confess the truth, and either arrange for her to remain +with him, sharing his rough lot, should she have the grit so to do, or +take up a collection to send her back to any friends who might be +willing to give her a home until, if ever, his luck should turn again. +For his own part, however, both as official and man, Sergeant Scarlett +was strongly of opinion that it would be an unholy act to allow a bevy +of girls to leave a district so sorely needing them, above all when +among their number was the girl of girls whom no young man can fail to +recognize the moment he sets eyes on her; or, as in his case, even on +her portrait. Accordingly, a thousand schemes passed through his head +for making the wilderness, in spite of straitened means and harsh +conditions, an acceptable habitation to the newcomers. The first step +was to take counsel with Evelyn's father, but when, after making his +duty rounds of inspection, he returned to the neighborhood of Gumboot +Annie's hostelry, Durant had disappeared, nor did inquiry reveal the +slightest trace of him. + +Scarlett's next idea was formally to present himself to Miss Durant and +proffer his services in finding her party suitable accommodations till +her father could be reached. Just as he arrived at this decision the +travelers came from the tent. Approaching Evelyn, with a military salute +less effectively seconded than he could have desired by the battered +apology for a hat that he was wearing, he was about to accost her, when, +to his surprise, she waved him imperiously aside. + +"Out of the way, my good man. I wish to speak with the officer." + +At this, Barney, who was engaged in lining up his prisoners for the +march to headquarters, came forward, with a flattered grin. "Out av the +way, ye hulkin' vagabone!" he ordered his superior, with a rough shove +that filled Scarlett with wrath, and sent Nick and his men, who every +moment were becoming surer of the equivoque, into loud guffaws. + +"I tell you, I never give indiscriminately to beggars," stated Miss +Durant, as the young man seemed inclined to persist. "Kate, love," she +beckoned a serious-looking young girl, "investigate his case." + +Kate wrinkled up her conscientious eyebrows. "His face is very red," she +whispered Evelyn, "but somehow I don't think it's drink." + +"Let him wait, then," ordained Evelyn, "and I'll see about him myself. +Meanwhile--oh, officer, I want your help! I'm in such a pickle for lack +of a man servant," she went on to confide in Barney. "The French courier +I brought out with me deserted the moment we set foot in Skagway, taking +my camera, automobile, and I don't know what besides. Of course, my +father will see to it that he's found and punished--and the things don't +matter, because, till my own are recovered, they can be replaced. But +the difficulty is to replace Alphonse. I never before saw so many idle +and poverty-stricken men in all my life; yet--it's the strangest +thing--no matter what inducements I offer, no one is willing to take +service with me." + +"Myself, I don't think it much loss, miss," Evelyn's maid struck in. +"That Alphonse was too tight-laced to be of any good use. And, anyway, +for my part I don't think it respectable for a man to wear corsets any +more than for a woman to go without 'em." + +"Oh, it's not Alphonse's usefulness I mourn for," admitted Miss Durant. +"It's the appearance of the thing; the _chic_. My father always likes me +to have the best of everything; and I owe it to his position no less +than to my own dignity to travel in the best style. Officer," again she +appealed to Barney, "can't you recommend me a courier?" + +Barney looked his bewilderment. "Is it a currier for the horses av your +automeboiler ye do be wanting, miss?" + +Perceiving in this breach his opportunity, Scarlett stepped boldly into +it. "May I apply for the position? I'm looking for work." + +"Lookin' for throuble, more like," muttered Barney, with solicitude. +"Wid all thim lasses! Begorra, I know the sect." + +Evelyn turned about and surveyed the speaker critically. "Ah, I'm glad +it's employment and not alms you want," she commended the busiest, most +hardworked official in the district. "But--I wonder--are you qualified?" +Into her pretty eyes there crept a look of doubt. + +"I know something about horses," with truth the Mounted Policeman +assured her. + +"But not about lasses," Barney anxiously tugged at his sleeve. "'Tis +them as leads ye the divvle av a ride, and is like as not to run away +wid ye." + +"H'm!" Evelyn considered the matter. The shaggy picturesqueness of the +prospectors in colored flannel shirts, top boots and corduroys, with +hands ever on gun or pistol, their odd phrase and lurid expletive, +touched the silly streak of romanticism in her as had they been chorus +of an opera in which she found herself enacting the star rôle, but this +clean-skinned young man, with unadorned speech, in commonplace, +work-a-day clothes, at first failed to interest her. + +"H'm! Well," she conceded finally, "I'm something of a judge of people. +Step into the light where we can take a good look at you." + +As Scarlett obeyed, "There!" cried little Kate, triumphantly. "The nice, +modest way he changes color, I'm sure he doesn't drink!" + +Evelyn also noticed, as who could fail to do, the ingenuous blush that +overspread the white crescent of the young giant's brow, and it +flattered her woman's love of power. "Well, girls," she demanded, in an +audible aside, "and what do you think of him?" + +The verdict of the orphans was unanimous; they thought him fine, +Gertrude, who would have been frivolous and slangy had her institution +permitted it, pronouncing him "a peach." Sarah alone challenged him. + +"He's a sassy piece," she informed Evelyn. "Look at him now, fit to +burst with laughter at us! I never heard of a decent man-servant that +couldn't keep his face straight." + +"But if I'm not straight-faced and strait-laced like Alphonse," urged +Scarlett, "at least ye can count on me never to take French leave of +ye." + +Sarah shook her head ominously. "He's too young, miss," she warned +Evelyn. "Far too young." + +"But I'm growing older every day," pleaded the postulant, "and up here +the days are so long, one grows old twice as fast." + +"He has too much command of language for a man-servant, miss," insisted +Sarah. "That kind is apt to put on airs above their station. And--look +at him now!--there's something altogether too masterful about the way he +walks." + +"Ah, that comes from soldiering," the young man explained. "Me legs are +always under arms, as it were." + +Evelyn laughed with a distinct prepossession. "What is your name?" she +inquired. + +"Scarlett." + +"Scarlett what?" + +"It's what Scarlett." + +"Eh? What do you sign yourself--that is, can you write?" + +"Oh, I manage to make me mark with my fist on any human document that +gets in my way. I sign myself J. Scarlett." + +"Oh! And what does J stand for?" + +"Gerald." + +"Gerald! How do you spell it?" + +"The usual way. G-e-r-a-l-d." + +"Then, why do you sign it J?" + +"Oh, that's just a mistake other people make in the pronunciation," the +owner of the name elucidated, to his own if not to his hearer's +satisfaction. "It once nearly cost me a lawsuit to establish it." + +Sarah groaned: "He talks for all the world like an Irishman." + +"Murther will out," Barney proclaimed, with pride. + +Evelyn turned on the owner of Dunshinnanon. "Are you Irish?" + +"It's the best excuse my parents could make for me," admitted Scarlett. + +"I am more than half inclined to take him on trial," Evelyn stated. "But +first," she again consulted Barney, "officer, can you give the young man +a character?" + +"A character? Faith, but that's phwat he does be needing some ginerously +minded person to bestow on him, for niver a wan av his own has he to +show at all, at all!" cried Barney, mindful of his chief's earlier +injunctions to depict him in unflattered lights. "Glory be! If I was to +begin to tell yez phwat I don't know about the lad he'd be afther +breaking my skull for me, an' not for the first toime." + +"Nor the last, either, you idiot!" growled Scarlett. + +"That's rather vague," commented Evelyn. "Tell me, is he honest?" + +"Gosh! th' Irish is no thieves," Barney answered handsomely for his +race, "though now and thin maybe wan might snap at something in your +hand. It takes a dhirty Hollander to do the stealin'!" + +"Oh! And--is he sober?" + +"Sober! A pure-blooded Celt like himself!" Wishing still to carry out +Scarlett's first orders, Barney hotly repudiated the charge of damaging +sobriety on his behalf, but warned by a surreptitious kick that he was +exceeding instructions, he softened it by asking, generally: "Wid a +felly like himself, that dhrunk or sober is aqually an omadhaun, phwat +the divvle is the differ?" And Scarlett also pleaded his own cause by +admitting that he was frequently quite sober, though, thanks be! never +to an intemperate degree. + +Sarah groaned portentously, but the missionary spirit was awakening in +Evelyn. "I can put up with a good deal," she asserted, "if I feel I am +giving employment where it is really needed. But I must first know +where I stand. Is this young person reliable, to be depended on in an +emergency?" + +"You betcherlife on that!" yelled the prospectors, in delighted chorus. +As outlaws, the mounted policeman was their natural enemy, but for the +time he had downed them, as in the long run, they, by instinct, realized +he always would down them, and they respected him. + +"You stake yer bottom plunk on it, d'ye see? He's the only man ever got +me skinned forty ways from the Jack," in a generous climax conceded +Bully Nick. + +Evelyn's pretty face was clouded with perplexity. Categorically there +was no specific charge against the applicant; moreover, the longer she +looked at him the more was she impressed with the promise of strength in +his splendid proportions, the resolute chin, clear, friendly eyes, even +though the corners of a mobile mouth did curl as if with perpetual +laughter in an outlook on life too original to be seemly in a wearer of +livery--yet, evidently, something was being withheld from her. Urged, +however, by all the little orphans, who by this time were in love with +Scarlett, she remarked: "Yes, we must remember that we came up here not +only for our own pleasure, but also to do good. I am tempted to take +the young man on a month's trial, and at least endeavor to reform him. +That is, if---- Officer," she again consulted Barney, "is he really the +best protector you can find for us?" + +Pushing his hat back from a brow heated by such unwonted drafts upon its +thinking powers, Barney scratched his head while regarding his superior +with disparagement. Finally, "well, yis, he is," he admitted, as if it +were the last damnatory word to be spoken of the man. + +Having ascertained that something over a dollar a day and his keep was +as much as he was used to in the way of wage, Miss Durant instructed her +new courier in his duties--"to look after our trunks, bicycles, banjos, +pianola, mandolins----" + +"And the pets, dear," put in Ruth, who was rather tired of trying to +keep the peace between an Angora cat and a canary, a parrot that looked +as if it had a wicked past and a bull pup who wished to include the +parrot, past and all, in his present rampageous scheme of life. + +"Oh, of course the menagerie! Then you must go ahead to engage the best +suites for us at the hotels, and----" + +"And follow ye to pick up the articles ye leave behind," Scarlett +nodded, understandingly. "But till we get fairly started, I'll just +accompany ye." + +"Very well," assented Evelyn. "Sarah, I hope you won't mind having the +young man eat with you while we are traveling?" + +"I suppose it can't be helped, miss," gloomily replied the maid. "I only +hope the young man will have the grace to improve the opportunity." + +"Oh, I'll improve it fast enough," promised Scarlett, with a twinkling +eye on Sarah, "so long as ye don't expect me to embrace it." + +Evelyn cut short the maid's angry reproof. "Now, Gerald, you must keep +your place. Conduct us to the nearest large city. We must telegraph my +father to join us there. Meanwhile, we want to do a lot of shopping. We +want, oh, ever so many things! Girls, which of you has my list?" + +"I put down prizes for our bridge parties," cried Effie, her eyes +snapping at the thought of the unhallowed joys in store for her. + +"And materials for making fudge," whispered Ethel, who had thirty-two +sweet teeth. + +"Yes," assented Evelyn. "And we must buy presents: neckties and things +for the poor dear miners who have been so kind to us. Also cotillion +favors. As soon as we are settled I mean to give a ball." + +"But, miss, how about money?" Sarah reminded her. "We have only +fifty-odd dollars left." + +"Oh, we can have things charged!" cried Evelyn, airily. "My father's +name will be letter of credit to any amount." + +Scarlett looked about with a growing uneasiness. The day was fast +subsiding into the long twilight that precedes the short northern summer +night. Barney had departed with his captives on the long march that was +the most effective object-lesson conceivable in what could be +accomplished in policing a district by but two men, with the might of a +Government behind; and here was he, practically alone, save for the +minister, to guard these women, since, as he shrewdly guessed, in an +emergency the courage of the other passengers traveling by the coach +would prove of negligible quality. The horses had been put into harness +some time before, yet the driver kept delaying their departure on the +most trivial pretexts. On this Gumboot Annie, when appealed to, threw a +lurid local color. "Guess Logan is timin' things fer the hold-up." + +"The hold-up!" in alarm, exclaimed the passengers, who enjoyed these +things better on billboards forthsetting Bowery melodrama. "You don't +mean to say they really have hold-ups in these parts?" + +Gumboot Annie spat deliberately before replying, "Why, that's our +specialty." + +"But the driver--does not the driver defend his passengers?" + +"The driver! Now wouldn't thet jostle yer!" demanded Gumboot Annie of +the mountains. "Logan hes ter stand in with the gang ter save his own +skin. And, mind you folks don't make no fuss. Pass in yer checks an' no +jawin', and the boys won't hurt yer none. But if yer squeal--well, it's +none of my funeral." + +Great consternation prevailed among the passengers who had booked to +Camp Perdu, the stage's next destination, and elaborate were the +preparations they made to conceal their valuables. The bills and +gold-dust Maclane had collected for his hospital he skilfully packed +into his moccasin, while, to the general amusement, Sarah bestowed +Evelyn's ready money in the fauna and flora of her own bonnet. + +"It's my belief the woman only said that to frighten us," decided Evelyn +as, with a flourish of his horn, the driver shouted, "All aboard!" And +as the stage rumbled peacefully along she added: "In any case, our +party is safe. Our courier will protect us!" In no respect, however, +were her predictions justified. Hardly was Lost Shoe Creek left behind +when from the bushes by the wayside sprang a band of men, with hats +drawn over their faces, pistols in hand, bidding the driver halt. + +It was the most systematic proceeding in the world, reducing the bandits +to the level of petty tradesmen, and their victims to that of unwilling +contributors to a recognized if oppressive impost. Not one of the former +offered to spare the fair sex on condition its fairest representative +should tread with him the stately measure of a minuet; not one of the +latter invoked the memory of the former's spotless childhood hallowed by +a mother's caresses beneath an old oaken bucket or spreading chestnut +tree. Instead, Logan wound the reins about the whip as this stood in its +socket, and held up his hands, though without ceasing to chew the straw +in his mouth, while the passengers under invitation apparently no more +coercive than that of the average trolley car conductor to step lively +or move up, dismounted and stood with uplifted arms while methodically +relieved of purses, watches and the like. Terror tied the women's +tongues, while the men, knowing the futility of remonstrance, were +silent. Only Scarlett, while submitting with the rest, ventured on a +lively sally or so that called down on him a few curses or served to +provoke a laugh that later helped him in identifying the malefactors. +But not a word of importance was uttered on either side till the leader +of the gang, surveying the pile of loot, muttered, discontentedly: +"Well, this is a blamed mean crowd! Go over 'em again!" + +It was then Scarlett took a quick decision. Little as passivity suited +his fighting manhood; much as, in his own phrase, it pained him to +Evelyn's appealing glances to turn a deaf ear, he knew that to offer the +slightest resistance would be to forfeit his own life and leave the +womenkind to a fate one dared not think of calmly. Nevertheless, when at +the second overhauling he saw her jeweled belt and studs torn rudely +from her he could not forbear a movement of impatience that drew to +himself the serious attention of the robbers. + +"Say, young feller"--one pressed the cold muzzle of a pistol to his +forehead--"air you in an all-fired hurry ter see yer affairs wound up?" + +"Oh, as to that," he answered, "ye can wind up me affairs and welcome if +ye'll take the time. They're just the Waterbury watch inside me +pocket." + +The ruffian laughed, and told him he could keep his worthless timepiece +for his wit, but Evelyn shuddered with a disgust that gave her voice. +"The pitiful coward! When I took it for granted you would risk your life +for me!" + +"Faith, but I'm not dying to be corpse at me own wake," jeered Scarlett. +"For a lady I might risk my life, but not for the dust the reverend +gentleman is treading under foot, nor for the greenbacks sprouting from +yonder good woman's botanical headpiece!" + +Shrieks from the women, groans and reproaches from the men, denounced +this treachery, as the bonnet of the protesting Sarah yielded up its +riches and the minister in heartbroken silence suffered himself, +perforce, to be despoiled, while old Blenksoe, taken off his guard, in +his natural tones cried, approvingly, "Ah, thet's somethin' like!" + +As they hurriedly packed their loot, "Rustle, boys," in undertones, +warned the leader, "else we shall have that blasted M. P. of a Scarlett +on our backs!" His caution came none too soon. At Scarlett's +instigation, Barney had contrived to get word to Perdu, and just as the +robbers had cleared into the jungle with their booty an armed delegation +of citizens appeared upon the scene. As the victims were left penniless, +Dave Hastie, proprietor of the Grand Hotel, offered them gratuitous +hospitality for the approaching night, a kindness that was accepted only +too gladly. + +"But before we start," cried Evelyn, amid general acclamation, "I wish +to denounce a coward, a poltroon, a traitor! A contemptible being whose +betrayal of those who trusted him should not go unscathed. Creature," +she turned on her smiling courier, "have you no sense of shame?" + +"Sure, but I have," he answered. "Never a day passes that I don't blush +for human nature in the lump!" + +Evelyn sighed, and again addressed the delegation of Perdu's Law and +Order League, who, having missed the robbers, were fairly spoiling with +eagerness to kill the next best man. "He never so much as lifted a +finger to defend us," she explained. + +"Oh, but I did! All ten of them," he defended himself, in injured tones. + +"It's only what one might expect," Sarah harangued the throng, "taking +on a scallywag without character or references. Practically robbing miss +here of every penny of ready money she possesses, and damaging this +bunnet that I got at a reduction off of a lady friend as has set up a +swell millinery establishment in Sixth Avenue." + +"He delivered us to our enemies!" There were tears in Maclane's voice. +"He stripped the sick, the suffering; turned into channels of vice the +contributions for my hospital." + +All agreed that hanging was too good for the culprit, and some were in +favor of lynching. One consideration alone deterred them from extreme +measures, even while a rope was being hunted for among the skunk +willows, sage and wild lupin by the road: namely, the unpopularity of +such punitive proceedings with the Mounted Policeman newly appointed to +the district. + +"Times is sadly changed, boys," the leader reminded the delegation. "The +gentlemanly way with us has allus bin ter choke off a traitor's last +prayers with a hempen Amen. But this blamed M. P. is as apt ter pinch +the gentlemen as acts impulsive in a little lynchin' matter as quick as +he'd pinch a criminal. Thar's only two of 'em," he explained to the +travelers, "the Sergeant and his man--but the way the feller covers +distances--his horse has seven-leagued boots for sure! Now, as president +of Perdu's Peace Committee and Law and Order League, I'd claim it my +proud privilege ter fit the noose ter this young rascal's neck--but as +husband to a good woman and father to her kids I don't want ter run up +contrairy-wise agin Scarlett of the Mounted!" + +"Very well," decided Evelyn. "I myself am in favor of government. I +belong to several ladies' associations for upholding clean streets and +economy in the Mayor's office and things like that. From what you say, +this--I didn't catch the Mounted Policeman's name, but he obviously must +be an officer; and though with us, in New York, policemen, even mounted +ones, have no standing in Society, yet, in his way, he must be a +gentleman. Then let this miserable fellow be bound and taken before him +for sentence. I myself will press the charge against him." + +"Good business," applauded the delegation, heartily. + +But as they were about to bind the prisoner with a rope taken from the +skeleton of a wretched horse that some inferior brute of a human being +had put to purposes of transportation under conditions for which nature +had never intended it, the Irishman put them lightly aside. + +"One moment, please. Now that ye've wisely decided to postpone +suspending the judged, also, as a famous American in a crisis once +remarked, suspend judgment. All the accusations brought against me are +dead true, which is why ye are alive to make them. I assisted in the +despoiling of ye, on business principles, sacrificing small sums to one +ten times their combined amounts. For under my own right foot I carry a +sum that will not only replace Sarah's bonnet, greenbacks and all, but +also reimburse the hospital with a little contribution of my own to +boot." + +As he spoke, he drew a roll of ready money from its hiding place and +handed some bills over to the astonished maid and the no less astonished +minister. "The rest, a draft, I am commissioned to deposit in the bank +on account of one Durant, now absent on a prospecting trip, for the +maintenance, till he returns, of his daughter----" + +A loud chorus of surprise, admiration, gratitude interrupted the young +man who was now hero of the hour. + +The League enrolled him an honorary member on the spot. To his terror, +three depressed women with bundles wanted to kiss him for his mother, +while Maclane, on behalf of all the disabled people in the district, +nearly wrung his hand off. As breaking away he started to make his +escape, Evelyn detained him. "My preserver," she cried, in impassioned +tones, "let me reward you!" + +And when Scarlett, laughing, shook his head, refusing a moiety of his +own ready money that, at Evelyn's direction, Sarah was proffering him, +"Then at least tell me your name--for in the excitement I am ashamed to +say I have clean forgotten it." + +"Yes, yes," insisted the group, "your name!" + +"'Tis the same as it has always been," he answered, blithely, turning on +his heel. "I haven't changed it yet. Any time ye want me just ask at +headquarters for Himself, for Scarlett of the Mounted." + + + + +VI + +EVELYN SEEKS COUNSEL + + +A few days later Evelyn, accompanied by Sarah, knocked at the door of +St. Andrew's Mission, near Perdu. An Indian woman opened to her, and on +her asking for Mr. Maclane, the minister came forward with a cordial +welcome. + +"I won't invite you in, since just at present my study is in requisition +as a hospital, and in any case you will doubtless prefer the veranda +with its vista of the mountains." + +"And your lovely garden," added Evelyn, glancing at the beds in which +vegetables and ornamental plants were growing in orderly profusion. "I +never supposed that cultivation was possible so far north." + +"That is a common mistake," replied the minister. "But it is the same +with plants as with people: wherever it is possible for them to grow it +is intended that they should be cultivated; by which I do not mean that +we should take the nature out of them, teaching them tricks and +artificial ways; I mean that we should improve the conditions +surrounding them, in order that their natural tendencies and activities +may have the widest scope for beneficent purposes." + +"And yet"--Evelyn looked up and down the road--"you seem to be almost +the only one who recognizes these possibilities. All the cabins seem to +have been dropped in uncompromising rows along the highways, as if they +were so many children's toys taken out of cardboard boxes labeled 'Made +in Germany'." + +"Ah, most of the folk who come here are so busily engrossed in spading +up the soil for treasure they have no time to till and sow. Yet our +short summer of long days is capable of harvests that would yield pure +gold in a land of canned supplies, where men get to long for green food +as for water in the desert. Metz, the pioneer baker of Perdu, a +far-sighted German, is raking in the gold-dust that other men +laboriously pan out, by the sackful, simply by adding a fresh lettuce +leaf, or radish, to every plate of fried eggs and bacon that he serves. +Brackett of Atlin is famous for the beauty of his poppy patch that +blazes like a banner on a dusty mountainside, no less than for the +succulence of the turnips with which he regales his friends, all grown +on a tiny corner of an auriferous claim that overhangs the sluiceboxes. +Dr. Milne of Dawson received a prize for the tomatoes and celery he took +down from his far-north home to the exposition in Victoria, on the +occasion of the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales. Indeed, there +was a story going the rounds that on the third day of the exposition, +when the good doctor wanted to substitute fresh produce for his own, +which, by that time had wilted, he could find none in Victoria to match +their size. And I myself am not a little proud of my own sweet-peas." +He handed Evelyn the fragrant blossoms he had been cutting as he talked. + +"Thank you. They are indeed lovely. But I must not detain you too long. +I have come to you for that which I rarely seek--advice." + +"I am wholly at your service." Maclane installed her in a steamer-chair +and placed himself on a bench beside her. "Some ethical question?" + +"Oh, dear, no! I am an Episcopalian," answered Evelyn, loftily. "Not but +what I am very liberal," she hastened to add. "I subscribe to worthy +charities of all denominations." + +There was charity without resentment on Maclane's good brow as he merely +said: "Then in what way can I help you?" + +"My troubles are all of a practical nature." + +"In that respect, perhaps, I am not the best adviser." + +"But there's no one else in whom I can confide. People up here treat me +in the strangest way. I never had such an experience." + +"Well, well, I'll do my best." + +"In the first place I don't know how to manage about money. Sergeant +Scarlett has deposited several hundred dollars to my account in the +Canadian Bank of Commerce, and as much more in the Bank of British North +America, yet this morning, when I went to draw some, the managers of +each informed me, apparently on their own responsibility, that I am put +on a weekly allowance; that I may only draw so much, at stated times, +and not a penny more. When I threatened to withdraw my patronage, they +said that would be impossible till the account was closed. I went to +three lawyers in succession to get out injunctions and things against +them--but not a man would undertake the case. Oh, evidently all the +officials are leagued in some sort of a ring or another, for when I +went to the office of the _Perdu Claim_ and asked the editor to help me +expose them, he only laughed. In New York, one or the other of the +ten-cent magazines would have jumped at such an opportunity. However, +that wouldn't matter so much if I could buy things from the stores on +credit, but I find not a merchant will allow me to run up a bill. 'Cash +down; spot cash for everything.' I never was so insulted in all my +life." + +"I am sorry people have seemed inhospitable," began Maclane, "but----" + +"Oh, when it comes to that," Evelyn interrupted, "every one has been +hospitality itself. Even the bank people, while officially they were +insulting me, in the name of their wives and sisters offered to put up +my party in some sort of fashion till we get settled. Hastie refuses to +charge one penny for accommodating us till we find permanent quarters, +though he had the impertinence--I'm sure he didn't mean to be +impertinent--to suggest that we could stay indefinitely if we liked to +work our way as chambermaids and waitresses and dishwashers and things. +Even that impudent editor offered to turn out of the wretched cupboard +of a room at the back of his office where he lives, and sleep on a +printing press if we liked to go stay there. At least a dozen families +have invited us to bunk in their stuffy little cabins till my father's +return. But that isn't my way of doing things at all. I'm accustomed to +having the best and paying for it. Yet not a soul will accept my note or +give me one pennyworth of credit. Just wait till my father hears how I +am being treated!" + +"Ah, your father!" Maclane caught at the idea. "A talk with your father +would clear things up immediately." + +"Yes, of course. But where is my father? how to get at him? I ask, ask, +ask. Everyone has seen him quite recently. Every one assures me he is in +his usual perfect health. Yet when I insist on knowing definitely which +path he took, every one points vaguely north, south, east, west, toward +the mountains." + +"Then, for the present, why not accept that view of it?" the minister +suggested. "It seems to be a matter of general knowledge that he is +well, and off on a prospecting tour--and to a born prospector, such as +is your father, there seem to be no limitations in the way of time, +space, endurance, when searching for treasure. Only one thing can be +predicated with certainty: sooner or later a man must turn up at some +base of supplies to renew his outfit. And then, knowing your anxiety, +the whole district will see to it that he and you are put into +communication with each other." + +Miss Durant moved her daintily shod feet impatiently. "I'm not +accustomed to waiting for anything that money can procure me. Why can't +I send messengers flying to recall him, in every direction where there +is a trail? One would think that hordes of these out-at-elbow camp +hangers-on would be on their knees to me, begging for the chance--yet, +though I have notices posted up everywhere offering a liberal salary and +a thousand dollar bonus, I have had not one single application, not +though I offer for security the Rainbow Mine." + +"Poor child!" Maclane looked at her compassionately, wondering in what +way the bitter truth might be most gently broken to her, and examining +his own honest conscience to know if his should be the task. Before this +was clear to him, however, to his infinite relief he saw the handsome +person of the Sergeant, now clad in full uniform, coming up the garden +path. "Why not take our friend Scarlett into our counsels?" he hastened +to suggest. + +"What! That insolent young man who pretended to take service with me!" +Miss Durant ignored the soldier's military salute. + +"My dear," remonstrated the good Maclane, "our friend is greeting you." + +"Ah, Sergeant," cried Evelyn, with hauteur, "I did not see you! That is +to say, in my world a lady does not see a gentleman until she recognizes +him." + +"Faith, then, I'd best make myself invisible, lest when recognized I +mayn't be seen." Scarlett turned to go. + +"Oh, please remain," pleaded Maclane, "and help me advise with Miss +Durant. Pending her father's arrival, she finds herself, er--financially +embarrassed--or rather at a loss to proportion her finances to her wants +in the style to which she is accustomed. Now what do you suggest?" + +"The first word lies with you, Dominie." His back toward the two, +Scarlett had seated himself on the veranda steps and was playing with +Telegraph and Wrangel, who, after a series of critical sniffings, had +taken him unreservedly into their favor. + +"Oh, not with me; not with any son of man," hastily disclaimed Maclane, +who quite forgot that he had tried to throw the responsibility on +Scarlett. "First always comes prayer. Take your troubles, my daughter, +to the Divine Footstool." + +"Oh, of course," replied Evelyn, petulantly, "I always say my prayers, +and make the responses in church. But just now I'm asking you how I am +to pay for daily bread." + +"Well," Scarlett considered, "I should advise--to begin with--well----" + +"You've said well twice," Evelyn sharply pulled him up. "Best let well +alone." + +"Pardon," retorted Scarlett. "Truth lies at the bottom of my well." + +In spite of herself Evelyn smiled, and perceiving his advantage he went +on: "After all, well is the best beginning when you can't find a better. +Why not for the present--just for a lark, you know--try roughing it?" + +"Roughing it!" echoed Evelyn, in dismay. "Wouldn't that be a bit rough?" + +"That's where the lark comes in," Scarlett assured her. "And we'd all +make it as smooth as we know how." + +"A capital idea!" Maclane slapped his knee and looked toward the +sweet-pea vines as if calling on them to agree with him. +"So--er--original. Think what letters you can write to your friends at +home, Miss Durant. And then that is the only way to get the +full--er--bouquet of a country, so to speak; not from the tourist +standpoint, but by living the life of the people of any class who, by +their work, are making it." + +Miss Durant frowned, pondered a little, then smiled. "I rather like the +notion. We came here largely to do good, and it will make the +inhabitants feel more at ease; bridge over the social difference, as it +were, if I adopt their mode of life. I really am very democratic." + +"Then that's where ye'll feel out of place," Scarlett remarked. +"Wherever the surface is flat as a billiard table, as regards +conditions, all class distinctions being wiped out, it's there that +aristocracy begins. The democrats insist on it!" + +"Perhaps I can accommodate myself even to your idea of aristocracy," +Evelyn remarked, ironically. "The first question is, can we find a +suitable dwelling?" + +"I've been investigating," answered Scarlett, "and I find at Lost Shoe +Creek there is an abandoned cabin ye can have rent free; a really very +decent affair 'twill be with a little patching, which the boys will be +only too proud to lend a hand with." + +Evelyn gasped. "And you call that suitable for _me_!" + +Scarlett shrugged his shoulders. "This is the wilderness, my lady." + +"My dear," interposed Maclane, "you must remember that building is a +costly matter. Even unskilled labor, when you can obtain it, commands +five dollars a day. Talk of democracy; no man here is looking for a +day's wage at carpentering, when any turn of the pick and shovel may +make him a Croesus! Make up your mind to it that the Sergeant is +offering you the equivalent of New York's most costly hostelry." + +"Oh, very well!" Miss Durant condescended to the cabin. "I suppose we +can have tents for the servants? I shall need two women besides Sarah." + +"Pardon, miss." At her name, the maid's stout form appeared from behind +the angle of the veranda, where she had been conducting a discreet +flirtation with the waterman, who with a bucket supported by a frame on +wheels and drawn by eight frisky little huskies, supplied Perdu with +water from the lake at five cents the pail. "Do not count on me, miss. +When my month is up I am looking to settle down on my own account." + +"You are going to desert me? You are planning to set up in business, +Sarah?" asked Evelyn, dismayed. + +"Business!" Sarah laughed, scornfully. "With men growing on the bushes, +as one might say." + +"You don't mean to say you are going to get married?" + +"Why not me as well as the next lady, miss, and sooner than some, in a +place where ladies is valued far more for their practical abilities than +for mere youth and skin-deep beauty. I am told that two French-Canadian +gentlemen, who are starting rival laundries, came to blows about me in +the Pioneer Bakery last night; this gentleman with the waterworks +concession has just passed some extremely gratifying remarks about +me--though my own preference is for a Scotch gentleman with religious +views and a copper proposition. Dear knows one needs something stable to +tie up to in this outlandish place, where day and night get all mixed +up!" + +"But, Sarah," Evelyn laughed, "you know you haven't changed your watch +hands since we left the Grand Central Station." + +"Time is time, miss," stated Sarah, "and twisting the hands of a watch +don't affect it. I've always heard that mining camps was immoral places, +and I'll answer for it this monkeying-with-the-clock business was +invented by some scapegrace that wanted to deceive his poor wife about +the hour he got home at night. But my choice, whichever I decide on, +won't take me in that way!" She shook her umbrella with a mixture of +coquetry and warning in the direction of the waterman. + +Again Evelyn laughed, rather helplessly. "And I have been so indulgent +with you, allowing you to gratify your crude taste for colors, where any +other mistress would have insisted on black, serge or alpaca, with at +most for your bonnet a quill or wing. However, I mustn't stand in your +light, Sarah." + +"You can't, miss," the maid informed her, respectfully, but with +finality. "As for deserting you, as a married lady I shall only be too +happy to chaperon you till your father gets back or till you settle down +on your own account. And to start with, though my month isn't up, let me +give you a bit of advice as from one lady to another. Policemen," she +eyed Scarlett with disparagement, "are all very well in their way, but +as from my own experience I know they are apt to be triflers, +particularly on promotion. Measured by a New York figure of speech among +us below-stairs ladies, miss, I myself wouldn't think of permitting an +arm with fewer than three stripes on it round my waist." + +On this Scarlett assured Sarah, to her great indignation, that she, at +any rate, would be safe from his advances, his arm not being long +enough to meet her figure-of-speech's measurements. When she had +returned to the waterman, Evelyn, recovering from the indignant +embarrassment into which Sarah's advice had thrown her, sighed: "Such an +admirable maid! However will my hair get dressed?" + +"Do it yourself," suggested Scarlett. "I always do mine." A girl in a +red cloak just then happening to pass by he beckoned her. "I think after +all I can find some one to do your work. Come here, Gelly. Miss Durant +wants to talk with you." + +Evelyn surveyed the girl's unkempt, though now sober comeliness +dubiously. "She doesn't look very---- However, is she willing, clean and +honest?" + +"No, I ain't," snapped out Gelly, irritated by the inspection. "Not one +of 'em. I'm as bad as they make 'em!" + +"Do you mean to tell me----" Evelyn's voice dropped to a shocked +whisper. "Sergeant, have you dared recommend me a young person who is +not--not virtuous?" + +"But she has so many other virtues," pleaded Scarlett for his protégée, +"I thought ye might give her a chance." He appealed to Sarah, who had +drawn near. "Perhaps ye'll let me explain to you as being the older +woman." + +Sarah pursed her lips primly. "There's some things I'll never be old +enough to hear." + +"I beg your pardon, heartily," Scarlett was heard quietly to say. + +"I am by no means sure that I shall grant it," replied Miss Durant, with +a haughty toss of the head. + +"Oh, I was addressing Gelly here," he hastened to set her straight. "I +had no right to let her be present at her own dissection." + +"Wait!" Evelyn had an inspiration. "I spend a week every Lent in a +Settlement, and we came up here to do good, so why not----" + +"Now, look here!" Confronting her, arms akimbo, Gelly let loose the +coarsely expressed, though not wholly unjustifiable, anger that in +deference to Maclane and Scarlett she had been trying to restrain. "You +better just dry up on that good-doin' proposition, else it ull be the +worse fer yer round these diggin's! I know yer kind. I was in a Home +oncet, and they came and sang to us, sometimes in fine duds ter show +thet they regarded us like as their equals, which is lies! And sometimes +dressed, oh my! so goody-goody plain, ter show thet rich folk don't +reely care fer silk and sealskin--which is lies! And then they sent me +to a convent, and the Sisters, they meant all right, but they cheated +the doctor about the medicines they put in his prescriptions to save +money fer the Church, and kidded to the saints about their souls. Souls! +Shucks! Thar was a missioner oncet who thought she'd got a holt of me +all right, all right. She were a-prospectin' ter launder my soul and +show it tied up with baby-blue ribbons and sashayed with sanctity as a +prize sample to the Lord. Want ter know what I done ter her? Not a +thing, you betcherlife! Only smashed her face with a sody-water bottle! +Soft drinks, cos thet kind puts most heft in the bottle and least ter +the booze. See? Now you better get busy and earn your own salt, virtuous +ef you're so plumb struck on virtue, and ef not, anyway----" + +A firm hand on her shoulder cut her short, as, wheeling her +right-about-face, Scarlett sternly bade her, "Come!" And, like a little +cowering dog about to be whipped for a victory in which, while half +ashamed of it, it wholly glories, Gelly meekly followed him. + +The color which the girl's attack had driven from Evelyn's face came +flooding back as she turned reproachfully upon Maclane: "And you never +said a word to stop her!" + +"Ah," replied the minister, "I have learned that I always gain so much +from listening to the other fellow's point of view." + +"But surely"--for Miss Durant was not a little proud of her capacity for +"emanating gracious influences," as the dilettanti of her kind were apt +to phrase it--"surely you believe in missionary work; in doing good?" + +Before replying, Maclane stooped forward and drew back a spray of vine +that was spreading itself obtrusively over a little pink-faced daisy +making a sturdy effort to look up to the god of light. "The best we can +do is to try to give created things their chance. And in the end, my +dear," he patted Evelyn's hand kindly, "it's the missionaries, the +good-doers, to whom the good is done." + +"Gelly," Scarlett meanwhile was admonishing his stubborn charge, "in all +this lowdown district there isn't a man so mean he could be hired to +tell that poor girl yonder the truth about her father till we've made +her feel at home among us and somehow fitted her to bear it. Now, Gelly, +are you, a girl that has known trouble, going to be meaner than the +men?" + +Gelly looked at him. "Better hev yer uniform let out fer the wings ter +sprout," she advised him, with unfeigned homage, if with mocking +tongue. "As fer thet thar stuck-up piece----" A rude grimace completed +her estimate of Evelyn, but in the midst of it she paused suddenly, her +ill-bred thumb dropping from her saucy nose. "I'm jiggered ef I don't +b'lieve yer gone on her!" + +"That's neither here nor there," answered the young soldier. "I'll lock +up your tongue in jail if it disturbs the peace, but I'd so much sooner +put you on your honor, Gelly." + +"Till next time," promised Gelly, "yer kin let it go at that!" Then, as +she went down the road, she burst into loud sobbing: "And I cud be +decent ef some decent woman ud believe in me!" + +Maclane, who had been considering, had a new idea. "I wonder if Chilkat +Jo couldn't be persuaded to help you, Miss Durant; that is, if you feel +you must have service." + +"Of course I must," said Evelyn. "The orphans have been brought up to +work, and make themselves useful, but they are my guests, my partners in +this expedition; and naturally I cannot expect them to do things that I +should not do myself." + +"Naturally," Maclane agreed with her, more readily than she deemed +politeness required. Going to the door he opened it, and called to some +one within. "O Joseph! Chilkat Jo!" + +The trader, who had been enjoying the hospitality of the mission, came +forth with alacrity. Seeing Maclane, "Godam you! what do you want?" he +asked, in tones at once amiable and fraught with high respect. + +"Oh, Joseph, what expressions!" The minister shook his head. "You see," +he explained to Evelyn, "like all the Indians, he learned bad habits +from the white traders before the missionaries came his way. I sometimes +wonder, if any Indians survive civilization, whether morally they will +recover from contact with the whites. But, come, Joseph, our friends +here are looking for a handy man to----" + +"Mally them, eh?" inquired the Indian, nimbly. After a quick glance at +Evelyn he shook his head disparagingly. "Damn pletty gal, but not good +business ploposition!" He then turned a considering attention upon +Sarah, and nodded his head approvingly. "She all light. Fat squaw! +Skukum squaw. Not lightfoot gadabout! Damfine cook, eh?" he inquired of +the maid. "Squat by fire, fly venison, leady chiefs leturn flom hunting? +Shake!" He held out a covenanting hand. + +"What, me become the bride of a heathen!" shrieked Sarah, horrified. + +"Me no heathen," indignantly protested Chilkat Jo. "Me swear, gamble, +dlink like hell, plenty wives, laise Cain, all same as white man." + +"Joseph, my son, I will revise your code later," Maclane told him. +"Meanwhile, this is not a marriage proposition. Are you willing to help +Miss Durant here with her household chores--as a favor, you know," he +hastened to add. + +"Not as a favor at all," broke in Evelyn, in a high, hard voice. "I wish +to engage a man-servant, at good wages; one who knows his place and can +take orders, and----" + +Her voice died before the Indian's fixed regard. "No squaw say to me, +Mush! Get up, there! like dog. Mush! Lie down like dog. Me damn high +muckamuck Skukum chief!" Wrapping more closely about him the blanket +that, with a boiled shirt and store trousers, formed his costume, he +re-entered the mission with the unsurpassable dignity of his race. + +Evelyn rose without a glance in the direction of Scarlett, who had +rejoined them. "Come, Sarah. Thank you very much for all your good +offices, Mr. Maclane. I anticipate the suggestion you and the Sergeant +are obviously about to make: that I cook, wash, scrub, sew for myself." + +"Considering the conditions of camp life, my dear, it might be wise," +acquiesced the minister, as he shook hands. + +"Just for a lark, ye know," murmured Scarlett, pacifically, saluting. +But though her pretty lip trembled, Evelyn held her head high and passed +him without a sign. + + + + +VII + +PEACE, PERFECT PEACE + + +Feeling that on her father's return she could requite the obligation a +thousandfold, Evelyn consented to remain with her party as guests of +Perdu's Grand Hotel while the shack at Lost Shoe Creek was being made +ready for their tenancy. + +Perdu, lying on a large lake of the same name, is port of entry, and +base of supplies, to the goldfields beyond. Being at that time in the +third year of its existence it had a highly developed social and +commercial life. For in its initial season a camp is likely to be a +bedlam of frenzied maniacs shrieking, Gold, gold, gold! The second +season witnesses a slump proportioned to the inflated values of its +predecessor. But if it weathers to a third, then some sort of poise is +attained, as steady industries develop and existence seeks a normal +plane. The fancy-women who flock wherever the nuggets are thickest, now +segregate themselves in a secluded quarter of the township; married men +send for their families, while the unblessed bachelor whistles "The Girl +I Left Behind Me," or pays attention to the schoolteacher. On all sides +one sees the effort, sometimes pitiful, always human and worthy, from +the harsh matrix of the wilderness to wrest a home. And then follow the +petty complexities of a miscalled civilization. To Evelyn's surprise, +after the first warm tender of hospitality, she encountered the same +restricted social conditions in Perdu that obtain in villages on the +"outside," as the world beyond the mountains in northern latitudes is +termed. Women left cards on her; heads of rival cliques warned her one +against the other; the wife of the principal grocer planned a tea in her +honor. + +On a brilliant summer morning, without cloud or shadow, mountains and +valleys alike lying exposed to a broadside of sun that had been warming +to its work since four hours after midnight, Evelyn set out to return +the visit of the town surveyor's wife. A short cut through the clustered +willow bushes brought her to the back door of their cabin, where she +came upon the hostess at her washtubs, while from the doorstep the town +surveyor was cleaning his teeth publicly. Wholly unembarrassed, the +good people greeted their visitor with cordiality, and conducted her +into the living-room, where babies, cot beds and cooking commingled with +such observances of decency and taste as a woman of refinement, no +matter how overworked, seems somehow generally able to contrive. In +point of cultivation, so Evelyn soon discovered, her new acquaintances +were fully her equal. Delighted as they professed themselves to be that +her stay would be of long duration, yet to the plans she outlined for +her projected improvement of the district they showed an almost marked +indifference. When she dropped hints about the free library she intended +to establish, Mr. Grayson began quite inappositely to brag of having +made more money the previous winter by lumbering than in the way of his +profession, owing to the fact that "up here, thank God! no one, man or +woman, loses caste by honest labor of any sort." When she alluded to the +art furniture she thought of importing for her domicile, Mrs. Grayson +cautioned her to be very careful of her lamp chimneys, the commonest +kind costing fifty cents at local stores, because, so the storekeepers +said, of the exorbitant freight rates that prevailed. Also she advised +Evelyn to start right in and do her own washing, as the local laundries +charged something over four dollars for a dozen simple pieces. When Miss +Durant mentioned the theatre she was arranging to have built, the opera +troupe with which she already was negotiating for a series of +performances to beguile the long Klondike winter, the Graysons merely +said, almost with sarcasm, "How nice!" adding that the camp contrived to +get up some fair entertainments of its own in the hall over the +truckman's stable. Coming to the conclusion that they were jealous lest +her advent should undermine the social prestige which, so Hastie had +informed her, they enjoyed, Evelyn rose to take her leave and, kindly +wishful to put them at their ease, admired the babies, the bearskin +rugs, the horns of mountain sheep and goat upon the wall, the view, the +two geraniums in pots upon the window-sill; accepted an invitation to a +wild-strawberry picnic, offered to teach them bridge, and departed in a +glow of self-gratulation at her tact in dealing with the envious and +small-minded. + +On the hotel piazza she found the minister waiting for her, and with him +Scarlett. To the latter she had not spoken since the day of their +difference, for such she chose to consider it, in regard to Gelly. True, +more than once she had caught sight of him galloping down the road or +striding by on some official errand, but never had she lifted a finger +to delay him, nor he appeared conscious of her presence. + +[Illustration: DEPARTED IN A GLOW OF SELF CONGRATULATION AT HER TACT.] + +Ignoring his greeting, in high good humor with herself and all the +world, Evelyn opened fire. "Mr. Maclane, I wish you would tell that +young man he owes me an apology." + +Scarlett suppressed a gratified smile. "Mr. Maclane, will ye convey to +the speaker that she'll have to prove the debt for me to pay it?" + +"Tell him the last time we met he put me in the wrong," said Evelyn, +prettily, the glow of her goodness toward the envious Graysons still +upon her. "He behaved as though he thought me narrow, contemptible--and +the worst is, the shoe pinches, because in a tiny degree I fear it may +have been true." + +She waited with a charming air of penitence for contradiction, but, to +her astonishment, none came. + +Instead, "I'm a brute, just," Scarlett remorsefully described himself. +"Who am I to hold ye up the looking-glass? I'll never be so rude again." + +"Oh"--Miss Durant stiffened perceptibly--"I do not usually find the +reflection unbearable to contemplate." + +"I've lived so long in the open, in primitive conditions," Scarlett, +unmindful of her interruption, went on, "I always blurt out whatever +pops into my mind. Well, there's precedent. In Eden, Adam must have +called a spade a spade." + +"Ah, my young friend, but there's no record of his having called Eve a +spade," observed Maclane, with a twinkle in his eye. + +"Faith, I'll drop the spade, then," laughed the Irishman, "if she'll let +me call her Eve!" + +"Tell him," laughed Miss Durant, with heightened color, "that he goes +too far." + +"Tell her I'd go farther--to any lengths, for her, so long as it didn't +take me from her side." + +"Tell him he's kissed the blarney-stone." + +"Tell her I only practiced on it to keep my hand in till she should +come." + +"How dare you!" cried Evelyn, feeling that she ought to be very angry. + +"Come, come, my children, peace," prescribed Maclane. "Miss Durant, I am +here as a petitioner. One of my dear Indians, in fact the sister-in-law +of Chilkat Jo, has a baby----" + +"Velly damfine Clistian baby!" interpolated the trader, who was sitting +on the step near by, whittling out a toy canoe. + +"Oh, Joseph!" the minister protested, "when will you learn that a damn +baby cannot be a Christian baby--nor a Christian baby a damn baby. We +are to baptize the little one this morning," he told Evelyn. "And I am +asked to beg you to stand godmother." + +"For a heathen unregenerate, miss!" Sarah put her head out of the window +just behind the group. "Don't you mix yourself up with that truck!" + +"I'm a bit of a heathen nowadays myself." Maclane stopped Chilkat Jo's +angry outburst. "My dear Indians have converted me." + +"I wonder you aren't afraid of being tried for heresy, sir," commented +Sarah, "talking that loose way." + +"Perhaps I should be," agreed Maclane, "in the cities across yon +mountains. But here they hold us in a charmed circle, and who can escape +their spell?" He pointed to the lake, brilliantly ablaze, like a vessel +holding wondrous depths of color, in which the snow-capped peaks with +their V-shaped crevasses lay mirrored like cameos in turquoise relief. +"My Indians--in my civilized days I used to preach hell-fire to them, +till they scorned me for it, crying, 'Our children when they die become +birds of song. Why, then, should we give them to you Christians to be +burned?' Then, again, though I knew him to be a saint, dedicated in +Christ's name to the service of his fellow-men, I used to avoid my +brother, the Catholic priest, because his doctrines on the surface +differed from my own! Again, my Indians taught me, scoffing, 'If +Christianity makes enemies of her ministers, why, we want none of it.' +Yes, all that I have given the heathen have they requited me a +hundredfold, making me a Christian through the Christ I try to show to +them!" + +"I will do what you ask me only too gladly, Mr. Maclane!" cried Evelyn, +understanding that this was the good minister's way of making peace +between herself and Chilkat Jo. "I shall be proud of my godchild; and I +promise it the finest cup from Tiffany's----" + +"No, no! No presents, please," enjoined Maclane. "Only kindness, +neighborliness, and an appreciation of the heathen virtues. The Sergeant +here has consented to be godfather." + +"The Sergeant!" involuntarily exclaimed Evelyn. + +"Aye! In the short time he has been in charge, he has completely won the +hearts of the tribe of Raven and Frog. No baptism complete without +him." + +"Oh, as a sponsor, I'm painting the town red," admitted the Irishman. +"And the Claim has a regular column of feeble-minded puns upon the +epidemic. Well, I only hope the Scarlett creepers won't turn to Scarlett +runners, in time of battle." + +"I will tell Lallah that you consent. Be ready, both, please, when you +hear the chapel bell," directed the minister, going to the mission. + +Scarlett lingered, but as Evelyn took no notice of him, "Thankee for the +pressing invitation," he remarked, drawing up a chair and seating +himself beside her. "And are ye beginning to feel acclimated among us +savages?" + +"Oh, you are doing your best!" Evelyn assured him. "Though I must say, +even for the wilderness, the ideas of social distinction seem curiously +lax. Why, as his head waiter is off on a spree, Mr. Hastie has offered +me the place--three hundred dollars a month and tips!" + +"Good pay," commented Scarlett. "Why don't ye take it? I'd ask no better +for my own sister, if I had one." + +Evelyn tossed her head. "To pass dishes to unwashed barbarians in +corduroys who gobble off their knives and drink from their saucers. +Even for your own sister," she could not forbear asking, "wouldn't you +consider the situation rather primitive?" + +"I should, and that's the situation's saving grace," he promptly +replied, "since primitive man is woman's best friend, once she makes him +realize she will not let him be her enemy." + +Against her will, Evelyn looked at the speaker with reluctant +admiration, forced to recognize that however ignorant of class +distinctions the poor young man might be, his was certainly no ordinary +mentality. Accordingly, woman-like, she harked back to personalities, +hoping in shallow waters to take him, through his very superiority, at a +disadvantage. "Oh, we have nothing to complain of on the score of +friendliness," she laughed. "Our matrimonial opportunities seem limited +only by the number of single men within proposing radius. No, Sergeant, +I am not the belle. That proud position is disputed by Sarah and the +plainest orphan, who also is the most muscular, because they frankly +tell us, in a land where hired labor is not to be had a man must marry +to get some one to cook and wash for him. However, such few score of +proposals as have come my way, I honestly can brag, are for myself, +since I am not considered a specially useful 'household proposition,' +and oddly enough my great wealth seems not to impress these +poverty-stricken millionaires in the least degree." + +"Oh, I tell ye, in a mining camp one gets down to first principles, or +lack of them," commented the soldier. "It's chaos, till man and woman +together evolve a paradise." + +Evelyn waited, hoping he also would propose to her in order that she +might refuse him, not kindly, with the consideration she had shown the +other poor victims who had laid their hearts at her feet, but with +scathing denunciation of his insolence. Instead of improving his +opportunity, however, the soldier rose. "Ye'll bid me to the wedding, +Miss Durant?" + +"In what capacity--officially, or as a guest?" + +"Not as a mourner, that I swear." + +"I may decide to elope." + +"Impossible! In my bally those that want a marriage license have to come +to me." + +"I've always had a leaning toward the nobility," remarked Evelyn, rather +maliciously. "Are there no men of title in the camp?" + +"A handful or so of younger sons," Scarlett informed her, "and a +pathetic lot in the main they are. 'Remittance Men,' we call them, +because they are on allowance to stay away from home, avowedly that in a +new country they may turn over a new leaf, but in reality that their +families may be spared the shame of witnessing their final +disintegration. Be good to such when ye come across them, Miss Durant, +for the sake of what they ought to be, but don't marry them, for the +whole lot of them together wouldn't make one decent man." + +Evelyn laughed, but her face crimsoned. "Dear, dear! And suppose, after +all, you disapprove my choice?" + +"Faith, I'll exercise my official prerogative and take ye in charge +myself! Meanwhile, I must turn my attention toward yonder suspect." He +indicated a person with the deportment of a personage, who, dressed in +the height of fashion, was strolling, tourist-wise, kodak in hand, down +the village street. + +"Why, who can that be?" Evelyn leaned forward with interest. + +"That's my own question. He travels under the name of the Count St. +Hilaire." + +"There's something very familiar about his appearance. I wonder if I +mayn't have met him at Newport, or Washington. If so, bring him here +that I may renew the acquaintance, Sergeant, please." + +"I'll search his title first." Scarlett ran down the veranda steps. "Now +look out for trouble," he muttered to himself, seeing the stranger pause +opposite a cottage in the Indian quarter, and level his camera at the +totem-pole in front of it. + +A crowd of angry Indians who had been squatting on mats in the sunshine, +making moccasins and weaving baskets, instantly rose and swarmed about +him, vehemently protesting in Chinook against this insult to their +sacred emblems, Chilkat Jo acting as interpreter. + +"Shame, shame, cursed shame to photoglaph the Laven and the Flog!" he +cried, alluding to the totem's tribal device. "Velly godam Clistian +shame!" + +"Hold on!" cried Scarlett, impartially, interposing his tall form +between the evidently frightened foreigner and the avenging group. + +"Mais--ze Klondike barber-pole--I no steal him; je vous jure, gendarme! +I make ze photographie!" + +"Yes, but unless you pay them for it to show your good will, the Indians +think you are marking them for death," the Sergeant instructed him. +"All right, honest Injun," he in turn assured the crowd. "Only +sun-picture. Big man pay you big money." + +"Why," exclaimed Evelyn's astonished voice at Scarlett's elbow, "it is +my courier, Alphonse--he has let his beard grow! That is the kodak he +stole from me!" + +"Sacré papier, ze mademoiselle!" shrieked the man, recognizing her; and +off he set as fast as his trembling limbs could carry him, Scarlett, +reinforced by the children of the Raven and the Frog, in hot pursuit. + +"It's only what you might have expected, miss," remarked Sarah, +consolingly, as in mortified silence Evelyn returned to the veranda. +"The French is a deceitful nation. They always have to talk in a foreign +language so you can't understand 'em." + +"It's all right!" Flushed and breathless, Scarlett came up. "He ran +plump into Barney's arms. Here's your camera, Miss Durant. Later I'll +get you to appear against the Count--just a formality, you know." + +"I shall do nothing of the sort!" declared Evelyn loftily. "Instead, you +can fine me any amount you please for contempt of court. You doubtless +will enjoy doing it! As for the kodak, you can give it back to Alphonse. +I shall never touch it again!" + +"Miss, you are ungrateful," Sarah reproved her, "and the young man +wounded in the fracas!" + +"Wounded!" cried Evelyn, in dismay. + +"Oh," disclaimed Scarlett, who was shaking his fingers as if to cast a +pain from them, "it's nothing. Only in protecting the Count's beauty +from an irate populace I gave my wrist a twist." + +"Oh, a sprained wrist is nothing to boast of," derided Miss Durant. + +"That's why I wasn't boasting of it." Scarlett turned to go. + +"Nevertheless"--Evelyn put a detaining hand lightly on his arm--"I took +a course in First Aid to the Injured to fit myself for this life, and I +know that a sprain ought to be treated with something, for fear +something or other should set in. Sarah," she asked in a whisper, "what +treatment does one give a sprain?" + +"Fermentation," prompted the maid, sagaciously. + +"That's it: fomentation! Please, Sarah, go fetch me--whatever one needs +for fomentation." + +"Believe me, it is not necessary." Scarlett gave his hand another shake. +"It soon will be all right." + +"Sit here!" Evelyn motioned him, peremptorily, to a chair beside her. +"No, on this side. A soldier's first duty should be to obey." + +"Ah, well, my arms are ever at your service, even in times of peace." +Scarlet leaned back, luxuriously, as she rolled up his sleeve. + +"Of course, you understand I should do this for anybody," observed +Evelyn, sponging his wrist with the warm water Sarah had provided. + +"Of course, ye understand I should fight in defence of anybody's +property," he matched her. "'Tis for that I draw my pay." + +"Is it tender?" inquired Evelyn, pillowing his hand upon her lap and +dabbing it softly with a towel. + +"Tender's not half the word for it." The patient turned his face aside. +"It's the limit of tenderness, and has to be treated on the homeopathic +principle." + +"Miss, he makes light of it!" cried Sarah, who, under a harsh exterior, +was, by nature, kind. "But his poor brow is simply wrung with anguish." +She mopped the beads of perspiration that stifled mirth had brought upon +the Sergeant's comely forehead. + +"Let us talk of other things to distract him," ordained Evelyn. "Come, +Sergeant, tell us all about yourself. Begin at the very beginning." + +"Faith, like most babies," he complied, "I began by being the child of +my parents." + +"Poor but honest folk, no doubt. Go on!" + +"They died before my remembrance of them. I infer the honesty and +inherit the poverty. I was brought up by an aunt and uncle, who didn't +want me. One time when I came home from school for the holidays my aunt +just looked up from her novel and remarked, 'Oh, Jerry, how dirty you +are!' So I ran away to make my fortune." + +"Which consists of something over a dollar a day and your keep." + +"And the prospect of a pension for my widow." + +"Your widow!" Evelyn dropped the hand she was engaged in bandaging. "I +didn't know----" + +"Oh, I haven't got one yet," Scarlett hastened to assure her. "But I +shall, please God, if I live long enough." + +"Sergeant, you are talking nonsense," said Evelyn. "Pain has made you +flighty." + +"'Way up in the seventh heaven," assented Scarlett. "Don't be so cruel +as to call me down." + +"There!" Having stuck a final pin in the handkerchief she had bound +about the wrist, Evelyn folded the soldier's arm across his breast. +"Sarah, go fetch me another sash, will you? I'm going to use this one +for a sling." + +"Which color shall I get you, miss?" asked the maid, preparing to obey. + +Evelyn shrugged her shoulders with indifference. "I don't care--though I +should think your own taste would lead you to see that blue goes best +with this frock. There, Sergeant"--having made a creditable cradle of +the ribbon for the soldier's arm and knotted it behind his neck, she +came in front of him and surveyed her work admiringly--"that will do, I +think. Now, remember, it must not be unbound for four and twenty hours. +Promise! I wish you would stop laughing in that silly way and tell me if +it feels all right, really." + +"Joyous, beyond words," Scarlett affirmed. "I only wish I were that chap +in the mythology with a hundred hands--and every blessed one of them in +need of fomentation." + +"I suppose you say these inane things to me because you think me +incapable of appreciating sense," commented Miss Durant. "Just because +all my poor little efforts to do good up here have seemed superfluous. +Oh, yes"--she checked the protest that rose to his lips--"you all have +been kindness personified, but I do not think you quite understand me," +she complained, with the injured quaver of one who at heart knows +herself to be understood only too well. "I'm really not such an +overbearing, ill-natured girl; only, I acknowledge, a wee bit spoiled. +You see, after my mother died, when I was still a very small child, in +Colorado, my father sent me to a fashionable school in San Francisco, +and there I began to feel that in Colorado we had been quite savage. +Then, in my early 'teens I was put at another still more fashionable +school in Chicago, where I was made to feel that in San Francisco I had +been hopelessly Western. Next, I moved on to an ultra-fashionable school +in New York, where it was tacitly impressed on me that in Chicago we had +been positively vulgar. After this came a course of Dresden, Vienna, +London, Paris, by which I realized that in New York I had been +provincial, crude. On my return I felt myself cosmopolitan, a finished +product. Yet, in this short space up here you all have made me wonder +if, after all, all the time, I have not been a bit of a snob. Yes, you +can't contradict me. I know. A thoroughbred would have taken things as +she found them--would be at home anywhere, while I----" Having amazed +herself far more even than her hearer by this unexpected burst of +confidence, Miss Durant amazed herself still more by an unexpected burst +of tears. + +"Poor child!" Scarlett compassionated her, while liking her thoroughly +for her candor. "Dear, dear little Evelyn, it's libelling yourself you +are, although it's true, and that's the sweetest part of it. Here, take +mine!" As she was hunting, between inconsolable sniffs, for the +handkerchief with which she herself had bandaged him, he tendered her +his own. + +"Oh, the sprain--your wrist!" cried Evelyn, in alarm. + +"That's all right," Scarlett reassured her, while drying her eyes with +the hand he had removed for the purpose from the sling. "It was the +other one that got the twist." + +Evelyn drew back. "You mean you dared let me bind up the wrong one?" + +"Ye made your own selection," Scarlett reminded her, in tones he vainly +tried to render penitent. + +"That you did, miss," corroborated Sarah, coming from the hotel with the +blue sash and tying it about Evelyn's slender waist. + +"Give me back my ribbon, my handkerchief!" demanded Evelyn of Scarlett, +furiously. + +"Not for four and twenty hours," he answered. "Not even for you would I +break a promise to a lady." + +"Never, never, never will I speak to you again!" cried Miss Durant. + +Just then the chapel bell began to ring merrily, and at the same moment +Maclane hurried toward them from the mission, an open hymnal in hand. +"Come, my children, we march in, singing," he explained, pointing toward +the Indians, who were forming in a procession by the chapel door. "As I +am short of hymnals, you and the Sergeant will have to share one, Miss +Durant. Hymn 674. 'Peace, Perfect Peace.'" + +Evelyn stood still. "I absolutely decline to be associated in any way +whatever with Sergeant Scarlett." + +"Oh, my children!" remonstrated the minister. "How can we talk of +missionizing the heathen when the Gentiles so wrangle among themselves! +Ready, please! Fall into line!" Striking up the tune, he led the way. + +And, somehow, in despite of her protest, Miss Durant found herself +following, side by side with the hated young soldier, sharing the same +hymnal, moreover, and joining her sweet voice with his manly one in +praise of "Peace, Perfect Peace." + + + + +VIII. + +AT THE SIGN OF THE TEMPERANCE SALOON. + + +"One sandwich, pie an' corfee, three-fifty! One ham an' eggs, pie, +corfee, five! One whiskey on a doctor's prescription, two bits!" Thus +Gumboot Annie scored off their reckonings to a party of prospectors who +had patronized her lunch-tent, whereupon the prospectors meekly handed +their pokes across the counter for her to weigh out the dust, according +to her own liberal interpretation. + +"Halt!" Barney's rich brogue rang out upon the trail. "Twinty minutes +for refrishmints by request, for man and baste!" + +"What's up now?" Gumboot Annie put her head out to reconnoitre. "Why, +who's thet blamed cop runnin' in?" + +"Why, it's pop!" in dismay, cried Gelly, who was assisting the mother of +Klondike Delmonicos in the capacity of bean-slinger. "My pop!" She began +to cry. + +"Aye, it's Bully Nick, all right," corroborated a prospector, selecting +a wooden toothpick with nicety. "They're fixin' ter extrydite him. +Charge of murder. Oh, he'll be hanged this time fer sure!" he added, +with relish. + +"Now, wouldn't thet jostle yer!" exclaimed Gumboot Annie, generally. +"But didn't the stiff he peppered get well some?" + +"Yep, and they let off th' Bully on parole. But ef th' all-fired fool +didn't celebrate his freedom by gittin' crazy drunk and shootin' at a +United States Deputy Marshal fer targit! The marshal was a mean man an' +deserved ter die--but Nick should 'a' left it to a meaner man to shoot +him." + +"A United States Marshal!" exclaimed Gumboot Annie, scornfully. "Shucks! +Drunk or sober, I thought Nick had more sense." + +"Nick shoots blind when"--her informant considerately lowered his +voice--"when he's on the rampage for Dandy Raish. Nick has sworn ter +kill Raish on sight along of Gelly." + +"Gumboot Annie! Gumboot Annie!" Bill's eager voice rang out on the clear +air, as he came running toward the tent. + +"We're planning for to give Bully Nick a handsome send-off. Rustle, +won't you? and get us up an A1, gilt-edged blow-out!" + +"Betcherboots I will," promised Gumboot Annie, cordially, adding that +the Bully would be a great loss, socially, if hanged. + +"'Twas the drink done it--and I cud ha' kept him from it," moaned Gelly, +rocking and wringing her hands. + +"Here, stop whining and make the sandwiches. Better git down behind the +stove whar yer pop can't see yer!" Gumboot Annie gave the girl an +ungentle but not unkindly push, and thrusting a carving-knife into her +hand, bade her, as it might be the old man's last square feed upon this +planet, not to spare the butter. + +"Gents, I thankee hearty for these here evidences of popularity," cried +the Bully, as they placed him at the head of the well-filled board +inside the lunch-tent. "Gents, go thou an' do likewise, but don't git +pinched! Ah, well, ef I'd got my deserts I guess I'd'a' bin strung up +twenty years ago." + +"Better late than nivver," politely remarked Barney, who, as an honored +guest, by his gift of repartee was contributing greatly to the meal's +hilarity. + + * * * * * + +"Mush, get up, there! Godam you, Teleglaph and Langel. Mush!" Thus +Chilkat Jo might have been heard profanely to encourage to increase of +speed on a pious errand the parson's dogs that now were drawing a sled +beside which the parson and the trader were running on their snow-shoes +toward Gumboot Annie's tent. For all this took place many miles from +Perdu and Lost Shoe Creek, on the heights where the snow still lingered +in heavy, frozen masses, though the valleys below were abloom with +summer flowers. "Him velly damn sick," he pityingly added, indicating +the bundle wrapped in furs, strapped to the sled. + +"Very sick, indeed, I fear, my son; but not damn sick," the minister +corrected. "Perhaps we can get succor here. Whoa, Telegraph, Wrangle, +lads, whoa!" Halting opposite the tent, he read its legend with +surprise, "TEMPERANCE SALOON. GUMBOOT ANNIE, PROPRIETOR." + +"Why, my daughter," he accosted the hostess, who, hearing sleigh-bells +and scenting custom, had come forth, "does this indicate a happy change +of heart and saving grace? You are taking thought to save your soul?" + +"Save my skin," retorted the Gumbooted one, spitting with an accurate +estimate of distances. "That blamed Scarlett was making things hot for +me, so I jest wheeled the hull outfit acrost the boundary!" She pointed +to an old Russian landmark, protruding like a tiny headstone from the +snow, and followed by a line of rude pickets, the records of a +surveying party, that straggled, single file, downhill, dividing the +United States from British North America. "Lasky's a prohibition +proposition, y'know." + +"Whatever the motive, the action is most praiseworthy," Maclane +commended her, "since your income must be greatly decreased by foregoing +the sale of intoxicants." + +"Now wouldn't thet jar yer!" demanded Gumboot Annie, humorously, of the +landscape. "I ain't up here fer me health," she then reminded the +minister. "Fines or license, it's all one ter me. And prohibition, or +wide open, you betcherlife the boys has jest the same old thirst." + +"H'm! Well, for the present I will waive the ethical aspect of the +argument," replied Maclane, "and will beg you to sell me some stimulant +for medicinal purposes. We have a lad here whom we found in trouble by +the wayside; he is very low----" + +"What's it a case of?" Gumboot Annie leaned across the counter to +inspect the bundle on the sled, from which Jo was now unharnessing the +dogs. "Drink or scurvy?" + +"Neither," replied Maclane, raising the patient's head; "but, I fear, +foul play." + +"Now don't that pa'alyze yer!" + +[Illustration: "WHY, MY DAUGHTER, DOES THIS DENOTE A HAPPY CHANGE OF +HEART AND SAVING GRACE? YOU ARE TAKING THOUGHT TO SAVE YOUR SOUL?"] + +From a bottle she took from its hiding-place, Gumboot Annie poured out a +generous dose. "Here, Ikey, take that ter the kid." + +"Whiskey, two bits!" cried Ikey, from sheer force of habit, as he +obeyed. + +"Stop thet, yer little skin!" Leaning far over the counter, to the +endangerment of her balance, his employer gave him a smart cuff. "I'm as +close as they make 'em when I'm dealing with the healthy, but I've yet +ter see myself take money from a dyin' man." + +"He told me to meet him here to-day," gasped Walter Pierce, as Maclane +bent over him with skilful ministry. + +"Who, my son?" + +"Hush! Wait--it is a secret! I have a confession to make." + +When Gumboot Annie and her assistant had withdrawn, and the Indian had +gone to a distance to feed the dogs, Walter tried to speak. + +"It was the drink!" + +"It generally is," commented the parson, mournfully. + +"I had an errand for another man--one of the greatest importance. He +trusted me. Some men suspected his secret and dogged my footsteps, +entered into conversation with me--pretended to take a fancy to me--to +show themselves my friends--good fellows. They made me drink with them. +Then I, in my turn, stood treat to keep my end up and show myself a good +fellow." + +"Alas!" whispered the minister, as Walter paused for breath, "how many +lads have I seen go down to the lowest depths, under that banner bearing +the devil's own device: To show one's self a good fellow!" + +"Then, when they had got me where they wanted me, drunk," continued the +sick man, "they robbed me. Oh, not of money--for though they made me +play, they let me win--but of my honor----" + +"Oh, no, my son! It was you who threw away your own honor." + +"If only I had thought of that at the time! Now they have his +secret--his samples. They'll know about his mine! Tell him----" + +The minister worked over the fainting form with tender skill. At last, +when a glimmer of consciousness returned, "Now, my son," he said, "you +owe it to the man you have wronged to make restitution. Tell me who he +is, and what I am to say to him." + +Walter gathered his strength for a supreme effort. "Durant," at last he +managed to gasp. "Tell his daughter----" He fell back in the stupor that +precedes death. + +"O Joseph! Chilkat Jo!" called Maclane. And when the Indian, obeying +with alacrity, replied, "Godam you, what you want?" he did not stay to +reprove him, only bade him, "Run hot-foot to Lost Shoe Creek and fetch +Miss Durant. Tell her I have a message from her father!" + +When the trader had set off, the speed of his winged-footed race +redoubled by good will, Maclane, having drawn the sled to a spot where a +clump of evergreens would act as wind-brake, went to the Customs Office +on the crest of the hill in search of remedies. + +Seeing the coast clear, old Blenksoe, who for some time past had been +hovering about the place, now came to the lunch counter, where he soon +was joined by his arch-accomplice in villainy, Dandy Raish. "Hello, old +tortoise!" was the hitter's salutation as his partner sauntered up. +"I've been waiting for you this ever so long." + +"Thet you hevn't," contradicted Blenksoe. "Not that it matters--but you +allus were a fust-class liar!" + +"Some folks have not enough imagination to lie," retorted the Dandy, +paring his nails. "But chuck all that and get to business!" + +"Business! Hully gee! Anythin' doin'? Am I in it?" + +"Sure--if you can deliver the goods! Order the drinks, won't you?" + +"Say, you got a tocter's brescription for liquor?" queried Ikey, when +old Blenksoe did as he was bidden. + +"I'll sure hev an undertaker's stiff-ticket ef I don't get it," replied +Blenksoe, as he carried the medicinal doses over to the bench where the +Dandy had ensconced himself. + +"Best stay out here where no one can hear us," explained the latter. + +"That suits me all right," agreed Blenksoe, lighting a pipe and settling +himself on the Canadian side. "Thar's a warrant out fer my arrest in +'Lasky." + +"I thought you were _persona non grata_ in the Dominion also, since that +hold-up of the stage near Lost Shoe Creek." + +"Thet hold-up you put me up to, while you sneaked in the bushes. You'd +orter be pinched yerself fer takin' a rake-off. Ain't the receiver as +bad as the thief?" + +"Piano, pianissimo," advised Raish. "One never knows who's within +earshot." He glanced about him fearfully. + +"Thet's so," admitted Blenksoe. "I declar, what between Kennedy on the +one hand and Uncle Sam on t'other, and both a-gittin' so all-fired +pertikeler, every day makes it harder for a crook ter make an honest +livin'." He lighted an ill-smelling pipe. "Well, Dandy, fire away." + +"Have you seen Durant lately?" + +"Durant? Who th' hell's Durant?" + +"Your partner, Lucky. Durant is his outside name." + +"You don't say! Oh, Lucky, he ain't no good no more. Lucky's off his +nut. Went stark, ravin' mad the day his gal came inter camp. I've shuk +Lucky." + +"More fool you. He's found a mine!" + +"I dessay. As usual, a pocket, or a pot of gold eagles at th' fut of a +rainbow." + +"Not a bit of it. A bona-fide mine. What d'you make of these samples?" + +Through his prospector's glass, Blenksoe examined the small clods of +earth Raish held out to him, then uttered the profanest expletive at his +command. + +"Free gold, assayin' sixty ter th' ton!" + +"You'd better believe it is!" The Dandy pocketed the samples which +Blenksoe was eyeing hungrily. + +"Say, I'd like a sample ter test. Oh, well, as you say! How'd you come +by 'em?" + +"I got them with the information from a kid whom Lucky has taken in on +the ground floor." + +"You mean ter tell me the stiff hes shuk me, his pard an' dearest +friend?" Blenksoe seized his gun. "I'll fix Lucky!" + +"Keep quiet, you old fool! Durant don't owe you a bean, and you know it. +And the way you've always grafted on him he is not likely to run after +you to put you wise." + +"Thet's so. Whar is the mine?" + +"Ah, that's just where my information stops short. If I knew I shouldn't +need you." + +"Well, I s'pose the game is ter lay low, rubber round till we locate the +claim, and jump it." + +"And have that blasted Scarlett butting in? Guess again! Claim-jumping +don't go, now the M. P. are in charge. We have to do something far +cleverer. I'll tell you what. I've thought it all out. We have to kidnap +Durant, and kidnap his daughter." + +"Why the hell----" + +"Blenksoe, a cow could give you cards and spades. We'll play them off, +one against the other, till he signs over a half interest in his mine +for ransom." + +"Dandy, you're a wonder!" Blenksoe regarded the brains of the concern +with admiration. "I'll get the gang on to it to oncet. It ull be no +trick at all ter kidnap Lucky. Lucky's dead easy! But the gal--gals is +scarce, and conspickerous accordin', in a mining camp. How the hell +are we to handle the gal?" + +"Leave her to me. I have already struck up a traveling acquaintance with +her; managed to do her some little service en route. That's why I was +careful to keep in the background during the hold-up. I sent her a +private message to meet me here to-day, telling her I had a confidential +message from her father. We must act like a flash, for that blasted +Scarlett is sweet on her. By Jove! that's an idea!" The Dandy slapped +his knee. "I owe him a bad turn. I'll cut him out! I'll marry her +myself!" + +"You, you son of a camp cook!" sneered Blenksoe. + +Raish shrugged his shapely shoulders. "The camp cooks of to-day are the +swells of to-morrow. I'm ambitious. I've always qualified myself for the +toniest society. I spend as much for perfumery as for liquor, and I +never sleep between sheets but I wear pink silk pyjamas." + +"By gum, I b'lieve you'll git thar!" cried Blenksoe, overcome by these +evidences of culture. Going to the counter, before Raish could stop him, +he ordered: "Set up th' drinks, Ikey! Here's ter Dandy an' his bride!" + +"Haow's that? Raish a-goin' ter git married?" inquired Gumboot Annie, +who was bustling about for more provender for the banqueters inside the +tent. "And who's the lady?" + +"Oh, jest a little silk-stockin' proposition from the States," replied +old Blenksoe, unmindful of the Dandy's warning signs. "One of the Noo +York smarties, and jes' fitted fer Raish." + +"Eh?" shrieked Gelly, starting up from her corner behind the stove. "She +is, is she! And what about me?" + +"Gelly! Tagging on as usual!" exclaimed Raish, in disgust. + +"Thar, thar, Gelly! I was only joshin'," Blenksoe tried to soothe the +girl. + +"Dandy, you're a wonder!" Blenksoe re-[1] him, pleading. "Pop is run in, +and mebbe goin' ter be hanged. Raish, make an honest woman of me that I +may go bid him good-by!" + +1. Transcriber's note: One or more lines are missing from the original + text. + +The Dandy drew back. "What! Me, with my prospects, take up with the +daughter of a murderer!" + +"You, you----" Gelly flew at him with the carving-knife she held. + +"Here, quit that!" Gumboot Annie adroitly snatched away the weapon. "My +sandwich-knife! Now wouldn't thet stick yer?" in aggrieved tones she +appealed to an imaginary audience on the horizon line. Bystanders +joined in the discussion, and, attracted by the noise, some of the +diners came running from the tent, the Japanese paper napkins, that the +high character of the occasion had warranted, in hand, ready for a scrap +or any other fun that might be going; accordingly, the Dandy saw the +wisdom of adopting a conciliating policy. "Gelly"--he led the girl +aside--"I do mean to do the square thing by you, but no man likes to be +coerced, you know; and after what has gone between us I don't want to be +laughed at publicly for a fool--and if you love me, you don't want to +render me publicly ridiculous. Just go back, quietly, like a good girl +and wait for me at Lost Shoe Creek. When I have one or two tangles +straightened out I'll come back and marry you, honest! But remember, on +the quiet, If you blab--well, I'll see you somewhere before I ever speak +to you again. Now, good-by and go!" + +And for the last time, though not the first, poor Gelly trusted him. + +Looking after the red-cloaked and hooded figure, as on snow-shoes she +sped lightly down the trail, the Dandy laughed. "Women are easy, dead +easy!" he exclaimed; and then he laughed still louder, as winding in +and out through mountain passes the sound of approaching sleigh-bells +and girls' merry voices floated through the crystal air. "Dead, dead +easy," he reiterated, with the unction of enjoyment in his sapient +superiority. "Here comes Evelyn now!" + + + + +IX. + +THE PROVISIONAL BOUNDARY. + + +"Miss Durant! This is a delightfull surprise!" Dismounting from her sled +drawn by eight frisky little huskies, Miss Durant encountered not the +Mr. Horatio Travers who had written, begging for a private interview +near Gumboot Annie's, on a confidential mission from her father, but the +handsome and genial presence of Sergeant Scarlett. + +"The surprise at least is not all on one side," laughed Evelyn, giving +him her hand. "What are you doing so far from headquarters?" + +"My jurisdiction extends to the boundary line. Just now it is my painful +duty to meet a United States Representative in yonder Customs building, +and formally make over to him the person of Bully Nick." + +"Ah, the poor Bully!" Evelyn sighed. "He has this incorrigible habit of +shooting the wrong people. But I'm in hopes of getting him off. I shall +spare no expense. I've wired to Sitka, in my father's name, for the +ablest counsel to defend him." + +"And, confidence for confidence," said Scarlett, "what are you doing +here?" + +"Oh, just keeping an appointment--I mean, mushing it with Sarah and the +girls for a day's outing," Evelyn hurriedly corrected herself, recalling +that Travers' note enjoined the strictest secrecy. "And, pardon me, I +must go to their rescue now." To conceal a slight embarrassment caused +by her prevarication, she sped toward her party on whom the Customs' +officials of two nations had pounced down, assuming that they intended +to cross the boundary and must be treated like malefactors accordingly. + +Picking up the muff that Evelyn in her haste had dropped, Scarlett +buried his face in the soft fur. "I'm another," he confided to it. + +"'Tis himself!" Barney hurried toward him from the tent, but as +Scarlett, in his abstraction, did not notice him, he inquired, with +solicitude: "Are ye here, sorr?" + +"Faith, no, man. I'm wandering." + +"Is ut impty ye do be feeling yourself inside, sorr?" + +"Empty is it, with the appetite that's there! Bring me rations out here. +Bring a double share." His eye strayed toward Evelyn. + +"H'm! 'Tis a case of wan plate and two spoons, or I'm a blind man!" +commented Barney, hastening to obey. + +"Miss," cried Sarah, in shocked accents, as Evelyn drew near, "them +orphans are flirting outrageously with the Customs gentlemen of both +nations, and feeding them with fudge." + +"Dear, dear," mocked Evelyn, "we must put a stop to that at all costs, +Sarah. Take the girls into the tent and give them their dinner--or there +will be international complications." + +"Internal ones, more likely," put in Scarlett, who had followed her. +"Sweet things don't often come our way. And speaking of sweet things, +Miss Durant, won't you yourself mess with me out here in the open? Just +for the experience, ye know. It isn't really cold. The snow is left over +from the winter, but it's a summer sun overhead." + +"It does look tempting," confessed Evelyn, as Barney appeared, bringing +with him provender, with its equipments, for two, deftly arranging it on +a table by the bench. "I'm early for my appointment--I mean, I have +plenty of time, and Sarah can chaperon the girls." + +"Have ye room enough?" with solicitude inquired the soldier, placing +himself beside her. + +"Plenty, thanks. Have you?" + +"Too much," he protested, "on the wrong side." The bench having no back, +he gallantly supplied the lack. "Allow me to make ye an arm-chair." + +Evelyn properly edged away. "Sergeant, are these your company manners?" + +"Surely, since two's company." + +"Come, come, I can't permit you so much latitude!" + +"If you knew your map ye'd know that the further north ye go the closer +the lines of latitude are drawn." + +"Speaking of maps, I wish you'd tell me exactly where we are?" + +"Faith, where I am is exactly what I'm trying to find out--how far I've +gone with you." + +"Do be sensible, if you can, and tell me where we are sitting, +geographically speaking." + +"Geographically speaking, we are sitting on the provisional boundary +between our respective nations." + +"Oh! Please don't add it is called provisional because one stops here +for provisions." + +"At any rate, provisions don't stop here long. Here, I've saved ye the +last bean." + +"Thanks. I take my bean wherever I find it." + +"Good! Now will ye poach on my preserves?" + +"With pleasure!" Evelyn held out her tin plate. "I love peaches." + +"Ah, I'm more exclusive. I only love a peach!" + +"One at a time, no doubt, you mean. And for the sake of your taste, I +hope, fresh ones, not canned. By the way, you, I believe, would write +them tinned?" + +"But we both pronounce them excellent." Scarlett divided with her the +last spoonful of the fruit. + +"A century ago you taxed my tea." Leaning over, Evelyn took the extra +lump of sugar from the young man's saucer. "So now, to even things, I +steal your sugar." + +"Quite right," he acquiesced, "since revenge is sweet." + +"How silly this climate makes one, though I wish all international +differences could be so bloodlessly adjusted," remarked Evelyn. +"Suppose, instead of war, we had spelling matches! That, indeed, would +bring peace with honor." + +"Sure and there'd be fighting over peace," the soldier told her, "since +you would spell it H-O-N-O-R, while I should insert a U." + +"Naturally," replied Evelyn. "Your nation's honor always will include +U." + +"A pretty compliment," conceded Scarlett, "but I feel as if I had been +spelling for it." As they had finished he put aside the dinner-tray. "I +wonder if I shall ever persuade you to cross the line in earnest?" + +"And pray, why should I do the crossing? Why should not you be the one +to come over to the enemy?" + +"Ah, I'm a soldier! And I could not love thee, dear, so much, loved I +not HONOUR more!" + +"All very fine, sir, but, like England, somehow you have advanced +imperceptibly across the boundary." + +"Oh, no!" Scarlett moved closer to her. "Like England, when I make +advances I push the line ahead of me." + +"Remember the old commination," Evelyn exhorted him, "'Cursed be he that +moveth his neighbor's landmark.'" + +"That was ancient law," Scarlett reminded her. "The modern dispensation +bids thee love thy neighbor as thyself. And up here, where both nations +work side by side, common hardship makes us truly neighbors, next of +kin. Look yonder!" He pointed to the summit of the watershed, the +ridge-pole of the mountain range, where, sheltered under one roof, were +the Customs offices of two nations, while from lofty flag-poles floated, +side by side, the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes. "The snow, as it +melts, parts into two rivers, one running down into the Dominion, the +other into the States, each bearing greetings from the sister flags. +And, listen! In the tent, to the same tune the two national anthems are +being sung----" Rising, he bared his head, Evelyn standing beside him, +while in perfect attune the banqueters sang, according to their +allegiance: "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," or "God Save the King." + +"After all," commented Scarlett, "peace is spelled without a difference, +both sides of the boundary; and, lip to lip, our views will be identical +on the way of spelling love." + +"And how may that be?" inquired Evelyn, gathering up her furs and moving +away. "In love-letters?" As Scarlett caught up with her she quickened +her pace, remarking, "I must go now. Really, Sergeant, you ought some +day to give us a lecture on these theories of yours, for I have always +wondered how an Irishman makes love." + +"Like a lover, sure," promptly retorted Scarlett, catching her in his +arms and stooping his head to hers. + +To her surprise, Evelyn found herself more than half consenting to his +kiss even while trying to rebuke it. Before, however, she had found +breath to protest, Scarlett released her hurriedly in silence, for at +the moment Nick, with his custodian, and followed by his faithful +henchmen, came from the tent, escorting Sarah and the orphans in an aura +of national and personal good will, while a messenger came to inform the +Sergeant that the United States representative, to whom the prisoner's +person was to be delivered, had arrived. + +Evelyn, for her part, overcome with an embarrassment mingled with +another feeling that was wholly new to her, ran in the opposite +direction down the trail, and over a patch of frozen snow to a secluded +spot sheltered by a thicket of scrub firs, where, even as she broke from +her lover's embrace, she had seen her former traveling acquaintance and +present correspondent, Horatio Travers, awaiting her. + +Scarlett went up immediately to the Customs building, there to transact +the formalities incident to the extradition of Bully Nick. These +concluded, and the official courtesies having been duly proffered and +accepted, he at last felt free to continue his interrupted wooing. +Coming out into the open, he was going to seek Evelyn in a merry group +where the orphans were being taught the art of keeping erect on +snow-shoes, when he was accosted by Maclane. + +"Oh, Sergeant! I am called upon to marry a couple under circumstances of +a peculiar nature, involving exceptional haste. There is no Gold +Commissioner, I find, nor Justice of the Peace, in the district, nor +within a day's journey, from whom to obtain a license; but I have +consented to accept a copy of the Dominion Marriage Act, or rather a +specified clause thereof, signed by yourself as Mounted Policeman in +charge. Will that arrangement satisfy you, judicially speaking?" + +"Surely," replied Scarlett, "any marriage that you can, with conscience, +solemnize I can sanction without a conscience, sir." + +"I never was called upon to perform a duty that I liked so ill," the +minister acknowledged, as he followed the soldier to the Customs +building. "In fact, I have exceeded my prerogative, through my personal +interest in one of the contracting parties, in counseling, beseeching, +delay. Yet what can I do? The young lady is of age; she is determined on +the step; moreover, she has her father's consent, while I have not one +single argument to urge against it, merely a feeling of dislike, +distrust, for the gentleman of her choice." + +"In primitive regions I have found it unwise to oppose too many +obstacles to marriages," remarked the soldier, who, by this time, was +busily copying the required clause from a sheepskin-covered tome, "since +there is always a popular tendency to forego the ceremony, if it +involves the slightest trouble. Oh, I'm used to this! Also, I have had +not a few applications for divorces." + +"Eh?" exclaimed the minister. "Surely you do not grant them, my young +friend?" + +"I have no power to," Scarlett told him. "The best I can do under such +circumstances is to give the applicants a bill of Dissolution of +Partnership, to minimize the squabbling over the division of the outfit. +These present protégés of yours may be my next candidates. There." He +handed Maclane the paper. "Now it is ready for the signatures--yours and +mine. But, first, these blanks must be filled in with the names of bride +and groom." + +"They shall write them for themselves," replied the minister, who was +visibly agitated. "Not by a pen stroke will I further them beyond what +is forced upon me." Going to the door he beckoned two persons waiting +without, and to Scarlett's amazement summoned by name, "Horatio Travers! +Evelyn Durant!" + + + + +X. + +LUCKY'S LUCK. + + +Cheerful, erect, recreated in body and spirit, Durant came to Gumboot +Annie's hostelry, where he had made an appointment to meet Walter +Pierce. Not seeing the young man, and having his own reasons for not +letting it be known that there was anything of a business nature between +them, he refrained from making inquiries; ordered a cup of coffee, and, +lighting a pipe, seated himself in a sheltered nook outside the tent to +wait. + +He had not been there long when the altercation between Dandy Raish and +Gelly interrupted the banquet then in progress, bringing the diners from +the tent, Nick, closely guarded by Barney, in the van. + +Gelly, acting on Raish's instructions, had gone speeding down the trail, +but the Dandy still lingered, to keep his secret tryst with Evelyn. + +Catching sight of him, the Bully, handcuffed as he was, made a furious +lunge at him. "Thet thar's the snake I've swore ter kill!" he shouted. +"Let me free!" + +"No, sorr!" Barney restrained him. "No cheatin' av the extry-edition, if +ye please." + +Every one began to talk at once, his followers urging the Bully to +vengeance or forgiveness, according to their natural dispositions, at +present heightened by conviviality, while Raish, fearing lest the former +policy should prevail, held up a hand for truce. "It's all right, Nick. +You don't understand. Stand back, you fellows, can't you, and give me a +word alone with Nick." + +"Aye!" acquiesced the Bully. "I don't need help to curse ye, Raish. When +I'm through with him, lads, I'll leave him to you ter skin him fer the +skunk he is, d'ye see?" + +"Can't you leave us?" inquired Raish of Barney, who still stood his +ground by Nick. + +"No, sorr, I cannot." + +"But it's a private matter." + +"Bedad, thin, that takes me in all right, since I'm a private meself +till promoted." + +"Oh, very well! Only I didn't like to drag in a woman's name before a +third person," explained the Dandy. "What I want to say, Nick, is this: +I'm awfully sorry for all the trouble I've brought on you. It's not +entirely my fault, the way women do pursue a fellow. But never mind all +that," he hastened to add as the Bully began to growl ominously. "I want +you to know that I intend to do the square thing. I'm going to marry +Gelly." + +"Eh?" cried Nick, unable to believe his ears. "You'll right my gal! +Honest, Raish?" + +"On my honor as a gentleman--that is, if she'll have me. Now, don't get +angry, Nick, till I explain. Something has turned her against me of +late. Suppose you write her a little note, advising her to do it." + +"Advisin' her! I'll skin her if she kicks!" threatened Nick. "Here, +boy," he turned to Barney, "get me quit of these bracelets while I write +ter my darter." + +"No, sorr, I wull not!" + +"I tell ye it's my last words--good-by--to my darter." + +"First or last, sure ye can dictate your autography." + +"Oh, hang!" ejaculated the Bully. + +"Sure, thin, that's for what I'm saving ye!" + +"Thar ain't no word profane enough ter describe ye, d'ye see?" Nick told +his keeper. "Here, boys, which one of ye kin write?" he called over to +his followers. + +"Don't make her name common with that gang," cautioned the Dandy, whose +alert mind was actively evolving a new piece of villainy as the +situation developed. "Ask an older man; a gentleman." + +"You've never done a thing ter her name, hev yer?" inquired the Bully, +wrathfully, yet not wholly rejecting the advice. "Here, Sandy, man, come +write a message for me. You've had schoolin'." + +"Ou, aye!" assented the Scotchman, "ower muckle schoolin'. Mon, mon, +when I reflect on a' this sma' head contains! I'll e'en gie ye a +selection fra' Marmion--or a wee bit o' Rabbit Burruns." Being, however, +far gone in conviviality, he maundered off into protestations of undying +affection for his leader, assuring him he'd e'en gie his proper +copposeetion to see him hangit decently. + +Disgusted, Nick shoved Sandy aside, and in so doing caught a glimpse of +Durant in his corner, smoking peaceably. "Thar's old man Lucky!" he +exclaimed, even as Raish had foreseen. "Might ask him ter help us out. +Hi, Lucky! Want ter do me a good turn?" + +"Willingly." Rising, Durant joined him. "What is it, Nick?" + +"Waal, the government thinks so much of me these days I hev to employ a +secretary fer me correspondence, d'ye see? Say, will you write down a +message fer me to my gal?" + +"With all the pleasure in the world," assented Durant, heartily. + +"Babper an' envelobe, two bits. Ben an' ink, two bits. Plotter, two +bits, bostache-shtamp, two bits!" At Nick's order, Ikey set writing +materials before them on the counter. + +"Say, Nick," Raish prompted, in an undertone, while Durant was removing +his snow-spectacles and chafing his stiff fingers, "best not enter into +details. Best let bygones be bygones. Best just say you want your +daughter to let me bring her as my wife to pay you a visit during your +enforced captivity--perhaps to say good-by." + +"You let me choose my own words, and be damned to yer." + +"Oh, very well! Only I don't see why you should be in a hurry to shame +me and Gelly before an outsider." + +"My gal has shamed herself, and thar ain't no shamin' you!" Nick, +however, acted on the advice. "Ready, Lucky? Say, I don't know how to +start it. I kin jaw her fluent ter her face, but I never wrote her +afore." He hesitated, embarrassed. + +Smiling reassuringly, Durant pointed to the words he already had +mechanically set down. "My dear daughter--that's how I begin to my own +girl." + +"Darter don't look as if it was spelled right," criticized the Bully. +"But you know best, Lucky. Fire away! Make it affectionate, but firm, +d'ye see? Tell her I'll cuss her in this life and skin her in the next +ef she don't let Raish bring her ter me as his wife ter say good-by. No +trimmin's, mind! Blow the signiture! She'll know fast enough it comes +from me." + +"Your loving dad," Durant concluded. "That's how I end off when I'm +writing to Evelyn." + +"Pop ud 'a' sounded more nateral," remarked the Bully. "But mebbe dad is +dockimentary. So let her go." + +"Add a postscript," in a hurried whisper Raish enjoined Durant. "Tell +her this is just a matter of form, and that I promise on my honor not to +hold her to the arrangement permanently, if it is distasteful to her. +Tell her----" + +Durant looked up, surprised. "Surely all that lies wholly between you +and the young woman." + +"True," admitted Raish, "but as I don't mind confiding in you that the +young woman is tired of me, I want her to feel secure that in satisfying +her father's scruples I don't intend to take an unfair advantage of +her. Suppose I set that down myself." He did so, writing rapidly, but +clearly. "Now, Mr. Durant," he handed the other the pen, "you will add +to your kindness to me more than you dream by placing your signature as +witness to my pledge." + +Durant did as he was asked, feeling that, little as he understood the +matter, he was probably serving the best interests of the unfortunate +Gelly. + +"As witness only," he, however, stated. "It is an arrangement in which I +take no moral responsibility." + +"Thanks. I understand your scruples and respect them. The responsibility +is mine entirely. Just at present I cannot explain, but later the whole +position will be made clear." + +"What's all them goin's-on?" suddenly demanded Nick, whose attention had +been momentarily distracted by an argument between Mops and Sandy on the +poetic merits of Rabbit Burruns. "No monkeyin' with dockiments over +thar." + +"I'm only directing it," explained the Dandy, who had folded the letter +and inclosed it in an envelope. + +Nick looked over his shoulder, breathing heavily with interest. "By +gum," he ejaculated, wrathfully, "ef ye hevn't blotted my gal's name, +Raish, and not fer the fust time!" + +[Illustration: "DARTER DON'T LOOK AS IF IT WAS SPELLED RIGHT," +CRITICIZED BULLY.] + +"Oh, I'll make that all right!" The Dandy put the letter in his breast +and walked away. + +"Ef yer don't may yer sizzle!" Nick called after him. Turning to Durant: +"Pard, I'm grateful," he declared, with feeling. "Pard, the best wish I +kin give ye is, may ye never need no one ter do the same by you." + +"Thanks, Nick. That's all right." Durant looked about him, and seeing +that Raish was out of earshot and Blenksoe not in sight, went closer to +the Bully and his followers. "Friends, there's something I want to say +to you," he began. "It's just this: You've all done me a kindness to my +dying day I shan't forget. A fortnight ago, when my girl came into camp +expecting to find me living in a diamond-encrusted palace, and I stood +there so forlorn she didn't recognize me, a broken-hearted beggar, you +who by one word might have pricked the bubble and humiliated me before +her and her before the world, by your silence protected her and me. It +was the noblest thing----" His voice broke; he wiped his eyes. + +"Thet's all right, Lucky! Brace up, old man!" came from one and another +of the group. + +"Aye, but now I want you all to hear my good news!" cried Durant, +detaining them as they were preparing to go back into the dining-tent to +resume their interrupted feast. "_It has all come true!_ With so many +grafters and claim-jumpers round I daren't be explicit, but I want you +to know that my luck has turned for good and all. Oh, this time it's no +pocket; it's the big strike of which I've always dreamed. I don't +deserve it, some may think, after playing with my girl's credulity, yet +for her sake I thank God with all my heart that I've won out! Till it's +staked and recorded I know you'll all keep my secret--but, boys, every +one of you is in it, the Rainbow Mine!" + +The same wonderful delicacy that had marked their treatment of Evelyn +did not fail her father. The Bully and his gang listened to this speech +in respectful silence, at its conclusion crying, "Great! Good for you, +old man! You done grand! Allus knew you'd git thar fer keeps! Sure! +Betcherlife! That's what!" with every evidence of conviction and +spontaneous joy. But as he walked off, Durant laughed. He did not need +to look back to know that fingers were being pointed after him, winks +interchanged and foreheads tapped significantly, with comment that +found food for mirth, even while it deplored: "Off his nut fer fair. +Balmy on the crumpet. Bats in his belfry. Qualifying for Queer Street. +Plumb crazy. Poor old Lucky!" + +Well, let them think so, bless them, since another day would set them +right and prove him all he claimed to be. And then nothing gold could +procure would be too good for them, nothing--this rough crew, more beast +than man, that had yet behaved like more than man to his deceived, +defenceless girl. + +That hour--its memory was seared upon his very soul--the hour of +Evelyn's arrival in camp that had witnessed the deepest degradation, +followed immediately by the crowning justification and triumph of his +career. He visualized it now, as he walked: In the Klondike Delmonico's, +in her rôle of Lady Bountiful, Evelyn was dispensing hospitality right +and left. He alone, her father, dared not enter in. Crushed, crazed, he +walked back to the spot where he had left young Pierce. Him he found +still brooding beneath the huge pine, dazed, amid the ruin of his own +air castles. Then for one bad moment Durant went really mad. Picking up +the gun he had dropped when an irresistible force drew him to go watch +the incoming stage, he turned its deadly charge against his fevered +brain. + +With a cry, Walter sprang forward, but not before old Blenksoe, who had +been watching his associate's actions curiously, seized him, capturing +the gun. "No yer don't, blast yer!" + +"Give it to me, Blenksoe! Of what use is my life to you?" + +"Lucky you've been afore, and lucky you may be yet, and when the luck +turns I'm in it, see?" + +"Give it to me!" With a madman's fury, Durant leaped at the other's +throat, only to be met by a blow that sent him reeling to the ground +with such force that a young willow bush he clutched at was partially +uprooted. For a few seconds he lay prone, foaming at the mouth and +clawing the soil with frenzied impotency. Then of a sudden he paused, +raised himself, face still downturned, and burst into insane laughter +that made Pierce's blood run cold. + +"Mad! Stark, starin' mad!" Blenksoe turned on his heel. + +"There's a squirrel on yonder tree I could bring down for the dogs' +supper if you'd give me back my gun, Blenksoe," his laughter spent, +Durant meekly suggested as he scrambled to a sitting posture. + +"Fetch her with a stun," was the succinct reply, as, retaining his +partner's weapon, Blenksoe re-entered the tent. + +Acting on the suggestion, Durant gathered up a handful of clots, +selecting them carefully, and with deliberate aim took long shots at the +chattering creature on the bough. + +"Sit here, beside me, close, Walter," in an undertone he bade the young +clerk, who still was gazing at him in horrified bewilderment. "But don't +start or show the slightest surprise at what I am going to say. Oh, tut, +tut, lad, never fear!" For Pierce seemed disinclined to comply with his +command. "I am not mad. That is all over, thank God! with all the +struggle, the heartbreak. _The luck has turned_, do you hear? Yes, +turned for good and all! Every clot that I am throwing contains +gold!--careful!" For involuntarily Walter had given vent to an +ejaculation of amazed incredulity. "Oh, I'm an old prospector, and I see +indications, and read signs where these grafters pass them by. I've +always believed in this locality, and now I'm justified. In uprooting +that willow I unearthed a bonanza!" Pausing in his speech, he renewed +his attempts on the squirrel's life, and then went on: "Yes, each dull +handful of earth I throw is a priceless witness that beneath us, on +this spot, lies the Rainbow Mine----" Breaking off, as he observed old +Blenksoe watching him narrowly, he rose as if discouraged, with a sigh. +"My hand shakes. I'm no match to-day even for a squirrel. I'll have to +give it up." Then, cleverly simulating the foolishly detailed actions of +one who, having lost his grasp on the great things of life, clutches at +the trivialities, he set about replanting the willow, stamping down the +disordered earth about its roots, meanwhile in a pregnant undertone +continuing his conversation with Walter. + +The latter, so between them it was arranged, was to hang about the +locality, watching for a chance, unobserved, to pick up the valuable +clots, and these he was to have exchanged for their cash value, for +current expenses, at a bank so distant that their source could not be +predicated with any degree of accuracy--a precaution that Durant deemed +essential in a district where even officialdom was likely to be +corrupted by the lust for gold. He himself, meanwhile, would watch his +opportunity, and disappear, without leaving a trace, from Lost Shoe +Creek, as if madness had indeed possessed him, in order to throw +Blenksoe off the scent and cause him also to move on, since, as Durant +rightly conjectured, the pastmaster of graft would not be likely to +remain in any spot which he thought Lucky had turned down. To-day Walter +was to meet him here, return with him to the scene of his discovery, aid +him in staking it, by stealth; journey to the nearest office where +recording-books were opened, to file the claim with the necessary fee, +while Durant himself would remain, defending the stakes, if need be, +with his life. Once his rights legally safeguarded, all the world might +know. Again Durant laughed in joyful anticipation of his meeting with +Evelyn, when confession and revelation would come in the same breath. +Then, impatiently, he looked up and down the trail, wondering at +Pierce's delay on this day of days, when he heard a low moan among the +bushes, and, turning, beheld the young man on whose co-operation such +high hopes depended, lying, bedded in furs, upon a sled, swathed in +bandages, pallid--a dying man. + +"My God! Walter, my poor lad, what does this mean?" exclaimed Durant, in +horrified accents. + +Another moan was the only answer, but reading in the glazing eyes a wish +to speak, Durant knelt down and bent so that his ear touched the stiff +lips. + +"What is it, Walter?" + +"The samples," the young man at last managed to articulate. "The +mine----" + +"Aye, the mine--the samples!" cried Durant, with frantic eagerness. But +Walter's confession never reached the man he had betrayed. A sudden +darkness came over Durant. He struggled, but his grasp was pinioned from +behind. He tried to cry aloud, but his voice was muffled. Swift, +treacherous hands seized him, gagged him, bound him fast, bore him off, +blind, mute, a prisoner! + + + + +XI + +AN INTERNATIONAL EPISODE + + +With an effort regaining the composure unwontedly ruffled by Scarlett's +audacious response to her challenge as to an Irishman's method of +love-making, while adjusting hat and hair, whose order, as she +blushingly was conscious, had suffered from the same cause, Evelyn +hurried toward the fir-encircled spot where she saw Dandy Raish awaiting +her. + +A fellow-passenger aboard the boat that had brought her party up the +Alaskan coast, Travers had lost no chance to ingratiate himself with +Evelyn by rendering her all manner of unobtrusive service, so that his +letter, requesting this appointment, at an out-of-the-way place under +conditions of absolute secrecy, while exciting her curiosity, caused her +no alarm. The matter to which he had mysteriously alluded, as of supreme +importance to herself and her father, she had assumed to refer to +Durant's vast mining interests. She took it for granted that the +obliging Mr. Travers was bearer of a remittance that would enable her to +defy Scarlett's absurd advice in favor of roughing it, and enable her to +resume her wonted style of luxurious living. + +To escape awkward questions, she had decided to turn the expedition into +a day's outing that should include Sarah and her young companions, thus +giving her meeting with Travers the appearance of chance. Scarlett's +unforeseen presence on the scene only added a piquancy to the occasion, +in her eyes, since she thought it might furnish her with an opportunity +to put down that estimable but altogether too masterful young man. That +the opportunity would land her in the young man's arms was something she +had not reckoned with. + +As Travers watched her speeding toward him with glowing cheeks and eyes, +a lovely picture of blossoming young womanhood between the wintry ground +and summer sky, something leaped to life in the Dandy's breast that made +it a hard task for him to greet her with the grave impersonal politeness +it was his policy to assume, and determined him more than ever to cut +out "that blasted Scarlett." + +After formal salutations had been exchanged, he remarked: "I think I +saw you speaking with some one in uniform, Miss Durant. I trust it was +not a member of the Mounted Police?" + +"It was Sergeant Scarlett." + +"Good heavens! Scarlett, of all men! May I hope you did not mention our +appointment to him?" + +"My appointments are my own affair, Mr. Travers. Please let us get to +the matter in hand without delay. What is it you have to say to me?" + +"I am more anxious than you possibly can be for haste, since to you the +matter is but one of temporary inconvenience, while to carry it through +I am risking my very life. But before we go any further I must have your +sacred promise that what I say is in inviolable confidence." + +"Confidences between you and me, Mr. Travers! Aren't you making too much +of what is probably some ordinary business matter; taking rather an +undue advantage of my complaisance in granting you this interview?" + +"Miss Durant, you wrong me. I tell you that in seeking you I have +nothing to gain, everything to lose; life, honor, everything! I am +running this tremendous risk--not, as you think, because you are a +woman, young, rich, beautiful; but because I owe a debt of gratitude, +that only life could pay, to your dear father." + +"My dear father! You come from him? Then he knows of my arrival! Why +isn't he here himself to welcome me?" Evelyn's questions came rushing +eagerly. + +"Miss Durant, he cannot come. He is a prisoner." + +"A prisoner! What do you mean?" she faltered. + +"A captive, rather; held by a gang of desperados for ransom." + +"God in heaven!" Evelyn went white. "My daddy!" + +"You are faint!" Raish went to her side, supporting her. + +"No, no! Thanks, I am all right." Evelyn drew away. "But your pledge of +secrecy--why, it is preposterous! Every one should be told. The alarm +given--rewards offered--the country roused!" She moved forward as she +spoke. + +"No, no! Not as you value his life!" Raish held her back. "Listen. One +incautious word, and your father is a dead man. There are spies about +us--everywhere. That is why I got you to meet me here--Miss Durant, +believe me, by raising the hue and cry you will sound your father's +death-knell." + +Evelyn shuddered. "I can't believe----" she began, however, +incredulously. + +"I will explain. Miss Durant, you have been in the district over two +weeks--the district in which you know your father's interests to lie. +Yet have you been able to locate him, to obtain one satisfactory answer +as to his goings and comings, his present whereabouts? Have you not +invariably been put off with specious generalities--sugar-plums to +soothe a wayward child? Admit that no man has said to you in definite +terms, 'Yonder, on such and such a hill, is the camp of Matthew Durant. +By such and such a trail can you reach him.'" + +"Yes, that is true," admitted Evelyn. "Every one puts me off. Still----" + +"The reason is," Raish interrupted her, "that no one knows where, among +those mountains, his prison lies. But that he is a prisoner is public +property, though not a soul has had the heart to break it to you." + +"How cruel to have deceived me!" Evelyn burst into a flood of tears. +"And all the time he is wondering why I don't rescue him. But with his +resources what is the difficulty? Why has not he himself bought his +freedom?" + +"Because their price is high--it is your entire fortune--the Rainbow +Mine--and your father loves you too well to subject you to poverty." + +"It is like my father to put me first," sobbed Evelyn, "but doesn't he +know me better? Does he for a moment think I would weigh any +consideration on this earth against his safety?" + +"Ah!" cried Raish, triumphantly, "I knew you were true blue. That is +what I told my old friend Durant--but captivity has so preyed on his +spirits that he is ill--unable to judge----" + +"My father ill!" Evelyn clenched her little hands and moaned: "Oh, oh, +oh! If only I could go to him!" + +"Have you the courage?" questioned Raish. + +"The courage!" She looked at him, amazed. "If you know how to reach him +take me to him instantly!" + +Raish almost laughed aloud. "Women are dead easy," he mentally +reiterated, before replying: "Very good." He drew Evelyn's furs closer +about her neck, protectingly. "I take you at your word. But we must +invent some excuse for our going off together. We must elude pursuit. +Above all, we must get rid of your friend, the Irishman." + +"I trust Sergeant Scarlett," said Evelyn. + +"And so do I!" cried Raish, with assumed cordiality. "I trust that +excellent young man to do his duty and win promotion at all costs. The +Sergeant makes love like an Irishman, Miss Durant. Ah, I saw!" he +checked her protest. "But believe me, not even for your bright eyes will +he sacrifice his loyalty to the government he serves by countenancing a +dicker with the thieves, its enemies." + +"Let us leave the Sergeant out of the discussion," cried Evelyn, with +blazing cheeks. "What do you propose?--for by your manner I see you have +some plan." + +"The plan is not mine. I never should have ventured to suggest it," +answered Raish. "It is your father's, entirely. He and I were taken +prisoners together. I, as the unimportant man, financially, am used as +intermediary, being sent here, on parole, to treat with you for his +release. Spies are dogging my footsteps. Meanwhile, his life is hostage, +until I return with you in my charge. Your father, ever scrupulous, +fearing compromising comment, were you to travel with me alone, day and +night, as we shall have to do, advised----" He paused, as if delicacy +made the words difficult. "Miss Durant, he wishes you to go through a +form of marriage with me first." + +"I marry you!" gasped Evelyn. + +"As a matter of form only; to be dissolved when your father's freedom is +secured." + +"Never--never! It is impossible!" + +"Very good. I will carry back that answer." Raish turned to go. "You +send your love to him, I suppose, Miss Durant, and as he is a very sick +man, good-by?" + +"Stop," she commanded him. "Give me a few moments. You are _sure_ my +father said that--about a marriage ceremony?" + +"Aye, furthermore, he wrote it," Raish assured her. "Though to clear +myself from any suspicion of interested motives I begged him to send the +letter by another messenger. You should already have received it from +the hand of Walter Pierce." + +"Miss Durant! Where is Miss Durant? Oh, Miss Durant!" At the moment +Maclane's agitated voice came toward them. As Evelyn, responding, +emerged from the thicket he met her, breathlessly. Chilkat Jo, whom he +had despatched to Lost Shoe Creek for Evelyn, had returned some time +before to announce that he had met her by the way, but the minister, not +expecting her for hours, had to be hunted up among the cabins further +on, whither he had gone on some errand of mercy. "I only just heard of +your arrival. How providential that you should have chosen this of all +days for your expedition! A poor lad--Chilkat Joseph and I found him by +the wayside--the victim, I fear, of foul play, has brought you tidings +of your father." As he spoke he was hurrying her toward the spot where +young Pierce lay. + +"Walter Pierce--my father!" Evelyn almost shrieked in her excitement, +but at a warning sign from Travers, who had followed her, controlled +herself. "I have been expecting him." + +"After all I fear it is too late." Maclane touched pulse and brow. "He +is beyond human help. He will not speak again." Kneeling by the sled he +began prayers for the passing soul, when he was interrupted by a cry +from Evelyn, as Walter's arm, which had rested loosely across his +breast, fell stiffly by his side, disclosing an open letter which, as +she saw immediately, was in her father's hand. + +"Women are dead easy--women and parsons," chuckled Raish, who had +adroitly placed the missive where Evelyn found it. Going to her where +she stood, apart, reading her father's transcription of Nick's behest to +Gelly, "Well," he asked, "now are you convinced?" + +"One moment, please!" Without explanation to him, Evelyn ran up the +hill where, international formalities complied with, under the two flags +the Bully was bidding his followers farewell. + +"Dear, dear Nick"--she clasped his handcuffed fists in her soft, warm +palms--"you welcomed me to the district; you are my oldest friend. Tell +me, when did you last see my father?" + +"Lucky? Why, now come ter think of it, Lucky were here not an hour +since. Fit as a fiddle, now warn't he, boys? Grand reports of the +Rainbow Mine. Shovelin' out pay-dirt like greased lightnin'! Ain't thet +so, boys? Sent love, of course, and he'd be in ter see yer ter-morrer. +His own words, d'ye see? Eh, boys?" + +To which the boys, challenged by Nick's fiery eye, loyally responded: +"Sure! Thet's what! Betcherlife!" + +Evelyn looked from face to face and read that, beneath a clumsy mask, +through heroic but mistaken kindness, ill news was being held back from +her. "Thank you all so much," she replied, and, turning, ran downhill to +rejoin Raish. + +Sarah intercepted her. "Miss, I think we had ought to be getting back to +camp. The orphans are behaving scandalous, getting themselves engaged +three deep. I don't know as you can blame 'em, miss. I suppose it's a +microbe. I myself have just refused three marriages and two guilty +loves." + +"I shall have to leave you to manage the orphans, Sarah." Evelyn smiled +an odd smile. "I myself am going to be married and start off on a +honeymoon immediately." + +"You don't say, miss!" The maid raised her eyebrows. "Well, a common +soldier is hardly in the same social class as my own Scotch intended, +with a literary turn and a copper proposition, but I will say that +Sergeant Scarlett looks and acts quite the gentleman." + +"Oh, it's not Sergeant Scarlett! It is the Mr. Travers who looked after +us so civilly aboard the Skagway boat." + +Sarah's eyebrow's went up further still. "Indeed, miss! He's very smart +in his dress, yet--however, I suppose everything goes in a country where +no one minds the clocks." + +Meanwhile, with the assistance of Ikey, Maclane, having covered the +funereal sled with the Stars and Stripes loaned by Gumboot Annie, drew +it across to poor Walter's own side of the dividing line, that his +mortal remains might rest in their native soil. + +When he came to seek Evelyn, to consult her about the last rites, she +met him with a strange request, to the effect that first he should +unite her with all despatch and secrecy to one Mr. Horatio Travers, whom +she then and there presented to him. + +"My dear young lady!" The minister stared at her. "Isn't this decision +very sudden? Forgive my interference, but you being alone up here, and +so young----" + +"I'm twenty-two," Evelyn assured him, "and that's middle-aged for a New +York girl." + +In spite of the bravado of her manner, her tone so wholly lacked all +bridal joyousness that Maclane was impelled to draw her aside and ask: +"Is this act of your own free will?" + +"Heavens, yes!" she asserted, confidently. "No one on earth could make +me do anything I didn't choose to." + +"Nevertheless," the minister demurred, "let me entreat you to defer so +important a step till you can consult your father." + +"It is my father's desire, expressed with an emphasis that makes it +almost a command," averred Evelyn, solemnly. "And conveyed to me at the +price of that poor lad's life." + +Still dissatisfied, but without sufficing reason for refusing, Maclane +put the usual questions to the prospective groom. As witness, Travers +introduced old Blenksoe, who, having disposed of Durant, had ambled up, +calling him a dear old family retainer--a lifelong friend. + +"That's me," corroborated the old sinner. "Rough an' ready, but allus in +it with Raish. Not only is Raish by nature and eddication fitted to +adorn the proudest spear, but he's a square proposition. Ye kin safely +leave it ter Raish, every time." + +"Well," reluctantly the minister consented, "where is your license?" + +"A license!" exclaimed Travers. "What for?" + +"To legalize the marriage," Maclane instructed him. "You must get one +from the Gold Commissioner or Justice of the Peace." + +"Then that queers the show," stated old Blenksoe, "sence thar ain't no +gold round these here diggings, nor no justice, nor no peace." + +"Is there no way of dispensing with it, under exceptional +circumstances?" Evelyn asked, anxiously. "If you knew how imperative my +reason for desiring haste----" + +"In lieu of it, then," the minister conceded, "I will accept a copy of +the appropriate clause of the Dominion Marriage Act, signed by the +Mounted Policeman in charge of the district where Miss Durant resides." + +And before Raish, who sprang forward, with an oath, could stop him, he +had entered the Customs building, calling for Sergeant Scarlett. + + + + +XII + +NORTHERN LIGHTS + + +Scarlett looked from Evelyn to Travers and back again, in bewilderment, +dismay. "Miss Durant," he at last found voice to say, "surely there is +some mistake! Surely there's no love lost between ye and +this--gentleman!" + +"My private affairs, my feelings, seem to cause a great deal of +unnecessary comment," remarked Evelyn, hiding her emotion under a mask +of irony. "May I beg you to refrain from criticism, and to give us the +requisite authority?" + +Scarlett looked at her fixedly, and seeing her control weaken, her color +change, and her eyes fill and falter beneath his penetrating gaze, shook +his head. "That I must absolutely decline to do!" + +"And why, pray?" she commanded herself to ask. + +"Oh, the reason is plain!" Raish sneeringly interposed. "Every one knows +the Sergeant's own matrimonial aspirations. Every one has heard of the +cheap device by which on the very day of her arrival he tried to worm +himself into the favor of my fiancée. If he did but know it, her +father's chief reason for insisting on the immediate celebration of our +marriage is to protect her from the persecutions of adventurers!" + +"I beg," cried Evelyn, checking Scarlett's furious retort, "that there +may be no such personalities! Mr. Travers, pray understand that I do +not, in the least, assent to your characterization of the Sergeant, who, +up to this moment, has treated me and my friends with the utmost +delicate consideration and chivalry!" + +"Forgive me, dearest"--Raish took her hand. "I spoke too warmly! Yet who +could blame me? Come, come, my good Sergeant, put your name to that +paper without further ado, unless you wish to suffer under the +imputation of sacrificing official honor to personal revenge." + +Not deigning to heed the taunt, Scarlett turned to the minister. "I +can't sign, because down in yonder valley is a lass in a red cloak who +has a prior claim upon this man." + +Raish forced a contemptuous laugh. "The red-cloak, who should not even +be mentioned in this presence, may stay in the valley for me. My +acquaintance with the red-cloak belongs to a day before I knew Evelyn. +She condones the past, accepts the dedication of my future life." +Drawing Evelyn aside, he whispered, "Don't be alarmed. My pledge holds +good. This is all bluff, my doing the devoted, to throw them off the +track." Stooping suddenly he kissed her. + +"My young friend," Maclane restrained and admonished Scarlett, "my +sympathies are yours wholly. But are you not exceeding your authority?" + +"Aye," confessed the Irishman, "I'm stretching it a bit, maybe, to fit +me intuitions. Dominie, I tell ye 'tis a fishy business. Not an hour +since, the girl was in these arms of mine, lip to lip, and liking it. +And now, look at her shudder at that fellow's touch." + +"Sergeant Scarlett"--breaking from Raish, Evelyn came to him and laid a +coaxing hand upon his arm--"I know that in your heart you are despising +me for a cheap coquette. And I deserve it. I have given you cause to +think the worst of me. I can't explain. But if you could only read my +heart--could only know what this means to me--it's the happiness of my +life! It will be misery to the end of my days if I fail him at this +supreme test. You're magnanimous, above all pettiness, I know. You +simply want to save me, as you think, from making a mistake. But believe +me, trust me, I know what I'm about. Now, will you do me the greatest +favor one human being ever entreated of another, by signing your name to +that document?" + +Scarlett looked tenderly down on her, and, swayed against his judgment +by her earnestness, he might have yielded, had not the Dandy +inopportunely added the word too much. + +"Sergeant Scarlett will hardly dare take the consequences of refusing +when I tell him that without the protection of my name Miss Durant will +be irretrievably compromised!" + +Scarlett checked an almost overwhelming impulse to kick the speaker. +Instead, he took Evelyn's cold fingers into his honest grasp. "I'd give +my name to shield ye, my life to serve ye, and now I'm going to risk my +official honor, to--as I think, to save ye." He tore up the paper. + +Above the general outcry that ensued, Sarah's tones were heard. "A +pretty country where you can't marry whom you please! America's good +enough for me!" + +"America!" exclaimed Evelyn, struck by a sudden thought. "Are there +such restrictions with us in America?" + +"Unfortunately not, my dear," replied Maclane, who had once occupied a +Chicago pastorate. "In the States the sacred tie is made and broken far +more easily." + +"Then, quick," she cried, "across the boundary!" And seizing Travers' +hand she ran, the others following breathlessly, not halting till she +reached the tall mast from which proudly floated the emblem of the free. + +"God in Heaven!" Scarlett looked after her, his personal grief swallowed +up in anxiety. "Is there no power above, below, to stop a wilful woman +from cutting her own throat with a wedding-ring?" He cast about for aid. +Barney, who might have thrown some light on the plot, had returned to +duties at headquarters, but Nick and Gelly might yet be reached in time, +and for them he sent messengers flying. Meanwhile, he bethought himself +of Chilkat Jo. Sheltered by the Customs water-butt, he found the trader +squatting peaceably, whittling a mimic totem-pole. On his shoulder +Scarlett laid a gauntleted hand. "Chilkat Jo, man, look what devil's +work is going on forninst ye! Can't ye say the word to stop it?" + +There was an appreciable pause while, with a silken sound, the soft +shavings curled, fell, under the skilful knife. Then without looking up, +the Siwash gently replied, "Me no such godam-hellan-blazes Clistian +fool! Laish mally Missy Dulant! I mally Gelly!" + +In desperation Scarlett strode toward the bridal group, reaching it just +as the minister's solemn tones rolled forth, challenging the wilderness +to show just cause or impediment why these two persons might not +lawfully be joined together. + +"Just or unjust," he shouted, "sure it's myself will furnish the +impediment"--as, collaring the bridegroom, with a series of violent +jerks he sent him flying back into precincts that rendered him amenable +to Dominion law, where he neatly knocked him down, and sat on him. "Now, +I've got ye in my own jurisdiction, I'll detain ye as a suspicious +person till evidence for or against ye is forthcoming!" Maclane's +protests, Evelyn's tears, Sarah's shrieks and taunts, and old Blenksoe's +curses were as unavailing as Raish's struggles; the young giant held the +position by main force till Nick, who had been easily overtaken, by +courtesy of his custodians arrived in response to the recall. + +"There, there," Scarlett soothed the squirming Dandy. "If I find I'm +mistaken; if that damned incriminating face of yours belies ye, sure +I'll apologize in sackcloth and give ye the satisfaction of a +gentleman." Jerking Travers to his feet, he confronted him with Gelly's +father. "Nick," he inquired, "what is your unvarnished opinion of this +fellow?" + +"Wa'al, thar's things in his past," admitted the Bully, "same as in most +men's, thet you wouldn't hold up as a shinin' example to a +Sunday-school, d'ye see? But bygones is bygones. Arter wot he projected +ter-day, I've nought but good words fer Dandy Raish." + +"Not another syllable, Nick, I beg," Travers hastened to cut short the +Bully's elogium at a period so favorable to his plans. "Now, Sergeant, +we accept your apology for your ill-directed zeal, and dispense with +your further company." + +"Say, Scarlett," wrathfully demanded Nick, "I kin cheek yer now I'm +goin' ter be hanged by U. S. law! Take yer hands off'n Raish! Wot the +hell d'ye mean by damagin' my son-in-law?" + +"Your son-in-law?" in one breath cried Evelyn, Sarah and Maclane. + +"I sent my gal a letter," elucidated Nick. "Your pop Lucky put it in +writin' fer me, Missy. That's it you got in your hand." + +"This letter! And that villain made me believe---- Oh, oh, oh!" Evelyn +burst into a flood of humiliated tears. + +"You black scoundrel; you'd 'a' deceived her as you deceived my gal!" +Nick made a blind rush at Raish, but was held back by his custodians. +"Sure as thar's a God in Heaven, Raish," he vowed, as they restrained +him, "I'll live ter kill ye yet!" + +Vain threat! A sharp sound cleft the crystal air and, echoing, died away +in soft detonations among the hills. The Dandy threw up his hands as he +had forced so many luckless travelers to do in his career of highway +robbery, and fell, gracefully, as he did everything, face downward, with +a little trickle of blood, upon the snow. With a shriek of anguish a +girl in a red cloak, who had been speeding up the hill, threw herself +beside him, calling his name with all the loving epithets that even the +lowest of the low seems able to win from some woman's heart. + +Tears wrung from his being's depths for baffled retribution coursing +down his rough cheeks, the Bully lifted pinioned hands to Heaven and +uttered the one prayer of his life: "O Almighty Gawd, with all respect, +why did You butt in? O Gawd! I've made cold meat of a score o' men on +end from fust ter last! But they was jes' accident or playfulness, d'ye +see? This here skunk were the only livin' thing I ever hankered fer ter +kill! And Thou hast called my bluff, and took the wind outen my sails by +puttin' the shootin'-iron of my vengeance inter another's hand! Thar +ain't no four-flushin' Thee, O Gawd! Thou hast plumb squared the +reckonin' fer all my sins, past and ter come, world without end. Amen." + +Whose the hand that shot Dandy Raish no one ever knew, though many a +young fool, in his cups, boasted of the high distinction. In the case of +a man so universally detested perhaps official enquiry thought it policy +to rest. But, possessed at the moment by a literal interpretation of +duty, with a heavy heart the good minister sought his favorite Indian +proselyte. + +Sitting beside him, where he found him whittling peaceably in the +shelter of the Customs water-butt, "O Joseph, Chilkat Jo," sighing, he +began. "My son, if on your hands there be blood-guiltiness, you must +repent, confess!" + +The soft shavings slithered, curled and fell, as the emblem of the Raven +and the Frog grew beneath the skilful knife. Then, in unimpassioned +monotone, the Indian remarked, "Some day, when I velly old, old chief, I +lepent, confess, make godam-hellan-blazes Clistian deathbed. But +now----" He paused to twist the weird features of his tribal god into an +inscrutable smile. "Now, I mally Gelly." + +It was the cool of the evening. From behind the mountains northern +lights shot up in streamers of living green and rose. There was a sound +of bells, and "mushing," as the drivers harnessed up their dog-teams to +carry the picnickers back to camp. Scarlett looked over at Evelyn with +an odd contraction of the heart, where the bud of hope was trembling for +life under the icy hand of circumstance, but as she did not appear to +notice him he turned and went on his own road without farewell. + +Then Evelyn went to Gelly where, the violence of her grief spent, she +still crouched beside her lover's stiffening form. Putting an arm about +her, "Come. Come home with me to live," she said. "Yes." For Gelly +looked up with resentment changing to incredulity. "Please. As a favor +to me. I have so much to learn. I need you." + + + + +XIII + +A YEAR AFTER + + +Winter had come and gone; spring had passed into a new summer. In the +prosperous township of Lost Shoe Creek no one would have recognized the +god-forsaken camp of the year before. While the locality was generally +condemned as an auriferous proposition, its situation fitted it +admirably for base of supplies to other creeks: Abe Lincoln, Jubilee, +Old Glory and Princess May, where hydraulic machinery had been +established and placer claims were being worked with profitable, if not +phenomenal, results. + +Some critics attributed the marvelous transformation that had taken +place to the presence of women, dating from the arrival of Evelyn and +her party; others to the gospel tidings of good-will brought by Parson +Maclane, when, wild rose in buttonhole, and followed by his dogs, +Telegraph and Wrangel, he came running on the trail. A third faction +was for giving the credit to law and order, personified by the +ubiquitous young soldier, Sergeant Scarlett, and his right-hand man, +Barney. But the wise set it down to the trinity of saving influences. + +For Evelyn the time had been one of unusual happiness. Learning early +that the boundless wealth of which she supposed herself possessor was +not a popular subject among folk to whom daily bread came hardly, she +wisely decided to omit mention of it from her conversation. Also, +finding herself likely to be embarrassed for ready money, since credit +was denied her, she followed Scarlett's excellent advice to try roughing +it, with excellent results. Moreover, at the suggestion of the good +Graysons, whose neighborliness she soon learned to value, and loyally +backed by the "boys," she opened a real-estate office at Lost Shoe +Creek, with a branch at Perdu, showing herself an admirable business +woman. Amateur theatricals, concerts, and ice-carnivals had brightened +the dark season, when mining-camps in the North are as desert islands, +cut off from all communication with the outside; and for the first time +in her life Evelyn tasted the unalloyed pleasure that springs from +giving pleasure and helpfulness that money cannot buy. One sorrow only +dimmed her sky: the continued absence of her father. No one told her +that, far and wide, official search was being made for Matthew Durant, +nicknamed Lucky, who, on a fateful day of the previous summer had +disappeared as utterly as had the earth in which he worked opened to +engulf him; she still believed, uncontradicted, that his vast interests +were detaining him somewhere among the baffling distances of snow-capped +hills, and that any hour that suited him would bring him back to her. + +[Illustration: THE UBIQUITOUS YOUNG SOLDIER, SERGEANT SCARLETT.] + +It was the day when, by the most lovable of paradoxes, in that region, +two festivals--one of independence declared, one of allegiance +covenanted--are celebrated, with crossed flags: Dominion Day and the +Fourth of July, in one. + +On this particular anniversary gala preparations of extra splendor were +afoot in honor of the return of Bully Nick, once more a free man, not +because in equity he was held worthy to be at large, so much as through +a technical slip by which but six jurors had been requisitioned to sit +on his case, whereas, as his backers claimed, he was territorially +entitled to be adjudged guilty by a full dozen good men and true. + +"Well, I'm dazzled fer fair," announced the hero, as, amid cheers from +his friends and followers, he alighted from the stage. "This here +bloomin' Paradise ain't never Lost Shoe Creek." + +"Sure, 'tis! Betcherboots! That's what!" he was assured. + +Nick rubbed astonished eyes. "By gum, a Gospel-mill!" + +"Aye, and filled to overflowing every Sabbath, Nicholas," proudly stated +good Maclane. + +"Wa'al, y' see," Mops hastened to apologize to his leader for this hated +concession to religion, "the gals like piousness." + +The neat jail next the church was described by Barney as "just an impty +forrum intoirely, owing to the ladies' distaste for the spacies of bird +such cages are controived for, begorra!" + +The decorative touch to the personal appearance of his followers, in +honor of the holiday, naturally came in for the Bully's quizzical +attention: their shorn faces; the soap "with the tony smell" in vogue; +the paper collars with jeweled studs in which, all day, Ikey had been +doing a rushing trade, were noted by him categorically till Bill +silenced him by stating that "style was like for to fetch the girls." + +Gumboot Annie, to whose hostelry he was conducted to drink his own +health, had been allowed to reopen, he was informed, under close +restriction and surveillance from "that blamed Scarlett." Nevertheless, +as she told Nick, spitting with deliberation, not being in business for +salubrious ends merely, she was making great profit out of "moderate +drinkin' and no drunks," through the girls' preference for sober +cavaliers. Or, as she phrased it, "the gals won't swaller the booze." + +This was too much for the Bully's equanimity. "The gals, indeed!" +Slapping his knee, he chuckled. "The hell!" + +"Eh, Nicholas?" the minister challenged him. "Did I understand you to +say 'the hell?'" + +"The hell you did, Parson!" The Bully turned on him truculently. "And +what the hell hev you agin it?" + +"If no better argument, Nicholas," smiled Maclane, "the girls won't +stand for hell." + +"Parson," Nick acknowledged his defeat, "the drinks is on me." Later he +took occasion to state, "I ain't convarted. But, say, Parson, you're +jes' the squarest proposition Gawd ever grub-staked ter prospect fer +human souls, and, say--I won't oppose you none. And when I pass in my +checks jes' you stand by my grave, and put up a little prayer fer my +epitaffy, 'He done his level damnedest, angels cud no more. Amen.'" +Then he took from Gelly's arms the fine infant she had brought to show +him, described by its fond father as "a velly godam skukum Clistian +baby." Dandling it tenderly, "See here, son," he adjured it, "ef I find +indications of you takin' arter me--gamblin', cussin', drinkin',--why, +grandpop 'ull spankee, d'ye see?" + +His mind thus freed, his future pacific course outlined, Nick inquired, +circumstantially for "the girls." Sarah, he learned, was the great lady +of the place, making a large income as a "lady-barber," her firm hand, +unshaken as her masculine competitors were apt to be by sprees, making +her a peculiarly safe artist to be trusted to operate with a razor in +the region of the jugular, and her husband's copper proposition still +remaining an undeveloped asset, she was forcing him to work for regular +wage as a teamster. In spite of which, on his occasional lapses Sandy +was wont to boast that at heart he was "a mon for a' that." + +The orphans all had settled down; Mary, having discovered a new violet +at the foot of a glacier, had paired off with the young botanist who had +been sent out from Ottawa to report on the flora of the region. Ruth was +running postoffice and postmaster. Ethel and the town doctor had made a +match. Kate's lot was cast with Bill, now doing assessment work and +writing to his mother regularly. Effie had pre-empted the young editor +of the weekly _Claim_, helping both to write his editorials and set them +up in type. Gertrude had struck it rich with the bank manager. All would +be on hand at the ball to-night. No, Evelyn had not made a choice. Rumor +assigned her to Scarlett, yet how matters stood between them no man +could say with certainty. + +At this the Bully's eye took on a fiery glow. "Ef thet thar uniformed +cuss is a-playin' fast an' loose with Lucky's gal, d'ye see, it's up ter +me to set it straight!" And, forthwith, he led the way to Evelyn's +bower. + +Evelyn was found, outside her cabin, superintending the arrangements for +a grand display of fireworks in honor of the double holiday; the +crowning piece to show the two flags crossed beneath a wondrous rainbow. +By a coincidence that exactly suited the Bully's plans, Scarlett was, at +the minute, seen approaching. After greetings had been interchanged with +all heartiness, suddenly the young soldier found himself surrounded by +the men--Nick, in the center, pointing a gun at his heart. Evelyn +shrieked, and would have interposed, but was forced back by hands +roughly tender, tenderly peremptory. + +"Well, boys," asked Scarlett, calmly, "is this some new kind of game?" + +"Thet's as mebbe," answered Nick. "See here, Missy Durant, it ain't +human natur fer a gal ter stay single in a minin'-camp." + +"That's what!" the boys interrupted him to say. + +"And I reckon you've had your pick of every miner an' prospector in the +district--aye, and loafer, worthy of the name!" + +"Sure! Betcherlife!" the boys confirmed him. + +"Now," concluded the Bully, magnificently, "the question we're debatin' +is jes' this: Hev you give this here blamed Scarlett the mitten, or hev +you not?" + +Evelyn laughed merrily. "To tell the truth, Nick, he hasn't given the +opportunity--as yet." + +"And I wouldn't take it if she gave it me," added the soldier, referring +to the mitten. + +The Bully looked from one to the other, and, in spite of their enigmatic +replies, reading in the glances they exchanged some happy understanding, +surrendered for good and all. + +"Boys," he announced, "the drinks, as usual, is on us when we run up +agin the church, perlice, and gals--Here, Parson." He handed his weapon +to Maclane who, fearing trouble, had hurried to the spot. "Keep this +here shootin'-iron. I ain't fit ter be trusted with it, d'ye see? When I +want a shot at moose or ptarmigan I'll borrow the loan of it from you." + +"That's what! Betcherlife!" applauded the boys. + +When, at last, they found themselves left together, Evelyn held up a +mocking finger at her lover. "To think you had to be coerced! For +shame!" + +"I wanted to give ye time," he explained, "to feel surer of yourself and +me." + +"I knew it," she exclaimed. "You feared I might suspect you of +interested motives. But the surest proof of my love for you has been my +certainty that you care for me for myself alone, not for what I bring." + +"That's the sweetest thing that ever has come from your lips," announced +the soldier. "Not another word till I taste a sweeter." + +He was about to illustrate his meaning when Barney's voice was heard, +discreetly inquiring of the landscape for "himself." + +Affecting, for the first time, to perceive his superior, "Och, are ye +there, sorr?" saluting, he inquired. + +"Here or there, I'm beside myself with joy," remarked Scarlett _sotto +voce_. "Well, Barney, what's that you bring?" + +"If appearances are not desayving, sorr, I'm thinking 'tis a letther. +Our rint-roll, I'm thinking." He stood by with an air of partnership +while Scarlett opened the envelope. + +"Your rent-roll!" Puzzled, Evelyn looked at the address. "'Sir Gerald +Scarlett.' Is that some joke?" + +"A hereditary wan, begorra," Barney hastened to assure her. "It runs in +our family." + +"More roll than rent, though." Scarlett held out to her a long, legally +drawn-up document. + +"Not to mintion the castle," remarked Barney. + +"Just a ruin in a bit of a potato patch," Scarlett hastened to apologize +for his ancestral glories. + +"And a cow to chaperon it--God bless her!" Barney saluted respectfully, +as he turned to go. + +Sir Gerald looked down on his lady-love with laughing eyes. + +"My offence is rank," he quoted. + +"Oh, it's not an unpardonable sin," Evelyn assured him, also laughing, +but confused. "What a goose you must have thought me all this time--the +way I have condescended to you!" + +"The greater my triumph in winning you on my own recognizances," he +replied. + +Evelyn held him at arms' length, contemplatively. "What a difference," +she remarked, "between the myself of to-day and of a year ago! Then I +should have suspected myself of being influenced by this--but now +nothing seems to matter so much as that we care for each other." + +"Miss Durant! O Miss Durant!" The lovers broke apart as, by a cross-cut +through the bushes, the minister came hurrying toward them. "Here +is--some one who brings you news of your father." + +He pointed to an elderly man who, with lagging footstep, followed him. + +"Of daddy? Hurrah!" Evelyn clapped her hands. "That was the one thing +needed to complete my happiness! How is he? And where? Why hasn't he +come to me himself?" she demanded impatiently of the stranger. + +"Our friend here has traveled far," Maclane gently reminded her. "He is +worn and spent." + +"Oh, how thoughtless I am!" As Evelyn placed the newcomer in a +comfortable chair she noticed that his features, as she saw them between +his slouch hat and heavy beard, were pinched, and that his frame was +bowed beyond his years, as if from recent suffering. "How tired you +look! You have been ill?" she asked him considerately. + +"He has undergone great hardships for the sake of a dearly loved +daughter," Maclane hastened to explain. "He has escaped with but little +besides his life. But for that let us give thanks. Let us make him feel +that, so long as he is spared, his daughter will not mind poverty." + +"To be sure!" Evelyn tried not to show the impatience she felt at the +concerns of outsiders being placed before her own, with a touch of her +old patronizing manner adding, "And I dare say my father and I can +arrange matters so that this good man's daughter need not complain of +poverty." + +The stranger opened his lips to speak, but unable to command himself, +turned his head aside with a slight groan. + +With an inexplicable foreboding, Evelyn looked from him to Maclane, and +in the latter's kind eyes reading a deep pity, "What is wrong?" she +faltered. "Has anything happened to my father?" + +"Nothing that sympathy and loving care cannot cure," replied the +minister. "Mr. Durant was on his way to you a year ago when he fell into +the power of ruffians, even as Travers, for his own evil purposes, +informed you. After serious ill-treatment at their hands he escaped, but +so broken in mind and body that for months he wandered about, unable to +fix his own identity or put himself in communication with his friends. +Now, thank God, he is almost cured." + +"He shall be completely so, if, as you say, love can accomplish it." +Evelyn started up. "I'll go to him at once." She addressed the stranger. +"Where is he?" + +"First----" Again Maclane hurriedly interposed. "There is something you +should know about your father's finances. He is not rich, as you think +him. By incessant toil from time to time he used to make vast sums, as +miners are apt to do--and as miners are apt to do, he spent as fast as +he made, his one extravagance being your pleasure. But the inexhaustible +supply, the purse of Fortunatus--that was a fable that somehow grew up +between your romanticism and his optimism. It does not exist. It never +has existed. To-day he is absolutely penniless." + +The words rained on her like hailstones. Evelyn met them, standing +erect, very white and still. + +At last, "I do not grasp your meaning," she replied. "Every one in the +district knows that my father is a very rich man." + +"Not so." Maclane shook his head. "Every one knows the reverse; has +always known it. Believe me, my child, what I tell you is true." + +"My father's wealth does not exist." Evelyn's mind seemed to take slow, +cautious steps backward over the minister's statements, with every +impact feeling surer of the truth. "To-day he is absolutely penniless. +Every one knows it; has always known it. Then why," she demanded with +sudden passion, "has it been kept from me?" + +"Out of kindness," replied Maclane, simply. + +"Kindness!" Evelyn laughed scornfully, hysterically; calmed herself, +then laughed again. "Kindness! When I recall how I used to brag of what +my wealth would do for the place--and all the time, poor fool that I am, +I have been the laughing-stock----" + +"Again not so," emphatically said Maclane. "Think how quickly you fell +into our primitive ways, becoming the heart and spirit of the camp. +Believe me, Evelyn, you have endeared yourself, accomplished a thousand +times as much by this year's bread-winning toil and good-fellowship as +had you been the Lady Bountiful you started out to be. It isn't money +that builds up camps, closing dives and opening reading-rooms--it's +neighborliness--working and suffering with people, side by side. And in +all his grief, remorse for your bitter disappointment, your poor father +may take this comfort: that it has been the making of you as a woman, +just as you, the real woman, have been the making of the camp." + +"Thank you." Evelyn spoke in a hard little dry voice. "Some day I may +bring myself to see it in that light." She took a few steps to and fro, +then came to a standstill opposite the minister. "Mr. Maclane, I want +you to give my love to the 'boys'--to all who, by their silence, have +shielded me as they thought, from the painful truth. Tell them that I +appreciate it. Also ask them to try not to show that they pity me. I'm +going to do something that's not easy for me. It would be easiest to go +away to a strange place, where I could hide my head--but I have my poor +father to think of. I have a good business here, which will support us +both decently, at least. I shall bring him here to care for him--and +mind! not one word of reproach, or mockery, is he ever to hear from any +one! Not one word!" + +"Bravely spoken," cried Maclane. "Oh, there's happiness in store for +you, my child. You'll see." + +"Together, sweetheart!" Scarlett, who had been standing by in mute +distress for her great trouble, now came to her and took her hand. +"We'll fight it out together--you and I." + +"Oh, no." Evelyn wrenched her hand from him. "That is all over. Things +are changed with me. My eyes are open at last. I can forgive every one +but you, Sir Gerald Scarlett--you who let me condescend to you, lead you +on--and finally almost do the asking!" + +"Faith, your eyes may be open, but they don't see as straight as they +did when closed," Scarlett indignantly contradicted her. "I've loved ye +all along, and sooner; since the moment I saw your picture smiling up to +me among the roses." + +"We won't discuss it. I only know"--Evelyn's voice broke--"I never want +to see you again." + +"But if only I could make people understand--believe in me----" + +The stranger, who, all this time, had been sitting bowed forward, +his face buried in his hands, suddenly broke forth. "It's not a +fable! The Rainbow Mine--it's _true!_ I discovered it the day--but +where--where--where? My God, where?" He looked about wildly. + +Evelyn turned sharply on the speaker. "Who are you?" + +Matthew Durant, his passion spent, lifted streaming eyes to his +daughter's face. "Don't you know me, Evie?" + +"Oh, no, no! You're not--oh, daddy!" Falling on her knees beside him, +she gathered the feeble form into her strong young arms. + +Then Maclane led Scarlett quietly away. + + + + +XIV + +CONCLUSION + + +Within the cabin her father was resting peacefully. While eating the +food she set before him, he told Evelyn the history of his wonderful +discovery, as it came back, fragmentarily, to his blurred memory, and +she, the better to bring him back, as she thought, to sanity, humored +his delusion by not betraying incredulity. + +At the mission where he had been tended during the long illness that +followed his captivity, so he explained, he had purposely given a +fictitious name and account of himself, lest the truth should somehow +reach Blenksoe, thus furnishing the clue to the whereabouts of the +unstaked mine, which precaution also accounted for his having eluded the +diligent search that the Mounted Police had never ceased to prosecute +since his disappearance. From Blenksoe, however, he had no longer +anything to fear; that arch-conspirator having gone the way of his +leader, Dandy Raish, by the avenging bullet from some victim's hand. + +And, now, please God, he concluded, restored health would bring back +recollection, enabling him to unearth the pot of gold to which the +heavenly sign had pointed him. + +When, at last, her loving tendance had won him to sleep, Evelyn went out +into the cool air, to draw a long breath and readjust her reckonings +with life that the day's events had thus cruelly disturbed. + +It was the sunset's glowing aftermath that, to the pilgrims of the +north, alone justifies a long journey from conditions that those +hide-bound with conventions are inclined to associate with creature +comfort, opening a new wonderland of beauty. In such regions where +nature is elemental, man becomes elementary, feeling himself in the +Almighty's workshop, in close communication with the powers of life, +dealt with, not by subtle processes that the artificial conditions of +city life have engendered, but swiftly, directly, summarily, as in the +days of burning bush and pillars of flame. + +Gazing over the now prosperous township of Lost Shoe Creek, across the +lake, to the colossal mountains shutting it in from that "outside," to +which even miners so heavily under the mysterious spell of the North +that nothing ever could induce them to forsake it, still never ceases +fondly to speak of as "God's country," Evelyn seemed to herself to be +born again. Had she known it, it was then that she attained the noblest +moment of her being, resolving, even as she already had resolved to meet +it bravely, also to meet this uncompromising blow of providence without +bitterness; if possible with love. + +Hearing Durant move within, she was about to go to him when her +attention was arrested by a tatterdemalion figure at her gate, +beseeching charity. + +"Mademoiselle--peety ze poor!" + +"Alphonse!" she exclaimed, recognizing the once jaunty person of her +former courier, alias Count St. Hilaire. + +Alphonse, who had not thought of her from that day to this, in turn +recognizing her, hastened to attribute his present pitiful plight as the +deserved vengeance of an outraged Heaven for his baseness in despoiling +one of its own angels of kodak and motorcar. "But," he wept, "zese +fruits of sin did not long time 'dure. Ze automobile she bust, zen I +bust--and now--I have a such hunger." + +In spite of the weight of sadness at her heart, Evelyn could not but +smile. It was one of the jests of the great powers--jests that are, +nevertheless, always tinged with irony, this confronting her with the +scarecrow of her whilom splendor at the supreme hour of her misery. + +Grateful for food which he devoured eagerly, overwhelmed by the gift of +a small sum she bestowed on him to enable him to prosecute his journey, +Alphonse sought some expression of his feelings beyond his mere copious +Gallic thanks. He was selling photographs for a living, and he besought +mademoiselle, could she bring herself to overlook the regrettable fact +that they were the product of her own camera, to accept the choicest +example of his art--a veritable triumph, an arc-en-ciel--a rainbow! + +Involuntarily, Evelyn shuddered at the word. Would the gods never cease +their mocking sport, she wondered, even while with becoming graciousness +she thanked Alphonse and sent him on his way, rejoicing. She still held +the picture in her hand, carelessly, occupied with her thoughts, when +she heard a cry from Durant, who had come out without her noticing him, +and was looking over her shoulder. + +"My God! Evelyn! Look," he cried. "The mine--The Rainbow!" + +"Father, dear," she sought to soothe him, "it is nothing--merely a +chance photograph." + +"Nothing? It is my witness, my record," answered Durant. "No, Evie, I'm +not mad. This clears away the last cloud. Examine it carefully." Getting +out his prospector's glass, he polished the lens carefully and held it +over the photograph. + +Evelyn looked, as she was bidden, at first merely to humor him, then +with awakening interest as, under the glass's magnifying power, she +studied the picture in detail. In his passion for the picturesque +Alphonse had, indeed, put her camera to good use. In this composition he +had caught a striking moment: Durant himself, in his rough miner's garb, +standing with arms flung up, as if in thankfulness to Heaven, while near +by, beside a half-uprooted willow-bush, knelt Walter Pierce with an +expression of wonder on his young face; while in the background, beyond +the creek, stood the imperturbable mountains, spanned by a faint, +elusive rainbow. + +"This is the very spot!" Durant laughed like a happy boy. "Lost Shoe +Creek! Fancy forgetting even the name!--I had always believed in it, +though every other miner turned it down. It had shared the fate of +hundreds of other northern camps: a new strike; a stampede, +prospectors, traders, grafters, from all quarters rushing madly in; +then, disappointment, failure, starvation, desertion to new fields. It +became the most god-forsaken place on earth--an abandoned camp drained +of everything but the dregs of its population. I alone held on, having a +nose for gold, and scenting it right here, and now and then coming on +indications: Blenksoe, Raish, and all the other grafters meanwhile +dogging my steps to profit by any strike I might make, jump my claim, +and make away with me!--Oh, this brings it all back, this picture: +Walter Pierce; your coming; how Nick and the boys covered up my +humiliation; my trying to kill myself; and then--the gold!" + +While he was speaking, he had hurried to the clearing at the back of the +cabin, comparing the lay of the land with the picture, Evelyn following +with keenest anxiety at this new phase of his delusion, yet not knowing +how to restrain him. + +"Father, dear, don't," she remonstrated, seeing him uprooting a willow +with frenzied eagerness. "Why, that's the bush on which I spread out my +wash." + +But Durant only laughed and went on spading up the soft earth with a bit +of wood. Wild as were his actions, his face and bearing had regained +all their old, light-hearted poise. He was as Evelyn always had known +him on his occasional visits to her, when they spent money like princes +and amused themselves like children. + +Soon he threw his improvised tool aside. "Here we are! Look at this, +Evie!" + +Evelyn took the substance he handed to her, and, as the earth crumbled +from it, saw that it was of irregular shape, and oddly indented, as +though some underground giant had chewed it with Titanic teeth before +spewing it up for man's good or ill, as fate might decree. A slight, +bluish hue with which it first met the eye melted softly into that +indefinable lustre that proclaims gold and only gold--the lust for which +is more potent than the love of woman, wine; in whose quest more lives +have been sacrificed than for any other cause since the world began; for +whose possession souls innumerable are being bartered every day. + +"A sixty-dollar nugget," Durant appraised it, weighing it in his expert +hand, "and valuable merely as an earnest of what lies beneath--just a +chip of the old block; a clue to the great Lode! Now, to take possession +formally!" He paced the ground, whittled and marked the stakes, and was +preparing to post them, when a sudden thought arrested him. "But--the +land now lies within the township limits!" he groaned. "Oh, my girl, +what, if, after all, my luck should fail you!" + +Evelyn smiled happily. "I think I can come to your assistance in that +matter. If you will call to-morrow morning at the office of E. Durant +you can acquire the mineral rights from the present owner of the lot, +who happens to be--myself. Then you can record it as soon as the +Commissioner's books are open." + +"But----" Durant looked about with a touch of the furtive apprehension +that had shadowed his recent life, and that never wholly left him. +"Suppose some one has seen--how can I defend it?" + +"Oh," cried Evelyn, "no fear about that! There are no claim-jumpers in +this camp, thanks to Scarlett of the Mounted." + +"Aye, Scarlett. A fine fellow that. He did me a great kindness last +year," said her father. "It began by his finding your picture, which I +had dropped, and giving it back to me. If my foresight had been equal to +my hindsight, I should have confided my discovery to him as soon as I +made it, and so saved you this year of bitter experience, my girl." + +"Well, daddy," replied Evelyn, "if you haven't suffered too much by it, +not only do I not regret it, but I'm glad. It has taught me to value the +gifts of the mother Lode infinitely less, and infinitely more, than +formerly. I can hardly wait overnight to claim my pot of gold from the +rainbow's foot--but I'm humbler about the possession of wealth than I +used to be. And I want the whole camp to be 'in it.'" + +"And so they shall, my girl," responded Durant, heartily. Then, as two +figures came in sight, "There goes the Sergeant now, with Mr. Maclane, +passing by the gate. Suppose we begin with them, Evie. Suppose we call +them in and tell them all about it." He already was summoning them. + +"Suppose, for the present, you take charge of Mr. Maclane," amended +Evelyn, as the two drew near, "and leave the Sergeant to me." + +Scarlett and the minister were bent on some errand in another quarter of +the town, but by tacit consent had taken the road past Evelyn's cabin, +actuated, in the case of the older man, by a kind wish not to lose sight +of her for long, and in the case of the lover by the force that guides +all steps toward the beloved. For, dismissed as he had been, and +dejected as he found himself accordingly, yet in his heart of hearts +there still lurked a hope that she might relent toward him. When, +therefore, they saw Evelyn, radiant, and beckoning to them from the +veranda, they joined her and her father with alacrity. Nor did good +Maclane need any suggestion from Durant that the two young people should +be left to make their peace unaided. + +"Sergeant Scarlett," Evelyn began when the older men had withdrawn to +examine Durant's discovery, "I want to beg your pardon for the way I +treated you this afternoon! I felt bitter, cheated--oh, it wasn't your +fault one bit; it was my own, which was why I was so angry with you. And +you--all along you have behaved so generously to me--nobly!--Yes, let me +finish," she cried, retreating from the advance with which he sought to +interrupt her. "I shall always think it--but I may not ever be in the +mood to tell you again quite how well I think of you." + +"But, Evelyn, dearest, what's the good of compliments to a hungry man?" +cried Scarlett. "I'm asking ye for bread--and ye give me the +blarney-stone." + +Evelyn laughed, and, sitting, patted the place beside her, invitingly. +"I'll tell you the whole story. It's like a romance--I was going to +write you a letter about it if you had not come." + +"We'll write it together. We'll write it all our lives." Her lover +slipped an arm about her. "But we'll start with the postscript." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCARLETT OF THE MOUNTED*** + + +******* This file should be named 37949-8.txt or 37949-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/7/9/4/37949 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Scarlett of the Mounted</p> +<p>Author: Marguerite Merington</p> +<p>Release Date: November 7, 2011 [eBook #37949]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCARLETT OF THE MOUNTED***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Roland Schlenker, Matthew Wheaton,<br /> + and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="400" height="616" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">Scarlett Of The Mounted<br /> +MARGUERITE MERINGTON</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a id="il_front"></a> +<img class="border2" src="images/il_front.jpg" width="246" height="338" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">SHE STUCK A PIN IN THE HANDKERCHIEF.</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<h1 class="booktitle">SCARLETT <i>of the</i> MOUNTED</h1> + +<p class="h4">BY</p> + +<p class="h3">MARGUERITE MERINGTON</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h3"><i>ILLUSTRATED</i></p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h5">NEW YORK<br /> +MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY<br /> +1906</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h6">Copyright, 1906, by<br /> +MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY<br /> +<span class="smcap">New York</span></p> + +<p class="h6"><i>Published, August, 1906</i></p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h6">J. F. TAPLEY CO.<br /> +PRINTERS AND BINDERS<br /> +NEW YORK</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h3">CONTENTS</p> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width="50%" summary="Table of Contents"> + <tr> + <td class="tdrfirst">CHAPTER</td> + <td class="tdlsc"> </td> + <td class="tdrfirst">PAGE</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#I">I</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">Lost Shoe Creek</td> + <td class="tdr">11</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#II">II</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">The Womenkind of Lost Shoe Creek</td> + <td class="tdr">20</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#III">III</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">Lucky Durand</td> + <td class="tdr">35</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#IV">IV</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">The Picture Girl</td> + <td class="tdr">44</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#V">V</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">Evelyn Engages a Courier</td> + <td class="tdr">58</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#VI">VI</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">Evelyn Seeks Counsel</td> + <td class="tdr">80</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#VII">VII</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">Peace, Perfect Peace</td> + <td class="tdr">101</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#VIII">VIII</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">At the Sign of the Temperance Saloon</td> + <td class="tdr">122</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#IX">IX</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">The Provisional Boundary</td> + <td class="tdr">137</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#X">X</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">Lucky's Luck</td> + <td class="tdr">148</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#XI">XI</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">An International Episode</td> + <td class="tdr">163</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#XII">XII</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">Northern Lights</td> + <td class="tdr">177</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#XIII">XIII</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">A Year After</td> + <td class="tdr">187</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#XIV">XIV</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">Conclusion</td> + <td class="tdr">204</td> + </tr> +</table></div> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h3">ILLUSTRATIONS</p> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width="70%" summary="List of Illustrations"> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#il_front">She Stuck a Pin in the Handkerchief</a></td> + <td class="tdr"><i>Frontispiece</i></td></tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrfirst">PAGE</td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#il_054">Mingled with the Travelers at Gumboot Annie's Board</a></td> + <td class="tdr">54</td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#il_104">Departed in a Glow of Self Congratulation at Her Tact</a></td> + <td class="tdr">104</td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#il_126">"Why, My Daughter, does this Denote a Happy Change of Heart and Saving + Grace? You are Taking Thought to Save Your Soul?"</a></td> + <td class="tdr">126</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#il_154">"Darter Don't Look as if it was Spelled Right," Criticized Bully</a></td> + <td class="tdr">154</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#il_188">The Ubiquitous Young Soldier, Sergeant Scarlett</a></td> + <td class="tdr">188</td> + </tr> +</table></div> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[11]</span></p> + +<h2>SCARLETT <i>of the</i> MOUNTED</h2> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<h2><a id="I"></a>I</h2> + +<p class="h3">LOST SHOE CREEK</p> + +<p>Parson MacLane came running +along the rough trail, his dogs, +Telegraph and Wrangel, named +after former mission charges, following. +As he paused at the crest of a hill to take +breath and wipe the grime from his face he +smiled, for over the thicket of scrub willow +that lay between him and Lost Shoe Creek +rose the voices of the "boys" he had traveled +far to reach. Then he sighed, because +the jest and song, as he heard them, were +ribald; the laughter thick with drink. +Finally, reflecting that in no human heart +had he ever found evil so strong but that +the good was stronger, he smiled again, and +stooping to pluck from a low-growing bush +the deep crimson wild rose of the north, he +set this in his buttonhole, and squaring his +shoulders for a fresh bout with his old adversary +of horns and cloven hoof, trotted +cheerily down the steep incline.</p> + +<p>With an expiring wheeze the concertina<span class="pagenum">[12]</span> +dropped from the singer's hand. One of the +group playing Black Jack, looked up. "Go +on, Bill! Thar's other verses—an' each +more decorative than the last!"</p> + +<p>Lighting a pipe, Bill shook his head. +"Grand opera sore throat! Left my music +at home—and home," he added, under his +ragged mustache, "is so cursed far away!"</p> + +<p>Mops' remonstrance was cut short by a +disparaging comment on his methods of +card-playing from a raw-boned Scotchman +who had lost an inconsiderable amount. +"You accuse me o' cheatin'?"</p> + +<p>"Aweel!" Sandy scratched his head. +"While it's na' to say cheating it's na' to +say fair playing neither!"</p> + +<p>"You liar!" kicking over the barrel that +served for a table, with a volley of oaths +Mops sprang at him, and a free fight would +have ensued but for the intervention of the +more cautious, who, pointing to a squalid +bundle from which lusty snores were issuing, +reminded the belligerents that if Bully +Nick were roused from his innocent slumbers +some indiscriminate gun-play might be +looked for, transmuting every mother's son +into cold meat. This argument prevailed; +peace was restored and celebrated in the +dire wassail of the district, served in the +open by Ikey, bartender of the dilapidated<span class="pagenum">[13]</span> +refreshment-tent nearby, and by general +consent charged to the protesting but helpless +Sandy.</p> + +<p>It was at this auspicious moment that, followed +by his dogs, rose in buttonhole, and +with smiling countenance, Parson Maclane +made his entrance into the camp on Lost +Shoe Creek.</p> + +<p>Hailing the newcomer as dude and tenderfoot, +with winks and nudges among +themselves the men prepared to "have fun" +with him. Raising their glasses in derisive +welcome, "Hello, stranger!" they chorused. +"'Drink your health!"</p> + +<p>"Thanks, friends, but I fear you are not +drinking your own!"</p> + +<p>"By gum," cried Mops, delightedly, "if he +ain't a blamed teetotaller!"</p> + +<p>"The Laird kens we hae need o' sic," hiccoughed +Sandy. "Hoots, but we're a sinfu' +crew! Ikey, lad, mair whuskey!"</p> + +<p>While glasses were being refilled, this +time at Mops' expense, Maclane went toward +the tent, over whose entrance hung +the sign KLONDIKE DELMONICO'S. +GUMBOOT ANNIE. Addressing the plump +female in jersey and culottes, who lolled +beneath, picking her teeth skilfully: "Good +day, madam," he began, baring his head. "I +should like to speak with the proprietor."<span class="pagenum">[14]</span></p> + +<p>Gumboot Annie took time to spit before +replying, "I am the lady."</p> + +<p>"I want to hold a prayer-meeting. Will +you lend me your tent?"</p> + +<p>"Lend! Me lend anything! Now wouldn't +that pa'alyze yer!" she demanded of the +listening prospectors. "I ain't up here fer +me health," she then explained to Maclane, +"but I'll sell or rent anything in sight. +Twenty dollars is the price for a Gospel +show!"</p> + +<p>"Agreed!"</p> + +<p>"Thar's a bar in thar, y'know!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, the bar's no hindrance!" The minister +already was unstrapping his pack of +hymnals. "But I warn you I shall preach +against the evils of drink."</p> + +<p>"That's all right. The boys ull be jest as +thirsty! Say, fer five dollars you kin convert +Ikey. He's useter it. He gives his experiences +real cute. Water is two bits a +bucket, but fer a baptism attraction I'll +throw it in!"</p> + +<p>Refusing with a gesture, the minister +seized the dinner-bell from its nail and rang +it vigorously. "Prayer-meeting and service +of song. All are cordially welcome!"</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't it be slick ter dump him in the +creek," suggested one.</p> + +<p>"No, no! Lay low till Bully Nick wakes<span class="pagenum">[15]</span> +up! Nick ull fix him," said Mops, to which +the rest agreed, "Betcherlife!"</p> + +<p>"Come, boys," urged Maclane, "who'll +lead the way?"</p> + +<p>After a chilly silence, "Don't all speak at +once," jeered Mops. "Don't crowd the +mourners," echoed Bill.</p> + +<p>"You have mothers, sweethearts, wives, +who never cease to pray for you. Won't +you spare a few minutes from Black Jack to +put up a prayer for them?"</p> + +<p>A pause followed, during which Bill +swallowed a lump in his throat and tried +not to think of the mother in Montreal, +whose last letter he had been carrying about +for eleven months, unanswered. Mops sent +Ikey for more drinks.</p> + +<p>"'Twull be a saving i' the lang run!" +Foreseeing that he might again be called +upon to pay, Sandy stumbled toward the +tent, falling over rows of jocosely outstretched +feet. "I misdoot my gait is na +sae steady as it micht be! A touch o' +scurvy!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, we're all liable to trip!" Maclane +helped him up. "Who'll be next?"</p> + +<p>"Count me in, Dominie!" An elderly man, +gaunt and ill-clad, gold-pan under his arm, +climbed the banks of the creek and entered +the tent.<span class="pagenum">[16]</span></p> + +<p>"Old Lucky's down on his luck, but he +gen'lly knows whar the gold is!" A boyish-looking +prospector, who had been wanting +an excuse, joined him.</p> + +<p>Several followed the example, till at last +only Nick and his bodyguard remained outside. +When a rousing chorus of "Onward, +Christian Soldiers," pealed forth from the +tent, Mops chuckled joyously. "Look out +fer fireworks! Nick's waking!"</p> + +<p>After preliminary grunts and stretchings +the Bully sat up in his ugliest mood. "Wot +th' hell—— Is this Jedgment Day?"</p> + +<p>"Naw! Only some blasted holy windmill +come for to save our souls," Bill informed +him.</p> + +<p>"The cursed stiff!" Nick sprang toward +the tent. "I'll teach him ter meddle with +my anatomy!" He cocked his pistol. "One, +two——"</p> + +<p>"Bully Nick! He never misses the bull's-eye!" +shouted his delighted followers.</p> + +<p>At this juncture a fresh-skinned young +giant in blouse and overalls, who had been +chopping kindlings by Gumboot Annie's +woodpile, dropped his hatchet and strolled +up with a casual air wholly at variance with +the keen, hawk-like glance of his gray-blue +eyes. As Nick told off the last minutes of +Parson Maclane's earthly span, the newcomer<span class="pagenum">[17]</span> +pinioned him in a grasp of iron from +behind. "Not this time, Bully Nick!"</p> + +<p>"Eh? Who the mischief are ye to stop +me?" is the polite, free rendering of Nick's +impolite free speech. "I don't think I hev +the pleasure of your acquaintance, my lad!"</p> + +<p>"I've been wanting for some time to make +yours!" The young man seemed quite unconcerned +that the toughest gang in the +district had forcibly detached him from +their chief and were holding him prisoner.</p> + +<p>"It's just a looney Irishman that's been +hanging 'round all day! Ain't worth a bullet, +Nick!" At heart, Bill disliked human +targets for sport.</p> + +<p>"Powerful strong! His muscles ud be +wuth more ter ye than his darned hide, +Nick," supplemented Mops, who, while without +prejudices as to bloodshed, sometimes +was called on to exert himself unduly.</p> + +<p>"I'll assay him," decreed the Bully. "Fust +he shall drink my health! Mops, you hold +the booze ter the stiff's mouth! Bill, you +got a ticker; you keep time. Now, sonny, I +give yer jest two minutes fer mamma's little +baby boy ter say his prayers in, or ter git +good an' drunk, like me. See?"</p> + +<p>The young man yawned, with a bored expression. +"Excuse my not putting my hand +before my mouth, gentlemen!"<span class="pagenum">[18]</span></p> + +<p>"One minute gone, pard!" admonished +Bill.</p> + +<p>"Phew!" The prisoner spat out the liquid +Mops forced between his lips. "That filthy +stuff! I only drink the best! Besides, 'tis +smuggled, and, living or dead, I should incur +a fine with contraband goods on, or in, +my person!"</p> + +<p>"You all-fired nateral, do yer <i>want</i> ter be +a angel?" growled the Bully.</p> + +<p>"Faith, I wasn't aspiring to such promotion," +admitted the stranger. "But I'd look +prettier that way than making myself a +drunken beast like you, Nick!"</p> + +<p>The insult had its effect; the Bully's pistol +hand quavered, and he was lost. "Say, +young feller, you got grit! You're game! +Boys, the Irishman goes, see!"</p> + +<p>"Sorry I can't return the favor, Nick! +You go—but to gaol!" With an adroit +movement the young man had whisked out +a pair of handcuffs and was fitting them to +the astonished Bully's wrists. "Best take +it quietly, men. As they say in story-books, +reinforcements are at hand! And till they +come, get in there, all of you, and say your +own prayers!" He lifted the tent flap. "Fall +into line. Um, left. Left!—Left! March!"</p> + +<p>"Who in blazes air ye?" gasped Nick, as +he obeyed.<span class="pagenum">[19]</span></p> + +<p>The answer came in awe-stricken tones +from Mops, who, beneath the stranger's +rough externals had suddenly suspected the +insignia of a dreaded authority. "The hell! +It's Scarlett of the Mounted!"</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[20]</span></p> + +<h2><a id="II"></a>II</h2> + +<p class="h3">THE WOMENKIND OF LOST SHOE CREEK</p> + +<p>Dandy Raish swaggered up to the +tent where he had an appointment +with old Blenksoe, relating to a +little matter of holding up the stage, but +finding services in progress, he scattered a +few flowers of profanity, and turned on his +heel.</p> + +<p>Scarlett, pacing to and fro while awaiting +aid, caught sight of him. "Now, that's a +gentleman whose company I'd fancy most in +his absence, I'm thinking!" To escape the +other's observation while making his own, +he returned to his kindlings.</p> + +<p>Developments came soon, first in the person +of a woman wrapped in a red cloak, +young and comely, but at the moment repulsive +from the effects of a debauch. Reeling +from the shelter of a ruined cabin, +"Gumboot Annie!" she cried, "Gumboot +Annie, for the love of heaven, trust me with +the price of a drink!"<span class="pagenum">[21]</span></p> + +<p>Finding the source of refreshments temporarily +inaccessible, she threw herself on +a bench, cursing religion, even as Raish had +done.</p> + +<p>"Furs for sale; snow-shoes, moccasins, +furs, velly damn fine!" An Indian trader +coming by recognized the girl, and accosted +her. "Hello, Gelly! Shake!"</p> + +<p>The girl complied good-naturedly. "Hello, +Chilkat Jo!"</p> + +<p>"Gelly, I love you!" stated Jo, in unimpassioned +monotone. "Love you like hell-you-betyerlife! +Say, Gelly, you mally me?"</p> + +<p>"Say, Jo, that's a proposal, even if you +ain't nothin' but a Siwash!"</p> + +<p>"Me no Siwash!" Chilkat Jo drew himself +up. "Me chew, swear, gamble, dlink like +hell, plenty wives, all same as Clistian white +man!"</p> + +<p>"My, but you do give us a character," +laughed the girl, "and I guess we've earned +it all right, all right! But, no, Jo! I ain't +sunk so low I'd marry you without I cared +fer yer! Thar's only one man in the world +fer me!" With a sigh she looked over at +Dandy Raish, who, leaning against a Douglas +spruce, was dressing his waxed mustache +by the aid of a pocket looking-glass.</p> + +<p>The Indian took his rejection with outward<span class="pagenum">[22]</span> +stoicism. "That's all light. Some day +I kill him, cally you off, beat you, smash yer +face, make you goddam' bad husband, all +same as Clistian white man!" Then off he +stalked, crying: "Furs for sale. Moccasins. +Hair dye! Sacled images! Velly dam good +sacled images!"</p> + +<p>Gelly rose and timidly approached the object +of her affections. "Raish! Dear Dandy, +won't you speak to me?"</p> + +<p>"Gelly!" The man turned on her with an +oath. "Taggin' on as usual!"</p> + +<p>"Raish, pop's turned me out, along of you, +and I don't know whar ter go!"</p> + +<p>"Such as you needn't look far! There, +there, Gelly, don't get mad! I'm sorry for +you; indeed I am!"</p> + +<p>"Then marry me!"</p> + +<p>"Me marry you! With my social gifts! +Ha, ha! You're crazy! But I'll tell you +what I will do: I'll help you out of this +place; I'll get you a berth in a swell saloon +at Skagway, with a big rake-off on every +bottle that's uncorked and every bird that's +plucked through you!"</p> + +<p>"And me tryin' to be decent! Curse it all, +I <i>will</i> be decent! You <i>shall</i> marry me!"</p> + +<p>"I'll strangle you first!"</p> + +<p>"Take your hands off that woman!"</p> + +<p>Turning, Raish confronted a young giant,<span class="pagenum">[23]</span> +and being a coward he obeyed. "I can't +spoil her!" he sneered.</p> + +<p>"What is the trouble?" Scarlett asked of +Gelly.</p> + +<p>"None of your business," she replied, with +feminine ingratitude.</p> + +<p>"Is this your husband?"</p> + +<p>"Sure!" At Raish's threatening gesture +she modified the assertion. "In a sort of +way!"</p> + +<p>"The only sort of way he ever will be, you +bet your boots," Raish flung back as, hands +in pockets, he swaggered off.</p> + +<p>"What is your name?" Scarlett asked the +girl.</p> + +<p>"Gelly!"</p> + +<p>"Your full name? Gelly what?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, now you're gettin' too familiar!" +Sidling closer she remarked, approvingly: +"Say, you're an awful pretty boy!"</p> + +<p>"Stand off!" As the girl shrank back, +cowering, he added more gently: "Go home +to your parents!"</p> + +<p>"My home! My parents! Aw, that's a +good un! Ma sloped with a faro dealer from +'Frisco, and pop's turned me out!"</p> + +<p>"Poor child! You must get away from +this district! I will send you down to a +mission, where good women will care for +you!"<span class="pagenum">[24]</span></p> + +<p>"A mission? No, sirree! Too slow fer +me!" Gelly moved away, humming a ditty +popular in low-class music-halls of the locality.</p> + +<p>"Stop!" Scarlett sharply reprimanded. +"Sing if you will! Sing all you can! The +world has need of singing—but sing decent +songs!" As a stirring hymn, accompanied +by Bill's concertina, just then sounded from +the tent, he went on: "Go in and help them! +They need a woman's voice."</p> + +<p>"What!" Gelly was genuinely astonished. +"Such as me—in church!"</p> + +<p>"My poor girl, churches are for such as +you."</p> + +<p>Gelly looked in, uncertainly, then hurriedly +drew back. "I can't, mister. Pop's +in thar—and pop has sworn ter kill me on +sight! Pop's the bully of the district," she +added, proudly.</p> + +<p>"Hm!" Scarlett considered a moment, +then felt in his pocket. "Here's needle and +thread. Go mend your clothes!"</p> + +<p>Gelly stared at him as she took the proffered +housewife. "Say, you're a real white +man. I never before——" Breaking into +sudden sobbing, she went back to her cabin.</p> + +<p>Sergeant Scarlett gave a comprehensive +glance at the scenery, nature's magnificent +setting for this squalid drama.<span class="pagenum">[25]</span></p> + +<p>"This district has the name of being the +hottest proposition this side of Hades," he +reflected. "It contains an unsurveyed number +of square miles and crooked inhabitants. +And it needs just three things to clean it +out. First, godliness, which only gets this +way for a flying visit once a year. Next—and +it's only modesty prevented my putting +it first—law, which is just myself; and last, +but foremost, women! And all the womenkind +we can muster are a travesty of the +name—sketches the Lord seems to have +blotted in the making and thrown away." +With tender impatience he touched a cluster +of wild roses with the toe of his military +boot. "Oh, why can't ye stop running to +flowers and blossom girls instead! Hello! +Is this an answer to prayer, or a deceiving +dream?" Sure enough, among the crimson +petals a girl's face laughed, sparkling back +at him. "By the St. Colmcille, a young +lady at me feet! Permit me to reverse the +positions, miss!" Picking up the miniature, +he scanned the features closely. "Young? +Yes, the right age, just; still in her teens, +but not too teeny! Pretty? Verdict unanimous, +without leaving the jury-box; guilty +of wholesale manslaughter wherever those +eyes set foot! Good? As good as virgin +gold! Perhaps a trifle too well pleased with<span class="pagenum">[26]</span> +herself. Here, young lady, give an account +of yourself! What are you doing in my district? +Are you visiting father, brother, +sweetheart, or do you intend to stake a +claim on some poor wretch's unprospected +heart? Oh, here's a bit of writing on the +back. 'For dear daddy, from Evelyn,' +Evelyn. A pretty name. Sounds like Eve +with a little flounce on. Daddy. I'm glad +it's a mere father ye belong to. Now since +ye've dropped like manna from heaven to +the wilderness, will ye think it a liberty if +I——" He approached the picture to his +lips, then put it resolutely aside. "No! I'm +not the coward to kiss a girl anyway but +to her face!" In his absorption he had +failed to observe a uniformed rider coming +at full gallop along the trail, and he had +barely time to conceal the miniature in his +breast as Barney, his assistant and devoted +personal follower, dismounted a few paces +from him.</p> + +<p>Instead of greeting his chief with the +proper military salute, Barney pushed him +arrogantly aside.</p> + +<p>"Out av the shadow av your supariors, ye +hulking son av a tiligraph pole!"</p> + +<p>"Back into your own skin, you jackass, +you!" Scarlett returned the push with interest.<span class="pagenum">[27]</span></p> + +<p>Recognizing the other through his disguise, +"Bejabers," exclaimed Barney, "'tis +Himself!"</p> + +<p>"You're late in coming up to time," remarked +Scarlett, absently, his thoughts still +on the portrait.</p> + +<p>"Sure, sorr, an' 'twas the word from yourself +I've been delaying for! Ivery moment +av the last four-an'-twenty hours I've slept +at attintion with me boots on and nary a +wink on me! As me own flesh is livin' witness, +I've never moved me hindquarters +from the saddle!"</p> + +<p>"I wish you'd learn to keep your headquarters +in the saddle," returned Scarlett. +"Didn't I instruct ye if ye hadn't heard +from me by the day appointed to start the +day before?"</p> + +<p>Barney scratched a puzzled head. He +could interpret his own Irish bulls readily +enough, defending them, if needful, with his +fists to a jury of his peers, but those of his +chief often passed him. Tactfully, he +changed the conversation. "The mail arrived, +Sergeant, and was distributed impartially. +Only this remains unclaimed; a +registhry package, with duty to pay on it."</p> + +<p>Sergeant Scarlett examined the address +on the parcel. "From E. Durant, New York +City, to Matthew Durant, owner of the<span class="pagenum">[28]</span> +Rainbow Mine—— Where under the shining +heavens is the Rainbow Mine, Barney?" he +broke off to ask.</p> + +<p>"In the clouds, for aught I know, sorr. I +searched the books, but in all the disthrict +there's not even a claim recorded by the +name, far less a mine."</p> + +<p>"H'm! Well, the man, if not his mine, may +be sojourning in our bally. Step inside the +tent, Barney, and when the parson pauses +for breath, whisper to him to inquire for +one Matthew Durant!"</p> + +<p>When Barney had gone on his errand, +Scarlett performed the official act of unfastening +the dainty package to appraise its +contents. "White neckties, doubtless," he +soliloquized. "That is what folk on the outside +are by way of sending their kin to pull +them through a Klondike winter. No, but +almost as bad: an embroidered cigar-case, +with jeweled clasp. Now I'm wondering if +the fellow it's intended for can always muster +up a pipeful of tobacco! Well, Barney, +what success?"</p> + +<p>"Just at this present, sorr, the howly man +has got his teeth well into the Evil Wan, +but he tipped me the wink he'd find our man +the moment he darst let go. Oh, by the +way—I hate to decompose ye, Sergeant—but +here's a letther for yourself!"<span class="pagenum">[29]</span></p> + +<p>"A letter for me, is it? Now, who the +mischief would be writing to me?"</p> + +<p>"The mischief it is, indade, sorr! 'Tis a +lawyer!"</p> + +<p>"A lawyer!" Scarlett scrutinized the +name of the Dublin firm on the missive +Barney handed him. "Now I'd give something +to know what that means! I've always +lived within the law, and without a +lawyer!"</p> + +<p>"Sure, that's your offence, Sergeant. Depind +on ut, that's phwat they're afther +charging ye for!"</p> + +<p>"'Tis their inflated cheek, then!" Resentfully, +Scarlett tore open the envelope. "If +'tis a bill they're sending me they can go to +the divvle!"</p> + +<p>"Faith, sorr, that's exactly where they'll +have ye! That's phwat they're afther +counting on!"</p> + +<p>Barney watched his chief with affectionate +solicitude while the latter read, and, +crossing himself, began a prayer in which +pious invocations mingled strangely with +unflattering estimates of legal lights. +"Howly Mary, full av grace—— The dirthy +blackguards, I wish I'd lost the letther for +the lad! Blessed art thou among—— Bad +cess to yez, ye black limbs av an onreputable +body, if 'tis only nearer ye were,<span class="pagenum">[30]</span> +or meself less far away, rest aisy 'tis outwitted +ye'd be intoirely, if there's anny +diplomacy in the fists av this Mick at +all. Name av the Father, Son an' Howly——"</p> + +<p>"Phew!" At last Scarlett broke through +the stupor with which the perusal of his letter +seemed to have encompassed him. "Is +it I standing here in my five senses, or the +fool of a deceiving dream? Barney, man, +listen to this and pronounce on it. 'By the +demise of your uncle'—that's my uncle, you +understand?"</p> + +<p>"Sure, sorr, your uncle is my uncle; and +many's the accommodation we've had off +him, thanks be!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, this doesn't refer to that impartial +relative of all impoverished humanity! This +is, or was, the man who prevented my father +from being the eldest son and only child of +his parents! By his demise——"</p> + +<p>"Precisely, sorr. And which av his qualifications +may his demise be?"</p> + +<p>"The final one. Demise means death. Oh, +not the commonplace, every-day occurrence +as we up here experience it; it is applied +to those who have something of value besides +life to leave behind."</p> + +<p>"Faith, then, sergeant, it's ourselves will +be immune."<span class="pagenum">[31]</span></p> + +<p>"That's what I'm doubting. Five minutes +since, I was nobody of nowhere. Now I +suddenly find myself gazetted Sir Gerald +Scarlett of Dunshinannon, owner of a picturesque, +if ruined, castle; three acres that +might be profitable under cultivation, and +a cow!"</p> + +<p>Barney shook his head. "A grand dream, +Sergeant. May the blissed saints soften the +awakening to ye," he added, with commiseration.</p> + +<p>"But, man—here, look at this, will ye?" +Before his astonished eyes Scarlett held a +draft for a substantial sum. "A luck-slice +from the rent-roll. Oh, that proves it no +dream, since money talks, but never in its +sleep!"</p> + +<p>Barney removed his regimental hat. +"Hurrah for Sir Gerald, the castle, including +the ruins, the acres, and ivery blissed +pertaty, past, present and to come, adorning +them!"</p> + +<p>"And the cow, God bless her!" Scarlett +also bared his head.</p> + +<p>"Amen!" Barney supplemented, fervently. +"I'm wid ye, sorr, in prosperity, as in adversity! +How soon do we quit the service, +me lordship?"</p> + +<p>"Not till we've finished out our term, you +lazy vagabond! Meanwhile, sink the title.<span class="pagenum">[32]</span> +I travel on my soldiership, and you're in +the same boat!"</p> + +<p>"Amen! if it has to be," acquiesced Barney, +with philosophic resignation, saluting +meekly. "And phwat's the next orders, me +lord—Sergeant, I should say?"</p> + +<p>"For the present you can take charge and +administer the law, unless anything demanding +a judicial mind comes up, while I +wander on incog., and do a little prospecting +to identify the toughs and crooks that +give this the name of the blackest district +in all the great Northwest! I've begun +rather well; I've just rounded up Bully Nick +and his sharp-shooting gang!"</p> + +<p>"Ye have?" Barney's jaw dropped with +amazement. "Single-handed?"</p> + +<p>"Aye; but forewarned is four-armed, you +know!"</p> + +<p>"Even so. Mother of Grace——"</p> + +<p>"Tut, tut, man; that's but a flea bite in the +ocean, as one of our Irish philosophers remarked. +There's a regularly organized +band of thieves—aye, who don't stick at +murder, either—that hold up stages, terrorize +the whole community, and play the dickens +generally. The scum of all nationalities, +their headquarters are across the boundary +in Uncle Sam's domain, while their field of +operations is the whole Northwest. The<span class="pagenum">[33]</span> +thing is to identify them, catch them redhanded +in our precincts."</p> + +<p>"A Herculaneum task, me lordship—Sergeant, +I should say—and more, since that +gintleman had only twelve impossibilities to +conquer!"</p> + +<p>"Och, Hercules! I'd sooner any day be a +whole man than just half a god like Hercules! +Any able-bodied son of Erin should be +able to match Hercules, except in the snake-strangling +trick, since divvle an example +did Saint Patrick leave us to practice on."</p> + +<p>"Thrue," assented Barney. "Many's the +dhrink I've laid on it that the only snakes +an Irishman is capable of behoulding is all +in his own eye."</p> + +<p>"Don't ye be looking for them that way +on duty. Keep your vision for two-legged +crawlers. There was a fellow here, just +now, who, if faces are incriminating testimony, +stands twenty times convicted in the +dark, or I'm a duffer in face-palmistry."</p> + +<p>"Why not begin with the rope's end, Sergeant?"</p> + +<p>"No, no, man! We must even make haste +slowly, as some old Roman of an Irishman +remarked. I'll just wander on, as if looking +for a job, and if any one inquires about me, +give me what character ye please!"</p> + +<p>"Faith, sorr, since fair play demands<span class="pagenum">[34]</span> +reciprocity on both sides, I'll damn ye for a +blockhead!"</p> + +<p>"Go ahead," laughed Scarlett. Breaking +off, he inquired: "Now who's this chee-charka +coming up the trail?"</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[35]</span></p> + +<h2><a id="III"></a>III</h2> + +<p class="h3">LUCKY DURANT</p> + +<p>The lagging pace of the young man +who was approaching, his weary +stoop under a light pack he carried, +miner-wise, upon his shoulders, confessed +him all too surely the tenderfoot Scarlett +had described him.</p> + +<p>With a bewildered stare at the congeries +of squalid tents and cabins that comprised +the camp, he accosted Barney.</p> + +<p>"Surely this can't be Lost Shoe Creek?" +"Maybe it can't be, but that's phwat it +does be, me lad!"</p> + +<p>"It's so different from what I expected."</p> + +<p>"Ye were anticipating skyscrapers? In +these parts we build downwards for gold—and +both ways lead equally far from heaven, +I'm thinking."</p> + +<p>"Well, though not skyscrapers, I certainly +had looked for something more imposing. +Can you direct me to the office, or +residence, of Mr. Matthew Durant?"<span class="pagenum">[36]</span></p> + +<p>"Durant!" Involuntarily, Barney and +Scarlett exchanged a glance of surprise.</p> + +<p>"Office or residence, indade! 'Tis myself +would like to be directed to the man," replied +the former.</p> + +<p>"Oh, but surely you know him!" cried the +newcomer. "I mean Matthew Durant, +owner of the wonderful Rainbow Mine!"</p> + +<p>At this juncture the elderly man who had +been spoken of by one of his brother prospectors +as Lucky, came hurrying toward +them from the tent, and addressed himself +to Barney. "The Dominie has just announced +that you have mail for one Matthew +Durant, officer. I am he."</p> + +<p>Before Barney could reply the young tenderfoot +had darted forward with a threatening +gesture. "You Durant, indeed, you miserable +fraud! I know Mr. Durant well," he +turned to Barney to explain. "I was employed +in the New York bank where he +keeps his daughter's account, and many is +the chat I've had with him. Why, I've resigned +my position and spent every penny +I'd saved to come out here to beg him to +put me in the way of making my fortune, as +he has done, scooping gold out of the earth. +The idea of this beggarly imposter pretending +to be Durant, owner of the Rainbow +Mine!"<span class="pagenum">[37]</span></p> + +<p>A sad smile crossed the worn features of +the claimant. "I must indeed be changed if +Walter Pierce does not know me."</p> + +<p>At the sound of his voice the young man +started, but gazed at the unshorn face, the +poverty-stricken figure, unconvinced.</p> + +<p>"Ye have some means of identification, +perhaps?" suggested Barney, in all good +faith. "A strawberry mark, or a lock of +your sainted mother's hair?"</p> + +<p>Durant thought a moment. "No one here +knows me by the name. But, wait! I have +a picture of my daughter Evelyn, whom +Walter will recognize. Evelyn will bear +witness that I'm her own dear daddy." He +felt in his breast, but not finding what he +sought, gave a smothered cry. "Lost—my +little Evie, have I lost you?"</p> + +<p>"This is herself, I'm thinking!" Scarlett +held out the miniature. "I found her on this +spot, putting the wild roses to the blush."</p> + +<p>"Thank you—thank you! Evie!" Durant +covered the portrait with kisses.</p> + +<p>"Which was to be proved," remarked +Barney, conclusively, handing Durant his +mail. "There's a thrifle av duty to pay on +it, sorr."</p> + +<p>Durant's expectant hand dropped to his +side. "I—I'm rather down on my luck just +now," he faltered.<span class="pagenum">[38]</span></p> + +<p>While Barney hesitated between conscience +and good will, Scarlett whispered in +his ear. "Good!" he then exclaimed. "The +Sergeant will settle it, Misther Durant. I +mean," he corrected himself as Scarlett +kicked his leg, "it is already settled. Me man +here," he indicated his superior, "a great +blockhead ordinarily, but with lucid intervals, +reminds me that the duty was prepaid +beforehand in advance."</p> + +<p>When the soldiers had moved away, Walter +Pierce found his voice. "Then you are +Durant. But where, where, where is the +wonderful Rainbow Mine?"</p> + +<p>"Where it always has been—in the +clouds!"</p> + +<p>"Good heavens, do you mean to say it is +all a fraud?"</p> + +<p>"Less that than a fiction," amended the +older man. "Sit here and I'll tell you all +about it." He sank wearily on the ground, +leaning against a huge pine tree, and when +Walter had placed himself beside him, began +his strange tale. "Oh, the money has +been no fraud, as your bank can testify. +I'm an old miner—a born prospector, with +a nose for gold—and I've always had +streaks of luck; I've always made my pile, +in California, Colorado, and up here in +Canada. But it has only been a rich pocket<span class="pagenum">[39]</span> +here and there. I've never managed to develop +a proposition into a paying claim, or +a paying claim into an exhaustless mine. +But whenever I've had a big clean-up I've +blown it all in, as your born miner invariably +does, trusting to luck for the morrow. +Some miners blow it in on cards, drink—on +worthless properties—but I've had only one +extravagance—my daughter. My wife always +had vast ambitions, and when the wife +died she passed them on to me for our only +child. To educate Evelyn, to have her +brought up a flower of civilization, that always +has been my dream, as I have roughed +it in camps or tramped over glaciers, +through forests, sleeping under the stars. +And so I sent the little one to school in +'Frisco, Chicago, New York, with a European +polishing off. And somehow, the further +East she traveled the grander her notions +grew—and as for myself, on my flying +visits to her I took pride in seeing my girl +hold her own with the daughters of oil, beef +and railways trusts, and then with the +daughters of princes of the Old World. And +the luck held out. However grand Evie's +whims, I always had the stuff to back her—and +I always lived in hopes that any turn of +the pick and shovel would yield me, not +merely a rich clean-up, but the inexhaustible<span class="pagenum">[40]</span> +fortune that is every miner's dream. +And so, between what Evie took for granted +and what I told her, half in jest, there grew +up this fable of the Rainbow Mine. But this +season—I suppose it is my punishment for +my deception—the luck has turned clean +against me. The gold is here in the earth, +as it always has been—but I've lost my +knack of finding it. The old earth no longer +trusts me with her secrets." He groaned, +covering his face with his rough, knotted +hands for a minute, during which young +Pierce exclaimed, bitterly:</p> + +<p>"Then what is to become of me?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, well!" Recovering composure, Durant +rose. "It won't do to loaf. I'm sorry +for your disappointment, Walter. And the +worst is, I can't do much for you; can't +show you any hospitality. In order to maintain +life till the luck turns, I am sharing the +outfit of a chap named Blenksoe. That's he, +yon." He indicated a man of evil aspect, +who was lounging at the entrance of a rude +hut nearby. "Blenksoe is grub-staking me +through a superstition about my luck. But +Blenksoe is a bad lot. You must not have +anything to do with him."</p> + +<p>"But what in the world am I to do?" cried +Pierce. "I tell you, I am penniless—penniless!"<span class="pagenum">[41]</span></p> + +<p>"You must work," Durant admonished. +"You must get employment on a lay—that +is, you must induce some one to let you help +work his claim on shares. I'll teach you +the trick of panning gold."</p> + +<p>"But if gold-dust can be taken out by the +dish-pan," cried Walter, with bulging eyes, +"why should any one go poor?"</p> + +<p>"You young fool! First you have to find +in which patch out of desert areas of mud +and cobblestone the gold-dust hides. And +then you have to pay the Government for +the privilege of staking, working it. Look +along the banks of this creek. As far as eye +can see every inch of pay-dirt is claimed, +staked, defended, not only by law, but by +miners' justice, with a shooting-iron. In a +mining camp human life ain't worth a damn, +as you'll find if you trespass on another +man's claim, or if he should take a fancy to +yours. Just be content if, for the present, +by working eighteen hours of daylight during +the twenty-four, during the short summer, +you can pay your way."</p> + +<p>"Good heavens!" again cried Pierce. +"Then are the stories of gold all a fable? +Surely many fortunes are made up here?"</p> + +<p>"Surely," replied Durant, "and lost here, +too. Every Klondike camp is the garden +for a score of fortunes, and the graveyard<span class="pagenum">[42]</span> +of a thousand hopes. Well, I must go get +pick and shovel." He moved toward his +tent. "I must go out on the hills, prospecting. +Thank God, I left my girl a tidy sum in +the bank—and before that is spent her +daddy will have found her Rainbow Mine—or +will die like a trail-dog in the traces!"</p> + +<p>"I ought to tell you——" Walter detained +him. "That money—Miss Durant has +drawn it, every penny."</p> + +<p>"Eh!" exclaimed Durant. "Are you +sure?"</p> + +<p>"It was that which set me thinking about +coming up here myself. I heard her telling +the cashier. You haven't paid her a visit +for three years; accordingly, she intends +coming to visit you as a surprise."</p> + +<p>"A surprise! My God!" gasped the unhappy +man.</p> + +<p>"She has invested in the most costly outfit," +continued Walter. "She is traveling +with a princely retinue. You see, she thinks +you live in regal style—palaces and all +that."</p> + +<p>"And when——" Durant moistened his +dry lips. "How soon——?"</p> + +<p>Pierce shrugged his shoulders. "I fell in +with her party to-day, though as I was stone +broke and hoofing it I didn't care to make +myself known to her. She was inquiring<span class="pagenum">[43]</span> +your whereabouts. She is coming by the +stage. She'll be here any minute now."</p> + +<p>The tooting of a horn echoed through the +hills, mingled with bursts of girlish laughter, +as, with a crack of the driver's whip and +the jingling of bells, in a cloud of dust the +stage was seen approaching. With a groan +Durant buried his face in his hands. "My +God!" he muttered. "Evelyn!"</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[44]</span></p> + +<h2><a id="IV"></a>IV</h2> + +<p class="h3">THE PICTURE GIRL</p> + +<p>"Let your light so shine——" At +this cue the much-converted +Ikey passed Gumboot Annie's +frying-pan about among the men. Instead +of organ-voluntary, or tenor solo, such as +obtains during the offertory in conventional +places of worship, the Bully, at his own request, +rose to make a few appropriate remarks. +"I ain't convarted," he frankly announced. +"Heaven ain't in it with a hot old +hell of a whoop-up time in this here life, +d'ye see? Even if ye hang fer it! But say, +parson, you're all right. You're a sure +square proposition! Boys, the collection +goes, d'ye see?"</p> + +<p>"You betcherlife!" with cordial emphasis +acquiesced the boys, even as the orthodox +respond Amen, while pouring gold-dust +from their pokes into the frying-pan.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't despair of you, Nicholas! I +shall yet see you a pillar of the church!"<span class="pagenum">[45]</span> +The minister now was mingling with his +congregation, shaking hands, hearty if not +invariably spotless, right and left. "Thank +you, lads, thank you! This will go toward +the maintenance of a hospital, where you +shall be cared for when disabled by accident, +or laid up with a er—touch of—ahem!—scurvy."</p> + +<p>"Booze," corrected Bully Nick, scorning +the well-meant euphemism.</p> + +<p>After a second, informal benediction from +Maclane, Barney, considering that the execution +of justice temporal had been waived +quite long enough in favor of things pertaining +to the soul, tapped Nick on the +shoulder with cheerful authority. "Now, +me man, put your best fut forward and step +prattily to jail! The rest av yez"—he +looked round on the group with impartial +invitation—"can accompany us on giniral +lack av principles!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, but say—the stage is a-comin' in," +remonstrated Bill, as the tooting of a distant +horn echoed musically among the +mountain passes. "There's like to be ladies +aboard her. Can't we wait for to look upon +the ladies?"</p> + +<p>The suggestion obviously was popular, +even to the extent of suggesting mutiny if +not complied with, and Barney himself had<span class="pagenum">[46]</span> +some difficulty in delaying his consent in +order to add value to it before permitting +his mug to relax into a grin. "As a man in +line av promotion to be nominated an officer +and a gintleman, 'tis no less than me duty."</p> + +<p>"Boys, boys!" Mops, who had been reconnoitering, +ran back, breathless and excited. +"There's gals aboard!"</p> + +<p>"The hell thar is!" exclaimed the boys, +delighted, and meaning no disrespect.</p> + +<p>"A hull outfit o' gals," expatiated Mops. +"And one, perched up by the driver, jest the +swellest, jim-dandiest little female proposition +you ever seen in all your life! Say, +I wisht I hadn't left my dress-suit in cold +storage!"</p> + +<p>"Any one lend me a comb?" Any one +being unable to oblige him, Bill ran a corkscrew +through his curly hair. "Well, anyway, +my face is clean!"</p> + +<p>"All ye can see av it, for the dhirt that's +on it," Barney encouraged him.</p> + +<p>The horn blew a gay fanfare; the driver's +whip cracked with more than wonted smartness; +the bells on its four horses jingled +merrily as the cumbersome old stage rattled +into Lost Shoe Creek, and drew up before +Gumboot Annie's hostelry to an enthusiastic +ovation of hurrahs, cap-tossings, and +gun-firings from the male populace.<span class="pagenum">[47]</span></p> + +<p>A handsome girl, wearing her modish +clothes with a too conscious effect of style, +from her place on the box bowed pleased +acknowledgments in all directions for the +cheering, but at the volley of shots gave a +little startled cry, which was taken up in +louder note by her companions.</p> + +<p>Doffing his hat, Parson Maclane came forward, +with a reassuring smile. "Only a +Klondike welcome, young ladies," he explained.</p> + +<p>"That's what!" the men confirmed him. +"A Klondike welcome!"</p> + +<p>"How quite too utterly charming!" exclaimed +the young lady. "Girls! Sarah!" +she appealed to the others of the party. +"Aren't they too dear and picturesque for +anything!" That "they" were human beings +and not part of the brilliant panorama +seemed hardly to occur to her.</p> + +<p>A score of pairs of rough but willing +hands stretched up to help the speaker from +her high throne, but the honor fell to Scarlett, +or rather was appropriated by that +masterful young man as, putting the other +aspirants aside, he lifted her over the wheel +and swung her lightly to the ground. Without +waiting for her thanks he returned to +his wood-chopping with a sense of one of +life's minor miracles upon him. "By St.<span class="pagenum">[48]</span> +Bridget!" he was thinking, "but that's my +picture-girl!"</p> + +<p>When all the passengers had alighted +safely the boys pushed their leader to the +front. "Speech! Speech! Bully Nick!" +they insisted. "Speech!"</p> + +<p>"Take my hat off fer me," in an undertone +commanded the champion shot and +orator. When one of his lieutenants had +hastened to comply, the Bully stood forth +and cleared his throat. "Ladies, in the name +of the district—and never mind jest at these +presents what name the district bears—I +regret I can't give ye the glad hand, +through bein' a-wearin' of th' Government +bracelets."</p> + +<p>"The Government bracelets," repeated the +beautiful young lady, puzzled, under cover +of the guffaws with which his followers received +Nick's initial witticism.</p> + +<p>"Mary, love——" She appealed to the +tallest of the girls who stood about her. +"You are up in political economy?"</p> + +<p>"I think he must mean some official +decoration," glibly prompted Mary.</p> + +<p>"That's it," corroborated Nick, unashamed, +amid the shame-faced laughter of +his followers. "Official decoration fer proficiency +in gun-play!" He held up his handcuffed +hands.<span class="pagenum">[49]</span></p> + +<p>"Oh!" The girl and her companions recoiled +instinctively.</p> + +<p>"My dears!" The minister stepped into +the breach. "I assure you, Nicholas here +has the warmest heart, though at times he +is a trifle—er—impulsive."</p> + +<p>"Aye!" Nick nodded. "Impulsive, under +the influence of bad liquor. Shot a chap +recent when drunk, me and him alike. Not +but what he desarved it all right, though +the blamed Government won't see it in that +light. But never mind them little personal +details. Let me present the boys. Step up, +lads. This here is Mops, our masher. Only +hez ter look at a mess of pertatoes to rejuce +'em. Tuk a prize once at a beauty show, +there bein' no other contestants, and the +judge havin' been struck blind."</p> + +<p>"Oh, stop yer joshin'!" growled Mops, as, +with a red face, he nearly lost his balance +in a bow.</p> + +<p>"And Bill. Bill's our dude," explained +the Bully. "Won't use nothin' but fashion-plates +ter patch his breeches. Now, Bill, +don't turn yer back on the ladies, else they'll +see that what I say is true. And this here +solemn guy is Sandy, who keeps everything +that comes his way, except the Commandments, +and takes whatever he can lay hands +on, except a joke." A few more introductions<span class="pagenum">[50]</span> +having been achieved in the same +style, "Well, well, I guess we're a rough, +tough lot," concluded Nick.</p> + +<p>"Nature's noblemen, my dear," interpolated +the minister. "The dearest souls, except +for an occasional regrettable—ahem——"</p> + +<p>"Spree!" shouted the Bully. "But that, +take it all in all, is a good sign. When bedrock's +too smooth you won't find gold. Gawd +knows we're tough—but when women comes +among us—good women——" He broke off +to pass a ragged sleeve across his eyes and +gulp. "They're welcome as pay-dirt, and +honored as queens."</p> + +<p>"That's what! You betcherlife!" emphatically +assented the throng.</p> + +<p>"Thank you! thank you!" replied the beautiful +young lady. "I must introduce myself. +I come from New York. My name is +Evelyn Durant——"</p> + +<p>"'Rah, 'rah, for Evelyn!" shouted Mops, +to his own surprise and the general admiration.</p> + +<p>"And these young friends of mine"—Miss +Durant indicated the six plainly dressed +little maids who were drinking in these wonderful +happenings, like children in a fairy +dream—"their names are Mary, Ruth, Ethel, +Kate, Effie and Gertrude, They have come<span class="pagenum">[51]</span> +with me for a holiday from the institution +where they live. They are orphans."</p> + +<p>A round of cheers was thereupon called +for, for Mary, Ruth, Ethel, Kate, Effie and +Gertrude, and clinched with Barney's flattering +assertion, "An' sure this is the idayal +asoilum for thim, and may they prosper and +multiply galeor, for divvle a family in the +disthrict can brag av an orphan of its own +at all, more shame to us!"</p> + +<p>"And this," Evelyn tapped a stout, middle-aged +woman kindly on the shoulder, "is +my faithful maid, Sarah."</p> + +<p>Sarah having been duly cheered, "Sarah +is nae bonny, but she micht be sonsy and of +a savin' disposeetion," commended Sandy, +cautiously, for which encomium, however, +he was only rewarded by an angry shake of +Sarah's stout umbrella, with a counsel to +keep his cheek to himself or she'd know +the reason why.</p> + +<p>These graceful amenities concluded, "We +have come all this way to visit my father," +explained Miss Durant. "But it is far harder +to find him than I should have expected, +considering how well known he is. But I'm +sure you can help me."</p> + +<p>"Sure!" cried her hearers. "You betcher-boots +on that!"</p> + +<p>"And who may be your dad, lady?" inquired<span class="pagenum">[52]</span> +one. "Some crackerjack swell capitalist, +I reckon."</p> + +<p>At this, a gaunt, elderly man, who had +kept in the background, leaning against a +tree, and taking no part in the proceedings, +shifted his position, uneasily.</p> + +<p>"Well," said the young lady, with a conscious +laugh, and the condescension of one +who might boast descent from Santa Claus, +"I suppose every one in these parts is familiar +with the name of Matthew Durant."</p> + +<p>"Matthew Durant!" The owner of the +name did not claim it, and Scarlett and Barney, +who, of the onlookers, alone could have +identified him, recognizing the tragedy that +was being enacted before them, also were +silent. Meanwhile the prospectors, after +scratching perplexed heads and ransacking +memories in vain, denied all knowledge of +the man.</p> + +<p>"Maybe he warks his proposeetion as a +company, leddy," suggested Sandy.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear, no!" Miss Durant flouted the +notion. "My father is It!"</p> + +<p>The man leaning against the Douglas +spruce, his ragged cap drawn down over his +eyes, groaned slightly, and turning away, +looked toward the distant mountains, while +overhead a bird trilled blithely.</p> + +<p>"Let me see if I can describe him," his<span class="pagenum">[53]</span> +daughter was saying, in her sweet, assured +young voice. "He is tall, erect——"</p> + +<p>Durant's bowed shoulders bowed themselves +still lower.</p> + +<p>"He is clean-shaven——"</p> + +<p>Durant felt his unkempt beard.</p> + +<p>"He always dresses in the height of fashion. +He's quite a dude, I tell him."</p> + +<p>Durant laughed outright.</p> + +<p>"And I think him extremely handsome!"</p> + +<p>"Sure; judging by his darter!" cried +Mops, gallantly. "Oh, I don't mean that!" +he hastened to add, fearful of having been +too free.</p> + +<p>"Oh, but I don't mind your meaning it," +laughed Evelyn. "But come, if you've never +met my father surely you all know his mine—the +wonderful Rainbow Mine."</p> + +<p>There was a pregnant pause, and then the +Bully spoke, slowly, impressively. "I never +knowed an out-an'-out prospector that +didn't own the wonderfullest mine goin'—only +waiting fer a triflin' circumstance like +capital ter come along from the East and +open it up and put it on a payin' basis. +Why, every man Jack of us owns a placer +claim, or hydraulicking concession, a silver +or a copper mountain or a glut of gold or +summat that entitles him to be It. Why, +this here little beggar," he jerked his head<span class="pagenum">[54]</span> +toward Bill, "he claims he owns an antimony +proposition that if developed ull make +J. Peerpunt Morgan take a back seat and +Hetty Green look like thirty cents——"</p> + +<p>"No 'if' about it. You betcherlife it will!" +cried Bill, with warmth.</p> + +<p>"Aye!" The Bully nodded his head, condoningly. +"And Sandy here claims ter have +an option on a——"</p> + +<p>"A copper proposeetion, pure boanite," +elucidated Sandy.</p> + +<p>"Aye! Something that's a-goin' ter make +Clark of Montana bust with envy some +day," assented Nick, "and knock Newhouse +of Salt Lake City inter a cocked hat. Why, +tho' by nacher conservative an' shrinking +I myself am calkilatin' on stackin' up the +chips—I mean the books, ag'in Andy Carnegie, +and pourin' oil on the troubled waters +of John D. Rockefeller's poverty, unless +he's run in fust! Take my word fer it, +missy, every man within range of them +bright eyes of yourn is a millionaire—ter-morrer! +A stun-broke millionaire!"</p> + +<p>"But, you see, my father is a millionaire +to-day," explained Miss Durant, with +amused tolerance. "A multi-millionaire."</p> + +<p>Nick shrugged his shoulders. "Lucky +father!"</p> + +<p>"Why, that's his camp name," Evelyn ex<span class="pagenum">[55]</span>claimed. +"Lucky! He has often told me. +Surely you all know Lucky?"</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a id="il_054"></a> +<img class="border2" src="images/il_054.jpg" width="258" height="362" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">MINGLED WITH THE TRAVELLERS AT GUMBOOT ANNIE'S BOARD.</p> + +<p>There was a dead silence, broken only by +the fly-catcher's mocking refrain, every man +with wonderful restraint and delicacy avoiding +so much as a glance toward Durant.</p> + +<p>Then, again, Nick rose to the occasion, +manfully. "Why, ter be sure! Everybody +knows Lucky, and Lucky's Rainbow Mine, +eh, boys? Blast yer, can't yer <i>say</i> yer +does?" he demanded, in an undertone that +would have been backed up with a shooting-iron +had his hands been free.</p> + +<p>But of their own accord the boys, their +presence of mind recovered, all were loyally +assuring Miss Durant that Lucky and +Lucky's mine were synonyms for boundless +wealth at Lost Shoe Creek and throughout +the golden northland. "The mere mention +of it brings better fortin' than touchin' a +hunchback, or spittin' on your money at new +moon," one summed up.</p> + +<p>"Too bad, but Lucky ain't here just now," +the Bully went on to state, with an authority +that, handcuffed though he was, not +even the most audacious would have dared +dispute. "An' what's more, tain't so easy ter +locate him. Like as not he's off, attendin' +ter them vast interests of his'n somewhar +out among them hills!" He nodded, toward<span class="pagenum">[56]</span> +the hoary-beaded mountains as if defying +their granitic silence to gainsay him.</p> + +<p>"Sure he is!" corroborated the prospectors, +in a chorus, covering up the long-drawn +sigh of relief that nearly betrayed +Durant.</p> + +<p>"Prospectors is here ter-day, and gone ter-morrer, +like the snow, d'ye see?" concluded +Nick. "But he'll turn up in time all right, +fer fair, with a pokeful of dust in his corjeroys, +and a train of mules loaded down +with nuggets fer his gal!"</p> + +<p>"Sure! That's what! Betchersweetlife!" +cried the boys, who lacked their leader's +skill in improvising lies, but knew a good +one when they heard it.</p> + +<p>"Oh, thank you, thank you so much!" +Evelyn had begun to feel real uneasiness at +the continued postponements in arriving at +her journey's end or obtaining definite intelligence +of her father. "And when I join him +I shall tell him what a welcome you have +given me. And I promise you he shall back +everybody's proposition. I promise every +one of you a substantial slice of our good +fortune in the Rainbow Mine."</p> + +<p>Comment on this generous pledge was +headed off by Ikey's vigorous ringing of the +supper-bell, coupled with an announcement +from Gumboot Annie that for a dollar<span class="pagenum">[57]</span> +within the tent might be obtained a meal +calculated to turn the mother of the Delmonicos +the colors of a lettuce and tomato +salad from professional jealousy, on which, +at Evelyn's invitation and with Barney's +willing concurrence, the execution of justice +temporal again was stayed, while Nick +and his followers, with their custodian, +mingled with the travelers at Gumboot Annie's +board. There the Bully's manacled +efforts to devour bacon and flapjacks particularly +delighted the young ladies, who +took turns in cutting up his food for him, +while he himself was moved almost to tears +that his last victim could not be present to +share the joy their late unpleasantness was +procuring for himself as the survivor.</p> + +<p>Durant followed them to the entrance of +the tent where, unnoticed, he lingered a few +minutes, listening to the hum of merry +voices, and feasting his sad eyes upon his +girl, then turned despairingly away.</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[58]</span></p> + +<h2><a id="V"></a>V</h2> + +<p class="h3">EVELYN ENGAGES A COURIER</p> + +<p>While, as he knew, his identity +was suspected by Nick and +Nick's gang, yet, so long as +these were at supper his disguise enabled +Scarlett to wander through the camp, as if +seeking employment, and reconnoitre in +order to ascertain what were the most +flagrant examples of law-breaking industries +with which, officially, he would have +to deal. Meanwhile, his thoughts kept straying +toward the picture-girl with pleasure in +the thought of her fascinating proximity, +not unmingled with criticism of her large +assumption of little dignities, softened, +however, with pity for the bitter disappointment +in store for her when she +should learn the true state of her father's +affairs.</p> + +<p>As it would be manifestly impossible for +her to continue under the delusion that hers +was the purse of Fortunatus to draw on, the<span class="pagenum">[59]</span> +obviously wisest plan would be for Durant +to disclose himself to her without delay, +confess the truth, and either arrange for her +to remain with him, sharing his rough lot, +should she have the grit so to do, or take up +a collection to send her back to any friends +who might be willing to give her a home +until, if ever, his luck should turn again. +For his own part, however, both as official +and man, Sergeant Scarlett was strongly of +opinion that it would be an unholy act to +allow a bevy of girls to leave a district so +sorely needing them, above all when among +their number was the girl of girls whom no +young man can fail to recognize the moment +he sets eyes on her; or, as in his case, even +on her portrait. Accordingly, a thousand +schemes passed through his head for making +the wilderness, in spite of straitened +means and harsh conditions, an acceptable +habitation to the newcomers. The first step +was to take counsel with Evelyn's father, +but when, after making his duty rounds of +inspection, he returned to the neighborhood +of Gumboot Annie's hostelry, Durant had +disappeared, nor did inquiry reveal the +slightest trace of him.</p> + +<p>Scarlett's next idea was formally to present +himself to Miss Durant and proffer his +services in finding her party suitable accommodations<span class="pagenum">[60]</span> +till her father could be reached. +Just as he arrived at this decision the +travelers came from the tent. Approaching +Evelyn, with a military salute less effectively +seconded than he could have desired +by the battered apology for a hat that +he was wearing, he was about to accost her, +when, to his surprise, she waved him imperiously +aside.</p> + +<p>"Out of the way, my good man. I wish +to speak with the officer."</p> + +<p>At this, Barney, who was engaged in lining +up his prisoners for the march to headquarters, +came forward, with a flattered +grin. "Out av the way, ye hulkin' vagabone!" +he ordered his superior, with a rough +shove that filled Scarlett with wrath, and +sent Nick and his men, who every moment +were becoming surer of the equivoque, into +loud guffaws.</p> + +<p>"I tell you, I never give indiscriminately +to beggars," stated Miss Durant, as the +young man seemed inclined to persist. +"Kate, love," she beckoned a serious-looking +young girl, "investigate his case."</p> + +<p>Kate wrinkled up her conscientious eyebrows. +"His face is very red," she whispered +Evelyn, "but somehow I don't think +it's drink."</p> + +<p>"Let him wait, then," ordained Evelyn,<span class="pagenum">[61]</span> +"and I'll see about him myself. Meanwhile—oh, +officer, I want your help! I'm in such +a pickle for lack of a man servant," she +went on to confide in Barney. "The French +courier I brought out with me deserted the +moment we set foot in Skagway, taking my +camera, automobile, and I don't know what +besides. Of course, my father will see to +it that he's found and punished—and the +things don't matter, because, till my own +are recovered, they can be replaced. But +the difficulty is to replace Alphonse. I never +before saw so many idle and poverty-stricken +men in all my life; yet—it's the +strangest thing—no matter what inducements +I offer, no one is willing to take service +with me."</p> + +<p>"Myself, I don't think it much loss, miss," +Evelyn's maid struck in. "That Alphonse +was too tight-laced to be of any good use. +And, anyway, for my part I don't think it +respectable for a man to wear corsets any +more than for a woman to go without 'em."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's not Alphonse's usefulness I +mourn for," admitted Miss Durant. "It's +the appearance of the thing; the <i>chic</i>. My +father always likes me to have the best of +everything; and I owe it to his position no +less than to my own dignity to travel in the +best style. Officer," again she appealed to<span class="pagenum">[62]</span> +Barney, "can't you recommend me a courier?"</p> + +<p>Barney looked his bewilderment. "Is it +a currier for the horses av your automeboiler +ye do be wanting, miss?"</p> + +<p>Perceiving in this breach his opportunity, +Scarlett stepped boldly into it. "May +I apply for the position? I'm looking for +work."</p> + +<p>"Lookin' for throuble, more like," muttered +Barney, with solicitude. "Wid all +thim lasses! Begorra, I know the sect."</p> + +<p>Evelyn turned about and surveyed the +speaker critically. "Ah, I'm glad it's employment +and not alms you want," she commended +the busiest, most hardworked official +in the district. "But—I wonder—are +you qualified?" Into her pretty eyes there +crept a look of doubt.</p> + +<p>"I know something about horses," with +truth the Mounted Policeman assured her.</p> + +<p>"But not about lasses," Barney anxiously +tugged at his sleeve. "'Tis them as leads +ye the divvle av a ride, and is like as not to +run away wid ye."</p> + +<p>"H'm!" Evelyn considered the matter. +The shaggy picturesqueness of the prospectors +in colored flannel shirts, top boots and +corduroys, with hands ever on gun or pistol, +their odd phrase and lurid expletive,<span class="pagenum">[63]</span> +touched the silly streak of romanticism in +her as had they been chorus of an opera in +which she found herself enacting the star +rôle, but this clean-skinned young man, with +unadorned speech, in commonplace, work-a-day +clothes, at first failed to interest her.</p> + +<p>"H'm! Well," she conceded finally, "I'm +something of a judge of people. Step into +the light where we can take a good look at +you."</p> + +<p>As Scarlett obeyed, "There!" cried little +Kate, triumphantly. "The nice, modest way +he changes color, I'm sure he doesn't +drink!"</p> + +<p>Evelyn also noticed, as who could fail to +do, the ingenuous blush that overspread the +white crescent of the young giant's brow, +and it flattered her woman's love of power. +"Well, girls," she demanded, in an audible +aside, "and what do you think of him?"</p> + +<p>The verdict of the orphans was unanimous; +they thought him fine, Gertrude, who +would have been frivolous and slangy had +her institution permitted it, pronouncing +him "a peach." Sarah alone challenged him.</p> + +<p>"He's a sassy piece," she informed Evelyn. +"Look at him now, fit to burst with +laughter at us! I never heard of a decent +man-servant that couldn't keep his face +straight."<span class="pagenum">[64]</span></p> + +<p>"But if I'm not straight-faced and strait-laced +like Alphonse," urged Scarlett, "at +least ye can count on me never to take +French leave of ye."</p> + +<p>Sarah shook her head ominously. "He's +too young, miss," she warned Evelyn. "Far +too young."</p> + +<p>"But I'm growing older every day," +pleaded the postulant, "and up here the +days are so long, one grows old twice as +fast."</p> + +<p>"He has too much command of language +for a man-servant, miss," insisted Sarah. +"That kind is apt to put on airs above their +station. And—look at him now!—there's +something altogether too masterful about +the way he walks."</p> + +<p>"Ah, that comes from soldiering," the +young man explained. "Me legs are always +under arms, as it were."</p> + +<p>Evelyn laughed with a distinct prepossession. +"What is your name?" she inquired.</p> + +<p>"Scarlett."</p> + +<p>"Scarlett what?"</p> + +<p>"It's what Scarlett."</p> + +<p>"Eh? What do you sign yourself—that +is, can you write?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I manage to make me mark with my +fist on any human document that gets in +my way. I sign myself J. Scarlett."<span class="pagenum">[65]</span></p> + +<p>"Oh! And what does J stand for?"</p> + +<p>"Gerald."</p> + +<p>"Gerald! How do you spell it?"</p> + +<p>"The usual way. G-e-r-a-l-d."</p> + +<p>"Then, why do you sign it J?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's just a mistake other people +make in the pronunciation," the owner of +the name elucidated, to his own if not to his +hearer's satisfaction. "It once nearly cost +me a lawsuit to establish it."</p> + +<p>Sarah groaned: "He talks for all the +world like an Irishman."</p> + +<p>"Murther will out," Barney proclaimed, +with pride.</p> + +<p>Evelyn turned on the owner of Dunshinnanon. +"Are you Irish?"</p> + +<p>"It's the best excuse my parents could +make for me," admitted Scarlett.</p> + +<p>"I am more than half inclined to take him +on trial," Evelyn stated. "But first," she +again consulted Barney, "officer, can you +give the young man a character?"</p> + +<p>"A character? Faith, but that's phwat +he does be needing some ginerously minded +person to bestow on him, for niver a wan +av his own has he to show at all, at all!" +cried Barney, mindful of his chief's earlier +injunctions to depict him in unflattered +lights. "Glory be! If I was to begin to tell +yez phwat I don't know about the lad he'd<span class="pagenum">[66]</span> +be afther breaking my skull for me, an' not +for the first toime."</p> + +<p>"Nor the last, either, you idiot!" growled +Scarlett.</p> + +<p>"That's rather vague," commented Evelyn. +"Tell me, is he honest?"</p> + +<p>"Gosh! th' Irish is no thieves," Barney answered +handsomely for his race, "though +now and thin maybe wan might snap at +something in your hand. It takes a dhirty +Hollander to do the stealin'!"</p> + +<p>"Oh! And—is he sober?"</p> + +<p>"Sober! A pure-blooded Celt like himself!" +Wishing still to carry out Scarlett's +first orders, Barney hotly repudiated the +charge of damaging sobriety on his behalf, +but warned by a surreptitious kick that he +was exceeding instructions, he softened it +by asking, generally: "Wid a felly like himself, +that dhrunk or sober is aqually an +omadhaun, phwat the divvle is the differ?" +And Scarlett also pleaded his own +cause by admitting that he was frequently +quite sober, though, thanks be! never to an +intemperate degree.</p> + +<p>Sarah groaned portentously, but the missionary +spirit was awakening in Evelyn. "I +can put up with a good deal," she asserted, +"if I feel I am giving employment where it +is really needed. But I must first know<span class="pagenum">[67]</span> +where I stand. Is this young person reliable, +to be depended on in an emergency?"</p> + +<p>"You betcherlife on that!" yelled the prospectors, +in delighted chorus. As outlaws, +the mounted policeman was their natural +enemy, but for the time he had downed +them, as in the long run, they, by instinct, +realized he always would down them, and +they respected him.</p> + +<p>"You stake yer bottom plunk on it, d'ye +see? He's the only man ever got me skinned +forty ways from the Jack," in a generous +climax conceded Bully Nick.</p> + +<p>Evelyn's pretty face was clouded with +perplexity. Categorically there was no specific +charge against the applicant; moreover, +the longer she looked at him the more was +she impressed with the promise of strength +in his splendid proportions, the resolute +chin, clear, friendly eyes, even though the +corners of a mobile mouth did curl as if +with perpetual laughter in an outlook on +life too original to be seemly in a wearer +of livery—yet, evidently, something was +being withheld from her. Urged, however, +by all the little orphans, who by this time +were in love with Scarlett, she remarked: +"Yes, we must remember that we came up +here not only for our own pleasure, but +also to do good. I am tempted to take the<span class="pagenum">[68]</span> +young man on a month's trial, and at least +endeavor to reform him. That is, if—— +Officer," she again consulted Barney, "is he +really the best protector you can find for +us?"</p> + +<p>Pushing his hat back from a brow heated +by such unwonted drafts upon its thinking +powers, Barney scratched his head while +regarding his superior with disparagement. +Finally, "well, yis, he is," he admitted, as +if it were the last damnatory word to be +spoken of the man.</p> + +<p>Having ascertained that something over +a dollar a day and his keep was as much as +he was used to in the way of wage, Miss Durant +instructed her new courier in his duties—"to +look after our trunks, bicycles, +banjos, pianola, mandolins——"</p> + +<p>"And the pets, dear," put in Ruth, who +was rather tired of trying to keep the peace +between an Angora cat and a canary, a parrot +that looked as if it had a wicked past +and a bull pup who wished to include the +parrot, past and all, in his present rampageous +scheme of life.</p> + +<p>"Oh, of course the menagerie! Then you +must go ahead to engage the best suites for +us at the hotels, and——"</p> + +<p>"And follow ye to pick up the articles ye +leave behind," Scarlett nodded, understandingly.<span class="pagenum">[69]</span> +"But till we get fairly started, I'll +just accompany ye."</p> + +<p>"Very well," assented Evelyn. "Sarah, +I hope you won't mind having the young +man eat with you while we are traveling?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose it can't be helped, miss," +gloomily replied the maid. "I only hope +the young man will have the grace to improve +the opportunity."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll improve it fast enough," promised +Scarlett, with a twinkling eye on Sarah, +"so long as ye don't expect me to embrace +it."</p> + +<p>Evelyn cut short the maid's angry reproof. +"Now, Gerald, you must keep your +place. Conduct us to the nearest large city. +We must telegraph my father to join us +there. Meanwhile, we want to do a lot +of shopping. We want, oh, ever so +many things! Girls, which of you has my +list?"</p> + +<p>"I put down prizes for our bridge parties," +cried Effie, her eyes snapping at the thought +of the unhallowed joys in store for her.</p> + +<p>"And materials for making fudge," whispered +Ethel, who had thirty-two sweet +teeth.</p> + +<p>"Yes," assented Evelyn. "And we must +buy presents: neckties and things for the +poor dear miners who have been so kind to<span class="pagenum">[70]</span> +us. Also cotillion favors. As soon as we +are settled I mean to give a ball."</p> + +<p>"But, miss, how about money?" Sarah reminded +her. "We have only fifty-odd dollars +left."</p> + +<p>"Oh, we can have things charged!" cried +Evelyn, airily. "My father's name will be +letter of credit to any amount."</p> + +<p>Scarlett looked about with a growing uneasiness. +The day was fast subsiding into +the long twilight that precedes the short +northern summer night. Barney had departed +with his captives on the long march +that was the most effective object-lesson +conceivable in what could be accomplished +in policing a district by but two men, with +the might of a Government behind; and +here was he, practically alone, save for the +minister, to guard these women, since, as he +shrewdly guessed, in an emergency the courage +of the other passengers traveling by +the coach would prove of negligible quality. +The horses had been put into harness some +time before, yet the driver kept delaying +their departure on the most trivial pretexts. +On this Gumboot Annie, when appealed to, +threw a lurid local color. "Guess Logan is +timin' things fer the hold-up."</p> + +<p>"The hold-up!" in alarm, exclaimed the +passengers, who enjoyed these things better<span class="pagenum">[71]</span> +on billboards forthsetting Bowery melodrama. +"You don't mean to say they really +have hold-ups in these parts?"</p> + +<p>Gumboot Annie spat deliberately before +replying, "Why, that's our specialty."</p> + +<p>"But the driver—does not the driver defend +his passengers?"</p> + +<p>"The driver! Now wouldn't thet jostle +yer!" demanded Gumboot Annie of the +mountains. "Logan hes ter stand in with +the gang ter save his own skin. And, mind +you folks don't make no fuss. Pass in yer +checks an' no jawin', and the boys won't +hurt yer none. But if yer squeal—well, it's +none of my funeral."</p> + +<p>Great consternation prevailed among the +passengers who had booked to Camp Perdu, +the stage's next destination, and elaborate +were the preparations they made to conceal +their valuables. The bills and gold-dust +Maclane had collected for his hospital he +skilfully packed into his moccasin, while, +to the general amusement, Sarah bestowed +Evelyn's ready money in the fauna and +flora of her own bonnet.</p> + +<p>"It's my belief the woman only said that +to frighten us," decided Evelyn as, with a +flourish of his horn, the driver shouted, "All +aboard!" And as the stage rumbled peacefully +along she added: "In any case, our<span class="pagenum">[72]</span> +party is safe. Our courier will protect us!" +In no respect, however, were her predictions +justified. Hardly was Lost Shoe Creek +left behind when from the bushes by the +wayside sprang a band of men, with hats +drawn over their faces, pistols in hand, bidding +the driver halt.</p> + +<p>It was the most systematic proceeding in +the world, reducing the bandits to the level +of petty tradesmen, and their victims to +that of unwilling contributors to a recognized +if oppressive impost. Not one of the +former offered to spare the fair sex on condition +its fairest representative should +tread with him the stately measure of a +minuet; not one of the latter invoked the +memory of the former's spotless childhood +hallowed by a mother's caresses beneath +an old oaken bucket or spreading chestnut +tree. Instead, Logan wound the reins about +the whip as this stood in its socket, and +held up his hands, though without ceasing +to chew the straw in his mouth, while the +passengers under invitation apparently no +more coercive than that of the average trolley +car conductor to step lively or move up, +dismounted and stood with uplifted arms +while methodically relieved of purses, +watches and the like. Terror tied the +women's tongues, while the men, knowing<span class="pagenum">[73]</span> +the futility of remonstrance, were silent. +Only Scarlett, while submitting with the +rest, ventured on a lively sally or so that +called down on him a few curses or served +to provoke a laugh that later helped him in +identifying the malefactors. But not a +word of importance was uttered on either +side till the leader of the gang, surveying +the pile of loot, muttered, discontentedly: +"Well, this is a blamed mean crowd! Go +over 'em again!"</p> + +<p>It was then Scarlett took a quick decision. +Little as passivity suited his fighting manhood; +much as, in his own phrase, it pained +him to Evelyn's appealing glances to turn +a deaf ear, he knew that to offer the slightest +resistance would be to forfeit his own +life and leave the womenkind to a fate one +dared not think of calmly. Nevertheless, +when at the second overhauling he saw her +jeweled belt and studs torn rudely from her +he could not forbear a movement of impatience +that drew to himself the serious attention +of the robbers.</p> + +<p>"Say, young feller"—one pressed the cold +muzzle of a pistol to his forehead—"air you +in an all-fired hurry ter see yer affairs +wound up?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, as to that," he answered, "ye can +wind up me affairs and welcome if ye'll take<span class="pagenum">[74]</span> +the time. They're just the Waterbury +watch inside me pocket."</p> + +<p>The ruffian laughed, and told him he +could keep his worthless timepiece for his +wit, but Evelyn shuddered with a disgust +that gave her voice. "The pitiful coward! +When I took it for granted you would risk +your life for me!"</p> + +<p>"Faith, but I'm not dying to be corpse at +me own wake," jeered Scarlett. "For a +lady I might risk my life, but not for the +dust the reverend gentleman is treading +under foot, nor for the greenbacks sprouting +from yonder good woman's botanical +headpiece!"</p> + +<p>Shrieks from the women, groans and reproaches +from the men, denounced this +treachery, as the bonnet of the protesting +Sarah yielded up its riches and the minister +in heartbroken silence suffered himself, perforce, +to be despoiled, while old Blenksoe, +taken off his guard, in his natural tones +cried, approvingly, "Ah, thet's somethin' +like!"</p> + +<p>As they hurriedly packed their loot, +"Rustle, boys," in undertones, warned +the leader, "else we shall have that +blasted M. P. of a Scarlett on our backs!" +His caution came none too soon. At Scarlett's +instigation, Barney had contrived to<span class="pagenum">[75]</span> +get word to Perdu, and just as the robbers +had cleared into the jungle with their booty +an armed delegation of citizens appeared +upon the scene. As the victims were left +penniless, Dave Hastie, proprietor of the +Grand Hotel, offered them gratuitous hospitality +for the approaching night, a kindness +that was accepted only too gladly.</p> + +<p>"But before we start," cried Evelyn, amid +general acclamation, "I wish to denounce a +coward, a poltroon, a traitor! A contemptible +being whose betrayal of those who +trusted him should not go unscathed. Creature," +she turned on her smiling courier, +"have you no sense of shame?"</p> + +<p>"Sure, but I have," he answered. "Never +a day passes that I don't blush for human +nature in the lump!"</p> + +<p>Evelyn sighed, and again addressed the +delegation of Perdu's Law and Order +League, who, having missed the robbers, +were fairly spoiling with eagerness to kill +the next best man. "He never so much as +lifted a finger to defend us," she explained.</p> + +<p>"Oh, but I did! All ten of them," he defended +himself, in injured tones.</p> + +<p>"It's only what one might expect," Sarah +harangued the throng, "taking on a scallywag +without character or references. Practically +robbing miss here of every penny of<span class="pagenum">[76]</span> +ready money she possesses, and damaging +this bunnet that I got at a reduction off of +a lady friend as has set up a swell millinery +establishment in Sixth Avenue."</p> + +<p>"He delivered us to our enemies!" There +were tears in Maclane's voice. "He stripped +the sick, the suffering; turned into +channels of vice the contributions for my +hospital."</p> + +<p>All agreed that hanging was too good for +the culprit, and some were in favor of lynching. +One consideration alone deterred them +from extreme measures, even while a rope +was being hunted for among the skunk willows, +sage and wild lupin by the road: +namely, the unpopularity of such punitive +proceedings with the Mounted Policeman +newly appointed to the district.</p> + +<p>"Times is sadly changed, boys," the leader +reminded the delegation. "The gentlemanly +way with us has allus bin ter choke off a +traitor's last prayers with a hempen Amen. +But this blamed M. P. is as apt ter pinch +the gentlemen as acts impulsive in a little +lynchin' matter as quick as he'd pinch a +criminal. Thar's only two of 'em," he explained +to the travelers, "the Sergeant and +his man—but the way the feller covers distances—his +horse has seven-leagued boots +for sure! Now, as president of Perdu's<span class="pagenum">[77]</span> +Peace Committee and Law and Order +League, I'd claim it my proud privilege ter +fit the noose ter this young rascal's neck—but +as husband to a good woman and father +to her kids I don't want ter run up contrairy-wise +agin Scarlett of the Mounted!"</p> + +<p>"Very well," decided Evelyn. "I myself +am in favor of government. I belong to several +ladies' associations for upholding clean +streets and economy in the Mayor's office +and things like that. From what you say, +this—I didn't catch the Mounted Policeman's +name, but he obviously must be an +officer; and though with us, in New York, +policemen, even mounted ones, have no +standing in Society, yet, in his way, he must +be a gentleman. Then let this miserable +fellow be bound and taken before him for +sentence. I myself will press the charge +against him."</p> + +<p>"Good business," applauded the delegation, +heartily.</p> + +<p>But as they were about to bind the prisoner +with a rope taken from the skeleton of +a wretched horse that some inferior brute +of a human being had put to purposes of +transportation under conditions for which +nature had never intended it, the Irishman +put them lightly aside.</p> + +<p>"One moment, please. Now that ye've<span class="pagenum">[78]</span> +wisely decided to postpone suspending the +judged, also, as a famous American in a +crisis once remarked, suspend judgment. +All the accusations brought against me are +dead true, which is why ye are alive to make +them. I assisted in the despoiling of ye, on +business principles, sacrificing small sums +to one ten times their combined amounts. +For under my own right foot I carry a sum +that will not only replace Sarah's bonnet, +greenbacks and all, but also reimburse the +hospital with a little contribution of my +own to boot."</p> + +<p>As he spoke, he drew a roll of ready money +from its hiding place and handed some +bills over to the astonished maid and the no +less astonished minister. "The rest, a draft, +I am commissioned to deposit in the bank on +account of one Durant, now absent on a +prospecting trip, for the maintenance, till +he returns, of his daughter——"</p> + +<p>A loud chorus of surprise, admiration, +gratitude interrupted the young man who +was now hero of the hour.</p> + +<p>The League enrolled him an honorary +member on the spot. To his terror, three +depressed women with bundles wanted to +kiss him for his mother, while Maclane, on +behalf of all the disabled people in the district, +nearly wrung his hand off. As breaking<span class="pagenum">[79]</span> +away he started to make his escape, Evelyn +detained him. "My preserver," she +cried, in impassioned tones, "let me reward +you!"</p> + +<p>And when Scarlett, laughing, shook his +head, refusing a moiety of his own ready +money that, at Evelyn's direction, Sarah +was proffering him, "Then at least tell me +your name—for in the excitement I am +ashamed to say I have clean forgotten it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," insisted the group, "your +name!"</p> + +<p>"'Tis the same as it has always been," he +answered, blithely, turning on his heel. "I +haven't changed it yet. Any time ye want +me just ask at headquarters for Himself, for +Scarlett of the Mounted."</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[80]</span></p> + +<h2><a id="VI"></a>VI</h2> + +<p class="h3">EVELYN SEEKS COUNSEL</p> + +<p>A few days later Evelyn, accompanied +by Sarah, knocked at the door +of St. Andrew's Mission, near +Perdu. An Indian woman opened to her, +and on her asking for Mr. Maclane, the minister +came forward with a cordial welcome.</p> + +<p>"I won't invite you in, since just at present +my study is in requisition as a hospital, +and in any case you will doubtless prefer +the veranda with its vista of the mountains."</p> + +<p>"And your lovely garden," added Evelyn, +glancing at the beds in which vegetables +and ornamental plants were growing in orderly +profusion. "I never supposed that +cultivation was possible so far north."</p> + +<p>"That is a common mistake," replied the +minister. "But it is the same with plants +as with people: wherever it is possible for +them to grow it is intended that they should +be cultivated; by which I do not mean that<span class="pagenum">[81]</span> +we should take the nature out of them, +teaching them tricks and artificial ways; I +mean that we should improve the conditions +surrounding them, in order that their +natural tendencies and activities may have +the widest scope for beneficent purposes."</p> + +<p>"And yet"—Evelyn looked up and down +the road—"you seem to be almost the only +one who recognizes these possibilities. All +the cabins seem to have been dropped in uncompromising +rows along the highways, as +if they were so many children's toys taken +out of cardboard boxes labeled 'Made in Germany'."</p> + +<p>"Ah, most of the folk who come here are +so busily engrossed in spading up the soil +for treasure they have no time to till and +sow. Yet our short summer of long days is +capable of harvests that would yield pure +gold in a land of canned supplies, where +men get to long for green food as for water +in the desert. Metz, the pioneer baker of +Perdu, a far-sighted German, is raking in +the gold-dust that other men laboriously pan +out, by the sackful, simply by adding a fresh +lettuce leaf, or radish, to every plate of fried +eggs and bacon that he serves. Brackett of +Atlin is famous for the beauty of his poppy +patch that blazes like a banner on a dusty +mountainside, no less than for the succulence<span class="pagenum">[82]</span> +of the turnips with which he regales +his friends, all grown on a tiny corner of an +auriferous claim that overhangs the sluiceboxes. +Dr. Milne of Dawson received a +prize for the tomatoes and celery he took +down from his far-north home to the exposition +in Victoria, on the occasion of the +visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales. +Indeed, there was a story going the rounds +that on the third day of the exposition, +when the good doctor wanted to substitute +fresh produce for his own, which, by that +time had wilted, he could find none in Victoria +to match their size. And I myself am +not a little proud of my own sweet-peas." +He handed Evelyn the fragrant blossoms he +had been cutting as he talked.</p> + +<p>"Thank you. They are indeed lovely. But +I must not detain you too long. I have come +to you for that which I rarely seek—advice."</p> + +<p>"I am wholly at your service." Maclane +installed her in a steamer-chair and placed +himself on a bench beside her. "Some ethical +question?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear, no! I am an Episcopalian," +answered Evelyn, loftily. "Not but what +I am very liberal," she hastened to add. "I +subscribe to worthy charities of all denominations."<span class="pagenum">[83]</span></p> + +<p>There was charity without resentment on +Maclane's good brow as he merely said: +"Then in what way can I help you?"</p> + +<p>"My troubles are all of a practical nature."</p> + +<p>"In that respect, perhaps, I am not the +best adviser."</p> + +<p>"But there's no one else in whom I can +confide. People up here treat me in the +strangest way. I never had such an experience."</p> + +<p>"Well, well, I'll do my best."</p> + +<p>"In the first place I don't know how to +manage about money. Sergeant Scarlett +has deposited several hundred dollars to my +account in the Canadian Bank of Commerce, +and as much more in the Bank of British +North America, yet this morning, when I +went to draw some, the managers of each informed +me, apparently on their own responsibility, +that I am put on a weekly allowance; +that I may only draw so much, at +stated times, and not a penny more. When I +threatened to withdraw my patronage, they +said that would be impossible till the account +was closed. I went to three lawyers in +succession to get out injunctions and things +against them—but not a man would undertake +the case. Oh, evidently all the officials +are leagued in some sort of a ring or another,<span class="pagenum">[84]</span> +for when I went to the office of the +<i>Perdu Claim</i> and asked the editor to help +me expose them, he only laughed. In New +York, one or the other of the ten-cent magazines +would have jumped at such an opportunity. +However, that wouldn't matter so +much if I could buy things from the stores +on credit, but I find not a merchant will allow +me to run up a bill. 'Cash down; spot +cash for everything.' I never was so insulted +in all my life."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry people have seemed inhospitable," +began Maclane, "but——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, when it comes to that," Evelyn interrupted, +"every one has been hospitality +itself. Even the bank people, while officially +they were insulting me, in the name of +their wives and sisters offered to put up my +party in some sort of fashion till we get +settled. Hastie refuses to charge one penny +for accommodating us till we find permanent +quarters, though he had the impertinence—I'm +sure he didn't mean to be impertinent—to +suggest that we could stay +indefinitely if we liked to work our way as +chambermaids and waitresses and dishwashers +and things. Even that impudent +editor offered to turn out of the wretched +cupboard of a room at the back of his office +where he lives, and sleep on a printing press<span class="pagenum">[85]</span> +if we liked to go stay there. At least a +dozen families have invited us to bunk in +their stuffy little cabins till my father's return. +But that isn't my way of doing things +at all. I'm accustomed to having the best +and paying for it. Yet not a soul will accept +my note or give me one pennyworth of +credit. Just wait till my father hears how +I am being treated!"</p> + +<p>"Ah, your father!" Maclane caught at +the idea. "A talk with your father would +clear things up immediately."</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course. But where is my father? +how to get at him? I ask, ask, ask. Everyone +has seen him quite recently. Every one +assures me he is in his usual perfect health. +Yet when I insist on knowing definitely +which path he took, every one points +vaguely north, south, east, west, toward the +mountains."</p> + +<p>"Then, for the present, why not accept +that view of it?" the minister suggested. "It +seems to be a matter of general knowledge +that he is well, and off on a prospecting tour—and +to a born prospector, such as is your +father, there seem to be no limitations in +the way of time, space, endurance, when +searching for treasure. Only one thing can +be predicated with certainty: sooner or later +a man must turn up at some base of supplies<span class="pagenum">[86]</span> +to renew his outfit. And then, knowing +your anxiety, the whole district will see +to it that he and you are put into communication +with each other."</p> + +<p>Miss Durant moved her daintily shod feet +impatiently. "I'm not accustomed to waiting +for anything that money can procure me. +Why can't I send messengers flying to recall +him, in every direction where there is a +trail? One would think that hordes of these +out-at-elbow camp hangers-on would be on +their knees to me, begging for the chance—yet, +though I have notices posted up everywhere +offering a liberal salary and a thousand +dollar bonus, I have had not one single +application, not though I offer for security +the Rainbow Mine."</p> + +<p>"Poor child!" Maclane looked at her +compassionately, wondering in what way +the bitter truth might be most gently +broken to her, and examining his own honest +conscience to know if his should be the +task. Before this was clear to him, however, +to his infinite relief he saw the handsome +person of the Sergeant, now clad in +full uniform, coming up the garden path. +"Why not take our friend Scarlett into our +counsels?" he hastened to suggest.</p> + +<p>"What! That insolent young man who +pretended to take service with me!" Miss<span class="pagenum">[87]</span> +Durant ignored the soldier's military salute.</p> + +<p>"My dear," remonstrated the good Maclane, +"our friend is greeting you."</p> + +<p>"Ah, Sergeant," cried Evelyn, with hauteur, +"I did not see you! That is to say, in +my world a lady does not see a gentleman +until she recognizes him."</p> + +<p>"Faith, then, I'd best make myself invisible, +lest when recognized I mayn't be seen." +Scarlett turned to go.</p> + +<p>"Oh, please remain," pleaded Maclane, +"and help me advise with Miss Durant. +Pending her father's arrival, she finds herself, +er—financially embarrassed—or rather +at a loss to proportion her finances to her +wants in the style to which she is accustomed. +Now what do you suggest?"</p> + +<p>"The first word lies with you, Dominie." +His back toward the two, Scarlett had +seated himself on the veranda steps and +was playing with Telegraph and Wrangel, +who, after a series of critical sniffings, had +taken him unreservedly into their favor.</p> + +<p>"Oh, not with me; not with any son of +man," hastily disclaimed Maclane, who +quite forgot that he had tried to throw the +responsibility on Scarlett. "First always +comes prayer. Take your troubles, my +daughter, to the Divine Footstool."<span class="pagenum">[88]</span></p> + +<p>"Oh, of course," replied Evelyn, petulantly, +"I always say my prayers, and make +the responses in church. But just now I'm +asking you how I am to pay for daily +bread."</p> + +<p>"Well," Scarlett considered, "I should advise—to +begin with—well——"</p> + +<p>"You've said well twice," Evelyn sharply +pulled him up. "Best let well alone."</p> + +<p>"Pardon," retorted Scarlett. "Truth lies +at the bottom of my well."</p> + +<p>In spite of herself Evelyn smiled, and perceiving +his advantage he went on: "After +all, well is the best beginning when you +can't find a better. Why not for the present—just +for a lark, you know—try roughing +it?"</p> + +<p>"Roughing it!" echoed Evelyn, in dismay. +"Wouldn't that be a bit rough?"</p> + +<p>"That's where the lark comes in," Scarlett +assured her. "And we'd all make it as +smooth as we know how."</p> + +<p>"A capital idea!" Maclane slapped his +knee and looked toward the sweet-pea vines +as if calling on them to agree with him. "So—er—original. +Think what letters you can +write to your friends at home, Miss Durant. +And then that is the only way to get the full—er—bouquet +of a country, so to speak; not +from the tourist standpoint, but by living<span class="pagenum">[89]</span> +the life of the people of any class who, by +their work, are making it."</p> + +<p>Miss Durant frowned, pondered a little, +then smiled. "I rather like the notion. We +came here largely to do good, and it will +make the inhabitants feel more at ease; +bridge over the social difference, as it were, +if I adopt their mode of life. I really am +very democratic."</p> + +<p>"Then that's where ye'll feel out of +place," Scarlett remarked. "Wherever the +surface is flat as a billiard table, as regards +conditions, all class distinctions being wiped +out, it's there that aristocracy begins. The +democrats insist on it!"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I can accommodate myself even +to your idea of aristocracy," Evelyn remarked, +ironically. "The first question is, +can we find a suitable dwelling?"</p> + +<p>"I've been investigating," answered Scarlett, +"and I find at Lost Shoe Creek there is +an abandoned cabin ye can have rent free; +a really very decent affair 'twill be with a +little patching, which the boys will be only +too proud to lend a hand with."</p> + +<p>Evelyn gasped. "And you call that suitable +for <i>me</i>!"</p> + +<p>Scarlett shrugged his shoulders. "This is +the wilderness, my lady."</p> + +<p>"My dear," interposed Maclane, "you<span class="pagenum">[90]</span> +must remember that building is a costly +matter. Even unskilled labor, when you +can obtain it, commands five dollars a day. +Talk of democracy; no man here is looking +for a day's wage at carpentering, when any +turn of the pick and shovel may make him a +Croesus! Make up your mind to it that the +Sergeant is offering you the equivalent of +New York's most costly hostelry."</p> + +<p>"Oh, very well!" Miss Durant condescended +to the cabin. "I suppose we can +have tents for the servants? I shall need +two women besides Sarah."</p> + +<p>"Pardon, miss." At her name, the maid's +stout form appeared from behind the angle +of the veranda, where she had been conducting +a discreet flirtation with the waterman, +who with a bucket supported by a frame +on wheels and drawn by eight frisky little +huskies, supplied Perdu with water from +the lake at five cents the pail. "Do not +count on me, miss. When my month is up +I am looking to settle down on my own account."</p> + +<p>"You are going to desert me? You are +planning to set up in business, Sarah?" +asked Evelyn, dismayed.</p> + +<p>"Business!" Sarah laughed, scornfully. +"With men growing on the bushes, as one +might say."<span class="pagenum">[91]</span></p> + +<p>"You don't mean to say you are going to +get married?"</p> + +<p>"Why not me as well as the next lady, +miss, and sooner than some, in a place where +ladies is valued far more for their practical +abilities than for mere youth and skin-deep +beauty. I am told that two French-Canadian +gentlemen, who are starting rival +laundries, came to blows about me in the +Pioneer Bakery last night; this gentleman +with the waterworks concession has just +passed some extremely gratifying remarks +about me—though my own preference is +for a Scotch gentleman with religious views +and a copper proposition. Dear knows one +needs something stable to tie up to in this +outlandish place, where day and night get +all mixed up!"</p> + +<p>"But, Sarah," Evelyn laughed, "you know +you haven't changed your watch hands since +we left the Grand Central Station."</p> + +<p>"Time is time, miss," stated Sarah, "and +twisting the hands of a watch don't affect +it. I've always heard that mining camps +was immoral places, and I'll answer for it +this monkeying-with-the-clock business was +invented by some scapegrace that wanted to +deceive his poor wife about the hour he got +home at night. But my choice, whichever I +decide on, won't take me in that way!" She<span class="pagenum">[92]</span> +shook her umbrella with a mixture of coquetry +and warning in the direction of the +waterman.</p> + +<p>Again Evelyn laughed, rather helplessly. +"And I have been so indulgent with you, +allowing you to gratify your crude taste for +colors, where any other mistress would have +insisted on black, serge or alpaca, with at +most for your bonnet a quill or wing. However, +I mustn't stand in your light, Sarah."</p> + +<p>"You can't, miss," the maid informed her, +respectfully, but with finality. "As for deserting +you, as a married lady I shall only +be too happy to chaperon you till your +father gets back or till you settle down on +your own account. And to start with, +though my month isn't up, let me give you +a bit of advice as from one lady to another. +Policemen," she eyed Scarlett with disparagement, +"are all very well in their way, but +as from my own experience I know they are +apt to be triflers, particularly on promotion. +Measured by a New York figure of speech +among us below-stairs ladies, miss, I myself +wouldn't think of permitting an arm +with fewer than three stripes on it round +my waist."</p> + +<p>On this Scarlett assured Sarah, to her +great indignation, that she, at any rate, +would be safe from his advances, his arm<span class="pagenum">[93]</span> +not being long enough to meet her figure-of-speech's +measurements. When she had returned +to the waterman, Evelyn, recovering +from the indignant embarrassment into +which Sarah's advice had thrown her, +sighed: "Such an admirable maid! However +will my hair get dressed?"</p> + +<p>"Do it yourself," suggested Scarlett. "I +always do mine." A girl in a red cloak just +then happening to pass by he beckoned her. +"I think after all I can find some one to do +your work. Come here, Gelly. Miss Durant +wants to talk with you."</p> + +<p>Evelyn surveyed the girl's unkempt, +though now sober comeliness dubiously. +"She doesn't look very—— However, is +she willing, clean and honest?"</p> + +<p>"No, I ain't," snapped out Gelly, irritated +by the inspection. "Not one of 'em. I'm as +bad as they make 'em!"</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to tell me——" Evelyn's +voice dropped to a shocked whisper. "Sergeant, +have you dared recommend me a +young person who is not—not virtuous?"</p> + +<p>"But she has so many other virtues," +pleaded Scarlett for his protégée, "I +thought ye might give her a chance." He +appealed to Sarah, who had drawn near. +"Perhaps ye'll let me explain to you as +being the older woman."<span class="pagenum">[94]</span></p> + +<p>Sarah pursed her lips primly. "There's +some things I'll never be old enough to +hear."</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon, heartily," Scarlett +was heard quietly to say.</p> + +<p>"I am by no means sure that I shall grant +it," replied Miss Durant, with a haughty +toss of the head.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I was addressing Gelly here," he +hastened to set her straight. "I had no +right to let her be present at her own dissection."</p> + +<p>"Wait!" Evelyn had an inspiration. "I +spend a week every Lent in a Settlement, +and we came up here to do good, so why +not——"</p> + +<p>"Now, look here!" Confronting her, arms +akimbo, Gelly let loose the coarsely expressed, +though not wholly unjustifiable, +anger that in deference to Maclane and Scarlett +she had been trying to restrain. "You +better just dry up on that good-doin' proposition, +else it ull be the worse fer yer round +these diggin's! I know yer kind. I was in +a Home oncet, and they came and sang to +us, sometimes in fine duds ter show thet +they regarded us like as their equals, which +is lies! And sometimes dressed, oh my! so +goody-goody plain, ter show thet rich folk +<span class="pagenum">[95]</span>don't reely care fer silk and sealskin—which +is lies! And then they sent me to a +convent, and the Sisters, they meant all +right, but they cheated the doctor about the +medicines they put in his prescriptions to +save money fer the Church, and kidded to +the saints about their souls. Souls! Shucks! +Thar was a missioner oncet who thought +she'd got a holt of me all right, all right. She +were a-prospectin' ter launder my soul and +show it tied up with baby-blue ribbons and +sashayed with sanctity as a prize sample to +the Lord. Want ter know what I done ter +her? Not a thing, you betcherlife! Only +smashed her face with a sody-water bottle! +Soft drinks, cos thet kind puts most heft in +the bottle and least ter the booze. See? +Now you better get busy and earn your own +salt, virtuous ef you're so plumb struck on +virtue, and ef not, anyway——"</p> + +<p>A firm hand on her shoulder cut her short, +as, wheeling her right-about-face, Scarlett +sternly bade her, "Come!" And, like a little +cowering dog about to be whipped for a victory +in which, while half ashamed of it, it +wholly glories, Gelly meekly followed him.</p> + +<p>The color which the girl's attack had +driven from Evelyn's face came flooding +back as she turned reproachfully upon Maclane: +"And you never said a word to stop +her!"<span class="pagenum">[96]</span></p> + +<p>"Ah," replied the minister, "I have +learned that I always gain so much from listening +to the other fellow's point of view."</p> + +<p>"But surely"—for Miss Durant was not +a little proud of her capacity for "emanating +gracious influences," as the dilettanti +of her kind were apt to phrase it—"surely +you believe in missionary work; in doing +good?"</p> + +<p>Before replying, Maclane stooped forward +and drew back a spray of vine that was +spreading itself obtrusively over a little +pink-faced daisy making a sturdy effort to +look up to the god of light. "The best we +can do is to try to give created things their +chance. And in the end, my dear," he +patted Evelyn's hand kindly, "it's the missionaries, +the good-doers, to whom the good +is done."</p> + +<p>"Gelly," Scarlett meanwhile was admonishing +his stubborn charge, "in all this lowdown +district there isn't a man so mean he +could be hired to tell that poor girl yonder +the truth about her father till we've made +her feel at home among us and somehow +fitted her to bear it. Now, Gelly, are you, +a girl that has known trouble, going to be +meaner than the men?"</p> + +<p>Gelly looked at him. "Better hev yer uniform +let out fer the wings ter sprout," she<span class="pagenum">[97]</span> +advised him, with unfeigned homage, if +with mocking tongue. "As fer thet thar +stuck-up piece——" A rude grimace completed +her estimate of Evelyn, but in the +midst of it she paused suddenly, her ill-bred +thumb dropping from her saucy nose. +"I'm jiggered ef I don't b'lieve yer gone on +her!"</p> + +<p>"That's neither here nor there," answered +the young soldier. "I'll lock up your tongue +in jail if it disturbs the peace, but I'd so +much sooner put you on your honor, Gelly."</p> + +<p>"Till next time," promised Gelly, "yer kin +let it go at that!" Then, as she went down +the road, she burst into loud sobbing: "And +I cud be decent ef some decent woman ud +believe in me!"</p> + +<p>Maclane, who had been considering, had +a new idea. "I wonder if Chilkat Jo +couldn't be persuaded to help you, Miss Durant; +that is, if you feel you must have service."</p> + +<p>"Of course I must," said Evelyn. "The +orphans have been brought up to work, and +make themselves useful, but they are my +guests, my partners in this expedition; and +naturally I cannot expect them to do things +that I should not do myself."</p> + +<p>"Naturally," Maclane agreed with her, +more readily than she deemed politeness required.<span class="pagenum">[98]</span> +Going to the door he opened it, and +called to some one within. "O Joseph! +Chilkat Jo!"</p> + +<p>The trader, who had been enjoying the +hospitality of the mission, came forth with +alacrity. Seeing Maclane, "Godam you! +what do you want?" he asked, in tones at +once amiable and fraught with high respect.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Joseph, what expressions!" The +minister shook his head. "You see," he explained +to Evelyn, "like all the Indians, he +learned bad habits from the white traders +before the missionaries came his way. I +sometimes wonder, if any Indians survive +civilization, whether morally they will recover +from contact with the whites. But, +come, Joseph, our friends here are looking +for a handy man to——"</p> + +<p>"Mally them, eh?" inquired the Indian, +nimbly. After a quick glance at Evelyn he +shook his head disparagingly. "Damn +pletty gal, but not good business ploposition!" +He then turned a considering attention +upon Sarah, and nodded his head approvingly. +"She all light. Fat squaw! +Skukum squaw. Not lightfoot gadabout! +Damfine cook, eh?" he inquired of the +maid. "Squat by fire, fly venison, leady +chiefs leturn flom hunting? Shake!" He +held out a covenanting hand.<span class="pagenum">[99]</span></p> + +<p>"What, me become the bride of a +heathen!" shrieked Sarah, horrified.</p> + +<p>"Me no heathen," indignantly protested +Chilkat Jo. "Me swear, gamble, dlink like +hell, plenty wives, laise Cain, all same as +white man."</p> + +<p>"Joseph, my son, I will revise your code +later," Maclane told him. "Meanwhile, this +is not a marriage proposition. Are you willing +to help Miss Durant here with her household +chores—as a favor, you know," he hastened +to add.</p> + +<p>"Not as a favor at all," broke in Evelyn, +in a high, hard voice. "I wish to engage a +man-servant, at good wages; one who knows +his place and can take orders, and——"</p> + +<p>Her voice died before the Indian's fixed +regard. "No squaw say to me, Mush! Get +up, there! like dog. Mush! Lie down like +dog. Me damn high muckamuck Skukum +chief!" Wrapping more closely about him +the blanket that, with a boiled shirt and +store trousers, formed his costume, he re-entered +the mission with the unsurpassable +dignity of his race.</p> + +<p>Evelyn rose without a glance in the direction +of Scarlett, who had rejoined them. +"Come, Sarah. Thank you very much for +all your good offices, Mr. Maclane. I anticipate +the suggestion you and the Sergeant<span class="pagenum">[100]</span> +are obviously about to make: that I cook, +wash, scrub, sew for myself."</p> + +<p>"Considering the conditions of camp life, +my dear, it might be wise," acquiesced the +minister, as he shook hands.</p> + +<p>"Just for a lark, ye know," murmured +Scarlett, pacifically, saluting. But though +her pretty lip trembled, Evelyn held her +head high and passed him without a sign.</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[101]</span></p> + +<h2><a id="VII"></a>VII</h2> + +<p class="h3">PEACE, PERFECT PEACE</p> + +<p>Feeling that on her father's return +she could requite the obligation a +thousandfold, Evelyn consented to +remain with her party as guests of Perdu's +Grand Hotel while the shack at Lost Shoe +Creek was being made ready for their tenancy.</p> + +<p>Perdu, lying on a large lake of the same +name, is port of entry, and base of supplies, +to the goldfields beyond. Being at that time +in the third year of its existence it had a +highly developed social and commercial life. +For in its initial season a camp is likely to +be a bedlam of frenzied maniacs shrieking, +Gold, gold, gold! The second season witnesses +a slump proportioned to the inflated +values of its predecessor. But if it weathers +to a third, then some sort of poise is attained, +as steady industries develop and +existence seeks a normal plane. The fancy-women +who flock wherever the nuggets are<span class="pagenum">[102]</span> +thickest, now segregate themselves in a +secluded quarter of the township; married +men send for their families, while the unblessed +bachelor whistles "The Girl I Left +Behind Me," or pays attention to the schoolteacher. +On all sides one sees the effort, +sometimes pitiful, always human and +worthy, from the harsh matrix of the wilderness +to wrest a home. And then follow +the petty complexities of a miscalled civilization. +To Evelyn's surprise, after the first +warm tender of hospitality, she encountered +the same restricted social conditions in +Perdu that obtain in villages on the "outside," +as the world beyond the mountains in +northern latitudes is termed. Women left +cards on her; heads of rival cliques warned +her one against the other; the wife of the +principal grocer planned a tea in her honor.</p> + +<p>On a brilliant summer morning, without +cloud or shadow, mountains and valleys +alike lying exposed to a broadside of sun +that had been warming to its work since +four hours after midnight, Evelyn set out to +return the visit of the town surveyor's wife. +A short cut through the clustered willow +bushes brought her to the back door of their +cabin, where she came upon the hostess at +her washtubs, while from the doorstep the +town surveyor was cleaning his teeth publicly.<span class="pagenum">[103]</span> +Wholly unembarrassed, the good +people greeted their visitor with cordiality, +and conducted her into the living-room, +where babies, cot beds and cooking commingled +with such observances of decency +and taste as a woman of refinement, no +matter how overworked, seems somehow +generally able to contrive. In point of cultivation, +so Evelyn soon discovered, her new +acquaintances were fully her equal. Delighted +as they professed themselves to be +that her stay would be of long duration, yet +to the plans she outlined for her projected +improvement of the district they showed an +almost marked indifference. When she +dropped hints about the free library she intended +to establish, Mr. Grayson began +quite inappositely to brag of having made +more money the previous winter by lumbering +than in the way of his profession, owing +to the fact that "up here, thank God! no one, +man or woman, loses caste by honest labor +of any sort." When she alluded to the art +furniture she thought of importing for her +domicile, Mrs. Grayson cautioned her to be +very careful of her lamp chimneys, the commonest +kind costing fifty cents at local +stores, because, so the storekeepers said, of +the exorbitant freight rates that prevailed. +Also she advised Evelyn to start right in and<span class="pagenum">[104]</span> +do her own washing, as the local laundries +charged something over four dollars for +a dozen simple pieces. When Miss Durant +mentioned the theatre she was arranging to +have built, the opera troupe with which she +already was negotiating for a series of performances +to beguile the long Klondike +winter, the Graysons merely said, almost +with sarcasm, "How nice!" adding that the +camp contrived to get up some fair entertainments +of its own in the hall over the +truckman's stable. Coming to the conclusion +that they were jealous lest her advent +should undermine the social prestige which, +so Hastie had informed her, they enjoyed, +Evelyn rose to take her leave and, kindly +wishful to put them at their ease, admired +the babies, the bearskin rugs, the horns of +mountain sheep and goat upon the wall, the +view, the two geraniums in pots upon the +window-sill; accepted an invitation to a +wild-strawberry picnic, offered to teach +them bridge, and departed in a glow of self-gratulation +at her tact in dealing with the +envious and small-minded.</p> + +<p>On the hotel piazza she found the minister +waiting for her, and with him Scarlett. +To the latter she had not spoken since the +day of their difference, for such she chose to +consider it, in regard to Gelly. True, more +<span class="pagenum">[105]</span>than once she had caught sight of him galloping +down the road or striding by on some +official errand, but never had she lifted a +finger to delay him, nor he appeared conscious +of her presence.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a id="il_104"></a> +<img class="border2" src="images/il_104.jpg" width="298" height="421" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">DEPARTED IN A GLOW OF SELF CONGRATULATION AT HER TACT.</p> + +<p>Ignoring his greeting, in high good humor +with herself and all the world, Evelyn +opened fire. "Mr. Maclane, I wish you +would tell that young man he owes me an +apology."</p> + +<p>Scarlett suppressed a gratified smile. +"Mr. Maclane, will ye convey to the speaker +that she'll have to prove the debt for me to +pay it?"</p> + +<p>"Tell him the last time we met he put me +in the wrong," said Evelyn, prettily, the +glow of her goodness toward the envious +Graysons still upon her. "He behaved as +though he thought me narrow, contemptible—and +the worst is, the shoe pinches, because +in a tiny degree I fear it may have +been true."</p> + +<p>She waited with a charming air of penitence +for contradiction, but, to her astonishment, +none came.</p> + +<p>Instead, "I'm a brute, just," Scarlett remorsefully +described himself. "Who am I +to hold ye up the looking-glass? I'll never +be so rude again."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[106]</span></p><p>"Oh"—Miss Durant stiffened perceptibly—"I +do not usually find the reflection unbearable +to contemplate."</p> + +<p>"I've lived so long in the open, in primitive +conditions," Scarlett, unmindful of her +interruption, went on, "I always blurt out +whatever pops into my mind. Well, there's +precedent. In Eden, Adam must have called +a spade a spade."</p> + +<p>"Ah, my young friend, but there's no +record of his having called Eve a spade," +observed Maclane, with a twinkle in his +eye.</p> + +<p>"Faith, I'll drop the spade, then," laughed +the Irishman, "if she'll let me call her Eve!"</p> + +<p>"Tell him," laughed Miss Durant, with +heightened color, "that he goes too far."</p> + +<p>"Tell her I'd go farther—to any lengths, +for her, so long as it didn't take me from +her side."</p> + +<p>"Tell him he's kissed the blarney-stone."</p> + +<p>"Tell her I only practiced on it to keep +my hand in till she should come."</p> + +<p>"How dare you!" cried Evelyn, feeling +that she ought to be very angry.</p> + +<p>"Come, come, my children, peace," prescribed +Maclane. "Miss Durant, I am here +as a petitioner. One of my dear Indians, in +fact the sister-in-law of Chilkat Jo, has a +baby——"</p> + +<p>"Velly damfine Clistian baby!" interpolated<span class="pagenum">[107]</span> +the trader, who was sitting on the +step near by, whittling out a toy canoe.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Joseph!" the minister protested, +"when will you learn that a damn baby cannot +be a Christian baby—nor a Christian +baby a damn baby. We are to baptize the +little one this morning," he told Evelyn. +"And I am asked to beg you to stand godmother."</p> + +<p>"For a heathen unregenerate, miss!" +Sarah put her head out of the window just +behind the group. "Don't you mix yourself +up with that truck!"</p> + +<p>"I'm a bit of a heathen nowadays myself." +Maclane stopped Chilkat Jo's angry outburst. +"My dear Indians have converted me."</p> + +<p>"I wonder you aren't afraid of being tried +for heresy, sir," commented Sarah, "talking +that loose way."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I should be," agreed Maclane, +"in the cities across yon mountains. But +here they hold us in a charmed circle, and +who can escape their spell?" He pointed to +the lake, brilliantly ablaze, like a vessel +holding wondrous depths of color, in which +the snow-capped peaks with their V-shaped +crevasses lay mirrored like cameos in turquoise +relief. "My Indians—in my civilized +days I used to preach hell-fire to them, till +they scorned me for it, crying, 'Our children<span class="pagenum">[108]</span> +when they die become birds of song. Why, +then, should we give them to you Christians +to be burned?' Then, again, though I knew +him to be a saint, dedicated in Christ's +name to the service of his fellow-men, I used +to avoid my brother, the Catholic priest, because +his doctrines on the surface differed +from my own! Again, my Indians taught +me, scoffing, 'If Christianity makes enemies +of her ministers, why, we want none of it.' +Yes, all that I have given the heathen have +they requited me a hundredfold, making me +a Christian through the Christ I try to show +to them!"</p> + +<p>"I will do what you ask me only too +gladly, Mr. Machine!" cried Evelyn, understanding +that this was the good minister's +way of making peace between herself and +Chilkat Jo. "I shall be proud of my godchild; +and I promise it the finest cup from +Tiffany's——"</p> + +<p>"No, no! No presents, please," enjoined +Maclane. "Only kindness, neighborliness, +and an appreciation of the heathen virtues. +The Sergeant here has consented to be godfather."</p> + +<p>"The Sergeant!" involuntarily exclaimed +Evelyn.</p> + +<p>"Aye! In the short time he has been in +charge, he has completely won the hearts of<span class="pagenum">[109]</span> +the tribe of Raven and Frog. No baptism +complete without him."</p> + +<p>"Oh, as a sponsor, I'm painting the town +red," admitted the Irishman. "And the +Claim has a regular column of feeble-minded +puns upon the epidemic. Well, I +only hope the Scarlett creepers won't turn +to Scarlett runners, in time of battle."</p> + +<p>"I will tell Lallah that you consent. Be +ready, both, please, when you hear the +chapel bell," directed the minister, going +to the mission.</p> + +<p>Scarlett lingered, but as Evelyn took no +notice of him, "Thankee for the pressing invitation," +he remarked, drawing up a chair +and seating himself beside her. "And are +ye beginning to feel acclimated among us +savages?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you are doing your best!" Evelyn assured +him. "Though I must say, even for +the wilderness, the ideas of social distinction +seem curiously lax. Why, as his head +waiter is off on a spree, Mr. Hastie has offered +me the place—three hundred dollars +a month and tips!"</p> + +<p>"Good pay," commented Scarlett. "Why +don't ye take it? I'd ask no better for my +own sister, if I had one."</p> + +<p>Evelyn tossed her head. "To pass dishes +to unwashed barbarians in corduroys who<span class="pagenum">[110]</span> +gobble off their knives and drink from their +saucers. Even for your own sister," she +could not forbear asking, "wouldn't you +consider the situation rather primitive?"</p> + +<p>"I should, and that's the situation's saving +grace," he promptly replied, "since +primitive man is woman's best friend, once +she makes him realize she will not let him +be her enemy."</p> + +<p>Against her will, Evelyn looked at the +speaker with reluctant admiration, forced +to recognize that however ignorant of class +distinctions the poor young man might be, +his was certainly no ordinary mentality. +Accordingly, woman-like, she harked back +to personalities, hoping in shallow waters +to take him, through his very superiority, at +a disadvantage. "Oh, we have nothing to +complain of on the score of friendliness," +she laughed. "Our matrimonial opportunities +seem limited only by the number of +single men within proposing radius. No, +Sergeant, I am not the belle. That proud +position is disputed by Sarah and the plainest +orphan, who also is the most muscular, +because they frankly tell us, in a land where +hired labor is not to be had a man must +marry to get some one to cook and wash for +him. However, such few score of proposals +as have come my way, I honestly can brag,<span class="pagenum">[111]</span> +are for myself, since I am not considered +a specially useful 'household proposition,' +and oddly enough my great wealth seems +not to impress these poverty-stricken millionaires +in the least degree."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I tell ye, in a mining camp one gets +down to first principles, or lack of them," +commented the soldier. "It's chaos, till +man and woman together evolve a paradise."</p> + +<p>Evelyn waited, hoping he also would propose +to her in order that she might refuse +him, not kindly, with the consideration she +had shown the other poor victims who had +laid their hearts at her feet, but with scathing +denunciation of his insolence. Instead +of improving his opportunity, however, the +soldier rose. "Ye'll bid me to the wedding, +Miss Durant?"</p> + +<p>"In what capacity—officially, or as a +guest?"</p> + +<p>"Not as a mourner, that I swear."</p> + +<p>"I may decide to elope."</p> + +<p>"Impossible! In my bally those that +want a marriage license have to come to +me."</p> + +<p>"I've always had a leaning toward the +nobility," remarked Evelyn, rather maliciously. +"Are there no men of title in the +camp?"<span class="pagenum">[112]</span></p> + +<p>"A handful or so of younger sons," Scarlett +informed her, "and a pathetic lot in the +main they are. 'Remittance Men,' we call +them, because they are on allowance to stay +away from home, avowedly that in a new +country they may turn over a new leaf, but +in reality that their families may be spared +the shame of witnessing their final disintegration. +Be good to such when ye come +across them, Miss Durant, for the sake of +what they ought to be, but don't marry +them, for the whole lot of them together +wouldn't make one decent man."</p> + +<p>Evelyn laughed, but her face crimsoned. +"Dear, dear! And suppose, after all, you +disapprove my choice?"</p> + +<p>"Faith, I'll exercise my official prerogative +and take ye in charge myself! Meanwhile, +I must turn my attention toward yonder +suspect." He indicated a person with +the deportment of a personage, who, dressed +in the height of fashion, was strolling, tourist-wise, +kodak in hand, down the village +street.</p> + +<p>"Why, who can that be?" Evelyn leaned +forward with interest.</p> + +<p>"That's my own question. He travels +under the name of the Count St. Hilaire."</p> + +<p>"There's something very familiar about +his appearance. I wonder if I mayn't have<span class="pagenum">[113]</span> +met him at Newport, or Washington. If +so, bring him here that I may renew the acquaintance, +Sergeant, please."</p> + +<p>"I'll search his title first." Scarlett ran +down the veranda steps. "Now look out for +trouble," he muttered to himself, seeing the +stranger pause opposite a cottage in the +Indian quarter, and level his camera at the +totem-pole in front of it.</p> + +<p>A crowd of angry Indians who had been +squatting on mats in the sunshine, making +moccasins and weaving baskets, instantly +rose and swarmed about him, vehemently +protesting in Chinook against this insult to +their sacred emblems, Chilkat Jo acting as +interpreter.</p> + +<p>"Shame, shame, cursed shame to photoglaph +the Laven and the Flog!" he cried, +alluding to the totem's tribal device. "Velly +godam Clistian shame!"</p> + +<p>"Hold on!" cried Scarlett, impartially, interposing +his tall form between the evidently +frightened foreigner and the avenging +group.</p> + +<p>"Mais—ze Klondike barber-pole—I no +steal him; je vous jure, gendarme! I make +ze photographie!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but unless you pay them for it to +show your good will, the Indians think you +are marking them for death," the Sergeant<span class="pagenum">[114]</span> +instructed him. "All right, honest Injun," +he in turn assured the crowd. "Only sun-picture. +Big man pay you big money."</p> + +<p>"Why," exclaimed Evelyn's astonished +voice at Scarlett's elbow, "it is my courier, +Alphonse—he has let his beard grow! That +is the kodak he stole from me!"</p> + +<p>"Sacré papier, ze mademoiselle!" shrieked +the man, recognizing her; and off he set as +fast as his trembling limbs could carry him, +Scarlett, reinforced by the children of the +Raven and the Frog, in hot pursuit.</p> + +<p>"It's only what you might have expected, +miss," remarked Sarah, consolingly, as in +mortified silence Evelyn returned to the veranda. +"The French is a deceitful nation. +They always have to talk in a foreign language +so you can't understand 'em."</p> + +<p>"It's all right!" Flushed and breathless, +Scarlett came up. "He ran plump into Barney's +arms. Here's your camera, Miss Durant. +Later I'll get you to appear against +the Count—just a formality, you know."</p> + +<p>"I shall do nothing of the sort!" declared +Evelyn loftily. "Instead, you can fine me +any amount you please for contempt of +court. You doubtless will enjoy doing it! +As for the kodak, you can give it back to +Alphonse. I shall never touch it again!"</p> + +<p>"Miss, you are ungrateful," Sarah reproved<span class="pagenum">[115]</span> +her, "and the young man wounded in +the fracas!"</p> + +<p>"Wounded!" cried Evelyn, in dismay.</p> + +<p>"Oh," disclaimed Scarlett, who was shaking +his fingers as if to cast a pain from them, +"it's nothing. Only in protecting the +Count's beauty from an irate populace I +gave my wrist a twist."</p> + +<p>"Oh, a sprained wrist is nothing to boast +of," derided Miss Durant.</p> + +<p>"That's why I wasn't boasting of it." +Scarlett turned to go.</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless"—Evelyn put a detaining +hand lightly on his arm—"I took a course in +First Aid to the Injured to fit myself for this +life, and I know that a sprain ought to be +treated with something, for fear something +or other should set in. Sarah," she asked in +a whisper, "what treatment does one give a +sprain?"</p> + +<p>"Fermentation," prompted the maid, sagaciously.</p> + +<p>"That's it: fomentation! Please, Sarah, +go fetch me—whatever one needs for fomentation."</p> + +<p>"Believe me, it is not necessary." Scarlett +gave his hand another shake. "It soon +will be all right."</p> + +<p>"Sit here!" Evelyn motioned him, peremptorily, +to a chair beside her. "No, on<span class="pagenum">[116]</span> +this side. A soldier's first duty should be to +obey."</p> + +<p>"Ah, well, my arms are ever at your service, +even in times of peace." Scarlet +leaned back, luxuriously, as she rolled up +his sleeve.</p> + +<p>"Of course, you understand I should do +this for anybody," observed Evelyn, sponging +his wrist with the warm water Sarah +had provided.</p> + +<p>"Of course, ye understand I should fight +in defence of anybody's property," he +matched her. "'Tis for that I draw my +pay."</p> + +<p>"Is it tender?" inquired Evelyn, pillowing +his hand upon her lap and dabbing it softly +with a towel.</p> + +<p>"Tender's not half the word for it." The +patient turned his face aside. "It's the limit +of tenderness, and has to be treated on the +homeopathic principle."</p> + +<p>"Miss, he makes light of it!" cried Sarah, +who, under a harsh exterior, was, by nature, +kind. "But his poor brow is simply +wrung with anguish." She mopped the +beads of perspiration that stifled mirth had +brought upon the Sergeant's comely forehead.</p> + +<p>"Let us talk of other things to distract +him," ordained Evelyn. "Come, Sergeant,<span class="pagenum">[117]</span> +tell us all about yourself. Begin at the very +beginning."</p> + +<p>"Faith, like most babies," he complied, "I +began by being the child of my parents."</p> + +<p>"Poor but honest folk, no doubt. Go on!"</p> + +<p>"They died before my remembrance of +them. I infer the honesty and inherit the +poverty. I was brought up by an aunt and +uncle, who didn't want me. One time when +I came home from school for the holidays +my aunt just looked up from her novel and +remarked, 'Oh, Jerry, how dirty you are!' +So I ran away to make my fortune."</p> + +<p>"Which consists of something over a dollar +a day and your keep."</p> + +<p>"And the prospect of a pension for my +widow."</p> + +<p>"Your widow!" Evelyn dropped the hand +she was engaged in bandaging. "I didn't +know——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I haven't got one yet," Scarlett hastened +to assure her. "But I shall, please +God, if I live long enough."</p> + +<p>"Sergeant, you are talking nonsense," +said Evelyn. "Pain has made you flighty."</p> + +<p>"'Way up in the seventh heaven," assented +Scarlett. "Don't be so cruel as to +call me down."</p> + +<p>"There!" Having stuck a final pin in the +handkerchief she had bound about the<span class="pagenum">[118]</span> +wrist, Evelyn folded the soldier's arm +across his breast. "Sarah, go fetch me another +sash, will you? I'm going to use this +one for a sling."</p> + +<p>"Which color shall I get you, miss?" +asked the maid, preparing to obey.</p> + +<p>Evelyn shrugged her shoulders with indifference. +"I don't care—though I should +think your own taste would lead you to see +that blue goes best with this frock. There, +Sergeant"—having made a creditable cradle +of the ribbon for the soldier's arm and knotted +it behind his neck, she came in front of +him and surveyed her work admiringly—"that +will do, I think. Now, remember, it +must not be unbound for four and twenty +hours. Promise! I wish you would stop +laughing in that silly way and tell me if it +feels all right, really."</p> + +<p>"Joyous, beyond words," Scarlett affirmed. +"I only wish I were that chap in the +mythology with a hundred hands—and every +blessed one of them in need of fomentation."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you say these inane things to +me because you think me incapable of appreciating +sense," commented Miss Durant. +"Just because all my poor little efforts to do +good up here have seemed superfluous. Oh, +yes"—she checked the protest that rose to +his lips—"you all have been kindness personified,<span class="pagenum">[119]</span> +but I do not think you quite understand +me," she complained, with the injured +quaver of one who at heart knows herself to +be understood only too well. "I'm really not +such an overbearing, ill-natured girl; only, +I acknowledge, a wee bit spoiled. You see, +after my mother died, when I was still a +very small child, in Colorado, my father sent +me to a fashionable school in San Francisco, +and there I began to feel that in Colorado +we had been quite savage. Then, in my +early 'teens I was put at another still more +fashionable school in Chicago, where I was +made to feel that in San Francisco I had +been hopelessly Western. Next, I moved on +to an ultra-fashionable school in New York, +where it was tacitly impressed on me that in +Chicago we had been positively vulgar. +After this came a course of Dresden, +Vienna, London, Paris, by which I realized +that in New York I had been provincial, +crude. On my return I felt myself cosmopolitan, +a finished product. Yet, in this +short space up here you all have made me +wonder if, after all, all the time, I have not +been a bit of a snob. Yes, you can't contradict +me. I know. A thoroughbred would +have taken things as she found them—would +be at home anywhere, while I——" +Having amazed herself far more even than<span class="pagenum">[120]</span> +her hearer by this unexpected burst of confidence, +Miss Durant amazed herself still +more by an unexpected burst of tears.</p> + +<p>"Poor child!" Scarlett compassionated +her, while liking her thoroughly for her candor. +"Dear, dear little Evelyn, it's libelling +yourself you are, although it's true, and +that's the sweetest part of it. Here, take +mine!" As she was hunting, between inconsolable +sniffs, for the handkerchief with +which she herself had bandaged him, he tendered +her his own.</p> + +<p>"Oh, the sprain—your wrist!" cried Evelyn, +in alarm.</p> + +<p>"That's all right," Scarlett reassured her, +while drying her eyes with the hand he had +removed for the purpose from the sling. "It +was the other one that got the twist."</p> + +<p>Evelyn drew back. "You mean you dared +let me bind up the wrong one?"</p> + +<p>"Ye made your own selection," Scarlett +reminded her, in tones he vainly tried to +render penitent.</p> + +<p>"That you did, miss," corroborated Sarah, +coming from the hotel with the blue sash +and tying it about Evelyn's slender waist.</p> + +<p>"Give me back my ribbon, my handkerchief!" +demanded Evelyn of Scarlett, furiously.</p> + +<p>"Not for four and twenty hours," he answered.<span class="pagenum">[121]</span> +"Not even for you would I break +a promise to a lady."</p> + +<p>"Never, never, never will I speak to you +again!" cried Miss Durant.</p> + +<p>Just then the chapel bell began to ring +merrily, and at the same moment Maclane +hurried toward them from the mission, an +open hymnal in hand. "Come, my children, +we march in, singing," he explained, pointing +toward the Indians, who were forming +in a procession by the chapel door. "As I +am short of hymnals, you and the Sergeant +will have to share one, Miss Durant. Hymn +674. 'Peace, Perfect Peace.'"</p> + +<p>Evelyn stood still. "I absolutely decline +to be associated in any way whatever with +Sergeant Scarlett."</p> + +<p>"Oh, my children!" remonstrated the minister. +"How can we talk of missionizing the +heathen when the Gentiles so wrangle +among themselves! Ready, please! Fall +into line!" Striking up the tune, he led the +way.</p> + +<p>And, somehow, in despite of her protest, +Miss Durant found herself following, side +by side with the hated young soldier, sharing +the same hymnal, moreover, and joining +her sweet voice with his manly one in praise +of "Peace, Perfect Peace."</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[122]</span></p> + +<h2><a id="VIII"></a>VIII.</h2> + +<p class="h3">AT THE SIGN OF THE TEMPERANCE SALOON.</p> + +<p>"One sandwich, pie an' corfee, +three-fifty! One ham an' eggs, +pie, corfee, five! One whiskey +on a doctor's prescription, two bits!" Thus +Gumboot Annie scored off their reckonings +to a party of prospectors who had patronized +her lunch-tent, whereupon the prospectors +meekly handed their pokes across the +counter for her to weigh out the dust, according +to her own liberal interpretation.</p> + +<p>"Halt!" Barney's rich brogue rang out +upon the trail. "Twinty minutes for refrishmints +by request, for man and baste!"</p> + +<p>"What's up now?" Gumboot Annie put +her head out to reconnoitre. "Why, who's +thet blamed cop runnin' in?"</p> + +<p>"Why, it's pop!" in dismay, cried Gelly, +who was assisting the mother of Klondike +Delmonicos in the capacity of bean-slinger. +"My pop!" She began to cry.</p> + +<p>"Aye, it's Bully Nick, all right," corroborated<span class="pagenum">[123]</span> +a prospector, selecting a wooden +toothpick with nicety. "They're fixin' ter +extrydite him. Charge of murder. Oh, he'll +be hanged this time fer sure!" he added, +with relish.</p> + +<p>"Now, wouldn't thet jostle yer!" exclaimed +Gumboot Annie, generally. "But +didn't the stiff he peppered get well some?"</p> + +<p>"Yep, and they let off th' Bully on parole. +But ef th' all-fired fool didn't celebrate his +freedom by gittin' crazy drunk and shootin' +at a United States Deputy Marshal fer targit! +The marshal was a mean man an' deserved +ter die—but Nick should 'a' left it +to a meaner man to shoot him."</p> + +<p>"A United States Marshal!" exclaimed +Gumboot Annie, scornfully. "Shucks! +Drunk or sober, I thought Nick had more +sense."</p> + +<p>"Nick shoots blind when"—her informant +considerately lowered his voice—"when he's +on the rampage for Dandy Raish. Nick has +sworn ter kill Raish on sight along of +Gelly."</p> + +<p>"Gumboot Annie! Gumboot Annie!" +Bill's eager voice rang out on the clear air, +as he came running toward the tent.</p> + +<p>"We're planning for to give Bully Nick a +handsome send-off. Rustle, won't you? and +get us up an A1, gilt-edged blow-out!"<span class="pagenum">[124]</span></p> + +<p>"Betcherboots I will," promised Gumboot +Annie, cordially, adding that the Bully +would be a great loss, socially, if hanged.</p> + +<p>"'Twas the drink done it—and I cud ha' +kept him from it," moaned Gelly, rocking +and wringing her hands.</p> + +<p>"Here, stop whining and make the sandwiches. +Better git down behind the stove +whar yer pop can't see yer!" Gumboot +Annie gave the girl an ungentle but not unkindly +push, and thrusting a carving-knife +into her hand, bade her, as it might be the +old man's last square feed upon this planet, +not to spare the butter.</p> + +<p>"Gents, I thankee hearty for these here +evidences of popularity," cried the Bully, as +they placed him at the head of the well-filled +board inside the lunch-tent. "Gents, +go thou an' do likewise, but don't git +pinched! Ah, well, ef I'd got my deserts I +guess I'd'a' bin strung up twenty years ago."</p> + +<p>"Better late than nivver," politely remarked +Barney, who, as an honored guest, +by his gift of repartee was contributing +greatly to the meal's hilarity.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>"Mush, get up, there! Godam you, Teleglaph +and Langel. Mush!" Thus Chilkat +Jo might have been heard profanely to encourage +to increase of speed on a pious errand<span class="pagenum">[125]</span> +the parson's dogs that now were drawing +a sled beside which the parson and the +trader were running on their snow-shoes +toward Gumboot Annie's tent. For all this +took place many miles from Perdu and Lost +Shoe Creek, on the heights where the snow +still lingered in heavy, frozen masses, +though the valleys below were abloom with +summer flowers. "Him velly damn sick," +he pityingly added, indicating the bundle +wrapped in furs, strapped to the sled.</p> + +<p>"Very sick, indeed, I fear, my son; but +not damn sick," the minister corrected. +"Perhaps we can get succor here. Whoa, +Telegraph, Wrangle, lads, whoa!" Halting +opposite the tent, he read its legend with +surprise, "TEMPERANCE SALOON. GUMBOOT +ANNIE, PROPRIETOR."</p> + +<p>"Why, my daughter," he accosted the hostess, +who, hearing sleigh-bells and scenting +custom, had come forth, "does this indicate +a happy change of heart and saving grace? +You are taking thought to save your soul?"</p> + +<p>"Save my skin," retorted the Gumbooted +one, spitting with an accurate estimate of +distances. "That blamed Scarlett was making +things hot for me, so I jest wheeled the +hull outfit acrost the boundary!" She +pointed to an old Russian landmark, protruding +like a tiny headstone from the snow,<span class="pagenum">[126]</span> +and followed by a line of rude pickets, the +records of a surveying party, that straggled, +single file, downhill, dividing the United +States from British North America. "Lasky's +a prohibition proposition, y'know."</p> + +<p>"Whatever the motive, the action is most +praiseworthy," Maclane commended her, +"since your income must be greatly decreased +by foregoing the sale of intoxicants."</p> + +<p>"Now wouldn't thet jar yer!" demanded +Gumboot Annie, humorously, of the landscape. +"I ain't up here fer me health," she +then reminded the minister. "Fines or license, +it's all one ter me. And prohibition, +or wide open, you betcherlife the boys has +jest the same old thirst."</p> + +<p>"H'm! Well, for the present I will waive +the ethical aspect of the argument," replied +Maclane, "and will beg you to sell me some +stimulant for medicinal purposes. We have +a lad here whom we found in trouble by the +wayside; he is very low——"</p> + +<p>"What's it a case of?" Gumboot Annie +leaned across the counter to inspect the +bundle on the sled, from which Jo was now +unharnessing the dogs. "Drink or scurvy?"</p> + +<p>"Neither," replied Maclane, raising the +patient's head; "but, I fear, foul play."</p> + +<p>"Now don't that pa'alyze yer!"</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a id="il_126"></a> +<img class="border2" src="images/il_126.jpg" width="254" height="324" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">"WHY, MY DAUGHTER, DOES THIS DENOTE A HAPPY CHANGE OF HEART AND SAVING GRACE? YOU ARE TAKING THOUGHT TO SAVE YOUR SOUL?"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[127]</span></p> + +<p>From a bottle she took from its hiding-place, +Gumboot Annie poured out a generous +dose. "Here, Ikey, take that ter the +kid."</p> + +<p>"Whiskey, two bits!" cried Ikey, from +sheer force of habit, as he obeyed.</p> + +<p>"Stop thet, yer little skin!" Leaning far +over the counter, to the endangerment of +her balance, his employer gave him a smart +cuff. "I'm as close as they make 'em when +I'm dealing with the healthy, but I've yet +ter see myself take money from a dyin' +man."</p> + +<p>"He told me to meet him here to-day," +gasped Walter Pierce, as Maclane bent over +him with skilful ministry.</p> + +<p>"Who, my son?"</p> + +<p>"Hush! Wait—it is a secret! I have a +confession to make."</p> + +<p>When Gumboot Annie and her assistant +had withdrawn, and the Indian had gone to +a distance to feed the dogs, Walter tried to +speak.</p> + +<p>"It was the drink!"</p> + +<p>"It generally is," commented the parson, +mournfully.</p> + +<p>"I had an errand for another man—one of +the greatest importance. He trusted me. +Some men suspected his secret and dogged +my footsteps, entered into conversation with<span class="pagenum">[128]</span> +me—pretended to take a fancy to me—to +show themselves my friends—good fellows. +They made me drink with them. Then I, in +my turn, stood treat to keep my end up and +show myself a good fellow."</p> + +<p>"Alas!" whispered the minister, as Walter +paused for breath, "how many lads have I +seen go down to the lowest depths, under +that banner bearing the devil's own device: +To show one's self a good fellow!"</p> + +<p>"Then, when they had got me where they +wanted me, drunk," continued the sick man, +"they robbed me. Oh, not of money—for +though they made me play, they let me win—but +of my honor——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, my son! It was you who threw +away your own honor."</p> + +<p>"If only I had thought of that at the time! +Now they have his secret—his samples. +They'll know about his mine! Tell him——"</p> + +<p>The minister worked over the fainting +form with tender skill. At last, when a +glimmer of consciousness returned, "Now, +my son," he said, "you owe it to the man +you have wronged to make restitution. Tell +me who he is, and what I am to say to him."</p> + +<p>Walter gathered his strength for a supreme +effort. "Durant," at last he managed +to gasp. "Tell his daughter——" He fell +back in the stupor that precedes death.<span class="pagenum">[129]</span></p> + +<p>"O Joseph! Chilkat Jo!" called Maclane. +And when the Indian, obeying with +alacrity, replied, "Godam you, what you +want?" he did not stay to reprove him, only +bade him, "Run hot-foot to Lost Shoe Creek +and fetch Miss Durant. Tell her I have a +message from her father!"</p> + +<p>When the trader had set off, the speed of +his winged-footed race redoubled by good +will, Maclane, having drawn the sled to a +spot where a clump of evergreens would +act as wind-brake, went to the Customs +Office on the crest of the hill in search of +remedies.</p> + +<p>Seeing the coast clear, old Blenksoe, who +for some time past had been hovering +about the place, now came to the lunch +counter, where he soon was joined by his +arch-accomplice in villainy, Dandy Raish. +"Hello, old tortoise!" was the hitter's salutation +as his partner sauntered up. "I've +been waiting for you this ever so long."</p> + +<p>"Thet you hevn't," contradicted Blenksoe. +"Not that it matters—but you allus +were a fust-class liar!"</p> + +<p>"Some folks have not enough imagination +to lie," retorted the Dandy, paring his nails. +"But chuck all that and get to business!"</p> + +<p>"Business! Hully gee! Anythin' doin'? +Am I in it?"<span class="pagenum">[130]</span></p> + +<p>"Sure—if you can deliver the goods! Order +the drinks, won't you?"</p> + +<p>"Say, you got a tocter's brescription for +liquor?" queried Ikey, when old Blenksoe +did as he was bidden.</p> + +<p>"I'll sure hev an undertaker's stiff-ticket +ef I don't get it," replied Blenksoe, as he +carried the medicinal doses over to the +bench where the Dandy had ensconced himself.</p> + +<p>"Best stay out here where no one can +hear us," explained the latter.</p> + +<p>"That suits me all right," agreed Blenksoe, +lighting a pipe and settling himself on +the Canadian side. "Thar's a warrant out +fer my arrest in 'Lasky."</p> + +<p>"I thought you were <i>persona non grata</i> +in the Dominion also, since that hold-up of +the stage near Lost Shoe Creek."</p> + +<p>"Thet hold-up you put me up to, while +you sneaked in the bushes. You'd orter be +pinched yerself fer takin' a rake-off. Ain't +the receiver as bad as the thief?"</p> + +<p>"Piano, pianissimo," advised Raish. "One +never knows who's within earshot." He +glanced about him fearfully.</p> + +<p>"Thet's so," admitted Blenksoe. "I declar, +what between Kennedy on the one +hand and Uncle Sam on t'other, and both +a-gittin' so all-fired pertikeler, every day<span class="pagenum">[131]</span> +makes it harder for a crook ter make an +honest livin'." He lighted an ill-smelling +pipe. "Well, Dandy, fire away."</p> + +<p>"Have you seen Durant lately?"</p> + +<p>"Durant? Who th' hell's Durant?"</p> + +<p>"Your partner, Lucky. Durant is his outside +name."</p> + +<p>"You don't say! Oh, Lucky, he ain't no +good no more. Lucky's off his nut. Went +stark, ravin' mad the day his gal came inter +camp. I've shuk Lucky."</p> + +<p>"More fool you. He's found a mine!"</p> + +<p>"I dessay. As usual, a pocket, or a pot +of gold eagles at th' fut of a rainbow."</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of it. A bona-fide mine. What +d'you make of these samples?"</p> + +<p>Through his prospector's glass, Blenksoe +examined the small clods of earth Raish +held out to him, then uttered the profanest +expletive at his command.</p> + +<p>"Free gold, assayin' sixty ter th' ton!"</p> + +<p>"You'd better believe it is!" The Dandy +pocketed the samples which Blenksoe was +eyeing hungrily.</p> + +<p>"Say, I'd like a sample ter test. Oh, well, +as you say! How'd you come by 'em?"</p> + +<p>"I got them with the information from a +kid whom Lucky has taken in on the ground +floor."</p> + +<p>"You mean ter tell me the stiff hes shuk<span class="pagenum">[132]</span> +me, his pard an' dearest friend?" Blenksoe +seized his gun. "I'll fix Lucky!"</p> + +<p>"Keep quiet, you old fool! Durant don't +owe you a bean, and you know it. And the +way you've always grafted on him he is not +likely to run after you to put you wise."</p> + +<p>"Thet's so. Whar is the mine?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, that's just where my information +stops short. If I knew I shouldn't need +you."</p> + +<p>"Well, I s'pose the game is ter lay low, +rubber round till we locate the claim, and +jump it."</p> + +<p>"And have that blasted Scarlett butting +in? Guess again! Claim-jumping don't go, +now the M. P. are in charge. We have to +do something far cleverer. I'll tell you +what. I've thought it all out. We have to +kidnap Durant, and kidnap his daughter."</p> + +<p>"Why the hell——"</p> + +<p>"Blenksoe, a cow could give you cards and +spades. We'll play them off, one against +the other, till he signs over a half interest +in his mine for ransom."</p> + +<p>"Dandy, you're a wonder!" Blenksoe regarded +the brains of the concern with admiration. +"I'll get the gang on to it to +oncet. It ull be no trick at all ter kidnap +Lucky. Lucky's dead easy! But the gal—gals +is scarce, and conspickerous accordin',<span class="pagenum">[133]</span> +in a mining camp. How the hell are we to +handle the gal?"</p> + +<p>"Leave her to me. I have already struck +up a traveling acquaintance with her; managed +to do her some little service en route. +That's why I was careful to keep in the +background during the hold-up. I sent her +a private message to meet me here to-day, +telling her I had a confidential message +from her father. We must act like a flash, +for that blasted Scarlett is sweet on her. +By Jove! that's an idea!" The Dandy +slapped his knee. "I owe him a bad turn. +I'll cut him out! I'll marry her myself!"</p> + +<p>"You, you son of a camp cook!" sneered +Blenksoe.</p> + +<p>Raish shrugged his shapely shoulders. +"The camp cooks of to-day are the swells of +to-morrow. I'm ambitious. I've always qualified +myself for the toniest society. I spend +as much for perfumery as for liquor, and I +never sleep between sheets but I wear pink +silk pyjamas."</p> + +<p>"By gum, I b'lieve you'll git thar!" cried +Blenksoe, overcome by these evidences of +culture. Going to the counter, before Raish +could stop him, he ordered: "Set up th' +drinks, Ikey! Here's ter Dandy an' his +bride!"</p> + +<p>"Haow's that? Raish a-goin' ter git married?"<span class="pagenum">[134]</span> +inquired Gumboot Annie, who was +bustling about for more provender for the +banqueters inside the tent. "And who's the +lady?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, jest a little silk-stockin' proposition +from the States," replied old Blenksoe, unmindful +of the Dandy's warning signs. "One +of the Noo York smarties, and jes' fitted fer +Raish."</p> + +<p>"Eh?" shrieked Gelly, starting up from +her corner behind the stove. "She is, is +she! And what about me?"</p> + +<p>"Gelly! Tagging on as usual!" exclaimed +Raish, in disgust.</p> + +<p>"Thar, thar, Gelly! I was only joshin'," +Blenksoe tried to soothe the girl.</p> + +<p>"Dandy, you're a wonder!" Blenksoe re<a id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +him, pleading. "Pop is run in, and mebbe +goin' ter be hanged. Raish, make an honest +woman of me that I may go bid him good-by!"</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> +Transcriber's Note: One or more lines are missing in the original.</p></div> + +<p>The Dandy drew back. "What! Me, with +my prospects, take up with the daughter of +a murderer!"</p> + +<p>"You, you——" Gelly flew at him with +the carving-knife she held.</p> + +<p>"Here, quit that!" Gumboot Annie +adroitly snatched away the weapon. "My +sandwich-knife! Now wouldn't thet stick +yer?" in aggrieved tones she appealed to an<span class="pagenum">[135]</span> +imaginary audience on the horizon line. +Bystanders joined in the discussion, and, +attracted by the noise, some of the diners +came running from the tent, the Japanese +paper napkins, that the high character +of the occasion had warranted, in hand, +ready for a scrap or any other fun that +might be going; accordingly, the Dandy saw +the wisdom of adopting a conciliating policy. +"Gelly"—he led the girl aside—"I do +mean to do the square thing by you, but no +man likes to be coerced, you know; and after +what has gone between us I don't want to +be laughed at publicly for a fool—and if +you love me, you don't want to render me +publicly ridiculous. Just go back, quietly, +like a good girl and wait for me at Lost Shoe +Creek. When I have one or two tangles +straightened out I'll come back and marry +you, honest! But remember, on the quiet, +If you blab—well, I'll see you somewhere +before I ever speak to you again. Now, +good-by and go!"</p> + +<p>And for the last time, though not the first, +poor Gelly trusted him.</p> + +<p>Looking after the red-cloaked and hooded +figure, as on snow-shoes she sped lightly +down the trail, the Dandy laughed. "Women +are easy, dead easy!" he exclaimed; and +then he laughed still louder, as winding in<span class="pagenum">[136]</span> +and out through mountain passes the sound +of approaching sleigh-bells and girls' merry +voices floated through the crystal air. +"Dead, dead easy," he reiterated, with the +unction of enjoyment in his sapient superiority. +"Here comes Evelyn now!"</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[137]</span></p> + +<h2><a id="IX"></a>IX.</h2> + +<p class="h3">THE PROVISIONAL BOUNDARY.</p> + +<p>"Miss Durant! This is a delightfull surprise!" Dismounting +from her sled drawn by +eight frisky little huskies, Miss Durant encountered +not the Mr. Horatio Travers who +had written, begging for a private interview +near Gumboot Annie's, on a confidential +mission from her father, but the handsome +and genial presence of Sergeant Scarlett.</p> + +<p>"The surprise at least is not all on one +side," laughed Evelyn, giving him her hand. +"What are you doing so far from headquarters?"</p> + +<p>"My jurisdiction extends to the boundary +line. Just now it is my painful duty to meet +a United States Representative in yonder +Customs building, and formally make over +to him the person of Bully Nick."</p> + +<p>"Ah, the poor Bully!" Evelyn sighed. "He +has this incorrigible habit of shooting the +wrong people. But I'm in hopes of getting<span class="pagenum">[138]</span> +him off. I shall spare no expense. I've +wired to Sitka, in my father's name, for the +ablest counsel to defend him."</p> + +<p>"And, confidence for confidence," said +Scarlett, "what are you doing here?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, just keeping an appointment—I +mean, mushing it with Sarah and the girls +for a day's outing," Evelyn hurriedly corrected +herself, recalling that Travers' note +enjoined the strictest secrecy. "And, pardon +me, I must go to their rescue now." To conceal +a slight embarrassment caused by her +prevarication, she sped toward her party on +whom the Customs' officials of two nations +had pounced down, assuming that they intended +to cross the boundary and must be +treated like malefactors accordingly.</p> + +<p>Picking up the muff that Evelyn in her +haste had dropped, Scarlett buried his face +in the soft fur. "I'm another," he confided +to it.</p> + +<p>"'Tis himself!" Barney hurried toward +him from the tent, but as Scarlett, in his abstraction, +did not notice him, he inquired, +with solicitude: "Are ye here, sorr?"</p> + +<p>"Faith, no, man. I'm wandering."</p> + +<p>"Is ut impty ye do be feeling yourself inside, +sorr?"</p> + +<p>"Empty is it, with the appetite that's +there! Bring me rations out here. Bring a<span class="pagenum">[139]</span> +double share." His eye strayed toward +Evelyn.</p> + +<p>"H'm! 'Tis a case of wan plate and two +spoons, or I'm a blind man!" commented +Barney, hastening to obey.</p> + +<p>"Miss," cried Sarah, in shocked accents, +as Evelyn drew near, "them orphans are +flirting outrageously with the Customs gentlemen +of both nations, and feeding them +with fudge."</p> + +<p>"Dear, dear," mocked Evelyn, "we must +put a stop to that at all costs, Sarah. Take +the girls into the tent and give them their +dinner—or there will be international complications."</p> + +<p>"Internal ones, more likely," put in Scarlett, +who had followed her. "Sweet things +don't often come our way. And speaking of +sweet things, Miss Durant, won't you yourself +mess with me out here in the open? +Just for the experience, ye know. It isn't +really cold. The snow is left over from the +winter, but it's a summer sun overhead."</p> + +<p>"It does look tempting," confessed Evelyn, +as Barney appeared, bringing with him +provender, with its equipments, for two, +deftly arranging it on a table by the bench. +"I'm early for my appointment—I mean, I +have plenty of time, and Sarah can chaperon +the girls."<span class="pagenum">[140]</span></p> + +<p>"Have ye room enough?" with solicitude +inquired the soldier, placing himself beside +her.</p> + +<p>"Plenty, thanks. Have you?"</p> + +<p>"Too much," he protested, "on the wrong +side." The bench having no back, he gallantly +supplied the lack. "Allow me to +make ye an arm-chair."</p> + +<p>Evelyn properly edged away. "Sergeant, +are these your company manners?"</p> + +<p>"Surely, since two's company."</p> + +<p>"Come, come, I can't permit you so much +latitude!"</p> + +<p>"If you knew your map ye'd know that +the further north ye go the closer the lines +of latitude are drawn."</p> + +<p>"Speaking of maps, I wish you'd tell me +exactly where we are?"</p> + +<p>"Faith, where I am is exactly what I'm +trying to find out—how far I've gone with +you."</p> + +<p>"Do be sensible, if you can, and tell me +where we are sitting, geographically speaking."</p> + +<p>"Geographically speaking, we are sitting +on the provisional boundary between our +respective nations."</p> + +<p>"Oh! Please don't add it is called provisional +because one stops here for provisions."<span class="pagenum">[141]</span></p> + +<p>"At any rate, provisions don't stop here +long. Here, I've saved ye the last bean."</p> + +<p>"Thanks. I take my bean wherever I +find it."</p> + +<p>"Good! Now will ye poach on my preserves?"</p> + +<p>"With pleasure!" Evelyn held out her +tin plate. "I love peaches."</p> + +<p>"Ah, I'm more exclusive. I only love a +peach!"</p> + +<p>"One at a time, no doubt, you mean. And +for the sake of your taste, I hope, fresh ones, +not canned. By the way, you, I believe, +would write them tinned?"</p> + +<p>"But we both pronounce them excellent." +Scarlett divided with her the last spoonful +of the fruit.</p> + +<p>"A century ago you taxed my tea." Leaning +over, Evelyn took the extra lump of +sugar from the young man's saucer. "So +now, to even things, I steal your sugar."</p> + +<p>"Quite right," he acquiesced, "since revenge +is sweet."</p> + +<p>"How silly this climate makes one, +though I wish all international differences +could be so bloodlessly adjusted," remarked +Evelyn. "Suppose, instead of war, +we had spelling matches! That, indeed, +would bring peace with honor."</p> + +<p>"Sure and there'd be fighting over peace,"<span class="pagenum">[142]</span> +the soldier told her, "since you would spell +it H-O-N-O-R, while I should insert a U."</p> + +<p>"Naturally," replied Evelyn. "Your nation's +honor always will include U."</p> + +<p>"A pretty compliment," conceded Scarlett, +"but I feel as if I had been spelling for +it." As they had finished he put aside the +dinner-tray. "I wonder if I shall ever persuade +you to cross the line in earnest?"</p> + +<p>"And pray, why should I do the crossing? +Why should not you be the one to come over +to the enemy?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, I'm a soldier! And I could not love +thee, dear, so much, loved I not HONOUR +more!"</p> + +<p>"All very fine, sir, but, like England, +somehow you have advanced imperceptibly +across the boundary."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" Scarlett moved closer to her. +"Like England, when I make advances I +push the line ahead of me."</p> + +<p>"Remember the old commination," Evelyn +exhorted him, "'Cursed be he that moveth +his neighbor's landmark.'"</p> + +<p>"That was ancient law," Scarlett reminded +her. "The modern dispensation bids +thee love thy neighbor as thyself. And up +here, where both nations work side by side, +common hardship makes us truly neighbors, +next of kin. Look yonder!" He pointed to<span class="pagenum">[143]</span> +the summit of the watershed, the ridge-pole +of the mountain range, where, sheltered under +one roof, were the Customs offices of two +nations, while from lofty flag-poles floated, +side by side, the Union Jack and the Stars +and Stripes. "The snow, as it melts, parts +into two rivers, one running down into the +Dominion, the other into the States, each +bearing greetings from the sister flags. And, +listen! In the tent, to the same tune the +two national anthems are being sung——" +Rising, he bared his head, Evelyn standing +beside him, while in perfect attune the banqueters +sang, according to their allegiance: +"My Country, 'Tis of Thee," or "God Save +the King."</p> + +<p>"After all," commented Scarlett, "peace +is spelled without a difference, both sides +of the boundary; and, lip to lip, our views +will be identical on the way of spelling +love."</p> + +<p>"And how may that be?" inquired Evelyn, +gathering up her furs and moving away. +"In love-letters?" As Scarlett caught up +with her she quickened her pace, remarking, +"I must go now. Really, Sergeant, you +ought some day to give us a lecture on these +theories of yours, for I have always wondered +how an Irishman makes love."</p> + +<p>"Like a lover, sure," promptly retorted<span class="pagenum">[144]</span> +Scarlett, catching her in his arms and stooping +his head to hers.</p> + +<p>To her surprise, Evelyn found herself +more than half consenting to his kiss even +while trying to rebuke it. Before, however, +she had found breath to protest, Scarlett released +her hurriedly in silence, for at the +moment Nick, with his custodian, and followed +by his faithful henchmen, came from +the tent, escorting Sarah and the orphans in +an aura of national and personal good will, +while a messenger came to inform the Sergeant +that the United States representative, +to whom the prisoner's person was to be delivered, +had arrived.</p> + +<p>Evelyn, for her part, overcome with an +embarrassment mingled with another feeling +that was wholly new to her, ran in the +opposite direction down the trail, and over +a patch of frozen snow to a secluded spot +sheltered by a thicket of scrub firs, where, +even as she broke from her lover's embrace, +she had seen her former traveling acquaintance +and present correspondent, Horatio +Travers, awaiting her.</p> + +<p>Scarlett went up immediately to the Customs +building, there to transact the formalities +incident to the extradition of Bully +Nick. These concluded, and the official +courtesies having been duly proffered and<span class="pagenum">[145]</span> +accepted, he at last felt free to continue his +interrupted wooing. Coming out into the +open, he was going to seek Evelyn in a +merry group where the orphans were being +taught the art of keeping erect on snow-shoes, +when he was accosted by Maclane.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Sergeant! I am called upon to +marry a couple under circumstances of a +peculiar nature, involving exceptional haste. +There is no Gold Commissioner, I find, nor +Justice of the Peace, in the district, nor +within a day's journey, from whom to obtain +a license; but I have consented to accept +a copy of the Dominion Marriage Act, +or rather a specified clause thereof, signed +by yourself as Mounted Policeman in +charge. Will that arrangement satisfy you, +judicially speaking?"</p> + +<p>"Surely," replied Scarlett, "any marriage +that you can, with conscience, solemnize I +can sanction without a conscience, sir."</p> + +<p>"I never was called upon to perform a +duty that I liked so ill," the minister acknowledged, +as he followed the soldier to +the Customs building. "In fact, I have exceeded +my prerogative, through my personal +interest in one of the contracting parties, +in counseling, beseeching, delay. Yet +what can I do? The young lady is of age; +she is determined on the step; moreover, she<span class="pagenum">[146]</span> +has her father's consent, while I have not +one single argument to urge against it, +merely a feeling of dislike, distrust, for the +gentleman of her choice."</p> + +<p>"In primitive regions I have found it unwise +to oppose too many obstacles to marriages," +remarked the soldier, who, by this +time, was busily copying the required clause +from a sheepskin-covered tome, "since there +is always a popular tendency to forego the +ceremony, if it involves the slightest +trouble. Oh, I'm used to this! Also, I have +had not a few applications for divorces."</p> + +<p>"Eh?" exclaimed the minister. "Surely +you do not grant them, my young friend?"</p> + +<p>"I have no power to," Scarlett told him. +"The best I can do under such circumstances +is to give the applicants a bill of Dissolution +of Partnership, to minimize the squabbling +over the division of the outfit. These present +protégés of yours may be my next candidates. +There." He handed Maclane the +paper. "Now it is ready for the signatures—yours +and mine. But, first, these +blanks must be filled in with the names of +bride and groom."</p> + +<p>"They shall write them for themselves," +replied the minister, who was visibly agitated. +"Not by a pen stroke will I further +them beyond what is forced upon me." Going<span class="pagenum">[147]</span> +to the door he beckoned two persons +waiting without, and to Scarlett's amazement +summoned by name, "Horatio Travers! +Evelyn Durant!"</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[148]</span></p> + +<h2><a id="X"></a>X.</h2> + +<p class="h3">LUCKY'S LUCK.</p> + +<p>Cheerful, erect, recreated in body +and spirit, Durant came to Gumboot +Annie's hostelry, where he had +made an appointment to meet Walter +Pierce. Not seeing the young man, and having +his own reasons for not letting it be +known that there was anything of a business +nature between them, he refrained +from making inquiries; ordered a cup of coffee, +and, lighting a pipe, seated himself in +a sheltered nook outside the tent to wait.</p> + +<p>He had not been there long when the altercation +between Dandy Raish and Gelly +interrupted the banquet then in progress, +bringing the diners from the tent, Nick, +closely guarded by Barney, in the van.</p> + +<p>Gelly, acting on Raish's instructions, had +gone speeding down the trail, but the Dandy +still lingered, to keep his secret tryst with +Evelyn.</p> + +<p>Catching sight of him, the Bully, handcuffed<span class="pagenum">[149]</span> +as he was, made a furious lunge at +him. "Thet thar's the snake I've swore ter +kill!" he shouted. "Let me free!"</p> + +<p>"No, sorr!" Barney restrained him. "No +cheatin' av the extry-edition, if ye please."</p> + +<p>Every one began to talk at once, his followers +urging the Bully to vengeance or forgiveness, +according to their natural dispositions, +at present heightened by conviviality, +while Raish, fearing lest the former policy +should prevail, held up a hand for truce. +"It's all right, Nick. You don't understand. +Stand back, you fellows, can't you, and +give me a word alone with Nick."</p> + +<p>"Aye!" acquiesced the Bully. "I don't +need help to curse ye, Raish. When I'm +through with him, lads, I'll leave him to you +ter skin him fer the skunk he is, d'ye see?"</p> + +<p>"Can't you leave us?" inquired Raish of +Barney, who still stood his ground by Nick.</p> + +<p>"No, sorr, I cannot."</p> + +<p>"But it's a private matter."</p> + +<p>"Bedad, thin, that takes me in all right, +since I'm a private meself till promoted."</p> + +<p>"Oh, very well! Only I didn't like to drag +in a woman's name before a third person," +explained the Dandy. "What I want to say, +Nick, is this: I'm awfully sorry for all the +trouble I've brought on you. It's not entirely +my fault, the way women do pursue<span class="pagenum">[150]</span> +a fellow. But never mind all that," he hastened +to add as the Bully began to growl +ominously. "I want you to know that I intend +to do the square thing. I'm going to +marry Gelly."</p> + +<p>"Eh?" cried Nick, unable to believe his +ears. "You'll right my gal! Honest, Raish?"</p> + +<p>"On my honor as a gentleman—that is, if +she'll have me. Now, don't get angry, Nick, +till I explain. Something has turned her +against me of late. Suppose you write her +a little note, advising her to do it."</p> + +<p>"Advisin' her! I'll skin her if she kicks!" +threatened Nick. "Here, boy," he turned to +Barney, "get me quit of these bracelets +while I write ter my darter."</p> + +<p>"No, sorr, I wull not!"</p> + +<p>"I tell ye it's my last words—good-by—to +my darter."</p> + +<p>"First or last, sure ye can dictate your +autography."</p> + +<p>"Oh, hang!" ejaculated the Bully.</p> + +<p>"Sure, thin, that's for what I'm saving +ye!"</p> + +<p>"Thar ain't no word profane enough ter +describe ye, d'ye see?" Nick told his keeper. +"Here, boys, which one of ye kin write?" +he called over to his followers.</p> + +<p>"Don't make her name common with that +gang," cautioned the Dandy, whose alert<span class="pagenum">[151]</span> +mind was actively evolving a new piece of +villainy as the situation developed. "Ask +an older man; a gentleman."</p> + +<p>"You've never done a thing ter her name, +hev yer?" inquired the Bully, wrathfully, +yet not wholly rejecting the advice. "Here, +Sandy, man, come write a message for me. +You've had schoolin'."</p> + +<p>"Ou, aye!" assented the Scotchman, +"ower muckle schoolin'. Mon, mon, when I +reflect on a' this sma' head contains! I'll +e'en gie ye a selection fra' Marmion—or a +wee bit o' Rabbit Burruns." Being, however, +far gone in conviviality, he maundered +off into protestations of undying affection +for his leader, assuring him he'd e'en gie his +proper copposeetion to see him hangit decently.</p> + +<p>Disgusted, Nick shoved Sandy aside, and +in so doing caught a glimpse of Durant in +his corner, smoking peaceably. "Thar's old +man Lucky!" he exclaimed, even as Raish +had foreseen. "Might ask him ter help us +out. Hi, Lucky! Want ter do me a good +turn?"</p> + +<p>"Willingly." Rising, Durant joined him. +"What is it, Nick?"</p> + +<p>"Waal, the government thinks so much +of me these days I hev to employ a secretary +fer me correspondence, d'ye see? Say, will<span class="pagenum">[152]</span> +you write down a message fer me to my +gal?"</p> + +<p>"With all the pleasure in the world," assented +Durant, heartily.</p> + +<p>"Babper an' envelobe, two bits. Ben an' +ink, two bits. Plotter, two bits, bostache-shtamp, +two bits!" At Nick's order, Ikey +set writing materials before them on the +counter.</p> + +<p>"Say, Nick," Raish prompted, in an undertone, +while Durant was removing his +snow-spectacles and chafing his stiff fingers, +"best not enter into details. Best let bygones +be bygones. Best just say you want +your daughter to let me bring her as my +wife to pay you a visit during your enforced +captivity—perhaps to say good-by."</p> + +<p>"You let me choose my own words, and +be damned to yer."</p> + +<p>"Oh, very well! Only I don't see why you +should be in a hurry to shame me and Gelly +before an outsider."</p> + +<p>"My gal has shamed herself, and thar +ain't no shamin' you!" Nick, however, acted +on the advice. "Ready, Lucky? Say, I +don't know how to start it. I kin jaw her +fluent ter her face, but I never wrote her +afore." He hesitated, embarrassed.</p> + +<p>Smiling reassuringly, Durant pointed to +the words he already had mechanically set<span class="pagenum">[153]</span> +down. "My dear daughter—that's how I +begin to my own girl."</p> + +<p>"Darter don't look as if it was spelled +right," criticized the Bully. "But you know +best, Lucky. Fire away! Make it affectionate, +but firm, d'ye see? Tell her I'll cuss +her in this life and skin her in the next ef +she don't let Raish bring her ter me as his +wife ter say good-by. No trimmin's, mind! +Blow the signiture! She'll know fast +enough it comes from me."</p> + +<p>"Your loving dad," Durant concluded. +"That's how I end off when I'm writing to +Evelyn."</p> + +<p>"Pop ud 'a' sounded more nateral," remarked +the Bully. "But mebbe dad is dockimentary. +So let her go."</p> + +<p>"Add a postscript," in a hurried whisper +Raish enjoined Durant. "Tell her this is +just a matter of form, and that I promise on +my honor not to hold her to the arrangement +permanently, if it is distasteful to her. +Tell her——"</p> + +<p>Durant looked up, surprised. "Surely all +that lies wholly between you and the young +woman."</p> + +<p>"True," admitted Raish, "but as I don't +mind confiding in you that the young +woman is tired of me, I want her to feel secure +that in satisfying her father's scruples<span class="pagenum">[154]</span> +I don't intend to take an unfair advantage +of her. Suppose I set that down myself." He +did so, writing rapidly, but clearly. "Now, +Mr. Durant," he handed the other the pen, +"you will add to your kindness to me more +than you dream by placing your signature +as witness to my pledge."</p> + +<p>Durant did as he was asked, feeling that, +little as he understood the matter, he was +probably serving the best interests of the +unfortunate Gelly.</p> + +<p>"As witness only," he, however, stated. +"It is an arrangement in which I take no +moral responsibility."</p> + +<p>"Thanks. I understand your scruples and +respect them. The responsibility is mine +entirely. Just at present I cannot explain, +but later the whole position will be made +clear."</p> + +<p>"What's all them goin's-on?" suddenly demanded +Nick, whose attention had been +momentarily distracted by an argument between +Mops and Sandy on the poetic merits +of Rabbit Burruns. "No monkeyin' with +dockiments over thar."</p> + +<p>"I'm only directing it," explained the +Dandy, who had folded the letter and inclosed +it in an envelope.</p> + +<p>Nick looked over his shoulder, breathing +heavily with interest. "By gum," he ejacu<span class="pagenum">[155]</span>lated, +wrathfully, "ef ye hevn't blotted my +gal's name, Raish, and not fer the fust +time!"</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a id="il_154"></a> +<img class="border2" src="images/il_154.jpg" width="256" height="328" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">"DARTER DON'T LOOK AS IF IT WAS SPELLED RIGHT," CRITICIZED BULLY.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll make that all right!" The Dandy +put the letter in his breast and walked +away.</p> + +<p>"Ef yer don't may yer sizzle!" Nick called +after him. Turning to Durant: "Pard, I'm +grateful," he declared, with feeling. "Pard, +the best wish I kin give ye is, may ye never +need no one ter do the same by you."</p> + +<p>"Thanks, Nick. That's all right." Durant +looked about him, and seeing that +Raish was out of earshot and Blenksoe not +in sight, went closer to the Bully and his followers. +"Friends, there's something I want +to say to you," he began. "It's just this: +You've all done me a kindness to my dying +day I shan't forget. A fortnight ago, when +my girl came into camp expecting to find +me living in a diamond-encrusted palace, +and I stood there so forlorn she didn't +recognize me, a broken-hearted beggar, you +who by one word might have pricked the +bubble and humiliated me before her and +her before the world, by your silence protected +her and me. It was the noblest +thing——" His voice broke; he wiped his +eyes.</p> + +<p>"Thet's all right, Lucky! Brace up, old<span class="pagenum">[156]</span> +man!" came from one and another of the +group.</p> + +<p>"Aye, but now I want you all to hear my +good news!" cried Durant, detaining them +as they were preparing to go back into the +dining-tent to resume their interrupted +feast. "<i>It has all come true!</i> With so many +grafters and claim-jumpers round I daren't +be explicit, but I want you to know that my +luck has turned for good and all. Oh, this +time it's no pocket; it's the big strike of +which I've always dreamed. I don't deserve +it, some may think, after playing with +my girl's credulity, yet for her sake I thank +God with all my heart that I've won out! +Till it's staked and recorded I know you'll +all keep my secret—but, boys, every one of +you is in it, the Rainbow Mine!"</p> + +<p>The same wonderful delicacy that had +marked their treatment of Evelyn did not +fail her father. The Bully and his gang +listened to this speech in respectful silence, +at its conclusion crying, "Great! Good for +you, old man! You done grand! Allus +knew you'd git thar fer keeps! Sure! Betcherlife! +That's what!" with every evidence +of conviction and spontaneous joy. But as +he walked off, Durant laughed. He did not +need to look back to know that fingers were +being pointed after him, winks interchanged<span class="pagenum">[157]</span> +and foreheads tapped significantly, with +comment that found food for mirth, even +while it deplored: "Off his nut fer fair. +Balmy on the crumpet. Bats in his belfry. +Qualifying for Queer Street. Plumb crazy. +Poor old Lucky!"</p> + +<p>Well, let them think so, bless them, since +another day would set them right and prove +him all he claimed to be. And then nothing +gold could procure would be too good for +them, nothing—this rough crew, more beast +than man, that had yet behaved like more +than man to his deceived, defenceless girl.</p> + +<p>That hour—its memory was seared upon +his very soul—the hour of Evelyn's arrival +in camp that had witnessed the deepest +degradation, followed immediately by the +crowning justification and triumph of his +career. He visualized it now, as he walked: +In the Klondike Delmonico's, in her rôle of +Lady Bountiful, Evelyn was dispensing hospitality +right and left. He alone, her father, +dared not enter in. Crushed, crazed, he +walked back to the spot where he had left +young Pierce. Him he found still brooding +beneath the huge pine, dazed, amid the ruin +of his own air castles. Then for one bad +moment Durant went really mad. Picking +up the gun he had dropped when an irresistible +force drew him to go watch the incoming<span class="pagenum">[158]</span> +stage, he turned its deadly charge +against his fevered brain.</p> + +<p>With a cry, Walter sprang forward, but +not before old Blenksoe, who had been +watching his associate's actions curiously, +seized him, capturing the gun. "No yer +don't, blast yer!"</p> + +<p>"Give it to me, Blenksoe! Of what use is +my life to you?"</p> + +<p>"Lucky you've been afore, and lucky you +may be yet, and when the luck turns I'm in +it, see?"</p> + +<p>"Give it to me!" With a madman's fury, +Durant leaped at the other's throat, only to +be met by a blow that sent him reeling to +the ground with such force that a young +willow bush he clutched at was partially +uprooted. For a few seconds he lay prone, +foaming at the mouth and clawing the soil +with frenzied impotency. Then of a sudden +he paused, raised himself, face still downturned, +and burst into insane laughter that +made Pierce's blood run cold.</p> + +<p>"Mad! Stark, starin' mad!" Blenksoe +turned on his heel.</p> + +<p>"There's a squirrel on yonder tree I could +bring down for the dogs' supper if you'd +give me back my gun, Blenksoe," his laughter +spent, Durant meekly suggested as he +scrambled to a sitting posture.<span class="pagenum">[159]</span></p> + +<p>"Fetch her with a stun," was the succinct +reply, as, retaining his partner's weapon, +Blenksoe re-entered the tent.</p> + +<p>Acting on the suggestion, Durant gathered +up a handful of clots, selecting them +carefully, and with deliberate aim took long +shots at the chattering creature on the +bough.</p> + +<p>"Sit here, beside me, close, Walter," in +an undertone he bade the young clerk, who +still was gazing at him in horrified bewilderment. +"But don't start or show the +slightest surprise at what I am going to say. +Oh, tut, tut, lad, never fear!" For Pierce +seemed disinclined to comply with his command. +"I am not mad. That is all over, +thank God! with all the struggle, the heartbreak. +<i>The luck has turned</i>, do you hear? +Yes, turned for good and all! Every clot +that I am throwing contains gold!—careful!" +For involuntarily Walter had given +vent to an ejaculation of amazed incredulity. +"Oh, I'm an old prospector, and I see +indications, and read signs where these +grafters pass them by. I've always believed +in this locality, and now I'm justified. In +uprooting that willow I unearthed a bonanza!" +Pausing in his speech, he renewed his +attempts on the squirrel's life, and then +went on: "Yes, each dull handful of earth<span class="pagenum">[160]</span> +I throw is a priceless witness that beneath +us, on this spot, lies the Rainbow Mine——" +Breaking off, as he observed old Blenksoe +watching him narrowly, he rose as if discouraged, +with a sigh. "My hand shakes. +I'm no match to-day even for a squirrel. +I'll have to give it up." Then, cleverly +simulating the foolishly detailed actions of +one who, having lost his grasp on the great +things of life, clutches at the trivialities, he +set about replanting the willow, stamping +down the disordered earth about its roots, +meanwhile in a pregnant undertone continuing +his conversation with Walter.</p> + +<p>The latter, so between them it was arranged, +was to hang about the locality, +watching for a chance, unobserved, to pick +up the valuable clots, and these he was to +have exchanged for their cash value, for +current expenses, at a bank so distant that +their source could not be predicated with +any degree of accuracy—a precaution that +Durant deemed essential in a district where +even officialdom was likely to be corrupted +by the lust for gold. He himself, meanwhile, +would watch his opportunity, and disappear, +without leaving a trace, from Lost +Shoe Creek, as if madness had indeed possessed +him, in order to throw Blenksoe off +the scent and cause him also to move on,<span class="pagenum">[161]</span> +since, as Durant rightly conjectured, the +pastmaster of graft would not be likely +to remain in any spot which he thought +Lucky had turned down. To-day Walter +was to meet him here, return with him to +the scene of his discovery, aid him in staking +it, by stealth; journey to the nearest +office where recording-books were opened, +to file the claim with the necessary fee, +while Durant himself would remain, defending +the stakes, if need be, with his life. +Once his rights legally safeguarded, all the +world might know. Again Durant laughed +in joyful anticipation of his meeting with +Evelyn, when confession and revelation +would come in the same breath. Then, impatiently, +he looked up and down the trail, +wondering at Pierce's delay on this day of +days, when he heard a low moan among the +bushes, and, turning, beheld the young man +on whose co-operation such high hopes depended, +lying, bedded in furs, upon a sled, +swathed in bandages, pallid—a dying man.</p> + +<p>"My God! Walter, my poor lad, what +does this mean?" exclaimed Durant, in +horrified accents.</p> + +<p>Another moan was the only answer, but +reading in the glazing eyes a wish to speak, +Durant knelt down and bent so that his ear +touched the stiff lips.<span class="pagenum">[162]</span></p> + +<p>"What is it, Walter?"</p> + +<p>"The samples," the young man at last +managed to articulate. "The mine——"</p> + +<p>"Aye, the mine—the samples!" cried Durant, +with frantic eagerness. But Walter's +confession never reached the man he had +betrayed. A sudden darkness came over +Durant. He struggled, but his grasp was +pinioned from behind. He tried to cry +aloud, but his voice was muffled. Swift, +treacherous hands seized him, gagged him, +bound him fast, bore him off, blind, mute, a +prisoner!</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[163]</span></p> + +<h2><a id="XI"></a>XI</h2> + +<p class="h3">AN INTERNATIONAL EPISODE</p> + +<p>With an effort regaining the composure +unwontedly ruffled by +Scarlett's audacious response to +her challenge as to an Irishman's method of +love-making, while adjusting hat and hair, +whose order, as she blushingly was conscious, +had suffered from the same cause, +Evelyn hurried toward the fir-encircled spot +where she saw Dandy Raish awaiting her.</p> + +<p>A fellow-passenger aboard the boat that +had brought her party up the Alaskan coast, +Travers had lost no chance to ingratiate +himself with Evelyn by rendering her all +manner of unobtrusive service, so that his +letter, requesting this appointment, at an +out-of-the-way place under conditions of absolute +secrecy, while exciting her curiosity, +caused her no alarm. The matter to which +he had mysteriously alluded, as of supreme +importance to herself and her father, she +had assumed to refer to Durant's vast mining<span class="pagenum">[164]</span> +interests. She took it for granted that +the obliging Mr. Travers was bearer of a remittance +that would enable her to defy +Scarlett's absurd advice in favor of roughing +it, and enable her to resume her wonted +style of luxurious living.</p> + +<p>To escape awkward questions, she had decided +to turn the expedition into a day's +outing that should include Sarah and her +young companions, thus giving her meeting +with Travers the appearance of chance. +Scarlett's unforeseen presence on the scene +only added a piquancy to the occasion, in +her eyes, since she thought it might furnish +her with an opportunity to put down that +estimable but altogether too masterful +young man. That the opportunity would +land her in the young man's arms was something +she had not reckoned with.</p> + +<p>As Travers watched her speeding toward +him with glowing cheeks and eyes, a lovely +picture of blossoming young womanhood between +the wintry ground and summer sky, +something leaped to life in the Dandy's +breast that made it a hard task for him to +greet her with the grave impersonal politeness +it was his policy to assume, and determined +him more than ever to cut out +"that blasted Scarlett."</p> + +<p>After formal salutations had been exchanged,<span class="pagenum">[165]</span> +he remarked: "I think I saw you +speaking with some one in uniform, Miss +Durant. I trust it was not a member of the +Mounted Police?"</p> + +<p>"It was Sergeant Scarlett."</p> + +<p>"Good heavens! Scarlett, of all men! +May I hope you did not mention our appointment +to him?"</p> + +<p>"My appointments are my own affair, Mr. +Travers. Please let us get to the matter in +hand without delay. What is it you have to +say to me?"</p> + +<p>"I am more anxious than you possibly can +be for haste, since to you the matter is but +one of temporary inconvenience, while to +carry it through I am risking my very life. +But before we go any further I must have +your sacred promise that what I say is in +inviolable confidence."</p> + +<p>"Confidences between you and me, Mr. +Travers! Aren't you making too much of +what is probably some ordinary business +matter; taking rather an undue advantage +of my complaisance in granting you this interview?"</p> + +<p>"Miss Durant, you wrong me. I tell you +that in seeking you I have nothing to gain, +everything to lose; life, honor, everything! +I am running this tremendous risk—not, as +you think, because you are a woman, young,<span class="pagenum">[166]</span> +rich, beautiful; but because I owe a debt of +gratitude, that only life could pay, to your +dear father."</p> + +<p>"My dear father! You come from him? +Then he knows of my arrival! Why isn't +he here himself to welcome me?" Evelyn's +questions came rushing eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Miss Durant, he cannot come. He is a +prisoner."</p> + +<p>"A prisoner! What do you mean?" she +faltered.</p> + +<p>"A captive, rather; held by a gang of desperados +for ransom."</p> + +<p>"God in heaven!" Evelyn went white. +"My daddy!"</p> + +<p>"You are faint!" Raish went to her side, +supporting her.</p> + +<p>"No, no! Thanks, I am all right." Evelyn +drew away. "But your pledge of secrecy—why, +it is preposterous! Every one should +be told. The alarm given—rewards offered—the +country roused!" She moved forward +as she spoke.</p> + +<p>"No, no! Not as you value his life!" +Raish held her back. "Listen. One incautious +word, and your father is a dead man. +There are spies about us—everywhere. That +is why I got you to meet me here—Miss Durant, +believe me, by raising the hue and cry +you will sound your father's death-knell."<span class="pagenum">[167]</span></p> + +<p>Evelyn shuddered. "I can't believe——" +she began, however, incredulously.</p> + +<p>"I will explain. Miss Durant, you have +been in the district over two weeks—the district +in which you know your father's interests +to lie. Yet have you been able to locate +him, to obtain one satisfactory answer +as to his goings and comings, his present +whereabouts? Have you not invariably +been put off with specious generalities—sugar-plums +to soothe a wayward child? +Admit that no man has said to you in definite +terms, 'Yonder, on such and such a hill, +is the camp of Matthew Durant. By such +and such a trail can you reach him.'"</p> + +<p>"Yes, that is true," admitted Evelyn. +"Every one puts me off. Still——"</p> + +<p>"The reason is," Raish interrupted her, +"that no one knows where, among those +mountains, his prison lies. But that he is +a prisoner is public property, though not a +soul has had the heart to break it to you."</p> + +<p>"How cruel to have deceived me!" Evelyn +burst into a flood of tears. "And all the +time he is wondering why I don't rescue +him. But with his resources what is the +difficulty? Why has not he himself bought +his freedom?"</p> + +<p>"Because their price is high—it is your +entire fortune—the Rainbow Mine—and<span class="pagenum">[168]</span> +your father loves you too well to subject +you to poverty."</p> + +<p>"It is like my father to put me first," +sobbed Evelyn, "but doesn't he know me +better? Does he for a moment think I +would weigh any consideration on this +earth against his safety?"</p> + +<p>"Ah!" cried Raish, triumphantly, "I +knew you were true blue. That is what I +told my old friend Durant—but captivity +has so preyed on his spirits that he is ill—unable +to judge——"</p> + +<p>"My father ill!" Evelyn clenched her +little hands and moaned: "Oh, oh, oh! If +only I could go to him!"</p> + +<p>"Have you the courage?" questioned +Raish.</p> + +<p>"The courage!" She looked at him, +amazed. "If you know how to reach him take +me to him instantly!"</p> + +<p>Raish almost laughed aloud. "Women are +dead easy," he mentally reiterated, before +replying: "Very good." He drew Evelyn's +furs closer about her neck, protectingly. +"I take you at your word. But we +must invent some excuse for our going off +together. We must elude pursuit. Above all, +we must get rid of your friend, the Irishman."</p> + +<p>"I trust Sergeant Scarlett," said Evelyn.<span class="pagenum">[169]</span></p> + +<p>"And so do I!" cried Raish, with assumed +cordiality. "I trust that excellent young +man to do his duty and win promotion at all +costs. The Sergeant makes love like an +Irishman, Miss Durant. Ah, I saw!" he +checked her protest. "But believe me, not +even for your bright eyes will he sacrifice +his loyalty to the government he serves by +countenancing a dicker with the thieves, its +enemies."</p> + +<p>"Let us leave the Sergeant out of the discussion," +cried Evelyn, with blazing cheeks. +"What do you propose?—for by your manner +I see you have some plan."</p> + +<p>"The plan is not mine. I never should +have ventured to suggest it," answered +Raish. "It is your father's, entirely. He +and I were taken prisoners together. I, as +the unimportant man, financially, am used +as intermediary, being sent here, on parole, +to treat with you for his release. Spies are +dogging my footsteps. Meanwhile, his life +is hostage, until I return with you in my +charge. Your father, ever scrupulous, fearing +compromising comment, were you to +travel with me alone, day and night, as we +shall have to do, advised——" He paused, +as if delicacy made the words difficult. +"Miss Durant, he wishes you to go through +a form of marriage with me first."<span class="pagenum">[170]</span></p> + +<p>"I marry you!" gasped Evelyn.</p> + +<p>"As a matter of form only; to be dissolved +when your father's freedom is secured."</p> + +<p>"Never—never! It is impossible!"</p> + +<p>"Very good. I will carry back that answer." +Raish turned to go. "You send your +love to him, I suppose, Miss Durant, and as +he is a very sick man, good-by?"</p> + +<p>"Stop," she commanded him. "Give me a +few moments. You are <i>sure</i> my father said +that—about a marriage ceremony?"</p> + +<p>"Aye, furthermore, he wrote it," Raish assured +her. "Though to clear myself from +any suspicion of interested motives I begged +him to send the letter by another messenger. +You should already have received it +from the hand of Walter Pierce."</p> + +<p>"Miss Durant! Where is Miss Durant? +Oh, Miss Durant!" At the moment Maclane's +agitated voice came toward them. As +Evelyn, responding, emerged from the +thicket he met her, breathlessly. Chilkat +Jo, whom he had despatched to Lost Shoe +Creek for Evelyn, had returned some time +before to announce that he had met her by +the way, but the minister, not expecting her +for hours, had to be hunted up among the +cabins further on, whither he had gone on +some errand of mercy. "I only just heard +of your arrival. How providential that you<span class="pagenum">[171]</span> +should have chosen this of all days for your +expedition! A poor lad—Chilkat Joseph +and I found him by the wayside—the victim, +I fear, of foul play, has brought you +tidings of your father." As he spoke he was +hurrying her toward the spot where young +Pierce lay.</p> + +<p>"Walter Pierce—my father!" Evelyn almost +shrieked in her excitement, but at a +warning sign from Travers, who had followed +her, controlled herself. "I have been +expecting him."</p> + +<p>"After all I fear it is too late." Maclane +touched pulse and brow. "He is beyond +human help. He will not speak again." +Kneeling by the sled he began prayers for +the passing soul, when he was interrupted +by a cry from Evelyn, as Walter's arm, +which had rested loosely across his breast, +fell stiffly by his side, disclosing an open letter +which, as she saw immediately, was in +her father's hand.</p> + +<p>"Women are dead easy—women and parsons," +chuckled Raish, who had adroitly +placed the missive where Evelyn found it. +Going to her where she stood, apart, reading +her father's transcription of Nick's behest +to Gelly, "Well," he asked, "now are you +convinced?"</p> + +<p>"One moment, please!" Without explanation<span class="pagenum">[172]</span> +to him, Evelyn ran up the hill where, +international formalities complied with, under +the two flags the Bully was bidding his +followers farewell.</p> + +<p>"Dear, dear Nick"—she clasped his handcuffed +fists in her soft, warm palms—"you +welcomed me to the district; you are my oldest +friend. Tell me, when did you last see +my father?"</p> + +<p>"Lucky? Why, now come ter think of it, +Lucky were here not an hour since. Fit as a +fiddle, now warn't he, boys? Grand reports +of the Rainbow Mine. Shovelin' out pay-dirt +like greased lightnin'! Ain't thet so, +boys? Sent love, of course, and he'd be in +ter see yer ter-morrer. His own words, d'ye +see? Eh, boys?"</p> + +<p>To which the boys, challenged by Nick's +fiery eye, loyally responded: "Sure! Thet's +what! Betcherlife!"</p> + +<p>Evelyn looked from face to face and read +that, beneath a clumsy mask, through heroic +but mistaken kindness, ill news was being +held back from her. "Thank you all so +much," she replied, and, turning, ran downhill +to rejoin Raish.</p> + +<p>Sarah intercepted her. "Miss, I think we +had ought to be getting back to camp. The +orphans are behaving scandalous, getting +themselves engaged three deep. I don't<span class="pagenum">[173]</span> +know as you can blame 'em, miss. I suppose +it's a microbe. I myself have just refused +three marriages and two guilty loves."</p> + +<p>"I shall have to leave you to manage the +orphans, Sarah." Evelyn smiled an odd +smile. "I myself am going to be married +and start off on a honeymoon immediately."</p> + +<p>"You don't say, miss!" The maid raised +her eyebrows. "Well, a common soldier is +hardly in the same social class as my own +Scotch intended, with a literary turn and a +copper proposition, but I will say that Sergeant +Scarlett looks and acts quite the gentleman."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's not Sergeant Scarlett! It is the +Mr. Travers who looked after us so civilly +aboard the Skagway boat."</p> + +<p>Sarah's eyebrow's went up further still. +"Indeed, miss! He's very smart in his dress, +yet—however, I suppose everything goes in +a country where no one minds the clocks."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, with the assistance of Ikey, +Maclane, having covered the funereal sled +with the Stars and Stripes loaned by Gumboot +Annie, drew it across to poor Walter's +own side of the dividing line, that his mortal +remains might rest in their native soil.</p> + +<p>When he came to seek Evelyn, to consult +her about the last rites, she met him with a +strange request, to the effect that first he<span class="pagenum">[174]</span> +should unite her with all despatch and secrecy +to one Mr. Horatio Travers, whom she +then and there presented to him.</p> + +<p>"My dear young lady!" The minister +stared at her. "Isn't this decision very sudden? +Forgive my interference, but you +being alone up here, and so young——"</p> + +<p>"I'm twenty-two," Evelyn assured him, +"and that's middle-aged for a New York +girl."</p> + +<p>In spite of the bravado of her manner, her +tone so wholly lacked all bridal joyousness +that Maclane was impelled to draw her +aside and ask: "Is this act of your own free +will?"</p> + +<p>"Heavens, yes!" she asserted, confidently. +"No one on earth could make me do anything +I didn't choose to."</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless," the minister demurred, +"let me entreat you to defer so important a +step till you can consult your father."</p> + +<p>"It is my father's desire, expressed with +an emphasis that makes it almost a command," +averred Evelyn, solemnly. "And +conveyed to me at the price of that poor +lad's life."</p> + +<p>Still dissatisfied, but without sufficing reason +for refusing, Maclane put the usual +questions to the prospective groom. As +witness, Travers introduced old Blenksoe,<span class="pagenum">[175]</span> +who, having disposed of Durant, had ambled +up, calling him a dear old family retainer—a +lifelong friend.</p> + +<p>"That's me," corroborated the old sinner. +"Rough an' ready, but allus in it with Raish. +Not only is Raish by nature and eddication +fitted to adorn the proudest spear, but he's +a square proposition. Ye kin safely leave +it ter Raish, every time."</p> + +<p>"Well," reluctantly the minister consented, +"where is your license?"</p> + +<p>"A license!" exclaimed Travers. "What +for?"</p> + +<p>"To legalize the marriage," Maclane instructed +him. "You must get one from +the Gold Commissioner or Justice of the +Peace."</p> + +<p>"Then that queers the show," stated old +Blenksoe, "sence thar ain't no gold round +these here diggings, nor no justice, nor no +peace."</p> + +<p>"Is there no way of dispensing with it, +under exceptional circumstances?" Evelyn +asked, anxiously. "If you knew how imperative +my reason for desiring haste——"</p> + +<p>"In lieu of it, then," the minister conceded, +"I will accept a copy of the appropriate +clause of the Dominion Marriage Act, +signed by the Mounted Policeman in charge +of the district where Miss Durant resides."<span class="pagenum">[176]</span></p> + +<p>And before Raish, who sprang forward, +with an oath, could stop him, he had entered +the Customs building, calling for Sergeant +Scarlett.</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[177]</span></p> + +<h2><a id="XII"></a>XII</h2> + +<p class="h3">NORTHERN LIGHTS</p> + +<p>Scarlett looked from Evelyn to +Travers and back again, in bewilderment, +dismay. "Miss Durant," he at +last found voice to say, "surely there is some +mistake! Surely there's no love lost between +ye and this—gentleman!"</p> + +<p>"My private affairs, my feelings, seem to +cause a great deal of unnecessary comment," +remarked Evelyn, hiding her emotion +under a mask of irony. "May I beg +you to refrain from criticism, and to give +us the requisite authority?"</p> + +<p>Scarlett looked at her fixedly, and seeing +her control weaken, her color change, and +her eyes fill and falter beneath his penetrating +gaze, shook his head. "That I must absolutely +decline to do!"</p> + +<p>"And why, pray?" she commanded herself +to ask.</p> + +<p>"Oh, the reason is plain!" Raish sneeringly +interposed. "Every one knows the<span class="pagenum">[178]</span> +Sergeant's own matrimonial aspirations. +Every one has heard of the cheap device by +which on the very day of her arrival he tried +to worm himself into the favor of my +fiancée. If he did but know it, her father's +chief reason for insisting on the immediate +celebration of our marriage is to protect her +from the persecutions of adventurers!"</p> + +<p>"I beg," cried Evelyn, checking Scarlett's +furious retort, "that there may be no such +personalities! Mr. Travers, pray understand +that I do not, in the least, assent to your +characterization of the Sergeant, who, up +to this moment, has treated me and my +friends with the utmost delicate consideration +and chivalry!"</p> + +<p>"Forgive me, dearest"—Raish took her +hand. "I spoke too warmly! Yet who could +blame me? Come, come, my good Sergeant, +put your name to that paper without further +ado, unless you wish to suffer under +the imputation of sacrificing official honor +to personal revenge."</p> + +<p>Not deigning to heed the taunt, Scarlett +turned to the minister. "I can't sign, because +down in yonder valley is a lass in a +red cloak who has a prior claim upon this +man."</p> + +<p>Raish forced a contemptuous laugh. "The +red-cloak, who should not even be mentioned<span class="pagenum">[179]</span> +in this presence, may stay in the valley +for me. My acquaintance with the red-cloak +belongs to a day before I knew Evelyn. +She condones the past, accepts the +dedication of my future life." Drawing Evelyn +aside, he whispered, "Don't be alarmed. +My pledge holds good. This is all bluff, my +doing the devoted, to throw them off the +track." Stooping suddenly he kissed her.</p> + +<p>"My young friend," Maclane restrained +and admonished Scarlett, "my sympathies +are yours wholly. But are you not exceeding +your authority?"</p> + +<p>"Aye," confessed the Irishman, "I'm +stretching it a bit, maybe, to fit me intuitions. +Dominie, I tell ye 'tis a fishy business. +Not an hour since, the girl was in +these arms of mine, lip to lip, and liking it. +And now, look at her shudder at that fellow's +touch."</p> + +<p>"Sergeant Scarlett"—breaking from +Raish, Evelyn came to him and laid a coaxing +hand upon his arm—"I know that in +your heart you are despising me for a cheap +coquette. And I deserve it. I have given +you cause to think the worst of me. I can't +explain. But if you could only read my +heart—could only know what this means to +me—it's the happiness of my life! It will +be misery to the end of my days if I fail him<span class="pagenum">[180]</span> +at this supreme test. You're magnanimous, +above all pettiness, I know. You simply +want to save me, as you think, from making +a mistake. But believe me, trust me, I +know what I'm about. Now, will you do me +the greatest favor one human being ever entreated +of another, by signing your name +to that document?"</p> + +<p>Scarlett looked tenderly down on her, +and, swayed against his judgment by her +earnestness, he might have yielded, had not +the Dandy inopportunely added the word +too much.</p> + +<p>"Sergeant Scarlett will hardly dare take +the consequences of refusing when I tell +him that without the protection of my name +Miss Durant will be irretrievably compromised!"</p> + +<p>Scarlett checked an almost overwhelming +impulse to kick the speaker. Instead, +he took Evelyn's cold fingers into his honest +grasp. "I'd give my name to shield ye, +my life to serve ye, and now I'm going to +risk my official honor, to—as I think, to save +ye." He tore up the paper.</p> + +<p>Above the general outcry that ensued, +Sarah's tones were heard. "A pretty country +where you can't marry whom you please! +America's good enough for me!"</p> + +<p>"America!" exclaimed Evelyn, struck by<span class="pagenum">[181]</span> +a sudden thought. "Are there such restrictions +with us in America?"</p> + +<p>"Unfortunately not, my dear," replied +Maclane, who had once occupied a Chicago +pastorate. "In the States the sacred tie is +made and broken far more easily."</p> + +<p>"Then, quick," she cried, "across the boundary!" +And seizing Travers' hand she ran, +the others following breathlessly, not halting +till she reached the tall mast from +which proudly floated the emblem of the +free.</p> + +<p>"God in Heaven!" Scarlett looked after +her, his personal grief swallowed up in anxiety. +"Is there no power above, below, to +stop a wilful woman from cutting her own +throat with a wedding-ring?" He cast about +for aid. Barney, who might have thrown +some light on the plot, had returned to +duties at headquarters, but Nick and Gelly +might yet be reached in time, and for them +he sent messengers flying. Meanwhile, he +bethought himself of Chilkat Jo. Sheltered +by the Customs water-butt, he found the +trader squatting peaceably, whittling a +mimic totem-pole. On his shoulder Scarlett +laid a gauntleted hand. "Chilkat Jo, man, +look what devil's work is going on forninst +ye! Can't ye say the word to stop it?"</p> + +<p>There was an appreciable pause while,<span class="pagenum">[182]</span> +with a silken sound, the soft shavings +curled, fell, under the skilful knife. Then +without looking up, the Siwash gently replied, +"Me no such godam-hellan-blazes +Clistian fool! Laish mally Missy Dulant! I +mally Gelly!"</p> + +<p>In desperation Scarlett strode toward the +bridal group, reaching it just as the minister's +solemn tones rolled forth, challenging +the wilderness to show just cause or impediment +why these two persons might not lawfully +be joined together.</p> + +<p>"Just or unjust," he shouted, "sure it's +myself will furnish the impediment"—as, +collaring the bridegroom, with a series of +violent jerks he sent him flying back into +precincts that rendered him amenable to +Dominion law, where he neatly knocked him +down, and sat on him. "Now, I've got ye in +my own jurisdiction, I'll detain ye as a suspicious +person till evidence for or against +ye is forthcoming!" Maclane's protests, +Evelyn's tears, Sarah's shrieks and taunts, +and old Blenksoe's curses were as unavailing +as Raish's struggles; the young giant +held the position by main force till Nick, +who had been easily overtaken, by courtesy +of his custodians arrived in response to the +recall.</p> + +<p>"There, there," Scarlett soothed the<span class="pagenum">[183]</span> +squirming Dandy. "If I find I'm mistaken; +if that damned incriminating face of yours +belies ye, sure I'll apologize in sackcloth and +give ye the satisfaction of a gentleman." +Jerking Travers to his feet, he confronted +him with Gelly's father. "Nick," he inquired, +"what is your unvarnished opinion +of this fellow?"</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, thar's things in his past," admitted +the Bully, "same as in most men's, +thet you wouldn't hold up as a shinin' example +to a Sunday-school, d'ye see? But +bygones is bygones. Arter wot he projected +ter-day, I've nought but good words fer +Dandy Raish."</p> + +<p>"Not another syllable, Nick, I beg," Travers +hastened to cut short the Bully's elogium +at a period so favorable to his plans. +"Now, Sergeant, we accept your apology for +your ill-directed zeal, and dispense with +your further company."</p> + +<p>"Say, Scarlett," wrathfully demanded +Nick, "I kin cheek yer now I'm goin' ter be +hanged by U. S. law! Take yer hands off'n +Raish! Wot the hell d'ye mean by damagin' +my son-in-law?"</p> + +<p>"Your son-in-law?" in one breath cried +Evelyn, Sarah and Maclane.</p> + +<p>"I sent my gal a letter," elucidated +Nick. "Your pop Lucky put it in writin'<span class="pagenum">[184]</span> +fer me, Missy. That's it you got in your +hand."</p> + +<p>"This letter! And that villain made me +believe—— Oh, oh, oh!" Evelyn burst into +a flood of humiliated tears.</p> + +<p>"You black scoundrel; you'd 'a' deceived +her as you deceived my gal!" Nick made a +blind rush at Raish, but was held back by +his custodians. "Sure as thar's a God in +Heaven, Raish," he vowed, as they restrained +him, "I'll live ter kill ye yet!"</p> + +<p>Vain threat! A sharp sound cleft the +crystal air and, echoing, died away in soft +detonations among the hills. The Dandy +threw up his hands as he had forced so +many luckless travelers to do in his career +of highway robbery, and fell, gracefully, as +he did everything, face downward, with a +little trickle of blood, upon the snow. With +a shriek of anguish a girl in a red cloak, who +had been speeding up the hill, threw herself +beside him, calling his name with all the +loving epithets that even the lowest of the +low seems able to win from some woman's +heart.</p> + +<p>Tears wrung from his being's depths for +baffled retribution coursing down his rough +cheeks, the Bully lifted pinioned hands to +Heaven and uttered the one prayer of his +life: "O Almighty Gawd, with all respect,<span class="pagenum">[185]</span> +why did You butt in? O Gawd! I've made +cold meat of a score o' men on end +from fust ter last! But they was jes' +accident or playfulness, d'ye see? This here +skunk were the only livin' thing I ever hankered +fer ter kill! And Thou hast called my +bluff, and took the wind outen my sails by +puttin' the shootin'-iron of my vengeance +inter another's hand! Thar ain't no four-flushin' +Thee, O Gawd! Thou hast plumb +squared the reckonin' fer all my sins, past +and ter come, world without end. Amen."</p> + +<p>Whose the hand that shot Dandy Raish +no one ever knew, though many a young +fool, in his cups, boasted of the high distinction. +In the case of a man so universally +detested perhaps official enquiry thought +it policy to rest. But, possessed at the moment +by a literal interpretation of duty, +with a heavy heart the good minister +sought his favorite Indian proselyte.</p> + +<p>Sitting beside him, where he found him +whittling peaceably in the shelter of the +Customs water-butt, "O Joseph, Chilkat +Jo," sighing, he began. "My son, if on your +hands there be blood-guiltiness, you must repent, +confess!"</p> + +<p>The soft shavings slithered, curled and +fell, as the emblem of the Raven and the +Frog grew beneath the skilful knife. Then,<span class="pagenum">[186]</span> +in unimpassioned monotone, the Indian remarked, +"Some day, when I velly old, old +chief, I lepent, confess, make godam-hellan-blazes +Clistian deathbed. But now——" He +paused to twist the weird features of his +tribal god into an inscrutable smile. "Now, +I mally Gelly."</p> + +<p>It was the cool of the evening. From behind +the mountains northern lights shot up +in streamers of living green and rose. There +was a sound of bells, and "mushing," as the +drivers harnessed up their dog-teams to +carry the picnickers back to camp. Scarlett +looked over at Evelyn with an odd contraction +of the heart, where the bud of hope was +trembling for life under the icy hand of circumstance, +but as she did not appear to +notice him he turned and went on his own +road without farewell.</p> + +<p>Then Evelyn went to Gelly where, the violence +of her grief spent, she still crouched +beside her lover's stiffening form. Putting +an arm about her, "Come. Come home with +me to live," she said. "Yes." For Gelly +looked up with resentment changing to incredulity. +"Please. As a favor to me. I +have so much to learn. I need you."</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[187]</span></p> + +<h2><a id="XIII"></a>XIII</h2> + +<p class="h3">A YEAR AFTER</p> + +<p>Winter had come and gone; spring +had passed into a new summer. +In the prosperous township of +Lost Shoe Creek no one would have recognized +the god-forsaken camp of the year before. +While the locality was generally condemned +as an auriferous proposition, its +situation fitted it admirably for base of supplies +to other creeks: Abe Lincoln, Jubilee, +Old Glory and Princess May, where hydraulic +machinery had been established and +placer claims were being worked with profitable, +if not phenomenal, results.</p> + +<p>Some critics attributed the marvelous +transformation that had taken place to the +presence of women, dating from the arrival +of Evelyn and her party; others to the gospel +tidings of good-will brought by Parson +Maclane, when, wild rose in buttonhole, and +followed by his dogs, Telegraph and Wrangel, +he came running on the trail. A third<span class="pagenum">[188]</span> +faction was for giving the credit to law and +order, personified by the ubiquitous young +soldier, Sergeant Scarlett, and his right-hand +man, Barney. But the wise set it down +to the trinity of saving influences.</p> + +<p>For Evelyn the time had been one of unusual +happiness. Learning early that the +boundless wealth of which she supposed +herself possessor was not a popular subject +among folk to whom daily bread came hardly, +she wisely decided to omit mention of it +from her conversation. Also, finding herself +likely to be embarrassed for ready money, +since credit was denied her, she followed +Scarlett's excellent advice to try roughing +it, with excellent results. Moreover, at the +suggestion of the good Graysons, whose +neighborliness she soon learned to value, +and loyally backed by the "boys," she +opened a real-estate office at Lost Shoe +Creek, with a branch at Perdu, showing herself +an admirable business woman. Amateur +theatricals, concerts, and ice-carnivals +had brightened the dark season, when mining-camps +in the North are as desert islands, +cut off from all communication with the outside; +and for the first time in her life Evelyn +tasted the unalloyed pleasure that springs +from giving pleasure and helpfulness that +money cannot buy. One sorrow only dimmed +<span class="pagenum">[189]</span>her sky: the continued absence of her father. +No one told her that, far and wide, official +search was being made for Matthew Durant, +nicknamed Lucky, who, on a fateful day of +the previous summer had disappeared as +utterly as had the earth in which he worked +opened to engulf him; she still believed, uncontradicted, +that his vast interests were detaining +him somewhere among the baffling +distances of snow-capped hills, and that any +hour that suited him would bring him back +to her.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a id="il_188"></a> +<img class="border2" src="images/il_188.jpg" width="202" height="313" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">THE UBIQUITOUS YOUNG SOLDIER, SERGEANT SCARLETT.</p> + +<p>It was the day when, by the most lovable +of paradoxes, in that region, two festivals—one +of independence declared, one of allegiance +covenanted—are celebrated, with +crossed flags: Dominion Day and the Fourth +of July, in one.</p> + +<p>On this particular anniversary gala preparations +of extra splendor were afoot in +honor of the return of Bully Nick, once +more a free man, not because in equity he +was held worthy to be at large, so much as +through a technical slip by which but six +jurors had been requisitioned to sit on his +case, whereas, as his backers claimed, he +was territorially entitled to be adjudged +guilty by a full dozen good men and true.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm dazzled fer fair," announced +the hero, as, amid cheers from his friends<span class="pagenum">[190]</span> +and followers, he alighted from the stage. +"This here bloomin' Paradise ain't never +Lost Shoe Creek."</p> + +<p>"Sure, 'tis! Betcherboots! That's what!" +he was assured.</p> + +<p>Nick rubbed astonished eyes. "By gum, a +Gospel-mill!"</p> + +<p>"Aye, and filled to overflowing every Sabbath, +Nicholas," proudly stated good Maclane.</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, y' see," Mops hastened to apologize +to his leader for this hated concession +to religion, "the gals like piousness."</p> + +<p>The neat jail next the church was described +by Barney as "just an impty forrum +intoirely, owing to the ladies' distaste for +the spacies of bird such cages are controived +for, begorra!"</p> + +<p>The decorative touch to the personal appearance +of his followers, in honor of the +holiday, naturally came in for the Bully's +quizzical attention: their shorn faces; the +soap "with the tony smell" in vogue; the paper +collars with jeweled studs in which, all +day, Ikey had been doing a rushing trade, +were noted by him categorically till Bill silenced +him by stating that "style was like +for to fetch the girls."</p> + +<p>Gumboot Annie, to whose hostelry he was +conducted to drink his own health, had been<span class="pagenum">[191]</span> +allowed to reopen, he was informed, under +close restriction and surveillance from +"that blamed Scarlett." Nevertheless, as +she told Nick, spitting with deliberation, +not being in business for salubrious ends +merely, she was making great profit out of +"moderate drinkin' and no drunks," through +the girls' preference for sober cavaliers. Or, +as she phrased it, "the gals won't swaller +the booze."</p> + +<p>This was too much for the Bully's equanimity. +"The gals, indeed!" Slapping his +knee, he chuckled. "The hell!"</p> + +<p>"Eh, Nicholas?" the minister challenged +him. "Did I understand you to say 'the +hell?'"</p> + +<p>"The hell you did, Parson!" The Bully +turned on him truculently. "And what the +hell hev you agin it?"</p> + +<p>"If no better argument, Nicholas," smiled +Maclane, "the girls won't stand for hell."</p> + +<p>"Parson," Nick acknowledged his defeat, +"the drinks is on me." Later he took occasion +to state, "I ain't convarted. But, say, +Parson, you're jes' the squarest proposition +Gawd ever grub-staked ter prospect fer human +souls, and, say—I won't oppose you +none. And when I pass in my checks jes' +you stand by my grave, and put up a little +prayer fer my epitaffy, 'He done his level<span class="pagenum">[192]</span> +damnedest, angels cud no more. Amen.'" +Then he took from Gelly's arms the fine infant +she had brought to show him, described +by its fond father as "a velly godam skukum +Clistian baby." Dandling it tenderly, "See +here, son," he adjured it, "ef I find indications +of you takin' arter me—gamblin', cussin', +drinkin',—why, grandpop 'ull spankee, +d'ye see?"</p> + +<p>His mind thus freed, his future pacific +course outlined, Nick inquired, circumstantially +for "the girls." Sarah, he learned, was +the great lady of the place, making a large +income as a "lady-barber," her firm hand, +unshaken as her masculine competitors +were apt to be by sprees, making her a peculiarly +safe artist to be trusted to operate +with a razor in the region of the jugular, +and her husband's copper proposition still +remaining an undeveloped asset, she was +forcing him to work for regular wage as a +teamster. In spite of which, on his occasional +lapses Sandy was wont to boast that +at heart he was "a mon for a' that."</p> + +<p>The orphans all had settled down; Mary, +having discovered a new violet at the foot +of a glacier, had paired off with the young +botanist who had been sent out from Ottawa +to report on the flora of the region. Ruth +was running postoffice and postmaster.<span class="pagenum">[193]</span> +Ethel and the town doctor had made a +match. Kate's lot was cast with Bill, now +doing assessment work and writing to his +mother regularly. Effie had pre-empted +the young editor of the weekly <i>Claim</i>, +helping both to write his editorials +and set them up in type. Gertrude had +struck it rich with the bank manager. All +would be on hand at the ball to-night. No, +Evelyn had not made a choice. Rumor assigned +her to Scarlett, yet how matters +stood between them no man could say with +certainty.</p> + +<p>At this the Bully's eye took on a fiery +glow. "Ef thet thar uniformed cuss is +a-playin' fast an' loose with Lucky's gal, +d'ye see, it's up ter me to set it straight!" +And, forthwith, he led the way to Evelyn's +bower.</p> + +<p>Evelyn was found, outside her cabin, superintending +the arrangements for a grand +display of fireworks in honor of the double +holiday; the crowning piece to show the two +flags crossed beneath a wondrous rainbow. +By a coincidence that exactly suited the Bully's +plans, Scarlett was, at the minute, seen +approaching. After greetings had been interchanged +with all heartiness, suddenly the +young soldier found himself surrounded by +the men—Nick, in the center, pointing a<span class="pagenum">[194]</span> +gun at his heart. Evelyn shrieked, and +would have interposed, but was forced back +by hands roughly tender, tenderly peremptory.</p> + +<p>"Well, boys," asked Scarlett, calmly, "is +this some new kind of game?"</p> + +<p>"Thet's as mebbe," answered Nick. "See +here, Missy Durant, it ain't human natur +fer a gal ter stay single in a minin'-camp."</p> + +<p>"That's what!" the boys interrupted him +to say.</p> + +<p>"And I reckon you've had your pick of +every miner an' prospector in the district—aye, +and loafer, worthy of the name!"</p> + +<p>"Sure! Betcherlife!" the boys confirmed +him.</p> + +<p>"Now," concluded the Bully, magnificently, +"the question we're debatin' is jes' this: +Hev you give this here blamed Scarlett the +mitten, or hev you not?"</p> + +<p>Evelyn laughed merrily. "To tell the +truth, Nick, he hasn't given the opportunity—as +yet."</p> + +<p>"And I wouldn't take it if she gave it me," +added the soldier, referring to the mitten.</p> + +<p>The Bully looked from one to the other, +and, in spite of their enigmatic replies, reading +in the glances they exchanged some +happy understanding, surrendered for good +and all.<span class="pagenum">[195]</span></p> + +<p>"Boys," he announced, "the drinks, as +usual, is on us when we run up agin the +church, perlice, and gals—Here, Parson." +He handed his weapon to Maclane who, +fearing trouble, had hurried to the spot. +"Keep this here shootin'-iron. I ain't fit ter +be trusted with it, d'ye see? When I want +a shot at moose or ptarmigan I'll borrow the +loan of it from you."</p> + +<p>"That's what! Betcherlife!" applauded +the boys.</p> + +<p>When, at last, they found themselves left +together, Evelyn held up a mocking finger +at her lover. "To think you had to be coerced! +For shame!"</p> + +<p>"I wanted to give ye time," he explained, +"to feel surer of yourself and me."</p> + +<p>"I knew it," she exclaimed. "You feared +I might suspect you of interested motives. +But the surest proof of my love for you has +been my certainty that you care for me for +myself alone, not for what I bring."</p> + +<p>"That's the sweetest thing that ever has +come from your lips," announced the soldier. +"Not another word till I taste a +sweeter."</p> + +<p>He was about to illustrate his meaning +when Barney's voice was heard, discreetly +inquiring of the landscape for "himself."</p> + +<p>Affecting, for the first time, to perceive<span class="pagenum">[196]</span> +his superior, "Och, are ye there, sorr?" saluting, +he inquired.</p> + +<p>"Here or there, I'm beside myself with +joy," remarked Scarlett <i>sotto voce</i>. "Well, +Barney, what's that you bring?"</p> + +<p>"If appearances are not desayving, sorr, +I'm thinking 'tis a letther. Our rint-roll, +I'm thinking." He stood by with an air of +partnership while Scarlett opened the envelope.</p> + +<p>"Your rent-roll!" Puzzled, Evelyn looked +at the address. "'Sir Gerald Scarlett.' Is +that some joke?"</p> + +<p>"A hereditary wan, begorra," Barney hastened +to assure her. "It runs in our family."</p> + +<p>"More roll than rent, though." Scarlett +held out to her a long, legally drawn-up +document.</p> + +<p>"Not to mintion the castle," remarked +Barney.</p> + +<p>"Just a ruin in a bit of a potato patch," +Scarlett hastened to apologize for his ancestral +glories.</p> + +<p>"And a cow to chaperon it—God bless +her!" Barney saluted respectfully, as he +turned to go.</p> + +<p>Sir Gerald looked down on his lady-love +with laughing eyes.</p> + +<p>"My offence is rank," he quoted.<span class="pagenum">[197]</span></p> + +<p>"Oh, it's not an unpardonable sin," Evelyn +assured him, also laughing, but confused. +"What a goose you must have +thought me all this time—the way I have +condescended to you!"</p> + +<p>"The greater my triumph in winning you +on my own recognizances," he replied.</p> + +<p>Evelyn held him at arms' length, contemplatively. +"What a difference," she remarked, +"between the myself of to-day and +of a year ago! Then I should have suspected +myself of being influenced by this—but now +nothing seems to matter so much as that we +care for each other."</p> + +<p>"Miss Durant! O Miss Durant!" The lovers +broke apart as, by a cross-cut through +the bushes, the minister came hurrying toward +them. "Here is—some one who brings +you news of your father."</p> + +<p>He pointed to an elderly man who, with +lagging footstep, followed him.</p> + +<p>"Of daddy? Hurrah!" Evelyn clapped her +hands. "That was the one thing needed to +complete my happiness! How is he? And +where? Why hasn't he come to me himself?" +she demanded impatiently of the +stranger.</p> + +<p>"Our friend here has traveled far," Maclane +gently reminded her. "He is worn and +spent."<span class="pagenum">[198]</span></p> + +<p>"Oh, how thoughtless I am!" As Evelyn +placed the newcomer in a comfortable chair +she noticed that his features, as she saw +them between his slouch hat and heavy +beard, were pinched, and that his frame was +bowed beyond his years, as if from recent +suffering. "How tired you look! You have +been ill?" she asked him considerately.</p> + +<p>"He has undergone great hardships for +the sake of a dearly loved daughter," Maclane +hastened to explain. "He has escaped +with but little besides his life. But for that +let us give thanks. Let us make him feel +that, so long as he is spared, his daughter +will not mind poverty."</p> + +<p>"To be sure!" Evelyn tried not to show +the impatience she felt at the concerns of +outsiders being placed before her own, with +a touch of her old patronizing manner adding, +"And I dare say my father and I can +arrange matters so that this good man's +daughter need not complain of poverty."</p> + +<p>The stranger opened his lips to speak, but +unable to command himself, turned his head +aside with a slight groan.</p> + +<p>With an inexplicable foreboding, Evelyn +looked from him to Maclane, and in the latter's +kind eyes reading a deep pity, "What +is wrong?" she faltered. "Has anything +happened to my father?"<span class="pagenum">[199]</span></p> + +<p>"Nothing that sympathy and loving care +cannot cure," replied the minister. "Mr. Durant +was on his way to you a year ago when +he fell into the power of ruffians, even as +Travers, for his own evil purposes, informed +you. After serious ill-treatment at their +hands he escaped, but so broken in mind +and body that for months he wandered +about, unable to fix his own identity or put +himself in communication with his friends. +Now, thank God, he is almost cured."</p> + +<p>"He shall be completely so, if, as you say, +love can accomplish it." Evelyn started up. +"I'll go to him at once." She addressed the +stranger. "Where is he?"</p> + +<p>"First——" Again Maclane hurriedly interposed. +"There is something you should +know about your father's finances. He is +not rich, as you think him. By incessant +toil from time to time he used to make vast +sums, as miners are apt to do—and as miners +are apt to do, he spent as fast as he +made, his one extravagance being your +pleasure. But the inexhaustible supply, the +purse of Fortunatus—that was a fable that +somehow grew up between your romanticism +and his optimism. It does not exist. +It never has existed. To-day he is absolutely +penniless."</p> + +<p>The words rained on her like hailstones.<span class="pagenum">[200]</span> +Evelyn met them, standing erect, very white +and still.</p> + +<p>At last, "I do not grasp your meaning," +she replied. "Every one in the district knows +that my father is a very rich man."</p> + +<p>"Not so." Maclane shook his head. "Every +one knows the reverse; has always +known it. Believe me, my child, what I +tell you is true."</p> + +<p>"My father's wealth does not exist." Evelyn's +mind seemed to take slow, cautious +steps backward over the minister's statements, +with every impact feeling surer of +the truth. "To-day he is absolutely penniless. +Every one knows it; has always known +it. Then why," she demanded with sudden +passion, "has it been kept from me?"</p> + +<p>"Out of kindness," replied Maclane, simply.</p> + +<p>"Kindness!" Evelyn laughed scornfully, +hysterically; calmed herself, then laughed +again. "Kindness! When I recall how I +used to brag of what my wealth would do +for the place—and all the time, poor fool +that I am, I have been the laughing-stock——"</p> + +<p>"Again not so," emphatically said Maclane. +"Think how quickly you fell into our +primitive ways, becoming the heart and +spirit of the camp. Believe me, Evelyn, you<span class="pagenum">[201]</span> +have endeared yourself, accomplished a +thousand times as much by this year's +bread-winning toil and good-fellowship as +had you been the Lady Bountiful you started +out to be. It isn't money that builds up +camps, closing dives and opening reading-rooms—it's +neighborliness—working and +suffering with people, side by side. And in +all his grief, remorse for your bitter disappointment, +your poor father may take this +comfort: that it has been the making of you +as a woman, just as you, the real woman, +have been the making of the camp."</p> + +<p>"Thank you." Evelyn spoke in a hard little +dry voice. "Some day I may bring myself +to see it in that light." She took a few +steps to and fro, then came to a standstill +opposite the minister. "Mr. Maclane, I want +you to give my love to the 'boys'—to all +who, by their silence, have shielded me as +they thought, from the painful truth. Tell +them that I appreciate it. Also ask them to +try not to show that they pity me. I'm going +to do something that's not easy for me. +It would be easiest to go away to a strange +place, where I could hide my head—but I +have my poor father to think of. I have a +good business here, which will support us +both decently, at least. I shall bring him +here to care for him—and mind! not one<span class="pagenum">[202]</span> +word of reproach, or mockery, is he ever to +hear from any one! Not one word!"</p> + +<p>"Bravely spoken," cried Maclane. "Oh, +there's happiness in store for you, my child. +You'll see."</p> + +<p>"Together, sweetheart!" Scarlett, who +had been standing by in mute distress for +her great trouble, now came to her and took +her hand. "We'll fight it out together—you +and I."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no." Evelyn wrenched her hand +from him. "That is all over. Things are +changed with me. My eyes are open at last. +I can forgive every one but you, Sir Gerald +Scarlett—you who let me condescend to +you, lead you on—and finally almost do the +asking!"</p> + +<p>"Faith, your eyes may be open, but they +don't see as straight as they did when +closed," Scarlett indignantly contradicted +her. "I've loved ye all along, and sooner; +since the moment I saw your picture smiling +up to me among the roses."</p> + +<p>"We won't discuss it. I only know"—Evelyn's +voice broke—"I never want to see +you again."</p> + +<p>"But if only I could make people understand—believe +in me——"</p> + +<p>The stranger, who, all this time, had been +sitting bowed forward, his face buried in his<span class="pagenum">[203]</span> +hands, suddenly broke forth. "It's not a +fable! The Rainbow Mine—it's <i>true!</i> I discovered +it the day—but where—where—where? +My God, where?" He looked about +wildly.</p> + +<p>Evelyn turned sharply on the speaker. +"Who are you?"</p> + +<p>Matthew Durant, his passion spent, lifted +streaming eyes to his daughter's face. +"Don't you know me, Evie?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, no! You're not—oh, daddy!" +Falling on her knees beside him, she gathered +the feeble form into her strong young +arms.</p> + +<p>Then Maclane led Scarlett quietly away.</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[204]</span></p> + +<h2><a id="XIV"></a>XIV</h2> + +<p class="h3">CONCLUSION</p> + +<p>Within the cabin her father was +resting peacefully. While eating +the food she set before him, he +told Evelyn the history of his wonderful discovery, +as it came back, fragmentarily, to +his blurred memory, and she, the better to +bring him back, as she thought, to sanity, +humored his delusion by not betraying incredulity.</p> + +<p>At the mission where he had been tended +during the long illness that followed his +captivity, so he explained, he had purposely +given a fictitious name and account of himself, +lest the truth should somehow reach +Blenksoe, thus furnishing the clue to the +whereabouts of the unstaked mine, which +precaution also accounted for his having +eluded the diligent search that the Mounted +Police had never ceased to prosecute since +his disappearance. From Blenksoe, however, +he had no longer anything to fear; that<span class="pagenum">[205]</span> +arch-conspirator having gone the way of his +leader, Dandy Raish, by the avenging bullet +from some victim's hand.</p> + +<p>And, now, please God, he concluded, restored +health would bring back recollection, +enabling him to unearth the pot of gold to +which the heavenly sign had pointed him.</p> + +<p>When, at last, her loving tendance had +won him to sleep, Evelyn went out into the +cool air, to draw a long breath and readjust +her reckonings with life that the day's +events had thus cruelly disturbed.</p> + +<p>It was the sunset's glowing aftermath +that, to the pilgrims of the north, alone justifies +a long journey from conditions that +those hide-bound with conventions are inclined +to associate with creature comfort, +opening a new wonderland of beauty. In +such regions where nature is elemental, man +becomes elementary, feeling himself in the +Almighty's workshop, in close communication +with the powers of life, dealt with, not +by subtle processes that the artificial conditions +of city life have engendered, but +swiftly, directly, summarily, as in the days +of burning bush and pillars of flame.</p> + +<p>Gazing over the now prosperous township +of Lost Shoe Creek, across the lake, to the +colossal mountains shutting it in from that +"outside," to which even miners so heavily<span class="pagenum">[206]</span> +under the mysterious spell of the North that +nothing ever could induce them to forsake +it, still never ceases fondly to speak of as +"God's country," Evelyn seemed to herself +to be born again. Had she known it, it was +then that she attained the noblest moment +of her being, resolving, even as she already +had resolved to meet it bravely, also to +meet this uncompromising blow of providence +without bitterness; if possible with +love.</p> + +<p>Hearing Durant move within, she was +about to go to him when her attention was +arrested by a tatterdemalion figure at her +gate, beseeching charity.</p> + +<p>"Mademoiselle—peety ze poor!"</p> + +<p>"Alphonse!" she exclaimed, recognizing +the once jaunty person of her former courier, +alias Count St. Hilaire.</p> + +<p>Alphonse, who had not thought of her +from that day to this, in turn recognizing +her, hastened to attribute his present pitiful +plight as the deserved vengeance of an outraged +Heaven for his baseness in despoiling +one of its own angels of kodak and motorcar. +"But," he wept, "zese fruits of sin did +not long time 'dure. Ze automobile she bust, +zen I bust—and now—I have a such hunger."</p> + +<p>In spite of the weight of sadness at her<span class="pagenum">[207]</span> +heart, Evelyn could not but smile. It was +one of the jests of the great powers—jests +that are, nevertheless, always tinged with +irony, this confronting her with the scarecrow +of her whilom splendor at the supreme +hour of her misery.</p> + +<p>Grateful for food which he devoured +eagerly, overwhelmed by the gift of a small +sum she bestowed on him to enable him to +prosecute his journey, Alphonse sought +some expression of his feelings beyond his +mere copious Gallic thanks. He was selling +photographs for a living, and he besought +mademoiselle, could she bring herself to +overlook the regrettable fact that they were +the product of her own camera, to accept +the choicest example of his art—a veritable +triumph, an arc-en-ciel—a rainbow!</p> + +<p>Involuntarily, Evelyn shuddered at the +word. Would the gods never cease their +mocking sport, she wondered, even while +with becoming graciousness she thanked +Alphonse and sent him on his way, rejoicing. +She still held the picture in her hand, +carelessly, occupied with her thoughts, when +she heard a cry from Durant, who had come +out without her noticing him, and was looking +over her shoulder.</p> + +<p>"My God! Evelyn! Look," he cried. "The +mine—The Rainbow!"<span class="pagenum">[208]</span></p> + +<p>"Father, dear," she sought to soothe him, +"it is nothing—merely a chance photograph."</p> + +<p>"Nothing? It is my witness, my record," +answered Durant. "No, Evie, I'm not mad. +This clears away the last cloud. Examine it +carefully." Getting out his prospector's +glass, he polished the lens carefully and +held it over the photograph.</p> + +<p>Evelyn looked, as she was bidden, at first +merely to humor him, then with awakening +interest as, under the glass's magnifying +power, she studied the picture in detail. In +his passion for the picturesque Alphonse +had, indeed, put her camera to good use. In +this composition he had caught a striking +moment: Durant himself, in his rough miner's +garb, standing with arms flung up, as +if in thankfulness to Heaven, while near +by, beside a half-uprooted willow-bush, +knelt Walter Pierce with an expression of +wonder on his young face; while in the +background, beyond the creek, stood the imperturbable +mountains, spanned by a faint, +elusive rainbow.</p> + +<p>"This is the very spot!" Durant laughed +like a happy boy. "Lost Shoe Creek! Fancy +forgetting even the name!—I had always believed +in it, though every other miner turned +it down. It had shared the fate of hundreds<span class="pagenum">[209]</span> +of other northern camps: a new strike; a +stampede, prospectors, traders, grafters, +from all quarters rushing madly in; then, +disappointment, failure, starvation, desertion +to new fields. It became the most god-forsaken +place on earth—an abandoned +camp drained of everything but the dregs of +its population. I alone held on, having a +nose for gold, and scenting it right here, and +now and then coming on indications: Blenksoe, +Raish, and all the other grafters meanwhile +dogging my steps to profit by any +strike I might make, jump my claim, and +make away with me!—Oh, this brings it all +back, this picture: Walter Pierce; your +coming; how Nick and the boys covered up +my humiliation; my trying to kill myself; +and then—the gold!"</p> + +<p>While he was speaking, he had hurried to +the clearing at the back of the cabin, comparing +the lay of the land with the picture, +Evelyn following with keenest anxiety at +this new phase of his delusion, yet not knowing +how to restrain him.</p> + +<p>"Father, dear, don't," she remonstrated, +seeing him uprooting a willow with frenzied +eagerness. "Why, that's the bush on which +I spread out my wash."</p> + +<p>But Durant only laughed and went on +spading up the soft earth with a bit of<span class="pagenum">[210]</span> +wood. Wild as were his actions, his face +and bearing had regained all their old, light-hearted +poise. He was as Evelyn always +had known him on his occasional visits to +her, when they spent money like princes +and amused themselves like children.</p> + +<p>Soon he threw his improvised tool aside. +"Here we are! Look at this, Evie!"</p> + +<p>Evelyn took the substance he handed to +her, and, as the earth crumbled from it, saw +that it was of irregular shape, and oddly indented, +as though some underground giant +had chewed it with Titanic teeth before +spewing it up for man's good or ill, as fate +might decree. A slight, bluish hue with +which it first met the eye melted softly into +that indefinable lustre that proclaims gold +and only gold—the lust for which is more +potent than the love of woman, wine; in +whose quest more lives have been sacrificed +than for any other cause since the world began; +for whose possession souls innumerable +are being bartered every day.</p> + +<p>"A sixty-dollar nugget," Durant appraised +it, weighing it in his expert hand, "and valuable +merely as an earnest of what lies beneath—just +a chip of the old block; a clue +to the great Lode! Now, to take possession +formally!" He paced the ground, whittled +and marked the stakes, and was preparing<span class="pagenum">[211]</span> +to post them, when a sudden thought arrested +him. "But—the land now lies within +the township limits!" he groaned. "Oh, +my girl, what, if, after all, my luck should +fail you!"</p> + +<p>Evelyn smiled happily. "I think I can +come to your assistance in that matter. If +you will call to-morrow morning at the office +of E. Durant you can acquire the mineral +rights from the present owner of the +lot, who happens to be—myself. Then you +can record it as soon as the Commissioner's +books are open."</p> + +<p>"But——" Durant looked about with a +touch of the furtive apprehension that had +shadowed his recent life, and that never +wholly left him. "Suppose some one has +seen—how can I defend it?"</p> + +<p>"Oh," cried Evelyn, "no fear about that! +There are no claim-jumpers in this camp, +thanks to Scarlett of the Mounted."</p> + +<p>"Aye, Scarlett. A fine fellow that. He +did me a great kindness last year," said her +father. "It began by his finding your picture, +which I had dropped, and giving it +back to me. If my foresight had been equal +to my hindsight, I should have confided my +discovery to him as soon as I made it, and +so saved you this year of bitter experience, +my girl."<span class="pagenum">[212]</span></p> + +<p>"Well, daddy," replied Evelyn, "if you +haven't suffered too much by it, not only do +I not regret it, but I'm glad. It has taught +me to value the gifts of the mother Lode infinitely +less, and infinitely more, than formerly. +I can hardly wait overnight to claim +my pot of gold from the rainbow's foot—but +I'm humbler about the possession of wealth +than I used to be. And I want the whole +camp to be 'in it.'"</p> + +<p>"And so they shall, my girl," responded +Durant, heartily. Then, as two figures came +in sight, "There goes the Sergeant now, with +Mr. Maclane, passing by the gate. Suppose +we begin with them, Evie. Suppose we call +them in and tell them all about it." He already +was summoning them.</p> + +<p>"Suppose, for the present, you take charge +of Mr. Maclane," amended Evelyn, as the +two drew near, "and leave the Sergeant to +me."</p> + +<p>Scarlett and the minister were bent on +some errand in another quarter of the town, +but by tacit consent had taken the road past +Evelyn's cabin, actuated, in the case of the +older man, by a kind wish not to lose sight +of her for long, and in the case of the lover +by the force that guides all steps toward +the beloved. For, dismissed as he had been, +and dejected as he found himself accordingly,<span class="pagenum">[213]</span> +yet in his heart of hearts there still +lurked a hope that she might relent toward +him. When, therefore, they saw Evelyn, radiant, +and beckoning to them from the veranda, +they joined her and her father with +alacrity. Nor did good Maclane need any +suggestion from Durant that the two young +people should be left to make their peace +unaided.</p> + +<p>"Sergeant Scarlett," Evelyn began when +the older men had withdrawn to examine +Durant's discovery, "I want to beg your pardon +for the way I treated you this afternoon! +I felt bitter, cheated—oh, it wasn't +your fault one bit; it was my own, which +was why I was so angry with you. And you—all +along you have behaved so generously +to me—nobly!—Yes, let me finish," she +cried, retreating from the advance with +which he sought to interrupt her. "I shall +always think it—but I may not ever be in +the mood to tell you again quite how well I +think of you."</p> + +<p>"But, Evelyn, dearest, what's the good of +compliments to a hungry man?" cried Scarlett. +"I'm asking ye for bread—and ye give +me the blarney-stone."</p> + +<p>Evelyn laughed, and, sitting, patted the +place beside her, invitingly. "I'll tell you +the whole story. It's like a romance—I was<span class="pagenum">[214]</span> +going to write you a letter about it if you +had not come."</p> + +<p>"We'll write it together. We'll write it +all our lives." Her lover slipped an arm +about her. "But we'll start with the postscript."</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCARLETT OF THE MOUNTED***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 37949-h.txt or 37949-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/7/9/4/37949">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/9/4/37949</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Scarlett of the Mounted + + +Author: Marguerite Merington + + + +Release Date: November 7, 2011 [eBook #37949] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCARLETT OF THE MOUNTED*** + + +E-text prepared by Roland Schlenker, Matthew Wheaton, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 37949-h.htm or 37949-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37949/37949-h/37949-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37949/37949-h.zip) + + + + + +SCARLETT OF THE MOUNTED + + +[Illustration: SHE STUCK A PIN IN THE HANDKERCHIEF.] + + +SCARLETT OF THE MOUNTED + +by + +MARGUERITE MERINGTON + +Illustrated + + + + + + + +New York +Moffat, Yard & Company +1906 + +Copyright, 1906, by +Moffat, Yard & Company +New York + +Published, August, 1906 + +J. F. Tapley Co. +Printers and Binders +New York + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER + + I LOST SHOE CREEK + II THE WOMENKIND OF LOST SHOE CREEK + III LUCKY DURAND + IV THE PICTURE GIRL + V EVELYN ENGAGES A COURIER + VI EVELYN SEEKS COUNSEL + VII PEACE, PERFECT PEACE + VIII AT THE SIGN OF THE TEMPERANCE SALOON + IX THE PROVISIONAL BOUNDARY + X LUCKY'S LUCK + XI AN INTERNATIONAL EPISODE + XII NORTHERN LIGHTS + XIII A YEAR AFTER + XIV CONCLUSION + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + SHE STUCK A PIN IN THE HANDKERCHIEF _Frontispiece_ + + MINGLED WITH THE TRAVELERS AT GUMBOOT ANNIE'S BOARD + + DEPARTED IN A GLOW OF SELF CONGRATULATION AT HER TACT + + "WHY, MY DAUGHTER, DOES THIS DENOTE A HAPPY CHANGE OF HEART AND + SAVING GRACE? YOU ARE TAKING THOUGHT TO SAVE YOUR SOUL?" + + "DARTER DON'T LOOK AS IF IT WAS SPELLED RIGHT," CRITICIZED BULLY + + THE UBIQUITOUS YOUNG SOLDIER, SERGEANT SCARLETT + + + + +SCARLETT _of the_ MOUNTED + + + + +I + +LOST SHOE CREEK + + +Parson MacLane came running along the rough trail, his dogs, Telegraph +and Wrangel, named after former mission charges, following. As he paused +at the crest of a hill to take breath and wipe the grime from his face +he smiled, for over the thicket of scrub willow that lay between him and +Lost Shoe Creek rose the voices of the "boys" he had traveled far to +reach. Then he sighed, because the jest and song, as he heard them, were +ribald; the laughter thick with drink. Finally, reflecting that in no +human heart had he ever found evil so strong but that the good was +stronger, he smiled again, and stooping to pluck from a low-growing bush +the deep crimson wild rose of the north, he set this in his buttonhole, +and squaring his shoulders for a fresh bout with his old adversary of +horns and cloven hoof, trotted cheerily down the steep incline. + +With an expiring wheeze the concertina dropped from the singer's hand. +One of the group playing Black Jack, looked up. "Go on, Bill! Thar's +other verses--an' each more decorative than the last!" + +Lighting a pipe, Bill shook his head. "Grand opera sore throat! Left my +music at home--and home," he added, under his ragged mustache, "is so +cursed far away!" + +Mops' remonstrance was cut short by a disparaging comment on his methods +of card-playing from a raw-boned Scotchman who had lost an +inconsiderable amount. "You accuse me o' cheatin'?" + +"Aweel!" Sandy scratched his head. "While it's na' to say cheating it's +na' to say fair playing neither!" + +"You liar!" kicking over the barrel that served for a table, with a +volley of oaths Mops sprang at him, and a free fight would have ensued +but for the intervention of the more cautious, who, pointing to a +squalid bundle from which lusty snores were issuing, reminded the +belligerents that if Bully Nick were roused from his innocent slumbers +some indiscriminate gun-play might be looked for, transmuting every +mother's son into cold meat. This argument prevailed; peace was restored +and celebrated in the dire wassail of the district, served in the open +by Ikey, bartender of the dilapidated refreshment-tent nearby, and by +general consent charged to the protesting but helpless Sandy. + +It was at this auspicious moment that, followed by his dogs, rose in +buttonhole, and with smiling countenance, Parson Maclane made his +entrance into the camp on Lost Shoe Creek. + +Hailing the newcomer as dude and tenderfoot, with winks and nudges among +themselves the men prepared to "have fun" with him. Raising their +glasses in derisive welcome, "Hello, stranger!" they chorused. "'Drink +your health!" + +"Thanks, friends, but I fear you are not drinking your own!" + +"By gum," cried Mops, delightedly, "if he ain't a blamed teetotaller!" + +"The Laird kens we hae need o' sic," hiccoughed Sandy. "Hoots, but we're +a sinfu' crew! Ikey, lad, mair whuskey!" + +While glasses were being refilled, this time at Mops' expense, Maclane +went toward the tent, over whose entrance hung the sign KLONDIKE +DELMONICO'S. GUMBOOT ANNIE. Addressing the plump female in jersey and +culottes, who lolled beneath, picking her teeth skilfully: "Good day, +madam," he began, baring his head. "I should like to speak with the +proprietor." + +Gumboot Annie took time to spit before replying, "I am the lady." + +"I want to hold a prayer-meeting. Will you lend me your tent?" + +"Lend! Me lend anything! Now wouldn't that pa'alyze yer!" she demanded +of the listening prospectors. "I ain't up here fer me health," she then +explained to Maclane, "but I'll sell or rent anything in sight. Twenty +dollars is the price for a Gospel show!" + +"Agreed!" + +"Thar's a bar in thar, y'know!" + +"Oh, the bar's no hindrance!" The minister already was unstrapping his +pack of hymnals. "But I warn you I shall preach against the evils of +drink." + +"That's all right. The boys ull be jest as thirsty! Say, fer five +dollars you kin convert Ikey. He's useter it. He gives his experiences +real cute. Water is two bits a bucket, but fer a baptism attraction I'll +throw it in!" + +Refusing with a gesture, the minister seized the dinner-bell from its +nail and rang it vigorously. "Prayer-meeting and service of song. All +are cordially welcome!" + +"Wouldn't it be slick ter dump him in the creek," suggested one. + +"No, no! Lay low till Bully Nick wakes up! Nick ull fix him," said +Mops, to which the rest agreed, "Betcherlife!" + +"Come, boys," urged Maclane, "who'll lead the way?" + +After a chilly silence, "Don't all speak at once," jeered Mops. "Don't +crowd the mourners," echoed Bill. + +"You have mothers, sweethearts, wives, who never cease to pray for you. +Won't you spare a few minutes from Black Jack to put up a prayer for +them?" + +A pause followed, during which Bill swallowed a lump in his throat and +tried not to think of the mother in Montreal, whose last letter he had +been carrying about for eleven months, unanswered. Mops sent Ikey for +more drinks. + +"'Twull be a saving i' the lang run!" Foreseeing that he might again be +called upon to pay, Sandy stumbled toward the tent, falling over rows of +jocosely outstretched feet. "I misdoot my gait is na sae steady as it +micht be! A touch o' scurvy!" + +"Oh, we're all liable to trip!" Maclane helped him up. "Who'll be next?" + +"Count me in, Dominie!" An elderly man, gaunt and ill-clad, gold-pan +under his arm, climbed the banks of the creek and entered the tent. + +"Old Lucky's down on his luck, but he gen'lly knows whar the gold is!" A +boyish-looking prospector, who had been wanting an excuse, joined him. + +Several followed the example, till at last only Nick and his bodyguard +remained outside. When a rousing chorus of "Onward, Christian Soldiers," +pealed forth from the tent, Mops chuckled joyously. "Look out fer +fireworks! Nick's waking!" + +After preliminary grunts and stretchings the Bully sat up in his ugliest +mood. "Wot th' hell---- Is this Jedgment Day?" + +"Naw! Only some blasted holy windmill come for to save our souls," Bill +informed him. + +"The cursed stiff!" Nick sprang toward the tent. "I'll teach him ter +meddle with my anatomy!" He cocked his pistol. "One, two----" + +"Bully Nick! He never misses the bull's-eye!" shouted his delighted +followers. + +At this juncture a fresh-skinned young giant in blouse and overalls, who +had been chopping kindlings by Gumboot Annie's woodpile, dropped his +hatchet and strolled up with a casual air wholly at variance with the +keen, hawk-like glance of his gray-blue eyes. As Nick told off the last +minutes of Parson Maclane's earthly span, the newcomer pinioned him in +a grasp of iron from behind. "Not this time, Bully Nick!" + +"Eh? Who the mischief are ye to stop me?" is the polite, free rendering +of Nick's impolite free speech. "I don't think I hev the pleasure of +your acquaintance, my lad!" + +"I've been wanting for some time to make yours!" The young man seemed +quite unconcerned that the toughest gang in the district had forcibly +detached him from their chief and were holding him prisoner. + +"It's just a looney Irishman that's been hanging 'round all day! Ain't +worth a bullet, Nick!" At heart, Bill disliked human targets for sport. + +"Powerful strong! His muscles ud be wuth more ter ye than his darned +hide, Nick," supplemented Mops, who, while without prejudices as to +bloodshed, sometimes was called on to exert himself unduly. + +"I'll assay him," decreed the Bully. "Fust he shall drink my health! +Mops, you hold the booze ter the stiff's mouth! Bill, you got a ticker; +you keep time. Now, sonny, I give yer jest two minutes fer mamma's +little baby boy ter say his prayers in, or ter git good an' drunk, like +me. See?" + +The young man yawned, with a bored expression. "Excuse my not putting my +hand before my mouth, gentlemen!" + +"One minute gone, pard!" admonished Bill. + +"Phew!" The prisoner spat out the liquid Mops forced between his lips. +"That filthy stuff! I only drink the best! Besides, 'tis smuggled, and, +living or dead, I should incur a fine with contraband goods on, or in, +my person!" + +"You all-fired nateral, do yer _want_ ter be a angel?" growled the +Bully. + +"Faith, I wasn't aspiring to such promotion," admitted the stranger. +"But I'd look prettier that way than making myself a drunken beast like +you, Nick!" + +The insult had its effect; the Bully's pistol hand quavered, and he was +lost. "Say, young feller, you got grit! You're game! Boys, the Irishman +goes, see!" + +"Sorry I can't return the favor, Nick! You go--but to gaol!" With an +adroit movement the young man had whisked out a pair of handcuffs and +was fitting them to the astonished Bully's wrists. "Best take it +quietly, men. As they say in story-books, reinforcements are at hand! +And till they come, get in there, all of you, and say your own prayers!" +He lifted the tent flap. "Fall into line. Um, left. Left!--Left! March!" + +"Who in blazes air ye?" gasped Nick, as he obeyed. + +The answer came in awe-stricken tones from Mops, who, beneath the +stranger's rough externals had suddenly suspected the insignia of a +dreaded authority. "The hell! It's Scarlett of the Mounted!" + + + + +II + +THE WOMENKIND OF LOST SHOE CREEK + + +Dandy Raish swaggered up to the tent where he had an appointment with +old Blenksoe, relating to a little matter of holding up the stage, but +finding services in progress, he scattered a few flowers of profanity, +and turned on his heel. + +Scarlett, pacing to and fro while awaiting aid, caught sight of him. +"Now, that's a gentleman whose company I'd fancy most in his absence, +I'm thinking!" To escape the other's observation while making his own, +he returned to his kindlings. + +Developments came soon, first in the person of a woman wrapped in a red +cloak, young and comely, but at the moment repulsive from the effects of +a debauch. Reeling from the shelter of a ruined cabin, "Gumboot Annie!" +she cried, "Gumboot Annie, for the love of heaven, trust me with the +price of a drink!" + +Finding the source of refreshments temporarily inaccessible, she threw +herself on a bench, cursing religion, even as Raish had done. + +"Furs for sale; snow-shoes, moccasins, furs, velly damn fine!" An Indian +trader coming by recognized the girl, and accosted her. "Hello, Gelly! +Shake!" + +The girl complied good-naturedly. "Hello, Chilkat Jo!" + +"Gelly, I love you!" stated Jo, in unimpassioned monotone. "Love you +like hell-you-betyerlife! Say, Gelly, you mally me?" + +"Say, Jo, that's a proposal, even if you ain't nothin' but a Siwash!" + +"Me no Siwash!" Chilkat Jo drew himself up. "Me chew, swear, gamble, +dlink like hell, plenty wives, all same as Clistian white man!" + +"My, but you do give us a character," laughed the girl, "and I guess +we've earned it all right, all right! But, no, Jo! I ain't sunk so low +I'd marry you without I cared fer yer! Thar's only one man in the world +fer me!" With a sigh she looked over at Dandy Raish, who, leaning +against a Douglas spruce, was dressing his waxed mustache by the aid of +a pocket looking-glass. + +The Indian took his rejection with outward stoicism. "That's all light. +Some day I kill him, cally you off, beat you, smash yer face, make you +goddam' bad husband, all same as Clistian white man!" Then off he +stalked, crying: "Furs for sale. Moccasins. Hair dye! Sacled images! +Velly dam good sacled images!" + +Gelly rose and timidly approached the object of her affections. "Raish! +Dear Dandy, won't you speak to me?" + +"Gelly!" The man turned on her with an oath. "Taggin' on as usual!" + +"Raish, pop's turned me out, along of you, and I don't know whar ter +go!" + +"Such as you needn't look far! There, there, Gelly, don't get mad! I'm +sorry for you; indeed I am!" + +"Then marry me!" + +"Me marry you! With my social gifts! Ha, ha! You're crazy! But I'll tell +you what I will do: I'll help you out of this place; I'll get you a +berth in a swell saloon at Skagway, with a big rake-off on every bottle +that's uncorked and every bird that's plucked through you!" + +"And me tryin' to be decent! Curse it all, I _will_ be decent! You +_shall_ marry me!" + +"I'll strangle you first!" + +"Take your hands off that woman!" + +Turning, Raish confronted a young giant, and being a coward he obeyed. +"I can't spoil her!" he sneered. + +"What is the trouble?" Scarlett asked of Gelly. + +"None of your business," she replied, with feminine ingratitude. + +"Is this your husband?" + +"Sure!" At Raish's threatening gesture she modified the assertion. "In a +sort of way!" + +"The only sort of way he ever will be, you bet your boots," Raish flung +back as, hands in pockets, he swaggered off. + +"What is your name?" Scarlett asked the girl. + +"Gelly!" + +"Your full name? Gelly what?" + +"Ah, now you're gettin' too familiar!" Sidling closer she remarked, +approvingly: "Say, you're an awful pretty boy!" + +"Stand off!" As the girl shrank back, cowering, he added more gently: +"Go home to your parents!" + +"My home! My parents! Aw, that's a good un! Ma sloped with a faro dealer +from 'Frisco, and pop's turned me out!" + +"Poor child! You must get away from this district! I will send you down +to a mission, where good women will care for you!" + +"A mission? No, sirree! Too slow fer me!" Gelly moved away, humming a +ditty popular in low-class music-halls of the locality. + +"Stop!" Scarlett sharply reprimanded. "Sing if you will! Sing all you +can! The world has need of singing--but sing decent songs!" As a +stirring hymn, accompanied by Bill's concertina, just then sounded from +the tent, he went on: "Go in and help them! They need a woman's voice." + +"What!" Gelly was genuinely astonished. "Such as me--in church!" + +"My poor girl, churches are for such as you." + +Gelly looked in, uncertainly, then hurriedly drew back. "I can't, +mister. Pop's in thar--and pop has sworn ter kill me on sight! Pop's the +bully of the district," she added, proudly. + +"Hm!" Scarlett considered a moment, then felt in his pocket. "Here's +needle and thread. Go mend your clothes!" + +Gelly stared at him as she took the proffered housewife. "Say, you're a +real white man. I never before----" Breaking into sudden sobbing, she +went back to her cabin. + +Sergeant Scarlett gave a comprehensive glance at the scenery, nature's +magnificent setting for this squalid drama. + +"This district has the name of being the hottest proposition this side +of Hades," he reflected. "It contains an unsurveyed number of square +miles and crooked inhabitants. And it needs just three things to clean +it out. First, godliness, which only gets this way for a flying visit +once a year. Next--and it's only modesty prevented my putting it +first--law, which is just myself; and last, but foremost, women! And all +the womenkind we can muster are a travesty of the name--sketches the +Lord seems to have blotted in the making and thrown away." With tender +impatience he touched a cluster of wild roses with the toe of his +military boot. "Oh, why can't ye stop running to flowers and blossom +girls instead! Hello! Is this an answer to prayer, or a deceiving +dream?" Sure enough, among the crimson petals a girl's face laughed, +sparkling back at him. "By the St. Colmcille, a young lady at me feet! +Permit me to reverse the positions, miss!" Picking up the miniature, he +scanned the features closely. "Young? Yes, the right age, just; still in +her teens, but not too teeny! Pretty? Verdict unanimous, without leaving +the jury-box; guilty of wholesale manslaughter wherever those eyes set +foot! Good? As good as virgin gold! Perhaps a trifle too well pleased +with herself. Here, young lady, give an account of yourself! What are +you doing in my district? Are you visiting father, brother, sweetheart, +or do you intend to stake a claim on some poor wretch's unprospected +heart? Oh, here's a bit of writing on the back. 'For dear daddy, from +Evelyn,' Evelyn. A pretty name. Sounds like Eve with a little flounce +on. Daddy. I'm glad it's a mere father ye belong to. Now since ye've +dropped like manna from heaven to the wilderness, will ye think it a +liberty if I----" He approached the picture to his lips, then put it +resolutely aside. "No! I'm not the coward to kiss a girl anyway but to +her face!" In his absorption he had failed to observe a uniformed rider +coming at full gallop along the trail, and he had barely time to conceal +the miniature in his breast as Barney, his assistant and devoted +personal follower, dismounted a few paces from him. + +Instead of greeting his chief with the proper military salute, Barney +pushed him arrogantly aside. + +"Out av the shadow av your supariors, ye hulking son av a tiligraph +pole!" + +"Back into your own skin, you jackass, you!" Scarlett returned the push +with interest. + +Recognizing the other through his disguise, "Bejabers," exclaimed +Barney, "'tis Himself!" + +"You're late in coming up to time," remarked Scarlett, absently, his +thoughts still on the portrait. + +"Sure, sorr, an' 'twas the word from yourself I've been delaying for! +Ivery moment av the last four-an'-twenty hours I've slept at attintion +with me boots on and nary a wink on me! As me own flesh is livin' +witness, I've never moved me hindquarters from the saddle!" + +"I wish you'd learn to keep your headquarters in the saddle," returned +Scarlett. "Didn't I instruct ye if ye hadn't heard from me by the day +appointed to start the day before?" + +Barney scratched a puzzled head. He could interpret his own Irish bulls +readily enough, defending them, if needful, with his fists to a jury of +his peers, but those of his chief often passed him. Tactfully, he +changed the conversation. "The mail arrived, Sergeant, and was +distributed impartially. Only this remains unclaimed; a registhry +package, with duty to pay on it." + +Sergeant Scarlett examined the address on the parcel. "From E. Durant, +New York City, to Matthew Durant, owner of the Rainbow Mine---- Where +under the shining heavens is the Rainbow Mine, Barney?" he broke off to +ask. + +"In the clouds, for aught I know, sorr. I searched the books, but in all +the disthrict there's not even a claim recorded by the name, far less a +mine." + +"H'm! Well, the man, if not his mine, may be sojourning in our bally. +Step inside the tent, Barney, and when the parson pauses for breath, +whisper to him to inquire for one Matthew Durant!" + +When Barney had gone on his errand, Scarlett performed the official act +of unfastening the dainty package to appraise its contents. "White +neckties, doubtless," he soliloquized. "That is what folk on the outside +are by way of sending their kin to pull them through a Klondike winter. +No, but almost as bad: an embroidered cigar-case, with jeweled clasp. +Now I'm wondering if the fellow it's intended for can always muster up a +pipeful of tobacco! Well, Barney, what success?" + +"Just at this present, sorr, the howly man has got his teeth well into +the Evil Wan, but he tipped me the wink he'd find our man the moment he +darst let go. Oh, by the way--I hate to decompose ye, Sergeant--but +here's a letther for yourself!" + +"A letter for me, is it? Now, who the mischief would be writing to me?" + +"The mischief it is, indade, sorr! 'Tis a lawyer!" + +"A lawyer!" Scarlett scrutinized the name of the Dublin firm on the +missive Barney handed him. "Now I'd give something to know what that +means! I've always lived within the law, and without a lawyer!" + +"Sure, that's your offence, Sergeant. Depind on ut, that's phwat they're +afther charging ye for!" + +"'Tis their inflated cheek, then!" Resentfully, Scarlett tore open the +envelope. "If 'tis a bill they're sending me they can go to the divvle!" + +"Faith, sorr, that's exactly where they'll have ye! That's phwat they're +afther counting on!" + +Barney watched his chief with affectionate solicitude while the latter +read, and, crossing himself, began a prayer in which pious invocations +mingled strangely with unflattering estimates of legal lights. "Howly +Mary, full av grace---- The dirthy blackguards, I wish I'd lost the +letther for the lad! Blessed art thou among---- Bad cess to yez, ye +black limbs av an onreputable body, if 'tis only nearer ye were, or +meself less far away, rest aisy 'tis outwitted ye'd be intoirely, if +there's anny diplomacy in the fists av this Mick at all. Name av the +Father, Son an' Howly----" + +"Phew!" At last Scarlett broke through the stupor with which the perusal +of his letter seemed to have encompassed him. "Is it I standing here in +my five senses, or the fool of a deceiving dream? Barney, man, listen to +this and pronounce on it. 'By the demise of your uncle'--that's my +uncle, you understand?" + +"Sure, sorr, your uncle is my uncle; and many's the accommodation we've +had off him, thanks be!" + +"Oh, this doesn't refer to that impartial relative of all impoverished +humanity! This is, or was, the man who prevented my father from being +the eldest son and only child of his parents! By his demise----" + +"Precisely, sorr. And which av his qualifications may his demise be?" + +"The final one. Demise means death. Oh, not the commonplace, every-day +occurrence as we up here experience it; it is applied to those who have +something of value besides life to leave behind." + +"Faith, then, sergeant, it's ourselves will be immune." + +"That's what I'm doubting. Five minutes since, I was nobody of nowhere. +Now I suddenly find myself gazetted Sir Gerald Scarlett of Dunshinannon, +owner of a picturesque, if ruined, castle; three acres that might be +profitable under cultivation, and a cow!" + +Barney shook his head. "A grand dream, Sergeant. May the blissed saints +soften the awakening to ye," he added, with commiseration. + +"But, man--here, look at this, will ye?" Before his astonished eyes +Scarlett held a draft for a substantial sum. "A luck-slice from the +rent-roll. Oh, that proves it no dream, since money talks, but never in +its sleep!" + +Barney removed his regimental hat. "Hurrah for Sir Gerald, the castle, +including the ruins, the acres, and ivery blissed pertaty, past, present +and to come, adorning them!" + +"And the cow, God bless her!" Scarlett also bared his head. + +"Amen!" Barney supplemented, fervently. "I'm wid ye, sorr, in +prosperity, as in adversity! How soon do we quit the service, me +lordship?" + +"Not till we've finished out our term, you lazy vagabond! Meanwhile, +sink the title. I travel on my soldiership, and you're in the same +boat!" + +"Amen! if it has to be," acquiesced Barney, with philosophic +resignation, saluting meekly. "And phwat's the next orders, me +lord--Sergeant, I should say?" + +"For the present you can take charge and administer the law, unless +anything demanding a judicial mind comes up, while I wander on incog., +and do a little prospecting to identify the toughs and crooks that give +this the name of the blackest district in all the great Northwest! I've +begun rather well; I've just rounded up Bully Nick and his +sharp-shooting gang!" + +"Ye have?" Barney's jaw dropped with amazement. "Single-handed?" + +"Aye; but forewarned is four-armed, you know!" + +"Even so. Mother of Grace----" + +"Tut, tut, man; that's but a flea bite in the ocean, as one of our Irish +philosophers remarked. There's a regularly organized band of +thieves--aye, who don't stick at murder, either--that hold up stages, +terrorize the whole community, and play the dickens generally. The scum +of all nationalities, their headquarters are across the boundary in +Uncle Sam's domain, while their field of operations is the whole +Northwest. The thing is to identify them, catch them redhanded in our +precincts." + +"A Herculaneum task, me lordship--Sergeant, I should say--and more, +since that gintleman had only twelve impossibilities to conquer!" + +"Och, Hercules! I'd sooner any day be a whole man than just half a god +like Hercules! Any able-bodied son of Erin should be able to match +Hercules, except in the snake-strangling trick, since divvle an example +did Saint Patrick leave us to practice on." + +"Thrue," assented Barney. "Many's the dhrink I've laid on it that the +only snakes an Irishman is capable of behoulding is all in his own eye." + +"Don't ye be looking for them that way on duty. Keep your vision for +two-legged crawlers. There was a fellow here, just now, who, if faces +are incriminating testimony, stands twenty times convicted in the dark, +or I'm a duffer in face-palmistry." + +"Why not begin with the rope's end, Sergeant?" + +"No, no, man! We must even make haste slowly, as some old Roman of an +Irishman remarked. I'll just wander on, as if looking for a job, and if +any one inquires about me, give me what character ye please!" + +"Faith, sorr, since fair play demands reciprocity on both sides, I'll +damn ye for a blockhead!" + +"Go ahead," laughed Scarlett. Breaking off, he inquired: "Now who's this +chee-charka coming up the trail?" + + + + +III + +LUCKY DURANT + + +The lagging pace of the young man who was approaching, his weary stoop +under a light pack he carried, miner-wise, upon his shoulders, confessed +him all too surely the tenderfoot Scarlett had described him. + +With a bewildered stare at the congeries of squalid tents and cabins +that comprised the camp, he accosted Barney. + +"Surely this can't be Lost Shoe Creek?" "Maybe it can't be, but that's +phwat it does be, me lad!" + +"It's so different from what I expected." + +"Ye were anticipating skyscrapers? In these parts we build downwards for +gold--and both ways lead equally far from heaven, I'm thinking." + +"Well, though not skyscrapers, I certainly had looked for something more +imposing. Can you direct me to the office, or residence, of Mr. Matthew +Durant?" + +"Durant!" Involuntarily, Barney and Scarlett exchanged a glance of +surprise. + +"Office or residence, indade! 'Tis myself would like to be directed to +the man," replied the former. + +"Oh, but surely you know him!" cried the newcomer. "I mean Matthew +Durant, owner of the wonderful Rainbow Mine!" + +At this juncture the elderly man who had been spoken of by one of his +brother prospectors as Lucky, came hurrying toward them from the tent, +and addressed himself to Barney. "The Dominie has just announced that +you have mail for one Matthew Durant, officer. I am he." + +Before Barney could reply the young tenderfoot had darted forward with a +threatening gesture. "You Durant, indeed, you miserable fraud! I know +Mr. Durant well," he turned to Barney to explain. "I was employed in the +New York bank where he keeps his daughter's account, and many is the +chat I've had with him. Why, I've resigned my position and spent every +penny I'd saved to come out here to beg him to put me in the way of +making my fortune, as he has done, scooping gold out of the earth. The +idea of this beggarly imposter pretending to be Durant, owner of the +Rainbow Mine!" + +A sad smile crossed the worn features of the claimant. "I must indeed be +changed if Walter Pierce does not know me." + +At the sound of his voice the young man started, but gazed at the +unshorn face, the poverty-stricken figure, unconvinced. + +"Ye have some means of identification, perhaps?" suggested Barney, in +all good faith. "A strawberry mark, or a lock of your sainted mother's +hair?" + +Durant thought a moment. "No one here knows me by the name. But, wait! I +have a picture of my daughter Evelyn, whom Walter will recognize. Evelyn +will bear witness that I'm her own dear daddy." He felt in his breast, +but not finding what he sought, gave a smothered cry. "Lost--my little +Evie, have I lost you?" + +"This is herself, I'm thinking!" Scarlett held out the miniature. "I +found her on this spot, putting the wild roses to the blush." + +"Thank you--thank you! Evie!" Durant covered the portrait with kisses. + +"Which was to be proved," remarked Barney, conclusively, handing Durant +his mail. "There's a thrifle av duty to pay on it, sorr." + +Durant's expectant hand dropped to his side. "I--I'm rather down on my +luck just now," he faltered. + +While Barney hesitated between conscience and good will, Scarlett +whispered in his ear. "Good!" he then exclaimed. "The Sergeant will +settle it, Misther Durant. I mean," he corrected himself as Scarlett +kicked his leg, "it is already settled. Me man here," he indicated his +superior, "a great blockhead ordinarily, but with lucid intervals, +reminds me that the duty was prepaid beforehand in advance." + +When the soldiers had moved away, Walter Pierce found his voice. "Then +you are Durant. But where, where, where is the wonderful Rainbow Mine?" + +"Where it always has been--in the clouds!" + +"Good heavens, do you mean to say it is all a fraud?" + +"Less that than a fiction," amended the older man. "Sit here and I'll +tell you all about it." He sank wearily on the ground, leaning against a +huge pine tree, and when Walter had placed himself beside him, began his +strange tale. "Oh, the money has been no fraud, as your bank can +testify. I'm an old miner--a born prospector, with a nose for gold--and +I've always had streaks of luck; I've always made my pile, in +California, Colorado, and up here in Canada. But it has only been a rich +pocket here and there. I've never managed to develop a proposition into +a paying claim, or a paying claim into an exhaustless mine. But whenever +I've had a big clean-up I've blown it all in, as your born miner +invariably does, trusting to luck for the morrow. Some miners blow it in +on cards, drink--on worthless properties--but I've had only one +extravagance--my daughter. My wife always had vast ambitions, and when +the wife died she passed them on to me for our only child. To educate +Evelyn, to have her brought up a flower of civilization, that always has +been my dream, as I have roughed it in camps or tramped over glaciers, +through forests, sleeping under the stars. And so I sent the little one +to school in 'Frisco, Chicago, New York, with a European polishing off. +And somehow, the further East she traveled the grander her notions +grew--and as for myself, on my flying visits to her I took pride in +seeing my girl hold her own with the daughters of oil, beef and railways +trusts, and then with the daughters of princes of the Old World. And the +luck held out. However grand Evie's whims, I always had the stuff to +back her--and I always lived in hopes that any turn of the pick and +shovel would yield me, not merely a rich clean-up, but the +inexhaustible fortune that is every miner's dream. And so, between what +Evie took for granted and what I told her, half in jest, there grew up +this fable of the Rainbow Mine. But this season--I suppose it is my +punishment for my deception--the luck has turned clean against me. The +gold is here in the earth, as it always has been--but I've lost my knack +of finding it. The old earth no longer trusts me with her secrets." He +groaned, covering his face with his rough, knotted hands for a minute, +during which young Pierce exclaimed, bitterly: + +"Then what is to become of me?" + +"Ah, well!" Recovering composure, Durant rose. "It won't do to loaf. I'm +sorry for your disappointment, Walter. And the worst is, I can't do much +for you; can't show you any hospitality. In order to maintain life till +the luck turns, I am sharing the outfit of a chap named Blenksoe. That's +he, yon." He indicated a man of evil aspect, who was lounging at the +entrance of a rude hut nearby. "Blenksoe is grub-staking me through a +superstition about my luck. But Blenksoe is a bad lot. You must not have +anything to do with him." + +"But what in the world am I to do?" cried Pierce. "I tell you, I am +penniless--penniless!" + +"You must work," Durant admonished. "You must get employment on a +lay--that is, you must induce some one to let you help work his claim on +shares. I'll teach you the trick of panning gold." + +"But if gold-dust can be taken out by the dish-pan," cried Walter, with +bulging eyes, "why should any one go poor?" + +"You young fool! First you have to find in which patch out of desert +areas of mud and cobblestone the gold-dust hides. And then you have to +pay the Government for the privilege of staking, working it. Look along +the banks of this creek. As far as eye can see every inch of pay-dirt is +claimed, staked, defended, not only by law, but by miners' justice, with +a shooting-iron. In a mining camp human life ain't worth a damn, as +you'll find if you trespass on another man's claim, or if he should take +a fancy to yours. Just be content if, for the present, by working +eighteen hours of daylight during the twenty-four, during the short +summer, you can pay your way." + +"Good heavens!" again cried Pierce. "Then are the stories of gold all a +fable? Surely many fortunes are made up here?" + +"Surely," replied Durant, "and lost here, too. Every Klondike camp is +the garden for a score of fortunes, and the graveyard of a thousand +hopes. Well, I must go get pick and shovel." He moved toward his tent. +"I must go out on the hills, prospecting. Thank God, I left my girl a +tidy sum in the bank--and before that is spent her daddy will have found +her Rainbow Mine--or will die like a trail-dog in the traces!" + +"I ought to tell you----" Walter detained him. "That money--Miss Durant +has drawn it, every penny." + +"Eh!" exclaimed Durant. "Are you sure?" + +"It was that which set me thinking about coming up here myself. I heard +her telling the cashier. You haven't paid her a visit for three years; +accordingly, she intends coming to visit you as a surprise." + +"A surprise! My God!" gasped the unhappy man. + +"She has invested in the most costly outfit," continued Walter. "She is +traveling with a princely retinue. You see, she thinks you live in regal +style--palaces and all that." + +"And when----" Durant moistened his dry lips. "How soon----?" + +Pierce shrugged his shoulders. "I fell in with her party to-day, though +as I was stone broke and hoofing it I didn't care to make myself known +to her. She was inquiring your whereabouts. She is coming by the stage. +She'll be here any minute now." + +The tooting of a horn echoed through the hills, mingled with bursts of +girlish laughter, as, with a crack of the driver's whip and the jingling +of bells, in a cloud of dust the stage was seen approaching. With a +groan Durant buried his face in his hands. "My God!" he muttered. +"Evelyn!" + + + + +IV + +THE PICTURE GIRL + + +"Let your light so shine----" At this cue the much-converted Ikey passed +Gumboot Annie's frying-pan about among the men. Instead of +organ-voluntary, or tenor solo, such as obtains during the offertory in +conventional places of worship, the Bully, at his own request, rose to +make a few appropriate remarks. "I ain't convarted," he frankly +announced. "Heaven ain't in it with a hot old hell of a whoop-up time in +this here life, d'ye see? Even if ye hang fer it! But say, parson, +you're all right. You're a sure square proposition! Boys, the collection +goes, d'ye see?" + +"You betcherlife!" with cordial emphasis acquiesced the boys, even as +the orthodox respond Amen, while pouring gold-dust from their pokes into +the frying-pan. + +"Oh, I don't despair of you, Nicholas! I shall yet see you a pillar of +the church!" The minister now was mingling with his congregation, +shaking hands, hearty if not invariably spotless, right and left. "Thank +you, lads, thank you! This will go toward the maintenance of a hospital, +where you shall be cared for when disabled by accident, or laid up with +a er--touch of--ahem!--scurvy." + +"Booze," corrected Bully Nick, scorning the well-meant euphemism. + +After a second, informal benediction from Maclane, Barney, considering +that the execution of justice temporal had been waived quite long enough +in favor of things pertaining to the soul, tapped Nick on the shoulder +with cheerful authority. "Now, me man, put your best fut forward and +step prattily to jail! The rest av yez"--he looked round on the group +with impartial invitation--"can accompany us on giniral lack av +principles!" + +"Oh, but say--the stage is a-comin' in," remonstrated Bill, as the +tooting of a distant horn echoed musically among the mountain passes. +"There's like to be ladies aboard her. Can't we wait for to look upon +the ladies?" + +The suggestion obviously was popular, even to the extent of suggesting +mutiny if not complied with, and Barney himself had some difficulty in +delaying his consent in order to add value to it before permitting his +mug to relax into a grin. "As a man in line av promotion to be nominated +an officer and a gintleman, 'tis no less than me duty." + +"Boys, boys!" Mops, who had been reconnoitering, ran back, breathless +and excited. "There's gals aboard!" + +"The hell thar is!" exclaimed the boys, delighted, and meaning no +disrespect. + +"A hull outfit o' gals," expatiated Mops. "And one, perched up by the +driver, jest the swellest, jim-dandiest little female proposition you +ever seen in all your life! Say, I wisht I hadn't left my dress-suit in +cold storage!" + +"Any one lend me a comb?" Any one being unable to oblige him, Bill ran a +corkscrew through his curly hair. "Well, anyway, my face is clean!" + +"All ye can see av it, for the dhirt that's on it," Barney encouraged +him. + +The horn blew a gay fanfare; the driver's whip cracked with more than +wonted smartness; the bells on its four horses jingled merrily as the +cumbersome old stage rattled into Lost Shoe Creek, and drew up before +Gumboot Annie's hostelry to an enthusiastic ovation of hurrahs, +cap-tossings, and gun-firings from the male populace. + +A handsome girl, wearing her modish clothes with a too conscious effect +of style, from her place on the box bowed pleased acknowledgments in all +directions for the cheering, but at the volley of shots gave a little +startled cry, which was taken up in louder note by her companions. + +Doffing his hat, Parson Maclane came forward, with a reassuring smile. +"Only a Klondike welcome, young ladies," he explained. + +"That's what!" the men confirmed him. "A Klondike welcome!" + +"How quite too utterly charming!" exclaimed the young lady. "Girls! +Sarah!" she appealed to the others of the party. "Aren't they too dear +and picturesque for anything!" That "they" were human beings and not +part of the brilliant panorama seemed hardly to occur to her. + +A score of pairs of rough but willing hands stretched up to help the +speaker from her high throne, but the honor fell to Scarlett, or rather +was appropriated by that masterful young man as, putting the other +aspirants aside, he lifted her over the wheel and swung her lightly to +the ground. Without waiting for her thanks he returned to his +wood-chopping with a sense of one of life's minor miracles upon him. "By +St. Bridget!" he was thinking, "but that's my picture-girl!" + +When all the passengers had alighted safely the boys pushed their leader +to the front. "Speech! Speech! Bully Nick!" they insisted. "Speech!" + +"Take my hat off fer me," in an undertone commanded the champion shot +and orator. When one of his lieutenants had hastened to comply, the +Bully stood forth and cleared his throat. "Ladies, in the name of the +district--and never mind jest at these presents what name the district +bears--I regret I can't give ye the glad hand, through bein' a-wearin' +of th' Government bracelets." + +"The Government bracelets," repeated the beautiful young lady, puzzled, +under cover of the guffaws with which his followers received Nick's +initial witticism. + +"Mary, love----" She appealed to the tallest of the girls who stood +about her. "You are up in political economy?" + +"I think he must mean some official decoration," glibly prompted Mary. + +"That's it," corroborated Nick, unashamed, amid the shame-faced laughter +of his followers. "Official decoration fer proficiency in gun-play!" He +held up his handcuffed hands. + +"Oh!" The girl and her companions recoiled instinctively. + +"My dears!" The minister stepped into the breach. "I assure you, +Nicholas here has the warmest heart, though at times he is a +trifle--er--impulsive." + +"Aye!" Nick nodded. "Impulsive, under the influence of bad liquor. Shot +a chap recent when drunk, me and him alike. Not but what he desarved it +all right, though the blamed Government won't see it in that light. But +never mind them little personal details. Let me present the boys. Step +up, lads. This here is Mops, our masher. Only hez ter look at a mess of +pertatoes to rejuce 'em. Tuk a prize once at a beauty show, there bein' +no other contestants, and the judge havin' been struck blind." + +"Oh, stop yer joshin'!" growled Mops, as, with a red face, he nearly +lost his balance in a bow. + +"And Bill. Bill's our dude," explained the Bully. "Won't use nothin' but +fashion-plates ter patch his breeches. Now, Bill, don't turn yer back on +the ladies, else they'll see that what I say is true. And this here +solemn guy is Sandy, who keeps everything that comes his way, except the +Commandments, and takes whatever he can lay hands on, except a joke." A +few more introductions having been achieved in the same style, "Well, +well, I guess we're a rough, tough lot," concluded Nick. + +"Nature's noblemen, my dear," interpolated the minister. "The dearest +souls, except for an occasional regrettable--ahem----" + +"Spree!" shouted the Bully. "But that, take it all in all, is a good +sign. When bedrock's too smooth you won't find gold. Gawd knows we're +tough--but when women comes among us--good women----" He broke off to +pass a ragged sleeve across his eyes and gulp. "They're welcome as +pay-dirt, and honored as queens." + +"That's what! You betcherlife!" emphatically assented the throng. + +"Thank you! thank you!" replied the beautiful young lady. "I must +introduce myself. I come from New York. My name is Evelyn Durant----" + +"'Rah, 'rah, for Evelyn!" shouted Mops, to his own surprise and the +general admiration. + +"And these young friends of mine"--Miss Durant indicated the six plainly +dressed little maids who were drinking in these wonderful happenings, +like children in a fairy dream--"their names are Mary, Ruth, Ethel, +Kate, Effie and Gertrude, They have come with me for a holiday from the +institution where they live. They are orphans." + +A round of cheers was thereupon called for, for Mary, Ruth, Ethel, Kate, +Effie and Gertrude, and clinched with Barney's flattering assertion, +"An' sure this is the idayal asoilum for thim, and may they prosper and +multiply galeor, for divvle a family in the disthrict can brag av an +orphan of its own at all, more shame to us!" + +"And this," Evelyn tapped a stout, middle-aged woman kindly on the +shoulder, "is my faithful maid, Sarah." + +Sarah having been duly cheered, "Sarah is nae bonny, but she micht be +sonsy and of a savin' disposeetion," commended Sandy, cautiously, for +which encomium, however, he was only rewarded by an angry shake of +Sarah's stout umbrella, with a counsel to keep his cheek to himself or +she'd know the reason why. + +These graceful amenities concluded, "We have come all this way to visit +my father," explained Miss Durant. "But it is far harder to find him +than I should have expected, considering how well known he is. But I'm +sure you can help me." + +"Sure!" cried her hearers. "You betcher-boots on that!" + +"And who may be your dad, lady?" inquired one. "Some crackerjack swell +capitalist, I reckon." + +At this, a gaunt, elderly man, who had kept in the background, leaning +against a tree, and taking no part in the proceedings, shifted his +position, uneasily. + +"Well," said the young lady, with a conscious laugh, and the +condescension of one who might boast descent from Santa Claus, "I +suppose every one in these parts is familiar with the name of Matthew +Durant." + +"Matthew Durant!" The owner of the name did not claim it, and Scarlett +and Barney, who, of the onlookers, alone could have identified him, +recognizing the tragedy that was being enacted before them, also were +silent. Meanwhile the prospectors, after scratching perplexed heads and +ransacking memories in vain, denied all knowledge of the man. + +"Maybe he warks his proposeetion as a company, leddy," suggested Sandy. + +"Oh, dear, no!" Miss Durant flouted the notion. "My father is It!" + +The man leaning against the Douglas spruce, his ragged cap drawn down +over his eyes, groaned slightly, and turning away, looked toward the +distant mountains, while overhead a bird trilled blithely. + +"Let me see if I can describe him," his daughter was saying, in her +sweet, assured young voice. "He is tall, erect----" + +Durant's bowed shoulders bowed themselves still lower. + +"He is clean-shaven----" + +Durant felt his unkempt beard. + +"He always dresses in the height of fashion. He's quite a dude, I tell +him." + +Durant laughed outright. + +"And I think him extremely handsome!" + +"Sure; judging by his darter!" cried Mops, gallantly. "Oh, I don't mean +that!" he hastened to add, fearful of having been too free. + +"Oh, but I don't mind your meaning it," laughed Evelyn. "But come, if +you've never met my father surely you all know his mine--the wonderful +Rainbow Mine." + +There was a pregnant pause, and then the Bully spoke, slowly, +impressively. "I never knowed an out-an'-out prospector that didn't own +the wonderfullest mine goin'--only waiting fer a triflin' circumstance +like capital ter come along from the East and open it up and put it on a +payin' basis. Why, every man Jack of us owns a placer claim, or +hydraulicking concession, a silver or a copper mountain or a glut of +gold or summat that entitles him to be It. Why, this here little +beggar," he jerked his head toward Bill, "he claims he owns an antimony +proposition that if developed ull make J. Peerpunt Morgan take a back +seat and Hetty Green look like thirty cents----" + +"No 'if' about it. You betcherlife it will!" cried Bill, with warmth. + +"Aye!" The Bully nodded his head, condoningly. "And Sandy here claims +ter have an option on a----" + +"A copper proposeetion, pure boanite," elucidated Sandy. + +"Aye! Something that's a-goin' ter make Clark of Montana bust with envy +some day," assented Nick, "and knock Newhouse of Salt Lake City inter a +cocked hat. Why, tho' by nacher conservative an' shrinking I myself am +calkilatin' on stackin' up the chips--I mean the books, ag'in Andy +Carnegie, and pourin' oil on the troubled waters of John D. +Rockefeller's poverty, unless he's run in fust! Take my word fer it, +missy, every man within range of them bright eyes of yourn is a +millionaire--ter-morrer! A stun-broke millionaire!" + +"But, you see, my father is a millionaire to-day," explained Miss +Durant, with amused tolerance. "A multi-millionaire." + +Nick shrugged his shoulders. "Lucky father!" + +"Why, that's his camp name," Evelyn exclaimed. "Lucky! He has often +told me. Surely you all know Lucky?" + +[Illustration: MINGLED WITH THE TRAVELLERS AT GUMBOOT ANNIE'S BOARD.] + +There was a dead silence, broken only by the fly-catcher's mocking +refrain, every man with wonderful restraint and delicacy avoiding so +much as a glance toward Durant. + +Then, again, Nick rose to the occasion, manfully. "Why, ter be sure! +Everybody knows Lucky, and Lucky's Rainbow Mine, eh, boys? Blast yer, +can't yer _say_ yer does?" he demanded, in an undertone that would have +been backed up with a shooting-iron had his hands been free. + +But of their own accord the boys, their presence of mind recovered, all +were loyally assuring Miss Durant that Lucky and Lucky's mine were +synonyms for boundless wealth at Lost Shoe Creek and throughout the +golden northland. "The mere mention of it brings better fortin' than +touchin' a hunchback, or spittin' on your money at new moon," one summed +up. + +"Too bad, but Lucky ain't here just now," the Bully went on to state, +with an authority that, handcuffed though he was, not even the most +audacious would have dared dispute. "An' what's more, tain't so easy ter +locate him. Like as not he's off, attendin' ter them vast interests of +his'n somewhar out among them hills!" He nodded, toward the +hoary-beaded mountains as if defying their granitic silence to gainsay +him. + +"Sure he is!" corroborated the prospectors, in a chorus, covering up the +long-drawn sigh of relief that nearly betrayed Durant. + +"Prospectors is here ter-day, and gone ter-morrer, like the snow, d'ye +see?" concluded Nick. "But he'll turn up in time all right, fer fair, +with a pokeful of dust in his corjeroys, and a train of mules loaded +down with nuggets fer his gal!" + +"Sure! That's what! Betchersweetlife!" cried the boys, who lacked their +leader's skill in improvising lies, but knew a good one when they heard +it. + +"Oh, thank you, thank you so much!" Evelyn had begun to feel real +uneasiness at the continued postponements in arriving at her journey's +end or obtaining definite intelligence of her father. "And when I join +him I shall tell him what a welcome you have given me. And I promise you +he shall back everybody's proposition. I promise every one of you a +substantial slice of our good fortune in the Rainbow Mine." + +Comment on this generous pledge was headed off by Ikey's vigorous +ringing of the supper-bell, coupled with an announcement from Gumboot +Annie that for a dollar within the tent might be obtained a meal +calculated to turn the mother of the Delmonicos the colors of a lettuce +and tomato salad from professional jealousy, on which, at Evelyn's +invitation and with Barney's willing concurrence, the execution of +justice temporal again was stayed, while Nick and his followers, with +their custodian, mingled with the travelers at Gumboot Annie's board. +There the Bully's manacled efforts to devour bacon and flapjacks +particularly delighted the young ladies, who took turns in cutting up +his food for him, while he himself was moved almost to tears that his +last victim could not be present to share the joy their late +unpleasantness was procuring for himself as the survivor. + +Durant followed them to the entrance of the tent where, unnoticed, he +lingered a few minutes, listening to the hum of merry voices, and +feasting his sad eyes upon his girl, then turned despairingly away. + + + + +V + +EVELYN ENGAGES A COURIER + + +While, as he knew, his identity was suspected by Nick and Nick's gang, +yet, so long as these were at supper his disguise enabled Scarlett to +wander through the camp, as if seeking employment, and reconnoitre in +order to ascertain what were the most flagrant examples of law-breaking +industries with which, officially, he would have to deal. Meanwhile, his +thoughts kept straying toward the picture-girl with pleasure in the +thought of her fascinating proximity, not unmingled with criticism of +her large assumption of little dignities, softened, however, with pity +for the bitter disappointment in store for her when she should learn the +true state of her father's affairs. + +As it would be manifestly impossible for her to continue under the +delusion that hers was the purse of Fortunatus to draw on, the +obviously wisest plan would be for Durant to disclose himself to her +without delay, confess the truth, and either arrange for her to remain +with him, sharing his rough lot, should she have the grit so to do, or +take up a collection to send her back to any friends who might be +willing to give her a home until, if ever, his luck should turn again. +For his own part, however, both as official and man, Sergeant Scarlett +was strongly of opinion that it would be an unholy act to allow a bevy +of girls to leave a district so sorely needing them, above all when +among their number was the girl of girls whom no young man can fail to +recognize the moment he sets eyes on her; or, as in his case, even on +her portrait. Accordingly, a thousand schemes passed through his head +for making the wilderness, in spite of straitened means and harsh +conditions, an acceptable habitation to the newcomers. The first step +was to take counsel with Evelyn's father, but when, after making his +duty rounds of inspection, he returned to the neighborhood of Gumboot +Annie's hostelry, Durant had disappeared, nor did inquiry reveal the +slightest trace of him. + +Scarlett's next idea was formally to present himself to Miss Durant and +proffer his services in finding her party suitable accommodations till +her father could be reached. Just as he arrived at this decision the +travelers came from the tent. Approaching Evelyn, with a military salute +less effectively seconded than he could have desired by the battered +apology for a hat that he was wearing, he was about to accost her, when, +to his surprise, she waved him imperiously aside. + +"Out of the way, my good man. I wish to speak with the officer." + +At this, Barney, who was engaged in lining up his prisoners for the +march to headquarters, came forward, with a flattered grin. "Out av the +way, ye hulkin' vagabone!" he ordered his superior, with a rough shove +that filled Scarlett with wrath, and sent Nick and his men, who every +moment were becoming surer of the equivoque, into loud guffaws. + +"I tell you, I never give indiscriminately to beggars," stated Miss +Durant, as the young man seemed inclined to persist. "Kate, love," she +beckoned a serious-looking young girl, "investigate his case." + +Kate wrinkled up her conscientious eyebrows. "His face is very red," she +whispered Evelyn, "but somehow I don't think it's drink." + +"Let him wait, then," ordained Evelyn, "and I'll see about him myself. +Meanwhile--oh, officer, I want your help! I'm in such a pickle for lack +of a man servant," she went on to confide in Barney. "The French courier +I brought out with me deserted the moment we set foot in Skagway, taking +my camera, automobile, and I don't know what besides. Of course, my +father will see to it that he's found and punished--and the things don't +matter, because, till my own are recovered, they can be replaced. But +the difficulty is to replace Alphonse. I never before saw so many idle +and poverty-stricken men in all my life; yet--it's the strangest +thing--no matter what inducements I offer, no one is willing to take +service with me." + +"Myself, I don't think it much loss, miss," Evelyn's maid struck in. +"That Alphonse was too tight-laced to be of any good use. And, anyway, +for my part I don't think it respectable for a man to wear corsets any +more than for a woman to go without 'em." + +"Oh, it's not Alphonse's usefulness I mourn for," admitted Miss Durant. +"It's the appearance of the thing; the _chic_. My father always likes me +to have the best of everything; and I owe it to his position no less +than to my own dignity to travel in the best style. Officer," again she +appealed to Barney, "can't you recommend me a courier?" + +Barney looked his bewilderment. "Is it a currier for the horses av your +automeboiler ye do be wanting, miss?" + +Perceiving in this breach his opportunity, Scarlett stepped boldly into +it. "May I apply for the position? I'm looking for work." + +"Lookin' for throuble, more like," muttered Barney, with solicitude. +"Wid all thim lasses! Begorra, I know the sect." + +Evelyn turned about and surveyed the speaker critically. "Ah, I'm glad +it's employment and not alms you want," she commended the busiest, most +hardworked official in the district. "But--I wonder--are you qualified?" +Into her pretty eyes there crept a look of doubt. + +"I know something about horses," with truth the Mounted Policeman +assured her. + +"But not about lasses," Barney anxiously tugged at his sleeve. "'Tis +them as leads ye the divvle av a ride, and is like as not to run away +wid ye." + +"H'm!" Evelyn considered the matter. The shaggy picturesqueness of the +prospectors in colored flannel shirts, top boots and corduroys, with +hands ever on gun or pistol, their odd phrase and lurid expletive, +touched the silly streak of romanticism in her as had they been chorus +of an opera in which she found herself enacting the star role, but this +clean-skinned young man, with unadorned speech, in commonplace, +work-a-day clothes, at first failed to interest her. + +"H'm! Well," she conceded finally, "I'm something of a judge of people. +Step into the light where we can take a good look at you." + +As Scarlett obeyed, "There!" cried little Kate, triumphantly. "The nice, +modest way he changes color, I'm sure he doesn't drink!" + +Evelyn also noticed, as who could fail to do, the ingenuous blush that +overspread the white crescent of the young giant's brow, and it +flattered her woman's love of power. "Well, girls," she demanded, in an +audible aside, "and what do you think of him?" + +The verdict of the orphans was unanimous; they thought him fine, +Gertrude, who would have been frivolous and slangy had her institution +permitted it, pronouncing him "a peach." Sarah alone challenged him. + +"He's a sassy piece," she informed Evelyn. "Look at him now, fit to +burst with laughter at us! I never heard of a decent man-servant that +couldn't keep his face straight." + +"But if I'm not straight-faced and strait-laced like Alphonse," urged +Scarlett, "at least ye can count on me never to take French leave of +ye." + +Sarah shook her head ominously. "He's too young, miss," she warned +Evelyn. "Far too young." + +"But I'm growing older every day," pleaded the postulant, "and up here +the days are so long, one grows old twice as fast." + +"He has too much command of language for a man-servant, miss," insisted +Sarah. "That kind is apt to put on airs above their station. And--look +at him now!--there's something altogether too masterful about the way he +walks." + +"Ah, that comes from soldiering," the young man explained. "Me legs are +always under arms, as it were." + +Evelyn laughed with a distinct prepossession. "What is your name?" she +inquired. + +"Scarlett." + +"Scarlett what?" + +"It's what Scarlett." + +"Eh? What do you sign yourself--that is, can you write?" + +"Oh, I manage to make me mark with my fist on any human document that +gets in my way. I sign myself J. Scarlett." + +"Oh! And what does J stand for?" + +"Gerald." + +"Gerald! How do you spell it?" + +"The usual way. G-e-r-a-l-d." + +"Then, why do you sign it J?" + +"Oh, that's just a mistake other people make in the pronunciation," the +owner of the name elucidated, to his own if not to his hearer's +satisfaction. "It once nearly cost me a lawsuit to establish it." + +Sarah groaned: "He talks for all the world like an Irishman." + +"Murther will out," Barney proclaimed, with pride. + +Evelyn turned on the owner of Dunshinnanon. "Are you Irish?" + +"It's the best excuse my parents could make for me," admitted Scarlett. + +"I am more than half inclined to take him on trial," Evelyn stated. "But +first," she again consulted Barney, "officer, can you give the young man +a character?" + +"A character? Faith, but that's phwat he does be needing some ginerously +minded person to bestow on him, for niver a wan av his own has he to +show at all, at all!" cried Barney, mindful of his chief's earlier +injunctions to depict him in unflattered lights. "Glory be! If I was to +begin to tell yez phwat I don't know about the lad he'd be afther +breaking my skull for me, an' not for the first toime." + +"Nor the last, either, you idiot!" growled Scarlett. + +"That's rather vague," commented Evelyn. "Tell me, is he honest?" + +"Gosh! th' Irish is no thieves," Barney answered handsomely for his +race, "though now and thin maybe wan might snap at something in your +hand. It takes a dhirty Hollander to do the stealin'!" + +"Oh! And--is he sober?" + +"Sober! A pure-blooded Celt like himself!" Wishing still to carry out +Scarlett's first orders, Barney hotly repudiated the charge of damaging +sobriety on his behalf, but warned by a surreptitious kick that he was +exceeding instructions, he softened it by asking, generally: "Wid a +felly like himself, that dhrunk or sober is aqually an omadhaun, phwat +the divvle is the differ?" And Scarlett also pleaded his own cause by +admitting that he was frequently quite sober, though, thanks be! never +to an intemperate degree. + +Sarah groaned portentously, but the missionary spirit was awakening in +Evelyn. "I can put up with a good deal," she asserted, "if I feel I am +giving employment where it is really needed. But I must first know +where I stand. Is this young person reliable, to be depended on in an +emergency?" + +"You betcherlife on that!" yelled the prospectors, in delighted chorus. +As outlaws, the mounted policeman was their natural enemy, but for the +time he had downed them, as in the long run, they, by instinct, realized +he always would down them, and they respected him. + +"You stake yer bottom plunk on it, d'ye see? He's the only man ever got +me skinned forty ways from the Jack," in a generous climax conceded +Bully Nick. + +Evelyn's pretty face was clouded with perplexity. Categorically there +was no specific charge against the applicant; moreover, the longer she +looked at him the more was she impressed with the promise of strength in +his splendid proportions, the resolute chin, clear, friendly eyes, even +though the corners of a mobile mouth did curl as if with perpetual +laughter in an outlook on life too original to be seemly in a wearer of +livery--yet, evidently, something was being withheld from her. Urged, +however, by all the little orphans, who by this time were in love with +Scarlett, she remarked: "Yes, we must remember that we came up here not +only for our own pleasure, but also to do good. I am tempted to take +the young man on a month's trial, and at least endeavor to reform him. +That is, if---- Officer," she again consulted Barney, "is he really the +best protector you can find for us?" + +Pushing his hat back from a brow heated by such unwonted drafts upon its +thinking powers, Barney scratched his head while regarding his superior +with disparagement. Finally, "well, yis, he is," he admitted, as if it +were the last damnatory word to be spoken of the man. + +Having ascertained that something over a dollar a day and his keep was +as much as he was used to in the way of wage, Miss Durant instructed her +new courier in his duties--"to look after our trunks, bicycles, banjos, +pianola, mandolins----" + +"And the pets, dear," put in Ruth, who was rather tired of trying to +keep the peace between an Angora cat and a canary, a parrot that looked +as if it had a wicked past and a bull pup who wished to include the +parrot, past and all, in his present rampageous scheme of life. + +"Oh, of course the menagerie! Then you must go ahead to engage the best +suites for us at the hotels, and----" + +"And follow ye to pick up the articles ye leave behind," Scarlett +nodded, understandingly. "But till we get fairly started, I'll just +accompany ye." + +"Very well," assented Evelyn. "Sarah, I hope you won't mind having the +young man eat with you while we are traveling?" + +"I suppose it can't be helped, miss," gloomily replied the maid. "I only +hope the young man will have the grace to improve the opportunity." + +"Oh, I'll improve it fast enough," promised Scarlett, with a twinkling +eye on Sarah, "so long as ye don't expect me to embrace it." + +Evelyn cut short the maid's angry reproof. "Now, Gerald, you must keep +your place. Conduct us to the nearest large city. We must telegraph my +father to join us there. Meanwhile, we want to do a lot of shopping. We +want, oh, ever so many things! Girls, which of you has my list?" + +"I put down prizes for our bridge parties," cried Effie, her eyes +snapping at the thought of the unhallowed joys in store for her. + +"And materials for making fudge," whispered Ethel, who had thirty-two +sweet teeth. + +"Yes," assented Evelyn. "And we must buy presents: neckties and things +for the poor dear miners who have been so kind to us. Also cotillion +favors. As soon as we are settled I mean to give a ball." + +"But, miss, how about money?" Sarah reminded her. "We have only +fifty-odd dollars left." + +"Oh, we can have things charged!" cried Evelyn, airily. "My father's +name will be letter of credit to any amount." + +Scarlett looked about with a growing uneasiness. The day was fast +subsiding into the long twilight that precedes the short northern summer +night. Barney had departed with his captives on the long march that was +the most effective object-lesson conceivable in what could be +accomplished in policing a district by but two men, with the might of a +Government behind; and here was he, practically alone, save for the +minister, to guard these women, since, as he shrewdly guessed, in an +emergency the courage of the other passengers traveling by the coach +would prove of negligible quality. The horses had been put into harness +some time before, yet the driver kept delaying their departure on the +most trivial pretexts. On this Gumboot Annie, when appealed to, threw a +lurid local color. "Guess Logan is timin' things fer the hold-up." + +"The hold-up!" in alarm, exclaimed the passengers, who enjoyed these +things better on billboards forthsetting Bowery melodrama. "You don't +mean to say they really have hold-ups in these parts?" + +Gumboot Annie spat deliberately before replying, "Why, that's our +specialty." + +"But the driver--does not the driver defend his passengers?" + +"The driver! Now wouldn't thet jostle yer!" demanded Gumboot Annie of +the mountains. "Logan hes ter stand in with the gang ter save his own +skin. And, mind you folks don't make no fuss. Pass in yer checks an' no +jawin', and the boys won't hurt yer none. But if yer squeal--well, it's +none of my funeral." + +Great consternation prevailed among the passengers who had booked to +Camp Perdu, the stage's next destination, and elaborate were the +preparations they made to conceal their valuables. The bills and +gold-dust Maclane had collected for his hospital he skilfully packed +into his moccasin, while, to the general amusement, Sarah bestowed +Evelyn's ready money in the fauna and flora of her own bonnet. + +"It's my belief the woman only said that to frighten us," decided Evelyn +as, with a flourish of his horn, the driver shouted, "All aboard!" And +as the stage rumbled peacefully along she added: "In any case, our +party is safe. Our courier will protect us!" In no respect, however, +were her predictions justified. Hardly was Lost Shoe Creek left behind +when from the bushes by the wayside sprang a band of men, with hats +drawn over their faces, pistols in hand, bidding the driver halt. + +It was the most systematic proceeding in the world, reducing the bandits +to the level of petty tradesmen, and their victims to that of unwilling +contributors to a recognized if oppressive impost. Not one of the former +offered to spare the fair sex on condition its fairest representative +should tread with him the stately measure of a minuet; not one of the +latter invoked the memory of the former's spotless childhood hallowed by +a mother's caresses beneath an old oaken bucket or spreading chestnut +tree. Instead, Logan wound the reins about the whip as this stood in its +socket, and held up his hands, though without ceasing to chew the straw +in his mouth, while the passengers under invitation apparently no more +coercive than that of the average trolley car conductor to step lively +or move up, dismounted and stood with uplifted arms while methodically +relieved of purses, watches and the like. Terror tied the women's +tongues, while the men, knowing the futility of remonstrance, were +silent. Only Scarlett, while submitting with the rest, ventured on a +lively sally or so that called down on him a few curses or served to +provoke a laugh that later helped him in identifying the malefactors. +But not a word of importance was uttered on either side till the leader +of the gang, surveying the pile of loot, muttered, discontentedly: +"Well, this is a blamed mean crowd! Go over 'em again!" + +It was then Scarlett took a quick decision. Little as passivity suited +his fighting manhood; much as, in his own phrase, it pained him to +Evelyn's appealing glances to turn a deaf ear, he knew that to offer the +slightest resistance would be to forfeit his own life and leave the +womenkind to a fate one dared not think of calmly. Nevertheless, when at +the second overhauling he saw her jeweled belt and studs torn rudely +from her he could not forbear a movement of impatience that drew to +himself the serious attention of the robbers. + +"Say, young feller"--one pressed the cold muzzle of a pistol to his +forehead--"air you in an all-fired hurry ter see yer affairs wound up?" + +"Oh, as to that," he answered, "ye can wind up me affairs and welcome if +ye'll take the time. They're just the Waterbury watch inside me +pocket." + +The ruffian laughed, and told him he could keep his worthless timepiece +for his wit, but Evelyn shuddered with a disgust that gave her voice. +"The pitiful coward! When I took it for granted you would risk your life +for me!" + +"Faith, but I'm not dying to be corpse at me own wake," jeered Scarlett. +"For a lady I might risk my life, but not for the dust the reverend +gentleman is treading under foot, nor for the greenbacks sprouting from +yonder good woman's botanical headpiece!" + +Shrieks from the women, groans and reproaches from the men, denounced +this treachery, as the bonnet of the protesting Sarah yielded up its +riches and the minister in heartbroken silence suffered himself, +perforce, to be despoiled, while old Blenksoe, taken off his guard, in +his natural tones cried, approvingly, "Ah, thet's somethin' like!" + +As they hurriedly packed their loot, "Rustle, boys," in undertones, +warned the leader, "else we shall have that blasted M. P. of a Scarlett +on our backs!" His caution came none too soon. At Scarlett's +instigation, Barney had contrived to get word to Perdu, and just as the +robbers had cleared into the jungle with their booty an armed delegation +of citizens appeared upon the scene. As the victims were left penniless, +Dave Hastie, proprietor of the Grand Hotel, offered them gratuitous +hospitality for the approaching night, a kindness that was accepted only +too gladly. + +"But before we start," cried Evelyn, amid general acclamation, "I wish +to denounce a coward, a poltroon, a traitor! A contemptible being whose +betrayal of those who trusted him should not go unscathed. Creature," +she turned on her smiling courier, "have you no sense of shame?" + +"Sure, but I have," he answered. "Never a day passes that I don't blush +for human nature in the lump!" + +Evelyn sighed, and again addressed the delegation of Perdu's Law and +Order League, who, having missed the robbers, were fairly spoiling with +eagerness to kill the next best man. "He never so much as lifted a +finger to defend us," she explained. + +"Oh, but I did! All ten of them," he defended himself, in injured tones. + +"It's only what one might expect," Sarah harangued the throng, "taking +on a scallywag without character or references. Practically robbing miss +here of every penny of ready money she possesses, and damaging this +bunnet that I got at a reduction off of a lady friend as has set up a +swell millinery establishment in Sixth Avenue." + +"He delivered us to our enemies!" There were tears in Maclane's voice. +"He stripped the sick, the suffering; turned into channels of vice the +contributions for my hospital." + +All agreed that hanging was too good for the culprit, and some were in +favor of lynching. One consideration alone deterred them from extreme +measures, even while a rope was being hunted for among the skunk +willows, sage and wild lupin by the road: namely, the unpopularity of +such punitive proceedings with the Mounted Policeman newly appointed to +the district. + +"Times is sadly changed, boys," the leader reminded the delegation. "The +gentlemanly way with us has allus bin ter choke off a traitor's last +prayers with a hempen Amen. But this blamed M. P. is as apt ter pinch +the gentlemen as acts impulsive in a little lynchin' matter as quick as +he'd pinch a criminal. Thar's only two of 'em," he explained to the +travelers, "the Sergeant and his man--but the way the feller covers +distances--his horse has seven-leagued boots for sure! Now, as president +of Perdu's Peace Committee and Law and Order League, I'd claim it my +proud privilege ter fit the noose ter this young rascal's neck--but as +husband to a good woman and father to her kids I don't want ter run up +contrairy-wise agin Scarlett of the Mounted!" + +"Very well," decided Evelyn. "I myself am in favor of government. I +belong to several ladies' associations for upholding clean streets and +economy in the Mayor's office and things like that. From what you say, +this--I didn't catch the Mounted Policeman's name, but he obviously must +be an officer; and though with us, in New York, policemen, even mounted +ones, have no standing in Society, yet, in his way, he must be a +gentleman. Then let this miserable fellow be bound and taken before him +for sentence. I myself will press the charge against him." + +"Good business," applauded the delegation, heartily. + +But as they were about to bind the prisoner with a rope taken from the +skeleton of a wretched horse that some inferior brute of a human being +had put to purposes of transportation under conditions for which nature +had never intended it, the Irishman put them lightly aside. + +"One moment, please. Now that ye've wisely decided to postpone +suspending the judged, also, as a famous American in a crisis once +remarked, suspend judgment. All the accusations brought against me are +dead true, which is why ye are alive to make them. I assisted in the +despoiling of ye, on business principles, sacrificing small sums to one +ten times their combined amounts. For under my own right foot I carry a +sum that will not only replace Sarah's bonnet, greenbacks and all, but +also reimburse the hospital with a little contribution of my own to +boot." + +As he spoke, he drew a roll of ready money from its hiding place and +handed some bills over to the astonished maid and the no less astonished +minister. "The rest, a draft, I am commissioned to deposit in the bank +on account of one Durant, now absent on a prospecting trip, for the +maintenance, till he returns, of his daughter----" + +A loud chorus of surprise, admiration, gratitude interrupted the young +man who was now hero of the hour. + +The League enrolled him an honorary member on the spot. To his terror, +three depressed women with bundles wanted to kiss him for his mother, +while Maclane, on behalf of all the disabled people in the district, +nearly wrung his hand off. As breaking away he started to make his +escape, Evelyn detained him. "My preserver," she cried, in impassioned +tones, "let me reward you!" + +And when Scarlett, laughing, shook his head, refusing a moiety of his +own ready money that, at Evelyn's direction, Sarah was proffering him, +"Then at least tell me your name--for in the excitement I am ashamed to +say I have clean forgotten it." + +"Yes, yes," insisted the group, "your name!" + +"'Tis the same as it has always been," he answered, blithely, turning on +his heel. "I haven't changed it yet. Any time ye want me just ask at +headquarters for Himself, for Scarlett of the Mounted." + + + + +VI + +EVELYN SEEKS COUNSEL + + +A few days later Evelyn, accompanied by Sarah, knocked at the door of +St. Andrew's Mission, near Perdu. An Indian woman opened to her, and on +her asking for Mr. Maclane, the minister came forward with a cordial +welcome. + +"I won't invite you in, since just at present my study is in requisition +as a hospital, and in any case you will doubtless prefer the veranda +with its vista of the mountains." + +"And your lovely garden," added Evelyn, glancing at the beds in which +vegetables and ornamental plants were growing in orderly profusion. "I +never supposed that cultivation was possible so far north." + +"That is a common mistake," replied the minister. "But it is the same +with plants as with people: wherever it is possible for them to grow it +is intended that they should be cultivated; by which I do not mean that +we should take the nature out of them, teaching them tricks and +artificial ways; I mean that we should improve the conditions +surrounding them, in order that their natural tendencies and activities +may have the widest scope for beneficent purposes." + +"And yet"--Evelyn looked up and down the road--"you seem to be almost +the only one who recognizes these possibilities. All the cabins seem to +have been dropped in uncompromising rows along the highways, as if they +were so many children's toys taken out of cardboard boxes labeled 'Made +in Germany'." + +"Ah, most of the folk who come here are so busily engrossed in spading +up the soil for treasure they have no time to till and sow. Yet our +short summer of long days is capable of harvests that would yield pure +gold in a land of canned supplies, where men get to long for green food +as for water in the desert. Metz, the pioneer baker of Perdu, a +far-sighted German, is raking in the gold-dust that other men +laboriously pan out, by the sackful, simply by adding a fresh lettuce +leaf, or radish, to every plate of fried eggs and bacon that he serves. +Brackett of Atlin is famous for the beauty of his poppy patch that +blazes like a banner on a dusty mountainside, no less than for the +succulence of the turnips with which he regales his friends, all grown +on a tiny corner of an auriferous claim that overhangs the sluiceboxes. +Dr. Milne of Dawson received a prize for the tomatoes and celery he took +down from his far-north home to the exposition in Victoria, on the +occasion of the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales. Indeed, there +was a story going the rounds that on the third day of the exposition, +when the good doctor wanted to substitute fresh produce for his own, +which, by that time had wilted, he could find none in Victoria to match +their size. And I myself am not a little proud of my own sweet-peas." +He handed Evelyn the fragrant blossoms he had been cutting as he talked. + +"Thank you. They are indeed lovely. But I must not detain you too long. +I have come to you for that which I rarely seek--advice." + +"I am wholly at your service." Maclane installed her in a steamer-chair +and placed himself on a bench beside her. "Some ethical question?" + +"Oh, dear, no! I am an Episcopalian," answered Evelyn, loftily. "Not but +what I am very liberal," she hastened to add. "I subscribe to worthy +charities of all denominations." + +There was charity without resentment on Maclane's good brow as he merely +said: "Then in what way can I help you?" + +"My troubles are all of a practical nature." + +"In that respect, perhaps, I am not the best adviser." + +"But there's no one else in whom I can confide. People up here treat me +in the strangest way. I never had such an experience." + +"Well, well, I'll do my best." + +"In the first place I don't know how to manage about money. Sergeant +Scarlett has deposited several hundred dollars to my account in the +Canadian Bank of Commerce, and as much more in the Bank of British North +America, yet this morning, when I went to draw some, the managers of +each informed me, apparently on their own responsibility, that I am put +on a weekly allowance; that I may only draw so much, at stated times, +and not a penny more. When I threatened to withdraw my patronage, they +said that would be impossible till the account was closed. I went to +three lawyers in succession to get out injunctions and things against +them--but not a man would undertake the case. Oh, evidently all the +officials are leagued in some sort of a ring or another, for when I +went to the office of the _Perdu Claim_ and asked the editor to help me +expose them, he only laughed. In New York, one or the other of the +ten-cent magazines would have jumped at such an opportunity. However, +that wouldn't matter so much if I could buy things from the stores on +credit, but I find not a merchant will allow me to run up a bill. 'Cash +down; spot cash for everything.' I never was so insulted in all my +life." + +"I am sorry people have seemed inhospitable," began Maclane, "but----" + +"Oh, when it comes to that," Evelyn interrupted, "every one has been +hospitality itself. Even the bank people, while officially they were +insulting me, in the name of their wives and sisters offered to put up +my party in some sort of fashion till we get settled. Hastie refuses to +charge one penny for accommodating us till we find permanent quarters, +though he had the impertinence--I'm sure he didn't mean to be +impertinent--to suggest that we could stay indefinitely if we liked to +work our way as chambermaids and waitresses and dishwashers and things. +Even that impudent editor offered to turn out of the wretched cupboard +of a room at the back of his office where he lives, and sleep on a +printing press if we liked to go stay there. At least a dozen families +have invited us to bunk in their stuffy little cabins till my father's +return. But that isn't my way of doing things at all. I'm accustomed to +having the best and paying for it. Yet not a soul will accept my note or +give me one pennyworth of credit. Just wait till my father hears how I +am being treated!" + +"Ah, your father!" Maclane caught at the idea. "A talk with your father +would clear things up immediately." + +"Yes, of course. But where is my father? how to get at him? I ask, ask, +ask. Everyone has seen him quite recently. Every one assures me he is in +his usual perfect health. Yet when I insist on knowing definitely which +path he took, every one points vaguely north, south, east, west, toward +the mountains." + +"Then, for the present, why not accept that view of it?" the minister +suggested. "It seems to be a matter of general knowledge that he is +well, and off on a prospecting tour--and to a born prospector, such as +is your father, there seem to be no limitations in the way of time, +space, endurance, when searching for treasure. Only one thing can be +predicated with certainty: sooner or later a man must turn up at some +base of supplies to renew his outfit. And then, knowing your anxiety, +the whole district will see to it that he and you are put into +communication with each other." + +Miss Durant moved her daintily shod feet impatiently. "I'm not +accustomed to waiting for anything that money can procure me. Why can't +I send messengers flying to recall him, in every direction where there +is a trail? One would think that hordes of these out-at-elbow camp +hangers-on would be on their knees to me, begging for the chance--yet, +though I have notices posted up everywhere offering a liberal salary and +a thousand dollar bonus, I have had not one single application, not +though I offer for security the Rainbow Mine." + +"Poor child!" Maclane looked at her compassionately, wondering in what +way the bitter truth might be most gently broken to her, and examining +his own honest conscience to know if his should be the task. Before this +was clear to him, however, to his infinite relief he saw the handsome +person of the Sergeant, now clad in full uniform, coming up the garden +path. "Why not take our friend Scarlett into our counsels?" he hastened +to suggest. + +"What! That insolent young man who pretended to take service with me!" +Miss Durant ignored the soldier's military salute. + +"My dear," remonstrated the good Maclane, "our friend is greeting you." + +"Ah, Sergeant," cried Evelyn, with hauteur, "I did not see you! That is +to say, in my world a lady does not see a gentleman until she recognizes +him." + +"Faith, then, I'd best make myself invisible, lest when recognized I +mayn't be seen." Scarlett turned to go. + +"Oh, please remain," pleaded Maclane, "and help me advise with Miss +Durant. Pending her father's arrival, she finds herself, er--financially +embarrassed--or rather at a loss to proportion her finances to her wants +in the style to which she is accustomed. Now what do you suggest?" + +"The first word lies with you, Dominie." His back toward the two, +Scarlett had seated himself on the veranda steps and was playing with +Telegraph and Wrangel, who, after a series of critical sniffings, had +taken him unreservedly into their favor. + +"Oh, not with me; not with any son of man," hastily disclaimed Maclane, +who quite forgot that he had tried to throw the responsibility on +Scarlett. "First always comes prayer. Take your troubles, my daughter, +to the Divine Footstool." + +"Oh, of course," replied Evelyn, petulantly, "I always say my prayers, +and make the responses in church. But just now I'm asking you how I am +to pay for daily bread." + +"Well," Scarlett considered, "I should advise--to begin with--well----" + +"You've said well twice," Evelyn sharply pulled him up. "Best let well +alone." + +"Pardon," retorted Scarlett. "Truth lies at the bottom of my well." + +In spite of herself Evelyn smiled, and perceiving his advantage he went +on: "After all, well is the best beginning when you can't find a better. +Why not for the present--just for a lark, you know--try roughing it?" + +"Roughing it!" echoed Evelyn, in dismay. "Wouldn't that be a bit rough?" + +"That's where the lark comes in," Scarlett assured her. "And we'd all +make it as smooth as we know how." + +"A capital idea!" Maclane slapped his knee and looked toward the +sweet-pea vines as if calling on them to agree with him. +"So--er--original. Think what letters you can write to your friends at +home, Miss Durant. And then that is the only way to get the +full--er--bouquet of a country, so to speak; not from the tourist +standpoint, but by living the life of the people of any class who, by +their work, are making it." + +Miss Durant frowned, pondered a little, then smiled. "I rather like the +notion. We came here largely to do good, and it will make the +inhabitants feel more at ease; bridge over the social difference, as it +were, if I adopt their mode of life. I really am very democratic." + +"Then that's where ye'll feel out of place," Scarlett remarked. +"Wherever the surface is flat as a billiard table, as regards +conditions, all class distinctions being wiped out, it's there that +aristocracy begins. The democrats insist on it!" + +"Perhaps I can accommodate myself even to your idea of aristocracy," +Evelyn remarked, ironically. "The first question is, can we find a +suitable dwelling?" + +"I've been investigating," answered Scarlett, "and I find at Lost Shoe +Creek there is an abandoned cabin ye can have rent free; a really very +decent affair 'twill be with a little patching, which the boys will be +only too proud to lend a hand with." + +Evelyn gasped. "And you call that suitable for _me_!" + +Scarlett shrugged his shoulders. "This is the wilderness, my lady." + +"My dear," interposed Maclane, "you must remember that building is a +costly matter. Even unskilled labor, when you can obtain it, commands +five dollars a day. Talk of democracy; no man here is looking for a +day's wage at carpentering, when any turn of the pick and shovel may +make him a Croesus! Make up your mind to it that the Sergeant is +offering you the equivalent of New York's most costly hostelry." + +"Oh, very well!" Miss Durant condescended to the cabin. "I suppose we +can have tents for the servants? I shall need two women besides Sarah." + +"Pardon, miss." At her name, the maid's stout form appeared from behind +the angle of the veranda, where she had been conducting a discreet +flirtation with the waterman, who with a bucket supported by a frame on +wheels and drawn by eight frisky little huskies, supplied Perdu with +water from the lake at five cents the pail. "Do not count on me, miss. +When my month is up I am looking to settle down on my own account." + +"You are going to desert me? You are planning to set up in business, +Sarah?" asked Evelyn, dismayed. + +"Business!" Sarah laughed, scornfully. "With men growing on the bushes, +as one might say." + +"You don't mean to say you are going to get married?" + +"Why not me as well as the next lady, miss, and sooner than some, in a +place where ladies is valued far more for their practical abilities than +for mere youth and skin-deep beauty. I am told that two French-Canadian +gentlemen, who are starting rival laundries, came to blows about me in +the Pioneer Bakery last night; this gentleman with the waterworks +concession has just passed some extremely gratifying remarks about +me--though my own preference is for a Scotch gentleman with religious +views and a copper proposition. Dear knows one needs something stable to +tie up to in this outlandish place, where day and night get all mixed +up!" + +"But, Sarah," Evelyn laughed, "you know you haven't changed your watch +hands since we left the Grand Central Station." + +"Time is time, miss," stated Sarah, "and twisting the hands of a watch +don't affect it. I've always heard that mining camps was immoral places, +and I'll answer for it this monkeying-with-the-clock business was +invented by some scapegrace that wanted to deceive his poor wife about +the hour he got home at night. But my choice, whichever I decide on, +won't take me in that way!" She shook her umbrella with a mixture of +coquetry and warning in the direction of the waterman. + +Again Evelyn laughed, rather helplessly. "And I have been so indulgent +with you, allowing you to gratify your crude taste for colors, where any +other mistress would have insisted on black, serge or alpaca, with at +most for your bonnet a quill or wing. However, I mustn't stand in your +light, Sarah." + +"You can't, miss," the maid informed her, respectfully, but with +finality. "As for deserting you, as a married lady I shall only be too +happy to chaperon you till your father gets back or till you settle down +on your own account. And to start with, though my month isn't up, let me +give you a bit of advice as from one lady to another. Policemen," she +eyed Scarlett with disparagement, "are all very well in their way, but +as from my own experience I know they are apt to be triflers, +particularly on promotion. Measured by a New York figure of speech among +us below-stairs ladies, miss, I myself wouldn't think of permitting an +arm with fewer than three stripes on it round my waist." + +On this Scarlett assured Sarah, to her great indignation, that she, at +any rate, would be safe from his advances, his arm not being long +enough to meet her figure-of-speech's measurements. When she had +returned to the waterman, Evelyn, recovering from the indignant +embarrassment into which Sarah's advice had thrown her, sighed: "Such an +admirable maid! However will my hair get dressed?" + +"Do it yourself," suggested Scarlett. "I always do mine." A girl in a +red cloak just then happening to pass by he beckoned her. "I think after +all I can find some one to do your work. Come here, Gelly. Miss Durant +wants to talk with you." + +Evelyn surveyed the girl's unkempt, though now sober comeliness +dubiously. "She doesn't look very---- However, is she willing, clean and +honest?" + +"No, I ain't," snapped out Gelly, irritated by the inspection. "Not one +of 'em. I'm as bad as they make 'em!" + +"Do you mean to tell me----" Evelyn's voice dropped to a shocked +whisper. "Sergeant, have you dared recommend me a young person who is +not--not virtuous?" + +"But she has so many other virtues," pleaded Scarlett for his protegee, +"I thought ye might give her a chance." He appealed to Sarah, who had +drawn near. "Perhaps ye'll let me explain to you as being the older +woman." + +Sarah pursed her lips primly. "There's some things I'll never be old +enough to hear." + +"I beg your pardon, heartily," Scarlett was heard quietly to say. + +"I am by no means sure that I shall grant it," replied Miss Durant, with +a haughty toss of the head. + +"Oh, I was addressing Gelly here," he hastened to set her straight. "I +had no right to let her be present at her own dissection." + +"Wait!" Evelyn had an inspiration. "I spend a week every Lent in a +Settlement, and we came up here to do good, so why not----" + +"Now, look here!" Confronting her, arms akimbo, Gelly let loose the +coarsely expressed, though not wholly unjustifiable, anger that in +deference to Maclane and Scarlett she had been trying to restrain. "You +better just dry up on that good-doin' proposition, else it ull be the +worse fer yer round these diggin's! I know yer kind. I was in a Home +oncet, and they came and sang to us, sometimes in fine duds ter show +thet they regarded us like as their equals, which is lies! And sometimes +dressed, oh my! so goody-goody plain, ter show thet rich folk don't +reely care fer silk and sealskin--which is lies! And then they sent me +to a convent, and the Sisters, they meant all right, but they cheated +the doctor about the medicines they put in his prescriptions to save +money fer the Church, and kidded to the saints about their souls. Souls! +Shucks! Thar was a missioner oncet who thought she'd got a holt of me +all right, all right. She were a-prospectin' ter launder my soul and +show it tied up with baby-blue ribbons and sashayed with sanctity as a +prize sample to the Lord. Want ter know what I done ter her? Not a +thing, you betcherlife! Only smashed her face with a sody-water bottle! +Soft drinks, cos thet kind puts most heft in the bottle and least ter +the booze. See? Now you better get busy and earn your own salt, virtuous +ef you're so plumb struck on virtue, and ef not, anyway----" + +A firm hand on her shoulder cut her short, as, wheeling her +right-about-face, Scarlett sternly bade her, "Come!" And, like a little +cowering dog about to be whipped for a victory in which, while half +ashamed of it, it wholly glories, Gelly meekly followed him. + +The color which the girl's attack had driven from Evelyn's face came +flooding back as she turned reproachfully upon Maclane: "And you never +said a word to stop her!" + +"Ah," replied the minister, "I have learned that I always gain so much +from listening to the other fellow's point of view." + +"But surely"--for Miss Durant was not a little proud of her capacity for +"emanating gracious influences," as the dilettanti of her kind were apt +to phrase it--"surely you believe in missionary work; in doing good?" + +Before replying, Maclane stooped forward and drew back a spray of vine +that was spreading itself obtrusively over a little pink-faced daisy +making a sturdy effort to look up to the god of light. "The best we can +do is to try to give created things their chance. And in the end, my +dear," he patted Evelyn's hand kindly, "it's the missionaries, the +good-doers, to whom the good is done." + +"Gelly," Scarlett meanwhile was admonishing his stubborn charge, "in all +this lowdown district there isn't a man so mean he could be hired to +tell that poor girl yonder the truth about her father till we've made +her feel at home among us and somehow fitted her to bear it. Now, Gelly, +are you, a girl that has known trouble, going to be meaner than the +men?" + +Gelly looked at him. "Better hev yer uniform let out fer the wings ter +sprout," she advised him, with unfeigned homage, if with mocking +tongue. "As fer thet thar stuck-up piece----" A rude grimace completed +her estimate of Evelyn, but in the midst of it she paused suddenly, her +ill-bred thumb dropping from her saucy nose. "I'm jiggered ef I don't +b'lieve yer gone on her!" + +"That's neither here nor there," answered the young soldier. "I'll lock +up your tongue in jail if it disturbs the peace, but I'd so much sooner +put you on your honor, Gelly." + +"Till next time," promised Gelly, "yer kin let it go at that!" Then, as +she went down the road, she burst into loud sobbing: "And I cud be +decent ef some decent woman ud believe in me!" + +Maclane, who had been considering, had a new idea. "I wonder if Chilkat +Jo couldn't be persuaded to help you, Miss Durant; that is, if you feel +you must have service." + +"Of course I must," said Evelyn. "The orphans have been brought up to +work, and make themselves useful, but they are my guests, my partners in +this expedition; and naturally I cannot expect them to do things that I +should not do myself." + +"Naturally," Maclane agreed with her, more readily than she deemed +politeness required. Going to the door he opened it, and called to some +one within. "O Joseph! Chilkat Jo!" + +The trader, who had been enjoying the hospitality of the mission, came +forth with alacrity. Seeing Maclane, "Godam you! what do you want?" he +asked, in tones at once amiable and fraught with high respect. + +"Oh, Joseph, what expressions!" The minister shook his head. "You see," +he explained to Evelyn, "like all the Indians, he learned bad habits +from the white traders before the missionaries came his way. I sometimes +wonder, if any Indians survive civilization, whether morally they will +recover from contact with the whites. But, come, Joseph, our friends +here are looking for a handy man to----" + +"Mally them, eh?" inquired the Indian, nimbly. After a quick glance at +Evelyn he shook his head disparagingly. "Damn pletty gal, but not good +business ploposition!" He then turned a considering attention upon +Sarah, and nodded his head approvingly. "She all light. Fat squaw! +Skukum squaw. Not lightfoot gadabout! Damfine cook, eh?" he inquired of +the maid. "Squat by fire, fly venison, leady chiefs leturn flom hunting? +Shake!" He held out a covenanting hand. + +"What, me become the bride of a heathen!" shrieked Sarah, horrified. + +"Me no heathen," indignantly protested Chilkat Jo. "Me swear, gamble, +dlink like hell, plenty wives, laise Cain, all same as white man." + +"Joseph, my son, I will revise your code later," Maclane told him. +"Meanwhile, this is not a marriage proposition. Are you willing to help +Miss Durant here with her household chores--as a favor, you know," he +hastened to add. + +"Not as a favor at all," broke in Evelyn, in a high, hard voice. "I wish +to engage a man-servant, at good wages; one who knows his place and can +take orders, and----" + +Her voice died before the Indian's fixed regard. "No squaw say to me, +Mush! Get up, there! like dog. Mush! Lie down like dog. Me damn high +muckamuck Skukum chief!" Wrapping more closely about him the blanket +that, with a boiled shirt and store trousers, formed his costume, he +re-entered the mission with the unsurpassable dignity of his race. + +Evelyn rose without a glance in the direction of Scarlett, who had +rejoined them. "Come, Sarah. Thank you very much for all your good +offices, Mr. Maclane. I anticipate the suggestion you and the Sergeant +are obviously about to make: that I cook, wash, scrub, sew for myself." + +"Considering the conditions of camp life, my dear, it might be wise," +acquiesced the minister, as he shook hands. + +"Just for a lark, ye know," murmured Scarlett, pacifically, saluting. +But though her pretty lip trembled, Evelyn held her head high and passed +him without a sign. + + + + +VII + +PEACE, PERFECT PEACE + + +Feeling that on her father's return she could requite the obligation a +thousandfold, Evelyn consented to remain with her party as guests of +Perdu's Grand Hotel while the shack at Lost Shoe Creek was being made +ready for their tenancy. + +Perdu, lying on a large lake of the same name, is port of entry, and +base of supplies, to the goldfields beyond. Being at that time in the +third year of its existence it had a highly developed social and +commercial life. For in its initial season a camp is likely to be a +bedlam of frenzied maniacs shrieking, Gold, gold, gold! The second +season witnesses a slump proportioned to the inflated values of its +predecessor. But if it weathers to a third, then some sort of poise is +attained, as steady industries develop and existence seeks a normal +plane. The fancy-women who flock wherever the nuggets are thickest, now +segregate themselves in a secluded quarter of the township; married men +send for their families, while the unblessed bachelor whistles "The Girl +I Left Behind Me," or pays attention to the schoolteacher. On all sides +one sees the effort, sometimes pitiful, always human and worthy, from +the harsh matrix of the wilderness to wrest a home. And then follow the +petty complexities of a miscalled civilization. To Evelyn's surprise, +after the first warm tender of hospitality, she encountered the same +restricted social conditions in Perdu that obtain in villages on the +"outside," as the world beyond the mountains in northern latitudes is +termed. Women left cards on her; heads of rival cliques warned her one +against the other; the wife of the principal grocer planned a tea in her +honor. + +On a brilliant summer morning, without cloud or shadow, mountains and +valleys alike lying exposed to a broadside of sun that had been warming +to its work since four hours after midnight, Evelyn set out to return +the visit of the town surveyor's wife. A short cut through the clustered +willow bushes brought her to the back door of their cabin, where she +came upon the hostess at her washtubs, while from the doorstep the town +surveyor was cleaning his teeth publicly. Wholly unembarrassed, the +good people greeted their visitor with cordiality, and conducted her +into the living-room, where babies, cot beds and cooking commingled with +such observances of decency and taste as a woman of refinement, no +matter how overworked, seems somehow generally able to contrive. In +point of cultivation, so Evelyn soon discovered, her new acquaintances +were fully her equal. Delighted as they professed themselves to be that +her stay would be of long duration, yet to the plans she outlined for +her projected improvement of the district they showed an almost marked +indifference. When she dropped hints about the free library she intended +to establish, Mr. Grayson began quite inappositely to brag of having +made more money the previous winter by lumbering than in the way of his +profession, owing to the fact that "up here, thank God! no one, man or +woman, loses caste by honest labor of any sort." When she alluded to the +art furniture she thought of importing for her domicile, Mrs. Grayson +cautioned her to be very careful of her lamp chimneys, the commonest +kind costing fifty cents at local stores, because, so the storekeepers +said, of the exorbitant freight rates that prevailed. Also she advised +Evelyn to start right in and do her own washing, as the local laundries +charged something over four dollars for a dozen simple pieces. When Miss +Durant mentioned the theatre she was arranging to have built, the opera +troupe with which she already was negotiating for a series of +performances to beguile the long Klondike winter, the Graysons merely +said, almost with sarcasm, "How nice!" adding that the camp contrived to +get up some fair entertainments of its own in the hall over the +truckman's stable. Coming to the conclusion that they were jealous lest +her advent should undermine the social prestige which, so Hastie had +informed her, they enjoyed, Evelyn rose to take her leave and, kindly +wishful to put them at their ease, admired the babies, the bearskin +rugs, the horns of mountain sheep and goat upon the wall, the view, the +two geraniums in pots upon the window-sill; accepted an invitation to a +wild-strawberry picnic, offered to teach them bridge, and departed in a +glow of self-gratulation at her tact in dealing with the envious and +small-minded. + +On the hotel piazza she found the minister waiting for her, and with him +Scarlett. To the latter she had not spoken since the day of their +difference, for such she chose to consider it, in regard to Gelly. True, +more than once she had caught sight of him galloping down the road or +striding by on some official errand, but never had she lifted a finger +to delay him, nor he appeared conscious of her presence. + +[Illustration: DEPARTED IN A GLOW OF SELF CONGRATULATION AT HER TACT.] + +Ignoring his greeting, in high good humor with herself and all the +world, Evelyn opened fire. "Mr. Maclane, I wish you would tell that +young man he owes me an apology." + +Scarlett suppressed a gratified smile. "Mr. Maclane, will ye convey to +the speaker that she'll have to prove the debt for me to pay it?" + +"Tell him the last time we met he put me in the wrong," said Evelyn, +prettily, the glow of her goodness toward the envious Graysons still +upon her. "He behaved as though he thought me narrow, contemptible--and +the worst is, the shoe pinches, because in a tiny degree I fear it may +have been true." + +She waited with a charming air of penitence for contradiction, but, to +her astonishment, none came. + +Instead, "I'm a brute, just," Scarlett remorsefully described himself. +"Who am I to hold ye up the looking-glass? I'll never be so rude again." + +"Oh"--Miss Durant stiffened perceptibly--"I do not usually find the +reflection unbearable to contemplate." + +"I've lived so long in the open, in primitive conditions," Scarlett, +unmindful of her interruption, went on, "I always blurt out whatever +pops into my mind. Well, there's precedent. In Eden, Adam must have +called a spade a spade." + +"Ah, my young friend, but there's no record of his having called Eve a +spade," observed Maclane, with a twinkle in his eye. + +"Faith, I'll drop the spade, then," laughed the Irishman, "if she'll let +me call her Eve!" + +"Tell him," laughed Miss Durant, with heightened color, "that he goes +too far." + +"Tell her I'd go farther--to any lengths, for her, so long as it didn't +take me from her side." + +"Tell him he's kissed the blarney-stone." + +"Tell her I only practiced on it to keep my hand in till she should +come." + +"How dare you!" cried Evelyn, feeling that she ought to be very angry. + +"Come, come, my children, peace," prescribed Maclane. "Miss Durant, I am +here as a petitioner. One of my dear Indians, in fact the sister-in-law +of Chilkat Jo, has a baby----" + +"Velly damfine Clistian baby!" interpolated the trader, who was sitting +on the step near by, whittling out a toy canoe. + +"Oh, Joseph!" the minister protested, "when will you learn that a damn +baby cannot be a Christian baby--nor a Christian baby a damn baby. We +are to baptize the little one this morning," he told Evelyn. "And I am +asked to beg you to stand godmother." + +"For a heathen unregenerate, miss!" Sarah put her head out of the window +just behind the group. "Don't you mix yourself up with that truck!" + +"I'm a bit of a heathen nowadays myself." Maclane stopped Chilkat Jo's +angry outburst. "My dear Indians have converted me." + +"I wonder you aren't afraid of being tried for heresy, sir," commented +Sarah, "talking that loose way." + +"Perhaps I should be," agreed Maclane, "in the cities across yon +mountains. But here they hold us in a charmed circle, and who can escape +their spell?" He pointed to the lake, brilliantly ablaze, like a vessel +holding wondrous depths of color, in which the snow-capped peaks with +their V-shaped crevasses lay mirrored like cameos in turquoise relief. +"My Indians--in my civilized days I used to preach hell-fire to them, +till they scorned me for it, crying, 'Our children when they die become +birds of song. Why, then, should we give them to you Christians to be +burned?' Then, again, though I knew him to be a saint, dedicated in +Christ's name to the service of his fellow-men, I used to avoid my +brother, the Catholic priest, because his doctrines on the surface +differed from my own! Again, my Indians taught me, scoffing, 'If +Christianity makes enemies of her ministers, why, we want none of it.' +Yes, all that I have given the heathen have they requited me a +hundredfold, making me a Christian through the Christ I try to show to +them!" + +"I will do what you ask me only too gladly, Mr. Maclane!" cried Evelyn, +understanding that this was the good minister's way of making peace +between herself and Chilkat Jo. "I shall be proud of my godchild; and I +promise it the finest cup from Tiffany's----" + +"No, no! No presents, please," enjoined Maclane. "Only kindness, +neighborliness, and an appreciation of the heathen virtues. The Sergeant +here has consented to be godfather." + +"The Sergeant!" involuntarily exclaimed Evelyn. + +"Aye! In the short time he has been in charge, he has completely won the +hearts of the tribe of Raven and Frog. No baptism complete without +him." + +"Oh, as a sponsor, I'm painting the town red," admitted the Irishman. +"And the Claim has a regular column of feeble-minded puns upon the +epidemic. Well, I only hope the Scarlett creepers won't turn to Scarlett +runners, in time of battle." + +"I will tell Lallah that you consent. Be ready, both, please, when you +hear the chapel bell," directed the minister, going to the mission. + +Scarlett lingered, but as Evelyn took no notice of him, "Thankee for the +pressing invitation," he remarked, drawing up a chair and seating +himself beside her. "And are ye beginning to feel acclimated among us +savages?" + +"Oh, you are doing your best!" Evelyn assured him. "Though I must say, +even for the wilderness, the ideas of social distinction seem curiously +lax. Why, as his head waiter is off on a spree, Mr. Hastie has offered +me the place--three hundred dollars a month and tips!" + +"Good pay," commented Scarlett. "Why don't ye take it? I'd ask no better +for my own sister, if I had one." + +Evelyn tossed her head. "To pass dishes to unwashed barbarians in +corduroys who gobble off their knives and drink from their saucers. +Even for your own sister," she could not forbear asking, "wouldn't you +consider the situation rather primitive?" + +"I should, and that's the situation's saving grace," he promptly +replied, "since primitive man is woman's best friend, once she makes him +realize she will not let him be her enemy." + +Against her will, Evelyn looked at the speaker with reluctant +admiration, forced to recognize that however ignorant of class +distinctions the poor young man might be, his was certainly no ordinary +mentality. Accordingly, woman-like, she harked back to personalities, +hoping in shallow waters to take him, through his very superiority, at a +disadvantage. "Oh, we have nothing to complain of on the score of +friendliness," she laughed. "Our matrimonial opportunities seem limited +only by the number of single men within proposing radius. No, Sergeant, +I am not the belle. That proud position is disputed by Sarah and the +plainest orphan, who also is the most muscular, because they frankly +tell us, in a land where hired labor is not to be had a man must marry +to get some one to cook and wash for him. However, such few score of +proposals as have come my way, I honestly can brag, are for myself, +since I am not considered a specially useful 'household proposition,' +and oddly enough my great wealth seems not to impress these +poverty-stricken millionaires in the least degree." + +"Oh, I tell ye, in a mining camp one gets down to first principles, or +lack of them," commented the soldier. "It's chaos, till man and woman +together evolve a paradise." + +Evelyn waited, hoping he also would propose to her in order that she +might refuse him, not kindly, with the consideration she had shown the +other poor victims who had laid their hearts at her feet, but with +scathing denunciation of his insolence. Instead of improving his +opportunity, however, the soldier rose. "Ye'll bid me to the wedding, +Miss Durant?" + +"In what capacity--officially, or as a guest?" + +"Not as a mourner, that I swear." + +"I may decide to elope." + +"Impossible! In my bally those that want a marriage license have to come +to me." + +"I've always had a leaning toward the nobility," remarked Evelyn, rather +maliciously. "Are there no men of title in the camp?" + +"A handful or so of younger sons," Scarlett informed her, "and a +pathetic lot in the main they are. 'Remittance Men,' we call them, +because they are on allowance to stay away from home, avowedly that in a +new country they may turn over a new leaf, but in reality that their +families may be spared the shame of witnessing their final +disintegration. Be good to such when ye come across them, Miss Durant, +for the sake of what they ought to be, but don't marry them, for the +whole lot of them together wouldn't make one decent man." + +Evelyn laughed, but her face crimsoned. "Dear, dear! And suppose, after +all, you disapprove my choice?" + +"Faith, I'll exercise my official prerogative and take ye in charge +myself! Meanwhile, I must turn my attention toward yonder suspect." He +indicated a person with the deportment of a personage, who, dressed in +the height of fashion, was strolling, tourist-wise, kodak in hand, down +the village street. + +"Why, who can that be?" Evelyn leaned forward with interest. + +"That's my own question. He travels under the name of the Count St. +Hilaire." + +"There's something very familiar about his appearance. I wonder if I +mayn't have met him at Newport, or Washington. If so, bring him here +that I may renew the acquaintance, Sergeant, please." + +"I'll search his title first." Scarlett ran down the veranda steps. "Now +look out for trouble," he muttered to himself, seeing the stranger pause +opposite a cottage in the Indian quarter, and level his camera at the +totem-pole in front of it. + +A crowd of angry Indians who had been squatting on mats in the sunshine, +making moccasins and weaving baskets, instantly rose and swarmed about +him, vehemently protesting in Chinook against this insult to their +sacred emblems, Chilkat Jo acting as interpreter. + +"Shame, shame, cursed shame to photoglaph the Laven and the Flog!" he +cried, alluding to the totem's tribal device. "Velly godam Clistian +shame!" + +"Hold on!" cried Scarlett, impartially, interposing his tall form +between the evidently frightened foreigner and the avenging group. + +"Mais--ze Klondike barber-pole--I no steal him; je vous jure, gendarme! +I make ze photographie!" + +"Yes, but unless you pay them for it to show your good will, the Indians +think you are marking them for death," the Sergeant instructed him. +"All right, honest Injun," he in turn assured the crowd. "Only +sun-picture. Big man pay you big money." + +"Why," exclaimed Evelyn's astonished voice at Scarlett's elbow, "it is +my courier, Alphonse--he has let his beard grow! That is the kodak he +stole from me!" + +"Sacre papier, ze mademoiselle!" shrieked the man, recognizing her; and +off he set as fast as his trembling limbs could carry him, Scarlett, +reinforced by the children of the Raven and the Frog, in hot pursuit. + +"It's only what you might have expected, miss," remarked Sarah, +consolingly, as in mortified silence Evelyn returned to the veranda. +"The French is a deceitful nation. They always have to talk in a foreign +language so you can't understand 'em." + +"It's all right!" Flushed and breathless, Scarlett came up. "He ran +plump into Barney's arms. Here's your camera, Miss Durant. Later I'll +get you to appear against the Count--just a formality, you know." + +"I shall do nothing of the sort!" declared Evelyn loftily. "Instead, you +can fine me any amount you please for contempt of court. You doubtless +will enjoy doing it! As for the kodak, you can give it back to Alphonse. +I shall never touch it again!" + +"Miss, you are ungrateful," Sarah reproved her, "and the young man +wounded in the fracas!" + +"Wounded!" cried Evelyn, in dismay. + +"Oh," disclaimed Scarlett, who was shaking his fingers as if to cast a +pain from them, "it's nothing. Only in protecting the Count's beauty +from an irate populace I gave my wrist a twist." + +"Oh, a sprained wrist is nothing to boast of," derided Miss Durant. + +"That's why I wasn't boasting of it." Scarlett turned to go. + +"Nevertheless"--Evelyn put a detaining hand lightly on his arm--"I took +a course in First Aid to the Injured to fit myself for this life, and I +know that a sprain ought to be treated with something, for fear +something or other should set in. Sarah," she asked in a whisper, "what +treatment does one give a sprain?" + +"Fermentation," prompted the maid, sagaciously. + +"That's it: fomentation! Please, Sarah, go fetch me--whatever one needs +for fomentation." + +"Believe me, it is not necessary." Scarlett gave his hand another shake. +"It soon will be all right." + +"Sit here!" Evelyn motioned him, peremptorily, to a chair beside her. +"No, on this side. A soldier's first duty should be to obey." + +"Ah, well, my arms are ever at your service, even in times of peace." +Scarlet leaned back, luxuriously, as she rolled up his sleeve. + +"Of course, you understand I should do this for anybody," observed +Evelyn, sponging his wrist with the warm water Sarah had provided. + +"Of course, ye understand I should fight in defence of anybody's +property," he matched her. "'Tis for that I draw my pay." + +"Is it tender?" inquired Evelyn, pillowing his hand upon her lap and +dabbing it softly with a towel. + +"Tender's not half the word for it." The patient turned his face aside. +"It's the limit of tenderness, and has to be treated on the homeopathic +principle." + +"Miss, he makes light of it!" cried Sarah, who, under a harsh exterior, +was, by nature, kind. "But his poor brow is simply wrung with anguish." +She mopped the beads of perspiration that stifled mirth had brought upon +the Sergeant's comely forehead. + +"Let us talk of other things to distract him," ordained Evelyn. "Come, +Sergeant, tell us all about yourself. Begin at the very beginning." + +"Faith, like most babies," he complied, "I began by being the child of +my parents." + +"Poor but honest folk, no doubt. Go on!" + +"They died before my remembrance of them. I infer the honesty and +inherit the poverty. I was brought up by an aunt and uncle, who didn't +want me. One time when I came home from school for the holidays my aunt +just looked up from her novel and remarked, 'Oh, Jerry, how dirty you +are!' So I ran away to make my fortune." + +"Which consists of something over a dollar a day and your keep." + +"And the prospect of a pension for my widow." + +"Your widow!" Evelyn dropped the hand she was engaged in bandaging. "I +didn't know----" + +"Oh, I haven't got one yet," Scarlett hastened to assure her. "But I +shall, please God, if I live long enough." + +"Sergeant, you are talking nonsense," said Evelyn. "Pain has made you +flighty." + +"'Way up in the seventh heaven," assented Scarlett. "Don't be so cruel +as to call me down." + +"There!" Having stuck a final pin in the handkerchief she had bound +about the wrist, Evelyn folded the soldier's arm across his breast. +"Sarah, go fetch me another sash, will you? I'm going to use this one +for a sling." + +"Which color shall I get you, miss?" asked the maid, preparing to obey. + +Evelyn shrugged her shoulders with indifference. "I don't care--though I +should think your own taste would lead you to see that blue goes best +with this frock. There, Sergeant"--having made a creditable cradle of +the ribbon for the soldier's arm and knotted it behind his neck, she +came in front of him and surveyed her work admiringly--"that will do, I +think. Now, remember, it must not be unbound for four and twenty hours. +Promise! I wish you would stop laughing in that silly way and tell me if +it feels all right, really." + +"Joyous, beyond words," Scarlett affirmed. "I only wish I were that chap +in the mythology with a hundred hands--and every blessed one of them in +need of fomentation." + +"I suppose you say these inane things to me because you think me +incapable of appreciating sense," commented Miss Durant. "Just because +all my poor little efforts to do good up here have seemed superfluous. +Oh, yes"--she checked the protest that rose to his lips--"you all have +been kindness personified, but I do not think you quite understand me," +she complained, with the injured quaver of one who at heart knows +herself to be understood only too well. "I'm really not such an +overbearing, ill-natured girl; only, I acknowledge, a wee bit spoiled. +You see, after my mother died, when I was still a very small child, in +Colorado, my father sent me to a fashionable school in San Francisco, +and there I began to feel that in Colorado we had been quite savage. +Then, in my early 'teens I was put at another still more fashionable +school in Chicago, where I was made to feel that in San Francisco I had +been hopelessly Western. Next, I moved on to an ultra-fashionable school +in New York, where it was tacitly impressed on me that in Chicago we had +been positively vulgar. After this came a course of Dresden, Vienna, +London, Paris, by which I realized that in New York I had been +provincial, crude. On my return I felt myself cosmopolitan, a finished +product. Yet, in this short space up here you all have made me wonder +if, after all, all the time, I have not been a bit of a snob. Yes, you +can't contradict me. I know. A thoroughbred would have taken things as +she found them--would be at home anywhere, while I----" Having amazed +herself far more even than her hearer by this unexpected burst of +confidence, Miss Durant amazed herself still more by an unexpected burst +of tears. + +"Poor child!" Scarlett compassionated her, while liking her thoroughly +for her candor. "Dear, dear little Evelyn, it's libelling yourself you +are, although it's true, and that's the sweetest part of it. Here, take +mine!" As she was hunting, between inconsolable sniffs, for the +handkerchief with which she herself had bandaged him, he tendered her +his own. + +"Oh, the sprain--your wrist!" cried Evelyn, in alarm. + +"That's all right," Scarlett reassured her, while drying her eyes with +the hand he had removed for the purpose from the sling. "It was the +other one that got the twist." + +Evelyn drew back. "You mean you dared let me bind up the wrong one?" + +"Ye made your own selection," Scarlett reminded her, in tones he vainly +tried to render penitent. + +"That you did, miss," corroborated Sarah, coming from the hotel with the +blue sash and tying it about Evelyn's slender waist. + +"Give me back my ribbon, my handkerchief!" demanded Evelyn of Scarlett, +furiously. + +"Not for four and twenty hours," he answered. "Not even for you would I +break a promise to a lady." + +"Never, never, never will I speak to you again!" cried Miss Durant. + +Just then the chapel bell began to ring merrily, and at the same moment +Maclane hurried toward them from the mission, an open hymnal in hand. +"Come, my children, we march in, singing," he explained, pointing toward +the Indians, who were forming in a procession by the chapel door. "As I +am short of hymnals, you and the Sergeant will have to share one, Miss +Durant. Hymn 674. 'Peace, Perfect Peace.'" + +Evelyn stood still. "I absolutely decline to be associated in any way +whatever with Sergeant Scarlett." + +"Oh, my children!" remonstrated the minister. "How can we talk of +missionizing the heathen when the Gentiles so wrangle among themselves! +Ready, please! Fall into line!" Striking up the tune, he led the way. + +And, somehow, in despite of her protest, Miss Durant found herself +following, side by side with the hated young soldier, sharing the same +hymnal, moreover, and joining her sweet voice with his manly one in +praise of "Peace, Perfect Peace." + + + + +VIII. + +AT THE SIGN OF THE TEMPERANCE SALOON. + + +"One sandwich, pie an' corfee, three-fifty! One ham an' eggs, pie, +corfee, five! One whiskey on a doctor's prescription, two bits!" Thus +Gumboot Annie scored off their reckonings to a party of prospectors who +had patronized her lunch-tent, whereupon the prospectors meekly handed +their pokes across the counter for her to weigh out the dust, according +to her own liberal interpretation. + +"Halt!" Barney's rich brogue rang out upon the trail. "Twinty minutes +for refrishmints by request, for man and baste!" + +"What's up now?" Gumboot Annie put her head out to reconnoitre. "Why, +who's thet blamed cop runnin' in?" + +"Why, it's pop!" in dismay, cried Gelly, who was assisting the mother of +Klondike Delmonicos in the capacity of bean-slinger. "My pop!" She began +to cry. + +"Aye, it's Bully Nick, all right," corroborated a prospector, selecting +a wooden toothpick with nicety. "They're fixin' ter extrydite him. +Charge of murder. Oh, he'll be hanged this time fer sure!" he added, +with relish. + +"Now, wouldn't thet jostle yer!" exclaimed Gumboot Annie, generally. +"But didn't the stiff he peppered get well some?" + +"Yep, and they let off th' Bully on parole. But ef th' all-fired fool +didn't celebrate his freedom by gittin' crazy drunk and shootin' at a +United States Deputy Marshal fer targit! The marshal was a mean man an' +deserved ter die--but Nick should 'a' left it to a meaner man to shoot +him." + +"A United States Marshal!" exclaimed Gumboot Annie, scornfully. "Shucks! +Drunk or sober, I thought Nick had more sense." + +"Nick shoots blind when"--her informant considerately lowered his +voice--"when he's on the rampage for Dandy Raish. Nick has sworn ter +kill Raish on sight along of Gelly." + +"Gumboot Annie! Gumboot Annie!" Bill's eager voice rang out on the clear +air, as he came running toward the tent. + +"We're planning for to give Bully Nick a handsome send-off. Rustle, +won't you? and get us up an A1, gilt-edged blow-out!" + +"Betcherboots I will," promised Gumboot Annie, cordially, adding that +the Bully would be a great loss, socially, if hanged. + +"'Twas the drink done it--and I cud ha' kept him from it," moaned Gelly, +rocking and wringing her hands. + +"Here, stop whining and make the sandwiches. Better git down behind the +stove whar yer pop can't see yer!" Gumboot Annie gave the girl an +ungentle but not unkindly push, and thrusting a carving-knife into her +hand, bade her, as it might be the old man's last square feed upon this +planet, not to spare the butter. + +"Gents, I thankee hearty for these here evidences of popularity," cried +the Bully, as they placed him at the head of the well-filled board +inside the lunch-tent. "Gents, go thou an' do likewise, but don't git +pinched! Ah, well, ef I'd got my deserts I guess I'd'a' bin strung up +twenty years ago." + +"Better late than nivver," politely remarked Barney, who, as an honored +guest, by his gift of repartee was contributing greatly to the meal's +hilarity. + + * * * * * + +"Mush, get up, there! Godam you, Teleglaph and Langel. Mush!" Thus +Chilkat Jo might have been heard profanely to encourage to increase of +speed on a pious errand the parson's dogs that now were drawing a sled +beside which the parson and the trader were running on their snow-shoes +toward Gumboot Annie's tent. For all this took place many miles from +Perdu and Lost Shoe Creek, on the heights where the snow still lingered +in heavy, frozen masses, though the valleys below were abloom with +summer flowers. "Him velly damn sick," he pityingly added, indicating +the bundle wrapped in furs, strapped to the sled. + +"Very sick, indeed, I fear, my son; but not damn sick," the minister +corrected. "Perhaps we can get succor here. Whoa, Telegraph, Wrangle, +lads, whoa!" Halting opposite the tent, he read its legend with +surprise, "TEMPERANCE SALOON. GUMBOOT ANNIE, PROPRIETOR." + +"Why, my daughter," he accosted the hostess, who, hearing sleigh-bells +and scenting custom, had come forth, "does this indicate a happy change +of heart and saving grace? You are taking thought to save your soul?" + +"Save my skin," retorted the Gumbooted one, spitting with an accurate +estimate of distances. "That blamed Scarlett was making things hot for +me, so I jest wheeled the hull outfit acrost the boundary!" She pointed +to an old Russian landmark, protruding like a tiny headstone from the +snow, and followed by a line of rude pickets, the records of a +surveying party, that straggled, single file, downhill, dividing the +United States from British North America. "Lasky's a prohibition +proposition, y'know." + +"Whatever the motive, the action is most praiseworthy," Maclane +commended her, "since your income must be greatly decreased by foregoing +the sale of intoxicants." + +"Now wouldn't thet jar yer!" demanded Gumboot Annie, humorously, of the +landscape. "I ain't up here fer me health," she then reminded the +minister. "Fines or license, it's all one ter me. And prohibition, or +wide open, you betcherlife the boys has jest the same old thirst." + +"H'm! Well, for the present I will waive the ethical aspect of the +argument," replied Maclane, "and will beg you to sell me some stimulant +for medicinal purposes. We have a lad here whom we found in trouble by +the wayside; he is very low----" + +"What's it a case of?" Gumboot Annie leaned across the counter to +inspect the bundle on the sled, from which Jo was now unharnessing the +dogs. "Drink or scurvy?" + +"Neither," replied Maclane, raising the patient's head; "but, I fear, +foul play." + +"Now don't that pa'alyze yer!" + +[Illustration: "WHY, MY DAUGHTER, DOES THIS DENOTE A HAPPY CHANGE OF +HEART AND SAVING GRACE? YOU ARE TAKING THOUGHT TO SAVE YOUR SOUL?"] + +From a bottle she took from its hiding-place, Gumboot Annie poured out a +generous dose. "Here, Ikey, take that ter the kid." + +"Whiskey, two bits!" cried Ikey, from sheer force of habit, as he +obeyed. + +"Stop thet, yer little skin!" Leaning far over the counter, to the +endangerment of her balance, his employer gave him a smart cuff. "I'm as +close as they make 'em when I'm dealing with the healthy, but I've yet +ter see myself take money from a dyin' man." + +"He told me to meet him here to-day," gasped Walter Pierce, as Maclane +bent over him with skilful ministry. + +"Who, my son?" + +"Hush! Wait--it is a secret! I have a confession to make." + +When Gumboot Annie and her assistant had withdrawn, and the Indian had +gone to a distance to feed the dogs, Walter tried to speak. + +"It was the drink!" + +"It generally is," commented the parson, mournfully. + +"I had an errand for another man--one of the greatest importance. He +trusted me. Some men suspected his secret and dogged my footsteps, +entered into conversation with me--pretended to take a fancy to me--to +show themselves my friends--good fellows. They made me drink with them. +Then I, in my turn, stood treat to keep my end up and show myself a good +fellow." + +"Alas!" whispered the minister, as Walter paused for breath, "how many +lads have I seen go down to the lowest depths, under that banner bearing +the devil's own device: To show one's self a good fellow!" + +"Then, when they had got me where they wanted me, drunk," continued the +sick man, "they robbed me. Oh, not of money--for though they made me +play, they let me win--but of my honor----" + +"Oh, no, my son! It was you who threw away your own honor." + +"If only I had thought of that at the time! Now they have his +secret--his samples. They'll know about his mine! Tell him----" + +The minister worked over the fainting form with tender skill. At last, +when a glimmer of consciousness returned, "Now, my son," he said, "you +owe it to the man you have wronged to make restitution. Tell me who he +is, and what I am to say to him." + +Walter gathered his strength for a supreme effort. "Durant," at last he +managed to gasp. "Tell his daughter----" He fell back in the stupor that +precedes death. + +"O Joseph! Chilkat Jo!" called Maclane. And when the Indian, obeying +with alacrity, replied, "Godam you, what you want?" he did not stay to +reprove him, only bade him, "Run hot-foot to Lost Shoe Creek and fetch +Miss Durant. Tell her I have a message from her father!" + +When the trader had set off, the speed of his winged-footed race +redoubled by good will, Maclane, having drawn the sled to a spot where a +clump of evergreens would act as wind-brake, went to the Customs Office +on the crest of the hill in search of remedies. + +Seeing the coast clear, old Blenksoe, who for some time past had been +hovering about the place, now came to the lunch counter, where he soon +was joined by his arch-accomplice in villainy, Dandy Raish. "Hello, old +tortoise!" was the hitter's salutation as his partner sauntered up. +"I've been waiting for you this ever so long." + +"Thet you hevn't," contradicted Blenksoe. "Not that it matters--but you +allus were a fust-class liar!" + +"Some folks have not enough imagination to lie," retorted the Dandy, +paring his nails. "But chuck all that and get to business!" + +"Business! Hully gee! Anythin' doin'? Am I in it?" + +"Sure--if you can deliver the goods! Order the drinks, won't you?" + +"Say, you got a tocter's brescription for liquor?" queried Ikey, when +old Blenksoe did as he was bidden. + +"I'll sure hev an undertaker's stiff-ticket ef I don't get it," replied +Blenksoe, as he carried the medicinal doses over to the bench where the +Dandy had ensconced himself. + +"Best stay out here where no one can hear us," explained the latter. + +"That suits me all right," agreed Blenksoe, lighting a pipe and settling +himself on the Canadian side. "Thar's a warrant out fer my arrest in +'Lasky." + +"I thought you were _persona non grata_ in the Dominion also, since that +hold-up of the stage near Lost Shoe Creek." + +"Thet hold-up you put me up to, while you sneaked in the bushes. You'd +orter be pinched yerself fer takin' a rake-off. Ain't the receiver as +bad as the thief?" + +"Piano, pianissimo," advised Raish. "One never knows who's within +earshot." He glanced about him fearfully. + +"Thet's so," admitted Blenksoe. "I declar, what between Kennedy on the +one hand and Uncle Sam on t'other, and both a-gittin' so all-fired +pertikeler, every day makes it harder for a crook ter make an honest +livin'." He lighted an ill-smelling pipe. "Well, Dandy, fire away." + +"Have you seen Durant lately?" + +"Durant? Who th' hell's Durant?" + +"Your partner, Lucky. Durant is his outside name." + +"You don't say! Oh, Lucky, he ain't no good no more. Lucky's off his +nut. Went stark, ravin' mad the day his gal came inter camp. I've shuk +Lucky." + +"More fool you. He's found a mine!" + +"I dessay. As usual, a pocket, or a pot of gold eagles at th' fut of a +rainbow." + +"Not a bit of it. A bona-fide mine. What d'you make of these samples?" + +Through his prospector's glass, Blenksoe examined the small clods of +earth Raish held out to him, then uttered the profanest expletive at his +command. + +"Free gold, assayin' sixty ter th' ton!" + +"You'd better believe it is!" The Dandy pocketed the samples which +Blenksoe was eyeing hungrily. + +"Say, I'd like a sample ter test. Oh, well, as you say! How'd you come +by 'em?" + +"I got them with the information from a kid whom Lucky has taken in on +the ground floor." + +"You mean ter tell me the stiff hes shuk me, his pard an' dearest +friend?" Blenksoe seized his gun. "I'll fix Lucky!" + +"Keep quiet, you old fool! Durant don't owe you a bean, and you know it. +And the way you've always grafted on him he is not likely to run after +you to put you wise." + +"Thet's so. Whar is the mine?" + +"Ah, that's just where my information stops short. If I knew I shouldn't +need you." + +"Well, I s'pose the game is ter lay low, rubber round till we locate the +claim, and jump it." + +"And have that blasted Scarlett butting in? Guess again! Claim-jumping +don't go, now the M. P. are in charge. We have to do something far +cleverer. I'll tell you what. I've thought it all out. We have to kidnap +Durant, and kidnap his daughter." + +"Why the hell----" + +"Blenksoe, a cow could give you cards and spades. We'll play them off, +one against the other, till he signs over a half interest in his mine +for ransom." + +"Dandy, you're a wonder!" Blenksoe regarded the brains of the concern +with admiration. "I'll get the gang on to it to oncet. It ull be no +trick at all ter kidnap Lucky. Lucky's dead easy! But the gal--gals is +scarce, and conspickerous accordin', in a mining camp. How the hell +are we to handle the gal?" + +"Leave her to me. I have already struck up a traveling acquaintance with +her; managed to do her some little service en route. That's why I was +careful to keep in the background during the hold-up. I sent her a +private message to meet me here to-day, telling her I had a confidential +message from her father. We must act like a flash, for that blasted +Scarlett is sweet on her. By Jove! that's an idea!" The Dandy slapped +his knee. "I owe him a bad turn. I'll cut him out! I'll marry her +myself!" + +"You, you son of a camp cook!" sneered Blenksoe. + +Raish shrugged his shapely shoulders. "The camp cooks of to-day are the +swells of to-morrow. I'm ambitious. I've always qualified myself for the +toniest society. I spend as much for perfumery as for liquor, and I +never sleep between sheets but I wear pink silk pyjamas." + +"By gum, I b'lieve you'll git thar!" cried Blenksoe, overcome by these +evidences of culture. Going to the counter, before Raish could stop him, +he ordered: "Set up th' drinks, Ikey! Here's ter Dandy an' his bride!" + +"Haow's that? Raish a-goin' ter git married?" inquired Gumboot Annie, +who was bustling about for more provender for the banqueters inside the +tent. "And who's the lady?" + +"Oh, jest a little silk-stockin' proposition from the States," replied +old Blenksoe, unmindful of the Dandy's warning signs. "One of the Noo +York smarties, and jes' fitted fer Raish." + +"Eh?" shrieked Gelly, starting up from her corner behind the stove. "She +is, is she! And what about me?" + +"Gelly! Tagging on as usual!" exclaimed Raish, in disgust. + +"Thar, thar, Gelly! I was only joshin'," Blenksoe tried to soothe the +girl. + +"Dandy, you're a wonder!" Blenksoe re-[1] him, pleading. "Pop is run in, +and mebbe goin' ter be hanged. Raish, make an honest woman of me that I +may go bid him good-by!" + +1. Transcriber's note: One or more lines are missing from the original + text. + +The Dandy drew back. "What! Me, with my prospects, take up with the +daughter of a murderer!" + +"You, you----" Gelly flew at him with the carving-knife she held. + +"Here, quit that!" Gumboot Annie adroitly snatched away the weapon. "My +sandwich-knife! Now wouldn't thet stick yer?" in aggrieved tones she +appealed to an imaginary audience on the horizon line. Bystanders +joined in the discussion, and, attracted by the noise, some of the +diners came running from the tent, the Japanese paper napkins, that the +high character of the occasion had warranted, in hand, ready for a scrap +or any other fun that might be going; accordingly, the Dandy saw the +wisdom of adopting a conciliating policy. "Gelly"--he led the girl +aside--"I do mean to do the square thing by you, but no man likes to be +coerced, you know; and after what has gone between us I don't want to be +laughed at publicly for a fool--and if you love me, you don't want to +render me publicly ridiculous. Just go back, quietly, like a good girl +and wait for me at Lost Shoe Creek. When I have one or two tangles +straightened out I'll come back and marry you, honest! But remember, on +the quiet, If you blab--well, I'll see you somewhere before I ever speak +to you again. Now, good-by and go!" + +And for the last time, though not the first, poor Gelly trusted him. + +Looking after the red-cloaked and hooded figure, as on snow-shoes she +sped lightly down the trail, the Dandy laughed. "Women are easy, dead +easy!" he exclaimed; and then he laughed still louder, as winding in +and out through mountain passes the sound of approaching sleigh-bells +and girls' merry voices floated through the crystal air. "Dead, dead +easy," he reiterated, with the unction of enjoyment in his sapient +superiority. "Here comes Evelyn now!" + + + + +IX. + +THE PROVISIONAL BOUNDARY. + + +"Miss Durant! This is a delightfull surprise!" Dismounting from her sled +drawn by eight frisky little huskies, Miss Durant encountered not the +Mr. Horatio Travers who had written, begging for a private interview +near Gumboot Annie's, on a confidential mission from her father, but the +handsome and genial presence of Sergeant Scarlett. + +"The surprise at least is not all on one side," laughed Evelyn, giving +him her hand. "What are you doing so far from headquarters?" + +"My jurisdiction extends to the boundary line. Just now it is my painful +duty to meet a United States Representative in yonder Customs building, +and formally make over to him the person of Bully Nick." + +"Ah, the poor Bully!" Evelyn sighed. "He has this incorrigible habit of +shooting the wrong people. But I'm in hopes of getting him off. I shall +spare no expense. I've wired to Sitka, in my father's name, for the +ablest counsel to defend him." + +"And, confidence for confidence," said Scarlett, "what are you doing +here?" + +"Oh, just keeping an appointment--I mean, mushing it with Sarah and the +girls for a day's outing," Evelyn hurriedly corrected herself, recalling +that Travers' note enjoined the strictest secrecy. "And, pardon me, I +must go to their rescue now." To conceal a slight embarrassment caused +by her prevarication, she sped toward her party on whom the Customs' +officials of two nations had pounced down, assuming that they intended +to cross the boundary and must be treated like malefactors accordingly. + +Picking up the muff that Evelyn in her haste had dropped, Scarlett +buried his face in the soft fur. "I'm another," he confided to it. + +"'Tis himself!" Barney hurried toward him from the tent, but as +Scarlett, in his abstraction, did not notice him, he inquired, with +solicitude: "Are ye here, sorr?" + +"Faith, no, man. I'm wandering." + +"Is ut impty ye do be feeling yourself inside, sorr?" + +"Empty is it, with the appetite that's there! Bring me rations out here. +Bring a double share." His eye strayed toward Evelyn. + +"H'm! 'Tis a case of wan plate and two spoons, or I'm a blind man!" +commented Barney, hastening to obey. + +"Miss," cried Sarah, in shocked accents, as Evelyn drew near, "them +orphans are flirting outrageously with the Customs gentlemen of both +nations, and feeding them with fudge." + +"Dear, dear," mocked Evelyn, "we must put a stop to that at all costs, +Sarah. Take the girls into the tent and give them their dinner--or there +will be international complications." + +"Internal ones, more likely," put in Scarlett, who had followed her. +"Sweet things don't often come our way. And speaking of sweet things, +Miss Durant, won't you yourself mess with me out here in the open? Just +for the experience, ye know. It isn't really cold. The snow is left over +from the winter, but it's a summer sun overhead." + +"It does look tempting," confessed Evelyn, as Barney appeared, bringing +with him provender, with its equipments, for two, deftly arranging it on +a table by the bench. "I'm early for my appointment--I mean, I have +plenty of time, and Sarah can chaperon the girls." + +"Have ye room enough?" with solicitude inquired the soldier, placing +himself beside her. + +"Plenty, thanks. Have you?" + +"Too much," he protested, "on the wrong side." The bench having no back, +he gallantly supplied the lack. "Allow me to make ye an arm-chair." + +Evelyn properly edged away. "Sergeant, are these your company manners?" + +"Surely, since two's company." + +"Come, come, I can't permit you so much latitude!" + +"If you knew your map ye'd know that the further north ye go the closer +the lines of latitude are drawn." + +"Speaking of maps, I wish you'd tell me exactly where we are?" + +"Faith, where I am is exactly what I'm trying to find out--how far I've +gone with you." + +"Do be sensible, if you can, and tell me where we are sitting, +geographically speaking." + +"Geographically speaking, we are sitting on the provisional boundary +between our respective nations." + +"Oh! Please don't add it is called provisional because one stops here +for provisions." + +"At any rate, provisions don't stop here long. Here, I've saved ye the +last bean." + +"Thanks. I take my bean wherever I find it." + +"Good! Now will ye poach on my preserves?" + +"With pleasure!" Evelyn held out her tin plate. "I love peaches." + +"Ah, I'm more exclusive. I only love a peach!" + +"One at a time, no doubt, you mean. And for the sake of your taste, I +hope, fresh ones, not canned. By the way, you, I believe, would write +them tinned?" + +"But we both pronounce them excellent." Scarlett divided with her the +last spoonful of the fruit. + +"A century ago you taxed my tea." Leaning over, Evelyn took the extra +lump of sugar from the young man's saucer. "So now, to even things, I +steal your sugar." + +"Quite right," he acquiesced, "since revenge is sweet." + +"How silly this climate makes one, though I wish all international +differences could be so bloodlessly adjusted," remarked Evelyn. +"Suppose, instead of war, we had spelling matches! That, indeed, would +bring peace with honor." + +"Sure and there'd be fighting over peace," the soldier told her, "since +you would spell it H-O-N-O-R, while I should insert a U." + +"Naturally," replied Evelyn. "Your nation's honor always will include +U." + +"A pretty compliment," conceded Scarlett, "but I feel as if I had been +spelling for it." As they had finished he put aside the dinner-tray. "I +wonder if I shall ever persuade you to cross the line in earnest?" + +"And pray, why should I do the crossing? Why should not you be the one +to come over to the enemy?" + +"Ah, I'm a soldier! And I could not love thee, dear, so much, loved I +not HONOUR more!" + +"All very fine, sir, but, like England, somehow you have advanced +imperceptibly across the boundary." + +"Oh, no!" Scarlett moved closer to her. "Like England, when I make +advances I push the line ahead of me." + +"Remember the old commination," Evelyn exhorted him, "'Cursed be he that +moveth his neighbor's landmark.'" + +"That was ancient law," Scarlett reminded her. "The modern dispensation +bids thee love thy neighbor as thyself. And up here, where both nations +work side by side, common hardship makes us truly neighbors, next of +kin. Look yonder!" He pointed to the summit of the watershed, the +ridge-pole of the mountain range, where, sheltered under one roof, were +the Customs offices of two nations, while from lofty flag-poles floated, +side by side, the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes. "The snow, as it +melts, parts into two rivers, one running down into the Dominion, the +other into the States, each bearing greetings from the sister flags. +And, listen! In the tent, to the same tune the two national anthems are +being sung----" Rising, he bared his head, Evelyn standing beside him, +while in perfect attune the banqueters sang, according to their +allegiance: "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," or "God Save the King." + +"After all," commented Scarlett, "peace is spelled without a difference, +both sides of the boundary; and, lip to lip, our views will be identical +on the way of spelling love." + +"And how may that be?" inquired Evelyn, gathering up her furs and moving +away. "In love-letters?" As Scarlett caught up with her she quickened +her pace, remarking, "I must go now. Really, Sergeant, you ought some +day to give us a lecture on these theories of yours, for I have always +wondered how an Irishman makes love." + +"Like a lover, sure," promptly retorted Scarlett, catching her in his +arms and stooping his head to hers. + +To her surprise, Evelyn found herself more than half consenting to his +kiss even while trying to rebuke it. Before, however, she had found +breath to protest, Scarlett released her hurriedly in silence, for at +the moment Nick, with his custodian, and followed by his faithful +henchmen, came from the tent, escorting Sarah and the orphans in an aura +of national and personal good will, while a messenger came to inform the +Sergeant that the United States representative, to whom the prisoner's +person was to be delivered, had arrived. + +Evelyn, for her part, overcome with an embarrassment mingled with +another feeling that was wholly new to her, ran in the opposite +direction down the trail, and over a patch of frozen snow to a secluded +spot sheltered by a thicket of scrub firs, where, even as she broke from +her lover's embrace, she had seen her former traveling acquaintance and +present correspondent, Horatio Travers, awaiting her. + +Scarlett went up immediately to the Customs building, there to transact +the formalities incident to the extradition of Bully Nick. These +concluded, and the official courtesies having been duly proffered and +accepted, he at last felt free to continue his interrupted wooing. +Coming out into the open, he was going to seek Evelyn in a merry group +where the orphans were being taught the art of keeping erect on +snow-shoes, when he was accosted by Maclane. + +"Oh, Sergeant! I am called upon to marry a couple under circumstances of +a peculiar nature, involving exceptional haste. There is no Gold +Commissioner, I find, nor Justice of the Peace, in the district, nor +within a day's journey, from whom to obtain a license; but I have +consented to accept a copy of the Dominion Marriage Act, or rather a +specified clause thereof, signed by yourself as Mounted Policeman in +charge. Will that arrangement satisfy you, judicially speaking?" + +"Surely," replied Scarlett, "any marriage that you can, with conscience, +solemnize I can sanction without a conscience, sir." + +"I never was called upon to perform a duty that I liked so ill," the +minister acknowledged, as he followed the soldier to the Customs +building. "In fact, I have exceeded my prerogative, through my personal +interest in one of the contracting parties, in counseling, beseeching, +delay. Yet what can I do? The young lady is of age; she is determined on +the step; moreover, she has her father's consent, while I have not one +single argument to urge against it, merely a feeling of dislike, +distrust, for the gentleman of her choice." + +"In primitive regions I have found it unwise to oppose too many +obstacles to marriages," remarked the soldier, who, by this time, was +busily copying the required clause from a sheepskin-covered tome, "since +there is always a popular tendency to forego the ceremony, if it +involves the slightest trouble. Oh, I'm used to this! Also, I have had +not a few applications for divorces." + +"Eh?" exclaimed the minister. "Surely you do not grant them, my young +friend?" + +"I have no power to," Scarlett told him. "The best I can do under such +circumstances is to give the applicants a bill of Dissolution of +Partnership, to minimize the squabbling over the division of the outfit. +These present proteges of yours may be my next candidates. There." He +handed Maclane the paper. "Now it is ready for the signatures--yours and +mine. But, first, these blanks must be filled in with the names of bride +and groom." + +"They shall write them for themselves," replied the minister, who was +visibly agitated. "Not by a pen stroke will I further them beyond what +is forced upon me." Going to the door he beckoned two persons waiting +without, and to Scarlett's amazement summoned by name, "Horatio Travers! +Evelyn Durant!" + + + + +X. + +LUCKY'S LUCK. + + +Cheerful, erect, recreated in body and spirit, Durant came to Gumboot +Annie's hostelry, where he had made an appointment to meet Walter +Pierce. Not seeing the young man, and having his own reasons for not +letting it be known that there was anything of a business nature between +them, he refrained from making inquiries; ordered a cup of coffee, and, +lighting a pipe, seated himself in a sheltered nook outside the tent to +wait. + +He had not been there long when the altercation between Dandy Raish and +Gelly interrupted the banquet then in progress, bringing the diners from +the tent, Nick, closely guarded by Barney, in the van. + +Gelly, acting on Raish's instructions, had gone speeding down the trail, +but the Dandy still lingered, to keep his secret tryst with Evelyn. + +Catching sight of him, the Bully, handcuffed as he was, made a furious +lunge at him. "Thet thar's the snake I've swore ter kill!" he shouted. +"Let me free!" + +"No, sorr!" Barney restrained him. "No cheatin' av the extry-edition, if +ye please." + +Every one began to talk at once, his followers urging the Bully to +vengeance or forgiveness, according to their natural dispositions, at +present heightened by conviviality, while Raish, fearing lest the former +policy should prevail, held up a hand for truce. "It's all right, Nick. +You don't understand. Stand back, you fellows, can't you, and give me a +word alone with Nick." + +"Aye!" acquiesced the Bully. "I don't need help to curse ye, Raish. When +I'm through with him, lads, I'll leave him to you ter skin him fer the +skunk he is, d'ye see?" + +"Can't you leave us?" inquired Raish of Barney, who still stood his +ground by Nick. + +"No, sorr, I cannot." + +"But it's a private matter." + +"Bedad, thin, that takes me in all right, since I'm a private meself +till promoted." + +"Oh, very well! Only I didn't like to drag in a woman's name before a +third person," explained the Dandy. "What I want to say, Nick, is this: +I'm awfully sorry for all the trouble I've brought on you. It's not +entirely my fault, the way women do pursue a fellow. But never mind all +that," he hastened to add as the Bully began to growl ominously. "I want +you to know that I intend to do the square thing. I'm going to marry +Gelly." + +"Eh?" cried Nick, unable to believe his ears. "You'll right my gal! +Honest, Raish?" + +"On my honor as a gentleman--that is, if she'll have me. Now, don't get +angry, Nick, till I explain. Something has turned her against me of +late. Suppose you write her a little note, advising her to do it." + +"Advisin' her! I'll skin her if she kicks!" threatened Nick. "Here, +boy," he turned to Barney, "get me quit of these bracelets while I write +ter my darter." + +"No, sorr, I wull not!" + +"I tell ye it's my last words--good-by--to my darter." + +"First or last, sure ye can dictate your autography." + +"Oh, hang!" ejaculated the Bully. + +"Sure, thin, that's for what I'm saving ye!" + +"Thar ain't no word profane enough ter describe ye, d'ye see?" Nick told +his keeper. "Here, boys, which one of ye kin write?" he called over to +his followers. + +"Don't make her name common with that gang," cautioned the Dandy, whose +alert mind was actively evolving a new piece of villainy as the +situation developed. "Ask an older man; a gentleman." + +"You've never done a thing ter her name, hev yer?" inquired the Bully, +wrathfully, yet not wholly rejecting the advice. "Here, Sandy, man, come +write a message for me. You've had schoolin'." + +"Ou, aye!" assented the Scotchman, "ower muckle schoolin'. Mon, mon, +when I reflect on a' this sma' head contains! I'll e'en gie ye a +selection fra' Marmion--or a wee bit o' Rabbit Burruns." Being, however, +far gone in conviviality, he maundered off into protestations of undying +affection for his leader, assuring him he'd e'en gie his proper +copposeetion to see him hangit decently. + +Disgusted, Nick shoved Sandy aside, and in so doing caught a glimpse of +Durant in his corner, smoking peaceably. "Thar's old man Lucky!" he +exclaimed, even as Raish had foreseen. "Might ask him ter help us out. +Hi, Lucky! Want ter do me a good turn?" + +"Willingly." Rising, Durant joined him. "What is it, Nick?" + +"Waal, the government thinks so much of me these days I hev to employ a +secretary fer me correspondence, d'ye see? Say, will you write down a +message fer me to my gal?" + +"With all the pleasure in the world," assented Durant, heartily. + +"Babper an' envelobe, two bits. Ben an' ink, two bits. Plotter, two +bits, bostache-shtamp, two bits!" At Nick's order, Ikey set writing +materials before them on the counter. + +"Say, Nick," Raish prompted, in an undertone, while Durant was removing +his snow-spectacles and chafing his stiff fingers, "best not enter into +details. Best let bygones be bygones. Best just say you want your +daughter to let me bring her as my wife to pay you a visit during your +enforced captivity--perhaps to say good-by." + +"You let me choose my own words, and be damned to yer." + +"Oh, very well! Only I don't see why you should be in a hurry to shame +me and Gelly before an outsider." + +"My gal has shamed herself, and thar ain't no shamin' you!" Nick, +however, acted on the advice. "Ready, Lucky? Say, I don't know how to +start it. I kin jaw her fluent ter her face, but I never wrote her +afore." He hesitated, embarrassed. + +Smiling reassuringly, Durant pointed to the words he already had +mechanically set down. "My dear daughter--that's how I begin to my own +girl." + +"Darter don't look as if it was spelled right," criticized the Bully. +"But you know best, Lucky. Fire away! Make it affectionate, but firm, +d'ye see? Tell her I'll cuss her in this life and skin her in the next +ef she don't let Raish bring her ter me as his wife ter say good-by. No +trimmin's, mind! Blow the signiture! She'll know fast enough it comes +from me." + +"Your loving dad," Durant concluded. "That's how I end off when I'm +writing to Evelyn." + +"Pop ud 'a' sounded more nateral," remarked the Bully. "But mebbe dad is +dockimentary. So let her go." + +"Add a postscript," in a hurried whisper Raish enjoined Durant. "Tell +her this is just a matter of form, and that I promise on my honor not to +hold her to the arrangement permanently, if it is distasteful to her. +Tell her----" + +Durant looked up, surprised. "Surely all that lies wholly between you +and the young woman." + +"True," admitted Raish, "but as I don't mind confiding in you that the +young woman is tired of me, I want her to feel secure that in satisfying +her father's scruples I don't intend to take an unfair advantage of +her. Suppose I set that down myself." He did so, writing rapidly, but +clearly. "Now, Mr. Durant," he handed the other the pen, "you will add +to your kindness to me more than you dream by placing your signature as +witness to my pledge." + +Durant did as he was asked, feeling that, little as he understood the +matter, he was probably serving the best interests of the unfortunate +Gelly. + +"As witness only," he, however, stated. "It is an arrangement in which I +take no moral responsibility." + +"Thanks. I understand your scruples and respect them. The responsibility +is mine entirely. Just at present I cannot explain, but later the whole +position will be made clear." + +"What's all them goin's-on?" suddenly demanded Nick, whose attention had +been momentarily distracted by an argument between Mops and Sandy on the +poetic merits of Rabbit Burruns. "No monkeyin' with dockiments over +thar." + +"I'm only directing it," explained the Dandy, who had folded the letter +and inclosed it in an envelope. + +Nick looked over his shoulder, breathing heavily with interest. "By +gum," he ejaculated, wrathfully, "ef ye hevn't blotted my gal's name, +Raish, and not fer the fust time!" + +[Illustration: "DARTER DON'T LOOK AS IF IT WAS SPELLED RIGHT," +CRITICIZED BULLY.] + +"Oh, I'll make that all right!" The Dandy put the letter in his breast +and walked away. + +"Ef yer don't may yer sizzle!" Nick called after him. Turning to Durant: +"Pard, I'm grateful," he declared, with feeling. "Pard, the best wish I +kin give ye is, may ye never need no one ter do the same by you." + +"Thanks, Nick. That's all right." Durant looked about him, and seeing +that Raish was out of earshot and Blenksoe not in sight, went closer to +the Bully and his followers. "Friends, there's something I want to say +to you," he began. "It's just this: You've all done me a kindness to my +dying day I shan't forget. A fortnight ago, when my girl came into camp +expecting to find me living in a diamond-encrusted palace, and I stood +there so forlorn she didn't recognize me, a broken-hearted beggar, you +who by one word might have pricked the bubble and humiliated me before +her and her before the world, by your silence protected her and me. It +was the noblest thing----" His voice broke; he wiped his eyes. + +"Thet's all right, Lucky! Brace up, old man!" came from one and another +of the group. + +"Aye, but now I want you all to hear my good news!" cried Durant, +detaining them as they were preparing to go back into the dining-tent to +resume their interrupted feast. "_It has all come true!_ With so many +grafters and claim-jumpers round I daren't be explicit, but I want you +to know that my luck has turned for good and all. Oh, this time it's no +pocket; it's the big strike of which I've always dreamed. I don't +deserve it, some may think, after playing with my girl's credulity, yet +for her sake I thank God with all my heart that I've won out! Till it's +staked and recorded I know you'll all keep my secret--but, boys, every +one of you is in it, the Rainbow Mine!" + +The same wonderful delicacy that had marked their treatment of Evelyn +did not fail her father. The Bully and his gang listened to this speech +in respectful silence, at its conclusion crying, "Great! Good for you, +old man! You done grand! Allus knew you'd git thar fer keeps! Sure! +Betcherlife! That's what!" with every evidence of conviction and +spontaneous joy. But as he walked off, Durant laughed. He did not need +to look back to know that fingers were being pointed after him, winks +interchanged and foreheads tapped significantly, with comment that +found food for mirth, even while it deplored: "Off his nut fer fair. +Balmy on the crumpet. Bats in his belfry. Qualifying for Queer Street. +Plumb crazy. Poor old Lucky!" + +Well, let them think so, bless them, since another day would set them +right and prove him all he claimed to be. And then nothing gold could +procure would be too good for them, nothing--this rough crew, more beast +than man, that had yet behaved like more than man to his deceived, +defenceless girl. + +That hour--its memory was seared upon his very soul--the hour of +Evelyn's arrival in camp that had witnessed the deepest degradation, +followed immediately by the crowning justification and triumph of his +career. He visualized it now, as he walked: In the Klondike Delmonico's, +in her role of Lady Bountiful, Evelyn was dispensing hospitality right +and left. He alone, her father, dared not enter in. Crushed, crazed, he +walked back to the spot where he had left young Pierce. Him he found +still brooding beneath the huge pine, dazed, amid the ruin of his own +air castles. Then for one bad moment Durant went really mad. Picking up +the gun he had dropped when an irresistible force drew him to go watch +the incoming stage, he turned its deadly charge against his fevered +brain. + +With a cry, Walter sprang forward, but not before old Blenksoe, who had +been watching his associate's actions curiously, seized him, capturing +the gun. "No yer don't, blast yer!" + +"Give it to me, Blenksoe! Of what use is my life to you?" + +"Lucky you've been afore, and lucky you may be yet, and when the luck +turns I'm in it, see?" + +"Give it to me!" With a madman's fury, Durant leaped at the other's +throat, only to be met by a blow that sent him reeling to the ground +with such force that a young willow bush he clutched at was partially +uprooted. For a few seconds he lay prone, foaming at the mouth and +clawing the soil with frenzied impotency. Then of a sudden he paused, +raised himself, face still downturned, and burst into insane laughter +that made Pierce's blood run cold. + +"Mad! Stark, starin' mad!" Blenksoe turned on his heel. + +"There's a squirrel on yonder tree I could bring down for the dogs' +supper if you'd give me back my gun, Blenksoe," his laughter spent, +Durant meekly suggested as he scrambled to a sitting posture. + +"Fetch her with a stun," was the succinct reply, as, retaining his +partner's weapon, Blenksoe re-entered the tent. + +Acting on the suggestion, Durant gathered up a handful of clots, +selecting them carefully, and with deliberate aim took long shots at the +chattering creature on the bough. + +"Sit here, beside me, close, Walter," in an undertone he bade the young +clerk, who still was gazing at him in horrified bewilderment. "But don't +start or show the slightest surprise at what I am going to say. Oh, tut, +tut, lad, never fear!" For Pierce seemed disinclined to comply with his +command. "I am not mad. That is all over, thank God! with all the +struggle, the heartbreak. _The luck has turned_, do you hear? Yes, +turned for good and all! Every clot that I am throwing contains +gold!--careful!" For involuntarily Walter had given vent to an +ejaculation of amazed incredulity. "Oh, I'm an old prospector, and I see +indications, and read signs where these grafters pass them by. I've +always believed in this locality, and now I'm justified. In uprooting +that willow I unearthed a bonanza!" Pausing in his speech, he renewed +his attempts on the squirrel's life, and then went on: "Yes, each dull +handful of earth I throw is a priceless witness that beneath us, on +this spot, lies the Rainbow Mine----" Breaking off, as he observed old +Blenksoe watching him narrowly, he rose as if discouraged, with a sigh. +"My hand shakes. I'm no match to-day even for a squirrel. I'll have to +give it up." Then, cleverly simulating the foolishly detailed actions of +one who, having lost his grasp on the great things of life, clutches at +the trivialities, he set about replanting the willow, stamping down the +disordered earth about its roots, meanwhile in a pregnant undertone +continuing his conversation with Walter. + +The latter, so between them it was arranged, was to hang about the +locality, watching for a chance, unobserved, to pick up the valuable +clots, and these he was to have exchanged for their cash value, for +current expenses, at a bank so distant that their source could not be +predicated with any degree of accuracy--a precaution that Durant deemed +essential in a district where even officialdom was likely to be +corrupted by the lust for gold. He himself, meanwhile, would watch his +opportunity, and disappear, without leaving a trace, from Lost Shoe +Creek, as if madness had indeed possessed him, in order to throw +Blenksoe off the scent and cause him also to move on, since, as Durant +rightly conjectured, the pastmaster of graft would not be likely to +remain in any spot which he thought Lucky had turned down. To-day Walter +was to meet him here, return with him to the scene of his discovery, aid +him in staking it, by stealth; journey to the nearest office where +recording-books were opened, to file the claim with the necessary fee, +while Durant himself would remain, defending the stakes, if need be, +with his life. Once his rights legally safeguarded, all the world might +know. Again Durant laughed in joyful anticipation of his meeting with +Evelyn, when confession and revelation would come in the same breath. +Then, impatiently, he looked up and down the trail, wondering at +Pierce's delay on this day of days, when he heard a low moan among the +bushes, and, turning, beheld the young man on whose co-operation such +high hopes depended, lying, bedded in furs, upon a sled, swathed in +bandages, pallid--a dying man. + +"My God! Walter, my poor lad, what does this mean?" exclaimed Durant, in +horrified accents. + +Another moan was the only answer, but reading in the glazing eyes a wish +to speak, Durant knelt down and bent so that his ear touched the stiff +lips. + +"What is it, Walter?" + +"The samples," the young man at last managed to articulate. "The +mine----" + +"Aye, the mine--the samples!" cried Durant, with frantic eagerness. But +Walter's confession never reached the man he had betrayed. A sudden +darkness came over Durant. He struggled, but his grasp was pinioned from +behind. He tried to cry aloud, but his voice was muffled. Swift, +treacherous hands seized him, gagged him, bound him fast, bore him off, +blind, mute, a prisoner! + + + + +XI + +AN INTERNATIONAL EPISODE + + +With an effort regaining the composure unwontedly ruffled by Scarlett's +audacious response to her challenge as to an Irishman's method of +love-making, while adjusting hat and hair, whose order, as she +blushingly was conscious, had suffered from the same cause, Evelyn +hurried toward the fir-encircled spot where she saw Dandy Raish awaiting +her. + +A fellow-passenger aboard the boat that had brought her party up the +Alaskan coast, Travers had lost no chance to ingratiate himself with +Evelyn by rendering her all manner of unobtrusive service, so that his +letter, requesting this appointment, at an out-of-the-way place under +conditions of absolute secrecy, while exciting her curiosity, caused her +no alarm. The matter to which he had mysteriously alluded, as of supreme +importance to herself and her father, she had assumed to refer to +Durant's vast mining interests. She took it for granted that the +obliging Mr. Travers was bearer of a remittance that would enable her to +defy Scarlett's absurd advice in favor of roughing it, and enable her to +resume her wonted style of luxurious living. + +To escape awkward questions, she had decided to turn the expedition into +a day's outing that should include Sarah and her young companions, thus +giving her meeting with Travers the appearance of chance. Scarlett's +unforeseen presence on the scene only added a piquancy to the occasion, +in her eyes, since she thought it might furnish her with an opportunity +to put down that estimable but altogether too masterful young man. That +the opportunity would land her in the young man's arms was something she +had not reckoned with. + +As Travers watched her speeding toward him with glowing cheeks and eyes, +a lovely picture of blossoming young womanhood between the wintry ground +and summer sky, something leaped to life in the Dandy's breast that made +it a hard task for him to greet her with the grave impersonal politeness +it was his policy to assume, and determined him more than ever to cut +out "that blasted Scarlett." + +After formal salutations had been exchanged, he remarked: "I think I +saw you speaking with some one in uniform, Miss Durant. I trust it was +not a member of the Mounted Police?" + +"It was Sergeant Scarlett." + +"Good heavens! Scarlett, of all men! May I hope you did not mention our +appointment to him?" + +"My appointments are my own affair, Mr. Travers. Please let us get to +the matter in hand without delay. What is it you have to say to me?" + +"I am more anxious than you possibly can be for haste, since to you the +matter is but one of temporary inconvenience, while to carry it through +I am risking my very life. But before we go any further I must have your +sacred promise that what I say is in inviolable confidence." + +"Confidences between you and me, Mr. Travers! Aren't you making too much +of what is probably some ordinary business matter; taking rather an +undue advantage of my complaisance in granting you this interview?" + +"Miss Durant, you wrong me. I tell you that in seeking you I have +nothing to gain, everything to lose; life, honor, everything! I am +running this tremendous risk--not, as you think, because you are a +woman, young, rich, beautiful; but because I owe a debt of gratitude, +that only life could pay, to your dear father." + +"My dear father! You come from him? Then he knows of my arrival! Why +isn't he here himself to welcome me?" Evelyn's questions came rushing +eagerly. + +"Miss Durant, he cannot come. He is a prisoner." + +"A prisoner! What do you mean?" she faltered. + +"A captive, rather; held by a gang of desperados for ransom." + +"God in heaven!" Evelyn went white. "My daddy!" + +"You are faint!" Raish went to her side, supporting her. + +"No, no! Thanks, I am all right." Evelyn drew away. "But your pledge of +secrecy--why, it is preposterous! Every one should be told. The alarm +given--rewards offered--the country roused!" She moved forward as she +spoke. + +"No, no! Not as you value his life!" Raish held her back. "Listen. One +incautious word, and your father is a dead man. There are spies about +us--everywhere. That is why I got you to meet me here--Miss Durant, +believe me, by raising the hue and cry you will sound your father's +death-knell." + +Evelyn shuddered. "I can't believe----" she began, however, +incredulously. + +"I will explain. Miss Durant, you have been in the district over two +weeks--the district in which you know your father's interests to lie. +Yet have you been able to locate him, to obtain one satisfactory answer +as to his goings and comings, his present whereabouts? Have you not +invariably been put off with specious generalities--sugar-plums to +soothe a wayward child? Admit that no man has said to you in definite +terms, 'Yonder, on such and such a hill, is the camp of Matthew Durant. +By such and such a trail can you reach him.'" + +"Yes, that is true," admitted Evelyn. "Every one puts me off. Still----" + +"The reason is," Raish interrupted her, "that no one knows where, among +those mountains, his prison lies. But that he is a prisoner is public +property, though not a soul has had the heart to break it to you." + +"How cruel to have deceived me!" Evelyn burst into a flood of tears. +"And all the time he is wondering why I don't rescue him. But with his +resources what is the difficulty? Why has not he himself bought his +freedom?" + +"Because their price is high--it is your entire fortune--the Rainbow +Mine--and your father loves you too well to subject you to poverty." + +"It is like my father to put me first," sobbed Evelyn, "but doesn't he +know me better? Does he for a moment think I would weigh any +consideration on this earth against his safety?" + +"Ah!" cried Raish, triumphantly, "I knew you were true blue. That is +what I told my old friend Durant--but captivity has so preyed on his +spirits that he is ill--unable to judge----" + +"My father ill!" Evelyn clenched her little hands and moaned: "Oh, oh, +oh! If only I could go to him!" + +"Have you the courage?" questioned Raish. + +"The courage!" She looked at him, amazed. "If you know how to reach him +take me to him instantly!" + +Raish almost laughed aloud. "Women are dead easy," he mentally +reiterated, before replying: "Very good." He drew Evelyn's furs closer +about her neck, protectingly. "I take you at your word. But we must +invent some excuse for our going off together. We must elude pursuit. +Above all, we must get rid of your friend, the Irishman." + +"I trust Sergeant Scarlett," said Evelyn. + +"And so do I!" cried Raish, with assumed cordiality. "I trust that +excellent young man to do his duty and win promotion at all costs. The +Sergeant makes love like an Irishman, Miss Durant. Ah, I saw!" he +checked her protest. "But believe me, not even for your bright eyes will +he sacrifice his loyalty to the government he serves by countenancing a +dicker with the thieves, its enemies." + +"Let us leave the Sergeant out of the discussion," cried Evelyn, with +blazing cheeks. "What do you propose?--for by your manner I see you have +some plan." + +"The plan is not mine. I never should have ventured to suggest it," +answered Raish. "It is your father's, entirely. He and I were taken +prisoners together. I, as the unimportant man, financially, am used as +intermediary, being sent here, on parole, to treat with you for his +release. Spies are dogging my footsteps. Meanwhile, his life is hostage, +until I return with you in my charge. Your father, ever scrupulous, +fearing compromising comment, were you to travel with me alone, day and +night, as we shall have to do, advised----" He paused, as if delicacy +made the words difficult. "Miss Durant, he wishes you to go through a +form of marriage with me first." + +"I marry you!" gasped Evelyn. + +"As a matter of form only; to be dissolved when your father's freedom is +secured." + +"Never--never! It is impossible!" + +"Very good. I will carry back that answer." Raish turned to go. "You +send your love to him, I suppose, Miss Durant, and as he is a very sick +man, good-by?" + +"Stop," she commanded him. "Give me a few moments. You are _sure_ my +father said that--about a marriage ceremony?" + +"Aye, furthermore, he wrote it," Raish assured her. "Though to clear +myself from any suspicion of interested motives I begged him to send the +letter by another messenger. You should already have received it from +the hand of Walter Pierce." + +"Miss Durant! Where is Miss Durant? Oh, Miss Durant!" At the moment +Maclane's agitated voice came toward them. As Evelyn, responding, +emerged from the thicket he met her, breathlessly. Chilkat Jo, whom he +had despatched to Lost Shoe Creek for Evelyn, had returned some time +before to announce that he had met her by the way, but the minister, not +expecting her for hours, had to be hunted up among the cabins further +on, whither he had gone on some errand of mercy. "I only just heard of +your arrival. How providential that you should have chosen this of all +days for your expedition! A poor lad--Chilkat Joseph and I found him by +the wayside--the victim, I fear, of foul play, has brought you tidings +of your father." As he spoke he was hurrying her toward the spot where +young Pierce lay. + +"Walter Pierce--my father!" Evelyn almost shrieked in her excitement, +but at a warning sign from Travers, who had followed her, controlled +herself. "I have been expecting him." + +"After all I fear it is too late." Maclane touched pulse and brow. "He +is beyond human help. He will not speak again." Kneeling by the sled he +began prayers for the passing soul, when he was interrupted by a cry +from Evelyn, as Walter's arm, which had rested loosely across his +breast, fell stiffly by his side, disclosing an open letter which, as +she saw immediately, was in her father's hand. + +"Women are dead easy--women and parsons," chuckled Raish, who had +adroitly placed the missive where Evelyn found it. Going to her where +she stood, apart, reading her father's transcription of Nick's behest to +Gelly, "Well," he asked, "now are you convinced?" + +"One moment, please!" Without explanation to him, Evelyn ran up the +hill where, international formalities complied with, under the two flags +the Bully was bidding his followers farewell. + +"Dear, dear Nick"--she clasped his handcuffed fists in her soft, warm +palms--"you welcomed me to the district; you are my oldest friend. Tell +me, when did you last see my father?" + +"Lucky? Why, now come ter think of it, Lucky were here not an hour +since. Fit as a fiddle, now warn't he, boys? Grand reports of the +Rainbow Mine. Shovelin' out pay-dirt like greased lightnin'! Ain't thet +so, boys? Sent love, of course, and he'd be in ter see yer ter-morrer. +His own words, d'ye see? Eh, boys?" + +To which the boys, challenged by Nick's fiery eye, loyally responded: +"Sure! Thet's what! Betcherlife!" + +Evelyn looked from face to face and read that, beneath a clumsy mask, +through heroic but mistaken kindness, ill news was being held back from +her. "Thank you all so much," she replied, and, turning, ran downhill to +rejoin Raish. + +Sarah intercepted her. "Miss, I think we had ought to be getting back to +camp. The orphans are behaving scandalous, getting themselves engaged +three deep. I don't know as you can blame 'em, miss. I suppose it's a +microbe. I myself have just refused three marriages and two guilty +loves." + +"I shall have to leave you to manage the orphans, Sarah." Evelyn smiled +an odd smile. "I myself am going to be married and start off on a +honeymoon immediately." + +"You don't say, miss!" The maid raised her eyebrows. "Well, a common +soldier is hardly in the same social class as my own Scotch intended, +with a literary turn and a copper proposition, but I will say that +Sergeant Scarlett looks and acts quite the gentleman." + +"Oh, it's not Sergeant Scarlett! It is the Mr. Travers who looked after +us so civilly aboard the Skagway boat." + +Sarah's eyebrow's went up further still. "Indeed, miss! He's very smart +in his dress, yet--however, I suppose everything goes in a country where +no one minds the clocks." + +Meanwhile, with the assistance of Ikey, Maclane, having covered the +funereal sled with the Stars and Stripes loaned by Gumboot Annie, drew +it across to poor Walter's own side of the dividing line, that his +mortal remains might rest in their native soil. + +When he came to seek Evelyn, to consult her about the last rites, she +met him with a strange request, to the effect that first he should +unite her with all despatch and secrecy to one Mr. Horatio Travers, whom +she then and there presented to him. + +"My dear young lady!" The minister stared at her. "Isn't this decision +very sudden? Forgive my interference, but you being alone up here, and +so young----" + +"I'm twenty-two," Evelyn assured him, "and that's middle-aged for a New +York girl." + +In spite of the bravado of her manner, her tone so wholly lacked all +bridal joyousness that Maclane was impelled to draw her aside and ask: +"Is this act of your own free will?" + +"Heavens, yes!" she asserted, confidently. "No one on earth could make +me do anything I didn't choose to." + +"Nevertheless," the minister demurred, "let me entreat you to defer so +important a step till you can consult your father." + +"It is my father's desire, expressed with an emphasis that makes it +almost a command," averred Evelyn, solemnly. "And conveyed to me at the +price of that poor lad's life." + +Still dissatisfied, but without sufficing reason for refusing, Maclane +put the usual questions to the prospective groom. As witness, Travers +introduced old Blenksoe, who, having disposed of Durant, had ambled up, +calling him a dear old family retainer--a lifelong friend. + +"That's me," corroborated the old sinner. "Rough an' ready, but allus in +it with Raish. Not only is Raish by nature and eddication fitted to +adorn the proudest spear, but he's a square proposition. Ye kin safely +leave it ter Raish, every time." + +"Well," reluctantly the minister consented, "where is your license?" + +"A license!" exclaimed Travers. "What for?" + +"To legalize the marriage," Maclane instructed him. "You must get one +from the Gold Commissioner or Justice of the Peace." + +"Then that queers the show," stated old Blenksoe, "sence thar ain't no +gold round these here diggings, nor no justice, nor no peace." + +"Is there no way of dispensing with it, under exceptional +circumstances?" Evelyn asked, anxiously. "If you knew how imperative my +reason for desiring haste----" + +"In lieu of it, then," the minister conceded, "I will accept a copy of +the appropriate clause of the Dominion Marriage Act, signed by the +Mounted Policeman in charge of the district where Miss Durant resides." + +And before Raish, who sprang forward, with an oath, could stop him, he +had entered the Customs building, calling for Sergeant Scarlett. + + + + +XII + +NORTHERN LIGHTS + + +Scarlett looked from Evelyn to Travers and back again, in bewilderment, +dismay. "Miss Durant," he at last found voice to say, "surely there is +some mistake! Surely there's no love lost between ye and +this--gentleman!" + +"My private affairs, my feelings, seem to cause a great deal of +unnecessary comment," remarked Evelyn, hiding her emotion under a mask +of irony. "May I beg you to refrain from criticism, and to give us the +requisite authority?" + +Scarlett looked at her fixedly, and seeing her control weaken, her color +change, and her eyes fill and falter beneath his penetrating gaze, shook +his head. "That I must absolutely decline to do!" + +"And why, pray?" she commanded herself to ask. + +"Oh, the reason is plain!" Raish sneeringly interposed. "Every one knows +the Sergeant's own matrimonial aspirations. Every one has heard of the +cheap device by which on the very day of her arrival he tried to worm +himself into the favor of my fiancee. If he did but know it, her +father's chief reason for insisting on the immediate celebration of our +marriage is to protect her from the persecutions of adventurers!" + +"I beg," cried Evelyn, checking Scarlett's furious retort, "that there +may be no such personalities! Mr. Travers, pray understand that I do +not, in the least, assent to your characterization of the Sergeant, who, +up to this moment, has treated me and my friends with the utmost +delicate consideration and chivalry!" + +"Forgive me, dearest"--Raish took her hand. "I spoke too warmly! Yet who +could blame me? Come, come, my good Sergeant, put your name to that +paper without further ado, unless you wish to suffer under the +imputation of sacrificing official honor to personal revenge." + +Not deigning to heed the taunt, Scarlett turned to the minister. "I +can't sign, because down in yonder valley is a lass in a red cloak who +has a prior claim upon this man." + +Raish forced a contemptuous laugh. "The red-cloak, who should not even +be mentioned in this presence, may stay in the valley for me. My +acquaintance with the red-cloak belongs to a day before I knew Evelyn. +She condones the past, accepts the dedication of my future life." +Drawing Evelyn aside, he whispered, "Don't be alarmed. My pledge holds +good. This is all bluff, my doing the devoted, to throw them off the +track." Stooping suddenly he kissed her. + +"My young friend," Maclane restrained and admonished Scarlett, "my +sympathies are yours wholly. But are you not exceeding your authority?" + +"Aye," confessed the Irishman, "I'm stretching it a bit, maybe, to fit +me intuitions. Dominie, I tell ye 'tis a fishy business. Not an hour +since, the girl was in these arms of mine, lip to lip, and liking it. +And now, look at her shudder at that fellow's touch." + +"Sergeant Scarlett"--breaking from Raish, Evelyn came to him and laid a +coaxing hand upon his arm--"I know that in your heart you are despising +me for a cheap coquette. And I deserve it. I have given you cause to +think the worst of me. I can't explain. But if you could only read my +heart--could only know what this means to me--it's the happiness of my +life! It will be misery to the end of my days if I fail him at this +supreme test. You're magnanimous, above all pettiness, I know. You +simply want to save me, as you think, from making a mistake. But believe +me, trust me, I know what I'm about. Now, will you do me the greatest +favor one human being ever entreated of another, by signing your name to +that document?" + +Scarlett looked tenderly down on her, and, swayed against his judgment +by her earnestness, he might have yielded, had not the Dandy +inopportunely added the word too much. + +"Sergeant Scarlett will hardly dare take the consequences of refusing +when I tell him that without the protection of my name Miss Durant will +be irretrievably compromised!" + +Scarlett checked an almost overwhelming impulse to kick the speaker. +Instead, he took Evelyn's cold fingers into his honest grasp. "I'd give +my name to shield ye, my life to serve ye, and now I'm going to risk my +official honor, to--as I think, to save ye." He tore up the paper. + +Above the general outcry that ensued, Sarah's tones were heard. "A +pretty country where you can't marry whom you please! America's good +enough for me!" + +"America!" exclaimed Evelyn, struck by a sudden thought. "Are there +such restrictions with us in America?" + +"Unfortunately not, my dear," replied Maclane, who had once occupied a +Chicago pastorate. "In the States the sacred tie is made and broken far +more easily." + +"Then, quick," she cried, "across the boundary!" And seizing Travers' +hand she ran, the others following breathlessly, not halting till she +reached the tall mast from which proudly floated the emblem of the free. + +"God in Heaven!" Scarlett looked after her, his personal grief swallowed +up in anxiety. "Is there no power above, below, to stop a wilful woman +from cutting her own throat with a wedding-ring?" He cast about for aid. +Barney, who might have thrown some light on the plot, had returned to +duties at headquarters, but Nick and Gelly might yet be reached in time, +and for them he sent messengers flying. Meanwhile, he bethought himself +of Chilkat Jo. Sheltered by the Customs water-butt, he found the trader +squatting peaceably, whittling a mimic totem-pole. On his shoulder +Scarlett laid a gauntleted hand. "Chilkat Jo, man, look what devil's +work is going on forninst ye! Can't ye say the word to stop it?" + +There was an appreciable pause while, with a silken sound, the soft +shavings curled, fell, under the skilful knife. Then without looking up, +the Siwash gently replied, "Me no such godam-hellan-blazes Clistian +fool! Laish mally Missy Dulant! I mally Gelly!" + +In desperation Scarlett strode toward the bridal group, reaching it just +as the minister's solemn tones rolled forth, challenging the wilderness +to show just cause or impediment why these two persons might not +lawfully be joined together. + +"Just or unjust," he shouted, "sure it's myself will furnish the +impediment"--as, collaring the bridegroom, with a series of violent +jerks he sent him flying back into precincts that rendered him amenable +to Dominion law, where he neatly knocked him down, and sat on him. "Now, +I've got ye in my own jurisdiction, I'll detain ye as a suspicious +person till evidence for or against ye is forthcoming!" Maclane's +protests, Evelyn's tears, Sarah's shrieks and taunts, and old Blenksoe's +curses were as unavailing as Raish's struggles; the young giant held the +position by main force till Nick, who had been easily overtaken, by +courtesy of his custodians arrived in response to the recall. + +"There, there," Scarlett soothed the squirming Dandy. "If I find I'm +mistaken; if that damned incriminating face of yours belies ye, sure +I'll apologize in sackcloth and give ye the satisfaction of a +gentleman." Jerking Travers to his feet, he confronted him with Gelly's +father. "Nick," he inquired, "what is your unvarnished opinion of this +fellow?" + +"Wa'al, thar's things in his past," admitted the Bully, "same as in most +men's, thet you wouldn't hold up as a shinin' example to a +Sunday-school, d'ye see? But bygones is bygones. Arter wot he projected +ter-day, I've nought but good words fer Dandy Raish." + +"Not another syllable, Nick, I beg," Travers hastened to cut short the +Bully's elogium at a period so favorable to his plans. "Now, Sergeant, +we accept your apology for your ill-directed zeal, and dispense with +your further company." + +"Say, Scarlett," wrathfully demanded Nick, "I kin cheek yer now I'm +goin' ter be hanged by U. S. law! Take yer hands off'n Raish! Wot the +hell d'ye mean by damagin' my son-in-law?" + +"Your son-in-law?" in one breath cried Evelyn, Sarah and Maclane. + +"I sent my gal a letter," elucidated Nick. "Your pop Lucky put it in +writin' fer me, Missy. That's it you got in your hand." + +"This letter! And that villain made me believe---- Oh, oh, oh!" Evelyn +burst into a flood of humiliated tears. + +"You black scoundrel; you'd 'a' deceived her as you deceived my gal!" +Nick made a blind rush at Raish, but was held back by his custodians. +"Sure as thar's a God in Heaven, Raish," he vowed, as they restrained +him, "I'll live ter kill ye yet!" + +Vain threat! A sharp sound cleft the crystal air and, echoing, died away +in soft detonations among the hills. The Dandy threw up his hands as he +had forced so many luckless travelers to do in his career of highway +robbery, and fell, gracefully, as he did everything, face downward, with +a little trickle of blood, upon the snow. With a shriek of anguish a +girl in a red cloak, who had been speeding up the hill, threw herself +beside him, calling his name with all the loving epithets that even the +lowest of the low seems able to win from some woman's heart. + +Tears wrung from his being's depths for baffled retribution coursing +down his rough cheeks, the Bully lifted pinioned hands to Heaven and +uttered the one prayer of his life: "O Almighty Gawd, with all respect, +why did You butt in? O Gawd! I've made cold meat of a score o' men on +end from fust ter last! But they was jes' accident or playfulness, d'ye +see? This here skunk were the only livin' thing I ever hankered fer ter +kill! And Thou hast called my bluff, and took the wind outen my sails by +puttin' the shootin'-iron of my vengeance inter another's hand! Thar +ain't no four-flushin' Thee, O Gawd! Thou hast plumb squared the +reckonin' fer all my sins, past and ter come, world without end. Amen." + +Whose the hand that shot Dandy Raish no one ever knew, though many a +young fool, in his cups, boasted of the high distinction. In the case of +a man so universally detested perhaps official enquiry thought it policy +to rest. But, possessed at the moment by a literal interpretation of +duty, with a heavy heart the good minister sought his favorite Indian +proselyte. + +Sitting beside him, where he found him whittling peaceably in the +shelter of the Customs water-butt, "O Joseph, Chilkat Jo," sighing, he +began. "My son, if on your hands there be blood-guiltiness, you must +repent, confess!" + +The soft shavings slithered, curled and fell, as the emblem of the Raven +and the Frog grew beneath the skilful knife. Then, in unimpassioned +monotone, the Indian remarked, "Some day, when I velly old, old chief, I +lepent, confess, make godam-hellan-blazes Clistian deathbed. But +now----" He paused to twist the weird features of his tribal god into an +inscrutable smile. "Now, I mally Gelly." + +It was the cool of the evening. From behind the mountains northern +lights shot up in streamers of living green and rose. There was a sound +of bells, and "mushing," as the drivers harnessed up their dog-teams to +carry the picnickers back to camp. Scarlett looked over at Evelyn with +an odd contraction of the heart, where the bud of hope was trembling for +life under the icy hand of circumstance, but as she did not appear to +notice him he turned and went on his own road without farewell. + +Then Evelyn went to Gelly where, the violence of her grief spent, she +still crouched beside her lover's stiffening form. Putting an arm about +her, "Come. Come home with me to live," she said. "Yes." For Gelly +looked up with resentment changing to incredulity. "Please. As a favor +to me. I have so much to learn. I need you." + + + + +XIII + +A YEAR AFTER + + +Winter had come and gone; spring had passed into a new summer. In the +prosperous township of Lost Shoe Creek no one would have recognized the +god-forsaken camp of the year before. While the locality was generally +condemned as an auriferous proposition, its situation fitted it +admirably for base of supplies to other creeks: Abe Lincoln, Jubilee, +Old Glory and Princess May, where hydraulic machinery had been +established and placer claims were being worked with profitable, if not +phenomenal, results. + +Some critics attributed the marvelous transformation that had taken +place to the presence of women, dating from the arrival of Evelyn and +her party; others to the gospel tidings of good-will brought by Parson +Maclane, when, wild rose in buttonhole, and followed by his dogs, +Telegraph and Wrangel, he came running on the trail. A third faction +was for giving the credit to law and order, personified by the +ubiquitous young soldier, Sergeant Scarlett, and his right-hand man, +Barney. But the wise set it down to the trinity of saving influences. + +For Evelyn the time had been one of unusual happiness. Learning early +that the boundless wealth of which she supposed herself possessor was +not a popular subject among folk to whom daily bread came hardly, she +wisely decided to omit mention of it from her conversation. Also, +finding herself likely to be embarrassed for ready money, since credit +was denied her, she followed Scarlett's excellent advice to try roughing +it, with excellent results. Moreover, at the suggestion of the good +Graysons, whose neighborliness she soon learned to value, and loyally +backed by the "boys," she opened a real-estate office at Lost Shoe +Creek, with a branch at Perdu, showing herself an admirable business +woman. Amateur theatricals, concerts, and ice-carnivals had brightened +the dark season, when mining-camps in the North are as desert islands, +cut off from all communication with the outside; and for the first time +in her life Evelyn tasted the unalloyed pleasure that springs from +giving pleasure and helpfulness that money cannot buy. One sorrow only +dimmed her sky: the continued absence of her father. No one told her +that, far and wide, official search was being made for Matthew Durant, +nicknamed Lucky, who, on a fateful day of the previous summer had +disappeared as utterly as had the earth in which he worked opened to +engulf him; she still believed, uncontradicted, that his vast interests +were detaining him somewhere among the baffling distances of snow-capped +hills, and that any hour that suited him would bring him back to her. + +[Illustration: THE UBIQUITOUS YOUNG SOLDIER, SERGEANT SCARLETT.] + +It was the day when, by the most lovable of paradoxes, in that region, +two festivals--one of independence declared, one of allegiance +covenanted--are celebrated, with crossed flags: Dominion Day and the +Fourth of July, in one. + +On this particular anniversary gala preparations of extra splendor were +afoot in honor of the return of Bully Nick, once more a free man, not +because in equity he was held worthy to be at large, so much as through +a technical slip by which but six jurors had been requisitioned to sit +on his case, whereas, as his backers claimed, he was territorially +entitled to be adjudged guilty by a full dozen good men and true. + +"Well, I'm dazzled fer fair," announced the hero, as, amid cheers from +his friends and followers, he alighted from the stage. "This here +bloomin' Paradise ain't never Lost Shoe Creek." + +"Sure, 'tis! Betcherboots! That's what!" he was assured. + +Nick rubbed astonished eyes. "By gum, a Gospel-mill!" + +"Aye, and filled to overflowing every Sabbath, Nicholas," proudly stated +good Maclane. + +"Wa'al, y' see," Mops hastened to apologize to his leader for this hated +concession to religion, "the gals like piousness." + +The neat jail next the church was described by Barney as "just an impty +forrum intoirely, owing to the ladies' distaste for the spacies of bird +such cages are controived for, begorra!" + +The decorative touch to the personal appearance of his followers, in +honor of the holiday, naturally came in for the Bully's quizzical +attention: their shorn faces; the soap "with the tony smell" in vogue; +the paper collars with jeweled studs in which, all day, Ikey had been +doing a rushing trade, were noted by him categorically till Bill +silenced him by stating that "style was like for to fetch the girls." + +Gumboot Annie, to whose hostelry he was conducted to drink his own +health, had been allowed to reopen, he was informed, under close +restriction and surveillance from "that blamed Scarlett." Nevertheless, +as she told Nick, spitting with deliberation, not being in business for +salubrious ends merely, she was making great profit out of "moderate +drinkin' and no drunks," through the girls' preference for sober +cavaliers. Or, as she phrased it, "the gals won't swaller the booze." + +This was too much for the Bully's equanimity. "The gals, indeed!" +Slapping his knee, he chuckled. "The hell!" + +"Eh, Nicholas?" the minister challenged him. "Did I understand you to +say 'the hell?'" + +"The hell you did, Parson!" The Bully turned on him truculently. "And +what the hell hev you agin it?" + +"If no better argument, Nicholas," smiled Maclane, "the girls won't +stand for hell." + +"Parson," Nick acknowledged his defeat, "the drinks is on me." Later he +took occasion to state, "I ain't convarted. But, say, Parson, you're +jes' the squarest proposition Gawd ever grub-staked ter prospect fer +human souls, and, say--I won't oppose you none. And when I pass in my +checks jes' you stand by my grave, and put up a little prayer fer my +epitaffy, 'He done his level damnedest, angels cud no more. Amen.'" +Then he took from Gelly's arms the fine infant she had brought to show +him, described by its fond father as "a velly godam skukum Clistian +baby." Dandling it tenderly, "See here, son," he adjured it, "ef I find +indications of you takin' arter me--gamblin', cussin', drinkin',--why, +grandpop 'ull spankee, d'ye see?" + +His mind thus freed, his future pacific course outlined, Nick inquired, +circumstantially for "the girls." Sarah, he learned, was the great lady +of the place, making a large income as a "lady-barber," her firm hand, +unshaken as her masculine competitors were apt to be by sprees, making +her a peculiarly safe artist to be trusted to operate with a razor in +the region of the jugular, and her husband's copper proposition still +remaining an undeveloped asset, she was forcing him to work for regular +wage as a teamster. In spite of which, on his occasional lapses Sandy +was wont to boast that at heart he was "a mon for a' that." + +The orphans all had settled down; Mary, having discovered a new violet +at the foot of a glacier, had paired off with the young botanist who had +been sent out from Ottawa to report on the flora of the region. Ruth was +running postoffice and postmaster. Ethel and the town doctor had made a +match. Kate's lot was cast with Bill, now doing assessment work and +writing to his mother regularly. Effie had pre-empted the young editor +of the weekly _Claim_, helping both to write his editorials and set them +up in type. Gertrude had struck it rich with the bank manager. All would +be on hand at the ball to-night. No, Evelyn had not made a choice. Rumor +assigned her to Scarlett, yet how matters stood between them no man +could say with certainty. + +At this the Bully's eye took on a fiery glow. "Ef thet thar uniformed +cuss is a-playin' fast an' loose with Lucky's gal, d'ye see, it's up ter +me to set it straight!" And, forthwith, he led the way to Evelyn's +bower. + +Evelyn was found, outside her cabin, superintending the arrangements for +a grand display of fireworks in honor of the double holiday; the +crowning piece to show the two flags crossed beneath a wondrous rainbow. +By a coincidence that exactly suited the Bully's plans, Scarlett was, at +the minute, seen approaching. After greetings had been interchanged with +all heartiness, suddenly the young soldier found himself surrounded by +the men--Nick, in the center, pointing a gun at his heart. Evelyn +shrieked, and would have interposed, but was forced back by hands +roughly tender, tenderly peremptory. + +"Well, boys," asked Scarlett, calmly, "is this some new kind of game?" + +"Thet's as mebbe," answered Nick. "See here, Missy Durant, it ain't +human natur fer a gal ter stay single in a minin'-camp." + +"That's what!" the boys interrupted him to say. + +"And I reckon you've had your pick of every miner an' prospector in the +district--aye, and loafer, worthy of the name!" + +"Sure! Betcherlife!" the boys confirmed him. + +"Now," concluded the Bully, magnificently, "the question we're debatin' +is jes' this: Hev you give this here blamed Scarlett the mitten, or hev +you not?" + +Evelyn laughed merrily. "To tell the truth, Nick, he hasn't given the +opportunity--as yet." + +"And I wouldn't take it if she gave it me," added the soldier, referring +to the mitten. + +The Bully looked from one to the other, and, in spite of their enigmatic +replies, reading in the glances they exchanged some happy understanding, +surrendered for good and all. + +"Boys," he announced, "the drinks, as usual, is on us when we run up +agin the church, perlice, and gals--Here, Parson." He handed his weapon +to Maclane who, fearing trouble, had hurried to the spot. "Keep this +here shootin'-iron. I ain't fit ter be trusted with it, d'ye see? When I +want a shot at moose or ptarmigan I'll borrow the loan of it from you." + +"That's what! Betcherlife!" applauded the boys. + +When, at last, they found themselves left together, Evelyn held up a +mocking finger at her lover. "To think you had to be coerced! For +shame!" + +"I wanted to give ye time," he explained, "to feel surer of yourself and +me." + +"I knew it," she exclaimed. "You feared I might suspect you of +interested motives. But the surest proof of my love for you has been my +certainty that you care for me for myself alone, not for what I bring." + +"That's the sweetest thing that ever has come from your lips," announced +the soldier. "Not another word till I taste a sweeter." + +He was about to illustrate his meaning when Barney's voice was heard, +discreetly inquiring of the landscape for "himself." + +Affecting, for the first time, to perceive his superior, "Och, are ye +there, sorr?" saluting, he inquired. + +"Here or there, I'm beside myself with joy," remarked Scarlett _sotto +voce_. "Well, Barney, what's that you bring?" + +"If appearances are not desayving, sorr, I'm thinking 'tis a letther. +Our rint-roll, I'm thinking." He stood by with an air of partnership +while Scarlett opened the envelope. + +"Your rent-roll!" Puzzled, Evelyn looked at the address. "'Sir Gerald +Scarlett.' Is that some joke?" + +"A hereditary wan, begorra," Barney hastened to assure her. "It runs in +our family." + +"More roll than rent, though." Scarlett held out to her a long, legally +drawn-up document. + +"Not to mintion the castle," remarked Barney. + +"Just a ruin in a bit of a potato patch," Scarlett hastened to apologize +for his ancestral glories. + +"And a cow to chaperon it--God bless her!" Barney saluted respectfully, +as he turned to go. + +Sir Gerald looked down on his lady-love with laughing eyes. + +"My offence is rank," he quoted. + +"Oh, it's not an unpardonable sin," Evelyn assured him, also laughing, +but confused. "What a goose you must have thought me all this time--the +way I have condescended to you!" + +"The greater my triumph in winning you on my own recognizances," he +replied. + +Evelyn held him at arms' length, contemplatively. "What a difference," +she remarked, "between the myself of to-day and of a year ago! Then I +should have suspected myself of being influenced by this--but now +nothing seems to matter so much as that we care for each other." + +"Miss Durant! O Miss Durant!" The lovers broke apart as, by a cross-cut +through the bushes, the minister came hurrying toward them. "Here +is--some one who brings you news of your father." + +He pointed to an elderly man who, with lagging footstep, followed him. + +"Of daddy? Hurrah!" Evelyn clapped her hands. "That was the one thing +needed to complete my happiness! How is he? And where? Why hasn't he +come to me himself?" she demanded impatiently of the stranger. + +"Our friend here has traveled far," Maclane gently reminded her. "He is +worn and spent." + +"Oh, how thoughtless I am!" As Evelyn placed the newcomer in a +comfortable chair she noticed that his features, as she saw them between +his slouch hat and heavy beard, were pinched, and that his frame was +bowed beyond his years, as if from recent suffering. "How tired you +look! You have been ill?" she asked him considerately. + +"He has undergone great hardships for the sake of a dearly loved +daughter," Maclane hastened to explain. "He has escaped with but little +besides his life. But for that let us give thanks. Let us make him feel +that, so long as he is spared, his daughter will not mind poverty." + +"To be sure!" Evelyn tried not to show the impatience she felt at the +concerns of outsiders being placed before her own, with a touch of her +old patronizing manner adding, "And I dare say my father and I can +arrange matters so that this good man's daughter need not complain of +poverty." + +The stranger opened his lips to speak, but unable to command himself, +turned his head aside with a slight groan. + +With an inexplicable foreboding, Evelyn looked from him to Maclane, and +in the latter's kind eyes reading a deep pity, "What is wrong?" she +faltered. "Has anything happened to my father?" + +"Nothing that sympathy and loving care cannot cure," replied the +minister. "Mr. Durant was on his way to you a year ago when he fell into +the power of ruffians, even as Travers, for his own evil purposes, +informed you. After serious ill-treatment at their hands he escaped, but +so broken in mind and body that for months he wandered about, unable to +fix his own identity or put himself in communication with his friends. +Now, thank God, he is almost cured." + +"He shall be completely so, if, as you say, love can accomplish it." +Evelyn started up. "I'll go to him at once." She addressed the stranger. +"Where is he?" + +"First----" Again Maclane hurriedly interposed. "There is something you +should know about your father's finances. He is not rich, as you think +him. By incessant toil from time to time he used to make vast sums, as +miners are apt to do--and as miners are apt to do, he spent as fast as +he made, his one extravagance being your pleasure. But the inexhaustible +supply, the purse of Fortunatus--that was a fable that somehow grew up +between your romanticism and his optimism. It does not exist. It never +has existed. To-day he is absolutely penniless." + +The words rained on her like hailstones. Evelyn met them, standing +erect, very white and still. + +At last, "I do not grasp your meaning," she replied. "Every one in the +district knows that my father is a very rich man." + +"Not so." Maclane shook his head. "Every one knows the reverse; has +always known it. Believe me, my child, what I tell you is true." + +"My father's wealth does not exist." Evelyn's mind seemed to take slow, +cautious steps backward over the minister's statements, with every +impact feeling surer of the truth. "To-day he is absolutely penniless. +Every one knows it; has always known it. Then why," she demanded with +sudden passion, "has it been kept from me?" + +"Out of kindness," replied Maclane, simply. + +"Kindness!" Evelyn laughed scornfully, hysterically; calmed herself, +then laughed again. "Kindness! When I recall how I used to brag of what +my wealth would do for the place--and all the time, poor fool that I am, +I have been the laughing-stock----" + +"Again not so," emphatically said Maclane. "Think how quickly you fell +into our primitive ways, becoming the heart and spirit of the camp. +Believe me, Evelyn, you have endeared yourself, accomplished a thousand +times as much by this year's bread-winning toil and good-fellowship as +had you been the Lady Bountiful you started out to be. It isn't money +that builds up camps, closing dives and opening reading-rooms--it's +neighborliness--working and suffering with people, side by side. And in +all his grief, remorse for your bitter disappointment, your poor father +may take this comfort: that it has been the making of you as a woman, +just as you, the real woman, have been the making of the camp." + +"Thank you." Evelyn spoke in a hard little dry voice. "Some day I may +bring myself to see it in that light." She took a few steps to and fro, +then came to a standstill opposite the minister. "Mr. Maclane, I want +you to give my love to the 'boys'--to all who, by their silence, have +shielded me as they thought, from the painful truth. Tell them that I +appreciate it. Also ask them to try not to show that they pity me. I'm +going to do something that's not easy for me. It would be easiest to go +away to a strange place, where I could hide my head--but I have my poor +father to think of. I have a good business here, which will support us +both decently, at least. I shall bring him here to care for him--and +mind! not one word of reproach, or mockery, is he ever to hear from any +one! Not one word!" + +"Bravely spoken," cried Maclane. "Oh, there's happiness in store for +you, my child. You'll see." + +"Together, sweetheart!" Scarlett, who had been standing by in mute +distress for her great trouble, now came to her and took her hand. +"We'll fight it out together--you and I." + +"Oh, no." Evelyn wrenched her hand from him. "That is all over. Things +are changed with me. My eyes are open at last. I can forgive every one +but you, Sir Gerald Scarlett--you who let me condescend to you, lead you +on--and finally almost do the asking!" + +"Faith, your eyes may be open, but they don't see as straight as they +did when closed," Scarlett indignantly contradicted her. "I've loved ye +all along, and sooner; since the moment I saw your picture smiling up to +me among the roses." + +"We won't discuss it. I only know"--Evelyn's voice broke--"I never want +to see you again." + +"But if only I could make people understand--believe in me----" + +The stranger, who, all this time, had been sitting bowed forward, +his face buried in his hands, suddenly broke forth. "It's not a +fable! The Rainbow Mine--it's _true!_ I discovered it the day--but +where--where--where? My God, where?" He looked about wildly. + +Evelyn turned sharply on the speaker. "Who are you?" + +Matthew Durant, his passion spent, lifted streaming eyes to his +daughter's face. "Don't you know me, Evie?" + +"Oh, no, no! You're not--oh, daddy!" Falling on her knees beside him, +she gathered the feeble form into her strong young arms. + +Then Maclane led Scarlett quietly away. + + + + +XIV + +CONCLUSION + + +Within the cabin her father was resting peacefully. While eating the +food she set before him, he told Evelyn the history of his wonderful +discovery, as it came back, fragmentarily, to his blurred memory, and +she, the better to bring him back, as she thought, to sanity, humored +his delusion by not betraying incredulity. + +At the mission where he had been tended during the long illness that +followed his captivity, so he explained, he had purposely given a +fictitious name and account of himself, lest the truth should somehow +reach Blenksoe, thus furnishing the clue to the whereabouts of the +unstaked mine, which precaution also accounted for his having eluded the +diligent search that the Mounted Police had never ceased to prosecute +since his disappearance. From Blenksoe, however, he had no longer +anything to fear; that arch-conspirator having gone the way of his +leader, Dandy Raish, by the avenging bullet from some victim's hand. + +And, now, please God, he concluded, restored health would bring back +recollection, enabling him to unearth the pot of gold to which the +heavenly sign had pointed him. + +When, at last, her loving tendance had won him to sleep, Evelyn went out +into the cool air, to draw a long breath and readjust her reckonings +with life that the day's events had thus cruelly disturbed. + +It was the sunset's glowing aftermath that, to the pilgrims of the +north, alone justifies a long journey from conditions that those +hide-bound with conventions are inclined to associate with creature +comfort, opening a new wonderland of beauty. In such regions where +nature is elemental, man becomes elementary, feeling himself in the +Almighty's workshop, in close communication with the powers of life, +dealt with, not by subtle processes that the artificial conditions of +city life have engendered, but swiftly, directly, summarily, as in the +days of burning bush and pillars of flame. + +Gazing over the now prosperous township of Lost Shoe Creek, across the +lake, to the colossal mountains shutting it in from that "outside," to +which even miners so heavily under the mysterious spell of the North +that nothing ever could induce them to forsake it, still never ceases +fondly to speak of as "God's country," Evelyn seemed to herself to be +born again. Had she known it, it was then that she attained the noblest +moment of her being, resolving, even as she already had resolved to meet +it bravely, also to meet this uncompromising blow of providence without +bitterness; if possible with love. + +Hearing Durant move within, she was about to go to him when her +attention was arrested by a tatterdemalion figure at her gate, +beseeching charity. + +"Mademoiselle--peety ze poor!" + +"Alphonse!" she exclaimed, recognizing the once jaunty person of her +former courier, alias Count St. Hilaire. + +Alphonse, who had not thought of her from that day to this, in turn +recognizing her, hastened to attribute his present pitiful plight as the +deserved vengeance of an outraged Heaven for his baseness in despoiling +one of its own angels of kodak and motorcar. "But," he wept, "zese +fruits of sin did not long time 'dure. Ze automobile she bust, zen I +bust--and now--I have a such hunger." + +In spite of the weight of sadness at her heart, Evelyn could not but +smile. It was one of the jests of the great powers--jests that are, +nevertheless, always tinged with irony, this confronting her with the +scarecrow of her whilom splendor at the supreme hour of her misery. + +Grateful for food which he devoured eagerly, overwhelmed by the gift of +a small sum she bestowed on him to enable him to prosecute his journey, +Alphonse sought some expression of his feelings beyond his mere copious +Gallic thanks. He was selling photographs for a living, and he besought +mademoiselle, could she bring herself to overlook the regrettable fact +that they were the product of her own camera, to accept the choicest +example of his art--a veritable triumph, an arc-en-ciel--a rainbow! + +Involuntarily, Evelyn shuddered at the word. Would the gods never cease +their mocking sport, she wondered, even while with becoming graciousness +she thanked Alphonse and sent him on his way, rejoicing. She still held +the picture in her hand, carelessly, occupied with her thoughts, when +she heard a cry from Durant, who had come out without her noticing him, +and was looking over her shoulder. + +"My God! Evelyn! Look," he cried. "The mine--The Rainbow!" + +"Father, dear," she sought to soothe him, "it is nothing--merely a +chance photograph." + +"Nothing? It is my witness, my record," answered Durant. "No, Evie, I'm +not mad. This clears away the last cloud. Examine it carefully." Getting +out his prospector's glass, he polished the lens carefully and held it +over the photograph. + +Evelyn looked, as she was bidden, at first merely to humor him, then +with awakening interest as, under the glass's magnifying power, she +studied the picture in detail. In his passion for the picturesque +Alphonse had, indeed, put her camera to good use. In this composition he +had caught a striking moment: Durant himself, in his rough miner's garb, +standing with arms flung up, as if in thankfulness to Heaven, while near +by, beside a half-uprooted willow-bush, knelt Walter Pierce with an +expression of wonder on his young face; while in the background, beyond +the creek, stood the imperturbable mountains, spanned by a faint, +elusive rainbow. + +"This is the very spot!" Durant laughed like a happy boy. "Lost Shoe +Creek! Fancy forgetting even the name!--I had always believed in it, +though every other miner turned it down. It had shared the fate of +hundreds of other northern camps: a new strike; a stampede, +prospectors, traders, grafters, from all quarters rushing madly in; +then, disappointment, failure, starvation, desertion to new fields. It +became the most god-forsaken place on earth--an abandoned camp drained +of everything but the dregs of its population. I alone held on, having a +nose for gold, and scenting it right here, and now and then coming on +indications: Blenksoe, Raish, and all the other grafters meanwhile +dogging my steps to profit by any strike I might make, jump my claim, +and make away with me!--Oh, this brings it all back, this picture: +Walter Pierce; your coming; how Nick and the boys covered up my +humiliation; my trying to kill myself; and then--the gold!" + +While he was speaking, he had hurried to the clearing at the back of the +cabin, comparing the lay of the land with the picture, Evelyn following +with keenest anxiety at this new phase of his delusion, yet not knowing +how to restrain him. + +"Father, dear, don't," she remonstrated, seeing him uprooting a willow +with frenzied eagerness. "Why, that's the bush on which I spread out my +wash." + +But Durant only laughed and went on spading up the soft earth with a bit +of wood. Wild as were his actions, his face and bearing had regained +all their old, light-hearted poise. He was as Evelyn always had known +him on his occasional visits to her, when they spent money like princes +and amused themselves like children. + +Soon he threw his improvised tool aside. "Here we are! Look at this, +Evie!" + +Evelyn took the substance he handed to her, and, as the earth crumbled +from it, saw that it was of irregular shape, and oddly indented, as +though some underground giant had chewed it with Titanic teeth before +spewing it up for man's good or ill, as fate might decree. A slight, +bluish hue with which it first met the eye melted softly into that +indefinable lustre that proclaims gold and only gold--the lust for which +is more potent than the love of woman, wine; in whose quest more lives +have been sacrificed than for any other cause since the world began; for +whose possession souls innumerable are being bartered every day. + +"A sixty-dollar nugget," Durant appraised it, weighing it in his expert +hand, "and valuable merely as an earnest of what lies beneath--just a +chip of the old block; a clue to the great Lode! Now, to take possession +formally!" He paced the ground, whittled and marked the stakes, and was +preparing to post them, when a sudden thought arrested him. "But--the +land now lies within the township limits!" he groaned. "Oh, my girl, +what, if, after all, my luck should fail you!" + +Evelyn smiled happily. "I think I can come to your assistance in that +matter. If you will call to-morrow morning at the office of E. Durant +you can acquire the mineral rights from the present owner of the lot, +who happens to be--myself. Then you can record it as soon as the +Commissioner's books are open." + +"But----" Durant looked about with a touch of the furtive apprehension +that had shadowed his recent life, and that never wholly left him. +"Suppose some one has seen--how can I defend it?" + +"Oh," cried Evelyn, "no fear about that! There are no claim-jumpers in +this camp, thanks to Scarlett of the Mounted." + +"Aye, Scarlett. A fine fellow that. He did me a great kindness last +year," said her father. "It began by his finding your picture, which I +had dropped, and giving it back to me. If my foresight had been equal to +my hindsight, I should have confided my discovery to him as soon as I +made it, and so saved you this year of bitter experience, my girl." + +"Well, daddy," replied Evelyn, "if you haven't suffered too much by it, +not only do I not regret it, but I'm glad. It has taught me to value the +gifts of the mother Lode infinitely less, and infinitely more, than +formerly. I can hardly wait overnight to claim my pot of gold from the +rainbow's foot--but I'm humbler about the possession of wealth than I +used to be. And I want the whole camp to be 'in it.'" + +"And so they shall, my girl," responded Durant, heartily. Then, as two +figures came in sight, "There goes the Sergeant now, with Mr. Maclane, +passing by the gate. Suppose we begin with them, Evie. Suppose we call +them in and tell them all about it." He already was summoning them. + +"Suppose, for the present, you take charge of Mr. Maclane," amended +Evelyn, as the two drew near, "and leave the Sergeant to me." + +Scarlett and the minister were bent on some errand in another quarter of +the town, but by tacit consent had taken the road past Evelyn's cabin, +actuated, in the case of the older man, by a kind wish not to lose sight +of her for long, and in the case of the lover by the force that guides +all steps toward the beloved. For, dismissed as he had been, and +dejected as he found himself accordingly, yet in his heart of hearts +there still lurked a hope that she might relent toward him. When, +therefore, they saw Evelyn, radiant, and beckoning to them from the +veranda, they joined her and her father with alacrity. Nor did good +Maclane need any suggestion from Durant that the two young people should +be left to make their peace unaided. + +"Sergeant Scarlett," Evelyn began when the older men had withdrawn to +examine Durant's discovery, "I want to beg your pardon for the way I +treated you this afternoon! I felt bitter, cheated--oh, it wasn't your +fault one bit; it was my own, which was why I was so angry with you. And +you--all along you have behaved so generously to me--nobly!--Yes, let me +finish," she cried, retreating from the advance with which he sought to +interrupt her. "I shall always think it--but I may not ever be in the +mood to tell you again quite how well I think of you." + +"But, Evelyn, dearest, what's the good of compliments to a hungry man?" +cried Scarlett. "I'm asking ye for bread--and ye give me the +blarney-stone." + +Evelyn laughed, and, sitting, patted the place beside her, invitingly. +"I'll tell you the whole story. It's like a romance--I was going to +write you a letter about it if you had not come." + +"We'll write it together. We'll write it all our lives." Her lover +slipped an arm about her. "But we'll start with the postscript." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCARLETT OF THE MOUNTED*** + + +******* This file should be named 37949.txt or 37949.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/7/9/4/37949 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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